Ena from yotsuba figure

I have never, EVER bought one of those expensive anime figures before, but I simply have to get the Ena figure. Ena is from the Yostuba manga, and is my favourite character. I saw the figure and it is just so da*n cute that I simply must have it. (You can see pictures of it here) http://preorder-figure.com/index.php/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=40&category_id=6

I will not get into the anime/manga figure collecting obsession, but I simply must have this one. She's just too cute and awesome to pass up.

Beat Zack and Wiki

Zack and Wiki is a cool game, but it's damn hard, and there is lots of repetitiveness due to frequent deaths. This is why at about three quarters through the game, I just played it with a walkthrough beside me. I really wanted to just see the ending to the game, and I was never going to be able to beat it without the walkthrough. So I beat the game and guess what the ending was? A SH*TTY ENDING FOLLOWED BY A NON-ENDING!!!!

That's right! We get a crappy ending that's confusing as h*ll, and then we get to see Barbaros come up and tell us that there's more sh*t we can find if we play all the levels a SECOND TIME! When you beat a game, THE GAME SHOULD END!!!! This is something I HATE about video games now. In the NES days, when you beat a game, IT'S OVER!!! You don't have to replay the whole game to collect a bunch of sh*t that isn't required for anything besides bragging rights and maybe a few crappy unlockables!

As you may have guessed, I'm pretty pissed off. This is because I'm a huge game ending whore. If a really hard game doesn't have an epic rewarding ending, it's not worth beating. Zack and Wiki was a great game, but it's ending is a huge disappointment. It's even more disappointing since the game had such an epic intro. I was really hoping this would be the game I had been dreaming for. Awesome epic opening credits, an awesome game after it, and a huge, epic, rewarding ending. I got two out of three, but I didn't get my great ending. It's a crying shame since this was the closest I'll ever get to that dream game. I'll just have to settle for the first Strong Bad WiiWare game.

I guess another thing that made this such an epic failure to me was the fact that I had recently got the incredible Elebits ending. I was expecting something as awesome as that since I often pair Zack and Wiki together with Elebits due to their status as sleeper hits. (sort of like how I always put Kirby's Block Ball and Kirby Star Stacker together)

Zack and Wiki was a cool game, but it was an overall disappointment. An great ending is important, and Capcom failed me in this field. Still, I would recommend picking up this game since it's pretty fun, and it is a very impressive Wii game. Just beware of the disappointing ending.

Sick of games?

I'm beginning to think that I'm sick of video games. I have a whole bunch of unfinished Wii games, but I just don't want to play them. I know it's partially because I'm scared to play the harder levels and get mad, but even casual games like Wii Fit and Endless Ocean I don't want to play. Heck, even games I really like such as Wario Land Shake it I don't want to play. I think that once I had beaten Elebits, I felt like I was done with video games. Beating Elebits was like I had beaten Video Games as a whole, and had no need to play them anymore. I think my problem with the Wii was I bought way too many games at once, and was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff to play. Of course I will automatically buy any Kirby game that is released, but other than that, I really don't feel like playing video games anymore.

I also think that a big problem with the Wii is that there haven't been any games that have truly blown me away. I'll play a Wii game and I'm like "okay, that's kinda cool." But there hasn't been anything that I'm like "Holy crap this is awesome!!!"

The ONLY cases of me being really blown away by something on Wii were the intro to Zack and Wiki, and the Ending to Elebits. So there hasn't been any actual gameplay that's blown me away. I'm a very difficult person to satisfy when it comes to games, and I seem to always enjoy stuff on handhelds a lot more than consoles. Sure I love games like Mario RPG, Luigi's Mansion, and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, but I just like handhelds better. Until I get an awesome Kirby platformer on Wii, I don't think I'll be remembering the Wii as an awesome console.

Endless Ocean for Wii

I watched the video review for endless ocean on IGN, and it sounded right up my ally. No enemies, no danger, no particular objectives, just underwater exploring. I bought it, and I love it so far. You know what's really odd though? You could describe it as underwater Pokemon. There aren't any fish battles, (which actually sounds pretty awesome when you say it like that) but there is the whole Pokedex thing. You dive underwater and explore, befriending different types of marine life along the way. Each type you befriend is added to an encyclopedia, and you can read more about it once it's in there. So yeah, it's a Pokedex, which fine with me. Don't you just love searching giant areas for that ONE thing you can't find? Yeah me neither, BUT STILL, it's great.

So you may be saying, "Well that sounds boring" but it's not. This game is just so beautiful to look at that you'll be drooling in awe. Though I really think this game should be played on bigger TVs.

