Weekend after weekend watching and listening to my friend and my brothers agonized screaming, hair pulling and teeth grinding it’s finally my turn to prove my worth. And with that though i grab my semi-broken PS3 controller (the left analog stick is iffy as hell, works wonders on those narrow beams!), wipe off my pre-sweat from my forehead as I fully submit myself to this marathon of agony, bliss, emasculation. Let’s play Dark Souls, it’s the funnest game on the block!

But this time I’m not alone, I’ve got my science loving ateist PC gamer friend with me too, he only plays console at my place and I was curious how he would react to a game this , uh , let’s go with niche.

It’s more than delightful to see that there are some people in Dark Souls community that seem to be fond of the act of giving. Watch my friends face twisting in horror as me and my brother starts screaming that he has been invaded by an evil phantom that is trying to steal his humanity and souls (note that he is still trying to comprehend how the game is played). Then something strange happens the dark shadow starts dancing and making all kind of gestures and in an instant the once intimidating shouts now slowly turn into encouragements - He’s dropping stuff, pick them up! Hurry before they disappear!


Is it wrong to want to have sex with the bosses because of reasons part vengence and part attraction?

And what do we have here? Oh , Lord Gwyn’s great sword + 5 , an occult club + 5 , a heap of rare minerals, the list goes on. Needless to say my friends mind was blown,fucked then in total ecstasy, all in a matter of minutes. It has been relatively smooth sailing since then, I mean obviously we have died a lot but with a complete lexicon that’s eager to share most of the time ( my brother and his friend ) coupled with my relatively experienced understanding of Demon Souls and my glimpses of when they played it have turned Dark Souls to a really enjoyable experience. Oh yeah, about that lexicon thing, it works wonders when they aren’t deliberately trying to lure us off cliffs, bastards.

But what this random gesture of kindness have robbed me of in challenge it has made up for in envy and hate. It’s a guilty pleasure to watch the people around me cringe as I smash that boss they spent hours beating on my first try. And to seal the deal I sometimes blurt stuff like - What , this creature didn’t die by one swing, is this game broken or something? Oh they try to hide it so well but I can see into their souls how it hurts them, ha! But I don’t feel robbed of the experience in any way, I had my fair share of challenges in Demon Souls and I’m still as vulnerable as ever as I run around with my skimpy waist cloth. I seriously look like Conan the barbarian with my great-sword resting on my shoulder, and I don’t even have armor to rest it on , just my bare shoulders , how bad ass is that?

So that’s it , grab a friend buy the freaking game, trow your ps3 or xbox over your shoulder or force him to then help each other or the opposite on your way towards glory!

Also here’s a poem I wrote about something that happened to me recently in game.

Oh curious little moth how beautiful your wings are, please don’t impale me with your teal laser beams. Time passes by as me and my friend wait, oh where art thou little moth? Even more time passes and my friend tells me goodbye, I wait upon the castle wall as you continue to ignore me. Oh little moth what is it with the far away mountains that enthuses you so? Oh how I wish you would come back....


Troll in central park is always relevant!

When the game’s bosses get so freaking self aware that they figure out that glitching away and forcing me to take my own life is smarter than getting killed I get creative.

Oh god, I’m so excited to write, my recent gaming experiences have been wonderful and I’ve reminisced about some great ones in the past too. Let’s see here...

Persona 3 ----



I freaking love this game, or most of it at least. Beating up supernatural monsters by evoking imaginative friends who fight for you while simulating the school-life of Japanese peoples that in some cases resemble American Saturday morning cartoon characters , yes ! I’ve been playing it for the last two years though, mainly because I find it extremely repetitive and tedious to go dungeon crawling in the game, I like it the first 10-20 mins then it begins to feel like a chore, and the worst part is that I’m far too much of a coward and much to obsessive to just play the damn game as a dating-sim, what if I am to weak to face the next boss?

