Update: 50 by 4-19

Ah, yes! Much time has passed since the inception of my latest goal: to beat 50 games or more by the time April 19th is over. It is now April 20th, and what is there to show for my efforts? Let's find out!

As you can see, there were many games that I played in this time. The picture at left (which can be enlarged if you click on it) shows just some of the characters featured in the games I played over the last few months. See if you can guess who they are and what game they are from (the answers are listed below).

I started off really well at the start of the year. In fact, by January 4th, I'd already beaten 4 games, which put me a few days ahead of schedule. And then, oddly, I did not beat another game until January 18th. This may have been due to school, my own laziness, or because I started several games in this time and it took a few weeks to finish them. I don't remember which, so take you pick. In any case, once I did start beating games again, I was already a week and a half behind schedule, so I had to really focus on video games (what a hard life, right?) Then, finally, a month later, I caught up to where I needed to be. And I never looked back. Or did I?

There were two parts to my goal, both of which had to be completed if I wanted to consider the matter ended:

1. Beat 50 games (for any system) by April 19th.
2. Beat half of the unbeaten games for any system that had at least 10 unbeaten games.

To clarify, the second part of that goal was to put extra effort into beating games for systems with lots of unbeaten games. For example, at the start of the year, I had something like 22 unbeaten Gamecube games. Therefore, my goal was to beat 11 Gamecube games. The Wii had a similarly high number of unbeaten games, as did the N64 and NES. (My theory is that my console games get less attention simply because I can play DS or GBA games anywhere, but I can only play the Wii or other consoles at home.) So, I wanted to beat 12 Wii games, 11 Gamecube games, 7 N64 games, and 6 NES games. That makes 36 between those, so that gave me some room to throw in games from any other system, such as the insanely awesome DS, or the vastly underrated Virtual Boy. If that makes sense, continue reading. If it doesn't... that's not my problem.

So, in an attempt to seem like a valiant blogger and not a lazy turd, here is a list of some of the games I beat:

• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
• Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal
• Wario Land: Shake It!
• Mega Man 9
• Metal Slug 7
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
• Strong Bad: Episodes 3-5
• Pikmin
• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
• MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero
• Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
• We Love Golf!
• Mario Party 6
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
• Sega Superstars Tennis
• Pilotwings 64

These are just some of the games I beat since the end of last year. Also, as a note, for me to call a game "beaten", it can be a few different things:

• Typically, a game is beaten when I get to the end, such as in an adventure game. This is often signified by the end-credits roll.
  
• "Beaten" can be different for a puzzle game. For example, there are still hundreds of puzzles in CrossWorDS, but I count it as beaten because I made some good progress and know exactly how fun the game is.
• If a game is too hard, I'll try some cheat codes. If there are no cheat codes and/or the game is still too hard, I call it beaten anyways. After all, the point of a game is to be fun. When it ceases to be fun, I cease playing it.

So there you go. And with that, a revelation:

I did it!

That's right, I beat 50 games in a few short months. In fact, I beat 54, so I went a little beyond the goal, and that's ok. That averages out to about one game every 2 days. Considering many of these games can take 40+ hours to beat, this can be difficult. But I balanced it out with shorter games, puzzle games, and a few NES beat-it-in-10-minutes games.

And now, for your reading pleasure, some random trivia and facts about 50 by 4-19.

• Longest time without beating a game: 16 days (Jan. 4-20)
• Most games beaten in one day: 4 (Feb. 5 [Nightmare Creatures, Shadow Man, Episode 1 Racer, TMNT 3])
• Number of Mario games beaten: 2
• Number of Strong Bad games beaten: 3
• Number of pinball games beaten: 2

Games beaten per system:

• DS: 15
  
• Wii: 12
• GCN: 11
• N64: 7
• NES: 6
• PC: 2
• VB: 1

Top 5 best games of 50 by 4-19 (in no particular order):

• Rhythm Heaven
• Mega Man 9
• Wario Land: Shake It!
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
• Strong Bad's Cool Game 4 Attractive People

Top 5 least best games of 50 by 4-19 (in no particular order):

• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
• WWF Wrestlemania Challenge
• Sonic Riders
• Milon's Secret Castle
• Sonic Heroes

Most underrated games of 50 by 4-19:

• Sega Superstars Tennis
• Wario Land (virtual boy)
• We Love Golf!
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
  
• WarioWare Snapped!

