I bought this game yesterday, and I have to admit: I had a queezy feeling about its quality and value up till the moment I played it but at this point in time I can tell you that of all things, at least it's genuine fun.

So far I've only played 2 hours of it -which mainly consisted of watching my girlfriend beat the game I had payed for- and it's low difficulty level and assumed shortness set aside it appears to be all that we 2D-platform lovers have been craving for.
"Why?", one asks. The answer is quite clear: it's good old braindead 2D point-A-to-B platforming covered in a layer of 128-bit graphical sweetness. Don't misinterpret that statement though: thise game has very little in common with the SNES DKC games. The only recognizable character is DK himself, and the game is built around a high-scoring system that works very well, even is obligatory. For instance: grabbing multiple bananas at a time will result in a higher score, and combos are performed by consecutive actions without touching the floor. You build up your score during 2 stages, after which there is a boss battle in which your score doubles as your health.

So by now you've all noticed that I haven't spoken about the konga-controls yet. And with reason. Basically this game would have been perfectly controlable with a regular controller, but the konga's aren't a hurdle either. It works just fine as long as you don't stray into the 'why didn't they just use the regular controller' thought-trap. All there is to say on this topic is that the drums are used for directional imput and claping for special actions and gathering bananas/stunning foes. The claping also eliminates the need for pixel-perfect control, but I won't delve deeper in to that untill I have beaten the whole game and review it.

Some conclusionary notes:

• Level design is good enough, with the occasional original idea thrown in. Theme's aren't all that inventive.
• Bosses are fun but not that hard and have a tendency of re-occuring often. So far I've only counted 4 types and I think that's about it. There are an equal number of mini-bosses that grow more challenging everytime you meet them too though.
• The game seems easy enough for everyone to enjoy, but the high-scoring mechanics make it attractive even for the more seasoned gamer.
• Might prove a bit short.
• It's geniune fun!

added points through editing:

• doesn't really have anything in common with previous DK games. Only recognizable element is DK himself.
• the game seems to have a problem deciding on wether to put the emphasis on high-scoring or regular 2D gameplay. Not enough incentive for hardcore high-scoring.
  

Bought this for 5000 Stars on Nintendo's official website. 5000 stars could have bagged me a game, or a GBA Player. If the first wouldn't all have been really old games and the latter would have been updated anywhere within the last year. So by lack of good gaming stuff this newly included item was the best thing up for grabs :D Still, for 5000 stars it'd better be of respectable quality :x .

while this might not look like much to you Americans, gaming garb isn't available over here in Belgium. I plan on wearing this nontheless, as it will be a good test of the strength of my relationship. If my girlfriend sticks with me while I'm wearing this, I've got a winner :D.

Well, not quite, but "It is about to begin" doesn't sound half as monumental :|

What am I talking about? My exams of course! After 4 weeks of moderately intense preparations they are finally here, to begin tomorrow. 2 weeks of stressfull testing of my intellect and ability to memorize and utilize various aspects of the building process and so-called reasoning and theoreticizing that supports it all. I claim to not have fallen victim to overly stressing, but am writing this entry nontheless.

In order of appearance:

Monday - constructional physics
Wednesday - architecture theory
Friday - urbanization (I fear for this one)

Monday - construction
Wednesday - project analysis
Friday - heating&cooling (may the great Mario above be with me that day)

Not that I fear the exams more then any previous period I've succesfully survived, but after 4 weeks one is inclined to break down every once in a while.

This is a theory I came up with as a reply to someone questioning the chances of the PSP's success if the DS would not have existed. Needless to say he was just looking to see people hype the PSP in an un-founded way.

The handheld market is a peculiar one. It has show time (GameGear) and time again (Neo Geo), and again (WonderSwan), that it doesn't value specs and raw power all that much. It seems to rely on brand familiarity much more then the home console market, having favored the GameBoy name for over 15 years now. While this might be partially due to the fact that there is seemingly no competition I see this as also being because the handheld market is the domain of the anti-gamer. A lot of people who don't even see gaming as a full fledged hobby own a GB.

Because of this non-interest and lack of desire to own the best piece of hardware I feel that if the DS wouldn't have existed, the PSP would not have the opportunity to become more then a hardware niche only the hardcore gamer would own, shrugged off by the masses. But now that there is a new Nintendo handheld, GBA owners are enticed to spend their money on a new generation of portables. And are confronted with 2 contenders, that both seem to offer good value for their money. While most might stick with the familiar face of the DS -even though technically it isn't part of the GB product line- a lot of portable gamers will opt for the on first glance more impressive PSP.

Like I said, just a theory. But one I find to be rather plausible.

It often occurs that forumites who have been around for a while decide to take a step back, limiting their time here at GS in order to get back in touch with their casual side. Simply put: to play more games instead of to talk about them. They state that spending too much time here has made them overly critical and selective and that they'd rather be able to enjoy a halfway decent game then to talk about how sub-par it is.

