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• One Girl's Ancient Struggle Against Bad Games

  It's pretty cool these days for girls to stand up and say, “I'm a gamer!” Bonus admiration is issued if they do it with only half their clothes on, but male gamers are usually just happy to know we walk amongst their ranks. Game companies are definitely happy about us, because we spend money on everything from puppy sims to big games with big guns. I'll let you in on a little secret. Girls have always liked games. What's different is that developers, game publications and marketing divisions are making an effort to let us know what's going on in the industry. Young females are being encouraged to try a little bit of everything and settle down into something they love, whether it's ponies or blowing someone's brains onto the ceiling. I'm glad, because I remember how awkward it was to be a girl gamer during those crucial years when I cared about what other people thought of me. Read More... Posted Apr 22 2009, 11:35 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: nes, mega man, nadia oxford, bart vs the space mutants, licensed games, cobra triangle, home alone

• Genres I'd Like to See on the Wii: 3rd Person Shooters

  Hello, developer studios? Yes, the Wii remote is motion sensitive. It's pretty nifty and I know some of you are super excited about he Motion Plus add-on. However, did you know the Wii-mote also has a pointer function? Yeah, that sensor bar thing with the infrared light. Oh? You keep forgetting about that function eh? Keep getting distracted by the wiggle waggle hmm? Well wake the hell up already because you're missing some golden opportunities! Maybe I'm a touch off base here, but it seems to me that the pointer functionality is a little bit neglected within the Wii library. Considering how superior an experience the pointer offers over the analogue stick when it comes to aiming, you'd think, you'd really think, the Wii library would abound with quality titles that take advantage of that function, and you'd be wrong. Read More... Posted Apr 16 2009, 10:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: metroid, wii, fps, mega man, amber ahlborn, ratchet & clank, game design, third person shooters, jak

• Chiptune Friday - Mega Man vs. Memphis Bleek

  Hip hoppers love video games, there's no denying it. More than any other genre of music, the hip hop community outright loves video games. Sure, Soulja Boy might not be the spokesperson we all want for either form of entertainment,  but at least he's being open and honest about our shared nerdery. This is why Tae K's Mega Man Mixtape should come as no surprise to anybody. Released online just over a year ago, Tae K takes the popular medium of the hip hop mixtape - wherein DJs provide their own beats for a variety of well-known vocal tracks - and used nothing but samples from the library of Mega Man games on the NES for his beats. This form of mashup mixtape is nothing new, having risen to prominence a few years ago with Danger Mouse's "The Grey Album" and Greg Gillis's Girl Talk project, but it's still damn fun and worth celebration. So crank up the volume, hit play, grab a drink and get your dance on while you think about busting up some robot masters, because here comes Memphis Bleek's "Like That" set to Mega Man 4's Skullman music: Read More... Posted Apr 10 2009, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: derrick sanskrit, chiptune friday, mega man, hip hop, soulja boy, mashup, skullman, tae k, mixtape, memphis bleek

• Criterion Collection + Videogames = Best GAF Thread Ever

  Over the years, much has been made of Mega Man's hideous box art, and of the general pimplyness of game art's 8-bit pubescence. But ere we hurl stones at an older era's ugly glass houses, let us first look to our own, or something! Like this, for example. Now that is some garish shit. Even the boxes for major games like Metroid Prime 3 aren't likely to win any design awards. Most of the time, they evoke summer-blockbuster viewing more than the subtler experiences their contents (hopefully) provide. They also tend to be stuffed full of colorful characters, when, more often, the unique experience of a game comes not from its characters but from the texture of its world. Perhaps realizing this, some clever commenter over at NeoGAF started a thread soliciting game box art designed in the vein of Criterion Collection DVDs — playful, inventive, minimalistic, gorgeous. It is — ahem — the best thread ever. So much the best that even I, not much for Photoshop, spent a few hours mocking up some covers myself. Hit the jump for my efforts and my favorites from the thread. Read More... Posted Apr 09 2009, 08:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, metroid, bioshock, mirror's edge, actraiser, neogaf, the legend of zelda, final fantasy, mega man, sonic the hedgehog, super mario 64, donkey kong country, metroid prime 3, box art, design, dr. mario, el greco, criterion collection, kameo, asher durand

