Odds and Ends (Catarina Edition)

Allergy season is in full swing and I could not be any more miserable than I am. I have gone through several boxes of Kleenex in the last month alone. The Claritin, it does nothing! Fortunately, I have at least one thing to look forward to in the coming weeks. After being alerted by Joystiq's post on the subject, I got tickets for myself and my husband to see Video Games Live at the Kennedy Center. Unfortunately, Killa won't be able to join us due to a work obligation.

Because there wasn't enough fussin' and a-feudin' in the world already, Square Enix definitively confirmed Final Fantasy XIII as a PS3 exclusive (via IGN). Read through the comments at your own risk, if you feel you are prepared to witness the depth and breadth of fan's inhumanity to fan. I'm less interested in the news itself than in the reaction from soldiers on both sides of the console war.

In other news, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was the one-hundredth game offered on the Wii Virtual Console, debuting this week. I never beat Zelda II when I was playing it twenty years ago, because it was too difficult. However, in the age of the Internet (the GameFAQs age), anything is possible. Also new this week is one of my all-time favorite NES games, Milon's Secret Castle. If, like me, you have forgotten how to get the spring shoes, you should check out the awesome Milon's Secret Website.

Finally---I saved this for the end since it has embedded video, although it's probably the most interesting tidbit in this post---Bethesda Softworks has released a teaser trailer for Fallout 3. I'm looking forward to this game more, perhaps, than is appropriate considering I never played Fallout 1 or Fallout 2. And not simply because Liam Neeson is going to be providing some of the voice work. Enjoy!

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.

Bad Mother Snubbers

We all know Mother's Day is a day to make Mom feel special. Well, we did that for Jenova and The Boss, but there are a lot of moms in the gaming universe that we left out. So here's a quick rundown. (And massive apologies for those who didn't make it into this list, either...) >.>

Mother Brain (Metroid) Big Sis Prinny (Disgaea) Justice (Guilty Gear) Sindel (Mortal Kombat) Olga Gurlukovich (MGS2) Wrinkly Kong (Donkey Kong) Elmyra Gainsborough (FFVII) Edea Kramer (FFVIII) Q-Bee (Darkstalkers) Jun Kazama (Tekken) Nina Williams (Tekken)

Odds and Ends

Hope everyone likes the banner. I've had the actual logo done for some time, but retrofitting it into this template was trickier than I would have hoped. Sooner or later we'll give this space a new coat of hyper paint; until then, consider this the first step of our Spring cleaning.

My time with GGXX#Reload has been going well. I've found Sol to be very easy to pick up due in large part to the familiarity of his control scheme. Entranced by the unique character design of Dizzy, I have forced myself to learn to use her properly, though her mishmash of bizarre projectiles and furious ground combos took some time to absorb.

I pretty much have the idea of Bursting down, but Roman Cancelling is still alien to me. I've been studying the frame inputs in Training Mode, but I'm still nowhere near a point where I can use RCs or FRCs in the heat of battle. This game really makes me thirst for a console version of Slash or Accent Core sometime soon.

I ran into this recap of MGS2 in haiku form on the PA G&T forums awhile back. Thought I'd share it with you, and likewise post it in a more accessible location for my own viewing. Many thanks to aett, and his mad summation skills.

Turn off the console

I need scissors! 61!

We have Rosemary "

Now that we've delved pretty deeply into FFXII, and have gained a working understanding of the gambit system, it makes me think about how many menu choices I've made over the years in Final Fantasies, and RPGs in general. FFX-2 alone could be near a million... C'est la vie.

Are They or Aren't They?

Here's my little couples in gaming response, coming hot on the heels of (read: ripping off) Catarina's Three Great Couples post. However, this supplement is going to focus on three of the more ambiguous relationships in games.

Jun Kazama and Kazuya Mishima

Well, we know they had sex; their son Jin is a testament to that. So some of the ambiguity goes out the window there. (Yeah, great choice, Killa.) The actual nature of their relationship is hard to pin down, though. The Tekken anime depicts their connection in great detail, using it as a central part of the storyline.

