Welcome to 2006
But before moving on, let's dwell on the past some more.
2005 IN REVIEW
All in all I'd say this was a good year. It was full of change, to be certain. My life goals shifted from game developer to game engineer, SneezePower was born, World of Warcraft singlehandedly destroyed my previous chain-gaming lifestyle, and I enjoyed a wide array of media experiences, all while reading barely any books.
What follows is an abridged look back at the games, TV series, movies, and gadgets that I blogged about and/or remember from this past year.
GAMES
XIII (encyclopedia)
I initially kept my distance from this game because the reviewers said it was insanely hard, but learned since then that said reviewers are just bad. I got this baby over the summer and it quickly ran up the ranks of my favorite games. Yeah it was challenging, in particular there was a helicopter fight level maybe 30% of the way through that prompted me to give up for several months, but I powered through it and all the way to the game's thrilling conclusion. The gameplay is excellent, the plot is genius, and the artistic style is, at least in my opinion, ecstacy to the eyes. It sets itself up for a sequel, and I desperately hope it gets one.
Animal Crossing: Wild World (entry)
My tale of Wild World is one filled with woe and despair. I preordered it on Amazon well before its release, and over a week after the stated ship date - indeed, days after Amazon told me the latest they expected I would have it in my hands - it had still not shipped. Finally I got fed up and sent some flammable feedback, and the response indicated that my order was "lost in shipping" (meaning either the "not yet shipped" indicator was a lie, or the response was), and that they would ship a new one. Which is cool I guess, but they still suck for having the problem in the first place. I was finally able to pick the package up less than an hour before my airport shuttle arrived for the break. And yet, between my WoW renewal and new games from Xmas, I have barely played it. The Shovel Mafia headquarters still lays in stagnance. "Eventually" is the only word I can come up with here.
Baten Kaitos (review)
Another title I got to over the summer. I wrote a longish review of it, and I've said many times that basically, it incorporates a lot of new stuff that sometimes hits (poker-like card system) and sometimes misses (insanely crazy level-up church). I like the idea of Namco making a sequel that takes the good stuff and reworks the bad, but it would be a very delicate act of surgery that I'm not sure even the most experienced developer could get quite to my tastes. To my knowledge there are actually two sequels in the works, one for the Gamecube and one for the DS (the latter a prequel, I think).
Battalion Wars (review)
Picked it up pretty close to release, in the early autumn. I had previously not experienced the emerging commander-in-combat subgenre of RTS, though I had previously read of it and thought "this sounds like a good idea." For the record, it is a good idea, and Battalion Wars does it very well. In fact you might expect it to be hard to pull off with a console controller, but I think they did an exceptional job of it. My only regret about Battalion Wars is that it's pretty hard, and the difficulty level keeps me from fully enjoying the replay value (bonus missions) of what is otherwise a relatively short game. Also, I expect a multiplayer mode in the next one.
Bomberman (entry)
What I used during travel time over the summer. It's really just Super Bomberman for the DS with bigger levels and some ultra-awesome WLAN multiplayer options. I am still ultra-pissed about only being able to save my progress every five stages, an exercise of sorts in masochism.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (entry)
Xmas gift. I blasted through the game, and had a ton of fun doing it. Now I'm working on Hard Mode and Julius Mode and all that jazz. It is just a thoroughly enjoyable game. Play it.
Final Fantasy VII (entry)
The fall of 2k5 was pretty quiet, plus I felt like saving some money, so a replay of FF7 made it into my no-new-games period. I think it has aged excellently and is still pretty high on the heap of RPGs. Sure the story is interesting, but the gameplay is pretty good too, something I had forgotten about - the materia system is thought-provoking, and active time battle + a host of materia-oriented special abilities make combat fun. I will not hesitate in claiming that FF6 and 7 were the peak of the franchise.
Final Fantasy Tactics (dancing robot)
I sunk a great deal of time into this after finishing up my FF7 replay. Probably too much, since I ended up perfecting a party of uber-skilled players that, as expected, made a complete fool of the final bosses of the game. But at any rate I had fun and if you like tactical games you should have already played FFT long ago.
F-Zero X (entry)
Why bother? Get GX instead. All around improvement. I played F-Zero X exactly once and haven't turned it on since.
