Winter-een-mas 2013!!

Once again it’s winter-een-mas, the gaming holiday so many have started to celebrate thanks to Ctrl+Alt+Del ^_^ In celebration of winter-een-mas me and my friend set out to finish as many games as possible, both new gen and retro, in one weekend! We ended up finishing 11 games :D I finished 6 games, NinjaBrite finished 4 games and my bf chipped in and beat the campaign of Battlefield 3.

I had set up the whole living room into a comfortable gaming zone, 3 screens with xboxes and a famicom connected ^_^

gaming setup

I started on Friday night to play an Xbox 360 game called Brave a Warrior’s Tale. This game  took the entire evening and a bit of the morning after, but eventually I beat it. The most frustrating part was that half way through the final boss they cut you off and put you in a village with the elder indian who was “telling the story” and then you had to go do a bunch of bullshit chores for him before he would finish the story! What an anti-klimax! >_<
Brave a Warriors Tale

Brave a Warriors Tale Xbox 360Bee Movie Game Xbox 360

Second game I started playing through was Bee Movie Game for Xbox 360. It was actually a pretty good movie themed game, they had put som effort into both re-enacting the movie but also creating various gameplay factors that was both fun and well made. This game took until past midnight on Saturday to finish though. A whole day! But 100G was almost worth it ;DBee Movie Game

The third game I choose to finish was Gunman Clive for the 3DS. This game was a lot of fun. I love the unique graphics and the gameplay is simple yet challenging ^_^Gunman Clive 3DS

After this  I connected the Famicom and tried completing some retro games. the first one was this really cool “whack-a-mole” type game called Pokkun Mogura. I recently bought it complete with box and the accessory Tap-Tap-Mat with a mallet. I previously only  had  the loose cartridge and didn’t know how to play it.. I thought it was a light gun game, and I didn’t have a light gun for the Famicom either ;D But now I was able to beat it! :D
Pokkun Mogura Famicom
Tap-Tap Mat Famicom
Pokkun Mogura Mallet

It had various stages using various layouts of the Tap-Tap-Mat. And the Tap-Tap Mat was surprisingly responsive! :D It was fun to whack-a-way ^_^
pokkun mogura start
pokkun mogura stages

The fifth game I finished was Happy Birthday Bugs, also for the Famicom. I’ve started the game many times but never played very far. This time it blew my mind, so many various stages, a lot of great music and challenging precision jumps ^_^ It was a great game, and surprisingly long! However, after each stage you got to play bonus games with all the carrots you had collected and it was quite easy getting extra lives with a bit of luck ^_^  At the end I had almost 80 lives! There were also loads of boss fights with various Tiny Toon characters.
Happy Birthday Bugs
happy bday bugs
Happy Bday Bugs Bunny Famicom
Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny
Happy Birthday Bugs The End

The final game I finished was Hoshi no Kirby for Famicom. I had actually never played this game before, and now I am in love with Kirby ^_^ Great game! Great fun :D The final boss consisted of 3 consecutive bosses, it says everywhere that it’s a simple game adapted for a younger audience, but I thought it was actually quite challenging! Then again you have unlimited of continues so that makes it easier ^^ (I had to use a few…)
Hoshi no Kirby Yume no Izumi no Monogatari_
Hoshi no Kirby Famicom
Hoshi no Kirby for Famicom
Kirby!

My friend NinjaBrite finished these games on Xbox 360: Feeding Frenzy, Bastion, Portal and Battlefield Bad Company. You can read about it (in Swedish or use google translate) on her new blog about Xbox gaming ^_^

My Castlevania Collection!


So what’s on this shelf.. well I have scanned all of my Castlevania games, so let’s start with the 8-bits and move forwards ^_^
edit: now my collection is taking up two shelves ^_^

edit: Now I’ve moved into a bigger game room and my Castlevania collection takes up an entire glass cabinet ^_^ And I’ve gotten this pretty Castlevania bit art frame from Cave of Pixels :D

Nintendo NES Castlevania games

Castlevania
The first Castlevania adventure for the NES. I have found a nice complete copy ^_^ I also have a rental box copy from Yapon that was released here in Sweden.

Castlevania II Simon’s Quest
I got a complete PAL version of the second Castlevania adventure for the NES, Simon’s Quest :)

Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse
This one is complete in box and in quite nice condition.

