These two posts are by Ronk from the thread “smw is fine but dear god super mario 64” on SelectButton. The subforum they were posted in, Forum Axe: The Duel, auto-prunes old threads and requires authentication, so I won’t bother linking to the thread. The link will be dead in a week anyways.
if smb3 is having awesome sex with a fit model, and smw is like having a 3 way with your best friends
then sm64 is like dreaming about the first time you made love on a floating ship, sailing aimlessly through the stars.
edit – smb is the first time you had sex, in the backseat your parent’s car on prom night. us smb 2 is like sex with the cute weird girl in the photo lab dark room and jsmb 2 is like the first time you had sex with a safety word.
– Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:02 pm
– Last edited by Ronk on Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:28 pm; edited 2 times in total
– Opening post of the thread
sunshine is like having awkward sex with a girl from your high school political science class.
galaxy is like having sex with your ex girlfriend on the hood of your old car, stopping every few minutes to ask if it’s ok and if everything is alright.
– Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:40 pm

Tim Schafer was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight. I watched for two reasons. Sure, I was interested in Schafer, but I wasn’t expecting anything I hadn’t heard previously. However, I was also curious about how Jimmy Fallon was going to handle having someone from the gaming industry on his show. Fallon has claimed that he wants to treat big video game releases similar to big movie releases. He had four guests on his show – Drew Barrymore (plugging her movie, Whip It), two people from The Universal Records Database (for storing world records), and Tim Schafer.
For those who don’t know him, Tim Schafer is the designer of the upcoming Brutal Legend. I’m looking forward to it a lot. It seems like Tenacious D: The Game in a lot of ways. Schafer worked Monkey Island 1 and 2, Maniac Mansion, and Psychonauts among other games, and Brutal Legend is developed by Double Fine, developer of Psychonauts.

 
Fallon wanted to know how Schafer got the idea for Brutal Legend. Schafer explained that when he was younger and listening to music, he’d look at the album covers. Unlike today where people listen to mp3s and go about their day without looking at the music at all, people used to actually pay attention to the art on the record jacket. Metal albums often had intricate details such as runes on the first album Tim Schafer owned, “Diary of a Madman” by Ozzy Osbourne. He wanted to explore the world of metal that he saw when he stared at the albums.
In Brutal Legend, a roadie is sent back in time to a past during which mankind was enslaved by demons. This is the world of metal the Schafer imagined. He went on to talk about how the main character uses a battle axe as well as a guitar. There was no mention of the term “axe” being used to mean “guitar,” but I suspect that played a role as well. The guitar is amplified by the magic, and the main character uses it to summon lightning, pyrotechnics, etc. When asked how he got Jack Black for the role of the main character, Schafer replied that at first he just wanted to make a game that Jack Black would like. To Schafer, Jack Black was the type of person at whom he was aiming the game. There was also mention of Jack Black and Tenacious D loving the serious aspects of music while still appreciating the over-the-topness of it, which is exactly like Brutal Legend. When they were casting the main character, Schafer wanted someone who would sound sort of like Jack Black. Then he found out that Black was a fan of his previous game, Psychonauts, they invited him to play the role. He also said that Ozzy Osbourne is in the game as well.
The interview with Tim Schafer was pretty interesting, and I’m glad I watched tonight. I’m also glad that Jimmy Fallon does seem to be treating games similarly to movies. Yes, movies get more of the spotlight than games, but this is still a nice start. I’m definitely not going to watch Fallon’s show regularly because I’m just not interested in the movie industry, but I’ll check out his show in the future if there’s a guest who’s from the video game industry.

I’ve always really enjoyed Harvest Moon. This game has a successful marketing campaign on social media from The Marketing Heaven and always get my attention. Learning to manage my time to care for my farm can be stressful, but once I have a routine down, it’s actually relaxing. Feed the chickens, grab the egg, feed the cows, milk the cows, brush the cows, brush the horse, harvest, water. Then I get a little bit of precious free time to go up the mountain or talk to a girl. The dating simulator aspect of the game is also fun although simple, reminding me of the system from Azure Dreams. Sadly, I’ve never finished a Harvest Moon game.
The first I played was Harvest Moon for the SNES. When I picture Harvest Moon in my head, this is the version I see. I played it quite a bit for a while, and I remember talking to William about it while he played it as well. I tried the PlayStation version, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature as well which was 3D and ugly. Some people liked it more, but I just couldn’t get into it. I did have a friend, most likely Shaun, who used to play it at my house, but I passed on it.

 
William let me borrow Harvest Moon 64 for the N64, and that was much more enjoyable than Back to Nature. It was also 3D but just seemed more pleasant. Harvest Moon 64 featured a greenhouse, allowing me to grow plants even in the winter. Even though Harvest Moon is a single player, I really enjoyed talking to William about this game while I played it.
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town came out in fall of 2003, my senior year of high school. William and I each bought a copy. This was the first time I played Harvest Moon on a portable, and it was great to have it with me wherever I went. I talked to William every night about how far we were and what was happening. In this version, sprites lived around the farm. After I befriended them, they did various work around my farm for me. This version seemed really amazing, and it was by far my favorite. Unfortunately, I lost the game and never did find it.
In my second year of college, I purchased Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. This was just too stressful for me. I kept having to check FAQs to make sure I didn’t miss things, and I didn’t want to play like that. However, I didn’t want to progress in the game only to find that I was unable to get something because the opportunity passed. I ended up giving up pretty early. Maybe the previous versions also had things I could miss, but I just didn’t know. A Wonderful Life was also the first time I played Harvest Moon without discussing it with William frequently. Luckily, gem played it too so I talked to her about it!
I think it’s time to play Harvest Moon again. On the DS there’s Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and in November Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands will be released in the US. There’s also Rune Factory and Rune Factory for the DS which feature dungeons and action-RPG elements. Rune Factory Frontier is also on the Wii. Rune Factory seems to be pushing the 3D a little bit too far, leaving the game looking ugly. I’ll start with Harvest Moon DS and see how I like it. Perhaps I’ll finish it this time!

Okay, by gamer, I just mean me. Joystiq and GameSpot just confirmed the rumors about Super Street Fighter IV. Disappointingly, it’s a retail game, not DLC. It’s adding eight characters, but only three have been revealed – T. Hawk, Dee Jay, and newcomer Juri. Characters have been rebalanced, and new ultras have been introduced. The online features are also going to be “enhanced,” whatever that means.
I’d be excited if this was reasonably priced DLC, but making us pay for a new game while at the same time making our older version worthless doesn’t please me. I’m sure this will also weaken online play in the original Street Fighter IV, thus lowering the value of the game for those of us who don’t want the new version.
Sources:
GameSpot, Joystiq