GAME: Cave Story

And now time for something completely different, which is similar to a few other well known games, yet retains such a unique feel of its own. It's Doukutsu Monogatari! I mean, Cave Story!

Legend has it that this game was created by one single man, Daisuke Amaya, who wasn't even specially trained in the many set of skill that are pulled together to create great video games. He wasn't a professional writer, heck, he didn't even know how to read or write music, and yet this game has some of the most memorable and catchy tunes I have ever heard. Even if that story turns out being fake, well, we are still left with an incredible story, a Cave Story.

Cave Story is an action platformer video game that was inspired by other classic NES games such as Megaman, Metroid, and Castlevania. Few similarities can be seen through the gameplay, yet Cave Story manages to capture its own feel and a slightly different style of play. It's a game about jumping and shooting... downward, and upward as well.


You play as boy robot. (But you don't know that, yet, because you woke up with AMNESIA!) You make your way out of the small cave that you found yourself in and you find a small village of bunny-like creatures called Mimigas. Turns out that there is an mad doctor who is kidnapping these people one by one and it's up to you to help them out.

I'll say that the story itself is quite engaging. Sure, it's a simple game at first but then you'll find yourself moving along just to find out what happens next. By the end of the game, you would have talked to many characters for such a small game and there will be several things happening at once in the plot. Though the game itself is quite linear, in terms of the levels you will play through, the game has multiple story endings, each affected by the responses that you give to characters in the game. In addition to the linearity, there aren't really any side quests, which helps the plot move along a lot faster. Pretty much every favor you carry out moves things along. Just as a forewarning, this game does feature quite a bit of back tracking.

Cave Story's gameplay is solid. As the boy robot with a gun, you can jump and shoot in both directions, aim upwards, and shoot down from above while you are in the air. Throughout the game you can find other weapons to utilize in your arsenal. The main mechanic that made this game stand out apart from the rest is the "Level" system. When you defeat enemies they drop Doritos, and eating these Doritos offers grants your weapon Double XP. Gain enough Experience for your weapons and they'll become more powerful. However, this "Level up System isn't simply a "nowhere but up" kind of deal.

Taking damage has more consequences than simply losing HP. Your weapons are also downgraded slightly and will "Level Down" if enough damage is taken and enough Doritos are thrown up in the process. (No, you cannot pick up barfed out food and eat it again. This isn't Sonic the Hedgehog.) But not to worry. Although the game is quite challenging, it's a very forgiving game. Some of the bosses aren't hard to defeat and they even spawn minor enemies that still drop Doritos for your weakened weapons and Hearts for your weakened body. But remember, this game is still challenging, and it'd be unwise to not save often as you will start out from your last saved state if you die. Making it through the stages is probably where most of the difficulty comes from as they are usually crowded by many enemies and there are many environmental hazards scattered throughout the game, especially in the later stages.

I recommend this game to everyone, especially since it's FREE! [It's a free game, and it's a great game.] That right, this game is a freeware game; well, at least the original is free. You can download the original version of the game, the version that I played, from this website. Cave Story is available for purchase in the remastered versions Cave Story+ [On the Nintendo eShop, Wiiware, and Valve's Steam Store] and Cave Story 3D [For Nintendo 3DS].

I still wonder why this game is called Cave Story.

Team Fortress 2 : Halloween Event 2012 Review

By now the excitement surrounding the Halloween Event has begun to die down and by the time you read this it might already be over. Yes, Halloween already passed, we are one week into November, we should probably stop thinking about Halloween and candy and start thinking about the best, next holiday, but I just want to share a little more on how my experience with the Halloween event was by reviewing each map.

The Scream Fortress Halloween Event is finally over and it's time to move onto doing other things and get ready for the best next holiday [in the U.S.]; but before I move on, a review of the maps and my experience with the whole event in general.

HARVEST: Harvest is a King of The Hill game mode map and was introduced in the Halloween of 2009. The objective is to seize control of a capture point in the center of the map for a duration of 3 minutes. Harvest is the simplest of the other maps. Although there is a Halloween version of the map for the event it doesn't offer as much as the others. Halloween Harvest offers the Halloween decorations, exploding Pumpkins and even features the ghosts, but no Haunted Halloween Gifts or a Boss to fight. Still, Halloween Harvest is a charming map to play on with a simple design and aesthetic.