Castlevania reproduction / hacks

Castlevania Blood Moon
This is not an actual release, it’s an NES reproduction cart with a fan-made hack of the Castlevania game.

Castlevania Chorus of Mysteries
This one is also an NES reproduction cart with a fan made hack.

Famicom & Famicom Disk System Castlevania

Akumajou no Densetsu 悪魔城伝説 (Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse)
The third Castlevania game, released for the Famicom.

Akumajou Special Boku Dracula-kun 悪魔城すぺしゃる ぼくドラキュラくん
A cute platforming spinnoff of the Castlevania series. Released for the Famicom by Konami. I have it complete in box in really nice condition but just scanned the cart for the Famicom collection.

Akumajou no Dracula 悪魔城ドラキュラ (Castlevania I)
The first Castlevania adventure for the Famicom Disk System. I have this one complete with the outer plastic box and manual, but scanning the complete package with that box looks terrible >_< So I just scanned the inner case with the game and inlay.

Dracula 2 The Accursed Seal (Noroi no Fuuin) ドラキュラII呪いの封印 (Castlevania II Simon’s Quest)
The second Castlevania game on Famicom Disk System. Same here I have it complete in box with manual, but scanned the inner case with game and inlay.

Castlevania on MSX

Akumajou Dracula
I just bought this from another Castlevania collector. Since I’ve recently gotten myself an MSX system I thought it was time to invest in a copy of the Castlevania game for it ^_^ I’m not sure however whether my MSX is an MSX 2 or not.. I hope I will be able to play it o_O

Castlevania on Sharp X68000

Akumajou Dracula
I just got Castlevania for Sharp X68000, I’ve been hesitating a lot on this one since I don’t own the system to play it on. I’ve also heard that the Sharp X68000 is quite rare, expensive and difficult to obtain. So I won’t be able to play it for probably quite some time :( But at least the beautiful box is now gracing my Castlevania Collection shelf..

Castlevania handhelds

Castlevania II Simon’s Quest Tiger handheld
Here’s a handheld version of the Simon’s Quest Castlevania game. It’s really nothing like Simon’s Quest for the NES, it’s a very basic sidescrolling beat ’em up, but still a nice edition to the collection ^_^

Castlevania Symphony of the Night Tiger handheld
Much like the Simon’s Quest Tiger handheld, this is also just a side-scrolling beat ’em up game, though a bit more advanced with more options.

Nintendo Game Boy Castlevania

Dracula Densetsu トラキュラ伝説 (Castlevania Adventures)
The first Castlevania game for the Game Boy. I wrote a bit about this game here. One thing that baffles me about this game is that hearts = health, where is the wall chicken?! I have this game in PAL edition as well, however only the loose cartridge.

Dracula Densetsu  II トラキュラ伝説II (The Castlevania Adventure II Belmont’s revenge)
The second Castlevania game for the Game Boy. Great adventure, great music. Shouldn’t be missed out on, all the Castlevania Game Boy games are completely new adventures, not just ports of the NES/Famicom games. I have this in PAL as well, but just the cartridge.

Akumajou Dracula Shikkokutaru Zensoukyoku 悪魔城ドラキュラダークナイトプレリュード (Castlevania Legends)
Probably my favourite Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy. I made a video of where I finished it here. Really hard final boss! But thanks to the password system I managed to go back and finally beat him ^_^ Great music in this one! Like most Castlevania games ;D You should really check out my video just to listen to the first stage song, a great remix of the Daylight music from Simon’s Quest! Also the Final Boss brings back the Vampire Killer theme song but in a new version, it’s kickass!! What are you waiting for? Go put on that video in the background to listen to those awesome tunes! ^_^

Castlevania Legends
I also have the PAL edition for Game Boy.

Castlevania II Belmont’s Revenge
This is the same as Dracula Densetsu II, but the PAL release :) I’m still missing the first one in PAL release, but it’s still the same game so I can play the Japanese one meanwhile ^_^

Nintendo Game Boy Advance Castlevania

Akumajou no Dracula 悪魔城ドラキュラ (Castlevania)
The Famicom Mini Edition. Castlevania re-released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan.

Castlevania NES CLASSICS
The NES Classics edition for the Game Boy Advance. Also contains a re-release of the first Castlevania game for the NES.

Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance
The third Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy Advance. There was a Game Boy Advance release that contained both Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance but I haven’t been able to find it yet in decent condition.

Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
My favourite Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy Advance. You can collect the enemies’ souls and gain their powers! :D IT’S AWESOME!

Castlevania Circle of the Moon
Also for the Game Boy Advance, also a great adventure with some memorable tunes ^_^

Super Nintendo SNES Castlevania

Super Castlevania IV
The first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo and I’ve finally found myself a complete copy ^_^ Haven’t gotten around to scanning it yet.. but I will :)

Akumajou Dracula 悪魔城ドラクラ (Super Castlevania IV)
The first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo / Super Famicom. This is the Japanese release.

Akumajou Dracula XX 悪魔城ドラクラXX (Castlevania Vampire’s Kiss)
One of the rare Castlevania titles. This is a japanese release, complete and in great condition. The PAL version is really hard to find.. but I’m looking ^^

Castlevania Dracula X Evil Trevor
This is a hack of Castlevania Dracula X featuring the sprite of Trevor Belmont from Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. I just bought this one from another Castlevania collector, and it’s sealed. Quite annoying since I’d like to try it.. but I will most likely open it up soon ;D

Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Castlevania

Castlevania The New Generation
This Castlevania game was only released on the 16-bit sega. This one is PAL for the Sega Mega Drive, complete and in awesome condition ^^ It was also released in Japan and for the Genesis. It also goes by the name “Bloodlines”.

Castlevania (The New Generation)
I also got this Russian pirated version of Castlevania The New Generation. I think the cover is really cool ^_^ That image from the first Castlevania is one of my favorites :) The case is much smaller than regular Sega Mega Drive boxes.

PC Engine Castlevania

Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo 悪魔城ドラキュラX 血の輪廻 (Castlevania Rondo of Blood)
This is a rare Castlevania game called Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine! :D I also have a PC Engine duo (which reads CD’s) now so that I can play it, great game! Super hard! I uploaded a video of the intro here >>

Akumajō Dracula X: Castlevania Rondo of Blood
This is a reproduction of the PC Engine game made by PCE Works. Beautiful packaging ^_^ They also had a limited edition box that was stunning a while back, but I heard about it too late so it was sold out :(  

Nintendo 64 N64 Castlevania

Castlevania
The first Castlevania game for the Nintendo 64. Definitely not a favourite.. Castlevania games really should stay in the 2D platforming genre…

Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
When I finally bought Legacy of Darkness for the N64 I realized it was the same game as Legend of Cornell in Japan.. XD

Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku 悪魔城ドラクラ黙示録 (Castlevania)
I have the N64 Castlevania game in it’s Japanese release as well.

Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Legend of Cornell 悪魔城ドラクラ黙示録レゲンドオブコーネール (Castlevania Legacy of Darkness)
This is the Japan release of Legacy of Darkness for the Nintendo 64, same awkward 3D adventure as most N64 games>_<

Nintendo DS / 3DS Castlevania

Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
The first Castlevania game for Nintendo DS. It’s decent and back to 2D platforming ^_^

Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Another Castlevania game for the DS, I got this new (that’s why it’s scanned with plastic around). Also a good 2D platforming Castlevania adventure :)

Castlevania Order of Ecclesia
This one is also brand new, another Castlevania game for the DS. This one however I had the game cartridge for previously so I have played it and got pretty far, and it was great! But then I got stuck >_<

Castlevania Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate
Got the new 3DS Castlevania game which is a spinoff of the Xbox game Lords of Shadow. They added excessive use of 3D in this game, they could have just stuck to the traditional 2D platforming experience, it would have been better!

Sega Saturn Castlevania

Akumajou Dracula X – Gekka no Yasoukyoku (Castlevania Symphony of the Night)
This is Symphony of the Night, which was also released for the Playstation 1. It also came out on Sega Saturn in Japan.

Playstation Castlevania

Castlevania Chronicles
A PAL edition of the Castlevania Chronicles for the Playstation 1 (PS1)

Castlevania Symphony of the Night
A mint complete edition of a PAL SOTN. Here’s where the Metroidvania style of Castlevania games began. I like it alot ^_^ I especially love that they went back to 2D platforming instead of messing around with awkward 3D..

