What killed the Dreamcast?

During the early part of the 90's, Sega was one of the biggest video game companies in the world, and the sole company that could realistically challenge Nintendo's practical monopoly on the home console market. The Sega Genesis was the second best selling console on the market, trouncing machines like the Panasonic 3DO, the Phillips CDi, and the Atari Jaguar. In the year 1999 and Sega had launched its greatest console yet: the Sega Dreamcast. This console was nothing short of a gamer's dream. It was a system that focused on gaming, bringing out high speed, three dimensional gaming. It launched with several fantastic games, like Sonic Adventure and Power Stone. It was THE hot commodity of Christmas 1999. A year later, the Dreamcast was discontinued. What the hell happened? Let's find out.

My top 11 best video game battle themes

Whenever I play a video game, I make it a point to take a little time to listen to the music that the game provides. In all my years of playing games, I've heard millions of music tracks (I am not joking, I have played hundreds of games since I was five years old). I have heard some fantastic tracks, I have heard some truly awful pieces of music. However, today I want to look at battle themes, the musics that play whenever you, as the player, have to fight an enemy, or several enemies, in order to continue onward on your journey. This is not a collection of boss battle themes, which is music that you listen to when fighting a boss. No, this is a collection of normal battle themes, the music that plays every time you get a regular battle in an RPG, or when fighting a regular opponent in a fighting game (read: a character any player can use, in contrast to the special boss character no one can use). These are my top 11 best battle themes. Why top 11? Because I'm ripping off Doug Walker.

Sequelitis- Donkey Kong Country 1, 2 and 3

Sequelitis- the disease that franchises get whenever there is a needless sequel green lit and produced. The trope was codified by the Land Before Time movie franchise. The original film, The Land Before Time, was a classic animated film by that guru of animation, Don Bluth, about five dinosaur children that seek to find their families while avoiding being eaten alive by a T-Rex. It is a surprisingly dark film, brilliantly animated, and one of the greatest films of all time. Land Before Time 2 was a direct to video sequel that was about those same five children discovering a T-Rex egg, and returning it to its parents. The sequel was...not as good. And then they made another film that was a little worse than that one. And another. And another. By the time I was in college, they made the eleventh film in the series. None of these sequels were truly needed, and were made only to make a quick buck. But I digress; this blog isn't about Land Before Time, this entry is about the classic Super Nintendo game, Donkey Kong Country, and its sequels.

Wind's Nocturne- a look at the power of song in gaming

As a child, I never really liked animated musicals very much, mostly because most of the songs were annoying to me. Seriously, very few, if any of these songs, were good in my opinion. I guess that's why I took to gaming as much as I did. I didn't want to hear the princess sing about how she's waiting for her knight, I wanted to see the knight kick ass! No, I don't want to hear the comic relief characters sing about friendship, I wanna control the hero as he tears through the bad guy's armed forces!

Learn from this- Final Fantasy Tactics

Final Fantasy Tactics is not just one of the greatest games ever made, it's the game that changed the way I look at gaming. The story was amazing, the game play was top notch, the graphics blew me away. Yes it had its flaws, but it still blew me away, and was a deciding factor in me choosing the road I'd take in life. Of course, it didn't turn out the way I wanted to, but hey. But I'm not here to gush about FFT, I'm here to share some of the lessons that one learns from playing the game.

My thoughts on sexism in games.

I do not follow the work of Anita Sarkeesian. I see no reason to do so. Whatever she has to say, has been said better by others, with more substantial evidence and with solutions that are actually proposed, with no need for falsifying or distorting evidence. Furthermore, it has also been said by people that actually keep the comments section on Youtube open, with ratings enabled. That said, every now and then she, along with many other feminists, says something that makes sense. And today, I want to talk about something that these people are often decrying: sexism in video games.

To be certain, there is, indeed, sexism in not just the gaming industry, but the gamer culture as well. When Anita Sarkeesian announced her video series 'Tropes vs Women', many gamers sent her death threats for daring to make a series about how video games are sexist against women, as well as asking for donations to help fund this series. No matter what position you take on the issue of women and games, this is low. It is awful, and it is not the attitude that anyone, man or woman, should have.

