Books like The Game and people like The Amazing Douchebag Mystery (full legal name) from VH1′s The Pickup Artist have been giving men tips to f*ck up their dates for a few years now. While some of their advice is based on true concepts (i.e. girls like to feel connected, such as by making eye contact), the misguided execution tends to be a lot creepier (i.e. not looking away once in a two hour span of time, AKA glaring). Follow these simple tips to ensure that your date is completely and entirely ruined, as if your tophat and Hot Topic gel bracelets didn’t do that already.

Creepster’s Touch

How to apply the Creepster’s Touch:
- Lean in. When she fails to do the same, lean in closer.
- Place a gently squeezing hand on her knee or shoulder every single time you laugh at one of her jokes. Every. Single. Time.
- Laugh at all of her jokes. Laugh at anything that could remotely be considered a joke.
- When leaving the bar together, gently place your arm around her shoulder. When she leans away or stiffens up, remove your arm immediately so as not to blatantly disrespect her. Repeat every five minutes or so. (Hint: ‘blatantly’ is the key word here).

On a date where two people are eagerly awaiting the evening’s sexcapades, touching is a great way to build up tension and show a girl you like her. If you are the only one participating in this type of imagining, however, your touching immediately plummets from ‘sexy’ to ‘scary’.

Blatant Subtlety

How to apply blatant subtlety:
- Randomly invite her to stay over your apartment. Don’t ask her on a date or to ‘hang out’ first. Go straight in for the kill… but don’t mention sex. She can crash, she can sleep there, but it retains some slimy facade of innocence if you imply sex without having to say it.
- ‘Like’ 20-30 of her Facebook photos in a single night, making sure that the pictures come from a wide variety of time periods so that she knows you’ve just browsed through all 3,000 images of her.
- Draw pictures of half-nude princess warriors with her face and body type. Upload to Facebook and tag her in them.

Example:
‘You can just crash at my place for a bit’, says the total creepster via Facebook, to a girl he hasn’t seen or spoken to in a few months. She just posted a status about her upcoming visit to his city of residence, and his invitation arises out of the blue (GET IT BECAUSE FACEBOOK IS BLUE).

Creep Her Friends Out

Methods:

- Wait for her to walk away. Make an awkward sucking sound with your teeth and raise your eyebrows as you nod to her friends, then to her butt, then back at her friends.
- Out dancing? Pretend to hump her from behind when she’s not looking, but her friends are. Make eye contact with them and hold it for an awkward amount of time.
- Quietly whisper creepy little comments to her friends, like ‘I can’t wait’ or ‘I could watch that shit all day’.
- If you somehow end up together in her apartment (consensually) and her roommate comes home, look a little disappointed and say something like ‘Oh…I didn’t know there would be someone else here.’

BONUS:
Constantly Stare at Tits

This may or may not make her hate you for being a creep, but will definitely convince her that you’re stupid.

Note: If one of these tips describes something you do, stop. Stop doing it right now. Except the tits thing, because everyone knows that it’s an involuntary reflex to great tits.

WHAT UP BITCHES?!

Cutest cursing ever.

Oh my…

“Fat Bollocks”

This one doesn’t get good until about a minute in.

Another bollocks bird with a larger vocabulary, including STFU!

This bird isn’t cursing, but he can sing the theme song from Cops and wants to know, bad bird bad bird, whatchoo gonna do?

The very best of Stephen King. (Ranker)

When Nintendo meets Street Fighter. (Unreality Magazine)

The difference between Sarkozy, Netanyahu and Obama? (DJ Mick)

Mother arrested after child brings crack pipe and meth to school ‘Show And Tell. (Guyism)

5 actual health benefits from being a gamer. (MTV Clutch)

5 drive thru pranks that haven’t caught on yet. (College Humor)

A list of potential future facebook changes that might annoy you. (Holy Taco)

Play ‘Knight Age’ for free online. (One More Level)

Jessica White: So hot it hurts. (Maxim)

Text and walk with TransparenTXT for windows phone. (The Campus Socialite)

Today we learned all about that crazy bastard who accidentally invented the X-Ray [at Visual News]