Anyways I’m 130 hours in and I’m finally beginning to reach the end, at least of the main scenario, there’s a extra one called the answer in the FES special edition, I wonder how long that one is? I’m loving the characters that at first seemed highly archetypical but later all evolved to something way more complicated, you know , just like in real life. Unlike real life Persona 3 gives me the opportunity to live the Japanese dream of being surrounded by robot women , helping little kids with parenting issues ( although thanks to podtoid I feel dirty for doing it now ) and fighting freaky monsters with a canine friend that cuts his opponents with a knife! WITH HIS JAWS! Now that’s what I call entertainment!

The game still looks good even today thanks to the amazing artstyle witch pervades every little detail of the game ,even the menus look sleek and stylish! One of my complaints is the sometimes unfair difficulty level where as sometimes if you dabble and the enemy get's the first strike you're basically finished. And if you're unlucky 30 minutes of grinding will be gone, and it has happened more than once for me throughout my play-trough. And add to it that your companions doesn't always carry themselves that well in combat, sure you can issue commands but that is quite the hassle and is generally only needed during harder fights and you got yourself a pretty annoying game at times, luckily it's the minority of the time. Sometimes I forget that they are only mere computer programs and I go screaming - Junpei you stupid bastard , use fire spells , THEY ARE WEAK AGAINST IT! It's your freaking specialty! Don't hit them with your stupid sword! *sigh* Anyways!

So in an effort to finally get trough things I've been just plowing trough the last parts as fast as I can, I've been going to the arcade every night, snoozing at school and neglecting all my monster-slaying even though my friends tell me that I probably should be training for what I think is the final battle, I could be wrong though since the game is made in Japan and it's been telling me that it's the last boss for quite some bosses now. I wonder if I'll make it?

I can’t mention Persona and not mention the catchy as hell soundtrack, almost all songs in the game are memorable ! I used to start up the game just so I could listen to the theme while eating break-feast. There is also this song, what’s with the French rambling in the middle of it all? I don’t have a clue but I’m loving it! The original intro song is pretty epic too! And the fight music almost never wears out it’s welcome! And considering that I’ve been fighting for at least 30 hours that’s a feat! The Tartarus theme also deserves some attention for it's funkiness!

Also Japanese Thor is marvelous! Why does he wear freaking v-shorts and tattoos on his thighs? I don’t know but I love it.




Some of this stuff is so out there, I mean just look at this incubus guy above to the right! But since the women get to be sexualized then I guess it’s only fair to do it to the men as well , I’m not complaining at all! And the PSP version let's you choose if you want to play as a girl or boy, I guess the persona team is a pretty aware bunch huh? I'm digging the out there "loosely based on mythology" art, most of them really look like the concept art they are based on. Also , I just managed to summon Satan, who's the man now dawg?

Forbidden Siren 2

I got this a while ago from one of those super cheap boxes in those - we sell everything stores , you’ve got them in the US right? I felt like I had to try it out because I adore PS2 era survival horror games and I’ve heard some moderately good things about it , I think Stevil might have said something good about them or something. I haven't played very much of it but this is what I think of it as of now!

The first thing I noticed was the creepy cutscenes, just look at these things! I think they superimposed real faces onto computer generated textures and sometimes it makes for some horrifyingly comical and at times just genuinely scary moments.

The game takes place on a cursed island of sorts and you get to control a bunch of people, most with unique abilities throughout a fixed time-frame constantly going back and forth between people and different places in time to find out what the hell is going on. It's like the TV series 24 but instead of going in a linear fashion from hour 1 to 24 ( or how it works) this game is scrambling the whole story.



The game seems like it had noble and ambitious intents but most of it’s execution is either hit or miss, the game controls very survival horror like , kind of like Silent Hill 4 : The room. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m playing it with a ps3 controller or what but the first person aiming sensitivity is insanely high, I was forced to spray two magazines on a zombie just to hit him to complete the tutorial. Then there’s the interesting mechanic that is called sight-jack ( not to be confused with the horrible mind-jack game ). It allows you to see trough the eyes of nearby enemies and makes for some tense moments but the white noise sound it makes when searching for an an enemies vision is kind pretty high pitched and overly annoying , high and annoying doesn’t make it scarier , just more painful to execute, which will eventually get to you as the game seems intent at using it pretty often.

