Becker College 24 Hour Game Jam Video

I finally managed to upload this video to Youtube. I video taped some of the Becker College 24 Hour Game Jam this past Fall for WCCA  TV 13.

"Power Up Replay 2012: The Future is in the Past Electric Boogaloo" The Aftermath

The Gaming Society of the University Massachusetts at Dartmouth held it's annual Power Up last Saturday November 17th. It's full name was "Power Up Replay 2012: The Future is in the Past Electric Boogaloo". It was really awesome! I went into Cedar Dell, payed $15, was given an achievement checklist, and had a great time. It was very gratifying seeing familiar faces.

For a good majority of the time I was there, I spent it in the Magic Tournament area. They held a Draft Tournament, a Standard Tournament, Legacy I think, and free play. I didn't do so well overall, but I still had a lot of fun. I have a better idea of what should be in my Standard deck.

There was also some free pizza, soda, and eventually at the end the baked goods were free. Sure the pizza was the cheap version provided by Sudexo through the school, but that was a minor flaw.

In the main area, there were plenty of old school games. I got to play some Duck Hunt, and the original Super Mario. I saw also Tetris, old school Sonic,and many other games some of which I never even heard of. There were even score listings of top ranks for certain games in a certain amount of time.

All in all, I still say other clubs and organizations in colleges should definably have charity events like this one if they don't already.

Power Up Replay 2012: The Future is in the Past Electric Boogaloo

This Friday November 16th, I am going to the UMass Dartmouth Gaming Society's annual Power Up charity event. They collect toy and money donations for the Boys and Girls' Club as a fee. Students and Alumni get to play video games, Magic the Gathering, and other games at certain stations. It will be held from 6:00 that Friday night to 11:45 the next morning. I won't be able to stay for the entire event because I have work, but I will stay as long as possibly can. I will have pictures and will write up a post about this event.

I have been to this event in the past and I have had an awesome time. I suggest if you are in a club of some sort, you should suggest something like this event to help out others.

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.

38 Studio Fails

I was truly surprised to find out as I read an article on the Escapist website called "Entire 38 Studios Staff Laid Off, Effective Immediately." This article caught my attention because this company was one of many game design companies I have applied to for a job. I applied to Curt Schilling's company based on the premise that this was a new company and they were looking for employees to hire. I just wonder what would have happened if I were working at 38 Studios and I discovered numerous odd coincidences occurring: that employees weren't getting paid, executives fleeing, and eventually receiving an email saying that you were laid off. I think I would be really agitated, and I hope that whatever company I do end up working for won't fail like this.

On a side note, the Julien Hudson exhibit is officially closing tomorrow at the Worcester Art Museum. It was an interesting small exhibit, but it has lived up to it's potential in popularity here in Massachusetts and not as many people will be around to see it during the summer.

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.