Rough Draft

New Super Mario Bros

After a failed trip (though I did up getting several CDs as well as bubble tea on that trip) earlier in the day, I did manage to pick up New Super Mario Bros. for my DS today. w00t! During an afternoon trip for bubble tea with some co-workers, we stopped by Target and they said they wouldn't have it until tomorrow and the girl at Gamestop said they only had copies that had been pre-ordered, but if I came back tomorrow morning they'd have more. Lame. After getting back to the office, I had an IM from Andrew saying the game was on sale at Circuit City and Fry's for $28 instead of $35. So later on just before I left work I called the Circuit City that's just down the street from my apartment. The guy I talked to unconvincingly said they had some in stock, so I figured I'd head over there and see. Turns out they had at least 20 copies on the shelf, so I grabbed one and was on my way (after a quick perusal of the CDs...bad Jason).

Anyway, the game itself is pure, unadulterated fun...and I've only played about 10 minutes (I'm just beat the World 1 mini castle). It's got all the classic Mario platformer gameplay and music and a few new items/moves to keep things fresh. If you own a DS, go get this game now. As for me, it's time to go kick more Koopa butt!

PS3 at E3

Sony held their pre-E3 press conference today and announced the PS3 would be available in the US on November 17th. There's two models priced at $499 and $599. Ouch. The less expensive model has a smaller hard drive, no HDMI out, no memory stick/SD/CompactFlash slots, and no wireless. If you're going to spend that kind of money, seems like you might as well spend the extra $100. (Pricing info from Joystiq)

They also showed the new controller. Gone is the boomerang controller shown last year and in its place is...something not unlike the current PS2 controller, sans vibration but it's wireless and has sensors that can detect motion in 6 directions. Sony's press release says it doesn't vibrate because it would interfere with the sensors. Sounds like b.s. to me (especially given that the Wii control supports vibration). I'd say this little lawsuit they lost is more likely the reason.

I really don't see the PS3 dominating the video game landscape the way the PS2 did.

Tomorrow morning Nintendo holds their press conference. Definitely looking forward to that after reading the article in Time.

Tetris DS

Jeff and I picked up Tetris DS before our Japan trip. Needless to say many hours of our flights were spent playing it. I finally got around to setting up the WiFi play today. I racked up a 21-2 record earlier this afternoon, mainly in Standard 1 on 1 mode, but also did a few 4 player+items games.

For those that wish to challenge me, my friend code is: 911 512 067 915 Bring it!

DS Download Station

When I was at Best Buy today to pick up some CDs, I came across a "Nintendo DS Download Station" with a DS setup from which you could download a couple demos onto your DS. Neat idea. I may have to go back there with my DS to check out the Brain Age demo.

I was briefly tempted to get Kingdom Hearts 2, but balked at the $50 price tag. Given that I still have a ways to go in Resident Evil 4 and I've got plenty of DS games to keep me busy, I'll hold off on getting KH until it's in $20-$30 price range.

Katamari Shirts

The cool Mac software guys over at Panic have teamed up with Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi to sell Katamari Damacy T-shirts! I went ahead and ordered myself an ostrich one.

Mario Kart DS

Picked up Mario Kart DS today and played a few games online with Jeff (while connected to a video iChat for all the necessary taunting). I was getting my ass handed to me when I was Mario or Luigi, though I did muster a tie or two. Eventually I switched to Yoshi which is who Jeff was using and the matches were much closer and I even managed to win one. It's a really fun game and if you have a DS you definitely need to pick it up.

There are a couple annoyances when playing online. When you are trying to play a match against friends, there's no way to just start a match you have to wait about a minute while the DS waits to see if other friends are joining. Then it displays a message saying you might not be able to find four people, but it keeps searching a little longer. Then finally it starts game. But that's really just a minor annoyance, the big disappointment is that you can't play Battle mode over the internet seeing as Battle mode is the best part of any Mario Kart game.

Also it took a while to get started because my DS wouldn't cooperate with the WEP on my Airport Extreme. Eventually I resorted to just turning off WEP so we could play. I'll have to figure out what's going on with it. I swear wireless networking is the bane of my existence.

If you've got the game, let me know and we can play. My friend code is: 416 671 313 392

Update: Finally got connected to my network with WEP turned on. I made my password 13 characters (based on advice from this KB article) and then found an ASCII to HEX converter to get the HEX password to enter on the DS. This morning I saw Erik's post and he discovered if you click the password toolbar item in the Airport Admin Utility, it will give you the HEX version of your password.

