The 2013 Gaming Expenditure Horror

It’s that time again, where I perform an autopsy on my games spending over the last 12 months. Some real changes this year as well. Let’s have a look at how the total compares: 2010 – £590.32 2011 – £888.22 2012 – £834.48 2013 – £342.82 So, a massive 58.9% decrease in spending. That’s a lot. However, there’s a reason for much, but not all, of that – in 2011 I bought a 3DS (and a PS3), and in 2012 …

SteamWorld Dig (3DS): COMPLETED!

First game of 2014 to be completed! Woo! I was a big fan of the 360 indie game Miner Dig Deep, and many years ago loved Diggers on the Acorn and Amiga, and it was my enjoyment of those two games that made me want SteamWorld Dig. The stars aligned and I was given some eShop credit just as this was on offer, and so I snapped it up. I’m glad I did. It’s very much in the same vein …

Attack of the Friday Monsters (3DS): COMPLETED!

This is another one of those “Guild” games – short, experimental titles that were originally in a compilation in Japan, but were released in the UK as separate digital only games. I’d been interested in getting it for a while as people had said it was a fun little story in a slightly bizarre setting, and I’m a fan of strange and obscure Japanese games. However, when it came out I had lots of other games to play and no …

Super Mario 3D World (Wii U): COMPLETED!

By completed, I of course mean I have beaten Bowser. Like New Super Mario Bros U, from around this time last year, that’s only the first half of the game. The post-game mop-up of stars, flags and stamps will continue for a long time, I’m sure. Apparently, it took me just under 5 hours to get this far. That’s shorter than NSMBU by some way. It certainly felt shorter, and was certainly easier. Yes, I found a warp (by accident) …

Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (Wii U): COMPLETED

Firstly, it seems this is just half of the “Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara” game on the Wii U eShop. It’s a conversion of the 90’s coin-op, and is the sequel to D&D: Tower of Doom, which is also included in the package but isn’t selected by default and isn’t actually obvious that it’s there at all. At some point I’ll be playing that. The main reason, aside from it being on offer this week, for getting D&D:COM at …

NES Remix (Wii U)

Well this was a lovely surprise from Nintendo. No idea it was coming at all, and then suddenly at the end of last week’s Nintendo Direct, Iwata went all Apple and said “Take a look at this…” and “It’s available now!”. There used to be a game called Game Centre Challenge, which had longer-than-Wario-Ware but still short challenges based on retro games. Except those retro games didn’t actually exist – they were fake retro styled titles. This is real, with real …

Scribblenauts Unlimited (Wii U)

Still working through all the remaining shards puzzles. I’ve about 60 left to do, having finished just over half of them. I’m finding that while playing the main game I’ve accidentally being completing some of the object shard puzzles, which had made the sheer number of things left to do seem slightly less daunting. Or not. 60 is a lot.

Scribblenauts Unlimited (Wii U)

I feel compelled to complete this 100%. Like properly 100%, with all the shards and stuff. So that’s what I’m doing! I’ve been back to every level and done all the puzzles there, and now I have a million “object” shards. These are very simple, usually wordplay related, puzzles which can be completed anywhere. Like “Cat-Toast Paradox” where you have to create something that fits the two “rules” that cats always land on their feet, and toast always lands butter …

Luigi’s Mansion 2 (3DS): COMPLETED!

PREVIOUSLY ON LUIGI’S MANSION 2! Our hero had recovered all but one of the Dark Moon fragments, and had located the final piece – inside a giant portal on the roof of the final mansion. After defeating wave after wave of ghosts as they were ejected from the portal, he was sucked into the purple swirly and was confronted with a boss – several suits of armour followed by one massive suit of armour, who was impossible to defeat. Was …

Scribblenauts Unlimited (Wii U): COMPLETED!

I’ve been waiting for ages for this. 15 months, in fact. After being delayed from the Wii U launch to early 2013, it was then pulled hours after going on sale in the UK for reasons that have never been officially announced. Some people managed to get it in that time, but the rest of us had to wait. And wait. Heck, the follow-up is out soon, it’s been that long. But finally, it turned up. And, like with Rayman …

3D Sonic the Hedgehog (3DS): COMPLETED!

Um, yeah. So I now own 12 (different) copies of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. And that doesn’t even include the Master System and Game Gear versions – just the Megadrive one, and it’s ports. This is the only one in 3D though. OK, so it’s not “as 3D” as 3D Space Harrier. This is a gentler, more incidental 3D, with all the layers of fore- and background parallax now on their own 3D plane. You know what? It …

3D Space Harrier (3DS): COMPLETED!

This week, the long awaited 3D Classics from Sega finally made it to the 3DS in Europe. Well, two games did, anyway, with more to come. So far, Space Harrier and Super Hang On have been released, and I decided to pick up Space Harrier. Many, many years ago, I was the champion of Space Harrier at this here arcade in Southport: View Larger Map Good times. I’d go there a few times a year and I’d still be at …