SONIC’S 23rd ON THE 23rd OF JUNE!!!!

Wow, so it’s Sonic’s 23^rd on the 23^rd of June!  How does that happen?!  It’s happening.  As I’m writing this I am listening to Sonic Radio on iTunes.  As long as I am home on the 23^rd of June, each time I will celebrate part of the day by listening to Sonic Radio on iTunes to some favorite remixes, favorite OST tracks, and new ones I’ve never heard before that make the experience such a treat.  I get so many smiles from this pastime.

I did this last year too.  Last year it was an event called Project 24, where several SEGA online radio stations were scheduled to host a radio show each hour playing specifically remixes of music from Sonic video games.  I was able to listen to a lot of Sonic music remixes that I’ve never heard before.  It was an amazing experience, so amazing that I tried to find some Sonic-related podcasts that contained a lot of those remixes.  I was on a crazy search for really cool Sonic remixes.

I am still collecting remixes. Mostly from iTunes podcasts, OC Remix and the Sonic Stadium Music Depository of remix albums.

Lately I’ve been distracted with another fandom: Transformers.  I have been neglecting my Sonic games for the last few months.  But seeing as it is Sonic’s 23^rd, I am brought back to appreciating my favorite childhood video game character again.  Sonic the Hedgehog has been a big part of my childhood and I don’t want him to stop being a part of my life.

Last year I was playing Sonic Rivals 2 at least two times a week.  I always played as either the three hedgehogs Sonic, Shadow and Silver, or Espio the Chameleon.  It is a nice escape.  But I haven’t touched my PSP for quite a few months now.

Ah…!   Gamma E102's theme song is playing now!!! Yay!!!

Sorry, I had to say that.  I love that robot.

I’ve tried to get back to Sonic Unleashed.  I didn’t earn any new medals for daytime or nighttime.  I played “Dragon Road—Day” a few times and had fun, but didn’t improve score by too much.  The music track for this Day Stage always makes me smile through my fails.  Hah hah. 

I’m listening to Sonic Radio now, and then I’ve got other things to do, then later in the day I’ll log in and listen to it again.  And I may visit some of the Sonic websites to see what other people say about Sonic’s 23^rd.

Oh, "Symphonic Ruin" is playing now!!  This is the remix that made me want to collect more Sonic remixes!! (see post here to read more...)

Well Sonic, it’s your 23^rd birthday/anniversary today, so Happy Birthday, I love you, and keep on runnin’!

After thought: a link to the post about my first true encounter with the Sonic the Hedgehog video game.

1991—Sonic the Hedgehog
http://cyborghaven.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-sonic-fan-girl-chronicles-chapter-1.html

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles, Chapter 9—2001, Sonic Adventure

A long time coming but here it is, the next main chapter to my chronicles as a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog (and Shadow the Hedgehog, as you shall soon see...)

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness Sonic Adventure.   I was blown away by the beginning intro movie.   And jeez the rock music! There’s singing in it!  Singing!!  The graphics were so amazing and fluid and Sonic was…Sonic was uh…different.  Very different.  I mean I knew for a couple of years, but…dayum, Sonic’ s longer quills, green eyes and…yeah, I’ll stop right there before it gets weird.  I was fifteen years old, and then sixteen years old when I got the SEGA Dreamcast.  So there.

This excerpt is from July 4, 2001.  Hah, an Independence Day!  I didn’t remember!

★4^th O’ July—Yeah, I played SA alright.  I began a little later than I [wanted to] cuz there was something extra needed to plug in the Dreamcast machine with (or into the TV).  I wanted to help Dad with it cuz I was definitely interested.  Oh, while Dad went to Best Buy to get the extra cable, I read the instruction manual for SA and I found out some cool stuff about the game—‘bout Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Gamma E-102, and Big the Cat.  I realized that this video game was more than just collecting 7 Chaos Emeralds, freeing animals and busting up RBNK.  In fact I think it was TOO MUCH!  I know I should be able to handle all of that, but boy is this game something or what?  There is actual dialogue in the game… unlike the games for the SEGA Genesis.  Okay, I’ll write more tomorrow…★

According to what I wrote the next few days after I started playing the game, I seemed to have been in love with Sonic.  At my age of 16, was that weird?  And with Shadow too.  I got a chance to play Sonic Adventure pretty much almost every day.  It helped me wait for the advent of Sonic Adventure 2.  This was before I had my own computer, let alone experience the Internet (except for a few weeks in 7^th grade computer class elective).  So I couldn’t learn too much about Shadow at the time.  But, as for Sonic Adventure, I needless to say started with Sonic’s story in the game, and then little by little tried out the other characters like Tails and Knuckles.  Knuckles’ story was especially interesting because of the past with the other echidnas.   There were other echidna characters appearing in a Sonic game, it was bizarre.  Supposedly Knux was the last of ‘em.  The best of them.  Tougher than lava!....See what I did there?  His theme song was a rap?  A rap?  Just cuz he has dreadlocks.   My sister was a big fan of Knuckles; she was happy to play through his story.  She enjoyed making m him run around in the Mystic Ruins.

