E3 2010: Additional Game Impressions

Here's My quick thoughts on some additional games that were on display at E3 but not shown off during the conferences.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS): The N64 classic and self proclaimed best game in the universe will be released on Nintendo's new handheld system. I never played the original game as I didn't get into the Zelda series until Wind Waker. All I've heard about this game is that its really good and the water temple is bitch, which apparently is going to be made a tad easier in this version.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Really..another Kingdom Hearts game? I love the series but they're really just stalling with the third game. We've already got a prequel coming on the PSP and two handheld titles that take place between the first and second games. Its unknown where in the timeline the game will take place in, but I'll probably play and at least the 3DS's analog nub will make the game more playable than the DS iteration of the series that came out last year.

Sonic Colors (Wii and DS): This looks like it takes what worked about the sonic levels in the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed and made them into their own game. Sonic has some power-ups to use that don't seem to impede the gameplay so is shaping up to be a pretty good title...lets just hope that Sega doesn't predictably mess this up...

Marvel vs Capcom 3 (PS3, Xbox 360): I guess this is the Vs. Capcom's series answer to Street Fighter IV. I don't play Marvel vs Capcom 2 that much but I might give this a shot when my fighting game friends get a hold of this.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (Multiple Platforms): This is just further devaluing of the Star Wars series. The purpose of the first game's plot was to bridge the gap from the prequel series to the original movies so making a sequel to that seems kinda pointless...I did kinda like that game, so I'll check this one out in spite of my bitching...

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (Multiple Platforms): seems to play more like the DS games than an actual continuation of the original series, but I'm intrigued by the episodic content and my fondness for the series pretty much forces me to want to download this. If I had a choice between Sonic Colors or this, I'd guess I'd go with this one.

Okamiden (DS): I still need to finish the Wii version of Okami before I can even try this, but I like what played in that game and I hope this handheld version doesn't disappoint.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Miniland Mayhem (DS): Sadly, this game continues the Mini Mario gameplay that second game used...I want them to go back to the Donkey Kong Arcade style gameplay from the first game.

Star Fox 64 3D (3DS): WooHoo! I love Star Fox 64 and having a portable version of it is a dream come true. I don't know what will be added to the game other than 3d effects but I hope it doesn't mess up with what made the original game.

And so E3 2010 comes to a close...

E3 2010: Nintendo Impressions

Wow...that's all I really can say about Nintendo's press conference. It truly feels like this year was an apology for the last two years of so-so and just terrible E3 showings. Nintendo rocketed back into what they do best, showing off great games. The best thing about the conference was that long dormant home console franchises are getting Wii games this year and almost every game they presented seemed worth checking out.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: So the first official Zelda game made specifically for the Wii was finally unveiled and it looked great. The graphical style seemed to combine the cel shading of Wind Waker and the more detailed Twilight Princess. The Wii Motion Plus is required to play the game and apart from a new beetle item, what they showed here was just generic Zelda gameplay, though there is a twist to typical story that has yet to revealed. The game is slated for release sometime next year.

Mario Sports Mix: Mario's sole game for the time being. After going on two proper adventures, the plumber finally takes a break and goes back to all the sports plaaying we usually have to put up with inbetween those big adventures. The difference this time is that instead of the whole game focusing on one sport, there are at least 3 sports on display: hockey, volleyball, and a second go round with basketball. The game will also release sometime next year.

Wii Party and Just Dance 2: Nintendo showed how fair they've moved from casual gamers as these were the only two games aimed directly at them during the show. From what was shown, Wii Party is just Mario Party with the Miis and Just Dance 2 is...well Just Dance 2. Neither of them were interesting but neither of them looked horrible either.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: The Golden Sun DS title that they showed off last year and haven't given any info on since has finally gotten a trailer, the subtitle of "Dark Dawn" and vague release date of this holiday season. If there's one thing that really bugged me about Nintendo's conference its was their failure to set a concrete release date for anything. Anyway, the trailer looks cool and I can't wait to try it.

Goldeneye 007: A semi remake of that popular N64 game. The only thing I know has been changed for sure is that James Bond's Pierce Brosnan appearance had been updated to that of the current James Bond: Daniel Craig. Never played the original game so this should be a treat.

Epic Mickey: This one kinda disappointed me, mainly because the pre-release screen shots and character models looked really dark and steampunk like, while the material shown to us here didn't reflect any of this. I guess that just wasn't in this portion of the game. What was shown was very straight forward platforming material and that is enough to get me a little interested in it.

Kirby's Epic Yarn: I was so happy for this game's announcement. Kirby hasn't stared in a home console platformer for over a decade (Kirby 64 was the last one). The game's art style is incredibly unique what with everything looking like strands of yarn. It also looks like Kirby's traditional vacuum ability has been altered in some fashion. I can wait to get my hands on this one this holiday.

Metroid: Other M: Some actually gameplay footage was shown in the new trailer and it still looks cool, but they didn't say anything new about the game Nintendo had had already been releasing info about the game throughout the past year. In one of the few release dates given, the game will launch August 31st.

Donkey Kong Country Returns: Retro Studios, the people behind the excellent Metroid Prime series are working a revival of the original Donkey Kong Country series. The classic team-up of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong returns and lots of elements of the previous country titles as will as Donkey Kong 64 show here. I'm looking forward to its release this holiday (so tired of that vague release date)

Nintendo 3DS: So, this is it. Nintendo's successor to the DS. its capable of 3d images without the need of those dumbass glasses. I can't really say anything about this because the problem of the showing of a device like this is I can't talk about it without playing it myself. It looks cool and the analog stick is an interesting addition (maybe Super Mario 64 DS will actually play well now) and the graphics shown off were amazing for a handheld. I want to try it out.

Kid Icarus: Uprising: Everyone's really excited for this 3DS launch title as the first title in the franchise since some game boy game released in like 1991 or something. I'm not terribly excited in it since I never played either Kid Icarus game and what I saw of the original wasn't that great. I did notice a lot of voice acting (for a handheld Nintendo game) and It the games premise seems interesting enough to give the game a shot.

So yeah, Nintendo really stepped up their game this year.

E3 2010: Ubisoft Impressions

Ubisoft's press conference was better than EA's and most certainly better than the one they had last year were James Cameron talked for roughly 15 mins about his Avatar movie. They still have a bit of a problem spending too much time on one game as the conference ran for 90 mintues when it could have easily been done in an hour.They kept Joel Mchale as the host of the show which was great since I adore everything that man does, even though he still feels out of his element here. As for the games themselves they were pretty intriguing and I could I see myself trying some of these games out in the future.

