Hearthstone: A Card Game for iOS

Hello everyone! 

I had a crazy week finishing up costumes and then an amazing weekend at Wondercon and now I'm ready to write. I'm pushing for two posts this week but we will have to see! 

Today I want to talk about Hearthstone! 

If you don't already know what this game is, it's a new game that was just released last week for the iOS. It's made by Blizzard and has a lot of similar art and tone from the Warcraft games but is essentially a card game. 

The best comparison I can make is it's very similar to Magic the Gathering except it's a little simpler. I say this without hesitation because it doesn't hurt the game at all. While being slightly simpler than Magic, it doesn't lose any intensity. I played through the tutorial journey quickly and had no problem figuring out the mechanics and gameplay (mostly because I'm a regular player of Magic so I understood the concept) since it's an easy set up and doesn't give the player too much information all at once. You have 7 missions (I think this is correct and I would look it up but the server is down for maintenance..) and they spread the knowledge through those missions so that you can not only get the feel for the game but absorb the rules and how to play in increments. 

I won't go too into detail about how you play but here's a short synopsis: You are a hero (much like a planeswalker in Magic) and you have minion cards and spells. The goal of the game is to defeat the other hero by attacking them. You get one additional mana every turn and each card costs a certain amount of mana to use. Cards have various skills and attack/defense points and what I found kind of cool is that your minions lose life. What I mean is, instead of them having a set attack and defense number as other minions attack it the defense number goes down like hit points.

After completing the introduction missions and the final boss you are then available to sign in to Battlenet and play online. I had a difficult time logging in because..... I made my battlenet back in 2006 meaning that my password was some random combination of words that 15 year old me thought was hilarious but 22 year old me is shaking my head at. I was unable to recover this password because apparently I used a pseudonym as well.. Back on topic: Playing online is really fun! You play against people who are generally around the same level as you so you have somewhat of a fighting chance. You gain experience whether you win or lose (gaining more when you win and less when you lose) and you get "achievements" throughout (ie: playing 3 games online gets you a small prize) as well as collect new cards for your deck. Each hero deck you have has cards for that deck and each hero has a special skill. As you play with a deck you collect more cards for that deck to make it more powerful.

I only played online for a little while but it's definitely a great game and on the iPad it's just so accessable. You can also download on your computer (mac and pc) with ease. I definitely recommend this game as it's really fun and easy to pick up. It's FREE as well which is a huge plus. I'm a fan of some good games coming to iOS devices (with obvious exceptions) and look forward to more stuff like this being playable on my tablet. 

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments below! 

Upcoming!

Hey everyone! 

I just wanted to let you all know that I recently finished working on a YouTube show that should be airing this summer. It's called Team Jinja! You can find it on our channel RoyalWe. Be sure to subscribe as before the season starts we will release a couple of videos and shorts. 

Currently we have some videos up of us playing video games and being goofy which is always fun. 

That's all I can say for now! 

Check us out! 

Animal Crossing: Part 4 - Welcome To New Leaf City!

Hi All!
This week's entry I'm going to be talking about Animal Crossing: New Leaf City.

Now as you already know I am a big fan of this series! This is the latest game in the series and in my opinion the best. It has all sorts of new features and visually new things so let's get into it!

The beginning of this game is just like any other. You are asked a bunch of questions, arrive in town, but wait- you're the mayor! A cool and interesting new way to play is you control the fate of your town. You character is given duties that involve keeping the town beautiful, adding new buildings and decorations to your town (which...I mean... thank god), and hosting major holidays. The whole town is your oyster!

Another great aspect that I love is the dream suite. The Dream Suite allows you to venture to another persons town in your dreams - therefore you can't muck up anything. This feature is useful because if your friend wants you to see something of there's (ie: the way their house is set up, a new project, or a special flower/fruit) you can go view it while they aren't playing. The Dream Suite is also useful in that you can get ideas, see strangers towns without having to be their friend (the Dream Suite uses a "Dream Code" that is still specific to a town but makes the player anonymous).

Something interesting that's come out of the Dream Suite are these "Horror Towns". I started reading about them a couple of weeks ago and it's really interesting. It started in Japan as just a way to set up your town so that it's spooky. Usually the bulletin board will have some message or story about what happened and then you get to explore the town and see scenes from whatever horrible story it is. I ventured into a couple (I'm very prone to being spooked..) thinking, oh how scary could they really be? TURNS OUT PRETTY SCARY! I mean, I never jumped or anything, but I definitely on more than one occasion walked into a room in one of the houses and went, NOPE. Also, you can make your character have a greeting and I ran into a lot that were something like, "I was just so lonely..." and in the Dream Suite the voices of people kind of echo and sound very eery. Overall this is a really really cool idea that people have adopted in their towns and I urge you to check it out. 

