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Showing posts from January, 2016

6 Easter Eggs in Super Mario Games That Will Make You Go 'Mama Mia!'

So it's been a while since I tracked down some Easter Eggs for you guys, it's actually been since the first post on this blog, so I feel this is long overdue.  Also, an actual post on this blog is overdue, considering my average Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule had been compromised this week, and it's been about a week since you guys have received a blog.  That was due to a finger injury that I had sustained on Saturday, leaving me unable to type as fast as I normally do and left me unable to do the blog for a while, so my apologies.  My finger has been injured pretty bad, so I'm not sure how long it will be before I start posting regularly again.  At the very worst case scenario, I will post about once a week for you guys!  But without further stalling, let's dive into some more Easter Eggs, but this time, in the Super Mario franchise! 1. Three Mysterious Figures (Super Mario Galaxy 2) This one is one of the more creepy ones, as it contains three figures fo

The Lego Licensed Property Video Games Phenomenon (Part 2)

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So I decided I wanted to finish this thing before we hit February, so here we go.  The exciting conclusion of my analysis of the Lego LP video games phenomenon, starting from where we left off on the last article, which was Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Screenshot from " Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes " This is an interesting one, as it is the perfect combination of a simple Lego money grab while at the same time, trying to change the formula up just a tad.  While the basic formula of making things out of lego pieces, collecting studs, and collecting minikits were the same, Lego Batman 2 was the first Lego LP game to feature both dialogue and an open explorable world.   This would be more impressive to me if this game wasn't the 11th in it's franchise, however, beggars can't be choosers.  The video game community was finally getting changes to the same old stale Lego formula, and these were changes for the better to be su

Nintendo and It's Staggering Position

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So over the last couple of years, Nintendo has been on very shaky ground with gamers, and has been sort of losing its touch.  This article is going to go through everything from the minor setbacks to the complete devastations that Nintendo has been going through lately in chronological order. Nintendo Wii Don't get me wrong, the Nintendo Wii did insanely well financially.  In fact, it was Nintendo's 3rd best selling console of all time, Nintendo's best selling home console of all time and the 5th best selling games console of all time.   Nintendo Wii However, what makes this console an unqualified blunder on the part of Nintendo is that the Wii was the console that truly took Nintendo out of the serious gaming market.  With it's motion sensing technology, Nintendo claimed that the Nintendo Wii was the future of gaming.  However, the Wii spun off in a completely different direction and was found to be more functional and entertaining as a casual games medium

Who Would Win? (Battle I) Crash Bandicoot VS Spyro the Dragon

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So this is an idea that I thought would be fun to toy around with, and I hope you guys like it too.  It's basically a who would win in a fight battle between two icons/heroes/fictional characters etc.  Because this is such a lengthy process of research, determining outcomes, and simulation, this is probably something that will happen only once in a blue moon, but I hope you guys like this sort of thing. This is meant for you guys to enjoy, so I am very open to suggestions as to who you would like to see in a fight.  The first battle on the list is Crash Bandicoot (yes another one I'm sorry, after this article I'll take a break from good old Crash) VS Spyro the Dragon.  To truly analyze this fight, we have to go through the pros and cons of each character as well as any special abilities they may have and how the battle will go down.  So without further ado, let's get into it. Crash Bandicoot Background Crash Bandicoot Crash is a failed experiment of Dr. Neo

Jet Set Radio Interesting Facts/Trivia

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So it's been a while since I've done one of these, all the way back to my Ratchet and Clank article.  But now I feel like I've been away from this sort of article for a while, so here we go! Some interesting facts about the Sega Dreamcast game, Jet Set Radio. Sega Graffiti Contest in America An entry into the "Graffiti is Art" graffiti contest. A few weeks before the North American release of Jet Set Radio (then Jet Grind Radio), Sega hosted a contest in San Francisco, CA called "Graffiti is Art".  The contest aimed to promote Graffiti as an art form rather than vandalism, since their new game had graffiti as a central mechanic.   Then mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, attempted to shut down the contest through the revocation of Sega's permits to host such an event.  However, Sega of America had acquired all of it's permits to host the event in a completely lawful manner, and the contest went on as planned.  Over 138 entries of

Spider-Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

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So the new Spider-Man is up and coming in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will appear for the first time in " Captain America: Civil War ", however, this will be the hero's third time on the silver screen and his third re-cast in Tom Holland after Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. I wanted to talk about why this third iteration needed to happen, and why there is now a third chance for a new Spider-Man lore to be restarted on the big screen.  To do this, we'll evaluate Spider-Man throughout Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's time as the web-crawler, and pose the question...why so many Spider-Men?  It should be noted as well that these are all different Spider-Men (Maguire - Original, Garfield - Amazing, and Holland - Marvel Cinematic Universe). Tobey Maguire The first iteration of Spidey was introduced in 2002 by Sam Raimi and his actor of choice, Tobey Maguire.  Although Raimi's casting of Peter Parker was on point, the acting in this nerd turned h

The Lego Licensed Property Video Games Phenomenon (Part 1)

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So let's talk for a brief moment about one of modern gaming's most persistent video game franchises...or series...or genres (I'm not even sure what to consider these games considering they are from the same developer, but they feature many different IPs in their repertoire.)  We'll call it a franchise for now and dub it the "Lego Video Games Licensed Property Franchise." In the past 10 years, Lego video games have been on the rise and, no one really knows why.  This year's release of Lego: Marvel's Avengers will make the 20th Licensed Property (LP) Lego Video Game release since their debut in 2005.  I mean, they're decent games yes, but why make every single franchise into a Lego version of itself and marketing it as such (probably to milk every penny they can out of the franchises before they die or are forgotten, but that's none of my business.  So I guess the best place to begin would be at the beginning, and it just so happens that I bega

Top 10 Crash Bandicoot Titles

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So now that I have posted another double article (Pokemon Pokedex Entries) I felt less bad about taking another swing into the Crash Bandicoot Universe.  I'd actually like to start doing more Top 10s, as I thoroughly enjoyed writing the Christmas one.  In this list I will only be featuring titles that were in the main series, so no mobile games or handheld games  will be included in this list. So without further ado, here are my opinions on the Top 10 Crash Bandicoot Titles from worst to best. 10. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex This atrocity of a Crash Bandicoot game was Crash's debut onto the Playstation 2, and many people had incredibly high hopes for the Australian marsupial's leap onto the platform.  However, this game was a major let down to fans all across the world, as this game took away from the original's success in so many ways.  The first of which, and the most obvious area, is the graphics.  The original Crash Bandicoot all the way up to Crash Ba