So it's been 90s week on my Switch this week. I got Turok a little over a week ago, and then I've also been playing a certain little known PS1 RPG that somehow just found its way onto a Nintendo console over 20 years later. And that got me thinking about the N64.
It is the second day of the new year and I ventured outside to take the trash out and hot damn it’s cold. Not real cold, but Southern California “cold”. It’s actually warmer today than yesterday where around this time it was 43°, and today it’s 48°. I do love this time of year because the summer it’s over 100°+ and Air Conditioning is your best friend. Anyways since this is the new year and I thought I would catch you up on what I’ve been playing. I started some of my 2019 goals early and one of them was play the games I own. Many of them are on the iPad and a couple are on other handhelds. I will eventually jump into PS4 games (probably after another long system update install) but that’s another topic for another day.
After playing Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu, I am convinced that Game Freak is incapable of dropping the ball (pun not intended). Everything about the new title convinced me that something had to go wrong. It’s a remake of Pokemon Yellow, a rehash of Red and Blue Versions (which already received remakes fourteen years ago). In addition, it’s incorporating the more shallow catching mechanics from the free to play Pokemon Go on mobile, usually the kiss of death a console game. On top of that, Nintendo has admitted it is a cash grab, as they wanted a Pokemon game on the Switch without rushing the true sequel. And yet, not only is Pokemon Let’s Go just as fun and addicting as the core titles, but I now I want Let’s Go sequels for every other Pokemon generation.
Watched a movie, visited a few Xbox One games, watched my friend play Battlefield 1, played a PS4 game, and watched another movie while played my PS4 game. Further details follow.
The Missing is one of those games that forces you to immediately reflect on the entire experience once the credits roll. As the game comes to a close you’re presented with some truths that reshape your understanding of everything you’ve seen. To properly discuss The Missing, delving into the details of the ending is necessary. It reframes the entire adventure and it’s why this game is worth playing.
Back when the GameCube released, I developed a real love for rolling monkeys in balls along complex tracks while hoping to reach the finish line without falling off. Yes, Super Monkey Ball was truly something special. Later, during the Wii’s lifespan, a couple titles based around rolling marbles appeared under a new series, Kororinpa, scratching that same itch. These were incredible games that used the Wii’s motion control to great effect and since then I’ve been pining for more ball rolling goodness in whatever form I can get it. Enter Marble It Up, a spiritual successor to the Marble Blast series that had its final release on the PC and Xbox 360. While I missed these titles, if Marble It Up indicates their quality, I’m sure I’d have loved them.
Back to back blogs. This might be a first for 2018, and we’re in September. Good morning Pixlpeeps! Since we are at the end of the week I should be doing a number of things: laundry, grinding in various iOS games, cleaning, etc. Instead I just finished breakfast while watching some YouTube videos about people who convert vans into living spaces, and thinking about how I should approach today’s Quick Hits. Usually I kind of have a loose plan in my head about what I want to write about, and after I put everything onto digital paper, I think of other things to talk about…two hours later, after I upload it. Today I figured why not just ramble on about randoms and see how it goes. Let’s get started!
Part of being a gamer is picking your favorite Mega Man subseries and diving in. Some enjoy the simplicity of the classic series. Others want the story and exploration from the Legends series. Personally, I like the X series. Something about vanilla Mega Man never clicked with me, with X giving me just enough complexity without deviating from what makes the series work. Despite my love for Mega Man X, I never tried its sequels, so I was excited to see what they added to the formula.
What I learned yesterday is that many games follow a pattern of: level progression, then a boss fight, then repeat. I've developed a sort of dread of those boss fights as I sense their approach. They do, however, make a good bookmark in a game, a place to stop for a while just after they're done. Notes to follow.
It has been a busy week and a half and I haven’t been playing a lot. Whatever free time I find I jump right into my NCAA Football Dynasty so I can finish the current season. I have a solid recruiting class I want to use but I still have the last game of the season, the conference championship and the bowl.
To celebrate the recent release of Kirby Star Allies for Nintendo Switch, let’s look at another Kirby game that came out earlier this year that I just now got around to playing. It’s Kirby Battle Royale, a 3DS game featuring four player battle style mini-games with Kirby and his different copy abilities. There are ten different types of arenas to battle in, and they’re all pretty interesting enough to be deemed ‘blog-worthy’ by me, so let’s take a look at them! Also be sure to stick around to the end, as I’ve got some news about HAL Laboratory (creators of Kirby), and their first new mobile game!
