For those of you who don't know, Gradius is one of the DEFINING shooting games in history. It is considered one of the best side-scroll shooting games made to this day. Like I just said, it's a side scroll shooter where you are in control of a fighter, the Vic Viper (yes I spelled that correctly), and you're out to destroy the evil Bacterian forces. Again, I'm not making this up. Goofy name, sure, but man is it a tough game.
What makes the series so unique is its power up system. Normally, you'd be given power ups that, if you touch them, immediately give you a corresponding power-up, such as a stronger shot or more bombs. In Gradius, you get to choose what you power up. You have a meter at the bottom of the screen, that has speed, missiles, normal shot (double shot), laser, option, and shield. Each time you get a power item, the gauge moves up one level, so from speed -> missile -> double shot -> laser and so on. When it gets to a power-up you want, you can press the powe-up button to receive the selected power-up. Using this, you can power up however you like.
Oh, and by the way, "option" gives you a shiny orange orb that has the exact same attack capabilities as your main fighter. And you can get 4 of them. It's pretty awesome.
So anyway, yeah, it's an awesome game. And Portable has the first Gradius, Gradius II, Gradius III, Gradius IV, and Gradius Gaiden. That is 5 games for about 3000 yen. I do not care WHAT your gaming life is like, that is a good deal.
To be fair, Gradius III and IV have mixed reviews. III is generally seen as too difficult, and IV is often called a simple copy-and-paste of older titles plus increased difficulty. Some of the levels have nothing to do with skill, and depend mostly on luck. Although personally, while it IS fucking hard, I do enjoy III. Like I said, mixed reviews. And for the record, I haven't even beaten the third level yet. And I beat R-TYPE, no deaths. I gotta say though, IV has good graphics and whatnot but it still does feel like a clone of older installations of the series. Plus it is even more ridiculous than III in some ways. The rest of the games are awesome, though.
If you are a shooting game fan, I'd definitely go for this. The price is reasonable, it's a great series, its most definitely a challenge, and its over all just really fun. Even minus III and IV, that is still 3 totally awesome games for less than the price of 1. Of course, each game is difficult, and if you are used to breezing through levels and mowing down enemies, I suggest you stick to HALO. Gradius is for the hardcore, the gamers who are willing to die over and over and over and OVER until they beat one level. It's a tough game, but well worth it. Give it a shot.
Yep, gotta love the spring rolls. Nice, crunchy skin with soft, piping hot veggies inside, dipped in a nice, spicy sauce with a bowl of rice and a cold beer. Also goes great with white wine, I discovered. And sake. And G&Ts. And... Well, you get the point.
And I mean, who doesn't like deep-fried stuff? Yeah, sure, it's not the most healthy thing on the planet, but if you wrap them tight and drain them properly, they're not nearly as oily as you may expect. Plus, this recipe uses ONLY veggies. It is, in fact, vegan. *gasp!* *shudder*
Anyway, lets get started!
What you'll need:(for 10 rolls, plus leftover veggie stir-fry)
One pack store-bought spring roll skins. (Usually contains 10 skins)
1/2 head cabbage, chopped into thin strips
5 shiitake mushrooms, Julienned
1~2 sticks Celery, Julienned
1 green onion (Naganegi), cut into thin rounds
2 carrot sticks, Julienned
4~5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons ginger, minced
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1~2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine (my all time favorite, shaoxing jiu)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
a LOT of deep-frying oil, enough to completely submerge the rolls. Vegetable oil, canola oil, you know what I mean.
For the sauce: (2 types) 1 part soy sauce, 1 part vinegar, plus a few drops Chinese Chili oil.
or
1 dollop ketchup, 1 dollop Chili sauce. (Heck, they're great with just plain soy sauce, so you choose what you like.)
Now, What you do: 1. In a large frying pan, heat the sesame oil on medium/low heat for a little while. Add the ginger and the garlic, and stir until they begin to brown.
2. Turn to medium heat and add the mushrooms. Stir-fry until they become limp and well cooked.
3. On top of the mushrooms, layer the carrots, green onions (naganegi), celery, and finally cabbage. On top of that, pour the soy sauce and the cooking wine. Put a lid on, and let it steam for about 1 minute.
4. Stir and mix up the veggies, and steam for another minute or two. Remove lid, add the salt and pepper, and stir-fry for 30 seconds or so (it's best if you taste the mix periodically. If you feel it needs more salt, add more. if it needs more pepper, add more).
5. Remove veggie mix from stove, set aside to cool for 1~2 minutes. Open package of skins, set one on a flat surface so it looks like a diamond shape from your stand-point. Wrap as shown in How-to-wrap image. (dark orange is stuffing, white is where you dab water on with fingers.) It's important that you don't put too much stuffing in. If you can kind of get the skin to be a double-layer, it is best. Keep wrapping until you run out of skins or stuffing.
