Show Some Love

Posted on Aug 25th 2011 at 04:24:48 AM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Summer Gaming, Challenge, RPG, Platformer, Beatem up, Shooter

So last night I officially completed my 10th and final game from my Summer Gaming Challenge list

1. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
2. Vay (Sega CD)
3. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
4. Wario Land (VB)
5. Battletoads/Double Dragon (SNES)
6. Panzer Dragoon (Sat)
7. Kung Fu (NES)
8. Gex (3DO)
9. Chrono Cross (PS)
10. FFXII (PS2)

11. Final Fantasy VIII (PS)*

It was great to get this many games crossed off my backlog, especially so many games that are well known and that I probably should have finished years ago.

My favorites were easily Vay and Sin & Punishment. Its hard to say which one I liked better since they are obviously so different its extremely hard to compare them. Vay was very simple and I just happened to be in the mood for simple while I was playing so that was very nice, but the parts I loved the most was the Working Designs humor spread throughout the game, and the major plot twist part way through. I liked the humor so much that I literally talked to every NPC in the game mulitple times to get every ounce of comedy I could squeeze out of them. Generally I dont spend a lot of time with NPC, but I felt compelled to this time around.

Sin & Punishment was just a non-stop actionfest. It looked fantastic, played flawlessly and was both fun and frantic at the same time. One of the best games I've played on the Wii and probably even on any current gen system.

The only really snoozers on the list for me were Super Mario Sunshine and Final Fantasy VIII.

The use of the jet pack nozzle on Mario took away all the platforming elements from the game almost entirely. The game had a very unique style, but felt borrowed from something else and not very "Mario" to me. The music, setting and characters all seemed very un-Mario.

FFVIII drove me nuts from the beginning. The Draw system seemed pointless, GF were  not my cup of tea, levelling was pointless, the main characters was a douche from the get go and never got any better, the supporting characters were all very uninteresting. I didnt actually finish the game, but was saved at the last dungeon about 30 hours in. I feel I gave it more than a fair chance.

Both Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy XII surprised me.

I came in with very low expectations of FFXII. The story and characters kept me interested enough to keep plugging away with a battle and levelling system that I didnt particularily enjoy at the beginning. Luckily both grew on me over time and I'm glad I got to see how the story played out from start to end. Not a fantastic game, but decent.

Chrono Cross was similar. Slow start and akward battle/levelling. The story was kind of unusual, but not that intriguing at first. That changed drastically during the last several hours of the game. Not only did the story make much more sense and get a lot more interesting, but it made the plot from Chrono Trigger seem even more epic that it already was. It was pretty cool at first having so many different characters available for your party, but it became apparent fairly quickly that I'd never use 90% of them. Glad I stuck with this one to the end because the last few hours of plot were wonderful.

The rest of the list were solid entries into their respective genres. The blend of both series in Battletoads/Double Dragon was incredible. The pacing and boss fights in Panzer Dragoon were spot on. Kung Fu, while simple and short, had kind of a Super Mario Bros fun to its simplicity. Warioland was what you'd expect from a Wario platformer, it didnt blow me away, but it delivered what I thought it would. Gex was slightly less interesting than I thought it would be, but was average and worth keeping around for the novelty.

Definitely a fun way to clear a few games off my backlog and already have a few games in mind for next year!!



Posted on Aug 21st 2011 at 02:54:02 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NES, Fastest, Completion

Finally got the second half up and running on youtube. Sorry for the long wait. Definitely have a lot more errors in this half of the run and even had to go for a couple pizzas that I could have easily skipped had I played more smoothly. The total time for the entire run is 20:21 and I'm positive that I could get it under 20:00 by cleaning up several messy spots.

Part 1



Part 2







Posted on Aug 16th 2011 at 03:54:55 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under TMNT, Ninja, Turtles, Nintendo, Speed, Run

So I got some video capture equipment and software running my my old PC now. Which means I can finally upload my TMNT video for those of you interested. I wasnt really concerned with the editing (as you can probably tell) so I just chopped the video in half in order to upload to youtube. For some reason the second half failed to upload so I'll try it agian tomorrow. In the mean time here is the first part of the speed run:





Posted on Aug 10th 2011 at 05:05:08 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Gaming, Nostalgia, Collecting Habits, Favorites, Friends, Family

[img width=490 height=318]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/CCF08102011_00005.jpg[/img]




Continue reading Over 2 Decades of Gaming



Posted on Aug 9th 2011 at 04:57:28 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Twin Galaxies, Fastest Completion, Highest Score

After whining about my lost tape to Twin Galaxies last month, I re-recorded and then re-re-recorded my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes runs (after watching the first recording it was very bad quality so I found a better condition VHS tape to record on the next time). Had my lovely wife drop it off at the post office for me a few days later.

