The XboX 360 and why it's superior over the Playstation 3.

So, lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the video game industry and especially about the XboX 360/PS3 and which system is better. I know I have a lot of online friends who have an Xbox 360, and some of you even have both, but there are the few of you out there who have just the PS3 and I know a lot of the comments I’ve made on Twitter and elsewhere online has angered some of you. I just wanted to create this entry for The Thought Corner to justify my position as to why I think, more like know, the XboX 360 is superior to the PS3.

To start things off I just want to solidify the fact that I’ve had plenty of experience playing the PS3, so when people are reading this I don’t want them to think that I’m some XboX 360 fan boy who refuses to give anything other than my system of choice a fighting chance. If that happens to be what your thinking then allow me to hand you a huge slice of humble pie and go into detail about my experiences with the PS3 and why I‘ve come to the conclusion that I‘m writing about on this blog.

My experiences with the PS3 date back to mid-2008 when I got a chance to sit down and play it for the first time (stores aside) at a friends house, he is huge into fighting games and he tossed in one of the popular fighting games of the year (Soul Caliber, maybe?) and we fired up quite a few rounds of butt kicking action. The unbalanced controller made it difficult for me to get used to, something I’ve always hated about Playstation controllers, and I had a hard time learning combo’s and special moves as I played through all the different rounds we played. I’ve felt this way about the PS3’s controller when I played it at a Best Buy and then a Wal-Mart months before trying it at my buddies house and I’ve never been sold on the side by side dual analog joysticks, it’s just unnatural feeling and not ergonomic enough.
After I tried my hand at fighting games he went ahead and threw in a racing game, I think it was Midnight Club or something along those lines, it certainly wasn’t my cup of tea but it was okay for a racing game and I was actually able to beat him in a couple of races so my adrenaline was pumping and we moved onto COD4: Modern Warfare. I was impressed with Modern Warfare, the game had amazing graphics and the game play was solid as a rock, but it came down to the controller being the bane of the situation and my hands were quickly cramping up. It was time to move onto something else so we played a few different games that were apparently PS3 exclusives and I was excited to see what these games were all about, but unfortunately nothing held my interest and everything was lackluster at best.

The 2nd time I really got to sit down and play the PS3 was when my girlfriends brother received one for Christmas in 2009, shortly after I had made the decision to purchase an XboX 360. I came over to pick her up so we could go shopping but she woke up late and still needed to show and get ready to go, her brother was playing the most recent John Madden football game and asked if I wanted to play with him, I agreed and we played Madden for a little while. The game was certainly nothing special and when we were done with Madden he wanted to know if I wanted to play a shooting game called “Haze” which, for a long time, was a PS3 exclusive. I had time to kill so he put it on and we played for about a half an hour before my girlfriend was ready to get going, the game was terrible, when I was playing Haze I couldn’t get into what was going on and the controls were so jerky that it created such a huge distraction that I eventually had to put the controller down and stop playing.

Since then I spent some time playing the PS3 inside of random stores such as GameStop, Toys R’ Us, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart, usually trying out whatever games they have on display to draw the customer into buying that specific game and/or system and some of the games were enjoyable while most weren’t. I did make one final attempt at playing the PS3 at the person’s house where I got acquainted to it the first time and my experience is usually always the same, decent game coupled with a terrible controller or unenjoyable game coupled with a terrible controller, either way there was nothing that grabbed me in and convinced me that the PS3 was the way to go and the systems controller deserves the negative press that it gets.

Now, from here on out I’m going to compare the two systems in a series of categories and explain why the Xbox 360 is by far and away the better of the two consoles, some of the categories are going to include online play, hardware, software, content and other aspects of the systems that help to make Microsoft’s machine the king of the hill to the serious gamer. The first category I’m going to discuss is the hardware aspects of the machines and the differences between them.

