Prince David's Game Blog

Wishlist for Genesis Shmups

2011-10-21T12:19:00.000-05:00

Truxton- Looks great and has great sounds

Raiden Trad is looking good on there. Love blowing things up on the ground too.

Thunder Force 2- I have thunder force 3 and would love to collect them all.

Twin Cobra- Awesome music.

Sly Cooper Collection

2011-09-27T22:29:00.000-05:00

Wow it's been almost a year since I posted last? Geeze what's happened since then. Had a great Yule, completed dragon quest IX, attended the world premier launch event for Pokemon Black at Nintendo World in New York City, started on Dragon Quest V, completed Chrono Trigger (what an amazing experience), completed Portal 2... oh yeah and moved into a new house with a brand new room dedicated to gaming. So much has happened and more will be said later, but now back to Sly Cooper.

I am currently working on the first game, 53% complete so far. this game is a real challenge, one hit and you're dead kind of game, then do it all over again. But still it's so much fun! Going up against some Kung Fu monkeys in the mountains now. Now doing a hover-craft level on a snow-mobile. I love this tyupe of level, it is like a classic shoot-em-up where you have unlimited amm]o and just blast everything. Monkeys launching other monkeys in snowballs and monkeys coming out from pieces of wood.
Next going to try "A Desperate Race". Beat it on the second try, was a lot of fun!

Super Mario Galaxy 2: I'm a cloud

2010-11-09T19:54:00.001-06:00

I am now playing Mario Galaxy 2 for the first time in forever. I just got the cloud suit and it is amazing! A truly powerful power-up. You shake the controller and a cloud comes to your feet! It was quite a different experience, I really love this cloud suit. Now onto the first Bowser castle! Beat the boss on this one on the second try by beatiing up the dragon's fat belly. Now I have my first huge star. That is going to be it for now. A new world has opened up but it will wait.

Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection

2010-11-06T18:11:00.000-05:00

Just messing around on Sonic's Genesis collection right now. Just got a gold trophy for using magic 10 times in Golden axe 3 (easy!). Pretty interesting game , very old arcade style. Just Ninja'ed my way through the first stage of Shinobi three. Got the silver trophy from that. Just got through the first level of altered beast, turning into a werewolf to get another trophy. Just got through a bit of Alien Syndrome without dying. In beyond oasis, i met with the spirt of the water elemental.

3D Dot Game Heroes

2010-11-06T16:10:00.000-05:00

OK well I tried to start this day by playing some more Demon's Souls. However after dying quickly to the Flame Lurker in the cave 2-2, I decided for a change. Revisiting another game from the same developer, 3D Dot Game Heroes. After abandoning this game for months, I finally beat the Queen Bee to start with. After being used to a crazy game like Demon's Souls, this was a relief. I got to the desert area. I am not sure, just don't really feel like this game right now.

Game 11 & 12: Dragon Quest IV & Costume Quest complete

2010-11-05T22:36:00.002-05:00

It's been a while. Way too long in fact but I will try and do a quick update here. I have beat Dragon Quest IV on the DS. I thoroughly enjoyed this game, feeling a great accomplishment finishing it. Princess and I have also been working on Demon's Souls. She completed it recently. This game is quite the challenge and it is a lot of fun although there are plenty of bugs and quirks that made it quite annoying as well. I am currently working on trying to complete Costume Quest, a Halloween downloadable game on the PS3. We will see how I do with that.

Edit: Just beat costume quest. My first 100% complete game on the PS3 with trophies.

Game 10 Complete Plus more

2010-08-21T20:04:00.000-05:00

Plants vs Zombies for the iPhone has been completed! An excellent addicting game I could not get enough of! It is hard to put my love for this games into words but I must recommend it to all of you! Princess and I had a great time playing it as well on our vacation, helping the time pass and fun & laughs along the way. A great little strategy game that keeps it interesting and keeps you playing even after you beat the main story.

Now I am onto Mario Galaxy 2, I have 5 stars so far. I recently did a fun level with Yoshi where we would eat spiny shells and spit them out at Latikus (talk about triggering!). Now I am off to the Spin Dig galaxy for star 6, Digga-Leg's planet.It looks like this level introduces a new suit, the drill suit, so let's see how it is. I really enjoy this mechanic. You spin to drill to the other side of a planet. So far it is a lot of fun. The boss was a pretty tough challenge as he shot out enemies I was not expecting but still not too tough of a challenge for my 6th star.

I also got a comet medal in the last stage that opens up a new galaxy to explore, however I am going to return to the Spin Dig galaxy. Now for Star 7, Silver Stars down deep. Wow this is a great one. A 2=D kind of level based on the angel you are using your spin drill on. Reminds me a lot of the Mario 2 levels in the desert where you dig through sand. It was fun drilling to combine the five silver stars into one yellow star. Well time for dinner I might do some more later.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: Meeting Yoshi

2010-07-25T20:03:00.001-05:00

I am off on Mario Galaxy 2 again. I just met Yoshi and got my first star with him. It was a lot of fun, the mechanics with him feel so easy and natural, beyond what I could have imagined. I was using that tongue to fling myself all over the place! I look forward to doing more. So now I have 2 stars, I went back to the first stage and I am working on another star now. I took a short diversion to register a lot of my nintendo games. I was supposed to get a free nintendo tote bag, but when I went to change my address the offer went away. I wan tto email them about it. Well back to the game, I got my first invincibility star and it was pretty empowering. Just got my 3rd star by beating up a big ugly pirannah dressed in black.

Now onto the Flip Swap galaxy. What an interesting game mechanic. The stage blocks swap when you spin your wiimote. This is oging to be a lot of fun. Wow this was a really tough one, towards the end you have to coordinate swapping the platforms with the falling and rolling chomps. Took me quite a few tries but I did it. Well that is 4 stars for now, going to give it a rest and maybe do some World of Warcraft

Super Mario Galaxy 2 : First Impressions + Birthday update

2010-07-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

My birthday has come and gone and with it, a new year of my life begins. On my birthday I was given an awesome World of Warcraft mage t-shirt, and I also received Dragon Quest V and IX for the Nintendo DS, as well as placed orders for WOW: Burning Crusade Collectors Edition. I have received one so far, which is signed by developers on the team and I have another sealed copy on the way. Dragon Quest IX is a really fantastic game so far and I love it!

On a side note I also received a ton of Nintendo Power magazines recently. Many from my childhood including some very rare ones. I am sitting around them as we speak.

Tonight, however, I finally opened my sealed copy of Super Mario Galaxy 2, which has been awaiting me for quite some time. I am in the midsts of the intro right now. Of course the princess is captured by King Koopa yet again. I love how the beginning of the game was presented in a 2-D format. Time for my to start my first star at Sky Station Galaxy, Pee Wee Piranha's Temper Tantrum. Wow the beginning of this game feels so relaxed and awesome. Definite improvement in the graphics, the music sounds completely epic and beautiful... I am so very impressed! I can just listen to this song over and over again.

What is this? Yoshi is here! I am at his house in the vey beginning. I know we are off to a good start now. Growing up, I had a Genesis and not an SNES. I always loved Yoshi and wanted Mario World, so Yoshi seemed always so unattainable. I did have a fun puzzle game on the NES called Yoshi but it was not the same, and I had the longing all my life. If I went to a friend's house to play Super Mario World, forget it, I was hooked!

Well so far this game is very enjoyable. I always loved Mario Galaxy... and I am enjoying my blogging of it as well. I did not think I had the energy to do this as I have been sick and tired all weekend. (as I say this Mario yawns and falls asleep) But now I am off to find Bowser and Yoshi of course. I have been trying to collectall the coins I can so far and its a lot of fun, I am taking my time to enjoy this game and savor it. I am about to encounter the first boss now, so here it goes. Well the first baby Pirannah boss was pretty simple but still more difficult then the first boss in the first Galaxy game. That is my first star so far! Oh and it looks like the game is svaing my coins, very good!\

Well looks like we are on a spacheship in the shape of Mario's face. It is not as grand as the starship in the first Galaxy and I do not see any Rosalina here, but it still has its own unique feel that I like. I am heading back now to storm the Sky Fleet for my second star.I feel too tired though I am going to call it a night for now.

Games 8 and 9 complete

2010-07-12T12:02:00.000-05:00

Game 8- World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King- OK so this game is never really over but I did get my mage to level 80 and I have been putting in a massive amount of time in this game. My interest in other games is pretty low, as this game is beyond just a game to me, it is a world and story just looking to be created and added to. This game has taught me that nothing is impossible and the only limitations are those of your mind.

Game 9- Pokemon Soul Silver - I beat this game while visiting my parents house for a few days. Pokemon is always classic fun, although I found the leveling grind to be a bit boring at times. Still I plan to return to it sometime and explore the rest of the game after the Pokemon League.

