So, here’s a new video about a fighting game. Go watch maybe?

This is a total case of bullocks! If you were planning to get the Xperia Play with hopes of transferring your already purchased PSN titles into the phone, think again! Any content that you’ve purchased on the PSN will have to be re-acquired (as in bought over again) for the Xperia. Don’t believe me? Just read what Sony Ericsson had to say about it…

“[Xperia Play owners] will have to repurchase the games, so it’s not totally integrated,” Nathan Vautier, executive director at Sony Ericsson, told Gamespot UK in an interview. “I think the exciting thing is that there are games which people are very, very aware of.”

Yeah, and now they’re also aware that if they want to play the games on their phone they have to buy them over again. Nice!

Final Fantasy VIII-

Say what you want Final Fantasy 7 fans, but Final Fantasy VIII created a great experience for me. Released in 1999, FFVIII was full of assassination plots, love triangles, tests of friendship, and in-game models that appeared to be taller than four-foot-two.

The storyline could borderline on soap opera a bit (what FF title doesn’t nowadays?) but it was full of great mechanics and refined game play that allowed you to explore every inch of the map in a sweet looking airship. Upping the graphics with this game would do it justice and likely make it a very enjoyable epic to play through again.

Bloodrayne-

When Bayonetta came out, I couldn’t help but start thinking about Bloodrayne, a game I hadn’t thought of in years, and what ever happened to it.

Nevermind the second flop of a game and terrible Uwe Boll adaptation. Bloodrayne in itself was a bloody mess of fun on the original Xbox in 2002.

Running around as the vampire hybrid Rayne and dismembering enemies with deadly wrist gun/switchblades (as well as her more “personal” attacks) would be made even better with a high-definition makeover.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver-

Originally debuting on the Playstation One in 1999, Legacy of Kain was an action/adventure game that revolved around the character Raziel on his path to revenge on Kain. This game was extraordinary with its plane switching elements and balanced mixture of third-person hack-and-slash with puzzles.

Even though this classic was recently released on the Playstation Network, the creatures and settings alone make it worthy of a full HD overhaul.

Shenmue I & II-

After stumbling upon a Facebook group entitled “We want Shenmue 1 and 2 remake with yakuza engine” I really started to wonder why 1999’s Shenmue wasn’t at the top of the list for remakes. Despite the cries of many fans, the developers at Sega have been unable (or unwilling) to do more with the series except a piecemeal cell phone game that was recently announced.

The company has expressed openness for creating a third game provided they get financial backing from one of the console makers, but it still seems a bit of a far reach. Arguably the idea of remaking Shenmue with Yakuza assets is the best solution, as many of the facets of the Yakuza series were birthed from Shenmue (day/night changeovers, weather effects, arcades, etc.).

Creating HD remakes of the Shenmue games would likely satisfy fans and give other gamers a chance to experience the title that created so many groundbreaking elements for videogames to come.

What do you guys think? Are there other games out there that you feel are worthy of the HD treatment? Or maybe you think some games shouldn’t be remade? Comment below and tell us what you think!

Only just recently, a Chinese language preview appeared where a Chinese website called IT168 seemed to have laid its hands on the specifications of the upcoming phone and also came up with four detailed videos. Hence, this PlayStation device got more airtime than it expected before the release date. Inside the PSP Go-esque device (see a side-by-side above!) is a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU, a “likely” 1GHz Snapdragon QSD8255 CPU, a 1,500 mAh battery, a 854×480 resolution 4″ display, a 5 megapixel camera, 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, a microSD slot, SIM slot, micro-USB connectivity, and more. The phone is packing a “PlayStation Pocket” app, though it’s not clear what games it will support. Whether the upcoming phone would resemble the PlayStation One or if it will run PSP titles is still too early to talk about.

