Gamecube

Guelph's newspaper, the Guelph Mercury, has been discontinued. It is continuing as an online entity, but its presence in print is finished, with 90 staff positions cut. It's been our newspaper since 1867, making it 149 years old. I'm sad to see it go, even though I never paid much attention to it.  I've probably contributed to the death of print by getting most of my information online.

I went on my Twitter recently. I don't go on it much, and I've got it set to private, because the site seemed to tempt me to blurt out unconscious thoughts, and because it became more popular than this blog. But when I tried to Tweet, it said that they couldn't publish anything because I seemed like a robot, or something like that. Turns out, my account got hacked and somebody added like, 80 people to follow, usually with usernames in Arabic characters I can't read. I figured it out, and now I'm able to Tweet again to the few people I haven't blocked.

My brother gave me his old Nintendo Gamecube, along with 12 games. They are as follows:

-The Hobbit. A one-player platformer game, very true to the book This came out when the Lord of the Ring movies had just come out, along with a number of halfhearted games trying to get in on the trend. I'd thought The Hobbit would follow suit, but was pleasantly surprised. I've already finished it, just kept it for nostalgia.

-Mario Kart Double Dash. Each system generally gets a version of Mario Kart. The Gamecube's Double Dash distinguished itself by having two riders in one kart, one that steers and one that deploys items. This allowed for stat combinations between characters and a unique two-player mode where players can act cooperatively within one kart. The gimmick didn't live on in future incarnations, but it's always good to have a Mario Kart game for an easygoing multiplayer racer.

-Mario Golf, Toadstool Tour. Similar to Mario Kart, most systems have a Mario Golf. Good easygoing multiplayer fun. Don't think their system changes much between games, but there are updated characters and courses.

-Super Smash Bros Melee. Second game in the Smash Bros series. It's a collection of (mostly) Nintendo game characters from different series. Classic fighter.

-Wario Ware Inc. Chains of random "Micro Mini-Games" that demand simple tasks be completed in increasingly quick succession. Good multiplayer.

-Tales of Symphonia. An old Role Played Game Neither of us ever beat it, but started it multiple times. I appreciated it for its character building, especially through its function of being able to initiate conversation with party members in terrain outside of cutscenes, and speaking not just between individuals, but as a group. It gave it a slice-of-life feel and built group dynamics utside of dramatic or tense moments. Makes the characters more real and makes yoyu care about them more in the long run.

-Bloody Roar, Primal Fury. An anime fighting game. We got it before we really understood anime. The random way cutscenes were put together confused us to no end as to what thew storyline was supposed to be. revisiting it, it's hard to understand what we found confusing. Solid fighter where characters can alternate between human and human-animal hybrids called "Zoanthropes".

-Bomberman Generations. Bomberman used to be a classic series, but hasn't seemed to have kept up in recent time. Characters place bombs strategically to blow up bricks and ultimately other players. They excavate items to make their explosions more effective.

-Sonic Mega Collection. Sega and Nintendo were once lead rivals, but after Sega lost to Nintendo in the console wars, they kept going as a company and their games have been featured on Nintendo consoles. In Sonic Mega Collection, I've got the first 7 Sonic the Hedgehog games.

-The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition.Classic Nintendo platformer series, it includes I, II, Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask.

-The Simpsons Road Rage. If you remember Crazy Taxi, this is the classic television show Simpsons take on it. Pick up citizens needing taxis, get them to their destinations fast as possible. There's a good multiplayer where each player tries to meet a certain amount of money first. Lots of good in-jokes between the citizens of Springfield and the geography. Surprisingly good gameplay for a spinoff game.

I also have a tetris system which I got in highschool which should hook up to the TV, but doesn't seem to have a power jack. Working on that.

So I have 12 games, but since Sonic Mega Collection is 7, and  Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition is 4, and including Tetris, that's actuallly 22 games. That's a satisfying number right there.