It is with great pleasure that I announce the official grand opening of the 2P START! Shop, courtesy of the great guys at Split Reason! This is a couple months in the works (and a long time coming), and it was hard to keep it under wraps, but Ray and I are excited for this. A big thank you to our readers for requesting shirts in the first place and to Split Reason for approaching US about starting a store. Split Reason is the official merchandiser for Ctrl+Alt+Del, Explosm, Destructoid, and Commissioned Comic, so you don't have to question their quality. And they have some really nice designs of their own! I hope you enjoy our initial batch of designs, and if they prove popular enough, our partnership with Split Reason will only grow over time with new designs and other types of merchandise. Let us know what you think and feel free to always suggest new designs based on our comics and logos!

Alright, this one is a bit more obscure and I'd be REALLY impressed if anyone got this. I'll start dropping hints and expand the picture a bit if it proves too difficult. If you're new to this little game, rules are posted after the break. Good luck!

[Hint 1]: I knew this would be tougher! First of all, it's not a Mario game, so forget about the Chain Chomps! Also, I'll clue you in that the title of this game doesn't exactly 'roll' off the tongue...

[Hint 2]: Ok, I've expanded the field of vision a bit on the image, it may help a little, but it'll still be tough. My hint this time would be that the game is a current generation console title. That's all you get for the next 24 hours, so start guessing!

[Update]: Nice work Rokai (and Andrew)! It is the U.S. box art for Kororinpa: Marble Mania. I told you it'd be a bit more obscure!

Read the rest of this entry »

While you wait for the comic, try a new installment of Name That Game. If you're new to this little game, rules are posted after the break. Good luck!

[Update]: Narnian and everyone else in the world is right, it is Phantom Hourglass. I'm going to have to go a little more obscure next time because you're guessing these way too fast!

Read the rest of this entry »

Here's our second installment of Name That Game. If you're new to this little game, rules are posted after the break. Good luck!

[Update]: The game is indeed Mega Man Powered Up! Nushio had it from the start. I'll have to start making these a bit tougher...

Read the rest of this entry »

We sure fooled you guys by releasing the podcast on Tuesday instead of Monday! You should have seen the look on your faces! Anyway, enjoy this longer edition of 2P START! Live! as we take your advice and chat away for a good 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to 2P START's, 'Name That Game'. This is something I thought up recently and I hope you enjoy it. If you all like it well enough, I may make it a regular occurring blog post here. So here's how it works: Above, you'll see a small portion of a much larger picture. This picture is some sort of official artwork for a videogame. It could be a screenshot, or box art, or a flyer, or anything the publisher put out related to the game. Your challenge is to figure out which game it's from. If no one guesses correctly in a reasonable amount of time, I'll expand the window a bit and let you see a little more. This is a 'just for fun' contest, but I may include winner's names and past contests in our Contest section alongside the Trivia for You winners from the podcast. So without further ado, can you Name That Game?

[Update]: It is indeed Pac-Man! The artwork is from the side of the cabinet from the original arcade version of the game. Great job Jared (and the others who guessed right)! I'll have another up in a day or so, so check back soon!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to record the podcast last night because my Vista laptop has gone haywire. I'm not sure what the problem is or how to fix it, but hopefully tonight we have a workaround and you'll have your podcast tomorrow, just in time for April Fool's Day! Sorry about the delay, but I'll make it up to you with a fun post later today.

We've gotten lots of comments this week saying the podcast is too short. Ray and I have always tried to make it short because we feel most podcasts are too long. But maybe we're off, maybe you like the sound of our voices more than we do! Here's your chance to set us straight once and for all. Please vote in the poll if you have listened to our podcast in the past and have an opinion as to how long it should be. Also, feel free to leave comments below giving suggestions for more segments or topic ideas (if we make it longer, we'll need more to talk about!).

In this edition, Tim and Ray go back to their roots with a short and sweet podcast weighing in at about 15 minutes! Kind of like how Sonic Unleashed may go back to Sonic's 2-D roots (not holding our breath). Check it out!

Read the rest of this entry »

With the release of Sega Superstars Tennis this week, we got much of the same from Sega: a missed opportunity. While not the worst Sega game in recent memory, I read many reviews saying things like: "lack of online is an insult to Wii gamers", "untapped potential", "passable", and "lacking any staying power". While some reviewers enjoyed the game, I found few people saying it was great. This brought a bigger question to mind. What was the last GREAT Sega title we saw? How often DOES Sega go the extra mile? I decided to look at all Sega games in the last couple years on MetaCritic to get the answers to those questions. Here are my results:

The average score for a title with Sonic in it is 66.5, LOWER than the average score for all their games.

To compare, I looked at the last 20 U.S. Nintendo releases:

The average score for a title with Mario in it is 85.75, MUCH HIGHER than the average score for all their games.

I think this says a lot about both companies. While Nintendo is capable of some duds, their best games are much better than Sega's best. Even if you take out both company's best and worst 3, Nintendo still trumps Sega by 10 points (78 to 68). So the average Nintendo game is of much better quality than the average Sega game. Also, they clearly treat their most prized franchise better than Sega does. Here's more proof of that: The best Sonic game was made by Nintendo (Super Smash Bros. Brawl) and the worst Mario game was made by Sega (Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games).