Lynda Monica

I have a similar issue with the Wii as the Wii had MANY different case types. While I'm pretty knowledgeable about which games had which type(s) of case, I don't expect people online to have that same level of knowledge. Swapping cases is just a thing that needs to be done sometimes in order to get a good copy for a low cost, and I often have to wait weeks or months for a spare case of the right type to fall into my lap. The idea that such a thing is morally wrong is likely a sign that you're taking it too seriously. I also wish people didn't swap case types, but the only thing I can really do about it is swap them back whenever I can.

Sorry for the double post, but Deca Sports 2 road racing complete! I thought it'd be more fun to have one guy on the squad, so Judy was kicked off the team in favour of Joel. I've also decided on what my team's colour scheme will be, so I think I'm finally done customizing my team. I also made Chelsea's hair a different shade of blonde than Rebecca's. How to play: Hold the Wii remote sideways, and tilt left and right to steer. Press A to accelerate, and 2 to brake. Shake the Wii remote to pop a wheelie for quick acceleration, and shake a second time to end the wheelie. This probably would have been difficult if I hadn't already 100% completed F-Zero Maximum Velocity, which taught me all the tricks I'd ever need for a game like this. The only real trick to this one is something I spotted right away, which is to turn off automatic breaking. In every racing game under the sun, everything that's automatic sucks and slows you down. Turn that crap off right away, and learn how to play the game without it from the very beginning. There's not much to report about this one since it was pretty easy for me, but I will say that the steering is wonderful, and the braking is even more wonderful. The bikes handle really well, and the motion controls work flawlessly. There are three main race tracks, and an alternate version of each one with different paths. There's a surprising amount of content here for a mini-game, and I'll probably end up playing it a lot even though I've already finished the tournaments. Of the four sports I've played so far, this was the second easiest. It was harder than synchronized swimming, but easier than darts and tennis. Six sports left to go!

More first party Wii games! I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about these games, mainly because I either never played them or didn't finish them back in the day. Though I can talk about a few of them! Punch Out was announced out of nowhere back in the day, and it ended up being the best game Nintendo put out in 2009. I absolutely loved it back then, and I still love it now. While it'd be nice to see Punch Out come back someday, I'd like to think that the ending to this game kind of solidified it as the final entry in the series. For those of you who don't know, the ending scene only occurs during a mode called "Mac's Last Stand" after all of the game's fighters have been defeated. You battle boxers randomly until you lose three times, at which point... Awesome game, awesome love letter to the series, awesome finale. WarioWare was a series that built itself up very quickly, with five games coming out over the span of four years! WarioWare Smooth Moves felt like the perfect culmination of everything the series had made prior, and in my opinion was the last good WarioWare game. I often feel like people who love the series are simply unwilling to let the WarioWare cast fade away into irrelevance, and put up with mediocre games just to see them. Whatever the state of the series is now, WarioWare Smooth Moves was a damn fun game, and featured the cast at its best. While the series isn't exactly known for being robust, it's still a great game to play through every time. Endless Ocean was a genuinely magical experience when I first played it in 2008, and I've always wanted to go back and replay it. I knew that I'd have to let a long amount of time pass before revisiting it though, since so many incredible moments still stand out in my mind to this day. If you're at all enraptured by the wonders of the ocean, this is a game you absolutely must play. The sequel was unfortunately not very good, but the original is a game I hold very close to my love of Nintendo. That's all for me this time!

Deca Sports 2 continues! All four darts tournaments complete! How to play: Point the cursor at the screen while holding the Wii remote on its side. Pinch the A and B buttons to hold the remote like a dart, and thrust the Wii remote forward to throw. Make sure to wear the wrist strap! If you've played a lot of motion control games on the Wii, you know that the system has a VERY hard time registering motions involving depth. Thankfully the thrust works perfectly, but the inability to lock your cursor in place as you thrust is the real problem. If you want to win at this game, you have to set the Wii remote on a surface in order to keep your aim steady. Since you need to aim all over the board, the best thing you can set the Wii remote on is a curved armrest. Thrust the Wii remote hard and fast, but make sure to not push very far. This is the key to getting a perfectly straight shot, which is necessary to beat the A.I on even the easiest difficulty. Once you hit the legend tournament, there are two important things to keep in mind if you plan to win. You REALLY want to go first. If you don't win the first toss, you're best advised to quit to the main menu right away in order to try again. If the A.I needs 180 points or less in order to win, you're best advised to quit to the main menu and give up before they get their next turn. Once the A.I starts their turn, there's no way to quit to the main menu and restart the match. This means you'll have to start the whole tournament over again when they win, which they absolutely WILL win. So long as you follow these two rules, all you have to do is shoot straight enough times to win! This sport wasn't as hard as tennis, but wasn't a total cakewalk like synchronized swimming. Overall this one was pretty fun, so Deca Sports 2 has scored 3/3 so far on fun mini-games! Seven more sports left!

