Sunday, May 25, 2014

Nintendo Project Resumed - Mega Man 2


I wrote another guest piece! This one's on Mega Man 2, and it's hosted by Nintendo Project Resumed. It's sort of a companion piece to my Fugitive article for ZEAL, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

You can read my piece here.

Nintendo Project Resumed is a blog series by my internet buddy Frezno, and it's a followup to Phil Sandifer's The Nintendo Project. Both are devoted to playing and writing up every game for the original NES.

My article is part of a series on the original three Mega Man games. The first was written by Frezno, the second by me, and the third which has yet to be posted is by Phil Sandifer himself! It's really cool to be in the company of such talent, and I hope to work more with Frezno in the future.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

I wanna be the very best


Crono Maniac: Hey!
Crono Maniac: Ya got a minute?
Rhete: sure
Crono Maniac: Alright, lemme paint a picture for ya
Crono Maniac: Anna's at the Elite Four
Rhete: POKEMON IS DUMB
Crono Maniac: She's got a mid 50s Blastoise and a mid 50s Pidgeot
Rhete: hope you have ice moves for lance
Crono Maniac: She has a level 48 Pikachu
Crono Maniac: (No ice moves)
Rhete: GG
Crono Maniac: She has a level 45 Dragonair
Crono Maniac: She has a severely underleveled Growlithe and Marowak that she doesn't expect to get much use out of
Crono Maniac: So she starts fighting Lorelei
Crono Maniac: Her Dewgong
Crono Maniac: Her FIRST pokemon
Crono Maniac: Wipes out FOUR of Anna's pokemon
Rhete: haha
Crono Maniac: So she manages to beat the Dewgong
Crono Maniac: And with some diligent revive use, manages to beat Lorelei
Crono Maniac: But only just barely
Rhete: yeah that sounds right... I would get wiped by the second E4 member in Soul Silver
Crono Maniac: She burned through more than half of her support items to do so
Crono Maniac: So she gets to Bruno
Crono Maniac: After trying to turn around and finding out the door is locked
Rhete: haha
Crono Maniac: Bruno's not too tough
Crono Maniac: Blastoise and Dragonair both know surf, and deal with his rock types
Crono Maniac: Bird Jesus manages the fighting types
Crono Maniac: Still takes a number of hyper potions to make it through alive


Crono Maniac: So now her stock of items is even lower
Crono Maniac: She fights Agatha
Rhete: this doesn't sound like a good plan at all!
Crono Maniac: I'm asking her right now how she beat Agatha: "Errr, I dunno? I used Bite until the PP ran out, then I used Surf"
Crono Maniac: Agatha is obnoxious because she has a ton of status draining moves
Crono Maniac: So she JUST BARELY beats Agatha
Crono Maniac: This is her first run by the way
Rhete: oh trust me, I know these guys well from the hell that was twitch playing it XD
Crono Maniac: Okay good, so you know


Crono Maniac: So she gets to Lance.
Crono Maniac: She tries to use Pikachu on the Gyarados
Crono Maniac: It ALMOST one-shots it, then Gyrados one shots Pikachu
Crono Maniac: and Lance uses a full restore
Crono Maniac: So she's got two worthwhile Pokemon and an underleveled Dragonair
Crono Maniac: On LANCE
Crono Maniac: "How'd you beat Garados?"
Crono Maniac: "Pidgeot. Fly did a lot of damage."
Crono Maniac: Then he pulls out Areodactly
Crono Maniac: She surfs it to death in one shot
Crono Maniac: He pulls out Dragonair
Crono Maniac: He's out of Bite, so the only move Blastoise can use is Surf
Crono Maniac: Which Dragons are strong against
Crono Maniac: So she Rain Dances, then uses surf as much as possible
Crono Maniac: Barely manages to wipe out the two dragonairs
Crono Maniac: With Lance using a bunch of full restores all the while
Crono Maniac: So he pulls out his Level 60 Dragonite
Crono Maniac: Blastoise dies
Crono Maniac: After getting one surf in
Crono Maniac: Then Pidgeot comes in, uses its last fly, then Wing Attack
Crono Maniac: And Dragonite dies
Crono Maniac: Ya with me?
Rhete: yeah
Crono Maniac: Coo
Rhete: dragon is strong against dragon isn't it?
Crono Maniac: Yeah, but Dragonair didn't do much
Crono Maniac: Too low level
Rhete: oh
Rhete: was expecting him to be the hero


