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The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Great, Good, Decent

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Introduction

I wrote in my previous article, a review of the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves move, that young me crelebrated the release of the movie and current me enjoyed the viewing immensely. It bears repeating. We grew up in a time when nerd culture got no respect from television and movie producers. They thought, just as with cartoons, that stuff is for kids and we should gear it towards kids. Granted, the animated entertainment provided us with something at least. Nothing at the time, though, came close to the production value of Honor Among Thieves or The Super Mario Bros Movie (click the “?” box).

It’s a me, a sexy smolder.

I know that other web sites surely have gone into the how and why this happened now. I’m not all that interested in any of that. I just enjoy the fact that they gave us good, quality entertainment that we can share with our kids. Ah, there it is. That just triggered something cynical in me. But, you know what? I’m going to ignore it and bring the usual (possibly toxic) positivity that we’re know for here at 2 Generations Gaming.

Decent

Training Montage: When Mario agrees to embark on the journey with Peach, she trains him in the ways of the Mushroom Kingdom. I appreciated the nod to other action movies and the tongue in cheek treatment. Even though it made little sense in the context of lore, I hope I proved in the D&D movie article that matters little to me.

Peaches, Peaches: All most people talked about (at least according to the article that stated, “After the Mario movie, this is all anyone is talking about!”) after the movie is the Jack Black song peaches. I heard about it before the movie because of just such an article. However, I saved the song until I actually saw the movie. It didn’t disappoint. After the movie, I made my family laugh by mentioning that it hit the top 100 and, therefore, qualified for Grammy status.

Good

Lumalee: This movie introduced us to nihilist Lumalee, the star companion from the Super Mario Galaxy series. I laughed and laughed with every line that came out of the adorable Nietzsche wannabe. Granted, I have a dark sense of humor as a optimistic pessimist. But, I think everyone can find something lovable in the darkness that is Lumalee’s attitude towards it all.

I know that! I also wrote about this phenomenon in the Honor Among Thieves article. However, being able to catch even a fraction of the easter eggs in the movie made me very happy. What brought me more joy was that my kids were all there to point them out either during the movie or after we left the theater.

Great

Donkey Kong: All of the characters lived up to expectations. I know some (probably literally nobody other than douche bags trying to make money with “content”) derided the movie as “woke” because they portrayed peach as a “strong independent woman who don’t need no man”. Other than that, every time a character appeared on screen, it put a smile on my face. In my opinion, one voice actor went above and beyond to bring his character to life. And, he basically just played himself like he does in nearly every movie. Like Robert Downey Jr. before as Iron Man before him, Seth Rogan was born to play DK.

Kids/Nostalgia: More and more I admit to being bit by the nostalgia bug. More and more I realize that it bites me because of my kids. We went to see this one while on vacation in the Berkshires for Quinn’s birthday. Unlike many family outings lately, every single one of our boys chose to join us without a fight. During the movie, Liam wore a smile on his face that indicated that some of his greatest memories came to life on that screen. I think I wrote in an earlier article that sometimes brings me pause that fictional characters mean so much to us. But, then I shut up that part of my brain and enjoy what I enjoy. Helping to bring that same joy to our kids makes everything else feel small by comparison.

The Verdict

Great super hero movies? For the most part, check. I give DC a pass and often turn off my brain enough to enjoy them even if I know they’re not very good. Plus, James Gunn? We’ll see. Live action (and CGI, of course) Dungeons and Dragons that delivers? Check. Amazing video game movies? Well, it remains to be seen if Nintendo can do it with other franchises, but they delivered with The Super Mario Bros movie.

Digital Playground

Losing My Dimension: Mario in March

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Introduction

Chris responded to my previous article (written a week or so ago, more on that in the next paragraph) with something along the lines of “Eff 3D Mario”. While I respect him and his opinions, I obviously respectfully disagree with that one. I think that the three dimension games have a place in Mario’s history. I explained why in that article. But, I assured him that we returned to Mario’s roots at 2D sidescroller in this article, “Losing my Dimension”.

Yes, that’s meant to invoke the REM song.

I looked up the date stamp on that article and I wrote it on the 16th, so over a week ago. I ignored our YouTube and my podcast “Noob’s Book Club” for just as long, if not longer. Those of you who follow the page might recognize that as a common theme in the past. I update regularly and furiously for a few months at a time and then life gets in the way and I fall off for just as long, if not longer. I promise to start working this weekend to get back on track and stay there. I’m committed to this page this time, no matter what.

New Super Mario Bros

Like comics, the Super Mario games grew up with me. They went from simple side scrollers to more complex 3D exploration games. Then, when I started to have kids, they became simpler again so that I could enjoy them with my kids. Looking it up now, though (thanks Google machine!), I see that the New Super Mario Bros series actually released before Galaxy. So, in the chronology of the actual games, this article makes no sense. Ha! You must be new here. We strive to make no sense at 2 Generations Gaming.