There are also some great tips for all you slackers on your quest to stay motivated through your online college classes [at Campus Socialite]

And for all you movie buffs we’ve got five of the greatest CSI style movies out there [at DJ Mick]

Ever want to know how to successfully win in a bar fight? Learn how [at Made Man]

We also saw a crazy and awesome video of some planes dogfighting [at Dailymotion via PlayboyTV]

Fork Party ran a feature yesterday that we think you should check out again – [at Fork Party]

Some more education for you health buffs – X-Ray’s are actually pretty bad for you! [at Men's Fitness]

The Burger King mascot retired, and we found 17 awesome gifs of him at his best [at Screen Junkies]

A humorous explanation of the American AAA rating being downgraded [at Prose Before Hos]

A guide to being an amateur wine snob may come in handy if you’re going to any weddings this weekend [at 11Points]

Andrew Sullivan’s blog shows in great detail how C students today are getting A grades [at The Daily Beast]

Russian kids are probably clinically insane, as proven by the stunts they do in these videos [at Asylum]

How to get out of a DUI in… Serbia, of all places (hey, everyone likes to travel) [at Banned In Hollywood]

What would Don Draper do? An excellent flowchart [at The Oatmeal]

Louis CK said some funny things on Conan last night, here’s a video proving it [at Guyism]

10 psychological differences between men and women… only ten? [at Shave Magazine]

Things that we’ve had to learn the hard way – there are quite a bit of those [at Mental_Floss]

Ted Williams, the bum with the golden voice, claims to have been financially r-worded… uh oh [at TMZ]

Rodents of unusual size… surfacing at central park? No way! [at Gamma Squad]

5 examples of forensic science facilitating some pretty hard crimes [at This Blog Rules]

If there’s a game you’re wanting to play, try this one called “I Paid For It” [at One More Level]

Some of the best videos on the internet (this week) over [at College Humor]

Some dudes get dared to randomly sing in a public area, this one is by our real-life friends [at Make A Dare]

This pitcher really sucks at diving into home plate [at Bro Bible]

What’s your tree? Tree of life contest [at Boo Ya Pictures]

The trick to all this is access. Famous people spend a lot of time finding ways to judge non-celebrities because being fawned over is nice, but only when it can give you something. Usually that means opportunities to increase their fame and cash money stores. But you don’t roll like that because you’re an everyday type of dude. That doesn’t mean you can’t have access to their world though. And do it on the cheap. Low-tier celebrities are the way in, and you don’t need to spend a fortune to win their favor.

D-List Celebrity #1: Jenn Sterger
Location: Within 20 feet of John Salley. Just look for the tallest black dude at the douche-swank sports bar.
First Line: I think ESPN would actually appreciate your expertise and not just use you for your chest and pretty smile.
What you’d spend the $1000 on: Salmon colored polo shirts, A Yankee fitted cocked to the corner, and expensive well-worn jeans. Pop that collar and smile a lot.

Nevermind that Jenn Sterger tripped and fell into fame because she facebooked hundreds of pictures of herself at Florida State games. Nevermind that she put it into the pipeline that The Greatest Quarterback Of Our Generation, Brett Favre, sexted her his ‘Li’l Favre.’ Jenn Sterger is a hot chick that likes sports. Likes talking about sports. Likes wearing tight shirts and jiggling while talking about sports.

A girl like this would make all your buddies jealous. All your ex-girlfriends would throw knives at your pictures and call you for one last desperate, shame-filled hook up. And every time you got to put a grip on her surgically altered-boobie you’d know you’ve (hopefully) gone somewhere few had ever gone before.

D-List Celebrity #2: Snookie
Location: Any club where just knowing its name would make your friends punch you in the face.
First Line: Five jaeger bombs and a philly cheesesteak hoagie, miss?
What you’d spend the $1000 on: Enough food and drink to make her sick ($1000 is cutting it close here).

Snookie is a rare, prescious creature. A lot of folks might look down on you for dating her, but they’re idiots. She’s got money. Cash money. And lots of it coming outta that massive crack of hers.

