Mega Man 9

I was very excited when I heard the reports from E3 that Capcom was going old school in making its newest Mega Man game in NES style. Granted, there seems to have been more Mega Man games produced than Madonna had lovers, but this return to the blue bomber's roots should pay dividends in excellent gameplay. Judging from the early teaser videos I've seen, the game appears difficult in the tradition of the old games (with Mega Man 2 being an obvious exception). Just watch the IGN video I link below in which a Capcom executive constantly and hilariously dies in the same pit of spikes in one level he keeps replaying. Shouldn't there be some sort of requirement in the job description that if you work for a video game company that you not suck at video games?

I've yet to hear of the release date for the game, which will be available for download (presumbly in the $10-$15 price range) on the XBox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii. Assuming the standard Mega Man NES controls (they've taken away the power shot and sliding), I'd pick the Wii as the preferred console due to the similar style to the old NES controller.

Here is the link to the IGN video, as well as the Capcom trailer:

Welcome to Press Start

Welcome to my new blog. I've been involved in the blogsphere for several years now over at Poker Nation, but I've decided to add some additional blogs to my account in other fields in which I enjoy writing. I do this both because I enjoy discussing these subjects and also with an eye toward more revenue such as freelance writing work. (I'm only an email away at jkampis@hotmail.com!)

Here at Press Start the focus is going to be different than what I imagine most video game blogs tend to center on. At Press Start I plan to focus on retro gaming, in that most posts will be about the newest adaptation of the games those of us now in our late 20s or early 30s enjoyed as children -- the Marios, Zeldas, Bionic Commandos, Sonics, et. al.

While I certainly enjoy the souped up graphics and sounds of modern game development, I also think that today's developers often get too concerned with making their newest games a cinematic experience and worry less about the actual gameplay. (Hence, I am very jazzed about this new Mega Man game from Capcom with the retro look. More on Mega Man 9 soon.) That's why I think there are some true hidden gems among the new games coming out on WiiWare, XBox Live and the PlayStation network with their smaller file sizes, making developers focus more on the gameplay. This blog will also focus on these smaller games and, of course, the older games being re-released on the Wii Virtual Console.

Certainly I also love the newer games (big Guitar Hero fan) so I'll post on these as well, but the main focus will be on the simpler games we loved as kids and still love today. Thanks for reading and come back.