Much of the layout has been hammered into shape. It’s looking okay in Opera, FF, and IE so far. I’ll be able to test it on Safari tomorrow night at work, and maybe I can check it out on my friend’s Sidekick. XD

I’ll need a couple graphics from mr. pr0: a header with Earthbound colors or theme, and a “now playing” image exactly like the one on his site. Except black instead of pink. Also, drop the “Mother 2″ and just make it Earthbound.

I’m keeping that to-do list post updated, and if you see anything that needs to be added, comment away!

I need everyone’s emails and the preferred spelling and capitalization of your nick so I can register the accounts. Either post it in the comments if you’re macho enough, or email it directly to me at this address:

After that, it will be ready to go!

Warning: random spatter of blog material follows.

I like that battery.

Pinball is truly the sport of kings! Very nerdy kings. MP Pinball has been eating my soul lately. I just a great run, resulting in this high score. Sometimes, you just have a great run. The pinball gods are on your side (and you keep getting extra balls). MPP has a little oddity though, one of the starting levels (Tallon Overworld) is much easier than the other (Pirate Frigate). It’s not quite broken, but it is puzzling.

I learned through FAQs that I actually did get the good ending on CVDS. Nuts. Well, I’m at the end again, and lvl 53 again. The next challenge is leveling up for boss rush.

My DS is unflashed now, thanks to the heads up from here. I figured something like this would happen. I get a nice startup dingy again! Woo. I still have my wifime method for homebrew, in case that SNES emulator ever gets a substantial update so I can play Earthbound without it crashing.

I need more Game Club input. Due to the fact that I have little time, I’m putting off work on the main site, and I’d prefer to keep things located in our blogs and IRC for now. I’m not trying to cop out, I just think we’re really more of a social club than a review-and-discussion type thing. I also want to know how many people we’d have definitely in for Chrono Cross. Voxpop seems to be out, but three outta four would be grounds for doing it. (Edit: Hmm, it seems to have been switched to Earthbound, according to Vox. That sounds good too.)

It’s almost November. Why am I still sweating?

THE LIFE OF A RONIN EDITOR IS TOUGH…

(Okay, so I’m not really ronin. But, if somehow our editor-in-chief was killed, I guess I would be.)

As you can see, I missed the meeting and all, even with the time extended for me. I’m filling in as copy desk chief tomorrow, so I had to stay after work and learn a few things. As a college student with loyalties everywhere, I haven’t had any spare time lately. Apologies for not doing anything with the GC site yet, I’m getting to it. I’m glad that the GC’s a success in that everyone enjoyed Castlevania, because that was the point. ^^

I’m hogging all three saves on my cart: 1 New Game+ on Normal, 1 New Game+ on Hard, and 1 Julius mode. I love Julius mode. It could have been its own game with a little more narrative. The Hard game is hard, and the Normal is kind of a speedrun (also, i’m trying for the best ending).

Gunstar Super Heroes was out today, and I skipped lunch to go pick it up. I spent the next few hours in class starving, which was retarded. But, I ate, it was okay, and Gunstar is awesome. As a person who bought the original 8 or so years ago, I can say that this is about as close as we’re going to get these days to that original genius. It’s somewhat of a cross between a remake and a sequel, with levels straight out of the original, but a new storyline and characters and new things. Things like a gyroscopic level where you collect ducks and guide them to the exit. Crazy things. My friend kept calling it ‘hardcore.’ It’s odd to label it that. It’s hard, yeah, and it’s full of chaotic levels of neverending enemies with infinite ammo, but it’s also silly. Very, very silly. Moreso than even Metal Slug, and subtler too. Hmm, I think I want to play Metal Slug after I’m done with Gunstar.

1up, the huge, evil gaming site of doom, has done this really really nice retrospective on Treasure. Check it.

I bought a GB Micro. I got the “girly” pack with the pink, ammonite, and black faceplates. (as opposed to the “manly” pack with camo, fire, and silver) It’s pretty, it’s incredibly bright and sharp, the buttons feel really nice (i’m enamored with the D-pad), it’s amazingly cool-looking, and I have played a little bit of everything I have for GBA on it and it is all awesome. The faceplates are such a cool idea, especially if they’re going to start coming out with games like the Final Fantasy IV one.

I dunno if I’ll keep it.

Provided that the place I bought it from will take it back, I think I really don’t need it. I’d rather put the money toward DS games. The DS makes a dandy GBA player, and I was wrong to ever think that I needed a new one.

Maybe something will change my mind between now and tonight, when I go to return it. I doubt it, but you never know. Funny how these things go.

Also — The GBA version of Pocky and Rocky (aka Pocky and Rocky and Becky) really, really sucks. The graphics are worse than the SNES original, and the action is rather blah. It’s a completely uninspired, soulless port. You can see why I might take this personally. ^^

One more thing, so this post isn’t all disappointment! tim rogers has reviewed Shadow of the Colossus and, as always, it’s an excellent read. I was a bigger fan of Ico than him, but he says some really cool things about that game in the first part of the review. I’ve only read half, because I have to run to work. I’ll finish reading it when I’m there, probably.

Next Game Club meeting shall be Monday, Oct. 24, 6pm Central (4pm Pacific). I have to be at work at 8c, so hopefully this is a good time.

It’s been a week, so how’s everyone feeling?

