Live. Die. Repeat.

There are a few modern movies which I regret never having seen on the big screen when they were released in the cinema.

Like The Rock and the first Infernal Affairs.

These remained some of my favorite films but I have only watched them on home video release. Sadly the window of catching movies in the cinema is pretty small even with the emergence of multi screen cinemas.

Nowadays video games followed a similar path, the absolute classics that first appear on home consoles re-emerges years later on handheld systems and smartphones.

While I appreciated the notion of having these games on portable devices, I still think that big 3D epics are meant to be enjoyed on the big screen TV.

Especially if it's going to be your first experience.

My first experience of Mario 64 was totally ruined on the DS system because the controls were extremely clunky  without an analog stick. It's still a great game but nothing like Mario Galaxy in my eyes. So I'm pretty apprehensive about these handheld ports of classic games.

Games like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Xenoblade Chronicles on the 3DS.

I have never played any of these games on their original home consoles. Thankfully the option to play them on a big screen TV is still viable, so long as you keep your old consoles around and have an internet connection.

While on the topic, I do not think everything looks better on a big screen. Certainly not most games originally made for portable systems. But it happens and some of these games leap onto the home console because publishers aren't contend with the sales of the original port. Thankfully I played most of these said games on the handheld and never had to experience what the HD remaster are like. Being a purist, the original format is always the best way to experience it especially if it's going to be your first time.

Power to the People

Nintendo Power v236 is the final issue for the year of 2008 and what an issue it turned out to be. Picking up a copy of Nintendo Power is always a bit of a gamble for me as there are usually no open issue for me to browse through first. Thankfully Nintendo Wikia provides a preview of each issue content for me to decide whether the issue is worth picking up and they usually don't disappoint. Nintendo Power is one of the few things related to Nintendo that have remained traditionally-hardcore. After all how many publications would feature Ninja Gaiden : Dragon Sword, GTA: Chinatown Wars and Madworld on their covers? I initially got this issue for the Castlevania poster included and the retrospective look at the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Power Profile feature on Shinji Mikami and also a nice coverage of the recent TGS 2008, complete with an interview with Suda51 on the upcoming No More Heroes 2.