Category: Mario

Year of N64 Bonus Round Q1 – Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 is a game so near and dear to my heart that I’ve been calling it my Favourite Video Game for well over a decade now. For a while I was thinking maybe that Super Mario Galaxy might supplant it, but Spring Mario is stupid. Other than that it’s a pretty perfect game.

That gets me to thinking though, that I could go on and on all day about why I like Mario 64 so much. But I’ve done that before. Maybe not in blog form, but I have. So instead, let’s have a chat about the things I don’t like about Super Mario 64.

The short answer is nothing.

Yeah, that’s a huge cop-out. Obviously, if someone digs deep enough, they can find something to complain about even in their absolute favoutire thing. But it’s hard. One of the reasons that Super Mario 64 sits unchallenged on the throne of games I like the most is that there’s nothing about it that makes me grumpy, nothing that makes me call bull on it.

If you’re going to make me give you an actual answer though, I suppose one thing I might complain about is the way the Wing Cap controls. It works exactly as it’s supposed to, but it’s impossible to gain altitude with it, as Mario enters more of a glide than a full-on flying mode when he’s in the air. You get the boost from the initial takeoff, but from there on out it’s all descent. Maintaining speed is also a struggle. As Mario glides, he slows down to a rather lazy pace. The only way to regain any speed is to dip and then quickly pull back up, and after doing this, the tendency to lose control is fairly high.

I can see why Nintendo might have limited the Wing Cap’s flight ability, as there are a number of power stars that would be much easier to get if you could just fly up to them. But really, I’d rather have the option to cheese or not to cheese, rather than just have it strippped out in hopes of keeping the game “fair.” The cape power-up in Super Mario World is exactly that kind of broken, allowing you to skip entire levels once you’ve mastered it, but you won’t hear anyone complain about it. Mario 64 gives you so much freedom to play around any way you want, it’s just weird that free flight isn’t also included.

Also, Tiny-Huge Island is probably the least fun level. It’s not that the challenges are bad or anything, but the gimmick makes the level less fun than it could be. If you’re huge, it’s a miniscule stage with virtually nothing to do. If you’re tiny, it’s designed so that it takes forever to get anywhere. This is easily overcome by using the size-changing pipes, but it’s still a minor pain in the butt if you just want to bounce around the stage like a loon.

I’m really stretching it here, but I guess I also don’t like how your extra life counter resets every time you save and quit the game. That one’s mostly negligible though.

Big Plans -OR- Fairly Transparent Filler

You know, maybe that post title is a little too harsh. I don’t really do filler these days, so it’s not like I need to poke fun at it the way I used to back when basically every post was filler.

As for the subject at hand, I wanted to take a moment to check in and talk about how the Year of Nintendo 64 is going. It’s largely a personal project, so it’s not like I’m taking notes and sharing this stuff with everyone I know. I’m not even committed to writing a full article about every game I play. That said, I still want to sort of chart a course for the rest of the year here, as a reminder to keep me on task, if nothing else.

I spent January rounding up a few new games that I’ll be mixing into the lineup of games that I already own. Truth be told, I didn’t actually own enough “beatable” 64 games to get me through the year, so making some acquisitions was a must. I reserve the right to change this at any time, but here’s the breakdown of what I’ll be playing each month:

  • January – Goldeneye 007
  • February – Body Harvest
  • March – Jet Force Gemini
  • April – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
  • May – Quest 64
  • June – Doom 64
  • July – Gauntlet Legends
  • August – Bomberman 64
  • September – Donkey Kong 64
  • October – Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes
  • November – The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
  • December – ?????

As you can see, I’ve come up slightly short. I do have a few other games that I could pop in there, but they’re either so short (Pokémon Snap) or I’ve played them recently enough (Banjo-Tooie) that I don’t feel like they’re a good fit for the project. They may still get some play, but they won’t be the main games. What really differentiates them? Nothing, I guess. My goal is one a month, I suppose that doesn’t mean I couldn’t play two in a month.

You know what? Nuts to it. I’mma pop some quarterly titles in there, because it’s an excuse to make another list. I know that the first quarter is almost up, but I just completed Super Mario 64 DS, and I’m willing to count that. Maybe I’ll play the original again anyway.

  • Q1 Bonus Round – Super Mario 64
  • Q2 Bonus Round – Pokémon Snap
  • Q3 Bonus Round – Mario Party 2
  • Q4 Bonus Round – Perfect Dark

There we go. Now if only I had social media’d this thing it might be more than me just concocting a weird excuse to play old games. I guess it’s still not too late, but I mean, we’re already in March. The hype phase is over. Whatever. My compulsion is to put words on a page, not to try to force people to read those words.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: February 2014

Last month was so loaded down with entries in both of the main categories that I managed to forget to add a couple games, which will be included this month. Since I write these opening blurbs at the beginning of each month, I’m sitting here hoping that February’s list won’t be quite so full, but you just never know!

