First Impressions: Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu 4 (実況パワフルプロ野球 4)!

In an attempt to try more games that have been sitting in my backlog for way too long, I looked through my Nintendo 64 games and decided to check out 実況パワフルプロ野球 4, which translates to Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu 4. It’s a baseball game I bought on accident because I thought it looked cute even though I didn’t know what the cartridge said until I looked it up when I got home. Ah well.

So, Jikkyo Powerful Pro Yakyu 4 is a surprisingly robust baseball game that I have NO CLUE how to play! Seriously, there were So. Many. Menus!

I could barely figure out how to get started!

It’s neat though, because there are a bunch of teams to choose from, and you can even choose what type of field you want to play on.

Once I finally started playing, I realized the controls were pretty tricky. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t hit one pitch. I couldn’t figure it out! How embarrassing.

I did slightly better when playing in the outfield, though I couldn’t figure out who I was throwing the ball to, which lead to me sucking at this game in every possible way.

Conclusion

I played for about 30 minutes before calling it quits. This is not a terrible game by any stretch- I just couldn’t really figure out how to play! I don’t know much Japanese (despite playing Japanese Animal Crossing games) and I don’t know much about baseball either, so that doesn’t help. The graphics are super cute though, and for a game released in 1997, the voice acting for the announcer is pretty awesome!

First Impressions: Animal Crossing: New Horizons!

It’s September already! Yay, let’s get this year over with! Haha. For all my US friends, today is Labor Day, so hopefully you are enjoying an extra day off from hell work like I am! Anyway, on to the post…

No, I did not just get Animal Crossing: New Horizons- as you probably remember from a previous post, I went out and purchased this game on launch day. I also haven’t done a First Impressions post since 2018, which I did not realize until I started typing this. So you may wonder, what is the point?! Well, I always thought First Impressions posts were kind of fun, and a good way to quickly summarize my first experience with a game! Animal Crossing: New Horizons happened to be one of the first games I started this year, so I figured why not start with this one! Here’s a little summary of my first 3 days with the game, and my initial thoughts!

Day 1

I was so excited to finally start playing this game! I had been looking forward to it for a long time. I arrived on my deserted island (which I named Spartacus) with Katt the… cat and Tank the rhino. The little sequence you play before the game kicks over to real time was too cute- I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t played yet! The deserted island vibe was definitely there, and it was so cool to walk around and explore. There were a few places on the island that I couldn’t even access yet, which I thought was kind of neat and mysterious! Anyway, on Day 1 I learned about Nook Miles, and I learned how to craft! I immediately crafted some flimsy tools (which definitely live up to their name and break very easily). I caught several bugs and fish, and I found a place for Blathers’ tent!

Day 2

I enjoyed more of the game’s leisurely pace, but I managed to earn enough Nook Miles to pay off my debt- now I’ll have a house instead of a tent! 🙂

Day 3

My house was built- so cute! Of course, this means going into debt with Tom Nook as usual- 98,000 bells to be exact! Nook Miles were used to pay off my initial debt, but now they are used for other things! One of the first things I purchased with Nook Miles was a Tool Wheel. Super handy, though I wish this meant tools were removed from your inventory and put into the wheel instead of still taking up space in your inventory! Oh well.

Besides my tent being upgraded, Tank and Katt have houses too! Also, the museum has been built, and it is GORGEOUS! I overheard Tom Nook and Tommy talking about building a store, so Timmy asked me to gather some crafting materials for the job!

Conclusion

Obviously, I loved this game from my first moments with it! I love the chill island vibe, and I love how you slowly build your island from the ground up. It’s such a sense of accomplishment every time a new shop is built or you upgrade your house. I am obviously several months into the game now- but I am far from being finished with everything. I have been taking my time with everything, and I don’t care if it takes me years to finish it. The journey is part of what is so fun about Animal Crossing games to me!!

P.S. I don’t know WHAT THE FUCK is up with this new WordPress editor, but it is aggravating the fuck out of me, and I just want to go back to what it was before! It is NOT user friendly at all!

First Impressions of Some New Games!

