Starting with the second game, the series got miles better. The second game being my personal favorite. The gameplay introduced in the first game is mostly intact. Move around your 3 by 3 area, use battlechips, kill the enemy. This takes that and improves it threefold. First, the combat is faster and much more stylish. There is an emphasis on what are called Program Advances. Meaning you take 3, sometimes 4 or more battlechips in a certain order, and they make a combo attack. For instance, combining sword, widesword, and longsword makes the program advance called Lifesword. It's a sword with an extended range that does 400 damage. Next they introduced the * code. The * code means that that battle chip can be used with anything. You can pick out some J coded chips and a * coded chip and use them all at once. The game even improved on the plot (which I will get into) and my favorite aspect of the series, the postgame.
The plot this time around is really dark and kind of grim. It focuses on a criminal organization called Gospel and their plan to create a 'suprnavi' (*spoiler* that would be Bass). To do this they need certain programs located throughout world. Here's the thing that makes the plot dark, they are legitimately evil! They kill people, a lot of people, and when they're not doing that they're putting people in serious risk. Here's a brief rundown of what they do, blow up a subway station, try to crash a plane, infiltrate a secret Net-Police meeting and kill half of them, attempt to gas an 8 year-old, overthrow a country's net-government, the list goes on! Gospel is legitimately intimidating but the payoff at the end of the game where you learn about the leader is meh.
The villains this time around are Airman (Megaman 2), Quickman (MM2), Cutman (MM1), Shadowman (MM3), Knightman (MM6), Magnetman (MM3), and Freezeman (MM7). As for optional encounters (secret bosses included) there is Gutsman (MM1), Toadman (MM4), Gateman (original), Thunderman (also original), Snakeman (MM3), Heatman (MM2), Protoman (various), Pharohman (MM4), Napalman (MM5), and Planetman (original but stupid). Once again the bosses are the highlight because there are some unique gimmicks. When you fight Toadman, he stands on lily pads that travel across his end of the battlefield. Against Cutman, there is a gigantic boulder in the middle of your battlefield forcing you to go around in a circle. Lastly, Knightman is invincible unless he changes color. The bosses are really fun if a bit easy (if you know what you're doing).
The difficulty for this game is definitely there, Airman (first boss) is piss easy but after him it gets more and more challenging. Quickman is incredibly difficult the first time you fight him, as is Shadowman. The game has kind of a difficulty spike part way through but it's relatively easy all the way through, even the final boss is easy. It's a lot harder than the first one because this time the bosses have a lot of hp and they do a lot of damage! This is a good thing.
What this game has over all of the others (except maybe the third one), is an expansive postgame. The first game had a postgame but there wasn't much to it. This game has a gigantic postgame. In the course of the story you get licenses that admit you to different parts of the game to progress the plot. You only get two of them and there are 6 in total. You can go after the rest of them and doing so allows you to access some of the harder areas in the game. In this game there is an area called the Undernet, for plot purposes you only need to 3 or 4 areas of it, there are 8 areas of this place. After beating the game you can get access to Undernet 7 and 8 and even the secret WWW area. That is where the secret bosses Napalman, Pharohman, and Planetman lie. The game definitely keeps you busy with the postgame because there is a lot to do. I highly recommend this game, it's not the best in the series but it is my favorite.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Megaman Battle Network
This series did not start out well. The first is arguably the worst of the 6 games (yeah there are 6!). It at least introduces the aspects that made the series good (although it isn't the first one I played). You play as Lan (bad pun, I know) with his net navi (navigator), Megaman. The first thing that I like about the series is the setting. It's set in the near(ish) future, keeping with Megaman fashion, it never pins down a year (ie 20XX). In this future the internet is accessed with net navigators, or navis and the internet is a place that you physically explore and you can fight viruses and other enemies. Lan lives in ACDC town (another bad pun) with his mother, father, and his friends; Dex, Mayl, and Yai. The objective of the game is to follow the plot and stop the evil Dr. Wily from launching the Life Virus which would shut down the entire internet (somehow). So the plot is pretty half assed.
What is interesting to note about this game in particular is that there was a manga (Megaman NT Warrior) that accompanied it. The manga is actually really good, I only own the first two issues and they cover the events of the first game and start into the second game. My only guess is it got discontinued because I've never been able to find it again. There was also a TV show that went alongside with the games but wasn't really in canon with them.
