I don't grok Mario Kart

(tags game, Mario Kart, Dual Screen, Gameboy Advance)

I finally finished the Cups in Mario Kart DS. On the last track my first power up was a Mushroom Boost, and after clearing the first shortcut it was an eeriely uneventful hair-raising ride. Not even a blue turtle shell broke my concentration. The fear of one, well that's the story.

Kart fever struck. I then dug out my old copy of Mario Kart Advance, because hey that has even more maps. I was not impressed. The 2d is so flat, so hard to see. Drifting seems to be blind, requiring rote memorization. I can't believe I played this game and like it. And of course, it's too difficult. I have not yet unlocked the 100cc Retro tracks. Give me Mario Kart DS any day, I need my 3D.

And on a slighty off-topic but still relating to Mario Kart, Steve Yegge on my blogroll wrote about dealing with programming unknowns, and he used Mario Kart as an analogy for a system. I still don't understand the "One-Way Wall". Perhaps I was totally stuck thinking about how to drift through the next turn. But I understood it when he mentioned meta-programming and reflection.

He's just discovered the Steal ability: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

(tags game, Gameboy Advance, Final Fantasy)

So... at around 75 hours into Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I discovered the joy of stealing weapons. But why stop at weapons when you can steal abilities! So now everybody's a Thief, or at least the two main guys, Marche and Montblanc. Of course I can't be stealing all the time. I do back them up with people who can cast Sleep, which makes the Steal success rate 100%. Most excellent.

Now, I'm 95 hours in. Ninety-five hours. Why did I ever say I'd never ever no longer get into a menu-based Final Fantasy?

Stealin' weapons and time: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

(tags game, Final Fantasy, Gameboy Advance)

I spent almost the whole day today leveling up my characters in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It all started a day or two ago when I finally overcame a story-unlocking stumbling block. My main "tank" learned the two sword attack so down went the oppressor. After that I got some other weapon that allowed my Thief to steal the enemy's props. Unfortunately, stealing requires me to de-KO the baddies, and to Disable their attacks with the Aim skill. Which means I play a stage for tens of minutes instead of quick tag 'em and frag 'em. By the time I finished my "just one more stage", it was almost three in the afternoon. Busted. :0

Aww hell it's calling me now, again. No posting for today, but shoot, I had some topics to post.

You will not give me a yellow card.

(tags Final Fantasy, Gameboy Advance, game, failure)

Like I've been postscripting on the other posts, I've been playing FFTA. 60 hours in-game, wow, the GBA Micro is convenient. But the Laws are getting tougher now and whenever I get a yellow card (which really isn't a bad thing), I just turn off the game. So much for rolling with the punches.

Is strategy ever going to become necessary in FFTA? I've just been pushing around my "tanks" and mowing down the enemies sloppily.

He's just discovered the Start button: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

(tags game, GameBoy Advance, Final Fantasy)

It's rather strange that this unautomated menu fighter RPG Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (FFTA) has gotten a hold of me. The in-game clock says I've put almost 20 hours on it, but I haven't even got past the sixth default mission yet. There are 300 total missions, and I suspect that only a fraction of that is the story mode.

I figured out in the Equip items menu that on the currently selected item, the Start button shows the improvement (blue) or regression (red) in the stats. Before discovering this I was annoyed with jumping back and forth between menus. Now I can equip with confidence. :-) But then again I also figured out that I shouldn't be reequipping so much. "Abilities" anyone?

Still the game hasn't thrown me any real strategy difficulties at me, yet. I recall that I played most (?) of GameBoy Advance Wars 1 and 2 without finishing the story mode because it started playing out like Chess. Ugh, I suck at Chess.

I also took a peek at a GameFaq guide but I shouldn't have done that. I was wondering what good were those Judgement Points, since most of my characters now have "10". I still didn't figure it out. FFTA has been fun for me partly because of the exploration of the game system. I am not going to glance at another guide until it gets hard.

And yes I've been stealing glances at FFTA-A2 for the Dual Screen. But I rather play a game like this in English.

Digging for treasure: Boulderdash and others

(tags game, Dual Screen, GameBoy Advance, Xbox 360, RPG, shmup, puzzle)

Yesterday, I completed Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time in about 21 hours in-game time. There's not much left to do in it because there are really no side quests except for collecting more items of dubious worth. There aren't any more interesting enemies to fight either, so there's no sense in leveling up.

I collected 166 beans from the map, and probably won 1 from a mini-game. I need 450 beans (10 + 20 + 30 + 40+ 50 + 60+ 70 + 80 + 90) to get all the "ultimate" badges, but the only way to get more beans is to play "pachinko/slot machine" at 5 beans a win, for the remaing 283. That's not fun. M&L is over for me.

So I tried out some other games. Gradius Generations for the GBA kills me with cheep death but I managed to get to level 3 without continuing. I was buzzing out of habit.

Atari Arcade Hits for the GBA, ugh I still suck at Tempest. Oh wait I have this on the DS, gotta try that some time.

Boulderdash EX for the GBA? It's surprisingly engaging as a puzzler. I got this game a long time ago to make up for missing the Apple II version. Classic mode sure looks ugly.

And I popped in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, despite my dread. Right now the battles are easier than I thought. I am having fun without worrying too much about positioning and Laws. I was even Judgement Point scraping. What do you mean I can only reap 10 JP from this nearly dead guy here? But the item changing and job system doesn't make much sense to me. Also the GBA's small screen gets in the way of figuring out which item/weapon is better. It sure it more convenient to play M&L. Still, 13 hours in-game, so the clock says. And the music reminds me of Final Fantasy XII, but of course FFTA came first.

And this morning was a little bit of Hexic HD (Xbox 360). Every time I get rid of a bomb I say "GTFO". It's stress relief.

All of this to resist the thought of new game purchases. Yeah right. I'm going out today and tomorrow. Let the money flow freely. :-)