I've been meaning to do a blog once I had finished watching the movie, but I thought it would be best if I filled it with E3 info (yes, I finally caught up with the conferences) and a bit of an announcement. So, I shall begin with the movie

THE DARK KNIGHT

The day before I saw this movie with my friends I watched Batman Begins just so I can get up to speed. On that day I wasn't feeling so well because I had woken at around 9 in the morning with stomach problems. The beauty about it was that I had to call in sick for work. it did feel great not going to work on that day, but I did have to take my sister back and forth for band camp. Just driving made my stomach upset every time I went. I felt like I was about to puke, and I did have a few moments where it seemed I was going to let it all out. Anyway, the day came, and my friends and I were really excited to see it. Roughly two-and-a-half hours later, I came out of the theatre simply stunned. Holy cow, The Dark Knight has to be by far the best superhero movie ever. I'm actually serious about this one. I'll admit that there were a few things about it I didn't like (Maggie Gyllenhall looks a bit old), but I enjoyed it nonetheless. What really sold me was the late Heath Ledger's performance as the joker. As I watch the movie, I try to picture the Heath I know to this Heath as the Joker, and I just can't. Seriously, just seeing the Joker doesn't even look or sound like him, and I find that to be really impressive. It's ashame that he had to die this early. (sighs) Now I'll have to watch the Tim Burton Batman and compare with Jack Nicholson's performance as the Joker.

E3 '08

All I did was watch the press conferences so that I can catch up with what I had missed out on. It seems that I didn't miss much. Oh well. To keep it brief, I thought Microsoft had more to offer out of all the three. As for the announcement of FF XIII being on the 360, I didn't really find that much of a surprise there. I mean there have been rumors about it ever since there was some inclination that MGS4 would possibly be available on Microsoft's console as well.

Nintendo's conference was a huge letdown. It's great that they're doing well with the DS and Wii, but they could have at least taken a break about themselves and let the third parties shine. I mean I was hoping to hear some news about the Dragon Quest games for the DS. I guess I'll have to look harder for that or just read GamePro and Nintendo Power for that bit of info. Then again, it seemed that Nintendo had just left out the third parties completely unlike the other two conferences. I hope next Nintendo does a better job, but you never know.

If I had to award a conference for best presentation, I would have to go with Sony's conference. These guys had a lightshow going for them, and the games looked pretty decent. It seems that Sony is finally offering some games that are taking full advantage of the console. At least that's how I see it. Does this mean that I may finally buy myself an 80GB PS3? Maybe, but we'll wait and see. I need to do some more research to see if this one will offer backwards compatability since this is the only console Sony will be offering.

I'l be sure to make a list of the games I'll be anticipating this year.

ART

Most of you know that I have a DeviantART account, right? Well, I've been meaning to draw lately, and the hard part has been finding the time to do so. I need to do a mini-comic for a friend which is to be inspired by one of the drawings he's done, and I hope it goes well. The reason I say this is that this is the first time I've done a comic, and I hope I have the patience to do this. Wish me luck on that. Also, I've created a list of the things I would like to draw. Of course they're going to be anthropomorphic related, but I hope to start drawing more species besides the wolf. Hey, I need all the experience I can muster.

WHEN THINGS START TO GO BOOM

It's true. I have caught the bug like most GS users have. I now have a Giant Bomb profile. Why? 1) Most of my GS friends have one, 2) I get the impression that they won't be coming on for a long time, 3) there's Jeff Gerstmann , 4) I have to agree that GS isn't what it used to be, and 5) why not. Now this doesn't mean that I won't be coming on here. I still haven't given up on this site. Plus, there are a couple of unions that I'm still active, and I can't abandon them (one I lead and the other I RP). If you happen to have a GB account, be sure to stop by.

GOING ON VACATION

I never thought I would see the da. It seems that I will be going on vacation with family this summer to Florida. Maybe I'll have enough time to draw while I'm away. All I'll be doing is seeing family and just have fun. This is just a head's up for all of you.

And I guess that will do for now. You guys have a good one.

Until next time, GameSpotters!