The gameplay is where it truly excels, it's a mix between action, strategy, and rpg (the latter will become apparent in later installments). The game opens with you in your house and your parents call you to fight off a virus that's in the fridge (I think). One other thing to note is that in this future EVERYTHING is run by computers and that relates to exploration which I'll get into later. You jack into the fridge, meaning you send Megaman in there) to fight the virus. There you meet the most basic enemies in the game, Metools/Mettaurs! Yep a classic Megaman enemy is in this game and there are many more to come. In the fight you're introduced to the controls. Every fight in the game takes place on a 3 by 6 grid. It is broken in half, a 3 by 3 area is yours (indicated by blue) and the other 3 by 3 area is the enemies (indicated by red). You get a menu with your selection of battlechips (weapons). You can select any chip of the same code for instance you can get a widesword C and a timebomb C. Or you can select two or more of the same chip. In battle you can move around your 3 by 3 area and use selected chips with the A button. You use your megabuster with the B button, it does crap damage but it is upgradable to do decent damage. Your objective in each battle you get in is to delete the enemy as fast as possible.
It's the 'as fast as possible' part where the fun comes in. There's something really satisfying about destroying enemies in less than a second. Depending on how fast you kill an enemy you get a ranking from 1 to S. Based on your ranking you might get a new battle chip. This is what I really like about the series. The basic premise of the Megaman series was beat the bad guy, take his power. This is the same thing taken to the nth degree. You can get battle chips from EVERY SINGLE ENEMY IN THE GAME, INCLUDING BOSSES (you can actually get 3 different ones from bosses).
The basic flow of the game is to run around following the plot. You can use the R button to jack into different places. This is the exploration part of the game, you never know what you can jack into. Sometimes it might be a TV, or in some instances a tree! The areas inside TV's and such are just large squares where you can encounter viruses (sometimes unique ones) and you can often find items. You can use the L button to talk to Megaman when in the real world so you never really get lost. Another high point of the game is the bosses. What this series does well is it takes bosses from the original series and reimagines them. In this game we have Fireman (Megaman 1), Iceman (Megaman 1), Colorman (original for this game I think), Stoneman (???), Elecman (Megman 1), Bombman (Megaman 1), Magicman (don't know), and Bass (various installments) for the villains. As far as people you can challenge to net battles (that's what they call it) we have Gutsman (Megaman 1), Skullman (Megaman 4), Woodman (Megman 2), Sharkman (original for this game I think), and Protoman/Blues (Megaman 3 and on). There are two secret bosses, Pharohman (Megaman 4) and Shadowman (Megman 3). A boss battle consists of dodging attacks, landing your own and depleting their hp before they kill you. Straightforward really.
I want to talk about the negative aspects of the game first, it's piss easy. Bosses barely have any hp and if you have strong enough attacks you can kill them before they have a chance to attack. Second, the area design is awful, absolutely horrendous. It's designed in such a way that there are no definitive areas, it all looks the same. There's no indication that you are going where you need to go, in other games if you pause it, it tells you that you're in Den Area 2 or whatever. Not this one. When I played through this game, I had to pull up a map online to figure out where I was going, you shouldn't have to do that! One other thing, when ever you get into a boss 'scenario', the part of the game where the boss shows up, you have to go into some computer and stop them or whatever, is awful. Fireman's scenario is okay and Stoneman is tolerable but once you get to Iceman, that's when it becomes unbearable. In other games when you get to the boss area, you go through 3 or 4, on rare occasions, 5 areas to get to the boss, following whatever the gimmick is. In this game, starting with Iceman, each boss area is 5-7 areas long. 5-7 long areas. Sometimes you have to go through more than once! The gimmicks usually consist of puzzles, for Fireman you have to put out fires with an ice program that has limited uses. For Iceman you have to slide on ice, melt it, and figure out where the hell you're supposed to go. For Colorman (I like this one) you go through various short areas flipping switches to turn on paths to get to the switch at the end. For Elecman (holds back rage) you explore vast areas trying to collect batteries to put in a certain order to light the path forward. Sound fun? It isn't. Of course that's the puzzle they reuse in the final area of the game. What really makes this game unenjoyable is how slow it feels. Especially if you use a navi chip (an attack you get from a boss) it takes a full 10-15 seconds to do the animation. This game is the worst installment in the series but it gets better, boy does it get better.
