Well another weekend came and went. On Friday I picked up Daxter for the PSP. That took up a good deal of my weekend and I've been having a lot of fun. I had been wanting to play a game on my psp for a while and Daxter has done a good job fullfilling that want. The gameplay is great on the psp and I'm surprised that it wasn't released as a console game since I believe it could have easily been released as such. The graphics are great and the gameplay is a lot of fun. There are also these button pressing sequences called Dream Levels that take Daxter into his dreams of being a super hero that are interesting. Add in the $20 price tag and it makes for a great game that's easily worth the money.
-------------------------------------
Speaking of the PSP if you look up on my wishlist (under the games tab on my profile) you'll notice that I've added a few psp games there that I want to buy. Most of them are platformers and the games that I really want are: Mega Man Powered Up, Loco Roco, and maybe Puzzle Quest.
There are also a few games that I'd like to pick up for my DS Lite (Lunar Knights and Chocobo Tales). I've been wanting to play more portable games for a while now though I have enjoyed my Gamecube a lot.
-------------------------------------
Which brings me up to an interesting observation of myself as far as consoles go and future console plans.
I've realized that I'm not interested in console gaming anymore. I mean as far as this new generation of consoles goes and purchasing any new console. That doesn't mean at all that I wont continue playing console games though. I still have half of Twilight Princess to get through and most of Paper Mario. Ontop of that then add in Super Mario Sunshine, Lego Star Wars II, Sonic Hereos, and Final Fantasy XII. As you can see I have a few games to get through and that will likely tied me over for a good long while.
It's also because of the great variety of handheld games and how much they appeal to me. Another factor is how many genres in my opinion feel much more fun on handhelds. Genres like racing, puzzle, platformer, fighting, role playing, and even platforming are a lot more fun on handhelds. And with both the DS and PSP I have a ton of varied games at my disposal.
I have a lot more to say as far as this topic is concerned but I think that it's really something for another day. I mean games are still fun for me, it's just that console gaming is something that I don't feel is really that important to me now.

I hope you were able to tell that the game I played this weekend was Super Mario Sunshine. If you didn't well shame on you.
This weekend was originally planned to be another Twilight Princess one but instead I went with a new game I got about two weeks ago or so. I'm glad I did considering how much fun I've been having.
--------------------------------

Before anything else let me mention what I love the most about this game: COLOR
Super Mario Sunshine has a lot of great colors and everything is just so bright. It's a welcome change compared to other console games that I've played. Twilight Princess does have color but just not as bright or as varied as Super Mario Sunshine seems to have. Mario himself still manages to stand out with the bright landscapes.
This game got me in the mood for the summer that feels has just started here in sunny California. I mean how can it not with the beach setting and all the tropical areas Mario visits in Sunshine. The ambience of the game is greatly done and the graphics still hold up surprisingly well given that it was released back in 2002. For only $20 it was a great and fun purchase.
If you've ever played Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 or on the DS (like me) then you're in for a treat. Sunshine takes what Mario 64 did and expands it with better graphics, a sort of water jetpack for Mario used for traveling and fighting, and a great camera that pulls back to give you a great view of Mario's surroundings.
In this game Mario is given a jetpack that uses water to clean up graffiti and also serves as a means of transportation. With a press of a button you can go from hovering around using the jetpack to cleaning the environments bringing them back to their bright and lively luster. Later on you get more nozels for the jetpack that gives you the ability to rocket up into the sky with one strong burst and another to run extremly fast on land and swim quickly in water.
So far the game's levels have also been interesting. Like I mentioned the levels are a lot like those found in Mario 64 but done with new elements and even larger. The areas are all of mix of water and land with the exception of a small number of levels. Such as one that sends you up into the sky on a bird made of sand. Those levels that take place in the sky are also bright and very much fun, and of course just as richly coated in blues and white.
There are also levels that put Mario in what seems to be outerspace with childrens play blocks and levers. Sometimes these levels can be frustratingly hard if you just rush in. There's a bit of a pattern to them and see that then they aren't that hard at all. Even if they can be frustrating at times they are very fun. These levels are also very beautiful in their own way and design. If you take your time to look around you then you'll be able to see drawings of railroad tracks and a handpainted train that travels along it. It's touches like this that give Sunshine a great charm.
I'm probably missing a few things here and there from my little summary but that's pretty much my opinion on the game. Like I mentioned it's a very colorful and pretty game but what it comes down to is that it's a lot of fun.

