Hey there! It’s a new week, a new Scatter Storming, and I actually have things to say! Can you believe it? Last week I was playing Spirit Tracks most of the time and wasn’t allowed to talk about it, so it was difficult for me to come up with anything. But now I’ve beat and reviewed it and given back my pre-release copy, so Riddles can bring relevance to the theme week for the rest of the time. For now? Let’s pick my brain!
IGN’s got a new look! -
And they’re really fucking excited about it. It’s better, yes, but their video page still needs tons of work. You know there’s a problem when I prefer to watch their stuff via YouTube. It’s a new player too, so ugh. Oh well, the site itself is faster and prettier now too. Although I think the new logo is interchangeable with the old one.
In which Ethos starts talking about Looney Tunes and ends up talking about the Wii -
I’ve been watching Looney Tunes recently before going to bed. Brilliant stuff. While it sucks that the hilarious Daffy Duck was used less often during the golden years in favour of the far more uninteresting and unfunny Sylvester, Bugs is always amazing and there is no better timing in anything ever than in the Roadrunner cartoons. Anyway, I wasn’t in the mood for it last night, so I decided to play some video games. How novel! I looked at my impressive array of current gen games and decided that I was in the mood for something old school. I booted up FF7, was enjoying it, but decided I wanted something even more old school, and a very rare craving for FF6 hit me. I say rare because I’ve tried the game multiple times and even got through about half of it once, and I’ve never loved it. However, I always wanted to beat it and give it a fair shake since it receives so much love. Anyhoo, since I just moved, not everything is in perfect order so it took me a bit to find my ol’ PSX Anthology with FF6 on it since it’s my only copy of the game. FFV was in there just fine, but I open up the back end and BLAMMO, it’s disc 1, season 2 of The Office. Great show, to be sure, but it makes for a terrible entry in the Final Fantasy series.
I ended up playing Dragon Quest V for DS.
This is a picture of me taken while I told this story
But the story doesn’t end there folks, no! You thought you were in the clear! No such luck!! I decided to boot up my Wii today to see if the Virtual Console had FF6. It absolutely doesn’t, but I haven’t looked up Wii news by choice in a long time, so I had no idea. Anyhoo, I decided that since the system was already on, I might as well check to see if the Nintendo Channel has any new DS demos.
It didn’t.
Not any interesting ones anyway, but it DID have an update to the channel itself. I have no idea how recent it is, but I was surprised. They now have an option for much higher quality video display, and it looks and streams great. Not a single hiccough in the 7 minute Shigeru Miyamoto interview I watched. It also has really interesting stats about your game library including which games you played the most and for how long. It includes WiiWare and Virtual Console as well. You can watch game videos, see what games people like the most, related titles, and more. I thought it was a genuinely good experience. Now, if only it wasn’t years too late, and if only it fixed the rest of Nintendo’s horrific online service, then we’d be in business.
Final Fantasy XIII got a 39 from Famitsu -
And people care? FF9 got a 38 and it’s better than a girl who swallows. It’s like the YouTube comment I saw today when I watched the IGN review for Link’s Choo Choo Adventure. The guy was actually upset that the game got a 9.3 saying something like “this game was at least a 9.6, IGN’s gone to hell”. Forget that 9.3 is an incredible score, and that Bozon doesn’t hand out scores like that too often. Also, somebody’s minute difference of opinion doesn’t – or shouldn’t – change your opinion. Anyway, I want FFXIII.
Oh yeah, Zelda’s AI -
I didn’t mention this in my review. While the whole “control Zelda as a big armored dude while in the Spirit Tower” was a great mechanic, her AI when you called her to you was incredibly stupid. Like, she’d be almost right beside me, I’d press the “call” button so that she’d follow me and she would literally walk in the opposite direction. It was almost as embarrassing as having Zelda afraid of rats work as a puzzle mechanic.
Look for another Tingle feature -
Remember that one time I did that Tingle! Tingle! Kooloo-Limpah! feature? Yeah, I’m bringing it back this week. Basically when I have previews and interviews to comment on, I’ll bundle them together into that madness. Look forward to it.
That’s it! Long and gorgeous. Just like my penis. The cover and title, once again, has no relevance to the content, I just like that picture of me and my Dad. Later, assholes!
Tags: Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy XIII, Link's Choo Choo Adventure, Scatter Storming, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Zelda Wii 2
“It’s better, yes, but their video page still needs tons of work.” Because everything new is good.
I think everyone’s freaking out because Famitsu’s standards have slid so far since the days of FFIX and FFX, that 40/40 has become the rule rather than the exception.
“Because everything new is good.”
Well, I suppose they COULD work on it and make it worse, sure. There’s lots of new bad stuff.
And very good point about Famitsu.
RE: FFXIII Review – It seems like lately everybody’s expecting every Triple-A game to get perfect scores for some reason, I don’t think it’s just limited to Famitsu. I remember somebody on some podcast saying that anybody who scored Halo under a 9.0 was obviously trollbaiting. I think part of the problem is this seems like it causes reviews to WANT to score the game higher and, as a result, every AAA game that comes out becomes the metacritic “Highest rated game of all time” for a week or two before some of the later reviews pull it down. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think it’s that new. I remember a lot of people being up in arms that Wind Waker (pulling it back to the theme week! Take that, bitches!) didn’t get a “platinum” (or whatever it was for 3 10/10 scores) in EGM because one of the reviewers gave it (heaven forbid!) a 9.5/10. Really, one review is way too little information to read anything huge out of, but 39/40’s more than enough in my book.
RE: The Office in the FF Anthologies case – This is EXACTLY why I always make sure to put everything in the right DVD case. I lived with people who did this ALL THE TIME for about 20 years or so, and it annoyed me to no end when I’d be searching for a game and FINALLY find the correct case, only to open it up and find something I had no interest in at the time. Anyway, just figured I’d laugh at Ethos, so here it goes: hahahaha.
Thanks a lot, Darthy G! I’m actually nuts about that too. This was the fault of my brother David who borrowed the game and then “returned” it to me. It was my first time wanting to play FFVI since he returned it and so it was my first time checking. Arghcakes!
Whenever I see a game awarded a perfect score it hurts my soul, nothing is perfect, and I wouldn’t even give my favourite game higher than about 9.6.
@SN: Most review outlets I’ve seen go out of their way to point out that 100% (or equivalent) isn’t a “perfect score.” Like you said, no game’s perfect, and it seems like most places get that, which is nice.
Exactly. Otherwise it will all because pointless, because then 9.6 is the new perfect, and so you have to give a score lower than that.
Although I still score things very critically.
I know I’m pinned as the guy who loves everything, but while writing for RPGamer, I only wrote 9 reviews, sure, but the highest score I gave a game was 4, and that was once.