The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on HTML5

Link's Awakening, the Zelda game where Nintendo craziness and brilliance are one and the same, is completely playable on your browser!

LoZ: Link's Awakening is a Gameboy game so there are only a few buttons to work with. This is the DX version so it's in color and it even has the GameBoy Color BIOS intro at the beginning.

Controls: X = A button Z = B button Enter = Start button Shift = Select button Arrow Keys = D-pad The shape of the screen depends on the shape of your browser.

You can play the game here.

Thanks to my friend Twittkins for the link.

RGP # 20 - Mega Man Zero

Random Gaming Post # 20

With my Mega Man craze going on right now, I was reminded of a certain series that was particularly awesome back in the GameBoy Advance era.

Mega Man Zero was one of my favorite Mega Man series'. They gameplay felt fresh yet familiar, the character art captured me, and the story, for what it's worth, isn't that bad though I admit a little strange.

This brought me to one of my favorite moments from the MMZ series. MMZ3 in particular touched my heart due to one boss battle. The final battle of the game between you and Omega. Not just Omega but his true form.

Spoiler alert, if you have not played the MMZ games and are planning to, stop reading this right now. Where was I, ah yes. The final encounter battle between you and Omega's real form. The original Zero body. Now of course final boss battles are usually against these giant hulking masses of robot in Mega Man games and you could also say in almost every other game. But it's these one on one boss fights that I like. Fighting against someone your own size makes it feel like you are on equal grounds and it's up to your skill to defeat the opponent.

Aside from the over all coolness of the twist and nature of the boss battle, the music is what made it win overall. Sometimes having a piano tune carry the song instead of the overlly rock n roll filled MMX/MMZ OSTs carry just makes it feel classy. And as I said, given the twist and nature of the battle, it just... fits

Don't have a GBA you say? Don't worry, Mega Man Zero Collection is available on the Nintendo DS. It contains all 4 MMZ games and can be played the way it was intended or in a way that helps you power through the game without the grinds.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUBE4PbHFvo&w=425&h=349]

Two games that might get you back into MMORPGs

I've had my fair share of MMORPG's. My first ever online game was actually the Korean MMORPG Ragnarok and from there I've applied to various Asian online game's that created the definition of 'grinding' in MMORPG's. I soon got tired of the grind fest and aimed for the bigger titles.

I picked up Guild Wars and was really sold because of the no monthly fee and had a blast. With only 1 year of Guild Wars, got tempted and went even higher, and finally gave in to the biggest beast of them all, World of Warcraft. When my 10 day trial was up, I quickly bought the game and was set for another 3 months. Before i knew it, I've played World of Warcraft for 2 years. Addiction took over, I was in a guild with 3 raids days every week. It was crazy. Being in college, playing World of Warcraft almost everyday, and having responsibilities to take care of in the house, it was hard to manage.  To this day I still wonder why I placed myself in that situation.

But when I hit year 2 in WoW, I also hit my senior year with just two semesters away and my internship nearing its end, I knew I was so close to graduating, but I need to make a choice.  In order to absolutely make sure I graduate, I needed to quit WoW in order to have all my focus on my studies. And just like that, I quit. My guild mates were very supportive and respected my decision. I graduated and had no intention of coming back, that is when Cataclysm was released.

Yes, I went back for 3 months. My friends tempted me to go back with them to check things out, But with all our friends from our old guild all gone it was easy for us to say no to it again since paying every month again and trying to get into another unknown guild felt like a chore. We contacted our old guild friends and heard they moved on, good for them. So we decided to just quit for good as well.

WoW is finally dead to me, Cataclysm just made me realize that since I quit, everything felt the same in terms of game play so paying monthly for it didn't seem worth it. My MMO craze is still there though, and I need a game to scratch that urge to play an MMORPG. The current online game's out now won't cut it, They are either WoW rip offs or grindfest MMORPG's that make you mindless zombies. So far, there are only two MMORPG's that seem to be bringing something new to the table. Two game's that I hope will make people forget about WoW for good. it's time to move on guys.

Guild Wars 2

I'm a huge Guild Wars fan. Since it's reveal, I've been keeping myself updated to the latest new about this sequel. Their going all out for the second game. It's now open world and they say the world is huge. Quests is more dynamic and they aim to make the quest feel like an actual quest. Not those collect x flowers or kill 20 wolves to kill your first 2 hours. The whole game is also going to be fully voiced.

