Mega Irritating
Feb. 26th, 2004 05:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lbd_nytetraynSo yeah, some of you probably have read one place or another I have the new Mega Man figures from Jazwares. Pretty good stuff, really. I'm going to be reviewing them for Mega Man Network, pointing out the pluses and minuses. And I'd like to take some pictures of the figures to illustrate some points.
So to that end, we borrowed Red's brother's webcam to take some pictures. After a quick search for the software to run it, it seems we have an insufficient video card.
Crap. Just... crap.
So now, we're looking at an alternate means. Getting a real or disposable camera is ranking way down there, because you don't get second chances on those without spending more money, which we can't afford in the first place.
If anyone has a way to help, that'd be great.
In other news, I'm playing through BN2 via ROM, as I'm tired of falling behind on Mega Man stuff, Battle Network especially(given the rate of releases). I typically don't like ROMs, but I've noticed Capcom's made these games just aggravating enough that it's probably better that I take advantage of ROMs, for save states and cheat codes. After Shadowman, it was like they got cheap or something, between the 100+ points of damage per hit as you're pinned down, unable to dodge to save your measly 500 points.
Random encounters just happen too damn much, and I hate it when they don't let you run. Probably for the best I'm not really much into Final Fantasy and that sort of thing, as Red says it's more of that. Hope Command Mission does better.
I dunno, lately it feels like Mega Man games are less about fun and more about exercises in frustration, like they're trying to prove something now. Transmission does little more than piss me off, as I waste all my lives getting to the boss, just to be wiped out within seconds, after spending half an hour waiting for the chips I need to come up. Fuck that.
It saddens me that the MM games seem to have become so difficult in recent that for me to be able to go through them without dedicating an absurd amount of time is to cheat. It didn't used to be that way. And I hope Capcom gets their act together soon. I mean, they say their target for these is 8-12 year olds, even going so far as to sanitize the stuff into cheesey crap for the "E" rating. So why so damn difficult, cheap, or annoying? Do they want kids, notorious for short attention spans, to toss these things aside before finishing? I dunno.
I don't think it's me... at least, I hope it's not. Magazines seem to agree, though in a harsher manner, though they may be onto something. MMZ2 is up for a Nintendo Power award for challenge, the specific challenge being "completing any level in the game". That just seems wrong, somehow.
Oh yeah, BN2 is also pissing me off because I have to find this one VERY specific chip for this guy so he can fight his rival, but I don't have it, and it won't let me take another mission until I get it. Gee, Capcom, thanks for boring the piss out of me by making my progression entirely subject to your random toss-outs. :P
I can still take on the old games, beyond Mega Man. I can still handle new ones. I don't think it's me. Maybe they're just trying to cater to "hardcore" gamers, which is something I'm just not anymore. Same with various other odds and ends. I hate a lot of Konami's old stuff(dunno about new), because playing through the easy and normal difficulty levels would get you a shitty no-ending. You had to beat it on HARD. Similar deal with Sonic Heroes, I hear, as they have you going for these Chaos Emeralds in glitchy Bonus Stages, which I've never been good at.
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle has a recreation of the first stage of the first Sonic game as an unlockable. Problem is, to open it, you have to get so many "A"s that you'd think you were at a Fonzy look-alike convention. It's just not worth it to me, and that disappoints me, much like most of the unlockables in that game, which I believe feature near-similar rules for obtaining them. And those are mostly for 2-player mode, which makes them useless to me, as I have no one to play against(the wife gets motion-sickness from prolonged exposure to it). Thanks, Sega. Would it kill you to make it so the rest of us could use 'em?
I have a nasty temper sometimes. The media tries to blame violent behavior on video games. Maybe they're right, just in the wrong way. Rather than the content being the cause, maybe it's just people with worse tempers than mine acting on impulse after the 50th intense round of a game that sees them as the loser for the 50th consecutive time.
