Old school arcade games were sort of before my time. I didn’t discover my love until Robotron, dare I say in 2005. Sure I played my share of Pac-Man, and Centipede, and Asteroids but I never got hooked. But fortunately for us, downloadable games don’t have to be AAA multi million dollar, over marketed, cut scene ridden “experiences”. They can be a simple goal. A score. XBox Live Arcade has brought some AWESOME modern takes on the arcade game.

That’s why a simple tweet I made turned into (hopefully) a gaming tradition. On December 30th, 2011 I’ll be facing off against one of the most old school gamers I know. So join us, and follow @4score7pongs on Twitter. We’ll be facing off for at least 8 hours, battling for the highest score of the day on some of the best arcade games available.  We’ll have a live webcam and tweeting all day. So you can root for team @jarbochov or team @morningtoast.

Check out http://morningtoast.com/fourscore for more deets.

When the iPhone game out, I don’t know how many articles I read that were predicting a huge rivalry between Nintendo’s DS and the iPhone. I can assure you that’s not close at all nor will it be anytime soon. A friend of mine wrote a very good article on smartphone games that you should definitely read. Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some Angry Birds. It’s a good time killer but it doesn’t have the depth of some truly wonderful handheld games.  There are some great games that are transitioning over to a smartphone platform that I recommend. Infinity Blade, and Superbrothers Sword & Sorcery are amazing and original.

Graphics are also cited as another reason that people don’t like handheld games. And I think that all goes back to when the Wii came out and people complained that it wasn’t in HD and didn’t have a chance. If it’s a good game, you won’t notice as much, and there are some Wii games that are much more artfully inspired than the other consoles (Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, the Bit Trip Series to name a few.)  The PSP has tremendously better graphics than the DS, but hasn’t sold nearly as well. The PSP also offers a large number of ports or interquels of console games in lieu of original concepts.

If you like games but cite the reasons above for why you don’t play handheld games, give it another shot. With the 3DS out DS prices should drop more and more as time goes on, and there is a wealth of awesome games that you won’t find counterparts on consoles.

Now, I’ll go back to playing Pokemon White. Gotta catch ‘em all as they say.

I’m angry, why? Recently it was announced that Modern Warfare 2′s upcoming map pack would cost $15. Modern Warfare 2 itself costs $60.  And thanks to a new feature on Wolfram Alpha we can visualize the math here. Let’s give it a look.

With a little factorization, we come to the fraction, 1/4, or 25%. That’s right. Activision feels that this map pack consisting of 5 NEW MAPS!!! three new maps and 2 maps from the original Modern Warfare, are worth one quarter (another way of saying 1/4) of the game. People will still buy it, because the 16 maps included in MW2 get stale after a month or two.

DLC has become a joke. I can see why PC players resent console releases like these. They can mod their games and play any maps people have created for the game for FREE. Now don’t get me wrong, DLC has brought wonderous games like Braid, World of Goo, and Geometry Wars among several others. And DLC can make games better in rare (extremely rare) instances (i.e. Burnout Paradise). But when we are going to be charged for content that was originally part of the game, you can count me out. Game companies need to take the route of developers like Media Molecule, and Valve if the their consumers to come back again and again.

I like video games. You may like video games. However, it’s not always easy to afford gaming especially nowadays. That’s why I’ll have an upcoming regular feature on my blog called Cheap Cheap Gaming. It’s really easy and affordable to play a generation behind on gaming consoles. There are tons of great games for the PS2, Gamecube, and PC that you can find quite affordable. Hidden gems if you will. So if your interested, I’ll whisk you away to 5 years ago (and before), when the world was simpler, the grass was greener, and double jumping was NEW!

Stay tuned!

Shadow Complex is a game entirely based on exploration, power-ups, and shooting mans in a base. The story of Shadow Complex is supposed to take place in the universe of Orson Scott Card’s novel Empire. While this may be true (there is not much tie in to the novel), story is not something you are going to get a lot of from the game. Some people like this, but when you are shooting armed guards in a base before unfolding the their evil generic plot to take over the United States, you don’t have much empathy toward your character. But when playing the game you will most likely have only one interest: finding ways to be come more powerful. By the end of the game you are a juggernaut of pain – that is what makes the game awesome.

The game is in 2D, but rendered in 3D. This allows for some very awesome graphics, and battles that go into the third dimension. Shooting enemies in the background is seamless as long as you are pointing in their direction. Enemies are pretty generic and there is not a wide variety. The boss fights are also pretty bland and are generally won with plain old brute force as opposed to any tactical prowess.

The game is not so much inspired by Metroid as it is a 3D clone. So if you are looking for originality you aren’t going to find much. In fact, almost every power-up in the game has an equivalent power-up in the Metroid universe. For example, doors and spaces are color coded when shining your trusty flashlight to discover what weapon will open it – just like Metroid. But there are also some things that are unique and fun. Moving with one joystick and aiming with the second allows precision aiming. The foam gun in the game is really cool and unique, but not utilized nearly enough. There are several other differences from Metroid, but ultimately, I’m pretty sure this is what Super Metroid would be if it came out today.

Overall the game is still awesome. While I mentioned that it is completely derivative of Super Metroid, I’m okay with it because Super Metroid was one of the best games of all time. The story is lacking, but you don’t need it too much as you’ll spend most of your time trying to find all the secrets. The last boss is lame, and not energetic at all (pending you found all of the power-ups by the end). But the game is paced well, and is a steal at $15. If you liked anything about Metroid or the Castlevania series, you’ll love this game.

I think the interview/evaluation with the kid was flawed. The kid didn’t strike me as an avid gamer. He listed three games that he plays: Halo 3, Call of Duty : World at War, and NHL.  Some first person shooters and a sports game. When we were kids we had friends like this – the friends that only played NBA Jam, or Mortal Kombat. Fighting and sports. But some of us played all kinds of games and subjected ourselves to such masochist games like Contra. All of this is anecdotal evidence. I personally overheard two kids at Red Lobster talking about Super Mario World for the SNES and how much fun they were having. This study also doesn’t include Erica’s cousin who plays Contra 4 for DS (not exactly the same, but the music, graphics, and difficulty are not much different from the original) and loves the game.

The point I want to convey is we shouldn’t make assumptions based on the opinion of this one kid. If someone were to provide me a valid poll with a proper sample size (1000 kids of varying demographics) then we could worry about kids and video gaming. There is a plethora of good video games today, and several opportunities for kids to play classics by way of DLC. The biggest problem is exposure to such games. Kids aren’t rocking out to Mega Man 2 or Tetris like we did. They aren’t advertised and aren’t sold on store shelves.

Two last things. I didn’t like Contra when I was a kid. The difficulty was too high for me. I didn’t appreciate the game until college. Also I know people that haven’t played half of this awesome list of 16 bit classics (the best generation in my opinion).