Now, before you accuse me of liking games such as Carnival Games, allow me to explain myself. I play games casually, and, therefore, I’m a casual gamer. Rocket science? No? Good, I don’t think so either.

The way people throw around the term “casual gamer” these days seems completely wrong to me. If you’re branded as a “casual gamer,” it automatically means you love shovelware and minigame compilations. Why? Well, because that’s what everyone else likes to think! And if everyone seems to follow the same train of thought, then it must be true!

I like to call myself a casual gamer. That doesn’t mean I enjoy shovelware. I still love playing Zelda games, Mario games, Halo games, some indie games, and more. I’m not saying these games are “hardcore.” I’m simply trying to prove that I can be a casual gamer and still play the “big boy” games.

Why is it that the term has become an insult for the “hardcore” gamers to throw around? I declare bullshit. We’re all gamers. Who cares what games we play? Who cares how often we play? Can’t we all just agree that we’re all gamers and that we have no lives?

I know that was a bit unorganized and it wasn’t exactly well thought-out, but I hope you understand where I’m coming from. The whole rant sounded a lot better in my head, so I’m sorry if I bored you.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, I’m going to be experimenting with using my headset to record myself playing violin and piano. If the sound quality is decent, I may start recording and uploading some videos. I’ll keep you posted.

Sorry about that. “What is this ‘Perfect Run’ you speak of?” you ask. Allow me to show you. SPOILER ALERT (sort of – you should be fine if you turn it off around 4:15).

It looks challenging, doesn’t it? DOESN’T IT? In order to access the Grandmaster Galaxy (which contains The Perfect Run), you have to first collect all 120 power stars. After that, 120 cosmic jewels (green stars) are scattered throughout all the galaxies. You must collect all of them. Upon collection the 120th cosmic jewel (star #240) and depositing 9999 star bits to your local Banktoad, the Grandmaster Galaxy becomes playable. Upon beating the galaxy normally, a prankster comet comes, unlocking The Perfect Run.

I know the video above makes it look easy, but trust me when I say IT IS NOT EASY. I don’t have an official death count for The Perfect Run, but I believe I died somewhere between seventy to eighty times. Let’s just say it caused me to rage A LOT. Although, as I mentioned in my previous post, it’s a good kind of rage. Not once did I feel as though the game was unfair or had poor level design. It was simply player error each time I failed. SIDE NOTE: The music during The Perfect Run is amazing: Good Egg Galaxy + Gusty Garden Galaxy = <3

Anyway, I beat The Perfect Run last night. I’m still feeling pretty 1337 right now. THAT IS ALL.

P.S. Buy Super Mario Galaxy 2. It’s amazing.

Sorry about the last two weeks. x10 made a big poopy, and I my site disappeared for a while. Today someone was finally able to fix my problem, and I’m VERY happy. To the kind person who fixed the problem: THANK YOU! To everyone else: FU.

Anyway, it appears I lost some posts, but I guess that’s not the worst thing (*cries*). The only post I can think of which is missing was a list of Zelda Wii rumors, which were all FALSE. Maybe it’s a good thing that post is gone.

Where do I even begin? E3 2010 was amazing. Nintendo did so much better than I was expecting, and it has been confirmed that I am going to be poor within the next year. There is no way I’ll ever be able to afford all of these amazing games! Skyward Sword seems like it will be fantastic. I’m a huge fan of the art style, and even though the demo on stage was absolute garbage, everyone raved about the controls when they played it in the booth. Plus, the story seems interesting. Donkey Kong Country Returns is going to be phenomenal. I’m in love with the original Donkey Kong Country games, and I’m sure this one is going to be great. Kirby’s Epic Yarn looks fun, and it reminds me of Yoshi’s Story (which is a very good thing). Epic Mickey looks interesting, and I’m definitely going to keep my eye on that. Metroid: Other M is most likely going to be epic, and I’m excited that it’s coming out relatively soon(ish). I know I’m forgetting some games, but… 3DS! Words can’t express how excited I am for the Nintendo 3DS. I was a bit skeptical at first, but everyone keeps saying it’s mind-blowing. In the words of Chad Concelmo, “IT’S MAGIC!”

