PixlBit

Here’s another list of game reviews I’ve done lately.  Please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe even post a comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  Normally I’d wait until I have a few more reviews written, but my next blog will be a review list too, and it’ll have a theme (check the site’s front page now if you want a clue as to what it is).  So I kind of wanted to get these out of the way before I do that.  See, there’s a method to my madness sometimes.  OK, here are the reviews:

Pokemon Visual Companion (Book)

This is actually a pretty nice hardcover book.  But if you’re looking for it to be about the Pokemon games, you’re outta luck!  This one’s all about the anime cartoon series!  It really goes into detail, too.  Like info about all the characters, which Pokemon Ash and the gang have caught, and it even has play by play notes on all the major battles!  I could just see a young Pokemon fan just pouring over the pages of this book, couldn’t you?

I was in college writing game reviews for The Dallas Morning News when Pokemon first came out.  I insisted to my editor that I cover everything Pokemon related.  I knew how popular it was already in Japan, and I expected it to repeat that in the US.  But my editor had no idea so he was like, “yeah sure, whatever.”  And boy, there were a few years after that where I was writing TONS of Pokemon articles.  I like to say that Pokemon helped pay my way through college.  One of the things I did was watch the anime cartoon, and I would record it on VHS.  Then I would take the tapes over to my little brothers, and they’d watch them over and over and over.  I haven’t watched the Pokemon cartoon in YEARS, though.  Is Team Rocket still in it?  They were always my favorites.  I hate to admit it, but as dopey as the Pokemon cartoon is, it’s actually one of the better video game based cartoons out there.  Look down deep inside and I bet you’ll agree with me. Maybe.

WWE 2K14 Strategy Guide (Book)

I have a lot of friends who are into wrestling on TV, but I’ve never been able to understand it, myself.  But that won’t stop me from reviewing a guide about a wrestling game anyway!  I could probably fit everything I know about wrestling into one paragraph, so I’m going to try it right now!  Here goes: 

I do know some of the more popular wrestlers that have been in other forms of media, like Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant (both are in this game guide).  When I was a kid, I also remember a wrestler called Sgt. Slaughter who was in a lot of G.I. Joe action figure commercials.  But I didn’t pay much attention to them because I was more into Transformers.  I also know that the voice for Mario in the old cartoon was Capt. Lou Albano, and he was a wrestler, too.  To this day, I prefer his voice for Mario over the high pitched one we get now.  I did meet a famous wrestler at E3 one time, but it was actually a lady.  I didn’t know there were lady wrestlers, but I guess there are!  I can’t remember her name, though.  Stacy…something…I think.  She didn’t look much like a wrestler, but she was kind of pretty I guess. I know wrestling is considered ‘fake’ but the athletic prowess and things they do are real.  That’s why I don’t like watching it because I don’t like seeing people get hurt.  In movies and video games it’s OK because it’s not real.  But in sports it is real and whenever I see someone get hurt on the field or in the ring, I get really sad.  I know, I’m just a big baby.

And that’s all I know about wrestling!  In the comments section, maybe you can pick out a favorite wrestler for me, OK?

The Legend of Zelda 2014 Calendar

Every year for Christmas I get a wall calendar that I like to put up at my cubicle at work.  For the past couple of years I’ve gotten Muppets calendars, so I wanted something different this year.  So for this Christmas I got a Zelda calendar!  I took a couple of pictures of it and posted them on the GamerDad web site since it was gaming related.  Only problem I have with the calendar is it has too much art from games like Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword.  And not enough art from other titles like Wind Waker and the classic Zeldas.  They had other calendars, too, like a Mario one and a Pac-Man one.  But the Mario one was kind of bland, and the Pac-Man one was based on the new CG cartoon, so you know I didn’t want that.  What kind of video game calendars would you like to see?  Let me know in the comments section!

Rush (Wii U)

This downloadable Wii U title has you placing arrow tiles on the ground to direct cubes to certain locations without them falling off the board.  It kind of reminds me of other games like Lemmings or Chu Chu Rocket.  It also only uses the Wii U touch screen gamepad!  And it’s made by the same folks who did Toki Tori.

Galaxy Run (iPad)

At first you might think this is one of those continuously running 2-D platformers that you see on tablets a lot.  But this one’s a teeny bit different.  You help an astronaut on one side of the screen run and jump over obstacles from his spaceship wreckage to the warp point on the other side of the screen.  The single screen aspect makes it feel more like an old arcade game, and the dopey Saturday morning style theme song they play at the title screen and menus cracked me up.  It gets pretty hard, though!

Romans from Mars (iPad)

And finally, in this game you tap on approaching alien Martian Roman soldiers before they reach the bottom of the screen.  It has kind of a Roman mythology meets sci-fi theme to it, and it reminds me of the Arrow game from Game & Wario.

Conclusions

And that’s all for now!  Thanks for reading my reviews and posting comments!  I should have a new blog up in about a week or so.  Until then, see you later!  --Cary