The animation in this game does change a tiny bit. Your character's body is a little longer now, which doesn't seem very important but after being so short and squat for all these years it's definitely refreshing. Nintendo is very much of the mindset that if it's not broken don't fix it, well Animal Crossing is definitely one of those titles where you see that. Minor changes are expected and the look of the game is so great that there's no reason for them to have to change much. I think that mentality hurts and helps Nintendo.. but I digress. 

This game is great because it's suitable for all ages (as were the last 3) and I wouldn't say it improves the series necessarily but it's definitely the best game out of them. The game has morphed little by little through each game and I love how it turned out. I play this game religiously and definitely addicting. 

If you haven't tried this game yet- do it. It's totally worth your money and has given me just about a year of enjoyment. 

Look out for next week's post where I talk about WOMEN IN VIDEO GAMES!

And don't forget to subscribe and leave comments below. 

Animal Crossing: Part 3 - Time to meet the City Folk!

Hello everyone!
Welcome to Part 3 of my Animal Crossing segment!
ONLY ONE MORE GAME TO TALK ABOUT AFTER THIS!

This week we'll cover the 3rd game in the series - City Folk for the Wii!

This game was - in my opinion - not as great. I didn't stick with this one for long but that isn't to say it wasn't worth playing. On the contrary there were many changes that improved the gameplay and a lot of users liked. For instance, there were new shops in the City. Players could take a bus to the city and visit the Happy Room Academy, get your shoes shined, and get a haircut or a makeover! Another cool new feature to this game was being able to rotate through tools with the D-pad on the wiimote. This is super convenient!! It was a pain in the butt opening the menu to try and catch a bug quickly.

The bundles of new animals and shops is really what made this game great. But as I said, it was missing something for me. Mainly I think it was that I was so hooked to my portable device that it was hard for me to sit in front of the TV to play again. Not to mention fighting over it with my sisters when they wanted to watch a movie or something.

Give this game a chance for sure. Just because I didn't latch onto it doesn't mean you won't. It's a fun time for sure if you liked the first two of this series.

Keep an eye out for the 4th and final portion of the Animal Crossing series segment. I will be posting soon since I missed a week.

Thank you for stopping by and be sure to comment or subscribe!

Animal Crossing: Continued - It's a Wild World After All!

Hello again! Thanks for stopping by again! 

This week I am going to be covering the second game in the Animal Crossing Series! 

Animal Crossing: Wild World

If you haven't read my post from last week concerning the first game to this series, don't worry! This game isn't one for spoilers. I would like to start off by reiterating that I love love love this game series. As mentioned last week - my two best friends and I all got tattoos to memorialize this game. 

So let's begin! 

This game was just what I needed. The Nintendo DS is one of my favorite consoles. My grandparents bought it for me for my birthday the year it came out and I was hooked again! I thought - how could this game get any better - what's the purpose of making a new one? 

In a world so simple and perfect the idea of change almost made me hesitate. I was mistaken though. 

This game exceeded all my expectations on how great this game could be. The quadrant feature was abandoned for a smoother and rounder world. This made the game a little less clunky. Also, the game opened up a multiplayer feature where the former police officers are now gate keepers - allowing and forbidding people to visit your town. This was AWESOME TO ME! I was in high school when this game came out and so naturally all my friends got it and we all chopped down each other's trees, smacked each other with nets, and barracaded you in a circle of holes. 

The adventure had opened up into an experience you can enjoy with friends - LIVE! I should note that in the first game you could also visit other towns but it was only by having a memory card with another village on it and you couldn't interact with other players. So the appeal in this is obvious. Finally this game is perfect. 

Now admittedly because the Nintendo DS still had work to do on graphics and stuff - looking back the game was visually "okay". The characters were difficultly rounded out, somewhat pixelated, and a little unclear. But that opinion is from someone who has been playing on a 3ds XL for a year or so. At the time- the graphics were great and I loved this game. 

Another cool function was that you could all live in the same house! This idea was disasterous for my sisters and I considering our age difference and commitment to the game. I was deeply invested in getting a perfect HHA score while my sisters didn't care and threw anything in their rooms. Eventually when they became disinterested with the game I was able to focus on decorating. I think there is a feature where you can move into your own separate house but I'm not entirely sure and looking it up wasn't much help... 

