Ape Escape is my Favorite Thing

Release Date: 1999

Developer: SCE Japan Studio

Genre: Platform

Ape Escape  is the first game that required the dual-analog controller for the Playstation. The premise of the game is that you run around as the human character, Spike, and try to collect all of the apes so that they cannot reshape history. The game uses a series of sneaking and gadgets to help collect the different monkeys that are located in the level. Each ape has light on his helmet that acknowledges how aware of you they are. 

One of the details that make Ape Escape one of my favorite games is how bright and colorful the graphics are. Some games have a bad habit of making bright games too childish, but Ape Escape is able to avoid that conflict. Since this game came out about five years after the Playstation's release, it utilizes it to the best of its abilities. 

Each level requires a specific amount of monkeys that need captured. There are always more monkeys in a level than you need to capture to complete the level. This is helpful so that if you are stuck on trying to capture a certain monkey, then you can look for another one. If fact, some cannot be captured until you receive a certain gadget later on in the game. This adds to the replayablitiy of the game. 

The gadgets also add some uniqueness to the game. They range from a remote-controlled car, a magic punch, and a sky flyer. After you receive each gadget, there is a practice level that you must complete to learn how to use the gadget. Ape Escape also has minigames that can be played. These are helpful for people who just want to get away from the main story of the game and wind down. After you have played the whole game and defeated the main boss, Specter, you must play the game again in order to capture all the monkeys. Even after you beat the game twice, you still must get a gold medal in all of the levels, plus beat each minigame. With all this, Ape Escape, can last a person a very long time, especially for those people who love to 100% games. 

Overall, I would recommend Ape Escape to anyone looking for something different. It is an innovative game that you can just relax to. It is a good way to get away from those mature rated games that seem to be all over the gaming community in this day in age. 

History of Pokemon (Generation 3)

Again, the introduction of a new generation of Pokemon came bout with the reveal of a new Pokemon in the anime. The Pokemon was introduced during episode 205, "The Kecleon Caper". Soon after Kecleon was revealed other Pokemon showed up in a Pikachu short. They were Wynaut, Azurill, Duskull, and Volbeat. Wailmer, Latios, and Latias had roles in the fifth Pokemon movie. During the Silver Conference at the end of the Johto season, Ash battles Harrison a trainer from Hoenn, the region from generation three. With all these introductions, fans started speculating about the new generation of Pokemon. 

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire were released in Japan on November 21, 2002 on the Game Boy Advance system. There were more Pokemon revealed in this generation than there was in generation 2 with 135 new Pokemon added to the lineup. There were also many new features introduced on these games. They were contests, double battles, and that each Pokemon could have a specific ability and nature. Also, Team Rocket was not in this game. Instead two new teams were the antagonists for our main heroes. They were Team Aqua and Team Magma. This generation introduced specific weather conditions and it was the first set of games to not be compatible with the previous games due to the significant changes they made. 

The anime also started a new series. Instead of the show just being called Pokemon, it was called Pokemon: Advanced Generation. This series started in Japan on the same day that they released the games. This series introduced two new main characters, May and Max to Ash's journey. Brock also joined Ash, but Misty did not resume her role as a main character. Pokemon movies six and seven were released during this series of the anime. They were Jirachi: Wish Maker and Destiny Deoxys. 

Pokemon may have been popular in the United States, but it was not nearly as popular here as it was in Japan. A show called Weekly Pokemon Broadcasting Station debuted October 15, 2002. Its stories, instead of focusing on Ash would focus on other characters of the anime such as Misty, Brock, and Tracey. Parts of this show were eventually dubbed into English in May 2005. The newly titled show was called Pokemon Chronicles.

