September 14, 2013
Milo and Everbloom go to Japan 2013

I won’t bore you with the details, but our recent trip to Japan was super fun! We both have some familiarity with the language, which made it much easier than it could have been. I’ll just recount a few gaming-related anecdotes.

Pretty much the first thing we did was visit the Capcom store, in a trendy part of Tokyo. The mall had two different promotions running at the time, a Pokemon one and a Monster Hunter 4 one. The store itself was disappointing, small and mostly seeming to sell merchandise of a minor cat character from Monster Hunter. 01 Capcom Store

The big Kobun was one of few Megaman items present. This brings up an interesting point about merchandising in Japan: certain things seemed to be very popular for seemingly no reason, such as a mushroom character called Nameko, and the cat I mentioned. Pokemon was also absolutely huge. I feel like Nintendo should promote their own things a little more heavily, if only for my sake, as any non-Pokemon gaming merch was hard to come by.

Having said that, of course I’m not against Pokemon. I even sought out the Pokemon Centre in Sendai, and it was pretty cool, if a little kid-focused. Understandable, really. They also were heavily promoting the new movie with tons of Genesect stuff (what an ugly design) and the Eeveelutions for the accompanying short (too many toys then with similar designs). You didn’t have to venture to a Pokemon Centre to find any of this stuff though, it was everywhere. But I managed to find a few choice items there and elsewhere, which you can see in my assembled loot once I’d got home:

28 The loot

The other thing about Japan was the abundance of 3DSs. You’d see people playing them but the Streetpasses were going off! Just walking through any city station was liable to get you your full ten in just a few minutes. In Disney Sea especially, tourists from all over Japan came with their 3DS and as long as I kept checking it, I was able to get over 100 hits in a single day! Over the course of the trip, I managed to get every single panel tile! Amazing! That’s the kind of exciting experience Streetpass was made for, and it just doesn’t work in any other country.

It’s a combination of the population density and more game-y culture, by which I mean a broader audience has the interest. Of course, that broad audience could be seen in the most played titles: Animal Crossing and Tomodachi Collection. I also saw lots of Ace Attorney 5, I think it just came out. The abundance of AC players convinced my wife to get the game when we got home, and she’s loving it! It’s good to see.

As for actually playing games, well mostly it was Streetpass for me. At other times, in the hotel room, on trains or planes, I also played my Megaman Zero Collection. It’s such a great package. With my leet skillz, I bested all four games over the whole trip! It was a blast. I don’t think there’s too much to say, but I noticed one or two things I might save for a lore-focused post later.

The only other gaming I really did was a brief stint at Taiko no Tatsujin with my sis-in-law (you know, the Namco drum game), and a shot at the new Mario Kart Arcade machine, GP DX. Coincidentally it features said drum as a playable character, but I picked DK. I can say that the course designs and game overall are as boring as ever for the Arcade sub-series, not much has changed. It looks real pretty, though. In the same arcade I also spotted the rare Capcom-produced medal game, Super Mario Fushigi no Janjan Land. I wanted to try it, but it’s pretty static and I coudln’t figure out how to acquire the necessary medals anyway.

So all in all, I managed to do some very interesting gaming-related things. There was also the awesome retro gaming store in Akihabara, Super Potato, and me taking every opportunity to find a second-hand bookstore to search for game manga (I found some too, see my loot photo). Apart from that, there were tons of great things we got to do and see. Disney Sea, the Ghibli museum, temples and historic castles, the prehistoric village, traditional crafts, and also seeing my sister-in-law and her (now) hometown. It was a great trip and my lovely wife did such a terrific job organising it. Hopefully we can go back someday, and maybe next time I can find some sets from the Donkey Kong trading card game!

4:32pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuu_nPQy
Filed under: update japan 
September 12, 2013
Hiatus should be over now

So, I laid off writing for a while. Lost my mojo. Didn’t feel my writing was appreciated and all that tortured soul stuff. But now I’m back, baby! And so much to catch up on! Apart from all the gaming news, which I most likely won’t talk about, I conquered two of my childhood demons: all the Expert medals in Lylat Wars, and 201 Golden Bananas in Donkey Kong 64. Then I went to Japan! And just now I’ve Kickstarted two games. So that’s the posts you have to look forward to, dear reader. When I get around to finishing Conker’s Bad Fur Day I’ll write about that too, but I’ve been getting super distracted by Rayman Legends. It’s a very good kind of distracted!

Ok, I better stop writing this so I can write those!

8:50pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuuqk4WN
Filed under: update 
September 1, 2013
Saw the movie of this show in Japan. Reblogging cos it’s cool. No vidya games today but I don’t care. Give the Japanese time, they can even make games out of soft murder-mysteries.

Saw the movie of this show in Japan. Reblogging cos it’s cool. No vidya games today but I don’t care. Give the Japanese time, they can even make games out of soft murder-mysteries.

