PixlBit

     I got stuck in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team trying to find Big Masiff but I think I figured it out. You have to use the Luiginoids to bat a bomb towards a target. I was just letting the bombs bounce off me to no effect. I think I just have to hit the bomb with the Luiginoids at the right moment like a baseball with a bat. I’ve seen several baseball references in this game and it makes me think of the Japanese infatuation with that sport.

     I played more Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Not much though. A depressing and busy week for me. More about that below.

     I scanned three lovely video game print ads, The Wolf Among Us, Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death, and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, from my comics these last few weeks. Thought I'd share them and maybe discuss them a little.

     I watched my nephew play some Angry Birds Star Wars 2 (ABSW2) on his phone (it’s not set up as a phone. He uses it more like a DS).  The levels in ABSW2 are really creative. Each Star Wars character has its own abilities. Darth Sidious was my nephew’s favorite because he shoots out lightning as he hurtles toward the target.

    I am presently at the North Carolina shore with my Mother and Sister’s family for Thanksgiving week. I’ve been playing Mario & Luigi: Dream Team before bed every night and so far, nothing else, but I still think about games a lot and my 8 and 9 year old niece and nephew play some video games. Here are some of my thoughts for this first full day of vacation.

     Picked up Ratchet & Clank: into the Nexus on Tuesday and played the first hour or so. Controls work great, jumping around to different platforms in zero-g. I love all the characters. I’ve been singing that Wang Chung song, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight", all week after seeing it humorously placed in one particular cut-scene to great effect. Graphics aren’t as brilliantly sharp and detailed as I expected though. I seem to remember being more wowed by the graphics in Crack in Time when that came out. It could be that, being exposed to next gen graphics recently, I’m already expecting more from games. Still, it’s colorful and the environments really interesting, so I’m not complaining. I'm having fun tonight. I'm having Wang Chung tonight!

         On the night of the PS4 release I began thinking about what game got me to buy a PS3. It was launch day game Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom.

       All week I was playing Etrian Odyssey: Millennium Girl: 63 hours now and level 54. It’s interesting to figure out how to get monsters to drop certain items. Some have to be paralyzed first, or frozen, or fought only with smashing weapons. There’s a huge variety of approaches that will elicit certain items. Occasionally, a person in the pub will tell you how to do it, but most of the time you just have to figure it out by trial and error.