This generation of Pokemon also introduced many spin-off games. The first of these was Pokemon Box Ruby and Sapphire. This was not really a game, but additional storage to be used with your Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. It could store an additional 1,500 Pokemon. Other games that came out were Pokemon Channel and Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire. Finally, fans could also get a taste of Pokemon in a 3D environment. Pokemon Colosseum. This game introduced players to a new region, Orre, and introduced shadow Pokemon to the growing Pokemon universe. This was also the first game to allow you to use an evolved Pokemon as a starter (when Pikachu was a starter, Pichu wasn't revealed yet). You could choose either to start with Espeon or Umbreon. 

The creators of Pokemon decided that they wanted to give newer fans of Pokemon a chance to replay some of the older classics. They released Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen on the Game Boy Advance. This game revisited the original games and the Kanto region. It also introduced the Sevii Islands. Also, just like in previous generations, they made a third game in the Hoenn saga. Pokemon Emerald was released on September 16, 2004 in Japan and May 1, 2005 in North America. This game introduced the Hoenn Battle Frontier, the chance to rebattle gym leaders, and different animations for all the Pokemon.

To go along with these new games, the television show also traveled back to Kanto. Ash battled the Battle Frontier there. During this season, two new movies were produced. They were Lucario and the Mystery of Mew and Pokemon Ranger and they Temple of the Sea. They then released new spin-offs like Pokemon Dash, Pokemon Trozei!, and a sequel to Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. Players also got their chance to play as a Pokemon for the first time ever when Pokemon Red Rescue Team and Pokemon Blue Rescue Team on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Another new concept was introduced where players were Pokemon rangers instead of Pokemon trainers in the game Pokemon Ranger. 

In 2006, Pokemon celebrated its 10th anniversary. To celebrate, they released a CD titled Pokemon X: 10 Years of Pokemon and a traveling expo called Journey Across America. A special titled The Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon was introduced and the new Pokemon Trading Figure Game debuted. 

That is three generations down and two to go. Pokemon has lasted ten years and does not show any sign of stopping.

King of the Nerds is My Favorite Thing

With the series finale of King of the Nerds on TBS last Thursday I thought that I would weigh in on my thoughts on the show as a whole. I will not reveal the winner or the results of any competitions.

The premise of the show is for eleven nerds to duke it out and find out who is the nerdiest of them all and end the game sitting of the Throne of Games. The winner also receives $100,000. The show is hosted by Bobby Carradine and Curtis Armstrong, both made famous by the cult classic Revenge of the Nerds.

The contestants on the show range in their area of nerdy expertise and that is something I really enjoy about the show. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses. There is Virgil who is a master hacker, Moogega who works for NASA, and Ivan who creates his own tabletop roleplaying games. The other players range anywhere from a professional video game player to a young adult phantasy book writer. Then there is Alana, who just kind of sucks at everything. Seriously, I do not understand how she got on the show.

At the beginning of the series they split themselves into two teams by the way of every nerds worst nightmare. They are chosen dodge-ball style with each previously selected member of the team picking the next member of the team. Every week the teams compete in a Nerd War. There is also a theme of each weeks Nerd War. The competitions range from bowling with D20s to performing their own nerdy anthem in front of a panel of judges. After a winner is decided the teams get to decide who to send to a Nerd-Off. Each of the two teams get to send one member from the losing team of the Nerd War to the Nerd-Off.

After the two players are selected they are given a clue about what their Nerd-Off is about and then they get time to study for it. Usually the Nerd-Off has something to do with the Nerd War. For example, when they had to make their own nerd anthem during the Nerd War the Nerd-Off competition had the two players competing against each other in Dance Central. The losing player is then told that they are leaving Nerdvana.

I really love the premise of this show. The house they live in, Nerdvana, looks amazing. There are so many cool things in the house like statues of Batman, video game systems, and it even has a RadioShack room with many different gadgets. Each of the players is unique in their own ways and I love that they try to get all the different spectrums of what is considered nerdy. Right now I am making an audition tape for the second season, which was announced in February and will air in 2014. So I am announcing that I will be entering to be a contestant in the next season of King of the Nerds.

