SBK: Snowboard Kids at Eurogamer.net

The game is shite, and to prove it, John Walker spends the first three paragraphs talking about another game altogether. Of course, he’s only doing the old contrasty set up writerly thing, but it’s so so good to read.

What I have learned is: Mario Kart is really, incredibly good. And further, I don’t know why. Mario Kart has unfair deaths, where despite your superb racing technique, and complete trouncing of the AI drivers, a giant blue turtle can still knock you off the track one inch from the finish line, robbing you of your hard-earned victory. You throw your arms up in disgust, swear the paint from the walls, and most likely call Princess Peach a bitch. Then you play again.

Mario Kart never gives you the drops you want, but always seems to give the enemy something cool like the shrinky lightning, while you get lumped with a solitary bloody banana skin again. A banana skin you’ll inevitably skid on yourself in a lap’s time. But you keep on playing.

It cheats and robs you at every turn, but you take it – you keep taking it, going back for more. How on Earth?! It’s a mystery I’d be fired for acknowledging were this a review of Mario Kart. Fortunately this is a review of Snowboard Kids, and Snowboard Kids cheats and robs you at every turn, and sucks for it.

Stayed up last night to watch the live E3 Nintendo press conference on Gamespot. It was awesome, of course. Consider me on the waiting list for the Wii, and a very proud DS Lite owner.

Most incredible was the news that over 100 new games will be released for the DS between now and the end of the year. Joystiq has what appears to be the full list. Everyone doubted the DS’ ability to motivate third-party developers in the beginning, and the PSP was to survive on “at least” ports of PS2 titles, guaranteeing a steady stream of content.

A year on, and the PSP seriously lacks original games, whereas the DS is in danger of having too many. If I could only afford to play one new game a month, what in the world should it be? Starfox DS? Phoenix Wright 2? Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam? New Super Mario Bros? Kirby DS? Big Brain Academy, Sudoku, and all the other Touch Generations games for adults? Yoshi’s Island 2? Lunar Knights? Final Fantasy 3????

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so incapable of making a decision, except when shopping for music. Imagine how much more the problem will be compounded by this time next year with even more games out for the Wii. The effect of this veritable carpet bombing of fun is that I don’t even have time to consider an Xbox 360 or a PS3. Great strategy, Nintendo. If you can deliver so hard on just 2 (unique) platforms, why should anyone consider another?

I just beat this Japanese Pepsi Flash game and got the above “Memorial Banner” to show for it. Whoohoo! Try it out. Being a rhythm game, it was too sluggish on my old G4 to complete easily, so I had to close all other open apps.

Here’s a true story from folklore.org about how the Macintosh was going to be called the Bicycle, until smarter heads prevailed in the development team. Why didn’t more people at Nintendo refuse to call it the Wii? Surely Satoru Iwata can’t be scarier than Steve Jobs was in the 1980s!

Apple has made good on their promise to deliver new ads focused on the benefits of Macs over PCs. Specifically OSX and the bundled iLife suite. There are 6 ads in the campaign, and I like just about all of them. They’re clean, easy to understand, cute, and funny. Link

The new Get A Mac blitz also features 14 reasons why you should do so, and debunks 6 old reasons people used to give about Switching. All very neat. I can tell you how it’s all true and I’ve had hardly a bad moment on this computer in the last 2 years, but you’d just call me biased. I love my Mac. So much so that even as great new models come out, and I get closer and closer to affording one, I’m actually happy to keep on working and living with this old model as long as it lasts. That’s something that never happened in my 18 years of buying, building, and upgrading PC desktops.

DS Lite collage
Originally uploaded by sangsara.

I bought a DS Lite over the weekend (thanks to the Progress Package arrangement). It is freakin’ sweet and I can’t go back to the old DS now. It’s with Kimberly anyway, and she seems to really like playing Tetris and Brain Age. So that’s great.

It’s not official out here yet, so this was a Japanese import, and I’ve got to use a 220v-110v stepdown converter to charge it, which is a bit of a pain and an eyesore. It’s also selling out everywhere fast, with the White model being quite impossible to find.

Rumors on the street are that the local distributor is about to release them officially, with the proper charger, but no word yet on how much they’ll cost. I had the feeling that they’d be around $350 or more, and so decided to get one early. Actually I could have waited a couple of weeks… and then I would have been able to get a white one, but goddamnit if I didn’t have to just get one then!! It was irresistable.

No regrets! The brighter and sharper screens could make any turd of a game look good.

Space Blaster… plus Monster!
Originally uploaded by sangsara.

Truly value for money.

Found at Sim Lim Square.

Dilated Peoples’ excellent, pretty much essential, album Expansion Team is going for SGD$7.95 brand new at the Heeren HMV in Singapore. Also, Athlete’s last album Tourist. I looked through the other stuff but nothing else really stood out apart from an Ed Harcourt album.