Rinry Game Game

Rinry Vlogs #1: The Official Beta Version

2011-05-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

This was one idea for weekly content. I'm not a huge fan of vlogs though, so I've decided to make this monthly content. I'll talk about what games I'm playing, answer questions that people email me, and give "Happy Birthday" messages to games that were "born" that month!

A lot of viewers enjoy when I speak in front of the camera, but I enjoy being behind the scene! Plus... the mic on my camera is terrible. I have a small voice, but it really shouldn't be picking up so much noise. I even turned the fridge off in order to make this video!! I'll just sit in front of the mic for all future vlogs. Although, I feel like I shouldn't have to!

Anyway... I have another video series in mind for weekly content now....!!

Retro Duo Review

2011-05-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

When I reviewed the Retro Duo, I was hoping that there was more interest in video game clones out there! I love it that these old consoles are still lucrative enough that people are still building them!

My videos are getting fewer views now, but I have oh so many more subscribers! That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but because of this I've been thinking about making more of a weekly series. There's one in the works right now!

Transmission Awesome

2011-04-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

I was on Transmission Awesome!! It is the official podcast for Channel Awesome. A dream come true :)

20,000 Subscribers Special

2011-04-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

I put together this Q&A video for my viewers after I hit 20,000 subscribers. So far, it has more views than my most recent video AND took about 1/100th of the time to make! Perhaps there will be more vlogs in the near future! As strange as it sounds... I kind of enjoyed talking to the camera!

Non-Nostalgic Review: Sonic Adventure

2011-03-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

My newest video has been met with some very divergent opinions! I have received TONS of messages and emails from people saying this is their most favourite out of all the videos I have made! On the flipside, this video has a lot of comments expressing negativity toward my opinion. What can I say?! It would be quite a significant feat to have an opinion that absolutely everyone agrees with, and I don't think I'm quite up to the task!!

Regardless of the opinions involved in the video, I had a great time editing this one. It was fun to work with a newer game. Working with the cinematography of the cutscenes was a new experience for me, and it was actually really fun splicing the different scenes together. I put a big effort in cutting down some cutscenes while still maintaining the appearance of being completely intact.

I hope you enjoy it!!

Read Only Memory: Howard & Nester & Metroid

2011-03-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

I did the voice of Samus in this awesome animated short by Shamoozal. It's pretty hilarious and the style of the animation is amazing. I'm in love with this video.

Rinry Outtakes AKA How to take apart melted game cartridges!!!

2011-02-15T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hey! It's my birthday!! So, I decided to release this horribly embarrassing video for you all to watch!

There are two version of this video. The one on YouTube doesn't have all the other clips at the end with the fridge and singing going on. Mostly because I'm scared of posting any music on YouTube because of copyright stuff and me being a goody two-shoes. I don't like getting into trouble :) Anyway, this video will probably only be entertaining for those people who really enjoy watching me do nothing!! So I hope that many people out there fall into that category!! ;)

Awesome Video Games Merch Extravaganza!

2011-02-05T10:01:00.000-08:00

Way back in November or December I preordered a shirt from Far From Subtle Entertainment/Fangamer. I chose the Invincible tshirt because I've always loved it when Ace wore it in Awesome Video Games and I wanted to impress my friends with my infinite star power. It arrived promptly in January (it was a preorder, remember!!) and I have since worn it and it's all wrinkled right now, so you can't see it!! But! If you look really closely when I kick the box of games down the stairs in Who's Tougher: Genesis vs. SNES you will see that I am wearing it. So cool.

I announced my absolute glee at receiving the package by assembling the ROB papercraft that was bundled with the tshirt and showing the results to Fraser.

Aww... This tiny ROB sure knows how to tilt his head just right. I can hardly keep my eyes off of his immense cuteness!

Since Fraser just happens to be a fan of my own videos, he sent me the motherload of AVG merchandize!!

I think I'll leave this ROB disassembled, so that I have it in both forms. But, then again, the other paper ROB might want a companion...

Anyway! The loot included six Far From Subtle/Awesome Video Games pins, and two Fangamer pins, two Fangamer stickers, Awesome Video Games Volume 1 (DVD), and, of course, the ROB papercraft. Those four pins in the packaging shall remain IN the packaging, just because the packaging itself is oh so awesome!

Oh! And how could I forget the T-shirt! I did a bit of filming today and wore it, so I took a picture of the shirt:

Too bad my hair looks like obscenely long armpit hair in the photo! And my boobs have disappeared!! Oh well... I will be wearing this shirt for the rest of the day and many more times in the future!! Thanks Fraser!!

Who's Tougher?! Genesis vs. Super Nintendo

2011-02-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

My newest video is an unofficial sequel to How Tough are NES Games!! Usually I have to play hours and hours of video games to capture the perfect footage. Not this time!! I might have an outtakes video to go along with this video. There was a lot of funny going-ons behind the scenes!

Christmas in Video Games

2011-01-10T12:43:00.001-08:00

Since I'm the worst ever at updating my blog, here is my lastest video... two weeks later!!

Before anyone says it, I do know of Christmas NiGHTS! My lack of a Sega Saturn makes it a little hard to capture footage of and play that game though, so I didn't touch it!! I've always wanted to play it though.

This video isn't as polished as I would have liked it to be. I was rushed because I wanted to get it out before Christmas and I had so many games to play in order to capture all the footage. Better luck next time, I guess!!

Board Games (Inspired by Video Games)

2010-12-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon these board games during my travels in the Southern States and simply had to share them with everyone! The video below contains sensitive information about the results of some bizarre interbreeding between video games and board games!

Introducing: The NES Zapper

2010-11-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of the world's most popular light gun, the Zapper? Oh, you have? Well... did you know all of this?!

Strange trivia: This video was almost entirely produced out of Jacksonville, AL!

Strange trivia #2: The "Flash-light gun" would have made a more grand appearance except I made it in Canada and I would never have been able to get a gun-shaped object with wires running through it through customs, no matter how harmless! It was a disappointment. It took quite an effort to make an LED light up inside the barrel of the Zapper upon holding down the trigger. So, expect it to make appearances in future videos!

P.S. Stay tuned after the credits for a super special advertisement made by Kirby for my new Facebook group!

SMS vs. NES: Shinobi

2010-11-16T17:24:00.000-08:00

Once again these two ancient consoles duke it out by comparing two of the same game. Shinobi was released on both consoles, but one version is vastly superior to the other! Who will win this round of SMS vs. NES?

I've been asked a number of times why I chose Shinobi. The reason being that I really like Shinobi on the Master System and I really wanted to review a Tengen game! Perhaps this wasn't the right Tengen game for me though...

10,000 Subscribers Special

2010-08-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

I finally reached 10,000 Subscribers on YouTube!... And released a video about it a month later! Haha. I wanted to put together something silly, fun, and short for the occasion in order to recognize those people who had given to me over the past couple months. It is really flattering to be given so many donations! I appreciate every single one of them!

I really was disappointed that the helium did so little to my voice! But, in its own way, it kind of makes it more funny!

Unlicensed NES Games Exposed!

2010-08-18T15:57:00.001-07:00

This video was made exclusively by me! Rinry! While I generally play all of the games and capture the footage, write the script, and perform all of the video editing, I never once had to deal with the audio! I had to sit down with a little microphone and record myself talking. I thought it would be nerve-wracking, but it wasn't at all! My technique will surely improve over time, but I'm happy with the results for my first solo project.

The working title for this project was "Strange Cartridges" because it is full of strange games and the strange cartridges that encase them. It was a fun title, but I decided I had to change it to something more self-explanatory and more consistent with my other video titles.

Making the rainbow-coloured popsicle stick cartridge turned out to be easier than I thought it would be! I was positive that it would take more than one attempt, but I got it right on the first go!....well, almost. This will take some explaining! I took meticulous measurements of the inside and outside of a regular NES cartridge and the popsicle sticks, but due to pure laziness neglected to put together a blueprint. Once I knew how many popsicle sticks (and fractions of popsicle sticks) I would need for each side, I grabbed my utility knife and glue gun and went straight to constructing my cartridge! I'll use some pictures to illustrate the process:

1. The first side is done! It may not be apparent from the outside of the cartridge, but on the inside it is secretly super reinforced by layers of rainbow coloured popsicle sticks!

2. Now it almost looks like a strange little house! It is incredibly sturdy as well. Never underestimate the glue gun! And, yes... I did a lot of the work while lounging on my bed.

3. Two sides are now complete! Now it just needs some guts!

4. I'm actually just holding it together with my hand in this picture. You can see my Twitter page in the background and how tiny my hand is in the foreground!

5. I had to wait a week, but once my 3.8 mm security bit arrived in my mailbox (it was impossible to find one locally) I was able to perform a ROM transplant with the least amount of damage to the donor cartridge.

You might be wondering at this point what exactly went wrong while constructing the cartridge. If you take a close look at the following two images, you might notice a big difference between the almost-finished cartridge (top) and the completely-finished cartridge (bottom):

Look closely at the last popsicle sticks on each side of the front of the cartridge cartridge! It's a red popsicle stick on the left side and a purple popsicle stick on the right side. Those on the almost-finished cartridge are quite a bit longer than those on the completely-finished cartridge!

I must have done a slight miscalculation, because the cartridge simply wouldn't fit in my NES2! It was just a tad too fat! So I chiseled off the sides with my trusty utility knife (remember how super reinforced the inside of the cartridge was?! Cutting through all those popsicle sticks was quite difficult!) until it could easily shove it in. It took a lot of patience, and created quite a mess, but it was worth it in the end! My cartridge was a success! It worked! I had created my own strange cartridge.

Rest assured, if the cartridge had failed I definitely would have tried again! No one ever beat a boss battle by giving up ;)

Rinry & Jot's E3 Mini-Tour

2010-08-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

This is the last video that Jot and I worked on together. People requested a video showing what E3 was like, so I thought I'd put a short, quick video together! There is a little bit of fish eye lens overload, but since Jot took the footage and also took the fish eye with him when he quit, that will never happen again!

The people being hauled away at the end were actually part of an act. It's really too bad. It would have been much more exciting if some actual shenanigans had been going on!

Super E3 Video Podcast!

2010-08-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

I went to E3 this year! On the first night, Jot and I sat down with RMC and cortjezter to discuss the happenings. It was an exciting day and everyone was quite tired, but we got some views and chitchat in. We were going to do some more podcasting on the following nights, but my laptop wasn't co-operating and I took too long to do just the simple editing that was required for just the first night! E3 was a great experience and now that I've done it once I'm better prepared for my second trip there! If I keep my fingers crossed, hopefully I'll make it next year too!

Ode to the Nintendo Gamecube

2010-08-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

I want to share my love for the Gamecube with the world! Despite being a commercial failure, it had a lot of great properties. Perhaps I can give you some insight into why the system did not fair as well as it's sixth generation rivals and other Nintendo consoles.

Top 5 NES Sequels

2010-08-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

One is such a lonely number. That's why so many games have sequels... right? Let's take a look at those games on the NES that are the second in their series and stand out from the rest!

Old School/New School - Final Fight

2010-08-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

I wanted to experiment with comparing old versions of a game with the new version. I was excited about Final Fight Double Impact since I had already reviewed the SNES version of Final Fight, so these two games became the basis of a new type of video. I will most likely produce more Old School/New School comparisons when I am so compelled! I have so little time for current generation console games, that it was a nice change of pace. Plus, I love online multiplayer! I grew up playing video games with my siblings, so I am used to and enjoy the comaraderie!

Rinry's Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIII

2010-08-18T15:13:00.001-07:00

I produced this Final Fantasy XIII "review" for Machinima. I don't like to consider this video a review, instead it's more of an overview since I didn't touch on every element of the game. I played the entire game for this video though, and it gave me ample opportunity to play with my HD PVR! I was happy with how this video turned out but it pushed my old laptop to its limits!

Hauppauge HD-PVR

2010-04-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a little over a month since I purchased my HD-PVR. I admit, it was an impulsive purchase. I just couldn't help myself! The thought of recording HD footage from my PS3 was just too compelling to ignore! After reading about the problems others were having with their cheap capture cards, I decided to go the cheap HD PVR route instead. In a perfect world, I would have been able to purchase a Black Magic internal capture card or pro recorder, but owning a laptop and lack of funds firmly barred that avenue.

Instead, I bought the Hauppauge HD-PVR and for the first month it was amazing! I had fun experimenting with it and it gave me little to no problems. The power button gave me some concern, because, for lack of a better description, it feels fake and more like something on a children's toy than a piece of video recording equipment: it doesn't push in far or click and surprises me every time it works!

It's not an ugly looking box though! As you can see, there's S-Video and RCA inputs on the front, for all your old fashioned consoles.

In the back there are component inputs for HD consoles, component outputs so you can view your console on the TV, a single USB output to connect to your computer, and a couple of other things that I never use.

Unfortunately, when you use the RCA inputs on the front and then the component outputs to the TV, it causes a delay which makes playing certain games impossible, but you wouldn't notice it with a VCR. That just means that I can't use this box with my older consoles, which is all fine with me. On top of that, it doesn't take HDMI so it only goes up to 1080i, which is also completely fine with me. I haven't noticed a delay with the S-Video, so I've been using that to record a little bit of Dreamcast footage!

What isn't fine with me is that after just a single month of use, this little guy has started to give me trouble. This past Saturday, it wouldn't stay on and the power button wouldn't work at all! If I unplugged and plugged it back in, it would stay on for less than a minute before turning off again; meanwhile, the power button was completely unresponsive. How did I get it to work again? I left it unplugged and didn't touch it for 24 hours, and then it magically worked! I am incredibly thankful that I can use it once again, but I'm not fond of finicky equipment.

On the bright side, it continues to record great looking footage, the program it comes with is extremely easy to use, and I can stream with it! At the moment, my stream looks a lot worse than the footage captured by the HD-PVR, which I'm sure has something to do with my upload speed. I'm currently working on that, so I may eventually have better video quality for my streams!

If you would like to see some clips that were recorded directly from my HD-PVR, you can view a couple I have uploaded at this YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/mylittlepage. Strangely enough, the PS3 footage is available in 1080p, despite being recorded in 1080i. The footage can also suffer from interlacing problems when you decrease the framerate through rendering it into different formats. I show one example of that problem in the link above where I have a two clips of the same scene in Final Fantasy X, one at 30 frames per second and another at 60 frames per second. At some points in the former clip, running people are rendered almost invisible by the interlacing problem! However, this is completely avoidable if you keep your framerate up.

I am armed with my receipt and a number to call if the Hauppauge HD-PVR starts giving me anymore problems! Hopefully, there will be no more issues as I will most certainly have to send it away since 1) I bought it from an online store, and 2) the Hauppauge company headquarters are in New York. So whoever is supposed to deal with my finnicky little box, both are very far away. I never buy such equipment online because of this very issue, but I couldn't find one in my area. In light of this HD-PVR's temper tantrum on Saturday, I wouldn't recommend this device to anybody, but I'm willing to live with it for now!