I just don't know what to think on this stuff anymore. I just want to have fun. Where it used to seem like skill was gradually acquired towards overcoming an obstacle, now it feels more like the only reason I win is the grace of God. I guess, as in many aspects of life, The Simpsons sums it up best:
Bart: I thought you came here looking for a challenge.
Lisa: Duh! A challenge I could do!
LBD "Nytetrayn"
So to that end, we borrowed Red's brother's webcam to take some pictures. After a quick search for the software to run it, it seems we have an insufficient video card.
Crap. Just... crap.
So now, we're looking at an alternate means. Getting a real or disposable camera is ranking way down there, because you don't get second chances on those without spending more money, which we can't afford in the first place.
If anyone has a way to help, that'd be great.
In other news, I'm playing through BN2 via ROM, as I'm tired of falling behind on Mega Man stuff, Battle Network especially(given the rate of releases). I typically don't like ROMs, but I've noticed Capcom's made these games just aggravating enough that it's probably better that I take advantage of ROMs, for save states and cheat codes. After Shadowman, it was like they got cheap or something, between the 100+ points of damage per hit as you're pinned down, unable to dodge to save your measly 500 points.
Random encounters just happen too damn much, and I hate it when they don't let you run. Probably for the best I'm not really much into Final Fantasy and that sort of thing, as Red says it's more of that. Hope Command Mission does better.
I dunno, lately it feels like Mega Man games are less about fun and more about exercises in frustration, like they're trying to prove something now. Transmission does little more than piss me off, as I waste all my lives getting to the boss, just to be wiped out within seconds, after spending half an hour waiting for the chips I need to come up. Fuck that.
It saddens me that the MM games seem to have become so difficult in recent that for me to be able to go through them without dedicating an absurd amount of time is to cheat. It didn't used to be that way. And I hope Capcom gets their act together soon. I mean, they say their target for these is 8-12 year olds, even going so far as to sanitize the stuff into cheesey crap for the "E" rating. So why so damn difficult, cheap, or annoying? Do they want kids, notorious for short attention spans, to toss these things aside before finishing? I dunno.
I don't think it's me... at least, I hope it's not. Magazines seem to agree, though in a harsher manner, though they may be onto something. MMZ2 is up for a Nintendo Power award for challenge, the specific challenge being "completing any level in the game". That just seems wrong, somehow.
Oh yeah, BN2 is also pissing me off because I have to find this one VERY specific chip for this guy so he can fight his rival, but I don't have it, and it won't let me take another mission until I get it. Gee, Capcom, thanks for boring the piss out of me by making my progression entirely subject to your random toss-outs. :P
I can still take on the old games, beyond Mega Man. I can still handle new ones. I don't think it's me. Maybe they're just trying to cater to "hardcore" gamers, which is something I'm just not anymore. Same with various other odds and ends. I hate a lot of Konami's old stuff(dunno about new), because playing through the easy and normal difficulty levels would get you a shitty no-ending. You had to beat it on HARD. Similar deal with Sonic Heroes, I hear, as they have you going for these Chaos Emeralds in glitchy Bonus Stages, which I've never been good at.
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle has a recreation of the first stage of the first Sonic game as an unlockable. Problem is, to open it, you have to get so many "A"s that you'd think you were at a Fonzy look-alike convention. It's just not worth it to me, and that disappoints me, much like most of the unlockables in that game, which I believe feature near-similar rules for obtaining them. And those are mostly for 2-player mode, which makes them useless to me, as I have no one to play against(the wife gets motion-sickness from prolonged exposure to it). Thanks, Sega. Would it kill you to make it so the rest of us could use 'em?
I have a nasty temper sometimes. The media tries to blame violent behavior on video games. Maybe they're right, just in the wrong way. Rather than the content being the cause, maybe it's just people with worse tempers than mine acting on impulse after the 50th intense round of a game that sees them as the loser for the 50th consecutive time.