But, in the chronology of my life, I started playing the New Super Mario Bros series with my kids, so it came after my experiences in the third dimension. These games (along with the Mario Kart games, more on that in the next article) gave me a chance to game with my kids and doom them to the same nerdy lifestyle as me. It worked on two out of the three of them. Aiden inherited some dormant athlete gene that manifests in his passion for soccer. But, he still nerds out in his own way.

I don’t know if he actually watches soccer anime, but I know he watched a volleyball one.

Nevertheless, he still partakes in family Mario Kart nights and plays Minecraft with me during school vacations. So, like I say, I know the nerd is buried in there. Hey, kids these days. They’re like onions. They have layers.

Super Mario Maker

I played this one very little. I remember being impressed by the idea and possibilities. We might have even featured it on the web page at some point. Hey, it’s been almost 10 years and almost 500 articles. I’m bound to forget things. (Editor’s Note: We looked it up. There’s at least 2 other articles that mention the game.)

Independent of that, Liam and Quinn enjoyed the heck out of the game. Like they watched me play Portal 2 the second (or third) time around and enjoyed themselves, I watched them play this more than once with the end result always being smiles and eventually laughter.

The Verdict

Mario’s “return” to the second dimension and his cover of the REM song in the form of “Losing my Dimension” came at the perfect time in my life. Sometimes, confidentially, I think I died about 10 years ago and I now live in hell. Conversely, again confidentially, I often think that this might be purgatory and my second chance at redemption. What can I say? I watched a lot of science fiction and movies like The Matrix have a lasting effect on me. Whatever this is, things just seem to work out the way they’re supposed to when they’re supposed to and I wouldn’t choose any other life for myself.

Digital Playground

Into the 3rd Dimension: Mario in March

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Introduction

So far, I admit Mario in March has been a bit of a bust this year. The snow stopped just in time to interrupt my carefully laid plans. Admittedly, I still take pride in the fact that I updated the YouTube page regularly until last week and even uploaded a video with some game play that got almost 70 views. Even though the page is almost 10 years old, this is the first time that I focused this much on putting time into making it work as more than just a family page. And, so, we come to “Into the 3rd dimension.”

Uh hoi!

Every time I write that, I think of The Simpsons episode. We watched it last year as a family to celebrate Halloween and I must say, “It holds up.” I’m about to sound like a grumpy old man, but you write what you know. Those early seasons of The Simpsons are just pure magic and will never be surpassed. But, as I often do, I digress.

Super Mario 64

By the time we reach this generation of video games, I grew up. I worked at Yankee Candle (the local warehouse earlier mentioned in the introduction to this page before changed) and lived with my then girlfriend (and eventual wife and mother of my children). If you asked me now how I ended up purchasing a Nintendo 64, I’m sure that I would retcon (but it might be the truth) and give the ages old excuse of all Nintendo has to do is release a Mario, Zelda, and Metroid game and I’ll buy the console.

It’s-a-me!

Truth be told, I think the only one of those three franchises even rumored to be released for the system at the time was Mario. And, more truth be told, I never became a fan of Metroid until Metroid Prime and then Metroid Zero on the Game Boy Advance. Two truths and a lie? No, three embarrassing truths. You know this by now. We revel in our nerd shame around here. Final truth. I forgot all about Zelda and similarly rediscovered the games with Ocarina of Time and later A Link to the Past on the Game Boy Advance.

Not Mario. I played every Mario game available. Especially this one. I loved this game so much and it came at just the right time in my life. Old enough to afford it, but young enough to still have enough time to play until I beat it 100%. I even found Yoshi on the roof.

Super Mario Sunshine

I know that some consider the Nintendo Gamecube to be the weird red headed cousin in between the much more popular Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Wii. However, I have a soft spot for the weird purple cube that played the weird little discs.

Not a bad game. Just…not what I wanted.

That weird cousin gave birth to an equally weird child in Super Mario Sunshine. While much of the traditional Mario game play, and even the three dimensional elements introduced in Super Mario 64, persisted in this game, they also threw quite the wrinkle at us. Mario wore a water spray jet pack on his back that allowed for all kinds of new and cool stuff for him to do. If you watched my video, you know all about how I reacted to this development. While I found it intriguing, I treated it very much the same way I treated Super Mario Bros. 2. I ignored it for other games at the time. To this day, even though Liam picked up a Gamecube, I never went back to play it again. Perhaps this article will inspire me.

