Katamari Damacy - Review Thursday

In this week's Review Thursday, I take a look at one of the most fun games I have ever played in my life.  It is simple, has great music, and it is suitable for every age group.  It's Katamari Damacy.  This game is probably one of those games you get thinking, "Oh, it's a baby game."  But then you're all, "Holy crap, this game is so good!"  You play as a little sprite thing whose father is the King of All Cosmos.  The King destroyed all of the stars in the sky, and it is your job to rebuild the stars and fill the night sky.

But how do you do that?  Well, you are given a sticky ball called a katamari.  They come in various sizes and colors, and the Prince (your character) rolls the ball into objects.  As the katamari continues to roll up more and more objects, it will get bigger and thus, be able to pick up even bigger items.  This includes animals, people, vehicles, buildings; as well as islands, clouds, rainbows, and spirits.

As I said before, it is your job to fill the night sky with stars.  And not only do you make stars one by one, but you also get to make several constellations.  These constellation levels generally have a theme for collection, like only crabs for Cancer, only swans for Cygnus, only females for Virgo.  And in the final level of the game, it is your task to remake the Moon.  Each level has a time limit.  And if you fail to complete the tasks, The King become very angry with you.

One of the best things about this game is the music.  All of the songs in the game have the katamari as the theme.  And they complement the gameplay so well.

Overall, I give this game 5 out of 5.

It's one of the easiest games to play, and also one of the easiest to become addicted to.  It is a supreme amount of fun.  And practically everyone in every age group can play it.

Now, on to the thing I have been mentioning in previous entries.  I have been thinking that I will start uploading videos to my YouTube channel again.  I haven't done it in a while.  Anyway, when there aren't any games for me to review, I figured I'd post them here on the blog.  Well, that's the big announcement.  Now, I hope you get the chance to play  Katamari Damacy if you haven't already.  And I also hope you stop back by on Saturday for this week's SaturPLAY!  Until then, I hope you see no Game Over screens.

Michael, aka me3lingual

Grand Theft Auto III - Review Thursday #5

Welcome to Review Thursday, where I review a game on Thursday.  This week, I am going to weakly attempt to describe Grand Theft Auto III, which I played several weeks ago and haven't had the chance to review yet.  I say weakly, because I feel as if I am about to fall asleep as I type this.  I came home late this evening, and I am super tired.  I guess I could sleep now and type later, but I have been late with these entries recently, and I don't want that to become a constantly occurring thing.

So, Grand Theft Auto III is a really great game for the PS2 system.  You play as some person whose only lines in the whole game are that of grunts and moans when he gets injured.  I read his name somewhere, but I have forgotten it since.  While you are trying to make it in the city after being betrayed by your girlfriend/partner in crime Catalina, you race cars and run errands for several big shots of Liberty City.  These include the Mafia leader, the Yakuza leader, and others.

The music is made specially for the game, from what I can tell due to the content in the songs.  My favorite station is Chatterbox, because I like listening to talk radio rather than music radio.  If I had to choose a favorite car, I would pick the Stinger.  And my favorite character is probably Maria.  She seemed less annoying in this game than in Liberty City Stories.

Overall, it is fun to play.  I was able to collect all of the secret packages.  The missions are the right combination of fun and challenge.  I would give this game 4 Stars and recommend it for anyone of the correct age limit to play this game.

Well, that's all for now.  Make sure to stop back in on Saturday for SaturPLAY.  Until then, I hope you see no Game Over screens.

Michael, aka me3lingual

"Feel the Heat!" - SaturPLAY #2

Welcome back to SaturPLAY!  In this edition, I will talk about the games I played this past week, as well as what I am playing right now.  And of course by right now, I mean today; because I am typing this post right now.  Anyway let's begin.

I finished Grand Theft Auto III on Friday.  It was only the second time I have ever finished the game.  For it's time, it is a nice game.  I certainly don't like how Donald Love just up and disappears suddenly, with the game not even finishing the storyline properly on that regard.  But, I guess it does fit the main character's personality.  Since he never seemed to care who he worked for, as long as they paid him.

My favorite vehicle in the game was the Yakuza Stinger.  My favorite character is probably Joey Leone.  And I have always liked the talk radio stations in all of the Grand Theft Auto games, and Chatterbox is no different.

After finishing Grand Theft Auto III, the next game I played was one I knew I could get through quickly.  And that was The King of Fighters XI.  I don't really like fighting games, because they are more about memorizing abilities and button pressing.  Fighting games are a genre I prefer to watch being played rather than playing them myself.  

