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

When Timely comics became Marvel during the 1960s, creator Stan Lee, along with creators such as Jack Kirby and Steve Dtiko, helped the company create a new breed of superheroes. In the process, they introduced the world to Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, and other soon-to-be household names. What made these guys so special was that unlike the characters created by their distinguished competition, it was easy to relate to these guys. For decades, fans read about people like Superman and Wonder Woman who had near-godlike power and an almost mythic stature. Even Batman, despite not having any powers, was the pinnacle of human achievement. With Marvel however, people read stories about people who had superpowers but had to deal with hang-ups and issues like we do. When they weren’t exploring the Negative Zone or fighting Doctor Doom, The Fantastic Four bickered and quarreled with each other like any other semi-functional family. In between battles with Kang the Conqueror and the Masters of Evil, the Avengers played cards, pulled pranks on each other, went shopping, and hung out as if they were a fraternity or club rather than a superhero group. Peter Parker, a.k.a Spiderman, was a normal teenager like anyone else (save for his superpowers of course), so he had to deal with grades, girls, and bullies as often as he had to deal with symbiotes, idiots with fishbowls for heads, and psychopaths flying on gliders. By the way, this is not to imply anything negative about DC, because there isn’t anyone who hasn’t grown up with Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. Besides, DC themselves would adopt this real world approach to its heroes, with storylines about Green Arrow’s sidekick having a drug addiction and the Jason Todd Robin confronting an abusive husband.

Marvel comics also frequently dealt with social issues as well. Spiderman was all about responsibility and power, Captain America examined what it meant to be a patriot in modern day America, and Iron Man even tackled alcoholism. One comic book in particular captured the mood of the period like no other. It was called X-men, and its premise about a sub-race of humanity fighting for their very right to exist resonated perfectly with the struggles that the African American community had to face at the time. Over the next few decades, the X-men’s popularity would increase to staggering proportions, making it one of the best selling comics world wide, and spinning off into a franchise of movies, TV shows, video games, and toys.
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Well, now that the turkey is digested and the Black Friday bargain hunting is done, it’s time to get a start on your holiday shopping. Of course, I’m here to help you get a head start. For the $20 GOTW, I’ve got one of those new-fangled rhythm games that the kids seem to love so much, and for the lost classic, I got one of those old-school style PC RPGs that a select few tend to love.
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The best way to describe Epic/Chair Entertainment’s Xbox Live offering is an old school gaming experience with a new school style. Although Shadow Complex contains 3D graphics powered by Unreal 3, its gameplay is reminiscent of old school 2d games such as Metroid. The game’s plot, penned by comic book writer Peter David (The Incredible Hulk, X-Factor), is a side story to the Orson Scott Card novel Empire. You play as Jason Flemming, an everyday guy who was doing some rock climbing with his girlfriend Claire. When Claire is captured by members of a terrorist organization (which has already assassinated the vice president by the way), it’s up to you to rescue her.
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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.

Back in the gaming days of yore, the multiple genres of video games defined what type of gamer the person playing would be. You had your RPG gamers, your FPS gamers, your sidescrolling-adventure gamers, and your sports gamers, to name a few. (Though the sports gamers are considered a completely separate category from the rest and its fans are often rejected as being gamers at all. You know what I’m talking about) There was also the highly competitive fighting gamer. Despite one-on-one fighting games existing prior to its release, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter helped shape the genre into a more standardized style and gained it a following. It also found a niche in the arcade scene, and soon arcades across the nation were featuring fighting games left and right. However, MK and SF couldn’t carry the genre alone. Games like Primal Rage and NightWarriors soon popped up to satisfy the masses. Midway saw the goldmine that Mortal Kombat had brought in, and decided to try another fighting game in order to bank on the growing success. This game was Killer Instinct.
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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.

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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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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Like beat-em-ups, the light-gun shooter is a genre that gained most of its popularity during the 8 – 32 bit generations of gaming. However, as the mechanic is quite simplistic, the shooter genre has slowly been losing its appeal since its arcade heyday, just like the beat-em-up. Moreover, most light gun shooters can be completed in less than half an hour, making them shallow and light on content. To truly gain the attention of gamers, light gun games have to do something innovative and eye-catching. House of the dead featured zombies and showers of blood. Time Crisis featured a duck pedal, allowing players to seek cover and catch their breaths. Silent Scope featured a sniper rifle, and relied on precision and calculation rather than being a simple blast-a-thon. Police 911 (which really should be bought to Wii using the Wiimotion plus and maybe the balance board) translated player’s motions into onscreen action, getting the player’s body involved in the game.

The SuperScope, probably the most beloved of the home console light guns, demonstrated plenty of potential for innovation in the light gun genre. Heck, the 6-game pack that came with it featured a puzzle game and a variation on whack-a-mole. It’s buttons and unique shape gave developers some unique options on to use for gameplay. While most games for the SuperScope never moved far away from the usual Operation-Wolf format, there were a few unique games using the peripheral. One of these games is Metal Combat: Falcon’s revenge.
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