Nintendo DS

I've been thinking of getting a Nintendo DS for a while, and after playing Kirby's Canvas Curse on Jeff's while we were in Boston I couldn't resist any longer. So, over the weekend I picked up a snazzy cobalt blue one along with Advance Wars Dual Strike and I've been having a blast with it so far.

I was originally thinking of getting Kirby as my first game, since it's a game that really could only be done on the DS. But for now I decided to just get Advance Wars since I've really been enjoying playing the ROM of the original the last few weeks and because of Jeff's rave review. Advance Wars does feature some multiscreen battles as well as allowing you to use the stylus to command your troops which is nice.

The dual screens, touch screen interface, and WiFi support are all cool features, but only if there are great games to take advantage of them.

Fortunately, there's quite a few such games available now, including the aforementioned Kirby's Canvas Curse. There is also a game I saw at Gamestop called Trauma Center: Under the Knife where you use are a doctor and use the stylus to perform various surgeries. It sounded like it could be pretty fun and unique, but I was afraid it could also end up just being gimmicky and repetitive. However, it looks like the game has gotten quite favorable reviews so I may end up picking this up. I've also been hearing wonderful things about the new Castlevania game.

And those are just the games out now! The next month brings even more exciting titles like Mario Kart DS with WiFi support, Animal Crossing Wild World, and Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. It's honestly been a long time since I've been this excited about so many games for one system. I just hope I can find time to play all of them.

If you've been toying with the idea of getting a DS, I highly recommend you pick one up immediately.

I Love Katamari

I stopped by GameStop on my way home from work today to pick up We Love Katamari, the sequel to Katamari Damacy. After only an hour or so of playing time I have to say it is a perfect sequel.

So I ended up writing quite a bit, so I'm adding this here: if you have a PS2, get this game. If you've never played Katamari Damacy, you are missing out on an awesome gaming experience. If you already own the original, there seems to be plenty of improvements and new levels in the sequel to keep you entertained for a good while. Now on to my observations on the game so far.

The core gameplay is unchanged, you roll around your katamari to pick up stuff to have them turned into stars and planets. However, the developers did not just sit back and release the same game with some new levels. The biggest improvement is a fix for the camera problems which plagued the last game. The camera movement is pretty much the same as the last game, but now when you are rolling underneath something, or a large object is positioned between the camera and your katamari, an area of the large object becomes transparent so you can always see your katamari. It works really well.

The physics of the katamari have also changed slightly (and for the better). First, it's stickiness seems to have improved, as even when running into larger objects, things seem to stay attached to the katamari much better. I like this because in the last game you very often had things flying off your katamari, but the amount of stuff that flew off never really had a very large effect on the katamari's size so it ended up just being a visual distraction. The katamari also seems a bit bouncier. It doesn't make quite the same thunk when landing after falling a large distance. The last change to the katamari physics is that it is much easier to roll up hills. Sure this makes the game a bit less "realistic", but it makes dealing with hills a lot less of a chore.

I'm guessing the reason for making hills easier is the new ability to roll your katamari underwater. The cheap way for them to add this new feature would be to have levels that were strictly underwater. But sticking with "the whole game is one large level" concept, you can go from being underwater to being on solid ground all within the same level. Of course getting out of the water normally involves rolling up a large hill, but there are other clever ways to get back above ground.

Another great part of the original game was the incredibly amusing dialog with phrases like "Royal Rainbow" and "It's not your fault. It's our fault for believing in you". We Love Katamari has had plenty of amusing dialog thus far. And if you can't tell from the title, it really plays on the fact that so many people loved the original game. The menu system for choosing levels involve talking to people that want to meet the King of All Cosmos for one reason or another.

The last thing I'll mention is the music. The sequel contains a lot of the same songs as the original, remixes of those songs, and new versions. I was cracking up in the tutorial level which had the theme song being sung by what almost sounded like William Hung. We Love Katamari also lets you choose from a selection of different background tracks for each level which is a nice touch.

Video Games Live

I found out about the Video Games Live concert in one of my weekly concert emails. I'm ordering tickets tomorrow for the San Jose show on Saturday November 5th. It looks like it's going to be a really cool show. If anyone else wants me to order them a ticket, let me know.

Complicated Controls

I completely agree with this article that video game controls are often way too complex. It's always so refreshing to find a game like Katamari Damacy that anyone can just pick up, play, and enjoy without learning 500 controls. And this is also the reason why Tecmo Super Bowl will likely always be the greatest sports game of all time.

Japanese Arcade in Cleveland

This is a note to self in case I make it back to Cleveland in the near future, as well as for my friends still at Case. Sarah was telling me there's an all Japanese arcade near Cleveland. One thing they have that I'd really want to try is the drumming game, which is similar to DDR (and shown in Lost in Translation). It sounded like a really neat place. I don't remember the name of the place or where exactly it was, but hopefully Sarah can leave that in the comments.

