Author: Cheyenne

Hidden Gems – Pic Pic for the DS

PicPicNintendoDS698_f

Genre:  Puzzle
Platform:  Nintendo DS

I only first learned about Pic Pic about a year ago while looking for good Picross games.  This is not a picross game, but a collection of three different puzzle game modes.  It’s got a whopping 400 puzzles for each mode, so you’ll be busy for a while.  This game kept me enthralled for hours and hours and I’m sure I’ll play it more in the future.

The first game mode is Maze Paint.  In this mode, you complete a maze to draw a picture.  The modes all start easy and get harder as you go.  This was a fun mode to play, especially once I got to the later modes.

Pic Pic Maze

The second mode is Drawing.  I had played this type of game before and really enjoyed it.  You paint a picture by drawing lines between two numbers.  The number tells you how many squares that line will use.  It can get challenging, but it is rewarding when you finally figure out that section you’ve been working on for five minutes.

Pic Pic Link-a-Pix

The final mode is my favorite, Magipic.  You are given a set of numbers telling you how many squares around it are filled in.  This creates a picture.  It was also the hardest of the modes and had the steepest learning curve.  However, it’s very rewarding once you “get it”.

Pic Pic Magic Number

This game is really hard to find.  I got mine off of Ebay for around $30, but it’s tough to find now.  It’s a Europe- or Japan-only game and was never released in the US.  Fortunately, the Nintendo DS is not region locked (but the 3DS is), meaning you can play any game from any region on any device.  The 3DS can play any region’s DS game, just not 3DS games.  If you can find it and like puzzle games, I strongly recommend it.

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Matt and I used to host Rock Band/Guitar Hero parties when we lived in Daytona.  Since we’ve moved to Houston, we haven’t had one.  Tonight that changes.  We’re expecting a good 10 people and it’s going to be a rockin’ time.  I have just about every Rock Band/Guitar Hero game ever made, but we’ll likely stick with Rock Band 3 as I have downloaded more songs than I like to admit. It will be a bit tight in here, but fun nonetheless.  ROCK ON!

Here I am sporting my Guitar Hero shirt and a wrist band that I won – no kidding! – in an online Guitar Hero tournament.  I was pretty good at one time and was ranked in the top 100 in the country.  I am so rusty now, though.

DSC00062

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Chey’s Top 25 – #21 – SSX Tricky

Genre:  Sports
Platform:  XBox Original

I want to stop writing this and go play SSX Tricky right now.  This game is a snowboarding game, which normally I really don’t care about.  It’s got your standard snowboarding/skateboarding elements – tricks, grinds, racing – but there’s something really special about this game.

I remember this game so fondly that I recently went out and found an original XBox console just so I could play this again.  What sets this game apart is how outrageous it is.  It doesn’t really take snowboarding seriously.  This is not an accurate representation of shredding down a course.  This is over-the-top drops, allowing you to string together lots of moves that a real person could never do.

As you play and do tricks, you build up your “tricky” meter.  Once it’s full, wait for your next big jump and activate it.  Each character has their own special trick, and they are BIG.  Your character will twist and twirl around the screen and leave you smiling.  There are two modes – race and style.  In race mode, your goal is to win a race.  You can knock down your opponents to get an advantage.  Be careful, though, because you need to keep a few friends as you progress.  In style mode, it’s all about the points.

The graphics are decent, but the soundtrack is awesome.  Be prepared to hear “It’s Tricky” by Run DMC A LOT.  The announcer also sings your praises as you play with comments such as “bronze those thumbs!” and “call your mamma into the room and show her how good you are!”.  It all adds to the fun.

This game was also on the Gamecube and Playstation 2.  If you can find it, get it and be ready for some big-time fun.

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GCW Zero -The best handheld you’ve never heard of

GCW Zero

I was looking for a handheld that could play multiple emulators and I stumbled upon this little gem.  Sure, there are other handhelds that you can hack to play emulators – NVidia Shield, PSP, Dingoo A380E – but this one seemed like what I was looking for.  I was correct.