Super Mario Galaxy

Okay, this is more like it. The game plays almost exactly like Super Mario 64. But, it adds some new mechanics, as well. Unlike Sunshine, though, those mechanics aren’t too weird. They take some getting used to, but they are more of an extension of the game instead of introducing all new and weird stuff like jet packs.

You fly, bro!

This game truly took Mario into the 3rd dimension. While Super Mario 64 emulated three dimensional game play very well, it wasn’t until Galaxy that you felt like you had full range of motion. I think I went back to finishing Mario games again with this one. As an added bonus, this is the first Mario game that I got to play with the boys.

The Verdict

Like many at the time, I wondered how three dimensional gaming might work with our favorite plumber. Yes, it’s true. Some will try to deny it now, but many people predicted Super Mario 64 as a flop among flops and that side scrolling is the only way to experience these games. As I always do, I will admit that I’m wrong and bringing Mario into the 3rd dimension was a wonderful choice and I’m glad to have seen what they were able to do with the games.

Digital Playground

Super Mario’s Teenage Rebellion

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Introduction

I wrote about my humble beginnings with Super Mario. As I planned to write this article, I realized that I forgot two formative games in that article. So, keep reading to the end to get that addendum. For this article, I want to write about the second phase of my Super Mario experience, which I called Super Mario’s Teenage Rebellion.

Honestly, this part cemented my enjoyment of the series and sent me on the journey that currently finds me on a mission to purchase every Nintendo console that features a Mario, Zelda, and Metroid game. The first such console that I purchased was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Anyone who lived through that time knew the blood feud between Nintendo and Sega. Like most of you, though, I straddled the fence and played the hell out of both.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The first Mario game I played on the Super Nintendo was Super Mario All-Stars, the remake of Super Mario 1, “2”, and 3 along with The Lost Levels. Even though I played all the games on the NES, along with so many others, I still bought the new version. I also beat Super Mario 1 and 3 for the first time with this version of the game. And, I still refused to admit that Super Mario “2” existed outside of a loose commitment to also beat that game that remains unfinished to this day.

Nintendo started to branch out and try new things with the Super Nintendo. The additional memory allowed for different styles of games. One of those experiments was Super Mario RPG. What could go wrong? Super Mario? RPG? Two great tastes that taste great together? Honestly, for me, it was an okay game. But, not until Paper Mario (coming up next week) did I truly enjoy any sort of turn based Mario RPG experience.

No, all I wanted was Mario and more of it. Nintendo gave me that with Super Mario World. So, instead of branching out and expanding my horizons, I simply played more Mario. The game took what I liked about Super Mario Bros. 3 and made it more. More ways to travel through the world. More secret exits and areas. Different power ups and suits. I saw it as the epitome of Super Mario games.

An Addendum and a bit of Nerd Shame

First the bit of nerd shame. Not much because I think the good dad vibes will counteract the shame some. I never played the Mario Kart series until I had kids. We played the game together on the Wii and a couple of years ago we started a tradition of playing as a family once or twice a month. Then again, I almost burned down our house playing on the Wii all those years ago. Not sure how that all washes out.

I forgot two games in the 8-bit article. My friend and I played Dr. Mario every single day during lunch at school after one of us purchased a link cable for our Game Boys. And, even though Super Mario Land more resembled the graphics of the Atari 2600 because of the Game Boy’s limitations, I still played that game until I beat it. Maybe after I do the 16 bit video, I can have an addendum video where I play these two games and the SNES version of Mario Kart.

The Verdict

The series started to come into its own during the transition to 16-bit. Many of the game play styles and mechanics persist in the games to this day. Whenever I feel the need to play an older game, the first emulator that I load is Game Boy Advance and the first game that I load is Super Mario World. Super Mario’s Teenage Rebellion truly gives me the best of all things Mario.

Digital Playground

Hades is a Gift

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Introduction

Merry Christmas!

Welcome and Merry Christmas! Last year, my son bought me Hades for the Nintendo Switch on the recommendation of Chris. Therefore, truly Hades is a gift. I played the game some during the week of break. After that, I needed to concentrate on not losing my job, so I had little time for such frivolity. Then, I misplaced the game. Finally, I completely forgot about it until I realized break neared again.

I bought the game digitally in anticipation. Then, while putting my clothes away, I found the cartridge. So, if anyone wants a digital copy of Hades, I might be able to gift it to you. Send me an email and I’ll see what I can do.

What is Hades?

I never reviewed the game last year. I thought I did, but maybe I just included it in one of my Game of the Year articles at the end of the year. Hades follows your character, the son of Hades, through the land of the gods as he hacks and slashes his way to more power.

It resembles Diablo in game play. That alone gave me reason to try. I enjoyed all of the Diablo clones I played. Torchlight II became my favorite game for several months about 5 or 6 years ago. It was the subject of the lost episode 2 of the original run of the podcast.