What is interesting to note about this game in particular is that there was a manga (Megaman NT Warrior) that accompanied it. The manga is actually really good, I only own the first two issues and they cover the events of the first game and start into the second game. My only guess is it got discontinued because I've never been able to find it again. There was also a TV show that went alongside with the games but wasn't really in canon with them.
The gameplay is where it truly excels, it's a mix between action, strategy, and rpg (the latter will become apparent in later installments). The game opens with you in your house and your parents call you to fight off a virus that's in the fridge (I think). One other thing to note is that in this future EVERYTHING is run by computers and that relates to exploration which I'll get into later. You jack into the fridge, meaning you send Megaman in there) to fight the virus. There you meet the most basic enemies in the game, Metools/Mettaurs! Yep a classic Megaman enemy is in this game and there are many more to come. In the fight you're introduced to the controls. Every fight in the game takes place on a 3 by 6 grid. It is broken in half, a 3 by 3 area is yours (indicated by blue) and the other 3 by 3 area is the enemies (indicated by red). You get a menu with your selection of battlechips (weapons). You can select any chip of the same code for instance you can get a widesword C and a timebomb C. Or you can select two or more of the same chip. In battle you can move around your 3 by 3 area and use selected chips with the A button. You use your megabuster with the B button, it does crap damage but it is upgradable to do decent damage. Your objective in each battle you get in is to delete the enemy as fast as possible.
It's the 'as fast as possible' part where the fun comes in. There's something really satisfying about destroying enemies in less than a second. Depending on how fast you kill an enemy you get a ranking from 1 to S. Based on your ranking you might get a new battle chip. This is what I really like about the series. The basic premise of the Megaman series was beat the bad guy, take his power. This is the same thing taken to the nth degree. You can get battle chips from EVERY SINGLE ENEMY IN THE GAME, INCLUDING BOSSES (you can actually get 3 different ones from bosses).
The basic flow of the game is to run around following the plot. You can use the R button to jack into different places. This is the exploration part of the game, you never know what you can jack into. Sometimes it might be a TV, or in some instances a tree! The areas inside TV's and such are just large squares where you can encounter viruses (sometimes unique ones) and you can often find items. You can use the L button to talk to Megaman when in the real world so you never really get lost. Another high point of the game is the bosses. What this series does well is it takes bosses from the original series and reimagines them. In this game we have Fireman (Megaman 1), Iceman (Megaman 1), Colorman (original for this game I think), Stoneman (???), Elecman (Megman 1), Bombman (Megaman 1), Magicman (don't know), and Bass (various installments) for the villains. As far as people you can challenge to net battles (that's what they call it) we have Gutsman (Megaman 1), Skullman (Megaman 4), Woodman (Megman 2), Sharkman (original for this game I think), and Protoman/Blues (Megaman 3 and on). There are two secret bosses, Pharohman (Megaman 4) and Shadowman (Megman 3). A boss battle consists of dodging attacks, landing your own and depleting their hp before they kill you. Straightforward really.
I want to talk about the negative aspects of the game first, it's piss easy. Bosses barely have any hp and if you have strong enough attacks you can kill them before they have a chance to attack. Second, the area design is awful, absolutely horrendous. It's designed in such a way that there are no definitive areas, it all looks the same. There's no indication that you are going where you need to go, in other games if you pause it, it tells you that you're in Den Area 2 or whatever. Not this one. When I played through this game, I had to pull up a map online to figure out where I was going, you shouldn't have to do that! One other thing, when ever you get into a boss 'scenario', the part of the game where the boss shows up, you have to go into some computer and stop them or whatever, is awful. Fireman's scenario is okay and Stoneman is tolerable but once you get to Iceman, that's when it becomes unbearable. In other games when you get to the boss area, you go through 3 or 4, on rare occasions, 5 areas to get to the boss, following whatever the gimmick is. In this game, starting with Iceman, each boss area is 5-7 areas long. 5-7 long areas. Sometimes you have to go through more than once! The gimmicks usually consist of puzzles, for Fireman you have to put out fires with an ice program that has limited uses. For Iceman you have to slide on ice, melt it, and figure out where the hell you're supposed to go. For Colorman (I like this one) you go through various short areas flipping switches to turn on paths to get to the switch at the end. For Elecman (holds back rage) you explore vast areas trying to collect batteries to put in a certain order to light the path forward. Sound fun? It isn't. Of course that's the puzzle they reuse in the final area of the game. What really makes this game unenjoyable is how slow it feels. Especially if you use a navi chip (an attack you get from a boss) it takes a full 10-15 seconds to do the animation. This game is the worst installment in the series but it gets better, boy does it get better.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Megaman Battle Network Series Retrospective
Since I can't seem to focus on one thing for more than five minutes I want to talk about a series that got me through middle school. The Megaman Battle Network series, Megman spinoffs are notoriously bad. From the decent but at times unfairly difficult Zero series to the Starforce series on the DS. The Starforce series, while having a more involved plot but simplistic gameplay makes the games piss easy. It is essentially the Battle Network series in 3D but it doesn't work. That's not what I'm going to talk about, I want to talk about the Battle Network series, all 6 of them. It's a series that I enjoy greatly and most of the games are worth checking out. MOST of them. Stay tuned (I'm continuing to assume that someone out there somewhere actually reads this) for overviews of all 6 games.
