The Last Wario Land 3 Post

Okay, so one more post before I take another break for a day or two of exam work.

I just got all 100 treasures in Wario Land 3, so I'm pretty much effectively done with it. I doubt I'll be getting all 8 coins in every level, because, well, I have other shit to play (namely, Super Mario RPG, which will now probably get my full attention unless I buy Mario Kart Wii soon).

Just a few closing thoughts on Wario Land 3:

• Above the Clouds is an annoying fucking level. In fact, its the most annoying level in the game.
• The last boss, to me, seems like an easier version of Donkey Kong GB's last boss, which I thought was odd. And somewhat lame. Granted, Wario Land 3 came out six years after that game, so I guess they assumed most people hadn't played both? Or it was just a coincidence? I don't know.
  
• The music is very well done, which is something I don't think I've said before. I haven't played much of Wario Land II, but the Wario Land series overall has fantastic music, even though most of them are on the Game Boy.
• The puzzles are great, as well, because they aren't super easy nor do they become incredibly frustrating (aside from climbing the clouds in Above the Clouds, as mentioned before).
• The golf minigame is okay, but to me it seems tacked on. Sometimes, it seems as though the designed the holes merely to drain your coins (but I think thats just me - I tend to try to always hit the "ball" as hard as possible rather than aim my shot).

Anyway, I'm really glad I got the game and was able to play through it again. Playing it makes me long for another proper Wario Land (the DS's Master of Disguise was utter dogshit). As I seem to be doing lately, I'll probably be playing a series out of order - I'd like to pick up Wario Land II soon, as I'm eying some eBay auctions. The other game I'm looking at picking up is Kirby's Dreamland 2, which I have actually played through before, but it has been years and I barely remember it. Anyway, back to exam studying. See you Wednesday or Thursday.

(Click here to read my second Wario Land 3 article)
(Click here to read my first Wario Land 3 article)

Exams

I'll keep this short and sweet: once exams are over, I will be posting again, probably just as frequently or more frequently than I have been. So, on Wednesday or Thursday, expect another post.

Mario RPG Impressions Part 1

So I'm really enjoying Mario RPG so far. I can tell you, however, that it's very odd coming from playing all of the later Mario RPG games (Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, and Super Paper Mario) to this one.

I can see how Mario RPG influenced those games, though. As different as Mario RPG is from the others, the roots are there. The timed button presses, the witty dialogue, goofy situations, wierd minigames, and Mario character staples are all there.

But, Square's interpretation of the Mario RPG is much harder than the later games. I mean, this game is not too difficult (well, at least so far... I guess I'm only one star in), whereas the other games were pretty much a cakewalk. And as far as the humor so far goes, Superstar Saga is still the winner (really, for me, that's one of the funniest games of all time, all because of this guy. I can't get enough of him).

But I am still very happy with my purchase. Yes, it is partly because I own a game I've wanted for a while and it is one of the more moderately expensive SNES games, but it's also because I love the Mario RPG games and I want to play through the original.

I think I'm about to get Geno, which is cool, because people on the internet seem to love him, and I know nothing about him. I guess we'll see.

(Click here to read my first Mario RPG article)

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

I just sold a couple of Game Boy Colors to this goofy shop up here that has no idea how much stuff is worth, and I got 30 bucks. I then went to a different shop and picked up Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and paid ten more dollars and got Final Fantasy Legend II and Super Mario Land 1, both for Game Boy.

It's been a good day so far.

I'll be writing about these games as time goes on, as well. I've never played Mario RPG, so that one will be interesting.

It Would Be Super Effective

Wouldn't it be great if the Pokemon games had some sort of random element to them?

Okay, let me be more specific. What I would like is for when you start a new game in Pokemon, the game randomizes which Pokemon will appear where throughout your journey. Obviously, there would have to be some restrictions. I mean, if you were to run into, say, nothing but Pidgeys and Rattatas for three gyms, that would be unfair. But, if I started a new game in Pokemon Pearl, and after I obtain my first set of Pokeballs, would it not be sweet if I encountered a Gible? Sure, it'd mean I'd get a chance at some fantastic Pokemon right off the bat, but that would certainly encourage replay value, at least for me.

Plus, it would encourage trading, I think. I mean, if my friend and I are only two gyms in and I have a couple Gibles and he has a few Riolus, I would most certainly trade with him as soon as possible.

But this will never happen. It'd be too difficult, and really, how would you catch them all? All the FAQs online for finding Pokemon on specific routes would be useless. Still, it'd be great to have different Pokemon at the beginning to start out with...