I played the first two console games in the early 2000s in my teens, and I really liked them. I had never seen or played the arcade Punch Out games as they were before my time, but I later found them on Youtube. I was super excited when Punch Out Wii was announced out of nowhere, and played through the whole game wondering who the final boss was going to be. I assumed it'd just be Mr. Dream again, but I literally cheered when Mr. Sandman showed up. Mr. Sandman was the final boss of the original arcade game, so it made sense for him to be at the top again. He was also a great stand in for Mike Tyson, and deleted Mr. Dream from existence. While Mike Tyson is iconic as part of the Punch Out series, I'm okay with him leaving and giving Sandman his proper role again.

I don't know what the deal is with the original Contra, but it hasn't been available on anything of Nintendo's as far back as Wii Virtual Console. From what I understand it has something to do with the name of the game being somewhat in poor taste in hindsight, which is why Super C is allowed. You can unlock the original Contra in the DS game "Contra 4", but other than that it's seldom been made available. It's fine by me since I much prefer Super C, but it's a bummer to those who love the original.

I played through both loops of this game three times and thought long and hard about it before coming to my conclusion on it back in the day, so this is coming from someone who knows their way around this game. I genuinely think this is a really bad video game with nothing going for it, and it gets a free ride on the legacy of much better sequels like Ghouls N Ghosts and Super Ghouls n Ghosts. NES Ghosts N Goblins does not have a single good thing about it that earns it any of its reputation, and I'd say it's not worth playing for any reason. Edit: The arcade version you can make much more of a case for though, and it's pretty solid. If we're strictly talking the NES version though, it's horrible.

Apollo Justice was the only one of the DS games I didn't finish. The third case is really good and showcases the new cast finally getting into the swing of things. Then boring old man Phoenix shows up again, monopolizes the final case and ruins the fun. For a game that people criticized for not starring Phoenix Wright, he sure won't go the hell away and let the new cast shine. I liked Trucy way more than Maya, (who I never really liked in the first place) and I liked Apollo's rival prosecutor way more than any of the others the series had up to that point. Apollo himself had an interesting ability that Phoenix didn't, making him unique. I also loved 20+ year old Ema Skye, and she may be my favourite character in the whole series. The game just doesn't have enough confidence in its likable new cast though, and shoves Phoenix in your face constantly out of terror that people will freak out without him being there. I honestly would have loved it if the Apollo Justice series continued and abandoned the old cast entirely, but the game shot itself in the foot as a reboot by latching itself so hard to the old protagonist. That's kind of how I feel about the game. An absolute gold mine of completely wasted potential.

