Wii Junk

It seems people still aren't satisfied with the whole wiimote/classic controller situation. That is, having to rest the wiimote at your side while you hold the separate controller. Nyko has your solution, albeit a clunky one retailing (eventually) for $15. Here's the idea:

...and here's the real deal:

What a waste. I wouldn't want to spend the time setting this jumbled mess up. I'll keep the wiimote at my side and save the $15 thank you.

AND, if that wasn't enough...Sweat Grips. Yeah that's right. Apparently, people are sweating SO much from playing Wii Sports that they needed to make rubberized grips. Wow. This is ridiculous. (Tesh, this is a candidate for your blog)
Photos from IGN.com.

Squirrel Attack

Found this little fella on my patio this morning. He stood up when I bent down to snap his picture, then scurried up the screen. He wanted some of my cereal- he wasn't getting any. Although he was quite amusing.

Retro Wiimote Skin

What if Nintendo used the classic look instead of white for the Wii?
Here's what I came up with...

Take a look

...its in a book- IT'S READING RAINBOW!! My friend Tesh over at i heart idiots, recently posted on the forever gold, Reading Rainbow- along with some memorable video to boot.

My favorite part of the 'bow was the book reviews by the goofy kids. They'd spoil the plot and then say something brilliant. (If it were a book about dinosaurs: "If you love books about mountain lions- then T-Rex: Terrible Lizard is FOR YOU!!") Wha-huh?!? And the host, Levar Burton- that man could do it all. Go to Tesh's blog right now! Click the link on the right. Oh, and one more thing....

Stackable Comics

Pick up a new comic box today called Draw Boxes for about $12. Basically works like file cabinet without the annoying folders. The box can support up to 180 lbs., so it won't buckle from other boxes resting on top. A huge space saver with a drawer that slides out easily. Highly recommended for anyone with a lot of books and a small amount of space.

Ghost Rider

Quite the turnout for Ghost Rider last night. Chuckled to myself when I saw guys walking in with leather jackets. Sure, it's just their normal attire- but when you also match the character onscreen it shouts "FANBOY" to me regardless. I wore a Superman t-shirt to Superman Returns. I also write this blog.

Anyhoo- Ghost Rider is entertaining, much like X-3. Comic characters brought to life on screen, but don't really seem to go anywhere- emotionally or plot wise. It is fun to watch and laugh at though. Great catchphrases from GR and other characters as well. Very odd parts in the movie too- like Eva Mendes unveiling a Magic 8 ball from her purse while waiting for Johnny to come to dinner, Nic Cage acting a lot like Elvis- especially when in his white stunt jumpsuit, and red and yellow jellybeans he tips back from a martini glass 'cause drinking "gives me nightmares". Uhh....okay.

In terms of re-watch-ability, I'd watch it again- not enough to buy the DVD- but definitely prefer it to Daredevil, Elektra, and even Fantastic Four.

Happy Valentine's Day

Wii Play!

Had a friend pick up a copy of Wii Play for me today. Wii Play is a collection of nine sport-y games and comes packaged with a wiimote. Which as most of you Wii-tards (Is there a better slang for us geeks?) know, is impossible to find a single controller in the store, along with the Wii point cards for some odd reason. They're just paper!! Arrrghh....

Pirate imitations aside, Wii Play is really really fun. Not A+ fun, but comes darn close. Here's a quick rundown of the nine games....

Shooting Range: Similar to Duck Hunt, you aim the wiimote at the screen and fire at balloons, plates, alien saucers, and ocassionally ducks, if you're fast enough. Simple point and shoot. Easy to play. Speed increases the further you go along making the game more challenging. (This theme is used throughout the game to keep you on your toes.) 5/5

Find Mii: Another point and shoot, but a step down. You're looking at a group of Mii's trying to locate two similar Miis in the crowd. That's pretty much it. A Memory board game video game? Eh. 1/5

Table Tennis: That's it. Playing ping-pong by swaying your wiimote back and forth. Authentic ping-pong ball 'tic-tack' sound- really helps the experience. I love ping-pong and I love this game. It's also cool when Mii's start crowding the table in anticipation. 5/5

Pose Mii: A step up from Find Mii, this time you pose your Mii into falling bubbles with a similar silouette. As the game progresses, you have to rotate your Mii as well- in addition to changing his pose. Gets really challenging and rather annoying. I'll probably like this once I get the hang of the different poses. 3/5

