We put it off long enough…
Now I can do fun stuff like this!
We finally broke down and bought a Wii. We were in the store today and I saw one on the shelf. I almost didn’t tell Andrea about it, because I knew I was weak and she’d talk me into it. But she walked over while I was looking and saw it. Next thing you know we’re walking out with a Wii, Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, and an extra controller. Ha ha!
It’s been fun, sitting there, creating Miis, getting the WiiConnect24 up and running. I’m really excited about the virtual console, although I’m going to wait a while to download any games, as I think we’ve spent enough money as it is!
So if anybody wants to come over and play Nintendo, just let me know. Now I’ve got all of ’em!
Final Fantasy video from back in the day.
Here’s a video I put together probably a couple years ago. Never really had the means to post it. Youtube wasn’t around then, ya know! I hooked up my PS2 to my old laptop (may she rest in peace) and recorded all the cutscenes from both games on the the hard drive. That was a good week solid of playing though the games, recording, saving, etc.
Then I edited the two songs together with Cool Edit Pro, and put it all together with Sony Vegas 5. Didn’t turn out too bad, but the music is a little cliche now.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K5pffRU038]
08.10.08Last night’s LAN party.
Well with Andrea out of town, and no reason not to, I tagged along with Biebs to go to a LAN party with a few of his friends. It was a good time, though I was getting my butt handed to me most of the time! Though I did discover a game called Homeworld 2 that looks pretty fun, but I’m going to have to get into it more before I reach a verdict on that.
I ended up staying out way too late though. Didn’t get home until about 3AM. Ugh. I hit the bed and fell to sleep immediately. But I was at least up this morning before 10:00, got some coffee in me and all is good!
Head over to biebsworld.com to check out some videos of the gaming action!
08.9.08Get it?
WiiWare brings you…Beer Pong?
It’s true. You’ll soon be able to play Beer Pong on your Wii. Just incase you don’t have access to ping pong balls…or beer. It’s all the fun of REAL Beer Pong without all the pesky drinking.
05.4.08A look back: Top Gear Rally
Although you might not think so looking at it today, Top Gear Rally was one of the coolest racing games on the Nintendo 64 back in the day. Made by what would become another of my favorite studios, Boss Studios, it was the first in a line of great racing games by them. Going clear back to the days of playing Rad Racer and RC Pro-Am on the original Nintendo, I’ve always been a fan of the racing genre. Whether it’s the arcade racers like Cruisin’ USA or more realistic games like this one it didn’t matter much to me.
I don’t exactly remember how I happened upon this game, but I want to say it was a Christmas gift in 1997. I hadn’t heard of the game except read a couple reviews in Tip & Tricks, and I don’t recall picking it out myself. Either way it turned out to soak up another significant portion of my childhood.
The coolest thing about the game was how “realistic” it was. You wouldn’t think so looking at it today, but there were some pretty impressive features as far as details go back then. The cars actually acted like they were sitting on real a suspension. You could see the tires bump and absorb changes in the road surface and the cars would lurch to one side as you went barreling around a corner. Not too much to get excited about these days, but back then it was sure something to behold.
At the time it was the most realistic racing game I’d ever played. Up until now I’d only really experienced Arcade style racers. Where you take 90 degree corners at 100+ MPH, and the break button was just there for looks. In stark contrast, the cars in Top Gear Rally felt very heavy, taking time to react and carrying a good amount of momentum with them. You have to use a little more intellegence to keep your speed up and get through a track without constantly sliding off the course. The physics weren’t perfect though. While slightly clunky, the cars were also very “floaty”. Going too quickly over the crest of a hill would lift the wheels off the ground and put Sir Isacc Newton in the driver’s seat. I’d be lying though, if I didn’t say how fun it could be to send your car sailing through the air and finish with a spectacular end over end crash. Very satisfying.
Another cool feature was real time damage. It wasn’t quite precise, but the more you slammed into walls or other cars, the more mangled and distorted your car became. You didn’t suffer any performance penalty, but you always ended up with an amusing looking vehicle by the end of a race.
