Ninjabearhug's

Right, I'm finally back! I know it's been a while, but my site has been full of problems, and if you've been visiting i'm sure you'll have noticed loads of wierd shit going on. there seems to have been a problem with the Blog add-on that I use, for some reason it decided I wasn't a member of my own site, and that my posts couldn't be shown! I've pretty much got it sorted, and I think all the content that went AWOL is back too! I'm just glad it wasn't my games lists that went - far too much work to re-do!

So hopefully I'll be able to catch back up with my blog posting now, had quite a few nice purchases and got more in the post - and there's a few games that need reviewing too :). Also, I hit 200 subs on my YouTube channel the other day so look out for a competition of some kind to celebrate.

I'm on the look out for a new SMS game to play too, so leave me a recommendation in the comments :).

I've been playing this game for around a month now, so it's about time I wrote a little bit of something about it! ***SPOILER ALERT*** I'm going to be posting links to my YouTube playthrough of the game throughout this review as well as links to maps of every level and tactics for defeating each guardian at the end. If you're planning on playing this game anytime soon you should probably only watch the first vid :).

Let's start with a bit of history. The first time I played this was back in the day, in fact it was pretty much on the day it was released. Unfortunately it wasn't my copy, It was my best mates. To be honest quite a lot of the games I played back then were round at my mates house, he used to get 3 or 4 games a month the spawny get! Back in the day I could never quite get the hang of this game, the furthest I ever managed to get was level 4, which is a notoriously awkward maze of a level! I would probably have done better if I had owned the game myself as I only had a few games and played them all to death over and again. But with all the new games around my group of friends we tended to move on quickly if we got stuck, and 2 player games were always picked over 1 player games! Anyway, fast forward a decade, and I managed to pick this game up in a bundle from a car boot sale, along with a console and around 30 other games for £5 (I don't remember every purchase but as this was a particularly cheap bargain with loads of great games it has always stuck in my head ;)). And then the game sat on my shelves awaiting its turn for another few years, until one of my subscribers on my YT channel asked me to do a playthrough of it. And from the minute I put the cart back in my Mega Drive I was happy to be playing it again :).

The game is roughly based on the movie of the same name, but fortunately Probe have used quite a bit of artistic license. There aren't loads of guns and aliens in the film, but the game is stacked high with both! The levels are roughly based on the film but to be honest once you start playing, the film goes out of the window and the fun of the game takes over! Games that are based on films are generally pretty dismal, I've been let down so many times by games over the years and quite often because they stuck closely to the plot of the film they were meant to be portraying. Alien 3 however did not disappoint!

Right from the opening sequence the game delivers atmosphere, and I personally think it is hard to capture the atmosphere of a pretty dark and jumpy film in a 16 bit game. First off, the games title slowly appears above the Prison planet on which the game is set. The opening music is nice and lively and really makes you want to get going with the game, but first there is the options to sort out. There isn't much to choose from, but if you're not an experienced gamer then you will be thankful of the extra lives and difficulty settings! The default is 3 lives and Normal difficulty (which is what I generally play with), but you can have up to 9 lives and an easy or hard mode. Starting the game brings up a screen with an alien popping its head round the corner accompanied with some eerie sounds, just to set the mood a little more, and from here on in the game is an intense roller coaster ride!

And we're off!!! Straight away I was blown away by how good the graphics are. OK, I don't suppose technically they are overly exceptional, but then this is an early game and the graphics capture the essence of the film brilliantly. The aim of the game is slightly different depending on what type of level you are on, but for the most part it consists of rescuing hostages whilst trying not to be killed by xenomorphs, and then making it to the exit before the time runs out. Sound easy? It isn't!!! At least not the first few times you play each level. There is generally no set way in which to get through each level, the levels are mazes with pick ups and hostages spread all over the place and it's quite easy to end up going around in circles when you don't know where you're going! Some levels even have hidden rooms through walls that are full of pick ups, and at least one level has a hostage stashed away in a hidden room! This game is quite often seen as a hard game, and that's basically because you need to memorise the location of each hostage and the exit on each level, unlike your typical run and gun game where you would just blast your way forwards towards a goal. But for me it's the maze like levels that make this game, let me set the scene for you...