9:52pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwutsGI_4
(Notes: 284)
  
Filed under: nazodi 
July 29, 2013
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty’s Revenge (GBA)

While finishing up DK64, I started on the handheld follow-up/sequel/midquel/side-story to the Banjo series. It’s set between Kazooie and Tooie, but quickly travels decades into the past. A few aspects make this premise a bit screwy, but that’s the way with any prequel or time-travelly shenanigans.

It was very exciting to play this strange little game, because there’s a lot of new and fresh stuff in here which was a change after playing through both N64 games again. But they also reuse enough to keep it familiar. For example, the structure and moves are basically the same, the characters are just an extension of Tooie, complete with new mole tutor.

The funny thing about this though is that it’s not a 3D platformer, the GBA just couldn’t handle it. But it’s probably the closest thing, an isometric platformer. The gameplay is still 3D, but there’s a fixed camera so all the backgrounds and stuff are just premade and everything is sprites, obviously. This introduces some perspective-related issues, of course, as there’s no distinction between further south and higher up, for example. This can get to be a problem in the later levels that have a lot more hazards.

But it’s impressive that they basically reproduced the Banjo formula on a limited system, and did it pretty well (they even improved a couple of mechanics). Of course, I’ve always said that the Rare handheld team makes less polished products than the console teams, and that’s still true here. The minigames are pretty bad, the art is a bit crude in places (blame the GBA too if you like), and you can see the seams, if you get what I mean. And the Comic Sans! Apparently that team is in love with the world’s most hated font, although this was made at a time when it was pretty much ubiquitous. I think the hate came later.

The game’s really short too. Apparently it suffered some cuts in development, but what they have it a fairly neat package. I did finish it in 4 hours, though, and that’s with 100%. But the worlds they have (5 in total, plus the hub) are fun concepts. They’re also quite small, but I guess if you accept the compactness as a feature they play very well. There’s enough NPCs with dumb names to make the worlds feel alive, and a nice flow of new moves. The Mumbo transformations can also be used in any world now, which I think was cool.

Speaking of the worlds though, most of the archetypes seem to be combinations of previously used ideas. Spiller’s Harbor=Rusty Bucket Bay+Jolly Roger’s Lagoon. Breegull Beach=Treasure Trove Cove, essentially. Freezing Furnace=Hailfire Peaks+Grunty Industries. Bad Magic Bayou=Bubblegloop Swamp+Mad Monster Mansion. Cliff Farm is the only really new one, and it’s similar in some ways to Spiral Mountain anyway. Of course, they do new things with all of these, and it’s not such a bad thing when you think how it can inform you on how the Isle of Hags fits together. So that’s a fun exercise, especially with the time travel involved.

I’m running out of things to say somewhat. I guess because the game is so small. In a way, it didn’t outstay its welcome, because it did get quite hard towards the end, everything seemed to do so much damage to you. There was no real penalty for dying, thank goodness—unlike Banjo-Kazooie. It would have been a slog to do another world with even tougher enemies.

I just love how it revisited all the great Banjo elements, such as Grunty’s taunts, the collectibles, lovable weirdo NPCs, there was even quiz segments between phases of the final battle. A final note before we end, though: with the help of a mobile phone emulator, I tried the mobile port of this game (yes it was ported to cell phones, people… I give you the early 2000s). It’s pretty awful. Everything’s scaled back: short music then silence; boring, bare versions of levels; awkward movements and controls. It’s hilarious that it exists, but it’s badly done. It makes the GBA version look much better by comparison, in fact. So I’ll rate the GBA version 600 notes. Nah, that’s too much like a number. On a scale of blue to yellow Jinjos, this one is a pink.

12:19pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuqsCdVx
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: review banjo-kazooie: grunty's revenge rareware gba banjo 
July 27, 2013
Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

I’ve been knocking some games down quickly, so I need to catch up on blogging! M&L RPG 3 was a game I bought back when my 3DS was new and I wanted some games for it. I’d heard good things about the series, so I picked up the latest one when I saw it pretty cheap at one of those shops that doesn’t know how to price good games sometimes. Also I’d played Super Mario RPG for the SNES… somehow… and that was pretty fun.

I ended up starting this game at the same time as Paper Mario 2, so there were lots of comparisons invited. At the time, I wavered for a while before deciding I preferred Paper Mario, and dropped this for a while. The main reason for the hiatus was the game’s difficulty. I got to a bit that I was underleveled for and was getting killed too much (I never had similar problems later, for what it’s worth), and I also had endeavoured to beat the special move challenge minigame things. The minigames are just gruelling if you’re trying to get a high score.

Eventually I decided to return, give up on the minigame and power through the part I was at in the story. I don’t like letting a game languish, unfinished. It really picked up after the bit I was up to, as well. Now the comparisons with the Paper series has shifted, especially after Super and Sticker Star which were on the whole pretty disappointing. I ended up preferring the M&L battle system in particular.

