[img width=200 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-087/bf/U-087-S-01360-A.jpg[/img] Ahh yeah baby feels good to be back in style with features that aren't crapily thrown together. This time, they are actually somewhat decent and will keep me from losing my position as a features writer. So all you people out there who hate me and my sarcasm and jackass attitude, hi.
Moving on, it's Mario sports week! Ahh yeah baby. Perhaps the most fun sports games of all are the Mario sports games, so why not celebrate in style by throwing a fiesta! Go round up some illegal immigrants and have them party with you! Have them play some Mario Tennis with you or maybe even make a Mario pinata and break it with them! Ahh yeah this is going to be one hell of a week if you do that.
Ehh hem, moving on seriously, I hate getting down to the business and doing what I'm actually supposed to be doing, the featured game is Mario Hoops 3 on 3. I like it, in fact I liked it enough to include decimals in the damn score. Any collaboration with Square Enix and Nintendo is good in my book, except like some crappy game where Peach gets captured and you play as Cloud Strife to stop whoever the final boss is in any Dragon Quest game with Cloud bitching the entire freaking game. That would probably suck. Anyway, the featured image is Mario Golf for the N64. I love that game. If you don't, you aren't American, and if you aren't American, then hi. Next the featured hardware is the wii remote, or the wiimote. Anyway it puts an interesting spin on Mario Soccer. Finally the featured collection is Magewout's because he won the 'Shimra randomly selects a user to be featured' contest. Congrats bud, congrats.
Nintendo has finally added some downloadable content to its DS puzzler, Picross DS. The puzzle packs, released for free over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service, are a collection of 20 puzzles split up into two packs. Both of the packs are comprised of puzzles from Nintendo's only other Picross game that has come out in North America, Mario's Picross for the original Game Boy. The puzzles can be downloaded for free by going to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection on the main menu of Picross DS, selecting Community, and Classic Puzzles.
I am an extreme Picross DS addict, and I have been waiting for at least three weeks for Nintendo to upload some puzzles. I haven't completed every puzzle that is included with the game yet, but it is nice to know that I have 20 more puzzles waiting for me when I am done.
If you haven't picked up Picross DS yet, then shame on you. It's one of the greatest puzzle games to ever grace Nintendo's little dual screen portable, and it will only cost you $20 new. If you have it already or do get it in the future, add me as a friend and let me know your friend code, so we can exchange puzzles and play each other online! My friend code can be found on my collection profile page.
One man. Eight days. One darkened cable LED. Can he make it?
Last week I moved to a new house. Because AOL/Time Warner is the third most evil entity in the world, surpassed only by the Illuminati and Disney, I had to wait a week at my new house for the cable guy to come install the intarnetz. It was worse than Elie Wiesel's worst nightmare.
Outside work, I had to find things to do that didn't involve online connectivity. At first, it sounds easy, then the harsh reality kicks in and begins to eat at your soul. You don't remember what life was like before the intarnetz. It was horrible. I never want to go back. There is no Wikipedia to browse. There is no porn to download. There are no forums to troll. There is no RFGeneration.com - The Classic and Modern Gaming Database to wow your sensations. There is just nothing.
You know that part of the Bible right at the beginning; the part that's named after a Sega console? It's like before that part.
In order to keep myself from going completely insane I blew the dust off my Gamecube and plugged it in. I don't think I've played Gamecube since Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes came out. I happened to have a copy of Rogue Leader chilling in shrink wrap that I was saving for a rainy day, or a multi-tiered Hell of internetless savagery. I also have Halo and Mech Assault unopened and I don't even own an XBOX. Go figure.
So it turns out Rogue Leader is pretty much Rogue Squadron with better graphics. Even most of the levels are the same. It didn't matter. I kept playing it. When I got to something I couldn't figure out I went to my computer to look it up on Gamefaqs -only to remember that Gamefaqs is part of the intarnetz! AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then I tried watching TV. I learned a lot from TV. Did you know that Valtrex can help prevent the spread of genital herpes? Unfortunately, it does not protect against other sexually transmitted diseases. Also, you should avoid taking Valtrex if you have an advanced HIV infection. That's the part that gets me right there. If you have an advanced HIV infection, why are you having sex with people? The answer I came up with was that they already have HIV too, but then why do they care if they get genital herpes? I'm pretty sure that's a drop in the bucket if you already have the gay cancer.
