Somehow This Just Sounds Wrong

Squidi.net - Main Page:

This is what can be found on Squidi.net's main page:

"Accepting Guest Comics..."

Also, for the first time ever, I will be accepting guest comics. Before you scream 'finally' and start whipping out the MS Paint, let it be known that I do not want anything on this front page that doesn't live up to my impossibly high standards. I'm serious. If you don't think you are up to snuff, you probably aren't. I tend to see guest comics as either cheap self promotion attempts by lesser comics to get free advertising by paying lip service to the ass of a bigger comic or cheap attempts at self esteem boosting by somehow forcing your way, however minor it may be, into the respected creation of another.

I am accepting guest comics because I don't know how much time or energy I'll have once the baby is born (I hear not a lot), but my sense of pride and honor prevent me from turning this front page into a wall for anyone and everyone to graffiti 'Kilroy was here'. If you think you have what it takes, send it to squidi@squidi.net. It must be less than or equal to 640 pixels wide (can be any height), and cannot include ANY of my own artwork, pixel or otherwise, editted or not, or the copyrighted material of someone else (including the artist - no crossovers or characters from another comic, tv show, or whatever).

You can read two of my editorials on Sean's ego here and here, but needless to say the guy can't even seem to sound nice when asking for a favor sometimes. Basically what this post is doing is asking all webcomic creators out there to give him original, created from the ground up guest comics. Yeah, whatever, you don't see Scott Kurtz complaining because Jason R. Salsbury included a guest appearance in his guest comic for "PVP" a couple days ago. Lets just hope Sean doesn't attempt to try and pull ANY copyright crap on the strips that are submitted!

More Fanboy Idiocy

Anime On DVD Community Forums: More Hikaru no Go edits..#Post1050234

I swear, I sometimes have to wonder why I still read crap like this. Don't these people understand how stupid they sound? So a cigarette has been removed from the manga, big friggen deal. One person suggested that Viz raise the rating and keep the cigarettes intact. So what they are suggesting is to keep the cigarette s in the series and make an otherwise A (All Ages) rated series a T (Teen) rated series? Come on guys, don't you realize how foolish you're sounding right now?

It spreads.

ListerX - Blog

Anime on DVD created their own site blog, and before you know it ALL the anime sites must have one now! Oh well, not that I'm complaining, seeing as how I've been bitten by the bug too, I just have to wonder what point something like this can contribute to a news/review site. I mean, giving people previews on what you're going to review within the next couple weeks? Wouldn't it make more sense to just write the reviews and post them when they're done? AoD's blog is another frustration, as most of the posts in their blog seem like they should either be news on the front page, or in the editorials section. I personally make no claim that this blog adds to either of my websites in anyway.

After all, this blog is just for me to rant about random things in my life that have no use anywhere else on my site. So why is it all the blogs that have been created for all the anime news/review sites I've seen seem to want to replace the news and editorial sections? I don't know, this isn't a complaint, just more of an observation. Here's another observation: TV producers are stupid morons. After all, these monkey's are the one's who blame parents for not monitoring what their kids watch on TV, and yet if you actually watched TV you'd realize that there isn't ANYTHING on TV kids can watch, which makes monitoring ten times more difficult to do! Remember, this is just an observation, nothing more, nothing less.

Conker: [Remixed] & Reloaded

For those of you who were playing games about five years ago, you may remember the first truly controversial game that came out for game consoles since "Mortal Combat." This game is Rare's one and only "Conker's Bad Fur Day." For those who don't know what "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is, what it isn't is a typical platformer. When it was first unveiled to the public back in 1997, it was a cute little platformer that we knew very little about. A year later it was shown as "Twilight Tales: Conker 64." This time around we got more information about the game, but we were far less impressed. The problem was that earlier that year, Rare released their big hit "Banjo-Kazooie" to the world, which was a cute, simple game that mainly revolved around you exploring lush, Disney looking worlds while collecting gold puzzle pieces.