The new NES ref is a submission monster and had the tape reviewed what must have been the same day it arrived. He was also very quick to answer questions I had about both gameplay and submitting videos. Twin Galaxies states that the turnaround time for submissions is up to 3  months after receiving the game. The ref Tim Stodden told me that his average turnaround time is within 2 weeks of a videos arrival.

I was a little nervous that both of my runs (fastest completion and highest score) would be rejected for various reasons, but after speaking with the former and current refs it seemed I should send them in and hope for the best. Worst case senario was I'd have to play some more TMNT.

With the video in the mail I left town on a week long camping trip with my family. We returned home Sunday evening and spent a quite night together. Monday morning I decided to see if my score had arrived yet and it was pleasantly surprised to find that it was already approved! Thats right 1st place submissions for both Fastest Completion of TMNT and highest score on TMNT for the NES.

If your interested in checking it out for yourself head over to twingalaxies.com and click on the left tab that says "scoreboard". From there search by my name (have to be a member to do it this way) and just type Kelsy. Kelsy J Polnik should pop up so click on that and it will show all scores related to me (which are currently only the 2 TMNT ones). If your not a member just search by game and go to NES for platform and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the title. You may notice that the competition wasnt exactly fierce (my fastest time is nearly half of the next closest persons), but I'm still quite happy to have the records. I plan to order a certificate for both records to hang in my gameroom soon.

Some of you have asked if I could put up a video of the speed run. I did record another copy to send to ShadowKisuragi to upload for me, but was waiting for the TG approval before shipping it his way. While I was waiting for that approval he has sent a friendly challenge my way to speed run another game against him in the coming months. I'll be (hopefully) getting my old PC running smoothly again and equiping it with a video capture device for the challenge. If that all goes as planned I'll be able to upload my TMNT Speed Run myself. So if thats something your interested in keep an eye on my Blog in the next couple weeks.



Posted on Jul 20th 2011 at 04:30:17 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Summer Gaming

1. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
2. Vay (Sega CD)
3. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
4. Wario Land (VB)
5. Battletoads/Double Dragon (SNES)
6. Panzer Dragoon (Sat)
7. Kung Fu (NES)
8. Gex (3DO)
9. FFVIII (PS)
10. FFXII (PS2)


In the last week was I able to finish off both Gex and Battletoads/Double Dragon.

Gex was more of less forgettable. It was slow, wierd and occasionally annoying. The save system was horrendous, but being a short and fairly easy game it turned out not to be to big of a deal. I dont really know what to say about it other than "meh".

Battletoads/Double Dragon on the other hand was a wonderful experience. It was a great blend of the two series in everyway. The battletoads themed levels with DD bosses and vice versa was a fun way to mash them together. The music was really great all around, there was a nice variety of levels (even including an Asteroids style level), and a  good deal of quirkyness involved in the combat. My only complaints are the last boss/level was very anticlimactic and a little pathetic and the hover bike area was ridiculously easy. It you can finish a hoverbike ride on your first attempt without losing any lives its not a very good representation of a Battletoads hoverbike stage. Overall I really enjoyed it and will definitely play it again in the future, hopefully co-op.

Now for the bad news. I'm officially giving up on FFVIII after painstakingly reaching the final dungeon. I've been playing lots but progressing so slowly that I've lost all desire to play the game any more. Its not often that I give up when I'm so incredibly close to the end, but its gonna make me very happy to move on from this game sooner rather than later. So to round out a list of 10 again I've decided to include Chrono Cross in place of FFVIII. I also played Chrono Cross a long time ago (around the same time I first played FFVIII), and didnt seem to enjoy it back then. But after spending so many hours on FFVIII I have a feeling Chrono Cross is really going to shine this time around.



