Alpha Counter

I noticed that someone on GameFAQs finally posted an Echochrome game save with all of the puzzles solved. I may download it just so I can see a solution for the one I can’t figure out (I think it’s B7?). Of course, I’d quickly re-install my own save file, since that would be like buying a crossword book with all the answers written in for you.

Still no sign of people posting game saves with custom puzzles, which is disappointing. I wonder if it’s only a matter of someone making that first step to inspire others to follow suit. Should I come up with some lame puzzles, only to encourage others to upstage them? Sounds pretty genius, but then I’d have to get over my extreme laziness.

It didn’t take long, but someone’s already used Street Fighter IV to make fanboy porn. On this Japanese site , you’ll find shots taken from Street Fighter IV’s training mode, etc, depicting shots and camera angles of the femme fatales that show them in a more…suggestive light.

None of what you see in these images is any more risqué than what’s appeared in previous Street Fighter titles. Certainly less titillating that anything found in a Dead or Alive title. Or Soul Calibur for that matter. But it doesn’t take much to fuel an adolescent’s theater of the mind when erotica is concerned.

Hooray! I finally finished Symphony of the Night! I think I got the best ending. I know I didn’t get the 200.6% possible, but I’m quite sure I got the usual 200%. I have a game save that I downloaded with the other endings open, so I’ll be checking them out later.

By next weekend, I’m sure I’ll receive Prinny: Can I really be the hero? I’m pretty excited since I don’t really know what to expect from that game. All I’ve heard (via Penny Arcade’s Tycho) is that it’s hard. That worries me a little, since I try to aim for more casual games to play on my portable devices. But it’s Prinny, so I’m sure it will still be fun!

I’m almost through Symphony of the Night! I think I have only two bosses left in the inverted castle, and then it’s just a matter of covering all the remaining rooms I’ve missed.

Once I finally finish it, I guess that means I gotta get back to Crisis Core. I still have that lame stealth area to get through. If you’re going to design a stealth level for a game, you should make it so that while the enemies can’t see you, you have a pretty good view of them. Crisis Core has this backwards. I can’t see anything except what’s directly in front of me. So if I’m trying to sneak past a soldier on my left, I can’t see where he is once I walk past him in order to see if he’s coming back.

I’ll give that area a couple more tries before just plowing through. Even if it means losing those sweet treasures.

I’ve been pretty impressed with Echochrome so far. Though there’s one puzzle I just can’t bust! It’s driving me crazy! It’s the last puzzle in row ‘C’ (is it C7?). The little guy keeps walking in a circle. No matter which platform I manager to connect to the one he’s on, he refuses to walk onto them. He just loooooves his circle!

Much like in searching for fan-made levels, I’m disappointed to find a lack of FAQs for the game. What’s up with that? Am I the only person who bought the game?

I must be. Especially since I emailed Sony asking why the game and add-on bundle is listed at half the file size as the game solo, and they couldn’t answer. Good work, Sony.

Nippon Ichi Software posted the Penny Arcade comic that comes packed in their pre-order bundles of Prinny: Can I really be the hero? earlier today. I’d originally assumed that it was simply a print of this comic, but it turns out that this is completely new material!

On top of that, they’ve announced a contest involving the comic. They’ve removed the text from the speech bubbles and have left it up to creative fans to rewrite the dialog! The winner receives a stainless steel water bottle with prinnies printed all around. Quite snazzy!

You only have until February 9th to submit your entry, so get those creative juices flowing!

I bought Echochrome for my PSP the other day to give me a quick puzzle game to play on my lunch breaks. I fell completely enamored by the demo, so I went ahead and bought the game and add-on bundle via PSN.

What I found cool is that you can make your own custom puzzles. The bummer is that there’s no way to download or share any of them. Except of course, if you have a friend that you can connect with via ad hoc. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone else who has the game on PSP, nor if I did, do I expect any of them to be inclined to create their own puzzles.

I would think that since you simply save your custom puzzles to your memory stick, all you’d have to do is share that save file. As I look around online, there are no sites or communities that have even attempted that!

Ah, well… Even with only the tease of expansion, I think I got my money’s worth with all the puzzles that come loaded in the bundle.

The Japanese PSN has new downloadable content for Prinny: Can I really be the hero? on PSP. It’s a new level, priced at about $3.30. This excites me since I put in a pre-order for the North American release of the game. At the same time, with the money I’ve shelled out for the game itself, I hope they can offer a better deal than $3 for a single new level. I’d say 99 cents might be more fair.

Also today, my Omi Gibson interview was published. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the editors published it five days ahead of schedule. Whoops. It’s all good, though. I sent Omi a note, to which I’m curious to see if she comments or sends any kind of feedback.

Today’s the day of the big game! Well, for me that doesn’t necessarily mean football.

My family’s annual Superbowl ritual consists of my folks downstairs actually watching the game, while my sister and I chill upstairs with some DVDs and video games. What bonds our two groups together is the incredible spread of snacks that my mom puts together for the entire evening.

Because this is a special occasion, my sister and I try to make more of the situation than simply playing games together. We’ll experiment, like when I tried playing Darkstalkers with a DDR pad. (FYI, I made it to the third stage on Easy mode!) I have no idea what we’ll come up with for tonight.

Today, I was chilling at home, laid out on my couch and playing Castlevania: SotN. I’d just been killed in a very frustrating area filled with enemies that are hard to avoid. As I pulled up the game save load screen, one of my cats leapt up to snuggle on my chest.

Naturally, I had to swing my arms (PSP in hand) out of the way to accommodate. When my cat had finally gotten comfortable, I was able to again pull the PSP into view. That’s when I saw on my screen the frightful words “File Deleted”. I guess my thumb bumped the ‘delete’ button in the commotion when I suddenly had a kitty in my face.

That suuuuuuuucks. Fortunately, I have a back-up save file on my computer. If it’s as old as I think it is, I may have only lost about 4 hours of play time. I’ll make a habit of backing up my data every couple days that I’m playing.