As if the game hadn’t already outdone itself, Boss included the Paint Shop. While a bit cumbersome with an N64 controller, you were given access to the equivilant of MS Paint to create your own textures for your car. I remember spending a long time, messing with the Paint Shop feature alone. Unfortunately it required almost an entire Memory Pak all to itself! The files were huge, realitivly speaking. But it was just plain cool to go out there and race in a car that you designed, rather than being stuck to a built in generic design.
All in all a very fun game. I’ve had a lot of fun in the past week or so re-learning how to play. It’s a very simplistic game in retrospect. You don’t really race against the other cars, they just run preset speeds on a preset line around the track. It’s not much more than a glorified time trials mode a la Gran Tourismo. Still the half arcade half sim feel is a perfect balance and very fun. I finished up one whole season and unlocked the Milk Truck! Back in the day I must have played quite a bit because I remember unlocking a helmet car, taco car, and even an ice cube car. Weird.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGxPwMH7rn0]
A look back: Blast Corps
Cue Rare, one of the most prominent game developers of the Nintendo 64 era. Though no body knew it at the time, they would churn out terrific games later, such as Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye, and Perfect Dark. They’re also responsible for a couple NES classics you might remember…RC Pro-AM Racing, and Marble Madness. Unquestionably one of the premier developers of the time, it seemed like everything they touched was fun and addictive. Blast Corps was no exception.
You know how they say, “Don’t judge a game by it’s box art?” While very true, that’s exactly how I came to own Blast Corps. I had some extra money burning a hole in my pocket. And at this time the selection of N64 games was pretty slim pickin’s. Already having about half of the available library of games, there were few left that really appealed to me. The sports games weren’t really my thing, and heck, this one had trucks and crap blowing up, so it couldn’t be that bad right? So in one of my more whimsical purchases, I plopped down $70 cash and the game was mine.
Most of the ride home was spent analyzing the information on the back of the box and reading the instruction booklet trying to get an idea of what the game was all about. I was starting to feel a little more sure about my purchase as I read about some of the vehicles. The bulldozer, dumptruck, motorcycle that fires rockets (all with their own novelty names of course). It looked to be a fun packed game of destruction. All right by me!
After popping the game in for the first time, it’s not completely obvious what the game really is. The first level is real straight forward. Follow the arrow, and use the bulldozer to level all the buildings in the path of a Nuclear Transport locked on target. If it runs into anything it detonates and everybody dies. Clearing the path is quite easy, but then you’re quickly introduced to what all the levels have to offer in gameplay. You have to destroy all the buildings, free all survivors and collect all RDUs. (Radiation Disposal Units) Again this starts off very straight forward.
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Gradually you’re introduced to the meat of the game, which is almost as much of a puzzle game as it is an action game. Many of the levels require you to take advantage of the specific abilities of your vehicle and even find a way for two vehicles to work together. For instance one level requires you to load the dozer onto a train. Drive the train to a dock. Unload the dozer. Operate a lift crane to lift the dozer to the opposite side of the tracks to push a TNT block into a building to complete the mission.
Another memorable level requires you to maneuver tugboats across a path, so the transport can safely cross multiple canal ways. But in order to line them all up correctly it requires you to move one tugboat, take a car back to another move the second boat, take the first boat back to the car…or something like that! There’s a gleeful satisfaction that comes when you figure something like that out. Most of the puzzles are fairly simple, but when you factor in the time constraint, the game can become VERY frantic at times!
When I picked this game up again recently, I was excited to relive every level over again. Unfortunately much of the excitement comes from not quite knowing exactly what you’re doing and watching the missile carrier steadily inch closer to destruction while you scramble to figure out what to do! Being cursed with the ability to remember only the most useless information, everything quickly came back to me, and many of the missions were disposed with ease. Not to say that the game isn’t fun any more, it most certainly is. Just rather you don’t get a second chance at a first impression.
