Kid "Hammerclaw" Icarus

I'm finally catching up with the latest Kid Icarus and I'm really having a hard time figuring out what some members of the enthusiast press have been saying about the controls for this game.
From the way some described them, the controls are enough to turn a person's hands into a bundle of arthritic, claw-like sticks. I'm a couple hours into the game and -- playing without the included stand -- I'm not experiencing any problems so far. And since the game hasn't deviated from the flying/ground/flying combat mix, I'm not anticipating any.

Of course, I'm not walking around playing the game. I've been sitting on the bus/Skytrain. It has presented no problems.

My only complaint related to the controls is that sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm dashing the direction I think I should be.

So far, it has been a fun experience! And I would agree with some commentators that this might have started its development life as a Wii game. The controls would translate favourably to the Wii Remote and nunchuck.

Applause for Snake Eater

Maybe it was in the original PlayStation version but I have to hand it to Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D for making a huge nodding homage to those classic James Bond film openings, complete with song track that makes reference to the title of the game.

Besides getting me all nostalgic for watching Bond films, I wouldn't mind that instead of Naked Snake being the star of the show Konami just dropped Roger Moore into the central role.

Strangers in the Night

For the last few days I've been riding the Skytrain/bus with my 3DS since it affords plenty of time to play Mario Kart 7. (Review coming soon!) Just 'cause, I've left Streetpass turned on. I've never had much luck making connections with StreetPass to share Mii avatars, except at E3 where the place was swarming with StreetPass information, but you never know.

Somewhere in Vancouver -- because I'm pretty sure it's happening downtown -- there's a guy (presumably) I've shared StreetPass information with a few times.

So, this morning I spent time carefully observing everyone as I went from home to work to see if I could figure out who I might be tagging. There's never been obvious signs to go on, like someone playing a 3DS. That would make it easy.

I stare at people, paying special attention to the eyes. If they look tired -- gamers all look tired, except for Victor Lucas -- then I'll try to glance at their hands. I look for thumb calluses next, because any hardcore gamer will exhibit a certain level of hardened, leathery skin close to the tips of the thumbs (or at the heel of the wrist for PC gamers). Then I check the wardrobe for game-related items. And so far I've come up empty on leads. I have no idea who is passing close enough to me to exchange Mii data and it's kind of irking me.

It's probably just be some regular dude doing the commute the same as me. And maybe he's not even that hardcore. Though he is playing Super Mario 3D Land so he must be enthusiastic about Nintendo stuff at least.

It does make me wish there was an option to have notification pop up when I've tagged a Mii avatar. Something along the lines of Xbox Live and PSN and Steam which pop up notices for everything. "BLANK is now online." "Friends using this app." How difficult would it be to flash up a note about a new Mii arriving at the Mii Plaza via StreetPass? I don't know, but Nintendo should get on that immediately. I need to know who I keep bumping into.