Raid your savings account and hook a sister up. Then follow her to the bathroom and hold her hair back as she pukes. And when she dives in for the puke-flavored makeout, don’t flinch. You’ll have her for life.

D-List Celebrity #3: Jackie Chan
Location: Look for the group of asian Secret-Service-looking guys walking around Chinatown.
First Line: Chris Tucker was a great prop choice.
What you’d spend the $1000 on: Kung Fu and stunt classes.

Yes, Jackie Chan is a D-List celebrity. Name one movie he was the single lead star in that broke $100 million in the US.

I’m waiting.

He’s a megastar in China. Here, he’s still famous. But the only fans that go crazy over seeing him are the acne-ridden, lispy, know-it-all fanboys that can’t wait to sucker you into a conversation concerning the merits of sub-titles over voice-dubbing.

Jackie Chan is so mega-famous in China though that anyone around him gets a LOT of lady attention. So if you wanna join his security/stunt crew take those classes, take those lumps, and get you some ‘mushu.’

But speaking of D-List Celebrities that love ‘mushu’…

D-List Celebrity #4: Chris Tucker
Location: Any buffet in Los Angeles or Las Vegas.
First Line: I know this great after-hours buffet and strip club…
What you’d spend the $1000 on: If you haven’t figured it out, food. Lots of it. And cheap.

Chris Tucker rocketed to fame playing Smokey in Ice Cube’s ‘Friday.’ A few sparkling guest shots in other movies won him the role of Detective Carter in Rush Hour. The movie did so well that he wanted $20 million to come back. And they paid him. Twice.

He has done precisely nothing since then besides chew his way through L.A. and Vegas. Well, he sat next to Mariah Carey in a music video once and did some stuff with Michael Jackson including, but not limited to, appearing in multiple Jackson videos and tributes and the Michael Jackson trial as a witness.

Chris Tucker recently returned to performing stand-up, but his true love is still chillin’ out with a mouthful of grub. So if you can find a hot stripper that sweats bacon grease get ready for the big time…or as big as he can get you.

D-List Celebrity #5: Cash Warren
Location: The beach or Jessica Alba’s vagina.
First Line: No, she doesn’t need to do nudity. You’re the only one that should ever see her naked.
What you’d spend the $1000 on: Lawyers to negotiate ‘No Nudity Clauses.’

Jessica Alba is light years more famous than her husband, Cash Warren. She’s so famous I’m sure people try to push him aside when he walks the red carpet alongside her to view her next bomb of a movie. Despite this, she remains famous. Probably because she won’t get nekkid.

Cash stays at home planning vacations, changing diapers, and waiting for Alba to get home so he can knock her up again. So long as she remains fully clothed onscreen she may keep getting high-paying gigs. And he can watch ESPN and porn while the baby’s quiet.

Get that money together, grab a good lawyer (preferrably a self-righteous Republican with Tea Party connections) and let him hash it out with those drooley, pervey Hollywood directors trying to get his girl’s tits out. This get could even net you a movie career as a professional extra. And getting paid to be an extra in a crappy movie is better than your current job, right?

Ryan was known for all kinds of hilarious “Jackass” stunts, but none as insane as the toy car in the rectum that he endured to help bring “Jackass” to the forefront of the entertainment industry. This is a sad day, and Ryan–you will truly be missed. Leave your favorite Dunn “Jackass” moments in the comments.

[Source: TMZ]

For as long as there have been video games, there have been bosses. Some can be pathetic and undeserving of their title while others can be stressful, annoying, psychotically hard, carpal tunnel syndrome inducing bastards that grab you by the balls and say, “Hey…f@#$ you!”. I have encountered many of such monstrosities in my time and, as much as I’d hate to admit it, I have simply given up on a couple occasions and never looked back. So for those who have fought tooth and nail for hours and days on end to defeat these bosses, this list is for you.

Please keep in mind before reading on that:
1. These are mostly final boss’ and therefore, the article WILL more then likely contain spoilers.
2. There are so many bosses out there so to make the list NOT take my entire life to make, I’ve excluded handheld games.
3. This is my PERSONAL list. It is in no specific order and everyone will surely find at least one boss they believe should be included. I love to hear your contributions but please keep the negative comments to yourself.

