More Like Neo Geo F

Hello all. Today I wanted to tell you a story about the worst purchase of my life: the Neo Geo X.

As a kid, my buddy introduced me to emulators and ROMs. With our slow internet connections, we’d download our games, which were all usually Japanese SNES games. I fondly recall playing Gundam and Dragon Ball Z fighters, previously only available in Japan.

A few months later, my friend told me about the Neo Geo. Our quest to play Neo Geo games was slow because the ROMs' file size were so huge back then. Luckily, a friend burned me a couple of CDs loaded with basically every Neo Geo game, and thus began my love for this arcade machine/console. Samurai Shodown and Metal Slug were my jam.

Fast-forward to the end of 2012: I hear that the Neo Geo X will be an affordable way to play Neo Geo games on your TV—at about $200. Compare this to the price of some Neo Geo cartridges—hundreds of dollars—and this is a steal. I started reading about it, which only hyped myself up. A handheld, preloaded with 20 games, and a way to play it on your TV? I was sold. The only thing was it was hard to find in my neck of the woods, or so I thought.

Then on one unfortunate, rainy afternoon, Sean and I headed into EB Games and I spotted the monstrosity and purchased it. The clerk even had a tough time ringing it up—a sign I should’ve taken into consideration. Sean voiced his opinion and was hesitant to express any happiness about the new purchase. He clearly was the smarter one that day (he also pawned his copy of Assassin’s Creed 3 on me a few minutes prior).

I get back home and open up the packaging, and let the handheld charge for a bit. Once I booted the sucker up I noticed something—the handheld is super light. There was literally no heft to it. It felt like a kid’s toy—the front of the device was made with 1 piece of cheap plastic that would flex with the slightest push. This is when you realize why Nintendo is the king of handhelds—they build solid devices.

Moreover, the screen was piss-poor. Yes, I understand the games don’t run in high definition, but the screen was a cheap LCD that didn’t reproduce the colours all that well. It was a 16:9 display, but the games are all 4:3. They give you the option to stretch the game to 16:9, but it truly looked ugly. Another real half-assed attempt.

Look at those amazing black levels!

The buttons on the handheld were alright. The USB controller was really good. The ability to output to your TV was cool too, but some people say that it’s not perfect.

Here’s the kicker—the handheld itself is just an emulator, preloaded with ROMs. There’s nothing special about it: it’s loaded with Linux, an emulator and 20 games. Who in their right mind wants to pay $200 for an emulator?!? I can get the same experience on any computer, and output it to my TV!

Minus the USB controller, the Neo Geo X was a big waste of money for me. The handheld’s LCD screen was iffy and the material quality was poor. What I could’ve done was buy the USB controller and simply play it on any computer. The picture quality would’ve been perfect and the cost would’ve been minimal.

Overall, I got to pay $200 + tax for an experience very similar to the one I had as a kid (a free experience back then, mind you). If my math is correct, I believe this purchase was based on the fact that I was 99% stupid when I entered EB Games that awful day.

In the end, I sold my Neo Geo X on Craigslist at a loss. A kind man was happy to take it off my hands for about $150. I hear that it’s out of production now, so it’s probably worth more nowadays, but I truly couldn’t give a damn. Good riddance to that pile of junk.

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Link-ing My Worlds

Hello, my name is Alex. I am actually the younger brother of Adam and long time friend of everyone on the Basement Gamer. A little bit about me: I've been playing games from a very young age, as long as I can remember, really. The NES we had was hooked up in my parents' bedroom, so my brother and I couldn't play it 100% of the time. Then we got a SNES and I was only a 5 year old little kid or so, without the dexterity to complete any game on my own.

2 Years later when N64 was made available, I remember the day we got that from our local store, I think we bought it from Blockbuster at the time. I couldn't even tell you honestly. But oh! It wasa glorious day when we went home and popped in Super Smash Brothers. Holy hell did we pump hours upon hours into that console, much like everybody else in the late '90s. Not to mention Mario Kart and then... The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and 007 Goldeneye. Fast forward over 15 years of gaming and here we are today.

But I'm not here to talk about the good ol' days. No no! Not today. Today I'm here to talk to you about The Legend of Zelda, but not Ocarina...sadly. On this day I'll talk about the most recent addition to the franchise. Nintendo originally started developing it as a remake for one of the most iconic Super NES games of all time, A Link to the Past, which was later decided to be made into a completely new game, with fresh mechanics never before seen in the franchise, labeled "A Link Between Worlds".

My first thoughts while playing this game were, "Alright, so they're mixing A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time". That is to say they took the best aspects of the bird's eye view Zelda games and the Third Person Zelda games, both of which have been blended absolutely amazingly. Where the other DS Zelda titles had you doing these gimmicky touch screen commands—such as drawing the path of the boomerang, etc—the developers instead made the touch screen your User Interface, where you change your items, look at your map, so on and so forth. All of which can be done in real time or by pausing the game as is customary in Zelda games. Then we come to the actual gameplay which is executed as you'd expect: everything is smooth and fantastic.