Child of Eden: They spent roughly 5 and half minutes on Tetsuya Mizuguchi using the Kinect to basically play what looked like a first person version of Rez. I sure it will be a fun little diversion game but it didn't need as much face time as it got.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: Once again, I need to play the previous two games first, which I might do since I can get both for under 50 bucks. This looks to be a lot more action oriented than the last two games, and could be a decent filler game until the inevitable third installment rears it head.

Shawn White Skateboarding: So I guess Shawn White is suppose to be the new Tony Hawk since he seems to everywhere now-a-days. Apparently that snowboarding game he released a few years ago did well enough to allow him to do a skateboarding follow-up (I didn't know he was a skater). I was actually impressed as it appears to take all the good aspects of the Tony Hawk games that the Tony Hawk games seem to have forgotten. There's also an odd "De Blob" vibe to it as the levels have you skating the life and color back into a black and white area. They only announced this for the Wii but I'm sure it's going be on PS3 and 360 as well.

BattleTag (have no clue what this is called): This is an odd one, its not really a video game, it's just laser tag in the comfort of your own home. The tv screen keeps score and there's some weird brick that you scan with your gun in a race. I don't think this will really work because most people don't have enough space in their homes for the action that the players were showing off. They didn't even bother telling us what systems this would be on, but they did say it would be out by the end of the year.

Innergy: Some breathing exercise game that I believe uses the Wii vitality sensor, didn't' really look that interesting and its main purpose is to help you relax.

Two Games that I don't care about: After the Innergy thing, They spend what seemed like 15 mintues going on about You Shape Fitness Evolved...again...why...I dont' think anyone gives a crap about your Wii Fit rip-off. Then they covered a new game in the Ghost Recon series, but apart from some aspects of the Splinter Cell series, I don't really care about Tom Clancey games.

Raving Rabbids: Travel in Time: I thought that Rabbids Go Home game from last year was suppose to be the end of this series, but I guess not. Heard that game was pretty good, so I should check that one out sometime. All that's really known about this game is that it involves time travel and will be released November 9th.

Driver: San Francisco: I doubt this will be any good, because I've never heard anything good about this series. I notice about this was that you're constantly chasing after you're arch nemesis and there are tons of side missions to preform.

Project Dust: I have no clue what this is suppose to be, but it is pretty and could have the potential to be really good. It comes out on the PS3 and 360 next year.

Rayman Origins: Finally...poor Rayman has gotten out of the shadow of those Raving Rabbids games and returned to making platformers. All that was really shown was that game will be hand drawn in manner reminiscent of Wario Land: Shake It. Don't have too much hands on experience with the Rayman game, but I've heard good things.

Michael Jackson: This is basically Ubisoft's early Just Dance Wii game with Michael Jackson. I think they were hinting that they had this in development before Michael's death, but I'm a skeptic.

Seems like Ubisoft's got some great games to complement the big three's titles.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

For the first time, Nintendo has released two 3D Mario platformers on the same console and like most people I couldn't be happier. I really could just repost my blog about the first Mario Galaxy, as for all intents and purposes, this is the same game with a few additions. This is largely way I wasn't too thrilled about the prospects of a Galaxy sequel when it was announced at E3 last year. But the fact that my only really complaint is that its more of the same is really a petty gripe when that "more of the same" is some of the best gameplay of this console generation.

Much like the first game, the level design in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is unparalleled and, ultimately, the real heart of the whole experience. From the familiarity of spontaneously shifting gravity and bounding across miniature planets to newer takes on the classic haunted mansion and drills that allows Mario to go through planets, Super Mario Galaxy 2 keeps the most memorable level varieties from the first title and combines them with some fresh ideas. Despite sometimes having to combine patience with split second timing, the level design remains extremely intuitive, rarely leaving you guessing where to go next. One of my only complaints with the first Super Mario Galaxy was the lack of difficulty. The whole experience was rich and rewarding, but it was hardly a challenge. While doing the bare minimum to save Peach and finish the game in Galaxy 2 is only a tad more difficult, going for full 100% completion of 242 stars can actually put you to the test from time to time. The final star in particular may be the hardest thing the franchise has presented in years.

The biggest (and my favorite) addition to the game is that of Yoshi. My favorite game character shows up immediately on the first level is loads of fun as you get to devour enemies and use power-ups such as speed-inducing peppers and blueberries that turn him into a blimp. I have to give the developers credit as they give Yoshi far more to do, and by that logic, far more respect than they did in New Super Mario Bros Wii. While Mario’s bee and spring power-ups return, There's some new tricks in the form of Cloud and Rock Mario and succeed in their role to aid in the solutions to platforming puzzles that are fun, challenging, but never hinder the momentum of the game.

Something I really adored about this game was all shout outs and references to previous Mario games. Some familiar foes return from the first game, along with some older baddies from the rogue’s gallery and treat to see a lot of them make the transition to 3D for the first time (like the Hammer Bros.). There were plenty of nerd-out moments for me as noticed things like the laser statues from Mario 3, or the fact that first the Yoshi level looks like something straight out of Mario World (the game in which he made his debut). While New Super Mario Bros Wii used nostalgia as a shield and was basically the whole experience, Galaxy 2 uses it to enhance the game and present those old memories in new fashion. The only thing that keeps this game from being better than first for me is simply the fact that as a sequel, it doesn't wow and impress as much the original did. So yeah, I like the first game a little better, but its follow is pretty close. Its still easily one of the best games of the year.

Donkey Kong Country

There was a lot of hype surrounding Donkey Kong Country when it was first released. The CGI visuals were a cut above what SNES owners were used to at the time and the game seemed to give the Super Nintendo a much needed second wind. Over 15 years later, the graphics are still great but they can't save the game from any criticisms it may receive. It this case the only really complaint I can muster is that, apart from the graphics and despite putting many unique ideas on the table, it still feels like a rather generic platformer. A complaint that I can only really guess comes from my enjoyment of the sequels.

Donkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platformer like Mario. DK and Diddy can dispatch enemies by rolling through them, pouncing on them, or by tossing barrels at them. Each character has his unique strengths. DK can dispatch larger enemies that Diddy merely bounces off of, while Diddy can jump a little higher. What the game does do differently is that the different things you can do in each level help keep the journey lively. Each stage has its own theme, like swimming underwater, riding in mine carts, or launching your character out of barrel-cannons. There are secret passageways that lead to bonus games where you can earn bananas and balloons(extra lives). In many places, there are crates that contain animals that you can ride and control anything from a rampaging rhino and a bouncing frog to a swimming swordfish and a flying ostrich. Over a decade has passed since this game's original release and although some of the shine has dulled it still manages to be a fun diversion. The first game in the series may not in the same league as Super Mario World, but Donkey Kong Country still ranks as one of the better platformers out there.