~ Now Playing ~

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) – Yeah, still hacking away at this one. Technically, I’ve finished the game. I’ve beaten every level and collected every doo-dad, but this game makes you really go the extra mile for your 100% clear: you have to beat every level with all five characters. It may be a ridiculous task, but the game is so good that I’m happy to oblige. Except for the final two stages that are just crazy hard to the point of not really being fun anymore.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: February 2014

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: January 2014

Another year is upon us, and with that year comes a long a whole buttload of new games that I’ve purchased on both Nintendo eShops and Steam. Because those year-end sales were absolutely mad. And not “angry” mad, but “British” mad. Of course, I’m not playing all of those games at once, so you won’t see them all here, and that kind of defeats the purpose of mentioning them at all.

2014 is going real swell so far.

As it turned out, January was absolutely swamped with short games that I was able to beat in a matter of hours. So this is a big one. Hold onto your butt.

~ Now Playing ~

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U) – The wait to Christmas was absolutely killer in 2013, because I was waiting for this very game. And yet, I did not burn through it in a week like I could have. No, I find that a new Mario game is best when savoured a few levels at a time, and man oh man, have I ever been savouring this one. This is the special kind of game that you buy a system for. Technically I have beaten it, but there’s so much more to do that I’ll leave it in Now Playing for the time being, and move it to Game Over once I’m good and done with it.

Dark Souls (360) – Yeah, I’m still at it. I play more than once a week though, so I’m way ahead of the weekly blogs.

Chibi-Robo: Photo Finder (3DS) – It can’t possibly live up to the standard that I set by the original Chibi-Robo game, but it’s still got a lot of the heart that made the first game a winner. The real problem here is the game’s main gimmick: taking pictures of stuff. It would come off a lot better if the 3DS’ camera wasn’t awful. Heck, it would probably even be a lot of fun with a decent camera. Alas. I have no idea how long this game is going to be, but I’ve filled up two museum displays so far.

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 (iOS) – My wife and I are racing to see who can get to the end first, and neither of us are making progress quickly. Me, because I play like once a month, and her because she’s stuck on a particularly hard level. She’s also quite a bit farther than I, so if she gets over that hump I might be in trouble! Oh, and EA? If you’re going to insist on locking stuff away behind micro-transactions, please make them reasonably priced. There’s no way I’m going to buy any extra plants or power-ups at $3 a pop. If they were $1 each, I’d probably already have them all.

Valdis Story: Abyssal City (PC) – This is like, my dream game (after Super Mario 3D World). It’s a colourful metroidvania with multiple playable characters, a focus on combat, and a Borderlands-style perk tree. Now if only I could play it with a controller from the comfort of my couch on an actual Video Game Machine. Sigh… PC exclusives make me sad. I really have come to loathe playing games on my computer.

Super Monkey Ball (iOS) – Logic would denote that playing a game whose main mechanic is tilting the playfield would work great with tilt controls. That’s not quite the case, as Monkey Ball on my iPhone is very difficult to play, and even harder to enjoy. If you need a Monkey Ball fix, I’d recommend just picking up one of the GameCube games. Maybe the one on Wii. I never played that one though. I’m on World 2 of 5, but I doubt I’ll bother finishing it.

Long Live the Queen (PC) – I’m not into text adventures or anime princesses, but for whatever reason, I felt like I needed to own this game. And it’s sort of blah. All you really do is choose which skills to learn between scripted events, and hope that Elodie doesn’t get murdered along the way. Finding all the ways she can die is probably the most fun you can have with this one though. To date, I’ve only played enough to suffer one death. Here’s a really good review that makes me wish I appreciated it more.

Body Harvest (N64) – Yes, I started my N64 game for February early, but my goal is simply to beat one per month, not to only play one a month. Also I’ve never played Body Harvest and have no idea how long it’ll take me to finish it. Currently I’m on part three of the second mission, and I’m fairly impressed. It’s long since become obsolete, but if I’d played this when it was new, my mind would have been blown wide open.

~ Game Over ~

Picross e3 (3DS) – It’s the weirdest thing, this game had been out for months, and I wasn’t even slightly inclined to buy it. Mostly because I was waiting until I’d finished Paint It Back, but also a little bit because I may have overloaded on picross in 2013. If that can even happen. Burned though it in a week though, because I’ve got to burn through something in a week.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS) – Wifey gave me this for my birthday last year, and I played it until the game decided to send me back to all the corners of the map that I’d already explored for a big fetch quest, and my enthusiasm petered out. I spent most of January slowly slogging through the second half of the game, and I’ve got to say that the guiding principle behind the whole project must have been making everything twice as long as it needs to be.

