One of the biggest problems I have with handheld consoles is hand cramps. It seems that they are not designed for larger hands and long-term playing. As a result, I have found a couple of comfort grips that have worked well for me.

I never required any kind of grip on the Nintendo DS or original 3DS. Those were much smaller units and felt just fine in my hands without a grip. However, with the 3DS XL, this changed. The device is significantly larger, which is great for screen real estate, but it just wasn’t comfortable to play. Fortunately, I discovered the Dreamgear comfort grip fairly quickly. It’s a soft rubber that slips over your 3DS. It’s actually two sleeves, one for the top and one for the bottom. It also helps to absorb some shock if you drop it. I also have one for my New Nintendo 3DS, which is necessary because the switches and buttons are moved around. You have to take it out of the sleeve to change carts, however, which you didn’t need to do with the 3DS XL.

The PSP is terribly uncomfortable to play without a grip. I recently got the Nyko PSP Charger Grip. It’s hard plastic, so it’s not as cushy as the Dreamgear, but options for grips for the PSP are surprisingly limited. I got this one because it’s got an extra battery pack in it, so you actually charge the grip, which charges your PSP. It’s comfortable enough and extends play time in more than one way.

I found both of these on amazon.com. If you’ve experienced discomfort while playing either the PSP or 3DS, those are what I recommend.

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Death Jr for the PSP

Genre: Platformer
Platform: PSP

Death Jr. is a quirky game on the PSP. It was an early release on the handheld and reminded me a bit of Psychonauts. It’s got the same macabre feel and the graphics are unique. The story is fun as well.

You play as DJ (Death Jr), a kid just trying to make it through school. One day, something goes very wrong at school and it’s up to you to save your friends. Each friend has a level that you need to clear in order to save them. The story was solid enough to keep me wanting more. It’s also fairly humorous, which I always appreciate.

The game play is fun. You can either slash with your scythe, which also lets you grab items mid-air and glide to safety. You can also equip a gun, but ammo is an issue. You get better guns as you go and upgrades to your scythe. There are collectible items, although not many. The monsters are numerous and unique as well. Much of the environment is destructible.

So why am I not gushing over this game yet? It has a terrible flaw. You can’t control the camera. You can center the camera behind you, but you can’t freely move it. This really kills the game for me and will likely prevent me from finishing it. It also makes heavy use of the PSP’s analog nub, which can lead to hand cramps. I have a comfort grip, which lessens this somewhat, but it’s still not the best design.

You can find this game fairly cheap (~$5) and I would recommend picking it up. It’s different enough to be fun and the story is solid. It’s best played in short bursts, however.

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October 13, 2016

Cheyenne

There is a new video-game inspired movie on the horizon – Assassin’s Creed. The games are excellent. I was recently asked if I thought this will be a good movie, and I think it has the potential to be. The game has a really interesting plot that can lend itself well to the big screen. However, this usually isn’t the case.

Video games and movies have long had a love-hate relationship. What makes a good movie often doesn’t translate to a good game, and what makes a good games really doesn’t work very well as a static movie. There have been some exceptions – I enjoyed Doom, although many will tell you it sucked. The Tomb Raider movies haven’t been terrible and even Resident Evil was ok.

Then there were movies like Super Mario Brothers, which was just terrible. They tried to make a movie out of a game that really doesn’t have a story line outside of “the princess is in another castle”. I know World of Warcraft came out recently as well. I haven’t seen it, but I really don’t have any interest to, either.

Often times the games that are based on movies are just ok. They are generally licensed games that are designed to make money as a supplement to the movie. Not a lot of effort goes into them beyond that. Pretty much every movie-game I can think of fits this – Wall-E, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. The LEGO versions of games are usually pretty good, however.

Animated TV shows usually make fairly good games as well. The Simpsons has a long history of decent games and the most recent South Park title was a good one. Family Guy has had ok games. Of course, we can’t forget Pokemon, Dragonball-Z or Naruto, either.

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October 12, 2016

Cheyenne

poke-dance-780x345

Pokemon games have been collectible for a very long time. If you were fortunate enough to have bought and kept them when they were first released, you likely have some very valuable items in your collection. It is insane how valuable some of these games are today. For example, I have Pokemon Soulsilver for the PSP, in its original box with an unused Pokewalker. I got it for $50, but it now sells for over $125. These prices are not going down, either. I routinely see lots of four or five Pokemon DS/3DS games selling for over $250.

However, you need to be careful when purchasing these online as they are easy to counterfeit. This is why you will see many Gameboy Original and Advance games going at cheaper prices. They are SO easy to fake that most assume these are fake copies. If you’re unsure, ask the seller for a picture of both the front and back of the cartridge. Compare it to a picture of a real cart (found online) and make sure everything matches. Pay special attention to the logo placements and the serial number.