I was going to write this up as a forum post, but it became so long that I thought I'd turn it into a blog post. Today I completed the Deca Sports 2 tennis tournament on legend difficulty. That doesn't sound significant by itself, so allow me to dive into everything that made this one of the hardest things I've ever completed in any video game. To start out, I'll give a run down of the game's functions. The player character is moved around the court automatically, however the A and B buttons allow you to move toward and away from the net respectively. When a ball is lobbed by an opponent, the ball will flash red on its descent. Swinging the Wii Remote downwards at this moment sometimes will result in a smash. To perform a lob yourself, aim the Wii remote downwards, and gently swing upward. The motion for this is slow and unreliable, but is something you need to risk doing if you plan to win. Small characters are speedy on the court and play well at net, but have poor ball control. Medium sized characters have average speed and average ball control, making them completely worthless decent all around. Large sized characters play very poorly at net and are slow runners, but have excellent ball control. To swing your racquet, swing the Wii remote left or right. The trajectory of the ball depends on the timing of your swing. Diving for the ball is performed by swinging the Wii remote with proper player positioning. The most important aspect of the game is the one that is not explained to you in any way. "The trajectory of the ball depends on the timing of your swing." While you can fudge your way through the first two cups without fully understanding it, it REALLY helps for the third cup; and is necessary in order to beat the legend cup. The game only mentions that the timing of your swing controls the direction of the ball, but it also depends on which way your character is facing. Let's say you're on the left side of the court, and your opponent sends the ball to you from the right. In this situation your character will be facing right, and you're planning to send the ball to the left away from your opponent. In order to accomplish this, you have to swing the Wii remote long before the ball is next to your character. This creates a confusing disconnect between the motion and the action on screen. While jarring initially, it makes more sense when you consider how swinging works in Mario Tennis. Swinging early in Mario Tennis locks your character in place, and starts charging power for your swing. Swinging early in Deca Sports 2 works the same way where your character locks in place, but the game is instead calculating what direction the ball should go. Now let's take a similar situation where you're facing right on the left side of the court, but the opponent is on the left side and sending the ball directly towards you. In order to send the ball toward the right, you would want to swing the remote as late as possible. These shots are simpler to understand, but don't tend to send the ball as far in the direction you're aiming for. However if you swing too late, it's still pretty easy to send the ball out of bounds. At this point I want to explain how tournaments work. There are ten sports in the game, and a tournament for each one. There are three difficulties by default, and once you've beaten all three you unlock that sport's legend tournament. Every tournament in the game consists of three matches, however you don't need to beat all three consecutively. You can quit out of a match if you're doing poorly, which creates a quicksave that allows you to start over from your last match. This is an intentional exploit the original Deca Sports encourages you to take advantage of, and you're going to need to do so if you want to beat legend tournaments. If you haven't figured it out by now, the controls are only one of the major hurdles towards beating tennis on legend. The biggest hurdle is that the A.I is extremely good, and EXTREMELY hard to beat. Each match of tennis is defaulted to six games, which is a LOT of points you have to score against an A.I that's nearly flawless. I had discovered that large characters were really good to use on legend, as their wide control of the ball was one of the only things that could trip up the A.I. The strategy with large characters on legend is to make the A.I run around as much as possible by hitting the ball as far as possible. There's still a lot of improvising that needs to be done all the time, but this is the overall goal for every point in the game. This can only really be achieved by pulling off precise wide shots multiple times in a row with an unreliable controller with invisible directional feedback. As you can probably guess, pulling that off consistently for six games of tennis simply wasn't happening, and I needed some sort of additional edge on the A.I. What I eventually discovered is that by moving most of, but not all of the way to the edge of the court before serving with a large character, I could often hit the ball so hard and so far that the A.I would struggle to return the ball without sending it out of bounds. While it was by no means fool proof and often failed, I was able to get a large amount of free points that would have otherwise been extremely hard fought for. It got to the point where I could pretty reliably win a game if I was serving, so I only had to win a single game while the A.I was serving in order to pull ahead. This worked extremely well in the second match of the tournament, but worked less and less during the final one. In the end the final match went a full twelve games, with me winning 7-5 during a deuce. It would have gone to a tie breaker had I not won that game, which I would have assuredly lost seeing as how I never once won a tie-breaker throughout the four tournaments. In that moment on the congratulations screen I realized I was drenched in sweat as if I had just won a real tennis tournament. As the victory music played I just sat there stunned and couldn't believe I had won. This took me about a week to pull off, and while it was really difficult and often crushingly frustrating, I don't think I've ever been more proud to have stuck with a video game and finished it. It truly means nothing in the grand scheme of life, but as far as I'm concerned, I truly have done something legendary. ~Lynda Monica Watson

It's actually the complete opposite. The Sega CD version has CD quality audio, but they replaced every single track in the game with different music that sucks and doesn't fit the level's atmosphere or story. Imagine if Square changed every single track in Final Fantasy VII to completely different music, but the audio quality of the completely unrelated music was nicer. I don't think anyone would say with a straight face that makes the music "better". Also the Sega CD version adds extra levels that add nothing of value to the game, and just act as annoying filler. Ecco the Dolphin tells a story with its levels, and most if not all of them add to the story or gameplay. The extra levels in the Sega CD version are not only bad levels, but they intrude on a tightly designed story and add nothing new. The Sega CD version is also the coward's version of the game, as they added a ton of checkpoints to the stages, none of which exist in the original. Everything the Sega CD version changes makes the game worse, therefore that version sucks.

