Gaming Addict

Before you think I’m crazy (although I really might be for not playing it) the reason I’m keeping myself from playing what is the best Wii game currently out there is because I’ve yet to finish Echoes. With all the things that got in the way I wasn’t able to reach my goal of completing it by Corruption’s launch. I did pre-order Corruption eventhough I didn’t think I’d be able to. I just finally gave in.

I’m almost done with Echoes. I’m not at the point where I’d be able to finish by tomorow, but sadly not at the point where I’d be able to finish it in two days either. It doesn’t seem like I’ll be getting deep into Corruption for a few more days. I couldn’t resist putting it in and just messing around for a few minutes though. The controls work great from what I gathered and the voice acting is superb. Now if only Nintendo would go the same way with Zelda, still keeping Link mute.

And it’s the little things that count. The Power Beam’s shots just look better and more threatening. Like a real weapon. The lack of a real pause button means 1 and your map button essentially fills this position. The visor switch works for me but I’m wondering how well it would work in an intense boss fight where you’ll need to go back and forth. That’s all I can say for now. I just want to finish Echoes as soon as I possibly can.

In other things, I’m going to buy Resident Evil 4 for Wii off a friend. Eventhough I have it for GameCube the Wii controls were hard to pass up. I discovered yet another import DS rhythm game to compliment Ouendan. Daigasso Band Brothers! or something like that. It’s actually kind of old and I remember hearing about an english version a long time ago. I guess that won’t be happening.

I also picked up Custom Robo Arena after having it recommended to me by many people. It isn’t bad, but I just don’t have the patience to set up so many different weapons set ups for different battle types that I pick what I like and go with it. It’s still a pretty good game though. Aside from that, my gaming time has been mainly occupied by Metroid so Star Fox, Castlevania, and Metroid Prime: Hunters have all fallen onto my list of abandonned games.

And to finish things off I leave you with a video. It’s the TV commercial for Metroid Prime 3. I personally hate it. These types of ads may have worked early on when trying to promote to the casual audience (aside from Zelda), but it doesn’t get more hardcore than Metroid Prime. I find it hard to believe someone in an airport who’s probably never played anything aside from Pacman would be able to enjoy Metroid to that extent. They’d just get lost and frustrated in the complexity. What Nintendo should’ve done was created an advertising campaign targeted directly at the hardcore audience, and maybe even sell a few systems to those who havn’t got them yet.

Nintendo’s done a great job of keeping Metroid under the radar. This ad is lame, while the preview channel would only have the greatest effect on a select few. For shame Nintendo. Forget Zelda, this is how you treat Wii’s true killer app?

I finally finished Metriod Prime. Kudos to Retro for the difficulty even on the normal level. Ridley and Metroid Prime were both a bitch to beat and I think I only had around 44 health left after killing Prime.

The only things that truly made Metroid Prime (the boss) hard was that in it’s ice form it would sometimes freeze you with an ice beam, and then freeze you again right when you get out of it. That combo was responsible for most of my health loss against the first form.

It’s second form was disapointingly easy. Even easier than Ridley. The Metroids that it would spawn were responsible for pretty much all of my health loss. Once they latched on I couldn’t even dodge Metroid Prime’s pitiful attack. That was until I realised that I could use Hyper Mode against the little buggers. That would’ve made things a lot easier but what’s done is done.

I planned on trying to finish Viewtiful Joe 2 once I was done with Metroid but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Maybe I let someone borrow it. I’ll find it eventually. But I think that for the rest of the day I’m gonna take a break from games, aside from the ocasional kick at the Ouendan can. Only 3 songs away from finishing it all.

Oh, and this also marks the first post on WordPress and I think I’ll be sticking around here. Importing my old posts from Blogger seems to have brought the old problems with them, but so far so good with this post so I don’t think I’ll run into those cut off or over extending lines again.

I’m gonna let you know right away, blogger is bugging out on me so some stuff is gonna look weird. Like lines going too long, or cutting off too soon.

This whole thing I’ve got going with completing Metroid Prime got me thinking about other games I’ve started and just never finished. I’m the kind of guy who can really enjoy a game and
then part way though it, get sidetracked by something else and completely forget about it. So here and now, I’m going to challenge myself to at one point complete all these games.

Metroid Prime: I had the whole detailed story about it in the other post. In case you’re wondering, I just beat Ridley but got my ass handed to me by Metroid Prime. So I’m almost there.

Will I finish it? I’m already 99% there

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: I remember less of where I was in this game compared to the original. Long story short, I never finished and barely scratched the surface.

Will I finish it? Of course. After beating the original, and before even touching the sequel.

