In keeping with the spirit of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl friend code exchange, we have now added a new thread to the forums to exchange Mario Kart Wii codes.  Of course, you can always just post your code into the comments below, as well.  So start exchanging those codes and get out on the race course!

No, this is not the Double Dragon game you are looking for.  Yes, it is the one you remember as a kid on the NES and not the arcade version you wished it was at the time.  More disappointing, however, is that it’s not the vastly superior Double Dragon II.  Oh well, perhaps another day.  Still, the original is a decent game, but with so many better brawlers out there, such as Double Dragon II and Final Fight, its fond memories are best left in the past.

Double Dragon
(NES, 1-2 players, Rated Everyone 10+ — Mild Violence, 500 Wii Points)

Double Dragon begins with Billy Lee’s girlfriend, Marian, being kidnapped by a group called the Black Warriors. They demand to know the secrets of Billy’s martial-arts style in exchange for his girlfriend. However, Billy won’t stand for these underhanded tactics and decides to rescue her himself. Help him fight through city streets, buildings, jungles, temples and various other locations in a quest to find his girl. He’ll gain experience by using different fighting techniques to obtain more hearts, which will unlock more powerful techniques to use against his enemies. Keep an eye out for crates, boulders, whips, bats, knives and even dynamite along the way, as Billy can also use them to annihilate opponents. Armed with his mysterious and powerful martial arts, help Billy pummel his way through an array of goons, gang members and other Black Warrior scum to free Marian from their clutches.

Read just about any message board and you are likely to hear how the mainstream media haters gamers and gaming culture.  This is especially true around the release of a news-worthy title such as Grand Theft Auto or Manhunt.  It even seems to make sense.

After all, the mainstream media is filled with critical articles and opinion pieces on video games.  Video game are a new medium, and frankly they scare those entrenched in the world of old media.  Video games, simply put, are the enemy of the mainstream media.  Except, that isn’t true.

Many crowing about “biased” news coverage against games simply haven’t ever investigated the facts.  Why would the media go after their corporate partners?  When was the last time you saw a truly scathing piece about Disney World on ABC News?  The answer is not very recently, or at least not since Disney bought ABC several years back.

The same holds true with video games.  Yes, the mainstream media continues to report some negative stories about video games, but they do the same with movies and music.  This despite the fact that both industries are almost wholly controlled by the same news outlets reporting on them.  For example, look at the chart below.

Of course, this is just a small sampling of how news agencies are tied into the world of gaming.  Sure, these might not be the major profit generators for any of these companies yet, and some are only partial stakes, but the point is: why would they cut off their nose to spite their face?  It doesn’t follow logic.

This is, of course, to say nothing of the countless companies profiting off of video games in a multitude of other ways.  Areas such as film adaptations, game guides, licensing of music, etc. are quite the money generator for many media conglomerates.  Is it even reasonable to assume that they somehow dislike this money?

The counter-argument is then that the enemy is journalists, and not the companies they work for.  Still, they’re bound to some degree by their corporate parent, as mentioned earlier.  Beyond that, though, video games have made major strides in the mainstream media compared to twenty years ago.  Do you recall many reviews running in newspapers upon the release of Super Mario Bros. 2?  Yet, today, many newspapers run reviews and news stories about video games in their entertainment sections alongside movies and television.  Maybe the treatment isn’t yet quite equal to other media, but baby steps are getting it there.

What might be interesting long term to look at is the distribution of negative articles across the media.  For example, sure Manhunt 2 generates negative press, but did it generate nearly as much as films such as Natural Born Killers or The Passion of the Christ did in regards to violence?  Plenty of million sellers such as Madden Football and Super Smash Bros. generate no negative press at all.  The idea that the most violent of games generate negative press just like films and music seems appropriate, and counter-intuitive to cries of bias.

All of this is not to say there isn’t some uneasiness from the established media toward the (relatively) young upstart.  Instead, it is to dispel the myth of the vast media conspiracy.  The mainstream media doesn’t always understand games or gamers, but it is hardly actively trying to be their enemy.  Which is why the gaming community should be very careful how it responds, because theirs is a task of education and not war.

Ever wondered what some folks did before video games?  Before they had a DS or a Wii to draw all those pretty graphics for them?  Well, they drew their own.  It seems some folks simply can’t give up that old lifestyle, though, as they’ve taken to creating their own hand drawn video games.  In this case, you get a pretty fun animation of Mario drawn on the fly.

After one of the longest primary seasons in recent memory, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton appear to have finally decided to settle things within the wrestling ring.  That’s great and all, but real questions still persist.  Does Hillary smell what Barack is cooking?  Is Barack, as Hillary notes, truly a heel?  Will there ever be a good wrestling game again?  So many questions left unanswered.