Tag: gaming

Angry Birds – Free Crochet Pattern

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Well, Small Shen is chugging along and nearing the end of Chapter 2 (after that, inking this third of the book). Meanwhile, I got quite involved with my crocheting, making a fair number of amigurumi (small crocheted plush toys). I’ve been making attempts to come up with my own patterns, and now that I’ve finally succeeded, I’m proudly showing them off on this blog!

This free pattern is of the angry red bird from Angry Birds, a very popular casual game I played for a little while back. The objective of the game is to catapult a bunch of cute-but-furious birds at a bunch of green pig enemies, who have stolen the eggs of the birds. It’s a better-than-most catapult game, and the super-cute and eye-catching designs just made it very endearing. As you can see, the birds are a very big part of the game’s appeal:

 

Angry Birds - Original Picture

What the original Angry Red Bird looks like.

 

And here is what my Angry Red Bird crochet looks like. I put it on my hand, so you can see the relative size of the finished amigurumi. I prefer to make smaller amigurumi, so this one’s on the smaller size, but I find the projects easier and faster to finish, which has its good points.

 

Get the free Angry White Bird Pattern here
 

Angry Bird - Finished

My version of the Angry Red Bird character.

 

Angry Red Bird Pattern

Here’s a list of what I used to make this crochet. It’s not a definite list, so feel free to use whatever you have, as long as it’s appropriate. It’s crocheted in the round, like most amigurumi, so only basic crochet skills are required.

NB. This pattern is created by me, so please give a link back to me if you want to use it or if you want to sell your crochet. Please give credit where it’s due.

  • Red, white, black and yellow 8 ply yarn
  • 4mm crochet hook
  • 8mm black safety eyes – 6060 from Etsy is a good place to buy these
  • Large sewing needle, to sew the bits and pieces together

 

Crochet Abbreviations

Here are a list of the abbreviations I use, and what they mean. These are pretty standard, so if you know how to crochet, this won’t be hard to decipher:

  • ch – chain
  • sc – single chain
  • dec – decrease
  • * – beginning/end of a repeating part of the pattern

 

Angry Bird 1

Crocheting the bird's body in red yarn.

 
Body (Make 1, red and white)

With red yarn
Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 single chain (sc) in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – 2 sc in each chain (12 stitches)
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next single chain, 1 sc*, repeat 6 times (18 stitches)
Rnd 4 – *2 sc in next single chain, 2 sc*, repeat 6 times (24 stitches)
Rnd 5 – *2 sc in next single chain, 3 sc*, repeat 6 times (30 stitches)
Rnd 6-11 – sc

Change to white yarn
Rnd 12 – sc
Rnd 13 – *decrease (dec) 1, 3 sc*, repeat 6 times (24 stitches)
Rnd 14 – sc

Start stuffing the body, and sew the eyes onto the body at this point
Rnd 15 – *dec 1 through back loops ONLY*, repeat 6 times (12 stitches)
Rnd 16 – *dec 1* repeat 6 times (6 stitches)

Fasten off, then use a needle to weave in loose ends.

 

Angry Bird 2

What the bottom of the bird should look like.

 

Eyes and Eyebrows (Make 2 of each, black and white)

Make the two eyes with white yarn
Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 6 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)

Fasten off, then use an 8mm safety eye to pin the two white eyes on the body
Then use a sewing needle to sew the white eyes properly onto the red body.

 

Angry Bird 3

Sewing the eyes onto the body, after you pin the safety eyes onto the body.

 

Make the two eyebrows with black yarn
Rnd 1 – Ch 6, turn
Rnd 2 – 4 sc

Fasten off, sew onto the body on top of the eyes

 

Beak (Make 1, yellow)

Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 4 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – sc
Rnd 3 – *2 sc in next single chain, 1 sc*, repeat twice (6 stitches)
Rnd 4 – *2 sc in next single chain, 2 sc*, repeat twice (8 stitches)
Rnd 5 – *2 sc in next single chain, 3 sc*, repeat twice (10 stitches)

Fasten off, stuff and sew onto the body between the eyes

 

Angry Bird 4

Sewed the beak and eyebrows onto the body.

 

Red Hair on Head (Make 1 big, 1 small, red yarn)

Making the Bigger Hair
Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 4 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2 – *2 sc in next single chain, 1 sc*, repeat 2 twice (6 stitches)
Rnd 3-5 – sc, then fasten off

Making the Smaller Hair
Rnd 1 – Ch 2, 4 sc in 2nd chain away from hook (Magic Ring method)
Rnd 2-3 – sc

Fasten off, then sew both hairs onto the top of the body.

 

And viola! All done!