F-Zero GX (entry)
Summer pick-me-up that failed to pick me up. Maybe my expectations are too high, but while most franchises have become much more complex since their 8- and 16-bit inceptions, F-Zero has not, really. Apparently you can customize your own racers now. The big problem with GX is that it is damn hard, so much so that I simply gave up on unlocking anything, which in turn makes multiplayer options limited and rather boring. Vicious.
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (encyclopedia)
For a fairly brief game, as Kirby tends to be, Amazing Mirror stands clearly in my memory of the summer vacation. It is a work of masterful design, combining the bevy of abilities found in Kirby Super Star with the large mappable game world of Metroid and the GBA Castlevanias, as well as an intriguing multiplayer element. Even taking the GBA's clunky multiplayer requirements into consideration, having multiple Kirbies running around and being able to call them for assistance is very sharp. I had little difficulty and no qualms with achieving 100% completion in this greatly fun title.
Kirby: Canvas Curse (entry)
Back to school celebration. Slightly off-beat for a Kirby game, given that the series relies on a fairly traditional set of controls and gameplay mechanics, and Canvas Curse uses mostly new ideas for getting around. I guess you could say it's like a spinoff game. But, I still found it fun to play through, and if you've got nothing else to do, tooling around to earn medals (for unlocking things) is good for quick spots of time-killing.
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (entry)
Bought and played in early summer. It's a slightly new style of Link - more energetic and colorful - and the game world seems a bit "wackier" for lack of a better term (probably Tingle's fault), but all the basic ideas are the same and still going strong. Minish Cap is a knockout Zelda title, and the new items and mechanics are a windfall to the Zelda faithful. Not that there's ever been a reason (outside of the Philips CD-i) to lose said faith.
The Lost Vikings (entry)
Emulated it during an early autumn lull. Seems somewhat primitive, but the gameplay is classic, simple, and flawless. Well, nearly flawless; I think in many levels it would help to have checkpoints, since, if not for emulator game freezes, I would have gone quite insane trying to finish. See, making the level challenging is great, but when the challenge is to execute perfect timing of something, you should not have to repeat that something when you fail a later something. This is a decidedly old-school philosophy and I am happy that we have for the most part evolved beyond it.
The Lost Vikings II (entry)
I played it in chronological order, so to speak, immediately following my completion of the original game. It's almost exactly like the first, except, well, way cooler. I mean Baleog has a lightsaber. The new stuff doesn't even seem hokey, it just seems awesome. Same complaint about repetition difficulty though.
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (entry)
In the waning fall, still reeling from the expenditures of Mario Kart DS and VJoe DS, my old WoW bug started to itch and I realized that of the games I set out to play during my hiatus - Secret of Mana, Bahamut Lagoon, and other 16-bit classics - I had played basically none of them. Starting Lufia II, a long-lauded SNES RPG, was a reaction to both of these situations. The story is pretty bland and most of the gameplay fairly basic, but the dungeon design is nothing short of brilliant. If you don't mind the boring other-stuff, I highly suggest giving it a look.
Mario Kart DS (entry)
Preordered it and received it roughly a week after release (this would prove to be a preview of my later difficulty with Amazon.com and preordering games). Quite simply this is the ultimate Mario Kart. All the excellent established gameplay of the previous games, plus some new items; 16 old tracks, 16 new ones; and of course, online play and a bunch of other options. I'll say it again: ultimate Mario Kart.
Mega Man X: Command Mission (entry)
Midsummer experiment. Capcom tried to make an RPG. I think they bombed. I will not say the game is a total failure, because there are some interesting ideas in it, but as a whole it's just not entertaining. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the cooler concepts pop up in other games; but if a sequel ever comes I plan on staying as far away from it as possible.
Meteos (encyclopedia)
Midsummer delight. Meteos is the new Tetris Attack. If you don't know what I mean, it's not important to you, and if you do, know that I mean it.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (entry)
When holiday season games actually started coming out, I went out for a look and incidentally picked up a cheap copy of Phoenix Wright, which I had been enamored of since a very long time before its release. A game about lawyers is exactly the kind of off-the-wall thing I enjoy simply for the sake of itself. Phoenix Wright did not fail to impress. If you like games that aren't timing- and action-oriented, I think you will like this one. In any event I absolutely loved it.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (entry)
I tried this out in late 2004 when it came out, and was almost instantly discouraged. In the sleepy days of the past semester I got bored enough to give it another go, and found out that after the ultra-angsty death beach area, the environment does in fact lighten up, in a way that I can best describe as "not that bad." The game has its problems, but in the end I concluded that it did not, in fact, forsake its progenitor. Thinking about the soundtrack still gives me chills though.