I played using two teams of characters.  First, I used Real Bout Fatal Fury Team, which consisted of Terry Bogard, Kim Kaphwan, and Duck King.  I lost after the fourth match.  I then played using Agent Team, which was Vanessa, Blue Mary, and Ramon.  I like Ramon, because he is faster than other characters I usually play as.  I could do without Vanessa.  She's too slow.  And Blue Mary was alright as a character.  But really, the only reason I like using her is because of the dog that appears when she prepares for the fights.  I don't normally use those characters I mentioned.  I usually play using Athena Asamiya, Sie Kensou, and Momoko.  So using these other characters was a nice change.

Anyway, it was really easy for me to get through the story.  I am not sure if I will go and play more to get all of the characters.  I don't even know how to do that.  But I am satisfied with completing the story once and earning the top score in Arcade Mode.

After that, I spent some time playing the demos and watching the videos on the Xbox Demo Disc 13.  I found this disc while I was in my mother's closet one day looking for something else.  I don't even remember what it was, but it was something that my mother was looking for and she asked me to find it.  While I was looking for it, I found this disc and a couple others.  I asked her about it, and she said that she forgot she had them and let me keep them for the Xbox.

Anyway, the only game I liked playing on this Demo Disc was the Toe Jam and Earl game.  Everything else was not interesting for me.

And all that brings me to what I am playing now.  I am still working on Pokémon Black 2.  I have two badges now.  I decided to work on making a great Water-Type team, rather than solely training Oshawott, now a Dewott.  Which means I finally caught that Psyduck I was wanting.

However, I haven't been doing much traveling and training lately.  I have been at PokéStar Studios filming all of those movies.  It's fun.  And challenging.  It isn't my favorite side quest in the series.  That honor goes to Pokémon Contests.  But filming the movies is still enjoyable.

And the console game I am playing is Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories.  I have both the PS2 and PS3 versions of the game (which is why I chose to put the 1.5 HD ReMIX picture on here), and decided that I would play the PS3 version so I could get the trophies.

Currently, I have finished the first three floors; having played Traverse Town, Wonderland, and Olympus Coliseum.  I have never finished this game before.  The farthest I have gotten was Twilight Town, in front of the gate to the old mansion.  I am hoping I will be able to finish the game this time around.  I sure hope so, considering I am playing on the Easy setting.  It would be really embarrassing if I am unable to complete it while I am playing Easy Mode.  Oh well, even if everything is easier, it still has posed a challenge sometimes.  I won't be getting the trophy for finishing without using a Continue.  I died once during the fight against Hades.  I wasn't healed before the fight, and lost after two big hits from him.

And that's the end of this week's SaturPLAY.  If you have any thoughts on what I have played this week, or if you have any suggestions as to what I should play next, feel free to leave a comment.  Make sure you come back on Tuesday for the next edition of 3³ Gaming NEWSday.  Until then, I hope you see no Game Over screens!

Michael, aka me3lingual

Psy, I, I! - SaturPLAY #1

I am going to first try and explain the sort of schedule I hopefully will have in 3³ Gaming.  Every Tuesday, I hope to have some gaming news stories.  Now, whether this will just be reprints of the articles I write for EnixOrigin, I don't know.  As much as I wouldn't mind that, because I love Square Enix games; it doesn't really serve the other genres of games well.  If I were to get news on the basic genres (RPG, shooter, sports, etc.), then I would be pleased.  I will be calling it 3³ Gaming NEWSday.  Lame, I know; but NEWSday rhymes with Tuesday, so it works.

On Thursdays, I want to post reviews of games I play.  Now, most of the games I play are at least five years old.  I figure that if I review older games, it may inspire other gamers to dust off their copies of these games, and also introduce older titles to newer gamers.

And on Saturdays, I will update readers on what I am playing.  Saturday entries will be called SaturPLAY.  Basically, what I am playing at the moment, what I have played in the last week, and what I am planning on playing.  Pretty simple concept, I think.  Anyway, it's Saturday here; so let's have the first SaturPLAY!

The first game I played this year was Spyro the Dragon.  It is a classic game that I have practically mastered in my years of owning the game.  Although, the first time I finished it, I didn't own it.  My brother's friend brought his copy of it one night that he stayed over.  He said I could play it, and I had it complete by the time my brother and his friend woke up the next morning.  I like platform games.  Most of them are easy for me to finish.  Anyway, since that first time finishing the game, I have played it maybe 20-30 times.  When I played it on January 1, 2013, I had the whole game finished within a few hours.

