Gradius: TIA is the sequel to Nemesis, a Game Boy-exclusive entry in the Gradius series. Despite its small scale, it’s just as enjoyable as any console or arcade Gradius. You play as a ship whose loadout you select before hand, and you are tasked with escaping your alien pursuers. Although there is no text, there is a bit of a storyline about escape, and at the end of the game, the hunter becomes the prey as you turn the tables. Strangely, there are several Gradius staples that are missing from the series such as moai statues, a space intro to each stage (each stage seamlessly flows into the next), and classic Gradius music. However, the variety of the game’s 5 levels make up for it, as you face off against increasingly bizarre alien creatures and huge bosses. The soundtrack is also pretty good for a Game Boy title as well. Hopefully this will be one of the first games that will be available when legacy Game Boy Games are made available on the 3DS shop.

To think it was over 5 years ago when I first put out a hands-on feature about this game. With Skryim right around the corner, now is the perfect time to do a follow up. For those of you who missed the hands on, Oblivion is the follow up to ES3: Morrowind, which was one of my favorite games on the original Xbox. As much as I liked Morrowind, it was far from perfect, so naturally when I heard about Oblivion, I was buzzed. Not only would it be a next generation installment of the franchise, the folks at Bethesda Softworks would fix all the issues in Morrowind. When the end product was released, it was a beautiful thing indeed. Not only did Bethesda live up to its promises, it (along with EA’s Fight Night Round 3 which was also released that week) helped to put a definitive end to the “Xbox 1.5” jokes and created one of the greatest games in any console generation.
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Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a home console exclusive version of Mortal Kombat 3, designed for the Playstation and Nintendo 64, with Sega Saturn and PC versions being made available a year later and being ports of the Playstation version (meanwhile, the Genesis and SNES got crappy ports of Ultimate MK3 while the Saturn got a ‘just okay’ version of UMK3). It’s intention was to basically close out the current storyarc, as Ed Boon and company was beginning work on Mortal Kombat 4. It does so in a pretty big way, as Raiden and Johnny Cage (among others) were added to the cast so that players could play as every character who was ever in a Mortal Kombat game. Many of the characters have new moves that were never before seen in any previous MK, such as Baraka’s spinning blades and Kung Lao’s dive. There was a new character, Chameleon (on the PS1) or Khameleon (if you played on N64). This character could randomly switch between any of the palette-swapped ninjas (male for PS1 and female for N64) and adopt their movesets. There are also several battlegrounds from MK2 thrown in. The PS1 version of the game has a few select levels from MK1.
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This Past week, Portal 2 hit stores everywhere. If you don’t have enough money for it, don’t worry, there is another first person shooter/puzzle hybrid you can check out in the meantime. The Ball, developed by Swedish developers Teotl Studios, was originally intended to be a mod to Unreal Tournament 3. Instead, the developers moved it over to the Unreal Development Kit in order to release the game as a standalone package. You play as an archeologist trapped in a cave. You encounter two artifacts: a large round ball and a strange gun which you use to control it. You use the ball to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and explore the secrets of the underground cavern. The game’s physics makes the puzzles unique, and the Unreal Engine 3-powered graphics make the game look gorgeous. It was entered into Epic’s �Make Something Unreal� annual contest, and was also included in Valve’s �Potato Sack Pack�, a Steam promotion featuring several independently developed games that were discounted and bundled in anticipation of Portal 2’s release. So if you’re done with Portal 2, or just don’t have the money for it yet, pick this up in the meantime.

Tomorrow, Mortal Kombat makes its return to gaming consoles. So what better way to commemorate the series than to take a look at some of its missteps? Okay, there are plenty, but this is Maximum Letdown, so this is all you get for free.

You know what the coolest thing is about Half Life 2 (and by extension other Source powered games)? It’s physics system. As fun as it is throwing glass bottles at combine soldiers, how cool would it be if we could just play around with it without having to worry about some goal or plot? That’s what Garry’s Mod is. It’s a standalone title that requires at least one Source game (Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, etc) to play. You basically have two guns: The Physics Gun, which allows you to pick up and move objects, and the Tool gun, which is used for various tasks, such as combining objects. Players can import objects from other source games, and can even download community made props from the web. Multiplayer play is also possible, as players can team up to build contraptions. A recent update allows players to download community-created objects in game via the Toybox. Players can even modify game scripts using the LUA programming language. Garry’s mod is a cool way to show off the capabilities of the Source engine, and it’s a fun distraction for gamers. If you have HL2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, or Left 4 Dead, check it out.

Remember back in the days when cheat codes were the holy grail of video games? What gamer worth their salt didn’t remember the Konami code? How about the Sonic cheat that made our favorite blue hedgehog turn into anything and replicate himself? Looking for the perfect Mega Man 3 password that put you outside the gates of Dr. Wily’s castle with 9 energy tanks and using the second controller to jump super high? How about punching in the ‘blood code’ for Mortal Kombat on Genesis, or the more cooler and useful “DULLARD”? One device, like no other, gave us access to an unlimited amount of game-changing cheats…provided you could figure them out.
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Disclaimer: While I enjoy watching Mixed Martial Arts, I don’t keep up with it (or for that matter other sports) as frequently as I should. Thus, my knowledge of the sport extends little beyond this game.

MMA is the new Professional Wrestling. Of course unlike Pro-wrestling, MMA is very real and very brutal, and it has been increasing in popularity. So much in fact, that THQ teamed up with the UFC to bring UFC Unleashed to consoles, so it seems only natural that EA Sports wants to throw its hat into the ring (maybe that should be cage). While EA MMA isn’t perfect, it puts together a good package and manages to give THQ a run for its money.
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