(via Joystiq)

The website confirmed that the upcoming PlayStation Phone runs on a Qualcomm Adreno 205 GPU. Moreover, the phone is equipped with a battery performance of 1500mAh, screen resolution of 854 x 480, 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash sans 720p video recording , 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, a microSD slot, SIM slot, micro-USB and also a secondary mic for noise cancellation (similar to the one Nexus One featured). What was really interesting to know was the fact that there is a still-empty game launcher application named, ‘PlayStation pocket.’ It would be interesting to know if it is able to play PS ONE titles or maybe the PSP or all new titles for that matter. But for now, we shall leave you with a IT168-manufactured video to enjoy. Take a look.

(via Engadget)

Grab all these emulators from the Box File Widget on the right. Flarestorm, PCSX, The Pi and PsMac are all in there. I’ve renamed them so that they might be easier to pick out from the Box File Widget.

Cheers!

Tanner has to prove to very lowly gangsters in a parking garage that he can do jobs for them by demonstrating his skills while keeping the car intact.

Miami

Tanner begins his missions in a Miami motel room.

Characters involved

• Art

• Tico

• Rufus

• Jean-Paul

• Lt. McKenzie

• Jesse

• Castaldi

• Some associates

• The Cops

San Francisco

Tanner begins his missions in San Francisco on the hunt for Castaldi.

Characters involved

• Mojo

• Jean-Paul

• Rudi

• Slater

• Cosy

• Don Hancock

• Some associates

• The Cops

Los Angeles

Tanner begins his job at night on the on the case of Castaldi

Characters involved

• Bill Maddox

• Castaldi

• Maya

• Lucky

• Duval

• Granger

• Some associates

• The Cops

New York City

Tanner arrives back in New York and finishes his missions there.

Characters involved

• The Stetson wearer

• McKenzie

• Leck

• Castaldi

• Granger’s Gangs

• Granger

• Tanner’s associate

• Don Hancock

• The FBI

• The Cops

• The President

Sony should still have some surprises in tow, although one of them already leaked last week.  There’s bound to be some news about the PSP Go, as well as exclusives such as the Uncharted sequel and God Of War 3 and services such as Playstation Home.  The best thing about Sony in this situation is that according to sales numbers, they are in third place but that means they can definitely gain ground with some tight media integration and game selection.

