WCW Monday Nitro (December 25th, 1995) – Seasons Beatings Where The Big Boys Play

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all, because this will be the first of several wrestling related musings to be uploaded within the first hour of the day… before the main event…

To anyone who used to bitch about WWE doing live RAW shows on Christmas, I give you WCW Monday Nitro – live from the Civic Center in Augusta, GA on Christmas Day 1995… but hey, they gave us a hell of a show, not the least of which included the Macho Man defending his WCW World title against the Nature Boy…

Continue reading “WCW Monday Nitro (December 25th, 1995) – Seasons Beatings Where The Big Boys Play”

Review #1268 – Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow (NDS)

Blame it on last minute X-Mas needs and delayed medical treatments taking longer than usual… as well as a much needed nap to catch up… but we got this out later than never… or is it better than nothing? In any event, we begin our descent into Dominus with the dawning of sorrows.

Unless Jay Wants To Do It Too

You folks don’t mind if I hold off today’s upload until later tonight to fix a couple last minute things? Great, fantastic. Here’s something to hold you over; six minutes of Conan O’Brien doing Jay Leno impressions.

Given it’s been fifteen years since the whole Coco/Leno/NBC late night fiasco and I’ve largely been silent on the issue, this is as close as you’ll get to a commemoration of the event.

Sunday Gimmick Table #49 – Atari Flashback 2 (2005) Tomfoolery

An almost hour long video of me playing the follow-up Atari Flashback 2 console from 2005 – the one that more properly replicates Atari 2600 functionality before the eventual emulator boxes from ATGames became a thing. This one was in the can for months and doesn’t go as deep into the weeds as the original Flashback lookback – it’s more general messing around with the games and such. Nonetheless, I felt compelled to add some direct feed video so that you can properly gauge how some of these games turned out.

Most of the games included on the set can be found on your various Atari compilations (Atari Flashback, Atari Vault, Atari 50, etc.) and thus there’s no need for a deep dive into each game.

 

Sunday Gimmick Table #48 – Revisiting The Atari Flashback (2004) Console

Been wanting to do this one for a while and, well, better late than never, I suppose. Despite having done this before, I felt it worth revisiting the old Flashback unit, especially now that I have the means to compare each of the twenty games featured to their original versions (via vintage carts and compilation sets).

You can watch the old lookback here, but I feel this does a better job of comparing and contrasting the various games.

Review #1267 – Rampage (Atari 7800)

Had planned for this to be a review of Tiger Heli, but a change of plans (primarily behind the scenes as I delegate my limited holiday time off in the next coming weeks) forced me to switch things up at the last minute and pull out this Rampage review that I had done back in September as a lark.

And yes, there will be more Atari 7800 reviews in 2026. I still have a couple reviews in the can that requires some more varied (non-sucky) footage to fill the screen. And with the promise of more 7800 games on the horizon from modern Atari, I think the system will see a significant presence in the future… though probably not as strong as it had been represented in 2025.

Next week is the Holiday run, which will include the Castlevania DS reviews, which means the sooner I can get these out of the way, the sooner I can put Order Of Ecclesia in my rearview window where it belongs.

Final X-Mas And Year End Video Slate UPDATE

Change of plans because stuff isn’t working or happening as is should.

Sunday, December 21st
Sunday Gimmick Table #48 – Revisiting ATARI FLASHBACK (2004)
Sunday Gimmick Table #49 – ATARI FLASHBACK 2 (2005) Tomfoolery

Monday, December 22nd
Extra Bits Video

Tuesday, December 23rd
Review #1268 – Castlevania: Dawn Of Sorrow (DS)

Thursday, December 25th
Some Semblance Of X-Mas Special (8 p.m. EST Start time)

Friday, December 26th
DTM Rambles #30 – Mystery Meat (BLOG Exclusive)

Saturday, December 27th
All 2011 Video Game Reviews Re-Uploaded And Embedded

Sunday, December 28th
Sunday Gimmick Table #50 – ???

Monday, December 29th
Review #1269 – Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS)

Tuesday, December 30th
Review #1270 – Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia (DS)

Wednesday, December 31st
End Of Year

THE BITE COMMENTARIES #11 – The Force Undead

So, if all goes according to plan, today’s post should publish on the very same day that, ten years ago, the first Star Wars film of the Disney ownership era as well as the start of a new Star Wars sequel trilogy – The Force Awakens – hit movie theaters to usher in a new era of Star Wars that is new and different… although you wouldn’t have been able to tell from watching the movie.

At the time of release, people considered it to be a return to form after the polarizing prequels. For some, it felt like Star Wars again… for others, it felt too much like Star Wars; to the point of almost being a carbon copy of the original film from 1977.

And then The Last Jedi came along and pretty much shat the bed that The Force Awakens set with its dogged insistence in subverting your expectations; something that has become a meme over the years in and of itself. Regardless of your opinion on the film – and I’ve made my feelings perfectly clear – the fact is that the second chapter of the new trilogy was a divisive film and brought about an air of uncertainty among the Star Wars faithful. And then Solo came along… and finally, The Rise Of Skywalker ended the sequels and any subsequent hope for further annual Star Wars feature films, relegating the franchise to limited series runs on Disney+.

What began as a sign that things were going to be okay… turned out to be anything but… and when one revisits The Force Awakens ten years removed from its initial release, with all these other films out there and everything that has happened, is the movie as good as it was? Has it aged poorly? Was it ever that good to begin with?

The answer is… complicated.

Continue reading “THE BITE COMMENTARIES #11 – The Force Undead”