Cooking Mama 4 Demo

I like cooking, I like the 3DS, I like cute Japanese games, what could go wrong... right?

I suck at making a pizza, even in the demo.

Well to start, I am pretty open to strategy/cooking games. Heck, I am guilty with playing a few on Facebook. So I decided to download one of the newest 3DS demos free to download, Cooking Mama 4. Oh and I also downloaded Resident Evil, but I'll talk about that another day.

This sounds like fun... .... .

So what of this Cooking Mama 4 demo? Not a lot. Literally. You sift flower, mix the ingredients into dough, kneed the dough, put toppings on it, put it in the oven and bobs-your-uncle. Walah, demo complete. In short form; you get to bake one pizza with a stylus and... that's pretty much it.

To be honest, this demo really doesn't sell it to me. From what I've seen, it isn't that much different from the other games and the downside is, not being able to eat the pizza once cooked because the damn pizza is unfortunately - not real. Sad face.

Here's my thought. I could totally see a guy purchasing this game for his girlfriend for Valentine's Day as a hint for her to get back in the kitchen and make a sandwich. But besides that thought; not a game I'm expecting to buy in the near future.

What are your thoughts? Are you going to buy this game? It's ok if you do, I won't judge - much lol.

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Skylanders Multiplayer

In most video game campaign modes, I prefer to venture out alone. Multiplayer is usually meh for me but there are those rare occasions where I do prefer multiplayer for example, Little Big Planet or Halo. I'm one of those people who stray away from the yellow brick road in main missions, to go explore the map - just in case there's some super-rare-mystical-bonus item waiting to be found, and usually am the person to be yelled at for not focusing on the mission at hand.

Hex and Drobot being noobs on Skylanders

Playing Skylanders in multiplayer mode would have to be one of those rare occasions where I prefer another player on my screen with me. Why? Because I'd be switching characters in and out, left, right and centre. 

Like I said in my previous post, Skylanders is one of those games which relies on specific elements to unlock a special bonus section to retrieved awesome items. Therefore in real life, relying on me to switch characters on the portal often. And in even simpler terms, having to move my lazy couch potato butt over to the coffee table and moving the damn character onto the portal myself. It's a task I can't ignore either, I have the need to open these secret areas - I can't just walk past them all hoo haa and pretend they're not there. It's like seeing a massive white puss filled pimple on the middle of your forehead and you just leaving it there...  Some things just need to be popped and in this case, opened.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this game so far; however I'm just stating it's less effort to play Skylanders with another person around who can lessen the blow of needing to shift characters around - which is a good thing.

Flameslinger's Flame Attack

Playing campaign multiplayer in Skylanders is very amusing. I like it a lot, and very useful too. Too bad you can't have more that 2 players on the portal at the same time; it's a bummer but probably for the best. Having 2 players on the screen can sometime get a little hectic. Weapons, ammo, all shit possible just flying around hitting monsters, objects etc. it can get so distracting and spam worthy. But eye candy-ish in my opinion, destruction, I love it.

Hex vs Dark Spyro Battle Mode Opening Art

Multiplayer battle mode is a great aspect of the game too. You get to fight each other, race to collect the most gems or play for points. A downside is, you can't play against people online, but oh well. And O M G. The voiceover for battle mode is hilarious! It gets me giggling everytime. Just picture this, you have a kiddy graphics, with an epic Mortal Kombat style voiceover. Epic lolz.

I'm not going to lie, even with the annoying dialogues you can't even skip... I'm loving this game so far.

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First Impressions: Skylanders Spyro's Adventure

When I saw television ads on this particular game, my first thoughts were - errr a cute kids game lmao. So my boyfriend and I ended up purchasing the 3DS version of this game for his 11 year old little brother as a Christmas present. We spent a bit of Christmas break holidaying with his family and saw how much fun his little brother was having playing Skylanders and how interesting the whole Skylanders gaming concept was. Next thing you know it, my boyfriend went to the shops and purchased a PS3 version just for us.

Cute visuals in Skylanders

When purchasing Skylanders on any console, it will come with 3 characters, the game and the portal. Being a Spyro related game, you'll obviously get Spyro and 2 other random characters of different elements. There are plenty of different elements; air, earth, death, water, mechanical etc. and each element has the ability to unlock a mini reward section of the game, as well as different powers - which are also individualised by each character. Buying more characters to unlock mini rewards? Great marketing strategy right? I've fallen for it. Every character is useful in it's own way but I won't get too in-detail with all the specific characters because I'd be sitting here typing about them for days...