Hardware

When comparing the hardware of these two machines it’s hard to fault the PS3 for it’s power and inclusion of a blu-ray DVD player, Sony’s machine is clearly packing more power than Microsoft’s and for the few and the proud who actually buy blu-ray DVD’s they have a nice option to watch them on the PS3 instead of purchasing a separate machine to view them on. Also, the fact that you can use any SATA hard drive for the systems memory source is a plus because if you hunt hard enough you could get a new drive for under $40 on sale in many retail outlets, the XboX 360’s hard drive is much more expensive. But that’s basically where the PS3’s praise comes to an end. Unfortunately for Sony the system itself was originally large and bulky compared to the XboX 360 and featured an ugly design and an extremely high price point for what you were actually getting, the controller for the PS3 has been lambasted by almost every reviewer on the web and in print due to it having a “L1/L2” scheme and not including a trigger like on the XboX 360. This coupled with the fact that the controller isn’t very comfortable or ergonomic due to having the two analog joysticks sitting right next to eachother on an even level didn’t help Sony’s cause either, meanwhile the XboX 360‘s controller has the analog sticks at a “10&2“ style position so it feels more natural and molds to your hands better. In fact, I’ve never spoken to someone who owned both systems who preferred the design of the PS3 and it’s controller to the XboX 360’s, so because of the reasons listed above I would give the edge to Microsoft by a huge margin, though I do admit that the power of the PS3 and the blu-ray player are really nice.




Online Play & Content

These days one of the biggest and most important aspects of gaming is the online play, another huge reason as to why the XboX 360 is superior to the PS3. I’ve played both systems online and the 360 certainly offered a smoother and more rich gaming experience when playing against others over the web, and of all the reviews and editorials I’ve read that helped me toward my decision to purchase the XboX 360 I’ve yet to come across a writing that has disagreed with me. Sure, the PS3’s online service is free and you get an included web browser when you purchase a PS3, but the gaming experience isn’t nearly that of the XboX’s and for the monthly fee you are given something that is a lot more polished and accessible. Heck, up until recently you couldn’t even use the PS3’s online content due to a major hack that had the Playstation Network down for almost a month, oh and there was the little issue where credit card numbers for those who have their PS3‘s online were stolen and owners have been getting fraudulent charges in their statements, so yeah, security is a huge plus for Microsoft as well. Also, it’s been great getting a lot of downloadable content available to XboX 360 owners first, usually it’s only by a few days to a whole week but for the most part I’ve been noticing a lot of IGN articles where they mention that DLC has been hitting XboX Live (XBL) first before the Playstation Network (PSN) users have access to it (though this isn‘t always the case). And last but not least would be the XboX Live Arcade itself which offers a deeper library of downloadable games and other fun activities, lot’s of which are media based, and a richer experience when it comes to finding downloads you want and grabbing them.

Games

One big thing that draws people to a certain gaming system is the games themselves, so software companies are paid big bucks to develop exclusive titles for consoles to attract people into buying their hardware, both XboX 360 and PS3 have a sufficient amount of exclusive games but only one system can reign supreme. Games are often a matter of taste with the player who’s purchasing these titles, certain players like certain things while other players may prefer something different, so this part of my editorial is all up to you: the consumer. But judging by overall sales of the exclusive titles to each console I would say that the XboX 360 has won the battle of the exclusives (PC excluded) with games like the RPG’s Fable II and Fable III which enjoyed high sales figures and praise from review publications and web sites such as IGN, Gamespot, Gametrailers, GameInformer, and Joystiq. Other exclusive games to note would include the Gears of War franchise which had taken off like wildfire and landed stellar reviews from almost ever publication in the industry, and of course Halo 3 and Halo Reach which were met with amazing reviews and massive sales. Also, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 were both huge hits for the XboX 360 and helped to draw in fans with it’s zombie killing action, the L4D series has enjoyed huge success with the critics which has rolled over into high sales figures for the franchise and for Microsoft‘s console as well. To be fair, the PS3 does have it’s share of exclusive titles that are available for it, some have been met with critical success as well, but the general public has spoken and the XboX 360 defeats Sony’s machine when it comes to exclusives. And also, of the 7 or 8 exclusive titles for the PS3 I’ve played I think I was only floored with excitement for maybe 2 of them, that’s not exactly something that got me excited to go out and plunk down my hard earned cash on a Playstation. Games aside, one huge win for the 360 would be the fact that the controller was basically created with first person shooter’s (FPS) in mind, the developers aligned the analog sticks perfectly for playing FPS games and instead of an “L1/L2” system they gave the players triggers at the top of the controller’s for a better shooting experience which makes FPS gaming a lot more enjoyable on the XboX. Huge win indeed.

