Hello 2007!! I know i'm a little late but.....Happy New Years to everyone on Gamespot!! I hope you all partied like CRAZY! :lol:

Speaking of the year 07, man did I miss out on a lot of 2006 games, whether it was because I didn't own the console or I didn't have any money:

Xbox 360: Oblivion, Gears of War and Dead Rising.

PSP: Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, Metal Gear Acid 2, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X.

PS2: Bully, Okami, God Hand, Final Fantasy XII, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, Kingdom Hearts 2, Disgaea 2 and Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria.

DS: Starfox Command, Castlevania: Potrait of Ruin, Elite Beat Agents and Final Fantasy III

GBA: Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V

In 2007, i'm gonna try and play as much new games as I can and also play all these great titles that I left behind in 2006.

I have another new years resolution as well and that is to write more on gamespot. I just started writing these blogs a few weeks ago and i'm really enjoying it. I also take pleasure in reading other people's blogs, it's fun to read about their videogame life.

I'm also planning on writing more reviews; I did my first one a few weeks back, sadly, I don't think anyone read it :(. Can you guys please read it (Its on the bottom of this page) and leave me some feedback? I need to know if i'm cut out for this since i'm not exactly 100% certain that my literary skills are good enough. I spent four days writing the review carefully because I wanted to make sure it didn't have any mistakes. Oh well....let's see if the hard work payed off!! Also please keep in mind that some gamespot bug totally ruined my review, it pasted a bunch of paragraphs that weren't suppose to be together.

I'm disappointed that my blog "Games I loved but never bought" didn't get in the soapbox......oh well....better luck next time!!

My favorite game of the year: Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Why? Cuz it rocked (nice little three word review :D)

Tales of Symphonia update: I just hit 40 hours yesterday and the game doesn't seem like its going to end anytime soon. The enemies in the dungeons have become a lot harder to kill so that's good.

In this blog, I'll go through the games I loved back in the day but never had the money to buy them. You see, I live in the Dominican Republic and over here games are A LOT more expensive than in the United States so I had to wait till it was either Christmas or my birthday to get a game so I had to very selective.

First up are games for the SNES.

Mega Man X Trilogy

Ahh yes......I was very fond of all three Mega Man X games for the SNES. My favorite one was, and still is, X2. It had absolute gorgeous graphics and the level designs were just awesome. I remember me and my brother going through all three of these games: writing down passwords, memorizing all of the bosses patterns, praying for Zero to be playable on day(That dream sort of came true in X3), hours were spent trying to find all of Dr. Light's upgrades, controls were tossed with each and every Sigma fight and the feeling of satisfaction when we beat every single one of these games.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

I was never really a big fan of the show but dang it, this game was AWESOME!! For those of you who don't remember, it was a beat em up game based on the (Then famous) Power Rangers TV show. Before starting up the main adventure you could choose between any of the five rangers from the show: Jason (Red), Billy (Blue), Zack (Black), Kimberly (Pink) and Trini (Yellow). Each one had his/her own fighting skills. You would start off each level as them unmorphed and then when you got half way through, they would morph into a ranger. There really wasn't any difference between being morphed or unmorphed, it didn't matter since it did exactly what it was suppose to do: make kids happy. My favorite character was Zack, his fighting stance made him look like he was dancing which was pretty funny. I don't remember the game being all that long since I used to play it at a friends house and beating on the same day. We played this game to death; it was the ultimate guilty pleasure. "It's Morphin Time!"

Kirby Super Star

This is Kirby in his prime!! This game was the pinnacle of his career. My neighbor and I would rent this game every other weekend. Me and him would sit in front of the TV for hours  on end trying to beat this one and we managed to do it a bunch of times. Our favorite part was the cowboy style duel mini game, it was intense. One of my favorite boss battle of all time is actually in this game, the one vs. Meta Knight. New generation of Kirby fans, do yourselves a HUGE favor and play this SNES classic.

Top Gear

Probably my first racing game I ever played. The sense of speed in this game was truly revolutionary back in the day, well at least for me it was. The multiplayer was the meat of the game; this is where me and my friends spent hours upon hours burning tires on those tracks. And no, I never like F-Zero, there I said it, SUE ME!!

NBA Jam

My first sports game. Two on two basketball has never been better than this. I remember the ball used to catch on fire whenever the player would score a lot or something like that. My favorite part of the game was when the commentator would say: "Boom Shakalaka". This would be the last basketball game I came to enjoy. Go figure.