Posted on Jul 20th 2011 at 04:13:18 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under RFG Thanks

If you guys thought that things were going to slow down submission wise after the contest run in may, boy were you wrong. Game images may have been way down comparatively, but the other important info kept pouring in. Game Edits and Non Image Game Submissions where somehow actually higher in June than during the Submission contest. We're talking 2300+ more Game Edits and 1900+ more Non Image Game Submissions than in May!!

Considering there was no incentive other than to better the database/community (not greedy people like me trying to cash in on a prize) I find the month's numbers to be amazing. The real shining star of June though was someone you'rE definitely familiar with if you frequent the forums. Our very own Postmaster General, Defender of Variants and all around Mortal Kombat aficionado, Izret101! He had more than 3x the submissions of his closest competitor for the month.

But the others weren't slacking off either. In total we had 10 members make over 100 submissions each last month. So if you run into Shadow Kisuragi, y2richie, pdrydia, ixtaileddemonfox, raffa1985, ApolloBoy, blcklblskt, aeroc, or Marriott_Guy on the street make sure to give them a great big hug for their contributions to RF Generation. There were dozens of other members who found the time to add anywhere from 1-99 items to improve our database also.

And lets not forget the staff members who work tirelessly and often thanklessly to approve all those submissions. Shadow Kisuragi lead the way with over twice his nearest comrades approvals. Also make sure to thank Tynstar, ApolloBoy, Izret101, NES_Rules, ga5ket and Paully3433 for their behind the scenes contributions to the site approving (or rejecting) the thousands of submissions sent in last month.

Thanks for the incredible commitment to keep improving an already fantastic place everybody!








For anyone interested in checking out the stats for themselves just highlight the part on the top bar that says "Submit" and then click on "Submission Stats" or just use this link:
http://www.rfgeneration.c...p?action=submissionreport

Its got submission info from late 2006 to now so you can see how we've progressed over the years.



Posted on Jul 13th 2011 at 03:59:57 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Summer Gaming Challenge, Sega CD, Vay, Working Designs, RPG

1. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
2. Vay (Sega CD)
3. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
4. Wario Land (VB)
5. Battletoads/Double Dragon (SNES)
6. Panzer Dragoon (Sat)
7. Kung Fu (NES)
8. Gex (3DO)
9. FFVIII (PS)
10. FFXII (PS2)

7/10 games down now. Added Vay to my list of accomplishments yesterday morning. It was great from start to end. Not a dull moment throughout. I had no expectations going in and was pleasantly surprised. Lots of humor scattered throughout the game, fantastic music, and the battle system was standard but super fast so battles didnt feel like a chore. The final dungeon was BRUTAL and I'm really glad I was able to finish off the last boss on my first attempt (barely) because I would have had to replay approx 4 hours to get back to him. I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a good Sega CD game to play.

Also been logging a fair amount of time into FFVIII. Just started the 3rd disc. Still not really feeling it. The story is getting slightly more interesting than it was when I started, but the battle system is horrible and driving your airship around the world map looking for things is a massive headache. I'm still going to try and see it through to the end, but its not shaping up to be very memorable.

Gex will most likely be my next target.

Here are some of my favorite tunes from Vay if anyone was curious:

Title Screen:
Battle Music:
Boss Music:
Danek Castle Music:
Last Boss Fight:




Posted on Jul 6th 2011 at 05:27:42 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under TMNT, NES, Twin Galaxies

Some of you may remember me talking about doing a Speed Run of TMNT for the NES to submit to Twin Galaxies waaay back around Christmas time. I did infact record a run I was happy with (could be cleaned up a bit, but it was fairly decent) and sent it off to get verified. Unfortunately the same week I sent the tape in the NES ref left his position at TG.

It was unclear what was happening with submissions until a new ref emerged early in June. It was my hope that the tape was forwarded along to the new ref for verification, but it seems that he has cleared his submission backlog and my tape wasnt there.

Luckily for me I sent in a copy and still have the original. Sucks that I have to re-submit it, but at least its already done and hopefully things will go smoother this time. I'll update with some good news next time I hope.



Posted on Jul 5th 2011 at 05:13:28 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Game Room, Collection, Pictures

Its been to long since I've updated the pictures in my game room. Its grown and changed a lot since my last update in February 2010. I've added several new system with gems like the NEO GEO AES and SEGA CDX and some oldies like the Colecovision and Intellivision and even rounded out my modern system with a 360 and PS3 (neither of which are pictured since they are hooked up to the living room TV for now). My collection has expanded slowly in some parts (PS2, PS), exploded in others (TG16, SEGA CD), stayed the same in some (XBOX), but grown moderately in most areas.

