Pokemon Pearl and DS Lite Acquired!

I have lots of pictures of the newest additions to my collection and here they are for your viewing pleasure.

Pokemon Pearl. As you can tell from my previous blog post, I was pretty excited to pick this one up.

Here's a shot of the case open.

Here's a shot of the case, documentation (manuals, etc.) and the game itself.

My Brand new DS Lite. I traded in my old DS to get this puppy, and I'm glad I did. My old DS wasn't in the best shape and I had been meaning to pick up a new one for quite a while now.

Finally, here's a shot of the DS fresh out of the box and ready to be played.

Well there you have it. I'll have my first impressions of both the DS Lite and Pokemon Pearl posted sometime in the near future when I have time to sit down and really delve deep into the game and collect my thoughts. So far, the reviews I've seen have been generally positive. I'm just hoping everything I've come to expect from the game is realized when I play it.

Weekly Update: April 20, 2007

I've been meaning to start weekly blog updates for a while now and now I've finally gotten around to it. So, without further adieu, let's get down to business.




I've been on a bit of a Pokemon bender recently counting down the days until the US launch of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. I've got my eye on a copy of Pokemon Pearl and I'll be picking it up alongside a brand new DS Lite this Sunday. in the meantime, I've picked up Pokemon Leaf Green again, getting my pokemon from that game all ready to be transferred to Pokemon Pearl when I get it. I've been training my pokemon well and I've assembled some pretty tough to beat teams. When I decide to head online for the first time, (a feature I've been pretty excited about) I'm going to be pretty tough to beat.


I know some of you are going to think, "You're 19 years old? Playing Pokemon? WTF?". Well, I play Pokemon because the games themselves are actualy really fun and addictive for some reason. Plus, there's the nostalgia factor. I think back to the time I first recieved my copy of Pokemon Blue and began playing through it. It was amazing. Back then, I was absolutely hooked on the show and everything even remotely related to Pokemon so the games were naturally right up my alley.

But, as great as Red and Blue were, the most fun I've ever had playing a Pokemon game has to have been when I played the Gold and Silver versions (yes, both of them). Those were in my opinion, the best pokemon games ever made. The incorporation of real time day and night cycles, daily events that would only occur on certain days of the week and more gave the game such an epic feel that has yet to be matched in any Pokemon games.

I have hope that Pokemon Diamond and Pearl will be just as good, if not better than the Gold and Silver Versions since the development team that worked on the Gold and Silver versions also developed Diamond and Pearl.

I've got some new reviews coming down the pipe soon for Crackdown, Super Mario 64 and probably another game if I get around to it. I've been sidetracked by a few projects of mine, including updating my gaming blog (GameTime News Network. Check it out.) writing some stories, and generally being very, very lazy. I'll have these reviews up soon, don't worry.

In addition, I'm working on a new video blog. I don't know what it's going to be about, just that I want to do another one.

And before I depart, I leave you with a video I stumbled upon recently. It's pretty freaking awesome and very well done.

First impressions of the Wii

On November 19, 2006, the Nintendo Wii console was officially made available to the public. I had my console preordered at my local GameStop, so I didn’t make a fuss about rushing out to pick mine up when the store opened. At around 2 PM that day, I made my way up to the store and finally picked up my Wii console. Excitement rushed through me as the clerk went into the back room and brought out the small white box containing the object at the root of much excitement and anticipation over the past few months.



The Wii remote itself is everything I remember from my experiences with it before. In hand, it’s one of the most comfortable controllers I’ve ever used. It’s got a good feel to it in terms of balance and weight, and it fits naturally in your hand. The nunchuck attachment is incredibly light (almost to the point of feeling a bit cheap) but is well designed, and is comfortable for long playing sessions. I also noticed the analog stick is a bit smaller than the one found on the Gamecube’s controller, but that’s neither here nor there. The only gripe I have regarding the Wii remote is the speaker. The sound quality just isn’t that good. The sounds are tinny and lack the clarity you’d find from most good quality headphones or speakers you’d find today.

The Wii console’s interface is well designed and is easy to work around. Flipping through the Wii “channels” is oddly reminiscent (in a good way) of flipping through channels on a television. Due to the similarities (at least in a physical sense) between the Wii remote and a traditional television remote, the channel interface was probably intentional. It’s simple, it’s easy, and very intuitive.

After playing my share of Wii Sports (the only game I have at the moment), I have to say that I am very pleased with how this game turned out. It’s pretty much every thing I expected and more. If you recall, I had a chance to play it last September at the Nintendo Fusion Tour event. After that small taste of Wii Sports, I was itching to play more. Wii boxing and Wii bowling are easily my two favorite modes, and boxing is great fun with a friend (but then again, all these games are great with a friend).

So far, the Wii has lived up to my expectations. I’ve had a ton of fun with it so far, and the only way I can go is up. I’ll be picking up some additional games soon and I’ll post my impressions on those as I get them. Has the novelty of actually swinging my arm (or flicking my wrist) to control my games worn off yet? No, not yet. In time, it probably will. It’s up to developers to come up with innovative and exciting ways to use the Wii remote’s motion sensing capabilities to keep the gameplay fresh and keep gamers and non gamers alike coming back for more. It’s certainly got me intrigued.