Next up: My birthday is coming up tomorrow, which I am pretty excited about. I will not play too many games, but I may return to Dragon Warrior IV on DS or even pick up the new Dragon Warrior IX (I know they are called Dragon Quest now but from my childhood I will always remember it as Dragon Warrior). I have a sealed copy of Mario Galaxy 2 waiting to be played when I am in the mood in the future. I am also getting a copy of Starcraft 2 when it comes out. I probably won't play it right away, maybe I will bring it to my parents house next time I visit since my dad likes Real Time Strategy games.

Updates- Game 7 complete, Plants vs Zombies and Resident Evil 4

2010-04-26T10:46:00.000-05:00

Time for some updates since it has been so long. A few weeks ago, Princess and I dedicated ourselves to completing Resident Evil 4 for the Wii. The gameplay was absolutely fantastic, the environment and story were especially creepy, and the visuals were amazing. Some of the dialog in the game was pretty poor and often, the emotions in the characters were just not there. Still, it was a great gaming experience that I will remember for a long time. So that makes it 7 games completed for the year.

1. New Super Mario Bros Wii
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
3. Super Mario Galaxy
4. Mario Kart Wii
5. Mega Man 10
6. fl0w
7. Resident Evil 4

I have also been playing a lot of Plants vs Zombies lately. I first started with it on my iPhone while on a business trip. The game starts off innocently enough but before you know it, you are planting plants constantly, choosing various plants to join you in your defense of your yard from zombies! The game has a great visual style, amazing music and a real likeable feel. The gameplay can also get really intense!

Also in other gaming news in my life, I have recieved a copy of Pokemon SoulSilver with a Pokewalker. My favorite part really is walking around with my Pokemon on the Pokewalker. This device keeps track of your daily steps. You earn experience for your pokemon, find items, and find different pokemon depending on the path you take.
I also have been playing a pretty good deal of Wii Fit. I need to keep a more steady daily pattern of it however.

And besides that, I just got my brand new gaming PC from Cyberpower! more on that to come.

Day 26-27: Mario Kart Wii, Dungeons & Dragons Online and Dragon Quest IV

2010-03-28T15:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I just did a bit of leveling in DQIV to get everyone the best armor they can use. I also tested out Dungeons & Dragons Online. I didn't really like it, especially that chat messages would not appear above my head. We did however purchase some actual D&D books, and I look forward to getting into it in the near future. The books are powerful and heavy, something that I will have to completely delve myself into. We also played a lot of Mario Kart Wii over the past few days. We now have double stars on all cups and even some triple star rankings on some grand prix races.

Day 25: Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-26T15:14:00.000-05:00

I was really exhausted last night but I did play a coule of fights with Sazh and Vanille. The paradigm shift system is taking getting used to , I ended up dying in one battle. I prefer having Lightning in my party since she is a powerful melee character. I don't like having a couple of casters.

Day 24: Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-24T22:49:00.000-05:00

I am delving once more into Final Fantasy XIII. A little bit everyday helps to elevate my spirit. Jumping into Chapter 4: Nothing but Grief. I am now controlling Lightning and Hope as we explore these wastelands. These are scraps from when the falcie took over Pulse. There are some tough fights now with all new paradigms to explore. Hope can be a supportive character as a healer or someone who buffs you as well as a caster. Now I am seeing how Sazh and Lightning met. Lightning volunteered to get on the Purge train in the very beginning.

Now back to Sazh and Vanille. I am really tired today so I may stop for now and play a little Dragon Quest IV.

Day 23: Dragon Quest IV Chapter 1 end

2010-03-24T01:07:00.002-05:00

Well I just went back into Dragon Quest IV to complete the first chapter. I rescued the children from the tower, and learned that they are concerned about a young hero in great danger. The hero that is to save the world. Ragnar returns to the castle to speak to the king, who rewards him with many levels and is now granted leave to go out and seek this young hero.

Now onto chapter 2. You start off as a tough princess who keeps breaking out of the castle. She breaks out again in search of adventure, and her priestly friend and wizardly elder follow her. I am just starting this part so I am leveling up. Everyone has a Russian kind of accent in this chapter. I ended up completing the first town, "sacrificing" myself with my part to a monster, who once I powered up, wasn't too difficult. The game starts out tough but with just a bit of leveling, you will have enough money for decent equipment to advance. Nowhere near as hard as the old NES versions of the game.

Day 23: Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-23T23:28:00.000-05:00

It's been 4 days? Really? Well I did play a little Mario Kart here and there over the last few days, but now I am back onto Final Fantasy 13. Life has been busy, but it is nice now to take time and return to this magical world. I am back into a magical mystical temple's entrance. One feature I like in this game is it returns you to a fight if you get gameover, unlike most RPGs where you have to go back to your last save. Well after a tough fight, we ended up finding a ship to fly in. Now we are shifting back to Snow's story.

Amazing... He just sumoned two beings out of nowhere.. Or... was it him? There are some new charaters showing up. I am now going to learn about an Eidolon battle. Defeat them in combat and their power will be yours. This is a fight about proving your worth to these celestial beings. Amazing. After proving myself as a defensive tank, the Shiva sisters transformed into a motorcycle! After all this, some mysterious woman and her troops are taking me away.

A new cutscene sends us across a beautiful new environment. We have now landed in the Vile Peeks of the Cocoon deadlands. Just earned a new trophy, Instrument of Flight! OOh I learned Lightnings name!

Show Spoilers

Farron is her name!

That's enough for now. I may do some DQIV next before I fall asleep.

Day 22: Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-19T23:54:00.000-05:00

What a pleasure to plunge back into this game. Now that I can Paradigm Shift, I will really be delving into this experience. I won't be blogging as heavily tonight since I am very tired. Oh by the way, I am now in Chapter 3. It has been a wonderful experience as I learned more about paradigm shifts. I have now arrived at a beautiful oasis away from the crystallized lake.. and this is where I shall end it for tonight. I may do some dragon quest but I am just exhausted right now.

Day 21: Dragon Quest IV

2010-03-19T08:47:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update. I played a little Dragon Quest IV before going to sleep. I ended up going deep into the tower, fighting the boss and dying. It wasn't a total loss since I picked up a new weapon, gained some levels, and earned enough money tog et some good armor. When I return there again I know I will go back and win, freeing the kids the wizard kidnapped.

Day 21: Final Fantasy XIII Part 2

2010-03-18T20:57:00.004-05:00

Well as it turns out, I was working on FFXIII on Princess's Playstation ID. No problem, I am going to do it again on my own ID now. Plus I earned her a couple of trophies. This gives me the opportunity to blog and enjoy it all over again. Now there may be SPOILERS ahead so be warned if you wish to read on.

A nice thing about the loading screen is they tell you what is going on in the chapter as you load the game up. Bless this game for all its story telling. The characters in the game also speak to you as you run around in the environment. For instance, as I was running fast with Lightning, Sazh says "Fixin' to ditch me already?", relevant to how he is feeling to her solitary behavior in this part of the game.

Also I have to comment as I work through here, the opening title music is just amazing. Kudos on the music SquareEnix.

Now, I am returning to a scene that was really emotional.

Show Spoilers

OK here we go. We just met Mother and she gave an epic line, "Mom's are tough" with an inspiring determined look in her eyes. You saw the pain Hope was feeling as his mom was leaving. Snow was about to die, but Mother was there to save his life. "Moms are tough" indeed... I love the look she has.... but.. right here in the beginning of the game... my goodness... Hope sees her dying... Not only that.. so many innocents are falling to their deaths below.. This game is so emotionally charged.. I cannot help but feel the pain right now.. Mother slips away.. and you see how much pain Hope goes through during this event.. Snow changes at this moment, determined to watch over the children, not sure which child was hers.

End Spoilers..
Well now I am with Vanille and Hope again, caught up to where I left off. Back inside the Pulse fal'cie. This is a very spiritual place, I love the music here. I love Vanille's positive attitude but she takes too immature of an approach towards trying to soothe Hope. You don't just say "There there its going to be all better", although I do appreciate the optimism.

Now I am back in control of Snow by himself this time. Snow is trying to find someone named Serah in here, I suppose she is the Fal'Cie inside here? We will see. I thought perhaps he was engaged to Lightning but I see my assumption was wrong.

Now back to Sazh & Lightning, it looks like they are trapped in here. Lightning... what is your mystery? She was able to communicate with the ship somehow. Now I am finding out how to Shroud myself. Push L1 while exploring and you can access differnet shrouds to grant you the element of surprise. Wow that was awesome, we took down 3 pantherons with no trouble at all. I love that all the characters are coming together now.

Apparently this is chapter 2 right now. So Snow's fiancé is here, and so it cannot be lightning. She is being held captive. We are activating different parts of the building now.

