Oh winter, you are not even here yet and you are taking your massive toll on me. If the first half of 2011 was nothing but incredible, the late latter half is proving to be somewhat of a challenge: in and out of various doctors, huge financial burdens to handle, a very unfortunate funeral, and terrible uncertainty in a few areas of my personal life.
2011, you were good to me, but you are not going out in quite the style I envisioned. Curse you!
B3 out.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Your Second Childhood: Super Mario 3D Land Review
Nostalgia is a powerful thing and Nintendo knows it. Since 1985 the gaming world has been shaped by Nintendo's everlasting franchises that strike a balance between today's twenty-something childhood nostalgia and interesting new designs. Nintendo's biggest games consistently deliver fun challenges, occasionally innovate genres, and always impress the masses.
Chief among its franchises is Mario, the little plumber who could. Lightning struck twice in the 1980s with Super Mario Bros. defining the modern platform genre and Super Mario Bros. 3 perfecting it. Since then Mario has starred in countless games, but not since 1996's Super Mario 64 has the series offered a genre-defining, industry-shaping game.
Super Mario 3D Land might have just kicked Super Mario 64 to the curb. Here is a game so well done, so fun to play from start to finish, and so genuinely well-designed that it can barely stand among other games. While Nintendo has spent the last ten years designing solid, fun Mario games for Wii and DS, Super Mario 3D Land plays like the culmination of thirty years of the best of the genre. This is truly the best Mario game to date.
A year and a half ago I wrote a double-review of what I considered the best Mario games: Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii and the independent PC platformer Super Mario Bros. X. I loved the 3D Galaxy for its technical achievements and tight control, while I poured my love on the 2D SMBX for its incredible blend of Mario nostalgia and original level design. I think Nintendo may have read that article, because Super Mario Bros. 3D Land combines the best of both games.
3D Land is a 3D Mario game that plays like a 2D Mario game. There are distinct levels, power-ups, secrets, castles, bosses, and Bowser. Nintendo wisely avoided trying to tell a complex story here: Peach has been kidnapped and Mario is out to save her. Within a minute and a half of booting the game Mario is on the ground. Within an hour Mario will be well into World 2, if not World 3. The game starts out as cheerily and as easily as Super Mario Bros. 3 did, but eventually ramps up the difficulty to insane levels. One point worth mentioning: the game is much, much longer than it initially appears, so do not be discouraged by how fast you travel through the game at first.
Level variety is strong with 3D Land, easily the best of the traditional get-to-the-goal Mario designs. This is a platformer by all traditional definitions, with tricky jumps, fast-paced action, timed levels, and minor exploration. Difficulty pacing is top-notch, with early, easy levels introducing mechanics that come into play later in the game in big ways. Perhaps the best part about this progression: never will you notice you are learning a new mechanic, you will simply fall into it as the game progresses. This kind of seamless learning experience is one no other game as ever replicated so well.
Anyone and everyone will get immeasurable joy from playing through the first eight worlds of 3D Land, and those looking for an honest challenge will love everything that comes after World 8.
Nintendo, you have honestly made my favorite Mario game, finally surpassing the masterpiece that is Super Mario 64. Thanks to Super Mario 3D Land, I get to experience the joy of playing through a timeless Mario game as if I was 13 again and ripping open my SNES. For a hardcore Mario fan and dedicated gamer such as myself, this is like a second childhood.
Thank you.
B3 out.
Chief among its franchises is Mario, the little plumber who could. Lightning struck twice in the 1980s with Super Mario Bros. defining the modern platform genre and Super Mario Bros. 3 perfecting it. Since then Mario has starred in countless games, but not since 1996's Super Mario 64 has the series offered a genre-defining, industry-shaping game.
Super Mario 3D Land might have just kicked Super Mario 64 to the curb. Here is a game so well done, so fun to play from start to finish, and so genuinely well-designed that it can barely stand among other games. While Nintendo has spent the last ten years designing solid, fun Mario games for Wii and DS, Super Mario 3D Land plays like the culmination of thirty years of the best of the genre. This is truly the best Mario game to date.
A year and a half ago I wrote a double-review of what I considered the best Mario games: Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii and the independent PC platformer Super Mario Bros. X. I loved the 3D Galaxy for its technical achievements and tight control, while I poured my love on the 2D SMBX for its incredible blend of Mario nostalgia and original level design. I think Nintendo may have read that article, because Super Mario Bros. 3D Land combines the best of both games.
3D Land is a 3D Mario game that plays like a 2D Mario game. There are distinct levels, power-ups, secrets, castles, bosses, and Bowser. Nintendo wisely avoided trying to tell a complex story here: Peach has been kidnapped and Mario is out to save her. Within a minute and a half of booting the game Mario is on the ground. Within an hour Mario will be well into World 2, if not World 3. The game starts out as cheerily and as easily as Super Mario Bros. 3 did, but eventually ramps up the difficulty to insane levels. One point worth mentioning: the game is much, much longer than it initially appears, so do not be discouraged by how fast you travel through the game at first.
Level variety is strong with 3D Land, easily the best of the traditional get-to-the-goal Mario designs. This is a platformer by all traditional definitions, with tricky jumps, fast-paced action, timed levels, and minor exploration. Difficulty pacing is top-notch, with early, easy levels introducing mechanics that come into play later in the game in big ways. Perhaps the best part about this progression: never will you notice you are learning a new mechanic, you will simply fall into it as the game progresses. This kind of seamless learning experience is one no other game as ever replicated so well.
