Jake and Mike Videogame Show

Hell, maybe you hate us but you really love anime and videogames! Well if that’s the case then we definitely have a place for you! You all need to check out http://pop-droid.com/ and get down with the magic over there. Its like if screw attack gave themselves an Anime, Manga, and Games make over and then mixed in all sorts of other user based style stuff. Were gonna be hosting our Podcast up there in the future so If you like us, then you gotta’ head over there and show them how awesome our listeners are and enjoy the community.

Plus I’ve got a profile over there and I’m awesome right? Don’t you like me? You like me right?! RIGHT?!?! Oh, dear god, please tell me you like me or i’m gonna have an anxiety attack. I basically live off the acceptance of others!!!! OH DEAR GOD I’m gonna break down! Oh wait, what’s that…? You DO think I’m awesome? Oh wow….. that was close.

OH and it gives me an excuse to talk about Anime as much as I’d truly like to. Huzzah!

-(MS)Mike out.

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Im not sure what else there is to say other than check this thing out for a nice amount of nostalgia, commentary and back and forth about Jake and I’s favorites, least favorites and honorable mentions from 2009. It’s a really good listen and prolly the most fun I’ve had recording one of these since we started! Enjoy!

-(MS)Mike out.

I have nothing to say about this video. -jake

-(MS)Mike out.

I have noticed an interesting trend in video game reviews these days. I guess it isn’t only in reviews but also in many peoples perception of some games that have come out this year. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has received a “decent” reception from gamers and game reviewers alike, and it has been compared (logically) to the original title. A lot of people are saying that it doesn’t live up to the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but I think people are not remembering this game correctly. Marvel Ultimate Alliance (gonna start calling it MUA) was a great game, but it had some major issues. MUA2 is a great game, and it has some issues as well, but they have fixed many of the issues from the original MUA. MUA2 is almost better in every way, yet people are saying it doesn’t live up to the original, I think I know why.

The same thing happened with Resident Evil 5 being compared to Resident Evil 4. I think people are only remembering the great parts of these games and not remembering any of the games flaws. I played MUA a LOT before MUA2 came out, and I think because of that I can see all the improvements made in MUA2. I know it would be time consuming for a game reviewer to play the original once again before they reviewed the games sequel, but I think this would be a pretty eye opening experience for them. Also, some comparisons are not really fair. A complaint for MUA2 is that there are not as many costumes for the heroes to unlock, that is true, but doesn’t it matter more that all of the games heroes are useful and fun to play as? In the original MUA many of the playable heroes did not measure up to the few good heroes in the game. In MUA2 every single hero I have played with seems useful and has potential. There is also the complaint that many of the new Fusion powers that were added go by a few basic formulas, again this is true, and however in the original game everyone had one special and besides a few heroes is was pretty much the same for everyone.

Anyway, my point is that people are only remembering the good things about these games. Some of these game reviewers and gamers really could use a dose of reality. It just so happens I sell reality. Please email me if you would like to buy some.

BUYREALITYNOW@ISELLTHINGSTHATAREINTANGIBLE.COM

PS It is really expensive.

-Jake

These two pictures were posted on the Titan games website (the guys who did Fat Princess) recently with nothing at all to accompany them.

No description, no tags, no labels, no nothing. Just the pictures.

It could be something as awesome as new classes being added to Fat Princess, or something as simple as random concept art they wanted to share. Either way, think of all the possibilities!

Normally I wouldn’t post something so vague, but I dig the hell out of Fat Princess and I love the idea of more content, especially ninja and pirate related content.

-(MS)Mike out.

So the thing is, I planned on writing about Microsoft’s Gamescom keynote today since I had talked about Sony’s yesterday, but when it was all done and stuff, like…what is there to really say?

Yeah, They announced Fable III, because that really needed to be announced.  I for one, had no idea they planned on continuing the franchise, so thank god they let me know otherwise. Really though, Fable has reached that pinnacle in games where you know the game is going to get sequels, so why announce just that? In the same way that I wouldn’t be wowed by the announcement of a new Halo or Grand Theft Auto, I think that when you announce a Sequel like Fable, you need to provide us with a little more than the fact that you kind of know what you’re doing with the next one and that it is indeed going to be released sometime in the future. For games on that scale, you need videos or screenshots, straight up.

On the positive side though, Although the Fable 2 episodic re-release didn’t thrill me at all, I thoroughly enjoy the way Microsoft is executing it. You take a game that has fan appeal, still has some selling power, and can easily be broken down in to pieces and let people download it. That part of it is all obvious, but the thing I really liked was that Microsoft plans on releasing the first episode for free.