Wow... there are some very creepy zombie-like creatures staggering their way towards us. Cie'th.. L'cie who failed.. this is terrifying.. SNOW! Snow has come to join us!! Excuse me... Serah is a Pulse Le'Cie.. i wonder what the difference is.. He is going off to save her now.

These poor souls.. they were once children Le'Cie now they are turned into these monsters..

Show Spoilers

We just found Serah! Serah is really ill, but we will have to make things right for her... Oh no Serah.. she is floating into the air with great spirit... she is being taken from this world... or is she? she is turning into a crystal.... She is turning into a Crystal and being gratned eternal life. The legends say she is still alive. Nobody believes it except Snow, her fiance.... This game is REALLy heavy on emotions.

End spoilers
The troops are now destroying the building we are in. We are now working our way to talk to the Fal'Cie themselves. The Fal'Cie want the Le'Cie to gain a focus, which turns them into a crystal. My first tough boss fight.. we used so many potions but it was worth it..

Day 11, the Seaside City of Bodhum. Hmm.. this must be a flashback. Oh this is just beautiful on so many levels... We saw snow proposing, and it was just perfect.. I really feel like I am part of the story. It was so romantic and beautiful...

Now we have awoken inside of a crystal.. Lake Bresha. Wow... we all have hte power of a Le'Cie now with magic. We can change roles in any situation now. We can now shift between offensive and defensive groupings. Well now is a good time to stop as I learn the new parts of the game. I may do some dragon quest IV before I pass out then head to sleep.

Day 21: Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-18T18:47:00.000-05:00

I cannot help but do a bit of blogging as I experience Final Fantasy XIII for the first time. So far we are starting off with two characters, Lightning, a former female soldier who is helping with some kind of rebellion happening on this planet. She is joining Sazh who is following her along, a strong male character with a humorous attitude yet serious approach to the situation. The game literally feels like I am controlling a movie. The graphics between cut scene and game are near seamless. I also love that the game gives you a nice tutorial to get you started so you can learn by playing. Sazh does seem to make a lot of wise cracks, but I suppose I can understand when you are thrown into a world like this, you have to make levity where you can. "You guys just don't seem interested in our side of the story." I have to admit I love the smirk he has on his portrait in the menu screen.

Another interesting feature in this game is that you get scores and ratings for each fight. So far I have been doing well getting 5 stars. If there is one thing I learned from World of Warcraft, it is to use EVERYTHING in your arsenal even items. Don't be afraid to use a potion when you need one. These soldiers are trying to purge the poor..

Another comment on items. you can use your potions on EVERYONE in the party too. A very useful feature. Another new feature to this game is you fully heal after each fight. I know some "hardcore" gamers would complain that this is making the game too easy, but for people like me who try to balance their lives with time, this makes the experience that much more stream lined. I am liking this game more and more as I go along!!! WOOOHOOO! I FEEL IT! The more you attack an enemy, the greater they will stagger and become vulnerable, just like a real life fight. The more hurt you are, the more vulnerable you become.

Now I am meeting up with Snow on the Resistance Front. Now looking through the settings, I am noticing that there are informative chapters broken up like a book.. for people like me who often leave a game and come back to it later this is absolutely vital. Other RPG makers, if you are reading this, you should put your own "Datalog" in each game. In this world of Cocoon, everyone is in fear of an invasion by Pulse, the world below. The Sanctum, the government of Cocoon, is initiating a Purge that is deporting all those who come into contact with the Pulsian influences. This is now turning into a slaughter of the civilians, really a holocaust. The people have completely lost hope here... But Snow will be here to inspire the rest. If you leave him standing still, he punches his leather gloved fist into his palm, or crosses his arms looking contemplative out into the distance. Snow is a pretty awesome character so far. Tough, with a positive spirit and drive.

"Whats the plan?" -Maqui "Charge in guns blazing."- Snow. I like the way he carries himself. Excellent, now the refugees want to help out! Nobody wants to sit around and be opressed or forced onto a scary savage planet they don't belong in. Even a young mother is joining in on the fight.. but her son.. I can tell there is more to him.. he was asked to join the fight but was too reluctant, afraid.. as most would be. The girl next to him however took up the fight.

Now I am getting ready for a new fight. I am using the shop, I see that I can sell some items I picked up. ... The first deeply emotional event of the game happened, I will not say what happened but it makes me want to cry.. This is a very heavy game..

I am now taking control of Hope and Vanille for the first time. Hope was being too shy about tellign Snow he wanted to join up. Well now we are hijacking a bike to meet up with him. We are heading towards the Pulse Fal'Cie now. I am actually hungry for food so I will take a break for now.

Day 21: Excite Bots First Impressions & Final Fantasy 13

2010-03-18T17:17:00.000-05:00

I have to say that so far this is an awesome racing game. I only did a couple of races together with Princess, and we are just getting the hang of it now. I am also just beginning Final Fantasy XIII. I am going to blog about it later so I can indulge into my first impressions. But I have to say so far, from the opening movie, I am blown away by the beauty, look and feel of the game. I can tell this will be a very emotionally triggering game with an intense environment.We will see how this game is.

Day 20: Dragon Quest IV DS

2010-03-17T22:18:00.001-05:00

Well, let's get this started. As I said in my previous post, growing up asking for a new video game was a huge deal since they were so expensive. I loved Dragon Warrior(later renamed Dragon Quest) but only rented the sequels. The sequels were actually superior to the original since it was a bit easier to level up, there was more story and you could actually control more than one character at once. Dragon Warrior IV is one of the NES games I would rent when I could, so I am really excited now to have my own copy. The price for the NES game are now going for an outrageous price of 60 to 100$ and more! This DS version is remade with Playstation style graphics, so I am very pleased with this new purchase.

Starting the game up now.. the music is giving me goosebumps! The classic Dragon Quest theme! It looks glorious on its two screens with a castle floating in the sky on the bottom and a blue dragon flying overhead. The sun is even setting making the whole game glow a bright orange. The prologue is beginning now, starting with me passed out from training. The game is beautifully rendered over two screens, unlike FF3 on the DS. I am feeling quite tired so I am just going to delve into this and perhaps blog on it later. It is important for me to keep a log of my RPG adventures in case I take a break and want to come back to them at a later date.

Edit: I had to come back in here and relate a funny story. I went chasing after a talking frog, claiming she was a princess. This is just too funny since just last night I saw The Princess and the Frog for the first time! I am a big time Disney fan and that was also quite an experience. It turns out that the frog was just my magical friend Eliza who just learned how to cast Morph.

I love how this game is created like a story book with a prologue and chapters. Well the prologue was very short I will be starting up chapter 1. I think i will hold off blogging on this til later.

Day 20: Raving Rabbids, Nights into Dreams and Recent Purchases!

2010-03-17T22:01:00.002-05:00

Well today so far has been an excellent day. Princess and I played some Mario Kart Wii, Raving Rabbids and Nights Journey into Dreams for the Wii today, although I did not yet participate in Nights. We tried out the team mode in Mario Kart which was an interesting change. Of course princess and I dominated, but it was a lot of fun. I am becoming quite frustrated by how much the AI cheats in Mario Kart Wii, so that spurred me on to go out later on in the day in search of new games. Raving Rabids, we advanced ourselves a little further on. I grooved out to "Girls just want to have fun" (by the way there is an episode of Super Mario Bros. Super Show with Cyndi Lauper). It was a lot of fun doing that song in Raving Rabbids, although the music game is getting much tougher as we advance ourselves. Princess also tried out Nights while I was cooking dinner. I am blown away by the atmosphere and intense story of the game, I can't wait to see more.

Now, while I was out, I saw my local Blockbuster was closing so they had a bunch of games on sale. I attempted to pick up Wario Shake It for Wii (10$), a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Game (7$) on DS, Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass for DS (15$) and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 days for DS (15$). Well.. when i got to the register, the only game they actually had was Kingdom Hearts, which was my gift for Princess. The other games were all checked out or kept by people. I was really happy to get her such a nice game, but I was not yet satisfied. I really was hoping to find ExciteBots, but I knew it was not too expensive at Gamestop so I headed over to one of the Gamestops. Lucky for me they had a brand new sealed copy of the game for just 20$, I heard this is an awesome racing game and I am hopeful it cheats a lot less than Mario Kart. If I get good at a game, I don't want to be punished for being good. I also found a copy of Dragon Quest IV for DS for just 15$ used! I used to rent Dragon Warrior 4 on occasion when I was a child, back when it was on the NES and still called Dragon Warrior. Now to actually own this game, I am very excited.. this was a much better purchase for myself than the other 3 games I was attempting to pick up at Blockbuster! So I will be trying Dragon Quest IV next and do a little "live blogging" on it.

