Spencer's Day

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Thursday, March 26, 2015

JURASSIC WORLD/PARK!!!!!

This post is about one of my favorite childhood movies: Jurassic Park!!! Even though when I was a kid I ignored pretty much all the story scenes because I just watched the scenes that had dinosaurs in them. But now I actually care about the story because

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The logo of the newest movie in the series:
Jurassic World!

For those of you who somehow not seen Jurassic Park (and if you have not already watched it, so watch it. RIGHT NOW. Stop reading this blog post and go watch it yourself. It's that good!), basically it's about a very rich man named John Hammond opening a theme park called Jurassic Park on a Central American island (known as Isla Nublar) Jurassic Park has LIVE dinosaurs and how they did that is not only believable but also possible in real life (to a limited extent).

This is how they created the dinosaurs. They (the scientists) extracted DNA from fossilized mosquitoes and used the DNA samples to clone dinosaurs (in the event there wasn't enough DNA to clone a specimen frog DNA is used to fill in the gaps of the specimens genetic code). This is actually possible in real life. Even though creating dinosaurs is not probable with our current technology.

Anyway, after one of the park staff is murdered (and eaten) by a Velociraptor (which for some reason are twice their actual size), John Hammond calls paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (who is the best character in the whole movie) and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler to inspect if the park is safe for tourists. Later on a man named Dennis Nedry (who was bribed by Hammond's competitors to steal some dinosaur embryos) shuts off the security system for the entire park and the dinosaurs run amok.

Their is also a sequel (Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World), and a third entry (Jurassic Park 3). The summary of Jurassic Park 1 is just to give you an idea of Jurassic Park as a series.

BUT their coming out with a new movie: JURASSIC WORLD!!! This is the first entry where Jurassic Park (theme park) finally fulfills it's intended purpose and is a functional theme park! And some interesting to me is that the "big bad" dinosaur (which according to leaked screen-shots is called the Indominus Rex which when translated from Latin means "Untamable King") is not a real dinosaur but a fictional hybrid of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Ceratosaurus, Velociraptor, Ankylosaurus, and for some incredibly strange reason, cuddle-fish (I'm not sure why they put Cuddle-Fish DNA in a Super dinosaur, maybe they ran out of frogs? I legitimately question why the I. Rex is part cuddle-fish).

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I. Rex!!!

Also a thing I want to mention is the fact that Chris Pratt is going to play a character in this movie (he was perfect in Guardians of the Galaxy as the rogue-like thief Star-Lord and he also played the bumbling but lovable Emmett from the LEGO movie). In this movie Pratt is playing a character named Owen who LOOKS like a mercenary even though he's supposedly not.

Another interesting thing is that the I. Rex is extremely intelligent (Owen even said that the I. Rex is killing everyone for blood-sport). What I'm hoping is that the I. Rex, seeing how it's supposed to be the villain, sabotages the park's systems and thousands of people are trapped on a island with a maniac of a dinosaur on the loose.

For more info on Jurassic Park 4/Jurassic World please go to the official website. For more info on the first three films go watch them yourself or read on Wikipedia.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Mario Party 10 preview!!!

First of all I am 15 now. My birthday was a few days ago. So yeah! I'm 15! Anyway, this blog post is about Mario Party 10. NOTE THIS IS NOT A REVIEW OF THE GAME AS I DID NOT PLAY AT THE TIME OF THIS POST. THIS IS A PREVIEW AT BEST.


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LOGO!!!

Mario Party 10 has had mixed reception upon release, and I will go over some bad things I have heard about this game in the preview, BUT I will decide, While being the best game in the series yet graphically (the visuals are very stylish and pretty) Mario Party 10 did bring back some ideas from Mario Party 9 that aren't that great. Mario Party 9 suffered from two things that bug me specifically. First is too much luck. With the exception of some of the mini-games, Mario Party 9 was almost completely based on luck. Nobody likes losing all their stuff because they by chance landed on a Bowser space.

The other thing that bugs me in Mario Party 9 was the game boards themselves. I like the concept of travelling together in a single vehicle, but the Game Boards were a bit too simple for me. Plus, the objective for every board WAS EXACTLY THE SAME. Go to the space at the end of the board, fight a boss, and hope that you happen to have enough "mini stars" to win.

Mario Party 10 brings back some of these annoyances but they are thankfully overshadowed by Mario Party 10's greatest game mode: Bowser Party.

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Bowser Party!

Bowser Party improves the "everyone travels together in a vehicle" concept and makes it better. In Bowser Party, one player plays as Bowser (first time he has been playable in a Mario Party game actually) while everyone else hops in a vehicle and tries to escape Bowser.

Bowser Party is an amazing addition especially for me because ever since the very first Mario Party game, I always wanted to play as Bowser. I play as Bowser a lot in Smash Bros (he is too strong in Smash!).

From what I have heard Bowser is admittedly overpowered because unless Bowser rolls a bunch of 1's he will almost always catch up to the other players. Bowser gets a whopping four dice blocks while the other players get one dice block per player. But I will have to play the game myself to see if Bowser is as overpowered as everyone claims.

