Guitar no Jiro-oh! Bokura no nakama!

The “Summit Brew” ales told a short story while John and I were watching Prison Break and 24, but I ignored it. Later on in my cave, the progressively nastier ice beer tall boys I had nabbed from the corner store completed the request. “Update the Jooooseph Luster Report,” they said, like some foul banshee in the dark.

I complied.

Lately I’ve been into something I call “Day-Games.” That’s a terrible term and I hate it, but I can’t think of a better way to describe a game that you can “solve” in the course of 24 hours (I think it’s charming when people use that term to say that they beat a game). Let’s get specific, though. A game that takes 24 hours to beat does not count as a Day Game. Actually, anything beyond 8-10 hours is really pushing it.

A man (or woman – haw haw), needs to be able to beat one of these when he’s not slaving away at whatever lame job he has. Of course, with my current luxury of “Flexible Hour” employment, this isn’t an issue. On the other hand, your average Handsome Man might find it implausible to solve something like Armed & Dangerous in a sitting (pussy).

Yesterday’s “Day Game” was a much-belated run through of Capcom’s 2001 “Resident Evil with Samurai” game Onimusha. I had been meaning to play this since it came out, but never got around to it. A couple of years ago it was in the Circuit City bargain bin with its sequel for $4.99 a pop. I picked up both and allowed them a dust-collecting fate until the other day, when my fat 15 year-old cousin returned the first one that I had let him borrow.

“Aw man, ah beat it in like three hours.”

Liar.

Still, now I had to beat it that night. My cousin and his ample bosom wasn’t going to be beating my games before me. I roared through it. Despite the fact that it was originally designed for the PSone and sported Resident Evil tank controls peppered atop 1998’s finest pre-rendered backdrops, I loved it. It’s good quick fun that covers a lot of action bases in a concise way that most current games don’t bother with.

A lot of what I’d love to say about it will be covered later when I talk about Console Arcading, but as I get older, this style of TV-gaming is ideal. I want my action in quick 5 hour bursts that can be trapped like Bubble and/or Bobble in convenient capsules of cool and awesome.

Once my fat cousin brings it back, I’ll add some thoughts about the game’s sequel. Then, after I play through them all, maybe I’ll consider the absurdity of having so many follow-ups within the same generation.