Emerald Weapon – Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy 7 was an amazing game. Players can debate it all they want but it’s a fact that 7 is, and always will be, the most popular title in Squaresoft/Enix’s series. Near the end of the game a group of powerful monsters called, “Weapons” are released from the Earth and the last 3 become optional bosses for the player to confront. “Ruby Weapon” and “Emerald Weapon” are both extremely challenging unless you have the perfect setup and strategy.

Emerald being the harder of the two (Ultima Weapon, not so much). Emerald weapon is found under the Ocean, floating around and unless you do a special side mission before hand, a 30 minute timer will be included in the battle. It’s highly recommended that you get rid of that timer unless you have that previously mentioned setup and strategy. It is worth mentioning, however, that once you do have the perfect plan for Emerald, he can be beaten in minutes but to the players without that knowledge, especially when the game first came out in ’97, he was crazy hard.

King Bohan – Heavenly Sword

If this list was in any sort of order, King Bohan would definitely be near the top. Heavenly sword was a pretty unpopular game when it was released as one of the first for the PS3 but, to be honest, it’s not all that bad. It was one of the very first games and came with the first released of the PS3 as a bundle so it had it’s issues but it had some really neat dynamics that made it unique. The game itself wasn’t overly hard (minus a couple instances) but it was when you finally reached King Bohan in the midst of a war zone at the end that many players tossed their controllers at the TV.

The original fight with Bohan is difficult, but not impossible. It was when he sprouted demon wings and upped his game by about a thousand that things got rough. I had my best friend over fighting this guy for hours with no success. He was simply too fast, too strong…too impossible. I never beat him but to those who have, I congratulate you.

Adam the Clown – Dead Rising

Adam may be more of a personal thing for me but I’m sure there are a number of players out there who agree with me when I say this clown is a straight up piece of shit. He’s scary as hell and seems to be able to take clip after clip of bullets to the face without stopping.

Dead Rising offered a lot of really hard bosses and, for many, was more of a “kill some zombies in your spare time” type of game due to it’s constant ticking clock through, which meant you were constantly on a time limit but Adam was something else for sure. This clown would chase me around his dark little section of the mall with his chainsaws while I pissed myself, unloading everything I had in him. Dead Rising’s odd system allowed me to keep doing the same missions over and over to level up my character and eventually I came back and beat the living crap out of him. That was, of course, after much tiresome leveling.

Zeus – God of War 3

I went into God of War 3 expecting to have a few pretty difficult encounters throughout the story but Zeus was one of the most epic battles I’ve ever had. He was the perfect ending to the trilogy and proved to be quite the opponent. I didn’t exactly expect the God of all Gods to just let me beat him but he kicked the crap out of me quite a few times before I emerged victorious.

The battle takes on a couple different “phases” before you finally get the rewarding opportunity to have your with his face…with your FISTS! Nevertheless, Zeus was a hard guy for sure and I look forward to seeing how they plan on topping him in the next installment of the God of War series.

Kessler – Infamous

Kessler is only revealed in voice for a good portion of the game; hearing his rusty voice through recordings found throughout the city. When he is finally revealed, I knew he wasn’t going to be a fun fight. He can move lightning fast and move anything from a rock to a city bus with his mind.

The final confrontation with Kessler takes place in the crater you woke up in at the start of the game and playing through a second time definitely made me shutter, waking up in the place where I will defintiely have my ass handed to me 15-20 hours later. It took me 12 attempts to finally best Kessler and even then, it was just by a hair and, frankly, I’m too afraid to try it a second time.

Jecht/Final Summon – Final Fantasy X

I am a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series and “X” is a close tie with “VII” for favourite title in the series. An emotionally driven story finally reuintes a young man with his, much hated, father. They share some emotional little dialogue before he transforms into “The Final Summon”, which just looks amazing and incredibly intimidating. To be honest, playing through the game now, I can beat him without having to retry usually because I make sure to get every weapon possible and do some serious levelling beforehand but for a player going through the story normally, Jecht becomes next to impossible.

