Have you ever thought to yourself "you know what would make Mario better? If I could play as Mega Man! Or Simon, from Castlevania! Or Samus! Or Contra guy!" Well, wonder no more friends, because this fantasy has become a reality.
 
 http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/super-mario-crossover#
 
Mario Bros is so much better as Mega Man. I'm kind of freaking out but maybe it's all the sugar from the candy I'm eating. This is awesome.

 
Darksiders is a game that has a lot to prove. Its developer, Vigil Games, has no track record to speak of and the game liberally borrows elements from several different franchises. It could easily have turned into a hodge podge of unoriginal, poorly implemented ideas, yet it feels more unique, fresh and original than most mainstream releases these days.

What instantly sets Darksiders apart from its peers is its art design. Coming from the hand of Joe Madueira, a comic

book veteran, Darksiders has a bold and vibrant esthetic that gives the game a unique voice. War, the game's protagonist, is a big, bulky dude sporting a sword almost as long as he is, yet his movement is almost elegant in its weight and impact. Its post-apocalyptic vision of earth is bursting with a vibrant and diverse color palette, a far cry from the browns and greys of other versions of our planet's post-doomsday look. It almost seems like it would be a cool place to be.

Darksiders' story involves the destruction of earth caused by a war between heaven and hell. There's only one little problem: the war was set off too early, before the kingdom of man was ready for it. Thus, all of mankind dies and the forces of the underworld, controlled by a being called the Destroyer, wage an eternal battle against the angelic denizens of heaven. War takes the blame for all this, as he was the only Horseman of the apocalypse actually present, and so he is unleashed on the planet once more to clear his name and moreover to get sweet revenge on whoever set him up. The story is kind of a slow burn that's content to simmer in the background for most of the game, but it picks up again about three quarters of the way through, wrapping up nicely with all your questions answered, yet providing a great set-up for a sequel. Without spoiling anything, there is some stuff in there that'll make Zelda fans and Legacy of Kain fans go “oh snap!”

The gameplay will also seem familiar to people who have played a few Zelda games, as Darksiders adopts largely the same structure. Exploring the overworld is broken up by dungeon crawls where you will get a new item, like a boomerang-like weapon that can transfer fire or a powerful gauntlet, that you can then use to solve more puzzles and defeat the boss in a climactic confrontation. You'll run into lots of areas in the overworld that are inaccessible until you gain a specific item, giving the game a Metroid-like feel as well. It might sound derivative and uninspired, but it's executed with so much style and a level of quality that makes it easy to forgive. More than anything, Darksiders is likely to make you smile as it recalls memories of past dungeon crawls. There have been precious few games that have rivaled the dungeon design of Nintendo's seminal series, so it's a noteworthy achievement that Darksiders can place itself on that short list.

However, that isn't the extent of Darksiders' influences. Its combat is much more involved (and frequent) than it ever was in any of Link's adventures. It brings to mind God of War and Devil May Cry more than anything, as War hits enemies up

in the air with his giant sword with ease before jumping after them to continue the combo in mid-air. There's a decent amount of depth to it, as you can combine sword attacks with big scythes, ranged weapons, your gauntlet and brutal finishing moves that you can initiate when enemies are close to death. War even gains the ability to turn into a gigantic, flaming Balrog-like creature who can kill anything with a few hits, which is extremely nice when you get frustrated with a particular enemy. Combat never gets quite so demanding or difficult that it's likely to hold you up for long, but it does manage to feel satisfying regardless. The finishing moves emphasize War's brutal nature as he cleaves his enemies in twain and blood gushes everywhere in exaggerated, comic-y fashion. It's as over-the-top as anything else in the game.

By and large the combat and puzzle-solving/exploration parts of the game are fairly well balanced, but there are some sections where the game gets mired down in either seemingly endless combat or puzzle sections without any combat at all, both of which can get a little exhausting. The game is at its best when you're in the dungeons, where puzzles and combat alternate in satisfying doses, barring one dungeon late in the game that's overlong and repetitive.

It might be one of the laziest reviewer tropes around, but allow me to indulge: If you like Zelda games, you should absolutely play Darksiders. With the next proper Zelda still being a ways off, this is the closest thing you'll have for a while, and you know what? It more than scratches that itch. It doesn't quite have the same balance or scope of its inspirations, but it comes pretty close, and it makes me very excited to see where Vigil Games is going with what will hopefully be a strong franchise.
 
4/5

This isn't really a new idea: let's talk about old video games! But I thought it'd be nice to talk about older games that I'm still passionate about and maybe introduce some people to them. 
 

The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2

 
When I'm playing this game, I don't want to stop. There's something about the world, about how lived-in and real it feels, that pulls me in like nothing else. The first game had this effect on me as well, this one possibly does it more. There's something about the fiction, and the Dan Brown-esque stuff going on with the present-day stuff that really grips me, too, and I hate Dan Brown books. It works in the context of a video game.

What am I talking about? Crane Simulator 2009, of course! What are you waiting for, go out and buy it! It's the best crane sim since 2008, what more can I say?
 
PEACE

In a vain effort to attribute some relevance and artistic credit to everyone's favorite pastime (blogging, duh), I've decided to compare them to the crowning achievement of a totally different medium. These blogs are like the Orson Welles...es of games. I mean blogs. About games. Or something.
 
1)  http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/video_game_king/blog/
Video Game King has mastered the art of blogging. He doesn't just pretend to blog, he IS the blog. He plays like 5 games a week. He writes blogs about these games. I don't read nearly all of them all the way through but his dedication is inspiring to generations of bloggers, all these years later. Kudos.
 
