Author: BreakmanX

OK, so the show is over, but the LAN party is rockin! If you’d like to watch it go here. Show will be up soon.

You’ve probably heard it said that the best things in life are free. Any gamer, however, will tell you that’s a load of Pokéshit. We have to pay for our jollies; Smash Bros and Final Fantasy don’t come cheap. Or do we? Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not sanctioning piracy of any kind. There are just plenty of other ways to have fun, all of them legal and free. Sometimes, though, the trick is finding the good stuff, sorting the wheat from the chaff. There’s an awful lot of junk out there, but it’s worth it to…

When you label someone as a "gamer", in the back of your head somewhere you know that some game or series got them hooked on gaming. For guys, this could be anything from a 3-D FPS on their first PC to an RPG on the old NES, to even (the new "gamers") GTA, Smash Bros., or BioShock… Guys, for once in their lives, are more complicated than the female of the species. For girls (95% of the time) the game that gets them hooked is: 1- Dr. Mario 2- Tetris 3- Harvest Moon And usually in that order. Harvest Moon for…

Now, I know this is not game related, but it is related to the site so you’re just going to have to bear with me on this one… I’m sure that some of you have gathered that there is a sort of connection with The University of Kansas and BreakmanX.com. Q, Maul, and I all have degrees from the institution while Richie has attended classes there. In fact, besides Richie and VDG I’ve met every other host on the show through KU. Besides current members of the staff, I also met Weezerjedi, Jack Burt0n, and Afrotect on campus as well. …

Welcome, friends, to the first of what should come to be many interviews with stars from all corners of the media world; interrogating them on their video game histories and habits. Our first guest is one of my personal favorites, Emily Perkins, best known for her leading role in the Ginger Snaps werewolf trilogy, and recently seen in cameos as (fellow KU Alumnus) Mandy Patinkin’s final collected soul in the series Dead Like Me, and in Juno as the girl who’s boyfriend’s junk smells like pie. Our Canadian readers will also recognize her as a recurring character from the hit…

Welcome, friends, to the first of what should come to be many interviews with stars from all corners of the media world; interrogating them on their video game histories and habits. Our first guest is one of my personal favorites, Emily Perkins, best known for her leading role in the Ginger Snaps werewolf trilogy, and recently seen in cameos as (fellow KU Alumnus) Mandy Patinkin’s final collected soul in the series Dead Like Me, and in Juno as the girl who’s boyfriend’s junk smells like pie. Our Canadian readers will also recognize her as a recurring character from the hit…

Ok, you guys got me. Here’s the real post. It starts with an initial investment, $60. That gets me a new release title that I’ll play for about two weeks, based on fun and replay value. Then I take the game to a local game reseller, get store credit – usually around $30 – and buy the next game I want. This is my method for buying games, started months ago, and I’ve got my reasons. Buying new releases almost guarantees they’ll be in stock and in good condition (I’m impatient). Rolling the value of one game into the…

*Side note: After reading part 2 of 3 a friend of mine e-mailed me and said that I left out a Zelda game that should have been mentioned, The Minish Cap. While it IS a game in the Zelda series, I chose to keep it off of the list for the reason that I don’t think it makes a good starter game for getting into the series. Even though when you look at the story line, Minish Cap PROBABLY happened before all of the other game, I will argue that its "Start-off stance" is not so great because the game is…

There probably isn’t a person alive (at least, anyone that would read this site) that isn’t fully aware of the ongoing struggle and perpetual asshattery of the RIAA. For the purpose of this article, I sum up for you: The RIAA is an organization that represents the major music labels, and they’re really pissed at the internet. The internet lets people download music for free, so of course, they don’t like this, because they’re losing money over it. You can make all the rationalizations you want, you can say that downloading exposes music to people who wouldn’t have gotten…

Zelda: Game Boy to N64 The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – Original Game Boy and GB Color – 1993 The first time that Link appears on a handheld, is also the first of many times that he ends up somehow on an island. Though graphics are minimal (4-bit B&W or Color with the DX version) the game actually has a few improvements to the Zelda scheme of things. Now, instead of using the sword and one implement, you can actually change out both hands, so that you wield two implements. Link also gains the ability to jump through…

Part 1: Whether you are a casual gamer or a hardcore enthusiast, you have to give respect to the Legend of Zelda series. Started back in the mid-eighties by Nintendo, the series has influenced gaming culture as a whole in so many ways it’s mind bottling (Did you just say "mind bottling’?!) Think of it this way: The Legend of Zelda on the 8-bit NES was the first of it’s kind in MANY categories. It was the first console video game EVER to feature a SAVE option with a battery backup. It was one of the first console…

