Hey yo..
This I my setup or I guess collection.
I very much envy all those who came before me, but I’ll put this up just to tip my hat, so to speak.



This is the whole deal right here. I don’t know if the TV or amp are amazing, I do know it’s not Full HD, so there room for an upgrade right there. Let’s take a closer took, come on, this way.



These are some of the Collectors or Limited Edition’s I have picked up over time. There are a couple of others, but there have been put away. For example, there is a larger Overkill box, and a Gears of War II one as well. Really it all takes up so much space. If I had more room, I would have it out. Im considering getting a cabinet for it all. Im very dissapointed that the Batarang doesn’t come off the stand, and the Bayonetta gun is too small. Oh, look, some games.



I really don’t know how I got so many. I guess they just add up over time. None of my PC games are out here, so with those, these numbers would double. But I got some closer look shots right here.



My NDS Lite isn’t shown, but I have a white one, pink one, and black one. Well, the house does. That’s an original GameBoy in the case, and the red tin behind the flash cart box is the Astro Boy Tv Series. It looks like my Gameboy and Advance boxes are all away as well. Haven’t finished a single one of those PS1 games yet.



My little retro section I guess. I really wish there was a way to have my N64 and SNES games with the labels showing. I’ve seen some people Sharpie the names on the top, but that’s not for me. Things missing that I want: The Legend of Zelda on SNES and II on NES.



Here we have some 360 games and some Sega games at the back. The Sega ones don’t really don’t get played. Most of them are imports and I don’t speak or read Japanese. You can still get through it, but it’s not the same for me. Most of this stuff will get stored when I get more Wii/360 games to make room. Those tins on the left are NDS flash carts. Cyclo DS is my brand. 360 games that I regret buying: Shaun White. Need for Speed. Scene It.



With business out of the way, here’s where the party starts! Some of the Wii games are ex rentals so I have them in new cases. Where can I get white ones? Still searching. Dead Space is probably my favourite game, followed by Ghost Recon AW2. My wife gets into COD4 online, I’m not that great so I don’t get on as much. Wii fit is hers too. I swear. It’s the only balance board game we have. Halo Wars is unopened, it was a gift. Just can’t get into Borderlands… Keep in mind, some of these are for my 8 year old, eg: Cars.



Some Hero stuff. Dj Hero wasn’t worth it and cost me $AU250 on launch day. I think I have only put 2 hours into it. Drums are out of frame.



Consoles and GameCube/PS2 games. I have played the first level of God Of War and its really good! Need to get into that… I have no excuse for the Mario Dancing Stage. In all honesty, it was a gift.



The box at the bottom is where all the controls live. This one is all Nintendo. I have another for everything else. More GC games at the top. I think Luigi’s Mansion is really underrated and if you have a GC you should check it out. You can see some of the GC are ex rentals. They just didn’t move at my local Blockbuster so they cleared em out super cheap. Seen below, House of the Dead: Overkill guns for the Wii. Really awesome shells, unless you need the nun chuck attached.



All this stuff is plugged in and works in case you’re wondering, though you’re probably not. I love playing my NES, so much nostalgia. I’m searching for PS games, but are tricky to find. Even copied ones are hard to find! I’m thinking the Metal Gear Solid series and Shadow of the Colossus for PS2. I’d also like some Street Fighter games.

Finally, just some of the movies and stuff I like:



Not much here is new. Torrents and all…. Guilt. My number one would be a Korean movie called A Bittersweet Life. You can see it top left. Can’t tell you who’s in it or anything, it’s all in Korean. There’s a second row behind all these, but they are the B grades.

Hope you like my setup!

Dear Destructoid,

Err, that’s a little formal…
Heyyyy….
Nice.
I’ve done a couple of blogs already, about my tattoos, but I thought I should do one of these introduction things I hear so much about. Check out my tattoo ones if you’re interested though. I also decided to add a little “this is my game stuff” and this is what you end up with.

I have been playing video games since I was about 6. My father gave my brother and I an NES for Christmas one year with Super Mario Brothers and Kid Icarus. It was all over from there. We amassed around 25 or so games; we had the power glove, the fitness mat thing, and two zappers, didn’t have R.O.B but wanted it.