Likewise "Twilight Tales: Conker 64" was a cute, simple game that mainly revolved around you exploring lush, Disney looking worlds while collecting gold acorns. The games were too similar to each other, and Rare could tell that one of their potential franchises had just lost a lot of interest right there and then. Instead of canceling the game though, Rare decided to re-work the game as a hard-core, violent, perverted, M rated game known as "Conker's Bad Fur Day." When the game was shown off a couple years later, people were shocked at what they saw. There was violent, bodies blowing up, this squirrel getting drunk and urinating on people, course language (some of which was bleeped out), movie parodies (most of which were from R rated movies), and a Disney like musical sequence where you fight The Great Mighty Poo.

This certainly was not the same game we saw the previous year, and this new Conker drew controversy from parents and family control groups. When the game was released there were protests in the form of news stories, stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart didn't carry the game, even Nintendo themselves went the extra mile to make it so that this game was sold only to adults (it wasn't even featured in any of their Nintendo Power magazines). While the game drew in some controversy, it was also a brilliant game, that featured many funny (British) humor, it was the first game to combine several different game genre's together (platformer, FPS, even some kart racing), and it was the first game that made a strong case that games could still be worth owning even if it was only around 10 to 15 hours.

I remember playing it at the time, and being shocked at how a game that looks so much like a Disney cartoon could be so much like "South Park." One thing that was strange was that tons of the language was bleeped out. I guess the language was bleeped out because Nintendo didn't want the AO rating, but it was okay since the bleeping (much like on "The Osborns") just made the game funnier. When Microsoft announced that they bought Rare and would be bringing a remake of "Conker's Bad Fur Day" would be released for XBox I was giddy. It made me even more happy when I found out that this XBox version of Conker was being titled "Conker: Live & Uncut," as this would suggest maybe Microsoft would go all the way with the title.

Well, it doesn't look like this is going to happen anytime soon. Not only is most of the foul language bleeped out, but Microsoft took out even MORE of the bad language then was originally removed! Of course, this doesn't really bother much that much about the remake, it's actually the camera that is the biggest problem, in that the camera is much better then the problematic camera for the Nintendo 64 version of Conker. In that version you couldn't control the camera, where you can control the camera in the XBox remake, yet the camera is still complete garbage. But camera and language bleeping aside, the whole point I'm TRYING (and failing) to make is that Conker is back in the picture, and frankly, the shock value just isn't there anymore.

These days games like "Manhunt," "Halo," and the oh so popular "Grand Theft Auto" is in the controversy spotlight. Which means despite the fact that Conker is still an adult game that looks like a kids game, Conker just isn't as edgy as he used to be. Since there has been talk about the edgy content in this game since previews of the remake first surfaced, I have to wonder whether or not this game will achieve the sales Microsoft wants it to in order to establish Conker as a huge game franchise. A pity too, as future installments of this franchise could have been even more daring and hilarious then "Bad Fur Day" was. Oh well, I guess we'll have to make do with what we've got (which isn't really a bad thing when you get down to it).

Box Office Mayhem!

Daily Box Office - Monday, June 20, 2005

Okay, so "Batman Begins" was the number one film this weekend. This comes as no real surprise to anyone really, but lets look farther down the list for a more interesting tibet. Right below "Crash," which came in at eleven at the box office, is "Howl's Moving Castle" at number twelve. Just two numbers below being in the top ten. On a mere two hundred and two screens. This is pretty freaking huge. I mean can you see what's so great about this? "Howl's Moving Castle," which has received virtually no advertising or promotion from Disney, is on far less screens then most movies, and opened with little notice from the public, beat some of the bigger budget Hollywood films out there!

It beat "Lords of Dogtown" which opened on eight hundred and forty-three screens, and (more importantly) "High Tension," which was on a whooping one thousand, two hundred and nine screens. That's only eight hundred screens shy of a huge summer release. What's even more incredible is that both these films have had at LEAST thirty million dollars in marketing, while "Howl's Moving Castle" will have been lucky to get fifty cents in marketing from Disney (they wouldn't even promote the release of this movie on the DVD releases of "Porco Rosso," "Nausicaa," and "The Cat Returns")!