• Jack Tretton, President of SCEA jumps on stage and does the introduction. “Something for every taste every budget every need” and starts to spout some numbers showing how much the brand grew in the past 12 months.  He name checks MW2, FFXIII, Ratchet and Clank: Future, Heavy Rain, Rock Band: Beatles and Batman Arkham Asylum.
• Not a surprise, but the PS2 is first up.  To me it’s amazing how the PS2 has bucked the standard gaming console cycle and is still selling at a good rate.  There are no games shown for the system (of course) but he mentions it because, let’s face it, a lot of people are still looking for one and still buy games for it.  Of course they would because backwards compatiblity is gone for the newer versions of the console.  He mentions that the PS2 outsold current generation systems in April during it’s ninth year. OOOOOOH SNAP.  Wait…that includes the Playstation 3 as well.  Not sure if I woulda mentioned that, Jack.  But whatever.  Onto the games.
• He moves into Playstation 3 numbers, hitting 10 million install base.  Also he mentions the expansion into South America.
• Playstation Network numbers are spouted out but he does a politician smooth segue into introducing Infamous, which released in May.
• Jack says theres 35 exclusives being released for the PS3 including Infamous and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which is about to be demoed.
• I’ve always been a fan of Uncharted so I’m very ready to watch this demo.  Evan Wells, Naughty Dog Co-President takes the stage to mention the Uncharted Multiplayer Beta, which will go live at midnight, but he wants to show us the single player campaign.  Nathan Drake looks very fluid in motion and almost moves like a rodent, how he jumps and climbs.  He climbs a beam and a helicopter moves into view.  Curse word.  A gunfight with the helicopter along with some armed henchmen ensue.  The first thing I notice is how Nathan reacts to things going on around him.  He sways as the ledge he’s on breaks in half.  He panics when he gets shot at.  Another pretty cool move is the ability to lift himself over cover as he’s hanging off of a ledge to shoot.  The gunplay is pretty standard fare but it still looks pretty fun.  The building that he is fighting in begins to collapse on its side and furniture and books slide across the floor.  Nathan loses his footing while debris and lose planks of wood splinter into smaller shards around him.  Impressive particle effects abound.  It’s a very impressive and pretty game and I can’t wait to play it.
• Mag is now next on deck a public unveiling of live gameplay.  Mag is a 256 player online FPS which seems squad, army and battalion based.  256 players apprently are playing live online for this demo including people in Seattle and San Diego.  Cross country attachments aren’t mentioned but I hope there’s some sort of netcode optimization for those who are too far away from some people.  The game looks pretty standard.  Not impressive as far as visuals, as there is a LOT of information on the screen at once.  It almost reminds me of Quake Wars, another squad based console shooter.  Mag is more objective based than how many points your team has.  If you take over a missile battery, you have the ability to do missile strikes, if you take out an anti aircraft gun, you can parachute into certain areas.  Very cool stuff.  Even the spawning system is pretty good, as you have choppers, piloted by real players which fly in and drop you in.  At the end, the commander calls a cluster bomb strike which opens up for the offense to move into the heart of the war zone.  I’m impressed but I didn’t see much action from the person actually playing.
• Jack hits the stage and talks up the PSP3000, but that’s not as important as the lilac colored Hannah Montana PSP.  Fuck.  Yes.  Jack introduces Kaz Hirai onstage to bring out the PSP Go.  Totally saw this coming.
• Before he even brings out the PSP Go, I’m guessing to myself which pocket he has it in.  I guess his right pocket.  He goes for his left.  Foiled again.  It’s a little sexy piece of tech.  It looks like a smaller PSP with a sliding screen which reveals the game pad.  He makes a nice joke about it being nicknamed the “worst kept secret of E3″.  He does make a point to mention that the PSP Go is NOT here to replace the original PSP.  It still has the same size screen and takes M2 removable media but has 16 Gb of memory integrated.  I groan when I hear M2.  I can’t find that shit ANYWHERE.  PSP Go will be 250 dollars US on Oct 1st.
• “Media Manager” is soon to be replaced by Media Go for easy transfer from your PC to your PSP.  Sony has also taken the procedurally generated playlist thing and made “Sense Me” which makes your playlists depending on what mood or what kind of music you want to listen to, like Apple’s Genius.
• People who want to make games for the PSP also have a HUGE discount on dev tools.  80%.  Pretty good.
• Kazunori Yamauichi comes on stage to taut his PSP version of one of my favorite racing franchises, Gran Turismo.  It will run 60 frames per second and will be a full fledged title with 800 cars and over 30 tracks with different variations on each and will be a launch title for the PSP Go.  I, for one, is pretty excited for it.
• Hideo Kojima, wearing the same shirt he wore at the Microsoft conference comes out to show us a new Metal Gear game, Metal Gear: Peace Walker.  It’s a fully produced game by Kojima, so there will be long cutscenes, weird bosses and Japanese AV model posters.  A trailer shows Snake walking and sneaking and running along a beach.  As a matter of fact, I had this dream of Snake running alongside a beach….nevermind.  And with that, there’s the PSP Go segment of hype.
• Jack comes back and mentions a Resident Evil game for PSP as well as SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo something, Little Big Planet and oh snap HANNAH MONTANNAAAAAH.  There’s an audible applause from the audience.  Now he discusses how awesome Playstation Network is.  He announces almost 50 Playstation 1 games to the store with Final Fantasy VII being the first one available as of this announcement.  Holy shit.  I’m actually excited because I haven’t been able to play it on this non-backwards compatible PS3.  I just realized what Sony is doing.
• Playstation Home (beta) is mentioned where he shows off some numbers and name checks a bunch of developer studios who will have Playstation Home spaces available in the future.  Playstation Home hype video comes starring Chun Li?  Jack Tretton’s Playstation Home id is: Mr. T.  Now after this comes the real meat of the show, Playstation 3 games.
