A Recap in the World of Nintendo... (3DS/Kirby)

Nintendo has been busy this week announcing their Japanese launch plans for the 3DS, but I'll start off with some Kirby's Epic Yarn stuff as new videos surfaced online since the game is getting closer to its October 17 release here at the States. I already mentioned how great Epic Yarn is a while back and yet it still looks very impressive to be another top-notch title for the Wii this holiday season. Then again, this game screams "sleeper hit" as well because only Nintendo fans will appreciate it and Kirby is not really their most popular mascot like Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong, which is unfortunate and considering what Wario Land: Shake It went through, I feel like Epic Yarn may suffer the same fate as being another under-appreciated title among mainstream Nintendo consumers. Also, factor in Wii Party likely having better success sales-wise as well as Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby may be left in the dust as gamers would be missing out on an unique take on one of Nintendo's lesser known franchises.

The 3DS has been the center of attention among the gaming world this week as Nintendo finally revealed their launch details at Japan for their new handheld, which is to come out February 26 over there while a March release for the U.S. and other territories. Now I have a day to soak all the info in, it is nice that the 3DS exists and people are excited for it, but the lineup revealed so far looks like something Sony would think of for the PSP as console games being shrunk down to be playable on handheld. Nintendo is once again retreading what was awesome back then can still be awesome with remakes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Star Fox 64 along with their new Kid Icarus game. Third parties so far are migrating their popular franchises to the handheld from Capcom's Resident Evil games, Mega Man Legends 3, and Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (Will the AE changes be in place for this iteration?), Tecmo/Koei with Dead or Alive Dimensions, Konami with their MGS3: Snake Eater remake, and more. I know its still early and the thing is not even out, but where in the world is the originality? The original DS capitalized on that aspect even though it took some time for that to kick in and I expect the same for the 3DS too as developers have more time with the system figuring what is capable to do in that thing. There's also the 3DS Virtual Console announcement as well with Game Boy games (GBC/GBA/even the Virtual Boy as well) being downloadable, which is cool along with DSiWare games being transferable, but I'm still wandering where are the new games? Nostalgia is nice and all, but I hope Nintendo will turn things around unlike how Sony handled the PSP. Of course, the steep price is going to question many consumers' minds considering it is currently at 250-300 bucks now. Despite my worries, I know people will still buy the 3DS because Nintendo apparently still knows what's up, but we'll see how things play out in the months to come closer to its Japanese launch.

Mega Music Roundup for 9/29/10 (Cube, Weezy, Jeremih, & Bruno)

Another mega music roundup - but with more hip-hop this time around...

We start off at the westside with Ice Cube's latest, I Am the West. This is simply West Coast gangsta rap at its finest as Cube sticks to what he knows and made him famous while not trying to be someone else with that auto-tune. The lead off single "I Rep That West," fits the album description perfectly and proof that West Coast rap is here to stay in hip-hop. If you want to rep California the right way (well the OG way), Cube's latest will fill that void for you as 20+ years into the game and he's still got it. The last thing I'll say about this one is Cube is right, "Is this too West Coast for you ************? So what..."

Even though Weezy is still in prison serving his sentence, he still has a new EP out called I'm Not A Human Being." After the disappointing Rebirth album that was basically an experiment for him adding more rock to his raps, I'm Not A Human Being is a return to form production-wise for "the best rapper alive" sticking to his guns delivering banger after banger. While the rock is still in like the title track (video above), it is not as distracting from everything else which is pretty much another example where hip-hop is today. Along with cameos with his Young Money crew, Drizzy, and Nicki Minaj, Lil' Wayne is not staying quiet while in prison spitting out new songs as his new EP makes hip-hop fans excited for his official return to the game with The Carter IV as his next highly anticipated album. Then again, I'm not as big of a Weezy fan than I thought I would be and everyone else that loves that music... its probably his damn voice.

Next is up is Jeremih (aka Mr. "Birthday Sex") with already his sophomore album, All About You. I always felt like he's just another R&B one-hit wonder with the song I mentioned previously that made him big last year and I think it is the case with his new stuff. There's only a couple songs I like from this one such as "I Like" featuring Ludacris and the club banger, "Down on Me" featuring 50 Cent (that song is just one of those songs at the clubs and I'll leave it at that). Other than that, its your typical R&B album by another dude and who knows if he will have another mega hit soon because I don't see him lasting that long in the music game.