2) http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/sweep/blog/
 Though Sweep's wonder years have come and gone, he still manages to write relevant and occasionally thought-provoking blogs, as well as entertaining all of us with tales of his drunkenness. Truly, this is the age of web 2.blog.
 
3)  http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/dalai/blog/
Dalai writes like 5 blogs a week. Though not all are as substantial, this easily makes him the Samuel L Jackson of blogging: No matter what he does, his personality and voice always steal the show. Remember Phantom Menace? Remember Sam Jackson in that? Remember anything else about that movie? Thought not.
 
4) http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/lordofultima/blog/
 If you like Street Fighter, this guy has got you COVERED. Especially if you like Akuma, or Gouki as the cool kids call him. I stopped watching a long time ago, but his singular dedication to what to some is a pointless fleeting pasttime is inspiring enough to earn him the Street Fighter The Movie: The Game award.
 
5)  http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/citizenkane/ 
The actual Citizen Kane of Giant Blogs does not live up to his namesake, but points for trying! And someone has to post all those funny gifs and memes!
 
6 ) http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/oni/blog/
I hardly write blogs anymore (mostly because no one reads them). and so, due to my under-appreciated genius and vision, I give myself the Jerry Seinfeld award for uselessness.

  Ah man, the Dreamcast. Cut down before its prime.

To be fair, it was not a terrific console. It did not have THAT many great games. It made a fuckton of noise. The breakdown rate was pretty high. But it was just so far ahead of its time. It had online play, and I'm sure PSO influenced lots of developers. Shenmue was just amazingly ambitious. Soul Calibur was like... the perfect game, at the time. It really captured the gamers' imaginations. There was just so much insanely creative stuff on it, like Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, PSO, Project Gotham, and of course it was THE console for arcade ports of fighting games and original shmups.  Jet Set Radio inspired an entirely new art style in games. It was pretty radical at the time, and because of the stylized graphics, it still holds up pretty well.  Powerstone may have been directly responsible for games like Super Smash Bros.
 
I played some Shenmue today, because Giant Bomb did a series of quick look throwbacks, and while most games haven't held up so great, Shenmue kinda has. And there are few games I am more nostalgic for. It's everything 14-year old me wanted out of games: Huge scope and ambition and cinematic storytelling. It was flawed, sure, but by painstakingly creating this huge, rich world and being so deliberately paced, it draws you in like few other games do. The mundanity of some of Ryo's life is somehow compelling. 
 
Its death was inevitable. But I'd like to think the gaming landscape today is that much richer because of the Dreamcast.

Time and time again, Blizzard manages to keep surprising and delighting me with their ongoing work to ensure World of Warcraft stays on top of the MMO pile. Just when you think they've abandoned the old world in favour of pumping out more and more endgame content to keep the hardcore happy, they announce the next expansion will only raise the level cap by 5 and will totally revamp the old world top to bottom. This, without a doubt, is the smartest decision they could've made. Why? I'll tell you why, good sir/madam!
 
Alts.
 
Everybody rolls them. There isn't a single person who doesn't, at some point, get bored with his class and decides he wants to try a facerolling Ret pally, or maybe face-melting Warlock. Because hey, the grass is always greener, right? But you can only find Mankrik's wife so many times before you get bored of that, too. It's a long road to 80, and despite Blizzard's constant moves to make leveling faster, it can still feel like a drag, especially since the quests aren't as plentiful as in the later expansions, so the old world feels somewhat dated compared to the more recent additions to the game. Redesigning the entire old world means that everyone will WANT to level alts again, and will probably result in more people hitting the level cap in the first place. Though I can still imagine burnout setting in once you get to Outland, but I guess it's too much to hope Blizzard will also accomodate levels 60 through 70 (and maybe even beyond) in Azeroth, but we'll see. 
 

At the end of Demon's Souls introductory tutorial level, you die. You face a giant boss that shrugs off your attacks and kills you with a single hit. This perfectly encapsulates Demon's Souls. In a word, it is uncompromising. Unlike most games, the enemies in Demon's Souls aren't there for you to kill, they are there to kill you. In that, it is reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, but it shares few other similarities with contemporary action-adventure games.

At its core, Demon's Souls is a role-playing game. You kill monsters to earn their 'souls', the game's universal currency used for everything from buying and upgrading weapons to increasing your character's stats. You select which world to travel to, five in all, from a central hub where you can upgrade and buy new weapons, level up, learn magic and store items. In this Nexus, you are safe. Everywhere else, you are fair game to the vilest, most vicious enemies you've likely seen in any game since the NES days.

Demon's Souls marries its RPG elements to a combat system that, if anything, is reminiscent of the wildly popular (if you're Japanese) Monster Hunter games. That is to say weapons feel weighty and kind of slow, compared to games like God of War and Ninja Gaiden. There are no elaborate combos to remember, it's just light attack, heavy attack, block, parry and roll (again, don't think Ninja Gaiden, instead, go outside, take a running start, and do your best roll. Roughly like that.) You can also use some magic attacks, if your character is so inclined, or a bow and arrow, but melee is the main focus of combat, and also the most satisfying. You can attack an enemy from the back for a critical hit, resulting in impaling your foe with whatever weapon you're using and kicking him free of it. Timing a parry just right will let you counter-attack, running your enemy through so hard you knock him to the ground and follow through with your weapon. I'm just saying.