Poor Chris. I leave him alone for two days and he becomes flea infested and dirty. And hungry. And thirsty. Again. What the hell would dogs do in the wild? They’d bloody die without me there to clean them and feed them and throw balls at^H^Hfor them. Anyway, I sorted him out and spruced him up a bit, and checked to make sure he could still Lie Down, Roll Over, Spin, Jump and Sit (only to find he’s forgotten ‘Sit’ …

Potter? Potter-schmotter. EASY. Well, compared to the next few, anyway. Managed that and three more stages, including Diahorrea Violinist On The Train, and the 234252 times attempted Political Candidate Vs Evil Purple Afro Guy. Hurrah for me! I seem to be “in the zone” some of the time, and actually hit numbers before I’ve really realised they’re even there. Which is good. And then, sometimes, I just go loopy and completely miss everything and die. Which is bad. It seems …

Normal Mode is hard. Like, really hard. I managed to do the Ramen Resturant stage, but the Potter one is driving me nuts. I know it is possible, and I am improving, but succeeding still seems a long way off. The music is ACEBEST though. Is there a soundtrack album available anywhere?

Well, that didn’t take long. Not in number of days, anyway. In number of attempts, somewhat more. The last few levels were somewhat difficult (especially the Cops vs Alien Robots one), but the actual last level was pretty easy, requiring only a couple of tries. Very enjoyable game though. Much better than Gitaroo Man. I just need to go through it again now, on one of the harder modes. Possibly. Or not.

Stupid sleeping Chris had to be woken again today. I’m sure I’ll wake him one day and he’ll bite off my face or something. Trained him for a bit, and taught him Jump and Spin. I also had to re-teach him Sit, as he refused to understand what I was saying to him. Then I took him for a walk, which went on for ages as he stopped every five seconds and refused to move any further. Shouting his name …

Even though I haven’t paid him any attention in a few days, Chris hadn’t died or run away or anything. He was, however, somewhat dirty, thirsty, and hungry. Anyone would think I didn’t look after him properly or something. So, bought some shampoo and a brush suitable for long-haired dogs, and gave him a wash. Of course, I had to wake him up as he seems to go to sleep at 8pm. Fed and watered him, and then he was …

Played through loads of levels on this this evening. Managed to get as far the the potter who can’t find inspiration for unusual pots, which is clearly impossible. Luckily, I was still playing on Normal, so dropped down to Easy and started again. 11 levels later (after saving a ramen resturant from closure, making Cleopatra slim and building her a pyramid, allowing a ghost to say goodbye to his girlfriend in a very Ghost-type way, and curing a concert violinist’s …

Yes, yes. Another new DS game. But this one is ACE! Just like the last few. Ahem. It’s a rhythm game, like Dance Dance Revolution or Gitaroo Man. More like the latter, in fact, since it’s by the same people. And yes, I did hate Gitaroo Man more than anything else ever, but Ouendan is better. And not as impossible (yet, anyway). You basically just circled tap numbers as they appear, as close as possible to the decreasing-in-size ring around …

Mission 18. A long narrow map, with two armies under my control – one on the bottom half of the map, one on the top – separated by a mountain range. On the far right (cloaked in Fog of War nastiness) was the Black Hole HQ. It was MUCH easier than I expected it to be, however. They did introduce another enemy unit (Oozium, which eats any ground unit in one go and is virtually indestructable), but it could only …

I won! It took some 40-odd days, but I won! I kept him locked down with a load of ranged units fronted and protected by some Neotanks, and then, after another Tag Team CO Power, stormed in for the kill and sat units on top of his factories. Suddenly, he only had a couple of light tanks and some infantry, although he could still build aerial units (and so built a bomber). It didn’t do any major damage, and was …

Dipped out of Campaign Mode again, to tackle one of the War Room maps. By Day 15 things were already not looking good. At all. I had hardly any units, the enemy had me pinned down, and some of my cities had started to fall. I can’t create any aerial units as they get shot down immediately, and the missile silos I reached didn’t help a great deal. By Day 25 things were even worse, but then my Tag Team …

Completed all of World 3 this evening, and as a result of collecting a certain number of gems, I unlocked World 7-1, on Pac Moon. Basically, it was a DS version of the original Pac-Man, with a goal of 10,000 points to gain another gem. Luckily, it was pretty simple and I soon had some 18,000 points before I died. Back into the main game, and I’m now on to World 4 – Ghost Land. Uh, but all the lands …

And on to (and past) World 2. It’s, erm, a bit easy so far. Fun still though! Plenty of ramps and launchers and hilly rolly bits and springs and a pinball bit. And then a boss at the end of the world. One power pellet isn’t enough to dispose of him – oh no. He needs three, collected in quick succession, and the you can eat him. Repeat a couple more times, and he haev teh dead. Then onto World …

Noooooooooooooo! Too many DS games to play! Pac ‘n Roll arrived today, and of course, I had to play it. And it’s ACEBEST. You control Pac-Man by rubbing the stylus over his face on the lower screen, like a trackball. He then rolls around the level on the top screen. It’s really quite clever. You can do long fast “strokes” to power forward, and there are assorted hats to wear to add new abilities and stuff. Played through all of …