Double Feature: Gunman Clive

Gunman Clive/Gunman Clive 2
Action Platformer
1 Player
System: 3DS
Developer: Hörberg Productions
Year of Release: 2013/2015
Beaten: February 25th, 2015

Originally released for iPhones to less than stellar success, Gunman Clive got the recognition it deserved after being ported to Nintendo's 3DS eshop. This success lead to a sequel getting made exclusively for the 3DS, after a few delays it finally came early this year. I caught wind of the first game some time before release and it took little more than the trailer to get me excited for the game:

Games I Beat: Pokemon Pinball Ruby and Sapphire

Pokemon Pinball Ruby and Sapphire
Fucking Pinball
1 Player
System: GBA
Developer: Jupiter
Year of Release: 2003
Beaten: February 17th, 2015

I planned to start this off differently but, if you couldn't put two and two together, I always look up some basic info about these games and plug it up top to look all faux professional. So I found out Pokemon Pinball Ruby and Sapphire was made by this team called Jupiter. Having never heard of them I looked into them a bit. These guys are Picross gods apparently having made almost all of Nintendo's Picross titles. Both Pokemon Pinball games were made by them, as well as over half of the total available games for the Pokemon Mini (haven't heard of it? Don't worry about it). There are some other games that I assume are Japan only, but a few other titles really stood out to me. Apparently they developed the Gameboy Camera? Though I'm assuming just the menu's and minigame functions found within. Most shockingly, they are responsible for (the pretty fun) Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, and even did some work on The World Ends With You. How have I never heard of these guys before?

Fangasm: Pokemon Insurgence

Pokemon Insurgence
Monster Collecting RPG
1 Player
System: PC
Developer: the_suzerain
Year of Release: 2014
Played: Still playing!
Download Here

It isn't uncommon to find an unfinished Pokemon fan game. A lot of high concept ideas, grandiose plans and a general overconfidence generally lead to the downfall of many of these projects. I'm not sure if Pokemon Insurgence will follow this trend, but for the time being it seems that work is continuing at a steady pace. If you're at all familiar, this is made with Pokemon Essentials in RPG Maker XP, so certain features and appearances can seem a bit off at times. If you know what you're getting into though it isn't so bad. This game looks to add a multitude of features, many of which I welcome with open arms.

Expanses I've Flown: Race the Sun

Race the Sun
Arcadey "Racer"
1 Player
System: PC
Developer: Flippfly
Year of Release: 2013
Piloted: January 19th, 2015

I heard about this game a while back and always wanted to give it a go. Eventually it found it's way into a humble bundle, like most downloadable titles seem to nowadays, so I ended up picking it up. I finally gave it a shot and it pretty much lived up to my expectations, a simple arcade-y experience with a pleasant atmosphere.

Moving Forward 2015

Hullo all! Apologies for the recent silence. I meant to post some more blogs in December but caught up in all the holiday cheer with family and procrastination. Fuck. Thanks for visiting though! I don't get many comments, but I've been getting a steady number of views and I cannot express how grateful I am that you'd stop by to read my thoughts on things. While this is just a hobby, I'm really passionate about games and writing, so it's been a really helpful exercise in getting back into a writing groove.

The thing is though, I started college up earlier this week and I'm not totally sure where that leaves this blog. I certainly plan on continuing to update it, and while my base line goal is to get more entries written than the year prior going forward, I don't know how often that will be. If it seems quiet from time to time I'm probably just busy with school/work stuff, so bare with me.

In most regards 2014 wasn't that great a year for me, mostly due to my own inaction, but the one thing I actually got serious back into was writing this blog. Randomly upon sitting down and emulating fucking Crisis Beat of all things I suddenly got the urge to just write about it. And from there I wanted to write more. I've always loved writing, but post-High School have found myself writing scarcely if at all. So while my audience may be small, or maybe even just accidental, I'm grateful for your clicks! All I can promise is to keep writing and sharing it here for whoever finds it to read.

Worst case scenario I hope to write at least one entry a month (this entry not included), and during break times I assume I'll be able to churn out more. However, I do have a three hour break between two of my classes so maybe I'll end up writing a lot during that time. It's hard to say right now, but I wanted to write something about what's going on this year going forward. I do have at least four blogs in various stages of being written at least. I'm still on the fence on whether to do a Games of 2014 post since I didn't get to play all the games I would have liked to this year. For those curious, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze probably won my number one spot.

