Fuzzy Moogle Munny

Mog the Moogle Fuzzy Munny by ~mesmithy on deviantART
This is probably one of the best videogame munny pieces I've seen so far. God, I wish I had the talent to make something like this.

Google Artist Loves Zelda

If you look on the front page of Google today, you'll see a special Earth Day art piece posted. However if you looked really closely, you'll see in the bottom left hand side that the artist has hidden a triforce in between all the watery and earthy goodness.

Click on the above picture to see the triforce.

[Via Destructoid C-Blogs]

Batman: Arkham Asylum - Harley Quinn Trailer

Harley Quinn is one of my favorite characters in the Batman comic series and I love the new look they've given her in Batman: Arkham Asylum.

I can't wait to play this game but til then I'm watching all The Batman cartoon series episodes for the first time. I still like Batman: The Animated series better though.

Review: Crash: Mind over Mutant

Crash: Mind over Mutant
Vivendi Games, Sierra Entertainment
Available for Playstation 2, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS

Crash Bandicoot is back and he's better than ever in the latest instalment of the franchise entitled Crash: Mind over Mutant that brings together the Crash family of characters onto the Xbox 360. When a newly rejuvenated Dr. Neo Cortex returns to the world, he has one goal of total domination of the planet and he'll do it one brain at a time if he has to.

Dr. Cortex and his ally, N. Brio develop a personal digital assistant called NV that allows them to control the minds of animals and mutants and turn them into crazed beasts through text messaging. Fortunately Crash and his friend, Aku Aku are not affected by the device and are able to save their friend, Coco and learn of Dr. Cortex’s evil plan via his blog. Upon learning that, Crash and his friend set off to stop the evil Doctor and his plot against the Titans of Wumpa Island.

The platforming game play will take all of two seconds to master for anyone who’s ever played a game in the genre before. Some parts will require the hijacking of certain monsters, such as a telepathic creature that can use its mighty brain to toss foes aside and rearrange towers into bridges, or a rolling titan needed to access hard-to-reach areas. Most of the game consists of traveling from Point A to Point B and then back to Point A again, which will get tiresome very quickly.

As far as combat goes, Crash and his mutant counterparts can level up and acquire new abilities, but for the most part, all you will ever need to do is hit a single attack button over and over again, no matter what character or creature you are using. Crash’s trademark spin makes a return, although for some reason it is mapped to the left thumbstick instead of a button. As a result, it’s hard to stay in one place when you need to keep spinning, and I found it easier to ignore that whole aspect of game play.

The fixed camera also hurts the overall experience, especially when you’re going backwards and sideways and can’t see the area you’re trying to reach. There’s really no excuse in this day and age for a game to not have some way to shift the point of view, and it is definitely a source of frustration while playing the game.

Control, level design, and camera issues aside, the one thing that is really missing from Mind over Mutant is a sense of challenge. This might be good game for a younger gamer just being introduced to the series, but for someone who has been playing video games for twenty years, I would have much rather have game with a bit more challenge to it.

What does shine through in this game is the humorous dialog which features the wonderful voice talents of Mark Hamil (Star Wars) and John DiMaggio (Futurama). Despite the fact, the game needed a bit of work when it came to the controls and level design, I did find myself giggling at the cut scenes and enjoying the plot.

Putting aside the level design for a moment, I was happy to see how colourful and bright the graphics were in the game. I’m a big fan of cartoons and it was fun to sit and play a nicely designed 3D cartoon game. The cut scenes were presented in different styles like old time black and white reels to full 3D animations, which made them really fun to watch.

Ultimately the Crash Bandicoot franchise is started to fall into the same hole as Sonic the Hedgehog and needs a good reboot. The developers need to realise that adults still want to play their games and make sure they develop for both markets. It’s not that hard to put difficulty levels in games nowadays. While I did enjoy the animations, the voiceovers and storyline of the game, the controls, level designs and camera problems really stopped me from loving this game. Hopefully the next instalment will solve these problems and we’ll have a Crash game worthy of the original.

Rating: 5 out of 10
Pass on it!

Epic 8 bit Art: Donkey Kong Bead Art

dkflikr, originally uploaded by jubeishiro.

They just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Jubeishiro decided to take on the epic task of creating the entire level of Donkey Kong, characters, items and all, from Perler fused beads. The final product was mounted on a black background to hold all the pieces in their proper spots.

