When I think about what defines a "good game" I always think about it's gameplay,storyline, and the game's music. It's always something that just goes hand in hand with making any video game. Kind of how movies have great music to back up all the awesome parts in the movie. There are times where we all have watched or played something we ourselves would consider bad. Anyways, I've dealt with a few video games in my childhood that were just down right bad. What I consider bad is how the gameplay fits in the game and also other things, but that really depends on the video game.



We always had RPGs at my house growing up and in my family we only had PlayStation or some Nintendo consoles. My brothers and I always loved to play RPGs! I remember day thousands of years ago in the year 1996 the PlayStation's first RPG came out. It was named Beyond the Beyond, with that name came all the awful things to come along with it. I remember vividly watching my brothers play and take turns to play one dungeon after another. They always had this very irate look on their faces whenever they got further into the game. There was even this one time where my older brother just said "Here Zuri, take the controller and just keep pressing the X bottom to battle and level up". Just showing how he didn't have the patience to level up in the game. It was worse than Pokemon's random battle encounters. I could see why they were annoyed, the fact that you would get attacked every five to eight seconds running into monsters didn't help make me love the game any more. However, there was one thing that I loved about this game and it was the amazing music.



Ever have that time when you play a video game and the music is just awesome that you end up playing for about six hours or more. I felt like that with Beyond the Beyond, but the gameplay just made it so god damn annoying at times. Looking back there is this one piece from the game that always stuck with me. Even after 15 years of not touching the game I remember this tune so clearly.



Funny thing is I later find out that this game was done by Camelot Software Planning. Which are the guys behind all the Golden Sun games and music was done by Motoi Sakuraba too! I was kind of surprised considering how bad Beyond the Beyond was. Even if it was a forgettable RPG, the music wasn't forgettable to my ears for years.

Moving on to another game I've played before is a very bad squeal to a very good game. Back when I was in high school and enjoying the days where I always enjoyed spending time with rolling up stars for the King of The Cosmos, I heard about a squeal to Brave Fencer Musashi! I was happy to hear that Square didn't forget about some of their classic old games. If anyone wanted to know the story is sort of like the original Brave Fencer, but you have to find all the elemental princesses this time around and not just elements of the land.



So anyways, the day I got Musashi: Samurai Legend (in March) I couldn't wait to play! Then I actually played the game and everything annoyed me about it."THIS ISN'T THE MUSASHI I REMEMBER!? WHAT THE FUCK HAPPEN TO HIM!?" were the thoughts going on in my head when I played through an hour of the game. It didn't help that his voice was just terrible. I REALLY hated listening to Musashi's voice, I mean, I don't know if Square Enix does tests on people who want to voice act in their games, but they should. As for the gameplay, it's just your normal hack and slash kind of game, nothing really special. I think the controls made Musashi's attacks feel so slow at time, specially if you're fighting ten or more monsters. However, in the game you do get to take the attacks of your enemies just like in the original Brave Fencer Musashi.

I feel like I ranted on about this game more than I should have. Going on to the game's music I really do love how great the music is. From the beginning you get this feeling of entering a new adventure with Musashi. Even later in the game where you get into the forest/jungle you get a taste of Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano's style of music. In a way the music really reminds me of Threads of Fate soundtrack.





Now for our last game is a game not many people really know about. At least I don't think many people know about this game. Floating Runner:Quest for the 7 Crystals is a PlayStation game about a boy and a girl who try to save their land for a evil dragon. That's pretty much it. I got the game in 1996 and when I played the game it was fairly simple. Shoot some monsters and then go on to the next level, but what really annoyed me was you couldn't save your file. What kind of game never let's you save from finishing one level!? It's still bullshit to me that the boss was hard as fuck too, and if you lost all your lives you had to restart from the FIRST LEVEL! I do remember good times when I ragequit over a few monsters gang raping me till I had no hearts left. All I remember really fun about the game was it's cute bubbly music.


The Forest level's music was always my favorite to hear every now and then, but the boss music was really awesome. It always got me fire up to beat the boss and till get my ass kicked few minutes later.


