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Right now i'm grooving to Mark Ecko's Getting Up. It is reminding me a lot of NES Double Dragon put into 3D, and with a grafitti plot instead of a kidnapping plot. The grafitti mechanics are nice but laughable. They appeal to the part of me that likes to do attentive mindlessness like RPGs demand.

The fighting is kinda weak at first since you have to unlock your moves, but it's goffy fun with weapons that are totally disposable. The plot is absurd, especially if you have even passing knowledge of graf, but that just heightens the campy goodness.
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I downloaded CastlevaniaRL again after dess told me about being able to attack at range (I'd been whipping things pointblank and getting knockback like crazy before) and wow, it's got a tileset that actually loos good. Only quibble is lack of a jumping animation since you do it all the freaking time and it's odd for your avatar to just kinda pop forward three spaces. Otherwise it's a very nice Castlevania experience. I had trouble getting it to save, but I wasn't doing so great anyway and starting over isn't really that harsh considering how fast the game moves.

Also been emulating the hell out of Metroid II. It's a lot more linear than I remembered. I've just got the plasma beam and I haven't gotten lost yet. Getting lost was the main feeling I got from the first one and part of why I felt that having a map like in Super Metroid and everything after was such a betrayal. But maybe now I'll be able to appreciate the later Metroids.

On the Gamecube I just got, replacing the old one which is no lonnger with us. I picked up Wind Waker to go with it and haven't cracked it open yet. I remember having conflicting feelings about the N64 games, that I played a lot of Ocarina and it felt like empty junk food gaming, but I always felt fulfilled by Majora's Mask even thhough I could never bring myself to play it for long stretches (I pretty much saved and quit every time the day reset if not sooner, but always when the day reset I'd turn it off until next time). hopefully WW will be able to combinne the goodness of both. I have high hopes.

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Started playing Resident Evil 4. I don't thnk it's for me.
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Beat Wind Waker finally and immediately started back in on it again. The last half of the game was kinda hollow but succedded in manipulating the sort of expectations tower of the gods instilled in me, but it never delivered on those expectations.
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Tried RE4 again and still am not really getting into it. Is there something I need to grok to get the enjoyment out of it?

Also downloaded Sin and Punishment. Oh my god. this is the sort of thing I absolutely love. It's coming close to Wild Guns and Dead Connection in terms of Cabal-like joy.
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Played a rom of the Genesis Batman. Hard to see why it was considered pure awesome back in the day. Remembered that the reason I never played it back then was because the import shop screwed up my order and shipped me New Zealand Story, which I proceeded to play the hell out of. It holds up remarkably well.

It's fun how the arrows tell you how to beat a stage with minimal need to explore, but there' lots of little stuff to find off the main path and the ability to jump through ceilings means there really aren't any dead ends. Much funs to be had by the Beylita.

Also fun use of the Genesis sound chip. It's amazing how I disregarded this so much in my youth out of a misplaced antipathy towards Taito.
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Played Fool's Errand again. It does the whole big mess of puzzles thing so much better than Myst ever did. There's no pretense of exploring a world and it really is stonger for that.
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I played MegaMan Legends today and it was fucking awesome. Though, I do kinda wish it had that sweet dual analogue support. Anyway, just starting out, and loving it very much.
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Been running through the R-type series since dess' article. Last night I beat 3 and was so pissed that the advanced loop didn't have much new beyond more bullets. I could have moved on to Delta or Leo almost a week ago. Which I plan on doing tonight. Not sure which came first since I kinda want to do it in order.
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The Guardian Legend. It is really, really fun.
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Picross
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Kaze Kiri is manic joy. I had to put it on easy though because enemies were taking too much damage to kill. sadly this made Kaze take too much damage to kill. There's no middleground where everyone is fragile and lethal.

It's still a totally badass game though. I only made it to the tiger who mysteriously has no life meter despite acting like a boss fight. Looking forward to more of it.
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Zoo Keeper in MAME. It's like an unholy cross between Donkey Kong and Tempest with the sxplicit goal of running down the clock. Fucking Righteous! And there are challenge stages that are een more Donkey Kopng like in terms of jumpy challenge but no GODDDAM LADDERS! Fuck Yeah! Zoo Keeper. I suck at it and wouldn't dream of playing for score yet, but it's just so fucking righteous!
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Gyrus and Time Pilot on the Konami Arcade Collection thing.

Gyrus does not remind me of Tempest but with sprites like it did when I was wee, but of Galaxian with odd perspective.
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Dangerous Dave shows that Romero knows his 2D level design.
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The review where the girl claims the reason to like Whip Rush is because the ship looks like OpaOpa got me playing Whip Rush again. this time I'm using no continues. It's surprisingly awesome. I wonder if there was an arcade version or if it was original for home. Only beef with it is the flame weaponm which is useless.
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I like R-type Final but I fear I'm going to have unlocking fatigue like I did with Marvel vs Capcom 2.

I hate unlocking.
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