Old Zelda

Just a quick note on something that's going on over at the Vintage Game Club. They've picked The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask as the latest game to play through. People play the chosen game at their own pace and post in the forum for whatever section they're on. Just another cool thing that one of my favorite game bloggers is up to.

I started on MM over the weekend since I had a GameCube disc with lots of old Zelda games on it that I could play on the Wii. I only made it to the first dungeon, but it's nice to relive something from soooooo long ago (2000). And I love me some Zelda.

Unrelated: I seem to be becoming a regular on MTV Multiplayer blog via Twitter. If you can't tell from the neat little gizmo to your left, I'm dave_haas

A tale of two Wiis

I just got two Wii games in the mail today and they couldn't be more different. The zany, Japanesy family fun Excitebots: Trick Racing and MadWorld, the game that shouldn't be played within half a mile of anyone under 18.

I didn't immediately go for Excitebots. The graphics are underwhelming and the controls are a bit chaotic. Meaning that you're flailing your hands all over the place. You hold the Wii remote like a steering wheel, but there's very little steering involved. The bots I used on the opening tracks required very little left and right movement. It was more about knowing when to jump, boost, and wave around like an idiot. Maybe that changes later, I don't know. But once you get a feel for this, it's a little entertaining. Still, I won't be keeping this one for long.

MadWorld is f'ing nuts. And it is on purpose. It's sort of a take on Running Man where your grizzled character is supposed to kill dudes in the most inventive way possible to get points and please a TV audience. I'm really loving the running commentary from Greg Proops, a Who's Line is it Anyway? alum. You also may recognize his voice as one of the announcers from the pod race scene in Episode I. The art style is all black and white with splashes of red for blood. And there's a lot of blood. You'd think that depth perception would suffer but I haven't had any problems with that just yet. Everything I've seen so far has been over the top, vulgar, violent, and ridiculous. I love it.

Now Playing: Skate 2 and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Skate 2 is one of those games with a pretty steep learning curve. I figured I'd pick right up on this one since I played a few hours of Skate. Not true. I've already had a few challenges that I tried probably 20 times in a row before I passed them. I apparently can't railslide worth a darn. So maybe I'll shy away from challenges that include that. Anyway, I'm getting the hang of it and am appreciating the open world style of "do whatever challenges you feel like."

Oh, get this. I got an e-mail from the local library yesterday that the game I reserved was ready. Huh? Oh yeah, I scanned their list last year and put a hold on Lego Star Wars. And then forgot about it after several months. Either they don't have many copies or borrowing free videogames is a really popular thing. Or both. Probably both.

I've played both of the previous Lego Star Wars games before on PS2 and Gamecube. I figured I'd try all episodes I-VI on the 360. You know, since it was free. And, I'm ashamed to say, for achievement points. But whatever, the cut scenes (especially for IV-VI since I've seen those many more times) are great. These Lego games are great to play with kids or inexperienced gamers. I convinced my wife to play this with me years ago, maybe I can do so again. Wish me luck!

Catchup: Quantum of Solace and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

I mentioned that I was getting 007 Quantum of Solace and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. I did, and I played them. I tried, but just couldn't get into N&B. It's all about customizing vehicles and I never had much fun doing that. And I didn't put in the time to get to where the vehicles available were anything more than clunky pieces of crap. The helicopter was sort of neat and the game was occasionally chuckle-worthy, but...meh.

Quantum of Solace was also mediocre as shooters go, but at least I finished it. They had enough variety in "ways to kill dudes" and level design to keep my interest at least. Is it bad that I was glad that it was so short? Okay, I haven't seen the new Bond films it was based on, but I was COMPLETELY confused by the cut scenes with M tracking Bond via his phone. They're talking about where he is and what he's doing, then they suddenly decide to fast forward? Whatever, just let me shoot some more dudes.

Why I'm not getting an iPhone

They've been impossible to ignore lately with the launch of the new version, ads everywhere, and the tech press talking about them nonstop. They're even taking up a larger share of the market as people decide for whatever reason that they need one too. But I'm not getting one.

Why not? Mostly it comes down to carrier exclusivity. Since you can only get it on AT&T that really limits a lot of peoples' options. I'm technically out of contract with T-Mobile so that's not really the issue, but I've had them for almost 8 years with very few problems. Any small issue gets resolved quickly by their excellent customer service. T-Mobile doesn't get its reputation as the low-cost carrier by accident either. I'd be paying about $20 more per month for comparable amounts of voice, text, and data with AT&T and an iPhone.

Why not just get an iPhone and haxx0r it to work on T-Mobile then? While I'm sure I could manage this, it cripples the device in two big ways. There's always the chance that you could brick your shiny new toy by doing something wrong, and the 3G spectrums aren't compatible between the two carriers. So even if I got a 3G iPhone, it wouldn't be 3G on T-Mobile.

I don't know if you've noticed, but Apple makes some great music players. One of the motivations for an iPhone would be to consolidate my 60GB iPod with my phone. Now that they have a 32GB model that's solid state, that's awfully tempting. But I have about 38GB of music alone. I'd have to pick what gets on there and what doesn't. And still worry about leaving room for all the crazy apps that people seem to love. That just sounds like a nightmare where my OCD could flare up often.

If this reads like a list of rationalizations, that's because it is. These things are beautiful, and I've always had a certain respect for the great design that Apple manages to put into both its hardware and software. In fact this all came up again after my wife made the switch this week with a new MacBook Pro.

But no, I'm gonna do the sensible thing and stick with what I've got. But ask me again in a few years when the AT&T exclusive thing is up and maybe I'll have a different answer. :)