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Since Cameron is having Internet troubles this week (no Internet = Trouble), I’m going to take this space to tell you about a web game in his stead: Tuper Tario Tros.

The title of this game might lead you to believe that this game has something to do with the Super Mario Bros. games, and you’d be kind of right. It starts off like a clone of Super Mario Bros. (albeit with a huge playfield)

Looks are deceiving

But very quickly, you run into a brick wall (literally)

I don't remember this part from the original

And if you hit Space like you’re instructed to, you suddenly switch to Tetris Mode, and have to start laying down bricks in the familiar Tetrimino shapes to build platforms to proceed.

Which means that you have to try and manage Mario jumping around like his shoes are on fire, the endless stream of Goombas that fall from the pipes above, and build platforms to make it across the increasingly impossible-to-cross gaps

The stage culminates with you having to build a castle out of Tetriminoes (kind of like Tetris Party’s Shadow Mode) so you can go in and do whatever it is that Mario does at the end of the stages in those little fortresses.

And that’s it! The game’s actually kind of on the short side with the one level to go through, but that might be enough for you. The novelty of switching back and forth kind of wore off for me about halfway through playing the thing. But it’s worth it to get to the end at least once, so you can say that you did.

And it’s not even that hard.

You can play Tuper Tario Tros. at Newgrounds.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is what I’m discussing this week ladies and gentleman. As you all my have figured by now, I’m a huge Nintendo fan boy and I was anticipating that I was going to give this game a 9/10 as soon as I first played it. The world surprises you sometimes, however. I inserted the game into my Wii and started a new game. What is this? Could my guess have been wrong? It was like some kind of drug! It was a 15/10! IT WAS AMAZING!!!!

Everything that was beautiful about the first Super Mario Galaxy is still there with the addition of Yoshi. The controls are still as user firendly as ever. Believe me, there’s a reason why all Mario home  console games since Super Mario 64 haven’t had many changes to the controls. In this one there is the addition of the chance for a second player to pick up a remote and play as a “Co-Star Luma” to assist Mario in his planet trekking.

The most interesting difference between this one and the previous one is the addition of the old “World 1, World2, etc.” format of the older Mario games. On the map a big spaceship which is also an effigy of Mario’s head zooms across the planets carrying Mario to his next stomping grounds. Ahem, that pun was intended!

It may not have stunning HD graphics but it looks great for what it’s purpose is. All the planetoids look good. The cartoony appearance of the game is done perfectly yet again as it was with the first Super Mario Galaxy.

If there was a Nintendo theme park, this would be my favorite ride!

Mamma-mia! My pizza! Itsa done! Itsa time-ah to go back to playing Super Mario Galaxy 2-ah!

(No offense to any Italians or Italian Americans who may read this =])

You might think of a soundtrack as mostly inconsequential until you hear a very bad one or a really great one.

One of my least favorites is the soundtrack for Loaded which is a Playstation game I played for a while in 1996.
The game itself was frustrating and hard to look at and the soundtrack began to eat away at my sanity after just a week of playing. It didn’t help that a few of the songs included on the soundtrack featured lyrics. They weren’t just background noise… they were imposing, distracting, fully realized songs that seemed to start over every 10 minutes. Why did anyone think that was a good idea?

Did you play this game?

I’m extremely thankful for the advancement in game-making since then.

My favorite soundtrack belongs to Final Fantasy 9 which is my favorite of all the Final Fantasy games.

The sound ranges from pleasant, cheerful, sentimental, melancholy, & foreboding. It’s perfectly balanced and enjoyable. It rises and falls with the game.
This is one of the only game soundtracks I’ve ever listened to away from the console.

Here is just a little medley sampling on youtube:
Top 12 Final Fantasy IX songs

What’s your favorite video game soundtrack? Or your least favorite?

You’ll have to excuse the indulgence, but with last week celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man (and a playable version taking over Google for a couple of days) I figured it was about time that I tried out a Pac-Man-styled energy drink, called, rather unsurprisingly, Pac-Man Bonus Fruit Energy Drink.

What wonders does this can hold?

How can you go wrong with that? Pac-Man, monsters turning blue, and lots of fruits floating in the background?  I sure would like to have that kind of energy!

I’ve played a lot of Pac-Man, and I’ve got a lot of experience eating the bonus fruits from the game… except for the green things (which I’ve been lead to believe are durians), the bells, the keys, and the Galaga ships, so odds are good that this stuff tastes like something I’m familiar with.

Look & Smell:

Immediately after opening the can I was hit by a smell I couldn’t immediately place. It smelled kind of like marshmallows mixed with Kool-Aid powder, and was mostly clear with an orange tinge.

First drink:

Taking a drink from this thing was like biting into a handful of orange peels, almost like someone took a bucket of orange Sweet Tarts, ground them into powder, and mixed them with some carbonated water.

Additional drinks:

This stuff is really hard to drink. Chugging it is definitely a mistake. My throat nearly closed itself off almost immediately after it hit my tongue. And the aftertaste! It’s hanging around in the back of my throat like someone shoved an orange up my nose and it’s draining down the back of my throat. Sipping is even worse, it lets the ridiculously concentrated orange-like flavor wash away every trace of everything I’ve had in my mouth today. Kind of like eating out of a volcano… actually, that might be slightly more pleasant.

At this point, I was finding it hard to press on. But after letting it sit for a few minutes, hoping for an errant bolt of lightning to hit it, I decided to press on. With over half of the original 8.4 ounces remaining, I decided to guzzle the remnants.

Huge mistake.

This might be the first time that I’ve drunk something that tasted so heinous that I had tears welling up in my eyes. I couldn’t see out of my right eye for what seemed like several minutes afterward, and my face was locked in an expression that you might assume if you ate a piece of cake, but the person who made it ran out of sugar and decided to substitute cat urine.

