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Jan 24th, 2007 at 02:56:18 - Gradius (NES) |
Teehee on me, trying to play a game in a genre I know for a fact I suck at. Let me say this about shmups: I love watching other people play them (especially if they're crazy good), but I apparently do not have the skills necessary to get even ten minutes into Gradius. I am pretty awful at shoot 'em up games.
I think one reason shmups get me so frustrated is the fact that because many of them started as arcade games...well, they play like arcade games. One hit? You're dead. Die three times? Game over. Okay, I get it. I suck. But I don't want to start the whole game over every time I mess up. It's not like I'm putting quarters into it. Games that have you die after one hit drive me crazy. Why couldn't they do something a little more player-friendly for the console versions? Give me at least two hits, platformer-style. Or health bars, like in Pop'n Twinbee or Star Fox. Those are even better.
Simply put, Gradius is very frustrating to me. After starting over at least five times, I started trying to develop strategies, such as "use the speed powerup first, then go for the shield." But it never seemed to get me too far.
Part of me just wants to go play a shmup that I suck less at (Star Fox 64) or at least have more fun playing (Twinbee), but I'll tough it out. I'll play for another...well, however long it takes me to think of something more insightful to say about dying over and over again.
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Jan 18th, 2007 at 23:55:06 - Kirby's Adventure (NES) |
So, due to certain circumstances, I had to start my game over again. Thankfully, I had only gotten to level 3 before ("Butter Building"--who came up with these names? Foody goodness!), so I was able to quickly catch up to where I had been previously.
Which, speaking of. I had been trying to fight the suplex beetle (Bugzy?) using the Fireball ability. Which is near impossible. But I was stubborn and didn't want to let that ability go because I like it so much. This time around, I had the Laser ability by chance, which made the fight significantly easier. I guess it was all about what kind of attack you have. I'm sure I could have beat it with the Fireball--it just would have taken WAY longer. So not worth it.
The ability you get from the beetle, the Back Drop...I thought that was going to be completely useless, but I was able to rock Meta Knight's guys hardcore with it. Kind of fun to use. (Which is part of the Suplex ability in Super Star, if I remember correctly.)
It's funny, even the music and sound effects from Kirby's Adventure have been continually reused in later games. Part of me wonders why they haven't changed them in 13 years, but I guess if something's not broke, then why fix it? They're classic now. I know someone who could play "Green Greens" on his bass guitar.
The whole time I'm playing, I can't help but thinking, "Yeah, this is fun, but I could be playing Kirby Super Star instead. It's almost exactly the same, but more fun." I guess I'm a bit spoiled by having played the later games first. I miss having multiple moves per copy ability, and having a helper--2-player co-op play is so much more fun. If I were playing Super Star, I could get my roommate to play, too. Aw.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 18th, 2007 at 23:56:43.
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Jan 17th, 2007 at 20:35:04 - Kirby's Adventure (NES) |
Me and Kirby, we're good friends. I have Kirby's Dreamland 3 and Kirby Super Star (one of my favorite SNES games), but I've never played Kirby's Adventure before.
For some reason, I figured it would be far more simplistic than it is. Kirby's Dream Land didn't have copy powers, and I guess I didn't expect them in Adventure either. So it looks like the Kirby formula hasn't changed a whole lot since 1993.
My favorite abilities so far are the Laser and Fireball. And as with all Kirby games, I love getting the Parasol ability just so I can watch Kirby drift down the screen with his umbrella because that sprite animation is always super cute. It's not as fun as in Super Star though, because Kirby doesn't get neat hats for his abilities, and each ability only has one move (the "Fire" and "Fireball" abilities in Adventure are both part of the "Fire" ability in Super Star, for instance).
Ahh, and one thing that gets me is that flying is done by pressing up, which means I end up flying sometimes when I'm just trying to go through a door or hit up accidentally. I'm used to the way it's done in other Kirby games, where you just press jump repeatedly.
So I guess I've got some complaints about Adventure, but all of those issues have been fixed/improved upon in the other games. Go HAL.
I like the minigames you get to play between levels, but I wish you could play them more than once. Also, I like the "Museum" areas where you can pick up an ability whenever you want.
Oh, NES and the days of having score points. Why do I care? I never try at the end-of-the-level jumping thing. The difference between 800 points and 1000 points is not much for me. I never understood or cared about the score in a console game. It kinda only makes sense for arcade games. I'm glad score points were eventually ditched for things like collectable items and secret areas.
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Jan 10th, 2007 at 01:33:55 - Shadow Hearts: Covenant (PS2) |
Alright! So, I did level up and made it through the temple just fine after that. I forgot that SH2 is one of those games where out-of-party characters get experience too. More RPGs need to have that feature. It saves so much time when it comes to leveling up your party members.
There are learning curves, and Shadow Hearts has like...a "re-learning curve." I forgot so much stuff from not playing it for so long. It took me a while to get back into it. Most RPGs aren't really like that, I guess. It's usually, "once you get it, you've got it."
The crest system for magic is...urgh. It's like materia (FF7) but way more annoying. And the "recommended" option is never helpful at all. It always fills up your characters with the most useless crests. I know it was for customizing your characters more, but it was something this game could've done without. SH1 did without it just fine.
So, I was getting frustrated and bored while I was in the temple. Random encounters, how I haven't really missed you. And I know they're a staple in RPGs, but I'm starting to get a little tired of long boring aimlessly-wandering-around dungeons. But once I got back to the good stuff--that is, the plot--I was happy again. Fought Rasputin, and now it's time to go after a certain naughty priest. I got to the tower that Nicholai is hanging at, then decided to take a break there. Looking forward to coming back to it tomorrow!
Also, I forgot how much I love Yuri. He's one of my favorite RPG protagonists ever. Because he's a dork but endearing and funny and has personality.
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eriph has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 13 days |
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