This past weekend, I finally managed to beat Final Fantasy Legend II for the Nintendo Gameboy. When I first bought my copy of the game way back in February, I was completely zonked out on RPGs, so I put it aside. A few months later, I picked it up again and managed to get through the entire game. There was one evening where I went Giants Town to the game's final dungeon. It was a good, if not extremely hard RPG for the gameboy.

How Tall is this Tower, Anyway?

This morning, I decided to play an really old GBC game that I bought six years ago but never got around to beating it. The name of the game is Towers: Lord Baniff's Deceit. It's pretty much a first-person RPG, but in real time. So far, I found the stairs to the second floor of the Tower.

Knights, Ninjas and Plumbers?!

This upcoming Wednesday, I get paid at my job. I intend on purchasing EternalRing for the PS2, Dragon's Lair for the GBC, Nobunaga's Ambition for the Gameboy and Super Mario Land II: Six Golden Coins for the Gameboy. The reason why I'm getting Eternal Ring is because it plays similar to the King's Field titles for the PSOne, Dragon's Lair because I read it pushes the graphical limits of the GBC to that of the PSOne Nobunaga's Ambition because I want to play a strategy game for achange and SML2 just for the memories.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally got around and beaten Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land for the PS2. It was a long and arduious journey down the game's 11 basement floors, but I managed to complete it. Interestingly enough, the final boss of the game has an insane amount of HP and it took me almost 30 minutes to kill it.

Earn a Online Degree in Dungeon Mastery

Earlier in the week, I decided to dabble some more into RPG Maker for the PSOne. I decided to play the sample game that is on the software package, called Gobli's Adventure. Interestingly enough, it took me only 5 hours and an average experience level of 21 to beat it. Although the game is really short, it gives you an general idea on how RPGs are created, from the planning stages to the actual scenario writting.

Helghans--The New Punching Bag

Earlier this month, I finally got my PS2 online. So, in celebration, I bought a used copy of KillZone to go along with my current copy of Madden NFL 10. So far, it's been mostly online matches, just to see how active the online game is. So far, I have three wins to my record, all of them in the Team Deathmatch mode. With up to 50 people playing online each evening these days, I'm amazed I actually got some online FPS action experience with this game. It's a shame that the online component of the PS2 will be retired in about a year or 2.

For the past few days, I've been playing the PSOne version of Doom, where I've already beaten the 30 Ultimate Doom levels and the first 11 Doo II levels, all on the easiest difficulty level. It's pretty interesting, because in a couple of those level, there were at least one CyberDemon waiting to tear me to shreds. Fortunately, I perservered and made it this far.

Beware The 20th Level Dungeon Master

For the weekend, I've been playing The Dark Spire for the DS again, this time going for the last of the three endings the game gives you. However, this took quite a bit of XP grinding to be able to use the Beauty Clinic on the Bonus dungeon floor to boost my party's charisma stat up to it's requirements to take part in the ending. On the bright side, it only takes 50,000 experience points and 10,000 Gold to actualy attempt to use the clinic.

Countdown to Kickoff!

As of this blog post, the new Madden NFL 10 video game isn't to be released for another five days, but I am definately waiting in anticipation of the release, so I can pick up my copy of the PS2 version that I prerodered at GameStop and paid in full on July 31st. This is going to be interesting how a Josh McDanials-led football team is going to do, but in case the Broncos somehow fall to an early 0-4-0 start in video game form, an impending trade of Kyle Orton for Jay Cutler will be made if neccessary.

Over the weekend, I went and purchased Castlevania for the GBA, Jeopardy! Teen Tournament for the Gameboy, An old-school Activision collectio for the PSOne and, finally, the PSOne version of Doom. On the topic of Doom, it's proving to be a very solid FPS--and a scary one. So far, I've made it to Stage 20 out of roughly over 50 stages the game has to offer. Of course, with my inexperience in the genre, I decide to set the difficulty to the easiest level, or I am a Wimp. At least it's providing the bang for it's buck.

Rose-tinted Nostalgia Glasses not included

It's interesting how the three games I mentioned eariler, Castlevania, Jeopardy! and the Activision compilation, are turning out. So far, I've beaten Castlevania and Jeopardy on the same calendar day I bought them on. In an interesting note, I've beaten three of the games on the Activision collection--Boxing (by means of a knock-out against the A.I. Boxer), Ice Hockey (by beating the A.I. Red Wings) and StarMaster (on the Ensign difficulty level). Of course, not all games on the collection are beatable, so for those, for Backloggery account reasons (http://www.backloggery.com), I've listed them as nulled.

