All this talk about role models in videogames has gotten me thinking. Who is my videogame role model? It's not a thought that has occurred to me before. Sure, there are a lot of characters that I'm attached to and adore, but characters that I can look to as inspiration? To encourage me to do all that I can with my life and to be great? I honestly have no idea. It’s time for me to give this some serious thought.

Elite Beat Agents (Elite Beat Agents)


Saving the world by shaking my ass? FUCK YEAH! How could you not like these guys? They go around giving people hope and helping them achieve their goals. They are completely selfless. With the agents, it’s all about the people of the world. When earth was being invaded by aliens, the agents sacrificed themselves for the greater good. They were turned into stone, but you know what? They didn’t let that stop them, the just shook more ass. They’ll even go inside of you to help some sexy medicine save your life.

Phoenix Wright (Phoenix Wright)


He’s a rookie defense attorney who’s climbing to the top with his own law firm. He has his own role models that he’s striving to be like. He keeps the innocent out of jail and puts the guilty in there. This man works his ass off doing more than he needs to. But he does this because his clients are important to him. Sure he gets help from time to time, but that’s what makes him an even better role model. He has friends that he’s not afraid to ask help from. If there is one thing that is most important in my life, it’s my good friends that I can rely on. Everyone should keep their friends close and not be afraid to ask them for help.

U-1 (Gitaroo Man)


Ah, the old story of a young boy with a crush on a pretty girl. He wants her attention, but there’s this rich douchebag classmate that keeps cock blocking him. Stuff happens and he turns into a super hero that saves the universe with his magical guitar. That’s not what makes him a good role model. This kid spends his time learning a new skill, playing the guitar, in order to impress a girl. Well this helps him in many ways his self-esteem goes up and he becomes more extroverted. Even when he’s being attacked by giant shark robots he keeps practicing. Never give up, try new things, get the girl.

Prince of all Cosmos (Katamari)


He may be a prince, but that doesn’t mean he sits around all day eating grapes. He has to go out and fix his father’s mess. He has to go out and bust his ass fixing the universe. Not an easy feat for someone who’s almost microscopic. By rolling his katamari, this tiny protagonist creates new stars to fill the cosmos. If something in his way is too big for his katamari, he collects more objects so he can scoop it up later. He’s also quick and efficient; he gets the job done in a couple minutes. Size is not a handicap for the prince, he can do big things.

Toan (Dark Cloud)


Toan is the cliché silent protagonist whose job is to save the world and make everything right once again. But what sets Toan apart from every other RPG hero is that he spends his spare time fixing villages. He listens to the requests of the townsfolk and does what he can to make them happy. You want your house next to the river? No problem. You want to live next to a store? Easy. What a good person, listening to the needs of the community and helping them all out. He’s not done until everyone is satisfied.

All these characters may have their faults, but that’s not what I care about them. I care about the good that they do and things they strive for despite their own faults. Who am I to look at one of their bad habits and judge them solely on that, ignoring all the good about them? These characters work hard either for themselves or for others. And you know what, I can’t choose one. They are all great and do things we should all strive for. There are many others I would’ve liked to include in my list but for now I decided to stick with those probably not thought of role models too often.

I just started playing Zeno Clash (since it just came out) and I managed to find what looks like an easter egg. I was a bit surprised to see it as an actual egg. So far the gameplay is great, albeit a tad difficult at first when playing on the default setting, and the story is interesting. I've only played for about 10 minutes so I'm going back to playing and will keep an eye out for more eggs.

Well I did a quick run through of the new DS game Time Hollow from Konami. It's a fairly easy point and click and circle game. You go around with your fancy pen creating time rifts in order to change the future. The thing is, you can only create these portals into the past if you have a flashback of an event that occurred and all the information that goes along with it. Time and details for example.

The path you take throughout the game is pretty much shoved in front of your face so there isn't much(any) room for error. There some events you can do differently and some side events you can trigger, but I have yet to figure all that out. There also seems to be a new game + after you beat it the first time.

While the game was very short and easy, I missed a lot. So I am going to do another run through in order to figure out what I missed and to see if there is anything new at the end and the new game +. Hopefully doing some events differently will change the storyline and give me a somewhat different game.

Possible review to come after a replay.

Looks like Nintendo is finally bringing Rhythm Tengoku to America. I played the gba game and fell in love with it instantly. The announcement of the Japanese sequel on the DS, Rhythm Tengoku Gold, got me pretty excited. Rhythm Tengoku Gold will simply be named Rhythm Heaven here in the States. Now that it looks like the series is coming to America, I can finally own a copy that I can understand without good ol' guess and check.

The game wasn't officially announced at E3 but the information can be found on Nintendo's E3 press page.
From Nintendo's E3 Press page:
KEY INFORMATION
Rhythm Heaven is a simple and infectious rhythm game that anyone can play. If you can tap your finger in time to music, you'll get the hang of Rhythm Heaven in no time!

* Players hold the Nintendo DS system sideways like a book and tap their stylus on the touch screen to the rhythm of the music. Players tap, slide or flick the stylus to hit the right beat.

* Rhythm Heaven features catchy tunes, charming characters and a wide variety of rhythm games.

* Well-known Japanese music producer TSUNKU helped direct Rhythm Heaven and composed the music for it.

Gom TV Star Invitational brings us the top 16 StarCraft players in the world. It's a competition to compete for the title of best of the best. For the first time we get English commentary, thanks to Nick "Tasteless" Plott, to go along with these matches so we aren't all left out. Group matches began on the 17th and end on the 20th with the top two players of each group continuing on. Afterwards the bracket tournament will begin. Live streaming begins at 9:00 GMT every morning and videos of previous matches can be viewed here.

It's amazing watching these guys play. Mostly because of all the chicks they have cheering for them.