An idea.

Just gonna talk about stuff because I haven’t posted here in forever…again…

So a couple of questions that’s just been nagging me since I was born basically…

1.  Why are NES games so hard?  Were they BETTER at games in 195-whatever or was that just due to limitations (pixel-specific collisions instead of collision boxes or circles)?

2.  Why were they bouncing back and forth with the quality of games (Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot came out BEFORE Bubsy 3D, as hard as that is to believe)?

I kinda want to start a series on youtube to just try and explain it…but I have a better idea.

What if I create a series that explains the technical aspect of games?  Not game-play or sprite style or anything (well, maybe some of that), but how big the sprites are, why the games runs at 15 FPS at this one point, how detailed the models are exactly, how the game calculates things at the hex code level (probably), etc.

What do you guys think?

REVIEW – Portal 2

There’s been a lot of hype about Portal 2 since it came out, and I gotta tell you…buying this game for $25 is worth it. But the worst thing is as you get near the end of the game, the whole game turns into one big spoiler, so how about this: I’ll tell you what I can in this part, then I’ll warn you about spoilers, and then spoil the whole ending near the bottom, savvy?

Continue reading “REVIEW – Portal 2”

REVIEW – A Boy and His Blob

This game looks great, though I can’t understand why they use the Wii for 2D games when it can do great 3D–nevermind.

The game starts out with a blob crashlanding on Earth looking for help to save his planet from an evil emporer.  You control the boy in this game.

CONTROLS:  Okay, seriously, put more thought into this.  The only actions are Jump, Call Blob, and Throw Bean, and one useless action called Hug Blob.  Even Jump is dumb, being jumping an inch off the ground.  And the blob does everything.  Dosen’t it get tired? It probably dosen’t.  It’s a blob.  There is no respitory system in marshmallow material whatsoever.  There is a cool feature called Blob Cam, where the camera follows the Blob instead of the boy.  But you can’t move when in this mode.  You can only Call (haven’t tried Throw with it yet). 5/10

 

GRAPHICS:  Very nice anime-style graphics that would make Homestar Runner gawk.  The backgrounds are a little muddy, but they’re backgrounds.  Even Pokemon backgrounds look muddy if you look closely at them.  10/10

 

GAMEPLAY:  …I’m pulling a complete blank…oh wait.  It’s the blob, not the boy.  The only choice you make is deciding what the blob should turn into.  Sure the boy can interact, but it’s nessecary.  There’s no strategy to the boy.  Put yourself in a pit with an enemy with no blob:  You’re fucked.  Take away the blob entirely:  You’re fucked.  Trap the blob in a place where it can’t get to you and you don’t have enough time to call three times to have the blob turn into an all-penetrating balloon:  Fucked.  Don’t have enough time if, after you’ve managed to get the blob-balloon to you, call AGAIN to make the blob turn back into a blob, choose your weapon and fire:  Fucked.  Don’t have enough time for the blob to actually get to the bean once it’s thrown:  Fucked.  This should be renamed:  A Blob and His Boy.  Or is it a girl?  IDK.   At least they don’t stuff the levels full of enimies.  Those are in the bonus levels.  1/10

 

I missed one thing.  the boy can jump on top of ledges that are one block higher then the ground he’s standing on.  And there ARE rocks.  Jumping’s not useless, then.  Cool.  1/10 still.

 

FRIENDS:  Nice cast.  Simple to do since the blob dosen’t talk.  Can’t argue with the boy.  …I meant the blob.  It can’t argue with him because he can’t talk.  There’s not even a message system in the entire game.  Actually I haven’t played through it all.

 

FOES:  Are you having nightmares Nintendo?  ANd in those nightmares are you seeing gooey dark slimy icky beasts that you can squish like a fish and they dissappear afterwards?  ‘Cause that’s all there is.  Not a whole lot of veriaty.  Veriataly…I can’t spell.

 

FORMS OF THE BLOB:

 

HOLE:  THe most common item in the game.  THe hole.  You place it, and anything can fall through it.  Except for the bosses.  They hate anvils.

ANVIL:  Push it.  Kill enimies.  Not the big ones.

LADDER:  Yup.  A ladder.

 

PARACHUTE:  Nevermind.

 

BIG BALL-POD-THING:  When you spawn this, the blob turns into a ball.  Then the ball opens up, and the boy steps inside.  THen the ball closes, becomes transparent, and the boy has his very own pod!  You roll at a fast pace, but you can”t smash enimies (haven’t tried jumping).  Just hope it’s not airtight.

