You guys are welcome today to add here what you think will happen this year in the gaming and tech world as well. But I’ll start off:

World of Warcraft will continue to bleed out, and possibly hover at a stable million of players even though pandas will come but probably not help as much.

Guild Wars 2 will drop(be released) and be a success with former Guild Wars players and attracting new ones that will defend it as the best MMO out there.

Bioware will drop Mass effect 3 with Origin support on both PC and consoles. Gamers will cry all over the world.

Square-Enix will have FF13-2 out and it will be much better then 13.

Max Payne 3 will launch and remind us how a 3rd person shooter should be played.

The Vita will launch and be hacked within a month.

The 3DS will have a stand alone Pokemon game announced sometime in development.

SONY will make fans happy but will have a huge problem.

Nintendo will launch the Wii U, people everywhere will say it’s the end of Nintendo and they should sell off all their IPs(intellectual properties) to SONY.

Microsoft will still be Microsoft.

Valve will troll it’s users again.

Capcom will screw up again and lose money faster than an alcoholic gambler in Vegas.

These are my predictions for 2012 lets see what happens.

With this new game, you can imagine the pressure was on. Essentially, Black Box has two things to prove: That they can create a next-gen NFS game from the ground up, and that they can keep up with where the series has been during their absence.

I’ll start by saying what the screenshots already do–Need For Speed:The Run is a very nice looking game. Battlefield 3’s Frostbite 2 engine is pushing some very large, detailed courses here, and the strange choice in engine is made all the more obvious when they start to come apart at the seams. Taking a page from Motorstorm: Apocalypse, what was a tricky slalom run can quickly turn into a race against the elements as an avalanche threateningly obscures your vision and litters the road with chunks of debris mid-race. Volcanic eruptions rattle the screen without warning, and impromptu earthquakes split the ground, creating makeshift ramps and barriers to be dodged. Forcing players to adapt on the fly is one way to shake up the formula and keep things new, but this focus on mayhem serves an even better purpose. It adds a layer of tension unheard of in a NFSgame, where the uncertainty of what may happen around you is at odds with your ability to finish the race in good standing. It’s a rush.

(Quick history: When Criterion took the reins, they used their experience with Burnout and made a solid driving model that had the speed and precision of an arcade racer, but with the weight and inertia a longtime Need For Speed fan would recognize. The result was a control scheme that complimented the game’s sense of speed perfectly, and is apparently one of the most responsive games in existence as insinuated by DigitalFoundry during their tech analysis.)

Going back to NFS: The Run after Hot Pursuit almost feels like a time machine. The cars have a strange weight to them, feeling too light on straights and too heavy on turns. Turning feels like doing so with a rudder instead of a steering wheel, and handbrake is unreliable, as using it seems to do more harm than good. Even driving at a high speed felt twitchy and unwieldy, something that shouldn’t be in a game where your base vehicle is a low level supercar. I thought it had been because I hadn’t played in a while, but a quick return to Hot Pursuit confirmed it – they may have brought other aspects of the series up to par, but the driving feels like a step back. The many crushed guardrails and flattened vehicles I had to endure during races had me calling the game Need for Speed: The Boat Run under my breath. Suddenly, the new rewind feature seemed less like a caveat for the more questionably scripted hazards and more like an apology for the busted control.

This control issue wasn’t game breaking, but it was enough to cast Black Box’s return in a negative light. I’m glad that they’ve taken all the appropriate visual cues from some of the more exciting racers this year. I’m all for the proliferation of Autolog, and I welcome the return to over-the-top theatrics, but it’s all for naught if they aren’t truly ready to keep the bar of quality as high as their contemporaries. We’ve been at this ascent for three games in a row. Slightly Mad Studios brought the in-car sensation of speed to new heights with Shift, Hot Pursuit brought Autolog, and Shift 2 Unleashed brought it all together in addition to pack racing and a broader career. While apocalyptic spectacle is the one feature I want to assign for this latest installment, It’s a bit of a bitter pill if it feels like Black Box hasn’t updated their racing model since Undercover.

No matter the innovations, it just takes one flaw to render them all irrelevant in memory, and open the floodgates for harsher scrutiny. Almost seamlessly, your game can go from having a sick narrow train escape, to a question as to why there’s a QTE in the middle of your race.

Then credibility falters as you begin to question what really was added to the experience.

Am I being mean? Perhaps not.

Black Box taking a vacation was for the good of the series and their team, but the home they’ve come back to is not the one they left. Colleagues have been improving their game while they weren’t looking, and expectations with each release are much higher. NFS: The Rundoesn’t meet them entirely, but it at least shows that while they have good intentions to keep NFS relevant on an intense level, they’re still somewhat stuck in the past. Let’s hope they can keep up, lest a Treyarch/Infinity Ward style split of public design opinion happens at EA, and we start subconsciously marking their titles as the “inferior” ones.