Halfway through the battle, Jecht will pull a huge sword from his chest and up the difficulty that much more. Also, the stone collumns on either side of him that constantly regenerate his health and always keep coming back after death don’t exactly help either. (It’s worth mentioning that an optional boss called, “Omega” is considered the hardest in the game but for some reason or other, I just didn’t find it hard)

Sigma: Final Form – Megaman X

Let’s just get this covered before I say anything. Megaman bosses have always been and will always be very hard. They are made to have one specific strategy used to defeat them and, without it, you’re usually dead. Sigma is a much larger step above the rest as the final boss of Megaman X. He starts off as a humanoid looking character, who then transforms upon his death into some sort of robot that takes up most of the screen. I’m not going to lie, I’ve never beat Sigma in his final form and don’t much care to. He is one tough cookie for sure.

Zedonius (2nd encounter) – Ninja Gaiden 2

Zedonius was only crazy hard during the second battle with him. During this fight you can get lucky and have Zedonius spend most of his time on the ground, in which the fight isn’t incredibly hard. If you aren’t so lucky like most of us, Zedonius will stay in the air for the most part and hurl wave after wave of fireballs at you that will take down your health at a ridiculous speed.

As much as I’ve looked around, no one seems to know a way to force the demon down to Earth. He will land when he pleases and there’s nothing you can do about it. This fight is 90% dodging and 10% getting a lucky shot in.

Punch-Out – Mike Tyson

We all played Punch-Out as kids. The game was fun but no one really tried to make their way through the entire thing. You fight a few guys until it gets hard and you stop but once the player rose through the ranks, they received the opportunity to face the man himself; Mike Tyson. Tyson must have had a large ego to feed because they made his character crazy hard. One good punch could easily knock your character out for good and Mike would just stand there with his stupid smile, mocking you…please don’t kill me Mr. Tyson.

Absolute Virtue – Final Fantasy 11

I definitely saved the most unbelievable sounding boss for last. This was a boss that I had to experience through a friend who actually played the game. Final Fantasy 11 was solely an online game and I had never found intrest in games of the sort (before DC Universe) so I sat and watched him crusade to fight this crazy being known as “Absolute Virtue”. The beast was confronted by a group of players after it was first released years ago and the battle went on for an alleged 30 some hours before five players quit the game completely on the spot. It was also said that the long and physically stressful time in front of the screen in intense combat actually caused some players to vomit. If that’s not a hard boss battle, I don’t know what is.

A video was released by the game creators, hinting at how to defeat the beast and it can apparently be beaten within a half hour now. For the record, my friend did not triumph over Absolute Virtue.

*Feel free to shout your input, who’s the hardest boss you’ve ever encountered???

Although its roots trace back to 1939 under a different name, Marvel emerged in 1961 and began publishing some of today’s most memorable characters such as The Fantastic Four. Stan Lee, along with other legendary artists such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko were hard at work creating the heroes their readers would come to admire for decades to come.

The process started out slow but eventually grew into a massive company with an entire universe of characters filling the pages of comic books around the world. Some characters have come and gone in popularity while others have stood the test of time since the beginning and have grown to become the most memorable characters to our modern society’s readers. I’m going to celebrate the long lives of these characters with a series of articles chronicling the most epic and prominent events in the comic book lives of Marvel heroes who have become household names and rose to their current “legendary” status.

Let’s kick off the series with a character who is possibly Marvel’s most popular character today…

Raised as an orphan by his aunt and uncle after his parents’ death, Peter Parker was a stereotypical nerdy social outcast in highschool: an academic, quiet, bullied young man just trying to get through school.

While attending a science exhibit, Peter is bitten by a radioactive spider which gives him his abilities: super strength, agility, and a “spider sense” that helps him detect any danger around him, as well as the ability to adhere to any surface.

At first, Peter donned a very makeshift costume and paraded around as a TV personality, fighting to make some money, but when his newfound arrogance causes him to let a small time theif go after a robbery. That same robber later mugs and kills his uncle, Ben. Peter is haunted by his mistake and now fights crime with his uncle’s message burned into his mind: “with great power, comes great responsibility”.