I learned quickly that the only thing worth watching on terrestrial television during the summer months is COPS. Sadly, COPS is only on once a day. This angers me. COPS has been on for like 20 years now. It was the first (and only good) reality show, for those of you who care. There are tons of COPS episodes. There should be an all COPS channel. If I want to see a fat, black, low-income person being tazed there should be a channel I can turn to for that all day, every day with no commercial interruption. Someone get on that.
I started going places by myself just to leave the house. I went to Jimmy John's for sandwiches. I got a plastic cup there with a bunch of company slogans on it. One of them is “Our delivery drivers are so fast, you'll think they're Russian.” I'm still trying to decide what that means. It could be an obvious pun like, Russian = rushin'. Or maybe, it has a deeper, more sinister meaning.
Then I went to Office Depot and bought a HUGE mouse pad. This thing is like Rosie O'donnel's maxi-pad big. It is basically like two regular mouse pads attached for extra horizontal space. The lady at the checkout asked me what I intended to do with it and I told her you can't afford to run out of room when you are wasting cyber-trash. She was a n00b.
On my way home I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up a bottle of Mountain Dew Game Fuel. I figured with the Master Chief on the package it has to be good, right? Eh. It's better than Mountain Dew Code Red, which tastes like Benedril, and it's way better than Diet Mountain Dew, which tastes like someone peed in regular Mountain Dew. It is nowhere near the awesomeness of regular Mountain Dew or His sacred prophet most high, Mountain Dew Pitch Black, which will return before the final judgment in accordance with the prophecies.
When I got home, I watched Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Then I tried to extract my eyeballs using a butterfly knife. I'm not sure which was more entertaining.
All in all, I ended up playing Rogue Leader most of the time without intarnetz. I managed to get silver and gold medals in every level. Then I got the intarnetz back and learned that it is possible to upgrade your ships in Rogue Leader. This means I got silver and gold medals in all of the missions with none of the ship upgrades. Some of the online guides say this is impossible. So there you go. Even gimped and half insane, I'm still a gaming god.
So, while I was away for the Labor Day weekend, I finally got my key into the Xbox 360 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beta. Last night, I had the chance to play it for about an hour.
So far, my impressions are very positive. The game is a nice break from the WW2 theme present in the series. It places you in a middle eastern looking war ravaged area. Both the graphics and the sound are very pleasing, especially for an online mode.
The gameplay is what really shines here. It's (obviously) a FPS, but it also incorporates 'RPGish' elements. For example, you start out as level 1 with only three types of soldiers to pick from for use. As you gain kills and complete other mini-tasks, your XP goes up and you begin to level up.
After an hour of playing, I'm currently at level 4 and have 5 classes of solders to choose from. I haven't tried it yet, but apparently you can customize your weapons further as you level up as well. The beta has a level cap of 11, but I plan on getting there as soon as I can.
There are also other rewards for doing well in the game. For example, gaining a certain amount of kills in a row gives you the ability to call an airstrike. It's the little touches like this that will make or break the game. It is all going to come down to an issue of balance. However, from what I've played thus far, so far so good.
Our featured game this week is Super Mario Bros. 3! A favorite for many, many gamers. Maybe it is because we all grew up with this game, maybe it is because it is just stellar in every way, or maybe it is because of the silly plumber that we have all been trained to see as the poster boy of Nintendo.
Honestly, I think the answer is in all three. This is a game we grew up playing, it is a wonderful game from nearly every angle, and it does star the famous poster boy Mario. That aside, in Super Mario Bros. 3, you take on the role of Mario to defeat the evil Koopa King Bowser and his friends. With many more abilities than in the previous games, you have to be quicker, smarter, and more cunning than ever before! Check this game out if you haven't already. If you haven't, I feel sorry for you.
