Life Without Toast - Sibling Rivalry

Lego Star Wars, originally uploaded by Matthew Verso.

There's one or two readers who'll definitely "get" this picture. Awesome.

Posted by Matt at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

That's "Cave Story" to you and me.

I discovered this little of an old-school side-scrolling gem of a 2d shoot-em-up while perusing my Destructoid feed last week. It's totally awesome. It's 100% free, but may require a little patching depending on what machine you're using. On my Mac, it required patching with a translation file, as my Japanese isn't so hot. All the Downloads and patches can be found here, along with details of characters, weapons and the like, and FAQs and Walkthroughs for those of you who suck ass.

I'm a couple or three levels in at the moment and it definitely reminds me a lot of games I played in the mid-90's, sort of between Metroid and Mega-Man, but cuter, smarter and with the benefit of hindsight and experience, better. The level design is awesome and the difficulty curve is bang-on (so far). It also looks cuter than it is, with the weapons getting pretty serious a couple of levels in. The physics of the jumping are also in tune with my inner 90's gamer, being nicely floaty on the jumping, with nice stickiness on landing with a lovely touch of Super Mario Land 2-style momentum.

Seriously, if this was released on the Wii Virtual Console I'd be paying my €8 and downloading it right now. Totally recommended.

Posted by Matt at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dragon is doing a much more thorough job of this, giving each of his top 20 it's own post, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents worth.

So, in no particular order (but kinda sorta in order), here's my top 20, and the consoles I played them on:

• The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (N64)


• Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)


• Goldeneye 007 (N64)


• Half-Life 2 (Xbox)


• International Superstar Soccer '98 (N64)


• Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition (duh, Wii)


• Perfect Dark (N64)


• Mario Kart: Double Dash (GameCube)


• Mario Tennis (N64)


• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Xbox)


• Burnout 3: Takedown (Xbox)


• Tetris (Game Boy)


• LylatWars 64 (aka Starfox 64, N64)


• Excitebike 64 (N64)


• F1 World Grand Prix (N64)


• Forza Motorsport (Xbox)


• Conkers Bad Fur Day (N64)


• Sonic 2 (Sega Megadrive/Wii VC)


• Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GameCube)


• Banjo-Kazooie (N64)

Yes, the vast majority of games here are either made directly by Nintendo, or are on Nintendo consoles, and there are no PC games. I've only ever owned Nintendo consoles (bar the original Xbox), and Nintendo are the best games company in the word, bar none. I'm not a PC gamer either, never have been, and probably never will be. Let the shouting begin.

UPDATE: Holy shit! I forgot about Metroid Prime! Okay, it'll have to be a top 21 list so. Or we could lose Sonic, or Banjo.

UPDATE: Other honourable mentions:Super Smash Brothers Melee, Manic Miner, XIII, Pikmin, Street Fighter II (Arcade), Mario Golf, Star Wars Episode 1 Pod Racer, 3D Ant Attack, Super Monkey Ball, Carrier Command, Rainbow Six 3, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Chuckie Egg, Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2, Halo 2, Pokémon, Every Mario game ever, Every Zelda game ever.

Posted by Matt at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (25) | TrackBacks (0)

[This post contains extensive details regarding an error on the Nintendo-Europe Website, Star Points, Wii Points, Nintendo of Europe being asshats, Nintendo being brilliant, and other videogame malarky. If you have no interest in Nintendo, you may want to leave now. If you want to continue, great! This was quite fun.]

Since there has been an internet, and a Nintendo Of Europe, there has been a Nintendo-Europe.com. For years and years, you have been able to redeem "Stars" contained in Official Nintendo© products (500-1000 in consoles, 250 in games) on the website. These have in the past been redeemable for such craptacular goodness as wallpapers, ringtones, iron-on t-thirt transfers (!), etc. Sometimes, there has been limited quantities of Good Stuff available, such as games, etc (usually for about 5000 points, or about ?2,000+ worth of Nintendo products purchased). Mostly, the "Stars Catalogue" has been ridiculed by Nintendo "Fanboys" for being utterly shit, which or the most part, it has been.

I got my Wii in December. When the Wii came out, information surfaced stating the if you "linked" your Wii account and your Nintendo-Europe account, Wii points (used for purchasing classic games from the likes of Nintendo, Sega, Hudsonsoft, etc, for download-and-play action on your Wii) would be available for exchange for Stars in the Stars Catalogue, sometime "in the future". I thought this was great news, and promptly rummaged for every Nintendo product I had, and it's associated Stars contained therein, and registered them all. I ended up with about 5,200 points.

And then I waited, all the while checking the Stars Catalogue and Wii.com every week or so for any updates. And I waited.

And then I waited some more.

And then... There they were. A couple of Fridays ago (the 23rd of March, to be precise), I logged on to the NE website and there was "WiiPoints" available for 789 points (a weird amount, but I'll get to that). "Only 1,542 left!".

And then... I got a 404 error when I clicked the "buy" button. Hmmm, I thought. And then I looked at my "Items Purchased" page, and this is what I saw:

So I mailed Nintendo, and waited. And waited.

Posted by Matt at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

[UPDATE: I am now 32. Although actually I'm 29.]

Posted by Matt at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Set laughter mode to "on". This is a video of me playing Zelda on the Wii, fighting on horseback with Moblins riding giant boars in the Eldin province. Blame Dan, he asked for it.

Seriously though, it's a really, really good game.

Posted by Matt at 3:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

It's hard to describe to someone who's never played a Zelda game just what it is that makes them the Best Games In The World™. It could be the rich stories, with tales of goddesses and darkness, heroes of legend rising through the ages, ancient prophesies and mysteries, and some dude in a green elf suit kicking ass and taking names. It could be the incredible puzzles, requiring lateral thinking and real attention to be paid at all stages of progress, lest you miss some vital clue. It might also be the epic scale of your quest, with it's vast world laid out before you, or that "what weapon or gizmo am I going to get next that will let me get to that place way over there" feeling, which makes opening every door and treasure chest an edge-of-your-seat experience.

But mostly, it's all of these things, and a whole lot more.

Posted by Matt at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

Played Wii for several hours last night. Wii Sports really, really wrecked me. I'm quite unfit, and I never thought a videogame would ever make me feel like that. My arms hurt, my shoulders hurt, and my neck is stiff. Let me tell you, it sounds like I'm talking shite, but seriously, try playing Wii Boxing, Golf, Bowling and Baseball for a couple of hours without tearing a rotator cuff or two. If you can, you must already have a reasonable level of fitness.

Thoroughly recommended though, even if it did curb my Zelda-playing a smidgin. And money spent on the Wii is money saved on a gym membership!

Posted by Matt at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just saw an ad for The Legend Of Zelda - Twilight Princess, at a minute past one in the morning, on a Friday night (morning/night/you know what I mean), on RTÉ 2, and Irish TV station. This is the first time I've ever seen an ad for a Nintendo game on an Irish TV station. EVER.

I take this to mean that Nintendo actually intend to sell some consoles and/or games in this "next" generation of gaming. Thank The FSM for that. Oh, and it's out in two weeks too! I'm literally... trembling... with anticipation.

No, seriously. I really am.

Posted by Matt at 1:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)