Super Mario Galaxy

Mario Galaxy is the Wii's primary proper Mario Game...and it is glorious. This was especially a relief after the somewhat lackluster Mario Sunshine. No much has changed in Galaxy compared to the previous Mario 3D Platformers. Bowser has captured the princess (I know...big shocker)and you explore levels to find power stars, which unlock more levels with yet more stars. Find enough to defeat Bowser and finish the game. Of course the big difference this time around is that all of this occurs in the vastness of deep space. Contrary to what a lot of pre-release coverage of the game showed, you spend only a small part of the game in full blown space areas. More in line with prior Mario games, you'll explore tropical paradises, the arctic, dangerous lava worlds, and ghost houses...that just happen to be in space. Just flying through space from one location to another, or speeding through the air across the surface of a full size level never fails to impress.

I think what really makes the gameplay work is the fact that they decided to work in a lot more linearity within each level. While Mario 64 and Sunshine's levels gave you a clue and left you to explore a large 3D area to find the star, the levels in galaxy have more of a point A to point B progression. In a sense, it makes the stages almost as action and platforming oriented as the sidescrollers were. You may be able to wander off slightly to get extra coins or power ups, but the level designs won't let you stray too far from where the designers want you to go. That's not to say you won't ever have situations where you can freely explore a level, but that's no longer the primary gameplay style.

While space serves as the primary setting differation from previous games, gravity fulfills the gameplay hook, and it works surprisingly well. I don't think it was completely necessary to be included, but it does at least set the game apart. While the camera does an excellent job in general, some small sections can be a bit disorienting, like exploring tiny planetoids while held by their weak gravity, but it's something you quickly adjust to and some levels open up into larger areas where gravity rules don't tend to matter as much. And in stages where you might be disoriented by something, the game tends to be pretty forgiving about not letting you fall to your death just because of disorientation. Fortunately, occasional disorientation doesn't effect the controls, which are excellent and for the most part, feel like playing any other Mario game. You've got the usual jumping, ground pounding, long jumps, triple jumps, wall jumps, and there's now a spin attack you use by flicking your wrist a little bit.

The only slight negatives I can think of is the game isn't that difficult. The game is extremely forgiving in most cases and even the most challenging stars can be obtained after three or four tries. The bosses, while fun, don't put up much of a fight, almost all of them going down after 3 hits (and the final Bowser fight - 6 hits). They've also lowered the minimum amount of stars required to finish the game, lowering it down to a mere 60 stars. Another negative is that they didn't really do much with star bits. Star bits are basically jewels that are scattered all over each level and can be obtained by beating enemies with a spin attack. Collecting enough lets you unlock some special stages. All you have to do is wave your remote so that the cursor passes over them to collect. It feels like it was only there to slow stage progression a bit and to give the possible second player something to do while watching and it adds nothing to the game.

I guess I can't talk about this game without also mentioning its technical achievements. Mario Galaxy is just straight up the Wii's best-looking game and it's just so visually accomplished that it looks almost as good as many 360/PS3 games. The simple art style certainly helps, but Nintendo pushes the technical boundaries of its console here, as well. Specular maps, real-time reflections and a ton of other technical feats are executed deftly here and it all rounds out at a smooth 60 frames, and I've never encountered any slowdown. It also helps that practically all the galaxies have a totally different look from another, making it fresh throughout the entire adventure. As if that wasn't enough, Super Mario Galaxy's soundtrack is an impressive assortment of orchestrated themes. All the pieces are epic, sweeping and have a distinct Mario tone to it all. It's also quite dynamic in some places as well. And of course there are a few remixes of classic themes that older fans like myself will definitely appreciate. If you can't tell by now, I adore this game. It's beautiful, it's fun, it combines the best of old and new, and it's one of the best entries in the Mario series.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

No More Heroes 2 is a bit of milestone for Suda 51 as it is the first sequel to one of his titles. Suda seemed to flip flop in various interviews over his desire for a follow-up to No More Heroes, but clearly he decided to go full steam ahead to continue the adventures of Travis Touchdown. The fact that this is his first sequel was fairly apparent as I made my through NMH2 as it is a decent yet not very fulfilling following up. The game more or less follows the same gameplay pattern as the first game. Travis once again finds himself having to kill a bunch of ranked assassins to reach the #1 rank." Like before, you have to hack and slash your way through a bunch of henchmen using various beam katanas. There's some new power ups for getting kills, most noticeably (and most fun) is Travis turning into a tiger and mauling enemies in one hit.

Unfortunately, a lot of the combat that shined in the first outing has been dumbed down, removed, or made nearly useless. First of all, doing a Dark Step (a sort-of counterattack) has been made so difficult this time around that it's almost completely absent from the game. This ends up making combat less about intense close range fights and more about dodging projectiles and when most of the enemies in the game have guns and shoot from off-screen, it turns into one frustrating mess). Travis's speed also seems to have been a bit toned down this time around as it just never feels as fluid as the first game. The bosses also take a slight dip in quality. They lack the sense of distinction and creativity of the original bosses. Gone are the lengthy monologues from the bosses of the first game, who managed to leave such a big impression and show surprising character development despite their limited screen time. Almost all bosses this time around are fought in generic environments, and the strategy to beating them all is mostly the same. The bosses are lacking any sense of a personality and most fail to leave any sort of impression. The game, quite simply throws the bosses at you. You see them, they attack you, you beat them, go the next level, lather, rinse, repeat.

One of the few improvements of the original is that open world aspect of the game has been completely removed. You no longer travel through the city to reach your destinations between battles, now you simply select them on a map screen. Though you can still do side jobs for money, this time around you don't need money to progress through the game, as ranked battles stages are now free. Money can be used to buy clothes and beam katanas for Travis, and also can be used to upgrade his Strength and Vitality by working out at the gym. Some of the new jobs are a lot of fun. The side jobs are cleverly designed "retro mini-games" that you play every time you begin a job or work out. They range from cooking burgers for people to killing bugs. Some of these are pretty fun but most of them are pretty terrible and only serve to make me happen that 8-bit gaming is in the past.

