Super Meat Boy ground up and cancelled on Wiiware.

The Wii is also a meat grinder!

On December 23rd we got some sad news about Super Meat Boy for Wiiware. Team Meat announced via Twitter that "there will not be a Wiiware version of SMB. we are looking in to retail Wii, bit its also looking grim. still looking though."

It may have been sad news for everyone to hear right before the Holidays and for all the Wii owners that were looking forward to the game releasing on their little white console. It's been a know fact that Team Meat was working on attempting to squeeze the game down to the ridiculously small 40MB size limit that Nintendo imposes on all Wiiware games. But in the end it was decided that too much was going to be sacrificed from the game and instead of releasing a gimped version, they have opted to not release it at all on Wiiware.

There is a small chance that the game may make a retail release on Wii, but according to Team Meats statements from Twitter it's not looking so great either.

Would you have liked to see a Wiiware version of the SMB regardless if the game was not a complete version?

Do you think Nintendo's 40MB size limit on Wiiware is hurting the service?

Dying to play Dead Space 2?

Well you're in luck! Dead Space 2 has a Demo, and it's available right NOW on XBL, and PSN!

If you've never played Dead Space, it's either because you've never heard of it, or because you were too scared to continue playing it. I joke not, people refuse to finish this game because it's "too scarry". Naturally I love it. One of the best horror games I've played in a long time.

Christmas comes early... I mean right on time for PC gamers!

We usually don't pay that much attention to the PC console, and for that we're sorry. But we are trying! Here's me trying.

Steam just released a list of games that are up for grabs on the cheep. There are quite a few gems in there, so for your PC gamer of your life, check this list out! Yes Super Meat Boy is on that list and it is only $3.75!

Also on steam SquareEnix Eidos has a big fat juicy packet of games for an insanely cheep price! Normally if you bought all of these individually you'd have to pay: 606.68. This bundle is 74.99! It includes all the updated Womb Raider games, Front Mission Evolved, Kayne and Lynch, Final Fantasy XI Collection, and well shit many many other goodies! Check out this list!

C'mon you pirates, lets encourage our developers to keep churning out good games by paying for them!

Super Mafioso Brothers: "The Brothers Mario"

I don't know if any of you remember but in Episode 26 of our podcast (with Derek Fridolfs) at some point I talked about what I really thought Super Mario Brothers was about. I received a bagful of ridicule for it!

I guess I'm not the only one that though, lookey here! - Thanks to Destructoid for digging this up for me!

Anthony Jone's version of the Mario twins.

Parasite Eve 3: The Third Birthday

Raise your hand if you've ever played Parasite eve by Squaresoft. No hands? Seriously? C'mon. Yes one hand there! Ok well here's a picture of the main character Aya Brea.

Well that picture is from a moment where she wasn't bleeding out of her eyes, or fighting deadly monster/demon/beasts/mitochondria.

I don't remember the story too well, and I'm too lazy to look it up, but honestly that wasn't what made this game stand out to me anyway. It was the battle mechanic and the customization.

This was one of those Squaresoft (now SquareEnix) experimental type of games sort of like Einhander... We'll talk about that one on a different post.

Pay what you want for 5 indie games. The Humble Indie Bundle #2 is back.

The Humble Indie Bundle #2 is a charity event where you get to get name your own price for five indie games and also donate to charity at the same time. The games are Mac, PC, Linux compatible and DRM free. The best part is that you can divide the money up however you wish, so if you want the developers to get your hard earn cash so be it. Want to save the children? Go for it.

You only have six days left to get the bundle, but I think it's really great deal for anyone who's been waiting to try one of these games or if your looking for a holiday gift for someone.  

Have you played any of the indie games on the list above?

Wiiware Demo Mondays: Lilt Line

Alright people I went the extra step this time around and recorded my own video to my hopefully re-occurring series Wiiware Demo Mondays. It's my first attempt at making a video with my shitty recording setup, so bear with me while I massage and refine it.



This weeks demo release is Lilt Line the first published game by Gaijin games. Its a simple game where you guide a line through a series of 15 tracks while hitting beats in time on the screen. The more times you hit the wall or miss a beat the less points you receive. I found the game to be rather challenging once the difficulty ramps up. The music is provided by a dubstep soundtrack and the visuals are very retro, geometric, with a bright color pallette. Go check it out and you'll be glad to know its only $5 bucks.

Next time around I'll do some more elaboration in my video, at least I lost my video virginity.

Pluribus Unam, Shuma-Gorath we will Obey.

Shuma-Gorath is one of the oddest characters in the Marvel vs Capcom 3 line-up. He was first debuted in Marvel Super Hero's: The Fate of Two Worlds" which was one of the best god damn arcade fighters of it's time.

So why should anyone give a shit? Well for one he has tentacles. Naughty ones perhaps yes, but definitely deadly ones. If you head over to capcom-unity they have a really awesome deal going on.



Apparently they had the community members vote on different designs for their awesome pre-order gift. They called it "Marvel vs Capcom Waste of Flesh t-shirt". I personally really like this design a lot, and am going to be pre-ordering this for the t-shirt!

To order and receive this amazing t-shirt click on the "store" button on the top there. Or just click here... Jeez you lazy bast....

Donkey Kong Country Returns impressions

The developer Retro studios has once again cradled one of Nintendo's biggest franchises in its bosom and raised a fantastic game. The last year has been a banner year for platformers on the Wii and the 2D platformer genre in general. Games like New Super Mario Bros, Super Meat Boy and Donkey Kong help prove that its still one the best game designs around and with the right team, can compete with anything 3D games have to offer. I wanted to give you guys a quick roundup of my thoughts so far about the game and what you can expect if this game is on your radar.