Everfree NW Day 3, The CMC'S!
Day 3 was rather simple because we only did a couple of things. We got some things autographed, I got my Fluttershy autographed by Andrea Libman! After that, we saw the CMC panel which was great and of course Liam asked another great question (slipped my mind what he asked). Since Sunday was a short day (I went home after the CMC panel) I don't have a lot to say. In the 24 hr. gaming area we played some super smash bros and a bunch of people were playing MLP karaoke (that's a thing now) and it was really entertaining. All in all this was the single greatest con I've ever been to (ignore the fact that it was my second con :/). Great job to all the staff, thank you all who attended and all who made it what it is. I look forward to more Everfree and to all bronies reading this, we're awesome! To those that didn't know, there was an auction held at Everfree to raise money for children's hospital, the auction raised over 13000 dollars! Bronies, give yourselves a round of applause! If you donated, give yourselves two rounds of applause! Till next time everypony, I'll go back to writing random crap about video games.
Everfree NW Day 2, Panels!
After passing out at 2am from ponying it up all night, we woke up at 6am and got breakfast. I was so exhausted I drank 3 cups of coffee to keep me going. One thing I forgot to mention in the last post was the single greatest musical moment I've seen in my life. Mic the Microphone doing an impromptu performance of Don't Stop Believing by Journey. Yes, that happened and it was amazing! Back on topic, this was the day we saw the VA panel. We got up to the 12th floor at about 9:00 to see if we could get in but we were asked to leave so we don't recreate Pony Hell. However, we got our names on a list, yeah a list.
When we came back roughly 30 minutes before the panel began we were asked to leave. The following conversation went like this:
Wesley: uh we were put on a list of some sort.
Staff: you know about the list?
Wesley: Yeah, we know about the list.
Staff: *looks around* go on in and sit in the second row.
That's the power of the list! We got so lucky because the people that were up there when we first got on the list were there since 3am! O_O Needless to say the VA panel was incredible. Now I want to talk about the brohoof seen around the world. I think among all of us Isaac and Wesley's little brother (Liam) had the best time of all of us. See the panel was being streamed to the streaming room in the Mariott and in different parts of the world, mostly the UK (Everfree Radio rocks!). Halfway through the panel there was a Q&A panel and Liam got in line to ask a question. When his turn comes he asks one of the greatest questions to ever come out of a child's mouth. "What was your reaction when you first found out about bronies?" The question got a standing ovation from the audience, the VA's stood there for a moment kind of stunned and proceeded to answer the question. Then, before Liam sat down, the VA's called him up there and brohoofed him. This was the brohoof seen by thousands.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the 24 hr. gaming room, I bought a Vinyl Scratch hat, and we saw a stream of Ponies the Anthology II. After that we got in line for Ponystock. Day 2 of Ponystock was incredible but I missed Alex S. and Eurobeat Brony (damn my need for sleep). However I did see the Beatle Bronies, Mando Pony, and Acoustic Brony. It was all incredible! Unfortunately I missed the dance party after midnight when Alex S. and Eurobeat Brony played ;_;
That marked the end of day 2, it winded down considerably after Friday.
