As we all know, videogaming is an expensive hobby. In these troubled economic times even I have been forced down to only one oil tanker full of caviar a week. So I decided that since I didn't have the cash to buy one of this week's new releases (I'm lying, I bought Rhythm Paradise) I would see how much game I could get for just £5 of my English pounds.

The location chosen, CEX Gloucester. The format, I went in looking for anything and everything but all these games came from the PS2 section.



Timesplitters - £1

First thing I picked up was this. I love Timesplitters 2 but have never played the original game. I don't expect it to be as good but quite frankly I don't care when it's only £1.



Zone of the Enders - £1

The Crackdown of its day. It sold massive amounts because of the bundled in MGS2 demo however my friends that are into giant robots speak very highly of it. To be honest I've wanted to get it for a while yet there's always been something that's held me back. A £1 price tag must've silenced that problem.



Dynasty Warriors 3 - £2.50

I asked a little while ago that if I was going to get started on Dynasty Warriors where was the best place to start. The overwhelming majority held up #3 as the perfect entry point. £2.50 may have just bought me a newfound appreciation for one button combat.

I encourage everyone to try this themselves, take £5 (that's roughly $7.50) and go find some cheap games. GOOD GAMES as well, we're not giving points for £5 worth of crap here. I want to see what you can add to your collection that you genuinely want with just a small amount of cash.

You may have noticed that I only really do these update posts when something notable hits the European Virtual Console. The last one I did for example was put up when Secret of Mana was added. Well we have something really fucking notable this week.

1 and Only Game - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Nintendo 64 - 1000 Points

What, you're still here? Well OK I'll explain. Majora's Mask is the N64 Zelda that hasn't been rereleased nearly 6 times. Other than the original N64 cartridge there's the version on the Gamecube collectors disc that only came with a Wind Waker pre-order so unless you fancy hunting down the cart I recommend you download this immediately. Its not like you're starving for space anymore right? This is a game that almost nobody really understood when first playing it. The game world is fairly small and you only really have a few hours to play it, however the ability to play with time and gain the abilities of the Deku Scrub, Gorons and Zoras are what makes this game the most unique of all the Zelda games. If you have never played it then you owe it to yourself to give it a go, there is very little else like it. This deserves to take its place amid your VC games under the tag 'Solid Fucking Golden Classics'.

>NJ

Hey Destructoid, I've never posted a crib blog before and I've been hesitant about posting about my new place since my room here is still an incredible mess. But to hell with it I thought! Gamer's rooms are supposed to be untidy dammit!



Lets start with figures, I have 2 Kingdom Hearts 2 Sora figures. One of them stands on my windowsill, guarding my speakers with Rinoa. Also there's my Special Edition Street Fighter 4 box.



More figures, my other Sora figure along with Final Fantasy 12's Vaan, Card Captor Sakura and the obligatory Hatsune Miku figure. Also the craptastic SF4 figures and a very badly painted Airfix rally car.



Boxes. Every box goes in this corner, see how many you can spot.



My Ocarina smashed during a moving operation a few years ago. Its still playable, but playing it isn't the most pleasurable thing in the world. Also there's my copy of Sonic Pocket Adventure for the Neo Geo Pocket Colour.



My Keyblade got broken when I took it to Canada, it has a piece of wood wedged in the middle to enable it to unscrew into 2 bits. Also there's a geek requirement, my copy of Watchmen in the bottom corner.



Corner shelf thing, used to store any games I have no specific place for, but don't want in the stacks. A few Xbox and N64 games there right now. That plastic sleeve disc is a promotional copy of Singstar vol.2 I got. I love Singstar.



Geek requirement. Dreamcast. Not hooked up due to me not knowing where its power cable is right now so it shares with the PS2. PS2's hooked up right now.



I have 3, count 'em 3 fake guitars! The older one is my original Guitar Hero PS2 controller. Also a few plushies, Sora and Roxas from Kingdom Hearts and I think Mario is just visible as well.



More fake guitar, I use this one most. Also there's the almighty stacks. All my manga, CDs and portable games are in there right now.



