7

For this article, I chose a game originally sold

before the dawning of the Sony Playstation/Sega Sat­

urn, reviewed it, and, if applicable, compared it to its

ports (such as NES to Master System, SNES to

Mega­Drive, or Atari VCS to Mattel Intellivision).

For this first month, I will touch upon

Super Mario

Bros. World for the Nintendo Super Nintendo.

Super Mario Bros. World

was a very im­

portant game for its day. Nintendo had to answer

SEGA’s challenge brought on by its marketing cam­

paign of

“Blast Processing”

(which stated that the

Genesis/Mega­Drive’s main CPU was faster than the

one in the Super Nintendo) and the campaign’s sell­

ing point,

Sonic the Hedgehog

. They also needed

to show what the Super Nintendo was truly capable

of. Therefore, they gave Mario creator Shigeru

Miyamoto free reign over Nintendo’s most precious

franchise, and what a great job he ended up doing.

SMB: W

has perhaps the best graphics of

any of the Super Nintendo’s launch games. The well

animated characters are second only to the highly

colorful hand drawn back­rounds. Compared to

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

(which was also hand drawn

but was compressed more and had less colors),

SMB: W

was very colorful and smooth in its ap­

pearance, and the nod would go towards

SMB: W

.

The control for the game is probably the most

precise of any game I have ever played, including pre­

vious Mario games. Mario controls instantly after

button presses and jumping is as easy as you make it.

There are many new features to this game in

response to previous entries in the series. The super

feather gives Mario a cape with which he can fly high

up above the levels. The fire flower is back, and when

combined with the new spin jump, unleashes hot fire­

ball death in both directions. There is a new inventory

slot to keep one item in (mushroom, fire flower or

feather). Perhaps the biggest change to

SMB: W

was

the introduction of Yoshi, who acts like a cross be­

tween a pack mule and Kirby. He can be used to eat

enemies, fly, and retrieve hard to get items and more.

Also new (and relatively novel at the time) was the

ability to save your game after doing things such as

beating a boss or ghost house.

The size of this game is probably the best thing

about it. In total, it has 96 level endings, 60+ levels,

and many cool secrets. For example, if you beat all

level endings, you are presented with a modified game,

a palette change and many enemies with changed ap­

pearances.

So how good is it overall? Well, barring some

petty glitches involving point value variations, this is

one of the best games of the 16­bit era. It gave

Nintendo back some of the market share that it lost

to SEGA and started the second real console war.

Super Mario Bros World

gets 10 out of 10 in my

book.

What you may be asking is, how did SEGA

react? Well, that will be covered next month in my

review of

Sonic the Hedgehog

CD for the SEGA

CD.

Danielle Mammano, Junior

At the request of fellow staff member Chris

Polito, I’ve decided to review what is quite possibly

the finest third movie for any director I’ve known.

Richard Kelly defies the stereotype of

old directors

,

being the young age of twenty­six and still able to

make a gem of a film.

Donnie Darko

stars Jake

Gyllenhall and his sister Maggie. You may know Jake

from

Bubble Boy

and

October Sky

, but his sister

has been in fewer movies than he, but if you’ve ever

seen

Cecil B. Demented

, you may know her.

Donnie Darko

takes place in Middlesex,

Virginia, and revolves around a strange young boy

named, you guessed it, Donnie Darko. The movie

opens with a faint image of a sunrise, a fallen bike,

and then focuses on Donnie himself, who is sleeping

right in the middle of the road.

As the movie progresses, you find out this is

not the first time he’s gotten up and walked away in

his sleep. Donnie is troubled and plagued by visions

of a demented rabbit named Frank (Played by James

Duval). I must say the costume design for Frank is

pretty cool. The face is just plain flawless metalwork,

twisted and skull­like with gnarled teeth jutting out

here and there. I must admit the first time he was

shown, it caught me off guard.

After a rather confusing beginning, we see

Donnie in bed late at night. His sister has just snuck

back into the house after a night out with her boy­

friend. A strange, eerie voice whispers the words,

“Wake up.”

Donnie does, and the voice leads him

outside in a half­sleepwalking state. As Donnie walks

stiffly forward, we begin to see a figure standing on

the lawn: Frank. His twisted bunny ears and mangled

face are barely visible, setting the mood all the better.

After a brief silence, Donnie asks who he is. Frank

replies grimly, slowly,

“28 days... six hours... 42

minutes... 12 seconds. That... is when the world...

will end.”

