Maddox: The Wii is the best thing to happen to gaming since the original NES.And if you don't like the Wii, then this is really going to piss you off: Nintendo has single-handedly saved the video game industry.  No other company is bothering to move gaming forward like Nintendo is.There are only a handful of genres in gaming, and clearly Sony and Microsoft don't give a shit about any of them except for sports and FPS.I'm so sick and tired of sports and FPS games, and if it were up to Microsoft & Sony, they'd keep milking these tired genres dry and run the entire industry into the ground.  I mean, I get it that the industry goes through trends and a few years ago it was RPGs, 2D fighters, shooters, platformers, etc.  But this FPS craze has been going on basically since Quake came out on PC.  On the Wii, we not only see a representation of every genre of gaming, but we see new genres that didn't exist before the Wii came along (surgery, cooking, balance, etc).

Nintendo took the novelty of a motion-sensing controller and turned it into a solid gameplay element in a lot of their games. Before it came out, people couldn't imagine how to play games with a controller that looked so stupid, and now, people can't imagine playing certain games without it.  I can't go back to tapping a button to make someone punch after I played the boxing game in Wii Sports.  Fishing games are so much more satisfying with the Wii controller.  World of Goo would suck without the controller (playing it with a mouse just isn't the same).Now Microsoft and Sony are scrambling to duplicate it with their own versions.  The Sixaxis controller seems like an afterthought, whereas the Wii was designed from the ground-up with the gameplay in mind.

Also, when people shit on the Wii, what they often overlook is the incredible library of games available on the Virtual Console.  It doesn't matter when a great game came out, if you never got a chance to play it because you never owned the system it was originally released on, now is your chance.  Nintendo has by far the largest library of A+ titles available for download.  I know Xbox zealots have billions of mods and emulators, but modding voids your warranty and can fuck up your system if it's done wrong, and you constantly have to update your mods because of firmware upgrades.  No thanks.  Also, people who download huge libraries of emulator games rarely actually play the games they download. They'll download like 300 games and then end up playing 5 of them.  What's the point?  Also, I believe in paying for games I own because I love video games and I want the industry to thrive.  The only reason I'll download a game is when I already own it (because I don't think I should have to pay for the same game twice) or if I can't play the game any other way; if nobody will port some of these awesome old video games, I see no reason they should go forgotten and unplayed..

A great example of a game that you can only currently get on Wii is Lords of Thunder.  Great 2D shooting game, check it out.

MyGamer: What do you think about the Xbox 360?You called it the PS3’s fugly step-sister, but it DOES have Ikaruga, Street Fighter 2, Metal Slug, Contra, and so on.It seems like, at least with the Live Arcade, it would be right up your alley.Are you starting to get into it or is it still Gary Busesque to you?

Maddox: The Xbox 360 is a PC with identity crisis.  I mean, it looks like a console; you hook it up to your TV, it's smallish, and it plays games, but it's still just a PC.  That's because there aren't many exclusive titles on the system worth owning.  Don't believe me?  Here are the top 10 games for Xbox 360 on Metacritic as of this writing:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. BioShock
3. The Orange Box4. Gears of War
5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
6. Call of Duty 4
7. Halo 3
8. Gears of War 2
9. Braid
10. Fallout 3

Of those, here is the number of games you can't get on PC: 1.That game is Halo 3, and guess what?  It's coming out on PC too.  There's no reason to own an Xbox 360, period.  Xbox Live: who cares?  I already have the Internet, and can play with my friends on free servers all I want.  Yeah there aren't achievements like on 360 on PC, but so what?I'm not about to pay $400+ just to have achievements in my games.  Wii games like Mega Man 9 have achievements too.  All of the other "value-added" features on 360 like downloading movies, messaging, etc., are all things that I can do on my PC.  You can get a decent PC that plays most modern games without a problem for around $500, and you get a 500 GB hard drive, not some shitty 120.  Plus PCs are scalable, so you can upgrade your system if you want better graphics for games that support it.  You can do so much more with a PC, that there's just no reason to own a 360.  Castle Crashers may be one notable exception, but again, I'm not going to pay $400+ for one game; I'll wait for it to come out on PC.

MyGamer: Are there any games that people need to just shut up and buy?Anything of late that you don’t think is getting the coverage and sales that it deserves?

Do yourself a favor: go out and get a DS and The World Ends With You.It's one of the best games I've played in a long time, even though it has to do with fashion and styles.  It just oozes originality and gameplay. No hardcore gamers should call themselves hardcore without having played this fun and unique game.
Also, find a copy of Astro Boy for Gameboy Advance and Gunstar Heroes Advance.  Holy shit these games are awesome.  Resident Evil 4 got a lot of buzz, but still not enough, check it out.  Fantastic game.Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is also a game I can vouch for.  Also, Shadow of the Colossus and R-Type Final on PS2 shouldn't be missed.  Oh, and Okami.

MyGamer: Which general batch of gamers has been pissing you off lately?Any fanboys that need to shut the hell up?

I'm really fucking tired of people who play Xbox 360 and PS3 calling themselves "hardcore gamers."  Look at the list of top 10 games on 360 up above.  See anything in common?  Those are the games that most people play on 360, and with the exception of Braid, they also happen to be the most popular, most heavily marketed, and most consumer-oriented games in the industry.  It'd be like someone eating a meal at McDonalds and saying "I'm a foodie!" No, you're not.  If you're into movies, you don't go out and see Jurassic Park and call it a day. You try to see movies that try new and interesting things.  The types of movies that only someone who has watched thousands of movies could appreciate for doing something unique.