Once again I have some more disappointing news. On the 9th, I didn't play a single retro game. Instead, I watched 3:10 to Yuma (the remake). Since our family has had Netflix for awhile now, I wasn't expecting the movie to arrive so soon even on that day. So, I had to watch it because we receive more movies if we return the movie on the day when it arrived. I hope that made some sense. For those who are Netflix members, I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about. For everyone else, I'm terribly sorry.

Now the movie 3:10 to Yuma was pretty good. I had never seen the original, but I enjoyed the performances of Russel Crowe and Christian Bale (who is becoming one of my new favorite actors). The story is not that impressive since it's about taking this outlaw (Russel Crowe) on a journey to get on the 3:10 train to the Yuma prison. If you plan on watching this movie, you'll probably want to watch it for the performances of these two actors. Other than that, it's a fairly decent movie that I had fairly high expectations of it. I guess I expected it to be your typical Western like Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. Oh well.

F-ZERO

Because of 3:10 to Yuma, I had some serious catching up to do on 7/10, and I started off by playing F-Zero on the SNES. This game is a pretty good racer and shows off what the system could do with its Mode7 graphics. For this RRW, I chose Captain Falcoln's racer and raced through the first circuit of the game which consisted of Mute City, Sand Ocean, and Death Valley. There were a few times I got a bit frustrated with the controls since it's been a long time since I last played the game. However, I managed to get first place in all of the courses I raced through. Overall, it was a very satisfying playthrough.

SUPER MARIO KART

Now here is a true Mario classic on the SNES. It may not have the superb graphics that F-Zero had, but it made up for the fun factor. In this game, I chose the 150cc, Mario, and the Mushroom Cup. Despite having played this in quite awhile, I was able to play this game with very little problem. Well, I guess that's a bit of an overstatement since I had some trouble trying to shake off my rivals. What really annoyed me, even to this very day, is that your rivals have a certain attack and never use any of the items that you're using. In later installments, that was fixed, but I still found it annoying because I thought it wasn't fair. I will admit that it was great this game didn't have the blue shell item. Otherwise, I would have been even more frustrated with the game like I do with Mario Kart: Double Dash and Mario Kart GP from time to time. The only drawback about it is that your rivals from behind will often toss or cast their special attack on you, and it'll often distract you from trying to stay focused on the course. Overall, I've had a few close calls, but I managed to get the gold trophy in the end.

SUPER MONACO GP

This was a Sega Genesis I enjoyed playing when I was very young. I still do to this very day. This game is more of a simulator than F-Zero and Mario Kart even though it's not as visually impressive as the two SNES games mentioned. It does offer quite a challenge since most of the turns on these courses are pretty tough to manuveur. I would have liked to have shown you what the World Championship mode is like, but it would have taken too long to capture on video. Plus, I was pushed for time. Instead, I chose to do the game's Super Monaco mode in which you race the game's course twice: once in normal weather and once under wet conditions. I had a few slip-ups during the playthrough, but I came out victorious on the second part (second place on the first part). Overall, I enjoyed playing Super Monaco GP.

ALADDIN

Since I have two versions of the game (one version I actually while the other is from a friend), I thought it would be best that I get the SNES version out of the way (the one I own). Although the SNES version is fun to play, I wish the game had a lot more action than just being a normal platformer. I did have fun playing the game nonetheless even though I was a bit annoyed with most of the character animations of the game. I'll explain on that shortly. I was able to play about two levels of the game plus a little bonus game at the end of the first. I may have died once in the game. That's pretty much all I have to say about the SNES version. Sorry to disappoint.

Now, I shall talk about the Genesis version of Aladdin. The reason why I say that I wasn't too impressed with the character animations of the SNES version is because they didn't seem as smooth as the Genesis version. It may be because Disney and Virgin were more invovled on the Genesis version while Capcom pretty much did their own thingfor the SNES. Another thing I liked about the Genesis version was that Aladdin carried a sword whereas the SNES one had him jump on his foes a la Mario. I may not have done so well on the Genesis version, but I was very pleased to see smoother animation than I did with the SNES version. Overall, I had a decent experience with the two.

