1up ran an outstanding article that compared American and Japanese video games recently. Not just what's what, but what kind of games we're making as cultures, and why. A very good read.

Comic legend Stan Lee weighed in on the merit of games in a recent interview. Most noteworthy was the fact that he appeared to regard them as a better medium for excitement and fantasy than movies:

"'In a movie, you just sit and watch. (In a video game) you're not only seeing the story but you're participating in the story,' said Lee, who admits he has neither the time nor the skill to play video games."

It makes sense. Despite some awful, truly wretched videogame to movie crossovers, I remember playing FFVIII and thinking "man, that shit was better than any movie I've seen in ages."

Same with Metal Gear Solid, same with Halo, and on, and on...

Anyhow, go Stan! 85 and still awesome!

Wired magazine had an outstanding and beautifully illustrated story on the rise and fall of Gizmondo a few issues ago. Not only was the story totally better than fiction, but the dark, dark graphic-novel style illustrations really made the story pop. A real gem, better in print than online, but see whichever version you can.

At any rate, a recent trade show booth auction that popped up serves as a nice additional tombstone/reminder of the giant vapor-implosion big bang that the company ultimately represented.

Back in the day, waaaaaay back in the day, there used to be a Nintendo-funded spin-off cartoon that would air on weekday afternoons, just as the kids were getting home from school. My memories are fuzzy, but I think it would be a combination of live action and cartoon, and for the life of me, I can't remember what it was called (BIG props to the reader who does - hit me in the comments!). At any rate, Mon-Thurs the cartoon portion centered around some Mario theme, with Motherbrain (from Metroid) as the bad guy and King Hippo (Punch Out) and the Eggplant Wizard (Kid Icarus) as the henchmen.

But on Friday.... ZELDA! Little stories, and that awful catchphrase: "Excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!"

Now, the entire thing is all right here! Here's a taste:

This is not that surprising, but truly shocking in the degree of obvious similarity. I mean, I know that game box art has been terrible since the dawn of time (the stinking, shit-covered white elephant in the room for most systems, Genesis in particular), but to see that it's essentially plagiarism... jeez. Anyhow, J. R. Antrim has compiled entire website that reveals videogame lookalikes, some dead-on (like this one), others a bit more random. Enjoy!

Ho. Lee. Crap. Look at this little Japanese tyke go:

And as if that wasn't enough, if you want to see some BONKERS Taiko no tetsujin (Taiko Drum Master) and Pop N'Music superhuman reflexes... just hit the jump (click the "read more" link) for some serious über-human gaming prowess.

Happy New Year everyone! Here we are in the post-holiday next gen fallout, where everyone has Wii elbow and console sales expectations are totally on their heads (the Wii continues to kick the PS3's butt, just look at eBay prices and you'll see the Wii sale price is steady as a rock, not so much PS3, which is now near cost).

To remind us all of how far we've come, there is an excellent visual recap of console hardware, from its inception to present day online. You really need to see this, so take a minute and stroll down memory lane.

Let the nostalgia begin: click here.

Oh. My. God. Too funny.

So there's Second Life, which unless you've been living completely under a rock, you know is the go-anywhere, build-anything, Metaverse-made-real software "game" thingy. You can fly. It's fun.

In this virtual world there is real commerce, which is dominated by several key players, including one named Anshe Chung (avatar name), who was to be interviewed by Cnet. (Un?)Fortunately, some virtual tricksters wanted to have some fun with the mogul, and soooooo......

Penises. Flying dicks. Hundreds and hundreds. Kinda sunk the interview. More pictures here!

My birthday is really soon, after all, sooooo......

Peep the Auction to end all auctions.

Also, how much funnier can Rabbids get? They're being used as the de-facto Ubisoft mascot for marketing their other games on the Wii now:

Hilarious.

File under: way, way too far over the line. A new German law in response to a school shooting seeks to "authorize prison sentences for those who create or distribute game content which features cruel or otherwise inhumane acts of violence against humans or humanlike creatures."

So, if I deliberately screw up an operation and the patient doesn't survive in Trauma Center, then I'm to be held accountable for virtual malpractice?

With all due respect and symapthy for the families of the victims of the recent German school rampage and Columbine, if you let a violent, emotionally unstable person engage in violent activities, then gas will be thrown on the fire. But it's all to easy to blame Doom, Counter Strike, etc... if you let these same people drink, they will get in barfights. If you let them drive, they will drive aggressively. If you let them box, you'll get another Tyson. And so on and so on. Removing all violence from video games is way too far over the line, even though the incidents are tragic and grave. To put it another way, alcohol-induced domestic violence kills thousands, and could be circumvented by banning all sales of and right to possess alcohol, but I think all adults can agree that it'd be overkill. Violent, twisted people are violent, twisted people, and it's both naive and simple minded to say video games are their primary or only trigger.