There are a lot of unique and very interesting things about M&L. You control the Bros, and Bowser in this game, with different buttons. So A is always Mario’s action button to jump, etc, B is Luigi’s, and Bowser uses X and Y. It’s cool, but can be limiting when you have three different action modes to swap between for different actions. It’s not oo complicated either since swapping between Bowser and Bros changes the focus. Unfortunately this means you only sometimes get a simultaneous map on the opposing screen. I wanted that map all the time!

The battles are really cool. Every enemy attack is telegraphed in a unique way and you have to react differently to avoid them. It’s a very dynamic system, and makes you feel involved to a much greater degree than the Papers, which are overly simplistic in comparison and only use timed hits (which M&L also has).

Of course, the “good” two of the four Paper Mario games have a range of characterful partners. M&L takes the Tippi/Kersti route of the one guide-type character who tags along. Contrary to popular opinion of such characters, I liked Starlow/Chippy. She didn’t take any of Bowser’s crap and for that I really admired her. That is to say, I think she was characterised well and didn’t get in the way too much.

The other characters are pretty good too. There’s a very memorable villain, and some good secondary antagonists, the supporting characters are fun and all have their distinctive looks and catchphrases. It’s basically the opposite of your standard main series Mario game. But, this one has callbacks and references to Mario games too. That’s what I like, more than actually playing them because they’re a bit boring. I love the universe though, especially when it’s actually used and explored a bit.

To compare a little further still, the advancement system here, in terms of levelling up and also plot, feels good. You sometimes need to go back to old areas, but with new abilities to explore further. It feels cohesive too. And levelling up is kind of a big deal. I feel it edges out ahead of the Papers in these respects, but I guess there isn’t quite the variety of wacky locations those games have.

Even now it’s very hard to decide which sub-series of Mario RPGs I prefer. But I’m glad that their differences in gameplay and presentation let them both exist, and even for the same system now! I guess you could say M&L is a little more “serious”, at least in terms of mechanics. But the writing is just as strong, full of humour, and the character animations are expressive, silly, and just fun. The teamwork-based gameplay of the Bros is very compelling, too, and highlights their relationship and their strength as characters, in a way pretty much unique among the Mario series. I give Bowser’s Inside Story much chortles.

10:00pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuqjbpAf
Filed under: review mario & luigi: bowser's inside story ds alphadream mario 
July 21, 2013
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

My way of playing this game went like this: I started playing concurrent with Twilight Princess, then stopped this so I could focus on that. I went back to this later, spent a while trying to get a feel for the game. Then I decided to do all the plot first, and get the good sword. Then do sidequests. I got bored of the sidequests so I went straight to the finish.

I feel like my playthrough isn’t exactly the intended way to play. But still, I’m happy with how it went. I really wanted to know what sort of direction they were taking the Zelda series on DS, since they were quite different to any other title. It turned out to be quite simplistic, and getting around the overworld by train (or boat, in Phantom Hourglass) was a big focus. This is one of the reasons I wasn’t always totally enthralled. As it went on, the oft-stated tedium of this travel became more apparent to me. And when the sidequests were always about ferrying things and people around in the same way, and were sometimes a bit vague, I got sick of them when I made it my task to do them.

I mentioned that the whole thing was quite simplistic. Not always a bad thing, there was less getting lost in areas (the good maps on the other screen helped), and the control process was streamlined. My feelings on the controls really picked up when I realised that you could hold L instead of tapping the touchscreen button. I have all these fingers and buttons, might as well use them in an action game! But the dungeons did steadily ramp up in complexity as the game went on.

As for the Zelda formula, it was fortunately diverted from a fair bit here. There was a progressive intermediary central dungeon, for example, and Zelda was even with you the whole time, even if her body this time had been kidnapped. Your standard MacGuffins this time were Force Gems, a cool callback to Four Swords Adventures, of all things. There was also some experimentation with items, with the blowy wind thing and the whip.

I don’t want to get too mad about this, but the translations differ between regions in an absurd way. NOA and NOE did mostly completely different translations, changing names and plot details willy-nilly, resulting in lnaguages with two official translations (English, French, and Spanish). What does this mean for canon? How can a fan reconcile these differences? It annoyed me because I’m OCD and stuff. Bleh. Whatever.

Finally, I should mention that the final boss inventively uses many of the tricks of the game in a multi-stage fight, but the second-last stage was annoying. You have to deflect all these rocks in a row in a very long pattern, and if you miss one you have to start again. The whole phase has just one pattern, but with the controls it’s hard to do. But like I said, the rest was good and a good culmination, and the last section of the Tower tests all the other stuff you’ve done that isn’t covered here.

