Carg does things is about the various stupid things Carg does in his daily life of sitting down and doing nothing.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Craig_Brunet
Good day, readers! Guess what I didn't do today? Play Marvel Vs. Capcom 3! Tis' a shame, truly. Either way, since I can't talk about that, I might as well talk about a game I recently bought, so here we go!
I grew up on the Pokemon games, and I still play them to this day. I'll usually play them on my long bus rides to school, or road trips to visit family. While it may be childish to say this, these games are very close to me, and mean a lot. My favorite games in the series are probably the spin off series of games, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. The gameplay is you go in these dungeons with randomized small mazes, and your goal is to get to the stairway to go to the next floor. These games are pretty basic, but require a lot of strategy. I don't think they're for everyone, but my god, I love them so much that it's probably unhealthy. I've played through the first 2 games more than I should have, I could have been using that time for school or something. Either way, I figured I'd talk about one of the entries in the series I played recently, and give my opinions on it.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers Of Sky is an updated version of the second game on the Nintendo DS, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time/Darkness. These games need to learn how to have shorter titles Despite that the second game was one of my favorite things to play as a little 10 year old Carg, I never got Sky for some reason. However, now that I'm a grown up and junk, I decided to buy the game for 30$ used from a Game Store.
Overall, this is definitely this is certainly the best version of the game. It adds a few new starter characters, and includes a few small changes throughout the game, such as new items, shops, and improved some features of the game. Finally, at long last, the Croagunk Swap Shop actually makes sense! The main, big feature of this version is the 5 bonus stories that unlock while you play the game. They're small, short campaigns that let you play as secondary characters from the main story. This is the real meat and potatoes of this version, it's really interesting to play as characters that have a unique and different playstyle than what I usually use. Not to mention all of the stories in these missions are really cute, short and simple. They usually explain some backstory to the character, it's really interesting seeing the stories of other characters. I really wish there were more than just 5 of these, they're really fun to play, and have a nice story. I feel like these stories would make for good DLC in later, games. You could pay 10$ or so for a pack of extra mission starring other characters, I think that would be pretty cool. I always love seeing secondary characters being put into the spotlight, sometimes I feel like they can be more interesting and entertaining to watch than the main protagonists.
Here's a summary of all of my opinions on the special episodes in the game:
Bidoof's Wish:
Probably the episode with the most different playstyle than what I'm used to. Not only are you stuck with playing as Bidoof, an incredibly weak Normal Type Pokemon, you also have to deal with your awful partner that has an ability that constantly makes the weather hail, meaning you're forced to slowly take damage anytime you're with him. Thanks for nothing, Snover. It has a nice, cute story to go along with it too. I do have a huge conspiracy theory for this mission though, maybe I'll talk about that someday.
Igglybuff the Prodigy:
By far the easiest special mission, hands down. Igglybuff can kill anything in one or two hits maximum, and nothing ever seems to do much damage to him. Despite this, I feel like this mission is very fun, and has a really cute story. It's really entertaining to see a character who has such an important role in his youth, and that's where I think most of the charm of this episode comes from. The ending also made me sad, so that's something.
Sunflora's Mission Who's name I don't feel like looking up:
This mission wasn't bad, but I do feel like it was certainly one of the weakest both in terms of story and gameplay. I believe that my biggest problem with the mission is that Sunflora is a really weak Pokemon, making it a pretty hard episode. Despite it being hard, however, it's not the fun kind of hard. I guess the one positive is that the story had me guessing a lot, but aside from that, it was meh.
Here Comes Team Charm:
Behold, a probably unpopular opinion! This mission is laaaame. It's my least favorite by far, and I blame the characters you play as, team charm. They're so bland and boring it's ridiculous. They're entire personality is that they're basically the best team ever, and they're perfect and junk. All the other NPCs are saying that they're the coolest team ever throughout this mission, despite that I never see them doing anything cool or interesting. You know what's fun to watch? A character with flaws and motivations, not a group of perfect girls who succeed without trying and get constant praise from everyone for doing everything on the first try. Another thing that bugs me is that I'm forced to play as the weakest member of the team, Lopunny. The mission would be a lot more bearable if I could control one of the other team members, but instead, I'm forced to play as the brittle support character. It would be much more enjoyable if I had control of the other two physical characters, since I don't think it's a good idea to have the character who should be in the back healing people should be in the front taking all the hits.
