Welcome to my spectacular blog!: 2008

Monday, May 19, 2008

Super Smash Bros.

Great Melee Smash Brothers) is a series of fighting games published by Nintendo, featuring characters from established video games. The gameplay differs from traditional fighters for focusing on knocking opponents out of the stage instead of depleting life bars. The original Super Smash Bros., released in 1999 on the Nintendo 64, had a small budget and was originally a Japan-only release, but its success led to a worldwide release. The series achieved even greater success with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released in 2001 for the Nintendo GameCube, becoming the best selling game on that system. The third installment, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, was released on Wii on January 31, 2008 in Japan, March 9, 2008 in North America, and will be released in Europe on June 27, 2008. Although HAL Laboratory has been the developer of the first two titles, the third game was developed by a cooperation of different developers.
The game features many characters from Nintendo's most popular games, like Mario, Fox, Link, and Samus Aran. Super Smash Bros. had 12 characters, and the number rose to 25 characters in Melee and 35 in Brawl. Some characters are able to transform into different forms that have different styles of play and sets of moves. The games also feature non-playable Nintendo characters, like Ridley and Petey Piranha. In Brawl, two third party characters were added, Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake.
The series has been well-received by critics, with much praise to the multiplayer mode, although their single player modes did not get the same praise. Although the original had mixed reviews, both Melee and Brawl were widely acclaimed by critics and fans alike.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Super Mario Galaxy - Out, long time ago!

The 'must have' game of the Wii has arrived, at least that's how it is being billed. Last night, hundreds of people lined up at several stores nationwide across the UK to get a chance to win goodie bags and prizes - but most importantly get their hands on a copy of the game 24 hours before the official launch (which is today).
So let's assume that you've just got your copy today and that straight after work, school or college/uni, you slip it into your Wii and away you go. You're faced with ... ?

One of the darkest and most potentially upsetting intros to any Mario game, ever! Hah hah - we love it already! Keep going!

Galaxy is a very key term in SMG. Gone is the simple progression from level 1-1 to 1-2, replaced with the Super Mario 64 approach that we know and love. From a galactic hub position, Mario has access to several galaxies that in turn contain many mini levels in the form of planetoids to roam. These planetoids differ from galaxy to galaxy - like the Mario worlds of old they are themed and each present their own dangers and delights. You unlock further galaxies as you go and of course, there's secrets.

Stars are back in a big way; the game is full of them and you'll be using them to jump, hyperspace, everything. Our first impressions of the game are that the water looks lovely (at least when it's in pools or rivers), that everything good about Super Mario 64 is here, but none of what caused Mario Sunshine to stumble - only what made it magical. In short, it's a Mario 64 sensation and the controls will feel very similar. This is a strong plus point indeed, and already we see Galaxy becoming a Mario title for the ages to remember fondly.

Nintendo have perhaps unwisely removed player control from the camera; sometimes you can move it but much of the time, this isn't possible. Whilst this simplifies things, it also removes a manual aspect of control that we miss. On this one, it's boo hiss I'm afraid

he music constantly steals from past Mario titles. Orchestrated versions of several classic tracks can be heard in whatever strange dimension you may find yourself, even surfing a river through open space on a manta ray's back. This is a lovely nod to the past and some of the most addictive little ditties reappear in greater glory. We couldn't be happier!
In terms of a learning curve, Galaxy will please all ages and abilities with a simple to grasp control system and a gentle curve of advancement that should keep anyone busy enough - but not swallowed up too often. A family title this certainly is, but there's plenty for the retro and traditional gamer here as well.

It's addictive, fun, colourful, just-one-more-level-ish and it deserves to be talked about again in a much fuller review. That will happen, but until then? Rest assured that if you have ever enjoyed any adventure or platform game in your life, Galaxy is going to glow in your collection. It's early to say such and it may be foolish to some, but this is going to be one of the greats on the Wii. We're sure of it. I am dusting off the 5/5 score ...

Friday, January 25, 2008

pioneer 10 (The Lost Space craft)

was the first spacecraft to travel through the astroid belt, which it entered on July 15th 1972 and to make direct observations of Jupiter, which it passed by on December 3, 1973. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 36A on March 2,1972. Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of Aldebaran, located in Taurus By some definitions, Pioneer 10 has become the first artificial object to leave the solar system (third cosmic velocity). It is surely the first human-built object to have been set upon a trajectory leading out of the solar system. However, it still has not passed the heliopause or Oort cloud.Its objectives were to study the interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; transition region of the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles; Jovian aurorae; Jovian radio waves; atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites, particularly Io; and to photograph Jupiter and its satellites.

CONSTRUCTION

Approved in 1969, pioneer10 and its sister ship pioneer11 were designed to live up to their names: as first-time explorers intended to both gather data and report on conditions in the asteroid belt and in Jupiter-space; how they fared would be critical in the planning and technology of any future missions.Pioneer 10 was managed as part of the Pioneer program out of NASA Ames Research Center and was built by TRW. It was light, at only 260 kg--30 and 27 kg of which were instruments and fuel, respectively. Like the Voyagers, it was powered by radioscopic thermoelectric generators (SNAP-19s) containing plutinium-238, which provided 155W at launch, and 140W by the Jupiter flyby. The RTGs were mounted well away from the body to prevent their radiation from interfering with the spacecraft's instruments.Pioneer 10 was fitted with a plaque to serve as a message for extraterrestial life, in the event of its.

