Another round-up post, I’m afraid! Batman: Arkham City (PC) Despite the hassle it is to set up (all those cables and adapters and begging Windows to let audio go out the HDMI port please), and the fact it’s a PC game, I’m still enjoying it. It feels like driving a car when you know one of the wheels is going to fall off at some point. You enjoy the ride, but are on edge that at some point you could …
This is a sort-of sequel to a WiiWare game called, er, Pokémon Rumble. Which I played the demo of, and was impressed enough to consider getting the full game. Until this 3DS version was announced, and I decided to hold fire and get instead. I saw it cheap yesterday, and picked it up. And it’s lovely. Sure, it’s shallow and repetitive. I’ve not done much so far other than wander round smacking A and sometimes pressing X to swap pokeymen. …
After walking the ninety billion miles required to get the necessary coins to buy warriors to slap ghosts and demons about a bit, I finally completed Streetpass Quest II. And got a lovely wig for my trouble. Hurrah! Also: me so pretty.
Short, apart from the absolutely NAILS final level (with surprise boss!), but utterly glorious. It’s something different to any other platformer I’ve played, yet feels like a load of old 16 bit games like Metal Slug and stuff. Fantastic, and well worth £5.40 of anyone’s money.
Yes, the original Super Mario Bros. Yes, I’ve completed it before. Lots of times. But I’d not completed it for a while (how did it get harder?!) and certainly not on the 3DS, where I’d barely played it. So today I completed it. And very lovely, and hard, it was too.
Fable III (360) It seems the best way to make money is to buy all the houses and shops, then just leave the Xbox on all day. So I did that. Now I have over 8 million gold, can pay off all my debts, and progress with the story. In doing so, I’ve revisited Aurora, pilfered a diamond from a cave, bought more shops and houses, and am now on the trail of a white Balverine in Silverpines. I also …
And it was AWESOME. Many people complained that it wasn’t a proper follow up to Mario 64, with big open worlds and a world “hub”. Some people complained that it wasn’t a proper 2D Mario game, like New Super Mario Bros. And some people complained it was basically just Super Mario Bros. 3 in 3D. Pff to them all. They’ve clearly not played it, for if they had, they’d realise it doesn’t matter. It’s a new Mario game, close enough …
Back in the day, I completed this on the GBA. But that was about 8 years ago, and it is such a good game that I really got into playing it again when I got it for free on my 3DS. It is still excellent, and still the best Wario Ware title. Not that the others were bad – just that this one is the most pure. Or something. Completed it today, and found it far easier than I remember …
Although I’d have ended up buying this at some point anyway (it’s a Mario game, so obviously), there was an issue doing so due to last year’s £18 Rule – and Mario games almost never dip much in price. That rule has now expired though, replaced with the far more gruelling Pound-A-Mile Rule, which still encourages finding the lowest price for anything without the limit. Instead, there’s just the limit of how far my little legs can cycle. But I digress. As …
My first completed game of 2012! Unlike Super Street Fighter IV, I didn’t class this as complete by beating the final boss as every character. Instead, I’m basing it on completing Story Mode (or Chronicle, as it’s called). In this mode, you play through the plot of all the Dead or Alive series, one after another. Well, I say plot – it’s all a bit bizarre and doesn’t make a lot of sense. Mind you, I’ve never really played Dead …
I got this for Christmas, and it’s the main thing I’ve been playing then and all this week. I’ve come to the conclusion that it is the best Mario Kart game yet. It doesn’t have the silly gimmicks of the GC and Wii games. It’s graphically better than all previous titles. It doesn’t have the big empty tracks of the N64 version. And it has a return of the coins from the GBA and SNES games. It also seems that …
Another game series ruined by Sega. The first two Super Monkey Ball games were awesome, but they slid down to this – an overly simplified, challenge-free entry into the series. Levels have barriers or “grooves” so you don’t die. There are no tricky turns, no jumps, no difficult levels at all. In fact, I found myself finishing most worlds with more lives than I started with. Still, it was fun. Ish. Shame it didn’t carry on with another 8 worlds …
14 hours in, and the main 198 levels are, finally, completed! There were some real head scratchers in the last few sets of puzzles, but thankfully my “tactic” of leaving a level I was finding impossible, then returning the next day, seemed to help. Of course, there are now the 50 or so bonus levels, and untold user-made levels to work through, so it isn’t the end really. Fantastic game, well worth the £5.40 or whatever it was, and far …
I was expecting to be disappointed. After all, how could I be anything but? Although if you’re set up to be disappointed and your low expectations are pretty much met, how could you actually be disappointed? Deep. Things started out surprisingly well. Classic Sonic’s first few levels were pretty good, actually, even if they did still feel like the physics were on the wonk. Even Modern Sonic’s levels were bearable for a while, but as the game progressed things just …
There was an update to the 3DS last week which added a few features (like 3D video recording and marginally better friend list management), and as part of it there was a new Streetpass Quest II “mission” for the Mii Plaza. Hurrah! Unfortunately, you can’t do it unless you’ve completed the first Quest twice, when I’d only done it once. So, armed with 300 play coins, I set about doing it again. Surprisingly, I managed it with “just” 240 coins …