Super Return of the Jedi

Based on my favorite episode of Star Wars, Super Return of the Jedi was one of those games that you were really proud of beating since it was so hard. You could choose between different characters but I always chose Luke every time I had the chance (I'm a sucker for green lightsaber). I remember this game having a ton of levels and the last one being the most memorable of them all because you got to fly the Millennium Falcon into the Death Star and destroying it. That's right......Rogue Squadron wasn't the first game to let you do this.

Now for the N64 games

Ogre Battle 64

If I could sum up this game in one word it would be: Amazing. I never got very far into it because my neighbor was always playing it and he would never let me borrow it so I just sat there watching him play for hours while I gawked at the screen. I did ask my parents to buy me this game for Christmas but even in those days, this game was more expensive than others. This gem in mint condition sells well over 60 dollars on eBay but let me you something: it's worth every penny.

Mystical Ninja starring Goemon

I absolutely loved this game back in 1998. I consider this one to be a cult classic due to the fact that many people didn't like it since they saw it as a Mario 64 clone; I never really cared about that. You had four different character to choose from and each of them had their own unique set of abilities. This game was FUNNY ah hell!! I distinctly remember a part where the main bad guy had a dancing scene that looked like a musical on Broadway right before the final battle, it was a bit ridiculous but hey I was just a kid and found it to be hilarious!! This game is as quirky as they come. The sequel sucked though....BIG TIME.

Mischief Makers

One of the first games I played on the N64. I remember this 2-D side scrolling adventure being very simple which made it undeniably fun. The bosses were awesome and you had to defeat all of them without getting hit once to obtain one of the many golden crystals to see the full ending in the game.  "Shake shake"

That's it for N64. Kind of short I know but hey I got all the great games for it like Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye so.....there's really no need for more. On to the Playstation.

Mega Man Legends II

Its predecessor was plagues with a ton of problems. This sequel however improved upon everything: controls, camera angles, story, graphics, voice acting and even length of the game. I rented it and made it to the final level but never had the time to finish it. I did manage to buy the first one from eBay but when I started looking for this one, I didn't have any more money. If you're a Mega Man fan and you see this game in a garage sale for like 10 bucks don't hesitate and buy this. You won't be disappointed.

Mega Man X4

This was the last "great" game of the X series, after this entry all the other ones jut didn't cut it for me. Zero steals the show in this one by becoming playable from the get go and having his own storyline to boot. The anime sequences were nothing short of amazing. I should really get the Mega Man X collection.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

My favorite Street Fighter game. It has a ton of characters from the classics like Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Bison, E.Honda and the one exclusive to the Alpha series like Sakura, Guy, Dark Ryu and Shim Akuma. I like the anime style the game has and even the characters speech is in Japanese. You have three figting styles to choose from: A-ism, V-ism and X-ism which added a lot of depth to the game. My favorite character is Ken because of his speed and besides, he wears red (I'm totally obsessed with that color). I tried stealing it from a friend of mine. Long story short.....well, it obviously made it to this list so....it didn't quite work out. "It all depends on your skill. Face it straight!!"

Einhander

One of the best sleeper hits EVER recorded in videogame history. Not many people remember this game and I don't blame them since it wasn't really well known even back when it was released. Apparently gamers were still too busy playing Final Fantasy VII. I still own the demo but never found a single copy of the full game back in 1998. The demo doesn't even work anymore of all the time I played through it. From what I remember the graphics were amazing, the controls were responsive (Very important in this type of game), the sound was awesome and the presentation was superb. This is truly Squaresoft's lost gem. Let's hope for a PSP release someday!!

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

Ok so I don't remember all that much about this game but I do know that me and my brothter played this to death. It was an awesome platformer, one of the best of its kind. This is Jak and Daxter's ancestor.

The Legend of Dragoon

This first party RPG from Sony Entertaiment was truly one of the best cult classics to hit the Playstation back in the year 2000 but it was immediately criticized for its outdated graphics, linear gameplay, and somewhat boring battle mechanics. However, this didn't stop me and a bunch of my friends from playing this truly immersive RPG that sucks you right into the story which includes interesting characters and a whole lot of plot twists, not to mention the FMV sequences in this game are astounding. It's also a lengthy adventure to boot, spanning across four discs. If you're a hardcore RPG fan who doesn't rely on eye candy graphics but solid gameplay, then you should definitely check this one out.

I hold lots and lots of great memories playing the games on this list: I laughed, cried, tossed controls, fought over with my neighbor about who would win between X and Zero, beating Bison on the highest difficulty, trying to beat all the time trials in Crash Bandicoot, praying to God to let me get my hands on a full version of Einhander, hating myself for liking the Power Rangers videogame and many other memories that hold a special place in my heart; maybe someday fate will unite us again.

