Super Smash Bros., Flow, and Pata-Pata-Pata...

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a game I've been playing the last few days, and the onslaught of Nintendo happy-fun strangeness is very appealing...even if the gameplay is repetitive. Come on, admit it. I'm a Nintendo fanboy and I admit it, too. Still, there's something really addictive in trying to unlock all the characters. I'm dead set on Mr. Game and Watch. I spent days unlocking him in the last game, Melee.

I grew up with Nintendo Game and Watch flip-tops. I took them to summer camp before there was ever a Game Boy. Pinball, Oil Panic...they were the coolest things in Middletown, NY. I would look for new ones at the corner camera store in Smithtown. I love Mr. Game and Watch. Love, love, love.

Flow was a great draw for me to the otherwise uniqueness-deprived PS3. I go nuts over the biological aquatic theme...it reminds me of the Museum of Natural History. Or of dreams I've had. Releasing the game on PSP is genius. It works well, it's nearly the same game, and I am in complete support of this whole download-games-to-the-handheld idea. The iPod effect should spread to games: why do we have cartridges anymore? Nintendo, if you're not making your next-gen Game Boy/DS a solid-state GamePod that can download titles, I'm going to slap you.

Speaking of which...the iPhone just might beat the PSP and DS to it. If only the iPhone had buttons...

Patapon is addictive. Very addictive. Crack. Crack with a beat. I haven't put my PSP down. I take back any harsher criticism I gave. Well, the game's still less interesting than LocoRoco. But, I can't stop trying to advance levels. It's level grind with a drumbeat. EverBeat.

I'm playing Hold 'Em (I believe it's called Vegas Stakes Poker) on the PS3. This is because I lost in poker while I was in Aruba, and I blame my training. I play hands over and over to attempt to master the skills. In the end, luck is still too much of a factor.

Jets vs. Dolphins, November 4, 2012: 41-17

In the Meadowlands, the New York Jets defeated the Chad Pennington-led Miami Dolphins, 41-17, in a game that was closer than the score would lead to believe—at least, offensively.

Ronnie Brown ran for 103 yards and a touchdown against the normally stingy Tony Dungy-coached Jets defense, including a 31-yarder. And Chad Pennington did throw for nearly 200 yards.

Unfortunately, he also threw a season-high five interceptions against the league's best secondary.

Kerry Rhodes made it look easy, picking off two in the first quarter—including one for a touchdown. Darrelle Revis added another pick returned for a score, robbing Ted Ginn of a potential catch.

Down 17-0 before the second quarter had even begun, the Dolphins and Pennington were in serious straits. But a field goal and two good scoring drives from Pennington (aided in part by an interception by Jets QB Earl Harper) led to an improbably tied game at 17-17 near the end of the first half. Then Harper, mostly with the help of second-string rising star WRs Tayshaun Schroeder and Brad Smith, led the Jets to a field goal before halftime.

As for the Dolphins, they would never score again, despite outgaining the Jets in total yardage, 310 to 256.

Thomas Jones gained 82 yards and two touchdowns, though mostly in the fourth quarter when the Jets were running out the clock. A conservative gameplan aided by a few great catches by TE Chris Baker, including a well-executed play-action touchdown, sealed the game against a Dolphins defense that played gritty, but not enough to win the game.

Earl Harper, the quarterback the Jets picked up in free agency last year after trading Chad Pennington to the Dolphins for a first-round pick, was unspectacular yet good enough to win, throwing one touchdown and two interceptions, and only 188 yards. His QB rating was 50.1, and this year is averaging a miserable 53.7. But does it matter? Last year they went undefeated with Harper, a perfect 19-0. This year they are 7-1. Dungy has imprinted his defensive philosophy, but the offense is yet to be spectacular, despite having Randy Moss back in full health (4 catches for 61 yards, no touchdowns, and only two for the season). 

But with a defensive front this good, only a mediocre offense is necessary.

Next week, the Patriots. They are 4-4, and need this win.

So do the Jets.

PSP: I'm Coming Around

I don't know why, but thank Japan for my return to PSP-loving.

The DS has been my dearest plaything for years now. It starts quick, it has fun quick games, it carries easily, it has a long battery life, it looks a little like an iPod. The PSP, when it first came out, was a beautiful lusty item to me. Who could resist how amazing it was? The problem became its load times, its battery life, and its sense of delicate build. I was afraid to lug it around. The UMDs seemed delicate to me. The drive door. The metal bits. And the games, while impressive-looking, never drew me in all the way. I felt distanced. And the loads took too long. It wasn't impulse gaming anymore, oddly enough, after only ten seconds of loading. It was commitment gaming. I didn't want to think about my decision to procrastinate, and the PSP was giving me too many moments in the dark, waiting, thinking about my decision to "game."

