Para seguir leyendo pulsa aquí.

Los juegos en cuestión son:

• Arrow Flash (Megadrive)
• Gradius (NES)
• R-Type (Master System)
• Truxton (Megadrive)

Podéis leer los análisis y ver sus puntuaciones después del salto.

Arrow Flash

Gradius

R-Type

Truxton

]]> http://cronogenesis.wordpress.com/?p=114 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:17:09 +0000 cronogenesis http://cronogenesis.de.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/this-week-in-wiids-issue-one-all-eyes-on-wii/

This Week In WiiDs - Issue One - All Eyes On Wii

Hello and welcome to This Week In WiiDs, I’m Jack “The Jumpman” Smith and whether your at home, at work or trying to fill the gap while your favourite Nintendo Podcast takes a break, this is the best place for news, views and discussion direct on the forum.

Welcome to Issue One of This Week In WiiDs, published on July 25th 2008, your weekly roundup of all things Nintendo while the podcast is on Hiatus. I aim to bring you everything you love about the show, plus a little extra straight to the forums every week for your viewing pleasure.

Question Of The Week

This weeks Question of the Week is from Dark_Link:

"What would you like to see on Nintendos next hand held?I would like a special stylus that when you twist is it would twist what was on the screen.
Thanks!
Oliver Ronaldson"

Thanks for the question Dark_Link :) Personally I’m going to be quite boring and say Rumble. All the games that utilise rumble on the GBA and DS have all used it brilliantly and it’s added that little extra spark. Plus, being a handheld means that you will get a much more engaging feedback response. The only issue would be in interfering with the touch screen in terms of tapping accuracy, but if it used well rather than a vibrationfest it would be a great addition.

Thats my thoughts, but what about yours? Please reply to this weeks issue with what you would like to see in your next-gen handheld.

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If you have a question of the week for This Week In WiiDs, please send me a PM and i’ll be sure to use it. Any unused questions will be forwarded to be used on the podcast. If you want to get in touch with the team, you can email them at Wiidspodcast@googlemail.com and if you register this link on your Wii we will send you a message to your Wii as soon as we are back on air as well as when further episodes are released. You can also check out the WiiDs blog at http://www.wiids-podcast.com for more news, views and discussion as well as the latest updates. You can also find us snooping around the forums at http://www.wiidsforum.com, so feel free to leave us a message or PM and we will make sure you are the first to know when we are back on air.

News

This weeks headlines:

• Microsoft Wants Wii60 Motion Solution
• Pirates Play On Unmodded Wii’s
• Judge’s Ban Causes Controller Chaos
• Wii Takes Top Title

Microsoft Wants Wii60 Motion Solution

We’ve all heard the rumours about Microsofts attempt at motion controls, but interviews this week have revealed that Microsoft might be trying to take a different apporach to their motion solution. John Schappert (Vice President of Xbox Live) was recently quoted as saying that they were very interested in the idea of using the Wiimote in conjunction with the Xbox 360. While it is slim to none that this agreement would ever see the light of day, Reggie wouldn’t deny any possibility.

While this may not be big news on it’s own, this certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen Microsoft try and get close to Nintendo, with Rare having announced that they had managed to create DS-Xbox360 connectivity and pre-Xbox there was even talk of an attempt from Microsoft to buy out Nintendo. We’ve also seen Microsoft try and recreate Nintendo’s ideas and philosophy with many titles announced that will try and attract the expanded audience and their new Avatar system that bears more than a slight resemblance to Nintendo’s Mii’s. Such a deal would definately benefit Microsoft, as a partnership with Nintendo would pretty much spell the end for Sony as well as open up their markets to more casual gamers. However, in this generation, such a deal would seriously damage the Wii, so as I stated, it would be very unwise for Nintendo to think about such a proposal for this generation of gaming. Still, with Microsoft becoming ever more interested in Nintendo’s ways, perhaps a partnership may not be impossible in the far future.

