Sometimes nothing beats watching old Muppets clips on Youtube.

I’m a big fan of flying games in general, but not such a big fan of real-world jet fighter stuff. Even still, I was always curious about Heatseeker for Wii. Ben from 4cr recommended it to me way back when, but I never got around to giving it a try…until last week.

Turns out Ben was right — it’s actually pretty cool. The game itself is rough, and it has some atrocious graphics on the ground, but the controls are surprisingly good, even great.

In the default control scheme, you pilot your ship via the Wiimote with a cursor on-screen, and the Nunchuck’s analog stick acts as your throttle. It may sound a bit tame, but once you get the hang of it, it’s wicked. The alternate control scheme lets you pilot your craft via Nuchuck motion control, leaving commands, etc. to the Wiimote.

Codemasters did a slick job of making the high-speed flying experience work on Wii, and it’s a real shame we haven’t seen other developers, not to mention Nintendo, take this kind of thing further. If a small developer with a minor budget could crank out innovative flight controls a few months after the console launched, then why hasn’t anybody capitalized? I’d even dig Factor 5-tweaked Wii-makes of the Rogue Squadron series with controls similar to this. Here’s hoping Namco-Bandai’s Sky Crawlers turns out well.

Wii is starting to remind me of N64 — one or two amazing games per year, lots of trash in between — only with massive mainstream appeal thanks to the Mii-starring titles. Which, yes, I love. But I wish we could see more quality experimentation from time to time.

The Clone Wars is a complete flop. Now let’s see how long it takes for GL to cry foul on the public for not liking good movies anymore.

Took my wife to see Wall-E last Saturday, and realized two things: A) It’s one of the coolest, most heartfelt movies ever made, and B) M-O is pure, unadulterated genius. Pic.

Also, the fact that more people have seen Hancock is criminal.

Ever gone to see a movie that everyone calls the greatest thing ever, only to walk out scratching your head? That’s what happened to me yesterday with The Dark Knight.

Don’t get me wrong — I thought a lot of stuff in it was awesome. Stuff like…

1. The Joker: Not a whole lot to say that hasn’t been said already, but still…the character was written, directed, and played to utter perfection. One of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed in a film. Incredible, and incredibly real. Every scene he’s in is pure magic.

2. References to Batman ‘89: I haven’t heard anyone else mention these, but I thought they were just plain rad. Joker’s ‘meeting’ with the mob bosses seemed an obvious nod to Jack Nicholson’s classic ‘hot-under-the-collar’ scene, the Ledger-with-gun vs. Batman-on-bike showdown immediately reminded me of the old Batwing crash, and Joker’s fall/ankle catch at the end brought to mind the climax of Burton’s flick. Very cool stuff.

3. The semi-truck flip: I jumped in my seat out of pure adrenaline. Wow. The whole chase sequence kind of confused me visually, but it was still pretty wicked.

4. The Batbike: I’m absolutely crazy about the Tumbler, and while its early demise bummed me out, the Batbike blew me away.

5. The FX: I think I spotted one or two CG doubles due to their animations, but that’s probably just because I was looking for them. Nolan’s dedication to non-CG solutions — and masking whatever CG is employed — is a true breath of fresh air.

6. The jailbreak sequence: Specifically, the muted shot of Ledger’s Joker hanging his head out of the window of the swerving cop car. Utterly brilliant, and without a doubt my favorite moment in the film. Could very well be one of the most powerful shots I’ve ever seen.

7. The score: I wanted to hear it before watching the movie, so I dialed up my good friend at Warner Records and he hooked me up with a copy. Good thing, too, because I don’t think I’d have appreciated the music nearly as much if I’d first heard it within the context of the film. It’s a fantastic score, but a lot of its subtlety is lost onscreen behind the sound and dialogue.

8. The sense of terror: When it worked, it really worked.

Now for the stuff I didn’t like…

1. The Batman voice: Christian Bale makes a fantastic Bruce Wayne, but I simply cannot take his Batman seriously, and this is the main reason. I felt exactly the same with Batman Begins. So, so, so corny. I know most people have no problem with it, but it drives me up a wall. The constantly-angry face only makes matters worse.

2. Finale: I couldn’t buy the water supply nonsense in the end of Batman Begins, but it was over quickly enough, and I still managed to be entertained. This cellphone sonar + two boatloads of annoying people stuff, however, almost put me to sleep. I understand that they’re trying to tap into the post-9/11 world’s fear of mass terrorism, but the only part of it that I found convincing was the Joker — his character, his actions, and his motives.

In the first film, the Ra’s al-Ghul pseudo-mysticism provided a big enough blanket to cover the slightly over-the-top stuff, but this was supposed to be harsh reality, and I wasn’t sold. If I wanted to see a disaster movie about random people being thrown into a trying situation and having their integrity tested, I’d rent a timeless classic like Daylight.