RetroActive Shortie: Trog!

2010-04-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

I recently helped out another web-series-making buddy by making a small contribution to his video. Here is K Dub Productions' RetroActive Shortie: Trog!

I never played Trog, but still enjoyed this video because, well, I like dinosaurs (and puzzle games). I really enjoyed doing a bit of filming for someone else. I've been asked to be in other people's videos before, but usually they don't know what they want me to do, just that they want me in their video. So, this is the first time I said yes because Kevin gave Catholic Pat and me the questions, and then we answered however we wanted!

If you want more retro-gaming goodness from a dude with a Power Glove for a hand, check out more from Catholic Pat's channel on YouTube: The All-Bit Gamers. He uploads gameplay videos of extremely difficult games with commentary, which always make me laugh, and always updates his YouTube subscribers on what junk he's managed to pick up over the week.

If you like re-living retro classics, you can find more RetroActive Shorties and non-shorties on K Dub Productions' blog! He's covered a ton of games already, and has only been making videos for a short time now!

Maybe I should get a patent on Pac Man shaped cheese before someone else does and makes millions off of it!

Bonus Stages in Video Games

2010-04-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering why I haven't been posting lately, you can blame three things for taking up all of my free time: playing Final Fantasy XIII, experimenting with my new HD PVR, and making this video!

The was the toughest, most time consuming video to make so far. We had to play so many video games, sometimes only to discover that it didn't have a real bonus stage! Sometimes it's hard to capture good footage as well, especially with games that I haven't played in a long time. I had to try so many times to complete the Aladdin bonus stage, thankfully it was fun and I got to play as Abu! I won't be covering subject matter like this for a while, it was far too time consuming. Hopefully everyone enjoys it, that will make up for all the hard work!

My Favourite Video Game Cover Band Released a Music Video!

2010-03-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

I listen to a lot of video game music, so it's nice to hear the music jazzed up with real instruments every once in a while. While there are many great video game cover bands out there, Nerd Army is by far my favourite! However, I won't pretend to not be biased; JOT is the bass player, I know every member of the band personally, and it's based out of Halifax, my home! Their first music video if for the music from the final level of the NES game Solar Jetman, which I believe is named Braveheart.

Unfortunately, I'm not in the music video. I was supposed to be an alien, but I had to work during the filming! Hopefully I will be able to work on their next video.

My favourite cover done by Nerd Army is the Silent Hill Theme. I haven't even played the game before (it is far too scary for me!), but I love the theme! It's one of the most haunting songs I have ever heard. If it were up to me this song would be on their next release:

Oh, and they're all dressed so strange because that show was on Halloween.

Non-Nostalgia Review: Final Fight

2010-03-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to review a classic game I had never played before, so here it is!

The only piece of knowledge I had about Final Fight going into this game was that Haggar was a badass mayor. That's about it. I would write more, but I really want to play Final Fantasy XIII!!

Potential new video series: Ported! Blades of Steel

2010-03-11T07:18:00.000-08:00

JOT and I have been working on something a little different this week. We're taking a look at the arcade version of Blades of Steel in comparison to the NES version! Sadly, neither of us has ever played the game since arcades are completely unheard of where we live, but I have the NES game in the box!

JOT made this video possible from beginning to end, all I did was talk and put some finishing touches on the lines and video editing. The arcade footage was recorded with MAME, so that means no track ball action. The track ball looks like it would have been fun!

Rocketfish PS3 Headset

2010-03-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

I was so scared to use my headset just a month ago! I really wanted one in order to play co-op games on my PS3, but once I put it upon my head I was stricken with a crippling shyness! Even if I wanted to say something, I felt completely incapable of producing a single syllable. So, I put it away for a little while hoping I would magically become more comfortable with it. Of course, I didn't!

Thankfully, my friend Eddy decided to buy one. Once I broke the ice with someone I knew, there was no stopping me! Just last night I played a quick game of Gold Rush in Uncharted 2 with some strangers. I didn't have the headset on at first because no one else had one, but then none of my teammates were helping me to complete the objective! Instead, they were killing CPU's like it was a round of Survival mode. So, I put my headset on and started instructing my teammates to help me, and it worked! We started to get things done and then one of my other teammates put on his headset and we became an indestructable force!

I didn't buy the official Sony Bluetooth headset, it was just too expensive. I purchased the Rocketfish wired headset instead. The wire is 15' long, so it's really not a problem. I could probably walk around my house with it on and not have to worry about it becoming unplugged. That is, unless I tripped over it. But, I probably won't be walking around the house with it on anyway!

While I have had no deal-breaking issues with this headset, its volume doesn't go up high enough. Perhaps mine is just a lemon, but I can't hear much of anything out of it. It was no huge problem to make the television the audio output instead though, so I could care less about that. I haven't had a problem with the mic picking up the television, so it works out fine. It's perfectly comfortable to wear as well.

It has this little clip-on part that I completely ignore. I haven't clipped it onto me once! Ok, maybe once, just for fun. You can see its unresponsive volume control there on the side. It just seems to slide up and down without increasing or decreasing the volume very much at all. It also has a mute button that I have tested and it works! I haven't had a real reason to use it yet, but I'm glad it's there.

Once again, I'm unsure if it's just my specific headset or if every Rocketfish PS3 Headset has a problem with the audio output volume. Perhaps I should return it and find out, but I'm too lazy and don't live anywhere near Best Buy. It takes over 40 minutes to take the bus there (and then another 40 minutes back!), so I can live with my lack of audio. If they all have this problem, I would say that this headset is still alright for $20 if you don't have to keep the noise down!

Game Quickie: SimAnt

2010-03-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

SimAnt was released in 1991 and I got a ton of playtime out of it back then! I haven't played it since I was a young child, so it was interesting to play it again as an adult:

It truly was a different experience this time around. I remember being deathly scared of the spider and carefully planning and waiting for the right moment before I rallied my ant troops to attack the red queen. SimAnt should be classified as an RTS for kids! Even though the game was far too easy, I was proud to learn that I am a lot smarter, braver, and better at video games than my childhood self!

Oh, and about the spider. I have never actually seen a spider chase anything like they do in this game. They're always just sitting around while waiting for food to come to them. Perhaps it's just that Canadian spiders are lazy...

Remember to check it out on RetrowareTV! I made the SimAnt image on the front page myself, haha!

Dreamcast Head Count!

2010-02-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

As I've posted a day or so ago on Twitter, I am now the proud owner of a Dreamcast and a ton of games and controllers!

I've always wanted a Dreamcast, it has always seemed like a charming, yet illusive, console to me. That said, I may have wanted one but I wasn't willing to go out of my way to purchase one. Fortunately for me, this one fell straight onto my lap! Someone in my area was getting rid of their Dreamcast and accessories for just $100! The Dreamcast came with four memory cards and, oddly enough, six controllers! Since the console only supports four controllers at one time, I guess its previous owner wanted some additional controllers just in case another failed, or perhaps he wanted to test out some knock-offs since two of them are not official Dreamcast controllers. It also came with a ton of games! I am thinking about doing a number of Dreamcast videos in April, so if there are any games out of those I own that you'd like me to look at, let me know!

Here's the Dreamcast game head count:

Original Discs in the Case

Crazy Taxi 2
Jet Grind Radio
NBA 2K1
NFL 2K1
Sonic Adventure
Test Drive 6
Toy Commander
UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship
Web Browser 2.0 (OK, not a game, but cool!)
World Series Baseball 2K1

Original Discs without the Case

Crazy Taxi 2
Dynamite Cop
NHL 2K
Resident Evil Code: Veronica
Shenmue
Shenmue Passport
Skies of Arcadia
Sonic Shuffle
Test Drive Le Mans
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

Burnt Discs

18 Wheeler (x2)
Aqua GT
Crazy Taxi 2
Dead or Alive 2 (x2)
Dino Crisis
F-1 Championship
Fighting Vipers 2 (x2)
Gauntlet Legends
House of the Dead 2
Jet Grind Radio
Last Blade 2
Matt Hoffman Pro BMX (x2)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (x2)
MDK 2 (x2)
Mortal Kombat Gold
NBA Showtime
NBA Hoopz
NCAA Football 2K2
NFL 2K2
NHL 2K1

NHL 2K2
Power Stone 2 (x2)
Quake - The Simpsons Edition (x2)
Rainbow Six: Rogue Sphere
Ready to Rumble Round 2 (x2)
Rez

Rush 2049
Sega World Wide Soccer Euro Edition
Silent Scope (x3)
Snow Surfers
Soul Calibur
Spiderman
Star Wars Pod Racer
Tennis 2K2 (x2)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Trickstyle
Unreal Tournament
Virtua Athlete 2K (x2)
Virtua Cop 2 (x2)
Virtual On 2
World Series Baseball 2K2 (x2)

That's everything! There are a ton of doubles, but that massive pile of games still yielded a decent sized collection. The game I am most excited to play is Skies of Arcadia. I've heard a lot of good things about the game and I haven't even seen it before! I can't wait to try it out, but I'm going to try to beat Kingdom Hearts II first because I might never finish it if I start another RPG.

I haven't tried them all out yet, so perhaps some of the games won't work. Maybe that's why there's so many repeat games! So far I have tried out Mortal Kombat Gold, Rez, Dino Crisis, Jet Grind Radio, and World Series Baseball 2K2 and all worked fine! They looked great as well! I should pick up and play Sonic Adventure later tonight since I've heard a rumour that it's the best 3D Sonic game in existence!

Fan Art 2

2010-02-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to pick up my Dreamcast today, but it's pouring rain out there so I think I'm going to hold off for another day. I don't have a car in favour of walking everywhere. It's an incredibly inconvenient transportation method on days like today, but I'm better off in the long run - there's no better workout than carrying groceries home up a hill!

There are some things I want to discuss about Resistance: Fall of Man, and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, but it's a lazy, blustery day out there, so I bring you fan art!

click pic to enlarge
This piece is from JBanditProductions. I love it! I'm wearing my jacket and my mittens, which are my favourite things! He also makes video game reviews on YouTube, but his reviews are unique in that he has some help from some animated friends! They're really fun so check him out: http://www.youtube.com/user/JBanditProductions!!

Here's another one from Rickenbackersteven, featuring myself and JOT in The Land of the 8 Bit! This is the second one he's made for me, keep up the good work! I look like I'm having a great time there with all of my 8 bit buddies.

Wonder Boy: The Back of the Box

2010-02-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

Usually in my videos I have more live footage of the games and their consoles. If you hadn't noticed, these elements were absent in my newest video. This is because I ordered Wonder Boy back in January and I had yet to receive it! It finally came in the mail today, so I have a shiny new Master System game for my collection. The game description on the back of this box is epic!

It makes the game seem more like a Survivorman simulation game than a goofy platformer! Well, Survivorman with skateboards and milk... and traveling to the other side of the planet in the name of love!

It's actually a cute and funny description of the game. It explains why you have to collect fruit throughout the entire game, other than just to make the game more difficult; and, it gives a little backstory, albeit a wholly predictable backstory that is absolutely inferrible from the game, but at least we don't need to assume anymore! I'd say the description belongs on the front of the box. It's certainly more appealing than the box art they went with!

Tomorrow I'm going to purchase an even greater addition to my collection! I'm very excited, it's something I've never owned before and I can't wait to show it off!!

Wonder Boy vs. Adventure Island

2010-02-23T06:23:00.000-08:00

Our new video takes a good look at two platformers on two opposing consoles. Wonder Boy on the SMS and Adventure Island on the NES. That's right, another SMS vs. NES!

My first experience with Adventure Island was on the Wii Virtual Console. I downloaded it because JOT really liked the game as a kid. After that, I was hooked! Everytime I turned on my Wii, no matter what the reason, I always found time to play a little Adventure Island! I picked up the first NES cartridge of it that I could find and when purchasing a Famicom game to test my 72 pin converter on, I chose Adventure Island. I had only heard of Wonder Boy a little while back and immediately suspected it of being a shameless clone of one of my favourite games. Good thing I looked into it, since it was actually the other way around!

I had a lot of fun beating these two games! The only exception being the last few levels of Adventure Island, which were grueling to say the least. I'm sorry to say that I lost a little love for the game while trying to beat it! It's also unfortunate that I had to beat Wonder Boy twice just to find out that the game has the same ending whether or not you find all of the dolls and beat the extra area. At least it was easier and didn't take nearly as long to beat the second time around!

Unlike Wonder Boy, Adventure Island continued the trend of ass-kicking eggplants in video games. The eggplant in Adventure Island is one mean character, just like the eggplants in Kid Icarus, Monster Party, and various other games. In Ice Climber, eggplants are bonus items! I'm not sure why eggplants are so prominent in NES games, but I'm going to keep my eye out for more of them!

You can watch it on GoNintendo here!!

Replaying Kingdom Hearts II [Part 2]

2010-02-21T14:20:00.000-08:00

As I said I would, I have been making my way through Kingdom Hearts II for the last little while. I'm over 20 hours into it now and just beat Xaldin. I found this to be the toughest battle in the game yet! Perhaps I just couldn't get a hold of a good fighting pattern, and I definitely didn't get a hang of the learn/jump command you were supposed to use. Good thing your magic charges so quickly in this game, I used a ton of Curas! I've also already beat Demyx, one of my favourite members of Organization XIII. Not that I actually have a list of my top favourite Organization XIII members, most of them seem pretty much the same to me, I just like him because he's goofy and looks like David Bowie.

Oh yea! He got it keyblade style!
I enjoy the members of Organization XIII a lot more this time around! Last time I played the game I mostly found them perplexing. It's actually kind of funny that you catch glimpses of dudes running around in black coats and then they're gone, because that's basically what you did all throughout 358/2 Days. When you play 358/2 Days you also get to know their individual characters (or lack thereof) a little more, so that going into Kindgom Hearts II this second time I already knew that Demyx was a wimp! This made it even more entertaining that he used doppelgangers to do some of the fighting for him.

The above is just one example of why it seems important to play 358/2 Days before playing Kingdom Hearts II. Axel's actions are another reason. His breaking away from the Organization and going rogue certainly does make more sense this time around since I understand his relationship with Roxas. However, there are other details that make it so one could argue that you should play Kingdom Hearts II before 358/2 Days.

For example, in 358/2 Days Xaldin takes an interest in and starts tormenting the Beast. And nothing else happens. You learn in Kingdom Hearts II that he thought the Beast's heartless and nobody would be great assets for the Organization. Also in 358/2 Days, Roxas runs into Pete building up a Heartless army. Other than beating up a giant heartless for a mission, nothing else happens with this thread either, but it is continued in Kingdom Hearts II. If you hadn't played Kingdom Hearts II before, you would just assume that these were pointless events that contribute nothing to the story, just like most of the other gameplay in 358/2 Days! So, in order to understand the true weight of these events and why they even occured, you would have to play Kingdom Hearts II first, not second. Whatever order someone chooses to play them in, the two truly are companion games that should be played in sequence in order to perfectly understand them both.