Gone Home (PC) – A game about wandering around a house, trying to find out where your family has disappeared to. It’s a cute little game with a lot of heart, but it’s not something I’d necessarily recommend. Not at full price anyway. If you see it on sale and narrative-based wandering games are your bag, go for it. Maybe I’d have liked more it if my PC had been able to run it at full speed.

Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (3DS) – Gameplay-wise, it’s very similar to Gone Home, but I liked this one so much better. Maybe because it has a more fantastical story, or maybe because it’s much more lively. I don’t know, but I really enjoyed this one. I just don’t like that you have to grind for collectables to truly finish it. :p

Bugs Vs. Tanks! (3DS) – Exactly what it sounds like; you play as an officer in a battalion of tanks that have been shrunken down, and have to combat insects to survive. It’s not a superb game by any means, and can get somewhat frustrating at times, but it’s fun. Also, it’s one of the exceptionally rare 3DS games where the 3D effect actually adds something.

Brain Age Express: Sudoku (DSi) – I finally finished all the sudoku puzzles in there. Guess I wipe it now and start again? Nah, probably not.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (PC) – I actually finished this game in December, but totally forgot about it. That’s because despite the fact that I want to say I like it, it’s a pretty forgettable game. Also it has a stupid mechanic where you have to wait entire days to make certain critical events happen, and that’s just a huge pain in the butt. And making me wait to play a game more often than not makes me forget about the game altogether. It’s still pretty good, though.

~ Reruns ~

Kirby’s Dream Land (GB) – I tend to play through this one every few months or so. It only takes half an hour, and I think it’s pretty fun despite the simplicity. Also I love the music.

Super Mario Land (GB) – Same as above.

GoldenEye 007 (N64) – It felt really good to go back to a game that I spent so much time with, but have never pick up again since. I even wrote a whole thing about it. The word for it may or may not be “retrospective.”

X-Mas Gift Roundup: 2013 Edition

Hey, so Christmas happened a while back. Maybe you’d noticed? I sure did, because I got a freakin’ amazing haul of gift this year, and you know how much I treasure material possessions. So obviously I want to brag talk about them on the internet.

I don’t really have any sort of screed to come in on, I just wanted to note that I haven’t done an X-Mas gift round up since… 2007!? Holy cow! That’s even farther back than I’d thought! Man… that was a pretty great Christmas. Looking back on those pics, I can even remember it pretty well. Yeah, I was so excited that morning that after The Unwrappening was over I fell asleep while watching Bender’s Big Score.

So, uh, let’s just get started then, yes?

Continue reading X-Mas Gift Roundup: 2013 Edition

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: December 2013

Hey, the year is over, and so are some video games that I was playing. Though, since December is kind of a busy time, there was a lot less going on than usual. Let’s have a look-see.

~ Now Playing ~

Dark Souls (360) – Have you been following the weekly Dark Souls feature? You should be. They happen on Thursdays.

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 (iOS) – I thought I was done with PvZ, but somehow the sequel drew me back in. Mostly because it was free. And then I saw that it was free because it was built almost entirely on microtransactions. Yuck. That’s awful, EA.

Pikmin 3 (WiiU) – It’s not often that I get excited for DLC, but the new Mission Mode stages that Nintendo keeps rolling out for Pikmin 3 are pretty darn good. Also, pretty darn hard! My bro and I have been slowly plucking away at them, but those platinum medals aren’t coming as easy as they did in the original stages.

~ Game Over ~

AdventureTime: ETDBIDK (WiiU) – The last 5 floors wrecked us several times over, but we finally pushed through to the end. It was a delightful game, but I don’t think it’s quite delightful enough that I’ll be able to convince Wifey to battle through the Nightosphere with me.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) – Finally got around to finishing the Master Quest run that I started many, many months ago. You could probably even measure it in years at this point. Anyway, Master Quest is such a nice addition to this game. I’ve played OoT so many times now that I need remixed dungeons to keep it interesting.

Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS) – As much as I like this game, I found it very hard to stay really interested in. Believe it or not, I bought it when it first came out and have only now gotten around to beating it. It makes me sad that there’s still so much game left in there that I know I’m not going to bother playing.

Eathbound (WiiU) – I’m pretty proud to say that I played through Earthbound twice in 2013. Most RPGs I don’t play through twice at all, but this one’s probably getting close to a dozen. And I love it more every time. I’ve never really considered the possibility before, but I think that Earthbound might very well be my Favourite Video Game.

Paint it Back (iOS) – Victory! That’s yet another picross game in the can. Did I mention that I don’t really like the touch controls? I think I’ve probably said that already. Anyway, it’s still a damn good picross game.

Bleed (360) – A cute little indie game about killing all the current video game heroes so that you’re number one. Sounds oddly familiar. Only this one is a side-scroller mashed up with a twin-stick shooter, and I might add that it’s quite stressful, but also a lot of fun. It’s even been recently updated with a co-op mode! The really weird thing about it though, is that while you can unlock a pretty decent variety of guns, the default SMGs are always the most effective weapon.

