Metal Slug Comeback

Oh, a month since the latest update? And a new year at that? Golly, that went fast. At the moment my home is a bit of a renovation site since we found a water leak that pumped water below the kitchen floor... for maybe two years. So a good start for the new year isn't? What happy things should we talk about then?

Before Christmas I went on a Virtual Console spree and got games I had heard of, but never seen or played. Let us begin discussing the METAL SLUG-series, especially the first four games and the remake of MS 2. HOLY F***ING GOD!!! What an awesome series! You take control of one out of two or four characters as you mow down rebels threatening the world peace, sometimes even jumping in tanks, planes, helicopters, submarines or other machines to stop the evil General (who I forgotten the name of). The graphics are amazing for sprites and the music makes the blood pump. These games are the 80's and 90's action movies distilled to 1-2 hour gameplay. At certain points you can get turned to a big blob, a zombie or a mummy that can be really annoying, especially as you loose your machine gun or rocket launcher while in that form and if you don't find medicine quick enough you will probably die before the effect wears of, almost forgot, ONE HIT KILLS.

One of the few games I felt that the more I played, the better I got, even going so far surviving the first stages without using a continue or the like... compared to the first time when I used up all credits to reach the first boss and then die. Personally MS 2 (the original) is my favorite and that is due to the slowdowns which everyone else hates and would prefer the remake MS X. Best scene is the final stage when you jump across ice cold water, jump over sandbags with enemy soldiers covering behind them while you fire machine gun and then the twirling bridge appears. The slow downs hit with all enemies, projectiles and rockets on screen, but it feel like a slow motion action scene. It's AWESOME! And the music rocks.

Explosions for everyone and a toast to everyone and a wish that 2014 will be a good year to look back to!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Last Sunday me and my family watched the second part of The Hobbit at the cinemas. I liked it, music still great,setting and actors as well. Can't really complain and the changes from the book and other material I have no real problem with (compared to the army of the dead in Return of the King who just rubs me the wrong way over time). Missed certain things like the introduction of the dwarves to Beorn the skin changer, instead we got an action scene, maybe they put it in the extended edition. The elf Tauriel didn't bother me either nor the dwarves who stayed in Lake Town since it helps distinguish them and help flesh out the character of Bard who seemed thrown in the last minute in the book (if my memory don't deceive me that is). The biggest thing that annoyed me though was the ending and 

*spoiler* 

that it ends so abruptly without killing Smaug show that it was meant for two movies in the beginning and they made three of it. It also makes me a bit worried since it feels like that last movie will be packed with the death of Smaug, the defeat of the Necromancer and the battle of five armies. Not even counting the death of Thorin, Fili and Kili (if they stick to the book that is, the animated version killed of even more main dwarves). 

*Spoilers end*

Overall I enjoyed it, but it feels bad that I have to wait another year for the conclusion. Maybe have to watch the Robocop remake in the meantime, sadly the biggest fear I have when I saw the commercial at the theater was that there wasn't a hint about any music and especially not the original main theme. I'm really gonna miss it.

Life Force

A couple of weeks ago I got my hand on my families old NES 8-bit system and a couple of old games. Didn't work since it hasn't been cleaned... ever and we got it in early 1990's. So I began by cleaning the systems and the games and I got them to work, both those who had worked since day one and even some import games that had problems to work and my dad blamed those games for the future trouble. One of those games was Life Force or Salamander. It's a scrolling shooter where you pilot the Vic Viper and if you have a friend (or a working second controller) the Lord British (or Road British as my manual say). Your planet is threatened by the galactic monster Zelos who plans to devour it so you set out in your ship in a suicide mission to enter the monster and destroy it's heart. So this was also the first time I succeeded and won the game. I flied threw the six stages and won losing probably around 100 lives (using the Konami code for 30 extra lives certainly helped).

What makes this game special compared to all other shooters? Well, two-player mode and the awesome music. Lets begin with stage 1:

Pumping you up for a space adventure, traveling through attacking creatures, teeth and appearing walls (making multiple playthroughs a necessity knowing if you should stay in front or at the back of the screen due to the dangerous environment who appears out of nowhere). That is until you hit a wall with some strange outgrowth. The screen stops scrolling and the wall dissipates and something looking like a brain pops out, The music changes and it is boss battle time:

Most awesome boss music at the moment as you dodge the enemy fire and tentacles or whatever trying to hit the core. Made much easier if you are fully upgraded which just for the first boss is one loop around him and then continuous fire on his eye for 5 seconds. BOOM!!! And then onward. The saddest thing about this game is that it is on the Virtual console... in Japan and the US, not Europe. I feel slightly cheated by that fact. Maybe it will show up on the Wii U VC or the 3DS eshop... maybe even the TG-16 with CD quality soundtrack... although that will lose some of the nostalgic feeling.

