What's Poppin' DToid ? For those who don't know I'm FalconReaper. For those that have been wondering where I've been, I'll get back to you guys. For those that don't care, why the heck are you reading this when you could be doing something more worthwhile with your time? Oh, right, reason why I've pretty much been invisible on the c-blogs for over a month, I failed 12th grade English. I pretty much fail for mentioning that, I mean how can you fail one of the easiest subjects in the school curriculum? Laziness on my part, also had to go to summer school, blah, blah, blah. OK, I'm getting sidetracked.

In the one month span between my last blog and now, a lot of shit went down. Namely, the release of Dtoid favorite BlazBlue, which is awesome and started something of a Renaissance for fighting games as of late, the impending release of Marvel vs Capcom 2 on PSN, and me having an epiphany about what I want to be doing for the rest of my life somewhere down the line with a movie worthy heartfelt moment with a family member crammed in for good measure. Also, my brother got a MacBook Pro and a free iPod Touch. And since he needs it for school, he let me have his computer for the next year. But I've also been playing a shit ton of games at that, and now that the random life update is over on to the more exciting gaming update.


What Games I've been Playing

Super Punch-Out!!



Three of the Toughest Bastards I've ever faced

I've never been much of a boxing fan myself ( mostly because when I tried to go against my brother, I typically wussed out), but you don't really need much knowledge of the sport to have a ton of fun with this game. It basically improves upon the formula, without changing what made it great in the first place. More crazy characters? Check. New Gameplay Elements? Check. Hard as Hell ? You'd bet your Lobster Milkshake on it, pal ! With a challenge popping up as early the 2nd half of the Minor Circuit, I was impressed and frustrated with the amount of patterns needed to topple the opponents and if you are lucky, this might happen



Owned.


Golden Sun

One Word: Epic.

I love this game. Its as simple as that. Its got every thing you want in a great RPG. It has a good story, good characters, an awesome battle system, great music and it looked great to boot. One of the best parts was the Djinn System. You see, the Djinn are these elemental spirits that give you all these sweet powers and could be mixed and matched to make different classes and magic. Short form : they're basically a cross between Pokemon and the Espers from Final Fantasy 6. I say this because they have to be found throughout the world and they also let you use summons, some of which are awesome like Thor. Yes, you can summon the frakking Norse God of Thunder to waste your enemies.

OK, I'm obviously playing much more than this but my memory is drawing a blank, so I'm stopping, hope you appreciated the read and Thank you for allowing me to waste you time.



Also, does anyone else think this sounds like Japanese Death Metal with English lyrics?

As a worthy opponent

Howdy. For those of you who have been keeping tabs on me (that would only be two or three of you), I've decided to forgo this week's Boss Files( My C-Blog Series) in favor of re-honing my skills ( or lack thereof ) in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. In the past, I've battled both Haxan and Y0j1mb0 ( with limited success ), and now that I've got a few victories under my belt, I felt that it was high time to see what Destructoid has to offer. I'll be taking any and all challengers of all skill levels under a few conditions :

1. You need to have a PSN ID ( 360 red-ringed)

2. You gotta have the game ( obviously )

3. If you want to challenge me, send me a message through PSN. My PSN ID is FalconReaper ( spelled like this)

Those are the only conditions I've got for my challenge. I'll be available from 7-9 pm EST and all day on weekends for the month.

That's all for the challenge and I'll see you on the battlefields !


Pic unrelated, but awesome in my book

P.S Thank you for allowing me to waste your time !

Hola. There comes a time in every gamer's life where they gotta admit they're afraid of something. I myself am no different. In fact, I think I might as well be the biggest coward I know, because I (figuratively) almost shat myself when confronted with Bald Bull ( See last entry), and now I got a few new problems of my own.

