There’s a certain sense of inevitability waiting at the end of the corridor. The young man’s parade boots echo sternly on the grated floor as he strides purposefully toward the blast doors. After a theatrical pause, the blast doors fly open and the snap-hiss of a lightsaber ignites the air with a sharp tang of ozone. With a nod, the TIE fighters in the hangar swerve into motion and systematically crush the scrambling stormtroopers clinging to each other for dear life. I’ve dreamed of this before.

Since early childhood I’ve been compelled by the darting lasers of interstellar battle juxtaposed with the serene mysticism of the Force–and I’m certainly not the only one. LucasArts has created a veritable empire, no pun intended, from the interest garnered from a simple desert farm boy’s destiny. Obviously the screaming TIE fighters, Mandalorian armor, wookiees, wry robots and promise of planetary destruction helped too, but since the spawn of Star Wars in the late seventies, we’ve seen three more (admittedly lukewarm) movies, PEZ dispensers, action figures, bed sheets, lunch boxes, over a hundred books, Legos and, more pertinent to this discussion, over seventy five video game titles.

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As Spring approaches I grow more anxious about the impending release of Aion: Tower of Eternity for the PC. This game has been on my “Oh God, OH GOD I want this game” list since one of my good friends sent me a few links to the videos of it from E3. It’s been in development for a good while, while the company making it has released tantalizing details sporadically so as to keep the drooling public (me) hooked and on the edge of our seats until it does come out.

I’m not going to compare Aion to any other MMORPGs on the market because doing so would be foolish and detrimental to all MMOs out there. Each online game, as far as I’ve seen, has brought something wholly unique to the gaming table as a whole, and comparing them in a bizarre contest just does them a huge disservice. Some people like World of Warcraft, others like Guild Wars. Saying any one is better than others based on any criteria (be it number of players, graphical capabilities, etc.) just doesn’t work. Surely there is a standard that all MMORPGs aspire to reach, but if they were all carbon copies of each other. Well. That would be pretty damn boring.

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Ah Smash Brothers, the pinnacle of success every nintendo character aspires to. Where the best of the best can meet, greet, and beat the ever-loving snot out of each other. I love the series so much because it’s such a free-form way to play all my favorite characters. And most of them get serious upgrades in terms of the graphic quality I’m used to seeing them in. I also love it because the designers don’t monopolize the success of the series. They actually approached fans about which characters we would want in brawl and listened to other game directors who wanted a spotlight on their characters. Thus, Sonic and Solid Snake were born…to the world of smash brothers.

Speculation about the game abounded until it was released on the 31st in Japan. Since then I’ve been trying to get my grubby little hands on all the information and videos I can. I’m one of those people who wants to know everything about it, including what characters will be playable, even if I can’t yet play the game. Some of their character choices are, well, unfortunate, but others make me giddy in anticipation of being able to play them for myself.

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Orcs and Elves for the Nintendo DS probably would have sold more copies if it had a better name.

When I found my copy a few days ago, it was sitting in the back of Gamestop on a shelf by itself gathering dust. I hadn’t heard of the game before, but for under ten dollars, it promised me dark, dank dungeons, epic quests and–of course–orcs. For some reason, even though I’m not a D&D nerd, I was sold. I took it to the counter and forked over the cash to the Gamestop employee who was covered in World of Warcraft promo-buttons.

The rest, as it were, was history.

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The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is good. If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, it’s gallivanting around Seattle from location to location while playing this game. I probably wouldn’t have had time to play the game had it not been a portable title and thus the genius of Zelda on handheld systems is undeniable. I mean, we all know Zelda’s good, but Zelda that fits in your backpack is way better. While in the past the series has sacrificed graphics and gameplay to make Link portable, the advent of the Nintendo DS means this sacrifice is no longer necessary. The end result is a quirky game that manages to mix the old charm of Zelda with the high paced world of today relatively seamlessly.

And yes, I know that sounded pretty lame.

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