Not really sure how big this piece is, but I know my own Donkey Kong creation was almost a half a foot tall, so you do the math.

One of these days I plan to do a really big project for my own house and mount it for hanging on the wall. Soon.

Review: Flock! on Gamezebo.com

My Flock review is now available to read over at Gamezebo.com along with a few of my other previous reviews. I've been now working for the site for a couple of months now and I love it. It's nice to have a real writing job.

Check Out My Other Reviews on the Site:
Riddle of the Sphinx
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy
Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon
Amelie's Cafe

Handmade Moogle Warms the Heart

Moogle, originally uploaded by tallybates.

Though I'm a bead artist at heart, I still love a good handmade videogame plushie and this Moogle is so cute I just had to post about it.

Tallybates unfortunately didn't provide any details on her Flickr page on how she created this little guy but just getting a glimpse at him is nice in the long run.

I've not very good at sewing and I can't even being to tell you how to knit, so I always love to see people who can create fabric pieces like this.

Morgan Webb on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon - Crazy Fun with Muppets and Rappers

G4TV's Morgan Webb recently appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with other guests Ice-T and Elmo.

No, Am I not kidding ... she was on with Ice-T and the muppet, Elmo who apparently love to play videogames. Ice-T is a Call of Duty and Gears of War fan, while Elmo is only allowed to play Pac-Man.

Jimmy and Morgan checked out the new Nintendo Wii Punch-Out on the show. Apparently this is all part of Jimmy's promise to include more videogame coverage on the show.

Review: Spiderman: Web of Shadows

Spider-man: Web of Shadows
Activison, Shaba Games
Available for Playstation 3, Playstation 2, PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable.

Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can. This week I pulled Activision’s Spider-man: Web of Shadows off the shelf to see how good a non-movie related Spider-man game could be and apparently the developers at Shaba games can’t be trusted with a plotline, because this Spider-man has some serious problems.

The plot of Web of Shadows revolves around Venom’s attempt to take over the city and its heroes & villains with multiple versions of him, plus you get the added bonus plotline of Spider-man’s struggle with the black suit … again. Unfortunately though this sounds like a possibly cool storyline for a game, the developers destroyed any shred of credibility to it when they added the cheesy dialog and repetitive missions. Spider-man sounds like a whiny little creep and you don’t even want to get me started on characters like Wolverine.

Even the concept of the black and red suit fell flat when the developers failed to add significant differences between the two. Both had different powers in combat, provided different plotlines and even sparked different reactions in the crowds around you, but there were no consequences or benefits for Parker using the black suit all the time, other than a different plotline. The black suit was supposed to make Parker stronger and more evil and you really didn’t fully see that in the game.

Missions in the game were very repetitive and generally involved beating up 5, 10 or 50 guys and then leaving, or escorting someone somewhere. Later on you get into some better, more ludicrous missions but for the most part, you spend the game just beating on people or escorting them somewhere. Even the boss fights were pretty mundane with their quick time events.

The web slinging in the game thankfully remained perfectly in tack from former Spider-man games and was actually one of the few fun aspects of the game. Swinging from building to building gives you a huge sense of freedom in these games and I do have to give kudos to the developers for getting this part right. The rest of the controls were chaotic though from the web crawling to the camera system. I would be crawling up a building and Spider-man would be going the wrong way half the time or my camera would be moving through the side of the building’s wall.

Web of Shadows doesn't even look particularly good. Spider-Man's model is about the only thing with style and polish, but the rest of the city is dreadful in comparison to other game‘s environments. Standing atop one of the higher buildings is where this becomes most obvious as you look out upon the many rectangles sprouting from the ground… It's a far cry from the thriving metropolis presented in the films, and it makes swinging through the city a little bit confusing when no building really stands out. Thank God for the target icon.

The voice acting is probably what killed this game the most, not only because the actors were terrible, but because the dialog was written like it was written by a teenager for his internet fan fiction. Spider-man is supposed to have a wit about him and he came across more like a whiny, annoying jerk.

Activision did a fabulous job on Spider-man 2 which is probably the best Spider-man videogame to date, but Web of Shadows is a disaster. I wouldn’t even recommend this game to a fan of the comic books, because they would probably die a little inside to play it. Generally I’m not harsh when it comes to my videogame reviews, but when Activision has produced a better Spider-man game than this; I can’t help but be completely disappointed to play such tripe.