If Disney expands the release of this movie another hundred screens this Friday, would I be getting my hopes up if I predicted it would actually BE in the top ten list?! I sure hope not, because being in the top ten list would be the best thing that could happen to anime fans, and it may even insure that all of the Studio Ghibli releases receive some sort of theatrical release. So if you know someone who has kids, tell them to take them to see "Howl's Moving Castle" this Friday and to spread the word about how good it is. If the parents resist, ask them whether they would like to take their kids to see a potentially breathtaking movie like "Howl's Moving Castle," or would they rather take their kids to see "Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D?"

Miyazaki’s Still A Genius

Much to my delight (almost like a Beatles fan finding out that their favorite band is coming to their town), Hayao Miyazaki’s latest movie “Howl’s Moving Castle” opened in a theater near my home (well, okay, it was twenty minutes away, but it was close enough for me). So far I’ve seen two of his films in the theaters: “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke.” Both movies were awesome on the big screen, and I hope that Disney decides to go ahead with their plans for a limited theatrical release of “Nausicaa: Valley of The Wind” (and that that movie eventually finds its way to my area). If Miyazaki made bad movies, then his films would be worth seeing in the theater just because they are beautiful movies to look at. Luckily for us he makes some of the best movies ever. He ranks in their with Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard (in my humble opinion). When I read early reviews of “Howl’s Moving Castle” I was a bit taken back by what I read.

Much to my surprise, many of the reviews I read from critics and anime fans alike were pretty lukewarm, and even people who liked the movie said it had a fair share of problems. How could this be? Isn’t this Miyazaki for pete’s sake? Even if he WERE to make a bad movie, it would still have to be better then almost all efforts made by other directors out there! It was with this mind set that I approuched “Howl’s Moving Castle,” fully expecting to be let down and be disapointed. Turns out I was partially right to worry and partially wrong to worry. “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a good movie. This makes me very happy as I simply can not imagine Miyazaki making a bad movie. With that said I loved the movie, I loved the visuals, I loved the music...in fact I REALLY loved the music (best score Joe Hiashi has writen since “Princess Mononoke” I believe), I loved the characters, the voices were excellent and I find myself siding with the dub for most of the Ghibli movies I’ve seen, and I even love the story. Strangely enough, it’s the story that I have the most problems with.

Now don’t get me wrong, the story is very good for the most part, it’s just that there are several moments in the film where the narration just isn’t as focused as it should be. At the heart of this film is the story of a woman who is learning to love herself. Miyazaki, however, also wanted to make a protest against the war in Iraq and added in this whole war that started brewing, with Howl being asked to serve both sides (see, he has several different identities). There is nothing wrong with this, and even though I personally support the war it’s okay is Miyazaki wants to make a stance against it in his movies, but it just feels out of place here. You never really know anything about the conflict with which this war is supposed to be about, and the movie wastes a good chunk of time on these “war discussions” that don’t even clue the audience in with what’s going on. Since this whole war is distracting us from the heart and soul of the story, it would be nice to have a little more info. Of course, this was probably done intentionally, to make a statement that Miyazaki doesn’t care what the war is about, just that he is against it.

Powerful statement Mr. Miyazaki, but this time I think you should have considered toning down your statement in favor of making a more focused story for your movie. Also the ending leaves a lot to be desired. Now an open-ended ending is not unusual for a Miyazaki film. My favorite film of his is “Porco Rosso,” and that movie has the most open-ended ending you could ask for, one that is open to loads of discussion. But even though the ending for that movie was pretty lacking in anything solid, it was still an ending, one that gave you a very good idea of what happens to the characters. The ending for “Howl’s Moving Castle” is very, VERY vague! In fact, I can’t even give you an IDEA of what the ending is suggesting! I think I might have to see the movie a second time with the ending in mind if I have any hopes of figuring it out, and even that is a long shot at best.

