Scratch Another

Tonight I finished Mega Man 9 for the Wii.

I used a few energy tanks and a mega tank in the last stage. I even watched a couple youtube videos. I am not ashamed of this. 

Mega Man 9 is one damned difficult game.

Remember the first time you played the original Mega Man? And there were no energy tanks or passwords? It's way harder than that. 

A lot of people put MM9 up there with the best, up there with Mega Man 2 and 3, in gameplay, graphics and music. Me? I'd rank it above MM6 (Rush Armor/Rush Jet) and above MM5 (evil Proto Man hoax). It's every bit as good as MM4 (Dr. Cosack), but no higher than that. The best for me are still:

1. Mega Man 2

2. Mega Man 3

3. Mega Man

Oh and in case you're wondering, yes I got a number of achievements; no, I'm not going to try to get them all. I don't even think I'm in much of a mood to play it again. It's a very punishing game. Almost every other Mega Man game, I play over and over. MM9 was just kind of mean spirited a lot of the time.

Mega Man 9

I've beaten the 8 robot masters, not it's on to Dr. Wily's castle. And it is hard!

Well, I Started Another One

This time it happened quite by accident. I haven't been playing much. My wife got me a Wii U and I've been racing on Mario Kart 8, so there's that, but somehow I don't count that. Mario Kart is a joy, pretty mich a given that I'm going to beat that. That doesn't worry me. 

So today I picked up another game I got and didn't finish: Mega Man 9 for the Wii.

Man, this game is hard. 

It's Nintendo hard.

I played a couple hours this afternoon and another couple this evening. I've beaten two robot masters and that is saying a lot! This is probably as hard as the original Mega Man was back when I was first playing it and I didn't have the whole game committed to muscle memory.

This game is back to Mega Man basics. Yes, there's Rush, but there's no sliding and no charged shots. Just good ol' Jump N Shoot Man. Except it's freakin hard! Have I said how hard it is yet?!

I Think I'm Broken

It might be because I have a lot of things going on at work, or the fact that I'm about to start up with a double dose of grad school classes, but I've been having trouble starting up a new game. Right after I finished my first list in alphabetical order, I quickly decided that I was going to ditch that particular method of arranging my games and mostly just play whatever I wanted. I then proceeded to pick Metroid Prime and I played it till I beat it. That was fine.

Since then, I've been having trouble deciding which game to play next. There is no order. It could be anything. I tried inputting the list into random.org's list randomizer, but then I kinda didn't like the order it gave me so I ran it a couple more times. Then I thought that was just cheating so I went back to just deciding on a game and playing it. That was less than successful.

The old way, while restrictive in some ways, was actually rather liberating in others. I didn't have to expend any mental energy in deciding anything. The decision was made for me by the alphabet. Now I have to look, pay attention, consider, and decide. All by myself.

Anyway, it's a ridiculous problem to have, I know. I don't know when I'll start a new game. It's possible that I'll be too busy with school and work to play much of anything until March anyway. If you don't see any updates for the time being, chalk it up to either indecision or just plain being overworked.

Metroid Prime Trilogy: Metroid Prime

Today I finished the first Metroid Prime on Wii.
I didn't get any kind of record, 88% and over 15 hours, and I wasn't going for one!
The game is very enjoyable on Wii. Is it better than on Gamecube? Well it is in some ways. It's a bit of a pain in others. Having the Wii remote for aiming is great in MOST situations, but you have to remember that Metroid Prime on Gamecube had a LOT of aim assist. Every time you locked on to an enemy, you were aiming straight at it. On the Wii only the wave beam has homing capabilities, and the rest of the time you have to aim yourself. You're still locked on, which helps circle and strafe around the target, but you need to aim.

Some have criticized Metroid: Other M because it had auto aim, but Metroid Prime did this a lot, as well. And it is fitting. This game was never intended to be a first person shooter. The emphasis should not be on aiming, but on exploring! You never heard anyone complain about auto aim on Prime games.

Anyway, toward the end of the game I realized there's a way to make the Wii version auto aim like the Gamecube, but by then I was almost done, so I left it as it was by default. Maybe on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes I'll switch it back to auto aim. I mean, why else does one lock on to targets!