MANN MANOR: Mann Manor is an Attack/Defend Control Point game mode map was introduced in the Halloween of 2010. It is one of the most intricate maps designed for TF2 since it isn't simply symmetrical for both teams to navigate through the same way; RED and BLU sides of the map aren't mirrored. This map features Halloween Decorations, Exploding Pumpkins, the Horseless Headless Horsemann as the boss, and it was the first map to drop Haunted Halloween Gifts, which contain Halloween Masks. The map is elaborately designed, with BLU team's Spawn point beginning at one edge of the map, starting out from small shacks on the land, then leading to multiple entrances to reach the final Capture Point located within Redmond's Mansion. For BLU players, the first two capture points are quite easy to reach, but the final capture point is always the most difficult as the entrances are small and make it easier for RED Pyros, Soldiers, Engineers, and even Heavies to kill any incoming BLU team members.
     As for the Boss, Headless Horseless Horsemann is a ruthless killer. He is a neutral Character and will attack any player regardless of what team they are assigned to. Headless Horseless Horsemann turns Team Fortress 2 into an extreme game of Tag. Although HHH prefers to decapitate nearby players, he can and will focus on a player even if they are far away. Whenever a player is targeted by HHH, that player is tagged as "IT" and can Melee a player on the opposing team to tag them as it, otherwise it is inevitable decapitation by the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head taker. [Bonk! Atomic Punch will only save you for a few seconds. You can't even melee attack in that state so you're good as gone.] Defeating Horseless Headless Horsemann rewards you with 2 different achievements and 2 different Achievement items. The first achievement is Sleepy Holl0WND, getting credit for killing HHH and rewards you with the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head, a Pumpkin Head Hat which can only be seen on Halloween or on a Full Moon. The second achievement is Gored!, which can only be obtained by executing a finishing melee attack upon HHH and it rewards you with 1 Unusual Haunted Scrap Metal. Fighting Horseless Headless Horsemann can be a frustrating experience especially if both teams aren't cooperating to defeat him, but it's not the worst of circumstances since HHH will remain on the map until he is defeated. Regardless, Mann Manor is an enjoyable map for it's game mode type, the many decorations, and the overall theme of the map is quite nice to look at.

EYEADUCT: Eyaduct is a King of the Hill game mode map and was introduced in the Halloween of 2011. This map is a "Haunted" version of the map Viaduct. Like the last King of the Hill Map, RED and BLU sides are mirrored and the objective is to seize control of the capture point in the center of the map. As a Halloween Map, Eyaduct features the Halloween decorations, exploding pumpkins, and Haunted Halloween Gifts, this time containing a Halloween Costume Piece. Each class has their own 3 piece costume set. With a new map a new boss is introduced; both teams get to fight Monoculus!
     Monoculus is more difficult to defeat than the Horseless Headless Horsemann because unlike the previous boss he will only remains on the map for a limited time. After a minute and a half Monoculus will leave the field regardless of whether or not he has been defeated. With that said, attempts to defeat him will be frustrating if both teams aren't cooperating. Monoculus won't go around the map to chase you, so this is not an extreme game of Tag, however, he accurately fires powerful eyeball rockets at players within his sight, so be prepared to face many respawns if you aren't careful.
    What I love about this map is that it's almost two different maps! Eyaduct also features an "Underworld" and a "Loot island". Since Monoculus flies around the map, he teleports from one side to the other after a certain amount of damage is dealt and he does this several times throughout the fight. Each time he teleports, he leaves behind a portal leading to "the underworld" which players can jump into. Jumping into the portal to the Underworld will take you to a haunted dimension that slowly drains your health. Escaping the underworld by jumping across tiny plots of land in an undead sea to reach a door back to the normal world will grant the player an Ubercharge. Hitting Monoculus under this Ubercharge will stun him, allowing players to deal greater damage to the boss. When Monoculus is defeated, The Bombinomicon will be left behind with another portal leading to the underworld taking players to Loot Island instead. Defeating Monoculus offers 1 achievement for defeating him and the Monoculus as a hat which can only be seen on Halloween or on a Full Moon. Reaching Loot Island and escaping it offers its own achievement and rewards players with The Bombomicon badge, which can be seen at any time.
     The map is easy to navigate through and as a result finding Haunted Halloween Gifts is easy on this map. It is a fun King of the Hill map especially since it is a reskin of the first King of the Hill map. The Monoculus battle is interesting and visiting underworld is quite an experience. Fighting Monoculus can be a frustrating experience if both teams aren't cooperating but that doesn't mean that this map isn't worth playing.