All in all, Spirit Tracks is quite interesting. It’s a bit more experimental than most Zeldas, appropriate for a handheld game. Like other portable titles in the series, there’s no Ganon, no Triforce, no Master Sword. It (and Phantom Hourglass) have a unique control scheme. It’s not dependent on other games, but takes a few elements from them that are fun to notice. Spirit Tracks never got a whole lot of attention, as Phantom Hourglass was a bit divisive and its separation in plot from the series probably harmed it in popular terms. I was glad to play it though, even if like I said I had to decide to finish it rather than do 100% of everything, because the training around was tedious. But now I can move on to other things, and there’s a few in the old DS backlog here. So long!

3:04pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuqBAdp9
Filed under: review nintendo ds zelda: spirit tracks 
July 16, 2013
Big update

So I’ve been pretty busy over here. Yeah I’m on holidays so lots of gaming happening. I want to talk about all of it, but most of it’s not interesting. Oh well, gonna do it anyway.

I finished Spirit Tracks. Expect more about that later. The second-last phase of the final boss was super frustrating, and you don’t want your game experience to have a sour note right at the end. I think I’ll try and finish Mario & Luigi 3, in hopes of one day playing Dream Team, but before I did that I cleared out a few demoes I’d been downloading from the Store (haven’t been any for a while though).

Fractured Soul demo was fun, maybe a little slow-paced but as it went on it started throwing stuff at you more quickly and it became frantic. I like how it made you think in a completely different way. Basically you switch between the top and bottom screens and your actions are mirrored but the rooms are different. Lots of potential for puzzles and action. It was a little simplistic and drab but that’s kind of what it was going for. I won’t buy it but that’s because I buy barely any games. Keep that in mind.

I also tried the Sega Racing 2 demo for 3DS. It’s the same demo as the console one, and everything else seems the same too in terms of content. The problem is, if you set yourself up as equivalent, the glaring imbalance in execution is going to shine through. What I mean is, it’s a very much cut-down console port, and those don’t look good. I also had some framerate issues, which is not a good look in a demo. This thing is supposed to be selling the game to me (previous comments on austerity notwithstanding). Not impressed. Kinda reminds me of the Rayman Origins demo, which is a very inferior package of the same content on console.

Next, iPhone stuff! I played through Random Heroes 2 then deleted it. It was ok, only small improvements from the original. Good little run&gun time-waster. I also appreciated the cameo appearance of a few characters from the developer’s other game, and another indie game. One day I’ll write a post about the Indie Game Universe, I like it. I got my mum into Letterpress after everyone else has given up on it, as is the case with most of these social word/drawing games.

The trial bit of Layton Brothers Mystery Room has convinced me to get the full thing: despite the Layton license being tacked on (the Prof’s not there… so far) it’s cheap, similar to Ace Attorney I assume (that demo’s next on my list) but not supporting Capcom, and fun with good characters. Plants vs Zombies 2 got a soft launch in my country, so I’ve been playing it. Some nice new features, but also as you’d expect some pretty blatant and cynical microtransaction stuff. They hide it well at first, but when your plant list has slots taking up room with plants locked behind real money paywalls, it starts feeling pushy. And after finishing the whole original twice, I can’t find the enthusiasm.

After 100%-ing Banjo-Tooie, I took a step back in terms of release dates and started DK64. Hmm. Well, I’ll save more thoughts for another time, but so far it’s actually pretty enjoyable. It has strengths and weaknesses: eg, poor writing but fun animations, lots of collectibles is good (debatably) but colour-coding them gets tedious. It’s no Banjo, but it has its own character.

I felt like some Smash Bros. 1-player action, so I played Melee a bit the other day. And just today, I did something I thought I would never do. I played Brawl online. The lag was pretty bad, but it was actually good because I had a video stream of and text chat with some of the other players, so we could get reactions and stuff. It’s because I was watching the Metroid Headquarters anniversary charity livestream all weekend, and after they finished all the Metroid games, they played some other games and just kept streaming. Getting the chatters and watchers involved was fun. I even won 2 out of 3 matches! Good times. Weird experience, interacting with relative strangers in such a direct way from across the world.

But I also interacted with people in the same room as me! I know right! I had a good friend over one night, and we played Nintendo Land since he hadn’t used a Wii U before. Plus, it’s just a good party game really. Then I played it again when I went to a new friend’s house. This inspired me again, and I even played it by myself and with my wife the next day, and cleared some things I couldn’t before. It’s quite charming and once you get used to replaying challenges, you can have a lot of fun. It also challenges your skill in a way that seems more suited to old-skool Nintendo than the Touch Generation Nintendo. But there’s still some Super Guide for babies, which was honestly welcome at times. It just has a lot of range though.

Ok I think I got it all out. I’ve had so many differing game experiences over the past couple of weeks that I just had to spit some words onto a pixel. I don’t feel I’ve done much justice to them but that’s why no-one pays me for this. Ok, pip pip.