• I take a little issue of showing off a Rockstar produced game called Agent without having any screenshots or gameplay footage.  My thing is, if there isn’t anything to show, don’t mention it.  Same goes for you too Microsoft with your MGS spinoff game.  At least Nintendo had a cool trailer for Metroid: Other M.
• Now comes a live demo of Assassins Creed II, set in Italy during the rennaisance period.  The main character of AC2 this time will have famous friends by hobnobbing with Leonardo Di Vinci.  He even becomes an accessory to murder by providing you with a flying machine to drop into a fortified location to kill a target.  Big Ooh moment of the show: Dual blades going through the necks and into the brains of two guards at one time.  Ezio moves through Italy similar to the first Assassins Creed.  The animation is improved but so much but still looks pretty good.  The jumping mechanic still isn’t as fluid as I’d like but it still looks pretty.  The PSP version of Assassins Creed will work alongside the PS3 version, my guess is for unlockable weapons or missions.  Pretty solid demo.
• Next up is Final Fantasy XIII.  There’s a brand new english trailer…wait brand new English trailer?  I thought they were going to work on the English version after the Japanese version dropped?  Will all Final Fantasy XIII trailers, there’s not even a vague clue of what the story is about.  Maybe some freedom fighters or some sort of resistance to a higher military power that harnesses the power of mechas or some sort of crystals.  There’s some new fighting footage interspersed throughout and it looks pretty and colorful and the black guy seems to not curse every four words, Barrett.
• Wait.  Final Fantasy XIV and it’s going to be an exclusive?  How the hell?  And it’s releasing the same year as XIII?  What the hell?  Oh wait.  It’s a more traditional RPG fare: Swords and Chocobos and big armor with a long of string music.  Jack mentions a “new online epic” so maybe it’s an MMORPG.  Yeah, someone is going broke in 2010.
• Sony brings out their new motion controller but I can’t help but notice how nervous this guy is.  It’s okay dude, you’re doing a great job.  I’m proud of him.  It’s still in prototype phase but he brings out what looks like a sextoy to demostrate what the motion controller, in conjunction with the Playstation Eyetoy, can do.  Audible Oohs when they actually see a tennis racket in the Sony staffers hand as he laughs and utters “it’s still hard” while trying to hit a virtual tennis ball.  Then they switch the tennis racket into a baseball bat and a fan and a watergun and into a sword.
• Another demo they show is how he can interact with different shapes and objects in a 3-d space.  I’m imagining how fun it must be to play with this in Little Big Planet or a Sims game.  They also show a nice writing demo and how accurate it can be.  Spraypainting is cool because depending on how you angle your controller, it affects the thickness of your lines.  Color me impressed (This is the same art pun that I made during the Microsoft conference, btw).
• In the back of my head, I’m just realizing that I haven’t seen God Of War III yet.  What if Sony said screw it and showed us this motion controller tech demo stuff for the rest of the show?  Riots ensue? Dogs and cats living together?  Total Anarchy?
• Another battle scenario shows a bow and arrow demo against some slow prodding armored orcs.  The accuracy looks pretty good and the demo guy got quite a few headshots in.  There’s no announcements since, like Project Natal, it’s still in development.
• Modnation Racers is a fully customizable cart racing game for the PS3.  It looks fun for the family and friends especially during parties (if you throw those type of parties, that is).  The designs are cute and it’s fully user generated from the cars, the racers and even the tracks.  One of the developers mention that they are harnessing all of the power of the PS3 with Modnation Racers.  I chuckle at this comment but it looks pretty good, running at 60 fps from what I’m seeing here.  You do get a feeling of speed and it looks like something I wouldn’t mind playing.  You can do a LOT with the tracks, you can change surface altitude and backgrounds and well as upload it to let people play it online.  Pretty solid presentation and the guy with the blue shirt (his name escapes me) should be hired to do more presentations.
• FUMITO UEDA. YES. (Jizz-In-My-Pants)  Last Guardian trailer.  I’m not typing anything about it because I’m too busy rewinding it but I’ll say this:  It involves a little boy and a big animal and you know it’s going to make you cry.
• Without a huge introduction, a teaser for Gran Tursimo 5 runs, which includes WRX and NASCAR racing (!?).  Wow.
• The next trailer HAS to be God of War III.  As the demo starts, the first thing I notice is that Kratos hasn’t slacked off at the gym at ALL.  The first skirmish is with a gaggle of charging skeleton warriors, who are quick to be dispatched by using one of them as a battering ram.  There are some brutal moves in this game, as you may imagine and you witness the slaughter of a bunch of unarmed civilians as Kratos runs through the demo.  He disposes of a Harpy by using it as a way to get across a long chasm then he slashes at it when he gets to the other side.  Hilarious.  They show a close up of one of the Harpies and I noticed that they have C cup breasts.  Doubly hilarious.  While he battles another group of skeleton warriors, a HUGE red behemoth lurks in the background.  The scope is amazing as he’s about as large as Ares or the Colossus of Rhodes in the previous games.  After he rips a skeleton in half (which strangely still had blood to spill) a Centaur emerges from a door on the other side, flanked by a few more of the skeleton warriors.  The skeletons can bunch up on him and attempt to hold him down but Kratos, with a series of button presses, can burst from the dogpile, Matrix Reloaded style and continue decimating his opposition.  Kratos equips his lion fisted boxing gloves to punch the living crap out of everything in his way.  After he gets the prompts for the button presses, Kratos lays into the Centaur then DISEMBOWELS him.  I’ve never had such a mark out moment in this E3 than this.  Next might be even better as a Chimera attempts to gain an advantage by sneaking up behind Kratos.  First he takes off his snake tail, then stabs him in the chest repeatedly then stabs him with his own horns.  There’s an extra 20 minutes of demo gameplay on the show floor so everybody goes “AWWWW”.  I’m truly impressed and I can’t freaking wait.
• Jack Tretton comes out and mentions that it’ll be available in 2010.  Ha Ha.  Jack says that Sony will never become complacent in their position.  That was a good one for the critics.