Well I'm glad that I'm finally able to log into Gamespot. I hadn't been able to in the past three days but luckily for me today it managed to work. Today I'm going to be posting more than one post to talk about a few other things besides my new purchase. Okay so onto talking about Super Smash Brothers Melee

-----------------------------------------

When browsing around my local Walmart on Tuesday I came upon the last game that I really wanted to add to my Gamecube collection. Something that did surprise me was the price point considering that it was released almost six years ago. I mean compared to another game that sold very well such as God of War (which was released in 2005) that costs now $20. I'm not sure if it's the lack of supply of this game title, though I wouldn't be surprised considering it was released almost six years ago.
Now Super Smash Brothers Melee is a game that interested me for the multiplayer aspect. I do not enjoy playing fighting games by myself since they seem to get rather boring quickly. Along with that is how four players are able to battle it out on screen with Nintendo characters. Having played a few minutes of it I had a lot of fun choosing Mario and fighting against Link, Pikachu, and Samus. The fighting itself is a lot of fun and the different special moves are great. Such as Mario punching an enemy into the air and seeing gold coins. The environments are also nicely varied and some you have to be careful to not only fight but move along with the screen so you don't end up falling off and losing. The only stage I didn't like was the Donkey Kong one with that really really lame Donkey Kong song (theme song?). Well it wasn't the stage itself, just that lame song. Needless to say I turned the volume off when it was playing.
Well I don't have much more to say about the game itself besides it being rather fun. The $30 price tag is something that I'm still not happy about but I'm sure I'll get my real money's worth when I experience the multiplayer.

Well I broke one of my small promises to play Twilight Princess one weekend and then one the other weekend. I couldn't help myself and I played a few more hours. I'm clocked in at around 19 hours so far. There was this one particulary hard puzzle that I had to check Gamespot's walkthrough of Twilight Princess to get through. Up until then I had done everything by myself without any help from any walkthroughs or guides but the help was very much needed. I had tried to beat the puzzle but I found myself frustrated after the twentieth time. Still it is a very well done puzzle though.
I'm glad actually that I did check Gamespot's walkthrough because I found out a few things that I was curious about. For the most part I got some information on certain side quests that I had started that deal with collecting things. Turns out that some of those sidequests that I had started on really aren't necessary. They don't add anything to the story and the rewards seem to little for that much more time and effort.
Now something else that I found out was how far I am into the game. I'm enjoying the game very much and I was surprised to see that I still have a little over 50% of the game to go through. That means that Twilight Princess still has a good few more weekends of play time before I finish. That is pretty good news to me since I'm loving a lot how the puzzles of the game are done and how big the world of Twilight Princess is.
-------------------------------------------
I also had a bit of fun with my DS Lite when I was playing Mario Kart DS. I'm not going to say much because if you have a DS then you have Mario Kart DS, and if you don't then I don't know what's wrong with you. I'm still surprised at how fun the game is everytime I go back and play again. The game works great on the DS and I'm not surprised that people are still playing it online against one another.
I've finished for the most part the games I own on for the DS though I haven't opened Hotel Dusk. That's a game that I'm not a hurry to play through yet and I'm keeping it sealed for that one day that I really get the urge to start playing it.
Lunar Knights also has got my interest and I'll likely be buying it in the future. I'm still going to look up some more information before I buy it just incase but like I mentioned it does have my interest.
There are another few DS titles that I have some interest in but I'll talk of those another day.
-------------------------------------------
Well that's pretty much it for this weekend, even though it is Monday. I believe I'm going to be posting these weekend gaming posts on Monday's just to give a better overview of my weekend.

Well I've added two more games to my Gamecube collection: Super Mario Sunshine and Lego Star Wars II.

