Little Nemo, Dream Master

It was 1905, a simpler time. A young boy had only his thoughts and dreams to play with. Nemo's parental figures forced Nemo to sleep, on threat of what can only be imagined. Being summoned by the Princess of Dreamland, Nemo entered into a creative dream world encompassing such lands as the Mushroom Forest, the Flower Garden, and the House of Toys.

Armed with only candy, Nemo fed lizards, frogs, bees, moles and the occasional hermit crab in order to hitch a ride to his destination. After seven levels of what can only be described as "jolly frolicking," Nemo found Princess Camille and discovered her intent. The evil Dream Master wanted to permanently end good dreams and replace them with nightmares and she needed a hero.

With pure intentions, Nemo battled flames, bottomless pits, rabid bats and crazed machinery on his way to meeting the Dream Master in a showdown of epic proportions. Armed with the magical sceptre, a gift from the Princess, Nemo squared off with three evolutions of the Dream Master, finally conquering his laser guided ammunition and projectiles with the hidden power of the sceptre.

As a reward, the King intended to crown the young conqueror as Prince. Nemo, however, humbly declined the invitation out of loyalty to his family. Instead, as a reward, the Princess embraced Nemo and poured all of her gratitude and love into one majestic kiss. The blimp flies calmly past the moon.

I am grateful for the opportunity to aid Nemo in his pursuits as my wife, daughter and son are away for the evening to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Video game play is getting few and far between as I grow into fatherhood.

This game is a solid 7 out of 10. It is very challenging, but short enough to be able to feel accomplished at beating each level. The controls are precise and leave the player happy with the overall game play. Graphics are cartoonish, but just right for a game such as this. As I type, I can't help but hear the soundtrack to the game replaying. From level to level it is as good of a soundtrack as exists for Nintendo, but listening to the opening credits greater than twenty times consecutively is not recommended. As of now, I am adding a new method of rating Nintendo games that is very self-serving, the daughter compatibility method. My daughter would love this game due to its cartoonish style and the moving around of the players/enemies. There is also a funny typo in the credits as you can see in the final picture.

After a quick Autumn in the trenches with an under-performing football team, hopefully the Winter leads to a few more games being checked off the list. Looking back, it was also a very slow summer for NES, playing and acquiring games. It does not seem like the Nintendo was played once this summer, and only two games were added to the collection. Life.

Tecmo Super Bowl 

When motivation meets opportunity, amazing feats are possible; today was such a day. After a 4-day vacation to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the family and I returned to a sweltering 100+ degree house at about 11:00 p.m. We all fell asleep almost immediately as the air conditioning stumbled to life in order to aid our faltering bodies. I awoke at about 8:30 by myself in the basement and found two surprises. The first surprise was "the opportunity" - Sophia (she's 2.5 years old now...holy smokes) was taken to day care by Mom. The second surprise was "the motivation" - a package, sitting on the front stoop; a little brown box from a long lost friend (many adventure/fantasy movies begin much like this); in the box was a shirt; a relatively simple shirt; it was a plain grey/black cotton t-shirt with a picture of the NES controller. This package also contained a note; it said "Play some Tecmo for me". Well, Ryan Carrigan, consider it done. Fourteen hours later, kids and wife put to sleep, '90s alternative music playing in the background, the Super Bowl Champs, the San Fransisco 49ers, 19-0.

There are many ways to play Tecmo; when more time was available, each alternative strategy was tested thoroughly. The strategy used today was to dominate with the 49ers passing game; yes it is common opinion that this is cheating. The first eight games were limited to Joe Montana and Jerry Rice; the only other players to touch the ball were kick/punt/fumble returners. Going in to game eight, the NFL Leaders board developed an apparent glitch; it seemed to error on Montana and on Rice. One more game was needed to test the theory that an error had occurred. Half way through game eight, Joe Montana got hurt and Steve Young got called in for back up duty for the rest of the regular season. Rice caught eleven touchdown passes that game, ten from Montana. After the game, the error was confirmed; Montana's and Rice's statistics had limited out. It appears that neither the yards nor the touchdowns added on to the stats. With this knowledge, the season's strategy was modified. The second half of the season, Steve Young to John Taylor was the only connection. The goal was to get two quarterbacks and two receivers statistics limited out. It did not happen. The second half of the season is much tougher than than the first; however, if Rice's and Montana's statistics were transfered over from that eighth game to Young and Taylor, it would have been achievable. Once the playoffs rolled in, the only goal was a very passive attempt  to get everybody into the endzone. It was close, but the tight ends couldn't make it; each got tackled on the one-yard-line.

