Video Walkthrough Q&A - May 28, 2010

So I decided to answer a few questions about the video walkthroughs, current and future in a new Q&A section. Granted, there hasn't been a lot of questions asked about the Video Walkthroughs, but this should help to answer any questions you may have, plus any future questions that may arrive. So, without further ado, the Q&A!

STRONG BAD VIDEO WALKTHROUGH QUESTIONS

Q: Why did you decide to make a Strong Bad video walkthrough and why was it your first?

A: I had wanted to make a video walkthrough ever since I saw my first Let's Play (of Dragon Warrior) and had all the necessary tools to make it. However, I couldn't decide on a game to cover. After playing through a demo of SBCG4AP, I loved it and decided to purchase the season from Telltale. After playing through it about 4 or 5 times, I knew the game very well. Then I remembered my plans for an LP. After testing out the video recording, I decided that it would be the perfect game to start with, due to my knowledge of it and its short length.

Q: Did you always plan to do all five or just the first one?

A: When I started, I only had plans to do a walkthrough for Homestar Ruiner, but after I finished the video walkthrough and started the text one, I decided it would be awesome to do the rest of the series.

Q: In Episode 1, you forgot to talk to The Cheat after kicking him. Why not just rerecord it?

A: I know I did, but like it says in the video description, it was corrected in a later part. I didn't rerecord because at the time, I was rather new to editing videos (which you can tell by the slight pause between where I merged two videos) and had already recorded a good amount, so I didn't want to have to start over (again).

Q: Start over again?

A: If I recall correctly, I started to record Episode 1 but messed up on something (I don't recall what). So I decided to start over.

Q: Which was your favorite episode to cover?

A: Probably Strong Badia the Free or 8-Bit Is Enough. They're the ones that made me laugh the hardest.

Q: Why didn't you go in the photo booth?

A: Simply cause I wanted the Strong Bad series to be strickly a walkthrough and show you how to beat it without clicking on random, non-essential items or visiting places you wouldn't normally have to go. I made a couple exceptions to that rule, however. The first was venturing into the photo booth at the end of episode five to show off all the costumes. The second...

Q: If you were trying to film a walkthrough, why did you record all of Stinkoman's lines?

A: ...is this case. I got an e-mail from a viewer who specifically asked that all of Stinkoman's lines be recorded. Since it was a small request and took hardly any effort, I decided why not.

Q: If there's a season two of Strong Bad, will you cover it?

A: Most likely, though it depends on what's going on at that particular time.

Q: When is the next text walkthrough coming out?

A: As soon as I'm able to complete it. Please be patient.


SUPER MARIO WORLD QUESTIONS

Q: How did a Super Mario World playthrough come about?

A: My fiancee had suggested we play this, as we both grew up with it. We had both played through it several times. This time, I came up with the idea of recording it and putting it on YouTube. She agreed and we started recording.

Q: Why wasn't this a walkthrough?

A: At first, we were simply planning to play it beginning to end, so we labeled it a Let's Play. We didn't plan on getting 100%, as at first we felt it may become boring and simply wanted to play through the game. Then, as we began to play through and get hidden exits (such as Star World 2, Green Switch, etc), I realized that we were getting close to a 100% walkthrough, so I decided to go for 100%.

Q: Why didn't you edit out the deaths in the beginning, yet at the end you did?

A: At first, we just wanted to record our playthrough and felt it unnecessary, as we weren't trying to show how to beat levels but rather a couple playing through this tremendous game. However, near the end as we began to go for 100% and the deaths became more numerous, I felt that all the deaths were wasting video time and started to edit them out. As you can clearly see from the bloopers reel, the Awesome deaths alone could have added another part.

Q: Why does Luigi look different in this version?

A: Because we're playing the All-Stars version.


WHERE'S WALDO QUESTIONS

Q: How did this come about?

A: It came about because I wanted to test a new method of recording as well as converting with the new codec. Rather than use Fraps, I used the built in AVI recorder, which unfortunately uses the KVG codec. However, thanks to this video walkthrough, I managed to work around it and successfully completed my test.

Q: Why Where's Waldo?

A: Because of it's short length. I had played through it shortly before recording and it took a matter of minutes to beat. Since I wanted to do another LP with my fiancee on a different game (that was giving me tons of trouble), I decided to do a LP of Waldo to figure out how to overcome these difficulties.


GENERAL QUESTIONS

Q: How do you do your video walkthroughs?

