My history with the Atari 2600
When I get bored of a particular console, I tend to go back in time. That, and I have a rather extreme form of ADD so I’m CONSTANTLY picking up new games and gadgets. As I’ve said before, I’m on a PS2 kick. But then I got this little device. It’s the Atari Flashback 2. Now I’m not going to get into the hardware itself too much just because it’s been out for a while, and if you’re reading this you already know what it is. For those of you who don’t know, this thing is basically a reproduction Atari 2600 sans the cartridge slot (which can be added by someone who is comfortable with a soldering iron). It’s about 2/3 the size of the original system, and instead of switches for things like the power and reset, it has big ugly orange buttons … which is my only big beef with it.
Going back to Need for Speed Underground
We all probably know of the “Fast and the Furious” movies. Some people love them, other people hate them. I’m of neither camp in the fact that I just kind of see it a date movie or popcorn movie. Just something to sit back, watch and have fun.
But the movie did inspire a whole slew of video games, the highest on the list that initially hit (for me anyway) was original Need for Speed Underground from 2003. And I picked it up again recently on the Playstation 2. When I first played it in either 2003 or 2004, I didn’t have any of the then current generation consoles, so I played it on the PC. Which, in reality, is the way it’s meant to be played. Of course, when I first started playing it I was running it on a system that couldn’t quite handle it at full detail. But I didn’t care. I still had a blast with it.
A new NBA Jam game coming to the Wii has me a little worried.
See that screenshot there? Those are my memories of NBA Jam … just insanely fast paced 2 on 2 basketball that I would play the shit out of in the arcade. Sometime this year there’s going to be one coming to the Wii. As one may fear, it supports motion control. But from what I read on Kotaku, you can also turn the remote sideways and just use the directional pad and use it as … well … a real controller.
I don’t play many sports games, after a 20 year hiatus I finally picked up a baseball game (The Bigs for the PS2 and The Bigs 2 for the 360 if you’re wondering). But I do like to play the arcadey titles. And NBA Jam definitely fits into that. I STILL own both the original and Tournament Edition for the Sega Genesis, and I still pop them in from time to time to see those tiny, grainy graphics and muffled grainy voices. But since Tournament Edition, the series hasn’t just gone down hill … it’s plummeted face first into a bed of spikes.
Games that are new to me - X-Men Origins : Wolverine game review
Systems : Xbox 360 (reviewed), PC and Playstation 3 (rated M) and a different version of the game for the Wii/PS2/NDS (rated T)
This game, by all rights, should suck. It should be TERRIBLE. It’s a licensed game, and there are very few licensed games that are worth playing. The only one that I can think of off the top of my head is Kung Fu Panda (and that game didn’t even have the original voice actors, it has sound alikes. You at least get Hugh Jackman in Wolverine, though I don’t know about the rest of the cast). Why doesn’t this game suck? Because Raven was working on making a Wolverine game before they ever got the license, and this is clearly a show of love for the character from them. That’s why. This is the first Wolverine game that REALLY gives you that “Yeah. I’m a badass.” feeling.