Video Games – Page 52

Dark Souls: I finally finished it!

After literally years of alternating between playing semi-obsessively and ignoring it for months, I have finally beaten Dark Souls. This grand achievement was a long time coming, and as it turns out, all you really need to beat Dark Souls is to be stubborn.

I don’t remember exactly when I bought it, but I think it must have been early 2013. Long enough after release that it had been marked down to a mere $20. That really doesn’t narrow it down, as these days games can be reduced to less than that mere weeks after release, but you get the point. I played up to the first real boss (Taurus Demon), got frustrated, threw up my hands, and called it a wash.

Months later, I related this experience to my younger brother, who had finished and enjoyed Dark Souls. He encouraged me to try some more, and even came over to serve as a sort of tour guide as I played. Normally I like to figure things out on my own, but I discovered that it was nice to get a helping hand in that early stage of the game where I was still coming to terms with how the game worked. From the Undead Parish on, I struck out on my own, though I kept the wiki just a bookmark away for those tough times.

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Lots of words about Hyrule Warriors Legends

I’ve been playing a lot of Hyrule Warriors Legends since it came out. While it is generally a fairly mindless sort of game, the original version is one of my most played Wii U titles, and the new 3DS remake is climbing the ranks very quickly. Legends contains everything available original, including all the DLC, and it also adds so much new content that you could almost convince someone (who isn’t overly cynical) that it’s a sequel.

In the base game alone, there are five new characters, two new stages, nine new story missions, two new bosses, a new item, a new weapon for Ganondorf, a new adventure map (with roughly 100 missions), the “My Fairy” feature, and God only knows how many new costumes. And that’s all before the new season of DLC that adds a buttload more of everything. It’s an awful lot of stuff crammed into a tiny little game card!

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Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up – March 2016

If February was defined by Pokémania, then March was defined by… also Pokémania (and to a lesser extent, Zelda mania). Eh, what can I say? I really love Pokémon, and there’s been a lot going on with the franchise these days.

~ Game Over ~

Pokémon Yellow Version (GB) – Playing through this one again was a very welcome blast of nostalgia, and also a little frustration at trying to remember how the mechanics used to work back in Gen 1. Running the game with a team of monsters I’d usually never use was a great way to make it feel fresh again. Hooray for Flareon!

Splatoon (WiiU) – Finally bothered to just hone my focus and complete the single-player mode. It was an absolute blast, and the final boss was something else entirely. I’m seriously hoping that they release another campaign some day, even if it’s just a little eShop title.

Jett Rocket II: The Wrath of Taikai (3DS) – Replayed the game in “mirror world” mode, which I guess is just the same levels you already played but reversed? While I may not be as hype for it as I was when it originally released, I still think it’s a solid little platformer.

Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (GC) – I was testing out some Gamecube games to see which save files on my giant memory card had been corrupted, and popped in Mega Man Anniversary Collection. The save was still good, and somehow I ended up playing through this one. I mean, just one story path as Bass, but that’s still a cleared game, right?

New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS) – I’ve been wanting to replay this for months now, but always had some other major 3DS game on the go. With Paper Jam and Pokémon Yellow done and dusted, there was no longer any reason not to jump into it. The twist is that this time I played about half the game in co-op mode, which is super fun.

Shovel Knight (3DS) – Do I really need to justify another Shovel Knight run to you? I think I’ve made it pretty clear already that it’s my favourite game.

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The Pokkén Dilemma: The Top Tier

There are only two days left until the worldwide launch of Pokkén Tournament, and I am still struggling to decide which of the sixteen playable pokémon I’m going to choose as my partner for the single-player campaign.

Over the last two days, I rand down the lists of which ones I’m not overly interested in, and which ones may make the cut if they’re fun enough to play. Today, it’s finally time to go over the five pokémon fighters that I am most likely to choose from.

