Splatoon Get-Together #2

I held my second Splatoon get-together yesterday (the first since private lobbies were added). Meli was the first one to enter the lobby, and I had intended to wait before starting the match. But being my first time using a private lobby, I clicked “set teams” not knowing that it would take me to a point of no return. I’ll share the results of each match, along with some notes about some of them.

Jumping off in Moray Towers.
Match 1: Flounder Heights. In the one-on-one match, Meli splatted me once (and I didn’t splat her at all), but I inked more turf and won the match.

Match 2: Kelp Dome. Tom41 and Ash joined in, so we had a 2-on-2 battle.

Match 3: Camp Triggerfish. Qwerty (Nintendude) joined in, and we had an odd number of players for the first time. That’s one problem with private lobbies, the unused spots aren’t filled by random players, so you often get uneven teams. Even though my team was outnumbered, it felt like I was inking turf almost nonstop and I was surprised we lost by such a large margin (60.7% to 25.5%).

Match 4: Camp Triggerfish. I was letting the game select the maps up to this point, but after it selected Camp Triggerfish (my least favorite map) for a second time in a row, I decided I would pick the maps manually from now on. One funny thing I noticed in this match is that I killed Qwerty with an inkstrike near the beggining of the match–just like I did in the previous match, haha. I was on the team with three players this time though, so it was an easy win.

Match 5: Flounder Heights. One note of frustration: I got inkzooka’d FOUR times in this match: 3 times by Qwerty and once by Meli. Ouch.

Match 6: Walleye Warehouse. This was the worst. Tom and I were against everyone else, and with over a minute to go, the other team was just spawn camping. Hanging out at our spawn point to just kill us repeatedly. This is one of the worst stages for that, since the opening is so narrow, it’s hard to find a way out. Especially when you’re outnumbered. Very frustrating.

Results of the first 6 matches at Get-Together #2.
Results of Matches 1-6

Match 7: Saltspray Rig. Matthew and DJfrijoles joined the lobby…but unfortunately, we still had an odd number of players. It just went from 5 to 7. Even though I was on the team with more players this time, I had a rough match. I felt like I could never get going, dying six times. My team was doing a good job of controlling the upper portion of the map, so I was fighting for the lower part. Unfortunately, the other team seemed to have multiple members there and they kept splatting me each time. No matter where I went, they were there. Even though my team won and I was shockingly 2nd on my team, this was not a fun match. For me, dying repeatedly is even more frustrating than losing. That’s why I’m not a fan of ranked mode, it’s just a kill-a-thon most of the time.

Match 8: Arowana Mall. I was on the 4-person team and we were dominating early, but the other team fought back and made it reasonably close. We won 52.8% to 38.8%.

Match 9: Blackbelly Skatepark. I was on the undermanned team this time, along with Qwerty and DJfrijoles. We lost 65.2% to 28.4%.

Match 10: Port Mackerel. Tom left the lobby prior to this match, so we had an even 3-on-3 battle here. Or at least it started out that way–Matthew got disconnected during the match. I died more than I would have liked here, but Ash and Meli carried my team to victory.

Match 11: Moray Towers. Matthew returned, but now DJfrijoles left, so we had an odd number of players once again. Ash and I were the 2-person team, playing against Qwerty, Matthew, and Meli. Even though Ash and I lost pretty badly, 62% to 28.8%, this match was a lot of fun for me. There were a few times I escaped bad situations, and being chased by a Kraken made me feel like a ninja squid at one point leaping down level to level–even if I did fall to my death once. I know a lot of people don’t like Moray Towers, but it’s seriously one of my top three maps. I just love the thrill of sneaking past (or plowing through) an enemy, inking up their ramps, and being able to jump down to flee when necessary.

Match 12: Bluefin Depot. I was on the 3-person team this time, and we won without much trouble.

Match 13: Hammerhead Bridge.

Match 14: Urchin Underpass. This was the final match. I was actually going to stop prior to this match, until I realized we hadn’t played Urchin Underpass. Qwerty left before the match, so we had an even 2-on-2 match. It was Matthew and I against Meli and Ash. It felt like a close match early on, but Meli and Ash started dominating late.

Results of matches 7-14 from Splatoon Get-Together #2.
Results of Matches 7-14

Afterwards, I tried to figure out who Matthew and DJfrijoles were. But I discovered that they are not on my friend roster at all. I was under the impression that my open lobby would only show up on the lists of people on my friend roster, but that’s apparently not the case. Oh well. I have no problem with other people joining in.

Haunted House – Atari 2600

Each October, I try to revisit some Halloween games and/or try out a new one. This time, I went old-school…very old-school…to play Haunted House on the Atari 2600 VCS. It’s a game I’ve played before briefly, but I never really got into it. Until now, that is.