One of the aspects of Kingdom Hearts II that I overlooked the first time was the Gummi Ship creator. And, it looks like I'm overlooking it again! I just don't have any interest in building one. I only use the Gummi Ship editor to add power ups to the blueprints that already exist. While I enjoy the Gummi ship areas, I don't enjoy them enough to ever go through them a second time. I'd just rather run around hitting things with my keyblade. I love the Gummi Ship Menu song though!

Rinry and JOT on Host Migration: Our first podcast ever!

2010-02-19T07:46:00.000-08:00

This February has definitely been a month of "firsts" for me and JOT. I was invited to speak with SeaNanners, Hutch, and Trumpf on their popular podcast, Host Migration, and at the last minute JOT joined in on the discussion, so you get to hear both of us discuss gaming with three cool dudes.

I was incredibly nervous going into this podcast, I know people might find this hard to believe, but I'm actually an extremely shy person!! I was pacing back and forth for about an hour before we met up on Skype. I think it's very apparent in my speech how nervous I was in the first couple of minutes of the podcast.

After we finished talking, I thought the podcast went terrible! I was convinced I said an incredible amount of stupid things. It's definitely not as bad as I originally thought it went, it actually turned out pretty good. I'm really happy with it! Of course, I had a few brain farts and I wasn't anything close to eloquent. Haha... I'll let you be the judge.

It's over an hour long, so if you plan on listening to the whole thing make sure you put aside a sizable amount of time. Enjoy!

Thanks so much to SeaNanner, Hutch, and Trumpf for inviting us to their podcast. It was a great conversation and definitely an overall positive experience!

If you liked the podcast and would like to hear more from Host Migration you can subscribe on iTunes by following these simple steps:

1. Open Itunes
2. Click the Advanced tab in the upper left
3. Click Subscribe to Podcast
4. Enter this URL: http://theimightyhutch.podbean.com/feed/

Do it!! I did :)

Fan Art

2010-02-17T10:21:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of days I've received my first pieces of fan art!

FinalRadio made up this funny little wallpaper for me:

Yes, I did make it my background image!

Here's another picture drawn by RickenbackerSteven:

There I am! Hanging out with the Goombas! Hehehe... cute :) Thanks guys!

Shoutout from HappyConsoleGamer (Thanks Dude!)

2010-02-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

I just received my first shoutout ever from a fellow YouTuber and Canadian HappyConsoleGamer! What a great surprise! It's always great to wake up to hundreds of emails in your inbox! He also featured other gaming ladies, so check it out if you need more gaming entertainment on YouTube. There's a lot of great people out there who are willing to share their collections with the world!

There you have it, my first shoutout ever! Now I feel like I have to work even harder! Make sure you let HappyConsoleGamer know how awesome it was that he made a shoutout to me :D

On a side note, I added a donation button to my blog. No, I'm not asking you to donate money to me! I've received a lot of questions about how to donate, so I decided to make it simple by posting a little button for anyone interested. Any money I receive goes directly back into the videos, I actually end up buying a lot of the games I cover since my only substantial collection is my NES collection of over 130 games. I have an abysmal amount of games for every other system. I'm also saving up for some better gear so I can make even better videos! I used to keep an ad on the site so people who wanted to could click it in order to donate advertisers' money to me instead of their own, but my Adsense account has gone a little berserk. I'll have it back up as soon as I know what's wrong with it!

Q&A with Rinry and JOT

2010-02-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

I receive a lot of complaints that I don't make enough appearances in my videos, especially since releasing the last video where I didn't do even one live action scene. I'll admit to being camera shy, but I also want to keep the videos about video games and not about me! So I put together a separate Q&A video where JOT and I answer some of the questions we get asked the most.

Nothing fancy! It was fun to do something different. I hope you enjoy!

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

2010-02-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

I had quite the pleasant surprise this morning when I received a (very) late Christmas present in the mail! I have waited so long to play Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, but I finally have it in my possession. I also received a Rocketfish PS3 headset. I'm very excited to try that out, once I have the courage!

I received Professor Layton and the Curious Village around this time last year, so it's been less than a year since I completed the first installment in the series. Plus, I helped my 12 year old sister play it just a couple of months ago, so I remember the game pretty well and will probably end up comparing the two games often.

So far I've found the puzzles in this game easier, but that's alright with me. That just means it will be even easier to successfully complete every puzzle in the game, like the true gentleman I am! It could also mean that I'm a tad bit smarter this time around ;)

I've only played the first hour or so of the game, but I'm completely satisfied with it thus far. There have been tons of fully animated cut scenes and a compelling murder mystery! Plus, Hershel Layton has been the utmost gentleman so far, taking every opportunity to show off his amazing skills in etiquette and manners.

Oh, you also get to take care of a hamster in this game. He was owned by a cook and is very sad because he is fat. It's my job to make him a happy, fit hamster once again! I named mine Gizmo. I hope to make him a very happy hamster someday. He kind of looks like he's trying to grow a mohawk.

That's all for today, so I'll leave you with my favourite Professor Layton quote: "A true gentleman leaves no puzzle unsolved."

Heavy Rain Demo

2010-02-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

Like everyone else, I followed the instructions on Kotaku in order to get my very own early Heavy Rain demo. Oh, except it didn't work. As soon as I registered for Precinct 52 I knew that I wouldn't be able to use the demo because you couldn't even choose Canada as a country!! I trudged onward anyway and said I was an American instead.

Of course, when I put in the redemption code at the PlayStation Store it didn't work. I was crestfallen and reported the unhappy events on Twitter, which ended up being my saving grace! It never would have occured to me to make another PSN account under a foreign address. So, I made an American account for my cat Chelsea, since I told Precinct 52 that I was American. That didn't work either, since it turns out that the codes only work for PAL accounts. So I made another British account for my cat Beeper! It worked!!

As someone who enjoys a good story, I've been looking forward to this game. The demo has three parts: a tutorial, which basically introduces the walking mechanics, and two little snippets of different parts of the game (I'm assuming) called Sleazy Place, and Crime Scene.

I enjoyed the Sleazy Place part a great deal more than the Crime Scene. It was a lot more action-packed; you question a woman about the death of her son and then beat up a mean guy. The fighting was fun, it was basically a test of reflexes. You would press the displayed button or push the analog stick in a specific direction or shake the controller in order to trigger events that are more advantageous to your character.

I tried this part twice to see if I could win the fight, and in the process I did the questioning of the woman a little differently each time. The first time she warmed up to me and started answering some questions, while the second time I pissed her off instead. Sadly, my reflexes aren't amazing and I got beat up both times during the fight scene; however, the two fight sequences were different because I didn't miss and hit the exact same buttons each time, triggering different events to happen in each of them. Interestingly enough, both times the woman reacted the same way to my defending her. I was hoping she would react differently each time and that the reaction would reflect how she perceived my character during the questionning. But, I guess it IS just a demo...

I found the Crime Scene part boring, so I only played it once. I found looking at the evidence kind of boring, but I'm leaning towards this being because I wasn't invested in the character doing the investigating at all and I knew I wasn't going to be able to solve the mystery anyway, since this is just a demo. So, I honestly didn't care.

I enjoyed the controls, they're reminiscent of the EA Skate franchise where a lot of the time you're using the analog sticks as actual body movements rather than using the buttons to trigger a movement. Honestly, I'm not more or less interested in playing this game than I was before playing the demo. Just like before, I feel as though if I have the funds before another game I really want comes out, I'll most likely pick up Heavy Rain. It seems like an experiment that's worthy of my time!

Game Quickie - Stunts

2010-02-05T09:28:00.000-08:00

There's another new Game Quickie on RetrowareTV!! Actually there's more than one, Derek (the Happy Video Game Nerd) also released one about Total Carnage a couple of days earlier. It's an arcade game, but I have some fond memories of playing it on my Gamecube. If you liked SmashTV, and think you might like it on speed, you should check it out!

The Game Quickie I made is all about Stunts. This PC game was released in 1990, and if you missed it, you missed out on a lot!

The best thing about the game was definitely building your own tracks full of crazy stunts and a plethora of scenery. I wasn't lying in the video when I said I was playing the game 10 years after it came out! My parents always had a crappy computer for us kids to fool around on and this was one of our favourite games, even in Junior High! Actually, now that I think about it, it does have N64-esque graphics. I probably had no idea how old the game was at the time!

I hope others out there had the opportunity to have fun playing this game!

Watch it on RetrowareTV here!

Replaying Kingdom Hearts II

2010-02-02T13:17:00.001-08:00

That's right. I fell into Square Enix's carefully laid out trap. Upon finishing Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, I couldn't help but pick up and play Kingdom Hearts II again. I am sure that this is exactly what Square Enix intended with the release of a prequel. Not only are they making money off the sales of their new DS game, but they're also extending the life span of their old PS2 game. I'm sure there are others like me; those who could not help but take another shot at Kingdom Hearts II in order to see if the insight given by the prequel would change their perception of the events in Kingdom Hearts II.

To be honest, I have received a lot of flak for loving Kingdom Hearts games, especially when I lived with roommates. No one could understand how I took the game seriously with characters like Donald and Goofy talking with their silly voices all the time. I don't really understand how I do it either! I just can't help but love these games!

It was over three years ago that I played through Kingdom Hearts II the first time, so it's hard for me to remember exactly what I thought about the events in the game during that first play through. I do know that I didn't care for Roxas and all I knew about Axel came from Chain of Memories, so I knew him as a cool badass. Learning in Kingdom Hearts II that Axel and Roxas were best friends just sounded weird. At that point in the series Axel had never presented himself as a "best friends" type of guy. It didn't help that Axel loses his temper all too easily with a best friend who has clearly been brainwashed and has no memory of him, making it even harder for me embrace the idea of the two being best friends. So, the first time I played the game I had absolutely no qualms with Roxas beating up Axel. Needless to say, it was different this time. I felt guilty and sad about how their story together had to end.

Playing as Roxas was a completely different experience as well. This time I knew Roxas was doomed. The "good guys" needed him to bring back Sora which would result in his nonexistence, and the only people who wanted him alive were the "bad guys." I felt an enourmous amount of guilt playing through Roxas' last days of life knowing that if he just went with Organization XIII he would be allowed to live! His last few days weren't even happy, they were full of confusion and strange occurrences.

As was expected, the first couple of hours of Kingdom Hearts II were reminiscent of events in 358/2 Days. You progressed through a series of days, just like in 358/2 Days; Roxas and his friends sat on top of the clock tower, ate sea salt ice cream together, and talked about going to the beach but never managed to make it there; and the idea of never being separated as long as you're in each other's hearts came up. There were countless other small details that tied to the prequel as well. It seems as though DiZ based this imaginary world off of Roxas' own memories, something that no one would have been able to identify when playing the game before the release of 358/2 Days.

So the last day came and Sora woke from his sleep. The last time I played through this part of the game, I rejoiced! It was bitter sweet this time around. Poor Roxas. It's almost like 358/2 Days was made just to upset everybody! Or maybe just me. It's kind of absurd how attached I have become to the protagonist of a game I didn't even truly enjoy until the last couple of hours!

Bake at 450 Degrees for 20 minutes, Remove and Play

2010-02-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

Someone emailed me a link to a very interesting forum topic: through a bizarre series of events this person's N64 game ended up being baked alive in an oven and surviving!

I thought this was a great companion piece for How Tough are NES Games. They might not be from the same console, but Nintendo built all of their cartridges tough!

I have received tons of complaints about the absense of a real heat test in that video. I have politely ignored them all, since I didn't want to deal with noxious fumes, or destroy my stove, oven, or dryer. Especially since they're not exactly mine because I only rent my house! I also don't have a microwave (don't ask!) and didn't feel comfortable asking anyone to let me potentially harm theirs! Either way, with the vast amount of stories I've heard about NES games surviving house fires, bonfires, etc, I'm pretty sure an NES game would have survived anything I could have thrown at it. Well... maaaybe not a microwave. Speaking of microwaves, have you ever put a chip bag in the microwave for a couple of seconds? I used to have a collection of microwaved chip bags!

Thanks Ed!

The Best and Worst of Voice Sampling in Video Games

2010-01-29T10:06:00.000-08:00

The new video has been up for a couple of days now, but I was too sick to write about it until now. We decided to do two top five lists because it seemed like the easiest way to showcase a bunch of different voice samples. Don't be too upset if a game you loved wasn't included, we played through so many games for this video and it was extremely hard to narrow it down. No one's list is going to be exactly the same!

There have been a lot of great comments on YouTube so far regarding games others would have liked to see on the list. Street Fighter is a popular one, and I swear it had the number 6 position on the bad list!

It's funny how we expect voice acting in video games nowadays when just a little over a decade ago it was quite a feat to have a human voice in a game! Now they're just funny, even the nostalgic ones! Haha... it makes me wonder how silly current games will seem in the future :)

Oh, if you like the video you should digg it! http://bit.ly/aLcYpW

Flower

2010-01-24T07:23:00.001-08:00

I've been cycling between two games over the past week: Mario Kart Wii and Flower. I've already played through Mario Kart Wii, but since I have a new Wii I have to unlock everything again! I popped it in to play with a friend last week, completely neglecting to remember that my new Wii doesn't know that I previously unlocked everything. It was horribly shocking to see all of my characters, cars, and tracks gone, needless to say! So, I've been playing through the single player mode in some kind of feverish frenzy. Then, in order to calm myself down, I play some Flower!

Awww... what a refreshing game! Never have I played a game like this that didn't put me on edge even the tiniest little bit. Even the credits were enjoyable and calming! I downloaded it a little over a week ago because my 12 year old sister was visiting. I thought it would be something new and interesting to play. Of course, then it had to download, so we ended up playing DDR on the PS2 instead. Haha!

Eventually, I did get to play it. I love the controls, the visuals, and the atmosphere. It's fun to zoom through the grass, launch into the air, and pick up more petals to become a giant, flowing petal-snake! When I play it, I almost feel like I'm in a trance. There is only one area that breaks this trance, others who have played this game will recognize the level: it's dark, scary, barren, and full of electricity that hurts!

I'm still not sure I have completed that level. As you can see in the screenshot above, the flower for that area is still wilted, and whenever I reach the end of the level it fades out before I reach the swirl of colours at the end. I admit, my string of petals ends up getting shocked a lot during the final stretch of the level, so it's my guess that my string of petals just isn't long enough to suit the requirements for the level. But! Then I think that perhaps the flower is just supposed to be that way because I have access to the level after it anyway. It's too bad it's so ambiguous, I'd like to know if it's necessary for me to play it again because it's definitely my least favourite area. The flowers are sparse and spread out, it's such an unhappy place. My favourite area is either the last one(I have painted the whole city!) or the night time area where you light everything up.

I'm happy I picked out this game. It's not something I am going to want to play everyday but I'll be sure to play it the next time something's frusterating me!

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days [Part 4]

2010-01-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

I finished this game over a week ago. Although the ending was obvious, it still got me down. I haven't been able to think about starting another story-heavy game since I've finished it! Strangely enough, the game had quite the impact on me, even after all that complaining about how the story wasn't at all tied to the action.

