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I wish I'd saved my receipt when I bought Retro Game Challenge @_@... - http://sorrytown.us/article/a-retro-
Oh well, I got an addictively awesome game ^^. Also, the drat was for the fact another Gamecube game (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door) got an error for me with my Wii. I blew out the dust on the console and everything and hopefully it won't happen again. I find it happens when I leave the GCN disc in the Wii to start (my Wii is set vertical).
It's really cute. A lot of fun, very niche though but if you buy it and save your receipt...you can get a special thing made for free by this person.
Here's the gist.
You are turned into a kid and sent back by an Uber-Otaku to when he was a kid in the Famicom era of gaming. You befriend him as a kid. You play a series of games with little him and face challenges set forth by his future, floating-head self. The game includes all sorts of cheats and codes and secrets and such from that era of gaming. There are gaming magazines that show up every so often and have a lot of period-specific details. You have a sketchpad for jotting down notes for play. The games themselves are a mix. I wish there was more variety but I'm charmed by the set.
Games (all original throwback titles).
Cosmic Gate - a Galaxian-ish 64 stage top down shooter (Namco-Bandai made the game but XSEED released it here).
Karakuri Ninja Haguruman - Mario-ish Bubble Bobble platformer with some Megaman elements. You throw shuriken and turn doors and sometimes jump on heads to beat all the enemies.
Rally King - A kinda weak top-down racing game. But the challenges for it aren't too hard.
Star Prince - 1942 style shooter. Very detailed for the era and a lot of fun.
Rally King SP - A remix of Rally King. A bit annoying but I found it more fun than the original.
Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 2 - Another remix but much more effective because I found the original game quite fun.
Guardia Quest - Dragon Quest 1 type game. Very hard but quite long compared to the other games.
Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 3 - Probably the most compelling game. Also the most advanced in style. It plays a lot like I've seen of the old Ninja Gaiden with some Megaman style upgrades. Quite clever and actually my favorite aside from the shooters.
But the point is the sequel has more and even better games, so every fan of the first one wants to see it come to the US.
Oh well, I got an addictively awesome game ^^. Also, the drat was for the fact another Gamecube game (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door) got an error for me with my Wii. I blew out the dust on the console and everything and hopefully it won't happen again. I find it happens when I leave the GCN disc in the Wii to start (my Wii is set vertical).
It's really cute. A lot of fun, very niche though but if you buy it and save your receipt...you can get a special thing made for free by this person.
Here's the gist.
You are turned into a kid and sent back by an Uber-Otaku to when he was a kid in the Famicom era of gaming. You befriend him as a kid. You play a series of games with little him and face challenges set forth by his future, floating-head self. The game includes all sorts of cheats and codes and secrets and such from that era of gaming. There are gaming magazines that show up every so often and have a lot of period-specific details. You have a sketchpad for jotting down notes for play. The games themselves are a mix. I wish there was more variety but I'm charmed by the set.
Games (all original throwback titles).
Cosmic Gate - a Galaxian-ish 64 stage top down shooter (Namco-Bandai made the game but XSEED released it here).
Karakuri Ninja Haguruman - Mario-ish Bubble Bobble platformer with some Megaman elements. You throw shuriken and turn doors and sometimes jump on heads to beat all the enemies.
Rally King - A kinda weak top-down racing game. But the challenges for it aren't too hard.
Star Prince - 1942 style shooter. Very detailed for the era and a lot of fun.
Rally King SP - A remix of Rally King. A bit annoying but I found it more fun than the original.
Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 2 - Another remix but much more effective because I found the original game quite fun.
Guardia Quest - Dragon Quest 1 type game. Very hard but quite long compared to the other games.
Karakuri Ninja Haguruman 3 - Probably the most compelling game. Also the most advanced in style. It plays a lot like I've seen of the old Ninja Gaiden with some Megaman style upgrades. Quite clever and actually my favorite aside from the shooters.
But the point is the sequel has more and even better games, so every fan of the first one wants to see it come to the US.
Wow...and I thought Zombie Pride and Prejudice was the end of that @_@...
I was wrong.
I wonder what will be merged in that meme next...
PS - A game review of Prinny on ANN (Noby Noby Boy also sounds neat).
