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• 29Dec 09

  The games I got for Christmas.

  Well I had a good Christmas, as you might know I did get WoW: Wrath of the Litch King for my birthday back on the 16th of December as well as downloaded both LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias and Ristar on the VC but then came Christmas and I got several more titles I've been dying to play.

  I love 3D Mario as much as the next person but the gameplay of 2D Mario is very different and often we don't realize that. In 3D Mario the goal is to explore around, fight enemies or solve puzzles in order to gain a star wheras 2D Mario is about running and jumping to the finish as fast as possible. I never got why there was so much animosity towards 2D games on consoles especially after seeing series like Megaman, Sonic and Castlevania struggle so much in 3D I think we've warmed up to the idea of 2D games on consoles. Look at Little Big Planet and Muramasa. Still this manages to add a lot of things I loved about old school Mario. It improves on the DS game in every way. Not only are the koopalings back, but I've seen tons of enemies not seen since SMB3 like Fire Chomps and Spikes as well as including aspects from my all time favorite game Super Mario World so far my only disappointment is that Yoshi can't be carried over to the next levels. Also it's freakishly hard at times.

  As the Mario RPGs go, the Mario and Luigi games were not my favorite when compared with Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario however this third installment is slowly winning me over (I skipped over Partners in Time) mainly because playing as Bowser=epic win but I love the concept here of Mario and Luigi being sucked into Bowser's stomach while Fawful is trying to overthrow both kingdoms. I have to figure out where I'm going to rank it on my "Favorite Mario RPGs" list I plan to do though I doubt it will overtake SMRPG though it might end up being second.

  I haven't played too much into this one yet though I did get to drive the train and while I admire the series for trying something new, the train does take away from the sense of exploration the Zelda series is known for and if Anourma isn't careful, the Zelda series risks falling into the gimmicky downward spiral the Sonic series has fallen into. What's next? Link turning into a werewolf?...oh wait.

  Now before you all have a fit that I'm somehow betraying the "hardcore" side of gaming, this is really fun. My husband loves iteven more. We don't have a lot of free time for excercise and the cold weather right now makes it hard to get outside and jog and gym memberships are expensive but we both have had fun with this. We even weighed our fatass cat and it's cute that your Mii pet will appear in some of the games. Haven't played all the activities yet or started an official training plan but it really is fun.

  My husband got a bunch of games too. Dragon Age Origins (PC), Brutal Legend, Modern Warfare 2 (though he still wants his dedicated server back) and Fight Night Round 4. But as I said, he loves playing Wii Fit Plus with me.

  On top of that I finally got an MP3 player (though it's from Phillips, not an Ipod) and Up on DVD as well as I have another 2000 Wii points I have yet to spend. But I had a good Christmas. Feel free to share what you got.

  • Posted Dec 29, 2009 6:29 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 22Dec 09

  Looking towards 2010

  So as Christmas draws near I expect to get several games for Christmas including Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Zelda: Spirit Tracks and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I was hoping to get one for my birthday but I did finally get Wrath of the Litch King for WoW so I am no longer stuck at lvl 70 and I got Wii Fit Plus (shut up I want that!) but not the board, which I expect is coming at Christmas as well. I finally finished Scribblenauts and am nearly done with Little King's Story which has a good shot at being my top game of 2009.

  However since everyone likes to talk about what's coming up, here's my list of the games I'm interested in for 2010 in no particular order.

  Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing

  Is Sonic driving a car stupid? Yes. Is this probably a Mario Kart clone? Sure. But it looks pretty good and hopefully this boxart means the Wii version will have online multiplayer and not just leaderboards. I saw were Banjo was announced as a 360 exclusive because everyone loved him driving a car the last time (sarcasm) but given it's not the real Banjo just the crummy car one, I'll just get the Wii version. I like many of you wonder if the Wii and PS3 versions will get their own special characters. But only time will tell.

  Nintendo fans amaze me sometimes. For years we complained of lack of true Mario platformers only appearing once a console lifespan, now we get a sequel to a great Mario game and we whine about how much it's too much like the first. Screw you, Yoshi's in it and that's all I needed to sell me. Think of it this way, it's this or wait for the next console for a new 3D Mario. For now we're all either loving New Super Mario Bros. Wii or condemming it for being "backward" though if NSMBWii had been on the DS or downloadable through Wiiware no one would be complaining. Anyway I'm going to not be a whiny, ungrateful Nintendo brat and enjoy Galaxy 2.

  Metroid Other M Metroid for me is a good series, it's just not my favorite but Other M seems more intriguing than anything. Some of us wonder what Team Ninja will do with Samus or are shocked to see Team Ninja make a game that doesn't have gratuitous breasts and blood because you know giving this an M rating won't fly with Nintendo. Still it will be interesting to see what this Metroid does this time around. I'm fine with Samus talking and I thought we all complained about Mario and Link not talking. Then again Nintendo fans seem torn on the debate of "should Nintendo characters talk?" The Starfox characters seem to not fall into this debate and we're fine with them talking.

  Zelda Wii: It's amazing that a game that has only shown us a teaser picture is already being debated. Of course there's already complaints that it will be awful if it uses the Wiimote and let's just get this out of the way now THERE'S NOT GOING TO BE GC CONTROLLER SUPPORT!! GROW UP ALREADY!! GET OVER IT!! Of course we won't know much about this until this year's E3. Even with the Twilight Princess look I'm sure fans will inevitably find something to hate about it.

