PixlBit

It started out simple enough. I went to McDonalds to get a little lunch (I had slept in a bit longer than normal) and hit up the Nintendo Zone for Miis (I got six, I found out later). I think I'd better be careful about this Mickey Dee thing. It's really not very healthy. Next time I'll order something like coffee or a hot chocolate. I'd eat nothing but I feel too weird walking in there just to get the Spot Pass. Then I headed over to Gamestop to preorder Etrian Mystery Dungeon, out on April 7th (I went to the one where I get the feminine smiles and not the one where I get the upselling).

Then I went to my friend Mark's place and played a bunch of games. First up was Super Mario RPG. I played until I got the fourth star. In this segment of the game you are up against Booster who has Princess Toadstool. Spoilers to follow. . .You fight lots of his minions and perform a mini-game that involves avoiding being discovered behind some curtains. Then you fight mini-bosses Knife Guy and Grate Guy. Those guys took a while to beat. Then you chase Booster up Booster Hill in another mini-game where you just jump to avoid or spring off of barrels and minions come from behind you. Then you enter Marrymore where Booster is trying to get married to Princess Toadstool. You fight off his cooks and a sentient cake and save Toadstool. Yea, you don't fight Booster. Weird right? And you don't get a star for all that. Weirder. So then you go back to the Mushroom Kingdom and, after some celebrating, continue on to Tadpole Pond where Frogfucius tells you to go to Star Hill. Then you get the fourth Star without much trouble and that's where I stopped. I never actually want to stop this game, but I wanted to get some time in with the next two games.

I picked another game to make three for the day yesterday and I chose ActRaiser. I was able to download it on Wii Virtual Console for $8 and boy was it worth it. What a fantastic game! It's a mix of genre's being both a building sim, a shooter, and a side-scrolling beat 'em up. Yea, all that. You begin as an angel in a cloud ship of some sort that floats above a bunch of land masses. I couldn't figure out what to do at first and had to look up the instructions. Turns out I had to pick a spot on the map and choose "fight" from the menu. Then I became a knight dropped into a 2D dungeon and had to fight and jump on platforms to get to a boss and beat him. It was a little frustrating for a while but I eventually beat the Centaur boss.Then the game puts you back as the angel and lets you build a town on the ground below you filled with people. While doing that, there are monster lairs that spawn flying beasts that you can shoot with arrows from your flying angel character like an arcade shooter. You have to kill them or they will destroy buildings or try and carry off your people. Every so often your people will worship you and tell you about new threats or offer you gifts. I built my town and roads so that they led to each monster lair where the people could shut them down. After all of them were gone, a special dungeon appeared and I had to use my knight again to fight and beat a boss. I beat the first mini-boss in this larger dungeon, but couldn't make it to the end boss. I kept loosing too much health. The controls were good though, so with practice tomorrow, I might be able to get there. It was 8 o'clock by then and I wanted to stop to get some time on this next game.

                             

                              He's faster than a fat man on a chilli dog (that'd be me, btw)

I played my Monk in Diablo III for the rest of the night, leveling him and searching for new dungeons and lore books I'd missed in Act I. I made a list on paper so I wouldn't have to look at the challenge menu over and over. There's a lot of scrolling around in that menu, which is tedious to say the least. I'm still going for the gold achievement but I'm only a little over 2 million. My friend Mark is almost there at 4.5 million. I'm at level 52 on my Monk. When I get to level 60, I'll start a Witch Doctor or Barbarian. 

On bathroom breaks, and while waiting for my PC to boot up at home, I played some Pokemon Shuffle. This is the perfect thing for really shorts shots of gaming. I had a full 10 street passes on it and looked at what other people were doing in the game. I also got a few gifts for that such as more gems and coins. I'm enjoying it.

And that's my day picklebits. Stay crispy. Stay vinegary.