• The All New Retro: Bust-a-Groove and Low-Poly Love

  I won’t deny it. My gaming tastes are a little unusual. Take my emulation aversion. Does a normal person spend months and months tracking down a rare and expensive cheat device so they can play an imported SNES game when they could download a ROM and SNES emulator in about ten seconds? No. This is not how a normal person behaves. As I slowly morph into something approximating an adult, I’ve been noticing another strange predilection in my gaming brain: a love of low-polygon graphics. Some games do not age with grace. Their mechanics, and especially their graphics, develop the distinct taste of vinegar when they used to be wine just five years before. Yet the games of the 32- and 64-bit era, games that I thought were repulsive even at the time, are starting to take on a strange allure. Read More... Posted Mar 31 2009, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, mega man, katamari damacy, Playstation, square-enix, tomb raider, retro, final fantasy iv, sega saturn, Retro game challenge, nintendo 64, enix, tomb raider 3, bust-a-groove

• Mega Man Rap Video: Creative Work, a Lot of Filth, or Both?

  I have with me a video that people either seem to hate, or enjoy immensely. Simply titled “Mega Man 2,” it's a rap/metal conglomerate remix that, in my opinion, is catchy and pretty well put-together. There's also forkfuls of swearing, which is what seems to turn people off. I don't think Mega Man would belt out lyrics like “From the windows/To the walls/'Til the sweat drips from my ballz”, no matter what any Robot Master might throw at him. But I guess worse has happened for the sake of a rhyme. If you want to start complaining about continuity errors, you may as well ask why this video has Rush despite the Mega Man 2 theme. Rush and Protoman. Video after the jump. What do you think? Read More... Posted Mar 05 2009, 11:58 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: mega man 2, mega man, retro, fan stuff, nadia oxford

• The Earthbound Legal Conundrum In-Depth

  The recent news about Earthbound never coming to the Virtual Console because of legal reasons has struck up a chorus of “But--” and “How come--”. People are understandably upset that Ness's adventure is going to remain in eBay Hell forever, and they want solid answers about why this wretched thing is happening. There still aren't any solid answers, but the good man in charge of Mother 3's recent fan translation, Tomato, has put together an incredibly in-depth list of reasons why Nintendo is erring on the side of caution. Put in simplest terms, the Internet has made it easier than ever to conjure reasons for an IP lawsuit, and Nintendo already has numerous lawsuits hanging off it at any one time like parasitic fish on the belly of a whale. Even a company like Capcom likely doesn't see half the number of lawsuits Nintendo does, thus explaining why it shrugged off the release of Mega Man and Mega Man 2 on the Virtual Console, despite numerous musical “tributes” in both games. As Tomato put it: To avoid crap lawsuits, Nintendo has a team of legal people who have to go through everything Nintendo plans to release and look for anything that can cause potential lawsuits. Then these things are fixed if necessary. The point is: they’re trying to avoid lawsuits in the first place. It doesn’t matter if they could clearly successfully win lawsuits brought against them; they’d still lose money in the process. Having this team of legal people is cheaper than putting up with every lawsuit that every crazy money-hungry company hits them with. Remember Star Tropics, an 8-bit RPG by Nintendo? When we were kids, Mike pelted his enemies with a Yo-Yo. On the Virtual Console, his Yo-Yo became a “Star” because some Canadian company owns the rights to the Yo-Yo name. Likely said Canadians are too busy drinking and racing moose to care about an old Nintendo game, but Nintendo figures, why take the risk? Read More... Posted Feb 17 2009, 11:13 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: snes, rpg, mega man, earthbound, mother 2, fan stuff, nadia oxford, mother, legal issues

• WTFriday: A Sad Dog's Rush Cosplay

  On Christmas Day of 2008, an individual with a bad fake accent received a camera for a present, much as we're all rewarded for the hard work we performed during the birth of our Lord. Knowing the Internet was sorely lacking in pointlessly adorable content, this person went on to film his own series, “Dog Time,” starring a yellow lab with the saddest face in dogdom. Episode 9 is relevant to our interests: the dog cosplays as Rush, Mega Man's trusty red pooch. I swear the first words out of my mouth were, “Awwww, he wants to hang himseeeeelf!” Read More... Posted Feb 13 2009, 12:50 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: mega man, rush, media, fan stuff, nadia oxford, wtfriday, dog

