Jared Rea

There are two comments that must always be made when discussing Arc System Works’ (Guilty Gear) upcoming HD-2D fighter, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. The first being, “My arcade will never get it / There are no more arcades,” which is immediately followed by, “I’ll just wait for the console port.” I have some bad news. BlazBlue most likely won’t be hitting consoles until late 2009. The good news, however, is that US publisher Aksys Games wants to help you play it now.

A representative for the publisher has been posting on Shoryuken, asking that we send them the information they need to try and get BlazBlue at an arcade near you.

I do feel some of you may not have an arcade near you, however, here’s where you guys step up and help the scene. If you have a arcade near you and you know they may not know about BlazeBlue, please let me know by sending me a PM, emailing me, send a bird out with a note, whatever it takes and I’ll personally call that arcade and I’ll work it out with them on getting a blazblue board or cabinet. This is our chance folks, to try to broaden this release beyond just the usual arcades. Granted, I can’t promise all arcades will take them, but if we don’t try, we’ll never know, right?

And what if you don’t have an arcade in your area? If there’s a movie theatre or some other location with a decent collection in your area, you could always try and get in touch with them via the contact information found on the machine themselves and send that Aksys’ way.

So if you want to try and help get this amazing fighter in as many arcades as possible, shoot them a line. Their email address is support@aksysgames.com. Try to include as much information as possible, including the address, telephone number and appropriate people to contact for arcade sales.

In a random fit of retro craving (I was in the mood for some good chiptune) I stumbled upon this Spelunker melody. The progression of which should sound very familiar to those who have ever attempted the deep dive.

I’ve never quite settled on whether I thought Spelunker was a bad game or not. Looking back, it could have been considered a fairly revolutionary title with its seamlessly connected levels and large variety of different traps and puzzle elements. It was also developed by some kind of otherworldly fiend whose mere existence in this plane depended on the tears of children of which it fed.

And yet, it managed to be come an utterly charming piece of 8-bit nostalgia. It’s hard to deny a poor cave dweller who drops dead if he falls more than 2 pixels at a time.

The Escapist has published my first review for them this week (Thanks Susan!) and it’s for Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2.

Released in 2005, the original Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved could be considered a proficiency test in game playing skills, challenging players with the very essence of high-end gaming. At its core, Geometry Wars is a manic, dual-stick shooter that favors the quick and the coordinated, making short work of those with low response mechanisms. It also confronts players with their ability to overcome an epileptic fit (as cautioned in game manuals everywhere), bombarding them with more colors than a Norwegian laser rave.

It’s sort of a no-brainer, right? It was nigh impossible to find anything to complain about with the original Geometry Wars and now, Bizarre Creations has essentially perfected their beast. It concerns me to hear Stephen Cakebread talk about how he has “enough game ideas to do ‘Geometry Wars’ for probably about 10 games,” as I don’t think I want this ten more times, but if they can somehow manage to keep it fresh while still keeping it simple, I’d bite at least one more time.

PS: How do you like the new look? There are still a few tweaks to make here and there, but this is it for the most part.