First of all… um, how is it possible that I haven’t posted in a month?! Have I really been that much of a slacker? It’s not my fault though, I swear. My thyroid has decided it really hates me and as a result I’ve been WAY more tired than usual (and that’s saying something, because I’m always freaking tired!). Seriously, even the most basic daily task is a challenge sometimes, never mind trying to compose a post that’s halfway intelligible. Trying to read posts also turned out to be a lot of work, so I’m way the fuck behind on everyone’s blogs. I still love you all and will catch up one day, don’t worry! 🙂 Ah well, that’s life.

Moving on… I did a post about all my Christmas goodies and a subsequent post about some goodies I bought with my Christmas money, and turns out, I have managed to try a few of those games out! My New Year’s Resolution of not waiting forever to try out new games is sort of panning out. I thought it would be fun to do a little mini first impression on each of the games I’ve tried… no screenshots, sorry, I’m lazy as shit. Here we go!

New Nintendo 2DS XL 

(As I mentioned previously that I have my 2DS XL for downloading SNES and Game Boy games. I don’t play any actual cartridges on this system, so that’s why the 2DS and 3DS are listed separately.)

Donkey Kong Country

Have I ever mentioned that I love Donkey Kong Country?! 😉 I played this with the intention of just “checking it out” but I ended up getting to Kremroc Industries, Inc. The game looks and plays amazing!

Nintendo 3DS 

Kirby’s Blowout Blast

I was bummed that this game was download-only, but of course I bought it! It is so fun and adorable! I love the simple mechanics, and I love how incredibly fat Kirby can get! I’m currently on Stage 3.

Mario Party: The Top 100

I love Mario Party games, no matter how much they cheat! It’s like a guilty pleasure for me. This game is really fun- it does have a lot of great mini games included, and a few that made me cringe when I played them. I think I’m on World 4 of single player mode?

Nintendo Switch

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I LOVE this game so much! When I first saw it being released for the Switch, I figured I’d just skip past it, because I already have the excellent Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U. This was a Christmas gift, though, and I’m happy I received it! Nintendo took a great game and somehow made it even better. Plus, playing it in handheld mode is something I do quite often, and I love having this game portable! I’ve beaten all the cups on 50cc and most of the cups on 100cc.

Puyo Puyo Tetris

Umm… yeah. This game. I LOVE Tetris, I enjoy Puyo- type games, and playing them both together is a fun challenge. So what’s my problem? The menus are a little odd, and the voices… oh my god the obnoxious VOICES that I CAN’T turn off! It kind of makes the whole experience irritating. Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I played it, but I think if I want Tetris, I’ll play one of my other Tetris games, and if I want Puyo, I’ll play Kirby’s Avalanche. At least I got a couple cute keychains when I bought the game!

Super Mario Odyssey

I’m currently on the Metro Kingdom! I haven’t played this game as much as I should, but I really love it and it’s addicting. I find myself just wanting to play more and more to keep finding those Power Moons! Cappy is a pretty cool partner too. Oh, and the graphics are pretty incredible!

SNES Classic

My husband and I tried several games on the SNES Classic, just to get our feet wet. We first played Contra III: The Alien Wars, which was interesting. I died fairly quickly because I was an idiot and was looking at the WRONG character! Then we played Donkey Kong Country, probably one of our favorite games to play together! We got to World 2: Monkey Mines. Lastly, we played Super Mario Kart together, in which we beat the Mushroom Cup on 50cc.

So there you have it! I’m also playing games that I’m trying to actually beat as well, which means I’m playing them for longer periods of time. Maybe I’ll detail that progress in another post (perhaps I should resurrect “My Gaming Month in Review” posts? 😉 )

P.S. I recently purchased The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Switch. 😉

First Impressions: Kororinpa: Marble Mania!

A week or so ago, I was settling in to play some Harvest Moon: Animal Parade on the Wii. As the game was loading, I looked over at my stack of Wii games and got a little sad about all the games I bought but still haven’t played. One game caught my eye, and I decided that I wanted to check it out right then and there! I turned off Animal Parade and began playing Kororinpa: Marble Mania.

