Pokemon Yellow: Totes Thursday's Classic

Gotta Shock 'Em All

The end of the 90's was a strange time for many of us young gamers. We were busy collecting monsters and battling our friends with them. We would have to do this all while balancing our school life. We called this addiction, Pokemon. Yes, that game they still make today and is still widely enjoyed by many. Back when I was a kid, this game started to catch on in the West. This was a time when color Gameboys were beginning to appear and most were the size of a steak. There was no backlighting for it either! The original Red and Blue versions were all kids could carry around with their pogs and floppy disks--I am that old, I still have a stack of them in my room.

I know someone that has a few of these

One version in particular is one I coveted the most, Pokemon Yellow. I loved the fact that Pikachu could follow your character around as long as he was in your party. That's like having a dog that can zap your annoying neighbor. This was also the first Pokemon game to actually have colors associated with the monsters. What really made this game great was the fact you could find all the starting Pokemon while on your quest. Your party would be stacked without a gameshark.  Of course, times change and people take this classic for granted. We always talk about Red/Blue/Green but never Yellow. The one Pokemon game that really brought a new franchise to a higher level of operations. Like I said, you had a monster follow you and there was color. That was pretty groundbreaking.

This one was a tough choice for me. I was always fond of this version and Silver, but Yellow one out. It is technically a classic and one of the originals. So Surfs up*!

How I spend most of my day

*If you didn't understand that, there was a hidden surfing game if Pikachu knew surf.

I Am Going to Need a Bigger Memory Card

As I sit at my desk, drinking my coffee, and looking at future game releases, I realized that I am going to need a much bigger memory card for my 3DS and Vita. It was inevitable that I would run into this problem, considering the amount of downloadable games that are in both respective shops. For the Nintendo 3DS, The Legend of Zelda: Oracles' series will be coming to the eShop. I mentioned these games in a previous post in one of my classic game days. You know I can't just buy one and not the other. Yes, they may be two in the same game, but they still are different. There is also a deal going on with Nintendo that you can download a free game onto your XL if you purchase the new Pokemon game or Luigi's Mansion game. Yeah, I am totally digging that deal. The Playstation Vita is no stranger to downloadable releases. Heck, the Playstation Plus subscription nets you free games once a month, including titles like Gravity Rush and Ninja Gaiden--ended last month--that take up a good amount of space. You can't forget that with the Vita, the only way to play PSP games is to directly download them.

Also thinking about it too, it adds to your convenience. Who wants to lug around a bunch of game cards all the time? I don't always want to carry a suitcase with games in it. So the added convenience of having the game as an app is right there. Really, I just need bigger memory cards to get me through this year. It would be nice if they made bigger memory cards though...32gbs is not enough!

Tuesday's Classic: Mega Man Legends

This makes me feel old

Out of all the installments of the Mega Man franchise, Legends has to be the second best. It was an open world adventure game that allowed for free exploration. To sum up the main plot of the series, "the player controls Mega Man Volnutt, a teenage digger and archaeologist of sorts who searches underground ruins mainly for Quantum Refractors, which are the civilization's primary source of energy" (Wikipedia). Yeah, it was much different from any Mega Man game at this point and really pushed the series into a new direction. It made Mega Man (FYI I am going two words here) more human then in his pervious games. You got to go into shops and explore cities. It had an actual plot to the story. It was a good one too!! I am not going to lie, it was a really colorful game to play, it might even be one of the best games ever released on the Playstation.

You are thrown into a flooded earth where one must hop from island to island and explore ruins to find power sources. Mega Man is a ruin explorer (archaeologist, duh) and makes a living from doing such. While doing such exploring, he finds himself constantly harassed by pirates. You also spend portions of the story trying to figure out where you came from, but that's more heavily focused in Legends 2 if I recall.

The game played as a typical third-person shooter. You took a behind look at Volnutt as you explored the world. You had your standard blaster rifle and could continuously upgrade it as you progressed through the game.You could interact with most of the environment and NPC's in this world.

Too bad Capcom cancelled a third installment considering this game needs a new one...unlike all the other games coming out this year. I would have thrown all my money in to buy a new installment. I will throw a video in here, F*** it.

Too Many Games Released Too Soon?

With the constant releases of new games every day, my backlog is getting a bit intense. I think right now I have around 10 games that I need to complete. That's right 10. I can probably list them. Actually, I will at the end of this post. Most of the games on my list are almost completed but for one reason or another, I just have not done so. The problem is that too many games are released too soon. I have to put one game down in order to star another and it ends up in my backlog. Take this month alone. A new Luigi's mansion came out yesterday, a new BioShock comes out tomorrow, MLB: The Show and Tomb Raider in the same month? How can I possibly keep up with all of this? It's just not possible. I understand the business end of the deal, but give me a chance to complete some games here guys. What was it this month? 5+ big named games? Do you honestly think I can complete that many in a month? I will be gray by the time I get around to playing all the games I want to. Your games will drop in price by the time I get a chance to purchase them, making you lose money. So slow up on the releases.

