Ask me about video games Check List

In between my more serious blog coming up, I saw this checklist on my tumblr page, which I'll post a link to at the end of this blog, and decided "what the hell" and post it on this blog page too. For those wondering, all 3 of you, I'm a retro gamer, meaning I mostly play games that were from my childhood, which was a long time ago. This checklist showcases the likes and dislikes on the various old games I play, you've been warned...

1. Favorite video game?
 Super Mario Brothers 3

2. First console you owned?
Nintendo

3. A game that holds a special place in your heart? See answer #1

4. Favorite video game character?
It's between Mario, Chun-Li from the Street Fighter series and Goemon

5.  Least favorite video game character?
Not sure but it's probably a boss from an SNK fighting game, cheap bastards...

6. Favorite genre?
Between Beat 'em up, side scrolling action and fighting games

7.  Video game character you’ve had a crush on?
Rainbow Mika from Street Fighter Alpha 3

8. First video game you remember playing?
Popeye arcade game

9. Age you started gaming?
Playing games: 6. Actual gaming: 19

10. Hardest video game you’ve played?
Phantasy Star IV, four years and still haven't beat it...

11.  Video game you’ve spent the most time on?
Not sure but it was probably Capcom Classics Collection vol.2

12. Most embarrassing gaming moment?
Losing my shit when playing King of Fighters XI and Art of Fighting, the latter, in front of my then girlfriend

13.  Scariest video game you’ve played?
I tend to stay away from horror themed games but I remember being a little freaked out when I first played Laser Ghost. Damn laughing gargoyle...

14.  Most memorable gaming moment?
Either beating Super Mario World or Chrono Trigger.

15.  Video game character you wish you could meet in real life?
It's between Chun-Li, Mai Shuranui or Kirby

16.  PC, Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo?
Dreamcast, Nintendo, Playstation

17. Gaming company you’re most loyal to?
Originally, it was Capcom but because of recent mistakes made by the company, I've strayed to SNK and Konami, though they're not perfect either.

18.  If you could only play one video game for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
I dunno but it would have to have ninjas

19. Do you use strategy guides?
No

20.  How often do you use cheats?
Depends on the games

21.  Competitive or single player?
Single, unless it's a beat 'em up

22.  Video game character you want to/have cosplayed?
Never have cosplayed. Who would I cosplay as? Either Goemon or one of the Ninjas from Konami's Mystic Warriors

23. Ever go to a video game convention?
No but I wouldn't be against it

24.   Hardest boss fight you’ve been in?
see answer #5

25. Video game you wish you could burn from your memory?
Power Punch II

26.  Favorite gaming series?
It was Street Fighter but these days, it's hard to say...

27. Do you skip tutorials, or find them useful?
See answer #20 

28. Best online gaming experience?
Jet Li's "Age of Wushu" . It was more fun than I anticipated.

29. Worst online gaming experience?
Really haven't had one

30. Why do you game?
For fun, for escapism, just like everyone else...

Making sense of Street Fighter pt. 2...

Oh, Street Fighter Alpha 3, where do I even begin with you...

Released in 1998, Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Zero 3 in Japan) was to be the final in the Alpha series (an updated version was released on Playstation Pocket years later). Like any good sequel, it upped the ante for the game, bringing in new characters alongside the remainder of whichever characters of Street Fighter II that weren't in the previous installments and providing different modes of combat systems for whichever character the player picked. This may all sound impressive but to me, besides the new characters, all the updates just made the game a bit confusing. When the game was ported to home systems, there were slight changes to every version. The Sega Dreamcast version had better hit sprites (don't ask) and slightly better animation while the Playstation One version, the one I owned, had many bonus levels and the remaining characters from the Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. With all these different changes and modes, maybe the game designers should've paid more attention to the plot of the game and yes, I'm about to go into heavy detail about the plot of a video game where the key objective is to beat other people up.

