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Reliving Memories: Crash Team Racing

In 1999, one of my all-time favorite kart racing video games came out. Developed by Naughty Dog, Crash Team Racing quickly stole my heart the first time I played it.

I remember this video game very well because it was one of the first kart racing games I had ever played. As a child, it introduced me into the world of Crash Bandicoot, a world I hadn’t been a part of before.

I remember the times I played it, racing as Crash and some of the other characters in the game with the goal of making it to first place across the finish line. I remember enjoying it because the controls were so simple.

But I also enjoy playing it for other reasons too. I enjoy hearing the different character’s voices as you race to get into first place. Some of the characters say some of the funniest things and they make me laugh every time I hear them.

Another aspect of Crash Team Racing that I enjoyed as a child and still do now is the power up items you can use. As you race each of the uniquely built tracks, there are these boxes with question marks on them. When you race into one of them, the player is given a random item to use as you race. The item can be anything that will help you against your opponents, such as a speed boost to allow you to go faster, bombs that you can launch at your enemies to knock them down, and even a bubble that protects you from damage. I enjoy that Crash Team Racing has these items because it makes racing much more of a challenge and makes your gaming experience that much more enjoyable.

I also enjoy playing this game because of the different tracks you get to race on. Each track presents a challenge for the player that they have to overcome. These challenges are roadblocks that make the track harder to race on and finish in first place. But they allow the player the chance to figure out what to do to stay on the track and get to the finish line before everyone else. I enjoy racing on these tracks because each track has unique elements that can slow down the player from progress and cause them to lag behind. They make Crash Team Racing a challenging game to play, which makes my whole gaming experience when I complete them even more enjoyable.

As a child, Crash Team Racing was ultimately one of my favorite kart racing video games. And even now as a 22 year-old college graduate, that still remains true for me. Crash Team Racing is a video game I can never get tired of and holds a special place in my heart as one of the first kart racing video games I’ve ever played.

December 15, 2015 1

First Impressions: Undertale

Released in September, Undertale is a role playing video game created by Toby Fox.

Taking place in 201X, Undertale tells the tale of a human child who falls into the Underground, a world where monsters live. After a war between monsters and humans broke out, the monsters were banished to the Underground to live out the rest of their days. The only way monsters can get out to the surface is through taking seven human souls.

Undertale is a game I became interested in playing after watching GameGrumps play through it.

By watching them play Undertale, I was able to learn the mechanics of the game and understand the different ways the game can be played.

Upon playing Undertale, one of the things I enjoy about playing this game is that there are two ways the player can enjoy their experience. When fighting monsters, the player has two options. The player can either attack the monster and cause direct damage, or they can spare the monster through the act of mercy. Mercy allows the player the ability to not attack monsters and cause them damage. While not killing monsters doesn’t give the player any experience points, it allows the player to play the game in a different way than most role playing games typically allow.

One of the many boss fights the player experiences in Undertale. — One of the many boss fights the player experiences in *Undertale*.

But in Undertale, your choices affect your future gameplay. So if you choose to kill all of the monsters that appear before you, that will impact your gameplay the next time you play. This is one of the many aspects of this game that I really enjoy. I like that the choices you make in this game can impact you whenever you decide to play this game again. It adds something different to this game that you don’t often see in role playing video games.

Another aspect of Undertale I enjoy is the storyline. You get to play as a child who enters a world full of monsters. A world where most of the monsters you face are friendly but seriously misunderstood. Monsters that seem more human than deadly. But the enjoyable thing is that you don’t have to kill them. You get the choice whether you want to kill a monster that doesn’t want to fight, which is something I really appreciate. Not only that, but your character is able to connect with these monsters and become friends with them when you spare them. I enjoy the storyline for this reason because I feel like Undertale teaches the player important life lessons that you normally don’t get from role playing video games.

I also enjoy playing Undertale because I enjoy the graphics of the game and music. All of the little towns and places you go to throughout the game are really cute. I also enjoy seeing the layout for the monster battles too. How your health when you fight is determined on whether the heart you have control of gets out of the way of an attack in time. But I also like the music in Undertale. It’s pretty funky and different from the type of music I’m used to seeing in the games I play. I especially love the music when you’re fighting bosses. Each song picked for the boss battles uniquely stands out from the rest of the soundtrack and gives the player a better understanding of the character they are encountering.

Aspects of Undertale I don’t particularly like are the pace of the game and the controls. I feel as if the pace of the game ranges from being really slow to super fast. There are times when you are exploring the Underground where the overall plot of the game drops and random things begin happening, such as the date with Papyrus. While I did find all of these incidents to be rather entertaining, I also felt like it was all filter to try and make Undertale a lengthier game. I also don’t like the controls in the game. Whenever I’m playing games on my computer, I’m so used to using the X button as the button to select and use items and do everything. But whenever I play Undertale, X is the button used to deselect and exit out of things while Z is what’s used for items and everything else. For me it’s a little bit harder because I’m not used to the controls and have to get reacquainted with them every time I play.

