Ask the masses why the newest Super Smash Bros. is so good and you’ll probably hear nothing but a resounding, “It’s Smash Bros., duh.” Originally planned for a December release, until suffering two delays due to development issues, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is slated for retail availability on March 9.

 

The basic gameplay elements remain vastly unchanged from the two previous iterations, although veteran players will notice that advanced techniques such as wavedashing and L-canceling have been removed due to a new physics engine. The “brawls” retain the same formula as the previous games: attack your opponent until their percentage is high enough to knock them off the stage.

 

The new roster is perhaps the most exciting enhancement to the game, sixteen new characters are introduced, bringing the already all-encompassing roster to a massive 35 fighters. Newcomers include the already introduced Pit, Wario, and Lucas, while plenty of surprises, such as Nintendo’s Robotic Operating Buddy, pad out the rest of the unlockables. The inclusion of third-party characters Solid Snake and Sonic, while a bit awkward, was a smart choice. Sadly, rumors are that the latest delay was caused by miscommunications with Capcom, which accounts for the apparent lack of Phoenix Wright and Resident Evil 4‘s Leon S. Kennedy.

 

Items have always added a degree of confusion to the matches, and the additions in Brawl do nothing but augment the frenzy. The two major additions are the Smash Balls and Assist Trophies. Smash Balls will randomly appear during matches, and the first person to successfully break the ball will begin to glow and is bestowed with the ability to perform a Final Smash. Final Smashes range from the mundane to the incredible, R.O.B. simply shoots lasers from his eyes, while Sonic will use the Chaos Emeralds to fly around the screen and knock off anyone he touches. Assist Trophies are orbs filled with a random character that wreaks havoc on the brawl; a Nintendog will playfully paw at the screen, obstructing the players’ view, while Shadow uses a move that will slow time. Diehard Nintendo fans will love the wide selection of cameos; even the original Excitebikers make an appearance.

 

Unfortunately, due to my lack of Japanese comprehension, I decided not to test out the new adventure mode, also called The Subspace Emissary. This mode gives players an eight-hour story to play through, in which they witness partnerships only dreamed up before: Captain Falcon and Captain Olimar joining together to fight Bowser? Amazing.

 

Leeching off the success of Xbox Live, Nintendo smartly added online play to Brawl for those late night cross-country tournaments. I only tested online with a local friend, and while most of the play was fluid, we hit an unbearable bit of lag once or twice, completely ruining the match. With the lack of voice chat, online play is essentially useless. Grabbing some friends and screaming at each other makes for a much better experience than simply texting “lol pwned” after each match.

 

If you enjoyed the first two games in the series and don’t have a Wii, buying one is definitely worth it just to play the game. If you already have a Wii, do yourself a favor and grab Super Smash Bros. Brawl, unlock all the characters, grab some friends and say goodbye to the outside world.

“Friday was amazing,” Ross said. “It was a close match against Dallas Schurg, and I won 2 to 1.”

 

Unfortunately, Ross lost his Saturday match against the future state champion.

 

“I had a pretty good match with him, but I lost 5 to 2,” Ross said. “I did OK on Saturday, but I was definitely looking for better.”

 

Ross hopes to perform even better next season.

 

“The whole experience was awesome, Conseco was amazing,” Ross said. “I hope to be under the lights at Conseco next year.”

 

“We had to design our own game of chance,” Kayleigh Holland (12) said. “For our game, the player picks a ball from a box. We have a set number of balls that would win, lose or break even. The player places their bets and tries to win.”

 

Several other math classes were invited to play the games, and each student was given a set amount of money to start with. Students recorded the data of wins and losses, keeping track of how much money was coming in and out. After the games were over, they compared the values they recorded with what was calculated earlier.

 

“We gathered data to compare our attained values to the values predicted beforehand,” Holland said.

 

Two children were left behind yesterday as Britney Spears was once again rushed to the hospital early in the morning. A call from her psychiatrist had her removed from her home at 1 a.m. and placed in a “mental health evacuation hold,” meaning she was considered to be an immediate threat to herself or others. In 72 hours, the fallen pop princess will either be submitted to treatment or reevaluated for another stay.