I hope you've enjoyed my ravings, and I hope you enjoy whatever I may end up posting here in the future! Thank you, so so much!

-Adam

Games You Should Play: Super Mario Bros Tril(Quadr)ilogy

Super Mario Bros Tril(Quadr)ilogy
Platformer
1 Player
System: NES
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Year of Release: 1985/1986/1987/1988

I'd like to test slightly new waters, write about more than just what I've been playing recently. If you can read the nigh illegible text near the top of the screen or even just my little side note "About Me" section you can see I shockingly have interests that lay outside of the realm of video games. Today I plan to ever so slightly expand my horizons and talk about more video games! Specifically, Games You Should Play. The premise is simple, these are games I feel everyone who indulges in the hobby should play at some point in their lives. Super Mario Bros sprung to mind immediately, but which one? Well, you should probably just play all of them.

Games I Won't Beat: Fantasy Life

Fantasy Life
RPG/Life Simulator
1 Player (Local Co-op)
System: 3DS
Developer: Level-5
Year of Release: 2014
Beaten: Not yet

I was tentatively excited for this game, I love Level-5 even when their games don't quite hit home all the time they always look lovely and have a pleasant plot all wrapped up in a lovely blanket of charm and at least decent game play mechanics. Fantasy Life starts out swell. The charm is there in the look and dialog; I've even laughed out loud a couple of times admittedly. The game is upfront with how massive it is in scope with twelve classes to choose from you can do seemingly any number of things. So you start up your quest, and you talk to some NPC's. Then they keep talking, and then they talk some more and quickly follow that up with a bit more chatter which, of course, is supplemented by good old fashion conversation and most NPC's tend to throw in a bit of yapping around this point to spice it up and holy shit no one ever shuts up.

Fangasm: Wicked Clown Bros. 2

Wicked Clown Bros 2 (Super Mario Bros 2 USA)
Platformer of the Dark Carnival
System: NES
Developer: Njachpmk
Year of Release: 2014
Played: November 18th, 2014
Download here

Oh my god, I cannot believe this day has come. I was browsing the website Romhacking.net as I do from time to time, and in new releases I stumbled upon Wicked Clown Bros. I stuttered an exasperated no as curiosity drove me to click onward. Sure enough, someone out there felt it necessary to paint various ICP references over Super Mario Bros 2 USA for whatever reason. Of course I downloaded it and immediately gave it a shot. I was already planning on doing a series focusing on romhacks of various kinds as they appeal to me on a myriad of levels, but we're starting this off proper with the créme de la créme. Ugh... I was shocked to find they did more than just paint Mario and Luigi up like juggalos.

Games I Beat: DK King of Swing

DK King of Swing
Puzzle/Platformer(?)
1 Player (with multiplayer minigames)
System: Gameboy Advance
Developer: Paon
Year of Release: 2005
Beaten: November 15th, 2014

Clu Clu Land was a launch title for the NES that seems to have gone ignored since those days. The game play was simple, you play Bubbles a thing of some sort that's goal is to traverse a room in hopes of unveiling secret tiles. As Bubbles you constantly propel forwards, your only means of control is to stick your arm out to the left or right and grabbing a pole. You spin around until letting go and then go flying in that direction. Enemies would attempt to stop your sinister pattern finding, which you'd need to avoid or find a temporary power up that let you paralyze them. Many people I've talked to felt the game was awkward to control, or worse not even very fun. There was an expanded port released for arcades called Vs. Clu Clu Land, which had more level, this in turn got ported to the Famicom Disk System as Clu Clu Land: Welcome to New CluClu Land, which was only released outside of Japan via the playable NES games you could find in Animal Crossing as the much more concisely named Clu Clu Land D. Aside from various small cameos (and being one of the games involved in the NES Remix series) Clu Clu Land and Bubbles haven't really been in the spotlight since the NES days.

Except that one time...

Game's I Beat: Arkista's Ring

Arkista's Ring
Action Shooter
1 Player
System: NES
Developer: American Sammy
Year of Release: 1990
Beaten: November 13th, 2014

There's this thing called the Retro Game Gauntlet that I've attempted many times, but never gotten through all the way. It's basically a site with a list of retro game systems, you click on whichever system and it will pick one game at random from the relevant library. The goal then is to play through a game for each system in a row. General rule of thumb is three days allowed per game, but really I just use it as an excuse to check out completely random games I might not have tried out otherwise, leading me to Arkista's Ring.

For those interested in the Gauntlet check here.