Why is Hades a Gift?

Hades sweetens the deal with unique gameplay that follows the lore of the pantheon. One of the ways that you advance in the game is by dying. You come back and increase your abilities before plunging again into the dungeon of the Underworld. I like that wrinkle to the game. It takes a frustrating part of other games (dying and having to start over) and removes that frustration. Further, it almost makes dying an incentive. You die to take a breather from the dungeon crawling.

The game also has a unique, cartoon graphics engine that works seamlessly with the cut scenes to build a living, breathing world. The characters add to that with their own personalities based also on the lore of the gods if available. Some characters are specific to the game, but they still made me laugh more than once with their antics.

The Verdict

I played Hades again some last week. I managed to pull the Switch away from Quinn and Liam (they’ve been playing the new Pokemon game) to get a couple of games in. I still enjoyed playing even though it took me some time to get used to the controls again. In between games of Mario Party, Mario Kart, and them playing Pokemon, I hope to play more during this break. I also bought new controllers for the XBox, so I’m sure Quinn, Aiden, and I will get some Minecraft in, too. Be prepared for reports on all of it.

Digital Playground

Thankful for Multiplayer Mario Games

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Prologue

On my other page (currently defunct with no ETA on a return), I structure my posts like stories with a prologue, a story, and an end. As I drove to work this morning, I got the inspiration to do a similar thing with this post. Originally, I only wrote Mario Kart on my schedule, but then expanded it to include other multiplayer Mario Games like Mario Party. Let’s begin.

Once upon a time, a young man of 12 or 13 sat in an uncomfortable bench in front of a video game. The marquee read “Vs. Super Mario Bros” and featured a man clad from head to toe in red. Our intrepid young hero placed a quarter into the coin slot and the game began. As I remember, I only lasted to the first Goomba before dying. Okay, another quarter and then another and I’m going to be honest. I doubt that I even cleared the first level of that game after five dollars.

Leveling Up

We went without the new hotness video game system for quite a while. My parents never saw a reason to upgrade from our old Atari systems. Eventually, they relented and bought us a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. Finally, I owned a copy of the game. No more quarters. I used this newfound power to finally beat that first level and, in due time, the entire game.

If I’m being honest, it wasn’t until we owned a Super Nintendo (that I purchased for myself and my brothers) that I beat the game. If my parents noticed little difference between Atari and Nintendo, then putting a Super in front of that Nintendo did little to persuade them to upgrade. That notwithstanding, my brothers and I playing together finally defeated the evil of Bowser.

And, y’all, we are always pissed every single time this happens, even today.

A Reason to be Thankful

Unfortunately, as you all know, our victory was short lived and Bowser returned again and again. I often say that all Nintendo has to do is release a new Mario, Zelda, and Metroid game on their console for me to buy it. I thought having kids might give me a built in play group for the various games that I play. While that proved mostly untrue for things like Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, they all quickly became Nintenerds.

I took what life dealt me and cultivated their love of video games. We almost burned down our hose playing Mario Kart. And, so, began our enjoyment of multiplayer Mario games. Okay, time to come clean. I admit to taking some creative license with this article. I don’t remember my parents’ exact attitudes towards video games. I remember my father played Atari with us and even watched when we played Nintendo. Also, Christine and I hosted a few Mario Party get togethers with friends and roommates over the years.

Epilogue

With all of that being said, we found great joy in the most recent Mario Kart on Switch last year during Christmas. We may or may not have made some inappropriate comments during those play sessions. But, it was all in good fun and we’ve been meaning to do it again. Perhaps over Christmas break during this year. An annual tradition?

Who knows? It might happen earlier. Liam bought Mario Party a couple of weeks ago and he and Quinn played a round. He asked me to bring home some joycons from our school’s Nintendo club so we could play as a family. I told him I would over Veteran’s day this weekend and then again over Thanksgiving break. Here’s to hoping that it leads to some Mario Kart, too.

Digital Playground

First Impressions Pokemon Sword/Shield

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Introduction

Thanks for reading my “First Impressions Pokemon Sword/Shield” article. It’s been a while since I’ve played a Pokemon video game other than Pokemon Go. The last one that I purchased was Pokemon Sun and I only played through the first island on that one before Quinn took it over from me and probably beat the game. No, I just checked with him and he hasn’t beaten it because “something, something the Tapus”. I have no idea what that even means.

However, since there’s a new Pokemon game coming to the Switch (?!, more on that in a bit), I thought this would be a good time to focus on Pokemon for a couple of weeks as a preview to the game. I hope to even record a podcast with at least Liam to preview the game as he probably knows more about it than I do. I did do a bit of research on Bulbapedia about the game, so I’ll give some of my impressions in this article.

