Why I'm No Fan of Online Games and Some Internet Forums In General

This little picture expresses more than enough words to convey my attitudes towards online gaming (mostly popular Xbox Live titles) and some (maybe most?) internet forums.

Click Here - WARNING: Offensive Language

SuperPhillip's Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time

Another week has come and gone, and it's time once again for dive into the pool that is my favorite games of all time. They may not all be the best of the best in quality, but they certainly gave me my money's worth and excited me the most while playing.

As always:

The first ninety games are in NO particular order. For someone with OCD, compiling a list of 100 games in order would drive me absolutely crazy. There's a good mix of titles from multiple consoles, developers, and genres. Hope you leave this list with some fuzzy memories and good times.

~Top 100 - The Third Ten~

- Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (GCN)

Marching to the beat of a different drummer.

The same team that later came out with the phenomenal Super Mario Galaxy developed this unique platformer. Why was it so unique? Well, you played it completely with the DK bongo peripheral used on such games as Donkey Konga and Odama (not to be confused with the presidential runner, Obama, or the asshat terrorist, Osama). Hit the right drum to move right, hit the left one to move left, hit both to jump, and clap to attack foes. The gameplay's simple, but when you're going for high scores you suddenly realize how incredibly deep and engaging this game and its cleverly-crafted levels are. The game with the bongo's now only $20 new, so what are you waiting for? Jam with Donkey Kong!

- Final Fantasy IV (SNES, PS1, GBA, DS)

The Fourth Fantasy

Final Fantasy IV was my very first Final Fantasy. Blessed with an excellent combat system, a stellar soundtrack, a sensational story, and hours upon hours of gameplay to be had, Final Fantasy IV is just an incredible game. I eagerly await the DS remake coming to Western audiences as soon as this year. In the meantime I have the SNES, PS, or the glitchy GBA version (which represents the screens) to play.

- The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GCN)

Link Formation, ho!

Besides Zelda II: Adventure of Link, no Zelda has been as a dramatically different to the formula than The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. This game was a much more expansive title to the original Four Swords game that was included with the GBA port of A Link to the Past. Regardless, this title had you playing in a broken up world (there was no cohesive overworld like in all the other Zelda games), solving puzzles, beating bad guys, and taking new formations with your army of four Links. This game was great alone, and it was even better if you had a buddy with a GBA to play with you-- or three. Four Swords Adventures is the closest thing we've seen to a sequel of A Link to the Past, and it shows with its music, graphics, and enemies. Check this title out, dear readers. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

- Viewtiful Joe (GCN, PS2)

RHOH'ding your mind.

What it had in intense action it was matched fully in pure style. Slacker, Joe, is watching yet another showing of his favorite action superhero, Captain Blue, on the big screen when all of a sudden, a big mean robot arm grabs his girl, Sylvia, and pulls her and Joe into Movieland. Now the goal is simple, save Sylvia... while scarfing down fuel in greasy hamburgers and salty french fries. Kids these days.

Not only was the game extremely challenging-- try getting all Rainbow V ranks-- I dare you, but it had very cool moves. Joe could slow down time, speed things up, and zoom in on the action for killer combos! It's a damn shame that Clover Studios is kaput, because I'd love to see the conclusion of the Viewtiful Joe trilogy!

- Sonic 3 & Knuckles (GEN)

The Missing Link

Yuji Naka and his team were going to have Sonic the Hedgehog 3 have all of the levels of the following game, Sonic and Knuckles, but they simply didn't have enough development time. Well, this was fixed by allowing the Sonic and Knuckles cart to be linked to the Sonic 3 one, so you could play all of Sonic 3 and S&K on one save file-- earning the Chaos Emeralds and then the Master Emeralds. You could even use the cart to link to Sonic 2, so you'd be playing as Knuckles in Sonic 2. Very cool, yes?

Regardless, the zones were varied, the music was top-notch, and the challenge was quite good. There was a reason to play the game more than once with the edition of Knuckles who could reach areas Sonic couldn't. You even faced different final bosses depending on who you chose.

- Star Fox 64 (N64)

One of the most quotable games ever.

Considered by many to be the last "great" Star Fox title, Star Fox 64 for the Nintendo 64 launched its way into the hearts of many fans. There were plenty of planets and areas to pilot your arwing, landmaster, or bluemarine in, and unlike Star Fox Assault-- all of it was in-ship. No on-foot missions here!

The game was mostly an on-rails flight/ground/sea game where the goal was to rack up as many points as possible while trying to stay alive. The main game could be completed in less than an hour, but there were so many paths through the Lylat that playing once just wasn't enough.