The Death of Uncle Ben

This was the event that put the gears into motion. Depicted in Amazing Fantasy #15 (first appearance of Spider-Man), this was the first real event in Spider-Man’s life. Sometimes it takes something as strong as death to really knock some sense into someone and this is the mascot for exactly that. Spider-Man grew cocky and arrogant after becoming a celebrity of sorts and payed the highest price for his insulance.

Spider-Man constantly battles his inner self for being a contributor to his uncle’s death but has learned from the experience and has since taken on the strict role of a Superhero with a motivation that will never die.

The Death of Gwen Stacy

When Peter met Gwen Stacy, sparks instantly flew and she became his first girlfriend. While Spider-Man’s main love interest is depicted modernly as Mary Jane Watson, Gwen was the hero’s true companion. In issue #121 in ’73, Green Goblin proved himself to be Spider-Man’s greatest and most deadliest foe.

The plan started out as per usual. The villain captures the hero’s love interest and holds her captive and the hero saves her in the nick of time but Spider-Man’s story has a much darker tone. Goblin throws Gwen off the Washington Bridge and, in a desperate attempt to save her in time, Spider-Man spins a net of sorts with his webbing, which works but ends up killing her in the end as he eventually figures out the whiplash from the impact of the web as such high speed was what ultimately killed her.

Ben Reilly

Try to follow along in this labyrinth…When one of Peter’s professors (Miles Warren/The Jackal) blamed him for the death of Gwen Stacy, he began experimenting with cloning and eventually made a clone of Peter, discovering he was Spider-Man in the process. Spider-Man and the clone were forced to fight each other, both believing they were the original. The clone soon joined with Spider-Man to defeat the Jackal but died in the final explosion, leaving Spider-Man by himself again.

Five years later, the clone returned claiming he survived the explosion and has been living under the name, “Ben Reilly”. A test is taken to truly prove who is the original and, in a true shocker, Spider-Man was found to be the clone and Ben Reilly the original. Peter gave up his life as Spider-Man and began to live a normal life with his pregnant wife, Mary Jane until he discovers Green Goblin has rigged the test and has been controlling everything since the start of the cloning saga. Ben ends up dying, saving Spider-Man’s life during battle and turns to dust, proving Spider-Man is, in fact, the original.

Secret Wars

The Secret Wars was a 12 issue mini series in ’84. The story was of a cosmic being called, “The Beyonder” who has been watching the Marvel universe for quite some time, intrigued by the arrival of so many heroes and villains. The Beyonder teleports chosen heroes and villains to a distant planet called, “Battleworld” where he tells them they must fight each other and whoever remains will be given literally anything they want, which he can conjure with his vast cosmic powers.

Amongst the heroes are Captain America, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Randy Rhoades filling in for Iron Man in his suit, and The Hulk to name just a few with villains such as Magneto, Doctor Doom, The Lizard, Kang the Conqueror, and Absorbing Man. A series of battles ensue and several events occur during the series but Spider-Man’s important event of a black and white suit symbiote suit he replaces his own with, unaware of it’s dominant aspects. This suit corrupts it’s host and is brought back to Earth, where it creates both Venom, and the psychotic serial killer, Carnage.

The Other

This little saga is, by far, my favourite above all others. It’s the darkest part of Spider-Man’s history. Published between 2004 and 2005, the story starts with Peter having random black outs and dark and disturbing dreams. As Spider-Man is stopping a new enemy called, “Tracer” from robbing a bank, he is shot in the shoulder and goes to a doctor recommended by Captain America. The doctor takes a blood test and informs Peter that he is dying. Tracer later confronts Aunt May in her house claiming he is a reserve Avenger and here to watch over her. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is confronted by Morlun who claims he’d much rather watch him slowly deteriorate then fight him. Peter returns home to find Tracer there and chokes him to death then tells Aunt May about his condition.

