JLM

Wario Ware: Touched is the gaming equivalent of Salt and Vinegar Pringles. Just. One. More.

Yes it is. Juggle Boy owns me with it's ridiculously simple rhythmic tappa tappa tappa gameplay.In other DS news, I love my DS. Wario Ware for the short bursts, Mario 64 for the long haul of getting all the stars again (plus 30 more) and that "wow, I'm playing Mario 64 and I'm not in my house" feeling that somehow still amuses me. Yoshi Touch and Go is great as well because it's one of those old school games that's about nothing but bettering your high score. Then I've got Advance Wars DS for the long train journeys with the thoughtful pondering and catchy music. Most recently though, I got Mario Kart DS. If you have a DS you need to buy this, but then you should know that anyway. Thirty two tracks, many a kart, new power ups and added mission and boss modes which are a neat little diversion. Sixteen original courses, most of which are pretty good (though arguably not up to the standards of some of the previous games), on the plus side I actually quite like the new rainbow road even if it's not nearly as hard as it should be. In fact, my main criticism of the game would be that it's far too easy, but then it's really designed to shine in wi-fi multiplayer. The sixteen retro courses are pretty cool, especially seeing some of the old Snes courses with their updated visuals. They haven't picked the best courses from my beloved Gamecube version, but 32 is still an impressive number of courses and there are plenty of good ones. The new power ups are quite nifty, the octopus that inks up the opponent's screen is a tremendous idea, and I like the 6-8th place "turn into a giant bullet bill for a bit and fly back into contention" power up. The ridiculously unfair blue spiny shell remains but isn't as devastating as it used to be thankfully. Haven't unlocked everything yet so I'm hoping there are a few more characters to come. Was glad to unlock Waluigi, the evil characters always have the best soundbites. Dry Bones is no compensation for the omission of Koopa Trooper though, he was king of the Snes game for my young beginners' hands. The visuals are stunning, it all runs at speedy and smooth rate, the characters, karts and tracks look great and the amount and quality of sound you can apparently fit on a DS cart continues to impress me. More importantly, the gameplay is as absorbing and satisfying as ever. The "take that you bastard" factor is there, the tremendous hop -> drift -> boost out cornering is up there with the 'cube version too.Next on the list: Sonic Rush, Phoenix Wright, Lost in Blue and one of those games where you perform surgery with the stylus. :)Other than that, Pro Evo 5 is ruling my PS2, Harvest Moon is my Gamecube game of the moment and my Xbox is at home gathering dust because no one wants to do four player Halo 2 any more. Fools.

Are there any football with quirky rules games that last for more than five minutes, aside from FIFA Street?

Sega Soccer slam is great fun but it only has a good lifespan as a multiplayer game. The games are three on three, no corners, goal kicks, fouls or throw ins, kerrazy characters, downright silly super shots and there's a 'hit' button which is very satisfying when playing as the larger characters.

Got back into Mario Kart: Double Dash over the past couple of weeks. My aim is to complete the all cup tour on mirror mode with a perfect (1st every time) record.

 

Not as easy as you'd think, as I tend to get about 10 races in, then this happens:

 

1st, 1st, 1st

 

 

2nd.

 

 

Great game though.

 

Oh, I'm also playing Winning Eleven 9 a lot.

The finisher isn't the point with Sandman though, it's like asking what New Jack's finisher is.

As I ask every weekWhats the card (not results) for velocity and heat this week?

The Velocity cards/results have been a bit of a mess this week, various reporters saying different things. This card is from the report at WrestlingObserver and, if accurate, makes Velocity well worth a watch for me. Big Vito vs Steven Richards. Bob Holly vs Steve MadisonBrian Kendrick (Spanky) vs Paul London "The Bashman" Doug Basham vs Michael PatrickSuper Crazy w/Juvi and Psicosis vs GuidoCrazy vs Guido and London vs Spanky sound like good fun to me

Shame Parisi isn't on heat and it's nice to see Doug Basham on the show.

Might not have been on the initial card but Johnny Parisi vs Hurrikane was on Heat too, not a good match.

nnnnGGHHHHH must resssist spamming the quessstions thread...Sorry, I can't resist There, I feel better now.

You know, after all this time I've only just realised that the pictures of Genki flash in time with the claps/horn that go with that chant. Masterful.

Indeed. The chant and other references to baldness used to be done purely to mock Genki, and you'll notice that his opponents still use his insecurity about the hairline against him in matches sometimes, pulling his hair and trying to pull clumps out.Since the summer of 2003 however, which saw Genki's star rise to unprecedented levels, it's become a 'support call'. The fans use it to motivate Genki when he's in submission holds and his stablemates (particularly Ryo Saito) rally the fans in starting the chant.

No, SUWA doesn't have hair, the lazy arsed Firepro people haven't ever updated his appearance since the first time he was included. This is the case with quite a few others too. Still, John Woo!

The new firepro clips get better and better, August is so far away. The clip showing Taiji Ishimori and Takeshi Minnamino bodes well for the Michinoku pro and extended Toryumon/Dragongate rosters.

Rocks and gems is what made Mr Driller appeal so much. Addictive and infuriating games are always a winnner.

I used to play Rocks and Gems, that was a Net Yaroze game which borrowed its ideas from Boulder Dash and was extremely addictive, had something like 64 levels I believe.

I can't stop watching that clip of SUWA hitting the John Woo~! on the Firepro site. Getting a CRITICAL off that might just top powerbombing someone to death on the floor with Vader.

About bleedin time! Firepro D was never out of my Dreamcast, I even got a copy of Firepro Z for PS2 because my Dreamcast got the deadly re-set disease, can't wait fot this.