A lot of the time, I feel that we gamers tend to simply yell a lot to drown out the opposition. We sometimes get defensive about our favorite pass time. And when you think about it, why shouldn't we be defensive? This is a hobby that many of us have invested thousands of dollars, and millions of hours in. This is a pass time that does more than entertain us. It makes us feel like champions, like we're worth something. And suddenly, we have these people who make it clear that they have NEVER picked up a controller in their lives, come up and tell us that the games we love are sexist against women and should therefore be changed! Who are these people to come and tell us what to do, what to play, what to like?

What's "Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden"?

Everybody get up, it's time to slam now! We got a real jam going down, welcome to the Space Jam! It's your chance, do your dance, at the Space Jam! Alright! Come on and Slam! And welcome to the Jam! Come on and Slam! If you wanna Jam!

Sorry, I had to do that. Anyway, "Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden" is a Freeware RPG, released back in the year 2008. The game is a loving homage to the decade of the 1990's. Practically everything in the game screams 90's: Several products such as Duncaroos are mentioned, while others such as Ecto Cooler are integrated into the game play. The game stars Charles Barkley, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, as he fights his way through the forces of the future, led by the legendary Michael Jordan, as he attempts to save his son as well as prove his innocence from a crime he did not commit. In his journey, he will be joined by a ragtag group of heroes, including the great grandson of LeBron James, as well as an extraterrestrial who came beyond the stars to help save our world from an evil organization hell bent on bringing chaos and destruction to the world via acquiring an ancient, powerful artifact from the past...

Character Analysis- Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7

He's one of the most iconic video game characters of all time. This is one character who is practically synonymous with video game villains. He's incredibly famous, with legions of fan boys and fan girls that will defend his name, write ten thousand fan fics about him, and draw thousands of pieces of fan art depicting him in all his bad ass glory. He's Sephiroth, the main villain from the earth shattering, gut bustingly popular video game, Final Fantasy 7. And he's over rated.

Pictured: A bad ass.

Sad Moments in gaming- Dinosaur's extinction on E.V.O. Search for Eden

When I was but 8 years old, I played a game that changed the way I looked at not just gaming, but the entire world. That game was E.V.O. Search for Eden. In this game, you play an animal that goes through five stages of Earth's natural history: The early middle Paleozoic Era, the late Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, the Cenozoic Ice Age, and the post Ice Age. I loved it back then, still do now. But I'm not going to gush about the game, or make a serious analysis of it (that's for another time). Today, I want to talk to you about an event in this game that's rather sad.

They say never judge a book by it's cover. Sometimes though, the cover tells you all you need to know.

An Analysis of Suikoden 2

It's no secret that Suikoden is one of my all time favorite video game series, and that it disappoints me greatly that Konami has all but canceled the series. Still, every now and then it is a good idea to revisit the series. It is in my opinion that every RPG has a main theme, an element that drives the story. Suikoden is no different. And today, I analyze the element that drives the story behind the one entry that is generally regarded to be the best in the series, Suikoden 2.

Available on Ebay for about $130 because Konami can't be arsed to put this title on the PSN Store. Also available for the PSP in Japan because Konami can't be arsed to translate the game and ship it anywhere else.

League of Legends- What winners are made of

What I am about to write does not apply exclusively to League of Legends, but to every game, every sport, every facet of our lives. But I'll talk about League of Legends because, well, it's what this blog is for.

League of Legends is an online game (sport as of June 2013), where two teams of five compete against each other to destroy the other team's home base. I myself also play it, and am currently level 30 (max level) in the Latin America North server, as well as the Western Europe server.

When you start off in League, chances are you will not be very good. You'll die a lot. You won't get many kills, if any. And since the League community is infamous for being, well, a collection of assholes, chances are you will get yelled at. You will be called a noob, a moron, a retard. You will be told to uninstall the game, to quit gaming altogether, and in some cases, you may even be told to go die. 

Waifus- On the soul crushing loneliness we sometimes feel, and how some of us cope with it.

We gamers, sometimes, tend to feel a little lonely. We often feel like we are missing something, missing someone. The loneliness gets to us, and so we keep on immersing ourselves in our hobby to dull out the pain and sadness we feel. But sometimes, we do something that, to avoid sugarcoating it, is just plain sick: We take a waifu.

Yes, this guy is, in fact, sleeping with a picture of a fictional character, made a Facebook account for said character, and entered into a relationship with this character. I really hope this is fake. EDIT October 10 2018- It has come to my attention that this photo is NOT fake and the person pictured has spent time in jail for possession of child porn. I do NOT support that shit.

