Rant: Let’s go mobile – please no.

This rant might come as a surprise. I also write articles about mobile games and now I’m going to actually talk bad about it. I read an article today and something snapped inside of me. Something just made me sigh so hard, I almost blew over my nearly empty can of soda. I just realized something that will be a grave danger if we didn’t talk about it. Even if this might seem nonsense to you, I’m quite afraid it might happen. Feel free to discuss this in the comments, I’m kind of curious what you guys think. Warning: this rant has been written when I was a bit angry and disappointing by the news I open the next paragraph with. Just a heads up, m’kay. It might be not written as good as I usually write. 

Layton and Fantasy Life sequels go mobile.

Thank you Kotaku for sharing my opinion. I simply can’t believe that Level5 is making this idiotic move. I have a lot of respect for Level5, since they made some amazing titles. But jumping on the mobile cash train is just making me sad. Extremely sad.

Apart from that, Nintendo is also moving mobile after a lot of complaints. I’m extremely afraid that they might do something stupid as well.

I could rant about how disappointed I am about this, but it might be better to explain why I feel like that actually. There is something going on in the mobile market that is really not good for us gamers.

Moving to mobile

When I browse the app store lately, I notice that big titles like Final Fantasy and Fifa are appearing on the mobile market. This business scheme is just insulting in my eyes.

Why? Simply because those games don’t belong on the mobile market. At all. Since mobile games are meant as timewasters at the doctor’s office or waiting for a bus. Games that work well on mobile are games that are easy to understand and play. Games that have a simple idea behind them. That’s why Candy Crush is doing so well.

I’m quite sure that some people will disagree with me on this. They will try to prove that I’m wrong with examples of games that did well on the mobile platform. A game that actually did well on mobile platforms is Minecraft Pocket Edition. But then again, it’s a game you can enjoy in short bursts and it’s something excellent to do while you are waiting on something.

Why don’t triple A games belong on the mobile market? One reason is, that a tablet and phones aren’t meant to have long gameplay sessions on. Tablets where originally a decent alternative to a laptop for business men. But phones, they just aren’t meant for it. Think about it, you can’t call somebody because your battery died because you played too much games on it.

Also, because people want to use their phones more and more to do stuff on, where actually a tablet or a laptop is made for, the sizes of a phone gets… just out of proportion. I have seen phones that barely can fit in a pocket.

Target groups

My biggest issue is the fact that the people who play games on their mobile phones are a different group who play games on their consoles, handhelds and/or computers. When I see people play games on Facebook and their phones, I rarely see them play games on a handheld. Also, when I look to most of my friends who play games on consoles and other devices, I rarely see them play games on mobile phone. It’s because most people who play games on their mobile phones aren’t that interested in games to begin with.

I could try to explain it, but let me prove my point. When I went to Minecon a few years ago, the people who played Minecraft Pocket Edition had a separate room. Most of the people there were young mothers, males that did a lot of sport or very young children.

Or another example, the more popular games that started on mobile, get their way onto Steam, handhelds and/or consoles. Weird isn’t it?

Before I forget to mention it, the fact that you have no buttons to play with feels so awkward to me. Not only that, what you see on the screen then depends on the size of your fingers as well. Not only that, when you are in a situation where you need to do some sort of quick action, buttons are just better. Since you can press them and it’s harder to press them by accident.

No tablet for me

So, I’m already seeing some comments in my head. But if it’s on a tablet, it might be better to play on since your fingers take up less space or you can plug in a keyboard.

Hold the Android there. (Little phone pun, sorry.) First of all, I agree with the argument of the tablet being a better size to play games on. I honestly think that mobiles shouldn’t be powerful enough to play games like Delver or Fifa on.

But the argument of being able to plug in a keyboard or a controller is just, well, it makes for a whole different experience. Out of that idea we got tablet-laptop hybrids and a console named the Ouya.

I actually own a tablet. I use it to watch video’s on when I’m on a trip or in bed and I can’t sleep. It makes less noise and it’s lighter to carry then a laptop. In the end, I actually prefer a laptop.