My recent, or ever-loving, fascination with Sonic the Hedgehog is something that I’ve talked about at great length on the show on and this medium and is almost as omnipresent here as my love of 2d games. Well it has finally happened, someone at SEGA decided that 2d was the way to go with Sonic the Hedgehog. Don’t believe me, check this out: In case any of you are still skeptical of this, SEGA confirmed this to the German magazine SEGA ON and then quickly had them pull it. Until the story was pulled, SEGA also said that this…

Come one, come all; delve into the wonders of our latest picture blog! Pop culture merchandise is bigger than it ever has been. Twenty years ago, finding toys, clothes, trading cards, anything with comic book or video game tie-ins was a rare treat. Sure, you could find some movie related toys, like Star Wars, but if you wanted to find a Link with Sword Swingin’ Action!… good luck. For some reason, it took the pop culture markets a good fifteen years or so to realize what a cash crop was growing in gamer culture, but now that they’ve caught on,…

JDogindy suggested the Klampons from Donkey Kong Country 2 as enemies for Mystic Forest. I’ve included the Klampons, complete with sound effects, and even their mad chomping when they hurt Mario. If you’ve played the first public Beta, you may have seen this stage as a quick power-up station. Mystic Forest is World 2-2 in Super Mario Fusion. It is a medium-difficulty stage. Unlike other levels I’ve made so far, Mystic Forest is a completely original level, not patterned after any specific game (though it uses graphics from Actraiser and SMA4). Super Mario Fusion will have original-themed levels as…

So I’m going to have to ask you guys to bear with me today. Normally I try to be productive with this space – history lessons, industry news, wild speculation, and the like. I’m not posting here to waste your time, I’m posting here because I usually have something to say about games. But today is different. Today, I’ve got something very special to say to a certain someone, and it can only be said here. Over two years ago, a girl walked up to me and introduced herself – Alison. Bright blue eyes, a shining smile, bubbly personality, and…

And on the 8th day, the Lawd Gawd had a Son. And the Son, whom He had nameth Jesus, looked forth into the future, and he did say: "The peoples of the world, I willst bringeth them to my bosom, for I doth love them all. Excepteth they that reside in 4chan. I fucking hate those guys. Forsooth." I’ve had some interesting experiences on the internet the past few weeks. See, I’ve come to expect a certain kind of friendliness from the internet. Yes, I know, big fucking mistake. But hear me out. Most of my internet community experience…

Destructoid.com editor Tron Knotts contributed some custom Mario sprites for a new suit for Mario! It even has its own power-up icon. When Mario picks up the Spartan Sphere, he turns into Spartan Mario! As Spartan Mario, he has a powerful Energy Sword melee attack. When I can think of another power or ability Spartan Mario should have, I’ll add it in. If you have reasonable suggestions for Spartan Mario, let us know! The top suggested abilities for Spartan Mario: *Energy Bar for the Energy Sword, which depletes each time it hits an enemy. *Rechargeable Energy Shield. It…

I’m sure by now many of you have heard that I came down with something. Basically, I’ve been completely incompacitated all week. Sometimes when you are sick you can squeeze some enjoyment out of it by playing a game here and there, but I’ve been so sick I haven’t even been able to do that. Today, one day short of a week later, is the first day I feel any improvement. Here’s hoping that keeps up. I’m looking forward to playing Smash Bros. with my classic controller once I’m feeling better. The idea of using the classic controller to…

Here we have our first video sample. This is a demonstration of the level "Tower of Babel", which takes place in World 4, "The Demon Realm." This world mixes in the Doom games, and the Tower of Babel demonstrates this pretty effectively. It even has one of the bosses form Doom as a miniboss! I could describe it to you, but it’s probably best to see it yourself!

