Walking on the Moon

Every few months I am overcome by the need to play video games. My mind completely shuts out my real priorities, and becomes invaded with visions of questing through Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom. As much as I've tried to rid myself of the desire to sit around and play videogames, it can't be helped. I'm no longer the fiercely addicted gamer that I used to be, but no matter how hard I try to give up on games, they keep pulling me back towards the Tv set. So long as they aren't Japanese rpgs; I've pretty much lost my taste for those entirely. My flash in the pan obsession with gaming doesn't usually last very long, but when it hits: I can kiss my social life goodbye.

In the last few weeks there have been several types of retro games that I've been wanting to play again. Last week I took a stroll down memory lane with the Sega Genesis Collection on the PS2. This however, just added fuel to the fire, leading me to download a massive Mac compatible torrent containing each and every Sega Genesis/Master System/32x game released in the North America. There are like 600 games in that torrent! A bit overwhelming, I'll admit. And mostly I've just been playing through Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Shadow Dancer, Altered Beast, and as much as I'd hate to admit it, Micheal Jackson's Moonwalker. 

This week, I've been thinking a lot about the ultimate NES classic: Super Mario 3. Just the mention of it makes me want to wrap my thumb around a d-pad and start kicking Koopa ass from start to finish. I've also been really wanting to get a couple people together for some classic Goldeneye deathmatches on the N64. I've got extremely fond memories of playing both of these games for hours on end, all through the night, bleary eyed until the sun rises. I've been itching to get my hands on those two games and experience that part of my youth again. Just the thought of having both of those titles readily available for direct purchase and download makes buying the Wii much more appealing thanks to the Virtual Console. This relates to a recent decision of mine that I'd like to buy a Wii, a decision I've been working over in my head for some time. That being said, I won't be Wii hunting for a while, especially considering Christmas is coming soon, which makes it a terrible time to waste money on myself. There are gifts to buy and a faltering economy to support dammit! 

Anyways. I just picked Volume 8: Made To Suffer of Robert Kirkman's kick-ass zombie comic The Walking Dead from the RPL so I'm going to cut this post short and go read that. Volume 7 ended on one hell of a cliffhanger, and I've been biting my nails waiting for my copy of Vol. 8 to arrive. Vancouver prog-rockers Bend Sinister are playing for free downtown at O'Hanlons tonight and it'll be nice to see them again. It's been over a year since the last time I saw them live in Kelowna. Oh yeah, my review of Anders Nilsen's Dogs & Water should be posted by tomorrow or Sunday, so keep an eye out for that!