Day 19: Super Paper Mario

2010-03-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

Time to start this up again. I am about to enter the Bestovius's house house. This is just too funny, the wizard is way too proud of his beard. He has bestowed upon me the ability to flip between the 2nd and 3rd dimension. To see the unseen. Oh this is adorable, I just got Pal Pills which makes tiny 8-bit SMB1 marios follow me around!
I love how the points in this game also work as your experience. I just got to level 2, so now I have even more heart points. Now I have a mega Star which makes me beyond huge!

That was epic enough to make me level up to level 3. Well that was the end of Chapter 1-1.

Onto chapter 1-2. Now I am talking to a bridge master who was hiding int he depths of the 3rd dimension. Apparently he fell out of bed on the wrong side and ended up in the wrong dimension. Now I brought him back to the 2nd dimension. I think I will stop for tonight and play some more tomorrow.

Day 18: Super Paper Mario- Chapter 1-1

2010-03-15T23:36:00.000-05:00

King Koopa and Princess Toadstool have been kidnapped!!! Why you ask? The two of them are prophesized to bring together chaos, and a mad wizard has kidnapped them! I will have to collect Eight Pure Hearts to save the world with Paper Mario once more. I was a big fan of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, an absolutely amazing RPG. This game is an RPG/platformer mix so it should be quite a fun challenge. I tried it a while back with Princess but we didn't get too far. Now it is my time to give it another shot. I start off with one pure heart! Alright! Time to put it in the heart pillar. The game has a very interesting aesthetic. I am off on my first adventure, but before that we have a really funny cut scene with some foolish looking villains. This villain is tryign to destroy all worlds so he can build his own perfect world without war and "all that other icky stuff". Fools, it is the contrast of war and peace, dark and light, that makes the Universe whole.
Chapter 1-1 begins!
And here we go with a traditional Super Mario Bros remixed song. An interesting thing about this game, is you can point your Wii Remote at the screen to learn about the different enemies and objects.

I just love the music here! I made it to the new wizard's house, and for now I will stop I am getting very tired. It has been a wonderful day today! It is also the first day on my new job so I am very proud of this.

Day 18: fl0w

2010-03-15T20:18:00.001-05:00

Time for a relaxing PS3 experience, controlling microorganisms. The game is just beyond words it is about relaxation.. This game is made by "That Game Company" , an amazing group that created fl0wer. You go through differnet levels consuming microorganisms, and evolving your small creature. I actually got close to completing this a long time ago but never truly beat it until just now. One of the trophies is for leaving the game idle for 30 minutes on the credits so I am going to go for that. The game is an experience I recommend everyone trying.
2010 completed games:
1. New Super Mario Bros Wii
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
3. Super Mario Galaxy
4. Mario Kart Wii
5. Mega Man 10
6. fl0w

Day 18: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

2010-03-15T20:01:00.001-05:00

So I figured that I would return to GT5 prologue. It has been a while since I played this beautiful HD game. I am on the A Class, racing my Ferrari F430. I just got 3rd place in the High Speed Ring which was enough to clear it. I know I can do better too. Now onto Suzuka. That was a very tough technical track, I only got 5th place but I know I will improve this time. I almost got into 3rd but I was just off al ittle, I fell into the grass ont he previous corner. Time to try it again. I keep improving. Third time's a charm for 3rd place! Now for the last race where I can use my Ferrari, Fuji Speedway F. Well I rocked out a 2nd place on this one, the GT-R just dominated the race I couldnt catch him. Now I am going to race in Daytona to pass another F430. Well that is enough of this. I am a bit tired and this game is pretty hard

Day 17: Sonic Unleashed

2010-03-14T23:54:00.000-05:00

Did a little more sonic unleashed. I am now able to do the stage in the Arctic place. I am quite tired and going to head to sleep now.

Day 17: More Mega Man 10 Easy Mode

2010-03-14T22:38:00.000-05:00

Alright back from dinner let's see how we do here. As an amazing occurrence, while I was out I found out I will be starting my new job tomorrow morning. My save also ended at play time 22:22. Most interesting! Now onto Solar man! I am sure this will be a "hot" stage. This stage also has a mini boss. Two birds spitting fire and flying up and down. I got to the boss pretty quick this time. I just attacked him like crazy and killed him with one sliver left yet again. I must admit I was careless and a bit cocky. I love easy mode!!! By the way, you do not use any "game time" in the select menu.

Now onto strike man. It looks like we are in a sports stadium. Great stage for baseball fans. There is a mini boss very early on here. Took me a couple of tries but I beat Strike Man and his bouncing balls. Wow.. the next save took place at 33:33... Freaky!

Just three more bosses. Now onto Sheep Man.. His stage is so high tech it looks nothing like a sheep. A truly bizzarre stage. Whenever you step on these blue blocks connected, they dissapear a few seconds later. His stage had some challenges, I ended up dying on the mini boss, but in the end the actual boss was so simple. You shoot them, then he turns into clouds that shoot lightning straight down and he then shoots little electric balls around the room that are fairly easy to dodge.

Now onto Commando man. We have a desert military kind of stage. There are blinding sand storms, but overall it is not too hard. This boss was extremely easy on easy mode, he would drop little grenades here and there. To be honest this stage and boss were pretty uninspired.

Now onto the last robot master, Pump Man!Ooh a tricky water stage. Half water, half water pushing you down.. Wow this stage when you are completely under water has a current! This was an extremely challenging stage!! Bubbles kept pushing me into spikes. The boss was quite easy, just keep shooting him at close range. And now I just got my first achievement: Side Arm!!! Woohooo!!!

Onto... what now? Let's see what the story holds for us.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Mega Man gets the virus!! Of course it is Dr. Wily's work! Dr Wily has the cure and if you want the cure you will have to work for him! Luckily Roll held onto her medicine. Ok thats it! I have my medicine and I am going to save everyone!!

ONTO DR. WILY!!
He really has a menacing castle this time. Wow, it is raining here. Wow the first mini boss was so hard. It took on powers of classic Mega Man characters. It was quite a challenge and was a most interesting stage 1. Now to stage 2. Well... I will leave the rest to the imagination, I had a great time beating up on Dr. Wily, it was really challenging and I ended up needing to use items on the second to last fight unfortunately. But the game is now beat! Now I am watching the credits and enjoying it. I did really enjoy the game and will be playing it more to get more unlocks and try it on harder modes... I had a great time but it does not have the same grand feeling as some of the older games. My favorite boss was definately Nitro Man, and his stage was really cool, best music for sure. Good job Capcom.

Well here is this years beat game list up to date:
1. New Super Mario Bros Wii
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
3. Super Mario Galaxy
4. Mario Kart Wii
5. Mega Man 10

I conclude with the trophies Tenacious (clear the game without continuing) and Whomp Wily (clear the game once)

Day 17: Mega Man 10 on Playstation 3!

2010-03-14T18:25:00.000-05:00

I am now downloading Mega Man 10 for the PS3. I have been a huge Mega Man fan ever since I was a young boy. I even remember me and my friends would pretend to be Mega Man and other robots as we played around on the playground in 2nd or 3rd grade. I would often rent Mega Man 2 for the NES. I have some very fond memories with that game even though I have never owned it, including my cousins from far away coming to visit me during a Thanksgiving snowstorm. Mega Man 4 was the actual first Mega Man I owned on my own. This new game is done in the same vain as Mega Man 9 which is based off of Mega Man 2. I never finished 9, which I have on my XBOX 360. Since I have all 3 systems now, I prefer the PS3 controller to all others, plus I like that I can get trophies in the game. It just finished installing so let's see how it is.
The logos for Capcom was extremely sharp in 1080p on my TV. I am actually surprised the load time is so slow on this game. I am now watching a short intro video (all in 2d Mega Man NES style). It looks like Roll, Mega Man's friend has a special robot virus called Roboneza. It must be going around like a computer virus. In this world dependent on viruses, robots always seem to be going haywire. I suppose it is a similar analogy to how we are so dependent on technology and it often causes us problems. Wow, Dr. Wily just got blown out of the sky and Mega Man saved him from crashing! Dr. Wily you sure are an arrogant guy. He is supposeldy looking for a cure to the virus, but I know he has to be behind it. If you believe he is up to something good, you should probably take a step away from the game and think a little deeper about life. Proto Man just popped up, he is going to help us out in this game. I believe Proto Man is Mega Man's older brother. Interesting, this is not just a normal Mega Man game. There are also Challenges, TIme attack and a ?????????????? whatever that is. It looks like if you use Proto Man, you get all kinds of new attacks. Mega Man just has normal attacks, I wonder why there seems to be such a huge imbalance. I will start the game with Mega Man anyway. I am not checking out any guides so I am just going to select a boss and have a good time here on normal mode (easy mode also exists but I don't want to use that.)
I am going to start off on Nitro Man's stage. The song for this is just amazing... One of the best I have ever heard to be honest.

