The Ghost Busters game brings back my childhood memories

Besides the Nintendo Wii, I did get two new Xbox 360 games: Batman Arkane Asylum and the Ghost Busters game. When I was a kid, I used to watch the Ghost Busters cartoon series all the time and even watched the two movies that were made featuring the crew from Ghost Busters. I tried the NES version back during the NES days, but did not like it. However, the new one for the Xbox 360 is quite cool. In the game, you play as the new recruit who joins the ghost buster crew (which features voice actors directly from the movies: Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray and the rest of the ghost busters crew) and you go to many different locations in search of ghosts, equipped with ghost hunting equimpent as well as the signature ghostbuster equipment and traps going after evil entities bent on taking over New York City. And there are plenty of memorable missions and moments. In the first mission, you explore this haunted hotel (which may remind you of a real life haunted hotel, such as the Stanley Hotel at Estes Park, Colorado) in search of the paranormal and fight this ghost pirate at the end of the mission, along with a mission where you fight the notorious Stay Puft creature from the first Ghost Busters Movie (who ends up being the first major boss in the game). In the third mission, you tour a haunted library in search of the infamous Grey Lady (I acutally live close to the former location of the Snohomish Library btw). This game in my opinion rocks. Reminds me a bit of Ghost Hunters on Syfy, except you actually fight the ghosts at paranormal hot spots. (more will be added to this post over time)

Got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas

Hey everybody, just fyi I just got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, just a few days ago. I actually wasn't expecting this gift since i didn't aks for it (after all I do have an Xbox 360), but now I have both a Wii and and Xbox 360 and have 2 games for the Wii: Metroid Prime Trillogy as well as Wii Sports. I have been making an Xbox 360 fan site at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/, but now that I also have a Wii, I will probably talk about that system too, make honest comparisons between the two systems (before I got a Wii, I've only played it on display at game stores as well as friends' houses, usually Wii sports, but now it will be easier for me to review that system as well). The games have been fun so far, though you do have to stand when playing, which can take some getting used to as I am used to sitting down while playing on the Xbox and other systems. Stay tuned for my opinions about the wii in upcoming posts.

watch a gameplay video of the New Mario Bros game for the Wii


Currently, I am playing through the Metroid Prime trillogy, and will plan on posting a review of it once I have beaten the game, though I also got some new Xbox 360 games as well, namely Ghost Busters and Batman Arkam Asylum (so I will be switching off between the three games).

Top 5 best Halloween themed games I have played (under construction)

Image caption: Castlevainia Lamment of Innocents is one of the many chapters in the Castlevania Series, and in the castlevania series, you can expect to fight through hordes of ghosts, monsters, demons, goulish bosses (such as The Forgotten one in Castlevania LOI), and other nightmarish enemies throughout the series.

Ah, another Halloween is fast approaching (this year seems to be going by fast at least in my book), and with it comes all of the classic scares and thrills (i.e., pumkin patches, haunted houses, tricker treat for the kids, etc). In the video game realm, there are plenty of games out there that have some halloween themes. Of course in this blog post, I will post some games I think have some awesome halloween themes (based on the games I've played). Of course, you are free to agree or disagree with me .

Game #1 - Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and the Castlevania Series in General
(the current game I am playing through is Castlevania Lamment of Innocence by the way, which is a prequel to the mainline series)

