november-2016-games-with-gold

It’s that time again – geez, time is flying.  It’s time to discuss November’s Games with Gold from Microsoft.  Next month, we’ll get the following games for free:

  • Super Dungeon Brothers
  • Secrets of Monkey Island, Special Edition
  • Murder, Soul Suspect
  • Far Cry 3 – Blood Dragon

The only one that I know anything about is the Secret of Monkey Island.  The Monkey Island games are always funny and entertaining, and I expect this one to be the same.  As for the rest, I’ll download them and check it out.  I’ve got quite a backlog of Games with Gold alone, not to mention the seemingly hundreds more around the house for other systems.  I need more play time!

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nintendo-switch

It’s finally been announced!  I am very intrigued by what I saw in Nintendo’s announcement about its upcoming product, the Nintendo Switch.  I actually like the name.  It’s so much better than Wii and Wii U.  I do like the detachable controllers from the sides, but they will require batteries (which I assume will be rechargeable with the tablet?).  They also look a bit small on their own, but it would make multiplayer on the go a lot more fun.

I like the tablet itself, although they didn’t show any touch-screen controls in the video, so I’m doubting whether it has it or not.  This is a big departure from what made their current handheld (DS and 3DS) so great.  The touch screen allowed developers to be very creative.  I’m concerned about the fate of the 3DS.  I hope that it will continue to be a handheld in its own right.

Similar to the DS, the Switch appears to use cartridges, of which I’m a fan.  Cartridges last a lot longer than CDs/DVDs.  I also feel that they are a lot more fun to collect.  I’m glad that Nintendo is finally going to have the power (Nvidia Tegra GPU) to look good on a large HDTV.  I still don’t think that it’s designed to quite compete with XBone and PS4, but I will certainly be picking one up in March.

You can find the announcement video here:  http://www.nintendo.com/switch.

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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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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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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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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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