Ghost Fort: Ghost Fort is a King of the Hill game mode map and was added this year, Halloween 2012. Ghost Fort is actually a Halloween version of the map Lakeside and was the main attraction for this year's Scream Fortress. The Map features Halloween Decorations, exploding pumpkins, Haunted Halloween Gifts containing the newly added Halloween Spells and Voodoo-Cursed Parts (craft material items), the new boss Merasmus, and a bottomless pit environmental hazard! (Yes, the Bottomless pit alone is definitely worth jumping into and checking it out... even if you'll end up jumping into it on accident.) Lakeside/Ghost Fort is a challenging King of the Hill Map as it gives the advantage to players on the center of the map the advantage of higher ground and ammo and medkits are scarce in this map.
     Fighting Merasmus is definitely a challenge and attempting to defeat him is more frustrating than the previous bosses by far. In the first place, like Monoculus, Meramus only remains on the map for about a minute and a half. Not all of the classes deal the same amount of damage to him; for some reason the sniper class is able to deal 1080 Damage with a fully charged shot from the Huntsman Bow. [And using the Sniper Class equipped with Huntsman is really the most effective method to defeat the Magician Merasmus. just trust me on this.] So, you have to get both teams to cooperate, convince everyone to use the exact same class and weapon, and you have to do it all under a short time period. Good luck with that. The preparation is a lot longer than actually fighting him, even if the prep shouldn't last the whole game. Fortunately those human errors are probably the most frustrating part of the entire battle, but Merasmus' attacks are still quite annoying.
    The wizard's attacks are powerful and can reach a long range and he also floats around the entire map. You are only really safe if you remain in the spawn room. He swings his staff, shoots magic to light players on fire, throws bombs all around him, and he can even change your character's head into a bomb! Running into Merasmus with a bomb for a head will grant you an Ubercharge and will also stun Merasmus. More frustrating than his attacks are his hiding abilities. When Merasmus has suffered enough damage, he will transform into an out of place prop on the map and will also place extra decoy props all over the map. As he hides he heals and this just eats up time on the clock. In other words, Merasmus made TF2 into an extreme game of Hide-and-Seek. The Key to defeating him is cooperation, efficient attacks, being able to find him in while he is hiding as soon as possible, and of course not dying.
     Although the Merasmus boss battle was quite frustrating, Ghost Fort makes it all up by being an incredibly fun map to play on. Lakeside was a fun map to play on, but it got even better with the Halloween theme. The bottomless pit, the Haunted Halloween Gifts, the bottomless pit, the Skull island on the background, and even the bottomless pit! But main thing that set this map apart from the previous KOTH maps is the wheel of fate. Whenever a team captures the control point, a random spell will be casted upon the players. Either Big Head, Small Head, Ubercharge, Krits, etc. Sometimes, the roulette will land on the card that makes all of the live players dance with Merasmus to a parody of Michael Jackson's The Thriller! [My favorite combo of Wheel of Fate Spells is the High Jump + Low Gravity... while I am a Scout!]
     Defeating Merasmus only rewards 1 achievement. When he is defeated, he drops the Bombinomicon, again, with a portal leading to Skull Island (Previously known as Loot Island.). There you can pick up the Skull Island Topper, the Hat he wears. Escaping Skull Island [Before IT BLOWS UP] will reward you with 1 achievement and the hat. Despite the frustrating aspects of playing on Ghost Fort, it is a very fun map to play on, for either the cooperative boss fight or the competetive King of the Hill game. And remember, be careful when trying to pick up that full-sized medkit.

Wave 666: Wave 666 is a Mann vs. Machine game mode map, introduced this year, Scream Fotress 2012. It is a Halloween version of the MVM Map Coaltown, but it only features Halloween decorations and a night time environment. I only had a short chance to play this map, so I was not able to complete it. Mann Versus Machine is a challenging game mode already, but to be pit against 666 Zombies in a single wave is quite a fight. Instead of only being given $400 in credit for upgrades, you instead start off with $4000 for upgrades. Those upgrades helped me feel powerful, but the numbers were still overwhelming. I'd like to find a good team of people to conquer this map with.