Laser Hockey: Very Tron-like in appearance. Move your paperclip blocker to send the puck around the rink and into your opponents goal. Very loose controls- also involves rotating the wiimote. The blocker noise is very similiar to a light saber... Not a huge fan...yet. 3/5

Billiards: The most complex game in the set. Plays similar to Wii Golf. Trys to match the physics of actual pool by where you make contact with the cue ball (backspin, topspin,etc.) Have to take some time to play around to really appreciate it. 3/5

Fishing: The worst of the bunch. Dangle a fish hook over a pond to catch fish. Each fish is worth different points-you try to catch what the Wii tells you to. Shoddy controls, overly simplistic graphics, not worth a play after two or three times. 1/5

Charge!: The best of the bunch. Your Mii rides a cow plowing over scarecrows and jumping over hurdles to the finish line. Control is tight, very responsive. Fantastic! 5/5

Tanks: Plays like the old Combat! games of the late Atari 2600. Move your tank, fire a round of five bullets, and drop mines. Tanks move a little too slow- but then again, they are tanks. Feels like I'm playing with Micro-Machines on a workbench. Neat! 5/5

So...four out of nine doesn't sound like a great purchase, but I've only played a little of each. Will become a group favorite I'm sure. Sad that it isn't four player, but two. Would have been awesome to have four player Charge!

Keep 'em coming Nintendo!

The Board Game Shelf

Here's a picture of board games I own. Yep, three shelves worth.



Why so many you ask? "Why not?" I reply. Variety is the spice of life and not everyone enjoys Monopoly. I've found that most people downright despise Monopoly. It's the game that never ends until you want to strangle somebody or simply give-up because there's no possible way to win. Yet I own two versions of it. Weird.

I currently own 26 boardgames and only play about half of them. Still, its nice to show them off and have someone's face light up and want to play one. "OOhh...Jenga!"

I've been meaning to have more boardgame nights to help filter out the crappy ones (like Uno Attack- you thought Monopoly never ends-yikes!) and replace with new favorites. The latest additions (I've yet to play) are Mall of Horror and Kill Doctor Lucky. Reviews to come soon- or go to boardgamegeek.com (the wikipedia of boardgames) if you're too antsy.

Game on!

Never enough Zombies...

Until now.

Made a roadtrip to K-Zoo with my friend Chris yesterday and went to the best comic store in all Michigan- Fanfare. Clean, well organzied, and doesn't have that peculiar fanboy odor. Is showering really that difficult of a concept?

Anyway, I picked up a ZOMBIES!!! bag o' babes!!! to add to my collection for the zombies game as well as using them for other games like Heroclix. I now own 230 little plastic zombies. That's quite an army of the undead- especially when seen on a game board surrounding your players appearing very hungry. More pics to follow- possibly a Marvel Zombies themed Heroclix game??

Hasbro Toy Fair 2007!

New figures for Spiderman 3 and Fantastic Four 2. Check it out!

Like the packaging, figures look about the same as before. Cool Surfer though.

I don't like the twisted building packaging- seem off to me, the plastic web burst is kinda neat.

More of those adorable little superhero squad figures- Spidey 3 versions. No Mary Jane?!

...and the Fantastic Four version with Torch and Surfer. As much as I don't want to collect these (thanks to my growing collection of Minimates) I would like to get this one.

Who's your Fantastic Four?

So, who's it gonna be?.... From pics of the Turner covers online- it looks to be Thing, Torch, Storm, and Black Panther, which is fine by me. Out with the old couple, in with the new.

However, if I could actually pick who I wanted on the team (why not give it a shot Marvel?- It worked for DC vs. Marvel!) I'd go with.....that's a tough question. I'll have to think about it.
Definitely none of the original four though. Hmm....

As for the book itself, it looks promising with new characters and a new writer. McDuffie knows team books- as a writer on JL-JLU, he nails characters interaction, which is what the book was lacking under Straczynski. The whole Thing in Paris storyline? Ughh....since when can Ben speak French??

Back in Black

As long as Marvel is putting Spidey back in his black costume, they might as well do other characters. Like Storm and Havok here. But then I guess Black Panther and Polaris would have to get killed off too.