Some fun statistics mounted up and as the season went along. The top three sackers, each with over 30 were Charles Haley (39), Bill Romanowski (36), and Ronnie Lott(33). The top scorers were 1st place - Rice (63+ at least 10 touchdowns, unofficial because of glitch, 378 points), 2nd place - John Taylor 52 touchdowns, 312 points) and 7th place - Mike Cofer 131 extra points. The total defense was 240 yards allowed. The best game was against the Vikings; the hatred must shine through; Score 88-0, Montana to Rice 808 yards. The first game of the season was a similar one, but just really got the team off to a great start. It was disappointing that the offense couldn't score 1000 points in the season.

The playoff brackets were very nostalgic. It seemed to represent football before it was thoroughly corrupted by Paul Tagliabue and furthermore by Roger Goodell. The playoffs were a breeze as the 49ers and the Raiders dueled it out in the Super Bowl. It was not very much of a duel. Bo Jackson was overhyped. He never busted a run for more than a couple yards. It was rather unfortunate to see the best running back ever stifled in the biggest game of his career. The 49ers defense was as good as advertised and the offense was unstoppable.

Tecmo Super Bowl remains the best football video game of all time. The multiplayer is fantastic, the statistics are organized and simple. The gameplay is challenging and fun. The parity amongst teams keeps all of the teams competitive and games unpredictable.

Thank you again Ryan for getting my priorities straightened out. Teachers shouldn't be this busy in the summer.

Mike Tyson's Punch Out / Contra

It's really what NES was created for. A Tuesday night, a buddy calls and says "What's up, wanna hang out? What's there to do? We should play some video games!"

Upon arrival, Jake sees and remembers the scope of my collection and flatters me. After checking out my PS3, receiver setup, projector, basically...man cave, we search through nearly 400 NES titles and settle on, you guessed it, Contra. How could we really pick anything else? Jake brings up the story of how I beat Contra my freshmen year of college upside down and through a mirror, so of course we have to play it now.

After 7+ years for Jake and 1+ year for me, Jake and I fall into our old rhythm of gunning down computer drones with spread guns and slicing our way inside and out of the vile Red Falcon with lasers and F-guns. As it turns out, we saved the universe, and we are heroes. I am proud to say we made no silly errors like jumping each other out of the screen or holding each other back. We did get shot a couple times and Jake fell into a few pits, but that's to be expected after such a lag. I finished with 30 guys and Jake finished with 13. We used "The Code".

We then continue on to Mike Tyson's Punch Out. As we contemplate the difference between Mike Tyson and Mr. Dream, Jake and Little Mac work their way through the Major and Minor divisions. Jake stumbled on Soda Popinski and I took over. After showing Jake a new trick on Soda (block his big uppercut and he freezes, then you can pop him for a star), I stumble upon Don Flamenco reincarnated. I lose. Then Jake loses again by decision. Holy crap! We're getting old. The only way to go through that game is simply to go undefeated, so we started over. I punch my way in record time through the ranks and gett to Tyson flawless. Thirty seconds later, I'm flat on my butt, Game Over.

Time for the other code (007-373-5963). Jake takes his turn; Tyson takes three punches and 18 seconds later Jake is done in record time. I come back and Jake says "Last try, gotta go." Tyson gets worked over in the first round, no uppercut connections. Second round starts, three belly shots sends him to the mat with three stars in my pocket. Tyson gets counter punched and uppercutted into the mat twice more for my quickest victory ever: 2:05 in the second round. Tyson has never seen such finger speed before!

It was a pleasure and an honor to play video games with Jake. Anytime somebody wants to play a little NES, just do it. It makes you feel good! All the old times are brought back and all the cares in the world go away. All I'm saying is that we could have used a family-sized bucket of KFC to top off the night. Thank you mothers and children for making this possible.

