LANCOZA Blog

The guys over at Penny-Arcade think that the price drop for the PS3 is the final nail in the coffin of Sony's once great console and that it heralds the end of the console as a serious contender in the next-gen console wars. I disagree, I think that the price of the PS3 is only part of the equation. If the PS3 had a good mix of games including head liner exclusives then it would have been competitive despite its price. But I think that we can all agree that the PS3 game catalog is still fairly lean, combine this with the high price of the console and it spelt disaster for sales. The reduced pricing will make the console more affordable in the run up to the Christmas season. Although we can still only hope that the game catalog will improve. Given Sony's history in this business I think that it is much too earlier to count them out.

Inside the Slim
Ever wonder what the insides of the new PS 3 Slim look like? Well wonder no more, the guys from iFixit have you covered. From the looks of it, most of the space is taken up by the Blu Ray player and a HUGE cooling fan.

Sega World
For those of you who remember the Trocadero, here is the SEGA Republic to help you on a trip down memory lane.

My first encounter with Street Fighter was in a local arcade called the Outer Zone in Kenilworth. My main interest was in games like Raiden and Final Fight so I was not particularly excited about it. I am also not good at fighting games, my twitch reflex is a bit delayed so I generally steer clear of them except for the easy ones like World Heroes (not Jet) .

When Street Fighter 2 came out, I bought a gaming magazine and studied each new character in detail. I decided that Dhalsim was perfectly suited to my style of play but in actual fact he was really slow and it also did not help that I was unable to do any of his special moves.

Street Fighter IV is coming out soon, and the trailers are very promising. There is a limited edition available as well as a few arcade sticks. Although which one you buy will depend on how deep your pockets are and whether you can find one.

I have seen a few posts mention that the cheaper Hori sticks are a viable alternative to the Tournament Edition from Mad Catz . When I was in Tokyo, I went shopping for arcade sticks and I found the cheaper Hori sticks were very cheaply made and not really worth the price. Hori has also released new Street Fighter IV sticks for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and these may be worth a look.

 If you are a fan of the franchise, the latest Street Fighter looks like it is definitely worth getting.

I played all the Ninja Gaidens that have been released. Starting with the Arcade version. I played it on the Xbox 1 and I have now played the latest installment on the Xbox 360. All the versions have one thing in common, they are damned hard .

The arcade version consumed my pocket money at an alarming rate and I soon learned to steer well clear of it. When I played the Xbox 1 version, I was less concerned about reaching the end of level bosses than I was with surviving the ordinary ninjas. This was no run of the mill hack and slash. If you did not plan your defense and attacks carefully you would soon be in Ninja heaven.

The end of level bosses were more punishment than enjoyment and I did not make it much past the first one, and not from lack of trying. My wife eventually banned me from playing because of the number of times I almost threw my controller at the screen.

Ninja Gaiden Black was released after Ninja Gaiden and was intended to relieve some of the punishment, with an easier difficulty level but I could never really get myself to select the Dog Ninja difficulty.

Being a Ninja fan, I was ever hopeful that Ninja Gaiden 2 would be different, and it is. You can save more frequently and receive a health top up at the same time. The health and weapon upgrades are available earlier in the game and the shuriken are more effective. Your charged weapon attacks are more devastating but one thing has not changed - the end of level bosses are insane.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is incrementally better than the previous versions, it is essentially the game that the earlier versions should have been. The changes are effective and the game play between bosses is great but they should have made the boss battles more sensible. Regardless of how well you play at some point you will have to revert to a wak through or risk breaking your console out of frustration.

Making it 2 player co-op a la the Arcade version would have helped. Ninja Gaiden 2 is better than it's predecessors but does not break any new ground.The end of level bosses are more migraine inducing frustration and this should have been changed.