Yooka-Laylee Gets It Right!

     As seen in my previous post, I picked up Yooka-Laylee for Xbox One at launch. I was excited when I first heard about this game being put together by some of the original members of Rare Ltd. I loved some of their classic games including Banjo Kazooie and it's pretty obvious this was going to be somewhat of a spiritual successor to the Banjo games, hence the name itself. Although I was excited, I was a little worried as this is a Kickstarter backed project and we know how some of those have turned out at release (cough* cough* Mighty No.9). But after sinking about 10 hours or so into the game, I love every part of it. Every aspect of the game is so nostalgic but it part of the gaming world and as we developed better technology and gaming moved forward, they started to die out. I thought I was going to pick this game up, play it for a couple hours, enjoy the nostalgia factor, and then never play it again. But I keep coming back to it. I believe the biggest reason is the puzzles. Some of them are what you would expect from this genre but they perfected the difficulty. Its hard enough to where it takes you a few tries to figure out the puzzles and complete them, but easy enough to allow the player to still enjoy the game without becoming too frustrated. A couple of my favorites being the shooting gallery in World 1 and the dark cave that you have to traverse by rolling in World 2. They even mastered the difficulty for the boss battles. So far the three I have beaten were hard enough to give me a sense of accomplishment when I beat them but were easy enough that I didn't have to spend a ton of time on them. There are so many things to collect and I love that you can unlock new skills in each world that allow you to discover more in the previous world, which makes backtracking in this game a joy. Not to mention Yooka-Laylee is so bright, colorful, and just beautiful to look at. Playtonic did an amazing job with this game and definitely honored Banjo Kazooie perfectly, I cant wait to jump back in and finish it!

 

Updates:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: 85 shrines down, 35 left to go.
FPS Development: Almost done with the game, new Dev Diary is coming soon

#Pickups 04/11/2017

     I loved Banjo Kazooie as a kid on N64. The music and sound effects are so nostalgic it's ridiculous. So of course I had to pick this up. I was going to wait for its launch on the Switch, but I couldn't!

Breath of the Wild: Dark Link

     So last night I was playing Breath of the Wild, continuing on my quest to finish all 120 shrines. (I'm now at 69, btw) I had returned to Hateno Village to buy some arrows when I noticed Kilton and his balloon in the distance and figured I'd sell him the monster parts I've collected so that by the time I finish all the shrines I will already have enough Mon to purchase the Dark Link Outfit. As soon as I talked to him he mention something about a dark armor and to my surprise he had the set in his inventory. I then continued to collect monster parts until I had enough to purchase the full set. So it is official, you do not need to complete all shrines to unlock the ability to buy the armor, but I'm not sure exactly what triggers him to have it. Either way, I'm so happy that the set is finally mine, it's gorgeous and definitely adds to the nostalgia factor.

Development Diary #1

     First video in my new development diary series! This is showing off what I've been working on for my final project in the video game development class I'm taking this semester. It's an FPS heavily inspired by Resident Evil. Check it out, and feel free to comment, like, and subscribe to my YouTube Channel!

#Pickups 03/17/2017

     Picked this up yesterday, The Binding of Isaac: AfterBirth+ for the Nintendo Switch. One of my favorite indie games, so once I found out they were releasing a physical edition I had to get it. Definitely excited to be able to play this game on the go! This launch edition includes two sticker sheets, an Issac sticker, limited edition instruction booklet (designed to look like, you guessed it, the Legend of Zelda NES booklet), and reversible cover art,

Time Flies

     I have officially hit the halfway point with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and my playtime is already over 45 hours! Yes another post about a Zelda game but it's all I've been playing recently besides The Binding of Isaac: AfterBirth+ that I picked up yesterday. Anyways I'm halfway through, and not necessarily with the entire game, but when it comes to the shrines I have completed 60 out of the 120 scattered across the massive world. After I freed all the divine beasts I decided that I'm not going to go fight Ganon until I've at least completed all of the shrines and have obtained all of the in-game armor sets, specifically going after the Armor of the Wild and the Dark Link Outfit. Both of which require you to complete all 120 shrines. This game is teeming with nostalgia, whether it be old Zelda songs remixed into new themes, the ability to collect retro outfits and weapons with amiibo, or the familiar races and character designs you come across in the world. It's the perfect mix of old and new, familiar and unfamiliar. This game truly is amazing. I plan on posting more in depth on the nostalgic properties of this game as well as a more thorough examination and review. But for now, I'M HALFWAY THERE!!! Just 60 more shrines to go...

60 Shrines Down

Nostalgia Runs Deep

     It was November, 1998. I was just two months shy of being seven years old. My dad had just walked in the door from being at work all day and handed me something he picked up on his way home. It was a book, a guide book. As he handed it to me, with excitement in his voice, he said, "Look what came out!" I looked down at what was in my hands, it was the strategy guide for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was fairly familiar with the Zelda series. We owned the original NES game as well as A Link to the Past on SNES. Being so young I had never beaten either myself but I had played them both numerous times, usually just running around the beginning of the game and never making it past the first 15 minutes or so. I didn't really know what I was looking at. I knew it was a new game for the N64 and that my dad seemed excited for it, which both of those things made me excited as well. What I didn't know was that this particular game would change my life forever. Literally.

      A few days later my dad finally brought home the game. We played it together whenever he wasn't at work, but I soon became obsessed with it. I grew up playing video games my whole life but I had never been hooked like this. The graphics, the story, the characters, the music, I loved all of it. I wanted to be in this game, I wanted to live in Hyrule and be Link. So I started to play it by myself whenever my dad wasn't home because I couldn't wait. But me only being six years old you could imagine how many times I'd get stuck and didn't know where to go or what to do. Luckily we had that strategy guide, only problem was that I was ONLY six years old. I was at the age where you are just learning how to read and this guide required a lot of reading. Whether I could read it or not there were a lot of words and it was too hard for me to understand what to do. Instead of reading the guide, I starting looking at the pictures. By looking at all the in-game screenshots they provided I managed to figure things out when I became stuck and continued on with the game. Eventually my dad and I beat the game, we destroyed Ganon and saved Hyrule.    

     Fast forward 18 years and here I am. Ocarina of Time is still one of my favorite video games ever made. So much so that half of my video game sleeve is dedicated to this game. Ocarina of Time is where my true love for video games started. I'm now in school studying Video Game Development, I collect everything that has to do with gaming, whether it be video games themselves (retro and new) or figures, art, replicas, books, you name it, I collect it. I have an intense passion for gaming and it has been a huge part of my life. This little story about my dad and I playing Ocarina of Time is just one of the many, many memories I have that involve gaming. Some of the best times I've had were playing games with friends or family. There's nothing in my life that gives me the feeling of nostalgia like video games do and I believe nostalgia is one of the best feelings a person can experience. That rush of childhood memories and the feeling of being a kid again, staying up late, getting as far as you can into a game before passing out from exhaustion. Through games you can relive past memories over and over again while also creating new ones, and that is an amazing thing. I want to be responsible for making people feel that way. I want to make games that impact people's lives and make them say, "those were the days." So with that, I welcome you to my blog, where I hope to share all things video games. Stay tuned for rants, reviews, developer diaries, and much much more.