• Fandom Unplugged: The Beginning

  “Fandom,” that which compels us to gravitate to others who enjoy our pursuits (video games), can be a difficult thing to tolerate thanks to a certain percentage of maniacs. You would be amazed at how heated a debate can get if it's about whether or not Miles Edgeworth from Phoenix Wright is circumcised. We witness these baffling arguments, and we swear we'll never get so passionate about such stupidities. But the very next week, we lose ourselves in a message board argument and pound out words like “GAYlo” before we pull back the reins and gape in horror at what we've become. Why do we fall so easily? Is this what comes of the Internet and other technologies that save us enough time to wonder with friends in Brazil about whether or not Dr Light built Roll with certain “hardware?” Or is fandom just part of an ancestral grouping instinct that dates back to a swampy era wherein our ancestors declared everyone to be either “Crug” (“Part of my awesome tribe”) or “Flarth” (“Part of that other, lamer tribe”)? Read More... Posted Feb 04 2009, 11:26 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments Filed under: mega man, phoenix wright, halo, fandom, nadia oxford, game magazines, fandom unplugged

• Fami Star Wars: Just Because It’s In English Doesn’t Mean It Makes Sense

  You ever have that moment when you think about buying a game that you plain know you aren’t going to play that much, but you need to have it sitting on your shelf? You know, when you’re at the flea market and you drop fifteen bucks on a copy of Mega Man Soccer. Because it’s Mega Man Soccer, dag nab it, and that’s reason enough! This is sort of logic that’s been tempting me to spend forty dollars on this bad boy: The cartridge alone is an insane piece of pop art. It wants to sit on a mantle above a fire place, radiating weirdness, cultural otherness, and raw, unadulterated sweetness. Not nearly as much weirdness, otherness, and sweetness as the actual game inside the cartridge, that goes without saying. As I mentioned in a post just a few weeks back, the damn game’s first level ends with Darth Vader transforming into a giant, anime-eyed scorpion. Read More... Posted Feb 02 2009, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, star wars, mega man, namco, bob mackey, nadia oxford, famicom, obi wan Kenobi, han solo, mega man soccer

• WTFriday: The Splash Woman Rap

  Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week. "Sometimes it's hard to be Splash Woman..." - Tammy Wynette, "Stand By Your Mega Man" Thanks to the kind folks at Game Music 4 All, I've become obsessed with some of the more creative video game remixes out there, like the Mother mashup I posted about yesterday. The weekly WTFriday falls on something just as awesome, but far more bizarre: an original Mega Man 9 music video featuring a completely-original rap set to Splash Woman's stage music. The lyrics to said rap shine a little more light on the obvious sexual tension between Mega Man and Splash Woman, and also give us a disturbing look into an alternate universe where Sonic Team somehow became responsible for creating Mega Man's music. But rest assured that Knuckles' rapping abilities fall short when compared to this fan-made project. Video after the cut. Read More... Posted Jan 23 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, ost, music, mega man, mega man 9, bob mackey, wtfriday, sountrack

• Mega Man 9: Powered Up and LittleBigGalaxyMan

  Every now and again, I curse the internet and its countless paths. It’s easy to get lost in here. it’s easy to lost literal hours of your life on completely meaningless, mindless drivel. How many times have you, dear reader, fallen into a YouTube spiral, clicking related video after related video until the moving images no longer hold meaning? Every URL is perilous I tell you. Then I come to my senses and remember the all important truth about the 21st century: the internet is awesome. As is meaningless, drivel, and the access we have to it. Despite my recent renaissance with the game, I probably wouldn’t have found out about this brave soul’s Mega Man: Powered Up adventures if it wasn't for aimless internet wandering. They've made a close-to-perfect recreation of Galaxy Man’s stage from Mega Man 9. Read More... Posted Jan 22 2009, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, playstation 3, psp, mega man, mega man 9, mega man powered up