Admittedly, there’s a few frustrations I’d rather not relive. Just when you think the game is conquered, and the final level complete…you’re sent…to the Moon! Sweet! Nothing like zipping around in a dump truck on the Moon in 1/6th gravity, pulling off sweet jumps! Beat that and it’s on to Mars, Venus, and Mercury for more insane levels. When you’re done with those, the game congratulates you then taunts you by saying “Now do it faster!” Aight then. I will. I recall spending hours upon hours going back just to get gold medals on every single mission, pulling my hair out on some. And upon finally getting that last gold, what reward do I receive? Just more taunting that says “Now go for Platinum!” OH YEAH!? F*(@& YOU!
This is one of the few games that the N64’s dated graphics have hardly any effect on the gameplay at all. Yeah most of the buildings have a very “cardboard box” look to them. But once you get into it, it’s more about clearing the path and solving the level. You’re not really paying attention to the details. You just gotta “level that thing” and figure out how to get “over there”. The sound is delightful and the sound track is about as goofy as the plotline. But Rare did what they did best at the time. Churn out a game that’s just too damn fun.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fxuQFqgCbQ]
The Wii…and where we’re going.
This is kinda old news, but I just found out about it. A little thing called head tracking using the Wiimote and sensor bar. I could explain it…but…just watch. It’s the shit. NO special effects edited in.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw]
Pretty amazing. No games support it yet, but I can definitely see this being implemented either via add on peripherals this generation, or built in functionality next generation. Things like Google Maps Street View would be other good uses for this technology. Exciting times!
A look back: NBA Hangtime
Well it’s taken me a couple days to start writing this one, because I’ve actually been playing the heck out of this game. The last few nights Andrea and I sat down together and created characters and have been having a blast! It reminded me of back in the day me and Dad, or me and Bef sitting and playing trying to beat all the teams and guessing at the trivia questions. But it’s one of those games that you don’t have to have a certian amount of time to devote to it, or get to a certian point and save. You just pick it up and have fun.
Like Cruis’n USA it was based almost directly off the arcade game, you just didn’t need a dollar in quarters to play! (You needed $70 for the N64 game =P ) They had one of these set up at the bowling alley in Garden City as far back as I can remember.
Now am not and never was much of a basketball fan. Maybe that’s why without question the funnest part of the game was playing with the characters you created. You get to choose a goofy head different attributes like height, shooting, blocking. Best of all you could pick a nickname that the announcer would actually use in the game. Names like…Dingbat, Grandpa, or my favorite that I always chose…Bubba. Paired with a goofy looking dude that is best described looking like Ernest, it was always funny hearing the announcer say something like, “Bubba tomahawks it home!”
There’s just not a whole lot to write about this game. It’s just plain stupid over-the-top fun! There’s no real competition because the computer has a “catch-up” assist that will increase the chances of making shots for whoever is behind. This always keeps the games close, but really just amounts to playing 2 minutes of the game at the end that actually matters. But who cares? You’re having so much fun doing double dunks and shoving opponets half way across the screen to steal the ball, you just don’t care!
It’s either because it’s so simple, or because I’ve been playing N64 games the past two weeks, but the graphics don’t seem quite as tough on the eyes as other games. As I said before I was really suprised to find myself playing it so much the past few days. When I decided to do these little write ups on all my old games, this one wasn’t of my list of games I thought would suck me right back in like it was yesterday. Quite a plesant suprise!
A look back: Mario Kart 64
It should be no suprise to anyone that I’ve looked forward to the writing of this re-review more than just about any other. So many memories, so much time invested. Just looking at the box art gives me chills. (Man, I’m a geek!) I was a bit worried about if it would ever get written, because before I write these, I try to go back and play the game as if I’d just peeled the shrink wrap from the box for the first time all over again. I wasn’t quite able to do that to the fullest extent with this game however, because that would require deleting all the times I recorded in times trials. And I wasn’t about to do that! I for a long time said that if my house were burning down, my Mario Kart 64 cart would be one of the few things I would run in to save. I’ve invested that much in this game. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the original start screen from before you beat the Star Cup.
Mario Kart 64 was a siginificant game for me in many respects. It was the first game I bought the day it was released. I bought it solely on the recommendation of my friend Paul who said that it was going to be an outstanding game. I had played the Super Nintendo version before it, and had fun, but had it not been for Paul who really stoked the fire of enthusiasm, it may have been quite some time before I picked the game up, if ever.
