Nintendo Wish List 2: Wish Harder

Not too long ago; while looking for pictures of Kirby I found some pieces of pixel art that reminded me of Hero Core, Earthbound and Tower of Heaven.

I also discovered that the same person that made theses images has also made a tragically short game using the same pixel art.

Play here.

I would personally like to see this, or something like it on DSiWare. There are not enough good platformers on the DSiWare service. It seems like a perfect fit.

Epic Math

Here is a word problem.

What do you get when you take, Sonic the Hedgehog,  Animal Crossing, Yoshi’s Island, Kirby’s Adventure and string them all together with colorful yarn?

Answer: Kirby’s Epic Yarn

I have played for about 4 hours so far and it is fantastic. More than even New Super Mario Bros. Wii; Kirby’s Epic Yarn reminds me of all the things that I love about playing video games as a child. Nintendo has always made games accessible and still have an edge, but Epic Yarn takes that idea up a notch with this outing. There is no traditional life bar in this game, you instead collect beads throughout the levels and if you get hit they will fly out of your body Sonic the Hedgehog style. You can run though each level hitting every enemy and fall in every hole, you can still make it through. The catch is collecting beads work as a score on how well each individual level is played and then rewards the player with a bronze, silver or gold medal based on the number of beads. The beads also work as the games currency; which can be used to buy furniture for your apartment or even add another level to you apartment complex. This is where the mini Animal Crossing game comes into play. You can even play games with your neighbors and the will in turn give you new wall papers.

The major gameplay change for this Kirby is that he can no longer steal the powers of his foes. Instead, he uses Transform Patches to gain new powers. These transformations are much like the ones in Yoshi’s Island, but instead of a helicopter, Kirby changes into a UFO, instead of a submarine, Kirby changes into a dolphin (although he turns into a submarine when he normally swims), instead of a train Kirby changes into a Tank, and instead of a mole, Kirby changes into… well, it’s pretty much the same thing. Infact the game is so similar to Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s Story that I could easily see this game starting out as Yoshi game early on.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn is great fun. Go out and buy a copy, it’s available today. Or go rent it, whatever. Just play this game, it’s fun for all ages!

Kaiba

I just finished Kaiba a few days ago and I keep thinking about it. It is a Japanese animation that is 12 episode long by animator and director Masaaki Yuasa; he has quickly become of my favorite artists and writers. Kaiba combines many of my favorite things, science fiction, dystopian society, fluid animation, strong colors, love, atmospheric music, good use of silence, and mystery. It’s no wonder why I enjoy this show so much. Since it’s only 12 episodes long and someone was nice enough to put the full series on You Tube in high quality; I was able to quickly get through the whole series in a couple of nights. It also helped that I was completely sucked in and stayed up sometimes until 5am watching. The reason it’s even on You Tube, and so very blatantly, is because it hasn’t be licensed in the US, unfortunately no American studio has found it in their interest to translate this beautiful story, just as another of my favorite Japanese anime, Dennou Coil. I wonder what other great shows I have been missing out on?

After finishing the show I started to look up other shows that Masaaki Yuasa worked on. They all look pretty fantastic. I started watching The Tatami Universe. It’s good, but the dialog is so fast it makes reading and paying attention to the vibrant animation relatively impossible. There is also a show called Kemonozume which looks to be good also, and not nearly as crazy fast. There are others too, it’s a shame for such a good artist to be so seemingly unknown outside of Japan.

Just thinking about Other M

I really like Metroid Other M. I’m still not sure if it’s because I recently played  and beat it, or if it is that good of a game. What I do know is that I had fun playing it initially and I have fun when I just mess around with it at work. I know it hasn’t sold very well; mostly because people don’t want to like it and thus can’t like it. I will be highly recommending Other M to parents looking for Christmas gifts for their children (along with Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Donkey Kong Country).

Wii Remote Plus

Anyone that has played Wii Sports Resort (Great game BTW) or any of the too few Wii games that use Wii Motion Plus have had to deal with the somewhat cumbersome Wii Motion Plus attachment. Nintendo has recently announced that they will be releasing Wii Remotes with the Motion Plus built into the controllers in a variety of lovely colors.