When we came back roughly 30 minutes before the panel began we were asked to leave. The following conversation went like this:
Wesley: uh we were put on a list of some sort.
Staff: you know about the list?
Wesley: Yeah, we know about the list.
Staff: *looks around* go on in and sit in the second row.
That's the power of the list! We got so lucky because the people that were up there when we first got on the list were there since 3am! O_O Needless to say the VA panel was incredible. Now I want to talk about the brohoof seen around the world. I think among all of us Isaac and Wesley's little brother (Liam) had the best time of all of us. See the panel was being streamed to the streaming room in the Mariott and in different parts of the world, mostly the UK (Everfree Radio rocks!). Halfway through the panel there was a Q&A panel and Liam got in line to ask a question. When his turn comes he asks one of the greatest questions to ever come out of a child's mouth. "What was your reaction when you first found out about bronies?" The question got a standing ovation from the audience, the VA's stood there for a moment kind of stunned and proceeded to answer the question. Then, before Liam sat down, the VA's called him up there and brohoofed him. This was the brohoof seen by thousands.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the 24 hr. gaming room, I bought a Vinyl Scratch hat, and we saw a stream of Ponies the Anthology II. After that we got in line for Ponystock. Day 2 of Ponystock was incredible but I missed Alex S. and Eurobeat Brony (damn my need for sleep). However I did see the Beatle Bronies, Mando Pony, and Acoustic Brony. It was all incredible! Unfortunately I missed the dance party after midnight when Alex S. and Eurobeat Brony played ;_;
That marked the end of day 2, it winded down considerably after Friday.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Everfree NW Day 1, Standing in line to party all night
I'm well aware that Everfree is a first year con. And having 1600 people for a first con is unheard of (should be some sort of world record). Naturally there are complications, namely with the registration process. I don't know all the details of what transpired but frankly the registration process was a trainwreck. Luckily, bronies are forgiving folk and being a first year con, this can totally be forgiven. Plus, you can stall bronies by making them sing! So much singing!!! We got into the Mariott (the hotel where some of the con was happening) at 6:30 to register. There was a lengthy (and entertaining) orientation which included bursting into song, Dustykat (the manliest brony in the world) and other things. Once registration really got rolling, it was deemed a badge free day, although in a situation like that, it's best to get your badge so you don't have to do it later.
The merch, I was not disappointed with the merch. I got so much stuff, I got brushables of Rarity and Applejack, a Derpy hat, a plush filly Vinyl Scratch (so cuuute!), 4 posters, two necklaces, a bookmark, and tomorrow I intend to get a Vinyl hat, a print for my friend, and lots of pins. The merch is expensive but I've saved up money for over 8 months for this and it has been worth my every penny.
I also fear that the Derpy hat has turned me into Derpy herself. I found myself in two instances where wanting to do something beneficial ended up backfiring entirely. The first being the Friendship is Witchcraft panel (I was only able to stay for half of it for this reason). We got there early and sat up front but it wasn't until it was about to start that they told us the front row was for sponsors and VIP's, we had to move. No place to move. Wesley was able to get a seat but I had to leave because it was deemed a fire hazard. The hotel workers really pull the strings here and it's important to respect that, they can pull the plug on this event at any time.
Second Derpy instance being when we were waiting to get into Ponystock (almost worthy of its own entry). Due to some technical difficulties, Ponystock was supposed to be set up on Thursday but due to said issues, they had to finish setting up right before it. This is where we get our entrance into pony Hell. A hallway about 8 feet wide stuffed with bronies. There is a decided lack of air, it is claustrophobic, and all around uncomfortable. My friends and I were getting really thirsty and hot so I volunteered to go buy water. I go down to the 5th floor and grab 4 waters come back up, they don't let me in... I just don't know what went wrong! Oh no! That means I couldn't get into Ponystock!
Wrong, the staff really got their act together and relocated the entire line (which was on the 12th floor) to the first floor. We created a neat and orderly(ish) line and got people up to Ponystock without any further problems. Ponystock, oh my god where do I even start? At this point it's about 9:00 and there was a Hotdiggetydemon (the .mov people) panel at 10:30 but we really wanted to do ponystock and boy was it worth it! First of all Ponystock has a hell of a lineup I'll just list a few, Beatle Bronies, Alex S, Mic the Microphone, Eurobeat Brony (!!!), Michael Paine (I think that's his name). Tonight was mostly the electronic music and it involved a lot of dancing and jumping around and all around insanity. I'll point out a slight logical fallacy, when we were outside waiting in line we were told to be quiet. We were told to be quiet so we could go inside just to be loud as hell. Okay...
