Little Mac is BACK!

If you owned a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) or a Super NES, chances are you spent more than a few hours playing Punch-Out!! Now after a 15 year hiatus, the biggest name in fictional boxing is back - and he brought some cool new graphics with him.

If you're not familiar with Punch-Out!!, you're "Little Mac" an up and coming young talent in the World Video Boxing Association. Little Mac has to face an increasingly more difficult set of challengers on his way to win the crown.

The biggest question everyone has when they learn Punch-Out!! has been remade is how true it hold to the beloved original. We think it's perfect. Next Level Games, who produced this release for Nitendo, took great care to study the whole franchise and be true to the original; while at the same time putting in a few new elements to make it a new experience. And the graphics are perfect, modern 3D and highly detailed but they really kept the original feel.

Gameplay

You'll face 13 opponents 12 of which where in the original game. (The only new face being Disco Kid) But each opponent has new moves so it really is a new game. And while some have said 13 opponents didn't seem like many, you have to face each one multiple times so it's a bigger challenge than it might seem. Also Amazon has it as a prerelease for only $39.97 instead of the regular $60 so that makes it more affordable.

The product information makes a big deal about using the Wii Remote in one hand and the Nunchuk in the other, taking advantage of the motion sensitivity to throw punches. In our opinion there are two problem with this. The first and more minor is that, this being an old-school game, you're standing behind Little Joe controlling him, it's not POV. The bigger problem is that we find the response a bit sluggish for a fast moving game like this. -- And lastly we just like using the Wii remote like an NES controller.

The original Punch-Out!! was a single player game. The new version has a split-screen versus mode that was well done and we're sure many will like.

Where to Buy:

Here's the official trailer from Nintendo:

I was going to write about Apple's gaming moves but while putting some links together, I see Brian Caulfield of Forbes did the work for me.

Apple appears to be preparing an all-out assault on the handheld gaming market, moving to snap up gaming industry insiders from Microsoft to go with its growing team of graphics-chip specialists.

News that Apple has poached Richard Teversham from Microsoft's Xbox business this week is only the latest sign Apple has gotten serious about the gaming business. Teversham, who was senior director for insights and strategy at Microsoft's Xbox Business, drove the "three year strategy for the Xbox business" in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Earlier this week Apple hired Bob Drebin, chief technologist at Advanced Micro Device's graphics group and the creator of the Nintendo Gamecube's graphics processor.

That move came as IBM chip designer Mark Papermaster began his role as head of Apple's iPod business last month after a long legal tussle with IBM.

Apple is also putting some of its huge pile of cash into semiconductor technology. In December, Apple purchased 3.6% of U.K.-based ImagInation, licensing its PowerVR graphics technology. And last year Apple purchased processor designer PA Semi for $378 million.

With 17 million iPhones sold, 13 million iPod touch users and iPhone games flying off the (virtual) shelves, you have to figure this is inevitable. Rumors of Apple embracing the gaming community have been around as long as Apple has been round, but now with two of their strongest brands being embraced by a younger generation they have a loyal user base just waiting for a product. -- And the handheld gaming market is mammoth.

Over 100 million DS units have been sold and Sony just crossed the 50 million mark for their PSP.  Presently there are about 16 million MMOG subscribers. The MMOG possibilities for Apple are endless although it would probably bring the poor AT&T network to its knees.

With numbers like those, I don't think it is a matter of IF Apple will jump in the market but WHEN... Based on nothing other than my spider sense, I'd say look for something by this Christmas selling season.

The ATI Radeon™ HD 4770 is taking the gaming world by storm. 

AMD did a bit of marketing research and discovered that a whooole bunch of people want to buy the best video card they can, as long as it is below the $100 price point. So they set out to make the market leader sub-$100 video card and they did.

• 826 million transistors on 40nm fabrication process
• PCI Express® 2.0 x16 bus interface
• 128-bit GDDR5 memory interface
• Microsoft® DirectX® 10.1 support

I played with one for about 20 minutes and it blew away my current card which I paid $230 for only about a year ago.  The card started an interesting discussion at Slashdot about whether a $100 video card will now be the highpoint in the market. From my time with it I think they might be on to something.

 There are reviews all over the internet, here's one of the better ones. Right now all the manufacturers are using reference boards so every board on the market is the exact same, so buy on price. Here's the link to the AMD site for it.

The cheapest I could find it was on Amazon who has it at (an incredible) $89 after $10 rebate. It's still on preorder and they don't even have an image for it yet. But there are pictures and specs after the jump, just click the link below.

So we're getting a review together on the Razer Mamba Wireless Gaming Laser Mouse. It's pretty new on the market and a lot gamers are excited about it.

Unfortunately the copy I bought had the weird jitter/wiggle problem where the mouse would jitter across the screen. It got so bad the mouse moved by itself even if I wasn't touching it. That's annoying in a $129.99 mouse.

So I called Razer and they said it was a common problem that is easily fixed by removing the silver/embossed ring around the sensor that reads 5600 dpi sensor.

They also said they would mail me a Teflon ring to replace it. If you have the mouse and have the same problem call (888) 697-2037 and get them to send you one to. BTW they didn't have a menu option on their phone for the Razer Mamba mouse so I hit the one for the Razer Copperhead (not 3g) mouse and they helped me.

Once we get the ring in, we'll do a full review of it.

I have recently decided to install Windows 7 BETA onto my spare computer as a test project. Working for a major retailer (that shall remain nameless) I get a lot of questions, "When is the new OS coming out?," "How is it," I hate windows Vista," so I have decided to take the leap for myself and mankind (sorta).

After burning it to a DVD and begining the install I was a little skeptical. After I had inserted the DVD I had a blue screen that said "Windows 7" "For testing purposes only. Build 7000" for about 15 minutes. Finally the install asked me to do an Upgrade or Custom install (I chose Custom since I was running Windows XP). I waited a minute, formated the hard drive and then waited for another 25 minutes. It then ran me through the setup and I was done!

The only thing I did not like about the installation is the lack of progress updates. It did not tell me anything, all I have was a blank blue (not blue screen of death) screen for long periods of time. They probably will roll the fancy on screen graphics into a later build.

For a first time install it was alarming, but after thinking about it, I wish they'd keep it that way. When having to install it on numerous computer it would go much faster.

I'll have more thoughts in a day or two when I play with it.

My father and I where driving down the road and saw the Metairie "Tea Party" today and a guy brought his tank!

Actually is is a British APC he uses for local parades and such. I bet his kids love it. More pictures after the jump.

I had heard about this a year go from a friend of mine who worked at GameStop but didn't think much of it at the time, now it's causing a buzz on the interwebs.

Kotaku reports that GameStop is allegedly selling Demo games as new.

The alleged practice of GameStop lending new copies of games to employees at their stores and then later selling those games as new, unused copies, may be a violation of federal law.

GameStop's "check-out" policy, confirmed to Kotaku by a number of the chain's managers and employees, could fall under scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission.

Reached for comment this afternoon, GameStop officials declined to comment.

To me this isn't that big a deal. (although since it got 1200 diggs, I must be in the minority) The difference in price is only 5 bucks, but I think this is one of those things where the idea is more important than the actual deed. People feel taken ripped off.

I have not even thought about my blogroll yet. I know there are some obvious big names out there but I think I'd rather link the little folks.

So if you'd like to be on the blogroll or would like to reccomend a site, drop me a line. tank -at- tanksgame.org.