Posted on by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #22

Magazine Nintendo Power - Metal Storm V4 #3 (of 12) (_3) - Page 1Alright, this week’s issue of Nintendo Power is issue #22 for March of 1991. Our cover story is the mecha action game Metal Storm (which was the poster game last issue), and a lot of the art on the cover is very similar to last issue’s poster (but that’s okay).

Letters: We have a letter from a kid who managed to be a Nintendo Game Counselor for a day thanks to a letter he wrote to the Mickey Mouse Club. So, I guess something good came out of the Mickey Mouse Club (instead of just Brittney Spears and Justin Timberlake). We also have the Nintendo Rap… which I’m just going to tip toe on by.

Metal Storm Guide: We get some notes off the bat about the “reverse gravity” system and some of the weapons and power-ups in the game. We then get some maps of the first 6 levels. On the bright side, the game has a password system (which, frankly, a lot of games on here don’t have). Apparently stage 2, by the way, there have unlimited vertical scrolling on the levels (with the maps wrapping). That could make it easy to get lost in the levels without the map. Anyway, the general visual theme of the levels is pretty industrial, with not a lot of visual variation to it, at least in the the levels we get pictures of. Ratings: Graphics & Sound 3.8, Play Control 3.7, Challenge and Lasting Interest 3.7, Theme & Fun 3.7. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #52

EGM #52 CoverAnother week, another hole I’ve discovered I can fill in my EGM Archive. In this case, it’s issue #52 for November of 1993. This issue is quite epic in its length – 324 pages long, and our cover story is Sonic CD. Oh, and there’s a Super Street Fighter II Strategy Guide that will probably pad this issue out a little.

Editorial: Christmas 1993 is coming up. So, there are so many consoles out, how do you decide? Basically they do a run-down of all the consoles on the market, and pick them all apart except for the SNES and Genesis. Not much else other than this.

Letters: Well, we get people not happy with Major Mike being off to the side for his reviews. We also get more letters about Project Reality (which the EGM staff dismisses as vaporware), Nintendo has a new top-loading version of the NES, which they also poo-poo. Personally, I like the Top Loading chassis, as that way I don’t have to worry about the pins getting bent as much. We also get a letter from a producer at Sunsoft covering issues with the World Heroes games, with the original letter being 3 pages long, and they had to shorten. I wonder what happened to the original letter. If Ed Semrad or Steve Harris reads this (as he was still the EGM publisher at the time), and they know what happened to the original letter, and want to do a full rebuttal to all the points in the letter that aren’t in their response here, please let me know. In the course of their response, they do take a moment to slip a shot in at GamePro and their frequency of Perfect Scores (across the board 5s), which I can’t argue with in the slightest (nor the lack of criticism in their critical reviews). As far as their criticism that the scores were two low, they refer them to Famicom Tsushin’s score, which is an overall 24 (7, 5, 6, 6), which is lower then their score. Read more

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DVD Review – WWE Presents The World’s Greatest Wrestling Managers

Get The Worlds Greatest Wrestling Managers from Amazon.com
Get "The World's Greatest Wrestling Managers" from Amazon.com

So, I’m trying to watch some more wrestling stuff, and I’ve gotten a few wrestling DVDs in, which I’ll be reviewing over the next couple weeks. First up is more of a documentary focused DVD, based around various managers in the WWE’s history… as if you couldn’t tell in the title.

