Nintendo DS

Bustin' makes me feel really, really good

HIGH It feels exactly like playing a never-released Ghostbusters movie.

LOW Bill Murray has a few good lines, but mostly phones in his performance.

WTF The last level is the weakest, most trite in the entire game.

I'm getting pretty damned sick of the heat wave that's been plaguing Western Washington recently.

Before global warming started getting really bad, Seattle and the surrounding parts was famous for its mild weather. The misconception is that it rains all the time here, but that's actually not the case. It's incredibly cloudy for a large portion of the year, but there are tons of places that get a lot more rain than we do.

Anyway, since our summers are usually so pleasant, it's pretty rare to find a house that has an air-conditioning unit installed. I think that trend may be changing. It's been so hot here that I have literally been afraid to turn on any of my consoles for fear that they will overheat and die. If my house had air conditioning or if it got some shade, that might be different story, but the way my domicile is positioned, it's like a friggin' oven. If I spilled some flour on my counter and left a few eggs out in the morning, I'd have muffins by mid-afternoon…

I'm at the final boss in Phantasy Star Portable.

I expected to have it done and on my shelf a few days ago, but the sharp spike in difficulty was a real turnoff and I decided to take a break before I'd be tempted to chuck the thing across the room.

The game itself is nothing special, although I will say that I was in the mood for a loot-earning, clothes-changing dungeon crawler and it satisfied my craving perfectly. I would have been thrilled to complete it without much thought, but now it seems apparent that the only way I'm going to see credits roll is to grind out another ten or fifteen levels.

After twelve hours of play this isn't exactly the way I wanted things to wrap up, but I imagine I'll get back to it and chip away at the remains incrementally.

The law affects electronic distractions so we're talking about surfing the web—I've actually seen people with laptops in their laps while driving—and texting—we've all seen this I'm sure. It also involves gaming which I never figured someone would feel a need to do while driving.

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.

Looking for a gift for that gamer you love or just want to have something game-related to give that special someone? Then here is a collection of potential gift ideas.

Sadly, this compilation was posted far too late for Valentine's Day. So unless your lady has a birthday or anniversary coming up, you'll need to bookmark this story for next year. Ladies shopping for guys need not worry; we appreciate NES controller underwear at any time of the year.

A nightmare worth experiencing

HIGH The moment where you finally "get" the game is pretty magical. There's a lot of depth here, but only patient gamers will stick around long enough to find it.

LOW The game's tutorial isn't as helpful as it should be. Knights in the Nightmare is difficult mostly because it does such a terrible job of explaining how it was meant to be played.

WTF The entire game is one giant WTF moment for the first few hours.

Have we been too hard on Nintendo? According to your feedback, we have. We take a thoughtful look at the company, it's past, present, and future and offer our definitive stance on The House of Mario. Don't worry, it's not 60 straight minutes of unbridled hate. 56 minutes, maybe. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim Spaeth.

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Topic and Game References:

• Nintendo Wii
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Wii Sports
• EA Sports Active
• Mario Kart
• Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda
• Animal Crossing
• Assassin's Creed
• The Conduit
• E3 2009

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