P.N.03 (entry)
Cheap companion piece to Canvas Curse. PN03 is a misunderstood game, which is not to say I think it's good - I think it's a piece of trash. But it's not really an action platformer in the way the game's avatar would lead you to believe. It's much more akin to the old-school shmups, which center around avoiding enemy shots and finding openings in which to return fire. It is an interesting jaunt if those kinds of games are your bag, but they are not really mine and so I freely admit that I was mostly in it for the service.
Secret of Evermore (entry)
I started on this after Lufia II and intended to finish before returning to WoW, but frankly I just got fed up. My dissatisfaction with Evermore is hard to quantify, but there are a number of contributing reasons which aren't: a lack of vital in-game documentation (e.g. how to throw spears), a very sharp learning curve (when is alchemy needed and when is it wasteful?), and overblown environmental interaction (last I played I got up to a marketplace with a hopelessly complicated merchant-trading system that today's economists would have a difficult time trying to decipher). I think the kicker is that the basic combat gameplay is not fun enough to reward the incoherence of the rest of the game.
Skies of Arcadia Legends (review)
I replayed this over last year's winter break before returning to Redmond, and was surprised at how much I still enjoyed it. I've reflected on this many times, and each time I become even more surprised. Though I am a preacher of the importance of gameplay and substance over style, I believe in the end it is the presentation of Skies of Arcadia that won me over. The basic RPG battle gameplay - the real meat of the game, as it were - is not very advanced. It is turn-based, using elemental attacks and magic spells, with an interesting super-attack technique thrown in for fun. Dungeon navigation is for the most part even anti-fun. Ship battles are cool, but fairly infrequent. No, what I love about Skies is the well written and told story, the exciting soundtrack, the brilliantly designed game world, and the airships. I will not deny that I have a perhaps unhealthy fixation on airships. At any rate Skies is easily my favorite RPG despite its lack of innovative combat, and I expect that it will maintain this position.
Sonic Adventure DX (entry)
Early in the last semester when I still didn't have anything to do on the weekends, I decided to replay Sonic Adventure. I challenged myself to finishing it within the evening, and with a slight amount of pride I did just that. I repeated the feat in an even lower time the next weekend. I briefly entertained the notion of doing speed-runs, but found out that my record of about 4.5 hours was handily humbled by others.
Sonic Rush (entry)
Xmas gift. In short it's a return to roots, which has some good and some bad, but mostly good, especially considering Sonic's more recent exploits. I haven't played very much of it yet due to WoW and Castlevania, but what I have done is pretty good.
Super Mario 64 DS (entry)
Got it last Xmas along with my DS. I'm still a hung jury on this game. I know that it represents breakthroughs in gameplay, that there is new content in the game that I have never explored, and that there are a lot more possibilities with the many-character dynamic. However I also know that I have already played the original SM64 many times over, and I think games in general have come a long way since then (I'm not even talking about control/camera issues, I mean in terms of how 'fun' is generated). So while I believe it is a good game I have not really had the personal playing experience to bear this out.
Viewtiful Joe 2 (entry)
Played it in February while my Powerbook was in the shop (it was the only way I could stop playing WoW at that point). All I can really say is that it's the sequel to Viewtiful Joe, and that Capcom made it. If you've played more than one game in any Capcom series you should be familiar with the symptoms.
Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble (entry)
Got it new, thought it was a deal because it came out earlier than I thought it was going to. I ended up regretting the purchase. VJDT seems like a not-fully-baked game; the new stuff is ... new, to be sure, but I don't really think it's fun. And the inherent difficulty of playing with the buttons and the control pad and the stylus at once make most of the new stuff inconsequential anyway. Plus it's short and has little to no replay (you can improve your ranks, but don't expect a reward). If you're a Joe fan, don't worry about missing this one: the story is pretty uninteresting and unimportant.
World of Warcraft (...)
Got it last Xmas, though I didn't start playing until a few weeks later. I loved it, I burned through it, I got bored of it, I got frustrated with it, I quit it, and then I renewed it and I already love it again. I will definitely not say it is the perfect game. It is hands-down the best MMORPG there is, but I believe that in building upon existing MMO success the game is still grandfathered into many philosophical flaws. In any event though, the basic ideas of the game are pure fun, and I've discovered that if you aren't having it then you need only look elsewhere (another class, another faction, another server?) to find it.
