Paper Mario: Sticker Star (Nintendo 3DS)

The Paper Mario series fulfills a unique niche among Nintendo and role-playing game fans that no one was aware existed until it came along. It combines Japanese role-playing game elements with characters from the Mario games, then flattens it all into a pop-up book. It's visually unique, always full of amusing gags and clever puzzles, and consistently offers genuine fun no matter how strange it might get. Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii proved that the game stands up on its own even with the RPG elements tweaked, streamlined, and stripped out to focus on platforming and perspective tricks. Paper Mario: Sticker Star for the Nintendo 3DS? proves that the game stands up with those elements tweaked, streamlined, and stripped out to focus on exploration and puzzle-solving. This $39.99 3DS game doesn't have any level grinding or equipment juggling, but it offers great action and clever puzzles in the same humorous Paper Mario package we've seen before.

The Basics
The Sticker Star comet flies over the Mushroom Kingdom every so often, and the people celebrate it with a festival. Bowser, king of the Koopas, wants to rule the Mushroom Kingdom, and he crashes the festival to do it. The comet plummets to earth, its ?Royal Stickers? give Bowser amazing power, and Mario must help a shiny sticker named Kristi find the Royal Stickers and save both the comet and the kingdom. It's not a complex plot, and like the other Paper Mario games consists of ?find the really shiny things and save the world.?

To save the world, Mario gets help from Kristi in the form of a magic sticker album and ?paperization,? which lets Mario place stickers in the world to solve puzzles. Everything in the game is sticker-based, and stickers are scattered everywhere from walls and floors to dropped by enemies. Boot stickers let Mario jump on enemies. Hammer stickers let Mario hammer enemies. Fire flower stickers, well, you get the idea. More importantly, three-dimensional objects (the only three-dimensional objects in the otherwise paper-and-cardboard diorama world) can be ?stickerized? and used to both solve puzzles and as powerful summons in combat. You can call forth scissors, matches, balls, fans, and even a giant goat to take care of your enemies and get through obstacles.

Unique Gameplay
While Super Paper Mario focused entirely on perspective tricks and how to play with a side-scrolling game, Paper Mario: Sticker Star instead focuses entirely on the world of Paper Mario as a craft table. Everyone is made of paper, buildings are made of cardboard, and you and enemies can even get ?crumpled? by powerful attacks and have to wait to be flattened out to fight. It's a fun twist that explores the ?paper? part of Paper Mario and what makes it different from other Mario games.

Combat is turn-based with timing bonuses like the Paper Mario games before Super Paper Mario, but instead of using a menu of basic and special attacks you use your sticker album and apply a sticker for each attack. You can get bonuses by pressing the A button just before the attack hits, but that and the sticker itself are the only determining factors for damage. You don't gain any levels besides finding Zelda-like heart containers that give you extra hit points, and there are no stats or magic points that let you tweak your character. Everything is based on the stickers you have on-hand, which means resource management is much more important than in previous Paper Mario games. You want to keep your sticker album full, with stickers useful against the enemies you'll find. As in previous Paper Mario games, you can't stomp on spiky enemies and you can't hit flying enemies with a hammer; balancing weaknesses and strengths between enemies and stickers is more important than any sort of grinding.

The boss fights are puzzles in themselves, and while you can chip away their health to beat them, it's much better to find the right special stickers to take care of them. The boss battles are infrequent and each one feels unique and clever, so I won't give any hard examples of stickers and bosses. However, it's important to look at the enemy and its surroundings to get a sense of its weakness and what special stickers you should get before you attack.

Sometimes the game is too clever for its own good and offers too many choices spread across too many areas to be convenient. Several times I came across roadblocks I couldn't get past until I backtracked several times and finally stumbled upon the solution. This gets frustrating halfway through the game, when you know a special sticker can get you to the next part, but you missed it in a corner or hidden behind a secret door.

