Happy New Year and stuff

Here's a screenshot for you. Now you can seek my advice in SHPDMBGWL4 3 EX as well. Why you'd want to remains a question, since well, I don't give great advice half the time. I also only show up once per game, i.e. you'll need to restart the application to see me a second time.

My advice clinic only appears once you've completed the "normal" part of the game. At the moment it's incredibly difficult to get everything unless you're me, so you might have to resort to asking my crappy character. In other words, you're screwed.

A Christmas Gift

http://www.sendspace.com/file/glxglg

Since there's no chance in hell that I'll waste Christmas day blogging this thing, Merry Christmas in advance. Took the Christmas level off my heavily delayed SHPDMBGWL4 3 Expansion and released it to the public. Enjoy!

By the way - NiGHTS

See, there's a cult classic, often considered the best game on my favourite console the Sega Saturn, coming back. Yeah, it's NiGHTS into Dreams. I've got mixed views on the Wii sequel but what I really need to mention is the somewhat newly-announced PS2 port of the original.

The Japanese have stolen it and don't seem to want to give it to anyone else, but Sega are doing one of the best things they've done since F-Zero GX, and that's port the game over, even if it is to a system on it's way out. They've improved the graphics (although have kept the Saturn version in for no reason whatsoever) but most importantly they've included Christmas NiGHTS - the best Christmas-themed game ever (Sorry Mission In Snowdriftland). I got an import of Christmas NiGHTS for the Saturn last year and I must say it's a very impressive little thing. Doesn't offer much I suppose, just one level with a Christmas theme (although it changes depending on the time of year) but it does offer one of the best easter eggs ever - Sonic into Dreams, the first 3D Sonic game ever (real 3D that is).

I hang out at a Mario forum so I'm surrounded by people who have never played this game. Here's your chance. Miles more interesting than a boring old RPG with the same bunch of anime characters you see in the majority of Japanese-only games.

Hey kids

You know I made the Christmas level for this game back in September. The beginning of September. Back then I had hoped to have it out by my Birthday, now it's doubtful I'll have it out by Christmas. But hey, enjoy a main menu that I implanted the other day. There's more stuff on it, but I'm not revealing what "stuff" that is. You'll have to unlock it when the time comes. This screen's already fooled people into thinking it was Kirby Superstar DS... no I'm not sure how you could really fall for it either.

Luckily for you I may just release the Christmas level separately because it pains me to see you people suffer without some duck-in-tank action.

Haven't posted in a bit

I'll spare you the SSBB rant about that possible Q3 release date and say everyone should get Super Mario Galaxy... because that's what's been stopping me from posting stuff for the last few weeks. Not that I've been particularly inspired to do any blog-worthy stuff anyway, but still, go get that game, 'tis great.

...and the winner for "Best Secrets 2007" is...

TOAD STRIKES BACK

Well I suppose you should expect that really, but thanks anyway. Might have helped if I'd posted the link more publically as well but it's surprising Player Adventure even got nominated!

Lets see if SHPDMBGWL4 3 EX can take the gold next year...

Game of the Moment - 10/11/07

It's a miracle that I managed to get a Nintendo 64 emulator to work on this computer. Even moreso that Project 64 emulates it pretty damn well. So I've been having a second go at Banjo-Kazooie, one of my favourite N64 games of all time and one I'm constantly stealing ideas from in order to make SHPDMBGWL4 3 Ex, which I've somehow managed to plug AGAIN. If you've not played this game then sucks to be you, and in this case, just playing a bit of it at a friend's house doesn't count. BK needs to be played from the beginning because it's practically worthless once you've done everything (sorry, but it is).

If I were ever to go for the video game industry in terms of a job, I'd probably have a try at Rare simply because of this game (and the Donkey Kong ones... and Conker). Banjo-Kazooie is an amazing, well polished (at least on the actual console - Project 64's not to great with the transitions and it doesn't always run at 60fps over here) game that quite frankly, beats the crap out of Super Mario 64 nine times out of ten... sort of. I always thought it was amazing that Midway's Mortal Kombat division made a character out of MK2's ERMAC error - Rareware did something very similar with Banjo-Kazooie, naming a good half-dozen characters in the sequel after insults thrown out by Kazooie or Gruntilda in this game. Mario remains a mute in Super Mario 64, whereas all the characters (and objects) in this communicate with strange noises just for the hell of it. Only other game I can remember off the top of my head that did this was Fur Fighters on the Dreamcast, which even then was changed in the PS2 remake (btw play that as well since that's fantastic too). Grunty speaks in rhymes, everything has eyes... it's tiny things like these that make this game stand out from all your ordinary platformers.

Rare also have a habit of screwing about with the brains of their fans. Over the last 10 years they've been hinting at the hyped but removed Stop 'n' Swop feature which I love for reasons unknown. Yes I was sad enough to raise Shark Food Island and get the pink egg before opening Bubblegloop Swamp (pictured above). To think the game was originally planned to be compatible with Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie... shame they never made a Sonic & Knuckles lock on cartridge.