A bit more stack action.



CONSOLES!! There's the Persona 4 machine, the waggle box, the red ring generator and the Killzone 2 player. Oh and those discs there, full of porn.



Geek requirement, NERF gun. Also doubles as my Wii lightgun shell.



The controller drawer, how many can you spot?



A poster wall, included to show off those sweet Star Ocean and Chrono Trigger promo posters. Also there's the poster from the final level in House of the Dead Overkill.



A prized possession, the first time I went to Canada my friends there gave me this flag signed by all of them. It's hung pride of place in my room ever since.



GAMECUBE!! This stack of games triggered what will be my hell for this year. NJ vs JRPGs. 3 of those games are in here.



PS2, 6 of the unfinished JRPGs reside in this box. Most of my treasured lightgun games are in here too.



In this photo, along with my anime DVDs is the first Xbox 360 game I ever bought. Bioshock. Also you see that Sonic Underground boxset? Yeeeeaaahhhhh!!



Wii and PS3 games go here.



Finally here's the list. This is on the wall right by my TV to remind me of my burden.

Today I got my collection of Gamecube games back after moving house. With those 27 games I got some of the greatest games ever made. And Donkey Konga. However it made me realise an uncomfortable truth.

Of the 25 JRPGs I own over all my consoles I have finished 2 of them. Those 2 are the 2 Kingdom Hearts games. Now I knew that I was bad at completing games. I always have been, ever since I was old enough to buy my own videogames. However not until I saw what is I think the longest standing unfinished JRPG in my collection sitting there in front of me did I realise how bad the problem had gotten.

23 JRPGs in my collection have not been finished. Some of these are excusable (Persona 4 only arrived today) while some of them are not (the aforementioned Skies of Arcadia) however all of them are now weighing on me heavily.

So here's the list. 23 JRPGs that I have not completed.

DS
#1 - Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
#2 - The World Ends With You
#3 - Chrono Trigger
#4 - Final Fantasy 3 *nearly finished actually

PSP
#5 - Final Fantasy: Crisis Core
#6 - Tales of Eternia

PS3
#7 - Valkyria Chronicles

Xbox 360
#8 - Eternal Sonata *unstarted
#9 - Lost Odyssey
#10 - Phantasy Star
#11 - Phantasy Star 2 *unstarted
#12 - Phantasy Star 3 *unstarted
#13 - Phantasy Star 4 *unstarted

Wii
#14 - Breath of Fire 2

Gamecube
#15 - Skies of Arcadia Legends
#16 - Lost Kingdoms
#17 - Pokemon Colosseum

PS2
#18 - Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga *unstarted
#19 - Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 *unstarted
#20 - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 + FES
#21 - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
#22 - Final Fantasy 10
#23 - Final Fantasy 12

So here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna finish these fuckers. All of them. So here's my pledge, my promise and my mission.

I, Francis Robin Lambourne, known to the vast majority of people who know me as njsykora will finish all 23 of these JRPGs before the 1st of January 2010. Over the next 8 months I will finish them all!

Absolute minimum of 10. If I finish 20 I'll be freaking ecstatic. If I finish all 23 you will find me in Trafalgar Square on New Years Day giving blowjobs to the tramp population.

God help me.....

Its Boxing Day, last year Nintendo gave us Donkey Kong Country 2 for the Virtual Console and that was it. This year they've been a lot more generous.

Game 1 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Master System - 500 Points

YES! YES! YES! Sonic 2 on the Master System is (like Sonic 1 on the system) is a completely different game from its Mega Drive companion. 6 zones to run through with 6 emeralds to find and in addition to that, a troll boss that is guaranteed to put the shits up any 5 year old. For 500 points its certainly worth using some of that Christmas money to grab some Wii Points.

Game 2 - Secret of Mana
SNES - 800 Points

FINALLY! The legenary co-op RPG drops onto the European service. What's remarkable is not the fact that its showed up but rather that its showed up for the usual SNES price. The game is damn near impossible to find on the SNES itself now so if you want to grab it, I would highly recommend you drop the points and get some friends round. No multi-tap needed for 3-players anymore remember.

