Plugged

Heh. "Extra Credits," one of those shows what uses lots of big words, gave "The Game OverThinker" a plug at the top of their newest episode.



I'm sure The OverThinker is totally grateful - or, at least he would be if I hadn't exiled him to a haunted forest in rural Minnesota ;)

Episode 43: "Double Trouble"

UPDATE: As of 9/13/11 this video is at THIS LINK



Deal with it, chief!

MobileDev.1.upload.@utopost.security.652.v.ep43.

low sig. no bars. dont no time.

do not bleve him. do not let win.

not lose hope

--TGO

NEW EPISODE Coming Soon

Alright, I know, I let it go longer than a month again. But this time there's an explanation. A good one.

I can't really say too much right as of now. The new episode is coming, hopefully this week. See... it WOULD'VE been up two weeks ago. We had it all set to go - but something happened. The research into that week's topic, which I honestly thought would be a quick fun/jokey episode, turned up something pretty startling that I don't think anyone has ever reported on before. So we had to do some further work - some of which is still underway - to work this new information in.

Again, I can't say too much; but rest assured that everything you THOUGHT you knew about The Game OverThinker, the gaming scene and even the very nature of the universe is about to change - perhaps forever.

Stay tuned.

BREAKING NEWS: Spike VGA's Dominated By American Games, Shooters and Fan-Service! ALSO: Water Wet, Grass Green!

I'm sorry, but Music Games should not be qualified for a "best soundtrack" award. They don't let a Greatest Hit's compilation compete for a Grammy, do they?

Nice to see Epic Yarn at least nominated for Best Graphics.

Incidentally, YES there will be a new episode coming soon - hopefully this week.

Episode 42: "Worst Person"

update: as of 9/13/11 this video is at THIS LINK

What, did you think the new show meant the old warhorse was getting back-burnered? HELL NO! So here, at least is "The First-Person Shooter" episode...

"The Big Picture"

And here we are. The innaugural episode is about "Halo."

NEW SHOW debuting tomorrow at The Escapist!

Big news, everybody!

I've got a BRAND NEW video series making it's debut at The Escapist tomorrow: "The Big Picture."

I'm pretty excited about it. This is be a show with an entirely different style and vibe than "Game OverThinker" or "Escape to The Movies" - there's no "set" subject other than no-punches-pulled commentary on the broad nerd-ephemera, so various installments will delve into everything from video games to comics to politics to pop-culture to whatever else strikes my fancy. If pressed, I'd describe the approach as Walter Winchell meets Randal Graves.

The debut episode should be up tomorrow (11/09) around Noon ET. I'll put up a link as soon as I can (aka once it exists) but check out The Escapist tomorrow and it should be there. I hope you like it.

and the fandom rejoiced

Independent filmmaker Eddie Lebron, whom you may remember from the pretty-solid feature length "Mega Man" Fan-Film last year, has formally announced his production of a "Sonic the Hedgehog" Fan-Film.

The best parts of "Mega Man" were Lebron's grasp of action, scene composition, not-bad-at-all use of visual effects and clever narrative compromises toward realizing the game in live-action (and on a budget) so the notion of him tackling a feature built around a main character (and presumably several others) realized wholly through CGI is encouraging as far as I'm concerned. The BIG news, of course, is who he's landed to provide Sonic's voice...



Way. Past. Cool.

Every NES Game Ever in 15 Minutes

If it turns out there's no heaven, and instead just a longer-form loop of THIS... I think I'd be okay with that.



Happy 25th, old friend.

Awesome kid and awesome family make awesome Metroid halloween costume

Hat-tip: KOTAKU

Joe DeRosa, age 11, wants to be Samus Aran - the armor-suited lead character from the "Metroid" video-games - for Halloween. Not exactly something you can buy at Target, and not exactly simple on a design level. Fortunately for Joe, based on the DeRosa Family Blog, he comes from a whole family of DIY tech-wizards and MakerFaire afficionados... and they're building a Varia Suit from scratch.

Below the jump... MAGIC.

Here's the video, from the kid's YouTube Channel, of him and his father making the Arm Cannon. I say again: Here's a kid and his dad, building the Arm Cannon from Metroid in the garage.


I'm literally speechless - it's like if Norman Rockwell illustrated an issue of Scott Pilgrim.