I did however get to one interesting scenario where you got to control a guy with very bad eye-sigh, and to get around you sight jacked his dog that followed him around to see better. But when I later discovered that all of this sneaking and sight-jacking wasn’t really necessary because I could just outrun the zombies and sprint to the exit like some kind of suicidal bat it felt kind of unnecessary. I mean why bother putting effort into building this elaborate maze and emphasising on stealth when players can just sprint trough it? Didn’t they test this thing? I hope it get's better later on!

Another daunting thing is the overly complicated menus, I mean I’m all for the depth that comes with context sensitive moves and a plethora of maneuvers but here it’s pretty poorly executed so you’ll constantly be re-visiting the guides on how to use all of your abilities and what combination of buttons did what. It’s pretty strange really , it’s like it was intended for a keyboard and mouse setup with all of it’s functions and stuff. I do however enjoy the intent of more options and advanced techniques but not when I have to go back and read tutorials because they don’t make sense.

I will probably finish it just because it entertains me in the “ what is going on!? what the hell is that?! Why is that kid running around with baseball-bat that looks like a penis” kind of sense, and like I said , I’m a sucker for horror games. So keep that in mind if you happen to find this weird gem, but then again it will probably cost close to nothing so pick it up and enjoy it’s convoluted controls and strangeness!

Also -- Super Metroid for the genesis * orgasm *

Chiptunes , you’ve got to love em right? The blooping and bleeping, to me it’s just so infectious and appealing to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve played games and listened to their chiming since I was a toddler or because of some other obscure reason, maybe my grandma made me listen to them in my sleep? Maybe they are associated with the happiness that is often associated with being a child? Who knows? I just know that I do and It was the reason why I started making my own chiptune influenced music 2 years ago, which has since both brought me loads of joy and also further made me appreciate the people who devote their time make these things.

But while my musical experiences could amount to a potentially entertaining story this blog is devoted to the people I look up to and the bands and beat creators that inspire me every day.


J. Arthur Keenes Band

This is a recent one but probably one of my all-time favorites, question , what happens when you take ingenious pop-esque distinctly chiptuni’sh melodies, then add some seriously mopey and remorseful vocals on that? Heaven happens, or at least something glorious and very reminiscent of the wondrous paradise discibed in that dusty old tome. Sure you could just take the instruments and it would be superb as it is but with the lovely and at times sentimental lyrics it becomes something more, something unlike anything I've heard before. I mean when was the last time you heard the sentence - You fall short but take so long, and ten tethers pull with every motion , in a pop song? Or , uh, that at least what I think he saying , the choice of word is most of the time very refreshing!

And for the purists there is also some some songs without vocals like the upbeat Cluck or the amazingly paced Expelling Bee. Seriously that song never slows down, it just keeps going and going, it’s my personal pick from their “new” album computer savvy. Get it over at 8bitpeoples here. But the victory is by inches since every track on the album is golden in some way! The album desciption covers it pretty well , “ Computer Savvy offers a hazy blend of the archaic sounds you know and love with as many other sounds as could fit.”

I couldn’t recommend it more and I would love it if somebody was as taken as I first was when I first heard it. I seriously listen trough it once a day as I ride my bike to school , and every time I experience pain, happiness, loss, remorse , power and a whole lot of other powerful emotions all while going trough the best game ever made in my head. Gosh, when I grow up I want to be like those guys! Anyways , I could go on forever why I love these guys so let’s move on shall we?



I guess everyone has heard the fantastic scott Pilgrim vs the world Anamanaguchi album by now, or? I still have it on my playlist and was my previous listen trough once a day album untill J. Arthur Keenes Band came along, since this is a given I’ll not linger on about it , just listen to it and bathe in it’s greatness will you?

Another question , what’s better than Weezer album? An 8 bit Weezer remix album offcourse! Listen until your ears bleed as your favorite chiptune artists such as Anamanaguchi , BItshifter and a whole bunch of other talanted folks cover your favorite Weezer songs. Brilliant! How about Island in the sun with a Castlevania-like intro?. Or the amazingly talented Bit shifters take on The world has turned and left me here. What ?! That’s been my ring-tone signal for a year and every time I hear it I think somebody calls me ? No? Testament of glory I say!