• Dracula's Bad Day

  On the Internet, there is a man named Kajetokun. Kajetokun brought us videos like Over 9000 and Gutsman's Ass, so you may have already decided you hate him, even if you weren't familiar with his name. Since hate doesn't tend to slow down the contributions of the creatively insane, Kajetokun has posted another something on YouTube. It's A Day in Dracula's Life. In fact, it's the only day in Dracula's Life. No sooner is Dracula resurrected by the dark priest Shaft than his delicious pot roast dinner is interrupted by the arrival of Richter Ballmont. What follows is a lot of cursing and stuffing of meat and money into candles and lanterns. Read More... Posted Jan 19 2009, 11:40 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: castlevania, mega man, symphony of the night, dracula, dragon ball z, nadia oxford, death, over 9000, kajetokun, gutsman, succubus

• How About a Disembodied Mega Man Head to Start your Weekend

  Japanese artist Masao has been busy, uploading new bizarre takes on classic video game characters to his Pixiv account. Since regular readers of 61FPS are huge Megaman fans (you'd have left a long time ago if you weren't), here is an ultra-creepy drawing of a Megaman 1-Up.  More surreal video game art after the jump: Read More... Posted Jan 16 2009, 06:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: mega man, cole stryker, video game art, attract mode

• When Tiger Handhelds Ruined Hope and Birthdays

  I grew up in a recession that echoes these days of cheer and plenty to a certain degree. One key difference is that parents in the '80s were less likely to risk riding the credit bronco. If there was no money to get you the latest tech toy, you damn well weren't getting the latest tech toy. That's why some lucky kids had Nintendo and other kids had to settle for Tiger's Electronic Handhelds. Topless Robot has a gallery of the 10 Most Worthless Tiger Electronic Handheld Games. You risked receiving these little beeping plastic bricks if you asked for a Nintendo game that had a Tiger counterpart. For a fraction of the cartridge price, you could play a fraction of the game. Read More... Posted Jan 13 2009, 08:01 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: mega man, sonic the hedgehog, retro, nadia oxford, aladdin, tiger handhelds, portable games, rip offs

• Some Games Nadia Played in 2008 Instead of Working: Mega Man 9

  When I have to call up numbers for any reason, I rely on “funny” math. 1+1 = cow and whatnot. I don’t like math and math doesn’t like me. There’s a reason why I’m scrabbling as a writer and not pursuing my dream career as an epidemiologist (no, I’m serious). This is my roundabout say of saying I miscounted the days and my “Ten Games Nadia Played, etc,” list isn’t going to hit double digits. It will be forever young and I’m comfortable with that. One reason I might be so bad with numbers is because I spent a significant amount of my childhood playing Mega Man games instead of doing something useful. When you’re a Mega Man fan, what use is there for numbers above eight? Of course, when it comes time to count the sheer number of sequels and offshoots Mega Man has appeared in, you’re kind of boned. I thought I’d just do like the rabbits from Watership Down and refer to large numbers as “Hrar”--but then rumours of Mega Man 9 showed up and around and I knew the title deserved my attempt to count above eight. The first substantial details about Mega Man 9 came through the June 2008 edition of Nintendo Power. It was pretty heartening to read jaw-dropping revelations about a highly anticipated title through a print magazine; that sort of thing just doesn’t happen so much anymore. Read More... Posted Dec 23 2008, 05:55 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: top ten, nes, mega man, 8-bit, mega man 9, retro, nostalgia, nadia oxford

• Know Your Mega Man Boss Weaknesses. It Will Save Your Life.