A: I start by playing through the game once for myself, then again with a notepad next to me. I write down pretty much anything I need to know while recording (such as hidden item locations, the optimal path to take, etc). Then I fire up fraps and start recording. After I finish, I take the videos (usually about 4 GB for 10 minutes worth) then edit them into 10 minute videos and then convert them. I then take the converted video files and publish them on YouTube. For console games, such as the TTFAF failed 1%, I use a USB capture card and Cyberlink Power Producer (or Virtualdub) to record.

Q: What's the song you use for your intro?

A: It's a song I wrote myself specifically for my introduction. I called it "catch", but I haven't thought of a true name for it.

Q: Where there any memorable moments while recording?

A: There was the time I had to rerecord the SBCG4AP Episode 3 ending because fraps didn't like the sound for some weird reason. Plus pretty much all of Super Mario World because my fiancee and I were playing it and joking around during the production, making Mario and Luigi dance, etc.

Q: Do you record your videos in one playthrough?

A: For all of them except Super Mario World and Strong Bad 1, yes, they were all recorded during one play session. Super Mario World was recorded throughout three days and Strong Bad 1 was recorded in two sessions.

Q: Do you have any plans for your next LP/Video Walkthrough?

A: As a matter of fact yes I do. I just finished converting the videos for Mario is Missing! They should be online soon. After that, there's the two mystery videos: the mystery LP and the mystery Video Walkthrough that was supposed to be the next one after Strong Bad.

Q: Can you tell us what they are?

A: Well, I guess I can, just because I'm not sure when they're gonna be recorded. The first is Sonic the Hedgehog, which my fiancee and I want to play. The second is the first season of Sam & Max, which I wanted to do since finishing Strong Bad, but was waiting to finish the text walkthroughs.

Thanks for reading. I hope this answeres any questions you may have.

Let's Play The Great Waldo Search Novice & Expert

Well, our newest Let's Play has been on the internet for quite some time as well and was not planned either: The Great Waldo Search for Sega Genesis! This actually came about because I was testing out features and messing with codecs and since this game was rather short, I decided to make a let's play out of it, testing out the codecs and the new features at the same time.

It's a rather horrible game and quite short, only two parts (would have been one but went slightly over 10 minutes): the first is the Novice difficulty of the game, while the second is the Expert difficulty.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading and watching another of my Let's Play videos.

NOVICE DIFFICULTY:


EXPERT DIFFICULTY:

Let's Play Super Mario World Co-Op Parts 31, 32, 33, 34, 35

Well, although we never entended to do a 100% walkthrough for Super Mario World, here it is in full: the last five parts to the video, taking us through the 96th exit and the ending! Hope you enjoy! Thanks for watching and we'll see you in our next video walkthrough, which will most likely still not be the one I've had planned. Thanks again!

PART 31


PART 32


PART 33


PART 34


PART 35

Let's Play Super Mario World Co-Op Parts 26, 27, 28, 29, 30

PART 26


PART 27


PART 28


PART 29


PART 30

Let's Play Super Mario World Co-Op Parts 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 + Awesome Bloopers

Hey, sorry it took so long, the entire series has been online for a little while, though I never updated it here. Sorry. Here's the next five parts, plus the special bloopers video.

PART 21


PART 22


PART 23


PART 24


PART 25


AWESOME BLOOPERS

A random FFXIII thought

So me and my fiancee have been playing through the newest edition of the oxymoronic rpgs, Final Fantasy XIII. It's actually a blast, despite what reviewers give it. Though a few things stand out that bother me:

-Are Square Enix getting that lazy that they're naming characters Lightning and Snow? Seriously? Was it a rainy day outside that particular day they came up with character names? Also, Hope? Sure, at least that's normal but it seems like they're naming people out of the blue.

-Vanille annoys me. I mean, c'mon, everyone's depressed: Lightning about her sister, Snow for the same reason, Sahz cause of the civilian massacre, Hope for his mom yet Vanille comes around the corner, giddy as ever "c'mon Hope you can do it!". It seems quite weird that in such a depressing atmosphere, Vanille has such a happy outlook on things.

-Sure, the maps are straightforward and narrow but isn't everyone forgetting about FFX's narrow pathways?

-It seems like the characters are rehashes from previous FFs. Lightning seems like a female Cloud, Snow reminds me of a calm Seifer, Vanille reminds me of Selphie, Hope reminds me of Tidus, etc.

Overall it's a fun game, though certain things are kind of confusing.

Let's Play Super Mario World Co-Op Parts 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Well, the next five parts are online. This series has been giving me quite the trouble, with Youtube messing up the uploads and the videos screwing up. But it's coming along nicely and will have a total of 35 parts (with 1 extra video) when it's done. Until then, here are the next 5 parts. Only 15 more to go!

