Rule 32: Enjoy the little things in life.

theindiegeek on: Heat Wave by Richard Castle

I recently had the pleasure of reading Mr. Castle’s new book, entitled Heat Wave.  And I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Good to know that old Rick Castle hasn’t lost it.  Heat Wave is a very nice read.  Fast paced, flows very well,  just enough plot twists to have your head spinning and very likable characters;  it’s well worth reading, and perhaps then reading again.

I have to be honest, after offing Derrik Storm, I wondered if Castle’s future books could reclaim that sense of awe and trill that made him the Master of the Macabre.  But have no fear, my friends.  Nikki Heat’s just as thrilling as Derrik.  Different, perhaps, but still excellent.  She’s the kind of cop you want on your side, and really not the other way around.  Dangerous, smart, gorgeous, and relentless, she is a hound that sticks with the case until it’s solved.

Now I know that we all know that Castle’s been following (or is pestering perhaps the right word…) one of NYPD’s finest detectives.  Personally, I’m not sure what to think about having a writer on hand at crime scenes, mucking things up, but if this it what comes out of it, and as long as the bad guys still get behind bars, I’m all for it.  Still you have to admit it’s a bit odd.

One thing that’s always made me wonder about Mr. Castle, and that’s his uncanny resemblancethat one actor guy.  Y’know, the one in Firefly.  No, not Alan Tudyk.  Not Adam Baldwin.  Yes, Nathan Fillion. That’s him.  Always thought the similarities in appearance was a bit eerie.  Someday I’ll have to ask either of them about it.

But back to the book.  Please buy it, borrow it, steal it, whatever you have to do, just read it.  It’s well worth the time.

theindiegeek on: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

A long time ago, before the Wii and Paper Mario, before Tidus and Yuna, even before Squeenix, there was a little game called Super Mario RPG.  I say little, and yet the game was pretty big, and pretty fantastic.  A joint venture between Squaresoft (not Square-Enix) and Nintendo, this game was the grandaddy of all the Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi RPGs.

Let me start out by saying this is one of my favorite games of all time.  It is extremely entertaining, with funny and whimsical characters, great mini games, an engaging combat system, and quite simply it’s flat out fun.  In researching for the article, I fired the game up to see if it was still fun.  Lo and behold it was.

The story starts out with your typical (and by typical I mean every time) Mario beginning.  Princess Toadstool has been captured by Bowser and Mario has to to rescue her.  Shortly after giving Bowser the boot, and just before he’s about to untie Toadstool, a giant frickin’ sword comes down right through the center of Bowser’s keep.  Mario, Bowser, and Toadstool are tossed to the far edges (if an elliptical world can have edges).

Mario is convenient tossed right back into his house, and at the insistence of Toad (y’know the guy from Mario 2), he runs back to Bowser’s keep, which is apparently only a short ways away from Mario’s house.  This explain alot.  He gets to the keep and confronts the giant sword, only now it’s a giant talking sword.

After antagonizing Mario for a bit, the sword destroys the bridge, and given that the world is one giant ellipse, he starts out on his journey the long, aka other, way.  Along the way he finds out that because of the giant talking sword, wishes are no longer granted.  Well, shit.  So he pulls together a motley crew including Mallow, the not-toad magic user, the aforementioned Princess after rescuing her from child-like psycho Booster, the not-evil-just-misunderstood Bowser, and the awesome Geno.

Geno is a badass.  He is a doll, possessed by a higher being who tells Mario what’s going on with the Star Road (the thing that grants wishes that the giant talking sword, from here on out referred to as GTS, destroyed).  He is both an adept fighter and magician.  He uses guns and his spells do quite a bit of  damage.  I wish Geno was in other games, but to this day he has not made an appearance beyond his role in Mario RPG.

One of the awesome parts of the game is the extremely varied places Mario has to go on his quest, including but not limited to:  The Mushroom Kingdom, Kero Sewers, a town of mining moles, Yoshi’s Island, a child-like psycho’s (Booster) tower of fun and explosives, Marrymore, a town whose economy is entirely built around weddings, a pirate shark’s sunken ship, beanstalks to climb, a magical kingdom in the clouds, a fiery volcano, a casino, Bowser’s Keep, a town of reformed monsters, and a world of machines.

One thing I found very entertaining is the way the story is told.  Given that this is a fantasy world, a large number of things that shouldn’t normally talk do, i.e., tadpoles, arrows, machines, turtles, etc.  One exception to this rule is plumbers who like the color red.  That’s right, our boy Mario is a mute in this game, but that doesn’t prevent him from getting his point across.  Mario is apparently a mime on the side.  He conveys his story by a series of elaborate and hilarious pantomimes, and is often joined quite comically by his teammates.  A rather unique way to get a point across.

I believe that Mario RPG has recently arrive on the WiiWare network.  If this is so, you have no excuse for not playing it.  If you are lucky enough and your Super Nintendo still works (like me) you really owe it to yourself to find a copy and play it.  It’s truly a great game.

–theindiegeek

Something different. Felt like writing. Please enjoy.

 

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The other night I had a dream. In it, I was standing outside my office in the parking lot. Not sure what exactly I was doing at the time, but it doesn’t matter. I was in the parking lot of my office, the white two-story building lay ahead. I started to walk across the street to enter when saw the smoke and then heard the noise. All of a sudden, the building was engulfed by flames. My jaw dropped and yet no sound came out of my mouth. The next was the worst part. Next I heard the screams. Not just any screams, but the screams of children. For whatever reason, there were children in the building while it burned.

I dropped everything and started running towards the door, the whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion. As I got closer to the door, I noticed a woman also running towards it as well. About my age, but I didn’t recognize her.

Then the dream fast forwarded a bit. I was in a burning room by a window. Apparently I’d been helping kids get out of a window when a burning beam had fallen on my back and pinned me to the ground. Despite the kids outside, I was overcome with an immense feeling of failure. I turned to my side as little as I was able and heard more kids screaming, retreating, and the woman stuck under a beam similar to the one on my back. And then I believe I died.

This dream repeated several times over that night. Each time ended just about the same. Different numbers of kids survived, sometimes the woman died with me, sometimes she didn’t, but each time was the same sense of failure and my death.

When I awoke in the morning, I was naturally shaken. Took a shower to try to put it behind me, then went to work as it was a monday. As I pulled up, I expected to see it in flames, but it was normal as ever. Just my coworkers, pulling up at the same time I did. I got to my desk and lost myself in my work, finally able to free myself from the dream.

The day passed on normal as ever. Lunch came and went. As I walked back up the stairs from my local sandwich shop, I noticed some balloons and that the office across from ours was having bring your kid to work day. Rest of the afternoon went as any other monday would have.

Shortly before I was getting ready to do my last rounds for the day, I received a call from my mechanic. Couldn’t hear him well, so I stepped outside to the parking lot to get better reception and some quiet in which to hear him. A few minutes into our conversation I saw the smoke and heard the noise. All of a sudden the building was engulfed in flames. My jaw dropped and yet no sound came out of my mouth. Next I heard the screams. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I dropped my cell phone. I started running. Despite knowing how it would end, I started running. I looked to my side and saw the woman. Despite knowing how it would end, I kept running. I kept hearing the screams. Despite knowing how it would end, I kept running and re-entered the building.

 

 

–theindiegeek