Well today was in fact my birthday an it was quite awesome. As a joke my brother bought me a rubbish Mario Kart present which is quite ironic because I was talking about Mario Kart last week. Here’s some pictures of the “bad” boy:

My name is Ben, and I’m a graphics whore.  I like pretty graphics.  I like my eye candy.  What I don’t like is the over dependence on “realistic” graphics, that is to say graphics that try to mimic real life.  I hate it even more when the game becomes physics become too realistic.  And it really grinds my gears when a game is sold on the soul premise of “teh awsomez grafixz!”.

Nintendo’s 180
It turns out Nintendo have done a 180 and decided to charge for online play on upcoming games. “Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay And Play” will let users subscribe on a game-by-game basis to certain titles. Nintendo project leader Takashi Aoyama announced the service at GDC, but did not say what upcoming games would require payment for the service, or how much they would cost”.  Now this is a little crazy.  It was Nintendo that demanded that online play was free so all would be accessible to their systems online capabilities.  Now, in my opinion it won’t be for games that use online in short bursts like Mario Kart Wii, surly this must be for full blown titles that use online full time, but what game may this be?Animal Crossing Wii anyone?  It must be the game that they are talking about.  But now arises the main part of this feature.

My friend told me of this site which has the first Cross-Examination of the very first case in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Now I have yet to get Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations for the DS but I’m already eagerly awaiting Apollo’s début. It seems that Phoenix has moved on to better things and became a pianist and for Apollo’s first case he must prove Phoenix’s innocence as he was charged with the murder of a traveller that was killed during a poker match.What really draws me towards this game is to find out why Phoenix retired and what became of Mia. Yes I’m a bit of an Attorney buff but I’d highly recommend the series to anyone. Well? Any ‘objections’ to the series in any form. Either post a comment or visit this thread and post away! 

Mario games have always been about fun, nothing else, no competitiveness just fun. So here’s the big question!Is Super Mario Galaxy fun, the answer yes.You may ask why it’s so fun, but that will all be covered in the review so pipe down.Now, the game begins as any other, in Mario 64, the game began with Mario being invited to her magical castle castle but alas the evil Bowser shows up kidnapping the Princess.Well,um, the plot isn’t really that different in Galaxy, as you probably know, Mario gets an invitation to Peach’s castle during the magical star festival but alas, the evil bowser shows up and kidnaps the Princess.But, it’s only a plot, just like advertisements, video games don’t need to make sense for them to be brilliant but Galaxy truly makes up where the plot is lacking within the gameplay. 

Right people before we start. I’m actually not going to give it a bad preview because I seriously enjoyed my first hour on it. I feel weird saying that.

I love arcades, I really do, there are so many games that you only get to play once there, and I always think “Damn I wish I had that in my room”. One of those games I was wishing for was Ghost Squad. I always got up to the third level and just died and either was too frustrated to play on or I’d run completely out of money. So when they confirmed this was coming to Wii, I was happy as Larry.

I apologise deeply for using that Internet meme, but it was the most fitting for this entry!

So I finally gave up on trying to finish Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and decided to start playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.  When I first put it in I was very impressed with it.  Graphically it’s impressive, with large Galactic Federation ships appearing outside the view port on the opening level (on board the Galactic Federation flagship Olympus).  Nicely detailed characters and environments but then I wouldn’t expect anything less from the guys and girls at Retro Studios, as always the music is very moody and well suited to the situation.  The cut scenes are excellently directed and take everything from Metroid Prime 2 up to the next level.  The textures are sharp and detailed and as you’d expect Samus looks stunning.