Source

Pirates Play On Unmodded Wii’s

The battle between Piracy and Nintendo has always been a long one, but when Bushing, one of the Wii’s leading hackers, responsible for assisting in the Twilight Hack and Homebrew Channel, sent an open letter to Nintendo, it looked like Piracy may have won the war. The letter described read:

“Dear Nintendo

As part of our efforts to understanding how the Wii works, we believe we have found a security issue that could allow pirated Wii games to be played on an unmodified Wii console.”

If such a bug was released into the public domain it would definitely hurt Nintendo as it could be easily and cheaply (if not freely) implemented, However, they might be able to survive, despite the lack of sales and possibly support from third parties as they have done with the DS, which continues to sell impossibly well despite having one of the most thriving piracy scenes of this generation. Luckily, Bushing is not looking at releasing this into the public domain, instead trying to work with Nintendo to prevent the flaw from being exploited. However, the worry still remains as others may find this exploit now its existence has been confirmed, and as Bushing himself has admitted, we still have no idea how most of the Wii works. Therefore this may only be the tip of the iceburg in our magic white box’s secret buggy insides.

Source

Judges Ban Causes Controller Chaos

This week, a Judges ruling has banned the sale of Gamecube, Wavebird and Classic controllers in America as well as $21 million in damages. Nintendo was brought to court by the small Texas based company, Anascape, who claimed that Nintendo violated their patent on a control device utilising six degrees of freedom. They had initially lost their case in May, receiving a fine of $21 million, but their failure to overturn, or at least reduce, the damages has proven unsuccessful. Nintendo is currently trying to appeal to the U.S Court Of Appeals in the Federal Circuit and the ban will be put on hold, however, Nintendo will have to either post a bond, or place royalties in an escrow to avoid the halt.

Sony and Microsoft were also challenged, however Sony decided to licence the patent in 2004 while Microsoft decided to settle out of court.

While the ban has been put on hold during this appeal, if they loose their case once more, it will hurt Nintendo’s profits. Fortunately as they no longer manufacture Gamecube and Wavebird controllers, they will only be loosing money on Classic Controllers, however, without these three controllers, a large portion of Nintendo’s Virtual Console titles will be rendered unplayable. Therefore allowing the ban to continue will not be an option.

If Nintendo is successful they should be able to overturn the ban and reduce the damages to be paid, so will it be third time lucky for the gaming giants?

Source / Patent

Wii Takes Top Title

We knew it was coming, in fact it was inevitable and it’s a surprise it hasn’t happened sooner, but the Nintendo Wii has finally taken over the top spot of most consoles sold in the US from Microsofts Xbox 360. Despite a year head start, Microsoft has been unable to produce enough demand to keep their top place and the Wiis phenomenal sales show no sign of slowing down with 133,000 sales per week. So far the Wii has sold 3.5 million un its this year, with the PS3 following second with 1.6 million units, closely followed by the Xbox 360 with 1.34 million units sold.

The DS also continues to dominate the handheld scene, with 150,000 units sold per week. On top of this Nintendo also took six of the ten best selling games of June, with Guitar Hero: On Tour, Wii Fit, Lego Indiana Jones for Wii and DS and Wii Play, which remains in the top ten for it’s seventeenth month in a row, yet to fall from the charts with a total of six million units sold.

Source

New Announcements

This is the new announcements section, where each week we tell you what new titles have surfaced and are on their way to you soon.

While E3 may be over, the announcement of new games are still rolling in fast, with new games announced for the Wii and WiiWare.

First up is Sonic And The Black Knight, which sees Sonic enter the world of Authurian legends, as you dash and slash your way through a series of missions. The game will be using a similar level system to Sonic And The Secret Rings with multiple objectives given in each world, but replaces the tilty movement with nunchuck controls (presumably to leave the Wiimote open to waggle). You can read more here.

