The Nintendo Entertainment System will always go down as one of the greatest consoles of all time, for many of you it was your introduction to home gaming. The console that revitalized the industry after the crash of 1983, the NES introduced iconic characters, established franchises and paved the way for multiple genres.

I could go with any number of favorite NES based on their impact upon my childhood. Contra for example was the only game I ever played with my Father and thanks to the cheat code we were able to achieve ultimate victory. It’s one of those rare Father/Son moments we would have over the years, so sad.

I wasted days playing Dragon Warrior, Crystalis, Chip and Dale, Mega Man, Tecmo Bowl, Double Dribble, man the list can go on for days but my favorite all time NES game is really a no-contest and that would be the iconic Super Mario Bros. 3.

The awesome graphics, memorable music, super cool upgrades and complex gameplay made it my personal favorite NES game of all time. I still throw the cartridge in from time to time and see if I can remember where all of the warp whistles are (I can) and to see how long it takes me to defeat all of those Koopalings. I still remember the hype surrounding the game, obviously it’s feature in “The Wizard” helped drive it but that massive anticipation didn’t exist for a video game before SMB3, everyone had to have it.

Anyway, that’s my fav NES game, what’s yours? The Legend of Zelda? Mega Man? Castlevania? Double Dragon? Leave a comment below!

Let’s get the story out of the way first, via Wikipedia: “While a stork carries two babies across the sea, the evil Magikoopa Kamek emerges, and attempts to steal both of the babies. Kamek manages to grab Baby Luigi, but Baby Mario falls onto an island in the middle of the sea, called Yoshi’s Island, home to all Yoshis. He lands on a green Yoshi, who was apparently taking a walk. The Yoshi clan, accompanying Baby Mario, must journey through the game’s six worlds to rescue Baby Luigi and free the stork from Baby Bowser and Kamek. Throughout the game, Kamek tries to stop Yoshi by dispatching his minions all across the island and by using magic spells to transform normal enemies into more powerful creatures that further impede Yoshi’s progress”

SMW2 should technically be considered Super Mario World 0 as it serves as a prequel to the Mario games with the game featuring the Mario brothers as infants but the fact that you don’t play as Mario doesn’t diminish the gameplay. Already a challenging platformer, the game increases the difficulty by including baby Mario into the mix. If a Yoshi is hit then baby Mario floats around in a bubble while a timer counts down, if you catch Mario then you continue playing, if you don’t catch him you lose a life. I had a few situations where I would take a hit while jumping and would need to reverse direction to retrieve baby Mario and then turn around and continue along my original direction.

At the end of each level you’re greeted with a screen that lists how many stars, coins and flowers you collected throughout the level, hitting 100 on each level will result in the appearance of a bonus level and an extra level. Naturally increasing the replay value.

The graphics. Easily the most creative graphics on the SNES, Miyamoto and his crew created a 16-bit game that looks like it was drawn with crayons and markers. The game is bright, colorful and creates an experience that I never thought was possible on the SNES. You have to stop at times just to look at the level of detail found in the levels, it’s impressive.

Oh and we have some technical specs, also from Wikipedia: “The game uses the Super FX 2 microchip to create sprite scaling, polygon effects, and pre-32-bit computer effects called “Morphmation” (in American commercials) that are relatively advanced for an SNES game (a preliminary version of the boxart featured the Super FX 2 logo).”

The game is fun to play, graphically impressive and arguably one of the greatest platform games of the 16-bit era, some may say of all-time but I won’t go that far. Dust off a SNES a experience a forgotten classic, the game that made Yoshi the star he is today. Yoshi star. Yoshi.

For those from the DMV, we know his as the Godfather of Go-go, a musical genre that originated in Washington D.C. with a heavy emphasis on funk, r & b, Hiphop and percussion. If you don’t hear congas then it isn’t Go-go.

As a DC area native a lot of us have our own personal Chuck Brown stories, I saw him on a number of occasions just eating lunch while chillin’ with the fans. Naturally, he was all over local commercials and he consistent presence resulted in a street being named after him in Northwest DC.

