Slightly delayed. I was benched due to not feeling good and not wanting to sit and think about stuff I have to type, interest in the Windows 7 beta, and various Princes of Persia, so here’s my next post in the series only a bit late.
Bite Size 2008 is my wrap-up of moments in games from the past calendar year. This post is themed around, you guessed it, handheld games! Specifically, DS games, as I delayed my purchase of a PSP once again. The DS was a pretty big component of my gaming in 2008, because portability is awesome, and good games with said portability is even better. Check out this listing for the rest of my Bite Size 2008 posts!
To be Honest, I’d Spend My Quarters on it Again
In 1995, I was nine years old. I had just recently completed my first full playthrough of Final Fantasy III for the SNES, after many failed attempts, and I was looking for something new. In these days, I didn’t own many games. I saved up my quarters and change I got from returning bottles for my grandmother and helping my dad out with odd jobs around the house, and I rented games. One day, I rode my bike up to the nearby Family Video (which was brand new at the time) and rented a game that sat on the corner of the shelf called Chrono Trigger. I took it home, and played. It was a fun game, with cool characters, and I spent many of the aforementioned quarters on renting it in consecutive rentals. I still remember the way I felt when I first traveled into the future, after the Day of Lavos, to see what became of the world. I never completed it at the time (I ran out of funds, and did not fully complete the game until I was running an emulator on my PC a couple years later), yet the game had such an impact on me, it stands as my favorite game of all time. With the DS re-release of the game, I’m on something like my 7th playthrough of the game, and I still enjoy it. It holds up well against the test of time, and I can’t wait until the day I get to show my children what an amazing game it is.
Experiencing a Classic
In the last paragraph, I mentioned my love for Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger. The 16-bit era was the birth of my love for RPGs, with those two games, as well as The Illusion of Gaia, The Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, and more. However, one game I overlooked in this time frame was Final Fantasy IV, known as II at the time. I had started it once in my also previously mentioned emulator phase, but I never stuck with it. This year, I was given a new chance to take a stab at it, and with the release on the DS, it looked more than likely that I would give it a go. I finally see why so many give it high regards. The tale of Cecil and company is a well twisted one, with plenty of drama, excitement, and mystery to craft an interesting narrative. The implementation of an Auto-Battle system also helped to make the game a little less button-mashy than some old school RPGs tended to get in their later stages. While I’ll admit I have not yet finished the game (I picked it up late, and Chrono Trigger may have interrupted me), I’m about 75% complete, and I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit. My only complaint is that Cecil looks a bit too wimpy after his transformation.
It Is Four In The Morning, Oh Damn… One More and I’m Done
I was always the kind of kid who liked story problems in school, while everyone else sat there hating them. I love a good mind teaser, and that’s why I love puzzle games. I’ll admit I’ve picked up a paperback logic puzzle book here and there as well (more recently than one would think). Given that prerequisite, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a no-brainer as far as whether or not I should pick it up. Throw an actually interesting story on top of it (classic murder mystery, with a twist!) and add in downloadable puzzles, and upon picking it up, I was damn near ready to call it my game of the year. I spent so many nights up until 4 AM trying to figure out puzzles. I’ve completed every downloadable puzzle and every puzzle in the game except the very last bonus room puzzle (the block moving puzzles are my least favorite anyway). I’ve already decided that when I have my own classroom, I will start the students off with a warm-up puzzle, just to get their minds running. The only thing I can wait for now is for the second and third games to make their way stateside!
One more piece left in the puzzle of Bite Size 2008, and then it’s off to the races for 2009!