(Note: Xbox 360 Version Reviewed)

Rating: 4 out of 10
Pass on it!

A Real Life Warp Pipe

Does it warp me ahead to level 8?

My buddy, Mike found this cool looking warp pipe by a fresh spring and though he didn't find an Koopa Troopers or Piranha Plants inside, he still thought it was cool enough to share it with me.

Now if only we could find some real life Mario Mushrooms?

G.I. Joe - Rise of Cobra - New Game play Footage

EA has finally released their first video featuring game play footage for the new G.I. Joe - Rise of the Cobra videogame. I actually watched G.I. Joe when I was a kid and I'm still not sure about this whole movie thing, but I'm holding my opinions until it comes out.

Until then here's a link to the new game play footage and screenshots. You can also check out the official website here.

Foamy talks about New and Used Games

I totally agree with Foamy and his rant on Gamestop or EB Games as they're called here in Canada.

I stopped shopping at EB Games a long time ago for multiple reasons, a couple of them being the whole new game in an open box deal and the pressure to buy extended warranties and such.

Videogame Easter Art - Chicks, Bunnies and Eggs ... Oh My!

All from my personal collection of bead art pieces, I thought it would be fun to post all the Easter related items I've crafted over the years. From Dark World Bunny Link to the Chocobos in Final Fantasy, there are lots of Easter icons in videogames.

Even the cute little rabite reminds us of the Easter bunny a little, until it tries to eat our leg.

If you like any of the pieces you see hear, remember you can find or custom order them from my Etsy store, Pixelated Creations.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day from The Girl Gamer

Happy Zombie Jesus Day from The Girl Gamer!
Enjoy your mountains of candy today.

Super Mario Rube Goldberg Machine - UPDATED WITH VIDEO

Teams of students competing in the 22nd annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest had one goal: Replace an incandescent light bulb with a more efficient CFL. This year's winner created a machine based on the world of Super Mario Bros.

One of our readers left us a comment with a link to a video for this machine in action, so here it is. Thanks Andrew.

Amongst the other cool entries were a Batman: Dark Knight machine, a Dinosaur machine, and a Clue Board game machine.





[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]

More Nintendo DS Game Reviews

Metal Slug 7
Ignition Entertainment, SNK Playmore
Available for the Nintendo DS

While I have never been introduced to the world of Metal Slug before, thousands of fans of the series can tell you that this is one of the best 2D side-scrolling shooters series ever produced for a gaming system. The first Metal Slug was produced for the NEO-GEO system and published by SNK back in 1996, and since then there have been at least 7 sequels and numerous remakes, anthologies and off-shoots of the series. SNK Playmore is still keeping the series alive even now with the newest instalment and my first taste of the franchise, Metal Slug 7. Let’s see if it lives up to the legacy.

In Metal Slug 7, you are given the task of catching General Morden and his army, in order to prevent them from taking over your government. You must choose from one of 6 characters to play with: Marco, Fio, Tarma, Eri, Ralf and Clark. Each has their own special abilities, so you will have to choose which one suits your style of play. On each level, you must run through shoot enemies and dodging bullets in order to save prisoners of war and earn power-ups for your character.

Character movements in the game were fluid and accuracy which was extremely helpful in a game like this where timing is everything. The environments and characters were beautifully detailed and designed in the original Metal Slug style. The enemies and bosses movements and attack styles were varied and perfectly designed to keep you on your toes throughout the game.

For first timers looking to check out the Metal Slug series, keep in mind this is a tough as nails game that will push your gaming skills to their limits. I spend more time cursing and dying in this game than getting to the next level. Also don’t expect anything here but a single player experience as there are no co-op or multiplayer options in the game.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Buy it!


Princess Debut
Natsume, Cave
Available for Nintendo DS

Despite the fact I own a pink Nintendo DS, I’m not a girlie girl and generally don’t like extreme girl games like Barbie Horse Adventure or Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams. However when duty calls and I’m given a game to review, I review anything damn it from Gears of War 2 with its heavy blood and gore to this week’s review, Princess Debut with its dancing and dating games. Hold my comic books and action flicks, I’m going in!

