hey, it's been awhile

[jazzfish]

Last night's dreams were... confusing and fragmented, to say the least. I was constantly grieving for one or another of my current cats (who are very much alive) and/or Tommy the cat from my childhood who's been gone for almost fifteen years now. I also started dating someone who is in waking life a very casual online acquaintance, started a storm at sea that swamped a boat filled with tiny people who may or not have been other friends of mine, and somehow caused uilos to lose about half the green pearls off her necklace, about which I was a lot more upset than she was. O, brain.

Still somewhat stressed over work. Still not writing, other than the Upgrade Guide, which is not supposed to be fiction anyway. All that should let up in a week or so.

Finished eBear's Range of Ghosts yesterday. Quite good. Still, to paraphrase James Nicoll, I hope in my lifetime to see the death of the bound book-fragment mode of writing. It's all build-up for a story, albeit one that does at least have an end in sight (2014, I expect).

---

A couple of weeks ago I was talking with uilos trying to figure out what I wanted to do, since nothing felt at all interesting. She bounced a couple of ideas off me and I kept saying "no, that's not it."

"Well, do you want to... sit around and play video games?"

"I can't, because the old consoles don't connect well to the television and it's annoying to have that half-second lag and... and this is a 'can't' not a 'don't wanna.' Hm."

So I went out and bought a Wii, on the grounds that it'll play my existing Gamecube games. That and a component video cable seem to have done the trick. Whomped my way through Eternal Darkness again and felt a bit better about things.

As far as actual Wii games: I'm told I should get both Mario Galaxys and New SMB, and anything labeled Kirby as well. Zelda: Twilight Princess was pretty but after about halfway through, the sheer amount of running around not doing anything interesting has really turned me off it. (That and the terminally annoying fairy who hangs around and is smug about not telling you anything.) Metroid: Other M was... decent, but too frantic to really feel epic; I've got the Prime Trilogy on order. Anything I'm missing? Anything good on Virtual Console / WiiWare?

Comments

[chaobell]

Skyward Sword is beautiful and awesome and the first Zelda game since Minish Cap I have managed to get through without ragequitting.

Also there's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (which may well be the last good Silent Hill game we'll ever see, judging by that ridiculous multiplayer one on the Vita and also what I've heard about Downpour but never mind that). And Ghostbusters.

[jazzfish]

Ooh, I'd forgotten about the new ("new") Ghostbusters game! And the Silent Hill remake looks decent as well. Thanks!

So my major beef with Twilight Princess is that the ratio of running around in the overworld (pretty but boring) to whomping things in dungeons (why I play Zelda games) is way too high. Is that still a problem in Skyward Sword?

[chaobell]

There is a considerable amount of whomping. Also it's nice that the world and dungeons are designed in such a way that progressing will open up nice little shortcuts so that if/when you do need to return to the area, there is not so much travel time involved.

[rbandrews]

I really enjoyed Kororinpa: Marble Mania, and I also liked Lego Star Wars (for the cube) a lot. Boom Blox is pretty fun too.

Cave Story is also a good downloadable game. I see there's a Bit.Trip Runner port too... I haven't played it on the Wii, but on PC I have, and I bet you'd like it.

I really wish there were some way you could play Fez. I could see that taking over your life.

[rebelsheart]

If you like Mario Kart, I recommend Mario Kart Wii. I actually disliked Super Mario Galaxy enough after playing for about an hour to thank the friend who brought it over for saving me from renting it.

If you were a fan of Final Fantasy or Secret of Mana, representatives from both series are on Virtual Console, though you'll need a GameCube Controller or a Classic Controller attachment to play them.

[jazzfish]

Lego Star Wars didn't grab me but I forget why. The other two look neat.

Cave Story (well, Cave Story+) came in a Humble Bundle sometime last year. It's almost exactly the kind of thing I like, except for how the designer seems to believe that save points are made out of rubies, or every time you put one in God kills a kitten, or something. Gave up on what I'm pretty sure is the final boss (the Doctor, after defeating whatsername with no save point afterwards).

Bit.TRIP Complete is on my radar; waiting for a cheap copy to pop up. I may be waiting for awhile. :)

[rbandrews]

Yeah, I played it first on the Wii, didn't finish, and then got it in that same bundle and got further in it. I haven't finished yet; I think you're further than I am.

I have a couple Bit.TRIP games (Runner and... something? Beat?) I've only played Runner, but it's totally awesome. I'm stuck on one level, but even being stuck is sort of addictive. I think because the beat doesn't stop when you die, it just waits for the start os the next measure to respawn you at the start of the level, so it's like listening to a giant techno song that eventually you get right.