1. Tales of Graces f
2. Tales of Vesperia 
3. Dark Souls
4. Spec Ops
5. Darksiders
6. Way of the Samurai 3
7. Valkyria Chronicles
8. Gravity Rush
9. Uncharted: Golden Abyss
10. Halo 4

I have decided that I am going to attempt to beat a game once a week. I think I can manage it. Well, most of the games, JRPG's take forever to beat and Darksiders bored me to stop. 

Final Fantasy X-2?

A remake for Final Fantasy X and X-2 will be released for the Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita respectively. I find it fitting for Final Fantasy X to be released because of how awesome the original game was. It was one of my personal favorites in a long list of games. I don't understand why X-2 is being remade as well. I was never a fan of the original. To me, it sort of ruined a perfectly great story and an overall cheap game. I did play X-2 almost 10 years ago, so my opinion of it might change. As long as I don't have to pay extra for it--which is the rumor going around for the PSVita version--I will give it another go when the time comes.

Quick News: PS2 Emulator for PS3

According to a few news websites, the PS3 is capable of emulating PS2 games. I am not linking any websites because I am not going to even give the slightest chance of legal problems for that. ANYWAY. So yes, apparently the PS3 can play PS2 games. Is this important? For many of us with a large library with a broken PS2, yes, yes it is. Hopefully the individuals working on the emulator will find a way to get it fully functional. I think this is great, I don't want to buy the same game twice.

What question does this whole thing beg then? If it was possible to do emulations of these slim models, why did Sony lie and say they couldn't? Why would they not try to profit from this? We are surely going to find out in the upcoming weeks as this situation develops.

Tuesday's Classic: Rome: Total War

Rome: Total War

Set in ancient Rome, your objectives were to keep a stable political and economic conditions, expand your territory, and fight off invaders. It was important to recruit commanders and soldiers to meet your requirements while making sure that you keep enough funds to build up your cities. In all fairness, this game plays out like most strategy games. As I mentioned, you build up an empire and then your win. So that begs the question, what makes this old game a classic but still relevant today? The actual tactical battles that take place.

In Rome: Total War, your armies met on the battlefield to determine the victor. What made this experience unique was that you controlled all units. You choose where to send them and what actions they had to take. You were the commander of the battlefield and one slight misstep could cost you the battle. Everything had to be tactical. It was tough to win a battle by attacking an enemy straight on. Actually, it usually ended suicidal and your army being crushed. In harder difficulties during campaign, it was tough to recover after a crushing defeat.

Battles would take place in three different scenarios. It was either an open battlefield, a bridge, or a siege map. The siege maps were intense as well as annoying. If you were trying to climb a castle of a wall, you were generally meet with a barrage of arrows and hot oil. It never ended well. The bridge battles were tough because spearmen could chock you right on the bridge--damn those Greeks and their phalanx formations. The open maps were the best. These types of maps really pushed you into choosing sacrificing some units for the better of the whole army.

The best part of this game was the large modding community. If you are fortunate enough to have a physical copy or computer savvy with steam, you could add expansions created by enthusiasts. These mods would have new units and new maps. They were pretty intense. All-in-all, if you want a true military game experience, this would be the game to pick up.

A Few Gaming Things on Monday

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate comes to Nintendo systems tomorrow. Honestly, I am not having it for the Wii U. I can understand porting the game to the 3DS but why remake and even purchase a game that was already created for the Wii? Because of a few extra items and monsters? It make no sense. What Nintendo should have done is pushed for a new entry to the Monster Hunter series instead of asking for a remastered version. The game isn't even old enough for that nonsense yet. If anyone purchases this game, spend your money on the 3DS version even if it it has no online capabilities.

This week also means to bring us new games to PS+. Those games will probably be Disgaea 3 and probably an Indie game for free. I have never played a Disgaea game but it might be worth a try if it's free. I mean, the game sells $35.00 + at retail so you might as well.

That's all for now. I will probably update this blog as the day goes on with more news because why not. 

Thursday's Classic: Banjo-Kazooie

Where is that Jinjo?

MAN DO I FEEL OLD. This Nintendo 64 classic was released in June 1998. That's almost 15 years ago. I still recall getting this classic on my 10th birthday and slapping it into my N64. God, did I spend hours playing this and not doing any homework. You ran around as a bear with a bird in your backpack doing open world stuff like collecting notes and solving environmental puzzles. You could also collect Jinjo's located throughout the Banjo-Kazooie universe. As far as I can tell, they don't really do anything special for you but that's okay. Some of us are perfectionist and must collect them all. Anyway, this game was a great alternative for Mario 64. It was open world, puzzle doing, enemy stopping, and crazy. The best way to describe this ridiculous game is by telling you to look into a kaleidoscope and make sense of it all after going to the bar for a few hours. Anyway, you can pick up this fantastic game on Xbox live if you don't already own it.