TETRIS

For this game, I had to pull out my GBA SP since I lack an old GameBoy (yes, I'm referring that gray brick ). Once I turned it on, I was unable to put the game dwon. Man, I had no idea how much I was still addicted to this game. I guess I made a pretty good choice for this RRW. Anyway, I tried to keep up with scores of each playthrough, but most of the time I didn't so well since I was waiting to score a Tetris after all the hard I put into stacking those pieces. The only score that's worth mentioning is 67,015 on Level 11 with 110 lines cleared. I know there's a way to launch a rocket in the game, but I'll have to do some research on how to reach that goal. After all those attempts, I fell really short from accomplishing it. Nonetheless, I had a great experience playing Tetris all over again.

SUPER STAR WARS

Finally, we come to the last stretch of RRW, and Super Star Wars was the game to start on the last day. I only played the first three levels of the game since I had started out very late on that day. I wanted to play the game on easy, but I thought that would have been weak of me to show you videos of myself playing the game on easy. So, I went ahead with the default setting (brave). I was surprised that I didn't do so bad for I had feared that I would die in the middle of the third level. Maybe I should go back and play the game once more on that setting.

SUPERTHE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Like the first game, I went ahead on leaving the difficulty on brave. I didn't get very far into the game for I died on the second level. Nothing much is to be said from my experience except that it's great you get to start off with a lightsaber in this game. I may also go back and play the game again so that I can become better on brave. However, I'll probably have to play through the game on easy so that I know what to do on the next playthrough.

SUPER RETURN OF THE JEDI

I used to enjoy playing this game back then, but I guess with time opinions change. That's what I feared when I played this game. Still on brave, I ended up dying on the very first level which is where you must traverse your landspeeder across strips of land while dodging huge rocks. Once I was able to get through that part, I kind of struggled with the second level. I chose to play as Luke since I wasn't so sure with Chewie or Leia, and I kept dying in certain areas of that level. So, I started the game all over and was able to reach the boss with Luke. However, I didn't do so well with the boss, and I chose Leia after I died to see if my odds would improve. Unfortunately, that didn't work. So, Chewie was my only hope (no pun intented), and I was able to defeat that boss. In case you're wondering who it is, it's the eye that greets C-3PO and R2-D2 in front of Jabba's palace. The only problem is that he's much bigger in the game. In the third level, I was able to reach the boss (Jabba's right hand man), but I did have some difficulties as was to be expected. After that, I just gave up and thought that I should just play ALL the games on brave to see if I can improve on the next RRW. I doubt it, but you never know.

HALF-LIFE DEATHMATCH

This was probably the highlight of the final day. I wanted to end the event with an explosion, and I thought I would do that by playing some Half-Life Deathmatch. The only problem was trying to find the right server that would offer me a great experience. After playing on a couple, I found another that seemed to have no end (no time limit, no kill limit, etc.), and I had a blast playing it. After several minutes and plenty of kills into the game, it was then that I started to do some video capturing of the online experience. Yes, I do plan on showing some of that footage with all of you, but I may have put a mature warning on it since there were plenty of gory moments. Overall, I was glad to be able to play some Half-Life Deathmatch.

THE FINALE

To be honest, I'm more satisfied with this RRW than I have been in the others that I've participated. It may be because I was finally able to play some Sonic the Hedgehog or it could have been that I'm more pleased with the progress I made in Gunstar Heroes. It's kind of hard to tell right now. I do hope to compress the videos that I have captured and hopefully upload them onto GameSpot......whenever their video uploading cooperates. I know I have ditched on uploading videos in the past, but I am serious this time around. If you're interested, I have uploaded the videos I took on the first day including my improved playthrough of Gunstar Heroes.

So, I hope that you guys had a outstanding RRW. I know I did even if I didn't really do so well on a few games. Other than that, I'm glad we were able to share the experiences with everyone.

Until next time, LONG LIVE RETRO, GameSpotters!

It seemed like a good day with the games that I was playing. Here's a taste of what I played.

KILLER INSTINCT

This game is supposedly Nintendo's equivalent to Mortal Kombat. From hearing the opening music, this game does have every making to match Mortal Kombat, but it lacks the gore when playing the game. Anyway, I set the game on a two-star difficulty because I wanted at least some challenge in the game. After that I decided to play as Sabrewulf.....who is the only characterI ever pick... of course. I've had a few close calls whenever I was almost dead, but I managed to come on top. I was able to get a combo breaker at the beginning of the game whcih I rarely do. The most that I ever do is get notified for "Speed Qualifying" after every match. While I was playing, I was trying to get the 20-hit combo which I've done a couple of times when my opponents were near death. It didn't happen this time. I was doing well until I faced Cinder. After that, I decided to move on.

