Feb 10 -- Anticipation

Sometimes the waiting is the best part. (THAT's why this post is delayed, right? Right? I'm so meta!) Games are big productions. New video games get full on premieres with midnight release parties, huge previews at enormous cons, etc. Fantasy Flight, Wizards of the Coast, and Games Workshop spend some dough marketing their new board and card games, sometimes months in advance. Get the fans excited--get the buzz going. 


I remember calling the nearest Toys R Us, asking about their stock on hand for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The answer was always, "0." It wasn't out yet. I made DOZENS of these calls as the game got delayed for US release. (It was released in Japan two years before we saw it stateside.) Before the Internet and before the rise of game magazines, you got info from the source: Nintendo Fan Club Newsletter. They started chatting this thing up in March of 1988--the game came out in December. Nine months of coveting. And in this case?


The waiting was the best part. I didn't like it. It took the game in a new direction (top-down adventure became side scrolling RPG, complete with grind!). I still bought it, beat it, and beat it again; but man--kind of a letdown. Let's hope that's not the case for the GotD.


Game of the Day: SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2

Nintendo has a tradition of one release per franchise per system. SNES got Super Mario World. N64 got Super Mario 64. GCN got Super Mario Sunshine. And the Wii got Super Mario Galaxy. And now, they are getting a sequel. I'm not sure what's prompting the change--probably has to do with great big piles of money--but I'm not complaining. I loooooved Super Mario Galaxy. It is the prettiest game in my library (Ikaruga--you're beautiful, SMG is pretty). It's bright and colorful, it's fun, and not throw-the-controller difficult.


SMG 2 is promising all of that, plus Yoshi! I'm not calling Toys R Us anymore, but let's say I keep an eye peeled for news on this front.