30 Days of Video Games Day 2

My favorite character... This one's kinda tough.  There's a lot of characters that I really like, in games that I will probably touch on later in this series of blogs.  Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, for example, are two awesome characters in their games, and no one has popularized screaming OBJECTION! like Phoenix.

As if you needed a picture.

And Team Fortress 2 has a lot of characters that are fun to watch and play as, especially the Heavy, Demoman, Pyro, and Medic.  But I think if I'm going to choose one character from every video game I've ever played to be my favorite, I have to ask the question: "Who absolutely delights me when he/she shows up in a game?"  And even though I'll have a million different answers tomorrow, I'm going to choose one now: Fawful, from Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga.

A strange choice? Yes. But awesome.  It's the writing that sets Fawful apart from the other villains in, well, pretty much any game I've ever played.  So in the first game of the series, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, the villain, Cackletta, wants to steal Princess Peach's voice.  But during the first "level" of the game, Fawful ambushes you aboard Bowser's airship.  He then busts out with this monologue:  

"I am the great Cackletta's most best pupil, who is named Fawful! I am here, laughing at you! If you are giving us the chase, just to get your silly princess's voice, then you are idiots of foolishness! Princess Peach's sweet voice will soon be the bread that makes the sandwich of Cackletta's desires! And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!"

Fawful is full of "lolwut" sayings like this through out the series.  When Bowser asks him what his beef is, Fawful responds confusedly with, "Beef? I am lacking in beef. Fawful is beefless."  Engrish is at its best with Fawful, and that's why I'm choosing him for my favorite character from all video games forever (probably not, but still.)

30 Days of Video Games Day 1

For anyone who doesn't know, this meme has been kind of going around the internet.  I'm not 100% on why it was made or why other people do it, but I'm writing this because video games are fascinating to me for many reasons, one of which being that popularized gaming has been around for all of a few decades.  For anyone who accidentally stumbled on this and had some compulsion to read this and therefore doesn't know me, I am less than a few decades old; two and a fifth (rounded down) to be exact.  Being almost as young as an industry is kind of weird, and it makes a totally legitimate sounding excuse to really like video games and treat them halfway seriously.


So here goes.


Day 1: My Very First Video Game


Okay, so I'm not sure what my first game is, because I started playing reeeeaaaally early.  I'm pretty sure, though, that the first thing I played video games on was the original Game Boy.  And as any red-blooded American who played games on that brick, I played the most American game around:

I remember playing this before I even knew what I was doing.  I played multiplayer Tetris with my brother before I even really recognized Mario and Luigi as the characters on the side of the screen.  

Since then, I've seen Tetris grow into probably the biggest game franchise ever.  Tetris on the Game Boy in 1989 accomplished what the Wii set out to do in 2007: it captured every gaming market around.  Do you know someone who hasn't played Tetris?  If they haven't, they're in the minority.

Nintendo's E3 Showing

After a lot of searching of the internets, I have finally located a video of Nintendo's full E3 conference (sadly, minus the trivia that they showed at the beginning like cinema previews).

So can I be the first to say that I never really expected the next iteration of Zelda to look the way she did?

The answer is no, because I'm writing this like an entire day after the press conference, and three hundred people have probably beat me to the punch. But still.  I do like the visual styling, though.  It does look like Toon Link grew up, which is way cool.  Some of the new bad guys look pretty neat, too.  Nintendo is being huge on Zelda's 25th anniversary, and a lot of Zelda games are being re-released on several systems.

The 3DS lineup is also looking good.  Mario Kart will still be Mario Kart, and that can only ever be a complement towards the game.  And because it will still be Mario Kart, insanity has been incorporated into the games with hang gliders and tracks that will go underwater.

Starfox 64 in 3D looks really intriguing, but frankly, they could have re-released it with no 3D and it would still be a portable Starfox 64, which would still be spectacular.  There are two newer features that make me hesitate, though:  It has the option to use the 3DS itself as a motion controller for the game (thankfully an option, just in case that doesn't turn out to work well), and multiplayer features the faces of your friends so you can see what they look like as you dominate them.  The videos make it look like they give away the position of enemy aircraft a little easier, though, but it might not even be a problem.

Super Mario 3D is apparently coming out, too.  It looks like the same art-style as Skyward Sword, but that might just be me,  Watching the trailer, I can see influences from a lot of Mario games.  Also, this is back:

Oh yeah.  That's Tanooki Suit Mario.  In a 3D game. (Both in virtue of 3DS and 3D like Super Mario 64.  I wonder how they'll differentiate those 3Ds when it becomes relevant.)

Luigi's Mansion 2 and Kid Icarus: Uprising were also announced.  Both look pretty cool, and Luigi's Mansion 2 apparently has several mansions to explore.  Nintendo then announced a lot of third-party titles, including Snake Eater 3D and Tekken 3D.  I can't be the only one who sees this and prays for Street Fighter X Tekken to come to the platform.  Nintendo also announced that the Virtual Console will be coming to the 3DS, so if you haven't pirated all of the handheld games you've ever wanted, you can look forward to that.