Definitely the most cinematic of all of the episodes. I really enjoy this one, mostly because I really like the setting of the future and the characters that go along with it. My favorite part is when they went to blizzard island, it was really cool seeing a familiar area in the future. We only saw the future of the hidden land in the original game, it makes me wonder what the other areas were like in the future. I'd like to image treasure town has been burned to the ground. This mission also probably has some of the best life morals I've seen in a story in ages, which you really wouldn't expect from Pokemon. The only real problem I have with this episode is the ending. (Spoilers from here on out, if you actually care) Since it is technically a game made for kids, they had to give it the perfect, happy ending where everyone is OK, rather than having a bittersweet ending. I thought that it was going to end with everyone being dead, but noooo, they come back to life and everything is all cheery. Booo, lame! You don't give everyone some of the saddest deaths I've seen in recent time and then just have them come back to life for the sake of a happy ending. Booo! Shame on you, shame!
So there are my overall opinions on the bonus episodes. I think they're a great addition to the game, this is certainly the best version of the game. However, is it worth getting this game over the other version? In my opinion, not really. While this may be the best version of the game, I usually see it for about 3 times as much as the other two versions of the game.You could easily get another version, and still mostly have the same experience. I mean, the original game was 10$ at a used game store, while I got this version for 29$ at that same store. Heck, just look at the prices on amazon:
I love this version of the game, but I really don't think it's worth an extra 30$. If you can get this version, go for it, but otherwise you're essentially paying for an overpriced DLC that should have been included with the game. So, in other words, most games nowadays!
But yeah, like I was saying: Best version of the game, more expensive than it should be. I recommend playing the other two versions if you're interested in these games, or if you really feel like spending the extra money, buying the Sky Version. As a final note, I feel like this game is a lot easier than I remember it being, I barely had any trouble playing this game. That's all for this post, see you next time, where I still won't have Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.
One Punch Man is an Anime that recently started airing sometime in September, I believe. The concept of the show is that the main character, Saitama, trained so much that eventually he became so strong he could defeat anything in one punch Also all of his hair fell out. There's also some hero organisation, but for the most part, it's just the antics that go around that and good ol' Baldy himself trying to find something that he can't instantly kill in one punch. Upon hearing that concept, I was immediately intrigued. Something about it just clicked with me, and I knew I had to watch it. I can safely say that it did not disappoint, One Punch Man has quickly become one of my favorite shows out there. Aside from how absurd the concept is, the entire show feels like a parody of some of my least favorite cliches in Anime, but yet still manages to keep an engaging plot despite it's more comical nature. I love it when a show can find the perfect balance between comedy, story, and good old badass fights. After the first episode, I ended up getting hooked and couldn't help myself but watch all 6 episodes that were up at the time. Sadly, I now have to wait for a new episode every week, just like all of the other shows I watch.
Why can't I just be able to bingewatch a series for once?
The main character, Saitama, is really likable too. Despite the fact that he's the most overpowered thing in existence, he's just a total goofball. He never seems to take anything seriously, and being a hero is more of a hobby to him than anything. It's not too often that my favorite character in a show is the main character, since most of the time, the main characters just seem to be too perfect and focused on "the power of friendship" or some garbage like that. Saitama is just your average dude who happens to be the strongest fighter out there. His design is also great, there's something about it that always puts a smile on my face. It's great how he looks really silly, but then suddenly look surprisingly menacing.
Wait, wrong character!
This show is also one of the most inspirational things I've ever seen as an artist. Not because the story has morals or anything like that, but because of its origins. Before it was an anime, it was a manga, and even before that, it was a webcomic, with... Interesting art, to say the least. Despite it's poor drawings, a professional artist teamed up with the original writer to remake series, and eventually that remake got popular enough to get its own adaptation into an animated series. There's something inspiring about how it went from this:
To this:
And finally, to this:
Who knows, maybe someday, even a crappy webcomic I make could become an animated series? I mean, it probably wouldn't, but still. Either way, I recommend this series to anyone interested, although the series is currently only available in Japanese, so you'd need to watch it with subtitles to understand what's going on. If that's not your thing, you can always read the Comic, although I recommend reading the redrawn version and not the original webcomic, unless comically bad art is your thing.
