The legend of chocolate continues

06 February 10 | 17:13 | Posted by:

Hey, look, it's another entry in the Kit-Kat Densetsu series.

category: blog | forums | one comment | §

GSQ3: Writing S-says

06 February 10 | 10:38 | Posted by:

So, the takeaway from my work in podcasting this week appears to be that I'm a horrible person whose voice should never be heard aloud. Don't worry, though: All future episodes of Retronauts will be conducted entirely in semaphore.

Sabreman (Jake Alley): You want to know how to make an English major happy? Refer to the style of writing in this article as "old English." They love it when you do that.
The Safari Hunter (Justin Fairchild): Apparently the hero of Congo Bongo doesn't have a proper name, leastways not so far as it's actually given to us in the lore. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that The Safari Hunter's real name is "Nario," though. Or maybe "Muigi."
Samson (Mike Zeller): Not to be mistaken for the real Samson. You can tell the difference because this one has short hair.

category: blog | forums | six comments | §

Shiren call

05 February 10 | 20:32 | Posted by:

Another day, another failed pun in the blog title. This one would work if "Shiren" were pronounced the way my coworker Justin pronounces it -- shy-rin -- but every time he does that my ears explode in agony. Which means that I'm inflicting pain on myself with this one. I guess. I dunno, I just work here.

I mention Shiren the Wanderer because I'd noted before my intention to record a roguelike-themed episode of Active-Time Babble next week to mark the launch of Shiren on Wii. Our ATB plan still stands, but David talked me into appearing today's episode of 4 Guys (I agreed mainly to redeem my dreadfully awful work on yesterday's Retronauts), and I ended up going into a fair amount of detail on both the genre (which I imagine is well outside the purview of this particular show's primary audience) and on Shiren in particular.

I'd like to take a moment to note that I played a fair amount of Shiren today and my criticism of the game in the show -- about it possibly being a bit too unchallenging -- has been washed away. I still haven't seen a game over screen, but once I made it into the Karakuri Mansion, the game upped the stakes. A good roguelike isn't necessarily one that kills you a lot, it's one that keeps you stressed out and anxious with every step, and Shiren definitely works in that regard. I've found myself measuring each action carefully and constantly riding the ragged edge of loss as the monsters take my hit points down to 1 or 2 and I take a desperate last swipe in the hopes that my killing blow will be the first to connect. Shiren's structure had me worried at first, but no: This is no Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. Chun Soft is playing for keeps.

Of course, the real star of the episode is Ray, making his debut on the show and showing the rest of us up. These days, I'm pretty much just marking time until he takes over my job.

category: blog | forums | seven comments | §

GSQ3: T time

29 January 10 | 11:28 | Posted by:

Today's GameSpite Quarterly 3 content takes us all the way through the letter T. Just three entries does it. Apparently T was much less popular an initial letter for 8-bit hero names than, say, A. No one knows why. The olden days of gaming were ripe with many heady mysteries such as these.

Taizo Hori (Luke Osteritter): I think this is the first article we've posted by GSQ newcomer Luke. Revel in his fresh perspective as he spins a tale about a man you probably know better as "Dig Dug."
Takosuke (Justin Fairchild): Remember how I said yesterday that we probably had too many Gradius-related entries? Yeah, well, I wasn't even thinking about Takosuke, who's tangentially associated with the series through its spin-off Parodius. So, uh... sorry?
Torneko Taloon (me): And finally, the raddest character to come from the Dragon Quest franchise shines beneath the spotlight in this book.

Speaking of books, I'm selling a bunch of my out-of-print Japanese game encyclopedias and "aspect mooks." They're neat, but they're not really much use for me since I no longer have the patience to spend the time necessary to parse all the Japanese text in these. And while I try not to make a habit of promoting auctions here, these books seem like they might of interest to some of you and they're pretty much impossible to find without combing bookstores in Japan and paying crazy inflated prices.

category: blog | forums | three comments | §

Orange you glad I didn't say "Mass Effect"

27 January 10 | 10:48 | Posted by:

Having survived my weekend review marathon (and all the distractions in the weeks leading up to it), life can finally resume some semblance of normalcy. That means Cat and I are updating BakeSpite again. Huzzah and all that. I figured it bears mentioning here, because the post I put together last night seems like the sort of thing the readership of GameSpite might enjoy. It's about Japanese snacks, you see -- but not Pocky, because that's boring. Please read it and comment! Our food blog is very lonely -- it gets excellent traffic but desperately needs conversation.

