The Disillusioned BYONDer Digest

Mega Man 9... A NEW FREAKING NES GAME!!!!

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:49:06 GMT

Holy crap. Talk about every single NES fanboy's wet dream: the forthcoming Mega Man 9 isn't just a throwback to the original series, it's a new 8-bit NES Mega Man game!!!

Link: http://www.wiiware-world.com/news/2008/06/ mega_man_9_is_coming_to_wiiware_in_retro_style

Incredible. This is totally crap-your-pants worthy news. After all the lame Mega Man spin-offs (not counting Mega Man X 1-3), I can't imagine a more perfect way to get back to the original series. Someone at Capcom is a genius.

Now if only Dragon Quest 9 followed suit... but actually I shouldn't say that, because now I really want a new 8-bit Dragon Warrior game. Dammit.

Drinking and playing Rock Band with friends...

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:02:02 GMT

...might be the pinnacle of human existence.

Final Fantasy 3 (NES). The verdict: Meh.

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:37:13 GMT

Well, fresh off of the craptastic experience that was Final Fantasy 4, I decided to give its predecessor Final Fantasy 3 a try. Instead of playing the DS remake, I opted to play the translated NES original using an emulator... primary so I could draw fair comparisons between FF3 and the NES Dragon Warrior Games.

I played the game all the way through. I'm amazed by how similar it was to FF4 in terms of basic gameplay, and even graphics. Just like the kinda-sorta ugly Dragon Quest 5, the FF4 graphics were definitely carry-overs from the previous NES games. FF4 probably could have been called "Final Fantasy 3 with a s*** story and no class changing".

While Final Fantasy 3 had its moments, it still doesn't hold a candle to Dragon Warrior 3 or 4. As expected, the class changing system was INCREDIBLY shallow. You can essentially change your class at any moment, and the only thing that carries over is Max HP. This translates into certain parts of the game where you have to change all four of your party members to a certain class just to beat a particular boss or get through a dungeon that has class-targeted enemies.

Not that you'll really care about what your class is anyway, because at the end of the game you get access to the two UBER CLASSES, which equate to an unstoppable warrior class that can equip every weapon/armor, and a magic class that can cast every spell in the game. Lame.

The overworld stuff is cool- airships that can do different things, from dive underwater to hop over mountains. There are also secrets-galore to be found in dungeons and towns, which is fun. The graphics are pretty damn good for an NES game as well.

Overall FF3 was fun but shallow, and very disappointing near the end. Which brings me to the next FF game that I'm going to take a stab at... Final Fantasy 5.

I'm about three hours in and FF5 has COMPLETELY blown me away so far! The class changing system isn't just really fun... it's very deep without being to complex or intimidating. The graphics are great, the music is excellent, and so far the story is generic but well done.

So, here is where things stand on the FF games that I have played through:

FF X > FF XII > FF 3 > FF 4 > FF 1

Nobody is talking about it, but the best feature on the new iPhone 3G is...

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:11:58 GMT

All of the typical media outlets are talking about all of the reasons to buy one of the new iPhones - 3G, GPS, sleeker design, flush headphone jack etc, and all of these new features are great. However, it's a bit strange to me that no one is really focussed on the iPhone 3G's best new feature: the greatly improved battery life.

As a happy iPhone owner, the only major complaint I could wager about my current iPhone is the battery life. Talk/Standby time is fine, but I only get a couple hours of internet browsing over Edge, or a couple hours of watching videos. I make heavy use of my iPhone, which typically means that by the end of the day it's dying for a charge, but sometimes I go two days without having to worry about it.

Now this doesn't sound like too much of a hassle, except when you're on business trips as often as I am and you can only watch one movie on a four hour flight, or you have to conserve battery power by cutting down your web browsing time on long trips.

The good news: the new iPhone has at least double the battery life of the first generation iPhone... and over 3G to boot! Now we'll see if "real world" use brings these numbers down, but in my experience Apple is pretty conservative in their estimates.

All of that said, the battery life of my current phone isn't such a huge problem that I'm going to buy a 3G iPhone right away. I'm actually going to wait until a 32GB model comes out, which shouldn't be too far off considering the fact that they already have a 32GB iPod Touch.

Played through FF4 for the first time... Final Fantasy is completely overrated.

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:11:49 GMT

Growing up, I never really played any of the Final Fantasy games, which is weird, because I was a huge RPG fan. Quite frankly, I don't think I missed much.

Final Fantasy IV (originally released as FF2 here in the US) was okay I guess. The super-linear gameplay, completely forgettable characters and a blah storyline really failed to impress me. The worst part: almost every single character "dies" at one point then ends up coming back to life. This is completely stupid in terms of storytelling, but what it also does is make you completely unattached to your party. Why give a damn about your characters' level and equipment if they could "die" any moment?

I've now played about half of the Final Fantasy games, and I feel confident in saying that it is one of the most overrated series of games of all time. There are just so many better RPGs out there... and from the days of the NES to the present, there have been better RPGs available all along.

