Servo5678's New Writeups

Ghosts can laugh, but they're already dead (idea)

2005-10-24T22:09:23Z

"Tony? Are you in here?" Christ, this place is a wreck. Stains on the wall, goo on the windows and furniture, and is that a scorch mark on the carpet? What's my brother been doing in here?

"Jack?"

"Yeah, it's me. What's going on in here?" Tony comes out of his bedroom and he's in even worse shape than his apartment: hair mussed, t-shirt ripped and stained with red spots, half a pair of handcuffs on his wrist, a bandage on his nose, and it looks like he hasn't slept in days. "God man, what's happened?"

He bends down and begins collecting stray DVDs that are spread out all over the floor. "It's a ghost, Jack. This place you found for me? It's haunted."

"You're not back on that stuff again, are you? You were doing so well, living clean and finally getting a decent place to live, and-"

"It's not the drugs, Jack. It's the ghost."

…

Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (thing)

2005-10-13T22:48:36Z

It's no secret that people love Super Mario games, so when Nintendo spun Yoshi off into his own series of games, people happily followed. Then the overly cute and simple Yoshi's Story left a sugary taste in many mouths as the developers behind the little green eating machine decided to skew Yoshi into a platformer apparently geared for younger audiences. When this latest game to feature Yoshi as the star debuted with its motion tilt sensor shenanigans, many were hesitant to dive into the adventure that is 2005's Yoshi Topsy-Turvy. It's a platformer game, yes, but it's lacking that certain something: that trademark Nintendo magic. The game comes off as either a very detailed technical demo or a half-assed platformer game.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. When a mischievous spirit transforms Yoshi's Island into a pop-up book, it's up to Yoshi to travel from page to page all the way to the end of the book to face Bowser…

Pac-Pix (thing)

2005-08-24T22:55:42Z

Pac-Man has been around for a long time. After a number of arcade sequels starring his family and a 1990s stab at turning the famous character into an interactive onscreen buddy, how can Pac-Man remain relevant and fun in the twenty-first century? What at first comes off as a touchscreen tech demo gimmick - drawing your own Pac-Man - becomes quite fun and challenging in the 2005 Nintendo DS release from Namco, Pac-Pix.

Pac-Pix is not quite the Pac-Man you remember. The central objective of the series (eat the ghosts) remains, but that's about it. The game is divided into Books with each Book divided into twelve Chapters, each of which contains five Stages and, occasionally, a boss fight. Using the DS's stylus, players must draw Pac-Man on the touchscreen, and once drawn that Pac-Man scurries off in the direction he's facing when drawn, munching on any ghosts that are in his path. The larger the Pac-Man, the slower he moves, and if a Pac-Man wanders off the…

Sega Mega Anser (thing)

2005-08-02T23:53:58Z

It's hard to pin down exactly how Sega fell apart after the golden age of the Sega Genesis (also known as the Sega Mega Drive if you live outside of North America). Some say the company became greedy, others say it became stupid, and still others say that it lacked direction and moved down a number of different paths without having a single unifying plan. Allow me to present the Sega peripheral that combines all three theories into a single product: the Sega Mega Anser (sic).

In the era before cellular phones and voice mail were common (1989) many people relied on something called an "answering machine" to take messages incoming phone calls. These "answering machines" would answer the phone automagically after several rings, would play an outgoing message recorded by the owner, and then record the caller's incoming message. The "answering machine" would then playback these incoming messages when the owner returned home. For a reason that I will most likely never really understand…

Kirby Canvas Curse (thing)

2005-06-20T19:00:50Z

When the evil ink witch Drawcia invades Dream Land and turns the world into a painting, it's up to Kirby and a magic paintbrush to set things right in this innovative touchscreen game for the Nintendo DS. Gamers have criticized Nintendo for releasing short games that play more like tech demos than actual games, but now with Kirby Canvas Curse the DS has its first full game that isn't a port or conversion from an existing title. If you enjoyed Yoshi Touch and Go but wished it had more to offer than just a few short levels, consider Kirby Canvas Curse the next time you're searching for a new video game to challenge.

Drawcia's curse has locked Kirby in the form of a ball. You, the player, wield the aforementioned magic paintbrush (the stylus) to draw a series of lines on the touchscreen to maneuver Kirby through the 2D animated world of Dream Land. Similar to Yoshi Touch and Go, you have no direct control over Kirby; he rolls up and down slopes on…

Nintendo Comics System (thing)

2005-05-29T22:29:55Z

Back when Mario Mania was reaching its peak in 1990 and 1991, Valiant Comics licensed various Nintendo characters and properties for use in comic books. Five series of comics were published: Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Captain N: The Game Master, Game Boy, and the compilation series Nintendo Comics System that consisted of reprints of stories from the other comics. Sold in limited quantities in comic book shops and an occasional K-Mart, the Nintendo comics never took the world by storm and today are mostly forgotten. Artwork styles and stories were heavily influenced by the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and Captain N: The Game Master cartoons that were running in syndication and on NBC's Saturday morning cartoons block around the same time. Each comic series had a basic theme in an attempt to set one series apart from another.

Super Mario Bros. was filled with corny plumbing jokes and…