The Verdict
Paper Mario: Sticker Star is one of the more clever chapters in the Paper Mario series, and its sticker-based design rewards exploration and smart thinking. It isn't as RPG-like as the previous Paper Mario games, and it isn't as rewarding of reflex skills as Super Paper Mario, but it offers a unique adventure and plenty to find.

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Syria opposition bloc elects Christian as leader

Syrian regime opponent George Sabra attends the election of the Executive Office of the Syrian National Council in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

Syrian regime opponent George Sabra attends the election of the Executive Office of the Syrian National Council in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

Syrian regime opponent Abdel Baset Seda, right, shakes hands with Mulhim Droubi after winning the election of the Executive Office of the Syrian National Council in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

Syrian regime opponent George Sabra attends the Election of the Executive Office of the Syrian National Council in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

Young Syrians demonstrate against Syrian President Bashar Assad, depicted on the poster beneath the feet of a drummer, in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. Syria's conflict began largely as peaceful protests against Assad's rule, but it has since collapsed into civil war after rebels took up arms in response to the regime's bloody crackdown. (AP Photo/Monica G. Prieto)

Syrian regime opponent George Sabra, right, shakes hands with Hisham Marwa after winning the election of the Executive Office of the Syrian National Council in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

DOHA, Qatar (AP) ? Syria's main opposition group in exile elected a left-wing veteran dissident born into a Christian family as its new president on Friday, a choice that could help counter Western concerns about possible Islamist influence over the group.

George Sabra, a Communist-turned-social-democrat and former high school teacher who once wrote for the Arabic version of Sesame Street, said his election as head of the Syrian National Council is proof that Syrians are not beholden to sectarianism.

"This day is a victory of the Syrian people to prove all over the world the reality of the Syrians ... as young people shouted in the streets, 'Syrian people are one, one, one,'" he said moments after his victory was announced at a conference in Doha, Qatar.

Sabra's election came on the eve of a crucial decision for the SNC.

The Istanbul-based group, widely seen as out of touch with activists fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad, must decide Saturday whether to join a broader opposition leadership, an idea promoted by Western and Arab backers of those trying to oust President Bashar Assad.

Under the plan, the new group would form a transitional government in rebel-held areas of Syria and presumably serve as a conduit for foreign aid to the opposition.

However, SNC members have expressed reservations, such as fears the SNC's influence would be diluted. The SNC, still the largest political opposition group, would get only about one third of some 60 seats in the new group to make room for activists inside Syria.

The SNC was to give its answer on Friday, but asked for more time after its own leadership elections dragged on and divisions arose among the members over whether to join the internationally backed initiative.

The SNC had promised its Qatari hosts and the author of the new plan, Syrian dissident Riad Seif, to decide quickly whether to accept the idea in principle. However, Sabra suggested Friday that negotiations over an acceptable formula could continue beyond the weekend.

"The problem is, there is no answer by yes or no," said Sabra, a 65-year-old father of three. "This is politics," he added with a laugh.

The gray-haired, jovial Sabra said earlier this week that he and Seif are longtime friends, and even shared a jail cell at one point. Sabra, a veteran dissident and leftist activist, said he was jailed for eight years starting in 1987 and for two brief stretches in the summer and fall of 2011, under Assad and his father and predecessor Hafez.

He said he was a leading member of Syria's Communist party, but in 2005 his group became social democrat.

Sabra left Syria several months after the uprising against Bashar Assad erupted in March 2011 and moved to Paris. Sabra said he is a former geography teacher and writer for children's television, including for the Arabic version of Sesame Street produced in Kuwait.

The SNC's new vice president chosen Friday was Mohammed Farouk Taifur, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a region-wide Islamist movement that has risen to power in several countries in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-11-09-Syria-Opposition/id-752155eb24a244d2bafa7ccc52a98dca

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Street Fighter X Tekken (PlayStation Vita)

Street Fighter X Tekken joins BlazBlue Continuum Shift and Mortal Kombat ?as the fighting games of note on the Sony PlayStation Vita ?. Capcom's tag-based 2D fighter, which pits many of the company's most popular fighting game characters in a knock-down, drag-out brawl with Namco Bandai's Tekken pugilists, is an incredible portable fighting game package. Capcom packs in online multiplayer, cross-platform play with PS3 owners, augmented reality, extra characters not found in the console version, a controversial Gem System, and much, much more. The result is an engaging, deep fighting game that's only hampered by a few game-design issues.

