Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 51)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we get a look at public relationships, cosplay in action and acting, and the children of gods who are themselves gods (or something).

• First in this volume, Charlie McDonnell talks about entering into a public relationship. I debated a little, whether or not I should include this video since the relationship didn't last the time between then and now, but I think that the problems Charlie faces are still important to talk about.
• Next Adam Savage sits down with Norm from Tested to talk about his No Face costume. I thought their remarks on the theatre that comes out of cosplaying interesting. I always like seeing characters who have an established relationship meet at a con.
• Finally we have the first episode in Chuggaconroy's Okamiden Let's Play. As with all Let's Plays I'm including the first episode as the placeholder for the whole series. If you're looking for a long format play through of a fun, charming game, with a fun and terribly punny commentator this would be your target.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 35)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos we get the chance to talk about creativity, hats, story telling and bowser's arms.

• The first set of videos are from Charlie McDonnell. A while ago he decided (if that's the right word) to have a "YouTube Midlife Crisis" and he talked about some of his creative stresses. He also talked about some of his rules for YouTube videos, which I think are also interesting rules to look at for any creative endeavour. Interestingly I didn't favourite Part 2 of his rules, but had to watch that video immediatly after I watched Part 1 so I decided to throw it in as a bonus.
• Next, did you know that Team Fortress 2 has a story? Well now you do, and it only took a minute, thanks to the Lore Team.
• For all that I like Belated Media, I wasn't exactly sure why I'd favourited this video ... until the last 5 seconds. Stay tuned kids. Stay tuned. (Although it is a bit spoilery for A Cabin in The Woods)
• Finally, we have the kick off episode of Chuggaconroy's Let's Play of  Super Paper Mario. As with most Let's Play's I tend to favourite the first episode if the whole series is worth while and this one is. It's a lot of fun and is apt to keep you distracted for a while to come.

Blog: Favorite YouTube Videos (Volume 30)

This volume of my favorite YouTube videos returns to the good old days of video games, music and the truth (as provided by John Green ... the truth that is, he promised not to provide us with any more music).

• First up, we return to my favorite all time video game cover artist, CalebElijah. It turns out he wasn't eaten by snakes in Africa, so we get to listen to his cover of Magus's Battle Theme from Chrono Trigger. If this doesn't make the hair on your arms stand up your arm hairs are not wired correctly.
• Next is CalebElijah's cover of Windy City Winlan from Breath of Fire. A little less intense, but for me no less nostalgic. We might not hear from him quite so often as we used to, but I'm always glad to see he's made something cool.
• The next video is the finale to Chuggaaconroy's let's play of Mother 3. If you want to watch it,  you should start from the beginning, but I favorited this one for a couple of reasons. First the let's play is pretty well done, it's a bit rough being from Chuggaconroy's early work, but it's a good journey through a very intense game. Secondly, the game itself is worth seeing and given that it's not easily accessed outside of Japan this is a good way. Finally this episode is very well executed and really stands out in terms of voice acting and presentation.
• Next we have a vlog from Husky about various thing. He still hasn't really picked up vlogging, but he tells some interesting stories when he does.
• Finally John Green sets us straight on some misconceptions, plus tells an Inception joke, because he's cool like that.

Favorite YouTube Videos (Volume 20)

In this volume of my favorite YouTube videos we have video game playing, vlogs an a short ad (which I don't get paid for, I should note).

• The first video is part 11 of Chuggaconroy's Let's Play of Mother 3. I have to confess first that I'm not entirely sure why I favorited this particular video and I think I recommend that if you're interested you start with the first video in the series (since this is rather in the middle of things).
  
  Mother 3 is quite an odd game, created by Shigesato Itoi it is the sequel to Earthbound (which was Mother 2 in japan). It's an RPG for the Gameboy Advance (after having been converted from a scrapped Nintendo 64 game. For a video game though, especially and RPG it's very interesting in how many topics it tackles and how deep a view it takes on life. It was never released in North America and as such Chugga is playing on a fan translated patch.
  
  Chuggaconroy's Let's Play of this game is quite good (although I think he's improved his videos over the years, these older ones show him being very young). And given that it's really a landmark video game I think the whole series is worth a watch.
• The next video is a vlogbrothers video in which John looks at some of the questions the people have asked google lately.
• The next video is also from John Green, vlogbrother. In this he talks about nerdfighteria, sports and a little book that he can't figure out the name for yet.
• Next we have a video from the incredibly talented Elmify. In this video she talks about home-made gifts and how some things just aren't quite the same as you grow up. I find her videos phenomenally well paced and when you consider the amount of work she actually has to do to put them together they're quite incredible. I recommend you look up more of them, but don't be surprised that you'll see her here again.
• The final video in this set is an ad / promotional video that Kater17 made for Mountain Dew Pitch Black. It's a bit slow to start, but it's creative, kinda fun and the effects work is really good.