Our featured image comes from the Nintendo DS's Cars. This is a cute game full of races and mini-games. It is obviously based on the wildly popular Disney/Pixar movie. How could I not pick this image? Look at the car. He's so cuuuuuute! Well, my wife thinks so anyway.
Our featured hardware is in my opinion, terrible. The Turbo Touch 360 for the SNES is so hard to use, not sensitive, and not comfortable. Disagree with me? Let me know!
Lastly, our featured collection is from jtaylor. The collection may be small, but they definitely have some great games (including our featured game)! I bet our featured collection's owner has some great stories about where some of these games came from. Send him a message and find out!
Well, that's it for now folks. In the meantime, send checks payable to me and keep it tuned to channel 3!
Hello readers and members, I hope you've enjoyed the last weekend as much as I have. For those of you not in the states or Canada, it was Labor Day weekend. In Cincinnati, we have a big party. I, along with many of my friends were there. Hopefully your weekend was as awesome as ours.
Anyways, I digress. Last Friday was the last day of August, and so it is time for me to reflect on the last month and commend you all for the submissions that you have made. In case you were wondering, 3016 submissions were made last month. Of those, 1700 were games submissions, 1316 were hardware submissions, and 583 submissions were for new images. I'd like to thank you all for helping to grow our database with these submissions, it's you guys that allow our site and database to grow, and we are truly thankful. This month's top submitter was Mariott_guy! He bested the competition with 1231 submissions. The next highest submitters with more than 50 submissions last month are, in order, Funk_Buddy, Belgarath, NES_Rules, Oatbob, Tan, eaglebeak99, and Alabama-shrimp. I'd like to thank all members, including those who made less than 50 submissions for their submissions. We truly appreciate it. Some people also have to approve submissions, and I'd like to thank Tan and Tynstar for approving a bunch of submissions. Tynstar narrowly beat out Tan for top approver spot last month (148 vs 146). Congrats on that, and try not to rub it in too much.
I believe that I failed to do this post for July, and I am truly sorry. In case you were wondering, July saw 4351 new submissions. Of those, 4150 were for the games database and 351 were for the hardware database. July also saw 1675 new images, an impressive number indeed. In July, Funk_Buddy was the top submitter, with 662 new submissions. The next largest submitters over 50 submissions are in order: Tan, Belgarath, Oatbob, Speedy_NES, Tynstar, marriott_guy, Fighter17, Donkey Kong Kid, Magewout, NES_Rules, sharp, James, Mars, Apolloboy, Alabama-Shrimp, Malgyris, Rorschach, Fuyukaze, cverz2, and JWKobayashi. I'd like to thank everyone for their submissions. In July, Tan schooled Tynstar in the approvals category, with 722 aprrovals versus Tynstar's 258 approvals. I'd like to thank everyone who approved submissions in July and August, thanks for keeping the show going.
Thanks everyone, and as always stay tuned, you never know when new features will be showing up.
[img width=300 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/C-142/bf/C-142-H-00010-A.jpg[/img] In 1995, Funtech Entertainment Corporation released the first original gaming system in Taiwan - the Super A'Can. Produced and sold exclusively in its native country, the console and controllers feel very fragile, constructed of thin plastics that belies its strong, dark grey outwardly appearance and extremely high price tag. This system is often mistaken as a SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) clone due to both the physical design and the processor powering this unit. A closer inspection of this rare oddity reveals a different picture.
Appearing just at the end of the hugely successful 16-bit era, the Super A'Can utilizes dual Motorola processors to deliver its gaming experience. The first of these central processing units (CPU) was the 16-bit Motorola 68000, which was also the driving core used in the Sega Genesis and Neo Geo AES systems. The 8-bit Motorola 6502, which originally debuted inside the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), comprised the second CPU. This dual engine rendered games using a 32,768 color palette and was quite powerful compared to the rest of the 16-bit systems. This processing power would have been a significant advantage for the Super A'Can if this console was released in 1989 instead of 1995. 32-bit technology was already being fully utilized within the gaming market at the time of its release and the Super A'Can was technologically obsolete before it hit the store shelves.
