Before I get to the review, allow me to give a plug for our sponsor GameHQ. I purchased a Nintendo DS Lite for my wife for Christmas, and GameHQ was amazing. The bundle that they have is for a system, carrying case, extra stylus, free game, and screen protectors. All of that was well worth the price, and add the fact that I got it before Christmas, made the deal even better. Everyone should check them out for all of your gaming needs.

Now on to the review. This game is for all of you out there looking for that original Super Mario Bros. feel. Remember the side scrolling fun, remember powering up with mushrooms and flowers and stars. This game brings all of that back, and adds many features from later Mario titles. You venture from world to world just like in Super Mario Bros. 3, you can get power ups that make Mario as large as the screen or half the size that you are when you’re small. I’m not a Nintendo fan at all, but I genuinely had fun playing this game. It brought me back to my youth a little, reminding me of the first game in the series, and I enjoyed being able to play the versus by connecting to DS’s together. The ability to lay the pwn my wife made me feel good.

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Back in December of 1992 Nintendo Power released it’s monthly magazine to it’s readers and inside was a little surprise…The Super Nintendo was going to compete with the Sega Genesis that was ever so popular and gaining steam on it’s competition with it’s Sega CD.  How was Nintendo going to do this?  They had formed a partnership with Sony to create the Super Nintendo CD-Rom system that would boast ” a custom 32-bit processor”.  The agreement with Sony didn’t last long as relations disintegrated. Nintendo was convinced that the world was not satisfied with 16 bits and that it was necessary to upgrade to the next generation of console gaming so they eventually partnered with Phillips to bring this new system.  Of course Nintendo didn’t announce it’s new partnership with Phillips until after Sony had announced their partnership with Nintendo, catching Sony off guard.

Sony and Nintendo did eventually patch things up and got back to work on the Super Nintendo CD but that didn’t last long. Nintendo decided that a CD-Rom based system would be impractical due to long load times and eventually dumped the idea.  Sony also saw the shelf life of the Super Nintendo as short and they too did not want to continue with their arrangement.

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By my husband’s recommendation, I bought and played Hotel Dusk Room 215 for the Nintendo DS. Now, I’m not a huge gamer and don’t claim to be by any means. But I do enjoy getting into a nice plot and reading a good mystery.  And that’s why I ultimately enjoyed playing this game.

In Hotel Dusk, you play as Kyle Hyde, a down-and-out ex-detective turned salesman. His boss asks him to go and check into this old hotel for a job he’s hired to do. But alongside that, Hyde is also searching for his ex-partner, Brian Bradley, who disappeared three years prior. Bradley is assumed dead, but Hyde believes that he’s alive and on the run somewhere. He hopes to locate him so that the mystery surrounding his disappearance can finally be solved. At first glance, Hyde checking into this hotel and the events that will take place are not connected. But as you go through the game, Hyde begins to think that there are too many coincidences for there not be connections to his missing partner and the strange hotel occurrences. In the game, you must talk with different characters, asking them questions and finding out answers, solve different puzzles, look for clues, and put together evidence to solve the case at Hotel Dusk. Solving the case in the hotel helps Hyde solve the mystery involving his partner from 3 years ago.

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When the shape of this holiday season’s videogame release schedule began to come into focus a few months ago, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to obsessively get every single game. For one thing, my wallet simply couldn’t handle the vast flood of games coming out. More importantly though, I was trying to keep from rushing from game to game. I wanted to take my time and not feel pressured to play every game the instant it’s out.

To some degree, I succeeded. I didn’t get Gears of War 2. I decided to hold off on Fable 2. I asked for Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider Underworld for Christmas. At the time, I didn’t have a PS3 (by the way, I have a PS3 now!) so I wasn’t factoring in those games. I also wasn’t really paying attention to my Wii, so I ignored any games that were out or coming out for it.

I ended up getting Rock Band 2, Too Human, Silent Hill Homecoming, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Mirror’s Edge, and Dead Space. I also played Sam and Max Season One on the Wii. The first three were a bit spaced out over time, but the last four hit within days of each other. I played pretty much non-stop, and Fallout 3 took up a massive number of hours in particular. A couple weeks ago I finished slogging through Dead Space and was feeling pretty burned out on videogames in general. Except for Dead Space, I loved all of those games. But the tsunami of new releases still left me tired and not particularly inclined to pick up a controller any time soon. Continue Reading This Story

This article was written by the almost famous de Hollywood.

It appears that an ongoing struggle to find the proper and must profitable use of downloadable content is happening all around us. More and more current generation games feature some form of downloadable content and often times not much thought is put into what is being released. In some cases the content breathes new life into an aging game and turns a nice profit for all involved. Developers take time after the release to develop more content to help extend the life of the game and convince owners that trading their game in would be a mistake. That is when it is handled well, and unfortunately, this isn’t common. Allow me to demonstrate the good, the bad and the ugly of downloadable content.

