Someone is selling every single NES game ever made on eBay. There are four days left on the auction and there have already been 100 bids, and it's up to $25,000. INSANITY! - Link

Labels: games

Most people have gotten their hands on the flash game called "The Crimson Room". Basically, these games stick you in a room/building which you somehow cannot escape from without solving various random riddles scattered around the room which EVENTUALLY leads you to the key which let's you out of the room.

So, for those who like a challenge and are bored at work with nothing to do but read this blog...have fun trying to steal this fancy car and get out of the room.

Labels: games

Atlus is famously known for it's hit and miss rpgs. Not in terms of gameplay but overall rating of their games. Etrian Odyssey is one of those hits.

Overall, this game is a dungeon crawler. You start the game in town (the one and only town in the game), and you sign up to the adventurer's guild. From there, you are able to assemble your party of five army from a various assortment of classes.
Paladin - Defenders of Justice
Swordsman - Mercenaries for hire
Dark Hunter - Emo warriors
Ranger - Men/Women in tights
Medic - Heal slaves
Bard - Karaoke Kings/Queens
Alchemist - Mages with the "Urge to blow up the world"
And a bonus class which you unlock later: Bushido/Samurai - The Wandering Swords

When you create a character (max limit:20), you can choose between 2 guys and 2 girls profiles. No no, there's no difference which one you choose, it's purely whichever character design you like. You don't have to have 5 people in your party either, but the more the merrier of course.

There's the Inn for your resting and saving needs, a store which you buy your equip/items from and sell items for unlocking more gear, Doctor's if you need healing items and to revive a member, a bar for Quests, Adventurer's guild to arrange your party and make new characters and the Government centre for your missions and to see what monsters and items you've collected.

Now the dungeon itself, apparently it's basically a huge tree which has over 30 levels. Your quest? To defeat whatever evil lurks within yadda yadda. So the story's not that original but it's still a fun game.

You wander around the dungeon in first person view on the top screen, while the bottom screen acts as your Map. With stylus in hand, you draw up the map as you go along. While this is an interesting feature, they could have used the touch screen for other things such as a camp option or something. Getting into battles is notified by a small semi circle to the bottom right of the top screen. It alerts you if there's a monster near by or if you're going to encounter a random battle. No, you can't avoid the random battles either.

So in battle, it's your standard RPG system with turns. Attack, Defense, Use Skill, Items, Boost and Escape. Boost basically just doubles the effectiveness of the next attack/spell.
Now skills, basically you have a huge list of useful/less skills which all have a max level of 10. You only have a limited amount of points so you really need to consider what the skill does and whether if it's worth investing in, because you won't be getting those points back.

Overall, the game is enjoyable but can become tedious as you crawl from level to level as certain monsters (mainly the ones you can see on the map) are broken as heck. You can alternate your party members so can experiment and make the perfect team or attempt to beat the game with just medics and so forth. The graphics are great with anime-ish monsters/characters with a 3d background. But you might get tired of seeing green all over the screen (well, you are in a tree after all) and this game is a bit of a time sink, since you need to spend some time leveling up to gain access to certain skills.

Labels: DS, games

So now that the new generation of console wars has begun, I'd like to cover the more unconventional games that are coming up. Why? Because not a lot of people know what the heck they are and consider them either stupid or for kids. Frankly, more often than not, people are missing out because there's not much information on them.

Let's look at Cooking Mama.
Now this game is quite the gem and it has been fortunate enough to be released locally in America. Unfortunately, European and Australian release is yet to be announced (most likely we won't get it for months after). Here's a link to a demonstration video at a gaming convention. Now laugh at all you want at the game or the hilarious comments, but the game itself is damn fun.
It's not going to make you a better chef or anything but the mini-games is pretty addictive. I played the DS version of this game and enjoyed it, even though it's short.
Pros:
- Fun mini games
Cons:
- Short lived. Multiplayer probably not available.

Coming out soon
04/03 - US
02/08 - JP

Labels: DS, games, Wii

Came across this fun magnet set a while back. Tetris on your fridge! Just looking at it makes you wanna hum the theme song in your head. -link

Labels: games, gifts, magnet, tetris