I’m a firm believer that, in its fledgling days, getting people to buy full digital-download versions of normally retail only games is gonna a take a bit of convincing. You’re gonna need to show someone why its better or easier or whatever, compared to going and buying a copy at Best Buy or a used copy at Gamestop. One of the best ways these companies are going to be able to do this, is by providing free stuff that someone would actually want to download. Hook them with the free content, show them what they’re missing, and then give them a catalog of things they can compare to what they just got and you’ll land that audience pretty easily.

On an unrelated subject, Microsoft has done a good job of having some type of Marketing countermeasure to throw in Sony’s face every time they attempt to do something new, so I was a bit surprised to see them empty handed with some quick response to remind people they want a 360 more than a ps3, regardless of it’s competitive new price. Just an interesting thing I thought I’d see and didn’t.

And one last thing before I go, I’m pretty surprised to see that Microsoft wasn’t trying to whore out that new Call of Duty a bit more. They like to jump onto multiplatform titles and really make them their own, and I would have expected more of that from them with this titles so far.

Anyways, not a TON of real information came out of the keynote, but a few bits of interest and we’ll see where they go from here.

-(MS)Mike out.

There was an totally awesome booth in the dealers exhibit hall this year at Anime Expo that I was able to scope out some amazing stuff at. They had used and in the box stuff that you’d be amazed still even existed now adays. I saw 3 copies of factory sealed japanese Mother 2′s for the original NES, I saw Japanese original Zelda, I saw Factory sealed Secret of Mana for the SNES, I saw more shrink wrapped Dreamcast classics then you can shake a stick at. Not only did it have an amazing selection, but It didn’t cost an arm and a leg to snag a few old school collectible gem’s and the dude working the booth was a really cool dude, so I just wanted to give them the plug they deserve and earned and say you should all check them out!

If you live in the Maryland area, I believe they have a store, and if not, Check out their ebay store right here, and their website right here.

…..Well what the hell are you waiting for?! GO! NOW!

-(MS)Mike out.

Well my friends, as of today, I will officially be gone and off in california, living it up in Los Angeles at Anime Expo 2009!

But really, you’ll never know I had left because I’m an amazing blog runner and  I plan on bringing you all the video game stuff I can squeeze out of this trip, which is actually going to be QUITE a bit.

As far as what I’ve seen so far, it looks like D3, Namco Bandai, Atlus, Aksys, THQ, and Square Enix will all be on hand showing off this and that in the exhibition Hall and during my adventures I will be sure to see what each of them have to offer. Not just that though, they have one hell of a bad ass arcade every year so I’ll make sure to see if I cant get some cool videos or pictures of goings on in there to show everyone.

So expect cosplay feuled gaming news at least once or twice while I’m gone and a ton of other stuff afterwards as well, until then, You should all yell at Jake to write some interesting stuff up for you and enjoy whatever Knoxximus blesses our web based pages with, through all his virtues and experience.

And remember, No podcast this week because of all the vacationing, but well have an extra long one next week, so be on the lookout!

LATER FOOLS!!!

-(MS)Mike out.

I feel the picture I used for this is honestly a much deeper and truer statement then I bet it’s maker ever intended and it got me thinking about the stuff I own and care about.

As badly as Game Stop can be dragged through the mud for various things ( Hiring people that don’t know about games, pushing bad shape junk on you, taking money from developers) I think none of that can compare to the topic of discussion here today. I’m going to go over about what I think, in the long run, might be the worst thing they are guilty of, and it isn’t even 100% their faults.

What is it you ask? Giving us a reason to wanna sell our memories.

I remember when a Game Crazy (for the sake of this post, they’re mostly interchangeable) first opened up near my house when I was in like, 7th grade I believe. Jake and I went  to check it out and ended up being veeerrryyy regular customers for the next 5 or 6 years straight but alot of that patronage came from the fact that we were younger kids, and didn’t always have the money we needed for the games we wanted. So imagine how trade-in happy we were when we could suddenly trade in our OLD stuff and bypass the “needing money” thing altogether.

Needless to say, that period of time will forever remain a regrettable one for me, looking back. Sadly, I just saw myself getting new games easily and for far less money, when really, I was selling things for a few bucks that, if I was in the same situation now, I wouldn’t trade for the world. I was giving them things that, a decade or so later, I ended up paying double for in an attempt to reclaim my lost items, regretting I ever gave it up to  begin with.