When it comes to picking a video game system it’s very much a “to each their own” kind of thing, but in this case one is clearly better than the other and there really is not much argument toward the contrary. But again, I don’t fault people for owning a Playstation 3, the PS2 was a juggernaught of a system and had more exclusives and big titles than anyone in that generation of gaming and consumers didn’t know that Sony was going to stumble and not release anything worthy of playing for almost 2 years after it’s launch. It’s not the players fault, it’s the company’s fault and they are a distant 3rd in the console race for the first time in it’s history because of 3 key ingredients: High price point, not enough games for too long, and lackluster online experience compared to the XboX 360. Had Sony came out swinging right out of the gate upon the PS3’s release then it may have been another story, heck, Sony picked up the slack around 2009 and all the way through 2011 and started releasing some big titles and just as it seemed that it was more of a 3 horse race instead of 2 horse and a pony, their network gets hacked. Players were left without being able to download content or play their games online and Sony has opened themselves up for a massive class action law suit thanks to many PSN subscribers having their credit card information stolen from them. It’s hard to believe but the future of Sony in the video game market looks somewhat bleak at the time of this writing and after almost 15 years of running strong within the video game industry we could be looking at an entirely different market without them.

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Manga4life reviews Corpse Princess!

Hello everybody, it’s Manga4life and today I've decided to write a review, in fact, I've decided I would review a series that kind of flew underneath the radar with a lot of anime fans, not because it wasn’t a good series or anything but more or less because it wasn’t heavily promoted and wasn’t overly popular over in it’s native country of Japan. The series I plan to review today is called Corpse Princess and it’s interesting story and fun characters make this one worth watching if you’re a fan of chicks with guns and enjoy a little bit of mystic flow in your plot line.

The story of Corpse Princess is simple, it revolves around a couple of dead girls called Shikabane, who have to kill 108 other corpses in order to get into heaven, to do this they are given semi-automatic weapons as well as mentored referred to as contracted monks. Most of the series is spent following Ouri as he builds relationships with the good Shikabane while trying to be a normal high school boy in the process, he’s basically forced to come along on adventures with his brother Keisei and his bonded Shikabane Makina as they try to reach the 108 corps limit that they need to obtain. When Keisei meets his doom toward the middle of the series Ouri finds himself in the position of having to become a contracted Monk in his place, the story basically shifts toward the relationship Ouri builds with Makina as they battle off enemies that they’ve created throughout the series. Again, nothing too special but fun nonetheless, there is a sense of mysticism as well as macabre in Corpse Princess and it’s actually a very enjoyable series to watch if you’re into that sort of thing, I wouldn’t watch this series more than the couple of times that I did but I’m glad I gave it a shot and I think those who are reading this should do so as well. Even though this show wouldn’t make my top 20 favorite anime’s of all time or anything like that I would still label the show as something that should be watched by the casual and hardcore anime fan alike, it’s very entertaining and offers a little something for everyone and has a voice over cast that you‘ve heard (and loved) in the past. The flowing plot lines mixed with the way the characters build their relationships is what really made this series worth watching in my opinion, the scene where Makina bids her final goodbye to Keisei is probably one of the most powerful moments in an anime that I’ve seen (although overdone a bit) and it goes to show you how important everyone has become to each other both pre-story and throughout the show.

One thing that has kind of bothered me for some reason is that leading up to the release of this show on DVD, FUNimation didn’t really put any major promotion behind it and there was basically no buzz for this show’s release whatsoever, I came across the first 4 episodes on FUNi’s video player by accident and decided to watch them and that’s how I learned of this series. I really feel as if FUNi has missed the boat on Corpse Princess, the show has a small and loyal fan following and I really think that FUNi could have garnered a larger audience for Corpse Princess had they put a little mustard behind the program months before it’s release, heck, I never saw any kind of ad’s in Otaku magazines or on anime related websites or anything related to the medium. It was basically a breech birth.



Now it’s time for one of my favorite things to do and that’s to analyze the production values of this series and to go over where I felt the show hit or missed in it’s animation and sound department, first things first, I think I’ll start with the animation side of things. First of all, the animation in Corpse Princess is good but I felt the attention to detail was kind of weak and some of the character animations came off as a little strange at times but overall I would say that the series had solid artwork to it and the character designs were well done, other than that there was nothing really special to boast about and I would say it’s animated fine for what it is. Don’t go into this series expecting a landmark in the animation industry because you will come out disappointed, but it worked for the kind of story they wanted to tell and the dark overtones to the art helped to set up certain scenes wonderfully, it most certainly wasn’t a dud but I would say that Corpse Princess was a stud when it comes to how the series looks as a whole.