 

It was completely worth it. Every fanboy was on the edge of his seat and every fangirl’s heart was pounding as Jobs began with the introduction of the Time Capsule storage drive, transitioned to the iPhone, iPod and AppleTV updates, and jumped to the announcement of the iTunes movie rental service. Finally, an hour into the presentation, Jobs announces what the entire industry had been anticipating: a subnotebook worthy of the title “World’s Thinnest Notebook.” Flaunting a remarkably thin three-fourths of an inch at the base, wedged down to .16 at the latch, the MacBook Air was what everyone had been waiting for.

 

Unfortunately, that is not what this review is about.

 

The MacBook Air will not be released until next month, so I’m afraid I’ll have to bore you with a review of an Apple product that is just as revolutionary: the iPod touch. Released three months after the iPhone, the iPod touch is everything its big brother was, only without the features that made the iPhone so attractive.

 

The iPod line was in desperate need of an update, and with the iPod touch, enthusiasts finally got the widescreen, WiFi-equipped media player they had been waiting for. The iPod touch comes with all the same media playback specifications as the rest of the iPods, along with the amazing new Cover Flow browsing, allowing for scrolling through covers of your albums like a physical CD collection.

 

Examining it from a software standpoint, the iPod touch is severely lacking compared to the iPhone. The original release model was released without the Stocks, Maps, Weather, Mail, and even the Notes applications. Granted, they are now available, albeit for a steep $20. The Calendar application is also crippled compared to the iPhone version; the option of adding new events has been mysteriously removed, allowing only for syncing with iCal on your Mac. The Safari web browser is the iPod touch’s strongest application; it provides a full browser capable of displaying entire web pages, as long as a wireless connection is available. Although the browser isn’t capable of playing Flash videos, a dedicated YouTube application is available for late-night viewings of the latest Harry Potter Puppet Pals.

 

The hardware is obviously a step down from the iPhone’s; no cell phone antenna means no nationwide data access, only in spots with wireless internet, slightly limiting its use. Also missing is the camera, another strange exclusion on Apple’s part, the internal speaker and hardware volume buttons. Less components does mean a smaller size, and the iPod touch is close to half the thickness of the iPhone, giving it an almost fragile appearance.

 

Overall, the iPod touch is a much needed and well-received update to Apple’s iPod line, and although it doesn’t quite compare to the iPhone, it is certainly worthy of the title of the best iPod. If you’re in the market for a new cell phone, skip the iPod touch and get the iPhone, but if you’re stuck in the middle of a current plan, the iPod touch is a sure bet.

 

There are four basic positions for the ten players: one goalie, three defensemen, three midfielders and three attackmen. The goalie defends the goal and prevents the other team from scoring, since the same equation applies to your opponents also. Defensemen assist the goalie in stopping the other team’s progress and are usually restricted to the defensive half of the field. Attackmen stay past the midfield line and do what the other team’s defense is trying to stop: get the ball in the goal. Midfielders are defensemen and attackmen puréed in a blender. They better be good with a crosse (stick) and have enough endurance to cover both the defensive and offensive halves of the field.

 

At any given time, each team can have ten players on the field. Substitutions are allowed at any time, although it is best to substitute at a time when the play is slow. During a substitution, the benched player runs through two cones at the midfield lines, and only then can the replacement enter the field through those same cones. Obviously, there will be a time when only nine players of the team are on, and this is called man down defense.

 

Games consist of twelve-minute quarters, with two-minute breaks in between and a ten-minute halftime. Each quarter begins with a face-off. The ball is placed between two players of opposing teams, then the referee blows his whistle to signal the start of the game. The two players try to grab the ball by placing their stick over the ball and flinging it back to their teammates. Play then begins, and players use the crosse to catch, throw, and run the ball down the field to the other goal. The goalie is the only player allowed to touch the ball with his hand. The ball stays in constant play unless it goes out of bounds, in which case the other team receives possession.

 

The most confusing aspect of lacrosse are the acceptable attacks and fouls. Permitted checks include:

 

1) The slap check — the opposing player can be hit while the opponent has the ball, is catching the ball, is throwing the ball or right after they have thrown the ball

2) The poke check — the opposing player can be pushed away with the head of the lacrosse stick to keep them from catching the ball.