We had out basement flood during the winter and even though it wasnt close to my game room I unhooked everything and made sure it was safely away from the ground. This caused a bit of disorganization, but it seemed like a decent trade off. When rfgen had its last submission contest I was interested in contributing. Because we dont have a scanner at home I had to transport every single item that was scanned or added in some way. This just demolished anything resembling organization in my room. Game were scattered around the room in tubs and boxes.

Last week it was finally warm enough to remove our outside door frame and get the pesky leak (which was being held at bay by a tarp I rigged up underneath our deck for the last several months) fixed. With that worry out of the way I finally had the drive to get this room back together. I spent hours cleaning contacts and stickers off cases in order to put as much of it as possible out on display. I nearly got it all with only around a dozen items not shelved at the moment (they are still awaiting cleaning or some sort). It became apparent that I was going to need some more space and to juggle a few things around. This meant adding yet another row of shelving. Luckily I saved my paint swatch (is that what they are called?) from last time so I was able to match it perfectly and paint the new shelf and also touch up a few spots that got scuffed.

With the new shelf up I set out to cram all my game related crap onto it. Turns out I was still in need of some room so I had to remove anything that wasnt gaming related that previously resided in the area. This mean bye bye comics, cds, and records. They were all moved to other areas of the house to make room for the good stuff.

Now onto the pictures!! I'll leave a little note under each one describing anything I think is important or new from last time. There is a really cool new item at the end too so make sure you scroll all the way down.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2546.jpg[/img]

View when entering the room.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2547.jpg[/img]

First box is the cleaning/repairing/shipping box. The other two are items for resale or trade. Guitar Hero drums are always out since my kid just likes to mess around with them when I'm cleaning up in the room.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2548.jpg[/img]

A big upgrade in comfort from the old futon I had in the room. My in-laws left town and if that wasnt gift enough they didnt want to take this with them and gave it to us for free! Its in really great shape and was from a pet free home. Feels great to lounge around playing RPGs now.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2549.jpg[/img]

View from the couch

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2550.jpg[/img]

Close up of the setup under the TV.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2551.jpg[/img]

My crappy CRT

[img width=700 height=933]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2552.jpg[/img]

System tower. Comics on top have since been removed. Now I can add another system or 5!

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2554.jpg[/img]

Right side view of the closet

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2557.jpg[/img]

Lefty

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2555.jpg[/img]

Up high Right

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2556.jpg[/img]

Up high left

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2566.jpg[/img]

Middle

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2558.jpg[/img]

Half a CIB VB set

[img width=700 height=524]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2559.jpg[/img]

Some of the rarest or valuable NES games in my collection. I meant to take a pic of my Recca also, but forgot. I'll definately add one to my profile pics soon though.

Now for my newest goody
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[img width=700 height=933]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2561.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2564.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2563.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/IMG_2562.jpg[/img]


I've been offering to buy various Arcade Machines from a place called Bubbabaloos (its like a poor man's Chucky Cheese) for literally years now. A little while ago we were having a dinner with my wife's cousins and someone mentioned that it closed down a few days prior. I was excited and nervous to hear that. It was really my only chance at having an Arcade machine for a decent price. It either meant I could finally score one or that I was to late. We drove down the next morning and my wife asked if she could go in and talk to them. After waiting patiently in the care with my son I saw my wife skipping out of the building. She said that most of the machines were gone to staff members, but the remaining few had to be gone by that evening or they were going to the dump. Knowing I had my eye on the Metal Slug 3 Neo Geo machine my wife recognized it was still there with a staffs name and number on it. She gave the owner our number to call if they were hauling any machines off to the dump for us to pick up. I had to work that night so it was off to bed.

My wife startled me awake around 18:00 the same day which was about 4 hours into my sleep for the day and said they just called and wanted the machines gone. We called my father and borrowed his vehicle while he watched my son. Grabbed my brother and sped off to see what they had left. All that was remaining was a Virtua Tennis cab and a WWF Dual cab that had been stripped of some of its hardware. After chatting breifly with the owner about the games, (and seeing my wife grin from ear to ear when learning there would now be 2 NAOMIs in the house) we loaded them both up and took them home. No you didnt miss the part where money changed hands. Free Arcade Cabinets!!!

