I'm browsing the web and I see that Drudge has put up a link leading to this story from the Portland (Maine) Press Herald. Apparently a group of fourth-graders have stumbled upon the true secret of the impending destructions from global warming.
Now, as most of you know, I'm kinda skeptical. Not necessarily on Global Warming itself, because data indicate that temperatures are on the rise (albeit slightly). I'm skeptical of the cause. The argument that man-made CO2 is the culprit doesn't really hold up when the science shows that CO2 levels rise after the temp goes up. I know that the sun is warmer now than it was a few years back. It goes through these cycles, naturally.
Al Gore likes to show you graphs with only the science he wants you to know. Global warming activists will tell you that the science is in and the debate is over. I know I'm an English major, but can you really say that a scientific debate is ever over? Isn't that the whole point of science, to debate issues facing us?
Anyway, back to these fourth-grade meterologists... Here is a statement that appears in the Portland Press Herald: "We want everyone to help curb Global warming. It truly means that the Earth is getting warmer. The ocean is warming at such an alarming rate that the continents are in danger. " The continents are in danger? How can a statement like that be taken credibly? The continents? Millions of square miles of dry land, most of it a couple of hundred feet or more above (current) sea level. Now it's all in danger?
I'm happy to have followed the news on the global warming issue this year. GW demonstrations were snowed out in DC. Denver has noted the 9 of its 12 warmest years on record happened before 1955, way before the global warming scare. It's snowing in Sweden today. Nice.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Free Agent Frenzy
I’m a hockey nut; I love every facet of the sport, from the game itself to the inner working of the front office. Also there is a feeling of power when you can pronounce a player’s name and no one else can, but we’ll skip over that.
So the season is over, congrats to the Anaheim Ducks on bring the state of California its first ever Stanley Cup, that’s right, not even Wayne “Great One” Gretzky won a cup when he played for the Kings. The big shock from the Stanley Cup Final, of course, is the fact that Samuel Pahlsson didn’t win the Conn Smythe, or Playoff MVP, award, Scott Niedermayer took home the honor. The regular season awards will be handed out on June 14, but I thought I’d play a little puck prognostication and try predicting the winners:
Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP): Sidney Crosby, PIT
Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year): Evgeni Malkin, PIT
Vezina Trophy (Goalie): Roberto Luongo, VAN
Adams Trophy (Coach): Michel Therrien, PIT
Norris Trophy (Defenseman): Nicklas Lidstrom, DET
Frank Selke Trophy (defensive forward): Samuel Pahlsson, ANA
Free Agent season starts on the first of July. I said before that I’d like to see Daniel Briere come to Atlanta, but I know that Briere will want a lot of money from whoever he signs with.
Chris Drury would be a great fit in the Thrashers organization. He would add grit and stamina to what has been a finesse team. Drury will probably want $4.5 to $5.5 million a year over three years, something in that ballpark. That means that Atlanta will have to make some changes. We’ve already heard that Tkachuk will not be getting an offer from the Thrashers, so that opens up some money. Defenseman Andy Sutton is also likely gone, a salary cap casualty, but a necessary loss. Atlanta has two good, young defensemen in the minors: Boris Valabik and Mark Popovic. Sutton’s departure would give Atlanta more cap room to lure Drury in.
The possible downside to this is the likely departure of Slava Kozlov. Kozlov is a master of the shootout, and the fact is after him, Atlanta has no one close to his skill in the contest. Losing Kozlov would hurt, not help the Thrashers at this point.
Grubbs pointed out another option yesterday, which I’ve mulled over. Sign Todd Bertuzzi to a one-year deal with a club option for a second year and a no-trade clause. Stick him on the same line as either Kovalchuk or Hossa, and then other teams would be less likely to take cheap shots at our superstars. I mean, Bertuzzi almost killed a guy one time. Another Grubbsian thought was Ladislav Nagy, a younger player with good speed and a nice upside. Nagy has played in relative obscurity for a while, but in the right scheme, he could flourish.