I got an okay ending, after one hell of a boss battle. I understand that games these days are much easier than early games (because of such cheats as “controls that work” and “accurately detected collisions”), but that fight gave me the old-school run for the money that I’ve been missing.

But, the ending was not the best. Therefore, I have to play through again! The New Game+ is cool, but don’t expect to make it that much easier on you.

Onto the point though: I’ll always remember this Castevania. I can’t say that I remember a whole lot about Harmony or Circle, though Aria was top-notch. Dawn of Sorrow has reached up to the top spot, and is sitting up there with Symphony. I think Symphony feels like a bigger game because, for one, it’s on a big screen, and it had the whole inverted castle thing. Getting every single bit of map in that game was time-consuming. And, because it was first, it’ll always be more revolutionary. Dawn feels like an extension of that game, with better graphics (haha, DS > PS1), brilliant gameplay details, and a tight presentation. There were more than a few moments of Dawn that featured completely new gameplay elements. In this day, that’s a hard thing to come by. The slider puzzle that I spent far too long trying to put in order before I realized that it was futile, the unique souls that didn’t just mimic older abilities, but added totally new things, the myriad weapons that were all awesome. (I’ve gone from being a knife guy to an axe guy to a punch guy to a katana guy to a nunchuck guy) These things are distinctive. There’s probably a million other things too. And things I haven’t found out yet. The joy of discovery, that’s what I’m trying to get at. This may have been another iteration of an incresingly formulaic series, but it’s a really thoughtful one.

Some spoilers of extra gameplay follow, and nothing more. If you don’t already know what the extras are for beating CVDS, and you wanna be surprised, don’t read on. It’s nothing that shocking though.
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I just beat Castlevania.

…

Ha ha, kidding! That had all the hallmarks of a fake Castlevania ending. Seriously, are you going to believe it’s over because the credits roll? HA HA HA HA HA HA. </dracula laugh>

There are still sealed doors.
Arikado never did anything.
Julius’s exploits are unknown.
Yoko and Hammer didn’t get it on. (not that i think they will, but some closure has to be reached!)
Soma has some unknown curse.
And there are upside-down stairs in parts of the castle. Those who played all the way through Symphony might know what I’m thinking.

Now I just have to figure out what to do to keep the storyline going.

Yes, I did. This might be a review, but I doubt it. It’s more of a reaction piece. There shouldn’t be any real spoilers.

Have you ever heard the doughnut joke? I can’t tell it here really, because the joke’s humor is entirely in the delivery. I can barely do it in real life anyway. It has a long setup that involves completely letting down the person you’re telling the joke to. It’s crushing. It’s the worst anticlimax ever. But, once that’s over, you give them a completely unexpected payoff.
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Yep! And all I had to do was [censored for those who haven’t been this far yet]. It was pretty awesome, since nothing really said “go here and do this,” and I had to figure it out for myself. I feel pretty accomplished, though it seems like it’s something I just overlooked the first time I was there.

I’m eating lunch, so its’s time for a quick entry.

One soul I’m really liking is the Great Armor. Basically, he just follows you around and looks imposing, and pokes stuff. The perfect mascot.

He’s not actually that blurry in real life.

Also, curry is more dangerous than it looks. Did anyone else notice the MGS-style exclamation points on the Skeleton Waiters? I thought that was a nice touch. It also reminded me that Kojima (Metal Gear’s director) and Igarashi (Castlevania’s director) both work for Konami. Konami seems to have the most celebrity-type game designers at the moment, with 2. I can’t think of any other company right now that’s like that, but I probably will.

Other stuff:
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(addendum: i have a Flickr account!)

I’ve reached that point in Dawn of Sorrow. You know, the point where you’ve explored all you can, and you’re missing something that you need to go on. I’m not wandering around aimlessly though. I’m upgrading everything I can. The upgrade system is wonderful. Not too involved, and not too easy.

I’ve done the punches up to the Mach Fist, but now I’m into katanas. Up to Osafune, currently. Also, my second-favorite type, the axes, has been stuck on Bhuj for some time. (Giant Armor, which I’d need to upgrade it, it is in a part that I can’t get to anymore. poo.)

I’m 7 hours in, and I’m surprised to see that. 7 hours in Trace Memory was enough to finish it, and 7 hours in Lunar was enough to get through fetch-quest #1. It feels like I’ve been playing for maybe an hour. The time just flies by.

I guess you could compare CV’s upgrade system to Lunar’s earning-money-for-new-equipment-buying system, since they’re actually quite similar. The thing is, one is fatally flawed, and the other is not. In CV, all you have to do is seek out a certain soul. You can kill that monster over and over, preferably with some Luck-raising gear on, and eventually get it. (it’s never taken me more than 10 minutes once i locate the monster.) In Lunar, you have to make deliveries to earn any sort of usable money, and that is done with annoying little MMORPG-style fetch quests. Go find 32 acorns and 15 chocolates, and some other junk, and bring it to someone. Then do it a couple more times. The worst part is that the acquisition rates for many of the delivery-quest items are terribly low. And you can’t earn exp to level up at the same time. (if you could, i would be lvl 50 easily. i’m only 20 right now.) It is mainly my love for the Lunar series that keeps me going on this one. And that’s not amounting to a whole lot in the face of Castlevania, Trace Memory, Trauma Center, and Phoenix Wright.

BTW, I have the power to…
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