Notable Notes

Nintendo Switch: The first thing that I noticed and surprised me is that the game is coming on to the Switch. Now that I think about it, Liam probably told me this at some point. It’s just not information that I internalized. However, this changes everything. I thought it would be a 3DS game again and we have two 3DS systems. We only have one Switch. There’s going be a battle daily for who gets to play their Pokemon game come November.

Also, Nintendo, can we finally get multiple save slots?

Gyms are back: So, guys, apparently gyms are back? I never played either of the Let’s Go games. I found out that they were a different design from traditional games. Granted, I should have known by the name and the fact that Nintendo likes to live by the motto, “If it’s not broke, let’s break it and see if it makes it better. If not, we can always go back to the original and nobody will fault us for our decision to break this thing they loved.” And, it works every single time for them.

Battling is back: Hey guys, battling is back in the game, too. The Let’s Go series worked more like Pokemon Go where you encounter Pokemon and can only catch them. Now, it will be like the older games where you randomly encounter and battle Pokemon. I mean, that just makes sense. Since battling is 99% of the game, I don’t understand the decision use Pokemon Go encounters with the main series. But, like I said, we will forgive them come release.

Me too, Kid. Me too.

New Evolutions: I know a bit about the new types of evolutions that they’ve been releasing in the games. Mostly, I only know them from the card game. Again, as I mentioned in my first cube article, we don’t play the card game much, either. However, I do watch the stream and have seen cards with GX and such on them. I don’t know how it affects game play in the video game. Perhaps Liam will enlighten me when we sit down to record.

The Verdict

I’m always excited when a new Pokemon game releases. I rarely ever play them, but it is one of the series that I’ve been interested in since the beginning. My children have helped to keep me interested in the game by collecting cards and playing themselves. I’m a little worried about the switch to the, uh, Switch. But, Nintendo usually knows what they are doing. And, who knows, they might even port it to the 3DS at some point in time. I doubt that will actually happen now that I given it some consideration. They seem to be consolidating so that the Switch is their only console. Oh well, I can dream.

However, I am excited about the games. I usually buy the one that Liam doesn’t. Therefore, I’ll have more information about that during the podcast. Thanks for reading my “First Impressions Sword/Shield” article. Let us know what you think about the new games and if you’re planning to buy one of them in November.

As long as the professor asks me if I’m a boy or a girl, I’m sold.
Digital Playground

Aging Out of Video Games

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Introduction

I don’t remember how or why we got on the topic. I know that it started as a text conversation with Chris. We talked about the new Pokemon Go crossover game for the Switch, moved on to Street Fighter collection, and ended with some unnecessary Fortnite bashing. It was about then that we came to the conclusion that we may be getting to old for the current generation of video games.

Get off my lawn.

I think I’ve known about this issue for some time. I never considered that it might be a symptom of something larger until Chris and I talked. Now it all makes sense. We just have to fast track the plan of converting the podcast to 2 Old Guys Gaming. We can complain about kids these days, eat dinner at 4 in the afternoon, and argue with Gamestop clerks about out of date coupons. Come to think of it, we already do 2 out of three of those things.

A Note About Repetition in Video Games

On the podcast, we talked about two topics that I want to clarify. Both were addressed but, as usual, I have more to say. The topic of repetition came up a few times in the context of current shooters. The one quote that stuck with me was from Chris’s dad who said something along the lines of, “Now you’re shooting zombies. Now you’re shooting aliens. Now you’re shooting bugs.” I immediately pushed against the argument that repetition is the enemy of games.

The point that I made and reiterate for the sake of clarity here is that repetition is the backbone of video games. Due to the restrictions of the power of any given system and the storage of media, the game play of most games is limited in the things you can do. Some of my favorite games like Mario mentioned in the podcast and Minecraft are considered boring and repetitive by many. When we, and anyone else, complain about repetition, we are complaining about the type of repetition in the game and that it isn’t anything that we’d want to repeat over and over.

After all, I once heard Minecraft as “you mine stuff and then craft things” early in it’s life cycle and that’s exactly it.

A Note about Trash Talk in Video Games

Chris and I fully sounded like two old guys shouting at clouds on this podcast. As I edited it, i kept hearing, “but it’s different” and it caused me to wonder how it was different. I finally came to a similar conclusion as I did in the podcast. Trash talk was different then because it was in person. Furthermore, you mostly just trash talked people you knew. Maybe they weren’t friends, necessarily, but you saw them around the arcade. Now there’s some anonymous chump telling you things about your mother you never knew. Also, like I said in the show, the other person always had the option to forgo the video game and just punch you directly in the face if you went too far with your mouth.

