Creative Christmas #9 – Holiday Gameplay

Today in the collab with LaterLevels, I have to answer another question. A question in a series called “Creative Christmas” and I still don’t have a theme for my articles yet. So, what should I do? Should I just give up finding a theme or should I keep looking? Maybe I should sit down on the sofa and think about it… Perhaps a great idea will come to me. But, I think better if I play a game. So, it might be a great idea that I take this controller and start playing this game. What was the question today again?

 The presents have been opened and dinner has been eaten, so you’ve got a bit of time for gaming while Gran is snoozing on the sofa. What’s the best video game to play during the holidays?

So, what’s the best game to play during the holidays? Well, I prefer longer games to play during holidays. Games that can take you a couple of hours or days to complete. If you would finish a game too soon, what else should you play during the holidays?

In the past, I used to play one game and fully devote my time to it. Even when I had such a big collection, I wanted to see everything that game had to offer before I went to the next one. Nowadays, I play a lot of different games in a week. That has two reasons, first of all, I like the variation in what I play in a week. One day I feel like playing an RPG game and another day I more like playing a puzzle game.

So, what game can hold you over during the holidays? Here is a list of games that can be great time wasters to play during the holidays.

One,  a sandbox game like Minecraft or Terraria. Since these games have a randomly generated world, there is always something new to discover. Personally, I prefer Minecraft over Terreria, since I enjoy the more relaxed focus of Minecraft compared to the bosses and such in Terreria. I’m not saying that Terreria is bad in any sense of the word, I enjoy Minecraft more.

Two, an RTS game like Age Of Empires III or Europa Universalis IV. I can enjoy myself a lot of rounds in RTS games. Every time I choose a different nation to play with, the game will go completely differently. Even when I choose the same nation twice. I really enjoy the gameplay of RTS games, even while I’m not the best in the combat system. I’m also unable to beat the AI at the harder difficulties. But, honestly, I don’t really care. I’m enjoying myself and that’s all that counts.

Three, an (open world) RPG. It speaks for itself that an (open world) RPG can give you hours upon hours of fun. I’m talking about RPG’s that have multiple endings like Stella Glow or Mass Effect. But, games where the focus is more on the open world also count in this category like Breath of the Wild or Fallout.

Four, party games like Mario Party or Mario Kart. I mean, do I even need to explain myself here? Games that you play while you are together with your family and/or friends?

I think I could make this list a lot longer, but the question is: “what’s the best game to play during the holiday season.” I thought about it for a while, and to be honest, I think there isn’t one single game that fits the bill perfectly.

I use the holidays as a way to either catch up with my backlog or to have long playing sessions of games I wanted to complete.

Also, the answer changes each holiday season I think. There are a few games I replay each and every year because the nostalgia is just too strong. Games like Phantom Hourglass, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine and the Zelda Oracle games are perfect examples.

You know, this will sound extremely cheesy, but I think it’s best that you play a game that you enjoy and can relax with. The holiday season is a time to be happy and relax. Even when it’s together with family and/or friends. Just make amazing new memories and perhaps you will be able to find that one game you can play during the holiday season. The game that can have that kind of a special meaning to you.

So, that’s my answer. Told you it would sound cheesy. I do hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day.

 

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Blogger Blitz Round #1: Retail Rumble

What is this?

What is Blogger Blitz?

Basically, it’s a writing competition between bloggers we are doing for fun. I could explain everything in detail, but the organizer has written a very long blog post about it. In this post, you can find all other bloggers who are in this competition. So, feel free to read this post if you want more information.

https://adventurerules.blog/2017/07/24/blogger-blitz-round-one-match-schedule/

First Round!

So, I have the honor to start in the first round and start the first “battle”. So, today I’m presenting you with this:

Basically, the goal of this round is to convince you and the judges that a certain iconic item of the character can be mass produced and sell the best. For example, Minecraft Steve can mass produce diamond tools and sell them at a high price.