I like the idea of raiding Minnesota and bringing Wes Walz to Atlanta. Walz is a solid puck handler with good speed and a great sense of the game. He plays well in both zones, a rarity in these days. Walz would be a good line-mate for Kovalchuk, who sometimes struggles with puck-handling.
So the season is over, congrats to the Anaheim Ducks on bring the state of California its first ever Stanley Cup, that’s right, not even Wayne “Great One” Gretzky won a cup when he played for the Kings. The big shock from the Stanley Cup Final, of course, is the fact that Samuel Pahlsson didn’t win the Conn Smythe, or Playoff MVP, award, Scott Niedermayer took home the honor. The regular season awards will be handed out on June 14, but I thought I’d play a little puck prognostication and try predicting the winners:
Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP): Sidney Crosby, PIT
Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year): Evgeni Malkin, PIT
Vezina Trophy (Goalie): Roberto Luongo, VAN
Adams Trophy (Coach): Michel Therrien, PIT
Norris Trophy (Defenseman): Nicklas Lidstrom, DET
Frank Selke Trophy (defensive forward): Samuel Pahlsson, ANA
Free Agent season starts on the first of July. I said before that I’d like to see Daniel Briere come to Atlanta, but I know that Briere will want a lot of money from whoever he signs with.
Chris Drury would be a great fit in the Thrashers organization. He would add grit and stamina to what has been a finesse team. Drury will probably want $4.5 to $5.5 million a year over three years, something in that ballpark. That means that Atlanta will have to make some changes. We’ve already heard that Tkachuk will not be getting an offer from the Thrashers, so that opens up some money. Defenseman Andy Sutton is also likely gone, a salary cap casualty, but a necessary loss. Atlanta has two good, young defensemen in the minors: Boris Valabik and Mark Popovic. Sutton’s departure would give Atlanta more cap room to lure Drury in.
The possible downside to this is the likely departure of Slava Kozlov. Kozlov is a master of the shootout, and the fact is after him, Atlanta has no one close to his skill in the contest. Losing Kozlov would hurt, not help the Thrashers at this point.
Grubbs pointed out another option yesterday, which I’ve mulled over. Sign Todd Bertuzzi to a one-year deal with a club option for a second year and a no-trade clause. Stick him on the same line as either Kovalchuk or Hossa, and then other teams would be less likely to take cheap shots at our superstars. I mean, Bertuzzi almost killed a guy one time. Another Grubbsian thought was Ladislav Nagy, a younger player with good speed and a nice upside. Nagy has played in relative obscurity for a while, but in the right scheme, he could flourish.
I like the idea of raiding Minnesota and bringing Wes Walz to Atlanta. Walz is a solid puck handler with good speed and a great sense of the game. He plays well in both zones, a rarity in these days. Walz would be a good line-mate for Kovalchuk, who sometimes struggles with puck-handling.
Elite Eight
Sunday night marked the end of one of TV’s most acclaimed, and over-analyzed, series ever, The Sopranos. I was never a big fan of the show, but my Dad watched it and I watched a few episodes with him, including the series finale. The way the show ended has drawn the ire of fans worldwide. Is Tony dead? Is he alive and facing indictment? Does he merely have heartburn from those greasy onion rings?
It got me to thinking: what are the best TV finales ever? I’m thinking season or series, which ones take the cake? So, in true Right Wing fashion, I’m coming up with a list. These are my eight favorite season or series finale episodes.
Blake’s Elite Eight Season or Series Finales
8. Family Guy, season 5 finale. Peter asks Death to send him back to 1984 so he can be 18 again. Of course, this timeline contradicts previous statements made in the series, such as Peter winning a trophy in 1965 (Covered in the Most Ticks) and Peter and Lois actually meeting as older teenagers in the 1970s, but the hilarity that ensues more than makes up for the mistake. Peter’s night in 1984 changes the future so that he is married to Molly Ringwald, Lois marries Quagmire, Al Gore is President, and Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney accidentally shoots Justice Scalia, the bullet goes through him and kills Carl Rove and Tucker Carlson. The final scene, at the country club dance, ties together so many jokes from the series that it creates a fitting end to the season.
