This is Halloween, This is Halloween

It's finally arrived, one of the holidays I looked forward to the most as a child. My mom usually made my costumes, so I was a silly looking ghost or tiger in elementary school. Extremely silly. The ghost costume was basically an albino Big Bird after a gang fight. The tiger costume was a bit short. I definitely shot up in elementary school, so the tiger costume's pants stayed around my shins. Highwater hell.

Beginning in 7th grade, my mom started making me costumes fit for the Lord of the Rings, since I was in love with those movies, along with Pirates of the Caribbean. So I was Arwen, a pirate, Arwen again, and.... a zombie. Before zombies were cool.

I'm making *** play board games and old games with me while we watch Hocus Pocus, the Addam's Family Values, Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas, and the Black Cauldron, since I've never seen it.

Perhaps the Pagemaster? I forgot what it's about.

Fortitudo

We will tell the children to go away, because the candy is all ours and they tried to hit my dog with a bike, so they deserve none. Or I'll just throw plastic spiders at them.

Bayonetta's a great game to play during Halloween. It's also a great game in general. It definitely reminds me of Devil May Cry, and it's so outrageous and high paced her near-nudity is tough to notice. The graphics are beautiful (We're playing the first one right now.) and the enemies are terrifying. I like the way the bosses are structured and based of various mythologies. The statuesque faces are really creepy and add a biblical air to the monsters. Angels. Seraphim? I believe the seraphim were supposed to be draconic angels.

Anyway, Fortitudo is the hardest boss ***'s fought so far. It was pretty gnarly.

I like how each verse of Bayonetta is scored somewhat like DMC, where the combos and deaths are taken into account for each score. *** did so badly with the Fortitudo fight that he got a stone statue at the end... whoops.

I really love the music chosen for each area of Bayonetta. The song "One of a Kind" made the bloody fighting and over-the-top combat seem extremly girly and romantic, in a way. I loved it. The film-reel cutscenes, too, give the game a unique twist and romantic, possibly noir feel.

I don't know. I'm not a professional reviewer. That's just how it seems to me.

Bayonetta as a character is probably one of my greatest role models. She's sexy, she knows it, she flaunts it. She's a badass fighter, she knows it, she flaunts it. A woman with such a strong character and so much self confidence isn't often seen in video games or movies, and I'm glad PG introduced her. She rocks. She is a fine woman.

The other two games we've bought rec
entely are Sunset Overdrive and Forza Horizon 2, both mainly for ***. I love how beautiful each of them are. So far, Sunset Overdrive seems like a Dead Rising/Saint's Row combination with more snark and an 80's color scheme. my favorite part of FH2 is the stupid physics - if you hit a haybale with a sports car, it will not go flying. You will. Through the windshield.

*** allowed me to help him design his car, though. It's ooze green with purple splatters. It represents him well.

It's too sunny for Halloween. GO AWAY SUN.

This is basically me.

I started a couple more classes in Fantasy Life - Blacksmith and Tailor. Since I'm a blacksmith, I need carpentry to make beams for the items I have to smith. So it looks like I'll have to start that. I love, love, LOVE that you don't have to switch Lives in order to practice a skill. The only time you have to switch is when you need to turn in challenges.

I'm an idiot, though. I thought you leveled each life separately. Now my Focus is off the charts and I have no strength or defense. Whoops. Better start working on that.

I have so many memories of Halloween, and they're all so magical compared to how it's been the last few years. It must be the nostalgia. I remember starting at my Granny's house and going all over the neighborhood, my old friend ***'s brother dressed up as the killer from Scream and jumped out from behind their grandma's house. Getting popcorn balls from the lady who's garden seemed like a maze. Having two sacks of candy at the end of the night and my mom picking through everything to make sure nothing looked tampered with. Sprinting across darkened yards with my cousin and his friend, through leaves and up small hills - I believe the house my parents rent out, now, is near there.

Carving a pumpkin with my dad at the elementary school, it was called "Pumpkins with Pops" I believe. That was in first grade. Years before that, when we still lived in the first house since I was born, my mom had a witch she kept in the hallway. I was extremely afraid of it as a baby, and my dad told me to wait til my mom was home so she could shut it off. When our current house was finally built, she bought a light up ghost, and I couldn't wait to get home from the football game to see it lit up. I fell asleep next to it.