 
----------------------------------------

Super Smash Brothers Melee almost made it in as well but I'm still on the fence as far as that purchase goes. I'll speak of that in another post though. For now I'll talk about these two great games.
Super Mario Sunshine is one of those games that I saw a few years ago and was really interested in. I had not thought about it much considering how my Playstation 2 was my main console for around 3-4 years. Around when I decided to buy my Gamecube I did what I've been doing for the past year and made sure to get informed on the game to make sure that I got my money's worth. One of the reasons for buying this game was how much I enjoyed Super Mario 64 DS on my DS Lite. Aslong as the gameplay was anything like the DS game then I knew I would have a good time. I haven't opened the game yet but I will once one of those times when I'm really aching to play a game comes about. It's one of those games that I'm not in a rush to play yet.
Now lets go on to Lego Star Wars II. I played the first Lego Star Wars on my PS2 and had a lot of fun playing with my sister and dad. The humor was well done and there was just something endearing of playing Star Wars in lego form. Star Wars has really never been a thing that I've really been interested in but Lego Star Wars gave it a great charm. I also did some research on Lego Star Wars II but I didn't have much to worry about considering how much I loved the first game. My only concern was if there were any changes inbetween system versions of Lego Star Wars II and I was glad to learn that there weren't any, atleast on last gen systems. I did play Lego Star Wars II for about 2 hours and I was able to notice that everything did look upgraded. The environments also seemed bigger and with more detail.
You may be wondering why I choose to buy Lego Star Wars II on the Gamecube instead of on the Playstation 2. One of the neat things is that you can use your old save file from the first game and import your old characters into the new game, but that wasn't something I really cared about. Another factor was availability. The only place that I knew of that had the Playstation 2 version of the game was Toys R Us and I didn't want to bother going there. Playing the game on the Gamecube feels pretty much the same as playing the first game on the Playstation 2. I seem to enjoy it more since I'm tending to favor the button layout of the Gamecube controler versus the Playstation 2 Dualshock.
----------------------------------------
All in all I'm happy to say that I'm happy with my two purchases. Super Smash Brothers Melee is still a game that I do want and I probably will end up buying it sometime either this month or next. It's really about availability since I've noticed some places like Walmart taking out a good number of Gamecube games and leaving only a handfull behind. Other places like Best Buy though still have a good number of Gamecube games as well as a good number of systems.
Besides Super Smash Brothers Melee I'll have owned all the games that I was wanting from the get go along with some spur of the moment purchases. That list of games consists of:

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Sunshine
Mario Kart: Double Dash
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Sonic Hereos
Waverace: Blue Storm

Super Smash Brothers Melee will likely round out that list. To me it seems like a good fun list with a good variety of games.

Well this is going to be a little blog feature that's going to be mostly about the video games I played over the weekend. I'll likely also put some of my thoughts on upcoming games and such. Keep in mind that this is new to me so it may not be as specific as I meant it to start out as.

-------------------------------------

This weekend has been a great one for me as far as gaming goes. Unfortunetly, I put Paper Mario on the backburner for the time being since I decided to get started on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Furtunetly, I've decided that I'm going to be doing a little bit of a trade off where one weekened I'll play Twilight Princess and the other Paper Mario. So Paper Mario well get all the attention it deserves this weekened.

