Multiple saves and backups: because games should be FUN!

It's probably happened to all of us; you sit down to continue your game, you go to load your save file only to find that it's gone. The first time this happened to me was on the original Legend of Zelda when my younger brother, too young to know what he was doing, erased all the games.

At the age of 12, Nintendo controller in hand, I was faced with the reality of my first Data loss, and the necessity of data backups became immediately clear. Ever since then I tried to make copies of my saves whenever the game allowed it. In fact, many gamed DID allow you to do this.

The PlayStation introduced the idea of a save card that was separate from the game. The data loss lesson I learned from Zelda was so powerful that I got TWO save cards just to be safe. I keep up this practice even today; I have two PS2 cards and two Wii cards.

But backups aren't enough. I've learned that some game designers are cruel, and they like to lock you out of areas that you've visited. Sometimes those areas contain items, weapons, armor, or whatnot that you can't get anywhere else in the game. If you saved the game after you got locked out of the area, and if you don't have an OLDER save file, then you're faced with a choice: Do without the item, or start your game over from the beginning.

Sometimes the item you miss is the ultimate weapon in the game. This happened to me in Final Fantasy VII....grrrrr! So, ever since then, I use as many save-game slots as they provide. I try to use a new save slot for each hour I've been playing.

Call me paranoid, but I use multiple saves and backup my saves once a month. I haven't been locked out of an area, or lost any saves, for many, many years...Except a few months ago. I had played Ocarina of Time with my daughter. My son, who's too young to know better, erased all the saves, including the one with 100% completion that my daughter liked to play. I guess erasing saves runs in the family! My daughter cried when she found out. I bought the Wii Virtual Console version and we're going through it again. The Wii version lets you back up your saves!

I'm off to play...wish me luck on the Shadow Temple.

Bought Wario Land Shake It...

So, I bought Wario Land Shake It and now my kids think I'm the best gamer of all time. This is old-time, Mario-esque, 2D, platforming action at it's best. I haven't had this much fun with a 2D platformer since Super Mario World on the SNES; a game that I played the CRAP out of! I'm quite a few hours into the game and it feels like it's near completion. In fact, I've read that you complete the main story quickly, but the real fun/challenge/time-sink of the game comes in the collection of coins, treasures, and whatnot after you've finished the main story. So, I don't think the scope will be as grand as Super Mario World, yet I'm having such nostalgic fun playing that I don't care. It's great.

A wolf? Why would Link be a wolf? (Twilight Princess Review)

In the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess you play as Link...and you save the princess....surprise, surprise. However, this time the designers have put their time and effort into developing the environment and characters, rather focusing on trying to be different and approachable. I guess I'm just trying to say, "dis wan don't look like car tunes."

They've gone back to the more serious story line, with the most realistic-looking Link yet. Although the color palette tends to favor the brown end of the spectrum, the world is still beautiful. I can tell that a lot of attention went to developing the look of Twilight Princess. There's a lot of detail in all the environments. The character models are great looking, and the tools, weapons, and armor are all great looking as well. However, I never found myself gazing at the beauty of the world around me (as I've done in Halo, for crying out loud) and I feel like that aspect is missing from the game. I wish they had been more grandiose in their design of the world, but it's only a minor nit-pick.

A lot of attention goes into developing the story for Twilight Princess as well. The introduction of Midna is very welcome to the series. That imp of a character who rides your back in the twilight realm, and hides in your shadow in the normal realm, had me mistrusting her from the start. Yet, she's Link's companion through the game. I started to love the way she talked and her presence made it feel like Link was not alone. By the end of the game I had fallen in love with Midna, and seen her true nature. I don't want to spoil it, but the game ends extremely well and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest.



The controls are unique for Twilight Princess as well (at least, for the Wii version they are). At first I felt awkward and wished that I could just have a thumb stick and buttons. But, when I got used to it I realized that the item selection wheel, combined with the slot-based quick select, worked really well in the game. Shooting became more fun with the Wii-mote, and aiming the boomerang became fun as well. I just wish I wasn't forced to waggle.

The world of Twilight Princess seems to be based on the Ocarina of Time world, and many of the same races and locations are found there. And, like Ocarina of Time, there's tons of side quests to complete and items to collect. There's also new items to play with and master. There's also the addition of the Wolf's abilities, and the twilight realm allows you to see and explore aspects of the world from a different perspective.

I enjoyed this game more than I enjoyed the Wind Waker. Twilight Princess had the power to pull me, as the player, into the game world. The game does a great job of developing the characters and keeping you involved in the plot. And, even though it's mostly more-of-the-same, I think this is my #2 Zelda game, right behind Ocarina of Time. I'll probably get the urge to re-play in a few years, and I'm looking forward to it already!

Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - That was different...good work Nintendo

Nintendo has been riding the Zelda train for a long, long time now. How do they keep the formula from getting stale? By throwing in some cel-shading and changing all the character's names, of course! The result is a title that is very approachable by children, yet deep enough to satisfy the Zelda fans of old, like me.

That said, I can't really think of much else to say. It wasn't my favorite, but it was really fun. The graphics are great. The controls work well. The plot is....boring....and doesn't make much sense...but who plays Zelda for the plot?

