So it is the day after the Superbowl... It is also the day that the new episode of ESH would be available to the masses. However, both of the sistahs' hearts are heavy with sadness, anger and confusion. Why?

The New England Patriots played a very VERY POOR game.
The sistahs' didn't riot in the streets- but they died..a little inside.

They will come back from this rut-- they promise-- just....not today.

With Feburary fast approaching- the sistah's have decided to be more organized. Ninja proclaimed first of the month to be " Game Release Day". Ninja also dishes out a steaming plate of Far Cry 3, while Panda talks about the long awaited release of Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Ninja tries not to kernel panic on this week's episode while Panda tries to make more sense than she normally does.

Oh here are the contenders for this week's title too!

I'm Too Strung Out On Confidence

That's Squeaky, Shiny Junk

How to Determine If You're a Game Snob

You Make Me Sound Like a Horrible Sister

I'm the Acid to Your Base

Ninja Temporarily Had a Buffer Underrun

Buddy, Can You Paradigm?

Never Name a Character After a Pastry -- It Makes Me Hungry

Meanwhile, In a Parallel Dimension...

Summer's Eve Is Always Looking For Free Advertising

You guys are in for a treat with ESH Podcast Episode 278: So What Else is On That List? A lot of Bitterness and Resentment

My personal favorite part of the original game was the ground combat.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a ton of fun to blast around inside of the warhawks and hover inside of enemy territory blasting missiles in their face, but there’s just something even more fun about being a tiny little person taking one of those giant jets down.  That same feeling is still quite prevalent in Starhawk, but replace the jet with a giant mech that can transform into a futuristic “Hawk” and you’ve got yourself one hell of a party.

The biggest new addition to the series is the build and battle system that they’ve implemented.  Either if you are killing enemy troops or staying near your base, you are constantly building up resources to create various fortifications for your team.  Each building requires an amount of rift energy that you gather as you either hang back at the base or kill enemy troops/buildings.  A good strategy, from what I’ve gathered thus far, is to get as many of the main buildings up at once and then add defensive ones afterwards.  The main buildings include stuff like the Hawk Hangar, Bunker and Razorback Garage which gives you access to vehicles and weapons.  Beyond that, other additions like sniper towers, walls and even an energy shield can be placed.  One of my personal favorite things about this system is that these things actually drop from the sky, so if there’s an enemy in your territory, you can take them out Wizard of Oz style.  It also adds a great new level of depth, especially when playing capture the flag.  If a team fortifies their defenses just right, it can be quite difficult to infiltrate their base.

The ground combat, though very similar to Warhawk, has been nicely polished.  I know it sounds a bit silly to be excited about, but you can now run.  The aiming system has also been improved by allowing you to lock onto targets without having to hold down the fire button.  The one-hit-kill knife system is still there, but they’ve made it feel a bit more sluggish, which I like because it makes it a little more difficult to get a kill and will hopefully help against people running around and spamming their knife.  Running someone down in the Razorback still feels great and they’ve done a great job of tightening those controls up since the last game.  When you die, you get the map option to respawn and it gives you a selectable green area based on what part of the map your team occupies.  The fun part is that you drop down in a pod which you can control on the way down so if an enemy is in your territory, you can take them out as you respawn.

The Hawk controls are fast and furious.  One second, you can be a lumbering mech looking down on the ants you blow away with rockets and if an immediate threat is posed, you can be a speedy jet in a split second.  The hovering mechanics have been removed and I can certainly see why, you can accomplish exactly what you need to as a mech the same way you could hovering in Warhawk.  The main difference is you can’t be locked-onto while in the mech form and while you’re significantly slower in that form, if you pull it off well, you can shapeshift in and out before they even knew what blasted their face off.

Keeping in mind that this is still a beta and subject to change at any moment, I am extremely pumped about this game.  I can’t wait to see what else this game has in store when it launches into retail on May 8th of this year.  If you have a Playstation Plus account, you need to go check this one out.

Usually Mondays are filled with awesome. This isn't one of those days.
Don't be too sad about there not being a new morsel of goodness to start your week.

You want reasons? Well you can't handle the reasons!
ESH will be back on track next week...
so go forth and prosper.

