There's some great music to be heard in this game, much of it done in an accoustic Renaissance Faire style. Sierra even made the entire soundtrack available as a free download from their website.

The music isn't well implemented in the game though. Some levels have very tetchy triggers to cue the tracks, so if you're running around across those zones, you'll just keep forcing the same bits to fade in and out. I also experienced quite a lot of music just cutting out entirely towards the end of the game.

One very odd sound effect is the noise the game makes when you save. It sounds like someone stepping on a frog. I'm not sure why they would want the save screens to sound all squishy.

I know I've said this before, but I just prefer the atmosphere and look of the Fatal Frame series to both Resident Evil and Silent Hill. RE still has this cheesy veneer to it (although I can't wait for the online-enabled RE Outbreak.) And Silent Hill just gets too disgusting to stay scary. What the hell were those twitchy, pulpy things in SH3 anyway?

Fatal Frame 2 is just like the first... a slow spooky walk through abandoned Japanese villages. It's the pace that gets you; heroine Mio just doesn't have any hustle to her. And wouldn't you know it, this village is also guarding a gate to Hell! If anything, FF2 is too similar to FF. Both cast you as innocent waifs chasing a sibling through an ethereal spiral into the horrible past of ancient Japan, where children must be monstrously maimed and sacrificed to appease the demons of Hell. Despite how moody and involving the sequel is, it does feel like you've been through this already if you played the first Fatal Frame.

There's been two main reasons why I haven't done a Sapphire Diary update in a while. One is Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the spiritual successor to Paper Mario... M&L pretty much owned my GBA SP for a couple months. Go buy it!

The other is Feebas. The hunt for Feebas has all but sapped my will to keep playing. Part of my problem is that I don't understand how exactly the stupid Dewford hip phrase changes. Does it change every time you talk to the goof outside the building, whether he likes your offered phrase or not? (I know it changes whenever you mix records with another cartridge, but does it change when you just trade?) I have now been up and down that awful river west of Fortree two and a half times... and I think I inadvertently changed the phrase in the middle somewhere, accidentally shuffling the magic Feebas tiles.

This entry is dedicated to the Pokemon Mini, Nintendo's forgotten handheld system, about halfway between a Pokemon Pikachu 2 and a Game Boy Pocket. It's roughly 2" x 3", with an inch-and-a-half B&W screen, and has four swappable cartridge games... all Pokemon-based. The system also has an infrared port for multiplayer gaming, a rumble feature, motion sensor, D-pad + 3 buttons, and a pleasingly chunky post-iMac plastic design aesthetic.

In the US, you can only get this at the NYC Pokemon Center store (or via their website.) When it was first released in 2002, a complete set of Mini + all 4 games cost over $90. Last December, they kicked it down to $40... plus they threw in all kinds of crazy Mini crap, like a pillow, bath towel, lanyard, notepad and bracelet charms.

I bought another GBA SP. Now we have a Flame (red) one to go along with my Onyx (black) SP. Add that to my Indigo (blue) GBA model, and now we can play Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles three player.

Although I must point out that I have four link cables so if we should happen to have a friend with a GBA SP, we can go foursies. (Hint: we do!)

I tried playing FF:CC with my non-lighted GBA, but it was just too pathetic. Rhonda was skating through inventory screens on the Onyx SP, while I'm tilting my GBA 360 degrees trying to catch some rays in our minimally lit living room. Earlier this weekend, I actually said "Getting another GBA SP is a good idea. Because not only do we have Crystal Chronicles now, but that new Zelda Four Swords game will be coming out." Such is my zest for life.

So far, 2004 has been the Year of Mappy. My favorite classic arcade game has had two exciting announcements in as many months. DATELINE JANUARY: Nintendo is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Famicom with special GBA re-releases of classic NES games, including Mappy. They're mainly collector's items and they're priced as such: around $20 US... but of course these puppies aren't going to reach the States anyway. But there is no region lockout on GBA cartridges, so I've already imported a copy of Mappy. The only downside (apart from the price) is that this is the NES version, not the original arcade game. If you'll recall, the NES one is a low-res, high-sucky version.

DATELINE FEBRUARY: Toy company Jakks Pacific is continuing their mega-successful TV Games series with a new Namco unit that includes Mappy. Last holiday season, their Pac-Man and Atari TV Games toys were huge hits... you've seen them, the things that look like an old video game controller that plug directly into your TV. Very retro. So a Ms. Pac-Man edition is forthcoming, and Mappy has made her playlist. This is actually better news than the GBA game since this will be the real, true Mappy game. And it's for your television, not a tiny GBA (or MAME) window. Although the GBA game will still be the one I can play in airplanes and car rides.

There are games that get lousy reviews because they are simply lousy games. Then there are games like Beyond Good & Evil... games that get lousy reviews because they should have been so much more. BG&E aspires to greatness. It steps up to the plate overflowing with confidence and promise. Then it swings and misses.

Technically, it's tight. The game does a great job at creating atmosphere, has some great art direction, an interesting backstory, looks and sounds wonderful. The controls may seem a trifle inexact, but they're mostly fine. A perfectly workable game in all respects... that just trips over its own good intentions.

I just want to quickly point out that President Bush is a raging asshole who needs to be ousted. We were lied to about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, we're still no safer post-9/11 than we were pre-9/11, and now Bush wants us to write discrimination into the Consitution. Fuck him.

We really need to stop pulling Presidents from deep below the Mason-Dixon line.

You know, I highly doubt that Kerry is going to be any better. (He waffles on gay marriage rights, for one.) But hopefully he can't be any worse. He's going to inherit one mess of a country.

Matt Bekelja, you made the bigtime with that remark. As if straight people couldn't have energy. Alas, that is far into the past - plus today's current climate concerning homosexual marriage and gay rights is much more important and intriguing.

Let me blunt straight out. I completely favor the rights of gay people to get married and have the same legal protections us heterosexuals have. I can think of absolutely zero reasons why gay marriage shouldn't be allowed. In addition, I have heard absolutely zero reasons explained to me why gay marriage should be prohibited that do not eventually come down to religion and tradition (and when those are your planks, your outdated way of thinking is on the out). That's just sad. When Christianity was formed it was such a radical, zany idea. Love and respect they neighbor. Don't cast the first stone. Or the second or third for that matter. Funny how that has changed. Now we support a militant regime in Israel (and the Palestinians are no better either), invade foreign nations (see Iraq and Iran in the next year), and repress our own people because they do not fit into the world view of our state religion and flag waving public.

Sometimes you just get lucky.

There must be something about my office lunchroom, because most of my rare catches have occured in its cinder block walls. I wasn't even going to take my GBA into work today, I grabbed it at the last minute going out the door simply because I vaguely remembered having nothing to do during Thursday's lunch. And I don't like having nothing to do.

The Feebas hunt had left me beyond apathy. But repetitive fishing seemed better than noontime television, so I cracked open the onyx clamshell. The first thing I did was check the Dewford phrase. Still "GOING TEACHER." Being unsure if that idiot kid was going to change it on me, I reset and went straight to Fortree City to do some fishing. On that hateful river I headed north, right to the base of that skinny waterfall.

Today it occurred to me that I've never taken you on a tour of my home. I've posted some Hiptop pics, but those are as detailed as Gene Shalit's average movie review... so here's some megasized screenshots of my house(s) in Animal Crossing. (Click the thumbnail for the big version, suitable for desktop backgrounds!)

Standing outside my estate, you can see how I've tried to put on a show of terror and dictatorship. Notice the bones. And the black roof. I used to love watching Puck wander around the back of the house, trying to look in the window. Avert your eyes, lest you see that which would blind.