Katamari Damacy

After reading Mike's post I had to find out what Katamari Damacy was. Turns out, it's this very simple game by Namaco where you push around a ball that stuff sticks to. And by stuff, I mean pretty much anything. That's the game, push around ball and stuff sticks to it, as the ball gets bigger, you can pick up bigger things. So simple. I read some reviews praising the game, and given it's $20 price point and the fact that I wasn't doing anything else I decided to go pick it up.

I drove down Steven's Creek to the GameStop, but they didn't have it. Actually when I got there I couldn't exactly remember the name of the game, but I looked and didn't see it. So I decided to ask the clerk. No sooner than I said "I'm looking for this PS2 game, but I'm not quite sure on the name," he goes "Katamari Damacy? we're sold out." Damn. Fortunately, there's a Best Buy not more than 3 blocks away, so I went there. I got there, looked at the shelves and didn't see it, but then a worker came up and asked if I needed any help. So I described the game I was looking for. (I hadn't fully caught the name when the GameStop clerk said it.) The guy says, "Yeah, I've read about that game, it's gotten good reviews, I think we have it in the back." About 30 seconds later he comes back with a copy of the game. Victory!

And now, having played the game I can say it was easily worth the $20 (and dealing with trying to park at Best Buy). You simply use the two analog sticks to roll the ball around. No other buttons are necessary. You can use R1 to get an aerial view of the area your in, and you can use L1 to look around in first person view. It takes about a minute before you are rolling the katamari around and picking stuff up.

Now, like any puzzle type game, of course there is also story. The King of All Cosmos has accidently broken all of the stars. So by using the katamari to roll things up, they can be turned into new stars. So he sends his son, the prince, to Earth to do just that.

In the first few levels, the goal katamari size is pretty small, so you end up picking up a bunch of smaller sized objects. However, the moment when you are playing and your katamari is large enough to start picking up small animals and people, will go down as one of the most fun moments in video game history. That's right, once you reach the right size animals and people are no longer safe. The children tend to laugh when you pick them up, while the adults scream. It's all very amusing.

The game contains very amusing textual speech. The funniest so far being when you fail to meet the katamari size for the level and the King says something along the lines of "We have the best eyes in the universe and still can't see you're katamari. Well, small is in, and being a trendy prince you would want to try that wouldn't you."

Also of note is the background music. It's a rather wide selection of genres, but nothing quite beats rolling a ball around picking stuff up with a J-pop background.

There is also a 2 player mode, where you compete to see who can get the larger katamari. I haven't actually tried the 2 player game yet, but apparently if you get significantly bigger than your opponent, you can pick them up as well while they struggle to try and break free.

Anyone with a PS2 needs to pick up this game. For $20 you can't go wrong.

Worms 3D

After our seemingly weekly dinner at BJ's, Andrew, Ricci, and I went back to Ricci's and end up playing with Garageband on Ricci's new iMac for a while. We took turns each laying a track and made a couple interesting songs. Then we played some Worms 3D on the Gamecube. I hadn't played any Worms game, since maybe 10 years ago when my brother and I played the demo of one on our dad's computer all the time. It was a fun game, though I did pretty poorly and ended up damaging my team as much as the other's. I enjoyed the sheep weapon, which basically involved sending an exploding sheep charging into your opponent. There was also the Super Sheep special weapon which was a sheep with a cape that you could fly and crash spectacularly into your enemies.

Virus: Dangerous Enemy

I was looking at stuff on ebay last weekend and came across an auction for a Dr. Mario NES cartridge (black case and instruction book included) for $10. The auction was scheduled to end in 15 minutes and there were no bids, so I went ahead and bought it. I have to say, I was definitely wondering if I'd actually get it to work, given that I've had problems getting some of my own games to work anymore. However, it came in the mail yesterday, and it worked on just my second try. So beware viruses, you don't stand a chance, and neither does anyone wishing to challenge me to a two player game! And hearing that music again made me realize just how many long hours were spent playing that game last semester.

Jak II

I finally got around to beating Jak II today. I've owned the game since October. I completed it in just under 20 and a half hours of gameplay (which doesn't count all the times I died and had to repeat parts). Overall it was a fun and decently challenging 3D platformer. My next video game task will be to finally finish Xenosaga (which I bought last June but had to hold off on playing for a while until I beat Suikoden III). I think the second episode of Xenosaga comes out in August. The screen shots I've seen of it look amazing.

SMB3 in 11 minutes

It's somewhat old news, but I felt the need to link to the Super Mario Bros. 3 in 11 minutes video, or as Mike put it "our entire childhood in 11 minutes."