For this installment of Gaming Embarrassments, we’re going to take a brief look into a part of my gaming collection. While some might think that such a venture would be more of a bragging rights, or even lack thereof, there’s a lot more than meets the eyes when it comes to a modest portion of my collection. The next few pictures you’ll see below are of a small piece of my gaming collection. Moreover, many of the titles in these following pictures are of relevance to the matter at hand (PS yes, that’s a DVD of Evo 2k2 nestled closely to the Dungeons & Dragons DVD):

More or less, this shows a majority of the games I currently own, from the previous generation to this current one. While the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 titles are mostly exempt, many of the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox titles are not. What’s the embarrassing secret I am revealing? A vast majority of these games have never been played more than the first few minutes.

While to a collector this might not seem like such a foreign concept, most of the games purchased were intended to actually be played and defeated. Many of these were purchased while I was laid off for the first time in late 2007. In general, I had a wealth of time on my hands. I had set out to fill that time with some good old fashion role playing gaming, which is quite evident with all three of these photos. While I did try and put in an honest effort on spending time with some of these games, I just never really stuck to it. I actually dipped back into games I had completed previously, such as Final Fantasy III/VI, Mass Effect and even non RPG related games like Dead Rising and Super Mario Strikers. Hell, some of the games from my 365//365 review project were played for the very first time either before the project was conceived, or while the project was being worked on, as well as a few being intended for the project, but I just couldn’t really play them for whatever reason.

Then there are some titles I purchased simply because they were “hard to find” which, for an unemployed person, is a lot of wasteful spending. I’d equate that more for being a way to comfort myself during a difficult time than anything, but here are a few of those games in question:

(the Sega Saturn games are the games in question, though it’s hard to make out some Dreamcast and PSX titles in the picture, which I blame the camera phone on)

There are a few games not pictured (such as Burning Rangers, Darkstalkers, Sonic R and NiGHTS) but combined, I spent a few hundred in total for the games and system. Out of the games I bought, I only played Burning Rangers, Marvel Superheroes, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Virtual Hydlide, Sonic R and X-Men: Children of the Atom. Shining the Holy Ark and Dragon Force cost me nearly $130 in their CIB with foam insert, and yet I only put them on to make sure they had worked.

An ironic twist to this whole debacle is that every Nintendo game shown on the bottom row, I have played maybe ten thousand times over….aside from Alien 3. Behind them, and in other locations, I have a ton more NES games I have played more times than I could remember, with many of them being complete stinkers, yet I can’t bring myself to play the dot Hack series of games that I probably spent $100 or so on to acquire the first and second series in its complete form. I’ve been able to beat Wolverine on the NES, though I purchased Grand Theft Auto, Vice City Stories and barely got five hours deep.

While the last nine months of so have seen wasteful gaming spending cease, a few sneak in here and there, with my excuse being “I’ll eventually come around to playing them after I’m done with X, Y and Z.” While I have played Homefront thoroughly, I have not put in as much time on the multiplayer realm as I would have wanted, mostly because I’m so heavily vested in finding the right team for me in Marvel vs Capcom 3, or discovering more implausible corner combos in Mortal Kombat. My latest purchases of Dragon Age: Ultimate Collection (PC Steam sale) and 3D Dot Game Heroes are being met with legitimate face time, but it further neglects the dozens of other titles, some being quite expensive, that have piled up in my queue. It’s only going to get worse when LA Noire and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D are released….

Do you happen to have a habit of purchasing games with the intent of completing them, only to completely forget about them and let your queue build up? Leave a comment below with some of the games you’ve been procrastinating on for whatever reasons!

It’s a name that every Xbox 360 owner knows whether they like it or not, and a graphical showcase for the system ever since the franchise’s start in 2006. With the final installment of the trilogy drawing ever closer to its Sep 20th release date, Epic is pulling out all the stops for what they’re calling their biggest, best game ever, and one of their many steps towards that goal is letting us their fans take the game’s multiplayer for a spin, and iron out any chinks in their armor, an incredibly wise move in the wake of the fiasco that was the Gears 2 multiplayer.

But the burning question presents itself: How do you get in?

Well, owning a 360 helps a bit. Since I can hear you rolling your eyes a bit, I’ll ask something less obvious..

…Did you buy Bulletstorm? Probably not.

If you were a bit of a jerk, too busy playing CoD:Black Ops, or some sort of gross hybrid of the two who apparently doesn’t like good games and just reserved Gears 3 at a retailer of choice (my love for Bulletstorm is as subtle as the game itself) ,the beta will kick off on April 25th. A download code (if you haven’t lost it) is your key to access.You’ll have the pleasure of being gibbed, stabbed, lancered and otherwise outflanked by players having a week’s amount of practice and unlockables to use against you (more on that later).