The Premise: Hosted by Todd Grisham, we take a walk back memory lane and discuss some of the greatest managers in the WWE’s history, and what made them great, as heels, or as faces. We have interviews with the managers in question, as well as with various WWE Superstars talking about those particular managers, and what makes a good manager in general. The individual mangers who get profiled include Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Captain Lou Albano, Paul Bearer, Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman, Sunny, “Classy” Freddie Blassie, “The Sensational” Sherrie Martel, and “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart, The Grand Wizard Of Wrestling, and The Lovely Miss Elizabeth, as well as a general profile of female managers/valets in wrestling (with particular mention given to Debra, Chyna, Trish Stratus and Rena Mero). Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Where I Read – GamePro #44

Magazine GamePro - 1992 Year In Review V4 #3 (of 12) (1993_3) - Page 1Our GamePro recaps continue with our coverage of issue #44 for March 1993. Our cover story is the best games of 1992. Well, normally this would come out in the first issue of 1993 but it works. Our cover art is, I presume, of Shinobi, featuring a ninja of ambiguous gender. The isue’s 193 pages long, but they’ve also got a Sonic The Hedgehog 2 strategy guide in there, so that will probably pad it out some. Oh, and like usual, the Editorial column re-states the table of contents. *Sigh*

Mail: We get questions on Pro Action Replay in Street Fighter II Turbo, and why Turbo Technologies is being so slow in releasing titles for the Duo. They get into this on the Retronauts episode on the TurboGrafx, but basically, the problem is that TTI US has to go through a lengthly negotiation process with NEC and Hudson in Japan before localizing it, making it difficult to port games over. This kind of explains why the TurboGrafx and later the Turbo Duo basically were the Shump and WorkingDesigns RPG system, with the addition of LaserActive games like Mad Dog McCree once they got a CD-ROM drive in the system. Yeah, there’s Bonk too – but it bears mentioning that the TurboGrafx systems just didn’t have the same degree of 3rd party support (at least in the US than the Genesis and SNES had. We also get complaints about games costing $50 to $60 bucks in the US, and more in the UK. Get used to it. It’s going to cost that much until at least the present. Cartridge games are, frankly, expensive to manufacture, and the cost of making disk games hasn’t gone down much either (plus the hardware itself is expensive to make). Plus, in the UK, you’ve also got the VAT. Read more

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Where I Read – Nintendo Power #21

Magazine Nintendo Power - Star Tropics V4 #2 (of 12) (_2) - Page 1We move on to issue 21 of Nintendo Power. Our cover story is StarTropics. The cover art is much better than last issue, with an interesting mix of drawn art with papercraft art. Again their editorial is hyping the coverage in this magazine (re-stating the table of contents). Though, they do say one contraversial thing… only it’d probably only be contraversial if the internet was more wide spread – they say that the NES port of Ultima: Quest of the Avatar is better than the PC version. I’m going to have to take issue with that. Not a big issue, but a slight one.

Letters: We get more letters about invincible NES Control Decks and Game Boys. We also have a woman with a pet racoon that she named Tanooki. For the record – Exotic Pets Are Bad!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II – The Arcade Game Guide: I’m surprised this wasn’t on the cover, considering that at this point, Turtlemania is running wild, brother! Anyway, we get some small screen shots comparing the NES and Arcade versions of the game. Basically, the sprites on the arcade version look a little bigger, and you’ve got 4-player multi-player. We get maps of some of the early areas of the game, including notes on what enemies come out when and, just as helpfully, how many there are for single player and multi-player (as, in two-player you get more enemies than in single-player). Also, we get the number of hit-points for the bosses, and again, the bosses (well, some of them) have more HP in two-player than in single-player. Anyway, we get maps of the first 7 stages. We also get some two-player strategies, including the basic stuff, like “Who uses the health power-up”, and slightly more advanced stuff, like “Which Turtles go well togeather.” We also get the 10 turtle cheat for the game. Score: Graphics & Sound – 3.9, Play Control – 4.1, Challenge & Entertainment – 4.3, Theme & Fun – 4.0. Read more

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Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #45

Magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly - Bram Stoker's Dracula V6 #4 (of 12) (1993_4) - Page 1For this week’s EGM Recap we’re going to take a step back to fill another gap in the archive (hopefully I’ll be able to alternate these until all the gaps are filled). This issue I’m going back to April 1993 for issue #45 of Electronic Gaming Monthly. This issue’s of average size, about 183 pages, and our cover story is the game adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppela. Of all the Coppela films to get a video game adaptation, this is the one that needed it the least.

