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

The year is 1987. J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen had just been given the reigns of DC Comics ultimate team of heroes, The Justice Leage. They’re paired with a hot new artist, Kevin Maguire, and set out to bring Justice League to a scope its never reached before, joining the UN and becoming an truly global force. But epic tales of the world’s finest aren’t why this book is so well known and loved, its revered for being funny.
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Gyruss is a shooter from Konami. Although Gyruss was originally an arcade game, but like other NES ports of arcade games, players would be more fond of its NES counterpart. Gyruss’s gameplay can best be described as ‘Galaga in a funnel’. You’re assaulted by waves of enemies, and you roll around the screen in a circle blasting at them. You travel throughout the solar system, eventually making your way toward Earth from Neptune. The NES version of the game adds new soundtrack tunes (including a remixed version of J. S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor that’s pretty catchy), a more detailed plot, new power ups, boss battles, an ending, and extra stages (including the former planet Pluto and the Sun). Like other games of its type, Gyruss has little setting apart from the rest of the pack (beside the cool music and 3d effects), but you’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Wanna have some fun with your mp3 collection? Go to Steam and download Audiosurf. This game is basically a fusion of Guitar Hero, Wipeout, and Columnus. You take control of one of many characters, each grouped by difficulty and having their own special abilities. You make your way down a racetrack, picking up colored blocks. You use these colored blocks to create clusters, which score you points. The colored blocks are synced your chosen song. The game contains additional game modes, and there is 2-player co-op play available. This is an incredibly addictive game, and it has won many awards on the independent gaming scene. Pedro Macedo Camacho, who composed the game’s original soundtrack, has won an “Excellence in Audio” award at the 2008 Independent Games Festival. Currently the game is only available on Valve’s Steam distribution network. It’s available for less than $10, so check it out and support the independent gaming scene.

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

Now we all love video games. At least most of you do. I can’t imagine that the majority of our visitors would be here if they didn’t, let alone reading this article. However, many of us can’t afford to run out and buy the latest new game when it is released, especially in this recession. Most of us have to deal with tuition/student loan payments, rent/mortgage payments, food, utilities, and in some cases, even extra mouths to feed. However, just because you’re swamped with bills doesn’t mean you have to keep playing the same games over and over again, simply because you can’t afford new ones. In this addition of the powet alphabet, I’m going to show you 10 selections straight from our weekly $20 Game of the Week feature, a.k.a the gamer stimulus package, designed to stimulate your collection and bail you out from the monotony of replaying the same titles again. I tried to cover every system here, and there is a good selection of genre offerings, so there is something for everyone. As luck would have it, this is also the 4 year anniversary of the column. All of these titles can be found for under 20 dollars anywhere you buy games from.

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What if the old-school NES Ninja Gaiden games were two players? Well, they would have played a lot like Natsume’s NES game Shadow of the Ninja. Taking control of either Hayate or Kaede (or both in 2 player mode), your goal is to stop an evil emperor named Garuda, who has taken over New York City in the year 2029 A.D. You’ll travel through 5 stages, each broken into several different subsections. The two ninjas have minor gameplay differences, and they can collect powerups and weapons. Although they can’t climb on walls like in Ninja Gaiden, they can hang on railings. While it may not have been anything players haven’t seen before, Shadow of the Ninja was an excellent game, and you could enjoy it with a friend too. Hopefully Natsum will try to get this game on Virtual Console, as fans of Ninja Gaiden will enjoy it.

Fun Fact: Speaking of Ninja Gaiden, the Game Boy entry of the series, Ninja Gaiden Shadow, was originally intended to be a Game Boy release of this game. Tecmo bought the rights to it from Natsume, and re-christened it into a Ninja Gaiden game, hence the game having a similar plot and gameplay to Shadow of the Ninja, along with some continuity questions.

When Devil May Cry debuted on the Playstation 2 years ago, it gave a new face to the action genre while providing an old-school vibe. It was like nothing gamers had ever seen before, but at the same time, you got a feeling of nostalgia just like you did when you played Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden back on the Nintendo. Devil May Cry helped set the trend of the action genre for years to come. Its fast paced action, upgradable abilities, and combo-heavy combat system helped lay a blueprint for games like Ninja Gaiden and God of War. The series almost went under due to a lackluster second entry, but a third game redeemed the series, even if it was brutally difficult. Now DMC goes next gen, and also makes its first appearance on the Xbox 360. Although DMC 4 treads familiar territory, it manages to provide a few surprises of its own, not the least of which is an all new playable character.
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

Don’t you love surprises? Like when you open a present for your birthday and actually got what you wanted or you wear an old pair of pants and find a $20 bill in them from last season? Surprises help keep life interesting and fresh, as we never know what could happen next and what the next surprise could be. This concept has been reflected upon by various forms of media to keep them fresh and interesting as well, and video games are no exception. One of the all-time great surprises video games have always had in store for us gamers is the concept of the hidden character – i.e. A secret member of the cast that does not show up on the initial roster and must either be found in-game or made accessible through various means.
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Before there was Lord of the Rings (the films, not the books) or Harry Potter, there was Willow. Co-produced by George Lucas and Ron Howard, and starring Warwick Davis (who had previously played as one of the Ewoks in Star Wars Episode VI) and Val Kilmer (long before he played his part in the destruction of the Batman film franchise in the mid 90s), Willow told the tale of a dwarf’s quest to rescue a baby from an evil sorceress queen. George had high hopes of Willow becoming Lucas’s fantasy equivalent to Star Wars, but it met low numbers at the box office and mixed reviews from critics. However, enough fans liked it enough for the film to gain cult status, and Capcom was fond enough of the property to release a pair of games based on Willow, one for the NES and the other for arcade.
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