My aunt had the best decorations, little porcelain haunted houses that lit up and flickered. I loved those. My grandma gave us little treat boxes, also porcelain, to decorate the house with for Halloween. She always found decorations for each family. I believe I got a pumpkin box. I wanted the ghost more.

Everything orange, purple and black, the Halloween parties in elementary school, before the "My child is allergic to everything!" fad and any treat was allowed. Jello shaped like pumpkins and bats at my only Halloween party. All my friends in the suburban as my mom drove us around looking for haunted houses, and one girl crying her face off when my cousin and sister jumped out to scare us. It was hilarious. We had a "touch and feel" exhibit too, with a rubber glove filled with four and frozen, and peeled grapes as eyeballs. I think a spaghetti ball was supposed to be a brain. Of course, *** had to tell everyone what he thought they really were and ruined everything.

He also thought it was my birthday, so he was the only one in costume and brought a present. My mom wouldn't let me keep it. Boo mom.

Haha, geddit? I said boo.

Ah, to be a child again.

Fantasy Life

I've put about 12 good hours into it and unlocked two towns. I think it's time to tell you about it.

Napdragon!

First of all, I don't understand why people think this game is going to be like Final Fantasy. The combat isn't turned based, you don't have a party of brooding teenagers, and the "Life" system is bigger than the story missions themselves - you need to do that to unlock the new areas, and of course the story is important overall, but you can also do your gathering and crafting and fetch quests without worrying about the story.

In fact, I'm not the biggest fan of how the story's played out so far. There's a lot of talking, a couple of very tiny fights, and then more talking. *** is further than I am and said the story gets better, so we'll see how it goes. As it stands, I am in no hurry to finish the story simply because I don't want to hear what Butterfly has to say every time I enter a new area. The characters I interact with during the story are very memorable, however. They did a good job creating individuals. I just get annoyed because the story is talking. I want more action. But, I'll wait to see how good it gets later.

So, my favorite part: The Life You Choose 

Dun dun dunnnn. You have twelve different classes to choose from in the beginning.

I think I've said it before, but *** chose Paladin, the automatic option. I chose Fisher, since I like fishing, and ***, thinking he'd be helpful, chose alchemist. Our costumes were extremely silly. I loved wearing the fish hat.

I decided to, after going through the tutorial of Fishing, jump into many of the crafting skills and see what was in store for me. I picked up woodcutting and mining and skipped the tutorials - which you can do after your first Life and get the items you need for your new Life without all the fuss - and jump to Cooking. That one seemed pretty weird since I'd only done gathering Lives, so I did the tutorial anyway. I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't have known otherwise that, for cooking, you stand behind a pot, cutting board, and stove, and you must, in that order, hold A, smash A, and time-hit A in order to beat the clock and cook your dish. If you don't mess up once, you get a superior food item. If you beat the clock to 20 seconds (I think) you receive two of the dish.

To me, that's more exciting than Harvest Moon and Final Fantasy XIV: ARR crafting. The Fishing, too, is more exciting, since you not only have to time the jerk right to hook the fish, you must also battle against it with your A-holding and circle pad direction. If your meter gets too high the line is broken and you've lost your fish. When mining, the longer you hold A, the harder you hit. When you level your skills further, X becomes your "special attack" and you hit harder/have steps done in cooking automatically/whatever happens in Smithing and Tailoring. It's more innovative, in my opinion, and you don't lose your items if you mess up. I find that quite nice.

If you've learned a Life, and you practice it while in another Life, such as mining while a Cook, your mining skill is still increased and your actions count toward your mining challenges. That way, you don't have to change your life every five minutes just to mine a bit of copper you've come across. Your overall experience still goes toward your current Life, though, so if you're doing a story quest, make sure you're in the Life you want to level. 

The fetch quests are annoying to some people, but I think it's a good way to show players where a certain monster is so when they need that item, they know where to look. Some of them are a bit challenging, since the item is considered "rare" - you have to try for a while to catch the right fish in an area. It gives you something to do if you need a distraction from the story or leveling up your Life.

