PixlBit

        Magical Drop III has the look and feel of Super Puzzle Fighter with colorful graphics, joyful music, and wacky characters to choose from (I chose Rini who rides the pig Giuseppe in the Adventure mode).

     Today, or rather yesterday now, I got myself a cheese steak and a German beer and pulled out the original Xbox and dug into my Backloggery Fortune Cookie picks of Atari Anthology and Taito Legends.

     I pulled out the Wii the other day to play some Data East Arcade Classics, having temporarily burned out on 100 plus hours of Borderlands 2 (my buddy is still playing it though). This is a no frills collection of 15 games, some of which are given their Japanese names like: Sly Spy is Secret Agent, Two Crude Dudes is Crude Buster, and Bump ‘N Jump is Burnin’ Rubber. The UI is very basic and also unintuitive as I had to fiddle around to find the menu describing the controls for each game. Majesco did a pretty uninspired and bare bones job on this collection. There is cabinet art and music in the extras, but no interviews or history. You have to unlock these by playing the games, but I played every one and only a few unlocked. What unlocks them? Who knows. Thanks Majesco (dripping with sarcasm).

    This is a rich treasure trove of Okami imagery (which I wish I could center on the page. The library computer I sometimes use doesn't let me do this). There's concept art, character designs, lots of art done for the Okami website, art done for various magazines, E3 2006 banner art, postcard art,  some of the first drawings done as the game was just beginning, and even a short manga that was circulated internally at Clover Studios.