After playing some Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy with Lindsey, she headed off, and I started up Super Mario Galaxy!  I headed back into the Bedroom Observatory, and noticed that the Freezeflame Galaxy had a Cosmic Comet in orbit!  I jumped in and got ready to race!  One quick dash later, I have another star.  I headed back into the Freeflame Galaxy for the third official star.  This star had me experience both ice and lava elements of the Freezeflame Galaxy.  An interesting ability of the Ice Flower is that it turns water into ice whenever you walk over it.  Also interesting is the fact that it can turn lava into ice when you walk over it.  This was handy, as the only way to get to the star was to pass through alternating areas of ice and lava, with a good number of Ice Flowers thrown in at strategic locations.  Having mastered ice skating over pools of lava, I obtained yet another star.  The fifth Freezeflame Galaxy star was waiting for me, so back I went!  This star was very difficult.  Not because of a difficult enemy, but because it required a great deal of timing and skilled jumping.  It took multiple tries to get to the top of the mountain, beyond Baron Brrr, but I was finally able to make it and claim the star!  I had now fully completed the Freezeflame Galaxy.

Given the frustration I experienced during the final Freezeflame Galaxy star, I decided to end Progress Update 12, and go to the grocery store for some milk.

Progress Update 13 will be up soon!

-Because I said so

Progress update 11 is here!  As soon as I started my play file, I noticed that one of the toadstools had a mail icon, meaning I had a message.  I retrieved a letter from Luigi, who was informing me that he had found a new star in one of my previous galaxies.  He included a snapshot of the location so that I could figure out what galaxy he was in.  I also received a letter from Princess Peach, which included 5 1-Ups!

Taking Luigi’s snapshot, I tried to remember the name of the galaxy he was in.  After browsing through a few galaxies, I finally arrived at an answer: The Battlerock Galaxy from the Fountain Observatory.  I found Luigi fairly early in, and rescued him.  He provided me with one of the special green stars I mentioned in an earlier progress update, putting me one closer to the special green star gate becoming available!  Having completed this, I made my way back to the Bedroom Observatory, and jumped back into the Freezeflame Galaxy for the second star.  This galaxy was mentioned in the previous progress update as being the first full ice galaxy in the game.  That, apparently, was incorrect.  The twin of the ice planet in this galaxy is a lava planet, and it’s where I was headed next.  A new foe awaited me in the form of a giant rolling ball of lava with eyes.  Fortunately, they were very slow and easy to avoid.  Eventuall, in this level, I was able to find a Fire Flower!  Fire Mario had arrived!  The Fire Flower in Super Mario Galaxy is a limited effect flower like the Ice Flower, so I had to move fast.  For some reason, fireballs were the only way to vanquish the giant rolling balls of FIRE (whatever).  They are also the only thing that can light fires in the empty urns.  This is necessary, because they open doors and raise platforms to allow you to progress in the game.  It actually becomes necessary to complete the level, as you have to light two urns from across the lava in order to extend the bridge to the star.  It was difficult to aim across the lava, but I managed it and got the star!  I decided to stop at this point, because I had a bit of a headache, but I’ll pick it up again sometime tonight, I’m sure!

Progress Update 12 coming soon!

-Because I said so

Due to technical issues with my regular laptop, we were forced to broadcast episode 21 of the MehCast from my work laptop.  Fortunately, we discovered this issue well before our start time, so we were able to be prepared!  We ran about two hours last night, but had a lot of fun.  We didn’t bother getting too dressed up for the show; Lindsey swapped her shorts for jeans, and I just stayed in my pajamas.  It was comfortable.  We had sandwiches, chips, khiarmast, gummy bears, and more!

We had a lot to talk about.  We talked about the crazy El Pollo Loco lady running down the middle of Shaw Ave.  We discussed the skunk that sprayed my car as I drove by it, as well as our recent thunderstorm, Windows 7, the recent Proposition 8 ruling in California, TAFFY, some movies, some TV shit, some video games, the NIN/JA concert, and more.

Our weekly picks:
Song of the Week (Chris): Nine Inch Nails – Survivalism
Song of the Week (Lindsey): BT – Good Morning Kaia
TV Show of the Week (Chris): Robin Hood (BBC)
TV Show of the Week (Lindsey): Spongebob Squarepants
Movie of the Week (Chris): Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek Star Trek STAR TREEEEEK!
Movie of the Week (Lindsey): Shrek 3
iPhone App of the Week (Chris): Manic Marble
iPhone App of the Week (Lindsey): F My Life app
Video Game of the Week (Chris): Fable
Video Game of the Week (Lindsey): Lego Star Wars II – The Original Trilogy

Thanks for checking out Episode 21!  Make sure to catch Episode 22 on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 7:00pm PST (10:00pm EST) @ http://www.justin.tv/worldofmeh/.

-Because I said so

One month since progress update 9 has passed, and we have finally arrived at progress update 10!  I finally sat down and put Super Mario Galaxy back into the Wii.  Last time I checked in, I had completed three full observatories, and was looking forward to entering into the fourth observatory, the Bedroom Observatory.  The Bedroom Observatory, as I mentioned in progress update 9, differs from the previous observatories by having only one one-star galaxy and three three-star galaxies, rather than two one-star galaxies and two three-star galaxies.

