Kirby Superstar

I feel able to review this game because I've played through it in its entirety at least 3 times. I love it. There's something about power stealing that just draws me. It's there in the Megaman games too. However, the way that this game does it kind of floors me. It has several games in it, and though power stealing is in all (most) of them (not the minigames), it's represented differently in every single one.

Truthfully, this game has many games in it. They all play similarly, control wise, but they all present them differently. Spring Breeze is what you think of when you hear Kirby. It plays how most Kirby games do. Dynablade has levels. You can go to whichever level you like and carry powers between them. The Great Cave Offensive is one long expansive world with only doorways between areas. There are boss fights and checkpoints, but no over world map. If you want to get back to the beginning, then you have to play through it until the end, or start a new game. Revenge of Meta Knight plays like a Mario game, in that every level has a timer that you race against. Then lastly, my favorite game in the collection is Milky Way Wishes. You can pick any power at any point, but only once you collect the statue for that power. I think this is the best way to put powers into a game, since you can play whatever you want whenever you want. This is how most Megaman games operate, which is why I'm a fan of those as well. Though, I've been liking Megaman Zero more and more these days. I think that I just enjoy having multiple different ways to kill people at my disposal.

I also liked how Kirby Superstar allowed co-op in a game that used to be built for only one person. Your helper would take on the presence of one of the enemies of the power he was using. This meant that helpers using the plasma power don't have to touch the ground. They could fly wherever they like. Also, the wheel helper could actually be ridden by Kirby. This interaction added something to SNES 2 player games that I hadn't seen before Kirby Superstar. Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, and 3 were all great games, but they failed to provide the second player with anything to do while they waited for the first player to die. Kirby Superstar also provided a way for the second player to catch up to the first without things like the bubble in the recent New Super Mario Bros. The bubble worked out, but sometimes I found it easier to ignore than and let it find me, rather than going out and grabbing it myself. The recall feature in Kirby Superstar was much easier to use. It also came out over 10 years earlier... Games don't always progress as time goes on.

Another great thing that Kirby did was that it had very brightly colored maps. Some people don't like this, but I personally found many Donkey Kong Country stages to be very dark. However, Donkey Kong Country did have very beautiful graphics. Also, for those of you who think bright or light colors are bad, please play Yoshi's Island. This game was full of pastels, but the detail put into every single stage really shows that impressionist painters deserve much more credit than they are often given. Pastels and surrealistic shapes can also be incredibly detailed and shiny. I use the term shiny here to mean very nice to look at, rather than having a high spectral reflection value. I know that isn't really the definition, but I like it none the less.

Regardless, back to Kirby Superstar. This is one of my all time favorite Kirby games. It even has one of the best selection of powers. The only one that I can think of that has more powers is Kirby 64, but most of those powers seemed to be filler, rather than fun to use. I think they were running out of ideas on how to use those power combos at some point. Though I do really like the curling iron power. Ice and stone are not particularly fun alone, but together they make a ridiculously strong power. I think there should be more power combination games. I enjoy those.

So to sum it up, this is a great game. I've loved it enough to play through it multiple times, and still have the original cartridge. This makes me feel less bad in downloading ROMs to play on my laptop. If you can get a (legal) hold of this game, then I strongly suggest trying it out. I've enjoyed it on every single play through. It's even one of the few platformers that becomes more fun with friends. (In my opinion, NSMB did not become more fun with friends. At least, it wasn't because of the game that it was more fun, but because of having the friends around, which I could have with a single player game too.)

Angel

That's the second show down. I think it says something when you watch an entire season of a TV show in 4 days. I think that thing that is says is that you have no life. I really don't think I do have a life anymore. I'm okay with that. I'll have a life again when I get back to school.

So anyways, I've finished Angel. I've watched all of it. The one thing I noticed is that after season 4, they kept mentioning Buffy characters, but never had one make a guest appearance. They almost did, but then they skirted around it very slyly. I wish they had actually pulled Buffy into the show, but I guess she wasn't important enough.

Another thing I noticed is that Buffy took the entire last season wrapping up the series. Angel took about... 2 episodes. I was watching and waiting to see if they were going to get some big bad to show up, but unlike in Buffy, they actually go out and look for the evil, rather than waiting for it to mess shit up. I like this about Angel.

