Now I know why Sonic Generations wasn't on Wii

It has load times. Therefore, it's not good enough to be on the Wii at this stage.

My point is, after Sonic Colours being so brilliant to video game players by not making them wait for levels to start, this has to drag us back to the Dreamcast era.

I am very interested in Fortune Street/Boom Street!

I haven't seen much in the way of footage for the game but these guys play it for the first time in this video so we learn along with them:

http://www.gamexplain.com/article-632-1322533154-fortune-street-game--watch-video-tour.html

Now, I haven't watched the video all the way yet but I'm quite interested in the game! Nice choice of music from the Mario & Dragon Quest games too. I'm not too fond of that loading screen at the beginning but it's short enough. There doesn't seem to be any other loading times. Good thing too, since it's a board game.

It seems like there are some detailed workings and I'm looking forward to learning about them all.

Boom Street is going to be out here in Ireland on January the 6th, making it the first Wii release of 2012 here.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 50

King Dedede gets these doll replicas of himself from NME and gives them out among the people of Cappy Town. Little do they know that while they're sleeping, the king can hypotise them through the dolls.

After they get hypnotised the people find themselves loving and trusting King Dedede so much that they give all their money to his bank. Something happens though when King Dedede starts jumping around out of frustration due to lack of sleep...

No Kirby abilities this time.

About the ending... I can't help but wonder... is there a "2001: A Space Odyssey" reference in there?

Enjoying the flea market in Animal Crossing for Wii

Today was the flea market day in my town. It's not something I've done much with before but today I gave it a chance. I ended up enjoying it so much that I played it for a couple of hours!

It felt good to sell things to the villagers for more than twice the price that Nook would pay me for them. It felt especially so if I didn't really like who they were. I just got stuff from the rubbish for free and was able to sell it. They were really happy to buy it too!

Maybe I should try out some of those business management sims. I've never played the likes of say, M.U.L.E., Elite or Sim City. I played Harvest Moon a good bit before but always gave up on it. We'll see we'll see.

Skyward Sword: Already played the batteries out!

Since I got the Golden Wii Remote Plus edition of Skyward Sword, it came with a pair of batteries. I've been playing the game so much though that I've already used them up! It's funny how the game lasts longer than the batteries that came with it.

Not that it's something we really think about nowadays, since nearly everything we use has a rechargable battery built in.

Kirby's Adventure Wii is out today in Ireland!

Or as they call it in the U.S., "Kirby's Return to Dreamland". People are going to end up just calling it "Kirby Wii" I'd say. Anyway, I made sure not to buy it in Gamestop in case they sell me a broken case again. Besides, I like it sealed and in mint condition.

So far it feels good to control. Kirby runs a bit slower than I'd like him to but it's better than Kirby 64, where he moves really really slowly.

The game loads very quickly as well! This automatically makes it a million times better than Epic Yarn!

I've even seen an ad for it on tv. It's of a little girl who's asking Santa for the game and wants her mother to play with her instead of being stuck washing dishes.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 49

Yes! The very first episode I ever saw of this show back when I was only vaguely interested in it!

This episode is all about animation production! King Dedede wants to make a cartoon series with him as the hero so he hires the folk of Cappytown to slave away and make all the drawings for his show. You also see other fun stuff like the voice actors and projectionists. The show they end up producing then depicts King Dedede as the star warrior hero instead of Kirby.

So it's a show within a show that parodies the show it's showing in! It is such a clever episode and it's what initially got me really interested in watching this cartoon to begin with.

Skyward Sword: Beacons

These things are a godsend. They're little markers that you put on your map as a guide which then glow as a blue pillar of light you can then be guided to. It reminds me very much of the DS Zelda titles where the best and most fun part was jotting stuff down on the map. I love being able to use navigation tools and techniques.

3D Classics Kirby's Adventure Trailer

So this is one of the other games that came out last week. I had a look at the trailer for it on the eShop so I could check out the 3D effect and cripes there is next to nothing different about it with it on. I could get it because it's a brilliant game but hm. I dunno. We'll see.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 48

This episode is all about tourists! King Dedede decides to open Dream Land to tourism and has a tour bus and everything.

The tourists themselves are like foreign Cappys, styled after what seems to be a mixture of American and Japanese style tourists.

This is kind of going into big detail but I notice that the tour bus has the driver's seat on the left side. Japanese and Irish cars of course have the driver's seat on the right side. However, when tour buses come here from continental Europe they have the left side style of driver's seat on the bus. Maybe that's an extra detail they went into when making the cartoon? You know, since continental Asian tour buses going into Japan may have the left hand style as well? It's kind of thinking too much on my part but it interests me! :)

The NME monster this time is a lava tentacruel-like thing and Kirby fights it with Fire, then Ice when that doesn't work.

