Mike Wants a Game Job

Yesterday the Super Smash Bros Brawl site changed the release date of the upcoming Wii release from December 3rd to "TBD." While it has not been officially stated that the US release will be pushed back, Nintendo confirmed at a press conference yesterday that the Japanese release of the game will not hit Japan until January 24, 2008. This news was subsequently followed by the sound of my heart BREAKING IN TWO.

In brighter news, it was also revealed yesterday that Sonic the Hedgehog will be a playable character in the game. More info and videos can be found at the main SSBB site, but as you may have guess Sonic is incredibly fast.

The Super Smash Bros. Brawl site has announced that their upcoming title for the Wii will support multi-player over the system's wi-fi connection. In an improvement over earlier Nintendo games that have utilized the wi-fi, players will not need to register friend codes in order to find a match, as there will be a service that will allow players to battle randomly selected people over the internet. Parents of young gamers should be pleased with how this function will work, as players will be unable to communicate with each other and no records will be kept of the battles, keeping children protected from potential predators. However, players that to do register and compete with friends will be able to track their statistics and send short messages via the taunt buttons on the controller (the d-pad directions). No word yet on whether certain words will be censored in this method, but seeing what has happened in the past with user created content in Nintendo games, I imagine there will be.

The Associated Press has reported that an unidentified man in China has died of exhaustion after playing videogames for three days straight. Paramedics were called after the 30 year old man fainted in an internet cafe, but were unable to resuscitate the victim. The name of the game he was playing has not been released, but it has been identified as an online role-playing game, echoing recent cries of addiction to games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest. This is not the first videogame-related death China has experienced, as a young man suffered a fatal heart attack in March after playing for nearly a week straight.

Lastly, remember Tingle, the annoying little faux fairy from some of the recent Legend of Zelda games? The little bastard now has his own game, Freshly-Picked Tingle"s Rosy Rupeeland, which was released a while ago in Japan and this week in Europe. No North America release for the game has been announced, but from the general hatred I have seen toward this character I am not surprised. Still, I must admit I am morbidly curious as to what the game is like, so much so that I am tempted to import it and experience the horror for myself.

I really wish I didn’t find bad ideas so appealing.

Karma is a fickle bitch, indeed

After two days full of ranting and raving against Final Fantasy VII to friends and random internet strangers alike, the following e-mail shows up in my inbox this morning:

"Today, OverClocked ReMix is proud to announce the release of its latest album, Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream.  You can read all about this album and download it in its entirety for free at http://ff7.ocremix.org.

We're emailing to inform you of this album's availability because we think you'll be interested - it's some of the best work yet from many prominent OC ReMix artists - but also because we need your assistance.

We're trying to promote this album on a larger scale than previous releases, and need all the help we can get to make sure people know about this great, free music.�

OverClocked Remix is a site dedicated to remixing videogame music, and over the years people have posted some really great songs. The music has kept me company through some rather long nights in college, and occasionally I'll just get the urge to listen to some music from a certain game. But, as you may have been able to guess by now, I really hate Final Fantasy VII. This e-mail has presented me choosing between my beloved music or my beloved hate, but I think I have found a decent compromise.

Go check out Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream, download it, and tell your friends about it. As much as I hate to admit it, FFVII does have some pretty good music, and I"m sure the remixers have done a great job with the album. After that, check out the main OC Remix site and listen to some of the other great tracks there (I’ve listed a few recommendations below), especially stuff from the old-school, pre-FFVII (i.e. good) days of Square Enix.

See? I’ve managed to promote the new album while in no way endorsing Final Fantasy VII. I think I should be able to sleep tonight.

Lastly, if you have a few minutes go check out the new game over at [adult swim]’s site: Viva Caligula! That man was living proof that you don’t need videogames to be crazy and violent, and now people can experience the madness of his life for themselves. The tagline says it all: Rome is corrupt, kill everyone to save Rome!

Mike’s OverClocked Remix Recommendations

SuperBuckJazz from Super Mario Bros. 2 by Estradasphere

Team Gato from Chrono Trigger by Mustin and Dale North

Maridia: Drowned in Exile from Super Metroid by Children of the Monkey Machine

Assembly Line Apparitions from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest by Protricity