I really, really love the combat. The combos really help keep Radishys from kicking butt, and everything is fairly easy to clear out in each area - if your level is high enough. If it's not, you're 1 Hit KO'd and sent back to either your house or the last save point. No money or items are lost, though. Also, any allies you may have - dogs, cats, humans - help you fight. They usually mirror what you do and don't go off and get killed. So far. The AI is pretty intelligent.

The protagonist starts out in an attic, a really crappy place just like Animal Crossing. As more money is collected and the story progressed further, more houses are available to rent. The rooms are customizable, as they are in Animal Crossing, and items to decorate are sold at a furniture store and given to the character during quests.

Bliss is another thing leveled up by granting people's wishes and helping Butterfly complete the requirements for the next story quest. Each time Bliss is leveled up, various unlockables are presented: a bigger bag, the ability to have pets or a horse, or to listen to music from Reveria in the protag's room. Once unlocked, options for a bigger bag/more pets/whatever are opened, up to three tiers of that option. The Amazing Bag is extremely helpful.

The music is extremely fitting, and never grates on my nerves. I'm also glad there is no voice acting, it allows me to "hear" the characters as I want to. That being said, I'm glad Butterfly does all the talking and you're allowed to continue believing the protagonist is you, rather than stuffing words in your mouth. If that happened, I'd find this game more like Final Fantasy, since the reactions wouldn't be your own, but the character on the screen. In this, it's like Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, an actual RPG. It also makes me think of Little King's Story because of the character models and the snark. And the King. Look at that guy.



Before you say it, yes I know FF is an RPG. But, I find the ones where you are pretending to be yourself in a game more intriguing rather than watching the story of someone else unfold. I don't care about Cloud. My B.

The graphics, as shown through all these pictures, are beautiful. Each area is vibrant and different from the last. Perhaps they're generic areas for RPGs, but come on. At least it was executed well.

This game was definitely worth the purchase. The more I play it, the more sure I am. Multiplayer is more helpful in the higher levels, so Wade says, because the monsters get pretty tough, and he's only in the third town.

This game is for people who enjoy Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing Little King's Story, and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It's also for someone who really wants a time sinking RPG with zest.

Choose your Life, change your Life, Fantasy Life. I'd score it at a 9/10, just because the story, so far, bores me a little, and you can't change your Life til you finish a chapter in it.

Different Lives: Notice the fish hat!

My writing is a train wreck. :)

Pokedex Complete

I finally, begrudgingly, finished my pokedex. I guess it's an accomplishment since the game's only been out for a year. Before I started, I had about 67 pokemon left to find, and usually I sifted through the GTS to find them. I hate evolving them because I honestly hate battling. So, that's why it took me so long, since everyone, EVERYONE, wanted a freaking Palkia for their Spewpa.

On Sunday, my coworker had me test out a Pokemon X, so I transferred all those pokemon to my bank and played around with it a bit. The guy had quite a few shinies that were in Cherish balls that I don't think were actually events... Who knows! I took them. Shiny Heracross is pink and adorable.

Anyway, it wasn't exciting at all to finish it because my last three pokemon to grab were Pignite, Tympole, and Wynaut. I didn't save any cool ones at all. So, GTS, GTS, GTS. Make an egg, GTS. Hatch the egg, GTS.

It took about three hours once I got down to 25 pokemon left, but it was worth it, I guess. Time to catch ALL THE SHINIES I WANT.

Too bad I already have most of them.

First Look at Fantasy Life

Fantasy Life launched today on the 3DS, by Level-5, and I'm just as pleased with it as I was with Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

They have a similar gameplay, as they're both life simulation. Go around, do what you want, pick flowers. Sounds good! Of course, it has the fantasy-RPG style, which makes me think of Rune Factory, except you can do more jobs, and the fighting is a bit more fun. There's also more places to go to (that I can tell, I didn't play much of RF4).

The graphics are quite chibi. The Nap Dragon is adorable as hell, and I stole its egg. Take that, Nap Dragon.

