A Little Bit About Me

Just a little info, so you know where I'm coming from, gaming wise. When I was but a wee lad an even wee-er cousin of mine would come down and visit the family for the summer. And one summer he brought forth the Nintendo Entertainment System. Much Mario was played that summer. Eventually, I got one for Christmas with a couple of games (I believe Mario 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). There was much rejoicing. Zelda and Metroid was played and enjoyed. Tetris came along and all the adults would steal our system away from us to play that.

The Super Nintendo came around about the time I was heading into Junior High or so and I remember wanting it so bad. We had to sell our NES, but I didn't care if it meant getting an even bigger and better version of it. With Super Mario World, to boot. The graphics blew me away. Our family never had a lot, but I had friends and cousins that had some cool games. Games like A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Super Metroid and Super Mario RPG were played and beat without ever owning them.

I never put much stock into other systems, understand, me and all my friends were about the Big N. So, Nintendo 64 comes out and it's my first big time purchase with my own cash made by myself working at a real job. I was blown to smithereens by Mario 64. Ocarina of Time eventually made it's way into my hands and I thought it couldn't get much better. I was a huge Bond fan, especially of the movie GoldenEye, the first one I saw on a big screen. I was anxious to get that game before I even realized it was gonna be the game changer it was. Needless to say, multiplayer was played and friends and family had great times executing one another. It was about the time I beat the mission part of the game when we got our first computer with internet access.

I barely touched my 64 after that. This is where I fell away. I pretty much missed the Gamecube. Until one day my friend got himself a Wii and sold me his Gamecube real cheap. Then it started again. Metroid. Mario. Zelda. Played them all and the love came back. I was eventually able to scrounge up a Wii a couple of years ago and I thnik I might play it more than when I was a kid. Actually, that's probably not accurate, what with a full time job and all. Plus raising kids. Scratch that, I don't play it as much as then, but I'm probably into it as much as I was back then.

Moral of the story is, I went away and the Wii, and to a lesser extent, my later experience with the Gamecube brought me back and this little blog is my way of chronicling my catching up.

Twilight Princess

So I borrowed Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess somewhere like a year or so ago and got a good way through it before I had to return it.  I was into it, a big Zelda fan and all, but I kinda felt it was trying too hard to recapture Ocarina of Time magic at some points.  After Wind Waker had the audacity to look like a cartoon, go and flood Hyrule and changed up the thing a bit while keeping the core of what Zelda was and being very exciting in the process, I felt this one kind of took a step back. That aside, I enjoyed my time with it and was hoping to be able to finish it.

Not too long ago, the wife found a copy for me on Craigslist for about 15 bucks and it was a near mint beaut.  So I've put it in and began playing it again.  My initial fears of it being OOT redux went to the back of my mind as I just re- immersed myself in the Zelda experience.  Man, there's just nothing like it; getting sucked into the world of Hyrule and exploring your way around it.  Before, I was all into getting as much as the story done as I could and now, I don't want it to end.  I've stopped to smell the roses.   I've begun putting the story off and seeing what surprises await me in the corners of the kingdom.  I've never been much of a complete-ist, always just satisfied beating the story part of the game.  Sure, I'd like to get as much as I can before I ended the story, but it was no big deal for me to complete it at 100%, and honestly, it's still not.

But now I've made it to the City in the Sky and I feel the adventure beginning to dwindle down and I find myself doing any small task just to keep the thing going.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that as much as I do feel like it's trying a little too hard to go back to the Ocarina well, any game that makes me want to postpone finishing the storyline is not one to be ignored.  It is still Zelda, after all, and I have learned never to take that for granted.

Bring on Skyward Sword, baby.

A Little More "No More Heroes"

I played a couple more levels of this most brutal of awesome games and gave it back to whom it was owned and came to a decision of my own. I must get this game. I know I can find it cheap online somewhere, so when I get a few extra spending dollars, this puppy is mine in all of it's "M" rated glory. The comparisons to Madworld are definitely there, but the difference is that after playing both games for the same amount of time, I was bored of Madworld and I wanted to keep on playing No More Heroes. Sure, the gameplay can get repetitive, the enemies are largely the same, mowing the grass as a mini game is a bit annoying, and if I were to ever meet Travis Touchdown in real life, I'd wanna kick is smart alec teeth down his throat; but there is something immensely satisfying about hacking your way through a throng of enemies with a lightsa... sorry, Beam Katana. The gameplay is flat out fun. And after defeating the third boss in the game, you started seeing a bit of an actual story emerge. Maybe our hero isn't as callous as he seems. Either way, after that, I had to hang it up and just wanted to keep playing. I'm also pretty keen on playing the sequel at some point, as it looks like in addition to more brutal No More Heroes' type mayhem, the mini games look retro fun.