Editorial: Ed Semrad gives his thoughts on Winter CES, and he’s going to be a little outspoken here – you see, his game of the show isn’t Starfox, which was a cover story the previous issue, it’s Slipheed for the Sega CD. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Blu-Ray Review – Earth: A Biography

Get Earth: A Documentary from Amazon.com
Get "Earth: A Documentary" from Amazon.com

Most people have heard about the BBC’s excellent documentary series Planet Earth… which I must admit I haven’t seen yet, but I plan to watch in the future. However, first, I’ve decided to review the BBC’s companion documentary for the series – Earth: A Biography. Is the series a worthy companion, while still being able to stand on it’s own for those who haven’t watched Planet Earth, or does it leave something to desired?

The Premise: The documentary follows Iain Stewart, a geologist from the University of Plymouth in England, as he travels the world explaining various concepts on how Earth works – specifically relating to how we got to the earth we have now, from volcanoes and plate tectonics, to ice and the movement of glaciers, to wind and the atmosphere.

Read more

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Where I Read – GamePro #43

Magazine GamePro - Star Trek_ The Next Generation V4 #2 (of 12) (1993_2) - Page 1It’s time for our next recap of Game Pro. We continue ever foreward with our coverage of issue 43. This issue is about 201 pages long and our cover story is Star Trek: The Next Generation, and various games based on that. However, our cover art, while it’s not an original art asset, it’s not well chosen either. I’m not going to cover the editorial this issue, because (again), it’s just covering the stuff that was in the table of contents.

Letters: We have questions about getting the Sci-Fi channel on your local cable provider, and a bunch of other Street Fighter II questions, some of them involving illegal bootlegs of the game.

Cutting Edge: This issue they’re taking a step into the realm of PC Gaming, with talking about using a CD-ROM Drive on your PC. Now there’s a nostalga hit for you – I remember when games took boatloads of floppy disks to install. Yeah, I hated that and I love how CDs and now DVDs help limit the amount of disk swapping. Oh, and if someone says they liked swapping 10+ floppy disks during installation, punch him (and he will be male) in the crotch. Anyway, to be more specific, this is a hack that allows you to hook up your TurboDuo to your PC. This is probably not legit, at least as far as Turbo Technologies is concerned, but it is kind of cool. Speaking of TTI, they’re working on a 32-bit system, which isn’t much of a surprise, and Sega’s working on one too. Oh, and Camerica is putting it’s “Aladdin System” aka the Game Genie. Read more

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Quality Control – Deja Vu

Well, my review is done for Deja Vu for the NES. How good (or bad) of an adventure game is it? Well, you’ll have to listen to the review to find out.

The game was originally released for the Macintosh, but the version I’m reviewing is the NES version, which is only available on eBay. There was also a port of the first and second game in the series for the Game Boy Color, but if you thought the game was pixel bitching bad before, it’ll be even worse on the GBC’s small screen, so I just reccomend you skip that version of the game entirely.

Posted on by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #20

Magazine Nintendo Power - Mega Man III V4 #1 (of 12) (1991_1) - Page 1Anyway, it’s time to get started with Nintendo Power’s 4th year. This is issue #20, and our cover story is Mega Man III, and I have to say the cover art isn’t as good as some of the stuff from the previous year, particularly Rush. However, US cover art for the core Mega Man series has never looked good in general. Anyway, this issue is of average length, at 107 pages. This issue also gives us a start-of-issue “editorial” section which is, basically, re-stating the Table of Contents – except we haven’t actually gotten the Table of Contents yet (where as GamePro, which puts it up after the Table of Contents). Anyway, I’ll finally be discussing the scores they’re giving this time, as with this issue, I can finally tell what the heck their scores are! Previously they had a kind of really rough mercury thermometer thing going on, which made it difficult to tell what score they were trying to give. Now they’ve changed the scores to more solid numbers, so I can actually tell what they’re supposed to be.