When Batman: Arkham Asylum launched, it was very quickly recognized as one of the best games based on a comic book.  For me, it was hard to imagine that the winning formula in this game could be improved upon in any significant way.  Thankfully, my neck was pinned to the curb by Batman: Arkham City as it demanded my approval.  Taking the awesome mechanics put into place by its predecessor and throwing them into a completely open world made all the difference.  While Arkham Asylum was open to an extent, it never even approached the amount of extra depth and life given to the game world.  Pair that with an amazing cast of voice actors and some fun tweaks to the fight system and you’ve got yourself one hell of a game.

Sometimes when you go into a game with really high expectations or hopes, it just leaves you disappointed when you finally play it.  This in no way describes how I felt about Dead Space 2.  As a big fan of the series, I went into this expecting it to blow my mind and it really did a great job.  The blood-pumping action of the first game gets a dose of steroids and then drinks an energy drink.  The creepiness of the original is still quite present and you even get a chance to revisit the decks of the Ishimura and relive a bit of your trauma.  They did an awesome job of expanding upon the story of the first game and they even throw you right in the middle of some things you only got to listen to audio logs about.  With a fun new multiplayer aspect, it even gave players more of a reason to keep coming back.

There will always be a special place in my heart for any title in the Legend of Zelda series.  With the Wii U on the horizon, Nintendo really needed to give devoted fans one last thing to be truly excited about.  What they delivered on was not just one of my favorite games of the year, but one of my favorite titles in the entire series.  The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is one of those games that anyone can pick up and have fun with, but a hardcore fan can dive into it and get a really deep experience.  The art style in the game paints a beautiful picture, pun intended, and really helps to immerse you in the world.  The story and characters are some of the series best and the motion controls  put most of games with a similar control scheme to shame.

Many games like to boast that playing them is akin to playing a movie.  None pull this off nearly as well as the Uncharted series.  Each scene in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception keeps the pace and makes you feel like a part of the scene.  With twists and turns around every corner, a look into Nathan’s past and some amazing new characters, this game does not disappoint.  The gameplay has been tweaked in some fun ways, including improvement to the hand-to-hand combat system.  Honestly, in the previous games, I almost never opted to punch someone instead of just shooting, but they found a way, using an easy to learn combo system, to make it worth every knuckle sandwich.  The multiplayer mode is also back and better than ever thanks to some amazing new maps, characters and modes.

One of my favorite things about Portal was the fact that it didn’t get drawn out and worn thin.  That in mind, I was nervous about a full-length sequel in Portal 2.  What I really didn’t expect about this sequel was the number of amazingly well-developed characters there would be.  While GLaDOS is certainly a featured returning character, several others make appearances both in person and through audio logs.  The extra mechanics added by the various gels in the game make the puzzles that much more fun to solve and don’t overwhelm at all.  The co-op campaign is just as fun and much less frustrating than I thought it would be and offers some fun new twists to the puzzles.  The writing for the holds up to the impeccable standards that the first game offered.  While some throwbacks are certainly there, nothing feels tacked on or overused and it maintains its hilariously creepy vibe throughout the entirety of the campaign.

While all of these games had me grinning ear to ear, there was one that stood above the rest as my favorite for the entirety of 2011.  If there’s one thing that Nintendo always manages to do right, it’s make a Zelda game.  The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a testament to what can be accomplished when good thought is put into motion controls.  Never once while playing this game did I wish I was playing it with two analog sticks and some buttons.  This game dared to be different and couldn’t care less if you disagreed with it being so.  All of my favorite games in the series have been the ones that refused to stick to the formula and this is a great example of one that did just that.  The world is large and dynamic, the characters are interesting and fun to meet, the story is exciting and the gameplay is just plain fun.  Every game talked about here deserves to be someone’s favorite game of 2011, but mine is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Today is just like every other Monday,and that means a new episode of the ESH Podcast will be available to all who desire it. Ninjasistah and Pandalcious decide to make this episode anime-esque
and packed it with as much anime as the girls could muster.

Ninja starts the show with Majikoi Oh! Samurai Girls

Pandalicious finishes up with some ramblings about Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. She talks about the anime as well as the visual novel she has been playing.
Whether the sistah's are debating the appropriate demographics of anime harems, or arguing how incest could be seen as a logical explanation for a story arc--it will always bring laughter.