Games that couldn’t have lived without:
Super Mario Brothers 1-3
Kid Icarus
Legend of Zelda 1 and 2
Wrath of the Black Manta
Mega Man 1 and 2
Gunsmoke. Fun Fact: This game rules.
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out
Metal Gear
Castlevania

We used to carry it between parents houses (see: divorce) in a large camera travel case, (You know the big silver ones?) with foam cut outs inside to hold it all in place. It was pretty badass when you showed up at a friend’s house with this thing. I always hoped I could get it to make that hiss noise when opened, like when Predator removes his helmet. But i digress. Long story short: not sure where it went. It’s gone, just gone. I don’t even know where. It was even chipped so it was even region free. Sad days. I’m not crying; I just have something in my eye!



I also had an Atari Lynx in my youth. I lent that to a girl and broke up with her before getting it back. I loved that thing, but everyone else had Gameboys so I could never get my multiplayer on.
Games of worth:
Xenonphobe.
Slime World.
Chips Challenge.


I had a Sega Mega Drive (Genesis for you NTSC types) but it never really grabbed my attention. Really only played a few things here and there:
Rolling Thunder
Golden Axe
Sonic 1-3
Streets of Rage (I’m not sure if it was called this elsewhere…)

A Super Nintendo arrived one day, and that thing got played pretty heavily. It was kind of sucky being a PAL gamer, because you would read about these awesome looking games in EGM or something and they would just never come out here. We owned some pretty sweet games:
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Mana
Legend of Zelda
F-Zero
Mario Kart
Flashback; was my favourite of all time

I also did quite a bit of PC gaming as around this time the internet was just poppin off. Warcraft 2, Duke Nukem 3D, and Quake were all outstanding multiplayer games. I actually won a Quake mini tournament at a computer show and the prize was a shitty Microsoft racer and 100 free internet hours, which was a godsend back then because one hour would run you around $5. The best two players in the mini-tourney had to frag it out with a Quake level designer (apparently) playing along as well. The Quake guy won, but he didn’t count because he was just there for show, so I got the prize.
Other things that got played:
Rise of the Triad
Doom 1 and 2
Police Quest 4. I love when you find that kid in the dumpster.
Syndicate
Syndicate Wars
Tie Fighter
Descent
Wing Commander III


I saved my ass off for an N64 day one purchase: $400 plus extra for games and controllers. My foolish mother told me she would match me dollar for dollar on the money I saved: She underestimated me. I ended up with around $350 on my end, so I got Mario64 and Wave Race, plus a 2nd controller. I think I liked Wave Race better. Am I doing it wrong? Over the next few years, I got heaps of games for the N64.
Some favourites:
Zelda
Starfox
Rogue Squadron
Goldeneye,
Perfect Dark,
Extreme G,
Pokemon Stadium,
Pokemon Puzzle League,
Duke Nukem 64,
NFL Quarterback Club.
The New Tetris – Wasn’t really that new was it? No, not really.

We used to gamble on Extreme G. I don’t recall the name of the mode but you had to blow up as many of the drones as you could before finishing three laps. I had a friend who didn’t know when to quit, and I think I heard the term “double or nothing” 5-6 times that day. I ended up with around $150 in my pocket.



My brother’s stoner friends were always good for money as long as just the right formula was implemented:
Goldeneye
Facility
Lasers
Three of them against me
$50 if I win without deaths.
First to ten
Won every time.



This little upstart company showed up not long after the N64 came out, with a console of their own, Sony or something. Perhaps you have heard of them. I wasn’t much of a Sony kid, I was the Nintendo fanboy after all, but I played through Resident Evil 2 in one sitting, I just could not put it down. It was scary at just the right times, and action packed at other times. It even had puzzles! I remember finishing around 0630 in the morning. I didn’t get much time with many other PlayStation games, as most of the people I know who had them had mainly fighters, which I love, but I’m anything but great at them. So other than RE2, I didn’t really play anything.


