Wi-Philes

First of all, before I start my post today, I'd like you all to turn your attention towards my portal site, in case you want even more NightsB than I provide you with on the front page. Of course, I've been busy lately with my personal life. I do, however, have a few new(ish) articles that might be interesting to some of you. Some of the site's recent entries are coming from me, which would be surprisingly if the content output hadn't been so slow lately. But then, who is to blame? College is a burden and there's nothing all too interesting on the Nintendo forefront until the 19th, when the Wii hits American shores. And that's exciting, I guess, although I won't be one of the lucky ones with a Wii on launch, because I'm trying to be a bit more responsible with the way I toss my cash money around. That is to say, I can't afford it yet - or at least not with any games.



My text file for the amount of games that I've bought this year is shaping up, as I recently hit 60. That doesn't top last year's 100+ games opus, but it's still pretty decent. My two most recent obsessions are Phantasy Star Universe for the PC and Contact for the DS.



This game is fucking brilliant. It's one of my favorite handheld games released in a while. I believe I earlier described it as one of the biggest advancements in the JRPG genre ever. It's fun, it's clever, it's got a nice storyline with nice characters and most importantly, it's got fantastic systems that go beyond leveling up your character and finding the best weapons. Now, instead of watching your character's level increase by one while all of your skills go up, you have to increase your skills individually - but not just by fighting. My speed skill increases by walking. Wisdom increases by reading. Cooking increases by... cooking. You gain better resistance to being sliced when enemy slice at you, and you get better resistance against being rushed when enemies melee you. Finally, a leveling up system that makes sense.

I know it's not 2007 yet, so I can't exactly go over my little N-Sights awards like I did last year, but just as a preview, I'd like to name Contact the loneliest game of 2006. Terry, the game's main character, is kind of tragic. He's randomly chosen to save the world against his will, yet he obliges without question. I think Terry just had nothing better to do. The NPCs in the game are so impersonal, and the game seems to either be desolate or filled with things that want to kill you. I mean, snakes and beetles attack you. A bit later on in the game, you fight cell phones and refridgerators. I've always said: if a developer wants to design a game where you truly are against the odds, just have them fight inanimate objects that come to life. That way you're not only fighting forest animals, soldiers, and monsters, but you're also fighting television sets and vacuum cleaners. Amazing.

As great as Contact is, I had to shelf it for now until I've gotten my fill out of my latest obsession...




My most anticipated game of the year had hijacked my life. This game... words...



... cannot properly convey...



... oh, fuck it.

I hate video games.



What happened on Mario's 20th? What new game did we get out of that? We got a Mario Party, didn't we?

Next week is Sega Genesis Collection on the PS2/PSP, which features the original versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the week after that is Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis for your micro, and the week after that is Sonic the Hedgehog for the red ring of death and the grill. Exciting time for Sonic fans.



Believe it or not, SONICTEAM isn't all about Sonic. Guess what other franchise is 15 this year...




It's got old Puyo rulesets and characters! It's got WFC! It's fully endorsed by me! How could you go wrong? Go go go! Import it! Give me your friends codes :)



Did you guys miss SONICTEAM's Atama Scan? It seems to be a "stress test" game with cutesy graphics and nice music. Check out the Tomoko Sasaki theme on the game's main page. I'm tempted to import it one day just to see if I could make my way through the Japanese, but I doubt I'd be able to navigate it. Apparently the game is about tapping numbers in their proper order as they scatter about the screen, but there also seems to be a language portion that features romanji.

I wonder if it sold well.

I also wonder when we're going to see Feel the Magic stuff pop up in SONICTEAM's newer games. I'm still holding out on some stuff in Phantasy Star Universe, since Burning Rangers room decorations have been spotted.