Dickwolves and Molestia- a special blog about rape and humor

I had intended originally to leave this blog entry for tomorrow, but I found myself unable to hold pen away from paper. This morning, as I was reading my Facebook updates, reading the news and other unimportant things like that, I had seen that one of my favorite bloggers, Dr Nerdlove, had made an update. The reason I love Dr Nerdlove is because his blog offers sound, practical dating and lifestyle advice for geeks and gamers, such as myself. (Edit October 25, 2014: The preceding sentences no longer reflect how I feel about Dr Nerdlove.) Anyway, Dr Nerdlove made a blog about how Mike Krahilik, of Penny Arcade fame, had issued yet another apology for the "dickwolves" incident. The "dickwolves" incident refers to a Penny Arcade strip that Mike and his partner, Jerry Holkins, had written back in 2010. I'll leave a link here: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/11/.  I leave this link not to promote Penny Arcade, but for you, the reader, to see for yourself the seed that started the ruckus. The apology, however, was not at having made the comic, but at removing merchandise from their store that directly referenced the fictional species. This, understandably, has angered a few people, especially those that believe that rape jokes are cruel and offensive. Mike and Jerry responded by making this comic: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/8/13/. Again, I am not providing the direct link to promote Penny Arcade, but for you to see for yourself. Also, I believe in letting an artist's work be seen as the artist laid it out. A more expanded on response was provided at this blog entry: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/8/13/.

The Friendzone and Katawa Shoujo

Friendzone: when you like someone and would prefer that person to be your lover, but that person sees you only as a friend at best. It tends to hurt, but the mature thing is to move on with your life, find someone new. Yeah, but most people don't really *do* the mature thing, do they? Nope, they need to go to some stupid site like LiveJournal or Tumblr and complain about it! Several bloggers and writers have already written about the Friendzone, and all that has needed to be said about it, has already been said. But today, I want to look at how that brilliant Visual Novel, Katawa Shoujo, deals with the concept of Friendzone.

Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross- a Chrono Fable

Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest, most well put together video games of not just the 16 bit era of gaming, but in the entire history of video games. Its sequel, Chrono Cross...you either love it or hate it. Now, on paper, Chrono Cross is not only a great concept, but one that could potentially surpass its predecessor in artistic merit.The main theme of Chrono Trigger is time travel, while the main theme of Chrono Cross is dimension hopping. in Chrono Trigger you hop around different eras of the world, while in Chrono Cross you jump between two alternate timelines. It sort of makes sense, after all, it is very difficult to make a sequel to a time travel story that does not, in some way, repeat something done in the first story. Now, I am not here today to review Chrono Cross as a game, nor as a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time, as I feel like that's been done before. I'm here to make the argument that Chrono Cross is a game that follows the thematics of Chrono Trigger, only with a different perspective.

Location Analysis- Viridian Forest

Since the sixth generation of Pokemon games is being released very soon, I thought it'd be a good idea to look back at the game that started it all, Pokemon Red and Blue (Red and Green in Japan). The Pokemon games are world famous for popularizing (though not inventing) the monster collection genre, combining it with the strategy of an RPG with the exploration aspects of the Adventure genre, mixing in a little puzzle solving. Every generation of games has quite a few variations of dungeons, though they can be classified in these classic variations: forests, caves, or metropolitan dungeons. Though nothing new, the Pokemon games incorporate these themes to expand their world, to give the player a sense that they are exploring more than just 'the forest level'. Today, I want to take a look at the very first dungeon in the entire history of the franchise: the Viridian Forest.

This is what the Viridian Forest looked like in Pokemon Red and Blue. The little squares you see are tall grasses, where Pokemon reside.

The Viridian Forest is located right between Viridian City, its namesake, and Pewter City, home to the game's very first Gym battle. Here, a gamer can find a small variety of Pokemon, none of which would actually help against the first Gym, and only one which would help against the second. The Pokemon you can catch in this forest include:

Caterpie

Weedle

and Pikachu.