The last couple of days in this game were definitely my favourite part of the whole game. It was so exciting! Pure epicness! And then it ended. The mission-based style of the game was definitely it's downfall, none of the action was very exciting. You were fighting enemies because you were told to and for no other real reason. I guess this did highlight Roxas' complaisant character, but the WHOLE GAME didn't have to revolve around that! If I hadn't played the whole way through I would definitely have a sour taste in my mouth every time I thought of this game.

I've wanted to play through at least the very beginning of Kingdom Hearts II since finishing this game. The reason being that I never liked the introduction to the game where you play as Roxas. It was stale, boring, and not what I wanted when I bought the game. I wonder if I would have a greater appreciation for it now. Once I get the time, I'm definitely going to give it a play.

None of the music in this game was very memorable and most of it was borrowed from previous games in the series. I did really like Xion's Theme, which is a pretty and depressing little tune. It's the only one that really stuck out to me, and I recognized it everytime it came on. Like a lot of Kingdom Hearts songs it is piano heavy, but it also has some cool synth in it that is reminiscent of some Final Fantasy X tunes. One song that I would be happy to never hear again is the Castle that Never Was theme. I can't imagine being Roxas and having to hear that song everyday before work!

I don't really have a lot to say about this game. It was pretty grueling, but I'm happy I persevered through it. It played like a Kingdom Hearts game all throughout, but it didn't feel like one until the end.

Game Quickie - Commander Keen 4

2010-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

I've started a little side project making Game Quickies for RetrowareTV! If you don't already know, RetrowareTV is a cool site that features video content about video games. I was actually approached by Ito about creating content for the site months ago, after they featured my SMS vs NES: Double Dragon video as a User Submission. I declined at first, because I was incredibly busy at the time, but now I'm sure I can fit a video here or there into my schedule. I was warmly received by the community as well! It was great!

Making this Game Quickie was awesome since I had the opportunity to relive a childhood favourite and then share it with others. Commander Keen 4 or "Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy: Secret of the Oracle" is a great game, anyone who watches the video and thinks it looks awesome should definitely think of adding the game to their collection. The first five episodes are only $4.99 USD on Steam! (Thanks Leontendo for pointing that out!)

I wrote the script, captured the footage, edited the video, and did the voiceover for this vid. JOT still did the audio, but he usually also works on the script and capturing footage with me. Despite the extra workload, this video was a great deal easier to make than my other videos! There was only one game to talk about,and it was one I know fairly well. Plus, this video is short! I hope you enjoy it!

Heaven vs Hell: Let's Rock (New Super Mario Bros. Wii)

2010-01-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

I think it was over a month ago now that my friend D3stiny Sm4sher (the reviews editor at GoNintendo) approached me with his idea for a review series where an angel and demon discuss the pros and cons (respectively) of any given game. Choosing to cover New Super Mario Bros. Wii, he went ahead and wrote the whole script and then edited the whole video as well. I lent him my voice for that of the angel while he did the demon's voice. It was cool to collaborate with someone and it was relaxing to not have to do any of the hard work! You can read his notes on the video and producing it here.

This is just a pilot episode, so there are probably a few kinks to work out. Maybe there will be more to come! I hope you enjoy it, D3stiny Sm4sher put a lot of hard work into it!

Demo Reel: Feedback Please!

2010-01-17T07:10:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to post this demo reel somewhere months ago, but I chickened out. I was supposed to post a blog about it days ago, but I chickened out again! Needless to say, I am very self-conscious about this recording, but have been badgered into posting it by nameless sources.

Whoever is brave enough to listen to the mp3, beware! I have wanted to be an anime voice actor for many years now. Not so much because I love anime, I'm actually really picky about them, so there are a couple that I simply adore and many more that I can't stand. My main inspiration for being an anime voice actor is that I feel that I have the right kind of voice and could probably pull it off rather well, not to mention that it would be an added bonus to work on a really good anime! For example, I would love to do the voice of Misa Amane from Death Note. I wouldn't mind doing a kids' anime either, I remember watching Pokemon, Digimon, and Cardcaptors when I was younger and it would be cool to bring such strange characters to life for other kids!

Yea, so I know I'm not pro. Feedback would be appreciated though, because I'd love to improve! Thanks!

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days [Part 3] About those panels...

2010-01-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I haven't had any opportunities to play any newer games recently. I've plowed most of the way through the most recent Kingdom Hearts game, but I still have some way to go. One of the most recent accomplishments I've made in the game was to completely reorganize my panels of inventory! (Believe me, it's an accomplishment!)

In this game you have to equip everything, and in deep contrast to other RPGs nothing that you equip is clothes or armour! You must equip magic, abilities, and weapons if you want to use them during missions, and you even have to equip every level up that you achieve if you want to actually gain that level. To make things even more difficult you have limited space to equip all of these items, you must fit in them into the allocated squares (or "panels"), and they come in strange shapes.

I generally have enough panels unlocked to fit all the abilities and items I want, it's just a matter of fitting the pieces together. I recently received a couple of cool items after finishing a mission, but in order to equip them I had to rearrange everything else in my panels. It took a good 15 minutes, but I did it!

(click to enlarge)
If you take a look at the picture above, you'll see how it's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. I can see how an impatient person or someone who isn't a puzzle-enthusiast like myself could get annoyed with this system, but for the most part I didn't mind this set up, except when I was antsy to get a move on and I had to organize my panels first.

Happy New Year ScrewAttack Video

2010-01-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

A ScrewAttack G1, digitaldebaser, came up with the idea of having as many G1's as possible send in a Happy New Year greeting, and then he would compile them all into a video! I made a little something from me and JOT and it's the second one in this long video, so check it out!

I made that little something in the midst of working hard on the latest video, so it's not as amazing as I originally thought it would be. Oh well! I rushed making it, which is obvious in the animation, and the greeting itself is too short. Despite that it was fun and I was happy to contribute to the ScrewAttack community in other ways, since I'm having audio issues with uploads to the site. They're working on it for me, so hopefully I'll be uploading videos again in the future!

Kudos to JOT for doing the audio for me!

How Tough are NES Games?

2010-01-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

I released a new video last night! I was inspired to test the endurance of NES games through a series of tests after reading this article about a Japanese gamer who subjected her copies of Street Fighter II to three different endurance tests. Watch to find out how tough those little NES cartridges really are!

YouTube is not a fan of this video, so you'll hear a couple of blips in the audio that weren't in the original file. It's kind of sad because JOT worked so hard on the audio, but it's hard to complain too much about a free service. JOT picked out all of the music except the Super Mario RPG piece, "Forest Maze", and "Still More Fighting" from Final Fantasy VII. They're both personal favourites of mine!

I know some people have voiced concerns about how horrible it is to destroy something old and irreplacable, despite its relative abundance. I just want to let everyone know that I didn't do the video and then throw the games away. They're now a valuable part of my collection and a testiment to their hardy design:

They have a really comfortable perch beside some other relics: my one and only famicom game, Adventure Island, which was actually purchased from France; my Saint Seiya Happy TV (which is like a cheap viewfinder), an anime I've never seen before but I've held onto this strange device since high school; and my Coca-Cola Lulu which was given to me by an old friend who spent some time in Japan. Oh, and I can't forget my Sega Genesis games! I even kept the pieces that broke off, you can see them sitting on top of the stack :)

Marle DOES use fire magic?

2010-01-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

In my last video I pointed out a mistake with the Chrono Trigger box art: Marle is clearly using fire magic when she doesn't do so in the game.

Klonoa at GoNintendo.com kindly informed me that there is indeed a point in the game where Marle uses fire magic. Since Chrono Trigger is my favourite game, I was confused and disappointed that I had not been informed. So, I went ahead and caught some footage of the offending triple tech, named Arc Impulse:

Since this is a triple tech that involves Crono, Frog, and Marle, many Chrono Trigger fans assert that this is the attack pictured on the front cover and so it is justified that Marle is shooting fire from her hand. It certainly does look like the attack: Frog's down on his knees with Crono coming in for a slash, and Marle's flexing her magic muscles. Still, I can't help but think there's something wrong... perhaps it's just my overwhelming desire to be right, but maybe not!

It's not that I've never seen the attack before, that would be pretty hard to pull off if you've played the game as many times as I have. It has just never occured to me that those flames in any way emanated from Marle. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I have ever paid any attention to the presence of flames in that attack.

So, what's wrong with the picture? So far it appears that Marle DOES have a smidgeon of ability to conjure flames. Because of this, I have taken the time to assemble some evidence that is in my favour:

1) The attack is identified as a Water tech by Golem, which can be seen at the end of the clip I attached.

2) In the tech menu it identifies the attack as an "Ice Slash," and from the amount of MP taken from each of the characters it can be determined that Crono contributes Spincut, Frog contributes Leap Slash, and Marle's contribution is Ice 2.

And finally!!

3) In the attack, Marle shoots an ice crystal which flies away to collide with Crono's sword, which is then surrounded by yellow and blue flames. On the box art Marle is clearly shooting fire from her hand... not an ice crystal!

As for where the flames come from, it probably just looked cooler that way. They're like blue snow flames or something. Or perhaps it's from Crono's lightning magic, since lightning is a lot more capable of producing flames than water is. Wherever the flames came from, the box art is still a little off, but perhaps not as far off as I once suspected it to be. I'll give in that much ;) It must be concept art of what the tech might have looked like, perhaps before the characters were designated specific elements.

Anyway, I've obviously put too much thought into this. But, I thought others might be interested in these mysterious flames in Chrono Trigger!

8 Bit Kirby NES

2009-12-29T16:13:00.001-08:00

For about five years now, my favourite NES has sported a souvenir given to me by some LDS Elders who came to my door one day. This mainly served to distinguish my best NES from the others, but the painting from the religious pamphlet was chosen for a couple of reasons: The NES was given to me by my stepfather who is very religious (but Baptist, not LDS), and since the NES worked so well the picture symbolized divine intervention. Ok, so the NES didn't truly work through any sort of divine intervention, but it was fun to think it did!

To me, that was just what my NES looked like. Unfortunately, not everyone saw it that way. Because of this, I have decided to retire my NES' old clothes. While I still have no problem with the painting itself, its presence has started to cause me problems. I often get emails from people who are excited with the prospect that I may be LDS, then I have to give them the less-than-stellar news that I am not and that I just used their painting as an ID tag of sorts. I feel like an insensitive ignoramus after replying to those emails. I also get snide remarks from people who are not fans of my shameless evangelism. I don't mind those messages as much as I find it fascinating how worked up someone can get about something that's completely in their own head.

It's time to stop creating these problems for myself and to give my NES a new look! So, I painted a little Kirby on my NES. Hopefully little pink balls of fluff don't offend anyone!

First I made a stencil:

I spray painted it onto my NES, so it looked like an ugly reddish-orange Kirby for a little while:

I went away for Christmas, so my NES had to stay in that ugly inbetween stage for a couple of days. I didn't feel so bad about it though, we all have to go through that gawky adolescent stage at some point! I painted in all of the light pink areas next:

Haha, that didn't make it look much better! I guess reddish-orange and pink don't go so well together! When I went to the dollar store they only had one shade of pink and since I was way too lazy to go to another store, I just mixed a little black and pink together to fill in the darker pink areas:

Lastly, I covered up that yucky reddish-orange colour with black. Tada! My stylish new 8 Bit Kirby NES!!

FAQ You! T-Shirt

2009-12-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

There is a new shirt at The Awesome Store, Benzaie's FAQ You! t-shirt.

As soon as I saw this was on sale I went directly to the website to purchase it. The shirt is $17.99 USD and I was alright with that. As I continued through the checkout I eventually came to the shipping charge. I couldn't believe it... $9.50 USD!! That adds up to approximately 28.66 CAD, and I just couldn't bring myself to pay almost $30 for a t-shirt. FAQ that, I'm just too poor! It was with a heavy heart that I navigated away from the page. I hope to get one for my birthday in February...

Video Games Dance!!

2009-12-27T12:07:00.000-08:00

JOT and I made this animated GIF about four years ago now. I inserted it as a little filler for the last video since it fit in nicely with the box art theme. The GIF is extremely large, however, and it doesn't always like to run over the internet until it's run through once already.

JOT had purchased quite a few NES games with their boxes the year before, and we were always doing strange and wonderful things with them. We stacked them in several different ways, tried to build things with them, and many other embarrassing stunts. This is by far the best of the bunch.

It's hard for me to remember exactly how we managed to make the animation. As I recall, we cut a hole big enough for a camera lense out of a piece of cardboard. We then took two chairs and positioned them far enough away from each other so that neither would be in the shot and placed the cardboard on both chairs so that the camera was suspended in the air by the cardboard between the two chairs. We then proceeded to move the video game boxes around underneath the cardboard. The set up would have looked something like this:

I don't think you can get more makeshift than that!

When we first made the animation we uploaded it to YTMND, which happened to be our favourite website at the time. When we uploaded it the GIF file was just too large for internet connections of that day so it took too long to load, however I just watched it today and it was pretty good! I was impressed. You can watch it here along with a cover of some dance song I can't remember the name of by JOT.

The animation isn't necessarily something to be extremely proud of, the quality is shoddy and the lighting changes between shots, etc, etc. It is a fun piece of personal history though! I hope you enjoy it.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days [Part 2]

2009-12-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Time off means more time to play!! I'm still hacking away at Kingdome Hearts 358/2 Days and I'm happy to say it has improved. I'm beginning to actually be interested in what's going to happen. There's some pretty weird stuff going on with very little explanation. Who/what is Xion?! WTF is Axel not telling us?!!

The story may have become more interesting, but it still doesn't drive the action in any way. Basically, you play as Roxas doing his job as a member of Organization XIII and then every couple of days you are rewarded with some cutscenes that occur during Roxas' downtime. However, that may be about to change!! I certainly hope it does.

So far a number of Disney worlds are available in the game: Agrabah, Beast's Castle, the Coliseum, Halloween Town, Wonderland, and Neverland. There's little to no interaction with the Disney characters though. In stark contrast to the previous games in the series, you're never trying to help them and generally trying to stay out of their sight. I don't really mind that aspect missing from the game, though it would be nice to see a few Final Fantasy cameos. Those seem to be completely missing from the game with the exception of a single Moogle.

Unfortunately, I have stumbled upon some control issues throughout the game. I was playing over the Christmas holidays at my mother's house and came to the cutscene on Day 255. My younger sister was playing her new CD really loudly so I paused the game in order to go to another room to hear it. I pressed start and... it skipped the cutscene. Why would the start button skip an actual cutscene without warning? Why?! You should have to press at least two buttons to skip a cutscene! If you want to skip an in-game cutscene, say when Lumiere catches site of you when you're trying to sneak by or you want to skip some dialogue you've already read when in Challenge mode, you press start and it asks you if you want to skip the scene or continue. Why would they make a real cutscene any different?! Ugh... thank God for YouTube, I looked it up and watched it on the computer.

