2008 March 17 archive at RunawayJim.org

Over the weekend, I picked up Super Smash Bros. Brawl for my Nintendo Wii. I have to say that this game has some serious potential. It’s not as easy to pick up and play like fighting games I’ve been used to in the past (like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter), but it’s a fun game. The cool thing about this is it’s the first Wii game I have that I can play over the internet.

The game has a few modes. You can play single player tournament style, a single player adventure game (which I have yet to try), multi player with up to 4 players, or Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi let’s you play over the internet. You get a friend code and can connect to play with your friends or you can play over the internet with other people. Since I only know 2 others with the game, I played a couple matches over the internet with random people. Let me say that I suck. I need to spend some time playing with all the characters and learning their various strengths and weaknesses.

The controls are nothing special and don’t really use any of what makes the Wii special, but that doesn’t make it a bad game. I have been playing using the remote and nunchuk. I wish the game used more of the “Wii controls”, like shaking the remote or nunchuk to do something, but you just press buttons, using the control stick on the nunchuck to move your character. It’s not a 3D game, so you only move side to side and can jump up and down, which makes sense. It might be easier to play using the Game Cube controller or the Classic Controller for the Wii. I’ll continue to play and get used to the controls, but man, my hands hurt after playing for a while.

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As always seems the case with me (mainly because of other stuff going on), I’m playing catch up.

Last night, Susan and I split the bottle of Hoppin’ Frog B.O.R.I.S. the Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout (BORIS stands for Bodacious Oatmeal Russian Imperial Stout) that we picked up at Yankee Spirits over the weekend. We had never heard of Hoppin’ Frog and she likes Oatmeal Stouts, so we decided to try it. I’m glad we did. It pours a thick black with a thin dark tan head. There is very little carbonation present. Smells of roasted coffee and chocolate. It’s thick and slightly oily in the mouth with a nice roasted flavor. There’s a lot of bitter chocolate and coffee flavors, along with a slight caramel sweetness. It had the nice smoothness of an Oatmeal Stout mixed in with the power of a RIS. This is one flavorful beer and definitely worth the purchase. Hoppin’ Frog is a brewery from Akron, Ohio. It’s good to see more of the midwestern beers making their way to the Northeast.

Saturday night, I had my bottle of Burton Bridge Empire India Pale Ale. The bottle says that this English India Pale Ale was brewed using the recipe of the original IPA, which was used to make a stronger, more hopped beer to last the voyage overseas for British soldiers and colonies. Now, I will say that English IPA’s tend not to be quite as hoppy as their American cousins. That’s not a bad thing (unless you need that hops flavor). This beer was no different, though it does have a different taste. It’s bottle conditioned, so it had a lot of yeast taste to it. It says to let the sediment settle to the bottom, and I had let it sit for a good 5-10 minutes after removing it from the fridge (where it also sat). I guess the sediment in this one is in suspension most of the time as it wasn’t clear. Anyway, the flavor was nice and malty with a little hops and the yeast added a little tartness to it. It had a slight bready mouthfeel and smelled a little on the sweet side with a hint of lemon. It was good, though I don’t know if I’ll buy it again for the price ($5+ for a 500 ml bottle).

I don’t remember when I had my Long Trail Double Bag, and I don’t have an exact writeup about it. It’s a stronger Altbier than the regular Long Trail Ale. The label calls it a German Sticke. The beer is really good. That’s, unfortunately, all I can say. If you see it, buy some. It’s worth it. Long Trail is one of the single most underrated breweries in my opinion. Their beers are solid, they just don’t brew anything really extreme (though the Double Bag is 7.2%), which shouldn’t be held against them. I’m hoping to do a tour of their brewery in Vermont on my honeymoon in June (yes, we’re being different and going to Vermont).

Finally, on Wednesday, I had Einbecker Schwarzbier. This dark lager wasn’t anything special. It poured a brown color with very little head. The beer had a very malty aroma, though nothing really stuck out. It had a light flavor of slight chocolate with a hint of caramel. I wasn’t overly impressed with this one. It was too light for my tastes and I’ve had other schwarzbiers that I liked much better (Sam Adams Black Lager and Monschof).

That should do it for now. Perhaps I’ll write more tonight. I think I’ll start down my small IPA collection that I’ve been building.

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