25th Anniversary of Russian Fun

This year marks the 25th birthday of the iconic game Tetris. The puzzle game's addictive nature continues to proliferate to other forms of electronics and knock-off games after a quarter century. I have many memories of the original GameBoy and those falling monochromatic blocks set to that 8-bit Russian tune. Below I've got a short retrospective on Tetris' success after 25 years. If you want a deeper look into the making of Tetris, below is also an hour long BBC documentary on the gaming phenom.

Tetris: 25th Anniversary


Tetris: From Russia With Love(11 parts, all included in the playlist)

God vs. The Madden Curse

The cover athlete for the next Madden video game was revealed yesterday by EA Sports - Troy Polamalu AND Larry Fitzgerald. Setting aside the game mechanics and strictly the history of Madden cover athletes, Madden '10 is the first Madden game after the retirement of John Madden himself, the first cover with 2 cover athletes, the first cover featuring a wide receiver or a defensive back, the second cover featuring a defensive player (05' with Ray Lewis), the second cover featuring a player (Fitzgerald on NCAA 05) who has appeared on both NCAA Football and Madden (Shaun Alexander NCAA 01/Madden 07), and the cover with the most hair featured EVER.

Every year this whole Madden Curse discussion is brought up. If you're not familiar with it, since 1999 athletes instead of John have been featured on the cover and that season tends not to bode well for the athlete. ESPN just released a good Fact or Fiction article about the curse.

If you've seen either Polamalu or Fitzgerald on the field or in an interview, you've probably noticed their tenacity on the field is contrasted with their quiet and humble demeanor. It's rare these days to see such an attitude in the professional sports, especially an NFL defenseman or wide receiver. When asked yesterday about being a Madden cover boy, Fitzgerald commented that he and Troy are both 'firm believers in The Lord' and that 'The Lord controls your destiny.' It's great to see someone make an exclamation of faith in the face of superstition. You can check out that interview below:

ESPN-Fitzgerald's Not Afraid of the Madden Curse:

PS3 vs. Wii

I have neither, but this funny video pokes fun at the success of both systems (and subliminally Apple?). Glad I have a 360.

To Be Like Dungy

I geeked out and bought the Motorola X205 Gaming Headset for cheap off ebay this last week for my 360. It's a replica of the types of Motorola headsets you see NFL head coaches wear while pacing and spitting off the sidelines. Now I can look like my man Tony Dungy while I'm playing Madden or schooling hordes of Locust on Gears of War 2. It's a comfortable headset, and I'll take the circumaural headphone over the standard foam supraaural one that comes with the system.

The possibilities of this headset:

Hadouken in 1080p

About 17 years ago the first iteration of Street Fighter 2 came out. Today, a new update to one of the most iconic games of all time is released in the form of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix. This game maintains the original mechanics of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and enhances all the sprites with full 1080p HD images and sound. The original frames are maintained, so there isn't an improvement in animation. I've never been good at fighting games, especially Capcom fighters, but Street Fighter 2 definitely was one of THE games to play during the 16 bit generation. The game can be downloaded for the X-Box 360 (which I'm getting today!) or the Playstation 3. Apparently some of the moves have been tweaked, but many online reviews have stated that it still feels like the old Street Fighter 2 we've all grown to love - except it looks a whole lot prettier! Once I can get onto X-Box Live, I'm getting it! Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!

As usual, here's some video:

A trailer for the game with good old Karate Kid music:


This is a highlight from EVO 2004, a fighting game tournament of some of the best 2D fighter players in the world, where this player comes from behind with some killer counters to win the match playing Street Fighter 3:


Street Fighter 2 came out a long time ago, where are The World Warriors now? Here's the trailer to Street Fighter: The Later Years. Click Here to see the whole series.

Why Mario Games Don't Have Much of a Plot

This is what would happen if they tried adding some character development:

Fine Military Dining

When I think about military rations, the first thing that comes to mind are floating, rotating, non-descript brown boxes that you collect in Metal Gear Solid for increasing health. While testing for the National Guard here at the Yakima Training Center, I've gotten the opportunity to try an MRE or Meal, Ready to Eat ration. I tried some of the Pork Rib MRE, which is Meal Number 2 of 24 for the 2008 Menu - sounds like a trading card. Here's what was in the MRE:

• 1 Pork Rib
• 1 Clam Chowder
• 2 Wheat Snack Bread
• 1 Oatmeal Cookie
• 1 CHO Electrolyte Beverage (Like Gatorade Mix)
• 1 Packet of Cheese Spread
• 1 Packet of Steak Sauce
• 1 Accessory Packet A (Coffee, Sugar, Creamer, Salt, Chewing Gum, Matches, Toilet Tissue, Towelette)
• 1 Spoon
• 1 Flameless Heater
• 1 Hot Beverage Bag

The flameless ration heater is great, you add a little water to the pouch and in seconds it begins to steam. Stick the heater next to the food pouches and you've got cooked food in minutes. The food tastes doesn't taste too bad, definitely better and more filling than a Lunchables. Check out www.mreinfo.com to look more into MRE's.



