Hahaha! See, I went to this site on this cool November night thinking “Dang, I should really just hang up the blogger hat for good,” and I expected to post something like

Dear awesome dudes:
Sorry I don’t write anymore, but I’m officially calling it quits here. If you want to reach me, I hang out on my gtalk account (yeah for real now: paniflexjones@gmail.com), and I am one of those weirdos that draws animals all the time. I don’t feel like writing about gaming anymore, and I definitely enjoy lots of things more than games these days. Not that there’s anything wrong with them. Not that I won’t in the future.

Anywayz, love,
tanuki.

But see, I didn’t write that because there were two comments, posted this month, one yesterday that made me go awwwwwww. Yeah, I remember that time USK stopped by! And I’m doing better than ever, really. I have an awesome job and I’m applying for an even awesomer job (online editor for the paper), and hopefully… maybe we will find a viable treatment for my girl’s epilepsy.

I hardly find time for chiptunes, which sucks because I’ve been promising a new album for at least a year now. Maybe two. The shit just hit the fan a couple years ago, guys, and now my life is different from what it ever was going to be. This is a good thing, because it wasn’t going to be anything in the first place.

I’m playing Guitar Hero III and Mario 3 on my Wii in my fairly unkept but economically stylish apartment.

Sheesh. I’m thinking about moving my blog over to Livejournal just to be trendy and get more random trolls and such. It sounds fun, sorta!

So, for the past 4 months, I’ve been working my way deeper and deeper into a new city and job and life. I’ve made friends (and lost friends ;.;). I have a new dog. I proposed to my girlfriend sometime in June. I am quite a tanuki. I am kind of an important but underappreciated cog in a very complicated process of switching editorial systems at my job. I played through most of Odin Sphere, and I will play the rest sometime soon. that game is good. If you have a PS2, you need it.

I survived Tropical Depression Erin. My ankles got all wet though.

I’m currently playing the second greatest game ever told: Metroid. I just got the hi-jump and screw attack and I am stuck!

My DS Lite has a gimpy top screen that shorts out, but I can’t just send it in for repairs; it’s an import. I feel like such a dork for buying one early. I mean, it was really worth it. I kinda want to get an enamel navy one for the hell of it. But the classic white is still awesome. I ordered Gunpey Reverse DS on a play-asia special this week, so I better work on this problem!

If this seems a little empty/rambly, it’s because I worked like 36-plus hours over the past 3 days. Sleep plz.

GTG~

Continuing with a line of thought that I commented to pr0 about (here), I’m rather disillusioned with this generation of games. I love the Wii as a system, and the DS has always been a good thing, but it seems like every time I get excited for something, it falls short. I can carry over that excitement for a few hours into the game, and then I just think about how I’d rather be doing other things.

Maybe it’s me. I have a job where I read all day, I have an apartment and a sick girlfriend, I have music to make, I have photos to take, drawings to doodle, museums to visit, restaurants to eat at, et cetera times infinity. I have a new city to explore.

Maybe it’s the state of gaming. The generation is turning, and developers are still growing into it. Games are generally longer and more involved than I have time for.

Whatever it is, I’m not compelled to play anymore.

The latest victim was Super Paper Mario. I was on Chapter 3-1, and I loved it so far. It’s full of great setpieces and the gameplay is rather enjoyable. However, at a point, I said “I just don’t feel like playing this.” A couple days later, the urge to play it hadn’t hit me. I took it to the Hastings by my new place (awesome store btw. good mishmash of about anything i’m interested in, retail-wise.), and traded it in and bought

wait for it

Pokemon Pearl.

Almost on a whim.

I intended to play it at some point, even just for a little bit as an homage to my high school days, and I’d heard it was a decent Pokemon game. But this idea seemed great at the time. I have no money for games (and at that, barely enough to get by after doctor’s visits and things like that), and I have a very healthy collection. I decided right then: Pokemon Pearl is going to be the last game I buy.