Whenever the mood strikes, the next FF game that I'm going to try is FF3. I hear a lot of hype about its "revolutionary" job system, but something tells me that Dragon Warrior 3's class-changing system easily trounces it. We'll see.

Dammit Australia, you really suck

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:29:17 GMT

WTF? Why is it that I like everyone I've ever met from Australia, but everything that I see or hear coming out of their country is completely retarded? Screw you you socialist doucebags. The only explanation I can come up with for all of the cool Aussies I've met here in the US is that they vacation here as often as possible to escape their hell-hole of a country.

According to this ridiculous piece of enviro-scare propaganda, I should have died when I was 4.8 years old. This is almost as stupid as an article awhile back that pointed out that riding a bicycle instead of driving is actually WORSE for the environment, because if you are healthy and live a longer life, you'll leave a bigger OMG CARBON FOOTPRINT OMG F*** S***!

Hell, if the solution to "Global Warming" is for humans to die sooner, we ought to do our part for the environment by nuking Australia ASAP. Oh, and Canada too... just 'cause.

Have to grind out some levels on Wii Fit...

Fri, 23 May 2008 01:07:13 GMT

I bought Wii Fit on Wednesday, but I haven't had a chance to play it until tonight... and holy crap! Not only do I feel like I got a pretty darn good work out; it totally had me panting heavily about half an hour in.

The cool thing is that I actually had fun doing it! I guess that's the point... but I was still surprised by how entertained I was. The only exercise that I really hated so far was the basic Pushup exercise... because doing Pushups on the balance board was really uncomfortable.

This might be a good thing or a bad thing, but this game will make you feel like you're totally out of shape. My balance is way off, I weigh too much and I'm apparently 55 years old. That's okay though, because I'm going to spend an hour or so everyday for the next month "grinding" to boost my stats! It's like WoW in real life... only not.

Recent picture of me from my honeymoon.

I'm 6'1" and 195 pounds. I'm not overweight by any means, but I'm certainly feeling a bit pudgy lately. About two years ago I weighed 170.

So, we'll see if I actually end up booting this up everyday, and whether or not it actually gets me in shape. I've started walking/running/going to the gym lately, so if anything this game will help me get a bit of extra exercise and keep track of my progress.

Awesome, the Wii is starting to suck less!

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:21:07 GMT

I have a love-hate relationship with my Wii. I was initially blown away by it... and then became increasingly frustrated by the absence of third party games that actually utilized the Wiimote properly. There has been a complete lack of any coherent online play in most titles coupled with the absolute s*** graphics (due mostly to a lack of effort). Oh, and the fact that there isn't nearly enough HD space means that Wii owners get gimped versions of games like Rock Band.

Why is the best boxing game on the system still Wii Sports, which itself is little more than a tech demo? Why are most releases just shovelware from the PS2 with tacked-on Wii controls? Finally, why does it feel like many first-party titles are being dumbed down (see Mario Galaxy's laughable difficultly).

That said, the recent releases of Boom Blox, Mario Kart Wii and WiiWare have given me some new hope. After SSBB's travesty of an online mode, Mario Kart Wii actually got it right; and at least the game *tried* to have some major Wiimote functionality. Boom Blox is pure awesomeness, and is one of the best uses of the Wii controls yet.

Which brings us to WiiWare. The only title I've downloaded so far has been LostWinds, which I beat last night. If this game is a hint of what's to come for WiiWare, then get excited! It's original, features beautiful art design, and makes excellent use of the Wii's controls. If you own a Wii, you really ought to download this game.

Now if Nintendo would only solve the HD problem (maybe by allowing games to run off of SD cards?), Wii owners could be in for a much brighter future...

JUSTIN BAILEY hype continues to build...

Thu, 08 May 2008 22:17:57 GMT

Well, after being featured on Slashdot, GameTrailers.com and GoNintendo.com, The JUSTIN BAILEY Conspiracy has been racking up some significant hits. We're the #10 most viewed comedy video on YouTube today!

It also looks like we now have a legitimate chance to make the front page of Digg as well, so anyone who enjoyed the video should definitely go to the new entry and digg it :)

The funny part is that my friends Joe & Luke who run baratsandbereta.com probably get 100,000+ hits on their videos every day, no sweat. It puts the small success that I've had with this video into perspective, but it's still fun!

Ironically, we shot "The JUSTIN BAILEY Conspiracy" last November, and I've been sitting on the footage for almost six months now because I was pissed off by how much the initial edit of the video sucked. Then I happened to randomly open the project file last week and re-review the footage... and after cutting about 40% of the dialogue, I decided it was good enough to finish.

NES Nudity Galore: The JUSTIN BAILEY Conspiracy

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:12:54 GMT

Four videos inside of three weeks? It's madness!

Anyway, this new short is for old-school Nintendo fans and gaming nerds. Surely, most of you remember (or at least know of) the infamous JUSTIN BAILEY code?

No one has ever known the origin of the code's name... until now. All of your burning questions will be answered in"The Justin Bailey Conspiracy"

Warning: language and 8-bit nudity.

If you like it, please Digg It!