The big problem with the game is that the developers removed a lot of the previous game's features and didn't replace them with anything new. They've dumbed down the combat and bosses and removed the open world aspects and the game ends up giving us only like 5 more bosses in return. You can still do bonus killing missions for hire, but you don't get any real money for it, so motivation for doing them is pretty nonexistent. There's two additional playable characters, but they do anything worthwhile and seem like wasted space. Despite all these complaints, The core experience is still intact and I still had fun with this game. The gameplay, while not as magical is still fun especially when you start duel-wielding. And it's also great to see everyone back together and the dynamic between some of these characters is pretty awesome. It's just sad that we've got such a dumbed down experience. Suda said that if this going to more No More Heroes, its going to be on Nintendo's next console and even though this game was slight disappointment, I'll still look forward to it.

No More Heroes

Suda 51 is well known for delivering unique game experiences. His previous work, "Killer 7" is usually noted as either one of the best or memorable games on the Gamecube. Its successor "No More Heroes" is pretty much noted for the same thing on the Wii, becoming one of those go to recommendations for people looking for great third party titles for the system. The story follows American oktau Travis Touchdown, an assassin trying to become the #1 assassin in the UUA organization. Travis is aided by the beautiful woman, Silvia Cristel. Silvia is willing to help Travis become #1 by setting up each ranked fight for him. Travis makes a deal with Silvia that if he becomes number 1, her and Travis will have sex. That's pretty much the bulk of the story for the entire game. As per usual with Suda 51 games, things get stranger and more interesting as the game goes on. Also just as usual for Suda 51 games and perhaps the best thing about the game is sense of style and personality...saving the game involves Travis taking a dump for instance. The cel-shaded graphics combined with a punk style make this game stand out from anything else on the market. The game is filled with references to anime, Star Wars, and pop culture in general. Suda's character designs are all very original and nice to look at and every character from Travis to the ranked assassins has his/her own peculiar and engaging personality.

The gameplay in of itself isn't as unique as the game's presentation as it's basically just a hack n slash mixed with some weak open world elements. The main stages have you slicing and dicing your way through a bunch of generic enemies to reach the boss at the end...that pretty much it for all the main levels, but they're a real treat despite the repetition. To defeat enemies, Travis combines his sword swinging skills with some good ol' wrestling moves. Surprisingly for a Wii game, generic attacking is not done by swinging the wii-remote instead the A button is for your sword and the B button is for punching/kicking. Get the enemies health low enough with sword attacks and an arrow will appear on the screen directing you to swing the wii-mote in a certain direction. Complete this action to slice your foes in half or decapitate them. These kinds of finishing moves cause the enemies blood to spray everywhere just to reminder you that this is an M-rated Wii game. After each one of these kills there will be a slot machine that spins at the bottom of the screen. If all three symbols match up Travis will enter Dark Side Mode and gain special powers (Each attack is named after a dessert for some reason) for quick kills. The bosses are another thing that make this game great, in fact they're pretty much the game's bread and butter. At the end of each stage you will fight a ranked assassin in order to move up in the assassin ranks. Each boss fight is different and a lot of fun and some of them can pose quite a challenge.

As for the open world aspect, its easily the biggest weak point to the game. Santa Destroy is presented as a large Grand Theft Auto-ish world to explore, but in reality all you can do is travel from location to location, kick dumpsters to find money and clothes, dig for money, and collect balls that you trade in for abilities. To enter each assassin battle level, you have pay a large sum of money and do so you get jobs. One job is unlocked after each assassin you defeat. These are typical jobs such as mowing lawns and wiping spray paint off buildings. The majority of these jobs are completed by using simple wii-mote gestures and they range from pretty enjoyable to outright terrible. It doesn't help they don't pay that much and the mini games get old quick. Luckily after you complete certain jobs you'll unlock assassin assignments to earn a bit more cash. These missions just involve killing standard enemies in a time limit and despite being not that different from the main part of the game, these also seem to get a little tiring. All the open world portion of the game does is make you beg to get on to one of main stages. Overall though, No More Heroes is a great game with style and personality that manages to mask some of its minor flaws. The sequel has just been released and I hope it'll be just as addicting as this little gem.

Best Games of 2009

2009 was a relatively decent year in games or at least it was in terms of what I played. My lack of job meant I couldn't try out many new titles and my lack of a PS3 until just last week ensured I was unable to play the system that seemed to have the best year as far as exclusives were concerned. The Wii and 360 had almost nothing to offer in terms of big titles...well the 360 actually had two Halo games, but I have no interest in that series. There was a pretty strong showing for multi-platform releases and I guess any year that gives me a proper Mario game and a Ratchet and Clank title couldn't be all bad. Now that I've got a job and PS3 maybe I can go back and play some of the year's big releases.

Best Games of 2009

5. [Prototype] (Multi-Platform)

Though the missions get repetitive and the difficulty somewhat spirals out of control in the last few missions, this is a pretty fun open world game. The sheer variety of moves that you can unlock and preform is staggering and something as simple as traversing the city is a blast. This game is often compared to PS3 game Infamous, but since I haven't played that yet I can't really say which is the better anti-hero game, but Prototype is a solid action game.

4. Metroid Prime Trilogy (Nintendo Wii)

I wasn't sure at first whether to count this, as it sort of seems like cheating. I haven't reviewed it yet, and I'm not going to cover it as a single package. After all, it's not one game, it's three, All of which I've already played before. But even with the old content, I still got more fun out of it than most of what I played this year. Metroid Prime is still one of my favorite games of all time,. A fun shooter with a wonderful atmosphere. Metroid Prime 2 is still kind of a letdown with it overuse of backtracking, and Metroid Prime 3 makes up for the second game and is fun closure to great trilogy. Sure I'm kind of cheating, but The Metroid Prime Trilogy is the best gaming value you can get for your money this year.

3. New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo Wii)

This is a pretty personal choice, as New Super Mario Bros Wii didn't do anything to push the franchise forward, it's just another solid entry in one of my favorite series. The game is kind of lazy in the sense that it doesn't have any new ideas of own, it just reuses old standbys from the series's past. The new items are fun and the co-op mode, while annoying at times is fun in a screw around with your friends way. It's not the best Mario game, but its certainly a fun one.

2. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)

Ratchet & Clank is right up there with Mario as one of my favorite franchises, so luckily I had a friend with a PS3 who bought the game and though I didn't complete it, I was still able to play enough of it to gather my opinion of it. A Crack in Time doesn't alter the gameplay formula of the series, it just continues the run of gaming goodness that the series excels at. It had been some time since I played a new Ratchet game (2005's Deadlocked was the last for me), but I settled right into the groove as soon as the game started, blowing up everything in sight, collecting experience, and just having a fun time. I've got a PS3 now and I'm working through the earlier PS3 Ratchet entries and I must say this series is still a treat.

1. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Nintendo DS)

And the best game of year is actually a handheld title. The Mario & Luigi series has always been a strong series and this third outing may easily be the best. The Mario RPGs have always allowed the writers to throw the Mario cast into bizarre scenarios and Bowser's Inside Story may be the most bizarre. The narrative goes in so many strange and wonderful directions and its all surprisingly funny. The combat is more involved than most RPGs on the market and getting to actually fight as King Bowser is more fun than it has any right to be. It's a very enjoyable experience I think that there should more games as unique as this.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up (Review)

I've been meaning to talk about this one for a while. I approached Smash-Up with some trepidation. Modern Ninja Turtle games aren't that good for one thing and the game seemed way too similar to Super Smash Bros Brawl for its own good. I went the safe route and gave the game a rental and despite my low expectations, I still want my four dollars back. The game was created by most of the same people who worked on Smash Bros, hence the similarities. The only real difference is that while knocking characters out of the arena still counts as a knock out, the characters do have health bars that can be depleted like in a standard fighter.

The game suffers largely from poor controls. The characters' movements are stiff and somehow their jumps are ridiculously floaty. Running and dropping down through platforms are executed by double-tapping, which is awkward in a fast-paced fighting game. The gameplay of Smash Up is characterized by frustrating starts and stops. It take too damn long for a characters' attacking animation to register, so attacking is a pain to do and even worse is the fact that it takes far too long to get up once you are knocked down. I guess its also worth mentioning the stupid wall jump that I thought years of platformers had perfected, but apparently this game is completely clueless as to how the simple maneuver should function. The poor designs choices of some of the arenas make all of these control flaws even worse, most notably the crappy auto-scrolling train stage which tosses characters all over the place.

There's some god-awful mini games that appear in the main arcade mode that seriously make me wonder if anyone on the production staff even checked their work. Really, there's like six of these and none of them are anything good. You can unlock characters by finishing the arcade mode, but the characters are all too similar to one another with little diversity between their fighting styles. I'd have to say if there's one thing that's particularly bad about Smash-Up is just that its boring. The game doesn't even have some form of nostalgia to back it up since as the game "proudly" exclaims, its the first turtles game not based on any show, comic, or movie. Well, maybe if it was there would have been something to enjoy about the game. It wouldn't have been much, but it would have been a tad better than garbage...junk maybe?

New Super Mario Bros Wii (Review)

In a lot of ways, I'm really confused about how I feel about this game. At the very least, it's a huge improvement over the somewhat ho-hum Ds predecessor and is more suited as the proper follow-up to the classic Mario side-scrollers. The game delivers the quality I've come to expect from the main series of Mario titles. But this game also managed to reveal to me why it's took so long to have more 2-d Mario outings...they simply don't have new material anymore. This is somewhat understandable, Mario 3 and Mario World are considered to be the high point of the platforming genre (and gaming in general to some people) so it would be very hard to follow up on such nearly flawless outings as those. New Super Mario Bros Wii is basically a retread of those two games and that's not really a bad thing. Nintendo could very well keep releasing something like this every three to five years and I'd probably be satisfied, but I just wouldn't be as impressed anymore...as was the case here.

Apart from the co-op mulitplayer and the incredible final boss battle, the game doesn't do enough to stand out on it's own. Most of the game is simply filled with shout-outs to the earlier games. The Koopalings, the airships, the final battle from Mario World, the enemies roaming about on the map screen, and the criminally brief reappearance of Yoshi, these are all from earlier titles and with the exception of the Koopalings who are at least a bit harder here than in Mario World, these elements were much better when they were used nearly 20 years ago. That said, it's still nice to see some of these elements return and the new items are ten times better than ones from the Ds outing. There's a propeller suit that makes you fly, an ice flower that's the same as the fire flower...only with ice, and a penguin suit that also allows you to shoot ice and slide around. The items are still more or less tools to get the optional star coins, but they're able to function in traversing stages and attacking adversaries.

The big addition to this game is the co-op mode where two to four people work together or against each other to finish the stage. Having played through the game by myself and with two other friends, I have to say that it's much easier to play alone, but a hell of a lot more fun to play with friends. Most of the difficulty of the co-op mode comes from the other players getting in the way and otherwise disturbing the flow of the game, but it's just so damn funny to watch your friends miss a jump that you passed or toss them into a pit. My friends and I nearly died laughing and while it got a little annoying at times, we all agreed that co-op mode was amusing.
Overall, despite all my complaints, New Super Mario Bros Wii is still a solid outing for the plumber and one of the better games released this year. Apart for Mario Galaxy 2 (which appears to be nothing more than an expansion pack), I'm not sure what's next for the Mario franchise, but I'll eagerly look forward to it.

Super Metroid (Review)

Super Metroid was the third game released in the Metroid series, but is the seventh game in the series's timeline. The game's story ties together elements from the original game and the Game Boy sequel. The game sees Samus returning to planet Zebes and entering the Space Pirate's base. She finds a lone Metroid in a room which is instantly captured and is taken somewhere deep within Zebes, with Samus in pursuit to find out where the Metroid has been taken and why. The story isn't that interesting, as is the case with most Nintendo games, but the story does take place on the same planet as the first game so I got to see some familiars enemies and places. The game not only uses the worlds from the original game but expands on them. Many of the repeated rooms have also been re-designed, providing the right balance of nostalgia and new challenges, which was something I enjoyed.

Not much has changed since the first game, you're still exploring the depths of the planet, killing alien enemies, finding new power-ups to help you progress. As with most sequels there are new power-ups like the speed booster which lets you crash through certain walls, the power bomb, which destroys extremely hard surfaces and the very helpful X-ray visor, which lets you finds hidden paths and power-ups. A lot of people have often referred to Super Metroid as the best game in the Metroid franchise and one of the best games of all time and maybe because that's the only thing I ever hear when someone talks about the game, I find it rather easy to disagree. While exploration is the main hook of the series, it's still way too easy to get stuck/lost with no clue where to go. While this did help me feel fustration in the same way Samus was probably feeling, it's not fun to be at a complete loss of what to do for long periods of time. Also some of Samus's abilities control like crap, I'm mostly referring to the untrustworthy grapple beam and the dreadful to use wall jump. Despite those complaints, Super Metroid is still a wonderful game filled with top-notched gameplay and an haunting atmosphere. Definitely one of the Super Nintendo's best titles and one of the better games on the Wii's virtual console.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Review)

Super Mario RPG was the last Mario game produced for the Super Nintendo. It was a joint project between Nintendo and Square-Enix and was the first RPG for the Mario franchise. This game was not very well known because it was released only months before the N64, so nobody gave it any attention. Luckily, I got the game for a birthday present and though it took me a while to figure out how to play it (I was 8 and it was the first RPG I ever played), it became one of my favorite games. Those that played it considered it to be one of the best games of all time and really wanted Nintendo to put it on the Wii's Virtual Console. The game was finally released on the Virtual Console last September and everyone who missed out on it got to see what all the fuss was about. Meanwhile, I played through it and found the game to be just as amazing as it was way back then.

