PixlBit

I really hope you all appreciate this gift...

By now you have probably opened all of your presents and are wondering what else to do with your day. Since you can’t go to the theater to watch The Interview (topical!), why not kick back with some eggnog and listen to the Nerds Without Pants have an exhaustive discussion about some of our favorite music from the seventh console generation? And yes, I realize that I blundered when I brought up BioShock Infinite. We were almost 4 hours into recording, so cut me some slack! Happy Festivus! EDIT: You can thank Angelo for pushing to get this episode out early for you Christmas Eve travelers. Enjoy!

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He is the snake to my mongoose. Or the mongoose to my snake. Either way, it’s bad. I don’t know animals.

I could write a perfectly standard review of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I could go point by point and explain how this is a third person action game with heavy emphasis on stealth and melee combat in the vein of Batman: Arkham Asylum/City. I could talk about the great graphics and the satisfying fighting mechanics, and how some of the stiff animation and problems with context-sensitive button prompts are the reason why it doesn’t get five stars. I could do all of that and you would have a good idea of what Shadow of Mordor is, but you wouldn’t understand what makes it new and special. So I have a different idea.

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Full disclosure, there are no electricity puns within this game review.

I would call Azure Striker Gunvolt two things; one would be the perfect replacement for a lack of a new Mega Man X/Zero title, and the other being a very meaty 3DS eShop release with high production values. With easy to understand gameplay, a fantastic graphical style and a slew of abilities and optional gear to collect, Azure Striker Gunvolt is a great call back to the 16-bit era of action games and an all around great game despite some design flaws. It even comes with the free game as well!

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Time to hook up the Starpath Supercharger

It should be obvious from the title that The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987 is a very specific book that will appeal to a very specific audience. Brett Weiss, who writes many books with a narrow, historical focus, branches out slightly and tries to give his readers a huge swallow of his opinion about the first full decade of console gaming. If you have an interest – or strong opinions – about this era of gaming, you’ll be pretty pleased reading through Weiss’s descriptions and critiques.

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A nostalgic memory lost in translation.

The only reality worse than the inflated asking pricing for an old video game is the one where said game is digitally available for a fraction of the price, but devoid of the context that made it fun to play.  Such is the peculiar situation I found myself in upon downloading Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return (The Wild Adventures in Japan) from the PlayStation Store. Originally released in 1999 by the now-defunct Whoopee Camp, it was re-released earlier this year by Monkey Paw Games.  Once the game booted up, it was both recognizable and unfamiliar at the same time. The game looks and plays the same as I remembered, but there was just one problem--it’s all in Japanese.

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