Petezah

The Japanese have turned the road bump vibration signal thing into a music making idea! It’s called the Melody Road, and it’s the best crazy invention ever.

I love that people appreciate truly bad art for its utter shoddiness. Case in point, this semi-educational DS title which is supposed to teach kids Spanish. It doesn’t really teach Spanish very well, but it does have lots of drug-running references, accepting rides from strangers, and talking bulls who have accepted their fate of dying in a bull-fighting ring. Happily, it got a 2 out of 10 from the reviewer, as no legitimate critic could give this game a good rating; but upon closer examination, it almost received a perfect score from the readers. Classic.

By the way, the curious can go to Kotaku to watch a bunch of cut-scene videos from the game to see just how wacky this game is.

As for “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” I have never seen the original movie, but a scan of the poster for the original is on a news article for the remake. It looks like Plan 9 From Outer Space to me. Actually, if you read the write-up, it has a pretty similar premise too. So, the question is: how bad was the original, and do they intend to make the new one just as bad? I can’t say I really care, but I do like Jennifer Connelly, (mostly for Dark City) which is why I clicked on the article to begin with.

Ah, Guilty Gear—still my favorite 2D fighter. The new Wii “Accent Core” is no exception. Though, it baffles me that the Wii review was penalized for the remote+nunchuk control scheme that it allows the uninitiated player to utilize. (The PS2 review does not suffer this penalty) Clearly the classic controller setup is the most ideal. Not only this, the classic controller for the Wii has the best digital pad for any console right now—Nintendo has always gotten this right. The Playstation controllers, with their funky separated triangle thing, are less than ideal; and (though I love the rest of this controller) the 360’s directional pad is not only a weird rocking circular device, it is actually analog! (For fun, try playing Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter on XBLA—it’s almost impossible due to the analog setup.) So, if you’re put off by the review score, don’t be; just pick up two classic controllers and you’ll be good to go.

Sin and Punishment finally got an official release in the US today. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a rail shooter by Treasure, creators of many other terrific games noted for their old-school arcade style and difficulty combined with innovative new game-play mechanics. Anyway, it’s fun; if you have a Wii, you should download it.