Post your list of games you wish to reunite with. I know it's painful.

Well...surprise surprise....my brother ordered Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Gamecube behind my back a few days ago and it arrived in the mail today. I was shocked, I thought he was going to wait for the Wii version, seems like he got impatient. I didn't see much of the game, only the introduction and the first three minutes of gameplay. I don't want any contact with it whatsoever....for now.

Thing is....I just got 30 hours in Tales of Symphonia today and i'm really enjoying it a lot. Twilight Princess now presents a problem because I do wanna play it, but I can't since that would mean the end for Symphonia. Every time I play something else, I lose interest in the other, that's why I'm not very proficient at playing two games at the same time. I like to dedicate my full attention to just one. Man its really tempting. I feel like Hyrule is calling me, however, I must see Symphonia through to the end. Its not like i'm obligating myself to finish Tales, I'm really enjoying it and I just don't wanna ruin that.

The only game I play on the side is Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, the online mode. Its fun to go back to that from time to time and now more than ever since Konami has started shutting down servers in both Korea and Japan. It'll happen sometime for the US server and the game will be gone forever so i'm trying to spend as much time as I can with it. 

But that's not at all, my brother also ordered Okami three days ago and my girlfriend gave me money to buy an Xbox 360 wired controller for my birthday, which I already ordered myself yesterday. The reason i'm buying the controller, even though I don't own the system yet (Hopefully sometime around March), is because I want to play ROMS with it. I'm sick of using the keyboard, it also hurts my eyes after awhile. Besides, some games like Street Fighter II: Turbo and the Mega Man X trilogy are impossible to play with a keyboard.

So I didn't get a 360 for Christmas but I still have a lot of games to keep me busy till I get one: Tales of Symphonia, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Okami and all the ROMS in the world. College takes up a lot of my time too. So hopefully, these next few months will run by quickly and soon enough i'll get my hands on a beautiful and shiny Xbox 360.

Tales of Symphonia update: After a rather slow start, the story has gotten a whole lot better! Thanks to a HUGE change of "scenery", don't worry, I'm not going to spoil anything. Can't wait to see what happens next! =)

So I got Tales of Symphonia for Christmas and after playing for 25 hours, im here to write down my first impressions on it.

The plot of the game so far is rather similar to Final Fantasy X. A young woman by the name of Collette must embark on a pilgrimage in order to save the world but she's not doing this all alone, she has friends that accompany her that act like guardians, sound familiar? Although the plot of the game is kind of cliched, the characters themselves are unique and awesome. Lots of funny moments where I just laughed out loud (Something I haven't done with a game for awhile). The story seems to be picking up though last time I played which is great.

The gameplay is where this RPG truly stands out. The battle system is just amazing and fun to play because you have direct control over the characters, it's not turn based like in the traditional role playing games which, if I may say so myself, is a nice breath of fresh air. You'll only be able to control one character at a time while the other ones are controlled by an AI. You can assign how the AI will act for a certain character for example if I want Collette to evade enemies all I have to do is give her the order. That's one of the things I love the most about this game, it really gives this RPG a tactical feel to it. You can also play as any of the characters, you aren't just stuck using the main protagonist. I played a little bit of multiplayer with my girlfriend and i'm impressed at how fluid it was. We had no problems with the camera and it was quite fun.

This game is HIGHLY customizable, you can change just about everything: the color of the menus, adjust the difficulty of the battles, turn off voice acting, assign the abilities the way you like, determine which stats will gain bonus upon leveling up the character (Titles), the behavior of the AI, among other things.

The graphics are cell shaded and look really good on the Gamecube. The game doesn't suffer from slow downs no matter how many enemies appear on screen.

The music is great for the most part especially the one from the opening sequence. The voice acting is fine. Ha! I immediately recognized the voice actor of Kratos (One of the game's characters) it's the same guy who voiced Liquid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games, Cam Clarke. Awesome =D

There are some things that I'm not liking so far like the fact that the non-boss battles are a little bit easy even though I changed the difficulty to hard, the menu layout is kind of ugly (I know i'm nitpicking here), the cooking system is cool but the ingredients are way too expensive and the enemies in the world map don't seem to change.

Now ive only played for 25 hours so some of the negative things I have for the game may be subject to change (Hopefully). In the end, the good outweighs the bad and i'm truly having a fun time with this RPG. Can't wait to see what the next 25 hours are gonna be like! It's good to play Gamecube again....heh.

