Aussie Ben

Oh also, if you make a big purchase from Play Asia (like a console or GBA of some kind), they will include bonus treats like Japanese sour melon candy or spicy noodles! I do like eating!

My final Elite Four lineup consisted of Torterra, Infernape (the starter I selected), Luxray, Alakazam (the highest levelled up one in the team, at 61), Staraptor, and Manaphy (which I've fittingly named "Cashgrab", because you can only get it if you play all the way through Pokemon Ranger). He does rock though - that Tail Glow move jacks up the Special Attack and causes special moves to become devestating. Now I've moved onto the part of the game I really love - the whole "catching 'em all" bit. The fighting's never really done it for me, it just ends up being something I have to do to collect the rest, so I do it. According to the special Pokedex, I've seen 323 Pokemon, and Obtained 254 - so I'm a little over halfway there. While I was on the train home from work, I encountered a blue Voltorb, which had these sparkles all over it when it appeared. So I caught that too, and apparently it's really rare. So, hooray for that. I don't know about anyone else playing, but I really think that this one has got a LOT of forced attempts at trying to shoehorn in catch phrases and internet slang. Loads of people call you "newbs", go on about "owning" you, the "massive damage" line made its way in, but it is done in such a clumsy ungraceful way that it's obvious it was done so that the localisers could say "Hey we did it!". (Contact did a much better job of it, because it actually made sense contextually, rather than just being band-aided on top of an existing conversation.) Another one is "This burns me up to eleven!" when you defeat some trainer. It just all feels really clumsy and forced. I mean, I'm not exactly playing Pearl for the stellar dialogue, but seeing one clunky line after another doesn't help. Hooray for the internet, where I can complain about the most minor things ever!

I suppose the whole "playing any first person shooter ever causes me to get throbbing painful headaches" thing could be one reason why I'm not too interested in the genre, but I really don't find any FPS at all to be my cup of tea. My most enjoyable First Person Experience was Simpsons Doom. Attempting to play Perfect Dark Zero (which I got bundled with the console) looked like it would be fun and I got through level one and two but then the whole motion sickness kicked in again. The only thing I remember about watching Half-Life 2 was seeing some guy sweeping with a broom. Halo 2 multiplayer was me trying to find that purple thing that killed everyone it touched, and then having to stop playing the game because of the whole feeling sick thing and looking like I'm quitting because I'm losing. It wasn't that at all, I think I was doing quite well. So yeah. Me + First Person Shooter of Any Type = Not To Be

Play Asia. I do sometimes look at NCSX, but I never seem to end up ordering from them.

I think we need to add the following to increase our chances: "mixed bag" "more like" spiritomb "that's what she said"

My friend code is 4983 1436 5565. I want to be friends with people and trade pokeymon.

Personal recommendation is to NOT get Diddy Kong Racing DS if you played the N64 one. If you didn't play the N64 one you will get more enjoyment out of it, but you still might not like it. The DS version still has all of the fun of the original, but it's become buried under shitloads of pointless touch screen addons - you have to "spin" a virtual wheel or propellor or whatever to get a boost start, which is poorly deisgned. How are you supposed to control the kart when you leave the starting line? The adrenaline-pumping Silver Coin Challenge has been replaced with a "touch balloon challenge", which is nowhere near as fun. Pop balloons with the stylus while riding on a magic carpet in first person view. The Silver Coin Challenge is still in the game, but is not an essential part of gameplay - it's just a bonus unlockable. For people who hadn't played the original, the Silver Coin Challenge had you searching for eight Silver Coins hidden on the tracks - you had to get all eight AND place first, which made for some really exciting and tight races later on. Speaking of unlockables, everything is now unlocked with currency, giving the illusion of "replay value". You have to re-race and rub trees with the stylus and do loads of other pointless shit to earn money so that you can buy all of the cool features that the game promises that it can do. Boo. Finally, the game has vehicular upgrades (which you have to pay for, of course) that can improve your vehicle performance. This is fine, except that it ruins balance for online mode - anyone who has obsessed with the game and played it loads will have an unfair advantage over someone who hasn't. You're not all given the same level playing field in terms of vehicles. So there's my ranting taken care of. Sigh.

Blargh! You're still stuck there! Yeah, that first puzzle blows, it acts like a bottleneck that blocks the rest of the game which is much better. I ended up cheating to get the solution because I knew I'd exhausted everything else. Here's the solution if you want it:

Minish Cap has awesome 2D art, fun gameplay, tricky puzzles, and those kinstones to collect. I got all of them except one. ONE. Bugger that. Good fun though. I give it eight Bullet Bills.

Pokemon Pearl 4983 1436 5565 I'm a trader, not a fighter! I want to get some more locations on my Geonet Globe!

The only reason to continue watching the early episodes of the Anime was to see what wacky camp antics Team Rocket would get up to next. By the time that Orange League rolled around, it wasn't worth following for that anymore. Battle Aboard the St. Anne remains my favourite episode, with the classic line: "Suck them up! Suck them up! Suck them ALL up!" And Jessie and James dressing up as schoolgirls, giving Ash and co. free tickets aboard the St. Anne, which, of course, is one big trap. And all James says is "CoooOOOOOLLLL!" Oh, and James using the advance on his and Jessie's salary to purchase a gold plated Poké Ball which contains a worthless Magikarp, along with a fish tank, feed kit and other useless junk. Truly, the pinnacle of comic genius.