It was tough for me when the next generation consoles came out, because I had no interest in the PS2 and the GameCube seemed a little uninteresting at the time. I ended up back on the PC with games like:
Quake 3
Unreal Tournament
Total Annihilation
Counter Strike
Half Life

FPS’s really did belong on PC at the time. Net café’s started to pop up all over the place, so we spent lots of late nights, in dark basement stores, with bad body odour and repetitive music. Good times.



I eventually got a GameCube and found some really great titles on there:
Luigi’s Mansion is still a favourite.
I actually like Mario Kart: Double Dash. Why all the hate?
I loved Wind Waker.
Super Mario Sunshine was ok I guess.
Mario Golf and Mario Soccer were amazing fun.
Viewtiful Joe
Rogue Squadron. These games were so much fun.

The GameCube didn’t do well in Australia, as PAL regions are very Sony. I’m generalizing, but I think this is the same in Europe too. Being up against the Xbox and PS2 would have been pretty tough, but because of that, stores always had GC games cheap, so I ended up with heaps. Sadly, they are all pretty bad.


I have intentionally left out all handhelds other the mention of the Lynx, so here’s the rundown. Well it’s all Nintendo isn’t it?
First Gameboy I got was the Pocket. I never had the brick, my Mother actually had one for Tetris, as it seems most did.

I had Pokemon Red and Zelda.
That’s it.
That was all I needed.

If I remember correctly, I maxed out the “time played” clock on Pokemon. I had all 151, and I used to kick ass in battles at school. Even though I was like 17. Silver was cool, but I preferred the original 151. It’s most likely one of those “good old’ days” moments, because Gold/Silver had some awesome Pokémon too, but I really just prefer the first 151.

Funny Story Moment:
I went to one of these events where you get one of the rare Pokémon by trade, (Mew, maybe) and I had my Gameboy in my jacket pocket. Yes, it was a Gameboy Pocket. The jacket was one of those big ghetto puffy white Nike ones (see: Eminem) and this huge giant of a man tried to jump me for it. I really didn’t give a shit about the jacket, but my Pokémon cart was in there!! My buddy kung fu kicked him (cause he was Asian) and it was all fine.
It was kind of like:
Asian friend, I choose you!!! Use kick attack!!
Critical Hit!!
Giant man has fled from battle



Don’t fuck with a man and his Pokémon!
Sorry, I see now it wasn’t that funny.
I got a Gameboy Colour. So not worth it. What was it like, 16 colours? And they weren’t even colours, more like shades. Should have called it Gameboy: Shades of Colour, AMIRITE?? No I’m not, but I still played the same three games, so I stuck with the pocket.

I skipped the Advance, and went straight for the Advance SP, which really was better. I felt that the Advance was too big, not quite pocket size. I had a few more games for that,
List of Stuff I Liked:
Legend of Zelda Minish Cap, which I thought was pretty good.
Pokemon FireRed


I think the concept for the DS was good, but I don’t think it was executed properly. It seemed a little gimmicky. I eventually caved and got the DS Lite. I liked it, and then I loved it.
Starfox
Trauma Centre. I was playing this on a plane trip home from New Zealand, the patient died and I got told off by the flight attendant because I dropped a very audible F bomb.
Dementium. Good, could have been better.
Cooking Mama
Pokemon Pearl. When will it end?
Elite Beat Agents
Mario Kart DS
Tetris
Phoenix Wright. I liked the first one the most, probably because it was easier. Also, makes you feel smart.

I think more retro games would have been good, and then, as well, more games that used the stylus in better, unique ways. Like Elite Beat Agents for example, or Nintendogs. I won’t get into R4 things and so on as Nintendo Australia is going crazy at the moment and I don’t want to get sued. Officially, I DON’T have one.

And then shit got real, son.

I remember when they announced the Wii. I was pretty excited. No, I was reallllly excited. So many possibilities! The screens for Zelda looked so good! Point at the TV and then SHOOT!! FPS games will be amazing!!
Sadly, as we all know that wasn’t the case. I got one Day One, midnight launch, played at home for about two hours, said “meh” aloud and went to bed. My girlfriend at the time said something that, at first I dismissed but really was true: “I’ve done this all before on the Eye Toy.”
Whaaaaaaattttt????!?! Bitch you CRAZY!!