Despite the story structure problems though, “Howl’s Moving Castle” is still an excellent film. It may be the weakest movie he’s directed yet, but it is still better then most of the movies currently out in theaters. I just hope it doesn’t get overshadowed by movies like “Star Wars Episode III” and “Batman Begins” this summer, and has a chance to become a real hit with audiences.

Backstreet's Back (All Right)

To publically unveil one more ebarressing hobby of mine, I have to admit that I love the Backstreet Boys. Yeah, their songs are sugary, most of the songs are about the same thing, and yes, I'm fully aware that the Backstreet Boys are far from the "in thing" these days. I don't care, I like the Backstreet Boys, and I don't care if you shun me for it. Yesterday, after a four year hiatus, the Backstreet Boys newest album, "Never Gone" (think they're trying to tell us something?), was released. I bought the CD at Best Buy, which is something I normally wouldn't do, but it was cheap there (me and Best Buy have issues). While the CD was pretty decent, the one thing that was different about this CD was that it was one of those new "DuelDisk" CD's.

For those who are unaware of what a DuelDisk is, it is basically the record companies new attempt to get people to start buying CD's again. With the re-launch of Napster and the huge success that is iTunes, record companies are starting to feel a little left out. This DuelDisk thing is their plan to get people to buying CD's again. So what's the big deal about the DuelDisk? Well, one sides the CD, and the other side is a DVD. That's about it really. On the DVD of this CD I got a Backstreet Boys music video, and a chance to play the CD in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. I must admit, it sounded REALLY good in surround (better then you think it would)! This got me to thinking about the potential of DuelDisk. What if people didn't have to buy DVD's of music videos for their favorite artists seperatly?

What if you could fit some concert tour videos on this DVD from time-to-time? If this DuelDisk is utiliazed properly, it could definetly get people interested in CD's again (at least until the next big distraction comes around). Of course, right now my biggest concern is that this disk looks REALLY easy to scratch! While I have an MP3 Player and can play the songs off of that, for the people who don't handle their CD's perfectly, this new disk may be a bit of a put off for them.

I don't want to name names, but I know of a couple of my friends who have expressed frustration because they somehow got scratches on their CD's, and they don't even know what they did (and at least one of my friends lost his car CD player by inserting his Simple Plan CD in it, which means that if you have a fairly old CD player in your car you might want to reconsider putting your DuelDisk in it). Hopefully the record companies can figure out a solution to this problem. Oh well, until I get more hands on info about this DuelDisk thing, I'll be listening to my new Backstreet Boys CD.

What A Moore-on!

MichaelMoore.com (or as I like to call it, "Come With Me, and You'll Be, In A World of Pure Imagination"

The election has come and gone. George W. Bush has been re-elected by the American people. "Fahrenheit 9/11" didn't get nominated for an Oscar. Michael Moore has had almost no publicity in the press these days. With all that said, doesn't Moore's website seem hopelessly and pathetically outdated now? Can't he do anything else other then link to anti-Bush news? Guess he's trying to act like there's nothing in the world that's bothering him now that he's not the media's little darling.

Why I Hate Kutaragi (And His Stupid Game Consoles)

Kutaragi talks PS3 backward compatibility, disses 360 (again)

You can read the article above if you want, but the basic jist of the whole thing is this: XBox 360 is doomed and Sony will rule again with the Playstation 3. This is where I usually enter into a rant mode. Instead of doing that however I'm going to take on a trip down memory lane for some VERY revealing quotes from Kutaragi in the past:

Sony President Brands Xbox a Failure

May 27th, 2001 (12:00am) - Sony Computer Entertainment President, Ken Kutaragi, has branded the Xbox a failure months before the rival console has been released.