Couple the gameplay with the introduction of the Rumble Pak and a fun four-player dogfight mode, and you have what is my favorite Star Fox title period. Here's hoping the original team comes back for a fantastic Wii version!

- Super Mario 64 (N64)

A Platforming Revolution

What can I really say about Super Mario 64? It's really the revolution to 3-D gaming that its older brother Super Mario Bros. was to 2-D gaming. It showed how a platformer in the new gen should act and behave.

It had sixteen varied worlds from snowlands to tall mountains to rainbow rides to the innards of a giant clock. And who could forget the phenomenal Bowser stages each ending with a showdown with the King of the Koopas himself! Many would imitate this game, and most would fail at capturing the magic that Super Mario 64 casts over players' imaginations.

- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (PS2, GCN, XBX)

Skate or Die

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was Tony's first ollie into-- at that time-- the next generation of consoles, and with it was an entirely new engine. This game had it all, fantastic tricks, an impressive array of pro boarders (and the coolest unlockable skaters in my opinion), and some of most incredible levels ever to grace a Tony Hawk game. The fun was creating your own skater, taking him through the main mode, completing a level's objectives such as a high score or finding the secret tape, moving onto the next one, entering a skate competition, and making it all the way to the game's penultimate level-- the cruise ship. And then you do it all over again with a new skater! This was the last traditional Tony Hawk game before everything was changed up once again. Regardless, THPS3 remains my favorite Tony Hawk game of all time.

- Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

A banana-slamma

Donkey Kong came out of hibernation in 1994 with small English developer, Rare, came into the limelight by creating DK's first adventure in many years, Donkey Kong Country. Right away when I sat down to play this game as a kid, I was blown away by the awesome 3-D modeled sprites and the incredible soundtrack.

Now DK wasn't alone this time. He had help from his best buddy, Diddy Kong, as well as assistance from the Kong family as they ventured through seven worlds on their quest to get DK's banana bunch back from the nefarious King K. Rool. There were many secrets to discover, bonus rooms to play around in, and Kremlings to krush-- er... crush. Was it my favorite of the trilogy? We'll find out.

- New Super Mario Bros. (DS)

Back to Basics

New Super Mario Bros. was announced publicly at the same time the Nintendo DS was first shown. Years later it finally came out, and if sales are an indication of anything, gamers like old-school Mario and they want more.

And so do I. New Super Mario Bros. felt like a mish-mash between Super Mario Bros. 1, 3 and finally, Super Mario World. The 3-D sprites were fantastic, the gameplay was smooth and felt so incredibly responsive, and the secrets were many. Many stages had alternate exits revealing new worlds and levels. Gold coins were hidden in each level for the adventurer to find and collect. And the new power-ups created new forms of gameplay the likes of which Mario fans hadn't seen before. Couple all this with some of the most fluid controls ever, and you have one of the greatest [handheld] Mario titles of all time.

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Until next week, I'm tucking away my list of favorites! See you next week!

We Love Golf - American Boxart

Here is the boxart for the Camelot-developed golf game, We Love Golf! Not only does it offer a lot of character and charm, but it's also online and includes various Capcom costumes such as Apollo Justice and Ryu from Street Fighter!

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS) - New Review

Here's a brand new review for all of you out there. It's a game from 2005, but I just recently played and completed it. Enjoy.

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A Blast From the Past

In 2003, the plumber pair of Mario and Luigi leaped into an adventure together in the fantastic RPG spin-off Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Almost two years to the day the original Game Boy Advance title was released, developer Alphadream is at it again with a DS offering. This time it's a journey to protect both the past and the present in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The Mario & Luigi series is greatly akin to the other Mario role-playing efforts including the Nintendo and Squaresoft joint effort, Super Mario RPG, and the Intelligent Systems Paper Mario series. The Mario & Luigi franchise is a jack of all trades combining exploration, platforming, and RPG battles, but is it a master of all or a master of none?

Our story begins with Professor E. Gadd, from Luigi's Mansion fame, unveiling to Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and her faithful yet timid castle guards his brand new time machine. Rather than send someone unimportant to go back into the past first such as Toadsworth, Princess Peach along with a Toad or two decide to be the first passengers into the past. When the machine returns from its trip to yesteryear, Princess Peach is nowhere to be found. It turns out that a group of alien invaders known simply as the Shroob have attacked the Mushroom Kingdom's past and have "Peach-napped" the princess. It's up to Mario & Luigi to hop into the past and attempt to save the day, but they won't be alone this time. Quite early in the game Mario and Luigi team up with their cute and adventurous baby selves. This isn't a serious time travel story like Back to the Future, so no worries that Mario and Luigi meeting themselves in the past will have any bearing on the present. In fact, the Shroobs attacking the past of the Mushroom Kingdom actually has no effect on the Mushroom Kingdom present either. Weird, huh? The game can get away with this, however, as the story doesn't take itself serious whatsoever. There's a wide level of humor from the wide ensemble of characters new and old such as the message board-mocking, 1337-speaking Hammer Bros, Baby Bowser, grown-up Bowser, Toadsworth, the Yoshis, and the return of a certain furious villain from the previous Mario & Luigi in a much helpful role. There were plenty of occurrences when you'll laugh at loud at the sometimes lowbrow humor especially when regarding poor Luigi.