After seeking out a cure from various sources with no success, Peter preps himself for death. While swinging around the city, he is suddenly attacked by Morlun. The battle turns brutal as Peter finds himself at a loss. Morlun then does the unspeakable and rips out Peter’s left eye and eats it then beats him to a bluddy, near death pulp. Morlun flees when the police arrives but finds Peter later in his hospital bed. After breaking MJ’s arm in the hospital room Peter’s spider side takes over and, with the last of his energy, bites into Morlun’s neck, killing him instantly. Peter dies and the Avengers hold a private funeral for him, at which point Peter sheds his skin and dissapears without anyone noticing. He hangs under the Brooklyn Bridge for days in a caccoon before being reborn with new “spider powers” including night vision.

Civil War

Civil War was the largest events in Marvel Comics. It included every popular character you could think of and seperated the entire Marvel Universe into two groups. After a series of incidents that shook the faith the government had in superheroes, they finally put the Superhuman Registration Act (SRA) into effect. The act stated that all superhumans must become soldiers of the government and reveal their identities or be labelled as an enemy and placed in jail.

Iron Man believed it was the only way and that the government could be trusted while Captain America believed superhumans deserved to have the freedom of choice and should not have to reveal their identities. Heroes began taking sides and a war was waged. At the start of the war, Spider-Man reluctantly took Iron Man’s side and was given a new suit containing retractable “spider legs” he used in combat. Spider-Man used the suit to best Captain America in combat and soon revealed his identity to the world on TV but began to have doubts in Iron Man. He then flees with MJ and Aunt May to join Captain America’s rebellion but when Aunt May is shot by a sniper and said not to survive very long, Spider-Man desperately makes a deal with Mephisto to save his Aunt in exchange of his marriage to MJ, and all memories of it, be erased.

Currently, Peter lives his life single with no memory of any sort of relationship with MJ and has gone back to his roots as a single, poor photographer for the Daily Bugle.

Being a kid is the best thing in the world. Playing around all day and not having a care in the world are things we take for granted. It isn’t until later in life that we truly realize what we had and how much life seems to suck now that we have responsibility and everything revolves around money. I’ll be turning 21 in May and, although some may say that’s still very young, I’m starting to really make the progression into adult life and realize the care free years of my life are over and it seems like only yesterday.

When I think back on my childhood, there’s a lot of memories of family, friends, school, etc. but another memory that stands strong in my mind is the games I played as a child. For me, personally, games form strong memories simply because they were something that made me happy and were something I did, and still do, really enjoy. I basically learned to read from strong textual games, such as Final Fantasy. Games were more then flashing lights and sounds to me; they were stories played out at my hands and they’re part of what made me want to become a writer.

With this in mind, I figured I’d take a look back on the games that left the strongest impression in my mind to this day. These are the games that make me smile when I look at them. Although some may still be quite popular, for originalities sake, I have not included the largest games that everyone remembers such as Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Mario Bros.

Shinobi 3

Sega Genesis was the first real game console I remember playing as it was the most popular thing at the time. The, now annoying, “Sega!!!!” intro included in every SEGA game burrowed itself into my brain. Shinobi was the first game I recieved with the Genesis and I suppose I was lucky it was such a great game because it’s all I had for the longest time. I had known nothing of the Shinobi series (or any games in general) when I started playing the third installment but it was okay because it didn’t follow the story of a previous game in the series and stood on it’s own as a solid game overall. Playing as a ninja, fighting all sorts of enemies and unique bosses through some even more unique side scrolling levels kept me amused as I struggled to reach the end of the story and receive that rewarding scene of the enemy base crumbling in the distance, similar to that of many Castlevania games.

Streets of Rage 3

Like Shinobi, I had no idea what Streets of Rage were when I first rented it from my local video store but it had a man with a flaming fist, a robot, and a Kangaroo on the front and that’s all I needed to know. Some seem to think that Streets of Rage 3 was too much flash and that it wasn’t as good as it’s predecessors and, after playing through the originals, I can see that some of the original grit of the first two was lost in the third butI still love the “wow” appeal of the new game. SOR is you’re stereotypical side scroller but the third game added a lot of colourful characters and scenery that made it Grand Theft Auto’s “Vice City”, which I also preffered to the originals. Since the cliffhanger ending to the game, there has yet to be a final chapter released but the fan base is so strong that a small company called, “Bomber Games” recreated the series in a remake using the same old levels and music. It was a polished version of all three SOR games combined into one, much longer, game everyone was asking for. I highly recommend you download it at: http://www.bombergames.net/sorr_project/.

