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!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
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)
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)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Dragon Warrior 3
I have beaten Dragon Warrior 1 and 2, although I did not write about 2. I begin this day the long journey of completing Dragon Warrior 3 and knowing that I was once very close. I checked an old saved game, and I appear to be ready to beat the last guy. That's not how I role (pun intended). I need to start and finish the game in my new life, in the Nester Challenge.
While the Vikings and Saints in the NFC Championship is very entertaining, I cannot seem to pull myself away from the desire to get going on this next game. I am going to level up as I watch the game. There is no chance that I will finish this game before my daughter comes in March.
I will keep you updated on my progress.
While the Vikings and Saints in the NFC Championship is very entertaining, I cannot seem to pull myself away from the desire to get going on this next game. I am going to level up as I watch the game. There is no chance that I will finish this game before my daughter comes in March.
I will keep you updated on my progress.
Gauntlet
I started playing Gauntlet before I beat Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior. I keep coming back to it, but with angst. It was very difficult to even put this game in my NES as an adult. After Isaiah and I spent hours getting whipped by some of the most annoying monsters throughout our childhood, I buried this game as deep as I could.
As an adult, with advances in technology and walkthroughs, I thought that maybe I would have a chance. As it turns out, without Isaiah by my side, this one could prove very, very difficult.
I am going to have to plan a weekend of video games with Isaiah.
As an adult, with advances in technology and walkthroughs, I thought that maybe I would have a chance. As it turns out, without Isaiah by my side, this one could prove very, very difficult.
I am going to have to plan a weekend of video games with Isaiah.
Final Fantasy
#1 game of all time on Otto's favorite list. I recently finished playing my way through with 2 black mages and 2 white mages. Why??? Because I've beat it with pretty much every other combination. I will probably beat this one again before I finish my challenge.
The difficulties with only mages are no fighting power and the spells run out. It took many trips into each dungeon cleaning out treasures and learning the best killing strategies for each enemy. I needed to spend a lot of time leveling up to ensure I had enough spells to make it through the dungeons.
If was fun wondering if my hammers and daggers could get me out of trouble at times and seeing how far Fire, Ice, and Lit level one spells could take me.
One unexpected challenge was the lack of money. It turns out that buying 12 level 8 spells at $60,000 can get pretty expensive.
One unexpected bonus was that I got to sell all of the big armor and weapons for lots of money. It was really hard to sell the XCalibur though. I did it; I think I cried a little.
Onward!
The difficulties with only mages are no fighting power and the spells run out. It took many trips into each dungeon cleaning out treasures and learning the best killing strategies for each enemy. I needed to spend a lot of time leveling up to ensure I had enough spells to make it through the dungeons.
If was fun wondering if my hammers and daggers could get me out of trouble at times and seeing how far Fire, Ice, and Lit level one spells could take me.
One unexpected challenge was the lack of money. It turns out that buying 12 level 8 spells at $60,000 can get pretty expensive.
One unexpected bonus was that I got to sell all of the big armor and weapons for lots of money. It was really hard to sell the XCalibur though. I did it; I think I cried a little.
Onward!
Dragon Warrior
Being an RPG fan forever, I grew up beating Dragon Warrior. Something I never did though was get as powered up as I could. I heard rumors that their was a limit to the levels and experience points that could be attained. As you Dragon Warrior players know, it is one of the slowest leveling-up games ever.
Usually the game is beaten by about level 21. It turns out that with an extra 20 hours of fighting Red Dragons and Red Knights, you can reach the max experience at 35565 experience points and reach level 30.
Holy Cow! I do not recommend this to anybody. Sure the Dragonlord went down like a like Don Flamenco, but definitely not worth doing.
And this from a Dragon Warrior fanatic!
Usually the game is beaten by about level 21. It turns out that with an extra 20 hours of fighting Red Dragons and Red Knights, you can reach the max experience at 35565 experience points and reach level 30.
Holy Cow! I do not recommend this to anybody. Sure the Dragonlord went down like a like Don Flamenco, but definitely not worth doing.
And this from a Dragon Warrior fanatic!
The Otto vs Nester Challenge
The unofficial complete list of 791 Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges and its spokesperson, Nester (from the early Nintendo Power magazines), has presented the most daunting gaming challenge in the history of video games. Compared to any PS 1,2,3; Xbox; Sega; CPU; 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation systems, the original NES is and always will be the most challenging game system. The original NES as well as the challenge will be referred to as Nester from here forward.
Nester has created games requiring complex button combinations that will leave even the most dexterous video gamer sobbing in his pile of chip crumbs and empty pop cans at 4:00 in the morning. Some games are unbeatable without use of cheats and the game genie, others are simply unbeatable. While the new systems keep track of the hours logged into each game, Nester simply takes your time and slaps you with it after 20 good hours are spent and somebody slams the door too hard...GLITCH. On top of the difficulty levels, Nester has so many titles that it seems impossible to name them all.
Nester has taunted me long enough. So many fantastic hours spent playing with my best friend Isaiah have resulted in a lifelong friendship and an incomplete sense of accomplishment. The challenge is two fold. The biggest challenge is collecting all of the NES title in existence. I currently have 300 titles out of the 791 that I am pursuing. The second part of the challenge is to beat every NES game. 21/300 of the games I own have officially been checked off. I have beaten more than that, but since I made up up my mind to do this, I have only beaten 21.
This blog will contain reflection on my progress. I will list the game I am working on and talk about the progress I am making. Hopefully I will provide some entertaining thoughts along the way about your favorite games.
As I begin, I am a 28 year old teacher with a baby girl on the way. I will continue with my gaming ways, but I do expect slumps in my game playing due to real life responsibilities. I am always on the lookout for good video game deals. This is a life long goal that will hopefully not take me until retirement!
Ready...Press Power to begin...Blow in it, try again...Use rubbing alcohol...There we go!
Nester has created games requiring complex button combinations that will leave even the most dexterous video gamer sobbing in his pile of chip crumbs and empty pop cans at 4:00 in the morning. Some games are unbeatable without use of cheats and the game genie, others are simply unbeatable. While the new systems keep track of the hours logged into each game, Nester simply takes your time and slaps you with it after 20 good hours are spent and somebody slams the door too hard...GLITCH. On top of the difficulty levels, Nester has so many titles that it seems impossible to name them all.
Nester has taunted me long enough. So many fantastic hours spent playing with my best friend Isaiah have resulted in a lifelong friendship and an incomplete sense of accomplishment. The challenge is two fold. The biggest challenge is collecting all of the NES title in existence. I currently have 300 titles out of the 791 that I am pursuing. The second part of the challenge is to beat every NES game. 21/300 of the games I own have officially been checked off. I have beaten more than that, but since I made up up my mind to do this, I have only beaten 21.
This blog will contain reflection on my progress. I will list the game I am working on and talk about the progress I am making. Hopefully I will provide some entertaining thoughts along the way about your favorite games.
As I begin, I am a 28 year old teacher with a baby girl on the way. I will continue with my gaming ways, but I do expect slumps in my game playing due to real life responsibilities. I am always on the lookout for good video game deals. This is a life long goal that will hopefully not take me until retirement!
Ready...Press Power to begin...Blow in it, try again...Use rubbing alcohol...There we go!
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