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Strong Bad is here again.  This time he has created a movie called Dangeresque 3.  You have to play out each scene by figuring out how to make things happen in the scene by clicking on things.  On that note, the game play is the exact same as the previous episodes in the series.  There is nothing new there.

The story is probably the best one of the series so far.  You play as Strongbad playing an agent called Daneresque.  This game plays up the predictable nature of spy/action movies with all their predictable twists and turns.  The idea that it is a really bad attempt at making a movie makes it extremely funny.  Locations are used multiple times and props are forgotten so they are in scenes they are not supposed to be in.  It is really obvious when they use body doubles.

This is the most Christian friendly game of the series.  But that being said, Strong Bad is still overly rude to his friends and ends up cutting the movie to make himself look good and removes the scenes that the others wanted left in.

Buy/Skip/Rent

Buy.  This is the best game of the series and if you are a fan, you will love it.

Here it is.  Super Nintendo’s top game.  Guess what.  It had “super” in the title.

1.  Super Mario World

That’s right.  How could Super Mario World not be number one on the top SNES games list.  Super Mario World was release in August of 1991 and has become the best selling SNES game at 30 million copies.  Mario is, once again, out to save Princess Toadstool from Bowser.  This game is basically an update of Super Mario 3.  It a side-scrolling platformer.  There are a few upgrades to the Mario formula in this game that include: being able to hold an extra item at the top of the screen that will drop to help you when you get hit; mid level continue points; a few different power-ups (most notably the cape or feather that replaces the racoon suit from Mario 3); and the addition of Yoshi.  Yoshi was your dinosaur friend that you found along the way in some levels.  The player rode Yoshi and then had the ability to eat some enemies and spit their shells back out (fire if it was a red shell).  While riding Yoshi, Mario was invincible but when hit riding Yoshi he would be knocked off and the player would have to scramble  to get back on Yoshi so they were invincible again.

This was probaby the SNES game I played the most.  Although I did not finish it until a few years back when I beat it on an enumlator on my computer.  This game was so awesome.  It is my third favorite Mario game and that is saying alot with Mario 3 and Mario Galaxy just ahead of it.  How many game series have that many great games in it.  Nintendo just knows how to make a first party game and no one does platforming better.

So congrats Mario.  You have done it again.

Here we are again.  Top ten time.  This time it is the Super Nintendo (SNES).  Brings back memories.  Defeating Bowser yet again.  All your favorite NES games updated with the word “super” in front of them.

2.  Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct was first released in the arcade in 1994.  It was released on the SNES in August of 1995.  Killer Instinct was a 2D fighting game like most other fighting games with one big difference.  This game had combos.  You may say that wasn’t unique but you could keep the combo going and have one long combo that would never allow your opponent to get a shot in.  The opponent could break the combo by entering a combo breaker into the keypad.

There is not else to say about this game other than it was super fast.  Animations were fluid and it used the 3D rendering system from Donkey Kong Country.

This game was awesome.  My friends and I would play this game for the longest stretches.  We would see how long of combos we could produce.

Here we are again.  Top ten time.  This time it is the Super Nintendo (SNES).  Brings back memories.  Defeating Bowser yet again.  All your favorite NES games updated with the word “super” in front of them.

3.  The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Link to the Past was released in April of 1992.  It shared the top-down perspective that the original Zelda had but added things like multi-layer dungeons and new equipment.  Link was given more control as he could move diagonally.  Many things that are the rule in Zelda games today were introduced in Link to the Past.  Some of these items include; the master sword, ocarina, Hookshot, and Pegasus Boots.  Heart containers were split into 4 sections.  This game also introduced to the series the dual worlds that Link must navigate.

Game Trailers has a really great retrospective on the Zelda series.  Also this game can be bought on the DS or Virtual Console for the Wii.  If you at all are interested in the Zelda series, I suggest you check out this game.

Here we are again.  Top ten time.  This time it is the Super Nintendo (SNES).  Brings back memories.  Defeating Bowser yet again.  All your favorite NES games updated with the word “super” in front of them.

4.  Donkey Kong Country

Released in November of 1994, Donkey Kong Country has eventually sold 9.3 Million copies (which made it the second best selling game on the SNES).

Donkey Kong Country was a side-scrolling platformer, like Mario, with one small difference in that you had two characters on the screen that the player could switch back and forth controlling.  Each had their strengths.  Donkey Kong was stronger but Diddy Kong was faster.  This game was also one of the first to use pre-rendered 3D graphics (also used in Killer Instinct).

For those of you who love this game and do have a Wii, you can pick Donkey Kong Country up on the Virtual Console for that nostalgic feeling.