MISSION

Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to encounter Jupiter in December, 1973. The spacecraft then made valuable scientific investigations in the outer regions of our solar system until the end of its mission on March 31,1997

FURTHER CONTACT

The Pioneer 10's weak signal continued to be tracked by the Deep Space Network as part of a new advanced concept study of choas theory After 1997 the probe was used in the training of flight controllers on how to acquire radio signals from space.The last successful reception of telemetry was on April 27,2002; subsequent signals were barely strong enough to detect. Loss of contact was probably due to a combination of increasing distance and the spacecraft's steadily weakening power source, rather than structural failure of the craft.The last, very weak signal from Pioneer 10 was received on January 23,2003, when it was 7.5 billion miles (12 billion kilometres) from Earth.A contact attempt on Febuary 7, 2003 was not successful.One final attempt was made on the evening of March 4,2006, the last time the antenna would be correctly aligned with Earth. No response was received from Pioneer. Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of the star Aldebarn in the constellation Taurus at roughly 2.6 AUs per year. If Aldebaran had zero relative velocity, it would take Pioneer about 2 million years to reach it.

PIONEER ANOLAMY

Analysis of the radio tracking data from the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft at distances between 20–70 AU from the Sun has consistently indicated the presence of a small but anomalous Doppler frequency drift. The drift can be interpreted as due to a constant acceleration of (8.74 ± 1.33) × 10−10 m/s2 directed towards the Sun. Although it is suspected that there is a systematic origin to the effect, none has been found. As a result, there is growing interest in the nature of this anolomy.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (inside story)!

Although a third Super Smash Bros. game had been announced long before E3 2006, Nintendo unveiled its first information in the form of a trailer on May 10, 2006, and the game was named Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The trailer featured Solid Snake, of Konami's Metal Gear fame, marking the first time that a third-party character had been introduced as a playable character in a Super Smash Bros. title. A second third-party character, Sonic the Hedgehog, from Nintendo's former rival Sega was also confirmed as a playable character on October 10, 2007. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in Japan on January 31, 2008, in North America on March 9, 2008 and will be released in Europe on June 27, 2008. Brawl is also the first game in the franchise to support online play, via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and offer the ability for players to construct their own original stages. Brawl also features compatibility with four kinds of controllers (the Wii Remote on its side, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination, the Classic Controller, and the Nintendo GameCube controller),while its predecessors only used the one controller designed for that system. The player also has the ability to change the configuration of controls and the controller type.Super Smash Bros. Brawl features a new Adventure Mode titled Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The Subspace Emissary. This mode features unique character storylines along with numerous side scrolling levels and multiple bosses to fight, as well as CG cut scenes explaining the storyline. The Subspace Emissary features a new group of antagonists called the Subspace Army, who are led by the Ancient Minister. Some of these enemy characters appeared in previous Nintendo video games, such as Petey Piranha from the Mario series and a squadron of R.O.B.s based on classic Nintendo hardware. The Subspace Emissary also boasts a number of original enemies, such as the Roader, a robotic unicycle; the Bytan, a one-eyed ball-like creature which can replicate itself if left alone; and the Primid, enemies that come in many variations.Though primarily a single-player mode, The Subspace Emissary allows for cooperative multiplayer. There are five difficulty levels for each stage, and there is a method of increasing characters' powers during the game.This is done by placing collected stickers onto the bottom of a character's trophy between stages to improve various aspects of a fighter.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (inside look)!

Super Smash Bros. Melee was released November 21, 2001, in Japan; December 3, 2001, in North America; May 24, 2002, in Europe; and May 31, 2002, in Australia for the GameCube video game console. It had a larger budget and development team than Super Smash Bros. did and was released to much greater praise and acclaim among critics and consumers. Since its release, Super Smash Bros. Melee has sold more than 7 million copies and was the best-selling game on the GameCube.Super Smash Bros. Melee features 26 characters, of which 15 are available initially, more than doubling the number of characters in its predecessor. There are also 29 stages. It introduced two new single-player modes alongside the Classic mode: Adventure mode and All-Star mode. Adventure mode has platforming segments similar to the original's "Race to the Finish" mini-game, and All-Star is a fight against every playable character in the game, allows the player only one life in which damage is accumulated over each battle, and a limited number of heal items in between battles. There are also significantly more multiplayer modes and a tournament mode allowing for 64 different competitors whom can all be controlled by a human player, although only up to four players can participate at the same time. Additionally, the game featured alternative battle modes, called "Special Melee," which involve some sort of alteration to the battle (e.g. all characters are giant by default, the speed is faster than normal, etc), along with alternative ways to judge a victory, such as through collecting coins throughout the match. In place of Super Smash Bros.' character profiles, Melee introduced trophies (called "figures" in the Japanese version). The 293 trophies include three different profiles for each playable character, one unlocked in each single-player mode. In addition, unlike its predecessor, Melee contains profiles for many Nintendo characters who are either non-playable or do not appear in the game, as well as Nintendo items, stages, enemies, and elements.

Super Smash Bros. (inside story)!

Super Smash Bros. was introduced in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. It was released worldwide after selling over a million copies in Japan.It featured eight characters from the start, with four unlockable characters, all of them created by Nintendo or one of its second-party developers. In multiplayer (Versus) mode, up to four people can play, with the specific rules of each match being predetermined by the players. There are two different types that can be chosen: Time, where the person with the most KOs at the end of the set time wins; and stock, where each person has a set amount of lives, and when they are gone, the player is eliminated. This game's one-player mode included one adventure mode that always followed the same series of opponents although the player could change the difficulty. Other single player modes exist such as Training and several mini-games, including "Break the Targets" and "Board the Platforms". All of these were included in the sequel, with the exception of "Board the Platforms". In Versus mode, there are nine playable stages: eight based on each of the starting characters (such as Princess Peach's Castle for Mario, Zebes for Samus, and Sector Z for Fox) and the unlockable Mushroom Kingdom.