Kororinpa: Marble Mania was released for the Wii back in 2007. I remember seeing a preview for the game (don’t remember where) and I thought it looked really fun! For some reason, though, I never saw the game in stores anywhere, and though I wanted it, I never found anywhere that sold it.

About a year ago, I was at GameStop, and imagine my surprise when they had not only Kororinpa, but its sequel as well! Since this was practically the only time I had seen these games in the wild, I snatched them up. Sadly, it took me this long to get around to playing it- but enough of me blabbering on! What did I actually think of the game?

On the title screen, I was met with bright, cheerful colors and equally cheery music. Setting up my profile for the first time was a cinch, and the vibe was pretty relaxing.

This game immediately reminded me of a combination of Super Monkey Ball and Marble Madness. In fact, the similarities to Super Monkey Ball are what drew me to this game in the first place! Anyway, every time you select a level, you are shown an overview and brief description of the stage.

Much like Super Monkey Ball, you tilt the stage to get your marble rolling. Your objective is to collect every red crystal and make it to the goal…bucket thing. Tilting the Wii remote feels pretty natural, though my hands are a bit shaky.

What I think is pretty neat about this game is the fact that the timer counts UP, not down. In other words, no matter how many times you die on a stage (and most likely, you will die) you can just keep going and going and the clock will be stopped when you finally reach the goal. This makes things a bit more relaxed instead of feeling rushed that you have to collect crystals AND get to the goal before the clock runs out.

Also, once you collect a gem, you don’t have to do it again if you die. That’s a pretty great feature!

When you start out the game, you are playing with a regular marble. As the game progresses, you unlock different marbles/ balls/ whatever and they all have different attributes. Most importantly, a lot of them are SO CUTE! 😉

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this game when I played it! I played through the first 10 levels, and it was a lot of fun. The tilt control mechanism can be a bit frustrating if your hands are shaky like mine are, but practice makes perfect. The fact that you are not penalized for dying makes things a little easier to bear.

I just want to mention that since my initial First Impressions play of this game, my husband and I started playing it together! I will note my progress in another entry, since this is just a First Impressions post! Besides, I have some Kirby games to get to! 😉

First Impressions: Pokémon: Magikarp Jump!

When I first saw that there was going to be a mobile game based on the most “pathetic” Pokémon there is, I couldn’t help but laugh! Poor Magikarp… I always liked it even though it really doesn’t do much but flop around! Since the game is free, I didn’t hesitate to check it out!

The game begins with Mayor Karp telling me all about how Magikarp is a great jumper despite its useless appearance, so my goal is to raise Magikarp to win in eight different jumping leagues!

I grabbed a fishing rod and fished up this beauty:

You level up your Magikarp by earning JP, or Jumping Power. You get this by completing simple training exercises and eating food in your pond.

After doing some training and getting my Magikarp leveled up a little, I competed in my first battle and won!

I then realized that I could nickname my Magikarp… so I named him Floppy! 🙂

I had Floppy compete in another Battle, and my trainer ranking increased to Rank 2! I figured this was enough for one day, so I went ahead and ended my game.

Conclusion:
Here’s the funny thing about this game: there really is not much to it. Everything is random! You don’t actually DO anything during the training exercises; the amount of JP awarded is random. You don’t DO anything during the Battles except watch and see of your Magikarp jumps higher.

And yet.. I actually do like this game. It’s fun to see what kind of Magikarp you will fish up and what they will do. There are a lot of decorations you can put in your pond, and other Pokémon will come to hang out with you sometimes. Supposedly your Magikarp can actually get eaten, but that hasn’t happened to me yet!

Since my initial playthrough, I have played a little bit more. I raised Floppy to the highest level it could go, so it competed in one last battle… and won!

Floppy retired happily.

In the meantime, Pikachu came to visit…

I reached Trainer Rank 3…

And I fished up a new Magikarp, whom I named Flappy 😉

Flappy is currently at Level 5, and Floppy is chilling in the background watching her grow!

Even though this game is more passive than anything, it’s still amusing to see what will happen next!

First Impressions: Harvest Moon: Animal Parade!

