In this post:
1. It’s pretty rough out there, that’s all that really needs to be said.
2. New Super Mario Bros Wii is crazy fun! Though to a certain extent.
3. What I’ve long been waiting for finally showed up in the mail!
4. And finally sent an email that’s been long overdue, ten years later.
5. Plus, another look at all the wondrous sings and sounds that can be found at the fort90forums
Another week has flown by, so time for another update…
The Way It Is
As some of you might have noticed, this is post #750, and I kinda/sorta wanted to do something special to mark the occasion. Like how #500 was live from Japan, and #250 was… well, just me bitching about the subways as usual. Too bad I ain’t got nothin’!
It’s been a crazy and exhaustive past couple of days, and I know I say that a lot, but it’s been especially true this time (btw, I also realize how I state “but I really mean it!” far too frequently as well, sorry about that). Unfortunately, not much of it is worth getting into, simply because we all know that times are toughd; virtually everyone I know is either working harder than ever before or hustling harder than ever to find work. Which, of course, is practically nonexistent. So boo-hoo-hooing yet again is therefore especially pointles, and believe it or not, I’m just as sick and tired of that everything sucks as much as you are. Then again, it’s such a basic fact of life these days that’s impossible to ignore.
Today was especially depressing; on the train some poor soul addressed the captive audience with “Listen, I REALLY hate to do this, but I’ve been out of work for longer than I can remember and, God, if anyone could please help me out just a tiny bit. Man, even a bottle of water would be great.” When you live in New York as long as I’ve had, you’ve more or less heard it all, and as a result, you’re able to pick up on clues as to why such and such person asking for change is a total bullsh*tter. And this fellow was not, just a guy whose having the worst of times. The really crappy part is how I’ve seen more and more of this lately. I swear, even post 9/11 NYC didn’t feel this hopelessly dreary. Not helping the least bit is how we’re approaching the upcoming holiday season, which makes everything seem all that much worse.
It’s never been tougher out there, and the feeling of doom and gloom has never been as pervasive, but you still gotta do what you gotta do. Hence why just chillin’ with pals has become even more important these days, to help reduce the stress, and that?s pretty much all I did this past weekend…
It’s Just A Game
On Friday night I hung out with Dave Mauro and some friends of his for some 4 player New Super Mario Bros Wii action. And Saturday was Stephen Totilo’s housewarming party, in which myself, Stephen, Tracey, and her bf Jesse simply… what else… played New Super Mario Bros Wii.
I’ll save my full breakdown for the eventual review; suffice to say the game is loads of fun by itself, but even more so with other people… provided that everyone is at the same level, skill-wise. Otherwise, it’s an exercise in pure frustration. By the end of Friday night, dmauro’s pal Youri was pretty much done with the game, though to be fair, both Dave and I were perhaps a bit too dick-ish when the competitive tactics. Still, him grabbing all four invisible stars in one foul swoop was just pure comedy gold. Meanwhile, at Totilo’s shindig, I found myself playing with two complete novices, and as much as I tried to help them out, both felt rather frustrated in the end because they just felt like they weren’t up to snuff. Oh, and I hate to brag, but out of all the seasoned game journalists in the house that evening, the skills of some guy who writes for a dumb little site called fort90 was able to trump those who write for Kotaku and Wired. Just saying!
As for the following day, which is now yesterday, played the game some more with Katie! Also went to Ikea. But mostly started to feel sick, which totally blows; been laying low all day to make sure I don’t develop a full-blown cold, since it’s going to be another jam-packed week. Tomorrow evening is a Boom Boom Satellites show with Hilary, which we’re both super stoked for! I myself have been a fan since Rider Racer 5.
EDIT: just got a call saying that she can’t go; has to head into Connecticut earlier than anticipated. FFFUUUCCCKKK. Aside from being the biggest fan of Boom Boom Satellites that I personally know, Hilary also happens to be the ONLY one as well. Well, I got a free ticket now, anyone wanna join?
And Thursday is Thanksgiving of course, which will once again be spent with the Dave Roman clan, which I’m always super jazzed for. This I’ll mark my 11th or 12th year! As for the following Friday, something potentially insane might be going down, which I honestly can’t go into. At least not yet. Though I hope to share the tale once it’s been wrapped up. It’s also part of the reason why the past week has been like no other, and I’m afraid that divulging the specifics at this point will simply ruin things. Let’s just say that, the next time I post an update, it might be coming from either the NYC sewer system or Liberia!
Till then, I have plenty of other, more pedestrian pursuits to keep me occupied. Like the big stack of games whose senders I owe reviews to! The latest to make the pile is Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, which I’m eager to tear into, if only because it features the video game hottie of my dreams, Ms. Claire Redfield, and sporting her Code Veronica duds no less! Almost done with WireWay, and… didn’t Bit.Trip Void come out today? I forgot to mention how after our Mario Bros. session, myself and Stephen also fired up You, Me, and The Cubes, which he’s also a fan of, and now I’m aching to finally finish that one out.
Best of all, later this week, Mushihime-sama Futari Ver 1.5 finally comes out in Japan and should be in my mailbox shortly thereafter thanks to Play Asia! I finally got these PS2 to Xbox 360 controller converters from dmauro over the weekend and can finally get a stick, one which will work for both Dai Ou Jou and Futari, plus I’m fairly certain that I can crack my 303,00 high score in Pac Man Championship Edition with it, as well as finally walk away from the retardedly long-ass load times in the PS3 version of Tekken 6. But back to my mailbox…
The Best Part Of Persona 3, On My Desk
Guess what else finally showed up this past Friday?
