9/6/10 - Happy Labor Day! =)

Hello everybody, SlimKirby here!

I hope you guys have a great Labor Day! I'm not sure how it works for every person in the world, but in the case of me and the majority of the people I know, there are no classes today, so I had a nice little small vacation this weekend. Given, it was only 3 days, but still, some times even one extra day can be a lot.

Anyways, first off I once again apologize for the lateness of this entry. I didn't really have a very productive Sunday and didn't really get anything done. I guess I've truly underestimated how much my new schedule has been wearing me out that I just crashed at a very inopportune time. Oh well, it's something to get used to, I guess. Basically with the way I have things going on now, I can stay up as late as I want most days, however, some days I have classes at 9 in the morning (which is early for most college students), and staying up late doesn't usually help me for those. However, since I'm so used to my late schedule, I end up staying late anyways which means I usually don't get much sleep for those early class days, and as far as naps go, you can only take a nap in the middle of the day for so long before you just can't stand to lie down anymore. So basically, I have definitely lost some sleep over the last few days...thankfully though, not too much sleep. I'm still getting things done and not falling behind on really anything, so I guess that's the important thing.

Speaking of classes, things actually went a bit better this week than last. I might actually enjoy this semester a lot more than my past semesters, believe it or not. I guess I was just too focused on the work load that I forgot that the work really wasn't that bad. Plus, I have plenty of outside time to do it in as well, so I really had nothing to complain about. It's also kind of cool because one of my professors is actually a gamer and I'm thinking about telling him about what I do on Youtube. I'm not sure if there are any other Computer Science majors out there (besides those who I already know), but if you are, he's the kind of teacher who is really into technology and really enthusiastic about his work, so I think that class will have a lot of fun times this semester.

In other news, I got The Simpsons Season 13 on DVD and Metroid: Other M on Friday (although the latter I haven't touched, nor will I probably touch for a few weeks (since I am sending my Wii in for repairs). So far, I'm actually enjoying season 13 quite a bit. There have been a lot of my favorite episodes, and I think it's probably the season right before the series started to go downhill a bit (granted, I've never really thought the series got that much worse, but I think it can be argued that the older episodes are definitely better than the newer ones). But besides that, not much new going on the real life world of SlimKirby.

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Youtube:

I really don't have much to say either just because I said pretty much all I wanted to say last weekend, and I won't have any videos this next week, nor will CSS. I am very much looking forward to starting Donkey Kong 64 though. I haven't been this excited about starting a project since Kirby Super Star. Not that I haven't been excited about anything else I've done since then, I just really want to do this particular project so I can make it better than the first one I did and do the game justice. The first video of that will be going up on next Monday, so look forward to that on the 13th of September.

I've been wondering though if I should start doing...not really shout-outs, but basic run-downs what others have been doing and what I think of their projects, but the problem there is that it would be too restricted. I have a lot of LPers I try to keep up with, and I'm sure there are plenty out there who will want me to add them and....yeah, probably not a good idea in the long run. Maybe if I keep it restricted to community members of the Blargg Pit and CrystalStarStudio (since this blog is directly related to the site and CSS), but I dunno, that almost seems too selective to me. I guess it's something I could consider though.

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Game Discusssion:

There will be no Game of the Week this week because MadameWario stole all of my attention away, so this section will not added.

Ok, not really! =P

Madame herself actually suggested I put that since I couldn't really think about anything to talk about and I'm really trying to get this done. Although, the statement is kind of true though as she does distract me quite a bit already......but in a good way. =P

Anyways, today I was actually considering talking about my first thoughts and impressions on Metroid: Other M (as I mentioned earlier, I did buy it this weekend), but because I didn't play it and because I won't be playing it for awhile due to my Wii not being available, I can't really do that anymore. I guess I could talk about it for a little bit though, based on what I expect from the game based on what I have seen thus far and from what I have heard from other people.

Basically, some of the things I've heard and predicted are that the game is 1) kind of a combination of Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, specifically with the 1st person and 3rd person switches, and 2) is really centered on the storyline and character development. Basically, consider those two the main topics from my brief discussion.

First off, I will say that I'm one of those individuals who really fell in love with Super Metroid for the SNES, but never really got into the Prime series. While I think Metroid Prime is a very well-made game/series, I myself couldn't really get into the gameplay as much. I still acknowledge it though as one of the best Gamecube games, even though it's not up there on my personal preferences list. I do think the change from 2D side-scroller to 1st person shooter was needed, or rather, bound to happen, and I think Prime succeeded with that. As for Other M, where you pretty much switch between those perspectives, I'm not really sure.....although I do see how it could work and work well, but with that, I could also sense some faults as well purely from the game's controls and how they are set up. Keep in mind, I haven't played the game yet, so I really don't know how things actually are, and am purely basing this on assumption. Either way though, from what I have seen the gameplay looks pretty sweet and I am really looking forward to giving it a spin.

Another thing that I have heard a lot about, mostly from my friends though who only go by specific reviews and always assume things rather than experience them for themselves, is that Other M has quite a bit of focus on story and character development, something that hasn't really been shown very much in the series (at least on this level). Now, if you are my friends, you'd be saying that this is an awful thing and that it ruins the character of Samus because she is normally portrayed as a silent badass bounty hunter who goes out and kicks ass. I for one am a little more open than that. I do think it's a bit out of character for Samus, but does that mean it's going to be a bad game because of that? I don't think so. Besides, game developers can't exactly win with mass crowds anyways. There will always be a lot of people who complain about a game changing too much, or a lot of people who complain about the game not being unique or different enough. Those are just the facts of video games....there is no arguing side that is right, and the sooner people learn that the better. Unfortunately we live in a world where people don't like to compromise their opinions to be opinions...they see their opinions as facts and won't stand for anything else. Anyways, I kind of went on a little tangent right there, so allow me to go back to the main point. I'm actually quite interested to see how the story actually stacks up for me. Story has never really been a determining factor for me, especially considering my favorite video games are games where the storyline is basically "princess gets captured, hero saves princess." I am and have always been a gameplay guy, and right now I think that's where Other M is going to be judged on most. As long as they don't screw it up so much that it makes the game unplayable, I don't think story is going to be that big of an issue, even if it ends up being odd. Still though, it's interesting to think about. I'm hoping that The MBD ends up taking control of the universe. =P

My prospects are high, but how will they be at the end? I guess we will have to wait until I actually play the game (which again, won't be for awhile). The only thing I ask is that you don't give me any spoilers because I want to experience the game for myself. I also apologize for no Game of the Week this week either, but I didn't really play anything besides what I played already for Youtube. There will be one next week though, I promise!

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Anyways, that's about it for this entry. Sorry if it was kind of on the short side, but I'm on 3-day vacation, give me a break! :P

Later folks!

- SlimKirby