10 non-Sony characters that should join Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale

Really, "evil" Cole? Clearly Sony is having huge issues getting  a decent size roster of characters for their upcoming Smash Bros. knockoff. The solution? Borrow liberally from other companies. Though Nintendo's Smash Bros. series is mostly Nintendo characters, they have no problem with guest appearances from the likes of Solid Snake & Sonic, so Sony should really take that idea and and run with it. Here's 10 non-Sony characters that would make great additions to the roster:

10: Abe (the Oddworld series)-Granted the peace-loving escapee slave from the vastly underrated Oddworld series might seem like an odd choice for a fighting game, bit not any less odd than Fat Princess. But with his ability to hide in shadows and psychic powers (and possibly a little assistance fro, fellow Oddworlder Munch), he could be a pretty unique character to use.

9:  Gene (Godhand): A somewhat obscure title, but Gene is a perfect fit for a fighting game since Godhand is essentially based around insane linking of combos and whatnot. He'd be a great addition that's crazy but actually makes sense, unlike say Toro Inoue (seriously, who?).

8. Prince of the Cosmos: Ok, this is arguably an even crazier idea, but the Katamari Damacy series is pretty closely tied to Sony's history, with the majority of the titles appearing on Sony platforms. Maneuvers with his giant rolling ball could make for some very interesting combat.

7. The Prince (Prince of Persia): Maybe not an extremely obvious choice off the top of your head, but the Prince is extremely athletic, pretty handy with a sword, and has control over time. Pretty good recipe for a very awesome addition to the roster.

6. Jade (Beyond Good and Evil): Pretty simple idea here-the roster is pretty lacking in girl power, and Jade is one of the few good female protagonists of the last decade. She's also pretty damn handy with a staff and has a few mystical powers to boot.

5. Bayonetta (Bayonetta):  Sega's extreme action heroine would also be a welcome addition to the roster in general and up the female quotient. It's also one of the most highly acclaimed action titles of this generation yet it was pretty much ignored. Giving Bayonetta a slot on the roster may give the actual game a second chance as well.

4. Jimmy Hopkins (Bully): The anti-hero of Rocksteady's underrated high-school adventure, Jimmy would be a surprisingly awesome addition with his arsenal of high school weaponry of slingshots., dodgeballs, fire crackers and stink bombs among other things. He might actually be the most versatile addition to the roster if treated correctly.

3. Raz (Psychonauts): Simply put, Raz is an extremely powerful psychic and a really good fit for Sony's fighter. A wide array of powers and abilities would make him an easy match for pretty much anyone else on the roster.

2. Sora (Kingdom Hearts):  The Keyblade master and primary hero of the Kingdom Hearts series would be a great fit for any fighting game. He has huge versatility and plenty of abilities and it would just be awesome to see him go up against the like of Kratos, Nathan Drake and so on.

1. Cloud (Final Fantasy VII):  Simply put Cloud needs to be in this game, not only is he a great character for a fighting game, but FFVII was instrumental in Sony getting a foothold in the gaming industry. There may never have been a Playstation 2 if not for FFVII and that fact should be represented in this celebration of all that is Sony.

Ok, that's the list. While it seems unlikely that any of these characters would be in the initial roster, there's no reason it couldn't be added as dlc later. That's all for today but I should have another post up by this weekend. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Tiny Evolution Adventure

Less Bang for your buck...

Ok, sorry for no posts last week, no real excuse except a pretty bad case of writer's block. 
Moving on; unless your a Madden fan this isn't really a big week for console gamers, and I've more or less said my opinion of that $60 annual roster update several times over the years so I'm not even going to bother with it.

For PS3 owners looking to really bolster their collection without spending a ton of dough, several of Sony's big franchises come out with collections this week-God of War, Infamous & Ratchet & Clank. Great series to be sure, and while it's hard to judge what is a justifiable price for these collections, just comparing them seems to bring up some issues.

The God of War Saga includes the entire series up to this point, The PS2 games, the PSP games and God of War III. For $40, it's hard to find a much better deal, which makes the other 2 confusing for their pricing.

The Infamous Collection includes the whole series as well up to this point, but that's only 2 titles and one expansion. For the same price as the God of War collection. Now Infamous is the newest franchise and just doesn't have as many games, but it's not like there is a ton of fan service content or anything to justify this. Either it should be cheaper or not have been made just based on the fact that there just aren't enough games in that series yet.

The Ratchet & Clank Collection, while only $30 dollars, is arguably the most mind-boggling of the 3. There are 10 R&C games if you include Secret Agent Clank & the downloadable Quest for Booty. This doesn't even include all of the PS2 era games.I mean at the very least it should include all 4 of those and probably the PSP titles. Hell if you included the whole collection at $60 that'd be one hell of a bargain, but $30 for an incomplete collection of just the PS2 games just seems odd and not completely thought out. Ultimately though, not one of these collections is a bad deal, but just with all them coming out this week, being able to compare what you get in each one, the decisions of what went into each one and the price attached don't seem to have much rhyme of reason to them.



While Bioware has regularly been pumping out free multi-player DLC for Mass Effect 3 since it's release, it took a whopping 6 months to get any new single-player DLC. Maybe it was delayed due to the controversial ending, but either way I doubt many are going to be grabbing this. It doesn't change the ending, it's been too long, and like I said when I defended Bioware's decision to have DLC available from day one-Shepard's story is over and done with, I have no urge to check out some inconsequential side story.

