iPhone game: Tiny Wings

Tiny Wings was the iTunes Game of the Week 2 weeks ago, so I figured I should give it a go. Not disappointed at all! It's really, really fun. Like most iPhone games, it has a really simple concept behind it - get as far as you can before dusk. Really fun and really addictive! :) At the moment I'm on x20, hoping to get to x22 today, and up and up!

3DS; First impressions

After a long wait, which had become pretty much unbearable since it came out in Japan last month and even more so in the past week, I've finally got my 3DS. 

It feels nice, heavy and sturdy. It's really shiny too! The joystick is brilliant, miles better than the PSP one. The buttons (A B X Y) and the D-Pad feel really nice, very much like the original DS's ones. The L and R triggers are very small but fall under your fingers really nicely so nothing to worry about. 

The dock you get with the console can serve as a charger. It looks quite nice, but feels a bit tacky - it's really light and the plastic does feel a little cheap. I'm generally quite a cautious person, so I'm not too bothered. 

The main menu feels good, easy to handle and has quite a few nice touches. The screens are really good - the bottom one is the same as the DS Lite one (320x240), and the top one is an all-new 800x240, so effectively 400x240 for each eye when the 3D is on. Speaking of 3D, I wasn't at all convinced at first - it kinda looked like those cards you get in cereal packets - move them and the footballer on them moves. After about half an hour and finding the setting that's right for you, you do get used to it and things really do start to seem further away inside the screen. 

So far I've only tried Ridge Racer 3D, the Shooting Faces thingy and the AR Cards game. 

Ridge Racer is the same as ever. The handling hasn't changed at all, and the graphics are pretty good. The music is pretty hardcore, not a huge fan. Overall, an ok game so far - I've only played half an hour. 

The AR cards game is utterly pointless but great. It's really very cool how things start popping out of your desk - and it works! I especially enjoyed seeing Mario and Kirby in my room :)

The Shooting faces game is really good - and kinda gives us an idea of what Zelda OoT will be like as far as shooting is concerned - the cursor never moves, you move the 3DS all over the place to shoot whatever needs to be shot. :p

So far, a great investment. Can't wait to get PilotWings: Resort... and for Zelda OoT and Mario Kart 3DS to come out! 

Three Zeldas in a month...

That's it, we're done! Completed Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker. Brilliant games! [And I really ought to upload reviews for them...]

Retro Gaming, Memories!

There's this really good friend of mine called Alex, and I got him into Zeldas a month back or so. He plays, I watch and play whenever he gets stuck or goes off to fetch some food... ^^
It's really funny seeing people get stuck when you know the solution to the puzzle! [And people get stuck in the same places - he struggles where I remember having struggled...]

It took him just over 2 weeks to get through Ocarina of Time, he really liked it. And the memories the game brings back! Sheik! The Zora! Ganondorf! I really can see why people call it 'the best game ever made'! OoT is the single game I've completed the most times (7 by myself, 8 now, soon to be 9 with the 3DS remake), and one of the only five I've ever 100%ed. I don't know whether we're gonna bother with Master Quest though.

His file

He's now playing Majora's Mask. We've completed the first three dungeons, and have just got the the owl by the entrance to the Stone Tower Temple. Gonna do some side-quests tonight, try and get 11 hearts before starting the dungeon. We should have completed the game by tuesday I reckon.

His file

I'll then get him to move onto The Wind Waker, my favorite / second favorite game ever. I was so moved by that game, when I played it back in 2005... I played it twice back then, once in 2008, and about to do it a fourth time. Looking forward to it big time! 

My perfect file

Hydro Thunder Hurricane: 100,000 Credits

 Finally made it, had to grind out the last 15,000.... But, hey, I got them! :)

Majin, my big fat friend...

I've got a few more achievements - 'Kill 100 enemies', 'Hit an enemy's shield 100 times' and another one where you have to become possessed 10 times. The game is still as fun. :)

Thunderrrrrrr! My big fat dumb buddy can now throw thunder onto people. Not bad ^^

The bit just after you obtain the thunder ability is really, really tedious and boring. It's not hard once you figure out what to do, and you feel like it's the same puzzle five times in a row... Boring. 

I have also beaten B'alam. It was a pretty good fight -albeit not as good as Caprakan's. Total GamerScore for the game is now 170G. :)

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Day 1

Started it today, am 1h30 in. A few thoughts...

