Ten Years on Youtube

Today marks the 10th anniversary of my Youtube channel, jvgsjeff. I want to thank all of you who have watched my videos over the past ten years. To celebrate, I made a new video that’s a follow-up to one of my most popular videos, Wii Fit Plus: Obsctacle Course FAILS. This new one is based on Wii Fit U, and it features FAILS from a variety of game modes. That includes not just the obstacle courses, but also Snowball Fight, Soccer Heading, Dessert Course, Climbing, and more. It should provides some laughs and/or smiles. 🙂

It was ten years ago today (October 9th, 2006) that I joined Youtube and uploaded my first video. That video was a tour of my Animal Crossing house on Nintendo GameCube.

I’ve made many Animal Crossing videos over the past ten years, but I’ve also made a number of Mario, Harvest Moon, and Splatoon videos, among others. I plan on making game videos for many more years to come! I’m particularly looking forward to the Wii U version of Stardew Valley, the NX in general, and future Animal Crossing games. Thank you all very much! 🙂

Mario Kart 8 – Get-Together #4

This afternoon, I held my 4th (and likely final) Mario Kart 8 get-together. Squishy and Qwerty joined in as we raced on the original courses and DLC tracks. I played as Link, Qwerty played as Shy Guy, and Squishy started out as Rosalina. We raced in four cups (although Squishy left after the third one), and I’ll give a brief recap of each cup. I chose 100cc for all of today’s races.

Cup #1

SNES Donut Plains 3 was the first race, and Qwerty raced ahead for a big win. Squishy and I battled back and forth, with me passing her in the final turn for 2nd place. DS Wario Stadium was next, and it was a fun, competitive race. All three of us were bunched together the entire race. Qwerty won the race, and I got third…but less than one second separated us all.

Hyrule Circuit (The Legend of Zelda DLC track) was the third race, and I led most of the way. Until the final straightaway, that is, when I got hit by a red shell and Qwerty passed me for the win. Ouch.

Link gets hit by a red shell right before the finish line and loses the race in Mario Kart 8.A banana peel or shell would have saved me, but coins were the only power-ups I got in the final lap. Mount Wario was the final race of the cup, and Squishy beat out Qwerty for the win. I was in a distant third place, unable to mount a comeback. Here are the final standings for the first cup:

1. Qwerty: 14 points. 2. Squishy: 8 points. 3. JVGS Jeff: 6 points.Cup #2

Sunshine Airport was the first course here, and it was another fun, close match. It came down to the end, with Squishy winning the race and me coming in 2nd. 3DS Music Park was next, and Qwerty beat us for an easy win. Squishy passed me up at the end for 2nd place.

Mount Wario came up again as the third race, and just like the first time, Squishy won and I finished last. The cup wrapped up with the Animal Crossing track, which took place in winter this time. Squishy was the one crossing the finish line first, while Qwerty got 2nd, and I finished last once again.

Flying through the Animal Crossing track in winter (Mario Kart 8).Squishy won this cup. Here are the final standings:

1. Squishy: 14 points. 2. Qwerty: 9 points. 3. JVGS Jeff: 5 points.Cup #3

The third cup started out with N64 Rainbow Road–always a fun track. We had a close race, but Qwerty came away with the win and I got 3rd place. Excitebike Arena was next: Squishy won the race, and I got 2nd place. But before the third race, aliens abducted Qwerty and Squishy!

Squishy and Qwerty rocket away from Earth in Mario Kart 8.It must have been a brief connection issue. They were able to rejoin almost immediately, but their scores for this cup were reset. GCN Dry Dry Desert was the next course, and Qwerty won the race. I got 2nd, while Squishy (now playing as Isabelle) finished in 3rd. Mute City was the final race of the cup, and Qwerty again won and I came in 2nd.

Despite being the only one who kept credit for all four races, I still didn’t win the cup. 😀 Qwerty got the win.

1. Qwerty: 8 points. 2. JVGS Jeff: 7 points. 3. Squishy: 2 points.Cup #4

Squishy left before this cup, so I announced to Qwerty that this would be my final cup. Qwerty easily beat me in Excitebike Arena, Electrodome, and N64 Yoshi Valley. For the final race, I had trouble deciding on a course. Time ran out on me, while my cursor happened to be on Wii Moo Moo Meadows. That was the chosen course, and surprisingly, I actually won. That was my only win of the entire get-together. 😀

Here are the final standings for this cup:

1. Qwerty: 10 points. 2. JVGS Jeff: 6 points.Final Thoughts

Thanks to Qwerty and Squishy for coming and racing today. It was fun, especially those races that were really close. I did horrible, but that’s nothing new for me. I never got into Mario Kart 8 the same way I got into Mario Kart Wii, and I never got as good at the game (not that I was great at MKW either).

I’m not planning any more get-togethers for Mario Kart 8, but I’m sure I’ll do more once the next game comes out (probably on NX).

I won’t be posting any videos of today’s races, but here is one of my older MK8 videos: It shows what the Animal Crossing track looks like in each season.

Review: Mini-Games Madness Volume #1

Indie developer Skunk Software sent me a download code for their Wii U eShop game called Mini-Games Madness Volume #1: Hello World. Kind of a generic and excessively long title, but I gave it a shot. It normally sells for $4.99 in the Wii U eShop.

