Blueflower's Gaming Blog and Reviews

[popo447]

i never actually had MP:DS but i played it and it was ok. the mario party i prefer is mario party 7.

[blueflower999]

^OK, I'll look into that.

And now what (I) have been watching for!

Pikmin 2:

Gameplay: 10/10 Flawless. I have never seen a sequel improve so much over its predecessor. This game has everything you expect, and more. In fact, that's the key word here: more. More fluent controls. More enemies. More areas (mainly in the form of caves). More things to collect. More Pikmin types. More game mechanics. More of everything you love. (I sound like the Super Mario World commercial!) And less of the bad things. Less glitches. No time limit. It's perfect, and addicting as freak.

Addictiveness: 9/10 It's hard for a game to get 10/10 in the addictiveness category unless I played it for so long that my eyes started to turn to mush, or it's Tetris. Or Dr. Mario. But Pikmin 2 is about as close as you can get. It always keeps you guessing things like "What's around this corner?", "What will I find on the next floor?", "If the next boss a giant frog? A walking loaf of bread? A bird-snake hybrid?", and "What new varieties of treasure will I find in this area?"

Story: 9/10 Short and sweet: Olimar escapes from the Pikmin planet only to find his company in an ENORMOUS debt of over 10,100 Pokos. For comparison, 100 Pokos is more than Olimar makes in a year, so that is a lot of money! After having his ship, the S. S. Dolphin sold by his boss to replay the debt, hope looked grim. Thankfully, a souvenir that Olimar brought back from the Pikmin Planet (which is, in fact, a bottle-cap) is analyzed by a nearby, unnamed ship. (Known as the "Hocotate Ship" in Brawl) The soda cap was worth 100 Pokos, so, conveniently, the debt is lowered to exactly 10,000, and the President sends Olimar, with a new sidekick Louie, back to the Pikmin Planet to discover more treasure and repay the debt! The plot thickens after this (as you who have played the game know!), but I'm not going to spoil what makes the ending so great...! 

Music: 9/10 Much like the first game, the area themes are all wonderfully composed... except for one. This time, it's the Valley of Repose, and again, it's just not catchy enough for me to like it. Others like it, but I don't. However, the Awakening Wood, Perplexing Pool, and Wistful Wild themes are all amazing. The boss battle theme is UNBELIEVABLE epic, almost too much so, and whenever a boss has its own separate, unique theme song, that's always great too. This includes the final boss, which is one of the most epic final boss battles I've ever heard, only taking competition from EarthBound's and maybe a few others.

Awakening Wood

[close]

Perplexing Pool

[close]

Wistful Wild

[close]

Boss Battle

[close]

*SPOILERS* Final Boss

[close]

Bulblax Kingdom

[close]

Character Design: 10/10 Again, it's just what I want. Instead of flooding you with hundreds of characters that never see much development, this game gives you just a few. Olimar, Louie, and the President (I call him Shacho), who all receive beyond substantial character development throughout the events of Pikmin 2. The President sends you an email and the end of every in-game day, and if he doesn't, someone else like Olimar's Wife or Son, or even Louie's Grandmother does, so that brings even more characters into the game. Even though they aren't physically present in the game, THE MAIL STILL GIVES THEM LOTS OF CHARACTER. Which is awesome.

Humor: 9/10 This game has an outstanding, yet subtle sense of humor. Some of the lines that you get in emails are downright hysterical, my personal favorite being from Shacho: "Olimar! Terrible news! I thought I went to Happy Hocotate Savings & Loan, but it seems my loan came from the shop next door: All-Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks! Oops!" YEAH, OOPS. Miyamoto is one riot of a guy! And if you don't know who Miyamoto is... then... why are you on this site? 

Difficulty: 5/10 Much like Pikmin 1, this game is easy if you're practiced, but hard if you're new. However, this one is MUCH more forgiving than the sequel, so if you mess up, it's no big deal because there's no time limit! Most of the enemies are easier, (WITH A FEW SMALL EXCEPTIONS ) and being able to take your time is awesome

Other Memorable Features: Many of the treasures are based on real world things. R.O.B.'s head and his Gyro Blocks, an NES D-Pad, a Ragu lid, various brand-specified soda caps, Duracell batteries, and many others are just a small sampling of all the crazy objects you'll find in this game. For every treasure you find, it goes into the "Treasure Hoard", where you can read Olimar's humorous notes about it. When you complete a series, you can read the Ship's humorous sales pitch for the item. Similarly, when you find a new enemy, you can read Olimar's notes on it, and when you beat the game, you can read Louie's notes on how to... cook... the enemy... Have you ever wanted to eat a Bulborb? Well now you can!
 
Overall: 10/10 Best. Game. Ever. IMO. Get it. Now.

[blueflower999]

OK, so I hope you all enjoyed my Christmas marathon, but to be honest, I'm kind of running out of games to review! Therefore, my next game review will most likely be Mega Man 2. Unless I think of something better to review prior. However, I'll only review MM2 when I get to Dr. Wily's stage, so that might take a while.

And oh yeah, Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong, and Super C all game so far, but no Mega Man 2. To quote a character from my favorite series of books, "Isn't fate artistic?"

[Yugi]

...Really? Like an actual copy of the game, or a ROM on an emulator?

I heard of what happens if You Pirate the game.
I have a Rom.

[Zunawe]

Technically downloading ROMs is considered pirating unless you own a copy of the real game. I don't even know if there are flash carts for the SNES to pirate it in the way I think you were thinking.

[blueflower999]

There are, however, fake copies floating around. However, these are usually tried to pass off as the real thing. So it's no deal.

[Yugi]

And they crush the soul of whoever tries to pirate them.

[Zunawe]

I still don't know what you're talking about. When you say "pirate" what do you mean?

[blueflower999]

http://starmen.net/mother2/gameinfo/antipiracy/

A clean, un-hacked copy of the game has some functions like this in it, while there are some ROMs on the internet that do not have this due to them being removed by hackers.

[Yugi]

To buy an illegal copy of the game.

Look it up and see what happens.

[Zunawe]

Ah. Now I get it. I kinda like that.

[blueflower999]

Well. I'm glad we're getting some EarthBound discussion! A little weird topic to be discussing, but hey, it's something.

UPDATE: Still no Mega Man 2. Will hopefully check the mailbox again tomorrow.

[Yugi]

My favourite anti pirate measure is this measure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZwFxAi76iI

Vuvuzelas.

[blueflower999]

YES. IT'S HERE. FINALLY. MWAHAHAHA!

And it's in perfect condition to boot! Let's pop this sucker in...

[Dudeman]

YESSSSSSSS
Can't wait!