One plus side to this series is that it was voiced wonderfully for the English cast, sure there was a scene or two that was overdone and I wouldn’t say that it ranks as one of the best voices anime’s of all time, but the voice over cast did a great job lending their voices to the characters and many of the voices you hear are people who’ve you certainly have heard in other show in the past. On top of the voice overs being done nicely, the sound effects were superb as well with everything sounding pretty nice and background sounds coming off fairly realistically, it wasn’t perfect but it did the series justice and I would say that the audio was one of the stronger points of the show. The music was done pretty good too but nothing really remember able came out of it so it’s hard to say that it will leave a lasting impression on you because it probably wont. Still, the music that was used was actually pretty good and alongside the sound effects it definitely helped out with the general feeling and mood of the program, but again, you probably won’t be humming any of the tunes like you would with music from other anime series in the past.

And now it’s time for me to rank the shows based on the same grading system I’ve used since my first review, this is one of my favorite things to do when reviewing a certain series and I feel like I’m fair in my judgement and I hope that my friends and readers agree. As for Corpse Princess, it’s certainly worth a viewing if you haven’t seen it before but I wouldn’t say that it’s a series you will watch over and over again, maybe twice at best like I did, but it’s deserving of your eyes and the eyes of others and it would have achieved that had FUNi promoted it a little better than they did

Art & Animation - 7.0/10
Music & Sound Effects - 8.0/10
Story & Writing - 7.5/10
Fun - 7.5/10
Overall - 7.5/10

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

New project for Cozy Cabin/The Thought Corner!

Hello everybody, this is Manga4life with some pretty interesting and exciting news about The Thought Corner blog and a new project that I'm in the middle of planning out that will be pretty damn epic in my opinion. As many who know me from Twitter have learned recently, I am planning to write a book based around World of Warcraft and my favorite character that I've been playing a lot of as of late, it's something I've been planning for about a week now and the other day I announced it on my Twitter account and today I'm posting an official press release for those who don't follow me on there or know me from elsewhere on the web. Now, I to clear something up right off the bat, since I don't own any stake in World of Warcraft or have the publishing rights to any content pertaining to the game and/or it's property then I cannot officially publish or distribute any material centered around the license for profit, so instead I plan to release chapters free of charge right here on The Thought Corner blog! So even though this is not a true publication of Cozy Cabin Publishing it will still be available for the 30,000+ people who have visited this blog or the 120+ people who view this blog on a daily basis, it's my pleasure to supply the friends and readers of this site with fun and exciting reading material on a monthly basis and this project will no doubt be any different.



The plot of this story will follow the adventures of Cavendar (my character in WoW) and his growing up in Darnassus after learning that the city has been demolished by Thrall and his horde of orc's in an attempt to kill Malfurion Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind to take control of the Night Elf race, when Cavendar learns that much of his dear family has been slaughtered in the brawl he decides to train as a warrior in Darnassus so that he can acquire the tools possible to get revenge for what happened to his relatives. As Cavendar sets off on his quest he finds that it may not be nearly as easy as it seems and that the original goal he had set for himself has quickly become a distant memory thanks to the rising evil of the Black Dragon Flight and their obsession with destroying Azeroth as a whole. Sound exciting? Well, I guess we'll see in due time, wont we?! I've already mapped out the timeline for the story as well as chosen some key characters from WoW's deep lore to compliment the main characters that I've actually created from scratch, other key figures in the book will be real players in the game from my guild, The Grandmaster Gods. Once the first chapter is edited and complete I will post it up right here for everyone to see, this may take a week or two since I want to carefully craft this tale with razor like precision so I can't make any true promises as to when it will be ready to post, but it will be worth it my friend. Trust me.

See you in Azeroth guys, and as always: Reach for the stars and enjoy the ride!

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Remembering "Hitman" by Garth Ennis & John McCrea

For comic book fans, once in a while a title comes along that maybe doesn’t find the mainstream success of an X-Men or Batman but yet it finds a home near the top of your personal read list due to it’s fantastic writing or likable characters. Today I’m going to write about a series that has done just that for me, today I am going to write an article about a comic called “Hitman” by Garth Ennis and John McCrea.

