Duality

After dismissing DS redesign rumors on January 16th, Nintendo says, “Well actually, we are redesigning the DS. We were just pulling your leg when we said we weren’t.” The new DS, dubbed the DS lite (I know it’s in Japanese, just scroll down for the picture), will be smaller and lighter, have an adjustable screen brightness, and cost a little more than the non-lite DS costs now. It will be released in Japan on March 2nd.

Yes, I’ll be getting one; and yes, snaking in Mario Kart DS will be just as hard—if not harder (because the DS lite is thinner)—on the DS lite.

Sometimes, my parents surprise me with how rational and understanding they can be. Take this past weekend, for example. I finally told them about the traffic ticket I got back in November for running a red light while driving from Oakland to EC. I didn’t tell them for so long because I thought they’d get upset for any number of reasons: first, that I drove from SJ to Oakland / EC to SJ without telling them (yes, they want me to tell them when I go places); second, I got a ticket for running a red light; third, because I didn’t tell them for so long.

But when I told them, everything was a non-issue to them. The only mildly-upsetting aspect was the cost of my bail + traffic school administration fee: $380 [obligatory sad face =(]. I was shocked. Of course, this week, they’ll probably do something completely irrational to compensate.

As a side note, I got my courtesy notice from the traffic court the week before Christmas. It was like “HO HO HO, pay $380!” That Santa sure has a sense of humor. No more screwing around, Santa. Nintendo Revolution under the tree in 2006. Or at least, don’t make me use the money I’ll be setting aside for a Revolution on something else.

It is possible for me to get out of bed (and stay out of bed) at 7 AM. Whether or not it is possible when I don’t have somewhere to go before work is still unknown. I guess I’ll be getting to work at the same time as usual.

No, the place I have to go to this morning is not Toys R Us. TRU opens at 10 AM.

When it comes to games, my tastes and Xero’s differ by quite a bit. I prefer knuckle-busters while Xero prefers the more-laidback variety. That’s a good thing. Between the two of us, I think we cover all styles of games. If a game is good, at least one of us will like it.

I bring this up because someone posted a comment on my review of Castlevania: Lament of Innocence saying that it is one of the best PS2 games ever. Now, Lament of Innocence has gotten decent reviews from paper and online publications (including 7/10 from my precious Eurogamer). But it remains one of the few of such games* that both Xero and I don’t like at all.

I guess that might not mean much. If you like the game, you like the game regardless of what we say. But it troubles me a little to think that a game we both think is bad (I paid $6 for it and still feel disappointed) is considered by some to be one of the best PS2 games of all time. Sticking with the “third-person action” genre, I know Xero would be quick to say God of War and Resident Evil 4 are miles ahead of Lament of Innocence. I’d be quick to name Devil May Cry (also mentioned in my review) and Devil May Cry 3.

Speaking for my own recommendations, neither entry in the Devil May Cry series suffers from the terrible art direction and lame action that plagues Lament of Innocence. Hey Xero, do you remember your complaints regarding the game?

* the only other I can think of at the moment is Final Fantasy X-2 (8/10 at Eurogamer). I do find the premise of FF X-2 interesting to think about though (what do you do after you save the world? How does the world change after it has been saved?). Then again, maybe it’s because I think Yuna’s kinda cute…

Every so often, Apple will remind you that it is run by humans by making a cool product with an awful-sounding name. Joining the “Extremes” (Airport and Quartz) and Apple’s endless fascination with “i” (come on, you know they’re taking it too far) is the MacBook Pro. Unlike the other cases, though, I think this is the first time Apple has rebranded a product with a name as cool as “PowerBook” with a name as bad as “MacBook Pro.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome product. Dual-core Yonah CPU, PCI-e, DDR2 RAM, SATA hard drives, lithium polymer battery (unknown battery life, however), built-in iSight, a thinner profile, and the possibility of dual-booting or virtualizing Windows (GTA2!). I certainly wouldn’t mind having one in my possession. But the name! “MacBook Pro” sends shivers down my spine (in a bad way).

2005 was the most difficult year so far for me. Starting around the time of my graduation, I’ve had a lot of different things on my mind. It wasn’t just moving out for the first time and entering the working world. I can’t go into details, but there are other things which complicated (and continue to complicate) my transition—on top of being a worry in their own right.

Worry was the name of the game in 2005. I’m a worrier, but until I graduated, I didn’t have much to worry about. In the past year, I felt like it consumed me. I could feel it whittling away my focus. To be honest, I haven’t made that much progress at work—or well, it feels that way. I have a job in an amazing field, so my non-progress became another worry. My head was on the grindstone all year; my mind slowly wearing away.

More than ever, I need to take things one step at a time and just believe everything will be okay. That is my New Year’s resolution: to not let what’s to come bog down what I have to do now. I don’t know if I will be able to accomplish it alone. I hope you will be there for me.