And then…and then the robot Gamma E-102.   I still need to write about him for my other blog Cybernetic Dreams.   His story wasn’t very long, but it was a nice story; he worked for Dr. Eggman and then eventually turned good and helped out Amy Rose.  But…but his story is sad.  Gamma E-102 is one of the robot characters that led me to my fascination with robots.  But that is another story, maybe to be shared on Cybernetic Dreams.

Gosh, there are so many things to say about both Sonic Adventures, but I don’t want each game post to be a whole book!  So I‘ll mention some things, a few of which might have its own post: The NiGHTS Pinball game OMG... And of course…the new Super Sonic!  Yikes!   :O

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles, Chapter 8—2001, The Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure: It’s Archie Comics’ fault!

In late June 2001 at the end of our tenth-grade school year, my sister and I received #98 of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book from Archie Comic.   Issue #98 featured a tie-in with the story for Sonic Adventure 2.  We were very curious about this other male hedgehog that was added to the cast of characters.  Who is this Shadow?  Of course not all hedgehogs are blue (ha ha) but I wondered why Shadow was colored black and red.  Actually, in the comic book he was more like dark navy blue and red.  Oh no, an evil hedgehog who looked like Sonic!  Usually if there was any kind of Sonic doppelganger, it would be a mechanical version like Robo Sonic or Metal Sonic.  But this was a flesh and blood character, not a robot.

Issues #79-84 featured the tie-in with the first Sonic Adventure.  Of course, we read the comics before we got a SEGA Dreamcast, so we were already exposed to the new form of Super Sonic before playing the SA Last Story.   I wrote about my SEGA Dreamcast experience often in my diary—just those three Sonic games, because those were the only games we played for that console.  Now, I don’t have too good of a memory for what happened about getting the new Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure, Sonic Shuffle and later, Sonic Adventure 2.   Fortunately, those memories are kept secure in my diary.  I was able to find it, and I’m going to share an excerpt from it here…since I’m so brave ;)

★ July 3, 2001  OHMYGOD, I cannot sit still, in fact I couldn’t even eat my breakfast this morning.  Wanna know why?  I’ll tell you know I can’t contain myself…WE GOT DREAMCAST!!

Okay—it all began when Sunday [July 1^st], I saw this BestBuy sales papers thing and, I looked in it and saw a sale for SA2.  Then I looked above that, and I noticed something even bigger…a Sonic Pack, complete w/ the Dreamcast machine including SA and Sonic Shuffle, as well as a playable demo of SA2!!  Ahhghh!  The perfect opportunity!  I told [Sis] that perhaps if we put our own money into all that and ask our parents if we can buy it, maybe there’s a chance that…well…we can own the new Dreamcast system after all.  So [Sis] [and I] secretly talked to each other about any pros and cons of those games—a lot of pros, too.  It was decided that Monday would be the day to tell our parents about it, so yesturday (sic) right after dinner, I brought it up, and [Sis] and I told them about the stuff.  And guess what?  They approved!

[Sis] and I were absolutely overjoyed and excited.  We beamed “Oh my god, this is GREAT!  This is soooo cool!”  It was hard for me to sleep calm, keeping in mind it was really warm in my room last night, plus I was really excited ‘bout gettin’ Dreamcast and 2 ¼ Sonic games.  Think what kind of music/songs are gonna be heard, and everything.  I love Sonic.  Just knowing the fact that sometime this week we will own [the] SEGA Dreamcast [console] made me the happiest girl in the neighborhood.

Well, this morning didn’t start out so hot.  I was so nervous that when I started having cereal, I got gas that was bad enough for me to run to the bathroom.  It turned to an upset stomach and I was forced to vomit my breakfast—what little of it I ate.  I felt much better after that, and after a shower and clothes, I went with Mom and [Sis] to BestBuy to get the Sonic Pack.  ★

The next main chapter, Chapter 9, will be about Sonic Adventure.