 

 

 

BLOB CAM:  Just reviewing something specific.  Pressing D-Pad Right on the Wii remore will make you enter Blob Cam, where the camera follows (or trys to) the blob.  The worst thing about this mode is you can’t move.  So if you throw a bean into oblivion, and you’re watching the blob, you can’t see the enemy sneaking up behind you.  And even then the camera takes time to go to and from the blob.  You can call it though.  I haven’t tried throwing a bean in Blob Cam mode, but I assume you can.  6/10

 

THE BEAN-EATING BIRD:  There is a bird in this game that eats your jelly beans.  It flys at superspeed to eat those beans because it hasn’t had food for days.  SOMETIMES you can throw a bean and the bird dosen’t get to it in time, but it’s extremely rare.  If you throw a bean out of it’s range, you can then carry/push the object inside the range of the bird.  To kill the bird throw a bean so that the bird’s flight path has it come into contact with an enemy (have only managed those flying mines).

 

THE HIDEOUTS:  THere are many of these hideouts throughout the game.  These are the level hubs.  Here you can see the bonus levels (or parts of them if you haven’t collected all three treasure chests in a level), the world map, and another little map/paper next to it that I haven’t found a use for.

 

AI OF THE BLOB:  THe AI of the blob is pretty simple.  It follows the boy (or tries to).  Sometimes it starts bouncing and moving away from the boy or just won’t follow you.  I assume that’s because it’s bored, scared, or angry somehow.  When the blob can’t get to you or a bean, it turns red, meaning it’s anxious.  If the blob gets close to an enemy, it gets darker for a reason I’m still trying to figure out.  Sometimes when it’s turning into an item, it’s color won’t have faded all the way and it will be slightly red or dark.  Also, sometimes when it’s leaping for a bean, the bean and blob will cross paths at fast speeds, the blob will make the eating motion, but he won’t actually eat it.

 

 

 

 

 

So overall, a pretty fun game.  By the way, I’ve named the blob Bob.  Just so you know.

 

9/10

A Rant…GOD IT’S BEEN A WHILE!

Sorry to sound all “Hey people I’m back” when I ain’t getting comments, HOWEVER, I have good news that’ll probably get more comments AND help my YouTube channel.  Yes, I have a YouTube channel.  The username is Darkspacer1.  Hopefully I’ll get more views. I haven’t been really getting views…

Know what I’ve been doing?  YOUTUBE, YOUTUBE, AND MORE COUNTER STRIKE…ER, YOUTUBE!  I’m also working on a game called Block Run.  Anyone want to play it, send me your email with your want to play, and I’ll send it over!  But PLEASE don’t distribute it yet.  It’s incomplete, and I don’t want people stealing ideas or giving away the story.

On second thought, screw that.  Anyone who wants to TEST the game, send me your email with a request and I’ll send it.

Maybe not even that.  We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’m viewing great YouTube videos.  My work’s pretty much cut out for me.

And look who’s talking :0

The only thing bad here is Sunni, my dog.  She’s been getting so manipulative. I’m alone in the house, and she starts whining and barking like she’s shocked that her puppies died (no, she doesn’t actually have puppies).  I get through it.

Oh yeah. My 1.5th favorite user on YouTube is Irategamer.  This guy is a master at reviewing games.  Recently he reviewed Sonic Unleashed, and hated it (he hates most of the games he reviews…).  And he uncovered a shocking truth:

Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels was actually the ORIGINAL Super Mario Brothers 2 released only in Japan!  So OUR SMB 2 came from…well, watch this to find out (hint: Nintendo sucked)!

News on Toad’s Tool 64:  It’s now up to v0.5.998.  Features are basically the same, but version 0.6.0 will have a rudimentary polygon level importer and a background importer.

News on Mario Landscaper:  ……..wha?  It’s dead?  No news?  not ONE MENTION?  WHAT THE F***??  For all I know, It’s been scrapped.

News on Frame By Frame:  Hmmm…not much to say.

News on Yellow (renamed Agent 1):  Um…um…not going anywhere.  Connor has everything, and he hasn’t been giving me them, so honestly, I don’t really know.

SO that’s what’s been happening.  not a whole lot, but some things.  TT64’s really biting the dust, though.  0.6.0 was supposed to come out April 10!  Soo…yeah.

ONE MORE THING…Super Mario Galaxy 2 is going to come out!  Probably next year, probably this year, I’m not exactly sure, but the game looks good (IT HAS COLORED YOSHIS!  HOORAY FOR THE CUTE LITTLE YOSHIS!!!)  They could work on the name though…Super Mario Universe would be cool.

I finally POSTED ON THIS DAMN THING!  sorry…

EDIT:  News on my site, McGee Place:  Not being updated!  Macromedia Dreamweaver thinks it’s just been installed.

The page where you can get information on TT64 is here.

All links will open a new window.

Songsmith

Have you ever heard of Songsmith?

The idea of the program is to have an application to generate songs directly from voice/insterment input.  So say you sing a rock-like verse at 240 bpm (yeah that’s fast, but WTH?).  Songsmith will then match the pitch you sang with the pitches in it’s database, and then…um…well…

uh………………………….I’m not REALLY sure, but it creates a really great song out of anything, even if you stutter (YES IT WILL I saw a video of it).

The site is here (will open a new window).