I Have made a wonderful discovery- Captain Dan and The scurvy Crew- finest purveyors of Pirate Hip-Hop known to man, or monkey. Naturally of course Hip-Hop is usually rubbish, but that because it has no pirates in it. Well worry no more landlubbers, for this oversight has been seen to at last! Yarr!! Click here to check it out! Fo' Shizzle.

It's just coming up to a year since the Nintendo Wii came out. And what a year the plucky little console has had. Just over a year ago it would be a brave person indeed who predicted that the console would not only hold it's own against it's more technologically advanced (well, in terms of graphics) rivals but actually outsell them. However fast forward a year and the dinky white box is still selling out everywhere having broken every record going and shows no signs of slowing down. Neither Sony or Microsoft were really worried by the release of the console, and were noticeably complementary in some statements before it's release, perhaps indicating they didn't really see it as a credible threat. Many games developers missed the boat too. Now of course seeing the huge success it's having everybody wants a piece of pie (mmmm, pie!) and MS and Sony are aggressively going after the casual market (In MS's case with Scene It a 360 version of a DVD board game. Wow. Board Games! Ninty must by quaking!) It's not all rosy in Wii land though. The stock issue is a real problem as some people who can't get one might turn to the dark side and pick up a High Def Console that's readily available instead. There's also a lot of lazy mini-games collections, bad PS2 ports and movie and TV licenses as developers rush to cash in. It's only now that the really big guns are starting to come out, with the likes of Metroid Prime and The Officially recognised Best Game Ever Super Mario Galaxy. However this is only one year in- we can only imagine the many delights that the big N have save up for us Wii gamers in the future!

I was pleased to see Beowulf open in the US at number one in the box office. Not in this occasion because I think it looks good (although I do) but more as to what it represents. If Hollywood thinks there is a market for animation that is aimed at an adult audience and covers more adult themes (although sadly Beowulf was apparently turned from an original intended R-rating to a PG-13) then hopefully we'll see more. As an animation lover, I want to see animation films that tackle stories more challenging than a delightful caper about a talking squirrel. At least every once in a while. However as a cynic I do think that the days of seeing this happen in mainstream Hollywood are a long way off, if indeed they ever happen at all. Anyway I look forward to getting to check it out for myself. As a side note there's been debate over whether Beowulf should be allowed to compete for the Best Animated Film Oscar, as some people don't think it's really animation. Well it sure doesn't look like live-action to me!

Sod Halo 3. Stuff GTA IV. Gears of War? Gears of Bore, more like. For the true Connoisseur there was only one game worth waiting for this year, and it's finally here. I'm talking of course about Super Mario Galaxy, the long awaited Wii incarnation of the world's best loved platform franchise. I was going to wait until Christmas but in the end I couldn't. It's therefore somewhat gutting that I can't really play it properly thanks to my recent eye-operation temporarily rendering the world in Blur-O-vision. Even through a slight haze I couldn't quite manage to not give it a good go so I am already able to let you know that it lives up to expectations (and the average 97% score awarded to it by metacritic- a website that works out the average review score for games across many review sites and magazines). The Graphics are gorgeous (why can only Nintendo make Wii games look like this?) the design is amazingly imaginative and the gameplay is spot on. In comparison to the overwhelmingly brown and grey games that make up the vast majority of the Xbox and PS3 line-ups it's a breath of fresh-air. Now I just have to wait until I can really appreciate it. Bummer....

Regular readers will know about my feelings regarding 24 and the disappointment that was season six. For the benefit of the rest of you, basically all you need to know is- I love 24, but season six was just pants. Up until now i would have described my feelings regarding the revamped season 7 we've been promised as 'cautiously optimistic'. Well the trailer for season 7 had surfaced here in the UK (for some reason we got the exclusive) and has found it's way on to the net (for example here. just in case it's been taken down, you can do a quick search on Youtube for 24 season 7). Now having seen said preview, despite my best attempts to be cynical- I now can't wait to see it! It looks terribly exciting! Man, I hope Jack Bauer doesn't let me down! However I'll have to wait a wee bit longer still- it's been delayed due to the US writers strike. This will ensure it can run uninterrupted, so fingers crossed it'll be worth the wait!

Only about six months behind every other blogger on the block, but I can finally report my opinion of the third Pirates flick (having finally seen it). A lot of people really slated it (maybe even more than the first sequel) but I wasn't going to let that cloud my judgement.

However I have to say, that as with Spiderman 3, I enjoyed it and don't get quite why it received such a pounding. It's probably because the original film (Curse Of The Black Pearl) was so universally loved- that it couldn't live up to the expectations. If you didn't see number 3 on the big screen then I say go rent it, don't listen to the cynics. Admittedly the sequels have tried to introduce an overall epic mythology to the saga that seems a bit unnecessary, and as usual Orlando Bloom is a charisma vacuum but still- ignore the flaws and it's an undemanding Brain-off popcorn flick. (Some people have claimed At Worlds End is comfusing and tough to follow, but it really didn't seem that way to me. Perhaps those people are a bit 'special'). Naturally Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow is the most memorable part of the film- but it's a close-run thing between him and the monkey- who has a much bigger part this time around. You probably shouldn't watch it if you thought number two was rubbish though- this ain't gonna change your mind.