I picked up Magician's Quest for the DS today.

It was twenty bucks can you really blame me.

Ever play Animal Crossing? This is Animal Crossing. Same kind of maps, same anthropomorphic animals, same goddamn tools, same collection system, everything. But you are a qizard. Adding an entirely diferent element to an already frustrating real time game.

You go to classes to learn spells. If you don't have the spell component, well, you had better write that shit down or pray the magic shop has is. Holy fuck. I wanna be invisible. WHY DO I NEED A CRYSTAL.

My life is effectively gone. I was addicted to Animal Crossing for about a year when me and my friends played it at school all the time. We'd visit each other's villages in class (it was Animal Crossing DS) and got all the golden tools. I was a golden tool for playing that game and now it has sucked me in again.

In all honesty, the only thing keeping me from picking up Animal Crossing for any system was the price. I didn't feel like doling out fouty-odd bucks when I could get two used games for that price. I should have guessed when the box said, "SImulation". THat has fucking Animal Crossing written all over it.

So I bid you adieu, to return again once the vapid hole of nothingness that is my horrible crippling addiction to Animal Crossing decides to spit me back out again, broken and abused.

I might review it for kicks.

In what could be the most awesome news of the day, the University of Calgary (that’s in Canada) has decided to open up a gaming collection in March 2011. The best part of this story is that they’re not the first ones to do it. The University of Texas at Austin's Videogame Archive in the States National Media Museum and Nottingham Trust University's National Videogame Archive in the UK both host impressive videogame archives.

The collection will cost less than 1% of the university’s gargantuan budget, so the money grubbers can’t complain. It’ll pretty much work like any other resource at the university. Students or teachers can take out games from this archive, essentially like a videogame library. There are even private rooms set up with gaming consoles for anyone to use.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve decided to go to the University of Calgary for my post-secondary studies.

P.S. : Sorry about the double post. I forgot to title the first one.

In what could be the most awesome news of the day, the University of Calgary (that’s in Canada) has decided to open up a gaming collection in March 2011. The best part of this story is that they’re not the first ones to do it. The University of Texas at Austin's Videogame Archive in the States National Media Museum and Nottingham Trust University's National Videogame Archive in the UK both host impressive videogame archives.

The collection will cost less than 1% of the university’s gargantuan budget, so the money grubbers can’t complain. It’ll pretty much work like any other resource at the university. Students or teachers can take out games from this archive, essentially like a videogame library. There are even private rooms set up with gaming consoles for anyone to use.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve decided to go to the University of Calgary for my post-secondary studies.

Chrono Trigger is the first game I really remember playing. It’s weird. I can ever remember the first time I saw it being played. My mom came into the basement and was worried that it was too violent for me. So my brother lied through his teeth that it wasn’t violent at all. Looking back, it was pretty ridiculous. I mean, of all the games to be worried about, Chrono Trigger was the one my mom asked about? And thus began my life of having my views repressed through my parents. More on that later.

Since it was such a huge part of my childhood, I picked up Chrono Trigger for the DS as soon as I could. For those of you who aren’t aware, it’s essentially the same game. They messed with the translation a little and added a new dungeon that opens up towards the end of the game, but it’s still the same plot and progression. They even used the same music from the original, which is why I’m here today.

I enjoy music. I’m not one of those people claiming music is my life, but it plays a big role. I’m distracted fairly easily, and music helps keep me focused. It entertains me when I have nothing to do, provides background music, and is hella fun to sing along with wherever I am. The music of Chrono Trigger, however, does something more. I usually don’t feel anything substantial when I listen to music, unless that specific song has any certain meaning to me (and I can count those on one hand). But every song in Chrono Trigger triggers (only time I’ll use that joke, I promise) emotions in me so easily, it’s surprising.



