Ever wanted to play as a badass in a suit of armor? Sega’s Ranger X gives players that chance. Taking control of Ranger X, players battle against alien invaders. You have several weapons at your disposal, and many of them can recharge in brightly lit areas. Also your power suit allows you to hover for a limited time.

Oh, and there is a motorcycle as well! It moves and fires independently of Ranger X, but he can board it at any time to take advantage of its separate shielding. The game’s graphics do a good job of pushing the system’s hardware to its limits, and the game provides a good challenge. Ranger X is one of those games which does something different with the standard shooter genre, and should be enjoyed by Genesis owners. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before this shows up on the Virtual Console.

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Laputa is an island castle which floats in the sky. These days it’s most commonly thought of as the castle from the movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki, but originally the story of Laputa was told as a minor part of the classic novel Gulliver’s Travels in which a similarly floating island carries the same name. There are similarities and differences between the two, both of which I’ll look at to try to give a complete picture of what Laputa really means.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

So what is Gulliver’s Travels? It’s a fictional novel by Jonathan Swift from 1726, told in a narrative as if it were a retelling of real events from the travels of one Lemuel Gulliver. This story has been told time and time again, the most iconic image from it being that of a seemingly giant Gulliver being surrounded by the tiny people of Lilliput. Among the many places that Gulliver travels to in the book is the floating city of Laputa.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

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Every once in a while, a game comes along that challenges gamers to think. Not just in a problem solving way, but a way to really think about the message that the game is trying to convey. Braid is one of those games. On the surface, the game resembles other platformers, specifically Super Mario Brothers. Even the plot seems like something you’ve seen before: the princess has been kidnapped by a monster, and you make your way through different worlds, only to be told again and again that the princess is in another castle. However, the game’s method of story telling, art style, and mechanics turn the whole thing over on its head.
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Out of all the Playstation 1 Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy IX is perhaps my least favorite, although for old school fans, it’s perhaps the most memorable. While VII and VIII took the series in new directions with more futuristic settings and new gameplay mechanics, FF IX put an old school spin to the series modern look. While the game’s plotline seems more slapstick and cartoonish than the previous FF titles (and this is the main gripe I had with it), it’s still a good dedication to FF fans who may have felt alienated by the more recent entries in the series. With FF XIII hitting stores this past week, what better time to flashback to this blast from the past.
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One of my favorite toy lines as a kid was M.U.S.C.L.E., which stood for Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere! Unfortunately, there was little to no story given to these bizarre two inch figures. One must look to its Japanese origins from the series Kinnikuman (literally ‘muscle man’) to really understand what M.U.S.C.L.E. was all about. That is why today is K for Kinnikuman.
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Half Minute Hero is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the classic titles of the 8-bit era while at the same time providing a new and frantic style of gameplay. Half Minute Hero depicts the story of the Time Goddess’s battle against an ancient evil that spans several centuries. You’ll take control of 4 heroes, each with their own style of play. Hero 30 is a role playing game in which you have 30 seconds to clear each level. You’ll have to discover hidden treasures, level up, and even perform sidequests, all within a 30 second time limit. You’ll have to visit the goddess statue to refill your time. Evil Lord 30 is a real time strategy game that places you in the role of a former villain who is out to lift the curse placed on his lover. You’ll have 30 seconds to complete each stage, and you’ll battle enemies by summoning monsters. Princess 30 is a shooter in which players take control of a princess who is out to find medicine for her sick father. You’ll have 30 seconds to make it to the other side of the screen, grab the item, then run back. In Knight and Wizard 30, players control a knight who has to guard a wizard as he casts his spell, which takes him 30 seconds. There is also a hidden 5th mode, and a multiplayer mode.

Half Minute Hero gives players something new and different, and the frantic 30 second action (along with the Time Goddess’s one liners) while have you grinning from ear to ear. It’s also an awesome parody of the 8-bit era, and it’s a must have for PSP owners. It’s too bad that it didn’t do the numbers they should have, but now that it’s at the $20 price range, it shouldn’t have much trouble finding it’s way into a few more PSP units.

Show Notes after the cut.
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FF XIII hits stores this week. It’s the first FF game to go multiplatform on day one, hitting both Xbox 360 and PS3. Like its predecessors, it will no doubt do huge numbers and will be nominated for many a year-end reward. Is it any wonder? Ever since FF VII, Final Fantasy has enjoyed the mainstream success reserved for American games like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and Madden. However, during the franchise’s 16-bit it wasn’t always this way. Final Fantasy, along with RPGs in general, had a hard time getting over with an audience that was used to fast-paces sports, action, and fighting games. So to that end, Square theorized that maybe, it’s flagship RPGS were simply too hard for American audiences. So to that end, they released Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It was aimed at people new to RPGs, so Square decided to ‘dumb it down’ a bit. Problem was, that it ended up getting so dumbed down that it got to a point where it actually insulted the intelligence of the RPG newbies whom it was aimed at.
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