Paper Mario: Sticker Star

The history of Mario role-playing games is an interesting one. At first, they seemed to come out at random as these quirky little stand-alone titles. There was Super Mario RPG, the isometric SNES game that started it all. Then there was Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64, which charmingly designed a world made entirely of paper and paper-like products. Next came Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, a GameBoy Advance game that introduced Luigi into the mix and focused on teamwork-oriented battles. At this point it seemed like there was no rhyme or reason to when Mario RPGs would come out or how they'd be designed. But then another Paper Mario game game out for GameCube, and another Mario & Luigi game came out for the DS, and then one more of each, respectively, for the Wii and the DS, and suddenly we had a very distinct pattern. Paper Mario was its own series, a set of RPG games for Nintendo consoles, while Mario & Luigi was a separate series on the handheld side. And then along comes Paper Mario: Sticker Star, bridging the gap back to the handheld side and just ruining the sense of continuity the parallel RPG series had hammered out over the past ten years or so.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't all that interesting. Fortunately, Paper Mario: Sticker Star was a great little game. I have to say, I had my fears early on. Anyone who's played a few RPGs knows that the general idea, a staple of the very genre, is that the more battles you fight, the stronger you get. It's a great balancing mechanic built into the gameplay. Fight a lot early on, and you'll be better prepared for tougher enemies later in the game; avoid combat whenever possible, and you'll be far too weak to survive later on. My biggest knock on Sticker Star, then, is that it lacks an experience-based leveling up system entirely. Thus, all non-necessary combat is, well, pointless. In my book, that's poor RPG design. Luckily, the game has enough charm and originality to make up for this very deep flaw, and by excelling in all other areas, it wasn't a bad game at all. The world of Sticker Star actually resembles a traditional level-based Mario game more than an open world RPG, and it is broken down into six worlds of varying numbers of levels. But each level had its own unique objectives and feel, which was pretty cool. Everything in Sticker Star was new and fresh and exciting, which helped me forget that every single battle was a waste of my time.

So yeah. Overall, a solid game full of charm and simple pleasures. This one clocked in at just a hair over twenty-five hours, which feels like ten or twelve on the DS. (I mean that in a good way.)

The Sopranos: The Complete Sixth Season Part II

Wow, just wow. This show. This show. The most talked about part of this half season is easily the series finale's final moments. Thanks to that, I really ended up knowing nothing about this show but how it ended. Well, I knew some details but not others. I think the ending of this show was perfect. It really felt in line with the way each episode ended, minus a clean fade out. Anyway, since you might not have seen it, I won't say any more. I will say that this was my favorite season. By far. I think a lot of things that were set up earlier in the series were paid off here.

What I think is amazing about The Sopranos is how much of it was just focused on mundane things, yet all of it was so compelling. Rather than focus on the crime aspect, this show really focused on the family and friend aspect. Granted, there was plenty of crime, but that wasn't why I loved this show. Even with all the violence and crime, this show had a lot of heart and wasn't quite as dark as I expected.

Anyway, I feel like a part of me died with the series finale. I have watched this show religiously and now I have nothing. It's similar to the way I felt after finishing The Wire. This show is up there with my favorite shows of all time.

Six Feet Under: Season 3

I went into Six Feet Under knowing virtually nothing about it. It was a show about a family running a funeral parlor, it was well-received by critics, and its finale is widely considered to be the best series finale of all time. Other than that, I had precious little idea what the hell the show would be like. Perhaps that's why it sat in my backlog for such a long time - two whole years - before I finally decided to pop that first disc into my PS3. I liked the first two seasons without really loving any characters, plot points, or scenes. I know that's kind of a backhanded compliment, but I'm just being honest. Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger - I mean, it wasn't really a cliffhanger unless you thought they might kill off the main character in the second of five seasons - but the third season opens up by having a little bit of fun with it, nonetheless. And from there the third season goes nowhere, fast. I mean that as literally as the expression can be meant; nothing really happens, but I flew through most of the episodes anyway, just enjoying my time.

It's funny. After getting a bit ambitious to learn more about shows like Game of Thrones and The Wire while watching them, I've been hit with some spoilers (some of them major) just from careless Google searches and Wikipedia browsing. So I've made it a point to actively avoid anything on the Internet pertaining to Six Feet Under. And I was doing just fine, when all of a sudden, a few days ago, somewhere, I read just one sentence about the show. It referenced "...the then-controversial third season, in which nothing happened for far too long, and then, all of a sudden, everything happened." That's not a spoiler, at all, but it did get me excited to press on through the final three or four episodes of this season. And, uh, yeah. Suddenly, a lot of shit happens! Wow! Such timing, me reading that sentence!