“Hitman” told the story of a gun for hire named Tommy Monaghan who had meta-human superpowers and lived in Gotham City alongside some of the best known heroes and worst feared villains of DC Comics, in that city people would go to Tommy to kill a wide array of individuals (both super powered and not) and if the price was right he would gladly oblige. Doing hits on people was his job but Tommy was most certainly not a one dimensional character who spent his entire 60 issue series knocking off scum to get rich, Monaghan was a true to life average guy who had a girlfriend, best friend, and people who cared deeply about him, most of which all hung out in a downtown dive called Noonan’s. Throughout the series Tommy found himself coming face to face with multiple iconic DC characters, some of the interaction between them was actually quite hilarious, other dealings were downright serious, but it was nice to see a character like his to be accepted into the DC universe at a time when superheroes were the extreme focus of DC, not an average looking guy in a jacket flashing a gun. Some of the funniest moments within this book were the ones that took place between the characters that hung around Noonan’s Bar, one scene that comes to mind had Kyle Raynor being told by an intoxicated local bar fly that he wouldn’t amount to much as a superhero because the JLA only accepted original members, and don’t get me started on a wannabe hero that went by the name of “Dog Welder” who was absolutely knee slapping in his pathetic attempt at an outfit.

Garth Ennis' hilarious shots at superheroes made for some fantastic comedy in Hitman and his treatment of the characters in this series as it pertains to their relationships with eachother was handled perfectly, especially both early on and then later in the story when we were treated to some of with most breathtaking scenes of friends departed. One thing I do have to say is that some of the best characters in this series were without a doubt the supporting cast with my absolute favorite being a guy named Pat, a childhood friend of Tommy’s in which he had plans to move out of Gotham with once he had saved up enough cash. Pat was unfortunately tortured and left in a pool of his own blood in his own bathtub by one of Monaghan’s rivals, when Tommy discovered his best friend clinging on to dear life he found that he had no choice but to put his friend out of his misery but putting a bullet into his head himself. It was tragic and remains one of the most powerful scenes I’ve ever read in comic books to this day.



It's been a long time but I remember the first time I purchased a Hitman comic book. It happened to be issue #3 and it was on the new arrivals shelf at my local comic shop, I can't explain why but something tickled my fancy and told me I should buy it, I just had the feeling as if I should really see what this title was all about, I picked it up and thumbed through it and thought it looked cool so I added it to my overgrowing stack of books. After the decision was made, I looked around for the first 2 issues of the series but couldn‘t find them anywhere so I focused on finding the rest of my weekly purchases and moved along. I don’t know why but for some reason this particular visit to the comic book shop sticks out alongside other important comic book visits I’ve made throughout my lifetime, I probably remember it so well because I didn’t think much was going to come out of Hitman but yet I gave it a shot and I also made a couple other important pick up’s that day as well, including a 6 card set of metallic Star Wars trading cards that came in a tin holder. Anyhow, when I got home to organize my new purchases I made sure to read Hitman in my first sitting and instantly I began to fall in love with Tommy, Natt, Pat, Tiegel, Noonan and the rest of the cast, their characters were just written so awesome and I was instantly hooked thanks to the fun storytelling of Garth and the simple but fantastic art by John McCrea. McCrea's art was nothing to write home about by any means, it was simple and didn't really offer much in the way of detail or pazzaz, but it fit Hitman perfectly and I couldn't imagine anyone else illustrating the series but him. I really felt that John's art was so crucial to the book that for the few issues they had a fill-in artist take over the pencils for John that it threw everything off and those particular issues just didn't feel right to me.

Ever since I picked up that 3rd issue I made sure to pick up Hitman each and every month afterwards for as long as I could, sadly though, I stopped buying the book somewhere in the middle of it’s 60 issue run due to me losing interest in the story and other comics that were being published at the time were too much of a necessity to continue along with Hitman. Since those day's I’ve recently gone back and grabbed every issue that DC ever published of this series to ensure that I had the complete story, it's something I've always wanted to do and it's something I’m sure glad that I did, this title was too important to just let fade away into a sea of comic book obscurity and for the rest of my collecting days Hitman will continue to have a spot in this comic guru's collection.

Reach for the stars and enjoy the ride.