If you are looking for a Halloween themed game, they do not get any more Halloweenish than the Castlevania series do. The castlevania series started back in the 1980s by Komnai, which is also the creator of the Contra Series, and in the castlevania universe, you usually play as one of the Belmonts (such as Simon Belmont in the original series, with the exception of CV 3, where you play as Trevor Belmont) and venture into Count Dracula's castle at Transylvania usually on a quest to defeat Dracula and his minions as well as saving loved ones from certain death (such as Richter Belmont saving Maria in Castlevania Dracula X). There are plenty of common themes in the castlevania series including: fighting through hoards of vampires, ghosts, demons, zombies, monsters, skeletons and other strange creatures throughout the levels in the series. in addition, there are plenty of equally terrifying boss fights. Some classic boss fights includes: A headless ghost you fight in Castlevania Dracula X, Legion in Curse of Darkness and similar variations in Harmony of Dissonence and Symphony of the night (Legion is that abomonible creature that you fight in some of the CV games that is made literrally by dead bodies and a hideous creature called Nucleous in the middle), a grim reaper called Death, ghosts, as well as sexy demon called Succubus in some games (you will get into an epic battle with her in both Symphony of the Night and Lamment of Innocence) to name a few. Another common theme is that the main villian is none other than Count Dracula (though not always as is the case as is the case in some of the newer titles like Lamment of Innocence and Arial of Sorrow, though Dracula's subtitute in those two games have similarities to Dracula, such as the ability to teleport), who usually shows up in 2 forms: 1) the human form and 2) the demonic/dragon form (the best fight in my book against Dracula is in Curse of Darkness where he has some personality in the first fight and does more than the usual teleportining as well as the second battle where you fight an oversized version of him in a demonic/gargoyle form).

Of course, there are plenty of other timeless classics in the CV series, such as the scene in Castlevania 64 in Level 3 where you go through this maze chasing after Malus (who is really Dracula in child form, though that does not get revealed till the end of the game provided that you don't fight Vincent just before you fight the imposter version of Dracula) and you have a Frankenstein Monster with a Chainsaw in his hand and 2 hellhound dogs chasing after you as you try to reach the exit in the maze (and their attacks are quite brutal to your guy's health). In the Xbox and PS2 versions, the game plays a bit like a movie too, complete with clipscenes, voice acting and all (such as the rivalry between Hector and Issac throughout the game, which ends in a fight to the death between the two towards the end of the game shortly before you fight Death and Count Dracula). One other timeless moment in the game I am aware of is the final showdown between Reinhardt Schneider and the real Count Dracula (aka Malus). First, Malus transforms into Dracula and after the usual first battle with hime (teleportation and all), you will fight a huge dragon version of him in a baron desert, and he does have quite an attude, launching nuclear bombs, fire and other deadly arsenal against Reinhardt throughout the battle. At the end of the battle, Dracula gets dragged into the underworld alive (creepy indeed). If you are looking for a pure halloween themed game, then the Castlevania Series is for you.

Game #2- Halloween town in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2

Now, while the Kingdom Hearts series is not really a halloween classic (besides the fact that you fight through hordes of nightmarish creatures called the Heartless and Nobodies in KH2 as well as the huge boss fight between Sora and Malificent in KH1 where you fight her in the huge dragon form from Sleeping Beauty), Halloween town is perhaps the classic. Now, this is not to be confused with the halloween town from the Halloween Town series that usually show in October (this is Jack Skellington's Halloween town from the nightmare before christmas). You will play through this level at least once in Kingdom Hearts 1 and twice in KH 2. In both versions, you play through a huge halloween themed world where you fight through hordes of goulish heartless, play through an eerie world and go up against the evil Oogie Boogie (in KH 2, you will also fight The Experiment who gets corrupted perhaps by Organization 13 in the second trip to Halloween town). More will be added later

New Xbox 360 Fan Site In the Works

Here is for those of you who love the Xbox 360: I have decided to create a new Microsoft Xbox 360 fan site. When complete, the site will contain these features:

- exclusive news and articles relating to Xbox 360

- learn about exclusive deals and special offers from related companies

- Get exclusive game reviews from games I've played

- get the scoop and commentaries on upcoming games

- and more

I hope to complete this site before the holiday season this year. You can check out my new site at http://www.xboxfreak.ws/. By the way, once the site is complete, this blog will be my official blog for the Xbox 360 fan site, considering that this blog is already about video games in general.

2 New Youtube videos

Here are 2 new youtube videos I posted on gaming:

Justin (my brother) Playing Call of Duty 4


Me playing GTA 4 (will post a bigger video in the future)

Top 10 Game Villians That Just Never give up

Image caption: Bowser just before Mario destroys the bridge Bowser is on sending him straight into the lava pit below for the nth time (which happens over 8 times in SMB 1, assuming you play through the entire game).