Too deep, perhaps. But now, I'm back to the PSP.

I upgraded to a PSP slim. That may have helped. My techno-lust is sated, briefly. The load times have improved. The feel is more portable—more plastic-y, but, also safer, somehow. The battery life has improved, with an extended battery (but even the regular seems pretty good). And, Patapon has arrived. The last game this team made was Loco Roco, which, come to think of it, was the last time I was obsessed with my PSP (brief Crush crush notwithstanding). Weirdness makes me happy.

Patapon isn't perfect, and I can't say I always like it, but it gets me coming back to see what happens next.

God of War is now in PSP mode. Wipeout Pulse is here. There are so many PSP games that I have to finally admit that the PSP game library trumps the DS library by a significant degree. Not a tremendous degree, but significantly. I want to carry the PSP around again. I am feeling the love.

I also have a sidebar in an upcoming Playboy issue about some of the best genre-based PSP games. It was written before my newfound happiness, but probably contributed to some of it.

Games I'm Playing Now

As of this past week, I'm addicted to Burnout: Paradise. It's not perfect, but the speed is the essence. I'm flying around, sitting close to my flatscreen, trying to outperform the pixels themselves. It feels like an upper limit to my reflexes and visual cortex. Of course, the game cheats a little—corrects you on your path as you're flying around impossible bends—just a little, though. I drive around and around, trying to find something to do. I'm like a virtual version of myself back in Los Angeles, when I was jobless and meandering between the Valley and the hills of Mulholland Drive, the canyons. Just faster.

I played Lost Odyssey for several hours. A four-disc RPG epic for the 360, it's all Japanese styling to the nth. I got lost in the story. The controls are pathetic as far as being distanced from your character as he becomes a tiny figure in static, massive, gothic rooms after rooms, but the emotions are strange. I'm an immortal who is a mercenary now...a survivor of some strange battle on lava plains...? I have sentimental dreams that take the shape of ten-minute-long tone poems that play out on my TV, using only lines of text, font styles, fuzzy images, and sound effects. Kudos to the development team for being that artsy-aggressive, I'm stunned. I'm not sure I want to get deeper than one disc.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a cartoony DS game, all Miyazaki style and creepy anime throwback elegance. A top-hatted man meanders around a Japanese concept of a post-war French village seeking out the mystery of the Golden Apple, and along the way solves random puzzles and brainteasers that villagers throw at him. It's like a picture-puzzle book brought to life. It gets repetitive. I get bored sometimes. But I always come back.

I started God of War: Chains of Olympus on my PSP. It's gorgeous, plays just like the PS2 games, though a little small and pixelly. The PSP can't help it—those landscapes have to fit on that relatively tiny screen somehow. I like it. I am starting to switch over, perhaps, to the PSP for a while. There are too many great games. Too bad the system takes too long to load. I lose patience and long for my simple, quick-start, long-battery-life DS.

I still play Catan every day. But I've stopped Madden. Having an undefeated season as the Jets in 2012 was enough for me. I'm spent.

Being a Game Reviewer (and writer)

So, as of this moment, I've written on games for Maxim, Wired, Playboy, Esquire.com, Giant.com and Laptop Magazine—and I used to be on Maxim Radio, not so long ago, talking about them as well.

Recently I wrote an article for Esquire.com that was attacked pretty heavily by some hard-core gamers. Not a big surprise. What was a surprise was how writer-focused the attack was. "A message for Scott Stein," one video announced. They made a ten-minute tribute to me.

What also surprises me was how little any of the arguments in the article were considered. I spoke my thoughts, and mostly other places seemed intent on shooting me down. The intent was to start a conversation, not a flame war.

Truths about me as a gamer:

1) I own all systems

2) I play Xbox 360, mostly

3) My 360 has broken four times

4) No, I did not wrap it in fur and toss it in a drawer while plugged in until it blew up

5) I think the Wii is doing a better job at showing off gaming to outsiders

6) I love the DS because it loads quickly and gives me a better fast fix than the PSP does

7) I owned Sega systems as a kid, until I bought the N64 in grad school

8) My first system was the 2600

9) I'm not good at shooters at all

The way I write reviews is to think of myself as a consumer. Would I want to buy this game? Why? I'm pretty subjective. I think that's the point of being a reviewer. There are hundreds of reviewers out there for a reason. You read them for individual opinions. I try to stay opinionated, and specific, and even ornery and particular, if I feel it inside.

