Known in Japan as Ganbare Goemon, this fun little action game with RPG elements was released shortly after the Super Nintendo launch. Ganbare Goemon is a very popular franchise in Japan, although it’s mostly unknown here. Only four games in the series have been released over here, including this one. Players took control of Kid Ying and Dr. Yang (In 2-player games) as they travel Japan to rescue princess Yuki. Players can explore the town, buy equipment, and play minigames (including the first level of Gradius), then travel through 2-d platforming style levels in order to beat the area’s boss. There is a lot of humor in the game, although a lot of it was lost during the original translation. Even so, this is still an excellent game for all ages. It’s available on the virtual console now, so if you didn’t blow your points on Bonanza Brothers, then download this.

A while ago, I featured this game’s predecessor. Empire interactive decided to bring this one over to the states, leaving the Xbox version in limbo. This game packs in over 1/3rd more contend than the previous Taito legends, and it takes a large number of games from the 90s. Along with some more remakes of Space invaders, the game contains a large number of beat-em-ups, platforming, and puzzle games. While Quix, Elevator Action 2, Arabian Magic, and Growl are some of the standouts on this disc, the real gem of this compilation is G Darius, a shooter utilizing polygon graphics. This compilation may not have very many big names, but like the previous entry, there is something for everyone on here, and for $20, you certainly won’t be disappointed.

Also of interest is Taito Legends powered up for PSP. It’s also $20 and may receive it’s own entry at some point.

It’s been approximately three weeks since seeing Spider-Man 3 in theatres, and I figure by this time either you’ve seen the movie, or you don’t plan on seeing it. And now, with Pirates of the Caribbean 3 having come out this past Thursday and my own plans doing an eventual review of that, I should probably get to my previous priority of sharing my take of this movie. I’ve premeditated this more than I should have.

So of course, I had been wanting to see Spider-Man 3 for the longest damn time. As soon as I heard that that they were going to do the black costume story arc, and there was going to be at least an introduction of Venom into the scene, I got about as giddy as I possible could, which says a lot for me. Even after hearing that they were also going to be throwing Sandman in as a villain as well, I was deterred at all, because as I’m sure the rest figured as well, I was hoping this would just be and introduction into Venom story, and they’d actually debut him at the very end of the movie as a teaser, or they’d simply lead up to him showing up fully in a 4^th movie. Everything was going to be fine, I assured myself.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

We’ve got not one, but TWO Guitar Hero sequels heading our way.

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80s will be out this summer and will be functionally identical to Guitar Hero II, just with an 80s theme. It will be released only to the PS2, but songs from the disc are likely to appear as downloadable content on Xbox Live for Xbox 360.

Guitar Hero III will hit PS2, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360. The new guitar designs will be based on the Gibson Les Paul (my guitar!) and the Gibson Kramer (seen at left with celebrity endorsement)

Songs revealed so far after the break [Read the rest of this entry…]

Theres not much more about these games that hasn’t been said by myself or aDam, but if you missed out on them, Lucasarts is compiling all the gameplay from both LEGO Star Wars games into one monster title called LEGO Star Wars The Complete Saga. They’re throwing in some new stuff of course, and the DS game is going to be new from the ground up (which is good because the port of LSW 2 didn’t go over so hot).

PS3 and Wii owners will of course be happy to get the games for the first time on their platforms, but XBox 360 players might feel slightly cheated. LSW 2 came out on the system only last year, and added download content from the prequel trilogy for a price. Oh well!

No release date or price yet, but it should be soon, and even at $60 its reasonable cost for the mountain of solid fun for all ages game play.

One of the best reasons to buy Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade is now heading toward’s Nintendo’s twin screen portable and waggle powered console.

I speak of course of Geometry Wars. Sierra Entertainment has licensed the frantic shooter from Bizarre Creations and will be adding a full single player campaign, co-op multiplayer, and connectivity between the DS and Wii. Titled “Geometry Wars Galaxies” it will be available as a stand alone release instead of a download title. The Geometry Wars Retro Evolved will be included in the package as well.

The original game is a pick-up-and-play masterpiece. Powet’s own Screwface Capone sang GW’s praises in his weekly column. Adding to the complexity of the game could destroy it, or it could make it better than I ever imagined. This is one port I’ll really have to play to appreciate. At the very lease, the asthetic hasn’t changed, the above screen shot from the Wii version looks pretty much identical to the XBLA one.

Thankfully, one feature will be retained from the XBLA classic: Online leaderboards! Nothing drove me to get better at this game more than knowing a friend had only a couple thousand points more than me. No other Wii game has been announced with this feature so hopefully it’ll spark developers to add it in for appropriate games.

Full press release follows
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Recently, we reported on the revelation of Heath Ledger as the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie. The site that once showed the defaced Harvey Dent campaign poster and then the frightening image of Ledger in character, IbelieveinHarveyDentToo.com, has been updated once more. The page shows a message of “Page Not Found.” However, if you highlight the entire page, you see hidden text. Essentially its HA HA HA over and over and over again in varying font sizes and capitalization. Interspersed among the H’a and A’s are randomly inserted letters. Being the lazy person I am, I copied the entirety of the hidden text into Textpad, my text editor of choice, and did a search for H, A, a and h and replaced with a null (“”).

The results: Pgenotfound.seeYOuInDECeMbER

Who remembers Mystery Science Theatre 3000?

Ok, I don’t think I honestly need to ask that question, seeing as how if you don’t know what MST3K is, you should just surf away from this site right now. (err, no wait…come back) Anyway, for those who do remember the syndicated television show where one man and 2 robots would constantly rip on older horror and science fiction flicks like a in-film perversion of Siskel & Ebert, but regret the fact that the show no longer runs featuring some newer films to dump on, you’re in luck!

RiffTrax.com features MST3K’s Michael J. Nealson doing various movie critiques of some of the field’s more recent cinema, such as the the morse recent Star Wars Trilogy, Eragon, Casino Royale, and The Matrix – all in Mystery Science Theatre format of halarity. All you have to do is download the MP3 commentary that goes with your movie of choice, and play it at the same time as the DVD!

http://www.rifftrax.com/

Of course, there is a downside – you have to pay. Each movie MP3 is about $2-$3

So, if you’re feeling bored some night and have the money to spend for some tried-and-true funny times, then this might be right up your alley. Otherwise, you may just want to get your friends liquored up and pop in Army of Darkness or Happy Gilmore.