Monday, August 23, 2010

8/23/10 - Back to an Old, But Still Somewhat New Routine

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here, reporting from Muncie, Indiana, my 2nd home. Yes that is correct, as mentioned last week, I am back at my college university for another exciting year of advanced education classes and all the drama that is college dorm life. I got back to my dorm last night in the early evening, and as far as I know, everything seems to have made it up here all right, so I was able to settle in pretty quickly. And with my first classes not starting until 3 PM today, I was actually able to stay up pretty late without the worry of missing any of my classes. Missing classes is not something I normally do (unless I know I don't need to be there and if I can get away with not going), but it has happened once thanks to my ability to randomly zone out my alarm clock (was able to sleep through 40 minutes of loud alarm beeping once). Either way, I got up at around 10 AM this morning, after staying up til about 3:30 last night. I know it's probably not very smart to get such little sleep on an important day like today, or stay up so late the night before, but I have my reasons (;]), and I feel pretty awake right now regardless. Besides, it's difficult to get sleep on that first night, just because of how different it is. You've pretty much spent the last 3 or 4 months sleeping in the same bed and in the same environment, and then you randomly switch to a small room in a big building with hundreds of other people living around you, only separated by walls that don't always minimize noises. It's a pretty unique experience. :P

With that aside though, I'm not really sure what to make of this semester or this school year. I think I will really need to start focusing on what I'm doing (not that I don't focus, but I mean "REALLY FOCUS") and not try not to get lost in the drama that is my life and everything else around me. I will still try my best to stay active on Youtube, but try to understand that I can't really guarantee what my updating will be like. I actually got kind of lucky last year with so many open windows of opportunity to do recording, editing, and that kind of stuff. This year, I'm honestly not that sure. I'm hoping the 22-hour downtime between my last classes on on Tuesday and Thursday, and my first classes on Wednesday and Friday (plus the weekend of course) will give me plenty of opportunities, but who knows? I may actually need that time. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens, yes?

Also, I do apologize for the lateness of this entry. I actually meant to do this pretty early on Sunday, but I felt dead tired and kind of sick to my stomach, so I wanted to use that time to take a nap and get well rested before I had to make the nerve-wracking trip back to my university. And then, by the time I got back, I was really in no mood to work on it, so I put it off until Monday afternoon. I will try to keep these Sunday - Monday postponements to a minimum from now on, but I never really know what to expect with my schedule.

Anyways, let's talk about other stuff! =D

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Youtube:

Majora's Mask: I can't believe we are near the end of this project. At the time of writing this entry, the rest of the game has been recorded, and the rest of the videos will be uploaded periodically throughout this week. In the end, the project ended up being 74 videos (again, this is not counting the extras). That number is pretty much what I expected in the beginning and I have no regrets with it taking this long. I mean, to be fair, Majora is a pretty long damn game, and there is so much more you have to do if you want a 100% playthrough. I honestly don't think you would see very many people do that much better with less (in terms of video #s) than what I did (although with the 15 minute time limit, that's not necessarily true now). I actually had a lot of stuff planned out before I recorded so I knew what exactly I would be doing, step by step. There was rarely a time where I was literally doing nothing, and whenever I did have a time like that, I usually spent it on rupee grinding or getting situated for the next thing I had to do. I think in efficiency, I did a really good job. The only thing I will admit is that my organization was probably a little weird, however, that is what I chose to do in my Let's Play, so it was really my call in the end.

I still need to film the extra videos at this time, not mention, figure out what I am even going to put in the extra videos. I have lots of things written down though, and I'm sure my viewers will probably have quite a bit to remind me of when it comes to the final video, with their "Will you show this?" and "Please show this!" comments. Plus, I also have the entire Let's Play to look through and see if there would be anything worth showing based on similar comments I've gotten throughout. It'll more than likely be an annoying process to plan out, but that's kind of what I signed up for.....

PilotWings 64: The main part of Pilot Wings 64 should actually be finishing up pretty soon as well. Today I will be posting Part 7, and on one of the days for this week, I will post Part 8 as well, which will include the final main mission and the credits. Overall, it's been a nice project to work on, and I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the LP as well, so I'm glad there are people who are actively enjoying the game for what it is. I actually got a comment on yesterday's video, which actually made me smile a bit; "I don't like this game, but you are really doing a great job with the project." Now, I guess that doesn't really do the game any justice, but one of the goals I kinda had for this Let's Play was that I wanted to show that even the most dull-sounding and dull-looking of games can be enjoyable to watch and/or play, or at least that was bet with ShadowMario41 (since one of the reasons why I LPed this game was because he said it was a terrible game and I wanted to prove him wrong =)). Although, when looking back at the comment, I guess it's moreso favoring the commentary and the project itself rather than the actual game (which I guess is good thing in its own right, considering how little faith I have in my audio commentaries). Either way, I think the project has been going pretty well regardless and I'm happy to see there are some people out there who are enjoying it for what it is.

Like Majora, I also have extras for this project as well. I'd say there will be about 3 videos worth of extras (since I have to cover all of the side games and all of their levels. I still have to film them as well, but they will also be posted throughout the coming week (not this week, since I still have to finish the main part of the project).

CyrstalStarStudio: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is finished....sans extras. It was a long road of 92 videos, me being responsible for the majority of the last 18 or so, but we have most certainly finished. Now, the other members of CSS and I are looking to have a nice break from the action and drama, but I assure you guys that we will be back again soon (once we figure out what we are going to do next).

New Project in September: I will be revealing my project in an update video I have planned for this coming Saturday, but just be aware of the fact, for the current time, that my next LP is decided. =)

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Game of the Week:

This week's GOTW is going to be treated a little bit differently from all the others. Usually when I do GOTWs, they are games that I haven't LPed on my channel before. However, I'm going to bend the rules a little bit and talk about a game I have LPed before...twice actually. The only difference between this entry, in contrast with others, is that instead of talking about the possibility of LPing it (since I have already LPed it), is that I will give my thoughts on that project, looking back on it, and comparing it with my current projects.

