What You Should Watch: CONTINUE?

Written by Stu Cooper

In the age of the internet it is becoming common that people are now getting entertainment from certain Youtube channels as opposed to Television. This allows for a special type of programming that might not be available on television due to tricky copyrights or budgeting. I try to catch these special channels as often as I can, but one gem just recently came up on my radar, despite being around for the past couple years. That Youtube Channel is known as "ContinueShow". The premise of the channel is that 3 guys host a show called "Continue?" in which they choose a game every week to sit and play, and after about 10-15 minutes of gameplay, they decide whether or not they would enjoy continuing the game or not. Sounds pretty bland when I say it like that, but rest assured it's anything but. It's kind of like those old Beavis and Butthead segments where they would watch music videos and make fun of them. It's a similar vibe here.

The 3 guys are named Nick, Paul, and Josh. They all sit side by side on a couch, and clearly share a on/off-screen friendship that helps create a fun chemistry in the videos. You really feel like you are just hanging out with these guys, gaming like you would with your friends. They are constantly busting each other's balls and being competitive while playing, which gives you another sign that they are actually friends. The humor is top notch and really cracks me up. It's definitely not for people who are easily offended tho. There is definitely some crude humor, but that is my favorite kind, so I don't mind. Also they do not look up anything about the games prior to playing them, so you may get frustrated with them at times if they don't know how to properly play the game. It's suppose to enhance the idea of them going into the game totally blind.

These guys really are funny and from what I've seen they are very humble and thankful for all the fans they've gotten. They reply to almost every comment on twitter/youtube, and they often play games on the show that are submitted by the viewers themselves. This channel and their selection of games actually make me miss those SURGE and 3-D dorito filled sleepovers I had as a child, staying up all-night trying to defeat Shao Kahn with a group of 3-4 other friends. Those were the days indeed. So if you're into gaming, nerd culture, riffing, or nostalgia, there is something on this channel for you to enjoy. It's a really fun channel worth checking out, and if you enjoy one, then I suggest you free up some time because you have about 100 more to go through. So take a look at some of the videos and decide yourself whether or not you would CONTINUE...CONTINUE?

Some of my favorite episodes:

Retro Game Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in "The Fall of the Foot Clan" for Gameboy

Written by Stuart Cooper

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (Gameboy,1990)

One thing I wanted to start doing on this blog was revisit older video games. One system I've always been quite fond of is the Nintendo Gameboy. When I was younger I had a pretty massive gameboy collection but unfortunately sold most of my games. Since then I've gone back and recollected multiple games from my childhood. One of those games was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan". There were 3 TMNT games for the original gameboy and I plan on reviewing all three of them eventually. This game was released in 1990 by Konami in the midst of the TMNT craze that was sweeping the globe. I grew up during the Turtles era and I collected pretty much everything Ninja Turtles. The video games were no exception.

This turtles adventure is a very basic side scrolling adventure game. It is not really similar to any of the arcade or home console games, but is a side scrolling game none the less. The game opens up with a story informing you that April has been kidnapped (go figure) and it is up to the four Ninja Turtles to find and save her. Upon starting up the game you can actually do quite a bit. You can change the controls to fit your comfort, you can choose any of the four turtles, and you can even choose which level to start on! The only catch is that if you don't start from Level 1 you will not receive the full ending of the game, so that is certainly a good reason to just suck it up and start from the beginning. I was able to make it through the entire game and beat it in one sitting, so you shouldn't have too many issues with the difficulty. The game still has a fair amount of challenge, but is relatively short and easy compared to some of the other turtles games. The turtles can do three things, attack, jump, and if you hold down and the attack button you can throw shurikens at your enemy! This makes your turtles pretty fierce and really the only challenging parts will come with some of the jumps. The level design is your basic sewer background, city background, factory, an outdoor level and parts of the technodrome.

The enemies consist of Foot clan members, mousers, flying robots that look like giant flies, and those rolling robots that shoot out wires. You will see lots of familiar characters, so they at least got that much right. The boss battles are my favorite part because they feature pretty much all the iconic villains in the series. The first level boss is Rocksteady, second level is Bebop, third level is Baxter Stockman, fourth level is Shredder, and the final boss is Krang! The villains actually look quite good as well. As a matter of fact the graphics are quite crisp for a early gameboy game, I was very pleased with that aspect of the game. The only issue with the villains is that they are just too easy! Shredder was one of the easiest bosses in the game and you can't help but wish he was more menacing. At first I found it odd that Krang was the boss and not Shredder but I do remember early on in the series Shredder seemed to answer to Krang and do his bidding, so that makes sense. The game also features a great sounding soundtrack considering it's limited gameboy capacity. The tracks are various incarnations of the turtles theme music, with some different music being played during the story scenes and epilogue.

Overall I would consider this game to be a great addition to any classic gaming collection. The game itself can be found pretty cheap on amazon or ebay, I personally got my copy for less than 5 dollars and I would definitely consider it worth the money. If anything it will give you a nice trip down memory lane and remind you of the good old days when cowabunga and pizza were all the rage. Hopefully I can pick up the other two TMNT gameboy games and review those as well.