On the Fun Side...
Feb. 7th, 2009 02:57 pmI started playing Master of the Monster Lair.
It feels a lot like what I've seen and heard of My World, My Way...it's very traditionally-styled. You build your own dungeons with an overly-talkative shovel. Those dungeons lure monsters which you then brutally murder to make a quick buck and boost your town's tourist industry. ^_^ Happy times!
I like how you don't die but get tired and go home when fighting. I haven't figured out how to get three monsters to fight me at once for a big bonus but I'm kinda laying monster rooms and furniture willy nilly. I did get two to fight me at once.
It's a neat game because there is no leveling...you boost your stats by eating home-cooked meals based on the flesh of monster you've taken home. ^_^ Yum! Slime Stew with Bat Testicles!
There's not much of a story and fighting is insanely bland but there's a bit of charm which keeps me wondering what monsters I can lure next to my crock pot.
It feels a lot like what I've seen and heard of My World, My Way...it's very traditionally-styled. You build your own dungeons with an overly-talkative shovel. Those dungeons lure monsters which you then brutally murder to make a quick buck and boost your town's tourist industry. ^_^ Happy times!
I like how you don't die but get tired and go home when fighting. I haven't figured out how to get three monsters to fight me at once for a big bonus but I'm kinda laying monster rooms and furniture willy nilly. I did get two to fight me at once.
It's a neat game because there is no leveling...you boost your stats by eating home-cooked meals based on the flesh of monster you've taken home. ^_^ Yum! Slime Stew with Bat Testicles!
There's not much of a story and fighting is insanely bland but there's a bit of charm which keeps me wondering what monsters I can lure next to my crock pot.
Impressions of....Chibi-Robo @_@...
Jan. 17th, 2009 09:23 pmI never suspected I'd get a chance to play this game but...the roulette wheel of Gamefly landed on this game.
( Impressions )
( Impressions )
Now this was actually a really decent, fun game unlike any I've played. But it was hard to wrap my brain around as a puzzle game.
Donkey Kong on the Gameboy
It had over 100 levels. It had stages to them. It was talking to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sakichan about Toki Tori and how the puzzles were too much for my head to figure out how to get all the eggs and eventually the discussion came to this game. And I was just amazed by the fact I'd played it all those years ago as a little kid with my original Gameboy. It was hard! Especially then.
I don't think I ever finished it but the mere image of it and the sounds brought back all those memories. It's really a very good game. I may have to see if I can hunt down a ROM of it and play it again to see how I feel about it now. For now, here's the Super Gameboy version of it in action from Youtube.
PS - I think Pauline's voice sounds like a man who is yelling through the behind of a cat whilst it's being strangled X_X
Donkey Kong on the Gameboy
It had over 100 levels. It had stages to them. It was talking to
sakichan about Toki Tori and how the puzzles were too much for my head to figure out how to get all the eggs and eventually the discussion came to this game. And I was just amazed by the fact I'd played it all those years ago as a little kid with my original Gameboy. It was hard! Especially then. I don't think I ever finished it but the mere image of it and the sounds brought back all those memories. It's really a very good game. I may have to see if I can hunt down a ROM of it and play it again to see how I feel about it now. For now, here's the Super Gameboy version of it in action from Youtube.
PS - I think Pauline's voice sounds like a man who is yelling through the behind of a cat whilst it's being strangled X_X
Not gonna talk about the new PC game from Will Wright, rather I'm gonna take a video look back at the Sim games that really stuck in my thoughts as being amazing...
( videos and text )
( videos and text )
Pre-E3 Thoughts - Focus on Nintendo
Jun. 29th, 2008 09:53 pmSince I have the most experience with Nintendo consoles lately. Which is a most beguiling position since I'd never really owned a sit-down Nintendo console...ever...until recently.
I'm going to stack this into what I think Nintendo should do (with splashes of ideal) and what I suspect they will do.
( under here )
I'm going to stack this into what I think Nintendo should do (with splashes of ideal) and what I suspect they will do.
( under here )
No More Heroes Review
May. 16th, 2008 01:42 amDo you like messed up fourth-wall pissing-on games? Then stop reading and get No More Heroes.