Level 4, you've spent the best part of 3 minutes searching out an elusive hostage, that you have missed on your last two lives. You find him, strapped to a wall at the top right hand corner of the level. You rescue him and directly underneath you the Exit opens! You have around a minute left and although the exit is directly below you it's actually the furthest room from the point you are currently. You start charging in the opposite direction hoping you will be able to remember your way back there. You mis-judge a jump and slide down a sloping platform, this means you'll have to re-do the last couple of jumps you did - not good as time is running out fast! You make the jumps this time, climb down a ladder and end up in a room with an entrance to a network of tunnels to your left - you know you need to be going the opposite direction so jump blindly at what appears to be a wall on your right, but you go straight through the wall! Your timer has started beeping at you now meaning you have less than 30 seconds to go! You charge blindly through the hidden passage and suddenly you drop down into a vast room. You recognise the room! It's the last room before the exit, you just have to make it to the far side and climb a ladder and you're there! You drop off the platform that you're on only to realise that it's a bigger drop than you thought - there goes your no hit bonus as well as costing you precious time whilst you recover on the floor. 15 seconds left now. You reach the ladder and start to climb. 7 seconds left. Man this is a big ladder! You reach the top and slide through the exit just as the timer hits 0:00! Did you make it in time? Is the next screen going to be the Time Up! screen or the bonus points screen? Bonus Point Screen!!! The feeling of elation and accomplishment is immense and enough to have you grinning for the rest of the game no matter how good or bad you do :).

And if you stick with this game you will get that great feeling of accomplishment a lot. I'll be the first to admit that memorising all these levels isn't easy, that's why I made maps of them all, but when you've played through the game as many times as I have you'll know the levels off by heart. So let's talk more about the levels themselves. Each stage consists of 3 levels and a Guardian. Each stage is slightly different, the first three levels allow you to venture up onto the planets surface, while levels 10 - 12 are set in the Aliens lair for instance. There has obviously been a lot of thought been put into the appearance of the levels as the backgrounds and layouts are all excellent. I even really liked the last few levels with are really unforgiving, drop too far into the level and you won't be able to backtrack and get hostages that you could have missed on level 13! There are so many dead ends, tunnels that will literally make you go round in circles, pointless rooms that you don't need to enter, aliens appearing from out of nowhere and lots of fiendish traps too, that all add to the difficulty and intensity of the game. But once you've mastered your chosen route you'll be blasting through the levels with over half your time remaining and scoring no hit bonuses left, right and centre. On a couple of the levels (titled Rescue missions) there are no aliens whatsoever, and you just have a mad rush to rescue the hostages and get to the exit. Beware though because on the last rescue mission, just when you think you're home and free a solitary alien appears from nowhere, I guarantee it'll hit you the first time you come across it! Devious, Probe, very devious!!! There's also a level with no hostages that's chock full of aliens, this is one of my favs ;).

And onto what in my opinion is the only weak point of the game, the Guardians. The first Guardian is the hardest in the whole game, it's the only one that doesn't have an obvious safe point. It's still quite easy to defeat, at this point in the game you have plenty of ammo and after a few times of defeating it you'll have worked out the spots to stand in when it jumps and spits acid at you, but it's the only boss where you can't just pretty much stand in a corner and shoot. So apart from a few mad rushes from cover to top up your ammo you pretty much just have to stand in a corner and press fire. That said, when you don't know the safe spot the bosses can be a pretty close call and on more than one occasion I've only just defeated them and made it to the exit in time. So even with this weak point, the boss levels are still enjoyable and some even have hidden rooms full of pick ups!

On to some fundamentals then, what review can be complete without discussing graphics and sound after all? For the age of the game I think the graphics are excellent, as I've already mentioned! The main character, Ripley, complete with shaven head, is great and moves really well whether jumping, crouching or crawling through tunnels. The Xenomorphs are superfast and move beautifully. They appear from the floor, drop from the ceiling, hide in tunnels - you name it and all of a sudden an Alien will appear from it. And once you see them you don't have long to react before it's hit you! If you're fast enough and start shooting straight away then you'll be rewarded with an explosion of green acid as the alien disintegrates. Then there's the dreaded alien eggs, they look just like they do in the films. You don't want to get too close to these, if you can shoot them as they appear then they don't open and just burn up, hesitate and you're greeted with a face hugger! These look great, and they move fast! If face huggers are on the loose on certain levels which have ground cover (alien lair levels) then there is a feeling of genuine panic as you can't see them! You'll be shooting all over the place trying to kill it and then all of a sudden it'll be on you! You need to move left and right as fast as you can to get it off your head, but don't relax yet because it's still alive and you still need to shoot it!.