• Beta Tester Medal: Complete one match in the beta to unlock this medal. Also carries over to your gamer profile in the full game. Players will be able to view the medal in the multiplayer lobby as well.
• Thrashball Cole: Complete 50 matches in any game mode to unlock the Thrashball Cole character, harkening back to his days as an athlete! Once it’s unlocked, completing 10 matches as him during the will unlock him for use in the full game.
• Gold-Plated Retro Lancer: Anyone familiar with the golden weapons of GoW2 knows what to expect here. Complete 90 matches in any game mode to unlock it in the beta, and rack up 100 kills with it once unlocked to carry it over to the final game.
• Flaming Hammerburst: Complete at least one match by Sunday, April 24 to unlock this toasty variant of everyone’s favorite burst weapon.
• Flaming Lancer: Complete one match during the week of April 25.
• Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun: Complete one match during the week of May 2.
• Flaming Gnasher Shotgun: Complete one match during the week of May 9.

Now get out there!

Top 4

1. Dieminon (William H. Guile)
2. Poem (Boxer)
3. DMG Insyane (Blanka)
4. Red Ranger (Blanka)

The Rest

5.CapMaster(Sagta),Grey Ranger(Ryu)
7.SKSKSKSKSK(Rose),Spab(El Fuerte)
9.Phire(Cammy),Bosnian(Guy), Wayne(Blanka), Mark(Sakura)
11. Valeraxiel(Gier), Glitch(Rufus), Fuerte, Zeichieck(Boxer)
13. Ultimizer(Dee Jay),X-mas, The Haitian(Makoto), Mega Man Steve(Akuma, ?)
15. G.I. Joe, Pan, Winrich, OPJ

Because I am so nice I have included the brackets.

Winner's Bracket

Loser's Bracket

How did I fare ? Well I had some good runs but due to the lack of practice I dropped links that would have sealed the deal. I also didn’t have any legit El Fuerte match up experience.  So that match up was an uphill for me. The next tournament is the 26th of this month. Hope to see you guys turn out.

Phantasy Star Online

Phantasy Star Online was what got me into online gaming. I put so many hours on my Dreamcast (and every other console that offered PSO) that it wasn’t funny. After a few years, the Dreamcast version’s servers degenerated to hacker/spambot heaven, so I decided to switch to the Gamecube version, and then finally the Xbox version. Eventually all every PSO server shut down, and I sad faced. Recently a buddy of mine shared this link with me: Play Any Version of PSO Online. I shouldn’t have to explain how awesome this is!

Star Wars Galaxies

Technically Star Wars Galaxies hasn’t been taken down yet. Instead, Sony Online Entertainment decided to take out everything that set it apart from MMOs, and throw them in the garbage. What resulted is World Of Warcraft, just set a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.  The current iteration of SWG is nothing at all like it was when it originally launched, and this move caused TONS of players to cancel their accounts.

I was one of those players. I was so sad to see this amazingly immersive MMO stripped of its magic that I swore off MMOs for quite a while.  About a year and a half ago I found out about the Star Wars Galaxy Emulator Project. SWGEmu is a Star Wars Galaxies emulator that is being coded from the ground up. While it is completely playable in its current state, SWGEmu is still missing some of SWG’s best features. If it weren’t for a lazy (and sometimes shady) dev crew, the emulator would be a completeand awesome recreation of SWG. Even though its incomplete, I still suggest anyone that has even a remote interest in MMOs check it out. While you’re at it, ask around for a Twi’lek named Mage; Maybe she’ll let you in my old guild!

Halo 2

Halo 2 lost its online support with Xbox Live, but there is still hope! There are a few projects working on emulated servers for Halo 2, but due to possible legal repercussions, I can not link to them. A quick google search should return results for those that still NEED to play it.

Ok, this list is a bit short, I know. I had a few more in mind, but unfortunately these projects have either been scrapped or shut down. Fear not! I will update the list as I go.

If you have any games that you’d like to contribute to the list, drop me a line at tehtonym@clgamer.com!

While originality is slim to none in this title, the way that Monday Night Combatdraws influences from so many games and genres and combines them into a very playable and very fun game is admirable. The easily recognizable influences that Uber Entertainment drew upon are obvious and numerous: the gameplay feels eerily like the Rachet and Clank series, although without the futuristic weapons for which the R&C series is most famous for, and after that everything is taken from either tower defense games or the Team Fortressseries. The game uses a cel-shaded graphical design, and many of the characters, especially my personal favorite, the gunner, look like TF2characters and even wield similar weapons. Now gameplay wise, I’ve already mentioned that Monday Night Combat plays a lot like the Ratchet and Clankseries, and I really do mean that. Hell, even other players on Xbox Live have mentioned this during games. But once again, just because the game is a bit of a rip off does not mean it’s bad in any extent.