Like I first mentioned awhile back, one game that I’ve had for a long time but never played is Harvest Moon: Animal Parade for the Wii. I’ve always thought the game looked adorable (and I love Harvest Moon!) but I just never got around to playing it! Doing the Four in February challenge finally made me start playing it… and I’m glad I did!

The game starts out with you riding on the back of some random dude’s cart off to your new farm. It looked suspicious to me, but my character didn’t seem to mind.

Upon arriving at my new farm, my teeny little friend Finn (who constantly buzzes around my head) asked what the name of the place was. When I saw what was automatically written in for me, I laughed out loud!

Misty just happens to be my cat’s name! Of course, I kept it. So now I live on Misty Farm, haha! Anyway, I took some time to wander around my property, and it’s really cute!

Why the hell do I have to purchase something that’s already on my land though?! Talk about lame!

Anyway, I met the mayor of the nearby Harmonica Town, who told me to go meet everyone.

Never mind meeting the people- first I ran around and approached every animal I could find! 🙂

I then talked to the townsfolk. Most were pretty nice, but on the whole, everyone seemed… depressed.

Why isn’t anything working right around here? After meeting everyone, my next goal was to talk to the Harvest Goddess. First, I had to feed this lame ass guy who couldn’t go get his own food. He needed to fix the bridge, but couldn’t do it on an empty stomach.

I had to go to Flute Fields (another nearby community) to buy him what he needed.

Once he ate and fixed the bridge, the Garmon Mines area was opened to me. I met everyone in town. They, like folks in Harmonica Town and Flute Fields, seemed depressed as well.

I then made my way to the Goddess Spring, where I was stopped by some pissed off animals!

Apparently I needed and “animal whistle” to be able to communicate with them. It was a bit of a wild goose chase to acquire one, but I finally got it. I befriended the animals guarding the Goddess Spring, then walked down the path that led me to the Harvest Goddess!

She explained to me that the elements of earth have all lost their strength and vitality, which is why everything sucks everywhere. She asked the Harvest Sprites to ring their bells, but they were too weak. So now it’s MY job to find the sprites and ring the bells. Uh, aren’t you the Harvest Goddess?! Why can’t YOU do it?!

Conclusion:

I love this game so far! There is a lot of stuff to do, but you never feel rushed! I love all of the characters and the animals are adorable too! I’ve already completed several tasks and I’ve found one bell and restored its power (I just have to ring it!).

If I have one small complaint about the game, it’s the fact that your stamina dips way too quickly. Just taking care of my crops in the morning depletes my stamina way more than it should, and raising it back up requires buying food (that is way too expensive) or eating a stupid mushroom that barely does anything for you. Despite this, I am having a great time with this game! It’s quite a long game, but I hope I can beat it within a reasonable time frame! 🙂

First Impressions: Super Mario Run!

 

I actually started typing a blog post for my Four in February (in March) progress, but I scrapped it because I realized I STILL never wrote a First Impressions post for Super Mario Run! I mean, I started the game last month, have played it quite a bit, and still haven’t written anything about it! So, I figured I would get that out of the way now, before I actually beat the game! 😉

The first time I loaded Super Mario Run and clicked on the screen, I thought it was so weird that I was playing a Mario game on my phone! The sights and sounds were all very familiar, but it still felt strange. I guess I never thought that some of my favorite video game characters would one day be featured in smart phone games!

Anyway, the premise is the same as most other Mario games: Princess Peach gets her ass in trouble, and Mario’s gotta go save her. Doesn’t that bitch EVER learn?

When you load your game, you start out in a hub area. Here, you can select your game mode, see how many toads you have, play a bonus game, and more!

World Tour is the main game, and it consists of 6 Worlds with 4 levels each (the last level of each world is a boss). The first three levels were free, and after that there is a one-time purchase price of $9.99 for the full game.

I played through the first three levels and I had a blast! The controls are pretty easy to get used to. Mario runs on his own, and you tap the screen to jump. That doesn’t mean the game isn’t challenging though- some parts can be pretty tricky!

The graphics are really great, and the music is fitting for a Mario game.