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Retro Gaming: "A thing of the past, or something of the future" by thedarkuniter

{NOTE: I would like to thank thedarkuniter of the FUNimation forums for his contribution to The Thought Corner with this short but sweet blog post}



The Odyssey, the Atari 2600, the Intelevision, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis.....these systems and many more reminds part of retro gaming history yet people are continuing to play these retro goodies. Is it the innovation, is it the creativity, or could it be nostalgia from early childhood? The first system I've ever played was the original Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short. I was only 3 years old when I've started to play it thanks to my grandma. The game was Super Mario Bros. Of course when you're younger, you don't really care much on the graphics however you do remember how much fun the game was. When someone mentions retro gaming to younger people, usually they'll laugh, say that current gaming have better advancements and better graphics. Why is it that way? Is it suddenly cool to bash older games? With each passing generation, advancements happens in gaming whether its better graphics, better gameplay or better resolution. However, does it render the games from the past generation useless. Just as recently as last Saturday while doing my job, taking out the trash, I've spotted 3 SNES games ( Mortal Kombat, Super Mario World, and Bulls vs Blazers) and 6 NES games ( P.O.W: Prisoners of War, Sesame Street ABC, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, WWF Wrestlemania, Double Dragon and T&C Surf Designs). I asked myself, "well, why would they them away in the trash. They could at least sold them at a vintage gaming store or pawn shop." Me, being the gamer I am, decided to keep them. Upon looking at the carts, a lot of memories are bought up again.



When I bought the carts inside my job after I've found them, many people are in awe of what I've discovered and then they begin discussing older games such as Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog and how they've grew up playing those games. A thought occur to me: retro gaming does have a future. Despite all odds with current technology, most people would come back to their favorite games and continue to play them. One prime example is Street Fighter 2. The game is as old as me however, people continue to play it. And with the advert of clone systems, people can now play NES, SNES or Genesis on one system and relive those memories. Also retro gaming tends to be a lot cheaper than newer titles thus people lend towards cheaper games especially in the current recession we have. So the question is retro gaming truly gone or is it just only beginning a new future for many generations to come?

~ thedarkuniter (FUNimation Forums)

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Classic Gaming: Now you're playing with power!

Since it’s “Retro Month” here at The Thought Corner I figured I would tackle a topic that is loved by millions of people all around the world, this topic is about something that everyone knows and loves and thanks to companies who never let their roots dry out it’s something we will probably never see die, I’m talking about retro gaming and ladies & gentlemen: “Now you’re playing with power!”.

Retro gaming remains huge to this day, if you search the web you will find hundreds of web sites and dozens of forums dedicated to the hobby and if you are familiar with downloading games via the current generation of hardware then you will see hundreds of classic titles available from the market, it’s a passion that just won’t die and personally, I’m glad it never will. Retro gaming is such a big hit because so many people grew up with classic systems like the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Colecovision, Intellivision and the Sega Master System, all of which combine for an outstanding 3,000+ games to discover and enjoy, and today’s gamers are finding classics for the first time and are finding out why the medium has become so popular by experiencing the classics first hand. It’s a hobby that has grown rapidly over the past 10+ years, and even though I could spend forever going on and on about systems of days past I’ve decided that I’m going to put a primary focus on the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, due to it‘s historical significance and mark it‘s left on the industry that is still felt today. The history of the NES goes way back to mid 1983 when Japan released the console as the Famicom and began gaining popularity with it‘s then arcade like quality, the system was a success and Nintendo knew that they wanted to find a home for their system in the United States but at the time the U.S was going through a video game backlash which has become known as “the crash”. The crash was caused due to high price points for games that lacked quality, Intelivision was all but insignificant by the end of 1983, as was the Colecovision, Atari’s VCS (2600) was spending millions of dollars on licenses that never went anywhere and they were being blasted by critics and fans for the lack of quality titles being released. Before long the gaming industry was in complete shambles and on the brink of death, there was no market for Nintendo‘s machine and had they tried to release it at that period of time then the face of gaming in the U.S would have most likely been different because Nintendo would have failed. Instead, the big “N” waited patiently until the sting of the crash subsided and people were over what had happened in 1983/1984, the company began releasing more and more arcade games at the time despite the fact that the arcade business was collapsing under itself as well, it was just a way to get their name out there as a viable video game company and to see if the games resonated with arcade goers.