Monopoly

Net Worth=$28,539
Parameters=8 Player Game (7 computer)
Piece=Thimble
Name=Bean

Monopoly helped prove the hypotheses that the main character's name has a significant effect on the outcome of the game. With names like "Derpy" and "SlapRod" there was no success to be had. Ten or fifteen tries with names like that yielded early bankruptcy. After some deep soul searching, the name Bean came to my mind. Why?

Orson Scott Card wrote a series of books based on extraordinary children being excellent tacticians and making their own luck. The book "Shadow of the Hegemon" is what I am currently reading and Bean is the main protagonist. The game of Monopoly requires excellent tactics and strokes of luck.

An eight player game requires a different strategy than with only a few players. After some trial and error looking to get the green and the red monopolies and going bankrupt over and over again, the answer was waiting in transportation. Cut off the enemies' supply lines and they won't be able to succeed. Acquiring the first two railroads was the first step in the plan. Buying the next railroad for an extreme price of $750 seemed like an exorbitant price, but the resulting cash flow proved the contrary. Having Kentucky Avenue provided the leverage needed to acquire the last railroad. With seven other players dividing all of the important properties, and many rounds of idle play, Bean amassed a small fortune. Preying upon weaker players and not making pivotal trades was the strategy that led to the defeat of Carmen, Ollie, the resilient Erwin, and the rest of the predictable computer players.

Monopoly...some of you may ask. Really? The answer to that is of course that I wanted to get an easy win and also I can't get my wife to play the game with me and I felt like playing. I wanted an easy victory because I just spent 130 hours on Final Fantasy X-2. With that said, I am irritated beyond belief that after getting 100% completion, I did not get the perfect ending. That is what I've been up to since Halloween. I also got a PS3 for Christmas and put off playing it until I beat Final Fantasy. I am looking forward to playing Metal Gear, NCAA Football, and Final Fantasy 13. Once I get wrapped up in FF13 it is unlikely that the NES will receive the attention it deserves. I will probably put that off until the summer.

Sophia is now running around the house, climbing up on the Love Sack and grabbing at my controllers. I can just tell she is itching to beat Zelda and whip up on some Sesame Street ABC123. Which allele do we need to isolate to measure the amount of video game prowess that is hereditary?

Until next time...I don't think it will be as long of a wait.

A Nightmare on Elm Street-Complete

Alas...Freddy is Dead...or is he?

A weekend without a wife and child, while lonely, can be extremely productive on the video game front. After just a taste on my first night, I played on and off throughout the football games on Saturday and Sunday. This game should have taken about two hours to beat, but with casual interruptions and minimal attention given to detailed game play, it took a couple days.

I definitely feel better about myself after killing Freddy! Now I've got some confidence heading into Halloween and taking on dozens of masked hoodlums and cute toddlers (I'm not sure which is more scary). Last I heard, Sophia has four costumes to choose from. I can't keep up, but I'm sure she'll strike fear into the demons that claim Halloween as their time to haunt and frighten the innocent.

The game play for Freddy was standard: jump, duck, shoot. A few characters to choose from kept the level of interest up. Each had slightly different characteristics. The regular character could punch; there was a jump-kicker who could throw stars; a sommersaulter who could throw daggers; and a Luigi-like jumper who threw some sort of magic burst. The jump-kicker was the most effective against the bosses but was aggravating to play with. He just bothered me for some reason.

If patient, the game is very simple. Bosses are very pattern oriented and get slightly more difficult as you go on. The final stage is pretty difficult, but only because of its length. The final boss is a progression of all bosses and fighting Freddy at the end who is a pansy. He is without a doubt the easiest boss I'll face in the next year of video game play.

With the high school football season nearly over, I will hopefully get to more games before the holidays, but being a dad is very time consuming and enjoyable. For those of you youngsters who might read this blog, get your video games in before you have children. You'll find it is more enjoyable to spend time with your kids than it is to play video games. You might be able to sneak in an hour here or there, but not like you can in high school and in college. I can't wait for the day when Sophia wants to come play video games with me. That was something my siblings and I always enjoyed doing with my dad. Of course we were 5-10 years old when NES came out and we were in desperate need of entertainment. All-nighters were common with my dad and the Legend of Zelda and games like that; how awesome were those days!