Until then, I've re-begun an old Gamecube game I've had sitting around the house for a couple of years without really getting into. What a mistake that's been, because the game is Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and it is awesome.

No More Heroes

So I borrowed this little dandy of a game from someone and started playing yesterday. I basically have only played the first level, getting to and defeating the first boss of the game. For those that don't know, No More Heroes is a game of assassins. You play as Travis Touchdown, a bit of a modern gaming dude who needed some cash, so he killed a guy for money and then found out that guy was the number 11 Assassin in the world, making you the number 11 Assassin in the world. After finding out this bit of info, he decided, quite logically, of course, that he would like to be Numero Uno. So he's off to whack number 10 and so on and so forth. Oh, and he's armed with a sword that can only be described as a lightsaber.

That's the gist of the story and, as I mentioned, I've only played the first little bit. The game is definitely for the mature audience, with it's over the top violence and explicit language. In fact, it reminds me a little of another game I've played in the recent past, Madworld. Now, there are differences in the two games, for sure. For one thing, in Madworld, you wield a chainsaw, not a lightsaber. The point is, that while I enjoyed Madworld at first, after the first couple of levels, the spectacle of the hardcore violence and over the top-ness of it all wore off and it became a very repetitive game to me. I hope this doesn't happen with No More Heroes, as I'm enjoying what I've played of it, but I can feel the similarities in the two. Specifically, the fact that it appears to be a lot of button mashing; you hit the A button over and over again til you can swing the Wii remote to execute a sweet finishing move. It's fun now, but will it still be fun three levels from now? I guess we'll see. I hear that there are things to be able to do in between missions to keep it a little fresh, so that might help.

Overall, though, I am enjoying the game. The stylized graphics are great for the Wii and there is something to be said about swinging that Wii remote to finish off your foes. The motion controls of the ol' 'Mote seems to respond pretty well to what you wanna do. It feels like the game could get addicting. Still, it's too early to tell what I really think about it, but I'm cautiously hopeful.

More Mario Kart Wii Online

On further review, screw Mario Kart online.

I Went Online Today...

I'll be honest. I'm not much of an online gamer. I've worked with people who are super hardcore Xbox 360 Call of Duty guys who like to kill each other when they are not at work. They've told me I should get a Xbox so I can join them. I remark that if they wanna shell out the 300 bucks for the system, 50 for the game and however much for the online services, I'll be more than happy to! Suffice it to say, I'm not much into multiplayer. One of the reasons is because I don't really have the games that support it. I have The Conduit, which I've yet dared to enter into what I can only assume would be hostile territory full of people who spend way more time on The Conduit in a day than I have since I bought the game. Why not The Conduit 2, you ask? Simple: I'm a cheap skate gamer and it's not at that magical 20 dollar mark yet. And even when it hits that mark, I'll still have to have the 20 bucks to get it.

However, today the kids were napping and I had a couple of glorious hours to myself. I spent a few minutes getting a couple of stars in Super Mario 64, but that felt a little bit... unfulfilling. So I popped in Mario Kart. And I thought "what the heck?". I've raced online a couple of times in the past and did not fare so well. I thought I was pretty good. I had gotten the gold in every cup and unlocked about every character in the game. Surely I'm decent, right? Unfortunately, I do not live and breathe the game as others do and anytime I got even a 4th place finish, it was a miracle. So screw that. I'm a grown adult (as opposed to the ungrown variety of adults) and I have better things to do than have a few 12 year olds laugh at my Beverly Hillbilly-like maneuvering. After that, it was all about racing ghosts online. I've won a lot more of those than lost, so it's easier on the ego.

