Week: End Game: On 03.22.2014

Welcome back to another edition of Week: End Game: On! What games are the Dojo staffers playing this weekend? Read on to find out!

Anthony Vigna

I’ve been playing a lot of different games this week. I completed To the Moon, which is an incredible story driven indie game. You play as two scientists that work for a company that alters dying clients’ memories through the use of time travel to help them reach one major goal that they were unable to achieve in their life. While there isn’t much actual gameplay, the story is tear-jerking and worth experiencing. If you haven’t played it already, I highly recommend you get your hands on it.

I also finished Number Battle on DSi. I got it for free through Club Nintendo, and instantly became hooked. Basically, it’s a strategy game where you place tiles on certain areas in an effort to score more points than your opponents. I’m a little upset though, because I know that the online multiplayer component will be taken down soon! No one really knows what Number Battle is, so it will be hard to find people in real life that would want to play with me when Nintendo WFC finally goes down.

I’m also playing Tales of Xillia with a friend of mine intermittently. We’ve never really been huge fans of the Tales franchise, but the more solid entries in the series do provide fun co-op experiences for us. So far, Tales of Xillia is proving to be a great game. As long as it stays like that and never becomes anything like Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, then I think we’ll be okay.

I’m excited to jump into Pokémon Battle Trozei, Bomb Monkey, and the demo for Conception II this week as well. Bomb Monkey is not exactly new, but its on sale for only $2.00, so I’ll have to grab it! Looks like I’ll have a lot of games to keep me busy.

Robert Marrujo

So, I just finished going through Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and loved it. I’m still torn about the switch from David Hayter, but Sutherland did an admirable job as Snake. I supposed it’s a legitimate argument that the series is heading in a new direction, which might be a good thing, in the long run. That ending though… brutal (though not as ridiculously over the top as some are suggesting).

On the Nintendo side of things… I now have two New Leaf towns. I KNOW. I couldn’t help it! There are things I could only do visiting other folks’ towns, and I just don’t have a very full friends list. So Oakland is now joined by Reno. Oddly, the second town has totally sucked me back in more than ever, because I’m swapping things back and forth and making both towns more awesome. Robert of Reno got to start off with 500,000 bells because of Robert of Oakland! What a swell guy.

Jon Stevens

Well, firstly I’m shocked that Robert has managed to start a second town in Animal Crossing: New Leaf— my town doesn’t even have a place for Mr Resetti yet!

I’ve been flicking back and forth between Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem Awakening for most of this week, but really want to make some more progress in Pokémon Y. After speaking to a friend who has managed to catch every single Pokémon, I feel like I have some catching (up!) to do myself.

I’ve also just started giving Alpha Protocol a go on PC, after a recent Sega Humble Bundle sale. I intend to play a bit more of it this weekend because it seems really interesting, but there are some major problems with it that I’ve noticed already, notably the combat. I may have to fall back on Pokémon it seems!

Marc Deschamps

Last night’s Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze session resulted in my thumb throbbing after about an hour. I’m still on World 6, and it amazes me how I can love a game this much without it showing me any love back, whatsoever. My track record of not completing a single level without dying multiple times continues to remain intact. I’ve gotten to the point that I now exclusively pick Dixie Kong when the opportunity to select a partner presents itself. She’s easily the most helpful Kong in the bunch, especially with some of the more perilous jumps in the game.

The game’s soundtrack continues to blow me away. David Wise hasn’t missed a beat since the days of the Super NES. I appreciate that Nintendo is releasing the soundtracks to the Pokémon games on iTunes, but I think it’s long past time to do the same for this series!

Nicolas Vestre

I’ve been having a grand time with Super Mario 3D World, and it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon. So far I’m on World 4, and each level has its own irresistible charm– that Super Mario Kart-inspired level was pretty cool. I’ve found all the secret exits, which is basically saying nothing. Actually, I’m glad that there’s almost nothing in that regard, because it can get pretty confusing. If the developers of the next Mario platformer include a wealth of secret exits, it would be nice to tell us which levels have them; that’s what Super Mario World did so elegantly, and I wish that system would be brought back. When I get to World 6, I’m going to play DoReMi Fantasy: Milon’s DokiDoki Adventure as a sort of intermission. I’ve been meaning to play the game for a really long time, and this seemed like the best way to do it.

One sad event happened in Animal Crossing: New Leaf: Walker (the dog) moved without even giving me a chance to say no! I loved that guy! For weeks, I sent him a letter and fruit almost every day. At the very least, he gave me his picture before he left. Because I didn’t want him to just go anywhere, I got him to move to my mom’s town. At least I can visit him. Besides that, I’m working on making my town more presentable by putting flowers around public work projects and buildings. I’m not exactly the most creative guy, so my town will probably never look fantastic. I’ve also cleared seven million Bells, just from normal 25-minute play sessions (and a whole lot of perfect apples). Villagers just can’t resist the blue roses, even at a premium price– in fact, the town is so flooded with them, they give them back to me as gifts!

Other than that, I’m trudging through Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land (because Wario would, you know, trudge instead of run), which is a great game. I haven’t played it in years, so I remember next to nothing. Much like Super Mario World, the game tells you if there is a secret exit in a level, so kudos for that.

Lastly, I downloaded Yumi’s Odd Odyssey and Pokémon Battle Trozei, the former of which I won’t be able to play right away, but it’s high on my queue.

What games will you be playing this weekend? Let us know in the comments!