Far and away the best part of Monday Night Combatis the gameplay. It’s always fun, frantic and fast-paced, and both the co-op Blitz mode and competitive Crossfire mode are fun and easy to just pick up and play. However, I do find that Blitz mode is far better, both in terms of design and pure fun. Something about the Crossfire mode feels really broken. Maybe it was just the few rounds I played, but it just didn’t feel right. The Crossfire mode feels tacked on; as if the game realized that it needed competitive multiplayer to satisfy the current market, which frankly is obsessed over games like Call of Duty and Halo to the point where online multiplayer is almost a necessity in any game these days. The tower defense-esque co-op feels far more natural and appropriate for the gameplay. I don’t know, maybe it’s just my taste, but I find myself coming back to the Blitz mode again and again without even touching Crossfire.

But if I had to sum up Monday Night Combatin one phrase, I’d have to say “Mixed-Bag”. There are so many awesome parts of this game, but so many utterly disappointing ones as well. And most of the problems with the game are completely avoidable! Why can’t you change classes in Blitz mode? Why is the respawn time so random, and seemingly arbitrarily assigned per death? Why is button to join the game in local blitz “Y”? It should just be “A”! I doubt the programmers were forced by gunpoint to make the button “Y”, there’s just no logic to it. And I know it seems like I’m nitpicking, but it gets really annoying. But there are some downright awesome design choices that really enhance the gameplay. In Blitz mode you can look at the ground to see where the robot enemies are going to spawn from in the incoming wave. This is a freakin’ GODSEND in pretty much anything above the first level of difficulty, as enemies will flank you to try to get to your moneyball. And while it seems like I have more cons that pros to discuss, when it comes to design in a game like this, it can be hard to say how it’s good, because it’s mostly about just not having bad design choices. And by the way, by far the most annoying thing about this game are the FUCKING GREMLINS. THESE ENEMIES ARE SO GOD DAMN ANNOYING. And the way the announcer tells you that gremlins are coming doesn’t really help, his voice is just so…. (shudder) I can’t describe it. But these little bastards have cloaking on, so you can’t see them well until they start swarming your ankles. Now after you play a few rounds you’ll anticipate them, but they’re still formidable opponents due to their numbers.

Ok, this review is wrapping up, and while it might seem like I didn’t say a whole lot, keep in mind this is an XBLA game; it’s $15. For what it’s worth it’s fun, but the game just feels so lacking in certain areas that it might turn some people off. If you’re willing to put a few hours in to figuring out all the little tricks the game has, and you like Ratchet & Clank and Team Fortress 2, I’d recommend this one any day of the week.

Final Rating: 7/10

Honorable Mention: Tetris

Now before I start getting angry comments, let me say that I acknowledge that Tetris, just the game of Tetris itself, cannot qualify for being a boss fight. That’s the only reason it’s not on this list. But if you look past that, you see that if Tetris qualified as a boss fight, it would probably end up at number 1 on this list, or at least pretty close to that. It fits every other parameter. The music is great, it’s a fun “boss” to play, and it’s definitely unconventional.

Another drawing factor for Tetris is that you actually cannot beat it, at least to my knowledge. Maybe on some versions of the game there are alternate modes that you actually can beat, but the beauty of Tetris is that it goes on forever, or at least until the player can’t keep up anymore. It’s that kind of simple elegance that not only makes Tetris a great game, but also ensures at least a mention on my list. I really wish that I could put Tetris on this list, because it’s such a different entry than you normally see on lists like this, but it actually has a very strong case for it being here. Oh Tetris, if only you were somehow a boss, I would love to put you on my list. But alas, Tetris isn’t a boss, it’s only a game that fits every description of a boss, except of course, being a real boss. Sorry Tetris, you’ll have to settle for my honorable mention, but you’re still awesome.

10. GLaDOS – Portal

Let me start off by saying this. Portal is a very strange game. Whether it’s your character’s barely explained robot legs, the mind-bending puzzles, or the surprising amount of compassion people show towards the Companion Cube, Valve’s physics-defying puzzle game is just weird all the way through. But by far the strangest part of the game is GLaDOS, the only known entity besides the protagonist Chell in the game. GLaDOS “guides” you through the games puzzles, and her dialog changes from somewhat helpful to downright sinister as the game progresses.

One of the best things about the final confrontation with GLaDOS is that the player doesn’t expect it. Sure, some of you might have suspected it, but it’s not really foreshadowed, it kind of just happens. The last puzzle of Portal, where you have to escape through the test center’s inner workings, is an amazing change of pace from the rest of the game. All of Portal up to that point is pristine, clean, and neat, and causes a pretty sinister atmosphere because of how “perfect” it all seems. It’s too good to be true, and the escape through the factory proves that assumption. Scribbles on the walls left behind by past test subject indicate that “The cake is a lie!” and other helpful hints, and the creepy robot voice of GLaDOS telling, pleading, and threatening you to stop moving forward just enhances this atmosphere.

