Beautiful madness

A complaint leveled against Oblivion was that its traditional fantasy setting was somewhat bland and uninspired. Especially in contrast to its predecessor Morrowind which took place on an exotic Dark Elf island colonized by the empire. Offering a very original setting.

In the Shivering Isles expansion to to Oblivion, (which I finally took time to play after getting it as a Christmas present last year) Bethesda again tries a more creative setting. A mystical realm which is somehow a product of its mad ruler's imagination. Leading to some fantastic environments that are far more interesting then anything in the original game.

Mega Man bragging rights

I was going for the achievement in Mega Man 9 for beating the game in under an hour (which I did yay!). When I without trying to also got the achievement for beating the game without continuing and beating the game without falling in to any holes.

Damn that made me feel like a bad ass. I never thought I would get any of those seemingly impossible achievements.

Evil alien pig Nazis

The bad guys in Mother 3 are pig mask wearing fellows from outer space who constantly raise their right arm in a 45 degree angle in a manner very reminiscent of the Hitler salute.

How awesome/scary is that?

Camp Mega Man

I made a deal with my little brother. If he manged to finish the Mega Man 9 demo I would buy him the game. It took him several hours and I dont know how many tries to do it. But eventually he did and somewhere along the way he fell in love with the games punishing nature and extreme difficulty. He now says its his favorite PS3 game.

I feel like I did a good deed. Being ten he almost completely missed out on 2D gaming, at least now he knows that fancy graphics and impressive 3d worlds arent the only things that make a good game.

Finally!

I have been waiting all week for the fan translation of Mother 3 to come out. I havent been this hyped for a game in a long time. Today it finally showed up on the internet and I have been playing it all day.

Its such a unique and quirky game. I have never played anything quite like it. I really happy that the fans took it in to their own hands and translated the game after Nintendo decided not to localize it.

A lovely 2d/3d hybrid

I have been hearing a lot of complaining about the Dragon Quest graphics. And I have to tell you people, you are all wrong. This game is gorgeous.

Square-Enix has manged to give the game a serious face lift while preserving the old school feel by using traditional 2D sprites and placing them on more modern 3D backgrounds.

On top of that they are using both screen to show towns and dungeons, giving the DS port a distinctive look.

Impossible achievements

Here I was thinking beating Mega Man 9 was hard. Just look at these achievements.

Last Man Standing
Defeat all bosses with one pixel
of energy left.

Almost Invincible
Clear the game without continuing.

Invincible
Clear the game without dying.

Mr. Perfect
Clear the game without getting damaged.

Air Shoes
Clear the game without falling into any holes.

Gamer's Day
Clear the game 5 times in 1 day.

A Mega Man bloodbath

I finished Mega Man 9 just now. In the process of beating the game I must have died literally hundreds of times. You die and die and die again until you have fully mastered a stage. The game is absolutely brutal.

But its ok because every time you die and hear that classic Mega Man death sound you know its your own fault. You can never blame the game. Its all about your own skills or lack there of.

Yay look at me! Im jumping

You gotta love the old school Mega Man jump animation. You cant tell if he is dodging bullets or just wants a hug.

Balloons are so much cooler then airships

This just made me fall in love with Dragon Quest all over again. You know how in RPGs, especially Square games, your party always ends up with an airship to traverse the world. In Dragon Quest you get a balloon instead.

The legendary hero and his whole party has to get in to the small basket of a hot air balloon to complete their task and save the world. I just found that to be so charming.

Exploration!

Nonlinear gameplay is something usually associated with western RPG's. Their Japanese counterparts are usually very linear. Not that that is a bad thing, it enables the developer to give the player a very controlled experience. But I was surprised by the nonlinearity of Dragon Quest IV, my latest obsession.

The Dragon Quest series is the series that all Japanese RPG's are modeled after. It established the standards for the whole genre. Its the last place I expect to find such "western" game design.

After the games very lengthy introduction (which took about 10 hours to complete) the game opens up completely. Everyone in your village is killed and you are left to figure out what to do and where to go, with pretty much the whole world open to you. You will have to travel around the world and talk to every NPC. Some random guy in a bar might be the one who gives you an essential clue to what to do. There are no cut scenes and very little dialogue, you have to figure things out yourself. Traveling back and forth between towns, not always certain what your next objective will be.

The game manages to give me a real sense of freedom and exploration while not making me feel completely lost. Its a nice variation from games like Final Fantasy which opens up one part of the world at a time for you with a clear objective to achieve.