Andy Laub

If you were to examine my recent gaming habits, you’d notice that in between my sporadic bouts of Borderlands and my re-play of Mass Effect to prepare for the sequel, the void is filled by an unlikely source: Nintendo. More specifically, Mario. And not New Super Mario Bros., even.

One of the games on my Christmas Manifesto™ was Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story for the Ninetudo DS. It’s your basic RPG: levels, hit points, etc, etc, but one that takes place in the Mario universe (but not the Mario Galaxy). I was somewhat excited for it ever since playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, which I look back upon with much fondness as likely being my favorite Gamecube game.

Bowser’s Inside Story doesn’t share the same paper atmosphere as the Paper Mario franchise; it’s actually a direct successor to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a game I’ve long since owned for the Game Boy Advance and struggled with, to the point of abandoning it near the end of the game.

Fortunately that problem didn’t persist with the new game. I really enjoyed the characters and the humor this time around. You’ll find yourself alternating between playing as Bowser (super fun) and the Mario duo (not quite as fun), as you attempt to thwart a villain who speaks fluent Engrish. The biggest complaint I had was the extensive explanation that accompanied every new discovery or ability. You have the option to skip it, but then you risk not know what’s going on. After about 30 minutes of the game, 15 minutes of which is text, it was awesome to hear Bowser echo my sentiments: TOO MANY WORDS!.

Actually, that’s not true. The biggest complaint I had is one that I will attach to every modern Nintendo game, and that is gimmickry for gimmickry’s sake. I can live with the touch screen, but blowing into the microphone to engage certain actions (fortunately this is rare) is nothing more than a pain in the ass, and would make me ashamed to play this game in any sort of public setting. The game still remains a ton of fun to play and I enjoyed the vast majority of it, so much so that I decided to revisit Superstar Saga after a hiatus of over 6 years.

It was a little weird to try playing it again; at first I tried loading up my last save, which was at the front gate of the final area, but I quickly found myself outclassed. I cursed my past self for being so unprepared for these sorts of situations and decided it would be best to start from scratch. I’ve adopted a philosophy in playing RPG’s recently that seems to pay off more often than not: fight everybody. Fighting equals experience equals power equals victory. For comparison’s sake, the duo in my saved game was hovering around level 30, while my new game ended with them having reached level 40. That doesn’t sound like a huge difference, but trust me, it was worth the extra effort, especially when the main difference in my playing was confronting enemies that were nearby instead of avoiding them.

All of this Mario RPG-ness has made me hungry for the other games in the series. I’ve already found myself giving Super Paper Mario another chance, and Paper Mario 64 and Super Mario RPG are available on the Wii Virtual Console. As if that’s not enough, I just found out that there’s a third game in the Mario & Luigi series that will be requiring my immediate attention as soon as I can find a used copy of it. So I have to go find a used copy of it.

Well, debates are all wrapped up. Read about ’em here, here, here, etc…
It was quite interesting to watch them because on one side you have a confident, self-assured, calm, professional leader, and on the other side you have our current president.

My car battery died, I guess. I mean, I assume that’s what the problem is when it won’t start unless it’s jumped, and then won’t start again unless it’s jumped. It is sitting at Sears right now, awaiting a brand new battery for max winter starting power, and I figured I’d get the tires rotated while I’m at it.

Man, that number up there is getting lower and lower! I can hardly wait. I’ve been trying to pacify myself by playing Gamecube, but it’s not doing much good. Maybe I’ll use next week to refresh my madd GTA skillz, or something.

Wow, I am a dork.

I am the biggest slacker ever, perhaps. Not really though. I have a real job and that counts for something. I’m sure there have been a lot of things that have gone on recently. I picked up a coupla GC games (Legend of Zelda, Wario World, Star Fox Adventures) for fairly reasonable prices. I like the first two; I have yet to play the third one. It also occurs to me that Abe hasn’t written anything for like, a year so maybe I can convince him to do so. Right now he’s working on more edumacations from Phoenix online. I think it’s effective albeit boring. Hey, we saw Urinetown this past weekend and I think it would have to be the best musical I’ve ever seen, ever. It was great. I would definitely see it again. Also, I found this Danger Mouse guy in a Spin magazine, and was rather enthused. Although I have yet to listen to his music, I really like his costume.

I actually finished Metroid Fusion like an hour ago. It’s good. I’m also almost done with Prime–that’s an ending I’m really looking forward to. I’ve now gained the ability to play the original Metroid on the Gamecube, but I have to buy a link cable for maglie calcio poco prezzo that. I’m not too eager, since I already have a real copy of the original.

Also, thanks partially to iMesh and Abe’s computer, we’ve been seeing lots of movies lately. And Adult Swim. Lots of Adult Swim.

Also, I pre-advise for classes tomorrow for next fall. Whee!

