Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Nintendo Gaming Info
Zelda Wii U - wha?!?!
http://mobile.pcmag.com/#!/article/521e2a32ec0691928904be52-nintendo-drops-wii-u-price-tips-2ds-handheld
ºoº Sent from my iMickeyPhonia ºoº 8(:-)
http://mobile.pcmag.com/#!/article/521e2a32ec0691928904be52-nintendo-drops-wii-u-price-tips-2ds-handheld
ºoº Sent from my iMickeyPhonia ºoº 8(:-)
Friday, August 9, 2013
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (for Nintendo 3DS) Review & Rating | PCMag.com
Luigi is Mario's perpetual understudy. While this is ostensibly the "year of Luigi" and he's gotten his own 3DS game in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon$30.85 at Amazon and his own version of New Super Mario Bros. U$49.99 at GameFly with the New Super Luigi U$29.99 at Amazon DLC, he still plays second fiddle to his brother. That doesn't change in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team$39.99 at Dell, where Luigi's lack of popularity remains a running gag, but he at least takes a much more proactive stance in this $39.99 (direct) Nintendo 3DS game. Granted, he spends most of his time being useful by sleeping while Mario runs around, but it's justified in this game.
A Mario RPG
The Mario & Luigi sub-series, like the Paper Mario sub-series, is a spin-off line of Mario-themed RPGs that spiritually follow Squaresoft's fantastic Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. While Paper Mario changes its mechanics in nearly every game, from Paper Mario: The 1000-Year Door to Super Paper Mario to Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Mario & Luigi stays fairly consistent, and even keeps story elements and characters between games. You play as Mario and Luigi as you explore a new land to save the people there from a threat that's usually Bowser-related.
The story is silly, like every other Mario game's story tends to be. Mario and Luigi are invited to Pi'illo Island for vacation. An ancient evil that petrified the extinct Pi'illo civilization awakens and joins Mario's regular archnemesis Bowser to take over the island. Luigi finds he can open portals to dream worlds by slipping on the petrified pillow-shaped bodies of the Pi'illo people, cleansing them of darkness and awakening them to help fight Bowser and the nightmarish Antasma. The story is one to be enjoyed and isn't nearly as dark as it sounds.
The Mechanics
If you played the first Mario & Luigi game (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance), you know the basic mechanics of every other Mario & Luigi game. Actually, if you've played any Mario and Luigi game, you understand the mechanics of every other Mario & Luigi game. You control Mario and Luigi together, using A to make Mario perform actions and B to make Luigi perform actions. As you play through the game, you unlock new abilities between the two that let you reach places you couldn't before, like using a hammer to shrink Mario down to fit through a small door or jumping on Luigi's shoulders and doing a spin jump to get over large gaps. The consistent two-brother controls allow for the different areas to use different and increasingly complicated puzzles that require more and more of Mario and Luigi's abilities to solve (and to find all of the many secrets, like camera blocks that give you jigsaw puzzles or beans that enhance your different stats).
Combat is also focused on the brothers, with the A button controlling Mario's menu options and the B button controlling Luigi's options. Each brother can attack with a stomp, a hammer, or team up for Bros. Attacks that combine their powers and hit enemies extra hard. The battles are turn-based, but extremely active; you directly control Mario and Luigi as they attack and get attacked. Just selecting Jump and attacking an enemy will do little damage. If you hit A just before Mario hits the enemy, though, he'll stomp on it extra-hard and then jump on it again. Likewise, when you get attacked you can reduce damage, avoid it completely, or even counter-attack and hurt enemies on their own turn. This mechanic has been around since the original Super Mario RPG, and it's one of the most engaging aspects of the series besides the characters themselves, because it makes combat a matter of skill and rhythm, not just stats.