PART 16


PART 17


PART 18


PART 19


PART 20

Let's Play Super Mario World Co-Op Parts 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Well, the recording is finally done and even though we didn't set out to 100% this game, we did in the end, getting all 96 exits. The rest of it should be uploaded by the end of the day. Here's the next five parts in the meantime.

PART 11


PART 12


PART 13


PART 14


PART 15

Let's Play Super Mario World Co-Op Parts 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Wow, the parts are actually taking longer to upload than convert! That's quite strange lol. Here's the next five parts of the series, which is looking to be quite long (I've got those plus another fifteen so far to convert!). Hope you enjoy.

PART 6


PART 7


PART 8


PART 9


PART 10

Let's Play Super Mario World Co-Op Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

Just wanted to let you know that the newest Jerrynsteph4eva video is a Co-Op Let's Play of Super Mario World! This wasn't intended as the next video series, but rather came about as a random idea. Steph was craving another playthrough of Super Mario World (one of our favorites) and I suggested that we record it this time. She agreed and so we began recording it. We're not exactly the best at the game, nor are we intending to beat the game to 100%, but we figured why not? So we fired it up, me being Mario and Steph being Luigi and began to play through what would be the next video series. A nice thing about these videos is that they take a lot less time to convert for upload, which is means putting them online a lot faster. Below are the videos uploaded so far:

PART 1


PART 2


PART 3


PART 4


PART 5


As always you can double click them for the comments and the next part (when available). Thanks for reading and watching.

New Poem Online: Self Challenge

I know it's a little late but I wanted to let you know that I uploaded a new "poem" on Fictionpress a week ago. Rather than one new poem, it's a challenge I made for myself where I will (hopefully) write fifty poems, uploading each as a new chapter. It was inspired by another challenge that was in the "Just In" box of Fictionpress, which I found interesting and cool. So, I decided to work on my own and this was the result: Self Challenge, which currently has five poems online.

The first poem, Shackles, is an obvious one. I was writing it shortly before I had to leave for work and I began to feel like I hadn't really done enough with my free time. So, I decided to use those feelings as inspiration for my first poem of the challenge.

The second, Broken Silverware, is not as obvious. That one's about people who are supposed to help you with something (forced or otherwise) but when it gets down to the nitty gritty, they're useless and you end up doing everything by yourself.

The third poem, Dawn into Day, is about change and leaving behind the things you're comfortable and used to behind for a better future. Just like when the dawn changes into day, you notice everything is more vibrant and you start to enjoy yourself more.

The fourth, Tides of Forever, is a love poem dedicated to my fiancee Stephanie. My love for her started off small like a puddle, then expanded into this never ending sea I feel today.

The fifth (and most current), Fifteen Minutes, is about waiting on the clock. Why it takes so long when you're waiting for a certain time, yet it'll fly by when you're not paying attention.

If you're interested, you can find it at http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2804274/1/Self_Challenge.

Thanks for reading.

Pac-Man World 2/Pac-Man Vs. Review for the Gamecube

Anyone can tell you who Pac-Man is. Pac-Man was the undisputed king of games in the early eighties. He not only revolutionized gaming, he created a brand new genre and went down in history as one of the most revolutionary games of all time. Pretty much every gamer has fond memories of eating yellow dots and avoiding ghosts. However, times have changed and gaming is no longer the same as the days of the arcades. The real question is as follows: how does Pac-Man stand up in the current generation? The short answer? Pretty good, though don't expect any more revolutions out of this one.

Pac-Man World 2 is not your father's Pac-Man game. When I read the box, I was surprised to find that Pac-Man was no longer chomping up edible dots in mazes anymore but rather staring in his on 3D platformer. Does Pac-Man make the transition well? Yes, but like I said earlier, there's nothing in this game that will revolutionize the industry again. What it does do, however, is blend classic Pac-Man with the style you'll see in newer Mario/Sonic style games. And it manages to do a good job at that. Plus with some goodies like unlockable arcade games and (if you've got yourself a copy of the Player's Choice edition) Pac-Man Vs, this game will keep you occupied for a good while.

The graphics are between good and mediocre. Nothing really shines in this game, but the colors are well done and the envoriments are well put together, which set the mood pretty well. Then again, it's based on a game where the main character was 3/4 of a circle so to see it come this far is pretty neat, though compared to other games on the Gamecube, there's nothing out there to set it apart.

