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We Salute Halloween and the Greatest Mega Man Boss Of All Time

It just so happens the two are connected!

I don't blame Mackey for pussying out on Berserk. We owned that game too and it was kind of pants-dumping scary. You, as Mr Stick Spaceman, had to crawl slowly through electrified caverns. Inch by inch, step by step; touching the wall meant death. It was tension at its most potent.

So you'd almost be clear of some narrow hallway and then your mom would pop in and ask you, "What would you like for lunch?" You'd scream and jolt and Mr Stick Spaceman would fry against the wall with a blinding flash of colours and a sizzling/clacking sound that was offensive to the ear in the worst imaginable way. Berserk did not get much playtime in our house.

It's mandatory for bloggers to give wordy offerings to Halloween on the appointed day and I was thinking about how I might do the same. I don't play survival horror games because honestly I already have a problem with vivid dreams and nightmares and further contributions are just not necessary. Then I thought about "safe" ghouls and vampires--the guys who are just fun to have around. I thought about Shade Man, the vampire-bot from Mega Man 7 and probably my favourite Robot Master of all time.

Posted Oct 31 2008, 05:00 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: capcom, mega man 7, nadia oxford, halloween, scary games, berserk, shade man

Chiptune Halloween: Check Your Candy For Razor Blades

Happy Halloween, everybody. I'm sure you've all got long nights of Sugar Daddies and Zombies Ate My Neighbors lined up, but don't forget some sweet tunes. Might I recommend the title track off of Twilight Electric's "Razor Blades" EP? I think you'll find these blades much smoother and more pleasant than the ones your mom was always checking your candied apples for.

Posted Oct 31 2008, 02:00 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with no comments

Filed under: derrick sanskrit, chiptune friday, 8bitpeoples, halloween, twilight electric

Irrational Gaming Fears

As I've pointed out in the past, I'm a huge gaming wuss--though I like to think I'm much better than I used to be. This particular brand of cowardice started very early in my gaming life, with a system that probably didn't instill fear in anyone aside from stockholders: the Atari 2600. It was the abstract, blocky representations within these simple games that played hell upon my young mind. Sure, a dragon usually ended looking like a duck on the system's puny hardware, but to the boundless imagination of a young child, that duck's about to leap off the screen and peck out your heart.

One 2600 game terrified me so much that I actually had to hide it: Berzerk. Maybe it was the killer robots, maybe it was the creepy, tense atmosphere--but I'd break out into a cold sweat anytime it was near. And to make me look even more pathetic, the commercial for Berzerk featured an octogenarian and her small grandson playing the game with absolutely no reservations.

Note: This is the one time I felt a sassy grandma was not nearly sassy enough.

Posted Oct 31 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: tomb raider, scary, bob mackey, halloween, scary games, berzerk

Wasted Rentals, Wasted Youth: Bram Stoker's Dracula (SNES)

The Angry Videogame Nerd has posted a Halloween Game Shitfest just in time for Satan's birthday. The first installment focuses on all the bad Dracula-themed games spanning back to the beginning of time. Turns out there are a good number of Dracula-bombs out there, and we're not even counting any of the lesser Castlevania titles.

Angry Nerd even takes a brief look at Bram Stoker's Dracula, which saw release on the NES, SNES and the Game Boy. I kind of feel like cringing into a ball and sucking my thumb when I say this, but I've played Bram Stoker's Dracula on the SNES and Gameboy. The experience was like biting a hangnail; oh so painful, but enjoyable in a masochistic way.

Hark! A flashback!

Most weeks, my parents allowed my brothers and I to rent a video game. We had to take turns, and my younger brother picked out Bram Stoker's Dracula one week. I wanted to throttle him.

The logical thing to do when a shit game is in your presence is to not play it, but I had kind of an obsession thing going on. Nintendo game in front of me? OMG, must play, no matter how painful. Actually, maybe there was a bit of a spite thing going on here, though all of this might have something to do with my childhood love for eating the syrup-covered styrofoam that used to line packages of butter tarts.

Posted Oct 20 2008, 09:33 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 6 comment(s)

Filed under: game boy, snes, angry video game nerd, nes, dracula, nadia oxford, halloween, bram stoker's dracula

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.