Mini-Games Madness Volume 1 title screen.The game consists of four mini-games which can be chosen from a glitchy, flashing menu screen that looks like it’s playing on a badly warped VHS tape from the 1980s. It has to be the worst menu screen I’ve ever seen. I’ll talk about each of the four mini-games separately:

Eels and Ladders

This is a board game for 1-2 players. If you’ve played Chutes and Ladders, you’ll know how this works. You and your opponent (human or computer) start out at the bottom of the screen and work your way up 100 numbered spaces; whoever reaches #100 first wins the game. By touching a tiny icon on the gamepad, you roll a die to see the number of spaces you move.

As the title suggests, there are eels and ladders on the board. If you land on a ladder, you will climb up the ladder–taking a shortcut. If you land on the mouth of an eel, you will slide down to the eel’s tail–taking you backward.

Eels and Snakes screenshot.For some reason, the game board is quite narrow–it only takes about one-third of the screen width. Why not make it wider and use the full TV or gamepad screen? It would be easier to see the details (not that there are many) and it would look better. But not many wise decisions were made in the design of this collection, as you’ll soon see.

Games of Eels and Ladders are simple and quick; they won’t take much more than two or three minutes to complete. The music isn’t bad, and you have the option to choose the background image of the board, but there’s not much fun to be had here. My rating: 2/10

Mini Farmer

This farming mini-game starts with an audio tutorial from a man with a stereotypical southern accent. You start by planting seeds with the A button. And then you wait for a tiny indicator (which isn’t very noticeable at first and resembles a shadow on the ground) to slowly enlarge and turn green. Press the A button while it’s green to water the seeds.

Another indicator will then slowly grow and turn green; it tells you when to harvest your crops. But you have to be quick, because you only have a few seconds to collect your veggies before they die!

Mini Farmer screenshot.The left control stick moves the camera around your farm–but it moves quickly and erratically. It’s extremely easy to overshoot your target. There are five types of vegetables you can grow, but it gets monotonous in a hurry. Watching that indicator grow and pressing “A” when it turns green is all the gameplay you get. This isn’t Harvest Moon where you can explore, participate in festivals, and talk to other characters: This game has none of that.

However, you can upgrade parts of your farm, including your storage sheds, water tower, windmills, and vehicles. Each upgrade will increase your production rate by a bit, and that allows you to grow crops slightly faster. Fully upgrading your farm will take 10+ hours of play time, so at least it does give you a goal to work towards–even if the journey there is mind-numbingly repetitive.

You can save your progress by using the green arrows to back out to the main menu. But I’ve noticed that not all of my money is there when I return! It may just be a few thousand dollars, so it won’t take more than a couple minutes to earn it back, but still…why?

If there’s a fee for saving your progress, well that’s just stupid. The in-game manual makes no mention of it, but the in-game manual is pathetic anyway and does a poor job at explaining anything. I figure the loss of money at startup is likely a glitch.

Some of the music in Mini Farmer is relaxing and enjoyable, and that’s the best thing I can say about it. The game itself is tedious and monotonous. I fully upgraded my farm only from a compulsive need to complete it before posting this review, but I did not enjoy the journey. My rating for Mini Farmer: 3/10

Copter

You control a helicopter as it flies through a cavern, avoiding walls and platforms. You use the left control stick or the A button to make the helicopter move up. It’s played just like Flappy Bird, really. But the graphics are so simplistic, barren, and drab that they actually make Flappy Bird look like an artistic masterpiece in comparison. Heck, most Atari 2600 games are more visually appealing! Even the font used for your score is tiny, narrow, and virtually unreadable.

Copter screenshot.Your score goes up the farther you go without crashing, and the speed gradually increases as well. As for the fun factor, it never gets off the ground. I’ve written a previous post about a good game in this style called Superflx DX: It’s a free, homebrew game for the Atari Jaguar no less, and it completely obliterates Copter in absolutely every way. Seriously.

Even in a compilation full of bad games, Copter is so horrible that it feels out of place. It never should have been included. In anything, anywhere, at any time. My rating: 1/10

Cave Run

This mini-game has you constantly running forward through a cave as you avoid obstacles, jump over gaps, and collect gems. Once you miss a jump and fall off the path, your game is over. Your score is based on how far you traveled and how many gems you collected.

Cave Run screenshot.This mode may keep you entertained for several minutes, making it one of the better mini-games in this collection. Of course that’s not saying much. It’s repetitive and it gets old quickly. But I made it a bit more enjoyable by purposely running through fire–just to see my character burn his butt.

Running through fire in Cave Run.My rating for Cave Run: 3/10.

Conclusion

To put it bluntly, this collection is awful. The mini-games feel like incomplete demos (especially Eels & Ladders and Copter). I’m sure there are some 6th graders out there that have done projects that were better than this. Honestly, I’m surprised that Nintendo even allows “games” this bad in their eShop. I do not recommend buying this game.

My overall rating: 2/10

One interesting thing I noticed on the Skunk Software website is their slogan: Stinking up the competition. Are they purposely publishing bad games? Are they trolling Nintendo? That slogan really makes me wonder.

Disclosure:  Skunk Software provided me with a free copy of this game. This fact has not affected my review in any way.