Nintendo (in Japan) will also start selling Wii Sports Resort with the new Wii Remote Plus, and the will of course be including the Wii Remote Plus with new Wii systems.

No word from Nintendo of America on if and when we will be getting these (or any number of games, Zangeki no Reginleiv, The Last Story, Xenoblade).

What Is Taking So Long?

I have to wonder, is there really a problem with my generation in regards to growing up and making a living out of something; that being the 20 somethings of today. Not that many of us aren’t thriving, but I see many like my self that struggling to make their place in the world and I am not sure if it’s something new that has stated to happen or has this been something that has been going on for sometime now. I just doubt tour Greatest Generation has this same issue, given they were thrusted into such a position. Or is this problem I perceive even really much a problem. Am I just making my own lack of drive out to be some dragging force on society because I suffer from it?

I ask these questions because I still find myself questioning, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Don’t get me wrong, this question has become more of a joke for myself in recent years. I do know what I want to make of my life, but because I spent so much time messing around and I am now consumed with working and wallowing in my past mistakes I find achieving my goals to be a daunting task. I am currently 25 and I have taken but baby steps towards my lofty aspirations. I have friends well into theirs carriers and I am only now finding it feasible to move out of my parents house. Please ladies, I’m only one man, get in line.

I think one answer to part of the problem I and other face is the lack of necessity. My parents are just too nice to me. They let me live here so I don’t have the “unless I make enough money to pay for rent I will be homeless” drive. And while I appreciate the kindness of my parent, I am reminded of the phrase, “If you love something, set it free.” Now this task of sending me off on my own might have been made easier if I had done what I could have done is high school; which is much better than what I actually did do. But that was just one of my many detours on the road to success.

The other issue would be an illusion of a multitude of choice for aspiring productive peoples. We all grew up thinking that we could be anything we wanted to be, and to some extent that is true, but I personally found that choice to be overwhelming and it also blinded me from the obvious choice I should have taken from the very beginning. This illusion of choice gave me ideas of my life as many different things. For instance, I like teaching people. I could be a teacher, but do I want to be a teacher in the traditional sense? Or do I want to take my greatest talents and interests and weave minor interests, like teaching, into a greater image of what I can do?

It took me a long time to finally come up with a viable idea of a carrier, maybe too long, but it can work. I just need to keep taking the next step towards my goal. Perhaps I should be doing that now instead of  typing this stream of conscious blathering.

Video Game Mashups

Final Fantasy: The 4 Warriors of Light

I have played a few hours of The 4 Warriors of Light. It has been a very enjoyable experience so far. Here are some of my thoughts the few hours in I am.

The score is a great blend retro 8 bit and orchestrated music. The art design is gorgeous and helps set the tone of this so far lighthearted adventure.

I’m glad there isn’t too much build up to the story of the game. It’s simple and throws you into the meat of the game quickly and doesn’t apologize for it.

You save by talking to a character known as The Adventurer. He just happens to be everywhere and he is awesome.

The turned-based battle system is simple but doesn’t keep the game from having difficulty. It uses an auto targeting system that always works so your main focus can be on managing your character’s Action Points.

A cat joins your party as one point.

Super Luigi Portal

This is a mock up of an idea that I had a while back that took Super Mario Bros. and added elements from the game Portal.

A New Game Every Week

I  have 11 games that I’m picking up in the next two months. This may lead me down the path I so often take of playing a game for a few hours and then never touching it again. Let hope not; there a lot of good games in this list.

Oct 03 Wii Party

Oct 05 Final Fantasy: the 4 Warriors of Light

Oct 12 Medal of Honor, Super Scribblenauts

Oct 17 Kiby’s Epic Yarn

Oct 19 Fallout: New Vegas, Vanquish

Oct 26 Rock Band 3

Nov 07 FlingSmash

Nov 16 Sonic Colors

Nov 21 Donkey Kong Country Reurns