Kirby's Return to Dreamland

(This image is from en.wikipedia.org)

I have just finished Rayman Origins recently. It was a lot of fun. I have just began to play Kirby Returns to Dreamland, and I have also been enjoying this game immensely.

Yeah I know, it is a little weird for a full grown adult to like a video game with a pink, cute character, however this game is very entertaining. The only games I have only played with Kirby before this one were the Super Smash Brothers games and Kirby's Epic Yarn, so I don't have much experience with this specific character. Even though this character can pretty much just hover around endlessly, they still made this game challenging at times with the mechanics and the multitude of abilities you can harness are just amazing.

I liked playing as this character in the Super Smash Brothers games because even though he is light, he can copy other characters and he has a few interesting moves of his own.

There were a few parts of Kirby's Epic Yarn that I liked, but it doesn't nearly hold up to this game. Sure Kirby can transform in his previous game, but there were plenty of problems with it. Collecting beads was just weird, especially since the only negative effect of getting hit was losing a good number of your beads like Sonic when he loses his rings. The Beads are able to unlock certain things if you collect enough of them, but it is not much of anything special. You can never die in Kirby's Epic Yarn, which sort of makes it seem ridiculous that you never have to start over in a level and can just allow the bad guys to hit you endlessly. It helped in some of the boss fights, but boss fights should not be that ridiculous to beat.

In Kirby's Return to Dreamland, I really like the power ups at certain parts of certain stages that pretty much allow you to demolish everything in the stage. As you can see on the cover of the game, Kirby wields a giant sword several times his size, which is one of the special powers. It is hilarious and awesome to swing these massive blades, summon a giant dragon made of fire, turn into a giant rolling snowball, or even create a giant sphere of magic that you can send floating in any direction.

I have not tried multiplayer mode yet with anyone, but I look forward to seeing the mechanics for Metaknight and King Dedede. I don't get why there is this character called Waddle Dee. Honestly, he looks like a character no one really wants to be. You can play multiplayer with four different color Kirby characters, but I would like to see the different characters.

Rayman Origins

(This image is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayman_Origins)

I have been playing Rayman Origins recently. For the most part, I am only familiar with Rayman through the Raving Rabbits games for the Wii. I have never played any of Rayman's previous platform games until now. I have to say, I am really enjoying the game.

The setting, characters, and plot are very strange, but entertaining nonetheless. The style is weird, but I like how creative it is. I enjoy the fact that you have to chase down the bad guys in order to gain new abilities, I enjoy the flow of the game, and I even enjoy how fast paced it can get at certain times. I have yet to actually play the multi-player mode, but I heard that it was better than "Super Mario Bros Wii" so I am looking forward to exploring that.

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World

(This image is from animecrazy.net.)

I have been playing this game called "Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World" on my Nintendo Wii lately. It has been an interesting role playing game so far. I think I am almost done it, but I am not entirely sure. I had to rent it from Gamefly, so I want to return it as soon as possible so that I can cancel my membership and save up for the new car.

I admit, I didn't think I would like the game that much at first. The characters seemed to have the same emotionless expressions during the first few cut scenes, the humor was a little weird at first, the game-play seemed difficult though that may have been because I didn't have a manual, Emil the protagonist seemed like a wimp, and his relationship with the girl Marta is weird. For some reason, I felt like continuing though.

As I continued to play, I discovered some interesting abilities of the characters you meet and the monsters you befriend as they all fight beside you. There is a large cast of characters who you become friends with in this game and the numerous monsters you find are actually capable of evolving into completely different creatures.

The monsters sometimes reminded me of Pokemon or Digimon, but since you fight alongside them you feel less cheap of training monsters to fight battles for you. When the human and half-elf characters use weapons and magic to fight monsters with monsters, you get more of a sense that you are all in danger and it becomes more fun. I mean, I have only watched the shows of Digimon and Pokemon, so I don't know how the games are. I am just going on how it looks to me.

I had no idea that this is a direct sequel to the GameCube game called "Tales of Symphonia" until very recently. I mean, I did know it was a sequel, but I didn't know that all of the other characters, aside from the two main ones, were all from the previous game until I saw a picture that the other characters were on the cover. It makes me wonder what the previous game was like, considering the side characters tend to share a little of their back stories at times, but it seems as if you are still left out on a lot of information.

Some of the monsters in this game are really cool and are helping me a little to get some ideas of my own.