The Gaming Historian: The History of Sonic the Hedgehog

The other day I was trying out how my link worked for a 1992 TV ad of the handheld LCD Sonic game, (I posted about it here), and after watching the video, YouTube recommended several more videos, and I decided to check one out.  The Gaming Historian did a four-part series on Sonic the Hedgehog—from his SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive days to his SEGA Dreamcast days and a bit beyond.  In my opinion, this is an entertaining and well-organized presentation on Sonic’s history, mentioning the names in SEGA and Sonic Team who brought Sonic into the video game world and into many gamers’ hearts (like mine!).  I liked how he talks about how Tails was created and the introduction to Knuckles the Echidna.  There were even a couple of Sonic video games I’ve never heard of until watching the second half of the series.

 

Here is Part 1, about 10 minutes long.   If interested, you can watch the other three parts of the series too (they are between seven to nine minutes each).  Also, check out more of the videos from The Gaming Historian YouTube channel. He may have some nice history lessons on your favorite childhood video games!

 

An article about reflection on Sonic the Hedgehog, from Videogameologists.com

I’ve got another treat for you Sonic fans out there—I’m not the only who reminisce (and still is reminiscing) about my experience/thoughts/memories on playing Sonic the Hedgehog video games!  The other day I came across this article by Videogameologists.com writer Erik G. about the 21 years that Sonic has been around (the article was written in 2012, but I still find it relevant).  Maybe it was because I am also doing my own reminiscing of Sonic games on Cyborg Haven, but I was so spazzed to read this article and it made me smile.

The article is titled, "Looking Back at 21 Years of Sonic And What Made Him Great".  I have to highlight one of Erik’s sentences in this post.  It made me nod my head for some seconds because it is sooo true!

 

“Sonic games aren’t about speed, but flow. Yes Sonic runs fast, but you aren’t running fast when you run into an enemy or get poked by a spike trap. Instead, you get through the stages the fastest by knowing where thing are ahead of time and knowing what to do.”

 

Yes!  Trial and error, baby!  An excellent learning tool when playing video games! In order to get the best rating I can (so I can get an S rating and/or a medal), I need to play the stage once through and then subsequent times afterward while the layout is still very fresh in my mind.  If I’m lucky if I haven’t played the game for a while, I’d know the lay out of the stage better because I had Sonic run through it enough times to know when to jump or turn or activate a Boost.

 

Anyway, in his article Erik goes through his thoughts on Sonic’s 21 (then) years in the video game universe, mainly the console games (SEGA Genesis, SEGA Dreamcast, the Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 3).  It’s a nice read and made me feel good about being a Sonic fan.   If you read it and like his article, I suggest you share it with other fans of Sonic as well, those who love him and especially those who need to re-appreciate the Sonic video game franchise for what it was, what it is now and what it will become.  Maybe there will be less Sonic-haters out there…?

 

http://www.videogameologists.com/2012/06/23/looking-back-at-21-years-of-sonic-and-what-made-him-great/

 

BONUS BIT:  I really like that I am not alone with Sonic Adventure 2 being my favorite game for the SEGA Dreamcast.  For me, it’s all because of Shadow—it was just so interesting that there was another hedgehog for Sonic to get to know besides that Amy Rose, let alone another male hedgehog.  He was new and mysterious and perpetually frowning.  Nyawww, so cute (there goes my fan-girl self, going all gaga). 

 

I want to write a separate Bonus Chapter for my thoughts/memories on Shadow the Hedgehog, because I love him so much.  :3  He deserves a post or two from me.  (Did you see my list near the bottom right of Cyborg Haven?  I cried after I beat Sonic Adventure 2.  Because Shadow.)

 

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles, Chapter 6: 1994—Sonic & Knuckles

Note: I am posting my memories about this game today because…well, it’s the anniversary of the release date for Sonic & Knuckles!

Booster shots.  We hated them when we were kids.  But we were due for one.  My sister and I decided that as a reward for going through with getting a booster shot, we’d buy Sonic & Knuckles (or at least Mom and Dad would buy it for us).  Our parents thought it was a good idea to have that to look forward to after a scary event.  (Tch, I’m not afraid of shots anymore if I ever needed more.)

Sonic & Knuckles was released October 18, 1994.  I remember mainly because of the instruction manual for Sonic Mega Collection Plus, but I can confirm it because I remember seeing an ad for it in a video game magazine Dad bought for us a couple of months before.   Our appointment for a booster shot was on Halloween day, October 31^st, so it was on that day that we got Sonic & Knuckles—so that we wouldn’t have to worry about renting it or returning it to Blockbuster Video or the Warehouse.  Other than the handheld Sonic game we got in Hanukkah 1992, Sonic & Knuckles was the first console Sonic game we played without renting it—because duh, it was Sonic the Hedgehog, the only video game series we loyally played on the SEGA Genesis.