Pop or rock not your thing? No worries I’ve got you covered! How about some rap with your social commentary? Mr spastic has loads of great tunes but the insanely catchy beats coupled with some rhymes just does it for me every time, check out the Puppeteer if you’re one of those rebbelious types , for us craving something more nightmarish there also the “Oh god I would love to play this level just for the theme” song , Daymare I always imagine this in a Castlevania game. Oh , the glory!



If you’re more of a growling metalhead with a sense of humour you’ll love Rainbowdragoneyes. Besides from sporting a silly name they make some superb music with a large portion of humour, just listen to Creature of deception and you’ll know what I mean! Here’s part of the chorus of the song!


IF ITS IN MY GREATER INTEREST
YOU MAY SUMMON ME TO FIGHT
BUT AS SOON AS I SAVE YOUR ASS FROM YOUR DOOM
WE FUCK ALL NIGHT

Then there's a song about cloning somebody and making them watch as you stab them in the crotch, over and over again, I don't really know , just listen will you?

So that’s a couple of artists and songs I’ve been listening to lately , most of them gathered from the 8bitpeoples amazing discography pages, which all can be downloaded for FREE!

So do you have any awesome chiptun’ish music to share with me?

An open love letter to Wario Land 4 (and the original Warioland for the GB).

GBA

Bseriously! Much like another great 2D good looking amazing sounding SNES game ( Yoshi’s Island) my first interactions with Wario Land 4 would be a confusing one, with no instructions to go by only relying on my seemingly innate understanding of 2D game-design and experienced trough a sticky barely working control pad in a shoddy store (Yoshi’s island was actually in a burger shop, guess how long their N64 controllers worked later on?, hint: about one day).

In fact those game almost have more in common with each other than it has with Wario’s much more loved rival Mario’s games (yeah I know , technically Yoshi’s island is a Mario game), which is pretty amusing and a huge part to why I love it so much.


( Funky fact , did you know that the guy who designed Wario also designed Samus?)

So where does Wario’s appeal come from exactly? Judging by his appearance alone one could think that he was intended to appeal to the “cool” kids with his much more macho appearance and obviously his more “bad-ass” equipment like a motorcycle and other masculine stuff, but everyone who’s spent time with Wario knows how wrong this presumption is. He’s wackier than a Japanese pe-wee’s on drugs man! And so much more entertaining and lovable for it!

He-he-here I go he shouts before he sets out for yet another adventure to further secure his placement at the top of the financial gauntlet seemingly rivaled by nobody but himself. And what did he really do with all of the dough and that fantastic mansion I got by collecting all of the hidden treasure in the original Warioland? Which by the way added a tremendous amount of replay value to the game, and is still present in the fourth instalment but be it at a less frustrating but still as exciting way. This time around your treasure total is measured by how fast you can hammer down the games bosses HP meters, watch those sweaty palms as the clock ticks down at a excruciating rate , better not loose focus, only one hit left, Fuuuuuu*k! There goes my sweet treasures. Brilliant!

Talking of bosses, they’re as creepy and strange as ever in the 4th game , and it’s not only the enemy design that’s brilliant about this game, pretty much everything graphics wise is top notch, and even at it’s blown up 3DS resolution (as seen if you’re not holding down select as you start the game on the 3DS), to me the game still looks amazing. And Wario’s colorful animations helps a lot with conveying the greedy self centered bastard he is, I mean, that’s why we love him right? I know I do!