  Quick. Name Snake Man's weakness in Mega Man III. Your two seconds are up. Do you know it? That's what I thought. According to the word on the wind, I'll be getting a BB Gun for Christmas. I plan to arm myself and quiz citizens of the world on their Mega Man trivia. You would do well to study up, and to stock up on Red Bull (I'm thinking about being lenient on ignorant gamers who provide a suitable offering to slake my wrath. They might not be wholly spared, but a shot to the bum is preferable to a shot through the eye). It just so happens Cybermoon Studios has visual references for Mega Man boss weaknesses. The games covered include Mega Man, Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 9. Read More... Posted Dec 16 2008, 05:46 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: mega man 2, mega man, 8-bit, mega man 9, retro, mega man 3, nostalgia, nadia oxford, robot masters

• Mega Man Dies and Goes To Robot Hell For His Sins

  Wise people are known to furrow their brows, stroke their beards and wonder why Doctor Wily just doesn't throw his entire stable of robot jerks at Mega Man. There are two answers to that question. First, there is certainly something psychological with Wily's slow trickle of Robot Masters; the even distribution gives Mega Man a challenge, but doesn't overpower him. This, in turn, leads to some rambling theory about every human's need to chase a Questing Beast. The second answer is probably the right one: if Mega Man had to fight every Robot Master at once, his games wouldn't be much fun, stupid. Gee, the guy who put together this video makes it look so easy. In fact, there's something primal and just a little sexual about this nine-man confrontation. Read More... Posted Dec 10 2008, 12:01 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, mega man 2, nes, mega man, 8-bit, retro, video, fan stuff, nadia oxford, robot masters

• Little Big Trailblazer: Revisiting Mega Man Powered Up, User-Generated Content Pioneer

  When I wrote up Where Is the PSP a few days back, I left out the fact that I’m largely responsible for the neglect of my own little Sony portable. Not because I haven’t been buying games, but because I haven’t taken the time to properly equip the thing to take full advantage of its potential. Up until yesterday, I had been using the same 32MB memory stick that came with my launch PSP back in 2005, pretty much cutting me off from any and all downloadable content available and, more often than not, limiting my ability to even update its firmware. Well, thanks to some good ol’fashioned Black Friday scavenging, my PSP has eight honking gigabytes to play with. I updated the firmware (I was a full version behind apparently), browsed the recently launched PSP PSN store (functional!), and grabbed some demos (Syphon Filter lives up to its reputation). But once the house cleaning and redecoration was finished, I moved on to the real impetus behind the upgrade: finally exploring Mega Man Powered Up’s DLC and user-generated levels. This remake of Mega Man’s original adventure is really the unsung harbinger of the current gaming zeitgeist. Not only is it a lavish remake of a two-dimensional classic, not only did it lay the groundwork for Mega Man’s triumphant 8-bit rebirth, but it boasts one of console and portable gaming’s beefiest level creation tools. Read More... Posted Dec 05 2008, 10:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, psp, capcom, halo 3, mega man, mega man powered up, ghosts ‘n goblins, syphon filter

• Mega Man's Nightmare: A Hard Hat With a Strategy

  If sharks learn to walk on land, the human race is going to have a problem. Similarly, if Mega Man's Hard Hats/Metools/Mettaurs start to think about effective attack patterns beyond duck-shoot-duck-shoot, our future robot childen are going to have problems. I tried to come up with a song to express Mega Man's frustration here, but I haven't gotten beyond, "The Hat Came Back." The Mega Man Robot Club Mega Man 9 Bosses Look Like Mega Man 9 Bosses My Last Mega Man 9 Post, I Swear Posted Dec 01 2008, 10:03 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: mega man, media, fan video, nadia oxford, metool, hard hat

• Your Way: Chrono Trigger and The Glory of Options

  I spent the Thanksgiving holiday not shopping, not overeating, not doing much of anything outside of that most traditional holiday pursuit: catching up with family. Not the extended fam, just the nuclear, and even then we weren’t all around. Sometimes work and obligation gets in the way and not everyone can make it home, just the way it goes. It was just me and the parents. And Chrono Trigger, obviously. A true homecoming, really; early winter playthroughs of Chrono Trigger have been, for me, as much a tradition as seeing loved ones during the season but I’d fallen out of rhythm over the past three years. Excited as I was to play the game again, I was going in with some trepidation. Not over the two new dungeons, the new ending, or the re-written dialogue. (The script, by the way, saw far more significant changes than was previously reported. The re-write isn’t bad by any means, but some of the charm of Ted Woolsey’s original is lost.) No, I was worried about the incorporation of the PS1 version’s animated cutscenes. I skipped the earlier re-release because the thought of slowdown in Chrono Trigger is nauseating, but getting to avoid the cutscenes was an added bonus. Nothing against the anime stuff, it’s fine that it exists, but the game’s story simply doesn’t need those scenes. Not to mention how they break the game’s seamless presentation. So it was a nice surprise when I saw this screen. Read More... Posted Dec 01 2008, 07:15 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, resistance, nintendo ds, the legend of zelda, mega man, gamecube, chrono trigger, super mario galaxy, mega man anniversary collection, persona 3, resistance 2

