Posted by Bob Mackey
Remember back when the Virtual Console sucked? Of course you do; it was just this past summer. During those hot, boring months, I sat on about 2000 Wii Points; hope soon became a forgotten concept as Nintendo slowly trickled out games I've never given a damn about. By the time August rolled around, I was half-expecting to see a Virtual Console Monday featuring the Sega Genesis version of Chuck Rock along with a free Wii screen saver that would scroll the words "KILL YOURSELF" across the screen if you left the Wii-mote idle for more than 20 minutes.
But since the beginning of Fall, Nintendo's really gotten their Virtual Console shit together; and today's release of both Secret of Mana and World of Goo is proof of that. Sure, I'm in the dead center of a semester that's left me so haggard I can barely type this post without using my keyboard as a makeshift pillow, but... Secret of Mana.
I should honestly be a little more excited around World of Goo--and I do plan on eventually getting around to buying it. But for now, I have no choice but to pick up Secret of Mana again. Then I can relax on the couch with a glass of wine as Hiroki Kikuta's soothing soundtrack lulls me into a deep sleep. Oh, and the game is still fun as hell, too. We should just be happy that Secret of Mana's VC release finally means that, after many attempts to revive the franchise, Square has finally given up. And it's about time; series director Koichi Ishii has proven that he has no goddamned clue what makes Mana so great. And we've given him more than a decade to figure that out.
For more on the failure of Mana, please consult this podcast. Do not go to your local library. They will ask you to leave.
Related Links:
The Dividing RPG: Secret of Mana
Ten Reasons Why Secret of Mana Sucks
TVTropes' "Woolseyisms"
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About Bob Mackey
For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's
Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.
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