GIDan Blog

Air Force Gator 2 Is Longer, Dumber, And Available Now

2013-05-20T14:53:00Z

Last November, I released my first book. It was a ton of fun to write, so much so that I began work on its sequel immediately. I’m proud to say that six months after the original went on sale, Air Force Gator 2: Scales of Justice is now available for purchase.

Almost all of the feedback I received from the original was positive, but I wanted to make sure I addressed any criticism when writing its follow-up. The most common critique I received was that the original was too short. Considering the only books I really read growing up were in the Goosebumps series, that’s roughly the word count I originally shot for. At 24,000 words, the first book could be finished in a few hours. I decided to make Scales of Justice a longer read, and it wound up at 34,000 words.

Outside of the length, I had a couple of people say that they were surprised that the original wasn’t as ridiculous as they expected. I wrote it fairly straight-faced, hoping that the inherent ridiculousness of an alligator jet pilot would supply a good chunk of the humor. Reading it again, I realized that there was so much more room for stupid nonsense considering the subject matter. When writing Scales of Justice, I constantly reminded myself to sneak in super dumb stuff whenever I could. I don’t want to spoil any specific plot points here, but rest assured that this sequel is a significantly stupider affair.

As for the plot itself, here’s the description on the back of the book:

Eight years have passed since the Crocodile Rock incident that almost irrevocably damaged the United States. Since saving the country on that day, Air Force Gator’s legendary status has grown to unseen heights. His strength is magnified after being exposed to the chemical GatorAid. He’s dating a super hot stripper. Once a desperate and alcoholic whoremonger, the alligator pilot has finally found peace.

When President Obama organizes a rally on the National Mall to honor the inaugural Air Force Gator Day, the heroic reptile plans on announcing his retirement from military duty. His dreams of a quiet retirement come crashing down around him when a fringe group of radical reptiles led by an evil pig farmer interrupts the festivities and carries out a massive terrorist attack. Devastated by the increasingly personal attacks of the Sons of Gustav, it’s time for Gator to lace up his boots again and bring the pain.

Click below to see the full front and back cover image:

As you can see, former Major League Baseball player and complete moron Jose Canseco provided the foreword to the book. If you're a fan of stupid action movies or general dumb crap, it should be right up your alley. You can find it right here in paperback and on Kindle if you're interested.

Giving The Second Screen Experience A Chance

2013-05-15T20:00:00Z

Last year at E3, we heard quite a bit from Microsoft about their mobile and tablet app SmartGlass. Representatives from the company told us it would be utilized in numerous ways, from displaying Halo stats and Madden plays to interacting with our favorite television programming. While I was initially intrigued by the possibilities of the “second screen experience,” I hadn’t really given it a shot until recently. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve started to realize what it can offer.

It’s not like I’ve been using it in a wide variety of games and apps. Rather, my experience has been relegated to watching Game of Thrones on HBO Go. As I loaded up a recent episode, I didn’t even realize it had SmartGlass compatibility until I saw the logo on the app’s screen. My iPad was sitting right in front of me, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Within a few minutes of the episode, I realized that I’d be utilizing SmartGlass whenever I watched the fantasy series in the future. If you’ve seen Game of Thrones or read the books by George R.R. Martin, you know that the series features dozens of important characters and numerous concurrent plotlines. I can immediately recognize big characters like the Starks, the Lannisters, and Daenerys Targaryen, but side characters quickly become “that other tough guy with the beard” in my head.

Watching with SmartGlass doesn’t distract from the viewing experience. Instead, it offers plenty of context about what you’re watching. Numerous times per episode, I glance at my iPad screen and am immediately reminded of a side character’s importance to the story. If I want additional context, it even allows me to pull up relevant scenes from the past or interviews with the actors and creators with the push of a button. Westeros is a large and complex world, and SmartGlass even allows me to pull up a map that lets me know where certain events are taking place.

With its implementation in one show, Microsoft and HBO have shown me the value of the second screen experience. It wouldn’t be ideal for every show, but it’s a perfect companion to a series as dense as Game of Thrones. If you have a SmartGlass-compatible device, I’d highly recommend checking it out.

Dan's Dad Plays Games He'll Hate: 2013 Edition

2013-02-12T18:27:00Z

Ever since I moved to Minneapolis, my father Paul has made an annual tradition of visiting me on Super Bowl weekend. I've started my own tradition to go along with his, and that's bringing him in to the Game Informer office to play games (watch the 2011 and 2012 games here). Dad hates games, and frequently describes the entire industry as "stupid and weird." Despite his aversion to my favorite hobby, he's been a good sport once again this year. Here are his predictably prickly observations on this year's selection of titles.