In 1985 Nintendo decided to market it’s video game system to retail partners but instead of calling it a video gaming machine they made sure to refer to it as a interactive home device, as if it was something high end that you would find in a home next to a VCR or a stereo system, but unfortunately Nintendo was having trouble finding retail partners and the project was almost dead before it was given life. In a last ditch effort to find a market for the NES in the United States the President of Nintendo of America, Minoru Arakawa, offered retailers in New York and Los Angelas a deal that they couldn’t refuse. Basically, he told retailers that he would send in a team of people to the stores to assemble displays for the Nintendo Entertainment System and that he would supply the television monitors that would display the games for the customers, the inventory would be delivered by Nintendo themselves and any remaining systems that were not sold would be purchased back by Nintendo as a “thank you” for giving the company a chance. A deal like this was a no brainer for retailers, even though they were skeptical to carry any kind of video games thanks to the “crash” of a couple years back they had nothing to lose and found themselves in a win-win situation. As Minoru Arakawa had suspected, the NES did will in it's limited release and it was time for Nintendo to launch the machine throughout the entire country, before long the NES had captured the hearts of family's from coast to coast thanks to the pack-in game called Super Mario Bros, a side scrolling platformer that featured the legendary Mario & Luigi combination.



Nintendo began releasing other arcade hits for the NES in 1985 and 1986, some of which were their own titles and others being ports of previous arcade hits, but 1987 was the true breakout year for the console due to a slew of quality games hitting store shelves, one of which being The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo aggressively signed third party publishers during this period to create games for the NES and by Christmas of 1988 the company had over 150 games on store shelves and have already established successful franchises with their Mario Bros and Zelda games, Nintendo was in full domination mode and the company was steamrolling Sega's Master System and Atari's 7800 Pro System, outselling the latter by a ratio of 5/1. Sales were strong for the next couple of years and Nintendo had sold million upon millions of systems thanks to an army of software publishers who were churning out hit after hit for the NES, but 1990 brought the video gaming world the best selling non-pack in game of all-time, that game was Super Mario Bros 3 and Nintendo had gone on to achieve the impossible. The video game crash of the early 80's was all but forgotten and Nintendo had become the gold standard for video game excellence all over the world, a survey in 1990 proved that when millions of kids in the United States recognized Mario more so than they did Micky Mouse (Disney's cultural Icon). Nintendo's core characters were everywhere and merchandise like t-shirts, sticker books, action figures, lunch boxes, and posters were found all over major retail outlets, Nintendo had created an empire and played a major role in bringing video games into the mainstream which almost rivaled the popularity of television and movies, if it wasn't for that single promise by Arakawa to his retail partners then video games may not be enjoying the success that they do today.

As the 90's rolled along and Sega released their 16-bit Genesis, Nintendo knew that they had to upgrade their hardware to compete since Sega was quickly gaining market share and actually surpassed Nintendo in late 1991 (Nintendo would come back in 1993), the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was born and support for the 8-bit wonder was beginning to dwindle down. As the SNES began to gain popularity and big games were being released in 1993, Nintendo decided to re-release the NES with a different design and with different controllers, eventually the original NES would see it's last true non-homebrew game released in Q2 of 1994 and about a year later the Nintendo Entertainment System was officially discontinued. To this day the NES remains one of the most influential and sought out video game systems for retro enthusiasts all around the world, it's roots are so strong that franchises that were created for the console back in the 80's are still going strong today and Nintendo continues to find ways to bring their classic games to the mass market through their online markets for both the Wii and DS systems. With support like that, how can one argue that retro gaming would ever die? Simple, it wont.

Reach for the stars and enjoy the ride.

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC

Spotlight on retro toys: WWF LJN & M.U.S.C.L.E!

Hey guys, Manga4life here to bring you another exciting blog as “Retro Month” continues here at The Thought Corner, today we will be taking a look at some of the great (and weird) wrestling based toys that the 80’s had to offer. Well, more specifically we will be taking a look at two specific toy lines that dominated much of the 80’s for me, these particular toy lines were some of my favorite while growing up and it’s my pleasure to write an article covering the classic WWF LJN action figure line and the M.U.S.C.L.E (Millions of Unusual Creatures Lurking Everywhere) series of mini galactic wrestling toys.