So here is ESH Podcast 277: Never Tell the Lord of Purgatory That You're Bored.

Oh! and just in case you were curious here are the runner up titles for this week show:

A Very Special, Uh, Unique, Uh, Abnormal Episode

Subbed or Dubbed -- Now It's Your Pick

The Guy Spanks a General. Hijinks Ensue.

Peering Inside a Man's Being? There's an App for That

This Is Not the Yuno You Know

No, This Anime Is Not Part of Some Prince Trilogy

You Had Me All the Way Up To the Incest

The final pre-game candidate is an amazing first-person experience which reintroduces an iconic villain to the series and adds some amazing new features.  Obviously, I’m talking about the impressive first-person puzzler Portal 2.  You may, at this point, be wondering why there is an obvious Skyrim-esque void in this list.  With a playtime of about six hours thus far, I felt it a bit unfair to include it.  For the record, from what I’ve played of it, Skyrim was one of the best games I played last year.  Now, let’s travel back in time to 2007 when Valve gave the world the wonderful gift that was Portal.

If you told me that a puzzle game you can beat within about four hours would be among my favorite video games of all time before I played Portal, I would have called you crazy.  The thing is, sometimes it’s hard to strike a good balance with the different elements in a game.  You either end up with an awesome story that’s a chore to play or a fun game with very little pushing it forward.  At the risk of making an awful Goldy Locks reference here, Portal had a mixture that was just right.

A simple concept when you think about it, you’ve got a gun that shoots two different portals.  Once both are placed on a surface, you can travel from one to the other.  Add some creepy turret robots, a whole lot of deadly water and a strangely lovable cube and you’ve got a formula for an incredibly fun experience.  While all of these things made this game both mind-bending and thrilling, that is only one part of this perfect recipe.

Once again, like the rest of this title, the story seems pretty straightforward.  You are a test subject for the portal gun that is being led through a number of tests.  All of this seems fine as you go through each of the testing areas, but there’s something slightly off that you can’t quite put your finger on.  Just when you’re ready to accept the premise for what it is, you find a wall panel that is slightly askew, just enough for you to fit inside.  What you find are the scribblings of another test subject, driven to madness.

The atmosphere in the game is perfectly crafted to give you a sense of both the sterility of the test environment and the hidden insanity that lurks within.  The writing is some of the best I’ve ever experience in gaming and the voice work pulls it off in spades.  Sadly any concept, given enough time, can grow a little stale.  Portal does not offer that chance as it can be completed, depending on the speed in which you solve the puzzles, in one sitting.  It doesn’t feel like too much or too little and it doesn’t leave you feeling cheated.

WIth a game this amazing, I thought it would be impossible to properly craft a sequel that could live up to it.  Thankfully, I was dead wrong once again.  Portal 2 takes all of those concepts and brings them back.  It doesn’t rely on old tricks to win players over and introduces several fun new elements to the puzzles to keep things fresh.  It even features an awesome co-op mode which is almost as good as the single-player campaign.  If you haven’t gotten the chance to player either one of these games, do yourself a favor and get your hands on them immediately.  I’m not kidding, stop reading this and go.  Now!

For once I think Navi has a point...Oh and before I forget Watch Out!

It's that special time of the week where the sistahs come together and share their most treasured thoughts with the interwebs.

pffffft...I couldn't even keep a straight face as I typed that. So with that here comes the pipping hot fresh episode of the ESH.

This week's episode finally puts us in 2012 with some of Ninja and Panda's thoughts on the ever-glorious CES.

But before we get to the good bits--and trust me I'm going to give it to you-- I want to share with you guys the hilarity that was all of the titles that were in the running for next top ESH title.

Honorable Mentions for this week's episode:

I Like the Idea of Physics, I Just Can't Do It

I Have a Red Flag Flapping in the Breeze In the Back of My Mind

I Don't Like How Much Power You Have

You Should Be Exposed For the Chicken-Eating Ho Lover You Are

Bohemians! Hippies! People From California!

