Gaming galore: which games make you feel good?

Alright, this entry might be a little bit scattered. I had something else big and new planned for today's entry, but due to unforeseen circumstances it's not ready in time! It should be up next week though, so be sure to check back! Instead, allow me to talk on subjects such as 100% completion of NSMB Wii, yet another foray into the world of Link's Awakening, a fabulously geeky sewing project and a fresh replay of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.

Oh my, is this entire entry going to be 

about Nintendo? How did that happen?

As I've been clearing the Wasteland of radioactive bugs, slavers and raiders, Andrew has been plugging away at New Super Mario Bros. Wii. We have continued our split screen setup to great effect, and the other night he finally reached total completion! He can play the same levels over and over again, trying and failing, learning and repeating. Over and over and over again. I cannot do this. He's played the majority of world 9 by himself. The levels get crazy difficult, and there are no midway markers. His quest to find every single star coin became too much of a challenge for me. The placements require more patience than I possess. Andrew did it though! The game provided very little fanfare, which was disappointing, but it did show a screen proclaiming collection of all star coins in the game. I took a photo with my phone, but apparently something went awry because it's no longer on my phone.

Pretend that this is a photo of Mario in an epic pose,

celebrating the total conquering of every single star coin.

Moving on from my embarrassing phone fail, let's talk about Link's Awakening! A well loved, and sort of under-played, Zelda game for the original Gameboy. It was later re-released as Link's Awakening DX for the Gameboy Color, and just very recently it was re-re-released as a 3DS download. 

A long time ago, I had DX in my possession. I don't remember where it came from, and I don't remember what happened to it. Oddly enough, I also ended up owning the Gameboy version, and again I have no idea where it came from. I tried to play it a few times because of my love for Zelda games, but holy crap is it difficult. I gave up and re-started repeatedly at the insistence of other people that raved about how amazing it was. 

During one of my attempted play-throughs I actually managed to get kind of far into the story. I really love the item collection/trading aspect, and I love that the shovel makes an appearance! I loved all of the digging in Seasons/Ages! At this point I don't recall why I stopped playing my file, but I suppose that's neither here nor there. The point is that my friend Jacki purchased Link's Awakening on her 3DS and was texting me about how fun it was. I agonized over the thought of buying a game that I already owned, but now that I'm so used to electronics having rechargeable batteries I wasn't fond of the idea of scrounging for double As for my Gameboy Color. 

So far I've made it past the second dungeon/temple/whatever. I'm about to go trekking for the key for the third area. I am really enjoying myself and I'm so glad Jacki kept talking it up! The game is just as difficult as I remember it being. I've been hung up on all of the same spots that I was stuck on from my very first play through. How is it that I haven't remembered anything? 

Screw this stupid raccoon and his sensitive nose.

photo found here

I'm feeling determined though. I will get through the entirety of Link's Awakening this time! Of course, this just tacks onto the fact that I have yet to complete the last temple in Link to the Past. Someday.

In addition to all of the exciting gaming that Andrew and I have been participating in, I've decided to put a lot of energy into crafting! I've had a few ideas in my head and I've finally put forth the effort to execute them. Seeing as Andrew and I are playing through all of these games together (excluding Link's Awakening), I have tons of time to be creative during the day while he's at work!

My most recent project came together in about five hours and was the result of my soon-to-be-four-years-old nephew deciding to be Mario for Halloween! I was thrilled when my sister sent me a photo of him in his costume and I immediately decided that I wanted to make something to go with his outfit. I was originally thinking a 1-up mushroom, but Andrew suggested a Koopa shell. Behold!

I'm a little loud at the end there. Apologies.

I have my hands in a few other fun and geek-related projects, but they're GIFTS so I can't post them here just yet. As soon as the items are received I will be sure to post photos. It'll happen sporadically over the next few months. In addition to sewing though I've been doing some paper crafts. Not these kinds of paper crafts, but more like... flat pictures. It has been a lot of fun and really rewarding. I found my inspiration here. This guy makes the most amazing paper crafts. He makes me feel so invigorated to try new and difficult things. 

Since starting the paper crafts my mind has been turning and I have a great idea for a new project. After I wrap up some Halloween decorations I'm going to start on some bigger paper ideas. I can't wait to share them here!

All of my blogging hype around Paper Mario 3DS has me essentially frothing at the mouth waiting for it to be released. Unfortunately for me, it doesn't even have a release date yet. So two days ago I finally broke down and told Andrew that we had to start playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door together. We were supposed to start Epic Mickey once we finished NSMB, but it'll have to wait.

I absolutely adore the stage battle system in this game.

I imagine that our foray into Paper Mario will be similar to how we've been playing Fallout; I play the majority of the time while he provides helpful hints, and sometimes he'll play small stretches of the game. This works well for when I'm tired but he wants to do something. The majority of the time he's content to watch me play, which works well for me because I really enjoy playing! 

With Andrew's encouragement I have been playing so many more games lately. It's wonderful. As I've gotten "older" I find that I (naturally) have less time to sit and play games for long stretches of time. The responsibilities of life and all of that frequently take over and I don't finish games, or I can't play them for so long that I forget where I am and I feel compelled to start a new file.  My love for gaming never wanes, the actual playing just slips to the side. It has been a while since I've been completely engrossed in a game, and my memories of those times are so full and fond. 

It started again over the summer when Andrew and I began a new file in NSMB. We played every night until we beat the game. It's happening again with Fallout. Almost every night we visit the Wasteland and I progress slowly through the main story, filling my character's life with side-quests. I love my 3DS dearly, but my portable gaming has come to a bit of a stand-still. I've started to pick it up more often with the likes of Okamiden and Link's Awakening now. Everywhere I turn there are satisfying gaming experiences to be had, and I just opened a new one with the creation of a replay file in Thousand Year Door. 