Let's hope E.Gadd shows up in a console Mario game sometime.

For those who've never dabbled in a Mario RPG, be it the Paper Mario series on either the Nintendo 64 or the Gamecube, the original Mario & Luigi, Superstar Saga on Game Boy Advance, or the most ancient Mario role-playing game, Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time plays like what you'd expect a Mario game to play like in an RPG setting. That is, there's still a lot of leaping on heads of enemies, lots of jumping and platforming, and a load of charm. Contrary to most typical RPGs, there are no random battles involved. Those who squirm at the thought of drudging through a dungeon and being interrupted from their exploration and attacked by monsters randomly have nothing to fear from Partners in Time.

And there's plenty to explore, too, and this time with two more party members. Each character jumps in battle and on all of the game's maps by pressing their assigned button. For instance, Mario leaps into the air by pressing A, Luigi does by pressing B, and Baby Mario and Baby Luigi with X and Y respectively. Since Mario and Luigi cannot be separated from one another at any time while exploring, platforming with the two requires split-second precision simply timing your leaps carefully enough to be able to have both plumbers jump and cross a chasm at the same time. For someone new to the series, it can take just a little bit of time getting used to controlling two avatars simultaneously. This can become even more confusing by needing to control Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. Most of the time the babies are with Mario and Luigi, nestled comfortably on the plumbers' backs. Other times you'll have to break up the babies from their adult selves to enter small alcoves that Mario and Luigi can't fit into. This is where the second screen comes into play. Usually it's simply used as a rather non-detailed map to show where each character is in relation to other areas and monuments. When the babies enter a cave or underground passage, their exploration is shown on the top screen. The designers cleverly use this separation mechanic to open up a plethora of imaginative puzzles. One has Baby Mario and Baby Luigi hitting a button inside a baby-only cavern to open a locked gate for their elder selves. The puzzles aren't secluded to the babies helping out the adults either. There's times when Mario and Luigi will have to spin a gear in order to power a wind tunnel for the babies to hop into and soar to an elevated platform.

Use this move to spin across chasms.

In addition, both pairs of plumbers utilize a variety of actions to be used in and out of battle. Mario and Luigi can toss the babies from their piggyback stance to have the babies reach areas otherwise too high to jump to. When apart, both Mario and Luigi and Baby Mario and Baby Luigi have separate actions to use on one another. Here's an example: not only can Mario and Luigi roll up into a ball in order to reach places in a much faster amount of time, they can roll over the babies to squash them down, almost paper-thin, for the babies to move under a gate which would be otherwise impassable for the normal-sized pipsqueaks. Baby Mario and Baby Luigi can drill themselves underground to move past obstructions and obstacles as well as dig up rare beans used to purchase new stat-increasing and bonus-inducing badges. The actions aren't just used once or twice and then thrown away like in Twilight Princess either. They're used all game long from as soon as you learn them to till the conclusion of the game which will last a little over fifteen hours for most apt players.

Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it's necessary.

As stated previously, there are no random encounters. There's no "Oooh. What's this switch? I think I'm going to hit it. Wait. Blast! I just got into a fight! ...What was I going to do again before this battle?" Instead, the enemies wander the game's maps, and if you leap on them or attack them to initiate the battle, you'll get a nice damage bonus on the enemies before you even start to battle. Beware though as the tables can be turned. If you're hit by an enemy on the world map, the plumber hit will be dazed for a set period of time.

What's great about the battles of Mario's various RPGs is that they're not passive at all. How times have you gotten into a random battle in Final Fantasy VII (or any RPG for that matter), and all you had to do was mash the X button to get through it? This isn't the case in Partners in Time. Battles are won and lost by timed button presses. Right when Mario makes contact with that pesky goomba, press the A button to get an attack bonus. The enemy is shooting a ball of energy at both plumbers, leap over the attack at just the right time to escape damage. These leaping and other acrobatic antics make this RPG and the others in the series feel a lot less like Final Fantasy and a lot more like Mario. It keeps players in the battle and not just mindlessly pressing a button to win.