However, Undertale is overall a pretty good game. I enjoyed watching GameGrumps play it on their channel and am enjoying my experience with the game too.

December 10, 2015 0

The Swan & the Crow Chapter 2: A Strange Encounter (Max)

Note: NaNoWriMo is where writers work on a 50,000 word novel during the month of November without editing their work, including checking for spelling or punctuation. Therefore, my story The Swan & the Crow for NaNoWriMo is nowhere close to perfect. Please keep this in mind when reading this chapter and the rest of the chapters that will be following it. But I am open to hearing opinions on what I have written so far and am open to any feedback given. To read Chapter 1, click here.

Current word count: 6,944.

As the last bell for math class rang, I hurried out the doors of Rockwell High School. I needed to get home, fast. I need to get ready for the party going on at Jason’s house. As one of the most popular kids at this stupid school, I am normally invited to all of these stupid parties.

Normally, I do not go to them. Not because I think I am too cool for them or anything, but because I just do not feel like going. But with today being a Friday night and the weekend closely looming ahead, I feel as if I need to do something with my life. I need to get out, be around friends I care about. And get away from school. Get away from all the people who expect too much from me. My parents. Friends. People at this school who do not even know me. Everybody.

I do not know how this happened. How I went from being just a normal kid in middle school to becoming one of the most popular kids in high school. I did not do anything different or ask for any type of special treatment. I just existed and that was enough. I woke up one day, walked through the halls of Rockwell High School and everyone knew my name.

No, I think I do know how it happened. I saved someone. One of the students here. I saved them from death. From jumping off the ledge. From making a bad choice. From choosing death over life. From ending their life when it had just begun.

The person I saved was my best friend Michele. He was going through a rough time through the summer before we started high school. He had been in a serious relationship with a girl named Emily who cheated on him with another guy who when he found out felt guilty for hurting Michele in this way. This guy did not know Emily was with someone because she lied, told him that she did not have a boyfriend because her boyfriend had broken her heart so she needed something new. Said she just wanted to sleep with him, nothing else. So he complied, because why not?

He had no idea the damage he caused Michele. Ever since the cheating, Michele faced depression. He started becoming moody, less open to converse with friends. One thing lead to another and he tried committing suicide. Not just once, but multiple times. He was lucky though, because he always got caught before he could fully commit. But then one day, he tried killing himself at Rockwell High School. In front of our peers. In front of me. He was going to jump off the roof of the school. But I got there, just in time. I was able to convince him how life is worth living, that while things in life are difficult, he has friends and people who deeply care about him and are willing to help him.

I saved his life. In front of everyone. Friends. Family. Classmates. Teachers. Everyone.

It became a story on the front page of Rockwell High School News. A story I could never shake off me. Everyone started calling me the hero of Rockwell and wanted to be my friend. I never asked for any of this. I just wanted to help out my best friend and make sure he was okay. That is all I ever want is for my friends to be okay.

It was something I did not for myself, but my friend. Michele deserved to live, to not be distraught and heartbroken by Emily, the girl he thought he loved. In the end, everything turned out okay for him.

But it brought with it a permanent reminder of what had happened to him. No matter what happened in his life next, Michele would be remembered as the guy at Rockwell High School who tried to end his life. And I, Max, would be remembered as the friend and hero who came to his rescue, saving him from making a terrible choice.

But that is all over now, even though everyone here wants to act otherwise. I have moved on, and Michele has too. The only problem now is everyone else has not. Everyone still calls me a hero, tells me I will be doing great things with my life. And I am sick and tired of it. All of it. Dealing with people I do not know coming up to me, telling me about myself as if I do not already know who I am. Michele and I are not this one incident. We are human, just like everyone else. The sooner my peers and everyone around me realize that, the better.

As I headed out of the double doors to Rockwell High School, another student approached me with wide eyes.

“Hello,” he stammered in a quiet voice. “Are you Max? The guy who—you know—saved that guy who was going to jump?”

With a sigh, I looked into this student’s wide eyes which were growing bigger by the second as he looked up to my tall frame. I am used to this, people normally having to look up at me to talk to me. I am very tall for a high school freshman. Most of the freshman here are still shortly built, but I retained my growth spurt whenever we were all in middle school so I stand out here like a sore thumb. While being one of the tallest guys here does have some perks, it is also more of an inconvenience for me because most people here know who I am. They just do not realize how tall I am until they come into contact with me in person. And then the shock kicks in and they do not know what to say.

Because I am the guy who saved his best friend. To everyone around here, that is what all I will ever be. A damn hero. A label I never asked for and that I feel like I do not deserve.

After talking to this admirer, I walk away and go home.

I live in a normal home, a house with a white picket fence and a nicely trimmed front yard. It is usually nice being at home because besides my closet friends, my parents and siblings are the only ones who continue to treat me like a normal human being. I know mostly it is because they know Michele personally so they understand what he was going through and that all I did was try to help a friend in need. Which I honestly appreciate because I get enough of being called a hero at school and everywhere else I go that having normalcy at home is really nice.

