Strange, Funny, Heartrending!

Strange, Funny, and Heartrending, 3 words that perfectly describe one of my favorite video games of all time. What's this game you ask? Pokemon? No, surprisingly. It's Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance. Mother 3 is the 3rd game in the Mother or Earthbound series as it is commonly known as outside of Asia.

This game actually has quite a bit of history behind it, while other sites like Starmen.net have documented it, I'll give you a brief rundown. It started off life as a game for the Nintendo 64, more specifically, it was made for the Disk Drive they planned on adding. However, when the N64DD was proven to be a failure, the decided to make Mother 3 a regular N64 game. Then came the fact that this game came in late during the N64's life cycle, and the developers were having trouble making a game with 3D graphics, as a result, the game was cancelled as the Nintendo Gamecube was launched. However, during an ad campaign for the release of the Mother 1+2 compliation on the GBA, an ad announced that they're making Mother 3. After years of news, Mother 3 was released for the GBA in Japan as the GBA's final game. Unfortunally, everyone else outside of Japan didn't get it, and were mostly likely exposed to events that happened in Mother 3 via Super Smash Bros Brawl, considering that Lucas' Trophy does mention certain parts of the game, two bosses from the Subspace Emissary, Porky Minch and the King P Statue are bosses in the game of Mother 3, and New Pork City, the game's final location, is one of the playable stages. There is a fantranslation done by devoted Mother fans, and as a result of their hardwork, people are able to play the game as they wish.

The story in Mother 3 is broken up into 8 chapters. While Lucas is the main protagonist throughout the game, the first 3 chapters of the game stars different characters. Chapter 1 stars his Father, Flint trying to save his family. Chapter 2 stars Duster, the town theif that walks around with a limp stealing the Humming Bird Egg from Osohe Castle, and Chapter 3 stars Salsa, a monkey that will do anything to protect his love, even if that means being with douchebag like Yokuba. When Chapter 4 kicks in, there is a 3 year timeskip from the events of the first 3 chapters and that's when you control Lucas for the rest of the game, as he tries to fight the power of the Pigmask Army, pull the Seven Needles before the Masked Man does and tries to save the world.. As far as the story in the game goes, I will admit, there were parts in the game where I found myself in tears over what happened in the game. Ranging from the reveal of Hinawa's death, to Duster leaving the DCMC, to the final boss fight in the game. There is also a good share of funny moments like in Chapter 2 where Wess opens a door through the most funniest dance you'll ever see in a sprite based game, and a part where Lucas and the gang ride in a Refridgerator to get down from a moutain. (Trust me, this will make sense when you get to that part.) This game can invoke practically every human emotion, and I like it when a game does that. Makes me feel human.

The character themselves are pretty memorable, ranging from my favorite character in the game, Duster, Lucas, Salsa, Kumatora, Boney, Flint, Hinawa, Claus, the Magypsies, the DCMC Issac, Yokuba/Fassad, and even the big bad of the game, I could go on and on, that's how good the characters in this game are. I actually care for what happens to them. For example, in the case of Salsa, who is the game weakest playable character, he doesn't have any special items of his own. his attack stats are weak, you have to rely on the NPC character to do damage for you and let's just say that the person he's team up with, treats him like crap to the point that he doesn't attack for some turns. You may want to hate him, but due to his backstory of being a tool used by the Pigmask Army, and the abuse he goes through during that chapter, I just can't help but feel sorry for Salsa, I just can't hate him. Along with Duster, in a weird way, he sort of reminds me of myself, having a disability, the world rejects him, but he was able to find a good amount of friends in the band of the DCMC, Lucas, Kumatora, Flint, and Boney. Sort of like my life in a weird twisted way. I also see fragments of myself in Lucas as well. This is what I like about the main cast, I can see parts of myself within them, and they also remind me of people that I know in real life.

As for the gameplay, it's a simplistic RPG. You beat up enemies, earn EXP, and learn new PSI moves along the way, thoug provided, only 2 party members learn PSI moves, Lucas and Kumatora, and everyone else is practically stuck with the abilities they have since the beginning of the game. Duster relies on theif tools, which are pretty helpful in various way, while Boney has a technique that can tell you the weakness of any enemy. Though a new feature for the series is an action command when you're doing melee attacks to rack up damage. To do this, your attacks must be in sync with the music that's playing in the background. Pretty innovated in that regard, and the graphics themselves are pretty good, especially the battle sprites for your opponents, and the overworld as well. Also, during my other playthrough, I tend to notice certain things a little bit more, which kind of shows you that the developers of this game thought of everything.

The music, dear god, the music, it's like crack. I love every bit of music in this song from His Highness' Theme, Isn't It Utopia, Flying Whatchamacallit, all the songs by the DCMC, Mom's Hometown. I could go on and on about it, but man, if I had to listen to every song on a CD in an endless loop, I would do it.

Overall, the game is pretty good adventure, and worth a playthrough, my only advice would be is to have a box of tissues handy during the final parts of the game, and talk to everyone and explore everything. This game thrives on that, and you'll enjoy it more.

I have an Isshu!

OK, had to get out that lame pun. In case you didn't notice the starters and the region of the 5th generation of Pokémon have been revealed. Instead of Isshu, the region of Generation V will be called Unova in American release. While the starters will be referred to as Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott, instead of Tsutarja, Pokabu, and Mijumaru. Well, I will admit that expecting the Japanese names of the Pokémon to be used in an English product is a very high expectation, since there are only a handful of them that manage to retain their names in every generation, but the fact that the region got a major name change is very jarring if you consider the fact that most regions in the games are retained for the most part. It's just that with Japanese pronunciation and accenting their letters, they're really minor. I mean Johto is known as Joto in Japan, Hoenn is Hoen, and Sinnoh is known as Shin'o.

But how did they get from Isshu to Unova? Well from what I can recall, I know that "Nova" is an adjective of "Novus" which means "New." Which fits with the theme of Pokémon Black and White pretty well, since the game is based on a whole new region that is far away compared to where the likes of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh are located, since the former 4 were based off places in Japan, while Unova is based off of New York City. While I can go into detail on why a whole city, rather than state gets it's own region, I think I'll save that for later. As for U in Unova, it's basically the Un part where it comes from the Latin word unum, meaning one. So I guess the pun is that Isshu is one new place. It's going to take a while to get used to it, since Unova sounds like something from the Ranger games in my book, but I guess by the time the games come out in English, I'll be used to the name of the region.

Now, as for the starters, I'm looking at their puns and seeing how I like their names.

Snivy- I get the joke with this one, considering it was one of many fannames for Tsutarja like Smugleaf. Snivy also manages to keep the same pun that Tsutarja had, since both of their names had a reference to the Ivy plant, and the fact that they're both snakes.

Tepig- from what I understand it's a play on the word Tepid, and Pig. With tepid meaning lukewarm, it does kind of fit with how Pokabu references the heat that travels through the body.

Oshawott- Yeah, I'm still trying to figure this one out. According to Bulbapedia's article about Oshawott, it's name is supposed to be either a pun on "Ocean Water" or George Ohsawa. Even then' that kind of a stretch. Still, I find it funny that part of it's fanname of Wotter managed sneak into his official name.

As for how I rank the names, this is how it goes, Snivy, Oshawott, and Tepig. Why, Snivy is pretty strong name, and thinking about it, it's pretty close compared to Smugleaf. As for Oshawott, I just love how out there the name is. It's radically different than anyone else, so I do give credit for how unique it is. As for Tepig, yeah, I find it to be a weak pun overall.

Interesting Work Day!

Work today was pretty interesting for me. I encounter some lady that was in her car, screaming for help.

The full story is this. I was reading a paper that a customer left behind, reading up about the World Cup, and all of a sudden I hear a lady yelling ""Help Me!" At first I thought it was some kids joking around, since I noticed a bunch of kids hanging around outside today during hours when they should be in school. But then, I decided to look behind me, I noticed that it was some old lady in a car that was screaming help. I ran over as fast as I could. I tried to ask her what she needed, but she was very unclear. For example, she asked me for assistance in getting up, so I did that, then after falling down, she decided that she was ok where she was. I was noticing things about her, scrawny body, tall, weird speech patterns, Then I asked her a few questions like "How long have you been in the car?" "Would you like a cart?" "Are you with someone?" and "Would you like to talk to one of my bosses?" The time question was kinda pointless, seeing as she was in a car without the keys on, as for my boss question, at first she said "yes" but then "no" to talking to my manager. As for my question of if she was with someone, she said it was her husband/boyfriend, wasn't clear enough for me to get a direct answe. Then I just asked her if she would be OK, then she said yes. I used that as a way to walk away and get one of my supervisors to come out and deal with the situation, after I walked away, she yelled for help again, which made me glad that I was getting my boss. After going inside and finding one of them, they called the store manager, and I lead them to the car where the lady was. After a while, they sorted it out, didn't follow up on it. As a reward from my job, they gave me a $5.00 ticket that I can use in the store.

In retrospect, I do wonder what happened with the lady in the car, seeing as how I thought that she was mentally unstable, could be from bad experience. I do hope that whatever was bugging her is getting resolved and that she recovers from whatever is ailing her.

My thoughts on Generation V of Pokemon.

From the looks of it, Pokemon Sunday just revealed a silhouette picture of a new Pokemon that is suppose to be appearing in Generation V game that's suppose to come out soon:


If you ask me it sort of looks like a Lucario were-wolf being glomped by a Metroid. But since we'll have the full reveal in two weeks, I am looking forward to what this new Pokemon might be and what role it will play in the new movie, whenever it be a major role like Jirachi, Shaymin, Darkrai, Lucario, or something minor like Munchlax.

As for my thoughts on what it might be, so far I am leaning towards a Pokemon that will evovle from a new Pokemon in the game, ala Lucario. Since, when Lucario was first revealed everyone, including myself, thought it was going to be a Gen IV legendary ala Latios and Latias were in Movie 5. Though I'm not ruling out the possibility of it being a legendary, evolving from a previous evolution line like adding a new stage or another branch evolution, or it being a basic form. It's anyone guess right now, and you won't know until those games come out. Sad truth, I know since I highly doubt that the new movie would make a reveal lime that


But as for the topic of the new Generation V game that has been popping up I thought it would be the perfect time for me to share my thoughts on the subject. While I am skeptical that the new game that was announced almost a week ago is really the new entry into the main series of Red/Blue/Green/Yellow, Gold/Silver/Crystal, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and Diamond/Pearl/Platinum set or if it's a new spin-off game like Ranger, Mystery Dungeon, Snap, or Rumble as example and featuring some new Pokemon. Sort of like how Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, Pokemon Dash, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon showed off some Generation IV Pokemon off as well. Primarily Muchlax, Bonsly, Lucario, and Mime Jr. Muchlax was feature in Gale of Darkness as a part of a side quest in the game, in Dash it was one of the Pokemon you can control and Mystery Dungeon it gave you a sidequest. Bonsly was actually the first Gen IV Pokemon you can fight with, though it only knew one move and you can only use it in one area. Lucario was mentioned in Mystery Dungeon as being a great explorer, and obtaining a certain amount of points earned you the Lucario Rank and a statue of Lucario appearing outside your base. Mime Jr was also a statue you can earn in Mystery Dungeon after achieveing a certain rank. Personally my feelings are that this new game is going to be something along the lines of a spin-off series that will feature the new Pokemon appearing in the next saga like how those other games

Yes, there is the possibility that it could be like Generation II and how it was compatible for both the Game Boy and the Game Boy Color, and when the true successor for the DS comes out, that the 3rd version of the game will come out on the DS's successor. I also do recognize that we are reaching the 4 year mark since the launch of Diamond and Pearl series in Japan, which officially started the Generation IV business, and it did take almost 4 Years for the release of Ruby and Sapphire to be replaced with Diamond and Pearl, and the average time between the transition from Red and Blue to Gold and Silver was 3 years. Same goes for the transition of Gold and Silver to Ruby and Sapphire, it took 3 years for that as well. While there are signs that point to it being the Generation V Game, since the press release did mention an improved battling system. I'm actually curious as to what's going to be improved about it, other than adding new moves.

Status for me is, definite buy no matter what, but I'm not going to speculate over what this game is going to be about, cause I'm pretty sure we're sticking to the same routine like Mega Man series, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm not going to wrap my head around the endless speculation that you can find on Bulbagarden or Serebii forums. Instead, I'm just going to look at official information, get my impressions from the Japanese version, enjoy these games when they come out in America, play them to hell and back, and then claim them to be the best Pokemon game in the main series ever. I have done that for a long time and it hasn't disappointed me, well except for Hoenn region but that's about it.

March Be Damned!

List of stuff coming out in March

Battlefied 2: Bad Company

Final Fantasy XIII

Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver

Princess and the Frog

Ponyo

Rereleases of some Miyazaki Movies

Mega Man 10

High School Host Club Ouran Complete Set

One Piece Season Two, Sixth Voyage

Soul Eater Part 2

SGT Frog Season 2, Part 2

Darker Than Black

Case Closed Season 4 & 5 Viridian Colection

You may be asking yourself, "Dax, what's with this list of random video games and anime?" Well, it's serves for me as a reminder of all the cool stuff I want that's coming out in March. I know I'm under no obligation to buy all of this stuff Day one, except for maybe Battlefield 2, Heart Gold and Soul Silver since I put a $5.00 deposits on them. There also the fact for Ponyo I am looking at the special edition at Best Buy that comes with a Ponyo Doll, and that Princess and the Frog was one of the best films I saw from 2009, seeing as how I held off seeing that until 2010.

But then again it's not like I can get to them anytime soon, seeing as how I'm trying to finish up my 2D and 3D animation classes as best as I can so I can graduate, and I think money might be tight around that time. There's always holding the purchases over until a later date and wait for a price drop, but this mostly serves as just a reminder of what I consider to be an overkill of things that I "DO FUCKING WANT." All I will say is this, March? When did you become so cool with releasing cool stuff?