I feel really nostalgic writing this blog. Remembering all the experiences I've had with these video games and having the music stay in my brain for about years now. Even if these weren't the best or most amazing games, the music was still what kept me going half of the time continuing play on. Not every video game is perfect and my experiences have thought me that. Hell, maybe I'll play a game someday that has really bad music, but awesome gameplay and story.

Side note to all: I feel so bad for posting on the last day of the Monthly Musings. I just wanted to let this blog be done with and finished. It may feel rushed here, but I do hope you enjoyed reading this, even if my grammar is all that great ^^'''.

I'm not so much bitter, but pessimistic about relationships in general. I had a whole year to think about relationships and how the whole process works out. Now I always hear "THERE ARE OTHER FISH IN THE SEA FOR YOU!!!" and the famous, "just wait and they'll come to you!" After awhile I just get tired of hearing that, but it doesn't help me find a relationship any time sooner.


I'm in community college now and I'm almost going on to FINALLY a four year school to continue my education as a Early Childhood teacher. I've been there for a good three years now and I haven't really made friends there or met anyone who I would find interesting. Most of the people at my college act really immature and it's pretty much like the 13th grade for high schoolers. There are some who do take their education seriously, but there are some who just fool around. In short everyone there is ghetto, yeah I know it's a generalization to make, but this is just from what I've seen for three years. Three years here I haven't met a SINGLE gamer at my college. I walk around with my Zelda book bag that my dad got me and I think just one person said something about it.I'm not saying not all because no one said anything about my book bag means there are no gamers. I'm sure there are gamers, they're just hiding like ninjas for now.


Last year was my first year being single and I wasn't unhappy about it. I spent most of the time with friends and family, but overall I was very happy about last year. It's just ALL my friends are seeing someone or have someone in mind they like. My two best friends are pretty say this to me "STOP READING THOSE SHOJO MANGAS AND MAYBE YOU"LL FIND A GUY!" I laughed and thought "How could I not read those? It's the only thing I got to forget about my uneventful love life". It does keep my mind off things like love, but sometimes I wish I had that. My best friend is still amazed that I really haven't found anyone yet and a gamer no less. Yeah, I am looking for someone who shares the same interests as me and doesn't mind my nerdy side, but I'm also looking for someone who likes me for being myself, as corny as the sounds. Even when I read about these nerdy gamer weddings and stuff it makes me thing "That girl is so LUCKY D:! Why can't I have that!?"

So this Valentine's Day I don't really have a boyfriend to spend it with and that's okay, because I have my friends to keep me company on this very loving day. I'll most likely go about this day like any other normal day, but with the side of chocolate sweets! It's still the beginning of the year and who knows I may find myself a nice guy. I know there will be people who will tell me I shouldn't put a checklist for finding a guy, but my recent ex-boyfriend didn't even like that I played video games and pretty much disliked the fact I was nerdy about it. So I really think common interests do play a role in who you date.

Well I feel sort of better after writing this. Ugh, I went on the PSN this week and found their Valentine's Day specials for games. I can't even escape from Valentine's Day on my own gaming system D:!

Anyways I hope everyone here has a good Valentine's Day!

I was playing Kirby Super Star Ultra on my DSlite and I got to some thinking while I was playing. I have always had some kind of Nintendo related portable system on me since I was five. If you lived in any city like New York City you'll understand that getting somewhere takes awhile. I always carry my DSlite with me where ever I go. Nintendo for the most part has always been my portable gaming device on the busy trains on NYC, but for some it's either their PSP,ipod touch or iphone, and maybe their cellphones.

I personally hate long trips and even to this day I always need to carry something with me to pass time on the train ride. I live in Jamaica,Queens and my college is at the end of Manhattan, so you're pretty much looking at a hour long trip and doesn't matter if you take a different train, it's still a long ride. Even when I'm trying to go to go to Brooklyn from Queens it's two hours tops! When I ride the trains I hate not having something to do, because I hate looking at random people who stare at me for whatever reason they have to stare at me. Not just that, but the trains in Queens are so SLOW, better yet EVERYTHING IN QUEENS IS SLOW. I'm original from Brooklyn and I'm use to trains running fast, but trains in Queens just suck.