Because while there are a lot of moments I do not mind being labeled a hero, it does get tiring after a while. It has been a year since the incident and you would think everyone here would have already moved on from what happened. Maybe it is because everyone here knows Michele (though not as well as me) and we all feel close together that the incident has impacted people more than expected. Our community is very small in size so I am not at all shocked that people here have banded together in support of getting Michele the help he needs. Everyone knows everyone (well, almost everyone. We occasionally have some new people here who even I do not know who come up to me and show their support for Michele and tell me what a wonderful job I did.) And there are people in this community I have not met at all. Mind you, I have seen them at school, but I just have not been involved in their lives and they have left me alone too, which is pretty nice. It feels nice to know that there are some people here who know about what I have done but that know to leave me be.

As I walk through our front door, I am warmly welcomed by our tabby cat Kim. Kim snuggles close to me as I close the front door, jumping and purring at me in welcome. She then nudges the toe of my shoe and angles her head to the side.

“Hello there Kim,” I say as I take my backpack off my shoulders and hang it up on our door rack. “Have you been fed yet? I assume not, considering you are coming over to me while I just walked through the door.”

I head into our kitchen, which is perpendicular to our living room space. We just recently got new renovations so everything in our house looks brand spanking new in comparison to how our house looked before. Everything in the kitchen included, looking shiny like a brand new car. I checked Kim’s food bowl, which we keep close to the fridge so that we can be reminded to give her more food. When I see that it is empty, I go to our food pantry, grab the cat food and pour it in.

As I hear the clink of cat food against the bowl, Kim perks her ears up and runs over excitedly. After taking a few nibbles out of her bowl, she rubs herself against me and purrs in appreciation. I bend down to pet her and mumble how excited I am to see her.

Then after giving her one more quick pet on the head, I leave the kitchen, round the corner to our staircase, and head upstairs to my bedroom. After the day I had at school today, I decide I might as well take a shower before going to the party. Besides, I have plenty of time until then. The party is not until seven so I will not be taking too long. And it always feels nice to take a shower anyway so no worries.

As I grab two towels from the hallway closet, one for my hair the other for my body, I head into the clean bathroom, shedding my school clothes off as I go. I jump into the shower, making sure I have all of the accessories needed to get clean.

After my shower, I towel off and head back into my bedroom, going directly to my clothes closet. I open the closet and grab the first pair of shirts and pants I can find and change. After I am changed, I go to the bathroom mirror to look at my reflection so I can make sure my hair is neat. I use my large hands to run my finger through my thin brown hair and check my face in the mirror to look for any chinks in my armor.

I see my brown hair, messy and disorderly from the shower wet and wild. My blue eyes foggy from having water exposed to their pours, trying to rub some of the water out to make my vision more clear and focus. I scrub my hair with my bare hands, trying to make it more neat and tidy for tonight’s party. I know I should probably dry my hair, but I honestly prefer having my hair air dry on its own. It allows me the time I need to do other things and it looks less messy for me.

I shake my head, hoping to get some of my hair out of my eyes, take one last quick look at my reflection in the mirror, and then leave the house, taking my keys with me as I go.

Jason’s house is just five houses down the street from my own. I got invited to this party by Matt, one of my closest high school friends since the incident with Michele. Like everyone else, he was impressed with my heroic deed. However, he was friendly and did not push me too much about all of the details. Instead, he wanted to get to know me as a person, asking me to hang out and do things together and become friends.

Matt knows Jason because they are in the same social circle. They had also been friends with each other since middle school so that helped. It helps that they are both dating girls in the same group as well. Jason has been dating the same girl since middle school, a blonde girl with a strong rebellious streak. Or so I have been told. While I have yet to meet her, she sounds like fun. But I have heard what a power couple her and Jason are. Then again, I have heard from a lot of people about Jason. How much of a nerd he is, the type of guy I had always wanted to be friends with but that my newfound celebrity status as high school hero has caused a chance of a less likely encounter.

Oh well. I will get to meet him today though. After all, I will be barging into his party. Time to deal with all of the looks I am sure I will be getting once I am in his house.

As I walk down the street, I can hear the loud music thumping several blocks away.

Wow, the music is really loud, I thought. I wonder how long it is going to take before the cops get called to stop the fun? Oh well, not really my problem, is it?

As I walk into the throng of the party, I search for Matt, the one friend I have that I definitely know is going to be here. I hear the electric beauty of the music as I pass the gaggle of guys and girls dancing as they consume the alcohol they are too young to be drinking.

It is not until I get away from the ruckus that I see him, hanging out with who must be Jason, clinging to a young blonde girl in his arms. And another young girl of similar age with dark skin who looked at Matt with loving eyes though he did not seem to even notice. When Matt notices me, he waves me over and points me out to the group.

“Hey guys!” Matt exclaims, a red plastic cup in his hands. “This is Max. I am sure not many of you know him personally, but he is one of the closest friends I have here.”

“And Max, these are some of the people I hang out with,” Matt continues, extending his arms to encompass the group around him. “Jason is the dorky guy with the glasses here, Allison is his girlfriend.”