There's No More Room In the Bag of Sound -- It's Full of Sound

It's Like Matching Bras and Panties

That Was Going To Be an Amazing Podcast Title, But You Stopped Yourself

It's Been Dead More Than Two Years and the Word "Vista" Still Causes Laughter

Can you guys tell who said what? (I can-but I'd be cheating)

Now without further interruptions, here is ESH Podcast Episode 276: Things That Whrrr and Bzzzz and Brrrr

It’s easy to take a well-known franchise, slap a new backdrop on it and call it a sequel.  While the location, or should I say many locations, of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves are very different than the original, the upgrades made to the series only start there.  With boosts to graphics, controls, storyline, interactivity and replay value, Naughty Dog managed to hit it out of the park with Nathan Drake’s second adventure.

Believe it or not, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was not only my first PS3 game, it was the first title I ever owned that was in HD.  It was truly no slouch in the graphics department and featured some amazing water effects.  Hearing from a few folks who got their hands on Uncharted 2 early that the graphics were better than original, I was a bit skeptical.  After popping in the new game and picking my jaw up off the ground, I had to admit that the graphics were sharper and more polished by a wide margin.  Water effects were replaced with even more impressive snow effects and load times were reduced to almost zero.

In Drake’s Fortune, there were several great moments where you got to control Nathan during an intense action sequence.  Uncharted 2, on the other hand, only had one: the entire game.  The action flowed from one scene to the next and had you doing things like running away from a truck in an alley and having a shootout in a collapsing building.  The story blended so well with the action that it literally felt like you were playing an action movie.  Even the controls felt a lot more tight, which helps a lot while you’re climbing up a train that’s falling off a cliff.

A good multiplayer mode is hard to come by, especially in a game with such a solid single player offering.  Naughty Dog rose to the challenge with Among Thieves and created one that combines the fun gameplay of the main game with the customization and progression offered by some of the best multiplayer-focused games.

Approximately two years later, the game was followed by Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.  Continuing the trend by changing the venue and upping the ante yet again, the third installation in the series exceeds expectations yet again.  The story gives us a look at Drake’s past, the snow is replaced by desert sands and you get to run through a house that’s burning down.  The multiplayer makes a return as well with a lot of extra content and another chance to see a skeletal version of Sir Francis Drake running around with a machine gun.  Who could pass all that up?  I couldn’t, so it earns a spot as one of my favorite games of this year.  Check back soon for the final pre-game in my top five of 2011.  Happy new year!

What a great start to 2012 am I right?

Regardless, this latest episode takes us back to 2011. Yep we are already going back in time, because for the sisters, time traveling to the past is a regular occurrence). They had talked about this before- but hadn't really thought about it.

So they went about their business and devised a plan.
Both made a list, then they hit the web

That's right, We've put together our own award show for the Video games of 2011.

Here it is for your listening pleasure! ESH Podcast Episode 275: You Get An Award and You Get An Award.

Also bonus points for the person who catches on to my lil easter egg!

Here is a reminder of just how gangsta the holiday season can be! Fo Sho!

This fragment of truth has been brought to you by: Boondocks. Keeping it real since 2005.

Originally being developed for the Gamecube, Nintendo swore that this was definitely coming to the aforementioned system even after their new motion controlled system was announced.  I also promised myself that no matter what happened, I was going to get the new game for the Gamecube.  Nintendo kept their promise, but since they released the game on the Wii first, I did not.  What can I say, I don't like waiting to play my Zelda games.

Being one of the launch titles for the Wii, Twilight Princess was among the first games I played for the system.  The motion controls for the game, while quite basic, did provide a fun level of immersion that hadn't been seen yet.  Looking back on it, most of it was waggling the Wii Remote back and forth like a moron, but it translated very well.  Aside from the sword, you could use your controller as a fishing pole, point it to aim arrows and it even made sounds.  My favorite thing, and I can't believe they didn't bring this back, was Link's ability to sheath his sword in a badass way after a fight if you put your sword away at the right time.  Another great new feature was Link being able to transform into a wolf.  It led to some interesting ways to look twice at a puzzle, because you never knew when the wolf form might be required to solve it.

