Pokemon: Win or Fail? 46-61

• Name: Kurumiru
• Number: 046
• Type: Bug/Grass
• Species: Sewing Pokemon
• Looks like: a worm with a leaf on its head
• Awesome factor: 5/10
• Trivia: It produces silk from its mouth, hence "sewing Pokemon". 

Here we have this game's worm Pokemon. As far as I'm concerned, it looks just as good as any other worm Pokemon. I've never been particularly excited over the design of any worm Pokemon, so he gets a middle-of-the-road score. He wouldn't look out of place, though, in any other generation.

MEH

Pokemon: Win or Fail? 30-45

• Name: Dangoro
• Number: 030
• Type: Rock
• Species: Mantle Pokemon
• Looks like: a bunch of rocks stuck together
• Awesome factor: 1/10
• Trivia: It looks vaguely like a bomb-omb.

Dangoro is obviously meant to be this game's geodude, which means you'll see him every five seconds in caves. What a sorry replacement. He looks like a pile of rocks. I can't tell if that hole in the middle is supposed to be an eye or a mouth or what. 

FAIL

Pokemon: Win or Fail? 15-39

• Name: Choroneko
• Number: 015
• Type: Dark
• Species: Ill-natured Pokemon
• Looks like: a pretty decent cat Pokemon
• Awesome factor: 6/10
• Trivia: n/a

It seems like every generation we end up with a new cat Pokemon. I happen to like this design better than skitty and about 100x more than glameow. Choroneko has kind of an oldschool feel to it that reminds me of the original 151. 

WIN

Pokemon: Win or Fail? 0-15

Because December is apparently Pokemon month, I will attempt to analyze the designs all 156 new Black & White Pokemon for you, the reader. But most importantly I'll tell you if they win or fail.

I apologize ahead of time for the black boxes that cut off the bullet points, and for the outlines in some of the pictures (they go away if you click on them). That's just the way it is!

Game Review: Halo Reach

**Please read about the new review policy first.**

Halo Reach is both the beginning and the end of an era. Nearly ten years ago, Halo Combat Evolved launched with the original Xbox. For better or for worse, it changed gaming forever by single-handedly carrying the Xbox through it’s launch and altering the very core of the FPS genre. Halo 2 added online support and helped to make Live what it is today. Halo has always been an influential franchise and Bungie does it again with Reach. Some changes are subtle and some are grand, but the guys at Bungie really gave this one their all. It is, after all, their final Halo title before they move on to their new ten-year deal with Activision. Halo is far from dead, but this is the last time Bungie will be behind it. You have to wonder whether Microsoft will put as much love and care into the franchise as Bungie has, or if they’ll milk it till the udders are raw. We can only hope for the former.

Building a better review: The new system explained

After much work, the new review format is complete. Here's a breakdown of how it works and what it means to you, the reader

Upcoming reviews

So I got some new games, the reviews for which will be coming up soonish. First down the pipeline will be Halo Reach. What good is reviewing the game three weeks after it comes out and everybody's played it? Because everybody's not played it. A lot of people I know have't played it yet. It's for guys like them.

After that, I'll have Metroid Other M and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. My prediction for Kingdom Hearts is that it'll be the best one yet. Other M, though, I'm really looking forward to because I have no idea if I'm going to love it or hate it.

Final order of business: review structure. Another reason to delay my reviews is because I'm working on a new structure for the reviews. Hopefully, it'll end up being the best quality, most helpful review you've ever read. Fingers crossed.

Holy shit

Album Review: A Thousand Suns

I don't understand it either.

A strange thing happened, Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns caught me completely off guard by not sucking. It's strange because upon hearing the first single off ATS, "The Catalyst," I had given up on the band. It was way too... crap to have come from my former favorite band. Then I heard another song LP released called "Wretches and Kings" and thought it was garbage. I heard a third called "Blackout" and thought it was loud and repetitive. Then "Waiting for the End." With that song everything changed. I began to think of the songs less like individual tracks and more like pieces of a puzzle. "Waiting for the End," "Blackout," and "Wretches and Kings" are all one after another on the album in that order. Listen to them together and they don't suck so much. Listen to the whole album together and you have something that's actually much more consistant and coherent than Minutes to Midnight. Track breakdown inside lies ahead.

Uh-oh: Metroid: Other M soundtrack is bad

So Metroid: Other M got mixed reviews, but it still looks like a hugely fun game to play. I personally haven't played it yet, but as soon as it released I rushed online to check out the next awesome Metroid soundtrack. Except there was no awesome Metroid soundtrack. It was more like a bunch of ambient sounds strung together. Almost every track had no recognizable melody to it save for the few that were ripped from previous Metroid games. In short, it's almost as if the composer was so afraid or screwing up that he reused some old Metroid tunes and didn't do anything specific for the rest of it. So it looks like we'll have to wait for the next Metroid game to get a decent new soundtrack. Shame, because the Prime series was brilliant musically.