Staying Current with Video Games

I promised myself after buying an original PlayStation only to see the price drop a few weeks later that it would be the last time I’d pay full price for a console. It is a promise I’ve kept except for buying a Wii U a few years ago to keep the Santa delusion alive. Seems reasonable, right? What does that have to do with getting old? Well, one of the comforting lies we tell ourselves to make getting old more bearable is that it imbues us with wisdom.

And, we’ve got a lot of old morons out there.

The thing about it is that my commitment to being current has gotten less and less, well, committed. I mentioned on the podcast that the PS2 was the last console that I bought relatively early in its life. My wife got me an XBox 360 for Christmas one year. I bought an XBox One only this year and really only for Minecraft. I just bought a used PS3 last year. I don’t own, nor do I see myself buying unless maybe to play against Chris, a PS4. I might buy a Switch, but that’s different and will be covered at a later time.

Get All These Shooter Video Games Off My Lawn

I’ve been trying to figure out when my hate for shooters appeared. In fact, DOOM and Hexen are two of my favorite gaming franchises of all time. It became a running gag in my house that I’d ask of every electronics gift I received, “Can you play DOOM on it?” The new version of DOOM was a driving force in my decision to finally get an XBox One.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one. Yes, that’s an inkjet printer touch screen.

I think it goes back to when the games became more military focused. Without going into too  much detail, I’ve never been a fan of war as entertainment. So Call of Duty and World at War and Battlefield and Battlefront and Black Ops–and some or all of these might be the same game which shows my ignorance–just don’t appeal to me in the slightest. The fact that I’ll still play Gears of War and games where you shoot zombies acts as further evidence to support this theory.

The current generation of shooters is well beyond my capacity to understand. I mean, I get the point of the games. I just don’t understand the point of the games, if that makes any sense. PUBG was a novelty. Fortnite was an unnecessary inevitability and now the whole landscape is lousy with these games. No thanks, no way, no how. I will gladly concede that I’m too old for this stuff, to paraphrase Danny Glover from Lethal Weapon.

Conclusion (or is it a Eulogy in this case?)

Mourn not for me, new generations of nerds. Not that you will. Those who benefit from progress rarely consider those that came before. I never considered nor mourned for the old guys who used to play Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for high scores when Super Mario, Metroid, and Zelda became the games of choice. As I’m sure that they never mourned for the folks who grew up with Pong as the pinnacle of technological advancement.

I will wait on the sideline for retro to be “it” again. I know that there is always a segment of the population that will always consider retro to be “it”. But, they are usually the old farts who have been left behind. Then we just have to hope that the youths get bored of the new hotness and our old ways will be there waiting.

Digital Playground

Gotta Tilt ‘Em All

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Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about my latest trip to the past. No, I have not unlocked the secrets of time travel. Well, not directly. Instead, it’s about how my trip to The Quarters with Liam sparked an interest in retro video games again. I basically ran through all of the retro video games that I’ve been playing from most recent all the way back to my gaming roots with the Atari 2600.

In that article, I wrote a bit about Pokemon Pinball. Unlike some of the other games on the list, it is not my favorite game on the system. It might not even be top 5. Saying that it isn’t top 10 would be a stretch. Perhaps, one of these days, I will get around to putting together a top 10 list for all of the games that I’ve played by system and then overall. Until then, I waffle!

Note to self: Buy a new waffle maker.

The point of the waffle is that while the game isn’t my favorite game on the Game Boy Advance, any time I get my hands on the technology to play GBA games, this is one of the first ones that I play. Usually, it is the first game that I load up to test that the technology works. Then, I end up playing it through an entire game. Usually when I load a game to test, I just load it and then move on to a more fun game. Not Pokemon Pinball. You can read my other article to get my theory of why I use a game other than A Link to the Past or Final Fantasy III, which are my favorite games on the system depending on when you ask. But, it mostly has to do with my father, pinball memories, as a kid, and Zelda and FFIII are very long games that would suck me in for hours instead of 15-20 minutes at a time.

The Good

I’ve played both this game and Sonic Spinball. If I remember correctly, I played Sonic Spinball first. While fun and enjoyable for what it was, it didn’t fully emulate the pinball experience that I’m looking for. That’s one thing that has so far eluded me from my childhood. I haven’t been able to properly capture that feeling of putting a quarter into a pinball machine, plunge the plunger, flip the flippers, and nudge it here and there right up to the point of TILT!

Sure, there are actual pinball emulators like PinMAME (which might not even be a thing anymore). But, unlike the video game emulators that I play and can order controllers for them, I haven’t found an controller for pinball that has all of the controls I mentioned above. I can recapture the memories of all of the tables I used to play. I just can’t get the proper feel.

Then again, I have recently discovered these things. They’re costly and big, but we have a gameroom upstairs and a possible den in the basement.