SUPER R-TYPE

If you want to talk about games that are unforgiving, Super R-Type would be one of those games. Seriously, I wish this game at least had some checkpoints, but no! If you die anywhere in a leve, even if it's a boss battle, you have to start at the VERY beginning of that level. Geez! Anyway, I thought I was going to do pretty well with this game on easy. However, I had trouble on the second level, and I just gave up because I was pressed for time. Maybe I'll give this game another go along with Lightening Force since I wasn't very pleased with the outcome with this one and Lightening Force.

GRADIUS III

You could say I had some luck with this game. Instead of dying on the second level, I did die on the third. Pretty impressive, huh? Anyway, I got off on a good start, but I don't think I was too happy with the weapon choices. It's been so long since I've played the game that I didn't have much of a clue which missle to choose. Oh well. What really bothered me was the lag that I kept experiencing whenever there was a lot of activity going on during the game. Grr! My ship had a very high speed level, and there were a couple of times when I went to far high or low and crashed. Gah! Those were the only letbacks I had. Oh well. I had fun with it nonetheless.

Coming up will be more SNES action with F-Zero and Super Mario Kart followed by (I'm hoping) a video of myself playing the GameBoy version of Tetris. This should be interesting.

Until next time, MAHNA MAHNA, GameSpotters!

INDIANA JONES' GREATEST ADVENTURES

Man, it's been a long time since I've played this game, and that kind of showed when I played it. I think some of you are going to be pretty impressed with the videos I captured. Anyway, all I played was part of the Raiders of the Lost Ark section of the game which was from South America to the early stages of Cairo. Throughout that, I believe I only died once. Nothing much to say about that one really. Once I get the videos uploaded, you'll know what I went through.

ZOMBIES ATE MY NEIGHBORS

This, too, has been a long time since I've played it. However, I was on a roll with the eight levels I played of the game. What amazed me was how fast I was completing each level. If I'm not mistaken, I was able to finish each under two minutes. Wow. I hope you guys get to see them someday.

UPCOMING....

I'll be tackling so more SNES goodness with Killer Instinct, Super R-Type, and Gradius III.

Until next time, STRAWBERRY ON THE SHORTCAKE, GameSpotters! (No More Heroes reference)

Ready for some disappointing news? I didn't play a single retro game on Saturday. Instead, I hung out with a friend after he bought No More Heroes for the Nintendo Wii, and we took turns playing the game. I'll tell ya this is one bloody game. I'm not kidding. There is so much blood to be had in this game that we both enjoyed every moment of it. Probably the most satisfying part is when you come to a finishing move against your opponents. Just the ability to slice enemies in half or cut of his head has made my friend and myself think of it as the coolest thing we could pull off in a game. However, this game is developed by the same studio of Killer 7 (which I missed out on), so what's there to expect? This game did have a Quentin Tarentino feel to it, but it's way better because I'm actually doing the action even if I don't mind it being over-the-top. With a Tarentino movie (I couldn't stand watching Kill Bill), I just can't find any satisfaction in it probably because it's all flash and no substance.

Oh well. That's all I did on that day. I did manage to catch on some RRW as I combined my playlist for Saturday and Sunday.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

I was able to get video footage of playing the Emerald Hill Zone stage with a couple of special stages mixed in. I really wanted to go farther, but I was kind of pressed for time. So, I had to move on. Once I get the video uploaded, I hope you guys do enjoy it. This is my #1 game of all time. Maybe one day I'll reshoot it and play through the entire game.

SONIC 3 & KNUCKLES

Once again, I only video captured the first part of the game, Angel Island Zone. This time I played the file that had all of the seven Chaos and Super Emeralds which makes Sonic into Hyper Sonic. I, too, will go back to reshoot and play through the entire game. I'm debating whether or not I should play on a new file and show you how I got each emerald in the special stages. It would be pretty time consuming if you ask me. Hmm.