Recommendation: Legend of Zelda – A Link to the Past

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Hi all, folks. In preparation for the release of Legend of Zeld: Skyward Sword, I’ve been doing a trip down memory lane of all the Zelda games I’ve played in the past (which is all of them). For those unfamiliar with Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda game franchise, it’s probably Nintendo’s best-selling franchise right after Mario, and one that constantly has critical acclaim heaped on it. The series first started in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and has spawned 14 games over the past 25 years. I’ve been a fan of the games since I was 6 years old – I played the original Legend of Zelda, though it would be years later that I finally manage to beat the last dungeon. This year is the 25th Anniversary of the Zelda franchise, and it’s apt that I choose this time to recommend what I think is the best game in the series.

Most people consider Ocarina of Time  for the N64 to be the best Zelda game of all time, but I disagree. For me, that title would always go to A Link to the Past for the SNES. It’s simply the most tightly-designed, complete Zelda game of the series, though Link’s Awakening and the Oracle are also worth a mention.

 

 

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Nintendo)
(1992, Super Nintendo)

A Link to the Past may have been released years ago, but due to its cartoony, stylised graphics, it has aged better than Ocarina of Time. You can still play the game today and not feel the technological limitations of the hardware. Let’s face it, as great a game as OoT was, that horrible 1st-generation 3D cannot be helped unless there’s a complete graphical overhaul of the game. New textures or not, it still looks like a bunch of blocky polygons walking around.

 

 


 

Plot
Legend of Zelda has a very simple plot, and that plot is basically the same in nearly all the games. The story is a subversion of age-old fairytale tropes. A young lad comes to save the princess of a kingdom from an evil usurper, and when he succeeds, gets nothing more than a “Thanks”. Woah, what happened to getting married to the princess and becoming the king? Everyone knows that you shouldn’t save a kingdom from evil unless you’re going to get a big reward at the end.

To fill in the blanks, the kingdom is called Hyrule, and the princess is called Zelda – hence the title of the game. Princess Zelda is also a subversive princess – she holds the Wisdom part of a magical artifact called the Triforce, three golden triangles which are the holy relics of Hyrule. The hero is called Link, and he holds the Triforce of Courage, which enables him to journey through devious dungeons and defeat fearsome monsters in his quest to rescue Zelda. The villain is sometimes Ganondorf, a thief who has stolen the Triforce of Power. Mix and match these ingredients, and you get the basics of a Zelda game.

To date, Link has saved the world 14 times, and has never gotten anything for it, not even second billing in the title (save once). Mark of a true hero, I suppose, but it also accounts for the streak of melancholy that runs through all the games. Unlike other standard fantasy stories, there is always a sense of sadness and loss with the hero’s victory. Link may be an everyman who never talks in any of the games, but his green hat and tunic makes him probably the mostly widely-recognised and beloved character in all of video-gaming.

 

Why I Recommend this Game
I love Action-Adventure games, especially when they involve lots of exploring, secrets and puzzles. And the Zelda games are pretty much all of that in one neat little package – you traverse a World Map, go through multiple maze-like dungeons, collect new items/weapons, discover hidden areas, and beat up horrible monsters. I like to explore virtual worlds with varied environments, and the Zelda games have deserts, swamps, towns, glaciers, mountains, woods and rivers to explore, with plenty of side-quests and mini-games to go on. You meet all kinds of weird and interesting characters, listen to their stories, and sometimes help them find whatever it is they’re looking for. It’s like an RPG, but an action game. Why don’t they make more games like this?

I mentioned Castlevania: Symphony of the Night previously as the style of game I like, and Zelda is pretty much like that game, but with a simplier inventory screen and a top-down view instead of a side-view. Unlike Castlevania, which are nearly all action-exploration games, the Zelda games always include a fair amount of puzzle-solving, which a lot of people love. Not content with just going from place to place, room to room killing baddies? Well, try and figure how to navigate this series of corridors, collecting keys and stepping on stones that will cause previously-blocked doors to open. Not sure how to get into this particular dungeon, or this part of the map? Have a good think about it, try every action you can think of, and if all else fails, do something else for a while. Your sword not working on a particular monster? Try using some of the items in your inventory. Needless to say, there is a certain sense of satisfaction you get after solving a puzzle on your own. Some of them are deceptively simple, but that’s what makes it so brilliant – the many “Ah-hah!” moments on your first play through it.

Despite the simple graphics, the game also manages to be surprisingly atmospheric. The Super Nintendo may not have been the most sophisticated piece of hardware out there, but it has many graphical effects that made it the best game system for 2D games. From the opening sequence, when you wake up on a dark rainy night due to a telepathic call for help from Princess Zelda, to the mysterious fog of the Lost Woods, to the dark, twisted nature of the Dark World… the art style is never inconsistent, and while it can get fairly dark, it’s never truly unsettling. At its heart, the Legend of Zelda series has managed to stay PG-13 all through its life, which turns out to be a boon rather than a bane – its aging fans have stayed fans, but it’s still very successful in drawing in newer, younger fans. The same can’t be said for other game series, so eager to be seen as “adult” they forget that “being adult” has nothing to do with sex and violence.