Also unresolved was... everything. They gave a cliffhanger to a season ending show. I guess it isn't as bad of a cliffhanger as is the Sonic the Hedgehog ending, but I still wish that this show had another season more than I wish Sonic did.

Joss Whedon did as Joss does. He made me like every single character in the end. Unfortunately, then Joss did as Joss does again... I'll leave that one unanswered for the people who still want to watch the show.

I feel like I haven't laid down any spoilers yet. I wasn't planning on it. Though I feel the need to say that there's one thing I notice in almost every TV series that I kind of dislike. They always start out funny, in order to draw us in, and then become really serious after a season or two. Buffy does it after about 4 seasons. Angel managed it in 1. I understand that Angel is supposed to be dark and dreary, but I like myself some comedy. I want a reason to laugh. Unfortunately, decapitation does not make me laugh. Angel surely had a lot of that. If I found that funny, then I would have been set.

So if you're asking, then yes. You should watch this show. I've heard it described as Batman in LA, which is fairly adequate, except that Batman has no sidekicks and never actually kills anyone. Angel also makes villains that I can like more than the heroes. Which reminds me. Angel has also made me refer to good people as "champions" much more often than I did before. It seemed to be a keyword of the series. I don't find this a bad thing though. I like calling my friends champions. I hope they don't mind being called champions.

So the show has adventure. It ventures into comedy. It has deep seeded themes and messages. It really is a sophisticated show, at least compared to most of what I watch. I will always have complaints with Joss, as I will with any director or writer, but that he makes bad shows isn't one of them. For those of you that didn't follow, this means that he makes good shows.

P.S. This is an opinion. You don't have to like the show, but I do recommend that you give it a try.

Ouran High School Host Club

This show... Its effect on me was only compounded by the fact that one of my career choices is to be a host. There seems like few jobs that are more fun than this one.

Many shows make me smile. Slightly fewer make me laugh. Many fewer make me cry. Only one show makes me do all 3 at the same time. This show. Ouran has more than enough elements to cater to most audiences. Unless you only watch grindfest movies, then this should be something you're interested in.

It starts out ridiculous, like many good shows do, and then progressively becomes more serious, again, like many good shows do. Obviously, this upsets some of the people who like the funny and holds off some of the people who want the drama, but if you give it a chance, it can only take up 13 hours of you life. These 13 hours will be great. You will love them. You will smile. You will laugh. You will cry. You will experience conflicting emotions simultaneously. I am not one to scream "Moe!" or "Kawaii" but I found that this show even inspired this in me. Though it takes until about episode 12 in the 26 show series for anything of any lasting value to happen, the shows that do last will stick with you forever.

I just plead for you to watch the subtitled version, rather than the dubbed version. I'm not one of those fans that believes everything should be subtitled, but the dub voices in this show are just plain annoying. I'm not trying to be mean, but I really couldn't take 13 hours of English speaking Haruhi. This show is set in Japan with Japanese culture and puns and just things that wouldn't work in English. Please keep this one original.

Now, if you choose to read this and ignore my recommendation, I will not be offended. I just want you to know that you aren't skipping this because you don't think you'll like it. You're skipping this because you don't yet know how much you love it. If the first 3 episodes don't catch you immediately, then you must be the kind of person who hates yourself.

Never, I repeat, Never have you seen such an emotion inducing anime. Hell, I've never seen such an emotion inducing show. Buffy definitely came quite close, but it never did jump this hurdle. If you ever feel like you want you life to be enriched, then I implore you to jump into this pool of scrumptious cake flavored jello thickened using character development. (More kosher than horse hooves!) It will make you a better person.

Ouran High School Host Club. Do it.

Mischief Makers

I wasn't kidding when I said my game reviews would be really late. This is for a system three generations old, but still stands strong to this day.

Mischief Makers is a game for the Nintendo 64 and was one of the first few games to feature 3D models on a 2 dimensional playing field. This was surprising, as many developers were trying to move into 3D at the time, and showing you had the ability to, without harnessing the potential felt very awkward to quite a good chunk of people. Many developers were also trying to follow in the popular footsteps of Super Mario 64 by making their own 3D platformers. One of the few that succeeded was Banjo-Kazooie. It tried to build itself into an individual game that happened to be a 3D platformer, instead of trying to ride on the tail of Super Mario 64's fame. Many developers tend to do that, trying to make money off of a simple Nintendo game clone. It happened when Pokemon and Metroid Prime came out as well. I suppose this has nothing to do with Mischief Makers though, since the first 2.5D game they made was Yoshi's story (unless you count the Virtual Boy game Warioware, which had 2D sprites in a 3D landscape) and that came out much later in the life of the N64.

