Sunday, July 25, 2010

7/25/10 - So Much Recording, So Little Time

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here and welcome to another exciting blog entry. You know….maybe I should use a different word than “exciting” because I never really get that excited when I make my blog, and I can’t imagine too many people getting excited about reading it either. Really, it’s just something to do every week. It’s not becoming an inconvenience or anything, as usually I can get through the entries pretty quickly (even with the Game of the Week section), but still, it’s quite a bit of writing…writing I require myself to do.

But enough about that, it’s getting late and I want to finish this before I have to postpone this to tomorrow morning again like last week. Things have actually been getting pretty hectic for me as of late, and that’s not generally the feeling you want for a summer vacation week. I know a few weeks ago I bitched about my cousins being around (well, not necessarily “bitching,” but you know…..airing my grievances so to speak). Well, since then, we’ve actually had a few more visits from them, plus visits from other relatives as well, so I haven’t exactly gotten the time to do much for myself besides filming editing (and even then I’m kind of behind). Again, as I’ve said many times, it’s not that I don’t love my family or anything like that, they’re just kind of hard to take in large doses for extremely lengthy periods of time, especially when the majority of them are younger than I am (I still remember when I was the youngest though =)). Now, it would be a lot different if they played the same type of games I played (big Wii fans across the family), that way I could show them the true power of my gaming skills. =D In the end though, there have mostly been positives, moreso than negatives, so I guess that is the important part.

Also in the past week, I managed to pick up some new old games from Game Stop. I picked up Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2 for the Gamecube, Kirby Squeak Squad, and The Simpsons Game. I wanted to give Monkey Ball a try because many of my friends have recommended the game for me to try, and from what I played, I’ve enjoyed it, but not to the extent I figured I would. Some of the levels are actually pretty difficult. Also, I’ve been having a lot of problem with Monkey Ball 1. Since it was a used game, I can barely go a few minutes without having a disc read error. Thankfully with the Gamecube, you can just take the game out and put it back in, but still, it’s annoying to get out of your chair just to do that….especially multiple times in the course of 10 or 20 minutes. I haven’t played very much of Squeak Squad, but it seems just like the typical fun Kirby game. As for the Simpsons Game, I’m already getting some mixed messages. On the whole, I love the idea of the game and some of the execution, but I’ve played many other and better platformers with much more polished controls. The controls are honestly kind of bad. However, still haven’t had that much time with my games since I have been so busy, but you may see these games in a future “Game of the Week” section, that’s for sure. :P

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Youtube:

Still chugging away (not chuggaaing) with Majora’s Mask as I’m making progress through the Great Bay area. Cycle #5 may perhaps be the longest and most activity-based of any of the cycles I’ve done so far, and in terms of recording, I’m still not done with it. Oh well, I figured that this kind of thing would happen when I started the Let’s Play, so I guess I get what I signed up for.

Also, after two weeks of uploading at CSS, I can’t believe I’m actually 2 videos away from finishing my solo segment. Co-commentary videos with PowerToMario and MegaFreak400 will be this week and then we will start posting videos of the final chapter for the week following. It’s hard to believe how far this project has come, although, we have been working on it for almost 8 months now.

It’s also getting to the point where “late July” may cease to exist soon, so many people have started wondering about my next Let’s Play….when and what it will be. For now, I’m still not completely sure if I will even be ready for it. I still haven’t exactly recorded anything yet and I have my hands filled with Majora and CSS already (since I will be doing the recording for Chapter 8 (it just won’t be only me)). I’ll see what I can do, and for now, probably the earliest possible release of the new project will be August 1st.

On the subject of the false flagging thing I mentioned two weeks ago, I’ve also been getting a lot of different comments and messages about the situation. As I’ve said in a recent stream notification video, on Wednesday when I have my stream (2 PM EDT, btw), I’ll probably talk about that a little bit, which will be the first time I’ve addressed the issue vocally. If you couldn’t tell (although again, I mentioned this 2 weeks ago), I’ve been trying to stay silent about the issue in order to not draw any attention to myself, and while that has been working in theory, I don’t think in the long run that will really be a factor. It’s honestly gotten to the point where the flaggers don’t really care about who they are targeting, especially since videos can be flagged regardless if they are public or private. So yeah, I’ll talk about it during the stream and probably during next week’s entry.