Crono Maniac: So now she's got 1 full health pidgeot, an almost dead Blastoise and an almost dead Pikachu (I think it got revived at some point)
Crono Maniac: She's about to fight Gary
Crono Maniac: I am completely confused
Crono Maniac: I had to grind for hours on Victory Road to reach this point
Crono Maniac: And here she is with an underleveled party managing it on the first run
Rhete: pokemon master!
Crono Maniac: She has 1 full restore, 1 revive, and 1 max revive
Crono Maniac: That’s it
Crono Maniac: It doesn't look like she has a chance
Crono Maniac: BUT WAIT
Crono Maniac: She has 17 Super Potions tucked away
Crono Maniac: So she revives Dragonair and uses the super potions to heal all of her guys
Rhete: oh man
Crono Maniac: Finds four rare candies
Rhete: ALL IN
Crono Maniac: Uses all of those
Rhete: haha
Rhete: holy crap
Crono Maniac: Finds a bunch of vitamins like carbos and iron
Crono Maniac: To raise EVs
Crono Maniac: Uses all of those
Crono Maniac: Items we've ignored the whole game
Crono Maniac: She uses an elixer and a max ether to get more PP for surf, fly, and bite
Crono Maniac: So she's got four guys at full health and PP for Gary
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot, Dragonair, Blastoise, and Pikachu
Crono Maniac: None over level 60
Crono Maniac: Two under level 50
Crono Maniac: She goes into Gary
Crono Maniac: He uses Pidgeot
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot ALMOST kills Pikachu with Aerial Ace
Crono Maniac: Aereal Ace deals about 45 damage (Pikachu has about 100 HP)
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot gets paralyzed
Crono Maniac: So Anna starts using Super Potions every time it lands an Aerial ace
Crono Maniac: Healing for 50 HP each time
Crono Maniac: Whenever the paralysis stops Pidgeot’s attack, she uses Thunder Bolt
Rhete: good lord
Crono Maniac: It takes three thunder bolts to beat Pidgeot, but he uses a bunch of full restores
Crono Maniac: So its this war of attrition between Pidgeot and Pikachu
Crono Maniac: Level 59 Pidgeot vs. Level 49 Pikachu
Crono Maniac: FINALLY Pikachu wins
Crono Maniac: That's one down
Crono Maniac: Five to go
Crono Maniac: Rhydon's next
Rhete: surfs up!
Crono Maniac: It tears Dragonair apart
Crono Maniac: Anna hoped Surf would be enough
Crono Maniac: He kills dragonair before it even gets a hit in
Crono Maniac: So she switches to Blastoise
Crono Maniac: Surfs up! Two down, four to go
Crono Maniac: Next up is Venusaur
Crono Maniac: It uses Sunny Day and Synthesis
Crono Maniac: a LOT
Crono Maniac: Anna swaps in Pidgeot
Crono Maniac: It uses Fly a bunch
Crono Maniac: but Venusaur keeps HEALING
Crono Maniac: And managing a few hits in in the mean time
Crono Maniac: Anna luckily dodges a few hits, and finally takes it out with Wing Attack
Crono Maniac: Three down, three to go
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot's alive, Pikachu's barely alive, and Blastoise is alive
Crono Maniac: So out comes Alakazam
Crono Maniac: UH OH
Crono Maniac: No psychic types
Crono Maniac: No ghost types
Crono Maniac: Nothing that can actually hurt a psychic pokemon
Crono Maniac: EXCEPT Blastoise's Bite, which is dark type (40 Atk power, which isn't much.)
Crono Maniac: So Blastoise uses Bite a BUNCH
Crono Maniac: But it's not enough, even after using the one Full Restore
Crono Maniac: Blastoise is almost dead
Crono Maniac: We've still got a max revive, and that's it.
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot comes out, barely manages to beat Alakazam
Crono Maniac: It's at about one third health
Crono Maniac: Next is Gyarados
Crono Maniac: She subs in Pikachu and mashes Thunderbolt
Crono Maniac: Gets most of its health down, then Gyarodos kills Pikachu
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot manages to get a lucky wing attack on the first move
Crono Maniac: Beats Gyardos
Crono Maniac: One
Crono Maniac: left
Crono Maniac: Arcanine
Crono Maniac: Ya with me? Here's where it gets really cool
Crono Maniac: So, here's where we're at
Rhete: last guy, arcanine!
Crono Maniac: Arcanine
Rhete: just say dragonair won it with surf
Rhete: :P
Crono Maniac: xD
Crono Maniac: All that's left is a max revive
Crono Maniac: Blastoise is almost dead
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot is almost dead
Crono Maniac: No one else is alive
Crono Maniac: One surf won't one shot a level 60 Arcanine, and it has Extremespeed
Crono Maniac: She switches in Blastoise
Crono Maniac: It dies in one hit before getting a surf off
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot comes in
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot uses the max revive on Blastoise
Crono Maniac: Pidgeot dies
Crono Maniac: So now it's Blastoise versus Arcanine
Crono Maniac: No more items
Crono Maniac: Every single other Pokemon is dead
Crono Maniac: Might want to start playing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqXlSwBIHFc
Crono Maniac: Blastoise hits him with surf
Crono Maniac: Arcanine hits him with Extremespeed
Crono Maniac: Gary uses a full restore
Crono Maniac: Blastoise hits him with surf
Crono Maniac: Arcanine uses Extremespeed
Crono Maniac: Blastoise is almost dead
Crono Maniac: Blastoise uses surf
Crono Maniac: Arcanine faints