Sprite mashup by
ShyguyXXL

What’s more to marvel at here , ah , did I mention the odd soundtrack ( It should be instantly familiar to Wario ware fans) which sounds nothing like game music usually does, meaning that melodies takes a step back while ambiance and chill out sounds play the main role here. It’s definitely not for everyone but I know that I can appreciate something different and wacky as a Japanese lady singing with a distinct 16-bit voice to a chillout jazz track. Actually I pretty much adore most of it! One of my favorite aspects of the game is that the levels doesn’t have a timer on them, so you can take you time and appreciate the locals, maybe plot a safe escape route for your “oh my god” frantic escape that takes place at the end of every level where your (Super Metroid speed boost) hold down L button running technique comes at handy while the stage is collapsing and you’re desperately trying to escape from it whilst another amazing and frantic track plays to please your ears. It’s just so stressful and wrong in most aspects, but it’s so good at conveying what it sets out to do so it doesn’t stick out , rather , blend in perfectly with the rest of the game. Which also could be described as odd in many aspects, but so stupidly charming and well crafted at the same time, and that’s a combo you don’t get very often. And that’s perhaps why I treasure these games so much. Because even if the Wii tried to substitute my 2D platforming needs (Warioland : Shake dimension and so forth) this is where it’s freaking at.



Saira ( or I’m in love , again)

PC - steam,fastspring,gamers gate

Proof that I’m a proponent of Nifflas games can be found in almost all of my blogs and even though I know this I still had trouble justifying the 9£ price-tag after reading about people on the Nifflas support forums complaining about how short the game is. This feeling of uncertainty was completely abolished when I noticed that Saira was part of the Gala indie bundle , I payed 5 bucks and excitedly started playing.

The game revolves about Saira, a freelance interstellar photographer that once day experiences a teleporter malfunction and suddenly she’s the only human left in her galaxy. And it’s your task to find out what went wrong by gathering parts to fix the now broken teleporter.

Saira's past and her feelings are shown to the player in cozy or sometimes scary surreal dream imagery, which adds quite some personality to the character. And it's hard to not think of another videogame heroine when you're running around on distant planets with your space helmet complete with a green visor. *shudders*

Fans of Nifflas previous Knytt games will immediately recognize how Saira moves and others will soon be dashing trough otherworldly fields and jumping between walls to gain altitude. It’s has the same mentality as the Metroid prime games with it’s greater focus on atmosphere and puzzle solving but plays more like Super Metroid. And manages to strike a satisfying balance between you avoiding environmental hazards and solving a diverse bunch of logical puzzles. Some of which at first can feel almost a bit too straining at first but give them some though and approach them in the right way and you'll be handsomely rewarded, simply put some of them are genius in their design.



The game is pretty nonlinear and sports 7 planet clusters with usually 2 planets each wich can be visited in almost any order, one of them is often visited first to gather information with your super handy camera that can later be reviewed on your PDA, which you can dual wield with most interactive consoles making for seamless and fun puzzle-solving even for us with a short memory span, and it also makes so you don’t have break the immersion of the game because you felt like you had to write something down. Brilliant game design right there! All of the planets also have different gravity and environmental dangers to adapt to which makes for a varied experience.

Speaking of immersion, this game is easy to get lost into with its gorgeous vistas and fancy and mighty imaginative backgrounds. Most planets have multilayer backgrounds and sometimes even high res photos of fauna and other beautiful real life objects spliced into them , and it fits perfectly. It’s appealing visual style is only trumped by it’s meticulously sound design, Sarias footsteps pans with the camera as she moves trough the snow and every planet has it’s own atmospheric often electro flavored ambient theme, it really shows that Nicklas Nygren did loads of electronic music before this.

There's also a couple of minigames and extras to flesh out the experience, there's a addicting pinball game reminicent of the pinball levels in Nightsky and a ship radio with a couple of stations showcasing Nifflas friends and his own music.

It’s hard to recommend Saira for the 9 dollars asking price since it’s a fairly niche game that doesn’t quite live up to the standards we are used to with the content healthy market we have today, I've managed to squeeze 5 hours out of it and I'm at the last planet. But yet Saira managed to ensnare and immerse me in it’s beautiful world in a way that few games manage to do, (Metoid prime did this for me). And it has me marveling at it’s design around every corner. So if you’re as me a Nifflas supporter and you feel like few games manage to give you that magical feeling of immersion that comes with total desolation, by all means try the demo , it just might be the thing you’ve been missing in modern games. For all of you people who aren’t as euphoric about the idea of the beauty of desolation and puzzle solving as I am I suggest you wait for the next indie bundle or a steam sale.