I used to go to a video game rental store every Monday night. My brother and I got to rent 2 video games. He would either get Mischief Makers or Pilot Wings and I would either get Wave Race, Space Station Silicon Valley, or Blast Corps. I loved all of these games, but Mischief Makers is my focus right now.

Mischief Makers used the D-pad. How many N64 games used the D-pad? I'm guessing that number is about three, and the other 2 sucked something fierce. The analog stick was so new, and many developers thought it would add so much to their games. They were right. Still, Mischief Makers was smart for sticking to the d-pad. In true 2D platformer spirit, there is no reason to even have 8 direction, let alone 360 degrees of movement. This meant that the game would have been suited for play on the Super Nintendo, had the 16 bit graphics been up to par for this game (which they wouldn't have been).

The mechanics of this game still shine through the years. The movement is very similar to Megaman games, pre-wall slide. You can dash and dash jump. You can dash before jumping, while jumping, or both. You can also dash in all directions, though down is not useful when on the ground. Actually, a down dash while on the ground does a roll. Anyways, this is turning into a summary when it should be an analysis. The most interesting movement aspect was the up dash. It didn't make you fly much higher, so could only make you reach places you were almost already at. Mostly it was useful when I needed to stay in the air a little longer. puzzles that made the up dash useful are what this game is all about. Small little quirky ideas build a great game.

One of those small things that was expanded into a game defining mechanic was the mixing system. You really don't know what you're missing until you understand that shurikens and boomerangs are both made out of flowers. In fact, there are no ingredients in a boomerang that aren't flowers. How cool is that? The mixing used the game's signature "shake shake" to power itself. This shaking could change many numbers of things. Shaking people made them drop gems or items. Shaking bombs made them tick faster. Shaking poles could extend or retract them and shaking some balls could reorient gravity. Basically, the game inspiring picking up and shaking everything they wasn't hinged to the floor.

The story was weird. I still don't understand it fully. They steal your grandfather because... they want to distract you, so you don't save the world? And then you try to rescue him anyways. You do math because... the townspeople are having a carnival. Wait... your grandfather is the 1st place trophy... Yes, this plot totally makes sense. Still, the game is intense fun, and I'm sure you could understand all the plot once you beat it once or twice.

Unfortunately, the emulations of this game aren't all perfect, so I can't actually get to the end. I own this game so I have no qualms downloading the ROM, which is much easier than would be finding my N64 and hooking it up. However, the ROM has one major flaw. There are several other flaws in the ROM that are little enough to overlook, but the big one is the invisible boulder in later levels. The sprite file must be missing. This sucks because I can't dodge a boulder if I can't see when it's going to fall on me.

Yes, the difficulty does get progressively harder, but that shouldn't be a problem since it starts out at such as easy level, and only gets more interesting level designs as the difficulty ramps up.

I would suggest going out and getting this game right away. If you don't have an N64, finding one for cheap on eBay would totally be worth it (especially if you grab other N64 games I will inevitably review later). If you can't, please find some way to contribute to the developers who are so great before you go out and download it (in the most legal fashion as I assume you all to do. Some places say it's legal for 24 hours before you have to delete it. I'm not sure if this is true).

All in all, I give this game a great out of 10. It is immensely fun and has kept me engrossed for the greater part of a decade.

Alien Swarm Review

So let's look at this thing. It came from Valve. This is usually a good sign. It has 4 player co-op. Whether or not this signals good or bad, this has been done well by Valve is the past, so I say it bodes well. It consists of fighting off hordes of enemy creatures with a large variety of weapons. Three pluses on that mark. It's free. If that doesn't excite you I don't know what will. This game looks great on paper.

It also looks great on an LCD Panel. The graphics were built for the source engine, so I already expected great things, but it still looked good. It beats Half-life 2 by a good margin, and I think it outpaces Team Fortress 2 as well. I can't wait to see what Portal 2 does in Source.