5:05pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwupnB0XU
Filed under: update nintendo land smash bros DK64 zelda spirit tracks etc 
July 13, 2013
Banjo-Tooie (N64)

Why, hello everyone! I’m enjoying my holidays and playing lots of video games. I found the time to finish Banjo-Tooie, right after doing Kazooie earlier. The Super Banjo cheat helped it go faster, and made the whole thing less frustrating. It was still annoying in parts, but I’ll get to that.

Banjo-Tooie is a good sequel. It expands on the original and follows on from it in most ways, and has a very different feel. It’s not retreading the same ground at all, really, apart from obviously the core mechanics. Everything builds upon Kazooie, starting with the plot which picks up two years after the previous game’s ending. Grunty is still under her boulder and Klungo is still trying to move it. B-K, Mumbo, and Bottles, now firm friends, are hanging out playing poker. Everything that happened happened and now their lives have moved on.

In terms of mechanics, it’s similar: our heroes still have all the moves they learned last game, and this one simply expands on what they can do as they progress. Of course, when we look at the list of moves they get we start to see why this approach has flaws: this game has 5 types of eggs, the ability to split up and for Banjo and Kazooie to get seprate abilities apart from each other, and Mumbo is now playable. My point is that the new moves and stuff add options, but as you go on the options become very numerous. It becomes an extremely varied and complicated game.

The worlds this time around are much bigger. And you can’t just run through and do everything in turn. Many items or areas are locked until you get abilities from later worlds, and there are now connections between the worlds. It’s a different approach, almost getting a bit Metroid Prime-like, but it gives a very different play experience to the first game’s “do a world in one sitting then never go back” style. This is not a bad thing, but the sheer size and complexity of these worlds can be daunting. I like being forced to revisit the worlds, as they have a lot of character, but if you don’t have a walkthrough it’s just so much aimless wandering.

I did use a walkthrough with this game, and the BK wiki. I remembered how much of a pain backtracking was if you didn’t have the prerequisites. I made it my mission to get the bare minimum Jiggies to unlock new worlds, prioritised new moves and actions that would affect other worlds, then backtracked later on. I liked this approach, there were less moments of feeling useless. Having guides was also very frustration-averting in the labyrinthine levels like Grunty Industries or, well, most of them really.

Having just come off the back of Kazooie (not literally), I readily noticed all the differences this game brought. Things are less shiny, and less permanent. Items disappear and enemies respawn. The text looks different, and characters and locations are more detailed. The biggest difference was the amount of slowdown. All that extra detail and massive worlds really makes the hardware chug at times. More often than you’d like, too.

It really is necessary to play these games in order though, not only because of the evolution of the mechanics but all the callbacks too. Many characters return and will refer to the previous adventure. It’s so great to see old faces in new places, and the dialogue is perhaps even better than the original (except for the loss of Grunty’s rhymes. At least that is referred to in-game, as her sisters demand she stop because it annoys them). Even older faces turn up too, in cameos that I totally didn’t get at the time. Captain Blackeye, from the project Dream that became Banjo-Kazooie, shows up, and Sabreman of Rare’s old MSX games is a significant character. I appreciate these much more now, and it really helps build the Rare Universe. Great stuff.

So I talked about the complexity of the mechanics. This game also succumbs to something DK64 fell much more foul of, that of introducing many “mini-games” and bits with totally different playstyles. It’s common in these 3D platformers to step outside their core gameplay—it’s overused in DK64 but perhaps not quite here. But apart from the one-off minigames, new abilities help you aim in first person to shoot eggs while swimming, flying, and even walking (while in specific shooting arenas). These arenas are interesting as they ape the gameplay of Rare’s bestselling Goldeneye quite closely. I find this cool too, and the way they make it fit in this world with holding birds like guns is amusing (it’s a multiplayer mode too). But when a minigame has unique controls and is very hard to do, the frustration is at maximum. I’m glad to say that happened only a few times in this game.

So I liked Tooie, it’s so important to the Banjo series. But, it’s still obvious that Kazooie is a much more tight, focused experience and a better game overall for it. Tooie is sprawling, messy, and flawed, but ambitious, evolutionary, and more varied. Things like real bosses and more involved tasks are a mixed blessing but overall much of what it tried to do worked well, and the bits that are more of the same are actually more of the same cool, fun, things.

So I liked playing Kazooie better, but this was still good. Now I have to slog through DK64. Hrm. See you in six months, I guess. No, actually, I have more updates to do. Also I will start on Grunty’s Revenge very soon, the midquel of the Banjo series on GBA. Never played that, so it should be interesting. Yay Banjo!