Hardest games of 50 by 4-19:

• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
• Pilotwings 64
  
• MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero
• Mercury Meltdown Revolution

And now, the list of the characters in the above picture and which game they came from (top to bottom, left to right):

• Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi (Mario & Luigi, Partners in Time)
• Strong Bad (SBCG4AP)
• Link (Zelda: Phantom Hourglass)
• Marco Rossi (Metal Slug 7)
• Mega Man (Mega Man 9)
• Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 2)
• Trucy Wright, Apollo Justice (Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney)
• Captain Olimar, blue Pikmin (Pikmin)
• Shanoa (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia)
• NiGHTS (NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams)
• Boulder (Excite Truck)
• Sub-Zero (MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero)

There you are, friends: just more proof of how awesome I am. And in case you were wondering, I have not set another goal yet, and I may not for awhile, since school starts today and I will have considerably less time to play. But I will (probably) post some information here on games I've played and other crap. Oy maybe I'll be lazy. Hard to tell, really.

-benjamines

Currently Playing: Animal Crossing: City Folk, Okami, Wii Music

100th post!

Hello all! After several months of playing games and telling you how awesome/crappy they were, I have reached my 100th post. To be honest, I wasn't sure the blog would last this long, but here I am, alive and kicking. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months, I can find some time to write. That way, I can keep you, my readers, informed about the latest and greatest Nintendo has to offer. And I mean that for all three of you.

But do you wanna know the coolest part about this post? I'm writing it on my new DSi. No joke! It may not be the fastest computer I've ever used, but it's by far the funnest.

To us! To Nintendo! To life! Long live Blatant Bias!

-benjamines

A new addition to the family!

Hello all! It has indeed been a very long time since my last post, for many reasons. School... and other things. But yeah. I has returned! With a new friend, too!

You see, something came out in the last few days. And I decided I needed it. So I now have it.

Behold! The DSi! The new and awesome iteration of the best-selling handheld video gaming super device! It has (almost) everything the DS Lite had, but now with a billion* new features! The only thing it left out is the GBA slot (which I don't care about since I have a GB Micro).

You'll notice that the main screen is significantly different than the DS and DS Lite. This is to accomodate all the new features. First, there is the DSi camera, which lets you take pictures of yourself, or other people (since there are two cameras; one on the inside hinge, and one of the outside shell). And it's no normal camera. You can distort faces, use mirror effects, add stickers, and all kinds of other fun things.

Next, there is DSi Sound. This lets you play music, or you can record sound bites which can then be distorted in funny ways. You can speed it up, slow it down, make the voice deeper or higher... even make it sound like a trumpet. Sounds bizarre, and it is, but it's great fun.

Some of the new features are physical, such as the screens, which are about .25 inches larger. Doesn't sound like much, but it does make a difference. Also, the volume is controlled by buttons (now located on the left side) instead of a slider. Likewise, the screen brightness is changeable by holding SELECT and hitting the volume buttons. This lets you change the brightness at any time, without having to quit first (which is extremely convenient). Another great new feature is the ability to soft reset. If you hit the power button (now located under the D-pad), it returns you to the DSi menu. If you hold it, it turns the system off. Also great is the ability to 'hot-swap' cartridges. That means you can change games on the DSi menu without turning the system off. Also extremely convenient.

These are all very cool and very nice features, but we haven't even got to the best part yet. But before we get to the best part, let's talk about some of the really good new parts. Like the built-in web browser. You can surf the web. On your DS. Without a separate cartridge. AWESOME!!! Yeah, it's not gonna load web pages real fast, but it is nice to be able to check your e-mail or bank statement without finding a computer. Very cool. Also, the DSi comes with an SD card slot, so you can store music, photos, or whatever on it.

And now, for the best part. The DSi Shop. It's essentially the Wii Shop Channel, but for the DSi. And it's awesome. Like the Wii Shop Channel, you can download new and original games and store them on your system (which has about 256 MB of memory) or on an SD card. Plus, there are rumors that Game Boy games may soon come to the DSi just like NES and other games can be played on the Wii. AMAZING!! Also, if you buy a DSi and logon to the DSi Shop between now and October 5th (6 months), you get 1,000 points free! That's $10 worth. I bought WarioWare Snapped! (which uses the camera for insane mini-games) and Bird & Beans (a couple of puzzle games based on Pyoro, a mini-game included in the original WarioWare). And I still have 300 points left. Very, very, very cool.

So, that's about it, really. People who say the DSi offers nothing new have obviously never used one. It's great fun, and it adds small, but entertaining things to the already insanely fun DS Lite. I would recommend buying one right now. I traded in my old old white DS Lite (I still have my Blue DS Lite) and got $70 off the DSi. So it was $100. Heck of a deal, my friends. Heck of a deal.

GO BUY IT NOW!!

-benjamines

Currently Playing: WarioWare Snapped!, Bird & Beans, other DSi toys

* Technically, since you can get new games via the DSi Shop, a billion new features could potentially be true. If the DSi stays on the market for like a thousand years. And considering sales, I wouldn't be surprised.