Minecraft – Just about everyone loves Mojang's phenomenon, from jaded hardcore gamers to casual fans. I figured there'd be at least one guy that didn't like it. I was right.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Tokyo Jungle – I had never played this quirky PSN title, but I knew of its reputation. Based on his aversion to anything he deems "weird," I assumed this would be a good choice.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Journey – Considering that this fantastic downloadable title is frequently called out in the "games as art" debate, I knew it would be a prime candidate for my father's derision.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Scribblenauts Unlimited – I was curious to see what would come out of my dad's mind if he could create anything. Turns out he just hated everything about it.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Kinect Party – My dad hates moving around, and he also hates goofy stuff. I was sure he'd love this.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Yoga – I wanted to end this year's videos with a little curveball. Paul Ryckert hasn't exercised in a quarter of a century, and he's constantly made fun of me ever since I mentioned that I've been doing yoga. I wanted to see how he'd do in a class, so we brought cameras to Yoga Sol in Minneapolis.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Thanks to Jason Oestreicher for the awesome work on the game videos and Ben Hanson for dealing with my dad's dumb ass during yoga. He'll be back next year for more stupid fun.

Replay Viewers Are Actively Trying To Keep Me From Dying

2013-01-29T19:13:00Z

Viewers of Replay are familiar with my abysmal eating habits. For 28 years, I've survived on a steady stream of McDonald's, soda, Totino's Party Pizza, candy, Taco Bell, Hot Pockets, and other awful foods (I say awful in terms of nutritional value, as all of those are delicious). On our recent and lengthy Stress Test of me fighting Mike Tyson, I was coming off a few days of being sick and ingesting almost nothing but Airheads and soda. Apparently, the folks at TheFruitGuys.com are Replay viewers and wanted to help me not die.

In the past, Replay fans have sent me bulk shipments of Starburst FaveReds and strawberry NesQuik after I spoke about my fondness for them. While those were delicious, they probably pushed my health needle closer to the "death" side. Thanks to Amanda and The Fruit Guys, I'll hopefully extend my lifespan by a bit by eating a ton of bananas and apples over the next few days.

Losing The Achievement Lust

2012-12-27T19:00:00Z

Back in November of 2005, I spent an entire cold Kansas night in a lawn chair outside of an electronics store. I wasn’t alone, as dozens of other gamers waited in line to be among the first owners of the Xbox 360. As I sat there with my bottle of Jim Beam and gigantic bag of sunflower seeds, I eagerly anticipated driving my new console home once the sun came up, loading up Call of Duty 2, and playing long into the day. Like others, my thoughts were on the gaming experiences. Everyone wanted to play Oblivion, Gears, and the other huge titles on the horizon. What I never expected was to become obsessed with a new feature that numerically displayed my gaming accomplishments.

I don’t think I really understood the system at first, and the crazy easy achievement requirements for early games like King Kong and Madden 06 make me think that several developers didn’t either. Once I finished the training level of Call of Duty 2, I didn’t pay much attention to the first of what would be hundreds of “Achievement Unlocked” messages. After beating the WWII campaign, another popup informed me that I had earned 150 gamerpoints. That message didn’t excite me at all, but mere months later, I’d find myself performing menial tasks for hours just to nab another 10, 20, or 50 points.

Many gamers fell in love with achievements, while others couldn’t care less. Those in the former camp love the way that the system encourages players to mess around with games in ways that they typically wouldn’t. Without achievements, we wouldn’t have much reason to finish a mission with only handguns, carry a lawn gnome throughout an entire game, give 50 wedgies, or kill an enemy with a rotten egg. While frequently silly, these tasks were just as often a lot of fun.

Playing games you like in novel ways is all well and good, but things can get a little stupid if taken too far. I was already deep into achievements before being hired by Game Informer in 2009, but gaining access to the vault immediately exacerbated the obsession. Suddenly, I had access to every one of the “easy 1000” games. Each week, I’d spend numerous hours wasting my time with titles like Night at the Museum, Ice Age, TMNT, and old college sports games. My achievement score kept inching up bit by bit, but so did the backlog of games I actually wanted to play.

