Today Rally-X hits Xbox Live Arcade. Prepare to be under whelmed.

Well, for what it’s worth, Merry Christmas. I know it’s late, but better late than never I guess. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. As far as games go, this year was all about Nintendo. The Wii has caught on like a virus and people are really loving it, the DS is still selling insanely well, and Nintendo is now sitting on a giant mound of cash. Just in my circle of friends alone, I know of 4 people that got a DS Lite, 2 that got a Wii, and about 5 people that would get a Wii if they could find one. Those are pretty good odds, considering most of those people aren’t gamers.

Now that Christmas is over, I can tell you about Chris’ great holiday surprise. Chris had been searching high and low for a Wii to no avail for the past month. Little did he know, that his wife and I had conspired to buy him one as a surprise. So last Sunday, the 14th, was what many considered to be the last chance to get a Wii. Stores had been stockpiling their shipment for this one day. I knew I would have to get to the store well before opening to get a spot in line. Some people even camped out, as if it was a second launch. Arbitrarily, I decided if I got there around 4 AM, I’d have a good shot. My buzzer went off at 3:30 AM. I can’t express how bad I just wanted to go back to sleep. But then, Chris’ Christmas would suck, so I got up, got dressed, and drove to my nearest big box retailer, Best Buy. I immediately found what I refer to as the List Master. He’s the poor sap who decided to maintain the list, to keep track of the line order. I was number 15, out of 18 systems. I was excited, I was in. Within 30 minutes, numbers 16-18 showed up. So by 4:30 AM that morning, all the Wiis at the Edgewood Best Buy were spoken for. That didn’t stop people from coming though. For next couple of hours people showed up, and even though they were told there was only 18 systems, they signed up anyway, just in case. The list got up to 35, and by 7, even more showed up that immediately just left. In the time I had to wait, I met a very strange mix of people. Some people were of course gamers, some parents of gamers, and some self-professed entrepreneurs that wanted to make a buck. It was eclectic. At 7: 30 Best Buy came out and handed out tickets and even gave us some coffee and doughnuts. At 8, the store opened, I purchased Chris’ Wii, and immediately went home and went to sleep. Altogether, it was a unique and successful experience. Needless to say, on Christmas, Chris was both overjoyed and amazed. Happy Holidays!

Well, I wasn’t able to post this Monday, when it would have actually been news, but it was Christmas. I had better things to do. Anyway, as you know, Christmas fell on a Monday this year. That means VC games for Christmas! Today’s releases are:

• Super Mario Bros. – NES (500 points)
• Castlevania IV – SNES (800 points)
• Street Fighter II – SNES (800 points)
• R-Type – TG-16 (800 points)
• Toe Jam n’ Earl (800 points)

Compared to the regular mediocre VC titles we’ve been seeing, this is pretty good. You’ve got the classic SMB, and a couple of great SNES titles. Today’s also marks the first game above regular price for a given system. Normally TG-16 games are 600 points, but R-Type will cost you 800 points. Remember when Nintendo announced pricing for the VC, and each system had its own price associated with the games. Don’t forget those prices had “starting at” before them. So really, Nintendo can charge whatever they want for VC games. Anyway, aside from that little nugget of lucrativity, I’m happy about this weeks VC titles. Festivus for the rest of us!