7. Angel, series finale. I watched Angel, get over it. It was better than Buffy. The series ended rather abruptly, canceled after five seasons, but the end gave us a good hour’s worth of TV. Angel rallies his troops against the forces of evil, and at the end he stands in a dark alley, in the rain, staring down the thousands of demons that are coming to attack. A dragon flies overhead, spouting fire. Angel’s last words, “I want to slay the dragon.”
6. Lost, season 1 finale. I didn’t watch this show at first, now its one of my favorites. The survivors of Oceanic flight 815 band together to ward off the deadly “Others,” only to never be attacked. Instead, the men that left on the raft are attacked, and Walt, the boy, is taken by the “Others”. Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Locke (who, by the way, is the greatest character ever) retrieve some dynamite and blow open the hatch. Hurley’s numbers, 4 8 15 16 23 42, come back to haunt everyone, and the inside of the hatch is marked “QUARANTINE.” Great stuff.
5. M*A*S*H, season 3 finale. “Lt. Col. Henry Blake’s plane… was shot down… over the Sea of Japan. It spun in… there were no survivors.” That line, spoken by lowly Radar signaled the end of the best three year run of this show. Many viewers claim that those words mark the precise moment that M*A*S*H jumped the shark. I disagree. If you ever see this episode, pay attention to Radar’s face, you’ll cry.
4. Futurama, season 4 (series?) finale. Since season 4 ended, Futurama has been off the air, but rumors persist about an upcoming return to network TV, possibly on Comedy Central. This episode, in which Fry bests the Robot Devil in a game of chance, thereby winning his hands, is hilariously funny, if only for the final sequence, the opera, where everyone bursts into spontaneous song. The final images give the viewer hope for Fry and Leela, but the payoff didn’t really come for this series, and it deserved a better fate.
3. Serenity, (motion picture, series finale for Firefly). What? You’ve never seen Firefly? What are you waiting for? This is one of the best shows ever made, and Fox saw fit to cancel it after less than one season. Their reason? They had better shows to bring you, like American Idol, The O.C., and Insert Reality Show Title Here. If Futurama was deserving of a better fate, then Firefly certainly was. Joss Whedon’s best show is also the shortest-lived. Thus Serenity came to the big screen, successfully capping off a great series.
2. Stargate SG-1, season 8 finale. There is a five-episode stretch here (Reckoning I, Reckoning II, Threads, Moebius I, Moebius II) that, had the series ended here, would’ve earned the number one spot on this list. I’m planning a big Stargate dissertation in the coming weeks, since SG-1 is scheduled for a series finale on June 22. Season 8 was fantastic, and these episodes prove why. An impending Replicator attack is thwarted by Daniel Jackson, Baal, and the Tok’ra (Reckoning I & II). Jackson becomes half-ascended (in Threads) and struggles with whether to ascend once again. SG-1 finally located a ZPM (Moebius I & II) but must go back 5000 years in time to retrieve it. The alternate timeline stuff is great. If you’ve never seen these episodes, find a way to watch them. I have it on DVD if you want to borrow it. If any other show had this sort of episode run at the end of a season, I’d quit while I was ahead, anything that you could do after this would never equal it.
1. M*A*S*H, series finale. Quite possibly the greatest show ever and the series finale garnered the highest viewership total ever. If you’ve seen this episode, you’ll understand why. “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” could’ve been a movie. The gang goes on a bit of a vacation, relaxing away from camp. As they return to the 4077, their bus falls under enemy attack. Hawkeye is seen to have gone crazy after ordering a woman to silence her chicken after their bus comes under enemy attack. The chicken though is a figment of Hawkeye’s imagination, made to compensate for his guilt in ordering the woman to silence her baby, which she does by killing it. The Korean War comes to an end and everyone leaves the four-oh-double-seven in various ways most of the unit in a convoy, Col. Potter on his horse, BJ on the motorcycle, and Hawkeye in a chopper. (Nitpickers argue that this should never have happened, an army unit would ship out in the same convoy for processing and the like), and as Hawkeye leaves in said chopper he sees that BJ has spelled out in white rocks “GOODBYE.”