Ha hah, as awkward would have it, we were too “shy” to try the game out, so Dad tried it out first.  The longer we watched him play the first Zone, the more we wanted to play.  It was a Sunday night, I remember; maybe that’s why we were nervous about playing the game because the next day we had school.  We were the kind of fangirls that if we saw a boy wearing a Sonic the Hedgehog T-shirt (yeah, boys, not girls for some reason), we’d turn away bashfully.  Yeah, I know, it’s weird.  Anything Sonic would belong in our home, so if we saw Sonic at school, it totally made us nervous.   It was like, “What’s he doing here?”

I played as Knuckles first, maybe because he had the ability to glide and climb, and he could break more barriers than Sonic could here.  But the game was shorter than in Sonic’s mode.  The last stage was the Sky Sanctuary, which featured the final boss, Metal Sonic.  Uh, Mecha Sonic?  I dunno anymore, I’m pretty sure he was called Metal Sonic because of a funny song Sis sang about him.  That’s how I remember he was called Metal Sonic.  Isn’t Mecha Sonic from Sonic CD (another classic Sonic game I never played and may never, sadly)?

The synths for the music of Final Boss fight part one….awesome!!!!  And Doomsday Zone?!!!  :O!!  I enjoyed the music thinking I’d never hear it again; at the same time, I had to keep Sonic alive, so I was distracted often by the concentration of not losing a life, or at least keeping my rings.

When I played as Sonic the game was longer.  There was the full Sky Sanctuary and then the Death Egg Zone, and then when you get all 7 Super Emeralds, the last zone was the Doomsday Zone.  The music from the Death Egg Zone gave me the same feeling/tempo as the Metropolis Zone from Sonic 2.

Oh my goodness…the Lock-on feature.  It was awesome.  But I gotta say, we only experienced Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 before we got our very own Sonic 3 and played Sonic 3 & Knuckles.  I forgot how long it took for me to beat Sonic 3 and Knuckles.  But I needed a guide for the 7 Chaos Emeralds and the 7 Super Emeralds.  I forgot what magazine I used, but it had a map of all the blue balls—I mean, blue spheres, red spheres and bounce/star spheres.  Trial and error too—lots of it.  Hyper Sonic was a new thing for us because we were like: there is a Sonic faster than Super Sonic!  Whut?!  But he had his limitations: he could still run out of rings, which means that if he does, he changes back into Sonic and falls, consequently losing a life.  Didn’t want dat.  No.

My Sonic Fan-Girl Chronicles: Chapter 1

1991—Sonic the Hedgehog

As fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, my sister and I temporarily subscribed (our parents did, anyway) to a magazine that was dedicated to those famous four turtle brothers in a half-shell.  :D  It had to be, I dunno, maybe winter or spring of 1991, that in this magazine there was a page or two about video games coming up, and one of them was the very first Sonic the Hedgehog.   There was at least one little screenshot of the video game.  It was a tiny picture, one that my six-and-a-half year old eyes could see very well, and I saw a blue character with red shoes trying to keep balance on the edge of the cliff and trying not to fall off.  I don’t know what came over me; I could not stop staring at the picture.  Who is this little thing?  I forgot if I saw the title of the game, but even if I did, I never knew what a hedgehog was.  It was the first time I ever came across that word, and little did I know that we were about to have our young gaming lives changed forever…

Our parents had a friend who hosted a pool party summer that same year.   We went along with them because other kids would be there too.  We of course ate first, and then a little while later we were in our swimsuits in the swimming pool. It wasn’t the first time we were in a swimming pool; we had relatives in Canada we visited two years ago who had a pool too.  So we had a lot of fun in the swimming pool, needless to say.  But I gotta say, too…I think after we got out of the pool, we never went back in.  Because after we got out and wrapped ourselves in towels, we stepped into the house and spotted some kids crowded around a TV set.  One of them was playing Sonic the Hedgehog.

All we could do was just stand there, in our swimsuits and towels, and watch the game—watch the blue hedgehog run across the screen and jump and attack the robots with animals in them, and run and run some more, running in loop-de-loops and helixes and grassy moving platforms.   If there is one phrase I can use to describe this experience, it was “love at first sight.”

So this blue thing’s name is Sonic and he’s a hedgehog, huh?  That was neat!  It was—it was better than Super Mario Brothers—and just the previous year we got the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Brothers for our sixth birthday!  Yeah okay, Mario and Luigi run from left to right too, but…Sonic did the same thing and was freakin’ ten times faster!  And the colors were so vivid and the graphics so rich.   The video game music sounded way better to us than the 8-bit music for Nintento.