I went in and took on the one-star galaxy first to get it out of the way.  The Honeyclimb Galaxy star consisted of heavy use of the Bee Mario suit, requiring you to essentially climb a honeycomb cliff using the suit to reach the star at the top.  Following this, I jumped into the first three-star galaxy I saw, which was the Freezeflame Galaxy.  We have now arrived at the first ice galaxy.  The first star I attempted had me assaulting the pinnacle of the planet, climbing up the peak by using the Ice Flower extensively, as well as the newly introduced skating ability, which allows Mario to skate across ice surfaces, providing a great deal of control that is usually lacking in ice levels.  Reaching the top, I defeated Baron Brrr fairly easily, and earned my second star of the night.

At this point, I set the game aside for the night.  I’ll try to play again tomorrow and put up progress update 11!

-Because I said so

Last week, I finally had the chance to play through Fable on the Xbox.  I remember looking forward to this game with great anticipation when it was first announced, but never having the chance to give it a try.  Last week, in a used game store, we saw a clean copy for 7.99, and picked it up fairly quickly.  We got home, and I started my life in Albion.

The controls were fantastic.  I had no problem picking them up and getting used to the possibilities they provided.  I greatly appreciated the combat system, as well as the magic system.  Magical spells were very easy to access and use while in battle without much distraction.  The game, visually, was beautiful.  The story was wonderful, and the weapon augmentation system was a real treat.  The quests were fun, and progressively challenging.  You can even kick the chickens that roam around towns.  Everything about this RPG was fantastic.

Except for the fact that I was able to fully complete the game in about 9 hours.

-Because I said so

Episode 20 has come and gone!  21 weeks, 20 episodes (yeah, sorry about that one week).  Unfortunately, however, this week will bring us to 22 weeks, 20 episodes, as we will not be able to broadcast this week due to Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction!  Anyway, we had a decent show, a higher viewer count than the last few weeks (it’s been dwindling), and a lot of fun.

Episode 19 was a good, long, fun episode.  Shortly into the episode, we had to accelerate our migration plans by moving the show over to Justin.TV early.  UStream had been experiencing severe technical issues that resulted in our decision.  Going forward, all episodes will be broadcast through Justin.TV.  We talked about the same kind of thing as usual, and the same range of topics.

Our weekly choices were:

Song Chris: Bedouin Soundclash – When the night feels my song

Song Lindsey: Deftones – Sinatra

Movie Chris: Karate Kid

Movie Lindsey: Monster’s Inc.

TV show Chris: Fringe

TV show Lindsey: Chappelle’s Show

VG Chris: Burnout 3

VG Lindsey: Marvel vs. Capcom 2

iPhone Chris: fourfree

iPhone Lindsey: iTranslate

See you on Justin.TV for episode 20, coming up tonight!

-Because I said so

I don’t remember a single thing about episode 18!  I have no idea where the show notes are!  Isn’t this an awesome recap?

Once I find the notes, I’ll come back and edit this one!

-Because I said so

Wow, we’ve really fallen behind on our posting.  Sorry about that, but it couldn’t be helped.  I needed a bit of a break from having to think of something every single day.  Hopefully I’m ready to get back into the swing of things!

A few weeks ago, during one of our MehCast episodes, we discussed my broken Dreamcast console and how I truly missed it.  One of our amazing viewers, and a good friend, took it upon himself to ship us a working Dreamcast with an extra controller!  I managed to procure some of my favorite games, and after a few difficulties, managed to get them running:

Virtua Tennis: I was a tennis MASTER, back in the day.  I would sit and play for hours upon hours, loving every second of it.  My cousin Lee loved this game, too, so when I get home, I’m going to give him a call and let him know that it’s back!

Crazy Taxi & Crazy Taxi 2:  The Crazy Taxi games were fantastic.  The first one was such a well done game, that you really had no chance to hate it.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing & Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2:  Ready 2 Rumble was such a fun boxing game that introduced us to wild characters with even wilder fighting styles.  Almost drawing on the spirit of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, this game was always a blast.

Power Stone & Power Stone 2:  Easily one of the most amazing games ever made on any system, ever.

Street Fighter Alpha 3:  I love the Alpha series, and SFA3 in particular.  In my opinion, one of the best Street Fighter games.

There’s so much more I have yet to play, but this is a start!

Thanks Austin!

-Because I said so

Almost 12 years have passed since the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D was announced by 3D Realms.  12 long years of screenshots, development updates, and interminable delays.  Duke Nukem Forever has become a vaporware legend for it’s 12 year development period with no playable demo or beta release, and every-few-years screenshot releases.  It seems that the delays may be over, albeit not in the way many of us had hoped.  News has hit today that 3D Realms may be shutting down.  It has been confirmed by some, but not by others, so the news is of questionable veracity.  If it is true, however, Duke Nukem Forever will be cemented in the annals of history as the greatest vaporware title ever to be produced (or not produced, as it were).  It is a sad day for fans of the groundbreaking series.

A sad day indeed.

-Because I said so