Going the Whole 100 Yards

On Friday afternoon, I finally came up the money and went to the local GameStop to pay in full the actual retail price of the PS2 version of Madden NFL 10. The overall total cost of the game was around $45, which is certainly salary cap-breaking if you factor in the $5 pre-order fee in the first place. I should be able to pick up the game on Friday, August 14th.

The last couple of days have been real crazy. On Wednesday morning, I was able to beat Final Fantasy V Advance for the GBA. Given my prior experience with the PSOne version of the game, which is part of the Final Fantasy Anthology collection, I did much better, Level-wise, as I was able to beat the game with an average level of just 54. When I beat the PSOne version a couple years back, it was at an average level of 62.

On Thursday, I beaten The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, also for the GBA. Surprisingly enough, the game is a little bit shorter than the Wind Waker, which made it much more enjoyable for a change.

In space, no one can hear you scream--With agony

This morning, I decided to spend a little bit of my birthday money to purchase a relatively-unknown Gameboy game called Altered Space. So far, it's a pretty good game, but the isometric POV can take some time to get used to. While most video games based your survival on how many lives you have or how much health you got left, Altered Space has an interesting way determining whether you succeed or fail--The amount of oxygen you have left in the tank. As time passes by, you gradually lose air to breath and if it reaches zero, it's game over. OF course, this mechaice is without it's penalties--Getting killed will cauase you to lose a large amount of your oxygen, making the game the more challenging.

Has Rej gotten clobbered by a 300-pound linebacker?

While meandering around town today, I went to the local GameStop and did something that I would never fathom of doing--pre-order a new and upcoming video game. Given that football seaspm is right around the corner, I figured I would spend $5 and pre-order a copy of the upcoming Madden NFL 10, more specifically, the PS2 version. Once I paid for the game in full and pick it up on August 14th, it should be really interesting how the Broncos will do in a virtual world this season.

omething crazy happened this week in gaming. Just a few minutes ago, I was able to beat Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons for the GameBoy Color. Interestingly enough, there's an upgrade to the regular Roc's Feather called the Roc's Cape, which allows the player to double-jump. Through my experiences with the game, it actually looked like Link was flying in the air like Superman some some unknown reason.

Attack of the Killer Insects

For the last week, I've been playing this old arcade shoot-em up called Insector X, which is actually part of the Taito Legends 2 collection for the PS2. In place of the usual airplanes and star fighters the genre is know for are creatures from the arthopod world--Bugs of all kinds, such as Spiders, beeds, moths and grasshoppers, for beginners. Even though I haven't beaten it yet, I have come close on two occasions to beating it. Don't let the deceptively-kiddy graphics fool you--The game is pure shoot-em up, and a Bullet Hell one to boot.

You mean I woke up from a 200-year slumber just for this?!

The other day, I went into this local video game store that specializes in video games of all generations, not just one or two under the GameStop/GameCrazy regimes, and saw a clerk playing what appeared to be the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3. I'm amazed that he was mowing down all of the enemies in the area, but then again, his PC was originally set up to have an alignment of Super Evil, meaning the total collapse of society as we know it

In the past two weeks, I've been playing Mario Kart DS for the Nintendo DS. So far, I've already wona ll of the different cups on the different Engine Classes. An interesting feature is the online-multiplayer mode, using the Nintendo WFC, which allows you to play against people from all over the world. One of the most common opponents I fac online are people from Japan, which is evident by how popular the Mario series is in that country, despite Nintendo losing two consecutive console wars from 1996-2006. This is definately a video game you don't want to sell after completing it millions of times.

Hyrule's Winter is Holodrum's Summer

Along with the recent activity on the go-kart racing track, I've been playing The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons for the Gameboy Color. With my prior experience with the other half of the GBC Zelda spectrum, which is Oracle of Ages, I'm having a real good time. It's really interesting how you can use a rod to change the season from Fall to Spring with just two taps of a button. One particular note with the Oracle games of the series is that you have exclusive features that can only be accessed by playing the games on a GBA instead of it's native GBC.

Cartography--The Wave of the Future

THis month, I upgraded my GameTap account (http://www.gametap.com), so I could finally play some Might & Magic: Secret of the Inner Sanctum. Interestingly enough, due to how large the game is, which would even make the likes of Oblivion and Fallout 3 jealous, one has to draw up his/her own maps of the areas he/she will be going to, by means of using a ball-point pen and some graphing paper. So far, I got most of the Sorpigal ground level map charted out. From there, I can look to see where to go for future reference.