Despite knowing full well that I wasn’t having a good time with these mediocre titles, I continued trudging through them. At one point, I even cheated in the PC version of Fallout 3 to boost my score (a decision that landed me a 50-day ban from using the vault). I even grew frustrated with reviewing 360 games on debug units, because I knew that my achievements wouldn’t be reflected on my retail account. More times than not, I’d replay through the games I reviewed at home, even if I hadn’t enjoyed them. All in the name of making a number next to my gamertag go up a few notches.

This continued for years, netting me well over 100,000 points before I finally had a change of heart. With so many great games being released in the last couple of years, I wanted to focus on playing them instead of farming achievements in others that I didn’t care about. In addition, I now have a PC that can run modern games and make them look significantly better than their console versions more often than not.

Because of that, I’ve opted to play many of this holiday’s big releases on PC. The idea of spending dozens of hours on XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Far Cry 3, and Dishonored without earning a single Xbox 360 achievement between the three would have been ridiculous to me a couple of years ago. This year, I enjoyed playing them on PC every bit as much as I would have on a console. I’m in no way becoming a “PC guy” that bashes consoles, as I’ll still be enjoying their numerous exclusives and the occasional multiplatform game on them. The difference is, I’ll be playing them without spending hours on menial tasks just for a point boost. Occasional outliers will exist if I genuinely love the hell out of a game. For instance, I can’t get enough of Borderlands 2, and I’ll probably gun for a perfect achievement score simply so I have an excuse to play more of it.

Most importantly, I won’t be playing games that I don’t enjoy. I’ve learned to value my time more than that, and it’s certainly better spent having fun than bumping up a silly number. Do I think achievements are useless? Absolutely not. I still love getting them organically, and they can be a fun bonus to shoot for in games that you’re really having a blast with. Despite that, I don’t think they’ll ever be the reason I play a game or buy a particular version of it any more. This year, I found myself playing games for their intended purpose – to have fun. I don’t think I’ll look back.

Why Hero Academy Is In My Top 10 Games Of 2012

2012-11-29T17:55:00Z

Each year, Game Informer editors are tasked with coming up with our top ten lists for the best games of the year. Most of our lists are filled with the obvious blockbusters. This year, you'll see a lot of Mass Effect 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Borderlands 2, and others. While I included those as well, there was one anomaly I wouldn't have predicted. Robot Entertainment's Hero Academy is the best mobile game I've ever played, and landed at number 7 on my Top 10 of 2012 list.

I first heard about the game earlier in the year, when our video producer Ben Hanson was breathlessly trying to sell the office on how good it was. Considering that Ben is (by all accounts) an idiot, I didn't really take his recommendation seriously. After all, this is the guy who just this weekend told me that he'd prefer a standard slice of pizza over an identical slice of stuffed crust pizza. As I heard more and more people praise the game on Twitter, I decided to actually give it a shot. Almost a year later, I still get excited every time I see that I have a new turn to play.

It's a turn-based tactical strategy game, which is a genre that I have very little experience in. I loved Final Fantasy Tactics and became enamored with XCOM this year, but that's about the extent of my experience with it. As a mobile game, Hero Academy is absolutely perfect for asynchronous gameplay. Each player gets a finite number of resources, which can be soldiers, buffs, or health items. You can win in two ways – kill all of your enemy's soldiers or destroy their crystals.

When it's your turn, you can make up to five moves. Placing soldiers, applying buffs, navigating the board, and attacking each constitute a move. If you don't like the outcome or want to try a more effective approach, a quick press of the rewind button allows you to try another option before you submit it to the servers. If you're as OCD as me, you'll find yourself trying a dozen or more approaches before landing on what feels like the optimal strategy.

Robot has been fantastic when it comes to supporting the game. It started with only two teams, but now offers six well-balanced selections. The game itself is free, and each of these new teams only costs a couple of bucks each. I've never been more willing to pay for a mobile game's content, as each team brings plenty of new attacks and abilities to the table.

It's hard to describe what makes Hero Academy so great in writing, and it's even harder to sell it on people by talking about it. I've tried to show friends a few turns in an attempt to get them into it, but it takes a couple of full matches to really get the hang of how to play. Once you understand the quirks of each team and the basic strategies of the game, it's easy to get hooked. If you have an iOS device, I can't recommend this gem enough.