BLAZIKEN

I knew from the moment that I first saw the starters in Pokémon Sapphire that Torchic was absolutely going to be my choice. The adorable little fire-type chick melted my heart, and I had no idea about the awe-inspiring powerhouse that it would eventually evolve into. Blaziken is another one of those pokémon that is considered to be overpowered, and it shows. Blaziken has incredible speed and strength, and its mega evolution only serves to amplify those traits even further.

Blaziken and I go way back. Like, way way back. I have a special attachment to this pokémon not only because it was super powerful in the game, but because I have a lot of really good memories tied to my first playthrough of Pokémon Sapphire. I purchased the game at a point in my life when I wasn’t really interested in Pokémon any more, but decided to play it because my brothers were playing and it was a great way for us to connect. Also, I bought it while on a trip to Disney World, and it was a great way to pass time in the hotel at the end of each day. Finally, it is one of those games that really floods me with memories of summer spent out at the cottage, so we’ve got a triple dose of strong sentimentality there.

But Blaziken doesn’t get by on nostalgia alone. No, I think that it’ll make for an incredibly solid fighter, what with it actually being a fighting-type pokémon and all. Plus, it’s just totally badass in every way, even though it’s a chicken. And you just can’t ignore that.

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The Pokkén Dilemma: The Maybes

Pokkén Tournament, the new Pokémon fighting game, launches this Friday, and I’m taking a look at each playable fighter in hopes of deciding who I’m going to choose as my go-to monster. Realistically, I’ll have to give each one a spin and then choose a favourite based on play style, but it’s fun to sort them out based on which ones I already like.

Yesterday I ran down the pokémon that I feel I’m least likely to play as, and today we’re going to take a look at the monsters that have me on the fence:

MEWTWO

Mewtwo is a psychic powerhouse, artificially created by cloning and messing around with the DNA of Mew. He is the original unstoppable force in Pokémon; a Pokémon that you can only find and capture after becoming the Champion in the original Red and Blue versions. I’m not too fond of the idea of psychic-types in a fighting game, but Mewtwo can be a physical threat as well, especially when it evolves into Mega Mewtwo X and gains a secondary fighting-type.

Mewtwo has shown that it is a capable fighter in Super Smash Bros, where it uses a combination of deadly psychic attacks and its powerful tail to pummel its opponents. However, while it is a large and somewhat slower, it’s actually a very light fighter, and can be launched fairly easily. I like playing as Mewtwo in Smash, but I don’t know if it will be as satisfying to play in Pokkén.

There is also a secret (and unlockable) boss character known as Shadow Mewtwo (pictured). I don’t know at all if the dark version plays differently from regular Mewtwo, but it hasn’t really pique my interest yet. Time will tell how I end up feeling about this non-canon form.

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The Pokkén Dilemma: The Unlikely

Guys, I don’t know what to do. Pokkén Tournement is just days away and I have no idea which monster I want to choose as my main. Sure, I could just try them all and then choose based on my findings, and that’s probably exactly what I’ll do. But I do think that it’s fun to go over the competitors and try to figure out which one I’d like the most, based on wild guesses and theories.

To be honest, I don’t scrutinize trailers and other promotional videos to try to figure out the attributes and abilities of each character before playing them. Most of my thoughts are just based on my existing thoughts about the Pokémon in question, how they perform in other games, and how their designs might affect their performance in a one-on-one fighting game.

Let’s look at the monsters that I’m least interested in first:

SCEPTILE

The final evolution of the grass-type starter from Ruby and Sapphire, Treecko. while it’s in a dire position because I don’t usually give a hot damn about grass-type starters, Sceptile is actually one of the cooler ones, at least in my opinion. A big ol’ lizardy guy with some manner of tree for a tail.

I would imagine that Sceptile would use that tail in the bulk of its attacks, because it’s got pretty puny little arms. It does have blades on those arms, but they still seem like more of a liability than a real asset Plus, man, grass type. I am really not a big fan overall, even though I love the colour green. There are a few grass-types that I absolutely love (like Roserade and Gourgeist), but for the most part I just can’t be bothered with ’em.