My Thoughts

I’m throrougly impressed with Sony, although a majority of these games won’t be released well into 2010.  I mentioned the fact that they announced a game they couldn’t even show a screenshot or even concept art for (Agent) and that sort of annoys me.  But Sony has a strong first party lineup coming if you can wait until 2010.  The PSP Go info was leaked before time so there were no pleasant surprises there but the restructuring of Sony’s digital service seems pretty good for owners of both portable platforms.  I’m glad they spent little to no time mentioning Playstation Home, as it’s in perpetual beta until Ares knows when.  The inclusion of the Playstation 1 games on PSN is a great mention for people who want to play some of the older games.  The Uncharted 2 demo looked solid and I’m really excited for Last Guardian.  I’d have to say, Sony did good.  I came into this conference pretty pessimistic but I’m thoroughly impressed.  If they can stay on schedule with the exclusives, 2010 will be a good year for Sony, although they’d have to fight for second place again Microsoft, who’s looking to strengthen their install base as well.  Addition as of 5:16 CST:  Where was the price discussion?  Are there any price drops coming?  They never once discussed the value of the product especially considering it’s price.

Also: My mancrush on Jack Tretton still remains.

Thanks to those ingenious homebrew creators it should soon be possible to play classic PlayStation One titles on your beloved Wii. Once a few of the hindering bugs are resolved then you’ll have over 8000 classic PlayStation One titles at your disposal.

Source

The following is the most rampant rant I’ve ever spewed forth on this blog. Warning! First three rows may get an opinion.

Nintendo’s Wii console is something of an enigma. It has broken technological boundaries with its motion sensitive controller, but it is also woefully underpowered for the HD era. In its short 18 month lifespan it has homed some of the finest ‘proper’ games anywhere – think Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and the magical Mario Galaxy, but it’s not these titles that have been the system shifters. It will undoubtedly become the Big N’s most successful home console of all time, but Ninty may well lose their soul for the achievement.

