Early Sunday morning, say around midnight, Dexter and I drove up to the local Gamestop to pick up our pre-purchased copies of Smash Bros. Brawl. I thought there would be maybe 10-15 guys with DS systems in tow. Wow, was I wrong.

The line was at least 150-200 deep. There was also a noticeable age variation, although the average age looked to be around 16. I am twice as old as the average gamer in that line. Hell, a lot of them were piling up in vans with Mom and Dad driving.

This turnout really surprised me. I knew that Melee was the best selling game on the Gamecube, but I didn’t think that there were this many Brawl fans in my town. Shows what I know. Being as how it was a midnight event, I have to imagine that all the people present would be the hardcore fans of the series. I’ll be interested in seeing what kind of legs the series will end up having. Will it surpass Melee’s worldwide sales? Seems pretty obvious given the expanded Wii audience. How many will we be looking at when all is said and done?

As for the game itself, I’m loving it. I never got into the N64 version because it just wasn’t Street Fighter 2 enough for me. I couldn’t wrap my head around the concept of knocking people of stages as opposed to draining an energy bar. With the Cube version, we never really played it a whole lot. Not to say that I didn’t put some time into it, but I never hit that obsessive level gamer time into it. I unlocked all the trophies and characters and didn’t touch it much after that. For some unknown reason, Melee never caught on during our weekly gaming nights. I’ll be making a concerted effort to play the hell out of some Brawl and give Rock Band a much-needed rest.

My only complaint so far is not having Lyn as a playable character. Worse is that they taunt me by having her as an assist trophy. Ah well, I guess you can’t have everything.

- Dover

So my good friend Dover purchased a sweet and spicy DS title for me on my birthday - Cooking Mama 2! Yes, I said Cooking Mama 2. WHAT?! You got some kind of problem with that? I have become quite good with my pearing knife, so keep the comments to yourself or you may end up in one of my recipes! Continuing.

The game is fun; I know that some of you out there are going to question that statement. I understand that not all gamers are going to get a kick out of making corn soup, but there really is something to be said for the tactile feel of this game. All the motions are done on the touch screen. For instance, stirring, chopping (Broccoli),filleting, and pearing. It all feels very natural. I mean when you draw the stirring motion on the screen it stirs, and feels right. Get my meaning?

It is done in the cutesy, Sanrio Hello Kitty art scheme. That is probably enough to scare some of you away. In fact the game itself is very saccharine - that may be my new favorite word. "If you mouth off to me again I may have to kick your SACCHARINE ASS!" Nice. Anyway, there are a ton of recipes from which to choose, a practice mode before you actually go before the judges’ panel, and a ton of unlockable items. None of this have I paid a lot of attention aside from the recipes. However, I understand that some of the items are décor for the kitchen and for Mama which is all a bit too paperdoll for me, but to each his or her own.

Cooking Mama is a nice break, plain and simple. So grab your apron, fire up the stove, and do what I do on a boring day in the mall . . . make kimchee!

- Beau