The rest of the project (still in-progress) can be seen on their Family Blog, which also shows their construction of a previous project: An animatronic replica of the dragon from "Eragon" - yes, it breathes fire.

Obviously, the final layer of coolness/interest in this is that the one thing "everybody knows" about Metroid is that, under the armor, Samus Aran is a woman. This fact does NOT appear to be a big deal (or even matter at all) to Joe, his father, or anyone else involved (it's not mentioned anywhere on any of their sites.) That shouldn't be surprising or even worth noticing, but, let's face it: It is... and it's all kinds of kickass. Gender-role-ignoring cosplay as a father/son bonding experience for a postcard-perfect American Family... it's like a time-traveling transmission from a better tommorrow.

There is NOTHING about this video, this project, this kid and his family that is not just incredibly awesome. I'm going to sleep now - I haven't gone to sleep feeling good about the human race in forever, and I want to try it.

The NES is Silver today

25 years ago today at FAO Schwarz in Manhattan NY, the first Nintendo Entertainment Systems went on sale in the United States. Home video-gaming had died completely in the U.S. three years earlier in The Crash of 1983, and Nintendo had to package the device with a toy robot in order to convince retailers to carry it.



The system launched 18 available games: Balloon Fight, Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball Stack-Up, Tennis, Wild Gunman, Wrecking Crew and, of course, Super Mario Bros. 

I still have mine.

Podcast Interview (Armchair Thinkers)

Chris and Kyle, aka "The Armchair Thinkers," had your's truly as their guest on the Podcast this week. I thought it went pretty well, Judge for yourself.



Armchair Thinkers Facebook Page.

Armchair Thinkers on iTunes (I'm on EPISODE 9)

EPISODE 41: "The Revolution"

UPDATE: As of 9/13/11 this video is at THIS LINK

Bawl of Reach

Alright, so to answer a few readers who kept asking, I finally managed to rent "Halo: Reach" over the weekend. No, it's not getting an episode because it didn't really leave me with anything to think about or talk about and I'm unable to summon the interest to finish the campaign. I've got no real affection for first-person shooters to begin with, nothing about Halo's story, universe or design has ever really appealed to me, and it was quickly evident that I was in for more of the same so... no thanks. I played an evening of the online multiplayer, which did nothing to assuage my dislike for online multiplayer at least in the case of FPS's.

So... yeah. NOT a "review," since I didn't finish it, but didn't really do it for me.

Brave and Bold, indeed

Oh, look, a video-game trailer...



I haven't been able to gauge what the general "fan-culture" reaction has been to "Batman: The Brave & The Bold" - currently wrapping up it's final season on Cartoon Network - but I dig it, and apparently it's big with the kids (as it ought to be.) If you haven't seen, the basic idea is HUGE helpings of Silver Age DC fan-service disguised as humorous, "all-ages" Batman cartoon. I won't say it's up to snuff with "Batman: The Animated Series," but the best of it ranks up there with the one-off "funny" episodes of "Justice League Unlimited" - think "This Little Piggy," same basic idea.
In a more general sense, think a more cleverly-scripted cousin to the Adam West "Batman," co-starring a big cross-section of DCU supporting-players and with a heavier emphasis on "get it past the censors" jokes for parents/older-audiences - for example, pay really close attention to the lyrics in this musical bit as the Birds of Prey rate the... "effectiveness" of their various male counterparts:



Unsurprisingly, you can thank Gail Simone [pause for fangirl squeal] for that one (which may or may not have aired in the U.S. yet)

Anyway, the GAME (Wii) is excellent, absolutely worth a buy (I'm told the DS version is good as well.) It's a side-scrolling 2D beat-em-up. The controls take a little getting used to, as it's built around a pretty deep combo-system for a kid-targeted Wii title, but overall pretty smooth once you get into it and looks like it'd be a lot of fun with two people. Developer was Wayforward Technologies, who've carved a niche for themselves as experts of retro-style side-scrollers with "Contra 4" and "A Boy & His Blob." Licensed youth-titles on the Wii are usually a red-flag for shovelware, but retrogamers and/or Silver Age superhero fans should absolutely give it a look.

