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 ;-).