Hitting the Jackpot

Today, I got up at 12:00 after yesterday's long and fun night.

 I was told we were going to a farm, apparantly there was a rummage sale sort of thing so I agreed to come along, after all, you never know what you're going to find at these things.

I often dream about finding a person selling a pile of Anime or N64 Games but I could have never expected to find what I did there!

We looked over the whole place and picked up a Chinese Lacquer-ware Box for £2.50 which was really cool, I doubt that it's anything valuable but it's a nice find none the less!

After looking once, we were about to head off and I VERY NEARLY missed it..

I looked down and saw a black N64 and a Sega Master System II!

I asked the man who ran the stall how much it was and he said he'll give me the lot for a fiver!

What a result! 2 great retro consoles for £5!

But that wasn't the whole of it, I got home and on further inspection of the dusty, dirty box I found that there wasn't just 2 consoles in there but FOUR!

I found a black N64, a Sega Master System (1 and 2) and a Sega Mega Drive II!

And with them came a Master System game (Rampart) 3 Master System Controllers,

A Sega Mega Drive controller and the Sega Master System Light Phaser!

(and all the leads and plugs necessary to play)

Needless to say I was BEYOND chuffed, 4 consoles, 4 controllers, 1 light gun and a game for FIVE POUNDS. This has got to be the GREATEST thing I have ever found at any sale ever!

As the Consoles hadn't been touched in quite awhile they were caked in dust and other dirt so it took me a good 30 mins to clean up and get them all sorted out and imagine my surprise when I take a look inside my new Nintendo 64 and find that this console also had the Expansion Pak!

After getting all this stuff for so cheap I was curious to see how much all of this would cost if I were to buy online. To save time, I just searched Amazon

Sega Master System - Used from £16

Sega Master System II - Used from £28

Sega Mega Drive II - Used from £23

Nintendo 64 - Used from £26

Rampart - Used from £3 

Sega Master System Controller - Used from £8 each
Light Phaser - Used from £5
(all prices include postage and packaging prices)

So without even adding all of this up you can see I saved an ASS-LOAD of money on this
and I added a ton of new (old) stuff to my Retro Collection :D

Toku-R

Nintendo 3DS

While not Retro, Today is the European Launch of the Nintendo 3DS!
I've been waiting for this for over a year now, since they announced the thing,
So I've been saving up nice and managed to pick it up today, the first day of launch!
Due to a slightly annoying mix up, I had to travel all the way back to town to swap the 3DSs over as mmy dad handed the wrong one... But as a result, I owned both colours of the 3DS!
Check it out.

Front of Both Boxes (Top - Cosmos Black / Bottom - Aqua Blue)

Dad brought home the Black one but I preordered the Blue one and the worker at the 

till mixed em up so I had to go all the way back into Town to pick up the right one..

When I opened the box and took out my Nintendo 3DS I was AMAZED, and I hadn't even switched the thing on!

The system has a GORGEOUS metallic body with a thin plastic coating which makes it looks just..wow.
Flip the lid and you can see the Circle Pad the Widescreen 3D Display and the 3D slider

I haven't got pics of me playing it but I even switching it on and seeing such simple things as Text Bubbles in 3D was astounding, it makes it seem as if there's no screen but instead, a window through which you can see everything inside. Even the little menu title screens were impressive!

I had a quick go at making a Mii and was impressed with the added hair styles and colours and the way you could look around your Mii in 3D. I then played 2 of the 6 AR games (AR Target and AR Shot)
they were really fun but I only had a quick go so I could probably get lots more out of it.
I also played a quick game of Face Raiders and I was REALLY impressed with that, It takes a photo of your face and then the photo jumps out at you in full 3D, dons a warlord-style helmet and rushes away, the aim of the game is to move your 3DS around, looking throughout the environment you are in through the Stereo 3DS outside cameras, you find small faces wearing Helmets and shoot them before they get a chance to kiss the screen and decrease your life bar. It's a very fun game for Score-Chasers.

All in all, I had HIGH expectation for the 3DS but I can still say that, now owning it, it surpasses all of them,
This console was well worth the wait and hopefully I can buy a game for it soon as I didn't have the money to buy one at Launch.

A pic of me holding the N3DS Box with my cat in the background

Toku-R

Mario & Yoshi

Mario & Yoshi...(also known as just Yoshi or Yoshi's Egg in some places)

Another Game Boy game I've had for a good 11-12 years.

It was originally a NES game but was ported to the Game Boy, which is the version I have

It's a puzzle game where you control Mario (Or Luigi in the NES version)

who contols 4 platforms on which objects and eggs fall on.