So you make it all the way through the test center and you finally encounter GLaDOS. The giant machine’s voice is actually slightly clearer now that you are face to, well, insane homicidal machine, then when you hear GLaDOS in the test center, which is a great little addition that just further immerses the gamer into the experience. And now we move onto the actual boss fight. This battle gets some bonus points for having some of the funniest moments in the whole game right at this scene. I won’t ruin anything, but when GLaDOS drops her morality core, if you don’t put it in the incinerator right away, GLaDOS spews out some of her greatest lines. There’s a few videos of it on Youtube, and I encourage you all to check it out if you haven’t seen them already. So anyway, you drop her morality core into the incinerator, and then the battle begins. GLaDOS is a remarkably different boss than anything I’ve experienced. It takes a bit of time to figure out how to even hurt the machine, but once you realize what to do (no spoilers here, I won’t say) it’s pretty easy and very fun. You get to see the concentrated forms of all of GLaDOS’ emotions, the most entertaining one probably being rage, the way it seizes around spewing angry voices. Anyway, GLaDOS is not only a very different boss fight, but a very fun and entertaining one, and a perfect way to start off this list.

9. Gigantic Blooper – Super Mario Sunshine

Now to be fair, I haven’t played much of Super Mario Sunshine, so don’t get mad if there’s an awesome boss fight late in the game, because I haven’t gotten to it. But I have played enough of it to know that there’s one amazing boss fight very early in the game. To be fair, this is more of a mini-boss, and is very easy, but just based on how much fun it is, and how strangely sadistic it is, the Gigantic Blooper fight just had to be on my list. You all remember this, you’re running around, doing Mario things, when all of a sudden, a giant blooper falls from the sky and then you’re in a boss battle. I just love how unexplained this one is, it’s just like “Hey! There’s a giant squid! Go!”. It’s completely out of nowhere, and it’s completely hilarious! But anyway, the only real reason this fight is on my list is how you fight the blooper. People have been long making observations on how strange and sadistic Mario games are when you really delve into them, but this is the epitome of that. There is no way around this fight, Mario jumps on a squid’s tentacles and rips them off, despite the pleading tears by the creature to stop. How sick do you have to be to do that? Mario is literally dismembering living creatures here! Forget Dead Space, this fight is the first use of graphic dismemberment in a game that I’m aware of. And it only gets worse. After Mario has ripped every single limb from this blooper with his bare hands, leaving the creature completely incapacitated, Mario could have just walked away. But no, that’s not nearly enough satisfaction for this sick person. Mario then grabs the blooper’s nose, pulls it back what looks like 15 feet, and then let’s go, causing the blooper to be violently slapped in the face with his own nose. Now that’s cruel. And yet, the player is having a blast while observing these sick acts.

Now I did mention that this boss is very easy, and I wasn’t exaggerating. This is one of the easiest bosses I can think of, it’s actually no challenge whatsoever, the music isn’t outstanding, I can’t even remember what the music was! But it all comes down to the gameplay, and the Gigantic Blooper fight is so much fun that it had to be on my list.

8. Free Bird – Guitar Hero 2

Here’s where some people might start disagreeing with me. Or maybe they started with the Gigantic Blooper, I don’t know. Free Bird, the final song in Guitar Hero 2, and the possessor of one of the most famous, and infamous guitar solos of all time, is an awesome boss fight. Some people might not call it a boss, but I say it is, just look at the facts. It’s the last song played in the game, it’s harder than any other song in the game, it has it’s own music (well, so does everything in Guitar Hero, but I’m making a point), and there’s a big buildup to actually playing the song. You know, the build up is actually one of the best parts about Free Bird as a boss, and in my opinion, one of the funniest moments in a game ever. I can’t really explain it, but I find it very amusing to see 3 consecutive warnings when you try to start the song. They’re almost urging you to go back, and it prepares you for what you’re about to go through. Even with all the quick reflexes and rapid button pressing required for some bosses on this list, or some people would want to see on this list, nothing will hurt your fingers more than Free Bird. Well, maybe that Dragonforce song, but that song is awful.

Yeah, I’m going to take a minute to explain why I put Free Bird here instead of Through the Fire and the Flames, or even Bark at the Moon, for those of you who were around for the first Guitar Hero. Well, I was never really good at the first Guitar Hero, and never got to Bark at the Moon on a difficulty where it would be challenging at all, so that kind of makes me unable to put it on the list. But the main reason is that Free Bird is a far better song than Bark at the Moon, or Through the Fire and the Flames for that matter. And it’s also a far more appropriate song. When you think of being a Guitar Hero, you don’t think of playing some Dragonforce song, or an Ozzy Osbourne song, even if it is pretty good. Maybe it’s just the classic rock fan in me, but Free Bird far eclipses both those songs in that matter. Also the notoriety of Free Bird (Even if you don’t know the song, you know what people mean when they say “Play Free Bird!”) makes it even more hilarious because you’re actually playing Free Bird. When I found out that this song was going to be in Guitar Hero 2, I was incredibly excited. The song definitely lived up to my expectations, and is easily one of the greatest boss fights of all time.

