Food and Nutrition Blog

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

What is a Bandicoot? For a long time, I thought it was a made up species of animal. But it turns out that they actually exist (see picture below). Google defines a Bandicoot as "a mainly insectivorous marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea." To me, they look like a cross between a squirrel and a rat. But it is what it is.

Crash Bandicoot vs A real bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot Warped is the 3rd entry in the series of Crash Bandicoot games made by NaughtyDog. This game is similar to the second game in the sense that your goal is to go through a set of levels and collect the crystals, which would open up a portal where you could fight the boss. When you succeed, you were granted access to the next set of worlds, where you would do the same thing.

The first world hub in Crash Bandicoot Warped

Unlike the second game, beating a set of levels would grant you a special ability. These ranged from a Double Jump to carrying around a Laser Guided Bazooka. These special abilities greatly enhanced your ability to finish levels, and finish them efficiently. My personal favorite is the Bazooka. Instead of fighting enemies face-to-face, you could just sit back and snipe them away. Because the Bazooka had unlimited ammo, you didn't have to worry about being accurate. Just fire away!

Crash holding a Bazooka. It's as awesome as it sounds.

Perhaps my favorite part about the game was the music. Crash Bandicoot Warped has one of the best soundtracks out of any game I have played. As soon as you see the Title Screen pop up, you are greeted with the Crash Bandicoot theme song, which is my favorite out of any video game. The beat is catchy and is easy to get stuck in your head, not that I minded. In addition, the music of the levels really added to the experience while playing. In fact, I have a majority of the songs downloaded onto my phone, so I can listen to them anytime I want.

Below is a YouTube Video of a cover someone made of the Crash Bandicoot Theme song.

Crash Bandicoot Warped is one of my favorite childhood games because it was just a fun game to play. Yes, there were levels that were hard and frustrating, but when you finally beat them it makes you feel really good. Add the introduction of special abilities, it adds a whole new dimension to the game where you can tackle levels in different ways that were impossible before. And last but not least, the amazing soundtrack. Whoever came up with the music for the game should win a Grammy award. I really do think the music is that good. I'm serious.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Super Mario Bros Deluxe

30 years ago, it you told someone that an Italian Plumber with a mustache, wearing a red hat + shirt, blue overalls, white gloves, and brown shoes would become one of the most recognizable characters in the world, they would call you crazy. Flash forward to today, and Mario is arguably one of the most popular Video Game characters in the World. He is so popular that he has become associated with Nintendo. When people think of Nintendo, people think of Mario.

Super Mario Bros Deluxe is a GameBoy Port of the original Super Mario Bros that came out on the NES in 1985. Bowser has captured Princess Peach, and it's Mario's job to search the castles in order to find Peach and free her from Bowser's grasp. The gameplay is nearly identical, but the GameBoy version expands on the orginal by adding challenges for you to do. One of them is the "Yoshi Egg" Challenge. There is a hidden Yoshi Egg in each level, and the objective is to find where it is. The trick is the block is invisible, so often times you would find the Yoshi Egg by luck (aka randomly jumping around).

Finding a Yoshi Egg in a level

In addition, there is a mode called "Boo Race", where you race across special levels against Boo the ghost to see who finishes the level first. Though this may seem simple, keep in mind that Boo is a ghost, which means he can pass through blocks instead of having to jump over them.

Mario vs Boo. Who will win?

In addition, there are different colors of Boo, which represents how fast they go. They range from White, Green, Red, and Black. Coincidentally, the Black Boo is the fastest, and by far the hardest to beat (I don't know if Nintendo did that on purpose, making the Black Boo the super fast one). Below is a short YouTube video that shows a race against Black Boo.

Note: This is a lot harder than it looks.

But by far my favorite part of the game is the Luigi levels. The Luigi levels are basically Super Mario Bros 2, the version that released in Japan. The Japanese version differed from the U.S Version because it was deemed "Too difficult" to play, so they made a different, easier version for the U.S gamers. They weren't lying. The Luigi levels are frustratingly difficult. There was this one level that was so difficult, I had to look up a walk-through video on how to beat it. And after watching the video, it still took me a while to finally succeed.

Super Mario Bros Deluxe is my favorite GameBoy game, and the reason I like Mario and still play his games today. It is such a classic game, a simple 2-D side scroller, but even 30 years after its release it can appeal to new gamers today who have never played a Mario game before. Just be sure to NOT start them off with the Luigi levels. They were banned from the U.S for a reason.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

Gauntlet is a classic game. First released in 1985, Gauntlet became popular due to its style of hack-and-slashing. Featured in arcades, the purpose of the game was to run through levels, killing any monsters in your path by pressing the "attack" button, until you reached the end of the level. Though this may seem boring by some, the fact that your health drained (even if you were not being attacked) added to the excitement and desperation.