Basically everything is polished to a high standard in this game, and it all has an eerie feel to it that adds to the atmosphere perfectly. The alien in the cut scene is a particular favourite of mine, it genuinely scared my 5 year old daughter the first time she saw it with the acid dripping from its mouth! Another highlight is when you fail to rescue the hostages in time. The camera pans through all the remaining hostages and shows aliens bursting from their chests with plenty of blood and guts thrown in for good measure! That also helps you out on your next attempt at the level as it gives you an idea of where the hostages you missed were ;). Graphically, my only gripe is that the guardians are all the same in appearance. It would have been nice to have had a couple of smaller guardians, then a few medium ones before finally tackling a gigantic queen instead of just the same guardian over and over with similar attack patterns every time.

Onto the sound then, and again it's really good. The soundtrack isn't the best I've ever heard, but it certainly is catchy and definitely fits the game well. It changes slightly throughout the whole game, but for the most part it still sounds the same, but with a few added acid drips in the background and other nice touches. The aliens sound great, quiet and stealthy with just that famous hiss! I also like the sound the aliens make as they emerge from any hostages that you couldn't rescue in time, kind of a 'Raaarrrggggghhhh' sound, but it's great :D! And oh my god! How could I not have even mentioned the armoury yet! This is how much I like this game you see, I've been writing for ages and not even mentioned what you're killing the aliens with!

So you have four weapons at your disposal, and unlike a lot of games you have all of these right from the start. You never lose any of your weapons, but you will run out of ammo if you're not careful - especially on your weapon of choice. The four weapons are grenades, a grenade launcher, a flamethrower and my personal fav: an assault rifle. Each holds a maximum of 99 ammo units, but on the flamethrower and the rifle these deplete rapidly! No one weapon is more powerful than any other but each comes in handy for certain situations: grenades are brilliant to drop off ladders at aliens roaming on the floor or to throw down tunnels at aliens hidden round corners for example. Most importantly though they all sound brilliantly! The grenades make a dinging sound as they bounce along the floor before causing a beautifully animated explosion that sounds as brutal as it looks. The flamethrower, although my least favourite weapon, is brilliant for taking out face huggers as it has a wide flame in front of you which protects you really well, and makes a lovely gushing sound as the fuel burns. The grenade launcher is probably the most all round effective weapon but it is slow to reload, it actually sounds like a grenade is being loaded in before being fired back out again, really nice. And then there's the lovely Frap of the assault rifle, in my opinion the most pleasing sound in the whole game :).

All that's left to discuss is replayability. I've finished this game over a dozen times in the past month on both normal and hard difficulty settings and still keep coming back for more. The difficulty settings don't make too much difference once you know the game to be honest. The only difference I noticed between normal and hard was that you get less time to complete the levels on hard, and thats only really a problem on level 6! So overall I suppose the replayability depends on whether you're a high score chaser or not. I am! Other than the guardian levels, you will be rewarded 500,000 bonus points for every level you get through without taking a hit, whether that be falling too far, getting hit by an alien or getting caught out by some dastardly trap. Not as easy as it may sound, believe me. I've managed it on every single level, but as of yet I haven't managed to get it on every level in one playthrough. You see, even when you know where every alien is, its still really hard to get in the right position to kill them before they hit you!

Right then, onto the important part, what score to give it? I'm going with a 9.5/10. A controversial score maybe, I know this game gets marked down a lot for its percepted difficulty, but as far as I'm concerned this game has everything that a good game should have. Most importantly it has that 'one more go' factor that so many games miss. No matter how frustrated you get with the mazes and the hidden hostages, you will pick that pad back up and give it another try, and you will get better each and every time you pick that pad up. Basically the only thing that stops me from giving this game a 10 is the boss battles, they are too easy! I finished the last boss on my first attempt and hardly took a hit. But as getting to the final boss was such a long, hard journey I'll overlook the boss battles just this once ;).  One last thing, does anyone know why the games title isn't on the spine of the box? Thank God Probe didn't do that with all their games or my shelves would have looked pretty haphazard!