DR. ROBOTNIK'S MEAN BEAN MACHINE

I played this game because a user requested that I play it. I was able to capture playing against the first opponent on easy. After that, I decided to not continue the game because 1) I was still pressed for time, and 2) I hear Puyo Pop is the better choice for this kind of puzzle gaming.

COLUMNS III

So, I went ahead and played this game! This one I find to be the far more superior puzzle game on the Sega Genesis system. Despite it being a Tetris-clone, it's still loads of fun to play even with a buddy....or more (you can play up to five at once, but you needed an accesory for your Genesis to do that). Anyway, I played the first part of the game's story mode on the hard difficulty setting and just played against the first opponent. He was pretty easy to beat.....of course.

GOLDEN AXE II

Another game that a user requested that I play even though he did mention the first one. Unfortunately, a friend from college is borrowing it at the moment, but you can always check my YouTube page to see what it looks like. Just be warned that you're going to see some low quality videos for I was still using the camera's lowest setting at the time. If you're interested, be sure to find me under the same username. For Golden Axe II, I had to change from my six-button controller to my three-button controller because the six-button doesn't function well for the game. I mean you can play the game with it, but you'll find that you have to figure out which button is which for movements and actions. It's funny because I never had this kind of problem with all of my other Genesis games including the first Golden Axe. I may do a video explaining it. Anyway, all I played was the first three (or four) levels of the game on easy. I thought I wasn't going to like it that much even though I had played it before (I'm not too huge on the Golden Axe games), but the experience wasn't so bad. It might have to do with the difficulty because I can't stand how brutal the Golden Axe games can be with its often punishing difficulty. It might also have to do with that I have no one else that's good enough to play the game with me. (sighs) It's sad that you can't find anyone that'd be willing to play it with me.

LIGHTENING FORCE

I know I played this game in the last RRW, but I wanted to play it again to see how I'd do. It appears that I didn't go past the third boss. In the previous RRW, I was able to reach the fourth one, but I have gone as far as the sixth stage of the game whenever I played it from time to time. Hmm. I guess I'll have to work on some memorization for this one whenever I can. Oh! I did play the game on easy of course.

Next time, I'll be tackling Indiana Jones and Zombies Ate My Neighbors as I get some SNES action.

Until next time, GameSpotters!

First of all, I hope everyone had a good Independence Day, and I hope you didn't blow yourself away with all those fireworks. I, on the other hand, didn't do much except go to Opry Mills with my mom and sister. I did do some RRW gaming, and I made sure I took video footage of the games I played. However, you guys may have to wait on the uploads even though I was able to get two in. I do hope to get the other eight I did in on this site. Grr! I need a new computer. So, what did I play? Well, here's the report.

GUNSTAR HEROES

This Independence Day I wanted to start things off with a bang. That's why my first game of Retro Revival Week was Gunstar Heroes. Unlike last time, I was able to go even farther (five levels to be exact) on the game's hard setting. It's still a great run 'n gun game from legendary Treasure.

CONTRA

I wanted to do a video of myself playing the game, but it was hard since I was playing it on the DS. For those that don't know, there is the NES version of Contra on Contra 4 for the DS. I did try to video capture the game, but the way I had the camera position made it feel a bit awkward to play. I will say that I was able to get farther which surprised me a bit. Usually, I end up dying either in the first base or in the waterfall stage. This time I went a level farther from the waterfall stage....which is the second base in the game.

AFTER BURNER II

Since it was still Independence Day, I decided to let the rockets blaze with After Burner II. For a port on the Genesis, this game plays really well. I didn't do much, but I think I did pretty okay. You'll have to see the video for yourself and be the judge of that.

DYNAMITE HEADDY

It may not be explosive as the other games, but I wanted to get Dynamite Headdy in since I've already played a Treasure game earlier. Don't let the charming setting fool you. This game is pretty tough but very fun to play if you have the right mindset. It can be slow at times, but it's a worthy Genesis title to have for your collection. As far as playing the game, I didn't really do so well. I was able to get in four videos, but I gave up on a particular level just to call it a quits for the evening.

So there you have it. Next up will be a day of Sonic the Hedgehog! This should be good. I'll try to get those videos upload, but it may be once the RRW is over. I don't know. I'll try to work out something.

Until next time, GameSpotters!