Schedule for following week:

Monday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Tuesday: Majora’s Mask, Thousand-Year Door #81
Wednesday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Thursday: Majora’s Mask, Thousand-Year Door #82
Friday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Saturday: Majora’s Mask(*)
Sunday: Majora’s Mask(*), New LP #1(?)
(*)- Possible double upload day
(?)– May not happen

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Game of The Week:

Mostly due to my current LP, and me making stupid mistakes between the game and the game that came before it, I figured it was a good opportunity to make that game this week’s Game of the Week. This week we have perhaps one of the highest rated games of all time!

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time


When people think of this game, they think gaming perfection…..at least for it’s time. I have to be kind of honest here, I was never really one who thought that way. Don’t get me wrong, Ocarina of Time is a great game and it has had a very influential impact on gaming as a whole, and because of that, I have a lot of respect for it, but I never really saw the game as truly spectacular; just as another video game. In reality, I would actually rank 3 games higher than OoT, two of them being the games I have Let’s Played (or am currently Let’s Playing), and the third being Link to the Past. I still think 4th is actually a pretty good location considering there have been at least 10 games in the series (with another on the way).

I don’t think I have to go into much detail about what the game or series about since the game itself is really well known (plus I’m doing Majora’s Mask). If you are one of the few who have no idea about the OoT craze, basically, bad things are happening around the land of Hyrule, and signs seem to be pointing to a dark figure named Ganondorf. The chosen Hero of Time, Link, and Pricess of Hyrule, Zelda, try to work against his dark power, but at the time, are too weak to combat against it. Ganondorf proceeds to turn Hyrule into a twisted, dark world while Link has to take the test of time in order to become more powerful to fight the king of evil seven years into the future. It’s the typical “bad guy is dangerous, hero comes to kick his butt” storyline, with the classic Zelda twist.

When looking at this game with Majora’s Mask, there are three things that stand out between the two (besides the obvious fact they are different games (so rather, main things that stand out)); game length, difficulty, and sidequests. For game length, Majora’s Mask is obviously the shorter game, just because if you take out the sidequests, there really isn’t that much to it, especially if you know what to do. Ocarina of Time obviously sets itself up to be the longer game, but it doesn’t really expect you to do very much sidequesting. In the end though, with all of Majora’s side stuff, they are both pretty equivalent in terms of length. However, if you are looking for a decently-lengthed game to play through and just focus on the playing through part of it, Ocarina of Time probably wins out, but as I have said many times, Majora has a lot of charm by itself

. In terms of difficulty, Ocarina of Time is much easier than Majora’s Mask in a different variety of ways. For one, you really don’t have to worry about time as much as you do in Majora’s Mask, so you aren’t really required to rush through anything. Plus, since Majora’s Mask was kind of an OoT sequel, they tried to bring up the difficulty a tad, especially since it was a much shorter game (again, when not looking at side stuff). Also, from watching two blind playthroughs of both games, it seems like more people tend to have a better idea of what to do in Ocarina than in Majora, as Majora has a lot of “pay attention” moments. In a way, I would almost consider Ocarina of Time a beginner’s Zelda, to at least, you know, get the player used to the controls and mechanics of the game, and Majora more of an advanced Zelda game, one that expects you to pay more attention and solve slightly more complex puzzles.

As for sidequests, as you have probably seen from my LP, Majora is obviously, really about the sidequests. Without them, it would be a very short game. Ocarina of Time didn’t really have that many sidequests, besides the typical “collect a bunch of these” collectathons and random thrown along heart piece mini-games, which is fine, because they were obviously trying to focus more on the main quest, but in another way, it didn’t really make the people you met during the game (besides the main characters) or the locations you visited very memorable; just places you had to visit at least once for an item of sorts. With Majora, they actually got me interested in learning more about the characters and how their stories progress over the course of 3 days. I think if they at least tried to incorporate a little bit of that into OoT, it would have been a much better game (again, in my opinion).

Obviously as I have said before, it’s still a good game regardless, but when you look at how much they ignore in order to focus more on the main adventure, it almost makes the game seem kind of bland. Still though, you can’t really ignore the impact this game has had on the gaming world. Almost every gamer is familiar with Ocarina of Time in some way, and back in the days of N64, that was literally the game everyone talked about. If I had to give it a ranking, I would probably give it a 4/5 or 4.5/5, and not just for it’s influence. It’s a pretty solid game that has held up pretty well for today’s gaming standards…..I just don’t think it’s the best game ever like everyone else does. :P

LP Possibility: Honestly, I really doubt if I would LP this game, mostly because it’s a very common LP on Youtube and I don’t think I could really bring anything new to it. I just think it’s too overplayed at this point. I suppose it’s always possible in the very deep, deep, deep, deep future….but definitely not for now, even if I am doing Majora’s Mask.