This level has a beautiful city night time back drop. I wonder what it has to do with Nitro though, usually that refers to Nitrous Oxide, a spray for making cars boost faster. I think I am understanding this stage now. I just hopped onto a highway and got clobbered by a bus robot. OK this is annoying I keep getting flattened. I will have to hop on top of the bus each time. This game is all about practice. This is a lot of fun but I think I may start off on Easy Mode and work my way up. I am a bit rusty. Before I die on normal, I am noticing, that you should take your time with this game. There is no time limit... Welll I actually made it to the boss but I have almost no life left. He is a pretty cool boss, rides around on a motorcycle. Oh well let's see if I can get to him on Easy.
.... WOW this is a lot easier. I am not saying the game is easy but it is manageable and a good way to start off. It's not like you start off on 150cc races on Mario Kart Wii. You have to start somewhere. I made it to the boss this time without getting hit. You know I saw there is an achievement for beating all 8 bosses with only the Mega Buster. Let's see if I can do that. Wow... ok that is VERY easy to beat him. This is really gratifying and a good ego booster. I am going to go all out with this now! Easy Mode is a great start! Besides, there was an unlock somehow just getting an easy boss. I think the game encourages you to play all modes.

Next up is Blade Man. I have to say he is pretty silly looking.

Alright lets see how the stage is. Wow a really funny looking axe enemy attacks you. I tis just an axe with eyes, not even a Robot with an axe. Now I am fighting a mini boss... let's see how this goes.A bit of a challenge. Actually he was tougher than Nitro man. Oh how nice, right after the fight was full health circle. I don't believe it, I just died because I took too long with something.. so much for beating the game without dying. Oh well here we go again. Alright good now to Blade Man himself. NOOO!! We double killed each other! Well I know the strategy for him. He grabs onto all sides of the walls and shoots out blades. Shoot him then run so you can avoide his blade shots. This second shot I got him... that was an exciting fight. Doing this on easy mode with only the mega buster may still pose a good challenge.

I just went to the shop for the first time. I am going to play the game now without a helmet! Ooh how dangerous!

Next up is Chill Man. Of course this stage is very slippery! This stage has an interesting mechanic. There are blocks of ice you jump on to make crack, eventually break. It was a really interesting stage. Now I am up to the boss. I ended up beating him with just one sliver of life left. He keeps shooting ice on the ground to freeze you, and you have to turn around and fire on him.

Now i am going to get some dinner but I thought I would try out some of the challenges first. Very interseting, it helps you train in the game.

Day 17: Monster Hunter Tri Demo

2010-03-14T14:50:00.001-05:00

OK I am trying out Monster Hunter Tri now. All I know of it are some hilarious Viking commercials that I have seen on youtube, so let's see what this is all about. I know it is an RPG of some sort.. or maybe an action game I am not even sure. I am going to see if it lets me use the classic remote. I think they are packaging a new type of classic controller witht his game that contains handles like the PS3/360/N64 controller. It looks like I have two choices of hunts. I am hunting out Jaggi dinosaurs. They look kind of like Velociraptors with beards and a main. I wonder why I have to hunt these monsters anyway. You have all different choices of classes and weapon types. I am going to try out the Great Sword, a two hand sword weapon. This game has some savage sound effects when loading. So, let's see how this game is. So far, I have to say the music is beautiful and epic. The graphics look fantastic, especially considering this is a Wii game. I am starting off in a beautiful environment with a waterfall in a cave, overlooking a large body of water. You don't have complete analog control to look up and down, only set perspectives. I hate this weapon it is so extremely slow. I am going to try again with a different weapon. This is an action game for sure.. I am not really understanding the style of it yet. I will try the hammer this time. With the hammer if you hold down the R button you can charge up an awesome attack. Another thign I dont like int his game is I can't jump, it feels so restrictive for such a lush environment. THe game is alright but there seems to be a steep learning curve.

Day 13-16: More Mario Kart Wii

2010-03-14T14:34:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update, I have been playing a lot of Mario Kart Wii trying to get all Stars for every grand prix. Princess has unlocked Star rank for every series for me, I have spent a lot of time last night trying to get up to speed on Special Cup Mirror and it is quite hard. I did a lot of practice, and I am improving but this unforgiving game can be really annoying.

Day 12: Super Mario Galaxy Quick Update

2010-03-09T16:25:00.000-06:00

Played a little more Mario Galaxy yesterday and received my first star from the Good Egg Galaxy, purple coin planet. This wasn't too hard. I then filled up a star close-by and went to another galaxy, I forget which one, where I had to find a shiny shell in an interesting topsy-turvy water level, to break open a chest in the beginning. That was a success so I went back to the Honeyhive galaxy for the next purple comet. Unfortunately, I got up to 70 something coins out of 100 and died.. so I will try again soon.

Day 11: Mario Kart WiFi worldwide racing

2010-03-07T19:21:00.001-06:00

Another update. Princess has been playing quite a bit of Mario Kart Wii online. She did quite well and boosted our ranking up to 5500. What can I say, she makes me look good! She is now working on getting star ranks again on all the single player races. I am still doing my work, and I better get back to it!

Day 9 - 11: Mario Kart Wii - BEAT!

2010-03-07T17:03:00.001-06:00

Over the past few days, Princess and I have been working on finishing mario Kart Wii. Well last night we were working through the mirror cup, workign through our last few cups. We finally made it to the Special Cup. Princess is much more of a master at this game than I am, at least for now. She was acing through every race, winning the first 3 so we went into Rainbow Road only needing to beat peach, we were ahead by 12 points or so. Due to some unfortunate events, she had a difficult race getting knocked off course. We were crushed when she ended up in 12th place... but.... not all was to be lost... Baby Peach, who needed to win in order to beat her, ended up in second place... Princess won the series by 1 point!!!! I couldn't believe it!!! Mario Kart Wii is now our fourth game beat for the year! Recap:
1. New Super Mario Bros Wii
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
3. Super Mario Galaxy
4. Mario Kart Wii

Now we have been going through the time trials, trying to get great times and unlock expert staff ghosts. We are also going back through the grand prix races trying to get a star rank on EVERYTHING for our own pride and more unlocks. The first unlock Princess gained all on her own was Baby Daisy, which was just perfect since Daisy is her favorite character. She is using Baby Daisy right now and doing an amazing job. The Time Trials made her an even more aggressive racer than before, I wonder if I will ever beat her again!!! We are on the Donkey Kong stage and all the people on board the boat just cheered for her! Go Princess! I am off to do my weekend work projects while she plays Mario Kart.

Day 8: Final Fantasy 3 DS - Tozus Gnomes

2010-03-03T00:12:00.000-06:00

I am now making my way down to the gnomish village to the South. I am really tired so now is a good time to do some regular old leveling, just like I would do in World of Warcraft. I just shrunk the party down to enter the gnome village of Tozus. Apparently the home of the vikings, Miralka Basin, is at the end of a tunnel near here. That excites me, I have a deep interesting in Vikings and Norse magic. The poor little doctor in this town, Doctor Shelco has become bed ridden. I must find him an antidote! Luckily I had 7 in my bag. The gnomes in this game are adorable, they have little leaves for hats. By curing him, he gave us access to the tunenl to Miralka Basin. I do not want to go too far tonight, so now that this is unlocked, I shall just explore the cave a bit, come back and use the inn to save. I need to save up some money to get Aero anyway. After a couple of fights I had enough money for Aero. I am going to try and make my way down the tunnel now.

Well that was easy enough to get out of. Since they need to stay small, I made everyone into a black mage except Arc who is staying white. Now to level them up in this job a bit. Now I am coming into the Vikings cove. They have lost all their ships since a sea dragon awoke. They have just one left now, named the Enterpris

Day 8 Mario Kart Wii

2010-03-02T22:23:00.002-06:00

Princess is rocking out now with Mario Kart Wii, working on the rest of the mirror cup races. She is doing absolutely amazing, becoming a master of the manual drift. She is doing awesome, just nailing people with the blue shell stealing first place away. The race was painful to watch but at the end she shot up from 9th to 3rd then back to 4th at the very last second. Still she is doing an amazing job on the leaf cup. She is definitelyy a better racer than me at this point. She is now in the donkey kong stage on the last lap. 10th pace but catching up fast... until.. she falls in the water from a drift boost *facepalm* aye bendito... We are now on a Mario raceway for the last race. Bullet bill just rocketed her from 12th to 6th. She is in the lead pack now. 1st place! gogogo She did it!!! Unfortunately it was only enough for 3rd place. She is giving it another go now, starting off on the dry dry desert. This level is very reminiscent of the old Mario 3 desert levels. My heart was pounding as she got first place in the first race. I have to say, I enjoy watching her as much as I do playing myself. The computer opponent has become so aggressive they end up pushing you into the lava if you are not careful. My goodness she was just about to get first place but then another player sent back a green shell and knocked her into the lava. Time for the Donkey Kong stage again. This is an old N64 stage that I used to play all the time. A pretty long stage. A funny moment just happened, she threw a bomb forward then it hit a pillar and went flying backwards. I am going to give it a try myself now... let's see how I do... I will blog my experiences after.. I need full attention for this insantiy. My go at it was pretty unsuccessful. The first race I did amazing, grabbing a star at the end of the desert stage, taking shortcuts to win it all. However later on at the Bowser stage, I failed pretty miserably. For now I will stop and try some more tomorrow. But we did complete two more cups! Woohoo!