The twelve (12) confirmed games, with an additional nine (9) rumored to be in existence, were released in rather large, SNES-like cartridges. Games came presented in flamboyant, cardboard boxes which included a plastic game holder and instruction manual (also well presented). This matched the fun and playful design of the systems packaging. Overall game graphics and play are very similar to the Neo Geo and SNES. Bold, vibrant colors are pleasantly displayed in 2D environments. One of the best games for this system is C.U.G., a Super Mario type clone. The complete list of confirmed games for the Super A'Can :
The Super A'Can failed miserably due to utilizing outdated technology and being initially offered for sale at an exorbitant price. Very few of these systems were sold, and it has been reported that Funtech Entertainment Corporation lost $6 million USD in this venture. Unsold units were disassembled and were parted out to various companies in the USA and abroad.
Collecting for this console is an expensive proposition, due to the limited number of units that were purchased and the exclusivity to the Taiwanese market. Expect to invest heavily if pursing this console - $100/$150 USD for a loose system, $250 USD plus for complete in box (CIB). Unfortunately, games are more rare that the system itself and usually run around $50 a piece for the common games more for the more elusive titles. Super A'Can systems and games are most commonly found from Taiwanese sellers. Shipping costs to the USA will run you a few dollars, but overall are quite reasonable compared to other countries.
Overall, the Super A'Can is a pretty rare console solely due to its failure in the gaming industry. There is nothing extraordinary about the system or the game library for it. Only serious console/game collectors should pursue purchasing the Super A'Can - the system itself does not warrant the high investment by the casual gamer.
Telltale Games has released the trailer for its upcoming second season of the Sam and Max episodic series. For those of you unaware, the episodic series is a continuation of the adventures of Steve Purcell's comic book characters Sam, a 6 foot tall dog, and Max, a "hyperkinetic rabbity thing". Sam and Max have been featured in comic books, an animated tv series, and a LucasArts game. The series got its start after LucasArts cancelled a planned sequel to Sam and Max Hit The Road in 2004 due to "market place realities and underlying economic considerations" (read: people don't like adventure games any more). After LucasArts cancelled the sequel, the employees working on that title left the company and went on to make Telltale Games, an independent game development company. In 2005, LucasArts let the license to Sam and Max expire, and Steve Purcell approached Telltale and asked them to work on a new game. This eventually led to the decision to make it episodic and the financial backing of Turner's GameTap service.
This trailer premiered at Penny Arcade Expo last weekend, and I must say that it's looking just as good and funny as the first season was.
Sam and Max Season Two hits both GameTap and TelltaleGames.com this fall.
This is the article that would be going up on Thursday, but Knytt Stories was released early, so I put it up now.
Nifflas. Who is Nifflas? Nifflas is the nickname of Nicklas Nygren, a 24 year old independent game developer and musician from Sweden who is responsible for a few of my favorite games of this decade. Today, he released his latest work, Knytt Stories, the sequel the critically acclaimed freeware game, Knytt, released last year. Like its predecessor, Knytt Stories is a 2D platformer with a focus on simple gameplay, atmosphere and exploration rather than having a large amount of enemies and very complex gameplay. Your goal is to roam this large world in search for a few items.
However, instead of simply recommending Knytt Stories, I want to dig a little deeper into his games. So, I am going to give an overview of all ten games he has released, along with links for you to download them. So, hit the jump for more on the games of Nicklas Nygren.
Good evening ladies and gents and welcome to the weekly birding feature, last weeks travels overseas brought a lot of a lot of sightings including the Japanese Grosbeak. This particular finch is quite common in the region and a casual sit near any feeder should score you an easy sighting. Also called the Ikaruga by the locals, its black and white feathering inspired a team of four video game designers to name one of their games after it. I believe they're called Treasure and have made some solid hits before, but this one stands out with a new element of gameplay, the ability to change from black to white.
