My birthday is this upcoming Friday; for those of you keeping score, that's July 4 and I'll be 36 this year. You know I'm a gamer for life because I'm still working on the logistics of having an arcade machine in my condo. Luckily, my wife is also a gamer and agrees completely. She just informed me that we're doing a few special things to celebrate my birthday. Dinner at my favorite Japanese restaurant, complete with tempura ice cream. The really big deal is a day trip on Monday to the Riverwalk in Tulsa. It's about a 90 minute drive but there's a really good arcade there that has a working 4-player X-Men cabinet there. Last time we were in the area, we played a few games. This time we go to conquer it.



The great DBZ experiment
I have become reasonably good at Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. The game is very different from what I'm used to playing but I find it rather enjoyable. Naruto: Clash of Ninja could learn a few things from it, such as including the Japanese voices and more creative gameplay modes. While the presentation in DBZ:BT3 is rather good, what's really missing is a good tutorial. The instruction manual does not cover the Classic Controller or the Gamecube/Wavebird controller and the tutorial is mostly reading. In order to learn, I practice. Reading is good, but practicing is essential. In the next few weeks, I'll have that friend over to see if I have come close to his mastery. He's played every Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi game, so he may destroy me. I'll post the results.