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  • Softballchic10

    An Open Letter to Ellie and Joel

    By Softballchic10

    There are certain games that come along from time to time that really get your attention. It could be for the action, the graphics or game play. However, it is a rare occasion that a game grabs you for all of these, plus the amazing experience of becoming emotionally attached and involved in the actions of characters. It is to this that I write this open letter to Ellie and Joel. I met them in the “The Last of Us.” *(Please note that I've tried to write this to contain no spoilers.
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Retrochick Retroblog v1.0

Retro Picks - Areala's 10 Favorite Casual NES Titles

Sometimes you just can't be as hardcore a gamer as you want to be. Sure, there's nothing like sitting down and marathoning through a game like Dragon Warrior in a 20-hour stretch of levelling madness, but as you get older and summer vacations become a thing of the past, most of us don't get that kind of quality time in any longer unless you wind up both independantly wealthy and without a significant (or dependant) other. So what do you do when you want to game, but you only have an hour or le
Areala

Areala

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Dreams of the Red King

Quality Control: The Empire Strikes Back (NES)

Get The Empire Strikes Back for the NES from eBay I previously reviewed the JVC Star Wars game that was made for the NES before the SNES came out. It wasn’t a good game. I’ll be honest–it was a very bad game. The shooting controls were bad, and some of the enemies were cheap as hell. However, now we have a game based on the second installment of the trilogy, and now I’m going to see what improvements they’ve made from the prior installment of the series. Now, I wasn’t able to beat the game, but
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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Nintendo Power #34

On to issue 34 of Nintendo Power. Our cover story is, well, a game that they’ve been covering off and on for several issues now. The game is Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and since it’s probably one of the most highly regarded Zelda games up until either Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask (depending on who you ask). I frankly think it’s a step down from last issue’s rather impressive TMNT cover art. The letters being printed this issue relate to the question, “Tell me what you want, w
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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Electronic Gaming Monthly #84

Moving right along with the EGM recaps, we come to issue 84 for July of 1996. Our cover story for this issue is a series of Star Wars previews. To be specific, among other things, the big Star Wars mega-event Shadows of the Empire is coming out, in comic, novel and now video game form. Our Editorial from Ed Semrad talks about this year’s E3, which is also the second E3. Already it’s gotten really big really quick. On a bigger note, the Sendai Publication era of EGM is over. Ziff Davis has
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Dreams of the Red King

DVD Review ? Peter Gunn

Get Peter Gunn from Amazon.com If you’re reading this, and live in the United States, you know what the Peter Gunn theme is. You’ve heard it played by your High School Band (or played it yourself), you’ve heard it while playing Spy Hunter, or in a few movies. If say you haven’t heard the Peter Gunn theme before, then you’re probably lying. However, if you said you hadn’t watched Peter Gunn, I’d probably believe you. For a TV series with one of the memorable themes in the history of television,
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The Slowdown

Multiple Middles in Alpha Protocol

We haven’t said much about Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG-Shooter Alpha Protocol here at the Slowdown, tweeting updates on the game instead. I think what has kept us from being too enthusiastic is the confusing nature of the media coming out of Sega; an interesting weapons showcase is followed by a lame cinematic trailer, and so on. But what keeps me interested is the potential of the team behind the game. As I related recently, I’m a huge fan of Planescape: Torment, a 90’s RPG created by
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Retrochick Retroblog v1.0

Areala's Retro Music Picks - Slumlord Toilet et al

This is not your typical Areala blog entry, as will readily become apparent when you keep reading. I know that normally my writings deal with video games of some kind, and occasionally books, but today I decided that I have neglected music long enough, and it was time to fix that. And what better kind of music to write about than the kind that has been relegated to the clearance bins of history but that is still deserving of your attention. There's certainly plenty of it out there, especially
Areala

Areala

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Dreams of the Red King

Quality Control ? Legend of the Mystical Ninja

Buy this from eBay The Legend of the Mystical Ninja series is a game series I’ve heard a fair amount about in the past. I’ve heard that it’s a good game series, and I’ve heard it’s got a tongue in cheek atmosphere. Despite all this, I’ve never taken the time to try any of the games in the series. Maybe it’s because many of the more lighthearted 16-bit games I’ve played haven’t been that good. Maybe it’s because of a certain degree of cognitive dissonance – for me the definitive ninja game serie
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Retrochick Retroblog v1.0

AD&D Horror Done Right - Jacob's Well

While unpacking some boxes of my magazines today, I ran across an issue of Dungeon magazine (number 116 to be precise, November 2004) that made me stop what I was doing and filled me with a desire to read the article advertised on the front cover. As a 30th anniversary celebration for Dungeons and Dragons, this issue listed the 30 greatest adventures of all time to appear under the D&D ruleset, any version. The list was chosen by the editors as well as a team comprised of some of the bigge
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Retrochick Retroblog v1.0

[Let's Read] - Nintendo Power 04

Let's Read: Nintendo Power #4 I've had a change of heart and decided to continue my "Let's Read" series for a little bit longer. I'm having fun doing it, and that's what counts, because this is my blog and I am allowed to change my mind for no reason whatsoever, so nyah. As you can see from the cover shot, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the focus for this issue. This is a posed cover with an actor dressed as Link looking down on a manequin made up to look something like a sleep
Areala

Areala

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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Nintendo Power #33