(spoiler alert: this blog post assumes that you have played through the games mentioned below and so if you haven't played through any of these games and want to be surprised, then don't read below, though most of these game series have been around for quite a while, and so I am assuming that most of you are familiar with these game series)

Ah, sometimes it can be said that one never knows when he/she has been beaten, and when it comes to many platform games, this can certainly be true. Over the years, in many different game series, all too familiar villians have appeared, including Bowser in the Mario Bros series, Dr. Eggman in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, and the like. Of course, in many of these games assuming you play through them properly, the bad guy loses in the end, only to return in the sequel (up to his/her evil deeds once again). I guess the rationale for this pattern is that if the bad guy were to ever fully be defeated or go good, then the series would be over. Of course, that has happened before. In the Austin Powers Saga, for example, in the Gold Member, Dr Evil turns away from his wicked ways and turns to good, and obviously, we haven't seen any new Austin Powers Movies since, and same goes for the Star Wars Movies. In Return of the Jedi, Emperor Palpatine gets defeated, Darth Vader returns to the light side of the force (just before he dies unfortunately), and the empire gets dealt a huge blow by the rebel allience, and so far we haven't seen any new star wars movies that take place after Return of the Jedi (though the saga does not end with Return of the Jedi if you read the books or play the Star Wars themed games, since the bigger story is in the expanded universe (i.e., books, games, and comics). Anyways, here some noteworthy villians (note this post will be expanded over time):

1. Bowser in the Super Mario Bros series -

here is an epic battle between Mario and Bowser in SMW (super mario world). This is one of the many boss fights that Mario and Luigi will face throughout the Mario Bros. series (youtube video posted by NintendoCult)

if you have seen video games since the days of the original NES, I am sure that most of us have played through the Original Super Mario bros series at one time or another, and what more classic of a villian is there than the evil Bowser. Bowser is that evil dragon that is Mario's nemesis throughout most of the Super Mario series (though in the later games, there is also Wario along with Luigi's evil twin), and often plots to kidnap Mario's girlfriend, Princess Peach and take over the world. Unfortunately to Bower's dismay, Mario is pretty good when it comes to ruinning Bowser's evil schemes, and Bowser definately is a glutton for punishment at the hands of Mario. In the first game, Bowser falls into a lava pit that he probably inteded for Mario over 8 times, in SMB 3, he crashes do though the floor of the balcony of his castle trying to stomp Mario, loses his flying machine in SMW, gets egged to death by Yoshi in SMB World 2: Yoshi's Iland, and even gets hurled at bombs in SMB 64, and yet he always comes back in the sequel even more determined to defeat Mario and succeed in his evil plot only to get defeated once again.

2. Dr Robotnik (aka Eggman) in the Sonic the Hedgehog series

watch an epic battle between Sonic and Eggman in his Egg Viper (submitted by roylink on Youtube). The is one of the many battles that Sonic and Eggman will engage in throughout the series (and perhaps one of my favorites)

Famous quote from the Sonic the Hegehog comic series and some of the cartoon series - "I HATE THAT HEDGHOG!!!" (Dr. Robotnik)

Yes in just about all of the Sonic the Hedghog games, Sonic can almost always expect to fight his arch nemesis, Dr. Robotnik on various occasions in most if not all Sonic games as well as his diabolical creations as well (i.e., Chaos, Mecha Sonic, etc). Like many game series, there is usually an evil genius lurking around looking to cause trouble that only the hero(s) can beat, and what is a Sonic the Hedgehog game without a mad scientist, named Doctor Robotnik (also known as Eggman). Eggman has been in the series pretty much from the beginning and has a goal of taking over the world and turning everybody into mindless robots. Of course, there is one person that can stand in his way: Sonic the Hedgehog (along with his side kicks, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Cream, Big, as well as the rest of the Sonic gang of course). Doctor Robotnik comes up with a diabolital scheme in each game (my favorite is probably Sonic 3 and Knuckles) where he builds hs infamous Death Egg (similar to the Death Star) and you have to blow up the Death Egg before Eggman can use it against Earth dwellers. Of course, if you play the games right, in the end Sonic and his pals manage to foil Eggman's schemes, sending Eggman back to the drawing board where he crafts a new and better plan, only to be defeated by Sonic once more.

