[Other] 64DD!

The commercials with the guy shouting Rokuyondīdī! will forever live rent-free in my head...

Causality. It's a thought process that I keep coming back to. As a hobbyist in both gaming and LEGO, an important moment in history that has shaped both hobbies was the cancellation of the SNES-CD. Without it, we wouldn't have had the Playstation and Nintendo's attempt to answer it: the 64DD. The 64DD's been on my wishlist for over fifteen years, and after a few failed attempts I've finally managed to save up enough for one and bought it earlier this year.

The 64DD is a Japanese exclusive add-on to the Nintendo 64. It adds a boot menu and a drive for specialized floppy disks to the console. These disks could either be games exclusive to the 64DD, or expansions for existing games. It was bundled with an online service, but the entire platform lasted only 15 months. Little over 15.000 units were sold.

Nintendo had big plans for the 64DD. It was intended to be released with the console, but it went through development hell. By the time it was ready, it was too late as the GameCube was already around the corner. Thus, the 64DD stayed in Japan. While it was planned to have dozens of disks developed for it, only ten ended up released: eight games, one expansion and one for the online service. The way the 64DD works and how it communicates with the console could warrant its own blogpost! Fun fact: when this add-on was available, I never even heard about it or saw it advertised at our local media store, despite living in Tokyo at the time. I didn't discover it's existence until the early days of Youtube.

Nintendo made sure that the short-lived 64DD wasn't in vain though, as they took the best ideas and repurposed them for the GameCube, Wii and DS. It's too much to go through for a blogpost, but there's a lot of good videos about it. It's hard to believe that if the contract between Sony and Nintendo didn't fell through, many of my favorite games wouldn't exist, and more importantly: LEGO wouldn't have gone nearly bankrupt. That's like, half of my niches and identity!

The F-Zero X Expansion Kit provides us an extremely comprehensive track editor. You can really go nuts with this one...

So, what's the reason why I wanted to have the 64DD? It's simple. Games! For some weird reason, none of these games have ever been re-released at all. Stuck on the 64DD. Doshin the Giant was remastered for the GameCube, but it's such a drastic departure from the original that it's hardly the same experience. But there's one 64DD floppy that eclipses all: the F-Zero X Expansion Kit! It's the sole reason to get a 64DD - the true killer app. It's ironically also the only expansion kit that came out for the 64DD, seeing as the 64DD was intended to have many more developed for it.

Talking about the F-Zero franchise warrants its own blogpost though, which I might do at some point. But I have to say, F-Zero X with the expansion is a significant upgrade. I think I might even prefer this over F-Zero AX, which I otherwise would've considered the best in the series. But speaking of AX... that's definitely going to be a story for another day.

But before I wrap up today's blogpost, I'll have to clarify that I'm not aiming for a complete 64DD library. While I have six out of the ten disks, Doshin 2 and Japan Pro Golf Tour 64 are not worth the insane price. I am planning to get the two other Mario Artists games at some point, though. There's also plenty of other N64 games that I want, but until then I'm going to enjoy my time with my good ol' friend, the Nintendo 64. Now fully decked out, the way Yamauchi intended.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Other] And now for something different... (again)

My weird obsession with collecting video game plushies and artbooks continues. But here's an interesting question: what if one of your favorite game series had artwork made, but it does not have an official artbook for it? Would your quest end there, or would you continue to search for an alternative?

Artwork from Sin & Punishment (ISBN978-4-7753-1754-9). Any artwork from the first game is hard to find.

Sin & Punishment is an arcade-style railshooter, a short lived series with only two games that remains exclusive on Nintendo's platform. Its developer, Treasure Co Ltd, hired the freelance artist Yasushi Suzuki for the development of this series. His artwork was used for the game's box art, instruction manual and promotional material.

Artwork from Sin & Punishment 2 (ISBN978-4-7753-1552-1). Posters of the left artwork were printed to commemorate the second game's release, which has been hanging on my wall for over twelve years now. The artwork on the right was used for the non-Japanese box arts.

While Sin & Punishment does not have an official artbook (because Treasure seems to prefer to merchandise Ikaruga 

instead and port their older games to NSO), there are several volumes of Yasushi Suzuki's works. From my limited knowledge, only two volumes has artwork for the series: ISBN978-4-7753-1754-9 contains five pages of artwork for the first game, and ISBN978-4-7753-1552-1 contains sixteen pages of artwork for the second. Relative to the total of several hundred pages, that's only a small amount of available artwork for Sin & Punishment - but that's fine by me.

Artwork for Xenoblade X (ISBN978-4-7753-1552-1). Several years after Yasushi Suzuki made this artwork for Xenoblade X,
he would return to design a similar character for Xenoblade 2, who also shares the same Japanese name.

Here's a fun fact: Sin & Punishment has a couple of interesting things in common with Xenoblade. Yasushi Suzuki has made official art for both series, and Nintendo's Hitoshi Yamagami has been crucial to both game's development as without his involvement and patience, the first Xenoblade and Sin & Punishment wouldn't have been the same.

Artwork for Anubis: Zone of the Enders (ISBN978-4-7753-1552-1).

But back on the art of Yasushi Suzuki. The way he makes his art look like watercolor paintings is drop-dead gorgeous. I love his work on science fiction, and he's also been my entry into the world of biomechanical art. As an appreciator of his work and as someone who has the desire to become competent at hand-drawing, I know that I'm probably never going to get on his level of graphic design when it comes to drawing as an art medium. Despite that, perhaps a field of LEGO design is the right art medium for me, and for that, books such as these will provide plenty of reference to draw inspiration from. There's a lot I can learn and pick up from Yasushi Suzuki's works. While I still have a long journey ahead of me, maybe, just maybe, one day... I hope to be able to build something as beautiful as he draws.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Other] Finally, it's here!

"Sometimes before you beat the game, the game first must beat you."

I had to wait two damn years for this, but it was well worth the wait.

This game was announced late 2019, where I pre-ordered it from the official Capcom store. Ordering this from the online store was not the easiest thing to do, since I had to use a VPN to access the website as the pre-order was not available in Europe. Additionally, I had to let this game ship to an address in the United States.

When it comes to importing stuff, I usually do it the old fashioned way where I let the product ship to a colleague from work and then wait until an overseas business trip is scheduled. It's pretty much what I'm most accustomed with, especially when it comes to Nintendo-related products. Although nowadays this hands-on approach can be considered obsolete, but it does get the job done. If you have a network, you only need to be patient. Or in this case, very patient.

Anyway, it's time for another history lesson! In the early days of the internet, indie game development became a common pastime activity with the growing popularity of free game development software. I was involved with a handful small projects as a spriter, since I found making sprites for games to be something I found interesting and fun to do.

Being that much involved with spriting grew my passion and preference for pixel-based graphics. Eventually I came across an old website called The Spriters Resource where it was easy to pluck lots of different sprite sheets. You could use these sheets to make placeholder images, which in return would make developing early builds of games easier.

It was fun to browse the expansive library on the website and I visited it daily to see what was added. Through this I eventually stumbled across sprite sheets of the then-released Mega Man Battle Network and Zero series, which is how I initially became aware of their existence. I even did end up using some of their sprites in a handful of projects.

A few years later, I was visiting my local Free Record Shop to purchase Pokémon Pearl, which then just came out.
On the same shelf, I found a copy of Mega Man ZX. Out of pure curiosity and familiarity with the sprites from its predecessors, I instead decided to buy ZX based on what was shown on the back of the box. Ironically ZX ended up being a better purchase than Pearl, as Pokémon Platinum's announcement wasn't too far away.

So yes, ZX was my entry to the franchise. It was still during a time when I was only interested in playing video games on the easiest difficulty, as I greatly struggled to beat games like these on even the easiest difficulty settings.

It was only until much later that I grew capable of overcoming challenging video games, simply by continuing to play them. By gradually raising the bar, I came to understand and appreciate the game loop of difficult video games. Eventually, I became skilled enough to beat them, to a point where game difficulty became a part of the enjoyment.

In 2016, I decided to pick up a copy of Mega Man ZX Advent, with the intent of beating Expert Mode. After that,
I purchased Zero 3 and 4 on the Wii U's Virtual Console. I also wanted to have ZX and Advent on the Wii U, but unfortunately Nintendo didn't include them with the service. Playing these types of games on a TV with a SNES controller really does bring out the best experience, and with the Zero/ZX Collection, it offers just that.

The collection itself isn't perfect, but it definitely raises the bar within its genre. It almost includes everything and the image quality is almost as good as it'll get. Unfortunately for whatever reason did they not include the Battle Network connectivity for Zero 3 and the pixel ratio for the DS games aren't 1:1. And for the sake of being a purist: the collection doesn't offer the original GBA versions of the Zero games as it only offers the DS editions. Thankfully though, what is included is a steal. Almost every regional release of each game is included (so you can play the uncensored Japanese versions if you want) and they went the extra mile by including the uncompressed audio/video files for the ZX games.

Anyway. I do hope that one day Capcom would hire Inti Creates again to do ZX3. As the most desirable games are not those that are guaranteed to eventually come out... but those that are unlikely to ever exist. Most want Half-Life 3, others wanted Metroid Dread, but to me, Mega Man ZX3 and Sin & Punishment 3 are those games.

[Other] And now for something entirely different...

I rarely add new games to my collection. At least, compared to what you could (or would) expect from someone who sinks an ungodly amount of hours in video games.

As I grew up with a Nintendo 64 during my childhood in Japan, console gaming became pretty much my only way of life when it comes to playing video games. As time went on, newer Nintendo consoles came out, and so did my budget to spend in games - in other words, the ability to own (read: buy) more games.

This natural growth in life eventually collapsed upon itself, as my Wii library at the time, grew out of hand. Gaming as a hobby became too expensive - I couldn't necessarily keep up with "the next big release".

Initially my plan was to retire from console gaming, so that I could focus my future efforts towards becoming a LEGO^® Product Designer. However, through the continuous support from the people around me, I was shown by them that it is possible to have both in life. It's not about how many games I own; it's about which ones that matters the most.

That perspective allowed me to pick up console gaming again, without the need to keep up with whatever's the next "big thing". Instead, I followed my own desire on the most fundamental way possible: by asking myself how much a game interests me, and how much I want to play that one.

By simply being sincere and thoughtful, the choices of what games I end up with are more specific and tailored to my preferences, and as a result, they are far more likely to be loved. Yes, my game collection will probably remain small because of that, but at the same time, each individual purchase ends up feeling more worthwhile and/or special. By the end of the day, isn't that kind of fulfillment what should matter the most as a hobbyist?

Anyway, about the actual game itself: Hyper Light Drifter is an indie game that's been brought to my attention when it came out on Steam. While it's been recommended to me several times, I never got to purchase it on PC. I just don't get the same immersion for games when I play it either digitally or behind my computer screen with a keyboard and mouse. Nothing beats that archaic experience of inserting a game into a console, picking up a controller and playing it on a TV. It's that "gamey" feeling that made me love playing video games, and it's a feeling I desire to keep afloat.

Expect a certain shark blogpost next month, or in July. Now, where is that physical release of Cyber Shadow...

[Other] Well... shit 3.0

I'm a tad upset that the delivery of this thing got delayed and that I didn't get it yesterday. At least I managed to get some Bricklink orders done for my Hailfire Droid in the extra time that I suddenly had.

That said, I have a lot to dive into with this Definitive Edition - in fact, I'm planning to write a dedicated blogpost to determine how much "definitive" this actually is compared to the original. I have no idea when that'll be, since I want to sink somewhere between 100~200 hours into this game so that I have a fair judgement on the overall product.

Anyway, time for me to unpack this thing and get going.

[Other] It's here!

Whoo! It's here - my copy of Smash Bros Ultimate! This box is actually pretty big...

You know what's interesting about this particular box (and the content inside)? It doesn't include Ken and Incineroar, most likely because these editions had to be manufactured way ahead of time. The retail versions of Ultimate have already been confirmed to show all characters that were confirmed for the base game, but these do not.

Anyway, of course I had to make this image. I'll jump back into the game, because I have a lot of unlocking to do!

[Other] Well... shit 2.0

 

My weekend is officially over. My room is all back in business, so I can play on my consoles again. The game has arrived just in time, I guess.

Wait a minute, this actually sounds familiar. This is going to be another one of those recurring blogposts, now isn't it?

Here's the obligatory showoff. Time to catch up on the DLC content which has been released in the past nine months, which should be worth at least another one hundred hours. I should probably start playing the game instead of writing a blogpost...

[Other] Well... shit

My weekend is officially over. I probably have to move to Mars. Until someone points me out that a day on Mars is almost as long as a day on Earth. Well, shit. Anyway, whoooooooooooooooooooooooo

And yes, I know the Nova update is in EMS. I mean, I play EMS daily. Of course, the third wave of 5th Job blogpost will arrive in a few weeks, followed by the Puncture blogpost later on! Just be patient for it.

Wait, I haven't told you I own a Switch? Well obviously, I don't always blog about everything that happens in my life.
I mean, how else can I surprise a few friends if they are subscribed to my blog? Kinda beats the point of "a surprise".

That's it for this weekend - I'll see you guys again next week! Unless something significant happens in EMS, that is.

[Other] Xenoblade X - 100% Survey Rate!

In anticipation of the third instalment of the Xenoblade franchise coming out in less than a month (Xenoblade 2), I've decided (like many other fans of this franchise) it's the perfect excuse to at least complete the Survey Rate on Xenoblade X before I get my hands on 2! My Survey Rate has been over 90% for the past year. I just had way too much fun building my character, and that has consumed at least two hundred hours, with still a few hundred hours left in sight.

A hundred percent Survey Rate in this game isn't "entirely" the same as completing the game 100%, as the Survey Rate only covers just the basics of the Mira world map. You also have achievements for the game, which requires much more (difficult) things to do, which one could argue that that's more like a true 100%.

Anyway, even if I'm done with the 100% Survey Rate, there's still a lot of things left in Xenoblade X for me to work on (building the perfect party with their own Skells each) - it's just an enormous time sink and I just have way too much stuff to do in my life. I'll definitely come back to this another day in the future, as I also have certain other things unfinished in the first Xenoblade game as well.

What do I think about Xenoblade X as a game? I think Xenoblade X is definitely an improvement on a lot of things that the first Xenoblade did "wrong" - this game just perfected the gameplay, added a ton of world and story building and in my opinion the world map of Mira (or well, as I prefer to believe, just one third of the entire planet so far if we look at the concept art) definitely was designed much more cohesive than the first game. If you loved the first game, get this one too. If you haven't played any of the Xenoblade games: get the first one, then get this one too. You can literally get both games on the Wii U (the first one as a digital download through the Nintendo eShop), as you probably do not want to pay crazy aftermarket prices for a physical copy of the first game.

Monolith Soft has definitely stepped up their game with X and has listened to feedback from the first game. And thankfully they are also brave enough to try out new things, rather than making all the games more or less the same. One of the first major improvements that caught my eye is the amount of late game content versus the previous game and the fact that nothing game breaking is truly missable in this game except for certain character fates in quests (or the two Miiverse achievements that will be permanently locked once Miiverse shuts down in a few days).

Of course Xenoblade X wasn't without its flaws (i.e. the reward ticket system and Nemesis bosses is definitely nice but it suffers from a declining player base as those content relies on an active community), but I'm sure that the next Xenoblade X game will have most of these solved again. It's just a shame that they won't bring out a patch just to make reward tickets become easier to get your hands on. Because this game will definitely suffer a lot when Nintendo will ever take down the online servers for this game in a far future, which is a shame...

Either way, Xenoblade X has definitely been an enjoyable ride and I'm looking forward to play Xenoblade 2 when I get my hands on my (obviously) pre-ordered copy. I've been following the news about this game on a daily basis for the past year and it definitely looks like Xenoblade 2 is in good hands. That's not going to be a lot of hours left on each day for anything else when it's here, I tell you...

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Other] Donkey Kong 64 - 101% Score!

Sup guys! Perhaps a bit of a different subject to talk about for today. As of recent, I have finished Donkey Kong 64 with a 101% score! I assume most of you guys have your own childhood game - well, this is mine.

Some of you recurring readers might know I have been raised in Tokyo for a few years in my childhood. To be more precise, the years where the Nintendo 64 was just brand new in stores. Obviously, that where I got mine - hence why my Nintendo 64 has all of its games running in Japanese.

This isn't my first save file for the game however, as I have erased my original I made back in the late nineties. If you can't read or speak Japanese, the only way you know how to navigate through everything as a child is through trial and error. That was all way before we had those fancy stuff such as Gamefaqs and Youtube to guide us through.
In fact, only just earlier this year, I was made aware of the Widescreen setting on this game through watching a Youtube stream of this game...

Anyway, somewhere in 2008, when we started our Youtube channel, I picked up my Nintendo 64 and started playing again. In example, I've managed to complete Mario Kart 64 and unlock the special title screen last year. This year, I've finished Donkey Kong 64. There are still a lot of games in my library I want to finish eventually to be honest, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one out there.

Interestingly enough, I already had a 101% score with just 200 Golden Banana's. I've gotten the Rareware Golden Banana rather early in the game to unlock the infinite ammunition, so perhaps that is why it jumped from 99% to 101%.

That's it for now - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Other] Two wild Giovanni appeared!

Remember that one guy from that one blogpost? Yeah, it's Giovanni!
If only both characters of him were Level 7 Mii for Streetpass Quest...

[Other] A wild Giovanni appeared!

Remember that one guy from that one video? Yeah, it's Giovanni!
If only he was a Level 7 Mii for Streetpass Quest...

[EMS] So you wanted to play Kanna? (Randomness)

Yup, you're #%@ed.

Disclaimer: This blog is not responsible for any (plot) inconveniences, injury, anger, fan-stealing, starvation, disconnecting, bankrupting, privacy damage, back pain, love, magician-rivalry or bugs/glitches when owning Haku.

Just ignore this post. I have too much free time.

[Other] Mail's here!

Whoohoo! My Super Smash Bros 3DS just arrived one day before official release. Here's a picture of my current collection of Super Smash Bros games.

Unfortunately this will probably be the last Smash Bros I can join, since I've been slowly stepping aside from console games to concentrate my funds again on reaching my childhood dream, becoming a Lego® Product Designer. This will also mean that I probably won't purchase a Wii U or future consoles even though I really love Nintendo games - it's also to note that this will also influence the Nintendo-side of Rayque3 Staff videos - we'll unfortunately have to stick to prior to Wii U and 3DS. However, keep in mind, there's nothing wrong with classics either - and the success of several Rayque3 videos truely prove that!

I might not have been hyped for Smash Bros 4 as much as I usually was for Melee and Brawl, but that's purely due to not following Nintendo or any gaming news that often anymore (whereas I wish I still would). However, after seeing the gameplay footage and livestreams from the Japanese version, the pre-order was surely a no-brainer for me.

As mentioned in older Youtube videos before, I used to live in Japan in my childhood, hence the Japanese version of the original Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64. I do also own an American version of Smash Bros Brawl, due to having the opportunity for playing Brawl earlier.

That's it for today. I'll see you again next post!

[Other] I want these!

Oh my gosh - I've just been back from the cinema, and I saw a crane game with a bunch of these. I've only seen the official Kirby plush without Copy Abilities, but these are adorable! I've actually managed to track down the fabricator for them... hopefully I can get my hands on one.

Never play crane games. Physics just screw your chances. They are made to let you lose. It's actually better to pay a bit more to get one guaranteed from a store then having to be lucky...

[Other] And now for something totally random

This is all I can say about the World Cup finals - even though I'm far from a soccer fan.

[Other] Lol Dropbox. Have a laugh.

I really had to laugh about that opening, but seriously what the...

[Other] Slow news period again.

Don't worry I'm still alive I just do not have much to blog about. News dried up again a bit. A bit of summary:

[EMS] I'm level 184 on MapleStory Europe, going to level to 185 soon. Still working on my gear and traits. Made some new friends the past few weeks.

[TF2] I really enjoy the Mann VS Machine update on Team Fortress 2. Got my 90 hour Demoman playtime.

[YT] Need a month or 2 and we will reach our first 1.000.000 total upload views! Thanks also for a few fans that contacted me online on EMS ^_^

[LEGO] Not much happened in the Lego® section. Still enjoying my collection and dusting off some sets I displayed on shelves.

[Drawing] Haven't drawn anything special, only small unimportant things.

Until next post!

[Other] L> That DHL truck

Not much to say... waiting for a DHL truck for a package ^_^
Could come today, could come next week. You'll never know.

Until next post.

[EMS, YT, Other] Still not that much news & Delays of "High-Dex Hero" videos

Hi guys, as the title said, not that much news these days. Slow news period, I could post something tomorrow since there is a Hot Time at 7:30 PM (in-game time) on MapleStory Europe.

I don't know if you have noticed but I still update my Lego® Space Display (which can be found at the menu on the right side of this blog).

I have also something to mention: I have to delay a few "High-Dex Hero" videos for the coming weeks because of an in-game bug which occurs at World Tour bosses. I do not know when this bug is fixed. I planned to record a few World Tour bosses right after the Jump patch, but it seems the bosses bugged and I do not want to record any glitched or bugged bosses. Quality is a high standard for me, so I do not even consider to record them while they are still bugged. I'm searching for some alternates.