Super Mario Sunshine Comments by Tom Bramwell

Indeed, me too. Incidently, my friend told me of someone he knows who had their official 251 memory card corrupt on them. One to watch, I'm sure.

heh - brutal, you keep thinking the € is a comedy currency, meanwhile we'll keep chuckling all the way to the bank. ;)

its like monopoly money isn't it??? :P

Does this mean I can spend a pink 500 in Europe?

lol - well I've seen worse uses for a Student Loan.

I spent a fortnight in LA off mine once... \o/

"I spent a fortnight in LA off mine once..."

Blew a good proportion [of my student grant] on a lovely technics stack system. Got kicked out after a year, never had to pay it back, ta very much.

SM:S - Platformers annoy the bejeesus out of me. Where's the fun in repeatedly falling off of things until you manage to jam it through, only to meet your impending doom when that evil monkey sitting up the palm tree on the other side brains you with a well aimed coconut?

Yup. She's been watching that daft declutter makeover programme on BBC2 & getting ideas. *huge sigh*

Oh no, not those. I came back one day and she'd painted the bedroom ORANGE. You know, the colour of those marker pens.

Anyhow, if the subject of de-cluttering comes up, insist she bins some of those shoes. She might relax on the subject then.

But Mr Otto, I NEED 200 pairs of shoes, you know that...

Oh god, believe me, the shoe/womens mags wars we have. Me: "Why the hell would you need five-year-old copies of Elle??" Her: "Well why do you need 25 year old copies of 2000AD??" Me: "Cos they're PRICELESS TREASURES!!" Her: "Well so is my September 1996 edition of She with an article on Nicole Appleton's top 5 moisturisers!" etc etc

"SM:S - Platformers annoy the bejeesus out of me. Where's the fun in repeatedly falling off of things until you manage to jam it through, only to meet your impending doom when that evil monkey sitting up the palm tree on the other side brains you with a well aimed coconut?"

LOL! I guess it shows the persitance in the face of adversity, something to live in life I suppose, but the day that I find a bunch of spiky creaturs sliding along ice that I have to jump past in perfect timing I will do the normal human thing; kill all the creatures with chemicals and amble across the ice safe in the knowledge that I have rid the world of spiky annoying creatures ;)

I think my missus has more pairs of shoes than I have individual items of clothing. However, the 3 or 4 consoles I have take up the same amount of space as 15 football fields, if she were to be believed.

Am I the only one to hate the sound of this?: "obscenely difficult old-school 3D platform levels yada yada yada"

sounds like the stuff nightmares are made of to me. i've always hated platformers, and always hated mario. right up until i played sms on the gamecube demo pod in gamestation and got hooked on only 5 minutes play. had to buy the game this morning and now i feel dirty.

for what its worth, playing a demo of jak and daxter a month or 2 ago just reaffirmed my feeling that platformers suck, so either the rabid ninty fanboi in me is overriding my opinions of platformers, or this game is that damn good.

I always thought the camera in SM64 was a bit flakey, since I had to keep messing with it all the time, but then I did play SM64 after playing Zelda 64, which has probably the perfect camera system (but only because it's tied in to the game's lock-on system which keeps everything in view).

otto, this does sound like it might be a bit too hard in places. Hopefully it's like SM64 - you can always go back and complete an extra level in an easier section. Throw a few lives at the hard level, and when you get fed up go back and complete a new easier level instead. I got past the 100 stars marker on SM64 doing it, at which point unfortunately I got stuck and got tempted away by newer, shinier things.

They definitely need to get whoever designs the sterling notes to do some redesigns on the Euro notes. The coins are okay if you forget that they look like the chocolate coins you used to get as kids, but the notes don't have enough regal scrolls and silver marks on them for my tastes. They're better for not having a certain unnamed head of state's mug on them though.

Just out of interest, the Toys R Us memory card bundle is a Competition Pro. And, the deal is available in more than one store, so presumably nationwide.

for what its worth, playing a demo of jak and daxter a month or 2 ago just reaffirmed my feeling that platformers suck, so either the rabid ninty fanboi in me is overriding my opinions of platformers, or this game is that damn good.

