What Are You Currently Playing? 6.65: Neighbor of the Beast

[gunswordfist]

Ah, War For Cybertron. Is Fall Of Cybertron good as well? I forget if you already told me, lol

I beat Oniken's demo yesterday. It's like 2D Ninja Gaiden meets Contra and I'm really yearning to play some more Ninja Gaiden-likes. Also, the boss music is still stuck in my head.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I only got around to playing the first one.

BIS news, I have just had Bowser run on the treadmill to lose weight. I forgot how great this game was, it easily has the best story in any Mario RPG. Fawful and Midbus are awesome, too. Shame they didn't appear in Dream Team but I hope there's a chance for their appearance in Paper Jam.

On the other hand, that carrot minigame is the worst one in the game. Thankfully I looked up the trick to watch the top of the screen when it flashes and beat it in record time. The rest of the game is great aside from that blemish, from what I remember.

EDIT: Also, that soundtrack. Some of Yoko Shinomura's best work. Shame none of this made it into Smash Bros.

[Foggle]

Yoko Shimomura is very talented. Her music in Xenoblade is by far my favorite thing about the game.

[Nel_Annette]

Spark, isn't Fawful kind of... dead by the end of BIS? I think he dies after his final battle anyway.

Don't get me wrong, though, I'd love to see him come back.

[Spark Of Spirit]

He is.

But this is a Mario RPG. They could think of all kinds of ridiculous reasons to bring him back. 

Actually, I find Fawful one of the important links of the M&L games since he was in all three of the original games. That they didn't have so much of a cameo in DT was a disappointment. Even if he just comes back as an reformed character or non-plot important NPC, I wouldn't care. I just feel like he is an integral part of the series.

Heck, even if they don't bring him back for PJ, they could have Paper Fawful show up instead. I would settle on that.

[Nel_Annette]

I do like how it pretty much confirms that Paper Mario is its own universe. Continuity doesn't matter much in this franchise but I like things like that.

I should play PiT and BIS again. I know I hated PiT like everyone else, but it's been a decade since it came out now. And I remember my overall experience with BIS being negative, but now that I know what I'm getting into, I'd like to give it another go.

Superstar Saga and Dream Team are still 9/10 games, as far as I'm concerned.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm actually planning on a SS replay after this. Hopefully I'll finally be able to beat the final boss.

Still haven't even bought Dream Team yet, mostly chased off by mixed reception. I'll probably play it after Paper Jam. I just hope it doesn't have the same issues I had when I went into PiT after playing BIS and just feeling not as good in any way.

[Nel_Annette]

There was mixed reception for Dream Team? I could get some criticism against the Giant battles and the mandatory minigames, but for the most part it's fantastic, and has really great pacing. I really do put it up there with the first game, and I went into it with some seriously low expectations.

And it gives Luigi some of the most badass character development he's ever gotten.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I heard horror stories about tutorials and gyroscopes, but that just might be the vocal side of the fanbase being nitpicky again.

The Luigi stuff does look cool, though. 

[Nel_Annette]

I think I remember some tutorials being stupidly intrusive but I honestly can't remember any specific examples, just my feelings of annoyance. The gyroscope, though, yeah. You want to go into Giant battles with your 3DS in the position you're going to keep it in all battle, because whenever a boss goes into some attack you need to tilt the 3DS to dodge, if you are suddenly holding the 3DS in a different position it'll wonk out and royally fuck you over. The Giant battles are easily the least well-thought out part of the game. The last Giant battle, however flawed it may be, is the coolest battle in the entire Mario franchise if you play it well. In my opinion, of course, but I honestly think visually it's the greatest boss fight in all of Super Mario Bros.

And while Fawful doesn't appear (sad), supporting characters return from SS, PiT and BIS, so Dream Team is almost a celebration of the first three games. I really did love it.

[talonmalon333]

I do like how it pretty much confirms that Paper Mario is its own universe. Continuity doesn't matter much in this franchise but I like things like that.

Where was that said? I actually like having it in the main universe. It even ties into it in many ways, too.

My favorite Mario story is a toss up between Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario. Super Paper Mario probably takes the edge for its better ending, main characters, and overall writing. But that battle arena chapter in Thousand-Year Door is alone by far my favorite Mario story.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Luigi knocks over a storybook containing the Paper Mario universe.

If you really want to, you can just consider them adventures Mario already went on but presented in the paper style.

[talonmalon333]

If you really want to, you can just consider them adventures Mario already went on but presented in the paper style.

That's what I'll do.

[Nel_Annette]

Think I'm done with Fairy Fencer F. It's just... trash. Unplayable trash. Popped in the copy of GTA4 I bought. Dear god, these graphics have not aged well at all. The city's so murky, everything's hard to see, the combat system and "realistic" physics are so archaic compared to GTA5. How the hell did I beat this seven years ago?

[Spark Of Spirit]

You were probably wowed by the "Oscar-worthy" writing.

In other news, I'm nearing the end of BIS. Only a few hours to go until the end. My opinion has not changed, it's still the best game in the series.