Sonic Spinball has Sonic as the pinball. Admittedly, that is a fun and interesting gimmick. However, it takes away some of the “peril” of playing pinball because Sonic can grab the edge and save himself from the side alleys. Also, being able to “advance” into higher boards is much more of a video game that pinball feel. Spinball is fun and writing about it now makes me want to play it again. I’m just not playing it to play pinball.

Pokemon Pinball comes as close as a video game ever has to giving me the total pinball experience. The pinball is a Pokeball. It’s also a great gimmick that fits in with the franchise. But, other than using it to catch Pokemon, it acts exactly like a pinball. If you get caught in that side alley and don’t have your Pikachu meter filled, you’re going to have a bad time.

The boards are able to change, but they only change what Pokemon you are able to catch based on the “area” of the game you are in. There are bonus stages, so it’s still got some of that video game feel. There are bumpers that give you bonus modifier to your score. There are alleys, buttons, and “hidden” areas that all lead to different game modes. It is just a great pinball simulator and video game mixed together. Just about the best of both worlds.

The Bad

It’s not exactly pinball. It neither claims nor tries to be. Still, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes I’m just looking to play pinball. I like video games and I play them because they are fun. I also like pinball and would like to be able to play them every now and again. I could buy one of those virtual machines from the picture above. It’s just that they are so dang expensive and I might be the only one in the house that would play it. Who knows? Maybe the boys would find it and have some fun with it.

Okay, okay, I get it. First world problems, amirite?

I could also stop talking about it and just go visit the new pinball parlor that opened up in a nearby town. We’ve been to The Quarters a few times now and I want to make it more of a regular trip because this last one was so much fun. Maybe the trip to the pinball place could be a trial run to see if the boys would get use out of the virtual machine were I to buy it. Then again, maybe if I go to the pinball place, it will inspire me to buy the silly thing and that would be a difficult explanation to Christine.

In the meantime, I am limited to as close to pinball as possible. Again, yes, not the worst predicament in the world. Pokemon Pinball is very close to real pinball, but it isn’t real pinball. Therefore, even when I play it, I get something resembling a warm and fuzzy nostalgic feeling, but not quite the exact feeling.

The Ugly

The slogan of Pokemon is, of course, Gotta Catch ‘Em All. I have never done so in an actual Pokemon game. I’ve never even attempted to do so. I doubt that I ever will considering that I’m an adult with other responsibilities and there are almost 1000 Pokemon in the newer games. Okay, that’s not entirely true. When I was playing Sun last year, I did try to capture all of the Pokemon on the opening island before moving on to the next island. That’s mainly the reason that I never made it to the second island.

I just image searched “all Pokemon” and this is the first image. I have no idea if it really shows all Pokemon, but it does give you an idea of how crazy this game has become.

Seeing as how I made that insane attempt, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that I would try to catch all 151 original Pokemon included in this game. I don’t know how difficult that is nor how long that will take, but I imagine that it could take an ugly amount of time and I might look at the achievement in a similar light as my butterfly catching days in Skyrim. That is to say, when all is said and done, how proud of myself will I actually be to say that I “caught ’em all?”

The Verdict

Pokemon Pinball is a fun video game that is as close to a pinball game as I’ve ever played. If you miss pinball, don’t want to spend 800 dollars on a virtual pinball machine that you might not even have room for in your house and would have to hide from your significant other, this is the game to play. However, you won’t get the full pinball experience and that might be an issue. I still fully support and endorse this game. Go tilt ’em all!

Digital Playground

Return to River City

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I was perusing Amazon a few months ago when something caught my eye in the Nintendo 3DS section of the website. It was a new River City Ransom game, River City Ransom: Tokyo Rumble (technically not new as it had been available for almost a year) and also another one, Rival Showdown, that was available for preorder! I was instantly transported back to my childhood as I fumbled wildly for my debit card.

I still fondly remember walking with my dad every Saturday morning to the video rental store down the street from my house when I was 10 years old. Besides the armful of horror movies he would rent for himself and the few Godzilla movies we would watch over and over again (All VHS, I’m old, kids), we would always go to the NES section and pick out a game for us to play together. Usually he would pick out a sports game like Bases Loaded or Blades of Steel but I remember one Saturday he pointed out River City Ransom and asked if I would want to try it. I wholeheartedly agreed. As much fun as sports games are they had become repetitive and I always had my eye on Double Dragon, and well, this game looked a lot like Double Dragon which unfortunately was always rented out.

