Der Nerdery

Seiken Densetsu 3 (AKA: Secret of Mana 2)

I say Seiken Densetsu 3 is easily  the best SNES game to never be released in the United States.
Way back when I was knee high to a grasshopper. (Back in high school) Everyone in the school was given a school issued mac laptop to aid in our schooling and studies. Being the high school student that I was, I quickly discovered and installed some great cross platform computer games. Among those games there was a free super Nintendo emulator called SNES9x. During my search for some SNES roms I accidentally stumbled onto a game that I had never heard of before. It was called Seiken Densetsu 3. As soon as I started playing I instantly noticed similarities between it and my favorite childhood RPG, Secret of Mana. When my other friends noticed the game they too were intrigued and before I knew it, they were all hooked as well. I got REALLY close but unfortunately none of us actually beat the game completely. I recently re-downloaded the ROM in hopes to finally bring closure to that chapter of my life.

Seiken Densetsu 3 is the real Secret of Mana 2
Unless you lived in Japan around 1995, owned a Super Famicom, or downloaded the “unofficial” SNES rom; you most likely have never played this wonderful sequel to the original Secret of Mana game. If you are an American, like myself, you were probably led to believe that Secret of Evermore was the sequel to Secret of Mana. In truth, Secret of Evermore did have similar menus, game play and art styles as Secret of Mana but the stories were worlds apart. Unlike Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore is the story of a modern boy and his dog traveling through multiple dimensions and trying to find their way home. Every time you progress to the next dimension all of your weapon’s and dog’s levels are reset. I got so upset I stopped playing after my levels were reset a couple of times. Seiken Densetsu 3 on the other hand takes place in an almost identical fantasy world as the original Secret of Mana. Almost all of the enemies and items are recycled from the original game. The menu’s are almost identical to the previous game but you will notice that there were some minor yet needed graphical updates.

Biggest Diffrences between Seiken Densetsu 3 and Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana:

1. 3 characters that you play all at once

2. 1 storyline

3. There are 8 weapons

4. Completely level each weapon to the max with each character. Each level you get on a weapon unlocks a newer more powerful move with that weapon.

Seiken Densetsu 3:

1. Choose only 3 out of 6 characters to play with at the start of the game. The first character you choose is the “Main Character.”

2. There are three main plots and 6 sub-plots. You get the story of the character you choose first when starting a new game.

3. Each character has his/her own specific weapon type that can not be exchanged for another type.

4. Level your character and choose a combination of light or dark powers to upgrade to new classes and get new skills and abilities.

Seiken Densetsu 3 Class Progression

Play Seiken Densetsu 3 In America NOW!

1. Download a SNES emulator for your computer: SNES9X for Mac or ZSNES for Windows

2. Download the English Translated Seiken Densetsu 3 SNES ROM

Main Characters of Seiken Densetsu 3:

Angela is the princess of the magical Ice Kingdom of Altena. Valda, Angela’s mother and the Queen of Reason, uses her magic to keep the area in constant spring. As the worlds mana begins to fade, so does the Queen’s magic. In an effort to save the kingdom from freezing over when her magic fades, the Queen with her assistant wizard Koren decide to invade the other nations to claim their mana stones to use their magical powers. Before the invasion, Valda and Koren try to unleash the power of their own mana stone of water. Unfortunately in order to do this someone must cast a cursed spell that means certain death to anyone casting it. Valda tries to force Angela to sacrifice herself to unleash the power within the mana stone of water, Angela’s rage causes her hidden magical powers to suddenly burst out uncontrollably, teleporting the girl outside of the castle walls. With nowhere else to turn Angela ventures on a quest to stop her evil queen mother from unlocking the powers of mana.

Duran, an orphaned mercenary swordsman of the Grasslands Kingdom of Forcena who proudly serves his king, the wise Richard. His aunt Stella took care of him and his younger sister Wendy after their mother died from a long term sickness. Their father Loki went missing during a battle with the Dragon Emperor. While Duran is on guard duty at the castle one night, the wizard Koren attacks the castle of Forcena. Koren leaves Duran for dead after the attack. After his recovery Duran vows to become the best swordsman in the world and to take revenge on Koren to avenge the deaths of his people and to recover his lost pride.