Probably the two craziest games I finished would be Ecco the Dolphin and Quarth (The Game Boy Version) Ecco the Dolphin was an unforgettable journey the first time I played through it, and it's one that I revisit frequently. It's a devilishly hard game, but there is absolutely nothing else like it, including its sequels which are all inferior to the original. (Also the Sega CD version sucks) Ecco the Dolphin is a sombre, lonely, and at times terrifying experience, but also beautiful, mysterious, and wondrous. I played it for the first time in 2016 when I was 26 years old, and I would consider it the most incredible first playthrough of any game I've ever played. For the record, I didn't use the password for the final battle that you only get AFTER beating the final battle. Every time I lost the fight, it was back to Welcome to the Machine for me. If you don't know, respect, and fear that level title, you haven't truly lived yet. Ecco the Dolphin is a game I eventually got super good at, and I once had a playthrough where I only died a single time. That may not sound impressive, but even skilled players of the game can seldom pull off a deathless playthrough. I have yet to do it, but one death is my record. Quarth I don't have much to say about other than it was a nightmare that required perfection at lightning fast speeds, and the final two levels took me most of my play time.

I've been playing some Hudson games for the Wii, and I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying the Deca Sports games. The second one is easily the best, and today I finished the legend tournament for synchronized swimming. Legend is unlocked after you finish the local, national, and global tournaments, which get you a bronze, silver and gold trophy respectively. Winning the legend tournament gets you a platinum trophy, and four stars on your tournament records for that sport. The Deca Sports games don't support Miis, but Hudson created their own avatars. Deca Sports 2 added a character creation feature, so I was able to re-create some of my Wii U Miis into Deca Sports characters! Nine sports left to go!

I feel like Yoshi's Island is an incredibly well made game that often struggles to be any fun. Instant kill spikes, pits, and lava are everywhere in this game, and it all comes together to make a game that's too frustrating for its title character. As a kid I preferred playing Yoshi and Yoshi's Cookie with my friends, and later on I much preferred Yoshi's Story. As for common arguments about the game, I never understood why anyone thinks of Yoshi's Island as a Mario game, considering it created all of the mechanics that characterized the Yoshi series moving forward. Also Baby Mario is a good boy, and you made him sad by crashing his noodle into something. His crying is supposed to make you panic and hurry to rescue the poor guy. The Yoshi clan are the world's greatest uncles.

Horizontal all the way for me. Vertical shooters tend to be more visually busy and are difficult due to bullet spam, but horizontal shooters tend to have more interesting level design what with navigating through confined spaces. Bio-Hazard Battle on Genesis is a shooter masterpiece to me at least, and that kind of game simply can't exist in the vertical format.

Unfortunately I figured out why I was having such a hard time with Sonic Lost World. It's not the game's fault after all, but rather it's because the control stick on my Wii U Game Pad is busted, and when I press right on it, it will stay pressing right even after letting go. It'll only do that for a second, but it's enough to make the controls imprecise. That's the actual reason the sand slide in Sonic Lost World wasn't working, and since the game can't be played with any other controller, I have to replace my Game Pad in order to finish. I'll fall behind a bit because of that, since I likely won't be able to replace it until half way through September. I've had a pretty rough first year in this thread, but next year I'll know what to do.

I just finished Donkey Kong Country Returns 100% and unlocked Mirror mode. I was getting pretty fed up with the game towards the end, mainly because I was having collectable burn out. Mirror Mode will be challenging, but at the same time it'll be WAY easier without having to worry about all the junk I needed to unlock it. I'm not sure how I feel about this game overall, as it honestly wasn't very fun. It was certainly a challenge, but I don't think that makes a game worth playing on its own. I'm in the camp that thinks it's a poor substitute for the old Donkey Kong Country games, as this one is just too chaotic, visually cluttered, and unfair to be as fun as the old ones. If we look at the game as a Wii title though, this is one hell of an incredible Wii game. No matter how I feel about the gameplay, there's no denying this game is a technical marvel for the system, and worth owning in that regard. Mirror Mode is next!

I think as a buyer you aren't expected to do anything unless they reach out to you about it. If they figure out that it was sent to you by accident and contact you about it, at that point it would be wrong to play dumb about it. Unless you feel guilty or simply want to reach out because it would make you feel better, there's really nothing expected from you. If it comes down to if it's ethical or not, that's not something others can really answer for you. You have to go by your own ethics and decide if it's something you need to do.

This is Mii.