1. It looks pretty good. The soundtrack is good. The plot seems ok-ish so far.  Kinda funny how you can talk to animals.

2. It handles pretty well. You can set the camera up so it moves faster. That's great. Tepeu runs too slowly though... Things seem pretty tedious.

3. It's hard! Bloody hell. The puzzles are really hard. I've gotten stuck three or four times so far. The puzzles have complicated solutions, but the vast majority of them are based on the cooperation between Teotl and Tepeu.

Will try to play some more tonight.

[Edit 23:25]

I have now played a total of 2h45. The game is actually really good! So much fun once you understand how to work things. I finally figured out how best to kill enemies (sneak up behind them or hit them until you can do a critical attack) and how to work Teotl's abilities. Speaking of abilities, he's now able to blow wind onto things. Pretty useful :p And I've just beaten Caprakan, that fight was so much fun! Makes great use of the abilities and I like the cooperation between the two buddies. This game is really refreshing, really different to anything else I've seen lately! Loving it at the moment. Looking forward to tomorrow :)

Oh and I'm on 80G so far. Got 50G for progressing through the story and 30G for 3 retarded achievements like 'Have the Majin revive you three times', 'Talk to the Majin 100 times' and 'Give the Majin 500 orders'. The first one requires you to put the controller down and let yourself be killed then revived three times in a row, and the other two are basically button-mashing. Great.

NieR Replicant, Day 3

15:53

Gamed just under 2 hours so far today, and I've got the key from Facade and the one from The Aerie. I've done the first half of the Junk Heap (where you have to find a certain material, can't remember what it's called in the English version), that was a damn right pain. Second half now, then Shadowlord's Castle! Making good progress, thrilled :)

The feelings I felt last summer (when playing Gestalt) are starting to come back. Intense emotion, sorrow, pain, laughter, excitement.... Nier truly is a great game, one of the most meaningful and powerful plots I have ever seen. Cannot wait to get onto Ending B, where the shades can talk ... Even more moving.
Got the trophy for a 100-hit combo during the massive battle in The Aerie too.

16:22

Just got into Shadowlord's Castle. Looking forward to the final battle.

18:19

After a long tea-break, now about to go into the final battle. 

18:50

Beaten the bastard. 

18:55

Heartbeaking question... 

19:13

Done! And got the Lightspeed Fighter trophy too :)

NieR truly is a great game. Great characters, great plot, incredible soundtrack, pretty good graphics... What more could you want? :)
Replicant isn't that much better than Gestalt. To be honest, it's not better at all. I might even prefer Gestalt... More credible; for example, at the very end, when Nier and Yonah are reunited, the 'father-daughter hug' is FAR MORE believable and less awkward than the 'brother-sister hug'. In Replicant, Nier's anger against Shadowlord seems stupid; in Gestalt, we genuinely sympathized with him, 'look what he did to your daughter!'.
To sum things up quickly, they are both great games (If I had to rate them, they'd both get 18/20), but Gestalt is slightly better than Replicant.

NieR Replicant, Day 2

I'm now 8 hours in, just rescued Kainé. I've therefore got those story-related trophies:

4 down, 2 to go! :)

The game is getting more and more powerful. The young Nier does grow up in the way he behaves and thinks, and that makes Replicant feel more like Gestalt. Great news!

Might try to get another hour done tonight, and then I might be able to finish it tomorrow. :D

[Edit 21:40]
Yup, got another 45 minutes done (I could play some more I guess, but can't really be bothered - pretty tired as it is, I'd rather get up early-ish tomorrow than stay up late tonight). So yeah, these three quarters of an hour were pretty productive, got 2 of the 5 key fragments. :) I now reckon I'll definitely be able to wrap it up tomorrow, only about 3 hours to go now. :) [And if I game A LOT, I should be able to get Ending B done too]

Bought NieR Replicant!

Yep, I've finally managed to find it. I started it today, I'm now 5 hours in - just got Kainé. Incredible game, it feels great to go back to that great world. It's also really nice to listen to the OST again. 

Two things so far - 

1. The 'brother rescuing his sister' plot isn't as believable and powerful as the 'father rescuing his daughter' one; especially as the Nier from NieR Gestalt was a big lad and had a deep voice and everything. This Nier seems like a little too much of a child and that does make the game less powerful. Indeed, Nier doesn't feel as attached to Yonah and doesn't have the same relationship with her. That made the very strength of NieR Gestalt, and isn't there anymore in Replicant...

2. Slight disappointment - Kaine's swearing is bleeped out in speech and comes up as symbols in the transcript. Shame ^^