Maps

Lots of people find these levels frustratingly difficult, so I thought I'd make maps for you all showing the locations of any pickups (including hidden ones), hostages and anything else important. They're hand drawn as I'm pretty crap with PC's and it would have taken me forever to use the laptop to draw them, so don't expect them to be perfect ratios or anything!

Levels 1 and 2

Level 3 and Guardian 1

Levels 4 and 5

Level 6 and Guardian 2

Level 7

Level 8

Levels 9 and Guardian 3

Level 10 and 11

Level 12 and Guardian 4

Level 13

Level 14

Level 15

Final Guardian

So feel free to use them and I hope they are of some use to you, don't blame me if it takes away the feeling of accomplishment though !

This is gonna be a turbo blog! I'm over the moon with my new purchase and here it is in all its glory:

Yep that's right, the ultra rare SMSII variation of Sonic 2!!! I've been chasing this for nearly five years now and am unbelievably happy to finally get my grubby little mitts on it! It's missing the manual but it's the same as the standard release so I'll be able to get one without any bother :). So now I just need to track down the even rarer Batman Returns SMSII variation and the yet to surface Home Alone SMSII version to compliment it!

Have you noticed the title change? Although I really enjoy writing these blogs I'm finding it impossible to make time to do it every day. It only takes me 15 minutes, but some days I can't find time to do more important things like playing games, never mind my blog!I'm going to try my best to keep this a daily blog but now and again you may get a few days squeezed into one!

I sometimes wonder how my life got so hectic, I just always seem to have so much to do. I only work around a third of the year, so that's two thirds of the year that should be free to do whatever I want, but somehow there's always something that needs doing. Do you remember being a kid, and how the six week holidays used to last forever? How a day used to seem like an endless play session. And now a day seems to disappear without me realising I've even started it. I get nearly 3 weeks off at a time and they fly by without me hardly getting anything I want done. Being an adult sucks in that way, I like the expendable income but it'd be great if I got to enjoy my purchases a little more :).

And on the subject of purchases, all 3 of my recent buys have now landed safely! My super special purchase is still packed up, the seller asked me to open it on camera, so expect a very big grin to be appearing on my Youtube channel tomorrow! I finally managed to get a few videos recorded the other day, although the big ass pick ups video took 3 attempts to upload to Youtube! I'm uploading the next part of my Alien 3 playthrough on MD as we speak so as long as it doesn't go tits up it should be live within the hour :). I'll post some pics of my pick ups in tomorrows blog as my camera's flat at the minute, so I'll see ya then peeps!

I didn't get any new games today :(. Just as well as I had a really long sleep and the postie would have ruined it!  I went to bed last night at about 10pm and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light, then I didn't wake up until 11:30 today. I generally get by on around 4 -5 hours sleep a night so that's a mega sleep for me!

So, my phones been playing up lately, started switching itself off randomly, losing charge real fast, not doing as I tell it, etc. I've decided it must be nearly time for a new one. To be fair this phone hasn't done too bad, it's nearly lasted me 2 years now which is a long time for me! My last one only went a week before I cracked the screen, and the one before that lasted about a fortnight before it got drenched when it fell out of my pocket. Last time round when I was looking at phones the iPhone had just come out, I had a play with it and stuff before deciding that my sausage fingers couldn't cope with that kind of technology just yet. That was about the only decent touch screen phone that was out back then. But now there's loads of cool phones on the market, and I fear I may be spoilt for choice in September when my contract is up for renewal. I could get a new phone now, but I'd have to pay £100 for an upgrade, I'm sure I can squeeze another month out of my current phone!

And I think I'm gonna get an Xperia Play, a.k.a, the PSP phone. I'm not convinced this is the best Android touch screen on the market, not by a long shot, and TBH I'm not overly bothered about playing PSP games on it. The thing that is dragging me in is the attached pad. I've tested it a few times now on the store demo models and it's great, especially the analogue touch pad sticks, they are pure genius as far as I'm concerned. You see, at the minute not only do I have my phone on me at all times but I geneally have my video camera and PSP on me too. That's 3 gadgets I have with me that could be replaced by this one simple item. And I know it can't replace either of the other items properly, but the camera will be good enough for filming stuff outside and I generally only use the emulators on my PSP which will run fine on this phone. I've never really been able to get into gaming on phones, other than Snake on my old Nokia, and it's not because the games have been bad, it' quite simply because I can't use the keypad to control them with my sausage fingers! Anyway, I haven't decided for sure yet, but there's a 90% chance that's what I'll be getting in September!

