S.C.G

But then... this is Samus Aran we're talking about here, if any woman can fight or go bounty hunting in high heeled jet boots, then it's her!

Phantasy Star Online... It's all you need! : peace:

This is one of my most wanted GBA games for the Wii U VC at the moment ever since replaying Metroid Fusion - which I'm still playing and is partly why VC Weekly is really late (new one going up tonight) - I have a hunger for Metroid games of late even though I've played through them all a fair few times. To me Metroid is one of those near-perfect gaming series, I understand that it can divide people too and I respect that - even if as a Metroid fan I can't quite fathom it completely - but generally if you like one game in the series then you're sure to love all of them - I include Metroid Other M in that statement - because they each offer an excellent experience in their own way but the one thing that they all share is that key element of exploration and for the most part isolation which makes the series so absorbing. Here's hoping Nintendo decide to make either 2014 or 2015 the year of Samus Aran as it really has been too long. : peace:

I'm naturally assuming that when DS games come around on the VC that they will be able to use both screens - TV= top screen, Gamepad=bottom screen - at least I really hope this will be an option, otherwise it'll seem a bit pointless to me. If they can get multiplayer working on new servers as well though that would be phenomenal but... well, we shall see what E3 brings, with any luck Nintendo will have a few surprises regarding online for us, I can only hope but if not then oh well. It's nice to dream at least. : peace:

Damn that really is bad... Most times I'm at the car boot I find copies of Brain Training and regularly pass them up, I did buy both of them once but they were for someone else - I already have a copy of the first one - I must say though that even though the car boot down here has never quite been as bad as that even on a rubbish week, the general quality of items has certainly gone down over the last year or so. It doesn't cost anything to get into but I do have to factor in the £7.50 return bus fare whenever I go - bus prices are a rip-off in Cornwall - so I usually end up just buying 'anything' game related that seems reasonably priced just so that it feels like a worthwhile trip. These days I'm a lot more discerning though but I do find some bargains every now and then, tending to go most weeks to my local car boot when it's good weather - no point in bothering if it's chucking it down - because diligently going to the same place each week can pay off eventually but sometimes you end up finding nothing much at all for weeks which can be a bit of a let-down. Seems to be a bit of a gamble but I think it's worth going along on my day off just to get out of the house for a bit/fresh air etc but on a good week when you bag a load of bargains it is most certainly worthwhile. : peace:

That reminds me, at the car boot last week my best buy had to be a copy of this... For the princely sum of £2.

Happy Birthday! To our resident six-sided staff member and fellow Sonic fan Cube I hope you have a great day! : peace:

Hmm looking back perhaps I was blinded a bit by how 'good' the game was in comparison to past recent offerings, I think the trouble is because I've played near enough every Sonic game in existence I've been through it all at the series greatest dizzying heights to it's downright shoddy lows. At the time Sonic Lost World felt to me like a revelation at least from Sonic's perspective but perhaps I was a little bit overzealous? What I'm trying to say is that the score that I gave the game still represented the amount of enjoyment that I got out of it but I can easily understand why it would get a lower score elsewhere now and while it's certainly not 'everything' I still feel that it didn't deserve to get scores as low as '4' so I'll still stand by that as even at it's worst it's a borderline '7' but at it's heights surely a solid '8' when the game really gets it right. : peace: In any case I'll try and be a bit more balanced in my reviews from now on, I'm not saying that I regret every score that I've given a game on here plus it is just a number after all - on reflection I'd have to agree with @Ashley in that I'd actually love to abolish scores if we could - but I'm not meaning to turn this into a huge off-topic debate it's just... games like Sonic in particular always divide opinions but I think most of us can agree that there's at least the partial makings of a solid title in there somewhere, let's just hope that when Sonic Team get another chance to prove themselves that they start with a 'physics first' approach - old MD style not 'Havok' or whatever - and then sparingly add any extras later on or not at all. A basic Sonic game would be better for everyone, keep it simple and things have less chance of going wrong... right? Yeah, we'll see anyway. :p