“And this young lady,” Matt says with a wink as he points to the lady looking at him with such loving eyes. “Is Becca. Allison and Becca are part of a trio of chaos at our school. Their third member Steph is currently partying it up with the others. She loves partying so much that she just goes at it whenever she comes to one of these things. But she is polite about it. She usually greets the host first before she starts doing her own thing, which is really nice about her. But come join us here Max before you start thinking you are too good for all of us normal people.”

I shrug my shoulders at him and say hello to everyone he mentioned as I approach the group, being careful not to be too antisocial.

“Do not listen to him Max,” Becca said. “We are a friendly bunch. You are welcome with us anytime. And we are not exactly normal so to speak either. We are a bunch of dorks who are just looking for a good time. Partying is one of the many things we do together to have fun. It allows us to kick back and take our minds off our troubles for an hour or two.”

“Speaking of partying,” Allison says as she untangles herself from Jason’s arms. “Should we not be joining Steph? She has already started having a good time without us. I think the least we could do is go dance with her. We did promise we would not take too long and that we would catch up with her. And since there are now three guys in our group, maybe Max and Steph can dance together when we get to her. I know she normally prefers to dance alone and never with a guy, but she really needs to stop being so antisocial around other guys. I sometimes feel as if she never wants anything to do with the male population so I think it would be nice if she hung out with someone who does not belong here too.”

A look of mischief glimmered in Becca’s eyes as Allison spoke, showing a hint of trouble at the possibility of making one of her good friends dance with me, a complete stranger. While I so badly wanted to laugh at this whole exchange, I became intrigued the more I heard about Steph. She was someone at Rockwell High School that I had never heard about or even seen. Yes, I have heard a little bit about some of her friends, but I did not know anything about her.

I wonder what that is like, I thought. Not having a lot of people know about you. Not having to worry that people will see you and know who you are and call you a hero for one thing you did, just to save a friend. Being completely invisible, without any care in the world, leaving all your troubles behind and being able to focus on your own identity for a change.

Steph was definitely someone I was interested in meeting. But I had no idea how much meeting her would change my life.

When I went with Jason, Allison, Matt and Becca to join in the dancing with a throng of people, I had no clue what I was getting myself into. I could definitely hear all of the people yelling and screaming, a look of pleasure plastered neatly on their shiny, sweaty faces. Some in the gaggle of young adults like myself had a cup of booze in their hands, half empty, maybe even full. Could not tell from the group who was already hammered from the night and who was still managing to remain sober despite having a few drinks to wind their night down.

I kept myself distant at first as I watched everyone in my party go into the crowd and dance. But then as I looked at the sea of faces that swam before me, I noticed a girl who was having a rather good time. I do not know what exactly about her caught my attention. I do not know if it was seeing the pure joy of exhilaration in her eyes as she danced in swift movements or that she called out to my adventurous personality. But she stood out to me like a beacon of light in a dark room. I was immediately drawn to her presence and wanted to dance just for the possibility of maybe being near her essence.

Right when these thoughts crossed my mind completely, she turned to look in my direction almost as if she had read my thoughts. She stopped in her dance as she looked at me. The expression on her face I could not read, but I felt as if by looking at me, she was beckoning me to join her.

I felt my heart hammer in my chest rapidly and stopped cold in my tracks.

Who is this girl? I thought as I turned to look at her only to discover she was no longer there. And how does she move so quickly? She is really good, I must admit. She really does seem to enjoy dancing.

But who is she? Who is she?

As this last thought entered my conscious mind, I felt a hand pulling me into the throng of dancing people. I turned to look to see who was bringing me into the crowd to find myself looking into her eyes once again.

“Want to dance?” I heard her beautiful voice say as I stared at the people around me in shock.

I felt as if I had been hypnotized. I do not know how I got here and why. I did not understand why this girl, this one girl, brought so many feelings to the forefront of my conscious thought. She drew me to her like a moth to a flame and her eyes entranced me into wanting to dance with her.

“S-sure,” I stammered, caught off guard that I was even able to speak while in her presence.

I looked into her eyes, trying to smile and be charming in the hope that she might want to not only dance but talk as well. She was a figure amidst those around me that caught my attention and knew how to drew me in.

And I do not know why exactly she captivated me. I do not know if it was the way she moved when she danced, like a free spirit looking to have a good time, or if it was the look in her bright eyes, shining like the golden sun.

But in that moment, she captivated me like no other girl ever had. My eyes were drawn to her, only her and nobody else.

I had never felt this drawn to a person before. Especially a girl. Yes, I know girls am familiar with them and their charms. But I have never been close to one before to want to be more than friends with one. That is how enthralled with this one I was. Her spirit spoke to me, called to me in a way none of the other girls at Rockwell High School had ever done.

In that moment, I wanted to make a good impression on her. I wanted to charm her, to enthrall her, to be with her. I wanted to soak up that warm welcoming smile, that glow that shined all around her. I wanted to be with her, whether it was in her presence or near her enough to where I could talk to her in casual conversation.