It got me to thinking: what are the best TV finales ever? I’m thinking season or series, which ones take the cake? So, in true Right Wing fashion, I’m coming up with a list. These are my eight favorite season or series finale episodes.
Blake’s Elite Eight Season or Series Finales
8. Family Guy, season 5 finale. Peter asks Death to send him back to 1984 so he can be 18 again. Of course, this timeline contradicts previous statements made in the series, such as Peter winning a trophy in 1965 (Covered in the Most Ticks) and Peter and Lois actually meeting as older teenagers in the 1970s, but the hilarity that ensues more than makes up for the mistake. Peter’s night in 1984 changes the future so that he is married to Molly Ringwald, Lois marries Quagmire, Al Gore is President, and Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney accidentally shoots Justice Scalia, the bullet goes through him and kills Carl Rove and Tucker Carlson. The final scene, at the country club dance, ties together so many jokes from the series that it creates a fitting end to the season.
7. Angel, series finale. I watched Angel, get over it. It was better than Buffy. The series ended rather abruptly, canceled after five seasons, but the end gave us a good hour’s worth of TV. Angel rallies his troops against the forces of evil, and at the end he stands in a dark alley, in the rain, staring down the thousands of demons that are coming to attack. A dragon flies overhead, spouting fire. Angel’s last words, “I want to slay the dragon.”
6. Lost, season 1 finale. I didn’t watch this show at first, now its one of my favorites. The survivors of Oceanic flight 815 band together to ward off the deadly “Others,” only to never be attacked. Instead, the men that left on the raft are attacked, and Walt, the boy, is taken by the “Others”. Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Locke (who, by the way, is the greatest character ever) retrieve some dynamite and blow open the hatch. Hurley’s numbers, 4 8 15 16 23 42, come back to haunt everyone, and the inside of the hatch is marked “QUARANTINE.” Great stuff.
5. M*A*S*H, season 3 finale. “Lt. Col. Henry Blake’s plane… was shot down… over the Sea of Japan. It spun in… there were no survivors.” That line, spoken by lowly Radar signaled the end of the best three year run of this show. Many viewers claim that those words mark the precise moment that M*A*S*H jumped the shark. I disagree. If you ever see this episode, pay attention to Radar’s face, you’ll cry.
4. Futurama, season 4 (series?) finale. Since season 4 ended, Futurama has been off the air, but rumors persist about an upcoming return to network TV, possibly on Comedy Central. This episode, in which Fry bests the Robot Devil in a game of chance, thereby winning his hands, is hilariously funny, if only for the final sequence, the opera, where everyone bursts into spontaneous song. The final images give the viewer hope for Fry and Leela, but the payoff didn’t really come for this series, and it deserved a better fate.
3. Serenity, (motion picture, series finale for Firefly). What? You’ve never seen Firefly? What are you waiting for? This is one of the best shows ever made, and Fox saw fit to cancel it after less than one season. Their reason? They had better shows to bring you, like American Idol, The O.C., and Insert Reality Show Title Here. If Futurama was deserving of a better fate, then Firefly certainly was. Joss Whedon’s best show is also the shortest-lived. Thus Serenity came to the big screen, successfully capping off a great series.
2. Stargate SG-1, season 8 finale. There is a five-episode stretch here (Reckoning I, Reckoning II, Threads, Moebius I, Moebius II) that, had the series ended here, would’ve earned the number one spot on this list. I’m planning a big Stargate dissertation in the coming weeks, since SG-1 is scheduled for a series finale on June 22. Season 8 was fantastic, and these episodes prove why. An impending Replicator attack is thwarted by Daniel Jackson, Baal, and the Tok’ra (Reckoning I & II). Jackson becomes half-ascended (in Threads) and struggles with whether to ascend once again. SG-1 finally located a ZPM (Moebius I & II) but must go back 5000 years in time to retrieve it. The alternate timeline stuff is great. If you’ve never seen these episodes, find a way to watch them. I have it on DVD if you want to borrow it. If any other show had this sort of episode run at the end of a season, I’d quit while I was ahead, anything that you could do after this would never equal it.