Dreamy Luigi
The dream elements of the game stand out against the otherwise satisfying but standard action. When in a dream world, manifested as two-dimensional platforming levels that still keep the same type of enemy encounters as the regular world, Mario joins the dreaming version of Luigi called Dreamy Luigi, who can merge with background elements to influence the world. Depending on the "Luiginary works" in the area, Luigi (and you, by manipulating his sleeping form on the touch screen) can change gravity, launch Mario like a slingshot, change the temperature of the area, and become a crowd of Luigis for Mario to ride on to get past obstacles.
Luigi's ability to become a horde of green brothers in the dream world also give Mario his special attacks while there; instead of standard Bros. attacks, Mario can work with the crowd of Luigis to form them into a ball to squish enemies, a hammer to smash enemies, or an air hockey puck to smash enemies. Certain boss fights even require the Luigis to merge to become a giant, Godzilla-sized Luigi in his dreams, beating back other giant enemies Mario and the regular dreaming Luigi can't handle on their own. These giant Luigi boss fights are stylus-based, but the same general strategy and structure remain.
If the bright, colorful, cartoon-like graphic design and silly story don't remind you, the first hour or two of the game will reiterate that this is a game intended for, among others, children. It holds your hand with tutorials and interruptions to introduce you to game mechanics for far too long, and if you're older than 12 or have ever played a Mario & Luigi game before you'll probably find this frustrating. Fortunately, after the first few dungeon areas, the game relaxes its grip on your hand and lets you play without a smiling yellow ball or floating pillow fairy interrupting you to tell you how to dodge attacks.
Conclusion
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team is a fun little JRPG romp, like every other game in the Mario & Luigi sub-series. It doesn't have the genuinely unique and fresh feel of Paper Mario's various games, and it doesn't bring much new to the table besides the puzzle-solving dream mechanic, but it's enjoyable and cheerful, and worth a playthrough if you're a Mario fan and want a nice bit of fluff to play for a few hours.
Sent from my iMickeyPhonia 8(:-)
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Mojito Bars recipe from Betty Crocker
INGREDIENTS
- 3
- tablespoons light rum or 1 1/2 teaspoons rum extract plus 3 tablespoons water
- 16
- fresh mint leaves, chopped
- 3/4
- cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1/2
- cup powdered sugar
- 2
- cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
- 4
- eggs
- 1 1/2
- cups granulated sugar
- 1/4
- teaspoon salt
- 2
- teaspoons grated lime peel
- 2/3
- cup fresh lime juice (from 6 limes)
- 2
- to 3 drops green food color, if desired
- 2
- tablespoons milk
- 1
- tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1In small bowl, combine rum and chopped mint. Set aside.
- 2Heat oven to 350° F. Lightly spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar together with electric mixer on medium speed. Mix in 1 3/4 cup of the flour on low speed, just until well combined. Press in pan. Bake 22 to 25 minutes or until set and lightly browned.
- 3Meanwhile, in large bowl, mix eggs and sugar, with whisk. Add remaining 1/4 cup flour and salt, mix with whisk until blended. Mix in lime peel, lime juice, food color and milk.
- 4Place strainer over medium bowl; pour rum mixture into strainer. Press mixture with back of spoon through strainer to drain liquid from leaves; discard leaves. Mix strained liquid into egg mixture, with whisk until well combined. Pour over partially baked crust. Bake 25 to 27 minutes longer or until center is set.
- 5Cool completely, about 1 hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store bars, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.
EXPERT TIPS
If desired, omit mint leaves and substitute 1/2 teaspoon mint extract. Add extract with the rum as directed.
