From the creators of Stuff magazine, with which I was not previously acquainted, came the inaugural issue of Stuff Gamer into my mailbox. The cover's scantily-clad woman - doubtless not a gamer, as gamers don't dress (or don't not dress) like that - suggested a cross between a gaming magazine and Maxim. As a gamer myself, I don't have time for that other gender, except as playmates (for games… er, video games).

After flipping through the pages for too many minutes, I've deduced that Stuff Gamer is the most puerile, infantile, and every other -ile publication I've ever come across. Right in the middle of one of their brief and less-than-incisive "reviews" comes an off-the-wall joke about body parts, sex, or food. It reminds me of when I was playing TRON a few weeks ago, and a little kid didn't understand that I was in the middle of a game and tried getting his hands on the controls. I want to shove these comments out of the article, harranguing them for intruding on what's supposed to be a gaming piece.

And sure, a bit of inanity is welcome - but do we really need to know "Great Moments in Crowbar History," or the best monkey-themed games ever? Some articles are interesting, such as the five worst movies based on video games, or the 50 most controversial video games (Kid Icarus?!), but rare are the pieces that would appeal to anything more than the stereotypical redneck.

Did I mention that this publication is brought to you courtesy Nokia? Their N-Gage is advertised up the yin-yang, with eleven pages between the cover and table of contents. Apparently they even ran out of ads, since some appear multiple times throughout the magazine's 136 pages. Hey, we all know what short attention spans gamers have, right?

Thanks for killing trees, Stuff.

Since yesterday's news post was a not-so-subtle attempt to recapture the past, I thought I'd post a review of a novel the theme of which is exactly that: Lucky Wander Boy.

This past weekend, while visiting a relative of Gamebits, I had the opportunity to visit an arcade at St. Pete's Beach. While most arcades that now dot the landscape tout the usual fare of fighters, racers, and beatmania games released in the past decade, every now and then a classic arcade can be found. This one was not the biggest I'd come across - that would be FunSpot (where the world Donkey Kong record was set in July, and home to many other records), which is smaller since its mid-Nineties renovations to include an virtual, indoor driving range, sigh - but it was the first classic arcade I'd been to in awhile. I enjoyed playing Play Choice 10, Joust, Contra, Donkey Kong Junior, Arkanoid (doh!), Spy Hunter II (I didn't even know there was such a beast), and was chagrined at my apparent loss of accomplishment at TRON. Sigh.

Review of Viewtiful Joe upcoming, and release dates for the N-Gage now available.

Release dates updated, listing 171 PlayStation 2 games, 154 for Microsoft Xbox, 92 on GameCube, 74 Game Boy Advance games, and four on PSOne. Which games do you want this holiday season?

Now up is a review of Otogi, which in gameplay and atmosphere could be considered a Japanese Rygar - much as Rygar is a Greek Otogi. Hmm.

A review of the GameCube version of Soul Calibur II will be here next week. I got so involved playing the game that it took me three weeks to get around to writing about it. Oops.

I've found my likes and attention spans changing over the years. Whereas once I could devote many hours, continuous or otherwise, to a single game (such as Final Fantasy VII), now I prefer more action-oriented games, especially those that can be broken down into manageable chunks, be they rounds or laps. One notable exception is Vandal Hearts II, which I played for 15 hours upon its release, then hungrily devoured it for another 45 hours two years later. I was sorely sad to see it end, and have not touched it since, though I pray for the day Konami announces a third installment. Fie on Suikoden!

Oh, yeah. The Showbits forum is now open on Syndicomm Online. Also under Gamebits management are the Gamebits, Prolific Quill, and Singles communities.