I would recommend you dig into his discography to fully embrace his sound and understand the influence he had on artists over the years. Run Joe.

I mean really, the second sentence is “while you are playing.” Yeah I know they accidentally added a period but still, pay attention people! Awful but also funny. Like Diablo III.

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Anyway, the game that started the whole first-person shooter genre back in 1992 is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a free in-browser version of the game. In addition to the browser version of the game, Carmack has also dropped off his Director’s Commentary for the game.

Go play Wolfenstein! Now!

File this under “games-I-should-have-reviewed-last-year.” Shantae: Risky’s Revenge is easily one of the best games I’ve played over the past few years and it takes a lot to impress me. A throwback sprite-based game that takes advantage of new technology, SRR combines that with an interesting story and decent soundtrack.

In case you aren’t familiar with the game, here’s the plot from Wikipedia: “Things had been quiet in Scuttle Town since Shantae’s clash with the pirate Risky Boots. During the annual Relics Hunters Expo, she and her friends see fellow Relic Hunter Uncle Mimic unveil his latest find: an ordinary-looking lamp encased in stone. Just as they begin to wonder what it is, the notorious Risky Boots crashes the expo and steals the lamp. Despite the quick battle, Shantae is knocked out, allowing the vengeful pirate to get away. Blaming the half-genie for the town being in disarray and failing to do her job properly, the Mayor of Scuttle Town fires her as the town’s guardian.

Despite no longer being a Guardian Genie, Shantae still decides to take responsibility to stop Risky Boots’ newest plot. Is there more to this mysterious lamp than one expects? And what does the evil pirate intend to do with it?”

The game is actually a sequel to a Game Boy Color cart, Shantae and the experience and talent of WayForward Technologies really is on display here. I usually write off most games found in the Nintendo eShop because they tend to be quick ports or extended demos that you’re paying full price for but after all of the hype surrounding this game I had to check it out.

The obvious praise is centered around the visual elements as they’ve painstakingly crafted large, sprite-based side-scrolling platform levels with impressive backgrounds and smooth, clean animations. The level of detail found throughout the game is ridiculous, if you have time to stop and admire it. With nods to Castlevania and Mega Man, the gameplay is strong, with responsive controls and a challenge that isn’t too difficult but also isn’t a cakewalk. Along the way you earn various power-ups that let you transform into various animals to progress past certain areas, a monkey to climb walls, an elephant to smash boulders or a mermaid to get past water levels. You also obtain gems throughout the game that help you upgrade your attacks and abilities.

The one problem I have with this game is the map which is pretty much worthless. I did a lot of backtracking in the game and it only provides a high level overview of a stage, nothing specific, especially not the dungeons. I probably wasted a good hour trying to find my way around the Tangled Forest.

It’s one of the most expensive titles in the shop but it’s well worth the price of admission. SRR is a massive, throwback title that takes all the best elements of 16-bit classics and combines it into one complete package. Cop it, son.

I didn’t have to know MCA to respect his music and his commitment to humanitarian efforts, specifically his dedication to the people of Tibet. It was Yauch that started up the Tibetan Freedom Concerts and introduced a new dimension to what we thought we knew MCA was about. Even more impressive than the 40+ million records sold, the awards and the fact that these guys were able to stick together and sustain a career for over 30 years is the clear love they all had for the music. They weren’t afraid to experiment and try something new with the music. They could release songs that had nothing to do with hiphop and it didn’t feel forced. I can’t name any artist or group that was as musically diverse as the Beastie Boys and MCA was in the middle of it all.

These guys sold millions by doing whatever the wanted and the public ate it up. They went against the grain to carve their own niche and no one ever said it wasn’t hiphop. They made it cool for you to be yourself. You didn’t have to be the same skin color to want to be like MCA in those crazy videos.