It's just a 2D platformer why should you care?
Retro Studios seems to be Nintendo's ace in the hole and boy they don't disappoint. Granted this game doesn't have the same 3D rendered graphics like the originals, but it does have beautifully animated colorful characters and environments. Donkey Kong Country Returns level design is fantastic and offers tons of secrets to find, challenging platforming, and creative uses of the levels environments to effect gameplay. Each level in the game seems to be always asking you to do something a little different and each level feels fresh. Your also going to be in for a challenge; in the first world alone I died at least 10 times and didn't even come close to finding all the KONG letters and puzzle pieces in each level. Oh yeah, did I mention that each level also has a time attack mode as well? In case you looking for more of a challenge. The game can be difficult at times, but the game does offer you lots of ways to make it easier on yourself by adding checkpoints and banana coins. With the banana coins you go to old Kranky Kongs shack and purchase extra balloons, a puzzle revealing parrot, and invincibility juice. Much like Mario Bros 3, you access them on the main map and use them before you enter levels.

New Tomb Raider is a prequel/reboot.

If you're like me you're probably pretty sick of Tomb Raider. Especially if you've actually played any of them before "Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light" -- which sounds dangerously close to a Harry Potter title.

Well they aren't done with her yet. In fact they've unbraided her hair, muddied up her face, and taken years off her life with this next reboot. All we have to go off of is this image:

You have a smudge of dirt right... no... no... there! no wait there's more.

Apparently we're going to learn all about Lara's past, and how she came to be the treasure hunter we all know, but not all love. This one will be called "Lara Croft: The Evolution". As of right now those are all the details we get, but it is interesting to me (keep an eye here for updates).

Wiiware demo Monday... yes we know it's Tuesday.

I wanted to get this up yesterday but my day job got in the way. But I want to come back every Monday and feature the new Wiiware demos that were released since Nintendo is incapable of doing that on its own for some reason. So far Nintendo is offering one new demo a week for a total of 4 demos being featured in the Nintendo channels main homepage at one time. If you want to find previous releases demos your going to have to dig into the "Newest Additions" section of Wiiware. Good luck with that.

This weeks new game demo is Fluidty. Published by Nintendo.

Augmented reality device lets you suck and receive virtual sensations, oh yeah

Chalk this one up into the "Is this for real?" category. TagCandy is a device built by Yasuaki Kakehi of Keio University. The device consists of a handheld base with a speaker and a senor built into the top of it. Then you place a ordinary lollipop into the top of the device and whalla your living in the future baby. Once you place the delectible candy in your mouth and begin to er... you know, suck the candy. The sensor will pick up your movements and the device with play one of many different sounds, such as firework or biting an apple for instance. The speaker vibrates and through that you can either feel the sound on your tongue and through bone-conduction technology, you will hear the sound by touching the candy to your teeth. There are plans in the future to add more functionality to its repertoire such as biting recognition and the ability to share sensations over the internet. We all know what happens when we get the internet involved into such things don't we ;- ). There is a nice video clip here that highlights this wonderful technology.

Take a good hard look fellow gamers. Could this vision of augmented reality be the next leap in video games? Nintendo needs to step up its game in order to take us to the next level and I don't think the Vitality Sensor is going to do it. I can see it now, Wii2 comes packed with Nintendo themed lollipops. Can you imagine the combination of Wiimote technology and mouth sensations! Satoru Iwata I'm talking to you. I've always wondered what if felt like to stomp on goombas in my mouth. God, that sounds oh so wrong.

What do you think of this new augmented reality technology? The future or another WTF device?

Battlefield Bad Company 2 offers Vietnam thrills at a better price

Screw Blackops and heck, screw Activision. The Battlefield Bad Comapany 2 Vietnam DLC Map pack can be yours for $15 dollars (ack its a little pricey) and you can skip the $60 dollar investment for another Call of Duty yearly rehash. Also if you have the VIP access code from when you purchased the game you will get it all for free. As you can see from the video below your getting the same Battlefield with a nice 60's vibe makeover. Your going to get 5 maps: Hill 137, Vantage Point, Phu Bai Valley, Cao Son Temple, and the Battle of Hastings along with some new vehicles. I'm not advocating that the Vietnam war was a fantastic time in history, but throw some good multiplayer antics and I'm sold.



I've come late to the party when it comes to being a fan of Battlefield Bad Company 2, but overall I've think its offers something I don't see in a lot of first person shooters nowadays, teamwork. The game has a good balance of gameplay elements that work really well in a multiplayer arena. If you've haven't tried a match online, do yourself a service and give it a go, I'll take you on. My PSN name is IanAugust.

What do you think of the Battlefield series? 
Do you think the DLC is too expensive?

Ericson Playstation phone video WTF!

Destructoid just posted up video footage of what seems to be the long rumored Sony Playstation Ericson phone. Here check this shit out.



If you listen to the podcast regularly you would know that my poor phone is mostly broken, and have been waiting for something new to encourage me to buy a new phone. This may be it guys... seriously, but I don't know how they could do this right.

I'm on the fence about it because logic tells me that if they are going to be using the Android OS, I don't think they'll be able to just release a bunch of Playstation brand exclusive games onto it because then it would become available to all Android phones. Unless somehow they can make their own game store that only works on this particular phone.

Anyway discuss if you care, and shit even if you don't care I'd like to hear what anyone thinks!

Lord of Arcana (Square's Monster Hunter)

Monster Hunter has become very dear to me as you all must know. It's probably very annoying by now I'm sure. But apparently I'm not the only one - Streets were lined with people in Japan looking to buy Monster Hunter Portable 3rd yesterday.