Playing Skyward Sword: Fi, your assistant/partner/Navi equivalent

Just like the roles characters such as Navi played in the previous games, you have a partner named Fi who lives in your sword and helps you on your journey. Unlike Midna, Fi doesn't take centre stage in the story, rather she's just a pure robotic, polite assistant like say,  C-3PO or Data or Spock. She's an assistant in almost the personal digital sense, like the way you'd give your smart phone a quick google for something.

Fi has those voice chirps in the style that Midna has but Fi's own voice has an "auto-tune" effect, which makes her sound all electronic. I think that's a nice touch!

Skyward Sword: Bomb Bowling!

I finally got to try out what initially got me so excited about the game a year and a half ago. It feels nice to do this and you really do have to have the Wii Remote way down low, which means you'll have to shift in your seat a bit.

I'm enjoying the game a lot and getting more used to it's little ways such as chaining those stamina fruit things while running.

Still haven't touched Mario 3D Land yet but I will at some point!

Got Zelda: Skyward Sword and Mario 3D Land! Also, Skyward Sword first impressions!

Got both games without a hitch today! Apart from the bad rainy weather nothing else came in the way! I haven't played Mario yet but I've been playing some of the Zelda game.

A couple of things pissed me off straight away, namely the illegibility of red highlighted keywords and the fact that I had to turn on the widescreen settings to get rid of the horrible borders (well, alleviate them anyway). In the past I've always applauded Zelda as having text done perfectly. Now it's showing signs of getting as bad as the rest of them.

Characters faces look weird when they move and they talk a lot...

Getting used to how the cursor works can be a bit disorienting. I hope I can get used to it.

Sword controls are fucking lovely though! You still make it swish by doing little flicks but you have perfect control over what position you hold the sword in and what direction you flick. The moment I got a chance to be able to use the sword I started smiling and laughing straight away. Hmm... maybe that should've been the very first part of the game? It's worth noting that this is also my first time playing a Wii MotionPlus game.

Music is wonderful, especially during calm or quiet moments.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 47

This time the focus is on Waddle Dees! Also, by association, Waddle Doo who seems to be their leader.

King Dedede gets annoyed with the Waddle Dees so he decides to fire them all and get them replaced with a chore doing robot. Since the robot came from NME you can expect something to go wrong!

It's interesting to see the focus on the Waddle Dees and how they're like some kind of organised animal. The episode also makes references to the fact that Kirby looks a lot like them.

Kirby gets his stone ability this time.

Skyward Sword Countdown Part 2: Recommending Twilight Princess

Days left until Skyward Sword releases: 2

Today I was talking about Zelda and a friend who owns a Wii never even heard of it. I recommended Twilight Princess to her. I would've recommended other ones first but this is currently very cheap to buy for the Wii, what with the Nintendo Selects range and everything. She also wanted to use the motion controls.

I also got a text from GAME confirming my preorder for Skyward Sword :)

Can't wait can't wait!

(part 1 was yesterday's post just so you know!)

Hmm! Official Skyward Sword comic by Penny-Arcade!

http://www.zelda.com/skywardsword/comic/

This looks interesting. It seems like a great way to get the video game playing community all excited too! It'll update as time goes on.

Number of days left until the game comes out: 3

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 46

Part 2 of the spooky 2 parter.

So all the gang end up in the haunted house. They then see King Dedede and Escargoon venture inside and decide to scare them. The whole episode then becomes full of horror movie references like The Exorcist, Psycho and The Blair Witch Project. It's fun spotting the references!

The NME monster this time is a bone throwing creature and Kirby gets his fire ability in this episode.

Finally completed Super Mario Galaxy 2 100%!

Meaning, I got all the stars! There are 242 in all. Getting the very last one was absolutely painful and it was all down to the stage having no check points and the challenge being a daredevil one. uggghhhhhh...

My favourite star in the entire game is the green star in the boss rush galaxy next to the Bouldergeist. If you've been following my blog you know how much I hate the Bouldergeist! Anyway, getting this star gives you the chance to ignore it completely! It felt amazing to just walk past it without having to fight it AGAIN.

Just one more week until Skyward Sword comes to Ireland!

Wow, I'm looking forward to this! The Internet as expected is full of spoilers and I'm doing my best to do things like just look at review scores rather than their contents. It's getting high marks from all round. Expect a lot of buzz online about the game!

Cave Story 3D out on 3DS in Ireland today

Well, here it is! I wonder how I should go about this? Should I complain about the price? Should I praise all the new and hidden features? Hmm... how about this instead:

If you're a huge huge super duper fan of Cave Story then your mind's made up already.

If you know about all the recent releases of games but either don't like the look of them or don't like they way they play and this is the only one that interests you at all then your mind's made up already.

Yes I wish it was cheaper too.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 45

A spooky 2 parter! The residents of Cappytown decide to organise a Halloween-esque trail in the woods for the kids. It's kind of fun. King Dedede's scared expressions look funny! Also, I've never seen Escargoon get such an almighty beating from the king's hammer. Ouch!

