WHAT A BALLS-UP!

So "Ocarina of Time" is due for release this Friday... and almost everybody who pre-ordered has already got their copies. Nintendo's not happy.

The basic idea is this: Australia was supposed to get our release of the game a couple of weeks after Europe. So the GameTraders store imported a whole heap and started selling them weeks before anyone else could. EBGames cracked a wobbly, saying that GameTraders broke the street date, and so most stores started selling their copies of the game last Friday. After that, all of the other retailers followed suit. Only problem is, Nintendo is still shipping the games out to areas of Australia, so some lucky sods have got their copies while some are still waiting for the "official" release on Friday. Added to this, Nintendo was all set to have a big launch party in Melbourne on Thursday night. That's now been cancelled.

So anyway, I've got my copy. (Traded in PilotWings for it) The 3D looks absolutely wonderful. Best use of 3D I've seen on the system so far. I also got the EBGames preorder bonus, which is a real working ocarina! I'm pretty terrible at it. I never realised how difficult an instrument the ocarina is. There's so many different holes on the thing!!

I will put Zelda on hold for a while though, because I'm becoming more and more aware at how long it's taking me to play through FF5. I'm still progressing; I'm into Galuf's world now. Got a few jobs maxed out, which is cool. But yeah, it's a pretty epic game.

STILL ALIVE...

I'm still here! It's just that Final Fantasy V (or any FF game, for that matter) is no walk-in-the-park-overnighter. I've been making pretty good progress, but it might still be a few days (or perhaps even another week) before I'm done with it. Not quite sure what percentage I would put on my progress. For those who know the game, I haven't got Krile yet, but I've seen three of the crystals smash. (OMGZ!! TEH SPOILAHZZ!!)

Anyone else playing the game or played it recently?

EPISODE TWENTY-FIVE

Finally! Sorry it's taken so long to upload this week's vid, but it's been a pretty busy and stressful time. (If you know any teachers, ask them what report-writing time is like...) That, and also my computer has just been doing weird stuff. When I finally rendered this video out, it appeared without sound. For no understandable reason at all. It took quite a while, but I figured out a roundabout way to get the sound included. Stupid computers. <_<

Here are the outcomes...

So in the next week (or two!) I'll be once again playing through the Fantasy that is Final. It's no small game, so I'll try my best to be quick. I did get around to completing Heavy Rain (that was quite amazing!) and I just recently got Kirby's Epic Yarn, which I'm loving. It's totally old-school, presented in a whole new way. I hope it won't take too long to play through FF5. 'Til then, stay cool and happy gaming!   :-)

SUPER PLAY CORNER - DECEMBER 1992 / JANUARY 1993 (cont.)

 

Welcome once again to the Super Play Corner. The next Video Episode of the blog is still a few days away (sorry, super busy!) but here's another look at what was making headlines in Issue 3, back in December '92 / January '93.

Ah, FF: Mystic Quest... What a piece of garbage. What's interesting about this story is that FFV (which was just about to be released in Japan) was all set to become "FFIII" in America. As we know now, that never happened, and FFVI got that honour... Which, of course, meant nothing to PAL gamers, as the first game in the series we ever saw was FFGVII!

(Click on the image to view it full-size) Another game that never got a Western release (until just a year or two ago) was Dragon Quest V. It's amazing that a game series with such a phenomanally massive following in Japan just couldn't catch on in the west. I'm actually playing through DQV on the DS at the moment. (Y'know, in all my spare time and all that...) I think I'm getting near the end. It's quite good, but I can't decide whether or not I like it better than DQIV.

This is from the "Letters" section. Check out the two Street Fighter pictures. See what we PAL gamers had to put up with? Squashy, slow graphics. Grrrrr... Thankfully with the advent of HDTV this kind of rubbish doesn't happen anymore. Back then though, we either put up with it, or bought an imported machine. I was ignorant. And a kid. I didn't really know any different so I just put up with it.

Hopefully my Final Fight / Ghouls & Ghosts / Mickey Mouse episode will be up in a few days. Stay cool. :-)