Our dad was talking to one of the other adults.  I went to them and, with a feeling of guilt (I felt like I was asking the world, though I know Dad didn’t think I was), I asked them, “Can, can I play, the Sunik the Hetchog game?”  The other man repeated “’Sonic Hedgehog?’”  And then I guess from what I remember, Dad explained what it was.  He may have seen that my sister and I were watching.  Maybe that’s how they knew we liked this amazing thing.

I think later after that was when my sister got a chance to play soon after.  One kid soon said, “Watch out.  There’s a bad guy at the end.”   That kid was referring to the main villain Dr. Robotnik, and back then we didn’t know the name of the villain.  I didn’t get a chance to play the game back then, but still, the fact that we were watching or somehow experiencing Sonic the Hedgehog being played live was astonishing.  It was that blue guy in the TMNT magazine that I stared at for some minutes before moving on in the magazine.

So that’s where my history of being a Sonic fan-girl began, and it gets better…

Starting a Series of Posts about my History as a Sonic the Hedgehog Fangirl

I want to take this opportunity, this post, to announce that I will be starting a series of posts that will chronicle my history as a fan-girl of Sonic the Hedgehog.  It starts all the way in spring of 1991 and goes just about to the present, whenever that is going to be.  Most of the next couple of months it’s going to be this; I don’t know what else to be posting about in the meantime except for my progress in the games I do currently play.  There will be an occasional “regular” post.  But for now, the thing that dominates my mind the most for this blog is Sonic the Hedgehog—nearly a month after I watched a YouTube video of PewDiePie playing Sonic.exe that scared me breathless. (see separate page from the list on the top left:  My reaction to watching the PewDiePie video for Sonic.exe =O!!!! )

I am writing my history as a Sonic the Hedgehog fan-girl because I’ve wanted to do it for a while in Cyborg Haven. This desire is only pushed into urgency due to watching that horrid video.  I want to rekindle the nostalgia factor of all the old Sonic video games I’ve played and some I’ve known about.  It’s sort of a healing process now, psychologically.   It will be good for me.  I have a lot of memories playing the SEGA Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog games.  The music, the laughing, the bosses I finally beat, the gameplay, the stages, so many things that made me love this little guy.  He was a big part of my gaming life.

 

There are going to be some 20-odd posts in this series.  I will include them all in the label for the series of posts, and for the series and the label “Reminisce”.   There will also be occasional “Bonus Chapter” posts, in which I may write about other video game-related topics in the SEGA universe, such as Galaxy Force II, and the first time I saw Espio the Chameleon, and yes I have to write about starting to be a NiGHTS fan too because I would say that was love at first sight as well.  All that purple.  I couldn’t miss it.  Hah, both Espio and NiGHTS are purple, is that why I liked (still like) them so much?

So, brace yourself?  Because there is going to be a whole lot of Sonic-related posts coming up very soon.

Four-Year Anniversary of Cyborg Haven: Blog of a Gamer Girl

Four years ago on September 3^rd, I launched Cyborg Haven: Blog of a Gamer Girl.  I had wanted to start this blog earlier than 2009, but while I was attending CSUN, I didn’t have the time to commit to it, let alone know what I wanted to write about or how to design it.  It would be my very first blog, so I didn’t know the routine of creating a blog.

I first heard of a “blog”—web log—back in 2006, when one of my instructors in my previous college suggested Blogger to students as a method of writing journals for the reading we do for the class.  It was an interesting idea: an online journal for reading assignments.  I was new to doing that sort of thing, and I wasn’t comfortable with writing for the public quite yet—not the World Wide Web, at least.  I think I just used a folder with fasteners to hold lose paper together and used that as a notebook for my reading journal.

Then in 2008 I was re-introduced to Blogger in a Popular Culture course.  There was even a book all about blogging as a recommended text for the course.  It is called The Rough Guide to Blogging by Jonathan Yang.  It wasn’t required reading.  But I knew that eventually I wanted to write a blog of my own (because for the class we were going to have group blogs not individual ones).  I at least read what I needed for the blog me and my group would write and maintain, but after graduation in 2009, I returned to the blog book and read up on Blogger, tags, HTML, and design tips on things such as font, template and background.   I also had to think about what topic I wanted for my blog:  what topic or aspect about my life would I be able to have something to write about more often than most?  I didn’t want to write about my everyday life:  I wanted a topic I thought would be fun to update progress or reactions to.

I decided on Blogger as my host because I was introduced to it twice before and it was one of the simpler ones, plus I already had a Google account when I made my Gmail, so I just sign in with my Gmail. 

