Wii Features

 After a long two-week absence, Shane Patterson rejoins the crew just in time to celebrate TalkRadar’s 18th birthday. With our podcast finally old enough to vote, buy cigarettes and go to the mall by itself, we briefly put aside our usual yammering for a weirdly serious talk about the ethics of software piracy.

With the possible exception of unexplainable, extraordinary inspiration, the factors which define a game’s quality are roughly quantifiable. The success of a game, however, involves slightly more chance, as the variables are less precise. When is the best time to launch a new PS3 exclusive FPS? Is there a market for fighting games on the Wii? The Western audience likes Final Fantasy – shouldn’t it like other Japanese RPGs?

The Tokyo Game Show used to be filled with eccentric Japanese titles, destined to be locked away from all but the most hardcore collectors. Those days are over. Almost every major upcoming title on show this year was confirmed for release outside of Japan.

The greatest games you probably didn’t play this year. From beautifully old-school side-scrollers and puzzle adventures to a shooter with roughly 9,000 “boner” jokes, these poorly selling, poorly marketed underdogs deserve (and need) your attention…

Leading up to the launch of the 3DS this weekend, we’re celebrating the best games on each of Nintendo’s many handhelds. We’ll hit ‘em all, from Game & Watch to Nintendo DS, but today we’re focusing on a bit of a side step system – Game Boy Color. First released in 1998, the GBC finally dragged Nintendo out of the black and white doldrums it had forced upon us since the original Game Boy. The backwards compatible handheld added a smattering of color to the existing Game Boy catalog, plus offered rich visuals for brand new games and even a slight bump in hardware power...

The buddy format: maybe it’s two mismatched cops, butting heads as they crack a tough case. Maybe it’s a feisty animal and his wiseass, backpack-dwelling chum, venturing out of a grass-green hub-world. Wherever it crops up, the formula of “two stalwart friends off on a whirlwind adventure” is the basis for good times. But for every half-dozen Samwises and Chewbaccas, you’re bound to get a Dan Quayle or two.

Sometimes, things are better left unsaid. Sometimes, our imaginations are enough. Sometimes, ignorance really, really is bliss.

Remember Darth Vader? He used to be the epitome of evil, the most recognizable symbol of scum and villainy in cinematic history. Then we saw the prequels and learned the awful, retconned truth: “Annie” liked to build toy robots, wear pageboy haircuts, yell cutesy catchphrases and hit on his babysitters.

Numbers. Man, there must be millions of ‘em. Seems like every other game on the shelf has a number in it. Boy, I bet you could count to a hundred using just videogame titles and related items. Let’s see if I’m right.

I'm sure you've felt that sense of elitism when you discover an artist or song that nobody else knows about. You might listen to it yourself in headphones and feel smug, or become *that* guy who tells everyone you meet how they have to listen to this amazing new thing. Sound familiar?

What joy then, when your favourite videogame throws up an unexpected audio treat. One's come up recently in Mario Kart 64. Someone must've left the