Go see Batman Begins. It’s hardcore and whatnot. I just got back from watching it with Brendan. We rode our bikes to the local mall/theater complex, and when we were almost there, I accidentally hit a curb with my bike, destroying the front tire (only the tube, not the rim, fortunately). The upshot was that I had to run/walk my bicycle back to the area near my apartment (3 miles away); I left it in front of the closest repair shop, so I can mosey on down there tomorrow morning. <p>
Aside from that, today was pretty good.
Apparently, I can still use the return portion of my original ticket to Japan. This means that instead of paying $1500 for another ticket, I get to go home for FREE. That $1000+ bonus that I thought was going towards another ticket? DIRECTLY INTO MY POCKET. <p>
On a side note, remember when I said I was going to make t-shirt designs? Yeah, it was pretty much a lie, but yesterday I did actually make an image that I will put on a shirt someday. Check it. It says ‘tako jigoku’, which means ‘octopus hell.’ It will totally not make sense to anyone who can read it. <p>
Also, for some strange reason I want to play that Diablo 2 game again. Remember the Paladin character who has those elemental auras? Apparently you can get items which boost Holy Fire/Shock to around level 30 each, then run around wasting people. Alternately, you could make a paladin that has like level 60 Holy Shock. Guhh, stupid time-wasting games! I can’t stop thinking about you!
Hmm, if I recall correctly, last year on my birthday I constructed home-made PS2 joysticks, and then delivered pizza. The mad excitement. This year probably trumps it: spent pretty much all day teaching. However, I did get a great present, albeit inadvertantly. The horrible 1.5 hour conversation class from 7:30-9:00 on Wednesdays was cancelled by default, because no one came. Which meant that I sat around listening to the iPod and reading Love Hina. I also got to take an earlier train, because my Japanese co-worker did something unprecedented and clocked out for me. So, I totally saved another half-hour in coming home.
Last night I attempted to foil Japan's plot to deny me cake (and succeeded). My mom sent me some cake mix, but unfortunately people don't commonly have ovens in this backwards country! There's not even space for an oven in my apartment. In any case, I made do by using my toaster oven and rice cooker (no joke). Take that, Japan! Check the foto-gallery (totally a directory listing, because I'm lazy! Hey, I resized the images, that should be enough for you!)
Random intar-net surfing brought me to a company called <a href=http://www.playmessiah.com/index2.htm>Messiah Entertainment</a>, the soon-to-be purveyors of the <a href=http://www.playmessiah.com/onlinestore/index.htm>Generation NEX</a> console. This bad boy is a slimmed-down NES which also accepts Famicom cartridges, and also has support for wireless controllers. All retailing for a mere $60. <p>
To me, one of the real selling points of this beast is the inclusion of Famicom support. A while back, one of my friends brought a Famicom back to the States, and had an unfortunate suprise when he tried to hook it up. It seems that the original Famicom requires a specific video cable that is unique to old-school Japanese TVs. There may be ways around this, I couldn’t find one in the brief research I did. The upshot was that we couldn’t play the Famicom, and shed bitter tears. Since many original NES units break easily, and the official Nindendo redesign is expensive/hard to find, this knock off might be a worthwhile investment.
However, I wonder if it's worth the money. Obviously Nintendo has stated that their new console will be able to download old NES/SNES/N64 games, so you can play your old favorites without doing the infamous "system switcheroo" that I'm so fond of. I think the conclusion is that if you have a large collection of (uncommon) NES carts, or want to play Famicom games, put in a pre-order.
What would you do if your father, the King of All Cosmos, went on a drunken rampage and knocked all the stars out of the sky? Good question, eh? The solution, obviously, is to roll a sticky ball around the earth. When enough stuff sticks to the ball, you can use it as a star, right? Right. And, as we all know, the earth is full of stuff just waiting to be rolled up.
The PS2 title Katamari Damacy uses this lighthearted story as the premise for hours of rolling fun. In teh Japanese, katamari damashii means something like "soul of the clod." Playing as the Prince, your job is to roll your katamari damashii around, picking up more and more objects as you go. Think of it as making a huge snowball, except instead of snow, you use everyday objects, people, and buildings.
Controlling your katamari is natural and intuitive. For all intents and purposes, the only method of control is using the two analog sticks on the Playstation controller. The player can think of each stick as representing one arm. Push forward on the right stick, and the katamari moves left, just as if you'd given a large ball a hard shove on the right side in real life. The same applies for the left stick; used in tandem, they offer total control.
The goal of the main section of Katamari Damacy is to gather as much junk as you can on to your katamari, all while under the pressure of a time limit. Each level is riddled with random junk to pick up. The more you pick up, the bigger your katamari becomes, which in turn means you can pick up bigger items. At the beginning of the game, you pick up tacks, erasers and coins. Towards the end, you pick up cars, office buildings, and then the land masses those buildings recently resided on.
The other stages of the game involve certain specific tasks, the goal of which is to create constellations. For example, in order to create a swan constellation, you must roll up as many birds as you can in a certain time limit. Other constellations are created by carefully avoiding certain animals: the King of All Cosmos hates bears, for example, so creating a bear constellation involves only picking up one kuso kuma.
Katamari Damacy also includes a two player mode, which involves you and a friend racing around an arena, trying to pick up as many items as you can. You can even pick up the opposing player's katamari, if yours is big enough.
A number of things impressed me about Katamari. One of these is the scalability of the game. The transition from picking up paper clips to rolls of toilet paper to cats to buildings is seamless. Everything just keeps getting bigger, and there are no obvious transition points from one section of the game to another. The other thing that was particularly interesting to me is that the game has a lot of Japanese culture embedded within. Many of the items in the game would have no meaning for a western player: <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki>takoyaki</a>, <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneki_Neko>maneki neko</a>, <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daruma>daruma</a>, and much more. I feel rather lucky to be actually able to appreciate the inclusion of these items. Of course, it doesn't impede your ability to enjoy the game if you don't know what any of these things are, but adds a bit if you do.
The soundtrack is another one of the high points of the game. The introductory theme provides the exact level of quirkiness you might expect from such an offbeat game, and the rest of the tracks compliment the game action nicely. A well-made soundtrack that adds to the play experience is something of a rarity, and this is a soundtrack that I'm sure many would consider purchasing on CD.
In conclusion, I recommend Katamari Damacy to everyone. The reason I can do so is the simplicity of the game: casual gamers can appreciate the action, and the hardcore will strive to beat their best scores again and again. These days, when milking franchises is the norm, it's refreshing to see a game that uses truly new and innovative ideas and gameplay.