Anyway, I got a picture with Mic the Microphone and a bunch of other musicians and one with the World's manliest brony (pics to come if my camera cooperates).
This being day 1 of a first year con, I want to say that it has been fantastic! To any and all worrying about it, I love it. I think many other people agree with me. Now that day 1 is over and the staff has all the bugs worked out, I assume that the next couple of days will only be better and better. God I'm still awake (it's 2am). I'll be signing off now and I'll continue my Everfree NW report later.
The merch, I was not disappointed with the merch. I got so much stuff, I got brushables of Rarity and Applejack, a Derpy hat, a plush filly Vinyl Scratch (so cuuute!), 4 posters, two necklaces, a bookmark, and tomorrow I intend to get a Vinyl hat, a print for my friend, and lots of pins. The merch is expensive but I've saved up money for over 8 months for this and it has been worth my every penny.
I also fear that the Derpy hat has turned me into Derpy herself. I found myself in two instances where wanting to do something beneficial ended up backfiring entirely. The first being the Friendship is Witchcraft panel (I was only able to stay for half of it for this reason). We got there early and sat up front but it wasn't until it was about to start that they told us the front row was for sponsors and VIP's, we had to move. No place to move. Wesley was able to get a seat but I had to leave because it was deemed a fire hazard. The hotel workers really pull the strings here and it's important to respect that, they can pull the plug on this event at any time.
Second Derpy instance being when we were waiting to get into Ponystock (almost worthy of its own entry). Due to some technical difficulties, Ponystock was supposed to be set up on Thursday but due to said issues, they had to finish setting up right before it. This is where we get our entrance into pony Hell. A hallway about 8 feet wide stuffed with bronies. There is a decided lack of air, it is claustrophobic, and all around uncomfortable. My friends and I were getting really thirsty and hot so I volunteered to go buy water. I go down to the 5th floor and grab 4 waters come back up, they don't let me in... I just don't know what went wrong! Oh no! That means I couldn't get into Ponystock!
Wrong, the staff really got their act together and relocated the entire line (which was on the 12th floor) to the first floor. We created a neat and orderly(ish) line and got people up to Ponystock without any further problems. Ponystock, oh my god where do I even start? At this point it's about 9:00 and there was a Hotdiggetydemon (the .mov people) panel at 10:30 but we really wanted to do ponystock and boy was it worth it! First of all Ponystock has a hell of a lineup I'll just list a few, Beatle Bronies, Alex S, Mic the Microphone, Eurobeat Brony (!!!), Michael Paine (I think that's his name). Tonight was mostly the electronic music and it involved a lot of dancing and jumping around and all around insanity. I'll point out a slight logical fallacy, when we were outside waiting in line we were told to be quiet. We were told to be quiet so we could go inside just to be loud as hell. Okay...
Anyway, I got a picture with Mic the Microphone and a bunch of other musicians and one with the World's manliest brony (pics to come if my camera cooperates).
This being day 1 of a first year con, I want to say that it has been fantastic! To any and all worrying about it, I love it. I think many other people agree with me. Now that day 1 is over and the staff has all the bugs worked out, I assume that the next couple of days will only be better and better. God I'm still awake (it's 2am). I'll be signing off now and I'll continue my Everfree NW report later.
Everfree NW Day 0
Thursday was when we were scheduled to head up to the hotel as Isaac was staffing. Isaac and I woke up bright and early (on 4 hours of sleep no less) and had some amazing waffles (courtesy of my epic waffle making skills). That's when we got our huge scare for the day. Isaac couldn't find his wallet. This is under the worst possible thing category as it has his debit card which was to pay for the hotel. After nearly tearing my house apart and pestering Wesley over Skype, Wesley found it and the crisis was averted but it was terrifying O_o.
We did a crap ton of running around, carrying a gigantic Welovefine bag filled with bedding everywhere along with personal affects. We kept a 'weird look' counter, we got to about 30. Haters gonna hate! We got ourselves to the hotel, got oriented, and prepared to sink into a world of pony!