I guess that's not a great story. But I'm left without much to say about Six Feet Under. Discussing the plot would do it no justice and there really aren't many thematic elements to explore beyond, "hey, isn't life kind of crazy, when you think about all this death?" But it isn't depressing, and it isn't boring. Check it out some time. For now, I'll barrel forward into the fourth season.

Fire Emblem Awakening 3DS

This has been a very bad stretch for me as far as logging is concerned. I haven't been completely idle. In fact I put it almost 70 hours into beating Fire Emblem awakening. I played my first play through, I plan on playing this game multiple times, on Hard and Classic mode. Classic mode in this case means that all the deaths in the game are permanent. If someone dies you have to go on without them, unless they are a main character and in that case it triggers a game over. I had to restart the game many many times because of this.

As this is only my second Fire Emblem game I am still pretty new to this series. Awakening was incredible. I cannot recommend it enough. The story was great, the maps were creative and original and the characters were memorable. The 3d didn't add much to the game but it also didn't take anything away. I also had a chance to play coop mode with Btown and Stevie and that was pretty fun.

Nintendo was smart when they gave me Fire Emblem The Sacred stones as part of the Ambassador program because it lead me to purchase this game.

My next game on the docket is Chrono Trigger. I have been talking about playing it for too long now. The time to act is neigh.

The Office Season 1

So all these tv writers have been reminiscing about The Office as it concluded it's final season. I sporadically watched The Office probably sometime between season 3 and 5? Maybe? I really don't know. It was always fairly enjoyable when I watched it. I really liked some of Steve Carell's final episodes.

Anywho, everyone talking all about The Office made me want to go back and watch it all. So I just watched season 1! Hurrah! I had read a little about season 1 (in an Office recap). It seemed like everyone agrees that the show didn't have direction in season 1. Michael is sorta a mean boss. It's odd. He's not loveable yet.

On the plus side, Jim and Pam are way better than I've ever seen them be. They are cute and flirty and aint it just adorable!

Dwight is the same. Kelly isn't Kelly yet. Kevin is great a basketball. Phyllis is the same. Meredith isn't nearly as sex crazy yet. Jim is still humble and like-able. Daryl is still working in the warehouse.

I will continue my viewership with SEASON 2!

(UPDATE: Marissa forgot she posted this in May, and came back to talk about it some more in December. Here is her second post. Let's see how well it lines up with her first one.)

I vaguely remember watching this. Maybe I should write these closer to when I actually complete the show. Oops

I have seen a few random season of The Office, circa Seasons 4-6 perhaps. I have been told Season 1 wasn’t very good and Season 2 and 3 were fantastic and the rest were so-so. It was interesting to watch Season 1 because you see how the characters were originally. Michael Scott is not nearly as likeable in Season 1. He’s sort of funny and clueless but also sort of a mean boss. Jim is very likeable in Season 1, but I could be letting my very negative opinion of him from the latter season influence me. The banter with him and Dwight was new and funny and not yet mean and predictable. I don’t think many of the other side characters like Stanley, Angela, Oscar, Meredith, and Kevin changed much over the rest of the show

The show was good but not consistently funny. I’m looking forward to that in Season 2 which I started to watch then stopped. Oops again.

Sherlock: Series 1

Gave this one a watch after devouring Arrested Development over the weekend. Really no reason why I picked to watch it. Maybe it's because Benedict Cumberbatch (got to love that name) and Martin Freeman star in it - now both in major blockbusters, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hobbit, respectively. Though I'm sure if I had realized at the time that each episode clocks in at 90 minutes long (even if there are only three per season/series) that would have scared me away, but I didn't take notice. Now I'm hooked.

I wouldn't say that I'm a fan of murder mysteries, but I'm certainly not against them. I just think the old "who dunnit?" formula is unfairly compelling. The story poses some question and depending how interesting a question it is, I'm stuck sitting through the whole show to figure it out. (Works every time with Law & Order or CSI.) Sherlock is able to rise above baseline, somewhat. Not saying it's anything too original - I mean this story has been adapted many times - but there's always something to love about the buddy-cop relationship between Holmes and Watson. Even in this show, Holmes is made out to be so brilliant that he eschews the company of others... accept Watson. Holmes, for some mysterious reason, takes a true liking to Watson. Even in this adaptation, they make Watson out to be clearly not as bright as Holmes, but that never seems to bother either of them. Holmes appreciates Watson's loyalty while Watson is sincerely entertained by Holmes' skills at deductive reasoning. Basically, I just dig the odd couple dichotomy here.  

