andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

I am a..ninja

Hi everyone, my name is April Apoong and I’m the new intern writer at andPOP.com. Yes, I am their first female game reviewer. I am currently pursuing creative writing at a Post Secondary level and reviewing and writing about games was a natural choice for me. Trust me, I’m no pushover, have you finished Tenchu Wrath of Heaven on the highest difficulty 100 percent? Ever gone on a 30 to 1 winning streak in Dead or Alive 2? Well I have! For these reasons and more I am bringing my zany writing talents to the shores of andPOP. So prepare to see some well written unapologetic video game centric works of literature.

Parent’s Just Don’t Understand… Yet?

Hey Ethel! I killed those Nazi zombies with my, uhh... I killed those Nazis!

Our parents are great, for the most part.  When we are too small to defend or feed ourselves, they take care of us.  As we grow and mature, they guide and nurture us so that we can become fully functional human beings, and not the equivalent of lower primates, sitting in trees flinging our own crap at each other (thank you Red Forman).  But one area where most parents don’t quite have the ability to be the all-knowing influence they would like to be:  video games.

When I was growing up playing tag and hide-and-seek, my parents totally understood.  They would ask how the game went, where I was hiding, what kind of tag rules I played with – they were very involved, because they could relate my experience to their own. However, when I picked up my first Genesis game, they watched Sonic the Hedgehog like he was an alien from outer space (wait, was he?), shook their heads, and left the room.  Thus ended my parent’s ability to fully understand me – from that day forward, there would always be that barrier between us – the invisible yet impassable wall made of 1-ups and gold coins. READ MORE »

I'd hate to see the result of this guy losing rock paper scissors.

You know, I have recently become enamored with the idea of the Top 5 List, as I’m sure you have gathered from the numerous past blogs in that fashion.  I think that it’s interesting to see what trends and relationships different games share.  However, it’s only a matter of time before these lists devolve into trite ideas like “The Top 5 Headshots in Video Games” or “The Top 5 Witty Remarks in Video Games”.

So I think I’ll take a break from my beloved yet frivolous Top 5’s, and talk a bit more directly on a more serious subject that affects people all over the world, gamers and non-gamers alike: Game Rage. READ MORE »

Helllloooooo!

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.  This week we’re going to take a look at a group of malevolent, disgusting, and just downright horrible creatures who have terrorized mankind for years.  What’s that? No, not lawyers.  Not even politicians.  This week we are ranking the Top 5 Straight-up Meanest Aliens in Video Games. Almost as long as sci-fi and space opera have been around, there has been the alien creatures to terrorize or befriend the valiant heroes and heroines.  Well, forget about your friendly little green men, suckers, because we’re not talking about Starman or ET tonight, we’re talking War of the Worlds and Jabba the Hutt.  Let’s do this.

‘Ere we go! READ MORE »

Hey, doesn't that cloud look like... a person being impaled?

A Movie You Can Control: Cinema’s Effect on Video Games

Ever been watching a movie and wished you could tell the actors that what they’re doing is stupid?  That you have a much better plan that would totally work, and if they would only do that instead, maybe the zombies wouldn’t eat them, or the comrade that was clearly going to inevitably betray them wouldn’t get the chance?  Well I have.  But with the advent of video games in recent years that seemingly make a conscious effort to mimic the pacing and immersive experience of a film, it’s almost like we have the ability to watch a movie that we’re also able to play through and control. For a classic narcissist such as myself, this is clearly the greatest thing to happen to video games since the B-button. READ MORE »

This is what's known as a bad day.

Batman vs. Punisher: Arkham Asylum vs. No Mercy Impressions

I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up by giving the impression this is a review of Batman: Arkham Asylum.  It’s not.  But I’ve been doing some research into the game, and wanted to rant a bit about the character of Batman as compared to other heroes, specifically the Punisher.  A friend of mine recently compared Batman to the Punisher as being very similar, and I couldn’t disagree more.  Why?  Let’s take a look. READ MORE »

This week’s topic: Top five video game clichés

Hey readers,

For this week’s rant, I thought I would take a page out of the Brett blog and do a top five list. Not to steal his thunder, but a topic like this has been nagging in my head for a good long while now. This week, I’m going to take a look at the top five clichés that annoy me but often pop up in video games. Perhaps because it works well in that specific title, perhaps because the story writers or coders or someone along the supply chain was lazy, perhaps we will never know but until that point, at least you, the viewers will know how I feel about them. READ MORE »

Bullets and Blades – The Top 5 Weapons in Modern Gaming

What would Link be without his sword?  Samus Aran without her patented arm-mounted gun that doesn’t resemble Mega Man’s at all?  Other cliches without their weapons?  With the possible exception of Street Fighter and/or Mortal Kombat, many games have legendary heroes and villains that wield weapons and armor of a similarly epic nature.  This week, we’ll be looking over another Top 5 List, this time focusing on the greatest gear in gaming, and who wields it.

I’d like to mention right off the bat that the Mega Man Blaster or the Master Sword won’t be making an appearance in this list.  When I say weapons in modern gaming, I’m talking new games from the Playstation 2/Xbox era forward.  As much as I would like to mention epic weapons from times past (cough – Masamune! – cough) let’s stick to the more current list.  With that in mind, let’s take a look at our list! READ MORE »

He can remix a song before the original band has finished recording it.

High Score:  Music in Video Games

Dah-dah-dah doo dah-da – duh.  If you totally called that as the beginning of the Mario theme, then you’re one step ahead of this article.  If you didn’t, prepare to be schooled baby.

Music has always been a part of video games, with a few minor exceptions (Pong, anyone?).  From the classic themes of the Mario franchise to the epic scores of Halo and Metal Gear Solid, music has provided a strong influence on the tone and theme of the game in question.  By the way, Guitar Hero doesn’t count. READ MORE »

Spider-Man has an equal opportunity costume in Web of Shadows.

Ok, so for the past week or so I’ve been on a Spider-Man: Web of Shadows binge.  Nothing but web-slinging through New York, symbiotes and ass-kickery.  It has been awesome – definitely the best “comic-book superhero” game I’ve played in some time, if not ever (I wasn’t going to include comic-book just now, but then I remembered inFAMOUS and Prototype).  So that got me thinking how many bad superhero games I’ve played. That got me thinking about how much worse those games could have been if they were about even crappier superheroes – I mean, even Spider-Man 3 had Spider-Man in it, right? So, with that in mind, I’d like to present:

5 Superheroes That Should Never Be in Video Games

*disclaimer – if a game has already been made that should contain one of these characters, then there’s no need to mention it – the damage has been done. READ MORE »