The Great American Fire Race

The 2012 NASCAR season is finally underway, and to say it's off to a blazing start would be an understatement, literally. While the race was delayed from Sunday afternoon to Monday night due to rain, the biggest news coming out of the Great American Race was Juan Pablo Montoya, who, under caution, lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the back of one of two jet dryers that NASCAR uses to help repair and dry tracks. Afterwards, massive amounts of jet fuel spilled out of the back of it, catching ablaze. After a few minutes, they were able to put out the fire, scrape the truck from the truck, which had melted into the track, and they were able to get back under way after a two-hour delay.

I can only assume that someone in Las Vegas bet on this exact scenario to happen because they bet on everything in Vegas. If they didn't, you can rest assured it's going to be on the books for the next race. It was surreal to see it happen live, and while it wasn't my most memorable NASCAR experience (that would be going across the bridge that collapsed at Lowe's Motor Speedway about a half hour before it collapsed back in 2000), this one is certainly up there. This race seemed snake-bitten, but at the end of the day, it was completed in full, because NASCAR likes to finish things to show that they persevere. I just hope they don't make a habit of this.

New Pokemon Games that may actually be New!

Earlier today on some Japanese Pokemon Show for children, it was announced that two new Pokemon games would be coming out in June 2012, that's this year. The names of these games are... Pokemon Black Version 2 Pokemon White Version 2 That's right, Nintendo pulled a Square Enix with their JRPG franchise. As a fan of Pokemon, although I'm nowhere near a fan now as I was say a decade ago, I'm pretty interested to see how they change up the formula this time around. While many were expecting a third revision of Black and White in the form of Gray to be announced, and for the 3DS, all I can say is good for Nintendo for at least keeping it interesting. Black and White weren't the best Pokemon games, but they definitely felt like a good ending point for any Pokemon fan. After finishing Black, I felt like my journey with Pokemon was complete. It just felt like the end, having played every Pokemon game since the beginning, the formula of facing 8 Gym Leaders, beating Team ____ and winning the title of 'Best Pokemon Trainer Ever' had reached its' natural conclusion. However, announcing a sequel to that type of formula, where the structure may be entirely different entices me just a bit more than ever before. We'll see though, as I definitely want something new out of this Pokemon game.

Linsanity is Linsane

Back when Tebowmania was running wild, I decided it would be nice to sit back and enjoy the ride until it all inevitably imploded in his face one cold evening in Foxboro, MA. However, the rise of a new sports phenomenon wasn't far behind surprisingly enough as New York managed to steal the spotlight of the sports world once again with one Jeremy Lin, a former Harvard graduate who played with the Golden State Warriors for a season and almost with the Rockets until David Stern turned down the Chris Paul deal before the season started. Lin found a home in New York, and due to his recent success New York opened their 5 burrows warmly due to the air of excitement he's brought the Knicks over the past few weeks, winning 8 of their last 10 games. Does this mean that Lin is a legit player? He's played on the biggest stage in the world, and come up big in tight situations. He, like Tebow, has seemingly excelled when the game is on the line and when his team needs him the most. However, while not as bad as Tim Tebow, Lin just doesn't really inspire all that much confidence in me to continue watching. He may true talent to be a star in the league for years to come, however, unlike the NFL where late heroics aren't exactly the norm, in the NBA, it's really all that matters. For me, if I watch a basketball, it comes down to me watching it late, and while I may be into the final 2 minutes of the game, it's hard for me to judge whether or not he's the sole purpose of the game being as close or exciting as it is. With an NFL game, you can tell relatively early on if the game is going to be good, great or mediocre. In an NBA game, there's the stereotypical argument that they don't really start playing until the final 2 minutes of a half. For me, that's true. It's crunch time. In the NFL, in at least a good game, the game will have some back and forth the entire way through. In the NBA, that usually doesn't happen except for a handful of games every season. With Lin coming on so strong due to the Knicks lack of depth, and maybe a bit of other teams not taking him seriously, he's risen to stardom. Good for him though, however I'm just not buying into it. Right now it's about to enter the final phase of the season, and I just don't think Lin is good enough to hang in there until the end. This season's different, and when teams are finally able to stretch their legs and turn on their juice, I have a hard time believing Lin will keep up, despite his lack of play in a tightened schedule.

