Final Fantasy X: Nemesis

Over the last year, I've spent 108 hours in Final Fantasy X min/maxing my team to defeat "Nemesis", the insanely high-level optional superboss. This is something I rarely if ever do in these types of games. I've come close a few times, but this is the first time I can ever say I haven't just beaten a game: I've annihilated it.

Via finalfantasy.wikia.com

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Call of Duty Ghosts: System Requirements

The new Call of Duty blocks out paying customers of the PC version for made-up RAM requirements. Enjoy your $60 doorstop, kids!

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~A.H.

Majora's Mask: "Blue Shell"

Via zeldawiki.org

I never finished Majora's Mask. I always meant to, but either it was too "weird" for me at the time, or I just needed more time to recover from the impact Ocarina of Time had on me. But even having only gotten about halfway through, I still remember it leaving an impression on me. I've played more than a few horror games in my day, but this is one of the few video games I'd call "haunted".

After seeing some very thoughtful video analysis on it, I decided to give it another go. And that will surely lead to my own extensive, thoughtful analysis of its' themes, its' mechanics and the understated effect it had(or should have had) on the games industry, in the shadow of a giant.

Or I can just be really bitter about the Goron Racetrack.

Fucking Mario Kart isn't that cheap.

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~A.H.

Super Smash Bros: "Wii Fit Trainer"

There's a screenshot making the rounds of a male version of the Wii Fit Trainer in the upcoming Smash Bros. game. It might just be an unrelated promotional image, it might be a different character, or it could be an alternate "costume", akin to Wario's two different looks in Brawl.

Via miiverse.nintendo.net

I hope this means what I think it means. Specifically, how weird it was that the Animal Crossing villager was revealed as being male, despite the series' strong popularity among women(at least according to my Tumblr dashboard).

I kind of hope they take this further. Not to the lengths of giving every single character the Rule 63 treatment, but anything to make this less of a sausage fest. Yes, it is called Smash BROTHERS. But I think the franchise can evolve past a pun of the game it's named after. Brawl disappointed me in part because the character roster exploded, yet there wasn't a single new female combatant(Fanservice Suit Samus does not count). Even though it has dozens of options from the Fire Emblem franchise alone, let alone the entire Nintendo back catalogue.

Maybe this means we can see more diverse characters without the need to put on a huge workload for the dev team. If Fox and Falco can count as two separate spots on the roster, then I don't think it's too much of a stretch to throw Krystal in there as an alternate skin. Maybe you could frankenstein Marth and Ike's moveset, tweak the strength and speed and come up with a suitably playable Lyn. Even if they're clones of existing move sets, it's better than nothing. We'll just have to wait and see.

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~A.H.

The Walking Dead Game: Season 2 Trailer

I never liked "Clementine" from The Walking Dead game. She's the central focus, and the relationship between her and Lee is what the entire first season is built around, and I think that's part of why it goes right down the toilet by the end. I just bonded so much more with the other characters, but the game assumes I care more about Clementine. Even though Duck and Ben felt like more honest portrayals of young survivors. I wanted to protect those two. They felt real to me.

So finding out that we're going to play as Clementine in season 2 does not fill me with confidence. I'm not surprised, just disappointed. Seven new, interesting characters were introduced in "400 Days", but nope. Let's just go with Elmo. Okay.

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Ducktales Remastered: The Moon Theme

To hell with being topical.

Jake Kaufman took one of the most untouchable, sacred pieces of video game music and made it better.

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Lara Croft: Two Raider

The most popular thing I've made on Tumblr is an (admittedly flawed) series of pictures detailing the decline in imagination in character design for video games. At least in regards to the main protagonists, the people whose faces are on the cover. Many people chimed in. Some of them made some very shallow, idiotic responses, as is expected on the internet. There's been a lot of denial, and a lot of hand-wringing for the sexism and racism apparent in the industry today.

But I also heard from some people who made compelling arguments that there ARE still interesting and diverse character designs in video games. Yes, even in the main protagonists. These people weren't denying that things are bad, but I've been reminded that it's not all doom and gloom for this industry. So I can admit that that even though the original post is a misfire, at least I got it out of my system. And at least I was reminded of some interesting games I still need to try out one of these days.


But the one thing I do protest is this: the sheer number of people insisting to me that the new Lara Croft is “badass”. You know, the one who brutally murders and sets fire to hundreds of dudes, and regularly has to slaughter dangerous wildlife...

…but then immediately becomes a helpless, whimpering crybaby over a deer?

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