Made it to the last boss in Kirby 64 (I think)

Kirby 64 is a challenging Kirby game but that's because it's so sluggish. I've made it all the way to what I think is the last boss but it's pretty tough. Hopefully I'll get through it and see the ending.

Retro Gamer Issue 92

Bit late with this one as there's a new one out since. The big feature in this issue is as advertised on the cover, about how the 8-bit computers of the '80s I've only heard about in stories met their end which will be a very interesting read for a lot of people.

The best part of the issue is the merciless pisstaking Columns gets on the letters page. Made me smile!

The worst part of the issue is the review of Super Mario Land for Virtual Console. It's a really really horrible piece of writing.

Xenoblade unboxing and first impressions

Today I got Xenoblade with the red Classic Controller Pro. A couple of things worthy of note:

- The instruction manual has a message of thanks for buying the game :)
- There are two instruction manuals: One in English and a massive thick one for every other European language. I liked the fact I got an English one on its own.
- The Classic Controller Pro is red with a red lead.
- The boxart on the game case is reversible like Sin & Punishment 2's was and the other side shows the most popular voted alternate artwork of the main character looking over the vast plain.
- The default X-axis camera is fucking backwards :( but there is the option to put it back to normal, even if that option says "reverse".
- The text is far too small to read, which is a big problem I had with Monster Hunter Tri. I don't care if it's to do with the tv, mine's a 24" standard def which is a decent size. The game should be made with that in mind.

So far, in terms of your average modern day RPG with its typical themes, setting, presentation, characters and gameplay conventions and mechanics I would say it's crafted as well as it can be. It has the same kind of things you'd see in say, a PS2 Final Fantasy game like XII. The thing is though you have to actually be interested in this kind of thing and so far I don't think I am. I would say it's strictly for fans of that genre. They should buy this. It's got the "cool n' stylish JRPG factor".

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 20 plus a special gift I got from the Kirby Channel

After watching this episode I got the familiar screen where you win a key to unlock a past episode but instead of a key it was a gift box. On opening it I got a crystal ball, which allows me to unlock a future episode. It's controlled fun at its most enjoyable!

So anyway in this episode King Dedede is suffering from the intense heatwave so he decides to order a monster that makes it snow in Dream Land. After this everyone goes off and has fun in it. We then meet a Chilly, the snowman from the Kirby games. He and Kirby become bosom buddies until we see that Chilly is showing some suspicious behaviour.

In the end we see Kirby wave goodbye to another new buddy that he made. Aw!

The NME monsters we see are Chilly, first seen in Kirby's Adventure but looking more like his sprite in Kirby's Fun Pak and can only say his name like a Pokémon as well as the Ice Dragon, who first appears in Kirby's Dream Land 2. Kirby also gets his Ice ability.

Shopping for a Xenoblade preorder

Today I went looking around for preordering Xenoblade. I want to get the red Classic Controller Pro bundle so I went shopping around.

First I went online. GAME's site has the bundle alright but Gamestop's site doesn't even acknowledge the game's existence. I didn't look at any other site.

On going into the actual shops I saw an ad saying that the bundle is exclusive to GAME. So I preordered it there. All's left now is to wait for Friday!

If you're ever looking for Nintendo advertising in GAME, don't bother even glancing at the front windows of the shop; they almost never have ads for Nintendo stuff there. Instead, look on the aisle pillars. That's where it's usually found. It's usually the case that the ads or displays are facing towards the rear of the shop, so you could go into the store without noticing them. It's crazy to think but you often have to search for ads featuring Nintendo goods rather than the ads catching you, which I'm used to by now but it is a crazy crazy thing. Every single video game store I know is like this.

I completed Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak!

I'm a fan of the Hamtaro games. More specifically I like the adventure game type that were developed by Nintendo and Alphadream such as Ham-Hams Unite, Rainbow Rescue and this, Ham-Ham Heartbreak.

This one's lovely. I would recommend these games to anyone who liked Link's Awakening for being able to walk around, explore and talk to people, which is initially why I liked Link's Awakening when I first played it. Imagine say a point and click adventure game where you go up to someone and press A instead of clicking on them. That's what these games are like and for adventure games they're extremely competent.

I would rate this one above par with its predecessor, Ham-Hams Unite, but neither of them are as good as Rainbow Rescue. One of the major reasons is that in Rainbow Rescue you don't have to select greetings from a menu before you interact with anything. Rainbow Rescue is the latest of the three so it's no surprise that it's improved all round.

Kirby Right Back At Ya! — Episode 19

Here we meet Knuckle Joe from Kirby's Fun Pak, except he has muddy purple skin for some reason. He invades NME's servers on the way to Dream Land but they let him through since he tells them he's out to get Kirby. On Knuckle Joe's arrival one thing leads to another until he eventually has a stand off with Kirby. Then Meta Knight intervenes to tell Knuckle Joe the truth...

It's cool seeing Knuckle Joe and he even has the abilities he had in the SNES game, like the vulcan jab. Kirby gets the Fighter ability from his jabs. At one stage he also gets the Needle ability.

We get some more backstory which is interesting for a serial cartoon. I'm really thankful though that the backstory isn't forced into the games in the form of dialogue heavy cutscenes because that would make them less interesting as games.