Cheerful Jester = Evil Minion? I don't think so.

I have a Sega Saturn. I got it last year and it came with a few games, one of which was Tomb Raider. I accidentally fell over a ledge in that game and was almost mauled by a bear, but that's beside the point. The games that came with my Saturn weren't really all the important. There was one reason that I wanted a Sega Saturn: NiGHTS into Dreams.

Just as Nintendo has Kirby and Namco has Klonoa, NiGHTS is Sega's own dream-related character. NiGHTS into Dreams takes place in a dream world separated into two sections or whatever they're called: Nightopia and Nightmare. Guess which one's good and which one's bad? In Nightmare resides an evil baddie called Wizeman who creates Nightmaren to do his bidding, which consists of stealing orbs called Ideya from children during their dreams. Anyone, Wizeman made two jester-like first class Nightmaren named NiGHTS and Reala. Reala was loyal to Wizeman, as good henchman are. NiGHTS was more free-willed, but how is this surprising? I mean just look at him! He's way too happy looking to be evil!


How is that even remotely threatening?"

Anyway, Wizeman didn't like NiGHTS being a bad minion, so he locked the purple jester up in a cage (Ideya Palace) where NiGHTS idly bounced around with no hope of escape. At least, he had no hope until two kids showed up in Nightopia. Eliot or Claris, depending on who you play as, show up and promptly get four of their five Ideya stolen from them (it happens each level), with only the rare Red Ideya of Courage remaining with them. Each kid can walk up to the Ideya capture and "dualize" with NiGHTS, which allows the Nightmaren to escape his prison and fly around to gather back the Ideya.

This video shows a typical NiGHTS into Dreams level, and even though it seems overly simplistic, it's actually pretty fun. You need to collect enough of the blue chips (forgot their name) in order to break the Ideya capture and well... get the Ideya. You need to get three or four Ideya each level, I can't remember which. After each level comes a boss fight, which sometimes confuses me because I have trouble understanding what to do. I mean, I'm still not sure how to beat Jackle.

A year or two ago Sega finally released a NiGHTS sequel. NiGHTS Journey of Dreams (I acutually played it before the first one) offers a bit more level variety, and healthier dose of plot. It's actually pretty similar to the first game: Will and Helen help NiGHTS round up their Ideya and defeat Wizeman. Reala makes a few more appearances in this game, mainly to force loyalty to Wizeman upon/fight NiGHTS. It doesn't really work.

NJD features a little garden thing called My Dream, where the player can raise small fairy creatures called Nightopians. Honestly, I don't really understand it. Sometimes it's happy, other times the trees are cut down.

Anyway, that's the blog post. There wasn't much noteworthy there, but it works. See ya next time. Happy gaming.

So my brother went to an anime convention and got me a Vampire Knight shirt signed by Vic Mignogna (Zero's English voice actor). This is awesome in many different ways.
a)It's an anime shirt
b)It's an anime shirt with Zero Kiryuu on it (my favorite Vampire Knight character)
c)It's signed by Vic Mignogna, one of my favorite voice actors.
Not only did that shirt excite me, it inspired me to improve my drawing. So now I'm looking at pictures of Vampire Knight characters (and some other pictures) and drawing their hands. Why? Because I can't draw hands, and therefore need to learn. It's going pretty well actually.

One more thing, in Vampire Knight Zero always gets the short end of the stick. Always. Things may go his way for a while, he might even smile a little bit, but then someone (sometimes himself) screws it up. Of course, he never makes a huge effort to make things better, because he's so angsty, reserved, and angry...
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I haven't really touched Twilight Princess this past week. Mainly because I was busy, or I just didn't want to play it. Now that it's the weekend, I've been sidetracked by Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I'm trying to play as Marth now thanks to a totally awesome web-comic. But I digress, the point is Link's currently sitting in the entrance to the lava-filled Goron Mines probably sweating buckets thanks to his thick green tunic.

Let's jump straight into gameplay. I can't speak for the Gamecube version, but I can't help but feel the attack combos in the Wii version of TP don't flow well. To attack all one must do is swing the wiimote aorund a bit, and Link will in turn swing his sword around a bit. Shaking the nunchuk produces a nice spin attack, and the A button gives a nice jump attack when targeting an enemy. Still, every attack seems slow and disjointed. Plus, it gets repetitive after a while. Slash, slash, spin, jump. Jump, slash, spin, slash. Wolf Link's attacks, in my opinion, aren't much better. Same controls, but the attacks seem even less connected. Maybe there are more attacks to learn though, or I'm just not doing it right.

Every time Link steps into the Twilight, he turns into a wolf. Midna then asserts her control over him, giving tips when needed. It's during Link's second Twilight adventure that the pair comes across a missing bridge. Then Midna gives you the basics on teleporting, something that can only be done in the twilight realm. It's pretty nifty is you ask me. Saves the trouble of run-dashing all the way back to the Ordon forest to find the bridge, because y'know... the shadows took it so they must've of left it somewhere.

It took me a minute to realize I was actually looking for an entire bridge left in a forest.

Zelda games are good at being serious yet still throwing in nice bits of comedy. Good ol' Epona disappears after Link turns into a wolf, and later shows up running like crazy to throw off the goblin things riding her. Link then gets the job of clambering on his charging horse and bringing her back in line. For some reason, watching Link get tossed of Epona over and over again made me laugh. Another thing I found hilarious was Link sumo wrestling. Not only did it seem random, but Link is basically a stick next to the guys his wrestling. It cracked me up.

Short entry today, because I don't have much to say (rhymes!). Happy gaming. See you next time.

Next time on I've Been Playing for 40 Hours: I wish I knew...