A bit late but here it is!

This appeared originally at Swank’s Star Wars Examiner page.

Though it seems as though there are a lot of legal issues surrounding the intellectual property for the new Rogue Squadron game that was in development for the Wii console system.

Sadly, there was some bankruptcy and some shady business dealings that you can read about over at the Nintendo Examiner’s home page.

Though that part of the story is disappointing, the better part of the story is that we’re now anxiously looking forward to a new installment in the Rogue Squadron franchise.

One of my favorite moments in gaming ever was the beginning of the Battle of Endor in Rogue Squadron II for the Game Cube.  Admiral Ackbar’s cries of “It’s a Trap!” never meant so much to me after an entire game of fighting for the rebellion and turning back and seeing the entire Imperial Fleet.

It was tremendously exhilerating.  And if they get their act together with all of this legal wrangling, we might have another truly great flight simulator set in the Star Wars universe on our hands.

Gavin has posted an interview he did with Big Finish Games, one of the biggest gaming companies here in Utah. Check out the full interview over at Gavin’s Underground as he talks with Aaron Conners and Chris Jones about their careers and the game, Three Cards to Midnight.

Gavin: How did you take an interest in gaming? And what were some of your favorites growing up?

Chris: Hmmm…back when they didn’t have computers. What did the ancient Egyptians play?

Aaron: We both grew up loving board games and I always preferred them, even after I got an Atari 2600. Pacman, Donkey Kong and Asteroids came out while I was in high school, but I kind of lost interest until I actually got into the business. One game I thought was really innovative was called “Psychic Detective”. More recently, I liked Psychonauts. Pretty much any game with the word Psych in it, I guess.

Chris: We did like some of the LucasArts and Sierra games – Indiana Jones & The Fate Of Atlantis comes to mind.

Gavin: When did you become involved with Access Software?

Chris: Well, I was there from the beginning.

Aaron: I joined Access in 1991 and became their first (and only) full-time writer.

I picked up the new punch out a few weeks ago now, can’t really say why I didn’t get something written up earlier. Either way, here we go.

I can’t speak for every robot out there, but I was a gigantic nerd for the first Punch-Out on the NES. (Except not big enough of a nerd to even punch Mike Tyson, or Mr. Dream, let alone knock them down.) I have played through the NES game twice this year already, which is what I love the most about it. The fact that it is fun to pick up and play over and over again.

When I found out it was coming to the Wii my first impression was disgust. Fore I thought it would be a standing in front of your television, wriggling on a balance board, shadow punching at your screen nightmare. I know that the physical activity is one of the reasons the Wii is so cool, but this isn’t one of the reasons I bought one at all. I play video games to relax, and looking stupid, pretending I’m holding a sword on one foot, isn’t relaxing to me at all. I was pleased to find out this was not the case at all. The game allows you to do choose your controls so you can make it as wacky or as simple as you like. (I’ve heard the balance board functions doesn’t work very well.)

So not only does the game look like a nice semi-3-d version of the NES game, it can also play a lot like it too. The blocking is a bit more complicated, but it is basically the same thing. Other than a few characters, it’s just about the same opponents you’ve already faced, and most of them play through very similarly. Another aspect I really like about this game, is something most games these days don’t have the balls to do, which is an extremely short playtime. Not as short as the original mind you, but I easily beat this game in a single day.

To some people a low play time is a disadvantage, but it’s still progressively, moderately challenging. The end boss is Mr.Sandman, which seems strange, but he is clearly the toughest fighter in the game, and it takes a fair amount of skill and frustration to get him knocked down the first time. But like any other fair challenge, it’s a real pleasure when you finally overcome it.

Finally if you are a hard-core gamer that wants his or her thumbs to bleed before you vanquish a game, there is a second play through mode that is a lot harder. And I’ve heard from a reliable source that with perseverance you can also fight Donkey Kong at the end of the journey, whom is allegedly ridiculously tough.