Today, I popped it in again. The first race I raced today, I won. I felt like the king of awesome. Surely, much like my hometown Dallas Mavericks, destiny was on my side for once. First place, baby! Then my three year old daughter started crying from upstairs and the king of awesome had to put his game away. I dealt with her and got her calmed down enough to get back to sleep and thought I'd try to put the ol' Wii Wheel back in action. Surely, momentum was on my side. Much like Dirk Nowitzki, I would rear up in the fourth quarter and will myself to victory! I came in about 4th or so, but then I won again! 3 races, 2 wins! I should have booked my flight to Vegas right then and there!

But then the mighty fell. The screen became more populated and in Mario Kart land, that simply means chaos. Red turtle shells rained down from the heavens, lightening struck me with frequency and uncanny timing (usually as I was jumping over a chasm). 8th and 9th place finishes became the norm and that was me being lucky. I started remembering why I don't visit online play very much. It reinforces how utterly mediocre a player I really am. Ah well. The throne was a nice place to sit on, even for a short while. And the memory of that might entice me to jump online more often.

Maybe tonight, after the kids are in bed, I'll even attempt The Conduit online. If I'm brave enough.

My Mario Kart Friend Code is 0303-3247-0244 if anyone is interested. If you add me, don't be surprised if you don't see me often, but I'll try to make more of an effort in the future.

The Force Unleashed II

The Force is unleashed yet again on my Wii and boy is it kinda fun. I'll be upfront: I totally enjoyed the first installment of the Starkiller franchise. The feeling of wielding a lightsaber and controlling the Force in a way my young pre-teen mind could never have ever conceived of while playing the super fun Super Star Wars trilogy on my ol' SNES is enough to make your brain explode from the sheer nerdiness of it all. The game made you feel powerful. Could it have been better, definitely. But I still enjoyed it.

The sequel, on the other hand... I should start out by saying I found it used at Blockbuster for 10 bucks. I only say that because how much money you spend on it might dictate what you ultimately feel about it. The game is short. Very short. Just when I was getting in the swing of things, the whole show is done. In short, I'm glad I only spent 10 bucks on it. The original 50 dollar price tag would have left me feeling very ripped off.

Starting out, I was a bit thrown off by the controls, as they have been changed up a bit for this installment. I'm the first in line to poo-poo change in anything, so I started out thinking it was all balderdash. These were not the controls I had grown accustomed to from the first game! How dare they! Getting used to this led to a couple of early cheap deaths with me trying to dispatch of enemies using the same gestures and buttons from FU1. But get used to it I did, and realized that the control scheme wasn't so bad after all. There are a few new Force moves, like Force Sight and Force Rage that use the Wii Remote very effectively and give you a feeling of even more power. Plus, two lightsabers. That's always awesome.

Unfortunately, there's a laundry list of things that I feel let this game down from the previous one.

- It's SHORT
- Lack of variety of levels
- Lack of variety of enemies. Stormtroopers, spider-bots, robots bearing shields and a few two legged walkers. That's about it.
- I enjoyed the story of FU1. This one doesn't feel like much of a story at all
- SHORT!

I wish they had fixed a few of the shortcomings of the first game (as much as I enjoyed it, it ain't perfect). The levels can be repetitive. The quicktime "waggle your wii-mote" scenes are nice, but I would like to be a bit more hands on in those parts of the game. After fighting through endless stormtroopers and it gets to the cool part, I wanna piece of that action, not be relegated to the sidelines to watch while I swing the remote left or right and Starkiller does something impossibly awesome.

I will say I thought it was very fun, what game there is of it. I don't regret buying it (because I bought it stinkin' CHEAP). I'm a Star Wars nerd and I always enjoy romping around in the universe wielding lightsabers. The couple of boss fights are pretty fun.

Apparently, there's a mulitplayer, but I don't really have anyone near me at the moment to jump into the arena with and kick their butts, so I really can't comment on that aspect of it.

I just felt it was waaaay too short. I got through it in about 6 hours. And the way the story ends in a cliffhanger, it really just feels like a couple of bridge levels simply to have a reason to bring the character back to life (in a manner of speaking) after the first game to kick more butt in a meatier story in the inevitable next game. I think a game like this would have been a great use of downloadable content for whatever system it was on and could have accomplished the same thing.

However, any excuse to go crazy with the Force, I'll take.