I not only wanted to be like her best friend, but much much more. And I did not understand any of it. What was happening and why. I did not understand this at all. But whatever it was, whatever this was, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed every moment of it. And I did not want it to stop. I wanted this moment to last the rest of my lifetime, to be frozen in time in a picture frame. To be remembered for what it was: a good night, the best night of my life.

So for the first time in my life, I danced with a woman that enthralled me. And without knowing it and meaning for it to happen, I met Steph, the girl who I unexpectedly fell in love with.

November 4, 2015 0

First Impressions: Life is Strange Episode 5: Polarized

Warning: Do not read this review if you have yet to play the previous episodes in Life is Strange or have an interest in playing this game. This review has spoilers for the game so viewer discretion is advised.

Two days after playing the fifth episode in Life is Strange, I am still recovering.

I previously wrote a post on Life is Strange, which can be viewed here. However, after the fifth episode came out on October 20^th, I decided I wanted to write another post about the game. I want to focus not only my thoughts on this episode but on the game overall now that the final episode for this season is out.

But first, let’s talk about Episode 5: Polarized. This episode comes right after Max Caulfield gets drugged by Mr. Jefferson in the junkyard and watches her best friend Chloe get shot. The player wakes up in the dark room, where Jefferson with the help of Nathan has been luring his victims to take photographs. You then go through a series of timelines where you go back to try and stop Jefferson from drugging you and shooting Chloe. However, you soon realize that you haven’t fixed everything yet. The tornado is still going to hit Arcadia Bay so Max tries to figure out a way to stop Jefferson and the tornado. However, she quickly realizes that she can’t stop the tornado without sacrificing Chloe’s life.

In this episode, the gameplay is pretty amazing. Most of the decisions you have to make are big ones that impact what other characters do. Some of these choices you can’t undo. Whenever you make the final decision at the end of the game whether to go back in time and let Chloe get shot, the fate of Arcadia Bay is placed in your hands. You can choose to let Chloe live if you wish, but Arcadia Bay will remain destroyed.

Making the decision to sacrifice Arcadia Bay means Chloe lives but the town still gets hit by the tornado, resulting in everyone else dying.

Or you could let Chloe die and the town will be alright. You’ll even get to see the blue butterfly one last time.

But that is one of the many aspects of the gameplay in this episode the player gets to enjoy. At one point in this episode, Max passes out and has a terrible nightmare. This nightmare reflects on a lot of the choices you have made up to this point. What I love about this part of Life is Strange is how this shows Max’s inner turmoil on the decisions she’s had to make with her rewind power. She knows she hasn’t made the best decisions and this nightmare reflects on that. However, I also see the nightmare as a foreshadowing for the end of the game. Whenever Max goes into the diner where everyone in Arcadia Bay is and faces herself saying mean things, this is a hint that she should choose to sacrifice Chloe and let everyone else live. This part of the episode can be contrasted with Max walking through her special moments with Chloe since returning to Arcadia Bay. That part of the nightmare is where Max’s subconscious is telling her to let Chloe live, even if it means everyone else in Arcadia Bay is gone. I enjoyed the nightmare scenes because of how they allow the player into her subconscious and found them to be very submersive.

However, there are also aspects of Life is Strange episode 5 that I didn’t enjoy.

One of the things I didn’t like was how they structured the plot. I found that there were too many cut scenes then needed. Whenever Max ends up going to San Francisco because she won the Everyday Heroes contest, I felt as if that wasn’t needed. While it’s nice knowing that one day she could end up an artist, I felt that they could’ve taken that out and fleshed out the game more.

This episode also didn’t flow as smoothly as the others. It felt very choppy to me as if they were adding scenes into the game because they didn’t know what direction they wanted it to go. And while I did enjoy playing in Max’s nightmare, I don’t think that was needed as well. I felt like it was placed in the game as filter so that we could get a better understanding of Max’s character and so we could get a hint of the two possible ways the game was going to end.

Overall, while this episode in Life is Strange wasn’t my favorite, the game as a whole I really enjoyed. I felt as if the creators of this game did a really good job of creating a story with a diverse cast of characters. The game also goes into heavy discussion about topics most people shy away from, which allowed me to enjoy it on a more personal level. I quickly became attached to the characters and felt as if I were walking in Max’s shoes.

While I enjoyed my gaming experience with Life is Strange, there is talk that there will be a second season. Even though I can’t deny or confirm this information, if a second season does come out, I will definitely be playing it and write another post about Life is Strange in the near future.

October 22, 2015 1

Reliving Memories: Kirby’s Dreamland 2

Every video gamer remembers the first video game they beat. Whether you started playing video games in your youth or just recently started playing them, this one facet of your gaming life is something you don’t forget. For me, the first video game I beat was Kirby’s Dreamland 2.

Released in 1995 on Game Boy and developed by HAL Laboratory, Kirby’s Dreamland 2 is a platform game. It centers on a pink ball of fluff named Kirby who has the ability to swallow his enemies and imitate their abilities. The player travels on seven islands in this world each with their own boss that you have to fight and defeat before going to the next.