Also, I've got one of my Holy Grails in the post! A lot of you will probably guess what it is as most of you frequent the same forums as me, but if not keep your eyes peeled for a pick ups video soon!

Did you see what I did there? I knew it wouldn't be long before I missed a day! It's not because I got bored or sidetracked though, I just simply didn't have the time. My daughter is staying at here Grandma's house for a few days, so me and the missus are child free! This is a VERY rare occurence so obviously we had to make the best of it and get out of the house. Unfortunately I've had to work all weekend, 6am -6pm, so we could only manage a few child free hours together having fun. But as soon as I finished work we were off out to the local pub.

I was going to take some piccies for you all last night while I was out, because my local pub is a pretty special place. It doubles up as a pool hall so has  about 6 tables, and then there is a snooker hall on the side. There's also a mini bowling alley, which is a lot harder than it looks, the skittles are on strings too and they always get tangled! But all this stuff is just crap compared to my favourite parts: The cabs! First off they have two of those 100 in 1 type cabs that are stacked full of retro games - I pretty much always end up playing 1942 :). Thene there's an original Stand up Crazy Taxi cab! That is great fun, I've always believed the game is much better as an arcade game than a console port, the hectic nature of the game suits the coin feeding nature of the arcade, better you do less it costs you! And then we have my favourite item. Over in the corner is a twin seater Sega Rally machine, shining and sparkling in all it's retro arcade cab glory. Sega Rally is one of my favourite racing games of all time, it's probably the first one that made me play Time Trials just to try and shave milli seconds off of my lap times, and although I do prefer the Saturn version the arcade original is just as good. So there you have it a brilliant pub stacked full of retro Sega goodness, it's nearly like I designed the place myself, just missing a House Of The Dead cab :).

And now I'm back at work again, and will be for pretty much the majority of the day :(. I'm gonna try and get the next part of my Alien 3 playthrough filmed either tonight or tomorrow, and hopefully a pick ups vid too so keep an eye out on my YT channel! See ya tomorrow :).

How does everyone feel about modern gaming? I can't make my mind up whether I like it or not. There is a lot that I like about the current generation of games and systems, but then I like FPS games so I'm spoilt for choice!!! Online gaming is a really big draw for me, but not the frantic multiplayer shooter sessions against strangers (although they are fun!), the co-op gameplay with friends. I wasn't too impressed with Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for instance, apart from the co-op missions. I finished the main story mode in a few days, including finding all the hidden stuff and doing all the mission based trophies, and the multiplayer was fun but not really that engaging for me. Playing the Special Ops with a good friend though was excellent! Me and said friend have played FPS games together for years, so we knew each others styles of play well - he's a sniper, I'm a run 'n gunner. I'd charge around taking everyone out in close combat and he'd cover my ass from afar, or I'd draw out enemies and he'd pick them off - it was great fun. Until we hit lag! And my god did we get lag in a lot of our games. Neither of us really experienced lag when we played online games against random people either, just when it was the pair of us playing co-op, so frustrating! Still, it wasn't enough to ruin such a great experience, playing with a favourite gaming comrade/opponent who lives miles away is THE best thing about modern gaming!

But, I really dislike quite a lot of aspects of modern gaming too. The thing that drives me crazy the most is when I haven't used my PS3 for a few weeks. I bring home a new game that I'm really looking forward to playing, and switch on my PS3. What's the first thing that happens? My pad has gone flat. No big deal, I'll plug it in and grab the other, but no, that's flat too. Right still no huge problem, my USB lead is pretty long - I'll just play with it plugged in. But wait a minute, what's this? I need to run an update on my PS3, can I do it in the background? Nope. Right then, shouldn't take too long, download the update and get it installing while I make a brew. Fifteen minutes later and I hear the PS3 starting up again, great stuff let's get cracking! Throw the new game in the machine, time to play! But wait, the game needs to install to the hard drive. OK, getting really pissed off now. Set it installing and wait another 5 or so minutes. Game installed, great stuff - but did you know that there are updates available that need to be downloaded before you can play the game. WTF!!! The game's only been out 2 days! The pad is getting gripped very tightly now and I'm getting very fidgety - I could have finished a Mega Drive game by now and had a really enjoyable time. Updates installed, finally the game's title screen has appeared. Press start, let's go. First off you must watch this unskippable cut scene. Ten minutes later and I know everything I need to know let's get it on. And then the missus pipes up "You've been on that thing for ages, can I watch telly yet?"...

