Kathy Lin

Note to self: Set the “Media Server Connection” option to Disabled.  This setting is found under Network Settings.

So, according to this article in the New York Times:

John Rodman, group product manager for the Xbox platform and Xbox Live, pointed to a recent Microsoft survey that revealed that nearly 40 percent of the time that Xbox 360 users spent with their consoles was for activities other than gaming. Yet when it comes to gaming, Xbox 360 users are serious, Mr. Rodman says. Six out of 10 Xbox 360 users use Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online gaming service.

“We don’t feel like the Wii customer and the Xbox customer are the same thing,” he said. “We think that as soon as the Wii customer turns 14 they want something else.”

Thanks a lot, Microsoft. So because I don’t have an XBox or XBox Elite, I’m a 13 year old?

Animal Crossing, Wild World, has a lot of the same characters as the original Animal Crossing, but with a new twist. One of those is Gulliver, who used to be the clumsy sailor that washed up on the beach. Each time you ‘rescued’ him from the beach he would give you a rare Gulliver item, usually a piece of furniture that resembled monuments and statues from various parts of the world.

Gulliver in AC: Wild World is a lot harder to talk to. You have to shoot his spaceship down from the sky with your slingshot when you see it going by the top screen. I decided to post my sister’s theory on Gulliver, which has worked for me this week.

1. During any weekday, talk to Booker. If he says something along the lines of “I’m so sorry! I’ll be more careful!” that means either Gulliver or Pete will be flying across the sky during the day.
2. Stand outside the town gate. When the time has a “7″ in the minute spot, Gulliver should fly by. If he does not, then Pete will fly by at 9 AM and 5 PM and you can shoot him down. According to my sister, all he does is talk about Phyllis which is lame because she a lot more rude than Pelly.
3. According to my sister, Gulliver tends to fly by every other week.

Isn’t that interesting? Of course, it would really only be interesting to people obsessed with Animal Crossing. Heh. No, seriously, I’m not crazy.

Wow! Well, this is the first game I’ve beaten in a long while. I think the last game I beat that I spent a comparable number of hours on was Kingdom Hearts II.

Link’s jouney onto the Wii (in all fairness, this game was released for the GameCube as well) was a fun one. I can say I thoroughly enjoyed playing it, perhaps for the nostalgia for Ocarina of Time. After all, it was my constant playing of that game that earned my suite at Copeley the moniker ‘Zelda’s Loony Bin.’

Spoilers are ahead, so don’t read this if you haven’t played/beaten the game yet.

Story
I won’t bore you with the details, but all Zelda games involve some sort of dimensional shift in which you have to conquer two worlds to truly defeat evil. In this case, it is the world of twilight, where Link plays as a mythical wolf. Nifty! Also, like all previous Legend of Zelda games, Link is greatly admired by almost all of the main female characters. What a stud!

Gameplay
Weapons: A few new weapons grace Link’s arsenal, among them water bombs, the gale boomerang, double clawshot, rotating hover platform, and one of my new favorites, the big metal ball & chain. There is something very satisfying about smashing a big metal ball into stuff. Seven hidden sword techniques look really neat on screen, and heighten’s Link’s badass swordsman image while keeping things fun. Certain techniques are very useful when fighting heavily armored or humungous foes.

Dungeons: A total of 9 dungeons makes this Zelda great. Each is full of unique puzzles that make use of all of Link’s items. The only annoying part is if a treasure chest containes rupees and your wallet is full, you’ll put them back in the treasure chest, for safekeeping I suppose. If you’re the type of person that likes to complete dungeons and get all chests, that can get kind of annoying.

Sidequests: There are several sidequests in this game, two are similar to the Gold Skulltula sidequest from Ocarina of Time: collect a lot of something, then get a cool item. Link can collect 24 golden bugs for the large wallet and giant wallet. He can also defeat 60 poes to get an infinite supply of rupees from Giovani. Of course, heart container pieces are scattered around Hyrule. In this game, it takes five heart pieces to complete a single container, so there are quite a few. The fortune teller in Castle helps you out by pointing towards containers you have not yet obtained when you ask for a ‘Love’ fortune.

Fishing (both bobber and lure-based) are in this game, but I didn’t really figure out the point (no items came from filling up my fish journal). I played the ‘RollGoal’ game found at the Fishing hole and completed all 8 levels, however all I got was the ‘frog lure’ which helps you catch bass and loach but is extremely difficult to use.

Wii Controls: A lot of reviews say that the control mechanism for the Wii felt ‘tacked on’ but I was totally amused by it. The only part that seemed somewhat out of place was when the numchuck was used for the spin attack. All other sword attacks were done using the Wii Remote while the numchuck was reserved for controlling movement and using the shield.

Aiming the Wii Remote for weapons like bow/arrow, boomerang, and clawshot was very intuitive but somewhat annoying during battles when you are moving both of your hands to fight, but still have to remain within the range of the sensor bar. Damage is taken while the message ‘Please aim the Wii Remote at the Screen’ flashes at you in big letters.

Graphics
Sadly, this is where the game lacks. It is clear from the graphics that this is a gamecube game that was ported over to the Wii. So, it can’t compare to the images produced by the PlayStation 3 or XBox 360. The twilight world is rendered in muted, fuzzy colors and textures which give it a neat effect, however overall the graphics are somewhat dated.

According to the WiiKitty website:

WiiKitty.com is a concept that began at the launch of the Wii™ with a ridiculous picture taken on Emily’s camera phone. What began as a message board phenomenon birthed the site that stands before you.

Of course, the only reason I mention this is I love kitties and I love my Wii. I tried to take Wii related pictures with both of my cats, but so far, only Xandy (Alexander) has made the cut to be a WiiKitty! Follow the links below to see Xandy! He managed to make it onto the site three times — wow!

• Xandy hunts the Wii Remote.
• Xandy’s sleepy.
• Numchuck Power

You can also take a look at my twin sister’s cats Tobie and Ian (Li’l Orange). All of the pictures I took can be found here. I only sent in what I thought were the best five.