Odds and Ends

Hey, speaking of MvC2, I've been playing it a lot lately. I finally broke my old High Score in Arcade Mode. I cracked two billion (2000000000) points. That's a lot of points!! I couldn't have done it without this charming mechanical fellow to my right. In so many matches, my partners never tag in, they merely assist. Ms. White to makeup for Sent's notorious weakness to attacks from above, and Mr. Raging Demon for the Tatsumaki Expanision Assist plus Flight Mode raves (= Crazy Repetitious).

I suppose I should mention that I hit an arcade yesterday for some kicks. Totally got pwned... I need more stick practice. T.T

Beat Ico a few days back. Definitely a game everybody should play... once. Although, personally, I think Shadow of the Colossus is the better game. And in no small measure either. Shadow towers over Ico like Malus the Grand Gigas towers over a simple Smokeman.

I picked up Mario Party 8 as a favor to Poptart and, in my personal opinion, it has a lovely box. Yeah, I have been forbidden to open it until her return from the Banks, but as soon as she returns and we get a chance to Party, I'll let ya'll know the haps. As Catarina and I have already kibitzed, the reviews are pretty spread out across the rating spectrum. It comes down to the old Penny Arcade syllogism, "All you do is bark. You never meow." It seems a number of critics don't even like the idea of Mario Party, and grade it down based largely on its genre. It is akin to reviewing a puzzle game, and complaining that it doesn't have enough blowing up of stuff. (Every Extend Extra aside.)

Oh yeah, I'm also so close to buying a PS3 I can taste it. (In fact, I tasted Catarina's when she was out of the room.) I'm pretty set on grabbing F.E.A.R as my first title, even though I'm not much of an FPS fan. It is also odd that I've been piqued by Ubisoft's Haze, which is speculatively slated to be Halo 3's release rival. Planet Earth on Blu Ray is also near the top of my list, as well as fl0w and Super Rub-a-Dub. The retail dates for Assassin's Creed and Heavenly Sword are still up in the air, so, you know, those are more vague desires than planned purchases.

As Poptart pointed out, I don't have an HDTV at the homestead, but I get the feeling that owning the new Sony space heater might be the catalyst for convincing Legoman to go halfsies on a new set.

According to Google Analytics, our Bossa Nova segment was a mild success. So, due to whelming demand, and the fact that I have a killer subtitle cooked up for one boss, we will be executing a second round of Bossa Nova articles, hopefully beginning this Monday. Will your favorite boss be featured? Stay tuned! (Or not, whatever...)

Catch you on the flipside.

Strife of the Party

No, not Cloud Strife. >.>

Before I begin, let me just say that I know not everyone likes Mario Party. A lot of people think it is a horrid, simple game for stupid little kids.

I recommend these people not Jump the Gun. It is a great game for kids. It is also a varied collection of fun minigames combined with a unique social board game. I like minigames, and I like board games. What's not to like? Oh yeah - the cutesy, family friendly presentation. Meh. Boo riding atop a ravenous Chain Chomp in order to mug Luigi is the epitome of G-rated cool.

The first Wii incarnation of the series, Mario Party 8, is Kart Wheeling its way to retail at the end of the month. Needless to say, Poptart, Keif, and I are Book Squirming with anticipation and have been gearing up for the new installment by playing the daylights out of the Gamecube iterations (4,5,6, and 7) to Rumble Ready ourselves.

Also during a recent move, the memory cards containing saves for the aforementioned installments were somewhat misplaced, so we've made it our mission to go through the various enumerations re-unlocking characters, minigames, and boards. It is an enjoyable, though sometimes tedious exercise, but we assuredly have had the Will Flower to persist.

I was psyced to finally get around to Mario Party 7, which was a game we initially dismissed soon after acquisition. As exuberant Button Mashers, we prefer the two-on-two party mode. Unfortunately, unlike the previous games, 7 forces your Dungeon Duo to move together around the board, which greatly limits the strategies inherent in occupying two spaces. This nerfing originally put us off 7, although I was quite enamored with it due to the addition of Birdo and Dry Bones as playable characters.

