Penfold

Haven't heard of this game previously and haven't yet heard the source material, but I'm really enjoying this ReMix. I can see what Avaris was saying about the pan flute being maybe a bit too forward, but I didn't think it was really a negative thing. The only thing I didn't care for too much was the ending, especially how after the crash and everything began fading I still heard a little percussion (not sure if that was some sorta hand percussion or a woodblock or what) on 1 and 3. Anyway, even that's a pretty minor complaint. I really hope to hear more from you soon, and keep up the great work!!

I guess considering how many games I want for the Wii, it's ok that there are only a few games for DS coming out by the end of this calendar year that appeal to me.

12 titles I'm very interested in, 7 of which are must-buys for me. Can't wait till Fire Emblem comes out next month!

On that note, Nintendo's latest Wii commercial that I've seen seems to try to put a positive spin on it. I saw it several days ago, starts out with a mom and her kid at a checkout, having just bought a Wii, with a voiceover saying "Wii finally got one," followed by several other random "Wii..." scenes with other people playing Wii Sports. Struck me as kinda interesting when I saw it (as well as thinking it's a pretty effective commercial).

Glad to hear that, I was getting kinda worried especially after seeing the screens from the FFCC WiiWare (they looked about as I'd imagine FFCC: Crystal Bearers or whatnot to look). Totally forgot about E For All...man, that's coming up soon.

Nice, very exciting! I'm really hoping it'll be released relatively soon, so I'll be glad to hear the release date announcement.

Oh, totally. I agree it's dumb to put in a negative light when a game employs better controls. It'd be like saying the more you have to fight the controls to do what you want, the better the game.

Meh, to each their own. Some'll find it easier, others will find it more difficult.

So a few screens for FE DS and Advance Wars 2. I'm not yet entirely convinced that the Advance Wars 2 art style is so much of a departure from Dual Strike as perhaps the presentation might be. EDIT: w00t, forgot how close Front Mission's release date is!

(double post) So does this mean that the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for Wii is just going to be a downloadable, world-building game? If so, that's extremely disappointing IMO...really hoping that's just an additional game with the FF:CC branding on it. EDIT: I love how the screens they have for that FF:CC Wii Ware game look so good, especially relative to Pokemon Farm lol.

Yeah, while it may be a bit too much on the easy side, the boss battles for the most part make up for it through how inventive they are IMO. Damn near finished with the game at this point, and it's been great fun so far. I personally wouldn't say it's "worse" than other Zeldas I've played, that's just my opinion, but it definitely has a different feel to it.

So, Fire Emblem DS. Anyone else excited?

I guess vids will be available as well from that service. I was really expecting them to announce a Wii hard drive or something with the Wii Ware announcements, but I guess if Wii Ware is supposedly coming out in March they have plenty of time. Also, dl'd the updated Everybody Votes channel, but haven't gotten to see if they've implimented any of the updates they were talking about. Anyway, that was a lot of shit they announced all at once.

***Round 8*** Metroid Fusion This game was a little different for the franchise when it came out. Significantly more linear and story-driven, this game also conveyed moments of terror when the SA-X spotted you, leaving you with no option but to run for your life. Different? Absolutely. Worse because of it? Not at all. Like the later-released Metroid Zero Mission, beautiful graphics and animations, and controls that managed to improve upon the Super Metroid scheme. In a lot of ways, I think this game became the spiritual foundation for Metroid Prime 3. Metroid Fusion is a game with a lot of character, and is without a doubt a must-have. YES

lol (tencharacters)

So I just recently purchased a pair of AKG K240's in addition to my pair of Sennheiser HD280's (really looking forward to comparing the K240's when they arrive later this week), and it got me to wonder...what do you guys usually use for monitoring?

I've read like...100% of them lol. They're pretty interesting for me to see what is being sent in, what gets rejected and why, and when people actually resub. I'm looking forward to getting my skills up to a point where I can submit, and I think reading the decisions helps to point out pretty common pitfalls. Anyway, despite all the joking in this thread, I really gotta hand it to the judges, especially to Larry for all he does for the site. It's not easy to take the time to do what they do, especially when it's just a hobby. Of course, props to djp for everything he does as well. I always find it funny when people bitch about the judges and whatnot (I mean when they actually complain, not just joke about it), since it demonstrates to me they just aren't dedicated enough to cultivating their musical talents to produce something worthwhile and instead of admitting to themselves that they're the only ones who can change that they would prefer to blame someone else.