This also marks the debut of the new camera we picked up to replace my Sony Cybershot point-and-shoot. It was fine for what it was, but what with Cat being an actual photographer who uses actual DSLR cameras for her work, I figured I needed something a bit nicer if I want to keep up with her contributions. You can easily spot the difference in quality between her photos for BakeSpite to date (they're nice) and mine (they suck), and the camera is one part of that. (Not the only part, of course; she's also teaching me to light properly and to color-correct.) We picked up a Canon Powershot G11, and it is pretty incredible -- technically it's a point and shoot, but I believe it's classified as "prosumer." It doesn't have an SLR lens assembly, but otherwise it offers all the fine controls of a DSLR. In fact, it offers some dynamic gamut and color balance feedback that Cat's 5D lacks. I particularly like the fact that Canon decreased the megapixel count from its previous models but left the CCD the same size -- the resultant improvement in sensor quality makes for a picture that looks much better at large sizes than something shot with a camera with a higher MP count and greater CCD density. I'm pretty well in love with this little guy.

(Incidentally, I have a used Sony Cybershot for sale, cheap.)

Also, I really liked the photo above, but was forbidden from using it on BakeSpite. Something about the fingerprints visible in the chocolate making Cat want to throw up, I guess. If you experience a similar response, please remember to turn your face away from the computer before vomiting. In the future, I will be certain to refrigerate chocolate (and my hands) before handling it for photography to minimize the nauseation.

category: blog | forums | eight comments | §

Zero regrets

17 January 10 | 08:40 | Posted by:

Apparently Capcom is compiling the Mega Man Zero tetralogy (call it a "quadrilogy" and I explode your face) into a DS cartridge. No U.S. release is yet confirmed, but honestly now. Why wouldn't they? Capcom likes money, especially easy money.

I'm pretty happy about this news, because I sold off my Zero games about a year ago. I enjoyed the series, or at least I did when it wasn't punishing me for having the audacity to make use of its play mechanics, but then I noticed they were selling for stupid amounts of money on eBay. So, I decided to brave up and put a theory I have to the test: There's no sense in hanging on old games in a successful series by a major publisher, because eventually they will show up again -- often in a better format than they appeared the first time.*

Gaming has finally reached the point where it has its own sense of history, and old games are like old albums. There's money to be made in dredging up back catalog material, because there'll always be people who loved those games the first time around and a steady influx of new fans who started in with a franchise at a later chapter and are curious about the older works. Admittedly, the Zero games aren't quite old enough to be historical curios for new fans, but everything else is true enough.

So, I'm pretty happy about this turn of events, because I'll probably enjoy the Zero games a lot playing it on those big ol' DSI XL screens. And, because I do love being right. Especially when I'm right with a decent net gain.

* Note: Except for EarthBound.

category: blog | forums | 21 comments | §

GSQ3: Willy and Winky, and a game on Wii

15 January 10 | 10:58 | Posted by:

I am posting this update from SFO because I spent all my update time trying to think of a pun around "Wee Willie Winkie" and didn't have a chance to post before leaving town. I gotta say the iPhone is not the optimal blogging platform. Sorry, Steve. On the plus side, I did come up with a pun! 'Cause Wonder Boy is on Wii, you see. Many times over, as a matter of fact.

Anyhow, I've decided to continue our GSQ3 postings from the end of the alphabet. Perhaps we shall meet somewhere in the middle someday. Please pardon any confusion this causes!

It's Willy from Rockin' Kats!

And Winky from Venture!

Also Wonder Boy.

category: blog | forums | six comments | §