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

Surely Indiana Jones belongs in any list of the greatest characters ever put on film. Aside from the role as the (also list worthy) Han Solo, Indy is what defines Harrison Ford as a tough, charismatic actor.
He was introduced in the film “Raiders of The Lost Ark” and thats a great movie. But I’m going to focus on the movie where the character’s name actually appears above the title, “Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom”
I know this article series is supposed to focus on a lot of stuff that we as geeks either do or should respect. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is maybe the antithesis of that. We must know it so that we may learn its mistakes.
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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.

Duke Nukem. Halo. Call Of Duty. Resistance. Killzone. Goldeneye. Bioshock. Deus Ex. Quake. Timesplitters.

The list of great first person shooters goes on and on, and each game has left its own unique stamp on the genre, weather it’s the RPG-like stat progression of Bioshock and Deus Ex, the cinematic realism of Modern Warfare and Rainbow Six Vegas, the zaniness of Timesplitters and Duke Nukem, or the multiplayer action of Halo and Goldeneye. However, all of these games owe their existence and popularity to one name: Doom. While ID Software’s classic didn’t create the FPS genre (that honor many would say belongs to ID’s previous effort Wolfenstein 3D), it helped shape the face of the genre for years to come. This article will take a look at the classic and its impact on gaming.
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Goldeneye changed the direction of console first person shooter games. While there had been good console FPS games in the past, Goldeneye established a foundation of fun multiplayer and an intuitive control scheme. Who didn’t enjoy spending weekends huddled around their TV with 3 of their friends shooting each other up? When several of the original developers broke off to form their own company, Free Radical, and began work on a PS2 FPS game, many believed that good things would happen. They were right. The company’s first entry, Timesplitters was one of the best launch-window PS2 games, and its multiplayer managed to surpass Goldeneye in terms of sheer variety and fun.
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While it wasn’t nearly as well known as its peers, Taito’s Darius Twin was part of the holy trinity of 2D side scrolling shooters along with Gradius and R-Type. In the games, players faced giant fish-like enemies and collected weapons in order to defeat enemies. Although Darius Twin was the first Super Nintendo entry in the series, it’s actually the third game in the overall series. Heroes Proco and Tiat return to the planet Orga to once again stop the evil Belser. Like many of the early entries in the series, Darius Twin allowed players to chose which stages to go through between levels. While it isn’t much different from other side scrolling shooters, Darius Twin’s music, backdrops, and huge enemies help set it apart while the multiple stage paths and multiple endings help give it some replay value. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before we see this game on virtual console if it isn’t there already.

It’s Halloween weekend! Time to dress up in your costume, scare the neighbors, and grab some candy! Along with Powet’s creepiest games feature, this week’s Lost Classics and $20 GOTW focus on some very scary video games. We’ve got the most recent Castlevania along with an adventure title from the Playstation era. As a bonus, we even threw in some import love. Click below and check out the scares.
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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.

When Sony entered the market as a console manufacturer, they began a whole new era of gaming, and much of it was due to the rise of disc-based gaming. Disc based systems at the time were becoming more commonplace due to CDs being easier and cheaper to manufacture. Since they could hold more information than floppy disks and cartridges, it was easy to see why they were becoming increasingly attractive to developers. Even before the Sony, there were already several disc-based systems on the market, although few of them fully utilized the potential of the added storage space and horse power of the medium. The Sega CD for instance, was merely an add-on to the Sega Genesis. Most of its line up either consisted of amped-up versions of Sega Genesis titles, arcade ports, and interactive movies. such as the controversial Night Trap. The Super CD, an add on for the Turbographix-16, had a slightly more impressive lineup (including the highly sought after Dracula X), but it never made it beyond the borders of Japan. The 3DO, which was a standalone system, carried many of the interactive movies that graced the Sega CD, and it also boasted arcade-perfect ports of games such as Samurai Showdown and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. However, its high price tag prevented it from making a huge impact in the marketplace. The Phillips CD-I, just plain sucked.

Around the early 90s, Nintendo wanted to jump into the CD gaming market. Originally, it was Sony who would help them develop the technology that would power the new system. Sony was of course no stranger to gaming. Under the name Sony Imagesoft, they developed and published several games for their soon-to-be competitors (in fact, you may have even seen a couple of them as Lost Classics). However, the deal would fall through due to lawsuits on both sides, and Nintendo opted to go with Phillips instead. That deal would also fall apart, and Nintendo would eventually abandon the concept of a CD based gaming system altogether in favor of cartridge-based the Nintendo 64. It’s because of this reason that many suspect that the Playstation is what Nintendo’s CD system would have been. Regardless of weather or not that rumor was true, it was ironic that Sony, the people slated to work with Nintendo on their new hardware, instead usurped their place as top dog console manufacturer.
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Bandai has announced that it has chosen the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers as the next theme for the Power Rangers series. Since Transformers knocked the Power Rangers from the top spot in the young boys’ toys category, Bandai seems to have chosen a strategy to get back to the roots of their franchise in order to appeal to older fans and bring in more new fans, as well.

The toyline will feature both classic and new interpretations of the characters, zords, and more. This will be accompanied by an all new Saturday morning series debuting in January 2010 on ABC kids. The toys are scheduled to hit retail before the end of the year.

I remember tuning in Saturday mornings for the Fox Kids X-Men animated series and sticking around after to catch the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. I lost interest around the first time they changed the theme of the show. I think it became Power Rangers Zeo or something like that. I felt it was around then that it had jumped the ‘zord’, so to speak. Looking forward to see where this goes, especially if there are new zord toys.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

Press release after the jump
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During the early 80s, the video game market was in danger of dying off before it could take off. Too many manufacturers were releasing too many consoles no one cared for, and developers were making too many games that were mediocre at best. This would lead to a diminished demand for them in the consumer market as well. If that wasn’t enough, the home computer market was slowly beginning to emerge, as PCs were becoming cheaper and more easily accessible to consumers. It would be a fool’s errand for a company to attempt to reenter the market, yet Japanese developer Nintendo would jump in the market head first.
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