Basic Training
Boasting 55 playable characters, Street Fighter X Tekken sports one of the most stacked rosters in fighting game history. It features the 43 fighters found in the PS3 version plus 12 new playable characters: Blanka, Cody, Dudley, Elena, Guy, Sakura, Alisa Bosconovitch, Bryan Fury, Christie Monteiro, Jack-X, Lars Alexandersson, and Lei Wulong. There are many characters and styles to master, which gives the game longevity. If you can't find a pair of fighters that appeal to you, you shouldn't play fighting games.

Once you select a duo, you duke it out vs. the computer in single-player mode, or against others. Multiplayer is the path to walk if you want a true challenge, as seasoned fight fans will blow through the single-player modes with ease. Fortunately, Street Fighter X Fighter includes several multi-player modes including local ad-hoc and online cross-play brawls with both PS Vita and PS3 owners. The latter is an excellent addition as it expands the pool of potential players. Unfortunately, lag crept into the online experience on a regular basis when I tested the game using home and office connections. Ad-hoc mode was an overall far less laggy experience.

Mechanics and Bonus Features
Street Fighter X Tekken does an excellent job of pulling Namco Bandai's characters into Capcom's universe. Tekken characters keep many of their signature moves, so fans of the popular 3D fighting series should at feel at home after learning the Capcom timing. The combat is satisfying; blows are solid and impactful, even more so than the far more cartoony Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Hardcore fight fans will welcome the six button control scheme that gives players more attack options that MVC3's watered down, noob-friendly four-button set up (granted, the PS Vita's button arrangement isn't best for six-button fighters). I loved the fact that you can charge Super Arts moves if you don't have enough meter?shades of SNK Playmore's Art of Fighting.

That said Street Fighter X Tekken features rather annoying that attempt to rope-in casuals. "Battle Tap," for example, is a PS Vita-exclusive feature that lets users unleash special moves by touch a portion of the screen. It breaks the flow of the match, however, as it "Casual Style" removes a major part of the fighting game experience by not requiring players to have much input knowledge?they can, in theory, crank out impressive moves with a minimum of stick and button combinations. There's also a Quick Combo mode that lets you perform editable combos. Pandora Mode lets you sacrifice a tag partner for an eight-second damage boost?that's not nearly enough time to even the odds vs. a good player. The Gem System, which harkens back to the Marvel Super Heroes fighting game, adds jewels activate when specific conditions are met in order to boost offensive, defensive, and regenative abilities. The fighting game fan within me hates these additions?it's an insult to the intricately designed fighting engine?but I can understand Capcom's desire to expand the base.

Capcom tosses a number of sexy additions into the package such as 38 free alternate costumes, Near-compatibility, and KO Monument, which is where you view trophies of defeated foes. The game uses the PS Vita's front- and rear-facing cameras and augmented reality tech to drop fighters into the "real world," but it comes as a very tacked-on feature that serves no true purpose (it's also tricky to position the character).

Not Quite Black Belt-Worthy
Street Fighter X Tekken is a very solid game that unfortunately stumbles a bit due to online issues and some gimmicky?and relatively useless?PS Vita features. Still, Capcom's portable fighter is a fine addition to any fight fan's PS Vita library.

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How to make money online dropshipping on ebay - Internet ...

If you want to know how to make money drop shipping on eBay it?s actually quite easy the only problem you want to avoid is having you?re customers or your potential customer forget about you or your business. So if you get into drop shipping on eBay I highly recommend having a name or brand that stays in peoples mind. Sometimes having a?ridiculous?brand name is what you need. Another thing to remember is that good customers prefer dealing with someone they trust over anything so operating your business this way is highly recommended.