Growing up with the SNES, the N64 and the Gamecube, it was always apparent that Nintendo never quite reached the levels of success they deserved. While Ninty have long ruled the handheld market, from the time of the original Gameboy right through to the days of DS, they have constantly struggled to gain a strong foothold in the console market. The quality of their software, especially their first party games, was always of the highest caliber. Looking at the N64, it had some of the greatest games of all time; easily a match for the number of essential exclusives on the opposing Playstation One. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mario 64 are arguably the two most important videogames of the 3D age. But, because the N64′s cartridges were far more expensive to produce than Sony’s CDs, developers shied away from taking risks on the format (leaving the console with a poor catalogue of third party titles), which meant it could never compete with Sony’s box housing the likes of Metal Gear, Final Fantasy and Resident Evil.

The Gamecube was the same story. Fantastic first party software – you really can’t go wrong with the Wind Waker, Two 3D Metroids and Mario Sunshine – was again let down by a lack of third party support – excluding Resi 4, of course. The cute and cuddly Cube was marred with the same ‘just for the kiddies’ image as the 64. And as Nintendo were facilitating their fanboys with Mario, Link and Samus, letting the casual crowd pass them by, Sony were finally penetrating the mainstream conscience with edgy Wipeout ads and unprecedented marketing campaigns.

It’s no surprise then that the unveiling of the Wii – where the company proudly proclaimed their console would conquer that consciousness – at E3 2006 was met with sniggers and a tirade of tutting. Apart from being a punner’s paradise – the wag who dubbed it the ‘Wiinus’ must be particularly proud – it had a strange and confusing controller and technically was no match for Microsoft’s 360 or Sony’s PS3. Nevertheless, the Wii has become a rampant success story amassing a user base of tens of millions in less than two years. And why? Simple. Ninty, after four failed attempts, finally found the casual crowd.

Yep, the heart of the Big N was no longer to be found in the land of Hyrule, a manic Mazza triple jump, or the haunting solitude of an Aran adventure; but in the vapid, shallow realm of the party game, flailing about like a blindfolded baboon and the blindingly white teeth of models. Ninty had found their success not through programming ingenuity or artistic mastery, but through slick marketing moguls, intuitive – if not fully realized – motion controls and, more than anything else, through families.

Conquering the casual market by grabbing grannies’ attention with something they could understand and play as easily as their grandkids was the key for Nintendo. And it’s ultimately what the Wii’s success has been built on. Quite why anyone would want to sit around with their family while dad grimaces and grinds to a sesh of Wii Fit is beyond me – really you lazy sods, join a gym and reclaim your dignity. I can however, see the appeal of the party game, and for a medium that has continually been chastised for encouraging insular, unsocial behaviour, the Wii’s success is testament to the wonderful social tool videogames can become.

Still, even, though, I’ve loved Nintendo for many years, I can’t help resent them for their success. Don’t get me wrong, after years of producing some of the most beloved characters and games the industry has even seen they fully deserve the mountains of moolah they’re now amassing. But it’s not really those characters or games that are dragging in the Dinero. No, it’s annoying Ian Wright ads, the image of the beautiful, and soulless tele family playing Wii Sports and housewives everywhere trying to fight the fat with Wii Fit. Nintendo have seemingly never worked less for so much success.

A company who produced the greatest games of all time and got ignored for over a decade to a company who peddled fun, but ultimately shallow and soulless, family games that captured the world’s imagination.

Enigma doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Basically, the update only adds some new feautures to ths PSP’s playing PlaystationOne titles Capabilities. The 3.95 update adds, Quitting remote play capabilities and Assigning Buttons when playing PSOne titles with your PSP.

3.95 New Feautures:

Playing PlayStation® format software
You can now select [Custom] for the assignment pattern under [Assign Buttons]. This option lets you assign functions to the PSP® system buttons however you like for playing PlayStation® format software that you download from PLAYSTATION®Store.