Well on to this weekend's game: Twilight Princess

-------------------------------------

It has been a good long time since my last encounter with the Zelda series. The last Zelda game I played was the original Legend of Zelda on the NES. As you can see it's been a long while since I last played the game, around 16 years atleast I believe. Now imagine for a moment going from that all the way to Twilight Princess.
You can probably guess how much of an experience that was now, atleast I hope you do. Considering I was only around 4 years old at the time I don't remember that much of the first Zelda but what I have and always will remember is how difficult that game was. It made a lasting impression on me being the first game I ever played that had a story, something that would influence my taste of games from then on.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a game that had me interested for a while ever since I watched footage of it on Gamespot back around 2005. I couldn't play it obviously up to about a week ago because I lacked both a Gamecube and a Wii to play it on. Luckily that was taken care of that said week.
So far I'm about 10 hours into the actual game and it's been very enjoyable. The graphics are great and really blew me away. It has a few blemishes here and there but they were hardly noticeable to me once I started to really get into the game. I also stared at the water for a good 5 minutes and it still blows me away how good the water effects are. Also the twilight areas that are explored during Link's wolf form are very eye pleasing with a darker tone filled with particle effects and a good amount of bloom. In contrast there are very bright and lush forest areas with lakes and streams. The environments are fun to explore and if you haven't played the game you'd be surprised at how long it takes to explore areas on foot. That is because of how huge the areas you'll be exploring are.
The characters are all interesting and I love especially how Link is mute but shows so much expression through his face. That has become something that I have liked very much in Twilight Princess. Many of the characters have such an array of expressions that make them feel tangible and that caused me to care for their well being. Midna (who is a character Link first meets when he turns into a wolf) is also very interesting. She's provides some mischief and humor and becomes a good opposite to Link forming an interesting team.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a wonderful game and I don't regret the purchase at all. The story is interesting and the characters are great. It has beautiful environments and also puzzels that will stump you at times but that don't really feel frustrating at all making for some great gameplay.

-------------------------------------

Well that is it for this weekend's note. It's a little bit on the short side from what I had intended. Next weeks will likely be longer since now I have a better idea of what I want to do with this. Thank you for reading down this far and stay tuned since I'll likely start another new little blog feature sometime this week.

-------------------------------------

This game has been taking up a good part of my time since I bought my Gamecube last Friday. It's been pretty fun and I enjoy the fact that the gameplay is both rpg and action at the same time. Something that I'm also grateful of is that generally there is not much backtracking, but when it does occur it is of pretty great importance and doesn't feel like a waste of time.
The graphics are very eye pleasing. The characters are all done in 2D and are very colorful. Backgrounds are done with elements of both 2D and 3D with much variety of color. All in all the graphics are an interesting blend that give Paper Mario much charm.
I love the presentation of Paper Mario and all of the elements that make up this great game. Such as the battles taking place on stages and there being a crowd that can help/hurt you in battle. Also how Mario can fold up into a paper airplane to reach another area or turn paper thin to walk inbetween thin places.
Now one of the most important points when I play any RPG game or RPG-like game are battles. I absolutely loathe level grinding but I'm happy to say that Paper Mario sidesteps that with the action elements and also the "crowd" element of fights. There are plenty of random things thrown in such as a stage light that may fall from above and hurt you, but cause either Mario or his party member at that time to turn electric hurting any enemy that touches him/her. Here the crowd comes in as well since they can throw things at you that can either help or hurt you. Even the stage is a part of the battle since at any time a piece of the stage can fall and hurt everyone on screen or just a character or two.
Paper Mario has been one of my favorite games of all time from what I played so far and I can't wait to continue playing through it. The only bad thing about these games, well games that I really enjoy, is the fact that I really don't want them to be over. It reminds me of that saying that many times the journey is more fun than the destination.

A little bit late with updating but better late than never right?

Well as you can guess from the name of this post I bought myself a Gamecube as a belated birthday present to myself. You may be wondering why I would even bother with the Wii already in stores (well not true since I wasn't able to find one). Don't get me wrong the Wii is a great system but it all came down to a few things.

Price and Deals: $100 vs $250, to me it really isn't that much but it is still something. This was more of an issue when I learned of a deal that was going on at my local Toys r Us. The deal was for the Gamecube System, 1 $9.99 memory card, and 1 $19.99 dollar game. I'd get everything I needed for $100, a great deal. In contrast if I got a Wii that would be $250 and another $50 for a game. Now it becomes $100 vs $300. I think that makes it just a little bit clearer why I took the deal.

Compatability: If I bought a Gamecube my things would not go to waste since I knew that sometime in the future I would buy a Wii. I would be able to use everything except for the system itself on the Wii which also seemed great to me. 

