Throughout the past three years, Multiplayer editor Stephen Totilo has offered me recommendations on games that he thought I really needed play.

Most of them were titles I either hadn’t heard of, were released outside the United States, or I had simply overlooked. Holding his opinion in high regard, I kept a running list of his recommendations, and made it a point to try as many of them as I could.

I put together a short list of some of the games that Stephen has recommended, and whether or not the games ended up being as good as he said they would be. I rated each of his recommendations on a scale of one to five, one being bad, and five being great. See if you agree…

“Cubivore” (GameCube)
Why it was recommended: It’s one of the most creative, and unique games ever released on the GameCube.

Reason I missed it originally: A quirky game about evolution, published by Atlus for the GameCube only. The better question: how was it originally noticed by anyone?

How good was the recommendation? 3/5 Read more…

Do you think Nintendo’s recent releases are lacking something … like new characters?

“Super Smash Bros. Brawl” director Masahiro Sakurai seems to. At the end of today’s post on his game’s official Dojo site he had this to say about the past twelve years of Nintendo-developed games:

It’s an incredible number of characters and a group of really well-known series. And to think that they all had their beginnings in Japan…wow!

When they’re all lined up like this, it becomes obvious that there is roughly 6-year blank before and after Pikmin. While there have been big series since then like “Animal Crossing,” “Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day,” and “Wii Sports” it does seem that coming up with a completely new character-driven series has gotten more difficult recently.

Is he right? Have the gaps that surround “Pikmin” upset any gamers out there? It doesn’t appear to have effected Nintendo’s business too much, at least as of late.

While GDC may have been able to keep most of us quite busy last week, we were able to add a couple more games to the Rhythm Games Track Finder. This week the Track Finder receives some updates from a pop diva, a crazy MC, as well as some of the best tracks yet for “Rock Band.”

While many of you may not have gotten around to playing “Briney’s Dance Beat,” it was, in fact, a rhythm game that featured some of her music. With the addition of “Dance Beat” to the Track Finder, it brings Britney’s rhythm game appearances to a total of nine different games. She sure does get around.

We also added in the tracks for “MC Groovz Dance Craze,” a Gamecube exclusive that hit stores back in 2004. The reviews weren’t that great, but it does feature one of the greatest songs ever by a rapper-turned-actor: “Parents Just Don’t Understand” by the Fresh Prince. I wonder if Will Smith even knows he made an appearance in the Mad Catz game?

Nine Inch Nails make a return to “Rock Band” this week with two of their greatest songs ever recorded, and a third that’s almost as good. “The Perfect Drug,” which originally appeared on the “Lost Highway” movie soundtrack, may be a bit unfamiliar to those that aren’t NIN fans, but it should be completely worth the download, as it should offer some of the hardest guitar tracks yet. One other little song was announced and added for “Rock Band” last week. Some of you may have heard of it, “Still Alive” from “Portal.” (That addition got it’s own little mini-update.)

The whole breakdown is below. Please let us know if you have any requests. We can try to work them into next week’s Rhythm Game Track Finder update.

Britney’s Dance Beat (PS2) 5 Songs Added
MC Groovz Dance Craze (Gamecube) 28 Songs Added
Rock Band - (Xbox 360, PS3) 4 Songs Added - (”March of the Pigs,” “The Perfect Drug” and “The Collector” by Nine Inch Nails and “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton)

If there is one thing to be said about features that the Wii has over its competitors it is that it is 100% backwards compatible with its predecessor. Every GameCube disc will play on your Wii, no questions asked, which, in my opinion, is awesome.

I was a latecomer to the GameCube, holding out until “Mario Kart: Double Dash” was released, but that’s when I dove in. Being the habitual video game collector that I am, I have been doing my best to fill out my GameCube library with the best the box had to offer. I feel that I’ve done a pretty good job of picking up most of the worthwhile titles. I focused mainly on the first party games since, for the most part, if a multiplatform game came out last generation, I picked it up on the PS2. The collector in me rears its head when it comes to some of the titles on the system that are hard to find. If it’s rare, I’ll do my best to get it.

My collection is nowhere near complete, and I’m not going to claim that it is. However, I think I have picked up most of the games that suit my taste, but I’m not sure where to stop. I was planning on holding out and waiting for “Radio Allergy” to be released, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen… ever.

Have I missed any important GameCube games?

This is where you come in. Please take a look at the list of titles in my GameCube collection and let me know if there are any more that I need to pick up. Am I missing your favorite? Are there any really hard to find games that are worth hunting down? Help me figure out where to stop before these games completely disappear from store shelves.

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I like to collect things. Lots of things. Video games are at the top of that list, and Achievement points are a solid second. However, for the past 21 weeks or so, that list has been a bit flip-flopped - clouded by my anticipation for “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” (which, coincidently, has a ton of things to collect in it).

This past week I collected another 1,415 achievement points, which, put me past my secondary target goal of 20,000 points before February 11 - “Smash Bros.’” second pre-delay release date. I’ve now collected a total of 20,595 points since mid-September, and am well on pace to hit 25,000 points by March 9. I’ve been furiously obsessing over Xbox 360 titles for almost six months now, but, as some of you readers have pointed out, at what cost to my other game systems?