So yet another year has flown by and it’s time to look back and reminisce about all the fab things that has been. Focusing your thoughts can be hard enough without Beasty boys blasting at full volume behind you so let’s get into it!

The Dtoid Community

Who knew that so many interesting and nice people could gather at one place in a realm where being a grand asshole is just an impulse away? No doubt the biggest reason why I keep coming back here to share my thoughts and get your opinion is because of all of you wonderful people here. And hopefully you guys acknowledge this, I know I do, every morning begins with reading the ambitious recaps and checking all the blogs I can manage before I absolutely have to run off to school. Stay classy Dtoiders!



Giving things a second chance / looking at things from a different perspective

What’s better than expecting something atrocious and be given the absolute opposite, seriously? This year for me was a struggle well worth it because I managed to turn that frown upside down on many titles that I had unfairly labeled as “not for me”. Effectively turning this whole year into a pleasant surprise. Spelunky was way to unfair for me , now instead of going into it with the speed-run mindset I approach it with a way more laid-back attitude where I take my time and really plan my moves, and now it’s one of the games that I would have loved to make, and will probably never disappear from my desktop.

Fallout 3 was a game for smart people and yet now a couple of months after I finished it I still reminisce about how many beautiful moments I experienced as I the sun rose and set over the oppressive Wasteland. Even in the latter parts of the game I would find myself marveling over the fact that I was watching the monuments of a once great nation now turned into a mere shadow. I also love Fallout 3 for reminding me that beauty is indeed a relative thing because in something as haunting and depressing as the corridors of a former factory even the sight of faint sun rays desperately trying to squeeze trough the muddy windows can be breathtaking.

Even a daunting thing like really long loading screens for no apparent reason can be acceptable as long as you skip all of the dialogue in the game because it’s nothing fascinating anyway. Hours have been spent matching soldiers of 3 to make attack formations to beat the opposition sitting next to me, and many long nights have been turned into fascinating mindgames between two friends. To topple the last guy in an epic tag team match of two brains will always be remembered and treasured, Clash of Heroes on PSN will always be accepted as a wonderful pastime between friends. And to think that I couldn’t stand those loading times at first, imagine if I had not pushed trough? How much joy would have been lost?



Coming fresh from the Fallout universe I was initially disappointed with Skyrim, the character personalization was dumbed down to two choices, do you want to have a mustache/wig or do you want to look like something that the 3D art intern barely managed to put together? Wasn't this supposed to be a immerse RPG? It’s inhabitant's mostly consisted of neurotic maniacs constantly repeating things like “ You should go to Mr.X’s Store” which would be find if I wasn’t in fact standing inside of it. Others would tell me their inmost secrets to me just by the sight of me and it all just felt very unnatural. But instead of complaining about it I embraced it and laughed at it, and instead of dwelling on these to me shortcomings instead I was enthralled by the beautiful environments and the open ended combat system. Because who can feel nothing but bad-ass when you’ve exploited the shoddy AI by shooting them from a super long distance then taking down their leader with fireballs and a zombie saber-cat?

Other noteworthy happenings this year include:

Giving Cave story + ‘s Hard mode a whirl and making it to weapon X, seriously , people have made it to the sanctum with 3 lives and no rockets , I couldn’t have more respect for these people. Also it makes you appreciate and analyse the game way more when you just can’t run trough it with without much challenge like I can on normal difficulty. Give it a try if you’re brave!

Making it further in Amnesia, a game that I appreciate almost too much, because it almost does it job too well and after two equally scary half game runs thanks to a not working Steam save sync, I have my eyes set on making my way to the finish this year. And not only that , I have a pretty rad blog I’ve been working on about it for when I do manage to finish it.

Watching my brother playing Killer 7 and trying to make sense of it!

So that’s some of the past years hilights , hopefully you found them as fun to read as I did writing them. And who knows maybe it inspired you to give a second chance to a game you’ve rejected? Only to find out that it was really good. That would be amazing, here’s for another great year!