Moving on to the Nintendo Power Recaps, we come to issue #33 for February of 1992. Our cover story for this issue is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project. The art is definitely continuing the improvement in the cover art that started last issue. Our letters column features of people with their copies of Nintendo Power while on vacation across the world and by across the world I mean, across the continental US and in Indonesia. What, you couldn’t manage pictures from Can
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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Electronic Gaming Monthly #83

So, when I was recapping the last issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, I didn’t cover the issue’s editorial. That’s because it didn’t have one that I could find. However, we’re now on issue #83 for June of 1996 and we have an editorial column this issue. First, I do need to mention that this issue’s cover features Sonic The Hedgehog and the new wave of 3D platforming games. Anyway, the editorial column for this issue, unfortunately, steps into the territory of describing the stuff that’s i
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Dreams of the Red King

Film Review ? US Marshals

Get US Marshals from Amazon.com A while back I watched The Fugitive… and apparently it slipped my mind to review it. Either that, or I reviewed it somewhere else and can’t find it anymore. So, in short, I enjoyed the movie, and decided that (eventually), I would watch the film’s spiritual sequel – US Marshals. This review is going to get into some spoilers, but I’m keeping them below the cut. However, you are warned. The film follows Deputy US Marshal Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) and his team
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The Slowdown

Quote of the Day: Portal 2

[Chell’s suit] is not supposed to look like a sexy Marvel superhero suit. It’s supposed to look like it was designed without any thought of making her look attractive. We don’t want to make her be unattractive, but we want to balance that out. Chell is a test subject, so she should look like one. –Matt Charlesworth, concept artist, Valve </img> </img> </img> </img> </img> Source
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Dreams of the Red King

Quality Control Review ? Super Off Road

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll probably have figured out that I like racing games. They’re one of my favorite genres of video games, alongside RPGs, wrestling games, shumps, and shooters. For those counting – that’s my top 5 right there. So, after having refrained from picking other racing games (including F-Zero) for my Quality Control picks, I decided to pick a racing game. The game in this case is Super Off Road. The Premise Drive a race car around a track, be in the t
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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Nintendo Power #32

On to Nintendo Power’s 5th anniversary. As a reminder, this is not the fifth year Nintendo published a magazine. Prior to this they had the Nintendo Fun Club newsletter – which I will get to in due time. Our cover game is Super Castlevania IV for the SNES, which is, I believe, the first time a third party SNES game has made the cover of Nintendo Power. With the magazine’s 5th year, we’re now also getting a new comic strip, adapting the Legend of Zelda. They’re also bundling one of four st
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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Electronic Gaming Monthly #82

Finally, after a stretch of hopping, skipping, and jumping across gaps in the archives, we now have contiguous issues. So, this week’s issue is #82 for May, 1996, and our cover story is Virtua Fighter 3, with notes on a preview of the “Saturn 2.0″ – which I suspect becomes Sega’s last console, the Dreamcast. Also, a little notable first for this issue is the debut of Dan “Shoe” Hsu as an assistant editor. We even have his baby picture (as we get a semi-collage of the editorial staff’s bab
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Dreams of the Red King

Apologies for the Ever-Changing Themes

Sorry about the rapidly changing themes recently. Essentially, I’ve been going through the themes to find one that I really like. This is the closest I’ve found to one that I do like – one that works with the screen width in a way that I like, and with a header I like. Now, if only I could find a way to change the graphic to a fountain pen instead of a ballpoint pin. Filed under: Uncategorized Source
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Dreams of the Red King

Comic Review ? Ultimate Six

Get Ultimate Six from Amazon.com I’ve been catching up on my Ultimate Spider-Man, for reasons various and sundry. The volumes that haven’t been reviewed at Bureau42, I’ve reviewed here. However, this storyline – the introduction of the Ultimate Universe’s version of the Sinister Six, has been reviewed there. Thus, I’m taking my review of this storyline to my blog here, so I can kind of review it in my own little way, with a bit of an aside about the state of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Ma
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Dreams of the Red King

Quality Control ? Ninja Gaiden Shadow

Ninja Gaiden is one of those series that hold a special place in my heart. It’s a game series, like Castlevania, that is known for it’s steep learning curve, that I can’t beat without using save states, and that I love anyway. Ninja Gaiden Shadow, isn’t exactly in that series. It was originally released in Japan as a port of the NES game Shadow of the Ninja, but Tecmo liked it so much, they bough the game. Well, now it’s time to find out if it was worth their money, and yours. The Premise Ryu
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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Nintendo Power #31

The Nintendo Power train continues on to issue #31, for December of 1991. Our cover story is Metroid II for the Game Boy – the first Game Boy game to make it to the cover. The cover art is better than last issue’s art, but not by much. Letters The theme for this issue is what you’d want your ultimate gaming system to be. As you can imagine when a large chunk of your reader base is kids, basically they want a console that does everything–including their homework. Batman: Return of The Joker Gu
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Dreams of the Red King

Where I Read ? Electronic Gaming Monthly #81

So, this week, with our EGM recaps, we’re skipping ahead another few months, to issue #81 for April of 1996. Our cover story for this issue is Street Fighter Alpha II, and I have to say that the cover art isn’t very good. Frankly, the mid-90s have not been kind to EGM’s covers. Editorial This issue Ed Semrad is taking up the pen for the editorial column. It’s been almost a year since the last issue of EGM I recapped, and the Nintendo 64 still isn’t out. That said, at the very least they have d
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