Yeah, that’s about all I know. I’m in the midst of preparing for painting and also just fixed a bug on the site that made it bad. I’ve been playing lots of Mario Sunshine to the point where it’s getting a) hard and b) on my nerves. Regarding b), the camera angles are absolutely Ray Ban outlet ridiculous at some points of the game, to the point where it impairs judgement and also removes some of the fun. But anyway, I am glad not to be able to say the same about Metroid Prime. It has the classic scary “what’s going to happen to me?” atmosphere shared by all the other games of the series. I like it. I want to play it now. I also feel like I should be starting Fusion sometime soon.

Also, I recieved my final item ever from BuyRite, the memory card, which I’ll soon be trading in for a nice black 251.

And I think that’s why I can only eat one bowl of cereal and have to resort to Twinkies (or Goldfingers, as some might call them) between photography and art history. So anyway, I ate some of those this morning. Not much else is happening except guess what? I FINALLY HAVE A GAMECUBE. I am so happy, not so much in the elated sense as in the relieved that it’s over sense, sort of like I was back when I had my portfolio review. And so ends the Buy-Rite dilemma, after some quick thinking. I will post the whole experience at Ray Ban outlet some point, but I don’t have time right now. It is positively ridiculous, and just kept building and building in a the runaround they gave us which finally culminated in them sending us the wrong color again. So anyway, I am happy (see above) to say that that is, indeed, that. Three “that”s in a sentence are two too many. Notice my mastery of the written word, all of which will now be negated by my exclaimation of “wooooo!” That’s it.

Or at least judging from this, one might assume so. That’s right, it’s a cardboard GameCube.

Anyway, that’s enough of that. Hamtaro arrived yesterday. That’s pretty freakin’ amazing, since it only shipped two days prior and I ordered it regular ground. So obviously, I cannot give EB Games a higher recommendation. If you need a game (and can’t find it locally, of course, look there).

And finally, I actually watched “Must-See TV” last night. Does that make me mainstream? And that brings about another thought. I think they should make it mandatory Ray Ban outlet to watch, since it certainly sounds like that already, and punish people who don’t watch it by drawing mustaches on them. Yeah, I don’t know where that last part came from but I’m gonna leave it there because it’s silly.

Let’s just make a quick note of this. My Game Boy Advance was purchased on 123102. Fine. One week and one day later version is announced, for release in March. And it’s actually good-looking. This is actually what I was picturing when I was thinking about what I’d really want a Game Boy to be. So I am kind of sad but kind of not. I don’t think Cheap Oakleys I could’ve held out for it anyway, because, as I mentioned below, Yoshi’s Island has kept me from going insane, and I’ve decided to blame this whole ordeal on Buy Rite rather than my lack of foresight. So anyway, if anyone is wondering, the GBASP (that’s not a very good acronym) would make an excellent gift (for me), especially if the US of A eventually gets it in black.

In other news, according to the Planet Gamecube release list, I guess that Grand Theft Auto 3 was originally slated to be available on the Cube, but, to my dismay, it’s apparently been cancelled. That makes me sad. Unlike the cancellation of Banjo-Threeie; that makes me laugh. Apparently, this is because of Rare’s sale to Microsoft, so this crap for crap game will be available to all you lucky Xbox owners out there.

I do. And so does Abe. I think that’s why there’s so much in the apartment. I could actually put together a “stuff list” if you really wanted one, and if I’m bored enough later on I may actually do so. Anyway, how was Christmas? And New Years? Mine were ok. I got, of course, more stuff, something that I’m very proud of. Seriously though, I somehow actually got most of the stuff on my list, with the exception of numbers 7-9. All I can say right now is, I like the tires, and I am really glad I picked up the Game Boy Advance when I was in Schaumburg (we went to the big IKEA again). I haven’t played any of the games on the list at this point, because I am in the middle of Yoshi’s Island. That game is so freakin’ cute, and if I didn’t have it, I think I’d be insane right now. Anyway, sitting next to my TV are Metroid Prime, Sonic, and Mario Sunshine, and also a Memory card 251 and a black controller, but no Gamecube. Abe and his parents went together and got it for me for Christmas, whish was awesome, and I was totally off guard, but there was a problem with it, and we had to send it back to Buy Rite, which is being a real bastard about it. They recieved it two days after we mailed it (on 12/26) and refused it (on 12/28). So now, it is somewhere between North Carolina and here, maybe it will come back to day, at which point I can send it out again. Yay. I’m hoping it gets lost so I can get the insurance from it and cheap oakleys get one from Best Buy. Pain in the ass. So I guess I am a little irritable about having to wait, but I’m really looking forward to actually using it. Some times I take the controller that I have out and just press buttons on it to pretend I’m playing a game. No, that’s not really true. I bought a game for the ol’ Playstation, of all things, that’s been helping me take my mind off the situation. It’s called The Italian Job. It is worth 8 dollars, possibly more. So yeah, that’s what the story is. Yoshi is calling me now.