And with that, I end this blog post with a GIF of Saitama biting a sword.
You read that title, Carg made a fight stick! Made one! By himself! In woodshop class! What do you do in woodshop class, huh? Swords? Pssshh! I made a functional video game controller!
For those of you who are not aware (Which is probably most people reading) a fight stick is a controller that is basically the controls you would find on an arcade machine. They're often used in fighting games such as Street Fighter, Blazblue, Marvel VS. Capcom I still wanna play that dangit, and Skullgirls, my fighting game of choice, mostly because I don't suck at it.
One question I seem to be asked a lot is "does it work?". Of course it works, why would I be going around with a non functional controller with a joystick buttons? I guess it is kind of surprising that I managed to make this, but still. If you ever want to annoy me, just ask if my fightstick works. Or when I'm going to beat Battletoads, either one of those.
As for how I made this, it's basically just a box with some wires and holes inside of it. I ordered the buttons and joystick off eBay for about 40$, which came with a small circuit board that all of the wires connected to. I didn't even have to solder them, they just plug right in. It's supposed to only work on PC, but I haven't tested it on other consoles. It probably wouldn't work, but there is a thing I found online that would let me connect it to PC, PS2, PS3, and even Xbox 360. I plan on hopefully getting that for this someday, when I finally manage to get Marvel VS. Capcom 3 so I can use this to play it. I just wanna play Marvel VS. Capcom 3 ;0;
And that about wraps up this post. I'll probably update it with more pictures later, so stay tuned for that. If you like fighting games, I recommend trying out a fightstick, and maybe making your own, assuming you can get access to the materials. Overall, the fightstick is not yet 100% complete, I still need to make it work on other consoles, but aside from that, I'm really proud with it. Who knows, maybe one day I'll see myself winning a tournament one day! I probably won't since I'm a filthy scrublord, but hey, a guy can dream, right?
The Xbox 360 is a console that has brought me a lot of disappointment and frustration. Not only do I find it a fairly boring console with not enough exclusives to warrant a purchase, but I've had some really bad experiences with the console in the past. The original white Xbox 360 model from 2005-ish is known for having many hardware issues, such as the infamous 3 light error, or the "Red Ring of Death." I myself have a few stories involving these rather stupid hardware issues, so I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'm gonna tell you how I bought 2 Xboxes that don't work.
The first one happened about a year ago; I was biking out looking for yard sales as I usually do, when I managed to find myself an Xbox 360 for 5$! What a Steal! The owner of the house was an older man, so he likely didn't even know what he had. Sadly, the small little bag I had was too small (INSERT DICK JOKE HERE) to fit an entire Xbox 360 and cable inside of, so I had to bike all the way back to my house to pick up another bag. After going back and biking a rather heavy console on my back during the rain. The rain! When I got home, I was ready to play test out the console, only to find out it didn't have any AV cables! Of course, this meant I couldn't use the system. In order to test out the console, I went over to my friend's house for the night. As it turns out, the console was only 5$ for a reason: It didn't work. It had the error code 74, which according to Google, means a hardware failure. I would need to bring it in to get the console fixed, but I never got around to it. The console has just been sitting on a shelf for about a year now, not doing anything.
The next story happened sometime this summer. Once again, I found an Xbox 360 at a yard sale! This time, the guy said it worked and was fully functional, he had tested it the night before! Well gee golly oh my, I can finally play Marvel Vs Capcom 3! I bought it for 50$ along with some controllers, and then set it all up. It seemed to work perfectly fine. I went over to my friends house, borrowed his copy of Marvel VS. Capcom 3, and went home to play it! Wow, I love this game so much, pulling off combos is so much fun, and it's great having 3 characters to switch between! Man, I am having such a good time!