Wario Land 3 = Fantastic

Wario Land 3 continues to be amazing. I have played and beaten it before (back in 2000, before high school even), but since that was so long ago, I had basically forgotten how good it was.

One of my favorite things about it is that it obeys all of my laws of good handheld games. Which are these:

1. Let me save anywhere, anytime. (Preferably letting me resume at the exact spot I left off, which Wario Land 3 does do)

2. Give me hints on where to go next if I want them, and make them easily accessible(i.e. don't make me slog through tons of text on the main menu - let me get the hints in-game).

3. Use bright and/or contrasting colors so I can tell the difference between enemies, walls, floors, etc.

Wario Land 3 fulfills all of these requirements fully. I have no problems playing it. I have no problems seeing it even on a Game Boy Color, which if you recall did not have a backlight. So, essentially, it is the perfect handheld game.

Sadly, it's one of the best games I've played in a while. I'm not saying recent games like Smash Bros. Brawl or New Super Mario Bros. are bad, but they don't pull themselves together so coherently like Wario Land 3 does. Wario Land 3 just seems to do everything right.

I'll have to get a hold of a copy of Wario Land II - it's the one game in the series I've only played briefly, and I've heard that's pretty good as well.

(Click here to read my first Wario Land 3 article)

The Game Boy and Interesting Diversions

Wow, six days since I last posted here. What a crazy week it has been... It was an enormously crazy week for my girlfriend, and I really hope she can get through this whole ordeal relatively unscathed.

However, this blog isn't about my personal life, so I won't discuss it anymore than that.

Anyway, it's been six days since I posted here, and a couple things have happened as far as video games go. One, a coworker of mine has been unloading some of her old videogames on me (free of charge!), and she gave me a particularly interesting load last Saturday. It consisted of a Gamecube, two Gamecube controllers, a clear purple Game Boy Color, a semi-broken original Game Boy, Animal Crossing, 2 Memory Card 59s, Harvest Moon GBC, Pokemon Pinball, and Wario Land 3. The last game in particular I've been looking for lately, and it's not that I've had a problem finding it, I just didn't want to pay more than 15 bucks.

Regardless, I was happy to receive it. I've been playing it since I got it, and for a Game Boy Color game, it is surprisingly playable. In fact, it's fantastic.

It is (obviously) the third game in the Wario Land series for the Game Boy, and it has a peculiar feature: It is a sidescrolling game, and the player's character cannot be killed. The game makes up for this by allowing the player to traverse levels in such a way that when they reach a boss and get hit by the boss, they are turned into something that floats and they float out of the boss's lair and have to find their way back.

At times, yes, this can be annoying. Usually, however, the game only sets you back to the previous room, right before you enter the boss room. This way, you really only have to start the (usually always short) boss fights over.

Anyway, the point of the game is not to fight your way through levels to get to the end, like in a sidescrolling Mario game. This game is all about solving puzzles in order to find treasures to further explore the rest of the levels in the game.

Honestly, that's all I want to say about the game itself at this point - I'm sure I'll post more in the upcoming days about it. However, I will say this: Since Wario Land 1 was titled Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, it is implied that the Wario series was an offshoot of the Mario series, and that seems odd to me. The first two Mario Game Boy games were great and sold well, and then Nintendo went and made a game all about Wario, the bad guy from the second game.

What the hell made Nintendo do that? I'm certainly thankful, because Wario Land is a fantastic game, but wow, what an odd choice. You'd think Nintendo would only continue to pump out Mario games. Oh well, perhaps they were sick of them back then. It doesn't matter now, anyway; the Game Boy Advance's Wario Land 4 wasn't as good as the first three games, and the less said about Wario: Master of Disguise, the better.

Baby Park Is the Worst Mario Kart Level Ever

Mario Kart Double Dash was an alright game. It didn't gel too well with me, however. I mean, I played it, but you know, it was never fucking sweet. Sure, it had some cool ideas (character specific powerups being the best), but I didn't like some of them. The two people on one kart thing? I could really take it or leave it. I would rather just be able to hold two items than have two characters.

But the lack of hopping with the R button. Wow, that really ruined the game for me. I could never master the powerslide; I'm sure I could've had I gave it enough time and effort, but I never really cared about it because I didn't like the controls too much. Which is sad, because I love the controller (Let it be said: the Nintendo Gamecube controller is the most comfortable video game controller ever made, and I mean ever), but without hopping the game seemed wonky to me.