Jason Isaacs sells you a "Castlevania" game

"Castlevania: Lords of Shadow" is setting itself up to be 2010's other divisive direction-change for a longstanding NES-spawned franchise. Turning Castlevania 3D has never worked out very well, but Konami put some serious money and creative muscle into this attempt - which started out as a game "like" Castlevania that eventually got co-opted into a kind of reboot. In this trailer, actor Jason Isaacs - at this point probably best known to most as Lucius Malfoy - gives us a very thorough rundown:



Obviously, this'll have to come down to how it plays, but so far I like what I see. Yes, obviously, there's a HUGE amount of influence being drawn from other recent successes - most notably God of War and, of course, Shadow of The Colossus. On the GoW front, at least, it must be taken into account that Castlevania invented the use of whip-like and/or "tethered" weaponry in action games. But the design is gorgeous, the subtle but unmistakable references to series mainstays looks nicely done, and I'm really liking those moments where it looks like you're using the ubiquitous chain-whip like such weaponry is actually used (i.e. two-handed and "full body" style like Gogo Yubari in "Kill Bill" - most Castlevanias have had you using a chain whip like a "normal" leather whip.)

The question has always been "will it feel like Castlevania," and from this the answer looks like "yes!" to me - I see a vaugely medieval European setting, I see classic gothic-horror imagery, I see an improbably elaborate castle and I see a Belmont wailing on stuff with a whip - that's Castlevania, as far as I'm concerned. Assuming it plays well, the BIG "to do" among fans will be the design. From about 1997 on (re: "Symphony of The Night" on the PS1) the series has largely kept to a more starkly Manga-esque "neo-goth" look; while this one seems to be a conscious return to the Universal/Hammer Horror by way of Frank Frazetta art-design that the series boasted from the original up through Rondo of Blood. For me, this is what I've always wanted/hoped a 3D big-scale Castlevania would look like, but for folks who started at "Symphony" or after I imagine this must look a bit jarring.

Texting of The Bread

Below, the trailer for "Texting of The Bread" - a new mobile game that marks ScrewAttack.com's first foray into game development:



The basic idea is it's a 2D spin on "Typing of The Dead" (re: "House of The Dead" as a keyboard-training game, cult-classic) with mobile texting and evil Gingerbread Men instead of zombies. I saw it in action back at SGC, and it looked like a lot of fun.

You can pick it up for your iPhone, iPad etc HERE.

Guys...

Look, I appreciate and am grateful for people posting and linking the show throughout the web, but can I ask a small favor?

When you do, can we maybe NOT do it as part of an "eff you!" or "your opinion is WRONG, here's the RIGHT one!" thing on a forum or talkback or whatever? I appreciate the passion and enthusiasm, but when the show - and, by extension, *I* - get used in such a way, it reflects bad on the show and reflects bad on me. Y'know?

Especially since, regarding the "Other M" episode... I wasn't looking to "refute" or "take-down" any other game critic or site; mainly just respond to recurring message-board trolling and memes.

So... by all means, re-post... but let's all have some tact, eh? ;)

EPISODE 40: "Heavens to Metroid!"

update: as of 9/13/11 this video is at THIS LINK

Because YOU demanded it!!!


Remember: ALL NEW Game OverThinker episodes appear
EXCLUSIVELY on ScrewAttack.com!

BUMP

The "Extra Credits" folks graciously did me the honor of giving "Episode 33: Building a Better Gamer" an (unsolicited) plug at the tail of their new episode this week. Since that WAS about half a year ago, I'm popping it back up right her for anyone who's come looking for it:



Coming Soon: An episode about a Special Lady.

Coming Later: Revolution.

Give "Other M" a shot

Alright, I don't generally use the "OverThinker" blog for anything but important stuff or new episodes, but I really want to jump into this whole thing:

If you've got a Wii, whether you're a "Metroid" fan or not, and if you ever take my advice on anything: Give "Metroid: Other M" a chance. Yes, even if you just rent it or buy it and sell it back right away if you hate it.

In this business, ANY game that takes a big risk deserves attention and respect, but taking a big risk with an established "franchise" deserves something close to a ribbon just for showing up. And make no mistake, ditching close to a decade of First-Person-Shooter "Metroid" games in favor of - think about this for a moment - a third-person 3D "Super Metroid" successor developed OUTSIDE the Nintendo inner-circle whose controls are mapped to what is essentially an NES CONTROLLER* is easily the biggest risk Nintendo has taken on a license since "Windwaker."

And though I've not beaten it yet, thus far I'm comfortable calling it dangerously-close to amazing.** So if my opinion counts for anything, I'm calling this a must-play - and it'd be a real shame if Nintendo and Team Ninja got the idea that this wasn't a direction they should continue pursuing.