6. Heat up deep-frying oil on high heat until it is hot enough. A good way to check is to tear off a very small piece of the spring roll skin and drop it in. If it immediately begins to bubble and floats to the top, the oil is hot enough. GENTLY slide the spring rolls into the oil (be very gentle. Boiling hot oil is not comfortable when applied to skin). Depending on the size of the pan, you should be able to do 2~3 spring rolls at a time.
7. Deepfry until skins become a dark golden brown, nice and crispy. Remove from the oil, and place on a grate over a pan to drain for a few minutes. This also allows them to cool enough to eat. Repeat until all spring rolls are fried!
8. Serve with sauce of choice, and enjoy! They can make great snacks or can be the main course if you make enough. I recommend experimenting with different sauces and finding one you really like. It kinda depends on whether you like sweet or sour or salty or spicy.
Hello hello hello, Sorry I've been off my blog recently, I've been busy and lazy at the same time and really could not be bothered to write anything longer than a 3 sentence e-mail.:p Such is life, I suppose. So anyway, I'm back online, I have a little time to kill so I thought I'd put something up on my blog. Probably will be just me rambling since I don't have much to say. Which reminds me, I was cruising around the interwebs the other day and found some pretty entertaining psychology jokes. I'm kind of a psych person, so this kind of humor amuses me to no end.
Q. How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? A. Only one, but the light bulb needs to really WANT to change.
or
"Psychotics build castles in the sky, schizophrenics live in them, but psychiatrists collect the rent."
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. It's so true though, isn't it? How do you know psychiatrists don't drive you MORE crazy? "Oh, you see, you're in denial about your insanity." "No I'm not!" "See?? You are!"
But then this raises the issue of "what is sanity?" And I fully and freely admit, I have yet to meet a single "normal" person in my life. Oh, sure, I meet plenty of "functional" people, but all of my close friends seem to have some form of crushing anxiety or obsession or inferiority complex or just plain all of the above.
Or does that say something about me more than them? No, no, that's silly. I'm PeRFectLY s4Ne. Speaking of which, phobias are kind of a funny thing too, aren't they? They're no laughing matter for the people who HAVE them, of course, but god, to everyone else? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
I mean, some phobias are just odd. For example, Anglophobia- Fear of England or English culture, etc.
... OK? Um, I hate to break the news but England is like, the LEAST terrifying culture on the planet. What is there to be scared of, scones and tea? Oh, and a really old queen who wears silly hats. And Monty Python. Terrifying.
Here's another good one. Anthropophobia- Fear of people or society. Whoever has this is a true case of "sucks to be you." I can see this being horribly debilitating, but man. Is it ever generic. I just have this image of a guy opening his door, looking outside, screaming, and slamming it again and hiding under his bed.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have oddly specific ones too. Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. I swear to god I am not making this up. Who even CLASSIFIES these phobias? And why is it so specific? Not a fear of peanuts, or peanut butter, or chocking. Of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Yeah, it's UNPLEASANT, but I don't have a nervous breakdown whenever I eat a PBJ. "Hey Ed, you wanna have my sandwich? I need to run to a meeting and don't have time to finish it." "Sure Bob, what kind of sandwich is it?" "PB and J." "Great, my favorite!" (takes a bite, chews a bit) "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" *runs out sobbing and whimpering*
Or this. Bogyphobia- Fear of bogeys or the bogeyman. Do we even know what the bogeyman IS? No, apparently it's separate from fear of ghosts. That's Phasmophobia.
Oh man, now the person is just fucking with him/herself. Phobophobia- Fear of phobias. .... Just wow. How does... But why... it doesn't.... GAHH. "I'm scared man, I'm afraid I have a phobia!" "Doesn't that mean you have a phobia about phobias?" "AH SHIT OH SHIT FUCK AHHHH!"
OK, I am beginning to think Psychologists are just screwing with everyone. Photoaugliaphobia- Fear of glaring lights. Photophobia- Fear of light. Is it the intensity? Is someone with Photophobia scared of ALL light? And why is someone with Photoaugliaphobia so specific? Is candle light OK? Gahh.
This has gotta make life difficult. Phronemophobia- Fear of thinking.
And then there's this. Rhabdophobia- Fear of being severely punished or beaten by a rod, or of being severely criticized. Also fear of magic.(wand) I can understand the first part, I mean nobody likes that and I can see getting severely freaked out about it. But, MAGIC. I am seeing a general theme hear of abuse and a fear of sticks.
And then: Symbolophobia- Fear of symbolism. These people should never, EVER read poetry. Ever. "And my love for her is like a fire, burning brightly in my..." "YAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Or Polyphobia- Fear of many things. Can this get any MORE generic? I mean do they mean fear of a variety of things, or fear of things that number more than one? So like, one crayon would be OK but they'd flip out if they saw 12 crayons?