Great games on other systems have come and gone since I started, and I have barely touched them. I’ve been too busy playing games like “Open Season,” “Cars,” and this week’s 1,000 point-getter “NHL 2K6.” I haven’t stopped collecting games, filling in my back catalog of titles that I missed when they were first released. In an attempt to demonstrate just how much I am actually missing out on, I now present a list of games that I have added to my collection since I started this quest back in September.

Atari 2600
“Spider-Man”

Famicom
“Kirby’s Adventure”
“Pac-Man 2″

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After two weeks of updating the Rhythm Game Track Finder we continue to roll in the games you’ve been asking for. We are making some pretty good headway.

This week’s update covers a couple of the “Karaoke Revolution” titles (as requested), as well as one of the most unique PS2 rhythm games “Mad Maestro!” We also present your weekly dose of “Rock Band” DLC. If there are any titles that you think are still missing, let us know, and we will do our best to get them added as quickly as possible.

So head over to trackfinder.mtv.com to find the following new content…

Karaoke Revolution Party (Gamecube, PS2, Xbox) 50 Songs Added
Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 (PS2) 37 Songs Added
Mad Maestro! (PS2) 34 Songs Added
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 6 songs added (Oasis’s “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” and “Live Forevever,” as well as the OXM Xbox 360 exclusive songs Freezepop’s “Sprode,” Bang Camaro’s “Rock Rebellion,” and Count Zero’s “Shake.”)

The Track Finder will be updated regularly and we’ll be telling you about all new addition via Multiplayer. So keep checking every Monday.

There really is no better way to spend a Saturday night in the city than dragging my girlfriend around New York’s Lower East Side looking for video game toys.

While she may have gotten little out of the experience, I was able to find this great little collection of “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” action figures. I try my best to stay up on Japanese gaming toys as they are released, at least for import, but I hadn’t seen these come up at all, so I had to make them mine.

My haul included four 4″ posable figures: Link, Princess Zelda, the Usurper King Zant and a Wolf Link/ Midna combo. The set ran me $30 at J1toys.com (the store’s name is actually a web address - it’s so late 90’s). While, they might not the highest quality, they are all really well done. They appear to be officially licensed from Nintendo by Yujin, and are part of the SR Series (the rest of the little booklet that came with the set is in Japanese). As an added bonus, the Link figure can hold his sword and shield in either hand, and you can have the figure represent your preferred version of the game.

They have a high level of detail for all of the characters will look great collecting dust on my shelf with my multitude of other game-related toys and tchotchkes, only to be taken down and played with when I feel like acting out the final GameCube “Zelda” game.

Hit the jump for a full gallery of images of the figures.

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Following up last weeks Virtual Console release of the heralded “Super Mario Bros. 3,” and on the cusp of the release of the next greatest thing in Mario’s world, “Super Mario Galaxy,” it’s time for the ultimate breakdown of the top 10 greatest Mario games of all time.

Right off the bat, I sense that many of you may have some issues with the order of my choices [Editor's note: please send all hate mail to Jason], but you need to understand that I am an 8-bit, side-scroller traditionalist. “Super Mario Bros.” changed my life, and because of that, I believe that Mario should never have left his 2-D world.

Also, I just want to be clear on the ground rules of my list:

1. These are “Mario Bros.” games in the most traditional sense of the word. No spin-offs, no sports games; platformers and arcade games only.
2. Miyamoto-san is not a required component, and you will see where some of his greatest games fall.

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What if I was wrong about Nintendo? What If a lot of us were?

As a reporter my job is to ask questions, observe and share my findings. In the process I develop an understanding of facts, a sense of the patterns I see. Sometimes, though, I realize what I think I’ve figured out is incorrect.

That’s how I’m feeling about Nintendo these days. I’m ready to chuck one of my main ideas about the Wii. I see a different pattern than I used to, a new understanding, one that suggests a much more radical aspect of the Wii than I had previously considered.

My old Wii idea: Nintendo’s console is a party console, destined to by full of party games — mini-games. Hence this blog’s running tally, in the right hand margin of total mini-games on the Wii.

My new Wii idea: Nintendo’s console is a party console, destined to mark the end of Nintendo-crafted single-player game designs. I fully expect the next “Zelda,” the next “Donkey Kong,” even the next “Mario” role-playing game to be designed in such a way that at least two players will be able to enjoy the main game mode simultaneously.

I’ve got sales figures, analysis of old games, advertising hints and more to back this up. Let’s see if you agree.

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Since the Wii was released there have been a multitude of peripherals that have been released, and it seems that there’s actually been more than average due to the success of the console. In terms of peripherals, I’m generally not a huge fan; they just add to the gaming clutter in my apartment. However, one company has truly created something that every single retro gamer with a Wii must have. So thank you Retrozone for your Retroport, because I can finally play my NES and SNES Virtual Console games with my NES and SNES controllers, and it actually makes a difference.

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Madden NFL is back this year (SURPRISE!) with an all new, amazing soundtrack (SURPRISE!) to please your ears while you’re kicking butt on the gridiron. Queens of the Stone Age, Murs, Ozzy, Sum 41, Pitbull, and even J.T. makes an appearance. With artists from every different genre, there’s something to make everyone happy. Hit the jump for the full list.

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So when the collector in me sees game rooms like this (and this) it really makes me question my commitment. I fully understand that I, in fact, do have a life, and other things that I have to spend money on than video games. At least that’s what I tell myself, because, frankly, I’m jealous… very, very, very jealous.

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