Games: The only games that I wanted to play that were already out or would be out in the coming months were Twilight Princess and Super Paper Mario. 2 games that are honestly both Gamecube ports with motion controls. I thought to myself how Twilight Princess was already out on the Gamecube and how Super Paper Mario wasn't too different at all to Paper Mario on the Gamecube. I missed out on a whole generation of games (as for as the Gamecube goes) and there were many games that could only be found on Gamecube. There were many games that I missed out on like Super Mario Sunshine, Double Dash, Waverace, Paper Mario, and Smash Brothers Melee. All of those are some really fun games which are a good step away from that $50 price point of most Wii Games.

Price (part 2) and Availability: The Wii is a good system but it was too much of a hassel to find and I didn't want to go out of my way to be able to buy it. Also with the number of Gamecube games that I wanted to play that would have me set for a good while in the meantime while some of the Wii games came down in price and the system would be easier to find.

I have a few more reasons but these above suffice rather well. It almost seems from my reasoning that the Gamecube is somewhat of a shadow to the Wii but that is not true. I'm just someone who knows that they will buy a Wii in the future but that also realizes that the Gamecube is a good system. I haven't gotten much into the games I bought but I still have yet to sink my teeth into Twilight Princess, Double Dash, Sonic Heroes, Waverace, and finish Paper Mario which I'm only 2-3 hours into. Considering it's a 20-30 hour game I really have a while to go but it's a very fun journey in the meantime.

Well it's been over a month since that last time I posted anything here. Just to continue off my last post a little bit I finished Lego Star Wars 100% since I went back and did everything that was pretty much possible. I enjoyed that game very much (which you probably know reading the praise in the last two posts about it) and I'll am going to be picking up the sequel soon. I bought a few games for my PS2 inbetween the last time I posted and now. Those are: Burnout:Revenge;Tekken 5;Grand Turismo 4;God of War. Let me give you my thoughts on these games.

Burnout Revenge: This is one of the best PS2 looking games that I have ever played. I love the sense of speed and how you can hit a car and send it flying into another, even though it's pretty unrealistic that you could hit a 16-wheeler with a car and push it away instead of crashing yourself. I haven't played it much since I got it but I will go back and play through it completely some other day.
Tekken 5: I'm not a big fan of fighters (on consoles at least), but Tekken 5 is a bit fun. This game I really got more to play with someone else since really if you're fighting against the computer it gets boring after awhile and predictable. I'm going to be taking my PS2 with me when I go visit my younger cousin and this game I really got to play with him.
Grand Turismo 4: Like Tekken 5 I got this game more to play with someone else. Burnout Revenge is a fun game I like to play by myself rather than with other people. This racing game is the one that is really fun when playing with other people. The graphics are really good and the racing is fun. The computer controllred cars are rather dumb so that another reason why this is better to play with other people. I also like the vast number of real world cars and I was surprised when I heard of how many cars are unlockable.
God of War: Now this game was one that I didn't know if I'd like or not considering that I've played very few M-rated games. It took me about 10 minutes (and a good scare at the beginning of the game) to really get into it but soon I found it rather fun. I hadn't ever played a game with so much blood before, or nudity really (though the nudity didn't feel vulgar at all). I played a good amount of this game with my dad and I had a blast doing so. It was really a lot of fun and a welcome mix to the games that I regularly tend to play.

Well I have more that I want to update on but I believe that deserves it's own section so I'll post that up tomorrow.

Thoughts:

1.) Fun, very much so
2.) Wonderful co-op experience
3.) Grateful that I got my money's worth
4.) Will get the newer game soon

I am by no means a Star Wars fan but even I remember most of the scenes that happened in the movies and watching them done in lego form was great. I especially liked the added humor, but I shouldn't be surprised because it is really a family game. I'm not sure how much time my sister and I put in but it was all worth it. Now that I'm finished I don't feel like I wasted any time like I tend to be left feeling with most games. For only $20 the fun I had with my family lets me know that I got my money's worth. I hope that when I pick up the newer one I am able to have as much fun.
_____________________________________

Now that I finished that I have a few more games to move onto. First on the list is finishing the last level of Elite Beat Agents and getting started on Hotel Dusk.