I didn’t manage to catch-up with gaming this weekend, only managing to sneak in an hour of Soul Calibur IV on my brand new 80 GB Sony Playstation 3, before heading off to Sitiawan to watch the Powerman 2008 race, which was held a stone throw away from my old house.

What do I think about Soul Calibur IV? Darth Vader’s there, so enough said. I’m getting the Mayflash Fighting Stick for this game.

And what do I think about the Powerman race? We saw the eventual winner pass us by several times. The guy was damn fast. There were also several pull-outs, people who can’t complete the race for some reasons; most of them were down with the cramps. Overall, the atmosphere was electric, and the sound system and the chatterbox MC were way better than the ones at Trailblazer.

Thanks to my road-trip during the weekend, I managed to eat in three different states within a single day on Sunday.

Nibong Tebal (Penang)

I arrived here on Saturday to attend a wedding dinner, and after checking out from the hotel on Sunday afternoon, I went straight to lunch at Restoran NT Cheang Kee located before the bridge heading into town. Reputably the best Nibong Tebal has to offer (in terms of food), it was just ho-hum.

The highlight of the meal was the boiled octopus and the peanut/chilli sauce dip that came with it. Note of caution though, Nibong Tebal has a problem with flies (probably due to chicken farms in the area), so much so that their presence is more than just an annoyance.

Bidor (Perak)

I dropped by Bidor, which was connected to Nibong Tebal via the North-South Expressway for a tea break. The place: Pun Chun Chicken Biscuit and Restaurant, famous for its duck thigh noodles, wan tan mee, wu kok and of course, yummy chicken biscuits.

My parents and I had the wan tan mee and I bought take-away Salt Baked Chicken for my brother.

Kuala Selangor (Selangor)

After Bidor, it was the coastal highway all the way back to Klang. I stopped by Kuala Selangor for dinner. The dinner by the river was so-so, the mantis prawns were nice, but the oyster omellete was this thin, pan-cake like creation. Disappointing is the least I can about this.

So the only thing that was spot-on excellent was the wan tan mee at Bidor. So much for eating at three different states in a day ya?

Those 4 thumbed, yellow coloured folks from Springfield seem to follow me everywhere, even on my trip to Dubai. First there was TV series showing on Emirates’ ICE during my flight there. And then there was the newly released game, available at Geekay and Sharaf DG.

Last but not least, I had the series AND the movie accompany me home in my flight back to Malaysia, on the excellent ICE. On a side note, it’s with regret that I inform everyone that Emirates’ ICE pwns our national carrier’s (MAS) in-flight entertainment system.

Now, if you don’t know who are the 4-thumbed, yellow coloured folk I’m talking about, it’s the cast of The Simpsons. With that out of the way, lets talk about the game. While in Dubai, I had the pleasure of playing The Simpsons Game, for the Nintendo DS.

In a nutshell, it’s a 2D platform game, where you get to play as Bart, Lisa, Marge and Homer Simpson in a game about the Simpsons being in a video game (cue a collective “huh?”), which would explain why each character has superpowers.

Example: Bart can change into Bartman, Homer becomes a big fat ball, Marge can command “angry mobs”, and Lisa has telekinesis.

There are a lot of quotes from the show and quite a number of videos, often at the start and at the end of levels. The game exhibits good production values with the voice acting, graphics, videos, being spot on.

It also has a certain cool vibe, parodying popular video games and much maligned video game cliches, which is almost certain to give birth to a new video game cliche: video games about video games. (cue collective moan)

Despite all that, there’s still a drawback. Like most platformers, The Simpsons Game can be a frustrating experience. The lack of pointers in certain levels will definately frustrate new comers and the 2D art, while staying true to its 2D roots, cannot give a sense of depth which will lead to players asking: “Is that a platform I can jump on, or is it just background art?”

I’m generally allergic to platformers; yelling to the Nintendo DS while playing Super Mario World with the help of an emulator is a particularly favourite activity of mine. All the jumping, running and the timing involved simply doesn’t exactly jive with me and it’s no wonder shoot-em-ups like Quake appeal to me; just shoot anything that moves.

And if you are like me, The Simpsons Game may not be for you, despite the appeal of having unlimited lives for each character, which technically means no game over screen (scratch one video game cliche).

Anyways, here’s a tip:

In the “Enter the Cheatrix” level, should you find yourself stuck, you are supposed to do the double jump from one platform to another. Yeah, I spent an inordinate amount of time on a game in a genre that has done nothing but give me frustration over the years. What can I say? I’m a fan of the series.

The Simpsons Game is available across platforms, and is available at Play-Asia.com with free shipping. Click here for details.