To which Donnie returns in a raspy voice

and a creepy grin,

 

“Why?”

Frank never tells him why. But in the instant

that follows, a gigantic crash is heard. The chandelier

shakes violently as his sister ducks for cover. Donnie

wakes up on a golf course and hurries home to see

the destruction. A plane engine from nowhere crashed

right into his room. After being forced to stay in a

hotel room, Donnie begins to unravel a strange mys­

tery, ultimately discovering who Frank really is and

why he is haunting him. Sessions with his psycholo­

gist become more productive, and I guarantee you

the ending will blow you away in both its extreme

sadness and sheer unexpected twist.

There is also a well­chosen song for the

movie’s theme – Gary Jules’ cover of

Tears For

Fears

 

Mad World

(my that sentence was a bit con­

fusing now wasn’t it?). A beautiful yet depressing song,

it seems to fit with the film like a puzzle piece.

My favorite dialogue exchange was when

Frank sits down with Donnie in the movie theater;

Donnie looks over to him and says,

“Why do you

wear that stupid bunny suit?”

After a brief pause,

Frank returns almost mockingly,

“Why do you wear

that stupid man suit?”

Moment of Realization: There was none. One of the

few mysteries/suspense films I haven’t been able to

figure out.

Overall, this movie gets a 10/10 from me.

Anyone who owns an XBOX knows of the

extremely popular game

Halo

, and its even greater

sequel

Halo 2

.

Halo 2

is a first person shooter in

which you play two main characters throughout the

game.

You start out playing Master Chief, the hero

and the main warrior for the human race. As Master

Chief, you blast your way through hordes of aliens

and zombie­like creatures, using some of the most

conveniently placed weapons throughout the maps.

As the second character, you play an exiled

alien Arbator. You have been exiled for your war

crimes, and instead of killing you, your previous war

buddies send you on a serious mission to take out a

rebellious group of aliens. As Arbator, you too will

fight through armies of humans, zombies, and aliens.

The controls for this cleverly laid out game

are incredibly easy to get a feel for, and the first per­

son shooting makes it seem as though you are actu­

ally on the battlefield. The wide variety of weapons

will test your close­combat and your sniping skills,

and the numerous amount of missions will lead you

to encounter some mind­blowing things, from a huge

mechanical spider on the streets of South Africa to

zombie infested laboratories located in the depth of

the jungle. If you’ve got time to spare, or you’re just

a big fan of shoot ‘em up games, you should defi­

nitely give

Halo 2

a try.

Games

Predator: Concrete Jungle.

Summary:

Loosely based on the

Predator

movie fran­

chise, this was definitely one to buy. The game player

is a Predator who has been sent to Earth in the

1930’s. You do some serious damage to a Mafia

family; however, things go terribly wrong, and you

are in need of rescue. The Predators are a race based

on honor, and since you had to be rescued, you are

sent to an abandoned planet where you must wait

for another chance to prove yourself. 100 years pass.

The Chief Predator has come for you, and not for

tea and crumpets. Apparently on your last hunt on

earth, you dropped technology. The humans have

researched the technology to the point that they are

using it against the Predators, killing off every group

that comes to earth for a hunt. So you are sent back

to the same place you were in at the beginning to get

revenge. However, the scenery has completely

changed.

Gameplay:

You have access to basically all the skills and

weapons the Predator has. You’ve got the basic

weapons: the combistick, wrist blades, spear gun and

plasmacaster. Then there are the weapons you find

along the way: the glaive, the maul, the net gun, and

the smart disc. There are also firetraps and EMP

(Electro Magnetic Pulse) traps you can use. Through

out you can upgrade your weapons by finding the

upgrades. You also have three different enhanced vi­

sion modes that help you see different useful items,

cloaking ability that allows you to move without be­

ing seen, and you can also pull off combo attacks

easily since the big melee button is right next to the

small melee button. The manual camera is a little

sketchy, but when you get used to it, it’s not a big

deal.

Predator: Concrete Jungle

gets a

9.5 out of 10.

Chris Petty, Sophomore

XBox – Halo 2

Chris Polito, Sophomore

ENTERTAINMENT FOR ALL

Old School

Gaming!

Logan “T” King, Sophomore

Movie Review

Donnie Darko

Don’t forget to check out the

movies at the newly renovated

Ohmann Theater.

T

Success can be measured in millime­

ters or in kilometers. If you’re doing

your best, who cares the distance.