5/08/2007

A perfect example of why Nintendo's phliosophy on the Virtual Console is wrong

Much as I've made great use of Nintendo's virtual console feature since the system debuted, and as much as I've appreciated their philosophy that these classics of gaming yore should remain untouched, in some cases, this just isn't the right thing to do. Nintendo & Microsoft's retro releases for this week exemplify that. Today's only "worthwhile" VC release was Final Fight for the Super Nes. Final Fight, as most old school gaming fans will tell you, is one of the classic fighters of all time, right up there with classics like Streets of Rage. But the SNES version is a horrid abomination, missing things like one of the main protagonists as well as a two-player mode. It's bad enough that this is the kind of game that screams for online co-op, which we know won't happen on the Wii, but they could at least fix those horrid mistakes that no fan of Final Fight would forgive.

Then for the Xbox 360 crowd, we have arguably the father of all great side-scrolling fighters, Double Dragon coming to Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. Now granted, this isn't exactly a reason to cheer yet, as MS has a solid history of completely screwing up ports of ancient games that should be easy, but at least there is potential here. You know online co-op, touched up graphics and other goodies like achievement points are a solid possibility, enhancing the gameplay experience beyond mere nostalgia, which has definitely played tricks on many a long-time gamers mind. I can only hope MS somehow pulls a miracle or Nintendo gets their fucking act together on this shit upon the inevitable releases of classics like River City Ransom.

Moving on, I did catch Spider-Man 3 this weekend (and according to its ginormous box office, so did most other inhabitants of planet Earth). Strictly as a movie-goer, I was pleased. The effects rocked, it was fun & funny, pretty much all I ask out of a blockbuster movie. But I being a fan of the comics in my youth and being very familiar with most of the characters involved in this movie, I could see why comic book nerds are not, and they have really vented their rage on the internets over the weekend. We'll have to see if their reaction has any real effect, but unless Spidey plummets in week 2 (where there is no serious competition), I don't see this being an issue for the already announced sequels.

That's pretty much it for today, but I got another treat for old-school gamers: GAMETRAILERS TOP TEN 8-BIT GAMES

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