I forgot how exactly I came to the decision, but I decided that videogames would be the topic of my blog.  Video games played by me, a girl.  But what should I title it?  Well, before I realized how much of a robot enthusiast I was, I came up with “Cyborg Haven”, which made me think of a human connected to a computer or a television set.  This online journal would be a place where one who is a causal gamer girl (who feels out of place with other girls who don’t play video games) can go to rant or reminisce or gush or fan-girl about topics related to videogames, such as favorite characters or new videogames I’m looking forward to trying out or owning.  I ultimately had to add the subtitle “Blog of a Gamer Girl” because I didn’t want to confuse other geeks about what kind of blog it is.  So the full title on the top of the blog became “Cyborg Haven: Blog of a Gamer Girl,” which may be longer than it should be, but I’m happy with it.

Keeping the blog was also a way to keep my typing skills.  In addition, I had a way of keeping a log of what video game I played and when, and what I did, and how I felt at the time.  I love how I can search for the video game subtopics by tags that I give them, such as Nostalgia and Reminisce, Progress, Mega Man X, or Sonic the Hedgehog.

Then the design questions came up.  I wanted to put a picture of my own creation, not someone else’s picture.  I spent about an hour a day for a few days on Microsoft Paint 2002 to draw a cyborg girl specifically for this blog.  NOTE:  For the 5-year anniversary of Cyborg Haven, I may place an entirely different drawing of a cyborg girl for the top of the page.  Maybe then my drawing skills will have improved.
 

The reason why the background color is a dark navy blue and the text light gray is because I figure that if anyone is reading this late at night, it should be easier on the eyes, rather than having dark text against a bright white background.  It could be dark green…or dark red…but the blue is a bit more calming than the other colors.  Even purple might not be bad if I give it the right hue.

As for how often I will be posting on Cyborg Haven: I realize that some of my posts have been few but big.  I think from this point on, I might try something and post more often but keep the posts down to two big paragraphs or three shorter paragraphs.  If I want to update what missions, stages or tasks I’ve accomplished in a video game, I can list them and talk briefly about one or two of them in detail.  Eventually when I start working, hopefully around mid-autumn, it may be harder to get a chance to play a good video game session.  I don’t want to stop writing for Cyborg Haven.  My interest in video games should survive even when my lifestyle gets busier.

Here’s to another year of blogging about my favorite childhood pastime: playing video games!  And yes, it’s not just a “childhood” pastime.  You’re never too old to try new things.

Should I Return to Playing… Final Fantasy X?

Friday on February 15^th I finished playing the Story Mode for Tidus in Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy.  I enjoyed watching how even though Tidus hated his father Jecht, he also respected him and wanted to fight him when he wasn’t already beaten down by, uh, the Emperor of FFII.  It was then that I had this thought:

I should get back to playing Final Fantasy X.  Should I?

I haven’t played that video game since, well, since maybe 2009.  I need to check the memory card data to confirm that, LOL.  But I think the reason I haven’t played it so much the last uh, TEN YEARS, is that I…I dunno.  I still have the BradyGames Official Strategy Guide for FFX.  Ah, yes….I absolutely HATED the BlitzBall game going on in the middle of things.  Hey, I don’t play football, I don’t watch football, so why do I want to play Blitz ball which is kinda the same thing except underwater?!  It just really turned me off and I put the game away for some years.  There are so many stats and rules for the game it just didn’t make the actual video game fun.  I wanted to play more into the story, darnit!  Let me f#!%&^n’ go!

Oh, here’s another thing that made me lose my patience for the game:  the Sphere Grid.  Yuck, it is frustrating because I don’t get the necessary Ability Points and Grid Spheres fast enough to level up the characters.   EDIT:   It’s a little easier to work with now after getting back to it a couple of weeks ago.

Looking back though, at some point I did go through with the BlitzBall, as frustrating as it was, and I think I did defeat the boss Oblitzerator.   I also think I left off right before the party was going to go somewhere else.

I had to go to iTunes and find this battle BGM that I remembered but didn’t know the title to it.  I looked and it’s called “Enemy Attack.”  I always loved that music track from the game.  I preferred it from the other battle BGMs I’ve encountered so far into the game.  It would have been cool if Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy had this as an unlockable extra Battle BGM.  At least, that’s my opinion.

Note:  My favorite weapon Tidus uses is the blue longsword called Brotherhood.  I realize that now after seeing that Bartz uses this weapon when he mimics Tidus.

This is Your Year, Sonic!

I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut in the United States.