There is however a new game coming out by none other than SquareEnix. It's their version of a Monster Hunter type game, which is why I'm very interested in playing this game. Another interesting thing about it is all the artists they have contracted for character design:

• Tetsuya Nomura (best known for his work on Final Fantasy, Parasite Eve, Kingdom Hearts, The World Ends with You, and Brave Fencer Musashi)
• Yoshitaka Amano (also well known, Final Fantasy, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Vampire Hunter D, Gatchaman, Tatsunoko Productions, many many more)
• Tod McFarlane (Whaa? Yeah Spawn*, Spider Man, Ghost Rider, many more you know)*Creator

If that's not impressive enough they also got music from:

• Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy fame, Front Mission, Ah My Goddess Anime, SaGa series)
• Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Shin Megami Tensei, and more)

This Line up proves impressive! I'm excited to see what SquareEnix will do with this game. It also boasts one feature that most people have been wanting out of the Monster Hunter games - a lock on button.

We'll see though!

P.S. It's a PSP game so I expect nobody but myself to really care.

Goldeneye multiplayer action with CoffeewithGames.com

I recently picked up Goldeneye for Wii and have been having a pretty good time with it. Our friend Coffee has enticed me to play some online matches with him and has provided some footage of the multiplayer mayhem so you can get an idea of what its like to play the game online.



Now as you can see from the footage that this Goldeneye plays much differently from what you may remember from your prepubescent years and that's just one of many of the changes you will see in the new version of Goldeneye. It plays very much like a modern console shooter and has taken cues from some of the best FPS out there. So all of you looking for a direct port of the N64 version may be sad pandas, but rest assured this version of the game is a good one and worth your time if your a starving FPS Wii owner. Just don't expect it to be exactly how you remembered it and enjoy it.

If you want to take me on and play some online matches post your Goldeneye friend code. Yes friends codes! I hate you Nintendo.

Here is mine - 5087 9517 7822

For England!

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (jp)

Yes. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd now please!

None of this is actual gameplay but it's nice to see some of the stuff that will be implemented in this version such as: new monsters, new types of armors for your felynes, and new environments.

Seriously I can't wait for this, and now that I have my PSP GO I can actually use my sixaxis PS3 controller, and hook it up to my plasma! Alas still no online functionality though.

I'm still hoping for a 3DS release of this, but at this point I don't know if they'll do that. If this one in particular doesn't come out for it, I'm sure they'll have one for it eventually.

Nintendo offering Wiiware game demos yet again

I swear I know nothing about game demos!

Starting today Nintendo is offering game demos on the Wii Shop Channel for all to enjoy. Now you may remember that last year Nintendo tried this idea before and gave us one round of demos. Then silence and it seemed that the lumbering online doofus giant went into hibernation mode. Now, If you open up the Wii Shop Channel you can try out 4 different games courtesy of someone at Nintendo getting off their duff and actually using the channel to sell us games for once.

The four demos made available are Bit.Trip.Fate, And Yet It Moves, Jett Rocket, and Thru-Space. Not at all a bad offering and if you care what I think, then I would recommend giving Bit.Trip.Fate and And Yet It Moves some of your time. I tried them both out this morning and had a good time, Oh yeah!

The current stated plan is that every Monday we'll be seeing new demos offered up for download. So after 4 years Nintendo is really starting to get more serious about its online store and push sales for games that have gotten lost in the Wii Shop Channels crappy design. Who knows why the abrupt change of course, but one can speculate that over the last year the Wiiware and Virtual console have been lacking in the awesome games department. It may be a last ditch effort to drum up some extra sales and hopefully keep developers interested in the service or a dry run to figure out how to fix their online setup for the new 3DS shop channel. Whatever the reason, its about damn time Nintendo.

Pixels by Patrick Jean

This is so interesting that I had to actually post this up on the blog :O!

I recently posted this up on facebook, but just in case there is anyone out there that doesn't "like" us on facebook I really want to share this with you all.

Geeksofdoom.com state that "Happy Madison" is going to make a movie of this... "Ghostbusters-like action comedy" is the way it's worded for now. Anyway check this out:



I'm very interested in this movie. VERY! Are you?

My top 5 NES game intros

This is my first attempt at creating a top 5 list of any sort. Normally I wouldn't bother creating one in the first place since everyone else on the internet is riding the top five things your mom likes to do on a Saturday night bandwagon. You know what? I don't care, I'm going to do it anyways.

Watching game intros was my number one priority as a kid gamer. I would never in a million years press start on that NES controller and bypass the experience. More often than not, NES games lacked any intros at all, but when they did it was often a religious experience for me. Come with me my friends and let's relive some childhood memories as I imitate the Wayne's World time warp with my hands. Here are my top 5 NES game intros.

1. Mega Man 2

Mega Man 2 is probably my favorite NES game of all time and arguably has the best NES soundtrack ever composed. I think this intro just might have been cemented into every gamers mind the first time they saw it. The cleverly timed music lead in with the camera panning up a sky scraper just melded perfectly into something that felt exciting and made you want to kick butt as a kid. Still to this day, I watch this intro every time I boot up the game.

There's 4 more to go. So click the link below, I know you want to.

Call of Duty: Black Ops sets another sales record all thanks to you!

It feels so good against its skin

Hot of the presses and Bobby Kotick's cocaine pinky nail is the earth shattering news that you all knew was coming. Call of Duty Black Ops sold big, real big. According to the press release by Activision it has "Shattered" last years Call of Duty Mondern Warfare 2 sales record by a cool 50 million. 

Its estimated grand total is 360 million dollars in North America and the United Kingdom with a total of 5.6 million copies sold. It is now being touted once again by Activision as the biggest entertainment launch ever since the last time Kid Rock came to your town to sing "Bong da bong da bong di dang diggy diggy something bong sha da boogy" (those are the lyrics right?). So everyone needs to bow down in honor of this glorious day. I'm sure Bobby is smoking a fatty right now with his boys, shooting chickens for fun. 

"There has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records for two consecutive years and we are on track to outperform last year's five-day global sales record of $550 million," said Bobby Kotick, CEO, 

Good job guys you did it! See you next November when Activision does it again with Space Marines (you know its coming)... and you will love it.

