When cart racing just doesn't do it for you any more, maybe it's time you turned to spring-coiled mini car racing (although that doesn't quite roll off the tongue as easily). Mad Tracks is the newest addition to the previously nonexistent list of Xbox Live Arcade racing games. Who knows why developers apparently think cars don't make for good downloadable content? Either way, Mad Tracks is a welcome addition to XBLA, but it might be targeted a bit more to the casual racers out there.
Posted 6/5/07 6:50 pm EST by Jason Cipriano in Arcade, Retro, Review, Xbox 360
Apparently, I?m the designated Pac-Man enthusiast for MTV.com. So much so, that my co-workers thought it would be a good idea for me to actually play against (read: get destroyed by) the newly crowned Pac-Man World champion, Carlos Romero, in an upcoming episode of our videogame show, The G-Hole. So what happened?
It?s kinda sad; I wasn?t even close. I barely broke 90,000 points in fives minutes of the Pac-Man Championship Edition, and Carlos scored somewhere in the realm of 170,000. I'll admit that he's far superior to me, but he also had a whole day (and an entire tournament?s worth) of practice. It was the first time I even saw the game...
Posted 6/4/07 2:35 pm EST by Jason Cipriano in PSP, Retro, Review, Sports
Pac-Man has made more than a few video game appearances since the early '80s. Even though he?s appeared in what seems like hundreds of derivations of the original he?s never really stepped too far out of his rotund role as a pellet-chomping ghost hunter. Unlike other video game mascots (who've played so many sports they're going to the Olympics this year), the Pac's hefty weight hasn't really let him step up his game. However, this could all change with the release of Smash Court Tennis 3 for the PSP in early July. It looks like Pac-Man might be able to shed some pounds on the courts as the star of one of the training mini-games.
Posted 5/9/07 3:45 pm EST by Jason Cipriano in Arcade, Retro, Review, Xbox 360
Centipede and Millipede are two classic arcade games that were released for download last week via Xbox Live Arcade. The games come as an addition that might tug at the heart strings of some of the older gamers on Xbox Live, and leave some of the younger ones in the dust. The titles were stalwarts in the arcades of yore, complete with some of the best arcade cabinet art to this day, and were played with a trackball and just one button. The games translate extremely well to the much more powerful Xbox 360, and comes complete with a couple extra modes, as well as achievements (and everyone loves achievements). This game is a must-have for any retro-gamer worth his quarters.
Posted 3/19/07 10:00 am EST by Jason Cipriano in Review, Xbox 360
Budget titles have always had a bad reputation. Gamers tend to view them as cheap games, rushed out by the publishers to quickly turn a buck on unsuspecting parents (who may not have the $60 to buy the newest titles for the kids). However, within the last year or so, we have truly seen the tides turn in terms of budget games -- Rockstar?s Table Tennis and Atari?s Test Drive Unlimited for Xbox, the Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii and Okami for the PS2. These games should already be in your collection; not just because they're easy on the wallet, but also because they are really good games that offer hours of quality gameplay. Fortunately, frugal Xbox 360 owners now have an additional budget title worthy of to be added to this batch: Earth Defense Force 2017.