To use this option:

1. Press the home button on the PSP® system when you are playing PlayStation® format software and then select [Controller Settings] > [Assign Buttons].

2. Press the down button several times to select [Custom], and then press the X button.

3. Use the PSP® system’s directional buttons to assign button functions.
Pressing the Triangle button resets the button assignments to [Type 1].

Quitting remote play

You can now choose to either turn off your PS3™ system or leave it turned on after you select [Quit Remote Play]. For details on remote play, refer to the online user’s guide for the PSP® system.

To use this setting:

1. During remote play, press the home button on the PSP® system and then select [Quit Remote Play].

2. Select either [Quit and Turn Off the PS3™ System] or [Quit Without Turning Off the PS3™ System].

Select [Quit Without Turning Off the PS3™ System] if you are using your PS3™ system to copy files, or perform background downloading and similar tasks that require you to keep your system on.

You can get the update here.

(Note: Throughout the week, Flava and Flinch will be battling it out controller-to-controller, cartridge to CD as they determine which gaming company is best in the land: Nintendo or Sony)

But I’m not going to pull a Mayweather and just go through the motions. Let’s give the greatest gaming system of all time the respect it deserves:

The Nintendo Entertainment System was released on October 18, 1985. At the time, video games were mostly the domain of arcades. Home computers were not a common thing yet, and the Atari was only acceptable because it was the only thing available. However, all that soon changed.

I still remember playing Mario for the first time. I sat in my friend Nathan’s living room for about 8 hours every single day, only taking an hour break at 11:00 to eat some PB & J while his mom watched her soaps. It was so addicting because, at the ripe age of about 5 years, we finally got a little bit of control. We had grown up watching TV, but now we got to play it.

It is very telling that now, in the year 2007, the Super Mario Bros. theme song alone has a greater impact on our culture than all the games released for the PS1 combined. I don’t even really remember any of their flagship games. Crash Bandicot? He existed right, I’m not just making that up? I sort of can’t remember. I certainly don’t remember the game.

Conversely, I dare you to find anyone who loves video games who can’t remember every detail of the first level of Super Mario Bros. I bet I could draw a map of it that is accurate to at least 85% purely from memory. And you know what? I never even owned my own NES.

Speaking of owning, almost all of my friends still own and regularly use their NES. That’s right, these machines are almost as old as we are and they are still relevant. I still play Tecmo Super Bowl to this day. Seriously. On Saturday, Bo Jackson ran for 455 yards and six touchdowns as he/I led the Raiders to a crushing 55-7 victory over the once mighty 49ers.

And that’s only a few of the classic games birthed by the NES. The Legend of Zelda, Contra, Mike Tyson’s Punchout, Metroid, Mega Man, TMNT 2, Duck Hunt, Ninja Gaiden, River City Ransom, Final Fantasy. When you think of video games, these are the titles you think of.

I ate lunch with my mom and went with her to see Spamalot on Saturday. I was behind a girl in line that had an unusual purse. It was an NES that was hollowed out, and she was using a power chord as a strap. I said it was cool, but I asked her how she could bear to destroy her NES in the process.

“Oh, of course I didn’t,” she said. “I bought two more off of eBay. One so I could make the purse, and another one in case my original one breaks down before Wednesday NES night.”

Flinchbot Says: The NES sure did revive home-based video game consoles. The first major flurry, featuring the classic Atari and Intellivision models, was seriously fading at the time Nintendo showed up. Nintendo brought in a howl new generation for graphics, gameplay, and crappy controllers to the market. People bought the hell out of them and everyone played Nintendo. My roommate in college my sophomore year had one. I don’t think I ever beat Tyson but I got to him. I think the semester ended right at the point when I could consistently get my ass kicked by him.

My roommate played Zelda a lot. Talk about the most boring video game of all time. And Super Mario Brothers? Yawn. It was like Pitfall for the Atari and just as boring.

