Cartridges In Play

I as well am playing multiple games now, as I also tend to do with books.  Not because I'm all like "Look at me, I can read 5 books at the same time and not get lost, see how awesome I am!?"  I'm playing multiple games because I just have a number of games that I have yet to play.

So let's get down to them shall we:

Nintendo DS

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (2009)

I finally acquired this game last December and have been looking forward to playing since whenever Nintendo announced that it would be released for the DS.  Aside from the updated graphics, it plays very much like a mid 1990s RPG (JRPG I guess, although I'd like to do another post on that whole bundle of chips later), you end up with a party of varied characters, level building traveling around a world map, purchasing weapons/armor/items, dungeon crawling, fighting end of cave bosses et cetera.  Basically very typical Dragon Quest gameplay, nothing too original.

I've since read on Wikipedia, that Dragon Quest V is considered to be the  favorite in the whole series (out of 9 at the moment, not including spin offs) by the creator Yuji Hori.  However, I'm not finding as exciting as I thought that I was going to.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very much enjoying the game and I like the story line and the fact that you start out the game as a young child and eventually progress to having your own offspring.  I guess I just don't feel as connected to the characters as I thought I might.

I think what's disappointing me is that there're things that happen to the main character that I would've like to have seen differently in the way things were handled.  Without giving anything away, let's say something happens to the main character, then one of your friends says something like "Wow, we wondered what happened to you.  We're glad you're back now!"  Oh, and the world's gone completely to shit and we're facing a potential apocalypse.  I just have to keep telling myself that this game originally came out in 1992 and has a somewhat more "cartoonish" feel to it than say, Final Fantasy IV, of around the same time; Final Fantasy IV (or Final Fantasy II on the SNES) came out in 1991).

I'm nearing the end of the game right now so I might make an addendum after I finish.

Sony PSP

LittleBigPlanet (2009)

I've been playing this game off and on since I got it for my birthday (just over a month ago).  I never played the first in the series that came out for PS3 so all I knew about the game before playing it was that you played a burlap sack character and that it was pretty much a puzzle type platformer.  Which, pretty much is what it is in it's most simplest form.

One of the other main selling points of the game/series is that the game also encourages you to create your own levels and then share them online via the Playstation Network.  Honestly right now, I don't know if I'll take advantage of this side of the game, or at least as much as the game intends and I think this is more of a personal thing rather than some flaw with the design of the game.  But as for game design, I love the fact that everything in the game looks like it was snipped from a coloring book.  Early on in the game, I was wondering how enemies would be introduced and what few enemies there are, are brilliantly done.  They're simply cutouts that are either swung along chains or move along carts.

Something that I don't fully understand (and maybe appreciate as well) is the whole "thing" about stickers.  Moving stickers, which are akin to decals on the background scenery, is somewhat amusing, but I'm personally more interested in completing the levels than making them look asthetically different.  I'm assuming I'm missing something here, but until I'm told what it is, I can't tell and therefore I happy to be ignorant.

One thing that I am currently sad about with the game is the lack of the narrator being around.  Early on in the game, the narrator (who sounds a lot like the guy who did the narration for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) tells you how to do certain things and what options the game delivers.  It only makes sense to cut out the helping narrator as the game progresses since, one would hope, you don't need directions how to do things half way through the game.  I'm just sad because I like the guy's voice and the dialogue that was written for him was pretty funny/adorable/witty.

And yet, another game that I have yet to complete, but slowly working on it.

And now, because I feel that I should mention what games are up in my queue after the previous two games mention are finished, I will.

DS: The World is Not Enough and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.

PSP: Tactic's Ogre: Let Us Cling Together I and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona.

PC:  Crayon Physics Deluxe and NightSky.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

I Need To Stop Seeing People About Horses

Okay then, Introductions:

Four switches, I wonder what they do?

Hi, I'm David.  I've got nicknames too, like Dave.  And Doctor Potts and Potts Ivy.  And DAMP, I guess (stands for Dave-a-ma-Potts).  And everyone in my family got "Pots and Pans" at some point or another.  I'd like to requisition a drawing of me decked out in armor made entirely of pots and pans.  Anyone?

The earliest games I can remember playing were on the Atari 2600, with wood paneling.  That wood paneling was such an absurd aesthetic choice that it has stayed with me forever.  Atari gets a thumbs up for being so silly and memorable.  The 2600 also had some fun switches, one was a reset button which would bounce back into place when you moved it, and one was an on/off switch that would stay in place, I think.  Here's a picture!  (Doncha just love the internet?).  Sometimes I would get distracted by playing with the buttons when the games wouldn't work- they often had trouble working.

Check out Ian Bogost for some modern Atari programs and video game theory stuff.

I was, like Jack, active during the Nintendo/Sega console wars.  I learned to appreciate and also despise advertising campaigns during that time.  I distinctly remember Sega using a lot of aggressive and negative attitudes in their commercials, as well as made-up industry terms (blast processing anyone?).  I consoled myself by saying that they were just jealous that the SNES had much better games and was, overall, the superior console.  I was probably a bit biased- an avid reader of Nintendo Power- but hey, I was making this up on my own.  And I learned a little humility over the following years, as I watched my sad Sega friends lose their favorite hardware maker.  I will definitely want to write more about the console wars.

I've also been a big fan of RPGs.  In fact, the first non-Nintendo console I bought was a Sony Playstation, just to play Final Fantasy VII.  I agonized about this decision.  I had been following the hype leading up the FFVII, the disappointing news that it would never be released for the Nintendo 64, and, as a matter of fact, Square was breaking their Nintendo-exclusive relationship that had done a lot to make the Super Nintendo such a fantastic system.  But yes, I bought a Playstation and Final Fantasy VII (with Bushido Blade Demo) and shortly thereafter got it modded so I could play burned games.  Oh, technology, changing the way we make our consumer choices.