After Wind Waker fans were foaming at the mouth for a darker and more adult Zelda experience.  It's clear that Nintendo was shooting very specifically for this with Twilight Princess.  I mean, come on, it's right there in the title staring you in the face.  With a grittier story and environment, they definitely pulled it off.  While still managing to retain the charm that all of the various iterations of Hyrule contain, this was quite possibly the darkest game in the series.  Even the soundtrack almost rings of Danny Elfman with many mischievous and mysterious tunes.  Not among them is the song playing during the fight with beast Ganon towards the end.  If you listen very carefully it sounds like “I’m a piggy” is being repeated over and over again.

For many, this game was a step too far back in the direction of being too formulaic, and I can certainly see where they are coming from.  If awesome is what they’re calling formulaic however, then sign me up every time.

This year, Nintendo took all the great things that have happened over the years with their system and have combined them into The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  With perfected motion controls, an open world with great characters and a beautiful orchestrated soundtrack, it is certainly a contender for my favorite game of this year.

In this video I talk about the two currently running TV series Once Upon A Time and Grimm. Both shows are on different networks and each has its weaknesses and strengths. However I look at their origins, and have some thoughts about them.

So grab your beverage of choice and enjoy.

Can you smell the comedy? I can...and it's ripe for the...listening? (Yeah, I'm running with it) So grab your bev of choice and get your earholes ready for ESH Podcast Episode # 274: You Can't Tell a Video game by Its Trailer.

The first thing Dead Space did right was the marketing campaign.  Released in the months before the game released, the motion comic prequel painted a fantastic picture of the setting for the series while not giving enough away.  Pair that with the amazing set of trailers, one of which I keep handy on my PS3 in case I want to watch it, and I was itching to play the game by the time it came out.

The most important aspect of a horror game comes down to how you feel while you’re playing.  The depth and detail of the dark and bloody hallways of the Ishimura, the ship you’re trying to escape, paint a horrific picture of loneliness and desperation.  The loneliness part of it doesn’t last very long as the monstrous necromorphs begin their assault on you early and often.  In short, the stark contrast of the chaos going on inside the Ishimura and the calm of the outer space just outside is beautiful, if a bit gory and terrifying.

Even more important than graphics, when dealing with horror, is the sound design.  This is one of the places where Dead Space truly shines.  The game has an incredibly moody and well-implemented dynamic soundtrack to really get your blood pumping during the action scenes.  More important however, are the myriad of little sound effects that’ve cleverly placed through the game.  Walking down a completely quiet hallway, you’ll suddenly hear a metal pipe fall to the floor.  Occasionally, a light skittering sound can be heard in the air duct above you.  It’s hard not to appreciate how a game can be equally scary during a scene that is almost completely quiet and one where the speakers are blaring as you fight off monsters.

One thing that has always helped to immerse me in any game I’ve played are those audio logs that you find throughout the world.  Dead Space is largely about getting from Point A to Point B and solving a puzzle once you get to that secondary location.  The audio logs help to keep you immersed in the world as you go through and really helps to make your tasks feel less like you’re playing a game and more like you’re participating in the story.

An essential part of any survival horror game is a lack of available supplies.  It really adds to the tension of the environment when you have to strategically use your ammo in such a way that doesn’t leave you staring down the maw of a giant monster with nothing but your high-pitched screams to combat it.  While on the easy mode, ammo is plentiful and easy to come by, as you go up through the ranks of difficulty, not only does the ammo become more scarce, the enemies get harder to kill.

In Dead Space 2, it takes all of the things that were great about the original and super sizes them.  The new necromorph types, both the large and small, offer new ways of dealing with being attacked.  The Sprawl, a giant facility located on one of Saturn’s moons which is the setting for the sequel, is even bigger and has a lot more variety than the Ishimura.  One of my favorite things about Dead Space 2, is that it takes you straight into lion’s den for a lot of the conspiracy that the first game only talked about.  A new multiplayer mode, where players are divided into humans versus necromorphs, was also included, adding even more replay value.  If you’re looking for a game that will thrill you, and possibly scare you, look no further.  I’ll see you next time for another Pre-Game of the Year choice.  If in the meantime you want to convince EA to announce Dead Space 3, I would be very thankful.

It’s been described by several, myself included, as the best video game ever that was based on a comic. By incorporating an awesome story, great visual look and gameplay mechanics that span far more than its brawler base, Batman: Arkham Asylum rose the bar for comic book games higher than anyone expected. Add to that practically the entire cast of Batman: The Animated Series doing the voice work and the deal was certainly sealed.