Sony had a very impressive conference as well, but my lack of a PS3 and/or PSP makes it hard for me to get as excited about it. Kevin Butler’s surprise appearance was hilarious, though – definitely my favorite part of the conference. As for Microsoft… I still haven’t watched their conference. I heard from Roland that the first hour of their conference was amazing, but the second half was terrible. All I know is that “Kinect” is a terrible name. “Natal” was infinitely better.

E3 was great this year, but it took place during my last full week of school and made it very hard for me to study for my final exams. Luckily, I managed to do pretty well on them, so I’m happy with how the year turned out. AND NOW IT’S SUMMER! It’s been a roller coaster so far, and it’s only been one week. My grandpa died the morning of the first full day of summer (June 22) – rest in peace, Pappy. Then I got Super Mario Galaxy 2 the next day (more on that later). And then on Thursday (June 24), I got a puppy – he’s adorable (and he’s a little devil).

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the best game I’ve played in a long time. Honestly, it’s amazing. The level design is fantastic, the soundtrack is beautiful, and the graphics are stunning. Everything about the game is phenomenal. The game isn’t very challenging at all – at least until a certain point. After you beat Bowser for the final time, you unlock a whole new world of special galaxies. These galaxies can be incredibly challenging (Stone Cyclone Galaxy needs to die). I can now say Super Mario Galaxy 2 has made me rage harder than any other game I’ve ever played (yes, that includes The Impossible Game). Although the good thing about that rage was that I knew all of the failure was my own fault – I wasn’t able to place the blame on faulty level design. I’m about 130 stars into the game, and I’m loving it. Hell, including last night (early this morning), I’ve played for 10 hours today… I need a life. xD

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. I had a lot to say.

Yesterday I went to Walmart to pick up a headset (with a microphone) for TOP SECRUT REASONS (which will probably be revealed later today) and to pick up a prescription of syringes for my diabetic cat. Up until yesterday, I had never had a problem with Walmart – in fact, I actually liked Walmart. SUCH IS NO LONGER THE CASE.

Upon arriving at Walmart (which is twenty minutes away from my house and in a very shady neighborhood), I was simply thrilled to waltz in and acquire my $24.82 headset. First, however, I had to go over to the pharmacy and get my cat’s syringes. I handed the doctor’s prescription to the (somewhat unpleasant) lady behind the counter and expected to be done. She gave me an odd look and then turned over to her accomplice and asked him a question which I wasn’t able to hear. “We don’t have these,” she said. FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU-

Not a good start to my adventure. I then walked over to the “Electronics” section of the store and made a visit to the “Computer Accessories” aisle. My headset was nowhere to be found – BLASPHEMY. As I started to walk away (ANGRILY), I saw a woman with a Walmart shirt on and decided that I’d ask her just in case I somehow missed the headset. “Excuse me, would you happen to have the Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 headset? It’s made for use with computers.” Her response was, “I don’t know what that is. But if we do have it, it would be over there.” She pointed over to the “Cell Phone Accessories” aisle. I facepalm’d and walked away.

Determined to make the trip worthwhile, I walked back over to the pharmacy and asked them to double check to see if they had the right syringes. Apparently they missed something, because they came back with a box of syringes. Flawless victory – OR SO I THOUGHT. Even though they clearly had the syringes ready for me to take home, they made me wait twenty-five minutes. What a waste of time.

When I got home, I placed the syringes on my counter. My mom looked at them and said, “These aren’t the right kind. And they charged you $20 extra.”

…Fuck you, Walmart.

Who’s kceee, you ask? She’s a POOP resident of Canaderp who I met during one of the GaminForCharity marathons (August 2009 – that’s also where I met PSquid). Anyway, PSquid and I recently made her a site (mostly PSquid – I just made the header image). The completion of her site means that all three members of the cult (PSquid, kceee, and myself) have our own blogs. Boom.

Also, I’m currently making this post via Windows Live Writer, which was shown to me by PSquid. It’s a pretty nifty piece of software (and it’s free), so I suggest all of you Windows users check it out (that is, if you have a blog with which to use it).