The game's RPG roots allowed for the Mario storyline to be properly expanded for the first time. The story starts like a typical Mario game with Mario going to save Princess Peach from Bowser. Once Mario is about to rescue her, a giant sword falls from the sky crashing into Bowser's castle. The crash sends Mario, Bowser, and Peach flying in all different directions and Mario ventures off to find Peach. Eventually, Mario meets a spirit in the form of a doll named Geno who explains that when the sword fell from the sky, it fell through The Star Road spreading the pieces of it everywhere. The Star Road is what grants everyone's wishes and the sword is a henchmen for a alien named Smithy, who plans to get rid of all wishes and replace them with weapons. In 1996, it was definitely refreshing to see a major Mario game that didn't center on saving Peach. The story is well written with plenty of humor, though I don't think the writting is as good as the later RPGs in the series. The game's full of interesting and unique new characters and the classic cast of Mario characters have their personalities defined and expanded. Bowser in particular, steals the show with some truly hilarious dialogue.

The game is pretty much the same as any other RPG. The big difference is that in battle you can use actions called Timed Hits. For example, if you have Mario punch and you press A at the right time while attacking, he will punch twice instead and do extra damage. This also works defensively and with special magic attacks. It's intuitive and it has been implemented in every Mario RPG game since this game. Like other RPGs, you can use magic in battle which take up FP(Flower Points) and when FP is gone, then you'll have to use an item to replenish it. You also can buy or find new Weapons and Armor to equip on your characters. The weapons that you can equip are fun and fit the Mario universe well, like a giant koopa shell, hammers, a star gun (for Geno), and razor claws (for Bowser). The only problem comes with the item storage, you can only carry 30 items and duplicate items don't stack. You'll receive items from battle constantly so it won't be long before you have to start selling/trashing items to make room for better ones.

The overall game is not that difficult, although most of the latter bosses can cause a decent bit of trouble due to some really cheap overpowered special attacks. The game is a fairly decent length running about 7-8 hours, which becomes longer when you explore the game's big overworld to find all the hidden secrets. The game has really great replay value as I've already played through the game several times over since its re-release last year. I've talked about this game a lot longer than I meant to, but that's only because I love this game so much. I say anyone who loves fun games should do themselves a favor and check this one out. It's easily one of the best games in the Mario franchise.

Klonoa (Review)

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for the Playstation is a game many people have hailed as a must play game, so I was pretty excited to get my hands on this Wii remake. It makes sense that Nintendo would release a remake of this game as it has a lot in common with Nintendo's own Kirby series. Both feature a sickeningly cute cast, both take place in some kind of dream world where some kind of nightmare creature is invading, the main villain in this game bares an odd resemblance to the main villain of Kirby's Adventure, and both are incredibly easy platformers that are really solid diversions.

As a platformer all Klonoa really adds to the mix is grabbing and throwing you're enemies, and using you're enemies to jump higher. It's well implemented and helps Klonoa stand out from the pack. He can also use his ears to float for a few seconds, kinda like Yoshi's flutter jump...only not as good. I didn't like that the closest thing to walking for Klonoa was a jog, and this makes the latter stages a bit of an annoyance when trying to make some precise jumps. The game doesn't present any real challenge from beginning to end, but that's unsurprisingly not a big downside as the game (like the Kirby series) is fun enough to overlook that detail. The words that I would use to describe Klonoa are fast, easy, and fun. It's a well made platformer that the Wii needs more of. There's a PS2 sequel that I hope gets remade for the Wii, but if it doesn't I'll definitely find a copy for the PS2.

Mario Kart Wii (Review)

Mario Kart made it's obligatory appearance on the Wii last year, changing up the formula by adding motorcycles to the mix and what could possibly be the best online mode that Nintendo has to offer. The motorcycles are well balanced in the context of the game, though in my opinion their much better to race with than the titular karts. The new tracks as a whole are pretty good, with most of them showing off something intriguing or different (Coconut Mall, Koopa Cape, and Bowser's Castle are the highlights). The retro tracks are a mixed bag. The stages coming from the N64 game are some of the best from that entry, while the DS game is represented with some dull choices from a game that was full of unique stages.

Sadly the game has an extreme problem with continual item abuse. The dreaded blue shell returns along with more overpowered weapons like the POW block, mega mushroom, and a stupid cloud that makes you speed up but shrinks you if you can't pass it off to another player. These items appear way too often and even strip the unlucky victims of their own items. This causes any form of strategy to be thrown out the window in favor of pure luck, especially in the single player grand prix where the A.I basically cheats by using any of the overpowered items every 3 seconds. As a result, I ended most of my play sessions due to sheer frustration and a desire to break things. This item abuse had been a severe problem in the Mario Kart series for 3 games now and while everyone has been constantly complaining about it, it completely baffles me that Nintendo has not only ignored the problem, they've made it worse than ever.

The game still has that excellent gameplay the series is known for and it's a blast to play with friends, but Nintendo really screwed up with the items. I understand that Nintendo is trying to give casual gamers a chance against seasoned players, but giving them super weapons isn't the right way. If this is the direction Nintendo wants to take the series, I seriously doubt I'll want any to do with it anymore.

E3 09: Overall Impressions

Well, E3 ended yesterday although I didn't really pay too much attention to it after the major press conferences ended on Tuesday. After thinking about it for a while I decided that E3 2009 was decent, but nothing mind blowing. Each of the 3 companies had their own strengths and weaknesses which I guess I should elaborate on.

Out of the big 3, I felt that Microsoft was the weakest of the bunch. They didn't have have much to present that wasn't already known or guessed at in some shape or form. More so than any company, Microsoft had the least amount of games to show that were ready for launch during 2008. About 90% of what they had were slated for a 2010 release or later. The games that are coming this year were multi-platform games...so yeah. The thing that pretty much everyone remembers from the conference was Project Natal and to me it doesn't look like it's worth getting extremely excited about. The voice interaction is pure awesome sauce, but the full body motion control aspect only seems to be a little better than the Playstation Eyetoy that was released several years ago and given that what the eyetoy brought to the gaming table wasn't much, I doubt that Natal's implementation in games will be too much to gush over.