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That's about it for this entry, see you guys next week for another one, and of course, see you for my videos and my stream. Later folks!

Monday, July 19, 2010

7/18/10 - Back From the Windy City

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here!

This blog may be updated kind of late, but I have a very good excuse! In fact, this excuse could actually verify not updating at all, but I felt like I was in enough of a writing mood for you guys, so I decided to give you an entry. :P

Today, I actually returned from a 2-day trip to Chicago. Awhile back, me and 3 of my friends (one of which lives in Chicago) were actually planning on having a little gaming tournament of sorts (we try to have one on an annual basis), and since it was a change of pace, we put the location of this year's tournament in Chicago, that way we could devote one day to gaming, and the other to doing Chicago things. In the end, our plans went through and we ended up having a good time! In fact, your truly (me) actually ended up winning the gaming tournament. For those of you wondering, basically we just play a bunch of different games and for each game, we reward a point score to each participant based on placement (Mario Kart style). I ended up winning quite a few games, including Crazy Taxi, Diddy Kong Racing, a Grand Theft Auto IV Wanted Star challenge, Star Fox 64, Mario Tennis, and of course the two games I went into the tournament wanting to win, Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. There were a few other games worth mentioning, such as Wii Play, Wii Sports, and nearly everyone's favorite multiplayer N64 romp, Goldeneye, but my performance in those games was a bit more disappointing. However, in the end, overall performance dominates, and because of that, I was the victor this year.

For those wondering some of the things that we did in addition to the tournament, really not that much extra, but the things we did too were pretty nice considering. The first thing we did was have lunch at Giordano's home of Chicago's famous stuffed pizza, and boy was it delish. The best part about it was that I actually had leftovers for dinner that same night, so I had a very pizzaish day. Then we took a walk around Millenium Park, which was pretty cool (a lot of nice 'attractions' (if you could call them that) and just a nice little place to walk around). Really though, that's about it. I know it doesn't seem like much, but we could only be there for 2 days and you could only do so much in 2 days, and we also had to do the tournaments and spend some time hanging out for old-time sake. With what we did do though, it was fun. =)

Besides that though, not much going on. I'm really dreading the fact that in about a month's time I'll have to go back to my university again and deal with that giant wave of excitement (sarcasm of course). Again, not that I hate school, it's just a lot of work...

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Youtube:

Majora's Mask - Things are still going pretty well with project. Still not completely sure what to predict for an end-date, but I'd say by the end of August might be a pretty good guess.

CSS: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - So far, Chapter 7 has been moving along pretty nicely. I really like what I did for last Friday's episode and I seemed to have gotten a good response from the viewers and from my fellow CSS members, so it feels nice to be doing something right. Still gotta record most of the videos for this next week, plus I got to start planning for the co-commentary segments which will be coming up either next week or the end of this one (more than likely next week though).

New Project? - Near the end of Mario Party 6, I made an announcement that a new project will be coming near the end of July, and we are over half-way done with the month at this point. At this point, there are still a few kinks I want to work out (mainly, I have an idea, I'm just not 100% sure on if it's what I want to do). I may have some new information on next week's entry.

Video Schedule for 7/19/10 - 7/25/10

Monday, 7/19 - Majora's Mask, Paper Mario TTYD #78 (CSS)
Tuesday 7/20 - Majora's Mask (*)
Wednesday 7/21 - Majora's Mask, Paper Mario TTYD #79 (CSS)
Thursday 7/22 - Majora's Mask (*)
Friday 7/23 - Majora's Mask, Paper Mario TTYD #80 (CSS)
Saturday 7/24 - Majora's Mask (*)
Sunday 7/25 - Majora's Mask (*)

CSS - Project hosted at CrystalStarStudio Youtube channel.
* - Possibility that more than one upload for project could happen on that particular day.

Really, nothing much else to expect for this week; just the ordinary. Next week I may try to organize a stream event or something, although it probably wouldn't happen until the middle of the week.

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Game of the Week

Like last week, this week's game is a sequel of another game I have already LPed for Youtube. It's no really coincidence really, I just played this game more than any other, especially during the long road trip to Chicago. Anyways, here it is....

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising


Yeah, the first game was cool; had a lot of awesome strategic moments, some epic battles, a lot of different features, and even the world's biggest tease target and dunce, Andy, but Advance Wars 2 pretty much took the formula of the original, made a few, but nothing major, tweaks, added some new units and characters, and ended up with a pretty exciting package.

