Board Game: Twilight Imperium 3 (2005)

The major civilizations struggle for control of the galaxy!

The original Twilight Imperium board game was desgined by Christian T. Petersen and produced by Fantasy Flight Games in 1998. The first edition of the game was Fantasy Flight's first publication and was a resounding success. The second edition of the game was released in late 2000 and the third in 2005. The third edition has two expansions, Shattered Empire (2006) and Shards of the Throne (2011), which provide players with several modular variants.

The game involves three to six players struggling for control of the galaxy after the fall of the Lazax Empire. The game is won by being the first player to score enough victory points; and the most interesting way to score victory points is by completing objectives. These objectives have players spending resources, capturing planets, and researching technologies. They reward players for excelling at one aspect of the game while being able to keep everyone else off their back. You can win the game playing as a skillful diplomat and trader or as a psychopath warmonger who refuses to talk to anyone.

We played our first game of Twilight Imperium 3 over an entire Saturday and two weekday evenings. This game consumed our spare time, even when we weren't playing it! The planning, backstabbing, and intrigue which manifested in the game continued during the days between play sessions. The total playing time for our first game approached ten hours. However, I expect a second game using similar variants would be close to seven or eight hours.

I played as the steadfast Xxcha (we settled on "zah-cha") Kingdom, a civilization of noble and wise turtles. The Xxcha are skillful diplomats and negotiators. However, all my negotiations couldn't prevent me (black) from being overwhelmed by the insect swarm (green) and being backstabbed by my long-term ally, the space goblins (purple). I drew too much attention to myself by climbing the scoreboard while everyone else fought amongst themselves. In the end, I was reduced to a handful of systems, a mere shadow of the Xxcha Kingdom in its prime, and came in second place behind the scientist-fish (red), who were never attacked the entire game.

Twilight Imperium is a game of galactic conquest, politics, and trade. The game will absorb your entire weekend and will leave you enthralled by the story that you and your friends will create as you play the game. Twilight Imperium is not appropriate for anyone who doesn't want to commit to a long and complicated game. However, if you're looking a highly thematic game that is truly epic in size, then Twilight Imperium might be the game for you!

SNES: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995)

Diddy and Dixie Kong approach a checkpoint barrel.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is was released in 1995 by Rare and is the sequel to Donkey Kong Country. The game's titular character, Diddy Kong, is tasked with rescuing the series's titular character, Donkey Kong, from Kaptain K. Rool and his horde of Kremling baddies. The game features single player, two-player cooperative, and two-player competitive game modes.

The game primarily differs from its predecessor in that Donkey Kong, a slow and strong ape, is replaced with Dixie Kong, a quick and agile monkey. This makes the gameplay feel fast-paced, as both of the playable characters are lightweights. However, Diddy and Dixie control and play differently. Dixie is equipped with her magical ponytail which allows her to glide slowly through the air and avoid dangerous obstacles below. Furthermore, she holds barrels and other objects above her head, which makes defeating overhead enemies significantly easier. Diddy is slightly faster and jumps slightly higher. However, he holds barrels directly in front of him, which makes defeating overhead enemies more challenging.

Cranky Kong giving away some freebies.

Diddy's Kong Quest involves players traversing numerous levels in eight diverse environments, including a pirate ship, a haunted forest, and my personal favourite, an amusement park filled with bees. The players encounter a diverse cast of friendly animals, such as Rambi the Rhino and Rattly the Rattlesnake, who help the Kongs overcome an array of challenges. There are several varieties of coins scattered throughout the levels. These coins must be collected to buy additional lives, purchase hints, and even save the game beyond the first time at any save location. This contributes to the increased difficulty of Diddy's Kong Quest over the original Donkey Kong Country. The game is markedly difficult and, with saving being a limited resource, you may be required to either spend time collecting lives in advance or repeating a handful of levels following a game over screen. There are several levels which feel like gauntlets in their difficulty and length.

Diddy's Victory!

Diddy's Kong Quest's is a difficult and frustrating game at times. However, with enough persistence, beating the game can be a very rewarding experience. The game is mostly fair to players (except for the Gusty Glade level -- which is absolutely unfair), but there are several locations which almost require players to die at least once to learn the layout of the level. Nonetheless, the gameplay is fun, the music is fantastic, and beating a level is awesome.

While the game is argued by some to be the best of the Donkey Kong series, Donkey Kong Country 1 and 3 may be better entry points for someone new to either the Donkey Kong series or even retro gaming. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest is a worthy game for anyone seeking a rewarding challenge in their gaming library.