Well, enough of that games rubbish... now where were we. Right, now for this portion of this week's show we get an outside opinion on waterfowl, courtesy of fellow sportsman, Earl. It looks like we're going on a Duck Hunt!
Well good evening there, Earl. What are we tracking tonight? Ducks. Ain't it obvious? Say, wanna Bud? No, thank you. So, would you be kind enough to tell us about your firearm. dun' mind if I do. Now this 'ere is the N-E-S-oh-oh-five, or I like to call it the Zapper. My buddy, TH14Arsenal has got one too.
So, please do tell our viewers what techniques you use to find and make the kill on these particular waterfowl. Well, its pretty easy. You see my dog here, Caesar. He does it all for me. Now, this Zapper came with a robot, and some "ness" toy all my kids be playin with, but that robot did nothin' but spin tops and stack rings, so I'm stickin' with who I trust the most to git-er-done. ...Right, so you just sit back while the dog seeks the fowl, flushes them, and you just sit back and do... nothing. It sounds quite simple, really. grrr...
Calm down, he only gets ornery with strangers. Lets shoot some duckies to cheer him up.
woof woof woof
KA-PANG! KA-PANG!
Wow, nice shot. You got two of them. Nah, its easy. You try. If you insist.
woof woof woof
KA-PANG! KA-PANG! KA-PANG!
Three misses. That sucks man, your aims worse than all five of my sisters' grrr... Caesar don't like it when you miss the ducks.
grrr...
You better run, squirrel
Well, glad to have you all again this week. *gasp* And remember always tune in to Channel thr-DAAAAH
The sequel to last year's Wii launch title is once more drawing an all-out media blitz. To be honest, I enjoyed the ads as much as I did the game last time around, and things are looking promising again this time around.
This time he's crafted a reasonably small combo portable that plays NES and Atari cartridges. He managed to do this using his preferred NES on a Chip and bits from an Atari Flashback II. Yes it does play both Asteroids and Super Mario Bros. 3, and changes over at the flick of a switch.
In a completely unsurprising move, Rockstar has edited their latest offering, Manhunt 2, down to M standards. Along with the M rating comes the usual content descriptors that Rockstar gets for their games: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content and Use of Drugs.
In the press release, Captain Obvious (aka Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two) stated the obvious: "Manhunt 2 is an extraordinary game, and we eagerly anticipate its release in North America." As opposed to "Manhunt 2 is a horrible game and we dread it's impending release in North America."
There is no word from Rockstar on what exactly got cut from the game so it could receive a Mature rating. I think it would be interesting to find out what they cut, or maybe even have a release of the unedited version on PC where AO titles are allowed.
The edited game is currently slated for an October 31st launch on Wii, Playastion 2, and PSP in North America. Rockstar has not stated a release date for other regions around the world as of yet.
So the featured game is Rocket Knight Adventures. "What have knights got to do with animals?" you might say. Well, when the main character is an opossum named Sparkster... I think you can see where this is going. Try it out if you're ready for some pretty quick hack-and-slash side-scrolling action.
The featured image is the cover from Aero the Acro-Bat 2. Is the cover cheesy... yeah. Is it as bad as it looks... no way. Its a fairly unique platformer with colorful cartoony levels. As with most platformers from the 16-bit era, this one is always worth a decent play.
The featured collection belongs to Duckface, ja, and finally, the featured hardware is some Jaguar thing. Too many buttons and an unwieldy size has put this one on a lot of "Top 10 worst peripherals" lists; however, I think Microsoft seems a bit partial to it because they're making a suspiciously similar piece for the 360.
Another week, another great set of free games for you to download! This week, I've got an addictive mathematical action puzzle game, a fun destructive game, and a platformer that will drive you insane.