"Microsoft was finished before it even got started. They have no games," Mr Kutaragi told the Financial Times. "Microsoft has put itself out of the game. Retailers in the US are already disappointed. Microsoft does not understand the entertainment business. The processing speed of their console is not fast enough and the graphics were rough."

"Retailers told me that on a dollar base, they expect 70 per cent of their sales will come from PlayStation. The remaining 30 per cent will come from Nintendo and Xbox but almost all of that will be from Nintendo." In fact Mr Kutaragi sees Nintendo as the major rival, "The next game platform belongs to Sony and Nintendo."

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But the most significant aspect of the PS2 might be its ability to hook into the Internet, making it a "Trojan horse" to bring online gaming, e-commerce, Web browsing, e-mail and downloading of music, software and video into the home.

"You can communicate to a new cybercity," gushes Ken Kutaragi, the visionary behind the PlayStation. "This will be the ideal home server. Did you see the movie 'The Matrix'? Same interface. Same concept. Starting from next year, you can jack into 'The Matrix'!"

-----------------

Go ahead, you can Google those quotes if you want to confirm their legitamy. Just make sure you walk away with the moral of the story: Sony can talk all they want, it's whether or not they'll actually deliver that is the question.

Woo Hoo! It's About Darn Time This Happened!

Woo Hoo! Work On 'Simpsons' Movie Begins

Despite the fact that "The Simpson's" has been going through some quality issues lately, I can't help but feel excited to know that a Simpson's movie is FINALLY being made for the big screen! If this does well maybe Kevin Smith can get some funding for that "Clerks Animated Movie" he's been talking about making for quite some time (one of the best shows that got canceled LONG before it got a chance to find an audience).

I Still Have Quite A Bit To Learn

Anime Jump: Genshiken Review!

Many people know that I point to Anime Jump as my main sorce of inspiration. I aspire to be as good a reviewer as any of these guys are. Chad's review of "Genshiken" just proves my point. Compared this review to my review of the same series, and there's no contest which review is better. Oh well, someday AJ, someday.

Midori Days

Last night I never did get around to watching any "Lupin III," all because I got some stuff in the mail from Right Stuf International, and I wanted to watch and read some of the stuff. The show I ended up watching was "Midori Days," a show I had planned to watch only an episode or two of (at first), but then I ended up watching the whole disk...all five episodes. Right now there is a problem with anime in the fact that very few series that come out these days seem to be series that can stand the test of time. The closest anime we have to being considered classics are "Full Moon wo Sagashite" and "Naruto." Otherwise though all the big wigs of anime like "Dragon Ball Z," "Ranma ½," "Inu-Yasha," "Sailor Moon," "Lupin III," "Neon Genesis Evangelion," and "Rurouni Kenshin" (just to name a few), are all pretty old, with "Inu-Yasha" originally airing in the year 2000, which was five years ago.

Most of these other shows are pushing ten or even twenty years, and they are STILL considered to be the best shows in the anime community! There's nothing wrong with this mind you. If a show can survive this long it usually is a testament to the quality of the show, but it's kind of annoying when you meet a new fan who's into anime and wants to be introduced to some of the best shows, we're telling him to watch shows that are over a decade old. "Midori Days" may actually have the potential to be the first real "next generation" classic I've seen. Now I don't want to totally dismiss "One Piece" and "Naruto," which I thin can definitely be viewed as classics now (seeing as how they are both past the 100 episode mark, something that definitely solidifies your success), but "Midori Days" is the first new anime I've seen in many years to have that "classic feel" to it.

It has a unique premise (the premise is that a boys right hand has turned into his girlfriend...no, I'm NOT making that up), it has wonderful characters, humor that is actually funny, and great animation. It even has a level of seriousness you don't find too much in anime these days. Well, okay, what I mean is at least the drama in this show can be taken seriously, unlike the stiff melodrama we see in so many anime titles these days. Right now I'd like to encourage everyone who loves anime (or even just likes) to go out and buy the first DVD of this wonderful show. You can find the first DVD at places like Best Buy for around $20-$22, it's only going to be three DVD's long, and the first DVD has five episodes.