Overall, this game was a huge improvement in a surprising way. You'd think that the game was great the way it was and a lot of things that changed weren't necessarily a nuissance before so I didn't think to complain. 

Look out for next week's coverage of Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii! 

Thanks for reading and leave your comments below!

Animal Crossing: Let the Games Begin!

I am back! The last two months have been ridiculously crazy and I have a lot to share on my personal blog but for today I will talk about another one of my favorite games: Animal Crossing! 

My two best friends and I all have the same Limited Edition: Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 3DSXL. We got them all on the same day together and just a couple of weeks ago all got the same Animal Crossing tattoo. (We know, awesome!)

(Picture to come)

So for those of you who haven't played Animal Crossing before I'll start with a little prelude so that you can get the general gist of the game before I start spouting off random jargon that won't make any sense to you. Since there are 4 games in this series I am going to break these up into 4 posts! Here we go!

This was the original Animal Crossing released on GameCube in 2004. I got this game around that time but not after hearing about it from a group of guys in my class. They talked about it all day nonstop and would say how they were up all night playing. There was never any preface to this conversation and they only spoke about random things like "Tom Nook..." "fishing..." "centipede..." so I never understood the game at all until the summer after it came out when I received it for my birthday from my grandparents. I was ELATED! After so many months of hearing about it and being curious (and I wasn't old enough to use google searches at this point...) so I was eager to experience the magic first-hand. BOY WAS I NOT LET DOWN IN ANY WAY! I don't think that people would say I have an addictive personality. I tend to be pretty rational and responsible about my interests and hobbies. This game changed everything for me. I played this game all summer long. I only stopped to allow my sisters a turn to play which pissed me off greatly because they liked to pull the, "I am trying to find a bug - then you can play" card. The aggressive relationship in my family drove this hostility to the point of being unable to play for longer than 2 hours. My parents mandated a timer be set and supervision to occur when playing. It was a nightmare for me! But of course, someone always has to ruin the fun. 

Anyways, I'll explain the game! You start the game on a train on your way to a place you've never been. You're greeted by a friendly cat named Rover. He asks you a number of questions which are prompts for town decisions. You decide what your name is, what the name of your town is, and there are a variety of questions he asks that determine how your face will look. That's about as customized as you get in this game! When you leave the train you are then greeted by Tom Nook - Local Store Owner/Real Estate Agent. He sells you and remodels your home throughout the game. You also work for him for a small time in the beginning of the game. The whole point of the game is to make money, renovate and make your home perfectly decorated so that it is feng shui. You do favors for your townspeople, dig up fossils, collect fish and bugs, plant fruit trees, and turn your town into a beautiful garden! And did I mention your townspeople are adorable anthropomorphized animals? YES! They are. 

These cute bundles of joy are your citizens! They all have different personalities and interests as well as special customized homes. The kind of homes that in this game - you can't mimic. But that will come later! 

Some other cool features of this game is the island adventure! If you have a gamecube connector cable to the gameboy advance you can explore the island by taking the boat at the dock! Kapp'n the wise-cracking bard of the sea takes you on a short boat ride over to the tropical island accompanied by an adorable song. On the island you'll meet a villager who lives there. The island has coconuts - which you can sell for a high price on the mainland - and it's always summer on the island so you can catch summer fish all year round! 

Want to make big bucks? The best way to is through the "Stalk Market". This cute little pun of a business venture works through Joan! Joan sells turnips on Sundays before noon for a small price per bushel. Throughout the week the price that Nook will buy them for changes, so if you check everyday you can make a profit! There is also a ton of holiday events, weekly events, monthly events, surprise visitors, and special contests! 

This game is fun for all ages, easy and yet complex. There's plenty to do in it so you won't ever be bored. This game is definitely a game that needs to be played if not daily than definitely regularly. If you don't play daily not only will your townspeople be mad but your home will be filled with cockroaches and your town will be covered in weeds (over the span of a week or so of not playing - a day or two won't hurt). 

I love this game and since I am a huge fan of all things cute it's definitely a great game for me! Plus, since the game isn't stressful really it's good for winding down after a long day of work. 

Leave your comments below! See you next week! 

Best and Worst Nintendo Games of 2013

This is not my article but I figured I share it. It sums up all the Nintendo games this year in a cute little bow.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/2013-year-review-best-worst-nintendo-3ds-article-1.1550359

Here is the link.
I hope you enjoy it!