Gamefly

(This image is from http://www.cybersharings.com/puerto-rico-earthquake-shakes-the-city/.)

I have been renting games from Gamefly for the past few months. It has given me the chance to play so many games for my Nintendo Wii that would have cost me more to buy them. I own multi-player games for my Wii because it allows me to play with other people when they come over. Single player games are the only games I rent from Gamefly because I know I probably won't ever play them again if I own them. I learned that from owning the Playstation 1 and the original X Box.

(This image is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_More_Heroes_%28video_game%29.)

One of the games I really enjoyed was No More Heroes. It is a game about an assassin named Travis Touchdown who is trying to become the number one assassin. From what I heard, the Japanese creators of this game were spoofing our American culture, and we can see that just by the weapon he uses is pretty much a more realistic version of a light-saber. Even if it was spoofing our culture, I still really enjoyed the obscure storyline and the game play. This game uses the motion control of the Wii mote very effectively. I would have kept this game for nostalgic purposes. I also rented the second game, but it was not as good.

(This image is from http://digitalbattle.com/2010/06/05/super-mario-galaxy-2-review/.)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 was another game I rented. I started to play the 1st one on my friend's Wii, but I didn't finish it. I heard this game was pretty much the same except for the addition of Yoshi, which I liked playing with. Some of the characters and storyline didn't seem that interesting though.

(This image is from http://supplements.thephoenix.com/supplements/2010/50games/battle/?a=943&b=939&intro=1.)

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was another great game. I heard it was very similar to Ocarina of Time, but I tried playing that game and I didn't care for the annoying fairy Navi who kept pestering you while you were playing the game. Midna was a much better replacement since she is much more part of the story and has a dark persona. I really liked the game play since you could transform into a wolf and as a human you have so many useful gadgets that are awesome.

(This image is from http://nerdsontherocks.com/drunken-dialect-interview-with-link.)

I just finished playing this game. It was alright, though flying on the back of the bird was annoying at first because they didn't mention in the game how you fly higher. I really didn't care for Fi, the replacement for Midna and Navi. Fi just sounds like a computer who calculates all the time. The gadgets were very similar to the previous game, but I did like how you have to upgrade them. What I liked most about this game were the characters in the storyline. Link seemed like a more realistic boy, Zelda was a more interesting character though she wasn't a princess this time, and I even liked the flamboyant villain Ghirahim. I have mixed feelings for the final boss though... (SPOILER ALERT: it isn't Ganandorf, it's someone called Demise. He looks cool in his final form, but he looks ridiculous as that monster called "The Imprisoned" and he doesn't seem to be able to do that much as you face him. Even Ghirahim has more tricks than he does.)

There are some other games that I have rented like Donkey Kong Country and Kirby's Epic Yarn. Those two games were alright. I tried to play Red Steel, but I returned it before I could ever finish it. I liked the shooter aspect of it at times, but the swordplay stank and I felt dizzy at times when the smallest movement of the Wii mote made the camera spin.

I'm going to stop my subscription to Gamefly soon. There aren't any other single player games out right now that I feel like playing. I want to play "Kirby's Return to Dreamland" and "Rayman Origins," but both of those are multiplayer so I will just add them to my permanent collection. Maybe I will start up Gamefly again when the next Nintendo system comes out, which should be this summer. I heard there will be more games for gamers than the Wii had. Besides, I want to start up Netflix on my Wii and watch some movies and Anime series I have not had the chance to see.

Dance Games

I've been working very hard on finishing this animation for the 11 Second Club contest for this month since I only have one day left, so I have to keep this post short.

The new dancing games for motion control video games just seem weird to me. I saw people using "Dance Workout" for the Wii, and it was slow. As they began the game, it didn't even appear to have different settings of difficulty. I would think that would be built into the game.

It just seemed slow compared to DDR. I had been a fan of Dance Dance Revolution for quite some time, I even had a copy for the previous X-Box system. I could never do the hardest setting, but I was able to get quite good at it. Maybe they were able to make it faster because you are only moving your feet and not your arms for DDR.

I also didn't care for the music for this new dance game. It is all pop music from the past few years that I didn't like at that time either. Granted, I usually don't care for dance club music, but the songs the creators of DDR choose are epic. There are even some remakes like "We Will Rock You." Maybe I am just part of an older generation.

What these games had in common were the dancing figures in 3D graphics and the rating system if you get the marks or not.