Do you ever buy from ShopTo? If so, take a look at their bundles... http://www.shopto.net/product/search/genre/HARDWARE/platform/ps3 Have a look at the main PS3 section on the site, there seems to be plenty of games coming out for it still - even a few I was unaware of - but yeah there's enough games on it, especially if you haven't played any of them, you'll have no shortage of titles to play! You could buy a second-hand PS3 if you want but I'd advise just buying a Super Slim as I had a normal Slim PS3 die on my recently, plus my original model PS3 almost got the the point of overheating after years of use, a lot of the first PS3's have no end of problems if you buy them second hand at this stage, so yeah I'd go with the latest model if you've got the cash to spare. ShopTo give you a years replacement warranty too so just in case anything did go wrong, they would take the old console away and deliver you a new one but I don't recall hearing any problems about the new ones. By the way, do you like the Tales of... games? If you do and if you decide to buy a PS3 let me know as I have a second sealed copy of Tales of Symphonia Chronicles which I'd let you have for cheap - £20 free postage - if you're interested to get your collection started, have a think about eeet anyway. : peace:

Playstation Plus is going to be around for a long time, it has been gaining in popularity year on year, I only recently - within the last half a year - started discovering why it's so good as I've accumulated quite a few free games from it ready for when I want to play them. I believe that Sony have even gone on the record to say that just because the PS4 is out doesn't mean they'll stop supporting the PS3, so they will likely still be giving out free games for the PS3/PSV/PS4 for the foreseeable future. For me it's all about the exclusives like the Tales of... series, I have three games on the PS3 just counting those, well technically four as I have Tales of Symphonia Chronicles which contains both of the games on one disc, in HD, Tales of Graces f which was originally going to be on the Wii but we know what happened there... then you have Tales of Xillia which is a brand new entry in the series with a sequel which will be coming out sometime this year presumably. But I'm underselling it by just talking about the RPG's as you have the Uncharted series which is fantastic, Metal Gear Solid 4 which is worth playing at least once, Ninja Gaiden Sigma - hnnnnnnngggghhh! love Ninja Gaiden - plus the inFamous games - double hnnnnnnnnnghhh! - and much more besides especially when you consider the PS1/PS2 games which you can buy digitally for really reasonable prices in addition to getting an extra 10% off with Plus... frequent sales too which are good. I'm not trying to pressure you but it's definitely worth it brah! : peace:

'Playstation Now' is coming... it's a way of being able to stream all of the old games - yes ALL of them apparently including PS1/2/3/4? - for a monthly fee, so it will largely depend on your internet connection. Because I'm old fashioned I have a PS3 so that I can play the actual discs and a PS2 for everything else, I realise that the idea of having all these consoles might not appeal but really I still think it's the best way but at least 'Playstation Now' will be a solution of sorts that you'll be able to access on lots of devices but yeah... that's the situation currently. I'd consider picking up a new PS3 super slim for cheap if you can so that you can play PS3 games in the meantime while considering purchasing the PS4, my PS3 still gets a lot more play time than my PS4 because it has all the great games on it that I want to play which aren't available elsewhere but there are at least a good few decent PS4 games out currently - inFamous Second Son for one - but there are plenty more on the horizon. : peace:

I reckon the surprise third party character - if any - will be Lloyd from Tales of Symphonia or at least I hope so anyway, would prefer him over Pac-Man... plus is the yellow pill-muncher was going to be the character in the wrapped up present box then wouldn't the wrapping be yellow too? Or is that perhaps too obvious... Not long now until we find out! : peace:

If Ms Samus Aran was a doctor, I wouldn't mind being seen by her... ...amiright? skulks away back into the shadows until 11pm... :p

I'll see if I can get a pic sorted out for you soon, all I know off-hand is that it's a boxed Pal version Sega Saturn with the original controllers plus an arcade stick which came with it.

