I was originally going to write something about the debacle surrounding the Ni No Kuni Wizard’s Edition, but that’s irrelevant at this juncture – Namco Bandai screwed up royally, we got our Wizard’s Edition despite the difficulties and, most important of all, the game is absolutely phenomenal. Christina and I spent a good part of the weekend playing it (we’re about 13 hours in as I write this) and we’re both hopelessly head-over-heels in love with it. Level 5 and Studio Ghibli have created something really special here, and despite my limited time with it I’m completely comfortable recommending it. I really feel like this is a once-in-a-lifetime game.

I finally found a new main in Soulcalibur V! I wasn’t sure who would become my main character after Namco Bandai decided to kill off my Greek goddess Sophitia, but with today’s character announcement by Famitsu there is no choice but Xiba (or Sheba, or Sheva depending on which Romanization you’re looking at. I’m going with “Xiba” because technically it’s correct when translating from Chinese to Japanese).

As you guys know, I’m a big Dragon Ball fan. What you might not know is that early on, Dragon Ball was loosely based on the Chinese epic novel Journey to the West which featured the great monkey king Sun Wukong as its main protagonist. “Son Gokuu” is the Japanese pronunciation of Sun Wukong, and both characters feature a tail, a staff that can grow in size and ride around on a cloud. Noticing a pattern?

Anyway, as such I’m always a fan of fictional characters based on Sun Wukong. I loved playing as Son-Son in Marvel vs Capcom 2 and I even nicknamed my Infernape “Wukong” in Pokémon Diamond. When I saw Xiba, I immediately knew I had found my new favorite character.

I haven’t written much lately. Looking at this front page, I’ve hardly written anything of substance in the past month! Sorry about that. That’s just like me, saying I’m not going to stop writing and then doing exactly that. In my defense Christina and I have been very busy, she’s been sick and those Blogimations that no one watches are a LOT of work.

Rather than spend another day doing nothing and complaining that I don’t know what to write about, here’s a few quick thoughts on what I’ve been up to.

Okay guys, it is ALL ABOUT Skylanders now.

I’ve been following the development of Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure for a while now, because I thought the idea of collecting toys that would then work with a video game was an awesome idea. I’d been dying to play it, and the other night Christina and I picked up the Xbox 360 starter set along with a couple of extra figures.

Since then, we’ve been back to the store twice to buy more. I’d say it’s working.

I got kinda mad this weekend.

I had been looking forward to the release of Street Fighter III 3^rd Strike and decided to get it on PS3 instead of Xbox 360. While the 360 is my system of choice, it seems like everyone I know buys their multiplayer games on PS3 so I figured I’d start buying fighting games for my newer console. Since I love my Mad Catz Fightpad so much on my Xbox 360, I ordered one for the PS3. Good idea, right?

Nope.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a PK Bloggin’! style review of a game (that is to say, a review that isn’t really a review) but I wanted to talk about Alice: Madness Returns because I’ve been spending a lot of time with it and it’s a lot of fun.

Alice: Madness Returns (for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC… we got the PS3 version to try to flesh out our library a bit) is a sequel to American McGee’s Alice for the PC, which was released in 2000. For those of you who don’t know, American McGee is a guy who’s made a name for himself by taking classic stories and making them dark and gruesome. No joke, I once saw an “American McGee’s OZ” figure at an f.y.e. store that was two fat little munchkins who had Dorothy tied up, blindfolded and gagged.

Luckily, Alice: Madness Returns isn’t tasteless like the OZ figures. I never played the original (although it’s bundled as a free download with new copies of Madness Returns for consoles), but the story is able to stand on its own, and a quick reading of the original game’s Wikipedia entry is more than enough of a briefing to get you ready to jump into the sequel.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on February 16, 2011)

You would think that with a smaller roster, a new art style and a retooled control scheme that Marvel vs Capcom 3 would be primed to disappoint series fans that have anticipated the third entry for ten years, but you’d be wrong. Every change has been for the better, and its reworkings, additions and yes, even omissions, all create a more solid experience than the evidence would lead you to believe.

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is the third installment of the wildly popular 2D fighting series pitting Marvel’s roster of fantastic superheroes against Capcom’s stable of colorful and wacky characters. The first two games were largely similar, both featuring very similar rosters of characters and the same 2D art style and control scheme. MvC3 bucks tradition, employing a new 3D graphics engine (although the gameplay is still 2D), slimming down their selectable characters and simplifying the game controls to make it more accessible to newcomers.

With today’s purchase of these two PlayStation 3 games, Christina and I have committed to buying a PlayStation 3.

We had our local GameStop have one of the initial run 60 gig models shipped to them from a different store that should be in as early as tomorrow. After selling a couple of things we weren’t using, a PlayStation 3 seemed like a good investment, even when you factor in the PSN debacle (which did affect me, as I used PSN on my PSP).

>What really pushed Christina over the edge was them finally announcing that they were localizing the upcoming Bleach game, Bleach: Soul Resurrección. We had KINDA wanted one for a while, for a handful of exclusive games and the ability to finally play PS1 and PS2 games and not have them look like butt on our HDTV.

By now you’ve probably seen the commercial for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 racer Blur, because I don’t even watch that much TV and I’ve seen it probably 70 times. This commercial is awful and represents a lot of what’s wrong with video games these days.

Also, yes, I know Kotaku kinda wrote about this today, but I was going to write this up yesterday but decided to do the contest instead. Whatever. I didn’t steal the idea.

I want to talk about Final Fantasy XIII for a bit.

If you’ve been following my thoughts on the game leading up to its release, you’ll remember I’ve been kinda up and down on the subject, my interest fluctuating much like the wave pools at a water park. At first I wasn’t even sure I’d pick it up on release day, but a few days before my cynicism got hit by a Limit Break of excitement and I decided I’d get it day one. Come on, it’s Final Fantasy!

Or is it?