Another controller issue only occurs in Neverland. In this world you can fly. In order to fly you press B to jump then Y to start flying. When you're flying B makes you go down and Y makes you go up. This is a real problem for me. I understand why the controls are that way: the Y button is above the B. However, I am so used to B being jump and therefore a button that makes me go UP that I have a trouble with the controls. It's not unplayable by any means, but I can often be found flying n00b-style on those levels.

Playing this game has made me want to play the other Kingdom Hearts game so badly! It's sad that I have so many games in my queue that I don't know if I'll be able to squeeze them all in...

Video Game Box Art Sources

2009-12-19T10:07:00.000-08:00

Here are just a couple of links to some cool websites I found while researching for my last video. While a lot of the time I was just looking at pictures, I did stumble upon some good articles and other resources!

http://www.player1.de/sms/
A collection of scans of Sega Master System box art. There is only a small number of box art scans, but they're really good quality and show the front, side, and back of the insert, since Master System games actually came in cases and not boxes like NES games did. There are also some Sega catalog scans from the 80's! You should definitely take a peak at such ancient relics ;)

http://gamemedia.comuf.com/
Here you'll find a huge collection of box art scans, title screenshots, and in-game snapshots from almost every system imaginable. Except the Master System.... There are also absolutely no box art scans for Genesis games, while there are tons of title screen and in-game screenshots.

http://caponeart.blogspot.com/2009/05/random-no9-100-worst-videogame-box-art.html
I can't believe someone took the time to do this, but here is a top 100 list of the worst video game box art. There's some good ones in there! However, the whole thing is on one page, so it could take some time to load all of the pictures on a slower connection.

http://www.huguesjohnson.com/features/sears_catalog/
More scans, but these are Sears catalog scans from the 8 bit and 16 bit eras of gaming. It's interesting to see how they were advertised and how much everything cost back then! If you poke around on this site you will find even more scans of catalogs that are even older, like the Atari catalog!

Twitter

2009-12-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

I just started my own Twitter page last night! I've had a few people ask me about setting one up, but I never got around to it. Well, now I finally did get around to it. Problem is, I have no idea what to do with it!!

You can visit it here: http://twitter.com/Rinrygamegame.

I'm kind of like a grandma when it comes to Twitter. I don't have any friends who have an account, so I don't have anyone to ask about it or force to follow me. I've already started following a few individuals/organizations/companies though! I have that part down, but I wouldn't mind some recommendations as to who else to follow. I don't really know who or what to start looking for!

Anyway, it's time to stop being a grandma and get with the times!

Oh, and since I'm talking about getting with the times, I uploaded my new video to the new ScrewAttack.com late last night. So far it has 13 views. Haha! Success! If you really want to see it again, but on ScrewAttack(!!!) this time, you can view it here: http://screwattack.com/videos/Video-Game-Box-Art. In retrospect, perhaps I should have given it more provoking title.

Also on ScrewAttack, AVGN used JOT's remake of the theme song again in his ad for the new AVGN DVD Vol. 3. It was previously used in the AVGN's Super Pitfall episode. That was fun to discover! I had even contemplated not watching it, since it wasn't an actual AVGN episode. I already knew that the new DVD was available and where to get it without watching a video about it. If you're interested, you can view it here: http://screwattack.com/videos/AVGN-DVD-Volume-3-Available-Now

Video Game Box Art

2009-12-16T07:59:00.000-08:00

Yay! New vid! This one is a little behind schedule... I guess that happens when you move twice in one month.

I was really happy to see the box art for my favourite game of all time as the default thumbnail image. I hope you enjoy it!

I'd also like to thank my friend Becca for making the graphic of me that you'll find in my banner. It's pretty cute! Kind of like a Pac-Man Rinry. She can draw anything! But, doesn't seem to have a website...

Master0fHyrule deserves my thanks as well, he always makes sure my videos get lots of views on Digg! He makes his own videos that you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/user/Master0fHyrule?blend=2&ob=1

Metal Gear Ben - Episode 2

2009-12-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

Two or three years ago JOT put together a little beat. Yesterday that little beat was used in the second episode of Metal Gear Ben!! He sent in a bunch of songs to ScrewAttack when they were asking for music to use in the Metal Gear Ben series they were putting together, but that doesn't mean we expected to hear any! So, it was quite a pleasant surprise.

Watch it and see if you can guess which song is the most awesome and most definitely the one that JOT wrote:

When I first watched the episode it was the strangest thing ever, because when Metal Gear Ben's phone rings all of the characters stop what they're doing and just listen. This is exactly what I did! I wasn't paying the utmost attention to the show, but all of a sudden all of my attention was on the show and I was trying to figure out where I knew that song from!

If you haven't guessed yet, Metal Gear Ben's ringtone is JOT's beat. It's definitely the best song in this episode ;)

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

2009-12-09T19:57:00.000-08:00

I bought this game over a month ago and neglected to pick up my DS and play it. Now I'm well on my way through the game with 12 hours of gameplay already on my belt!

First off, I'm not sure if I like this game yet. I'm not a huge fan of the mission system; I much rather the action be story driven. So far there hasn't been much of a story... Axel leaves for Castle Oblivion and Roxas is sad, then he returns and Roxas is happy. Xion can't use her keyblade and Roxas covers for her, then Xion can use her keyblade and all is back to normal. I guess the game is spending time building their characters in the hopes that when something DOES happen to them I will actually care.

I heard many reviewers call the beginning of this game slow, so I was prepared for it. I laughed at the tutorial for jumping and opening treasure chests and I didn't get impatient with an entire mission dedicated to introducing the limit break, but I'm really starting to wish this game would pick it up a notch. The game makes me feel like I'm playing a Organization XIII Job Simulator rather than an Action RPG. Roxas gets up in the morning, goes to work early, talks to his coworkers and does a little prep before beginning his shift, works all day beating up baddies or collecting emblems or something similar, chills with his buddies, then it's off to bed. Repeat.

I'm complaining about them, but at the same time I am mindlessly addicted to the missions. I even go back and complete some Challenge missions before embarking on the true mission for the day. Even now I'm even thinking about picking up my DS and plowing through a few missions. Why is this a problem? Well, this addiction seems akin to my online mini-game addictions, which only last for a limited amount of time because the games don't go anywhere. I'm afraid that if this game doesn't present me with something to strive for I'll put it down one day and never pick it up again!!

At the beginning of each day you start out in some common area in the Organization's headquarters. There's something that really annoys me about this room: There are two couches with tables in front of them where different Organization members will sit on any given day. Since an invisible wall prevents you from jumping on the tables if you want to talk to somebody sitting on a couch you must talk to them from behind the couch. Check this out at 0:46 if you want to know what I'm talking about. I guess talking to someone from behind a couch is no more strange than talking to them while standing on a table, but I'd still like to be able to face the person I'm talking to!

So I'm undecided about the game, but thankfully I'm a good little worker and will continue to do Saïx' bidding for at least another little while. I'm hoping to love this game soon enough!

Barry the Awesome

2009-12-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

Today is a great day! I'm finally settled into my new house so now I can focus more on my blog, making videos, and playing games! Oh, and studying as well. My moving streak is over and I definitely won't be moving again until at least September.

On top of all of this, Barry the Awesome shed light on the mystery I mentioned in my last blog post!

Who was the enigmatic woman in the picture? She was none other than Earth's Gaurdian from the NES game Gaurdian Legend. According to Barry the Awesome (who truly does live up to that title), "the thing in the lower right corner, she wore on her head when she fought aliens in her human form. It's a fun game with arcade style shooter parts and adventure parts much like legend of zelda in between. She would transform between her robot/human form and airplane mode for the different stages." That "thing" still looks more like a shoe without a heel to me.

Here's some gameplay from nesguide:

Looks like an alright NES game. Sadly, I don't own it myself. I'm not a huge fan of shoot 'em ups though, so I would probably only enjoy the adventure parts of the game. The music is pretty cool, The Advantage even did a cover of the song for the third level, AKA Corridor 1.

The box art is really scary:

I'm sure I would have avoided this game as a kid, since the box looks like something from a horror movie and I was a wimp. I'm actually not sure whose face that is. It can't be the Gaurdian's, unless the 8 bit graphics really smoothed out those lines on her face in-game.

The main antagonist of the game is Naju, which isn't actually a person but a huge planet-like structure that aliens propelled toward Earth in order to decimate the planet. All of the game's action occurs either on the surface of Naju or within its interior. Naju may not be a conscious entity with a face, but a menacing face taking over the whole horizon could sum up the essence of the total destruction it represents... or, it could just be an angry alien face....

Anyway, that pretty Gaurdian lady is currently my avatar at Screwattack. I feel like a poser having an avatar from a game I've never played, but whatever. I'm too lazy to change it. Plus, Shinji could still be out there! I may know who the character is, but I still don't know who Shinji is or why he/she sent it to me!

Uncharted 2 [part 3] World Record!!

2009-11-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

Yay! I beat Uncharted 2 in record time! It generally takes me months to finish any game, but it only took me one month to finish Uncharted 2. On top of that, I'm moving again tomorrow and Friday(that makes three moves in four months!), but I'm moving into my own house. This is cause for celebration! I'm indulging in a little bourbon tonight!

Uncharted 2 is definitely now one of my all time favourite games. There wasn't one point in the game where I didn't care what happened next and there was so many different tasks to perform. My favourite part was the attack on the convoy where you attack baddies on the back of their trucks while jumping from moving truck to moving truck as they explode into pieces behind you; then, you get access to a grenade launcher and blow up countless trucks and jeeps while protecting Elana's truck. So much action!

The ending was well worth all of the time and effort put into the game. It was pretty fulfilling and left me feeling really happy, which can't be said for every game I've ever played. I bawled watching the ending cinematic for FFX, even though it was completely obvious what was going to happen once you defeated the final boss.

On a side note, I received a strange email in my spam earlier this week. The subject was "theme" but the body didn't include any text, instead it contained this image:

For no real reason, I found this oddly entertaining. I deleted the rest of the spam but left this one hanging around and every once in a while I would open the email and check it out again. It just doesn't make sense: is it really spam? Have other people received this very same email? It's not trying to sell anything or steal my money, so it's unlike any spam mail I've ever received before. Perhaps someone sent it to me and just didn't know enough English to write a message to go with it. It is from someone with a Russian email address who goes by Shinji.

Also, what is that object in the lower right hand corner? A shoe? It's a pretty odd shoe considering it doesn't have a heel...

Anyway, I ended up saving the image to my harddrive and making an avatar out of it. Maybe someone will recognize it. Whatever it is, it's an anomaly to me!

SMS Versus NES: Double Dragon

2009-11-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this video is finished!! My goal was to have it done on Thursday, but life didn't want it to work out that way. It's halfway through November and I've already moved all of my possessions to a new apartment, been horribly ill, and had my pet hamster, Kyuubi, die. My studies have suffered way worse than my movie-making though! Haha!

Anyway, here it is! JOT and I played Double Dragon on both systems for hours and this is the fruit of our labours!

Uncharted 2 [part 2] online multiplayer!

2009-11-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

Last week I ventured into the world of online gaming. I find online gaming extremely intimidating, this is basically because other people are going to see me flailing about like an idiot because I don't have a clue what's going on! I've owned tons of games and never even glanced at the multiplayer option, but this time I took the plunge!

I'm not sure about other people's opinion on the multiplayer modes in Uncharted 2, but I've played the deathmatch mode a number of times so far and had a lot of fun. I mean, I'm horrible at it and usually have the least amount of kills on my team, but it's fun to keep trying and improving! I actually have gotten a teeny bit better at the game! Now, instead of one, I can get up to six kills! Haha! This is actually my first true multiplayer experience. While I've played plenty of games over LAN with friends, I've always been too intimidated to play with others. I've never even played Left 4 Dead with anyone other than friends! On top of that, Uncharted 2 is a shooting game on a console, something I've specifically avoided for years. So, this is a big deal for me!

My only complaint is that it can take a long time to find other players and start a game. I know it doesn't have to take that long. I've watched enough people play Counter Strike to know that it can be pretty much instantaneous. It's really only a couple of minutes, but it can seem like an eternity. As I get better I may find more faults, but as it stands right now everything seems to be my fault because I suck.

Anyway, I'm happy I ventured into this strange new land, although others who end up being on my team may not be very impressed XD

Double Dragon

2009-11-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

I've been really sick most of this week. It was nothing contagious, but I was in terrible pain and couldn't sleep so eventually I had to turn to games with fewer buttons as my reflexes and hand-eye coordinations weakened.

That's right, I wasted some time playing Double Dragon for the NES! It's a great side scrolling beat 'em up that's available on Virtual Console, but I own the real thing. With Virtual Console releases you miss out on all the iconic flickering that adds so much character to the game. No, I jest. I'm just too cheap to buy a game I already I own.*

The weapons are definitely my favourite way to attack. I know it grants you less points to use weapons and therefore you don't amass hearts at a fast rate; but, I find it highly entertaining that you're able to pick up a barrel and throw it at somebody and that you can slap someone around with a whip. Since they're bad guys and the graphics are not in the least bit realistic, I don't feel even a smidgeon of guilt for hitting some dude with a bat! Actually, it feels pretty good when you're extremely ill. Since I've been playing the game a lot these past couple of weeks, I performed a lot better in my unhealthy state than I would have otherwise! It was extremely good for my morale.

This screen bothers me because I can't figure out what "Grigr" could possibly be. I know it's the start of a word, but what word?? It sounds gross, whatever it is.

I also own Double Dragon for the Sega Master System, but my NES was already set up so it didn't get in any playtime. They are remarkably different for being the same game. I feel bad for my SMS now, it's been packed away for quite a while. I should probably take it out in order to check out how different the two Double Dragons really are. Yup, I think I'm going to do that right now! Ciao!

*Yes, I know I don't own a Wii anymore**, but I didn't buy it even when I had one!

**And, a little secret about my Wii is that I didn't actually sell it, I gave it to my parents and then took their Wii and sold it so that at least all of my Virtual Console downloads would still be in the family! On top of that, I gave all of my games except Wii Sports to my parents as well as my Wii Remote chargers, just in case. It was the best of both worlds, my parents and little sister think I'm awesome and I still have all of my stuff in a safe place. Well, excepting the fact that I don't own a Wii anymore :)

Uncharted 2! I'm playing it!

2009-11-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

I picked up Uncharted 2: Among Theives a couple of weeks ago. At this time, I was still playing the first game, so it sat alone and unplayed for a little while as I made my way through Uncharted at my usual agonizingly slow pace. Since completing the first game I moved into a new apartment so I've just settled in and have finally begun to play my brand new PS3 game!

One of my favourite things in these games is how monkey-like Drake is!