But she was partly right, it wasn’t 1:1 control, and Nintendo knew it. They sold it as if it was, but I don’t think they ever said it was. So they didn’t really lie, but the commercials were a half truth.
Games I liked:
Wii Sports in groups.
Zelda was a once play through.
Mario Strikers (soccer) wasn’t as good as on the GC.

That kind of killed it for me. It was like strike one, two, and three. I was actually pretty shattered. Nintendo practically raised me, taught me life lessons, and this was the best it’s got? Kids games, family games, girls games, and the icing on the cake: they didn’t care. I think really this was the point when your parents say:
“We have new kids to look after now. Its time you moved on, get your own place, start your own family. Listen, Son, it’s time to GTFO and grow up.” I still come back to visit though, spend some time. House of the Dead Overkill is awesome, and I’m getting into the Wii Ware now. Dead Space Extraction was a super disappointment. Games that are relevant to my interests:
Pokemon Rumble
Lost Wind
ExciteBike
Mega Man 9 and 10

New retail games I like:
Punch Out
Trauma Centre
Tatsunoku Vs. Capcom


I did get out of Nintendo’s house however. I got an Xbox 360.
Rainbow Six: Vegas
Lost Odyssey. Did not finish.
Eternal Sonata. Did not finish.
Dead Space,
Gears of War,
Batman: Arkham Asylum,
Assassins Creed II. Sure the first too I guess.
Portal
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, the list goes on.

I really love my 360. I get to play it a lot with my son, and he enjoys most of the games. We have a pretty strict “No Licensed Games” rule, so he isn’t growing up playing crap. He’s 8 now, and we both enjoy anything with zombies in it, or anything where you can shoot people in the face. Left 4 Dead gets some jumps but he thinks it’s all good fun. He is playing through Arkham Asylum at the moment. I have around 45 360 titles now, and have a large backlog to finish. Thankfully, there’s a bit of a break over the next few weeks with not many new releases, so I can get in some time with games that I haven’t even made a dint in like:
Bayonetta,
The Saboteur
Magna Carta II
Bioshock (the first one. I know!!)
Darksiders
Prince Of Persia
Dante’s Inferno, which is hard to me. Maybe I’m just not great.

Apart from that I play World of Warcraft on the Barthilas realm; however I’m pretty bored of that now. I have a level 80 rogue that I raid with, but it’s really just the same thing over and over. Here’s a new bad person that should die, kill him and I’ll give you this!!! Look, shiny!!



I’m also catching up on all the gems from the past I missed in my Nintendo fanboy days. I recently got a PSOne and PS2 Slim and have some games on them to get through. After writing this, it really seems I have my work cut out for me! I’ve also managed to get myself another NES and have started getting back all the games I had when I was a ratty youngster. I’m a bit old school, but not a retro elitist; HD is nice.

If anyone wants to have a game of something, hit me up on Xbox Live. Gamertag: YoTanaka. Wii if you really want… Such a dirty taste in my mouth…

Kid Icarus (Or Kiddy Cris as my naïve self used to call it) was the kind of game that could hold me to the screen for hours at a time, without any kind of care as to what was going on around me. The game is short, by today’s standards or even in 1987 when it was released, but that didn’t worry me at all as a six year old. Although the plot in the game differs from the Greek mythology of Icarus, I can relate.

The lore of Icarus says his father, Daedalus made wings out of feathers and wax to escape Crete. He warns Icarus not to fly too close to the sun; however Icarus gets caught up, lost in the moment, and flies closer than he should have. Wax melts, Icarus falls. Although I never fell, (maybe of the sofa once or twice,) this game would get me lost in the moment too. I play it today, and sadly it’s not the same hypnotizing, time stopping, black hole of win, but it is still just as fun, maybe more. Some of you may only know of Pit from Brawl, or the whispers of an Icarus Wii game.

Fun Fact: Kid Icarus uses the same engine as Metroid.