Noooooooooo. J&D is sublime and I don't like platformers either!

Yeah can't say I like the design of the notes. *shrugs*

I'm getting SMS obviously but I really really hope it doesn't get too frustrating too quickly. That's the one big problem with Nintendo games imho - they're a bit too demanding. *cough cough wheeze*

/pushes Luigi's Mansion across table to Otto/

Maybe this is a bit more to Sirs liking? Nice little game, not too difficult, fun gameplay and nicely constructed. Not overly long, so you could play it inbetween the Billy bookcases being filled. ;-)

Speaking of which, I just completed the 10th and final normal mission on Rogue Leader a couple of days ago. \o/

Need to refine my strategy at the other levels now so I can get better medals, more points and buy the bonus missions.

To aid the cleanup operation, Professor E. Gadd, who you may well remember as the mad gadget-building scientist in Luigi’s Mansion...

This professor seems to have his ow´n site.

http://www.ericgadd.com/

Ah, yes, Luigi's Mansion...

Must go back to that one of these days. When I'm feeling a bit braver. Never really went in for survival horror y'know.

Never really went in for survival horror y'know.


Not tempted by Resi then. Graphics are VERY cool. Although the only thing that scared me was the Capcom control setup . Aha ha.

Sorry.

Well, just to make you guys feel better, my younger sister (19) caned Luigi in a few days, shortly followed by my missus.

My wavebird batteries didn't half take a tanking that week :)

My wavebird batteries didn't half take a tanking that week :)

And it doesn't even vibr..

LM was a good game, if not a little short. I'd be damned, it took me ages to work out how to beat the final boss.

Noooooooooo. J&D is sublime and I don't like platformers either!

dont worry nem - i'm not trying to say that jak & daxter isn't a good game and i'm certainly not saying that people shouldn't check it out if it interests them. its just that it wasn't to my taste, whereas sms, being of the same genre, which i've hated for years, gripped me from the off.

definition of a short game......
rtcw or even worse was Max Payne= 4 years in development and it took me -10 hours to complete on the highest setting.

Tobz, I know *exactly* what you mean. I don't like platform games, I think it stems from 8bit platformers. Jet Set Willy started the hatred and it didn't improve with Sonic.

But J&D was the turning point for me. I collected all the damn coins, eggs, orbs, the whole lot. I'm not normally that obsessive about getting 100% on a game, I normally finish it and trade it.

i normally get part way through, get a new game and stop playing the last one, whilst promising myself that i'll get back to it at some point :)

last game i finished was Ico. damn that was a long time ago.

"Ah, yes, Luigi's Mansion... Must go back to that one of these days. When I'm feeling a bit braver. Never really went in for survival horror y'know."

LOL, now that's funny :-D

I bought SMS this morning and have been playing it constantly since (apart from a few posts here). The best thing is that repeated pressing of the B button has Mario bouncing along barking and I can't help but think of Ralph Wiggum. :) Oh and it's driving me mental, but it's very good.

Some bits are VERY annoying though. But you seem to just pick yourself up and carry on.

*AWOOGA* *AWOOGA*

Guys - I need your help! A colleague at work has just asked me for advice on what games console she should buy for her 8-10 year old sons.

My gut reaction (being totally un-biased, natch) was to say PS2 because of lots of great games and forthcoming GTA: Vice City. But then I remembered the kids were under 10 and thought maybe "Mum" wouldn't thank me for this (even if the kids would).

Then I thought that with SMS out today, would Gamecube be better for the age range in question?

Or what about an XBox?

Advice appreciated! No fanboy-isms, thanx.

probably best with the cube - its for the kids... no 8 year old will be able to hold a xbox pad, and gta3 vice city is pretty unsuitable for kids.

GC - its the cheapest and kid friendly

I would say PS2 - purely for the number of games available. And the PS2 has a platinum range so there are cheaper games available. Also there are a vast number of secondhand titles available in game etc.


edit -

They don't have to buy 18 rated games.
And I can show you a 5 year old that can use an XBox controller without any trouble.