We did a crap ton of running around, carrying a gigantic Welovefine bag filled with bedding everywhere along with personal affects. We kept a 'weird look' counter, we got to about 30. Haters gonna hate! We got ourselves to the hotel, got oriented, and prepared to sink into a world of pony!
Everfree NW Day -1
Wednesday, 8/15 was what I considered day -1 of Everfree. Although Everfree wasn't going to start until Friday, the antics and shenanigans started that day. Isaac, Wesley, and I decided to go on a pre con pony raid, we weren't terribly successful and we went to almost every Target in the city. It was fun, we had a derpy moment where we were relaxing in the shade only for the bus we were going to catch to zoom right past us (derp). It took a lot of planning and running around and I had to go to the last day of my Public Speaking class (rolls eyes). Who cares about that when there's ponies to be had? Isaac and I went back to my house afterwards, I helped him finish his Jeapordy panel and we ate some pizza and watched Pulp Fiction. Lots of fun.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
I'm going to review Castlevania games!
I'm a die hard Castlevania fan, it's like my third favorite series. I'd only played the newer games and didn't dare to touch the older ones for their legendary difficulty. Last night, I decided to beat Castlevania on an NES emulator with save states... Okay not the authentic experience but I beat it and now I want to share my thoughts because even with save states, that game was ridiculous.
People complain about the old Castlevania's having really crappy control. The biggest complaints being the jumping and the knockback. When you jump, if you don't hold a directional button, you're locked vertically. When you do hold a directional button, you're locked in that direction. When you get hit by ANYTHING you fly backwards and if you're near a pit that's instant death. I'm going to agree with Egoraptor by saying the game is built around the clunky control. You can't charge through it like Megaman or Super Mario Brothers, this is different. In 1986 when the game came out there was the first Megaman and Super Mario Brothers, those were two games you could plow through (maybe not Megaman, it's hard). Castlevania was different, there are certain sections where enemies remain stationary until you reach a particular pixel. This was intended for you to plan your attack. It wasn't going to come any closer until you did (I'm thinking about the Fleamen in the third level). This is a great game and I found it incredibly difficult.
I love the bosses in this game, it's an all star cast of horror icons, giant bats, mummies, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and Death himself. There is also the Medusa relating to Greek mythology but that's only there because of the fu**ing Medusa Heads. Each of these bosses is really fun to fight and require their own strategy. That's what this game is about strategy. Study each boss, and figure out how to adapt to the situation. That's what makes this game deep. The final showdown with Dracula is very satisfying but I won't spoil it. What are my thoughts on the corridor before Death? That was the single most maddening thing I've ever endured. It isn't the knights that take 9 hits that are the problem, it's Medusa Heads coming from two different directions! There is a pattern there, but it takes a lot of trial and error, that's all I'll say. All in all, this is an NES classic and is well worth playing.
People complain about the old Castlevania's having really crappy control. The biggest complaints being the jumping and the knockback. When you jump, if you don't hold a directional button, you're locked vertically. When you do hold a directional button, you're locked in that direction. When you get hit by ANYTHING you fly backwards and if you're near a pit that's instant death. I'm going to agree with Egoraptor by saying the game is built around the clunky control. You can't charge through it like Megaman or Super Mario Brothers, this is different. In 1986 when the game came out there was the first Megaman and Super Mario Brothers, those were two games you could plow through (maybe not Megaman, it's hard). Castlevania was different, there are certain sections where enemies remain stationary until you reach a particular pixel. This was intended for you to plan your attack. It wasn't going to come any closer until you did (I'm thinking about the Fleamen in the third level). This is a great game and I found it incredibly difficult.
I love the bosses in this game, it's an all star cast of horror icons, giant bats, mummies, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, and Death himself. There is also the Medusa relating to Greek mythology but that's only there because of the fu**ing Medusa Heads. Each of these bosses is really fun to fight and require their own strategy. That's what this game is about strategy. Study each boss, and figure out how to adapt to the situation. That's what makes this game deep. The final showdown with Dracula is very satisfying but I won't spoil it. What are my thoughts on the corridor before Death? That was the single most maddening thing I've ever endured. It isn't the knights that take 9 hits that are the problem, it's Medusa Heads coming from two different directions! There is a pattern there, but it takes a lot of trial and error, that's all I'll say. All in all, this is an NES classic and is well worth playing.
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