PixlBit

Happy Thursday good people of the Pixlbit Empire, how are you doing? For some odd reason my body decided to wake up at 4:50am earlier this morning for now reason. When I decided to browse the Internets on the iPad the Internet was down and wasn’t running up until maybe 20 minutes ago when I reset the FiOS router. Everything is now good and I can continue to take part in Blog A Day. For today’s entry I’ve decided to take a small break in all the Playstation love and not show my original Playstation games and instead hold that for next week which I am calling BaDBonuses because I still have a couple of consoles I have yet to talk about.

For today I am going with the Nintendo Handhelds. During my on and off gaming time the Nintendo’s handhelds have always played second fiddle to something else. It’s not like I didn’t like the systems but I always preferred other systems like the Game Gear and the offerings from Sony. Because of this I have a small collection of games, which isn’t a bad thing because I can always go and find these games at the local Swapmeet.

 

The Gameboy

I’ve said it a couple of times, I bought my first Gameboy from my friend my Sophomore year of High School so I didn’t have to bring my Game Gear with me everyday to ride the bus to school. The dang thing was built like a brick and I could throw it into my bag and not worry about it. I eventually traded my Gameboy to my younger cousins in exchange for their Lego Fire truck and didn’t replace it until the late 2000s when I bought one at Goodwill for $1.99. Most of the following games I have are from my cousins who no longer wanted the clutter in their garage and gave me their games

 

 

Tetris: This is a game I bought to replace my old copy that was lost. I loved this game and sunk the most time into. I was obsessed with getting the biggest rocket/space shuttle at the end of a game. Tecmo Bowl: I’ve been trying to look for games I originally had and this is one of them. I actually played a lot more of the NFL Football game than this one, but eventually this one won out because of my love for the NES version. At some point I should try out these Pokemon games. My cousins were really good at them so there might be some good stuff in their game saves.

 

Gameboy Color

Again these are from my cousins. They were young when they had their Gameboy Color so these are the only two games I think that they didn’t lose.

 

 

The Gameboy Advance

This was released right around the time I was working summers at Disneyland in college. I remember wanting to buy this because I thought it would be fun to play in the break room when the guy who played Goofy (in costume) wasn’t kicking my behind on the free Mortal Kombat machine. I decided against it but later on I would borrow one of my cousin’s many GBA SP’s (he was trying to get all the released versions) so I bought a couple of games to play

 

Texas Hold’em Poker: Remember awhile back I said I got caught up in the whole Texas Hold’em craze? Yeah I spent a lot of time playing it on this, the PSP, PS2, and desktop. I bought Castlevania from shocker, the Target clearance endcap. I wish I would have picked up the other GBA games but at the time I didn’t own one and wasn’t about to buy one in the future. Funny that a couple of years later when my cousin was unloading all his old stuff, in the box was the first GBA

 

Lego Bionicle: This was actually a surprise. I found an old school Gameboy carrying case at Goodwill for a couple of bucks and this game was in the pocket. I erased the original owner’s game and I think played a level or two just to make sure it works. Fear Factor: another Goodwill find. It’s mini games set in the TV show. Nothing fancy.

 

 

For the next two sets I do something a bit different and keep my games in old baseball card sheets in a binder

 

 

When I travel I can just slide the binder into a backpack and I’m good to go. First let’s start with the Nintendo DS games. A lot of my DS games I got cheap, and really cheap (thanks Big Lots and Toys R Us clearance!) My goal with the DS was to buy mainly puzzle games. All the action stuff I would rather play on the Vita. Nothing against the 3DS XL I’m using but the screen and sound on the Vita is head and shoulders better.

 

 

Bejeweled 3: It’s really hard to go through life without at least trying a Bejeweled game on any device. It’s quickly becoming the Snake/Solitaire game on everything. This version is stripped down compared to the PS3 version I have that offers Bejeweled along with two other games. It’s the same goodness you know from Pop Cap. Professor Layton: Unwound Future: I always heard about these games and I wanted to give one a try. I can’t go wrong with it because its based on puzzles and I like puzzle games on the 3DS XL. Jonas: I bought this as a joke because Toys R Us had at least 30 copies in store. You play as one of the Jonas brothers (Tom, Dick, Harry, whatever their names are) and it seems like you are playing an episode of their show. It’s real easy to play, you do given tasks that advance the storyline, and save your game by a smoothie machine. You Don’t Know Jack: I loved this game on the PC. Being a trivia fan this is perfect for me. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: I loved this when it was on TV, and played a bunch on the Playstation. The questions are easy until you hit the $32,000 mark then it gets fun.

 

 

Rock Band 3: This is just like Rock Band on the PSP where you jump around to the different instruments. I would have beaten this game by now but the sound on the 3DS XL and the audio recordings are terrible. Picross 3D: Oh this was my go to game before bed for a bit. Such a fun game that works really well with the 3DS hardware. 7 Wonders II: I played a bunch of this on the PSP, but this is the only console I ever finished the game on. Your goal is to build up the seven wonders of the ancient world by completing the match 3 puzzle within a set time. The time is really slow, and if you move at a decent pace, you can finish a puzzle with tons of time to spare.