Here’s to 2006.

(comments off)

I was going to respond to Quad’s comment with another comment until I realized the sheer awesomeness of what I found. I attempted to look up what the last Disney movie was that I cared about and IMDB hit me with some very interesting facts, namely, the details of some upcoming movies that I didn’t even know existed. Here is a list of some of the one’s the interest me the most:

Toy Story 3 (2008)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2007)
Fraggle Rock: The Movie (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (2007)

Looks like 2007’s going to be an awesome year!

For those of you who haven’t heard, Disney has now bought Pixar. This currently makes Steve Jobs Disney’s largest stockholder. And since Disney owns everything Steve Jobs is now in control of everything. Looks like he’s finally made it to the top. Congrats Stevie. But the question now is will the company be named Pixney or Disnar? Intiguing…

I was in Rite-Aid today when I saw this box of cereal. Now come on…am I the only one who finds the name of this cereal to be just too damn wrong. *shudders*…man…the things companies can get away with when they have a cartoon kangaroo. And for crying out loud, the kangaroo’s got the ’spooners’ coming out of his pouch. Maybe I read too into this, but damn that’s funny….I mean *cough*…this is completely inappropriate for our nation’s children. HAHAHAHAHAHA

A recent post in the Nintendo Forums has sparked a great deal of day dreaming. Well, at least on my behalf. This post was the current list (according to Famitsu) of downloadable games on the Nintendo Revolution and let me be the first to say WHOOO! (There is a possibility that this is merely Famitsu’s “Wish List”, but no one has been able to determine that yet) Now I warn you, this is a long list, but very, very tantalizing. And this is still an early list, as we approach the launch, there’s sure to be more and more games added to the list.

NES

1. 10-Yard Fight
2. Anticipation
3. Balloon Fight
4. Barker Bill’s Trick Shooting
5. Baseball
6. Clu Clu Land
7. Dance Aerobics
8. Devil World
9. Doki Doki Panic
10. Donkey Kong
11. Donkey Kong 3
12. Donkey Kong Classics
13. Donkey Kong Jr.
14. Donkey Kong Jr. Math
15. Dr. Mario
16. Dragon Warrior
17. Duck Hunt
18. Excitebike
19. Famicom Wars
20. Final Fantasy
21. Fire Emblem Gaiden
22. Fire Emblem: Ankokuryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi
23. Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy
24. Golf
25. Gum Shoe
26. Gyromite
27. Hogan’s Alley
28. Ice Climber
29. Ice Hockey
30. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
31. Kid Icarus
32. Kirby’s Adventure
33. Kung Fu
34. Mach Rider
35. Mario Bros.
36. Mario Time Machine
37. Mario is Missing!
38. Mario:Fun with Letters
39. Mario:Fun with Numbers
40. Metroid
41. Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
42. Mother (Earthbound 0)
43. NES Open Golf
44. Nintendo World Cup
45. Nuts & Milk
46. Pin-Bot
47. Pinball
48. Play Action Football
49. Popeye
50. Pro Wrestling
51. Punch-Out!!
52. R.C. Pro-Am
53. Rad Racer
54. Rad Racer 2
55. Short Order/Eggsplode
56. Slalom
57. Snake Rattle & Roll
58. Soccer
59. Stack Up
60. Star Tropics
61. Super Mario Bros.
62. Super Mario Bros. 2
63. Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels
64. Super Mario Bros. 3
65. Super Spike V’Ball/World Cup Soccer
66. Super Team Games
67. Tennis
68. Tetris
69. Tetris 2
70. The Legend of Zelda
71. To The Earth
72. Track Meet
73. Urban Champion
74. Volleyball
75. Wario’s Woods
76. Wild Gunman
77. World Class Track Meet
78. World Cup Soccer
79. Wrecking Crew
80. Yoshi (Mario & Yoshi)
81. Yoshi’s Cookie
82. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
83. Zoda’s Revenge: Star Tropics II

Super-NES

84. Derby Stallion 98
85. Donkey Kong Country
86. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong’s Quest
87. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble
88. Earthbound (Mother 2)
89. F-Zero
90. FX Fighter
91. Fire Emblem: Monshou no Nazo
92. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu
93. Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
94. Hyper V-Ball
95. Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball
96. Ken Griffey Jr.’s Winning Run
97. Killer Instinct
98. Kirby Super Star
99. Kirby’s Avalanche
100. Kirby’s Dream Course
101. Kirby’s Dream Land 3
102. Kirby’s Ghost Trap
103. Legend
104. Mario Paint
105. Mario and Wario
106. Mario’s Early Years: Preschool Fun
107. Mario’s Super Picross
108. Metal Combat: Falcon’s Revenge
109. NCAA Basketball
110. NHL Stanley Cup
111. Panel de Pon
112. Picross NP Vol. 8
113. PilotWings
114. Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing
115. Sound Fantasy
116. Star Fox
117. Stunt Race FX
118. Super Famicom Wars
119. Super Mario Kart
120. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
121. Super Mario World
122. Super Metroid
123. Super Punch-Out!!
124. Super Scope 6
125. Super Soccer
126. Super Soccer 2
127. Super Tennis
128. Tetris & Dr. Mario
129. Tetris Attack
130. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
131. Tinstar
132. Uniracers
133. Winter Gold (FX Skiing)
134. World League Baseball
135. Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario World 2
136. Yoshi’s Safari