Yeah, I originally bought it as a larger lot with the intention of possibly fixing/replacing the LED but just never got around to it, probably a simple operation but I just haven't really looked into it. But yes it would bug me too, it's a shame because otherwise the machine is in pretty good shape.

@Hogge if you're interested I actually have a spare boxed Sega Saturn which unfortunately is missing the power light(?) - random I know - but otherwise is working to my knowledge though I'd need to test it. Indeed the main reason I bought the extra machine was because it was in a job lot but because of it and another auction I was able to assemble a second copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga meaning that I technically have a spare which I'd be willing to sell for a reasonable price - not peanuts obviously - but because it's complete including the sleeve which has some small tears plus significant wear to it chances are I'd be letting it go for a bit less than some copies go for on eBay. : peace: Anyway if you're interested then shoot me a PM or even if you just want the console plus a few games - I have some spare games I could bundle in - then let me know but I completely understand if you want to source everything yourself from eBay like I did. Either way the Saturn is an amazing machine with a lot of quality games to offer, I only have a slice of what's available on the machine but my rather concise collection includes... Athlete Kings Burning Rangers Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams Deep Fear D Darius Gaiden Mighty Hits NiGHTS into Dreams Panzer Dragoon Panzer Dragoon II Panzer Dragoon Saga Parodius Resident Evil Sega Ages Vol.1 Shining Force III Sonic 3D Sonic Jam Sonic R The Story of Thor Virtua Fighter Virtua Fighter 2 The other games that I have are just kind of 'spare' but the above list is my personal collection which I'm quite pleased with.

As I mentioned before, the Dual Shock 4 - to me - is the first iteration that actually feels more like a proper controller as opposed to a toy, so I'm really happy with it even though the main issue of the battery not lasting too long is a bit of an annoyance, aside from that, no real issues though I've noticed the surface of the touch pad does wear away over time but even so, this is only a small aesthetic problem. : peace:

Rhythm Paradise is fantastic, it's the essence of gaming in it's purest most addictive form, I didn't pick it up when it first came out, I found it cheaply later on down the line - same with the Wii version - but I found it to be damn good fun! : peace: That's all I really have to say about it though, for me there's more to talk about regarding last weeks game - Advance Wars - but I'm in the process of reviewing it - plus Mario & Luigi/Metroid Fusion - nevertheless I will post a slightly belated write-up on it soon.

It's LEGO and it's half price, I think you know what to do. BUY EET!

^ Dat HD Metroid... Loving the transparency effect and the general level of detail.

They may have fixed the issue with the original 3DS bit I've had a small scratch on the top screen of my 3DS XL since day 1 due to a very small piece of 'extra' plastic which was loosely attached to the raised rim of the bottom screen, it's barely noticeable though - hence I didn't bother doing anything about it - but yes, nothing like the screen-marking issue of the original model.

Advance Wars is so... damn... good! Its been too long! I've literally not played it since the early GBA days but already it's all coming back to me, I might be playing it to review but I'm certainly going to enjoy this. Let's go to war! :awesome:

There isn't an endless version of it but I will say that the very last stage is most certainly a challenge to say the least, it's very much a 'one more go' kind of game too though I shall be resisting playing it tonight instead opting for some Advance Wars hopefully, will no doubt get to play more Kirby over the weekend though.

Dedede's Drum Dash is so fun/frustrating at the same time... being that it's a rhythm game though I already know the probability of @RedShell absolutely loving it is very high indeed...

That reminds me, I must go back to this and finish it a second time on my Evil playthrough, I've taken a break from it over the last few days to focus on reviews but I'm sure it won't be long before I'm back in Seattle cracking skulls, though I'm not looking forward to the part just before you get your third power as I'm sure that's going to be at least a bit of a challenge... not that I don't like games being difficult here and there just that I remember that part to be more like... 'argh dammit I almost had it, only a few hits away!' and that was on Normal, so should be 'fun' on Expert, otherwise though it hasn't been too bad on the difficulty front.