And now he is going to get his own new (updated) parade balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade!!     :3  

Twenty years. That means I was at least six years old when I found out he existed, and it changed my world.  The Nintendo games and Super Mario Brothers weren’t enough anymore.  I had to play the video game with the cool blue hedgehog that runs fast and bounces off robots.  SEGA Genesis provided video games—especially the Sonic the Hedgehog ones—that were more colorful and ran faster than Mario ever could.  My Sega Genesis lasted longer than the NES.  I guess what I meant to say was that I was playing on the SEGA Genesis longer than I’ve played on the NES. I spent more time playing Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and Sonic 3D Blast than any other video game I would play on the NES or others on the SEGA Genesis.

Now that Sonic Generations is released, my appreciation for this video game character is renewed.  I don’t know when I’ll get it and play it.  I don’t even have Sonic Colors (the latest one I DO have is Sonic Unleashed, with is about 3 years old? now).  I’m sure Sonic Colors is a good game.  There seems to be a lot of hype about Sonic Generations, and so far it is looking good.  I am trying to stay away from trailers or websites that are too revealing about the game.  I didn’t know there was going to be a Nintendo 3DS version of SG, although it doesn’t apply to me because I know I won’t need a Nintendo 3DS. The PSP 3000 is already my handheld console of choice.

I suppose that eventually I will have to have a go with Sonic Generations. It is something I feel I shouldn’t miss out on. I am still busy with the Dissidia FFs, and really should get back to Sonic Unleashed, since it is the most HD Sonic game I have. I haven’t even tried this game on the HD TV set yet (it’s been nearly two years since I touched that vide game).  I’ll bet it’s going to look so good.

I still read the Sonic the Hedgehog comic books from Archie Comics.  I am about seven issues behind, though--alot of other things have been getting in the way--but I am looking forward to reading them when they celebrate Sonic's 20th.

So, Sonic…this year is for you. <3  Your 20th anniversary, new video game, ongoing comic books,  new parade balloon...and most important of all, old fans and new fans of the most way past cool blue hedgehog in the video game universe.

One-Year Anniversary of Playing Mega Man X

It was the 24th or so of February. That was the first day that my sister and I played Mega Man X for the first time. The game had been out for long time by then, but we were only then just getting into it. I was so excited, learning about the Mega Man X story and getting used to the controls for the game. The graphics were bright and colorful and the music for many of the levels was catchy.

We were in third grade when this video game series started. We were loyal Sonic the Hedgehog fans, so we didn’t dare consider getting a whole different console to play other video games. But a certain video game magazine allowed us to learn some things about this new Mega Man series. A Santa Claus-looking scientist portrayed by a blue light; a Mega Man with white armor; and Mega Man X changing colors depending on the weapon he has equipped. I don’t remember being familiar with the classis/old school Mega Man during that time. Oh, there was a Mega Man Soccer game for the SNES (?), I believe, and THAT was the classic Mega Man because Roll was in it. The design for the video game however looked like that of Mega Man X, though. Odd. :D

We were curious about this Mega Man X, but again, we didn’t intend to stray from Sonic the Hedgehog, so for the next several years, (1994 to 2002) we were only SEGA/Sonic girls. It was either Nintendo or SEGA during those years.

Thank goodness for the Playstation 2, right?

Playstation 2 opened up our options. We can play PS2 video games, AND we can play Playstation video games as long as we had the corresponding memory card for that type of game. That’s how after Kingdom Hearts I was able to play the original Final Fantasy VII, for which I had to buy a set of 3 PS1 memory cards. Playstation 2 allowed me to try other genres of video games; adventure, action, eventually fighters.

Sis and I didn’t pay attention to when the Mega Man X Collection was released. We ignored it or missed it. The part of us that would be Mega Man fans was kept deep inside where it would be hard to let it out.

I am glad that we didn’t miss out on Mega Man X after all. Yeah it’s a 2-D video game but it has enough charm to amuse a new Mega Man fan.

But really, I have to thank Nintendo Power magazine for the preview on the Mega Man Zero Collection. That is how this whole craze began: we found out from there that Zero, originally from Mega Man X, is a “super-powered robot,” and all this time we didn’t know that Mega Man, X, and Zero were robots (we thought they were humans with super-powered armor and weapon instead). It just made our interest in the franchise even stronger! Mine especially, since I was already fascinated with cybernetic characters.

In wanting to understand this fascination, I started a new blog. Getting into the Mega Man X video games was a push that I needed to start Cybernetic Dreams, my blog about my fascination with robots, androids and cyborgs. Why am I so interested in robots, especially robots that are (or are not) capable of demonstrating human emotions? The same goes for androids. Cyborgs too; I am interested in how a human can be part machine. I don’t really write much about the Mega Man X series in Cybernetic Dreams, but someday I should. Just because Mega Man X is a robot.   :)

Whew, long post @.@

My Reflections on Finishing Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

THERE ARE SPOILERS.  So if you haven't finished the game, skip reading this post.