My earliest memory of MCA was back on Hawaii when Fight for your Right came on after Falco’s Rock Me Amadeus and by the end of the song I start singing the chorus. It didn’t matter what age you were or where you were from, if you were a fan of music you were a fan of MCA and the Beastie Boys. Enjoy Brooklyn Mr. Yauch, you’ve deserved it.

And lets just end this with a random MCA cameo.

Ok so after a quick Google search I found out that this game apparently takes place in the world of G.I. Joe which explains the ripped off logo and reference to COBRA on the back. Why didn’t they just make it a G.I. Joe game? Ok, another Google search let’s me know that in Europe, old-school giant doll G.I. Joe was referred to as “Action Man” and “Action Force” was Hasbro’s way of introducing the 80′s toy line-up to a new audience. Makes sense now.

But what’s up with that cover art? Not only is it anatomically incorrect but it’s also poorly drawn as well and are we supposed to think that this generic jump-kicking Asian guy is going to defeat helicopters, tanks and scuba divers with assault rifles? Maybe he’s a giant? That’s gotta be it, I thought we were dealing with perspectives and planes and all that but I’m thinking too much, he’s really just a giant generic jump-kicking Asian guy. I’m totally buying this game now. It’s like Rampage with a giant generic jump-kicking Asian guy.

I’d rather play G.I. Joe, that would at least have a better cover.

May Day! It’s finally here! The collaboration album between the super dope producer magOwl and myself is a lyrical hi-lo-fi Hiphop journey. Propelled by the fan favorites, Bonne Nuit & Jet Baby, the album is a snapshot of mag and Atari at their very best, a stream of complex rhyme deliveries and jazzy, electronic production so dusty you can still hear the crackle of the vinyl.

Pre-order the digital release now and receive an EP with exclusive remixes and bonus tracks not found on the album.

Click here to pre-order Magnificent Blitzkrieg.

And that is how a cultural phenomenon began. A poorly animated cartoon series about 2 slackers in high school who became a massive commercial success. They were stupid, gross and pathetic but we could all identify with them. If you weren’t Beavis or Butt-head then you knew someone who was. Understandably, the plot for each episode was paper-thin and usually consisted of fart and boob jokes, but you always felt like something else was going on behind the scenes, as if the series was one gigantic social satire inside Mike Judge’s head.

Beavis and Butt-head were huge in the 90′s (huh huh huh huh), so were crappy licensed video games and naturally the two would meet. More than once. On multiple systems.

So getting to the game, Beavis and Butt-head “revolves around the title characters’ attempts to find the torn-up ticket pieces all over Highland to go to a GWAR concert.” (Wikipedia)

Not much of a story there but what did you expect? The game begins with a faithful recreation of the theme, a decent pixelicious copy of the opening screen from the show and a digitized sound-byte to get you hyped up about the game. Unfortunately, as you play the game you notice the extremely poor quality of the sprites. They do resemble the guys and you can easily recognize characters from the show but if you thought the animation was crude, the game looks like it was knocked out in a week.

The levels are excessively long, redundant, suffer from weak design and cheap hits are everywhere. When I played it as a teen I was frustrated by how difficult it was and playing it again now, I feel the same way. It’s a non-stop stream of bad guys with few opportunities to power-up. At times I would deliberately kill myself off if I was low on life and had just reached a new area so I could stand a fighting chance before I was sent back to the beginning. I guess the levels are so long to mask the fact that they only have 4 levels: Highland High School, Streets of Highland, Highland Hospital and Turbo Mall 2000 and filled with the same bad guys over and over again.

The music is slightly above average and despite the cover implying otherwise, features one song by the Virginia-based band, GWAR. Digitized sound-bytes are heard throughout the game and while they are low-quality, they add another layer to the game.

The game was quickly created to cash-in on the success of Beavis and Butt-Head and it shows as the game lacks depth or replay value. In fact, you’ll probably play it 20 times just to get past the 1st level, then you’ll give up, light your controller on fire and go hit frogs with your SNES console.