There are so many fabulous things to be grateful for and excited about! Mine happen to all revolve around video games somehow, and I am OK with that. Which games make you feel full and complete? Which games can you play over and over again? I'd love to know!

-MJ

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Minecraft! And some sad news.

OK, it has been way too long since I've posted here.

In the past 6 months I have, sadly, not played very many games. There were other things going on and I just didn't make any time for them. This is a decision that I regret! At home I no longer had access to a TV all to myself, so if I wanted to play my Wii I had to take everything downstairs and hook it up to the TV there. I'm a touch lazy, so I ruled out this option many times. I really need to work on that.

The few times that I did manage the arduous process I found myself playing Kirby's Epic Yarn. A couple of ventures saw New Super Mario Bros. and some virtual console titles. For Christmas I received Epic Mickey, but didn't play it. I also acquired Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario All Stars Wii and Lost in Shadow. My sister and I had a few rousing evenings with DKC Returns, but I didn't play Mario All Stars or Lost in Shadow. My free time was dedicated to working full time at good ol' GameStop, preparing to leave for Ireland and seeing my friends as much as possible in anticipation of being out of the country.

My reasoning for not playing very many Wii games was that I planned on bringing my Wii with me and playing games in Ireland. Well, I'm in Ireland now and I haven't played any games. You know why? Because I think I broke my Wii. Now, I'm going to try very hard to not dwell on this fact because I am pretty effing distraught over it, as I'm sure one can imagine. There's an ever so slight chance that the AC cable is just fried, but there is also a chance that the Wii itself is toast. I won't know for sure until I get back home and can test it with someone else's cable. I hate not knowing. If I lose all of my VC downloads I am going to be so angry. Then I'm going to riot to Nintendo and let them know that they are unfair for not having a login system so that customers can re-download their purchases in the event of a broken system, like PSN and XBLA do. I know they're worried about protecting people and children's identities but man, I don't want to lose my money.

Alternatively, I may be able to have them fix whatever is broken and retain all of my downloads and save files. I wonder how much they charge to fix Wiis? And what the turn-around time is? Hmm..

In slightly more positive news, I at least have my DSi. And, if all goes well, I'll have my 3DS along with Pokemon White and Okamiden next month. Just in time for my birthday too! I have a very generous mother :3

Looks awesome, right? Hopefully I'm better at it than I was with Okami -_-

For my DSi I have a nice selection of games that I could be playing, but I haven't dedicated any time yet. I bought Ghost Trick just before I left the States at the recommendation of my co-worker and some reviews that I read online. I'm anxious to play it but have been very befuddled with my computer and Skype so that I can talk to my boyfriend. I love technology. I remember when I was about 11 or 12 I was on the phone with my dad who I only saw once a year for the summers. We were talking about how great it would be if video phones existed, that way we could see each other everyday even though we were on opposite sides of the country. Well, dad, the future is upon us and you don't have the internet. Way to embrace it! Sheesh.

Anyway. My DS. I love it dearly. I could play on my lunch breaks but I've been busy reading awesome and punny fantasy novels! I'm happy to be reading more, so I don't begrudge the book. It's call Night Mare, and it's by Piers Anthony. Andrew picked out a bunch of books to send to Ireland with me. We're reading them in chunks together, sort of like a book club. My days are filled with awesome <3

I had every intention of reactivating my WoW account upon my arrival here, but I've found that that's very difficult to do with no money. I'd have a bit more money if it weren't for the dollar being so horrible right now. Add the $$$ lost during conversion on top of the fee charged to me for pulling out money from a non-affiliate ATM and I am running out of money right fast. Doesn't really leave much room for a subscription fee. That is OK though because I have been playing MINECRAFT.

This was definitely me, although I didn't make it so far as to creating torches or glass before I started to have help from someone else.

Last fall Andrew told me that I should play it with him and his co-workers. I was busy being antisocial, so I told him maybe. Then in December I had a chance to play on a friend's computer and I got super excited. It definitely helped that Penny Arcade made a mini arc about it. I trust everything that they say whole-heartedly. They're the reason that I bought Katamari Damacy. <3 those guys.

So since early-to-mid January I've been playing on a multiplayer server with Andrew and his co-workers. He and I have been traversing and building and exploring and slaying and spelunking. It has been nothing short of awesome. I've been taking screenshots when I remember to because there's so much fun stuff happening. Currently we live in a monster castle that is complete with waterfall, dining hall, garden, gothic tower, floating house, living quarters, supply room, subterranean cave system, library and mob catcher. He's always thinking of new things to add, so who knows what else it'll turn into! We also have a lighthouse on the shore and we built a mine track to our old house via skybridge.

This here (from left to right) demonstrates the mob catcher, the floating house, cathedral, other tower and library. Note that the library is covered in lava for awesome's sake.

The internet at my mom's house in Washington is DSL (yuck) so I regularly encountered some issues when logging in. They were mostly funny but occasionally did cause some irritation. The most common problem was a severe chunk error.

Just monster chunks of terrain missing all the way to the bottom of the world.

He let onto the fact that we could use these errors to our advantage. That hadn't even occurred to me! Sometimes they filled in and loaded as normal, but sometimes they'd just flat out refuse to load in. In the instance captured above I happened to see some large reservoirs of iron, something that were were lacking in. So, I directed him on where to dig and where to find the reserves! After that I built a bridge to cross the chasm and went down with him to look for diamonds. I've never loved diamonds so much before!

-MJ

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