I didn’t play at all last week!
Opps!
July’s token post about music
I’ve got to keep this blog from being entirely about video games, right?
So, I bought another Ninja Sex Party album. It’s called Under The Covers, and it is, appropriately, a cover album.
I’d say that it’s split about evenly between songs I know really well, and songs that I’d never heard before. On one hand, you’ve got age-old favourites like “Take On Me” and “Jump.” And there are two Rush songs. Two! That’s so cool! Then there’s stuff I’d never heard, like “The Burning Down” by King’s X. Probably my favourite track on the album, in fact, is the cover of “We Close Our Eyes” by Oingo Boingo, which I had absolutely no familiarity with before this album.
I swear to you that I’ve never heard Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” in my life, but I knew deep in my heart that it was a Michael Jackson song the first time I played it.
Anyway, I think it’s pretty solid as far as cover albums go. I can’t deny that I just love Danny’s voice, but they also make some interesting changes to each song. Like the bass solo in “We Close Our Eyes” that I love more and more every time I listen to it, or adding a piano to “Wish You Were Here.” I don’t feel that they really go so far as to make any of the songs their own, but that’s alright. The point of the album is to pay tribute to the bands that NSP loves, not to make a name for themselves through these covers.
The thing that really makes this album stand out (for better or for worse) is that in a way, it’s not really an NSP album. Their usual thing is comedic lyrics with fun electronic pop music. This is… it’s like the complete opposite. It’s still a lot of fun, but it just doesn’t feel like NSP at all. Not a single swear. Not a single explicit reference to sex. No Danny singing about his junk. These aren’t bad qualities, but like I keep saying: it’s not really NSP.
Regardless, I love this album and listen to it constantly. I don’t know how many times I’ve been sitting at my computer and go to play one song and then end up listening to the whole album. It’s great, and I would absolutely force my loved ones to listen to it if I had any avenue to do so.
Pokémon makes me Go places
I’ve had it for only a matter of hours, and Pokémon Go, the new mobile AR game from Niantic, has already persuaded me to explore a little and check out places I never would have gone otherwise. Since the game encourages you to check out local landmarks (historic sites, parks, murals, statues, etc), I’ve already seen a few things around my workplace that I haven’t noticed in the four years I’ve been here. It’s even cooler when the associated landmarks have little blurbs about them, to add learning to the fun and exercise.
Good on you, Pokémon Go. Good on you.
I’m still not gonna buy that massively overpriced bracelet, though. I want it, but even I cannot justify the cost.
Skyward Sword Replay: Week 5
Well, I was wrong. At least one dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has multiple floors. Indeed, the Ancient Cistern has both a 1F and a B1. Also, like the first two dungeons, it is a teeny-tiny little thing. Seriously, it’s like five rooms. Two of those rooms are massive, but that’s besides the point.
It’s also worth noting that the Ancient Cistern is aesthetically my absolute favourite dungeon in the entire series. It’s bright and vibrant, full of gold, blue, and green. It has a very pleasant Buddhist temple aesthetic that jives so perfectly well with the game’s painterly visual style. It’s just really nice.
Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up – June 2016
My free time from mid-April to mid-June was reduced very drastically by both school and my renewed efforts to get into slightly better physical shape, and now, now I am free from the clutches of higher learning (for a while) so that I can go back to wasting that portion of my spare time on mind-dulling television games.
😀 😀 😀
~ Game Over ~
Hyrule Warriors Legends (3DS) – Played through the story mode again for… collection purposes. Yeah, I’ll probably be playing this one forever.
The Legend of Zelda (NES) – All that Hyrule Warriorsing often makes me want to play real Zelda, and sometimes I do. Like this time, when I played the first one!
Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS) – It’s almost exactly like Triple Deluxe, but the Robobot Armor is a much more fun gimmick than Hypernova. Also, the sub-games are somehow even better. You can expect that I’ll be writing a big ol’ thing about them soon. As another note, the final boss is friggin’ AMAZING. Fanservicey as all heck, and I loved it.
Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS) – I also played through the entire Meta Knightmare Returns mode, which is playing through the game again as Meta Knight, but it’s all lined up as one super-long level, and all the bosses are powered up and there is a super-sweet trio of legacy bosses at the end.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game (360) – I got really frustrated with Ornstein and Smough in my Dark Souls replay, so I flipped over to something a little more friendly. In fact, this game is very easy to burn through when you have a maxed-out character. Still fun, and the music is phenomenal.
Cibele (PC) – A narrative game about a girl who meets a guy online, falls in love, and then meets up with him to bone. Guess how it ends.
Her Story (PC) – A narrative game where you’re sorting through hundreds of little interview clips to piece together the story of a murder. Only I didn’t realize that the game wasn’t functioning properly for me, so I only got audio clips when there were supposed to be accompanying videos! The game still worked, and I loved it. Recommended to everyone.
Mighty No. 9 (WiiU) – What was supposed to be the glorious (off-brand) return of Mega Man instead turned out to be half-baked and disappointing to most. I don’t hate it, but it’s generally underwhelming and the final boss is just so difficult.
~ Now Playing ~
Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) – Speaking of wanting to replay Zeldas… I hadn’t revisited Skyward Sword since I beat it the first time, and man, I am really digging it. I’ve been writing about it weekly, so… you know. Read those entries.
Monster Hunter Explore (iOS) – Most of my playtime was during the bus rides home from school. Now that I’m out of school until ????, I probably won’t play it until then.
Fallout 4 (PS4) – Started up a new game on my shiny new Playstation 4. I suppose that above all else, this spells the end for my stalled game of New Vegas. Also, no other game makes me wish there were more hours in the day. So that I could squander them on pointless video games, you see.
Pokémon Pearl Version (DS) – This was a very spur-of-the-moment replay decision. I really can’t even remember why I decided to go back to it. What I do know is that even after I’d confirmed that all the important Pokémon had been safely transferred away, it still killed me to overwrite my old save. This is why I very rarely replay Pokémon games.
Final Fantasy VII (PC) – One thing I always forget about FF7 is that enemy attack animations can be really long, and as a result, really drag out the battles. I would like a separate timer just to see how much of the game time has been spent watching monsters do elaborate attacks. Or a switch to just turn them off like Pokémon has.
Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (WiiU) – Yep. Still poking around in this one. I beat it, but I wanted to go back to find all the stamps and poes (which I still haven’t accomplished). I’ve played the game like five times before, and never explored the world nearly as thoroughly as I have this time around.
Dark Souls (360) – I get about an hour in each Saturday afternoon, and have managed to make my way back to Anor Londo. Yaaaay. As stated above, NG+ Ornstein and Smough are an absolute nightmare. I did manage to get past them, though, so it should be easy street from here on out, right?
Skyward Sword Replay: Week 4
Week 3 was a little quiet, but week 4 was pretty huge, since I was on vacation and had plenty of time to play. On the other hand, I spent most of it playing Fallout 4 instead. Still! Much progress was made.
To pick up where my last session left off (and they quite often seem to end as I’m entering a dungeon), I had just stepped into the third dungeon, the Lanayru Mining Facility. While it’s another tight, single-floor affair (I’m beginning to think that none of Skyward Sword’s dungeons have multiple floors), it felt about twice as long as the previous two and was much more enjoyable to solve. Felt a lot more puzzley, like a Zelda dungeon should be. I actually got lost at one point, and it took me a while to figure out that the key to progress was a lesson that I had previously learned while exploring the desert.
Mighty Number Meh
Mighty No. 9 finally came out this Tuesday. I spent a bunch of time yesterday playing through it, and while I don’t have the will to write a big long thing about it (it’s not worth the effort), there was one thing that really stood out to me.