Podcast: The Terminator VS Video Game Violence

We've got another podcast recorded and guess what, we have decided to go to a weekly schedule. That's right, once a week you'll get our opinions on games, news, and current events as well as featured video game music to enchant your ears with.

On this episode we're joined by our friend Coffee from Coffeewithgames.com to talk about the recent Supreme Court case, Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association. The state of California wants to make it a crime to sell violent video games to anyone under the age of 18. If you want to read or hear the debate here's the link.

Also, we go off on the industries current case of Sequelitis and we celebrate the release of the Super Meat Boy soundtrack by playing 3 tracks brought to you by the Danny B. of dbsoundworks. Thanks Danny for letting us blast your music into cyberspace for free! Go to dbsoundswords.com/bandcamp.com and pick up one of the best soundtracks of the year.

Download | itunes

Should the state of California have the right to ban the sale of violent video games to minors?

Do you have kids? Do you let them play violent games and have they turned into psychotic killers yet? If so get them the hell away from us!

Cursed Crusade

Hi friends.

Some of you might remember a particular game that I once reviewed called "Demon's Souls". I hated it so much, I threatened babies all over the world.

I must be a glutton to punishment because I now have that game once again and am enjoying the pain. But that's not why I'm posting this evening. The reason for this post is because the same publishers who published "Demon's Souls". A company called ATLUS is now publishing a game called "Cursed Crusade" and it looks quite promising.

Have a look:





To be fair this isn't the same developers as Demon's Souls (FROM SOFTWARE) and it's Kytlonn Entertainment that is developing this one. Anyway I've got my eye on this one. Atlus please keep 'em coming!

--Thanks to our friend John Dubay for the tip!

Super Meat Boy Soundtrack is real and it's spectacular

How can you deny this cute face?

It's a well known fact that we at Who Burned My Toast? are in love with Meat. Super Meat Boy that is. As we patiently wait for the PC, Mac, and WiiWare releases of the game (currently available only on XBox Live), we wanted everyone to know about the newly released soundtrack.

You can pick up this amazing 33 track albulm at dbsoundworks.bandcamp.com for $3.99. All the proceeds will go to danny B of dbsoundworks.com and as the site says it will "fuel his habit of making killer soundtracks for awesome indie video games!"

And for all of you that like resisting the digital revolution while combing back your mullets. You can buy the physical special edition of the soundtrack being announced in late November.

So far I am loving this electronic, rock mix of sounds as its washes through my brain. I can't quite put my finger on it, but even though the music is being produced with current technology, the beats and rhythms feel very 16 bit old school. I know next to nothing about music, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Sequelitis

I love you! But not that much.

Is the gaming industry relying too heavily on sequels?

I love sequels, I really do. I think overall video games fare well when it comes to the business of creating sequels to beloved franchises, which is much more than what I can say for your average movie sequel (Mortal Kombat II, you’ve failed me). Once a good game concept is implemented those foundations can be easily replicated and improved upon and refined to perfection, creating a massive fan base who cling to every nuance of their favorite characters and demand to see more. Which is understandable, why wouldn’t you want more of the games you love?

But over the years, I’ve been noticing a trend in the industry. Publishers are giving us more of what we want and they are doing it at a pretty fast pace. Sequels are now coming more frequently and what I would argue, less innovation. Some publishers, such as Activision have even gotten to the point of releasing a new version of their games on a yearly cycle. Choosing to develop one franchise with multiple studios in order to hit their yearly sales numbers. This isn’t a new phenomenon by any means and even today we still see sequels to some of gaming's biggest franchises of the last 20 years still being reworked and played by millions of fans worldwide. But I feel like over the last eight years or so the world has been filled with more Marios, Zeldas, Master Chiefs, and games with the number 4 in their titles then I feel comfortable with. Often these games are great in their own right, but often they feel a lot like there predecessors. It may be nostalgia creeping into my mind, but I remember sequels to games really feeling like a whole new upgrade to me when I was a younger gamer. Nowadays I feel like I’m just getting slightly modified upgrades to my favorite games. Pretty graphics and a few new mechanics mixed in.

Nintendo sure knows how to throw a party

Screen savers and pins? I feel so special.

If your a member of the Nintendo Club like myself (yes I have no shame), you most likely have noticed that there a few new goodies that you can purchase with your coins on the club website. You have the option to either purchase a Mario Screen saver and a series of commemorative pins to celebrate 25 years of saving the princess, eating mysterious mushrooms, and squeezing your big head down tubes. Since I'm a club member I'm surely going to spend some coins on one of these choice trinkets and wear it with pride as I spend my evening drinking Tall Boys at my local watering hole. But like any video game consumer, I'm never satisfied.

True it's great to get these little exclusive gems for being part of the Club Nintendo, but I still feel a little shafted. We get measly pins and screensavers while Japan and Europe are getting an actual Wii game titled Super Mario Collection (Simular idea as Super Mario Allstars for SNES) to celebrate the occasion. Granted this is a full retail release and will cost you more than these sweater vest accessories, but I would just appreciate the option. Maybe Nintendo will read this post and fix this issue right away. I doubt it.

Would you pick up a copy of Super Mario Collection if it was released in the US?

Are you a member of Club Nintendo?

It all started one year ago today.

October 5th, 2009 was the official launch of the Who Burned My Toast? Podcast and Blog. A few things have changed over the year. First we changed our name from the generic "Select Start", then we redesigned the site and started to include interviews on the podcast. Now we're also are including video game music to our repertoire. It's all been a long slow process since we've been living our double lives as gamers and people who need to make money to pay their bills.

But oh it's been fun and we've met a lot of cool people along the way and we're constantly talking about ways to improve the site (when we have the time). So we're not going anywhere, we'll still be podcasting, and we'll still be attempting to entice you to post comments on the blog.

So listen to the cat and celebrate. You don't want to make Mr. Biggles angry. You won't like him when he's angry.