History of Pokemon (Generation 2)

 

 Last time when we left off, Pokemon was on its way to becoming Nintendo's second best selling franchise. It seems that the creators always knew that there were going to be more Pokemon games and that they were going to be a hit. This was relevant during the first episode of the anime where Ho-Oh was seen, but was not able to be identified by Ash Ketchum's Pokedex. Later on in the series during the episode "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon" the main characters find a Pokemon egg. This egg eventually hatches into Togepi in the episode "Who Gets to Keep Togepi." 

Pokemon Gold and Silver

A new generation started to become real when MParill, Snubbull, and Donphan were introduced during Pokemon: The First Movie. Lugia, Slowking, and Elekid were then introduced in the second Pokemon movie, Pokemon The Movie 2000: The Power of One on July 17, 1999 in Japan. Finally, on November 21, 1999 Pokemon Gold and Silver were released for the Game Boy Color. In this game they introduced a new region, Johto, and 100 new Pokemon were introduced. These games introduced many new features, the most prominent and important being the idea that Pokemon can have different genders and can breed. A time system was also introduced where new different events can happen during the day and night. You could also catch certain Pokemon only a certain time of day. The friendship system was also introduced. Different events would happen based on how happy your Pokemon was and certain Pokemon evolved only when their happiness was at a certain level. This was also the first game to introduce shiny Pokemon. The most notable of these being the red Gyarados found in the Lake of Rage. Along with the Johto gym leaders players could also face all of their favorite gym leaders from Kanto. The game was released in North America on October 11, 2000. 

The anime also brought our favorite characters to Johto. After the Orange Archipelago series, Tracey leaves Ash and Misty and they are joined again by Brock who is finished with Valencia Island. During the Johto Journeys, Pokemon the Movie 3: Spell of the Unown is released on July 8, 2000 in Japan and April 6, 2001 in North America. This movie featured the legendary Pokemon, Entei. Two more movies were made during this generation. They are Pokemon 4ever: Celebi: Voice of the Forest and Pokemon Heroes: Latios and Latias. 

On December 10, 1999, the first trading cards with the new generation of Pokemon was revealed in Japan. On September 21, 2000 a sequel to Pokemon Puzzle League called Pokemon Puzzle Challenge was released on the Game Boy Color. Fans got their first look at the generation 2 Pokemon in 3D for the first time with Pokemon Stadium 2 was released on December 14, 2000. 

The two main characters from Pokemon Crystal

Just like in generation 1, a third game was made called Pokemon Crystal. This game had many changes from the original games. Suicine was featured on the cover and was a part of the main plot of the game. This was the first game to include animations for every single Pokemon and allow you to choose which gender you would like to play as.

Super Off Road is My Favorite Thing

Release Date: 1993
Developer:  The Leland Corporation
Genre: Racing
# of Players: 1-2


This is a game that I have fond memories of. My brother and I would go to my grandma's house and this was one of the few games that we could agree on and play. For a racing game during the 16-bit era it does an amazing job.

This games main premise is to race off road with trucks against three other drivers. You start the game by deciding whether there is going to be one or two players. My advice is to find a friend to play this game with because if there are two players, the game will never end and you do not have to deal with that awful game over screen and start with race one. Player one will get to be a red truck and player two will be the blue truck. Also racing are the yellow truck and that dreaded gray truck.

The gray racer usually always wins.

I call it the dreaded gray truck because if you are not going to win the race, you can be assured that he will. Before each race, you are allotted some cash to spend on nitros, tires, shocks, top speed, or wheels. After you spend your hard-earned cash you are sent to the beginning of the race. There are 99 races in all, but you race each one more than once. Each time you race a track it is a different experience. You may end up going through the track backwards or there may be a haystack in a place that it wasn't in a previous race. After the race is over you will get a championship scene with the top three racers and a valet.

I'm not a huge fan of racing games, but this is the first racing game that I can remember playing and enjoying. It is a fun game with pretty good graphics for the SNES. This game was originally an arcade game and released in 1989. It was not ported to the SNES until 1993. If you have an SNES or an SNES emulator I would recommend trying this game out.