When you have an eBay store I recommend being nice to your customers and honest with your customers at all times yes even if you?re customers are straight up a-holes be nice have the highest level of customer service and thank them for their business.

Just like how you and I have our own individual?personal?problems so will your customers as long as you follow the rules of eBay you have nothing to worry. Another thing I recommend is don?t let negative feedback effect you and your performance continue doing your best if you receive negative feedback send back a?rebuttal so potential customers can see that you care.

Last words on making money dropshipping on eBay

Finally if you want to make money online?drop-shipping?you need to have a reliable drop shipping directory. The best most cost effective drop ship resource is the?Salehoo website.??Salehoo is a directory of?legitimate?wholesalers that get rated by real people making real money on eBay. There is no need to sell people on the?Salehoo website?it sells?itself if you want to make money online drop shipping I highly recommend that you start there.

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Manitou Messenger : Music on trial

Molly Raben
November 9, 2012 ? 27 views
Filed under Arts and Entertainment

Although election season has now passed, I have struggled to pull myself away from its soundtrack. In the few days prior to Nov. 6, I could not help but bump ?Don?t Stop? by Fleetwood Mac on high volume. I realize this is not 1992; however, its place in campaign history has solidified its place in many of our hearts. ?Don?t Stop? is an uplifting and energizing song reminding listeners to keep moving forward ? a poignant message central to Bill Clinton?s 1992 election campaign and one with which he has been associated over the past 20 years.

They may seem a small part of the big event, but campaign songs have been important tools in presidential elections since the mid-19th century. ?Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,? written for William Henry Harrison and John Tyler in 1840, is one of the most well-known of these early songs performed in promotion of a presidential ticket. The lyrics were written by Alexander Coffmann Ross and set to the tune of a popular minstrel song at the time, ?Little Pigs.? The song remains memorable because of its catchy alliteration and use of Harrison?s nickname, earned at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and also because it firmly established song as a powerful device used to spread word about candidates.

In the 20th century, those running for office began associating themselves with popular recorded music and strayed from personalized songs. For example, FDR used the popular hit ?Happy Days Are Here to Stay? in his 1932 campaign.

Not all songs used in campaigns have retained a positive association. Ross Perot became infamous for choosing to play Patsy Cline?s 1961 recording of ?Crazy? while entering his rallies. A country western ballad about heartbreak, it is no wonder Perot received much attention for his choice of campaign song and its title.

Furthermore, several incidents have occurred in which musicians have asked certain candidates to cease using their songs to promote their campaigns. Tom Petty asked George W. Bush to refrain from playing his song ?I Won?t Back Down? at events during the 2000 election season. Petty then reportedly performed the song live at Al Gore?s house after receiving news of his loss.

In 2008, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attempted to fire up her crowds at events with the Heart song ?Barracuda.? She later faced the band?s outrage at her actions as they did not support her campaign. Similarly, Tom Petty, once again, had to draw his music out of the grasp of a candidate he did not support. Michele Bachmann kicked off her campaign for the presidential bid with his song, ?American Girl.? Apparently, Bachmann was not the ?Girl? Petty had imagined while writing the 1977 tune.

The campaign song tradition continued through this season, with President Obama singing an excerpt of Al Green?s ?Let?s Stay Together? at an appearance at the Apollo Theatre in January. This song stuck with him throughout the following months, but following his reelection Tuesday evening, he was appropriately met with cheers and Stevie Wonder?s high-energy funk hit, ?Signed, Sealed, Delivered? at Chicago?s McCormick Place Convention Center.

Although campaign songs may no longer be as useful as they were in the mid-19th century, they do remain a staple in the election season and serve as celebratory and? energizing tools for candidates.? What better way to come together in support of presidential candidates than to sing and dance?

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raben@stolaf.edu

Source: http://www.manitoumessenger.com/arts-and-entertainment/2012/11/09/music-on-trial-4/

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