If you grew up in the 80’s then you have a clear idea of what toys I am talking about here, these two toy lines rank among the most popular of the 80’s alongside the He-Man, TMNT, Thundercats, Transformers, GI Joe, and Ghostbusters action figures and their legacy still lives on today due to collectors all over the world still showing interest in collecting and completing these sets. First off, I think I’ll cover the WWF line of action figures since they have such a high demand with today's hardcore vintage toy collectors and because I used to love these things so damn much, as do most fans who grew up with the WWF back in the 80’s. It’s funny, there isn’t really much “action’ to be had with these figures due to the fact that they were 8 inch rubber sculpts designed with one pose in mind and hardly any movement unless you pulled really hard, doing this could cause the figure to bend and become stretched which usually rendered the toy useless in the end. The LJN line of WWF toys were really a strange beast in the fact that the figures themselves were very large and weight close to a pound each, they had no movement and came with limited accessories, basically LJN placed a huge rubber action figure on a backing card that looked like a wrestling ring and packaged them with a mini-poster and kids all over the country ate them up in droves. I guess LJN and Vince McMahon knew what they were doing back in 1985 when the line first debuted, sales were strong and the first series was officially a hit which led to the toy makers releasing a new series of characters every few months or so, before you knew it almost every major wrestler in the WWF roster was available on store shelves and Vinny Mac was realizing his dream of making the World Wrestling Federation a world-wide phenomenon. Soon after the standard line of figures became a hit LJN would release other toys based on WWF wrestlers at the time too, they began selling mini versions of the 8 inch figures that featured bendable wires inside the sculpts so you could pose them and stretch the superstars into wrestling holds, soon after that they released a line of thumb wrestlers as well as a home video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, other novelties would follow.

WWF merchandise was running wild and a lot of it was based off of the success of the original 8 inch rubber toy line and how well they were received by the consumer, but as the 80’s moved along the relationship between JLN and the WWF was coming to an end and Vince would soon sign a deal with Hasbro in 1990 to launch a new set of action figures and other merchandise. The last series of 8 inch WWF LJN toys were released in mid 1989 and to this day remain the rarest and most valuable that the company has produced. They were released in Canada first and featured some of the newer stars the WWF had acquired over the most recent year (1988-1989), soon after they were released in Canada LJN released them in limited quantity in the United States with no fanfare behind the launch and only those who were looking for them were able to hunt them down, these days the figures in the last wave of toys can go for upwards to $500 per figure if the packaging is still in good condition. Personally, I would probably rank these toys as some of my favorite that I had back in the 80’s as a child, my memories of going to the store and picking out a new wrestler was certainly a highlight of my younger years and I’ll always remember playing with these big rubberized grapplers fondly.



Now it’s time to fondly remember a very unique line of toys that graced us with it‘s presence some 25 years ago, these tiny little pink/flesh colored action figures could be found in mass quantity almost everywhere you went during the 1980’s and if you still live in the same place as you did in your childhood you probably are still finding them stuck in vents and small crevices throughout your household. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I’m talking about M.U.S.C.L.E, the toy line that fused intergalactic wrestling with creatures from outer space!

One very unique thing about this line of toys is the way that they were packaged in retail, you could purchase a 4 pack of assorted M.U.S.C.L.E men, a 10 pack “trashcan”, a 28 pack box, a mini arena playset, or a championship belt which turned into a wrestling ring and storage center. Soon after the success of M.U.S.C.L.E in the United States they decided to re-released these guys in multiple colors, some were evn exclusive to the wrestling ring playset, but it was just another way to get kids interested in the product and it worked like a charm. Kids everywhere had M.U.S.C.L.E figures and there were so many available that there was always a reason to check the racks to see if you can spot someone who you haven’t gotten yet, it was always tough to complete the collection because they always came in multi-packs and the selection was assorted so you couldn’t just go out and purchase a single M.U.S.C.L.E man for lets say, $.99 or so. Still, everywhere you went there was a display of these little wonders and the sales of the toys were so strong that it led to a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System as well as a board game, not to long after these hit store shelves other merchandise was spotted bearing the brand’s image and for 3 or 4 years the M.U.S.C.L.E line was a huge success in the United States. The idea for this brand was originally born in Japan through a series of manga called Kinnikuman, after the manga became a success a line of toys called Kinkeshi was released and soon the popularity traveled from Japan to America, what’s even more impressive is that some 13+ years later a cartoon called Ultimate Muscle was released and dubbed to air on a Saturday morning cartoon block by 4Kids. Now that’s longevity! Over the years quite a few of the figures within the line have become quite rare, one or two even fetching over $25 a piece on eBay, but usually you can complete an entire set (236) of these classic figures for about $50-$60 through online auctions, there are lots of collectors still out there and vintage toy collections have a big market so there will always be M.U.S.C.L.E’s floating around online and throughout flea markets throughout the United States.

Well guys, that's all I've got for you today, please continue to follow The Thought Corner throughout the month of Februrary for more exciting articles and other goodies pertaining to classic material from the 80's! As always, reach for the stars and enjoy the ride guys!

As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.

Take care,
***Manga4life***

©2011 Cozy Cabin Publishing LLC