Eventually, the developer of Gauntlet, Midway Games, created a Gauntlet game for consoles, named Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. Dark Legacy expanded upon the original arcade Gauntlet by adding more characters, expanding the levels, and more attacks. It made Gauntlet bigger and better.

Four Jesters, all with different colored outfits.

One of my favorite features about Dark Legacy was the character customization. There were 8 different characters to choose from, ranging from Dwarf to Jester to Sorceress to Archer. In addition to the characters, each character had a different selection of outfits to choose from (see picture above). That way, even if you and your friend chose the same character, you could choose different outfits to ensure you don't get confused of who's who on the screen.

In addition to character customization, you could also add your own name to give it a personalized touch. But, by entering certain names, you could unlock special things. For example, entering the name 10000K would give you 10,000 Gold, which you could use to buy Power-ups and other items from the Shop that would help you move through a level quicker. Each time you exited the shop, the money reset.


The Shop was where you could purchase items and power-ups.

As for the Gameplay, I liked it a lot. Yes, the killing sometimes got repetitive, and sometimes I got lost in a level and had no idea where to go, but overall it was very enjoyable. What made it even more enjoyable was playing it with a friend. Gauntlet is one of those games where playing with a friend makes it 10 times more fun. Playing by myself and leveling up my character is cool, but exploring the levels and finding treasure with a friend is that much more fun and satisfying.

Fighting a Dragon in a level

At the end of each set of levels, there is a Boss battle. These were pretty hard, especially if you didn't use name cheats. Below is a picture of a Dragon boss. Not only did the bosses have an insane amount of health, they also had attacks that did a lot of damage. If you didn't prepare and stock up beforehand, prepare to die quickly. They are called Bosses for a reason.

A Boss battle in Gauntlet

My lasting memory of Gauntlet is playing with my cousin, both of us choosing the name 10000K, and rampaging through the levels, massacring everything that moved. It was glorious fun, because it made me feel powerful, that me and my cousin with our Super Power-ups could take down a Boss in about a minutes time. We never did Beat the game, but it doesn't matter to me. I know that no Boss would be able to take us down, not with the help of our 10000K trick.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands


Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands. The first game I owned.

The first of things holds a special memory. The first day of college. The first cell phone you had. The first car you bought. For me, the first video game I owned was special. Prior to this, the only time I was able to play video games was if I went over to a friend's house.

While that was fun, it is totally different having your own video game. A video game that is yours. A video game that you can play whenever you want. A video game that if you accidentally damage or lose, nobody would be mad at you except yourself. One day, my dad came home with a Blue Gameboy Pocket and a copy of Micky Mouse: Magic Wands. Finally, a lifelong dream was achieved! I had my own video game!


GameBoy Pocket

The first time I turned it on and heard the magical "Ding!", a warm feeling filled my whole body. The game was in black-in-white. The story was simple. Micky's friends are trapped in a Wicked Witch's Castle, and his job is to save his friends. To do this, Micky has to search the level for crystals, some of which contain pieces of his friend. If you complete all the pieces of the puzzle, then the friend is freed. Below is a picture of a level in the game:

As you can see, Mickey has discovered a piece of the puzzle. To make it harder, there are various enemies you encounter in the levels (In the above picture there is a Frog that is chasing Mickey).

In summary, Micky Mouse: Magic Wands is one of my favorite Childhood games because it was the first game I owned. Was it the best game I have ever played? No way. Was it the easiest game? Nope. What about the most adventurous? Not even close. But it was the first game I owned, and I will always remember it for that.

*Funny Story: The first time I played the game, after around 30 minutes of playing, I had to go somewhere with my parents. Because I didn't want to lose my progress in the game, I left my Gameboy on and placed it on top of the kitchen table before leaving my house. I returned 3 hours later to find out that my Gameboy had turned off. Apparently the battery had used up all its power. [Later, I found out that each level has a code, and you can enter the code to skip to that specific level.]*

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Back from a One Year Hiatus

Hello everyone,

I am back after a one year Hiatus. The obvious question to ask is, "Where did you go?" There is no easy answer to that, but in short, I was focusing on other things in my life, such as working hard in school. I have never been the stereotypical Asian student who gets A's, but I tried to change that. The past year I did really well in my classes, enough to raise my GPA to 2.99. My academic goal this semester is to finish with an overall 3.0 GPA or better.

The reason I am re-starting this blog again is because of a class I am taking called "Video Games and Gaming." In the class, we are required to blog every week about a topic that has to deal with Video Games. So, for the time being, this blog will be dedicated to Video Games.

The topic that I have chosen to write about is "The Top 10 Videogames of my Childhood". Everyone had something in their childhood that they have fond memories of. Mine was Videogames. Back in the day, Videogames were a privilege for me. Every time I could turn on my GameBoy or PlayStation, a smile came across my face, and I would temporarily escape into another world.

Listed below are the Top 10 Games of my Childhood. Each week, I will blog about one of these, and explain what the game was about, why I liked it, and why it has a special place in my memory.