50 games (or more) a year

2010-03-02T13:25:00.001-06:00

After some discussion with Princess, I have decided to take on a challenge of completing at least 50 games this year. Two months have passed already, however I am confident I can still accomplish this goal. So far, I have already completed:
1. New Super Mario Bros Wii
2. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
3. Super Mario Galaxy

I am now working on completing Mario Kart Wii and Final Fantasy 3 on the DS. To help me track this goal and keep track of all the games I have, I am starting to use a web page called Backloggery: http://backloggery.com/main.php?user=valorio I will be in process of adding all my games on there, I hope to have a huge list of beaten games by the end of this year. 2010 shall be my year of seeing things through to completion!

Here we go!!!!

Day 7: Mario Kart Wii

2010-03-01T20:49:00.002-06:00

I started off this day playing some Mario Kart Wii together with princess. I am still getting the hang of Manual Drifting with the Wii Wheel but I think I am getting the hang of it. We had some fun battles but she won hands down using Daisy as I raced with Rosalina. I am definitely getting the hang of it now. I am going to start off with the Shell Cup to get my feet wet.

Well that didn't go too well. Princess is going to give it a go with Daisy on Shell Cup Mirror. She is doing pretty well coming from behind already up to second on the final lap now. First place just got hit with a blue shell and she took it over. unfortunately she was hit a lot at the beach by the crazy birds that hit you up int he air. On the second race she is now on the final lap in first place! This is a short track. Her moves on the bike are quite impressive. And thats first place! She is now only 3 points behind first place. Time now for the ghost race in the shell cup. Personally I am terrible at these ghost stages. This one in particular is confusing and easy to get lost in. Another short track, shes almost in first on the second lap. The competition is really hot in this race. This game seems to know when things are getting good for you and punishes you for it. Now she got hit by a star and got knocked way back. Forget it she ended up in 9th, this is heart breaking. She is going to quit and try again, I know she has some amazing skills and can win this. It gives me a great pleasure watching her play. And she wins the first race in a come from behind victory at the very end. My heart was pounding watching this. Time for race 2. This one is really crazy everyone is knocking into each other. I love it when a blue shell hits someone else. She keeps going and is now in first place on the last lap. She got hit by a blue shell on the last lap but still pulled off a victory at the end! I am so proud of her. Now we are back at the ghost house. She is now on the last lap and in first place once more. She is having a 1 on 1 battle with Rosalina. She ends up in 2nd place which is really excellent. Here we go now, last race! The mirror cup racer s are really vicious. they don't fool around at all. She ends up being huge and kills Luigi! And she wins!!!! First place!!! She is something else alright. I can only hope I can meet her skill someday.

Well now I am going to start off on some time trials so i can learn the drifting.This is taking some practice but I am really getting the hang of it. When you drift you can hold your turn for even longer than usual. Through all the hard work, I ended up unlocking Birdo, quite an accomplishment. I just tried out birdo on the N64 ice stage. I didnt do so hot. Princess is giving Birdo a try now too. Amazingly she is far ahead of me even though drifting is set to manual. She is a real natural at Mario Kart. Wow I saw my ghost just crash against a wall, I am so embarrassed! And Princess was here to witness my awful racing skills! Now Princess is getting into the feeling of manual. I saw her pull off her first drift boost. She seems to be doing even better than I am after all my practice. Oh she is hooked now.. But I just saw her get excited and use a mushroom into the water.She is really a fast learner it astounds me. Truly a natural at this game. We ended the evening by racing against each other in manual mode, and she beat me hands down. Quite impressive!

Day 6- Final Fantasy 3 DS

2010-03-01T00:39:00.000-06:00

I was thinking of playing more Sonic Unleashed on PS3, but since today the PS3 is having a crazy worldwide bug where it thinks today is 12/31/99, I am not going to touch it. Instead, I am going to return to Final Fantasy 3 on the Nintendo DS. I had this game for a while, earlier I put about 10 hours into it, however I recently started all over again fresh. I am going to keep a vivid log of my doings of this game, so if I do take a break from it again, I will know what I am returning to. Since this is based on an older Nintendo RPG, there is often a lot of leveling up. I am now meeting with King Argus to see about getting a new Airship built for Cid. Cid is leaving hte party for now, but I know our paths will cross again. I am now entering the town of Canaan. Rumor has it there is a Gnome village to the south of here. Sounds really interesting, I love gnomes. Salina's boyfriend Dasch went to the mountains in the east where a dragon dwells. We are going to check the place out and bring him back. I just accidentally said I would stay in the inn here for 40 gil. Oh well mistake made, lesson learned. Desch apparently has a Mini scroll that shrinks you down to the size of a gnome. I picked up the thunder casting spell for my black mage, and now I am off again. Will probably spend some time gaining some levels. on the mountain, my attacks are pitiful besides the black magic, although my defense is decent. It was just too overwhelming, I am going to level them all up a bit before going back to the mountain. I have to say at this point, all their job levels are low so only the black magic is effective. Luneth is my monk since he seems like a young fighter. Arc is a White Mage since he seems like a sensitive soft young man (I associate him with myself most of all). Refia is my black mage, although she may change herself later. Ingus is the Warrior of the bunch. I switched Ingus to having two swords and this is really helping a lot. Luneth's monk punches are still pretty pathetic however and I am not sure when they will get more powerful. I went back and explored the dragon mountain a little more, but I need to return to the inn to recharge. Well look at that, there really was a dragon here.. and it threw me into its nest with a bunch of baby dragons, and a young human. I wonder who this is.
Ah so this is Desch, who was also captured by the dragon. Time to fight Bahamut! My goodness he hits hard!!! And I am doing no damage! That's it I am running away from this fight. Well, we managed to escape with Desch and he handed us the scroll of mini! He is going to tag along with us, the poor young man has lost his memory. Well now we are heading to Tozus, the town of gnomes. We are going to shrink down to their size and visit their village. As great as this sounds, I do need to get some sleep. This will continue another time.

Day 6- Super Mario Galaxy - 60 stars or bust!

2010-02-28T18:48:00.001-06:00

I ended last night completely exhausted from Mario after earning a total of 16 stars. I now only have 4 stars to go! Well I shall start by stocking up on 1-ups in the beginning. Well I am going to head back to the honeyhive galaxy to find luigi! He ended up climbing a tree trying to avoid some crazy bugs. Once I got him down, it turns out that this is the last he will be doing finding power stars, the rest are up to Mario now. Thanks for your help Luigi!

Time to return to the space junk galaxy where there is a speedy comet in orbit! Time for the pull star path speed run. I tried to do this a while ago without success. I will do better now. It was close, I was only a few seconds from having it but I will try it again now. The second time was much more successful with about 30 seconds to spare. That was a a really fun speed run. That was Star 58, 2 stars to go! A new chapter has been added to the storybook too. I will have to check it out later.

I will try the Hurry Scurry galaxy now since I have not completed this one yet. The Shrinking Sattellite. My goodness that was insanely easy I am actually embarrassed that I didn't do it before. Basically you have to pick up a bunch of notes on a disappearing floor globe, and thats it you get a star. There is star 59, 1 to go now!

Now where shall I go for my 60th star. I am heading now tot he beach bowl galay to try the fast foe star. Fast foes on the cyclone stone! Wow they really are fast! This should be interesting. A bunch of angry Thwamps, just what I wanted. This is it!! I made it through the crazy Thwamp maze for star 60! Now... it is time to complete the game.

Bowser, your time is near... You are going to die now! It is time for the Fate of the Univesre! Quite the challenge this is. The level had quite a few difficult points, and I will not spoil it too much but I did enjoy it. I couldn't believe it when I finally reached Bowser. I had about 22 lives at this point, preparing myself for a long fight. The fight with Bowser was a 3 stage fight. The strategies were very similar to previous fights with Bowser. It was truly an epic fight which i will not soon forget. Princess was here watching on with me, encouraging me. Because of her support and my new skills and confidence, I defeated Bowser on just my first try! The ending was truly a beautiful sight, it really touched me. Super Mario Galaxy is going to go down as one of the most amazing games of all time to me. Blogging about it from time to time helped to further enhance the experience.