As a child, Kirby’s Dreamland 2 was a video game I had a lot of fun playing. I spent hours playing it and was able to beat it in no time. You add the cute animals that help Kirby through each of the levels and I was hooked.

Kirby fighting one of the bosses with the help of Coo the Owl. Found this image on Arcade Bros. website.

For me, when I say I beat a video game, I mean that I got through the whole game. I made it through all the tough boss battles, dialogue (if there is any), and saw the credits roll. Even if I don’t collect all of the items to get a one hundred percent on the game, I still consider the game beaten if I’ve gotten through every other aspect of the game. I play video games for fun and getting all of the items in one game doesn’t give me any sort of pride or sense of accomplishment. Instead, I start getting bored playing video games if I have to go back and get every single item in order to get a one hundred percent in the game.

And as a child, I was proud of beating Kirby’s Dreamland 2. I enjoyed playing the levels because they weren’t too difficult and it was a good game for me on family road trips. As a child, I played this game many times on road trips when going to visit my grandmother in Pennsylvania. The drive to her place was twelve hours and playing Kirby’s Dreamland 2 made the trip go by faster.

I also enjoyed playing this game because of the music. The music entertained me and made game play light and fun. Seeing Kirby absorbing enemies and using their abilities was also an added bonus.

Rick the hamster and Kirby using the umbrella to kill an enemy. http://linkrandom.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-look-into-video-games-rick-kirby.html

Playing Kirby’s Dreamland 2 now, I feel a sense of nostalgia remembering the many times I was able to beat this game. Kirby’s Dreamland 2 holds a special place in my heart. I recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and easy game to play on any occasion.

October 11, 2015 0

First Impressions: Bioshock

Bioshock is a first person shooter, adventure game. Developed by 2K Boston, Bioshock takes place in the 1960’s and centers on the main character Jack. After surviving a plane crash, Jack makes his way into an underwater city named Rapture. Created by the business magnate Andrew Ryan, Rapture was intended to be an isolated utopia. However, the discovery of ADAM, a genetic material that gives people superhuman powers resulted in the cities rapid decline.

Jack’s first glimpse into the city Rapture.

In Bioshock, Jack is trying to escape from Rapture, fighting hordes of enemies obsessed with ADAM and creatures like Big Daddies while interacting with the few humans who remain to learn more about Rapture’s past. Playing as Jack, the player gets to use not only weapons to shoot enemies down but also different superhuman powers, such as Incinerate and Telekinesis. These different abilities give the player a vast array of opportunities to kill their enemies, giving the player a unique gaming experience.

Bioshock is truly an amazing gaming experience. As a rookie computer and first person shooter video game player, I was immediately hooked into playing this game. Bioshock had just all of the right elements to get me immersed into the world of Rapture and wanting to learn more about what happened to this beautiful city.

Bioshock is a video game that interested me from the start because of how interactive the game can get the player. This interaction can be seen through fighting enemies and listening to the diary entries of the different people who once lived in Rapture. Fighting enemies gives the player a sense of interaction because you get to kill enemies from a first person perspective. You play as Jack and get to control his movements as he kills his enemies using all of the different abilities in his arsenal. The diary entries also provide an interactive experience in Bioshock because they give the player more detail to the story. These journal entries help explain pieces of the puzzle that aren’t already unlocked for Jack and tell the player more about the people who lived in Rapture and what happened to them.

My first Splicer kill in Bioshock. — My first Splicer kill in *Bioshock*.

Another aspect of Bioshock that gets the player immersed into the game is the music. The music in this game is truly creepy and made me feel as if I were playing a horror game. Having this music to the game while fighting enemies gave me chills. This music contributed so much to my feelings of horror that when enemies appeared out of nowhere, I found myself jumping in my seat.

The one aspect to Bioshock that I’m still getting used to is the player controls. Since I don’t have a whole lot of experience playing first person shooter and computer games, I’m not yet used to how controls in these types of games work. Because of my lack of experience, whenever I find myself facing Splicers and other enemies, I often end up feeling turned around and confused trying to get the controls down so that I can kill them. The player controls also have me frustrated too because I find myself getting stuck at parts in the game because of them.

However, Bioshock is a truly marvelously beautiful game. My experience with it has so far been a wonderful one and I can’t wait to see where this game takes me.

September 27, 2015 0

Failed Impressions: Yume Nikki

In what I hope to be my first and only post, Failed Impressions are going to be video game posts about games I attempted to play only to quit. I’ll have quit playing a game due to lack of interest, holes in storyline, and even rage quit.

So for my first Failed Impressions post, I give you Yume Nikki. Yume Nikki is a surrealistic adventure game that was developed by Kikiyama in 2004. The game centers around a young girl named Madotsuki as she enters this dream world where she collects Effects, objects that provide Madotsuki with special abilities. The object of Yume Nikki is to collect all twenty-four effects.

There are many reasons why I couldn’t get into playing Yume Nikki. When I first started playing, I was interested in giving this game a shot. I had seen so many things on the Internet about this game and thought it would appeal to me.

