Category: Video Games

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Adventure Video Games

Day of Many Adventures

Lego Polar BearYesterday turned out to be one of my more adventurous days in quite a bit. I guess I was a bit overdue for some adventure since I really haven’t gotten the chance to leave the house much yet this summer due to some bad luck with some unkind viruses and such.

The day began with me making some yummy waffles for breakfast, then heading over to the Philadelphia Zoo. The Zoo was awesome as always and had a really cool Lego exhibit going on. I’ve been working on a Lego sculpture myself recently, so this was a treat for me to check out. The polar bear made of Legos there was amazing, I can’t imagine just how many bricks must’ve gone into making it. Also, the weather wasn’t really that bad while I was there, glad I got there a little on the early side as later in the day it would get extremely hot and humid.

Wall of BricksNext I embarked towards the King of Prussia Mall in search of the Lego Store. I really need some more individual bricks for my sculpture, and I was truly a kid in a candy store in the Lego Store. I figured out a system to most efficiently pack as many bricks as possible into a container. You pay by the container not the brick here, so maximizing brick placement was key.

There were some really cool stores at the mall too, and being in the air condition after on this really hot day turned out to be a nice idea. I got to eat some Chik-fil-A for lunch, which I sorely miss ever since they left the Hamilton Mall. It was one of my favorite lunch spots for the longest time at work.

As great as my day had been thus far, something else ever greater lay in store. As the day was beginning to wind down all the way at the other end of the Mall my eyes caught glance of it. The Wii Games Summer 2010 was in King of Prussia today!!!

It’s a national competition with people competing on various Wii games, and by some amazing coincidence I happened to be there on the day when it was taking place. What amazing luck indeed. I quickly signed up and began competing as the team “Best Team in Town”. I wanted it to be “Best Team in Town 2”, but alas it as too many characters.

My teammate tore it up in bowling and hula hoop on Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus. I did so so on 3 point shoot out on Wii Sports Resort and finished very well on Mario Kart (even though I hit that damn goomba twice). Haha, I actually got tired on my third round in 3 point shooting, it was a very exhausting day and I really needed some water in me at this point.

The final challenge was a 2 player coin grab in Super Mario Bros Wii. I thought we did pretty well in this, it was one of the tougher levels. I was really hoping that Super Mario Galaxy 2 would be part of the competition as I’ve played so much of it recently when I wasn’t feeling well, but oh well the other games were a lot of fun to compete in as well.

“Best Team in Town” finished in a respectable 3rd at the time, and checking the leaderboards just now it looks like we can in 10th place overall out of 48 teams. So that wasn’t too bad considering that neither of us really played these particular games much with the exception of bowling.

After this, finally got a bite to eat then headed home. A truly adventurous day for me, and so nice to be back out doing stuff like a normal person again.

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Video Games

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2This game is amazing. As good as the first Super Mario Galaxy was, the sequel was event better. Level design was so original and creative. I can’t imagine not only how they make these levels come to life, but just simply coming up with their ideas for them. They were really that original.

I’m pretty sure that there’s up to 242 stars to be collected in this one, so even though I’ve beaten Bowser, rescued the Princess and have about 119 stars, there’s still much more game to be played. Oh, and you can play as Luigi on a lot of the levels too, Luigi is awesome. And riding Yoshi is always great as well.

IGN gave this game a rare 10 rating, and I have to agree with the perfect score. Amazing game, and a must play if you own a Wii.

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Video Games

Final Fantasy XIII

Despite how busy I’ve been recently, I had to purchase Final Fantasy XIII the day it came out and play through it. It’s been a tradition of mine since I got the very first Final Fantasy at Jamesway for the NES. I’m pretty sure it was the first $50 game that I had gotten at the time.

This installment didn’t disappoint, and it’s really amazing to see just how far the series and technology has come over the years. The overall production values put into this game were simply amazing. I can’t imagine just how many hours must’ve went into making it, it was like a 55+ hour hollywood movie.

XIII was a lot different than the previous one’s I’ve played, but the majority of the changes were welcomed. The combat and leveling up took a little adjustment for me, but didn’t take too long to make sense.

I think from start to finish this game took me 55 hours to play through, or about 3 months. So you do get your moneys worth with this one. The artwork was really impressive, there’s some very talented people working at Square-Enix. I did wish that there were some more Chocobos in the game

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Video Games

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

With the snow we got over the weekend I finally had a chance to beat Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box for the DS. I picked it up a few months ago, but have been too busy to really play it much.

It’s a puzzle game, and I do like the puzzles so I had to get it. The made an earlier one a few years back and I played through that one too, and this second one was just as good.

Some of the puzzles are very tough, I think there were 3 or so that I couldn’t solve. I’m very much impressed with the variety and difficulty of the puzzles. Solving a few of them did make me feel rather smart for a moment. Good stuff.

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Video Games

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside StoryJust got done playing one of the finer DS games I’ve played in a while, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. This well crafted game provided much entertainment for a couple of weeks, such as while waiting for my car to be serviced. btw I will always bring a game to pass the time now when I’m getting the car serviced.

I’m sure I must’ve looked like the world’s biggest kid playing this game constantly, but I really did enjoy it so who cares.

Bowser’s Inside Story is the third installment in the Mario and Luigi RPG franchise. The game has some challenging puzzles, but nothing too crazy. Graphics are very impressive, and the music/sounds are really well done for a DS game. Mario and Luigi speaking Italian did bring a slight chuckle from me each time they conversed.

Playing as Bowser for a good portion of the game was a nice touch too. Growing up, I’d always found myself pitted against Bowser, so to play as him was cool. I do always kinda root for the bad guys in most fictitious things.

While I still have no idea what “I’ve Got Chortles!” means, Fawful was a pretty solid enemy. All in all a very entertaining and well made game.

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Video Games

Punch Out!!

Punch Out!!I do believe I’m addicted to Punch Out!! for the Wii. Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! for the NES has always been an all time favorite of mine, a true classic. So when I heard that a new version was due out for the Wii, I was both excited and concerned that it might not be possible for it to live up to the expectations that I had of the game. 

This game is a definite buy.  I actually woke up a little bit earlier on a work day just to sneak another shot at Don Fleminco.  Not sure I’ve done that in a while.  The controls are almost identical to the original, and it also supports the balance board, but I haven’t given that a shot yet.

Defending your title and the various boxer challenges give this game a lot of replay value. There’s a multiplayer mode, which seems pretty fun. The only drawback is no online play, but outside of that this game is a true masterpiece that manages to capture the fun I had back when it originally came out in 1987.