Relevant Zelda/Valentine's Cartoon

Original on DeviantArt by TomPreston

The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword

Skyward Sword takes place largely above the clouds.

Skyward Sword represents the first Zelda title for the Wii (as Twilight Princess was simultaneously released for both the Wii and Gamecube).  It also boasts itself as the first game in the chronology of over-arching Legend of Zelda story.

The game begins in Skyloft, a floating island town of bird-riding humans who are giving the bountiful land above the clouds as a gift from the goddess after her banishing of an ancient evil.  If you've played a Zelda game before you will not be surprised to discover that the banishment of that ancient evil has become slightly tenuous.  Luckily, you - Link - are the hero chosen by the goddess to protect the realm.

The titular sword, held skyward.

But before you go can do that, you have to visit some temples, pass trials, and otherwise prove your worth.  It's almost as if the entirety of the game is to complete quests to justify being selected as the chosen hero.  First you follow Zelda around, then you have to charge your sword with sacred flames, and complete some song.

Unfortunately, the variety of things to do doesn't correlate with an extensive world.  Outside of the above-clouds world of fractured, floating islands, only three worlds exist: a forest world, a fire world, and a desert world.  It feels very claustrophobic compared to Twilight Princess or even A Link to the Past.  Frequently, you are given reasons to revisit previous environments, sometimes under very thin pretenses.

The design of the game is a perfect blend of Twilight Princess' realism and Wind Waker's cell-shading.  Each world has a unique feel, especially musically.  

However, the design cannot cover up some of the game's biggest shortfalls.  I wish the worst I could say was that I was mesmerized into stupidity by Zelda's bangs, but it was far worse...

The first game flaw is the flavor of the month assistant, Fi.  While I have to accept the fact that Nintendo insists that its players are idiots and need an assistant to give guidance on every single facet of the game, I am greatly disturbed by the intense level of assistance that is constantly offered.  After learning about Zelda's next location, I can barely breathe before Fi errupts from the sword and says: "I'm 80% certain that Zelda is in this location, we should go there."

There are a lot of missed opportunities in Skyward Sword to establish some components of the overarching universe.  Story-wise, the game stands steady, but I'm disappointed at missed opportunities to add depth and explain the origins of long-standing Zelda characters.  At times, it almost felt like a game that was not designed to be a Zelda game, but was turned in to one.  Not that Nintendo hasn't done that before...

A Stalfos battle, requiring a specific Wiimote swing.

And finally, my misgivings couldn't be complete without commenting on the Wii MotionPlus motion controls.  The game boasts the use of MotionPlus in combat and solving puzzles, but in reality, it is an incredibly painful addition.  The Wiimote is critical seconds behind during combat situations, wherein almost every enemy has a motion-based defense, encouraging forcing the player to swing the Wiimote one direction or the other.

But if combat is clunky, it seems next to graceful compared to the Wiimote motion controls of the game's various mini-games.  Mini-games, and subsequent cursing at the world while playing them, are a staple of the Zelda world; however, these mini-games are rage inducing.  Not only must you contend with achieving scores that are nigh undoable, but you must also achieve those scores by using frustrating and inaccurate controls.

In spite of these shortcomings, the game is a lot of fun, albeit frustrating at times.  If you haven't grabbed it, check it out!

Link to purchase from Amazon.com: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword with Music CD.

Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition is Available

My enjoyment of Fallout: New Vegas and its subsequent DLC is fairly well documented on this blog, so I won't go in depth.  But if you haven't played it yourself, it's a pretty good value to get the Ultimate Edition (with all DLC) from Amazon above.

Flash Game Friday: Burrito Bison Revenge

One of my favorite launch games has issued a sequel, Burrito Bison Revenge.  The original game was perfect, so I couldn't imagine how another iteration of the game could possibly be better.  Well, more power-ups, longer levels, a Survival Mode, and in-game achievements all brought together to make Burrito Bison Revenge an excellent entrant.

The game is simple enough: you launch the titular bison from a wrestling-ring turned slingshot and land on as many of your former captors as possible, liberating them from their small amounts of cash, which you - in turn - spend on being able to go further, faster, and access more power-ups.

The power-ups are extensive.  From increasing your initial power to adding new and unusual gummies for you to stomp on and drive cars, fly propeller hats, and ride rockets.  It's just the thing to make a highly addictive - and fun! - flash launch game.

The in-game achievements give you rewards for successfully doing either the routine (go this far) or the unusual (stomp this many gummies in a certain way).  Unfortunately, if I had to criticize one part of this game, the achievements would be it.  It's not that they are bad, but you only get to access 3 of them at a time, and with 120 total, it's no surprise that you might see a new achievement that you've already completed six or seven times.

But all in all, this game is great.  Give it a spin if you're up for something different.

Georgia

After a long life of eating, napping, companionship, and plotting to overthrow humanity and rule the world, Georgia has left this world.

Georgia was adopted by my aunt, who learned that she was allergic to cats and invited me to adopt her.  I brought her back to my puny 1-bedroom apartment in Denton, TX, and our lives have been joined since.  She was the perfect lap-cat, whether I was reading, playing video games, or just watching TV.  I think she was also very empathetic; able to sense when I needed comfort.

I will miss her greatly, but I also understood when I left for Colorado that I might be saying goodbye to her for the last time.

After the jump I've included a couple pictures and stories of our time together.

Machinarium

Some games don't need a lot of explanation for me to tell you why they are so good.  This is one of them.  Machinarium is an adventure game where you play a little robot in a world of robots.  Each puzzle is just enough shades of difficult to make solving it feel good.  It's available for the iPad 2 and on Steam.

Zeldas

I've recently been playing and enjoying Skyward Sword, the latest entrant in the Legend of Zelda franchise. And while the gameplay and story and all deserves its own writeup, this review looks at the titular sometimes heroine/sometimes captive that is Zelda.  This look back is spurred by one very noticeable distinction of the newest Zelda.

BANGS.

BANGS.  BANGS.  BANGS.

It isn't as though she is ugly per se - in fact, the half-Twilight Princess/half-Wind Waker blend of realism and cell shading really comes off nicely.  But it's hard to take her seriously with the yellow bangs threatening to suddenly transpose this kindly spirit maiden into a hanger-on for an 80s rock band called The Gorons, singing along to their one-hit-wonder power ballad: You Hookshot My Heart.

Zombie Takeover

Sure, we've all got time to kill - but are killing enough time for the undead?

Zombie Takeover is one of those resource management, time-based games in the same vein as FarmVille; you allocate coins and gems to make certain enhancements (which in turn make you more coins), but everything takes a preset amount of time.

The game contains some RPG elements, where you buff up your zombie army (and later vampire army, and werewolf armies) and then battle pesky nearby humans.

Graphics are in the range of the undeniably cute, which is a great fit for the device.  Give this game a shot (it's free, after all)!

Temple Run

Temple Run is a free, iOS game available for iPhone or iPad.  You play an unnamed adventurer on the run from guardian monkeys who are chasing you for stealing their prized gold idol.

There is no substantial objective to the game, but to run - through the temple - Temple Run thusly being a fitting title to the game.

The game has upgrades you can purchase by collecting coins during your runs through the temple, most of which enhance your ability to run further and collect more coins.

While the game itself certainly has the potential to become repetitive, it is surprisingly addictive to try to make it further and further.

If you've got an iDevice, and want some fun, no nonsense gameplay, check out Temple Run.

Economists