  World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. WoW's expansion packs truly feel like expansions. They add tons of new areas, new quests and new content, as opposed to most which are fifteen bucks for three multiplayer maps. Honestly Cataclysm feels more like a full blown sequel with all it's changes to Azeroth. Instead of a new island, the entire landscrape is going to manipulated and changed for better or worse. As well as adding two new races, Goblins, who have appeared in the game but only now will be playable and the werewolf race called Worgen of course when it comes to werewolves it's important to know what werewolf rules we're playing by. Is this Wolfman rules where you only change into a wolf on a full moon or is it New Moon/Underworld rules where you can change at will or are these Sonic Unleashed werewolf rules where you only change at night and it makes you slow and boring and everyone hates it because it dominates the gameplay. But besides that, the level cap is 85, new dungeons, new raids as well as new cla$$es will be available to races who previously couldn't use them such as human hunters, troll druids and gnome priests. This is nice so you're not limited to a certain race because of the cla$$ you wanted. Best of all? Flying mounts on the mainland finally. Anyone who plays can tell you what a pain it is getting around the mainland when you reach high mountains and you have to hunt around to the footpath. Now you can just fly over that crap.

  Epic Mickey If there's one title I'm truly psyched for it's Epic Mickey. More so than Zelda, Mario or Warcraft because it's so unique and so creative and I love Mickey Mouse. I am so glad Warren Spector was willing to take on making a badass Mickey game and that Disney is letting him make a dark Mickey game and finally the Wii gets one of the big third party games for themselves. Not some crummy port or a niche title. I want to see video footage of this more than anything else.

  Well that's all for me for now.

  • Posted Dec 22, 2009 10:00 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 4Dec 09

  Mario Timeline Part 2

  And here's part 2 of my Mario timeline. Look back for the previous blog post where I went through Yoshi's Island through Super Mario Bros. 3.

  Super Mario World

  Upon his defeat, Bowser and his kids took their last remaining airship and left the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser returned to the land of his birth. This is indicated by the sunken ship level you go through before entering the Valley of Bowser in SMW. Upon landing in Dinosaur Land, Bowser came across the Yoshis and remembering his defeat so many years ago, captured the Yoshis and entrapped them in eggs and set out to reclaim Dinosaur Land for himself. At the same time Mario, Luigi and Peach decided that since Bowser had left the Mushroom Kingdom that they should take a trip and went to Dinosaur Land. They had heard about Yoshis and remembered them from their youth and wanted to see them again. As we know, no sooner do the brothers and Peach arrive, then Peach goes missing once more. Shortly after, the brothers find a strange egg to which Yoshi hatches out. Yoshi recognizes Mario from the legends told by his parents and grandparents of how the Yoshis helped one named Mario. Yoshi offers to help Mario and Luigi save the Princess as well as his friends and family. They eventually defeat Bowser and his children again, rescue the Princess and the other Yoshis and restore peace to Dinosaur Land and establish an alliance with the Yoshis. Of course this was the last time we saw Bowser's kids for several years (not counting spinoff games or edutainment). It was my thought that the koopalings grew tired of trying to take over the world with their dad and set off on their own paths.

  Wario's Woods

  Believe it or not, this one fits in with the timeline. Toad, not appearing in SMW, stayed behind to watch the castle for Peach, Mario and Luigi and it was during this time Wario decided to invade. After hearing of Mario's exploits in Sarasaland, Wario, jealous of Mario's fame set out to make a name for himself by conquering the Mushroom Kingdom while he was gone. Gathering an army of minions, he ivaded the kingdom by way of the forest that bordered the Mushroom Kingdom and Toad set out to stop him. Despite his best efforts, Toad eventually lost to Wario and Wario took over the Mushroom Kingdom.

  Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins

  Mario, Luigi and Peach returned to the Mushroom Kingdom only to find Wario had taken over the changed the land to suit his own desires and locked himself inside the castle. Mario set out to find the six golden coins he needed to unlock the castle door and to defeat Wario. Wario clearly did not capture Peach as no princess is rescued at the end of this game. But once Wario was defeated and booted out of the kingdom, Wario set out to find his own fortune and this is were the Warioland games.

  Super Mario RPG

  Eventually Bowser, now alone again returned to Darkland with less resources, rebuilt his castle and once more planned out his next evil kingdom conquering plan. At the same time Mario and Luigi built a house of their own deciding that the castle was too big and noisy for them. However this was generally the time we truly saw something resembling a relationship between Peach and Mario beginning. Peach was on her way to see Mario when Luigi had left on a vacation of his own (?) But soon after Bowser snatched her up. Mario pursued but as we know, no sooner had Peach been saved but a giant sword crashed down brining forth the strange alien invaders with the Smithy gang. This was also where Mario and Bowser both learned the power of the Stars. Prior to this adventure, the stars were nothing more than magical things that appeared once in a while that made one invincible for a short period but now learned that the stars were much more powerful than that.

  Super Mario 64

  When Smithy was defeated, Bowser rebuilt his castle once more but now realized that the stars held the key to ultimate After Smithy's defeat Bowser realized that the key to his conquering the Mushroom Kingdom liked in the star power and that as opposed to just making a massive army, that he should try to use the magic of the stars to conquer the kingdom. As a gift for helping them Geno bestowed the power of 100 stars on the castle to protect it from future attack. So we can't accuse Peach of not having any sort of security. However Bowser compromised the integrity of this system and was able to use it to trap Peach and her staff within the castle paintings. From this point on we saw a lot of Mario storylines involving Bowser trying to steal star power.

  This is where I stop mainly because all other games after this seem to happen in sequence as there's nothing else to show that any other games happened anywhere else in the timeline. Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and so on follow in sequence from this point onward.

  So I hope you enjoyed my Mario timeline. As I said before, like the Zelda series there probably is no distinct timeline but it's fun to try and link them together.

  • Posted Dec 4, 2009 8:59 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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