Oh looks like I ranted on little, sorry ^^;. Back to what I was talking about, you always need something on the go while traveling in NYC. When I was still taking the school bus back in elementary school I always carried my GameBoy Color with me. I mean, looking at the window for about an hour and 30 minutes doesn't really sound productive, right? When I did play on the bus back then I just shut out the world around me and focused on the world in my GameBoy. I still do that today, but with the DS. When I think about it I could be doing other things on the train to pass time, but playing on my DS seems to work best. Mainly because I can't listen to music on the train, since the trains are so fucking loud that you have to turn the volume up to max. I could read a book, but I could never focus on reading anything at all on the trains, but thats just me. When I'm playing on my DS I just don't pay any attention to anything around me and it does make the ride much easier to deal with.

I notice this with other people in the trains. They either have something with them to pass the time till their stop comes up. I lately seen people ALWAYS playing on their ipod touch or iphone, and I do see people now and then reading books as well. When it comes to seeing other people play on their DS or PSP, I always see more PSPs than DSs and I don't know why that is. It is little hard playing a DS since the trains move around a lot. Even my mother plays games on her ipod touch to the pass the time on the trains. If there is one thing I would never do is sleep on the trains, because the last thing I need is some asshole stealing my DS out of my bag.

Man it's really hard to write a blog when you're sick -_-'. Not sure if anyone else knows what I'm talking about with traveling on distances, since not every city is like NYC. Well kind of lost my train of thought here. It would make sense to post a video or a picture related to my blog, but I'll just post this cute video.

Ok. So I'll start off by saying, I have to make a note to ALWAYS go to a Nintendo's events three hours early than the event is planned. Today I had some free time and I headed down to Nintendo World for the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom launch event. When I got there around 12:30p.m. I thought to myself, it can't be too crowded (WRONG!), it was VERY crowded and FULL of people waiting on line to get a poster for the game's producer to sign. Being surprised by the how many people were there I got on line to get my poster.

While I waited on line for my poster there were a few things I saw. While I was walking up stairs there was a tournament being held. There was even a long line for that, which by the way the line ended little downstairs.


While I was on the line waiting I did see two cosplayers, one that was Ryu and another one as Gan Takedo from Yatterman. I didn't have time to take a picture of the Ryu cosplayer, but I did get a creepy picture of Gan Takedo cosplayer. I only say it looks creepy due to the fact the Iphone doesn't have flash and Nitendo World lack of light in their upper floor.


While waiting on the line I took a little picture of half long ass line. This was after two hours of waiting and how far I got from the middle of where they have all the Nintendo T-shirts to where all the Mario plushes were. I was so hungry too -_-;


After waiting for three hours and half hours I FINALLY was at the front of the line. Ryota Niitsuma was a really nice guy and seem to enjoy the fact that so many people came just to play Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. One of his translators asked if the poster was for a boyfriend and I said "It's just for a friend of mine who is sick." and Ryota laughed. Then I shook Ryota hand and said "Thank you and thanks for making such an awesome game!"


When I finally got my poster Ryota moved over to where the tournament was taking place so he could say thank to all the people who came today. I only got a crappy picture of it due to the fact that I couldn't pass the tournament line.


Well after a long and tiring event, I went uptown to my friend's house to give him the poster. I only went in his place, because he got too drunk last night and I went alone. In the end he loved his poster and I had fun playing Tatsunoko vs. Capcom at Nintendo World. I'll just make note next time to come really early, because after I'm done with this blog, I'm going to sleep!

Growing up I had a pretty complicated childhood, mostly due to my up bringing by my mother and step-father. My step-father was very Christian and always wanted everyone in the family to pray and watch Church on television. If one of my siblings or I did something wrong my step-father would grow a fit and pretty much hit us with a wet rag pretty hard. My mother on the other hand was kind person for the most part and a very caring mother, but her she was a compulsive lier to now end. She would always lie about everything to me. I won't really go into what she lied about and how long that lie lasted.