Letters: The Woz Loves Tetris. No, seriously. Steve Wozniak has written a letter saying how much he enjoys playing Tetris, complete with a photograph of his high score. Also, our servicemen in Iraq for Desert Shield love their Game Boys too, which make sense because they can take a bigger beating than a Rolex and Samsonite luggage combined. Read more

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Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #57

Magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly - Beavis & Butthead V7 #4 (of 12) (1994_4) - Page 1Once again the EGM Recaps are going forward once more. The issue we’re covering today is issue #57, for April of 1994. Our cover story is (*ugh*), Beavis and Butthead. I grew up when that show was on the air, and I never found it funny. Anyway, it’s getting video games based on it, and if the history of comedy TV show to video game adaptations is any sign of the future, this is going to suck too. Anyway, this issue’s kind of long, at 212 pages, so we might as well get this over with.

Editorial: The price point of the N64 (still known as Project Reality) has been announced, and it’s going to cost $240. This leads to Ed’s editorial about how, basically, video game systems are expensive toys, and at this point in it’s history, I wouldn’t dispute that. I’d say the point where video game systems started to jump the gap from a “toy” to as much of a part of your home theater system as your stereo was, possibly, with the PS2, and it’s ability to play DVDs. Considering at the time the DVD format was pretty new, this helped get a lot of DVD players in people’s homes, in the same sort of way the PS3 helped get people Blu-Ray players. Read more

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Movie Review – The Wicker Man (Original)

Get The Wicker Man from Amazon.com
The Wicker Man is one of those movies I’ve heard many great things about, but have never gotten around to seeing, until now. So, now that I’ve seen it, I’m going to tell you what I think about it. Oh, and by the way, In cause you didn’t notice from the subject line, I’m referring to the original Wicker Man movie, starring Christopher Lee, not the remake starring Nicholas Cage.

The Plot: Scottish police officer Neil Howie comes to the island of Summerisle to investigate reports of a missing girl. However, upon arriving he learns that the girl isn’t missing… but no one’s actually willing to show him the girl to prove it. So he investigates, and in the process learn’s about the sort of Victorian-pagan revival thingie practiced by the inhabitants of the island. In the course of his investigations he learns of a dark and sinister core underneath the island’s quaint exterior. Read more

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Where I Read – GamePro #42

Magazine GamePro - Battletoads V5 #1 (of 12) (1993_1) - Page 1We’re on to issue 42 of GamePro, the first issue of the magazines 5th volume, but not it’s 5th year (it’s been publishing for 3 and 1/2 years), which means that they’ve been doing some creative accounting in the counting. Not that any publisher would do such a thing, right DC, Marvel? Anyway, our cover story is Battletoads, and since the art assets are not provided by Tradewest or Rare, much as the art of Chester Cheetah was provided by Frito-Lay last issue. Anyway, this issue comes in a 224 (approximate) pages, though we’ve got another Street Fighter II insert so that will pad that somewhat. They had another insert last issue, but I skipped it, because if you really want the Street Fighter moves, that’s what GameFAQs is for (and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has a move-list option on the pause menu).

Editorial: We have content! The TurboDuo’s coming out, as is the SegaCD, and they’re going head-to-head. The Duo’s got a somewhat more substancial library of games, but the Sega CD has Sega’s slick marketing machine (can you say “Sega does what Nintendon’t”?) behind it. Read more

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Quality Control – Gauntlet II

Get Gauntlet 2 from eBay (if you want the NES version
Get Gauntlet 2 from eBay (if you want the NES version)

Alright, I’ve played (though not beaten – it’s a really long game and I’ve only got 1 day to play it, sort of) Gauntlet II. Again, I’m reviewing the PlayStation Network version of the game, as that version is significantly more accessible than the NES version, and if you buy PSN version the developers actually get money and a random warm and fuzzy sensation, as opposed to just the random warm and fuzzy sensation they get for when someone buys the NES version on eBay (which, while pleasant, doesn’t pay the rent on their offices).

