And Now Back to Our Semi-Regularly Scheduled Blogging

After an unscheduled one-month hiatus, I'm going to start up blogging again.  It wasn't so much as I forgot about the blog, but it became an "I'll get around to it" kind of situation.  And then a few days turned into weeks and then it became over a month since my last post.  A lot of things have happened in the past month, including having the entire Playstation Network being compromised.  (And I was seriously considering finally getting a PS3 soon, though now I'm going to wait a bit.) Tomorrow I'll get my post up about the Nintendo 3DS that's been sitting in draft form for a few weeks now and then follow that up with an update on how my Pokémon game is going.


Time to go grab an invincibility star and start writing!

My Pokémon White Adventures: Part One

 

Before I dive into reflections of my playthrough of Pokémon White, I must say that I almost completely forgot that the Nintendo 3DS launch is this Sunday stateside.  Normally a system launch would be a big event for me, but despite the fact that I have the 3DS pre-ordered, I find myself much too preoccupied with things like life, work, and of course Pokémon to be too excited about it.  (In fact, I wasn't even going to buy a launch title until Amazon offered $25 off a game with 3DS orders.) I'm going to give some periodic updates on my adventures in Pokémon White. And if you're not interested in hearing about Pokémon, don't worry, I'll try to intersperse these posts with some other topics.

Now on to the post after the jump.  Spoilers be abound!

APU is now on Twitter

This is moreso a site update rather than a regular blog post.  I recently received an email from Twitter asking me to revive my abandoned account, so I thought a better use of it would be for my gaming blog.  There I'll post quick thoughts that don't warrant an entire post as well linking to new updates.  I've added a box to the right.  So follow @allpoweredup!

Should I Keep My 3DS Pre-Order?

With exactly one month until the March 27th North American launch of the Nintendo 3DS, I find myself asking, “Should I keep my pre-order?” When the system first became available to pre-order on Amazon, I immediately put in my order. Now as the release date quickly approaches and more details emerge, I've started to question if I really need to have the 3DS at launch.

“Any Objections, Lady?” - Solving the Problems of Metroid: Other M

Metroid is one of my most beloved video game series. I've probably spent the equivalent to weeks of my life playing through Super Metroid time and time again in pursuit of 100% item completion in under three hours. (Did that, next goal is under two hours, which I'm close to achieving.) When Metroid Prime brought a new perspective to the series, I was skeptical at first, but it ended surpassing all of my expectations. As for Metroid: Other M's goal of combining the game play of the 2D side-scrollers with some first-person elements and having a greater emphasis on story, it succeeded in some respects while faltering in others. While far from a horrible game, it is very easy to focus on the bad and overlook the things that it did right. Here, I'm going to propose a few minor changes that could have had changed the popular negative views of the game.

This post is rated SPOILER-RIFFIC!

Black vs. White - Choosing My Next Pokémon Game

I previously established with myself that I would not purchase any more video games until I got through my current backlog of games, with most of them being the result of Black Friday deals and holiday releases.  But as I tend to do, I'm going to break that rule come March 6th when Pokémon Black and White are released.  Any other game that will be released in that time frame (or that I didn't get a chance to play yet) will be ignored, given the amount of time I've put into every Pokémon game.  Here, I'm going to make my decision of which version I will end up playing.

Five Games That Made Me Curse the Television

     I'm sure every gamer has encountered at least one game that caused him or her to yell some random explicative out at the television.  The reason for this can vary, be it an insanely difficult game that causes you to fling the controller across the room, an unexpected surprise, a confusing plot, or anger at a disappointing sequel to one of your favorite games.  Here I'm going to reminisce about five games that did just that.