From Capcom we have had the announcement of Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, which is a port of the Xbox360 title of the same name. The game will be based on the Resident Evil 4 engine and see you pitted against a shopping mall full of zombies as you try and survive. Source

However, this isn’t the only Wii title that we will be seeing from Capcom as in a recent interview they hinted that we have only seen half of the titles currently in development for Wii. So while there are no details, expect something soon! Source

Natsume have also announced plans to make a sequel to their puzzle title Puzzle De Harvest Moon. The original was a very interesting concept, but ultimately a bit shallow in its offerings so a well made sequel could tick all the right boxes. They also announced interest in making a WiiWare title but where this is the title mentioned above, or a new title remains unclear. Source

Speaking of Wiiware, Konami have just announced a WiiWare version of their classic title Gradius. From what i’ve seen so far it looks like the game will deliver the side scrolling shooting fun of the original, only with vastly improved graphics and sound. Source

We’ve also had an announcement of a new rhythm dancing game for WiiWare known as Helix. It looks like the game will involve striking poses using two Wii Remotes to the beat. The title looks to have a good selection of tracks and should be available this Autumn. Source

We’ve also had two new ERSB rating for Virtual Console titles. These titles are Sonic the Hedgehog on the Master System, which is for... you guessed it, the Master System and Splatterhouse 2 for the Mega Drive.

New This Week

Here’s what you can expect to see on your local retailers shelves this week in Europe:

Wii:

• No Wii games this week I’m afraid

Ds:

• Mr Slime ( 25/07/2008 )
• Race Driver: GRID ( 25/07/2008 )

Here’s what you can expect to see on your local retailers shelves this week in North America:

Wii:

• SNK Arcade Classics V1 ( 23/07/2008 )
• MLB Power Pros 2008 ( 28/07/2008 )
• King Of Clubs ( 29/07/2008 )
• Summer Athletics ( 29/07/208 )

Ds:

• Suzuki Superbikes ( 29/07/2008 )

WiiDs Online

Welcome to the Online section of the magazine, where we take a look at what’s new for download on the Wii, say hello to some new faces and take a look at the best forum topics this week.

Download Station

This week in Europe we’ve been given three new Virtual console titles. First up is Neo Turf Masters for Neo Geo (900 Points). Neo Turf Masters is a rather nice looking golf title with four 18-hole courses to explore and expect the usual power bar timing you’ve come to expect from golf games. If your a fan on the genre this is definitely worth a look. Next up is International Karate Plus for the Commadore 64 (500 points). This is pretty similar to International Karate released at the Commadores VC launch, only slightly prettier and the ability to have three fighters at once (but only two players). It’s highly rated by fans, but may its repetitive nature and unforgiving combat may drive some people away. Lastly we have City Connection for the NES (500 points) which is a strange car based platformer where your aim is to pain all the roads white without getting caught by the police. It’s obscurity leads for an interesting, but ultimately boring experience making this game 499 or so points too much for its enjoyment.

This week the US has been given two Mega Drive games and one new WiiWare title. First up is Super Fantasy Zone (900 Points), which is a colourful side scrolling shooter, so expect the usual mass onslaughts of enemies and rapid fire fun. Also this week sees the release of Gley Lancer (900 Points) which is another side scrolling shooter, only with a more futuristic theme. One WiiWare title also made it’s way to the Wii Shop in the form of Pirates: The Key Of Dreams (1000 Points) which sees you battling various pirate ships over ten levels. While the gameplay mechanics are fun, it’s on the short side so if your looking for a single player game, your money might be better spent elsewhere.

Japan has received a new Wii channel this week called the "Print Mii Out" (made up name) channel. This allows you to send off photos stored on your SD cards to be made into prints, photo books or business cards. There seems to be a good range of customisation and the prices seem fair, you can even have your Mii put on your business card :) There’s no news on a Western release yet, but we will let you know as soon as more information is released.