The anime, though, is not considered canon, and, unlike cinema, fighting game storylines are rarely so simple. What we do know from the games themselves is that Jun Kazama entered the the second King of Iron Fist tournament to stop Kazuya Mishima's illegal trade of endangered animals. When she encountered him, being the Chosen Kazama, she could sense that his supernatural power came from his deal with Devil. So... she hooked up with him. (Okay, you kind of lost me there, Namco.) Devil would later try to possess her unborn child, but she defeated him, and kept Jin safe by relocating to some remote mountains. And that is virtually all we know of Jun and Kazuya's temporary union. But, hell, it really is the closest thing to a coupling in Tekken, besides Xiaoyu's crush on Jin. Or Kuma's crush on Panda.

Naked Snake and the Boss



Perhaps the most perplexing couple in modern gaming is The Boss and Naked Snake, as shown in MGS3. Having her own son taken from her moments after giving birth, The Boss developed a maternal attachment to Naked Snake, or Jack, as she would call him. Snake denies to Eva in dialogue that there was a sexual component to their relationship, but speculation still runs rampant among Metal Gear fans. Having been comrades for ten years it is problematic for Snake to be charged with hunting her down and killing her as part of Operation Snake Eater. On an emotional level, personally, killing her may have been the hardest part of any videogame I've played. That defining moment would create a chain reaction guiding the events in Naked Snake's, and in turn Solid Snake's life.

Cammy and Vega

Master Vega, the leader of the Shadaloo crime syndicate, claims at one point that Cammy is a clone of him. This most likely is untrue. It is much more plausible, given other evidence, that she was kidnapped and subjected to gene therapy to make her more like Vega, as the original plan was to use her as his next body should his Psycho Power overwhelm his current manifestation. She was also brainwashed, enhanced with experimental drugs, and trained to be the assassin codenamed Killer Bee. In Cammy's ending from Street Fighter Zero 3 (her first canonically chronological appearance) she defeats Vega, destroying his body, and he utters the phrase, "How could I lose to a copy of myself...?" He then begins to invade her mind, until Chun Li intervenes.

Skip ahead to the Street Fighter II timeline. Cammy is an amnesiac agent of the British special forces unit Delta Red. Upon defeating Vega, he tells her, "How could you forget about me, Cammy? [...] We were in love!" Expectedly, she has a hard time believing this.

And then there's her win quote from the non-canonical X-Men Vs. Street Fighter...

Three Great Couples in Gaming

. . . And Three Couples That Aren't . . . And Three Honorable Mentions, for Good Measure

In honor of today, February 14th, St. Valentine's day, National Hallmark day, I have compiled a list of my three favorite couples in gaming, my favorite three non-couples in gaming, and three influential couples that didn't make the cut, but deserved honorable mentions nonetheless.

[Avast! Here thar be plot spoilers!]

Couples That Just Won't Quit
Mario and Peach: Super Mario Brothers

By now, these two ought to be like the old married couple of gaming---all nagging, no spark. But they are still as lovey-dovey as a couple of school kids, still going strong after twenty-six years. It's the classic story---ordinary plumber makes good, meets nice princess. They always lend each other a helping hand when one or the other gets kidnapped. They play sports together, like tennis, baseball, and soccer---they even race go-karts. They get along well with each other's WAcky family members. They care for a pet Yoshi together. Mario is a good provider---he's plumber and a doctor, you know---and Peach is always a perfect lady; she's never snotty and never lords her royal heritage over her honey's head. These two are the cornerstone of love in gaming. I suspect that years from now we'll all be playing games featuring their grandkids.

Yuri and Alice: Shadow Hearts

The most striking thing about this relationship is that it powered not only one entire game, but it also went on to be the basis of another entire game, even after one of the lovers has perished. The original Shadow Hearts had two endings---in the good ending, Alice and Yuri win the fight, and wake up together on the train. In the other, Yuri wakes from the dreamworld to find Alice peacefully asleep on his shoulder; sadly, having sacrificed her soul to save Yuri in the dream world, she never awakens. When Shadow Hearts Covenant rolls around, we learn that the "bad ending"---the one in which Alice died---was the canon ending. She is replaced by the shapely, red-headed Karen Koenig, who travels the world over at Yuri's side and falls madly in love with him. But Yuri can never stop loving Alice, and the flashback train scenes are some of the most emotional footage I've ever seen in a game. Poor Karen goes home empty-handed. Which, it turns out, is a good thing, since she turns out to be Yuri's---!?!

