Aww, delayed again?

From December to February, and now to March, Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been delayed again. Nintendo of America says that additional tweaks have caused the finished version to be released on March 9th.

NoA’s official statement was:

“The launch date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl has shifted a few weeks to March 9. The development is taking slightly longer than expected. As we’re sure you have seen on the Dojo site (www.SmashBros.com), the game contains an unprecedented number of characters, options and experiences. Be sure to keep an eye on the Dojo site for the latest information.”

Fortunately, the delay is only a couple of weeks, so we don’t have to wait that long.

Best of 2007 #7: Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

Pokemon DiamondIf you compare this game to the original Red, Blue, and Green versions, you can see how far handheld games have come in the last 10 years. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl is not only now in color, but also in partial 3D, and touch-screen enabled on the DS. The variety and creativity of the creatures are very well done, and the three powerful starters (Turtwig [grass], Chimchar [fire], and Piplup [water]) make for interesting playback.

Team Galactic, the control-driven team that you’re set to defeat, are fun to beat and comical, and this time there are 3 main characters: You, your friend from your hometown, and Lucas/Dawn, the Professor’s assistant. With the aid of Lucas/Dawn (depending on your character’s gender) and your friend, you battle your way through Team Galactic (while beating the gym leaders on your own) to stop them from controlling Sinnoh, or even the galaxy!

This game definitely isn’t the hardest thing to beat, but it’s not the easiest, either. Either way, it’s fun.

Tetris is dangerous

Raymond D. Souza, a Canadian column writer, called video games “the crack cocaine of the electronic world” in one of his columns recently. He said that in his second year at Queen’s University, Tetris contributed to his “worst performance in 12 years of post-secondary education.”

Souza says that after deleting Tetris from his hard drive, he has not touched another video game. He also blames video games for taking time, health, and thought away from kids, and that they celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency, and borderline pornography.

While the graphic violence and multifarious delinquency are, for the most part, true, I don’t think I’ll be seeing my Grand Theft Auto-playing nephew shooting up his kindergarten class any time soon. Nor do I find fitting colored blocks into slots as any sort of reason for poor performance in school, especially for someone as seemingly intelligent as Mr. Souza. But that’s just my opinion.

Crashing the Coop

The mic stand at the Spike TV Video Game Awards had some unexpected visitors this year. During the acceptance for the Game of the Year award, some men dressed as red chickens ran on to the stage and declared that Gamecock, their company, was for the children, and would rise someday. They then gave the spotlight back to Greg Goby, while they danced behind him and Ken Levine. Because of the disruption, Levine didn’t get to thank anyone.  

But today, Mike Wilson, co-founder of Gamecock, apologized for his team’s actions:

“I’d personally like to sincerely apologize to the BioShock team and Ken Levine in particular for GameCock infringing on their spotlight at this weekend’s VGA Awards show,” he said. “The award acceptance they interrupted was the LAST one we would’ve wanted to interrupt , (“most addictive game fueled by mountain dew” would have been a wonderful choice) as we have the utmost respect and love for Bioshock and all who were involved in it, and it totally sucks that Ken Levine didn’t get to speak after making such a fantastic game.”