SNES: Megaman X (1994)

Megaman X was the first game in the Megaman series developed by Capcom for the Super Nintendo. The game was released in North America in 1994 and builds on many of the elements which made earlier Megaman games popular. Megaman X is an action platforming game which allows the player to navigate through several stages in any order.

The game features character upgrades, both essential and optional, which make certain challenges easier to overcome. When the player defeats a boss at the end of a stage, they are rewarded with a new weapon flavoured in the style of that boss. These weapons are useful for defeating other bosses and experimentation of these weapons on various enemies is almost essential. However, it becomes somewhat cumbersome when encountering a new boss to cycle through every weapon, fire a shot, and observe the effect before finding an appropriate weapon. Some of the weapon-boss interactions appeal to your Pokemon sensibilities, such as the icy penguin boss being vulnerable to fire, while some are much less obvious, such as the shield and tornado attacks being more effective against the watery octopus boss than electricity.

I struggled with wall-jumping in the final stages until I discovered the player can performing a long wall-jump by pressing the jump and dash buttons simultaneously. Additionally, the final boss stage of the game required several hours to complete. I could defeat the first few bosses almost flawlessly, but stumbled on the final boss and had to repeat the previous bosses many times.

Megaman X is a very fun and rewarding game which holds up well today. The graphics are wonderful and the music is very enjoyable (you may even find yourself humming some of the tunes). The stages are varied and their bosses are full of personality. The progression system rewards the player's exploration and you might discover new secrets in additional play-throughs

Kerbal Space Program: Duna Aircraft

Mission: Develop an aircraft capable of flight on Duna using experimental technologies.

The experimental version of The Wizard tested on Kerbin.

As a small distraction from science gathering, Mission Control suggested experimenting with building an aircraft using the recently developed fission reactors and thermal turbojets. An aircraft propelled by a thermal turbojet with heat provided by a fission reactor would have the capability of flying without the need of refueling for years -- or centuries if the fission reactor was shut down and allowed to cool between flights. This alone would have made for an interesting challenge; however, living on Duna had instilled dreams of flying on its skies and The Wizard was born of these dreams.

The Wizard was a biplane design with several air intakes to help compensate for the thin atmosphere on Duna. The reactor and turbojet were positioned, unsurprisingly, at the rear of the aircraft. The experimental version of The Wizard performed exceptionally well on Kerbin.

The aircraft separating from its interplanetary transport and entering the Dunian atmosphere.

The (Dunian) Wizard was transported to Duna using rocketry previously used to transport habitation modules. Unfortunately, The Wizard needed to be piloted to Duna by a brave, regrettably nameless Kerbal who was not guaranteed living accommodations on arrival. Nevertheless, the brave Kerbal completed the suicide mission admirably. The aircraft's fission reactor was manually activated before entering the Dunian atmosphere. Mission Control remarked on the aircraft's extreme difficulty in maneuvering at high and medium altitudes where the atmosphere was thin.

The Wizard approaching the Duna Outpost.

Thankfully, the large maria of Duna were of sufficiently low altitude and had thick enough atmosphere to accommodate flight. At under 1500 M The Wizard controlled similar to its performance on Kerbin. The aircraft was flown successfully for approximately 500 KM between the altitudes of 500 M and 1500 M at a speed of 500 M/S. It remains to be seen how well the aircraft operates at higher altitudes outside the Duna Outpost's maria.

The Wizard parked at the Duna Outpost.

Kerbal Space Program: Duna Outpost Improvements and Ike Expedition

Mission: Improve the Duna Outpost's facilities and gather science from Ike.

Airdropping a Duna-Ike spacecraft (foreground) and two rovers (background) near the Duna Outpost.

With life support capabilities successfully installed on Duna, the next phase of Duna-Ike system development was giving the Kerbals mobility in the form of rovers and spacecraft. A very simple wheeled rover and a nuclear-powered spacecraft were designed and transported to Duna. The two rovers and spacecraft were accompanied by kerbalnaut Bill Kerman and airdropped within ten kilometers of the Duna outpost.

Showcasing the improved facilities of the Duna Outpost. In order from left to right: greenhouse, rover, Duna-Ike spacecraft, Kethane module, habitat module.

The rovers were driven and the Duna-Ike Express spacecraft flown to the Duna Outpost and refueled. After the necessary vehicle assessments were performed, Bill Kerman immediately launched for the tidally locked moon Ike. The Duna-Ike Express had been designed to be capable of launching from the surface of Duna, landing on Ike, and returning safely to the surface of Duna. The spacecraft was a resounding success and gathered much science from the moon of Ike. With transportation facilities established, the next phase of development would involve establishing permanent science labs on the planet.

The Duna-Ike Express returning to Duna.