[The video game thread]

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:31 pm

Thanks. Good to know. Now I can sound like I know something when we start shopping for it.

And I can tell him, "Hey, if you want to do some trades, I might be able to hook you up with some international guys." He'd be stoked about getting pokemons (pokemen?) who have accents.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:38 am

How old is your son? He will be able to get a lot of enjoyment out of this game.

Last pokemon game I physically owned and played was Sapphire back in 2004 or so. Back then if we needed to trade, we would have to own a link cable and have a friend in the same ROOM with us to trade up.

Nowadays you just go online from your 3DS and call it a day.

Post by **Blackjack** » Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:24 pm

I'm still playing Y right now, IV breeding and all that shit for competitive battling. Still hunting down pokemon from BW2 in the extremely-convenient GTS since I haven't played either (and have no idea how to set up Pokebank in my country anyway). Do plan on playing BW2 eventually though.

Still haven't found a single god damned shiny when everyone else seems to have them in the twenties and thirties without even trying.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 2:50 am

He's 11, and this will be his first "real" Pokemon game. He saved up to get Pokemon Rumble on Wiiware a couple years ago, but I assume that other games are a bit more involved. A friend of his has it, so he knows what he's getting into, which is nice. I can remember saving up for a game that looked awesome only to find out it was terrible. Crushing feeling that I'd like to spare my children from if I can.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:31 am

I know that damn feeling.

Regardless, yeah, it's an involved "main" game [the rumble is just a sidegame that as far as I know has no rpg/adventure elements].

He'll like it. 3D graphics, tons of new pokemon, new features [which, to him, will be just...features, heh] and the length is okay for a child.

Kind of feel bad for myself though. When I was around 9-10 I got my first pokemon game, Blue. Limited two-tone palete, things didn't look like they did on the cartoon, 2D, 150 pokemon to catch, very limited strategies...

And now kids open up to X or Y. I'm jealous of their childhood.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:32 pm

I'm on World 8-2 of Super Mario Bros, which is the final set of levels, got there without warp pipes, but I've died a hell of a lot. This is on the Super Mario All-Stars pack so there's infinite continues. God knows how kids didn't destroy entire civilisations in anger over the original NES copy; where once all lives were lost that was it, game over man!

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:35 pm

@Knightdramon, I've got to disagree with you re: Pokemon Blue. It may not have had snazzy graphics, but the gameplay and most importantly the 'feel' was all there in spades. I think Red and Blue are still fantastic titles!

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:43 pm

Auntie Slag wrote:I'm on World 8-2 of Super Mario Bros, which is the final set of levels, got there without warp pipes, but I've died a hell of a lot. This is on the Super Mario All-Stars pack so there's infinite continues. God knows how kids didn't destroy entire civilisations in anger over the original NES copy; where once all lives were lost that was it, game over man!

I've beaten that game without using any continues, but only after lots and lots of practice at The Lost Levels made the original seem easy in comparison! It was still quite a challenge, though at the time I was frequently making it to 8-3 or 8-4 without using any continues. I'm way out of practice now though...New Super Mario Bros Wii is currently kicking my ass.

(I miss my SNES.

Stupid aging hardware breaking down over time...)

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:02 pm

Without... using... any... GHAAAH! Now that's serious skill, and yes The Lost Levels are utterly devilish too.

The weird thing is I found New Super Mario Bros. Wii quite easy. As long as I took each level in a calm manner I got through the game pleasantly, enjoying the levels. I love NSMBWii, its such a gorgeous looking, inventive and genuinely fun game.

The original Super Mario Bros feels proper hardcore by comparison, and it kicks my ass, but I find my appreciation grows for it when I complete major stumbling blocks e.g. World 7 which had me stumped for months, and I could tell the days where my mojo wasn't working and I would fail to get anywhere on that damn section.

Warcry, have you heard of Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii. Its a fan mod (570Mb download to an SD card that you put in a homebrew-enabled Wii) and looks like loads of fun.

I would so love to get a WiiU with NSMBU and LuigiU.

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:46 pm

I've never seen that, no! Looks like a lot of fun though. Unfortunately my wife uses the Wii for watching Netflix so it's frequently connected to the internet, which means (as I understand it) that I wouldn't be able to run homebrew stuff on it without the risk of my games being deleted and/or my console getting bricked by a system update.

I don't know what it is about the Wii game that gets me, whether it's just been so long since I've played the NES/SNES games or if there's some fundamental difference in timing/jump physics/whatnot that I just can't wrap my head around, but I was barely able to clear the first world without running out of lives. I needed to take a break because I just couldn't figure it out.

As far as the original games go, for me it had less to do with skill than lots and lots of repetition. I've played the shit out of my SNES All Stars cartridge, and for a good decade I probably played through one of the first game, SMB3 or The Lost Levels every month (not so much SBM2, which I never really got into for whatever reason). A lot of my friends would see me play and be all "WTF how are you this good at this?" because I usually kinda suck at video games, but a lot of the more difficult sections were drilled into muscle memory just by trail and error (and error...and error...).

That was especially true for the "bonus" worlds at the end of The Lost Levels, some of which required both near perfect precision and incredibly good luck to clear (I'm talking about you, World C-3!

