Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=230https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1393When I first played the original Super Smash Bros, I was pleasantly surprised with its simple controls and relatively light learning curve. While it was one of the earlier video games that I played seriously, so I lacked a proper appreciation of its cast and crew, I soon became addicted to the cartoony graphics and the fast-paced play. Perhaps it was the timing, as I had just gotten over pokemon but the prospect of blowing the stuffing out of its annoying mascots Pikachu and Jigglypuff as a psychic first-grader from a game whose primary enemies were “Dirty Old Men” and “Innocent Passerby” was pretty entertaining. However as I continued playing through single player mode (since all my friends stopped playing once I showed that I was ten times as dedicated as any of them) I found several more exciting techniques, subtleties within the timing scheme and a number of interesting rewards and bonuses for completing levels in short amounts of time, or without using attacks, or by using items, or by drawing bananas out of your buttocks, etc. Regardless, even in the absence of the multiplayer mode which made the game as amazing as it could be, there were countless ways to continue enjoying the game. In short, Super Smash Bros is the reason that I play video games. Numerous characters and modes, which expand in the sequel, complex strategy, a very easy learning curve, and its own new genre of gameplay made this game the legend that landed it on the classics list.Fri, 23 Feb 2007 04:32:34 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1393&iddiary=2943https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1393Super Smash Bros: possibly the best game ever. It created its own subgenre, and still has a devoted following 8 years after its emergence. Although most fans, including myself have (reluctantly) switched to the newer and more balanced Gamecube sequel, the first game still gets played from time to time. There are several things that make Super Smash Bros iconic in game history: First, it doesn't conform well to existing genres. While it is most often considered a fighting game, it allows up to four concurrent players, and has a relatively dynamic camera in an environment distinctly reminiscent of a platformer. Second, it brings together a wide variety of characters from a large number of games. This isn't a unique feature, as Capcom has created several games (e.g. Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK) that have done this, however it is uncommon and the characters come from a wide variety of game types instead of simply fighting games. Mario is a classic platformer, while Link comes from Adventure/RPGs and Captain Falcon stars in racing games. Finally, and perhaps most importantly when considering other games that have enjoyed the same level of success, Super Smash Bros is an excellent party game. Countless times I have spent afternoons and evenings wasting away with a bottom-out seven-man Smash marathon. More on game play next time (news at eleven!)Fri, 23 Feb 2007 04:32:21 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1393&iddiary=2942https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1220For quite some time I have had a number of friends playing this addictive MMORPG, but I resisted getting into it--not in small part because until quite recently I never had a computer capable of running it. I run Linux on my laptop, which used to prevent me from doing these sorts of things, but I recently got my hands on a copy of Cedega, and I had to test it. You know, for science. So I created my first ever WoW character. I'm still new to the game, so let me start with a few comments on my general first impressions before I give a more detailed spec. First: I don't play a lot of PC games--I'm a much bigger console player (although my real forte is tabletop RPGs)--so there were a couple of weird steps for me to make there, such as system requirements and lag. I set up my character on a low population server, so the lag isn't bad, but my graphics card is barely adequate so I get some rendering problems under certain conditions, which makes things difficult sometimes. Anyway, onto things slightly more specific to the game. the first few levels are kind of interesting, although not very exciting, and are also very misleading. They go by quickly until about level 10... at which point leveling starts taking hours, and as I hear it only takes more time as you go along (although it is faster when it isn't your first time). The whole game so far is fairly slow-paced, and a lot of the world isn't explained very well--this makes it a lot harder for new players, but it really isn't a big issue or deterrent for me. My naive, first-three-days-of-playing perspective is that if you have friends to play with, it will be worth your while to get into World of Warcraft, but if you don't have a specific goal (like running "instances" and "raids" with friends) then you will probably waste your life creating max level characters and exploring the nuances of the remarkably beautiful and well-developed world.Fri, 09 Feb 2007 05:53:12 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1220&iddiary=2597https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1015Every game designer's dream (at least, one hopes--some games don't show this very well) is for some nerdy college student, 20 years after the game's release, to be so happy about some mundane acheivement that they take a picture of it and brag to their friends. Okay, maybe that's a little more specific than "for people to enjoy the game even after it is technically outdated" but I finally set up a nice shot of my inventory being filled by three warp whistles, and I really wish right now that I owned a camera (or some sort of digital screen capture hardware). Using the whistles to jump around (and with no need to conserve them with 3 at my disposal) I visited some of my favorite levels from the fifth and sixth worlds (specifically the one with goomba's shoe) before heading on to the eighth world. I'm still annoyed by the darkness and masses of minibosses before you even get to the first few levels, but it sets the mood nicely and slows down play just enough to make racing for a ridiculously fast game-completion time interesting. Again, surfing through the hundred or so levels of this game, I'm astounded by the variety of levels they managed to fit, and make easily distinguishible, in an 8-bit platformer. The simple controls, lack of loading time, and wide variety of items and minigames, not to mention nostalgia, all keep me running back to this game when I get fed up with the wii's weird motion sensitivity or stuck on some puzzle in Zelda. Overall, Super Mario Bros. 3 is possibly the best game ever made. I say this with deep love for Super Smash Bros, Final Fantasy VII, and the cult classic Pokemon Snap, but in as much objective honesty as I can muster when dealing with these pieces of art which helped shape my life.