Besides the World Tour, there is another game mode called Toad Rally. In this mode, you race against other players (not in real time, more like their “ghost”) to see who can impress more Toads. You get points for your jumping style, collecting coins, etc. This mode is fun, but can be a little difficult too. If you win, more Toads are added to your kingdom, which allows you to level up your kingdom and unlock different characters!

Speaking of your kingdom, you can use coins you earn to decorate it. You can also unlock certain characters by placing their houses down, which is pretty neat! Here is a current picture of my kingdom (it’s currently at a Level 4):

Not very impressive yet, but I have a lot of coins to spend, so I will probably decorate it soon!

Conclusion:

I actually love this game! I feel like it is the perfect way to relax for a couple minutes. You can play this game for long periods of time, but I prefer to just play one level a day (when I do play, sometimes I’ve missed a day or two!) and that gives me something to look forward to. Obviously, I spent $9.99 for the game, which I did think was a little expensive for a mobile game at first. But with 3 different sets of special coins in each level and 5 other characters to unlock and play as, I decided it was worth the money. Hopefully Nintendo will add more levels to this game in the future!

In the meantime, here are some screenshots from the levels I’ve played through so far. Enjoy!

First Impressions: Persona 4: Dancing All Night!

As you know, a few weeks ago I picked up a PlayStation Vita along with Persona 4: Dancing All Night. This game is a sequel to Persona 4: Golden, which I have not played yet.  Here are my first impressions of the game!

When I first started playing, I was greeted with a cheerful title screen. That disco ball has a cute face on it!

There are several different game options, but I chose Story Mode, because I have no idea what I’m doing.

Since this game is part visual novel, part rhythm game, there is quite a lot of reading. The game starts out with some girls talking about a freaky website.

Apparently you see some dead chick, pass out, and wake up in “The Velvet Room.”

Here you will learn about Rise and the rest of the Persona 4 crew as they practice for an upcoming dance festival. So far,the story is told through Yu’s eyes, but I don’t know if that changes as you progress through the story. Even though I wasn’t familiar with the characters, it’s easy to get to know them.

One thing that makes me laugh about this game is how character’s are first described before you figure out their names. Some of them are nice…

While others seem just rude!

Poor “extremely plain girl!” 😉

Anyway, I got up to the point where you meet the Kanamin Girls and they give an interview. They describe themselves very… strangely…

Conclusion

I really like this game so far! Even though this game is actually a sequel, I don’t feel lost playing it. The game does a good job of explaining who everyone is. So far a lot of it is reading and making the occasional decision, but I know the rhythm part will kick in soon. I wanted to play through Story Mode first, then work on Free Dance mode (where all the songs are available).

First Impressions: VisionVR!

As I mentioned previously, my husband was out at a store and he found some VR headsets for only $6! That’s pretty cheap, so he picked one up for each of us. There are many different headsets out there, but this particular one is called VisionVR, made by a company called Soundlogic.

Out of the box, it looks pretty much how you would expect. Nothing fancy, and the headset is super light (which is a good thing, you don’t want something heavy hanging off your face!). For only $6, it is pretty well put together.

To put your phone in, you pop open the front cover. Your phone rests on a sticky pad, which is kind of a shame since as you are moving your head around, you can hear (and feel) the phone sliding back and forth a little bit. Not really a deal breaker, but I wish there was something else holding your phone so it doesn’t move.

My husband tried it out first, and he really enjoyed it. I have to tell you, though, there is something a bit unnerving about seeing someone sitting there with a big headset sticking off of their face, staring at a screen that you can’t see! It’s a little strange.

Anyway, I then tried out a couple of the apps he downloaded. The first one was a roller coaster app called Cedar Point VR. It’s based off of an actual roller coaster called Valravn.

I guess I should tell you: I HATE roller coasters! Rather, I hate riding them. I think they are cool, but my head does not think so. I get so dizzy! I sat through the ride anyway, and it was pretty neat. I did actually feel my stomach twisting and turning and I got a little dizzy, even though I knew I was not actually on the roller coaster!

I then tried a horror app called 11:57.

