Humor

The Leicestershire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership has put together a PSA that borrows from Mega Man and Super Mario Bros. Why does the PSA end when they go into the house? I would think that's be when things were just getting started.

In the last article I skipped over yet another fascinating detail of the game's story, but not without cause. I've previously discussed just how voluminous the game's supplemental material is, and how it's profoundly worth it for the player to take the time to fully explore Greenvale—there's one problem with it, however. In order to see everything, the game absolutely must be played twice.

I've already talked about some of the moments that captivated me during my first run through Deadly Premonition, now I'd like to cover the first moment that really made me question my initial assumption that I was playing a brilliant subversion of video game tropes—the last moment during which I doubted Deadly Premonition's intentions (if not its execution—there would be plenty of doubt left to come on that front).

Information control is one of the most vital components of storytelling—deciding when and how your audience gets pieces of information can be almost as important as the details of the information itself. This is yet another place where Deadly Premonition breaks ranks with videogame convention. If the player is strictly following the storyline there's a proscribed time and place for York to meet all of the town's denizens. If, however, York and Zach decide that getting to the police station and starting the plot isn't a priority, then the the two of them are free to meet almost all of the game's characters at their own pace.

If you are a guy and you ever find a girl that will willingly play an old emulated version of Earthbound with you—while wearing a cocktail dress, no less—you had better marry her, or the rest of us will find you and kill you.

For those impatient types and those that can't watch someone play Earthbound for half an hour, you can skip to the 20:00 minute mark to get to the actual proposal.

In honor of Brad's gaming brick wall blog post and the comments that followed, here is College Humor parody video. Would some of those classic games have been as revered without the legendarily tough stages? You be the judge.

In honor of the upcoming release of Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, here is another Super Mario send up from the guys at College Humor. It makes you feel bad for skipping to the end of Super Mario Bros. 3—not that any of us did that of course.

We all knew this to be true. Duck Hunt was one of those early NES games that were designed to screw the player. RD601! I knew it!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you're familiar with the game Bionic Commando for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Not the excellent remake for modern systems, or the 3D sequel, both developed by GRIN. No, I'm talking about the original version, because it's extremely similar to Deadly Premonition in one key way. Both feature crippling design flaws that result from poor documentation.