Finished playing Megaman X5

Finished playing Megaman X5 (2001, Capcom, PS) on 12/7/2016.
My second playthrough.
Hours: 42~

Months after the events of Megaman X4, Sigma is resurrected and challenges the Maverick Hunters X and Zero with the intention of losing to spread a Reploid-infecting virus that turns them into Mavericks. Sigma also employs a Reploid mercenary named Dynamo to collide the space-colony Eurasia with Earth. X and Zero must then use the Enigma laser canon to destroy the space-colony before it collides. But will it work?

7/10 - This game is interesting with its couple of alternate endings. I can't remember what ending I got last time I played but I was lucky to get the best ending on my first try this time around. Yes, lucky, because certain timeline deviations are left up to chance more than the player's actions in this game. Not sure if previous X games implemented that same system or not. It's been a while. The game isn't terribly difficult either aside from maybe one of the last few bosses and the final boss himself.
The soundtrack is alright, nothing to write home about expect for maybe one or two good tracks. The main theme and the track for the level where you fight all eight bosses again were my favorite ones.
I also found the Squid Adler level very interesting and amusingly challenging with the bike section. I also like how you can stock up on 1Ups in that level too. But I never did find out what those V blocks were for. Maybe next time.

I have a hate/love relationship with the Megaman series. Why, because even though I've played every main installment before that preceded this one, I never really understood how to play Megaman games. I had actually given up on the series after I first played X5 a few years ago because I couldn't handle the immense frustrations I always experienced with the games. But I've always loved Zero and his own game installments very much, so I decided to give X another chance, even though I don't really find him very agreeable. So this time around I went in with an open mind. Megaman games are very challenging, but not without reason. These are games you're supposed to play over and over until you learn things like level design and enemy patterns. So with that in mind and without getting upset every time I lost, I pressed on over and over and over again until I was breezing through levels and bosses with flying colors... except for maybe Sigma... and Yellow Devil incarnates... ugh. And I think that's how you're supposed to play Megaman games. So here I go, onto the next one.

Finished playing Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland

Finished playing Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland (2002, HAL Laboratory, Game Boy Advance) on 07/20/2014.

Kirby finds himself sleeping with no dreams. When he checks on the Fountain of Dreams, he finds that King DeDeDe has broken the Star Rod into seven pieces and scattered them throughout Dreamland, guarded by his minions and one piece for himself. Kirby must retrieve all the piece and put the rod back together! Or no more dreams will ever be dreamt in Dreamland!

9/10 - It's a very nice remake of the original NES Kirby game with the addition of the equally wonderful mini-games. I've no complaints about it aside from it being a short game, even with the Extra mode option. Now, of course, and probably to be expected, I was really excited to play the Meta Knightmare game which is unlocked after beating Extra mode. In Meta Knightmare you play as Meta Knight through the same levels you do with Kirby with the exception that you cannot save your progress, you only have 3 points of health, you cannot play the mini-games for extra lives and pushing the big star buttons hidden throughout the levels does not count toward the 100% completion of the game. This mode was quite challenging and I only made it half-way through, but playing as Meta Knight feels really badass... as it should. He runs faster than Kirby, which can be counterintuitive if you're not careful, and his sword can break all breakable blocks. The sword can be thrusted upwards and used to "drop-stab" while airborne. Of course, he just can't suck up or swallow enemies for their abilities. This was a great game overall, onto the next one.