Some years back I got into anime, nothing major but I watched a few series, some thanks to my brother and my cousin. Trigun was an awesome serie, so was Cowboy Bebop. I started watching Inuyasha, but only had access to about 14 episodes so I dropped it, even though I liked it. I later found out that Inuyasha turned out to be some 160+ episodes, which I think is way too long for a serie. I kind of like short series, and 10-20 episodes are an alright number.

I saw a few more series down the line, such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, but eventually strayed away from animated series in favour of Prison Break (which I guess is one of the more recent) and such series.

Now recently I've picked up the interest for anime again. True fans claim you "have to watch animes in japanese, either proper or fan-subbed, but my mind goes numb listening to japanese voices and having to read the subs for too long (this might also be the reason why I prefer shorter series). I prefer english audio as I don't have to think as much and can just sit and enjoy the show. ;)

I watched AD Police Files, a three episodes long "prequel" to Bubbelgum Chrisis (a serie I haven't seen yet). Pretty nice, gore and nudity in a violent mixture. On the DVD I saw trailers for close to 20 series and movies, among them Ray Earth (or Rayearth, whichever) and Vampire Wars, both looking really cool. I'll try and put my hands on both in a near future. :)

Me and my brothers took a walk the other day. Looking for a good place to "run some laps" we decided to wander through a nearby forest. We walked by some parts where we used to play when we were younger, and a lot of thoughts went through my mind, memories of friends, and feelings. I miss being that kid, playing. It made me realise I haven't been truly happy in a long long time..

Since the EU release date of Super Smash Bros. Brawl is yet to be announced, my brother decided to import it. He imported it from America, and since they use the NTSC format we had some issues playing it.

Not so much because of the different formats, a Freeloader handles the conversion to PAL, but both his TV's didn't like the game and displayed it in black & white colours.

Luckilly a friend came by and he brought a TV that could handle the game, and by the time me and my other brother showed up, they had emerged into the "adventure-part" of the game (whatever that's called). We hung around for a bit, watching them play, but it get's a little boring watching others play so we decided on a 4-player Brawl, to get a feel for the controllers.

Both my brothers used Wavebirds for the Gamecube (= easiest controller), and our friend and myself decided to try the Wii Remotes. First we tried with the Nunchuk unit connected, which makes for some relaxed positions since you don't have to hold your hands close together, but on the other hand (no pun intended, har har), it makes controling the characters a bit harder. Mostly sine we're not used to controlling them in this way.

Then we tried without the Nunchuk unit connected, which makes it play somewhat like a NES controller (with added buttons). This however turned out to be an even greater challenge, so we eventually grabbed two spare GC-controllers and hooked them up. Ah, yeah, ez-mode!

So we select our characters. I play as Fox, like I always do. Launch the brawl. Off we go! Everything's great!

But something wasn't right. While fox is awesome in every way (I've mainly played him in both the previous titles), he just didn't cut it. I fell short in every battle, and I couldn't put my fingers to what was wrong. I decided to try one of the new characters introduced in SSBB; Meta Knight, from the Kirby games, to see if a new character could save my day.

While Meta Knight plays in a rather different way, he was a lot of fun and quickly became my "new baby"; apart from one game where I - in much dismay - played as Captain Falcon, the rest was carried out by my carbon-clad knight (naturally I picked the black suit with red glowing eyes :D ).

Brawl is packed with a lot of new neat stuff. A whole lot of cool new levels, characters and items makes for plenty of hours of real good fun. There's also a level editor which we spent a few hours playing with. It's not a very advanced editor and there's not really a whole lot to do, but we built a few variations of a "cube" with only a small hole for entry/exiting where we thre each other around long enough to be shot out of the cube like from a canon. (The more damage you've taken the easier you're thrown around, and since there's walls pretty much all around... :D ).

The graphics and music/sound effects are all beautiful and well mixed together. The only "flaw" I've seen so far is that the camera zooms out very far when you get away from each other in the larger levels, which renders the characters rather small and it's hard to see what they're up to.

I'm not sure whether I'll buy this game when it's released in Europe or just leave it since my brother has it. I would have bought it if he hadn't, though, that's for sure. :D

I haven't played the game fully, only 4-player Brawl so far, but it's a great game with endless hours of fun. There's tons of unlockables and collectables waiting for you.

All in all, Nintendo delivers.

And this short review turned out to be more a rant than a review.. ;)

I love pre-orders; I find myself listening to albums the days before they're set to be released. (And no, I don't count leaked copies of the album. ;) )

A Sense of Purpose dropped in my mail today and I've given it a good listen. In Flames takes a step away from the keyboards with this their ninth studio album. Instead the focus is set back on the guitars and in my opinion it's a step in the right direction. Concidering the last few albums (and even though they reached out to a wider audience), the sound has been a bit "meh" with the keyboards taking (again, in my opinion) too much space (listen to Reroute to Remain and onward). What's left to complain about is the drums, but that's another story; too much energy isn't as bad at a second glance. ;)

A Sense of Purpose is darker than previous albums, the lyrics and artworks are really twisted. And really good. In Flames delivers!