I Wrote A Dumb Book Called Air Force Gator, And You Can Buy It Right Now

2012-11-16T02:39:00Z

Over two years ago, I wrote a really dumb blog post. Long story short, I misheard Joe saying "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" as "Air Force Gator" somehow, and it got me thinking of a really stupid story. I spent a couple of hours writing a fake description of a game called Air Force Gator and made some dumb photoshops. I hadn't really thought of it much until two months ago on a bus to Kansas City. It was about four in the morning, and I was sleep deprived and half drunk. Needing something to pass the time, I randomly decided to start laying out the outline of an actual book based on the idea of Air Force Gator. Two months later, and it's available for purchase right now on Amazon (both in print and on Kindle)

This isn't an elaboration on the blog post, as it's an entirely new story. Elements from the blog (Grandpa Gator, the Gator Plane, etc) are present, but it's brand new for all intents and purposes. Here's the official product description on Amazon:

With a storied military pedigree and unmatched war record, Air Force Gator achieved worldwide fame and legendary status among his peers. After falling into a years-long depression fueled by booze and pills, the alligator pilot is inspired to clean up his act and return to action after the tragic events of September 11th.

When a former partner goes off the grid and threatens to shake the foundations of the United States, Air Force Gator is forced to return from the Middle East to face him head-on. Can Air Force Gator stop his old partner Gustav, or will the dastardly crocodile's plan for a reptilian revolution succeed?

As you can expect, a lot of dumb things happen in its 152 pages. Reiner got me in touch with the artist that does the album art for his band, and he (Mike Nevins) made some awesome artwork for Air Force Gator. He was able to turn my laughably bad concept for the image into this sweet cover (click here for the full front-and-back spread). Considering that the only books I had the attention span for were in the Goosebumps series, that's what I was shooting for in terms of length. It's a pretty quick read, which is good because how long do you really want to read about a ****ing flying alligator?

It may be dumb as all hell, but I genuinely had a great time writing this book. If you happen to pick it up and enjoy it, I'd greatly appreciate a positive review on the Amazon product page. More importantly, I'd love to hear your feedback via email (dan@gameinformer.com) or Twitter. Thanks for reading my dumb thing!

And if you didn't see the link earlier, here it is again. Buy it!

A Few Examples Of Why I Gave 007 Legends A 4

2012-10-18T16:45:00Z

Bashing a game in a review is never fun, but sometimes it's completely necessary. Whether it's the lowest score I've ever given, or a widely-liked game that I wasn't too hot on, no one here at Game Informer gets off on bashing a game just to bash it. This week, I posted a review for a very bad game. 007 Legends was riddled with bugs during my playthrough (on a final retail build, no less), but the comments on our recent Test Chamber episode demonstrated that some people didn't understand why it received the score it did. It seems that Reiner and Tim didn't run into many issues during their twenty minutes with the game, but I thought I'd make this blog to directly show what kinds of bugs I'm talking about.

I didn't have video capture equipment hooked up during my playthrough, and there's no audio on these cell phone videos because I was playing through headphones. Sorry for the quality.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

I know henchmen are traditionally ineffective in Bond movies, but this is ridiculous.

Door handles drawn onto the texture like this was a Nintendo 64 game.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

They couldn't even make the pause menu free of glitches.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Oh, so we're randomly going down to 10 frames per second? Cool.

"Hey, James! What's up?" Note that this man is supposed to be deceased.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Petting an invisible cat.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

This guy is bad at being a guard.

Keep in mind that these are the occasions that I actually had my cell phone ready to capture. There were plenty of glitches and bugs that I didn't get photos or videos of. Hopefully these served to illustrate why 007 Legends received the low score that it did.

My History With Wrestling Games

2012-10-05T20:30:00Z

Anyone familiar with the dumb things I say on Replay and Twitter knows that I’m a lifelong pro wrestling fan. Thankfully, it’s an industry that’s always had its toe in my other favorite industry, video games. Pro wrestling’s video game history has seen its fair share of highs and lows, various series from different promotions, and publisher/developer changes. In my history of playing wrestling games, I’ve been a young fan of sub-par grapplers, a high school fan of Nintendo 64 classics, and a cautiously optimistic adult that’s anticipating the release of WWE ‘13. With THQ’s big release hitting stores at the end of this month, I looked back at my personal history with the genre.

1993 - 1997: Early Days

Several WWF titles were released on the NES, but I didn’t discover wrestling until seeing Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon on my TV in 1993. I immediately became obsessed, and had to get my hands on the first wrestling game I saw. That game happened to be Acclaim’s WWF Royal Rumble for the Sega Genesis. In retrospect, it was not a great game. It featured a goofy button-mashing grapple system and stiff controls, but I didn’t care as long as I could be Shawn Michaels or Randy Savage.