Since we had our door frame off to fix the leak in our basement it made moving the Virtua Tennis cab in relatively easy. Which was nice since it weighs a freakin ton. I did manage to sneak a game in on my driveway against my brother before hand though. We scuffed the back of the machine a bit when moving it in, but its mostly unharmed and it pretty good overall condition. The marquee lights work, sound it great, screen has very minimal burn in and no discoloration, coin slot works like a charm and the buttons and stick are all very responsive.

Unfortunately the WWF Machine wouldnt fit into our house even with the frame of our door off. I stripped it for its parts and its making its way to the dump now. Got 2 monitors, 4 joy sticks and a big ol box of buttons and wires out of it so it wasnt a complete waste.

My wife also surprised me that she had secretly gotten the name and number off the Neo Geo cabinet. We bugged the girl a couple times offering her a few hundred dollars for the machine, but apparently her brother was very attached to it. We left the offer on the table and our number, but dont expect to hear back from her. Still a good day! So I went back to sleep to squeeze in one more hour of zzzzzs before I started work. Man was I tired all night, but it was totally worth it.

I probably wouldnt have had this cabinet if it wasnt for my wife, so she likes to brag how great she is now and I cant argue with her at all. She is definitely great to have around.

Now I'm just looking to convert the machine into something more my style. Any suggestions for good NAOMI games??



Posted on Jun 26th 2011 at 11:42:56 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Gaming, Summer

6 out of 10 game are now off the list. Yesterday afternoon I finished up Sin & Punishent: Star Successor. I'm really sorry that I put it off so long. It was fantastic. A little frustrating at times, but even then it was still fun and a good challenge. The last two levels were just amazing and very epic. Great variety of play for the style of game it was. There was even a 1 vs 1 fighter boss. Thats right an on-rails shmup with a fighting section. I was afraid that the last level was just going to be a boss rush, but every single boss you had to re-fight was unrecognizable as their former selves. It was really great from start to finish. I cant wait to get someone to try out the 2 player with me.


Also logged a couple hours into FFVIII so far. I forgot just how dull it is at the beginning. I'm gonna try to stick with it though and see if it picks up. I dont think I'm really understanding the Junction system so I'm hoping I get a better grasp on it as I progress. Didnt really care for the card game so I'll probably spend as little time as possible on it.

I'll probably move onto some GEX soon too.



Posted on Jun 24th 2011 at 02:39:35 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Gaming, Summer

Another game is crossed of the list. FFXII has now fallen. I had quite low expectations for the game before I started, but it surprised me several times and kept me interested enough to see it through to the end. That said it is still one of the worst in the series as far as I'm concerned. The battle system did grow on me a bit after getting a full party, but it was still pretty lame. And the LP system basically meant that all of my characters were identical. Going into the last fight I could have swapped any of my main 3 characters equipment, spells, mist abilities, summons and would have never noticed a difference.

While it was nice that all 3 characters had access to a full range of White/Black/Time/Green magic it would have been even nicer to have a little variety. Why would you play through this again with a different team since they will end up identical yet again? I found the optional quests such as hunts very unneccessary. I did the first 3 and then decided it wasnt worth the effort.

Glad its crossed of my list, but its not something I would recommend to most people.

Onto FFVIII now!!



Posted on Jun 21st 2011 at 05:05:51 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Cursed Mountain, Unloved, Horror, Survival, Mountain Climbing, Tibet, buddhist

[img width=550 height=769]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/CM-Title.jpg[/img]




Continue reading Unloved #26: Cursed Mountain



Posted on Jun 21st 2011 at 03:43:59 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Summer Gaming

I'm closing in on the halfway point of my summer challenge. 4 of 10 games have now fallen to my mighty thumbs!!

1. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
2. Vay (Sega CD)
3. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
4. Wario Land (VB)
5. Battletoads/Double Dragon (SNES)
6. Panzer Dragoon (Sat)
7. Kung Fu (NES)
8. Gex (3DO)
9. FFVIII (PS)
10. FFXII (PS2)

I dusted off my Virtual Boy which has been neglected for far to long and popped in some Wario Land. Started up my old save file to see where I was and after about 30 minutes of playtime I was finished. I cant quite remember why I stopped playing it in the past, but I was pretty close to the end. It was a little unsatifying since I had very few of the treasures and got a crappy ending. I would like to go through it again and hunt down all the treasures, but the left eye of the system was shorting out occasionally. Luckily it came back in time for the end boss. I'll unfortunately have to wait until I get a new visor or look into fixing it before I can attempt that. For the purpose of this list I'm calling it done though.