7. Devil Dragon / Living Walls – Mega Man 2

(sorry, that was the biggest picture I could find, and I couldn’t find a picture of the living walls)

Yeah, I have two bosses on this list, but I really can’t decide between the two. First let me talk about the Devil Dragon. A lot of people say that this boss isn’t as great as some people say it is because of how easy it is, and while it is a fairly easy boss, there’s still some challenge. The blind jumps you need to make when the dragon is chasing you constantly give me trouble, but once you get to where you actually fight the boss, it’s an easy one. It’s not as easy as the Gigantic Blooper from Super Mario Sunshine, however, so I can’t discredit it that much for its lack of difficulty. But the real reason that the Devil Dragon is on this list is just how iconic it is. Think about it, we all remember how much that Dragon freaked us out the first time we saw it pop up, and how most of us probably fell off the blocks just out of shock. But once you get over the tricky platforming and the surprise of the Dragon popping up, the boss is actually quite easy. Freakishly easy, really. So that’s why I made this entry a tie between these 2 bosses from Mega Man 2.

The other boss battle at this spot is the living walls boss from Mega Man 2. This boss is at the end of the third stage of Dr. Wily’s castle I believe, and I think I’ve only beaten it once or twice. I’m not great at Mega Man games, so maybe this boss is actually really easy, but to me it’s a pretty good challenge. But my favorite thing about this boss is just how weird it is. I mean, it’s a living room that is breaking apart, reforming, and then trying to kill you. If that’s not creativity, I don’t know what is. This boss fight also has a fair amount of shock, although not as much as the Devil Dragon. You jump down into that room, and start to wonder what exactly is going on, and then before you know it, the room is attacking you. Look, I know I’m repeating myself, but I seriously cannot get over just how creative this boss fight is, it’s genius! By combining this great idea with great execution, the living walls boss and the Devil Dragon from Mega Man 2 are two of the greatest boss fights ever, I just couldn’t choose between the two.

6. Abyss – Marvel vs. Capcom 2

(Why the hell can’t I find big pictures? Stupid hotel internet in Halifax…)

This is definitely one of the most interesting boss fights I’ve ever seen. Throughout all of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, you only see 3v3 team fighting, so when you get to Abyss, the final boss, and you see that he’s just one gigantic armored guy, you expect him to be really freakin’ hard. And he actually isn’t. Sure, he has some powerful attacks, but they’re all very slow, and he’s a very easy boss to beat. Now if this boss were as lackluster as I described him, why would he be on this list? Because after you beat this gigantic armored thing, the screen kind of melts away, revealing this strange green guy with a laser that’s insanely creepy. Yep, that’s right, this is a multi-part boss. And boy, is it a good one. Now I understand that I kind of trashed Abyss’ first form, but it’s actually pretty good. He’s incredibly foreboding, and on a first impression is much more sinister than the second form. Also, while his attacks are a little on the slow side, hot damn are they powerful! You do have to be very careful when fighting this boss, because if you mess up, your chances of beating Abyss in all of his forms is significantly lowered. But the first part of Abyss has nothing on its second form. Insanely creepy, this small green entity has quite possibly the creepiest voice in video game boss history. I can’t really describe it, but it’s horrifying. It shoots a laser at you, shoots bubbles, and if you don’t have a projectile character in your team, is very hard to beat. The only problem is that if you do have a projectile character such as Cable in your team, this part of the Abyss fight becomes very easy. Like, way too easy. But the third form, oh god the third form on Abyss. Not only is it challenging no matter who you have in your party, but it’s scary. Really freakin’ scary. Let’s see, how can I say this, you’re fighting ON THE BOSS. ABYSS IS THE STAGE! I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before in any game. It’s pretty awesome and frightening at the same time. For a lot of the fight, you have to just block in anticipation of a sudden attack by Abyss. Then you have to quickly react when the boss comes on screen and formulate an attack. But why isn’t Abyss any higher? Well, once you figure out how to beat this boss, it is really easy to beat. So even though it’s kind of easy, it’s definitely memorable, and easily one of the greatest boss fights ever.

