May Monster Madness

One of my favorite video game genres is horror. For the May Monster Madness, I think it will be awesome to focus on some true video game monsters.

So for the next week, I'll be posting about my favorite gaming horrors. I intend to mostly focus on one character from each game. However, I think I will also dedicate posts to entire games, perhaps those that just have too many monsters to pick from.

Here are some of the games I want to cover:
F.E.A.R.                        
Resident Evil
Silent Hill
and one or two surprises

What is your favorite horror video game? Or gaming monster?

Z is for Zant

                                                           
While there are basic elements and themes that are the foundation of the Legend of Zelda series, each game has its own story. For the letter Z, I decided to highlight Zant, one of the major baddies in Twilight Princess.

According to the official timeline, TP takes place after Majora's Mask. This is what's referred to as the Child Era. As Zelda fans know, after Ocarina the timeline splits three ways. One with the hero defeated, one where the Scared Realm is protected, and one with Ganondorf sealed. Twilight Princess takes place in the Scared Realm split.

So here we have Zant, a member of the Twili race and the self proclaimed king of of the Twilight.  He spreads the Twilight through Hyrule, making Link turn into a wolf when he enters it. He mistakenly believes that the World of Light belongs to him and the rest of the Twili. Although, when he rose to power, he also deformed many of the members of his own race, turning them into Shadow Beasts.

But what happened to Zant that gave him so much power? If he overthrew the rightful leader of the Twilight, who is it supposed to be? Why does he turn from calm to crazed by the end of the game?

 If you don't know the answers, then you should go play Twilight Princess.



And now, some announcements:

*this is the final entry for 2012's A to Z Challenge. Starting May 7, every blogger in the challenge will have the opportunity to write a reflection post. So look for that next week*

* I will also be taking part in May Monster Madness, starting tomorrow. I look forward to posting about gaming's most horrible monsters.*

Y is for "You think you're some kind of hero?"

BioShock spoilers ahead.

The BioShock quote in this post's title isn't as famous as "Would you kindly? or " A man chooses, a slave obeys."  Fontaine says it to Jack right after he learns the horrible truth about his history. Can you really imagine how it feels to learn you're nothing but a mind controlled back-up plan? Your whole life is a lie. There's no farm house, no mom and dad. Your plane crash was no accident. You're a grown man who's really only three years old. Wrap your head around that, would you kindly?

However, as  Jack, it's hard not to see yourself as something of a hero, especially  if you're saving the Little Sisters. After you swim to the lighthouse, you get your first awe inspiring glimpse of Rapture. Awe turns to horror as you experience what the city is actually like. Crazed, deformed splicers who try to kill you at every turn. Big metal monsters protecting their little girls while she takes ADAM out of an "angel's" corpse. Little do you know at the time that you're one of the grotesque things the city produced.

You're stuck here, in a leaky, dark city sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Just trying to figure out how to escape. Or so you think. One of the best things about BioShock is how it takes everything  you know about your character's situation and discards it. There have been few video game moments like shock you that.

It's while you're being insulted that quote is used, but Jack can be a hero. The" good" ending proves that.  Of course, you could also become a monster. The choice is yours.

X is for X-rated Games

I'm not talking about those 20 or so games that got the AO rating. Nope, I'm talking about Unnecessary Censorship in Video Games.  For those who don't know, these videos take dialogue from games and censor it to make it seem naughty. Take this Skyrim one, for example:

There are other games like Mass Effect 3 that are also made X-rated. Might be that I'm easily amused, but I giggle like mad watching these. 

W is for Wii U

What a polarizing device and it's not even released yet.

What to say about the Wii U? Perhaps there are two sides. First, personally I have always been somewhat of a Nintendo fanatic. But, there's a lot Nintendo does that's worth being fanatical about. Second, while I love my Wii and you couldn't pry it from my cold, dead hands, there's a lot of games it can't handle. It's not HD and it's graphically inferior to the PS3 and 360. I am not such a blinded fangirl that I can't see the Wii's problems concerning the lack of "hardcore" titles.

However, I remain optimistic about the Wii U. It will be HD. There are rumors about just how powerful the graphics will be. But, the consensus points to this gen 360 and PS3 graphics.  Does that bother me? Not really. Yes, great graphics are pretty and shiny. But, they don't make or break a game for me.  Would I love amazing graphics that blow the current gen away? Of course, but it's not going to happen with the Wii U.

It seems you can turn the Wii U on and play games on the controller without needing a TV screen. That's awesome, especially in a house like mine. Say my son wants to use the PS3, I can still play the Wii U on the tablet controller.

Another cool thing about the Wii U is duel support for both its games the games on the 3DS. Right now, the news just hit about this feature for the next Super Smash Bros. If this takes off, I'm sure many more games will have this support.

What about the rumored apps store it's building? Since Nintendo doesn't license its games to iPads and the like, if the Wii U is able to have the very popular games that are on tablets and phones right now, plus an ebook reader feature then great. I'm very interested to see if Nintendo can pull this off.


On the downside, I worry about third party support. It's something Nintendo has been lacking for years. Although, as long as Nintendo continues to make its exclusives, I'll be okay. Another worrying thing is the amount of crappy party games that plague the Wii. I can only hope Nintendo gets rid of this trend for the Wii U. I can only hope they return to releasing more hardcore games. Maybe they can truly be the console for everyone. If any company can pull that off,  Nintendo can.

But of course, the angry hardcore gamer in me still just wants to scream "Fuck everyone else and focus on us."


We will certainly get more info at E3 this June. The Wii U is set to come out this November. I will be waiting in a line at midnight to buy one.