All right that it is all for today, but I fully plan to have another post up tomorrow. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Butter

New Super Mario Bros 2 : The search for more money...

Unfortunately due to Last Story not actually being in stores til yesterday and me not getting my copy til last night, I have not had a chance to tear into it yet, so hopefully I can give impressions tomorrow or Monday.

When New Super Mario Bros. came out for the DS, it was a very welcome throwback to the old school style of Mario games since we hadn't had a new 2D Mario game since the SNES era. But then we got New Super Mario Bros Wii not long after, which while great fun, was essentially the same game under the hood. Now we have not only the direct sequel to the DS game coming out tomorrow, but the sequel to the Wii version on the Wii U due out in a few short months when it happens. And hey, it's a Mario game, it's practically a given that it will be a solid platforming experience. But "new" it's not. They could've made it very new and still kept it 2D-new suits, original levels, online co-op (instead of just local), etc. But they didn't. Pretty much the only noteworthy thing about it is that it will be the first major release by Nintendo to be available digitally, thereby finally dragging the kicking and screaming into the digital age. Just barely though. I really don't have a whole lot if interest in this, I'll wait for that other Mario title, Paper Mario, which should be far more unique and entertaining.

That's really all I've got for today, I might be able to get in another post tomorrow but until then here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Fix-It Felix Jr.

For the haggard Neo Geo enthusiast on the go...

The Neo Geo has always been a system for gamers with plenty of cash at their disposal. The original cost a whopping $650 back in the day, which in terms of today's money is an even more astounding $1100, with games priced at $200 and up. Ridiculous? Surely, but cheaper than buying arcade cabinets and the Neo Geo was pretty much the only system at the time that could produce arcade ports without any compromise. But not surprisingly the system never really took off despite having a rather stellar library.

Now, most of the classic games are available in various collections or as downloadable titles, but admittedly playing these games on the go hasn't really been feasible except through long and possibly expensive searches through various sources like ebay and vintage game stores. That may change with the release of the Neo Geo X Gold, announced for this December. It's not a bad setup, as you can play it on your TV and it comes with 20 games pre-installed, but $200 seems a bit steep for something that will only play games from over 2 decades ago. Will it get more titles? New titles? how much will those cost? Also if the 3DS isn't doing that great at $170 and the PS Vita is floundering at $249, I doubt the Neo Geo X being somewhere in the middle is going to make much of an impact. I guess we'll see if it's still on shelves next year at a not massively discounted price.

After what seems like goddamned forever, The Last Story, probably the last major Wii release, finally comes out tomorrow. It's already gotten extremely high praise, though those who haven't paid attention might be surprised that it's got a little more in common with games like Mass Effect, being an action rpg with heavy strategy elements, a cover system and even online death matches. I've heard it's a tad short, clocking in at around 20 hours, but as long as it a quality 20, I'll be pretty satisfied. I'll be sure to give impressions in my next update.

That's really all I have for today, I should at the very least have another post up this weekend with Last Story impressions and thoughts on New Super Mario Bros. 2. Until then, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK:  Red Dawn

How much would you pay for a free game?

I have never played even a minute of Angry Birds. I'm not elitist or anything, but I don't have any devices that can play it and just haven't had much urge. Admittedly, throwing them all into a collection might be mildly tempting, especially on the 3DS, which seems like a good fit. But how much would you pay for a few free flash games? Well it's a fairly silly $30 for the 3DS, and if you want to play it in HD on your tv (for some unfathomable reason) it's a laughably high $40 for the 360 & PS3. I mean seriously? I understand this is one of the most popular series of games ever, but I think the highest I would even consider paying for this collection of freeware is like $10. They could've easily released them as downloadable titles on each system's respective marketplace for like $3-5 and made a bundle. I'm sure they'll get a few sales because of some spoiled brats, but this is completely ridiculous.

Probably not since the unexpected combination of Disney & Square has there been an odder combination than meshing the characters from a Persona game, a well-reviewed but very niche rpg series, and fighting games. But here we are, and while this probably shouldn't work, most reviews claim it works fantastically. I'm not much of a fighting game fan, but every once and awhile one does pique my interest, this may be one if I can at least try out a demo.

That's really all I have for today, I should get another post in this weekend, but until then here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK: Playing for Keeps

The Medium Entertainment Review: Total Recall

Ok, I have way to hectic a schedule to see each and every movie that comes out, but be it in theatres or on video, when I go see a recent release I'll try and post my thoughts on it. The original Total Recall, from WAYYYY back in 1990, while hardly a classic, is a hell of a lot of fun and personally my favorite Schwarzenegger film. It's not hard material to remake, just update the special effects, get a fun cast and that's pretty much all you need. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the team behind this effort because it's all too serious and yet way stupider than the original, which you could classify as dumb fun. The synthetic army that serves as the main threat is boring and inconsistent. At times the seem impervious to normal gunfire and other times they succumb to it.  A lot of the crazy fantasy elements (like psychic mutants) are removed. There are some references to the original, but they are very poorly handled. The most obvious being a scene where in the original Arnold was disgused as a woman in a very elaborate sci-fi getup. They play on this with having a woman who looks very much like the woman in the original in the scene, but they've already given away that it is not Colin Farell because you see the fake identity he uses in an earlier scene which gives it away. It's just sloppy. A completely wasted effort, not worth your time or money.

That's really all I have for today, internet is a little wonky lately due to issues with my carrier, but hopefully should have everything up and running normally by Wednesday. Until then, here's your FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Think Tank