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:39:46 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1015&iddiary=2206https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1015Super Mario Brothers 3 was the first video game I ever played or owned. I vaguely remember getting it, along with a sweet top-loading NES for Christmas one year--and it remains one of my top Christmas gifts of all time. It's been a long time since I've played, and I am a bit rusty--I died twice in the first four levels. Fortunately, I have died so many times in the game that it didn't faze me and I drove through the first several worlds with relative ease. Even though I've been watching these levels scroll by my entire life, the level of graphics the game has even on the original NES is fairly good by Super Nintendo standards, and the level design is elegant and filled with secrets that I exploit like old friends that I no longer care about. The huge numbers of items (from the mushroom to the music box to the frog suit) give it a lot more variety than the first two mario bros games, and the levels have a great variety (especially between the differently themed worlds) For years after I stopped seriously playing the game, I continued to find new secrets, learn new tricks, and overall be surprised by the sheer volume of material and thought that went into this game.Wed, 31 Jan 2007 03:42:57 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1015&iddiary=2182https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=725Although my friend Tim is standing behind me telling me that Ocarina of Time is the greatest game ever, I have to say my second session with it was much more aggravating than the first. Going through the Dodonga cave, the second dungeon so far, has been a lot more difficult than anything previously. The rooms are far more interesting and complex, but the 64's single joystick and the games poor perspective controls make hopping around platforms with quickly-exploding bomb flowers a little bit too difficult, I think, for this stage of the game. While I am aggravated by the controls at the moment, the puzzles and enemies have gotten more interesting and the various items--bombs, deku sticks, the slingshot, and of course the sword and shield--still give the extremely flexible adventure feel that defines Legend of Zelda games. In the end, as an RPG-lover with a large crowd of Zelda-obsessed fans, I know from experience that the little things that are annoying me now will become less and less annoying as I get back into the style and perspective of the system, and out of the two-dimensional thinking that playing too many game boy games has me stuck in.Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:44:16 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=725&iddiary=1883https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=725Every time I see a list of classic games, Ocarina of Time is on it. Every time I see a list of good games for the N64, Ocarina of Time is on it. Whenever people are talking about the Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time comes up. And whenever I told them that I hadn't played, they acted all surprised. I mean, I do own a Nintendo 64. What the hell else could I have done with it? Well, I finally got around to borrowing a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time from a friend, and so far, I'm happy that I did. I don't know if all the anticipation will be worth it, but the interface and gameplay are nice and fully 3D on the 64, where often graphics or gameplay can't keep up with the third dimension that that generation of consoles brought about. Making the transition to a 3D link when the only Zelda games I've seriously played are A Link to the Past and Oracle of Seasons (I also played most of Adventures of Link, but it wasn't as memorable) was a little weird--I still expect a topdown view that scrolls between screen-sized segments of the world--but after a few minutes the weirdness faded away and I was into the gameplay. Like all Legend of Zelda games, Ocarina of Time has a nice mix of puzzles (for example, sneaking past guards, pushing blocks into the right positions, and using a rooster to wake up an old man) and action (as you walk around the world map at night, zombies jump up from the ground.) Getting into the 3D environment is a little bit intimidating for me, but nothing in the beginning of the game was too challenging for me to handle, and I'm excited about the possibilities that links enormous arsenal will hold in three dimensions. The storyline is still at the very beginning, but what it sounds like so far is Link and Zelda--two ordinary kids, plotting to get in the way of a creepy adult (Ganondorf) that they have a bad feeling about. I know from experience that Legend of Zelda is epic fantasy, and I know that the plot is going to progress and build nicely throughout the game, but at this point I can't help but think of them as adorable and misguided anime kids. Overall, I'm very happy to finally be playing this classic, and even happier that it hasn't been at all disappointing.Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:28:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=725&iddiary=1625https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=449I stopped playing Oracle of Seasons for a while, but when I picked it back up I was happy (although not surprised) to find that it was extremely easy to get back into the "flow" of the game. I spent most of my time playing the "trading game" that is present in I believe all Zelda games. I don't know what the final objective is, but exploring the various places that I've passed and sneaking into the parts of the world that I had never been able to reach before is worth the time regardless. While the puzzles are still easy and getting through the game will probably take me less than a week, just the experience of fighting the various monsters and exploring the world make it a title that will be worth coming back to for kicks.Fri, 12 Jan 2007 18:59:00 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=449&iddiary=1456https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=449On sunday I went to Gamestop in the mall with some friends and as usual I took a peek at their old GB/GBC titles (since I don't actually have any more recent systems.) However, unlike usual, I was rewarded with a couple of gems: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Metal Gear Solid. Although I've only been playing Oracle of Seasons for about three days now, I've gotten about halfway through the game. There are several reasons for this, with the first and foremost being how much I love Zelda and have played Link's Awakening, which is very similar. However, a deeper analysis might involve the complexity of the game. A review somewhere on the internet said that in Oracle of Ages the puzzles were harder, while in Seasons the action was more intense. While I haven't played Oracle of Ages, this seems very true. The puzzles in this game have taken me at most a few minutes to get past, while the enemies (such as the room with three red wizrobes that you have to fight EVERY TIME YOU TRY TO CHALLENGE THE BOSS) are far more difficult. So far, I've been happy with the difficulty, even if I've had to ask my Zelda-loving friends to help me out occasionally, and the continuous pile of items and abilities that Link always accumulates keeps gameplay interesting. Shoop da Whoop MitchellWed, 10 Jan 2007 20:06:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=449&iddiary=1138