A Link Between Worlds

This Monday I got the latest Legend of Zelda-game, A Link Between Worlds. Sort of a sequel to the SNES A Link to the Past. I finished it today with a playtime around 20 hours (it was like 18 hours) so it was like double as long as A Link to the Past. Was it fun? Yes, and nostalgic at the same time. If you played the first game you will instantly recognize most of the locations and a couple of the NPC's you run into since they are the spiritual reincarnations serving as the same quest or item givers, like he who was under the bridge and gives you a bottle or the shady looking runner in Kakoriko Village who in this version actually is a thief, but the counterpart from Lorule (the dark world equivalent in this game) having more in common with A Link to the Past shady guy. This recognition is both a blessing and a curse. Since I know the layout I never get lost and I know things someone completely new to the games wouldn't like the certain heart pieces sharing the same spot and how to get to. Then that knowledge can be deceiving as certain things have been mixed around and I guess due to just those reasons.

The story this time is that some villain is transforming the descendants of the sages into painting and it is your job to gather the three pendants in order to gain access to the Master Sword, the bane of Evil. Basically the same story as A Link to the Past. Then you face off with the villain and of course he drags you into Lorule where you have to free the seven sages and they will help you save Princess Zelda. Another difference, and I might add I really good one, is that they introduce the seven sages early so you know them and can recognize them in their painting form, making it a bit more personal when it's your friend and employers son, the witch that helped you and a miner who gave you the strength armlet than seven unknown female sages (as I believe the original had). The only inconsistency I can detect is that Zelda isn't one of the sages even though she was it both in A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. It's not impossible, it makes me wonder though.

Other things to mention is that the game is really easy, I had maybe three or four problems with puzzles and those things was just me rushing a bit too fast and not analysis the situation correctly. For example reaching the red mail chest in the final dungeon stumped me for a while, I knew it was the end of the game, I knew where the chest was, but I couldn't get to it... and I cheated there a bit and looked it up. Had I been observant I should have noted the dark shadows on the walls and realized I needed to extinguish the two flames to see an invisible railing to walk over too. I blame myself for that, but in an earlier example in the Dark Palace I can see the chest on the map, but how to get there, there seems to be no sign on what to do. The solution was placing a bomb on a switch opposite the wall, run back hit the switch that takes you to the wall and then the bomb goes off and the wall turns with you. You can't see that on the screen that they control each others wall and not just the elevator. That was a bit harder. Then we have the 100 challenge, get 100 of the items an NPC need and get rewards. I got to 97 and then stumped on the three last. I knew which areas and the game tells me that they cry if I'm near. These last three? One was in a mini-game area which was fair enough. The other two was in a cave and a hut. I was under the impression they only was out in the open so that threw me off. It didn't feel fair, but then again, did they say they weren't inside of caves and houses?

Lastly, the music. Mostly updated versions of the SNES soundtrack which I like and the intro sequence with the swirling triforce and the fanfare gives me nostalgic goosebumps. Sadly the dark world theme and the boss defeat track doesn't feel as powerful, and in the case of the boss defeat it's too short. They aren't bad, and when the final confrontation is upon us the dark world theme gets an orchestra punch to it. Who would mostly enjoy it? People like me I would guess who can see the call backs to the earlier games. Link is yet again a blacksmith apprentice, the thief girl utters the famous line of "it's a secret for everybody" and so on. In the end probably anyone would enjoy it so have a go at it if you want.

Phantasy Star

 

Played the classic RPG Phantasy Star for some time now, released in the amazing year of 1987 it was one of the earliest JRPG's to enter the western world. Funny enough it was one of the latest of the big ones, like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. And it shows in the graphic department. Amazing sprites, creatures move and the same for the rolling oceans. That is the good stuff, the bad is more in the story-telling. More or less the end. The beginning is fine and they do tell you what to do in most cases. The only exception being how to get a road-pass so that you can enter the spaceport in order to get a new ally that has a potion that can revive another ally that has been turned into stone. This particular road-pass must be bought in a second-hand shop and the item is referred to as secrets. But does the salesmen want to sell it? No, he wont, he throws you out instead. You must ask him three times which is a bit random. The only way I found out was running out of ideas and do everything again, that's when I noticed he said something else so I visited him again and what do you know, I got the road-pass. The other problem is the end. You defeat the evil dictator and return to the governor that helped you, but instead of praise you fall down a pit and walk trough a dungeon until the end where you meet Dark Falz (or Dark Force if you prefer that). Who is he? I don't know. He doesn't say anything, he just attacks. Afterwards the governor mentions that he was some cosmic horror that threatened to possess him and destroy the solar system. No one else mentions this apparently dark demon. The only hint I could guess pointing toward this is that you were attacked in your dream when you stayed at the governors palace at the beginning of the game.

