With a vengeance, children!

It all started about a week or so back, when I was at a Blockbuster to rent some movies. I saw a used copy of PaRappa The Rapper 2 for $10, and I had to make it mine. I played through it in one sitting that night, and that event coupled with my recent completion of Golden Sun: The Lost Age started a new era of video gaming for me. A few days after this Blockbuster visit, I finally got around to checking out a video game store near my buddy's house out in the West end in hopes of finding a copy of the original PaRappa. I left with Mortal Kombat II for my 32X, Crash Bandicoot and Final Fantasy IX for PSOne, and Killzone for PS2 (it was only $10 used, in great condition, and I'd been meaning to see what it was all about). After realizing that I needed a PSOne memory card to save my PSOne games, I headed back to the shop a few days later and left not only with the memory card, but with a copy of After Burner for 32X as well! Fast-forward a few days, and you'll find me at a friend's house with a few people playing Guitar Hero. Now, I've never been much of a fan of rhythm games, with the exception of PaRappa, Cool Cool Toon, and (to a lesser extent) Space Channel 5. I've given the likes of DDR, BeatMania, Amplitude, etc... a try, but they just didn't grab hold of me particularly tightly. Guitar Hero, though... Wow. Maybe it was nailing "No One Knows" and "Cowboys From Hell" in my first sitting, but something just clicked. I've got a birthday coming up pretty soon; you can guess what I want ;)

Some impressions: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is fantastic, and has been satisfying my portable needs more than adequately since completing Golden Sun 2. After Burner is as much fun as I remember, and owning one of the best home versions of Mortal Kombat II (my favourite game in the series) is a plus. Crash is still one of the best platformers there is; it's just too bad that Universal seems to have run the franchise into the ground. Then again, if that hadn't happened, then we may never have seen Jak & Daxter. Thanks, Naughty Dog! Killzone's kinda cool, but doesn't seem to be anything really special. Final Fantasy IX has renewed my faith in the series; VIII didn't really do it for me, and I've been hesitant to take the time with those games ever since.

I also picked up an old PS2 demo disc from a friend that had a demo for Primal on it. I remember seeing the commercials for this game years ago, and it really interested me. I didn't pick-up a PS2 until recently, so it'd kinda faded from my mind. Well, I played the demo, and it was thoroughly medicore (and clearly not the final product). Perhaps I'll pick it up if I see it on the cheap somewhere, simply because the premise (hot chick transforming into brutal beasts, trailed all the while by a well-spoken gargoyle) has so much promise.

I think I've covered just about everything... Ooh, I picked up an awesome little USB flash drive (1GB Kingmax Super Stick) for $25! This thing is literally about the size of my thumbnail!

Anyway, yeah, that'll do for now... 'til next time, kids.