Anyways, I think I’m going to wrap this one up. It felt quite nice to blow off some steam about this. It’s possible that I look back at this article later and my opinion might be different, but I think that the big triple A games shouldn’t go towards mobile platforms. If anything, they should rename it to “tablet platforms”. Since then my arguments about phones have less meaning.

So yeah, I might write more about this subject but in any case, I hope you found this interesting. While I could have written this when I was more calm and collected about the subject, I feel that, as a writer and creative person, you should allow yourself to publish something you created when you were in a different mood. But that’s a whole other subject. Take care and until the next article. I already have something in mind. ~

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Game Music: My Favorites – Numbero 11: GB(C) month special.

Let’s start off with an article that last month’s theme lacked. An article about video game music. In this series, I take a look at my favorite game tracks. I can’t pick one track as my favorite and since I want to talk about so many tracks, I started this series. This time I want to talk about my favorite tracks of some gameboy (color) games. Keep in mind that these are my favorite tracks and they might differ from yours. Also, this isn’t a top 10 or anything like that. So, don’t be mad if your favorite track isn’t in this article. Man, I’m sounding now like I’m introducing the wrong type of article and trying to make the introduction longer. I’m totally not doing that, believe me. Okay? Anyways, the rules are simple. Only one track of a game per article. Oh, and feel free to leave a comment on the tracks, content of this article and or your opinion of the soundtracks of the GB(C) games. 

#1: Pokémon Blue & Red (GB) ~ Battle Theme

Link to my review – Link to the music

Who doesn’t remember the good old gym leader theme of Pokémon Red & Blue? As a kid I was always pumped whenever I heard this melody pop-up. I wanted to defeat that gym leader.

Whenever I hear this melody, I get hyped. I know that something big is coming that has to do with Pokémon.

I even remember that I sometimes let my gameboy play just hear this song. Since it’s the only way I can hear it “clean”. What I mean by that is that near the end of almost every version of YouTube, Pokémon battle sounds start playing.

But hey, it’s still a memorable and nice track to listen too!

#2: The Legend Of Zelda – Oracle Of Ages (GBC) ~ Nayru’s Song

Review – Link to the music (extended)

There are two songs that makes me sometimes tear up of nostalgia in the Zelda series. One of these songs is Nayru’s song. The reason why is because it’s the first puzzle I solved in my favorite Zelda game. It was the start of a thrilling adventure I never forgot.

As a kid I didn’t have a console or a good PC. So, I played a lot on my gameboy. So, that’s why my love for the gameboy games is so big. While I don’t remember if this was my first Zelda game or the NES remake on the GBA, but it was one of the first.

It was also a different game then I used to play. Different from the pure puzzle games and platformer games. Yeah, the memories.

#3: Super Mario Land (GB) ~ Overworld

Link to the song

The hate this game gets is just… Well, it’s mixed for me. At one side,  I understand how this game is a mediocre Mario game compared to the other Mario games. It isn’t in color, it’s outside the Mushroom Kingdom, the story is about another princess, the fireballs bounce, you can’t save…

At the other hand, it’s the Mario game I grew up with. It’s the first Mario game I ever played. Even when I played the NES game at my cousin’s house, I found that the NES game wasn’t as much fun as Super Mario Land. Something didn’t click with me.

Wow, I got sidetracked extremely fast. But the memories behind this game are just too big. Maybe I should write an article about it…?

#4: Tetris DX (GB/C) ~ Type A

Link to the music

So, I got a gameboy color… And what’s the first game I get myself? That’s right! Tetris DX! Why? Because my grandmom got a Gameboy color herself.

In this gaming nostalgia article, I talked about how my aunt’s brick, I mean oldschool gameboy died. The only two games I could play on there were Pac-Man and Tetris. So, when I saw this, I wanted to play Tetris again.

I have multiple stories about this game, but this game is the sole reason why the Tetris theme is so memorable to me. It’s one of the biggest tunes in gaming is it not?

#5: Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets (GBC) ~ Main Theme

Link to the music

I was a kid right when the Harry Potter craze was in full swing. Besides Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Ho, Harry Potter was extremely popular with the kids.

While this game was also made on the PC and several other consoles, I played the Gameboy Color version. I didn’t have any fancy consoles or the game on PC.