Hawk is a member of a guild of noble thieves located in the Sand Fortress of the desert Navarre. Out of nowhere the guild leader, Lord Flamekhan, oddly declares Nevarre to be a Kingdom. Hawk and his friends, Jessica and Eagle, (Lord Flamekhan’s children) are shocked by this. Jessica, Eagle and Hawk decide to confront Lord Flamekhan about the decision. Once they locate Lord Flamekhan, they find him in a meeting with his assistant, the witch Isabella, who turns out to be pulling their leaders strings. Isabella casts a spell on Eagle and makes him attack Hawk. In self defense Hawk is forced to injure Eagle. Unfortunately the fight isn’t quite over and Isabella finishes off Eagle with a spell and frames Hawk for murder. While waiting in prison to be executed, Isabella informs Hawk that she has given his friend Jessica a cursed necklace. If Hawk tells anyone what really happened that day, Jessica will be choked to death by the cursed necklace. Hawk escapes his imprisonment shortly after and his adventure begins.

Lise is Amazon princess of the mountainous Wind Kingdom of Rolante, and captain of its Amazon army. Lise has vowed to take care of her younger brother Elliott, after her mother died while giving birth to him. One day, two former friends of Hawk, Bill and Ben, sneak into the castle of Rolante and trick youthful Elliott into turning off Rolante’s defensive winds and abduct him. With the winds gone, Navarre then attacks Rolante with a cloud of sleep powder and they kill the king. Lise is devastated. She makes her escape and begins her quest to save her brother.

Kevin is the half-beastman prince of Ferolia who, due to a lack of proper schooling, has a difficult time speaking with proper grammer. He is the son of the beastmen king, Gauser, and of a human mother. Gauser has become sick of the treatment of the beast people by human race. He decides to act revenge with the help of the mysterious “Man who devours death”, who happend to conveniently appear to aide the king with his evil dark magic. He decides to demonstrate his powers by creating an illusion, where Kevin’s beloved childhood friend, a wolf-pup orphan named Karl, rises up and attacks him out in the Moonlight Forest. Kevin makes every effort to defend himself but seems to loose the fight,  on the verge of dying, his werewolf abilities awake! Only a brief moment there after, Karl’s life is taken from him. After discovering that his father is sending an invasion force to overthrow the Holy City Wendel. Kevin then overhears the Beast King discuss the success of the Death jesters spell. Kevin confronts the Beast King and is kicked out of the castle. He disowns the Beast King as his father, sets out to locate his mother, while finding some way to revive his friend Karl and swears to take revenge for his best friend’s death.

Carlie is a cute little girl from the Holy City Wendel. She is the granddaughter of the city’s Priest of Light. Carlie  is cared for by a friendly cleric named Heath since she was orphaned by her parents. The cleric Leroy and the elf Shayla, felt an evil influence in the nearby city, Jadd. The Priest of Light sends Heath to investigate. Unfortunately during his investigation, Carlie ovehears this conversation and makes an escape only to find the Deathjester kidnap her caregiver Heath. This is when she decides to take matters into her own hands.

Last weekend, I was bored. Bored of Halo: Reach, bored of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I was even bored of the internet. I started browsing instant watch movies on Netflix, when I saw a jewel long lost from my childhood:

Toxic Crusaders: The Movie.

Well, actually, no. Ignore what the picture shows. And it’s not really a movie. Toxic Crusaders was a cartoon released in the mid-90s. It is a spinoff of a cult “classic” series called Toxic Avenger. If you have never heard of these films, you make me dissapoint. Actually, I am jealous of you. The studio that made Toxic Avenger, Troma Inc.,  is the king of dog shit movies. Yes yes, I am glad there is at least one guerrilla movie studio who doesn’t follow the traditions or regulations of the film industry. Believe me: it shows. Excessive violence, nudity, and enough cheese to drown Wisconsin. I really have no problem with Toxic Avenger or its many…interesting…. sequels. It’s supposed to be corny. However, every Troma film seems to want to live up to Toxic Avenger, making most (if not all) their movies in the category of most 2d fighters that came after Street Fighter, commonly known as Me-Toos.

So I digressed. Toxic Crusaders is a PG spin-off of said movie series. How much of a spin-off? Well, like Me-Toos, Toxic Crusaders tried to capitalize on the kick of other series of 1991 concerning the environment and super mutants. Maybe you heard of the other shows like Captain Planet and Zen: Intergalactic Ninja? Or maybe their biggest inspiration: Teenage Mutant Something Somethings.  Actaully Zen: Interg’l Ninja was a video game and a comic book. Maybe MC Kids on the Sega Genesis? No? Was I the only one?!