In Princess Debut, you play as the Sabrina, a pretty young schoolgirl that dreams of someday meeting princess charming and being carried off into the sunset on a white horse. Luckily for Sabrina, she’s in a fairy tale videogame where her closet is a doorway between worlds and she meets her twin, a princess from the Flower Kingdom who can’t dance and has come to Sabrina’s world in hopes of finding someone to take her place for the next 30 days in preparation for the royal ball. Sabrina agrees to make the switch and your dancing days begin!

Once in the Flower kingdom, you must help Sabrina learn how to dance via her giant bunny instructor and several princely dance partners you meet later. Dancing is performed by moving and tapping your stylus along the DS touch screen in time with the display. The better you do this, the better you dance. As you perform each dance and progress in the story you will earn new dance types, songs and costumes to wear. Also Sabrina will have a chance to talk and flirt with her possible dance partners, the princes which are important because you do have to pick one of the princes for her before the day of ball.

The game play was very simple to follow along with and would be easy for any young girl to play, but as an adult I found it a bit too easy. The storyline is cute and I think anyone would enjoy casting off reality for an hour or two and romancing a prince at any age. The whole game was bright and cheerful from the anime style characters to the ballroom style music.

The style of dance and music choices didn’t change up enough to keep the practice sessions interesting enough and the 3D models of the dancers seems to have no collision detect whatsoever, so Sabrina’s dress was always taking over her dance partner’s leg. The days were short, so you didn’t have a lot of time to do anything in the story before Sabrina was tired and needed to sleep.

All in all, this is not a bad game for young female gamers looking for a cute princess story but I wouldn’t suggest it for an older audience.

Rating: 6 out of 10
Rent it!


Unsolved Crimes
Empire Interactive, Now Productions
Available for Nintendo DS

With the success of major crime dramas and CSI shows, video games are now getting in on the action with various mystery and crime solving titles. Unsolved Crimes brings you into the world of the police and the CSI with its own point and click style, crime game.

In Unsolved Crimes, you take the role of a rookie detective as part of the New York police department homicide division. An aspiring model, Betsy Blake, has disappeared and a social outcast and loner is the prime suspect. You and your partner must solve a series of crimes leading up to the disappearance of aspiring model, Betsy Blake, who just so happens to be your partner’s sister.

Unsolved Crimes is very much like other crime games: your character is given their case file, a bit of background on the case and then a location to start information gathering. From there, you can interview witnesses or suspects, examine evidence, take notes, search locations for new clues and talk to your partner. As you perform each task, the picture of what took place in the crime becomes clearer and you will eventually put all the pieces together to solve the crime.

If you look at Unsolved Crimes for its mystery solving game play alone, then this is actually a fun game and fans of crimes shows will love figuring out the clues and catching the bad guys for themselves. I actually had the first crime solved halfway through because I remembered matching evidence from an episode of CSI: Vegas, so some CSI fans may find this game a bit too easy if they’re a crime show addict like me.

However if you look at the rest of this game from the bad grainy graphics to the poor drawn environments, then you might be running back to your copy of CSI: the Game. Even for a game running on a handheld, the graphics and sound were poorly thrown together and really didn’t add anything to the experience or atmosphere of this title. It looked like someone sand-blasted NYC before I got there to investigate.

Though I did managed to finish this game, there are better crime solving titles out there and I would recommend you check those out first.

Rating: 4 out of 10
Pass it!

Nintendo DSi Sound Easter Egg

Found via the voice recorder section on the Nintendo DSi. Watch the video to cover this cool secret.

[Via GoNintendo]

Plants vs. Zombies Music Video

PopCap Games is releasing a new tower defense game called Plants vs. Zombies and to promote this game, they have created a strange and yet cute music video featuring the game's characters, Plants and Zombies.

The video shows off tons of the critters you'll see in the game: Mushrooms, Sunflowers, Zombie Football Players, Zombie Dolphins, Zombies with Traffic Cones on their Heads, etc.

Even the song is quite catchy.

Watch for the release of the game on May 5th, 2009.

Top Ten Most Awesome Man-Crotches Ever

Today I'm posting something for all the ladies out there.

Scott Jones from Crispy Gamer has posted a wonderful article featuring the top ten best man crotches ever seen in gaming. Featuring such famous characters like Chris Redfield, M. Bison and Marcus Fenix, this list has all your favorite pieces of man meat.