The 2nd game pretty much ends up where the first game left off. After Black Hole's vanishing act after being defeated by the combined forces of Orange Star, Blue Moon, Yellow Comet, and Green Earth, Black Hole has now returned with some new COs of their own as they try to take control of the very same nations they were stopped by. It seems like a very dull story, as I'm sure many of you are willing to bet, but one thing I actually kind of liked about the game was that despite their story emphasis being low, they actually spent quite a bit of time on the character development, and actually did a good job with it. All of the different personalities are pretty distinct and fitting for the type of characters they are.

Unlike the first game where you pretty much had to follow Orange Star for the entire time, this game is broken down into 5 parts, each part taking place on one of the different countries. And while you are in each one, you are restricted to using only the COs that represent that country, which means you can't just pick Max every single time like I did in my AW1 LP. This allows you to get acquainted with different COs and use different strategies and abilities throughout the game. Although with some COs, you'll have a pretty easy run due to the nature of their abilities (COs like Colin, Kanbei, and Sensei), there will be some missions that might give you a little trouble, especially in Hard Campaign.

Like Advance Wars 1, Black Hole Rising has a lot of the same extra content, once again featuring the War Room scenarios and a bunch of different VS. maps to play on. The only difference is that this game just gives you more to work with. Honestly, when looking at both games on a whole, you can't really say Advance Wars 2 failed or lacked on any front in comparison with the 1st game because everything was pretty much either an improvement or an addition. Basically, I don't really have anything negative to say about the game at all (except that some missions (especially on Hard Mode) can be very tedious and annoying, but I think that's kind of the point....to be more challenging).

In the end, if I had to score this game, I would honestly go as low as 4.5/5, although I think the game is pretty close to perfection as it's going to get that a 5/5 wouldn't be too far-fetched here. The only thing you could really say about the game is that after awhile it may get a little boring if you have been playing it non-stop like I normally do. It's really the type a game that you may just want to pick up and play every now and then, which is perfectly fine. I actually even find myself sitting down and playing a War Room scenario every now and then when I got nothing better to do or if I'm watching a TV program or something.

LP Possibility: As soon as I finished Advance Wars, right away, even if I answered the multitude of questions beforehand, I got literally swarmed with requests to do Black Hole Rising. I will say for the time being that I have been considering the possibility of doing the 2nd game somewhere down the road, but I'm holding back for many reasons; in my eyes, good reasons. For one, it's just a really long game to cover and I'm just not up for the task yet. Second, there are many other long games I want to cover beforehand and if I focus too much on doing the sequel, those games will possibly get shut out for even longer, something I don't want to happen. And finally, I just don't want to do it yet. I've already expressed the possibility of doing it somewhere down the line....that should be enough!

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That about does it for this entry, sorry for the lateness.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

7/11/10 - Still Going, Even After 3 Years

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here!

These last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity for me (didn't I use that phrase in my 3rd-Year special?). So much that I didn't even have very much time for video and blog updates this past week. However, with things slowing down, I think I'm finally ready to get back on track with everything. I do apologize for my somewhat lack of motivation, as I could have at least attempted to release something last week (whether it be last week's entry, or a few more videos), but it honestly just wasn't going to happen that easily. And while it probably didn't bother you guys as much, I did get a bit more behind in Majora's Mask than I wanted to be. Pretty much all of my hopes for completing the game before I go back to college for my Fall semester, have been denied (unless I do mass-updates, which I refuse to do).

While we are on the subject of Youtube, it has come to the attention of me, and many of my subscribers, that there is a Youtube user out there going around falsely flagging the videos of popular Youtube users, one of them being NintendoCapriSun, one of the most known LPers of this time. Many of my subscribers have been sending me messages around the clock asking me for my plan of action, and what I'm going to do to handle this "threat," if it were to fall on me. For the time being, I'm just going to continue to make updates like I normally do and not give this guy any of my time. I know that probably seems a little ignorant, but until he actually makes the threat, why should we even give him a reason to attack? These kinds of guys thrive on getting a reaction out of people, and that is just what they are doing and succeeding at. Me and a few others were talking last night about this whole situation with NCS, and we came to the conclusion that the only thing this guy has accomplished in the last few days is get 40,000 people pissed at him. NCS's account is still there (although the videos are still private (he privated all of his videos so they couldn't be flagged)), and the threatener is still casually strolling around feeling safe and satisfied. 40,000 people insulting and threatening him back isn't going to do anything. This is something that needs the attention of Youtube moderation or administration, which unfortunately and terribly ironically, isn't being done. I say "terribly ironically" because the guy claims he is trying to show fault with the Youtube moderation and justice system, and the justice system isn't really doing anything about this. In a way, the staff is pretty much showing that he is correct, albeit I think he is doing it in the worst possible way. Anyways, for now though, if you are honestly that concerned with what this guy is doing, just keep your silence and keep your eyes peeled for more information. Eventually the guy will end up saying something that he probably shouldn't say. And when that happens, it needs to be recorded and taken to someone who can do something about it. We aren't getting anywhere with returning threats. Anyways, if I get anymore information about this situation, especially if I somehow get targeted next, I'll find a way to let you guys know about how I will take action against it.