And the list goes on and on. I should read through this, it is pretty entertaining I gotta say. So many things to be afraid of! I'm not entirely sure how all of this is organized though, I found at least two separate words for "Fear of men" with no other explanation describing the difference. Very odd. Anyway, hope that was entertaining! I'll be keeping up on my blog again from now on, I hope.:p
Well, Halloween has come and gone, and I DIDN'T DO ANY HORROR GAME/MOVIE REVIEWS.I am a miserable failure, yes I know. However, it's not too late, because you can play/watch horror movies/games any time of the year. So, first up is the newest instillation of the HOTD series, House Of The Dead Overkill. It takes a different spin on the atmosphere of the game, and I'm sure there are plenty of fans who hate it. However, Is it a bad game just because it does something different? I beg to disagree. Up until now, the House of the Dead series have been pretty serious, grim shooting games. Different locations are overrun with zombie-like creatures (mutants) and it's up to you and your trusty, infinite-ammo sidearm to save the day. There's plenty of gore, with heads and arms and upper bodies being blown off, although this got toned down quite a bit later on in the series. Overall the atmosphere has been grim and pretty serious. Overkill does a complete 180, and is more or less a horror-comedy. In terms of atmosphere, it parodies the old B-rate horror films, with the gritty photography, bad acting, and occasional continuity errors and forced story developments. I, personally, love it. Everything is done with a great degree of care for the atmosphere, and you feel like you are PLAYING THROUGH a B-Zombie flick. It's awesome. Each stage has its own title and movie poster, plus a cheesy narration to go with it that sounds just like those movie advertisements (You know the type "Will they survive the hidden Horror? Will they escape alive from: CarnEvil!!"). The characters are mostly original, with the exception of Agent G who has appeared in most (if not all, not sure) of the HOTD series. He's a lot younger and more comical in this one, though. The other main character is Detective Washington, who swears WAY too much throughout the entire game. You have to have a tolerance for this, because otherwise you will just get pissed off and/or highly irritated. I believe this game holds the Guinness World Record for most times the word "fuck" was used in a video game. Grand Theft Auto, Mafia Wars and all those other games can go fuck themselves. They fucking do not hold a motherfucking candle to this bad motherfucker of a game (If you have gotten irritated reading this, you should not play the game). Story is set as a prequel to all the other HOTD games. How the zombies came to be, who discovered it first, and all that good stuff. But the end result is: A city has become overrun with Zomb... Sorry, mutants, and it's up to you and your trusty, infinite-ammo sidearm to save the day. And you get a LOT of sidearms. That's part of the fun of the game, as you clear levels you earn points with which you can unlock certain extra guns. You start off with handguns, but you can unlock shotguns, SMGs, Assult Rifles, and lots more. The replay value is high, especially because each gun is also customizable. Just using a new gun gives a new feel to playing through the same levels. There is also a gallery mode, where you can unlock enemy figures, posters, soundtracks etc by getting high scores, or by performing certain achievements in-game. These are mostly just little extras, but the music is groovy and sometimes funny, and the characters are fun to look at. The movie posters are just cool. The difficulty could have used a bit more balance. The first 4 stages are pretty easy, anyone who has played the previous HOTD games should have no problem. The bosses could have used a bit more thought too, they go down way too easily. Especially with powered-up guns. But THEN the last few stages become RIDICULOUSLY hard. All of a sudden you are facing running zombies, exploding zombies, zombies with shields, zombies with helmets, and all of them coming at you at the same time. This does make sense in terms of the story, but it's just a little surprising to breeze through the first part of the game and then have your ass handed to you.The bosses are still relatively easy, though. That's the one thing that really bugged me. Once you beat the normal mode, a new mode (Director's Cut) is unlocked, which includes new "footage" in the form of new areas you walk through in each level. The difficulty also increased considerably, giving this mode a more traditional HOTD feel. The bosses... are still too easy. I really wish they could have done a better job, I mean I understand they are supposed to be the earliest bosses and not as powerful as later ones but still. The stages, though, are cool to play through and each offer a different environment. You have a mansion (obviously), a hospital (obviously), a circus (with zombie clowns), and so on. It's great, especially when you play the Director's Cut. Lots of new areas, lots of zombies. Speaking of which, the gore is back too. Heads, arms, torsos will all be blown off quite nicely. Especially when using a shotgun, the results are very satisfying. The scenery in the back is also quite disturbing, even compared to older HOTD games. The zombies do lack the sort of "charm" the ones in the older games had though. They are all kind of the "stock" zombie you'd see in Romero films, not the traditional set of HOTD zombies. This didn't bother me too much, but I can see some fans being really disappointed. All in all though, I had fun playing this, and it's still fun to break out and blow apart a few zombies from time to time. It IS vulgar, and if you don't like B-movies or just don't have a sense of humor, I wouldn't recommend it. I have always kinda felt that the HOTD series were like a B-Game, just this one became self aware. I love that kind of over-the-top playfulness, and I had a great time playing this game. I'd give it 4 starts out of 5.
