So it turns out I’ve got mad DDR skillz! In fact, I have even bested female players ten years younger than me!
One day, I may be good enough to challenge the girl 12 seconds into this video (which was taken during our last Japan trip).
Notice, by the way, the dominance of ‘rhythm games’ in that particular arcade…
I apologize this post has been so long in coming, especially since I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats waiting for…the 2007 game collection year in review!
2007 saw me buy a total of 98 games, which is a 17% reduction from the previous year. Dollar totals increased though (by about 10%), mostly due to the purchase of the PS3 and PSP Slim. Discounting hardware, the average cost/game of about $20.50 was almost identical to the previous year. Here’s a chart summary of both totals:
The above is a breakdown of games per system. Unsurprisingly, the DS is far in the lead. 2007 saw my DS game collection pass 120 games – this year will see it pass 138 (my GBA total) to become the system for which I have the most games. 2007 also saw the ‘retirement’ of the Gamecube, as I doubt I’ll ever buy another game for it. The one Gamecube game I bought in ’07 was Odama, the microphone-based pinball simulator (which I played for about an hour and put away…). One pleasant surprise in 2007 was the re-emergence of the PSP as a viable system. I was ready to write it off at the end of 2006, but the good games finally started coming and it had a good year. This will continue in ’08, which has already seen some stellar releases for the system (Patapon, Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core, R-Type Tactics).
The dollar totals are above. Please don’t add them up and make rash judgements about my spending 🙂
Excluding gifts (which I value as zero in my database), the least expensive game I bought in 2007 was Piyotama, the download-only game from the Playstation store, which cost a mere $2.99. The least expensive packaged game was Quick Spot, a DS puzzle game bought brand new at a CompUSA closing sale for $4.98.
The most expensive game purchase (excluding hardware) of 2007 was World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Collector’s Edition which was purchased shortly after midnight on the day of release and cost $80 and nearly much more, since I fell on ice on the way back to the car and landed painfully on my wrist! The game on which I spent the most in 2007 was easily World Of Warcraft, since my account was active for 6 months (about $90) on top of the cost for the expansion.
The best game of the year, at least that I bought? That’s a tough call, and depends on what mood I am in. Contenders would certainly be World Of Warcraft (PC), Osu! Tatakae! Ouenden 2! (DS) or Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP). I’ll leave you all to decide which one I enjoyed the most 🙂
Seconds (joke!) after returning to America I renewed my World Of Warcraft account. There’s still a lot to do in the game for me, and I still enjoy playing. Doubly so since I’m in a FF (Friends & Family) guild now, and helping others level their characters.
JBF is almost 70 on his Paladin. We’re at the point where we can 2-man the level 60 dungeons with ease:
I also stuck my head into The Temple Of Ahn’Quiraj the other day so I could die to the first boss 🙂
< Skeram
Anyway, since this game is so fiendishly addictive, for the first time I enabled 'Parental Controls'. I have now prevented myself from being able to play the game except for Friday afternoons and weekends. Removing such restrictions requires a password that is entrusted to KLS. Apparently my trust of my own ability to resist the urge for the occasional Tuesday afternoon WoW binge is not high enough...
In short, I have taken the first step toward treating an addiction: recognizing that the addiction exists.
And if you're wondering, this is a Perentie:
Less than a month ago I renewed World Of Warcraft for the fourth time in a few years. Things were different this time around. For starters I renewed to help JBF level his new Paladin up. For seconders I waved goodbye to raiding (even though I was very casual about it since BC) and in fact to my guild in general.
I formed my own guild – named Atomic.
There are three members at the moment, myself, JBF and SFL (a mysterious person never-before-mentioned on this blog). Despite my initial wish to scale back on my playing, and only play whenever I was helping Jim…well once again I sold my soul to the gods of WoW.
< Momo's mounts
My account expires in 2 days, since I cancelled for my trip. But I will return!
About a week ago Nintendo launched a new channel for the Wii called ‘Check Mii Out’, and it’s a doozy…
But before I start. For those that have been living under a rock this past year, the Wii is Nintendo’s newest game console. It’s been sold out worldwide for over a year due to it’s innovation and how much fun it is. In addition to playing all sorts of games, the console also has ‘channels’ that you can use right from the operating system, include news, weather, a web browser, photo viewer etc.
One of the first channels to ship with the console is the Mii channel, which allows you to make avatars (called Mii’s) of yourself to use in games or just for the fun of it. Here’s a video of the process of making an Mii.
As soon as we got the Wii we made Mii’s or ourselves, and of Jim & Joyce (who very soon had a Wii of their own). We also made a few ‘celebrity’ Mii’s, mostly by coping designs clever people had done and posted online.
This past week Nintendo launched the Check Mii Out channel, which is a mega-depository of Mii’s from people all over the world. You can search through lists of favourite Mii’s, or just screens of random Mii’s and then import them into your console. The channel also includes contests which will be voted on by all Wii owners, and then the winning Mii’s can be downloaded. Appropriately, the first contest is to design a Mario Mii.
Needless to say, the popularity lists are dominated by celebrity Mii’s, and selecting one allows you to call up variations as well, until you have screens and screens of subtle takes on a specific person to choose from.
And yes, that is Hitler in the first shot. I suspect 95% of all Wii owners must have a Hitler and a Jesus by now.
The channel really shows off the amazing creativity of some people. While the amount of facial pieces seems high, it’s actually quite tricky to get a Mii to look ‘just right’, so we were amazed by some of the spot-on likenesses we found on this new channel.
The non-humans in particular, are astounding. Even inspecting the Darth Maul, it’s not clear how he made it using the pieces provided. And that Miss Piggy?? Woah! (The short red-faced guy on the second row is Corporal Giroro from Keroro Gunso aka Sgt. Frog)
We’ve already added 40 odd new Mii’s to our Mii plaza since this channel went live, and I’m sure that number will increase (latest additions: dead-on likenesses of Beavis & Butthead). I can’t wait to play Wii Baseball again and have some of these new ones on my team…
…although Bernard has always been a mean outfielder:
(And yes, that is C3PO just below him)