Announcing: Reader Contest!

So, I'm going to be closing on a house this Wednesday.  As such, I won't have nearly as much time for writing articles as I used to.  I'm going to schedule a few reviews for the next couple weeks, but I won't have time to work on the Top 5 lists.  So to fix this, and in celebration of hitting 10,000 page views last month, I'm going to have a little contest.

For the month of June, I'll post a Top 5 from my readers every Thursday for the entire month.  Send me your Top 5 lists about anything gaming related with a short blurb for each item.  This can be your Top 5 favorite games, your Top 5 games in a genre, your picks for bad boss fights, anything goes.  Send them to treasure.bin.comments@gmail.com with "Fan Top 5" in the subject line.  If you have pictures in mind for your list, attach them to the email.  Otherwise, I'll dig up photos for you.

I'll post the best lists every Thursday.  Let's see what you've got!

Top 5 Gamecube Games: The Runners Up

I had a hard time writing the last Top 5 list, primarily because there are so many awesome games on the Nintendo Gamecube.  I had narrowed down a top 10, but the other titles were so awesome that I couldn't just let them get lopped off. For that reason, I'm going to take this week's Top 5 to list numbers 6-10.

The Great Update Revolution: Is it really helping?

One of the modern trappings of video games is updates after a game has been released.  A lot of people cry foul when it comes to this sort of thing, and with good reason.  Online networks can only provide so much in terms of fixing stuff that's broken.  However, there's other underlying issues at play here.  Patches and updates are increasingly used to fix game-breaking bugs, and this is hurting the gaming industry in general.

Review: Xenoblade Chronicles

Platform: Wii

Rating: Teen (Blood, Mild Language, Partial Nudity, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence)

Players: 1

Xenoblade Chronicles has finally reached American Shores!  It's been over a year in the making, and about time.  I couldn't wait to dive into this title from the moment I picked it up.  And dated engine aside, it's got its charms.  For the readers across the pond in Europe, put up with us for a bit.  This game is new to us, even though it's a year old.

Top 5 Gamecube Games

Now that Gamestop has officially cut off trade-ins on Gamecube games, it's time to go back and look at the best of an era.

Nintendo's Gamecube, originally, code named "dolphin," was a real underdog in the console wars.  Even so, there's still so much epic win on this console, that I suspect it will have its fans for quite a while.  Let's look back on the best of the best, from a console that hasn't seen a new game in five years.

Review: Naruto Rise of a Ninja

System: XBOX 360

Rating: Teen (Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence)

Players: 1-2

With the most recent Naruto Shippuden game now on store shelves, I thought I'd go back and revisit an older Naruto game that deserves a lot more credit than it gets. Rise of a Ninja is a unique foray into the world of Naruto and his quest to become Hokage.

My voice is shot but that's okay: A look back on Anime Detour 2012

So, my voice is completely shot from the past weekend, where I volunteered on staff for Anime Detour.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely.  I'm taking a week off, in a sense, to talk about the awesomeness that was this past weekend, and show some of the awesome costumes.  Regular articles will resume next week.