Well, I discovered that Monster World Complete Collection was going on Play Asia for thirty bucks, so I bought myself a copy. It contains the following games: - Wonder Boy - Wonder Boy in Monster Land - Wonder Boy: Monster Lair - Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap - Wonder Boy in Monster World - Monster World IV It's a pretty sweet collection, especially for thirty bucks. My favourite of the lot is Dragon's Trap - I remember being blown away when I played it as a kid. Being able to turn into a fire-breathing lizard, a mouse, a pirahna, a hawk - each with their own special abilites - it was just so different (and way cooler!) than anything I'd ever played at the time. Also that one of the bosses was a Pirate Dragon that threw a barrage of hooks at you, that was pretty damned cool too. And of course, the classic Wonder Boy is great too - hard as buggery, but it looks pretty damn good, especially the Arcade version (depending on the game, you get about four different versions of it). The collection is decked out with other extras too, like Japanese and English instruction manuals scanned in, concept art, sheet music (!) and sound tests. English versions of the game are included for Wonder Boy III and Wonder Boy in Monster World (but the only games entirely in Japanese are Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Monster World IV). Some group has completely patched Monster World IV so that you can play it in English, which is a great thing indeed - it plays similar to the later Monster World games, but has an Arabian Nights flavour to it and some very nice sprite art. If you buy the collection (and even if you don't) I'd reccommend playing Monster World IV - it's a pity it didn't end up getting a local release.

SOLD :tup:

I have a copy of Bullet Witch sitting on my desk in front of me. I still haven't played it. And I got it for free from Xbox.com. For writing a review about Crackdown. Even the fact that it has people that are nothing but gigantic brain heads with skinny bodies can't make me shake off that apathy. The cover has a lot of black on it and the woman looks like she's some kind of Goth chick, so I'm guessing it's trying to go for a 'serious' 'post-apocalyptic' 'adventure'. On looking at the back of the box: "2013 AD. HUMANITY HANGS ON THE VERGE OF EXTINCTION..." All signs point to yes.

Waiting for my copy to arrive tomorrow. I want to burn through the game so I can bring Meowth over. It'll all be fine when Meowth is there. He was the brains behind Team Rocket, you know. What is it now, Team Galactic? The next one will probably be Team Astrological or something. Man, I remember when it was just 151 - good times, good times. Although, I have been playing Ruby again in anticipation - I caught Latias because I discovered that I had an Eon Ticket this whole time and didn't actually use it, and then I discovered that I hadn't caught Rayquaauazuzuaa or however you spell it, so I did that tonight. I'll probably never find Latios though - hooray for stupid running around the entire game world hoping that you'll run into one Pokémon by chance which runs away as soon as you see it! I do have a Master Ball in case that actually happens though, so yay. I don't know anything about the new Pokémon, all I know is that if you have a female Wobbuffet, it puts on lipstick now. Which automatically makes this game awesome. Edit: I have just re-read this post and realised that it's complete and utter gobbledygook. "blah blah blah Meowth blah blah blah Team Galactic blah blah blah Eon Ticket blah blah blah Latios blah blah blah..."

Does Beautiful Katamari Farmacy count? That's coming out for the 360... It's not out yet though, so it might not count, I suppose.

Oh man, now I'm wishing Phoenix would point out and shout "SACRE BLEU!" or "CREPE SUZETTE!". I have heard the French version though, and it makes me chuckle: "Objeck-she-on!"

If Nintendo Australia hadn't locked out all those TurboGrafx games, I'd be playing Bonk's Revenge and Dragon's Curse RIGHT NOW. As it stands, any Virtual Console game I'm remotely interested in I actually own still, so there's not much point in buying it yet again, but this time in a format that I cannot hold with my hands. So I wait and wait and wait and wait for the console's games to come out. Like Elebits/dees, Trauma Center, Super Paper Mario, and so on. Ah, PAL. Come on Datel, make a Wiiloader already.

My fingers, ouch! Got one of the dud controllers (model 95055), but I just followed the steps listed on the intertron, unscrewed the controller and moved the whammy bar just a little. The whammy bar works fine. I like that they put proper pictures for all of the bonus songs instead of just putting in barcodes - it's the little things. I also like that the "Download" section of the store has "$ REAL MONEY $" instead of a monetary value like the stuff bought with game cash. I'm really not sure about buying those bonus packs at 500 points a pop. It's pretty silly really, these kind of things should be priced low enough so that the consumer just buys them without a second thought - that's the whole point of microtransactions. Oh, and Miffy, Bark at the Moon is probably easier for you now because 1) You've had loads more practice now; and The mythical Hammer Ons and Pull Offs I keep hearing about but can never do aren't broken like in the first game. Maybe.

I liked Hotel Dusk a lot, if that helps. ...I suppose it doesn't really, does it.

YES. That is EXACTLY how it was for me. "I can't stop now, I've poured way too much time into this and I can't get that back!!!!" It really is a nice game, but MAN. It certainly is an achievement to finish it though, if not because of the sheer amount of TIME it takes to do it. Also, you could help pass the time between loading screens: If you get the one with the pawprints leading to Issun, time the X button presses so that you press them each time a pawprint appears. If you do it right, you get a demon fang. If you get the blank page, hammer X and you'll see pawprints appear. For every fifty (50) you do, you get a demon fang too.

I don't know about that - I rarely see DS games drop in price here, and GBA games never used to drop in price either. Until the GBA wasn't flavour of the month any more and the GBA games suddenly became $40 instead of $80.

A new, hilarious Rabbid clip surfaces... Also, the GBA version of Rayman is very nice. Really pretty looking art, and it's a throwback to the old Rayman games (ie, 2D fist chucking, smashing open cages, collecting Lums, that kind of thing). I want to pick it up, but I've heard that the DS version is the same game, but with some added content. I'm not sure what to believe. I'll definitely get one of the versions (or both, if they're different games). Check out some screens here if you like. Seriously, it looks really nice!

I liked the touch-screen navigated platform levels. They get pretty hectic when you have four powers and have to switch between them. The standard platforming is, well, standard platforming. It's not awful by any means, it's just not mindblowing for the most part.