Super Mario 3D Land Review

Do you have a preferred style of Mario game? Do you prefer the classic 2D Mario games, where you run left to right until you jump onto the flagpole? Or do you prefer the 3D Mario games like Mario 64 and Galaxy, where the primary objective is to collect stars? Ever since the release of Super Mario 64, the 2D and 3D styles of Mario platformers have diverged into their own entities. I’m not saying that people can’t be fans of both, but I think most people prefer one style over the other. With all due respect to the Galaxy series of games and Super Mario 64, which is one of my all-time favourite games, I generally prefer the classic 2D style of Mario games.

Super Mario 3D Land is the first Super Mario game that tries to marry the 2D style and 3D style into one game. Is this game able to please both crowds? Or does it just leave everyone underwhelmed?

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Universal Fighting Game Guide: Tips to Overcome Bad Character Match-Ups

In virtually every fighting game, certain characters will have inherent advantages against others. More often than not, this is just the end result of character design factors that end up dictating how easy or difficult it will be for character A to defeat character B. In some cases, you may have to put in some elbow grease as the weaker character in order to win. Other times, trying to overcome a bad match-up can feel almost impossible.

Is it ever really impossible though? Let’s talk about what bad match-ups are, why they happen and things you can do to beat the odds.

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Pick-Up Post: PlayStation 24″ 3D LED Display Bundle


2012 is poised to be a big year for me. The biggest milestone of 2012 for me is quickly approaching, as Steff and I are planning on moving into our own apartment together in the next few months. I’m excited for what the future will hold for us. Without foreshadowing too much, I’m sure that there will be more posts to come relating to our big plans and how they somehow tie back into video games, starting…now.

One of the first considerations that came up in our moving plans was the TV situation. I’m a fairly active gamer, and she’s a fairly active TV/movie watcher. While I aim to spend as much time with her as I can because I love her and want to continue being a good significant other, there will likely be times when we’ll both want access to a TV, and only having one screen available to us could get messy. My parents got me a 40″ TV for Christmas, which will be great as Steff and I’s future main TV in our living room. As for a second screen, I came across the PlayStation 3D TV at a heavily discounted price during the holiday.

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Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure Review

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, at first glance, is not a game I should like for a number of reasons:

1) I was never a fan of any Spyro games
2) I’m close to 20 years older than the target audience this game was created for and marketed to
3) I’ve grown weary of video game peripherals and add-on purchases, which the entirety of this game is built around
4) I’m generally not a fan of the “Gauntlet-style” of game.
5) I don’t like the thought of going into a Toys R Us to buy myself action figures for my kiddie video game

As curious as I’ve been to play it, I’ve put up all sorts of mental barriers to stop myself from playing this game at all. Then I got it for Christmas and I played the heck out of it. I made up all the excuses in the world to not play it, but it ended up winning me over in a big way.

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Game Design Talk – Is Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Too Big?

There is nothing about the Skyrim experience that you can describe as “small”. Everything from the size of the world, to the number of quests, to the number of ways to play that game are too large to quantify. Because of how much stuff there is to do in the game, I’m fairly certain that the majority of Skyrim players will never finish the main quest, let alone experience everything that game has to offer.

In spite of its girth, it amazes me how great Skyrim is on almost every front. With that said, could Skyrim have been an overall better game if it wasn’t so grand?

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Other Gaming Websites and Their Best of 2011 Awards

The subject of game of the year has just about run its course now that most of the major gaming publications, blogs of all sizes and message boards have had their say (including this one). Who did you agree with? Who do you think got it all wrong? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Shop Now With In Third Person and Amazon.com


For almost 3 years now, I’ve put my heart and soul into making In Third Person the best gaming blog it could be. I poured in hundreds of hours of time into this blog back when the site was lucky to get a few dozen readers a month. Since those early days, In Third Person has grown into a site that serves thousands of visitors a month that also has a growing fan-base. Thank you readers for your on-going support.

In 2012, I’m looking to making the entire In Third Person experience better for you. One of those improvements is live now, which is the ability for you to shop on for gaming stuff In Third Person thanks to Amazon.com.

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Gaming-Related Christmas Gifts I Received: 2011 Edition


Hope your holidays were full of cheer, turkey and great gifts. At my age, Christmas is definitely more about giving than receiving, though I did receive some excellent gifts this year from the ones I love. Since this is a gaming blog most of the time, I thought I’d share with you what I found under my Christmas tree. I’d love to hear what you got for Christmas in the comments, too!

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In Third Person Updates To Meet 1994 Standards and Adds a Top Navigation


Back in the early days of In Third Person, I never imagined that it would become a repository of hundreds of different posts serving thousands of visitors a month. While the growth has been great, the site was kind of a nightmare to navigate around if you’re not interested in reading what’s on the first page.

Thankfully, I’ve finally figured out how to use the WordPress menu editor to add a top navigation to the site, which should make finding legacy content in popular categories easier to find.

With the new year in full effect, I’d like to look into making some improvements to the site and my processes to make the experience better for everyone. Is there anything you’d like to see improved? A better site design? Review scores? More feature-related posts? Something else? Let me know in the comments!

In Third Person’s 2011 Year in Blogging Report From WordPress

2011 was a landmark year from In Third Person. After the WordPress home page plug in September 2010, this blog could have easily slipped back into obscurity, only to be viewed by 5-10 people a day. Instead you readers kept visiting, commenting and sharing In Third Person content to make it a far bigger deal than I could have ever imagined. Thank you for making this site as successful as it is! Let’s make 2012 even better 🙂

Also worth thanking is WordPress. Besides being a great platform to blog on and the promo in 2010, they sent me a very cool In Third Person annual report.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 50,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 19 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report!

Anything on this report stand out to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts and analysis in the comments!