Anyway, this uber nerd named Melvin Junko who gets dipped in toxic waste and becomes Toxie: a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength. He then confronts this alien pollutant villain named Dr. Killemoff. Along the way, Toxie enlists of other hideously deformed creatures of superhuman size and strength Major Disaster, Nozone, Junkyard, and Headbanger. The show had 13 episodes, three or so of which have been pasted together as a movie on Netflix, and never really found a spot on Fox or syndication.

This is where the nerding happens. I remember this cartoon. To be honest, this cartoon affected a lot of my character design then and even now. Yes, it’s a dumbed down version of a terrible movie BUT the designs were amazing for a prepubescent kid like me. Even better: Playmates, the designers for those Adolescent Abomination Anthropomorphic Amphibians (I was afraid I wasn’t going to keep that one rolling) made the toys. I even recall wanting these toys, as a sort of poor-man’s Turtles action figures.

As I watched the “movie,” I realized just how marketed this cartoon was to the toys. Seeing vehicles, I thought: yep, those became toys. I saw the disposable henchmen and thought yep, those are action figures. If you really go back and watch any cartoons of this formula (most super hero action cartoons, honestly) you will see what they wanted as toys and what they were pushing was revenue from toys, along with cereals and other merchandise. Hell’s Bells: they even had video games from Bandai (makers of notoriously games of obscure and random franchises) and  the Me-Too Sega Genesis.

I actually rented this game from a Hastings. It was… well… I have played better. A lot better. It wasn’t quite TMNT: The Arcade game, nor was it Final Fight or Streets of Rage or even Treasure Troll’s Treasure Island or Pretty Princess Dress-Me-Up. Jerky controls, terrible hit detection, no bump mapping or browning or bloom. Dog. Shit. Tacos. The music was actually okay from what I remember the music was dog shit tacos as well I am torn on this subject after going to Youtube.

Collectively, this series tried really hard to be a poor man’s TMNT. Mutants, dumb villains, and merchandise. Watching it now, I was able to see the undertones and what they were peddling. As an animator… I was butthurt. I could see where they took shortcuts, and where they made embarrassing animation boo-boos (wrong characters doing dialogue). I feel like they had a very finite budget and they couldn’t waste too much time on the inbetweens to make it quality. Some of the writing was chuckle-worthy, but most are definitive Derp jokes (jokes you can see coming from space, see: any Rob Schneider movie). One character, Psycho, pretty much gives you a rundown on what is going to happen at the episode’s climax. I thought that was clever. Oh, and get used to hearing “hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength.” They try to say it at least twice an episode, if not more.

So my childhood may have been mislead, but if you want some nostalgia from a cartoon that just couldn’t make it or if you can’t find your Ninja Turtle collection, I would recommend this series…sort of.

Two donkeys of five.

During Labor Day weekend my wife and I decided to visit a few friends who live in Colorado Springs. The plan was simple…drive into the mountain town of Manitou Springs eat some pizza and visit their world famous penny arcade for a day to remember. One of the most notable differences between this arcade and a normal arcade is that it is spread out among many small buildings and there are even quite a few games outdoors on the sidewalk. Even though it is a “penny” arcade most of the games take quarters, but one of the buildings in particular housed many OLD arcade games that took dimes, nickels and sometimes even penny’s. Most of these old arcade games didn’t even have a screen. Instead of a screen there would be a viewing window for you to see actual objects and moving parts that you are interact with while playing the game.

Manitou Springs Parking
If you park just outside of Manitou Springs you can find free parking near the public pool. But then you will need to walk 15 minutes to get the rest of the way into the city. To get to the parking lot from Colorado Springs you need to take Cimarron Street US-24 going west until you reach the exit for Manitou Ave US-24 going West. After taking the exit, enter the parking lot on the right side of the street just past Garden of The Gods Pl. Once parked you still need to walk another fifteen minutes to a half hour, depending on how fast you like to walk.

Marilyn’s Pizza House‎ of Manitou Springs
Once we all reached the inner part of the city we were all pretty starved and made Pizza our first quest. Since my wife and I had been to Manitou Springs previously on our honeymoon. We knew just the place to treat our friends, Marilyns. Marilyns is a Marilyn Monroe themed pizza house which is about a block or two past the famous penny arcade. This place has great pizza and phenomenal soft serve ice cream that has flavors swirled in. But these swirls aren’t the traditional 50/50 mix of vanilla and chocolate. Instead, their ice cream machine injects colorful flavored syrup of many different flavors into the ice cream as it dispenses it. Since the machine has a bunch of tubes delivering the syrup to the machine it almost looks like a expensive ink jet printer appearing to have a bunch of colored ink hoses feeding into it.Their pizza’s taste amazing but unfortunately their pizzas don’t come in larger sizes. They only serve individual sized pizzas, so feel free to share one if you are on a diet or simply eat like my grandmother. On the down side they only accept cash and I wouldn’t consider them cheap. On the other hand I wouldn’t consider them expensive either.