Despite all the half-asses GTA xeroxing in this game and useless enemy fights, the boss fights absolutely kill in this game. They are the only reason this game is worth talking about (well, for me).
Story - Wikipedia does a good job of summing it. As best they can. You know all those trippy animes that leave you scratching your head? This one seems to at least reference them for its own amusement and all their from-right-field twists. Fourth walls are sneered at. Very memorable characters though. Star Wars is referenced a lot (one credit sequence version is totally Star Wars). One boss battle character 'explodes' before the fight can be fought. It's odd but it gets my seal of approval if you're looking for story and memorable characters. I even warmed to the asshole of a main character. I'm both impressed and a little annoyed by the ending (for being open and unique).
Gameplay - uh...mash buttons and try not to die/get at many points as possible. Yahtzee got that right. The dodging is actually pretty effective if you have more body coordination than I did. Everything outside of the amazing, strategic boss battles is meh. If only they'd taken a Shadow of the Colossus tact and ditched the ripped-off power-training minigames which are EXACTLY TAKEN from San Andreas. Seriously, the button mashing is almost virtually the same. It all seems so superfluous and the city scope rather useless as well. It's like "we have some awesome bosses here...let's design a game out of them...*get drunk after such brilliance*...*wake up late* Omg! We need to make a rest of the game! Think! Think! Yes! GTA! *copy and paste*" Okay, maybe not, but it's a shame that everything not boss-fighting feels so disappointing.
Graphics - Noir-y stylized black shading which works really well on characters but not so great on environments. Each boss battles ends with a retro-y leaderboard like those in an neighborhood arcade. A lot of retro imagery is used throughout the game. I half-expected it to become a criticism of the idea of 'games' or something like that...but fortunately they don't get quite that pretentious.
So...the AURA is...
ORANGISH with a drop of red
It has definitely positive qualities but it's far from the mainstream. You have to be into anime/classic video games and still have a high tolerance for filler around a set of great boss battles told with colorful characters. It's really like a trippy anime forced to become a whole game.
PS - I'm glad they had an adorable kitty ("Jeane") in it ^^...and she gets to "Trigger the Plot Device"! ^^ yay
Despite all the half-asses GTA xeroxing in this game and useless enemy fights, the boss fights absolutely kill in this game. They are the only reason this game is worth talking about (well, for me).
Story - Wikipedia does a good job of summing it. As best they can. You know all those trippy animes that leave you scratching your head? This one seems to at least reference them for its own amusement and all their from-right-field twists. Fourth walls are sneered at. Very memorable characters though. Star Wars is referenced a lot (one credit sequence version is totally Star Wars). One boss battle character 'explodes' before the fight can be fought. It's odd but it gets my seal of approval if you're looking for story and memorable characters. I even warmed to the asshole of a main character. I'm both impressed and a little annoyed by the ending (for being open and unique).
Gameplay - uh...mash buttons and try not to die/get at many points as possible. Yahtzee got that right. The dodging is actually pretty effective if you have more body coordination than I did. Everything outside of the amazing, strategic boss battles is meh. If only they'd taken a Shadow of the Colossus tact and ditched the ripped-off power-training minigames which are EXACTLY TAKEN from San Andreas. Seriously, the button mashing is almost virtually the same. It all seems so superfluous and the city scope rather useless as well. It's like "we have some awesome bosses here...let's design a game out of them...*get drunk after such brilliance*...*wake up late* Omg! We need to make a rest of the game! Think! Think! Yes! GTA! *copy and paste*" Okay, maybe not, but it's a shame that everything not boss-fighting feels so disappointing.
Graphics - Noir-y stylized black shading which works really well on characters but not so great on environments. Each boss battles ends with a retro-y leaderboard like those in an neighborhood arcade. A lot of retro imagery is used throughout the game. I half-expected it to become a criticism of the idea of 'games' or something like that...but fortunately they don't get quite that pretentious.
So...the AURA is...
ORANGISH with a drop of red
It has definitely positive qualities but it's far from the mainstream. You have to be into anime/classic video games and still have a high tolerance for filler around a set of great boss battles told with colorful characters. It's really like a trippy anime forced to become a whole game.