After that was finished, I brought out Atari Anthology.  It is a collection of 85 classic games from the Atari age of gaming.  I chose to play Double Dunk, a basketball-esque game.  In it, you play as a team of 2.  The characters are Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside.  I don't really understand the mechanics of the game, because basketball itself doesn't interest me.  I enjoy the statistical information of sports more than the actual sports themselves.  Anyway, it was all luck that I won.  I played three games total, and stopped playing when I finally won once.  The first game I lost with a score 2 to the other team's 10.  Then in the second game, I lost 3-11.  Finally, I won the third game 10-9.  Again, it was all luck, because I had never played that particular Atari game before in my life.  It was okay as a game.  However, it is painful to play games like that, because everything is all so...old.  But, games had to start somewhere.  I am sure if I had grown up playing Atari games, I would probably still love them to this day.  But I was raised on the Nintendo Entertainment System, so I will probably never know the appeal of Atari games.

It only took me fifteen minutes to play and win a game in Double Dunk, so I decided to play another classic game that I could finish quickly.  That game was Rugrats: Search for Reptar.  It was one of the first PlayStation game I had ever owned.  That, Crash Bandicoot, Disc 2 of Metal Gear Solid, and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces were the first games I ever owned on PlayStation.  Anyway, I managed to find all of the puzzle pieces for Tommy's puzzle within one hour.  I played the training level to get a boost in Reptar Bars, then completed the mini-games within the main game for some added Reptar Bars.  Sadly, the disc has had some major wear-and-tear over the years, and some of the levels are unplayable.  One of my favorites is Chuckie's Glasses, and I can't play it now because the disc is so scratched up.  So now I have to play only the levels that I know will work for me.

Normally, I leave Ice Cream Mountain for when I have someone playing with me, but I did the single player version when I played the main game this time around.  Other levels I played were Grandpa's Teeth, the Mr. Friend level, Mirror Land, the level in the Toy Store, the level in the Supermarket, and the one where Tommy has to get the light out of the refrigerator.  Each level I played reminded me of the episodes of the show that I would watch when I was younger.

And just today, I finished playing Katamari Damacy.  I wanted to play something fun and would keep me from being bored as I spent the day wrapped in a blanket because it was so cold outside.  I had to go to the store this morning, and I was really cold when I got back home (I ride a bike everywhere though, so I'm used to it).  This game was perfect for that, because I could just roll up my cares and worries and not think about the cold weather.

I was really skeptical when I first bought this game.  I saw it on the shelf at the store a few years ago, and I didn't know what to think.  The clerk working in the video games section was fangirling about it, saying that it was such a good game and highly addictive to play.  I can see why, because it is such a great game.  You can't help but be smiling as you roll up animals, people and buildings onto your katamari.  And the constellation levels are especially fun because they have a theme associated with them, rather than the regular levels in which you can just roll up any object.

And now I have two games I am currently playing.  I try to have a handheld game and a console game in my lineup.  The console game this week is Grand Theft Auto III.

I have only ever finished this game one time before today.  It is probably one of the hardest Grand Theft Auto games I have ever played, and it isn't really that hard to complete.  Right now, I have completed "Pump-Action Pimp".  I am only 4 missions into the game.  I am hoping to get all of the Hidden Packages this time around.  Right now I haven't found any of them.  But just so you know, I am not above using the Internet to help me in situations when I need help with a video game.  That is how I found forums and whatnot.

The handheld game I am playing is Pokémon Black 2.  I have owned the game for several months, but I never played it because I had been working on Pokémon White (and still haven't finished).  Right now in Black 2, I am at Floccesy Ranch.  I have caught six Pokémon so far in the game, but I have only spent time making Oshawott stronger.  I want to try and play through the game using only Oshawott, but I still want to try and do the whole PokéDex thing and catch them all.  I normally train a specific type of Pokémon when I play any of the games in the franchise.  This time I want to train water types, especially after seeing that Psyduck is in this game.  I haven't caught one yet, but I hope to catch one.  But the only training I will do with Pokémon other than Oshawott will occur once I have an Exp. Share, if there is one in this game.  But you know, I just caught an Azurill, and I have never had an Azurill in any of the games I have played before.  I think I want to play with it and make it stronger.  I still want that Psyduck as well.  I'd bring all of the water types from the different generations together and be a better Water trainer than even Misty.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this first edition of SaturPLAY.  I know I am going to enjoy writing it each week.  Make sure you come back on Tuesday for the first edition of 3³ Gaming NEWSday, where I will come up with some gaming news for you to sink your teeth into.  And expect a review on Spyro the Dragon this upcoming Thursday.  I hope that by then I have a catchy (and cheesy) title for Thursday entries.  So, I guess that's all from me for now.  Again, thanks for stopping over here and reading this.

I hope that you see no Game Over screens while we are apart!

Michael, me3lingual