Bison, from crime boss to Psychokinetic demi-god and back again

In SFII,  Bison (Vega in Japan) was the leader of the criminal organization, Shadaloo, using the tournament as a possible way of recruitment. After the release of "Street Fighter II; the animated movie" , Capcom decided to make the Alpha series to provide back story for some of the characters. For the first couple games, Bison's origin remained a mystery but two important characters were introduced that were tied to him, the fortune teller Rose, who is spiritually connected to Bison and Charlie (Nash in Japan), Guile's partner who Bison had killed, motivating his grudge.

Things became really interesting during SFA3 (not saying that SFA1&2 weren't interesting), when Bison went from a powerful fighter and criminal organization leader to demi-god. Bison is now trying to harness all of the world's psychokinetic energy through a giant machine. Rose, the fortune teller who's spiritually connected turns out to be the separated good half of Bison's soul and Cammy, who originally just worked for Bison, turns out to be a clone of him. If I didn't know any better, I'd say Bison had definitely had his feminine side. Not that there's anything wrong, it just feels extremely out of place for the series.

Rose, Bison's feminine side 

  In Rose's ending in SFA3, she kills Bison but collapses in the process. She is found by Guy, the game's resident ninja bad ass (those who've read this blog know I love ninjas), and taken to safety, not knowing that Bison's essence (don't ask) has possessed Rose, who later goes off and along with Shadaloo scientists  create a new, albeit weaker body and this is where Street Fighter II starts. Oy vey!

Oh, it gets better. So, SFA3 has pretty much everyone from SFII, with the Playstation one version has all these characters plus the remaining three remaining fighters from SSFII. All these characters and this is supposed to take place before SFII (Capcom's words, not mine), with all these characters coming back for that tournament?? Save me, retcon Jesus!!

Anyway, while that insanity was going on, Capcom had already began making up for this when after five years, they finally made a Street Fighter III, with newer characters and a new storyline that didn't involve Bison. Yet, the inconsistencies that plagued SFA3 will come back to rear it's ugly head soon.

To be concluded...

Making sense of Street Fighter pt.1 ...

I'm a big fan of Capcom games and the game that started my liking for most of the companies older out put was "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior". When I first played this game in 1991, I was amazed by the gameplay and concept. In this game were 8 unique characters beating the hell out of each other with crazy moves like fireballs, sonic booms and hundred hand slaps.

  Before SF II, the few fighting games that were available, including Street Fighter 1, were kind of boring and after Street Fighter II came a slew of other fighters, some good (Fatal Fury), some bad (Dragon Master) and some were just weird (Fighter's History). As all these were being released, Street Fighter (or the company that made the series, Capcom) decided to make improvements to the SF but not in sequels but in special editions of SF II. At first, this was ok, with two players able to play as the same character and being able use the four boss characters and in later games 4 new characters but it just left me, and I'm sure fans of the game, wanting a 3rd in the series. In 1995, there was a new Street Fighter game with a new design and better graphics but it was not sequel but a prequel. Not what I was expecting but anything is better than another SF II.

Street Fighter Alpha (Zero in Japan) takes place after Street Fighter I but before Street Fighter II, making it a side story. Alpha provided back stories for the few street fighter II characters that were in the game, brought back some characters from street fighter I, brought in characters from another Capcom game,1989s Final Fight, and provided two new characters who a important to the street fighter universe. The new animation was incredible, a show of the updated graphics system Capcom began using, and as mentioned earlier, the new character designs gave new life to the series, even if some were a little over exaggerated. Still, this was an amazing game that I know I was addicted to the first time I played it. Capcom went and on to release a sequel the next year, Street Fighter Alpha II (Zero II),doing the same in bringing back characters from previous games and introducing new favorable ones. But a couple of  years later, Street Fighter Alpha 3 was released and it showed, to me at least, that whoever was behind this game either got a little too ambitious or purposely made the game, storyline wise, weird as all hell.

To Be Continued

Saw a star shining bright; two years later

 Today is the second anniversary of the death of my dear friend, Candice. I know this will not feel as heartfelt as the first "Saw a star..." blog but I just felt like writing about her.