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Youtube:

3rd Year Anniversary Special - Finally, after many months of the project being announced, a few delays here and there, and after copious and tedious amounts of video capturing and editing, the 3rd-Year clip show special went up last Wednesday, and I have to say, I thought it went pretty well. There were a few obvious things I was kind of disappointed on, mostly the audio quality for certain parts, and the videos themselves seemed just like a giant cluster of clips, whether they fit in certain parts or not. Also, having to cut certain things out for time and other reasons was kind of disappointing and disheartening. In the end though, the feedback has been pretty positive, and it's nice getting that for something you've worked hard on, even if it is minimal. I probably won't try another special like this for a long while, and even if I do, it probably won't be as extensive (maybe just over the previous year). Either way, it's a relief putting that to a close.

Majora's Mask - Well, now that Mario Party 6 is over, prepare to see a lot of this game over the next few months, which is why I hope you guys are enjoying the project. Anyways, on Friday, I recorded all of the current cycle I'm on and it's going to be about the same length as Woodfall cycle, if anything, a little shorter due to all the different cuts I made. A lot of the stuff in Snowhead is mostly just traveling from Point A to Point B, especially in the temple. So I guess it is safe to say that I tried to take advantage of that. At least those who complain about me spending so much time on the sidequests will be remedied somewhat by these last two cycles. Anyways, I know it's kind of a spoiler since I was so negative about making it to Snowhead Temple in this cycle, but the Temple videos will start Wednesday and last to (or through) the weekend. I guess I need to stop underestimating my abilities when I'm playing this game.....although I'm not usually this prepared either.

CrystalStarStudio/Paper Mario: TTYD - Get ready for this to be a main part of discussion for the next few weeks, because it is finally my time to shine on the project! PowerToMario finished up Chapter 6 this past week on Thursday, and I will be starting fresh on Monday with Chapter 7. Just want to quickly remind you guys that the project will be updated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (no more updates, no less updates), unless something comes up that causes me to postpone (very small likelihood). I am very much looking forward to my turn, and I hope you guys enjoy the videos.

As for PowerToMario and his chapter, I thought he did a very solid job. Like with ThePastaKing, I was originally a bit concerned if he would take the initiative to update on CSS's schedule, because on their own channels, they have a more relaxed style of when and what they want to upload, but in the end, PTM really came through for the project, and I'm proud of his work. It was also a lot of fun to co-commentate with him and ShadowMario41 during the last 4 videos. The only problem we had with the chapter was PTM's unfortunate mishap with his capture card. About midway through the chapter, a storm hit Florida and did some damage to his computer/dazzle (we never really determined which was the problem) which prevented his device from being recognized whenever it was plugged in. However, in the end, the problem was remedied and everything was fixed, so PTM, if you are reading this, I would like to thank you for taking such an initiative to work around the problem, even if it did create some inconveniences. And also, while we are on the subject, I would also like to thank GaiaCrusher9 for allowing PTM to come over to his house and record the rest of his chapter there(since they live so close to each other). You two saved the project. :P

Next Week on Youtube:

(CSS) - Videos marked with a "(CSS)" indicate videos that will only be updated on the Youtube Channel "CrystalStarStudio," not on any of my solo accounts.
* - Days with this mark indicate that it is a day with a possibility of a 2nd upload. I will say right now that it won't be a very likely occurrence though. As I think I've said before, the biggest thing that affects whether this will happen or not is my own judgment. I'm not going to upload a 2nd one just because people want me to.
^ - Days with mark indicate that there may be a possible missed update on these days. If such a thing occurs, I will decide what to do (whether it's multiple uploads the first day I can update, or if it's not worth it to make up for it). It really depends on the situation. The reason for a possible missed update will be explained below the schedule.