5. Volvagia – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

This is one of my personal favorites, and is actually such a good boss fight that it turns the otherwise unremarkable Fire Temple into one of my favorite parts of Ocarina of Time. Before the fight with the fire dragon Volvagia, the Fire Temple is pretty standard, and not that much fun at all. But then, once you get to this boss, it’s just so much fun that it really makes up for the rest of the temple. You walk into the room, see those puddles of lava, and then the triumphant reveal of Volvagia, whose actually a pretty silly looking boss. But still, running around with the Megaton hammer, waiting for the dragon’s head to pop up, and then BAM! You smack him with the hammer, it’s just so much fun! I don’t remember much about music for this boss fight, although the Bolero of Fire is a really cool song, but the main reason why this boss fight is on this list is just how much fun it is. I know I keep restating this over and over and over, but I really can’t explain just how much fun I had the first time I played this boss. Something about just appeals to me, I guess. Ocarina of Time has some great bosses, from Volvagia, to Phantom Ganon, to the thing that you fight in Jabu-Jabu’s belly, but considering that I haven’t gotten past the Water Temple yet, I have to say that Volvagia is the best boss so far in Ocarina of Time, and easily one of the greatest of all time.

4. Huff N. Puff – Paper Mario

Paper Mario has some of the greatest and most creative bosses in both RPG history and in gaming history in general. The hardest thing about this list was picking just one boss from Paper Mario. In fact, I could probably make a top 10 of just the greatest boss fights from Paper Mario. But in the end, I had to go with the first boss that came to mind, the battle against Huff N. Puff. The giant evil cloud is one of the most visually memorable bosses in Paper Mario, right up there with the giant Piranha Plant and the Invincible Tubba Blubba, and has a bit of innovation in the fighting mechanics. Instead of the exact same fighting style for every battle throughout the whole game, when you fight Huff N. Puff, you need a bit more strategy. You see, every time you hit him, little particles come off of him and become separate entities, and also new enemies. So you have to be careful at some parts. Also, one of my favorite things about Huff N. Puff is how goofy he is, but also how sinister he is. You take what is pretty much the happiest place in the entire world, Flower Fields, and he completely corrupts it, darkening the sky with his cloud machine, and basically ruining everything. That’s so silly and at the same time, so freakin’ creepy. Also just look at him! He’s a giant cloud! That just screams silly/sinister. If you really think about it, a gigantic cloud would be a really horrifying thing to encounter in real life, so this boss fight definitely has a sinister angle to it.

Now the other boss that I strongly considered for this spot was the Crystal King. Now the Crystal King is one of the hardest bosses I’ve ever gone up against. He is freakishly hard. Much harder at that point in the game than Bowser is at the end. Not only does the Crystal King deal out a lot of damage, he has a large amount of health, and heals himself. In short, a very, very hard boss to beat. But he couldn’t take down Huff N. Puff, just because the Crystal King fight isn’t memorable enough. When I was thinking of Paper Mario boss fights, the first one that came to mind was Huff N. Puff. There’s a reason he left that much of a lasting impression on me, and it’s because the battle against Huff N. Puff is one of the greatest boss fights ever.

3. Rival – Pokemon Red/Blue

While I could technically put the Rival from any Pokemon game at this point, I picked the one from Red/Blue because not only is Red/Blue the best game in the Pokemon series, but it had the most compelling rival. I never played Ruby/Sapphire all that much, but in both of the last two generations of Pokemon games, the “Rival” has been replaced with a friend of yours whom you just battle continuously. That’s nowhere near as entertaining and compelling as actually battling someone you hate. And the Gold/Silver Rival is so arbitrarily angry, and is such an underdeveloped character, that I really can’t get involved in it. But your rival from versions Red/Blue is a well-developed character, you hate him for a reason, he doesn’t feel too overly evil with no good reason, and he ends up as a very intriguing antagonist. But people at this point might be wondering which fight against your rival I’m putting on the list. Well, there really shouldn’t be any debate. Does anyone not remember how the felt when you finally defeated the Elite 4 and you thought you beat the game, and then your freakin’ rival comes in out of nowhere and demands that you two battle? That was intense! And not only is it a great battle, but it has some of the most intense battle music in gaming history. Seriously, it’s that awesome, You just need to listen to it, and you’ll understand.

But wrapping this all up, the final battle against your Rival in Pokemon Red/Blue really has it all. Challenge, great music, great timing and shock value, and it all adds up to one of the greatest boss fights ever.

2. Mike Tyson – Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!

OH DEAR SWEET BUTTERY JESUS! THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF HARD. I can’t even begin to explain how difficult this boss is. By far the hardest boss in gaming history, if you haven’t tried to take down Iron Mike, there’s just no just way to explain it’s difficulty. I just can’t. I used to think I understood how hard this boss was, but then one day I looked up the code to get to Mike Tyson, found a version of the game online, and I’ve been scarred ever since. I tried to beat him three times; here are my results:

Try 1: Landed 0 punches and got knocked out.

Try 2: Landed 1 punch and got knocked out.

Try 3: Landed 0 punches and got knocked out.

