The other day, on the Smash Bros. Dojo, Sakurai (the Smash Bros. creator) posted the music to the Animal Crossing stage. At the end of the post he said, “Heroes always arrive late.” I thought to myself, “That’s pretty cryptic, I wonder what it means?” Well, I’m not the only one as a simple Google search for that sentence shows the buzz surrounding this game. Does it mean K. K. Slider is a playable character? Or another character from Animal Crossing? Or maybe Sonic? Sakurai must have a lot of fun dangling secrets in front of salivating fanboys everywhere. Now that’s power.

I officially give up trying to run the BioShock PC demo. When you spend as much time trying to get a demo to run as you would playing it, it’s time to throw in the towel. This experience did remind me why I’m not much of a PC gamer though. When you go to the store to buy an Xbox360 title, you don’t have to worry about whether or not it will work on your particular Xbox360 (well, barring any crimson illuminations). With PC titles, it’s hit or miss. And don’t get me started on the installing, the patching, the subscription fees, etc. Console gaming is just a much less complicated process. I’ve heard the argument, “Why should I buy a $350 system to play a game I can already play on my PC?” Well, I’m willing to bet that if your PC can run that new game (BioShock for instance), you bought the PC specifically to play games, meaning you probably spent $350 more than you would have if you bought a PC to surf the internet. And at least with consoles you don’t have to upgrade for 5 years. I don’t know of many PCs made in 2002 that will run BioShock, right? Do you think your Ultimate Gaming Rig PC purchased today will play games made in 2012?

I just heard the news from Penny Arcade that comic book artist Mike Wieringo died yesterday of a heart attack at age 44. I’m very familiar with his work because I’ve been a huge Flash fan my whole life and considered his work alongside Mark Waid to be some of the best Flash stories ever. I felt like they made Flash important again and brought together a family of speedsters (including the creation of Impulse) with some really great storytelling. Mike, you will be missed.

This screenshot isn’t meant to brag because I wasn’t even really trying when I got this score. Anyone can dominate like this in Mario Strikers Charged when you’re playing the CPU. As great a game as this is for multiplayer gameplay, it sucks as a single player experience. I was going through the Fire Cup and was destroying the competition within 30 seconds of the match. Then I’d just hold the ball to run out the clock and move on to the next match. In the last qualifying round against Wario I decided not to run out the clock, but to keep doing Mega Strikes. I’m sorry, but at no level should the computer suck so bad that you can win a soccer match 54-0. How come when a defender is right up ‘on my grill’ and I start the 30 second process of charging for a Mega Strike, he just sits there and lets me do it? And then he just backs away, giving me a comfortable buffer zone so I can make sure I get the most out of my shot. In my opinion, that’s just broken. I’m sure it gets a little more difficult as I progress, but that’s not really the point. I’ve had fun with the single player experience in past Mario sports titles, but the simplicity of this experience makes it a chore.