To be honest I could tell you guys how Mr.Sandman gave me trouble in Super Punch Out !! or spend the next hour and a half bitching about how Aran Ryan is the biggest douchebag I've ever had the displeasure of going toe to toe with, I'm gonna get nostalgic on everybody's asses this week and recount an experience I had with one my favorite games of last year Dead Space. ALSO, SPOILERS

You know I'll be honest with you guys, the Survival-Horror genre of games has never really been my can of soda. I myself am more accustomed staring my enemies in the eye and pray they don't shove weapon down my throat ( or other less wholesome and more painful orifices if you catch my drift). The other, less retarded reason is the fact that I don't take sheer balls-to-the-wall mind fuckery very well, which is the main reason why I've avoided the Silent Hill series like the plague. Okay, the exposition been going on for too long, let's get started.

The set up for the Dead Space monstrosity I'm talking about tonight kiddies goes as such. You are Engineer Issac Clarke ( a clever reference to two of my favorite sci fi authors). You've been told by your incredibly bitchy computer expert that The Necromorphs ( the undead monster things that are on the ship) have created a habitability change that's good for them and bad for everything else. The origin of the of: the Food Storage container in the Hydroponics deck of the ship. She has you go back to the godforsaken Medical Deck of the ship and create a poison the kill the organism that moved into Hydroponics. When your about to do that, you run into friendly neighborhood psycho Doctor Challus Mercer. Think Father Grigori from Hal-Life 2, except crazier, and not trying to help you, oh and he also sicks a mutant Necromorph after you.

Boss: The Hunter


To be perfectly honest, I first felt sorry for the dumb freak of nature. It's basically the result of Mercer's tissue regeneration experiments and the Necromorph infection hitting a live human being ( as indicated in the audio log where you hear the poor bastard screaming in the background), but that still didn't give it the excuse to try and gut me. As you can probably tell, it has the ability to regrow its lost limbs when dismembered. This is the first time the game tells you that running the fuck away is a viable option for survival this time ( as well as using the "idiot button"). It not a conventional battle in he sense that you fight it, but more like it stalks you for the whole level while you try to do your objectives.



As annoying as this sounds, try doing it while there's no oxygen, got multiple enemies on your tail, and have limited health. After being chased for a bit, you pretty much get the idea to lure the thing to the cryo storage room and freeze it solid, but Mercer being the resourceful bastard he is, thaws it out and sends it after you again. Soon, you'll just be saying fuck it and try to kill it...like this



Yeah, you're gonna gonna kill it by disintegrating it with the shuttle's test thruster, thus killing it faster than the stupid thing can regenerate. The end result of it is a pile of ashes and a power node for your troubles.

That's It for now. I managed to get all of my exams done (aka 12th grade is hard ) so you are gonna be seeing a lot more of me around here in the near future

P.S Thank You for allowing me to waste your time

What's poppin' ? For those of you who have been keeping track of me ( which would only be a few of you ) I haven't been able to post in a because I've been busy prepping for finals at school so I've taken time out of my schedule to do a quick entry in the Boss Files. Since my current gen consoles have been going through the Frankenstein process of being brought back to life, I jacked my friend's SNES and all of his games (actually he outright asked me if I wanted them and I said yes) which have given me the time to streamline pure uncut nostalgia to my eyeballs as well as play some true gems I missed out on the first time around such as Earthbound. But the subject of this entry being Super Punch-Out!! I'm gonna talked about the latest pain in my ass.


I've heard that the Punch-Out!! Series was known for being notoriously difficult, so I gave it a shot. After making a punching bag out of Gabby Jay and Bear Hugger, I battled the formidable Piston Hurricane, who’s basically Piston Honda in terms of his move set. After breaking his virtual jaw, I was on my way to the title bout. When I got there I basically shat myself in fear for one reason...


Boss: Bald Bull


I've heard of Bald Bull mostly from gamers who had enough courage to play and beat the original Punch-Out on the NES (which I'm playing through on friend's Virtual Console and am stuck on Great Tiger and his god damned Mirage Dance attack), and the exaggerated stories of his difficulty pretty much ( with the help of the internet) pushed him into Gaming Urban Legend territory, and when something like that happens, I tend to be highly skeptical. When I actually got to the fight, let's just say I was seeing two of everything for a good 10 minutes.