I always kind of roll my eyes whenever someone uses the old “easy to pick up, but difficult to master” line when describing gameplay. This is the one title where I would whole-heartedly admit that it’s true. Batman is a man of many talents, one of which is beating the crap out of steroid-using henchmen. This being a major component of play, the game lets you decide precisely how you go about taking them out. If you want to pick them off one by one in the shadows, watch them freak out and turn against each other, you have the ability. If you want to take a more aggressive, just punch them in the face approach, that also works quite well. As they ramp up the difficulty later on they encourage, but don’t require, experimentation with some of the Dark Knight’s various gadgets in battle.

Aside from the battles, the game also features an incredibly beautiful and moody open world to explore. Within that world, you have the chance of solving several puzzles and obtaining various collectibles. They even incorporated a robust upgrade system in the game to take the feeling of progression even further. One of my favorite things about the asylum is, while the art style is certainly its own interpretation of the world, everything and everyone in that world oozes Batman. If you are a fan of the series at large, there is more than you could possible handle to scratch your gotham itch. Even the character descriptions, which I tend to skip in a lot of other games, were a ton of fun to look through as they described each character’s history through the series.

With this game being so good, I was incredibly nervous when the announced a follow-up. My nerves didn’t get any better when they released a set of possible names for the new game and Batman: Arkham City was chosen. It wasn’t until I saw it in action that I knew it was okay to relax. Compared to the relatively cramped spaces present in the asylum, they managed to open this already open world game and make it work incredibly well. By ramping it up in all the right ways, Rocksteady Studios really managed to take us from a tiny asylum to a whole city.

For more on Batman: Arkham City, check out King Baby Duck’s review out using the handy dandy link I’ve provided below. I’ll be back next time for another look at the baby daddies of my favorite games of this year. Also keep an eye out for a Skyward Sword review now that my Wii is fixed and ready to go. There’s a joke in there somewhere, right?

The Dark Knight Rises In "Arkham City"

Yeah enough said

Sure, the multiplayer of Uncharted 3 has yet to be tamed. And, yes, NinJa has yet to play a single wave of Horde mode in Gears of War 3 or even open her copy of RAGE but that didn't stop her from popping AC:Revelations in ye olde Xbox to take it for a spin. And even though Panda was finally making serious progress (sweet, sweet, progress) both girls got their hands on Saints 3 and, well, you'll just have to listen to the episode to find out what they think.

Go ahead and grab a frosty beverage and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 271: Why Did Constantinople Get the Works? Saints Row Arrived

Starting up the game for the first time, there is very little to be surprised about. We open with a cut scene where, after a tree full of tanooki leaves are blown throughout the mushroom kingdom, bowser and his minions have yet again captured the princess. While not very original, if you were expecting oscar buzz from the story in this game, you clearly have never played any featuring this particular plumber. The real glory coming from this series lies in the gameplay and that is where this particular entry starts to shine.

One night, Super Mario 3 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 went out to have a few drinks. As night went on, the world got fuzzier and fuzzier for the pair until it seemed to melt away completely. The next morning, they woke up next to each other, not quite sure of the previous evenings events.  Nine months later, they gave birth to a beautiful baby 3DS game. This is the story of how Super Mario 3D Land came to be. It is designed to take the 3D-style of Mario gameplay, introduced to us by Super Mario 64, and combine it with the linear level-based structure of the earlier games. Why then would I single out Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario 3? I’ll explain myself one game at a time.

Aside from the obvious inclusion of the 3D style of play, most of what Super Mario Galaxy 2 had to contribute to this newest game came from identity. While you certainly weren’t flying from planet to planet, the graphics look as though they came straight from the same assets. I mean this in the most positive way possible, because Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a gorgeous game. The music as well, though not orchestrated, sounds like, and if I’m not mistaken often is, taken right from the aforementioned Wii title. The incredibly linear progression is another factor that makes this comparison difficult to dispute.