I on the other hand feel -still feel, after 4.5 years- that these boards stimulate me as a gamer, as someone who is interested in the industry as a whole, more then the actual gaming itself. On average I might very well only game for half an hour a day, yet spend 4 times that time here at GS. If it weren't for GS I might not game half as much as I do now, for I wouldn't be as enticed to buy certain games as I am now, after talking about them for numerous hours with people who have other views from mine on said games. Would I really game 4 times the amount of time if I cut back on my forum time?

Does the fact that I analyse the special effects in games mean that I don't enjoy them as much? No, it merely enhances my experience, as I marvel in their excecution or smile at their lack of effort. Does the fact that I have become somewhat of an elitist mean I experience less games? Nope, I experience different sorts of games that I would have never touched if it weren't for these boards and the intelligent discussions they sometimes spawn.

What's wrong with enjoying talking about games more then actually playing games? I've always been interested in what makes us act the way we do, in the inner workings of our minds. And what else are VGs then an interaction between the mind of the developers and that of the gamer?
What's wrong with enjoying talking about my favorite hobby? A better understanding often results in a better view on the situation, better overall results.

Anyway, all this isn't really what I had in mind, so I'l just stop here, reflect on it a few times and edit it when I've got a better view on what I needed to say.

Man, that took me ages! I've been playing the game ever since its release early November for at least half an hour a day, and if it weren't for some FAQs I wouldn't have found the last 2 for at least another month, or more likely, I would just have given up.

Anyway, I'm feeling a strange mix of satisfaction and exhaustion now as I'm both proud I completed it and happy I got it over with.

A little warning to all you 100% completionalists out there: There's no way you'll ever complete the Minish Cap since some Kingstone fusions can only be done during certain 'chapters' of the game and you're bound to miss a few. This is another reason why it took me so long to find all the heart containers: you keep thinking one NPC will fuse with you and reveal those last heart containers. While these Kingstones are a novel idea I hope to never see them again :( And so will all of you completionists out there.

Ah, the smell of a new Zelda game when you open it It's been a tough choice, but a Zelda game deserves priority, even over Paper Mario 2. And thus my adventure began yesterday, around 4PM...

Here I am now, about 6 hours in and ready to share my impressions of this game with you. And because of the gruesome chaos that is my mind, I'll resort to giving you my impressions so far in a way similar to the tested review formula, with a few new categories addes so I could just talk about the game some more

Mood and Story

*da-Dada---daDada-DA--Dadada---daDadada---* It's Zelda alright, in all it's 2D glory. Lots of familiar tunes and even appearances, friend and foe alike, mostly of which youl regocnize from tWW will make you feel straight at home. The story's fair enough and much like you'd expect: the game starts at the day of the 100th Picori Festival, at which the Picori dwarves will show themselves to their human friends after another age of abscence. Lots of events, one being some sort of melee in which the winner gets to touch the Picori blade, that seals away an evil overcome long ago. But Vaati, the melee's victor has other plans. He breaks the Picori blade, thus releaseing the evil back into the world and expecting to find something in the chest that was its prison. And because he knows gamers won't set out unless there's a princess to be saved, he turns Zelda into stone. Novel eh? Anyway, you can guess the rest: get sacred relics to restore sword and bane evil once more. Oh, and Zelda and Link are 'childhood friends' *shudders*

Graphics

It's the prettiest looking 2D Zelda you've ever seen. All the elements of previous 2D Zelda's are there and they're more detailed and colourfull then ever before. In short: it beats both aLttP and tFS, and it doesn't even need to bring in the big guns that are the Picori areas you enter when you've shrunken yourself to their size, which is litteraly 4 or so pixels high when you're in the human world. Detail level is high and consistant thorough, and there are even some effects added here and there as to recreate fog and heat hazes. Characters are nicely drawn, to a level comparable with those in Golden Sun. Animation is a bit scarce here and there though, even on Link (why didn't they add animations for diagonal running?).

Gameplay

Much of the same really. At first glance the map isn't all too big, leaving you wondering if there'll be much gameplay to be had at all. The Minish Cap solves this though, as each area can easily turn out to be twice the size once you start exploring it in your shrunken form. Shrinking and de-shrinking is only possible at certain locations that work as a form of portal meaning you can't go traveling all over the place being only an inch tall. This results in some brainbreakers over how to get to certain points that are clearly visible, but seemingly have no way of getting there because forrests of tall grass or seas of muddy puddles are blocking your way.
Furthermore the Minish Cap serves as a humorous and often frustrating companion/counciler who has an opinion on everything and won't hesitate to tell you about it. Charming in his own cranky kind of way.
Flagship have done a good job with the items too. While most of them look similar, they might not all have the uses they served in the past, and the tried and tested have been added with a couple of totally new and usefull ones, making for enjoyable new puzzles to be solved. Not to be worried though, there's still a lot of box 'n boulder pushing to be had

Sound

Almost all recognizable stuff. Most NPCs will yelp something when spoken too (I'm suspecting Zelda from having borrowed Navi's voice). Effects aren't anything more then what would be absolutely necessairy, and it wouldn't have hurt them enemy grunts to actually grunt from time to time, especially after how we've been spoilt in tWW.