Alright, this isn't the first - nor the last - adaptation we'll see of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's masterpiece. So how does it measure up? For one thing, it's set in modern day London. All that allows is for more advanced science to solve mysteries and for more complicated methods for Holmes' villains to commit their crimes. While not outwardly original, it's a good move and a fun environment to expand the series into. I can't say how true to the books this show is as I've only read the free sample I was able to download on the Kindle store a couple years ago - wasn't sold with the book so I never bought it. There was one scene in particular that I do remember where Holmes, despite his fancy brain, doesn't know some basic, rudimentary knowledge and Watson heckles him for it. Holmes later describes how there's only a finite amount of space in his head and he reserves it for subjects that matter. (In the book, Doyle goes on to grade the level of knowledge Holmes has for each subject which I though was a cool point in the novel - made the great detective seem a little more human - still couldn't sell me on it though.) Anyways, this was included in the show... so I can say that they have at least made some attempts to stay true to the original work. But this isn't how I would look to grade whether or not something is entertaining.

In the end, this show is definitely worth a watch if you're just looking for someway to pass the time. The first two series are on Netflix, so why not give it a go? The one element this adaptation has that I particularly enjoyed was the fact that Holmes says he's no hero. Far from it. In fact, you begin to worry that the only reason he solves these crimes is to keep his sanity. And if he becomes bored, then he's capable of becoming dangerous to himself and those around him. Basically, he is a sociopath... Solving mysteries is the only thing that is keeping him sane and on the side of good. Give it a go if you have the time. It's fun. 

Arrested Development: Season 4

Is this a cheap post? Maybe. But I would also like to point out that we watched it on my Netflix account. Anyway, though I was late to the Arrested Development bandwagon, I fell in love pretty quickly. So it was with incredibly high expectations that I began watching this season with 11 of my closest friends and Webber.

I felt that the single character-centric structure (I realize that it was necessitated by the busy schedules of the cast) hurt a lot of the episodes. The Lindsay and George episodes were not enjoyable (and they were right at the beginning to really derail any momentum the show had). I felt Buster was underutilized and I could have used some more Lucille. Moreover, I felt that my enjoyment was hurt by the fact that we went through the episodes so quickly. The episodes ended up being rather redundant because of all of the rehashing of stuff that we had already seen that same day. Lastly, they built the episodes up like it was leading to some great finale at the Cinco de Cuatro Festival, and what we got was a finale centered around a love triangle that I didn't care about. It's a shame that the finale was not a classic episode not focused on any particular character.

Anyway, with all that being said, the positives of this season definitely outweigh the negatives. The later episodes (aside from the finale) were very strong.  I guess that probably comes from the fact that so many jokes that were set up early on finally delivered by the end of the 15 episodes. George Michael's first episode and Maeby's episode were both standouts. I loved everything with Job.

I'm confident that I will like this season more a second time through as I catch some jokes I didn't catch at first. Also, I'll go through it at a more modest pace. I hate to sound so negative because I really did enjoy this season. I am confident that there is nothing on TV that is close to as funny as many episodes in this season. Okay, I'm done rambling.

The Sopranos: Season Six, Part I

So the sixth season is broken up in two parts (21 episodes altogether instead of the standard 13). The first half of this season focused heavily on Vito, a closeted captain who was eventually caught at a gay bar doing his best Mr. Slave impression. Tony has a near-death experience that leads to a bit of a transformation as he begins to view life as a gift. Anthony Jr. (Tony's son) really comes into his own this season, completely eclipsing Meadow (his daughter) who has turned into a pretty dull character. The therapist has faded into the background and is not featured as prominently. I really expected this season (or half a season) to end with some sort of cliffhanger to get people excited for the second half. However, in true Sopranos fashion, the season ended at Christmas with the family together. Not much happened. This series seems to be focused on interaction between characters rather than violence and shocking events. Anyway, with 9 episodes left, I can really see why people love this show so much. It blows my mind to think that this show started in 1999. It really was a trend setter.

The Sopranos: The Complete Fifth Season

The Sopranos picked up in a big way in the fifth season. They added a few characters, including Tony's cousin Tony (played by Steve Buscemi). For the first time, I actually liked a new character introduced. He added a great element as we watched him go from wanting to make a living legitimately to falling into old illegal habits. He struggled with being a father and cousin to a mob boss.  Elsewhere, Carmella and Tony had marital problems. I forget if it was this season, but Tony banged a one-legged maid from Russia and almost ended his marriage. Anyway, I am a little bummed that this series will be ending for me shortly, but it's been quite the run.

The Sopranos: The Complete Fourth Season

This season continued the tradition of focusing on a newish character that I hated and wanted to see dead. I liked this season considerably more than season 3, but not enough to put it on the level of season 1 and season 2 in my head. I have plowed through this series so quickly that my ability to remember everything that happened is lacking. If you haven't seen it, see it.