WingDamage.com

"Does anyone remember where we parked?"

Secret of Mana is an action RPG by Squaresoft for the Super NES that came out in 1993. It is from a 3/4 perspective and plays a lot like The Legend of Zelda. One of it’s most unique features was that it used the multitap adapter to allow for three players simultaneously.

These are the facts, and they are all well and good. But this isn’t really a review in the traditional sense. This is more of a recounting of the experience surrounding Secret of Mana, and why it is one of the games that means so much to me as a gamer.

It all started with a friend of mine in Junior High, Chris. He was telling me in shop class about this crazy new game he was playing. There were tales of epic battles between his characters and hordes of unique and interesting sounding monsters, a flying dragon you eventually got as a pet, and multiplayer. He and his dad were playing through this grand adventure together. I had never heard of this “Mana” game he was talking about, but after his stories I had to play it.

(more…)

Welcome to a special bonus installment of our video game podcast, Barrel Roll.

Colin “MrColinP” Panetta, and Jonah “thespambot” Gregory got together to discuss one of their favorite video game series, Space Quest. This is an overview of the entire Space Quest series, and we have broken it up into two parts, for your convenience.

In Part One, we will be talking about how each of us found this series, and then moving on to focus on games one through three. Full show notes can be found after the break.

Download

RSS

iTunes

(more…)

"Come to the Dark Side... of Fun!"

As those of you that follow the site may know, we are currently having a giveaway for the swag we picked up at this years Emerald City ComiCon. This includes several comics, some pins, a couple of Star Wars action figures, and an exclusive Goon print.

To enter, simply head over to the blog post for episode 10 of “Barrel Roll”, our podcast, and comment in the thread. As we mention in the episode, there is a specific thing that must be contained within the post. Reading the current posts, or looking at the attached image is probably a dead giveaway though.

We will announce a winner on the next episode of the show, which will record Sunday night at 6pm Pacific, so you have to have entered by then to be eligible! What are you waiting for? Go enter!

"This Is the City..."

In popular entertainment, one aspect many look for is immersion. Feeling sucked in by a good book or movie makes you really feel like you are part of the action. They can transport you to another time and place, and whole new world (cue the song from Aladdin).

One style of game that excels at this for many gamers are “Open World”, or “Sandbox” games. While they do have an over-arcing plot, most of them allow you to play at your leisure. Often there are a lot of mini-games and side-quests to keep you occupied. If they are well designed, many players spend hours just exploring.

Here are a few good open world games with brief overviews.

(more…)

Microsoft has been vying for a piece of the casual pie that Nintendo has been scarfing down since the launch of the Wii, and some of their results have been surprisingly entertaining.

Most of us self-proclaimed “hard core” gamers have friends and family that only play video games casually, or often not at all. Sometimes, our favorite games we want to show off to them have a steep learning curve, or complicated controls and concepts if you don’t already have experience with the console. You can end up spending the whole night explaining how to take cover, blind fire and rhody run. This is a surefire way to scare off people who just want to try out something fun and simple.

What can you, the core gamer, do when there is a shindig and you’ve got a hankering for some gamering?

(more…)

"Raise the roof!"

Movie tie-in games have a history of not living up to the source material. Movies based on TV shows have the same problem. So what chance does a movie tie-in based on a TV show have? As it turns out, not a lot.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (SNES) is a beat-em-up that does not even attempt to follow the plot of the movie, other than having the same final boss, Ivan Ooze.

(more…)

"I say, Old Chap!"

On a very special seventh episode of “Barrel Roll! - A Video Game Podcast”, we discuss the awesomeness of “Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure”, “Bully: Scholarship Edition”, we check in on Jesse’s Wii Fit progress, and Luke finally has a TV again!

In the news we talk about all the stuff coming out of GDC that we thought was interesting. Gameboy and Gameboy Advanced games coming to DSiWare, Cross Edge coming to the states, Balance Board support of Wii “Punch-Out!” and much more.

(more…)

Justin McElroy is the Reviews Editor and a writer for popular gaming news site Joystiq.com, and has done freelance work for several publications over the years. He is also one of the hosts of the Joystiq Podcast, and is active in it’s fangroup the JPAG (Joystiq Podcast Appreciation Group).

Mr. McElroy was graceful enough to do an interview with WingDamage.com so we could get some insight into his work, and his life as a gamer.

(more…)

Sometimes, when I’m hanging out in Gamer Time, I come across the most ridiculous looking/sounding games I’ve ever heard of. Enter “Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad”.

It goes without saying that this game was designed with a young, male demographic in mind. Even if you were to look past the name, the translation of which is basically “sword fighting big sister”, and the cover art, you’d still have the back of the box to deal with. Here it explains that this game features “Sexy Samurai Sisters”, “Nonstop combat and swordplay” and a “dress-up mode”. Yeah, you read that right.

(more…)

"The Good Ol' Days"

As I had mentioned in my Tetris article, we had always had game systems in our household growing up (much to the chagrin of our parents). The NES had served us well for many years. So many years, in fact, that it completely stopped working. Jesse still blames that copy of Mappy we rented. It was the last game that ever worked on that console…

We were surprised when our mom came to us with a deal. If we were able to come up with half of the money, she and our dad would make up the difference on a new game system. The Super NES was out, but the price point was just too high. The Genesis had been out for a while, and one of my older brothers, who was coming up with the majority of our share of the money, preferred the Genesis. He had rented one a few months before this and was taken in by Altered Beast. I can’t speak for him. I wasn’t allowed to play it because of all the monsters and the killing. Still, the Genesis now came with Sonic the Hedgehog, which I was dying to play.

(more…)