Archives for category: games

Was it the preseason hype over the big trades? Is it the curse of 1984? Is it because our bullpen ace keeps injuring himself in freak accidents, over & over?

Oh, Tigers. I’m greatly relived that you finally won your first game. But would it be possible to get some middle relief? You’d think the successive years of World Series futility the Yankees have experienced (a Murderers’ Row-esque lineup, but spotty pitching at best) would have given management some guidance. At least our prospects are better than the Rockies?

Well, I’m going to stick with you, my feline friends. I think all those years of being a Lions fan have taught me (along with that near record setting stinkbomb you laid in 2003) the value of perseverance in my fanhood. Let’s go, Tigers!

Bruce Reyes-Chow and the good folks at Mission Bay Community Church have been producing winsome Easter cards for the last couple of years — clever designs that play off some of the cultural misdirections surrounding Easter.

But this year, they declared that all your base are belong to us with their “Wii Jesus” Easter card and, in the process, set off a bit of a firestorm in the gamer world. Posts, podcasts, discussions, rants, threads, flames and comments ranging from bemused curiosity to righteous indignation have made it to sites such as kotaku.com and G4TV. One of my favorite comment threads says:

Well, of course they wouldn’t allow us to play the Wii.

Jesus would win at everything, making it not fun.

Jesus pwns teh newbs.

Other irreverent, but strangely amusing quotes include, Hey, wait a second, Jesus is on my baseball team too! I guess he really is everywhere! and I actually have a Jesus Mii on my Wii. That way, whenever I go into the Everybody Votes channel, I can ask myself “What would Jesus do?”

Next year, maybe it’ll be time for the big helicopter egg drop!

I forgot how awesome Katamari Damacy was until we recently purchased a copy of the first game (for ten dollars! with free shipping! thanks, buy.com!). While the game is kind of hard to explain in a compelling way, it is loads of fun. Basically, your task is to roll an ever larger ball of stuff (your katamari) until you’ve basically rolled up the entire world. Kind of eschatological, if you think about it.

The quotes from the title of this post are from the King of All Cosmos, giver of katamari tasks and owner of awesome ‘stache. I’m holding out hope that Beautiful Katamari will eventually come out for the Wii.

Katamari is a global movement. Here are some of the places in which you’ll find the wide-ranging cultural impact Katamari has had: fine art, legos, crochet, spring break, knock-off ads, baked goods, high fashion, conferences and Germany.

Get on the Royal Rainbow before you’re left behind! And pick me up a t-shirt or two while you’re at it!

Check out the music in the clip below. If there were some more angular guitars, it might fit well alongside Battles or Blood Brothers (maybe).

Although it’s not always very “current,” I have updated my Currently Enjoying page. And, in the interest of balance, I will also share what I am currently not enjoying as well…

We love our Wii! Every game we have played — from the OG Wii Sports to Cooking Mama — has been fun and inventive. That is why, when I saw the cover of Ninjabread Man at Blockbuster, I had to rent it. The Gingerbread Man reimagined as a sword-wielding ninja? Brilliant! Said ninja attacking monster cupcakes and reducing them to jam? Almost perfect! So, eagerly, I brought the game home.

I suppose it had to happen sometime, but this was my first Wii letdown — and it was a doozy. Perhaps my anticipation drove my expectation past reasonable levels, but this game is just plain awful. The controls are utterly unresponsive. Instead of the gory jamfest I was hoping to incite, I found myself instead leisurely strolling into one cupcake attack after another. The poor Ninjabread Man cannot seem to stop himself, so I regularly fell off of each obstacle on which I was supposed to land (in order to get any further). The old school graphics, instead of being charming (like so many of the other Wii games), were choppy and grotesque. In fact, some of the old school NES games we downloaded on the Virtual Console were more aesthetically pleasing — even the blocky, pixelated world of the original Zelda.

Don’t judge the Ninjabread Man by his cover. He can promise the world, but the proof is in the pudding (or lack thereof).