• Mega Man Fan Movie Trailer

  Okay, well... So... Um, I really do admire the gentlemen who play Thomas Light and Albert Wily in this upcoming(?) Mega Man fan movie. Imagine asking your dad to roleplay as a dude who hangs out with a giggly female robot all day, or as a power-hungry German man (anyone who speaks German can't be power-hungry). Imagine his reaction. "You want me to do what? While wearing a lab coat?" I'm also digging the designs for the original six robots. Looks like someone spent the extra thirty cents on the fancy brand of tinfoil. I've seen a lot of Mega Man fan movie trailers come and go. I kind of hope this project sees its way to fruition just so I can stop feeling I belong to the most shiftless fandom on the Internet. The Mega Man Robot Club Mega Man 9 Goes Back To Your Roots. Way Back. The Delights of Continuity in Mega Man and Abroad Posted Nov 21 2008, 10:25 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: mega man, trailer, video, fandom, nadia oxford, movie

• Achievements and Trophies and Unlocking, Oh Meh

  Amazing things are going to happen in 2009. In the first third of the year, we’ll be playing a trifecta of raw, unadulterated Capcom goodness in the form of Street Fighter IV, Bionic Commando, and Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2 will finally come out and not look anything like the concept footage shown at E3 2005, we might find out just what the hell Alan Wake is, and maybe, just maybe, it’ll turn out that Final Fantasy XIII is actually a videogame and not just a three minute clip of a chick with nice hair. Home might even come out! Instead of the adorable little freak version of you that putters around your Wii games – or your Xbox 360, which is the exact same little freak but with hands and a selection of shirts from Old Navy – you’ll get to have a version of yourself that is iPod commercial ready, with glossy hair sharp enough to cut a Nomura character. You’ll get to go bowling, wonder why no one’s playing Warhawk and show off all your trophies. And you will have trophies, rest assured. Come ’09, Sony’s making them an obligatory component of any and all PS3 games. I don’t necessarily think achievements and trophies are a bad thing, especially for the type of player who enjoys setting themselves inane goals outside a game’s explicit ones. I just don’t understand why they have to be a necessary feature in every game. Read More... Posted Nov 21 2008, 03:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, street fighter, xbox 360, wii, bionic commando, street fighter 4, mega man, gears of war, mega man 9, street fighter iv, mii, final fantasy xiii, resident evil 5, alan wake, achievements, killzone 2, trophies

• WTFriday: Mario Versus Air Man

  Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week. Today's WTFriday is more strange than stupid, but it's worth looking at nonetheless. Listen, I'm only human and sometimes I reach my capacity for hate.  That being said, ROM hacks usually are stupid; they either make your playable character naked/demonic/into feces, or they're "remixes" which are unplayably hard for everyone except the hacker himself.  The ROM hack I'm about to show you is unplayably hard, but it's also undeniably cool; and you also have the benefit of watching a YouTube video of said hack instead of having to suffer through it yourself.  Believe it or not, this is an extremely modified hack of the original Super Mario Brothers: Going to the page for this video will give you a ROM download link, but I urge you to not take advantage of this kind offer, lest you rob this hack of its magic.  Plus, I'm pretty sure it was made with voodoo, or one of the dark arts.  You don't want that stuff in your computer. Related Links: WTFriday: Atlus Takes on Third Wave Feminism WTFriday: The Star Fox 64 Promo Video WTFriday: Mega Man A Cappella Read More... Posted Nov 21 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: mega man 2, mega man, bob mackey, wtfriday, super mario, rom hacks

