Did you like Sega Soccer Slam, a game commonly compared to this one? I didn't.
Did you like NHL Hitz, which was made by Next Level Games? I didn't.
did you expect Super Mario Strikers to be your favourite Gamecube game this year? I didn't.

But it is. It just might be my favourite party game since Smash Bros Melee, a game released pretty much at the Cube's launch. This is a strong statement.


The actual game is just so fun! The items, the tackling, the speed, the electrified walls, Bowser, the super strikes (it takes either a real lapse in defense or a good play involving items to pull this off), just everything combines to make a game that's chaotic and frantic but still favours skill.

The little things really put Strikers over the top.

This is the first Mario Sports game where more than one person (up to 4, actually) can play against the computer in the Cup modes. The Custom Battles mode is just incredible. It's a simple round robin, but the setup is so quick and the rules (3 points for a win, 1 point for a Sudden Death loss, 0 for a loss) work perfectly for a party. Just make some teams (one or two people per team), and choose whether you want to play every other team once, or twice. If you have enough teams, a Custom Battle will go long into the night.

But I don't want to go into review mode here. The bottom line is this game is extremely fun, the reviews for it (especially Gamespot's) have not done the game justice, and you/your friends should rent it and play it together and see how you like it.

Next Level Games... you guys are Gods! to what extent did Nintendo help you make this masterpiece of a game? Thank you for saving the Gamecube's... nay, the industry's holiday season (though Guitar Hero didn't do a bad job doing that either).

Oh right, buy Guitar Hero. Trust me on that.

I see that you're bringing Beatmania to the US. Let me keep this quick and simple:

• Do not screw up the controller
• Do not screw up the songs
• Do not screw up the graphics
  

This is pretty easy for you to do because all you'd have to do it take the latest Japanese game, replace songs you can't get licenses for with in-house songs from older mixes, translate into English, and ship a bunch of your good Beatmania controllers over here. But you'll probably end up putting in more effort than neccessary and destroying the whole game like you did DDR Extreme US. I'm here to say "don't".

Just remember: anyone will step around on a dance pad and have fun. The Beatmania audience will be mostly gamers (and hardcore ones at that), so make the game to reflect that. Don't strip out hard songs. Don't add in US covers that would be boring in Beatmania. Don't make US mixes with half as many songs as the Japan mixes and charge the same amount of money. Don't say "I don't think most Americans will like Memories so we'll just remove it last minute, even though it's free for us to use, but we'll keep the song embedded in the game, tricking the game into thinking that Memories is playable, even though it isn't, making it impossible to master the game".

(Don't screw it up).

E3's coming up soon. I like E3, though I don't know how many surprises are coming up this time around, despite the oncoming consoles. We know lots about the XBox 360 already, Nintendo said they'll be sparse on Revolution details, and the PS3 is just the PS3 in my opinion. Similarily, I can't bring myself to be shocked as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Mario Party 7 are announced. On the flip side, E3 usually delivers something really cool, so I'm still excited

I love Microsoft's mention that Halo 3 will release at the same time as the PS3 in a "perfect" plan to disrupt PS3 sales. What are they thinking? That Halo 3 is up on a hill ready to snipe the PS3 as it comes by? Is one single person less likely to buy a PS3 because Halo 3 is released at the same time, as opposed to, say, a month earlier? I can see MS's profile of the average consumer now: "Ok, I'm off to buy the new PS3 as it launches *goes to store* holy @#$%, Halo 3 has arrived! Well, might as well change my $400 investment on a whim and buy the XBox 360 + Halo 3 bundle instead". Right.

No one is really following this, but Konami has filed a lawsuit against Roxor for making a better dancing game that's cutting into their sales. Ok, that's not the exact reason and "better" is an opinion, but this lawsuit has the power to change the whole landscape of US dancing games. Luckily, it is unlikely that this will interfere with the PS2 release of In The Groove. If you don't know what I'm talking about and don't play DDR, then nothing to see here, please move along.

Finally, let's talk about prices in the next generation: it's been rumoured that future consoles will cost a lot more than past generations, possibly $500 US (!). Are they really chargin this much for the base console? Similarily: $70 to $90 US for games? I sure hope this is some rampant speculation; I'm not buying any console/games with these prices, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. To me, two of the big three using such pricing schemes is a surefire way to get the other one at the top of the consoles wars.

See you next time!