Thanks everyone for a fun year and keep listening.

Brad (Butcher) and Amado (Den).

Play VVVVVV and tell us what you think.

How do you pronounce this? We have no idea.

VVVVVV is a 2D platformer built using flash by Terry Cavanagh. The main game-play hook of VVVVVV is that you can control gravity with a simple flip of a button. Once second you can be running across the floor and then next you will be running on the ceiling. Overall its a simple yet interesting design that makes up for some puzzle platforming goodness.

Now on the last episode of the podcast, Amado and I spent a good amount of time talking about the game and discussing the pro and cons its play control.

Amado reveled in the music and the gravity puzzling and found the game to be great fun. I on the other hand did not have the same experience and found that the controls ended up making the game more frustrating than it's worth. I must agree that the chiptune music is top notch and much love should be pushed towards the creator of the games soundtrack, Magnus.

Uh oh... Jersey Shore is on T.V.

So here is where you guys come in. We here at Who Burned My Toast want you guys to try out the demo and tell us what you think of the game and its play control. You can grab the demo for free online at http://thelettervsixtim.es/ or you can grab it on Steam for PC or Mac.

We want to know. Does the game make you want to punch babies or does it make you feel like your in 2D platforming heaven? And most of all tell us why.

Augmented Reality - Nothing is what it seems.

No not this...

Augmentation: The process of making or becoming great in size or amount. That is the promise of this new technology that's creeping into our lives. The above image is a representation of ... of ... Damn I've been caught again, I was just trying to get your attention. I feel dirty. Did it work? Do you forgive me?

The Ladies Vs. Gents Puzzle Challenge

Today I went down to Union Square in San Francisco to check out Professor Layton and the Unwound Future for the Nintendo DS. As described in my last blog post, the whole marketing gimmick is to have the ladies and the gents compete in a puzzle challenge.

Game on. We're divided into opposing forces for battle.

Who's smarter — Men or Woman?

That's what Nintendo and Professor Layton want to know. I woke up this morning to an email invite from Nintendo declaring a battle of the sexes in major cities across the country. Their solution to this age old problem is to take regular crazy people off the street, have them play some Nintendo DS and solve puzzles to settle this matter once and for all. Check it out and see if your city is on the list. Luckily one event is San Francisco's Union Square on Sept 7th, so I will be down there representing all the manly men out there with my puzzle skills. Watch out ladies I'm coming for you! (Man that sounds creepy).



So I must ask. Who is smarter, Men or Women? If you Men really are intellectual beasts I think you already know the answer to this question; if you want to live ;-).

Hudson and Child's Play make it easy for you to make a difference.

You already waste your life on Facebook, you might as well be productive.

Hudson and Child's Play have gotten together to help donate toys and games to Children Hospitals around the country. From August 30th until September 7th, you can go onto Hundson's Lost in Shadow Facebook page and "like" them. Each person that "likes" the page, Hudson will donate 10 cents to Child's Play. If your feeling particularly charitable you can go and change your profile pic to any image that contains a shadow. The reward for your clever imagery will rake in an additional 1 dollar donation to the charity.

We've been following Lost in Shadow and it's one of our most anticipated games coming up this holiday. So while your on their Facebook page being all helpful and stuff. Go ahead and learn a bit more about this unique puzzler.

Happy donating!

Love 8bit Music? Live around San Francisco? Then you better be at DNA Lounge this Sunday

This show is going to give you an acoustic seizure

This Sunday Aug 29th, 8bitsf presents a show that is going to tantalize your little 8-bit hearts. With bands like Anamanaguchi, minusbaby, crashfaster, and our friend Mr. Spastic, it's sure to be a kick ass show.

All you gotta do is get your tickets online (you save $4 bones) and walk your nerdy self down to the DNA Lounge.

If your still on the fence deciding whether another night of playing Call of Duty or WoW still sounds like more fun. Go to the 8bitsf website and download free tracks from each of the bands. Like I said before, Mr. Spastic is a friend and if you want to learn more about him and hear some of his music. We interviewed him on the on Episode 20 of the podcast.

So be there, be square, I'll be there.... you know just get you ass down there and pretend like its Friday night.

The Metroid Other M TV spot dresses to impress

If you want to see the HD version go to the Nintendo site here http://bit.ly/cXS5AQ

Normally I wouldn't highlight an advertisement for a game, but I personally walked away from watching this one really impressed. It's a blending of live action and gameplay that all comes together in a way that makes the game look not only fantastic and entertaining, but it also peaks your interest about the games story. I know I may have been duped by some fancy marketing, but it was just enough to push me into the "I gotta play this" category. And best of all you get to see a live action version of Zero Suit Samus. Wowza!

Now this isn't the first time I've been dazzled by a Metroid commercial, when the Metroid Prime TV ad came out, it also gave me the same consumerist instinct to buy it. I guess it just tugs on my dream that one day Metroid could make it onto the big screen and be a kick ass movie. Just keep that bastard Uwe Boll away from my Samus!

Are you planning on purchasing Metroid Other M?
Do you think this TV spot may entice people to play Metroid Other M?

Put your quarter up!

The Past.

I remember a day. A time when on a hot day, I could walk to 7-11, grab a Slurpy, and decidedly spend my whole day in a place of wonders.

Photo by Dan Coogan

This was a magical place. The building from the outside looked like nothing special. Just a little building at the corner of a busy intersection. The sign said “City Arcade”. Yeah I’m talking about the 80’s and Arcades. Let me take you there.

So in this place in particular you’d walk into the double doors and you’d first enter the “Decompression Chamber” is what I called it. It was the room before you are granted access to some of the most colorful, and amazing, arcade cabinets ever invented. In here you shed the heat from the sun, you shed your hatred of humanity, you shed your worry. In this decompression chamber you are renewed, and changed. Now lets walk in.

Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on 3DS please!