If you’re buying on Ebay, look for the tell-tale seller signs. If this person has a rating below 100, be cautious. A lot of counterfeiters get caught and then create new IDs. If it’s someone from China, it’s most likely a fake. There are great deals to be had, just be careful.

I will post another day about identifying fake DS carts as I’ve become somewhat of an expert in the area. When in doubt, you are very likely correct.

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October 11, 2016

Cheyenne

atgames-sega-mini

So when Nintendo announced that it was coming out with its mini-NES, pre-loaded with 30 awesome titles, SEGA came out with an announcement stating that it was coming out with something similar for the 25th anniversary of Sonic. I want to give everyone an honest warning about what this product actually is.

This device will be manufactured by AtGames. I have the one released in 2014. We got some play time with it this weekend and it’s just ok. The first problem is that the remotes are IR, meaning that you must have line of sight. As you play the games and naturally move around, you might lose that line of sight and you are SOL in fast-paced games like Sonic.

Next, it doesn’t work well with my Vizio HD TV. It comes with a cable with only the video (yellow) RCA connector and the white audio. This means that we only have black and white on this TV. We do have color on an older TV, but beware with newer HDMI TVs. Because it only has one audio connector, it’s only mono sound. I’m not sure why they did this as Genesis games were in stereo.

Next, the 80 games are actually only 40 Genesis titles. The rest are homebrew filler games. Don’t expect 80 awesome Genesis games.

Otherwise, it does play the three Genesis cartridges that we have and it is fun to play the older games. It was only $40, so it’s not like we’re out a lot of cash. Buyer beware for the new model coming out soon.

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Spent the Weekend in San Antonio (Outlaw)

Genre: Shooter
Platform: Atari

I spent the weekend in San Antonio with family, which is why there’s a few days without a post. We watched my brother-in-law graduate from the Air Force boot camp. We also wandered around San Antonio a bit. Everyone knows that the Alamo is there, so I thought Outlaw would be a good game to showcase on my site today.

This was a fun little game. You and a friend squared up against one another and simply tried to shoot each other. There were obstacles in the way such as cacti, wagons or a wall. Sometimes those obstacles would move. Sometimes you could only shoot straight, or other times you could ricochet off the walls. When you were shot, you ended up on your butt:

outlaw-loser

It was fun for its time, but it would probably only be fun for about 5 minutes today. I still remember it fondly, though!

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Stinkers – Deal or No Deal, Nintendo DS

Genre: Game Show
Platform: Nintendo DS

I love game shows. I am a sucker for the Game Show Network and BUZZR. It really doesn’t matter the age or content of the show, I will sit and watch it. I also really like Deal or No Deal. The premise is fairly simple. You pick a case and hope that it has $1,000,000 in it. Throughout the game, you pick other cases that have other values in them. Between rounds, the host talks to the banker, who makes you an offer for your case. If you want to risk it and keep going, you can. If you like his offer and just want to run away with that money, you do. Nearly every time, people get too greedy and end up busted.

So naturally, I picked up this game. I had a lot of fun with it, at least the first few games. It was just like the TV show, Howie Mandel and all. But then I noticed something. It was a pattern. And it destroyed the (video) game for me forever. You see, this game has a big flaw and I can’t believe that the developers didn’t see it. If you’ve not played this game and intend to, hit your back button now.

The critical error is that the $1,000,000 is always in the same case. Every single time. This takes away all of the fun. The company that made this came out with a second “special version” of the game, but the damage was already done for me and I didn’t want to buy it. It’s too bad because I really had fun before I noticed it.

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Oldies but Goodies – Sim Tower

Genre: Simulation
Platform: PC

The Sim games have been getting some love (and hate) on my site lately. It’s usually love. And Sim Tower is no exception. I think I found this game by accident in Walmart one day and bought it. I loved SimCity, so how could I go wrong with another Sim game, this time about a tower? I couldn’t!

This game was a lot of fun and gave you a lot of different options to customize your tower. You can still find this game online, by the way, so if you haven’t played it, try it out! You started with an empty plot of land and you started by building your lobby. Easy enough. Next, you built your second floor. And some stairs so people could get up to that floor. Now you pick what kind of dwelling you want on your new floor. Hotel rooms? Office space? Condos? It’s up to you, but keep an eye on your cash flow! (Hint, offices in the beginning).

As your tower grows up, the challenges get greater. By far, the most constant challenge is elevator strategy. You are only allowed a certain number of elevator shafts per tower and if you reach over 50 stories, things really start to get interesting. You’ll be dreaming about pink and red people and elevator capacities and which floors to set the cars to while idle and WAAAAH! I actually still think about this game every time I am waiting for an elevator and imagine myself turning pink. Before you know it, your simple tower looks like this:

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