Since I choose Indiana Jones as my character, I’ll try and convince you about what he could mass market and sell. Oh, if you don’t know a lot about Indiana Jones or want to read a bit about his background, well… here is a massive article from the Indiana Jones Wiki telling every adventure in order from all the movies, games, books and other media: http://indianajones.wikia.com/wiki/Indiana_Jones

If you want to read the argument that Lightning Ellen makes, feel free to take a read at her blog here: https://lightningellen.com/

Her character will be Lightning Farron from Final Fantasy XIII. If you want to read more about the character of my opponent, here is a link to her page on the Final Fantasy Wiki: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Lightning_(Final_Fantasy_XIII)

The results will be announced on Friday the 4th of August on the Adventure Rules blog, so we shall both check there! So, I hope you are ready since here comes my argument! Also, the rules state that the argument can only be 500 words long. Just a little side note. The rules can be read here: https://adventurerules.blog/2017/07/27/blogger-blitz-rules-and-regulations/

So, may the best argument win!

My argument

Dr. Henry Indiana Jones Jr. got a special phone call after he finished his classes at the Marshall College. It was his other boss, the one with the big ears and the big white gloves. The conversation was brief, but it made Indiana nervous.

He had to go to his office and pitch something new to convince him to not go for another project. He thought about it for a while and after he created a prototype, he went to the office of his boss.

When he was walking towards the office, a young girl with long pink hair walked outside. Then he realized, the other pitch was for Kingdom Hearts. He got even more nervous. There was only room for one more project and he wanted that spot.

Indiana’s plan was simple, to sell new merchandise to attract new fans and try to ease the pain of the disappointed fans that saw the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie. He had to make and present something good, otherwise, the release of the new movie in July 2020 might be a flop and that would mean possibly the end of his franchise.

After the young girl left the hallway, he knocked on the door. He knocked a few times in rapid succession. It didn’t take long before he could enter the office. But, this time, Indiana wasn’t alone with the mouse in the office, his wife was sitting in the office as well.

Indiana didn’t hesitate and started his pitch. He started to talk about how the merch sales are declining and they needed to come out with a new item so that they could hype up the 5^th big movie. Indiana’s plan was simple. He wanted to make a new line of costume sets.

This would serve several purposes. It would be very handy for people that want to cosplay, act in theaters, make fan movies, collectors and so on and so forth. The mouse was happy to see something that iconic being pitched in front of him.

Yet, Indiana wasn’t done with his pitch. There was another layer to his idea. Since he was nearing his retirement, he also wanted to sell the costume set to create a great competition for his replacement actor. Since, that would make it easier to set up some sort of show, “Who will be the next Indiana?”.

The costume set would have everything, the fedora, shirt, jacket, pants, satchel and a prop gun and prop whip. Indiana didn’t want to limit it, so he created a female prototype. This made the wife of the mouse happy. She found it very cute and fell a bit in love with the design. She tried it on and she was convinced of the pitch. In her eyes, Indiana won. But the mouse, he had to speak to the judges. Since he wasn’t sure who had the best pitch. He both liked the pitch of the pink haired girl and Indiana. So, what now. What now?

Ending of my entry

So, that was my argument. To prepare myself for this, I replayed various Indiana Jones games and rewatched all movies I owned. Also, I wanted to present my argument in a way how I love to write, in a story.

I highly recommend you read the argument made by Lightning Ellen and decide for yourself who won. But, who will go to the 2nd round? Well, as I said earlier in this article, the jury will decide that and it will be announced on August the 4th. You can find the links for that earlier in the article.

As a little side note, for those who didn’t get it; I wrote about this event. Obviously, I took some creative freedom to fit it into a story only about Indiana Jones. This story has no ill intent to anybody or any company.

So, I want to close off this article with thanking you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then take care and have a great rest of your day.

First Impression: Kirby – Mass Attack (DS) ~ Plural For Kirby?