Mario Party


I can't stress how important Mario Party has been to my channel over these last few years. It has easily become perhaps the series I am most known for doing and has been the source of many of my best moments throughout my entire Youtube longevity. For those who don't know what Mario Party is, it's basically a mash-up of a classic board game, lots and lots of mini-games, and the whackiness that is the Mario universe. Since the release of the first game back in 1999, Hudsonsoft, the developer of the series, has released 9 other games (7 console, 2 handheld) into the series, but many argue the first is where most of the magic happens and where the magic has remained for the last 11 years.

I'm not going to talk about the gameplay mechanics or any of that stuff as I've been through that a number of times in my many Mario Party projects. Besides, I'm willing to bet the majority of my readers come from my channel and are already aware of the Mario Party madness that ensues there, so I probably don't need to go into very much detail. One thing you can say about this Mario Party game though, in comparison with the rest, is because this is the first game in the series, you can generally expect it to be a bit more tame when looking at the rest. And for the most part, that is true. A lot of the mini-games are pretty easy to follow and have very simple premises, and this was also before the series got crazy with the item system. You can almost look at the straight-forwardness of this game to be a very distinct advantage. Most of the complaints that are given in future titles are that the games end up being way too random and luck-based, and having the right item could potentially bring the game in your favor. In this game, pretty much what you see, is what you get, and your plan of attack is going to be pretty obvious; win as many mini-games as you can, and get as many coins as possible so you can buy stars and afford board events. However, that doesn't necessarily mean, that luck will always be on your side, quite the contrary. You will still have to be prepared for anything, whether it's an annoying happening space event or if your opponents plan to gang up on you and steal your stuff. However, besides that though, it's pretty straightforward and I think that's why people tend to prefer that game to others. I personally think Mario Party 2 is the best, just because the item system in that game was fair and not off-the-hook, plus it had some of the best mini-games. Mario Party 1 still pretty much set the standard though.

The reason why this game was chosen as Game of the Week is that I actually went back through the game recently just for old times sake and did another playthrough of all 8 boards. In my recorded project, I had a Win-Loss record of 6-2 (losing at DK's Jungle Adventure and Mario's Rainbow Castle, both ironically 1 star difficulty boards X_X), but in this playthrough, I actually managed to pull of a perfect 8-0 record! You see, I told you guys that I don't suck as much when I'm not recording. I guess when the camera turns on, the atmosphere changes. :P A lot of the boards in this playthrough pretty much went down in the same exact way; 1) I get a bunch of coins from mini-games and from not stupidly spending them and 2) Later use those coins to pretty much dominate the rest of the game. I also managed to get quite lucky with the chance times (something that doesn't happen very often for me), which actually helped me pull out a very late victory after getting screwed so hard by the stupid luck factor of Yoshi's Tropical Island. Another close call was Bowser's Magma Mountain, a board that literally decided to give me warp blocks at the worst possible times, whenever I was right next to the star. However, once I finally made it to Boo on the second to last turn, I had way more than enough coins to steal what I needed to gain victory. I also had perhaps the least efficient playthrough of Eternal Star ever, with one of the stars on the first set of 7 not being gotten throughout the entire 35 turn game (since you are originally given 7 star spaces at the beginning, and once you get all 7, they will create 7 more). It was a pretty interesting ride with a pretty nice result, and I'm glad I decided to play through this classic gem of a game again.

Mario Party definitely set the standard for all future Mario Party and board games to come. I think it's far from a perfect game, but it excels in perhaps the most important department, pure fun and entertainment. I think because of that, it's appropriate to give this game a 4.5/5 on the SlimKirby scale. :P

Original Playthrough: And by original playthrough, I mean the playthrough that is CURRENTLY on my channel, not the bad camcordered version I did back in 2007 that doesn't even exist anymore. All in all, I think it was a good project, despite its problems. The main issue with the recorded project is that I brilliantly (sarcasm) decided to not fix the audio desync issue I had until near the end of the project, making some of the playthroughs kind of awkward. I mean, when you hear my reaction to something before it actually happens, that kind of takes away from the experience a little bit, and because of that, I do kind of apologize to my viewers if that annoyed anyone. However, this was still a fairly early project of mine, and I was still learning. :P I think just because it is Mario Party 1, I probably won't need to redo it (especially since I've technically already redone it already), just because it is technically the first of the series, and it's understandable that there would be some problems. If anything, the only MP projects I should even consider redoing are 3 and 4, and even that is a stretch. Overall though, it was a great project and experience, and I'm glad the success of it has carried throughout my channel.

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That's about it for this entry! I'll see you guys next week for some more fun and excitement. Later folks!

- SlimKirby

3 comments:

  1. Good luck in College Slim and can't wait for the final videos of Majora's Mask.

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  2. PilotWings 64 looks like a fun game to play with friends, I think. Just at ridiculing the structure and graphical quality of the game. But I mean, you've made it fun, Slim, and I'm glad that you and other are enjoying that project.

    And OH BOY, yeah, TT-YD took a long time to get done, and I'm pretty sure other than you, Slim, me and Mega had so much face time in that LP. Every member of CSS, PK, me, SM, K-Man, Mega, Gaia, and our fearless leader, should be proud of the work we have done on it.

    But I know we can all do much better stuff in the future. Looknig forward to that! Also, Mario Party is legit, no cheats.

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  3. Slim stayed up till 3 getting drunk and getting t3h s3xx0rz mirite?!

    jk but good luck with college. :] hope it all goes well for ya.

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