If that wasn’t enough, Japan has also received a code redemption section in their Shop Channel. This will be used to redeem free software using codes that come packaged in retail games. No word on what will be offered through this service as of yet, but it reminds me of the Band Bros DX, Speaker Channel, which allows Wii compatibility with the said DS game. This came with a redemption code, so perhaps we will be seeing more WiiDs connectivity in the near future.

There’s also been a new Wii update released this week. This basically installs some of the code required for the new Album channel to work correctly, so it’s nothing to get excited about.

New Members

New to the forums this week are:

• Tush
• Zimboo
• Lukepuke93
• McLovin

Welcome to the community and we look forward to talking with you :)

Topic Of The Week

This section is for the best news and discussions started by you the listeners. Be sure to check the following topic and post.

This weeks Topic Of The Week is by Darkoopa who asks “What do you want to see on your own custom DS?” We’ve had some very interesting ideas so far, from simple colour designs to character art. Theres also some very snazzy pictures of some of the rarest DS designs, so it’s definitely worth a look. Check Out the thread here.

And Finally...

After Butternut posted up a song based on the tune to Rainbow Road I did a bit of surfing and found this masterpiece based on the theme tune to Super Mario World. Is there no end to peoples lyrical imagination?

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Thats it for another Week In WiiDs. Please let us know your thoughts and opinions on the following topics as well as any feedback.

Until next time, We’ve Sown The Seeds, Now You Grow The WiiDs!

Al menos el viaje a Gijón tuvo su parte productiva, me agencie los tomos 2 y 3 de MPD Psycho:

Los tomos 1 y 2 del cómic de Metal Gear Solid:

Y además he tenido la suerte de encontrar el Gradius V:

Ya tengo nuevo juego que disfrutar hasta la salida del Yakuza 2.

Technically, that wasn't "the same old crap" it was "mostly new but modernized awesome crap".

Then Nintendo launched Wiiware.  The first big announcement everyone is shitting bricks about is Mega Man 9.

Capcom's going all out on this one.  We've reverted backwars from the pretty PSX Mega Man 8, past even Mega Man 7's 16 bit graphics, into the 8 bit days.  They've given us a game that is technically the greatest achievement of 1993.  I think I even saw some flicker and slowdown in the demo video going around.

They've even decided to prive some old school stlye "Classic Box Art".  You know, back when we'd get some sort of over dramati 80s movie poster rip off art because "American's won't get cutesy anime".

This game is like being 12 and wearing a shirt witha  NES controller on it that reads "Old Skooler".  Guess what, you're 12, "Old Skool" for you is the fucking Playstation 2.

Mega Man isn't the only series getting a classic treatment.  We're also getting a New Old Gradius game. I can actually forgive this game's 16bitness a bit more since the GBA is still reasonably fresh and does the same sort of trick.

Also I'm pretty sure Gradius is a game series that hasn't evolve at all graphically for the last 20 years.

Just wait for New Super Mario Brothers 2 on Wii Ware, with single scrolling technology and the Red and Brown Mario.  It'll be awesome!  Just like 1985!  OH FUCK HOW DO THEY KEEP THE SCREEN FROM SCROLLING LEFT WHEN I WALK LEFT IT"S SO AWEXOME!!!@@!11

Anyway, now you can argue that "The video game industry is out of ideas".

Hoje o site da IGN revelou o anúncio da Konami que deve deixar os saudosistas de plantão bem felizes. Trata-se de Gradius Rebirth, remake do clássico Gradius que vai sair para a Wiiware, com gráficos aparentemente em 16-bits. Até agora só temos uma imagem, com a nave sobrevoando uma Moai (a clássica cara de pedra que faz ponta em vários títulos da empresa):

Ok, il filmato è un pò triste.

Senza sonoro.

Senza immagini.

Solo testo bianco su sfondo nero.

