Old School in Onett

After the high of beating two of the Forgotten Games I decided to target
others. I worked at The New Super Mario Bros for a while. I'm at the
last castle on World 8 and its damn hard. After I gave up on NSMB I got
out Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time for the DS. I really love Mario
RPGs and this one is no exception. The whole Baby Mario and Luigi thing
I could do without but it doesn't ruin the game. When I left it last I
assumed I was right at the end but that want the case so I had a bit
more to do. This series has had the toughest final bosses I've seen in
a long time. They demand your full attention and are almost physically
exhausting. But I beat it finally. Also took care of Kirby: Nightmare
in Dreamland. I could remember if I finished this or not so
"refinished" it for good measure.
Later that night I broke out the GameCube to finally beat Pikmin. I had
forogtten how much I like that game (I'm thinking that I should pick up
Pikmin 2 sometime). Beat the final boss after a few tries then moved on
to Viewtiful Joe, Monkey Ball and Super Mario Sunshine. Unfortunately
none of which grabbed me. Even with a walkthrough I have no idea what
to do in Viewtiful Joe, the SM Sunshine situation needs to be
reevaluated (I've completely lost my bearings) and I think Monkey Ball
might just be a loss. I don't have too many games for the GameCube so I
dragged out the DreamCast to give Space Channel 5 a whirl. I remember
sucking at it but I thought with my sucess with other rhythum games
(Guitar Hero II and Pump It Up) this time might be different. Alas no.
It's more like Simon than the other rhythum games. I could find Jet
Grind Radio so I moved on to the Holy Grail of unfinished games:
Earthbound, a modern RPG for the SNES.
I purchased this game in 1994 and played the heck out of it, maybe to
about 60% to 70% complete. It has been a while sonce the SNES was
hooked up (execpt for the time when The Cat and I made a run at SMB3,
something we'll have to finish) and even longer since I found the game
and the guide that came with it. Both were reunited after our trip to
the Sunshine State last year. It had been 12 years since I played this
game so I had lost the narrative. Lord knows how much time I put into
it but I made the decision to delete the save file and start over. So
that's where I am right now: all my other fancy shamancy games sit idle
as I plink away on a 13 year old, 16 bit game. It's still a great game
that's weird, funny and exciting. Some complained about the graphics
but now they are delightfully retro and the music has remained
top-notch.
I'm glad to be back fighting L'il UFOs, No Good Flies and Mad Ducks with
my T-Ball Bat and PSI powers.

Buckling Down

I have this nasty habit of playing a game just shy of finishing it.
Sometimes I peter out at the last level, others it's right before the
last boss. I'l play the hell out of titles only to drift off without
wrapping things up. Pikmin has been sitting before the final battle for
5 years or so and Jet Grind Radio for about 8. I can't even remeber how
long it has been for Earthbound.
Its a really weird thing to do since I play games for the story. Some
want to complete the game perfectly. Some want to see all the game has
to offer or collect every item. Sometimes those are important to me but
mostly I want a completed narrative.
After seeing 300 I went home to finish up God of War, which had been
pushed aside by Okami, which was set aside by . . .ah hell, I can't
remember, the Wii maybe.
God of War was great (can't wait for II tp drop in price) and Okami was
good, it just over stayed its welcome (and got a bit off topic towards
the end). I'm gald I went back and finished them.
Initally I wanted to clear my slate in order to purchase Legend of
Zelda: Twilight Princess. But now I think I'll hold off and go back and
beat those games in limbo. First up some DS titles, Mario and Luigi
Partners in Time and The New Super Mario Bros., after that I might dig
out the DreamCast or Super Nintendo.

At Jury Duty

I got the summons. It is like they are punishing you for voting. I
can't think of anyone who is interested in being a juror. Don't get me
wrong, I love to pass judgement on people, but on my own time.
I swear everyone here is a talker (loudly and concerning medical
issues), coughing (is there a TB epidemic that I don't know about?) or
yapping their cheeks off on a cell phone (no, no one wants to know about
you fax line being down).
I plan to go crazy pretty soon. Maybe that will get me booted. I did
wear a tshirt though and that might get me the boot: its not solomn
enough. Feh.

Our first Wiinjuries.

Since I got the second Wiimote The Cat and I have been playing tennis
against each other. She usulay wins and we get a bit of a workout
(we're jummping around like its 'real'). It's fun all around. But
last night I accidentally thwacked The Cat on a backhand shot. She
retaliated by clipping my empty hand with her Wiimote.
Today my hand hurts like hell. But not bad enough to keem me from
playing the freshly downloaded Kid Icarus. Not to sound like a
curmudgeon, but games were harder back when I was a kid. None of this
battery save crap, you had to write down codes. No Internet with its
easy to find walkthroughs. All you had was a copy of Nintendo Power and
the Contra code memorized by heart.