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Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up – February 2016

I don’t know anymore, you know? I sort of force these intros to the monthend posts, but are they really necessary? I mean, mostly I just want something in there to break up the post title and “Game Over” heading. So I suppose that this silly rambling has done exactly what I needed it to.

~ Game Over ~

Xenoblade Chronicles X (WiiU) – Finally finished it, after 125 solid hours of wandering and cutting down wildlife (also, being cut down by said wildlife). The ending was a little… I dunno, bland, after the crazy ending to the previous Xenoblade. I didn’t think it was as mind-rendingly stupid as most do, but it certainly wasn’t anything to write about. Definitely gonna keep playing this one for a while.

Goosebumps (PC) – Played it again to rack up a few more cheevos. My first run took almost three hours, but as it turns out, you can finish it in well under 20 minutes if you know what to do. Neat!

Mega Man 9 (Wii) – You might be surprised to learn that I have never beaten this game before. It’s just so unrelentingly difficult! But I finally soldiered through, and I can now say that I’ve beaten all of the traditional Mega Man games. The Wily 2 and 3 bosses were utterly ridiculous, especially compared to how easy the Wily Machine is.

New Super Mario Bros Wii (WiiU) – Played through it again with a friend and her daughter. That was certainly not how I had expected to spend Valentine’s Day.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS) – I really like this game, and trying to 100% it would probably just make me hate it. So I took my acceptable completion rate and marched right into the final boss’ lair. That was an awesome fight. Not terribly original, but cool as heck.

Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (3DS) – I sometimes with that Dr Mario didn’t end after 20 levels, but there’s really nowhere to go after the jar is filled completely with viruses. An hour well spent, at any rate.

The Legend of Dark Witch 2 (3DS) – I quite liked the first game, which was some godless amalgam of Mega Man, Gradius, and Anime. This is basically the same, but with more stages and the difficulty toned way down. Recommended, but not as heartily as the first.

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Have I mentioned how great Splatoon is?

The depths of insanity

I’d like to take a moment here to expand on just how into Five Night’s at Freddy’s I am. I only own the first two games, as I cannot actually bear to play them (though I did buy two versions of FNAF1), and I have read the novel. This much is the obvious stuff.

On the crazier side, I have watched all of the Game Theory videos about the plot and lore of the franchise, and I typically don’t really enjoy MatPat’s work. On top of all that, I actually sat through a nearly-two-hours stream of him and a bunch of other YouTube nuts discussing their theories and whatnot. I have embedded to recording of said stream below, so that you may get a first-hand glimpse at the madness into which I have descended.

FNAF World

Five Nights at Freddy’s. If you’ve been on the internet at all over the last year (and then some), you at least have half an idea what this is. I mean, you should. It’s been a straight-up phenomenon. You’d have to have a pretty empty Twitter feed to not even have heard of the franchise. Seriously. Get with it already.

Ugh. Fine. If I have to spell it out for you, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a video game. It’s about animatronic animals that wander around a pizza parlour (think Showbiz Pizza) at night and brutally murder you if you don’t close the doors at the right time. Also those doors require power to stay closed for some reason. I don’t know why, and this isn’t an in-depth analysis of pizza parlour technology, so we’re not going there. The game made a huge splash on YouTube and took over the internet. Three sequels, each changing up the gameplay to some degree, were released within a year’s time. Warner Bros announced that a FNAF movie is in the works, and there’s even an official novel. I have read said novel, and despite it seeming like a terrible idea, I quite enjoyed it.

If I may be excused for a moment, I feel like I ought to mention before we go any farther that I am a huge FNAF fan. I can’t play the games because I can’t handle the tension, but I love the world-building, the lore, and the characters.

Alright then. Moving on.

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