Donkey Kong 64… So much anticipation, so much disappointment

My last story ended with the disappointing release of Donkey Kong 64 on the Nintendo 64. Even if there was some enjoyment during sparse moments the game felt more like a Banjo-Kazooie game with a Donkey Kong skin. But the bitterness over the game's existence was short lived. In 2000, Nintendo unveiled the GameCube, and with it came the possibilities of exciting new games starring Donkey Kong. And soon enough, in 2001 one of the first games Rare announced for the GC was Donkey Kong Racing. The early footage had me frothing at the mouth. Even if it wasn't a platforming game, Donkey Kong Racing looked to have all the elements that made the Donkey Kong Country games so exciting, including graphics.

The film is produced by Masakazu Kubo, executive producer of the Pokemon films, together with Akihiro Hino from Level-5 who wrote the script. The story follows on from the third game, and watching it from the point of view of having played the first two games, I felt I missed some of the references. It plays out like any of the games, with the Professor invited to witness a puzzling event and being drawn into the strange happenings that have been taking place, even solving puzzles to make progress. I do enjoy the stories from the Professor Layton games, and thought this worked well on the big screen. As there is so much animation in the DS games already, the characters are instantly recognisable and it's not unlike watching the game cutscenes. Of course the animation is of higher quality than in the games and at times there is a lot of attention to detail. The story stays interesting enough to keep your attention until the end, with a few comical moments here and there.

First off, there is the beautiful and colorful entrance hall, which features Wii and DS lounge areas, as well as an elevated cube that lingers at the top of the room and has been dubbed "Bowser's Castle." I'm not sure if any man truly knows what lies inside the cube.

There is also the quadrant system, which divides the majority of the building into four segments: Mario (Red), Wario (Blue), Donkey Kong (Yellow), and Yoshi (Green). Each segment features themed conference rooms with names such as Hooktail the Koopa, Rambi, Funky Kong, Ground Pound, and Smash Bros. Supposedly each room fits each quadrant, but Samus is a conference room in the Yoshi quadrant, which doesn't make much sense.

The majority of GameStop locations have a TV in their store that plays an in-house network. It features previews of upcoming "major" titles, and profiles of recently released ones. All the features are packaged within a GameStop advertisement ("Talk to a GameStop about reserving this awesome game!").

At lunch today I went into GameStop, looking for nothing in particular, trying to find a "good deal." As I wandered around the store my ears perked up when I heard the TV mention Golden Sun DS.

What was this creature, begging for release? I cut open the box and out fell a creature that I instantly named "Zipperface" for reasons that will become obvious. In fact, Zipperface features two zippers: one that holds its giant mouth shut, and another that holds...things. I guess. Behold, Zipperface:

The above picture is a list of "10 Tips for Creating the Ultimate Photo Dojo Warrior." Check out what they are below:

After a 20-minute tournament that was preceded by an hour of DSi camera-fueled setup and lunch, I came out on top of the New York City region. Under the lame pseudonym "The Real Neal," I managed to defeat representatives from GayGamer.net, Maxim, and The New York Post. My fireball, which was a picture of NWR contributor and photographer Lauren Lewandoski, blazed a trail through my foes and to the championship.

David Edison of GayGamer.net and me right before our first round bout