Interestingly, in many of the newer games (starting with Sonic Adventure), his plan(s) ends up backfiring (as was the case in the Chaos Monster, who turns into Perfect Chaos at the end of Sonic Adventure, which leads to Sonic morphing into super sonic in order to defeat Perfect Chaos) and must turn to Sonic for help to undo the damage that his schemes have done. Even then, Eggman returns to his evil ways once again in the sequel.

3. Count Dracula in most Castlevania games -

watch an epic battle between Hector and Count Dracula from Castlevania Curse of Darkness. This was one of my favorite battles against Dracula and is one of the many times you will have to face him throughout the series.

If the phrase from South Park, "OMG, they killed Kenny", were to have meaning to any villian in the gaming industry, it would probably be Count Dracula from the Castlevania series. In fact, Count Dracula literaly even goes to h*** and back before facing the Belmont clan (though sometimes other people too, like Hector in Curse of Darkness as well as even his own son, Allucard in Symphony of the Night). Count Dracula is quite a character and is based on a real person from history (Vlad Thepes Dracula from Romania) and has inspired many stories and films in the horror story industry (even his RL castle at Transylvania is rumored to be haunted for real and has been investigated by various paranormal investigators, including the crew from the reality TV series, Most Haunted and you can watch the live episode where they investigated the castle at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTROwmxpj3o). Anyways, the Count Dracula legend has also inspired various games (such as Van Helsing, which was the movie and movie-game that came out several years ago) as well as the hit Castlevania Series, where Count Dracula is the main villian throughout the series (though he does not appear in every game as was the case for games like Lamment of Innocence and Arial of Sorrow). At first, Dracula was known as Matthias (as implied in Lamment of Innocence), and was one of Leon Belmont's closest friends (Leon the ancestor of Trevor Belmont and later Simon Belmont).

At the time, another evil vampire named, Walter was the evil genius who plotted to obtain the Crimson stone (a stone that gives Dracula his power and allows him to be resurrected after being defeated, you can learn more about the crimson stone at http://www.wikipedia.org/, search Castlevania Lamment of Innocence), turn Leon's wife, Sarah into a vampire and become the Dark Lord. Unfortunately for Leon, little did the hero know was that Matthias was secretly planning to become the dark lord as well and was using Leon, Walter, Sarah, and Zaccarias as a part of his plan. By the time Leon was able to defeat Walter, Sarah had been bitten by Walter (forcing Leon to kill her and use her soul to create the legendary vampire killer whip), Matthias had obtained the Crimson stone, and Death had been summoned to the scene where he finishes off Walter and obtains his soul to give to Matthias. Apparently, Matthias developed a hatred towards God (why someone would hate God is beyond me, after all, from a Christian standpoint, he is the Lord of this world and is the creator of all things) and vowed his revenge by becoming the dark lord (later known as Dracula), and tries to get Leon to join in his rebellion, but Leon refuses and Matthias sics Death on him before disappearing into the night (he even turns into a bat to imply that he is now Dracula). Leon manages to defeat Death, and thus the feud between the Belmont Clan and Dracula is born. Since then, Dracula had becomed the main villian in the series with the first big battle posibly being the one in Castlevania 3 with Trevor Belmont (I will need to verify that theory of course).

Of course, like just like Bowser and Robotnik, while Dracula is the evil genius in the Castlevania series, with is goal being to establish his dark lordship over the earth (just like the antichrist will attempt to do during the end times, only to be foiled by God himself) and launches countless of wicked plans to achieve his goal of world domination. Of course, the Belmonts (along with allies like Alucard) will constantly be a thorn in Dracula's side and they manage to foil Dracula's evil schemes and send him to the underworld, where Dracula plots his next evil scheme, be resurrected about 100 years later (sometimes sooner), only to be defeated once again. Dracula also comes with his usual henchmen including the grim reaper, named Death as well as hordes of ghostly, monsterous, and demonic foes that he uses to help carry out his dirty work and defeat the Belmonts (an allies) before they can defeat Dracula once again.