So, this game looks pretty, but does it play well. I would say yes. I would say yes many times in a row and still be underplaying it. This game takes the teamwork aspect of Left 4 Dead, and seems to make it more interesting. You never rely on a specific class, unless you need a Tech. They can hack doors and arm bombs, so if there is a mission objective requiring hacking, then a Tech is required for that one mission. If you get infested, you better hope you have a competent medic. I like playing the medic because truthfully I don't really trust anyone with my character's life. I just played a game in which the medic rarely dropped health packs and everyone ran into the infesting aliens like they were warehouses of ammo. The last mission, I was the only person to make it out alive and our medic died half way through the mission. The worst part is when the people who needed health the most ran away from me while I was the medic. It was not an enjoyable experience. So, I'm glad that this game isn't as teammate dependent as Left 4 Dead, when teammates don't know how to work together.

The leveling system is also nice. There's more incentive to keep playing it. I don't know why I'd want to start a zombie apocalypse, but enticing aliens to eat my brain doesn't sound like a bad idea if I'm going to get a flamethrower out of it. Also, I'm sad to say it, but the weapon variety here is larger than it is in Borderlands. Alien Swarm has the shotguns, SMGs, pistols, sentries, assault rifles, and flamethrowers that Borderlands does. Wait... Borderlands doesn't have a flamethrower? Well, I was going to say that Alien Swarm also has the medic guns, freeze grenades, and Mini-guns that Borderlands seems to be lacking.

Also, unlike in Borderlands, the classes actually seem to matter. They aren't significantly different. Only the weapons that define the classes get locked to other classes. Only Medics can use healing items and Weapon Specialists are the only ones with the big guns (Miniguns). Being a Tech is fun too. The hacking is much quicker and fun than in Bioshock (and there aren't any luck based puzzles like in Bioshock) and it actually feels like hacking, unlike Bioshock 2. Hacking also adds another team play mechanic. You need people to defend you while you're taking down a computer's security or the aliens will overrun you.

So I beat the first campaign. Unfortunately it's the only campaign, but I expect community content to follow soon. Still, it's a lot deeper than it looks at face value. Playing it over again will allow you to unlock more weapons until you have the set-up of your dreams and if you pay enough attention, you can find PDAs scattered all over the game that give you an idea of what life would be like on a remote colony of Earth. Spoilers: half the data on the PDAs are spam e-mails. The alien extermination really need no plot, and it's easy enough to ignore if you don't care about plot, but it's there and is actually half decent if you listen. It is as little cliched as possible for an alien invasion game and really adds more reason to game than does the plot of L4D.

The game is beautiful and plays great for the price it costs (nothing, if you forgot). I don't see why everyone shouldn't give it a shot. It will also allow you to play any Source games you please as the game runs on that engine. A wonderful free Valve giveaway and all the Source mods you can play at an additional no price. There is no excuse for any of you to let this deal slide. That would be like not grabbing the free Half-life Death-match deal or ignoring that Portal was free for a week. Read: It would be a stupid thing to do.

Go out and show this game the love it deserves as the first good and free combination of Left 4 Dead, Bioshock, and Borderlands (In third person).

Tomato Mozzarella

A simple sandwich, yet ridiculously simple to screw up. It really only requires 6 ingredients. This sandwich is not just bread tomatoes and mozzarella, but I suppose it could be if you're the kind of person who throws chicken into a pan with non stick spray and eats it when it's cooked through. (This is basically the recipe most of my friends used when they decided they don't like tofu, but that's a different rant.) Simple does not have to mean bland. In fact, simple should not mean bland. If you complain that a meal you cooked is bland, then you have to cook it again but use more spices. I say more cause I assume you wouldn't complain about something being bland without first trying to spice it. You should not assume the dish is bad and never make it again. Now that that's cleared up, I can get to telling you what a good tomato mozzarella sandwich should look, feel, smell, and taste like. I don't really care about the sound of my sandwiches, but that's your call. And if the sandwich doesn't sound right to you, then try increasing or decreasing the resonance frequency of your sandwich. I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

The bread you use. It should have a crust. I don't care if it's a flaky crust like on a croissant or a hard crust like you'd find on a German brotchen. If you have sliced loaves then I suggest you either go back to the french toast post or go out and buy crustier bread. Personally, I don't like brotchen that aren't made in Germany or floppy croissants for holding together wet ingredients (which most sandwiches will have unless they are actually made with sand). Therefore, I go with a Kaiser roll. French bread will also work, but absolutely make sure that it isn't stale. Stale bread makes everything except for sea voyages worse. Cut the bread in half sandwich style. (If you don't know what sandwich style is then please educate yourself with google image search.)