I know I’m not going to stick with it forever, of course. It isn’t a promise, just a threat. But I’m not going to let myself down for a while.

So far, it is a fantastic final game. I’ve been playing it at work. I caught a Shinx. It’s kind of free without being completely lost. It’s self-confident and good enough to make it work. It feels special. I’ve played 1.5 hours of it.

We’ll see!

I sold those RPGs! I feel much better about my life afterward, and I made enough to cover buying Super Paper Mario. Some people I’ve talked to are still convinved SPM is an RPG. I have no idea why, it’s never been presented as anything but a platformer sorta based on an RPG series.

GameFly is pretty good for trying out stuff I’d never pay full price for. I think if I actually ran a game review site, I’d score them a dollar amount based on what I’d pay. This would allow me to use negative scores effectively (i’d play Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for about twenty bucks, hence a score of -$20). Also, I’d include the actual retail price for comparison. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what a game is worth or if it’s good or not. If done right though, it could tell you how fun a game is. However, I’m really cheap and poor right now. My economic situation would skew things. Just because I could pay $35 for Hotel Dusk doesn’t mean that it’s actually the score. (for the record, i’d give it $30/$35.)

I have Super Monkey Ball out. (disclaimah: i’ve never played a Monkey Ball before despite being told i should all the time) It’s hard and sometimes frustrating. It features minigames that are a little like a box of puzzles that someone might give you on your birthday. You’d tinker with it and forget about it. Most fail only at having easy-to-use controls. It’s early DS time all over again!

I give it $20/$50.

The game flows like a game should, teaching you new things and testing your knowledge. Eventually, all this knowledge should culminate in some great level design, but I’m still waiting on it. The controls, obviously the game’s crux, are smooth and intuitive and work great most of the time. They’re still weird, and it makes me wonder why going from digital control to analog, then to a motion-based analog, was an improvement. Maybe I’m just old. I’ve always been wary of analog for adding too many degrees of freedom where they don’t necessarily need to be.

The same problem applies here. I tend to overjudge the tilt, even after playing for a while, and it leads to some wacky motions while I try to recover, if I don’t just roll off an edge.

But the paradigm of infinite chances always gives me another go. Each level is a rung on a ladder that you can’t fall from. I kind of wish things weren’t like this, or that lives and continues were done away with. But without them, what’s the motivation to collect bananas?

Still, the main game would be great if it weren’t so eager to please. Beat the first boss and… credits plus banana collecting?! C’mon, the nice graphics and happy monkeys are a reward in themselves. The credits cheapen the experience.

I’m plodding through, and kind of frustrated. There’s not a big reason to go on, besides “completion.” I’m done with playing things for completion’s sake.

After I give this back, I think I want to give a couple RPGs a chance. Final Fantasy XII is intriguing. However, I also have Yoshi’s Island DS out, and the first level was kind of… well, let’s say the original Yoshi’s Island grew up, but never really matured. So what you have is a larger, slightly oafish version of a friend you used to know. It’s the same person, so you can still hang out a bit, but don’t expect any great conversation.

— Kickin’ Wii Update Note: hey, the full Opera browser is out. Nintendo woke me up at 5 a.m. to tell me. (i can see the Wii slot’s glow from the bedroom, and when I can’t sleep, I will find any reason to get up) It’s improved, sure, but definitely still a little lacking. I wish I had used more TV-based browsers to compare features and ease of use, since I suspect that they are all gimped.

The zoom, while now totally free and nearly unbounded, still never really makes most pages comfortable, i.e., readable AND not needing a lot of horizontal scrolling or other awkwardness.

And for some reason, the browser’s picture seems to be tilted in my TV. about 5 degrees counter-clockwise. Barely noticeable, but weird. I can’t tell if it’s my TV or not.

I realized again that I dislike RPGs about a week ago. I can’t get into them anymore. I’ve tried to start playing Final Fantasy III about a million times since December to no avail. I have a handful of other DS games that just don’t do it for me. Lately, they’ve started to feel like such a thorn that I have decided to make the ebay sacrifice.