Last, but not least is Bruno Mars's debut album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans, which is out next week. Yeah, the Bruno Mars that sings everyone's favorite song, "Just The Way Are" as if they're trying to impress some chick (like all those YouTube videos by random boys, oh wait that's the official video too!). Of course, the ladies love the song and its overplayed on the radio too much which does not stop the men trying to be Bruno. Anyway, the rest of the album is more of the same if you love "Just The Way Are" which is good if you love that song too much from "Grenade," "Marry You," and "Talking to the Moon." When he's away from trying to serenade the ladies, his more fast-tempo songs (like that "Billionaire" song - oh that everyone else's favorite song too) are also good for the most part especially "Liquor Store Blues" with Damian Marley. The last two songs in his short album are from his Its Better If You Don't Understand EP with "Count on Me" and "The Other Side" featuring Cee-Lo and B.o.B. which are also great songs. As a whole, Doo-Wops & Hooligans is a great debut album by Bruno Mars and you can't underestimate how popular he is now in the world of mainstream music especially with the #1 song in the country (well not #1 in iTunes anymore) because he is that good and definitely lived up to expectations. With that out of the way, bring on the Facebook statuses of how awesome his album is in the coming days.

That's it for the music roundup this week... till next time.

PSN Demo Showcase for 9/29/10 (EA Sports MMA & Castlevania)

This week on the PSN Demo Showcase features EA's first foray into MMA and the glorious return of a long storied franchise...

First up is EA Sports MMA, EA's attempt to compete with THQ's UFC Undisputed franchise. In case you don't know, EA's MMA game features pretty much every other mixed martial artist that is not in UFC (Randy Couture being an exception however) from the likes of Fedor, Jake Shields (actually now in the UFC too), and others from Strikeforce. The mindset behind this game compared to the recent UFC games is how we can implement Fight Night-like controls into MMA? That is truly the case with the Total Strike Control with various strikes by flicking around with the right stick. Modifiers are on the L and R buttons as clinching, sprawling, and taking opponents down are on the face buttons. On paper, it seems like this can totally work, but the execution seems flat and it ends up being slower to the UFC Undisputed games. In other words, something doesn't feel right with EA Sports MMA compared to its competition. Maybe I'm still not used to the new control scheme even though the classic controls option allows the game to play like UFC, but that even with those controls, it is still not as fluid as I hoped. The fighters that are in this demo are Allstair Overeem, Bobby Lashley (yes, that Bobby Lashley who was in WWE), Jake Shields, and that guy from MTV's Bully Beatdown show. Plus, there's Big John McCarthy doing the fighter introductions as well, so you know the presentation aspect will be good knowing EA Sports. Back to the gameplay though, I had a tough time knocking guys out standing up as the ground game is way too easy. The ground game is more simplistic than UFC, but it allows for more easier situations to knock them out by ground & pound and submissions. There are some neat ideas how EA handles the ground game like various mini-games with the submissions where you have to rotate the right stick around to find the sweet spot by the indication of the rumble to choke someone out and a simple button pressing mechanic by timing them using your stamina meter. My experience with EA Sports MMA has not been that great, which is pretty telling for the game's quality as it doesn't feel as fluid as UFC Undisputed 2010, so it ends up as a sloppy attempt even though there's still potential.

On the flipside, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is out next week as the demo has been out at Europe for Playstation Plus owners for a week, but its out for everyone else there today (Yeah, I had to set up an UK account to get this one). This is the franchise's glorious return to 3D as early reviews for the game so far have been mostly positive. This is also more than just Castlevania being another "God of War" clone for the current generation of consoles as it is actually a solid action game all around from what I played in the demo. Yeah, the game controls like most other action games, but the story and longer length does separate itself from the others. In addition, it is arguably is the most "Castlevania-less" Castlevania because of the setting and the lack of Dracula (for now, who knows later on in the game )even though there's still a whip and you're playing as a Belmont. The Kojima Productions style of polish is also intact in this game as it looks pretty good for an action game and lots of long cutscenes as if you're playing a Metal Gear Solid game, but this game having that style of production is for the best which is why Lords of Shadow is as some people claimed to be "the Arkham Asylum of the franchise." Personally, I wouldn't call it that, but it does bring back the franchise into the right direction after so many disappointments last generation. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow does have that "sleeper hit" mentality out of everything else that is out this holiday season, so its worth a playthrough if you're a Castlevania fan and need another epic action game to bust through.

