I must first off say that it isn't too bad of a game. Looks pretty nice, but really lacks in cutscenes. The best it does is a couple of snapshot toon shots with writing moving in a slide style setup.

As for gameplay though, for the most part it's a pretty decent experience. Played through on Normal, and not a bad game at all. Ending was a bit of a disappointment. Ah well, maybe next time, eh? #5 perhaps?

I suppose you could say this is where I have been distracted with lately. Good old Megaman! Wow, how could you ever guess me picking up that title! Got it for Christmas, actually. Quite enjoying it too!

Also since my last post, I've been playing around with Brawl. NFS Most Wanted and Carbon, Megaman 9 and playing a fair bit of Pokémon competitively - when WiFi works that is.

Perhaps I'll have to get around to posting a bit more often than once a year, eh?

Been playing Metroid Prime 3 of late, after borrowing Godly Effect's copy for a while. Since he's beaten it himself, it meant that I could spend some quality time with the game without too much of an interruption. And so far, I've enjoyed it! I'm only about 75% of the way through, but getting closer to the end of Veteran mode. After that, it'll be time to unlock some stuff!

I'll get around some time to writing up my thoughts on it, once I get through that and test out hard mode, of course.

My other game of choice is an import, known to many as Contra, and many others as the American version of Probotector. The originals of which I loved as a kid. I'm always looking out for a challenge - not impossible to beat, but take your step carefully or be blasted over so hard yo mamma can't identify you!

Well, you get the point. And if you hadn't known by now, this series is a side-scrolling shooter, usually with insane difficulty levels included. And even though many recent releases have eased off, this is one game that seems to have upped the notch! Particulary when it comes to hard mode! I'm planning on a review of this, so to read up about everything, check out the reviews section. Have fun!

Completion wise, I've so far beaten easy, been at L7 (of 9) on normal in single player, and L9 on normal in multi-player. 17/40 challenges done.

Can you notice something different? Surely you've seen it by now! That's right, new banner! An actual banner. Also a new signature to go with it, just visit a forum I frequent at to check that one out. Pretty much the banner, but smaller.

Why the new banner? Well, it's all in celebration of finally getting a Wii, and picking up Super Paper Mario with it! Have yet to play it yet, finishing off a few other games first, plus waiting to actually unpack and set up the Wii after moving out.

How are the others going? 93% career completion in Carbon now, with many of the reward cards done. Have noticed that I won't get every small task done in this file however, thanks to finding out about a 1,000,000 cash in hand requirement for one after a spending spree on doing up two cars... So that's that out the window.

Gotten all the challenges out of the way, now on to the main game - the Career mode! The game's about 73% done now. Getting through it fairly quickly compared to Most Wanted.

But that could also be due to the very similar game style. Mostly a new city, a few different cars and of course extra races. Otherwise, the game style and control is pretty much the same. Makes for easy picking up!

Picked up some new games off layby today for the PS2. With Most Wanted's career out of the way now, it's good timing for Carbon to have been picked up, now 7% into it. Still got some challenges left in Most Wanted, but always good to have options!

The other game of the day is Buzz: Mega Quiz. Woo! Another party game, just in time for the weekend! Going to be putting this to good use, along with Trivial Pursuit (Pop Culture).

Should make for a fun weekend, if it wasn't for the work on Sunday morning...

This year seems to be shaping up to leave with a bang up host of new games, including Halo 3, Metroid Prime 3 and Smash Bros 3 (in the US anyway - had to continue the 3!).

Some of the more notable options at least include Mario Kart Wii and Brawl being major contenders for top games to grab.With constant updates however small released on Smash Dojo each weekday, it's certainly keeping Wii gamers drooling at the mouth waiting for each update and savouring the moments they pop up! Some of the notable additions include the Pokémon Trainer and various assist trophies. As for Mario Kart, everyone's always up for some more racing, and with each edition bringing something new it certainly helps in keeping the series alive.

As for the PS2, I'm eyeing down Need for Speed: Pro Street as the next major addition to the slowly growing Playstation collection. Seems to be a major contender as a top arcade racer by the looks of it.