But Pit and I go way back. Sitting in front of the TV on the floor taking down penguins and smashing centurions free from stone, Pit and I were a great team. Rising from the underworld, kicking ass in the overworld, and then taking down Medusa herself. I always thought it was strange that Medusa’s weak point was her eye. The very eye that if you look into, your supposed to turn to stone.
The dungeons were great too. The maze of different rooms, and different creatures, the yellow/orange baths that restore your health and even stores to buy things. Also, still to this very day, I have never EVER tried to eat eggplant and probably never will. I thank Pit for that. I still look at them in the store and cringe.

Kid Icarus was a life changing game for me.
Hence the gesture.



By far the largest of my tattoos, this one took two sittings and clocked up around 3-4 hours if memory serves. Again I found the image on DeviantArt.

Much like the Link tattoo, it was the inside that hurt the most. Pit’s wings wrap around slightly but not all the way through. I had the outline done for months before I had time to get back and get the rest filled in. Anyone who has done this knows that it’s pretty frustrating to walk around with a half finished tattoo. I just never found the time to get back.



Obviously not as child-like, as the original game, slightly older, but still young enough that any fans would recognize him. This one really does mean a lot to me, purely for the love I had for the game when I was young. It’s an amazing platformer, short, but challenging. If Nintendo did HD remakes, like Microsoft get done on retro games, my vote is on “The Kid.”




The inside still has enough room for the other piece I have planned and I may have enough room on the inside of my elbow for a sixth tattoo. Either way you look at it, I’m halfway done or just over that towards the end. I still have not decided on the 6th piece, if it will fit, and welcome your ideas. Maybe a D’toid robot head!



And for those of you following along at home, this is an idea of where its upto:

The Legend of Zelda series has to be my all time favorite Nintendo franchise. The series has had numerous games produced and although each is basically a remix of the last, they all are great games with an excellent main story and great side quests.

As a young NES gamer, The Legend of Zelda was the epitome of epic. I had played RPG’s on Atari, none that I could recall by name, but there was something memorizing about Zelda. Maybe it was the huge scale of the map, or the awesome music, but Zelda was the crown jewel of my Nintendo collection. How could it not be? The cartridge was gold!

It breaks down like this:
There’s a princess.
She’s kidnapped.
Ganon: Bad Man
You have to save her.
Old guy.
Creepy.
Says its dangerous.
Gives you a sword.
On your way.
Let’s not forget the tri-force.



There are other great Nintendo franchises. Mario, for example, was great, don’t get me wrong, but it was pretty “point A to point B”. Zelda is far less linear, more of a journey than a game. Ill admit, I wasn’t great at it. Many deaths, many attempts. That damn beep when your hearts are down… There was lots of asking my older brother for help, looking at the map and I could never EVER remember how to get through the brown forest on the lower left hand side of the map. I enjoyed collecting all the items, the heart containers as well as the heart container pieces. The music was incredible! Even the little things like when you discover a secret, that sound that plays. Or even when you pick up a new item. As a 7 year old, it was so exciting to be on this epic quest to save the princess and the world. At the same time. Two birds, one stone.

On my last update you saw the outline and the shading got started. It is now finished. And I love it. People talk about regrets, but with this and the SF2 tattoo, how could I ever regret this?



You can see that the excellent shading that was done on the boots continues through the rest of the tattoo. I really love it. It’s definitely a tattoo that could have gone wrong, by choosing the wrong place, wrong picture, or wrong tattooist. There were other choices for a Link tattoo, but when I think of Link this is how I picture him, because when I played Zelda all those years ago, I was young, just like Link here. Because I was young, I thought of Link that way. The fact is Zelda was 8-bit. There was no way to tell if he was old or young by looks alone. I could have gone with an older version for this, more of a Twilight Princess look, a “Harder” look, but I still think this is perfect.

So i have a son. He's seven. One thing i get sick sick pleasure out of is watching him absolutely shit himself (not literally) whilst watching me play L4D on 360. Yeah, i mean i may let the zombies run that little bit closer just so they're right in my face, but he's terrified.

To the point that he cant look away.

People say to me, "I cant believe to make him watch that!"

