In the waning months of 1994, fans were packed in at theaters across North America waiting to see the Live Action adaptation of Capcom’s Street Fighter. Me, my mom, and my 9-year old brother were just three of these fans that were packed in at one theater ready to see what was sure to be a silver-screen celebration of the arcade fighting action that we enjoyed for years. What we got instead was a cinematic clusterfuck featuring Jean-Claude Van Damne, Kylie Minogue (before she was hot), and Ming Na (before anyone knew who she was), along with a host of no-names helping the directors obviously cash-in on the host of Street Fighter fans. Although Raul Julia’s performance helped to redeem the film. I’m not saying this out of respect for the deceased mind you (Street Fighter was Raul Julia’s last role as he died before it’s release), but out of all the actors on the screen, his was the most enjoyable to watch. That, and the awesome MC Hammer/Deion Sanders collaboration “Straight to My Feet” helped keep the film from being a total failure. Enough about that however. A few months earlier, on the other side of the Pacific ocean, our Japanese cousins were also gearing up for their own Street Fighter movie. Unlike us, the Japanese were treated to a cinematic masterpiece that bought the characters that we loved into a whole new light, and gave them voices and personalities in a way no other video game adapted work has done before and few have done since.
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Years before Halo’s Firefight, Gears of War 2’s Horde mode, and Call of Duty’s Zombie mode made this style of play popular, Killing Floor made co-op survival popular ammongst FPS gamers. Originally conceived as a total conversion mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, The Killing Floor spun off into its own retail game. Playing as one of a group of soldiers, you stave off an invasion of mutated people with a variety of weapons. You must survive each round by any means necessary, be it making it to high ground, barracading yourself in, or simply shooting everything that moves. In between rounds you can buy weapons from the merchant, and you simply play to outdo your score. If you enjoy Left 4 Dead’s brand of co-op survival horror, you’ll love Killing Floor. It’s free to play on Steam this weekend, and if you like what you play, you can purchase it for just $5.

In 2009, Rocksteady developed the first good Batman game since the 16-bit days (okay, it was that but…) the best Batman game in recent history (okay, it was that too but…) the definitive Batman game (it was that until Arkham City was released earlier this fall) the second best Batman game ever. By taking cues from Bioshock, Metroid, and some of Marvel’s recent games, Batman Arkham Asylum puts players in the role of the Caped Crusader in a way that few games have done before. By presenting its own visual style and providing tons of fan service, Batman Arkham Asylum becomes one of the best comic-inspired games of this console generation.
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So you’re wondering why I didn’t throw this up for Black Friday. Well number one, you obviously want the weekend free to spend time with your loved ones right? Two, these aren’t black Friday sales. In fact, they aren’t Cyber Monday, Brown Thursday, White Saturday, Blue Tuesday, or Red October sales. You can get these games for $20 or less regardless of what time of the year you buy them, so there is no need to get up early, stand in line at 2am, fight through the crowd, or use pepper spray on anyone. You save on these games 24/7/365, so these are Green Everyday sales. Of course Green Everyday sounds stupid, so we’ll just call it the $20 Game of the Week like we’ve been doing.

P.S. These are all downloadable, so you ain’t even gotta leave your house!
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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we certainly have a lot to be thankful for, such as our friends, family, jobs, health, and fortune. We as gamers especially have cause to be thankful. With all the games being canceled throughout the years, we’ve had several classic games that have made to store shelves. On the flip side, we should also be thankful for all the crappy titles that were not released. This is a follow up to this past summer’s article about canceled games. As you read this list, be thankful for all those triple A titles you enjoyed that were released.
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The trailer for “Brave” has just just been released. The movie features a defiant heroine who goes against her parents’ wishes and does what is considered to be a man’s job! How progressive! The film is being praised for being Pixar’s first movie with a female lead… but why is this praiseworthy? Welcome to the 1960s. To me this only demonstrates that every other Pixar film to date has been excessively male centric.

Being impressed with such a progressive character is incredibly outdated. Female leads in movies are great, and there are far too few, but praising a studio who hasn’t done this sooner is ludicrous. Pixar is not doing anything that other movies with it’s same target demographic haven’t done. Let’s look at recent Disney movies for comparison. Disney’s latest film, Tangled, had a female lead who was strong, defied convention, did her down thing and even kicked tons of ass, though with a frying pan. Brave seems like little more than a rehash of Mulan, itself from 1998. Are we really breaking new ground 13 years later by doing the exact same thing?

Around the time that the PS 3 was announced, a massively multiplayer online based on the DC comics universe was also announced. After several years in development, it has arrived. Although it received mixed reviews, players enjoyed being able to interact with heroes such as Superman and Batman while visiting locations such as Gotham city and the Fortress of Solitude. A few months ago, the game went free-to-play, and its subscriber base saw a huge jump. With most of the game’s features available for free, now is a great time to jump in if you’re a fan of superheroes.
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Super Mario 3D Land was released for the 3DS yesterday. After months of lacklustre titles, this one looks to be the first original title for the system worthy of owning. I’ve put in a solid evening of gameplay and progressed through roughly half the game, and I’d like to share my first impressions.

Immediately the game is reminiscent of Nintendo era Super Mario Bros. games. While Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy all had a some of features reminiscent of older games, this game has many more. While other more recent games feel like they take place in their own new worlds, this game at times feels like you’re in a 3D version of Super Mario Bros. 3. The Tanooki suit makes a welcome return, as well the old classics like the fire flower and a new suit, the Boomerang Bro. suit, which while new is itself a throwback to characters from old games.

Keep reading for more thoughts.
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