I have to start with Frog’s theme. He was my favourite character in the game, and I love his theme song. It’s been redone by the band The Red Wings into a kickass rock tune, which makes it that much more amazing. It just makes me feel epic when I listen to it. Sort of like, if I could have one song to go out to while fighting off a giant zombie horde, this would be it. You can’t deny that this song is the epitome of heroics. While recently playing through Chrono Trigger, I misted up a little when Frog accepts the Masamune and joins your team. That has always, and will always, be my favourite moment in video gaming.



Robo is most definitely my second favourite character. Every good JRPG needs someone who doesn’t understand social norms and, in general, is just awkward. Robo is that character. I’m not sure why I enjoy him so much. Maybe it’s because, on some weird level, I connect with the big tin giant. On the other hand, that’s a load of crap. Robo is hilarious, and nothing beats his touching conversations with Lucca. When I was a kid, I always thought that Lucca and Robo would fall in love and live happily ever after. In a way, I still kinda think they should.

But the music is what I’m here to talk about. I have a soft spot for electronic music, and this is a great example. It’s upbeat and uplifting, and brings to mind happy visions of puppies and rainbows. Of course, the puppies are badass robo-puppies with chain guns and the rainbow is the reflection off their metallic hides as they slaughter millions of innocents. But hey, that’s just what I see.



Great bass lines are my one true weakness. And this has one. I’ve had this song memorized since before I played Final Fantasy VII and memorized THAT battle music. I enjoy having good music while I fight whatever demented creature the Japanese have thrown at me this time, and this is just, well, groovy. The Final Fantasy end battle song may go down is history as the most popular fight song ever in video gaming, but I believe that title belongs to Chrono Trigger’s song. It’s 2-3 minutes long before it loops over, and by then most random encounters are done, meaning you won’t get bored with the same three bars on constant repeat.



This music scared me when I was younger. Don’t ask me why. It just did. Maybe it was because one of the first bosses is Yakra, who terrified me. I could never beat Yakra – I always got my brother to do it. I suppose the music just became associated with that terror. Now, I just feel panicky. I’m even typing this paragraph faster while I listen to the song in the background. I love that about this song. It helps me think faster in boss fights, something always handy, and just creates the right kind of atmosphere for an important battle.



Because you can’t talk about Chrono Trigger without talking about Gato. This guy is hilarious. I love singing along whenever I fight him. The translation’s lyrics are a bit more difficult to get into, but still awesome. That’s all. I just felt like this needed to be said.

Honestly, I could talk about Chrono Trigger forever. The music, the gameplay, the graphics, the monsters, the character, the blah blah blah why are you still reading this. It is will forever be my favourite game for all those reasons and more. This article barely even scratches the surface of the amazing music this game brought to life. I decided to stop here because I want to hear some other opinions about the music. Obviously, I left a lot of stuff out. So what’s your favourite Chrono Trigger song? And if you haven’t played it, well, damn, you’re a few years behind. Go pick up the DS version or get an emulator. It’s really not that difficult.
Your ears will thank you.

Video games have always been a huge part of my life.

I am perfectly aware how cliché and stupid that sounds. But ever since the Christmas of 1996, I’ve played video games. My brother, Brilliam, got an SNES that year. It was the first system I had ever played. The only big title we had that wasn’t starring Mario was Crono Trigger, so I’ve always had a weakness for JRPG’s. I never actually beat it (until the DS rerelease last year), which is an unfortunate habit I have with video games. We also had the original gargantuan Gameboy, what with the yellow screen and requirement of 4AA batteries. It’s still lying around my house somewhere, and I’d still be playing it if it weren’t broken.

Before moving to Ottawa when I was six, Broski bought a Playstation. He quickly obtained, through completely legal and truthful means, a multitude of games. Looking back, I should have played more Metal Gear: Solid. I really like that game now, but I have no means of playing it. It was the first system I played a lot of, because my brother let me game my ass off whenever he wasn’t around. Again, I still never beat a game on the system, but my copy of Pokémon Blue and my Gameboy Pocket kept me pretty busy. A few years later, I got a GBA for Christmas, and I’ve kept playing games on that. I’ve just recently picked up MegaMan: Battle Network 2 again. Good game.