Akumajou Dracula X Gekka no Yasoukyoku (SOTN)
I recently bought a Japanese copy of Symphony of the Night from a fellow Castlevania collector.

Playstation 2 Castlevania

Castlevania Lament of Innocence
First Castlevania adventure for the Playstation 2. Here they went back to 3D, however I must say it looks better than on the N64 ;D

Castlevania Curse of Darkness
Another Castlevania game for the PS2. Forgot to remove that stupid sticker on the front before scanning >_> too lazy to scan again..

Castlevania キャッスルヴァニア
This is Castlevania Lament of Innocence from Japan. I don’t usually collect the same game for various regions, I’m usually satisfied with having just a copy of the game so I can play it. However, this was a Castlevania game and I got it pretty cheap so I couldn’t resist it ;D

Castlevania Lament of Innocence
The same goes for this NTSC version of Lament of Innocence. So now I have three XD It’s interesting though to see how different the three artworks from various regions are :)

PSP & PS3 Castlevania

Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles
Mint PAL edition for the PSP. This one I was particularly happy about when I got since I would be able to play the rare Rondo of Blood adventure that had been released long ago on the PC Engine, but NOW that I HAVE a PC Engine I am looking for the actual Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine. Soooooon it will most definitely be a part of my Castlevania collection :D edit: I now possess the PC Engine version too ^_^

Castlevania Lords of Shadow Collection
I found this collection for PS3 on a sale, had to get it since it was Castlevania, even though I hardly ever play on my PS3 ;D

Nintendo Wii & Xbox 360 Castlevania

Castlevania Judgement
This is the only Castlevania game I know of for the Wii. I don’t really play the Wii that much, but now I have to try this game out ^_^

Castlevania Lords of Shadow
And finally a Castlevania game for the Xbox 360 (achievements!! :D). I’ve played it a bit, and it’s like all other new games, an adventure game in 3D.. I really do prefer my Castlevania games to be 2D :(

Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2
I also have the second game in the LoS series. Haven’t even bothered trying this one out yet though… I miss the oldschool Castlevania games >_<

Castlevania Belmont Limited Edition
My latest Castlevania acquisition was this Belmont limited edition for the Xbox 360. It was just so pretty ^_^

Castlevania Soundtracks

Castlevania Circle of the Moon Soundtrack 悪魔城ドラキュラ 白夜の協奏曲 オリジナルサウンドトラック
The original soundtrack for Circle of the Moon to Game Boy Advance. This one is amazing! Here are some of my favorite Castlevania songs! :D

Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles Soundtrack 悪魔城ドラキュラ Xクロニクル オリジナルサウンドトラック
I also have the original soundtrack from Japan for the PSP game: Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles. This is a 2-disc collection, quite nice ^_^ It bugs me that they put the cover image in the wrong direction..

Akumajou Dracula Famicom Best Soundtrack 悪魔城ドラキュラ ファミコン・ベスト
This is a collection of all the soundtracks from the first three NES/Famicom games. Some of the best Castlevania tunes ^_^

The Baconing – Xbox Live Arcade

Sorry I haven’t published anything in a few days, but I’ve been busy the last three evenings playing the third Deathspank game! The Baconing! It was a lot of fun ^_^ and I just finished it tonight! :D

I didn’t buy it when it just came out, since it was 1200 microsoft points at that moment, so I’ve been waiting, and finally they lowered the price so I bought it ^^

For those of you who haven’t heard of Deathspank, you should really check it out, it’s a really fun action rpg that kind of resembles the Monkey Island games, since it has a lot of humor and it’s filled with silly quests where you have to figure out what to find and where to use it. I really love it!

Deathspank is created by Hothead games which also made Braid (an amazing puzzle-platformer that you should play NOW if you haven’t already!) and the Penny Arcade Adventures.

It also has co-op, however your friend will be more of a sidekick and only the main player will get achievements. It might make it easier though when there’s hordes of enemies coming at you. I died quite frequently however that was mainly because I always rush into close combat and don’t pay attention to explosive barrels, so I always smash them and commit suicide >_< You always spawn at the nearest checkpoint and only loose a bit of cash (which you can run back and collect where you died) so it doesn’t really matter.

This game really has it all.. Cyborques, Pirate ships that you can commandeer, Leprechaun Mafia, A Casino, Valhalla, A two-headed dog, Clones, Z.I.M.O.N says, Aliens, The King (Elvis), and much much much much more!