Monday, July 12th - Majora's Mask, Paper Mario: TTYD #75 (CSS)
Tuesday, July 13th - Majora's Mask
Wednesday, July 14th - Majora's Mask, Paper Mario: TTYD #76 (CSS)
* Thursday, July 15th - Majora's Mask
Friday, July 16th - Majora's Mask, Paper Mario: TTYD #77 (CSS)
*^ Saturday, July 17th - Majora's Mask
*^ Sunday, July 18th - Majora's Mask

Possible Missed Updates in the Future: Just to warn you guys, I may not be able to update next Saturday or Sunday. On Friday, I'm actually going to be going on a little road trip with my friends to see an old high school buddy of ours who lives in Chicago. If where we are staying has Internet access, I'll definitely update (unless it is a completely unstable connection, or if it costs money to use). If I do miss these update days, I'll upload all missed videos on the day I get back.

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Game of the Week:

I've Let's Played a lot of games on Youtube, and sometimes, throughout my Let's Plays, people will want me to play something by their request, usually a sequel or another game of a series I have done. The game I will be talking about this week is the sequel of the first game I Let's Played where afterwards, people cotinually asked, will you do the sequel? If you think it is Radiant Dawn, you are going to be a little off....

Pikmin 2


Mostly due to Bikdiponabus's playthrough of Pikmin 1 and K-Man's announcement of his Pikmin 2 replay, I decided to once again pick-up Pikmin 2 and take on the challenges of pikmin raising and task-based survival. The original Pikmin game was actually very well-received, but so many people complained about the 30-day time limit, where if you don't get a certain amount of stuff before a certain day (Day 30), you lose. I however, was really never bothered by the challenge and found myself actually completing the game in half the time I needed to. Nevertheless, Nintendo eventually announced the sequel and immediately stated that the 30-day time limit was obsolete. While this was indeed true, the time-crunching agenda of each day for Olimar, and new his partner Louie still existed as they go back to the Pikmin planet to score some treasure to get their company out of debt. Also, with things getting more difficult as time goes on (more enemies get added to the region the longer you take, and this includes tough boss ones as well), even with no time limit, you will still find yourself rushing to get things done in a matter of a few days.

Now, I have to admit, and this is going to be a hard thing to admit because the popular opinion is a bit different, but I honestly couldn't get into this game as much as I did for the original Pikmin. I'm honestly not sure why, I guess I was just so used to the time-crunchiness of the first game that when I got the 2nd game, I just wanted to take it slow because the game advertised a lesser emphasis on the time limit. Also, while there are less regions in this game, there is a lot more to do, especially with the more extensive Challenge Mode, so the game itself is actually pretty big in retrospect. Like Pikmin 1, you'll probably need an exploratory playthrough before you can play this game more competently, and for some reason, I wasn't really digging that idea. Despite though, Pikmin 2 is actually a really well-made game and would still rank it highly on the Gamecube's best list.

If I had to rank the difficulty between the two games, I honestly wouldn't know whether or not this game is harder or easier. A lot of people say it's easier because you don't have as much of a time crunch, and the very cheap purple Pikmin break the game so much when it comes to combat. However, the organization of what you are going to do each day is a lot more interactive and you aren't going to be able to plan your daily routes as easily as you could in Pikmin 1. I'd honestly say Pikmin 2 is more difficult in that respect, although I am a bit more biased because I've played the original game so much more.

In the end though, when you put both games together, you have a really neat and innovative series, and I'm surprised we haven't seen a Pikmin 3 yet. However, according to Miyamoto though, it is definitely in the works, so maybe we won't have to wait that long. In conclusion for Pikmin 2, it's a very unique and fun action and strategy game with quite a bit of replay value to improve your strategies and your final scores and rankings + an extensive challenge mode. The only problems I see from this game are that some aspects of the gameplay can completely break some parts of the game and make it a lot easier, but technically, you don't even have to play that way. Also, I have some obvious biased nostalgia for the original game. If I had to rank Pikmin 2, I would give it a 4.5/5.

LP Possibility: Many people have been asking for a Pikmin 2 playthrough since I did the original game back in 2008. I will say that I am thinking about it, and it is a very good possibility....I would just rather wait until K-Man finishes his replay of the game. :P

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Ok guys, that is about it for this update. As usual, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I will see you again next week. Later folks!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

No Update This Week!

Sorry guys, but I'm not going to have time to do any updates for this week. Due to the Sunday holiday and work I gotta do during the first part of this next week, it's just going to make more sense to hold off on any updates and just save them for next week. Sorry if you were expecting some major awesome blog writing. =(