 

The next sets of DS games are my loose games. I found the majority of them at GameStop, many for under $5, which is always nice.

 

 

As you can see there are a lot of Brain Age, and similar games. These are a lot of fun and I wish there was more on the Vita other than Smart As, and Hot Brain on the PSP. Ridge Racer DS: This might be my least favorite Ridge Racer game because you have to use the bottom screen to steer. It’s terrible. The Bachelor: I actually like this game. You pick the sex of your contestant, and you go on an episode where you play mini games against other “dates” and gain the attention of the Bachelorette. I won three out of the five Bachelorette episodes and I am halfway done with the fourth.

 

 

Jeopardy!: Yeah I really love this show. Exit: I really enjoyed this puzzle game on the PSP especially since it offered 10 additional downloadable sets of levels. Remember when DLC was all shiny, new, and FREE? Yeah it was a long time ago. Jewel Master: Cradle of Athena (I think that’s what it says): Another one of those fun match 3 games. I believe I finished it as well. It was my play before bed games. The thing that bothers me with the Guitar Hero games is that I have to play them with a special add-on to the DS, but I need to buy an older DS that still has the GBA port. I have the dang add-on, I just need to find a cheap DS.

 

 

I almost forgot about this game. Asphalt 2: I started playing the Asphalt series on Android on my little flip up phone with a qwerty keyboard. This game is your typical Asphalt game but the graphics are really muddy. I am maybe playing two groups of races a day, and hopefully soon I can knock it off Mount Backlog. I mapped the gas and brake to the shoulders because it’s a lot easier this way, then keeping your finger on a little button.

 

The 3DS

I can’t remember when I bought my 3DS but it was right around the time the Luigi Anniversary came up. I used it as my DS and 3DS player, and never used the 3-D feature (I get dizzy.) I think I might have had my 3DS XL for around a year maybe, and it is still going strong. I updated the memory card to a 16GB card and I have tons of space after loading it up with a bunch of Club Nintendo games and a couple of old school NES and Gameboy games as well as independent games from the Nintendo Store.

 

 

Super Mario 3D Land: This was the first game I bought when I bought the 3DS XL. I was just going to play the preinstalled Super Mario Dream something something, but on a whim I also bought this game. Its all the SMB goodness in a 3D world. I enjoyed it and this was my first time using what I call the Pitty Suit (if you die a lot in a given world, the game drops a special suit Mario wears that makes him invincible.) Cubic Ninja: Remember when folks found out that there was a way to put emulators on the 3DS by using this game, and the price skyrocketed? Yeah I bought this game at Big Lots for $2. I tried the emulator and it was ok except you had to restart the 3DS to play anything else. It was more of a chore than anything else so I removed it. Cradle of Egypt: I played a lot of these Cradle of____ games and finished all of them. Street Fighter: Oh this game was fun to play because it was on a handheld and looked really good. I actually tried a game or two in 3D. Pokemon X: I didn’t get very far in this game the Pokemon I caught in this game are currently sitting in the PokeBank so I can use them in Pokemon Omega Ruby. Hopefully I can make them badasses in that game and bring them into X and just wipe the floor with everyone. Centipede: I was terrible at the arcade version, but this is a new take on that game but now you are a guy taking out those little critters and other goodies. FYI the codes to all the costumes are on Gamefaqs. Pilotwings: I think I played the original on the SNES(?) and this one is kind of the same except there is no skydive. You go around the island either by hang glider, jetpack, or airplane and fly through rings and the other goodies.

 

 

Pokemon Y: I used my Pokemon X Pokemon to run wild for a bit in this game. Ridge Racer 3D: I don't think I completed this game yet but thank goodness I can use the nub to control the car. Madden Football: The flag football rules game mode is easily the main reason to play this game. NBA: This is a card game using NBA players. Its not very good. Mario Kart 7: Its all the Mariokart goodness in the 3DS. I need to unlock the rest of the courses before I can take this game off of Mount Backlog. Crosswords Plus: Early on when I wasn't playing a Mario Brothers game I spent a lot of time on this game filling in crossword puzzles. The best part is that every so often I will get new puzzles either from Mii's or from Street Pass. There are a variety of games from crosswords to word searches.

Pokemon Omega Ruby: I didn’t buy both this and the blue game at the same time like I did with X&Y. I really need to get going on this game so I can use my Pokemon from X. City Undercover: Grand Theft Auto for a cop…and made out of Lego. The missions are really short, and there are a lot of things to do like find hidden packages, car jumps, and other GTA-like things. Shame there isn’t any Lego hookers. New SMB 2: Oh an updated version of the games I grew up with. I like Giant Mario that walks through the levels and destroys everything in his way.

 

And I almost forgot this game

 

Yes I bought a game where you train to be a firefighter and then move up the ladder (haha get it) to being the top firefighter at the station. I just got into the station so I have a while to go.

 

Well there you have it Pixlbit, my Nintendo handheld collection. Have a good Thursday!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris

Bonus: Because I talked about Jeopardy I had to find one of my favorite sketches from SNL. This one from the recent anniversary show is really good