Però l'effetto nostalgia è assicurato, soprattutto per chi avrà giocato, negli anni passati a delle avventure testuali, le stesse che mi hanno insegnato l'inglese. Talmente bene che, a lavoro, tutti si stupiscono che non abbia fatto una scuola di lingue, ma è un altro discorso.

Giusto per favorire la comprensione: le avventure testuali erano i videogiochi dei primissimi anni '80, quando le schede grafiche erano una favola che si raccontava agli sviluppatori prima di mandarli a letto ("se non fai il bravo, viene la scheda grafica e ti porta via!") e le tre dimensioni erano una leggenda solo sussurata. In pratica era come leggersi un libro game al computer, con l'illusione di poter attivamente impartire i comandi, scrivendoli su schermo, quando invece la gamma di azioni effettuabili era infatti molto limitata.

Ah, giusto per la cronaca, il videogioco trasformato in avventura testuale è questo:

Decisamente poco adatto alla conversione.

Zur Zeit der Playstation 2 gab es Höhen und Tiefen. Ein tolles Contra-Spiel, Gradius V und Metal Gear Solid 2 (von mir geliebt, bei vielen umstritten) und… ISS, welches irgendwann in Pro Evolution Soccer umbenannt wurde. Sonst noch was? Mit Silent Hill und Suikoden übertrieb man es etwas – beide Serien bekamen gleich drei Sequels auf dieser Konsole. Die Qualität litt zumindest bei Silent Hill darunter. Metal Gear Solid 3 war dann auch nicht mehr so erfolgreich.

Und den Gamecube vernachlässigte man sehr! Wenigstens gab es weiter geniale Castlevania-Spiele auf dem Gameboy Advance, und auf dem DS läuft die Serie erst Recht zu Höchstform auf.

Und jetzt? Kaum noch neues, auf allen Konsolen. Man hofft bei Konami wohl auf Metal Gear Solid 4 für die PS3. Ist mir zwar schleierhaft, wie das was werden soll, wenn das Ex-Mastermind Hideo Kojima im Vorfeld nur rumjammert, wie wenig Platz er denn auf den Discs hat und wie sehr er den Prozessor der PS3 überschätzt hat. Er ist von seinem eigenen Werk enttäuscht – und das ist in vielen Überschriften im Internet zu lesen. Neue Marketingstrategie?

Und dann noch seine Vision von dem Online-Zombie-Spiel, bei dem man gebissen werden und folglich nur noch zusehen kann ("They'd see their character attacking humans and have to pay just to watch!")
Man könne sich dann ja einen Zweitaccount zulegen, wenn man den ersten von der Zombifizierung befreien will. Kojima sollte Interviews in Zukunft vermeiden…

Konami, wo sind deine alten Serien hin? Und wo sind die neuen Ideen? Und warum haben es bisher nur drei Goemon- bzw. Mystical Ninja-Spiele (die genialste Konami-Serie überhaupt) in den Westen geschafft?

Ok, Pro Evolution Soccer'08 für Wii ist eine tolle Innovation. Bitte mehr davon!

Aqui les traigo una coleccion de videos pa que se deleilten y vean que todavia sigo con vida, estos son videos de un violinista enmascarado que toca de poquisima madre varios temas tanto de anime como videojuegos, entre ellas aqui pongo el video the Ash like Snow, que es el segundo opening de gundam 00, vampire killer y harvest de ff5, espero que los disfrusten.

Tambien les incluyo el link de Tuengxx que es el wey que tiene varios de los videos:

http://youtube.com/user/Tuengxx

A por cierto estense atentos que dentro de poco reviviere la seccion de rol, asiq ue esperen post de exalted, world of darkness, d&d y demas cosas que a mi oscura mente se le ocurra.

The PSP gets no respect. It's perceived as the handheld system for the mainstream; a shiny toy for frat boys to play GTA and watch Adam Sandler movies on. The DS, by contrast, is for the true gamer; it conjures images of pony-tailed Gamestop employees playing Advance Wars as they suffer through the torture of daily life. The actual merits of both systems are often overshadowed by these false images of contrasting demographics, just as they did during the 16 bit console wars.