Since I've just finished the first game, I picked up differences between the two immediately. In the first game used up on the directional pad in order to reload my weapon, now the button I have to press is R2 and pressing up does nothing useful except if there's a hint to toggle; I guess that's not huge enough of a detail to complain about though. I like the climbing mechanics better in Uncharted 2 and how Drake will kick himself off a wall when you try to jump against one. I'm also enjoying the absense of six axis controls thus far in the game! While the greater use of melee and stealth attacks adds variety to the gameplay, I think I am more of a fan of the good ol' duck/cover and shoot! I do enjoy punching the bad guys in the face or knocking them out cold with a slap to the back of the neck (How does he DO that!?!) every once in a while, but I'm more of a shoot the guy from a safe distance kind of girl. At least for now. Maybe I'll learn to like it more.

So I've made it to Chapter 6 and the question that's burning up inside of me the most has nothing to do with Drake being hurt in a train wreck in some snowscape in the near future. I'm asking: where's Elana? I grew quite attached to her in the last game and this dark-haired, raspy voiced girl isn't quite cutting it...

The World Ends with You [Part 8] I'm on a winning streak!

2009-10-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

I buckled down and finished another game this week! Last week I became frusterated with the battle with Konishi and almost didn't pick it up again. Good thing I did! Perhaps I was just in a better mood, but the battle was a lot easier this time around and I beat her in amazingly good time. A couple of battles later, the game was beat!

However, I did have a very difficult time with the last battle. I might have fared better if I equipped the new pin Megumi dropped after the first battle with him, but I was unwilling to start the battle over again in order to change my pins because this would have meant defeating each of Megumi's forms again since there were no saving capabilities beyond the battle with Konishi! I have a great distaste for doing things over again in video games, so I adjusted the diffulty to easy. While I feel there are no bragging rights in defeating a game on easy, I was so happy to beat the game!

The ending, on the other hand, was a tad confusing. I'm guessing that Joshua decided that Shibuya was a place worth preserving after the time he spent with Neku. Neku, listening the the omnipresent advice from Mr. H to trust your partner, took the bullet trusting in the fact that Joshua would make the right decision as the winner of the game. The only way to find out if my assumptions are correct are to collect all of the hidden reports in a second round of playing the game, which basically entails beating all the boss battles on hard, killing a bunch of piggies, and finding some hidden items. I've already completed a few of the tasks, so I guess I'll make my way through these tasks, that is, until I am able to pick up the new Kingdom Hearts game!

Oh, and I seriously never guessed that Joshua was the composer. I still thought he was just some weirdo kid. While I didn't think it was Mr. H, I was leaning more toward the idea that it was Megumi. It would be really useful to pretend that you were dispelling orders from a great being beyond yourself in order to make others listen to you. I mean, people pull that crap in real life all the time!

It was a great game. I enjoyed almost every minute of it :)

Uncharted [Part 4] C'est Fini!

2009-10-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

One 3.01 firmware update later, I plowed through Uncharted and beat it to the ground! That sure felt good after the grief caused by this game with all that freezing BS. I have seen the end and all is good in the world again!

Actually, the game did freeze one more time after updating the PS3. It was also at a particularly pressing moment in the game! So, the zombies were chasing Elana and Drake down this windy cave-like hallway when ... the game freezes. Thankfully, when I restarted the system I was able to continue from the place where the game froze without any more delays; however, running away from zombies is way more stressful when you also have to worry about the game locking up!

Ok, I guessed that Sully wasn't dead and I was right, but I never would have guessed that there was zombies in this game! Just recently someone asked me if I had gotten to the part with the zombies yet, to which I laughed and said no, thinking that this person was picking on me! So, I went on my merry way, not thinking twice about zombies. It was truly frightening when they appeared and were attacking from all directions. Man, I am scared of zombies. My fear of zombies has prevented me from ever finishing a Resident Evil game; I get waaay too scared. But, I killed all the zombies this time around!

I didn't find all the treasures or do anything above and beyond in this game, but I'm too excited to play Uncharted 2, so I'm putting this game away!

Uncharted Fail

2009-10-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Last night I spent a little quality time with Uncharted. Unfortunately, I encountered an unsurpassable problem that made the experience more frusterating than fun. Just after the beginning of Chapter 14, the game freezes! I'm right around here at the moment:

I turned the console off and on, ejected the disc and reinserted it, and even unplugged everything and then plugged it back in, to no avail. The disc is in pristine condition, so I'm sure it's not caused by a scratch and the PS3 has no problem performing any other tasks. It's just Uncharted it has a problem with.

So, I've done some research and it turns out that after the Firmware 3.0 update loads of people have been having this exact same problem with Uncharted. It's sad that I had to sacrifice a good game for some pretty twinkling colours! However, I have stumbled upon some possible solutions to this problem. A couple of forums recommend turning off the autosave and hint modes, since these seem to trigger the freezing. Others have turned to deleting the game data and performing a system restore. Since the latter is pretty extreme, I'll start off trying the first possible solution.

All of this researching has gotten me pumped to get this game working! Hopefully I will return with good news.

Update: With a little more research I discovered the 3.01 update which is supposed to fix the problem. Shouldn't this be the first thing that pops up when I look up this problem? Geeez... why do all of these outdated solutions get the limelight? Also, I have to start paying more attention to recent game news, I feel so out of the loop not knowing about this!

All About 31 in 1!

2009-10-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

I broke a new record with the release of this video. It only took three weeks to produce! I'm going to try to keep up the pace, which will be a real challenge with apartment hunting on the very top of my to do list at the moment, but I think I'm up for it.

Since it's almost Halloween, this video has a pirate theme. Well, kinda. This new video is about 31 in 1. If you've never heard of it, it's a pirated multi-cart that contains 31 games. They were fairly common in Nova Scotia when I was growing up, if you didn't own your own copy you had a friend or cousin who had one. Someone probably made a lot of money selling them at flea markets.

Now, don't get the wrong opinion. I don't condone piracy and always buy legitimate copies of my games. Pirated NES games were certainly a big deal when the NES was in its prime, but I feel that pirated NES games are now benign entities that are just fossils of the malignant forces they once were. Nintendo no longer makes any profit off of NES cartridges, so they're all giving the same amount of money back to their creators: None! Plus, since I was introduced to this game as I child, I was completely niave to the forces behind it and just thought it was cool.

Here it is! I hope you like the games!

Working on the site!

2009-10-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

Hey! I am working very hard in order to make this blog look more presentable. I've tried to find help with this but to no avail, so I am taking on the task myself! Since I have very little skills in this area, you'll have to bear with me. I don't want to use some generic template, so I've been working in the code myself. I plan on keeping it simple, so I should be able to figure everything out. I've been making it up as I go so far! Haha! I hope it looks better and not worse...!

Oh, I will also have a new video out this week. It's all about pirates! Yar! Ok, it's not really about pirates, that's just a hint.

Uncharted 2

2009-10-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

Uncharted 2 was released on October 13. I can't believe I missed the release date! But, I certainly didn't miss the flood of exemplary reviews! I'm loving the first game and I've finally made it 75% through it, so I think I'm ready to indulge in the purchase of this game. I feel as though I'm pretty much gauranteed to love it, so it will be a good investment. Although I'm not into all the extra content, like collecting outfits and rewatching cutscenes, this game has a multiplayer mode. I am actually very intimidated by online multiplayer (I still won't play Left 4 Dead with anyone but personal friends), but I want to give this a try! And if I don't like it, James can play it while I play my DS. I also have a game to bring in that should give me about $25 toward this purchase! Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up soon.

The World Ends with You [Part 7] The game isn't over yet!

2009-10-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

It's Day 7 and we beat the game! However, the game isn't over yet. This round only one person gets a chance at returning to the real world and it's Shiki as the player who accumulated the most points throughout the game. I'm guessing she won for getting over her jealousy of Eri. Neku does receive his memories back, since they were what he gave up in order to play the game (Yay! I was right!), but since he chooses to play the game again something else is taken away from him and this time it's Shiki. I guess their friendship progressed more than I though it did! Anyway, Beat won the game as well but decided to join the ranks of the Reapers. What a jerk.

However, when Neku first wakes up none of this is revealed. Instead you're allowed to be confused for a little while until the game decides to let you catch up on the current events.

I'm enjoying this round of the game. Neku's partner is an enigmatic weirdo named Joshua. Apparently when he was living he could see dead people so he knows quite a bit about the game and the Reapers already. I find the way Neku and Joshua don't get along at all pretty amusing. They make snide comments to each other during and after battles and Joshua's attitude toward Neku is constantly condescending while Neku is generally frusterated with Joshua's secrecy. I find these dynamics much more appealing than that between Neku and Shiki, where Neku was aloof and forlorn and Shiki was covering up resentment and jealousy with bubbliness.

This round is very different as well since the Game Master generally neglects to give out missions for the day. Instead, Neku and Joshua are often searching for the Shibuya River in order to find the composer and take over the game. This information took a while to get out of Joshua. Despite enjoying the dynamics of their partnership, Joshua really is a creep. As far as I know, he killed Neku. He also isn't like any other player because his thoughts can be read.

Oh, and Beat is keeping up being a jerk by trying to beat us up every once in a while. Neku was right when he didn't want to befriend him at the beginning of the game. Neku, on the other hand, is beginning to realize how egocentric he has been and that other people's worlds are just as important to them as his world is to him. He should have taken a sociology course, it would have been a far more easier way to learn this lesson! So far I'm on Day 5. Can't wait to see what happens next!

GoNintendo.com

2009-10-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

The kind staff at GoNintendo.com have adopted me and JOT! I am so happy to have a home on the internet. It's better to have a family than to trudge on alone.

I thought it was great when I was approached by Kevin Cassidy; he wanted to feature my Nintendo-related videos on the site. Even though I had never visited GoNintendo before no one else had asked me and it seemed like a alright place to hang out, so I agreed. Plus, I dooo love my NES, SNES, Gamecube, and DS. (The articles on the site have actually made me start regretting selling my Wii... oh well, now I will have an empty nook on my shelf when Wii HD is released!) Most of the readers at GoNintendo really liked my NES Game Genie Guide video and I've even received a few congratulatory emails and requests for topics for upcoming videos! There's nothing like a warm reception to make someone feel welcome in their new home!

I am so excited to have my own profile added to the active staff page that I've been to the page to look at it at least once a day since I've been added! When I first started this blog and making videos it was with the intention of getting noticed and hopefully getting a free ticket to a gaming convention. I've gotten noticed! I hope the latter is soon to follow! Gaming conventions are completely unheard of in these parts, so it's an experience that has so far completely passed me by.

However, I'm experiencing a little guilt for having already been added to the staff page. ScottFalco has been contributing a weekly comic to GoNintendo, Dangerous to Go Alone, since August 9th, 2009 and doesn't have his mugshot and profile up. I think his comics are great, especially this one. It's not really my business, but I can't help my guilty conscience.

Earlier this week I was also surprised by my name starting to appear in bold, pink letters. At first I though it was because they must like me and I'm a girl. It turns out I was made into a feedback moderator. This means I can alter and delete other people's posts on the main page. However, the folks at this site are pretty tame so I don't think I'll have to exercise that power often. I think it's great because now it's way easier to find the feedback I posted on a page!

That's all! I just wanted everyone to know how happy I am to be at GoNintendo.

Uncharted [Part 3]

2009-10-04T06:20:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago, JOT and I had an Uncharted marathon! We sat down and played for about three hours. That may be nothing for others, but for me that is a huge chunk of time to spend playing a game. I couldn't put it down and for once I had nothing better to do! Other than jumping, climbing, and shooting people, during this sit down with the game there were some vehicles to drive around. After finding Elana (Who was taking footage of this hostile territory with complete nonchalance), saving her, and then being knocked out and imprisoned, Elana proves to be resourceful by busting Drake out of prison by pulling a window out with a Jeep! I love resourceful women in video games.

Elana drove the Jeep and Drake used a huge gun and grenades to stave off the endless onslaught of people who want them dead. This part was really fun. I'm pretty sure I succeeded by little more than button mashing, since there was an infinite amount of ammo, but that didn't reduce its fun factor. Basically, I wouldn't be nominated for any award for markmanship, I just shot the gun nonstop in every which direction and threw grenades when enemy vehicles got too close. It was fast paced and frantic; the dudes kept appearing from the back, side, and front while the Jeep drove along cliffsides.

Almost immediately after the fun in the Jeep, it was time for a little Jet Ski action. This was more tough than the excusion in the Jeep and not quite as much fun, but definitely added variety to the game. Drake drove the Jet Ski and Elana shot over his head. The scuffles with the enemy occured more like the rest of the game where they hid behind obstacles and then peeked out to shoot. It was more difficult because Drake and Elana can't cover behind anything because of the bulky Jet Ski, but to make up for it Elana had an awesome and powerful grenade launcher. Unlike the Jeep, you can have fun zooming around on it after ridding the area of bad guys. I got to drive the Jet Ski twice during my Uncharted Marathon!

We stopped playing when we reached an area that we just couldn't get past. Well, we had a plan but just didn't have the skills to execute it. It was at the beginning of a section called "Trapped" which pretty much speaks for itself in terms of describing the scenario. Sometimes you just need to sleep on it.

NES Game Genie Guide

2009-10-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

I was able to get in gear and produce another video in one third of the time it took to make the first! It's all about the NES Game Genie.

I acquired a Game Genie a couple of months ago that wouldn't work, but it inspired me to learn more about how the codes themselves manage to make changes to the game. Unfortunately, how the codes work didn't make for very interesting video content so this video focuses on the uses of the Game Genie, contents of the Game Genie Code Book, and codes that won't be found in the Code Book.

Sadly, Nintendo was not a big fan of the Game Genie. I'm inclined to think that this was because they didn't come up with the idea themselves, considering one of their latest inventions. However, perhaps they didn't like the endless alterations the Game Genie could perform upon their original works. They did have an opportunity to make it an official Nintendo product, but they decided to sue instead. The Game Genie for the Genesis was licensed and even sold as a bundle with the console for a little while.

I did eventually purchase a working Game Genie. While the codes for invincibility and power ups are alright, there are other codes you won't find in the code book that really make this a device worth checking out.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

2009-09-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Today is the release date of the newest entry in the Kingdom Hearts series!

Sadly, I will not be purchasing it until I finish The World Ends with You. I like to tackle my games one at a time. Hopefully I'll be able to power my way through it, but that's not likely. I have a habit of taking months to finish any game.

I am excited for the release of this game because I love the Kingdom Hearts series and the only other Kingdom Hearts release on a handheld was Chain of Memories, which has one of my all time favourite battle systems of all time (although I know I am probably one of the very few who hold it in high regard). However, this new game doesn't focus on Sora, but Roxas. And, to be honest, the first couple of hours of Kingdom Hearts where you play of Roxas were pretty boring for me. Plus, I do feel a certain affinity for Sora's character. Also, I don't think there's been any mention of other Square Enix franshise characters making an appearance in this game, but I've seen the Disney worlds. Some of the Disney world maps have been borrowed from previous games, which I don't mind at all! I'm happy to be able to romp through those worlds on my DS, plus, they ARE the same worlds afterall. It's actually more unrealistic for them to undergo a whole facelift!

Although there are some elements of this game that put me off, I am looking forward to it and will purchase it as soon as I'm done my current game!