Difficulty

Not asthonnishing. Rarely any real danger to speak off, but as far as I can tell at least the 2nd boss felt as if he was a treath to you. It's no wind waker, but most of us won't get stuck on combat, perhaps not even die.

Longevity

Hard to say since I'm only about 6 hours in. I recovered the second of 4 artifacts about an hour ago though, and so far it seems as if 4 is the final number. So I'm estimating around 12 hours to beat, and maybe 30 to see, do and find everything. But that number is mainly because of the 100 kingstones though, that you have to find first, and then talk to people that have a matching other half in order for something 'good' to happen somewhere on the map.

Overall verdict

It certainly is a true Zelda game, more so then any other originally portable itteration of the series. But while it could have been near to aLttP in terms of amount of game it seems to have more of a Oracle of Ages/Seasons type of longevity. Which is still nice, but I have to admitt I was silently hoping for more. Other then that a great game, very enjoyable, and it probably deserves more credit then I gave it here. Great game. Pick it up when it's released, and if you still have a dime left by then

You often see humerous threads popping up here at GS in which the author states a number of cases in which you know you have been gaming too much, for too long and while a good laugh, you're hardly alarmed by situations you recognize.
Yet past weekend my girlfriend and I, both students in the architecture headed to the bi-yearly interior designer convention open to public and I was confronted with such situation by surprise.

Meet Corian, a firnishing product that's only recently begon to break through:

Now this doesn't seem all to frightening, but focus on the brown block, and put it in a room where everything is made off corian. Corian is special in that it enables you to perfectly camouflage all edges and cracks, creating volumes in which everything seems to consist of one piece. To many this is a hygenic and aesthetic nirvana, but to me, it's low-detail videogames come to life. Seriously, it looked too perfect, even surreal. The material even felt as if it pushed you away, as if you couldn't touch it... Now this might seem stupid to you, but I felt as if I was uploaded into some stylish VG à la Killer7. I just couldn't stay in the room. It made me feel... uneasy. Remember me to never design anything that could end up looking like a room from PN.03 :| *shivers*

Ok, so I've been debating with myself as to where I should post something on this matter, and I figured it'd be a good topic to start my journal off.

I bought this game a month or 2 ago after seeing it drop to 20 Euros. Needless to say I never thought I'd be picking it up, but I've always been a sucker for good games at budget prices. I must say I haven't regret it. For those who don't have the foggiest idea of what the game's about: It's a 3rd person shooter in which you play as the robot Glitch who was found in defunct status by the Iron Star rebellion. This rebellion is the last hope for the robots of Iron Star who have been enslaved by General Corrosive, a failed experiment who after he broke loose set out to create his own bot army and seize the power over Iron Star.

Now I don't intend this to become a reader review so I'll keep the games technical aspects rundown brief: The graphics are very reminicent of the colourfull N64 era with robustness and clarity prevailing over detail. Think Jet Force Jemini crossed with a metal scrapyard and you've got a rather good idea of what to expect. One thing that shouldn't go unmentionned is the lighting which really does a lot for the game.
Sound is sufficient with music that albeit suiting the game well is rather repetitive and nice sound effects. There are also a number of oneliners your foes will emit when they suddenly spot you or destroy you which even makes dieing a little less stressfull.
Loading times have been kept to a minimum as they only appear at the start of each level.

As for why you should get this game: the gameplay is superb and the overall game rather unique. We've all seen ruins in games, just to give one example, but you've never seen ruins as those in MA. Huge areas of oxidated and bent iron tubes and plates, guarded by enemy MILs and inhabited by fast, disturbing and very lethal bots made up of scrap metal and held together by some strange force. The whole robot theme is clearly apperant in more then just the visual style as it lends itself to certain gameplay elements you'll find in no other shooter, like upgrades that enable you to change and load weapons faster untill you're swaping arms at superhuman speed or dismantling yourself to enter a manufacturing facility in the form of spare parts.

I lack the ability to cohesively tell you about all that this game has to offer you, but believe me when I say it's both fun and challenging as you conquer the 40 or so levels by driving tanks, all terrain units, fighting side by side with or as other rebels, playing "simon says", blasting through huge numbers of MILs, hacking into or overwriting MILs to controll them directly or have them become allies, and sneaking deep into MIL territories...
And of course there's the multiplayer mode which includes a lot of the traditional stuff along with some hilarious unique modes such as possession melee in which you are armed with nothing other then possession devices, forcing you to race towards the most powerfull MILs scattered around the terrain and overtaking them to obliterate your friends. Of course your so-called friends have similar friends and will frequently steal your powerfull MIL from your controll only to see them turn against you before they finnish you off in 3 seconds time.

...

Ok, so it did turn into a review of some sorts, but really: who cares? ;)