PS - I'm glad they had an adorable kitty ("Jeane") in it ^^...and she gets to "Trigger the Plot Device"! ^^ yay
Super Mario Galaxy - Total Review
May. 14th, 2008 02:21 amBowser put up nearly 2 minutes of a fight in the last fight...wow!
Okay, first off, AURA rating...is
YELLOW!
Yup. I mean I wanted to like Super Mario Galaxy but I've played better platformers on the PS2 (mostly Jak series and Ratchet & Clank). I especially disliked the rigidity of the life system but even more so how the game would completely ignore how many lives you had when you booted a save and just toss you a few extra lives in a letter from Peach. Seriously, I think she's just there, chilling with Bowser and stringing Mario along.
Graphics - Awesome. My eyes melt. Shiny and it has textures I haven't ever seen (no 360 or anything else next-gen-y). Still...where the nice graphics are put...are kinda like "uh...why bother?" Still, it has a nice look even if the added special effects seem rather useless.
Gameplay - Only masochists need apply. I'm just not used to doing precision movement with a little stick on thingie. And it's very unforgiving about missing a jump. I hate the powerups (except the bee one, which is about the only useful one). With special rage reserved for the f-ing horrible Spring Mario which jumps around, barely controlled when he needs to make precise leaps. Absolutely terrible. And rest assured, the most annoying gameplay mechanics will also be the most overused ones. Swimming (terribly implimented), has a special place in gaming hell. And flying. Screw flying. I hate the timer on certain powerups like fireball. Who the heck puts a timer on fireball? That's moving backwards. At least the invincibility star is more useful. Gravity is mildly amusing but it's mostly used for "collect all five bits of star" or "flip unknown quantity of panels in the floor". The camera...btw...for all those apologists...is terrible. It's more budge game platformer terrible, but it's pretty terrible and makes the game much harder at points than it should be. One thing I really need to point out is that the camera will move to a 2D perspective and you're still moving in 3 dimensions and if you don't keep it straight then you will fall or otherwise fail. Considering how small the action is at this point and hard to judge. In fact, it feels like Miyamoto is trying to make a case that a 3D mario sucks compared with a 2D one, especially with how often he goes back to 2D. Despite the issues with the 3D dimension steering in these sections, the 2D levels often surpass the free-roaming ones.
Story - Ha hahahahahaha....seriously though, Rosalin is really a much more interesting princess than the established ladies. Her book she reads is about the best section of story you're gonna get. Oh and Bowser loses. And Luigi is such a damsel.
Conclusion - If you're not sick of Mario yet, I'd recommend it (especially for those who know the platforming twitch system), otherwise, only the DS Mario original has been a fun game for me. I'd recommend that game over this one.
Okay, first off, AURA rating...is
YELLOW!
Yup. I mean I wanted to like Super Mario Galaxy but I've played better platformers on the PS2 (mostly Jak series and Ratchet & Clank). I especially disliked the rigidity of the life system but even more so how the game would completely ignore how many lives you had when you booted a save and just toss you a few extra lives in a letter from Peach. Seriously, I think she's just there, chilling with Bowser and stringing Mario along.
Graphics - Awesome. My eyes melt. Shiny and it has textures I haven't ever seen (no 360 or anything else next-gen-y). Still...where the nice graphics are put...are kinda like "uh...why bother?" Still, it has a nice look even if the added special effects seem rather useless.
Gameplay - Only masochists need apply. I'm just not used to doing precision movement with a little stick on thingie. And it's very unforgiving about missing a jump. I hate the powerups (except the bee one, which is about the only useful one). With special rage reserved for the f-ing horrible Spring Mario which jumps around, barely controlled when he needs to make precise leaps. Absolutely terrible. And rest assured, the most annoying gameplay mechanics will also be the most overused ones. Swimming (terribly implimented), has a special place in gaming hell. And flying. Screw flying. I hate the timer on certain powerups like fireball. Who the heck puts a timer on fireball? That's moving backwards. At least the invincibility star is more useful. Gravity is mildly amusing but it's mostly used for "collect all five bits of star" or "flip unknown quantity of panels in the floor". The camera...btw...for all those apologists...is terrible. It's more budge game platformer terrible, but it's pretty terrible and makes the game much harder at points than it should be. One thing I really need to point out is that the camera will move to a 2D perspective and you're still moving in 3 dimensions and if you don't keep it straight then you will fall or otherwise fail. Considering how small the action is at this point and hard to judge. In fact, it feels like Miyamoto is trying to make a case that a 3D mario sucks compared with a 2D one, especially with how often he goes back to 2D. Despite the issues with the 3D dimension steering in these sections, the 2D levels often surpass the free-roaming ones.