Yoshi’s Island, what a weird and lovable game ,right? Full of happy flowers, hallucinogenic clouds, shy people with flowers in their hair, dinosaurs that turn into submarines, angry balloons etc. There’s simply an overload of strange and lovable things in this game. And all of this joy is wrapped up in a pretty, oh so pretty pastel colored storybook art style that still today looks as amazing as it did when it first released. Remember the first time you saw one of those water monsters like the ones on the box of the game? It was one of those rare cases when the game actually looked like it did on the box! And don’t even get me started on these amazing comercials shown in the US, woah the GBA one wasn’t that bad either , while I’m at it , check out this really creepy clay animation yoshi commercial for Yoshi’s cookie too, wicked!

Things should be all pankakes and cheese donuts right? ( meaning o.k) But am I alone in feeling a Strong sentimental feeling whenever I boot this title up? I think it has to do with the musical score of the game, which to me is very sad.Perhaps it’s the contrast between the cute and sugar sweet graphics against the moody music , does anyone share my sentimentalism? Here are two great remixes of the audio from the game , the first one is a sad and atmospheric remix of The underground theme the other one is a frantic, trippy as hell drum and bass’y remix of the fantastic castle theme.Give em a listen , if you enjoy the music of the game (why wouldn’t you?) you’ll probably love em!

Anyways I wanted to discuss the gameplay too, much like Kirbys Epic Yarn Yoshi’s Island doesn’t have that reflex , hardcore megaman difficulty but rather it focuses on your desire to score a 100 points on every level which is done by collecting all the red coins, flowers and keeping Yoshi unharmed as he passes the finish line for that 30 sec star count. It’s actually really hard on some levels to manage to get 100 points. But it feels as if Epic Yarn did it right in the -oh you’ve got to be fast to get that coin where as Yoshi’s Islands level design makes it somewhat painful at times. Sometimes you’re presented with a choice , let’s say two doors, no way to know which one is right, if you pick the wrong one you will have to replay the level since there was a red coin waiting for you in the other door. It’s not a bad game at all but It just a bit painful for compulsive collectors as me to see that one missed coin that I really couldn’t get. “Forcing me to replay it once again, where I might fail again! Also egg physics rule, all games should incorporate that!



I have also been playing Rayman Origins with my friends thanks to several recommendations from fellow dtoiders , and man is that game amazing! It plays very much like Super Mario brothers Wii and thanks to the fact that you can slap around your friends it’s also as frantic and competitive as Super Mario Brothers Wii, prepare to destroy some friendships over this game!

At first the controls can feel a bit slippery and making full velocity jumps from small platforms can be tricky. But once you get the hang of it you’ll be running trough stages in full speed, we would constantly enter rooms with 3 players and suddenly all the enemies where gone 2 of us where dead and the other one would be heading out without any of us realizing what just happened, then we would break down in laughter because of the chaotic nature of the game.I would love to see a speedrun with 4 players of that game, bliss i tell you , bliss!

Much as Yoshi’s island and Epic Yarn this game also incorporates the addictive get 100% on every level to unlock new stuff mechanic, but also has some of those - OH shit, I missed the damn thing moments that I both love and hate. Anyways..

The music is fantastic the graphics are crisp and looks nothing short of delicious, surprisingly the humor is top notch too. Those French really know their thing! I can’t describe the confusion and giggling that took place when we first saw that when every characters rode mosquitos in the horizontal shmup levels except for the big blue guy, the freaking mosquito rode him instead instead! When we realized it my friend went - What , I must be a freaking idiot! And boy was he right!

So what about finishing games , what side to you take in that question? Do you have to finish all games, or are you a better/healthier person if you’re strong enough to leave them be? And does it have to be 100%? I know this question is really vague but speak from your own perspective , I’ll certainly find it educating and interesting to read!

Oh I've been listening non stop to the Mighty Switch force album , you should too. It's sooo good!

Also Happy new year Dtoid and Dtoiders! I love you all!


Brb - Gotta finish those fantastic games!