 

Personal fouls consist of:

1) Slashing — the use of excessive force, cross checking or hitting an opponent with the handle of the crosse

2) Tripping — obstructing the opponent below the waist.

 

Personal fouls result in a one to three minute penalty in a penalty box. A maximum of five fouls are permitted before the player is ejected, sometimes forcibly, from the game.

 

Relay races, planned for resource period on Wednesday, were cancelled due to lack of participation. The dodgeball games during lunches tomorrow are still on as scheduled, but participation still requires signing up in the main office.

Unchanged form previous years are the homecoming festivities Friday during the basketball game. This season’s homecoming court includes freshmen Rachel Weeber and Alex Stiver, sophomores Sheila Tomasbi and Nathan Newcomer, and juniors Kayla Evans and Drew Malcolm. Seniors include Colleen Finn, Amber VanderReyden, Amy Jackowiak, Tyler Huxford, Jeremiah VanderMolen, and Tony Templeton. Voting for the king and queen occured during resource yesterday, and they will be announced during halftime.

 

Gillmor begins in his introduction by referring to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in which “the immediate news of Kennedy’s death came for most via television,” the first time this new media was used for something of that magnitude (IX). Later, Gillmor explains that “some of the most important photos and videos in recent news history were the product of amateurs,” citing the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination as a symbol of the late 20th century (120). Gillmor also applauds the “amateurs who caught the most horrific images of the United Airlines 767 fireball” on 11 September, realizing that the future of live news updates lies in the hands of amateurs (120). Zapruder’s film was the only account of John F. Kennedy’s death; the video prompted a multitude of theories and conspiracies concerning the death while cementing some of the facts. Likewise, the cell phone photographs and amateur videos taken of the 11 September 2001 attacks provided evidence and insight where commercial media was delayed in covering. Similar tactics could be used to augment our own news coverage; an email address or phone number which could collect new news from contributors as it happens could enhance our content and help expand our coverage, since we are unable to make all events, but at least one person is always at any given event. Direct access would be difficult to grant, but as Gillmor notes in Chapter 7: “the open nature of Wikipedia has been its greatest resource, and it has emerged as a credible resource” (148). We could either approach the risks and hope that the benefits outweigh the possible negative uses and simply moderate and edit content as it is submitted, or we could simply have someone constantly monitoring the inboxes and updating the blog in due time.

 

Not only relying on video and pictures solely from third party contributors, staff members should also begin to supplement their own stories with photographs, videos, or audio commentary. This could be accomplished by using a combination of mobile phones or WiFi cameras (although I’m not really sure how those work) and web services such as Flickr, Utterz, or Twitter. Live text or video blogging of sports or other school events, such as Spencer’s current live blogging of school board meetings or Chris’s picture and audio commentary during swim meets, should be used more often, once the required hardware is in place (mainly WiFi hotspots across the school, or a JLab iPhone). A YouTube channel used in collaboration with the Mass Media class could also prove to be successful, covering either entire sporting events or highlights such as those currently on “Concord Live.”

 

More also needs to be done to promote reader involvement in our efforts. More advertisement should be allocated for the blog; an entire article about the site and our vision for it in the “Hi-Times” could spark some more interest and increase page views. Considering our audience, online media, especially RSS and Twitter, could be overwhelming, unnecessary, and alienating. A forum addition could be useful to allow discussion and criticism of our articles, and if that works as hoped, an expansion to a weekly Talkshoe could further involvement and debate. All of this is possible, as mentioned by Gillmor, but may be exceedingly difficult considering our audience. It could be possible to expand our readership to an entirely detached third-party online audience, but the level of involvement in local affairs would be severely lacking, although thorough and genuine conversation would be easily available. Starting a new blog that is for J-Lab developments rather than just the news could help inform our audience of our visions and allow for insight as to our direction. New Twitter accounts should also be created for various departments, and the J-Lab account should be kept for serving news to the staff. An email list, although archaic, could be more attractive than RSS feeds, although the most attractive could be SMS. Explaining the use of Twitter to receive certain SMS updates, such as school news, sports updates, and the like should be adressed in an issue of the “Hi-Times.”