The Democratic primary season isn't the only thing that stuck around much longer than expected. The normal christmas release season just kept dragging on and halfway into this year. Well with Ninja Gaiden II, and MGS4 finally out I think we can safely call it an end to the gaming year. (The next one starts up real soon though so brace yourself.) In the past year or so, my 360 and Wii libraries exploded, and the PS3 finally got some of it's long awaited exclusives. We finally saw a decent FFVII spinoff, and Square Enix made their first original RPG for a Nintendo platform in years. And to top it all off two games temporarily dethroned Ocarina of Time from the number one spot on gamerankings. I have this compulsive urge to play everything that gets AAA ratings. So when a game flops I usually just shrug my shoulders and be happy that I have one less game on my plate. But Ninja Gaiden II was something I was looking forward to even more than GTA4. Even with the bad reviews I had this hope that the game would get updated and repackaged just like the first game. Maybe they could go back and fix the game's flaws. Well the leader of Team Ninja just left Tecmo, so I'll just have to kiss that pipedream goodbye. As bad as Ninja Gaiden II flopping goes there's something even creepier on the horizon in games. Is anyone else getting this nasty vibe that the review system as we know it is about to implode? We're starting to see review scores days ahead of a game's release date. Also more and more reviewers are deviating from the traditional 1-10 scale. Or as the Penny Arcade guys put it",I expect to hit up gamerankings and see a review in degrees farenheit. That'll be some ****ing useful information". It seems as if these days anybody can get into the review business. I recently discovered that Penthouse has their own section for game reviews. Metacritics standards are getting worse and worse. I wonder if we'll ever see a penthouse review up on metacritic? They are letting some of the dumbest reviews onto their site these days after all. I guess this is all good news for somebody though. Whatever Ninja Gaiden's creator works on next he can be sure to get a freebie score of 100 on metacritic, so long as he includes some B00BIES!!!11!!1!

Well I just finished playing Chrono Trigger...for the first time... Yes, ever. What's really sad is that CT turns out to be the most innovative traditional turn based RPG I've ever played. The developers of CT seem to have asked themselves some very important questions about traditional RPGs before making the game. Why am I encountering a monster every few steps (even in areas I had already cleared out)? Why are there two seperate menus for magic and abilities? Why is it that when I take a certian character out of my party temporarily he or she doesn't grow in power along with the rest of my group? (Or rather, why should I be forced to go back and level this character up, just to enjoy some character variety? It is through asking all these questions and more that CT suceeds. I think asking these types of questions is the secret to revitalizing stale genres. Why do I respawn in online matches? Why is there always an enemy creature with only melee abilities running towards me in FPS games? Why do Poke'mon just jump out at me when I am on the hunt for them, and they don't want to be caught? Why don't the cops ever help me in San Andreas? Why am I always sidescrolling from left to right? Why not another direction from time to time? Why am I always the hero of the story? Developers need to ask themselves these kinds of questions, especially with formulaic features that you would never even think to alter or remove from said genre.

Throughout time numerous inventions have become obsolete. People are (usually) no longer executed with a guillotine. Trains have fallen to semi-trucks, and airplanes. A lot of inventions have simply lost their usefulness in our modern age. But there are tools invented long ago that are still every bit as important to our world as the computer, the automobile, or any of the various complex machines we depend upon today. Just imagine what life would be like without the wheel, or screws. Planes wouldn't fly, and cars wouldn't go. In the same sense that wheels, and screws laid the groundwork for more complex inventions, there are video games that laid the groundwork for what we play today. Also in the same sense that there are ancient tools that have endured the test of time enough to stand tall with even the most complex inventions, there are older video games which can stand toe to toe with modern games. A few games out there are so popular that they have been repackaged and sold multiple times, to multiple generations of gamers, on multiple game systems. The following is a list of games that have all three qualities mentioned above. Anybody that is even casually interested in games should play these.

The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time: Wii Virtual Console 2006, Gamecube 2003, N64 1998. Final Fantasy VI: (also known as FF3 on the SNES). SNES 1994, Playstation (part of a compilation called Final Fantasy Collection) 1997, GBA 2006. Chrono Trigger: SNES 1995, Playstation (same compilation as above) 1997. Chrono Cross: Playstation

Super Metroid: SNES 1992, Wii VC 2007. Super Mario Bros. 3: NES 1990, SNES (part of super mario all stars compilation), GBA (known as Super Mario Advance 4).

Castlevania Symphony of the Night: Playstation 1997, Xbox 360 2006, PSP (Known as Dracula X).

Final Fantasy Tactics: Playstation, GBA, and PSP. Mortal Kombat II: Too many to list here lol. Super Street Fighter II Turbo: See above lol. Super Mario 64: N64 1996, Nintendo DS 2004, Wii VC 2006.

Poke'Mon (preferably Fire Red or Leaf Green): All Nintendo Handhelds.

The following is a list of games that are not quite old enough to be considered classics but are still very very good. Ninja Gaiden Black, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, GTA4, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, Halo Combat Evolved, Devil May Cry 3, Dragonquest VIII, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Advance Wars Dual Strike.