I want Chris Kohler's life

OK, maybe that's pushing things a bit, but I certainly envy the guy in charge of the Game Life section of Wired.com.

Case in point:  The recent article, "Broke in Tokyo: Excavating 10 Weird Games for $10."

In it, Kohler works his way through the crowded game shops of Tokyo's Akihabara district in the hopes of finding 10 games for $10 (or roughly 1,000 yen).

It should go without saying that not all of Kohler's finds are long-lost treasures. In fact, most of them seem to be buried-for-a-reason trash.

Still, the article is well worth your time if you're a retro-gaming geek like I am. Oh, and if you read the article above and find it interesting, you'll probably enjoy this one too.

Five favorites: portable platformers

Truth be told, I prefer to play platformers on a TV. There are moments when that isn't possible, though--and in those moments I pull out my trusty GameBoy Advance (or DS, depending on the situation) and insert one of the following cartridges.

1. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (GameBoy)--I know Wario's first solo outing isn't considered by many to be his best, but for some reason it's the one I turn to whenever I need my Wario fix. That said, you can't go wrong by playing any of the Wario Land games that appeared on the GameBoy (or the one that appeared on the Virtual Boy, from what I've been told).

2. Balloon Kid (GB)/Balloon Fight GB (GB Color)--Let's count the reasons I keep coming back to this long-lost gem: 1) It's about a girl who has to rescue a boy, 2) it's no walk in the park (in fact, it's pretty damn difficult--take that, Super Princess Peach), and 3) it inverts the left-to-right progression that has become a platforming cliche. (Oh, and it features some fab tunes courtesy of Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka.) In other words, it's a portable platformer that's well worth your time, too.

3. Donkey Kong (GB Color)--Considering the quality of this title, it's crazy that Nintendo hasn't remade it once or even twice. (Actually, it seems they planned on releasing a remake of sorts, titled Donkey Kong Plus, for the GameBoy Advance, but canned it in favor of the similar-but-not-quite-the-same Mario vs. Donkey Kong.) Until they do, I'll be playing this classic platformer-puzzler combo on a regular basis.

4. Drill Dozer (GameBoy Advance)--Well, well, well ... what do we have here? Another platformer with a female protagonist--and it doesn't suck! Actually, it's the complete opposite of sucky. Like the aforementioned Balloon Kid, Drill Dozer turns the platformer genre on its ear, although this game accomplishes that feat with a gigantic drill instead of a bunch of balloons.(Fun fact: This developer of this title, Game Freak, also develops Nintendo's Pokémon games.)

5. Kirby Canvas Curse (DS)--When the crew over at 1UP.com reviewed this title, they called it "the DS's first great game." The guys and gals at IGN.com, on the other hand, hailed it as "incredibly innovative." Unfortunately, the critical acclaim didn't have much of an affect on consumer interest and it sold less than 150,000 copies (in the U.S.) in its first two months. If you see a copy (new or used) out in the wild, do yourself and your DS a favor and pick it up--you'll be glad you did.

As the kids like to say: "All over my face!"

A new-and-improved trailer for the soon-to-be-released New Super Mario Bros. Wii has hit the Web, and all I can in response to it is "wow."

Watch it for yourself and then share your reaction in the comments section below, if that's your thing:



In other news related to Nintendo's main man, the folks over at Gamasutra.com just posted an article that includes some choice quotes (from creator Shigeru Miyamoto) about the game's multiplayer focus.

My favorite: "At E3, somebody asked, 'is New Super Mario Bros. Wii going to be as easy as New Super Mario Bros. was on DS?' I think I said that it wouldn't be as easy. What we've created this time is in fact pretty difficult."

Calling all urophiliacs: Water sports game coming to the Wii

I know I'm being juvenile here, but I can't help it. How could I when the official site for said game (titled, unimaginatively enough, Water Sports) feeds into my sick sense of humor by stating:

"For the first time ever on the Nintendo Wii™, experience the world's most popular Water Sports! The Wii Balance Board™ puts you in the action with multiple levels of difficulty so anyone from 6 to 96 can join the fun."

To make matters worse, when I first read the latter part of the second sentence I saw it as "anyone from 6 to 69 can join the fun."

Sadly, gay gamers who plan on picking up a copy of Water Sports when it's released later this month shouldn't get too excited about the possibility of participating in virtual golden showers (though you'd think the Wii remote would be perfect for such an activity). After all, the title focuses on non-scatalogical water sports like kitesurfing, windsurfing and wakeboarding. Oh well.

Quote of the day

This quote of the day (the first for this site, admittedly) comes from Frank Cifaldi, former features editor at Gamasutra and editorial director at GameTap:

"In a 1991 interview, Macaulay Culkin said his favorite console is the TurboGrafx and his favorite games are Bloody Wolf and Splatterhouse. Macaulay Culkin is awesome."

Note: I stole the quote from Frank's facebook page (it was his status update as of 10:35 am today). Considering we're friends--at least of the facebook variety--I'm hoping that's not a problem.