• How Chicago Inadvertently Penned an Anthem for Dead Anime Fathers

  The other day, I was browsing a retail establishment when Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" came over the store speakers. Suddenly, I felt very sad. It was an interesting reaction and not one I would have had a few years ago. Having surrendered my youth to the modern day equivilent of potato mines (retail), I'm familiar with the safe music that's piped over the speakers to keep the masters and beasts complacent. I would never give Chicago another thought ever again if not for an Elite Beat Agents scenario involving an anime girl's dead father. Surely I'm not the only one who's come to associate games with certain licensed songs. The Japanese have been sneaky about it since we were kids: Mario's invincibility music is lifted straight from Jesus Christ Superstar and more than one tune in the early Mega Man games sounded like a tribute to Guns n Roses and/or Metallica. But legitimate songs being used in games (or to advertise games) is quickly becoming popular and I'm increasingly interested in the association aspect. This doesn't apply so much to games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, which usually have you belting out tunes in a club, or possibly a fancy club. I'm referring to instances where a song is used to define a game, or an in-game scenario like the ones in Elite Beat Agents. Read More... Posted Nov 18 2008, 06:47 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: guitar hero, rock band, mega man, gears of war, elite beat agents, game music, nadia oxford, super mario, gears of war 2, music association

• The Protomen: Making Two Old Men Awesome Since 2008

  Over the years, Capcom has attempted to add depth to our robot hero, Mega Man. I mean, they've really attempted it, God bless 'em. Even though the end product reads like a story written by a ten-year-old science fiction fanatic with ADD, we shall give Capcom an A for Aeffort. But even though we have a good idea of Mega Man's inner workings (gears, bolts, some black stuff), what do we know about his creator, Doctor Light? I mean, we know his hair and beard are poofy like some anime Zeus'. We know that he likes a pipe now and then oops wait not in America. We also know that his inventions, however well-meaning, initiated vicious wars between humans and robots that spanned across generations. Oh, but we don't talk about Dr Light's little "oops." Shhh, look. Look over here. Look at this cute little robot dog. Hold still while it eats your skull. I am an unapologetic fangirl of The Protomen, the fine lads who constructed a Mega Man rock opera. The first album is about Protoman defecting to Doctor Wily's band of killer robots and Mega Man trying to convince his brother through song (unsuccessfully) that he is a good boy. The second album, coming...soon, I imagine, is a prequel with special emphasis on Wily and Light and certain events that cause humanity's spin down the toilet. Read More... Posted Nov 13 2008, 10:39 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: mega man, mega man x, fan stuff, fandom, nadia oxford, the protomen, rock opera

• The Eternal Question: Why Is Super Mario Bros. Fun?

  No, seriously, take a minute to think about it. Pour yourself a stiff drink or brew up a nice cuppa tea, put on your thinking cap and try to summarize your conclusion in a single sentence. It’s a peculiar question, really. I found myself trying to answer it late last night after spending some time with Mirror’s Edge. DICE’s platformer shares a lot of the same fundamentals as good ol’ SMB and, concerning the question at hand, both are fun for similar reasons. Super Mario Bros. lets you go wild on a playground where the laws of gravity are paying only loose attention and injury is not a threat. You can run and jump to your heart’s content, and if you see something, like a shiny coin or glowing box that might hide unknown treats, you can hit it with your fist and never worry about bloodied knuckles. Super Mario Bros. is fun because running and jumping, whether in real life or on a screen, is fun, and it’s this maxim that’s fueled platforming as a genre for twenty-five years. But the greatest platformers, the Marios and the Mega Mans, owe their success to more than just running and jumping. They also let you change their world. In Mario, especially in later series entries that allowed flight, crushing bricks opens new ways to move through the Mushroom Kingdom’s surreal landscapes. Mega Man has to destroy robots to ensure safe landings after a jump. If jumping and running was all you did in Jon Blow’s Braid, it could barely be called a game at all. When you settle into Mirror’s Edge, when you trust yourself to move through the level properly and let DICE’s carefully laid out obstacle courses subtly guide you, it manages to transcend the natural abstraction that comes from making things on TV move. It is physically and mentally affecting. It is fun. But, and mind you I’ve only played the first three levels of the game, all you do is run, jump, and climb. Read More... Posted Nov 11 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, ea, dice, super mario bros 3, mario, mega man, super mario bros, super mario world, braid, mirror’s edge, what are you looking at, buddy?, jon blow, fun?