Did I mention the music rocks?

I GOT THE ELEBITS OST!!!!!

Well, sort of. I've been searching for the Japanese version of the ending credits song in Elebits. It simply wasn't anywhere. I found a site to download the OST, but I had to pay 10 dollars to get a 30 day account so I could download stuff. I was desperate, so I paid up.

What I got in the "OST" was ripped music from the game, and it didn't have the song I wanted. So while I DID get the whole soundtrack as opposed to the cut in half soundtrack on the actual OST, I didn't get what I really wanted. And I WILL point out that they missed a song, but I can understand how they missed it. It's not easy to get to.

So I searched all day and gave up. The next day (today) I found a forum where you can request game and anime music. I searched the request forum for ages and actually found the song I was looking for! So I downloaded it, and put all the music on discs for a two disc OST of Elebits. I made it so the first disc ends with the Japanese version of the credits, and the second disc ends with the English version of the credits. The only problem with these discs is I couldn't quite fit all the songs on them. I had to leave a few of them off.

Now let's get one thing straight. I was actually willing to buy the real OST, but I couldn't find it online anywhere. I was FORCED to download it. So for those saying "you thief!" I say screw you. I would have bought it if I could find it.

Well, I'm gonna go listen to my 2 hours and 40 minutes worth of Video Game Music!

GIVE ME GOOD INSTRUCTIONS!!!

A key part of playing a game? KNOWING HOW TO F**KING PLAY IT!!!

I HATE games that don't give adequate instructions on how to play. This mainly occurs in mini game collections. In Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck for Nintendo DS, they never gave enough instructions on how to play the stupid games. My latest encounter was with the Wii Fit boxing game. (Not Wii sports, Wii FIT) I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to play that stupid game. The only instructions you got were visual, so you had to piece together what to do. And how complex does in really have to be? Do you REALLY need the remote, nunchuck, AND balance board to play it? And they could have told me you hold the remote in a vertical position. Why can't they give us text? I tried looking up how to do it on a walkthrough, but it was so full of typos that I couldn't figure it out.

You should NOT have to look at a fr*ggin walkthrough to figure out the controls. That's just stupid.

How to reduce repetitiveness in Elebits

So even though I beat the game, I can't stop talking about it. Well, I have a good reason this time. Having gotten over the joy of the fantastic ending, I look back at the main problems Elebits suffered from.

It was too repetitive, and was way too f**king long.

Plain and simple, the game was way too long, and wasn't fun to play because it was so repetitive. If you're going to have a game that's repetitive, don't make it more repetitive by making the game too long.

Okay, so they DO throw in a lot of new elements to make the game harder, but they're mainly just things you have to dodge or be careful of. You're still just going around lifting objects, dodging sh*t, and zapping Elebits. There are 25 stages and 5 boss fights if you include the second final boss, and this formula simply can't keep you entertained the whole time.

Here are some ideas they should have implemented to make the game more varied.

They needed to somehow make a stage where you don't have your capture gun. (like the stages in Mario Sunshine where you lose F.L.U.U.D) That would have really changed things up. The best idea I can think of is to have you chasing a group of speedy Elebits that are carrying your capture gun away. You have to run after them with a net, and scoop them up by making a motion with the remote. Once you nab them all, you pick up your gun, and the stage ends.

A neat boss fight I had in mind was by some sort of malfunction from the Capture Gun, you swap bodies with one of the black Elebits that attack you. Since the soul of the black Elebit is in Kai's body, it naturally wants to attack you.

The only way to stun a black Elebit in the game is to either hit it with one of those pulse bombs, or smack it with something. If you accidentally zap a black Elebit with your gun, it'll come flying at you and hurt you.

So in this boss fight, you both have maybe five health, and you have to dodge the stuff being thrown at you. (Hey, it’s a boss fight. You HAVE to dodge attacks) Your goal is to run in front of the capture gun's beam and go flying at the evil Kai. Hit it 5 times to win. THAT would have been an AWESOME boss.

Another thing they could have done to change it up a bit is to make 2D side-scrolling levels in the style of Contra. Oh sure, you’re still zapping Elebits, but it would be a different style of play. Of course you would have to have some sort of enemy to dodge, so they could have the tanks and purple Elebits shooting at you. THAT would be a cool level.

Another level they should have made was a level where there are no Elebits at all, and you simply have to use your capture gun to move things around, solve puzzles, and get to a finish line. You have this cool gun, so why not make a level all about it? It’s a missed opportunity.

Elebits really needed more variety, and these ideas would have really helped. Let’s hope the upcoming DS version will be better.