You have Goomba, Piranha Plants, Bloopers and Boos,

You also have a top and bottom half of an egg.

You can match up 2 of any of the objects (as long as they are the same type)

by moving the plates that Mario holds in his hands,

He holds on to 2 plates at a time and can switch them about to make sure the

object you want lands on the plate you want.

While you get points for matching the enemies up, the real objective lies with the egg shells,

You have to start off with the bottom half of an egg and then place the top half over it.

The egg with close, hatch and a Yoshi will pop out giving you +1 on the Yoshi score.

The more enemies you sandwich in between the two egg shells, the stronger the Yoshi will be.

You basically just have to try and get as high as you can, there's no real plot to this game.

Sandwiching 2 enemies between the eggs

The Game also has 2 modes,
In Game A you stack and match the objects while avoiding reaching the top, much like Tetris
and in Game B, there are 4 towers for you to match up and bring down, doing it as quick as possible.
You have 3 pieces of cheery music to listen to while you play as well, my favourite is Music C because it reminds me of Pokémon Red and Blue so much.

It's a good game, but it's nothing special really, it's not bad in anyway but it can get repetitive after awhile.
However, like Tetris, this can be an extremely addictive game too, it's well worth a try and it's good for killing 5-10 minutes

P.S. Sorry for the shoddy picture, it's almost impossible to find good screenies of this game.
and yes.. My GBA SP has been damaged as you can tell by the black ink leak on the bottom and sides,
Oh well..

Toku-R

Majora's Mask + More N64 Stuff

, --

Today was a good day, it was warm, the sun was out and there was not a single cloud in the sky..

More importantly I managed to bag another N64 Controller, a Rumble Pak and
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask! All of that for only £17.00 too!

Getting Majora's Mask completes my Zelda N64 collection and brings me one step close to my Childhood collection. (I'm trying to collect every N64 game I had when I was a kid)

Majora's Mask was, like Ocarina of Time, a huge part of my childhood and one of the games I have most memories of and playing it again has brought back most of the feelings I had when I was young.
The main selling point of the game was the power of transformation given to you through the 4 masks you collect on your Journey
(one for each of the three main races and another special one)
You also collect 20 other masks throughout the game too and while it isn't necessary to collect them all, they are essential in the last part of the game if you want to receive the final, special mask.

Link receiving the Blast Mask

Other than the usage of masks, this game added quite a few other things since OoT.

First of all the Sound is clearly better, music is more detailed and has alot more going on in it and most, if not all, of the NPC's have voices when they speak which really adds to their character.

 Secondly the textures have been improved making everything look alot nicer.

Thirdly, and the one I like the most, is the addition of new animations for Link and other NPC's which, like the voices, gives them more character and makes them more life-like than before. I also love the fact that no matter how small the NPC is, they always seem to have a story behind them of some sort.

Link talking to Anju, the NPC who has, arguably, the longest and most indepth Sidequest 

However, even though MM improved on OoT in many ways, in my opinion it still can't stand up to Ocarina.

I can't quite put my finger on what it is, perhaps it's because I had stronger feelings towards Oot when I was younger? While I will admit that Majora's Mask's Storyline was alot deeper and more emotionally engaging, I don't think it was quite as epic as Ocarina of Time's, I know there will be people that disagree but that's just my personal opinion.

The other thing about MM vs Oot is the fact that Majora's Mask only has 4 Temples while Ocarina has 9.

Now I know that Majora's mask has alot more to do to get to the temples but I just don't think it justifies the drop in number.

Stone Tower Temple in Majora's Mask

Even though I'm only at the Woodfall Temple at the moment, playing through Majora's Mask has been IMMENSELY fun again.

One other thing, I thought I'd share a pic I took of my copy of Majora's Mask,

The Gold Cartridge is sexy..

I think this picture captures the dark theme of the game while still showing what fun it is to play :D


ALSO: My friends have a blog about Games, Anime and other stuff that has been going on,
It's called Duo Screen, please check it out!

http://duoscreen.blogspot.com/

Toku-R

Kirby's Dream Land

To kick off my Nintendo Game Boy Reviews, I thought I'd review not only the first Game Boy game I got, but one of the FIRST video games I got.

Kirby's Dream Land (which I got with my first Game Boy Colour and Pokémon Red), is still a game I pick up and play from time to time because of how it reminds me of my childhood, the music, the sound effects and the graphics are all very dear to me in that way and I pretty much love everything about this game save a few small points.

KDL, like all of the other Kirby games, is a simple, side-scrolling platformer.