The World Famous Penny Arcade
Once you walk up to the arcade section of the town you quickly realize that this is the most popular and happenin’ part of this mountain town. The arcade is a couple blocks of buildings housing many many classic arcade games and between the buildings there are even more games.The first arcade building we walked into was the ski-ball and prizes. While browsing the selection of prizes the most noticeable difference between them and a normal arcade is the quality of prizes. Most arcades actually have some prizes that you might want. Here…at this penny arcade…was the worst selection of toys and prizes I have ever seen. All of the prizes looked as if they came from the Oriental Trading Company and made from CHEAP plastic, and you would get better junk from your local dollar store. At that moment I decided not to waste my money on any of the ticket prize games and just focus on the classics, which were the bulk of their games anyway.

The next arcade building I visited is what I consider the main building. It is probably the biggest of the arcade areas. The main penny arcade sign hangs outside of this building and points to the front door. The sign reads, “Penny Arcade. World Famous!” The moment I walked into the room I noticed that this area of the penny arcade is by far the most popular. I think this was the most popular because this is were all of the penny, nickel and dime machines are located.These cheap machines were all antique arcade games. There were even games in this place that I never knew existed, most of which I would expect to see at a old fairground or carnival. Besides the large quantity of pinball machines, this room also had fortune telling machines, career advice machines, rifle games where you shoot at targets in a scene behind the glass, a antique football game which looked like a more mechanical version of foosball, and even peeping tom arcade machines where you put in a dime and you get to watch a adults only 3d picture show. Several of the games in this room that I personally enjoyed playing was a aircraft game where you shoot at targets on the ground and a submarine game where you shoot torpedo’s at ships. What was really cool about these games in particular was that they did not have a tv screen but instead used a conveyor belt with targets attached to it. The targets looked like battleship game pieces painted to glow under a black light. Of the two the submarine game was the best since you actually look through a periscope to aim and shoot. The tricky part of this game is that you actually have to lead your torpedo’s way in front of the target ships so that the target will actually move into your torpedo’s path. The game was only a dime each play and worth a full quarter.

After having my fun in the indoor areas of the penny arcade I decided to hit the arcade games outside on the sidewalks. While browsing this selection I was again surprised at what I found… There was actually a SNES machine that was created for arcades. The controllers were attached to the machine and unmovable but they were the actual SNES games. I never knew that anything like this even existed. There was also a pinball machine that greatly impressed me. I forget what the name of this pinball game was but it was quite advanced compared to the others. (I think it was Revenge from Mars or something like that.) The game was cool because it had a monitor installed in the machine above and facing downward toward the glass and anything playing on the monitor (mostly aliens) would reflect and be visible on the glass. This actually gave the appearance that the martians were standing inside the machine behind the glass. When your ball hits one of the martians, the martian would actually explode into a pile of goo. The hit detection and animation on this pinball game was absolutely phenomenal. While continuing to wander I also played classic games such as Mrs. PacMan, Q*Bert, Rampage, Turtles in Time and several others.

Before we left I finally broke down and played a couple of the ticket prize games. Our group of arcade goers all put our tickets together and gave them to several random kids who were extremely grateful to have the tickets, in order to acquire their very own cheap plastic crap.

By the time we left the arcade I played all of the games I wanted and still spent less than $10 total. AWESOME! I can’t say that about any other arcade I have been to. Yes, the games were old and the prizes were crappy but to be honest…If this place was any better than what it was, I probably would have been disappointed.

Please leave a comment and let me know what games would you have played if you were there. They had almost EVERYTHING!

As a housewife, I find myself wasting most of my day on the Internet, typically looking up low-fat, tasty recipes and fun, new ways to decorate during Christmas. One day while perusing some kitchen accessories, I came across one of the greatest ideas next to the Crock Pot.

For the classic gamers, you’d recognize this lovable character:

For bakers and/or cooks, you’d recognize this kitchen essential:

So, when the two are combined, nerdy housewives such as myself have a spazz attack and freak out over this epically awesome piece of art that I happened upon.

Alas, gamer brethren! Research is key! The most important things to look for when doing an investigation of this nature are: heat resistance, grip, safety, size, and price.