Scream Fortress was more than just simply playing on a bunch of Halloween Themed maps. This was my first year playing through Halloween Goodness and it was quite interesting to see how players were acting this year. I certainly felt a little different. Three out of the Four Maps spawned Halloween Gifts. Even though the event is now over, it doesn't mean that the Maps will be gone, however the extra features such as the Halloween Gifts won't spawn and the Halloween Items will no longer drop. Eerie Crates and Halloween Spells and their effects have expired. These items made players act a little differently as they scrambled to collect as many items as they could. [That's the influence of a trending market for you.] 7 Voodoo parts could be crafted together to make a Pile of Cursed Souls and reaching into that pile gave you a Voodoo Cursed Soul of one of the 9 Mercenaries. Most people who continued playing on the Halloween Servers only did so to continue searching for Halloween Gifts when it was their turn to find one. I'm not saying this was a bad thing, it's just much different than the normal behavior people have when playing online; the reason they play is changed for this time. Still, despite the change in the atmosphere there was still some pretty good games that were had. It felt great when random people were able to get along on a server and it was especially beautiful when most of the players cooperated to defeat the bosses and agreed on whether or not to extend the map time or change to another. I had lots of fun and I enjoyed my time playing during the Halloween Event. If you were there, I hope you enjoyed your time too. If you weren't there, well, maybe you can join us next year, when we will be fighting the Horseless Headless Horsemann-LESS HORSE!!!

Halloween Themed Loadouts

This post is just to showcase the loadouts for my classes.

 

*Scream Fortress 2012: Spectral Halloween Special

Alright guys, for the past week I've been playing Team Fortress 2, enjoying the Halloween Update. It's lots of fun and I find it quite enjoyable for many reasons pertaining to its aesthetic appeal. I've also gotten plenty of items since I started playing when the update went live, which made it even more worthwhile providing a greater incentive to keep playing. I'll make another post to talk extensively about Team Fortress 2 another day, but I'm running a bit late to talk about how great the TF2 Halloween Event is! Fortunately, the event is live until the 8th of November so I'll try to talk about it as much as I can now.

So what's going down? TF2 is a team based first person shooter featuring different game modes and various maps to fit each one. In the "Scream Fortress" Event there are four custom event maps that feature pumpkins that explode when you fire at them [Killing 5 enemies in this manner unlocks an achievement.], Halloween decorations, a SPOOKY Ghost that lurks the map, which literally stuns your character into a state of fear, and "Haunted Halloween Gifts" that spawn in a random location on the map for a randomly selected player on the server to find. Three out of the four maps feature "Bosses" that appear from time to time and attack all players regardless of what team they belong to. Defeating the bosses rewards you with achievements and special items. Two of the maps are actually modded versions of "King of the Hill" game mode maps, so in case someone likes the layout of the map but don't want to bother with cooperating to defeat the bosses or looking for gifts, they can always join servers that feature the normal version of the map.

The recent Halloween Update included: 2 new Halloween maps, One of the them is a Mann Vs. Machine Map Featuring a wave of 666 [800] Zombies and the other is Ghost Fort (A mod of the map Lakeside), Merasmus as the Boss for that map, Voodoo-Cursed Items, (Craft Items that are included along with your Item Drops for the week), Halloween Spells that award Hats and Weapons with special Halloween effects, Eerie Crates (which require Eerie Keys to open them), and New Items that are available at the Mann Co. Store! But that's not all, Items from past Halloween Events such as the Costume Set Pieces return as items contained in the Gifts. Mann Manor, the Map that Features Horseless Headless Horsemann as the Boss, gives Class Masks as the items contained in the Haunted Halloween Gifts, and since the previous maps and their respective bosses are returning, achievements and achievement items from past events can be earned.

Each account as been awarded a Halloween Goodie Cauldron that gives the player a Halloween Seal Mask and one of the twenty-seven Halloween Costume Set Pieces upon use of the item; however, the Cauldron will expire when the event is over on November 8th if it is not used by then. Voodoo-Cursed Items can be fabricated into a "Pile of Souls". Reach into the Pile of Souls and pull out a random Voodoo-Cursed Soul, a Misc. Item that changes your class into a Zombie!

The new Ghost Fort Map is quite amusing; since it is a King of the Hill map, whenever a Team takes control of the Capture Point, "The Wheel of Fate" is spun, and a randomly chosen spell will affect the all of the players. Merasmus will change the size of your head, set you on fire, or grant your character increased stats for a short time. If you're [UN]Fortunate enough, Merasmus will pull all of the [Alive] Players and teleport everyone to the Capture Point to do the Thriller Dance!

Well, that's enough for now. I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! I'll return to talk about Team Fortress 2 another time, so I'll just leave you all some screenshots to look at. Enjoy!

[I have edited this post: I reduced the number of Screenshot images that appear. Unfortunately, laying out the images is quite a pain and it's not very easy. This is the best that I could do, so for now, I'll leave it like this.]