From all the drama that happen in my childhood and growing up in a shitty neighborhood, I only had one thing that comfort me, video games. I'll give you a perfect example of how my Gameboy comfort me during a time when I was about nine years old. One night my step-father wanted my older brother to go get some Chinese food for him, and so my brother did so. When my brother came back he forgot the dumplings my step-father wanted and when he found out there wasn't dumplings in his dinner he had such a angry expression. So like the loving father he was he strangled my brother against the door and while all that was happening I cried in fear of how my step-father was acting. So I ran into my room with my GameBoy and started playing The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening with headphones on listening to song Marin sings to Link in the town. It made me feel little bette hearing the song and after hiding in my room all the fighting was over for now.

Even when my step-father and mother would have fights about money or other bullshit I would always shut my door and play something on my Gameboy,Nintendo 64 and PS1. Sometimes I would watch my brothers play video games for hours till I fell asleep. My brothers would do the same times when my parents would fight over something. I feel like thats pretty much the main reason why we all played video games in the house more than watch television. I mean back then the only reasons we played video games was staying in the house, fighting parents, and lastly it was fun to play.

I feel kind of sad writing this personally. I give the video games I played throughout my childhood a lot of credit keeping me sane all these years or somewhat sane. From the problems in high school to drama going on in the family it's nice knowing I can just play Zelda or Spyro for hours on end and clear my mind of negative thoughts. Not sure if I can say video games gave some morals, maybe good always kills evil and hard work gives a lot in the long run? On a final note I was scared of my step-father at one point when I was about eight years old because my brother told me he was serectly Ganon trying to kill me...ah good times.

If this was little too long for you here is the short version of this blog:

Kids are funny. They haven't spent much time on this earth to understand how things work and wonder from the ages of 1-12 how life works in general. They're imagination can spark from anything around them from cartoons they watch on television to children's book, even video games. Yes, even video games can spark a child's imagination. I had a whole week of four little boys watching me play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

This Christmas my aunt and cousins came over to my grandpa's house in New York City. We do this every year and I love spending time with my dad's family overall. Out of everyone in the family I really love my cousins. They come from a very semi strict family, but my aunt makes them have little fun time to time. I really love the fact that ever since August saw me pull out my DSlite to play Phantom Hourglass he's been into video games ever since. Well this Christmas I wanted to introduce my old Nitnendo 64 to my cousins and show them how other Zelda games looked like back in the day. I went up stairs to the top floor of the house to plug in the Nintendo 64 and when I got to the top floor my cousins seems very interested in the old N64. Asking a funny question, "Is this a bigger DS?"

Well once to turn on the N64 and put in Ocarina of Time I saw there eyes looking around the screen and then looking at me trying to come up with what questions to ask me. First off I must say it's funny how even till this day Zelda games will be scary to young children. August was really scared when the Skeletons came out at night and jump at Link. Overall he was more scared of the redeads then anything else in the game. However for some reason he wasn't all to interested in Ocarina of Time, but showed more interest in Majora's Mask. I think that reason was because he would look at the Majora's Mask t-shirt I would wear around him every time I would see him. He ask who was who and on going questions about the skull kid and Deku srubs.

After playing Ocarina of Time for about an hour I told my cousins we had to do something else, since their parents don't really want them playing video games for hours. So August just started playing with his brother about pretending to be redeads and one of them had to be Link. Even my uncles who are six and eight years old walked in on them playing the Zelda game and wanted to join in on the fun. SO for about two hours I had to watch four little boys pretend to be Deku srubs,redeads,Links, and other Zelda related characters. Seriously the things children come up with when video games are involved are so funny.

I was secretly very happy that they got into the Zelda series. I even went down to Nintendo World and got both of them Zelda T-shirts. Which they didn't take off for the next three days. I also got them Zelda manga series of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. August read Majora's Mask within a day and moved on to Ocarina of Time manga.

On one last note to end this my younger cousin Gabriel asked me why Link never talks. To which I answer "Well....Link has nothing really to say and Nintendo made him that way" and he kpet asking me why after that a few times. Looking at them playing Zelda games and pretending to Link brings me back when I got into the whole world of Zelda series. What even makes me more happy is finally having someone in the family I can relate on my favorite video game series.

And here a cute video I took with my iPhone of my cousins doing their best Link impressions.