Rhythm Heaven Fever Review

It'd be wrong of me to say that Rhythm Heaven Fever wasn't my first time playing the series. It'd also be wrong of me to say I wasn't tempted to pick it up due to various videos online, as well as the budget price tag. However, it's not wrong of me to say that Rhythm Heaven Fever is one of the most enjoyable games to come out on Wii, despite having a few glaring flaws. When you start up the game you'll notice two distinctive features; first, it's entirely hand-drawn, animations included with separate ones for successes and failures in each game. While it may not be high definition, it looks extremely crisp and beautiful on your TV. Secondly, is that the game starts you with a rhythm test to gauge how close you are to the beat. There's no success or failure here, but mainly to test how good your musical prowess is. For me, I was hovering around the middle, being even split between hitting early and hitting late. What this does is give you a grasp of how hard it will be for you to get into the game early on. Some people will hit the ground running, while others will immediately break both legs. For me, I struggled to get past the first game on the first go, but had immediate success with more to follow because I learned the rules of the game. There are some games that I do still struggle with, while some praise their ingenuity. There are also games that are simple not executed properly. In both of these situations, they'll leave the player frustrated and scratching their head at what exactly the problem is. Fortunately enough, after 3 failures, you can visit the Cafe to say you want to skip over to the next game. You can always go back to another game anytime you want as well in order to Medal or even Perfect it. The only problem with Perfecting games is that there are small windows in which you can earn Perfects, and once those windows appear, you only have 3 attempts or you'll have to play a few more games for another one to randomly appear on ones you've already gotten a Medal in. I found this to be a bit frustrating at times since the game wouldn't let me progress at my own pace. I've heard that this happens in other versions of the series, but I'd still levy the same complaint there as well. However, the moments that make Rhythm Heaven Fever shine are the games that seem to truly embrace the concept and execute properly on them. Fortunately the majority of the games are this way, like Ring Side, Flock Step and Samurai Slice. They overwhelm the player visually but in reality the simplistic nature of the game allows complete control of the situation. The way you gain mastery of the game by keeping the beat so you no longer have to rely on visual cues is excellent, and it keeps me playing the game even though I'm long finished. Score: 8 out of 10 + An excellent style that conquers raw graphical power + Good music - Some games are frustrating

Upcoming Blog Posts

First and foremost, apologies for the lack of blog updates recently. I got sick at the beginning of the month and I'm starting to just turnaround now. So I thought I'd go ahead and list what I'll be writing for the next week since I actually planned it out: Monday - Rhythm Heaven Fever Review (3pm-5pm EST) Tuesday - My Extremely Late Super Bowl XLVI Thoughts & Analysis Wednesday - "Linsanity" or the Lack Thereof Thursday - Presidential Policies that Should be Important for the 2012 Election Friday - Nintendo 3DS Circle Pad Pro Review So there you go, a wide variety of topics that will be discussed next week. For now though, I'm finishing up my review for Monday. It's coming along nicely, so I hope you'll enjoy it. My Super Bowl thoughts were done long ago, but I haven't had the time to formally convey them yet. As for everything else, I'd like to leave you all in suspense about how I'm going to tackle them.

Romney Rises, Will Fall

Mitt Romney won the Republican Presidential Primary in Florida last night by a significant margin. Today, he's one step closer to the nomination and an inevitable face-off with President Barack Obama in November. While the election season has been a long, filled with more debates than should ever be necessary, it seems the predictable candidate, Romney, will climb to the top of the totem pole for a party that has been criticized long and hard over the past 12 years. The question is whether or not Romney can break that mold and show what the Republican party truly is or not. I think the answer, strictly, is no. I don't believe he is the candidate for the Republican Party, but he's the best one running this time around. Similar situations have happened before, but this one seems almost like a joke to most people. When looking for a Republican candidate, one would want the passion of a New Gingrich, but without the walk-in closet full of skeletons. While I believe Romney is a good speaker, he is someone who strikes me as ill-passionate for what he believes in, a person who will take any position to get what he wants, and will keep trying until things go his way. Romney is a politician's politician, through and though. He looks like someone you'd buy a used car from, a fraud only looking for a cheap buck. He's really the only candidate the Republicans have right now though because some either don't want it, like New Jersey Governor Christie, or those who have poor name association, like Jeb Bush, who would be the best candidate if it weren't for his last name and relationship to the last two Bush Presidents. Is Mitt Romney the Republican candidate that can do the job this fall? No, because he's not really a Republican. But he's the one that will be on the ballot this November, and Republicans will vote for him no matter what.