[Warning, rampant speculation ahead.] Straight on the heels of an announced June 12th release date, we hear this snippet of an interview with Hideo Kojima in Famitsu: Kojima: For us, we’re not still not satisfied with the quality we can do. You know, there’s not capacity space. Interviewer: Wait, wait a sec. Saying there’s not enough capacity, are you talking about Blu-ray? Kojima: That’s correct.…

(Before we get started, there’s another comic hidden in this thing, but the ‘Read More’ button isn’t appearing, so hit the comments link if you want to read it…and you do. Mecha, little help here?) At last, I was able to sneak my way into the Break Cave to have this week’s content scanned. Break is still under the weather, though, so wish him well and fingers crossed that I didn’t breath too much of his germ ridden air into my lungs. Moving on… There’s been a lot of discussion the last two weeks about Lost Odyssey on the 360.…

This past weekend has been my birthday weekend (my actual birthday being the 24th) and I must say it definitely ranks among the best birthdays I have experienced. Got a lot of great presents, and spent time with most of my family. Also got a lot of meaningful messages from friends and family, and even a few of you guys sent me emails and pms on the forums. Truly makes me feel wonderful. Thanks again to all of you that wished me a happy birthday. Was also nice to watch the Oscars on my birthday, and I hope that in…

Is shovelware a plague upon gamers, or a sign of the times? A quick look at a Wii game rack is all it takes to see the problem. You know the titles to look for, the must-plays, the killer apps. But you have to hunt. They’re in there, somewhere, buried amongst the obvious dregs like Carnival Games, Petz Dogz 2, and My Horse and Me. It’s almost a game in itself, only not fun. Ever since launch, the Nintendo Wii has seen a flash flood of absolute garbage. Cheap TV licenses, multi-platform movie releases and PlayStation 2 ports, all…

… outside of comic books, I suppose. Ok kids. This is waaaay late, thanks to the one-two punch of my not having internet last night till way late, and my having fallen asleep upon coming home after taking care of 17 six-year-olds all afternoon. Yowza. I think the Gameshow has pretty adequately covered most of the game news of the last couple weeks, and while Break and I have been talking a lot lately about retro gaming, I wanted to look ahead for a moment, gander at another of my favorite things. No, not whiskers on kittens, I’m talkin’ movies.

‘Allo, you bloody yanks. RurouniQ here, writing to you from Great Britain. (Although if it’s so Great, why did the US win the Revolutionary War?) Yes, that’s right, I’m in the UK. I will tell you now, things are quite different here… and at the same time, not really that different. It’s like walking some kind of Star Trek alternate reality, because things are just similar enough to be familiar, but different enough to be strange. Imagine suddenly waking up and everyone’s speaking English, everything is written in English, but all the buildings are different. The journey here was…

Hopefully all of you have seen Super Mario Fusion by now, but if you haven’t check it out now. I talked to JudgeSpear and he decided to allow BreakmanX.com to host his amazing project. Our entire staff has been really enamored with this game since we first laid eyes on it, so it really makes us proud to have this great little project tangentally connected to us. We hope that you will click the Super Mario Fusion link on the left and see the page that Mecha and Q designed for it. Richie’s post about the SEGA channel brought me…

There are 10 separate worlds planned for Super Mario Fusion, each having its own theme and scope of games. They also will have multiple stages in each world, with levels like the classic Fortress levels from Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Switch Palaces from Super Mario World. Here is the list of all the worlds that will be in the game: World 1: The Mushroom Kingdom (standard Mario stuff) World 2: Alternate Earth (Military War Zone and other real-world locations) World 3: Mega Man’s World (Levels based on those of the original Mega Man series) World 4:…

Today, online functionality is necessary to survive in the console war. But in 1994, Sega was way ahead of the times. What a trip down memory lane…the Sega Channel. If you grew up in the 90’s, you wanted it, the same way you wanted a Power Wheels or that ginormous Lego set. The Nintendo kids – like me – didn’t know if we should try to find something wrong with it, or convert as soon as possible. It wasn’t a dream come true; we hadn’t even dreamt of something like this. It was better. Sega Channel was the reason not…

“If you only knew what I’ve seen with your eyes.” The future: flying cars, clear plastic raincoats, Japanese stuff everywhere, reploids gouging out peoples’ eyes and dreaming of electric sheep, midgets. We’ve seen many visions of the future through books and movies and none of those really feature any of what video games will be like in those far off, dreamy days (unless maybe you count the virtual sex headset of Demolition Man )…

So if you’ve listened to the show, you’ve probably at least heard of Rez. Its one-of-a-kind visuals and the legend of the Trance Vibrator (literally, a USB vibrator that vibrated in time with the game and came in a machine-washable sleeve) make this game hard to forget, much less ignore. Well, Rez HD came out yesterday for Xbox Live Arcade, and dammit if it isn’t the best XBLA game to date. Rez HD is the 360’s answer to Super Metroid being on Virtual Console. Oh, did I just go there? Did I just compare Rez to Super Metroid? Yes. Yes…