). Even when I was at the top of my game they still kicked my ass, and unlike the original game I was never anywhere near good enough to even entertain the idea of beating that without continues. I'd be mightily surprised if more than a handful of people ever saw the end of D-4 in the Japanese NES version of the game that didn't have a save feature.

It's been years since I've tried to beat any of them though, and the aforementioned broken SNES means I won't be able to for a while longer. I imagine if I dove into any of them now I'd die just as much as you did. When I tried to beat SMB3 a few years ago I was struggling mightily by the water levels (world 3 I think?) when I used to blow through the entire game with ease and wind up in World 8 with a full complement of power-ups to use and 90+ extra lives.

(I had most of the "match card" game layouts memorized and knew exactly how to spawn most of the coin ships, which helps account for why I had such an easy time of it...)

Wow, that seems like such a long time ago now. But I guess it was? It's been more than a decade since I played those games regularly.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 3:43 pm

Warcry wrote:It's been years since I've tried to beat any of them though, and the aforementioned broken SNES means I won't be able to for a while longer. I imagine if I dove into any of them now I'd die just as much as you did. When I tried to beat SMB3 a few years ago I was struggling mightily by the water levels (world 3 I think?) when I used to blow through the entire game with ease and wind up in World 8 with a full complement of power-ups to use and 90+ extra lives.

(I had most of the "match card" game layouts memorized and knew exactly how to spawn most of the coin ships, which helps account for why I had such an easy time of it...)

Wow, that seems like such a long time ago now. But I guess it was? It's been more than a decade since I played those games regularly.

If you have a Wii, you would be in luck. There's the same Mario All-Stars game made on disc for the Wii for Mario's 25th Anniversary:

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-All-S ... B0049DYNNO

Nintendo didn't even modify it at all; it's the exact same game on the disc as it was on the SNES. It's pricey though, so you might find it better to just hit a game shop and buy a used SNES.

And by the way, if you have a modded Wii, you definitely can't hook it up to the internet. Mine is modded and it has to stay off-line from Nintendo updates. That said, mine is modded with every game for Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, and a heavy dose of N64, GameBoy (Color), and GBA. It's an awesome feature to have if you have capable people of modding it.

Brendocon 2.0 · Post by **Brendocon 2.0** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 6:58 pm

This Doctor Who themed version of 2048.
http://games.usvsth3m.com/2048-doctor-who-edition/

Warning: don't play it.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:47 am

The Wii firmware hasn't been updated since version 4.3 back in 2011 I think, so you'll be quite safe. Also, modding the Wii can be done via a softmod... no hardware soldering required and would open up the Wii to all the emulation that Ganon mentioned.

And yeah, I was playing Mario All-Stars on the Wii 25th Anniversary disc. I got lucky last year and found someone who was selling it (relatively) cheap. I also had All-Stars on the SNES about 15 years ago but because I'd been brought up on Super Mario World I just didn't get on with it.

Clogs · Post by **Clogs** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:28 pm

I'm trying to play Neverwinter Nights 2.

Laptop is lagging, so not the fun I was anticipating... Gotta go tweak, I think.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:09 am

Tiny Death Star. Its utterly pointless in a Sims way, but the pixel graphics and Star Wars jazz-muzak are brilliant.

All it really wants though, are your cash microtransactions. There'll come a point where it tips the balance and i'll delete the game as a result.

I blame Sim City 3000 and its infectious jazz tracks.

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 11:52 am

I played Tiny Death Star for about 3 hours one night, then realized "I'm just tapping things, then waiting for a while to tap something else." Hence, it was deleted. As was "The Simpsons: Tapped Out". And another one that I can't even remember right now.

"Game Dev Story", though somewhat like that, kept my interest all the way through. I was genuinely interested to see what the sim-public would think of my animal/action rpg. Not much, it turns out.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:02 pm

If only the damn thing wasn't so cute! I'm so shallow, if it weren't for the Star Wars nostalgia motif I wouldn't touch this game!

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:03 pm

GTA III. The apparent lack of an in-game map and relatively primitive mission structure are a bit annoying but it's always nice to have a 'new' game you're instantly brilliant at.

It's replaced World War I as my old PC game of the month anyway. Believe it or not the novelty of using Frenchmen as cannon fodder actually wears off.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:01 am

Having just finished Dragon Age Origins: Awakening, I now moving onto The Darkspawn Chronicles and Leliana's Song DLCs for the game.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:59 pm

Auntie Slag wrote:@Knightdramon, I've got to disagree with you re: Pokemon Blue. It may not have had snazzy graphics, but the gameplay and most importantly the 'feel' was all there in spades. I think Red and Blue are still fantastic titles!

Ah don't get me wrong, I did like them a lot back then. I actually liked yellow much more because you got all the starters.

It's just that comparing them now, they are so outdated and outright glitchy/broken you do wonder how they were brought out with such serious issues.

What a nightmare it was to get the starters back there. Thanks to no eggs/breeding, I distinctively remember spending an afternoon with a friend to get all starters on one tape. You had to start a new game, go through the dialogue, go up in Viridian, take the parcel, go down to pallet again, go up again, buy pokeballs, catch something as fodder and wait until the other guy did the same in order to get that level 6 Bulbasaur/Squirtle etc.

Today I've got 5 boxes full of starters that I can't get rid of.