Must look for a HOOAH! Bar:

The Next Star Wars Kid?

Not as ridiculous as Ghyslain Raza, the Star Wars Kid. This new 'Halo Kid' spends his time making weapons out of cardboard. I'm not sure if reloading or demonstrating melee attacks with a cardboard gun is a useful skill for a middle school kid.



This kid should spend some time building some equipment like the gear the guys at Nightmare Armor make:

Bringin' the Payne

So there have been a slew of video games live-action adapted to the silver screen. Many have been quite aweful - Tomb Raider, Postal, Doom, Resident Evil, Dungeon Siege, Street Fighter, Hitman, BloodRayne, Mortal Kombat (ok, but sequel was horrid), Silent Hill, Double Dragon, DOA even got a movie recently,.....and who can forget Super Mario Brothers. Hailed by many as the worst director in Hollywood, Uwe Boll directed 3 of the above films - not a good track record for video games. Recently a trailer has been released for Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg. The film looks like it has potential to be watchable. Having played both the original game as well as the sequel, the franchise has taken a lot from pulp crime noir films - grainy film, dark colors and lighting, monologue voice overs, revenge, etc. The game was released not too long after the films Payback and The Matrix were released, utilizing the style and background of the Gibson-starred film and featuring bullet-time effects. Most notably, the game draws a lot of classic John Woo bullet ballet gun play. Here's the teaser trailer:

Hooked on Rapture

When I got my laptop, I knew I had to get a game. I got Bioshock. This awesome FPS pits you in an underwater stylistic art deco world where genetic splicing has gone too far has been overrun by zombies, vampiric children, and giant crazies in diving suits w/ drills for hands. Now I'm hooked on it. Trailer below. Beautiful Unreal 3 engine........

Of Rats and Joysticks

So news came out recently that Leonardo DiCaprio will be a in a biopic about Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. So for this blog entry, I knew I had to put something Chuck E. Cheese's related since Bushnell was also the founder of the animatronic pizza joint. Little did I know how much obscure information I would find about the place online. This also brings me back as I would frequent Showbiz Pizza - one of CEC's engulfed franchises- often as a kid. I must say, my parents must have really loved me to keep taking me there. I'm watching some of the videos online of memories I have of the place and I must say I don't know if I could stand going there more than once as an adult. Part of me also remembers that place being very loud when the animatronic shows happened, I wonder what a noise level survey would have shown. I found this website, ShowBiz Pizza.com, which is a museum of all things ShowBiz/Chuck E. - from the history of the tokens to a whole library of employee training videos. Here's a training video I found on youtube:

Breaking News in the World of Plastic Instruments

Since music and rhythm games have exploded in America primarily due to the success of several releases of Guitar Hero, the game Rock Band upped the ante by adding guitars, drum pads, and a microphone together to make the ultimate party game. Now Activision has announced the newest release in the Guitar Hero franchise: Guitar Hero World Tour. Not only will World Tour include a more realistic drum pad, but also a microphone. Those who've played both Rock Band and Guitar Hero know that the Guitar Hero axes are definitely a better build. Players will also be able to create their own music as well as complete online in a battle of the bands. Not to be outdone, Konami (developer of Karaoke Revolution) has announced Rock Revolution, which is the same concept - more plastic guitars, drums, microphone. This is madness, I cannot even imagine how many compatibility issues there are going to be! Plus, if the demand is so huge for this type of game, why don't kids start playing real instruments? I'm a huge fan of Guitar Hero, don't get me wrong, but this is overkill.

Here's the premiere video of Guitar Hero World Tour:


All this madness of plastic instruments reminds me of the hilarious South Park episode Guitar Queer-O. Here's a clip:


Think that was funny?

Watch the whole episode of Guitar Queer-O

See any episode of South Park at SouthParkStudios.com