I bought the late GBA title Drill Dozer a few months ago based on the fact that it was made by GameFreak (the Pokey-man guys) and was super cheap at Target. Aside from that, I knew nothing about the game other than what I heard from EGM’s glowing review a few years ago.

Drill Dozer is essentially an SNES game that somehow got stuck in limbo and emerged 10 years later on the GBA. Well, that’s how it feels anyway. It’s a somewhat slow paced action/puzzle platformer that features a rag tag group of some rather unlikable character designs. The game reminds me of an SNES title (aside from graphics) because the whole concept is designed around the L and R triggers, sort of like the first few SNES games where Nintendo built games around those two triggers (see F-Zero and Pilot Wings).

It’s funny, we hyped the absolute shit out of Metal Gear Solid 4 around these parts, and since the actual game has dropped we haven’t written a single Nerdlog post about it. I’m here to remedy that.

Steve and I have already beaten the game. We’ve talked about it at length through the Smorg and through IM. To cut to the chase, we love it. Frank is currently in the middle of it, and I let Sith borrow my PS3 and the game so he can play catch up. I guess that’s the thing about MGS4, it’s hard to talk about the game without going into specifics. Once you go into specifics, you go into spoilers.

So MGS4 is about 36 hours away for most of us and we here at Shamoozal are chomping at the bit to get our hands on it. While our faithful GFGames viewers are waiting for Episode #3 ‘The Last Copy‘ to be released, we wanted to take this opportunity to revisit GFGames #2 “Tactical Espionage Retail Simulation”. Here’s a handy little Gamevideos.com version embedded for your viewing pleasure. You can also cruise over to our Episodes page and download a 720p Divx version to playback on the Divx-enabled device of your choosing. We’re also recording the 2-year anniversary edition of Shamoozal Radio Podcast this weekend (Saturday June 14th at 8:00 PM EST) which we’ll be streaming live on ustream.

Also, if you’re in the mood for more funny, hit the jump for GFGames #1 “Rated M for Molester”. Then check out Shamoozal’s archive of cartoons featuring Grey, Jacquo, Man-bot and the Zoinks!

I’m sorry, but I’m calling bullshit on Adam Sessler, Stephen Totilo and pretty much anyone else running the Konami restrictions story. I just caught a rerun of X-play where Sessler and Totilo had a conversation regarding the limitations on reviewers imposed by Konami in regards to Metal Gear Solid 4. Combined with the “Sessler’s Soapbox” that ran earlier this week, this is the second time Sessler has made an issue out of this publicly. Now, don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of Mr. Sessler, I have been since the Extended Play days on TechTV. I guess this is why I’m so disappointed to see him making a big stink out of something that may or may not be a big deal and spouting half-truths to make his point. I don’t really know much about Stpehen Toilo’s work so I’m not gonna rag on him too hard. I will say however that whenever I see the brand-name MTV attached to something I immediately lose any confidence in it’s authenticity.

I have the latest issue of EGM sitting here right next o my keyboard. The magazine is open to page 87 which is the beginning of the controversial ‘non-review’ that everyone is so up in arms about. Now, the backbone of this argument that is being made is that EGM is not doing a formal review of MGS4 because of the limitation Konami put on reviewers in regards to things like: cut-scene length, mandatory hard-drive installs, and other technical aspects of the game. I’m starting to wonder if anyone at X-play or MTV actually read the EGM article because I’ve now heard Sessler say (on-air) on two occasions that EGM is not going to do a formal review of the game because of these limitations. Really? Because here’s what it says in the opening paragraph of page 86’s article:

So why don’t we have a full review this issue? Simply put: We weren’t happy with the limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments, and rather than publish compromised reviews in the interest of being first to rate the game, we’d rather wait until next issue, where we can be completely open and thorough with our thoughts. (Page 87 EGM 230 -July 2008)

So far, 2008 is the year of Indiana Jones… or at the very least its the Spring of Indiana Jones. What better way to celebrate the first new Indy movie in nearly two decades than the release of a kick-ass new Indiana Jones video game? Building on the foundation they laid down with the Lego Star Wars franchise, Traveller’s Tales has created a game that would make any Indy fan smile (even the ones crying about CGI gophers and ruined childhoods). Admittedly, these are only early impressions of the game, I have not completed it and I’m actually only a couple of hours into the story mode. So take it for what you will.