I won't go into great detail since I know rambling stretches this blog down a bit, but to put it simply, invest in this game if you haven't already. Who knows it might even get on the Wii's virtual console... not to mention Banjo 3's in the works for the Xbox 360. You shouldn't be displeased unless you're trying to be.

And the nominations for "Best Secrets" are...

...PLAYER ADVENTURE

Yeah they've been up for a couple of days now, but I've just noticed Player Adventure (you know, that game I made in ONE day followed by half a dozen sequels of equally crappy quality and seizures) was nominated for the best secrets award at MFGG. It's going against the excellent Toad Strikes Back that's been in development since 2002 and recently got a release at NCFC (You know, probably the best game at MFGG and very close to Nintendo quality). Will it win? Find out on the 19th or whenever. Regardless I'd be a fool not to mention this in SHPDMBGWL4 3 EX, especially considering I've already devoted a large part of that game to pointless jabbering between characters on unrelated subjects.

I also got nominated for best reviewer but I'm not one to brag and you're not likely to care. Obviously though, thanks to everyone who cared enough to vote for me and my creation. I luv u all.

Oh god

Looks like Quackers made a site.

Only reason this exists is because it's a shame to waste it otherwise. It's only a temporary thing mind you. Might get deleted if I run out of bandwidth or space or whatever.

NCFC

http://ncfc.taloncrossing.com/

Although really I don't know why I'm posting this since 99% of you will be from MFGG anyway.

When worlds collide

Presenting a completely original character not based on a 1991 trademark - Walrushog.

Will the "game" be completed? Probably not, but no doubt I'll release something. Kudos to Glukom for the idea.

In other news I do hope Google removes this new piece of code for blogger that pointlessly blurs images. Now I've got to edit HTML like a chump.

The On Hold Project

See the thing about The Obscure Ripping Project is... well, it's inconvenient. Blog Squirrel? Less so. But my attempts to intergrate this blog into tORP have failed horribly, and that, along with the fact it takes ages to update it in the first place, means it's going to be inactive for a bit.

However part of that is due to the fact I haven't got anything worthwhile to update it with, so any heads up in the direction of obscure games wouldn't go a miss. Also obscure Mario rips will be going on MFGG as always.

So in case you're wondering why the thing hasn't updated since August... that's your reason.

Somewhere in Austria

Haven't really done anything amazing with SHPDMBGWL4 3 Ex for a while now other than secret levels... Heck there's more secret levels than normal ones at the moment. Difficult to come up with ideas that are better than the ones in the previous game. Can't even guarantee this screen will be in the final release. If it isn't, you'll see it eventually in some form, or maybe you've already seen it in some form (hint), what with time travel being a major thing and all.

Don't kill me ShadowMan.

Random Review - Sin & Punishment

Once again I've got nothing better to do.

Sin & Punishment. An N64 game made by Treasure (Known for hits like Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy) that only recently hit our shores in the form of a Virtual Console import. I'll be honest with you, I hadn't even heard of this until a few months ago, nevermind play it, and that'll be down to the fact it never got out of Japan and doesn't have a huge cult following like say, the Mother series or whatever. It's an on-the-rails shooter where you control low-polygon people on foot, blasting random stuff.

I haven't finished the game so I'll rate what I've done so far (Which I suppose could be quite a lot, I dunno). S&P is a wierd game. It supposedly takes place in the future (I think it's actually set in 2007, which was seven years in the future from 2000) and from the sounds of things follows a bloke called "Saki" a woman that's basically a clone of the man in terms of gameplay and some annoying emo girl thing that betrays them and does psychic stuff. The three originally go out to beat a man called "Brad" and his annoying rat thing. No I wasn't paying attention to the story too much. There's a lot of it and the voice acting isn't that good (which is understandable I suppose), not to mention the story is deep. As far as I see it it's just a completely random adventure beating robot things.

So your man or woman walks forward most of the time and you shoot stuff with the control stick and fire buttons. It's all good. Man/Woman can also jump about and slash stuff with swords. Also good. Levels get a bit wacky later on but all look fine on N64 hardware. The only problem as you would imagine is the character models in the cutscenes which as already said, look a bit dodgy due to their lack of polygons. Music reminds me of the oldish Arcade games where 3D was the best thing since sliced bread. Not particularly memorable, but certainly gives off an Arcade experience (and at least it's not like a lot of modern games and has a completely dull and boring soundtrack).

Overall pretty cool, although I wouldn't go as far to say it's the best N64 game of all time. They say it beats StarFox but StarFox seems more polished and isn't story driven so I can't say I agree. Nevertheless it's still less than £10 so definitely a bargain considering it's limited release. Certainly better than stuff like Yoshi's Story that's coming up there soon (if it's not there already). Definately one of Treasure's finest works.

Games of the Moment - 19/09/07

Gives me something to do.