Anyone and everyone will get immeasurable joy from playing through the first eight worlds of 3D Land, and those looking for an honest challenge will love everything that comes after World 8.
Nintendo, you have honestly made my favorite Mario game, finally surpassing the masterpiece that is Super Mario 64. Thanks to Super Mario 3D Land, I get to experience the joy of playing through a timeless Mario game as if I was 13 again and ripping open my SNES. For a hardcore Mario fan and dedicated gamer such as myself, this is like a second childhood.
Thank you.
B3 out.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Gaming Season Is Here
Skyrim tomorrow.
Super Mario 3D Land Sunday.
Skyward Sword and Minecraft next weekend.
I get to be stuck in front of a TV screen just in time for the cold of winter. Beautiful.
B3 out.
Super Mario 3D Land Sunday.
Skyward Sword and Minecraft next weekend.
I get to be stuck in front of a TV screen just in time for the cold of winter. Beautiful.
B3 out.
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Hunker Down Now, Hike Later
This upcoming week of work will be something spectacular. I have a major project coming together and I am making the big, final push to get it completed this week. I am planning for a heavy work week that will spill over into almost every night this week. The positive of all this? I like my job, so I do not mind the extra work at all!
Next weekend will be something special. This weekend I bought a new pair of hiking shoes and a new daypack for my shorter hiking trips. I am hoping to put all this new gear to use next weekend with my first full 16-mile hike on the Scout Trail at Oak Openings. My next big purchases will be a tent and mummy bag, which will complete all the big items on my hiking supplies checklist.
This should be a very fun winter. Bring it on, Mother Nature.
B3 out.
Next weekend will be something special. This weekend I bought a new pair of hiking shoes and a new daypack for my shorter hiking trips. I am hoping to put all this new gear to use next weekend with my first full 16-mile hike on the Scout Trail at Oak Openings. My next big purchases will be a tent and mummy bag, which will complete all the big items on my hiking supplies checklist.
This should be a very fun winter. Bring it on, Mother Nature.
B3 out.
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Beginning of Things
Six years ago today my life changed in ways I never could have anticipated.
Today I officially declare the beginning of a fantastic new chapter in my life.
B3 out.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
I'm Too Late: The Walking Dead Review
This week I watched all six episodes of AMC's The Walking Dead on Netflix, and tonight I offer my review of the show thus far.
I will keep this review brief: I should have finished Meltdown ten years ago. The Walking Dead (in its comic book form) launched in 2003, exactly when I hoped to finish my original draft for Meltdown. I agonize over this because The Walking Dead is nearly identical to the story I began writing for Meltdown in 1998. The zombies, the slow deliberate pace, the focus on humanity... hell, even the concept of traveling in an RV made it in there. Between this and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, just about every concept I originally envisioned Meltdown to be has been made popular.
Not that there is anything terribly original about the zombie survival-horror genre, but Walking does an extremely admirable job with it. Striking the perfect balance of character, drama, action, gore, and suspense, Walking may end up being the best story/show/movie about zombies ever produced. There are no overarching plots that echo society a la Romero's Dead-series or goofy (but excellent) diversions like those from Shaun of the Dead. Walking is all about humanity at its most basic level: fear, love, hunger, thirsts, desire, insanity - the very core of the human psyche is tested as early as the opening scene of the first episode.
Despite a highly-repetitive per-show format (spin up the story from the previous episode, move the characters around, end with a cliff-hanger), Walking does an excellent job with its characters through-and-through. There are good guys, bad guys, guys we love to hate, and guys we are sorry to see die.
Walking's strength is clearly in its core characters and their desire for survival. Perhaps less entertaining is some of the techno-babble that dominates much of the final episode of season one. This is a minor complaint against a series that is already so well done no other zombie tale before it may matter.
I look forward to catching up with season two this year. Well, that and finishing Meltdown. Dammit.
B3 out.
I will keep this review brief: I should have finished Meltdown ten years ago. The Walking Dead (in its comic book form) launched in 2003, exactly when I hoped to finish my original draft for Meltdown. I agonize over this because The Walking Dead is nearly identical to the story I began writing for Meltdown in 1998. The zombies, the slow deliberate pace, the focus on humanity... hell, even the concept of traveling in an RV made it in there. Between this and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, just about every concept I originally envisioned Meltdown to be has been made popular.
Not that there is anything terribly original about the zombie survival-horror genre, but Walking does an extremely admirable job with it. Striking the perfect balance of character, drama, action, gore, and suspense, Walking may end up being the best story/show/movie about zombies ever produced. There are no overarching plots that echo society a la Romero's Dead-series or goofy (but excellent) diversions like those from Shaun of the Dead. Walking is all about humanity at its most basic level: fear, love, hunger, thirsts, desire, insanity - the very core of the human psyche is tested as early as the opening scene of the first episode.
Despite a highly-repetitive per-show format (spin up the story from the previous episode, move the characters around, end with a cliff-hanger), Walking does an excellent job with its characters through-and-through. There are good guys, bad guys, guys we love to hate, and guys we are sorry to see die.
Walking's strength is clearly in its core characters and their desire for survival. Perhaps less entertaining is some of the techno-babble that dominates much of the final episode of season one. This is a minor complaint against a series that is already so well done no other zombie tale before it may matter.
I look forward to catching up with season two this year. Well, that and finishing Meltdown. Dammit.
B3 out.
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