Detractors of Sony's easily finger-printed portable point out
a lack of original games for the system. And it's true that most of the system's high profile games are simply inferior installments in franchises that started life on home consoles. Why would you want to play scaled down versions of Jak or Ratchet or Metal Gear, when you could be playing fresh new games like Mario, Zelda or Metroid?

Perhaps I applied the sarcasm a bit too thick there, but the point is that the DS gets a lot of undue credit for offering fresh gameplay experiences. For every Ouendan there are fifty Mega Man Battle Networks, and using a stylus to play games that adhere closely to typical game design conventions is hardly what I'd call "fresh." Meanwhile the original games for the PSP, such as Crush, get little recognition, though admittedly they are few in number.

But all this bitching and moaning about fairness aside, the fact remains; if this is a "war" (as people tend to think of it), the DS is clearly winning. The PSP is doing far better than most people would have expected though; nearly three years after it's release, the system is still fighting and making Sony money, and that alone is impressive. But there's no denying that it's getting it's ass kicked; for every PSP sold, Nintendo moves three of their units.

Being an owner of both systems, I have to ask; why is this? Now I'm not saying that the PSP is superior (I feel the two are about equal), but there are a number of ways in which the DS simply can't (or doesn't) compete with it. And do to my undying love of lists, I've assembled five of them for your reading pleasure (or, more likely, your skimming over indifference). Enjoy.

1. Shoot-em-ups

As of this writing, the DS has only a single shmup; Nanostray. The sequel should be releasing within a couple weeks, and there are plans to port Ketsui to the system at a later date, but this is still a relatively meager collection of shooters.

The PSP has significantly more, and Konami is almost single-handedly to thank for that. The venerable developer/publisher has released a large chunk of it's classic shmup output in the form of various series' collections. As a result, almost all of the Gradius, Parodius, Twinbee, and Salamander series are available on the go. Xexex also received it's first home port via one of these compilations (the Salamander pack).

Also available are the (reportedly disappointing) third installment in Psikyo's Sengoku Ace series, as well as Hudson's Star Soldier. Star Soldier is particularly unique in that it actually requires you to hold the PSP sideways. It's slightly unwieldy at first, but the game is good enough to justify a little initial discomfort.

Clearly, 20+ games spread across 6 UMDs easily outclasses the DS's meager (yet fairly solid) selection, and that's not even counting the several great shmups available via...

2. Classic Compilations

I suppose Konami's shmup collections detailed above could just as easily have been put in this category, but whatever. And again, the DS isn't without a showing in this department. Namco, Konami and Atari all have rather run-of-the-mill compilations available for Nintendo's little cash cow, with probably a couple more that I'm not aware of. But again, the PSP rather effortlessly takes the crown in this department.

Metal Slug Anthology, Sega Genesis Collection, Namco's mandatory "Museum" collection, Power Stone Collection (admittedly just two games), EA Replay Collection (yuck), and two volumes of Capcom Classics make for a pretty potent selection of classics. SNK is also planning a new release featuring a wide variety of their own underplayed classics. Again, I'm probably missing a few; I didn't exactly do a ton of research here.

3. Racing Games

To me, this category is a biggie. Now I'm not saying that the DS doesn't have any racing games. There are plenty, and by numbers alone, the two systems are about equal in this department. But here's the thing; almost all of the DS racers suck in a major way. Of course there's Mario Kart, and for many gamers it's the only racing series that matters, but for serious fans of the genre, the DS isn't the greenest pasture for handheld speed-seeking. As a matter of fact, it's more of a desert full of sun bleached bones.