1:38pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwupWtszs
Filed under: banjo-tooie review n64 Rareware 
July 11, 2013
"Yes, the Bechdel Test. It’s named for Alison Bechdel, who is a comic book creator. The test is, are there two named women in the film? Do they talk to each other? And is it about something other than a man? I actually think the Bechdel Test is a little advanced for us sometimes. I have one called the Sexy Lamp Test, which is, if you can remove a female character from your plot and replace her with a sexy lamp and your story still works, you’re a hack."

—

Comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick (Captain Marvel, Avengers Assemble)

//Peach fails the Sexy Lamp Test in most of her roles, as does Zelda. Only Zelda’s alter egos really do anything, and even her Light Arrow-shooting can be replaced with switching the lamp on. To be fair, I thought Miyamoto was a hack long before I knew about the Sexy Lamp Test.

(via everbloom)

12:01pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwupMK9Ac
(Notes: 51,276)
  
July 6, 2013

Anonymous asked: Can you post your Nester's adventures comics later?

Yes, but not yet is the short answer. Unfortunately, my collection is incomplete. The Nester’s Adventures strip from Issue 52 is missing from any scans online. I wanted to find it before posting a complete collection, which I still intend to do. It’s themed after Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and is the fourth last published strip from the main run (not counting anniversary strips). Any help finding it would be very much appreciated! In the meantime, check out this thread, which features all the main run (except that one missing one, the scans are from the Retromags release which is the only one available). It is missing a few choice extras, including a couple of mini-comics, the more explicit comic privately made for Howard on his departure, and Howard’s biographical strip in throwback style made for his Kickstarter. http://chanarchive.org/4chan/co/65545/

6:04pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuo_m7Qo
July 4, 2013
historyofhyrule: “Please join Nintendo, Please Give Princess Zelda A Stronger Role. We need everyone’s likes and shares! And we’re getting some press from people who get it, via Destructoid: “ Nintendo is being asked by fans to make Zelda, the...

historyofhyrule:

Please join Nintendo, Please Give Princess Zelda A Stronger Role. We need everyone’s likes and shares!

And we’re getting some press from people who get it, via Destructoid: 

Nintendo is being asked by fans to make Zelda, the eponymous princess of the Legend of Zeldaseries, a stronger and more influential character. Responding to Eiji Aonuma, who said he’d consider a playable Zelda if fans requested it, fans have decided to request it.

The campaign’s Facebook group is currently at 1,689 [ed. 2,340 currently] members, which is impressive considering it’s not gained much mainstream attention yet. 

“The character the Legend of Zelda series is named after is the ruler of a country with the Power of Wisdom and the Gods at her disposal, yet she’s often represented as a damsel in distress,”writes the group. “While she’s had great moments as characters like Sheik and Tetra, she more often than not feels like a background character, overshadowed by the two other Triforce bearers, Link and Ganon.

“Nintendo, the fans, male and female, have wanted this for so long: please give Princess Zelda future roles more befitting of her actual attributes. And, if you see fit, make her a playable protagonist.”

I can really see no reason why this shouldn’t be a thing. Whatever your feelings on gender representation in games might be, I think we can all at least agree the kidnapped princess thing is more than a little played out. It’d be fantastic to see Zelda have far more agency in her own story, and if that means making her playable, that’ll be all for the better. 

People merrily flipped out during E3 when it was revealed Princess Peach would be playable for the first time in forever in Super Mario 3D World, while Zelda herself has proven no stranger to kicking ass in the Super Smash Bros. series. Meanwhile, enterprising coders have done the legwork and made Zelda playable on their own time, so it’s not like people don’t want it. 

Obviously, Nintendo will do what Nintendo will do, because Nintendo is Nintendo and that’s what it does. I would definitely be on board for a game actively starring the princess, though, and it’s very clear I’m far from the only one who would.

Out of the big sites only Zelda Universe has noticed us and supported us so far; but we’re still so young! If you have a gaming site or blog, or even if you just share with friends on your tumblr- please post about us. Without everyone’s help no statement will even have a chance of being heard. I feel we are asking so little, we’ve come so close so many times, and, heh, Aonuma made the mistake of saying he’d consider it if the fans had a desire for it. And this might seem impossible, but it’s not, it’s really not. I’ve climbed up far tougher hills than this and seen things happen with the series that we were outright told would never happen: all because of fan turnout! This is actually such a simple thing~ Momentum is all it needs. A game takes a long time to make but like and post and share: and it will be inevitable. 

Can’t remember if I’ve posted about this campaign yet, but damn it Nintendo, we need more strong female characters from you he-man woman haters! Don’t tell Aonuma I called him that. Support this thing because Zelda is cool and she hasn’t been given a chance to prove it.

5:39pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuorLSrG
(Notes: 128)
  
July 2, 2013
Here is the news

Well. I haven’t felt like writing too much recently. Maybe I’ve been a bit more active in posting on DKVine, so that takes away from this blog. Ooh, tension! Anyways I haven’t played too many games so that’s ok.