I want to switch my console on and play my chosen game. I even hate loading screens with a vengeance, I've probably wasted around 6 months of my life staring at the stupid things. For that reason alone cartridge games will always rule the roost for me. Plus, as good as online gaming is, nothing will ever beat playing against a real person sat right next to you! This is why I attend gaming events, because nothing beats 2 player gaming. The simplicity of older games just can't be beaten either, you don't need a 20 minute training level to learn all the button combinations ( I hate those things, especially when you can't skip them), you just need to press each button once and see what happens! Basically, modern gaming is getting complex and time consuming, and for all the good parts it's losing the best thing about gaming, quick sessions when you've got a few spare minutes. Gaming is fun, but I don't have the time to spend hours on end playing games every night. I can finish quite a lot of older games in under an hour, but it's taken me loads of short burst gaming sessions to get to that point with those games. I definitely don't have enough spare time to sit and watch a console/game update itself for 30 minutes, finish the damn game properly before you release it!

Enough ranting for today! I got a great pick up this morning :). I was really disappointed after going in a Game store to find that particular branch didn't stock any last gen games so I couldn't bag any new PS2 games :(. But then I went into a charity shop over the road and found this awesome promo disc complete with badge for £1.99! Well chuffed:

I've had a bit of a gaming session today, it's been great :). I've been hitting up some brilliant Mega Drive games, from old classics that I love to new arrivals that I've been wanting to play and a few from inbetween that have sat on the shelf far too long! I started by filming the next part of my Alien 3 playthrough for my YouTube channel, and as I broke my capture card I had to use my camera. The quality isn't too bad to be honest, but every now and again when the colours on the screen change quickly, entering a pipe section on ALien 3 for example, the camera just goes out of focus for a few seconds. Also any changes in background light make a difference on the screen too. I really need to get a decent recording set up sorted out but I just don't know where to start. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a total novice and could record an emulator for the perfect sceen easily, but I don't see the point in owning all these games and then playing them on an emulator.

Playing on the original hardware is part of the charm for of retro gaming for me, and whilst I have no problem with emulators (I use them on my PSP so I can play at work!), I just want to find a good way to record the original hardware! It turns out I broke my mic when I had my nerd rage episode the other day too, so I need a new one of those as well lol. I really need to get a new set up sorted out soon though as I'm dying to finish Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy, but as you can only have one save slot per game I'm stuck in a rut until I can film again. I can't use the camera for that as a 30 minute HD video of game footage would take around 6 hours to upload! So If anyone knows how to get a Mega Drive and a PS2 running on a laptop screen let me know! I've been messing around with camtasia, and it seems pretty damn good, but unless I can get my original hardware running on my laptop screen then the screen recorder feature of Camtasia is pretty useless...

Anyway, enough typing about video recording, watch the latest part of my Alien 3 playthrough instead and listen to me ranting instead of reading it for a change! Oh yeah I got my last game through today so expect a pick ups vid soon, see ya tomorrow :).

Link to Alien 3 playthrough vid!

Hi again fellow gamers :). Another lovely sunny day, only one rain spell so far (when I put the washing out...), but unfortunately the last of my recent purchases hasn't arrived yet. It's not a spectacular game or anything, just a sports title that I need towards the PAL MD set, but it is rather annoying that it hasn't arrived as I'm waiting for that so I can do a pick ups video. I'm not surprised that it's late to be honest, I bought this one off of one of the big resellers on Ebay, and although I paid £2.25 for postage you can guarantee it'll have been sent second class, even though it would only be £1.96 first class. I really should steer clear of these guys, but sometimes they're the only ones selling the games I'm looking for, and to be fair some of them list common games at reasonable prices.

