It occurred to me last night that the whole Lego Star Wars Batman Indiana Jones thing has a helluva lot of potential for anything OTHER than movies or comic books. Think of the possibilities. Take for example, Mario. Mario is a very popular guy and is probably one of the most recognizable faces in gaming. Now think of classic, retro Mario games for a minute, such as Super Mario Bros. or even Super Mario World if you want. Now, think of these games in Lego. Mayhaps you think different, but I think that'd it be pretty damn sweet.

Think of the huge variety of characters the game could have. All of the bosses from over the years, including obscurer characters like Birdo or Kamek, all rolled into one game. All of the retro Mario games in one little package, but Legoized. It'd be a completely different game, sure, but thats sort of a blessing in disguise. It's fresh. It's new. I think that personally, it'd be a great idea.

But maybe Mario isn't the best example. You could think of any gaming franchise and it'd probably work. Halo. Sonic. Megaman. Final Fantasy. The possibilities are endless.

I have a feeling that most people will disagree with me, but I thought I'd post my feelings on it anyway. Have a good rest-of-the-day, everyone.

IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN BRAWL'S ROSTER YET, AND YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED, GO AWAY

Upon seeing Brawl's 35 Character Roster, I was initially kinda disappointed. I was expecting at least a couple more characters. I eventually came round to the roster as we had a bunch of interesting characters, such as Olimar and Wario, but here's five characters that I think should have been in Brawl.

1. Balloon Fighter
Balloon Fighter, in my opinion, if done right, would have been a very interesting character. His balloons would be unique as having them inflated would be better for recovery, whilst having them deflated would make the character less floaty and more powerful. He could have 4 inflated at any one time, and they would take a while to inflate (think a second of holding down B) and they could be popped if he's beaten up enough. I couldn't really think of a proper Move Set for the character and I suppose that was Nintendo's main problem with the character, but I think that if he had decent enough moves he would make a great edition to the Smash Roster.


2. Pac-Man
Pac-Man was pretty much my dream character for this game, seriously. A moveset for him would be relatively easy, his Final Smash could be along the lines of him eating a Power Pill, every other character turns blue and becomes less powerful and Pac-Man becomes bigger and stronger. I guess that Nintendo couldn't get permission from Namco but since he was in the Mario Kart game's, I thought that he at least might make a cameo appearance, but oh well. Maybe next time.


3. Plusle and Minun
I wouldn't have even thought of Plusle and Minun if they weren't already in the games bloody coding to begin with, although Pra_Mai could mean anything. If you don't know what I'm talking about check out Smash Wiki and search Pra_Mai. These two characters could have been interesting, similar to Ice Climbers.


4. King K. Rool
The Donkey Kong series doesn't have enough representation. Nearly every series that was in the original SSB has 3 characters or more, (asides from Mother and F-Zero but they were secret to begin with) asides from Donkey Kong. Why no more rep, other than Diddy? Shameful. King K. Rool could have been a pretty cool heavyweight in my opinion, with some unique moves.


5. Waluigi
Waluigi. Could have been more rep for Wario, really. Not much to say about him. I think that his moves, based on what they gave him as an assist trophy, could have been good. It would have been a way to shoehorn the Mario Sports series in there, anyway.

Since I'm a UK gamer I haven't exactly got my hands on Brawl or anything exciting that anyone outside of Europe has, but I've been playing some titles this week and I thought I'd just post my thoughts on them so far.

Super Paper Mario - 6/10

RPG and platforming, at least for me, doesn't seem like a good combination. The fact that it's also lacking the charm that the Thousand Year Door had doesn't really help either, the character design is godawful for anyone other than Mario and Pals and the entire thing just looks.. blocky and ugh. If it wasn't part of the Paper Mario series I'd probably really, really like it, it's just that I expect a whole lot more from the franchise at this point. I'm only up to Chapter 3, however, so perhaps it needs time to blossom. We shall see.

Beautiful Katamari - 5/10

Another game that has just, well, lost its charm. Where's all the old music gone? It also really doesn't help that the 12 requests all take place on the same stage. We Love Katamari had different level design for every level pretty much, so why has this changed? Why has it degraded down to one level? And why the hell do I have to shell out another £20 for bonus content that should have been free to begin with anyway? A disappointing effort from Namco, and I really expected more.

Team Fortress 2 - 9/10

I'm sure that you've heard enough about this game as it is so the only thing that I will say is "Hell yes."

Earthbound - 8/10

I've always wanted to play Earthbound but I resent emulators so I've never really had the chance to play it properly. However I recently got my hands on a copy of it as well as an NTSC SNES and it is probably the best RPG that I have played in the past 5 years, including the Final Fantasy games. I really don't know why it is the best RPG, though. The story makes little sense but I suppose I like that because it rarely takes itself seriously, the games difficulty is hard but not impossible, and the graphical style is different. Also the bloody plot doesn't revolve around dragons and airships and god knows what, so thats a blessing.

Super Smash Bros. Melee - 9/10

Been playing it an awful lot in anticipation of Brawl. Still one of the best things Nintendo has given us, ever, hands down.

So that's pretty much the sticky-outy games that I've been playing this week, although I've been playing other titles like N+ and Call of Duty 4 but I can't really comment on them as I haven't played them enough.

I hope you enjoyed and if you disagree with any of my opinions, I'm up for debate always so just hit me at pete.baron@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do. Or leave me a comment. That's always nice.