1. M*A*S*H, series finale. Quite possibly the greatest show ever and the series finale garnered the highest viewership total ever. If you’ve seen this episode, you’ll understand why. “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” could’ve been a movie. The gang goes on a bit of a vacation, relaxing away from camp. As they return to the 4077, their bus falls under enemy attack. Hawkeye is seen to have gone crazy after ordering a woman to silence her chicken after their bus comes under enemy attack. The chicken though is a figment of Hawkeye’s imagination, made to compensate for his guilt in ordering the woman to silence her baby, which she does by killing it. The Korean War comes to an end and everyone leaves the four-oh-double-seven in various ways most of the unit in a convoy, Col. Potter on his horse, BJ on the motorcycle, and Hawkeye in a chopper. (Nitpickers argue that this should never have happened, an army unit would ship out in the same convoy for processing and the like), and as Hawkeye leaves in said chopper he sees that BJ has spelled out in white rocks “GOODBYE.”
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Geekocity Breakdown
NOTE: The integrity of this blog has come into question. A co-worker, in a joking manner, was able to access my pre-written draft (something I rarely do, and now I see why) and hide a few choice words. I think I caught all of them, but if I did miss some, please don't be offended.
A few months back I started a series called the Best Video Games I Ever Owned. Well, I left that series behind, and since proper payoff was never given, I’m super-sizing this entry of The Right Wing to cover my Top Ten favorite games. I’ll give you a quick list, mainly the systems that I have personally owned, and my favorite game from each, and then my Top Ten, so there will be some repetition, and favorite games from a certain system may not crack the top ten. It will quickly become apparent that I’m a Nintendo loyalist.
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES): Super Mario Bros. 3
Nintendo Gameboy: Tetris
Nintendo 64: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Nintendo Gamecube: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Nintendo Gameboy Advance: Metroid Fusion
Nintendo Wii: (tie) Super Paper Mario, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Top Ten
10. Super Mario World 2 (GBA), this is a re-issue of the SNES classic, which makes it altogether new to me, as I never had a Super Nintendo. The game play is on par with Super Mario Bros. 3, and the map is extensive. What seems like a normal level in a Mario game can have up to three different endings, each leading you on a different path on the game map. Bowser is still doing his thing, but some villains never get old.
9. Mario Golf (GBA), quite possibly the most addictive game I’ve ever played. I don’t really even like golf, and I can’t get enough of this game. All you do is play golf, and I think that is what makes the game so great.
8. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), I know this seems low for a Zelda game, but that is only because of its relative newness. Twilight Princess is quite possibly the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. The map is one of the largest in Zelda history, which is not always a good thing, because large maps can kill a game, but in this case, it fits. The game is intense enough to require more than one time playing. I haven’t beaten the game yet, and I’ve already played more than 36 hours.
7. Metroid Fusion (GBA), large environments and fierce enemies have been the Metroid standard. Fusion lives up to this, and more. Samus Aran returns in a new form, having been beaten by the X and reduced to a near-powerless state. A quick rush to regain abilities leads Samus up to a series of battles with progressively more difficult enemies.
6. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES), possibly the greatest pure Mario game ever. Bowser is at it again, kidnapping the princess. Thankfully, in this version, you don’t get the pitiful “Sorry, but our princess is in another castle” line after every boss. Instead, each boss is actually a child of Bowser, so you get the perverse pleasure a snuffing out a man’s family before you reach the man himself, very morbid. Instead of the good-old hammer-throwin’, fire-breathin’ Bowser, this Bowser tries to kill you by pretending that you are a trampoline, only, in classic villain style, his trampoline is made of brick, and placed rather precariously over a bottomless pit. Hooray, bad guys!
5. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC). I never thought I would like a game called Paper Mario, but TTYD made me a believer in the franchise. Mario is called away to Rogueport in a game-style far different from any Mario game I had ever played. Mario travels from level to level, collecting power, attacks, and game-changing badges as he goes. He also collects friends who fight alongside him in a turn-based fighting system. Again, the map is so interactive that even the simplest searches will reveal new paths and items.
4. Madden 2005 (GC), sports games are not often ranked among favorites and people have their reasons. I like this one because I’m a football fan. Like most sports games, players quickly become so proficient that their stats seem embellished. When last I played I was in a franchise run with the Atlanta Falcons. I haven’t lost a game in three seasons, and scoring under 67 points in a game was hurting my average.
3. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (GC), this is the console version. There’s no sound on Earth comparable to the ping of a round from an M1 Garand knocking off a German helmet. I hear the PC version is far better, but my computer would probably die if I tried to run the game on it. The console version, on the Gamecube, is fantastic. Each map is incredibly detailed, expansive, and almost totally playable, like most games, there are sections that are unreachable, but that does not detract from game value. If there is one negative thing about COD2, it’s the cinema sequences. At any point in the game when a cinematic starts, you can bet that one of your fellow soldiers is about to go tango uniform. Robert is probably still upset that I beat Normandy and The Dragon’s Teeth without dying on my first try.
2. EA Sports NHL 2004 (GC), I like sports games. NHL 2004 is one of my favorites. The gameplay is easy; the controls are not too difficult. Options like automatic line change and auto-aim make the game easier, if you like that sort of thing. Dealing with the CPU in contract negotiations and trades is one of the more interesting facets of this game. Not only can you play the NHL, but you also have three different European leagues to choose from. Or, you can do what I did and create your own franchise. The most fun you’ll have is watching the records fall. My custom character broke Gretzky’s single-season goal record by scoring 153 goals (Grubbs, you’ll like this game).
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64), this game stands as my all-time favorite, and if you’ve played it, you know why. Excellent game play, fantastic story, familiar characters and villains, OOT has it all. At the time of its release, the game map for OOT was one of the largest ever designed, although it is dwarfed by current game maps, it is important to remember that OOT is nearly ten years old, eons in the technology field. The worst thing about this game is the lack of the original Zelda theme.
The Master Quest, a different version released at first in Japan, and then as a promotion in the States, offers a slightly different, more difficult version of the game.
Honorable Mentions:
NES: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marble Madness, Mario Bros. 2
N64: Super Mario 64, Triple Play 1998, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
GC: NHL 2005, NHL 2003, Super Mario Sunshine, Call of Duty: Finest Hour
GBA: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons, Super Mario World(Mario Bros. 2)
Wii: Rayman: Raving Rabbids
A few months back I started a series called the Best Video Games I Ever Owned. Well, I left that series behind, and since proper payoff was never given, I’m super-sizing this entry of The Right Wing to cover my Top Ten favorite games. I’ll give you a quick list, mainly the systems that I have personally owned, and my favorite game from each, and then my Top Ten, so there will be some repetition, and favorite games from a certain system may not crack the top ten. It will quickly become apparent that I’m a Nintendo loyalist.
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES): Super Mario Bros. 3
Nintendo Gameboy: Tetris
Nintendo 64: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Nintendo Gamecube: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Nintendo Gameboy Advance: Metroid Fusion
Nintendo Wii: (tie) Super Paper Mario, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Top Ten
10. Super Mario World 2 (GBA), this is a re-issue of the SNES classic, which makes it altogether new to me, as I never had a Super Nintendo. The game play is on par with Super Mario Bros. 3, and the map is extensive. What seems like a normal level in a Mario game can have up to three different endings, each leading you on a different path on the game map. Bowser is still doing his thing, but some villains never get old.
9. Mario Golf (GBA), quite possibly the most addictive game I’ve ever played. I don’t really even like golf, and I can’t get enough of this game. All you do is play golf, and I think that is what makes the game so great.
8. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), I know this seems low for a Zelda game, but that is only because of its relative newness. Twilight Princess is quite possibly the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. The map is one of the largest in Zelda history, which is not always a good thing, because large maps can kill a game, but in this case, it fits. The game is intense enough to require more than one time playing. I haven’t beaten the game yet, and I’ve already played more than 36 hours.
7. Metroid Fusion (GBA), large environments and fierce enemies have been the Metroid standard. Fusion lives up to this, and more. Samus Aran returns in a new form, having been beaten by the X and reduced to a near-powerless state. A quick rush to regain abilities leads Samus up to a series of battles with progressively more difficult enemies.
6. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES), possibly the greatest pure Mario game ever. Bowser is at it again, kidnapping the princess. Thankfully, in this version, you don’t get the pitiful “Sorry, but our princess is in another castle” line after every boss. Instead, each boss is actually a child of Bowser, so you get the perverse pleasure a snuffing out a man’s family before you reach the man himself, very morbid. Instead of the good-old hammer-throwin’, fire-breathin’ Bowser, this Bowser tries to kill you by pretending that you are a trampoline, only, in classic villain style, his trampoline is made of brick, and placed rather precariously over a bottomless pit. Hooray, bad guys!
5. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC). I never thought I would like a game called Paper Mario, but TTYD made me a believer in the franchise. Mario is called away to Rogueport in a game-style far different from any Mario game I had ever played. Mario travels from level to level, collecting power, attacks, and game-changing badges as he goes. He also collects friends who fight alongside him in a turn-based fighting system. Again, the map is so interactive that even the simplest searches will reveal new paths and items.
4. Madden 2005 (GC), sports games are not often ranked among favorites and people have their reasons. I like this one because I’m a football fan. Like most sports games, players quickly become so proficient that their stats seem embellished. When last I played I was in a franchise run with the Atlanta Falcons. I haven’t lost a game in three seasons, and scoring under 67 points in a game was hurting my average.
3. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (GC), this is the console version. There’s no sound on Earth comparable to the ping of a round from an M1 Garand knocking off a German helmet. I hear the PC version is far better, but my computer would probably die if I tried to run the game on it. The console version, on the Gamecube, is fantastic. Each map is incredibly detailed, expansive, and almost totally playable, like most games, there are sections that are unreachable, but that does not detract from game value. If there is one negative thing about COD2, it’s the cinema sequences. At any point in the game when a cinematic starts, you can bet that one of your fellow soldiers is about to go tango uniform. Robert is probably still upset that I beat Normandy and The Dragon’s Teeth without dying on my first try.
2. EA Sports NHL 2004 (GC), I like sports games. NHL 2004 is one of my favorites. The gameplay is easy; the controls are not too difficult. Options like automatic line change and auto-aim make the game easier, if you like that sort of thing. Dealing with the CPU in contract negotiations and trades is one of the more interesting facets of this game. Not only can you play the NHL, but you also have three different European leagues to choose from. Or, you can do what I did and create your own franchise. The most fun you’ll have is watching the records fall. My custom character broke Gretzky’s single-season goal record by scoring 153 goals (Grubbs, you’ll like this game).
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64), this game stands as my all-time favorite, and if you’ve played it, you know why. Excellent game play, fantastic story, familiar characters and villains, OOT has it all. At the time of its release, the game map for OOT was one of the largest ever designed, although it is dwarfed by current game maps, it is important to remember that OOT is nearly ten years old, eons in the technology field. The worst thing about this game is the lack of the original Zelda theme.
The Master Quest, a different version released at first in Japan, and then as a promotion in the States, offers a slightly different, more difficult version of the game.
Honorable Mentions:
NES: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marble Madness, Mario Bros. 2
N64: Super Mario 64, Triple Play 1998, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
GC: NHL 2005, NHL 2003, Super Mario Sunshine, Call of Duty: Finest Hour
GBA: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons, Super Mario World(Mario Bros. 2)
Wii: Rayman: Raving Rabbids
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