Moving on, I'll talk a little bit of the concept of playing Skylanders. Firstly, 3DS game-play is different to PS3 Xbox etc. Secondly, to play, you simply need to have the portal running with your console and place a character on it. On PS3, and probably too with Xbox360, you can place only up to 2 characters on it, so you can play with a friend. What I didn't like is that you couldn't play with more than 2 characters (2 people). Multi-player 4 characters (4 people) for example would've been great and a heck of a load more fun; but impossible. You go all out buying more characters for this game but can only use 2 on the one portal at any time. Dangit.

My Skylanders Characters Collection

Any ways, when a character is on the portal, it swiftly kicks to life in-game. Like super fast, so it's cool constantly switching characters, no crappy useless loading screen or anything. Your individual character can gain levels, gain money, wear silly hats with extra abilities like +3 armor, gain new powers and pwn random baddies in game. An upside of the game is that the actual character figure that you place on the portal stores the data, so if you have a friend who has Skylanders on any console, you'll be able to use your character on their portal and play your character, who may already be level 10. A downside of the game is the level limit. You can only go up to level 10... which in a way sucks, because you feel as if you've finished babysitting your character once it reaches level 10; it makes you then want to start another character.

The actual game is a 3rd person adventure quest. And so far, the aim of this game is to venture off and do different quests in different areas to build some complicated moving machine thingy in order to save their land from the bad guys. I am digging the storyline and have fallen in-love with all the little characters involved in the story, it's just cute.

My character Hex wearing a Joker Hat, badass!

Overall, this game has been more fun than I had originally expected. I thought it would be 1 of those kidd-ish games (well, it a way - it still is) but I guess big kids like me can love it too. I also love how every character has their own special abilities, for example, I use a character called Hex, she's a distance death dealer with the ability to summon a giant bone wall as a barrier A great team player in any situation. There's sooo much to talk about in Skylanders, it really is a fun game, so I'll keep posting new updates in the future. I might even run through the 3DS version too. Happy reading!

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Mario Kart 7 150cc COMPLETE!

Let me just say, completing 150cc for me in Mario Kart 7 is such an achievement. I've spent way too many hours on 150cc and I'm glad it's over and done with thank GOD. I feel a sense of relief and accomplishment. You probably noticed in my last MK7 post, I'd been rage quitting; just at the sight of even coming second. But that has all changed now.

Umadbro?

At first, I was wondering why I sucked so bad. Wondering why I fell of cliffs on a regular basis and why I couldn't get enough momentum to win a race after I get hit by a damn blue shell. Well... As slow as my brain could react, I realised it wasn't me being the bad driver, it was my character and kart. I just wasn't using the right combination of character to kart. Duh!

After fiddling with nearly every combination possible, I found that Toad boy, the little shroom-head that he is, was perfect for my slow momentum build ups (acceleration) after a hit. I mounted him upon the mangled green looking Gherkin kart-body for added acceleration / semi speed and roller wheels for better handling. Handling corners like a pro in MK7 makes a hell of a difference! Might I add, cosmetically, I looked totally n00b driving around in that tacky looking kart but oh well, it was the combination that worked for me.

These are the stats that worked best for me.

A while back now, I ended up getting Mirror Mode unlocked. I feel it isn't as difficult as I thought it would be, but instead, rather fun and have already played and won about half of the cups. Either way, it'll be the next thing on my MK7 agenda to complete. I've also had a good go with some of the online stuff and found it really fun - even though I hardly came first at all. People racing online are 1337...

If you have a MK7 community or would like to race with me etc. let me know!

My Nintendo 3DS Friend Code: 3780 - 9041 - 9545
Oh and if you're adding me as a friend, let me know who you are.

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First Impressions: Infamous

Infamous was a freebie download from the PS store after Sony crapped themselves last year. So I took that opportunity to download Infamous and decided to play it because it constantly looms over my game menu screen on my PS3. It was just asking me to play it haa!

To be honest, I really didn't know much about Infamous before I downloaded it. I literally just looked at the Infamous cover-image on the PS store and thought the guy in the yellow jacket with electricity coming out of his arms looked kinda cool. Superhero-ish cool; and thought, "Hmm, this will be a game about a guy who has electricity as superpowers." Am I right? Probably.

I believe I can flyyy....

Infamous is an action-ish sandbox style game where you get to be an athletic looking guy (Cole McGrath) with the ability to use electricity as superpowers to do good or harm over Gotham Empire City. I decided first time through, I'd be a goody two shoes and help the decaying civilians out because they just look overly needy and a little bit festy.

