It’s been an interesting week here at the office, with things happening on multiple fronts. For starters, this “Grand Theft Auto” game has been taking up a lot of our time. I just got the achievement for maintaining a wheelie for a set distance, and have met some great characters. So far, the office favorite is Brucie, and Ryan and I have taken to telling each other to “stay alpha” when we aren’t going on and on about “VIPs.” I’m currently listed as 24.13% complete after nine hours of play. Ryan’s got 26.08% in around ten.
But there’s more to life than Grand Theft Auto IV, as crazy as that sounds. Database things are also coming together, like the above shot, that shows the first two characters to gain entry into our character database. They felt like the perfect duo to start things off. So now you know that we’ll eventually have a page on the site for every video game character ever created, from Niko Bellic to Abe Lincoln. To help get the database ready–or, more accurately, to give the interns something to enter when they’re done with their current assignment–I’ve been working on a list of game characters. I’m not focused on 100% completion on this first pass, that’d just be madness. Instead, this is more of a list of game characters as they come to me, with some occasional online research to get the right spelling. So, by looking at this spreadsheet column, you could probably figure out a thing or two about how my mind works.
Scorpion
Sub-Zero
Johnny Cage
Ryu
Ken
Master Chief
Pit
Mario
Link
Cortana
Arbiter
Marcus Fenix
Raiden
Kano
Sonya Blade
Jax
Liu Kang
Haohmaru
Terry Bogard
RoboCop
John Rambo
Shang Tsung
Bill Clinton
Michael Jackson
Cloud Strife
Pac-Man
Ryan made me cut the list right here, but it already goes on several times this length. And yes, you read that right. Giant Bomb will have a page devoted to RoboCop. I’m just as excited as you are about that fact.
systems: arcade games: Mortal Kombat, RoboCop
It’s been a weird week here at Giant Bomb. With Jeff out sick on Wednesday, and myself taking care of business at home yesterday, our momentum just hasn’t been quite right. It’s fitting, then, that today should be completely derailed by someone reminding me that Starcade is totally awesome.
Make no mistake about it, there’s a lot of unintentional comedy here–every episode teems with socially inept contestants, the bouncy theme music is on some proto-Doogie-Howser trip, and the playful banter between host Geoff Edwards and announcer Kevin McMahon is in constant peril of turning genuinely nasty. It’s also great to watch game-show stalwart Edwards–a man in his early 50s at the time–use his stock game-show shuck-and-jive on a topic quite obviously outside of his area of expertise. Seriously, it’s charming as hell.
As much fun as it is to laugh at awkward teens, corny 80s fashion, and hilariously dated parting gifts, there’s something genuinely compelling about Starcade. There’s no denying that the thick patina of nostalgia that coats Starcade informs much of my appreciation, but it’s also a pretty solid game show on its own terms–interesting contestants, a host that keeps the game moving, and stakes that you care about. I was seriously crushed when a contestant flubbed his chance to win a Tron arcade machine in the final round of one episode.
Most importantly, it’s not condescending, treating video game competition seriously, but without trying to elevate it with comparisons to pro sports, or drowning it in marketing nonsense. I simply cannot imagine Starcade existing today without energy-drink endorsements and radically challenging on-air personalities.
So yeah, I highly recommend you spend your weekend working your way through all of the episodes of Starcade that are available on the official Starcade website–believe me, it’s not hard. If you need me, I’ll be honing my Cosmic Chasm skills.
systems: arcade games: Cosmic Chasm, Tron
So we’ve been talking a lot about site features for the full site launch today and, at some point, we started talking about the lists feature. This, naturally, led to me talking about rodeo clowns and games that should have them. Much like Ryan’s top game ghosts list, here’s my list of games that, for reasons I will keep to myself, would totally benefit from the inclusion of a rodeo clown.