I did finish, or rather complete, Banjo-Kazooie. I was rather hard on SM64 when comparing them earlier, and I’d like to give it a bit more credit. In building a nice world that’s fun to explore, with a variety of things to do, B-K has the clear lead. However, in terms of pure platforming challenge/variety, SM64 is technically superior. By technically I mean as a technicality, because the physics and controls of SM65 are slippery and loose as hell, which undermines the focus on platforming. Ironically, the most interesting stages of SM64 in this respect are the abstract ones like the Bowser stages. They lose on immersion but win on runny jumpy stuff. Mario also has a lot more jumping and mobility moves, as opposed to Banjo’s moves which give him varied abilities for attacking, mobility, situational things, etc. It’s just a different focus of the game.

My opinion may have softened slightly on SM64, but I still feel it was poorly executed and inferior to other games that came after. Yup. So how about them Banjos?

Banjo-Kazooie got hard in the last few stages. Anyone who’s played it will tend to shudder at the thought of Rusty Bucket Bay’s engine room, or climbing Click Clock Wood’s tree. I had a few deaths on those levels, which are especially frustrating in the middle of a 100% level run. But oh man, completing it after all was very satisfying. There were even some late bits I didn’t remember! I know I never got 100% before, so I feel good, I feel superior to young me. Heh.

I didn’t want to do a full review of the game, because as you may have read in my last update, it might be hard to not slavishly gobber all over the game. I feel a bit more objective about it, but just thinking about it I’m having trouble being really critical. It’s funny because I can be critical about say DKC2, which I like better. Besides, what hasn’t been said about Banjo-Kazooie at this point? On that note, after I finished I watched a complete 100% TAS run (tool-assisted speedrun) which was incredible. Check this out. In 2 hours. Not many glitches used either, just a lot of frame-perfect jumping stuff that’s just impressive.

Apart from that I’ve played a fair bit of Spirit Tracks, but it’s just digressing & sidequesting, not much to report. I finally figured out those stupid portals. You just blow your whistle! I feel dumb. That was probably explained but I forgot. I also have the manual but eh. I also started Banjo-Tooie and I’m about halfway through but I might save that for a longer write-up, and do some comparisons to Kazooie. I will say though that especially on a second playthrough (which this is), the SuperBanjo cheat to speed you up is essential. The worlds are so big!

I think that’s it for now. Been busy recently so yeah. Probably there’ll be a lot more next time. I have holidays coming up so I foresee a lot of game time for little old me. So long for now. Oh I forgot to rhyme, in honour of Grunty. Eh. Oh! We just had the 15th anniversary, of the wonderful game Banjo-Kazooie. I played the whole thing before I knew, that its birthday should have compelled me to!

8:25pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuohhhsi
Filed under: banjo-kazooie update 
June 30, 2013

koriblr:

elazulselevanto:

almostnormalboy:

heyluchie:

My comic; “Introversion” is finished! Please go to the main page of my blog to read it in full size (the text is kinda small)

I really hope you’ll like it!

Wow

yup..beautiful

And all the introverts click to reblog.

But yes, it is wonderful.

Lest you think this is not relevant to this video game blog, I’ll explain why I reblogged this. I’m an introvert and I think it’s part of the reason I love games so much, getting absorbed in an alternate world, focussing on a narrow interest, having a limited set of interactions in a world. All of these are possible reasons why games are good for introverts like me. And man, screw parties! Anyway I'ma play some more Banjo-Tooie now.

(via everbloom)

10:27pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuoXr7Tj
(Notes: 301,561)
  
June 25, 2013
didyouknowgaming: “Pokemon. http://www.vgfacts.com/trivia/2744/ ” It’s also one of the most fun! You get to catch Pokemon and everything! I hope that was in their paper.

didyouknowgaming:

Pokemon.

http://www.vgfacts.com/trivia/2744/

It’s also one of the most fun! You get to catch Pokemon and everything! I hope that was in their paper.

(via didyouknowgaming)

5:22pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwuo8NKj8
(Notes: 8,298)
  
June 22, 2013
Updates for now

It’s been a nice week, a bit busy at times. And my lady went away to Melbourne for a meeting. A lonely night. Didn’t have time for a bachelor night of video games though, because it was bible study night. I have done some gaming though, and I’m going to tell you about it. You don’t have to read it, but I’m sure going to write it.

Spirit Tracks had stalled a little after the Water Temple, but I pushed through the Sand Temple, so now I have all the items including the Bow of Light, all the Songs and the better sword, so now I can do some sidequesting! Yay! The game’s fairly easy so I didn’t feel I needed sidequest help, and now I’ll be able to do it all. Thing is, I still really don’t understand how the warp gates work. Oh well train travel doesn’t take too long and there’s plenty of rocks to shoot on the way. I was expecting buying new train parts to increase my speed or something, but they didn’t. Seems pointless.