So if you’ve heard the podcast you probably know Den <3 Monster Hunter Tri. I really do, I’ve enjoyed about 160 hours worth of gamplay (so far) of Monster Hunter Tri.



I also played a lot of Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for PSP and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. I believe I had about 300+ hours thrown into the ladder version. That said I can’t wait for Monster Hunter Portable 3rd! Seriously look at this trailer!!

That also got me thinking: Japan loves Monster Hunter. Japan loves Nintendo. Nintendo is releasing something Japan (and I) will love, which is the 3DS, very soon. Why not combine it all together!

So without further adieu here is a list or reasons why Monster Hunter Portable 3rd should be on 3DS!!

Play Bit.Trip.Runner and help an Indy developer out.

Every once in awhile I come across some small titles on Wiiware that I fall in love with. Granted Wiiware isn't know for tons of amazing games, but if you look you can find some diamonds in the rough. One of those diamonds is Bit.Trip.Runner by Gaijin Games. They have been responsible for all the other Bit.Trip games that have landed on Wiiware over that last few years. Just like the other games in the series Runners gameplay are based on simple old school game mechanics and music plays an interesting roll as well.

The game plays like a platformer but your main character CommanderVideo is constantly moving right across the screen. Your job is to jump, kick and duck your way past obstacles with out crashing into them. If you hit a wall or fall into a pit your done for good and need to start all the way back beginning of the level. It's painfully cruel, but the levels are short and every move you make is accompanied by some chip-tune inspired sound that somehow mixes with the background music. So as your jumping around and kicking the shit out of things the game produces some crazy music that all blends together.

Now it's seems I'm not the only one who has become a fan of the game and this blogger Gabotron wants to spread the word about  Bit.Trip.Runner. He wants everyone to make a video to help Gaijin out and sell some games. It's only $8 you cheap bastards, so check it out. See below.



So I'm here to help spread the word as well and I am going to use Gabotron's files to create my own video and post it back up here when I'm done. Who knows where me and CommanderVideo will go, but I bet its going to involve some booze.

If you've played Bit.Trip.Runner, what are your thoughts?
Have you tried any other of the Bit.Trip games?

Quote source: Kotaku

Metroid Other M has 2 hours worth of cutscenes. Hooray?

I'm alone... so... alone. OMG shut up!

From the very first trailer shown of Metroid Other M. It was obvious that Nintendo was once again trying something new with the series by including team Ninja into the mix. When Retro Studios turned the Metroid series into an FPS with the Prime series, many fans died of a brain aneurysm. But overall I think most people enjoyed the series new direction.

So here we are again at a crossroad with a new take on the series about to be released. News has slowly trickled about the game, but this bit of info caused my video game nerd type of spidey sense to get all tingly and sense danger coming.

Metroid Other M is going to feature a whole lot of back story about our heroin Samus Aran. So much in fact that the creators added a "Theater Mode" so you can watch all 2 hours of the story like a movie. This is explained in the quote below from Famitsu.

"The storytelling aspect of Other M continues to play a major role even after you beat the game, the way [Nintendo designer Yoshio] Sakamoto puts it. "There's a 'theater mode' that lets you view all of the cutscenes linked together seamlessly as a single movie," he explained. "We placed just as much weight on enjoying the story as we did on the action aspects of this game, but it's hard to fully communicate a storyline in a video game with just one playthrough. At the same time, though, it's asking a lot of players to beat the game twice to get it all, so that's where the idea for that mode came from. It lets you make a lot of discoveries, things you missed or dialogue that makes more sense in retrospect. I hope it helps people understand the story better."

So some of you may be asking yourselves. Why Butcher? Why would this incredible news be getting your spidey sense all in a bunch? I have one thing to say. Metal Gear Solid 4. If you've played MGS4 then you know of the ridiculously long cut scenes and story in the game. I felt like you were spending almost the same amount of time watching cut scenes as playing the game. Now, did any of you really know what in the hell was going on in that game? Be honest.

For me this could go either way in terms of really great, to totally horrible. I honestly don't recall Team Ninja being masters of storytelling. If the production values are bad and your forced to watch it, I'm going to have bad flashbacks from MGS4. I'm not saying it's going to be horrible, but it does have me a little concerned with Team Ninja at the helm. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that we'll see Samus in a bikini on a beach somewhere, holding a volley ball.

Would you sit down and watch all of the cut scenes in Metroid Other M's theater mode?

Capcom announces Street Fighter X Tekken. *Mind Explodes

It seems Capcom is single handily trying to revive the fighting genre on its own by releasing a mass amount of fighting games. So far we've gotten Street Fighter IV, Tansunoku Vs. Capcom, Super Street Fighter IV, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 and now Street Fighter X Tekken is on the way.

Now if your like me, this announcement caught me by surprise and I'm really curious about how this one is going to play out. From the description on Capcom-Unity it looks to be a Tag style game with the Tekken character coming into the Street Fighter universe and graphics engine used by SFIV. I've was really into Tekken Tag back in the day, but really haven't been following the series since then. I will be watching this game closely to see what new features they may be adding to differentiate it from the others. The merging of brands and reviving retro games has been on Capcom's agenda for awhile now and it seems they aren't going to be stopping any time soon. I think that if anyone has a chance at bringing a series back into the forefront of gamers minds and be succuessful at it; it will be Capcom. They've spent a lot of time focusing on their rabid fan base and it looks like its paying off in spades.

Are you looking forward to another VS fighter from Capcom?
Do you still play Tekken?

Super Meat Boy!

One big meat to rule them all

So there's this game I got to play at E3. If you listened to the E3 episode you'll have heard about it, but since I talked forever I'll assume that nobody made it that far.

Anyway This game Super Meat Boy is going to be coming out on 360, Steam (PC), and Wii-Ware. So far there is no plans that I've heard of for PS3 unfortunately.