The Waiting Game

As of late, it seems that more and more video games have a 'wait to win' feature. A prominent example is Gran Turismo 5, where you can race your AI drivers in B-Spec mode in order to win cash and cars. While you can do these in A-spec, some of the later races are a bit more time consuming than most, specifically having two day-long races, a half day-long race, and a few other races exceeding 4 hours in length. They're races that, unless you have the utmost of patience and concentration, would never be able to finish under normal circumstances. Another example is Gears of War 3, where it's best to let yourself idle against bots for hours on end in order for your best shot at Seriously 3.0. While you're better off playing against bots yourself for quick kills and points, it's still bothersome that it's a main route for so many a players. My final example is Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and I'll tie Brotherhood into this as well, where you have to sit around and do nothing in order to gain money so you can buy property to gain more money. It's a welcome addition to Brotherhood, but in Revelations it's a bother since the game is really a glitch fest, and more often than not you're left waiting for longer than 20 minutes, the usual allocated time for Bank Deposits. I wish game developers would stop doing this, as it punishes those trying to go for 100% and have nothing better to do at that point in time. Instead of forcing me to wait, how about you let me play the game instead of forcing me down some arbitrary path since the preferred path is asinine?

Early Super Bowl Thoughts, 2012

The New England Patriots and the New York Giants are going to the Super Bowl for a rematch of Super Bowl 42, even though neither of them should be. The Patriots, while at home, were outplayed by the Ravens, and while a Billy Cundiff shank led them to the NFL's Promise Land once again, it didn't seem like the Patriots would've survived overtime. The Giants on the other hand were on the receiving end of good injuries. The 49ers regular return man, Ted Ginn Jr. was out with injury. Two costly mistakes by the replacement return man sent the game into overtime and got the Giants the victory. Right now, I'm thinking New England is going to win. I believe Baltimore was a better than the Giants due to their experience and defensive prowess. While Tom Brady had no touchdown passes against the Ravens, he had the game-winning rushing touchdown late. I don't expect Brady to go two weeks in a row without a TD pass, and he'll probably rack up 3 or 4 against the Giants defense, who have played quarterbacks this off-season that appeared less than thrilled to be there. I also think the Patriots seem motivated more than ever before in the Playoffs, looking to prove themselves not only for mistakes of seasons past, but playoff losses and Super Bowl 42, the most famous loss in their history. The Giants, on the other hand, look lucky to be there, and are playing with house money yet again. This time though, it doesn't appear that Tom Brady will be injured or that the Patriots will take them lightly. The Giants offense didn't look that great against the 49ers defense, having scored mainly on their mistakes. While I'm sure the Patriots defense will be less of a challenge, the Giants do have a tendency to overlook defenses they perceive to be poor. Whatever the case may be, both teams are lucky to be there. However, I think the Giants luck will run out against the Patriots, since they barely had any luck against Baltimore. The Giants on the other hand got all the luck in the world.

2012 NFL Conference Championships

I've had a tough week this week. From learning about myself, being sick, to try and come up with new ideas and finally to this topic, this weekend's Conference Championships. There isn't a bad matchup here, but both of these games could easily become un-entertaining blowouts that half the audience turns off in 10 minutes. Hopefully it won't come to that since last weekend's games were like that with the exception of the first one. With that in mind, here's my picks.

Baltimore at New England - 3pm EST
When these teams met at Foxboro last year, the Patriots won in overtime because the Ravens gave up the game basically. Instead of playing to win they played not to lose, which is, in reality, a great way to lose. Teams lose a step, and once they realize they're down by 3 with 2 minutes to go, it's already too late for a recovery. That's exactly the kind of football the Ravens played last week against the Texans, but thankfully for them TJ Yates was Houston's Quarterback.