Caterpie and Weedle are weak, worm-like Pokemon. Specifically, Caterpie represents a caterpillar while Weedle represents a bee larva. Pikachu is a little field mouse that shoots electricity. Of these three, Caterpie is the weakest, as his attacks are weak and have no bonuses. Weedle can poison the enemy, so that makes it stronger than Caterpie, and Pikachu has a paralyzing attack that gains Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB), which makes it the strongest Pokemon to find in the forest. That's why Pikachu's encounter rate is...5%. In other words, when you walk around the grass in Viridian Forest, you have a 5% chance to find a Pikachu. When you combine all other Pokemon encounter rates in all the other games that Viridian Forest appears in, Pikachu is the second rarest Pokemon found here, with only Pidgeotto being rarer.

This little bird is the strongest, rarest Pokemon in the Viridian Forest. Encounter rate: 1%, and only appears in Pokemon Yellow, HeartGold and SoulSilver. Pikachu appears in Pokemon Red, Blue, FireRed, LeafGreen, Heart Gold, and SoulSilver.

The Viridian Forest, in game, is a popular spot for the locals of Viridian and Pewter cities. 99% of all trainers found inside the forest are bug enthusiasts, representatives of bug collectors from real life. (The other 1% is a school girl found only in Pokemon Yellow). These trainers present the player with their first chance to battle a trainer other than the rival. These battles are, thankfully, very easy, and require very little strategy, especially if the player started with Charmander.

"Charmander char char! Mander char, Charmander!" (Translation: Viridian Forest is where I go from level 6 to level 11 in one trip!)

Viridian Forest is unique among all first dungeons from the other games, on the account that it offers not one Pokemon that the first gym is weak against. In fact, quite the opposite: Every Pokemon in this forest is weak against the first Gym.

"Oh, you stacked up on Pokemon from the Viridian Forest to challenge me? That's cute."

Pokemon are divided by Types, and each type is strong against, and weak against other types. In this case, the Pewter Gym specializes in Rock types, which are strong against Bug and Normal types, which also happens to be what the grand majority of your Pokemon team would be composed of. Rock types are weak against Water (unless you picked Squirtle, you won't have any Water type pokemon) Grass (again, only this time it's Bulbasaur), Fighting (in Red and Blue, you would not have had any Fighting type moves at all.) and Steel (this type didn't even exist in Red and Blue). Brock, the Gym Leader, was a tough boss in Red and Blue that required a very concise, very effective strategy that made good use of every resource available to you. The Pokemon available in Viridian are Bug type (weak against Rock), Electric (just Pikachu), Poison (Weedle and Kakuna, and ineffective against Rock) and Normal/Flying (Ineffective against Rock). Unlike future first dungeons in the series, Viridian offers no resources to fight against the first gym. 

Why? Because Viridian Forest is more for working with what you already have. The game has given you plenty to beat Brock with. Your starter is plenty strong, but if it's Charmander in Red and Blue, it won't win single handed. The game is giving you, instead of the resources to beat Brock easily, the resources to beat Brock, period. Bulbasaur and Squirtle may give you the edge, but you don't need them to beat Brock. You just need patience, skill, and strategy.

The few trainers in Viridian Forest are weak and easy to beat. You beat them to increase your Pokemon's level, and to gain a little pocket money. From that money you buy some Potions to help you survive Brock. The few Pokemon found in the forest itself? Let's take a good look. You get Caterpie, Weedle, and Pikachu. Caterpie and Weedle evolve to Metapod and Kakuna, respectively, at level 7, the earliest for any Pokemon. Metapod and Kakuna themselves are, well, weak. They are also found in the wild in the Viridian Forest, where beating them nets you a fair bit of experience, nearly as much as a trainer battle. The best part? Metapod and Kakuna don't fight back. They can't fight back.

It is quite easy to enter the Viridian Forest with a team of Pokemon whose average level is 4, and to leave it with an average team level of 9 or even 10. At level 10, Metapod and Kakuna evolve into Butterfree and Beedrill, which are among the strongest Pokemon you'll have by the time you reach the second Gym...in which case you will no longer need them.

Bzzzz, Beedrill. For the first three hours of the game, one of your best Pokemon. After that... No.

Same with this little butterfly, Butterfree.

Viridian Forest is not easy to traverse without a fully healed, well prepared Pokemon team. Weedles can poison you. Pikachu can stun you. You can be beaten here if you're not prepared. Just because they are tiny bugs and a mouse, does not mean the Pokemon in Viridian Forest are not dangerous on their own. Like all locations in the Pokemon world, the Viridian Forest is one that requires prior preparation in order to traverse safely.