Take care and enjoy the tricks that come along with the treats this week!

Halloween-Horror Games

Frustration! Absurdity! Anger! Impossible! Disappointing!

Getting close to the Halloween holiday, I've been catching up on my Friday the 13th pretty heavy lately. It was not my intention to get wrapped up in the holiday this year, but sometimes it just happens.

I was a little under the weather and having trouble sleeping so I watched some late night cable television. I found Friday the 13th part 2 on, so I watched that. Then, the original was on after that, so what if it was 1:00 a.m., you can't miss a classic. Since then, there has been a Jason movie on every time I turn on the t.v. I figured, I might as well catch up on my slasher movies.

So the wife and kid went to San Fransisco on vacation (I made sure they watched "The Rock" before they went. I hope they go see Alcatraz) and I'm alone here by myself. I figured I should rent the latest Jason movie (not Freddy vs. Jason, but the 2008 one) and it was standard awesome Jason. After getting in the mood watching him carve up Camp Crystal Lake, I was looking forward to getting some revenge on his mentally challenged, deceptively fast butt and playing some old fashioned "Friday the 13th". After the movie finished, I went to the "F" section in my collection and...nothing; the "J" section and ...nothing. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! I checked my database and I don't even seem to own a copy. Isaiah must have it. I know I used to have a copy somewhere, but it's gone now. AAAAHHHHHH!

By the way, the music in Jason, you know "chew, chew, chew, chew, ah, ah, ah, ah" actually stemmed from "Kill Mother". Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma,...Ki, Ki, Ki, Ki, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma.....Don't be scared

I guess I'll have to play "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with the remaining time I have tonight. Boo (pun intended)

Dragon Warrior 3-Complete

The Saints are the Super Bowl champs beating the Vikings by a field goal in OT and sticking it to Peyton Manning's Colts. Sophia, my beautiful daughter, is now 3 1/2 months old and just tried her first bite of rice cereal something or other. The vacation time of a teacher/coach is easily filled up, but I found the time to beat Zoma and Baramos and all the other "Last Guys" this tedious game has forced me to endure.

Over the past 7 months (holy crap) I have spent time leveling up my guys and plodding my way through this 3rd edition of Dragon Warrior. When I sat down tonight, I knew I was going right to the last guy strong enough at levels 40-45 to whip him, with a little challenge. A few hours later, I had attempted to beat Zoma approximately 5 times when I took a glimpse at the walkthrough on gamefaqs.com which conveniently reminded me to use the stinking sphere of light that has been clogging up my inventory for months now. I hate when that happens................I immediately found my way to Zoma and whipped him senseless on the first try (6th try).

Reflecting on the gameplay, I love leveling up my guys and enjoy the cheesy music when important things happen in Nintendo RPGs. The limitations of the inventory and the options to make new types of guys were options that can definitely hinder the pace of finishing this game.

I really like when sequels return to the original or past versions of the game. In this one I got to go back and see the history of Tantagel and all the lands from Dragon Warrior 1.

Something I'm left wondering is, did Akira Toriyama ever design any more characters or monsters? J/K but I do so enjoy watching the long list of foreign names scroll by as every Nintendo game ends. I often wonder if some of those names are made up, or if they are the same names from every game. They seem like "Smith" and "Jones" in the US. I love it.

All in all this game proved tedious, slightly challenging but only because of time constraints, enjoyable at times and well designed and written. The challenges in my life definitely subtracted from long RPGs. I hope I will have the desire to go through DW4. It is looming and I don't want to start another RPG for a while.

Sidebar-The Dragon Warrior series is actually based off the foreign Dragon Quest game series. The PS2 version of Dragon Quest (8, I think) is the only link to Erdrick and the history of Dragon Warrior. It holds little resemblence, but it is the same game evolved into the more graphically advantaged systems. The NES versions go 1-4, I don't really know what happened to 5-7, but 8 and 9 are pretty cool on the PS2.

Enjoy all and I will hopefully be dominating a few more games before my summer vacation threatens to be over.