The World Ends with You [Part 6]

2009-09-28T17:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to devote enough time to my PS3 lately. It's too bad, but it's because I have to share my tv while I don't have to share my DS with anyone ever. I even have two of them, so sharing isn't even a problem! Anyway, I digress....

Before defeating the final baddie of Day 5, I went back and found out what was in the areas that I didn't get to explore. There wasn't much to talk about. However, after the boss battle there were some interesting developments! I never really put too much effort into guessing why Neku, Shiki, and everyone else was actually in the game. It turns out they're actually dead and competing for another chance at life. I feel pretty dumb. If I had a put a bit of brain power into it, I know I would have figured that out. The moderators of the game are called "Reapers" (Like the Grim Reaper. Ugh, I feel like such a dough brain) and the players are invisible to the rest of the world, kind of like ghosts. I just took it for granted that they were playing some sort of futuristic type of game.

Everyone who enters the game has to give up something they hold most dear as an entrance fee. Shiki gave up her body, and is now inhabiting a body exactly like that of her best friend, Eri, who she always envied. She thought she wanted to be Eri, but it turns out she misses herself and she truly was something she treasured. Neku can't remember anything before the game or even what he gave up as an entrance fee, this makes me think that he gave up his memories. Which makes me sad. Awww... his character must be growing on me.

Today, Day 6, Shiki was in a very taciturn mood and Neku ended up doing a lot of the work. Good for him! He's improving without even realizing it. He's picking up the slack when he was the gloomy one before.

Today the mission was to persuade the city folk of Shibuya to wear pins. There was a man marketing them and Neku and Shiki assisted him first by shadowing him and helping him hand them out to people by implanting ideas in his head and then by wearing the pins while fighting. Apparently when you wear a brand of pin or clothing while battling in an area its popularity rises, even though the people can't see you. It's true subliminal advertising. So, everyone gets pumped about the pins and is excited to see the advertisement for the pins. Yay! We did it! And there wasn't a big baddie to beat at the end of this day. Now there's only one day left... this can't be the end of the game so I can't wait to see what's in store!

The World Ends with You [Part 5]

2009-09-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I haven't been paying enough attention to my PS3 lately, but that's just because I have to share my TV with others. I get a lot more alone time with my DS, which is just one reason why I love my DS. However, since I have two DS's sharing isn't even that big of a deal!

Not much has happened since the last time I reflected on this game. We made it to Towa Towers where our friend Rhyme was hit by a car and erased. This whole time I thought Rhyme was a little boy, but she was a girl. It's strange that I mistakened her for a boy, since males in Japanese art frequently get mistaken for females. Perhaps my long term exposure to effeminate males in Japanese video games has left me assuming most characters are male unless they obviously have boobs. I don't believe she's really dead either though; she's on the front of the game box and she hasn't done enough yet to warrant that type of honour. But, then again, I never truly believe anyone is dead in video games. After beating up a shark we finish the day and wake up in yet another location.

Today another element to the game is introduced called Reaper Creeper, where Shiki and Neku use their invisibility to their advantage by guiding other people's actions. Reaper Creeper is like a Ouiji board NPC's use to help make decisions or find out answers to questions by the movement of a coin on a piece of paper. Neku moves the coin in the direction that corresponds with what he wants characters to think or do. You do this with the stylus and you have to do it slow enough or you'll have to do it again because if the coin moves too fast the NPC will get suspicious that it was rigged in some way. It's not really fun or challenging, but I guess developers are always looking for new ways to implement the stylus in gameplay.

Today the task had to do with solving a fight between two girl. After solving their silly squabble, I had to throw the boss battle because I didn't think the task would be so lame and instead thought I was dabbling in something optional. Because of this there were some paths I had left uneplored and wanted to go back and investigate. I hate when I go the right way first and miss things, but since you can save anytime in this game and I'm a compulsive saver, I don't mind losing a tiny bit of progress and going back. However, now I'm taking a break and will get back to finishing the day at another time.

Bye Bye XBox 360

2009-09-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

I forgot to do a memorial for my XBox 360. I sold it in order to buy a PS3. It was a hard decision to make, but PSN is free and has a couple of games I have wanted to try and couldn't until now (i.e. Flower, Braid, and Fat Princess). Of course, now I can't play these games because my PS3 came with three games that I have to play before I can buy more games guilt-free.

In order to afford the PS3, the XBox 360 just had to go. I promise to get another one in the next couple of years. Also, my sister owns one, so I can always mooch off of her! The XBox sold for $225 CAD, it came with an extra wireless controller, a guitar hero controller, Guitar Hero 2 & 3, Skate 1 & 2, as well as everything that came in the box with the XBox AND the box with the receipt. It was a now obsolete Pro console with 60 GB of harddrive space. It was only a year old. Our library wasn't very extensive, but my sister has almost every game imaginable so I always just borrowed games from her. The man who bought it is going to sell our games in favour of some FPS'.

Alas, good bye dear XBox. You will be missed!

The World Ends with You [Part 4]

2009-09-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

I guess this game and characters have grown on me, because now I refer to Neku, Shiki, and myself as "we." I can't help it, so I'm not going to fight it anymore. From now on, the word "we" will refer to Neku and myself, or Neku, Shiki, and me.

Another day, another task. Today there's not much of one which means that the Reapers probably have something extra horrible in store at the end of the road. All we have to do is go to a tower, so Rhyme and Blues challenge us to a race. At the end of the last day we agreed to work together with this other pair so we could progress through the game at a better pace, but since this task is so easy we split up again.

On the way, we learned about shopping and brand trends. Different brands are popular in different neighbourhoods so if you're wearing the most popular brand of clothing your attack is boosted and if you're wearing the least popular brand your attack is halved. So everytime you go to a new screen you should check what brands you're wearing and what's popular in that neighbourhood to make sure they match up and you're not going to be fighting with a handicap.

We also discovered piggies which will always drop valuable pins when you fight them. They're extremely easy but they're also cute, so I always feel guilty for beating them up. This something else that the dude told us and Neku completely forgot about.

So far this day has been a breeze, but it's fun to battle without worries of a time restraint.

Another time for thanks!

2009-09-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Master0fHyrule submitted my video on how to make NES games work to Digg and since he has already made tons of awesome videos himself other people watched it, liked it, dugg it, embedded it to their sites, and all sort of other cool things. All I did was make a video, other talented people promoted it for me! So, thanks to this cool dude and everyone else.

JOT and I are working on another video at this very moment. However, production is at a standstill until we receive a crucial prop in the mail!

Video Game Innovation Day

2009-09-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

Five days ago Massachusetts celebrated Video Game Innovation Day. I'm sad to have missed it by almost a whole week as I see this as an accomplishment for the gaming community. A whole American state recognized the industry as something worth celebrating. As a Canadian it's been hard to watch my American neighbours deal with the likes of Jack Thompson, who is vocal against video games to the point that it's simply ridiculous. Not to mention politicians who target video games in their rhetoric, like Hilary Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thankfully, Canadian politicians seem to view video games as a non-issue, but it's great to finally have a government speak positively about them.

Here's the declaration in fancy words and letters on the state's official blog:
http://innovation.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2009/09/video-game-innovation-day-.html

The World Ends with You [Part 3]

2009-09-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten about gaining PP during the time the DS is off, so I was surprised to be greeted with a progress report on my pins. It's cool to be rewarded by not playing. Imagine if level grinding in a Final Fantasy game consisted of turning off your console for a couple of days. Everyone would get to level 99! Of course, in this game the characters don't level up, just the pins. Some of the pins evolve, I wonder if that happens naturally as they level up or if you actually have to use them in battle.

I guess one of the major plot devices of this game is going to be Neku's horrendous lack of any memory. He can't remember anything before the game, which explains his confusion at the very beginning, and he also seems to have a problem retaining new memories unless prompted. The game didn't actually state this, but recent events in the game have just made it seem thus.

After "killing" Shiki, Neku wakes up alone in a dark room and exhibits some remorse for his actions before running into Shiki, who isn't dead and also in the dark room. His attempt to kill Shiki was interrupted by a dude that exposed the Reaper as a liar who was using Neku and Shiki for entertainment. Shiki continues to work with Neku because he apologized and Shiki explains that she's been looking at her phone a lot because she misses a friend whose photograph is her background image. But... she is obviously still hiding something...!

Now we're onto another day with another load of tasks to perform which include getting some lights to turn on. Well, that's the only task, but it takes quite a while because the technician is possessed by noise AND a bad memory (am I sensing a theme??).

Some new battle elements are introduced on this day, which made the battle system about 100% more fun! Shiki's screen now has three cards face down and each of them is either a circle, plus sign, or three squiggles. These seemed to be based on the Zener cards which were used for experiments on psychic powers (this is definitely another theme). When attacking with Shiki you use the directional pad and can choose one of three paths indicated on the screen, each ending in a different Zener card. If the Zener card chosen corresponds with the first of the face down cards, it gets flipped over and if not, its position will be indicated so that you can remember and use this for future reference. Repeat this attack pattern with Shiki until all of the cards are face up and then you can perform a fusion attack with Neku. BUT! The ferocity of the fusion attack is determined by your sync rate, which means you have to pass the green blob between Neku and Shiki so you'll have to alternate between screens, passing the blob back and forth while attacking with the stylus and psychs with Neku and attacking with the directional pad and remembering the order of the cards with Shiki. This new type of battling challenge is very fun, and since it's been introduced I've had to drag myself away from battles and back to accomplishing the story elements.

Oh, and all of this is learned by Shiki reminding Neku of the conversation they had with the dude (I CANNOT remember his name...) who stopped Neku from killing Shiki. A conversation Neku completely forgot about.

This day was full of tons of new information. Neku and SHiki can eat food in order to gain boosts in different stats, but they can only eat a certain amount of "bytes" within a 24 hour interval in real time. So, if you want to boost stats that way, you have to take breaks while playing. You can buy clothes for them to wear that also boost stats, but in order to find out what the clothing does you have to gain a rapport with the sales clerk who will give you more information as you buy more clothing. You can also take key words and imprint them on other people's minds in order to make them think about it and move them in a direction you want them to, the other players Rhyme and Blues tell you about this. It's kind of weird that they know more about the game than Neku and Shiki do...

Well, another day is done after killing a bat. Strange thing is that we had 360 minutes to finish this level and it took me nowhere near that long to do so, but after defeating the bat we only had 13 seconds left, or something outrageously little like that. So, I'm not sure if the timer actually goes on throughout the level or just adjusts to whenever you beat it in order to stick with the story. You can't view the timer counting down during gameplay or anything, so I'm being nudged into believing the latter, but I couldn't wait around 6 hours to find out if the timer would run out or not...

That was a long one, but that's it for today!

Thank You ScrewAttack!!

2009-09-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

My video received G1 Submission of the week at ScrewAttack! This is my favourite video game-based website so it's a great honour to be given the top of the front page for the day! I submitted it weeks ago, so it was completely unexpected. I found out when I checked my email like any regular Sunday morning and was greeted by 50+ notifications from YouTube. So many subscribers! I knew right away that publicity at ScrewAttack was the only reason for such an outburst of support. Now I really feel the pressure to put out more quality videos! We've been working on one about the Game Genie for a little while now.

JOT is my accomplice and he's a very talented musician, so check out his blog here: http://jot902.blogspot.com/. He's made music for AVGN, Life in a Game, and JewWario!

Uncharted [Part 2]

2009-09-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

We played more Uncharted this weekend! I've heard XBox 360 fanboys pass this game off as a Tomb Raider clone and maybe it is (I've never played Tomb Raider before), but I liken it to playing as Indiana Jones with amazing acrobatic abilities. There's already been Nazis in the game! Basically, Drake climbs like a monkey, blows things up, and shoots people. Fun! Drake and his friend Sullivan find their way into a temple where they expected to discover the legendary treasure of El Dorado. Instead they find nothing because that the treasure was taken by the Spanish centuries ago. Then, impossibly enough, they also find a deserted Nazi U-Boat in the middle of the jungle which contains a map to where the Spanish presumably took the treasure.

Meanwhile, some dudes that Sullivan owes money to come, kill him, and continue to chase Drake. Poor Sully, I hope he isn't really dead. Not actually dying is a plot device used in video games just as often as, or perhaps even more than it's used in soap operas. I was knocked a little off balance by his death and how little attention was paid to it. I wasn't even attached to Sullivan's character or anything, I just didn't expect someone to be shot and left lying on the ground after I just helped him make his way through an ancient temple. He had Sir Francis Drake's diary in his pocket too (Just like Indiana Jones! Remember Indy had his father's diary in the Last Crusade?). This last detail and the fact that Drake doesn't care about his death is leading me to assume that he's still alive, Drake is going to need that diary! Of course, the enemy easily could have removed it from his dead body and then Drake can just steal it back. Whatever... we'll find out.

While running for his life, Drake stumbles upon Elana once again and she's pissed. No time for drama though, they have to run! They make their way through the temple in the opposite direction Sully and Drake ventured through it. This time Drake gets to shoot people as he goes along. He can take cover behind barriers to minimize damage, but I still suck at aiming so I tend to take a lot of bullets. I don't play many action games, generally just RPGs and puzzle games, so this has been a real test for me!

Drake and Elana get away in an airplane somehow, but then they're shot down by some anti aircraft weaponry and take off in parachutes! Now they're separated in the jungle!! To be continued!!!

The World Ends with You [Part 2]

2009-09-09T05:56:00.000-07:00

I only played this game for another couple of minutes since the last time, but I discovered something strange so I thought I'd take note of it.

Neku finished day two of the game, he only had to clean then beat up a rabid dog statue and kill his newly acquired aquaintance, Shiki. Neku killed her in order to be released from the game and was egged on by a Reaper who claimed Shiki was a spy for the Reapers. I'm sure Shiki be back and the Reaper was lying. I'm not worried. This whole Reaper business does remind me of the Organization XIII from Kingdom Hearts though... maybe it's just the dark clothes and the whole air of authority they exude.

I feel like I'm starting to get more of a hang of the battle system, although I perform better when I focus more of my attention on Neku's screen rather than Shiki's screen. This isn't something unique about my experience, Shiki will go into auto-play if you don't play for her. So far I have yet to obtain any sort of combo from passing around the green blob. Obviously I'm in need a tons of improvement.

The strange discovery of the day has to do with the pins. They run out of PP (Pin Points?) and the only way to recharge them is to turn the game off. In addition to this, the longer you leave the game off the more PP they gain, up to seven days. I find it oddly interesting that a game encourages players to take breaks like this. I haven't played in a couple of days now, haha! That's just a coincidence though, I have loads of other commitments to take care of so I haven't had enough time to play.

