PS3 is awesome.

Yes, I know that may not not exactly be news to most people, but to me it is because I just bought my PlayStation 3 two weeks ago. I’m out of the Wii Dark Ages and into modern gaming. Look, I have no qualms with the Wii. The Virtual Console is great and there’s been lots of fun games for the system, but sometimes I want to kill someone, I want to hear cursing, I want to see blood and I want a dear near cinematic experience. Can’t get on 99.3% of Nintendo Wii games (though I do appreciate the efforts of MadWorld and No More Heroes).

I’ve been monitoring PS3/Xbox 360 games from afar since the systems arrived, so my list of games I want is quite large because I’m so far behind. Luckily, by this point, many of those games are fairly cheap. Here’s what I’ve picked up since getting the system:

Army of Two – Fantastic game featuring a pair of mercenaries (an army of two, if you will). I haven’t played it much, but I really like it and all the weapons upgrades you can do. It’s really more to play with a friend, but so far, I’m having no problems giving the orders and letting my computer partner follow through on them. Can’t wait to try it online.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – One of the first PS3 games released, so I was able to pick it up cheap. It’s full of gorgeous scenery, great voice acting and a truly cinematic feel. As for gameplay, basically, this is an updated take on Tomb Raider… but only 100x better. As much as I like getting into gunfights with the pirates, it’s the running/jumping/climbing portions of the game that I enjoy best. The sequel just came out, but I need to get through this one first.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - One of the main reasons I had an interest in the PS3. This is another beautiful game and it’s great to have Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles from the ’90s Batman: The Animated Series show. Too bad they didn’t get the rest of the cast in on this game. Surprisingly creepy at times, but always fun. The game makes great use of “those wonderful toys” that Batman has. One of the best games I’ve played in years and definitely the best superhero game. They need to fast track a sequel!

Grand Theft Auto IV – I’ve played this game the least but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy it, I’ve just gotten really wrapped up in Uncharted and Batman. Yes, it’s cool to see GTA done this beautifully, but I can’t help but shake the feeling that it is just an upgraded GTA III. IGN.com gave it a 10 (something they rarely do) and while I wouldn’t go that far, it’s still a really good game. Hopefully GTA 5 will give us a return to San Andreas or even Vice City (or maybe even a new town) because Liberty City is kinda boring to look at even on the PS3.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/GTAIV_Logo.jpg

The Return of NES Horror Games

Ah, now we’re moving onto the more famous (and infamous) of the NES’ ghoulish output…

Castlevania (1986)/Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (1988)/Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (1989)

The original Castlevania was one of my first games for the system, so I was into it for that reason alone, but it was always a hard game for me and I never got very far in it. All told, I’m not really a fan of the game or the series. I get frustrated easily with games and the Castlevania series is too maddeningly difficult for some with a short-fuse like me.

Frankenstein: The Monster Returns (1991)

A Frankenstein Nintendo game? Hey, cool! Oh wait, no it’s not. I played this one a couple of years ago and it’s pretty bad.

Chiller (1990)

An unlicensed Nintendo game, but if this game doesn’t deserve mention, I don’t know what does. If you’ve never played this game, you owe it to yourself to download find a copy. Easily the sickest NES game ever, but it’s fun in a “I feel dirty for doing this” way.

NES Horror Game Box Art

Oh, what the heck! Let’s take a look at some horror-inspired NES box art!

Xenophobe (1988) – Xenophobe was an arcade game ported to multiple home consoles, but the box art is unique for each system. Hmm… What does this remind you of? Could it be… ALIEN ???

Uninvited (1991) – Originally a computer game, the art for the NES port is downright inspired.

IGN lists the Top 100 NES Games of All Time

http://www.ign.com/top-100-nes-games

Here’s their Top 15:

#1 – Super Mario Bros. 3
#2 – The Legend of Zelda
#3 – Super Mario Bros.
#4 – Mega Man 2
#5 – Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
#6 – Metroid
#7 – Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
#8 – Dragon Warrior
#9 – Bionic Commando
#10 – Duck Tales
#11 – Final Fantasy
#12 – Contra
#13 – R.C. Pro-Am
#14 – Excitebike
#15 – River City Ransom

I question the inclusion of Duck Hunt and Fester’s Quest and I didn’t think Bionic Commando was ever that good, but it is hard to argue with the rest and I was pleasantly surprised to see Mickey Mousecapade made the list.

Are the Mega Man games really THAT good for all six NES games to make the list? I’ve only played the second and third games.

Chase the Chuck Wagon!

I vaguely remember Purina Chuck Wagon’s chuck wagon, but this really surprised me… There was an Atari 2600 video game tie-in in 1983 (the commercial seen here looks to be late 80s)!

Yeah, all you had to do was send some proofs of purchase and the game was yours! The idea of the game was to get the dog to the chuck wagonResearch tells me the promotion wasn’t very successful and its easy to see why:

#1 Dogs don’t play video games

#2 The people buying the dog food (adults, more than likely) don’t play video games either

#3 IT’S A VIDEO GAME BASED ON DOG FOOD

The game is highly-desired these days amongst Atari collectors (it is considered to be one of the rarest Atari games due to unredeemed copies of the game getting destroyed), but c’mon, we nostalgists really need to draw the line SOMEWHERE. Seriously… a dog food video game?