Day 5: Mario Galaxy Part 2- Return to the Battlerock and Beyond!

2010-02-28T02:10:00.001-06:00

My journey took me back to the classic Good Egg Galaxy to try a speed run against the baby pirannah. Princess tried it at first, having very little prior experience at this game and did quite well, but I took over after I finished my dinner. After a few attempts, I managed to complete it! It was a really exciting feeling to have it completed so quickly, with still 45 seconds left on the clock!

Now I am onto the Battlerock Galaxy for Topmaniac's Daredevil Run.After a few tries, I managed to knock the top into the electric circle. It was pretty tough since you only have 1 health the whole time. Now I am up to 48 stars!

Now back into the battlerock galaxy to find Luigi, he has a star for me somewhere.Well this was really difficult. I had to get bullet bills to chase me around onto the upside down part of a UFO. It was difficult because the bullet bills kept exploding on me. But... well I finally saved my bro Luigi! Well that is star 49!

I am going to head back now to the Toy Time Galaxy... Mario meets mario? I wonder what this is about! Oh it is about the 2D Mario 1 sprite! Well I just landed on mario. It looks like we have a bubbly lava stage ahead! This was a really insane puzzle. As you walked around the mario, the blocks would dissapear. You had to gather a bunch of stars, once you had them all, you had to make your way back to the beginning of the puzzle, even though the puzzle was missing a bunch of pieces. Well that makes 50 stars! 10 to go now!

Now it is time to bounce down cake lane. Time to put on the spring suit again. This really is a very tasty stage. Full of deserts, chocolate bars, forks and knives. This stage also included jumping off of an ice cream cone and landing on multiple straws. I lost a few lives on this part.At the end, you blow out the candles on a cake and fight a crazy mole who is causing trouble. This was star 51.

I decided to go back to the bedroom, now I am heading to the Gusty garden galaxy to try a daredevil comet! This is the one where I have to beat a mole on a small planet that keeps burrowing. It took me many man tries but I finally got it. Star 52!

I just entered the gate to meet Rosalina. I then worked together with the red luma to learn the ability to fly. This also gained me my 53rd star. Just 7 to go now!

I just fed a hungry star so I am going to try Boo's Boneyard! What a creepy galaxy. I am going to race a boo here. It was a tough race. The trick to this one is to shake your controller to turn invisible. This also gives you more speed. 54th star, just 6 to go now!

I am now in the garden for the first time. It is beautiful and peaceful here. I am going to try the Dreadnought galaxy first. Should be quite a challenge. I am infiltrating a huge spaceship and it is quite a challenge inside here. This one is giving me a lot of trouble, I will revisit it later. I am really exhausted after a long day of Mario.

Now back to the Buoy Base galaxy to grab another green star. I had to swim under the water to fetch this one. Not so bad, now I am up to 55 stars. 5 to go now.

Well I have yet to have tried the Dusty Dune Galaxy. Lets give that a shot! Time to soar ont he desert Winds. This feels just like the old desert levels. This involves flying inside of dust tornados, a lot of fun! It was a realy tough journey to the top of this tower on the tornados but I made it up.. Star 56 is mine. 4 to go now.

Now I am going to try and "blast through the sand". Well I am having trouble in the very beginning just killing Pokies. I am so exhausted perhaps it is time to stop for today. Just 4 stars to go for tomorrow!

Day 5: Mario Galaxy- Bee Time

2010-02-27T21:37:00.001-06:00

Time has really passed, but a lot of good progress has occurred in my life during this time. Now that I have made some great new discoveries in my life, I am taking some time to relax and return to my game. Back now to the Gold leaf galaxy! Time to Cataquak to the skies! Ah the bee suit, I love having this on once more! In this stage you are getting boosts from Cataquaks to get lifted into the sky then you fly away! Well that was a real fun star, it was all about flying as a bee so I can't complain. I am up to 41 stars now.

Now for "When it rains, it pours" How interesting, there is a rain storm on the planet now! When you get hit with water in the bee suit you lose it so it is kind of an interesting mechanic. You spend your time flying cloud to cloud to fight an angry mole at the top of the bee's observatory. Well I just beat up the mole and now the bees are free again! This galaxy has been saved! 42 stars now!

After that I just discovered the Honeyclimb galaxy back in the bedroom. It must be Bee time again! Time to scale the sticky wall! I love the Mario 3 remixed music in this stage! This was a lot of fun climbing a huge mountain of beehive honey stickiness, avoiding beetles and collecting star bits. I admit I died a couple of times but the extra lives I gained made up for it. That is 43 stars now!

Back to the Gold Leaf galaxy now. There is a cosmic comet in order. I wonder what this will entail. A cosmic mario forest race! This is a real tough one, I have to master the long jump to wint his.The trick to this race is to long jump CONSTANTLY. My hand is exhausted from this race now! Well that was a good success. 44 stars!

Now I am going to fly to the Toy Time galaxy for the first time. Heavy Metal-Mecha Bowser. This stage looks awesome, has a picture of retro Mario 1 on the window. It also has a remixed song of Mario 1!
Wow and this stage also introduced me to a new suit. The Spring Mario suit! Now I can bounce around. Oh this is just way too much fun!!! I think my fight is coming soon! scary music so that is ominous. This is a real challenge. That was one of the toughest stars ever. Well I think the time is now coming for the engine room bowser stage. Let's see how it is.

Alright it is time for this fight!. What a messed up lava full stage! Just another stage where you have to make Bullet Bill chase you. Now there are some crazy cannon shooters after me. OK time for the boss fight... just as in the picture up above. Died my first try.. here we go again. That was an incredibly difficult fight but I toughed it out and managed to survive. Now I can start working on the Garden galaxies. I believe I will take a break now and have something to eat.

Day 4: Sonic Unleashed

2010-02-21T17:44:00.003-06:00

Well I am off to play Sonic again! This is my second day with the game and I am just enjoying it to the fullest. I love the absolute peaceful atmosphere you have in the cities. Another one of the charming things about this game is the XML loading screen. As a web programmer, this gives me a certain nostalgic feeling, as I am sure many feel in this growing world of technology.

I am off to Agonia now to find the Temple of Gaia. This will be my first time using Daytime Sonic since I played the demo. I am not used to this and I have a tendency of blasting myself back into the town from the level. Well now onto the Svannah citadel! The game is extremely fast and when I was asked to do certain button combos, I was so hyped up that I didn't complete them correctly. Still what a blast, I love this game and it really brings back the classic Sonic fast feeling in 3D!.

Now it is time to fight the Eggman beetle. I had some trouble with this first run so now I am watching Princess try it. He is a lot harder than he used to be in the old Genesis games. It is a 3d battle kind of like the old Sonic 2 special stage where you automatically run. There is only one point where you can attack Robotnick , at least as far as i can tell. Unfortunately that attack does very little damage. I wish there was another way to get him, it seems like this is just taking longer than it should. Well that fight took me forever, a whole 19 minutes. I only got a rank E, leading me to believe there has to be another way to beat Dr. Robotnick in that fight. After that fight we ended up restoring part of the planet back to normal!!! A planet sized jigsaw puzzle? sounds like a great excuse to see the world! And I just got my first trophy, Still Broken!

Now I am off to the great white north. In this area you can dash across the icy water during the day time. I ended up getting some awesome new boots that let me do a mid-air stomp, Mario 64 style. This also unlocked another trophy! I couldn't figure out what I needed to do to start the levels up, I may need to complete some levels somewhere else first.

Well I ended up baack in Spagonia and now this strange character, Amy Rose is hugging Sonic in his nighttime form. Well, it was an emotionally distressing scene for Sonic. I need to go back and play more of the newer Sonic games sometime so I can learn these characters. Well now I am off to meet the professor and tell him the news. Now there are manuscripts to retrieve both here and in that cold place. Now I just learned how to wall jump and earned another trophy! But I am really stuck I am not sure how to start up anymore levels. I think I may take a break from this for now.

Day 4: Super Mario Galaxy

2010-02-21T11:23:00.002-06:00

You may have noticed that between days 2 and 3, about 3 days passed. This is done purposely for a few reasons:
1. This will be a more accurate count of how many days of my life I spend playing games
2. It will be easier for me as I publish to keep track of the correct day number
3. It will produce a much cleaner look to the page having each day be sequential

Well this morning I am back to Mario Galaxy once more. I have been hopping around from game to game a bit as my mood changes. Mario Galaxy is a new classic to me, almost as much fun as the classic Super Mario 64 was in my life. After a day of some intense Sonic on PS3, it will take a small adjustment to go back to the Wii motion controls. How nice, to start off I received a letter from Princess Peach enclosed with 5 1-ups! I love the observatory in this game, the music is so tranquil. I also really like the new character, Rosalina. She is mature and sweet with her own amazing story. As you continue to play the game, you unlock her library where she will read to you from a picture book, explaining the story of her background. I have only listened to the first chapter so far, but it was an amazing experience. I shall listen to more of it in the future.