Nintendo 64

137. 1080° Snowboarding
138. Animal Crossing
139. Banjo-Kazooie
140. Banjo-Tooie
141. Blast Corps
142. Bomberman 64
143. Bomberman Hero
144. Buggie Boogie
145. Cabbage
146. Catroots
147. Climber
148. Command & Conquer
149. Creator
150. Cruis’n USA
151. Cruis’n World
152. Cu-On-Pa
153. Custom Robo
154. Custom Robo V2
155. DD Sequencer
156. Dezaemon DD
157. Diddy Kong Racing
158. Donkey Kong 64
159. Doubutsu Banchou
160. Dr. Mario 64
161. Echo-Delta
162. Emperor of the Jungle
163. Excitebike 64
164. F-Zero X
165. Gendai Dai-Senryaku: Ultimate War
166. GoldenEye 007
167. Hey You, Pikachu!
168. Jack and the Beanstalk
169. Ken Griffey Jr.’s Slugfest
170. Killer Instinct Gold
171. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
172. Kirby’s Air Ride
173. Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside
174. Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr
175. Mario Golf
176. Mario Kart 64
177. Mario Party
178. Mario Party 2
179. Mario Party 3
180. Mario Tennis 64
181. Mickey’s Speedway USA
182. Mini Racers
183. Mischief Makers
184. Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 2
185. NBA Courtside 2: Featuring Kobe Bryant
186. Paper Mario
187. Perfect Dark
188. Pilotwings 64
189. Pokemon Puzzle League
190. Pokemon Snap
191. Pokemon Stadium
192. Pokemon Stadium 2
193. Pokemon Stadium: Gold, Silver, Crystal Version
194. Ridge Racer 64
195. Riqa
196. Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing
197. Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Earth
198. Star Fox 64
199. Star Wars Episode I: Racer
200. Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
201. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
202. StarCraft 64
203. Super Mario 64
204. Super Smash Bros.
205. Tetrisphere
206. The Legend of Zelda DD (Ura Zelda, Master Quest)
207. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
208. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
209. The New Tetris
210. Waialae Country Club: True Golf Classics
211. Wall Street DD
212. Wave Race 64
213. Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey
214. Yoshi’s Story

Man, I can’t wait to whoop some ass in Mario Party 1-3 ;)

Every year I try to look back and pinpoint some of the worst moments I had all year. Then I examine them and see what it would take to avoid them this year. But this year there’s a problem. I’ve yet to think of a really bad time. Either my head is getting better at covering things up, or I had a fantastic year. Well, I guess there was one main bad thing, and it’s definitely part of my resolutions. But other than that, I guess I’ll have to go to my old standbys. And I know there are probably more resolutions that I’m forgetting, so if you want to help me out and list a few in the comments, go right ahead. (but keep it tactful ;)

“Be more straightforward with my roommate.” (the one that I don’t like)
For too long have I just ignored him and not said what was really bugging me. From now on, if he pisses me off, he’s going to know it. This may not be the nicest resolution, but it’s something that has to be done. And in reality, it applies to all the people I don’t like, so there’s at least 4 or 5 that I can think of right now.

“Get a girlfriend.”
Man, I say this one every year and frankly it’s starting to get a bit old. However, the last three months at school introduced me to a lot of new people and I made a bunch of new friends. The whole thing has brought out a much more socially comfortable person in me and I feel like this year, my resolution has never had a better chance of being fulfilled.

“Lose some weight.”
This too is one of those ‘I say it every year’ resolutions, and I don’t know if it will ever actually happen. Over the years I’ve gotten used to being slightly overweight and while I’m sure it would be healthy for me to lose weight, the social pressure I used to feel existed has been taken away.

2006 is going to be a very big year for me. Most importantly, I’m going to be graduating in June. And while I’ll still be in Davis, I’ll be moving to a house later this year. And after graduating, I’ll keep working at Gamestop, but be saving up money for voice lessons at Voicetrax.

Overall, 2005 was a pretty cool year, and 2006 is shaping up to be even better. And before I sign off on my first post of the year, I wanted to thank each and every one of you who has taken time out of their days to come and read my rants and ravings. It’s been a weird ride this year (blogging-wise), and thanks for all the support you’ve given. So Happy New Year everyone. I hope all your wishes and dreams come true this year.