In keeping with this pointless analogy, the PSP is a lush rain forest. Big name titles like Ridge Racer, Burnout, WipeOut and even Outrun have all made absolutely outstanding showings on the system. The racing genre, much like the FPS, depends heavily on state of the art graphics and physics to convey a sense of realism. The DS unfortunately doesn't have the horsepower (pun intended) to do the genre justice. Which brings us to our next category...

4. Graphics

Sure looks aren't everything, but they're certainly something. And while the DS can handle 2-D beautifully, it really struggles with polygons. It can handle them, sure, and a talented developer can make them look decent enough (especially if they're viewed from a distance), but it's quite rare for a game that doesn't have the word "Mario" in the title to have attractive 3-D. Usually the graphics have that "early Playstation 1" look about them, which is about as mean an insult as I can imagine.

The difference between the two systems is best illustrated by a direct comparison. The following two games share the same name, but let's see if you can figure out which one is Ridge Racer, and which is Riiiiidge Racer!

Can you tell the difference?

5. Multimedia Capabilities

"But it's all about the games" I hear you chortle as you read this. True, it is all about the games when you want to play a game, but when you'd prefer to listen to some tunes, the DS is as handy as a foot. It's true that these features aren't very useful for those who play their handhelds in the comfort of their own home, but for anyone who actually uses their portable system portably, these features are borderline essential.

Movie playback is the most lauded of these features, yet it's probably the one you're least likely to utilize. Sure, it's a nice option, but UMDs are pretty large critters, so it's unlikely that you'll opt to take a movie along with you in lieu of a game. You can put movies directly on your memory card, but it requires some monkeying around to convert your flicks into a form the PSP will recognize (the rare and obscure mp4).

Every bit as important as the music capabilities are the image viewing options. I'm sure by now you've noticed the sassy young tenderoni to the right. Well let me tell you, on a lengthy road trip, or during your week at Uncle Jeb's farm, she and her ilk are much better company than Pac-man or Sonic could ever hope to be. Not only can you align your pictures to display vertically (as I've shown in the example), but you can zoom in quite a lot. In the case of Little Danni there, I can zoom in to such an extent that I can see individual goosebumps on her thigh. But I fear that this is becoming irreparably creepy, so let's move on, shall we?

Games can also be downloaded. At the PSP Connect store, full PS1 games (only 1st and 2nd party titles so far) can be downloaded and played straight off the memory card (albeit for a price). While most of these games have aged horribly, it's rather handy to have old standbys like Hot Shots Golf or Crash Bandicoot available without having to lug around any more bulky UMDs.

And of course there's a thriving homebrew and emulation scene going on behind the scenes, but I'm restricting this article to features that don't require any hacking or modding. Needless to say though, with a little technical know-how, the PSP can do just about anything short of washing windows.

So if you went through this list and still aren't convinced, the PSP might not be the system for you. Not necessarily though. The above list is more a checklist of my own personal preferences than anything even bordering on definitive. The system has other advantages too, though they fall outside my area of expertise. SRPGs are well represented. The web browser is reportedly very functional. Playing the system in public is slightly less humiliating than it's competition (no frantic blowing, for one thing). And it's certainly a respectable option for those who just want a portable movie player (though you'll need a pair of headphones).

Overall, it's a very good system that has withstood some very stiff competition from Nintendo's little juggernaut. Sure it might not have 2,037 new releases a month, but I'd wager to say that there are more than enough excellent games available to justify a purchase.

Que buenas tardes he pasado jugando al R-type o Xenon de mi desaparecida Atari-ST o al mismo Gradius en la PSX. De los mejores matamarcianos que he tenido la suerte de probar. Por eso, hace algunos días, me dió por buscar algun videojuego, tipo "shoot 'em ups" de este tipo para pasar el rato en mi pc.

Busqué información en los foros para que me recomendasen algun buen título similar. De este modo encontre esta web. En su amplia base de datos dispone de algo mas de 1000 títulos. Con un útil buscador donde podemos filtrar los títulos por tamaño de archivo, nombre, tipo de pantalla (horizontal, vertical, isométrica...), etc.

