Week: End Game: On 11.05.11

Welcome to Week: End Game: On, Nintendojo’s Saturday round table that lifts the lid on our staff’s gaming habits. From Xenoblade to Kirby to Batman (who have previously done battle!) our writers and contributors are a busy old bunch. Fancy joining them? Then find out how to become part of Team Dojo here!

Mel Turnquist

Just re-hooked up my Nintendo Wii after a weeklong room cleaning (I’m a slob) so I will be spending most of the weekend getting reacquainted with my Wii. Likely I’ll be finally doing up my Kirby-thon and going out to purchase Kirby’s Return to Dreamland, which I have been putting off lately. I’ll probably also throw in some Sakura Wars in there as well. And of course, I’ll be doing my usual Nintendo DS/3DS shenanigans as well.

I’m debating whether I may get Okamiden for Christmas or just go with the Mario Kart 7 which has finally have a release date of December 4th!

Nicolas Vestre

Once again, it looks like I’m going down to New Hampshire to visit my cousins (ages 7 and 9) this weekend. Hopefully the power stays on for the whole time, so we can keep on gaming (and showering). I’m not letting them put any of my DS games into their DS, because I’ve seen how it gets treated. During my last visit, they both took quite a liking to Yoshi’s Island DS, so maybe they’ll get another go at that. I also foresee LittleBigPlanet 2 and possibly New Super Mario Bros. Wii getting plays. Maybe we’ll finish our Guilty Party session from last time!

When I have alone time, I’ll definitely be playing more Pokemon White. I just got my seventh badge, and my team is growing nicely. Chargestone Cave is a great place to farm for dust clouds, and I spent quite a while (and a lot of Super Repels) collecting stones and gems of every kind. Also, I traded today on the GameFAQs Message Boards and received a Zorua! It’s male, however, so I’ll need a Ditto to breed more of them. Now I’m thinking what Pokemon would be best suited to taking on the Battle Subway. Yep, still obsessed with this game. And I still haven’t tried Dream World…

Solatorobo is also proving to be an addictive game. So far, I’ve never been in danger of dying, and the only part I have for the Dahak is the Hydraulics +1 that’s given to you for free. If I really want an easy time, I’ll buy the 20,000 Ring part you can find in Airedale (the first island you visit). The story is pretty cool, but I feel like I’m just getting started. One of the latest quests I took on involved getting in an aircraft and competing in races; it’s pretty fun, but it’s no Mario Kart. Can’t wait to see what lies ahead in this intriguing experience.

Marc N. Kleinhenz

Batman: Arkham City. Still.

Andrew Hoover

Despite having several great Wii and 3DS titles that I’ve barely touched, I must once again admit my wanderings into higher definition territories. I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed my unhealthy Battlefield: Bad Company 2 addiction on more than one occasion, well, now it has transferred over to Battlefield 3. The game has barely been out over a week at this point and I already have over a day clocked online. Should I be able to peel myself away from fragging noobs, I’ll probably hop on over to my PS3 and play some Uncharted 3, which so far seems to be a more than worthy successor to its absolutely stellar predecessor.

Worry not, though, true believer. I a couple of weeks my absolute, number one gaming obsession will drag me back to my Wii — Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, you cannot come soon enough!

M. Noah Ward

I have three more endings left to unlock in 999, and hope they will be obtained this weekend. I don’t think I’ve repeatedly beaten a game this many times since Super Castlevania IV. Of course, the text fast-forwarding and highlighting of previously taken paths makes replaying the story like a speed run, but my urgency is also related to memory. I could easily get swept up in another game right now because, honestly, there are so many other ones I want to play! But I also don’t want the details and horrific results of the three endings I’ve seen so far to get fuzzy. I honestly cannot wait to see the “true” aka “good” ending!

By the way, Henry Hatsworth is about $5 used at Gamestop right now, if you can find it. And why wouldn’t you? That’s a better bargain than nearly any downloadable game you could get.

Joshua Johnston

I beat Xenoblade Chronicles last week. I clocked out at 135 hours. I’m reading books for the short term while I try to fathom what I could possibly follow it up with.

Katharine Byrne

I’ll be squeezing in some more Xenoblade Chronicles this weekend ahead of Skyward Sword‘s upcoming release– only two more weeks!– because I know that it will command my full attention once it’s out, so I definitely need to show those Mechon who’s boss before November 18th! And as a lead-up to such a momentous occasion, I’ll also be continuing my Zelda replay bonanza with some more Zelda II, Minish Cap and Phantom Hourglass. I was playing some Ōkami this week in preparation for Part III of my Hidden Mythology article, but now that they’re all finished I think a full second completion will probably be put on the back-burner for the time being (because, you know, Zelda and Xenoblade are way more important!). I’m so glad I took the time to collect all the stray beads when I first completed the game though. With unlimited life and ink and x10 damage on my side this time round, it’s certainly helped me get through the game much quicker! It’s probably cut down my total play-time by about two thirds, which is great for zipping past all the demons and bosses so I can brush up on the finer details of the story. I might manage to fit in a few more Kirby’s Epic Yarn levels as well, but we’ll see.

And that’s all for this week! Now it’s your turn, what are you playing over Saturday and Sunday? Let us know in the comments’ section below.