 

 

Which brings me to the reason why I chose A Link to the Past as the best Zelda game in the series. Mind you, it has tough competition, but in the end I chose it simply because… it has the best ending. Yes, it sounds like a superficial reason for choosing a game, but the ending of a game can tell you a great deal about the course of its development. Ocarina of Time is a great game, but I can’t help but feel that the final dungeon is criminally short, whereas the final dungeon of A Link to the Past is satisfying long, with a huge boss fight at the end, and a really long ending that shows everyone who appeared in the game. ALttP is the game that I feel the developers had the time to truly polish to perfection before they shoved it out the door, and there wasn’t a single moment in the game where I wondered “Where did the rest of this go?”. Granted, the Gameboy games Link’s Awakening and the Oracle games also felt very complete, but the graphics are kinda sore on the eyes, whereas the art style of ALttP means it can can still hold up today. Which is why 13 Zelda games later, it’s still my #1 game of the series.

Recommendation: Castlevania – Symphony of the Night

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This week I was going to recommend the manga Hikaru no Go, but then I had a change of heart. I’ve recommended a lot of manga (and a few books) in my “Recommendations”, but I now feel I should recommend things that aren’t necessarily book-related. It’s true I read a fair amount, but I also play video games and watch a lot of movies. There’s a number of works in the latter 2 categories that I would recommend without hesitation to anyone who’s interested, so why not include these in my recommendations list too? I guess HoG will have to wait a week or so.

 

I’ve recently revisited a game that I like very much, a game that’s been around long enough (in gaming years) to qualify as a “classic” game. Not a “retro” game by any stretch (that would require going back further than 20 years), but a game that’s been around 15 years, and yet still hold up reasonably well to a lot of its contemporaries. Not just those games in the same genre, but also those in the same series. Yes, this week I recommend Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

 

 

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami)
(1997, Playstation)

SOTN is the, oh, I dunno, tenth in a series of games in the Castlevania series, I’m guessing. Most of the older games have been straight-forward action-platformers, none of which I particularly liked, largely because I wasn’t good at any of them. Heck, as a kid, I couldn’t even get past the first stage of the original Castlevania. So when SOTN scaled back the otherwise murderous difficulty level of the earlier Castlevanias, I was pretty darn grateful.

 

sotn-poster

 


 

Plot
Castlevania is a series that’s been around almost as long as Super Mario Bros. has, and the plot has always been very simple. Every 100 years, Lord Dracula awakens and his demonic castle materialises out of nowhere, filled to the brim with monsters from every mythology ever. Before evil spreads across the land, someone has to stop the Lord of Darkness and put him to sleep for a while. Usually, this is the job of the Belmonts, a family of warriors who wield a vampire-vanquishing whip known as the “Vampire Killer”. However, in SOTN, you only get to play briefly as Richter Belmont, the current generation of vampire slayers (up until you beat the game anyway). You instead spend most of your time as Alucard, the damphir son of Dracula.

sotn-alucardAlucard has a beautiful character design. I feel compelled to mention that – so gorgeous and gothic are Ayami Kojima’s designs that an entire generation of fangirls descended on SOTN to sigh at the male characters. Anyway, Alucard gets involved when he hears that Richter Belmont has vanished, and that Castlevania has once again appeared – with no Belmont around to stop it. He decides to storm Castlevania himself, and find out what happened to Richter.

 

Why I Recommend this Game
I love Metroidvania games. “Metroidvania” is a term used to describe a rather uncommon category of games – games that play like a cross between 2D-action/platformers and RPGs (role-playing games). Mind you, the original “Metroidvania” game was the Metroid series, again a series as old as Mario. However, while Metroid was reasonably popular, for some reason everyone rushed out to clone Super Mario Bros., and nobody wanted to copy Metroid. Why? All the Metroid games were great games (at least the 2D ones were), but even the original Castlevania resembled the Mario games more than the Metroid games. SOTN was the first Castlevania game to copy the Metroid formula, and since it was so successful, all the subsequent 2D Castlevania games just followed in its wake. Which can only be a good thing. More games for me to play.

 

Part of the reason why I love Metroidvania games so much is the exploration element. Unlike a lot of people, I play games mostly to explore virtual worlds, and SOTN gives you the whole of Dracula’s castle to explore. The game was a lone 2D game in a sea of 3D games, and to make itself stand out, it pulled out all stops in the design and rendering department. Alucard is beautifully animated in fluid 2D, the likes of which I’ve not seen since. Each segment of the castle has its own theme and accompanying music, and it was simply lovely to backtrack your way through all the various spooky environments, meeting unique monsters along the way, and then killing them. There are loads of weapons, armour, items and familiars to collect; dozens of special powers and magic spells; an encyclopaedic array of monsters and bosses to destroy… and a massive map (with many hidden areas) to discover and traverse. For people who like to explore virtual environments, this is the best kind of gaming experience to have.

