Mike's Mondays with Mike McGee: Maybe I'll Subtitle These

       I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with something consistent to open and close these weekly gems of mine. It seems as though John was having the same trouble. Unlike him, however, I’ll take the high road because that’s where the more talented people belong. That still leaves me intro-less. Um, hey! You guys see that E3 stuff? Prooty cool, right? Well, stay tuned for Shlock-clusive coverage of E3…in about 2-3 years if at all. This week's MMwMM is gonna be a little shorter than most (read “most” as “the last one”). I’ve been busy editing and getting ready for an extra special little some-some to celebrate our 100^th video. Needful to say, I didn’t get to a lot of games, but enough of that, down to buisness (Strong Bad reference, give me and the auto correct on Word some credit).

Picture from photographic memory

       Yeah, you thought that E3 shtick was just random filler. Now, don’t you just feel silly? I played a little of the demo for Lego Batman 2: Then the Subtitle, for the 3DS. I’ve always loved the Lego series. It’s probably its simplicity and fun-loving nature that draws me to it. Regardless, Lego Batman 2 is one of 3 Lego titles coming in the near future along with Lego Lord of the Rings and Lego City Undercover, which is pretty sweet. The demo takes you through, what I presume to be, the first level and right off the bat you’ll notice something different: dialogue. It was surprising to hear at first but I think I like it. I don’t really have a reason; it just makes the game feel nicer. Whatever, moving on! So Bruce Wayne and Lex Luther are at a table waiting to hear who won the Man of the Year Award, which Bruce wins. Then a bunch of Batman’s villains show up and like steal a bunch of stuff and Lex is like “Hmm, I’m gonna team up or something.” Then Batman shows up with Robin and the gameplay begins. It plays like the previous installment except they added some nice polish to the fighting, like a Arkham Asylum/City style slow motion “killing blow” that’ll randomly happen sometimes. It makes you feel cooler and stuff so I like it. 


       Again like the first game, some of the puzzles require Batman to put on different suits, which allow him to complete different tasks like sneaking past security cameras and giving him x-ray vision to find hidden do-wrongers. But, playing through the level, you also see spots where other super heroes’ll come in handy. There’s some super strength spots and Green Lantern spots, which you obviously can’t do yet 'cause you're Batman. It’ll be interesting to see how they’ll balance Batman’s suits with the powers of the other super heroes. So you beat all the villains down and the demo ends. If you’ve got a 3DS, check this out. And if not, you can wait for Lego City Undercover or more likely Lego Lord of the Rings. And if you haven’t played a Lego game before, now's the perfect time to start.

From Wikipedia, so it may not even be a picture of Punch-Out for all I know

            I also played some Punch-Out!!(NES) on the 3DS virtual console. I’m going a little retro if you don’t mind. Everything about this game is just swell. The music is catchy and fits the mood pretty well, the boxers are well designed and full of spunk, and the game itself makes a fun experience out of punching and dodging. For those of you who happen to be uninformed, Punch-Out!! lets you take control of Little Mac, an up and coming boxer with a dream of winning it all. You meet a lot of interesting and stereotypical boxers along the way, all with their own unique fighting patterns and shortcomings. If you are good enough, you’ll be able to go toe to toe with the man himself: Mike Tyson. But if you get the game nowadays, you’ll fight Mr. Dream instead. At least I think so; I’ve never gotten that far. I’ve only gotten to Mr. Sandman. I don’t know why I said "only" because he’s the penultimate (yeah, look it up!) opponent. There’s so much right with this game that I think you should at least try playing it by ANY means necessary. Just don’t get me involved in any court cases. There’s not much else I can say about it. It’s just something you’ve gotta experience for yourself. Now, courtesy of Youtuber, sk8dork, a long time apathist of the show, I'll leave you with the most inspirational thing since...uh, sliced bread I guess.

       Now that you’ve drunk the sweet nectar that is MMwMM, may your week being filled with you not dying. And, shh, don’t worry. We don’t have to tell John that you like my posts better than his. He deserves a little self-confidence, wherever he can get it. Stay tuned for more Shlocky goodness during the week. Byyyyyeeeee!