OK, I’m being dramatic. But I don’t want to be compelled to play these. At all. They will go cheap. I will be pleased. Maybe I’ll replace the copy of Star Fox Command I sold. Maybe I will buy ingredients for an intimate Japanese dinner.

In other news, I GF’d Kirby: Squeak Squad, beat it in 100% a couple days and sent it back. That was a very satisfying experience.

put on your golf shoes and dance the blues

Working at a real newspaper, I end up editing a lot of sports wire copy. Most of it gets to be dead boring, since I’m not really interested in any sport. However, some of the golf stories have been pretty good. When they’re not about how Tiger Woods is either A.) awesome or B.) a complete letdown, they are good. The struggles of a game of golf (like Boo Weekly just barely missing a putt to win — i really feel for Boo), or a golfer against a certain course (Vijay Singh finally winning at Bay Hill last week) are something I can relate to. But why?

Video games, of course.

These stories inspired my to take my Wiimote in hand and play some more Super Swing Golf this weekend. I started with a round of 18, ending up at -1 after reaching -6 at one point. The Wiimote swing control adds an element of surprise that better approximates real golf. The only thing that’s really done that before has been Golden Tee (which is popular among the bar-games crowd) and the DS’s True Swing Golf, which I never played but heard was decent.

But the Wiimote swing puts you into the swing more. I keep trying to figure out what grip is better, what style of swing works best. I have very briefly played real golf, so I have a tiny bit of experience. (but, i decided that Putt-Putt was much more enjoyable than chasing a ball all over a huge course on a hot day)

Sometimes, you just don’t hit such a great shot. Sometimes you cut it so far to the right and O.B into the water so bad that the only remedy is reaching for the Home button and hitting reset. It beats chunking the Wiimote into a water hazard.

So anyway, I love SSG. I’ll keep playing it every once in a while. It’s cute, addictive, realistic but fantastic, and it’s got plenty to do. I’m only on round 5 of the Pangya Festa, and I want to keep going. This is a good sign.

SSG was pre-ordered on a whim on Wii preorder day. I knew I would like it, but it had fallen out of favor. Wii games are more interesting on a rotation, I think. I play a little of each every day, since none of them are particularly deep right now.

My first Gamefly selection arrived after a short fiasco! I signed up but forgot to put my apartment number on it. Getting used to new addresses always causes something like this to happen. Things got sorted out though, and I recieved Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Well, it’s definitely not just another Sonic game. It has flaws, it has moments, but neither are terribly good or bad.

One thing I’ll say is that breaking up the action as selectable “tasks” within “levels” is terribly jarring. I want something that flows, not to be kicked out to a menu after every level. And it’s not clear on what you have to do to advance the plot. It just happens sometimes.

I want a little more flow.

The action is fun though, but I’d prefer more control over where I’m going and more exploration. This hardly reaches Sonic R level of exploration, and it was a racing game. Still though, it has moments, and I really have to get used to the game and controls to give it a fair shake.

PART TWO:

After Dinosaur Jungle, the game really opens up. The levels get bigger, longer and better designed, and as the player gets accustomed to the controls, things are way smoother. The game becomes a struggle for speed, which is what Sonic as a series is all about. Being fast and smooth and suave all at the same time. Feels good once you get going.

I can still gripe that the game has busted flow between levels, though the purposes of the “challenges” are more clear. Each world is a backdrop of two or three or four paths, and the challenges give you some extra time to master each one. As far as I’m concerned, the true test of skill comes in the “Head to Head” race, where you try to outrun the wind djinn. It takes flawless execution, and it will make you a better player.

Now, a word about the crappy butt-rock that the game assaults you with in the beginning: “suck.” The last Wii game to feature such heinous butt-rock was Excite Truck, and it had custom soundtrack capability. Sonic doesn’t, and that’s a good thing. Because the music gets better. Levitated Ruin even has music I want to listen to. (note though, guys who make games, not that you’ll read this, but: Quit trying to use lyrics in game music. Just stop. Seriously. STOP.)