The entire game is difficult. Like, “I don’t know why they felt the need to add a hard mode” difficult. And the final boss is literally impossible for someone of my ability. What? You think I’m supposed to be good at games? Think again, my friend. Anyway, I banged my head against that boss fight for nearly two hours and still could not win. The words “Game Over” came up and I turned the system off and walked away.
I was super frustrated. The game had betrayed me right at the very end. I went straight to the internet to make a post on a forum about how upset I was that I couldn’t beat this boss. But then I realized that I wasn’t angry. Usually, getting stuck in a game like this will drive me mad. It wasn’t two years ago that I ripped the Donkey Kong 64 cartridge out of the N64 and chucked it across the room after losing my mind to the Beaver Bother mini-game. Yesterday, I simply powered down the system, turned off the TV, and moved on to something else. No shouting, no fuming with rage.
Guys, I am proud to announce, that I think I may finally have grown up.
Will I return to Mighty No. 9? Probably. I need to finish this fight, but I’ll give it a few days. After that… I’ll likely never touch it again. I liked it, but there are enough bad things about it that I feel no need to relive the pain. I never replay Mega Man just for fun, because It’s pretty bad too. Only when I’m doing a series replay will I give that one a go. And since I don’t fancy Mighty No 9’s chances of getting a sequel, I think it’ll probably just be one of those games that get lost to time.
Skyward Sword Replay: Week 3
I had fun revisiting the mining area of Lanayru Province last week, but when I moved into the actual desert area, it got significantly more annoying. The desert is huge and open, but on your first time through, you’re more or less restricted to a very linear path. Faron Woods and Eldin Volcano are the same, really, but the woods allow you to run around freely and the volcano’s map make it obvious that it’s a linear path. There are hookshot targets everywhere in the desert, and of course, you won’t have the hookshot (or whatever variation is in this game) until much later on, so the freedom to truly explore the desert is hours and hours away.
This isn’t totally new for Zelda, as every game has obstacles that you can only clear if you come back later with the appropriate tool. None, however, are so clearly built around one specific item, to the point where you are like “Oh well I guess this is going to be an important place later.” I suppose this also runs into the complains that many people have about how hookshot targets have changed from normal objects like trees and roofs and treasure boxes to big, bright bullseyes. But that’s a whole different rant in itself.
On the other hand, this is where you get the first Beetle upgrade, which allows the Beetle to pick up bombs (or other small objects) and fly around with them. I don’t know how other people feel about this, but I think it’s super fun. Picking up bombs and dropping them on unsuspecting foes is a riot, and I’m sure there’s a million other uses that people smarter than me have come up with. I did manage to use it to make a particularly annoying “puzzle” a little more bearable.
I guess I haven’t really touched on the flying aspect of Skyward Sword yet, have I? Well, there’s good reason for that: flying is pretty boring. An coming from someone who usually plays the apologist for questionable Zelda features, that means a lot. Fortunately, it’s not like you need to do a ton of it, and the sky is considerably smaller than Wind Waker‘s Great Sea. You basically just fly between Skyloft and the different portals that lead to the surface. There are a couple of other things in the sky, but overall it’s really empty and blah.
And I guess that’s really about it for last week. I just opened the next dungeon and that was about it. Mostly I was focusing on Kirby: Planet Robobot when I had any downtime (of which there was very little).
A new addition to the family
Remember that post I made two days ago where I said I would go crazy waiting for the new Zelda? Well, I think I’ll be able to tough it out now.
Whoops!
Wait, no.
What I meant to say was, hooray! I’m finally gettin’ on the Bloodborne train! Choo choo!
Breath of the HYYYYYPE
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks awesome.
I… I don’t think that I can wait until next March to play this. At the very best, I’ll be tided over the Skyward Sword replay, and then I’ll go mad with anticipation.
Actually, the real best part is that they made it so that I could create a half-assed Monster Hunter reference. Thanks, Nintendo!