However, that’s not what happened. I immediately found myself frustrated with the game when I was in Madotsuki’s room. In her room, there is an opportunity for the player to play a mini game called NASU. In NASU, the objective is to catch a falling eggplant in the character’s mouth. I found the mini game itself to be interesting and intriguing, but quickly became frustrated when I discovered that I couldn’t exit out of it.

I tried furiously pressing every key on my laptop known to mankind to exit out of this mini game, but it refused to let me go. Even the ESC button didn’t work. So I’d have to reload Yume Nikki every time I tried to play NASU. And that frustrated me because it showed that the controls didn’t always work.

Another reason Yume Nikki didn’t appeal to me as a gamer is because of the lack of a storyline. When I play video games, I play for the purpose of being introduced to a whole new world where I can explore the mechanics of the game along with seeing an intriguing and interesting storyline and character development as I progress. In this game, the player is introduced to Madotsuki, a young girl who lives alone in her apartment.

But there’s no real story here. There’s Madotsuki and her dreams and that’s it. And while that can be interesting to some players, I want to know more about what’s going on and what I’m supposed to be doing in these dreams. Because while the environment Madotsuki was in was intriguing and interesting to explore, I was frustrated that there was no real story that I could sink my teeth into.

I also didn’t enjoy Yume Nikki because of getting lost in this game. While I don’t mind playing games where you can explore the environment around you, I found that the dreams going to other dreams to be more of a nuisance. None of the dreams connected together in a way that made sense to me as a player. And while I don’t mind getting lost in video games, not being able to find my way out without having to wake Madotsuki up really frustrated me. It meant that I would have to go back into the same dreams again just to make sure that I collected all of the effects before moving on to the next door.

I really tried getting into Yume Nikki. I really did. But because of the amount of problems I had while playing, such as being unable to play the game at all, I had to call it quits after only playing the game for an hour and collecting three effects. I really wish this game had turned out differently for me.

September 11, 2015 0

First Impressions: Alice Mare

Alice Mare is an adventure, horror and puzzle game created by Miwashiba in Wolf RPG Editor.

Alice Mare centers around a boy named Allen. After losing his memory, Allen is placed in a home where four other children live. While at this facility, Allen discovers there to be a World of Dreams. He also learns more about the other children he lives with through storybook telling.

Through exploration, the player will find out what’s going on but can also unlock a total of seven different endings.

Alice Mare is a game that I’m still struggling to figure out how I feel about it. When I first started playing, I was confused and trying to figure out what’s going on. This occurred because the game has the player jump right into the game without any detail. I like that the game did this because it made playing Alice Mare that much more interesting for me. However, I also felt confused when I was playing because I didn’t begin to realize what was going on until later.

What I do like about Alice Mare is the music. I feel that a lot of the music you hear while you play is really beautiful and makes the gameplay enjoyable for the player. Some of the songs that I really enjoyed from Alice Mare include Miracle of the Stars, Playing with Dolls, Murdered, and El Paradiso. It really helped set the tone of the game and gave the player an idea of how things were going.

Another aspect of Alice Mare I enjoy is the character’s stories. I love that Miwashiba gave each of the characters fairytale stories. I really love fairytales and it was easy to see how each of these fairytales was uniquely incorporated into the game. It also made the game enjoyable to me because while I was playing, I was trying to figure out which fairytale each of the children were a part of. I also found that I loved all of these different characters because the player could connect and feel sympathy for them.

Another aspect of Alice Mare I really enjoyed was the horror that was incorporated into the game. It wasn’t a whole lot, but enough to make the player see that there is horror in the game. The player could see a lot of these aspects not only through the music, but through the graphics as well. While the music in the game set the tone for each scene, the graphics themselves helped the player figure out what was going to happen to the characters next. This intrigued me while playing because I didn’t know what to expect from scene to scene.

What I didn’t enjoy while playing Alice Mare was the lack of plot explanation. The player knows that Allen is a young boy, new to the facility he has been placed in. However, the player doesn’t get a vivid explanation of these dream worlds and doesn’t know a whole lot about the characters other than what’s relayed in the game. The player never finds out who Alice is (though the game implies it’s you, though you don’t know for sure).

I also didn’t enjoy any of the puzzles and riddles you had to do to progress in the game. I found them to be confusing and the answers for a lot of them didn’t make a lot of sense to me. The only way I progressed at all was from looking at the Alice Mare Wiki to get the answers to the puzzles and riddles.

So while I did enjoy playing Alice Mare, I’m still conflicted on how I feel about it.

September 6, 2015 0

Reliving Memories: Dark Cloud 2

Known as Dark Chronicle in Japan and Europe, Dark Cloud 2 is an adventure RPG dungeon crawling game made by Level 5. Published in 2003, Dark Cloud 2 centers around two characters: Maximillian and Monica Raybrandt.

