Super Smash Bros. Brawl

This is my favorite fighting video game so far, I like because most of the characters in the game are from previous games that I've played. This game is for the Nintendo Wii and you can play with up to four people fighting on one screen. The game also has different modes of fighting you can choose from, giant melee, slow melee, and invisible melee, It also has tons of stuff to unlock like levels, pictures, and weapons you can pick up through out the fight.   Super Smash Bros. Brawl uses a battle system unlike that of typical fighting games. Players can choose from a large selection of characters, each attempting to knock their opponents off the screen as they fight on various stages. The characters in Brawl include most of the same ones as the predecessors, such as the well-known Mario, Link, and Samus. Instead of using traditional health bars that start at a maximum value and lose value, characters start the game with 0%; the value rises as they take damage and may rise over 100% to a maximum of 999%. As a character's percentage increases, the character flies further back when hit. When a character is knocked beyond a stage's boundary and disappears from the screen, the character loses either a life, a point, or coins, depending on the mode of play. The characters in Brawl fight each other using a variety of attacks, that give the player a wider selection than the predecessors. Players execute each move by pressing a button in conjunction with a tilt of the control stick or a press of the D-pad, depending on the mode of control. In addition to basic attacks, characters have access to more powerful moves, known as smash attacks. Each character has four unique moves, which often cause effects besides damage to an opponent.

Mario Cart 64

Best Racing Video game ever!....at least in my eyes, is Mario Cart 64. I cant tell you how much I laugh every time I play battle mode with my brother and sister on this game. Mario Cart 64 is a racing game for the Nintendo 64. It was released in 1997, Mario Cart 64 move to 3D computer graphics and you can play with up to four players. There are four forms of play in the game: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus, and Battle. There are eight playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, Wario, Yoshi, Toad, and Donkey Kong. They vary in weight, speed, and acceleration. There are 16 tracks that are based on different locations seen in Mario video games. Each track has a unique shape, and can contain various obstacles, hazards, and short-cuts. All eight characters participate in each race. Up to four of them can be playable characters, while the rest are computer-controlled for one- or two-player races; three- and four-player races feature no computer-controlled racers. On a track, various actions can be performed to change the flow of a race. Items can be acquired by hitting an item box. The items' uses include acting as projectiles to impede opponents, speeding up the user, or stopping opponents through the placement of bananas and fake item boxes. However, AI-controlled racers use all shells but red shells. One can earn a small turbo boost through obtaining mushrooms, and also by drifting, which one can perform by hopping and tilting the control stick in the direction of the turn, which allows for speedier turns. There is also an advanced drift technique that allows players to turn against the direction of their drift for a speed boost.

Halo 2

Halo 2 is probably the only first person shooter game I have ever enjoyed playing with my brothers other then Golden eye for the Nintendo 64. Halo 2 is a story-driven action-shooter game with a first-person perspective. The game features an expanded range of vehicles, as well as other gameplay changes compared to its predecessor. The game's "Campaign" mode offers options for both single player and cooperative participation. In campaign mode, the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels alternate between the Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter, who occupy diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline, the Arbiter differs from Master Chief only in that his armor lacks a flashlight; instead, it is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage, that disappears when the player attacks or takes damage. For multi-player mode,  Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via Xbox Live, in addition to support for split-screen and system link multi-player mode.

Metriod Prime

Heres another game on my favorite list. Metriod Prime is a first person, adventure game, developed by Retro Studios for the Nintendo GameCube, It was released on November 17, 2002, and is the first 3D installment to the Metriod series. The gameplay revolves around solving puzzles to reveal secrets, platform jumping, and shooting foes. Samus, must travel through the world of Tallon IV, searching for twelve Chozo Artifacts that will open the path to the Phazon meteor impact crater, while collecting power-ups that enable the player to reach previously inaccessible areas; the Varia Suit, for example, protects Samus' armor against dangerously high temperatures, allowing her to enter volcanic regions. Some of the items are obtained after boss and mini-boss fights, encountered in all regions except Magmoor Caverns. Metriod Prime is the first of the three part Prime storyline, which takes place between the original Metriod and Metriod II. Metriod Prime has a science fiction setting, in which players control the bounty hunter Samus Aran. The story follows Samus as she battles the Space Pirates and their biological experiments on the planet Tallon IV. The game begins as Samus receives a distress signal from the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon, whose crew has been slaughtered by the Pirates' own genetically modified experimental subjects. Upon arriving at the ship's core, she battles with the Parasite Queen, a giant version of the tiny enemies occasionally seen in the ship. Having been defeated, the Parasite Queen falls into the ship's reactor core, setting off the destruction of the ship. While Samus is escaping from the doomed frigate, an electrical surge destroys all of her Power Suit upgrades, and she encounters Ridley, now a cybernetic version of himself called Meta Ridley. She watches as her nemesis flies towards Tallon IV before giving chase in her gunship. Samus lands on the Tallon Overworld, a rainforest-like area. She discovers the Chozo Ruins, the remains of the Chozo civilization on Tallon IV that was destroyed with the crash of a meteor, which contained a corrupting substance called Phazon.  Samus locates a Chozo temple in Tallon Overworld, and discovers that the temple houses a seal to the meteor's impact crater, which the Space Pirates are trying to break. The containment field is powered by twelve Chozo artifacts, which must be found to open the path to the crater. During her exploration of Tallon IV, Samus finds the twelve keys to the Artifact Temple, and lores recorded by both the Chozo and the Space Pirates, providing some more insight about the history of the planet and the two races' colonization of it and other activities.  As she puts the last of the keys in place, Meta Ridley appears and attacks her, but is defeated by Samus with some aid from the temple's defensive artillery. The Chozo Artifacts and Phazon Suit allow Samus to enter the Impact Crater, where she finds a Phazon-mutated beast called Metriod Prime, the source of the Phazon on Tallon IV. After she defeats it, all the Phazon on Tallon IV disappears and Metroid Prime sucks out the Phazon in Samus's Phazon suit in a last ditch effort to survive, reverting Samus's armor to the Gravity Suit. Samus then escapes the collapsing Impact Crater and leaves Tallon IV in her ship.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