Where Microsoft really shined was in the enhancements it was making to the 360's role as an entertainment center. The improvements it's making to the Netflix application is long overdue and should have been there from the start. The facebook addition is pretty cool even though i don't have a facebook (been thinking about it though). And what project natal is going to do the interface of the system is pretty sweet as well.

Nintendo had a lot to make up for after last year's embarrassing showing and they did step it up a little by showing that they had actual games coming out this year (although even if they had only one real game to show, it would be an improvement). The problem is, even more than Microsoft, Nintendo didn't have much to show that we didn't already know about in some way. We already knew that a 2nd New Super Mario Bros was coming, we just didn't know it was going to be mulitplayer and for the Wii. We already knew about another major 3d Mario game coming as well. Only Golden Sun Ds and Metorid: Other M were genuine unknown surprise announcements. Nintendo also spent too much time on junk they've shown before like The Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort.

Also since they've started the whole casual game trend, Nintendo doesn't really know how to do an interesting conference. Seriously, Nintendo's conference felt like a PTA meeting. Nintendo still needs to understand that the casual market their shooting for doesn't watch or care about E3. Nintendo's showings were better than Microsoft's largely because they had decent mix of games that are actually coming this year and games to look forward to in the future. The fact that there are 3 Mario games of actual substance on display (2 platformers and an RPG) is pretty damn impressive and the fact that 2 of them make heavy use of my favorite game character Yoshi is just amazing. Mario may be my favorite game franchise, but I really wish they would have focused a little more on some of their other franchises (The long-awaited Wii Zelda title was revealed to be in development during a roundtable and will released next year at the earliest). Overall Nintendo did pretty well, even though they clearly did the bare minimum to make up for their past failings....just don't get me started on that completely retarded Wii Vitality Sensor...

Sony has never really impressed me with their press conferences. Their E3 presentations aren't bad, their just not that memorable. As such I don't really have too much to comment on with Sony as I did with the other 2. This year was a tad better than their usual showings but not by much so it kinda sad that I feel that Sony had the best presence at E3 this year. Sony had a better balance of stats and games and they revealed the most new games coming out with many interesting features. I felt that Sony's conference had the best structure as well: focusing on the one console at a time as opposed to Nintendo who jumped back and forth between their 2 systems. Although Sony failed to convince me to buy a Psp, I was gald to see them make an admirable attempt to make it appear like a worthwhile handheld (I'm sure it is) and I'm sure that those who own one are thrilled to see some actual games released for the system. If I did get a Psp, I would definitely buy MGS: Peace Walker (In related news since the press conferences, it was announced that the 360 game MGS: Rising is indeed coming to the PS3)

After a few years, the PS3 has finally got a decent number of games and this year's showings have finally convinced me to pick up the system when I have the cash, although Sony's really gonna need to do a price drop first. God of War 3 may not be very different from it predecessors, but at least it's clear that the game is gonna be just as good as what's come before. Like I said in my Sony impressions posts, there was a distinct lack of Ratchet & Clank that really bugged me but I think in the end Sony may have made the right choice focusing on GOW instead since it is higher profile and R&C (much like GOW) hasn't really changed much over the years to really talk about. As for Sony's motion control, if Sony can release some decent software for it, I'm sure it could possibly outdue the Wii Remote...and as I said before at least this thing's implementation in games is more realistic than Project Natal.

So in summation, E3 2009 was okay. Microsoft was the worst to me as they only had about a handful interesting things and most of it won't be out for quite a while, but I won't deny that some of those games mentioned should be pretty good. Nintendo gave their their fans much more interesting stuff unlike last year and Sony just did their thing and came out one top.

Score below is as follows.
CONFERENCE PLACING:
1st: Sony
2nd: Nintendo
3rd: Microsoft

E3 09: Nintendo Impressions

Well...This was a pretty good improvement over last year. Sure Nintendo still had those dull, annoying as hell bragging speeches to bore us with. But Nintendo was a bit more on point to the business of telling us about the games they had coming. Nintendo had a tad more games than Microsoft that I was interested in, but I really wish they would have said a little more about some these games.

New Super Mario Bros Wii: This appears to the major triple A title for the holidays that was long rumored for past couple of months. Co-op Super Mario Bros is something that I feel was long overdue. I'm not super excited for it since this appears to be mostly the same as the Ds game and we've already seen that (plus New Super Mario Bros wasn't my favorite iteration of the series). Also why are the 3rd and 4th players both Toads? Why not Wario or Waluigi? Oh well, its Mario...I'm gonna buy it...and the co-op better be online.

Wii Sports Resorts: Really...they showed us all this game really had to offer last year, but at least it looks a bit more like full game now....Still not gonna buy it though.

Kingdom Hearts Ds: We've known about this game for a while and the press conference didn't tell us anything more than a release date (Sept. 29). I love the Kingdom Hearts series but Chain of Memories for the GBA kinda tainted my feelings for Handheld iterations of the series. But at this one isn't card based so I'll probably buy this when it releases in Sept.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: Another Ds game that we've known about for quite some time as the game has been out in Japan since February. I love the Mario & Luigi rpg games but I don't really have anything to say about this game other than it's release date which was an unannounced date in the fall...why? All they really had to do with the game was localization and Nintendo doesn't really have anything for the summer...so why wait til the fall?

Golden Sun Ds: A nice surprise announcement. The Golden Sun games on the GBA were wonderful and it was a little confusing as to why the series was absent from the DS. Well it's here now and although we were not given a date, it looks nice.

Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again: Wow more Mario stuff...I didn't care for Mario vs Donkey Kong 2. It's lemmings-like gameplay was too much of a departure for me. The one thing was cool about that game was the custom level builder which Minis March Again basically is. It's a downloadable game for the DSI which I don't have and even if I did I probably wouldn't buy it.

The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: They didn't say anything about this game other than "it's good" which wasn't enough for me. I didn't care too much for Phantom Hourglass, the last DS Zelda game, and this looks pretty similar, just with trains instead of a boat. I'm sure it will be good and it will sell well. I'll check it out...but most likely not at launch.

Super Mario Galaxy 2: Wow..just wow. It was pretty much confirmed beforehand that would be a new 3d Mario title on the Wii and here it is. I was hoping that it wouldn't be another Galaxy...but who cares, the first Mario Galaxy is in my opinion one of the best games of this console generation and this seems to just be an extension of that which is fine by me. It also appears to harder than the first one which would address my only real complain against the original. Oh...and Yoshi is the game...which makes things 10 times better. The game will release in 2010...hopefully in the summer.

