Rochester Fun
We
spent this past weekend in Rochester with Kate and Doug and it was amazing as always. We had a great time playing all manner of
games, seeing Batman Begins at "the buck" movie theater, and eating some fantastic meals. The first morning we work up there, we
were roused by the
strangest music you could imagine. An eerily happy and jazzy voice sang "naaaaa na na na na" and was backed by a full orchestra,
then followed by some crazy boppy j-pop (Japanese pop music).
After doing some of the morning ritual (my bag was still being "located" by the airline, so I basically just rolled out of bed and put on my pants), we joined Kate and Doug downstairs where they were already preparing us a great breakfast. The music, Kate explained, was the soundtrack from perhaps the greatest game to ever come out for the Playstation 2, Katamari Damacy. I finally got a chance to play the crazy game at the Museum of the Moving Image for a few minutes a month or so ago. The basic premise is that you start out with a little, sticky ball that can pick up things like paperclips and coins. As you roll them up, you get bigger, and move on to bigger objects (like tape dispensers, then toys, then you know, children, pandas, elephants, buildings, and mountains.)
We went out and bought the game later that day, and it's as addictive as it sounds. We beat the game over the course of the weekend, but the great thing is that they challenge you to do each level better, so there's still tons of playability left, and Sara is actually playing it right now.
Between rounds of Katamari Damacy, we played a little Halo 2, some Apples to Apples, a
little Clone Wars Risk, Compatibility,
and
even snuck out to Vertex, the local Goth club for happy hour. It was great
to see them, get to know their new dog, Benny, and say
hello to their
cats, Vega and Io
(I have no idea how to spell this, it's pronounced Eye-oh, and he's the most affectionate cat in history. I was trying to write
this post our last night there, and he was so intent on getting petted that he wouldn't stand for my hands being on the keyboard of
the laptop).
- Katamari Damacy at Amazon
- Apples to Apples,is an easy pick up game that can go as long as you want. Each player gets seven cards with words or names on them. Each round, the "moderator" reads an adjective, and the other players throw in a card they think will match well with it. Whichever one the moderator picks gets a points. Very good for a quick friendly game, and tons of people can play at once
- Compatibilty a great team game where you pick what you think your partner will pick from a stack of cards, based on a different "topic" each turn. Great fun for up to 8 people in sets of two.
- Clone Wars Risk is a twist on the original Risk, with extra rules that would, in theory, make the game quite different. Not wanting to spend 30 minutes re-learning risk, we simply played with the original rules, and it was as fun as ever.
- View the photos - Ooh, it's album 100, neat.