Super Meat Boy is... well actually here's their words on what it's about:

"Super Meat Boy is a game where you play as a boy without skin whos girlfriend who is made of bandages gets kidnapped by a fetus in a tuxedo wearing a top hat and a monocle."

Yeah that's right, a boy without skin is what he said. It's a 2D side scrolling platformer where you play as Meat Boy and up to 5 other various characters. Each are equipped with their own unique abilities and the objective is to get to the bandage girl while trying not to get killed by all the various saw blades, pits, and many other deadly devices littered throughout the levels.

You know what, I'm not doing it any justice. It's basically just like THIS, but with more characters, more levels, more blood, more... everything really.

What the?! Megaman Universe confuses the masses.

Megaman has always been a cool concept for me. I actually was one of the only kids that missed the bus on this one. I don't really know why but it didn't call to me the way it did to other kids.

Anywho, this trailer was released and what it teases it seems is some kind of Capcom crossover game. Again, no clue what is going on here but it's fun to speculate.

Maybe it'll be a 2D platformer, where you'll get powers from all of the different Capcom characters. Ryu's Hadouken, Bionic Commando's arm, stuff like that.

What does this trailer tell us, if anything, about the game?

Is it going to be made to look like clay animation like that horrid "Clay Fighters" game?

Will it be a 2D retro flavored game?

It's official. Monster Hunter Tri will dominate your Wii game-play time.

Did you know that the Wii keeps track of your game-play time and you can access that data through the Nintendo Channel?

As you can see from the image to the right, this is my game-play data from the top five games I've spent the most time with on the Wii. Now if you are a keen observer you will see that Monster Hunter Tri has easily made it way to the top spot in a very short amount of time since it's release on April 20th, 2010.

It's just amazing to me to see how many hours I've totaled since then. All of the others games in the top five seen here, has taken me more than a years worth of play time to get these numbers and they still can't come close to matching MH Tri.

I'm going to keep checking my hours routinely to see how high it goes. At this point I see no end is sight for me and I can see for anyone who gets into this game, the replay value is just through the roof. Just a warning to you all who may wander into Monster Hunter Tri's clutches. It may take over your gaming life.

How many hours worth of Monster Hunter do you have racked up so far?

Where does Monster Hunter Tri stand in your game-play data?

Scott Pilgrim VS the world: Game

So I seen this movie trailer for "Scott Pilgrim VS the world" and I thought to myself. That's interesting. It seems very different. Doesn't look like I'd enjoy it all that much but at least someone is doing something different.

Then I found a trailer for the game. Now that looks amazing! It's an old school beat 'em up type of game which is something I and a few other people I've talked to have been craving for a while. So that's one part that is somewhat attractive to me, but here's what really gets me excited.






A man named Paul Robertson (not Robert Paulson) once created a really awesome video called "Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006". This video was/is so amazing because it was done completely in pixel art. Very well drawn, and animated. This is relevant to this post because he is the artist who did all the animation for this game! Check this shit out! Scott Pilgrim VS The World.



I've wish this guy would make a video game for a long long time, and here it finally is! I hope it's good! :).

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor
Platform: Wii
Developer: Treasure
Publisher: Nintendo

I’ve had my eye on Sin and Punishment: Star Successor ever since I downloaded the N64 import of Sin and Punishment for the Wii Virtual Console. Like most of us outside Japan, this was our first taste of the S&P arcade shooter goodness that Treasure can dish out. I spent my days dreaming of how the Wiiremote IR pointer could really bring this game into its own. Gladly, I am here to report that I was right.

Destroying a Barroth

Not through yet!

Scott from www.coffeewithgames.blogspot.com captured yet another hunt! This one is against a Barroth. This guy was Butcher and I's first wall. We fought him 3 or 4 times before we finally killed him! After that we spent a lot of time helping people fight this stupid guy. I liken him to "Bald Bull" from "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out", because once you figure him out, he's cake!

Hunting some Monsters...

So if you've been paying any attention you probably realize that we here at WBMT really love hunting some monsters in Monster Hunter Tri. So when Scott from www.coffeewithgames.blogspot.com invited us on a quest, we were all about it!

We fought a Rathian at a place called "Flooded Forest". Anyway here's the vid Scott made :)

Oh right, and just for clarification my (Den) character's name is Feo.

Enjoy;



Thanks again Scott!

Pacman...

So Pac-Man is like one of those icons. I've never been particularly great at the game either, but for some reason I like him. Probably due to the fact that it was probably one of the first games I ever played as a kid.

Anyway enough nostalgia, I made this:

It's the 4th of July, where's the podcast!?

Happy 4th everyone, due to Canada's birthday and America's freedom from that oppressive wench, the Queen of England. The podcast has been moved to next week and will be back on it's normal bi-weekly schedule.

Just like the rest of you in this glorious country of ours, we're going to be drinking cheap ass beer and blowing stuff up the American way. Cause that's how we do it.

America, fuck yeah.

Evidence of me at E3!

I've been trying to get some pictures of me taken by a friend with no success. But here Unity has proven my existence! The video to audio synch is off a bit, but it still works!

Watch the interview.

E3 Day 1: 3DS

So I arrived last night around 10:30 pm, I headed straight to Capcoms Dead Rising event in LA. I'm not all that interested in Dead Rising 2, so not a big deal — but hey, open bar woot!

This morning I got up early to pick up my ticket and waited with everyone else to run in and see the 3DS! Doors opened, then I spent the next 2.5 hours waiting in line. I met some very cool cats in line, but lets get to it!

3DS:

Dinosaur Strike-- Yes that's right, 2.5 hours of waiting and Dinosaur Strike is the carrot at the end of my stick (yes Butcher, that's what she said). Actually they had a racing game there as well, but I didn't notice it until I was being dragged away kicking and screaming. They also had a few videos. They had a Resident Evil video, Metal Gear, and some other stuff.