Wow, missed like 3 rounds this weekend... ***Round 5*** Mega Man 8 Anniversary Collection I am a huge Mega Man fan, and I really enjoyed this game when it came out. To be honest, though, the style of this game and Mega Man 7 kinda bothered me, as they drifted to more "cartoony" designs when the game was more serious in my mind when playing the original 6. Despite that, Mega Man 8 had that bigger presentation you'd expect on the Playstation compared to the NES/SNES, more fluid animations, and some solid controls. It it a good, fun game that features terrible voice acting? Yes. Would I recommend it to a fan of the series/genre? Yes. Is it a must-have? Unfortunately, I don't think so. No ***Round 6*** Marvel Superheroes vs Street Fighter Oh, the quarters spent on this game! Vivid presentation, fluid dynamic aninations, and those Street Fighter controls we all know and love. This game is a great fighter, especially for play with a group of friends. Yes ***Round 7*** Paper Mario Got to play this for the first time thus summer, thanks to the Wii's Virtual Console. This game is all about style, and its light-hearted feeling. For an RPG, it might be seen as a little on the short side to some, but the adventure felt perfect to me by the end. The humor in this game is ACTUALLY funny (go figure!), the music was happy and fun, the presentation was bright and colorful, and the battle system was just fun, if simplistic. If you have an N64 or a Wii, or if you're a fan of RPGs, I would highly recommend it. YES!!! Final Fantasy VII Oh man, looking at the votes already, I can see the battle lines have been drawn once again. Is it a must-play classic, or is it overhyped garbage? I first played this game, oh, 4 years ago. I was late to the Playstation party, and a good chunk of my friends bought it and beat it the year it came out (middle school I think) so it had been on my list for a while. I bought it in the summer of '03 after playing through the PS port of Chrono Trigger, and started it but didn't get around it finishing it till the winter following (I had to restart). I still remember seeing the commercials for this game, and thinking how crazy the cinematics looked. Anyway, for me, nostalgia doesn't really play a factor. The battle system was okay, the presentation was...decent for the most part, the graphics were servable (I know at the time they were great, but they didn't age well IMHO), and the story was good and bad all at the same time for me. While I think FFVII was greater than the sum of its parts, it still only puts it at slightly over par for me...that is, until the score is factored in. The music helped evoke emotion in a game that would have been otherwise rather dry. When I finally decided to sit down and play through this game, it was actually because of OverClocked Remix; I wanted to understand the source material for all the great remixes I heard in context, and I'm glad I did. For that reason alone, I have to give this a... Yes Final Fantasy 1 & 2: Dawn of Souls When I heard this was coming out, it sounded quite intriguing to me. I was kind of interested in playing through the first 6 FF games in numerical order, just to see how they evolved (I'm still only up to 3, thanks to FF4 soon to be remade for the DS). While of course these are remakes, for the most part I understood the differences from the originals to be mainly skin-deep so I figured this would be a good place to start. As you could imagine, these are very oldschool RPGs, which I personally don't mind but I know it'll rub some people the wrong way. They were also relatively short quests, both taking somewhere between 15 and 20 hrs. The two differed dramatically in difficulty, with FF1 being too easy and FF2 being almost too difficult (it didn't limit where you could go as much, so you could easily find high-level enemies early on). FF2 also allowed you to change classes to a point, if I recall correctly, whereas FF1 didn't. Both quests were pretty vanilla, even if for the time they may have been of epic proportions. Good for FF/oldschool RPG fans, but by no means a must-play title. NO

Cool, thanks!

Quick, slightly off-topic question. Megaman Legends is nominated in this thread for Playstation, but does anyone know if that was also available for the 64?

Got to play just a bit more PH last night... -Got the hourglass and went through Temple of the Ocean King with it, and found it to be really enjoyable. I also really enjoy using the shoulder button as a quick-key for using the selected item, though I didn't figure that out till after I was done with...whatever fire temple (on Ember Island or whatnot). Having that as an option really takes the "clunk" out of using the boomerang, hence is more enjoyable. Starting to figure out the rolls...slowly. I can get it to work about 1/2 the time now.-

Round 4 2 I played this time around... Command and Conquer Been a fan of the series (and the genre) since this came out. Simply put, it was amazing when I played it for the first time. I set up a home network so my brother and I could play against each other, eventually my dad began playing it too. Lost countless hours to this iteration alone. Now, it's a tough choice for me which way to vote. It was a great game for its time, but Red Alert and Red Alert 2 improved upon the formula dramatically. I'm gonna have to give it... NO [borderline] Half Life I know like everyone else loved this game, but after playing it about 3 years ago (for the first time, mind you) I've gotta say I don't share this sentiment. I can understand that the narrative means of the game was a first, but that doesn't outweight that the game itself felt very vanilla FPS as I played. The absolute dealbreaker for me was the platforming elements they placed in the game: after play Metroid Prime, I realized just how poorly executed jumping/platforming in most first-person games (Half Life especially) was. I can't personally recommend this game, but that's just one man's opinion (I know a lot of people who loved the game). Much as I hate to say it... NO EDIT: a couple more nominations: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 Chrono Trigger (Playstation port)

Round 3 Wow, I only played one of these games so far (Wave Race 64 is on my VC download list, but it's gonna be on hold for a while longer still). Anyway... Fire Emblem I began playing this series starting with the Gamecube entry, Path of Radiance, and loved the experience so much I was compelled go back and purchase the GBA games as well (looking back on it, probably a bad choice while still trying graduate from college ) . Anyway, what I have to say about this Fire Emblem pertains to both in the series on GBA I played. The story is decent enough (nothing terribly special, IMO, but not so bad either), but the absolutely addictive(not to mention rewarding) gameplay is the big reason to get into this game. The presentation also makes this a winner I think, especially with such dynamic and brilliant battle animations. Not until I played this game did I realized why fans disliked the battle animations from Path of Radiance: while beautifully rendered, they were so stiff compared to the GBA games. At any rate, it is a real challenge to beat this game, all the while not losing a character. Especially to enthusiasts of the strategy genre, I would highly recommend this game. YES

Huh, could have just been the store I went to then. Seemed weird to me that only a few people would have preordered, this (and in case there is still confusion, yes, I meant Brawl ) being such a high-profile game and all.

Btw when I went to pick up Phantom Hourglass yesterday, I saw this game was for preorder, so naturally I preordered it. The guy who rung me up at EB Games said almost no one's preordered it as of yet. Anyone else here preorder it already?