Wow, I started this new weekly column, and now I am consistently late in posting it. Quickly, here are this week’s contestants.

Wii Virtual Console

• Castlevania (NES) - $5
• The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES) - $8
• Shockman (TG-16) - $6

Xbox Live Arcade

• Catan - $10
• Centipede / Millipede - $5

So let’s see, Nintendo’s got Castlevania and a couple more obscure retro titles. I’ve heard Mystical Ninja is good, and I know Castlevania is great. But, I have been waiting quite a while for Catan. It’s the Xbox Live enabled game based on the board game Settlers of Catan. The original board game looked like awesome fun, but I have no friends that want to play board games with me. At least with Catan on XBLA you can play on XBL. Also, XBLA brings the first bundle of retro arcade games for the low price of $5. That’s like $2.50 a game, or like $0.05/Pede. Sorry N, XBLA wins again. Thanks for Castlevania though, I mean you did put up a fight.

Winner: Xbox Live Arcade

Score: VC 1, XBLA 2

Today marks the first weekly release of the ten XBLA titles announced last week, and this one has us serving’ some draft…. root beer. Root Beer Tapper did originally come out as simply Tapper, with you serving your patrons some Bud. No worries though, the game is just as fun in Root Beer format. This one will only set you back 400 MS points ($5).

Pretty cool clip of someone who has mastered the art of the crane. I bet her local arcade hates her.

I finally got another review posted over on RetroBlast. This one is for an RGB to NTSC encoder. I realize you probably don’t know what that is, basically it lets you play arcade PCBs on your TV. Check out the review here.

Before I started blogging on Big Head Mode, I did some reviews of arcade related stuff on RetroBlast!. I just had to update a review I did earlier this year to coincide with an upcoming contest, so I just thought I would link it. This was a review I wrote of ThrustVector’s Afterburner, an arcade controls encoder. If you are not a home arcade enthusiast you will probably find it very boring, but here are the basics. In order to interface your computer into an arcade cabinet, or build a genuine arcade controller for your PC, you must map all the joystick and button presses to input into the PC. You can do this by hacking up a keyboard, or by just buying a dedicated keyboard/joystick encoder. The latter option gives you an easier, cleaner setup with more features. The Afterburner is a very nice fully featured encoder, but with a pretty steep price tag. The review is here.

Saw this at RetroBlast, thought it was funny.

All right, I guess technically GameTap is a collection of several games (latest count being 710), but they are games I am playing. Right now GameTap has a deal that if you prepay a year it comes to $4.95 a month, or $59.40. Considering how many games they have, and all the Video On Demand content they are offering, I think it’s a pretty good deal. Also, you get a two week free trial to start you off, so you only buy if you like it. There are a lot of fun arcade classics on here like Galaga, Pac-Man, Defender, and Dig-Dug, but to be honest those games are ubiquitous, and get boring quick. Other great games include the original Phantasy Star series, the Myst games, including the upcoming MMO Uru Live, and old school PC adventure games like King’s Quest series, Space Quest series, and the Ultima series. While a lot of the games on GameTap are easy to find by other means, its nice to see all of them combined into a nice easy-to-use interface. And new original titles like Sam and Max and Uru Live, that subscription will only be worth more and more. I am digging it, I think I may opt for the year deal.

Wait a minute. It’s not Wednesday! I know, I just had plans last night and didn’t get a chance to check out the newest XBLA title released. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss much. This week Konami brings us another game labeled a classic that I had never heard of: Scramble. I downloaded the demo. It’s really basic; I mean it feels like a homebrew. You fly a ship and shoot stuff. I would venture to say it’s not even worth $5. I’m not saying it’s bad; it just won’t entertain you for very long.

Another week, another segment. My new segment is that whenever someone does something I like, I will give them the standard measurement of approval: the thumbs up. I will also do a google image search for the words “thumbs up”, and provide a random person also showing his approval. I figured I would start off with the “decider” himself: George Dub-yah.

Today we should have seen Scramble hit XBLA. However because it did not pass the testing process, it has been delayed. This has garnered some complaints. It is ironic that a game made in 1981 has been pushed back another week. But I would rather have to wait for a well tested game, that have to deal with the frustration of bugs. This is something I talked about in a previous post. So, XBLA, I would like to present you with the Thumbs Up!

Another hump day, another XBLA title. Today Konami brings us their first foray into XBLA: Time Pilot. I have to admit, until I heard this announced as an XBLA title, I hadn’t ever heard of the game. I downloaded the trial this morning and gave it a couple of rounds. The jury is still out as to whether I will throw down the measly 400 MS points for it. Just seemed like a “meh” title to me.