Energy levels:

But all of this is totally worth it if I get some kind of energy boost, right? Well, I didn’t. An hour after drinking this melange of flavors that’s just one step up from drinking a solution of that juice that spills out the back of a garbage truck mixed with kerosene, I felt no noticeable increase in alertness. In fact, I felt as I’d drunk a soft drink or a cup of coffee. Which shouldn’t be much of a surprise, caffeine is one of the major ingredients.

But is that a good trade off for drinking something that makes my tongue taste like I swam through the storm drain underneath the local zoo with my mouth wide-open?

No, not really.

I’ll be brief. The ModNation Racers demo was so fun, I pre-ordered the game (which was on my doorstep when I got home today.) Here’s the premise: you get to create and customize your driver from the ground up. Then you do the same for your car. After that you can build a track of your own, race on one of the pre-loaded tracks, or download a track that someone else created. The racing is fun, but the creation process is really what sells this game hook, line, and sinker.

Here’s a link to the official website.

Here’s the obligatory picture:

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go start playing. See you next week.

Well, with the finale of LOST done and over, and with most viewers left wanting more, i thought i would point you guys toward The Lost Experience.  TLE was a web/TV/newsprint based tie in to the popular series that gave background information about the Hanso corporation.  It was laid out like a puzzle where you got clues “subliminally” given to you by quick flashes of fake commercials showed on TV during LOST.  I won’t take the time to walk you through it since the LOST wiki does such a good job.  It launched in 2006 and ended the same year I believe, so unfortunately most of the info is no longer at the old websites, but you can still see it all on the wiki.  So for all you fans out there that want more check it out.

Now on to more time wasting.

Yes that is a turtle in a cannon, the game is called Toss the Turtle and you have only one goal, shoot a turtle out of a cannon.  Its pretty much like all the other games were you try and launch something as far as you can, its got upgrades for your tank that launch the turtle farther, rockets to propel him faster, nukes to send him flying and various bonuses lying about the stages.  And since it’s on Kongregate  you have the option to sign in and get achievements and who doesn’t like achievements?  Here’s a fella getting the 3,000,000 feet achievement that i could not, after 4 hours of play, achieve.

All in all its a pretty simple fairly easy waste of time. It has a neat graphic style (goomba in a top hat) and great sound effects with an awe inspiring score.  So go waste some time, and try not to blame me if you lose 4 hours of your life like i did one bored night.

The Lost Experience

Toss the Turtle

I’m just going to start with a not-so-well-composed review for Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. The Wii generally has games that are made to be easy to pick up and learn. Which if done right, that is a great thing so you can open it up and get to playing quicker. Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom does that. However, they also have more complex controls for more advanced players. You pick two characters for a tag team style play similar to Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 with two fighters instead of three. The first time I played through the arcade I used the Wii Remote and Nunchuk and set the difficulty sort of low, it was quick to get used to the style of play. After that I set the difficulty up a little bit and changed my control style to the Class Controller and then it started to feel more like a traditional fighting game.

The character roster has famous Capcom characters and some unfamiliar ones for those who may have not been playing video games that long. The real excitement comes from the Tatsunoko characters. I have never really watched any of the Tatsunoko anime shows before so all the characters are new to me and that just makes the game more appealing for me.

The characters are interesting with flashy and over-the-top (in good way) signature moves. The controls can be changed to work perfectly with brand new players and for fighting game veterans. Overall, the game is great.

PS. I’m picking up Super Mario 2 Sunday morning and I will write a more thought out review for that next Friday. See you all next week =].

The TRS-80 Color Computer 2 would still function with two pieces of pizza laid across its bare motherboard.

(Photographic proof not available.)

Game: World of Zoo
Purchased from: Target
Price paid: $4.98
Platform: PC

World of Zoo is kind of interesting to me. It’s been out on shelves since October of 2009 and before I found it in the clearance bin I hadn’t heard of it. In fact, I could hardly find any mention of this game on the entire Internet, save for a few previews and screenshots.

So I’m here to help break that silence.

World of Zoo is actually nothing like World of Goo, a game I have actually heard of. It stars animals in various zoo enclosures under your purview, and you as the local zookeeper, have to take care of them. Taking care of them, in this case, involves throwing them toys, grooming them, giving them food, and generally making them as happy as possible. Really, calling this thing a ‘game’ is a bit of a stretch, it’s definitely an activity, though

There’s a lot of stuff to do in this, er, activity, if you define ‘stuff’ as lots of buttons to click on to make stuff happen. Want to give your animals a toy? Click a button. Want to spray them with the hose? Click a button. Want to build a new playset for them to play on? Click on the hammer button and then click on the spot to build it. All to get precious hearts (i.e. sweet, sweet affection) from your critters. Hearts allow you to expand your zoo and take care of more animals.

So, there’s nothing really wrong with this thing, exactly. It’s definitely geared to the younger crowd with its simplistic interface. And, as long as the animals are happy (which seems to be pretty easy to maintain) then they kind of creepily smile at you all the time.

All of this makes it a decent time-waster, and I’d have probably gotten more out of it if I was a pre-teen. But it’s definitely a solid title, which makes its lack of media coverage that much more baffling. This isn’t some quickie shovelware game, and it’s worth every bit of the five-spot I blew on it, and if I was born 20 years or so later, it might even be worth twice that to me.

Everyone find their seats and take out a pencil and notebook. Today you get both a snide review of a free demo from the PSN Store, as well as a complimentary grammar lesson. What culmination of astrological happenings placed you in this fortuitous position? Black Rock Studios presents us with SPLIT/SECOND. For those keeping track, this makes the second consecutive PSN demo on PBB with an unnecessarily loud title (note the lack of any lower-case letters). Let’s begin.

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