Metroid Other M: A new Metroid game developed by Team Ninja of all people. It's a nice change of pace from the Prime series and it'll be nice to see this as a sort of what could have been if Metroid Prime had been taken in another direction. It won't come out till next year along with Galaxy 2 so at least there are 2 big games to look forward to next year..finally.

So all in all, Nintendo did pretty well. At least they have actual games coming out this year.

Sonic and the Black Knight (review)

Sonic and the Black Knight is the 2nd game in the pitifully named "Sonic Storybook Series" following from 2007's Sonic and the Secret Rings. I remember enjoying Secret Rings on my first playthrough, it was the first 3D Sonic title to focus solely on Sonic and his trademark speed. As time went on, the game's flaws became more apparent, but I still noted the game to be a step in the right direction. Sonic and the Black Knight decides that instead of simply improving on Secret Rings' flaws, it will give us a sword-swinging mechanic that proves to be fairly entertaining, while keeping some problems of the previous game.

The sword play is manageable, despite being executed in a second rate manner. The swordplay is simplistic and there are not a lot of advanced swordplay techniques added in. You'll mostly be doing the exact same move over and over again to defeat the numerous enemies that lie in front of you, most notably the buzz saw move. Whichever way you swing the remote results in the exact same attack patterns with 2 results: you'll either send Sonic spinning forward killing everything(awesome) or you'll just pull him to a dead stop and get jumped by an enemy (Lame).

The missions you play through are short and unlike Secret Rings, seem to have some remote plot purpose. The thing that really bugs me is the ranking system. Like every other Sonic game since Adventure, Black Knight rates you on performance. The problem is that the game doesn't tell you what you need to do to get 5 star rating resulting in 2 to 3 star ratings even when you defeat every enemy and finish the stage in record time. The only exceptions to this are boss stages where 5 stars are rewarded for not taking damage. This mis-communication transfers over into other areas of the game: mostly the QTEs in the boss battles.

The game is split into 2 parts: Sonic vs the Black Knight and a follow-up part that I won't spoil here. The second half of the game is more interesting than the first and the game itself seems to think so as well since it feels like more a lot more work went into it. The overall game won't take more than 4 to 5 hours which is kind of a blessing because the premise, while fun, runs thin by the end.

The game presents itself well. The graphics are top Wii fare, the opening in particular is a thing of beauty. The animatic like cutscenes are a tad more lively than Secret Rings and are wonderful to watch. Sega also seems to finally understand how their characters should act. Sonic's style and quirks captured almost perfectly. It's wonderful seeing Sonic act this. His remarks and jokes are well done as there are some humorous arguments between Sonic and Caliburn, and the cast really shine throughout the dialogue.

I'm glad I rented Sonic and the Black Knight, the game is too short for a $50 dollar purchase. That said this game is much better than Sonic and Secret Rings. The controls are slightly improved and I enjoyed the small bits of fan service (like the use of Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 theme songs). Sonic games always seems to suffer from rushed developments and that hasn't changed here. If Sega had really put some extra effort into this game, it really could have been some special, but as it stands, Sonic and the Black Knight is just another average outing for the hedgehog.

It's Hard To Be A Nintendo Fan

So a couple of weeks ago Nintendo released a list of about 120 games that will be released on the Wii and DS over the next few months...and it it completely pathetic. out of the 120 games on this list, I found 3 of actual interest: The Conduit, GTA Chinatown Wars, and the re-release of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (Which I missed on the Gamecube). It is worth noting that 2 games that I want, Mad World and Sonic & The Black Knight, weren't on the list possibly because at the time this list was unveiled, the 2 games were about a week from launch.

So if you count those 2 games, then the total number of Nintendo games I want has been bumped up to 5. The remaining 115 games are complete and utter garbage, even from a casual gaming perspective their list is just pure crap. The Wii and Ds started off really strong, producing top quality games for both the casual and hardcore crowds. However, since early 2008, both consoles have produce nothing but garbage for both casual and hardcore. Sure every one in while we get something great like Mario Galaxy or No More Heroes, but their just way too far apart.

Nintendo also seems to be getting incredibly lazy as well. This week marked the launch of the Wii Play Control series, a group of GameCube games revamped to take advantage of the Wii's motion-sensitive controls. Now I know I said I was getting New Play Control Donkey Kong Jungle Beat and some people think that some old Gamecube games are a perfect fit for the Wii controls, but I just think this completely ridiculous and that more time needs to put into new original ideas.

I love Nintendo, but it getting harder to support them when all they do is half ass everything. I understand the casual angle is making them embarrassingly large amounts of cash, but at the very least they could start putting some effort into even those games. But of course they know as long as give us a new Mario and Zelda game every couple of years, we'll stick around.

Let's Play Catch Up

My new years resolutions? Update this damn blog more often...I'm might not succeed at that.So starting with my last post about my life, let me play catch you up on my recent events.

Bought The Killers Day & Age CD. Loved it! Easily their most addictive release since their Hot Fuss debut. My 3 favorite tracks: Joyride, I Can't Stay, and The World We Live In.

My great grandmother passed away round the second of December. My only remaining great family members include 2 great aunts on my father's side. I never spent time with my great grandmother so I wasn't affected by her death, but my mother was devastated, which affected me.

I said in early post about my college classes that maybe a miracle would happen and I would pass my Algebra course. Well the miracle happened, I passed that class and my micro-economics course, but I failed the legal business course. No big loss, the teacher of that class was actually fired for receiving too many complaints from students. Works just fine for me.

Christmas was pretty good. I got a couple of surprise gifts like a new jacket and Guitar Hero 3. Among my gifts was Sonic Unleashed for Wii which, while not perfect, was easily the best 3d sonic game since Sonic Adventure 1 & 2.

New Years came and went without much interesting happening. The only thing that really hit me was how quickly the year went by.

I enjoyed the Wii version of Sonic Unleashed so much that I had to purchase the 360 version (which for those who don't know is actually a different game from the wii version). I enjoyed it, but it not as much as the wii version. The overall level design of the 360 was more varied than the wii but a lot less well put together. The only really big thing the 360 version has over Wii is more content and a better balance between the number of sonic and werehog levels. On the wii you get 3 to 4 werehog levels for every one sonic level. All in all though, I really enjoyed the game.

Lastly I started my next semester of college. I only have 2 classes this time and they are at night on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The classes I'm taking are extensions of one another: Small Business Management and Marketing Management. Same teacher for both classes and hot guys in both classes. The best part about this that these classes are really really easy. The teacher pretty much tells us exactly what will be on test. A nice change from my last few semesters.

Well that's it, that's everything that's happened since December. Like I said before, maybe I'll actually post more often.