Basically you'll be getting your money's worth and then some. And if you guys want this absolutely CUTE t-shirt of the show, you can buy the first DVD box set here. Basically this is the first DVD, the t-shirt, and a box to hold all three volumes (and I promise you you'll want the rest). Lots of anime may be mediocre these days, but shows like "Midori Days" remind me why I love anime so much.

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

So I'm sitting in my room, looking at my anime DVD collection, and I realize that I have not watched about seven of my "Lupin III" DVD's that I have. One of them is a movie from FUNimation (which I bought because I preordered it and forgot that I bought it), and the rest are from Geneon. The reason I have so many unwatched "Lupin III" DVD's is because there was a period where Right Stuf was selling all of the Lupin DVD's for dirt cheap, and I bought them all on the spot because it was a good deal. Each DVD has five to six episodes each on them. Now I'm just trying to figure out a way to watch the rest of the episodes and still have a life.

I Have No Faith In The Big N

Revolution controller not done - News at GameSpot

Here's my problem with Nintendo: They haven't made anything good in several years. At E3 I had a big problem with the lack of games they showed, the lack of support they announced for the revolution, the fact that the system they showed might not even be the final design of the system, and most of all, the lack of any playable controllers to be seen for the Revolution. People tell me to be patient, that Nintendo wouldn't let me down, that they have something special in mind with the controller. And now I read at Gamespot that the reason Nintendo didn't show off the controller is NOT because they wanted to revel their secrets to the world, but because the controller wasn't even freaking finished yet! Now do you people understand why I don't like Nintendo? It's because of crap like this that pessimists like me exist.

Judge Rules Disney/Gold Lawsuit May Proceed

Judge Rules Disney/Gold Lawsuit May Proceed!

All I have to say to this is go Roy and Stanely! I hope you know that I'll be supporting you every step of the way (kind of like the way I've been supporting you since you first declared war on Michael Eisner). Here's hoping something good comes from this.

No Pokemon?

Donkey Kong joins Revolution, Pokemon MIA - Revolution News at GameSpot

What is this? No Pokemon game announced for the Nintendo Revolution? How will I live? HOW WILL I LIVE?!?!?! *sobs*

I Might As Well Throw Money In The Street

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - Cover art for June titles

More proof that these days, ANYTHING can and will be released on DVD!

Okay, So It Wasn't THAT Bad of A Change!

Toon Zone - Your Source for Toon News!

For those of you who are unaware of what "Loonatics" is, it is, in short, Warner Bros. "re-visioning" of the popular Looney Tunes characters. Yeah, I can hear some of you cry, but I'm actually looking forward to the show. Not to sound like I am disregarding the classic cartoons, but when I spent months complaining about "Batman Beyond" before I had even seen it, I felt kind of foolish once I saw the show and discovered that I really liked it. Which is why when "Loonatics" was announced I got excited about the idea. Of course there are some (okay LOTS) of people who decided, WITHOUT EVEN SEEING IT, that this show was horrible!!! One of these people was 11 year old Thomas Adams, who started a petition in an effort to get the character designs changed.

I felt that this was unfair since I saw nothing wrong with the original designs of the characters, and I felt that a potentially good show was going to be ruined because of an 11 year old who knew nothing about what he was complaining about. Well as you can see from the link above, the new character designs are in, and they look fantastic. I have even more hopes for this show then I originally had, and I can't wait to see the show when it airs this fall. And for Thomas, who is probably complaining about how the CGI in "Star Wars Episode III" ruins the "real life sets we fell in love with in the firs 'Star Wars' film" right now, all I can say is this: DON'T ruin these designs for ME!! Because if you do, then I know where you live.