Got the following games. What is it will old games holding their value at Gamestop these days? My current theory is that because people are buying digitally instead of physical, there are less trade-ins and so prices go up for what Gamestop has in physical copies. The theory doesn't seem to fit for last gen games though. I'm paying like $10 a game right now and they should be more like $5. It's annoying to me. Here's the list for today:
Strider is undoubtedly a cool game, especially for one released in 1989. It's a non stop series of action set pieces with a heavy emphasis on awesomeness! In a dystopian near future where a mysterious dictator has taken over the world (he's totally an alien entity that plans to purge the world with fire) and as the youngest and greatest of the elite Strider organization, you are sent to take him out!
Dissidia Final Fantasy was one of my favorite games on the PSP. It was a fighting game featuring characters from the popular RPG series, and there were two of them on Sony’s first handheld. I always thought it would be neat if there was a version of Dissidia on one of the big consoles, so I was excited when Square-Enix announced Dissidia Final Fantasy NT for the PS4. I’ve been playing it recently, so here’s a blog about the characters and stages you can find in it, as well as some brief impressions of the game as a whole.
On this day, I played three different games on Xbox One and PS4. They were: Minecraft [XBO], Gears of War 4 [XBO] and Pinball FX3 [PS4]. They were all very enjoyable. Details are given below.
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been over five years since I helped PixlBit ring in Final Fantasy’s 25th anniversary with an exhaustive retrospective series, but here we are. Even though I missed the actual 30th anniversary of my favorite game franchise, I couldn’t let that milestone pass without doing something to show my love for this epic saga. To that end, I submit to you, our dear readers, my ordered ranking of the fifteen main games in the series. Naturally, this excludes spinoffs like Final Fantasy Tactics and direct sequels like Lightning Returns, and this is very much my list and in no way is PixlBit’s definitive order. But hey, everyone loves a good list, right? Each game features a quick paragraph reprising some of the information from the FF Retrospective, and a more personal take on each entry. I hope you enjoy!
I only vaguely remember the Cars playset in Disney Infinity. I think it was fine, but not too memorable. I got some of the figures, but not all. Here are what I have.
It is Friday and I am here in front of my everyday laptop while listening to music off of my travel laptop. Before starting this entry I was ripping my CDs I bought yesterday to the travel laptop and while I had it open I might as well listen to some tunes on it, rate the tracks and add them to their respective groups. After I finish here I'm going to open up iTunes on this laptop and then copy the ratings to the travel laptop. More on this crazy later because it is Friday and it is time for Quick Hits.
In an attempt to get my postings back on track it is Monday and I am here typing away while eating breakfast and watching Dream Cruises on AWE. The episode that I have on is about a cruise ship that is smaller than the typical ships because it also sails, so they can either travel with nature with a good old fashion diesel engine. Kind of interesting and it roams around part of the Caribbean. Anyways you're not here for that, you're here for whatever random games I decided to play this week.
So I figured you good people needed a break from my ramblings about whatever freemium game I was playing on my phone, or how my basketball team was doing in NBA 2K16 (I refuse to buy 17 because my team is so much fun to use and I don't want to start over) but I have a somewhat decent excuse as to why I was absent for the week: I was in Hawaii! I went back for a little over a week (like one day over a week) because we were house sitting/watching over my younger cousins and their little dog while their pops was donating bone marrow. I got to spend some time with my pops, my sister, and while my sister was at her club volleyball practice, my pops, his girl, and I watched WWE's Money in the Bank Pay Per View in the parking lot, on my phone (I do love technology) but more on the randomness of my trip later. Monday is reserved for What I Played, and let's get started.
Here they are, the Skylanders of the air from Skylanders: Giants.
So I am at the point in Lego City Undercover where I'm debating on whether I should just go ahead and finish the game to 100% or move on to something else. See I am cleaning up little things in the game, collecting random items in story mode, and looking for the remaining five or six minifigures in the city. I could finish this if I want to put in the extra couple of hours but is it worth it? On one hand yeah because I like finishing the Lego games, but on the other side I am kind of over playing Lego City Undercover. I don't know which path I will take so we shall see next week.
Did anyone else get the Windows 10 Creators Update? The one that took forever and had two separate installs? I currently have it running and well so far it has my laptop feeling a bit sluggish especially with Chrome and Steam. It takes a second for things to get back up to speed. Its a minor annoyance, and something that will iron itself out, but I was just wondering if anyone else ran into some troubles.