Squall and Rinoa: Final Fantasy VIII

If you come here. . . . You'll find me. . . . I promise. . . . It was tough to pick just one couple out of the Final Fantasy ether. But when you carefully analyze the storylines of FFVII through XII, I think it becomes apparent that the only real love story in the bunch was Final Fantasy VIII. Final Fantasy VII, IX, and XII are political stories with love in the mix, and X, while it comes close, is really the story of a summoner and her companions trying to save the world. There's not really a whole lot of world saving going on in FFVIII---it's mostly saving Rinoa. Because we need her to save the world (ala Aerith and Yuna)? No---just because we luv her. The entire plot and backstory of the game---think Laguna and Julia and the saccharine "Eyes on Me" theme (am I the only one who still remembers the chorus?)---is all an elaborate setup for Squall and Rinoa to fall in love.

Couples That . . . Aren't
Link and Zelda: The Legend of Zelda

These two have been bumping into each other practically nonstop for more than twenty years now. But, although this fan-favorite pair have spent something like a dozen games together, they're not "together." An interesting item to note about Link and Zelda is that---unlike all the other couples in this list, and unlike most main characters throughout gamingdom---they aren't always the same Link and Zelda from game to game. The Zelda from Ocarina of Time is not the same woman we meet in Twilight Princess. Likewise, the Link you play in Wind Waker isn't the same Link that you play in The Legend of Zelda---although the Link from The Legend of Zelda is the same Link as the one in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. That lucky Link---from the first two games to be released, which happen to be the last two events in the overarching LoZ timeline---does get the girl at the end. But most of the Links throughout LoZ history don't end up romantically linked with Zelda. As children in Ocarina of Time, they're friends; as adults later in the same game they're companions in battle; in some games---like Majora's Mask---there's no Zelda at all! The fact remains that Link is traditionally a farm boy or a shepherd, and Zelda is the princess of the kingdom he lives in. He respects her and admires her, and protects her at the cost of his life, but he never makes a move on her. She's just out of his league.

Wanda and Mono: Shadow of the Colossus

On its surface, Shadow of the Colossus appears to be a beautiful and poignant love story about a boy who will do anything to bring his true love back from beyond the grave. It is a beautiful story about a boy and his quest to bring the woman back from the dead, but theres a problem---Wanda (the hero) and Mono (the damsel in deathly distress) don't seem to be romantically attached. In fact, Mono doesn't seem to have even known Wanda when she was alive. Why would someone go to such great lengths for the life of a stranger? That's the real mystery here. Is Wanda some kind of crazy stalker? Rather than an undying love, is it an undying sense of responsibility for the maiden's death that drives him? Whatever you make of their relationship, the fact is that in Shadow of the Colossus, there's no love going on between them---they never interact; they're like ships in the night. The real story of love, companionship, and devotion in this game---not to be all Equus---is that of Wanda and his trusty steed, Aggro.

Pac Man and Ms Pac Man: Pac Man

First of all, she's MS Pac Man---not MRS Pac Man. We don't know what the deal is with these two hockey pucks. Are they siblings? Friends? Maybe even THE SAME PERSON?! I like to think they were once married (that's why they have the same name) but now divorced (that's why she's Ms instead of Mrs.). The breakup was probably a result of Pac Man's unbearable feelings of inadequacy when Ms Pac Man proved to be his match in the pellet-eating, ghost-evading battle for marital supremacy.

Honorable Mentions
Lara Croft's Breasts: Tomb Raider

They're always together, inseparable and larger-than-life. Lara Croft's hypermamiferous headlights (headlamps, actually, since she's British) have fueled the popularity of the series through ten games and two films. Thank you, Lara Croft's breasts, for teaching a generation of gamers how to love.

Ash and Pikachu: Pokémon

You'll never find a more devoted, loving pair than Ash Ketchum and his prized Pikachu. So what if one of them is a preadolescent boy and the other one is a football-sized electric mouse? If loving a football-sized electric mouse is wrong, Ash doesn't want to be right.

Nana and Popo: Ice Climber

I'm not sure what's up with these two. They've been retconned as a couple (see Super Smash Bros. Melee), but is it just a diversion? Can we even tell what genders they are beneath those adorable pastel parkas? Are they man and wife? Adam and Steve? Lesbians? All we know for sure is that they club seals together.

{Shin Bill Cosby} Wiki Vandalism

Oooh, ooh, my turn! Some Wiki Vandalism I ran across while researching my Old Timer's post.

"While Akuma sought to master the life-threatening Shun Goku Satsu technique, he eventually increased his strength by embracing the principle of Jello Pudding Satsui no Hadou (The Surge of the Intent to Murder/Murderous Intent)."

Thinking Outside the Box

Catherine’s Blog, Supplemental

In lieu of posting some completely inane musing, as I usually do, I have something kind of useful for once. And for my friends who stop by this blog out of kindness, and not out of any particular love of, or even interest in, gaming, maybe this will be interesting for them, since it applies to movies and music as well as games.

Do not come to expect this diversity from my writing! This could be a fatal mistake!

Gaming is not a cheap hobby, but I try to make it as cheap as possible by buying used whenever I can. E-Bay and Gamestop are premium outlets for keeping costs down. Gamestop is ideal for anything from the current or previous generation of consoles (e.g., Wii, PS3, X-Box 360, GCN, PS2, and X-Box games). A little googling can usually turn up Gamestop coupon codes for 15% off used games or free shipping for even more savings. For older titles or rare titles, E-Bay is good. No matter how old or obscure a game is, someone, somewhere, is probably trying to unload it. Amazon.com's Z-Shops are even a little preferable, for me, for this purpose, since you can load up on games from different sellers and then pay all at once with a credit card. However, Amazon.com can't match E-Bay's selection.

In any CASE, a little sleuthing can save a gamer big bucks over time if he or she consistently seeks out savings by buying used whenever feasible. There is, however, one big drawback to buying used. Specifically, that used games don't always come in their original case.

I, for one, am slightly neurotic about the boxes that my games and movies are in. I don't like games that originally came in a DVD-size keep case to be stored in a jewel case, or vice versa. And I especially hate the little cardboard or paper sleeve that they sometimes come in---sometimes even when they are new (Wii Sports, I mean you)! Maybe others are less concerned about this aesthetic than me; but I really want to see my games, CDs, and movies lined up, spines out, in uniform packaging with appropriate spine art on display. And when a guest is perusing my library, I want them to be able to read the package description of a movie or game, should they so desire.

In practical terms, I recently ordered Tales of Symphonia for the GCN, used, and it arrived in a DVD keep case with no box art. In searching for a remedy, a little research turned up this gem of a site: CDCovers.cc.

This website hosts a huge archive of cover art for various media including VHS, DVD, video games of several varieties, and CDs. You can search by title or browse by section and download any artwork you're missing, adjust the size, and then print it out, trim it down, and place it inside the sleeve of any keep case or jewel case. Many of the titles also have artwork for the inset as well.

I find that for a DVD or anything DVD-size, you'll want to open the artwork up in Photoshop (or whatever image editor you use) and set the height of the image to 184.15 millimeters and the PPI to 300 (ideal for printing). If you're printing the whole spread, you won't be able to print the entire thing on one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper; I split the image into two overlapping images and printed both, and then taped them together from behind before trimming them down. On a related note, I also found a great thread at VGBoxArt that has several downloadable Photoshop templates for various game boxes (e.g., the GCN box, the PS2 box, etc.).

{Found it!} Wiki Vandalism

See if you can spot the vandalism in this screen capture, taken yesterday afternoon.

No Internet Explorer jokes, please! X-Box jokes only!

Classic Dialogue, Sugah

Rogue's ending from X-Men Vs. Street Fighter.

After rebuffing M. Bison's offer to become "normal", Rogue has a heartfelt discussion with Chun Li on a picturesque hillside.

Roll with the Punches

Just thought I'd share a brief vid I ran across on YouTube.
X-Men's Psylocke, Biohazard's Jill Valentine, and Street Fighter's Gouki unleash an unmerciless beating upon Mega Man's better half.

Abuse your speakers/
Lose your manners/
Disturb the neighbors/
This one's a Bangaa.

Ask the Experts

Q: In the case of Sagat's Tiger Blow, how does one uppercut hit seven times?

A: It's a motherfuckin' mystery.


Q: What is with all the translation errors in Konami's X-Men arcade game?

A: There are no translation errors. Magneto really is the Master of Magnet.


Q: In Tekken, what is the difference between the Wind God Fist and the Electric Wind God Fist?

A: It's electric; boogie woogie woogie woogie.