GameCube

Susie Sahim, the artist behind many of Google's event-based logos and and known to appreciate Legend of Zelda—and Link in particular, is believed to be have deliberately hidden tiny TriForces in her work. Neither she nor Google would confirm or deny anything.

In an effort to prepare for Metal Gear Solid 4, I've recently been playing some of the earlier Metal Gear Solid games. And while it's been really fun for the most part, it's also brought to mind some of my gaming pet peeves, not just related to MGS but to games in general.

What triggered this for me was being reminded that MGS doesn't allow the player to pause during cut scenes. I was at the end of MGS2 when I suddenly found the need to pause the game. I think I knew at that point that I couldn't actually pause, but I had no choice but to try. So I hit the start button and suddenly the game fast forwarded to another section, apparently bypassing a whole bunch of end-game exposition. As a result, I had to reset the game, load my most recent save, and fight a whole bunch of enemies and go through a long boss fight just to get back to the cut scene that I missed. It was absolutely maddening, and it baffles me that the developers wouldn't include such an obvious feature, or why any developer wouldn't include that feature, especially in a game that is so heavy in cut scenes.

A guy in a go-kart, on a highway, swerving through traffic, tossing banana peels in front of cars in adjacent lanes... You'd have be nuts to attempt this... or you could be none other than everyone's favorite French practical joker, Rémi Gaillard—I don't know who he is either, but he does a mean Mario impersonation.

This is ironic and funny to us, but no doubt embarrassing for Nintendo. Here is a company that limits its games by way of complicated friend codes, weak online features and even its hardware like Wii Speak so as to keep the horrible realities of the online world away from its (apparently) fragile and corruptible userbase. But within one of the special press-only Animal Crossing: Wild World (NDS) cards, you find a racial slur... created by one of the people (its unclear who) hired to play the DS game.

A pre-played version of 2005's Animal Crossing: Wild World for DS, sent out to media outlets to encourage connectivity with the recent Animal Crossing release for Wii, contains at least one shocking addition, reports MTV Multiplayer. Importing the saved data from the DS cartridge sent by Nintendo into Animal Crossing: City Folk introduces a host of changes into the game, including one, suddenly no longer E-rated character, Baabara, who now greets players with: "How are you, Ñ---á?"

What's happened to Traveler's Tales? Coming out of the relative obscurity of developing licensed games and children's entertainments, they produced Lego Star Wars, pulling off the dual miracle of making the best Star Wars and Lego game ever, all at the same time. So my hopes were pretty high when I found out that they were responsible for Bionicle Heroes. After all, it was Travelers' Tales back with Lego, what could possibly go wrong? Everything, it turns out.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Fantasy Violence

Game Description: Bionicle Heroes brings the characters and world of LEGO's Bionicle universe to life. This brand-new action/adventure title for kids allows players to control the entire of Bionicle figures, from the heroic Toa Inika to the villainous Piraka. Battle and explore your way through the jungles, volcanoes, and deserts of the mysterious island of Voya Nui in this epic quest. In order to survive, players will need to master the powerful weapons and elemental powers of each Bionicle character. Solve the challenges and puzzles of this uniquely interactive LEGO universe, spanning over 25 different levels and 6 elemental zones. Unlock special playable characters, such as the Piraka Experience the simple controls and accessible gameplay design created just for kids and families.

Although there have been a number of games that have attempted to capture the Hulk in an electronic format, none of them have really nailed the pure destructive essence and dual nature of the Hulk's condition until this one. It's funny, even though this particular version was created as a tag-along to the much-maligned Ang Lee film, I think the end result was even better than the more recent, free-roaming Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

While thoroughly engaging and lore-filled,The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is not the "tight and classy" Wii primer that Gene Park implies. Poor presentation and technical flaws mar this latest addition to the Zelda family.

Although the GameCube suffered from a thin, underfed library that paled in comparison to the competition's, a few unappreciated gems still managed to slip through the fingers of software-starved players. Out of everything that I've spent time with on the GameCube, I'd say that Chibi-Robo was hands-down the best effort that no one knew about.