PixlBit

    So here it is again. Another week of random ads from the pages of bargain bin comic books. These come from several Marvel TeamUp issues all written by the now famous Robert Kirkman. Remember him accepting the award for The Walking Dead game with the Telltale Games guys at the Spike TV Video Game Awards Show? Kirkman is a class act he is. He's also a great writer and even though I have little interest in a Marvel TeamUp comic series (unless it has Doctor Strange), I found these really fun. As a bonus I got six video game ads from 2006. So, by the hoary hosts of Hoggoth, here they are.

             

     Neopets: The Darkest Faerie [PS2]: So Neopets is like a cross between Pokemon and Tamagotchi. They have a web site designed for kids where you can get virtual pets and buy things for them with virtual and real money. My first thought when seeing this huge map hidden in my comic was, cool, a map. Then it seemed to me this game resembled Skylanders, but after seeing the trailer, it made me think of Ratchet & Clank without guns. It has a huge world as you can tell and a decent combat system from what I've read. Maybe it's worth checking out? It's developed by Idol Minds who's very next game was Pain on PSN. That was a good one.

                                   

     Super Monkey Ball Adventure [NGC/PS2]: A 3D platformer with a little more story then the usual Super Monkey Ball game, developed by Traveller's Tales, the company that is now doing only Lego games. It is apparently not very good and I think I played a demo of it too back in '06 and didn't like it. This ad is awesome however.

                                     

     X-Men The Official Game [on f'n everything]: I played this recently on Xbox 360 and it's a pretty shoddy affair. The graphics and story are minimal. It seems like it was rushed to coincide with the movie. Nightcrawler wasn't a bad character though. He played a bit like Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That one stage with Nightcrawler was ok and the voice work from the actors in the movie was a good touch, but the rest of the game was not good.

                                   

     Cars The Video Game [every darn system you can name]: Also played this recently on Xbox 360. I gave up on it though after doing one of the minigames where you have to avoid the lights of the harvester in the farmer's field. You have to do something like twenty levels of it all at once. It doesn't save your progress. So that got really old, really fast. Driving around the open world was ok, but the controls weren't all that great. It wasn't a horrible game, but it didn't hold my interest for very long.

            

     Superman Returns [name it, it was on it]: Played this recently too on Xbox 360. It's not too bad for the first hour or two. You start out stopping meteors from hitting the city. The controls for Superman's flight and use of powers worked pretty well. Then you defend the city from hoards of robots that seem to never end. I wondered just what I was supposed to do to stop them from appearing. There seemed no solution, so I stopped playing. I expected a truely horrible game, but it really wasn't. There was just some confusion as to what your goals were in the game.

            

     Plug it in & Play TV Games: Jakks Pacific did these toy consoles with ports of games by Namco, Atari and some original games. You know, I think instead of spending big bucks for the Xbox One this year, I'm going to get the REAL all-in-one console and pick up Arcade Gold Featuring Pac-Man. It has eight classicvideo games in one handheld joystick for $20. Kool-Aid man says, "OH YEAHH!!!

    So just remember, that instead of playing Oblivion or Burnout Revenge or Just Cause, or Resistance: Fall of Man in 2006, you could've given in to these ads and played one of these wonderful games instead.