Metroid: A Retrospective

Guess what comes out on the 31st? Metroid: Other M. I’ll have a review for that eventually, but in the meantime, I wanted to take the time to write about my experiences with the Metroid series, a series that is seriously fantastic. It may be surprisingly, but the Metroid series has in recent years become a much larger success in teh USA rather than its home ocuntry of Japan. How odd. If you’ve played a Metroid game or two, you probably already know how good the franchise is. If you haven’t played a Metroid game before, then great, this will be new territory for you. Let’s head to outer space and follow Samus around for her various missions, today for my Metroid retrospective.

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My Pokemon Team Over The Years

I’ve been thinking about Pokemon a lot lately. Part of this is because of the nice commenters on the Best Of and Worst Of Pokemon lists I posted a while ago. People were mad about which ten I liked best, and equally mad about the ten I liked least. So I figured I’d finally come out and show what my teams were over the many years I’ve been playing. This includes only the Game Boy and DS games since the games on the GameCube were, well, meh. These are the versions I owned and played, and this list isn’t intended to be a “Best Pokemon Strategies” retrospective, but rather a “This Is How I Got Through The Games” retrospective. So kick back and enjoy a nice trip down memory road.

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Think While You Have Fun!: Yahtzee

Since writing an overview of poker for the uninitiated, I have noticed how commonplace it is to find someone who has not played the traditional board games that populated my youth. But I think everyone is familiar with Yahtzee.

Origins and Comparisons

The official game began as an activity aboard a Canadian couple’s yacht in 1954 (dubbed “the yacht game” and later amended to Yahtzee). They soon asked their friend Edwin Lowe (a toy enterpriser) to make some sets of the game that they could use as gifts. Lowe agreed, in exchange for the rights to the game. By 1956, Yahtzee was being marketed as a thinking-man’s dice game.

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Forget-Me-Nots: Tie Fighter

Computers were nothing more than an advanced video game system when I was a young boy. My brother had his sports games (“NBA Jam” mostly) and I had “Star Wars: Tie Fighter.”

Released in 1994, “Tie Fighter” was the sequel to “Star Wars: X-Wing” and was the first Star Wars game that put you in the role of the Galactic Empire. They may have been bad, but the game was nothing short of awesome, and I submit it as the best flight simulator ever.

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“GoldenEye 007” for the Wii: milking our childhoods, or improving game history?

Game nerds my age all remember the game “GoldenEye 007” with fond memories. For me personally, “GoldenEye” was the reason I bought a Nintendo 64, and that was how I became a gamer at all (my early days of button-mashing on the NES don’t really count).

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Spring-loaded Serenade: Exploring Nerf

Funny how toys come about, isn’t it? As we all learned last week, Mr. Potato Head started as cereal prizes attached to real vegetables. A similar history surrounds the foam-based line of projectile (toy) weapons and soft sports balls: Nerf.

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Forget-Me-Nots: My Lone Ranger Action Figure

We’ve hit our Friday of the week, and at the moment, Kyle and I are rather busy with some big things (we’re recording a separate, legit podcast with a very special guest). That means I’m going to keep today light and nostalgic, which lends itself to a Forget-Me-Nots, the segment Kyle came up with but we haven’t been doing enough with. For today then, join me as I remember one of my favorite toys as a youth: My Lone Ranger Action Figure.

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Mr. Potato Head: Under the Tater Skin

He’s a staple of many childhoods. He’s a supporting character in a successful blockbuster series. He’s a family man. And he’s a snappy dresser, too. Mr. Potato Head has had a long history, and is one of the most famous and instantly recognizable toys in the world. How did this mustachioed vegetable rise to super stardom? Well, let’s take a look…under the tater skin. Read more

Smash Bros: A Retrospective

The idea of all my favorite Nintendo stars fighting each other in one big game was a concept I never imagined would become a reality. Even now I’m a little skeptical that it really exists, and furthermore, that it’s straight-up awesome. But somehow Super Smash Bros is a real thing and for that I couldn’t be happier. So to start a Monday off right, how about a Super Smash Bros Retrospective? That’s what I thought.

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Drench With Power: A Super Soaker Retrospective

Kyle and I touched on the Super Soaker during Episode 5 of the Too Much Awesome podcast, as well as during Kyle’s list of his Unattainable Toys from youth, but it’s summer now and along with that has unfortunately come heat. Fortunately for us kids and adults pretending to be kids, the Super Soaker still hasn’t gone out of style. So prepare for war because Super Soakers are getting their just desserts today. Read more

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