Oops....R.I.P Mary Jane.

Monsters Menace America!

Instead of our usual Heroclix Wednesday game, my friends and I tried Monsters Menace America (from the same company that created Betrayal at House on the Hill). Setup was simple and came with various chits*- but not too many. *Chits refers to the tiny cardboard/plastic pieces that come packaged with boardgames- I didn't make that one up.

The objective of the game is to be the last monster standing after destroying american cities with your monster and branch of military. The monster include an Ape, an Eyeball creature, a Lobster, a Cricket, a purple Blob, and Godzilla. Branches of military include the Army, Navy, Marines, Airforce, and National Guard. Each monster/military has their own abilities- but are pretty much equal. During the game your monster can mutate with a deck of various mutation cards giving your monster special abilities from bonus attacks to more damage. The Military has their own deck as well, incorporating two Military monsters that can join the fray: Captain Colossal and Mecha-Monster.

The gameplay is easy to learn and fun. It plays similar to Risk, but with more freedom to go where you want. I really enjoyed being able to control both the Military and a Monster at the same time. You're basically playing two games at once. The theme works well for a boardgame with four or more players. It can come down (and usually does) to luck of the dice roll, but its fun just the same.




In our game, Kong was the winner- Eyezorb was stuck on the west coast fighting the Navy, Godzilla couldn't catch a break with the Armies tanks, and Lobster guy was tearing up the Rockies.

Hoth Effect Snow Storm

It hasn't stopped snowing since last night- even as you read this, still snowing. "Roads?...Where we're going we don't need roads." 'Cause you'll be snowed in, that's why.

I miss the sunshine.

Iron Man vs. Mandarin

Recently, I viewed Marvel's DVD adventure, Iron Man. Animation good, Movie bad. Here's a rare picture from the final battle of the film:

It's-a-me, Mario!

Whoa. That's a lot of Mario games. I've come to the conclusion that I didn't buy the Wii so much for the Wii games, but rather all the old games that I missed out on Gamecube. I just bought Mario Kart 64 last night for the Virtual Console, and graphically, its a mess. Pixelated Racers! Gameplay still holds up- I love it. I love it so much that I bought three more Gamecube controllers and then thought as long as I'm getting those, I should check out other Mario-Multiplayers. Again, whoa. EIGHT MARIO PARTY GAMES?! Don't forget Mario Power Tennis, Baseball, Soccer, and the classic Smash Brothers. Thanks to game review sites like IGN.com and Gamespot.com I can filter through the crappy ones. Having all these games available on one system was genius. Nintendo, you're my valentine.

Marvel Super Dice

First things first: I've gotten the Ebay bug.

What started as needing some horrorclix figures, (for my custom Ghostbuster game-see following post) expanded into "What else do I want that I can't find?"

Never say this while on Ebay- bad, bad.

The worst part is the buy it now button. No auction? No problem! Shipping Fees? Who cares? I can buy it now! Ughhh.....

Luckily, I've come to my senses and only LOOKED at potential items I wanted to buy. Pictures are definitely a lot cheaper than the real deal.

So yes, I did buy the horrorclix figures, and two boardgames. But, I'm good.........for now.

Anyway, I came across a gem from 1997: TSR's Marvel Super Dice. Thanks to Ebay, I was finally able to buy what I remember seeing in the store ten years ago, all for the low price of $1.99 with shipping, so- eight bucks.

The game was planned to have expansions, but never quite got off the ground. I've seen pictures of a Fantastic Four version, but alas...it never came to be. There's very little info about this online surprisingly. Without further ado, here's what's in the box.....

18 different colored dice, 2 sheets of map tiles, 1 stat book, and 1 rule book.



The stat book- 8 of the dice have character faces, each with their own abilities. Of course, the characters I like are the rare ones. Crud.



The character I have: Magicienne (who?) Sentinel, Captain Britain, Colossus, Wolverine, Black Tom Cassidy, Psylocke, and two Masterminds. He's a chick? The white dice represent civilians and various attacks.



The objective of the game is to advance from one character's headquarters to the other. Along the way you encounter police, civilians, swat, and even little old ladies who are caught up in this city-wide riot.

Could be a fun little game. Who knows, maybe if it's that good, I'll head back to Ebay to find more dice.....Here we go again.