The game opens with the classic beginning from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy is making his way through the South American jungles with a small entourage. After all of them are scared off, Indy is left to find the lost temple with the help of Satipo, also known as Doc Oc. The first thing you’ll probably want to do is give Indy’s whip a few healthy cracks (I know i did). The whip can be used to take out enemies from a distance, grab items that are out of reach or swing across distances where a hook is present. Unlike Lego SW where most of the combat is done with blasters and lightsabers, Indy will be doing most of his fighting the old fashioned way… hand-to-hand. You can pick up guns, crossbows, swords, etc from defeated enemies but they tend to expire after a minute or so which will have you going back to your fists.

Suda 51, head of the “rock band” game studio Grasshopper, is a developer after my heart. Take his often over looked Gamecube/PS2 project Killer 7 for example, a game more genius than most people seem to realize. Killer 7 is probably one of the most streamlined game experiences out there. While people bitch about the lack of being able to walk anywhere they please in a game that appears 3D, they’re missing the point. In every single 3D game the player always has moments where they’re wasting time running in circles, bumping into walls, or fighting with the camera. Killer 7 did away with all that nonsense and had the player focus on what was important which was getting from Point A to Point B and shooting the living hell out of everything. Gears of War designer Cliff Blezinsky (the artist formerly known as Cliffy B) once described Gears as a “vertical platformer.” Instead of moving from left to right, you’re moving forward and backward. I don’t really buy that train of thought when it comes to Gears, but it totally describes what Suda did with Killer 7 years before. Which leads us to No More Heroes.

Thanks to people bitching Killer 7, not to mention its rotten sales and poor reviews, Suda decided to go (mostly) the traditional route of 3D with his recent Wii title No More Heroes. Here we have what appears to be a standard 3D brawler, coupled with your average Grand Theft Auto inspired sandbox city. What we really have on our hands is something much more akin to Shadow of the Colossus in that the whole goal of the game is to hunt down and defeat 10 insanely creative bosses. Everything in between the boss battles is nothing but fluff and mostly optional.

Today, WiiWare went live on the Shop Channel. I actually didn’t know what to expect from WiiWare. I thought maybe I would have to download another channel to host WiiWare titles, but instead its only a section in the Shop Channel. I’ve been looking forward to “Lost Winds” so I gave that a shot. It downloaded rather quickly and took up around 256 blocks which is a sizable little chunk of my system memory.

“Lost Winds” is clearly inspired by “Okami” as you control a Spirit who can manipulate the wind to help little Toku get through the game’s world. The Nunchuck is used to move the main character around while the Wii Remote is used to send gusts of wind to help Toku get up to higher ledges, splash water on withered plants which then serve as a boost, and at this early point in the game to blow flames from a torch on the wall to smite a little blobby bad guy. So far, I’ve gotten past the early introduction of the game and I was having a good time playing.

One of the recent discoveries I’ve made on the internet is the totally free online game magazine D+PAD. There have been some debates around the web on various message boards (including our own) about the necessity for game magazines in the digital age. Some of us would argue that there are still many benefits to getting a magazine as its nice to hold something tangible in your hands. Others make the argument that with all the video game news sites out there that a magazine is unnecessary since most of the news is readily available online long before the magazine reaches your mailbox.

D+PAD offers an interesting compromise between the two. You can download the magazine as a PDF and it includes embedded video that streams from their servers. One of the benefits of a PDF is that you get a nice layout which has the look of a traditional magazine, it can be printed (sans video, obviously) or read on screen.

This morning when I woke up I saw my Wii flashing. I checked my messages and found that the Nintendo Channel has been launched today, so I jumped in the Shopping Channel and nabbed the free download.

The first thing I saw when I got into the Nintendo Channel was a video clip being played welcoming me to the new channel and telling me what to expect from it. After its over, I’m brought to the main menu which is essentially a list of trailers and video clips of some new and a handful of older games. WiiFit was in the front of the pack with Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Kark Wii taking center stage as well. Clicking through a hanful of the clips here, it reminded me of what they did last summer when Metroid Prime 3 was nearing its release. Nintendo hosted a Metroid Prime 3 Preview Channel that gave weekly tidbits and sneak peeks of it in a similar manner to how this part of this new Nintendo Channel works. The video quality is fine and passable, and clicking on the clip will scale it up to full screen which is a nice little touch. Everything loaded up a decent pace as well, so the browsing experience went smoothly.