All I can say is, it’s quite fun. I’ve casually played through it three times already, and haven’t even worried about the extra content, which is vast. If you’re one of those guys that likes the way games used to be, this is the game for you. And if you’re one of those idiots that likes standing on a balance board, holding a Wii remote above your head, pretending your fly fishing, this games for you too.

This is a title that was originally released on Japanese cell-phones, but has now taken a new incarnation on Wii-Ware. You can purchase it on the Wii-shop channel for 800 points. ($8 US dollars)

I hadn’t heard about this game until the day it came out. But since I was a big fan of the original Final Fantasy IV, and it has reminiscent graphics and game play to the original 2-D RPG’s,  I decided that I might as well check it out.

I always thought there was a void that opened when they stopped releasing 2-D RPG’s, and only released 3-D RPG’s. I have replayed all the original games over and over again thinking there was nothing wrong with these games, and hoping that the genre would come back. Dragon Warrior 8 took it back to the basics, and I was pleased with how it felt like playing the games of old, but there was still something missing. There have been a few other exceptions, and a lot of re-releases of some good 2-D RPG’s, but for the most part they have died out. Which isn’t completely relevant, but I just wanted to get the idea across of why I decided to spend $8 on something like this.

I think the first problem I have with this, is the title “The After Years” I immediately got the impression that this was kitschy. Although some of the other Final Fantasy remakes that are really cheap concepts have still been fun to play. This one is maybe even slightly better, just because it stuck to it’s roots vehemently. I only say it might be slightly better because I felt like a whore when I played Final Fantasy 10-2. (Which is a hybrid of Final Fantasy X and Charlies Angels.)

As stated it has stuck to it’s roots, it’s really similar to Final Fantasy IV, and it doesn’t make me feel like a whore. The problem is that it makes you feel like you are paying a whore. Because the way the game is divided up you pay in installments, they have the base game for 800 wii points, and then everyone’s story is 300 additional points, and the ending of the game is an additional 800 points, and so by the end you have paid just a little under $40 dollars. I think you can get by with just playing the start and the end though. I still think the pay as you go style is pretty lame.

It isn’t really good, it’s a little lame, but being a Final Fantasy IV fan I am going to buy it and play it, and form an opinion about it. So in retrospect, if you are a fan of FFIV and 2DRPG’s, than you might want to spend money on this, other wise it isn’t that good.

To sum up the story of the first chapter spoiler free, The main character is Rosa, and Cecil’s son. His name is Ceadore, he teams up with a hooded man, and they fight some of the old school bosses. They keep the old fighting system, but add in a moon factor, so depending on the phase of the moon you do different damage with different types of attacks. This could be really fun if it gets challenging.

I want to complain more about this, but I’m not feeling to well today, and it isn’t worth my time, it is really cheap entertainment, but the word entertainment applies.

Spoiler Alert:

It’s J. Jonah Jameson’s dad and Aunt May.

If you watch one video today, it needs to be this one.  Yesterday saw the release of a cinematic cut-scene from Bioware’s The Old Republic video game, a massively multi-player online roleplaying game set 3,500 years before the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker.

This might be enough to get a lot of Star Wars geeks (myself included) to buy a PC and dig into an MMORPG.

This cinemtic depicts the Sith’s sacking of Coruscant.  The backstory goes that the Sith Empire was negotiating with the Old Republic and their Jedi protectors and lured their most powerful Jedi to Alderaan for a diplomatic meeting.  While they were away, Lord Angral leads a daring assault against the heart of the Republic, centering on the Jedi Temple itself.

This video is a cut above anything I’ve ever seen in a video game and there’s nothing like a dozen Sith igniting red lightsabers in unison and charging a team of Jedi in their own temple.

Here’s the youtube version below, or you can watch it on the official site.

They are planning on releasing another Metroid game apparently it is coming out in 2010, it looks pretty bad ass. Here’s the trailer.

Pre-order your copy of Metroid Other M on Amazon. It’s ship date looks to be early 2010.

JoBlo posted the following pics: