Mario Kart DS Friend Code

Mike (my coworker) and I went to EB Games this morning and both bought Mario Kart DS. So far I've only played it for about half an hour, but it is living up to my high expectations.

My Friend Code for Mario Kart (which you will need if you want to play online against me) is 455325982404.

Video Games Live Concert on Thanksgiving Weekend

A few days ago, Jason told me about Video Games Live . It's a concert tour featuring music from video games performed by a symphony. There is a video promo available. While looking at the tour dates, I noticed that it was coming to Cleveland on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Tickets go on sale this Friday.

I'd really like to go, and I already talked to David and he said he's interested too. I want to order the tickets right after they go on sale, so if you want to go, let me know sometime tomorrow (Thursday). The concert is at 7pm on November 26th, and I expect tickets to be around $20.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike

I got the new Advance Wars game for the Nintendo DS today. The official release date was Monday, but nobody seemed to have it on Monday. EB Games got their shipment today, so I bought it. So far it really kicks ass. How much ass? Well, I sat down around 8pm and told myself that I'd play it for an hour. At 11pm, I realized I was still playing. If you have a DS, get this game now.

I'll post a review once I've beaten the game.

Nintendo DS

My mom won a Nintendo DS a few weeks ago. Since she had no use for it, she said she'd give it to me when I came home this weekend. After playing with it for the past few days, I am very impressed.

When the DS came out last November, it sounded interesting, but I was also worried that the dual screens and touch screen were a bit gimmicky. This was reinforced by the fact that all of the DS launch titles either didn't really take advantage of any unique DS features, or were more like technology demos than full-fledged games. [1] But, even though I was a little skeptical of the DS, I was still happy to receive one for free. Before I went home, I read reviews of all the top-rated games for the DS and decided to pick up Kirby: Canvas Curse, since it was being praised as the first truly complete DS game that wouldn't be possible on any other platform. I was also excited to learn that a new Advance Wars for the DS was in development, since the original Advance Wars was an awesome game.

When I got home on Friday and saw the DS, I quickly started marking out . It wasn't as bulky as I thought it would be, the screens seemed bigger than I remembered, and the prize package that my mom won included a really nice carrying case. Then I started playing Kirby and was amazed. The game is incredibly fun and totally unique from any other game I've ever played. You draw lines on the screen to guide and protect Kirby, and you can tap Kirby and enemies to produce various effects.

Although the DS had a slow launch, now seems like a great time to be getting one. Kirby: Canvas Curse is a great game and was released in June. Advance Wars: Dual Strike comes out tomorrow, as does Nintendogs. Mario Kart (featuring Internet play), New Super Mario Bros. (working title), and Animal Crossing DS are all supposed to be out by the end of the year. Also, Nintendo just dropped the price of a DS from $150 to $130. I recommend picking one up if you are at all intrigued by the DS. Definitely get one by November, so that I'll have some people to play Mario Kart with on the Internet. :-)

--

[1] I also thought it was stupid that Nintendo was positioning the DS against its own Gameboy Advance and confusing the market, but that's not a criticism of the DS itself.

Derby Owners Club

Last night Phil, Chris, Dave, and I went to Dave and Buster's for a bit of arcade gaming action. I played Derby Owners Club (DOC). This is one of those quintessentially Japanese game, but fortunately it got a worldwide release. DOC is a horse breeding and racing simulation. You choose the parents of your foal (you can even use previous horses that you have created), and then you train your foal in a series of exercises. Periodically there is a race, and all the players currently playing DOC (up to 8) participate. You get rewards for winning (of course), and after the race is over, you can review the race with your horse to improve your communication and relationship. When you create a new horse, you are given a memory card so that you can come back later and use the same horse. There seems to be a thriving trade of horses on eBay.

That's a fairly utilitarian description of the game, but the reason it's so fun is because it's so quirky. There's lot of Engrish in the dialogs. There's even a pamphlet that explains the game to you. If you get a chance to play this game, take it.

Smack the Penguin

Crazily addictive Flash game .

Weekend Gaming

This weekend I spent a considerable amount of time playing computer games. I started out by playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , which is a very fun game. The character animation and environments are amazing. I remember playing the original Prince of Persia on my Mac, and Sands of Time perfectly captures that style of gameplay in a 3D environment. I'm about half done with Sands of Time.

The other game I played was Halo. I'm only on the second level (the levels in Halo are long), but so far it has been fun. The ship environments are repetitive, and occasionally I lost my way simply because all of the hallways looked the same. However, the outdoor environments are gorgeous and offer a lot of room for tactical maneuvering. Halo doesn't seem to have much of a story, but the mission design and enemy AI make it enjoyable.

Phil has informed me that Need for Speed Underground has a drifting mode, so I might have to try that game next.

KotOR Completed

I just finished Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic . It's one of the best games that I've played in a long, long time and the best RPG I've ever played. The game contains an incredible amount of content - it took me around 37 hours to complete, and I didn't take on many of the side missions! There are also many decisions to be made in the game which earn you light side or dark side points, which further extends the depth of the game. If you have a PC or XBox, you need to play this game.

I'm glad I completed the game before school starts again - this is definitely the kind of game that hooks you and makes you forget all about doing that homework that's due tomorrow. :-)

Knights of the Old Republic

I am addicted to Knights of the Old Republic . I started playing it last week during a lull between exams, and before I knew it, I had racked up 6 hours of gameplay. Now that I'm on break, I've been playing it in earnest, adding about 8 more hours over the past two days. The story is deep and compelling, and there are tons of side quests. I already want to go back and play it as a member of the dark side. If you are a fan of RPGs or Star Wars, then you should play this game. If you're a fan of both, then prepare to be addicted!

Advance Wars 2

As I was wandering through Best Buy on Saturday evening, I saw something that got me excited (no, not a poster for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle). Advance Wars 2 is out! Advance Wars is a phenomenal turn based strategy game, released around the time that Gameboy Advance came out. It encapsulates everything I like about Nintendo's games and the Gameboy Advance platform: it's simple, but not simplistic, it focuses on gameplay, and its production values are incredibly high. If you haven't played Advance Wars, run, don't walk to the local electronics store, and get yourself a copy.

I haven't actually played Advance Wars 2 yet, but all indications are that it lives up to its name. IGN gives it a 9.0 , and Gamespot gives it a 9.1 .

BZFlag and Tetrinet

While I was over at Joel and Bean's this weekend, we played some old school multiplayer computer games: BZFlag and Tetrinet . If you haven't tried these games, then I highly recommend them to you. Good, clean, free fun.

BZFlag is a 3D game that was orginally written for Silicon Graphics machines. I imagine the graphics must have been wicked at the time it came out. Now the graphics aren't so impressive, but it's still a really fun tank game.

Tetrinet is multiplayer Tetris. Up to 6 people can play at a time. There are special items that you can get by clearing lines. Some of the items are damaging items that can be used on your opponents, other items help you by clearing lines.

Dumbest Moments in Gaming

The 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming [GameSpy.com]

The gaming world is truly bizarre; it's fun to read about some of its fuckups.

LAN Party

I went over to Bean and Joel's tonight and we had a good old-fashioned LAN party. We played Worms Armageddon for awhile, then went out and had a Chinese dinner, then came back and played Quake 3, some more Worms, and Starcraft. After 5 months, it's nice to finally have some familiar people from CWRU to hang out with on the weekends.

Freelancer

I got my copy of Freelancer today. I played the demo last weekend, and it was so fun that I decided to purchase it. For those who liked TIE Fighter back in the day, you may enjoy this game. The controls are very easy to pick up (keyboard and mouse only, no joystick) and the action is fast paced and fun. That, combined with the RPG elements of the game and the expansive universe, should combine for many hours of enjoyable gameplay.