NUTRITION INFORMATION–
1 Bars
- Calories
- 170 (
- Calories from Fat
- 60),
- Total Fat
- 7g
- (Saturated Fat
- 4g,
- Trans Fat
- 0g ),
- Cholesterol
- 50mg
- Sodium
- 75mg
- Total Carbohydrate
- 24g
- (Dietary Fiber
- 0g
- Sugars
- 16g ),
- Protein
- 2g ;
% Daily Value*:
- Vitamin A
- 4%;
- Vitamin C
- 0%;
- Calcium
- 0%;
- Iron
- 4%;
Exchanges:
1/2 Starch; 0 Fruit; 1 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Skim Milk; 0 Low-Fat Milk; 0 Milk; 0 Vegetable; 0 Very Lean Meat; 0 Lean Meat; 0 High-Fat Meat; 1 1/2 Fat;Carbohydrate Choices:
1 1/2Sent from my iMickeyPhonia 8(:-)
Pacific Rim Gipsy Danger Light-Up Action Figure | GeekAlerts
Pacific Rim Gipsy Danger Light-Up Action Figure
JULY 27, 2013
Wish you could pilot a Jaeger? The Pacific Rim Gipsy Danger 18-Inch Light-Up Action Figure puts you in control of your very own Mech, but you don't have to worry about drifting or getting killed by a Kaiju from another dimension.
Gipsy Danger, the go-to Jaeger in Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, is captured in a highly-detailed 18-inch action figure that includes a light-up chest, a light-up headlight, and a removable 8-inch-long chain-sword that attaches to its forearms. The figure also has many points of articulation, including an articulated neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, allowing you to arrange Gipsy in a variety of Kaiju-stomping poses.
Go big or go extinct with the Pacific Rim Gipsy Danger 18-Inch Light-Up Action Figure. It will be available September 2013, but can be pre-ordered now for $89.99 at Entertainment Earth.
Sent from my iMickeyPhonia 8(:-)
Interesting info
Technabob blog:
Saddest Site Ever? 'See Your Folks' Reminds You to See Your Parents… Before They Pass on
By Hazel Chua on Jul 27, 2013 11:00 am
See Your Folks is a new website that's gotten the attention of a lot of people. It's not a new social network or some photo-sharing site. Rather, it's a calculator of sorts that lets you know how many times you're going to see your parents before they die.
It sounds morbid, but that wasn't the intention of the site creators.
Co-create Luke Tipping explains: "We believe that increasing awareness of death can help us to make the most of our lives. The right kind of reminders can help us to focus on what matters, and perhaps make us better people."
That definitely makes sense. It's kind of like an extension to World Parent's Day, only it's not just a day because it essentially encourages everyone to go see their parents more.
Head on over to See Your Folks to see how high (or low) your number is… and do something about it while you still can.
Kite Patch Keeps Mosquitoes (and the Diseases They Carry) Away
By Hazel Chua on Jul 27, 2013 10:00 am
Those evil mosquitoes just keep on biting. They're carriers of deadly diseases like dengue fever and malaria and every day, kids get bites that could turn out to be fatal. There are a lot of anti-mosquito and anti-insect lotions and sprays being sold, but they're a cause for concern sometimes to parents who worry about slathering their kids in repellents that contain DEET.
Then along came Kite. Kite is a patch that is supposed to be stuck on the person's clothing. Once it's there, it can make the wearer "invisible" to mosquitoes for up to 48 hours. Unlike most conventional mosquito repellants, Kite uses non-toxic compounds that interrupt the mosquito's ability to find people through carbon dioxide detection.
The technology was developed by Olfactor Laboratories and the University of California with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
 |
A project to send Kite patches to Uganda is currently up for funding on Indiegogo, and has already generated more than 3.5 times its goal with over a month left to raise funds.
Sent from my iMickeyPhonia 8(:-)
Thursday, July 25, 2013
LoZ Sweatshirt
Technabob blog:
Legend of Zelda Sweatshirt with Sword and Shield: Armor & Armory
By Lambert Varias on Jul 24, 2013 05:00 pm
Always be prepared for a fight cosplay convention with this Legend of Zelda-inspired hoodie. Aside from being green, the hoodie also has a handsewn replica of the Hylian Shield and the Master Sword attached on its back. It also has a couple of faux leather belts connected by a buckle up front.
You can order the hoodie from Geeky U's online shop or from its Etsy outlet for $100 (USD). It's a shame Geeky U didn't upload a shot of the hoodie from the front. Or maybe that's the front. Whoa. A maskie?
Sent from my iMickeyPhonia 8(:-)
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
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