Booted up some Panzer Dragoon also this week. First episode was a little boring, second level was frusterating until I figured out you could look around your dragon a full 360. That made things completely different! Died at the end of episode 4, but I blame my poor performance on not understanding the gameplay until near the end of episode 2. Next attempt not only saw better results, but I also learned you could score extra credits by hitting a lot of targets in each level. Made it to the last boss with 1 extra credit and was soundly destroyed on my first attempt and got him to about 1/3 on my second try. 3rd try was the charm. Racked up 7 extra credits (which came in handy on both episode 5 and the last boss) this time. Still took me 3 tries to defeat the last boss and it was a real nail biter with me down to 1 or possibly 2 hits left.

After figuring out how to play I really loved the game. Each level was surprisingly varied for an on-rail shooter. Episode 4 was my favorite by far. Flying through a tight dark tunnel was a blast. Unfortunely that Episode also had the most annoying boss. Last fight was pretty epic though and made up for the lack of boss on the prior level.

Still plugging away at FFXII. Just shy of 28 hours in at the moment with my main characters all at level 42. Feels like I'm nearing a climax, but I really couldnt say for sure.

My wife and son are going to be away for the week so I'm going to use that extra time to log as many hours into Vay as I can.



Posted on Jun 14th 2011 at 05:22:32 PM by (Crabmaster2000)
Posted under Summer Challenge

I'm sure some of you have noticed the Summer Gaming fever running around rfgen and racketboy. It got me too!!

Here is the list I'm currently attempting to complete before the summer is over:

1. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
2. Vay (Sega CD)
3. Super Mario Sunshine (GCN)
4. Wario Land (VB)
5. Battletoads/Double Dragon (SNES)
6. Panzer Dragoon (Sat)
7. Kung Fu (NES)
8. Gex (3DO)
9. FFVIII (PS)
10. FFXII (PS2)

I wanted to make sure I got a good variety of systems included in there and I think I achieved that. Genre-wise there are quite a few Platformers and RPGs, but also a couple shooters and a beat em'up.

First game I crossed off the list was Kung Fu. I had about an hour to kill and decided to finally sit down with it for more than 5 minutes. Turns out it didnt take much longer than that to finish it off. Even had time to finish it on Mode A and B. Was decent, but not something I'd go back to often. Might be a fun one to try with the U-Force controller though so I should give that a try some day.

Next game to go down was Super Mario Sunshine. I tried playing it many years ago and got about 30 stars in when I gave up on it. I was more determined to beat it this time though. I found the lack of direction very frusterating. Luckily after mentioning it over at racketboy one of the members let me in on a secret...... In order to get to the last level you have to beat the seventh star in each level. Why wouldnt they ever point that out at some point during the game? I spent a lot more time than I should have on this title by collecting Blue Coins and stars in Delfino Plaza. I expected some event to trigger when I got X amount of stars. I found the lack of long jump to make the game feel sluggish compared to any other 3D mario I've played also. The platorming was basically non-existant thanks to the hover nozzle on your back pack. The music, setting, enemies, missions all felt out of place for a Mario game. And to top it off the camera had some major issues depending of the type of mission and level I was playing.

Really wasnt a fan if you cant tell. At least its over and done with now though. I dont have to be curious any longer.

Right now I'm around 16 hours into FFXII. At first I wasnt really enjoying the battle or levelling systems. Somewhere along the way though they have grown on me a bit. I am enjoying the story and characters (with the exception of the main character) and that is mostly what is motivating me to keep plugging away at it. I continously find myself getting lost and having no idea where to go or doing something unnecessary (like grinding in order to fight a boss that turned out to be optional). While a bit frusterating I'm finding my party is quite overpowered because of it, so when I eventually find my way I can rocket ahead.

Once I'm done FFXII I'll probably dive into FFVIII. In the mean time I havnt decided if I should start Gex, Sin & Punishment, or Panzer Dragoon to go along with FFXII. Any suggestions?


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
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