These past few days have been weird because I felt like I've been using her death as an excuse for my mood and now I feel guilt for it. In all honesty, I do miss her like crazy, even going so far as keeping her section in the obituary and the program from her viewing. There are considerable small things that I miss about her, her smile, her eyes, her big brea.. um, attitude and most of all, knowing she cared about me. That sort of thing is extremely important because God knows how many times I've been told "I don't see a future for us". Once, I had a girl hesitate to go out with me because my not being able to drive, even though my being unable to drive is mostly because of my epilepsy but I'm getting way off subject...

There's just so much I wanted to say to her, so much to ask. What the hell did she see in me and if she saw a future for us? I'd like to think she did. What would have the perfect scenario of us for her, to be like Ward and June Cleaver?

I think the main thing I would ask her is "why?". Was there that much pain in her life that she felt she had no other choice? Why not call Michelle (one of my best friends and her best friend) or me? Hell, crisis care was right there. If I had known the last time I talked to her would in fact be the last time, I would've...honestly, I don't know I would've done or said. Plus, I don't even know if she died that way. It's just sad that she's gone.

I just hope she is happy, still the shining star in the night sky I saw a couple of years ago.

Candice, You are still missed, you still own pieces of my heart and I thank you for making this frog feel like a prince.

Always,
Me

The Slow Process of becoming an RPG fan Pt.3

Well, my last couple of blogs have been downers so I think I'll pep up this blog with continuing in my telling of becoming an RPG fan.

In 2008, I noticed that there was a new Dragon Quest game (At this point, I began noticing RPGs a bit more) and kept pondering whether or not to buy it. In the end, I didn't so this sentence is a little pointless.

In 2010, I finally owned my first RPG as part of a game compilation and as 2012, I've yet to beat it, Phantasy Star IV.

Phantasy Star IV, Stop being so damn hard!!

Before this game, I was strictly a fighting game/ beat 'em up fan but I was becoming bored with  these kind of games. I began giving RPGs and other type of adventure games a try because I knew it would take more than 30 minutes to beat them. After playing other games on the compilation, I decided to go ahead and try the RPG. The beginning monologue to PS4 was a little long winded but I became drawn in with the game's story and manga-like cutscenes. I wasn't sure what the hell I was doing in the game so for the first week I think I just randomly walked around aimlessly until I got into battles. After becoming extremely frustrated in not knowing who, what or where, I took to youtube for a walkthrough (videos of a complete rundown of a game) which made the game maybe 10% easier. As much as I wanted to kick my tv in while playing this game, I couldn't wait to get any further and see the next cutscene.

In the middle of Phantasy Star 4, I was distracted by a few things, school, depression and a friend letting me borrow two RPGs he owned. These two RPGs are thought to be the greatest of their kind and it's pretty hard for me to disagree, even if I've only played a few.

Best RPG EVER...well, in my opinion.

 I started out liking "Chrono Trigger" for "Dragon Ball" creator Akira Toriyama had done the character designs and animated cutscenes. This, along with funny dialogue and interesting villains kept me playing, no matter how frustrating it got. While in the middle of  a huge depression, this game became my life, which with everything that was going on in my life, was a good thing. I miraculously beat the game in the beginning of summer and it was the happiest thing that had happened to me in a  long time. I almost celebrated until I thought "now what?".  Then I looked and remembered that I had another  RPG game to play, the father of all RPGs to be exact...

If you, the reader, have read my earlier blogs, you know that I had already played Final Fantasy VII but this was the original Final Fantasy and all I hoped was that the game didn't freeze up like FF VII did all the time. For such a retro game, it was originally made in 1987, it was vast and there seemed to be a battle always around the corner. I had fun playing as the 4 light warriors and the story was interesting enough but I did run into a problem, in the games vastness, I got lost. I don't mean lost for a couple of hours, I mean a freaking week and a half. I looked on the internet for where to go but when playing, I would just end in up in the same places. I think when I finally figured out where to go, I had done so much grinding (countless battles with enemies just to raise experience points) when I finally got the final boss of the game, I was so over powered, it only took a few minutes to beat them. I kind of just shrugged my shoulders about it, as the ending wasn't as Chrono Trigger's was. And then a couple days later, My friend wanted his games back, which was a little saddening because I had just started Final Fantasy II.