I don't think about how this game would be for all people. I think about how I like it. I have no idea what other people like. Trying to assume what other people like gets you into trouble. Staying with my own preferences is the best path to honesty.

So, sometimes that pisses people off. My feeling on the three systems out right now is, simply, there are too many systems. Usually a system war is fought between two platforms, historically. There can be a third, but it takes a distant back seat in the race. With Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, however, they're all big dogs. Nintendo should have been the back-seater, but it's gearing into first. Sony, as a third-place contender, is hardly out of the race—they are no 3DO, that's for certain.

I think three is too many for consumers. People may own two systems, but three is an absurd investment. They have to choose. The 360 and PS3 are nearly identical from a platform standpoint, and what they try to achieve. The PS3 is more advanced hardware-wise, but they're after the same audience. The Wii is something else, but it's crowding the space and forcing the hand of the other two. People are buying Wiis instead of 360s and PS3s.

Hardcore gamers are furious at this, but it's not surprising. Many games have left old-school gamers in the dust years ago. The buttons, the control schemes, the online fragfests...it can be intimidating to someone who's sat out for a few years. The Wii welcomes them back in and says it'll all be OK.

I really do wish that the PS3 and 360 would combine into a supersystem. What, from a consumer standpoint, would be wrong with that? Blu-Ray. Great online gaming. No system breakage. Asian games. No deciding what game might or might not go exclusive for your system versus a competitor's. Some yell at me that that's a monopoly. It wouldn't be. Nintendo still exists to compete. And why are gamers supporting a crowded market? Consumers can't afford to fund a mess of systems. Give us simplicity.

I love online gaming, OK, haters? I just feel that online games are often designed to shut out someone in the same room as you from joining in. Old-school, same-room multiplayer games are nice when, say, someone actually comes over to play games. It happens, believe it or not. And COD4 is just not the game to play when that moment comes. Wii Sports is. Rock Band is, when you can assemble (and, by the way, afford) the four-way hub of peripherals. But Rock Band is one of the few multiplayer same-room games that the 360 or PS3 even has to offer.

Hopefully the PS3 and 360 will get better on the software and hardware fronts respectively. I look forward to it.

And let's just all get along, m'kay?

My Favorite Game

Thought I'd start simply.

My favorite game right now is a dead tie. Despite having roughly 200 games to play, I am completely, utterly hypnotized and addicted to two.

Madden 08, and Catan.

Madden you might be familiar with, just a bit. Catan is an online version of Settlers of Catan, the German phenom board game designed by Klaus Teuber. The Xbox 360 is the best home for both of these, and is where I play them for days on end.

Why? I can't say, exactly. Well, I can.

I've always been obsessed with football. My father (and now myself) are season-ticket holders to the New York Jets. My dad's had the tickets for 42 years, since they were the Titans. It's a thankless job, being a fan for our team. Seeing events like the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl can make a grown man cry. So I take it out on fantasy. I make the Jets win (come hell or high water) virtually. I build their franchise. I am on the 2012 season. The Jets have Haloti Ngata, Randy Moss, and Terrell Suggs now. I traded Chad Pennington to the Dolphins for a second-round pick, and picked up free agent QB Earl Harper, who doesn't exist right now in real life. Neither does my up-and-coming WR, Tayshaun Shroeder.

Anyway, as I said, it's a sick type of addiction.

Catan I play, at high speed, against the hard A.I. Online players are too slow for me now. I need a quick fix, a sudden burst of progress. I play a game in fifteen minutes or so. Usually games take an hour. I've gotten maximum feel for the strategy, and now the randomness lets it play out like backgammon. I think I like the mindless drift of it. Will chance let me win? Can I overcome randomness?

I hope to play other games soon. Devil May Cry 4, a little more Rock Band, and at long last, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. But they generally take a back seat to Madden and Catan.

On The Title of This Blog

I like games. A lot. And there were few available blog titles left that were game related. I also, however, like echidnas. I always have. They produce milk. They lay eggs. And there was Knuckles the Echidna. He even came with a plug-in cartridge that piggybacked on top of another Sega Genesis cartridge.

So Echidna Panic it is. Echidna Panic! In which you'll find my comments on video games and the video game industry...as well as board game posts from time to time, because I love those too. I blame my time working at Sony Online Entertainment for that, and in particular the obsessive board game nights I took part in over in Mira Mesa.

I play and get a lot of games. So let's begin, shall we?