Make him? Oh no. There is no "make". When it gets to, "Hey kid, your getting too scared, go play with your LEGO," and even though he is on the other side of the room, he still tries to watch. That enters the realm of independent choice, so I'm off the hook, he brings it on himself. I ask him, "Why do you keep watching when your so scared, that you physically shake? So scared that sometimes, you get up and hide behind furniture?"
Reply: "I just like watching you play games. Mostly scary games."

Then, why is the witch smiling?



He brought this home from school. Oh there's others, but this one is the best IMO.

According to him:
"The witch isn't smiling, shes screaming!"
"The guy in the left is the brown guy" Oh yeah, he said that.
"Louis isn't scared. Hes angry"

Kids.

When asked why is L4D good: "You get to shoot lots of zombies that are really tough. Some are weak. Thats why." He then turned away and added, "And mostly because its a shooting game."

Point: Isn't that what kids should be able to say about all games?

The job was simple and had two parts:
*Finish the Shading on Chun-Li
*Begin work on the outline of the back of the forearm.

It begins. Now in my opinion, the shading portion of a tattoo hurts a lot more than the outline. However. Many people will disagree and tell you that it’s the other way around. You can argue it, but really, for me, the outline is fine, the shading… mmm, not so much. I’m told Chun-Li will tale around an hour, to an hour and a half. And it does. And it looks amazing. There’s really nothing left to say about it, take a look.



In all honesty, it’s just how I pictured it when I thought of getting it done. I’m very glad I didn’t go with full colour. It would have looked fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but blues and yellows and browns, on my skin… I wear a lot of white. It would have looked funny. Maybe on someone else. SO big ups! The first of the pieces is El Completo!

From left to right:





We took a short break, water was drunk, cigarettes were smoked. There was small talk. Then out came the next sketch. It was like Christmas. The excitement. I didn’t think that the SFII tattoo would last over three sessions, so this next one felt slightly delayed. Like I should have already had it.

Now this one was on the books from the very beginning. When my brain first caught a whisper in its inner canals of a whole arm tattoo dedicated to my number one hobby, THIS was the first guy on the metaphorical “ideas board.� Then came a snag. It is unbelievably difficult to find a suitable picture of this guy. Months I scoured the interwebs. Nothing. Eventually it came time to take the pics I had into the artist. But I had no pic of this guy in there… I couldn’t find one. I had to go with what I had. In the end the spot went to Sakura, that badass school girl. So I charged ahead.

It wasn’t meant to be I thought.
Half naked schoolgirl will make an excellent tattoo I thought.
Not in a sick old man way at all I thought.
We can work with this.

Ryu and Chun-Li begun. Then what do I find a few days later? Mother Fu….. Why didn’t I find this earlier?! Hidden amongst the pages of The Majora’s Mask manga from Japan, the perfect picture to fill the spot that was soon to be taken by Sakura.
Link.
Now when I say perfect, I could mean many things. When I say it though, I mean the right size, the right point of view, the right style. It was like this was meant to be found, and it was meant to be tattooed on the backside of my forearm, behind Ryu and Chun-Li.
45 mins: outline done. Another 30 minutes: Half shading done.



The thing about backs of forearms: They hurt. And not in “hey, that’s kind of sore.� More in a “lets cut your arm open and play around with the stuff inside while your awake� kind of hurt. But then double it. And then again. Especially the shading towards the wrist. Also, very difficult to take photos of, because as you twist your arm, so does the tattoo and begins to looks skewed.

But enough of that. The Legend of Zelda series of games are a long time favourite of mine. Link HAD to be a part of my sleeve design, and I’m very happy to say that he is now. Also, girls think he’s cute, so there are some perks. I really like his boots



Altogether, another 3 hours, bringing the total up to 11 hours.

This is how they fit together at the edges:

Next we finish the shading. It won’t take long and we should have time to start the outline of, and hopefully finish, the outside of the bicep. And this one is going to be awesome. This one comes from a game I was absolutely obsessed with as a child and would/could play for hours and hours. It’s another NES classic. One of my all time favourites. Between this and Gunsmoke, and was raised and became a man. Check back soon!