P.S. This is one of the few games that I will say the younger generation of gamers have missed out on.

This makes a lot of sense

Tuesday's Classic on Wednesday

I am back in action today after having been sick. I am moving Tuesday's classic title to today for this week only. Really, nothing is worse then being sick but at least I had some videogames to keep me occupied.

Dragonball Z: Legends

If you are wondering why you never heard of this classic, it's because it was never released in the USA. I also aware that the name is a little off but I am not going to type out the whole Japanese name. Anyway, yeah this game was a lot of fun. If you have ever played any of the Playstation 2 DBZ games, it is similar to them but with more people on the screen and the images were drawn. This game was pretty fun when I was growing up despite not understanding a word of it. It came out back in 1996 and never made it to one of the re-release games here in the USA. It actually was pretty difficult to get your hands on this game if you did not have a specialty shop in your area. I mean, this was a time before Amazon and Ebay existed. In all fairness, I can't really tell you much since it was in Japanese. I figured the best way to explain this game is by putting a YouTube video of it on this post. Enjoy and good luck finding a copy! 

My Top 4 XBOX360 Games

Microsoft's prodigy child, the Xbox 360, has graced us with great games for the last 8 years. I think it is only fair to make a top game list for this system with the advent of a new system this year. So, here are my top five you need to play.  P.S. I am aware these games appeared on other platforms so shh.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I don't care if this game has been released on multiple systems, this is one of Xbox's best games. It is an open world game that let's you shape your own destiny. You are the dragonborn and are destined to battle the evil dragon. It's almost a typical rpg story that you cannot help but love. My favorite aspect of this game has to be the fact I can be anything I want. I can be a Nord who runs around with a battle axe and slay monsters or an Elf that can go around a burn pedestrians.

2. Halo 3
This game is what pushed me to buy an Xbox 360. Not one game can compare to Halo and its ability to sell a system. With that being said, Halo 3 was the best of the series. This game was a basic FPS but that was a good thing. It was your typical run-and-gun shooter with the added benefit of pissing people off with teabagging. Regretfully, the newer Halo games have taken that aspect out with their CoD style of play. Actually, that is what made Halo 3 great, it was an alternative to Call of Duty for people who wanted to have fun. Maybe one day, we will get back to the way Halo used to play.

3. Assassin's Creed II
I think you can make an argument that this game defined free roam and epic story telling. You control Ezio and seek revenge for your father's murder. You become an assassin and do assassin stuff. A pretty basic but fulfilling game. The graphics in the game were gorgeous and the movement for the most part was smoothed. I enjoyed jumping from rooftop-to-rooftop and I really enjoyed cutting my foes down with hidden bladed. In all fairness, if it were not for this game, we would have seen the end of the series.

4. Borderlands 2
If any game can get my friends interested in RPG's, it would be this game. Borderlands combines rpg elements with FPS game play and by God, it works. I have spent 70+ hours of senseless killing in this game and I enjoyed every second. You take control of 5--soon to be 6--Vault Hunters and chase down Captain Jack. I want to state that Jack is a ridiculous character. The dialogue in this game is hilarious and disturbing and the graphics are colorful and bloody. Yeah, go play this if you haven't.

Well, that is all I have for today. SO GO PLAY

A Quick Note

Hello readers. I have decided to use Wednesdays to talk about newer games in the market. It only makes sense since I dedicate Tuesday and Thursday to classic gaming. While I am on the subject, I am going to create a time frame for classic and non-classic games. I am going to put the time frame at 5 years of posting the topic. I understand that current generation of consoles have been around for a bit of time, but their days are beginning to set. So yes, 5 years is where I am going to define the time frame. Now I am going to put today's blog in a separate post.

Tuesday's Classic Rewind

I really need to make a clever name for Tuesday and Thursday's classic games. My classic game for today is the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It has been almost 10 years in North American (March 24) since this gem came out on the Gamecube. This game was quite controversial at first due to the game being cel-shaded but eventually people liked this game. I sure did. It's quite a whimsical and somewhat depressing game.
This game followed the same concepts as previous Zelda games. You got a music instrument, a legendary sword, and your green tunic with hat. What really made this game stand out was the fact in was cel-shaded. It's amazing how using a different type of art style can change the entire game. The graphics really set the game apart from any other past or future titles. The music in the game was amazing.The minute you begin to hear a song play, you know you are in the Zelda universe. Sorry, after posting about this game I am going to

Monday's Gaming News

It's the beginning of a new week and a new month as March is set to deliver us new games. This month, we are also being offered discounts from the PlayStation store for PS Vita games. You can't go wrong with that, right? That being said, it will be an exciting month for people who own consoles. The new Tomb Raider debuts tomorrow along with a few not so well known titles like Atelier Ayesha (I have never played any games in the series so I linked it to wiki). This month also marks when the updated version of Monster Hunter 3 comes to the Nintendo systems. Oh yeah, A new God of War game comes out soon too. That's all for now guys.