My completion of Lego Harry Potter 1 on iOS is imminent! I got 100% of items and stuff today, I just want to get the last few Game Centre achievements. The final level I had to do, the Chamber of Secrets, made me tear my hair out as I ran into a few little bugs and crashes that made me restart the level all over, after going through most of it and getting all the items. Very frustrating, and I have to do it again for an achievement. By far the worst level for bugs and stuff, the rest of the game is not too bad. Plus apparently the game doesn’t support multitasking, or at least it takes all my memory, so I lost another half of the same level again. Bleh.

Speaking of bleh, guess what I beat in three days? That’s right, Super Mario 64. How’d you guess? I’m playing all 5 of my 64 3D platformers in order—well, an order I made up, anyway. Roughly it’s the evolution/destabilisation of the genre, kinda. Hard to explain. This is my plan: Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64, Conker’s Bad Fur Day. That’s that generation right there. It’s up to you to decide where the peak is, but BFD being last is fitting as it’s a deconstruction/parody of the genre at that point. DK64 should probably be between Kazooie and Tooie, but I wanted those two back-to-back.

So SM64. Ugh. I just, just don’t get how it’s lauded so highly, why it’s the top of so many lists. The game is argh, it’s awkward, it’s barebones, it’s frustrating. A glorified tech demo. It has it’s good points I’ll admit, some good platforming at times and long-jumping around is fun. Exploring and collecting is still inherently fun. But the game is just so flawed. And I’m not giving it a free pass like so many do because “it was the first” or “it’s a pioneer” or something. Structurally, the engine, the presentation, there are problems here.

So I’m not saying I didn’t have a good time, but it was constantly tempered by the game’s shortcomings. Because I know what came later, I’ve played those other 4 games I mentioned and seen how they improved on it at such a basic level. I don’t care if they wouldn’t have gotten made without it, the same excuse will not make me enjoy the original Legend of Zelda either. It doesn’t change the game itself to say that it’s foundational, without also being an exemplary example of the genre (which other games can claim). This is all just my opinion, of course.

A funny side effect of playing it though, is that it made Galaxy seem better in hindsight. I still had problems with that too, it shouldn’t have aped the design of SM64 so slavishly (at least it seemed that way to my overly critical eye). But the comparison makes Galaxy seem a lot more developed and polished. So that was weird. Makes me sad that they didn’t continue developing the concept. Look at the new 3D Mario just announced, 3D World. It’s a translation of 2D gameplay to a 3D space. I’ll take my now “retro” collectathons, thanks. I won’t say any more about it, it’s not worth a full review (ooh, ouch!).

So I’ve soothed myself by starting Banjo-Kazooie, and am now 3 worlds in (100%ed them). It’s a joy. I don’t have to tell you how great this game is. Oh wait, maybe I do. The music is lovely and sets the mood well, transitions smoothly and is super catchy. The play control is excellent, you never have trouble just navigating. The worlds are very well crafted, and feel naturalistic but also present interesting challenges to the player (well it’s been a bit easy so far, but it gets harder). And it’s just full of personality! All the items talk to you, every character is either charmingly cute or charmingly snarky, the worlds are colourful and unique. God, listen to me. Blowing this game’s trumpet. It’s fun, ok?

Well, moving on. I finished Yoshi’s Island on the GBA. I managed to show my wife the last boss, which I always found to be the most impressive single part of the game, and the ending. Great stuff. Now playing the extra levels, which are almost all new to me. I think I played the Poochy one before, but it’s hard to say. It’s very similar to the Looooooong Cave, but shorter, so yeah. This run I mainly played quickly to get through the levels, since I’d just played them on the SNES. So I’ll have to do some extra collection later to unlock the other extra levels. They’re wacky, they got to go all-out with designing more crazy levels since they’re optional. At times they remind me of Yoshi’s Island DS because they’re also quite hard at times.

Yeah that’s about it right now. I did buy a few new games, just little ones. The way things are it’ll be a while before I play them. Bean’s Quest for iOS, it was on Good Game a while back and is $1, Marvel vs Capcom 2 for iOS was on a $1 special. I wanted to play as Mega Man/Roll, despite not liking fighting games, and especially not Street Fighter. Eh it was $1. Also the local pawn shop was having a sale, but the only thing I was remotely interested in was Viva Pinata DS. Cheap so I took the chance, I’m curious to see Rare’s only semi-successful new IP after the Microsoft buyout. At the same time I got Pokemon + Nobunaga’s Ambition for my wife, and she’s having a blast with it so far. Makes me feel good to see that.

Well it’s not exciting but that’s my gaming life. Thanks for reading!

7:41pm  |   URL: https://tmblr.co/ZpvIwunvxZqs
Filed under: update super mario 64 banjo-kazooie yoshi's island zelda spirit tracks lego harry potter: years 1-4 
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