Toronto Thumbs

Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!
Samba De Amigo

Good morning, fellow Thumbs! Do you know what day it is? It’s Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!

We here at Toronto Thumbs know that there are so many ways you’d prefer to spend today rather than going to (or being at) work. Perhaps you could be standing in line at a Boxing Day sale while children clamor around you with armfuls of shovel-ware and you just wish you were dead. But before I suffer a complete seasonal breakdown why not let us distract you with the lighthearted remembrance of games past…

The final week of 2008 belongs to the budget title around our office. Shaun has been lost to the black hole that is N+, while I’ve been locked away ever since opening a copy of Space Invaders Extreme. It’s a title people tell me they meant to buy, but didn’t. Perhaps the Square-Enix logo looms large on the box, people fearing a thirty minute cinematic sequence that gives grudgingly misplaced emotions to those iconic aliens. Fortunately the game begins with the first press of a button. New sequences of colored invaders fill the screen, capable of varying patterns of attack and providing bonus stages that quickly pulled me into core game-play that hasn’t suffered any loss for its age.

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Posted in Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!, Wii | 1 Comment »

Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!
BoneStorm Edition

Good morning, fellow Thumbs! Do you know what day it is? It’s Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!

We here at Toronto Thumbs know that there are so many ways you’d prefer to spend today rather than going to (or being at) work. Of course with Christmas upon us, there’s always the chance that this isn’t an issue today. I gave that possibility some thought, but decided that my shtick isn’t going to work if I have to make adjustments every time you happen to score a holiday. Besides, this time of year can make home as stressful as work. Maybe you’re trapped inside by the snow, surrounded by family and being forced to watch The Santa Clause for the eighteenth time. I admit I’m reaching, but maybe we can try this again…

We here at Toronto Thumbs know that the holidays can be a stressful time. Perhaps family members are taking the opportunity to explain how you’ve disappointed them throughout the year, or small children have invaded your home to torment your pets. But before you steady a chair and tie that garland noose around your neck, why not let us distract you with the lighthearted remembrance of games past…

Two years ago I happened to buy a Sega Saturn bundle on the cheap. It was a box filled with the broken cases and lacklustre titles one might imagine. But near the bottom I discovered an unassuming cardboard sleeve that was the entire packaging for Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams.

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Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Good morning, fellow Thumbs! Do you know what day it is? It’s Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday!

We here at Toronto Thumbs know that there are so many ways you’d prefer to spend today rather than going to (or being at) work. Perhaps mixing a drink together from all those chemicals beneath the sink? But before you get sippin’ and slippin’ on that toxic Tom Collins, why not let us distract you with the lighthearted remembrance of games past…

Whenever I moan about not really having a childhood, it’s generally understood that I don’t deny having been a child. As with everyone else, I started on the first page of life. The idea is that at an early age I began perceiving my surroundings and situation with an air of egotism that made them far more serious and thus less fun. Maturity is often gauged in absence, in the denial of that pure, whimsical and imaginative freedom that childhood represents to those wanting a second helping of it. And one of the more serious pursuits in video games during my childhood was the RPG. They had an air of maturity, doing away with all that fast-paced action and requiring a real effort on my part to play. I’d need to devote weeks of my time to the quest, any down-time spent mapping out strategies and making detailed lists regarding magic, supplies, and enemy HP.

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Posted in DS, PlayStation, Reviews, Super Happy Happy Mega-Fun Monday! | 1 Comment »