Strange new world: The RPG genre and me

I know a thing or two about the RPG genre! I've played Pokemon since I was ten! Other than that...well, who needs more?

My line of thought was somewhere along those lines before I played a little game called Chrono Trigger. RPG's, where have you been all my life! That's what my new thoughts are.

But before I get ahead of myself, let's go over the meaning of "RPG" first. RPG stands for role-playing game. A "party" is almost always key to the RPG formula. Leveling up is also a necessary ingredient. Battles must be fought. These can be turn-based or action-based. In a turn-based battle, each active character can choose how to act, then the battle proceeds, generally with the fastest character attacking (or not attacking) first. Thus, a certain degree of strategy is involved in turn-based battles. Action-based battles, on the other hand, play out much like battles in any action-adventure game. In fact, "Action RPG" is its own sub-genre.

I hope that at least gives you the gist of it. Back to Chrono Trigger! What a spectacular game! I must acknowledge Mary as the one to whom I owe the finding of this game. The question that remains now is this: is the RPG genre for everyone? Absolutely not! And I'll tell you why: many gamers want that quick burst of gameplay, which comes from a Mario platformer, or a Star Fox shooter, or a Wii Sports party-er, or a Mario Kart racer. There's a great deal of complexity in RPG games! And, oftentimes, there's a degree of drag to them as well. It was hard even for me, a big Pokemon fan, to accept the foreign RPG style of Chrono Trigger (What? I can't catch 'em all in this game?! Ludicrous!). But the bare-bones truth is, RPG's provide deep, rewarding experiences that are worth all the trouble of learning all there is to know about them. So dig a little deeper, and maybe you'll find that there's an RPG fan in you after all!

Infendo Wednesday: How goes your Master Quest?

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This week's Infendo article, titled "How goes your Master Quest?", asks readers to share their experience with the ultra-challenging unlockable quest in Ocarina of Time 3D. Enjoy!

Video games into movies!

So this isn't the real trailer for FF7 Advent Children but who cares! It's freakin amazing! A lot of people made their own trailers for this! That's how strong its following is.

Imagine, you've been playing a video game and have gotten way into it. A few days later you hear about a movie coming out of that exact game! What do you do? Personally I'd freak out. Heck I already did when Final Fantasy VII Advent Children came out! It's so awesome when a video game becomes a movie! Surprisingly a lot of video games do that. I'll have you know contrary to popular belief the Pokemon game series came out before the cartoon did. Really quite surprising isn't it?

With those type of video games it doesn't really baffle me. With video games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, well that's a different story. Mortal Kombat got three movies from just a normal old fighting game. No real story line at all. I think Street Fighter is even crazier though, they got a whole series. I mean it's just insane! Actually personally I think Mortal Kombat has more story line than Street Fighters (game wise movie wise . . . lets just say nothing can beat Street Fighter).

Another one is Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. This one only has two movies, but six games. The movie is currently the highest-grossing video game adaption movie in the U.S. and only falling second worldwide behind Prince of Persia. So what makes all of these video games legible to be made into movies? An awesome story line, cool characters, and of course an immense following of people. Personally I think that the following is the most important. I mean even if the game is stupid, if people are making petitions and sending things to the, uh, CEO guy (the guy who is in charge okay?) and just all in all being crazy they'll most likely get a movie.

Of course sometimes since the game is just so awesome, *cough* Final Fantasy VII *cough*, they just decide to make it into a movie because they know it'll get a way positive response. So if you want a game to become a movie then it's most likely not going to happen unless it has a crazy following or if its name starts with an F and ends with a roman numeral. Just kidding, there are a lot of games that aren't super big that are movies. Some like: Animal Crossing, Like a Dragon, and Tekken. See I bet you don't even know what those are, well maybe Animal Crossing but that's it! I guess the point I'm trying to make is . . . wait, I don't even know what it is. Oh well! It was fun finding out all of this stuff anyways! What game do you want into a movie? Go do something about it!

Poll: Holly got a PlayStation 2. Believe it? Or not?

Do you believe it?

A weekend guide for Nintendo fans

Wednesday was a big day in many ways for Nintendo fans. So maybe this is old news, but if you have gotten lost in all of the Nintendo goodness that happened, let the Nintendo Lifeline help you find your way through it this weekend!

First, a special Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword bundle was announced. The first shipment of the game will include a bonus 25th Anniversary Symphony CD, all for $50. Upgrade to $70 and the game comes with a special limited edition gold Wii remote Plus. Pre-order your preferred package on Amazon today!

Next, 3DS Ambassadors are now able to download the ten free NES games promised a few months back. Here follows a list of the games and my impressions so far:

Super Mario Bros.: How can you go wrong with the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES? Okay, the gameplay might have aged a bit, but this classic can still be fun today. It feels pretty good on the 3DS, but it is admittedly not as comfortable as the sideways Wii remote set-up.

The Legend of Zelda: I've never understood why the original Legend of Zelda was so innovative back in its time. Perhaps that's because it is anything but innovative at this point in time. But, in celebration of the series' silver anniversary, I'm willing to give it more of a shot than I ever have before. Stay tuned!

Yoshi: Puzzle games never seem to make it into my gaming libraries, but they probably should, because I have enjoyed the heck out of Yoshi, a simplistic NES puzzle game. This game is definitely the hidden gem in this group of NES freebies. When this game is released for the general public, the $5 should be worth it.

Donkey Kong Jr.: I haven't had much time with this game, but I don't like what I've played so far. The action is slow, the gameplay is boring, and the controls are iffy.

Metroid: I've talked about this game before, so you should just check out this post to get the full picture. In short, this is a great game. Go for it if it's free, and consider it even if you have to pay the $5.

Other free games for Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors include Wrecking Crew, The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, and NES Open Tournament Golf. I'll play those a little more in order to provide more coverage on them in the future.

Finally, I want to include instructions on how Ambassadors are to download these games, because it's a fairly complicated process: 1) Go into the Nintendo eShop from your Nintendo 3DS menu screen. 2) Scroll all the way to the left in order to find the Settings/Other icon and select it. 3) Scroll down to the Your Downloads button and select it. 4) Scroll down until you find the ten free games and select Redownload on the first one. You'll have to repeat steps 2-4 multiple times in order to download all of the games.

Have an amazing Labor Day weekend!