Spiderman and Venom: Seperation Anxiety

Although I’ve written about another Spiderman game of a similar title, this is the sequel and is the one that has the strongest imprint in my mind. It was another one of the few games I rented constantly from the video store. I actually bought these games from the store as well before they went out of business but have since manged to lose them over time. This Sega side scroller featured a dark story of Spiderman and Venom once again teaming up to fight five symbiote spawns called, Riot, Agony, Lasher, Scream, Phage and, of course, Carnage himself. It’s a great beat-em-up with an awesome story that I recommend everyone checks out.

Ecco the Dolphin

Honestly, I have no idea why this game stands strong in my mind. Making this list forced me to sort through the many games that I can remember crystal clear and pick out the ones that stand as the most prominent. I purchased Sonic’s Genesis Collection a few years ago and Ecco and it’s sequel both appeared in the game roster. Playing this recently made for a pretty boring game, to be honest but this list is simply the games I remember the most and, therefore, don’t technically have to be good in any sense. Ecco basically puts the player in the role of a dolphin in the ocean. You swim around talking to other dolphins via sonar and complete random tasks to advance to other parts of the Sea. I can’t say I recommend this game to anyone but if there is some reason this game has made it into Genesis’ modern collection game, please let me know because I can’t see it.

Diddy Kong Racing

When the Nintendo 64 first came out, I was reaching the strongest point of my video gaming life. I was finally starting to really look into gaming and what “bits” and “graphics” were. The age of N64 and Playstation marks the birth of 3D graphics. No more side scrolling and pixellated blurs on the screen. Although most games were blocky and obviously in the first stages of 3D, the N64 is still my favourite console to date because it produced games that made the strongest impressions in my youth. I’m no fan of racing games and only a couple have made it into my personal collection over the years…Diddy Kong Racing was the first. Nintendo was , and still is, all about colour and texture in their games. Being so young, I think the colours and characters really made this game shine that much more for me. I played this game for hours, trying to beat extremely difficult races towards the end in either a go kart, hovercraft, or plane. The main objective was to free roam around a large “lobby” island, earning enough gold balloons through racing to unlock new races and areas. Once the game was beat there was still so much to do that I’ve still not completed the entire game. Perhaps one day I’ll go back and finally get my revenge on a game that stole so much of my childhood.

Star Fox 64

Star Fox was introduced to me through my best friend at the time. We would often swap our N64 games and Star Fox was the best swap I ever made. I hadn’t played the SNES Star Fox so the N64 version was my introduction to the series…and what a great introduction it was. Although the game was relatively easy and seemed to go by too fast, Star Fox was a game I played over and over. This cartridge I do still own and play often enough on my dusty N64. The game kept itself fresh by having multiple paths you could take through planets in a solar system. Some paths were a challenge to get to but offered unique gameplay rewards. Most levels offered the use of the flying ship called the “Arwing” while a couple offered a tank and one, a submarine. It was a very different take on the game playing strictly on the ground or in water. If you somehow haven’t played Star Fox 64 by now, see a doctor because something is wrong with you.

Ocarina of Time

Although Link sits on the border of being a legendary character that literally everyone knows, I had to squeeze Ocarina of Time into this list because this game gave was one of the only no brainers for me. It was another game introduced by my best friend at the time. We would stay up until the early morning in his basement playing through the long and epic jounrney through Hyrule. The game itself has become a classic, with the original converted over to Wii’s virtual console and a 3D version soon to be released for the Nintendo 3DS. Ocarina of Time takes players on an epic adventure throughout the land of Hyrule to rescue the princess Zelda from the clutches of the evil Ganondorf. I recently bought the game on Wii’s virtual console and it proved to be an exciting and challenging game still. Remaining so popular throughout the years just proves that Ocarina of Time was truly a rare gem in the world of gaming.