WWF Raw was next, which was basically the same game but with a tweaked roster. Despite this, I still freaked the **** out when I received it for Christmas (this video makes me think that I was probably a supremely annoying child). Acclaim also added a bucket that you could hit people with, which I enjoyed more than I should have. I distinctly remember wanting Shawn Michaels’ theme music on cassette tape but not being able to find it, so I held a microphone up to my TV to record the MIDI version that played on the character select screen.

When I made the mistake of saving up my lawnmowing money to buy a Sega CD, I only bought one game (even though that abomination Sewer Shark came with it). WWF Rage in the Cage was (again) just like Royal Rumble and Raw in terms of core gameplay. However, it featured something that totally sold me on the idea of disc-based gaming. It seems stupid now, but I was amazed that you could watch brief, ultra-compressed, washed-out clips of your character’s finishing move from the select menu. This was before I knew what the internet was, so it was the only way I could queue up clips of The Razor’s Edge or the Tombstone Piledriver whenever I wanted. It’s such a tiny thing in retrospect, but it blew my nine year-old mind.

1997 - 2000: Wrestling Takes Off

Wrestling fans almost unanimously point to the late 90s as the biggest and best boom period the industry has ever seen. Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash made waves in WCW with the NWO angle, while WWF was building mega-stars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and D-Generation X. The Monday Night Wars weren’t just a peak time for the television programming, as the era also resulted in the best pro wrestling games ever made.

It didn’t start so hot for the WWE (then WWF), as Acclaim’s WWF WarZone and WWF Attitude were stiff, clunky messes. Hearing Stone Cold and Triple H spout catchphrases was cool, but the rough gameplay made it more of a hassle than anything. This same engine would be used for a couple of mediocre ECW titles once Acclaim lost the WWF license.

On the other hand, WCW teamed up with THQ and AKI to put out two great titles: WCW vs. NWO World Tour and the hugely improved WCW/NWO Revenge. They featured a fun art style, plenty of taunts and moves, and (most importantly) awesome gameplay mechanics. Revenge in particular featured a fantastic roster, filled with main eventers like Goldberg and Sting all the way down to jobbers like Van Hammer and Disco Inferno.

By 1999, Vince McMahon’s WWF had started taking over WCW in terms of both quality and popularity. No time was better for THQ to take over the WWF license, and they came out swinging with WWF Wrestlemania 2000. Everything that made Revenge great made its way to this title, and it was a blast to play as the WWF’s colorful roster. Bells and whistles like create-a-PPV and create-a-belt modes were nice, but gameplay was once again king.

Its story mode was a linear road to Wrestlemania 2000, but the game’s sequel added some new wrinkles to the formula. Each championship received its own storyline, which featured branching paths that were determined by your wins and losses. Winning matches also rewarded you with currency that could be spent at the Smackdown Mall. This virtual store allowed you to unlock characters, attire, new moves, props, venues, and more. Today’s WWE titles are loaded to the brim with features, and WWF No Mercy was one of the first wrestling games to impress in this regard.

Replay fans are most likely familiar with this story, but I’ll tell it again for others. While watching an episode of Smackdown back in high school, I was furious that my local TV station cut into the final 20 minutes for a storm warning in a county miles away from mine. I missed the end of Smackdown, and responded by creating three of the weathermen and anchors from the station in No Mercy. I made a VHS tape out of my gameplay footage, which consisted of Stone Cold Steve Austin beating all of them senseless with a steel chair. I then mailed this tape to the station. I had a lot of free time in high school.

2000-2003: Post-64

Topping the Nintendo 64 classics wasn’t in the cards for THQ, but they launched a successful new Playstation series called Smackdown. In a few short years, five of these games were released (Smackdown, Know Your Role, Just Bring It, Shut Your Mouth, and Here Comes The Pain). While the first couple of entries featured some flighty controls, the series was fairly refined by the time Here Comes The Pain released in 2003. It was during this period that THQ started to really ramp up the number of creation options, as gamers were able to create a wide variety of ridiculous characters. This first Smackdown series started out a little shaky, but gradually improved over time. Despite this, it never quite captured the magic of the 64 titles.

Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp Is The Reason Hulu Exists

2012-10-01T19:53:00Z

I looked like an insane person last night at about three in the morning. Not being able to sleep, I decided to pull up my iPad and browse Hulu's selection for something mindless to watch. Instead of finding something to put me to sleep, I found something that had me cracking up in bed by myself in the middle of the night. Under the "classics" tab, I spotted the title Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp. According to the info tab, this show was created in 1970 and featured 17 episodes (all of which are free on Hulu). More importantly, the entire cast is nothing but hilarious chimpanzees in hilarious outfits.

So here's the deal. There are these secret agent chimpanzees that are members of A.P.E. (Agency to Prevent Evil). There is another group of chimpanzees in C.H.U.M.P. (Criminal Headquarters for the Underworld's Master Plan), and they're all super evil. Most of these baddies (Dragon Woman, Wang Fu, Ali Assa Seen) are ridiculous ethnic stereotypes. Anyway, it's basically a Bond movie if you took out all the cool British dudes and put amazing chimpanzees in their place.

Also, the A.P.E. chimps play in a hippie band called The Evolution Revolution to disguise their identities. It's a solid plan.

Click play below for a promo clip, and tell me you're not in love with this show within two minutes. I think the series premiere episode is about chimpanzees pretending to be ski instructors so they can retrieve a stolen diamond, but I really have no idea what the **** is going on here. Whatever it is, it's amazing.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Make sure to check out Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp on Hulu if you get a chance.

My Favorite Games For My Retired Consoles

2012-07-25T23:46:00Z

In 1988, the four year-old version of me received his first video game console. I cut my teeth on the Nintendo Entertainment System, which kicked off a lifelong obsession with the medium. I've owned 16 different gaming consoles throughout the years, with the only semi-well-known consoles that I never purchased being Saturn, 3DO, Virtual Boy, and Jaguar. Some of my consoles broke down because I played them so much, while others were lucky if they ever got powered on. I decided to go through my gaming history and single out my favorite game for each system, along with some runners-up. Read on to see the highlights of each console, along with some personal stories about my experience with them.

Note: I'm not counting current-gen systems in this list. I'm including the Wii because there aren't any new releases coming out in the future that I plan on buying.

NES: Super Mario Bros. 3

Like many others around my age, my earliest gaming memory was playing the original Super Mario Bros. on NES. While that game blew my mind and its underrated sequel also rates among my favorites, it was the third entry in the series that stands as my favorite NES title. It opened up the world with a map screen that featured multiple paths. Awesome new power-ups like the raccoon, frog, and hammer suits shook up the level-to-level gameplay. Instead of one repeating Bowser fight, we were treated to seven unique battles against his Koopaling children, along with numerous mini-boss fights and the final (nerve-wracking) confrontation with the big baddie himself. To see just how much the final stages wreck me, be sure to check out the insanely-intense fourth (and final) episode of our Super Replay of the game.

Runners-up: Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Mega Man 2, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Contra, The Legend of Zelda, Ninja Gaiden, Baseball Stars

Genesis: Mortal Kombat II

I don't remember much from third grade, but I have a vivid memory of going to a gas station after school one day and seeing Mortal Kombat for the first time. Two high schoolers were showing each other fatalities, and I got my first glimpse of the series' trademark over-the-top violence. During recess the next day, I remember running around the playground, breathlessly regaling classmates about the game that lets you punch a dude's head off, tear out his heart, or take off a mask to reveal a freaky skeleton face. None of them seemed as excited as me, but it was all I could think about. News of a sequel came out, and I remember impatiently waiting outside the arcade before its first day on display. Mortal Kombat II didn't disappoint. It featured more fighters, more fatalities, goofy Friendship and Babality finishers, and (most importantly) better gameplay. Everything that made the game great translated well to the Genesis version, which I sunk more hours into than anything else on the system.

Runners-up: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 3, NBA Jam, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Vectorman, WWF Raw

Super Nintendo: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

If you're a regular viewer of Replay, you know that A Link to the Past isn't just my favorite Super Nintendo game, it's my favorite game of all time. For our 25th anniversary of Zelda celebration in the magazine, I wrote an article dedicated to my love of Link's third adventure. I'll direct you to that link for the majority of my gushing over the game, but it obviously also deserves a spot on this list. On a system with no shortage of classics, A Link to the Past manages to stand above all of them.

Runners-up: Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Super Mario Kart, Yoshi’s Island, Street Fighter II, Mega Man X, Star Fox, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball, Super Mario RPG

Game Boy/Game Boy Color: Tetris

It's Tetris. What do you want?