An inventor and son of the wealthiest man in Palm Brinks, Maximillian works at Cedric’s shop, helping him repair parts. His adventure begins after a chance encounter with Flotsam’s Circus Troupe where he not only finds out about the outside world, but discovers that he has the Red Atlamillia, which allows him to go into the past. Monica Raybrandt is the daughter of King Raybrandt. She is the owner of the Blue Atlamillia and is sent into the past to help Maximillian stop Emperor Griffin from destroying the future after she witnesses him kill her father. Together, Maximillian and Monica work to repair the past in order to bring a brighter future to their world.

I remember as a child playing this game a lot. I had first heard about Dark Cloud 2 from a friend of mine at daycare in elementary school. Back then, I was the tomboy in my group of friends. I was the only girl at the daycare I went to who hung out with all the guys because most of the girls at my daycare I couldn’t relate to. I found out about Dark Cloud 2 from one of my friends there, started playing it, and haven’t stopped since.

I have so many fond memories of this game because it became one of my favorite games to play as a child. Now that I’m older, I’ve been playing Dark Cloud 2 with my boyfriend Zach so that I can relive all those moments of playing this game when I was little. Even though when I was younger I never got further than the second dungeon, there are a lot of things about this game that I liked even then.

For one, there are a lot of unique features this game has that I haven’t seen yet in other video games. For example, in order to recover the future, the player has to build Georamas. Georamas are a way of rebuilding the past in order to restore the future. In order to put a Georama together, the player needs the Carpenterion and Geostones. The Carpenterion is a machine that allows you to create the items you need to make the Georama. However, in order to make the Georama parts, the player needs Geostones, which holds the data the Carpenterion needs to create these parts. What I like about this feature in Dark Cloud 2 is that it is a very unique way of building items and that each Georama has its own sets of challenges that the player has to overcome if they want to progress further in the game.

I also enjoy playing Dark Cloud 2 because of the dungeons. Each floor in all of the dungeons in this game have unique monsters to fight and unique gate keys that the player has to obtain. In order to get to the next dungeon floor, the player has to fight monsters to obtain the gate key and I like that each dungeon has its own corresponding gate key that is different from all the others. I also like that each of the dungeon floors are randomly generated, which allows the player to have a unique gaming experience on each dungeon level. Another component to the dungeons I enjoy is the music. I enjoy that each dungeon has its own music that is unique to the area the player is exploring. I just find that the music in Dark Cloud 2 is beautiful and that it makes me enjoy fighting monsters all the more as I continue to play this game.

Dark Cloud 2 Rainbow Butterfly Wood Dungeon — Monica in Rainbow Butterfly Wood, the second dungeon in Dark Cloud 2.

Another aspect of Dark Cloud 2 I love is building up Max and Monica’s weapons. Both Max and Monica have unique weapons the player needs to build up to make stronger weapons the player can use to fight monsters. The building up process involves synthesizing items, such as crystals to strengthen Max and Monica’s stats. Once you have certain numbers for your stats, you are able to build your weapon up to a stronger wrench, gun, sword or armband. What I love about their weapons is that they are unique. For example, Max’s main weapon is a wrench, which is something I’ve never seen in any other game I’ve played. I also like that when you build your weapon up that the player has more than one option. This allows the player the ability to have two or three of the same weapon and increase different stats for each one to make the weapon something else. I like that you have multiple options when making your weapon because it gives the player the chance to create different weapons to handle different types of monsters.

However, there are also components to Dark Cloud 2 that I don’t enjoy. These features are going fishing and playing Spheda. As a person who doesn’t enjoy fishing as a hobby, I find playing fishing in this game to be boring because it doesn’t excite me in any way. While at times it can be peaceful after finishing a tough dungeon or battle with a monster, it’s more of a hassle to do. Especially when you first start playing Dark Cloud 2 before you have Fabio join your party. Spheda is a video game version of golf. The goal of Spheda is to hit your ball, which will either be blue or red, into the red or blue hole of the opposite color. If the ball and the hole are the same color, the ball will just bounce off the hole. However, the player only has a certain amount of hits they can do before the time distortion disappears. While Spheda can sometimes be fun to play, I find that I don’t enjoy it as much because it’s more of a pain to do. One of the reasons Spheda is a pain to play is because the player has to clear the dungeon floor of monsters before they can even play. Another reason I don’t like Spheda is because there are so many rooms for error that sometimes trying to clear the time distortion isn’t even worth it.

While playing Dark Cloud 2 with Zach, I’ve been able to discover my love of this game over again. I remember why I played this game a lot as a child, even though I never progressed as far as I have now that I’m playing with another person. Playing Dark Cloud 2 again is such a wonderful experience. I am glad that I am creating such wonderful memories with this game again that I’ll be able to look back on with fondness and a happy heart.

August 20, 2015 0

Rainy Day's Books, Video Games and Other Writings

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Reliving Memories: Crash Team Racing

First Impressions: Undertale

The Swan & the Crow Chapter 2: A Strange Encounter (Max)

First Impressions: Life is Strange Episode 5: Polarized

Reliving Memories: Kirby’s Dreamland 2

First Impressions: Bioshock

Failed Impressions: Yume Nikki

First Impressions: Alice Mare

Reliving Memories: Dark Cloud 2

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