Being a pro boxer can be tough sometimes as indicated b Bald Bull's history. After getting his ass handed to him by Little Mac, he was dropped all the way back to the Minor Circuit, but was still good enough to be crowned the Champion. When I first fought him, I was paralyzed. I couldn't think straight because the fear I was skeptical of had washed over me like the tides coming in. That time I was basically just trying to survive and hopefully win by decision. His punches and uppercuts were bad alone, but what was truly horrific was the Bull Charge. Its essentially his ace in the hole for when fights have either dragged on for too long or to just put you out of your misery.

I'm almost kind of ashamed that I'm afraid of a video game character whose name doesn't rhyme with Pyramid Head. But I realized that his reputation was well earned. I trained and came back for a rematch that kinda went like this


An artist's kickass depiction of my epic rematch with Bald Bull

After learning his patterns there was noting for me to be afraid of. I also know how to stop his Bull Charge dead in its tracks. just a simple punch to the gut on his third hop. WTF!!! Why didn't anyone tell me this! Granted, I found out about the Bull Charge's Achilles' Heel after I barely beat him and it would have been a helluva lot less satisfying if I wussed out and went to GameFAQS for answers. This was a battle that was whatever the gaming equivalent of David and Goliath was. Okay, that's a bit of a stretch, more like the match between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston (Liked the boxing reference?) The bull had his payback coming for a while now and now I close with this



P.S Thank you for allowing me to waste your time.

What's Poppin' ? Again as you can tell by the title, I'm gonna be testing a new format for my features. I got the idea for this from a suggestion from Y0j1mb0 ( and later my brother after he read the last entry of the Boss Files ), so I'm gonna see how going in-depth on just one boss, in stead of the usual Smorgasbord of bosses can make for a better detail filled blog. So before I get underway I'd like to say I apologize in advance for any future failures. Also : SPOILER WARNING !


Boss: Xigbar : The Free Shooter


I figured I might as well keep my Organization XIII round up going by filing Xigbar under the newly created category of " Gun Totting Maniacs " for obvious reasons. Despite being the Organization's No.2 , he prefers to do more of a hands on approach in his acts of unspeakable evil compared to the rest of the founding members of the Organization. As a result of this, he has a somewhat laid back personality. But when the time calls for it, He will seriously kick your ass. No joke.

After a series of encounters with him, you eventually battle him at The Organization's headquarters: The Castle That Never Was.After calling Sora a "traitor" for something Roxas did, but I honestly don't remember, he whips out his weapons, jumps down and the battle Starts.

The Battle begins by Xigbar going into a sniper mode ( Fun Fact: In the Japanese version of the game, he sticks both of his guns together to create a makeshift sniper rifle, as opposed to the North American and PAL versions, where he simply spins them and uses one as a balance) which allows him to attack from a distance. If you time it right, you can deflect his shots and send him down to the ground level. But you gonna be in for a surprise.

The reason why I say surprise is because of his powers. He has the ability to control the very fabric of Space, typically displayed by him walking and standing upside down in mid-air, coupled with his constant teleportation throughout the fight. His attacks basically consist of just shooting his energy pistols at you, no melee attacks whatsoever with him. It his powers that made this battle so aggravating. His Power over space isn't limited to just teleporting, he can warp the very arena to suit his needs, and totally disregard yours.

Later on in the fight, he'll fire a charged, much more powerful ricocheting energy blast (which can be deflected), psychically send his guns to different parts of the arena and blast you. Finally, he'll use his OOSA (Obligatory Overpowered Super Attack) which consists of the bastard pulling of some gun play acrobatics that looks like it was choreographed by John Woo. Avoid all of his shots and you will defeat the Free Shooter, Grasshopper. Also Here's a video for those to lazy to read



Thank you for reading, I hope you like the new format.

P.s Thank you for allowing me to wast your time.