Next game, I still don't know.

Leisurely Exploring Tallon IV

I've started on a new game. I decided to go with the first Metroid Prime. This is out of Metroid Prime Trilogy on the Wii, so I've never played it with the Wii remote control scheme before (I used to have Metroid Prime on Gamecube.)

Graphics are not like a million times better. The Wii always had what basically amounts to two Gamecube processors, but it is nice to have the widescreen aspect ratio. I don't remember if the Gamecube had widescreen capabilities, but if it did, I never enjoyed them cause I never had the right TV for it.

So I'm taking it easy, normal, a leisurely stroll on an aliend world. I tried some fancy sequence breaking and getting the double-jumping Space Jump boots earlier than one is supposed to, but came to find out that Retro removed the patricular "bug" that allowed you to do that. So I'll just be playing the game the way you're intended to.

Checking In, I Still Hate Robot Sword

There was much to love in Zelda: Skyward Sword. I think The Conversation adds some amazing weight to the Hyrulean mythology. 

That being said, I still hate the robotic speech of the sword. 

It doesn't fit. 

I rememer laughing at Gimli's line in the extended edition of The Two Towers about his axe being embedded in the orc's nervous system, but now I have to look the other way. Nobody in Middle Earth has any business talking about nervous systems and nobody in Hyrule has any business talking about "percentage of likelihood of success based on previous encounters."

If Any New Readers Come Along...

I do recommend going back to the very beginning, October 2012.

And Thus, It Is Done

Finishing WipeOut HD marked the end of my challenge.
I started roughly in the latter half of 2011, so it's been four years. I estimate I played around 63 games. Most I beat. Some I moved on from them, I admit, mainly when they were terrible, and also when I decided I was done with them.

This has been a pretty wild ride. I've talked the ears off many nice people and close friends, talking about my challenge, my pile of shame. The great majority of people showed great interest. Some of my gamer friends recoiled from the idea, though they intimated that they too had piles of games they weren't done with. I didn't do this to lecture people, or to tell anyone they should follow my example. I did it for myself.

This was a test of my own discipline and I've come out a better person on the other side.

To celebrate, I dusted off Super Mario 64 and played the last level to see the end credits sequence, a sequence that brought tears to my eyes many times, and is one of my favorite endings of any game.

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT GODDAMIT THAT IS ENOUGH!

I AM DONE! I AM DONE WITH THIS FREAKING GAME! I'VE BEEN PLAYING WIPEOUT HD SINCE NOVEMBER 26 WHICH WAS THANKSGIVING.

IT HAS BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! WIPEOUT IS A FREAKING DIFFICULT RACING GAME. IT'S FAST, OKAY?! IT'S RIDICULOUSLY FAST! IT MAKES MY EYEBALLS DRY UP AND IT BY THE TIME THE RACE IS DONE I'M CRYING.

I GOT THIS GAME FOR FREE FROM SONY WHEN THEY GOT HACKED AND LOST MY CREDIT CARD NUMBER SO THEY TRIED TO BUY BACK MY AFFECTION WITH A COUPLE FREE GAMES. IT TECHNICALLY COMES WITH WIPEOUT HD AND THE WIPEOUT FURY EXTENSION SO IT'S TWO GAMES IN ONE.

I FINISHED WIPEOUT HD. ALL EIGHT EVENTS, ALL 87 RACES, OF WHICH I GOT 64 GOLD MEDALS.

TODAY I GOT THE BRONZE MEDAL ON THE LAST RACE OF WIPEOUT HD. AND IT WAS DIFFICULT!!! IT WAS GODDAMN DIFFICULT! UNFUN KIND OF DIFFICULT!!

THIS IS NOT A BAD GAME! BUT IT CAN BE PRETTY DAMN FRUSTRATING WHEN YOU GET TO THE HIGHER LEVELS!
GAAAAHHHH!!
I KNOW I HAVEN'T TOUCHED FURY, BUT I DON'T CARE! I'M CALLING IT!

DONE!