This is what it has come to:  Sonic on the cover of Nintendo Power

A couple of years ago, I bought a Nintendo DS, again, to mod the thing, and play emulated NES and SNES games.  That's the last name-brand gaming hardware I bought.  I have dropped out of the console world, and now play almost exclusively on the PC.  I think it was the expense that drove me away from consoles.  And also, roommates.  I always had a roommate or good friend with all the latest hardware, so I would get my fix there.  I weaned myself away from all the latest stuff, and now I find myself with no TV, but a decent enough PC.   And not nearly as much time as I had way back when.  The world of Steam, and $0-$10 Indie games is my gaming world now.  I like it.  I've played some great games:  Super Meat Boy, Bit.Trip.Runner, Braid, Cave Story, Everyday Shooter and more.  Sometimes I miss the fancy AAA titles, but not most times.  Mostly I miss the time, all that time that I had to play 40 hour RPGs, all those weekends burnt.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to make breakfast.

#Console Wars, #Atari, #Introduction

But First, Introductions

My first thought was to jump right into games.  Specifically video games.

But first, introductions.

My name's Jack, JWfW, JDub or Jaconian.  All depending where I am on the internet.

I've been playing video games since the ripe young age of I don't remember when.  My first memory of playing video games of any kind was either on Dr. Potts' Atari 2600 or on the Intellivision down in Lake Arrowhead at a house my grandparent's rented for the first half of my life.  The first time I played on a Nintendo Entertainment System was probably sometime around 1986 or 1987 at a neighbors house up the street.  The following Christmas, my sisters and I received the "deluxe" packaging NES that came with the Power Pad (because when my Mom sent my Dad out to buy it, he naturally bought the biggest available version; a bit ironic since my Dad doesn't play video games on any level).

So my childhood and teenage years was during the height of the Console Wars of which I was on the side of Nintendo.  NES, SNES, Gameboy (original and Play It Loud series), Gameboy Advance, N64, Gamecube, DS lite.  All Nintendo.  I did buy a PS2 from Dr. Potts after he won it in one of those Coke bottle cap contests and I did buy a PSP from my friend Chreekat (since we're using aliases here) before he moved out to go adventuring.  These I bought so I could play Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, on their respective systems.  I have played some PC games, but until recently as 2003, I never owned what one might call a "gaming computer," and even then, the computer I had still wasn't very powerful (80 gig hard drive, Pentium III processor, 256 Mb or RAM).

I tend to play mostly role-playing games although I do also love and play other types as well.  The one big exception is rhythm and music games.  Sure I've played Guitar Hero and Rock Band and I've even gotten on a DDR pad a couple of times, but they're just not my pint of beer.  There's a wall that I definitely hit right after the "Easy" stage that I can't get past without hours of practicing, which doesn't happen since I don't own any of the games.  Figures.

Now to close with a short story.  In elementary school, our school decided to have a dance.  It was the first dance the school had ever had (that's what we were told, maybe they lied) and it was going to be on Valentines Day.  A lot of kids went either because they wanted to go to a dance before going to Jr. High, or because of the novelty of our school having a dance.  I on the other had was very not enthused about the prospect of a dance.  Plus I had recently rented Captain Skyhawk for the NES and was most likely trying to get passed the second stage.  A number of my friends had asked if I was going to go and felt bad/guilty that I didn't want to go because I'd rather sit at home and play a video game.  Whatever, I'm all the better because of it.  And I never beat the game either.

~Jack/JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Copying People More Famous Than I.

Currently Playing:

I do enjoy the box art

Cthulhu saves the world.  It's a fun distraction, bordering on a complete waste of time.  Which is how I would describe a lot of games, to tell you the truth.  But right now I'm little irritated with Cthulhu saves the world.  It's a funny game, and the first couple of hours are good for some snickering and old-school RPG nostalgia.  But by now, I'm 5.5 hours deep, and it's really not going anywhere.

Granted, this game is a parody of 8 and 16 bit era console RPGs, so it's not really out to impress anyone.  And as a part of the parody, there are some interesting gameplay modifications.  For example, the ability to fight all of the enemies in a given dungeon, and then walk freely after that.  Or how, after a given battle, the party is healed to full.  This streamlines the game, however, that's where some of the problem is- the game is too streamlined for the genre.

Neat Volcano

 As I said, 5.5 hours in, and I'm on the other side of this volcano.  I got here by finding a cure for a plague which had plagued the poor port town on some other island/continent.  The dungeon where I went to find the cure was pretty boring, and the town I landed in before the volcano was boring.  I think it was when I was searching all the bookshelves and drawers in the town, and one of the responses made fun of me for doing this- this is when I became suspicious that this game was falling into the 'suck' territory.  

I think it's funny that the narrator made fun of me for looking in every f-ing drawer.  But the thing is - there is NOTHING in any of the drawers.  Just jokes.  Lots of them, which I appreciate, but the game has basically no items, so there isn't much to find.  So, after wandering a useless city, I go to the volcano, and I am back in another dungeon, after only 5 minutes of time between dungeons.  It's just too soon to be in another damned dungeon.

BoD VII has boxart too!

I recommend playing Breath of Death VII first.  It's by the same makers, and it has many of the same themes and gameplay elements.  It came out before Cthulu, and features 8-bit style graphics.  BoDVII is much shorter, and I think it is a better game.  Cthulu tries too hard, but somehow without trying hard enough.  If you play Breath of Death VII and really like it, then go ahead and play Cthulu.  (Oh, I guess I should mention that I bought both of these games as a "two-fer" on steam, for 15 bucks.