I just don't know what to think on this stuff anymore. I just want to have fun. Where it used to seem like skill was gradually acquired towards overcoming an obstacle, now it feels more like the only reason I win is the grace of God. I guess, as in many aspects of life, The Simpsons sums it up best:
Bart: I thought you came here looking for a challenge.
Lisa: Duh! A challenge I could do!
LBD "Nytetrayn"
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 10:37 am (UTC)But yeah, I remember playing Mega Man X, and I could kinda get by. But then one day my little cousin brought over his copy of MMX2, and asked me to beat a boss for him... I got totaled!! And I haven't been keeping up with the MMBN series lately, but even the second game seemed to significantly ramp up the difficulty from the first game.
Doesn't Capcom realize this'll just make things harder for people to jump into the middle of a series? I guess part of the reason I never got into Mega Man much outside of Battle Network was because of that... It's too hard to just jump in, and so you'd have to start with the very first game and really train.
One thing that bugged me about Smash Bros. Melee was that "no hits" bonus you could only get if you went through arcade mode without a single hit. But I guess you don't earn anything essential anyway, just another trophy for collecting all bonuses, so it's more of a take-it-or-leave-it kind of deal... Double Dash seemed impossible at first, but after beating its challenges I felt like I earned them and they weren't quite as impossible after all. That's something of a better challenge, I think!
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 11:07 am (UTC)MMZ2 does not bother me so much. Yes the bosses are hard, but that's only if you worry about your ranking. If you use all the Nurse elves to make yourself immortal (which isn't very hard, really..) you can get through the game with no problem. It's just those A Ranks that are hard.
With Sonic Adventure 2 however.. the game's too poorly designed to be worth that kind of effort, to anyone. THe game tells you that you suck when half the reasons a player will make a mistake are related to HORRIBLE camera angles, and glitchy hit-detection. It's just not right. And then to have a bonus level that's only achievable through the A-ranks.. it's not that they want you to get all A-ranks that's annoying, so much as that getting an A-rank demands that you throw your life away to the game.
With MMBN2.. eh. I never found them to be that much of a headache. Yes, some enemies had attacks that would pretty much get you killed in no time flat. But that's why the game allows you to save at just about any point except mid-battle. With some good planning and timing you can easily whipe out the enemies in no time flat. If you can't or won't do that, then the BN series isn't for you. It's been the concept of the series from game 1. I AM 100% behind you on the stupid chip collection stuff. Of course, the chip results aren't really random...
All in all. I THINK you problem more often than not is the poor testing of a game, or the horribly high expections for bonuses. Most of these games are not in and of themselves, to go through and beat, that hard. I long ago decided I had no interest in collecting all the bonuses in every game, especially not stuff like Final Fantasy. Maybe you should consider applying that to these games. Believe it or not, some people get most of their enjoyment in a game from those optional challenges, so I don't think their presense is a mistake or particularly a bad idea.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 08:12 pm (UTC)But if the only way to get the real ending of a game is to throw your life away... why even bother playing in the first place? If someone wants more challenge, then I think their reward should be overcoming that challenge. Hell, that used to be what gaming was all about: being better than anyone else.
BN2, I dunno... I think when the "killer enemies" of Gospel are the easiest Navis in the game, there's just something odd and wrong about that. Thunderman and Gutsman are far worse than any of Gospel's goons. That's part of the problem I didn't mention: challenge levels of the actual enemies just seems off.
LBD "Nytetrayn"
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 12:03 pm (UTC)But I don't know how long it would take to get to canada x.x
no subject
Date: 2004-03-02 08:58 pm (UTC)Also I find passing through Shadow Man's stage easy if you manage to get as many star arrows as you can, then ride on them rather than suffering from the moving platforms.
Yeah the thing I never really bothered to do in MMBN games is chip collecting, most of the time I just go for the "main" story, and stop there. Yes I know there's a pointless frustrating Forte battle, but still.
And yes Frost Man's stage in MM8 wins the extremely annoying award.