N3rd Grrl

Long time, no post. I know. I wish I could say I was busy, but that's not completely true. It's more truthful to say that nothing exciting goes on too much these days.

However, I feel the need to rant a bit about geeky stuff, so you, my faithful readers, shall just have to put up with it.

Lately I've been looking at my 'Geek Card' lately and thinking "I should make sure this doesn't get taken away". For those who don't know, a 'Geek Card', or 'Nerd Card' is like a 'Man Card', if you do something un-nerdy or don't recognize something classically geeky/nerdy. I can usually get away from geek confrontations easily, as I am female and thus have a gold Geek Card from the start. However, there are times when I just look clueless and everyone just smiles and pats my head and says "It's ok, you're a girl."

So, I've decided to work on expanding my nerd horizons. Current mission; Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Now, I've played parts of this game in the past. However, my mother was anti-game system as I was growing up, and N64 emulators never worked quite right. So I only got to play at friend's houses, which means few opportunity's to beat games. That, and the friend that had all the cool games got really...upset when someone either a) beat their score, b) looked to do better than them, c) took to long to solve a puzzle, or d) would get bored quickly and want to do something else. This does not make a very productive gaming environment, not to mention they had a split family, so half the time I didn't even have the right save file to work from.

For my 18th birthday, Chad got me my first gameboy (and SP Advance) and later got me a DS for Valentines day. This allowed me to acquire the Pokemon games I've always been fond of. I admit, it's a weakness of mine, but I really enjoy the complex simplicity of the Pokemon games.  But thats not what we were talking about.

Chad's sophomore year, his roommate was selling his old GameCube for $20. I had to. There was no other choice. I think I bought a few games off him as well, and then hit the used games section of Gamestop for some more oldies-but-goodies. These were the games of my youth, and it was time to play them. I started with Super Smash Bros Melee, one of my all-time favorites. I played the original Smash Bros on my best friends N64, and Melee was always a game I could get my other friend to play with me at her house. Soul Caliber II was another favorite. I love fighting games, but sadly I'm horrible at them. I can't remember combos, I'm not fast with the controls, and I tend to get favorite characters due to looks and one move rather than power. Batman: Vengeance was a gift from Chad, as it has Harley Quinn as a main villain, another weakness of mine. Harvest Moon was bought for Chad, as was Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness was gifted to me for Valentines day this year. But the cream of the crop for finds was the Zelda collection, with the original two, Legend of Zelda and Link to the past, and the two N64 games we all know and love, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

 I've attempted playing all of the above at various times since I got the games three years ago, but school and work tend to get in the way. But, when Chad needed the computer and all my chores were done for the day (My poor laptop died, I'll complain later) I decided to give Zelda another try.

I think I'm halfway though the game at this point. I've done all of the Young Link spiritual stones quests, and have two of the sages. I'm at the fire temple now for the third sage.

Thus far, it's been as enjoyable and as frustrating as I remember it.

Frustrating things:
 - Controls. Really Nintendo? You couldn't make it easy for Link to look where you point him, could you? And why, when I want to jump somewhere I know I can, you always tend to point me just enough off course that I miss the platform? But when I can't get there yet, you make it look like I can?

 - Navi. Everyone hates her. I used to think she was kinda funny but only useful for L-targeting. I now know better. She can only target things directly in your line of sight, unless of course you've found something shiny you cant reach yet. Also, she's gotten me killed a few times by pausing the game to tell me something I noticed on my own. Yes, Navi, the room is twisted. Did you have to tell me that as a flaming flying skull attacks me?

 - Timing. Again, Really Nintendo? Would it kill you to add ONE MORE SECOND to the end of all your timing things? I mean, I was almost up the ladder when you burned it down!

 - Female Characters with Breasts. Ok, now, remembering this is the era of really bad 3D, and the faces on every character thus far have been really bad; did you have to give the "attractive fairies and desert people" huge chests? Cause it makes them look pointy and Madonna-esque. If that's what you were going for, great. If not, well, you failed. the Fairy Queens that I'm supposed to "feel free to come get healing anytime" scare me, so I'll just buy bottled fairies thanks.

 - Un-necessary money cap. There is an item in the game that lets you hold 500 Ruppies. So why don't you just let me do that from the start? This 99, and then 200 cap is bogus and annoying. The only thing I spend money on is bets, games, and the occasional "Shit, I'm out of Arrows and Bombs and theres no way I can beat this level without them, so lets teleport to town and pick some up for too much money".


Enjoyable things:
 - Complex but not mind-numbing puzzles. Nuff said.

 - Spells. They're nice. I'm sure they'll be cooler later on.

 - Ocarina music. There is a song for everything. Which means the soundtrack is nice.

 - Cute elf main character to stare at while trying to hit monsters with said character's sword. I blame this on a home-schooled childhood crush on a video game character. Link's cute for a main character. Better than Mario, that's for sure.

I think that's enough for tonight. Besides, I have a game to beat.

Peace. Only, Not. (I will clip a corner off your Nerd Card if you don't get that joke.)