Warning -- there are spoilers here. Just to the beginning of the game, I imagine, but if you want to go in knowing absolutely nothing, maybe don't watch...
... That was interesting, I definitely wasn't expecting that (plotwise, what is shown in the trailer)... shocking maybe, even, considering what series we're talking about. Huh.
I know, no major elections. But there might be some local stuff...
Maine, for instance, has FIVE major ballot initiatives, all pretty important.
1 - Gay marriage. 'Yes' is to repeal the law that the legislature passed earlier this year to allow gay marriage, 'no' is to keep it. Obviously I'm very much hoping No wins... This is, obviously, getting the vast majority of the attention, both locally and nationally. Most people outside of Maine probably haven't heard of the rest of these, but might have heard of this one.
2 - A stupid tax bill. Lower the new-car tax! Have towns make up for it by raising everyone's property taxes! Awesome!
3 - Question to repeal a school consolidation law passed recently. I'm sure noone else here cares about this, but this is an important issue here... local control matters a lot, and this harms that by merging districts. But on the other hand, Maine evidently has some of the smallest average school district sizes in the country, in terms of number of students per district, and all those administrators cost money that this reform is supposed to save. I'm really unsure about how I'll vote this one, myself... I've been skeptical about the whole school consolidation thing all along, but it might ultimately be good... I'm not sure.
4 - TABOR II. This, I think, is the most important question to defeat on the entire ballot, even more so than #1 I think... TABOR (the acronym stands for "Taxpayer's Bill of Rights") is another tax idea, that has a hard spending cap based on this year's budgets. Then you can only increase spending at a set, very low rate per year, 3% I think. This can only be changed by BALLOT ISSUES. Town meetings are bound by this as well, so it rips apart local control of tax spending for all towns that have town meetings (which are many of the smaller towns in this state). Horrible, horrible bill! It'd absolutely destroy education funding in Maine... look at what happened to California after their stupid Proposition 13 property-tax-limiting law, several decades back -- their schools went from first in the country to right near the bottom. The only state with a TABOR-like law is Colorado, who think so much of it that they recently voted to suspend it. Awesome.
Oh yeah, and this is the third time they're trying to pass this; things very much like it have failed twice already. I really, really hope that this one fails too... and maybe, someday, hopefully, they'll give up on trying to destroy our state government and accept defeat? Please?
5 - Expansion of medicinal marijuana. Set up state dispensary system to get it to patients, etc. I'm opposed, but I'd bet this passes. If someone could show scientifically proven studies that show actual benefits I'd consider voting the other way, but as is, no way. The issue only exists as a major issue because druggies want marijuana legalized in general anyway, and I'm very much opposed to that...
Anything going on in this election in any of your states? :)
... Nintendo, hasn't that huge profit cut you got in the first half of this year taught you ANYTHING? The "We failed to release anything new that really caught consumer interest in the second half of 2008, and that hurt us" or whatever?
But no, it's business as usual, release lists with no dates, lots of games with improbable release dates on them, seeming plans for more games that get announced just weeks before they are released and then are never marketed (shocking the world when they don't sell well!), and lots of titles currently not scheduled for a US release? Awesome.
Wii:
Japan
Wii Fit Plus 2009/10/1
Sin and Punishment 2(Temp.) 2009/10/29
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games™* 2009/11/5
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009/12/3
NHK Kohaku Quiz Gassen 2009/12/17
Cosmic Walker(Temp.) 2009
Kensakusu(Temp.) 2009
Span Smasher(Temp.) 2009
Dynamic Zan(Temp.) 2009
100 Go de Start! Eikaiwa(Temp.) 2009
Hoshi no Kirby(Temp.) 2009
Line Attack Heroes(Temp.) 2009
Monado: Beginning of The World(Temp.) TBA
METROID: Other M(Temp.) TBA
Super Mario Galaxy 2(Temp.) TBA
The United States
Wii Fit Plus 2009/10/4
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009/11/15
Sin and Punishment 2(Temp.) CY2010 1st Quarter
Endless Ocean 2(Temp.) CY2010 1st Quarter
METROID: Other M 2010
Super Mario Galaxy 2(Temp.) 2010
Span Smasher(Temp.) TBA
Line Attack Heroes(Temp.) TBA
Monado: Beginning of The World(Temp.) TBA
Europe
Wii Fit Plus 2009/10/30
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 2009/11/20
Endless Ocean 2(Temp.) 2010
Sin and Punishment 2(Temp.) 2010
Spring Super Mario Galaxy 2(Temp.) 2010
METROID: Other M(Temp.) 2010
DS:
Japan
Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Winter Games 2009/11/19
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks 2009/12/23
Famicom Wars DS2(Temp.) 2009 (Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, which we got early this year)
Golden Sun DS(Temp.) TBA
The United States
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky 2009/10/12
Style Savvy 2009/11/2
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks 2009/12/7
Pokémon HeartGold Version 2010 Spring
Pokémon SoulSilver Version 2010 Spring
Glory of Heracles 2010
Golden Sun DS(Temp.) 2010
WarioWare D.I.Y. TBA
Picross 3D TBA
Europe
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story 2009/10/9
Nintendo presents: Style Boutique 2009/10/23
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky 2009/11/20
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks 2009/12/11
Pokémon HeartGold Version 2010 Spring
Pokémon SoulSilver Version 2010 Spring
WarioWare D.I.Y. TBA
And doesn't it look awesome? Yeah, it's a remake of the first GB title, and some elements of it can be seen there with things like the whip that shoots fireballs and the eyeball enemies, but it's obviously also mixed with a lot of NES/SNES/Genesis Castlevania elements as well, like the stairs, subweapons, multiple paths through the levels, with hidden alternate routes you need to find keys to play through, and more.
... Oh yeah, and evidently the music in that level there is a remix of some music from Castlevania: Bloodlines on the Genesis.
Anyway though, looks very awesome. It's a bit longer than the previous ReBirth titles too evidently, both of them were only five levels I believe...
It does look totally different from the original GB game in most ways, though, which makes it kind of odd that it's a remake and not just a new game. I mean, aside from those few things like the timer, the fireball-shooting whip and some enemies, there's nothing of the original game in this remake, it seems... of course the original game is considered one of the least good Castlevania games, so they wouldn't want to copy it too closely, and what's there looks pretty good. I mean, couldn't they at least have, like, kept the ropes and stuff? I know that the Wii has a much wider screen than the GB, but still...
Of course, Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Chronicles (Castlevania X68000) are both Castlevania 1 "remakes" absolutely nothing like the original, to an even greater degree than this one, so there's plenty of history of this kind of thing in the series. It's just a little odd, that's all. :)
Here's a complete (tool-assisted) video of the original game, to see what I mean. They didn't even keep the music, it's different stuff in the 'remake' despite some of the original stuff being pretty good for early GB music.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QoEyt7XWMsI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QoEyt7XWMsI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Overall though, the remake looks like a great game. Great music, good enough graphics, some great classic Castlevania gameplay... awesome stuff. :)
