I paid for my 360 way back in August. At the time I was #2 on the second shipment. So close yet so vary far. But because of the shortages they got even less so now I’m 6th or 7th. Anyway since I didn’t get my own at launch (I sat outside a different store with someone else to get his.) I’ve been making the most of my time by beating K.O.T.O.R. for the first time. I played as a light Jedi and the game made the time waiting for the 360 much more tolerable. Now I’m playing Riviera: The Promised Land on my GBA player on my Gamecube. So far the game has impressed me quite a bit. The story is solid and the combat is innovative. With a publisher like Atlus it’s no surprise this game is so good. Atlus and RPGs go together like milk and cookies. However even with games like this I still can’t help looking at my phone every 2 seconds checking if EB called with a glorious shipment of 360s. Until then I’ll just keep waiting in the promised land.

 Yesterday I found a NES at the local EB games. So of course I wet myself, bought it, and took a shower. The day before I bought my neighbors Sega Saturn. When I was little I played that thing every freaking day. I was incredibly jealous of him. But now it's mine so yeah, suck it. The NES is my 12th system if you count the PC and 13 if you count the GBA Player on my cube. I stared with the N64 in 99 and pretty much got all the consoles after that. This year however, I seem to be moving backward. Fast. In the last 6 months I've doubled my number of games and systems. I now have about 130 games, before the summer I had just over 60. I've been buying old school games like crack, only much cheaper. Now all I have to do is wait for the 360. I already paid for it.

Never have I had my ass handed to me as often as while playing Ninja Gaiden Black. I'm playing the game through on hard and that's a big understatement for a difficulty level. The enemies are relentless, the items are all weaker then the last game, and the windmill shurukin is only available after 15 scarabs. Sure the lunar kicks ass but even that can't help much against most of the enemies in the game. The camera in this game is just a big a pain as the last game, so some fights you can't even see where you are. In short, everything you hated from the original is back with a vengeance, the safety nets are gone, and any hope of clearing all the difficulties is no more. This does not mean I hate the game by any means. The new weapons, cut-scenes, and mission mode are all great. However most of the time it just makes me want to throw my xbox against the wall and smash it until the evil is gone.

On my third attempt in five years I finally beat Shining Force. I have this game on dreamcast and PC both of which were in SEGA Smash Packs. My file was deleted on the second to last battle on dreamcast, half way through the first time on PC, but five years from my first attempt I finally saw how it ends.
It was beautiful.