A Boy Named Sue, as made famous by Johnny Cash, 1961

The Backloggery live stream (http://www.backloggery.com) went stir-crazy lastSunday night, as staff member Drumble was playing the obscure NES game Battle of Olympus, which gives you the option of naming both the Hero and the Herorine of the game. After a vote for names of the female character, "Xavean", which is the name of another Backloggery staff member and is male, was picked. I'll bet you guys who hadn't watched the stream that the real Xavean was somewhat upset by this, but as a well-known Greek philosopher once said, What won't kill you will only make you stronger.

The last few days, I've been playing Final Fantasy VIII for the PSOne, where I'm currently in the middle of Disc 2 out of 4 discs total. Interestingly enough, this game, along with Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X, seems to be in a love-hate relationship with it's devoted fanbase, Some people praise the game like it is the second coming of Nazz from the old cartoon Ed, Edd 'n Eddy, while others lambast it with the fury of 1,000 suns, because of it's level-scaling, a rarely-used RPG feature that makes the game more challenging and prevent dedicated level-grinders from breezing through the final boss of the game. To me, the game is just plain fun!

Earning a 12-dan Black Belt in Complete, Utter Failure

This past weekend, I broke down and decided to sign up for a GameTap account (http://www.gametap.com). Although the number of games with a free acount are severely limited (The next plan up, costs $5 per month), the game that are available are decent. I've been mostly playing Karate Champ, an old arcade fighting game that predates the Street Fighter series by only 3 years. At first, I kept getting my ass whooped by the A.I.-controlled, red uniform-wearing kung-fu master. But after a while, I learned how to defend myself and counter-attack to get to at least the Intermediate level matches.

Announcement of the Belmont-Aran wedding ceremony

This past Sunday night was stream night on The Backloggery (http://www.backloggery.com), where Drumble finally completed his 15% normal run on Metroid: Zero Mission for the GBA, then proceeded to start up a Hard Mode run of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, also for the GBA. Along with the usual Try4ce and Xavean co-piloting the stream, there were also two special guests--Female Backloggery users Lyndis and Ashen. A word of advice to those wondering--Asehn really is a woman, it's that her voice sounds like a man. I learned that lesson the hard way.

For the last few days, I've been playing Phantasy Star II on the Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2. With my previous experience with the GBA version of the game and learning a lot from playing the Dark Spire for the DS, I figure to ultilize each PC's strengths and weaknesses to their full use. For example, I have Hugh in my party, who is the weakest PC in the game according to most players, can ultilize Techs that will damage all Bio-monsters in battle. There's even one that has a chance to kill a group of them. The way I figure is to get all 8 PCs in the game to at least experience level 30.

YouTube--The Place for Longplays, Speed Runs and Disturbing Video Game Content

For most of the day today, I watched various video game-related videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com) First off, I watched a longplay of Super Castlevania IV for the SNES. Next was a longplay of the Commodore 64 version of the first Castlevania title (Such things do exist in this world). Later was short clips of various arcade games. Finally, it was three videos of video games so controversial that it even make Jack Thompson President of the United States--The arcade games Death Race and Chiller and the Atari 2600 game Custer's Revenge. Those three games alone are enough to make even Bill Rizer and Lance Bean of Contra fame blush.

Interesting enough, after beating The Dark Spire Sunday morning, I managed tp beat Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on the LoZ Collector's Edition disc for the GameCube. Somehow, I don't remember the final area of the game being this hard, but that's more than likely my GameCube controller being analog, which is something people have played the NES and GBA versions of the game are not used to.

Rej72380's Backloggery Closed for Maintainence

Interestingly enough, I had to do a overhaul of my Backloggery page (http://www.backloggery.com/rej72380) last night, because I just now noticed that you could put the name of compilations in the Compilation field, then insert the actual game into the Game Name field. It took three hours to do this overall, but it was actually worth it.

Cannibals in my Backyard? Skull-duggery!

After doing the overall last night, I decided to play and beat Jungle Hunt on the Taito Legends collection for the PS2 this morning. Originally, I had that particular game listed as "nulled" on my Backloggery page, but after seeing Try4ce's Backloggery page and noticing he got the NES version of Donkey Kong and Hogan's Alley listed as "completed", I decided to follow this example and upgrade Jungle Hunt from "nulled" to "unfinished" and actually beaten it by saving Lady Penelope from those crazy cannibals.