I would say PS2 if the kids are swapping games as most people have got one.

Append...Also, the cheap traded in games at EB are mostly PS2. The GC is a very nice piece of kit, better than PS2, BUT if you're looking at things from a financial POV..PS2 all the way.

gta3 vice city is pretty unsuitable for kids

I said that, although apparently her kids are already playing GTA 2 on the PC and are loving it! The eldest wants GTA3 so he can go crusing the streets and pick up some fly honeyz for an extra 25 health! (Erm, okay I made up that last bit...)

I would say PS2 if the kids are swapping games as most people have got one

I also said it was probably worth asking them what they wanted because they'll probably have already made their minds up! Having the same system and swapping games is good, but would it be better to have a different system so when chums visit they've got something new to have a go on, and vice versa?

"but would it be better to have a different system so when chums visit they've got something new to have a go on, and vice versa"

No, the ungrateful sods would feel like they are missing out and want one as well.

As you said they probably already know which one they want.

My mate asked me recently whether he should get a GC or XBox for his son - his sister has a PS2 already.

Probably best to ask her if she wants to play on it as well, and then if she does, ask her what kind of stuff she likes and tell her what to get.

However, my nieces and nephew (around the childs age) are obssessed with SMB and Pikmin so probably a Gamecube if she doesn't want anything to do with the console thing.

but would it be better to have a different system so when chums visit they've got something new to have a go on, and vice versa?

No, definately not. Were you ever the kid at school with the only machine different? Er, I was, it wasn't fun believe me! Kids swap stuff about, even if it's demo disks, and pretty much everything comes out on the PS2. I'd still go with the PS2.

I remember taking the piss out of those poor Electron owners :)

double post

Probably best to ask her if she wants to play on it as well, and then if she does, ask her what kind of stuff she likes and tell her what to get.

Erm... Not likely!

Thanks for some very sage advice about kids' game-swapping habits. I hadn't realised it was actually such a problem to own a non-mainstream machine. When I was at school almost everyone had an Amiga - so maybe that poor sod who cried every breaktime wasn't suffering emotional trauma as a result of a family breakup or recent bereavement - maybe his parents bought him an Atari ST! The B*stards!!!!

:-)

My gut reaction (PS2) seems to have been best. What are good kids games for it? I'll recommend Jak & Daxter (now on Platinum!!!) and Ratchet & Clank (when it arrives) and maybe Kingdom Hearts for the Disney content. MGS2, GTA3 and GT3 are probably out though...

I remember taking the piss out of those poor Electron owners :)

/Stern look/

Something musical too - like Rez or Frequency, kids love music.

But never buy 'em drums.

Right then - thanks for the advice and the insights into child psychology. I shall prepare some Powerpoint slides and a full briefing dossier for my colleague over the weekend. Or maybe not.

Bye!

My brothers, who are 5 and 8, love GTA3. I literally have to block the door when I'm playing it to stop them charging in to watch and start shouting "run em over! kill the cops!" etc

"What would you say to a nice cup of tea, Father?"
"Feck off, cup!"

Do you mind?

We're trying to teach a youngster a valuable lesson in conformity.

How sad. :(
To be different is to have a small close circle of friends. If you're popular (which I wasn't), you have kids hanging out with you who don't really care about you, just care about status.
(metaphore) PS2 is like that, everyone has it, there are lots of games, but I'm not (genuinely) happy with it (there are some good games....just an example here). Then we come to my GC. A smaller number of games, but all good, worthy games. /me happy :)

Those platform levels *are* fiendish. Especially that evil sandbird one.

Re magazines. I scored a huge moral victory by throwing my 5 year stash of Marie Claires out after a period of nagging. I now use my moral advantage at having thrown them out practically daily, especially when discussing de cluttering his CD collection. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Oh yeah, SMS is a great game. The best on GC. It's very tough, sometimes frustrating, but addictively fun nonetheless. Those backpackless levels take some practice, some effort, and a lot of patience. This is where I think the camera should be run automatically.