I Will Tax Them

I will tax them in a box.
I will tax them with a fox.
I will tax them in a house.
I will tax them with a mouse.
I will tax them here or there.
I will tax them anywhere.
I will tax eggs and ham.
I will tax them.

Devil Hunter Zero

It’s a Shin Megami Tensei cell phone game in Japan and I just like the logo.

Game Over: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

As 999 was coming out I had some interest, but only some. The buzz was that the game had a deep, compelling story and characters; from that I was instantly intrigued. Unfortunately, as I started to see art work for 999 I began to lose my interest. Considering the hype being that it was a truly mature, Mature rated game, the art direction seemed a bit childish. Hotel Dusk had a much more fitting art style and the reason I bring it up is because it is a similar game. I figured that I would just let the game come out, not sell, price drop and pick it up on the cheap. About a month later the game was still getting talked about, a lot. I was surprised by how much attention 999 was receiving weeks after it’s release. Word was spreading that it was starting to become difficult to find in stores so I looked around. True enough, the GameStop that I work at was the only store anywhere close that still had the game. I decide that I would buy it before it was any more difficult to get a hold of.

And so my voyage began. Instantly I was drawn in to the world of 999. The opening is truly fantastic and it slightly over sold the game to me. One thing besides the storytelling that stood out was the use of sound, something that doesn’t get much attention in DS games. While the use of ambiance is used throughout I did expect it to be more involved based of the first minutes of the game. Environments look nice and the music kept me playing with my headphones on late into the night.

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors can be broken down to three parts. The first part is the story and the second part is the puzzles. The third part is the ending.

The story; as well as the translation from the original Japanese is all nicely done. There is a lot of text and I only found two instances where there was a typo. The characters within the game build off each other creating a strong cast and their dialog is almost always interesting. I never found myself breezing past the text. There is also a rich mythology surrounding the story that borrows inspiration from the likes of Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and the many rumors surrounding the Titanic. I am a sucker for that kind of storytelling. Another key part in the story is your involvement through dialog choices of the character you play as. This directs the path the story will take and how it will inevitably end.

Scattered throughout 999 are environmental puzzles. Rather than having the whole game subjected to keeping track of found items to solve puzzles hours later (as in Hotel Dusk) 999 segments puzzles into single or multiple room area. In these areas you must discover a way to escape by finding objects and clues to solve math problems, visual puzzles and riddles.

After you reach the end of the game you will be left with questions, and you may feel unsatisfied by the turn of events. Don’t worry, this is likely the most important part of the game. 999 is designed to be played through multiple times; with multiple paths to be explored and in doing so you will unravel the mystery of 999. There are more puzzles to solve and new details to learn about the characters. I know by the time I reached the true ending I was glad I took the time to find it, and if any of this sounds interesting to you I think you will be too.

 

Samus, Dead or Alive?

I’m not sure if this is confirmation that Samus will be in Dead or Alive Dimensions but I really wanted to post the picture below, so there.

A Land Before Bongos

Brad and Adam discuss Donkey Kong Countries 1,2&3, and never once do they question how exactly everyone in the Kong Family is related. They also bring news and insight from Nintendo World 2011. Guess what? This weeks music is from Donkey Kong Country!

Click to download the newest episode of the Wii Are Fanboys Podcast.

Before this. ^

Game Over: Sonic Colors

Last year I beat my first Sonic game ever. I’m not what you would call a Sonic fan. I didn’t own a Sega system until the Dreamcast so I only ever got to play Sonic games occasionally during the Genesis days. I liked the original Sonic games okay, but after a few levels the games charm wore off on me. More recent Sonic games have done an even poorer job at capturing my attention. That is until Sonic Unleashed. I played a demo of Sonic Unleashed and really enjoyed the day stage that I played, but I never bought it to play the whole game because of all the bad things I heard about the night stages where you play as the Werehog.  When Sonic Colors was announced I was instantly intrigued at the prospect of playing a whole game in the style of Unleashed’s day stages. This designed decision proved to make a great game, and my new favorite Sonic game; although I don’t know if I could really tell what it was before.

There is a clear inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy in Sonic Colors. From the amount of side-scrolling sections, to the power-ups (most specifically the drill power that Sonic has), to the epic orchestrated score of the games start menu. The game is overall done very well. Most level bring something unique so I never felt bored by any of the levels, the too few and far between between cut-scenes looked nice and made me laugh. The cut-scenes before boss fights were strange in that they don’t show of the actual boss and has not dialog coming from the boss either, Sonic just talks to himself. I think this was done on purpose based on Sonic’s own questioning on why none of the bosses talk back to him.

I’m glad I bought Sonic Colors. While I wait for Sega to possibly make a sequel, there is plenty of game for to go back to. There are a red rings hidden each level and I missed many of them from earlier levels that require going back through once you unlock power up from later in the game. There are also leader boards for each level that I could try to place on if I felt like I was good enough to do so. I’ll just stick to having fun rather than frustrating myself over high scores.

3DS Battery Life and Confusion

Happy Hew Year

This weekend Nintendo in Japan is holding the 2011 Nintendo World event that is all about the 3DS coming out early this year. There seems to be some confusion about the supposed battery life listed on the Japanese site. The listed usage time is  3-5 hours and while that sounds terrible at first; it still requires some additional information for me to make up my mind and here is why.

I remember back when DSi was coming out there was a lot of chatter about the battery life of the new system. Nintendo posted the life based on the maximum brightness setting and there were many people that complained.  At the max settings on the DSi you are supposed to get 3 -4 hours of play time. If you turn the brightness all the way down you’ll get 9-14 hours of play and the screen is still brighter than the original DS at it’s brightest.

To me, it sounds like the 3DS is right on par with the DSi. Now the DSi is still the worst battery life of all the DS systems but I have never found it to be much of a problem. I am still waiting for some clarification on the 3DS battery life but for now I am content that Nintendo knows what they are doing.