Most of the games sounds come from the 80s arcade game, though there are a few exceptions. Pretty much anything you could do in the old games that you can do in this one retains it's old sound (eating dots, power pellets, ghosts turning blue, etc.). It's mostly for nostalgia, but I couldn't imagine it being any other way. The new sounds accurately describe the action you're doing, though some can get annoying after a while (I find myself growing tired of the Tom Tom Butt Bounce sound after so long). The music's pretty much the same story: overall they're great pieces, though some will really wear on you after playing for a good amount of time.

The story is pretty mediocre to sub-par. Those miscreant ghosts manage to sneak into Pac-Village at night and steal the mystic gold fruit off of the village tree, which somehow awakens an ancient demon sealed by the fruit. Promising to eradicate the Pac-People, the ghosts follow "Spooky", each taking a fruit. Pac-Man, awaking from his slumber, hears the plight from Professor Pac and decides to save the world from Spooky. Nothing epic but this is a platformer, so it's pretty average.

Again, the real question however is how does the game play? I think the game's a blast, though you won't find anything totally new if you're a platformer buff. The game combines classic Pac-Man with the 3D platformer genre with pretty good results. You explore 3D worlds, collecting fruit, tokens and Pac-Dots, attempting to reach the end. Each level can be accessed through the world map, which you unlock more of by playing through levels. After every three levels, you face a boss and move to another world with a different theme. Like I said, nothing revolutionary but is it fun?

Yes. Yes it is. The worlds each keep a central theme, but manage to mix it up enough to keep it interesting. Throughout each world, there's a number of hidden fruit (which will pop up if you manage to find all of a certain kind), as well as a number of Pac-Dots. Though a lot of these are out in the open, you may have to do some searching to find all of them for a 100% rating. In this way, it still keeps a classic Pac-Man feel to it, while keeping you interested and playing for a while (though it's pretty hard to get to 100%). Also hidden in the game are tokens, which by collecting certain amounts unlock various tidbits, including FOUR classic Pac-Man games: Pac-Man, Pac-Attack, Pac-Mania and Ms. Pac-Man. Though it can take a while to unlock them, the fact that they went through the trouble to put the classics in the game is a really cool feature and almost worth the price of the game alone.

Pac-Man is given few abilities to explore and kill enemies (though the ghosts have to be killed the old fashioned way: Power Pellets and eat them), though they're useful and it's somewhat nice not to be bogged down with useless abilities. He has the Rev Roll (which lets him fly up ramps) and the Butt Bounce (which smashes crates and heads alike). Although you don't learn any later, there aren't any points where you feel like you need any.

One of the things I dislike about this game is the way they baby you through. Although the game is heavily geared towards the older generation who grew up with him, the game practically tells you what to do for most of it. Heck, even the instruction manual explains what a "level" means in gaming. Though you expect most games to do this in the beginning so you get the hang of it, there are instances of it thoughout the game and it almost feels insulting to the platformer lover. It may be good if you're new to the genre, though the game is a tad difficult for those who are new. Even so, walking into the boss and having Pac-Man detail the steps to beating it is a bit on the annoying side.

Another thing that can be disappointing is the length. If you're going for 100%, it'll be quite the trip but if you don't feel like taking out a magnifing glass and detailing every level, this game can be beaten in a matter of hours. It's length is more in the exploration you have to do to 100% the game, which will keep you coming back to this game, though if you're not much of an explorer/collector, you may not get the most from this game.

As an added bonus, if you're purchasing the Player's Choice edition of the game, you'll get Pac-Man Vs bundled in free. It's pretty much the same Pac-Man you know with a twist: your friends play as the ghosts! You have to have a GBA and a link cable to do it, but it's an absolute blast. One person plays as Pac-Man on the GBA in classic maze style, while up to three people can play as the ghosts in a clouded 3D version of the maze. If one of the ghosts happens to catch Pac-Man, the players trade off who plays as Pac-Man until you reach a certain amount of points. Plus it's all narrarated by the man himself: Mario! This game is a blast and will keep you and your friends entertained.

Overall, I recommend this game to any fan of Platformers, even if you've been skipping out on the newer games. It may not be the newest, biggest, baddest kid on the block but it's worth the money, if nothing else, for the four classic games and Pac-Man Vs. It may feel anachronistic at times, but it'll keep you entertained.

New Poem Online: Anticipation

Hey just wanted to let you know that I wrote a new poem and put it online. You can find it at
http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2804031/1/Anticipation if you're interested.

Also, just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten the walkthrough or my other stories. Just been busy with life.

Thanks for reading.