• Games We Will Never Get to Play: Mega Man Mania AKA Game Boy Anniversary Collection

  Now, technically speaking, it is very possible that we will one day get to play this game, or rather, games. We could go to Ebay and drop the $100+ on all of the original carts and fire ‘em up on whatever hardware we may have available to play original Game Boy games (Super Game Boy, Game Boy Player, Game Boy Advance, hell, why not Gunpei Yokoi’s glorious grey brick from 1989 if we’re feeling especially devoted to an authentic experience.) We could download one of them fancy emulators and five ROMs. We could just go ahead and wait for the inevitable, when the DS Ware store gets a little Capcom love and we all drop fifteen dollars on all five games. But we will never, ever get to pop a Game Boy Advance cart into a machine, hit power, and play the aborted Mega Man Anniversary Collection. Read More... Posted Nov 07 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, game boy, mega man, mega man iii, mega man iv, mega man ii, mega man v, mega man anniversary collection, game boy advance, games we will never get to play, mega man I, dr wily’s revenge, super game boy, game boy player, rockman world

• Game Compilations: The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly

  Time was, I thought game compilations, museum, and anniversary collections, and anything else you’d want to call them were the cat’s meow. Greatest thing since sliced bread. The *ahem* tits. Then The Mega Man Anniversary Collection for Gamecube came out back in 2004. Fifty simoleons for all eight console Mega Man games plus an opportunity to finally play Mega Man: The Power Battle and Power Fighters? Sounds like a dream come true. Then I found out that instead of the A button making the little blue fella shoot and the B button making him jump, the buttons were reversed for the compilation. There is no way to change this control scheme. It turns playing Mega Man 1 through 6 into a personalized hell, the place where cheat code users go when they die. Compilations are dangerous business because, more often than not, the publisher puts no effort whatsoever into them and people buy them anyway. That’s how you end up with Mega Man’s jumping and shooting getting reversed, how Sega releases not one, but two Sonic the Hedgehog collections with fantastic unlockables that are almost impossible to unlock, and how Namco can release the same damn Galaga/Dig Dug/Pac-man collection nine-hundred times. Of course, they really can be a treat. Despite all the load times and inaccessible unlockables, the Sonic Mega Collection is still a great way to play Sonic at his best. Occasionally, budget numbers like the Capcom Classics Mini Mix, a no-frills GBA collection with Bionic Commando NES, Strider NES, and Mighty Final Fight, can come along and introduce you to games you’ve never ever heard of. (Seriously, Mighty Final Fight? When did that happen? It’s got mini Haggar!) They are a more palatable alternative to Virtual Console-style downloads too, as far as price is concerned. Sega’s just-announced Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for PS3 and Xbox 360 comes with forty games, and for thirty bucks you get what Nintendo would charge $120 for on Wii. Plus, they wouldn’t even all fit on the Wii’s memory! But again, the production values are highly questionable. Read More... Posted Nov 06 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, pac-man, street fighter, capcom, bionic commando, nes, sega, mega man, sonic the hedgehog, strider, mighty final fight, game boy advance, virtual console, dig dug, Capcom classics collection, Capcom mini mix, galaga

• The 61FPS Review: LittleBigPlanet - Part 1

  Many would agree with me the LittleBigPlanet is the most significant game release of 2008. Sure, Spore was a big deal, but it was only the next logical step in Will Wright's Sim series. LittleBigPlanet is a platform for whatever the user wants it to be, a venue for sharing and interaction, and a robust toolbox for imaginative and aspiring game designers. There's no denying LittleBigPlanet is an impressive and forward-thinking new box of toys for the kids, but is it a fun game? With one week of Sackboy inhabitance under my belt, I'm prepared to render my first impressions. Read More... Posted Nov 06 2008, 10:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments Filed under: little big planet, playstation 3, derrick sanskrit, 61fps review, mega man, dance dance revolution, super mario bros, ratchet & clank, spore, wolfenstein