Similarly, if you're a hardcore gamer, you should be looking for new gaming experiences.  You shouldn't be satisfied playing the same old mass market games.  Not that these games are bad, but they're not for "hardcore" gamers any more than McDonalds is for hardcore foodies.  If you're a hardcore gamer, go out and play Katamari Damacy, track down an old copy of Radiant Silvergun on Saturn, or play an indie game like World of Goo.  These are the experiences that move gaming forward.  Not blockbuster sequels like Halo 3.

MyGamer: What do you think is the worst thing in gaming right now?

Maddox:The glut of FPS games.  We need to move on.  I'll only play 1 out of every 10 FPS games that are released, so I have a pretty busy schedule because that comes to about 3 per minute.

MyGamer: What is your pick for best game of 2008?

Maddox: The World Ends With You, Nintendo DS.

MyGamer: What game are you most looking forward in 2009?

Maddox: Street Fighter IV on a console.

MyGamer: Anything else you want to say for us?

Yeah but I should probably stop here so I don't sound like a blowhard.I hope it's not too late!

http://kotaku.com/5138404/360-to-get-special-resident-evil-5-console

Kotaku said:

Ars Technica have a 360 mole, who's previously been fairly solid, so we'll run with this: Capcom and Microsoft have teamed up to offer a special edition Resident Evil 5 Xbox 360.

And that console will come as part of a larger bundle, a bundle that includes:

* Red 360
* Red control pad
* Resident Evil 5
* Resident Evil 5 NXE theme
* Download coupon for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD

The mole had no word on price or availability, nor any official pics, so we'll have to wait for the anti-climactic press release announcement for those.

- official title is TMNT: Smash Up
- dark, gritty graphics
- some real-world inspired locations: Manhattan skyline, unspecified jungle arena, motel roof
- defeat opponents by depleting health meter or via stage knock-out, much like the Smash Bros. series
- some context-sensitive moves
- no motion-controlled attacks, but there will be motion controls for other aspects
- levels change as you fight, start in one location and end up in another
- pizza restores health
- Peter Laird (TMNT co-creator) is writing the single-player story
- Mirage (comic publisher) is filling out the roster
- Splinter and the Turtles are the only confirmed fighters thus far
- 4-player online reconfirmed

Hydro Thunder spiritual sequel

That "up-to-date" part means you'll see plenty of new water physics effects, debris in the middle of courses that you can try to avoid or ram out of the way, and elaborate backgrounds that seem to be going for a Disneyland-style aesthetic. Compared to other games published by Raw Thrills, this is a big step forward visually. "Nobody's really seen a next-gen quality game in arcades for quite a while," says Ranck. If you slow down too much or look closely at a few of the screenshots, you can spot certain textures that prevent the game from competing evenly with top tier console driving games like MotorStorm, but that's not really a fair comparison given the budget allotted to new arcade games these days. A better match would be to think of it as Hydro Thunder HD, along the lines of what Sony did with WipeOut HD. And to keep that comparison going, the game will run at a consistent 60 frames-per-second, which helps a lot in making it look good.

Fragile IGN Preview:

Fragile is another one of those Japanese releases where it's pretty clear that someone in the marketing department decided to stick the word "RPG" on the box for sales purposes. Your character levels up, but aside from that, there's really nothing RPG about the game.

I'm actually not sure how to describe Fragile, as it's such a unique experience. However, in my five hours of play time with the Japanese import, which just saw release on Thursday, I've come to see what may be an overall flow to the game.

Foolz said:

He's some random writer who struck it "big" with an online blog. http://maddox.xmission.com/ it makes for humorous reading mostly.

Oh right. An aussie?

I can't believe some of the reactions to the Indiana Jones trailer I have seen on various sites or comment sections. LOL there are some guys who think it might be real time for Wii? Some guy even said that it was high end PS2 graphics?

Are these people blind? It's either CGI or from the 360/PS3 game. And from how clean and detailed it looks, it looks like it uses the 360 engine.

darthhomer said:

I saw it in English, but I'm the kind of person that can tolerate a bad dub, provided that the core storyline is still intact, which does not explain how I was able to tolerate the 4Kids One Piece dub. Batman playing Howl was kinda interesting.

But my main problem with Howl kinda relates to the storyline, rather how they don't explain how the fuck Sophie's curse works. They only give one explaination regarding it - that she can't tell anyone that she's cursed, which is fair enough...except when people magically start to realize that she's cursed. But what really gets to me is the fact that she alternates between being younger and older WITHOUT A FUCKING EXPLAINATION WHY.

I know I wasn't stupid and didn't skip a single part of the movie, but I'm bloody certain that there isn't any further explaination how she flip flops between ages. Is this something explained in the Jap version? Or at least in the book?

Looks like Mononoke is the next one. I'll try to watch it in Japanese.

There isn't an explanation but I never even questioned it or wondered about it till you mentioned it. The people who guess that she is under a curse are magicians or spirits so that doesn't perplex me. The changing in appearance and age I took as being either dream sequence, metaphor or when she shows particularly strong emotion she seems to revert back. I took it mostly as metaphorical i.e when she was passionate you could see her "real" face.

And that her love for Howl cured her somewhat.