That's it for the PSN Demo Showcase this week... There's another demo for Vanquish on the Japanese Playstation Store as well which is the challenge mode that will appear in the final game, but I haven't put much time into it, so I might talk about that in a later time. I also played another demo for some new WRC game (UK Store only for now) and that's pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully I can get a DJ Hero 2 Demo stream going soon because I don't have a turntable to play that.

On the Fence: Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode I

Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode I is finally coming out sooner than most thought, which is now October 11 on WiiWare, October 12 on Playstation Network, and October 13 on Xbox Live Arcade. It is also being priced at 15 bucks for all versions, which seems pretty crazy at first considering it is an episodic game and apparently Sega feels confident enough to sell it at that price even though Sega has been known to not make great decisions at the end of the day with their franchises especially Sonic. The hedgehog has been through a lot to get at this point at an attempt of a return to glory especially with this game going back to its 2D roots along with homing attacks from the 3D games. Of course, Sonic fanboys want this game to be really good and a sign of things going on the right direction, but its hard to please them especially Sega that even they don't know how to handle the Sonic franchise. Personally, I have been pretty skeptical myself how this will turn out because its something up my alley as a classic game modernized for the current generation yet retaining the roots somehow. On WiiWare, Sonic 4 is I think one of the more expensive games to get on that service and considering the lack of fringe space on that my Wii, I'm likely going to get it on PS3 instead and expect a review soon after its release whether or not Sonic is truly back.

On the Fence: Def Jam Rapstar

Def Jam Rapstar is out next week and yeah it is pretty much hip-hop SingStar with a ton of community features like video sharing and other stuff. I have always this temptation of having a karaoke game around the house for parties just like having Buzz Quiz World for a trivia fix here and there with multiple people. The soundtrack for Rapstar is not that bad with joints that spread across hip hop's existence from Biggie, 2Pac, LL Cool J, Kanye West, Drake, and more with downloadable songs likely in the future as well. The dilemma for what this game faces is that how can it be competitive with the likes of DJ Hero 2 and Rock Band 3. Good thing its only a karaoke game as the game bundled with a microphone is 70 bucks compared to what the other games are offering bundle-wise in terms of pricing. Then again, maybe the more you pay for something like DJ Hero 2 will reward you the better experience. Who knows, but I'm pretty sure there will be an audience out there that will support Def Jam Rapstar when it comes out next week for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

In the meantime, enjoy the Giant Bomb guys' rendition of Nelly's "Hot in Herre."

UPDATE - Here's the commercial for the game below and the final setlist.

UPDATE 2 - Giant Bomb's quick look of the game just sold me on the game - I'm really considering it now.

On the Fence? Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is out this week and yes, another Guitar Hero game, but Activision has been smart enough this time around not to oversaturate the market with this franchise even though you can argue that Guitar Hero killed the genre that modernized it for this current generation. Anyway, people have the game early knocking out FCs of the songs in the game. I have been out of the rhythm game for a while even though I have been paying attention to what is going on because of the music fiend in me. It is indeed a make or break year for the rhythm genre as most of us believe it has run its course among the mainstream audience, but the hardcore fans will keep it going from completely dying. Warriors of Rock, to me, doesn't offer anything new to the table as expected other than a story mode that is somewhat pointless. With Guitar Hero and Rock Band in 2010, you get a sense of separation between the two these days even though the core game on both are the first. Warriors of Rock is becoming more of a game with Neversoft putting in "gamey" stuff to make it stick out from the competition while Rock Band 3 is becoming more of an actual experience with the pro instrument stuff, the addition of a keyboard, and more. It is probably for the best that Neversoft not to attempt beating Harmonix at their own game and establish their own identity, but that's pretty much the case with the visual styles both games are going for. In the meantime, here's some Warriors of Rock footage featuring some songs (it is about the soundtracks these days that the disc games have that will decide my purchase, but of course DLC will also matter too). It is more of the same for Guitar Hero fans, but hey more songs to FC I guess for them. Personally, just wait till Rock Band 3 if you are only buying one of these games this fall.

The Cabs Are Here!!!!

MTV Shows

Oh boy, I have to post this here too... THE CAABBSS AARRE HEERREE!!!!

Also, Its T-Shirt Time!