Anyway, no big deal, it's not like I've been dying to play it! I have however been dying to replay a certain game that I've had in my collection ever since I first got a Mega Drive, so I did! The game in question is Greendog: Beached Surfer Dude, and thankfully I still like it. I wasn't sure whether this was gonna play as well as I remembered, but once I'd gotten used to the controls again it all came back to me, I even remembered some of the hidden rooms and stuff! One of my favourite memories of this game was watching my friend have a go after watching me play it, on the first level there is a bird that you have to grab hold of to take you further down the level, but there is also birds that attack you. My friend saw me jumping on the bird, so when he had a go he tried for three whole lives to grab hold of an attacking bird! I couldn't tell him it was the wrong one for laughing so hard, he never was very good at games! I've downloaded the ROM of this and another of my childhood favourites, Toki Going Ape Spit, so I can get some practise in on them tonight at work on my PSP! Once I've gotten as good at them as I used to be I'll film a video and do a review of each :).

Speaking of filming videos, my capture card is knackered :(. It's my fault because I got mad with it and kind of jumped up and down on it a bit. It's the Editing software that was at fault but the card took the brunt of my mispleasure! For some reason it wouldn't let me add the narration to the video file and still keep the original game audio in the background? And also if I tried to just render it the audio went all wierd? So I'll be going back to camera shot footage for a while until I get myself a decent capture card sorted and some new editing software, if anyone has any recommendations let me know!

Day 7!!! I made it to a week without getting sidetracked, I've shocked myself! I'm really enjoying writing it too, so I can't see me stopping anytime soon either, although what I'll find to write about is anyone's guess. There's a limitless amount of strange thoughts that go around my mind, not all gaming related but I hope it will make for a good read :).

Sometimes I think I'm jinxed. It was a really nice sunny day here in Bradford today, so I stuck a load of washing in and threw it out on the line. I needed to go shopping as all we had in to eat was frozen crap and I'm on a bit of a health boost at the minute, so off I went to Tesco's - and pretty much as soon as I set off it started pissing it down. Now you may think this is just one of those things that happens from time to time, and that I'm over reacting about being jinxed. But quite literally every time I put washing out it rains as soon as I leave the house. I think there's one of those dark clouds that you see in cartoons that hides round the corner from my house, just waiting for me to go out with the washing! Ah well, it saved me watering the flowers I suppose, and also got me out of having to cut the lawn!

Anyway, on with the new arrivals. Two more Mega Drive games through the door this morning, although only one of them is towards my PAL set today. It's a pretty rare one too, Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Crossroads Of Time:

It's been on my 'to buy quick' list for quite a while now as I reckon this one is going to rise in value pretty quick, it's a lot rarer than most people think. I'm not really sure what kind of a game this is but it looks like a cross between a puzzle and an action game. I've never been a huge Trekkie or anything, but I do watch DS9 quite a lot on Sci Fi when I'm bored, so i'm quite looking forward to getting to grips with this, I just hope the door opening sound effects made it into the game!

The other arrival was a bargain buy at 99p:

So yeah, as you may have noticed, this isn't a genuine Sega product! But at the same time it's not a pirate either, it's an Australian rental game. From what I can make out the 'Super Selection' game carts are similar to the NTSC Blockbuster rental carts. The Rental shop basically just burned the ROM's onto the cart, stuck a title on it and put it out for rent. What made me want this one is the fact that it's an EA game, I love anything that doesn't fit and an EA game on a normal sized cart just doesn't seem right! This is the second Super Selection rental game I have in my collection now, the other being Talespin, check my Mega Drive games pace if you want to see it. I'd love to see the insert without the artwork stuck to it, I reckon it matches the cart. On the back of the box there is loads of games with tick boxes next to them, so I reckon some shops probably just ticked the box on the back instead of sticking new artwork on the front. The cart design itself reminds me of the Video cases from the local rental store we used as a kid, with a mish mash of characters from loads of different games. Can you identify all the characters on the cart? Let me know in the comments!

I'm gonna do a few reviews in the coming weeks, and I'm gonna do reviews of games that I haven't played since I was a kid. I've purposefully avoided playing a few games in my collection over the last few years just in case the rose tinted glasses didn't work, but I'm gonna risk ruining my great memories of these games by replaying them! See ya tomorrow peeps :).