This week is a different story however. The Patriots offense has been on-key for the past 2 months or so, looking almost unstoppable. Combine that with the fact that Ed Reed won't be 100% on Sunday and the Ravens offense is shaky at best, I expect a Patriots win. I wouldn't be surprised if the Ravens won, but I just can't see their offense getting 3 touchdowns.

My Pick: Patriots - 27, Ravens - 13


NY Giants at San Francisco - 6pm EST
With the exception of the final two drives on Saturday, San Francisco's defense looked pretty good against Drew Brees. I don't know whether to chock it up to them being tired for being on the field for so long, or just a complete mental breakdown for being in a close game in the Playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. Whatever the case, the game felt like their Super Bowl. The Giants on the other hand dominated the Packers from start to finish.

The Giants offense looked good the last 2 weeks against sub-par defenses, and while the same can be said for the 49ers last week against the Saints, the Giants offense is just better. I expect a close game here, but to me, it just feels like we're in for a rematch and a big one at that.

My Pick: Giants - 20, 49ers - 17

Divisional Special, 2012 Edition

It's been quiet around old KingBroly's blog lately, and while it hasn't been for any particular reason, I must say a lot of things have been going through my mind lately. But none quite like this weekend's NFL Divisional Playoffs, which start this afternoon at 4:30pm EST/1:30pm PST. I have to say that every game is highly watchable, and you can't really predict what will happen in any of the 4 games right now, even the most obvious ones. With that in mind, let's start with today's games.

- New Orleans at San Francisco
What's this? I'm bolding both teams so you'll have to read my synopsis? Heaven forbid! Stop crying, it's not that long. This is clearly the best game of weekend, and it's amazing that we get a high powered offense versus a rock solid defense on one side while on the other we have a mediocre offense versus a poor defense. What side will win? Considering great defenses always triumph over great offenses, I'm going to say the 49ers will win this one, at home, against Drew Brees. While the Saints have an amazing offense right now, they got awfully lucky last week. They tend to stay close at halftime, wherein they blow their opponents out in the second half. I don't see that happening this week as the 49ers have a solid defense where it matters most against the Saints, in the secondary. That's the key here, and I see the 49ers winning because of it.

Score Pick: 49ers - 23, Saints - 17


- Denver at New England
Despite the glut of Bible and Christian references to Tebow in the past week, let's keep things in perspective: When you don't show a team respect at any level, they will more often than not knock you off your feet. Not only did the Broncos do that, they knocked the Steelers out of the Playoffs to the delight of many Patriots fans. While the Patriots are favored by double digits given the last meeting was a no contest, keep in mind that Denver's defense let them down, not their offense, until late at least. I expect a much closer game this time around, but the result will stay the same.

Score Pick: Patriots - 27, Broncos - 17


Houston at Baltimore
This one seems like an obvious trap game to me. Everyone's picking Houston because of their Quarterback situation, which isn't pretty at the moment. Baltimore's defense, while still great isn't as hot as they used to be. Houston's is the best in the League but gave up a few points to a mediocre offense in Cincinnati last week at home. The Ravens will be rested and play great at home. Houston doesn't, especially against Playoffs teams. The only way I see Houston winning this game is if Ray Rice gets injured or Jake Delhomme comes in to play. I don't see either happening.

Score Pick: Ravens - 27, Texans - 6


New York at Green Bay
The final game of the weekend. The media is screaming 2008 like it's a forgone conclusion because it looks similar. Well no, it doesn't. In 2008, the Giants beat good teams to get there. A close game against the Patriots in Week 17 gave them the muster to play hard and win the Super Bowl. Here, they lost to the Packers, at home, and then went on to lose to the Redskins, almost lost against Dallas, blew out Dallas and the Jets when they didn't show up, and blew out a not-so-good Falcons team. The Packers went 15-1, including smacking the Lions with their 2nd string team. That says a lot about a team. With the buy they'll be rested and ready to prove why they're the best team in the League this year.

Score Pick: Packers - 35, Giants - 17