All three games (Deathspank, Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue & The Baconing) are available on XBLA, and for those of you who don’t play Xbox, it’s on PS3 and Steam as well ^_^

I’m already looking forward to the fourth one!

Pinball fantasies and some xbox

I was at a housewarming party on friday, and we had a lot of fun playing an old classic Pinball machine from 1976! It was Elton John’s Captain Fantastic! Haha..
First round we played I actually won, but I guess that was just beginner’s luck because every game after that I lost.. =(
I took some pictures of this beautiful machine: ^^

Or “Bally Capt. Fantastic”, look how silly Elton John was ^___^

I was player 2 ^_^ 43.180 point, however people later got up to around 70.000.. but I was proud since I had never even played on a real Pinball machine before. It was completely different from the pinballs on video games..and much harder!
          
“Feel them bumpers” and “Buzz them buzzers champ” ^_^

And tonight I’ve been finishing a game that I started a looong time ago with my friend Becky. It was Borderlands for Xbox 360, we had already finished the story mode and taken every achievement in the game except the two last ones for the final expansion pack. These were not hard in particular, however they take a long time to finish. It’s the Underdome expansion, and it’s basically just about killing off hordes of enemies. Each stage takes about 2-3 hours, and there was a total of 6 of them.. We only had two left, but never really took the time to finish them until today, so JIPPIE! Today we have maxed out the achievements for Borderlands (amazingly awesome game btw) ^_^
Borderlands massacre .. hehe

Girl’s Gaming Weekend!

So this weekend I’ve been in Stockholm, playing games with Miss Deluxxe and Ninjabrite, and here’s a little recap of what we were up to! =D

We started off by playing Trine 2. Me and my two closest gaming friends are always on the lookout for nice co-op games for at least 3 people where we can all get achievements. This is not a very easy task. During the years we’ve been going through most of the arcade games which have these aspects, such as TMNT 1983, Turtles in Time, Castle crashers of course and many many others. So when Trine 2 recently came out we were excited and had been waiting to play it until this gaming weekend together. We played for a while, achievements popped for different things some of us were doing, and after some time we realized that all the achievements only went to one person, the player 1 who started the game! The only way for all of us to earn achievements would be if we were playing it on three different xboxes online. Stupid.. why do most games discourage local co-op?!  So we stopped playing it, and will wait until we are once again in different cities only being able to play with each other online. It’s like gaming companies don’t want gamers to actually meet up IRL to play, they make it so much more attractive to play online..

Another game that instead really exceeded our expectations was Fairytale Fights! I’ve had this game for quite some time, but never played it, since me and my friends have been waiting for the next gaming weekend to play it together, and now we finally did! In this game you are fairytale characters that beat up other fairytale creatures. It was funny, filled with gore and blood, brutal, full off events of fun frustration and lead to a lot of laughs. We would also all earn achievements, both story related and personal objectives. This is a fun game that I would recommend to anyone who likes playing together with friends co-op in quest mode or friendly fighting, since the game also has an arena mode where you can see who can kick who’s ass the most ^_^

These were our characters: Snow white, Little Red Riding Hood and the Naked Emperor. Hilarious, I just had to be the Naked Emperor ^_^
I mean, just look at him!! So awkward!

Miss deluxe also showed us her progress in Skyrim, since me and Ninjabrite hadn’t seen it yet, and when she started her last save file something weird happened.. her character was headless. Anyone encountered this before? lol…

Well now it’s back to editing the Castlevania videos! Hopefully I’ll be done soon.. ^^

XBOX FTW!… nowadays anyway

well yes, I also play new stuff.. I have both Wii, PS3, Xbox360 and so on, however I mainly play Xbox since all my friends are on there ^_^ And that’s what brings us to this post…

I called my friend Becky who had apparently started playing Rage for Xbox 360….. I got filled with rage and jealousy hearing about this, so I rage-quit my bloggin’ and went straight to rage-buying the Rage game, Anarchy Edition!! Hopefully I’ll get it before the end of the week so I can Rage together with Becky online ^__^

I have played through the whole game of Borderlands with Becky last year, and we’ve been waiting for something as good to come along. We put our hopes into Rage and pray that it will be nearly as good, then we will have something to occupy our weekday evenings with ^^