The object of the game is to venture into an old abandoned haunted house, find (and assemble) three pieces of a magic urn, and then escape out the front door. The problem is that there are 24 rooms in the haunted house (six each on four floors) and many of the doors are locked. Oh, and there’s no electricity, so you’ll be in the dark (except in the first mission, which is essentially a training stage). In fact, all that you can see of your character is your eyes! To see where you’re going, you’ll need to light a match. You have an unlimited supply of matches, but they only last for a limited time. And they’ll be blown out automatically if an enemy enters the current room. In case you’re wondering, the enemies you’ll encounter are tarantulas, vampire bats, and ghosts. If one of them touches you, you’ll lose one of your nine lives.

Haunted House Atari 2600Somewhere in the mansion, you can find a magic scepter that will protect you from enemy attacks; it’s an extremely useful thing to have on-hand. There is also a master key hidden in the house that will open all locked doors. But there is a catch, of course. You can only carry one item at a time: the scepter, the key, or the urn (or urn pieces–they automatically combine when you find more than one). So juggling those items is crucial to completing your mission. Each floor of the house has multiple stairways, so you may have to take roundabout ways to reach certain areas when you’re not holding the master key.

Haunted House Atari 2600The game has nine different variations, each more difficult than the last. The first one has lights on and all the doors are unlocked, but later levels have no lights, locked doors, more enemies, and so on. In some variations, the scepter won’t protect you from ghosts. Regardless of which variation you play, the urn pieces and other items are placed randomly, so the game will be different each time.

Haunted House Atari 2600Of course the graphics and sound are extremely simple, but the effects are done well given the limitations of the system hardware. You’ll hear the gust of wind blowing out your match when an enemy enters a room and you’ll hear thunder (and see the house light up temporarily from lightning). Haunted House isn’t very difficult once you learn how to play, and the games will generally be quite short. But it is fun to play, especially this time of year. I haven’t completed all nine missions yet, but once I do, I’ll be back with a review. In the meantime, feel free to check out my other Atari 2600 reviews or my reviews of Halloween games. Have a great Halloween, everyone!

New 3DS XL

If you follow me on Twitter or read my New Leaf blog, you probably know that my 3DS XL has been falling apart and I was in need of a new system. Even though I was tempted to get another 3DS XL, I decided to upgrade to the New 3DS XL instead. This way, I won’t have to buy the separate NFC Reader for the Amiibo cards in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. Also, I’ll be ready for any future games that will only work on the New 3DS.

I got a red one, and it’s a nice, shiny red. (The picture below doesn’t do the shininess justice). The bad thing is that fingerprints show up on it quite easily. The system has improved 3D abilities, although I rarely use the 3D functions anyway. Some of the buttons have been moved to different locations, as have the volume slider, cartridge slot, and stylus slot. I think I’m going to be reaching for things that aren’t there, for a while at least. The stylus itself is shorter and thicker than the previous one, and I don’t care for the change. I think I may continue using my old stylus most of the time, at least when I’m at home.

Red New 3DS XLWhile it may be a temporary inconvenience to have buttons in different places, some things are gone completely–such as the wireless switch. It allowed you to immediately cut off all wireless communication to save battery power when you’re not playing online or going out for StreetPasses. It was also helpful in games like Animal Crossing: New Leaf: If someone was causing damage to your town or stealing items from you, you could cut the connection to preserve your town/items by reverting to the previous save.

Another change is that you need to use a tiny screwdriver to remove the MicroSD card. And then you’ll likely need an adapter to use the MicroSD card in a regular SD card slot on your computer. But fortunately, there is a way to move files wirelessly. It took me a little while to get it set up correctly, but I did figure it out.

Red New 3DS XLI’m hoping this New 3DS XL proves to be more durable than my regular 3DS XL, but I’m going to try being extra careful with it regardless. Portable or not, a video game system should not need to be replaced after 2.5 years. While I’ll still take this system out to get StreetPasses, I may skip taking it to amusement parks. It has the potential to take more abuse there, even though that was one of my best places to actually get StreetPass hits.

I performed my system transfer wirelessly yesterday, and it took about 2.5 hours. There is a faster option that lets you move files from your SD card to your computer, and then to your microSD card, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find a MicroSD card adapter. I think I have one somewhere, but I’m not sure where it is. But everything transferred over smoothly, with all of my data intact, so I’m happy about that.

I am enjoying my new New 3DS XL, and it’s nice to play games without having to literally hold up the top screen. I was a bit surprised that the New 3DS didn’t come with any new apps or anything fun to play around with, but it’s a big relief just to have a fully working system once again.