Story - Ha hahahahahaha....seriously though, Rosalin is really a much more interesting princess than the established ladies. Her book she reads is about the best section of story you're gonna get. Oh and Bowser loses. And Luigi is such a damsel.
Conclusion - If you're not sick of Mario yet, I'd recommend it (especially for those who know the platforming twitch system), otherwise, only the DS Mario original has been a fun game for me. I'd recommend that game over this one.
More Point-and-Click Adventure!
Aug. 23rd, 2007 01:16 amHere's something to keep an eye out for...
http://www.destructoid.com/adventure-
http://www.destructoid.com/adventure-
@_@ Wow...I gotta give this video kudos.
Aug. 22nd, 2007 07:50 pmhttp://www.escapistmagazine.com/
Despite the fact I needed to update Flash and use an IE tab renderer to see it....this is so worth it. All about Psychonauts in the funniest way possible.
(Note, most should be able to run it on Firefox, I just have mine set a certain way that it's tougher for me)
Despite the fact I needed to update Flash and use an IE tab renderer to see it....this is so worth it. All about Psychonauts in the funniest way possible.
(Note, most should be able to run it on Firefox, I just have mine set a certain way that it's tougher for me)
Reiterating: Get Picross DS
Aug. 20th, 2007 03:38 pm19.99, lots of stuff to do. Nevermind I still suck at it. That's just me. It's an awesome game with tons of picture puzzles to do.
Picross DS - Highly Recommended
Aug. 13th, 2007 07:27 pm19.99 game, puzzler type. Picture crossword. It's fun, simple but I've found it quite fun. But it can be hard to easily deduce how to solve the next picture. My skills are only at the 10X10 level. There are a ton of pictures to unlock. I wish there was more to it but it works pretty well. Only problem, it locked up on my DS twice and touch sensing is a little spot occasionally. Fortunately you can use the button pad too and when I blew on my DS card a bit, it stopped doing that. Ahh...nostalgia...
*bashes my head against the wall...*
Jul. 30th, 2007 02:28 pmHas anyone played the Rocket Slime game for the DS? I'm on the verge of throwing it against a wall. There's this statue I'm supposed to replicate in Mountain Krakatroda. I can figure out two of the items I need - The Imp that is a bad shot at magic and the 1000ton weight, but I don't understand what the other monster is. I've used every single critter I can imagine and yet the FAQs just say "grab the items and monsters you need"...yeah...really fucking helpful dickwad.
Edit - I'm an idiot X_X...bomb thingie...
*GRRRRRR*
I hate it when straight-forward games turn needlessly complex. A lot of Nintendo games do this. I absolutely loath backtracking. It's why Metroid and others get on my nerves a lot. Gameplay-length is substituted for "I'm wandering around for 10 fucking hours trying to figure out where to go...". Even Okami has moments of utter confusion about what to do next. At least wandering in Okami isn't quite so tedious as the other ones.
Is this a motiff in 'adventure' games? *grumbles*
Edit - I'm an idiot X_X...bomb thingie...
I hate it when straight-forward games turn needlessly complex. A lot of Nintendo games do this. I absolutely loath backtracking. It's why Metroid and others get on my nerves a lot. Gameplay-length is substituted for "I'm wandering around for 10 fucking hours trying to figure out where to go...". Even Okami has moments of utter confusion about what to do next. At least wandering in Okami isn't quite so tedious as the other ones.
Is this a motiff in 'adventure' games? *grumbles*
@_@ Earthbound!
Jul. 7th, 2007 01:42 amhttp://www.destructoid.com/starmen-net-
Amazing for a fan-work...just amazing...
Amazing for a fan-work...just amazing...
