Sonic Gets Some Action...

Amusement - Shooting photo "samba de amigo" pour Wii
Uploaded by FatCat_Films

What's this? our favourite blue hedgehog being sandwiched between not one but two latin lovelies? yes folks, as the wonderful BJ pointed out in the comments section, Samba De Amigo is now out for the Wii.

The Dreamcast classic has been spruced up and repackaged for the Wii. Only except for shaking those lovely motion sensing maracas that came bundled with the original Dreamcast version, you'll be shaking a couple of Wii-motes instead. They've also squeezed in my favourite space reporter Ulala from that other Dreamcast classic Space Channel 5 and a few new tunes (such as 'Pon De Replay' by Rhianna and 'Low Rider' by War as well...

It's almost inevitable that I'll pick this up at some point, although I really don't need it. I've got the Dreamcast version and two sets of maracas. I've also got the PS2 incarnation which uses the eye toy. But you just know that this is going to be a riot with friends after a few beers so it'll be entering my Wii collection any day now. In the mean time it's just a great excuse to throw on a video featuring lot's of lovely Brazillian chicks wearing very little. he also makes and appearance in the game! Oh,and well done Sonic, maybe the good times are back for you, my little anphetamine fuelled spiky rodent buddy... Enjoy!

Samba de Amigo - Song Pack Trailer 3
Uploaded by thetanooki

Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth... What a harrowing, haunting and beautiful film this is. A story of the horror of war, (the brutality and ultimate futility of the Spanish Civil War in particular) the fantasy world of a little girl caught up in the grip of her fascist step father, the film includes death, torture, murder and could not be described as 'light entertainment'.

But I would reccomend it to anyone. It has some of the most amazing cinematography of any film I've ever seen. By the end of it Mrs. K had tears streaming down her face... I still need to get posting here more regularly... I'm slowly getting my blogging mojo back!

Windmill by deitrix

Just look at this... beautiful isn't it? Brooding, simple, stark, yet familiar and homely. I've long been a fan of deitrix artworks and have even been priveliged to have my own likeness rendered by the great man himself.

I've just bought a print of this amazing picture, that I will be showcasing in my caravan in Wales.

Go visit his site and shop now... You'll be well rewarded!

Oh and look at this rather amazing picture of my good friend Nebacha... Is there no end to this man's talents?

New Michael Jackson Game!

"Do you remember the time?" So said Michael Jackson to supermodel Iman and transvestite loving Eddie Murphy, in a pyramid, whilst Magic Johnson looked on in panic...

Well I say, do you remember the time when Michael Jackson games looked like the Master System/Megadrive/Genesis classic featured above...

However, it seems as though even if Mike can't be bothered giving me and Junlee a new CD, he's given us a new danc game that you can play via the magic of the Internet...

"Michael Jackson is proud to launch, in conjunction with the new international release King Of Pop, a brand new flash-based game that allows users to control Michael Jackson's dance moves as they aim to keep up with the steps during his tracks in a dance-mat style routine. Hand-and-eye co-ordination is the key to the game as arrows directs users to try and build up the biggest combo they can and see the King of Pop break out the trademark moves he made a worldwide phenomenon.

Prizes will be awarded for the highest hourly and daily scores, exclusive ringtones for hourly winners, and limited edition iPod Nanos for the daily winners. The overall top 5 scorers from each social network will then move on to a secret extra level. This level will pit the players against each other as they aim to be the lucky recipient of two round the world plane tickets (for players aged 18 and over), or a Sony Bravia 32" TV and a Playstation 3 (for players aged under 18)."

Click here to give it a whirl! If you can't be bothered (and quite frankly it's well worth at least one play, if only to check out the cheese factor...) then you can watch the video below! Enjoy!

Ooer! Sounds A Bit Rude...

Well enough of all this wallowing in self pity! So I can't give you any gaming news? Well what about a load of frankly innuendo-laiden place names? Fantastic! Enjoy!

King Yellowman

For a lot of my upbringing reggae was the most important musical genre... Although I spent most of my formative years in an all white Liverpool environment, I aspired to the music of Jamaica.

I had the fortune of meeting King Yellowman at the 'Secrets' nightclub in 1989 in Ocean City, MD.

I've hit him up on youtube some twenty years later, and it is my privelige to share it with you now!

Hello Peeps!

If there's still anyone out there that still checks in on this tumbleweed infested ghost town of a site, let me make my apologies. I've hit a zone of blogging impotence. There's many things I could have talked to y'all about , but gaming aint one of them.