It was also the first game I bought completely with my own money. Up until now, all the games had been gifts given to me. This time I went and picked the game out in the store, paid cold hard cash for it. And carried it out. I remember it being a good feeling, that I really earned it, and perhaps that helped me enjoy the game that much more.
Getting the game home is another quite vivid memory. I was proud. I waited patiently for the day the game would come out, and it was finally mine! I picked at the seams of the plastic wrap around the box and tore it away. Then pried open one end of the box, careful not to crease the cardboard too bad, but anxious enough not to be too timid. Our still new TV was situated on the west wall of our living room in Ingalls, and the piano was on the north wall. After I got the game out I propped the box up next to the TV as if to display my prize, popped the game in and watched the Nintendo logo spin and the sound zip from the left to right for the first time. It was just a short time that I had to enjoy the game though, because for some reason we all had to leave to go somewhere. I don’t remember where, but I remember not being able to wait until I got back home so I could play it again. This is perhaps my first moment, as a video game junkie.
This actually reminds me of something. Our first 27″ TV WAS NOT a Magnavox… The actual TV we opened on Christmas day 1996 was returned, because it wasn’t a stereo TV like dad or mom thought it was. That TV was taken back and exchanged (plus a few dollars I’d imagine) for the true stereo Magnavox that I remember so well, and that Mom still uses to this day I believe. Wow, what else is still stuffed up in that brain of mine?
I digress…
I don’t recall if it was immediate, but sometime shortly after I started playing the game something about it resonated with me. The way the karts handled, and nailing powerboosts over and over in a single corner, it all was almost second nature to me. And right about the time I started getting into Time Trials I also started to get into a magazine called Tips & Tricks. It was my introduction to video game journalisim, and for a while had my hopes of being an editor of a gaming magazine. Each month after Mario Kart came out, they’d publish the best time they’d seen for for the Mario Raceway track. Folks would take pictures of their TV screens and mail them into their reader mail bag. I remember seeing a time of 1’24″XX and thinking “I can beat that.” And before the next issue came out…I did. Then seeing a better time of 1’23″XX and thinking, “Man, I dunno if I can beat that.” But eventually I did, and was so excited I went out and bought one of those disposable cameras, got the film developed and sent in the photo. Unfortunately it never did get published. Oh what I wouldn’t have given for digital cameras and e-mail back then! My current record for that track with no shortcuts is 1’21″63. Over 2 seconds faster than the time I thought I could never beat!
I’ve always said the best games are the ones that piss you off the most. I can remember getting so mad at this game. Running lap after lap and screwing up at the exact same spot, knowing exactly what I was doing wrong just for some reason I couldn’t make it do what I wanted it to do. Or doing it great 2 laps, but rendereing a perfect run useless on the final lap. Talk about frustrating! I didn’t often throw controllers, especially the N64 controllers as they were somewhat expensive. But I’d by lying if I said I didn’t throw a controller one or two times while playing this game.
Speaking of controllers, I effectively wore out 4 controllers with this game. The constant left-right, left-right motion wore these puppies out pretty fast. I ended up replacing two of them later in college, but have since thrown the others away, except for one that became a trophy (more on that in a later episode) and one that was a rear view mirror ornament in my car for sometime. I now only have two left and am reluctant to get hardcore into Mario Kart again for fear of not being able to replace the ones I have now. There’s supposedly replacement joysticks available, but I’ve been unable to read reviews on their quality. I hope someday to have 4 quality N64 controllers again for some great multiplayer action, old school style.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpHiTKApQmU]
I hate to admit it, but my Mario Kart skills have since deteriorated. I’m still able to hold my own in the 150cc Gran Prix mode, but it’s a little sloppy, and Time Trials? Well forget about it. I can’t come close to any of my old times on any track. I’d like to think with a little practice it would all come rushing back, but honestly, until I get some new controllers, I’d rather not destroy the last two good ones I have! All I really have left is those crazy fast times left on the records on my cart. I don’t know if I’d run into a burning building to save it anymore, but I’d sure think about it!