Games of All Kinds

Erik's Question of the Day asks: Do you play games? If so, what kind?

There's actually been several game's I've been playing lately, several of which I have been meaning to post about, so this gives me the perfect excuse.

Living in a college dorm, a very large majority of my gaming comes in the form of multiplayer video games. The last couple of weeks, there has been an insane amount of Dr. Mario played on our media PC. On Halloween night, Dr. Mario was played for over 6 hours straight by a group of about 8 of us. This past weekend though, we were looking for some 4 player gaming, so we reconnected Jeff's Dreamcast and played San Francisco Rush 2049 and Bust a Move 4.

As far as single player video games go, I started Xenosaga over the summer, but have yet to finish it. I also recently purchased Jak II. It's a really fun platformer, but I haven't really had time to play it much.

Outside of video games, I've been playing a fair amount of cards with people. Jacob, Lynn, and I play Pinochle at least a couple times a week. The couple times we have actually been able to find a fourth player, we've played a variant of Pinochle called 15. They also recently taught me a game called Raising Levels. It's another 4 player game, but takes a lot of time. Last year, several of us played Euchre a fair amount, though we haven't played much of that this year. However, last Saturday, Chris and I played in the Euchre Euphoria tournament. We made it to the second round before being eliminated.

Some other games we've played, usually on weekend nights, include Scattergories, Cranium, Trivial Pursuit and Catch Phrase. Last weekend, Chris, Dana, and I played Simpsons Trivia which was a lot of fun (and also prompted us to watch a couple episodes that had a couple questions about them during the game).

The last game I'll mention is one I've played at home a lot with my parents and grandparents, Rummikub. It seems to be our classic family-get-together game. I have a copy of it here at school and we played it a couple times last year. it's a fun game.

So there you have it, a short listing of games that keep my friends and I entertained.

The Soul Still Burns

Matt got the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur II over the weekend. We've played it a bit on the last couple days and I have to say it's one of the most fun fighters I've played in a while. I've always been a fan of weapons based fighters, I mean come on, swords are just cool. The controls are simple enough that we had good fights going on even with people who don't play video games that much. I haven't played too much yet, but I'd like play enough that I can get past the button mashing style of play. My character of choice right now is Xianghua, because she's fast and seems to have a good variety of sword moves. I also found a character last night that uses nunchucks, and he seems like he could also be a very good character to learn.

Victory

This little game occupied about half an hour of my time this afternoon. What can I say, I'm a sucker for old school Nintendo like games. I actually got the perfect score twice, but the first time I used apple-shift-4 (which lets you select a specifc region of the screen) to try taking the screenshot, but the game went back to the main menu before I could take the picture. (On a side note, why does OS X take screenshots in pdf format?) I also took a break from the game to take this quiz that Erik sent to me.

Resident Evil 0

Ah, Resident Evil. Over Christmas break Dan and I talked about how much the original freaked us out and how we couldn't even play the game for long periods of time. So when Kurt brought Resident Evil 0 for the Gamecube back, I had to try it out. Graphically the game is gorgeous. The lightining is amazing, objects in the environment move (like the skillet vibrating on the stove in the train), and there's so much detail to each of the rooms. The overall feel of the game reminds me a lot of Resident Evil 2, my favorite in the series.

There's really only 2 things I've noticed that make this different from the rest of the Resident Evil games. The first is that instead of storing items in a magic box, you simply leave them on the ground. Fortunately, the map marks where you've left items so you don't have to worry about where you left things. This makes the game a bit more real, and now you don't have to worry about having to use up an herb, just you can pick up a key or other item that you need.

The other new feature is that you have 2 characters to control at any given time. In the other games, you would control a second character for certain parts of the story, but in this one you have control of 2 characters all the time. So far I haven't been too impressed with this though. The interface for exchanging items between the characters is pretty clunky and constantly swapping items between the two gets annoying.

There are options for whether the character you are not currently controlling follows you around or stays where they are as well as if they should shoot when they see enemies or not. I usually end up just leaving one behind while I explore various rooms until I get to a puzzle that requires both characters (or I need an item the other person has). I've already died several times because the person I'm not controlling gets killed by a zombie. Even if they are set to shoot when they see enemies, they don't seem to try to avoid the enemies, so they usually end up getting attacked anyway.

I'm playing on the normal difficulty setting, and it's been pretty challenging so far. I'm pretty much always on the verge of running out of ammo, and both characters spend very little time in the "Fine" condition.

Overall, it's a fun game and I'm going to try and beat it. Although that will probably take me the rest of the semester, since I've only put a couple hours in since the beginning of the semester.