I haven't gotten to try multiplayer, yet, but I'd imagine it's just like Animal Crossing's, as well. I know your party freezes (can't add/remove anyone) and so does time. You also can't participate in multiplayer if you're doing a story quest, or switch your Life while in multiplayer. Fair enough.

You can dash, you can sneak. Each of these level up. You can fish, you can cook, you can make explosions (probably). You can basically do anything. Kill your bounty and drag it back in a crate while defending it from bees and coyotes.

This is definitely a great game to pick up, even if it's too cute on the surface. It's worth it. Even after the story quests are over, I know there will be many hours of post gameplay.

Pictures from my adventures in-game are to come.

Dokapon Kingdom

I didn't think I'd make another post tonight, since we're all counting down to Fantasy Life, but III made the mistake of suggesting Dokapon Kingdom to pass the time.

This game blows Mario Party out of the water, especially the later ones. It's basically Mario Party without the mini games each turn, and with RPG elements. The goal of the game is to have the most money at the end of the game, which you will receive from liberating towns, completing objectives for the king, and beating your adversary in battle.

 Atlus is the company who localized it, so of course it's going to have its silly moments. If you beat another player in a fight, you may steal something from them, change their name (and I think gender) or give them a new hair-do. The last is usually my favorite, as I gave my friend *** a judge 'do and turned ***'s to poo. Take that, boys.

So, this game is extremely colorful, and that's usually a plus for me - it is, now, too, don't take that the wrong way. Each person gets to pick their hero's color, of course, and journey across the expansive map to complete their quests. The map's colors are themed around each area, and, even in the forested areas and such, the areas are vibrant and pleasing to look at.

 We're doing the story mode. No idea how long that will take. I'm sure it will be a good amount of time, though.

It is, of course, limited to the usual three starting classes: Warrior, Mage, and Thief. They can branch out once you level these classes up, but we haven't gotten far yet to see what they become. Also, you can change your class at any time when you visit the king.

I definitely have better luck than ***. His strikes usually miss, or he's countered. The last town I liberated before we broke for the night automatically gave his only town to me, making my count 5 and his 0. Every time we play this game, he's usually seething at the end of our play time.

III, of course, tries to screw Wade over and keeps stealing his money, just because of their long-standing "I must beat YOU, AND ONLY YOU" duel. It's funny and helpful.

Anyway, it's a good game for people who enjoy RPGs and want a silly one to play with friends. The story mode is definitely more entertaining than the party mode, since that mode seems too short to get the real experience of the game. We still have to try out Dokapon Journey, which should also be good since it's one of the rare games that lets you download the game from its cartridge and play with more than one person, but we will see.

Miscommunication and MMO's

I don't know if it's because, since I've grown and have to work ~6 days a week, so I don't have as much time to veg out and enjoy an MMO, but I can't keep my attention on one for long, anymore. I mean, I used to marathon on Runescape for DAYS with little sleep. Now, I fish sharks, or sit in the lobby and talk to the friends I still have on there.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is the only other MMO that held my attention for long. Since you can switch classes at will and aren't bound to anything at all (after you can travel freely) I had an extremely fun time going out, picking la Noscean oranges, and making orange juice to send to Wade as he stuffed his face down different dungeons.

Alas, we didn't stick to that one long, either. I don't know if it's because we have so many things we want to try that we can't keep our attention on something for more than a couple of weeks. That being said, for quite a while I've only wanted to stare at the wall and do nothing, so that probably adds to it.

I keep going back to Runescape because of the heavy nostalgia, especially from the music. I often play when I'm by myself just to listen to the tracks "Miles Away" "Starlight" and "Waterfall" - these were key tunes in my favorite days of Runescape, back when we could multiclan and I not only ran my own, I was a member of the Caped Carousers, as well. Good times. I miss quite a lot of my old clanmates, but I can't concentrate enough on the quests, anymore, to rejoin.

There is a lot of miscommunication through text, anyway. Especially since no person will ever read a thing the same as any other person. Because of that, a lot of flak's gone on throughout my time on RS. Some friends I wish I never lost. Most of them, we got through it and still speak when we can, which is nice.