Limbo is an XBLA game which will be released this summer. It’s a puzzle platformer from Playdead Games, and I think it looks absolutely amazing. It appears to be a very eerie game. There is no background music at all. The only thing you hear is noises from the area around you (whether it be wind, twigs snapping, etc.). The trailer also shows some near-death situations, and I get the impression that happens a lot in the game. Something tells me this game is gonna be worthy of a day one purchase, and I’m looking forward to its release.

What is The Impossible Game? It’s an indie game on the Xbox Live Arcade available for a mere 80 Microsoft Points. You play as the orange square seen in the picture above. All you have to do is jump over the spikes and jump on blocks in order to reach the end of the level (there’s only one level, mind you). Sounds pretty easy, right?

WRONG. The name of the game is pretty damn accurate. Although it’s not impossible, it’s very challenging. I played for at least two hours today, and I still haven’t been able to beat it. You have to time every jump perfectly, and one mistimed jump sends you back to the beginning. Each time you fail, the attempt number changes (see above image). As I was playing, I watched the attempt number get past 370 in practice mode. When you factor in the other sessions of playing, I probably messed up over 600 times today. As I said, it’s a very challenging game.

Even though this game makes me rage, I’m addicted to it right now. I’ve decided that it would be in my best interest to take a break from it for the rest of the night, but I can assure you I’ll be trying again tomorrow.

I got Halo 2 when I was ten years old, and I immediately fell in love. I was a huge fan of Halo: Combat Evolved, and Halo 2 really seemed like a big step up (although some people seem to disagree). However, it wasn’t until I was eleven years old that I got an Xbox Live account. That was when I really began to love the game. I never got very good at the game, but that really didn’t matter to me. I was able to find friends who were just as bad as I was, and we all helped each other abuse glitches in matchmaking and piss off other players who were taking the game seriously. Was it “nubbish?” Well, of course, but it was a ton of fun. Does anyone else remember playing Zombies on Foundation? How about Tower of Power on Ascension? And, my favorite, glitches. Overshields + energy sword + rocket launcher = extreme glitch abuse. It was amazing.

Now, why is this post titled “The End of an Era?” On April 15, 2010, Microsoft is going to discontinue Xbox Live service for original Xbox consoles and games, including Halo 2. I’m surprised at how sad I am to see it go. I mean, I haven’t played Halo 2 since before the release of Halo 3. I guess this is just one of those “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” situations. Either way, I know I’m going to be getting my share of Halo 2 playing time for the next few days.

You may have seen the Psychedelic Squid link in my blogroll, and I’m sure you asked yourself, “Now what could that possibly mean?” The aforementioned site is a blog run by my good friend Psychedelic Squid, or, PSquid for short. We met during the GaminForCharity marathons, which I know have been mentioned on here before.

Anyway, his site is similar to mine in the sense that it’s filled with all sorts of random posts. It features a terrifying wonderful Silhouette Squid whose eyes see into your soul. Just recently he did a “Spring Break 7k” challenge. His goal was to post 500 words a day for fourteen days. He broke the rules a few times (scandal), but he was able to get it done. The subject of each post varied from Pokémon to Science! to toasters. Now that the challenge is over, PSquid is going to continue to post, so I recommend you get on over there and check for some new posts. You won’t regret it.

P.S. I swear, Silhouette Squid didn’t make me do this.

The movie takes place in the “not-too-distant future,” when genetic engineering is common. Your standing in the social system is essentially determined by your DNA. The main character, Vincent, has been given a life expectancy of 30.2 years, and he suffers from a heart condition (this classifies him as “in-valid”). His dream in life is to be an astronaut, but only a “valid” person can do this – Vincent must take on the guise of a “valid” person to achieve his dream.

The movie is very thought-provoking. It revolves around the idea of human perseverance, and doing everything you can to achieve your dreams. The music is phenomenal, and it really adds a lot to the tone of the movie. I highly recommend this movie to, well, anyone. GO WATCH IT.

“There is no gene for the human spirit.”