One of, if not, the most popular Mario games to date is Super Mario 3. Is it because of the ingenious level design? Okay, fine, that’s probably why everyone loves it so much, but the tanooki suit certainly doesn’t hurt. With the rarity of the item and the cool new powers it allowed you to have, it had a certain allure that always makes my heart skip a beat whenever I find it. In Super Mario 3D Land, you will find many tanooki suits.  It is probably the most common item in the game. Fear not, however, as there are several different varieties of tanooki suit available to you. This includes one that is wearing a sporty neckerchief and has the ability to turn to stone. Airships and koopa kids also make a reappearance, but instead of the individual kids there is what appears to be a male and female version of Roy Koopa.

Let’s face it, Mario doesn’t really visit us to tell us a long story, a lesson I learned when I received my Super Mario Galaxy reservation call from Charles Martinet. He comes by to let us have a mushroom-stomping good time. This game has had me more glued to my 3DS than anything else I’ve gotten to play on it. Though it does admittedly have a bit of easy start, the difficulty does ramp up towards the end. Then, once the princess is rescued, a whole new set of significantly more difficult versions of each level open up. There are several obstacles that take advantage of the 3D capabilities of the device and they are often quite clever. Anything from using forced perspective to having a jet blow fire in your face on an airship only adds to the fun.

If you are a 3DS owner and you’ve been yearning for something that hooks you to your system, you’ve found your game. Not only are there eight worlds, with about 6 levels apiece, you get to play through them twice. Add to that, using the Streetpass feature on your system, you can get extra small challenge levels and items by passing someone else with the game. So, for all of you with a 3DS sitting on their shelf out there, go and buy this game, it deserves to be purchased and you deserve to have it. If you don’t have one yet, then it’s something that will make a great addition to your library when you decide to get one.

Up until that time, there was a fairly predictable formula as to how a Zelda title was going to shake down: Princess Zelda is kidnapped, go to dungeons to collect items and rescue Zelda. The first noticeable difference here is that, save for a flashback or two, Zelda isn’t even in this game. The next difference comes in the timeline of the game.  Essentially, a very evil mask, Majora’s mask, has been stolen by a character called Skull Kid. After putting on the mask, he has gone crazy and decided that he will destroy the world in three days by crashing the moon into the Earth. You have those three days to stop him, but you can travel forward and backward though the days using your trusty ocarina of time.

This time travel feature, the most controversial new feature in the game, seemed to be either loved or hated by everyone. I personally fall into the camp that loved it. While all of the previous games in the series certainly did a great job of creating an interesting and vibrant world, in Majora’s Mask we had a living and breathing world full of people living out their everyday lives. This brought out tons of opportunities for time-based side-quests. They were a bit frustrating to try again if messed up, but it really added more of a feeling of immersion in the world. You could meet characters throughout the world and help them solve their problems, tracking your progress with a notebook.

As you might imagine, collecting masks was a large part of the game. There were twenty-four of them in all, with four of them allowing Link to transform and gain new abilities. Three of them morphed our hero into some of the different creatures around the world: Deku Link could shoot bubbles and skip on water, Goron Link could roll around and walk in lava and Zora Link could swim fast and throw boomerangs from his arms. These are just a few of the extra abilities each mask had and if you managed to collect them all, you were given access to the Fierce Deity Mask which turns Link into a badass with a helix-shaped sword.

One of my favorite things about the game was the story. The theme of time travel and its relevance to the story could be picked apart forever. I won’t go much further into detail, so I won’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t played it yet, suffice it to say there are darker themes at play than in most Zelda games. It has a mildly creepy feeling, while remaining able to keep a good sense of humor about it all. Walking through the city, talking to the various citizens, there’s almost something dreamlike about it. The villain, Majora’s Mask, is one of my favorites of the series for one good reason: Ganondorf may be villain enough to want to rule the world, but only a real villain has the guts to actually try to destroy it.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is a perfect example of a game that, in an attempt to follow up its legendary predecessor, dared to be different. The result was one of the best games the Nintendo 64 had to offer and one of my favorite titles of all time. With The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword promising the same thing, I can do nothing but look forward to the swan song of a system built on the concept of innovation. One thing Majora’s Mask could’ve used was the ability to play it in 3D. Hint hint Nintendo.