I'm so tired right now. I'm glad I work in the afternoon on Friday, because I do not want to wake up at 7:30.

Also, Fantasy Life comes out Friday and III and I will be downloading it to play. III is also buying it, so the three of us will play it together. I hope it's like FFXIV, where you can basically do whatever you want. It's by Level-5, so either way it's going to be great. I'm waiting til Monday to order Bayonetta 2, since that's when I get my big check. The game looks extremely fun, and I love what Platinum Games shells out. I also like talking to one of their creative producers, because he's extremely smart and teaches me something every time we have a conversation, even if it's about his preference for "little gay dogs."

By Dabouya

No games have been beaten since the last post besides Windwaker HD. Since I already beat it earlier this year, it's already been counted. The changes Nintendo made to the graphics of this game are subtle, but they made a huge difference. I laughed when people were hyped up for this game, since everyone seemed to hate it when it was first released. People hated the graphics, this wasn't a real Zelda game! Let me tell you, though, reader, this was the Zelda game I worked the hardest to get my hands on.

The summer this game came out, I made a deal with my mom to clean the grout on our floors in exchange for her contributing toward my purchase of a gamecube. I scrubbed for a week (we had a lot of tile) my hands were white and pruney, and my knees were bruised from kneeling nearly all day to clean the floors, but clean them I did. This game meant the world to me, back then, and if I purchased the bundle, I'd get the Ocarina of Time Master Quest with it.

When I was finally done, we went to Walmart. They had two of these bundles left, and a plethora of the bundles with Metroid. I was shaking as we went to pay - I was twelve dollars short. Thankfully, my mom is nice to me and covered the rest of it. That night, I played this game til 4 AM. (Sorry mom. I pretty much did that every time you got me a new game.) I loved it so much. The sailing was exciting, the music and graphics were beautiful, and the story was captivating. I played the hell out of this game, and, when *** (another great friend of mine) was stuck on the final battle, I helped him beat it, even though I was no where near the end. This game holds some of the greatest memories for me, and I will love it forever.

Two of my favorite characters were Makar and the pigs. They're both extremely cute, and have about the same body type. As you probably know by now, I love cute fat things. Most people hated Makar, probably because of the noises he makes or because he immediately gets imprisoned in the Wind Temple. I don't hate him. I totally forgave him for his uselessness. His sounds, too. I bought a toy for my nephew because it sounded like Makar walking. I LOVE MAKAR.

Anyway. This Link is probably also my favorite (I had a longstanding crush on OoT Adult Link for a very long time as a little girl) because he seems so alive. His facial expressions speak volumes for his reactions to different scenarios, and the cel-shading lent so much to his personality this game wouldn't be a 10 in my books without it.

The entire game had a huge personality, thanks to the graphical choices of Nintendo. Yeah, it looks pretty childish on the surface, but you really couldn't have the drama (good and bad) involved in this game without the expressions and exaggerations from this game. Plus, the bright colors lent a great deal to the attitude of the game - if it had realistic graphics, the colors would look extremely silly, and Link's normal dead expressions wouldn't tell his story half as well.

Neither would the boss fights be so unique, since most of the realistic games that came before it were largely the same. Camera behind Link as he uses the new gadget to apprehend monster and woohoo save day heart container. This game really utilized the simplicity to add depth and originality to the boss fights. Don't believe me? Go watch someone play through Ganon's Tower on Youtube. I promise these fights are wonderful and enjoyable. Yes, they do the same thing (gadget, slash slash, dead, heart container) but with cel-shading the recycling isn't so obvious. Plus, Link's dance at the end of each fight is adorable. 

Skyward Sword's nod to the cel-shading, and Link's expressions in that game as well, also invoked some nostalgia, even though that game is extremely new. Now, critics hail the graphics as a masterpiece, and agree with my opinion, they make this game unique.

I will close with one of my favorite comic strips. And remember, I love pigs.

Wind Waker 2000

This is probably the 8th day in a row ***'s been here to hang out and play stuff. Not a complaint.

