This Is Not a Version Update Part 1: The Dream

Many games being played at the same time.  This can sometimes lead to disaster.  Unless you are able to organize your time and priorities properly.  Somehow with my crazy life and work I am succeeding in this crazy feat.

At the moment I am playing the following games:

There are more to these, however I have been playing these the most so I will only speak of these to save time.  I am going to split each game up into its own post so as not to make this too long.


Azure Dreams:
Reliving this game from when I first played it in middle school has been fun.  I first rented this game from my local Blockbuster (oh God, those were the days).  I was on a big Pokemon kick and I saw this game for Playstation.  It seemed similar to Pokemon so I decided to try it out.  I am glad that I did.

I kept playing it and playing it, returning it and then checking it out again.  I eventually bought a copy off a kid at school for 20.00 (a good deal now I believe).  After playing it for awhile I decided one day I would attach a gameshark to Azure Dreams to help me out.  The game became a little buggy and I was never able to play properly again.  To say I was pissed off is an understatement.

As the years went by I tried my copy of Azure Dreams on my PS2, which it worked for a little while but then started to glitch up on the opening cutscene.  Then when I got my PS3 I thought "THIS IS GOING TO BE IT".

I was so wrong.  Still with my PS3 I was unable to get through that damn cutscene glitching problem.  I tried cleaning the disc, doing all different things.  Alas nothing worked.

It was not until I finally got my emulator program running on my PC that I was able to do an image copy of the disc that I own to my computer that I finally was able to get through that damn glitch.  Since then I have been smooth sailing with the game.  So many memories are flooding back to me.

To sum up this game that maybe not a lot of people know about, your father dies and when you come of age you are allowed to climb up this tower that has 40 floors.  All floors are filled with monsters, with floors that change to random designs each playthrough.  You have to collect monster eggs and either sell them or hatch them to get monsters to fight with you.  Your level does not mean anything in the game.  You will pretty much always be weak unless you spend a hell of a lot of time leveling up your weapon.  The real strength is with your monsters.  The stronger they are the better your chances of survival are.  It takes many, many journeys into the tower to get just one monster levels up enough to be useful.  It takes more to do at least two.  You can also fuse monsters together to change their element and their magic, as well as give them hidden abilities.  Something for the true completion players.

The other thing you do is gather money to help rebuild the town (to benefit you and others), complete some quests, and to make girlfriends.  Many girlfriends.  Each girl requires different things you need to do to have them fall in love with you.  Once you make girlfriends (funny, in Japan they are your wives, however because the character is 15, you can't get married in the good ole USA at that age, they say) you can get some fan service and see them in their bikinis at the pool.  There is a secret girlfriend, however you won't know who that is until you conquer the tower.  OOOOHHHH  mystery.

I will admit that there are translation errors to the game.  Not surprising.  That the story is ok, but there is definite room for growth.  The fact that you can't enter the tower with more than 5 items is a pain in the ass, but the limitation provides for you to think ahead and take risks.  Things like these are maybe the reason why this is never Game of the Year material, however Azure Dreams is a great game to just play and have fun.  Its a nice "rare" gem of a game that is off the beaten path from the big AAA games.

I find myself with almost my first girlfriend (DO NOT LAUGH.  I AM HAPPILY MARRIED), and at least one monster that may be strong enough to take me all the way to the top, not including Kewne.  I currently find myself working on gathering supplies to fix up the town, but once I am ready to conquer the tower I will probably switch gears real quick.

I do believe that Azure Dreams deserves a remake, or at least a release on the PSN.  It would be real fun to play on a PSP or Vita, that is for sure.  Almost perfect for them in fact.

Gaming Together

When I was growing up I never played two player games that much.  I mean I played a lot games that had two, sometimes three, player options on them.  Secret of Mana is one.  In fact, that is an amazing game and most likely one of the greatest of all time (damn do they need a sequel to that).

I just chose to play games by myself cause I am a depressing loner (I swear I am not that emo).  I retract the depressing loner statement and add that I am just a tad introverted.  I liked to just hang out at home by myself at times.  No problems with that at all.


Nowadays I still play many games by myself, but I have a few that allow for more than one player to enjoy at one time.  A lot of these are on the Wii, or really any Nintendo platform.  Nintendo makes good multiplayer, non-shooting, games for people to enjoy with others in the living room.

Now I come to Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.  My mother graciously got the game for me for Christmas and the wife and I started playing it about a month ago.  We haven't played too many games together (really, its probably under the amount of 5) and my wife loves the Mario series.  She is a huge fan of Super Mario 2 and 3.  She is the boss at Super Mario 3.

So the wife says that she wants to play Galaxy one day, and I say sure.  Its setup so that if you play with a second person, the first player does all the controls of Mario, and the second player is there mostly to help pick up star fragments, shoot them at enemies, and talk with you about things.  Knowing this I told her she should be the first player and I would be second player.  We started off with this setup and were doing great until having to fight the prequel boss.  Its really hard to keep Mario moving and the world be on a 3D planet that moves around.  Makes my damn head hurt a lot.

So we realized that maybe we should change things up and have me "drive" the adventure and the wife would man the co-pilot.  The game became a lot more fun.

From inappropriate comments about shooting stars at certain things mouths (plus their reaction/enjoyment of a tasty treat for them), to figuring out how to get through different obstacles, to just staying up later than we normally do because we are enjoying the moment with each other.  All of it is amazing.  I love playing games with my wife.  I found it funny that the first time we went a couple of days without playing she texted me to say that she was really hoping to play tonight.  We have kicked major ass and are at level 3.1.

Don't get me wrong.  Its not a secret that a lot of male gamers would love to be in a relationship with someone who plays games with them.  Who appreciates them as much as them.  I have for years wanted my wife to do that.  But now, just playing the game together I am discovered that I am glad she isn't as much of a gamer as me.

I am not as hardcore a gamer as others, but I do play frequently.  I also know my information and can hold up pretty well with others.  So thinking that I want that special someone in my life to be at that same level is a little frightening.  Yeah it would be cool at first, but then we would probably spend a lot of time just playing games and competing between each other without going out and enjoying new things.  My wife loves to run. Hell she ran a marathon.  She has gotten me to run a little here and there, something that I would not have probably done on my own.  I have experienced art museums, owning a kickass dog, and lots of other things that I might not do by myself, or by having someone who is just like me.

Now my wife just playing Mario games, and really small mobile puzzle games is great.  Because when she sits down and watches me play games, she sometimes asks questions about the story or what is happening.  She can get into things or just sit and read, knowing that I am getting some enjoyment in my moments of just escaping.  A little game therapy.  However its when she plays games on a console that my eyes light up.  She has this fascination with the games.  So much fun playing and enjoying them that I sometimes end up thinking "when was the last time I had this kind of exposure to a game where I was so in touch with things"?  I am not saying my wife is a little child, however she plays things with the enthusiasm of a person coming to it for the first time.  I love that.

This is something that I wouldn't have if I married a gamer.  This is something that would be rare if nonexistent if I married someone who played games as much as me.  I would not get this inspiration to look more into the games I choose if I didn't see the face my wife makes when playing Mario.  I love my wife, and this is something that makes me love her even more.