First up this week is one of the most addictive puzzle games I've played in my entire life. It's called Blocksum and it's by a small studio based out of Japan named Circle Infotech. The premise is extremely simple, clear all of the numbered blocks by linking together blocks of the same sum. For example, if you have a block with the number 5 in it, you need to use the blocks adjacent to it to make a sum equal to 5. You could do this by using a 3 just to the right of the 5 and a 2 above the 5. That would make an L shaped block that is equivalent to 5. Now, you must find 4 other ways to make 5 adjacent to either the 5 block you started with or the L shaped one you just made. It's hard to describe in words, but once you try it, it's simple. The game starts out simple enough, however, it gets a lot more difficult when the numbers in the blocks get larger and come faster.
Here's a hint for you. Try and go for large combos of large numbers. For example, try and clear all the blocks by making sums of 4 or 5, you get a multiplier for each additional sequence you make.
Sound confusing? As I said, just go download it. A word of warning for those of you with slower connections, the download is 32 megabytes.
Next game up this week is Death Worm. The game is simple, but oh so fun. You play a killer worm, and all you have to do is eat humans, animals, and cause general destruction while not getting shot by soldiers or hitting mines. Very simple concept, but very addictive! Download it at the Game Maker Community forums (3.5 mb).
When you get done punishing humans and animals, punish yourself with the aptly titled platformer, Punishment. This is an extremely hard game but not because the jumps are hard, but because the game plays tricks with your mind. Levels rotate as you move, touching an eye icon will screw around with your mind, touching the Democrat/Republican will do something that will just make you scream in anger, and of course the pixilated backgrounds that become clear as you get to the top of the level are distracting as well. You will hate this game with every last ounce of your being...however, you won't be able to stop playing. Also, notice the special guest appearance in the second screen (the one you start on). I think many of you will recognize who it is.
If you think that's all the punishment there is, you'd be wrong...dead wrong, because Messhof Games just released the sequel, Punishment: The Punishing, last week. The sequel does not play as many tricks on your mind, but it has its fair share of mind trickery (just wait until you get to the third screen in the game). Oh, and this game has one added twist that drive you up the wall more than ANYTHING in the first game. I can't say what it is because I want you to scream out obscenities when you discover it. Again, this game will drive you insane, but it's so addictive.
So, that's it for this week. Comment on the article with your thoughts on the games, high scores you wish to share, or total frustration with Punishment.
One more thing before I go. Mark August 30 on your calendar because I have an extremely special article planned for that day, and you will not want to miss it. It's so special that I'm going to start working on it this week.
Nintendo has finally added some downloadable content to its DS puzzler, 
This week, it's time to bring out the big gun!
Telltale Games has released the trailer for its upcoming second season of the Sam and Max episodic series. For those of you unaware, the episodic series is a continuation of the adventures of Steve Purcell's comic book characters Sam, a 6 foot tall dog, and Max, a "hyperkinetic rabbity thing". Sam and Max have been featured in comic books, an animated tv series, and a LucasArts game. The series got its start after LucasArts cancelled a planned sequel to Sam and Max Hit The Road in 2004 due to "market place realities and underlying economic considerations" (read: people don't like adventure games any more). After LucasArts cancelled the sequel, the employees working on that title left the company and went on to make Telltale Games, an independent game development company. In 2005, LucasArts let the license to Sam and Max expire, and Steve Purcell approached Telltale and asked them to work on a new game. This eventually led to the decision to make it episodic and the financial backing of Turner's GameTap service.
Nifflas. Who is Nifflas? Nifflas is the nickname of Nicklas Nygren, a 24 year old independent game developer and musician from Sweden who is responsible for a few of my favorite games of this decade. Today, he released his latest work, Knytt Stories, the sequel the critically acclaimed freeware game, Knytt, released last year. Like its predecessor, Knytt Stories is a 2D platformer with a focus on simple gameplay, atmosphere and exploration rather than having a large amount of enemies and very complex gameplay. Your goal is to roam this large world in search for a few items.
You've 
In a completely unsurprising move, Rockstar has edited their latest offering, Manhunt 2, down to M standards. Along with the M rating comes the usual content descriptors that Rockstar gets for their games: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content and Use of Drugs. 
The features this week are about animals.