Aside from that the gameplay mechanics makes the game a bit... boring. You can't decide which enemy to attack which makes it a bit harder when your party leaves one enemy with 1 hp to deal with the others having 100 and still get pummeled by the 1 hp guy. Meaning there is no strategy other than either randomly attack, randomly cast a magic spell or flee (talking to the monster I never succeeded in). Overall an interesting game that at least should be experienced once, if you play it through depends if these games are of your liking and taste. It is a bit dated, but it holds up a bit better than it's rivals of the era... or that might be due to it being more modern than the others.

The Ballad of Sigyn the Dragonslayer

I was with most of my family in Örebro this weekend to watch a theather show with my sisters boyfriend in one of the rolls. A childrens play with a little viewer participation called "The Ballad of Sigyn the Dragonslayer". The story goes that the audiance is travellers in an inn where we meet two servatns to the throne and a wizard and witch, the last two telling us about the threat of Gnollerna (which I belive isn't based on gnolls) and then let us look on the daily life of the servants through some magic vision. There we see the princess Sigyn, a rebellious princess who wants to fight and a very feminim prince. Of course the conservative king (sisters boyfriend) don't approve this and tries to marry the princess with a knight and uses potions to make the prince more maculine. Of course it doesn't work, but the princess falls in love with the knight although she accidently sent him out to get the head of the dragon who terrorize town. They only find is burnt cape. The king have had enough and sends his son to once and for all rid the town of the dragon. Of course he gets in trouble and it is up to Sigyn with the help of the audience to save him.

Here begins the next session with the audience divided in two and the servants leading them around to different people for aid. The wizard gives all the children magic stones and a spell to fight gnollerna, the witch gives two potions (one to each group), the first a potion to bring people back to life and the other to scare gnollerna away (she also gave my group the gnoll spell since we were there first and finally we met the dwarf smith who gave us a sword and... something else to the other group (maybe a knife), I didn't hear what. During our tour of this part of the city gnollerna attacked twice and we recited the spell to keep them at bay until we could join the other group and then find the prince who was tied up. Using the anti-gnoll potion they ran of and he was released (with the knife maybe). We found the princess and the prince told us that the dragon was controlled by gnollerna. We went to an arena and there the dragon showed up (they did it like a chinese dragon puppet) who the princess killed with the sword. In the dragon the wounded knight was found so the fairy life potion was used. Back too the castle, king apologize everyones happy. The End!

Shadows of Doubt

Well, might be time for a sporadic post to commemorate over 10 000 views on the blog. If they are all one of the same person reading I don't know. So what should we discuss today? Well, we can write about the latest meltdown of Swedish politics that went down last week. The last couple of months the four oppositions parties had made a full-scale frontal assault and banded together to stop the raising of the state income tax (I've learned afterwards it was something down annually to counter inflation and all that although it was a bit higher than usual). These four parties were the left party, the social democratic party, the green party and the Sweden democrats. To achieve this, since they haven't planned on putting forward a single budget, was to break out this bit from the governmental budget and get a vote on it. This is seen by many as a break against the compromise that a budget must be voted as a whole as to avoid political chaos when it is a minority government and no one can muster a majority for an alternative. The opposition try to justify it with that it is allowed in order to ensure the finances of the state (which open a real can of worms since what is seen as the best for the state differs greatly and could lead to a social democratic minority government see their budget picked apart, and then we are not even disusing the implications for the red-green parties as they made a deal with the Sweden democrats)

This is the back-ground, the vote was last week and everyone expected the opposition to win since they have a majority. THEY LOST WITH ONE VOTE! The vote was cast and the result was 154 with the government and 153 with the opposition. How was this possible? First of the Sweden democrats had one member in New York for a political meeting and since they aren't involved the weighing principle he couldn't be done with. But the opposition still would have had a two vote majority. The second problem was that the party leader of the left was in the south of Sweden debating the school minister and a communication miss between the left party and the weighing committee failed to take one person away from the government side. They opposition still would have had one vote majority. Thirdly, two politicians from the social democratic party was in the area, but in the wrong building and missed the vote. Not anyone either, the party's stand in for their party leader who isn't voted into parliament and one of the veterans. After 1-2 months of boosting speeches they fail to deliver, becoming the laughing stock and showed some immense incompetence and failure to organize themselves. If the governmental parties are lucky this will throw such big doubt about the oppositions fitness to rule that the center-right parties win for a third time.