XXI_MPFW

The 21st edition of "Mike's Place For Words" is here! The last one was all pro wrestling, so this one is all video games! I got some video game notes and reviews of Strong Bad Episode II and the much anticipated Mega Man 9.

Mike's Video Game Notes

-At my job, we have all the Burger King Xbox games. I bought Pocketbike Racer when I first got my Xbox 360 and it was decent. The games got marked down to $2 and I just had to buy the other two, Sneak King and Big Bumpin'. I played Big Bumpin' for a little bit and had enough. I don't think I'm going to play that one again unless I'm really bored. I played Sneak King yet, but I heard that it's the worst of the three.

-Recently I downloaded Alien Hominid HD. I'm not doing a full review for this one. I got this one since I love Castle Crashers. I love the art in the game, but it's a bit challenging and it only takes one bullet to kill the alien, which can get quite frustrating. Try the demo first before you get the full game to see if you like it.

-I tried out the demo for Fracture and I liked it. This one is going to go on my wishlist. I also downloaded a demo for Mercenaries 2 which I've yet to play.

-I only have to wait less than 3 more weeks until I get Rock Band 2! This comes out the same day as the next CHIKARA event, so I'm probably going to pick it up, go to the show and play when I get home. I was playing drums on a display they had at Best Buy and I was loving it. I wish October 19th would get here faster.

-Duke Nukem 3D was recently released on the Xbox Live Arcade! I'm not going to do a full review for this one as well. It's the same game from the PC version, which I love. This time, I'm trying to get through the game without using cheat codes. This is probably going to be the second game where I get every achievement (Pac-Man Championship Edition was the first). The online deathmatches are pretty good, but I can never tell if I'm hitting somebody. Everybody go download this especially if you've never played the PC version. Also, this game kinda sorta makes me look forward to Duke Nukem Forever, which is coming out "when it's done".

Strong Bad Episode II review

The next chapter in the set of Strong Bad WiiWare games is here, it's Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People: Episode II - Strong Badia the Free. This game is basically the same point and click stuff from the first game and there's no big improvements from the first one either. This one seemed shorter than the first, since I beat it in about 2 hours. I didn't need help with a walkthrough on this one. The typical Strong Bad humor is here and Homsar is just hilarious. You don't have to have played the first one to play this. It costs 1000 Wii points to download if you want to check this one out. If you like the series, then I recommend it. If not, you should pass on it.

Mega Man 9 review

The highly anticipated game is now here, Mega Man 9! When I was younger I played Mega Man 4 and could only ever get to Skull Man. I downloaded Mega Man 2 on the Virtual Console when that game out to help prep for this. So far for Mega Man 2, I've played that game on easy and beaten 5 of the bosses.

I decided to get the Wii version instead of the Xbox Live Arcade version. I have the storage room on my Wii and it's good to play this game with the Wiimote turned sideways since it's just like the old Nintendo controller. I didn't want to play this game with the 360 controller's directional pad. I looked up the achievements and they look quite hard, especially completing the game 5 times in 1 day. The Wii version has a list of 50 challenges, like achievements, some of which I know I'll never get, like beating the game without taking damage.

So anyway, onto the game. This game looks like it came straight from the NES. There's also the sprite glitches that make the game look more "realistic". My brother even thought it was an old NES Mega Man game. Just like the old NES games, this game is really, really challenging. So far it has taken me 2 hours to beat 3 of the bosses. I even had to look up the correct order for bosses. If you got 1000 Wii points and only 66 blocks of memory on your Wii, get this game! It's also available for the PS3 download gimmick and the Xbox Live Arcade. Also on the Capcom site, you can order a t-shirt of the awesomely bad box art of the game. Mine is ordered and I hope to get it soon.

Hope you enjoyed this one. The next edition will most likely be a live review of CHIKARA's "The Global Gauntlet Night 2" unless I squeeze in another one before that. I'll see you next time.