And can't forget Halo 3, one game that everyone knows is coming, and is gonna be selling shipments with ease. Good to hear a release date of September 25th! Pity I don't have an X360.

As some of you may or may not know, at the moment on the eastern side of Australia there is a tournament happening during the DS tour from Nintendo. This tournament? None other than Mario Kart DS! Each day will have a good 250-300 entrants, all competing against each other in single races. Being held in QLD, NSW, VIC and SA. The QLD event is over, but the others have still got their chance.

The setup: Two angled rows of four DSs each, with P1 hooked up to the massive DS screens up the front of the stadium for all to view the race. While we weren't able to select the track ourselves (one of the staff members did) we were however able to select our characters. One of the races really pointed out Yoshi as a fav, with 6 people choosing him in a single race!

The day was planned out into sections for people. Starting at 10:30am, entries were starting to build up and the races began! Entrants from 1 to about 80 raced through these rounds, with 2 other heats continuing on, with breaks for Nintendogs owners to enter bark mode and make friends on their card. Being entry number 65, I was in the first heat and won with ease, although a little nervous that I was on the big screen, and told by the commentator to make it a good race with 300 people watching.

By 3pm, it was time for the semi-finals to begin! I had been marked down to enter the 2nd race during these times, which once again made me P1, therefore on the big screen. All semis races took place on Rainbow Road, since for some it was a difficult track. Once again, through to the next round without much hassle. Got the crowd going for me and letting out massive "WOAH!!!"'s with the sort of boosting I was doing on the course, barely staying on at times! The commentator thought I was crazy, but I knew what I was doing! 1st and 2nd places moved through this one to the finals. I got many a comment after hoping down from my seat about the sort of driving. People were saying they though they were good at just boosting on Rainbow Road, but here I was snaking my way around the course! Then got called insane by mates after seeing my victory from that. ^_^;

After the forth and final semis match, it was time for the real finals to begin. Signing off that our photos could be posted up, and then getting a big group photo, we finally sat down and got a speech about everyone watching us getting through the heats of the match and what's at state. I just said to the girl next to me, who also was doing very well "Man, they aren't trying to put pressure on us or anything!".

And so it began. For once, I wasn't on P1 but P3. The location was on Bowser's castle. A few of us chose out Yoshi, others as good old Luigi and maybe a Toad or two - all our upmost best characters for the job! Immediately, I took to the lead in the Egg 1, edging further ahead of the others as the race carried on, snaking around the course to ensure victory. Others were snaking too, but not to the effect that I could from what I saw. After various assaults, and the adrenalin pumping through me like there's no tomorrow, the race was finally over! I had won! I was so happy and found myself shaking all over and with a dry mouth from nervousness in the race!

I had known about the years supply of games as a prize, but knew nothing of the that I was gonna get too for coming first! That was an excellent and unexpected prize for the day!

Had a bit of a photo session with the crew afterwards, so I guess I'll be seeing myself up on the Aussie Nintendo site in the future...

In a twist of events, the champion from Saturday (I attended the Sunday event for QLD) was also present, walking around and at one stage, showing his trophy off too. This caused a spark between us, or so the staff reckon, to have a race off against each other on the big screen! This time, we could finally choose the settings, the track and race under our own terms. Agreeing on racing the Snes Donut Plains track, we both set out with Yoshi and with constant boosts, screamed around the track at high speed! Unfortunately, it wasn't enough for him to keep up with me, and ended up falling behind. Still unable to catch up even after I slipped and slammed head first into a wall. He had a few mistakes of his own that really cost him. He's a great guy, very friendly and would love to one day match up against him once again.

It was an excellent day. For those few Aussies around here, who are destined to race in one of the next 3 states events, I wish you good luck! Even if you think the odds might be against you, just race anyway. It's a load of fun, and the atmosphere is great! Expecially when you get into the finals, it's like nothing you would have felt! The pressure that's on you, your heart feeling like it's gonna burst and the energy flowing through you is just great.

Sure, we didn't meet anyone well known from Nintendo, other than Australian staff like you guys and Reggie, but it's definately worth going along to. I just wish I tried out more demos apart from Mario & Luigi!