Like I said kicking and screaming is how they had to get me out of there. This 3D tech looks really good. There is a slider on the top screen on the side that you can adjust the 3D effect. The higher you have it set, the bigger dept of field you'll see. This is probably going to help when you're on the train or some place where you aren't really going to be sitting still.

Whatever. The damn thing is amazing, the booth girls weren't spilling any details about the hardware's specs either... but then again, most of them had no clue what they had tied to their arms (yes the 3DS was secured to a model). It was actually kind of funny to hear them try to tell me how to play it.

What gets me excited about the 3DS is well the 3D. I won't have to wear any cumbersome 3D glasses in order to see it either. All I have to do is look at the screen. And finally because the 3D screen is the top one, it'll force developers to PICK A G'DAMN SCREEN! There is some untapped potential with 3D games now that it's easy. It seems that without the glasses, people actually enjoy 3D, who'd have thunk it!

Physically it looks just like a DS. Like almost exactly like a DS, except that top screen is a little bit wider, and the 3D slider adjustment. Graphically it seems a wee bit more polished than the iPhone and PSP.

I'm not going to lie I friggin' love the thing, and have will have to force myself to stay away from it so that I can actually check out some of the other things on the show floor.

Soooo...

What should I check out next? Please send comments or emails! I'll check them tomorrow morning before I head in.

Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker

Enjoying Metal Gear Peacewalker for PSP & anxious for E3! ~ Den

Get Portal For Free. Don't be stupid, go get it.

Ever wanted to play Portal, but didn't want to pay for it? Get it for free on Steam without the guilt of stealing it like you would from using a Bit Torrent. The offer is good only until May 24th, so hurry up.  It's available for Mac and PC in case you were wondering Mac owners.

http://store.steampowered.com/freeportal/

Is the DS down and out? Not quite yet.

So you might have noticed that the DS is in a bit of a drought in terms of new and awesome games. With the announcement of the 3DS it may seem that the were in a bit of a void until its future release.

But if your still in the mood to do some gaming on your way to work or on your summer vacation, I would recommend checking out Dementium II for the DS. It is the sequel to Renegade Kid's original Dementium  released back in 2007.

In my opinion Renegade Kid is the definitive FPS developer for the DS. I've tried other franchises, such as Call of Duty, but so far nothing has comes close to what Renegade Kid can do and does with the DS. It's very impressive for basically just a few guys running the show.

Dementium II is more of a FPS adventure than a shooter as you play as William Redmoor. Poor Will has awoken from a brain operation, conducted on him by a crazed Psychiatric ward doctor. In the first Dementium (spoiler) the whole game was a hallucination caused by this horrific operation. Now that you've escape the trap of your mind, you must figure out what really has happened to you, while fighting off flash backs induced by your hacked up brain. It may not be as suspenseful as a Stephen King novel, but it gets the job done.

With a fine tuned user interface and more mutated looking evil to fight, this should fill your daily gore and FPS gameplay needs. I would give it a look and support one of the best small developers the DS has.

www.dementium.com

PSP 2? no effing way!

Den here~

If anyone has heard any bit of this podcast you would know that I love my PSP. There are now rumors of a PSP 2! HERE it is written that: "MCV has been informed of a significant increase in marketing spend at two key publishers for Q4 2010". They also go on to say that a certain unnamed publisher is waiting for an announcement before it can reveal it's plans for the PSP.

666 The Beast!

See this? The beast has spoken. Our steady accession to the throne may commence!

P.S.
I've started a facebook page, really just testing it out! Friend us here:

Who Burned My Toast on Facebook

If that link doesn't work just search "Who Burned My Toast?" on facebook and you'll find us :).

Monster Hunter Tri Love

Can you guess which one of us is which?

Ah yes finally being released is Monster Hunter Tri! We hunted down BASTION of www.capcom-unity.com. A moderator there to answer some of our questions, and well really just to annoy him.


Listen to the Podcast

Email us at whoburnedmytoast@gmail.com or post comments, suggestions, or death threats right here on the blog. We enjoy hearty debate. Bring it!

When internet randomness attacks!

So this has nothing to do with games AT ALL, but I was working on this ol' blog here typing away happily and making a nice link to post of the blog url. Well I got around to checking the link in the post I was working on and clicked the link below.

http://www.whoburnedmytoast.blogpsot.com/

I thought we had been hacked by some crazies. I have no idea why this site exist or even why its named the url it is, but its just F'in weird. All it takes is one missplaced letter my friends and you find internet gold. Or maybe in this case some scary shit. I hope someone didn't go looking for our site and ended up there.

Mass Effect 2 The Review

Mass Effect 2 Review
Platform: 360, PC, PS3
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: Action RPG




Story: You are Commander Shepard, and your on the Normandy (your ship duh). Things happen, and you find yourself "Acquired" by a group of people called Cerberus. These people apparently were not your friends in part 1, but in this one, you work for them.

They have hired you to gather a group of people to find out why colonies of humans are disappearing. Humans, Aliens, Robots, dirty alien sex--it's all there.

Review: The Heavy Rain Experience (No Spoilers)

Platform: PS3

Developer:Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

As reviews go for games this is going to be a short one. It's not that I don't want to tell you everything that is amazing about Heavy Rain, it's that I don't want to ruin the story by revealing any clues to you. It's best played with a clean slate of mind. If you've gone ahead and read some other reviews or sneaked a peak, you're really only hurting yourself. I'm going to lay it out on the table for you all right now. I'm recommending everyone go out and play Heavy Rain. Even if you don't have a PS3, borrow one or steal one.

Origami. It will give you deadly paper cuts.

Lost Planet 2 looks... Good?

Boy am I sick of seeing shooters nowadays. It seems that everyone has noticed that the shooters sell like hotcakes over here, so they are making their own versions. I think though, some of these people are DOING IT RIGHT! Just take a look: