Four month absence

Ah, my feet hurt. Not the main point of this post, but something I needed to express. As you may, or may not know, I'm taking a small break of about three weeks to a month of not playing the Pokémon games.

During this time, I've turned to other games that I haven't played in some time, and missed those I have sold on (such as LoZ: Phantom Hourglass) albeit briefly.
Something happened today.

I loaded up a game in my DS Lite (which is slowly dying) and was informed that I had not played for four months, which actually meant that I have not played the game properly for about six months. The way I was informed of this was by a small bluey green female squirrel named Nibbles.

I speak of course, of Animal Crossing: Wild World. Now, here I was thinking I was pretty much done with the game. I've got almost all the bugs, almost all the fish, I just have to wait until the right seasons. However, every time I go to put the game back in it's box to trade in or sell, I just can't.

I lost myself in this game for quite a time, making t-shirt designs and trying to complete the fossil collection and listening to a strange dog sing every Saturday, and then giving me bootleg copies of his music. The concept of a stoner otter who would one day give me an axe made of gold in exchange for a seashell made sense to me.

After not playing for so long, weeds begin to grow in your town, and it's your job to tidy them up. I was doing this earlier, whilst greeting the animals wandering outside such as Gaston & Cesar.

Gaston is the manly rabbit, and Cesar is the monkey. Back to the story at hand, I'd finished cleaning the town of weeds and the like and thought I'd pay a visit to the animals still inside their houses. First of all, I popped off to see Moe.


Moe had nothing in his house, which is very rare for the residents of the town. I spoke to him, and he told me he was moving. When your residents leave, they may go to one of your friend's towns (depending on when you last communicated with them) , but they may also end up nowhere and be gone for good. You can make them stay, but I'm "done" with Moe.

You see, all of your residents have a certain friendship rating with you, and once the rating is high enough, they give you a picture of themselves. This is when I consider a resident finished and able to leave my town for good. So, after telling Moe I didn't care if he left I wandered off.

Now, there was just one more resident left to visit. This is Tipper the cow (great name eh?) and she spoke briefly with me and express her interest in clothes. Residents get interests in certain things, be it bugs, fish, clothes or other stuff. It's then up to you to fulfill their wants by giving them what they ask for in order to build up your friendship rating. Tipper asked me for any clothing, so I switched what I wearing for a t-shirt design of my Fanpop t-shirt. I gave it to her, and she gave me back a t-shirt design that I really wanted, so I was glad.

Then it dawned on me. I'm playing properly. Crap. I've gotten back in to the game. If anyone wants to play with me, leave your friend codes in the comments, and I'll contact you.

Brawl Round-Up Part II

Continuing on from yesterday's (it was yesterday's when I started, but I've been working on it in parts) post, here's the rest of the default characters.

Sheik

How does Link not realise she's Zelda? Idiot. Anyways, Sheik is obviously similar to Zelda, but I like her Chain move is quite handy and she's a lot faster. Okay, little secret here. Zelda in Brawl creeps me the hell out. Not her attacks or Final Smash or anything, but the way she just kind of glides along when she walks. It's really off-putting. Anyways, Sheik suffers the same problem as many Final Smashes, you need a flat stage to ensure a hit.


Bowser

A big hulk of power is the best way to describe Bowser. His attacks remain great to use. I like his Down + B move, just because I love attacking opponents from the sky, or in the sky. His Final Smash is good as long as you're not on a too complicated stage.



Donkey Kong

You may have seen me mention my brother's Samus laser charging. Well, DK offers me up a big charge with his Giant Punch move. His Final Smash is frickin' wierd (though not as wierd as Luigi's). His Up + B Spinning Kong attack is always good for inflicting pain and recovering.


Yoshi

Hmmm...any chance I can skip this one? No? Okay. Yoshi's always been a bit odd. I love the character, but the moves I question. I think his only good move is the Down + B Yoshi Bomb, as the Egg Roll is uncontrollable at the best of times, and the Egg Throw hardly counts as a recovery move. The eating of people is best left to Kirby as well.



Peach

Peach eh? Her new Vegetable move is cool. What was her Down + B before? Yeah, anyways I like the nod to Super Mario Bros. 2 with that. Oh okay, it was in Melee according to Super Mario Wiki. Filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler, filler. Final Smash = Rubbish. Stupid Peach.



Ice Climbers

I hated these guys in Melee. Now after having to use them in SSE, I'm quite partial to them. I think it was their scrolling stage that irritated me, and now they have a cool stage and an awesome Final Smash. The Squall Hammer is a useful move as you can use it in midair as well.


Pit

You may have noticed my nods to midair attacks. This means that Pit to me, is awesome. Not to mention I have and love Kid Icarus: Myths & Monsters on my Gameboy. His Palutena Arrow attack is amazing and his A button combos are good for 'trapping' your opponents. I don't use the Mirror Shield much, but everything else gets good use.


Wario

I like his stage, and Ashley's Song (let's start off good). The Wario Bike is cool, but again needs a flat stage to be really good, or an enclosed stage Stamina battle. His Final Smash of Wario Man is rather disappointing compared to the other high speed, high power Final Smash.


Ike

Never played Fire Emblem. Never liked Marth & Roy. Ike, however, seems to destroy everything. According to Snake's codec, he handles a two-handed sword with one hand. His Aether attack is good because of grinding damage from the initial sword throw and then damages if it's a recovery move. His Final Smash is a good close contact one because you can get everyone at once, and it's got very good knockback.

Pokémon Trainer

It has an é in. Spell it with an e and I judge you. Obviously the favourite for most people is Charizard, but I love Squirtle. A bad thing about the Pokémon is that they only really have two B moves, as Up has to be a recovery move and Down is to change Pokémon. Love the Final Smash and that the Pokémon Trainer is Red, not Lucas.


Diddy Kong

Why Diddy and no Dixie? Harumph! His Final Smash is uncontrollable and shabby. His Peanut Popgun attack is pretty useless. I don't like Diddy. NEXT!





Meta Knight

His combos are amazing. His Final Smash too. Meta Knight's whole persona in the games is spot on as well. His B attacks leave something to be desired, but that's easily made up for by his regular aforementioned attacks.

Lucas

I never used Ness in Brawl very much, so when Lucas seemed like a Ness clone I wasn't too fussed. I tried him out and now he's the most used character on Brawl. The main reason for this is the very cheap PK Thunder move, as unlike Ness' it can score mutiple hits. Yeah, Lucas = Awesome. Ness = still crap. His Final Smash can be quite handy and I've no idea why people knock it.



King Dedede

Oh lord, he's powerful. So many KO's with the Jet Hammer. The Waddle Toss is cool too, especially if you get a Gordo. His Waddle Dee Army Final Smash is one of those where you can press B and then sit back and laugh as everyone else is shoved off the edge of the screen. His Up + B Super Dedede Jump is useful, not only for causing damage, but for avoiding attacks too.

Captain Olimar & Pikmin

Olimar is one of my most used characters too, but he suffers from the Pokémon move limitations too. You need B to get Pikmin and then B + Down to summon them all back to you, leaving him with only two special moves that cause damage. Pikmin Throw can be great though, depending on which Pikmin you throw. I always try and get white ones (for Poison) or Red (for fire damage). His Final Smash cannot be avoided as far as I know, which is very, very handy.


So, that's part two done. Expect part three soon, which will deal with the first half of the secret characters.

Brawl Round-Up - Default Part I

I know I've been a little lax with my posts lately, so I feel like restarting off my Brawl round-up with images and all, and perhaps deliver a chatty blog response thingy. This one is most of the default characters, will do unlockables later, as this has taken me about an hour with resizing the pictures and stuff, but enjoy.


Mario

Mario remains a good all rounder in Brawl. I dislike his new F.L.U.D.D move as it only knocks back whereas his old Mario Tornado move was better. You can still do the Mario Tornado as a normal attack, but I was used to falling and then pressing Down + B to spin at my opponents, and now I get the F.L.U.D.D thing...


Link

I've never been a big Link user, but Brawl Link is pretty much the same as Melee Link. Being able to control his arrows a bit more is fun, and I do like the Gale Boomerang. Link (as a fighter) has always seemed like more of a basic standard to me than Mario. I know that's odd, just the way I see it. His Final Smash looks very pretty, that's about all he gets as a saving grace, I'm afraid knifey. :-P

Kirby

I've always been a Kirby user however. Called cheap by many, Kirby retains everything from Melee and why not? There was no need to change anything about the first pink puff of the Smash Bros. series. His FS is great for getting KO's at the top of the screen and his floating ability always saves my ass.

Pikachu

You might expect me to be a big Pikachu user with the blog URL and all, but I use him (it is a him because of the tail) infrequently. His Thunderbolt move remains fun, and now that I have mastered the speed of Volt Tackle I can kill all three people on screen, which is very handy. People wait to respawn if I'm him...

Fox McCloud

Okay, I like Fox's last name, but despise all the furry stuff associated with his relationships on Starfox. Anyways, in Brawl he has a cool style anyways (though I prefer using Falco). His Blaster attack is a sneaky way to get in damage in a confusing 4-player match and then steal a KO. His Final Smash (which as you may have noticed, I use when I need to fill space) is Landmaster, which is a little fun, but not Final Smash worthy.


Samus Aran

Samus' too. Samus I do like and her Final Smash is amazingly devastating. Her Screw Attack attack (eh?) has always been a favourite of mine, just to catch a character in mid-air and grind against them. Charging up her laser is also great, because people forget you've got it charged. My little brother like to charge it up and then shoot me in the back when my guard's down.


Zero Suit Samus

A complete reverse to Samus, Samus in her Zero Suit (which is pretty much a lycra-esque tight suit from what I can tell) is much faster and has an awesome Flip Jump move that I usually try to use to avoid Samus blasts in Mirror Battles (when you're all the same character, it's the term we use in the house for fighters) and the Plasma Whip is a similar saving device to Ivysaur's Vine Whip.
Her Final Smash is cack though. It requires really close connection and hardly causes much damage, the knockback is decent, but I can't be doing with the minimal damage it does. Bad Samus.


Princess Zelda

I never saw the great thing about Zelda. Even in the LoZ videogames. I'd rather save Peach any day than Zelda, even though neither of them ever gives the hero that save them anything! Just a blo-...no, kids might read this blog. In Brawl, she's not changed from Melee. Her teleporting thing remains the coolest thing about her, I can't be bothered with her silly magic attacks. Her Final Smash is kind of cool, but it's tricky to hit on a non-flat stage (read every stage but Final Destination).


Okay, I'm gonna stop there, but I'll add more Brawl bits later.