I'm currently slogging my way through GTA IV, and don't get me wrong, I'm loving every second of my time in Liberty City, but it's taken me nearly a month to get through 25% of the game. That's not to say I've devoted all my free time to the game... I haven't! I've been listening to music, watching films, reading books- (Stephen King)- and comics... And I've kind of lost the impetus to blog (and even worse, checking on my blogging buddies blogs!)

Take the Saturn Junkyard for example... I created this blog and it's a creation of which I'm very proud. It's had over a 100,000 hits and has become an international phenomena. But I don't even contribute to it any more! It has it's own independent existence due to the very comprehensive team I recruited to post on it... Props to Caleb, Elend, Nebachadnezzar, Arugulaz etc...

I was originally thrilled to be a contributor on the Dreamcast Junkyard, Retro Treasures and Gnome's Gaming On The Go... But I deserve to be sacked from all those sites 'cos I've produced diddly squat for those esteemed places in months!

Basically I'm in a blogging rut my friends. Even posting this admission has been an effort. I guess I've got writers block, if I'm worthy of blessing myself with a condition that should be attributed to writers of a better calibre...

Anyway I'll leave you with the movie trailer for the latest film I just watched and loved because every piece of written prose needs a good picture to illustrate it...

Mad World Really Suited To The Wii (Apparently...)

Because I've been out of the blogging loop completely for the last month, Junlee and J have monopoloised the news on the next game that could make me think that the Wii was a valid purchase. Why it's 'Mad World' that black and white blood bath that seems the most interesting game to hit Nintendo's overly franchised market place since 'No More Heroes'.

I'll buy it and play it, hopefully I'll love it too. The Wii has held such a low place in my console world that I've actually let my son take it out of the living room and have it in his bedroom as an outlet for his Smash Bros obsession.

For me the 360 rules. i'm locked into GTA IV, the Wii means nothing.

Maybe this litle taster from the CVG newsletter that I regularly receive might explain why the Wii is still a valid console for real gamers. It's already lost the race as far as I'm concerned...

"Platinum Games chose Wii as the platform for its ultra-violent, black and white blood bath, MadWorld, because "it feels like a game that is at home" on Nintendo's console. Hmmm...

Speaking to CVG Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba said the pick up and play nature of the controversial action game made it a good fit for Wii."We're really interested in the Wii platform so we wanted to create a really cool and stylish game for that," said Inaba.

"As you can see [from our Leipzig presentation] it's really easy to pick up and play so when we came up with the concept of Mad World the Wii felt like a good console for that. It feels like a game that is at home on Wii."MadWorld recently riled up a ton of controversy in the newspaper press for bringing extreme violence to Nintendo's otherwise "family friendly" console.

Mediawatch-UK even called for it to be banned from British shores."Yes, it's violent. We don't try to hide that, but as publishers, we see it as a fantasy game - it's fantasy violence. It's over the top. It's cartoony," Sega marketing man David Corless told us added.Refreshing? Yes. Needed? Yes. But is Mad World completely "at home" on Wii? Look out for the full interview later today."

Black Crowes "Remedy"

I heard this on one of the Radio stations on GTA4... I used to have it back in the day, but it's long since gone... Probably lent it to someone, that's where a lot of my books, games, DVDs and CDs have gone... I'll be re-purchasing it ASAP!

The Black Crowes - Remedy
Uploaded by scootaway

Random Music Video (It's been a while since I treated you all...)

GTA4 Revelation

Sorry to drone on about something you all probably completed/abandoned/got over months ago, but I can't believe how good GTA4 is. Now I know I shunned the excitement of it's release, neglected to even give it a go even though it was sat under my telly for six months and generally bad mouthed the franchise, but if you know me well that's about par for the course.

Whilst I drooled with anticipation for Umbrella Chronicles and I've still not completed it, chewed my nails off waiting for Soul Calibur IV, only to play it intensely for a couple of weeks before losing interest and currently have Smash Bros (purchased by Gaming Ginger Ninja, Big Mart - 14) without even having given it a look, I've just realised why everyone was so stoked about the release of GTA4...

The back story of Niko Bellic and cousin Roman's rise to notoriety, form the backstreets of "Fuckknowswhere, Eastern Europe", to the seedy, stinking, shit lined streets of Liberty City draws you in from the very start. Characters such as Vlad, Dimitri, Faustin, Little Jacob etc seem realistic (in a Gangster B-Movie type of way...)