A couple of things I welcomed with open arms, much to my eventual dismay. Firstly, being that they added the possibility to play on a harder difficulty. This is where my frustration began. The first 8 hours of playtime was just me dying over and over again in every single situation. Previously, I very rarely died playing any Zelda game. Most of my deaths in previous titles were attributed to not paying any attention to my health or simply dying strictly during boss fights. This is no longer the case on the harder difficulty, and it's not because of smarter enemies, more difficult enemies, or even just more enemies. No; the harder difficulty was simply Link taking more damage. But not just more damage, no, thatwould be too simple. It is a ridiculous amount of damage. Simply put, a basic octorok deals about 4 hearts of damage, something a little bit stronger like a Crab would do about 8 hearts of damage. So any dungeon monster deals about 8 hearts of damage give or take 4. The only time you can ever take less than 4 hearts of damage is when you accidentally hurt yourself. So until you're 4 or 5 dungeons in, when you get 9 hearts, everything kills you in one hit. This wouldn't be such an awful and frustrating thing if the other new mechanic introduced didn't exist.

The other mechanic is the fact that you no longer get important items in the dungeon and therefore keep your items after you acquire them. No, this installment introduces a merchant who basically steals your home and turns it into his store, then allows you to rent any item of your choosing. You choose whichever items are your favorite and run with those until you die and the merchant takes them back. So couple that with dying at every corner, and you get the time consuming and annoying lap race that is: Rent your items at your house, walk to a dungeon trying not to die along the way, enter the dungeon and try to progress to the boss, try to defeat the boss, but probably die along the way, respawn at your house and repeat.

Luckily this isn't actually as bad as I'm making it out to be for one reason. That being said, you meet a witch early on in the game who allows you to fast travel to certain statues that you can activate, which also act as save points. These statues are excellently placed directly in front of almost every single dungeon as well as all over the world map. This made my trips back to the dungeons much faster after dying. However, once you unlock the ability to purchase and keep items even beyond death, the entire problem dissipates and the game becomes even more amazing.

All in all, A Link Between Worlds is fantastic and I am enjoying every minute of it . I'm finding myself unable to put down my 3DS, even as I write this I have my trusty Link Between Worlds box in my pocket ready to be taken out and continue my quest. Like a good book, it is always at my side. 

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TBT - King Of The Links

With Campeau talking about Mario Tennis the other day, it's a funny coincidence that I planned on talking about the Game Boy (GB) version of Mario Golf for my throw back this week. This game (along with Mario Tennis for the GB) was like the "Be A Pro" mode in an EA Sport's game before it ever existed, and was arguably the ultimate mix between RPG and Sports game.

When Mario Golf originally came out for the N64, I was all over it. Don't ask me why I like golf so much, it's not even a sport I'm good at in real life, but there is just something about the gentleman's game. Mario Golf for the N64 was a pretty basic golf game, nothing extravagant, just solid golf. A few different modes here and there but it ultimately came down to it being a multiplayer game.

The GB version however couldn't have been more different and my god, do I wish Nintendo would just start making console games like this! My point being that for the most part, when Nintendo makes console games, they are always so focused on multiplayer (local multiplayer of course, since their online infrastructure is atrocious). Ever since the N64 came out and had built in 4 player support, they took complete advantage of it. The only problem is that all their genius single player games moved over to the handhelds. Case and point: Pokemon will never be the same on console as it is on a handheld, but why Nintendo; why!?

Like I mentioned earlier, it's a sport-RPG. You create your own character and traverse the world playing golf. As you continue to play rounds you gain XP points and level up. Just like in any other RPG, when you level up you get to put attribute points into whichever stat you so desire. Want your drive distance to be longer? Done. How about a better putting ability? You can do that too!

As you continue along your path to becoming the greatest golfer in the Mushroom Kingdom, you can get invited to tournaments. You even meet and play skins matches against the "pros"—of course pros being Mario and his posse of regulars—you can even purchase new gear with your winnings.

One thing Mario Golf has over any of the "Be A Pro" modes in an EA sport's game is that golf is an individual effort. No need to worry about anyone on your team letting in a softy or giving up the ball at a very inopportune time: that right there just removes any anxiety or frustration rooted in this type of mode. Tiger Woods PGA Tour games try to do the same thing, but I just don't get the same feeling as when I was a kid playing on my Game Boy.

I think the main reason why would be the lack of real progression. In Mario Golf, you started off pretty shitty, but were able to achieve something awesome by the end of the game. In Tiger Woods, I feel as though it just sort of starts you off as a pro, and the amount your character's skills actually progress vs. how much equipment does for you is practically negligible.

If Nintendo has this version of Mario Golf on the Virtual Console for the DS/3DS, I would highly recommend picking it up, well worth your time.

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