5. Doctor Wily in the Mega Man series

(info will be posted on him at a later date)

6. Sigma in the Mega Man X series

7. The heartless in the Kingdom hearts series

8. the Disney villians from the Kingdom hearts series

9. Vile from the Mega Man X series

10. (TBA)

Top 20 Best Boss Fights of all time

Image caption: In the Sonic the Hegehog series, you will fight the evil Dr. Robotnik (aka Eggman) on many different occassions and locations. In this picture, Sonic fights Eggman in a big battlemech in a final showdown in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Of course, depite Eggman's defeat, he returns many times and continues his pathetic attemps to take over the world.




I have played video games since the days when the regular Nintendo came out, and there are plenty of boss fights that I have been through. In this list, I will show off the biggest, baddest, and boss fights that I have done. Warning: this post contains spoilers, since this commentary assumes that you have played through the games I mention and have seen it. If you haven't played these games and want to be surprised, then don't read this post. Note: this blog is based on my own opinion, and so you are free to agree or disagree with me, and feel free to add your own experiences here in your comments. Also, this post will be added to over time.




1. Dr. Robotnik and Mecha Sonic in Sonic the Hedghog 2 -



at the end of Sonic 2 for the Sega Genisis, Sonic boards the Death Egg and first fights Metal Sonic (which is an epic battle), and later Dr. Robotnik in his big Mecha suit. The only downside to this final showdown is that unless if you were cheating, you will not have any rings in this level, and so one hit and you are dead (that can be somewhat frustrating if you had played through all 10 previous zones and are on your last continue and you die at Death Egg). When you fight Eggman, his only weakpoint is on the machines's body and you have to avoid the spikes or jet pack to hit him without getting killed. Eggman's most deadly attacks in this fight are the ones where he flies up, crashes down and tries to shoot you with his spiky arms (or bombs if you wind up behind him).



2. Ganondorf and Gannon in Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time


I recently beat the game, Zelda 64: Ocarina of time (I don't have a Game Cube, though I do have a N64, along with an Xbox/Xbox 360 and a PS2), and thought that the battle with Ganon and Ganondorf was pretty cool. First, Ganondorf has his own castle, and you have to fight your way through is castle to get through to him, and as you get closer to the boss door, you will hear Ganondorf playing his theme music (seems to be his signature theme). The battle is a 3 fold one. First, you fight him as Ganondor, and you are on top of the castle and so it can be easy to fall down, but to beat him, he will try to hit you with his energy spark shots, and you have to try to deflect them back at Ganondorf. Then he gets stunned, and you have a short window to hit him with a light arrow and beat the crap out of him. Eventually he goes down and taunts your guy before dying. After he dies, he tries to collapse the castle on you and you have to follow Zelda out of the castle under a 3 minute time limit. Once you leave the castle and after the castle collapses, you face Ganondorf again, and he turns into the evil Gannon, which is a cross between a demonic dragon and a pig, and he is pretty big. Although the battle is not too difficult, it is a pretty epic struggle, as you have to try to hit him on his tail, and he tries to whack you with his 2 big swords. Interstingly whenever Ganon hits you, Zelda screams, and eventually, when you have hit him enough, you get to finish him off by delivering a head blow with the Master Sword (you fight him with the biggorn sword at first), and when you beat him, he gets sent to the abyss and cures you, Zelda, and the Sages and vows his revenge before he disappears. Afterwards, Zelda sends Link back to his childhood time and the people around the world that Link met on his journey have a huge celebration in response to Link's victory.



3. Dracula - Castlevania Curse of Darkness


In most (if not all Castlevanie games), Dracula is the main villian that you fight at the end of most Castlevania (though in some of the newer ones, you will fight a different bad guy, such as Walter and Death in LOI, Graham in Ariel of Sorrow, etc), and of all Dracula fights, the one that I liked the most waas the one against Dracula in Curse of Darkness. Unlike other ones, Komnai gets a little creative on the fight with some interesting changes, such as the first form doing more than just telportin around the room and shooting fireballs, the battle is fully 3d with good graphics, and there are nifty cut scenes both before and after the fight. When you play the game as Hector, upon entering the Dracula's boss door at Dracula's castle, Hector tries to get on Dracula's good side, but Dracula simply accuses him as a traitor for aligning himself with the humans, and tries to kill Hector, and hence the battle begins. After the first form is defeated, Dracula morphs into this huge gargoyle like demon and you wind up on a plat form and Dracula charges at Hector, tries to splat him with his hands, shoots huge lasers at Hector, and even taunts Hector. Eventually, Dracula goes down and Hector saves the day.