Blog: Thoughts on Pikmin

I recently finished replaying Pikmin. Pikmin is a real-time strategy game released by Nintendo for the Gamecube in 2001. Pikmin was later followed up by Pikmin 2 and now Pikmin 3 is scheduled to be a launch(ish) title for the Wii U. In it you play Captain Olimar, erstwhile space ship captain who has crashed into a terrifying planet full of giant captain eating monsters. You have to find the 30 missing parts of your ship  with the help of 3 different, colour-coded for your convenience, species of animate carrots. I rented it (and played it through) through when it first came out and recently picked it up at my local game store.

Piiiiiikmin (via GameFAQs)

You play Pikmin by raising up a swarm of these small simple creatures who's basic functions are to fight things and carry things. You get more pikmin by having them carry food back to their "onions" from which they sprout new seeds which bloom into pikmin which you then pluck and put into forced labour fighting monsters, removing bariers and carrying more food and your ship parts. Different pikmin are immune to different environmental hazards. Put together you get a game that's part puzzle game part action-strategy game.

It's a simple game and really short (I finished it in 3 light evenings, and I wasn't that good). I enjoyed enough to feel like writing a bit about it, especially because of the brightness of the game and how much fun it was it was to play.

What I Liked

The greatest part about Pikmin is the feeling of the game. It's bright and colourful and the controls are (for the most part) not frustrating. It's easy enough to see a problem, decide on a solution and implement it (whether or not it will work is another story). The controls feel good and the game doesn't fight you outside of a couple of AI elements, since the pikmin are supposed to be independent creatures you sometimes have to work with what they want. This doesn't detract from the game at all though.

It's kinda fun to hang out with these guys. (via GameFAQs)

I like the constrained nature of the game. Your ship has crashed, you have 30 days to retrieve 30 ship parts. Pikmin fight things and cary things. All you need to do is make sure the paths are open (which you do by using more pikmin to fight things. The game isn't overwhelming with complexity, either in the gameplay or the story, so it's simple to sit down and play for a few minutes when ever you feel like it. Days last 13 minutes, so it's easy to get a small snippet of Pikmin in although it sometimes takes a couple of days planning to get a task done and it's easy to forget what you were aiming to do.

What I Didn't Like

The biggest issue I had with Pikmin is the strength of the enemies. This is partly due to my having played a lot more Pikmin 2 where the a lot of the bosses from Pikmin become easier, regular field enemies and you have stronger Pikmin to fight them. Still I would describe Pikmin as an easy game, except for the combat. It's also true that most of the enemies are based on patterns and the more you play the more comfortable you get with the correct way to fight each kind of enemy.

Patience is a virtue rarely explored in video games. Watch out for the feet. (via GameFAQs)

I also found that the game is a little bit small and simple (despite my having like the constrained nature above). Again this might be my experience with Pikmin 2 peeking though, but the areas are a bit small and there aren't any extra things to do. It would be nice to find a few extra surprises here and there to expand on the game a bit.

While it's mostly alright, the AI was not all it could be. While most of the game felt like you were collaborating with helpful, mostly compliant creatures (who sometimes had their own agendas) every once in a while the covers fall off and you run into problems. One instance I had was when a bunch of blue-pikmin who are able to walk through water (they have gills) wouldn't carry a ship part back to the ship unless a bridge was repaired for them to carry it over the water. It's a case where what should be a largely emergent AI system was trumped by traditional video game design and it made the game worse for it. From what I recall they did make this much better in Pikmin 2, but as an AI researcher its frustrating to see something we could implement much better going to waste.

Things I Noticed

Pikmin was also re-released on the Wii and while I haven't played it (I have watched Chuggaconroy's Let's Play), I noticed that they signifiantly reworked the controls. This seems to have removed a lot of the issues I've had with getting the pikmin to the right places at the right time. While I don't think the Gamecube controls are terrible it does look like the Wii controls make the game a lot easier.

Things I'd Include in a Game

The bright and happy aspect of Pikmin shouldn't be underrated, even if it causes people to feel like it's a "kiddy" game. It's obviously not appropriate for every game, but sometimes its nice to be able to relax and enjoy the atmosphere ... although this possibly makes it more horrific when you get a swarm of pikmin eaten.

How can it not be charming? (via GameFAQs)

I also like the bite sized chunks attached to achievable goals. This game came out long before the "social gaming" trend started and it's a good reminder that small fun pieces of game play doesn't have to also be about microtransactions.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed Pikmin and if you're able to get your hands on it I recommend playing it. It's a lot of fun by itself and an interesting example of where video games have been in the past. I'm really glad I picked it up and I'm pretty excited for the forthcoming Pikmin 3.

It is the fundamental nature of the Pikmin. All things must be carried. (via GameFAQs)