In every other game Mario was my avatar, as it was his party and there is an ongoing superstition that the bullshit randomness of Mario Party seems to favor the red plumber, seeing as it is his party after all. As bizarre as it may be, I vastly prefer the gender-bending, egg-spitting, bow-wearing Birdo in all his/her pinkness to the titular protagonist. In no small way is this due to Birdo's incredibly annoying taunt. Its likeness to someone beatboxing through a kazoo tends to put opponents on Full Tilt.

Much of 7's hidden content has to be unlocked through the Solo Cruise mode, a sort of one-on-one Smashdance against a CPU opponent wherein each board has a unique win condition. I found this to be a revelation and easily the most enjoyable aspect of the game, allowing for more intense and faster paced matches. Bowser's Enchanted Inferno and Pyramid Park are about a kerjillion¹³³⁷ times more fun in this mode than in Party Mode. (And I get to play as the Pink Wonder.)

In case you've been Fishing Upon a Star that your spirit guide to the Mushroom Kingdom will be an avatar in the upcoming Mario Party 8, a gander at Wikipedia's entry reveals some news; All twelve characters from 7 return plus (...Weight for it...) Hammer Bro. and Blooper (!!). The Capsule/Orb/Item system of the past seems to have evolved into a candy shop selling assorted confections that can transform your character, allowing them to navigate the board in new ways. And, in case you were wondering, apparently the board play is controlled with the Wiimote in the sideways NES orientation.

Additionally, Treasure Trawling the Wiki article reveals that the new boards include: DK's Treetop Temple (most likely having a stationary Star space), Goomba's Booty Boardwalk (Akin to Koopa's Seaside Soiree from MP4 supposedly), Koopa's Tycoon Town (Allegedly an interpretation of classic Monopoly), Shy Guy's Perplex Express (Revolving around a train motif, I guess), King Boo's Haunted Hideaway (With a haunted house theme), and the unlockable Bowser's Warped Orbit (Possibly a Star-stealing board a la Snowflake Lake, the Snow Whirled from MP6). 65 new minigames in all and some not-so-mini games like Table Menace, a ping-pong diversion. Apparently, as seen in a one Freeze Frame, Miis may show up in the background of some of the minigames, too.

As long as Birdo's there, I'm in.

Later Skaters. Piece Out.

Tried and Treacherous

or Tappin' Yaki

My recent poetic outpouring was instigated by the subject of the second stanza, Super Mario Brothers' ultimate power up, the fire flower. My doting girlfriend Poptart recently got a Wii, and besides Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Keif's copy of Mario Party 6 (yeah, Snow Whirled), she/we thirsted for some of the irresistable Virtual Console offerings.

Using the Wii points card thoughtful Catarina had given her as a birthday gift (while we were out for teppanyaki, natch) we snagged Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Brothers, and Super Mario World. The NES classic is definitely one of her best games, and she is far superior to myself in this arena. (I still blame the damn Game Genie for retarding my 8-bit skills, Mega Man aside.)

Poptart not only is much better with timing and jumping than myself, her ability to get to Super Fire status and stay there is remarkable. This is what sparked my current fascination with the archetypal aerial projectile. By hanging back and bringing down the fiery rain upon hapless Spinies and Hammer Brothers, she was able to maintain her flower power for world after world.

Although I'm opening myself up to obscure pointings out, methinks SMB may be the first instance of a midair projectile. I concede that the aforementioned fireball is virtually the same whether launched from the ground or not, but its existence at such a developmental time for games really got my lobes humming. My other examples are actually quite distinct from typical shooting attacks, for this reason (trajectory) or that (anti-gravity effect), and I feel each one listed was rather unique in its unusual parameters and chronological placement.

Therefore, the Veggie Toss does not belong.

It has also become apparent to me that tapping A (the button) as quickly as possible must be a genetically determined trait that favors females. It stands to reason that a Y chromosome lowers the firing rate of synaptic impulses of nerves in the human hand. Such is the only logical explanation for the observation that the Mario Partiers I know with the highest demonstration of this skill are all women. Poptart, Keif, and Roach are so fundamentally beyond the competitive reach of myself and even Legoman (who is notorious in tapping A circles for his suggestive "hyper-slide" technique) that my syllogism is ironclad.

Now, if only I could get Poptart to channel this ferocity into Third Strike via Chun Li's Hyakuretsukyaku...