The free roam 'sandbox' environment (which originally put me off the Vice City incarnation - as my then eight and six year old sons just used to drive around pointlessly smashing up vehicles, but having a wail of a time...) now seems enthralling and liberating at the same time.

Grabbing a quick police chase for no apparent reason at all, and getting away is a great distraction!

I like the health power ups (burger bars and restaurants), shopping for clothes or weapons, watching the TV and whiling away the hours playing pool, darts, watching a show at the cabaret club, playing the tetris style video game, meeting with Michelle or just cruising around listening to the highly entertaining talk radio shows! The music on offer is great (I find myself choosing the Tuff Gong station mostly...) But I also love the linearity of the missions!

In short, it has everything a game should have, in my opinion. It'll take me an age to complete (and there's no garantee it wont be abandoned, as so many other games I've raved about in the early stages have been when the going gets to tough...) If I've got one small gripe, it's the character rendering that look like they could have been better served by the Dreamcast. Compared to the graphically gorgeous setting of Liberty City, Niko et al look very "uncanny valley" if you get my drift...

If you're wondering where I'm up to in the game, I've just killed Faustin and been set up by Dimitri. Fortunately my bredren Little Jacob helped me kill off all Dimitri's henchmen and we wasted the pigs before fleeing... I was just on my ay to the safehouse when my stupid cousin Roman rang me. Then Mrs. K came in from work and I had to turn it off...LOL!

Still, it's got me looking forward to my next session, if Mrs. K is not demanding the TV to watch "Diagnosis Murder" when I get in from work tomorow...

I'll keep you posted! :P

Introducing Dino-pig!

My littlest Ginger, Teduardo, has been messing around in the world of "Spore". he's somehow managed to upload his creation onto Youtube without any help. Not bad for a 10 year old I reckon! So ladies and germs, without any further ado, I give you Dino-pig!

This Summer I Have Mostly Been Getting Back Into Comics...

Here's the cover of one I bought in a Head Shop in Canada in 1982, age 15. (I still have it...) Whilst I was initially attracted to the shlock horror visuals on the front( the comic tells the story of serial killer Ed Gein, the original inspiration for Psycho) the comic contained an interview with Bob Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, authors of the epic Illuminatus! trilogy, which in turn 'turned me on' to studying the Illuminati, the politics and work of Timothy Leary and inspired me to try LSD, which I did the same summer (I was tripping at the top of the CN tower in Toronto, but that's another story... LOL!) All these synchronistic events have had a significant ricochet through my life right up to the present day. Weird Trips indeed!

The Pleasure and the Payne...

Hello my beautiful friends! I'm back from my three week vacation in the beautiful land of Wales. I took the xbox 360. One day I was watching the Matrix and I just got totally into it for about the twenty seventh time. I went over to the little shop on the caravan park, and they were selling xbox and ps2 games two for £15 (which is kind of a rip off 'cos you can pick 'em up for peanuts over here...) They had 'Enter The Matrix' and 'Max Payne'.

Still, it was the chance to play a Matrix game and the weather this summer in the UK has been shit and I was on holiday and Mrs. K wasn't arriving for a week. I had plenty of gaming time available! So I bought the games. Enter The Matrix wouldn't load up immediately (I didn't have the internet to download the code or whatever). However Max Payne loaded up straight away. I'd played and loved this game on the PS2 (I've got two copies) but got stuck and couldn't progress and like so many games before I'd abandoned it.

To cut what is rapidly becoming a long story short, I played the game to it's conclusion and LOVED it! It had every element of a game that should be there for me. To give it the award it deserves it came close to Shenmue. I know that's nearly blasphemy but it's true. What I absolutely loved were the faux series on TV... Lords and Ladies, Dick Justice etc. I love that!

When I finally finished the game, despite having a stack of games I could play, I felt the need to play more Max Payne. I found the sequel in 'Summit Games', Bangor, for the much more realistic price of £4. That saw me through the second week of my holiday... If you've never played Max Payne 1 & 2 you HAVE to play them.



After that I needed something along similar lines. It proved to be GTA4 that has been in my house since it's release date. I'm loving it. I've never played a GTA game but now I literally am Nico Bellic, and Liberty City is my home! I've only played 10% of the game but I love it. I know I'm always behind the times but in this case the lag is not THAT long...


Good to be back brothers!!!