This device is the result of a Kickstarter campaign, which I did not contribute to, but would have.  I found mine on ThinkGeek.com, but it appears that they are very hard to find now.  A quick Google search showed a couple on Amazon and one on Ebay.  They are made by one guy at his home, so stock is very low.  I feel lucky to have gotten one.

The GCW Zero is an awesome emulation device.  However, it’s not for the novice.  It took me hours and hours to get it set up the way I want.  It runs on the Linux OS and it’s open source, so if you have experience there, you’ll be at home.  Fortunately, I already had a lot of ROMS, but I also found some online and now have just about every Atari, Commodore 64, Gameboy Advance, NES, SNES and Sega Genesis game ever made on this thing.  The games play really well and the graphics are authentic.  The screen feels a lot bigger than it looks.  The control buttons are responsive.

GCW Zero DKC

There is also a very active community (forums) that actively develop new emulators and are quick to answer any questions you have.  They also develop games specifically for the GCW Zero and are typically clones of better-known games.  If you don’t mind a little work (that was the fun part for me), see if you can find one.

 

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Oldies but Goodies – McKids

Genre – Platformer
Platform – NES

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of McKids on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  This was a game inspired by McDonald’s, which may have turned a lot of potential gamers away.  Underneath the advertising, however, was a pretty solid game.

My parents rented this for us and my sisters and I played it a lot.  We really had a lot of fun with it.  This is a fairly standard platformer, but it did offer a couple of fun elements like the ability to walk upside down.  The gameplay was fluid and intuitive enough for three kids aged 12, 8 and 7 to figure out.  I’m sure there were a few parts that I had to get through for them, as seems to be the way when playing with younger siblings.

I have very fond memories of this game and the time spent with my sisters.  I have it on my GCW Zero and have played it within the last year or so.  It still holds up after all these years.  Check it out if you can!

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Chey’s Top 25 – #22 – Legend of Zelda II

Genre – RPG
Platform – Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

I can hear fans of the Legend of Zelda series yelling at me already.  But again, this list is about personal preference, not what critics and other fans widely agree upon.  I enjoyed The Legend of Zelda II – The Adventures of Link more than the first Legend of Zelda.  There, I said it.  I feel like I’ve had that on my chest for thirty years.  This game just made more sense to me and I had a lot more fun playing it.

In typical Zelda fashion, you play as Link, a young hero out to save the pricess, Zelda.  While this sounds Mario-ish, it is far different.  In Zelda, your character levels up and allows you to upgrade different aspects of them such as health or magic.  This allows you to move to different parts of the map and fight stronger creatures.  This type of game is called a role-playing game (RPG).

This game introduced me to a part of RPGs that I hadn’t seen before – the grind.  I spent hours walking around simply killing mobs (gamer for enemies) to get experience to level up.  If a bag of experience dropped, it was like the gaming god shined upon me as it was worth 50 experience points.

This game also got difficult.  Like most games, the boss mobs had a weakness, but it took some trial and error to find it.  This was the first game that I remember playing that let you save your progress, so there was no more keeping the Nintendo powered on while at school and praying that Mom didn’t turn it off.

I currently have this game downloaded on my Nintendo 3DS and I do still play it from time to time.  This is a big reason it made my top 25.

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So I saw this article on Facebook, but I’m not sure how much I agree with it:

http://www.missopen.com/technology/study-says-super-mario-bros-can-be-as-hard-as-solving-complex-math-problems/

Super Mario

I don’t doubt that there are a lot of things that have to happen in your brain to make this happen – hand-eye coordination, anticipation of upcoming events, strategy, etc – but I’m not sure it’s fair to say that this is as “difficult” has solving a complex math problem.  I’ve also never heard of the source of the article, which makes me suspicious.

If it’s true, though, yay sixth grade me!

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If you’re a parent and you’ve looked for games for your kids, I’m sure you’ve seen these ratings on the packaging:

Ratings

Those are the official ratings and I would recommend going by them.  However, as I discuss games, I’m going to use my own ratings.  I’m only using two – kid-friendly and mature gamers only.  The games that I’m discussing I’ve actually played, and I have a decent idea of what I would let my kids play (if I had them).  If you want a bit more detail on a game and its rating, let me know.

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