Show Me My Money's Worth

Miyamoto: Today's games "too long"


For those of you who know me you know that I love games. I love games of all different types, genre's, and content level. One of the few types of games that I don't like though, are games that just take freaking forever to finish. Oh sure, I play long games, and some of my favorite games are open-ended games that seem to have no end (or goal) to be seen anywhere, but most of the time these types of games make me feel a little weary at the idea of investing who know how much of my life playing them. With this in mind you may find it strange that I disagree with Mr. Miyamoto on his statement that companies should start focusing on making shorter games. This is not cool in my book, not cool at all. While there are some games that do work better as short games rather then long games, I tend to want my games to be at least 10 hours long if not longer. To me, this is a game that is decently long. If the games are shorter then that then I have little to no interest in buying them. I think most people agree with me. Unlike what Miyamoto says, most people DO want games longer because they want "more bang for their buck." Besides, if you've got a story and everything to tell, longer games with a deep enriching world could deeply enhance the game more then anything, and then a large world and long play time becomes a major point of the game. So why is Miyamoto attacking long games? Simple: Because Nintendo WANTS him to! Now why would Nintendo ask him to do this? You must understand that Miyamoto is pretty much a god in the gaming world.

He's the kind of guy people listen to when he has an opinion, and many people eat up everything he says about the game industry because he's made some classic games and has worked in the industry for so long. Heck, I admire the guy and I haven't even liked one of his games since the year 2000, when he created the his last truly original game "Pikmin." Since then Nintendo has used him to spew their propaganda and lies (much in the same way Democrats used Michael Moore and his "Fahrenheit 9/11" movie during the election) to try and get the vast majority of the public to agree with what they are doing. The REAL reason Miyamoto is pushing for shorter games is because Nintendo has been losing money for awhile, and they are looking for ways to save money now. Because shorter games would mean less money spent making games they are using Miyamoto, hoping that people will agree with him, just because he freaking Miyamoto. Except there is one big thing that's going to blow up in Nintendo's face should they decide to go in this direction: Gamers will stop buying their games because they'll realize they're getting screwed. Games are $50 each. The average kid and college student (who are the main target audience for games) work for around $6.75-$8.00 an hour. If someone is working for $6..75 an hour, then they will have to work eight hours for $54.00, and after tax they will have worked a whole day for the privilege to buy a game. Now, since you have worked eight hours to buy that game, don't you think that game should provide at least eight hours or more worth of playing time?

With prices of game development going up and Nintendo talking down to long games, it makes me suspect that they're doing this to try and get people used to buying short games from now on. But we don't need short games because long games are not an issue. Miyamoto brought up "Halo" as a long game. "Halo" is about 10-12 hours long (not including the multiplayer). This is hardly what I would call a long game. So if that's long, then what is considered short in Nintendos mind? How short DO they plan to make their Revolution games?! Here's another idea: Why do people replay "Final Fantasy VII" and "Metroid Prime" so much? These are long games. One of them is even more then 40 hours long ("Final Fantasy VII"). So why isn't length an issue for repeatability for these games? Simple: Because game length, in Nintendo president Iwata's own words, "really doesn't matter." If a game is good you'll finish it. If it isn't good then you won't. It's as simple as that. I may not have finished "Splinter Cell" yet due to it's length, but there's nothing wrong with that because whenever I feel like playing the game, there is still something left to do. As long as games don't make it too difficult to figure out what to do next, then I believe people will finish the good games regardless of their length. It just might take them a little longer then usual. So no, I am not buying into Miyamoto's hype that short games are better, because I can tell you know that if Nintendo plans to make their games less then 8 hours each (which, come to think of it, a couple of their games already have been), then I will just stop buying the games and rent them.

How's that for business Miyamoto?

I Hate Copyrights

Dawson's Creek Music Guide -- Season 5 DVD Music Notes

I guess I should get this out of the way first: "Dawson's Creek" is one of my favorite shows ever. No, I'm not joking. No, I'm not gay. I loved the show from season 1 to season 4. After that the show started going to hell. But before the show went to hell, there was one last truly great "Dawson’s Creek" episode that revolved around Dawson's dad being killed in a car accident. One of the most chilling things about this episode was the fact that he died so suddenly, much in the way some people die in real life. The following episode that dealt with his funeral opened with a piano version of Paula Coles "I Don't Want To Wait," which was chilling, sad, and made you feel pretty crappy. It worked beautifully with the episode.