… And it’s pretty sweet! Well worth the wait as well. I’ve never owned a Figma before, and can finally see why they get such acclaim; the sculpt is super detailed, and the level of articulation, along with all the possibilities when it comes to poses, is totally nuts.
Still no word on Rise, which I pre-ordered through National Console Support. Then again, haven’t seen any indication that they’ve gotten them in via their blog, so perhaps when they finally do, I’ll get the “okay, we’re gonna charge your credit card now” email. Though I must say, thus far, I’m glad I pre-ordered Mushihime-sama through Play Asia instead.
Next on my hit list is a Gundam, finally, and thanks to Ollie, I finally know what I want now (the dude’s been giving me a crash course on all the different types of models and toys out there, the kind of stuff that the people at figure.fm seem to gloss over). A Zeta Gundam of course! Too bad the one I’d like is not readily available online, though Ollie will be kind enough to look for it when he goes to Japan next time! Again, it’s good to have friends.
Now Friends With A Jewish Reggae DJ In Japan, Quite Possibly The Only One
Oh, something else that dominated much of the past couple of days was me backing up all my stuff in order to do a clean install of OS X. It’s mostly to possibly get rid of all the stupid little annoyances (which are actually not at all little when complied and in the long-run) I’ve been dealing with since first upgrading to Snow Leopard a whiles back, as well as make room for Windows 7, which Microsoft finally sent a copy of (haven’t spoken about it here, but anyone that follows me on Twitter is well aware of what a nightmare that’s been). Anyway, ended up going through some super old bookmarked links that I had stored and came across a definite oldie, but still very much a goodie; anyone out there remember Superfami.com?
It was seriously the very first video game oriented website that I stumbled across and subsequently obsessed over, that one magical afternoon in which I was able to finally traverse the internet at the comfort of home; it was like day two of my very first apartment with Jason and the phone line was activated, allowing us to finally fire up AOL… this was the summer of 1999 btw (previous to that, it was just bits and pieces at the SVA computer lab, which hardly allowed much freedom when it came to web crawling). It, alongside Solid Sharkey, was my first exposure to one person’s take on video games and Japan, as well as a journal that was maintained online in general; Needless to say, Superfami was a direct inspiration for me when it came to forming my own blog a few years later. Hence why I finally decided to do something that I’ve been meaning to do for ages now; email it’s author, Chris Barker, and say what’s up. And we are now e-buddies! Which is why I’m trying my best to convince him to go back to writing about video games by contributing to the next fort90zine! At the very least, now I have something else to look forward to if I ever manage to get my ass back to Japan; the dude’s spinds Dub/Reggae records at some club there.
How To Make Goofy Cry
Anyway, it’s start of a new week, and last time I mentioned that I was going to try and pass along notable game related headlines and the such once every seven days, with the original idea being that it would be every Monday. Well, I feel like an idiot doing-so, but I’m going to have to throw that plan out the window already; it’s somewhat late and I should really head to bed soon, to hopefully fend off this aforementioned possible cold. Plus I still have stuff to do for Heavy.com (K Thor is away on the East Coast, so I’m holding the fort for him, at least the gaming end of things). Instead, how about another quick stop over at the forums?
Truth be told, the place has been totally dead as of late. Not much of a shock; it’s always been mostly me and a few peeps, and everyone has just been hella busy these days. Dave is now a proud citizen of the wonderful world of freelance along with myself, whereas both Joe Salina and Katie have real jobs to keep them perpetually preoccupied (Katie’s also juggling grad school and the latest issue of Nurse Nurse to boot). Though all that pales in comparison to Mike, who just had a baby! So he’s busy being a dad, naturally. Now, if anyone feels like adding some life to the place, be my guest! The register button is fairly easy to find, me thinks.
Till then, I’ll simply use the place to toss whatever wacky pics and links to videos that comes my way, like always. Like…
And then there’s…
- Something from the so called King of Gay Music.
- Even more rap, and it’s message is something I think we can definitely all stand behind!
- Yet another reason why I absolutely need to track down a good source for Nollywood films, ASAP.
- I’m a sucker for footage of old New York City, even if its from some wacky avant garde dance flick.
- The Japanese are known for their wacky television commercials, but these take the cake.
- They also give American hidden camera prank shows a run for their money as well.
- Everything I love, all rolled up into one video: Goth poetry slam on cable access.
- Passed this one once before, but it bears repeating because of the remix!
- Listen to your mothers young boys; pimpin’ ain’t easy.
- Auto-tune + Alex Trebek = this
- This woman sure can cut the rug, despite never once getting out of her chair. Thanks to God of course.
- Ladies and gentlemen, Juggalo Furries.
- Question: “DO YOU LIKE LOOKING AT THINGS?”
- It’s funny because it’s true!
- Once again, they don’t make bad movies as nearly as awesome as they used to.
- My primary beef with hipsters is that they often make really cool stuff (or in most cases, simply stumble upon), but then practically ruin everything by needlessly inserting themselves in it.
- Girls are like apples on the tree.
- I want a copy of that magazine the kid is reading that’s just called “BAD”.
- And finally, a neat little animated clip about animals and life after death.