This could very well have been a standalone but something appears at the end all of a sudden that makes it go into a 2 parter.

No NME monsters(that I know of anyway) and no Kirby ability, unless you count his nerves of steel and complete immunity to the spooky pranks that take place in this episode.

Listening to Mystical Ninja & Dragon Quest's soundtracks

This morning I was listening to the Mystical Ninja 2 Starring Goemon soundtrack but after a while I felt a bit queasy. It's a great soundtrack but I guess I wasn't used to listening to it. I then switched over to listening to the GBC version of Dragon Quest 1's soundtrack and my queasiness was gone. I've heard of the game being therapeutic but not necessarily the music by itself!

Listening to Donkey Kong Country Trilogy music

Routine has changed a little nowadays but I still get to listen to lots of game music! Lately I'm listening to the music from Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 & 3. People constantly champion Stickerbrush Symphony from 2 or Jungle Japes & Aquatic Ambience from 1 but noone ever goes on about music in the third game.

The third game is my favourite. In terms of music though I think they're all equally deserving of great acclaim. Don't leave out the third one!

Just listen to Bonus Time! for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsP2EdoYO8A

Hmm... I just remembered that the GBA version of this game completely different music. I'll have to investigate that too.

As for the Wii game? It only stands as a tribute of course but it's just not as good as the original trilogy in any regard at all. I think everyone knows that.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 44

We don't see much of Rik and his Australian accent but he's featured more prominently in this episode. Coo's there too.

Kirby and Co. visit Wispy Woods for a chat when Wispy tells them to go visit a friend of his that he's worried about. So the gang go visit him anyway and find Rik and his friends living there. A misunderstanding arises and they all get into a big fight. I got a feeling this was one of those learn-a-lesson episodes.

No NME monster but Kirby gets his cutter ability this time.

Retro Gamer Issue 95

Magazine editor Darran Jones' vlog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HH6b8rSKaI
The main feature this month has a huge feature on Bubble Bobble, talking about the game, its conversions, sequels, the creator, the high score champion.... lots and lots of stuff in there that'll make a fan very happy.

I am most interested in the Frank N Stein game for the ZX Spectrum. It's a single screen platformer and it has a lovely noisy arcade game feel. Featured in the magazine is an interview with the author Colin Stewart which talks about him making an update to the game.

Another thing I found interesting was the review of the homebrew Atari 2600 game Bellhopper, which is a port of an extremely addictive flash game called Winterbells. As far as I can see it's a very decent port.

Trying out the free Kyotokei WiiWare Demo

There are a few WiiWare demos up on the Wii's shopping channel lately. I tried Fast Racing League and 3D Pixel Racing but I didn't like them at all.

Kyotokei is more interesting though. It's one of those polarity reversing based shmups like Ikaruga. The demo itself lets you play the first of the five levels.

It does its job well as far as I can see. It feels very much like one of those fan made Game Maker style shmups.

I did a little googling for the game's developer, Microforum. They've made lots of J2ME games... and they're based in Canada... hm... alright. Might check out a couple of their other games.

Challenging the green stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2

It's taken me a while to do this but it's well underway! It's basically a treasure hunt where you're looking for something hidden that's found off the beaten path that's laid out for you. Sometimes they're easy to find, sometimes not so much. One definite clue is to listen for a twinkling sound. Other than that look forward to a LOT of camera wrestling. Depending on where you are you can be limited in what you can do with it and you'll always find that it's not letting you do what you want. Hmph....

Oh well, at least it's still a much better system than the horrible backwards one other developers use.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 43

Of all things this episode is all about the sheep! Well... one particular sheep who's gone bad(or baaad? Sorry)

This sheep is able to control and lead all the others and do its bidding which causes trouble for all the residents of Dream Land. It's a very interesting character actually, especially since it howls like a wolf. We don't know if it's influenced by NME or not.

Kirby gets his needle ability this time.

Iwata Asks feature on new Kirby Wii game is really interesting!

http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/kirby-dream-land/0/0
This links to Satoru Iwata, the former head of HAL Laboratory, asking the team behind the new game featuring their most famous character. That's awesome! I was really interested in this particular Iwata Asks feature, even more so than the recent Mario and Zelda ones. We read all about the really really long road to getting this game finished and about them talking about Kirby in general, especially Mr. Iwata. I just really like hearing him talk about Kirby for some reason.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 42

Part 2 of the 2 parter. Everyone in town is worried about the asteroid/meteor thing flying towards the kingdom. It gets quite dramatic as well with everyone confessing their regrets to each other as well as some tender scenes where they appreciate their loved ones. Tiff researches to find an answer and eventually comes up with one about diverting the huge ball of fire away. There's only a slim chance that it'll work though!

There's a good feeling of suspense and dread in this episode and I was looking out to see if there was anything that seemed to be inspired by Majora's Mask. Other than the theme I couldn't see anything in particular.