Being that this hungry character is heat resistant up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, I’d say the slogan “Still cool after all these years.” is correctly phrased! Because I bake dishes at least 50% of the time, I can say for a matter-of-fact that the majority of casseroles and main courses (and even those deliciously fattening frozen pizzas that tend to be the easiest thing to make during those long, dungeon-filled nights) cook somewhere between 300 and 350 degrees. It’s nice to find that Pacman’s days battling Blinky and Pinky have prepared him for the worst!

Pizza pans and cookie sheets can be slippery little suckers at times (especially if you’re distracted by something like WoW, Alice Hoffman, or Fullmetal Alchemist). The best thing to find is a potholder that can really hold its own! That’s why Pacman’s mouth has a unique, supportive interior that I find most reassuring.

Another comforting aspect is knowing the safety of this product is guaranteed. Your consistently-hungry, pure-silicone childhood friend is 100% food- and dishwasher- safe. So it doesn’t matter if he’s devouring power pellets, Cascade, or a little bit of Mom’s Lasagna, Pacman is promised to be secured, no matter what.

Okay, here’s the bad part:

Pacman stands 4.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall in real life. Because I don’t own this adorable Hothead yet, I cannot say for sure if the following statement is accurate. The size of the oven mitt seems a little small compared to the usual potholders. Are all retro-gamers presumed to have the hands of a ten-year old? Subtract one life for assumption, Fred and Friends.

“Alright, Emm, now I know all the epic details. But how much am I expected to pay just to add a slice of my childhood into my adult life?” The Pacman Hothead can be found almost anywhere online for twenty dollars, shipping and handling included.

Ask any classically-trained gamer. Is it worth it? Hell yes.

My rating: 10/10 all the way.

“Ratchet and Clank” is a 3D shooter video game made for PS2, PSP, and PS3, first released November 4, 2002. All were made by Insomniac Games excluding “Size Matters” and “Secret Agent Clank”, both developed by High Impact Games. This is the first in a series of eight (which I’d say include some of the greatest names in video gamer history, such as Up Your Arsenal and Quest for Booty).

This game begins with Ratchet, a fictional bobcat-like creature called a Lombax, attempting to fix his spaceship on the planet Veldin. Meanwhile, on another planet, Clank (a smaller look-alike of the enemy guard robots seen later) is born via mechanical error. As Clank makes his way out of the factory and toward Veldin, he is hit by one of the rockets from the fighter ships that are trailing him. He crash-lands on the planet’s surface and draws the attention of the wrench-wielding Lombax. Clank tells Ratchet he will start the space ship. In exchange, Ratchet must help him find Captain Qwark, a sold-out superhero, so he can stop Chairman Drek, evil villain extraordinaire, from destroying the Solana galaxy in his attempt to create the perfect planet for his species. Our heroes’ adventure begins as they set off for the first planet.

My favorite parts of this game are the progressive nature of battle and the wide variety of artillery. The first few things that you kill are relatively easy, taking one to two hits with your melee weapon, a wrench. (The wrench is the default weapon due to the Lombax’s handiness with tools.) As you go through the game, the enemy you face become harder and harder to kill. This is a really great aspect that keeps my attention. As for weaponry, you start out with your wrench and Bomb Glove. The Bomb Glove is a thrown, area weapon comparable to a grenade. Then, as the game continues, Gadgetron offers you better, sometimes required weapons. My personal favorite is the Tesla Claw, the last weapon in the game. Also, through progression, “gadgets” are introduced. Some of these you have to have to continue through the levels, such as the “Swingshot”, the “Hydroplacer”, and the “Trespasser”. These help you get to high places, underwater places, help you crack codes to get through a locked door, etcetera. There are also gadgets that aren’t necessary but are handy, such as the “Gadgetron PDA” that makes it so you can purchase ammo anywhere (which I find pretty handy when I’m fighting bosses and I run out of my favorite ammo). The only problem with this is the slight price increase for the convenience. Those are just a few examples; there are actually many weapons and gadgets (another plus of the game, in my opinion).

Gold bolts are special, hidden bolts that may seem useless at first. But, when you beat the game for the first time, you have the option of buying gold weapons with these and some regular bolts. The gold weapons are usually more powerful and have a larger explosion radius. I’d say they are definitely worth the time it takes the hunt down the hard-to-find gold bolts!

This game has so much to offer that it’s hard to find the words for everything in store. I have played this numerous times (so much my wife is begging me to ‘please play something else!’) and yet every time I play, I still love it like no other. This is in my top three favorite games, and I would highly recommend it for any gamer.