I don’t know about you guys, but when I saw the teaser trailer for Wreck-It Ralph, I jumped out of my chair. Why is this? Because it’s a Disney movie and it has Bowser from the Mario franchise, Dr. Robotnik from Sonic, AND Zangief from Street Fighter in it.

Are you kidding me?

I think the last time I saw Bowser in a feature-length film was when the god-awful Super Mario Bros film saw the light of day, and, needless to say, that was thoroughly disappointing… Now here he is sitting beside two other famous video-game villians in a DISNEY movie.

The movie is called Wreck-It Ralph and it’s about an arcade villian named… well… Wreck-It Ralph… who decides it’s high-time to hang up the bad-guy coat and start doing some good. He is voiced by John C. Reilly and finds a way to escape the game he has been tied to his whole life and jump into other ones.

The movie looks entertaining enough, but the real reason I want to see it is for all of the cameos from other existing video game characters. First of all, just the realization that Disney actually found a way to get the rights for all of these characters to appear in a movie together is fascinating enough to me, and second, I get the feeling it’s going to be pretty funny. This is, of course, coming from a gamer; I mean, I would imagine the movie is going to be fun for all ages whether or not you are familiar with the cameos, but for those of us who have actually played games like Paperboy, Pac-Man, and Q*Bert (all games that have promised cameos), it will be that much more exciting. Those of us will be the ones silently searching the backgrounds to see how many characters we can recognize. I was already pausing the video on YouTube a thousand times just to see who I could pick out in every scene.

I can’t really tell the whole underlying plot, but the main storyline revolves around Wreck-It Ralph. The scene that the picture up there was from involves a bunch of villians sitting together in a support-group type setting talking about what it’s like to be the bad guy. It goes without saying that we’ll get to see the point of view from all the baddies as opposed to the heroes of the video games we know and love, which will be a nice change of pace. I mean, Wreck-It Ralph winds up becoming a good guy from what it looks like, but just to see a story told from a bad guy’s perspective is always a nice change of pace; Disney movie or not.

My hopes for this movie: the guy voicing Bowser has a really deep raspy voice and has funny dialogue. Think Super Paper Mario-type dialogue. I also want to see a crazy amount of recognizable faces for my own amusement. Either way, I will be seeing this movie when it comes out, and I think other gamers will have fun experiencing it.

-Lexi

Here’s a game you probably didn’t play as a kid and will have a difficult time finding a legitimate copy of: it involves a cat with giant ears dubbed the Dream Traveler.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

IGN’s Rating: 8/10

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Whether you live in the city and feel like getting away from it all or you live in the country but can’t afford to run a real farm, this game can fulfill all of your needs.

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature

IGN’s Rating: 7.5/10

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Dragons, stardust, and winglies, oh my!

Legend of Dragoon

IGN’s Rating: 7 out of 10

June 11th of this year marked the 12-year anniversary of Legend of Dragoon’s release date. This was a game where the outcome of every battle depended on how accurately you could press a button and where plot twists were hidden beneath every rock; an RPG that had a little something for everyone.

The hero of this story is named Dart. As with almost every revenge-seeking protagonist, Dart’s past is choc-full of depressing matters: his parents were killed, his hometown destroyed, and the enemy who caused all of this (the Black Monster) is nowhere to be found. As if that wasn’t enough, the poor kid loses his childhood friend Shana, must go rescue her right at the start of the game, is unintentionally given the responsibility of possessing the spirit of the Red-Eyed Dragoon, and ultimately entrusted with the common task of saving the world.

Every recruitable character gains the abilities of a different Dragoon and can then use those abilities to transform into a much more powerful version of themselves. They gain fancy armor, wings, and elemental abilities akin to the type of Dragoon they receive. When you transform into a Dragoon during battle, you are given only a few options of what to do. You can attack like normal, use up some MP to unleash an elemental magic attack, or, if everyone in your battle party has enough SP saved up, you can all use a special at the same time and absolutely dominate the enemy. Without even playing the game, it isn’t hard to tell that Dragoon-mode is badass, but keep in mind that when you transform into a Dragoon, you will revert back to your human state after only a few turns, so don’t expect to make it through a whole boss fight in Dragoon-mode. 

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Are you a fan of multiple endings? Do you enjoy having the ability to pick and choose what characters join your party? Ever find yourself wishing you could see the plotline from a second perspective?

Then this is the game for you!

Star Ocean: The Second Story

IGN’s Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Let’s start with the perks to playing this game: there are 80 different endings (or, rather, character epilogues), 11 main characters to mix and match when it comes to recruiting your party, and when you start the game you have the choice between playing as Claude or Rena — whichever one you select determines what pieces of the storyline you get to see. This means if you want the whole story, you’ll have to play through this game twice so you can see both Claude and Rena’s perspectives.

I am crazy for this game; I find the replay value absolutely fantastic. The first time I picked up the controller for this little beauty, I chose to play as Rena: the alien girl living on the planet Expel. Her personal story was astounding and involved a quest of discovering who she truly was. After I finished the game, I reset and chose Claude: the Earthen boy who has just been promoted to be an Ensign in the Earth Federation, and as I played through it the second time, things I didn’t understand in the beginning suddenly made sense. Plotholes were filled. 

No matter who you start out with, they inevitably run into the other and become your first party member. The neat thing is this: let’s say you pick Claude. You start off on Earth, accidentally wind up on the planet Expel, and then see Rena being chased by a monster. You have no idea where you are or what she is doing. If you pick Rena, you begin the game in Expel and actually see what drove the monster to attack her. The entire game is like this. If you’re playing as one character, you don’t get to see the other when they run off alone, nor do you get to hear their thoughts about a situation. This is why I say you must play it at least twice so you can get the full story and see what happens to both characters.

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Have you ever wanted a game where all of your favorite Playstation characters were beating the crap out of each other? A game where Parappa The Rapper and Fat Princess take on Kratos and Sweet Tooth?

Well, your prayers have been answered. Coming this holiday season is the much-anticipated Playstation brawler where classic Sony characters duke it out against each other all night long.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale

All-Stars is currently being developed by the independently-owned company called SuperBot Entertainment. Some of their members have been involved with creating a few other fighting games, but for the most part, it’s full of a bunch of guys who adore brawlers and hope to put their names on the map by dealing out something unforgettable. At first glance, this game gives off a sort of Smash Brothers feel; it’s a mash-up fighting game where Sony pits their most widely-celebrated characters against each other until one player emerges the victor. I’m here to tell you that though it has a extremely similar concept, the game itself differs tremendously.

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