So what have I accomplished out of this game so far? Quite a lot actually! I've pwn plenty of Reapers (enemy thugs), explored a bit of the city, gained raging superpower skills, climbed the shit out of the buildings, collected heaps of the glowing shards, healed every fifth person on the street, electrocuted a bucket load of people by accident -cough- and died a few times. It's been a very eventful game so far.

I've been really enjoying the simple things, like the ease of climbing a building in this game. Not only can I jump towards a wall and grab on to almost anything on it, I can jump off a building and not splat dead on the pavement. Who needs dark alley ways to get to the next mission when you can jump from rooftop to rooftop!

One thing that's been bugging me a little are the reapers (enemy thugs). They are literally located everywhere - no joke! On rooftops, in the streets, on annoying turrets and even in the sewers... I feel like there is no point in this game where someone wouldn't be shooting at me. It's a constant duck, weave or kill strategy from mission to mission; but I guess that's what makes the game fun.

The actually storyline has been... Hmm... A tiny bit bare. I am loving the artistic cut scenes but, I feel like there should be more to it. I feel like I haven't fully been drawn into the storyline yet. But hey, it's only my first impressions and I still have a lot of the journey left to go. We'll see.

It's an old game so if you've already played Infamous, let me know what you think.

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Mario Kart 7 makes me RAGE QUIT!

The title really says it all. Really. But I'll elaborate even further for your enjoyment.

Koopa Troopa Rocks!

So I've been play a whole lot of Mario Kart 7 lately and I've got up to the stage where I've managed to get 3 stars for each trophy in the 50cc and 100cc division. Everything up to this point has been fine and dandy like cotton candy until now...  150cc division. It takes a lot for me to get angry over a game, I'm usually a patient person but Mario Kart 7 has pushed all the right buttons to tip me over the edge to RAGE QUIT. Multiple times too.

I'd be on the last lap drifting around the last corner of a race, get hit by a stupid turtle shell that Yoshi randomly pulled out of his ass and somehow end up finishing 4th. What... the... heck... seriously. Next thing you know, the veins in my head start popping out, smoke is coming out of my ears and my thumb has magnetized itself to the Nintendo 3DS power button.

I then sit their motionless, thinking of ways to beat damn the game. Is it skill? The character? The kart I've chosen? Is the game itself cheating?! I believe it's all of the above.

I'm probably choosing a character with stats that don't match with the kart and wheels that are oblong shaped. And I'm probably crazy to think that the game is rigged but its funny how every time you're in the lead, someone has to conveniently throw out a blue shell for shits and giggles.

Nevertheless, I'll beat the game. I know I can. Half of my 150cc races are already complete. It'll just take a whole lot of practice and patience to do so.

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First Impressions: Mario Kart 7

To begin with, I wasn't much of a Mario Kart fan-girl. Why? Because I never really got to play it as a kid. Only time I'd play Mario Kart - ever, was at a friends place. I had my trusty old PlayStation at this time to keep me company. Nevertheless, my expectations for this game was high. Even if  I haven't really played a proper good chunk of Mario Kart - ever.

I have come across about 5-ish people that tell me how good Mario Kart is, and how they loved it as a child. How Mario Kart was one of their favourite games and how they just get this awesome nostalgic-ness when they just... even think about this game. I mean, of course I'd think of this game highly. Seeing people talk about this game with a smile on their face and watered up eyes makes me think it's a godly game. So I played it.

My first thought within the first 20 minutes of game play was...

"OMG annoying, WTF, piss off Yoshi, come on COME ON, wooohoooo, godamnit, umadbro?"

It was annoying, fun, exciting and painful all at the same time. Not a lot of games give me those emotions all at once. I've played a lot of racing-kart games in the past, but this one was different. I think it's the fact that if you get slammed by other racers items (weapons), again and again you can end coming last in a matter of seconds - even though you've had a good lead in first place for the majority of the race. AI is a bitch in this game, but I think that's a good thing.

There were soooo many times where I'd be coming first, see the finish line or even be a tiny little bit on the finish line, get hit by one of those stupid turtle shells and end up coming 6th. Makes me rage. Me raging over a game - not over bad controls, not over shocking glitches, but over the actual game means they're doing something right. I've discussed my Mario Kart rage issues with my boyfriend and he said, it always happens, it's normal and it's what makes Mario Kart such a good game.

My character on Mario Kart 7

And so yes, it is... Mario Kart in my opinion is a good game. And I can say that with confidence. I'm not going to get too much into detail with graphics and all that but thus far... top notch! I've also fiddled around with online racing, even found a death glitch on one of the tracks which can make you come first in that track race but I'll tell you some other time. Happy reading!

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