GOD DAMMIT
Friggen red ring of death, ruining my day, all I wanted to do was play Marvel VS. Capcom 3! JUST LET ME PLAY MY FIGHTING GAMES MICROSOFT!
Thankfully, I was able to return it the next day and get my money back, but I still wish I could play Marvel VS. Capcom 3. I only got to play it for about 20 minutes total before my console decided to kill itself for no reason. It's insane how a console can be this faulty, my Super Nintendo from 199-something never has these kinds of issues. Heck, my Wii never has these problems either, and it came out only a year later in 2006! No other console I've ever had has ever just not functioned for no reason. I should just get a PS3 instead, it probably doesn't have these problems on it. Probably. At least I could play Marvel VS Capcom 3 on there without it breaking, and maybe I could even get my fightstick to work on it! On the upside though, they did release an updated version of the Xbox 360 with some issues fixed and improved hardware, not to mention it's black like the original Xbox!
And that's the end of my Xbox 360 stories. Hopefully one day I'll learn my lesson and not buy used Xboxes from yard sales, but I probably won't. At least I know what I'm doing the next time I get another broken Xbox 360:
Hey, you there! Do you like Smash Bros? Do you have Steam? Are you not a filthy casual scrublord? Then Rivals of Aether is the game for you! Recently released on Steam Early Access, Rivals of Aether is a 2D arena fighter, very similar to smash brothers. One may even call it a "rip-off". It was made using GameMaker Studio, a software I use from time to time. This game really inspires me to try and make more with the program, too bad I'm a lazy scrub with no talent.
BUT YEAH, RIVALS OF AETHER! All of the characters feel really good to play as, and they're all really strong. None of the characters feel weaker than another, I've been wrecked online by each character at least once. My personal favorite is Wrastor, mostly because he's a bird. He can jump 4 times in a row, and can use his strong (Or Smash attack) in the air, but doesn't have one on the ground. If I were to describe him, I'd say hes a combination of Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff, Falco and Marth from the Smash Bros. Games. He's a really good character for me, mostly because I tend to jump more than I should in fighting games. I'm starting to also like playing as Frosburn, due to his smoke ability, and knives. Knives are fun.
Wrastor, that one character I was talking about. Look at how sexy he is, it's a bird with a scarf.
Who doesn't like birds? And SCARVES?
I do feel like some characters are a bit easier to play as, though. For example, the character Zetterburn is a fairly easy to use character who can burn opponents and kill really early compared to other characters. Meanwhile, we have characters like Orcane and Maypul who are really complex, it would take a lot of time to learn how to practice and play as these characters. However, I've barely see anyone play them online, including me! I can't deny I never use them, nor do I feel like learning to use them. I myself prefer characters I don't have to try very hard to use! I'm not very good at this game...
And there you have rivals of Aether. I think it's a pretty dang fun game, and I reccomend you try it out sometime. We could even fight eachother if you have the game using online! I need someone to play against who isn't some guy who's 5 times better than me online and has a potato for a router. Laggy matches aren't fun for anyone.
It's the month of Halloween, as you can see from my last two posts made as a joke. Since it's the month of spookiness, I figured "Why not talk about something scary?" Of course, I decided to pick a game that strikes fear into the hearts of gamers everywhere: Battletoads.
Battletoads Title Screen
For those of you who aren't aware, Battletoads is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System infamous for being one of the most stupidly hard games out there. The game was made in 1991 by the company Rareware (Source), who is famous for the Donkey Kong Country games Banjo-Kazooie, and being bought out by Microsoft in the early 2000's. Many people have tried and failed to overcome this dreaded game, but few have managed to get past the third level. Even Speedrunners are afraid! My goal when playing this game was to a least get past the third level, so I can say I'm slightly better than most people who play this game. I'll do a quick run down of the first 3 levels, and my opinions on them. Before that, I'd like to first discuss why this game is so gosh dang hard.
Now I know you might be thinking: "But Caaaarg, this doesn't sound so bad, a lot of games did this back in the day! Haven't you played MegaMan or something?" Well, the thing about Battletoads is you only get 3 lives and 3 continues (Assuming you don't use the 5 lives code). You can gain 1ups from either getting 50,000 points, or just finding a 1up in a level. If you lose those 3 lives and continues, you're dead. Game Over. You gotta start all the way from the start.