So give it a shot, eh?

* Speaking of which, I would love someone from Team Ninja to explain to me exactly WHY this game - controlled with what amounts to an NES controller and, occasionally, an NES Zapper - controls better than any of their "Ninja Gaiden" games did with Dual Analogs and twice the buttons.

** Before anyone brings it up: YES, melodramatic voice-acting and YES, someone really should've caught what the unintended subtext of the narrative based solution to the "where do upgrades come from" problem might be to some people.

Everybody watch this NOW

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/1961-Free-Speech

Episode 39: "The Emperor Has No Clothes"

update: as of 9/13/11 this video is at THIS LINK


hard link HERE

Extra Credits

Daniel Floyd has been all over the web for a number of years now, consistently putting out magnificient game-commentary content that you really ought to go look for and watch if you haven't already. Now, he and his compatriots James Portnow and Allison Theus have had their show "Extra Credits" picked up by The Escapist.

You should DEFINITELY be watching this one. I'll put it simply: I'm glad y'all like MY show... but this show is better, so give it a look:


http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/1887-Video-Games-Bad-Writing

Episode 38: TGO's SGC 2010 Panel!

And now, belatedly, the highlights and big moments from my first ever live panel hosted at this year's ScrewAttack Gaming Convention over the July 4th Weekend, 2010. Presented in two parts:

PART I:


PART II:

SGC 2010 "Video Game Celebrity"

Thanks to ScrewAttack G1 "NovaSpec" for posting a video that I didn't think anyone had taped the whole run of, which more-or-less marked The Game OverThinker's impromptu "public debut."

Here's how this happened: The bad weather kept Brentalfloss from arriving on time for his scheduled live concert (though he did end up doing the whole show later when he actually arrived - that guy is a MACHINE!) so the SA crew had to fill a timeslot. The solution: Get the site regulars onstage to play "Celebrity" (read: Charades-with-proper-nouns) for game characters with the audience (itself split into "USA" and "International" teams.) Being available and willing, they asked me to come up too (playing for "Team International.") Please appreciate what a generous "leap" this was on the part of Stuttering Craig etc - most of them had only just MET me, so there's a certain amount of risk involved in inviting a mostly-unknown quantity to a live mic when YOUR responsible for what they might do. In any case, the whole thing was a ton of fun; and I did pretty good... right up until I blew a would-be comeback win by being unable to figure out how to pantomime Ulala from "Space Channel 5." Ah, well.



These are some funny people, and I reccomend you give everyone a watch, but for fans looking for "my" turns they're at 9:40, 19:40 and 38:40 plus a random silly-dance at 26:09. Enjoy!

Game OverThinker in SGC2010 TOP TEN!

Hey gang!

ScrewAttack.com has their Top 10 Moments recap of SGC 2010 up at GameTrailers, and my impromptu (and unscripted) "debate" with The Game UnderThinker came in #3! Plus there's a whole bunch of stuff in there to give you an idea of what you missed if you weren't there - including Spoony, The Angry Nerd, Brentalfloss and the INSANE mayhem wreaked by "Keith Apicary" upon the hotel and convention area. Check it out below:

Can't embed for some reason, so click here!

"Original Gamer" SGC interview

So... it's taking some time to organize stuff for a "me at SGC video, so for now here's an interview that got done there - spur of the moment - of yours truly by OriginalGamer.com:


http://original-gamer.com/index.php?action=article&id=1505

SGC 2010

Here's a question I never would've imagined I'd have an answer to: What does it feel like to have beautiful women dressed up like anime/video-game characters asking YOU for a photo and autograph?

Answer: It feels pretty fucking awesome.

Honestly, easily one of the top ten weekends of my life. Meeting fans from as far away as England and Portugal, signing autographs, doing a panel with Spoony, GPX and the Life & Level guys, hosting my own Q&A panel, watching it get fuller with time and being applauded for broad references to "Babylon 5", being invited up onstage with the ACTUAL ScrewAttack crew, improvising a "debate" with The Game Underthinker, meeting Keith Apicary, Brentalfloss, The Angry Nerd and the whole crew in the flesh, being treated like a goddamn rock star - or, at least, moderately-noteworthy musician - for posting jokey videos on the internet... EPIC. There's just no other word for it.

More in-depth type stuff to come but, for now... wow, just wow.