Annnd now I'm going to go listen to the Bit.TRIP soundtrack on the iPod-o-game-music. :)

[thanate]

We liked Paper Mario, which has a little bit of Wii functionality, and a fair amount of plot and activity. K likes Kirby's Yarn as multi-player, though I find it a little beyond my abilities & therefore a bit frustrating because he'll end up running around me in circles. (this is not representative of the experience of anyone who's spent a fair amount of time gaming, though.) My brother highly recommends Okami, which I still haven't gotten around to playing yet.

I don't know how the wii translation is, but a lot of the lego games are supposed to be pretty good. (I've played some of one of the Indiana Jones ones in a standard-controller version, which was surprisingly playable & entertaining even at novice skill level.)

If you don't require everything to be plot-based, Boom Blox is a good party game (throw things and knock stuff over! What's not to love?) and the Wii Sports Resort has some pretty cool fencing sequences. Weirdly enough, I also enjoy several of the sports (bowling, frisbe...) that I don't much care for in real life.

There are also a *lot* of wii games that seem to have high ratings with the caveat of "gameplay sucks." We have several things that are supposed to be pretty good and that languish in the cabinet because I can't get past the first level.

[jazzfish]

Hm. That does sound enticing...

[jazzfish]

So it's like playing Frequency where you get to hear the whole song, but all the songs are like Oakenfold or Ethan Eves? I'm okay with that.

[jazzfish]

While I like Mario Kart, I like Double Dash enough that I don't know that I need to shell out money for the next iteration.

A GameCube controller is not a problem. :) I even still have a Hori Digital Controller for things that don't need analog sticks... I liked Secret of Mana alright but FF did nothing at all for me.

[rbandrews]

So, a description of Bit.TRIP Runner:

You're playing Mario. The first one, for the NES. Only trouble is, your controller is broken: the d-pad is always holding down right, so you can't stop running. Obstacles (things to jump over, things to duck under, things to ninja kick: it's not exactly Mario) are coming at you from the right side of the screen. You need to deal with them (jump, duck, kick, whatever) at exactly the right time.

What's cool though, each action you do makes a certain sound, that's like a sample in a techno track. And the levels are designed such that if you play it right (deal with every obstacle as it comes at you), then it's music.

[jazzfish]

Paper Mario is on my list as well. I'm on the fence about Okami, simply because I own the PS2 version but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. (I want to! I've heard nothing but good things about it, from a bunch of people whose opinions I respect.)

The trouble with party games is that I am an electronic misanthrope. And I'm not as tempted by the Wii Sports type things as I might be due to the current living-room setup: the long end of the couch extends out in front of the TV so there's no place to stand and flail madly. I suppose I ought to pick them up soon if I'm going to, though, before the Wii goes the way of the dodo Dreamcast.

[jazzfish]

Oh! So it's Rez, but for platforming instead of shooting!

[jazzfish]

And what was so bad about Galaxy?

[rbandrews]

Yes! Exactly! That's a much better description.

The boss I'm stuck on now is this flying saucer dude who flies next to you and drops stuff in front of you. He always drops the same stuff, but I can't quite get it.

[rebelsheart]

it has been so long I do not remember. Sorry.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, random dreams are the brain's way of rebooting.

Is the not-writing related to stress?

Ooooh, you have a lot of good games. I think Twilight Princess is beautiful and I adore Metroid: Other M because we see so much more of Samus. (I love Samus.)

The Metroid Prime Trilogy is great. So are the Mario games.

Do you like the Castlevania games?

I'll have to see what else we have at home that I can rec. I'm afraid I've gotten caught up in MMO's and don't console game as much. Which is a shame. I should console game this weekend.

Have you tried downloading games from Nintendo for your Wii? There's a lot of great older games and even some newer games you can download straight to your Wii.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Wii games? Hmmm... not that we use it much a) when the kid's out of town or b) since we got a PS3 (which, also, see (a)), but I'd recommend...

Just Rock Band plus track packs, really, from what's in our current Wii games collection. :)

[jazzfish]

The not-writing is almost certainly related to stress, although it's... there's a particularly invidious form of self-sabotage going on there as well, one I didn't even recognise until it was pointed out to me last week.

Other M feels very weird to me. The pacing just seems ... strange. (I think this wants to be explored in its own post.)

My exposure to Castlevania consisted of the very bad Gameboy game, and watching someone else play the one for Super Nintendo. So... I have no idea? They seem like the sort of thing I'd like.

I've not really looked into the virtual console stuff, on the grounds that it would be very easy to spend a great deal of money there. :)

[jazzfish]

Heh. To me the lack of Wii titles is actually a feature: I don't really anticipate spending much time video-gaming anyway, and I know it's got enough games to keep me interested without having a paralyzing array of choices.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

We have a bunch of others, they're just more kid-centric or need special controllers. (Wii Sports Resort and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games are fun, though.)