>NJ

LOL!!

So, Sonic Unleashed is out and has somewhat put the series back on track after the horrific Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 however the game is still riddled with many of the problems which have sent the series to the point where it needs to be rescued. So I've decided not to give vague suggestions like Jim has done on 2 seperate occasions and that I have done myself a few months ago. No this is my idea for a 5 step plan which I believe could not only put Sonic back on track but return him to the position of power at the front of Sega's output like he was during the Dreamcast days.

Step 1: Dissolve Sonic Team



The first and most important step, Sonic Team have proven time and time again that they have lost the vision of what a Sonic game should be. It has been apparant since Sonic Adventure 2 and as fun as Sonic Unleashed is it still displays the over-reliance on speed and unrelated gimmicks that have plagued the series. I suggest either renaming the studio or dissolving it and allowing the talent to go elsewhere. By Sega's own admission the character is far more popular in the west, and in Europe particular, than he is in the company's homeland. By that logic surely the licence should be passed to a European or American developer.

Step 2 - Copy Capcom



So you have a character who's universe has become bloated and overpopulated and you need to get the hardcore fans back on board before pressing on with the series revived back in the affections of gamers everywhere. So here are 2 ideas to restore affection in the Hedgehog or just to remind people how good those old games were. Option one is to do what people have been pining after ever since that little screenshot dropped onto the internet of Sonic 2 HD. So you could pull a Bionic Commando Rearmed and remake one or more of the old Sonic games with prettier graphics and OCRemix sound (pretty much all the tracks are remixed already, and dammit OCR did an awesome job with Street Fighter 2).

Alternatively, how about what people have been calling for since Adventure 2. A new 2D Sonic game on the download services ala Megaman 9? After that universe got a bit stale and bloated it took this return to the basics to bring all the fans back on board. Cut it down to just Sonic, Tails and Knuckles (3 characters who all bring differing styles to the game and allow for some excellent level design) and cut it down to how Sonic got as big as he did. 12 zones, 2 acts per zone, 1 Robotnik battle. Bring out a properly numbered Sonic The Hedgehog 4 and bring everybody back on board, that needs to be done before any other new game.

Step 3 - Disown the Excess

Fans of the excellent 2P Start will have seen this before, every element of this monstrosity is taken from a character from a Sonic game.



Seriously, what the fuck? Drop the character roster down to 6 characters, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Robotnik. Chuck in Cream if you want to but those 6 need to be the core because they bring the most to the series in terms of gameplay and story. Drop the excess characters but with that a rein needs to be put on the developers to keep from putting any more sidekicks in. As golden as some of Chip's lines are in Sonic Unleashed he is completely unnecessary.

Step 4 - Sonic Adventure 3



Sonic Adventure is brilliant. It is both a jewel in Sonic's crown and a horrible reminder that at one time Sega and Sonic Team did know what made the 2D Sonic games so much fun and could translate that into 3D. So this is what the new developers need to go back to, make them play Sonic Adventure and recall what makes it the most fondly thought of 3D Sonic. The exhilarating rush of the speed sections and set pieces (running down a skyscraper anyone?) broken up by the careful platforming which increases in difficulty and regularity as the game progresses. Just try speeding through the Egg Carrier levels, they are hardcore platforming tests just like we enjoyed in the Mega Drive Sonics. Recreate that level of genius again and Sonic will be back on track in a big way.

Also, go back and play Sonic Heroes, that's the closest we've got to a Sonic Adventure 3 so far. I maintain its one of the best Sonic games I've played.

Step 5 - Cash In



With the games back on track, its time to make with the profit. As we all know, Sonic fans are pathetically devoted people who will snap up everything with their hero's face on it. We're talking bags, plushies, tshirts etc. Merchandise like hell and run this fucking franchise back into the ground!

So there you go, my 5 step plan to take Sonic from rags to riches and right back again. Seriously Sega, you got to this point by being overconfident and thinking that you could drag down the franchise and that the fans would just swallow it. Well the fans are growing sick and you need them back because without the core fans you can't continue this series.



>NJ