Hey There, Destructoid! As you can tell this is my welcome back edition. After a one week hiatus (broken consoles and whatnot), I've turned to my PS2 (Which I now refer to as "Old Reliable")for the next few entries of the series. Kingdom Hearts is one of my favorite series' in gaming for a few reasons, The Organization being one of them. I'll admit that they are an interesting set of villains to say the least, and the next two or three posts are gonna be devoted to them entirely.

I'm gonna keep the explanation short because I'd be going on for hours if I went in depth: The Heartless are what happens when someone 's heart gets overwhelmed by the darkness, but the second game added the fact that the body will act independently of the heart afterward and called a Nobody (get it). The members of the Organization are simply the most powerful of the Nobodies who've managed to retain their human forms with minor physical changes. I could go more in depth, but I'd honestly be wasting your time. So, Let's get Started! Also:SPOILER WARNING ! SPOILER WARNING ! SPOILER WARNING !!!!

Boss: Xaldin:The Whirlwind Lancer


First up in the round up is Xaldin. He's the Organization's #3 (they are ranked upon when the joined) and is first seen in the Beast's Castle trying to turn the Beast to the darkness. He's an incredibly sadistic bastard ( not as much as Larxene though ) as well as being a highly skilled warrior. As you can tell from the title, he has the ability to use the power of wind to attack his enemies and six dragon shaped lances to boot (if you saw the picture and read the title, you probably would have already known that and I basically wasted time and a sentence explaining this shit).

The battle with Xaldin itself is one of both exhilaration and frustration. He'll use various forms of melee attacks and wind based magic to try and counter you. His basics include a simple lunge forward with the lances, the Wind Scar attack, in which all of the lances form a protective cage around him, firing a sphere of energy after combining the lances for the standard mix of attacks. They all do serious damage and if you not careful, Xaldin can typically make short work of you. But, he'll typically have several openings that you can use to your advantage.Like the Dragoon nobodies, he'll give chances to use the Learn reaction command (these can be stockpiled and abused throughout the fight).

After beating him up little, he'll use much more aggravatingly difficult to avoid moves. He'll frequently jump into the air and throw his lances at you and finish by coming down like a comet, and the, wait for it, wait for it, the OOSA (Obligatory Overpowered Super Attack), which consists of him starting a killer lance combo, then transitions to his lance turning into a dragon like creature that he rides on, and finishes with lance dragon shooting a giant tornado blast at you. I've winded on long enough just memorize his attack patterns and dodge and you'll be fine.


Boss: Saix: The Luna Diviner

I don't know why, but this picture just screams Badass

Ah, Saix. I'll admit this you were a formidable adversary. He's the Organization's #7 and apparent second in command, meaning he's second only to Xemnas in terms of intellegence, power and influence and emptiness. The reason why I say emptiness is because the guy is the most emotionless prick I've ever seen in a video game. Because of this, he's perpetually calm, ruthless, and brutally efficient in his objectives. But, its all a lie! DUN DUN DUUUUUHHH ! ( You probably already knew that since it contradicts the Nobody philosophy of the whole faking emotions bit) Beneath his calm exterior belies a core of savagery which is seen in the below Pic


I don't know why, but this picture just screams I'm gonna rip you face off!

That rage is the result of his power. He has control over the power of the moon and draws his power from the same way a Kryptoninan gets superpowers from a yellow sun. The berserk mode is essentially his crutch that he'll abuse over and over in the battle. His attacks consist of shock waves, throwing is claymore, and simple combos. The battle for the most part is just him standing around absorbing enough moonlight to go berserk.

That's it for the first part of the Organization round up. I apologize for keeping the info on Saix short, I just felt like I was dragging on with Xaldin that I had to keep it succinct.

Also, if Mikey is reading this (I doubt it) watch this video, it'll give you a good idea of what kind of power a reaper truly has, and will be well suited for when I'm in the Destructoid comic ( again I doubt it).
PS. Thank you for allowing me to waste your time