3 lives.
3 continues.
That's all you get.
Have fun.
It doesn't help that 90% of the game is memorization and insane split second reaction times. I myself thought the game looked pretty fun, so I decided to try it out. After all, if one of my friends could somehow beat this game, I can do it too! After all. I'm a very talented person, and I can definitely beat this game! Yeah, I can totally do this! Help me
LEVEL 1: Ragnarok's Canyon
Level 1 plays out like your traditional beat em up game, you go left to right beating up enemies and can even pick up a weapon to use against enemies! The level is fun, and not too hard. It ends with a really cool boss fight from the view of the enemy. He'll shoot you with a bunch of pellets, which you have to pick up and throw right at the screen. A similar fight was in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. It's a really cool concept for a fight, and I love how you never actually see the boss you're fighting, it's anyone's guess what he looks like. This level is really fun and easy, and makes you think that you're in for a relatively easy time, but nope, this level does nothing but lie to you and the game only gets harder and harder from here. Insert dirty joke here
Stage 1
Stage 1 Boss
LEVEL 2: Wookie Hole
Don't let the name fool you, Level 2 is not Chewbacca's butthole. It instead has you being lowered down into a cave, while various bug enemies try to attack you, Once again, you can take a weapon from one of these bug enemies to use against them. Another cool thing about this level is that if you go to the farthest side of the stage, you can turn into a wrecking ball and plow through any enemies in your way. There's not too much to say about this level, it's not much harder than the first level, but still pretty fun. The best part about it in my opinion is being able to juggle the fly enemies to get extra points, and eventually a 1up if you hit them enough. My favorite part of the game so far is trying to use the right moves to get the most amount of points so you can get extra lives, it's pretty dang satisfying. I also love how every level seems to do something different than the last, it's variety is really what makes the levels stand out as a game. There's not a single level that resembles a previous level in terms of looks or gameplay, and it's really cool.
Level 2
LEVEL 3: TURBO TUNNEL
And now we enter the dreaded Turbo Tunnel. The name strikes fear into the hearts of anyone who has played this game, or even heard of it. It's the infamous part of the game where everything get's stupidly hard and unfair. It starts out a lot like the first stage, making you feel relatively safe, as if this level isn't going to be so bad. Then, it happens. You hop onto that dreaded hoverbike thingy and the true part of the level begins. The level is just avoiding pillars in your way and jumping over pits while you're riding on the hoverbike, it doesn't seem that bad, huh? WRONG! The timing on some of these is extremely quick, and a lot of the times I feel like you need to know what's going to happen next if you want to avoid it. A lot of people despise this level, but how do I feel about it? Well, I honestly think it's a really fun level. I didn't have too much trouble dodging most of the things headed at me, and aside from the really stupid portion at the end of the stage, I personally don't think it's as impossible as everyone says it is. I think the easiest way to get through the dumb last portion is if you get into a rythem or listen for the sound Cues, you can maybe survive! Maybe. Honestly, I had a blast with this stage, and it left me wanting more stages like this, whether because I enjoyed the speed of the level, or because I like torturing myself while playing games, who knows.
That really stupid part near the end,
except it's slowed down. A lot.
And with that I conclude part 1 of this review. Overall, I'd say Battletoads is a fun game, even though I wouldn't call it a fair game. I recommend playing the game using infinite lives or the 5 extra lives code (Hold UP, DOWN A + B and then press start at the title screen), unless you feel up to the torture challenge to play it without infinite lives. God have mercy on your soul if you don't use cheat cheats. The first 3 levels are pretty fun, but good lord, the idea that there are harder levels than Turbo Tunnel fills me with nothing but pure fear. I'm not sure if I'll make a part 2, since I don't think anyone would be able to beat this game without cheating or losing every last piece of their sanity. I do recommend playing Battletoads at least once in your lifetime if you're up to the challenge. You can get it on the Rare Replay collection for the Xbox One, and there's also a version on the Sega Genesis. Be careful about trying to call a store for this game though, they don't take too kindly to phone calls about Battletoads.