Street Fighter IV (arcade)
Army of Two (360, PS3)
The Guy Game (PS2, Xbox)
Silent Hill 4: The Room (PS2, Xbox, PC)
World of Warcraft (PC)
Chiller (NES, arcade)
Uno (360)
Time Traveller (arcade)
Star Castle (arcade)
Night Trap (Sega CD, 3DO)
…and yeah, we’ll talk more about the lists at a later date.
systems: arcade, pc, ps3, xbox 360 games: Army of Two, Chiller, Night Trap, Silent Hill 4: The Room, Star Castle, Street Fighter IV, The Guy Game, Time Traveller, Uno, World of Warcraft
Inky (Pac-Man)
Pinky (Pac-Man)
Boo (Super Mario World)
Nova (Starcraft)
Clyde (Pac-Man)
Manny Calavera (Grim Fandango)
Liquid Snake (Metal Gear Solid 2)
Ghost (Gauntlet)
Sue (Ms. Pac-Man)
Bruce Willis (The Sixth Sense)
systems: arcade, ds, pc, wii, xbox 360 games: Apocalypse, Gauntlet, Grim Fandango, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Starcraft, Super Mario World
Everyone’s favorite importer of Japanese games and somewhat-smutty statues of Mai, NCS, has opened up pre-orders for the arcade release of Street Fighter IV. It’ll ship out of Japan on August 20 and will include the Taito Type X-2 hardware and hard drive, four decals, a versus communication kit for networking two cabinets together (that’s how multiplayer arcade games are typically done in Japan), and 100 SFIV Network ID cards for stat tracking and whatnot.
All this can be yours for a mere $2,590, $880 of which NCS will get from you immediately as a deposit. Of course, you’d still have to have an arcade cabinet to put all this stuff in. I don’t have a cabinet that would suit it–I don’t think it would work so well in my Missile Command cabinet. But I have to admit… super-tempted over here. That’s a lot of money, and sure, the game will probably end up on the 360 and PS3 by year’s end, but… no, no, I can’t. That’s just crazy.
Or is it? Don’t mind me, I’m going to have to to do some soul-searching over here. Seeing El Fuerte’s rad lucha libre look at the top of this post sure isn’t helping. I’m going to stare at my wallet for a bit and think about it, you go on ahead.
[UPDATE] Unfortunately, there’s been some sort of miscommunication between NCS and its supplier. The kits are only available in sets of four, so NCS has withdrawn its pre-order offer. That’s probably for the best.
systems: arcade games: Street Fighter IV
Welcome to Giant Bomb: The Blog. It’s sort of like Alien 3: The Gun, only with more explosions and less track. After working on this in secret for as long as we have been, it’s totally exciting to be able to finally let you in on what we’ve been doing. I actually still haven’t gotten used to freely speaking the name of the site in public, or even typing it, really. It’s always been “The Site” or “The Thing I’m Doing” or “If Marion Cobretti Was A Website.”
So let me start by telling you what Giant Bomb is, and then I’ll briefly touch on what Giant Bomb will become. Right now, we’re opening up this blog, where myself and others will be writing about games, covering them in much the same way I’ve been doing on my personal blog for the past three months. Sometimes it will be off-the-cuff, sometimes it will be reasoned and well-thought-out. We’ll review games here, and we’ll talk about upcoming stuff, as well. We’ll occasionally chime in on the news that surrounds the game industry, both here in print, and in our podcast, which will grow out of the Arrow Pointing Down podcast that I’ve been doing with Ryan Davis for the past few weeks. Yes, we will still continue to speak our minds on the latest happenings in the beverage and snack food industries. Don’t you worry about that. We’ll talk about games there, too. Surprise!
We’ll also use this blog to talk about the site we’re building behind the scenes. There is an expert team of dudes behind the Bomb, ensuring that there will be a robust, feature-filled website at our disposal, which we’ll use to talk about games. And energy drinks. We’ll show you a bit of the process behind building a site that covers video games, like how we plan to review games, or what sort of interaction you can expect to have with the site’s community features, or what sort of equipment we’re purchasing in order to make this all possible. We’re calling this series “How To Build A Bomb,” mostly because I wanted to make sure that the Department of Homeland Security never misses an episode. The first installment is already available.
There’ll be more info in the weeks ahead, so I’ll keep it brief. But to all of you who have been following my antics for the past few months, I just wanted to say thanks for sticking it out, and I really think the site is going to blow your mind.
systems: arcade games: Alien 3: The Gun