Posted on by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #19 (Guide #4)

Nintendo Power Guides - Multi-Tap V1 #4 (of 4) (1990_12) - Page 1We have now come to the final Nintendo Power strategy guide, published in December of 1990. It weighs in at a slim 77 pages, and is covering games that support multi-tap. Well, there’s not a lot of ground to cover, so we might as well get started. Though I have to admit, for the last guide issue, the cover art… isn’t very good. I’m not sure though what they could do to replace it.

Your Friend the Multi-Tap: We get a run down of the wireless NES Satellite and the wired Four Score, as well as some discussion of multi-tap ethics, and things that can be done to make things run smoothly, such as color coding the player inputs and the controllers (red controller is always P1, etc.) Very useful stuff instead of having to pause the game and having to follow the cable to the system, at least until the PS3 and X-Box 360, where they were kind enough to give you a visual aid on your controller. Anyway, this is really useful device, some of which is obvious enough to have occured to someone else, but not to me.

NES Play Action Football: As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve played the crap out of this game as a kid. However, I never owned a multi-tap so I couldn’t play it 4 player. For that matter, I never played it 2-player either. We get a run-down of the various teams and their playbooks, as well as some notes on the various types of plays and advice for succeeding with each team. Read more

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Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #46

Magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly - Street Fighter II_ Championship Edition V6 #5 (of 12) (1993_5) - Page 1We’re taking another slight step back with the EGM recaps to fill another hole in the archive. In this case, we’re covering Issue #46 for May of 1993, with a cover story of Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition for the Genesis.

Editorial: Our editorial this week comes from Ed Semrad, and covers Review Scores, and basically re-iterating that they stand behind their review scores, even though various publishers won’t necessarily be happy with them, and that they will say what they think in their editorials, even if game publishers and developers won’t like it, instead of re-iterating the table of contents (take that GamePro).

Letters: So, the first question of the issue is “Is Street Fighter 2 coming out for the Genesis?” Well, if someone ripped the cover off your copy of this issue, yes. We also get letters saying how awesome Starfox is. Oh, and apparently their April Fool’s day joke the issue prior was a mock schedule for Atari Jaguar games (including Virtua Pong and Yar’s Revenge 2). We also get more letters in response to Phil Mushnick’s letter (this would be the Rupert Murdoch-owned NY Post’s Phil Mushnick) in the April issue. I still haven’t found the April issue, so I don’t know what he said, so I can’t re-but it on my own. However, apparently Muschnick’s main targets appear to be EA and the Madden games, and also appear to be from the perspective of someone who had never played a video game before (particularly considering the responses we get this issue all reiterate that last point). Anyway, Muschnik’s letter made the “Psycho Letter of the Month” column (which I usually don’t cover). Anyway, one of the other points that I’m picking up second hand from this column is that Muschnik feels that the Madden games encourage kids to be violent in sports – considering the enouragement given in terms of “sick hit” football videos that I recall from Middle School and High School (including ones featuring prominant ESPN broadcasters who, let’s just say, thought they were “Awesome Baby”) I’d say that it’s not Madden’s fault, or EA’s fault, but the sports media’s fault – which Muschnik is part of. Oh, and we get another letter about the changes between the Japanese Ranma 1/2 game and the US Street Combat game, a question about mature content in Japanese games being carried over to the US (particularly nudity), and the RPG Dark Wizard for the Sega CD, which is apparently supposed to come out July ’93. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Review – The Best of IWA Wrestling – Vol. 2

Get The Best of IWA Wrestling Vol. 2 from Amazon.com
Get The Best of IWA Wrestling Vol. 2 from Amazon.com

Well, after  much delay, I’ve decided to continue with my wrestling recaps and reviews. This won’t be as in depth as my Wrestlemania reviews, and won’t be done as regularly. Nonetheless, I’m gonna give this a try. First up is The Best of IWA Wrestling Vol. 2. As a slight note, this promotion is not the IWA promotion that’s currently active in Puerto Rico and Japan, nor IWA Mid-South. This is a separate promotion that was active in the Ohio area from the 1970s to some undetermined point.

