Samurai Shodown Anthology (PS2)
Developer: SNK (Parts 1 through 4), Yuki Enterprise (5) and SNK Playmore (6). Opening sequence and navigation shell by SNK Playmore.
Publisher: SNK Playmore
Genre: 2D Fighting
Release Date: 3/24/2009

M&Ms Adventure
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Nikitova Games
Publisher: Zoo Games
Release Date: 11/12/2008

Puzzler Collection
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Route 1 Games
Publisher: Zoo Interactive
Release Date: 08/05/2008

World War 2: Road to Victory
Genre: Turn-based Strategy
Developer: IQ Software
Publisher: Matrix Publishing, LLC
Release Date: 07/24/08
After spending some time with the strategy behemoth that is World War 2: Road to Victory (henceforth referenced as RtV), I find myself walking away from the game with a mix of emotions for a remarkably large variety of reasons. With [...]

Name: Fred Badlissi
Nicknames: …they exist. Inquire within.
Location: Austin, TX
Three Favorite Genres: At the moment…
2D Fighters
Light Gun games.
Anything with RPG elements outside of traditional RPGs
Three Favorite Games
Samurai Shodown 2 (Neo Geo)
Dr. Mario (NES)
Legacy of Kain: Defiance (XBOX)
Favorite Console: Sega Saturn
Other Places Writing Can be Found:
The Daily Texan
411 Mania
Inside Pulse
Artisan News Service (my pieces are [...]

One day, a Microsoft intern by the name of Wes Cherry was in a deadlock with other Microsoft programmers and designers. Mr. Cherry, who had been an avid fan of things like “logic” and “compensation,” was commissioned to create a game that would be marketed along Minesweeper and a promising new game called Microsoft Excel. While Cherry was convinced that Solitaire was where it was at, he had faced an uphill battle in trying to get it past his management.

More specifically, he had to dispel Microsoft’s management’s mind regarding the potential success of his version of Solitaire versus the management’s choice to bundle Microsoft 52 Pick-Up with their latest Windows release. The same logic that today dictates that Vista is a superior operating system existed way back then as well, when little-known-to-the-gaming-community personality William Gates was convinced that players would have more fun picking up a virtual mess of cards from a virtual floor with their mouse, and bringing back said cards on top of a virtual table.

There was a silver lining in the clouds that day, however, and by some stroke of luck, a rare moment of beautiful epiphany graced over Redmond and it was decided to include Cherry’s Solitaire with every copy of Windows that shipped. And from then on, the world’s productivity level would screech to a halt. And despite the fact that Mr. Cherry never received a dime for his work, Solitaire has been played and played and played over and over again across any version of Windows you can think of – even stable ones. Despite the fact that lots of people have played it, very few if any have attempted to review it.

Wowzers.
Upon reading that response to the final question, you could imagine the skepticism running through my mind. “…the single greatest contribution to the good of mankind since HR GEIGER played Starcraft.” That’s a hell of a mountain to surmount. In a world where people contend with broken promises left and right, you might be inclined [...]

Rise of the Kasai
Platform: PS2
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Bottlerocket Entertainment
Rating: Mature
Release Date: 4/5/2005
OK. So, first off the bat, I’ve got to apologize for quite possibly getting that asinine commercial for Coke with Lime stuck in your head. At this very moment, I’m mustering every neuron in my head to think of a combination that was [...]

Fight Night Round 2
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Chicago
Genre: Sports/Fighting
Release Date: 03-01-2005
Once upon a time, there was a barbaric sport that was enjoyed the small and rich elite of society. Entrepreneurs, who operated as either single persons or collaboratively in syndicates, did their best to recruit the strong and the gullible in an effort to [...]

Star Wars: Republic Commando
Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts
Genre: First Person Shooter
Release Date: 2/25/2005
Well, if you look at Dictionary.com’s 2nd definition of ’synergism,’ you might almost think that LucasArts tried to do:
“The doctrine that individual salvation is achieved through a combination of human will and divine grace.”
Taking one part ‘human will’ and one part ‘divine grace,’ the internal [...]

Dateline: Some random place on the West coast that I call home. (Hint: it’s namesake is that of the high school that calls Charlie Sheen alumni!)
In the midst of organized chaos that endlessly placates itself across the urban sprawling condo wasteland, there sat three gamers. In the daytime, their dispositions are varied: an entrepreneur whose [...]

Ha ha! the ‘big game’!
Be it the specter of responsibly, or my utter disdain for ethnic-food shaped balls, the semi-conscious abdication of my cultural duties as a US citizen felt good. Yeah- that’s right. Rather than watching Janet Jackson get exposed via Mr. Timberlake’s slick moves, I spent my day translating Arabic paragraphs having to [...]

“Da, da, da, da-daaaa da-da, do-Do DO-DO(?) Do-DO!”
Hell- I was thinking of making that the teaser of the column, but after careful and lengthily thought (read: 2-3 seconds), I realized that the propensity for a visual transcription would have been futile. You know, futile! Like trying to take Rob Schneider seriously in a role outside [...]

And to think! you nearly pulled one over me, Namco. So infinitely close, yet a decade later and no cigar!
Kudos to you indeed. Took me a while, it did- more than ten years to be exact! But your quirky opus involving your, mine, and Jay Sherman’s favorite video game mascot Pac-Man held within it’s intricate [...]

Damnit Eidos, it could have been perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I wouldn’t have to spend an entire column on the mixed blessing that has been Legacy of Kain: Defiance.
“Mixed, you say? But why, LOK devotee?”
Well you see, respective heads of Eidos and Crystal Dynamics, over my precious winter break, even before embarking on [...]

Oh man, is my head gonna roll for this one!
But before I open the proverbial floodgates, leaving my feeble academia-inflicted mind open to the barrage of madness that will no doubt soon run the gamut, I must say this: outside of biological vices both chemical and bi-partite, there is no greater feeling of relief than [...]

Endorphins! still! in! effect! ugh!
But not in nearly enough force to keep the Conscience down! Let me tell ya- when you take two sloth-breeding elements like “Thanksgiving” and a “6 Day Weekend” in a compound dose, all elements of work become non-existent. In the face of such lethargy, finals are within a mere two weeks [...]

Oh, what a long year it as been.
With that in mind, I could start to ramble on about how 2003 was such a kick-ass year for gamers everywhere. You know- talk about something NEW and FRESH. And along those lines, there are a requisite number of things to talk about. Topics like SNK Playmore resurrecting [...]

2 days. 2 more sweet, antagonizing and anxious days.
Within these two days there will be schoolwork. Precisely one drill of Arabic to rummage through; possibly alongside some a new text. That, alongside a 5 page midterm which will account for 25% of my final grade whose material for composition had until recently slept snugly in [...]

Geoffrey, you’ve let me down.
You and your whimsically long neck have let me down. Your image as a retail God, while once omnipotent in your grace, has now has almost brought me to the brink of insanity. Your temple has forsaken my wallet as well as any remnant of sane thought, as this previous [...]