Mi hermano’s PS2 was the next system in the queue for our house. I didn’t get to play it as much as its predecessor, but I still enjoyed it substantially more. I got to play N64 and Xbox games at my friends’ places. I got a GBA: SP, which is when I really got into the Golden Sun trilogy (even though it was only one game at the time). I scrimped and saved and obtained a bullshit paper route to purchase a DS Lite, which I still own and play today. When Wills-Brills moved out, I started playing PC games a lot, because that’s all that was left in the house. I played Half Life: 2 when my computer let me, and mooched off my friend for a World of Warcraft account for a while.

I bought a Nintendo Wii the January after it came out. My mom woke me up and drove me to the nearest Zellers at six or seven in the morning. It was frigid, but I didn’t care. We were the fourth and fifth people in line, and spent two hours standing in the frozen Canadian winter until we were let in. Later that week, Twilight Princess became the first game I ever beat. I was pretty proud of myself.



More recently, I’ve been playing 360 and PS3 at my friends’ places. I’m hopefully obtaining a 360 soon, which will finally let me indulge in next-gen games. I’ll always be a fan of Nintendo, despite the lack of jaw-dropping games recently. The first two games I plan on tackling on the 360 are Mass Effect and Red Dead Redemption. I’ve played them briefly at my friend’s house, and took a liking to them rather quickly. I'm also gonna pick up Halo: Reach as soon as humanly possible. I haven't like a Halo game this much since the first one. I’m pretty excited to finally have a good next-gen system in my house. Is it still next-gen? Maybe it’s now-gen. I’ll post my World of Warcraft characters and 360 Gamertag once I have it.

Until then, I’ll just start looking for an old DS game to review.

P.S. : What's a good size to make images to put in a post?

I really wanna review a game. But every goddamn game I own is old.

Seriously, I haven’t bought a game in ages. And all the games I have bought what can be considered recently are old. I always wait for months after a game comes out to get it because I’m a cheap bastard. I’ve only ever pre-ordered two games in my life, Scribblenauts and Golden Sun 3, and the latter has yet to come out. I’d review Scribblenauts, but I was so disappointed in that game, I traded it away as soon as I could.

I even hate this article, if you can call it that. It feels forced. I’m just forcing myself to write here so that I can become a relatively active member of the community. Does DToid delete stuff? Because that might happen to this.

I guess I should write about something vaguely video game related. I have yet to get my 360 because the guy I’m buying it from is being a tool. I’m hoping I’ll have it by the end of the week, because then I’ll have some relatively new opinions on gaming. I did manage to play some Halo: Reach the other day.

This article is now about Halo: Reach.

GODDAMN DO I LOVE ME SOME HALO: REACH.

Before you dismiss this as another frat guy playing Halo drunk on a Friday night, even though that’s pretty much when and how I played it, know that I have legitimate reasons. I loved Halo when it first came out because it was my first FPS, and the storyline was intriguing enough to my young brain to keep me interested. I absolutely hated Halo 2. Looking back, I’m not sure why. I still don’t like it, but it was such a disappointment when it first came out that I deplored it. Maybe it was the different weapons. I think the campaign length was also a factor. Halo 3 was the same story, and I barely played ODST.

But Reach is astounding. I love every aspect of it. The weapons are incredible, the graphics blew me away, the story, yadda yadda yadda, everything you’ve heard from everything else. I used to be a huge nerd (just kidding, I still am) so I’ve read all the Halo books. I don’t exactly remember what happens in The Fall of Reach, but I do remember it kicking total ass.

The only complaint I have is that I hear people comparing the space jet battles to Starfox when it’s way more like Star Wars: Battlefront. Come on.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from shouting, “DO A BARREL ROLL.”