Crono Maniac: Congratulations! You are the new Pokemon League Champion!
Rhete: oooh
Rhete: haha
Rhete: man
Crono Maniac: I know!
Crono Maniac: I was completely blown away
Rhete: just don't think about how long it would take to do it had she lost
Rhete: and then had no items
Crono Maniac: YUP
Crono Maniac: Blastoise's health was at 13 at the very end
Crono Maniac: We saved before using the last bit of items before Gary
Crono Maniac: But we still would have lost about 80% of our stock
Crono Maniac: But she fucking did it!
Crono Maniac: I put down the game for six months when I got to the Elite Four xD They're fuckin' tough!
Crono Maniac: She beats them on her first go with an underleveled party
Rhete: haha
Crono Maniac: (AND she never lost a single battle in the whole game)
Crono Maniac: She says she doesn't feel like she steamrolled it either.
Rhete: that is insane
Crono Maniac: There were a number of points where she -almost- lost and didn't
Crono Maniac: It was probably the most dramatic and exciting experience you could possibly have in a Pokemon game xD
Crono Maniac: At least in single player
Crono Maniac: It took over an hour to fight all of them because she was being so meticulous and strategic
Crono Maniac: Oh wow it’s four in the morning xD
Crono Maniac: Time for bed
Rhete: night
Crono Maniac: G’night!






Saturday, May 17, 2014

Designing Drama - Fugitive Postmortem


Hey! I wrote a piece about wordless storytelling in my game Fugitive. It's hosted on ZEAL, a really awesome games criticism website I think all of you should read.

You can read my piece here.

I also recommend going to the ZEAL archive and reading the rest of the articles. Other worthwhile activities include donating to the ZEAL Patreon and following MammonMachine on Twitter. Enjoy!