Since Paula Cole wants more money from the producers of the "Dawson's Creek" DVD's for the use of her song (more so then it's actually worth since these DVD's aren't selling like hot cakes), the DVD's have been theme song-less since the third season and onward. Apparently this piano version of the song falls under the "we can't use" blacklist that has plagued the show since the second season was released, and so the song has been replaced with a new, happier song instead. You have no idea how much this bums me out. It's pretty frustrating that I have to deal with these song changes. I do because I understand the economic reality of the situation. Oh sure it screws several scene's up (when Dawson is watching "Risky Business" the song "Old Time Rock & Roll" is replaced), but I tolerate them.

The fifth season set has the most problem since a few scene's of characters singing copyrighted songs have had to be cut (making the versions of these episodes on this DVD edited), but this is the one thing I wish they could have left intact. Or at least pick a more fitting song. For pete's sake people, the song that is now there is completely wrong for this episode. COMPLETELY wrong! For pete's sake the episode is about the characters saying goodbye to someone was just killed in a car crash. There is no reason a happy song should be playing here. I have been taping the TBS re-runs of this show in addition to buying the DVD sets because of the music changes, and I'm sure when the sixth season comes out on DVD I'll buy that too (despite hating that particular season), but this is one thing that truly disappoints me, and hopefully one day someone will be able to preserve this episode with the correct music one day.

Review Blues

Here I am with four new reviews I could upload on my website, yet here I am hurrying to try and get this review of "Eyeshield 21" finished in time for tomorrow. Why don't I post one of the reviews I have finished? The reviews I have finished are for "The Devil Does Exist," "From Eroica With Love," "Swan," and "Monster Collection." I have this strange policy with my site that once I post a review, I cannot post a review with that same beginning letter until I post five reviews with different reviewing letters. Yeah, I don't completely get it myself, but my review list just looks odd if I don't do it this way. Hmm...now that I think about it, all those reviews are for CMX titles. Maybe I should cut back on reviewing CMX just a little bit. What do you think?

I Swear, Some of The Things You See These Days

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I don't even want to know what has possessed this man to do what he's doing, and I don't really care. Again, I weep for the children’s future (particularly his).

No More Afternoon Cartoons?

Weekday Kids WB Ends in January!

I feel sorry for kids these days, I really do. It seems like everything that once made the world good is slipping away. It was announced yesterday that effective January 2006, Kids WB shows will no longer be playing the in the afternoon for kids who come home from school. Why must this happen? I remember when I was a kid getting off of school, going home, turning on the TV, and watching Disney Afternoon all afternoon before I had to do my homework. It was a special time for me, and many of my friends have fond memories of that time. I'm not a kid anymore, and I shouldn't be worrying about afternoon cartoons anymore, but I do. I never really stopped watching cartoons.

Yeah some of the stuff they have isn't as good as some of the old shows, but kids shows are still kids shows. Now WB is being forced to pull its weekday programming from the schedule to make room for "adult comedies." The shows that will replace the Kids WB block are most likely reruns of old shows that few people care for anymore, but hey, whatever rocks their boat. I personally find all this very disappointing, as this just shows that times are changing far too much for my taste. I hope when I have kids and they get off from school, that they have more to watch then Nickelodeon. Oh well, here's happen the afternoon toons return to syndication someday.

Hey, that just reminded me, whatever happened to weekday MORNING syndicated cartoons from third party companies like Saban, DiC, and 4Kids Entertainment (that last one became huge later on in life but they were small at one point or another)?

Testing

Since blogging is all the rage these days, I figured I would make one of these blogs myself for rants that don't belong on either of my websites. Check back later for more.