So then the big news.  Wii U.

Yes, that's the name of the new system.  It consists of a very-similar-to-Wii console:

And a fancypants new controller:

Oh yes.  That's a touchscreen you're looking at, ladies and gentlemen.  Through a process most scientists call magic, the Wii U can transfer a game from the TV to the controller if someone wants to come in and watch TV on their TV.  It has all the goodies from the Wii controller, too, like speakers, motion controls, four shoulder buttons, and everything you see in the picture.  That big black area on top is a camera.  Nintendo has also joined us in the twenty-first century by giving a lot of new features involving transference of pictures and videos from the controller to the TV.  There's a lot of internet functionality in the works for the new system, including video chatting.

The Wii U is also supposed to be backwards-compatible, too, and supports all of the peripherals that could function on the Wii.  So just as the Wii made your Gamecube relatively useless, so too will the Wii U make your Wii useless.

If the video Nintendo showed at E3 about 3rd party developers holds true, it means a lot of people seem to be excited about the new controller.  Then again, people were excited for the Wii-mote, too.

I just have to list games now, because it got real during the 3rd-party developer video:

• Tekken on Wii U.
• Batman: Arkham City (so much happy)
• Assassin's Creed (they didn't specify which, but I think it's Revelations)
• Ghost Recon: Online
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
• Darksiders II
• Dirt
• Battlefield 3

And a few more.  Things are looking bright for Nintendo at this point.

Oh, and I guess one tiiiiiiny detail might interest some of you gamer-types reading this:
A new Super Smash Bros. game has been announced for the 3DS and the Wii U, and they will somehow allegedly interact.   That feeling you just got was joy, ladies and gentlemen.

All of the videos I referenced (including Nintendo's entire E3 presentation which had Shigeru Miyamoto being delightfully weird) and pictures I used can be found at Nintendo's E3 website.

Pokemon Black and White: The Sequel Pokemon Needed

Let me start this off with a story:

I have been buying Pokemon games since the Red and Blue versions came out in 1998. As such, I am a part of that special generation that dragged their unsuspecting parents to the Pokemon movies (just the first two, though). Since I bought my first Pokemon game, Blue Version, I have since bought and/or acquired: Yellow, Silver, crystal, Pearl, and Platinum. Apparently, I have a pattern where I'm fooled into buying a new Pokemon game and then I just HAVE to get the third one for each set.

Now, by the time Pearl Version came out, Pokemon had taken something of a dive in its former popularity. I don't know if this is true with most peoples' experience, but after a while, people got tired of hearing that there were more and more Pokemon. Basically, it felt like we were buying the same game with more and more Pokemon, not all of which were particularly likable.

So after defending my purchase, I bought Pearl Version. I was all about Giratina; I thought it was easily one of the coolest legendary Pokemon to come out of the series. So then they said they were going to release Pokemon Platinum, where Giratina was the game's mascot. So I stated that my new purpose in life was to buy Platinum. After being mocked about me being "addicted" to Pokemon, I again defended myself. I said, "Well, this is the last Pokemon game I am going to buy."

Nope.

I too was filled with the skepticism of my friends, but when I heard that Black and White were in development and that they were going to have new features, it popped on my radar. Then I read about the new features and saw that very few of the new features were not the same things that would get changed from game to game all the damn time.

I am generally a man of my word, so I needed something really new to happen in Pokemon Black or White. What sold it to me was that there were only new Pokemon for the first part of the game. ONLY new Pokemon. Know what that means?

In caves, I would run into NO GEODUDES AND NO ZUBATS. That was my prompt to get signed the heck up for Generation V of Pokemon (Jeez, five!?)

Where an I going with all of this? Well, as I assert in the title, I feel like this is exactly what a Pokemon sequel should be. Adding animations to the normally-still sprites was a great touch for presentation, as was adding a map that doesn't look like crap. And while certain Pokemon may not seem particularly well-designed (http://www.hejibits.com/comics/gray-matter/ is pretty accurate), I found a bunch I really like. Adding Triple Battles was pretty fun, too, though it can get a little frustrating when some moves don't reach other Pokemon.

If you are on the fence about buying Pokemon Black or White, I'd suggest edging over to the side of buying the game. It's not going to change your mind if you're a loyalist to the first generation of Pokemon, but I had a blast discovering the new Pokemon and exploring a new game world. Pokemon was growing a little gray around the edges, even for a loyalist like me, but this one felt fresh enough that I didn't at all regret my purchase.

God of War as Played By Someone Several Years Too Late to the Party (Part Two)

So God of War one had me convinced that I was playing one of the Great New Franchises before I had even made it halfway through the game. But I had yet to face the terror that is Pandora's Temple.

The temple itself was impressive, and held my interest as I completed challenge after challenge. I could remember thinking, "I wonder if this is the only temple in the game, because this doesn't seen like it would be that big of a place. Oh ho ho, foolish me. I made it through that first elevator waiting for Pandora's Box, and then... new enemy type. 'Damn,' thought I,' this place isn't going to end for a good long while, it it?'