One might say I just suck at Punch Out, and that may be, but still; Mike Tyson is hard. And that right there is the reason why Mike Tyson is on this list. The music isn’t any different than the rest of the game, the fight mechanics aren’t any different, the game just ramps up the difficulty to a legendary status. Because that’s why we all remember this boss, because of how many bloody tears we’ve shed trying to take down the champ. And that’s why this boss fight is on the list.

1. Giygas – Earthbound

I have to explain something. I really like Earthbound. I’ve talked about it in one other list I made, but it is quite possibly my favorite game of all time. I consider it to be a perfect game, and gaming’s single greatest achievement in terms of both quality, fun, and artistry. But all fanyboyism aside, I really feel that the final battle against Giygas is such a good fight that it can actually be thought of as the greatest boss fight of all time. The fight against Giygas has some of the best music in Earthbound, as well as all time, has memorable moments, a very interesting shift in battle mechanics, some humor (you can’t grasp the true form of Giygas’ attack!), and of course, quite possibly the most visually horrifying sight in any video game ever. There are theories circling the internet that………. Actually, no spoilers, I won’t say anything.

But anyway, the fight against Giygas really has it all. It kind of sums up Earthbound in that it accomplishes so much without apparently setting out to accomplish that much. Part of why the fight against Giygas is so amazing is because Giygas is such a good villain. Through the whole game, you never really hear much about him, and then when you finally reach Giygas you find out that he is so evil that his evilness destroyed his own mind and that now he is evil incarnate? That’s pretty badass. And when you take something that badass and fight it, you’re going to get a badass fight. The bottom line is that the fight against Giygas is so memorable either through its humor, interesting way of winning, or just how it looks, that it couldn’t not be number 1. The battle against Giygas is quite simply the greatest boss fight of all time.

Fifty days into the year – Fifty reviews released! It’s been a wild ride so far, and it’s only going to get wilder! Expect plenty of big games receiving reviews, as well as plenty of smaller named, lesser known titles. There’s quite a few changes going on with the project with each passing days. Some to help make content consistently entertaining, without sacrificing any integrity. Some changes are being made to help ease the burden I placed on myself with this project, and to help stay afloat for the next 315 days. During the coming weeks, I will outline more of the changes going on, what’s in, what’s out and in general, what you can expect.

You can stay abreast on all of my reviews and other random oddities by clicking “Jason V.” on the tag cloud to the right,  however I felt that compiling the first fifty days of reviews into a single article would help a little bit more, as you won’t need to change pages in order to see every review. Now you’re just a simple scroll away from each and every review I have done so far! Click the name to visit its corresponding review that you may have missed, want to share with others, or just give another read through! Without further ado, here are the first fifty days of 365//365:

(the five titles listed in bold are the most read reviews and italic are personal favorite reviews I worked on)

001. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
002. Double Dragon 3
003. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
004. Final Fight Streetwise
005. Castlevania 3
006. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (most viewed review thus far by quite a few hits)
007. Castlevania: Bloodlines
008. Simpsons Wrestling
009. Mega Man 3
010. Turtles in Time
011. Hyperstone Heist
012. TMNT Reshelled
013. Street Fighter: The Movie
014. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!
015. Boogerman
016. ET Digital Companion
017. South Park
018. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
019. Jackal
020. Army of Two: The 40th Day
021. Batman Returns
022. Pocket Fighter
023. Crazy Taxi GBA
024. Mario Kart Double Dash
025. Sonic R
026. Guitar Hero 3
027. PaRappa the Rapper
028. George Foreman’s KO Boxing
029. Foreman For Real
030. Castlevania Adventure
031. God of War Collection
032. Maximum Carnage
033. Separation Anxiety
034. Bubble Bobble
035. Mighty Final Fight
036. Final Fight One
037. Power Ranger: The Movie
038. Twisted Metal (ton of hits in under 24 hours)
039. Twisted Metal 2 (best game that week and the least hits that week….weirdos!)
040. Twisted Metal 3
041. Twisted Metal 4
042. Twisted Metal: Small Brawl
043. Rogue Trip
044. Vigilante 8 (PSX Car Combat Week was a pretty big hit with viewers)
045. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
046. Conker’s Bad Fur Day
047. Fighter Maker 2
048. Mario Paint
049. WWF Attitude
050. Uncharted 2

It seems as if more and more people are coming along for the ride as time passes. I hope that you all can spread the word more and bring some more friends along for the ride. I’m having a great time putting together all of these reviews, and it has been quite a challenge to stay consistent with this. Please, if any of you have any questions, comments, or even friendly debates, by all means leave a comment here or on any reviews I post. So long as its constructive and respectful, I will do my best to respond to whatever is posted here.

Once again, I thank you all for following along during the first fifty days of this ambitious project, and I hope that not only have you enjoyed it, but will come along with em for the next 315 days of reviews, and bring your friends as well.  I very much look forward to providing you all with more reviews of past, as well as present game releases.