Runners-up: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Donkey Kong, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario Land 2, The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons

Watch GI Editors Jump Out Of A Damn Plane

2012-07-10T16:56:00Z

I've long been a fan of convincing my friends to do stupid things with me. Whether it's breaking into a scholarship hall in college to steal a bunch of nacho cheese or getting a bunch of people to get drunk and see Jack & Jill with me (to make fun of it, I assure you), no pursuit is too stupid or potentially ill-fated. I went solo skydiving several times in the early 2000s, and I decided recently that it was time for my first high-altitude tandem jump. Expecting to recruit maybe five or six adventurous friends, I was surprised to assemble a group of 17 terrified buddies to join me in my trip to Westside Skydivers in Winsted, Minnesota. Among the group were four Game Informer editors: Tim Turi, Ben Reeves, Ben Hanson, and myself. We grabbed footage of the entire ordeal, and you can watch it here.

Click below to see me scared out of my mind, Tim be angry at the sky, Hanson look like he's either about to cry or crap his pants, and Ben Reeves making the absolute dumbest faces I've ever seen on a human being.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Thanks to our video producer Ben Hanson for his work editing Westside's footage!

Watch Me Sit On 142 Whoopie Cushions

2012-06-21T23:01:00Z

During a trip to New Orleans last month, I purchased an item that I immediately fell in love with. It was the Mega Fart Whoopie Cushion. I had a good week of fun with it before I returned to the office, which is where things took a tragic turn. After demonstrating its amazing fart power, I made the mistake of allowing Tim Turi to test it out. After a maliciously forceful plop onto his chair, the Mega Fart popped.

I tweeted about the tragedy, and apparently some readers took notice. First, elGuardDuck sent me an awesome self-inflating Whoopie Cushion and a remote-controlled electronic version. Today, the motherload showed up at the office. GI reader Samuraivillain sent me a wholesale shipment of Whoopie Cushions, 142 in total.

As you can imagine, I did what needed to be done. Watch the glory below.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Note: Tim kindly replaced the Mega Fart.

Our Video Producer Is An Idiot

2012-06-08T02:35:00Z

I like Ben Hanson. I consider him a good friend, and he does some amazing video work for our site. However, he's also a complete moron. While we were filming our show floor tour, I decided to play a little game with him. Both Ben Reeves and I were wearing wireless microphones, so Hanson could hear us no matter where we were. I told him to look away, and said that Ben Reeves and I were going to hide and see how long it takes him to find us.

Watch the video below, and it'll make it pretty clear why he's either an idiot or blind.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Watch Me Make My Dad Play More Games He'll Hate

2012-02-11T16:13:00Z

Last year, I tried a little experiment when my dad visited me in Minneapolis. He never really understood why I love video games as much as I do, so I sat him down and recorded him playing five games. As expected, he hated Heavy Rain, was frightened by Katamari Damacy, and generally hated every second of the experience. He just left from his annual trip to Minneapolis, but I wasn't about to let him fly back to Kansas City without playing another handful of games that he'll hate.

Batman: Arkham City - To start this year's gauntlet, I picked one of the two titles that we awarded a perfect 10 to in 2011.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Muscle March - I didn't want to scare Dad off with anything too artsy or weird right away, so I saved this absurd WiiWare title for second.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Portal - Since my Dad has trouble comprehending any video game, I assumed he wouldn't understand a single thing about Portal. I was right.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Limbo - This was a crap shoot. It features controls that are simple enough for him to understand, but an art style that I was afraid he'd refer to as "tippy-toe crap." Can he look past the semi-artsy visuals to enjoy the gameplay?

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Bioshock - Irrational Games released one of the most fascinating titles of this generation back in 2007. Will my dad appreciate any part of its explosive beginning?

(Please visit the site to view this media)

WWE All-Stars - If you want to hear me try to explain to my dad why I like wrestling for the better part of ten minutes, this is the video for you. If not, move right along to the next one.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Mario Kart Wii - My dad is a sport for putting up with the other games I subject him to, so I decided to give him a little break with a game he actually likes.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Resident Evil - The fatigue really starts setting in by this point, as evidenced by my dad constantly resting his face on the microphone. Can he get past the first zombie?

(Please visit the site to view this media)

In the end, his reactions to these games were basically exactly what I expected. If you'd like to hear more of his thoughts without having to wait for next year's visit, you can follow him on Twitter.