You play as Kirby who sucks up enemies and either spits 'em out or swallows 'em,

one thing that did disappoint me about KDL was that it was slightly different from previous Kirby titles.

Normally you can find an enemy, swallow him and gain his powers but in this game you can't gain ANY powers from ANY enemies. Sure you can pick up the Microphone like last time, or even grab the Superspicy Curry or the Mint Leaf but it doesn't feel the same without the enemy powers and it also gives the swallow function no use what-so-ever. It may be disappointing but it's a small gripe and it doesn't affect the gameplay too much.

Playing through Kirby's Dream Land again brought back some serious memories,

The Green Greens level, the beach one, the cloud one, all remind me of when I was 3 again...

As I played through it for this review I tried to pick out my favourite piece of music and it was pretty hard but I settled for the Float Islands theme for it's tropical sound :D

I remembered all the bosses and how to beat them, all the tunes (I was whistling along to most of them)

and what I found interesting was the fact that Lolo from the NES game Adventure of Lolo made a cameo appearance with his girlfriend Lala as the 2nd stage's boss. When I was a child I hadn't known this as I had never played Adventures of Lolo but now noticing it for the first time was pretty cool.

If I had anything bad to say about this game other than the lack of abilities, would be that it is too short. This game can easily be beaten in 20 minutes if you know what you're doing and it's really a shame because it has so much charm and it seems like a waste because of it's length. There are only 4 stages with a boss ad mini boss each which still only takes 5 mins max to beat, You then have a stage which you have to replay small sections of previous levels and then beat their boss, after that you fight King Dedede and beat the game, so it is pretty short.

Either way, Kirby was a part of my child-hood and I still love it now,

It got me into gaming and for that I'm grateful to it

If you haven't played this game, try to pick it up somewhere you're sure to enjoy it

Toku-R

Nintendo Game Boy

This Generation would look at Nintendo and say that their handhold is the Nintendo DS,
they wouldn't be wrong but way back before I was born there was the Nintendo Game and Watch, the original Nintendo Hand-held. This, however, I did not have as it was way before my time, the first Nintendo hand-held console I ever got was the successor to the Game and Watch.
The Nintendo Game Boy, Developed by Gunpei Yokoi

The Nintendo Game Boy showing Tetris

This chunky console was about the same same as the original Nintendo DS and quite a bit thicker and the cartridges were roughly 4 times the size of a normal DS cartridge. It came out over here in Europe in 1990 and since then has sold 118.69 units worldwide and if you thought that the DS had lots of version and upgrades... you're wrong!
 The Game Boy actually went on to have a total of 7 different models and over 80 different colours and styles between them!
You had the:
Game Boy - The Original
Game Boy Pocket - Which was a smaller edition
Game Boy Light - An edition that had a backlight for the screen
And then you had the Game Boy Colour which came which new games that were in full colour.
The next upgrade was the jump from 8-bit to 32-bit with the Game Boy Advance which was capable of giving you Graphics akin to the SNES but portable!

Upgrades to the Game Boy Advance were:
Game Boy Advance SP - Which was a stylish Flip-top edition of the GBA
and the Game Boy Micro which was a MUCH smaller edition with a clearer and brighter screen.

As you can tell the Game Boy was massively popular and sold MILLIONS of each of the different versions of it, it was the console that started and lead portable gaming into where it is now

Toku-R

My Weekend and N64 Update

Okay, so on the weekend I managed to pick up 2 more N64 games, 

Wave Race 64 and Blast Corps only for £4!

I've only played Wave Race for a little bit but, I think it's quite cool, it feels very realistic the way you race across the ocean, Blast Corps on the other hand I've played for quite a bit.

The basic objective of the game is to smash, blow up and destroy everything, and boy does it feel good.

With a huge variety of vehicles and robots to smash things with (each with their own unique control) Blast Corps is a very deep game that will keep your interest.

The other thing that was cool about the weekend was the fact that I got to play on a genuine six-button, joystick Arcade Cabinet! I know this sounds a bit odd considering how big a fan of Retro Gaming I am but I was born in the mid-nineties and never got the chance to go to many arcades, so for that I am ashamed.

The game itself was Metal Slug, what better game to experience on an AC?

I had a good play, though not as long as I would've liked as I had parents waiting,

but it was a brilliant experience.

I also got to have a quick go at the 3DS when I was in Game,

brilliant stuff as this was the first time I'd seen the console in person.

I had a quick go at the AR Target Shooting and I was very impressed.

Check it out on Youtube or something.

Toku-R