Official site

So, what’s the plural for Kirby? I never thought I would ask myself that question. The plural that most people use is Kirbies. Thinking about the rule in English grammar. If the singular ends with a -y, the plural is -ies. You might be thinking, what in the name of holy handhelds is this blogger talking about? Well, in this article we are going to take a look at Kirby Mass Attack on the Nintendo DS. It’s going to be a first impression since I haven’t finished the game. And like my friends the Cynical Bastards said in one of their videos: “You need  to beat a game before you review it.” Otherwise, I might have to write several articles to update the previous one. And I don’t plan to write as many articles as there are Kirbies in this game. So yeah, I’m enjoying this game. But is it actually good? Is more Kirbies, more fun? You probably know already that Kirby is mostly used when Nintendo wants to try out new gameplay ideas. This, of course, is one of them. Now, I think my mind is getting into pieces, just like Kirby is this game. Don’t worry, I won’t continue using this joke in the rest of the article. I think I’m ready to finally take a look at this game. Oh yeah, one thing. Feel free to leave a comment about this article and or your opinion on this game.

Kirby is fun

 A few days ago, I was playing with my niece on my Wii. We were playing Kirby Adventure Wii. (Which is Kirby’s Return To Dreamland in the NSTC region) She had a blast. Kirby is indeed fun. The story on the other hand is always similar to the Mario series. I don’t want to say that the story is weak or anything, it’s just difficult to make an interesting story for a platformer.

In this game, Kirby is cursed and split into 10 Kirbies. But the bad guy, the Skull gang, was smart enough to also split the power in ten. So, what this means is, the story explains why you can’t fly or suck up enemies.

I can’t be too harsh on the story since it does what it’s supposed too. It draws the children in to the game and makes an interesting setting for veteran players. Up until the point I have played this game, it will present nothing interesting for older players in terms of story. But then again, I already said it makes for an interesting setting.

If you played the previous Kirby games on DS, you are in luck. There are some things in the story that really surprised me. Certain characters have an interesting role in the plot. And that made me hope for seeing the story expand more then just the introduction. I’m secretly hoping that the story will be more present then in a main Mario game. But I fear for that. The story won’t develop more unless you beat the game. So, no explaining why you go to another world next I suppose.

How does it play?

A screenshot in another language? Interesting right? This game plays very different then your normal Kirby game but it feels similar. Like the screenshot here, you also recognize certain things that are typical for a Kirby game.

I already told you guys earlier that you can’t fly or suck up enemies in this game. So, you will have to be smart to defeat your enemies.

This game really benefits from being on the DS. The use of both screens is just amazing. You have a nice overview of your score, amount of Kirbies and medals on your top screen. The bottom screen is used for the actual gameplay.

I have my doubts about the controls, honestly. I can understand that everything is done on a touchscreen, but I sometimes get the impression that a few button commands would help this game. This might just be how I feel about this game, and maybe the rest of the game might prove me wrong.

One thing that will be a negative in some people their eyes is the fact that you loose all your Kirbies if you go from world to world. I honestly find that a great idea. It helps the challenge of this game. Talking about that, this game isn’t really easy. But it’s not hard either.

The problem with this is game is that’s it’s a bit too unique for a Kirby game. When you want to reach a higher up platform, you where able to get Kirby to fly. Now, you have to actually group up the Kirbies and drag them up. Hoping that you can do it in time since if the meter runs out, they all drop to the ground.

My final thoughts about the gameplay is that it’s very interesting and a great spin on your standard platformer game. But you need to get used to it. I will take a more in-depth look in the review.

Clones?

I know that this game tries to be child-friendly but I think that clones was a bad choice of words. But explain that, would take us too far for just a little nitpick.

The game really delivers in being child-friendly. The visuals of this game are cute and colorful. They are just what you would expect from a Kirby game. The animation is nearly flawless. If only it was a bit more clear if you were either going to defeat the enemy or if the enemy will be able to throw you off. You can’t really make it out.

I can’t really talk about the game’s length just yet. Since I’m now in the 2nd world of the game. If we look at previous Kirby games, I think we might expect a solid ~ 20 – 30 hours game. Please, don’t take my word for it, since I’m not that good in guessing the length of games.

Interestingly enough, this game has achievements. Yes, achievements. But I will comment about them in my review. But there is something else that is a negative for me. There are mini-games included in this game. But sadly enough, you unlock them way too fast. I nearly unlocked 1/2 of them by simply beating the first world. I just hope that there are more mini-games then shown.

So, that will conclude my first impression of this game. When I ever finish this game, I will surely write a review to talk a bit more in-depth about this game. Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing this one. Hopefully I can welcome you in another article.