So, it’s been eleven days since I finished this game. I had to give myself some distance from watching the ending since I was still a bit sensitive about it. Yes, I cried, I believe I said that already did I? I didn’t sob, but the tears kept coming during the ending scene and through the end credits.

I left off right before Zack was to enter the Portal called the Light of Doom. So I ended up going ahead and going to where Zack felt Genesis was. First there was a scene, and then the battle begins. Even if Zack has the Libra materia equipped, the number of Genesis’ HP doesn’t show. I just had to keep attacking and attacking. And not at Genesis directly: for this battle, his sword is the weakness. He doesn’t have it low enough for Zack to hit it all the time. And if that’s not enough, there are minions that try to slow down Zack’s progress of defeating Genesis. Sigh, this battle is going to go on forever, is it?!! I wouldn’t even know how finished I am since his HP won’t show. I kept using my Dark Firaga spell and Cissnei gave Zack the Lucky Stars ability multiple times. I used up my magic points quickly because Dark Firaga takes around 32 or so points at a time. Luckily I had plenty of Ether I gathered over time to help me out. I used an Elixir to save Zack’s life as well. Cloud was a good boy and helped out Zack as well, along with Angeal and, uh, Aeris.

Genesis actually helped out Zack in the DMW. How IRONIC is that for this battle?

After some time that I didn’t take into account, I finally won this fight against Genesis. But I only thought I was done; there was yet another fight Zack needed to win against Genesis. At least this time I can see his max HP: 99,999. WOW. The battle was speedy because I used Dark Firaga. I forgot if Graviga was effective or not. I would have to play the battle again and see. But the fight went very fast for me, too fast in fact.

I realized to my horror there were no more save points since the point right before the battles with Genesis. At this point I believe I’d finish the game that night. Looking back at it now, I see that it was not necessary to have any more save points. There would be no more game to play afterwards. It turned out I was right.

After another few scenes come up, and before I knew it, Zack was on the truck already. I said out loud, “Oh no, ohhh no, here it is.” All I could do was watch on. So I did.

Turns out, there is one more battle Zack still needs to do. And the developers (and Tetsuya Nomura, I have to guess) decided that he’d give players the experience of fighting Zack’s last battle, the one against the Shinra soldiers. This battle was very different though. As Zack fought, his DMW seemed to be malfunctioning. I thought that was really weird, but then I think it makes sense what the developers were trying to do making the DMW unavailable. I mean, it still appeared, but some characters were missing and there were no matches. Pretty much the only thing that the characters in the DMW did to help was Zack’s memory of them, saying to “hang on” and “don’t give up.” I believe it was Cloud who said “hang on,” but again I didn’t take notes.  :(  I think Zack was too distracted for the DMW to work properly, not to mention that he fought bunch after bunch after bunch of soldiers with no end in sight. I found a really good comment from someone on The Lifestream.net who explained the significance of the DMW’s malfunction. I responded to his comment, agreeing with him and thanking him (I put myself there as “Sara,” by the way).

LINK:  (This is the title of the post in which I responded to a comment in The Lifestream.net)

The Most Memorable Moments of the Compilation of FFVII - Part 2

I knew what was going to happen, but I wanted to have Zack fight as long as he can, because I wanted to fight as long as I can. I used my most powerful materia, slashed again and again, healed Zack again and again, and dodged attacks. I did everything in my power. There was just too many of those soldiers, and I felt as overwhelmed as Zack must have felt. I personally was fighting for Cloud, but as well as for him, Zack also fought for SOLDIER honor. It was just so touching to be involved in that part of the game, in this part of the story.

The last wave of soldiers was very difficult, with the DMW almost gone. I lasted as long as I did, and then it was the end of it. And then this rookie infantryman just had to walk up to Zack and look down at him, like “I’m going to fill you with more bullets,” and I was so angry. I saw it happen in the original game, but in full FMV from Zack’s point of view, it was so frustrating. There was nothing that could be done. Zack was trapped.

As for the finishing scene, well, I don’t have to tell you much about that at the moment. I always cry when best friends are separated by death, and that was the most painful example of it.   Maybe I’ll do an analysis of the ending scene of Crisis Core sometime in the future, after watching it again. There is so much to say about it and this post is long enough already :D Sigh.

Thus I am in a Final Fantasy VII craze phase.

@,@