In Tir Ezion I took the small fortune I had earned and invested in War Griffons – six to be exact.  Hatchlings now, but growing and training with the Rystars of Spaartha.  I’ve spent many months there, training the Griffons and being trained myself.

War Griffons seemed a wise idea, with four great Dragons threatening Tir Castellan.  I know full well I lack the skill and fortitude to face such ancient beasts – at present.  But like all my companions, we train and study for the day when we face the great wyrms in battle.  With trained mounts, we could face them in the air, where the Rystars tell me Dragons are clumsy fliers.

Nonetheless, after months of training, a letter came from Holly, the Flen Wizard who had trekked with us across Bravenland in pursuit of the snakemen spies.  She was in some kind of trouble, and had taken pains to conceal it – her letter was written in a code only the snakemen used – a trick which she knew that Mauril the archivist could certainly unravel.  We gathered together again from the far countries where we had scattered, and went seeking Holly.

Having no good place to begin, we traveled to Valeska, to the Diviner’s College there.  Here we paid for scrying – not only in the search for Holly, but also in combating the pirates who had been raiding the Spaarthan coast of late.  As you well know, the Kingdom navies are tasked beyond their capacity these last few months, sailing convoys of troops to Caliban to fight the armies of Manath, and sailing other legions to Bravenland to aid in the war with the Redstone Spur.  It was no surprise then that buccaneers would take advantage of the opportunity.

What was strange were the abductions – these pirates weren’t taking loot, they were taking men.  So we scryed upon them as well – and found little.

However, it soon became clear that all was not well at the school of Diviners.  Being a Ranger has some advantages – I might not know when someone is lying, but I can tell when things are being hidden.

We left the Diviner’s College, discussed our clues – and returned and launched a rapid assault under the cover of Mauril’s silence spell.  We slew the guards and those Wizards who were keeping the rest in bondage – and liberated Holly and the rest of the students who were being held hostage here.

This was not the end of the quest; the grateful Diviners showed us what we needed to know about the mysterious pirates – apparently they were coming from Lake Fum in Tantathia.  This seemed impossible – as the lake is landlocked – but we resolved to go and investigate.

The wilds of the Tantathian March were warmer than we had left them in winter – spring had come to the land.  We scarcely paused to enjoy it, traveling fast down the Kingdom high road.

During our travel we came upon a strange house – which I am sure was never near that road before.  Upon closer investigation, we met the occupant – a strange being claiming to be the ‘Fire King’ – an ancient being who had dwelled in these lands for many centuries.

He claimed to have a solution to our problem.  Raiders were coming through some kind of portal which had torn open above Lake Fum – where an ancient portal had once existed before Mount Fum had blown itself apart and become Lake Fum.  Apparently, this weak point was allowing these extraplanar raiders to attack us.

I was not entirely convinced of the ‘Fire King’ and his story, but it fit with the facts, so we investigated.  Mauril was armed with a strange magical device that the King claimed would slowly regrow the mountain, closing the portal.

We traveled on, finally discovering the portal in the lake.  We fought the interlopers and drove them back through the portal – but the magical device was damaged in the battle, and we couldn’t raise the mountain.  We left a guard on the portal and returned the device.  The Fire King claims he will repair it, and the mountain will be raised again.  We shall see – meanwhile, the raids have stopped, and Spaartha is returning to health.

With that emergency dealt with, I returned to training Griffons in Tir Ezion – until your next letter reached me.

I remember Megaman.  I remember thinking the first one was nigh-impossible.  I remember carpet-thumping, controller-throwing frustration.  The second was slightly easier, but only in the sense that pushing a bulldozer through a field of jello is “slightly easier” than towing a battleship with a frog kick.
Honestly, I think I got to like the game more and more as the series went along.  I loved Mega Man 3, 4, and Capcom’s Magnum Opus, Mega Man 5.  According to Wikipedia, there was a Mega Man 6 on the NES, but I was preparing to graduate High School (and everyone had moved on to the Super Nintendo) when it was released.

So, it was with child-like glee that I downloaded the NEW Mega Man 9 last night.  For those of you not in the knizz-ow, Mega Man 9 was a stroke of genius that wonderfully found itself into WiiWare, the Nintendo Wii’s downloadable arcade.  With this release Capcom and Inti Creates have given fans exactly what they want: another game like the NES titles.  No 3d game with a tenuous connection to the original, but rather a title just like we would have played on our humble grey-and-black boxes.

After losing my first three lives to the first four screens of Tornado Man’s level, I realized two things:  My 2D skills had waned, and I no longer have the reflexes of my 15-year-old self.  I am pressing on, though, happy to have a new challenge.  I will beat this game.

Gaming nowadays is too full of 3D shooters and 12 year olds with twitchy reflexes and trash talking skills.  But, I teethed on two dimensions and 8-bit sprites.  I may stand a chance here.  I may not be uber enough to win a Halo 3 deathmatch, but I can compete here.

Anyway, it’s all back.  The sprites, the mega-blaster (only fires ahead, aiming was not in his programming), and the sythoid music.  Just like before, the beginning screen gives you eight bosses to battle through, and it’s up to you to figure out the best order to beat them in.

The programmers have also added in a “challenge” system as well, with challenges that range in complexity from “Defeat 100 enemies” (on the same level as “make me a sandwich”) to “defeat the game without missing with the mega-blaster” (i.e. “negotiate peace in the middle east”).

Overall, this is what I’ve been wanting.  I would love to see Capcom release a similar platformer next on the Wii or DS, although with souped-up graphics and challenges, ala The New Super Mario Brothers.  Until then, though, I have 9 and all its challenges.  Then, I can borrow the Mega Man Anniversary Collection from a friend, and burn through all the games I used to love, plus the ones I missed.

Basically, you’re playing evolution. You start as a little organism and
work your way up to a spacefaring race. The game runs in five main
stages, all of which are pretty fun, but some of which are really neat.

I have to rank the game like this:

Stage 1 – Cell: Fun, arcade like, but entertaining the first few times you play it. No flexibility, loses interest quick.

Stage 2 – Creature: Probably the best phase in the game. Can be played very long and with many different strategies.

Stage 3 – Tribe: Limited but fun in a simple strategy game kind of way. Not nearly as interesting as Creature stage.

Stage 4 – Civilization: Probably the next best phase after creature, though it’s replayability suffers.

Stage 5 – Space: A nightmare of micromanagement. The interface
would be fun to play if only the game would make up it’s mind whether
you’re a free trader or a government agent, and handle income
accordingly. It would be *nice* if at least some things would manage
themselves, or the Empire would build MORE THAN ONE STARSHIP to handle
it’s problems. Even if I had to buy them myself!

The best thing about SPORE is the creature and vehicle creator.  We’ve built several of the alien species from Universe Zero  in the creature creator.  More fun than that, you can share creations with your
‘buddies’ in the game, so my friends can see what I make, and I can see what
they make. We’re also making ground vehicles and starships.  Now, even
the scary predators look a little cartoonish, but it gives a good
general idea of what your aliens actually look like.

As of the time I write this, we have made: Jakari, Dambaro,
Tikmijn, Mantid, and Acai Maj. I’ll make more as I get a chance.  Even though I’m making aliens in Minnesota, my friends in Oklahoma can just look at my creations on my brother’s computer instead of a simple screenshot.

I believe we plan to use the SPORE creation engine to build some placeholders for the Universe Zero wiki – aliens, ships, etc.  It’s not quite the same as getting everything done by a team of professional graphic designers, but it allows pretty good representations of your sci-fi races, vehicles, starships and buildings.