Now usually when you ask someone which was the first game that converted them into a gamer, you will hear the typical responses of ?Super Mario Brothers, Pacman, Contra,..etc. For me, River City Ransom was that game. It was the first game where I didn’t want to stop playing. Even after we would get tuned up, there was no frustration, no rage quitting, we just kept grinding away, earning money to buy books to obtain special moves in order to get farther next time. We adopted the old ridiculous 2 player beat ?em up strategy of ?I’ll take the top of the screen and you stay on the bottom so we don’t hit each other.? Inevitably this would lead to us running around the screen like maniacs completely disregarding our ?strategy?. Well, me more so than him.

I vividly remember one such instance of this happening. It was actually near the beginning of the game, we were fighting one of the street gangs and were outnumbered 5-2. My dad, at the top of the screen, was basically a punching bag as 3 of the baddies surrounded him, I knocked out the 2 guys who focused their attention on me and grabbed a tire that one had dropped. For once I felt like I was better than my dad at a game! Every game that we played, my dad would be better than me, which, in hindsight would make sense since he was 32 at the time. But in my little 10 year old pea brain, it was my time to shine! I was going to be the hero! I boldly walked into forbidden grounds (A.K.A the top part of the screen, A.K.A dad’s territory, A.K.A the scene of my greatest victory) and threw the tire into the crowd’completely flattening my dad’s character as the 2 enemies who were now left turned their attention to me and had juuuuust got out of the way. I felt my little face flush and I tried to redeem myself by laying a beating down on their pixelated faces. When it was over, I remember just seeing my dad’s character just stand there, completely still. I slowly turned my head to look at my dad who was just staring at me with amazement. I had done it. I was the man at River City Ransom. The young wolf was now the leader of the pack. I waited for the compliments to rain down on me with a little smile of pride on my face. Instead:

?Where’s your guy right now??

?Uh..top of the screen..??

?Where’s it supposed to be??

?Uh..bottom of the screen..??

?Oh! Good! You aren’t deaf’ Nancy! Good news, the boy isn’t deaf! He just doesn’t listen!?

Sigh.

So after reaffirming that I did in fact know that I belonged on the bottom of the screen, we picked up our controllers and started again.

WHOMP!

The same tire completely waffled me as my dad started chuckling to himself. At this point this particular session of River City Ransom turned into Street Fighter as we decided to duke it out.

We actually never beat the game. We came close a few times. We rented and re-rented that cartridge so many times I lost count but it just never happened. We were fortunate that everyone was still enamored with the Double Dragon titles leaving R.C.R always available to us on our weekly trips to the video store. To me, it’s more than a game, it was time well spent with my dad, trash talking the 8 bit thugs, hashing out who should pick up what weapon, and of course who belongs where on the frickin’ screen. It also sparked my love for video games which has lasted, and will last, for my entire life.

So how do these 3DS games stack up? Well, both have the same RPG elements which made the original so great, as well as tons of cool special moves to buy and learn, secret shops to find, and of course the ridiculously fun punching of pixelated faces. In my opinion, Tokyo Rumble is the better of the two as it sticks more closely to the original in terms of mechanics. That said, I’m also enjoying Rival Showdown, which introduces a time mechanic which can change the ending of the game, unlocks special moves, and events that only happen at a certain time and location. There is more interaction with NPCs that also triggers events and fights. To me the difficulty of Rival Showdown is definitely not as beginner friendly as the previous titles, (even on beginner). Here are a couple of tips:

-Don’t be afraid to run if you’re getting absolutely destroyed.
-That 3 day time limit caught me off-guard, but in reality the game isn’t over if you don’t beat it within the time limit. As I mentioned above, the clock is used to trigger events. The 3 day limit is for the ?best? ending.
-If you’re fighting an opponent and your kicks and punches are only doing ?1? damage, run. It means that their defense is higher than your attack and you should work on leveling up, find some other easier opponents to beat on and grind levels.

Tokyo Rumble is much more linear when compared to Rival Showdown, so while there is a small amount of grinding needed to level up, you are in pretty good shape as the game progresses and the difficulty is not frustrating but not too easy either. You also get CPU controlled helpers that fight alongside of you which makes some of the boss fights much easier. I beat this game in about 5 hours, so while it’s on the short side it’s really fun and there are side missions that you can take on to earn money and special items. All said it’s definitely worth the $15 price tag.

I recommend getting both games if you’re a beat ?em up fan, the RPG mechanics make the games more interesting than other games of the same genre. While it’s a lot of punching/kicking/waffling enemies with various objects, it’s fun to earn coins to buy special moves books and equipment to increase the strength of your character. Also both games come with mini games; Tokyo Rumble comes with a dodgeball game and Rival Showdown comes with a fighting game, both of which are really fun to play. Check ?em out and let us know what you think. Also, pertaining to the question posed early on in the article, which game solidified your love for gaming? I’m curious if there are any ones that fell under the radar of most people. As always, thanks for reading!