I think you nailed it with Platoon. That makes a lot of sense. Somehow I just never put it together. XD

Sometimes outsiders to your little worlds have amazing questions. I was showing my elderly father the Splatoon games, and while he thought they were neat and even played with me for a bit, he turned to me and asked "Why is it called Splatoon?" I kind of froze and didn't have an answer. "I guess it's like splat and cartoon?" I said sheepishly. My dad laughed pretty hard at that, as I think he realized he stumped me. I mean the paint splats, and squids shoot ink that splats, but where does the "toon" come from? It was such a weird and funny question that I wanted to share, and ask what all of you think. Please, help an old man understand this puzzling question for our times.

As I'm buying all of these Wii games I used to love as a teenager, I'm remembering why it's my favourite video game system of all time. So many fun games came out for it, even if they didn't always end up being perfect. Excite Truck was released for the Wii at launch, and it's sad how it often gets forgotten about. It's a wildly fun ride despite some glaring issues, and it's my favourite game in the Excite series. Metroid Other M is the infamous Nintendo sequel that made the internet explode, and I've never seen such a wild overreaction to a video game before or since. Those of us who played Other M simply because it was a big first party release were actually pretty happy with it. Also I'll be the first to just say it out loud so everyone else can, but Samus looked damn great in that Zero Suit. I wanted to cosplay as Zero Suit Samus so badly in my 20s and go to an event, but I never had the guts to do it. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a game I didn't play when it came out, but now I'm really enjoying it! I'm enjoying it way more than Tropical Freeze, which I thought was too chaotic and unfair. Pokemon Battle Revolution is strictly for fans of the series, as it's a mixture between Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Colosseum's battle mode. The game is pretty short if you're just aiming for the end credits, but the post-game is where the game really starts for serious battlers. I'm not too into competitive Pokemon, so I'm always content to just use rentals and beat the first loop. Animal Crossing is a series I've not delved into very much as I struggle to understand what the point of it is. I thought I'd give City Folk a try though, mainly because the city aspect sounds fun and different. FlingSmash is great little game that doesn't get any love at all. It's not a masterpiece or anything, but it's always been an adorable and energetic little game. There's a small group of fans that have made Google's audience reviews pretty meme-tastic, so I recommend giving them a read as they're pretty funny. Nights Journey of Dreams is pretty rough around the edges, but I'm still very nostalgic for it. This is the Nights game I had, and I don't care if people think it's worse than the Saturn game. Samba De Amigo was a pretty fun one, though it doesn't work too well on the harder difficulties. If you just play on normal and don't worry about your score too much, it's a fun game to play around with. I played a lot of it during the Wii's release drought in 2008. I'm planning to pick up some more stuff on Wednesday, but that's all for me this time!

I actually forgot about the PSP! How dare I! I had wanted a PSP ever since it came out, but I was waiting for at least three games I was interested in before buying one. The ones that eventually made me buy the system were Prinny Can I Really Be the Hero, Ys Seven, and LittleBigPlanet Portable. I bought quite a few PSP games after that too.

I've been playing Donkey Kong Country Returns for the first time, and I'm loving it. I passed on it back in the day for stupid reasons, and I'm discovering that I missed out. The game has a great difficulty level where it's hard and at times pretty frustrating, but it's never so annoying that it stops being fun. Grabbing all of the collectibles is what actually makes the game hard, as a lot of the levels haven't been too big of a problem otherwise. I'm enjoying it way more than I did Tropical Freeze, and I may end up ranking Returns pretty highly in the series if it stays this good. I just got all of the collectables in world five, and just have to beat the boss. There's no way I'm doing the time trials though.

I really like the SNES game, but I don't like the Genesis one at all. I think the Genesis game is straight up bad, so I've always enjoyed how passionate people get over this topic. I tend to chalk it up to Genesis fans being overly passionate, and maybe a tad desperate to prove the Genesis' worth. There are countless Genesis games that you can point to in order to prove the Genesis was just as good or even better than the SNES, but I genuinely don't think Aladdin is one of them.

We've all been there at some point, where gaming has to take a bit of a backseat to more important things. Once your parents are no longer buying games for you, you have to decide if you're going to sit out on a system or not. Out of the blue a game announcement fills you with glee, and now you need the system JUST for that one game. My question to all of you is, what systems did this happen to you with, and what was the game or games that made you pull the trigger? I didn't grow up with a Sega Genesis, but I bought one in 2011 because of an incredible looking beat em up called "Streets of Rage 2". I was blown away at how good it looked, and I thought to myself "I must have this." Of course it turned out to be one of the most iconic games for the system, and I can understand why looking back at it. How about you?