Now, I have a new respect for RPGs or at least the retro ones. They are games that inspire imaginations, take you on adventures that take a hell of a lot longer than 30-45 minutes to complete and in some cases, like Nintendo's "Earthbound", they have heart. Not all of them are good but to sort out the good from the bad, that's what the internet is for.

Now excuse me, I have to spend my weekend not studying and playing Phantasy Star IV.

End

Free your thoughts, ass will follow...

A few years back, when I was still at a certain university, I was in the middle of a big depression spell and was feeling incredibly lonely when it was suggested to me to join a student organization. I was in a student organization when I first started the school but left it after feeling it was a little lame (it was an anime organization for anyone wondering). I looked through a pamphlet that featured all of the student organization but was not impressed by any featured. One day, I think after leaving class, I had seen an ad for a non-religious student organization that interested me and ironically, it was meeting that same day. And to think, I almost went home and studied.

I went to the meeting, introducing myself as being agnostic, even though most of the group were atheist. It was a fun group and we spent that meeting debating over a political / religious subject I can barely remember. I think I spent 60%  of the debate looking at one members...ahem...assets (sorry, Rachael). Besides that, I did enjoy the group and pretty much attended meetings weekly. I felt like, for a change, I actually had a group of friends in school that would eventually accept me. Well, most of them, I felt a few of them weren't particularly fond of me.

As the months went on, the group did it's good (we volunteered for a couple of homeless shelters), it's bonding, (after every meeting, we either went out to eat or to a members place or both), and it's debates (attended a couple and even had some of our own). And then, came fall quarter of the following year (I began attending meetings in the middle of spring quarter of the year before and the events mentioned took place between that time and summer) came and that's when everything began to change.

Some members left, some new members came but the group felt different. Sure, we still had meetings but instead of being accepting of anyone, no matter what their religious beliefs, it now felt like "We're right and not only are you wrong, you're an idiot". A huge difference in the group is that it almost became a swinger group. I'm not saying the group was having sex with each other but it did feel like everyone was flirtatious with everyone. Even I was flirtatious with the women in our group in an effort to prove to myself I was attractive. It didn't quite work out.

The straw that broke the camel's back (yes, I used that phrase) was a debate with a religious student organization. This supposedly peaceful debate got ugly really quick and not only did this ugliness spread out of the debate but it felt like it had truly spread inside some of our core members. When about five of us went to get refreshments for a party, our fearless leader mocked the members of the organization we had just debated with, loudly. When leaving the chip aisle, ironically, those same organization members came around the corner, having heard everything our fearless leader had said, I'm sure. They looked at us as if we were demons and we just walked by quietly, until we left the store and the mocking started again. At this point, I felt the group wasn't for me anymore and kinda began cut ties with them. 

DMX vs. Zimmerman; The Freakshow

Wow, has the entertainment industry really come to this? Last night, while on my fifth hour on twitter, I heard the news of a celebrity boxing match between rapper DMX and murderer, yes, I called him a murderer, George Zimmerman. I went to bed, hoping it was a rumor, only to see the news confirmed earlier today. My first thought upon hearing this was "What the fuck?!"  Are we, as Americans, really ok with this??

Seriously, who okayed this shit??

Here's my opinion, take it as you may; George Zimmerman doesn't need more spotlight and cameras in his face, he needs to rot in prison for the rest of his life, if not the death penalty because of what he's "famous" for. DMX, who has his own problems  with drugs and...being DMX, doesn't need fame at the moment but de-tox and a psych ward.

On the other hand, the people behind this need souls or at least one hell of a reality check. And we, as a people, need to not endorse this crap.  This whole event repulses me and makes me wonder; would people  be ok with a celebrity boxing match between Celine Dion and Baby Murderer Casey Anthony?

In any case, I refuse to watch this shit but I will root for DMX in the end.