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Once Bowser catches up (and it will happen unless the Bowser players has the worst luck in the world a rolls a bunch of 1's) everyone plays a Bowser mini-game where Bowser tries to deplete the other players hearts. If Bowser defeats everyone (by depleting all their hearts) before they reach the final space on the board Bowser wins If at least one player survives long enough to make it to the exit then the team of regular characters win.

There's only three boards in Bowser Party however (two of the boards from the main Party mode are absent for some reason). The first board is Mushroom Park which is an amusement park (complete with Ferris wheels and roller-coasters).

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Mushroom Park!

The next board is Whimsical Waters, which is completely....are you ready? ....UNDER DA SEA!!! UNDER DA SEA!!! STAY UNDER DA WATER 'CAUSE UP THERE IT'S HOTTER TAKE IT FROM ME!!! One of the most legendary Disney songs right there. Sorry, I couldn't resist referencing Little Mermaid wile talking about this board, By the way Little Mermaid is one of the first Disney movies I ever watched. It's no where near my favorite as my favorite is Fox and the Hound. Wow. This has just spiraled out of a Mario blog post to a tangent on Disney movies.

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Bowser in Whimsical Waters!

And the final board in Bowser Party is Chaos Castle which is actually Bowser's own castle transformed into a game board. This is my favorite out of them all. Around halfway through this board Bowser can set traps on the walls for the other players. DUNGEON MASTER STYLE!!!

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The first Half of Chaos Castle!! (by the way you
go inside the castle later on so this board is bigger
than it looks).

Now for the main mode! Basically it's the same as Bowser Party, but without Bowser. Bowser is involved in this game-mode where he's locked in a cage and if someone rolls one of every number Bowser gets freed and steals one half of your mini-stars, and then turns every blank space on the board into a Bowser space. Bowser spaces will summon Bowser if you land on them, and Bowser will force you to either play a reversed mini-game where whoever loses wins or give some of your mini-stars to other players (He even has another possible option called "get 10,000 mini-stars!" But it was a trick because not even Bowser has that many mini-stars in his pocket).

And finally there is an Amiibo mode. I've heard really bad things about this game-mode. I won't go over the cons of this game-mode because most of the cons I have heard sound like personal Good news is Amiibo party plays out like a proper Mario Party game prior to Mario Party 9.

If I ever pick this game up I will be sure to share my final opinion on it. But if you want to pick this game up there is a bundle that includes a free Mario Amiibo that costs an extra ten dollars (or whatever is the equivalent in your country).

Oh I almost forgot about the mini-games! There are 72 total, each around a minute long. One of the Good things about Mario Party 9 is that it had some of my favorite mini-games. Mario Party 10 from what I've seen and heard have some of the best mini-games to date.

For more info please go to the Mario wiki.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Grow Home!!!

The post is about a game called Grow Home. It's a cute, short game where you play as a robot (yes!) named B.U.D. (Botanical Utility Droid).

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LOGO!!!

B.U.D. is an adorable robot that is very clumsy but still lovable. It/he also is procedurally animated. Basically that means B.U.D.'s animations for doing anything are never the same. He might do a roll after a jump, or do a flip while trying to move objects out of the way.

B.U.D.'s mission and sole purpose in life is to nurture a giant beanstalk-esque plant (called the "Star Plant") to maximum size. To make it grow taller B.U.D. has to take some of the Star Plant's branches and connect them to floating islands. The branches themselves are massive, and can be used as platforms.

By the way the only way you could die in this game is if you fall off the Star Plant. Like this...

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Have fun free falling!

Anyway, why is B.U.D. nurturing the Star Plant? To get a Star Seed to grow more Star Plants. Why? Because he is a BOTANICAL UTILITY DROID. He was BORN to grow giant plants. Or built? My Point still stands.

Back on track. B.U.D., despite his clumsiness, is a master rock climber. And that brings me to a gameplay mechanic. You control B.U.D.'s arms individually (left trigger makes B.U.D. grab things with his left hand, right trigger makes B.U.D. grab things with his right hand, etc).

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B.U.D.!!! Pro rock climber!!!

B.U.D. is almost constantly being affected by rag-doll physics (making him look even clumsier than before). This is cute, but be careful when you jump as you will jump insanely far thanks to rag-doll physics. By the way I love physics.

Also, the max height of the Star Plant is 2000 meters, which is rough 6000 feet if you do not use the metric system (and you should, it makes measurements easier).

You can also collect energy crystals to upgrade B.U.D. (Jet-packs, super zoom-in/out, etc). Oh, and B.U.D. Can also glide using giant flowers and equally giant leaves (leaves are better because flowers deteriorate as you use them and eventually become useless, while leaves can be used an infinite number of times)

And finally, this game has beautiful graphics. It's a minimalist style consisting solely of geometric shapes but it still looks amazing.

You can get this game on steam, and you can play the game with a Xbox 360 controller even though it was not officially released on a Microsoft system.

For more info go to a wiki. I have not found a wiki for this game besides IGN's wiki guide. So hopefully you can find a wiki yourself.