And then there's Baby Park. Which is really the shittiest Mario Kart track ever. First of all, its a short track, consisting of just two turns. There is a lot of item boxes, and so it seems the whole point of the level is for it to be a big battle.

Fuck that.

I don't care what anyone says; they are wrong. Baby Park sucks. If you have ever bitched about Blue Shells taking "skilled" play away from Mario Kart and adding to its "random" winners, then you cannot, CANNOT like Baby Park because the whole level is one giant fucking blue shell. Bullet Bills, Blue Shells, Red Shells, and all of them all combine to form the most annoying level known to Mario Kart. Are you really good at racing? Powersliding? Anything like that? Well, you might as well forget leading the pack on Baby Park, then, because the winner is always completely random. It really is whoever gets the star on the last lap, or the Blue Shell two laps before the end.

And the worst thing about Mario Kart DS is the fact they included this bullshit level.

Anyway, to sum up: Mario Kart Double Dash is an okay game, but the lack of R hopping and fucking Baby Park are two abortions of ideas that I hope Nintendo never revisits again.

Quit being a prick, Leafeon

So I started a new game in Pokemon Pearl today, probably to have more to discuss on this blog. But anyway, I decided I didn't want to use only the Pokemon that can be found towards the beginning of the game - so I traded a Leafeon from my copy of Diamond to Pearl and began to raise him.

A couple things worth mentioning: I've never done this before. All my previous playthroughs of Pokemon have been with Pokemon I catch myself, mostly because I never had any means of trading. So, I've also never had to deal with a Pokemon that won't obey.

So: Fuck you, Leafeon. Just fucking use any move. You don't have to use the one I tell you, but quit "loafing around." Once I beat the second gym, Pokemon up to level 30 will obey me. By the time I beat the gym, Leafeon will probably be around level 22. Woo-hoo, 8 levels of obedience. Then I have to wait until I beat another 2 gyms so Pokemon up to level 50 will obey me, at which point I'm pretty much set until endgame. Anyway, it's a minor point - I just found it annoying, is all.

Quick thought: I wish Nintendo would implement a way for me to use Pokemon that aren't available at the start of the game without imposing this stupid "disobey" crap on me. I would love to have my Elite Four team consist of all Eeveelutions or something cool like that.

This is the last Minish Cap post, I swear

So I finished the Minish Cap today. Well, that is, I beat the final boss - getting all the heart pieces isn't too easy a task - which it damn well shouldn't be. Here are my final comments on this game vs. Phantom Hourglass:

• Story: Meh, Phantom Hourglass probably takes this one since even though it doesn't really advance the storyline of Wind Waker, it involves characters from it. And Minish Cap has Vaati, so as mentioned before, it is shit.
• Items: The final nod has to go to Minish Cap here. Although I liked the controls of the old items in Phantom Hourglass, they ultimately weren't used outside of the dungeon you got them in, whereas Minish Cap forced you to use them to get around - and also in puzzles throughout the world! Wow!
• Graphics: Good thing graphics usually don't bother me, because I can't decide which I like better. Minish Cap is weird looking to me; it looks like some other game at times. Phantom Hourglass, on the other hand, uses a dumbed down version of Wind Waker's graphics - and when you see Link up close, you'll see the DS doesn't do a great job of it. So I guess in the end, Minish Cap wins, because at least with that game I don't notice shitty looking graphics as I'm playing.
  
• Bosses: Phantom Hourglass wins. While Minish Cap wins for difficulty, Phantom Hourglass has incredibly fun bosses, and the use of the items in the boss fights is really the only place they shine.
• Dungeons: Minish Cap wins. Phantom Hourglass has the Temple of the Ocean King, which is the worst Zelda dungeon ever(because of sheer annoyance). Also, besides the fact the dungeons never really pose a challenge physically or mentally, Minish Cap's somewhat easy puzzles beat out Phantom Hourglasses ridiculously easy puzzles.
• Controls: Ah, the controversial one. I'm going to take Phantom Hourglass here, not because I necessarily prefer the stylus controls, but because Minish Cap forces me to use the R button way more than I should have to. And shoulder buttons have always sucked.

Well look at that. A tie! It appears as though Phantom Hourglass isn't as bad as I've made it out to be. In the end, I would recommend Minish Cap over Phantom Hourglass though, because the core parts of the game (dungeons, puzzles, and items) are better than what Phantom Hourglass has to offer (controls, bosses, and a slightly better story). But really, these are Zelda games we are talking about. So I recommend both.

(Click here for my second Minish Cap article)
(Click here for my first Minish Cap article)