Last Ninja 2 (Commodore 64, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)We say: Save your sawbuck
This week's VC in Brief is all about Last Ninja 2, the story of one ninja trapped in 1988 New York city. For me, it was more the story of ninja persecution at the hands of the NYPD, but, to be fair, juggling clowns in the park didn't seem to like me either. Regardless, I found that Last Ninja 2 -- much like its predecessor -- just isn't for me.
Every week, we like to check out what's new on the Virtual Console. We offer these videos as a sort of taste to help you decide whether or not you would want the game in question. We also toss in our own two cents because we're pushy jerks.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Speaking to MCV, the NPD has announced plans to track sales of downloadable games. The group aims to track sales of console, PC and mobile phone games. According to NPD's director of corporate marketing David Riley, download charts are needed in order to "provide a no-nonsense view of what's happening on the publisher level, keeping away from the spin, and in some cases, misleading information that often appears on the internet." It's certainly a valid goal, but we at the 'Stiq have only one question: How? There are many, many online outlets in the business of selling downloadable titles, ranging from small, independent sites to Steam to the digital arms of giants like GameStop and Amazon. Still, if the NPD can wrangle data from enough distributors, and clearly identify those participating, it could easily prove to be a valuable metric for analysts .. and a terrifying one for brick-and-mortar retailers. [Original image: Arthur Chapman]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

This is how the world ends -- if you're not Master Chief. Choose your platform to jump to a specific release list:Last updated: Friday, 1:31 PM

Continue reading Now Playing: September 21-27, 2009

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The forums for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up have exploded with angry threads started, apparently, by people who purchased the game early at Best Buy. The rage is almost universally directed at the rather small character roster -- which features thirteen characters from the TMNTworld, and three different Rabbids.While there's nothing particularly novel about a bunch of people complaining on the internet, the uproar does mean that we think it's worth telling you, the members of our audience who have yet to complain on the Ubi forums, about the smallish roster. Basically, if you were going into this with dreams of pitting Baxter Stockman and Usagi Yojimbo against Krang, then you might want to rethink going into this.[Thanks, Man in the Back!]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments