Power Leveling in EarthBound

I've been playing quite a bit of EarthBound as of late. I've been enjoying it too, as I've never played it this way before. What am I doing differently you ask? Well, I'm continually fighting weaker enemies in order to level up higher than I need to be at that point in the gsme. Right now my main party member, "Matt" who is normally Ness, is above level 50 and I just defeated the boss at the top of the department store in Fourside. Under normal circumstances, "Matt" should only be around level 30.

This has changed the way I can play the game quite a bit. Most of the enemies are considerably easier at this higher level, plus I have so much money from defeating enemies that I can easily afford all of the best equipment for each of my party members. I'm about halfway through the game (it's been so long since I've played it that I can't remember exactly how much more there is, besides the fact that it's several hours worth). My objective is to reach level 99 before I go and fight Giygas back in the past. So far it's going well.

I'll definitely have to take some shots of my party's stats once I reach that level. Should be fun taking on Giygas then. I've never done it with a party that strong. Usually I've fought him when I was around level 70, which makes for quite a difficult battle. Anyways, the final battle is going to be fun, I know that much! :-)

Oh yeah, and here are a couple places where you can level up rather quickly: the factory where Belch is located... just fight the Fobbies. You may have to fight up to six at a time, but they aren't very difficult to deal with. Then later you can power level in the desert. Watch for a green caterpillar looking thing, it moves pretty fast but it gives around 30,000 experience points when it is defeated. It's worth looking for! Just make sure you can heal your party members if they get poisoned or have sunstroke! You can always stop off at the miner's cabin if you need a rest to recharge after fighting in the desert. Afterall, it's free!!

I'll post an update when I've gotten further down the road in the game! Stay tuned!

Just 2 More Reasons why Halo Sucks

Not directly focused at Halo, but being a former programmer... call it inheritance. :)

1) Bungie's website is a horror to visit with Firefox. You guys make a "hit game" but can't write the HTML for your website so it works with more than just IE?
2) Bungie's website makes use of .NET to login. The same used for Hotmail and other Microsoft stuff. It was supposed to be the next greatest thing for the Internet... but so far, I know of only a handful of websites that use it. Now I know of one more.

Robotrekking...

I managed to get my hands on an SNES RPG by the name of Robotrek. I've progressed somewhat through the game, and I have to say it's pretty enjoyable, although it seems a bit difficult. I still haven't figured out how to do everything yet... although I do seem to have a pretty good winning combination for my robot.

Basically, you're an inventor's son and you've taken up the profession yourself. You fight evil "hackers" attempting to take over the world, and generally help out your hometown by building inventions for them and rescuing their children. This is as far as I've progressed, so I know there's quite a bit more to it. The overworld map is a bit unique, unlike some RPG's where you can walk anywhere and initiate in random combat, the overworld map in Robotrek seems more like the map used in Super Mario World.

I've played it for several hours now, and I'd suggest that if you like old-skool RPG's you give it a shot, you might like it. I tend to be a bit picky with my RPG's, but this one has me coming back for more. :-)

Remember Uniracers?

I was going through my collection (which will be growing quite soon when my friend finds his box of "old" games for me to try out), and I remembered Uniracers. It wasn't a real big hit for the Super Nintendo, in fact I believe I picked it up from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart several years ago for a really cheap price. It's a quirky race game where you race unicycles against each other and do stunts along the way to increase your overall top speed. The game uses the same 3D-rendering that Donkey Kong Country pioneered when it was released. All of the objects in the game have a nice clean 3D feel to them, even though it's only an SNES running the game.

Uniracers is a very long game, with plenty of races to accomplish, lots of options and the ability to do multiplayer. I've never actually beaten the game, but I have gone through many of the courses. Once you get up into the higher levels, it gets very difficult.

You may want to pull your SNES out for this game sometime. You really missed out if you never got to play it before. As I said before, the graphics are wonderful and you'll be able to pick the controls up in no time. I'll post some screenshots of it in action sometime and let you see what it's all about. On that note, what do you think of adding more screenshots to each post so that way you can see the game I'm playing as I describe it? It would be a bit of work, but I imagine it would make it more interesting for people to reminisce and think about these older games. I may do that in the future like I've done in a couple previous posts. It seems to add a bit more life to them...

Stay tuned for more gaming updates!

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Hey, seems like the oldies never die. They just find themselves back on my computer years later. Remember Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri? It came out way back when and it was heralded as one of the best turn-based games ever! You can still get it as EA Games mass-produces them for their laptop value packs. It's a good game, although ironically it doesn't seem to want to play on my laptop right out of the box. Something about an incompatible processor...

The game is really in-depth and it'll keep you busy for several hours. I plan on playing it on my next trip out to Illinois if I can figure out what's wrong and make it work on my laptop. It's a great game for that too since it doesn't use the CD-ROM drive, nor does it need 3D acceleration. The battery will last awhile during play time... a good thing too since the game is so very long.

The game is a lot like Sid Meier's Civilization and Civilization II which game out many years ago. You control a fledgling faction and guide it through the path you believe will lead to ultimate victory. You can choose to fight, negotiate, spy, or do many other things in order to win the game. The course of the game spans several hundred years, chronicaling the landing on "Planet" to the advancement and transcendence of the human race. You can play with up to six other AI's or six humans, or anything in-between. You can also customize the planet you're on and make it more (or less) suitable for growth. The game gives you lots of options, and you can even create your own worlds or modify the alphax.ini file in order to customize unit stats, technology names, and add your very own factions to the game. It'll definitely keep you busy once you get hooked. Hours will drift on by as you play...

You can buy this sucker online, or in one of EA's game packs. If you've never played a turn-based strategy game before, it may be a bit much to bite off, but once you get the hang of it it's really fun. I just can't seem to find anyone who is willing to play it with me. :-\