Thirty games for the year. Not bad, especially considering what WoW did to me. I've already got Two Thrones to start on when I get back, plus my unfinished DS titles (Animal Crossing and Sonic Rush, assuming I finish Castlevania soon).
TV SERIES
24 (no entry)
Near the end of last semester, one of my roommates bought the DVD box set of the first season of 24, and we watched most of it as an apartment activity. I remember not being a big fan of it when the show originally aired, but watching it again changed my mind. My roomies pointed out that it's much more satisfying without commercial breaks, and they were right. Also, I think part of has to do with my declining expectations from Fox series. But, regardless, I thought it was good, at least (though I still don't anticipate getting into the later seasons).
The Adam Carolla Project (entry)
I never actually watched the show at airtime throughout the season, but I would usually download and watch an episode within a week or two of broadcast. Comedian Adam Carolla was a carpenter earlier in his life, and apparently still does the occasional home construction project; so they gave him a show to remodel a house, and he brought his "band of unemployable idiots" and his own unique wit into what is probably one of the funniest things he's ever been involved in. Watch it!
Clerks (entry)
I'd seen the show many times over the past years, but in summer monotony finally broke down and bought a copy for myself. If you haven't seen it - what's stopping you? It's so good, ABC cancelled it.
Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (no entry)
A new season of Harvey Birdman started this past fall, so I took the opportunity to test/exploit my new TV tuner and record the episodes myself. Personally I think the new episodes are the best of the series, especially the employee training video. The whole season was great, with an episode on the intelligent design debate, a recurring time-travel subplot with madcap consequences, and guest star Lewis Black! among many other great hilarities.
Neon Genesis Evangelion (entry)
Yeah, the one and only. I watched it on my vacation from the Internet on Xmas weekend. Though I still haven't seen the End of Eva (an issue which should be amended shortly), like I said just a few days ago, I enjoyed the earlier action stuff but didn't so much enjoy the philosophical crap.
Paranoia Agent (no entry)
Aired on Cartoon Network during the summer. A 13-episode anime about subconscious monsters coming to life, or something like that anyway. It's cool because it's a mix of a psychological thriller and a detective mystery, with some humor and even a little action sprinkled in too.
ReBoot (entry)
Come on, I only posted this less than a week ago. Getting tired of repeating myself.
s-CRY-ed (no entry)
The first half (of the full 26 episodes) aired around the same time as Paranoia Agent, though the second half only showed up more recently. I claim s-CRY-ed does not even approach being "deep" in any sense, but it is a very action-heavy show with plenty of wanton destruction. It has been called what Dragonball Z could have been, had it not become ... well, DBZ.
Samurai Champloo (entry)
Similar story as s-CRY-ed, though the latter episodes of Champloo still have not aired. It is from the same people as Cowboy Bebop, and it is basically Bebop in Edo-era Japan. On the whole I don't think it's as good as the former, but many of the episodes are really cool.
Seinfeld (entry)
I made acquiring and watching the entire series of Seinfeld one of my summer goals. It may have been the hardest one, but by Gunpei it was done. In the process I discovered the truth about the unaired Puerto Rican Day episode, and was filled with traditional Seinfeldian anecdotes in such a condensed manner as to make my mind absolutely brim with humor. I should do it again sometime.
MOVIES
Beverly Hills Cop (entry)
Pulled out the old VHS while my Powerbook was down for the count. It's a very funny movie, which is good, because now it's on Comedy Central every five minutes.
Casino (entry)
I gave this to myself for my birthday. Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci - do I even need to go on? - run a casino with many iron fists. They deal with the trials and tribulations of fame and fortune. A lot of people get killed. Classic!
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (entry)
In the early fall, when it was beginning to become evident that it would be quite a while before Advent Children made itself available through legitimate channels, I got a fansub of the Japanese version and gave it a look-see. While perhaps not as interesting plot-wise as many might have hoped, the movie's cool factor is through the roof. If you're a fan of FF7, you have no choice but to watch this, I'm afraid.
Hercules Against the Moon Men (no entry)
Received this as an Xmas gift, watched it just yesterday. It is very awful. Apparently it was originally filmed in Italian and dubbed to English, so none of the words match the mouths. It's from 1964, so you know what kind of film quality to expect. As for the plot, well... look at the title, you figure it out.