Porkchop has gotten extremely fluffy. It was hard to notice the length difference since I had him shaved, but coming home from Dallas after not seeing him for a couple of days really showed a difference. He's pretty cute as a puff.

After looking through my list of games, I definitely want to beat Pandora's Tower. Out of Operation Rainfall's trio of localized games, it's the one I've enjoyed the most. It's kind of a mix of Devil May Cry mechanics and Shadow of the Colossus goal/boss fights. The voice acting, so far, hasn't really gotten on my nerves, as some British voice acting does. (The Last Story really grates on my nerves.) and it's actually a really beautiful game. It's definitely added to my list.

After the Wind Waker and finishing ALttP, I told III I'm going to make him suffer through Skyward Sword with me, since Hyrule Warriors' music disgustingly made me want to play it again. If you haven't noticed, it's not my favorite Zelda game. I really hate motion controls, but the game was actually pretty beautiful and I enjoyed the story, so I kind of want to experience it again. My favorite part, probably, was when the Loftwing scared Link out of bed and spit the letter in his face.

I could just finish Dark Souls 2... but I want to enjoy it. I haven't been in the mood for it lately. Perhaps Kirby's Return to Dreamland needs another go.

I'm rambling at this point. It's rather late.

Since it's nearing Halloween, I bought the Addams Family, one of my favorite movies from my childhood. Sure people will watch Nightmare Before Christmas and Friday the 13th, but this movie is a classic. I can't wait to watch it.

I seriously want to be Tingle for Halloween.

Digital Gaming

I recently contemplated the pros and cons of digitally downloading some of my future purchases. In the past few years, I wouldn't dream of it. I like having physical copies of my games and as complete as possible, when it's affordable. There are quite a few manuals stuffed in my Phantom Hourglass lunchbox along with all my loose Pokemon cards. Manuals are really fun to look through, especially comparing the art to the (usually) worse pixels in game. And, since the booklets included how-to's on game play, the tutorials for games were a lot shorter back in the day, if there were any at all. 

However, games are now releasing with digital manuals, and 3DS/WiiU game codes are now printed on the inside of the cover art. There's nothing special, really, coming out with most standard edition games. Of course, I will always buy physical copies of console games, but handhelds are another story.

I find it hard to justify yet another empty case on a shelf, and something extra to move around. So, I decided to purchase a 32GB memory card for my 3DS and wait patiently. In these pictures you see how many games I carry around with me. Sure, I don't *need* to, but I like having options for when I game. Sadly, these aren't even half the games *** and I own combined. He has his own two cases full, and I still have about eight more games sitting in their cases, not collecting dust. I could trade some of these games for others, but I'm a collector. I'll end up buying them all again. This was actually something *** pointed out, that if I get tired of a game I will want to trade it in. However, I'm trying to quit doing that, since, again, I keep re-buying most of the things I trade in. MONEY WASTE. 

Another reason I want to begin buying digitally is because I can purchase Nintendo cards and file them away for when a game I want comes out, and I may not be able to afford it at that time (or something.) I realize I could pre-order the same game and put $10 on it every week or so, but I'd rather purchase the cards so that, if there's a surprise e-shop drop, I can purchase that, instead. I'm not extremely worried about the Club Nintendo codes, since 

1) Club Nintendo has been letting me down, so once I hit Platinum I probably won't put any more codes in until either the next year or something awesome hits

2) If a game is really super great, we'll probably end up getting another copy down the road so *** will keep his grubby hands off my 3DS. 

As shown, both my game cases are full of games I really want to play, and I don't want to carry around another case because I lose things quite often. Aside from hauling my hoard of Harvest Moons around, I think I have a pretty big variety of things to choose from. Thanks to my new SD card, I can have even MORE things to choose from without having to pick my favorite DS children and throwing the rest back in their boxes. That is, until I get Lufia, then you can kiss HM Island of Happiness goodbye. 

Pros: 

• Digital library = no need for extra carry cases
• Tax free! 
• Won't lose cartridges
• Club Nintendo codes for my account, two platinum rewards??

Cons:

• Can't trade in if hated
• SD card may corrupt in the far far future!! (Not a real fear)
• No physical games to press to my face
• Also can't share with friends. My 3DS is my precious.