But I enjoyed myself. I had both games, from the first movie and the second movie. The reason why I picked this track is because I had a hard time finding the music of the first game of the gameboy version. And this popped right up in my search results.

Closing words

As I feared, this article turned into a sort of gaming nostalgia article. When it comes to gameboy and gameboy color games I always want to talk about more then just the music. I hope you can forgive me for that.

So, till Christmas, I will write a few articles of gameboy and gameboy color games. I’m going to try to do my best to not be overly nostalgic like in this article. It’s for that reason why I kept this article shorter then my usual articles.

I hope you enjoyed reading it! Hopefully I can see you another time here on my blog for a new article. Take care guys~

Views on the future: an update blog.

Hello there Neko’s. Today, I’ll do something different. Normally I make Neko Vlogs for this, but hey, I like to change things around once in a while. So, that’s why I’ll write the updates here in this post. What am I going to do in the future? You will read it all here. Keep in mind that I’m going to be extremely busy. This weekend I have to go acting for a theater tour here in my home town. And next week my college for elementary teacher restarts. But hey, I’ll try to do some stuff in my free time for everything. 

Personal life.

Before I actually talk about my idea’s for the future, what I’m busy with and what will be going on that might keep me from creating content. Like I said in the introduction, I’m going to have a busy weekend. Next week, I’ll be out on Monday for college, on Tuesday I have some preparation work to do and from Wednesday my college restarts.

Since I have to focus on this new challenge, my releasing of content will slow down. I’m extremely excited to meet new people and face all the new challenges that this will bring me. I’m also planning to play a part in next year’s play of my theater group.  If any of you guys read this article, know that I love you guys extremely much.

Also, I have a lot of things to do in my personal life. Like cleaning things up, organizing things and such. Some parts of my library’s and stock effects (for example) are all a big mess. So, I have to clean that up. In addition to that, I have to make sure that everything runs as smooth as it can get.

But some sad news needs to be told as well. Because I do a lot of repetitive movements due to play a lot of games and writing a lot, my right shoulder hurts from time to time. With resting and such it goes away but it sometimes stops me from working on content. So, that’s a reason why sometimes content doesn’t come daily.

I’m glad that I linked Twitter with everything. For my latest updates go to my Twitter. I announce on there when I’m sick, too tired to work on things, too busy or any other things like that.

The final thing before we move on is that I want to mention that I won’t try to put out things every day anymore. I don’t think it will be possible for me anymore. Also, I think I won’t enjoy my “work” (/hobby) as much then anymore. I’ll try to put something on my blog or YouTube channel at least once a week but daily is no goal anymore of mine.

Personal thanks

Before I continue, I want to thank you all for the support I’m getting lately. 12,500+ views and nearly 110 subscribers is really amazing for me. And that’s for my YouTube.

On my blog, I also get likes and comments on nearly every article. And it puts a smile to me face. I’m so glad that people enjoy my content and start following me. While this is actually a hobby and stress reliever of mine, I actually feel rewarded in the process. And that feeling is something unique.

For people who play sports as a hobby it feels like winning a match while the audience is cheering you on. It feels so good. I have to thank everybody from Arpegi and ButtonSmashers for the amazing feedback I get. BloodCat for example is such an amazing guy and really points out the things that didn’t go well.

Thanks to this small success, I actually got in touch with some better YouTubers and such then me. And I have ways to grow even more. Yet, this is extremely overwhelming to me. Seeing that I got some trophies from WordPress for my work and that another blog selected ButtonSmashers (and that means Arpegi also, a bit at least) for a family award… Well, I’m going to be extremely honest here. My goal is to entertain the family and make it grow. And getting a WordPress Family Award for it, it gave me teary eyes.

Like this article guys: http://afterdarkgaming.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/wordpress-family-award/ It’s really something I’m going to print out and stick on my magnet board near my desk.

I can’t wait what the future is going to bring for me. Maybe new people want me to write for them. New collaborations or solo projects. Who knows?

Future content.

Blog

I’ll be working on a lot for my blog. First of all, I’m thinking of starting a new page for Steam accounts and such. Or I might add it on the Arpegi network page.