OK, so back to the video game posts. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of my favorite Video games, Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, was released in November 1998. The game play is a third person view of your Character Link , and is mainly traveling from dungeon to dungeon picking up new items to get through the next place until you save the princess at the end. There are side storys you get to play though with in your travels from places as well. The game opens as the fairy Navi awakens Link from a nightmare, in which Link witnesses a stormy night where a man on horseback. Navi brings Link to the guardian of Link's village, the Great Deku Tree, who is cursed and near death. Link breaks the curse, but cannot stop the tree from withering. The Deku Tree tells Link a "wicked man of the desert" has cursed him and seeks to conquer the land of Hyrule and that Link must stop him. Before dying, the Great Deku Tree gives Link the spiritual stone of the forest, the Kokiri's Emerald, and sends him to Hyrule Castle to speak with the princess of destiny, Zelda. At Hyrule Castle, Link meets Princess Zelda, who has been having dreams about the future of Hyrule and foresaw Link's arrival. She believes Ganondorf, the Gerudo King of Thieves, is seeking the Triforce, a holy relic in the Sacred Realm that gives its holder god-like power. Zelda's description of Ganondorf matches that of the man who killed the Great Deku Tree. Zelda asks Link to obtain the three Spiritual Stones, one of which he already possesses, so that he might enter the Sacred Realm and claim the Triforce before Ganondorf reaches it. Link goes to Goron City, where he meets Darunia, the leader of the Goron race. After Link kills King Dodongo, the Boss of Dodongo's Cavern, Darunia gives him the Goron's Ruby. Link next obtains the Zora's Sapphire from the Zora Princess. Link returns to the castle, where Ganondorf is pursuing Zelda on horseback, as in his nightmare at the start of the game. Spotting Link, Zelda throws the Ocarina of Time into the castle moat and telepathically teaches Link the "Song of Time". After Ganondorf rides off, Link retrieves the Ocarina and uses the song together with the Spiritual Stones to open the door to the Sacred Realm. Through the door, Link finds the Master Sword, a legendary sword forged to fight evil. As he pulls the Master Sword from its pedestal, Ganondorf appears, having followed Link into the Sacred Realm, and claims the Triforce. Seven years later, an older Link awakens in a distant room known as the Chamber of Sages and is met by Rauru, the ancient Sage of Light and one of the seven sages who protect the location of the Triforce. Rauru informs Link that his spirit was sealed for seven years until he was old enough to wield the Master Sword and defeat Ganondorf. Link returns to Hyrule and is met by the mysterious Sheik, who guides Link to rid five temples of Ganondorf's monsters, allowing the power of the temples to awaken the sages. After awakening five sages, Sheik is revealed to be Princess Zelda and the Seventh Sage. She tells Link that Ganondorf's heart is unbalanced, causing the Triforce to split into three pieces, as predicted in an ancient prophecy.  Ganondorf kept the Triforce of Power, while the other two chosen by destiny carry the remaining pieces: Zelda gained the Triforce of Wisdom and Link obtained the Triforce of Courage. Ganondorf traps Zelda in a magical crystal and takes her to his tower. The remaining six sages help Link enter the tower, where he battles and defeats Ganondorf, thereby freeing Zelda. After escaping the collapsing castle, Link is trapped in the castle area by a ring of fire and forced to battle Ganondorf once again; this time, using the power of the Triforce of Power, he transforms from his humanoid Gerudo form into a boar-like monster named Ganon. After fighting Ganon without the Master Sword, Link eventually retrieves it, and, with the aid of Zelda's paralyzing light, delivers the final blow, which defeats Ganon. The seven sages trap Ganondorf in the Dark Realm his evil created; still holding the Triforce of Power, Ganondorf vows to take revenge on their descendants. Zelda uses the Ocarina of Time to send Link to his original time to live out his childhood. The game ends with Link and Zelda looking at each other in the castle garden.    

Pixar

I was watching Toy Story 3 the other day and for some reason I started to look back at the other Toy Story movies Pixar did. Their animation justs keeps getting better and better the more movies they do. If you look back at the first Toy Story, the people figures in the movie Andy, and his mom, look so so compared to the more resent film, its more colorful, and the movement in their characters are more smoother as well. I love just about every movie Disney and Pixar has ever made and I cant wait for more of their films to come out.  Toy Story  Toy Story 2Toy Story 3

Ice sculptures

Since its freezing cold outside right now, I thought it would be nice to look at the cold as something artistic. Ice sculptures are one of the coolest thing that the cold weather can bring us, well besides snow and all the sports that go with it of course. When I look at ice sculptures I always think of how hard it is to actually cut and sculpt a giant block of ice into something amazing. A lot of time and detail goes into the artists work just to make it look nothing more then spectacular.