3. Gotham City: Why? Because it wasn’t Gotham — it was Chicago. In Batman Begins, I felt like I was immersed in Christopher Nolan’s very own Gotham, and while I had certain misgivings about its execution, it was cool overall. This time around, however, it’s like no effort at all was made to mask the fact that the film was shot in Chicago.

As someone who was born and raised in the suburbs of said city, it was more than a little weird to try and block out the fact that I recognized half of the stuff on-screen. It simply didn’t feel like the same city that the first film took place in. On that note, where was the cool train Thomas Wayne created? Maybe I missed it, but all I saw was the Chicago L.

4. Rachel Dawes: Katie Holmes’ part in the first film was badly written, but she did what she could with the role — it wasn’t her fault. And for what it’s worth, she looked nice enough.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s part in this one was just as dull, but she looked completely, totally wrong — character’s supposed to be a knockout? — and had zero chemistry with the two guys who were supposed to be madly in love with her. Which, by the way, made it really hard for me to buy Aaron Eckhart’s otherwise-convincing pain as Two-Face.

If they’d stuck with the same girl, there may have at least been some small amount of resonance, but as it was, I couldn’t feel a thing. Bad trade-off, and an ill-conceived character that probably never should have existed in the first place, let alone been one of the most vital elements in propelling the story forward.

5. The ‘lessons’: In Batman Begins, it was some line Rachel preached that got repeated toward the end. This time it was Harvey’s line about ‘living long enough to see yourself become the villain.’ I don’t know about you, but I find this stuff really corny.

I enjoyed the film overall, but felt that it didn’t even come close to living up to the brilliant standard set by its villain. Truth be told, I often found myself bored when Ledger wasn’t on-screen. Maybe it was all the comparisons to Michael Mann’s Heat that did me in — I’d heard so many people call it a masterpiece on that film’s level that I was probably expecting too much, but these are two movies that I could never, ever put on the same plane.

Christopher Nolan’s take on Batman may not be my personal favorite — Frank Miller’s Year One/DKR take on the character and world is my thing — but I think it’s awesome that he’s so boldly crafted his own unique take on the property. What I love most about superhero comics is how they’re re-created and re-interpreted whenever a visionary new team comes on to tackle the material, and that’s what he and his collaborators have done.

Because of the fact that individual iterations are so fundamentally different, I tend to shy away from the idea that any one interpretation, or any element of it, is ‘definitive’. A part of me, however, wants to say that Ledger’s Joker is the closest thing there’s ever been to a definitive take on the character in film or on TV, even though the others — Romero, Nicholson, and yes, Mark Hammil — were all perfect for their respective productions.

In any case, I know I’ll be watching The Dark Knight again just to see him.

Go figure.

About once a year, I get Star Trek fever. Doesn’t last long, but it always includes at least one viewing of The Wrath of Khan. This time it was kicked off by my friend Drew, who’s been re-watching The Next Generation: Season One and telling me how awesome/awful it is.

Anyway, no matter how many times I watch Khan, it never fails to floor me. One of the few films I’ve ever seen that I would call perfect, at least for what it is. From the moment the Paramount logo appears and James Horner’s swashbuckling score comes in over the opening credits, it’s two straight hours of pure magic. Do check it out if you’ve never seen it.

Speaking of Star Trek, I can’t say I’m feeling JJ Abrams’ upcoming prequel just yet. The first poster got me all excited, but the second one(s) did just the opposite.

KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!

This was the other thing my friend surprised me with. I know they’ve been around forever, but I’d never seen one before in person. Totally rad. I just stare at it.

Seeing 8-bit Mario in three dimensions really makes me wish Nintendo would more often incorporate cool, offbeat visual presentations in its flagship games, as was the case with Wind Waker. The possibilities are endless. Super Paper Mario certainly did some things right — the dragon in the desert was awesome — but it could have been so much more.

More…

Sounds interesting, to say the least, and it hits Japan on 8/28. English release, please!

My friend Kyung surprised me with two gifts of pure awesome a few days ago, and I just about flipped. This was one of them. More pics after the break.

More…

Another pic from Warlords of Atlantis. This helm is a window into all the knowledge of the universe or something like that. And it doesn’t even make your head explode!

So says Iwata. Good! Ten bucks sounds about right to me.

This song never ceases to amaze me, and the same goes for the video. Nothing can beat Freddie Mercury screaming ‘BRING ON THE GIRLS’ over a Brian May power shred with lightning striking in the background and ancient Scottish ruins collapsing on top of it all.

“I’ve been alive for four and a half centuries, and I am immortal.”

Turns out Warlords of Atlantis is just as awesome now as it was when I was a kid. Here’s my favorite monster — a hand puppet that’s more convincing than 99% of the CG beasts I’ve ever seen, both in texture and movement. Those were the days.

Please let this be true, and please let it be handled by Smilebit. Also, please keep the Japanese name this time, and ditch ‘Grind’.

[Update] Looks like it might be in development at Kuju, not Smilebit. Could be bad news!