King Kong (no entry)
Before leaving for break I saw this with some classmates, and saw it again when I came home. If you've seen the original 1930s Kong, this is an absolute remake, and if you haven't seen it, this is just plain incredible. I was overjoyed to see the return of the killer insects. And while I was expecting the dinosaur fight scene, when a second T-Rex came out - and then a third - I was so happy I cried. Like a little girl, assuming little girls cry in joy over the sight of a giant ape fighting three dinosaurs.
Matchstick Men (entry)
Something I meant to watch when it came out, but didn't get around to until my brother Netflixed it over the summer. I liked it a lot. Cage's neurotic character was brilliantly acted, and the movie was brilliantly written. Brilliant.
National Treasure (entry)
Summer filler. It's a Disney movie, but it's also got Nicolas Cage, and a fairly interesting plot (but, remember, Disneyed). Not bad at all.
Riki-Oh (The Story of Ricky) (no entry)
Watched this with the old crew when I got home for break. If this isn't the most violent movie ever I don't know what is. Just watch the clip! I can't believe he just did that!
The Rock (entry)
More summer filler. I had seen it a long time ago, but couldn't remember much except that Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage were in it, which earns a good rating already even without watching the movie. What I didn't remember, however, was that it was directed by Michael Bay, who was evidently pretty bad at his job back then, too. Even he can't ruin Cage and Connery's talent though.
Space Mutiny (MST3K) (no entry)
Rung in the new year with the Mystery Science Theater rendition of this sorry excuse for a movie. There's this spaceship, right? And some crew mutiny. That's basically it. Pointless fight scenes, awkward love scenes, and short cuts of women in skimpy outfits dancing around plasma spheres (which never become relevant to the rest of the plot) make up the meat of the picture. It also features the acting talents of Brick McLargehuge. Special effects were rendered on a Commodore 64.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (entry)
Saw it on theatrical release night. What can I say that you don't already know? Better than episodes 1 and 2 for sure, still has some problems but on the whole I think it was a good production.
Stewie Griffin - The Untold Story (entry)
I eh, viewed the Family Guy movie shortly before I was supposed to. Really it's just three episodes of the show edited together into a feature-length film. The plots aren't even connected. So it's just more of the same Family Guy.
The Weatherman (entry)
In case you couldn't tell from the other movies I've seen just this year, I am something of a Nicolas Cage fan. So I was really disappointed when I saw The Weatherman in theaters and it didn't measure up to my expectations. I was expecting a comedy, probably based around the observations of a man who happened to be a weather reporter and an archer, but instead what I got was a film about the failures and boredom of an adult life and how the lesson - apparently - is to accept that many, if not most, of your ambitions will not be met. It seemed primarily about giving up, which is not something I like to endorse. But, a lot of scenes were, in fact, incredibly funny.
GADGETS
EyeTV Wonder USB (entry)
Ordered this lug over the summer. It's an ATi USB TV-tuner with coax, S-video, and component A/V input, plus some EyeTV software/drivers from Elgato to pull the package together. I used it extensively to record scenes from video games and to archive the new season of Harvey Birdman. While it is not the best piece of hardware - compression must be done on my computer since there's no on-board processor capable of it - it was cheap and I feel like I got my money's worth. NOTE: they say it's good for playing video games on your computer monitor, but at least in my experience this is a lie; a "live" passthrough of console output to the tuner would still get a noticeable fraction of a second of delay.
LaCie External Hard Drive (entry)
Got it at the same time as the tuner. I ordered a refurbished 250GB drive, which means that while it's obnoxiously loud at times, it was pretty cheap for the size. I would never have been able to get Seinfeld without it.
Mirkintosh (entry)
At a few points throughout the year I tried making my original Mirkintosh into a dummy server, at least for a network printer. All of these attempts were met with failure. I do however plan to return to this idea, at some point.
Super SmartJoy (entry)
Ordered in the autumn to better facilitate my experiences with Lost Vikings and, later, Lufia II, since keyboards are just not calibrated for the expected controls of SNES games. While I originally wanted to roll my own USB adapter, I got pretty lazy and school projects were popping up so I just sprung for a $20 eBay auction. The free controller it came with is a real POS, but the adapter itself works without a hitch.
Final Thoughts
Especially later in the year, I got to reacquaint myself with people I hadn't seen or heard from in a very long time, and I'm very glad I was able to do so. Something I realized somewhere in the past 12 months is that, living in a society, being involved with people is very important and makes life all that much more interesting. So, if you're reading this, thank you.
And please for the love of all things sensible let this new poll software work.