Final Fantasy VII: Going back to my days of when I used to own a PlayStation. I was really into these types of games back then and was enjoying FFVII. The problem was that somewhere around half way though the game, it kept freezing. And I never was able to get passed that point. It sucked to say the least. Since then I returned the game to my friend and sold my PlayStation a few years back. So I don’t know if I’ll be finishing this one any time soon. Especially since I no longer like the turn based RPG crap.

Will I finish it? I stopped likeing turn based RPG, so no.

Paper Mario: A rented game which was played on a borrowed console. I don’t remember exactly how far I got but
I think it was around that Shy Guy Toy Box. Which, after taking a quick look at a walkthrough wasn’t far from the boss fight. Now that it’s on the Wii Virtual Console there’s always the chance I could finish it.

Will I finish it? Perhaps. One of these days I can see myself downloading it.

Viewtiful Joe: A fairly decent game and I had fun playing it. That is, until I came to the final boss. I must’ve tried dozens of times but I just couldn’t beat it/them. You were just made to fight all the old bosses over again one after the other. So eventually I got tired of it. I tried picking up again later on but it was hopeless. It’s still sitting with the rest of my collection so one of these days I could finish it…

Will I finish it? I’d like to. I think I’ll give the boss another shot after Prime.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages: I remember renting this a LONG time ago. If I’d really wanted to, I bet I could’ve beat it back then, or more recently. But the thing is, I just wasn’t drawn into this game and wasn’t compelled to finish it.

Will I finish it? No

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Yes, you heard right. But I guess I should also but a * next to it. Me and a friend played through an account together when it first came out and I have beaten Ganon/Ganondorf. But now I’m going through it on my own on my Wii. It’s taken a back seat to Metroid recently, but I’ll finish it one of these days.

Will I finish it? Probably once Metroid is out of my system.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: I barely scratched the surface with this one. I only got limited time with the Zelda Collector’s Edition for GameCube and didn’t really get a chance to play much. At the same time, I just couldn’t get into it like I did with OoT. When it comes to the VC I suppose I’ll finish it, but I won’t be in any hurry to spend my Wii points.

Will I finish it? Signs point to, yes.

Super Mario World: I’ve played this game so many times, yet never finished it entirely. I’ve borrowed it from or played it at a friend’s house. And I even had it emulated on my PC once. It is on the Virtual Console, but I feel like I’m being ripped off, essentially paying $8 for it. I might just borrow my friend’s SNES or emulate it again if I really feel like it.

Will I finish it? Not likely, but there’s the slim chance I could.

Chrono Trigger: 5. The number of times I’ve tried playing this game. Each time I’ve never gotten much farther from going into the time machine thing. Like I said with FFVII, RPGs just don’t appeal to me anymore.

Will I finish it? I’m leaning towards no.

FIFA Street 2: This game was fun for a bit but it got boring before I was able to finish it. It actually seems like it’s a fairly long game but the lack of depth is it’s downfall. NFL Street was smart in that it didn’t
overstay it’s welcome and was finished just before I lost interest.

Will I finish it? If I’m really bored, I might play a couple matches. At that rate, I’d never finish however.

Splinter Cell: Yes, the original. I actually enjoy Splinter Cell games, and finished Double Agent. But I bought the original a year ago and just couldn’t beat the last level. It was insanely difficult IMO. After trying for an entire weekend, I gave up and havn’t touched it since.

Will I finish it? I’m just gonna come out and say no. I just don’t feel compelled to.

Super Mario 64: I don’t remember exactly where I am, but eventually I got tired of the game and moved onto something else. I really want to finish this one but then I downloaded Zelda. And then came Metroid…

Will I finish it? Eventually.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: A great game. I liked it alot. But after progressing a lot, forgetting to save, and then dieing, I got a bad taste in my mouth and didn’t want to go and redo everything over again. So many levels lost… I guess I’ll go back eventually. It was a good enough game.

Will I finish it? Probably once I’m done with everything else.

Starfox Command: I havn’t really let this one sit for too long, but it’s getting up there. The single player started to bore me eventually, but I still play the odd Wifi match here and there.

Will I finish it? I think I will, one of these days.

New Super Mario Bros.: Another great game that just got pushed out of the spotlight by something else. I think it was once I got Ouendan. Either way I’m hoping to finish this some time soon.

Will I finish it? I think I already answered that.

Mega Man ZX: Like Star Fox, this one hasn’t been sitting for long, but it’s been a while since I’ve touched it. The new suits and abilites that you can get add to the depth and it isn’t a bad game. But I guess I just overplayed it at first and then couldn’t really take much more of it.

Will I finish it? I think so. Just not any time soon.

Hotel Dusk: I don’t know what it is that I like about this game, but it doesn’t matter. It was pretty good. But I eventually moved onto another mainly text based game in Phoenix Wright which pushed this away. And until recently, I would’ve put Phoenix Wright on this list. I started with the sequel but am finding it very hard in the early stages. Perhaps this could signal a comeback for Hotel Dusk?

Will I finish it? I honestly don’t know right now. Your guess is as good as mine.

Honorable mentions: These games are either getting close to that point of being forgotten or I started and just decided not to played them again. I havn’t touched the Phoenix Wright sequel in a while as it’s getting lost to Metroid. I borrowed Fire Emblem for GameCube from a friend. If you want to know why I didn’t finish it, see my reasoning for FFVII and Chrono Trigger. Mario Kart DS doesn’t entirely belong here. I still play for the Wifi but find the single player against the computer to be very boring.

I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, but this is as well as my memory is going to work right now. I’m going to try to finish as many of these as I can, and will keep the rest you posted. And I’d like to know if there are more people out there like me. Anyone else have a mountain of unfinished games?

OK, I have a confession to make. I’ve yet to finish a Metroid Prime game. I’ve played both and even own(ed) the first but never finished them. It all started in 2002 when I got my GameCube with Metroid Prime bundled in. Back then, I wasn’t much of a gamer. It took me about a year to really get into it. Unfortunately, by then I had already succumbed to EB Games’ evil trade-in policy and practically given the game away. Trading my games in is something I stopped doing two years ago. At the time it made sense. Trade in a game I don’t play anymore, and get money towards a new one. But I was blind to see that giving a game in for about $5 really wasn’t worth it.

I’ve lost more than a few good games this way. Metroid Prime, Super Mario Sunshine, and Star Fox Adventures to name a few (I finished the last two at least). Back in ’02 there was just  So I asked a friend if I could borrow his copy since I was really itching for some Metroid action. I had to start over from the beginning since I’d deleted my save file, but I didn’t mind. I finally appreciated the game for what it’s worth. However, things got in the way and I just didn’t have much time to play the game. So after holding on to it for roughly 3 weeks and seeing no free time in the near future I returned the game, still not completed.

I think it was summer vacation in 2003 that I finally saw my opportunity to finish the game, but wouldn’t you know it, my friend sold the game. Back then the game was still a little pricey and it was my parents that bought all my games for me. In their opinion, anything over $30 was too much so I never did get many new games unless it was for a special occasion. So with no cash and no way of getting Metroid Prime back in my GameCube I went ahead and deleted my Metroid save file to make room for other things (I’ve since purchased a 1000+ block memory card to avoid such problems).

A year later saw the release of the sequel, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. The same friend who I had borrowed the first Prime from bought Echoes and I again, borrowed it. Unfortunately, the same thing as before happened and I only made it part way through the game before returning it. The good thing is that I think this friend of mine still has his copy, so I may ask him to borrow it again, or even buy it for a dirt cheap price since he’s since fallen out of the gaming loop. But I’m not completely sure on if he’s still got it or not.

So I’d barely scratched the surface of two of if not the best games for Nintendo’s boxy console and yet here I was clammoring about Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and how excited I am about it. It’s true, I am looking forward to it, but I realised it just wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t finish the first two games first. So this past January I bought Metroid Prime, again. They didn’t have it in new so I got it used for $20 which was a steal in my opinion.

And now you’re probably thinking about what I said at the very beginning of this post. “I’ve yet to finish a Metroid Prime game.” Well that still holds true. Eventhough I’ve had the game since January I still havn’t finished it. In fact, when I just took a look at the reciept I thought there was something wrong because I thought that it was a more recent purchase than that.

Somewhere between the end of January and now, I fell out of the game and just stopped playing it. Right when I was smack dab at a 50% completion rate too. I even lent it to a friend which is where it’s been for the past two months. And then all of a sudden, today I got that same ”craving” if you will, for Metroid again. I took it back from my friend, popped it in my Wii and continued on from where I left off. Except something’s different this time. This time I’m determined to finish the game and the sequel before I even so much as touch Corruption.

It could be possible for me to finish both in time for the game’s release if my August wasn’t so packed and lacking in free time (why am I getting a sense of déja vu?). None the less, I WILL finish Metroid Prime by the end of this month at the very least. In fact, I’ll mention it on here when I do. If you wind up noticing that I havn’t said anything, email me or leave a comment just to make sure that I havn’t abandonned it again.

As for how I’m going to get Echoes? Hopefully my friend still has his copy so that I can borrow it and finish the game without spending a single penny. If he doesn’t I guess I’ll just head down to EB Games and pick it up for $25 which I think it was today. Once that’s all done with only then will I purchase Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Hopefully after Corruption I’ll have enough money (and time) left over for some of the other gems on the horizon such as Super Mario Galaxy, Guitar Hero, and Smash Bros.