Also, I’ll link to the ButtonSmashers networks by a new partner page I’m creating. I’m talking to the guys of ButtonSmashers to ask who wants to be on that page.

Plus, I now finishing up a lot of games at the same time. That’s why there hasn’t been so many articles lately. I’m working on finishing games to get review ready and in stock to avoid “death moments” on my blog.

And a new creepypasta is being read. This one will be exclusive for an Arpegian’s CreepyPasta Tumblr. Maybe after some time I might link it on my DevaintArt or my own blog/Tumblr.

I have some rants in preparation too. Since it has been such a long time that I wrote one. Game Diary’s will also continue. So, keep an eye on my blog for updates.

Before I forget, soon I’ll be on the “About Us” page on ButtonSmashers. I’m truly excited for that. I don’t want to push the guys there but they said it will happen soon.

Something I should have done a long time ago is the favicon of my blog. If you bookmark my blog, it will show the default WordPress logo. I have to change that! I might put my normal avatar as a temp replacement until somebody of ButtonSmashers or Arpegi makes me something. But yeah, until then I might change it to something temp.

There might change something on my blog. I might not review all games I did a first impression on. Simply because of time limits. Yeah, I don’t have loads and loads of time. And I start new games all the time. Either I have to change that habit or just make the full review a later day.

YouTube

After some stalling, today I finally started working on the final episode of Project Central. I’m 25% done with it. After that, I’ll start playing Dream Chronicles again to record a new episode of that.

As you neko’s probably have seen already, I uploaded the other episodes of Herobrine’s Return. Simply to get that series over with. I was so unhappy that my microphone bugged out and you could barely hear me. Thankfully I have a better headset now so that’s fixed.

The Corpse Party series is in a delay. Because of Hetty not having a proper mic. Yet, we are going to try to record a new episode with the internal mic of her laptop but I can’t give any promises. I might ask other Arpegians to work on new episodes with me.

I have been playing a lot of Minecraft with the Arpegians. New people joined in the crew too. Maybe they might appear in video’s. So, I played a lot on a 1.7 snapshot server and I’m talking to MiseryLC for maybe a new survival series. But we aren’t going to reset our map so, the boring grindy stuff is already done. Sadly enough, we have so ugly chuncks. Some might like it, but I’m still not sure what to do with them. I might just delete the bad things with MCEdit or something or just deal with it.

I also need to upgrade my editing software soon. Version 12 of PowerDirector was released. And I’m still rocking with version 11. The new features really caught my eye. Like an improved rendering and zoom really put a smile on my face.

The other updates are slowly getting done. Like the updating of all playlists is done. Now the description of everything and I finally did all the behind the scenes work on my channel.

Other projects

I’m saving up for a lot of new things. Like a better mouse, better speakers. And maybe even a great microphone.

But I’m mainly working on the Arpegi forums as well. I have a lot of things to fix and improve on the forums. I made an update to the YouTube support of the forum the other day actually. But it needs some tweaking.

I also need to update my other social networks to link to all the places I publish my content on. Sadly enough, I can’t link my Tumblr to my YouTube… But one day I’ll make it happen.

I’m also thinking about expanding my social networks to Facebook. But I’m not so sure about that. It might be just too much for me to keep up to date.

Final words

Anyways, thanks for reading. Now I told you all my latest updates which would be normally in a vlog. Thanks again for all the support and I’ll do my best to continue publishing my content. Thanks to all the feedback I feel that I’m improving and creating even better content for you neko’s.

Sadly enough, real life is going to eat a lot of my time soon. I’ll focus primarily on that so that I don’t get myself into trouble with that. That makes a less stressy Jonez and that results in a more creative me. And a more creative me… Yeah, I think you get the idea.

Feel free to drop me a comment. But for now, NekoJonez out!

First Impression: Nicktoons – Spongebob and Friends – Battle For Volcano Island (PS2) ~ Thou Are Summoned

(Little blog news: Sorry for not writing a lot. I’m extremely busy. Follow me on my Twitter for updates.)