So, this game starts off slow, but has me hooked now.

Post may be continued!!

My dirty little secret has started to come out at work: I’m a gamer. Not only that, but I bring my DS to work.

It started with me wearing my Feel the Magic goldfish shirt. People would ask, “What is that?” or they might stare at me oddly for a moment and go “Is that a… fish?”

“Yes! Do you have a DS? (pause for answer) Did you play Feel the Magic? (pause for “nope, can’t say I did”) Well, the, uh, main character is apparently a skateboarding goldfish deliveryman, although it matters little to the plot after the first minigame. He just has this shirt on the whole game, and in a roundabout way, this is the mark of a romantic hero.” (pause for “oh. ok.”)

Many of the editors and designers I work with are my age, and only one has any interest in video games. He noticed me playing Hotel Dusk one day during a lull (he hadn’t seen it before, but said the ‘A-ha’ animation style gave it away. it’s interesting that that one video had such a lasting impression on my generation.) We started talking about adventure games and such. He hadn’t played Trace Memory, but thought it looked interesting. He said he didn’t know if he would like having to read so much. (lol @ newspaper page designers …jk)

I had started recalling what I liked so much about Trace Memory, since it’s available on the cheap now and I really recommend it to anyone with a DS. There was the way the main character held the then-novel DS Phat (i still like its design better — call me crazy — and i wish i could stick the Lite’s screens inside it). It wasn’t a DS in the game, but a stand-in device that looked the same.

She held it like a real object, not like something that you played games with. She held it like it was a nuisance, too big to stuff in a pocket.

It was done because it was another route to get the player into the game. Cing, the developer, made an effort to exploit the DS’s unique design in several places. I’m not really aware of anything else they’ve made (besides Hotel Dusk), so maybe this is a one-shot thing.

But. Turn on Hotel Dusk, which I believe qualifies as the first videogamey video game to be played with the DS vertical, and you might notice something similar. It’s subtle. Kyle Hyde holds a little notebook in one hand, precisely the same way you might be holding your DS. Of course, with this game, everyone might hold it differently, but the notebook is there as another DS stand-in. Another way of getting the player into the game.

I’m on chapter 2 now.
(more…)

That song from Dribble and Spitz’s level.

Pyoro S is pretty cool too.

Okay, I promised a real update, and this isn’t really it. But I have a few words to put down.

I decided to forgo getting Wario Ware Smooth Moves (it’s a rental anyway, right?) for Sonic and the Secret Rings, which I think is set to release this week. It’s kind of a crapshoot, though I think this Sonic has a better chance of being worth it than any other 3-D Sonic.

(Brief recap: I hate pretty much every Sonic with 3-D gameplay, except for Sonic R, which is ostensibly a racing game, but manages to capture the fun of old Sonic with its courses. Everything from Adventure on has been a letdown, except for the Advance series and Sonic Rush. Those weren’t great, but they were good enough.)

Judging from what I’ve heard about Secret Rings from various sources, it controls a bit like Sonic R. It’s also not developed by Sonic Team. And it’s for the Wii. Three reasons for me to feel hopeful about it!

As soon as I get a utility bill, I can get a membership at a local video store and finally play some Smooth Moves.

Real Life Update (aka World of Borecraft): I did some shopping today (the grocery stores have a surprisingly wide selection for such a caucasian-dominated place), and cooked my first meal in the apartment (meatballs in an antipasta salad, from a Rachael Ray cookbook). Also, I gave Amy her first taste of San Angelo’s Mexican food, in the form of guiso and fajitas. She liked the guiso more.

Work starts tomorrow, and I feel pretty weird about joining the working world. Even though I won’t exactly have a ‘normal’ schedule. (copy editors work from the afternoon until the paper is done)

I don’t even know what to wear!