There will be five races to pick from in Guild Wars 2; Humans, Charr, Asura, Norn, and the Sylvari a race new to the Guild Wars world. There is also seven professions to pick from. Only six so far has been revealed, so there's still one more proffession for them to reveal. The proffessions announced so far are Engineer, Thief, Guardian, Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior, and Elementalist. Check the official site for more info about the professions.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI3e7PP_wNU&feature=feedu_more]

The game looks amazing and I love the fact that they kept the same art style and just worked all the improvements around it. It's still going to be free to play which makes it THE MMORPG to buy. Have no idea how ArenaNet is doing it but the first Guild Wars is still around and still going strong. No date yet and when asked about the released of Guild Wars 2 they reply by just saying "When it's finished". The game looks so good already. They want to get everything perfect and ready and I respect the no rush attitude. A must buy indeed.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Now this MMORPG grew on me. When it was first revealed, first thing that popped in my head was WoW. The interface and game play seemed similar. But as more information started pouring in, I see myself getting more excited for this title. The last Star Wars MMORPG was a complete failure and failed to capitalize on this huge franchise. This game on the other hand is a different story. With Bioware working on this, I knew they wanted to bring something different. It will be also fully voiced and will give players choices to shape the narrative. To what degree we will have to see, but the famous conversation wheel seen in most Bioware game's like Dragon Age and Mass Effect is used for the conversations in The Old Republic.

Each faction will have four classes each. The Galactic Republic will have the Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper, and Scoundrel(a class built around Han Solo) while the Sith Empire will have the Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter, and Imperial Agent. But classes on each side will be somewhat mirroring each other in terms of roles(for example, Jedi Knight and Sith Warrior). The cool thing about the classes in this game though is that each class will have  two specializations to pick from when you hit level 10, so character customization is looking deep. There is also so far 17 planets confirmed in The Old Republic making it a huge world to explore.

Every player will be assigned their very own Millennium Falcon. Well not the Millennium Falcon but your very own ship to explore the galaxy with. There will also be ship battles and companions that can join you in your adventure. The typical PVP zones, raids etc is said to be there. It looks like it's heavy on content but hopefully it doesn't come out repetitive.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEz8c_qW09E]

Any Star Wars fan will appreciate this game, at the same time, this "Fully Voiced" feature that Bioware is pushing is a great idea. They want story to be a big factor in The Old Republic, and with voices added to the mix, it just makes the experience more compelling compared to reading a wall of text only to find out your tasked to kill 10 rats or escort an NPC. I really want The Old Republic to work. Star Wars is just a perfect world to make into an MMORPG. They failed the last time, so hopefully everything works well for The Old Republic. It's said to have a release somewhere at the end of 2011 but I have my doubts on that and expecting an early 2012 release. I'm definitely picking this up on day one and we'll see if the monthly fee is worth it. check their official site for more info about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

One of these has to be the WoW killer. People have predicted game's like Warhammer Online or Rift to dethrone World of Warcraft but have been proven wrong. What do you guy think? do these game's have a chance at grabbing millions of subscibers or will WoW reign for a couple more years. I think these two are the best bets at going toe to toe against World of Warcraft. if not, then Blizzard might do it themselves with their hidden MMO project that is currently in development.

Weekend, what are you playing?

It's the last weekend of June and for most of you, summer has begun. Summer equals free time equals hours and hours spent gaming. What are you playing?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KWNCNfY-hs&w=560&h=349]

Migoy: Digging through some old PS2 games I got from my friend in hopes of finding something random to play. Aside from that I've started Final Fantasy XII on the PS2. Being a Final Fantasy: Tactics fan, I love the world of Ivalice and giggle everytime I spot a familiar name or term.The MMO style of combat still feels a bit strange but the gambit system is pretty fun to mess with. I've been having a Mega Man craze recently with this huge urge to purchase the D-Arts Rockman X figure. While I'm currently short on funds at the moment, I popped back in Mega Man Marverick Hunter X on the PSP and beat Normal mode for X in like less than 3 hours (I know where everything is). Started with X again but this time on Hard mode and now it feels more like a Mega Man game, with the heightened damage etc.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-ZeISfJ7Vc&w=560&h=349]

Arlie: While it's summertime in the US, it's the typhoon season here in the Philippines. It's been raining here for almost the whole week. Flooded streets and heavy traffic everywhere, not to mention that fucking tornado. It's fucked up because we don't usually have tornadoes here. But enough about that, it's game time!

