NES cartridges can't be rewritten — they are read-only. Perhaps your friends somehow physically damaged their cartridges while using the Game Genie (bent pins, maybe?). But the data on the cartridge isn't alterable.

Ha — that might be the only song on the soundtrack that I'd happily lose.

Very nice. I'm amazed they managed to secure all the music rights (and I'll be disappointed if it turns out the soundtrack has been altered).

1. Having great games available to more people is always a good thing.

Great. Thanks guys. Now I need to recalculate my whole retirement plan.

It was a bloodbath!

"Perreault eventually concludes that there is a link between religion and violence in video games"

I giggled.

Aaaaaand done. I think it's officially time to replace my old bookmark with the one for Kotaku Core.

That kind of hypocrisy isn't limited to Las Vegas (even if it's more obvious there). Gambling is completely illegal pretty much everywhere else, but that doesn't stop every single state from having official lotteries.

EA has absolutely nothing to do with it. They aren't being prosecuted by EA — the issue is with the state. They could have raffled off anything and it would have been illegal.

I'm really looking forward to Shoot the People 2 on PS3.

I don't get the big deal, honestly. This entire rant ignores the fact that you're playing a game you seem to like, and you're playing it for completely free. The only thing missing is what basically amounts to a cheat, and if paying for the cheat is so offensive, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find solutions online.

Sonic 4 could have been just fine if they hadn't bungled the jumping physics so terribly. I wanted to like it, but it all just felt very unnatural. Here's hoping they fixed it for Episode 2.

You only get bronze because the demo only has three racers on the course. If there were only one, you'd get gold.

In the demo, 3rd place is last place.

If you go to the original article, it makes more sense than the description here.

Classic. I forgot how awkwardly staged this scene is. It's like the director didn't know what he wanted Elton to do, so he just had him point angrily for each line.

Cue the apologists in 3... 2... 1...

Yeah — that's the problem with "power of the purse." Unless someone actually organizes a boycott, it just doesn't matter. Nobody stops buying because they know it won't actually send a message if nobody else joins them. EA can spare $60 because their scheme has earned millions in the meantime.