 

Interestingly, the biggest “problem” with this game is also the reason why I like it so much. SOTN is quite an easy game. Since it has an RPG leveling-up system where you increase your stats from gaining experience points, you can get really powerful, really fast. Combine that with some of the stronger weapons you collect, and the game becomes a total cakewalk only halfway through. Some people will complain about that, but any game that doesn’t get in the way of me doing my exploring gets a big thumbs up from, so curiously, I mark it up in this department. Besides, those who want a SOTN-style game and a decent challenge can look up the other games in the series.

 

Other Castlevania Games (in the same style)
Castlevania, like a lot of game series, has evolved into the 3D realm, but not with much success. I haven’t played the 3D games (nor do I want to), but at least the 2D SOTN clones are of a reliably good quality. I’ve listed all the ones I’ve played here, so if you’re a huge fan of exploration-action games, you can check these out:
 

Circle of the Moon: This game was made for the Gameboy Advance, and given the limitations of the GBA, it’s decent. You play as Nathan Graves, something of an honorary Belmont, so he is armed with a whip. The controls aren’t great, but then it was made cheaply to capitalise off SOTN on the handheld market. It did well enough that they decided to make more of them on the GBA.

 

harmonyofdespairHarmony of Dissonance: Also made for the GBA, but this is a little strange. Graphics-wise, it is far more intricate and detailed than Circle of the Moon, but the colours are scary-garish, especially the reds. You play as Justin Belmont, armed with his whip and a glaring red coat that will stab you in the eyes. Justin’s sprite is also strange-looking… with what appears to be an oversized head. Rumour has it that this was originally made for a console like the Playstation, but scaled back to a GBA release. Hence the weird graphics.
 

ariaofsorrowAria of Sorrow: This is the GBA game to play, and is definitely the best game out of the GBA Castlevanias. It goes back to the inventory system of SOTN, and you play as Soma Cruz, an exchange student in Japan. The game has a soul-collecting mechanic, which allows you to copy the attacks of your enemies, making for a lot of variety. It also drives completion-ist types crazy, as they go back and forth in Dracula’s castle, trying to collect all the souls to make 100%.
 

dawnofsorrowDawn of Sorrow: This is the first Castlevania game on the Nintendo DS, and it is exactly like Aria of Sorrow but with much better graphics and a few new additions. It’s an improvement in every way on AoS, except for the designs, which all of a sudden has gone anime-ish. It’s a small complaint (done to appeal to a younger market), but I miss Ayami Kojima’s designs (though by then, they were getting a tad old).
 

portraitofruinPortrait of Ruin: A solid follow-up on DoS, this DS game stars Jonathon Morris and Charlotte Aulin – two vampire slayers instead of the usual one. This game has some kind of buddy-system going, and due to the story having them go into portraits, a wide variety of terrains and areas are available. A welcome change from Dracula’s castle again, I guess. Unfortunately, I didn’t much enjoy this game, possibly because I wasn’t much taken in by the buddy system.
 

orderofecclesiaOrder of Ecclesia: This DS game is possibly the hardest game in the whole series – you play as Shanoa (a girl! Not since the ret-conned Sonia Belmont!), a member of a secret cult sworn to destroy Dracula. You go through a vast array of environments before you end up in Dracula’s castle, so it’s more varied and feels longer than the other Castlevania games. It also has a soul-absorbing magic system where you can absorb enemy powers, but also at the cost of collecting no actual weapons. All-in-all, I like this game, but I’m too ham-handed to play it at anywhere near its best.
 

BentoComics.com – Princess Zelda

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Ah, the last story in this series. It happens to be a short story I did for a video-game anthology, based on Princess Zelda from the “Legend of Zelda” Nintendo Gaming series. Now, as a fan tribute it’s good fun, but because I don’t own this property, I’m just going to put it up on Bento Comics and let people read it (but not print it).

Rundown: Bento Comics is a new website that permits users to read and compile their own short story anthologies. It then prints the book at a printing company called Lulu, and delivers the personalised book to your door. A new publishing model, if you will.

Short Story of the Week: A short story seen from the perspective of Princess Zelda, and the wishes she makes to the Goddesses of Hyrule.

E-book: None, I’m afraid. It’s not my own property, so no e-book.

 
 

Princess Zelda
Click here to read on Bentocomics.com!

 
 

Well, this concludes my pick of short stories from the “Queenie Chan Archive” back on my website. It’s good to be back on my LiveJournal again, so I hope to be able to continue my weekly streak of posting something up. I’ve been working on a bunch of interesting things since the second Odd Thomas book ended, so watch this space for interesting developments.