I think the only real fear of mine is purchasing a game digitally and hating it. Really, though, it shouldn't be that big of a deal since I know what I like (game genres and producers) and games other people seem to hate (Hometown Story) are really entertaining to me. 

If it is cute, I will probably like it. If it's stylus heavy, I will probably hate it. 

Here is a list of 3DS games I will be buying as they release:

• Fantasy Life (Digital)
• Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley (Physical - Doggie!)
• Pokemon ORAS (Physical, so I can trade between them)
• Story of Seasons (Digital)
• Monster Hunter 4 (1 Physical, 1 Digital)

And that's all I know of coming out soon. I don't think any of my digital purchases will fill me with regret like ***'s do. It's always funny when he regrets something, and it seems to happen quite often. 

Game Five Beaten!

I didn't plan to buy this game originally, but after I collected most of the NFC figures, which are extremely cute in their polygonal simplicity, I figured I may as well try it, since I liked Rumble Blast on the 3DS.

The game play is extremely simple. You pick a previously captured pokémon, like Psyduck, then start your level. Each one will have different objectives for you to meet. Then, button mash!! The objectives are usually pretty straightforward, Beat the level in X amount of time, protect _______, beat the level on a Sunday... So on, so forth.

You can use the little NFC figures to buy different moves for those certain pokémon. I haven't done that, since most of those pokémon weren't found in the later levels (that I've seen. Yet. I want to unlock all the pokémon.) So it wasn't really useful. I needed to save my coins to pay for a retry. The game gets kind of tough. I only bought them to display, anyway.

The only problem I had with the actual game, besides the normal "THE BOSS HAD MAYBE 3 HP LEFT WHY DID I DIE" frustration, was the frame rate dropping when there were a ton of pokémon on the screen at once being hit with the touch-power doodad. That's not a deal breaker though, I wouldn't expect it to run perfectly with that many models on screen, and it didn't inhibit game play at all. It was just a bit disconcerting because I was usually in the middle of the mob.

I found that farming the same pokémon over and over was helpful, since each one had a different move set. Even though each one could only use two moves, it was helpful to get, say, an Ivysaur with a grass and a poison move, rather than just two grass. And, since the game picks your three companions based on your chosen pokémon type, it's always good to use a pokémon with two types, so your helpers aren't beaten up extremely quickly by a wave of combatants.

The Squad

Now, about the NFC figures, themselves. Completely adorable, as I stated. They are quite fragile, though, and if you mess with them too much they'll break off their platform. They're pretty easy to reglue though. Definitely not everyday playthings.

There are 22 in total, including both Kyurems, those pictured here, Darkrai, Shiny Eevee and Shiny Pikachu. Completing the set would be awesome, but the shiny versions are too expensive.

My favorite two are Bulbasaur and Shaymin, since they're two of my favorite pokémon anyway. I actually received Bulbasaur in one of the blind pokéballs at Gamestop, but I had to order both Shaymin and Eevee. It was pretty fun to collect these, minus the 80 Litwicks I opened up my first go-through. I don't really know why Croagunk is one of the figures. I think Charmander or Squirtle would've been a better choice, but hey. I'm happy with what I got.

Overall, I enjoyed this game immensely. I've always wanted to play a beat'em up type of pokémon game, and this delivered quite well.

***

In other news, Worms Armageddon on the N64 came into the store. It's a relatively rare game, so obviously it must find itself in my collection. I'm also getting a copy of Mega Man 5 for the NES this week. It's the most expensive of all six of them, so that will be a great bridge to cross.

This Thursday I'm seeing my doctor for an update on my medicine, since I'm still not sleeping more than three good hours a night. Some people can handle that, sure, but I am not one of them. 

Currently, *** is at my house playing The Windwaker HD, and is in the Forbidden Woods. It's kind of fun to watch someone who hasn't played a game to death go through it. I think the platforms in this area look like almonds. 

"SUKIIIT" - ***

One thing I am thankful for, through all this crap I'm going through, are the people around me. Extremely supportive and available to help me get my mind out of the dark and into something fun/productive.