Estos son algunos de los que me llamaron más la atención de esta web:

• Jets'n'Guns
• Steel Saviour
• Ether Vapor

Hay disponéis de un buen número de juegos para pasar el rato, y si no, siempre podéis instalaros un emulador y rememorar viejos tiempos con los clásicos del género.

Thunderforce is a classic side-scrolling space SHMUP (shoot-em-up) series. Thunderforce II, III and IV were all Sega Genesis/Megadrive games and Thunderforce V was on the original Playstation. I remember I borrowed Thunderforce II from a much older kid on my bus in Switzerland when I was 8 or 9, who always had sweet-ass games like Jungle Strike or Sonic 3, but only lent me really ancient games (Thunderforce II came out in the 1980s). It was practically a Genesis launch title. But it was not a bad game, just very hard, especially for a young pecker-wood like myself.

Anyway, Thunderforce II was fine and had some good music, but it was Thunderforce III that really started dominating the grand staff-- if you 'numsayin'. This is the kind of old-school videogame music that really changed my ear. It changed my whole life. I can only imagine what sort of rich internal life these composers led that their day-job as a video-game composer yielded such fruit.

And Thunderforce IV really upped the ante. They started emulating heavy metal guitar sounds on the Genesis which was so. Fucking. Beautiful. Thunderforce IV includes the cult-favorite staff roll music, "Stand Up Against Myself." I love that title, and I can't tell if it's just a poor translation from japanese or if it's because the original japanese uses some esoteric Kanji that expresses a state of mind that does not translate adequately to english. But often the most charming japanese-to-english translations are the ones that are completely straightforward and show no part of interpretation or cultural transportation/localization on behalf of the translator.

Examples: Exile's "For Muscle" and "The Cathedoral," or "His Behavior Inspired Us With Distrust" from Thunderforce III. It seems the older the games were, the more interesting the localization. Phantasy Star II has titles like "Excite Town" or "Death Place." Outrun even has a song called, "Magical Sound Shower."

This is understandable, as videogames now are serious business and have huge localization teams. There's no time for fun and games anymore, and especially not humor. But honestly, I find it endearing more than anything else, because it really spoke to me as a kid and seemed to be a more creative way of using language because the choice of vocabulary and grammar was so limited to the translators, just like my own situation at the time. Old localization teams were tiny, often one or two people. Sometimes it was translated in Japan. The credits to Castlevania 1 are great.

I'm leaving y'all with some essential Thunderforce music. I've seen the whole soundtracks posted in forums and the soundtracks are not hard to rip from Genesis sound files with Winamp conversion plug-ins. Thunderforce V is another story altogether - it's in stereo and the soundtrack takes it a step further and is just hardcore Shrapnel shred. Think Tony Macalpine or Jason Becker fighting for the good of the universe.

Thunderforce games are no joke either. They're not as drawn out as Gradius or Ikaruga, but way more stuff comes at you at once, and faster. TF IV and V probably tie closely as the best ones. I'm probably going to pick up V this month.

Thunder Force III - Seiren
Thunderforce IV - Attack Sharply
Thunderforce IV - Stand Up Against Myself

Here's a little more eggheaded gaming item... averaging maps of Gradius, a little proof of concept R. LeFeuvre at The New Gamer put together back in January.

Le Feuvre took a bunch of play throughs of the first level of Gradius and overlaid them to compare common paths and approaches players took to the level. It gets a little messy to try and follow a specific player, but some of the variations are pretty cool.Now I want to see someone do this kind of visualization for frequently hit maps in World of Warcraft. I'm curious to see if there's much variation in paths and approaches to encounters. From what I've seen, optimal practices tend to circulate pretty quickly among players, then become expected of everyone. (Unless of course, you're Leeroy Jenkins.)

Again, a shout out to José for pointing this out.