I've been "playing" Gran Turismo 5 mainly for the week. I am trying to complete Endurance Series for B-spec. I just finished Indy500 (200 laps) yesterday and had 2 of my B-spec drivers reach Class 30. Suzuka 1000km (172 laps) is currently on going right now. I placed the quotes because I wasn't really playing. With a really fast car(mine's Formula GT) and tuning setup I could just leave my trained B-spec drivers unattended and win the race easily with the expense of leaving my PS3 running for straight hours while I do other stuff like play other games or watch educational art films. Since saving in the middle of a race is not yet possible I can't be sure if I'm ready for the 24-hour events because of the random power outages caused by this weather we're having here in the third world.

I finally had the chance to play Alice: Madness Returns the other day. I am really attracted to this game, imagine the movie Sucker Punch turned into a video game, only that instead of Baby Doll you have a knife wielding, pepper grinder spewing, emo-looking chick collecting lost memories of her past. What I like in this game is it's gameplay and design, love the physics of how Alice's emo hair move with the wind in Wonderland(her hair suck balls in the real world).

I also played F.3.A.R yesterday, I wasn't able to finish F.E.A.R. 2 so I really didn't know what happened. And just like in previous F.E.A.R. games, I shoot everything that moves and hope that the little bitch doesn't appear. Finding those freaky Alma dolls hidden in every stage is not fun.

Quash: Yesterday i was at the Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition and  Mortal Kombat Tournament called Last Chance. It lasted pretty much the whole day and left me exhausted. For my second fighting game tournament, I actually did fairly well. I won my first 2 matches bringing me to the winners bracket to met the best Guile player I've ever seen. A player that uses Guile aggressively which is not Guile's playstyle at all, but he make it work leaving players stunned and shaking their heads.

When i lost to him i was brought down to the losers bracket and i needed to beat my own friend to reach top 8. That really sucked since we both wanted to meet somewhere in the finals. I lost again with him playing his over-powered Yun knocking me out of the tournament. Regardless, I'm pleased on how I did. I was worried about getting knocked out at the start but thankfully i was able to pull it off. In the end, we were treated with an intense Grand Finals with an Akuma player named Den against Ben, the aggressive Guile player that took me out of Winners. Den beat Ben taking him out of Winners, so Ben was actually coming from losers during the Grand Finals and had to win 2 sets of best to 3 matches while Akuma only needed to win 1. It was crazy, and Ben eventually got used to the fight and won the match. Congrats to him!

Mortal Kombat? well i joined that for kicks and i actually won my first match for some reason. I was using Kitana and with no practice whatsoever and with only one combo in my belt(which is why i picked Kitana in the first place), i quickly lost my next two matches against crazy MK players. It was fun though and i'm still laughing that i grabbed a win at the start.

Since all of that is over, I think ill go and play some Team Fortress 2 and forget about Street Fighter for a bit....until the next tournament. Thanks again for Pinoy2Dfighters for another successful tourney.

Last Chance - Mortal Kombat Grand Finals - Chronocaster(Kabal) vs Marcus(Kung Lao)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuwqT6FFgb8]

Lameverine

While digging through some old games in hopes of playing something fun and random, I came across my copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the Nintendo Wii. I bought this game hoping it was just a dumbed down port of the PS3, 360, and PC versions. Or at least be a decent fun little action brawler using a movie licence. It wasn't.

When i first tried this I instantly thought it was horrible and have then never played it since. Having found it again I thought "what the hell, I might find some enjoyment out of this":

I broadcast my whole experience with the game since finding it last night. All 3 minutes of it. Watch the video in it's entirety (is that even a word?) because there is a special twist at the end.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZiseN6MMX0&w=425&h=349]

(I just noticed this now but the thumbnail of the video looks like there's piss everywhere!)

derp

That's right, this game is so bad that even my Wii gave up on it.