With a game as good as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, both the bar and formula had been set for portable games in the series. Top-down action, item collecting and dungeon exploring adventures ensued. When Nintendo released the DS in 2004, they swore that all their big games were going to get the touch-screen treatment. If you told me back then that there was going to be an awesome Zelda game that required you to use mostly the touch screen to control it, I would have called you a fool and thrown a glass of water in your face.

While I honestly never quite got to the point where I could roll whenever I wanted to,  every other control was pulled off without a hitch. Moving by dragging the stylus feels natural, swinging your sword by slicing with the stylus is easy and fun and you can draw a path for your freaking boomerang. It would have been easy for Nintendo to have taken the easy route and allow you to control Link with the d-pad. Instead, they managed to not only make it work, they made it work well. Even the boat you sail around the world can be directed by simply drawing a path on a map. You can then enjoy the scenery and blast some octoroks on your way. While a bit controversial, the dungeon visited over and over with an added time limit each time, was an idea that I enjoyed. While a bit frustrating at times, it’s a great mechanism for testing the skills you’ve picked up elsewhere during the game.

Revolutionary control scheme aside, as a direct sequel to Wind Waker, the graphics are amazing. The colorful cel-shaded graphics have very few equals in the life of the system and fit perfectly with the theme the game portrays. Equally as colorful are the characters the story has to offer. Linebeck, the captain of the ship Link sails throughout the game, falls into a short list of Zelda characters in which I ended up being truly invested. The story itself has all the usual Zelda trappings, but does a great job of continuing upon the story set up in Wind Waker, which just goes to show you that any game linked either directly or indirectly to Ocarina of Time automatically gets bonus points.

In the end, the lesson that The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has to teach is a powerful one. While taking a chance doesn’t always work out, I’m not naming any names Star Fox Command, when it does, it can revitalize a series and make it feel fresh again. In three days, I’ll continue my tribute by tatling on a Zelda game that involves a mean-looking moon. That’s right, there were three Majora’s Mask references in the last sentence.

Ever since I started playing World of Warcraft I always collected the vanity pets, especially the rare ones, but never quite knew why. Enter the pet battle system included with Mists of Pandaria. With this new system in place, you can not only collect these pets, but enter into turn-based battles with them. Blizzard, never over-simplifying anything, has made sure the specifics of this system make for a complete, if not eerily familiar, experience.

Obtaining these battling vanity pets seems pretty easy. Any pets you already own are ready to go into battle and you can still earn them by completing quests or purchasing them. You can also craft a party of your pets, up to three at any time, and walk around with them. If you are walking in the wild, you can also encounter new pets in the wild. I know what you’re going to ask, but capturing them does not involve throwing a ball at them. All you have to do is defeat them with one of your equipped pets in battle and they’re yours to keep.

The pets, as you battle with your friends, will level up and gain new battle abilities. Your creature gets three individual slots for their abilities. There are also NPC characters littered throughout the world that can teach new attacks to your pets, but sometimes you have to have a pet battle with them first. They’re also introducing a queue system for your brawling pets, so you can get matched and battle quickly.

So, to sum up, you can travel around the world, training and leveling up your creature by battling other trainers and capturing wild creatures. Aside from a lack of creature evolution, that’s more than just a passing resemblance to Pokémon. To be honest, I’m actually pretty excited to see how well this gets pulled off. Blizzard never ceases to surprise me with the new layers they can add to a seven-year-old game and make it seem fresh and new. Bear in mind that this is simply one feature being added to the already robust list of features for the new expansion.

So the fan base has wanted ESH to be live for quite some time. That won't be happening any time soon, but until then, I've decided to become one with you the YouTubeverse. That is right...I've taken up my video editing skills (all four of them) once again.

Ladies and Gentlenerds!
I bring you..."Just Saying" Episode Zero. I'll let it speak for itself.

Ninja starts it the best way she knows how by talking games, and this week the game on her mind is Batman Arkham City. From gameplay mechanics to atmosphere and frankly just being able to play as the GD Batman again, Ninjasistah breaks down what you really need to know early on about this title from WB Games. Then Pandalicious closes out the hour with exciting Blizzcon news...even if the news is only exciting to her. And what could that news be? It's expansion time. Don't know what that means? You'll have to listen to this episode to find out.

Grab that morning cup o' joe and enjoy ESH PODCAST EPISODE 267: This is NOT an After School Special