But, in all, it feels like a re-hash of old ideas. The wind conducting is roughly equivalent to the songs in Ocarina of Time. The sailing aspect is nothing more than a giant Hyrule field, and the boat is just a talking version of Epona. Everything in the game feels familiar, but somehow it feels like they missed the mark as well.

Bottom line: it's no Ocarina of Time, but it's fun. I've said before, repetition in a great game is still great gameplay. Well, repetition in the Zelda series is still a great game.

The Best Zelda Game Ever: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

I've played a lot of Zelda games. I played the original Zelda, also the Adventure of Link, Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess. Of all I've played, this is my favorite. And that's not just nostalgia talking; I just replayed it and it's still great.

What makes it so great? First of all, there's a ton of stuff to do. There's the main thread of the story which, if you fly through it, will take you about 7 hours to complete. The main story has you exploring dungeons, solving puzzles, an battling bosses. And, for your trouble, you get more health, and usually a weapon/item or two. But the real meat of the game, the part that will keep you playing for 30+ hours, comes in the side quests.

There's a collection aspect to Ocarina of Time that is very compelling to a guy like me. I usually find myself driven to collect all the hearts, the best armor, all the weapons, all the bottles, all the songs, all the items, etc. There's hours of enjoyment to be had exploring the world and participating in mini games as well.

Then there's the story. The inclusion of two time lines, young Link and adult Link, is a great plot device and allows you to explore the same areas over and over again without getting bored. There's some areas that only adult Link can visit, and some only young Link can visit. Also, some aspects of the world that you change when you're young Link will allow you to gain access to hidden areas as adult Link. It works very well and keeps me interested in developing Link's stats. In fact, I wish they'd revisit this type of plot in a future Zelda game because I always feel it's missing when it isn't there.



Wrap it all together, give it some good music, and sprinkle some variety on the tired, save-the-princess themed plot, and you have one of my favorite games ever. During my latest playthrough I achieved 100% completion. Walkthrough in hand, I played along with my 5-year-old daughter. She cried when it was over; because it was so happy, and because she wanted to keep playing.

(I wish Nintendo would make another one like this. Speaking of that, I really should pick up Majoras Mask!)

I'm Done With Guitar Hero II Too

Go to the Guitar Hero review...CTRL+C....CTRL+V.

I'm Done With Guitar Hero

What I like about the whole rhythm guitar/band game scene is the music. Every game I've played, and I've played a few, has made me buy songs on Amazon MP3. And it's fun to pick apart the guitar rhythms and play along with them.

At it's best, Guitar Hero helped me find new music and made me feel like a star while playing it. At it's worst, the character designs freaked me out, and the stiff animations only served to remind me that I was holding a tiny, plastic guitar-controller.

Overall, if I'm into the song, and it's hard, I don't notice the bad animations and characters, they just blend into the background. But Rock Band, not Guitar Hero, has the coolness of being a rock star nailed. But, in the end, it's fun to pretend to play along with these great songs, and as long as I can find a song I like then I'll play any rhythm music game.

The bottom line is that I really liked the game, but my situation in playing it is odd, and I give the game only 3 stars; here's why. My brother-in-law had Guitar Hero I & II years ago. He was very excited about it and showed it off to anyone who would listen. I tried it, and I wasn't compelled by it. It just wasn't fun enough to keep me interested. Plus the whole plastic-guitar thing made me feel dopey. Then, along came Rock Band. The usual band of three friends and I got together to break-in his new Rock Band kit. Playing Rock Band with three friends is a FREAKING BLAST!

Once I'd had a taste of the music rhythm game genre, I wanted more. That brought me to this game: Guitar Hero. Coming back to it, after developing a taste for Rock Band, made me more tolerant of the game's faults and allowed me to overlook the crappy songs and focus on the good ones. So, if Guitar Hero existed in a vacuum I probably would have never played it. But, it's fun now that I'm into that sort of game.

Is it even possible NOT to startle the witch?

Holy Crap! Left 4 Dead is fun!

4 guys, 2 boxes, all in the same room: It's gaming bliss. It's hilarious. It's exciting. It's scary. And, most of all, it's just plain fun.

The four of us started out on a rooftop trying to figure out how to switch weapons and jump and punch each other and shoot each other. After a bit, before we were fully accustomed to it, a smoker tongue lashed me! All of a sudden I'm reading on the screen that I'm stuck and my teammates (who just decided to jump off the side of the building) will have to rescue me. I died. But wait, I didn't die. I just need reviving. That's just one of the first team-building aspects that they've used in this game to make it really fun.

Eventually we got the hang of things; getting vomited on by boomers, eviscerated by hunters, and pummeled across the map by tanks. If you haven't played before, these terms don't make any sense to you, and probably sound silly. But if you've played, they immediately conjure up images of zombies that you will come to love/hate.

The real fun of the game is in the interactions. When the characters shoot each other they get mad and yell at each other. When your character is in trouble it yells for help. There's a lot of dialogue between the in-game characters. Some of it is helpful and some is hilarious.

I came away with a real feeling that I had been part of a team and that we had really survived something. So far we've had two, three-hour sessions and it stays fun! I'm really looking forward to playing again. I wish I had a 360 so I could play the single player campaign.

Don't startle the witch!