What’s your favourite DS game of all time? When I think of the DS games that really stand out I think of ones from quite a while ago. Super Mario Cart and New Super Mario Brothers are up there for sure. Zelda was good. In more recent times nothing really stands out. Chrono Trigger is great, but that was made decades ago on the Super Nintendo. I think Nintendo should look at the DS’s strengths, it’s ability to run pixel based old school games well, and stop trying to be fancy with 3D graphics on a system that can’t really handle it. To be fair I think the DS is in need of a processor upgrade, maybe in the form of an add on cart. I’ll give you an example. I’ve been playing Zelda Age or Seasons and Age of Oracles (a truly great couple of games by the way!). They are old Game Boy Color games. The DS just can’t handle it when there’s lots of music and sprites all over the place. So instead I’m running them on my PSP. Imagine that. A Sony hand-held better at emulating an old 8-bit Neintendo hand-held from 10 years ago than the latest Nintendo handheld. There’s something wrong with that.
Last night I saw an amazing film called The King of Kong. It’s a documentary about various people trying to beat a high score on the retro arcade game Kong. I wasn’t sure what top expect with this film - although I love computer games, and particularly retro gaming I thought maybe this film wouldn’t hold my attention. Luckily I was dead wrong. Just as with a fictional movie this film contain goodies and baddies, trials and impossible odds that must be overcome by our hero.
If you have ever watched the incredibly funny film, Grandma’s Boy (also about gaming) you will notice that there are many parallels with this film. For a start off, although The King of Kong is a factual documentary, it is extremely funny. You couldn’t make up characters as typecast and hilarious as the ones in this film. The villain is a guy called Billy Mitchell, who after watching this movie I hate with a passion I cannot describe with mere words alone - I would quite happily punch this guy in the face if I saw him. (Well ok, I’m exaggerating a bit here!) Interestingly, he reminds me of the evil guy from Grandma’s Boy too - except he’s not made up.Watching this film you see our Hero Steve Wiebe, fight against a corrupt team of gamers lead by evil and spineless Billy Mitchell – desperately trying to prove his skill as a hardcore gamer. I should point out that this movie does seem to be edited in a way the enhance the positive and negative traits of a persons character - making the baddies seem more evil than they possibly are, and the good guy completely innocent.
Evil Billy Mitchell
The other people in this film as just as funny sporting Doom t-shirts and getting so hyped up about a game, these middle aged, sunlight deprived men make me smile and remember the good old days when games were all that mattered. It is literally like going back to the 80’s – in a funny, tacky kind of way.
I cant say too much more without spoiling it, what I will say though is rent, buy or steal (not literally) a copy of this film as its a must see!
I would rate this movie 8/10
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