4. Ursula in Kingdom Hearts (particularly her 2nd form) -


In the Kingdom of Hearts series, you play as a boy named Sora who gets swept into the Disney universe after the heartless strike his home world at Destiny Islands and getting separated separated from both Rikku and Kairi, and later pairs up with both Goofy and Donald not long after arriving in Tranvers city. While the Heartless and Ansem (also known as Xenhort, if have played Kingdom Hearts II) are the real villians in Kingdom Hearts I, classic Disney Villians (including Oogie Boogie, Captin Hook, Malificent, Usela, etc) lead by Malificent are the chief cronies of Ansem and as you play through the game, you will confront each of those Disney villians in quests at other worlds. When you visit Alantica, you enter the world of Ariel, the Little Mermaid, and the main villian you fight there is Ursela. The first part of the battle is not real spetacular, but the second part was awsome, since Ursela turns into a huge giantess and it almost feels as if she is one of the final bosses in the game. Of course, the second part is much more challenging than her first form as she has much more attacks, taunts you more and takes more hits to beat. Her only weak spot is her face, and you have to get close enough to hit her with your keyblade. Of course, she has quite a bit of attacks at her disposal, including energy
beams she shoots at you, trying to bite your head off, and plenty of other attacks.

5. Dr. Robotnik in Sonic and Knuckles (in the Death Egg / Doomsday Zone)

Of all of the Dr Robotnik fights in Sonic 3/Sonic and Knuckles, I though that the final confrontation with Dr Robotnik at the end of the Death Egg Zone wa the best. It was a pretty epic battle with multiple phases:

1) Dr Robotnik first uses this orb like badnik to try and kill you and to defeat the robot, you have to hit him with debris around the room that you can launch at it by using the gravity chambers.

2) The second phase is the real fight. After you beat Eggman's orb robot, he runs and gets in this huge battle mech (much bigger than the one in Sonic 2) and a huge battle occurs. First, Eggman tries to squash Sonic like a bug, and you have to defeat his fingers (that try to crush you) and Eggman in his battle suit is quite huge and stares at the player during this phase. After destroying Eggman's battle mech fingers, Eggman tries to chase sonic in his machine and to beat him, you have to hit Eggman's mech in the nose once and then hit the huge Emerald in Eggman's machine before shooting off a big laser, and after that phase, the mech gets destroyed and Eggman tries to flee in his Eggmobile, but the tables have turned and you simply chase eggman and whack him to death.

3) (this assumes that you have gotten all 7 chaos emeralds) After you have beaten Eggman's mech and all, you will go to the "Dooms Day Zone", where Eggman builds another Battlemech and tries to fly off with the master emerald, and Sonic morphs into Super Sonic (or hyper sonic if you got all of the chaos emerads in both Sonic 3 and the Sonic and Knuckles stages) and you get to destroy Eggman's ship and then chase after and defeat Eggman's reconstructed mech and bea the game.

(more details will be added to these following ones over time)
4. Xemnas in KOH 2
5. Sigma in Mega Man X4
6. Sigma in Mega Man X7
7. Vile in Mega Man X8
8. Super Shredder in TMNT 4
9. Darth Malak in Starwars Knights of the Old Republic
10. Bastilla in Star Wars KOTR
11. Malificent in KOH
12. Pete in KOH 2
13. Ansem in KOH
14. Sephiroth
15. Walter and Death in Castlevania Lamment of Innocence
16. Shack and Dracula in Castlevania Symphony of Darkness
17. Jack of Blades in Fable: The Lost Chapters
18. Red Falcon in Contra III
19. Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure
20. Seven Force in Gun Star Heroes