I decided to start my day off by returning to the very first level, Good Egg Galaxy! You know when I first came here looking for Luigi, I failed, ending up getting a regular star I already completed at the end... but what is this I see as I reach the level? It is Luigi up on the roof in the beginning! Another thing I have to add, is the music on this level is just of an epic quality that you don't find in many games. This is right up there with all the classic Mario tunes. Well I just got up onto the roof and Luigi just gave me the star! Thanks bro! That was quite gratifying, Luigi and Mario cheer together as you get the star. I am now up to 38 Stars.

I am now off to the Bubble Breeze Galaxy from inside the Kitchen. I have not been here before so it should be interesting. Time to go "Through the Poison Swamp". What an interesting looking level. The Toads' space ship crash landed on a planet full of murky black water with green islands scattered around stony mountains. I am going to have to somehow ride the wind here. The trick to this level, is you go inside of a bubble, then you use the Wiimote to point a Star Blower at the bubble to move yourself around. It becomes a 2-D puzzle game. It was a really entertaining level, not too difficult. Up to 39 stars now.

Now onto the Gold Leaf Galaxy in the Engine room. This was quite an interesting level. It takes place in autumn, covered in beautiful brown leaves. We are helping the rabbits find various blue star pieces. There is a short puzzle to each of them, and it was a lot of fun completing it. Mario even got to use the bee-suit which is always a special treat. The level concludes with a bunny chase. The trick to this was hitting the switch to add obstacles to the planet. Trap the bunny between you and the obstacle, and the star is yours!

Overall this was a great experience. I am going to stop with Mario Galaxy for now, possibly to return later. My star count is now at 40.

Day 3: Sonic Unleashed

2010-02-20T20:51:00.001-06:00

Wow... Sonic Unleash starts off with such an epic space opening.. You know you are in for something special when you start this game up and hear the amazing music. As soon as the game begins, you are treated to an AMAZING space scene, I would say bordering on as awesome as Star Wars. Sonic is just fast, rendered beautifully in 3D and escaping all kinds of sci-fi insanities! Just watching this reminds me of how much I loved Sonic growing up as a boy. Dr. Eggman Robotnick is one extremely evil villain. In this game, sonic is turning into a Hedgewolf. I refuse to call him a wearhog, since wear means man. To me that has to be one of the grandest video game intros ever.

Now some history:
I recieved my PS3 back in Christmas 2008. Shortly after, I downloaded the demo for this game, Sonic Unleashed. I really enjoyed the demo a lot, but figured I would get the game when it came down to 30 dollars or so. Well, today I was out doing some shopping and made some amazing finds. A bit off topic, but I stopped off at the thrift store. Over there I picked up an old PSone for 3 dollars as well as a classic SNES mouse. From there, I was off to find Sonic Unleashed for PS3, to celebrate a special occurrence in my life. I stopped over at Gamestop, they only had one copy used going for 25$. I could get it cheaper new on Amazon, so I hopped over to the Walmart next to it. Unfortunately they didn't have any copies of it, but I did manage to pick up Nights for Wii for just 10 dollars. Not ready to give up quite yet, I stopped over at another Walmart... and lucky for me they had one copy of Sonic Unleashed on PS3 for 20 dollars! Oh and it didn't stop there.. in the next aisle over, a game I was looking to get for Princess for a long time happened to be there, and a lot cheaper than I have seen it for online. This game was on my radar for months, in fact just last week I was impressed that Newegg had the game for 30 dollars or so... I was even close to purchasing it. Well, lucky for me they had it there for 20 dollars! I knew Princess was going to be surprised when I brought all these games home, and indeed she was!

Princess A is actually playing the Sonic game at the moment for me as I blog right here. I am blown away by the graphics and intense fast gameplay. Sonic is a lot faster than he used to be. Right now she is playing in a coastal village stage, French Riviera/Monte Carlo type of place. This is in fact the same level that we played in the demo that got us so hooked! Princess is having a great time with this and I have to say I am having a great time watching. You feel the pain when you lose some rings! I am glad I decided to get this game on PS3 and not Wii, the graphics are just made for a high end HD video game system. I am going to be taking my turn here next. I do not think I have time to blog as I do the level since it is so fast.

After spending 26 minutes on the Hedgewolf stage, I have to say I am blown away by this game. Once the game turns to night and you transform, you are thrown into an action packed beat-em-up type of game. The game is not about speed but pure fun action and multi-hit combos. You gain experience and can give yourself more moves, higher attack, shields, life and etc. It is a really gratifying game. Unfortunately towards the end I messed up some platforming section, losing all the coins and points I gathered. I have since handed the game off back to Princess, and she is busy with an amazing flying shooter-style level. You have to hit certain buttons to shoot incoming enemies. It is quite frantic! I love how this game combines multiple action/adventure elements fluidly. The scenery is also quite beautiful. I have to say it is also heartwarming to see Tails back in the game. I always liked him.

We spent a bit more time doing the next Hedgewolf level. It was really quite a challenge leading to an epic endless battle with robot knights at the end. Overall I have to say so far this game is well worth the money. There is an interesting mix of gameplay and classic Sonic fun. I highly recommend this game.

Day 2: Mario Kart Wii

2010-02-17T21:01:00.000-06:00

I am now trying out manual drifting in Mario Kart Wii. I am going through the time trials with Rosalina, and I have to say this will take some getting used to. I am using the Wii Wheel, and to drift you need to hold down the trigger underneath the wheel. It is a bit awkward with the wheel. I used to be pretty good at getting the drift speed boosts in Mario Kart 64 but this is a whole new animal. Oh and I have to say I just LOVE Moo Moo Farm. The music in that stage is just amazing. I just completed Mushroom Gorge with the Shooting Star motorcycle, and I think I am finally getting the hang of this manual drifting. I am also becoming more comfortable doing wheelies! And I just finished the night with some Toad's factory. I am definately getting the hang of the manual drifts but it will probably take a bit longer for me to really get used to it. It adds a whole new feel to this game that I love so much.

Day 2: Rayman Raving Rabbids

2010-02-17T20:09:00.000-06:00

This game is just pure hilarious! It is a bunch of fun mini games with really funny looking rabbits. I just aced through a section of Disco dancing where you shake the Wiimote and Nunchuck to the beat of the music.
Now I just completd a game where i have to shake my arm with the nunchuck and aim with the Wiimote to shoot the Rabbids with carrot juice. My arm feels soooo exhausted from that little game! It was no easy task I will tell you!

And now after about 20 tries (today) I finally beat Bunnies don't close doors. This one was very challenging and had me stuck another night. You have 4 stalls with bunnies trying to use the restroom. You have to close the doors in front of them to keep them inside. It starts off simple enough but soon doors are opening everywhere and its out of control. You have to find a kind of Zen to complete this.

Now I just completed Bunnies don't like being disturbed on vacation. This was a really fun game, kind of like the old style Arcade gun shooter game, but you are shooting plungers instead. I had a real blast with this one. I have to say though I am pretty tired tonight and I think I may stop here. Your game only saves when you go back to your holding cell, and since I just made it I am going to stop for tonight.

Day 1- Super Mario Galaxy- Freezeflame Galaxy

2010-02-16T18:46:00.000-06:00

I have gathered 35 stars so far. I am now on Freeze Flame galaxy trying to go for the second star. Just started smashing ice blocks to gather some star warp pieces. I love how this game has no time limit so you can just relax yourself as you play. What I loved about Mario 64 was that it was so free flowing. You could just relax, explore and have fun! I love how this level shifts from ice to heat so quickly. It really is a creative concept. I believe I tried for this star once before, but failed it was quite challenging. I just got the Fire Flower in this stage. Unlike other Mario games, the fire flower is a temporary power up that allows you to shoot out fireballs by shaking the Wiimote. There are little stone towers you have to light to unlock more of the stage and you have to avoid giant spiky balls as you do so. I just found out that you can shoot the spiky balls with the Fireball which makes life a lot easier! After actually unlocking the star in this level, I ended up falling in the fire and dying, having to complete the puzzle again. However I just completed it and achieved the Freezeflame's Blistering Core. I feel really gratified completing this star, as it has been a few weeks since I last attempted this one, and now I have finally mastered it.
I am now attempting Hot and Cold Collide, star count now up to 36. This particular level is really wild, starting off with ice skating while avoiding fireballs. I ended up in an area full of freezing water that slowly kills you if you are not careful. The level concludes with you using the ice flower to skate across hot lava surfaces, ending one of the coolest (or hottest if you will) levels in the history of all video games. I really enjoyed this world and I am happy to have made it my first blogger post!