In this app, you are basically strapped to a chair looking around while weird shit is out to get you! It was pretty cool, but I had to turn it off after about 2 minutes because my eyes and my head were starting to hurt. My husband watched it all the way through, and he said it was pretty cool.

Conclusion

I think VR headsets are cool. The apps are neat, and I feel like this technology will continue to improve rapidly. I haven’t played Playstation VR at all, but I really want to at some point.

HOWEVER! I have one major problem with VR: it makes me sick! I get dizzy very easily anyway, and I do get motion sickness. For instance, if I am on a boat, when I get off, I still feel like I am on that boat for several hours, rocking back and forth. Sometimes I get disoriented just getting off of an elevator! It’s extremely annoying. With all this being said, I could not enjoy VisionVR for very long before I felt like I needed to get away from it. The next day after using it, I was slightly dizzier than normal. I think the VisionVR is something I will only be able to enjoy for a couple minutes at a time, which is a shame. 😦

 

First Impressions: Stardew Valley!

Like I mentioned a few days ago, I finally bought and started playing Stardew Valley last week! I’ve wanted this game for so long because it seemed like a great mix between Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing and maybe even a little bit of Minecraft/ Terraria. Plus, the fact that this game was all created by one person just blows my mind! Anyway, here’s my first impressions of the game!

The game didn’t take that long to download, which I thought was nice. I’ve never used Steam before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect! Immediately after clicking to start a new game, I was presented with a robust character customization screen!

I tinkered around with the options for a bit (so many shirts to choose from!) then thought about what I wanted to name my farm. I decided to give a humorous nod to my grandfather and name it Spartacus Farm. It’s a long story, but sometimes when I was a kid he would come out of his room randomly and yell “I’m Spartacus!” for no reason. It used to crack me up because it was so random and silly!

It took me a minute to decide what kind of farm I wanted, too. I know there was a recent update that allowed you to choose a different type of farm, but in the end I decided to stay true to the original game and just pick the standard farm. I figured I can always create another character later and choose a different farm!

So the game begins with me working some boring ass job and just hating life in general. I opened a letter from my grandpa, who told me to go live on his farm in Stardew Valley. If only it were that easy to just ditch the world and go live on a farm…

Upon arrival in Stardew Valley, I met Robin, who showed me to my farm. What a mess this place is!

After meeting the mayor, I was pretty much free to do whatever I wanted. I had a new goal to complete, which was to meet everyone in town. I immediately set off and met several people on my first day. Some were nice, like Evelyn…

And some seemed a little off-putting, like Haley!

I did a little bit of exploring just to get myself used to my surroundings, too. I found a cute playground but I couldn’t play on it!

After awhile it started getting dark, so I wanted to head back to my farm. Luckily there is a map to use, because I got so lost!

The next morning when I woke up, I had a letter from some man named Willy who wanted to meet me! It sounded a little odd, but I went to see him anyway. Turns out, he wanted me to have his old fishing pole. Um, okay…

I basically spent the next few in-game days just exploring and trying to get myself used to where I was. Some other interesting places I came across were an arcade…

a cemetery…

and some creepy, dark alleyway! The music even turned spooky when I got in this area, so who knows what that’s all about.

Anyway, after like 5 in game days, I still hadn’t met everyone! That annoyed me, so I looked to see who I hadn’t met, then used a Wiki Guide to find out exactly where they all hung out. Hey, I have no problem using a guide if I need one! I didn’t want to waste too much more time trying to find these jerks. So I finally met Elliott on the beach, Linus near his tent, and Maru at her house.

I had previously seen Maru in her house, but she was in her bedroom and I couldn’t go in because we weren’t “good friends.” Fine!

I also tried to talk to Haley one day, but it said she was ignoring me! That pissed me off, so I started following her around. After a minute, she started running from me! Haha! I chased after her for a bit, then left her alone. What a snooty bitch!

Conclusion

All in all, I’m really enjoying this game. The controls were a little weird to get used to at first, but I’m not a huge PC gamer, so I’m not used to playing with a mouse and keyboard! Overall, though, this seems like a really fun, addicting game. I can’t wait to see what happens in the coming months and years in Stardew Valley! I’m very glad I finally bought it 🙂