I ended up kind of going through a period of time where I attempted to re-obtain alot of the things I traded in during the young-and-dumb-gamer period of my life. I found that all the rare collectibles in the world that you buy on e-bay won’t mean anywhere near as much as the same item’s that you have had since day one and can call a true and real collection of your own, and unfortunately I learned this the hard way.

But don’t think of this as just a reminder and warning for yourself, it goes even deeper than that. Imagine all the kids out there that are only into comics now because their grandfather hung onto a ton of all his old comics in a bunch of cardboard boxes and bins. The little brother that suddenly likes bands that were around before he could even walk, but that he listened to becasue of his older sisters CD collection and now they’re is favorites. Most importantly, When I can show my son or daughter my original games and systems and let them see what games were like throughout my life as a gamer and how it all started for me. That kinda stuff can truly end up being priceless.

I guess the whole point of this is that, it’s a shame that a ton of kids out there are trading in games that they might have eventually prided themselves in owning a while down the road, and don’t even know it.

-(MS)Mike out.

-(MS)Mike out

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And like a flash of light, The Jake and Mike Videogame Show podcast appeared and saved the city from certain peril!

Mike and Jake serve you up three delicious scoops of extra podcast this week and talk about Fallout 3: broken steel  and plants vs zombies!!

But wait, there’s more!

If you call in RIGHT NOW Jake and Mike will also talk about the state of downloadable content and the things they’re looking forward to seeing at E3!

But that’s not all!!!

The CheapyD game is played again and Jake tries to get a little bit of revenge!

Take off your wigs and put on your helmets folks, its gonna be a bumpy ride!!

-(MS)Mike out.

Here is the first Gamefly review.

I really like how it turned out and Mike was here to help me add little bit of “stupid gamefly user” flavor. I have decided to hire Mike full time to help me with these reviews.

How fast gamefly went from feeling amazing, to a huge hole I’m pouring my money into, just because I can’t find my mail key.

Haha It hasn’t even been that many days that I’ve been trying to find it.

And  I have a new game in the mail!!!!

Torture!!!

Really though, I do have actual things to say here….Ahem:

• The podcast should be up late thursday or early friday this week AND the new and improved week early podcast should update on a similar schedule next week.
• Weve got a bunch of good games coming out in the next 3 weeks so we should have PLENTY to talk about in the coming months.
• All sorts of game companys are going to be attending Anime Expo in Anaheim this year and since I’m attending I’ve decided to take the Jake and Mike Video Game Show on the road 4th of july weekend and I’ll be writing about alot of the stuff I see there.

So yeah, thats it for now. Enjoy your wednesday!

-(MS)Mike out.

I remember a world where video games based on movies, even animated children’s movies, were amazing. Game tie-ins to a TV show were a must play. Entertainment related licenses that were turned into games were something to look forward to. Fast forward to today and not a word of what i just wrote has remained even slightly similar to the truth.

So, who do we have to blame for the grim future that became of us? Well, over the next Three parts of this article I’m going to attempt to school you guy’s on the good and bad that’s come from licensed games and see if we cant find out where things went wrong.  Lets start by looking back at some of the great licensed games I’m using as examples and move forward, shall we?

A couple of great examples to start with would be a handfull of Disney games from the 90′s. Now everyone knows that now a day, about the only games that revolve around Disney animated movies that are getting any attention are the Kingdom Hearts games, but things weren’t always that way, so Disney will be the perfect example  for the good lisenced games of the past. (continue reading…)

Just some random thoughts I think I might write about in the near future:

-Super hero games need to start being made independent of a movie license, Like Hulk Ultimate Destruction or Spider-Man: Web of shadows or Arkham Asylum.

-How easy it would be to make a movie or TV show about people that play video games that actually contains something relevant. I’m sick of movies and TV being so lazy that they can’t even do a TINY bit of research or even GOOGLE the word videogame to come up with SOMETHING that doesn’t involve one guy being impressed that another guy can “Get passed level 4″ really? Jokes about beating a level? Also, I can only take so many more Visual gags about DDR and pac man references disguised as video game knowledge.

-How much I miss X-wing, TIE fighter and X-wing vs TIE fighter. Remember when having a joystick was actually important?

-How many old school PC games I actually remember enjoying a lot. Just off the top of my head: Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle, Interstate 76, Jazz Jackrabbit, Commander Keen. What the hell happened pc gaming?

I have quite a few opinions about any one of those topics. I also enjoy how nostalgic they make me feel.

-(MS)Mike out.