I-Is that juice-like substance coming out of its butt?

New to the series are Bros. Items. These are ultra-powerful abilities that can take off a lot of hit points on the various enemies you encounter. One will have you rallying a Green Shell or Yoshi Egg from plumber to plumber in time to damage your foe while another will have you timing and pressing a button for when one of the four heroes leaps on top of an enemy's head. The game is sort of reliant on these Bros. Items, too, as they are intensely powerful. Some of the bosses took long enough with using Bros. Items solely, so I can only imagine how long it would have taken had I just used normal attacks!

Mario & Luigi isn't without other faults. The game, while clocking in at just over fifteen hours, is lengthy enough, but once it's completed there's really nothing else to do. The only real side-quest is collecting beans, and the reward for doing so is just a powerful badge to make the game even more easy. It's not to say that Partners in Time is a cakewalk. The game does start out rather simple, and unfortunately, your hand is held through a good portion of it. However, after about halfway, you're on your own, and the enemies' attacks become harder to gauge. The DS's multitude of features aren't really taken advantage of either, save for the top-screen and one, yes, one, use of the touch screen in the entirety of the adventure. Also, the music is actually a disappointment. The great Yoko Shimomura returns to score the game's soundtrack, but compared to her previous works, this one is just a bit on the underwhelming side.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is a worthy addition to Mario's collection of RPG tales. It doesn't set the genre on fire, and it isn't the best RPG that Mario's starred in-- however, it's a fun, albeit short, role-playing romp that unleashes a lot of laughs, clever game design, and some tricky battles. I can certainly see myself playing through this title again just for the fun of it, but definitely not before another run of Superstar Saga.

[SuperPhillip Says]

Story: There's a load of laughs throughout the game, but don't expect the time travel stuff to make too much sense.

Graphics: Nothing that couldn't be done on the Game Boy Advance. Here's hoping for a sequel that taps into more of the power of the DS.

Gameplay: Excellent. Passive battles be damned!

Sound: Lots of funny plumber banter (well, purposeful gibberish), and a soundtrack that isn't one of Yoko Shimomura's best.

Replay Value: Once you beat the game, there's little else to do. Worth a replay at the very least later on though.

Overall: 8.5/10 - Recommended.

Media Create Japanese Sales - 6/16-6/22

Metal Gear Solid 4 looks to reach 700,000 LTD in Japan alone while Mario Baseball premiers on the charts in third with a nice 58,000. Wii Fit holds on to its lead over Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G by 34,000 units. Hardware will be listed tomorrow. Thanks to NeoGAF for breaking this news first.

1. [PSP] Super Robot Wars A PORTABLE (Bandai Namco) - 102,000
2. [PS3] Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Konami) - 68,000 / 533,000
3. [WII] Super Mario Stadium Family Baseball (Nintendo) - 58,000
4. [PS2] Harulanaru Toki no Naka de 4 (Koei) - 55,000
5. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 33,000 / 1,477,000
6. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 32,000 / 2,258,000
7. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom) - 21,000 / 2,224,000
8. [PSP] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball 3 (Konami) - 19,000 / 206,000
9. [NDS] Beautiful Letter Training (Nintendo) - 18,000 / 302,000
10. [NDS] Let's Make a Pro Baseball Team! (Sega) - 11,000 / 96,000

11. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo)
12. [NDS] DS Misa Yamamura Suspense: Kyoto Murder Files (Tecmo)
13. [NDS] Taiko Drum Master DS: Seven Island Adventure (Bandai-Namco)
14. [NDS] Hisshou Pachinko/Pachislo Capture Series DS, Vol. 2 CR: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Angels are Back Again (D3 Publisher)
15. [PS3] Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (Bandai-Namco)
16. [WII] Family Trainer (Bandai-Namco)
17. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo)
18. [WII] Mysterious Dungeon: Fuurai no Shiren 3 (Sega)
19. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
20. [PSP] Valhalla Knights 2 (Marvelous Entertainment)
21. [NDS] We're Fossil Diggers (Nintendo)
22. [NDS] Empty Space Training (Benesse)
23. [NDS] Pokémon Ranger: Batonnage (Pokémon)
24. [NDS] Endless Frontier: Super Robot Wars OG Saga (Bandai-Namco)
25. [WII] Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo)
26. [NDS] Puyo Puyo Special Price (Sega)
27. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
28. [NDS] Pokemon Diamond (Pokemon)
29. [WII] Link's Crossbow Training (Nintendo)
30. [NDS] More TOEIC Test DS Training (IE Institute)

http://www.gpara.com/ranking/mediacr...g_20080626.php