Derek, just played through SMW again last week. Enjoy Tubular!

I said "fuck all the new games" and am now playing through this on my ps2!:







space channel 5: part 2.


AL, I love Parappa the Rapper. I have both of 'em and UmJammer Lammy. Great games, if a bit too short and easy. Still, there really weren't any games like 'em and in a way they've never been topped (though the Space Channel games come close).

...Man, Tetsuya Mizuguchi is probably my favorite person in the history of gaming. He's been involved in Lumines (!!!!!!!!!!!), Rez, Meteos, Every Extended Extra, Space Channel 1/2, Gunpey, which are all AMAZING games and some of my favorite ever... and of course, the upcoming Children of Eden which is flat-out the only current gen game I am interested in, in any way, that isn't a WiiWAre/Live Arcade/PSN game.

Yeah I had to look up some of the special levels on youtube cause I just couldn't figure out what I had to do. There was one level that involved getting a star and jumping through all these enemies which gave me a lot of 1ups thankfully because I would have been fried without that.

Reason # 3208204280285 why Mario World is better than New Super Mario Brothers Wii:You can take Yoshi all over the world with you (except ghost houses and Koopaling Castles -- he's scared of ghosts.. and doors!)! Why the FUCK can you only get Yoshi in, like, 5 levels in NSMBW, and as soon as the level is over, yoshi runs off? Lame.

Mario World is hands down my favorite in the series

Top 5:
1. Super Mario World
2. Super Mario Bros. 3
3. Super Mario 64
4. Super Mario Bros. 2 (the one based in the Indian like land)
5. Super Mario Bros.

we had this a million times, but cant be stretched enough!!!!

SMW and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are the best jump n runs, ever.

and some of the best games of video game history. this is were the crap my f*cking signature comes together, hahaah

just beat this fucker. AKA "Manica Mansion Jr." :)

Top 10:
1. Yoshi's Island -- by far, my favorite 2D platformer of all time.
2. Super Mario World
3. Super Mario Bros. 3
4. Paper Mario: THousand Year Door
5. Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga
6. New Super Mario BRos. DS
7. Mario 2/Doki Doki Panic
8. Super Mario 64
9. Super Mario RPG
10. Super Paper Mario

As far as Sonic goes, I have always liked Sonic 2 the best. OIL OCEAN.

yeah Sonic 2 is by far the best.

^^sonic 3 & knuckles (both cartridges attached to another) is epic plus the michael jackson soundtrack. holy fuckness!!!

sonic 2 got one of my all time favourite video game tunes, chemical plant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LYB7iLZNWE

I thought the MJ sndtrk was the stuff of urban legend. No?

^....yah...I don't think they've ever really confirmed it.

According to STI director Roger Hector, Michael Jackson was brought in initially during development to compose music for the game, but no mention of his involvement was included. This was supposedly due to the scandals that arose around Jackson at the time, his involvement was removed from the title, and much reworking had to be done.[12] These claims are dubious, however, and various interviews have made it clear that any involvement Jackson may have had was done without the knowledge of Sega's executives or marketing staff, and no contracts or formal agreements had ever been made.[13] James Hansen, of Sonic Stuff Research Group, retorts that Cirocco (credited as "Scirocco" in Sonic 3) still has possession of presumably a demo version of fabled soundtrack. "I actually have "ALL" of the tracks...," he writes, "from the original humming of Michael calling in the middle of the night leaving messages, to his ideas at Record One with Matt and Bruce. - BUT, I don't think I can let any of that out to the public without permission." [13] In December 2009, Michael Jackson's composer, Brad Buxer, told French magazine Black & White that Jackson was actually involved with some of Sonic 3's compositions, supposedly not being credited because he wasn't happy with how they sounded, due to the lack of optimal sound reproduction on the Genesis. Buxer also claimed that the ending music of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 later became the basis for Jackson's single Stranger in Moscow.[1]

I thought it was confirmed he definitely did the entirety of, like, 4 songs. ACTUALLY, you can youtube it, he reused a few of the melodies on later songs, like that wiki article says ,STRANGER IN MOSCOW is the carnival zone or something.

He had a close relationship with sega: MOONWALKER, Sonic 3, his appearance in Space Channel 5 and Ready 2 Rumble boxing on the Dreamcast.. I know I'm leaving out some, but hey.

my understanding is that he DID do like 3 or 4 songs. Then they were removed, and another composer did new songs (some that were built on MJ's melodies or style). Could be wrong, but that's the way I heard the story several times.

I totally believe the legend. It makes perfect sense.

AC, I'm very glad you mentioned Yoshi's Island. That game is brilliant! Much better than the original, in my opinion. Levels like Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy are just as clever today, as they were in the mid-90's.

I'd say my top 3 Mario platformers are Super Mario 64, Yoshi's Island, and Super Mario Bros 3. However, I have yet to play either of the Galaxy titles - which look fucking outstanding... but I'm probably just overhyping it.

I'll check out Maken X eventually. I have so many games that I've hardly given a proper play-through. I think I'm gonna chill out on "new" games for a second.

they confirmed it...here is the link:
http://www.cubed3.com/news/13380

one urban legend less.
here is th interview excerpt for the ones to lazy to open the link:

Black & White: Can you clarify the rumour that Michael had in 1993 composed the music for Sonic 3 video game, for which you have been credited?

Brad Buxer: I've never played the game so I do not know what tracks the developer kept from what Michael and I both worked on, but we did compose music for the game. Michael called me at the time for help on this project, and that's what I did. And if he is not credited for composing the music, it's because he was not happy with the resulting sound coming out of the console. At the time, game consoles did not allow for optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued his music...

Black & White: One of the surprising things in this soundtrack is that you can hear chords featured in Stranger in Moscow, which was supposed to have been composed later.

Brad Buxer: Yes, Michael and I had composed those chords for the game, and it has been used as base for Stranger in Moscow.


here is the stranger in owscow mashup featuring sonics OST and MJs voice over it. btw the level playing in the background is playable in a beta version!!!

I've seen some friends play it and honestly I think it looks fun as hell. I just wish I had a wii to play it.

finally I am playing it.
after 15 minutes of playing I instantly in Love.
true too its roots (snatcher) without being a rip off. I am looking forward to what the story leads too.

Mario Galaxy rules. My girlfriend has it. One of the only Wii games worth a damn imo (with the poor-selling Mad World and No More Heroes being fun too, as well as the Dreamcast-retread Ultimate Shooter Collection and ... uh .. some WiiWare games...). I am not into 3D games at all -- aside from Zelda, which I think is the only game improve by 3D since the original games were in 3D anyway (well.. you know.. top down.. go anywhere.. you weren't constrained to a left-and-right-plain-only; aside from the overhard Adventures of Link, which I somehow own 4 copies of...?!). But MARIO GALAXY is fun. I've played quite a bit of it.

But yeah, Yoshi's Island is the best 2D platformer of all time. It is also the only SNES game that simply will not run on my Dreamcast at all. Even 14 years later, it's still too damn graphically intensive. This is artistry, folks; people who cared about visuals, art, and design. You don't see that in games not called "Ico" nowadays.