Dates for the matches are not provided, though they’re all from TV tapings. Our commentary team is Lee Marshall and Diamond Dallas Page (from some point in his career between going from managing to actively wrestling).

Match 1: “Hitman” Tommy Stetson vs. “Lil’ Cricket” David Isley.

This is from the first round of the tournament to determine the first IWA Junior Heavyweight Champion. We get some chained standing switches before Stetson reaches the ropes. Isley locks Stetson in a rest hold (a standing headlock), which he chains into a hip toss to ground Stetson. Stetson gets out and tries to build momentum and gets an arm-drag and then a headlock for his trouble. Isley cradles for 2. Stetson and Isley get in the corner and exchange blows before Isley takes the worst of a turnbuckle splash. Rather, it was meant to be a turnbuckle splash but Isley started to come out of the corner before he got hit. Not sure if that’s deliberate or mis-communication. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Where I Read – GamePro #41

Magazine GamePro - Chester Cheetah V4 #12 (of 12) (1992_12) - Page 1Our series of GamePro recaps continues to issue 41, for December of 1992. This issue is once again pretty long, at 240 pages, and our cover story this issue is the new Chester Cheetah game. That’s correct, our cover game is an advergame, one designed to get young people to buy more junk food. You want to know the roots of the modern obesity epidemic – right here. Okay, maybe not totally, but there’s stuff there. The art, for once, doesn’t stink though.

Editorial: It’s the end of another year, which means it’s time for another year in review column. Everything’s generally favorable, which is to be expected, because this isn’t exactly a golden age for gaming, but is a pretty awesome time to be a gamer.

Mail: The first question is “Are the Turbo Duo and Turbo CD compatible?” The answer is yes, but in the most round-about way I’ve seen. So, I’m going to clarify this for you. All prior Turbo Grafx games, both CD Rom and Chip games will play on the Duo. Games made for the Duo/Super CD-Rom will require an special upgrade chip called the super system card to play on the older TG-16. There. I did in two sentences what it took the GamePro editors two paragraphs to do. Who ‘da man? We also have requests for them to switch to perfect binding instead of staple binding. Well, while Perfect Binding makes it more difficult to scan, it makes it much easier to find the issue you want on your shelf. Yes, it doesn’t lie flat on your desk, so it’s not a good gameplay reference, but that only really matters if you’re putting maps in the magazine like EGM or Nintendo Power. GamePro doesn’t do that – you have no excuse. Read more

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Where I Read – Nintendo Power #18

Magazine Nintendo Power - Doctor Mario V3 #3 (of 6) (1990_11) - Page 1We’ve now come to issue 18 of Nintendo Power for November of 1990, with our cover game being Dr. Mario, plus Little Nemo and Castlevania III get some mention as well. I’d like to say that while Nintendo Power doesn’t have the hard hitting game journalism of a EGM or even a GamePro, at this point in the game’s history, it’s my favorite magazine to read. Not just recap (though it is easier to recap, with the exception of the top 30) but to generally read. The magazine in general is visually attractive and, as I’ve mentioned previously, this magazine has some of the best art of the era – whereas EGM’s internal art (with the exception of advertisments) is taken from screen caps, and GamePro’s art is crap, Nintendo Power’s art (with the notable exception of when they cover Ninja Gaiden games) is a feast for the eyes.