Episode 37: "In Which I Defend Kinect, Sort Of..."

UPDATE: As of 9/13/11 this video is at THIS LINK

I'll see you at SGC!

Nice to finally be able to make this "officially public." I'll be in Texas the weekend of July 4th for the ScrewAttack Gaming Convention (in my capacity as The Game OverThinker), and I hope to see some fans and well-wishers there, too ;)

More details of this will likely follow. Details on the Convention itself can be found HERE: http://sgconvention.com/

Episode 36: "Who's Your Daddy, Mega Man?"

update: as of 9/13/11 this video is at THIS LINK

Watch this MEGA MAN fan-film

Indie filmmaker Eddie LeBron spent something like three years making on a "Mega Man" fan film, the scale and scope of which are pretty damn impressive if you ask me. "ScrewAttack" is hosting it, go take a look:
http://screwattack.com/videos/Mega-Man

Episode 35: "A Response to Roger Ebert"

UPDATE: As of 9/13/11, this video is at THIS LINK


http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-35-A-Response-to-Roger-Ebert

Games & Violence with Brian

Hey gang. FYI, Brian Schmoyer - late of the infamous "The Only Thing I Know" video, has turned a conversation he and I had into a nifty podcasty thing on ScrewAttack. Have a gander:


http://screwattack.com/videos/Brian-Bob-Overthinker-talk-Games-Violence

Episode 34: "Waggle War"

UPDATE: as of 9/13/11 this video is now at THIS LINK

AWESOME Mario art by middle-school kids

I try not to post anything here but episodes, but this was too cool not to share. This HUGE paper-mache (I think) art installation by students from Holten Richmond Middle School is on display at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, Massachusetts from April 8th to 30th. Take a look at this, it's pretty damn cool:


There's actually ANOTHER huge display behind it of "Clash of The Titans," which I'm gonna try and get some snaps of for the other blog tommorow. What's kinda cool is that it looks to be based off the ORIGINAL "Clash." Either way, it would appear Holten Richmond employs the World's Coolest Middle School Art Teacher...


What trips me out about this is the realization of how... "ingrained" the Mario Arcana has become in the pop-culture, a far cry from how "niche" it was for most of when I was the age of the kids who made this: Mario, Luigi & Peach? Okay, makes sense. Toad? Wow. Toad in a Mario Kart?? Whoa.

I love the Paratroopa. From the "front" shot at the top, you can see that Yoshi and Donkey Kong also made the cut. But imagine my surprise when I walked to the rear of the piece and saw...

BIRDO?? Birdo is fair-to-moderately obscure, at least compared to everyone else in here... or "she" has always seemed to be. Is the "Mario Crew" so ubiquitous now that even Birdo gets the "go ahead" for a project that (presumably) had to work from some kind of group consensus? That blows my mind.

I remember trying to do Mario/Nintendo/game-inspired stuff in school art projects as a kid and either being voted down or told that it wasn't a "proper" subject for school. Having something like THIS be a class project - the type that gets shown in a big public space like "the" local mall? My recollections of school would be soooooooo dramatically different if something like this had been on the docket then. What a cool thing, and what a bunch of obviously-talented kids.

The installation is up at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, MA; apparently from April 8th to the 30th. If you're in that area, give it a look. How often do you see stuff like this, right?

Pax 2010

Because people have been asking:

Primarily for financial reasons, I was not able to get a ticket in time (and no, I don't want to buy one off anyone, but thanks anyway) so I will almost-definately NOT be at PAX East this year. However, as it IS going down more or less in my back yard you may see me out and about anyway, in which case feel free to say hi ;)

Episode 33: "Building a Better Gamer"

update: as of 9/13/11 this video can now be found at THIS LINK

This one is all about US, guys... but not entirely in a good way.
http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-33-Building-A-Better-Gamer

Episode 32: "I Heart Bayonetta"

update: as of 9/13/11 this video is found at THIS LINK

Episode 31: "What's the Difference?"

update: as of 9/13/11 this video can be viewed at THIS LINK

http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-31-Whats-The-Difference

Interviewed

A little while back, I sat down to be interviewed by Ryan McAskill, aka "The Boston Comedy Examiner," who has now published said interview as part of his podcast.

Check it out here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8746-Boston-Comedy-Examiner~y2010m1d6-Podcast-MovieBobThe-Game-Overthinker