Since Iron Man 2 hit theaters this past weekend, this special Maximum Letdown will take a look at one of his misadventures. This disc from Acclaim teamed old shellhead up with Valiant comic’s legendary hero X-O MANOWAR!!! No doubt many of you poweteers are jumping in complete joy over the fact that they finally bought Manowar to video game form. Okay, not really. Many of you are more likely asking just who in the hell is X-O Manowar. X-O Manowar, a.k.a Aric of Dacia is a former Visigoth tribesman who ended up in the modern era after escaping from an alien spaceship and stealing a suit of armor. He ends up teaming with Iron Man to stop Baron Zemo and Mistress Crescendo from stealing fragments of the cosmic cube. It’s crossover madness, but sadly the game isn’t nearly up to snuff. The graphics are horrid, the levels are generic, and the two heroes are interchangeable as they have the same punch, kick, and laser attacks. Supposedly there was some heavy CGI work employed, but the characters are so small and the backdrops are nondescript, it’s hard to tell where. Of course, being that this was an Acclaim game, the play controls are clunky. In short, while this crossover video game received a lot of hype, it failed to live up to any of it. Thankfully, Capcom would do the crossover thing right a few years down the line.

On a side note, isn’t it cold that the SNES and Genesis were left out the loop? Even the Game Boy and Game Gear got a port.

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

The sixteen bit era of video games is considered by many to be the bridge between the past and modern eras of video gaming, and there were two kings of the ring: Nintendo’s Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega’s Genesis. Though there were more powerful systems that sprang up around the time, it would be these two that would outlast and outperform all of them, thanks to their accessibility. This was due not only to the technologies that the two systems boasted under the hood, but also with the library of games that were released for the two. It also gave rise to some of those most heated fanboy wars of our hobby. If you think system wars are bad now, you should have seen how bad it was during the 16-bit days, especially when system manufacturers were openly taking pot shots at each other. However, it was pointless for fanboys of both systems to argue with each other, as both systems not only had an equally impressive library of games (even if many multiplatform releases on the Sega Genesis tended to have inferior audio and visual quality to their SNES counterparts), but they outlasted and outsold the more powerful systems that sprang up around the same period. Click below to take a look back at one of gaming’s most exciting eras.
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Iron Man 2, the sequel to the 2007 smash that made Robert Downey Jr a major star and Jon Favreau more than just the guy from Swingers, opens on a record breaking 4,830 screens today. Did you see it? Did you stay after the credits? What did you think?
Leave a comment here: be honest and talk about everything. To those that haven’t seen the movie yet, do not go into the comments unless you’re willing to have key moments spoiled!

Or watch in HD.

Ken looks silly, Ryu looks silly, but the action and music are on point. I probably couldn’t stomach 2 full hours of this, but as a 3 minute video, it accurately represents a round of Street Fighter. What do you think? Leave a comment!
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Better late than never with this episode of Rewind with the mid-90’s arcade classic horror-shooter!

Shownotes after the Cut!
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The hotly anticipated RTS game, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty has been slated for release on July 27, 2010.

If you haven’t already pre-ordered the game, you can do so on Amazon and recieve a free beta key!
The Collector’s edition also includes, but is not limited to, the game’s soundtrack and a 2GB USB thumb drive that contains the original Starcraft and the expansion pack Brood War. This intrepid RTS fan will be getting the collectors’ edition. Pre-order either version via the links below!

Before Halo had players hosting 16-player LAN parties, the Bomberman games had players huddled on a couch trying to blow each other to kingdom come. Though the Bomberman series has been bought to just about every system in existence, Super Bomberman 2 is the one I love the most, if for no other reason than it was the first Bomberman game that I played. The single player game revolves around the title character being captured and having to fight his way to freedom and save the universe. You play through maze-like worlds battling enemies and gaining items. It’s fun, but the real package is the multiplayer mode. Up to 4 players can compete on one of 10 maps specifically designed for multiplayer. Like any good Bomberman game, you’ll have hours of fun trying to trap each other and catch each other in explosions.

If you’re a true gamer, you owe it to yourself to play at least one Bomberman game (the horrid Bomberman Zero notwithstanding). If not SBM2, then one of the other games in the series.