My Wii U arrived! So I spent most of the weekend playing it and the games I got with it. Nintendo Land It’s not a minigame collection. No matter who tells you it is, it isn’t. It’s a collection, sure, but some of the games are full, proper games. Take the Pikmin Adventure game. It’s Pikmin. Sure, it’s not got all the item collecting and night-time save-all-the-pikmin bits, but it’s a complete and reasonably long “campaign”. Single player only game …
Roundup time! Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (3DS) Actually, the GBA version I got as part of the 3DS Ambassador thing. I thought I’d played it before, but I don’t actually remember any of it. It’s very confusing, as there’s no linear progression from level to level (like in Kirby’s Dream Land) or a map where you can replay previous levels (like in Kirby’s Adventure). Instead, there’s a complicated map system where you have to find different exits to access …
I don’t know why I’ve been playing this throughout the week. I didn’t touch it when I downloaded it for free last year as part of the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Programme. Not because it isn’t any good, because it’s great, but just because I have so many other things to play. Anyway, I finished it today. I was surprised how many of the tracks I still remembered – even those that haven’t resurfaced on later Mario Kart games. Strangely, though, …
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.
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 …
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 …
A roundup of some of the games I’ve been playing in the last couple of weeks: Pullblox (3DS) Completed this a while back, but have gone back to finish some of the bonus levels that you unlock, and some of the user generated ones I’ve found strewn across the internets. It’s still lovely. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (360) Returned to mop up a few more achievements and actually play some of the side missions and games I’d totally missed. There are …
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 …
It took me a while to actually find the final remaining zone (Space Zone) as it was somewhat hidden via an exit from another level, but it was soon completed and Wario’s Castle infiltrated. And Wario was defeated with ease. All the bosses were pretty easy, actually, and very few of the levels gave much of a challenge. Quite different to Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario World, which this is a sort of portable analogue of. It was …
I haven’t actually added up all the puzzles that there are, but it’s over 150. Probably 200-ish. But now, they’re all done! I was expecting another set of puzzles after completing the Star ones, since there’s a gap on the screen where I thought another option would appear. One did, but it was just a time trial option and used the same puzzles as I’d already done. So, completed then! And it’s also logged as my 3rd most played 3DS …
I loved Mario’s Super Picross for the SNES, which I picked up on the Wii Virtual Console a few years ago. It did take FOR EVAAR to complete though, so I wasn’t going to get the Game Boy version for the 3DS. Then, of course, I did. And it’s excellent, of course. Yes, so there are a few fewer puzzles, and yes, the biggest puzzle is only 15×15, but that’s actually good as it means I don’t get so stuck …
This was a much longer game than I remember it being, but somehow it seemed much easier. I have memories of having 70-odd lives reaching the final boss, then losing 67 of them on him. That seems like a lot of lives, but they’re very easy to come by (you normally get 2 or 3 each level, then after every four levels when the time score is counted up, you usually get another 5 or 6) and I did die …
Well, this was quick. I bought, downloaded, played and completed Super Mario Land (the original Game Boy one, now on the 3DS Virtual Console) all in just over an hour. And I only died once. And finished it with 40+ lives. And it was ace.
Haven’t had an update post in a while, and I’ve been trying out lots of different games over the last couple of weeks and not made mention of them here, so here’s a roundup: Say What You See (iOS) A series of pictures with hidden clues to game titles, films, etc. Like a cross between Where’s Wally? and a cryptic crossword. There are number of “canvases”, and I’ve been playing the Arcade Games one. Completed it, but some of them …
I’ve been playing this since completing Bioshock 2 the other week, and last night I claimed my 70th Star, beat Bowser, saw the credits roll, then played for another couple of stars afterwards. And I got this message on my Wii: Obviously, the game is excellent. And yes, I’ll be returning to get the rest of the stars. It’s also at least as good as the first game, with the “hub world” being much better to navigate. However, I’m surprised …