InFamous/Uncharted

2009-09-06T06:03:00.000-07:00

I just bought a PS3 and an HDTV. Hurray! However, I still need the HDMI cables in order to get the full HD experience. No biggie, I got a great deal and I will get a greater deal on the HDMI cables if I purchase them online rather than in store. I know the slim PS3 was just released and it's really cute (I know I wanted one), but I ended up getting a fatty because it came with a bigger harddrive and three games (InFamous, Uncharted, and Kill Zone 2) for just $100 more. I was sold. The HDTV that was purchased is a little lower quality than others would allow in their home, but I'm satisfied with it. It is an Insigia, which is a brand I've never heard of, but it was 1080p for $499. I'm happy with it so far. However, it's hard to tell without the HDMI cables and there's no cable hooked up to it, so I don't know what it looks like when just watching tv channels. All of the plastic has been left on it just in case!

InFamous was the first game I popped in the system. I was a little hesitant to play this game because I have a tendancy to become very scared and unable to play a game if it is too frightening. I couldn't finish Resident Evil 4 or Half Life 2 because of this impediment. But, so far so good! It's fun to run around shocking things with my electric arm and pushing things with my electrified mind. So far I've freed food for the citizens of the quarantined Empire City, I tried to escape the city with a bunch a rioters, and then I came back into the city by playing acrobat on pipes and other hanging objects. Now I'm doing little missions for this weirdo secret service lady who wants me to find some man. I've really enjoyed the game so far, the controls are easy to get the hang of and I have yet to be confused once! It's nice that everyone who attacks me on the street is wearing bright red clothing. Plus, climbing walls and then jumping off the building with a giant electrified explosion of a landing is endlessly amusing. The story has yet to really take off, so I'm more interested in destroying things then paying attention to the dialogue and cut scenes.

Next my boyfriend and I sat down and played Uncharted together. It's been a game we've been looking forward to playing for a while, we just pass the controller back and forth. For some reason I'm not as good at this game as I am at InFamous even though the controls are very similar. This game is a lot more like an interactive movie, Drake and his friend Sullivan are on their way to find the treasure of El Dorado after ditching a reporter chick who helped them retrieve the coffin of Sir Francis Drake which only contained his diary and fought off pirates with them. And that's all that's happened so far! Not as exciting as InFamous, but I haven't played as much. However, I am more fond of the tropical setting with all the bright colours, it's a lot less dystopic and friendly. No doubt that's why this game has come bundled with the PS3 for a while. And to be honest, when I purchased my PS3 Uncharted was in the box with the PS3 while InFamous and Kill Zone 2 were vacuum wrapped together and taped to the front of the box, so it's like they were tacked onto the bundle for an extra bargain.

So far I am in love with my PS3. I hope it keeps delivering sweet goodness.

The World Ends with You [Part 1] Starting Out

2009-09-05T09:17:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week I received my new DS game in the mail: The World Ends with You. I was very excited to play this game because it seems to have been received well universally (review). I spent a small portion of the night thereafter playing it, so I'm still in the beginnings of the game. So far it's a great deal confusing, but a lot of fun. The main character is Neku who has been thrown into a real life "game" where he has to complete tasks in order to avoid being erased. Neku battles with different pins provided by the game that allow him to perform psychs, which are magical attacks that include throwing objects on the field, firing lighting bolts, bullets, flames, and performing other nifty tricks using the stylus on the bottom screen. Meanwhile, a teammate named Shiki fights using the directional pad on the top screen. They bounce a green blob back and forth as they perform in battle, it's meant to build up combos but I suck at it so far. I still have bad coordination during the battles and feel a bit frantic while fighting, but that's better than being bored with it already so a good challenge is welcome.

Neku is an annoying type of person who is abrasive, rude, and thinks he is just fine and dandy by his lonesome. He has no idea that he has been thrust into a game, he just thought he was having a weird morning. After a few encounters with ravenous frogs, later identified as Noise, he meets Shiki who demands he make a pact with her in order to defeat the Noise. This pact allies them together, unbeknownst to Neku who is annoyed by Shiki's insistence that she follow him around town. I'm not a particular fan of either of the characters at this point, but I feel more allegiance to the bubbly Shiki because Neku is just so mean to her. Of course, he thinks she's crazy because he refuses to believe that he is now in a game, which I can admit is pretty far fetched. However, he was just attacked by frogs and attacked them back with flames, so I think her explanation deserves some attention.

The two complete the first task which ends the first day and the second day immediately follows. They find themselves in a new location and having to assume that they slept. In this area there are even more mundane tasks to be done in order to progress through the game. Neku and Shiki also meet some other kids who are playing the game and Neku manages to make a complete ass of himself after they share some valuable information.

I'm not very far in the game, but I'm enjoying the gameplay thus far despite my annoyance with the main character who will no doubt grow throughout the course of the game, learn that friendship actually is important, and start to feel companionship toward others in the game. Perhaps his character growth will be charming.

I forgot to mention that each day has a timer and the game takes place over the course of seven days. I have yet to discover if anything adverse happens when the timer ticks its final second, but I'll find out, no doubt!

Final Fantasy IV [Part 13] The End!

2009-08-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

I did it! I beat the game! Cecil, Rosa, and Rydia were at level 99, Edge at 98, and Kain at 97. Unfortunately, I overestimated Zemus' (or I guess I should say Zeromus') might. Since he beat me on my first attempt at destroying him, I was a little freaked out and thought he was amazingly strong and difficult. Apparently, I just sucked. On this second attempt to defeat him he was only able to attack my party once with Black Hole, an attack that deals no damage except to remove status augments. So, the battle wasn't very epic, but at least I beat the game! At level 99!

I did research on getting max stats AFTER getting three of my characters to level 99 (I guess it was rather newbish of me to assume that level 99 magically maxed your stats) and it turns out that I would have to play the game a couple of times through while applying different augments to each character each play through... boring! There are also two secret super bosses available on the third play through. I might get around to that in a couple of years...

My play through Final Fantasy IV is officially over. I need a new game...

Final Fantasy IV [Part 12] Level 99!

2009-08-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

We did it! Cecil made it to level 99! Just to refresh, I started out this weekend with these stats:

Cecil 95
Edge 93
Kain 91
Rosa 94
Rydia 94

It only took an hour and a half of fighting monsters to reach these levels:

Cecil 99
Edge 97
Kain 96
Rosa 98
Rydia 98

I anticipate that I will be able to get the other four, or at least three of them, up to level 99 on the trip down to beat Zemus. It's a good thing he's willing to wait around for us to get stronger like this, I'm sure I would have just taken over the world by now.

I am a little disappointed that nothing special happened when Cecil reached level 99. There were no flashing lights or sparkles or even a fun sound effect. Cecil didn't even get 9999 hit points or anything! I expected at least a little bit of a pat on the back...

How to Make NES Games Work

2009-08-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

I finally finished this video my boyfriend and I have been working on for a large chunk of the summer. Of course, like all things I do, it progressed at an extremely slow rate. This technique was wisdom passed onto me from my older brother and it's something I've try to pass onto others whenever the opportunity arises. It's a great party trick too. The actual explanation of the technique was inspired by the safety instruction videos shown during airline flights; meanwhile, the rest of the video is done in one of my favourite formats being adopted by internet personalities where the audience gets to view relevent images rather than someone's ugly mug for the duration of the video. You can watch it on Youtube in HQ if you so desire. Enjoy!

Angry Video Game Nerd...

2009-08-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

... used my boyfriend's cover of his theme song in his most recent episode, Super Pitfall. This was actually recorded a while ago and he finally got the guts to submit it. It's pretty cool to think of how many people have heard the notes he played and that James Rolfe liked it enough to use it, it's just too bad that his website wasn't included in the credits.

Listen to the song and watch the episode here:

Video Games | ScrewAttack | Angry Video Game Nerd: Super Pitfall!

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I noticed that he used the same footage a couple of times, but maybe he always does that and I've never noticed until now. Anyway, lots of love for the AVGN, the best retro video game critic on the net!

Bye Bye N64

2009-08-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I sold my N64, 4 controllers, 9 games, a gameshark, and 2 rumble packs for $45. I'm a little jealous. Someone got a great deal. At one point I had all of the Nintendo home consoles as part of my collection, but since I sold my Wii a couple of months ago I've been re-evaluating what I have and why. So, of course, I got them all prettied up and took their portraits in front of a pleasant organic background.

I have three NES's. I can't get rid of them. They're too old, fragile, and dear to me. It's like selling your grandparents! (Plus, what would I do with the plethora of NES cartridges littering my apartment?)

The SNES was the console that got me into gaming. Well, technically the emulator I downloaded on my PC when I was in junior high got me into gaming with the little known classic Chrono Trigger ;). It feels great to have the console and play the games legitimately without the ability to save your state at any moment, which I inevitably and shamefully end up taking advantage of. Even though I only have four cartridges, I'm working on that! I do have Super Mario RPG though, one of the best turn-based RPGs of all time. It's among peers in that category because the SNES holds so many classic RPG gems. It's my wish to acquire all of them and play them on the real thing. (However, the likelihood of that happening is basically nil.)

My stepbrother had an N64 and I played it whenever I visited my father. That is, until my siblings and I were forbidden to enter his room and therefore forbidden to play the N64. Maybe I hold a grudge against this system because of the bitter feelings resulting from my injunction, but it's never sparked any type of feeling from me other than indifference. The graphics aren't charming and I only enjoy a handful of games. I only bought this N64 to complete my former Nintendo home console collection. See those games? I only ever played two of them, and only once! Sorry to those who love this console, it sucks when someone doesn't love what you do. Alas , the N64 was eliminated!

I love my gamecube. However, it's a little hypocritical of me to love it because I haven't played many games for the console. But, every game I've played I have loved. Double Dash is my favourite Mario Kart game, Custom Robo is an awesome game where you build robots and then battle with them, Baten Kaidos is a fun card-based RPG, annnd... I have just about exhausted my resources already. The only other games I have are a collection of Konami classics, a collection of Intellivision games, and a Harvest Moon game, all of which have gotten plenty of play time. Maybe it's the shape, maybe that's why the companion cube was so amicable, but I love my Gamecube.

I sold my Wii because I didn't use it anymore and since they're so easy to sell I got rid of it. Wii HD is coming soon, I'll get one of those if I have to :)

So, those were all of my Nintendo home consoles of my formerly great collection. I hope my N64 is receiving a lot more love in its new home than it received in my care. Good bye little fellow.

Final Fantasy IV [Part 11] Still More Leveling Up!

2009-08-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

On my vacation last week something completely unexpected happened. Instead of sitting in the backseat of the car for the entire duration of the trip, I drove a great deal of the way. This was wholly unprecedented because I grew up with a hysterical mother who never allowed me to drive on the highway in any circumstances. So instead of many hours of wallowing in squished boredom in the backseat, I was provided with a very engaging driving experience. The downside to this was that I didn't get as much of an opportunity to pick up my DS. Over the last couple of weeks I have put in approximately only 3 hours of grinding time, but my party is progressing very nicely.

Here are the stats I started out with:

Cecil 85
Edge 83
Kain 82
Rosa 85
Rydia 85

And three hours later the little guys looked like this:

Cecil 95
Edge 93
Kain 91
Rosa 94
Rydia 94

So everyone is a good 9-10 levels higher now, and Cecil only has 4 more levels to go! Hopefully I'll find time before the end of the month to get at least Cecil to level 99! It would be cool to get Rosa and Rydia there too, and perhaps Edge. I don't know if Kain will get there, he seems to die every once in a while and miss the EXP. The official reason for this is that he's up in the air so much that he misses out on regenerative spells, but I think that I subconsiously don't care about him as much because of his weak mind. The game still hasn't explained why Zemus was able to control Golbez and Kain but not Cecil. So, I can't help but still feel some animosity toward this flip flopping party member.

Anyway, I'm pleased with the progress so far! I won't have a job next month so I guess I'll have more time to devote to my silly hobbies. I'm looking forward to that. :)

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

2009-08-04T08:32:00.000-07:00

I bought myself The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition off of Steam in order to celebrate almost beating FFIV! This game was actually very significant to my childhood. Before I even touched an RPG, I was an avid fan of point and click adventures. The two I remember playing most vividly as a child are The Secret of Monkey Island and Myst. I was too young for these games when I originally played them, between the ages 7 and 10, so although I beat them it was because I watched my mother or brother play and would then copy their actions in my own game. Cheap, I know, that's the type of kid I was. I was winning no matter what! I purchased Myst for the DS last year and completed it on my own, I was so proud of myself. The port was glitchy and a couple of times I had to restart a puzzle because the game started doing something weird, but it was playable for a patient person. This new version of The Secret of Monkey Island looks so much more promising. One of my favourite features is that you can toggle between the old graphics and new and updated ones:

When I first started up the game I was a little disappointed that the graphics were updated, but I had forgotten how truly outdated the old ones were. I toggle between them a bit, but for the most part I use the updated graphics. They're more asthetically pleasing and really set the Carribean mood. The updated music is really charming as well.

That's all I'm going to say about it for now. I think I'm going to try my hand at a review. I'll save my thoughts for that :)

Final Fantasy IV [Part 10] Towards the Final Battle

2009-08-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

Finally we arrived at the Crystal Palace after plowing impatiently through the lunar caves. Inside we freshened up and proceeded toward the gate to the bowels of the moon. On the way we received Fusoya's Bless Augment. I belated realized that I hadn't bothered to give Fusoya any augments and took a minute to check what other goodies he would have left behind if I had. It turns out that there are two amazing Augments that I missed out on, and I'm too depressed about it to say what they are.

Anyway, I was pretty upset to learn that the enemies in this dungeon were the same that gave me so much trouble in the Lair of the Father. This time I just had Rydia cast Stop on them so the men of the party could pummel the helpless creatures while Rosa revamped our HP and MP. A lot of the treasure boxes had monsters inside, but the rewards were always worth it. When in this dungeon, make sure to poke around at the walls as much as you can, there is immeasurable wealth hidden in secret passages and invisible bridges in this final dungeon. I don't want to give anything away since the final stretch of the game is the most adrenaline inducing and finding things for yourself and beating the baddies is such a joy (for me at least). Only two battles gave me any trouble in this dungeon and those were with Dark Bahamut and the Lunasaur, both of which are avoidable if you're impatient to beat the damn game.

With all of our ultimate weapons we set off to finally defeat Zemus! Only, we couldn't... three of my two characters were over level 80, so I don't understand why. He was just plain tough. I was a little upset because it had been awhile since I saved my game and I left it alone for two whole days before picking it up again. In the meantime I decided to do something I have never done in an RPG before. Get at least one character to level 99!! A couple of them are already so close, I'm sure I can do it. Especially since a have two six hour drives coming up this week.

The grinding started today. Basically, I just covered the ground that I lost the day my party got killed so that when the time to kill the big baddie came I would just have to walk there. Then, I went back to save my game.

Today at 11:00AM my party looked like this:

Cecil 82
Edge 78
Kain 77
Rosa 81
Rydia 81

And by 12:30PM they looked like this:

Cecil 85
Edge 83
Kain 82
Rosa 85
Rydia 85

Oh, and I finally got around to using Whyt in a battle. What a waste of time that was! He used recall twice and couldn't recall anything, then he attacked the enemy and gave him 2000+ HP back. Haha.

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