June 2008
This is a list of posts published in June 2008.
Stan the Man
Over the last few weeks, the entertainment industry lost some giants.
Last week, we learned that Geoge Carlin had shuffled off this mortal coil. Though he would probably scoff at the kind words being thrown his way (His famous retort to anyone offering bereavement support – “You want to help? Fine, why don’t you come over tomorrow and paint the garage.”) – I decided that he made me laugh (and think) enough in my lifetime to warrant a few words of remembrance. Look for that later this week.
Simply because he passed on first, today I decided to pay my tribute to Stan Winston, the great makeup artist and creature effects wizard who engineered some of the most beautiful beasties Hollywood ever set loose upon my fragile psyche.
Now, I’m a huge movie buff. Everyone knows it. What... Continue reading »
The Hollywood Minute
A few LA stories caught my attention this week, none of them requiring the normal thesis I typically offer on these pages, so I though I’d just hit each of them quickly and give you my take. As always, Comment Away below!!!
1. Indiana Jones and the Lucas Redemption
Anyone following this flick’s development cycle knows that the property landed before a number of top Hollywood scribes before Spielberg’s go-to guy David Koepp (Spider-Man) took a hack.
Following the film’s release, the Internet community commenced their big fat geek meddling by laying the blame for all the goofy detours the film took at... Continue reading »
Emergency Mayhem – Nintendo Wii
The old maxim goes – “It’s a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.” And then there are places like Crisis City – the chaotically out-of-control burg at the center of Codemaster’s new Wii release, Emergency Mayhem. The question is – would you want to play there?
With a name like Crisis City, you know mayhem is on order. Within the city’s four precincts – unlocked as you progress further in the game – all manner of crimes and misdemeanors crop up for the player to get under control. Still, despite the open world gameplay and the ability to tear through the streets in a variety of emergency vehicles, this is no Grand Theft Auto clone. Rather, Emergency Mayhem owes a lot of its inspiration to SEGA’s old arcade hit, Crazy Taxi.
Emergency Mayhem tasks the ... Continue reading »
The Dog Island – Nintendo Wii
Ever since Nintendo took the “virtual pet” craze to the next level by offering up actual digital dogs in their hit DS release(s), Nintendogs, game developers have mined this niche looking to excavate the next hit animal avatar. So, in the years since, casual gamers have been granted a vast menagerie of pretend pets in titles such as Horsez and Catz. The use of pet familiars has even hit the hardcore mainstream gamer, with developers like Peter Molyneux introducing a dog companion that your hero gets to befriend and nurture in his forthcoming follow-up to Fable, due later this year. That said, as dog lovers will attest, there is nothing comparable to the bond that develops with Man’s Best Friend – a fact that developer Yukes aims to showcase in their new release The Dog Island.
While The Dog Islan... Continue reading »
Summer Sports: Paradise Island – Nintendo Wii
It’s no secret that the Wii owes it’s mammoth success to Wii Sports – that little pack-in tech demo that single-handedly converted a legion of non-gamers into the fold and helped propel Nintendo’s dark horse to the head of the pack. Simply put, Wii Sports proved that anybody could game and those who had either been turned off by video games or turned away by increasingly complex control systems suddenly found themselves enjoying games as a communal activity. So it was during that holiday season 2006, that Nintendo caught the gaze of the non-gaming community who regarded the company with renewed interest. Watching someone swing their arms with wild abandon in a hard fought round of Wii Tennis, these neophytes looked on with growing interest and thought to themselves, “I could do that.”
For b... Continue reading »
Kung Fu Panda – Xbox 360
It used to be that licensed games were the bane of gamers. Once the mercury began to rise and the multiplex became dotted with a myriad of popcorn flicks, the companion software would follow suit, usually launching day and date of most high profile cinematic releases. And while you could often see every dollar spent up there on the silver screen, the accompanying game usually seemed like nothing more than a cash grab. Over the last few years, there has been a subtle shift to the norm, with some real surprises releasing alongside their celluloid sisters. Now, that’s not to say that all licensed games have taking a turn for the better, but titles like The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and The Simpsons Game show there are diamonds in the rough out there. This summer, slicing his way through a crowde... Continue reading »
Iron Man – Xbox 360
Comic book games, like the movies these graphic novels have birthed, are in the midst of a continued renaissance. Where comic games once suffered on weaker consoles (the less said about Spider-Man vs. Carnage the better), the technology has advanced to the levels required to bring gamers the true flights of fancy their superhero fantasies require. And that’s the key to delivering a quality title – developers need to put players in the role of their favorite heroes. This is the formula that propelled the latter Spider-Man titles to their lofty heights and it’s what made Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and The Hulk: Ultimate Destruction such a smashing success. The game should key in on the mythos that has enchanted readers for so long; a mission that Iron Man now finds before him.
Iron Man is based on the Marvel com... Continue reading »
Emergency Heroes – Nintendo Wii
One of the chief criticisms lobbed at the Wii’s current software catalog is that there are too many copycat titles. The immediate system selling success of Wii Sports opened the floodgate to a virtual Olympics of sports game compilations. Soon after, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves ushered in a glut of gimmicky mini game compendiums. And it seems like only a month ago, I was reviewing the Crazi Taxi-esque Emergency Mayhem and quickly upon its heels comes the similarly themed racer, Emergency Heroes.
While Emergency Heroes shares a lot in common with Emergency Mayhem, with both games presenting open world driving environments where the player is set loose to set right a variety of wrongs using various emergency vehicles (culled from the assorted police, ambulatory and fire professions), Heroes is the m... Continue reading »
Battle of the Bands – Nintendo Wii
Editor’s Note - As many of my readers know, I am on staff at Adrenaline Vault where I provide game reviews. I also plan on publishing these reviews here to keep a chronicle of everything I’ve written. That said, some of the games I get sent truly suck. Case in point, today’s feature. Don’t fault me for this dreck.
Ever since Harmonix proved there were millions to be made in the rhythm and music genre with the meteoric rise of the original Guitar Hero, a war has waged between game developers looking to launch the next hot music game. Of course, Harmonix moved beyond the guitar and assembled a full-on band with their latest hit, Rock Band, while Neversoft picked up the reigns to Guitar Hero III and kept gamers rocking all night. While those two franch... Continue reading »
Mario Kart – Nintendo Wii
Nintendo is the Walt Disney of video game development. By that statement, I don’t mean to echo the tired complaints of “kiddie aesthetics” that too often get lobbed their way. Instead, this is high praise for the big N, which like the House of the Mouse, has perfected the art of finely crafted family entertainment. And like Walt’s kingdom, Nintendo built their empire on the backs of marketable mascots with world-wide appeal, meaning Mario is often called upon to engage in many extracurricular activities – from baseball to soccer to practicing medicine. Of his side projects, none have been more beloved than the Mario Kart series, which makes its debut on the Wii with Mario Kart Wii.
It’s no secret that the original Mario Kart blazed the trails for an entire sub-genre of mascot driven kart racers. ... Continue reading »
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