Check out the full article here.

Review: BioShock for the Playstation 3

BioShock
2K Games, Irrational Games
Available for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360

With so much information circulating on the internet currently about the next instalment in the BioShock series, BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams, I thought this would be the perfect time to review the Playstation 3 version of BioShock. Now originally BioShock was released on the Xbox 360 to a mass of clamouring fans who developed a taste for the game from its under-hyped demo released on Xbox Live. The first person shooter was an overnight success, but when 2K Games decided to release the title again on the Playstation 3, they thought it would be a good idea to create some additional downloadable content to be released along aside it as to entice the Sony crowd. Whether the new content made the different or not, the game sold and the Playstation crowd learned what it is like to visit the dark corners of Rapture.

BioShock begins with a horrifying plane crash in the 1960s and a lone survivor named Jack swimming from the wreckage towards a strange tower in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Having no where else to go, Jack must enter the building in which he finds the entrance to an underwater city called Rapture. Rapture was a city created by Andrew Ryan in 1946, as a place for brilliant minds to work together away from government rule. Unfortunately when Jack arrives Rapture had already begun its downward spiral and the city has been taken over by the Splicers, the insane or mutated citizens of Rapture.

Luckily for Jack, Atlas, one of the normal citizens of Rapture manages to contact him via Radio and asks that he save his wife and child in exchange for helping him escape from Rapture. By this point though, Alex Ryan has learn of Jack’s presence too and has sent enemies after you. Here this point on you must help Jack make all his choices in order to learn what happen to this utopian city and ultimately escape it.

While BioShock is a first person shooter in the fact that you use guns to defend yourself in the game, what really set this game apart from the normal FPS genre are the genetic enhancements. Along with guns and melee weapons, Jack will receive items called plasmids that will allow your character to use genetic enhancements like electric shock. There are also tonics in the game will give your character special perks such as damage resistance and camouflage. You will be able to purchase these items through the game with a substance called ADAM which is collecting via the Little Sisters in the game.

Little Sisters are products of the city of Rapture; human girls warped into collecting ADAM from the dead who are always protecting by giants in diving suits called Big Daddies. Big Daddies are nasty creatures as warped by the people of Rapture to destroy anyone who tries to hurt a Little Sister. As you dive further into the game, more in revealed about the history of these two Rapture creatures and you will learn there will be hard choices to in regards to their future.

Probably one of the most drawing aspects of BioShock is the graphics, which amazes you from the moment the plane hit’s the water. As Jack swims for his life in the Atlantic Ocean, you can’t help but spend a few moments watching the flames from the crash dance and reflect on the water. As you reach the strange building, you wander around inside and out gazing up at the architectural structure from the 1940s and feel like you are almost really there. Once inside Rapture, you’ll walk terrified through the dark halls waiting for the Splicers to pounce on you, and yet you still will be staring up at the wall of city, amazing by its beauty. My only complaint is that the developers didn’t take the time to put more variety into the different Splicers and their outfits, because it feels like you’re fighting the same people over and over again through the city.

Adding to the wonderful graphics, the sound, the music and the voiceovers were all stellar and really added to the life and atmosphere of Rapture. I believed every bit of this city to be real, and I feared it and loved it for every minute that I spent in it. From the creep voices of the Splicers calling out from the dark for your blood to the wonderful music from the 1940s era, the audio people didn’t miss a beat on adding to the world of Rapture.

Though this new Playstation 3 version could have still done with an online version or some co-op play, the exclusion of a new mode and some downloadable content definitely made my second trip to Rapture much more interesting. The new survivor mode made the enemies much tougher and the vita-chamber less useful for health boosts, and three new challenge rooms available for download at $10 gave me the opportunity to use my skills learn in Rapture to solve new puzzles and take out Big Daddies.

Being that this is my second time playing through BioShock, once on the Xbox 360 and now on Playstation 3, I think my choice to recommend this game as purchase is pretty obvious. From the fabulous storyline to the perfectly created world of Rapture, BioShock is one of those games that draws you into it and makes you believe it’s real. All it took was the demo for me to love this game; I know all it will take is the first 5 minutes for you to love it too.

Rating: 10 out of 10
Buy it!