It was about here that I figured just how much I had underestimated God of War. I figured that the rest of the game would be along the lines of: Pandora's Temple, then maybe some other obstacle, then fighting Ares. And I suppose I was correct, but not in the sheer scope of what was about to happen. Pandora's Temple was eight kinds of epic, the obstacle on the way to Ares was crazy (There's a reason that saying "The Blades of Hades" can make some gamers cringe), and then I got to Ares. Ares too does everything that had been done with video game boss fights and added more, and I greatly appreciated that they took, "This is my TRUE FORM" (death-metal spider legs) and moved that to the beginning of the fight.

That left God of War II to follow some pretty impressive video-gamery. That's why, when it started off with Kratos being stupidly-overpowered, I was giddy. It was time to kill hapless soldiers once more. Then he loses his powers (as is the sad case with sequels) and has to regain them. So how do you out-do having the god of war as your final adversary? How about having Zeus, King of Gods and famous father-killer, take the reins as your villain?

God of War II was everything that it should have been. Sequels are tricky, and being able to generalize about what they ought to be is foolish in the varied world of video games. But God of War II needed to be bigger, badder, and possibly more epic than God of War. Somehow, it pulled it off, and the GoW dev team really needs a pat on the back for that, if nothing else.

Now then, as I said in my last post, mine was a Nintendo household, and my exposure to Sony systems was rare. It's amazing what holding a completely new controller can do to you when it comes to quick-time events, which the fights with Ares and Zeus were made of. This may seem like an odd complaint, seeing how the game is littered with them, even with non-boss characters. But imagine that the shapes that you are so used to on controllers were suddenly replaced by a banana, a phone, a squiggly line, and an X (since that seems to be the only common denominator between controllers). I got away with some of the other boss fights because I had time to glance down at the controller, look back up and press it. Not so much with Ares and Zeus. Imagine that a banana icon jumped on the screen and that meant you had .5 seconds to press the banana button. "Which one was ba--" is about as far as you could think before Zeus would plant a sword in your skull.

That was me. For an hour.

God of War as Played By Someone Several Years Too Late to the Party

So, for everyone who doesn't know, when I grew up, mine was a Nintendo household. I grew up playing an NES, an SNES, and a Gameboy (followed by the Gameboy Pocket and Gameboy Color). Then the great divide came; Sega Saturn was flailing about like the dying fish it turned out to be, and there was a choice to be made (in poor poor one-console households anyways): Do we jump ship and go to these shiny newcomers, Sony; or do we stick with our guns and stay with Nintendo?

At least that's how I viewed it. I knew that the system I wanted was the Nintendo 64, though, and that I wanted to skip out on the Playstation 2.

Fast forward to the generation of Gamecube, PS2, and Xbox, where I stayed true to my Nintendonian leanings. I know that I missed out on a lot of extremely important games from the other consoles, notably (bonus points for reading the title) God of War and God of War II. I knew that these were good games according to the critics and all my friends, but I also knew I had no access to it. I could only judge the game by second-hand re-tellings of how awesome it was. The most memorable thing I read about the series comes from Tycho of Penny Arcade:

"Imagine that there is a Harpy swooping overhead, and that you have become perplexed by said harpy. Let me break it down for you:
Other games: Hit harpy with weapon.
God of War: Grab each leathery wingtip, yanking the creature out of the sky. Place your boot on the back of the neck and pull off the Goddamn wings with a strong upward motion."

After reading that, how could you not be sad that your only exposure to the game has been secondhand? I later played the game over a period of several visits to my cousin's house. I got to see how awesome it was, and I made it about halfway-ish through the game, to the point where I saw Kronos in the desert. I was hooked, but I couldn't play the game any more after that.

Now fast forward to today. I am lucky enough to have a roommate with a Playstation 3 and several great games from the PS2 era, including (who could guess?) God of War and God of War II. I have a lot to say about them, so it would be pertinent to end this post here and leave another more edible chunk later.

(Spoiler Alert: I really liked them)

The Humble Indie Bundle

Just adding another blog into the sea of blogs talking about how awesome the Humble Indie Bundle is. It's just pretty darn awesome for both consumers and developers, and naming your own price is about the coolest thing in the world for broke college students. It's really cool for two reasons: 1)I would never have played these games if they weren't all set up in the same package, and 2) I got 5 games for 6 bucks. The fact that some of the money went to Child's Play, a charity I have been a big fan of for a long time, is pretty cool as well; now I can say I supported the charity, however weak my contribution may have been.

I have a big soapbox position about video game piracy that I kinda felt like talking about, but the point is moot; if you have an opinion on it, I'm probably not going to change it here. But things like The Humble Indie Bundle are a wonderful way to let the people who have the money barrier for games get some good games for a low price.

The money I paid was supposed to be my thanks, I suppose, but I really wanted to do what little I could to thank them more. SO thanks to all of the people who made the Humble Indie Bundle possible, from the developers to the people who put the bundle together.