The Simpsons Arcade (iOS) – I bought this some months ago, and beat one level before forgetting about it. I decided to push through to the end before deleting it, just so that I could say I finished it. This was not the fun revival of the old arcade game that I was hoping it would be. More like a single-player slog with poor touch-controls.

~ Reruns ~

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS) – Had to play through this one again immediately, because I liked it so much. This is the first time I’ve played a Zelda game in Hero Mode and… it wasn’t really that much harder. The first few dungeons were tough due to a lack of hearts and the Blue Mail, but once I hit Lorule it was smooth sailing.

Picross e (3DS) – I’ve been itching to get e3, but couldn’t be bothered to actually spend the money, so I just replayed the first one. It’s pretty great!

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: October 2013

Hey! It’s this thing again! Now it’s officially a recurring feature! That was my plan all along, of course, but I’m kind of a flake so who even knew if I was going to even get around to writing up a second entry. That said, I’ll probably stop caring about this stupid thing by the time 2014 rolls around.

In the interest of further categorizing and complicating things, I’ve decided that MVGW needs a third header. I felt like “Now Playing” and “Game Over” were pretty self-explanatory, but you might wonder about what exactly the new “Reruns” header is for. It, my friends, is reserved for short games which I have played before and which were started and finished within the month. You can think of it as a subsection of “Game Over” if you’d like.

~ Now Playing ~

Pokémon Y (3DS) – Just assume that this is the only game I played after the 11th. Aside from short breaks to collect the Spooky furniture series in Animal Crossing. I have, of course, beaten the story, but I still have a bunch of post-game stuff to do and plenty of empty pokédex entries.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: October 2013

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: September 2013

Welcome, good reader, to a new thing that I want to be doing each month. I’m calling it Monthend Video Game Wrap-up, and it’s basically just going to be a snapshot of what I’ve been up to in the world of video games over the course of each month. Why? I dunno. Same reason that I put anything on this blog, I guess: to keep a cheap record of stuff I do and think.

Okay fine, I’ll admit it. This is all just a big excuse for me to make a banner. It’s one of those odd little things that I really love doing, and I can’t really be bothered to make them for common blog posts. Also I guess since it’s going to be a big thing I’ll make a section for it on the Features page.

~ Now Playing ~

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U) – I played through WW only twice on Gamecube, but it’s still one of my favourite Zeldas. People seem to be pretty split on the graphical changes, and I am firmly in the “I love them” camp. The swift sail changes the pace of the game from “pretty slow” to “not as slow” which is nice, but what really I appreciate is the improved Picto Box. It’s making completing the Nintendo Gallery seem less like the most horrible, tedious task ever and more like something that’s actually pretty fun! I’m about halfway through the game, just entering the Earth Temple.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: September 2013

TE’s Top 12 Video Games of 2012

Another year has come and gone, and a big ol’ stack of videogames with it. I made a point in April to keep a list of every game I played throughout the year, and by the time July or so rolled around, I had decided to make up this list of the Top 12 Games of 2012. There are a few rules I decided to put in place for this list, though I ended up breaking them. Heck, there somehow managed to be 14 games in my top 12. Obviously the rules are more like suggestions.

Going in, I had decided that the games which would populate this list would have to be games that I started and finished in the year 2012. They would also have to be games that I’d never played previously. While most of the list fits this rule easily because they were released in 2012, I did make a couple exceptions. Technically there is one game that I did not beat on the list. However, I am right at the end of it, and I haven’t pulled the trigger on the ending sequence because there is more that I want to accomplish and I’ve heard whispers that ending the game ends the game for reals. Justified. The other exception is a pretty major one: a collection. I couldn’t help but add it because 2012 is the Year of the Video Game Collection and it’s by and large the best one I’ve seen so far. Also I did play through two of the games included on it this year. Good enough.

I think that earlier on in the selection process I had another stipulation on what could qualify, but I’m pretty sure that I broke it so many times that I can’t even remember what it was. Probably would have cut down the eligible games to under a dozen anyway. That said, let’s take a quick peek at the honorable mentions. These are games that either didn’t quite make the cut, or games that I really liked but didn’t even come close to finishing. They all deserve to have words written about them, but this is neither the time nor place. So let us look at their boxarts and dream about what could have been.

Now that we’ve got those losers out of the way, you can go ahead and check out what games earned the most of my affection and/or time last year. The list is exactly as Nintendo-centric as you might expect, but there are a couple games on here that will probably come as surprises. I’ll warn you now though, the total word count goes ever so slightly over 10,000 words, so if you’re in, be ready for the long haul. Maybe go get yourself a sandwich or a drink before you get started.

Continue reading TE’s Top 12 Video Games of 2012