I had another roommate with a Nintendo. We had epic battles with that little hockey game. It was a quaint little game.

That’s my whole deal with the Nintendo line (even through today). It’s so darn wholesome and family friendly. They even released one of the hockey games back then without the fighting. Lame.

So Sony rolls in with their Playstation. It features massively more complex graphics and game play. This is because they decided to ditch the quick-but-limited cartridges and go with the slow-but-high-capacity CD format. Sure, it took 2 minutes for a game to load but when it did it was totally worth it.

Do you really believe Tecmo football is better than any Madden version? The Madden series revolutionized football gaming. Did the Nintendo have a basketball game? Because anything they could offer was smoked by NBA Live. I’m sure the Nintendo had some gay Mario Karts racing game. Meanwhile the Playstation dropped Ridge Racer and Need for Speed.

Street Fighter, anyone? I’m sure the Nintendo had some really swell Mario vs. Luigi fighting game that involved hitting each other with bright red mushrooms.

Look the Nintendo came first and it changed the way people though about home gaming. But when the Sony rolled in, it changed what people thought home gaming could do. Instead of just being some mind-numbingly boring cute-as-a-rainbow game system, it was a complex system that really brought virtual worlds into the home that you could believe in. Plus, the games weren’t retarded.

FlavaDave called this one a mismatch, and he’s right. It’s just not fair to compare a cutesy little toy like the Nintendo with a solid machine like the Playstation.

FlavaDave Says: And there’s the debate in a nutshell. The NES is a legendary system that changed the face of home gaming and is still played to this day, and the Playstation is “a solid machine”. That’s a ringing endorsement if I’ve seen one.

No one is going to buy into you cutting down the NES. The sustained greatness of the machine is unquestioned. Any arguement claiming otherwise is based on a false premise and, therefore, wrong.

I mean, you might as well be arguing that Journey is the greatest band of all time because the Beatles were quaint and the sound quality of Journey’s records is better.

Flinchbot Says: You bringing up Journey is a freaking act of desperation. Are you serious? You have to play that card already?

As commenter OwningXylophone correctly stated, there was a time when Sony and Nintendo were working together to produce a CD-based NES. A combination of bad contracts and corporate politics lead to the dissolution of that and the beginning of the Playstation.

Taking that into account, the original Playstation was clearly a superior product than the original NES as it was designed to be an upgrade to the NES. Plus, the games that came out for it weren’t boring and made for girls. And what it really comes down to are the games. The Playstation had them in abundance for everyone. The NES had them in abundance for 6 year old girls. So if you’re a 6 year old girl, go at it with your NES. It’s a system that can’t be beat.

FlavaDave Says: And New Coke is clearly superior to Coca-Cola, as it was designed to be an upgrade to Coca-Cola Classic. (BTW, I’ve never heard of “the Journey card”. It’s called an analogy).

In all honesty, name me five people who still play Playstation One to this day. I can list all of the people I know who still play NES:

• All of my friends except for you.

Do PS1 fans even exist? Have you ever seen a PS1 T-shirt? Is there a YouTube clip online of some Asian dude playing the Spyro The Dragon theme song on a tuba through his nose? Does anybody remember what games the PS1 launched with?

Here, I’ll tell you what. Go find me an active PS1 fansite. I’ll wait.

And as for the girl comment, I suppose the rest of us don’t get our masculine identity from a video game.

Flinchbot Says: You want PS1 games? Well, you can get them on your PS3 now and you will be able to play them on your PSP (over 7,000 titles expected to be available).

Yes, 7,000 titles.

I dunno, can all of those classic Nintendo games be played on a DS or a WII? Did Nintendo ever have 700 games, let alone 7,000?

And while there are plenty of PS1 forums alive and kicking (here, here, and here) most of the Playstation sites cover the PS1, PS2, and PS3 (with the PSP usually thrown in as well).

And I’ll back off on saying that all Nintendo games are for 6 year old girls. They did have the ultra-violent thrill-a-minute Duck Hunt which made 7 year old boys excited too.