Wikipedia entry

Back when the gameboy advance SP was the latest of the latest gameboy’s from Nintendo, I could rent out games from a local game store. The same one I buy most of my games at today. I love those guys. They are extremely friendly, talk with you about games, have an amazing helpdesk… Lot of advantages. For those who are interested in some Belgium culture while learning about my opinion of the games I play, here is the site of my game store. But be warned, it’s in Dutch. Game Mania is just awesome. I rented the latest Zelda game, which was the Minish Cap, and a few other games. The GBA version of this game was among them. Bummed out that I had to return the GBA version because it was so awesome I looked all over for this game. Sadly enough, I wasn’t able to find a copy for myself. Until one day I passed by and saw this in the 2nd hand PS2 games shelf. I was thrilled. Finally a copy of this game for myself. Not the one I wanted but hey, it’s a start. My expectations where high. I tried to set them really low to avoid a major disappointment but I was happily surprised. This game is pretty great. Why, I’ll explain in this article. But don’t let you get fooled by the fact it’s a kid’s game. Don’t judge a book on it’s cover, or a game on it’s box-art. Who knows, there might be a great gem inside. Anyways, let me know in the comments how I did in this article and your views on this game. Even when you didn’t play it. So, here we go. 

Open yet closed?

Expect it, I’ll make a lot of references and comparisions to the GBA version of this game. Something I really liked in the GBA version is the fact you could walk around and pick the order of the levels yourself. Of course, parts where locked away until you reached a certain point of the game, but you didn’t had to finish all the levels in one section before you could advance to the next section.

If this game works with the same idea, I can’t tell just yet. From what I see now, it’s a tad bit more linear. But there is a central hub. And here is the neat thing, you are free to explore the whole thing. The restrictions from the GBA version aren’t there.

But what I really like in this version of the game is how the story is presented to you. It’s a big improvement above the GBA version where the story was somewhat absent. Your goal in this game was a bit unclear, since it was only explained at the start and the end of the game. The cut-scenes in this game really aids to bring character to the story and really makes the game more fun.

Damage?

This game got a lot of marks from me. But one thing makes me doubt if this game is actually worth all my praise. The absence of a proper health display is worrying. You have to guess how many hits you can still take before you die. And the only thing that happens after a lot of hits is that your green behind the still image of the character changes into orange and then into red. In the GBA version you had a limit amount of hearts. And that provided a bit more challenge. With the actual amount of health you have in this game, it gets a whole lot easier.

Another thing where this game loses points is that the music is forgettable. Don’t get me wrong, it’s does it’s job but it’s actually not good enough to want to download the OST or get it stuck in your head. On the other hand, the voice work get a big thumbs up. I really like the sound effects and I think they add more then the music to the game. The voices really makes the funny story come to live. I also like the nods to previous games and to the series of the characters who are in the game.

Graphically this game is colorful and pretty. This helps a lot when you want to explore the world since it’s a blast to do. And here is where it gets even more interesting. Thanks to a whole ton of collect-ables and unlock-ables, this game’s replay value skyrockets. And then the possibility to take multiple paths helps a lot too. Exploring this colorful world is really fun to do. And this is backed up by a lovely short loading screen where great animations are displayed.

Speaking of which, the animation in this game is good. I really like the attention to detail in some parts. Patrick’s health display also changes the more hits you receive. I didn’t see it happening with the other characters though. I really like how this game all comes together.

Finish?

I think I might finish this game in order to review this one. I actually think they deserve it for this game.

The level design is extremely well done. They added in spawners that pop out more enemies for you to fight until you destroy the source. The combat works great for a kids game but isn’t more then mashing the attack button.

The control scheme is alright. To my knowledge, there are two different settings. But I didn’t had any complaints about it while playing this game.

I also found out that this game might be short. After finishing two levels, the save file said I completed 20% of the game. Hopefully this is a mistake since if the game is extremely short, the marks will fall in the review.

Thankfully, the game is multiplayer too. You can play this game with two players. Or that’s what I can gather with the empty not used space and the mention of “player 1”. So, I have to check on that.

Anyways, that’s all for this game. Thanks for reading and I hope to catch you at a next read. But I’m now going to continue playing games to make new articles for you guys. Cheers!