To be honest, all the games I've been playing at the moment are stuff that either have massive screenshots that are usually of lousy quality. Super Paper Mario, Metroid Prime 2, Crash Bandicoot - all good games worth playing (Although Crash 2/3 are a lot better than the first) but aren't worth blogging since a picture tells a thousand words.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan)

Okay okay, there's nothing amazingly special about this one. Essentially it's the first Super Mario Bros. with new levels, newish graphics and a poison mushroom. Nintendo in their super-racist days did not allow this to get to America for fears this game would be "too hard", eventually releasing a re-tuned Doki Doki Panic there instead (and the rest of the world following). 20 years later the real SMB2 can be seen hanging around on our Wii Virtual Consoles and can be downloaded and played legally for the unfortunate price of 600 Wii points. No sign of it in the states yet. Take that yankees!

Although it's not a major win really. SMB2J is basically just an expansion pack to the first game. Not much has changed other than the things listed above - the rest is just a repeat of SMB1, which in comparison to later titles in the Mario franchise, ain't too great anymore. It got released eventually across the world in the form of Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels in SMAS for the SNES along with the other NES Mario platformers. That's easily the better version, but it's unlikely we'll see it again what with the Mario Advance series and the fact Nintendo can make more money releasing the games separately. Still, a nice game worthy of a good blogging, and as it's coming off the VC at the end of September, you better get it quickly.

Sonic Advance 2

I've been using a lot of stuff related to Sonic Advance 3 in SHPDMBGWL4 3 Ex, but Sonic Advance 3 is a pretty weak game when compared to it's immediate prequel. Sonic Advance 2 gets very little love really. It's tossed aside for being too fast and the overuse of the right key, and I can see why - most of the levels are just running to the right. This is only a recent argument against it though, partly because pretty much every Sonic game since has raped the formula and spoilt the 2D franchise slightly. I see Advance 2 as more of a spin-off as it's radically different to any of the previous titles. It's all about speed, and it's the first to do so. It's engine is devoted to showing off the GBA's running speed and it does a damn good job at it.

Things aren't perfect, but they're not bad by any means. Advance 1 beats it in terms of gameplay but Advance 2 is definitely the best looking of the series, and the best sounding. Cream the Rabbit is by definition, a lousy character and way too easy to play as, but she's a lot more bearable than Amy that comes along a while later. There's a lot of pros and cons in Sonic Advance 2 and I can't be bothered to list them all, but lets just say this is also a worthy purchase. Unfortunately Advance 3, being built off Advance 2, fails due to it's mis-use of the Sonic Advance 2 engine. A purely running based engine in an environment consisting of non-pure running based levels has some lousy results, compiled with a poor choice of music/sounds and not so great graphics. I can't see the magic there like with the other two.


Anyway that killed a few minutes. Get both sometime.

Progress

Why did I even make this blog? All I seem to be doing is posting pointless VC updates and this site does it better than me! Oh well.

Still slowly making this (SHPDMBGWL4 3 Ex btw). I seem to be having a "level ideas block" and as such I've started coding even more secrety things. Good chance they'll disappoint since I'm also having a "secret reward block". So now as well as having a new set of eggs, keys, glory emblems, secret levels and half a dozen other things, it's also got gems, relics and Gemrelics™. Don't worry, I've got those platinum Gemrelics before, it's not THAT hard.

Think of it as being a tribute to the old Crash Bandicoot formula being abandoned in favour of the CotT one. Also my Aku Aku and Uka Uka don't look ugly.

Super Paper Mario release tomorrow

Meaning I can finally stop my five month rant on its unnecessary delay. I could probably post this tomorrow but I'm bored so here's a post a day in advance. Here's also hoping this is the last major Wii title to get a delay this long. Now I can focus all my energy in complaining about Brawl's 2008 date =P

Again though, nothing really interesting to post. If there's no fantastic VC releases tomorrow it could be a while until I blog something else.

It's my Birthday

...and I suppose I should say something... except I still don't really have much to say. I was aiming to get SHPDMBGWL4 3 Ex out by now, but lack of inspiration has delayed it a bit. Nevertheless "11091990" will do something when it's released.

Now I'm off to eat cake.

Here's one I made earlier

Two updates in one day? Wow.

Due to the Player Adventure games being untested and impossible I've released them in one half-tested possible package. Yeah I sorta did that before, but this time it's all in one executable rather than five, and comes with some handy dandy extras. The errors addressed a couple of updates ago have been fixed, but it's likely that I may have made a couple more mistakes while porting (You can blame TGF for that one). I've damaged my eyes enough with this series, so I haven't checked through each game to the end, so feel free to report more probs.

This'll be compatible with the SHPDMBGWL4 3 Expansion pack I'm making.

EDIT: Now with fixed buttons and sound in PA5.

Command & Conquer: Now Freeware!

The Technology of Peace

That's right, the first Command & Conquer just got released as Freeware. If you've not played this in some form, you've already lost a great chunk of your life. It single handedly brought me into the world of RTS games, and if you're not an RTS fan, it could do the same to you. It's two mighty huge ISOs so it could take a while to download, but it's worth it. Kane is quite possibly one of the best video game villians ever.

You could argue it's the weakest game in the series other than some of those expansions, but by weak that means "1995's best game of the year".