I'm gonna start a two part blog about how my collection of games should be right now if it weren't for my cousins, my  moments of weakness and lack of money.  This first part is about the games that I once owned at some point in my life so without further ado enjoy this epic but sad trilogy about the rise and fall of my videogame collection.

My library of games would be a lot larger if it weren't for my little cousins. I let them borrow my NES and SNES games some years ago because they didn't have a lot of money. So when they bought a brand new N64 I wanted my games back but guess what? They mysteriously disappeared, or at least that's what they told me.

My theory is that they frickin' sold them!! Those little punks!  They probably traded in all those games for the N64. And I can't charge them for it cuz like I said before they don't have a lot money.

Here's the list of games they sold:

The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Super Mario Bros
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario World
Super Mario All-Stars
Jaws
Batman
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2
Terminator 2
Dr.Mario
Duckhunt
Excitebike
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat III
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers
Super Metroid
Starfox
The Lion King
Aladdin
Mario Kart
Donkey Kong Country

Games that they currently have of mine (Which I hope they still do) are:

Super Smash Brothers
Goldeneye
Timesplitters 2
Grand Theft Auto III

This is a list of games that I have traded or sold:

Dark Cloud 2
South Park
Parasite Eve
Pokemon Blue
Fifa 98
Starfox 64 (I got a new one though)
Star Wars Rogue Squadron (I got that again on ebay)

These are my missing games. I don't where the heck they are:

Pokemon Silver
Pokemon Yellow
Pokemon Snap
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Star Wars Episode I racer

That's it for part one.

On my next blog: Games I loved but never bought

Post your missing, traded and my punk of a cousin sold it videogames!

After four days of hard work I finally finished writing my first review!! Yay happy time!! I never knew writing about videogames would be so much fun. While I was working the review I kept saying to myself "why hadn't I done this before?"

The first few paragraphs were the hardest part to write since I’m practically new at this. I was afraid of writing too straightforward; I wanted my review to have substance. Hopefully I accomplished this goal but without the proper feedback from other gamespot users, I will never know. If feedback does come my way, I hope it'll be good ones since I invested a lot of time writing the review when I should've been studying this week.

A Gamespot bug however totally messed it up. It was nicely separated with paragraphs. When I came to upload it here, the paragraphs were pasted together and I couldn't delete the dang thing!! Now my review looks all choppy looking. I urge Gamespot to fix this problem.

I'm not sure which game to review next but i'll probably post it in my next blog. Cheers and read my first ever review!!

My brother bought Guitar Hero II a few days ago and I gotta say......this an absolute must buy for anyone who owns a PS2. I've been jamming on that guitar for a good three days now and it seems that I won't be stopping anytime soon.

The music selection in the game is quite good although some of the vocals sound a little bit off due to the fact that they were recorded by Red Octane (The publisher) probably because of the budget. It doesn't really hurt the game but I would imagine that for rock fans who have  already heard these songs over and over again for many years are surely disappointed. The worst sounding songs for me so far are: Killing In The Name and Monkey Wrench.

I completed easy mode on my first day. Then I jumped to medium and man.....the difficulty gap between the two are HUGE! The addition of the blue fret was worse than I thought. This game seems to have a steep learning curve especially for people who have never played a guitar before, like me for example. My fingers start to hurt after awhile, yeah I read the news about that pitcher who got injured by playing this game way too much (LOL!!).

On that note...this game is addicting!! If you live a normal hardworking life then heed this warning: STAY AWAY!! I mean there were moments where I said to myself  "Ok, I'll play this song then go to do some homework or something" then I find myself playing a whole set of songs.....CRAZY!!

My favorite songs so far are: Sweet Child O'Mine, Strutter, Arterial Black, YYZ and Carry On Wayward Son.

Thank you Red Octane for making this truly amazing rhythm/music game. This blog is dedicated to you. ROCK ON!!

Well this is my first blog ever. I've never done anything like this before. I guess i'm too shy even in the cyber world. I won't be posting much right now the only thing i'll say is that i'm working on a new proyect and that is to start reviewing some of my own games!!

My literary skills might no be spot on since i'm from the Dominican Republic (For those of you who failed geography last month, it's the country right next to Haiti)  but i'll do my best at writing full reviews of my favorite games. I won't be able to post a lot since i'm a medical student and time isn't a luxury for me.

Well I hope you like my reviews! Here we go! Into the unknown!

Currently reviewing: Castlevania Lament of Innocence