That and I've just started playing through the tutorials on Advance Wars via emulator and, I've got to say, it's one of the most fun and rewarding games I've ever played. I'm seriously considering buying a GBA just so I can play it on my lengthy commute each day.

Advance Wars 2 "owns" your social life.

Yes it does, I have both games for GBA emulator and the forthcoming DS version was one of my main motivations to buy the console.

Mashed is great from what I've played of it. All the goodness of micro machines and circuit breakers. I like the way those eliminated from each round can have their vengeance on whichever git barged them off a cliff via homing missile too.

Essentially it is travelling around the cities and doing missions, but there's scope to do plenty more. You can bet on horses, gamble in casinos, buy and sell cars, do minigame work as a cabbie, fireman, paramedic, valet or vigilante police officer. Kill random people, assault police officers, go on a rampage, learn to fly a plane, play pool for money. Go the gym and get your character buffed up... go to junk food establishments and make him eat until he's sick and then slob around until he gets fat. Buy some properties, assemble a posse and go and claim some gang territory for extra income. Get a girlfriend, buy nice clothes and accessories for your character, get whichever car you've stolen customised and fitted with hydraulics, nitros then enter races with it etc etc.So yeah, lots to do.

Ooh, sounds like a challenge. I can get fairly deep into the first game on 1 credit, haven't tried a 1 credit challenge on number 2.*Gets to work*.

First attempt, died mid way through stage 3. Actually died on the first stage, very careless start. Stage 2, mummified once, no deaths, the boss/tower set piece is palm sweatingly tense with just one credit to play with. I'm going to keep going at this. Should at least get to stage 3 without losing a life next time, the first two stages are actually easier than I thought. It certainly puts a different slant on things playing with one credit though, I find myself taking much greater care. Oh, and I'm making sure to collect every pig, frog and other freak collectible to attack that score too.

Ooh, sounds like a challenge. I can get fairly deep into the first game on 1 credit, haven't tried a 1 credit challenge on number 2.*Gets to work*.

Linkage for Mugen:

 

http://www.mugenation.com/ - Has plenty of characters, stages and a couple of guides on how to use it.

 

http://www.shinmugen.net/

 

http://www.mugenguild.com - Currently down, but it's about the best site there is for characters and stages.

 

http://ngmc.retrogames.com/ - Not a massive range of stuff but very thorough and faithful conversions (certain creators feel the need to 'customise' their versions of characters, he doesn't do this), he's done a truckload of fancy looking SNK stages too.

 

Oh, I should note that it's DOS based. I'm still using good ol' windows 98 y'see. I'm sure there'll be another version that XP people can use though.

I've been mostly playing Pro Evo 4. The fixture schedule in my household is gruelling, there's little time for anything else.

 

Still, stuff I've played a bit of since the last gaming thread came up:

 

Wario Ware: Touched!: Almost, almost as good as GBA wario ware. Incredibly addictive, highscore-tastic. Tap tap tap, rub rub, scribble, scribble etc. The blowing into the microphone games are utterly crap though.

 

Metal Slug 1-5/X via Neo Geo emulator. Myself and friend, pad each, ten credits, see how far we get. Great fun

 

Wind Jammers, also via Neo Geo emu. Pong with added shazam.

 

Occasional multiplayer bouts of Dream mix TV world fighters (Shameless smash brothers clone from Konami) and Guilty Gear: Isuka (Guilty Gear XX with one more character and four player mode). Halo, Halo 2 and Sega Soccer slam also see multiplayer action.

 

Silent hill 4 - This is the first Silent Hill game that's come dangerously close to falling into the "never to be finished" pile. I don't dislike it, I'm a huge fan of the series and survival horror in general, but again the Pro Evo 4 schedule is eating up the gaming time. Bujingai suffered a similar fate, I haven't progressed on that in ages, but then every time I load it up I just play the first level again to try and chain the entire stage into one big combo. It is definitely do-able.

 

As an aside I'm slowly building up my ultimate MUGEN set up. For those who don't know, it's a 2D beatemup engine for the PC that gives you a front end, some basic options, a character select screen, some menus and one default character. The idea is to create your own fighters and build your own game. However, as I'm not nearly talented enough to do this, I'm reliant on the frankly awesome development community to provide conversions of almost every character from every 2d beat em up you care to name.

 

So.. I've downloaded a swanky skin and a giant character select screen with slots for 200+ characters, and I'm going through the process of adding my favourites from every 2D fighter I can think of. I'm giving each character a unique stage (their own from their game of origin if I can find it) and music from my MP3 collection, though again a lot of them have their own theme music (especially the streetfighter lot).

 

So far I've included the vast majority of characters from Streetfighter, King of Fighters, Guilty Gear X, Samurai Showdown, Last Blade, Garou:MOTW, Rage of the dragons, Melty Blood, Darkstalkers, Xmen/Marvel series and many more. It'll take a long time to weed out those I don't like (Maxima from KOF won't last long) and settle on a final roster, but my aim is for it to be the ultimate 2D beatemup set up.

Right here's one:I am aware of the term 'kayfabe' and what it means, but where did it originate from?

I'm guessing it's just the word "Fake" carnied up a bit.

Katsuhiko Nakajima. I've only actually seen a couple of matches but he looks so confident and composed in the ring. Already very watchable despite his youth and inexperience, if he continues to improve over the next few years he'll be something special. I'm pretty sure the debate about who can and can't be called a rookie comes up every time we do this, maybe some sort of criteria should be put in place.

Ebbguy:

Version1 is purdy.