30 Days of Video Games Day 14

Current (or most recent) gaming wallpaper:

This one isn't really fair.  I have so damn many, and they're rotating every half-hour.  I took a screencap from pretty much every Meet the Team video and made them wallpapers.  I think I took four of them from Meet the Medic. But for the sake of the technical name, I have this as my current wallpaper:

I have a lot more as well.

30 Days of Video Games Day 13

A Game I Have Played More Than Five Times:

I have to start with the game I would have played five times over if I still had it: Metroid Fusion.  Actually, pretty much any Metroid game.  It's this strangely perfect balance of exploration, action, and puzzle-solving.  Plus, the aheer amount of skill it takes to get to some secrets can drive you crazy.  Until you actually succeed, of course, and then it's awesome.  But yeah, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Prime each are awesome games.  Maybe the only exception I hold could be the original Metroid, because I need at least a little prodding in the right direction.  Plus, by the time you have a ton of upgrades, you feel like The Juggernaut.

I could do this fight all day.

Much the same thing could probably be said about Portal in the next few years.  It's short, it's wonderful, and I think I've put the count up to at least three play-throughs.

But the winner has to go to Chrono Trigger.  I found it on a large emulator collection I was given.  I thought, "Hmmm... Chrono Trigger.  This could either be retarded, or it could be pretty cool."  So I started playing, and IT WAS AWESOME.  The story was sooo much cooler when I didn't even know what would be on the back of the box.  Ugh, it was too damn cool.

So I played it again and again on my emulator when I found out there were multiple endings.  Then, I got the game for Christmas on my DS, and the number of times I've played it has been increasing somewhat steadily.

30 Days of Video Games Day 12

A Game Everyone Should Play - Any Warioware Game

The fact that there are people out there who have not played any Warioware games upsets me.  First and foremost, it is the ultimate handheld game: short blasts of wtf and "gameplay" that leaves you wanting more and ohmygod brbanothergame.  It's just stupid, mindless fun and weird.

Pictured: Standard Gaming

And the thing is, whenever I try to explain how fun the game is, the common response tends to be disbelief.  But I'm going to just say this: if you have not played Warioware, play it.  Any of the games will do: the Gamecube version, the GBA version, or the DS/Wii versions.  They're all good times and you'll have a lovely conversation piece when  someone asks what you're playing.

30 Days of Video Games Day 11

Gaming System of Choice: Nintendo DS.  In my case, specifically a red-and-black DS Lite.  

Why yes, internet.  That is correct.

I used to have the original DS.  It was a tank, definitely made of pure Nintendium.  There were some superficial scratches on it, and even though I had bought it used, it was a great machine.  I did, though, upgrade to a DS Lite about a year later.  Some people have said that the DS Lite is made of impure Nintendium, and I have started to see signs of age in my DS Lite; the top screen goes blank occasionally due to a pinched wire or something.  However, the years of play I have in that machine are a testimony to how strongly built these little Nintendo machines are; my DS Lite has lasted me four years, and any electronic device that lasts me four years deserves a medal.

Pic related.

But the entire DS series has been great.  Even though it has more variations  than some games have sequels, the DS has had a pretty spectacular run.  It paved the way for strange video games that many would never consider, like Phoenix Wright and Trauma Center: Under the Knife.  It sells better than proverbial hotcakes, and showed that you can run an entire adventure game like Zelda or Metroid on a touchscreen.  But even more prolific than the DS's successes is the third-party support that it received.  Unlike its console cousins, some of the best DS games came from non-Nintendo companies.  Sure, it also had Mario titles all over the place, but some of the aforementioned weird games and creative ones like Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life had moderate to great success on the DS.  It really is one of the better successes to come out of Nintendo.  If for some reason Nintendo ever goes out of the console market, I hope that they can stay in the handheld one.  Either way, I hope that Nintendo's handheld systems continue to do their great history justice.

30 Days of Video Games Day 10

Best Gameplay - Team Fortress 2

The damn game's just too much fun to not get this award.  Its gameplay is a very weird story, though, because when the game came out, it was pretty simple.  You have 9 classes to play as, each with 3 weapons.  The Engineer could build sentry guns, and the spy could disable them.  Heavy Weapons Guy had all of the HP, and the Medic was the most important class no one wanted to play as.

Then Valve started adding weapons.  Suddenly the Medic has a gun that heals him when he gets successful hits.  The Pyro gets an Air Blast that reflects projectiles.  The Sniper gets a bow-and-arrow.  All of a sudden the game changed a lot, and it was awesome.  The game actually got so unbalanced as weapons were added to counteract new weapons that it re-balanced itself.

They even added Middle Eastern-themed weapons because why not?

It's pretty neat, though, to see so many varied styles of play in one game where so many skills offset other skills.  And in general, it's just really damn fun.

30 Days of Video Games Day 9

Saddest Game Scene - Midna dying in Twilight Princess.

This sucked to play through.  Part of the draw to me was that I didn't know if she was going to be saved.  I mean, she was important, but I wasn't sure about how much so to the game.  She could have been disposable, for all I knew.  So when I was trying to save Midna, I was actually going as fast as I could.  If she died, it wouldn't have mattered that there was a game over and I get to try again; it was about the character.  I wasn't playing to not lose, I was playing to save the character.  So good job with that one, programmers at Nintendo.

This is Midna not dying.  The internet has failed me.

30 Days of Video Games Day 8

Short Article today.  Day 8 - Best soundtrack

Has to go to Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  I love all of the things they have done for the soundtrack to this game: the remixes, the straight ports, the half-and-halves... all of it was wonderful.  This was one of the games I followed through its development, looking for releases on new characters and stages.  Super Smash Bros. is one of my favorite franchises, and I am stoked that they have a new one coming to Wii U.  If they released this soundtrack on a CD set or MP3 download, I would go and get it.  Taking music from Pokemon, F-Zero, Mario, Kirby, and so many more games and adding orchestral sounds makes a happy Freddie.