Sonic the Hedgehog

With so many gamers from the '80s and '90s growing older, retro gaming has been a growing market. Game companies re-release old titles on new platforms so fans can play their favorites without having to find and dust off their original systems, and developers love doing it because it takes almost no time to reproduce these games compared to the months of development for new games on the current generation of consoles.

Before game consoles had access to the Internet, the only way these titles could be released was on a compilation disc, most times costing around $30 for a collection of 10 to 15 games. With the current generation of systems, the Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network, or Wii Shop Channel can be accessed to download the most popular titles individually for a cost of $4 to $15, which eliminates the costs of disc production and shipping, resulting in bigger gains for publishers for less work.

Don't get me wrong: It's nice being able to download the games I can't find and have them saved somewhere I won't lose them, but it was the selection that I loved about compilation discs. I would have never played classics like Joust or Centipede without them.

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To download a pdf of the puzzle, click here.

For the answers, click here.

For the answers to last week's puzzle, click here.

Resident Evil 4 was released in January 2005 for the Nintendo Gamecube and quickly became the best reason to buy that system. Highly detailed visuals, an intense new chapter in the Resident Evil story, and new game-play mechanics all helped redefine the survival-horror genre. Resident Evil 4 took several gaming awards, including game of the year for several publications. It was re-released on the Playstation 2 (in fall 2005) and the Nintendo Wii (in 2007). With all this pressure looming for a worthy sequel, Resident Evil 5 (released earlier this month) does deliver on some fronts, but unfortunately not all of them.

Sister Helen PrejeanSister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking, will speak at the Churches United Delegate Assembly on Thursday, March 26, at Asbury United Methodist Church, 18th and Mississippi Streets in Bettendorf.

A press release states: "Although part of the annual meeting is for its members, the public is welcome to come and hear Sister Helen that evening." Registration starts at 6:30 p.m., and the event begins at 7 p.m.

Last year, the River Cities' Reader interviewed Prejean in advance of lectures at Augustana Collge. You can read that article, "A New Way to Fight the Death Penalty," here.

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2005, game-play footage for Killzone 2 was debuted as one of the big exclusive titles for Playstation 3. It looked fantastic, but there was debate whether the footage shown was actual play or a rendered video, making fans question whether the game would look as fantastic as suggested.

Fast forward almost four years to 2009, and with mega-hit shooter titles on the market such as Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, and Halo 3, the initial wow factor of Killzone 2 - finally released last month - won't be enough to make it a staple in the shooter category. But it's just like real life: It's not only about looks.

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