The cheese. It should be mozzarella, but I'm guessing you already knew that. It should be in a ball or similarly round shape. Sliced or string mozzarella will not do here. You should unpackaged and slice the cheese with a thickness between 1 and 2 centimeters. It's hard to slice mozzarella thin, but that's okay because less cheese isn't necessarily good. If you're on a diet, don't make the slices thinner, eat half of the sandwich for lunch instead of the whole thing. You would still take in the carbs from the bread with tinner slices, and my method leaves you half a sandwich for dinner, breakfast tomorrow, or to give to your friend. Layer the cheese on one half of the bread.

Then the tomatoes.  Or tomatoes I guess depending on how you pronounce them. (The best part is you probably read that the way I intended you to without even thinking. Yes, I am psychic. Thanks for asking.) You need to slice them as well. Perhaps a centimeter thick. Perhaps slightly thinner. I don't mind. Use your own discretion. I trust it to serve you well. Now piece those slices into a layer on top of the layer of mozzarella.

Now come the important ingredients. You need salt, pepper, and oil. I don't care whether or not you like pepper, just take some out of the cupboard. Put the salt on the tomatoes. A pinch or two should work fine, but I generally put on more than is necessary without too many consequences. (I tend to like my food salty) This should get the tomatoes to dry a little fairly quickly which is good because in a dish this simple, things as seemingly unimportant as the tomato texture can make or break the dish. Now put on pepper. Once again, I don't care whether or not you like it. The mozzarella cheese (if cut thick enough) will absorb most of the flavor put onto this sandwich. That's why I see many people not minding putting jalapeno peppers on this sandwich. They taste much less spicy with a slab full of cheese. If you actually want your sandwich to taste peppery, then put on a bit more than you usually would. After the "spices" are on (spices is in parentheses because salt and pepper are more staples than spices) you should put on olive oil. A tablespoon or two should be enough. In fact, two should be more than enough. Aim for one. Use a second if your sandwich is particularly large.

If you want to get interesting you can put on grilled zucchini, steamed bell peppers, roasted carrots, or numerous other vegetables (raw artichoke hearts work well), but I believe the plain mozzarella tomato should be tried first so you know the strength of the sandwich that you are messing with. It's base is an amazing piece of architecture that you should explore and take in before you cover the walls with paintings and photographs. For one of the best instantiations for this monument of a sandwich, you should try the Mozzarella Tomato on a kaiser roll at Santucci's in Silver Spring, Maryland. They have seemed to perfect the sandwich, as I have enjoyed it every time I get one there.

Games you should know and play

You've all heard about Okami, Ico, and Shadow of the Colossus even though very few gamers have played them. There are countless other games in this category, but I'm here to shed the light on the ones you guys don't know about.

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Lukas. He bought all the handheld games his brother bought so that they could play them together. His Pokemon blue to his Pokemon red and both of them with copies of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. However, there was one game that had good enough excuse for them to both buy a copy, yet no one has heard of it. Metal Walker, is the name of the game. The player's pet can be customized, but no too greatly. There are many enemy types, but not as many as in Pokemon. All in all the game feels like a stripped down Pokemon until the kids take one more thing into account. The battle system.

It was called flipping. I suppose it still is if anyone still actually plays the game. You aim your pet and press the a button. Then a meter starts sliding back and forth. Most try to hit the a button again at full power. A select few try to guesstimate exactly the amount of force necessary to hit the enemy and get themselves out of harms way. Even the items in the battle system were interesting. You couldn't just use them. You had to drop them on the battlefield and them "flip" into them. It changed the strategy even more because you could carry items that lower the attack or defense of the monster that hits it, and then flip the enemy into the item. This battle system was very unique and few games have done anything like it since. It made for a great game. Maybe not great enough to justify the Pokemon length story, but great enough to justify buying the game twice for two kids.

Overall rating of the game. It's a simplified Pokemon sort of deal and Pokemon is always good, but the battle system is something everyone should try at least once. It's addictive, requires more skill than Pokemon, and doesn't bore quite as quickly. This game is definitely worth a look even if you decide not to play it for more than half an hour. In the end, Lukas was happy with his purchase.