Letters: Not a lot of feedback letters this issue. Instead, they did a call for everyone’s biggest Nintendo nightmares, and this is the best of the best… I guess. We do get a notable letter though from a woman whose son strengthened his eyesight by playing NES games, and having to track the action on screen. That’s pretty awesome. I’d love to see some research done on this (hint, hint, scientific community – though it might be less expensive to do the research if you use Wiis and Virtual Console games instead of X-Box 360s, PS3s, or actual Wii games or NES/SNES/Genesis games). Read more

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Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #56

Magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly - Star Trek_ The Next Generation V7 #3 (of 12) (1994_3) - Page 1This week we’re going to continue making forard progress in our EGM recaps, instead of filling holes in the back archive, with Issue #56. This issue has an even more reasonable length, at 187 pages, and our cover story is the Star Trek: The Next Generation game, with a great oil painting for cover art. Again, I wouldn’t mind hanging this (or any of the Star Trek movie posters) on my wall. I’m letting my Trekkie bias show, but I’d say this is my favorite cover of EGM thus far.

Editorial: Winter CES has come and gone, and Sega showed a lot of games. Nintendo… not so much, though what they did show was pretty good (Super Metroid). Further, Sega also demonstrated some new technology to, hopefully, lower game costs – rather than requiring publishers to bundle a new chip in their cartridges, ala the Super-FX chip. However, this technology takes the form of what will become the 32X add-on module, intead of raising the price of the cartridge, it splits the install base, which didn’t help the publishers as much as Sega would like to. Read more

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DVD Review – Genesis of the Daleks

Buy Genesis of the Daleks from Amazon.com
Buy "Genesis of the Daleks" from Amazon.com

This week we’re taking a break from reviewing movies for a review of another Doctor Who storyline. This one is one heck of a classic storyline, featuring one of everyone’s favorite Doctors – Tom Baker. Now, does this storyline hold up over time, or is it as flimsy as the walls of one of their sets. Oh, the story? Genesis of the Daleks.

The Premise

The Doctor and his companions are diverted from their Trans-mat (teleporter) trip back to the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions In Space – their Time Machine to you who are new to the Who), by the Time Lords, who instead send them to the planet of Skaro in the distant past. Their reason – the Time Lords have come to realize that the Daleks are far more powerful than they realized, powerful enough to destroy even them. Thus, they have broken their rule of non-interference and are tasking The Doctor (and his companions, Ian and Sarah Jane), with the task of finding a weakness in the Daleks in this early stage of their existance, or, if possible, to elimiate them. Read more

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Where I Read – GamePro #40

Magazine GamePro - Sonic The Hedgehog 2 V4 #11 (of 12) (1992_11) - Page 1Our GamePro recaps continue again with our coverage of issue , for November of 1992. Our cover story is Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (which was EGM’s cover story two months prior). The issue weighs in at about 200 pages in length, oh, and for the record, the cover art still sucks.

Editorial: Finally, we get another editorial with content. 1992 is Atari’s 20th anniversary (which makes 2002 the 30th), and so the Editorial column is taking a brief look back at Pong, before leading to a look at where we are now, and what’s to come. It’s very well written, and while it’s stuff that’s been said by a lot of people before, it’s not describing what’s been covered in this issue by the Table of Contents, so that’s a nice change right there.

Letters: First up is a letter from Fake Link. That’s right, before Twitter lead to Fake Celebrities twittering about what they eat, who they met with, etc. (along with, for example, Fake Professor Layton), we got Fake Video Game characters writing into video game magazines, though there was nothing viral about these letters. We also have letters asking for an explanation of the difference between Bits, and Bytes, along with a letter asking if the Phillips CD-I and the SNES CD-ROM will be compatible (well, if the latter came out, the plan would be that they would be inter-operable – but, as we all know, the SNES CD-Rom never came out). We also get a letter requesting that if the 16-bit section of the magazine be increased, that the 8-bit section be increased proportionally. Um… less 8-bit games are coming out. Now, in theory this would lead to longer reviews of the 8-bit games that are coming out. However, if the description of the game ends up being short – that leads to a lot of review saying (quite possibly) how bad the game is. Now, while I wouldn’t mind getting, in a video game magazine, the equivalent of Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses, such a review would probably horribly sour the developer and publisher on the magazine, and piss off the fanboys – though, if the company being soured was, an unlicenced publisher (Wisdom Tree, for instance), the damage would probably be pretty minimal. Read more