Welcome back to another edition of Week: End Game: On! What games are the Dojo staffers playing this weekend? Read on to find out!
Marc Deschamps
This week, my 3DS has been alternating between Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I’m a good chunk into Blackgate and really digging it. Warner Bros. announced a Wii U port this week, but I think it works better in the handheld format. There’s something really charming about how well they pulled off an Arkham game on the 3DS, and the actual 3D is really strong. It might not hold a candle to Arkham City: Armored Edition, but it’s a solid entry in a series that continues to impress me. As for New Leaf, I’m finally going to get a police station! I’ve missed you, Copper!
I’m also still plugging away at Super Mario 3D World. I’m around 250 stars, and going through Fire Flower-World. The challenge is pretty insane at this point, but still an absolute blast. Everything is getting pushed aside when I pick up my copy of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze this weekend, though. I can’t wait to check out Retro’s latest effort, because everything I’ve seen leads me to believe this is going to be platforming bliss.
Nicolas Vestre
As much as I’d love to play Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze right away (I just went out and bought it), I’m still putting the finishing touches on Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. After hours of searching for and fighting the Shy Guy Airtub R, I finally took it down without taking damage. It took forever to dodge those crazy Shy Guys; they show no mercy in the way they skid around the battlefield! Now my Expert Challenge quest is complete! Once again, I won’t spoil anything, but the reward you get for clearing all the challenges is excellent. Now I just have the final dream world and the final bosses to look forward to.
After that, I’m going to play Donkey Kong Country 3 on my Wii U. Some might wonder why on earth I’d put off playing Tropical Freeze, but I’ve never completed the Super NES version of the game, and I already lost the original Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2 when my Wii U got replaced. I’m playing this thing before anyone can take it away from me! To make it more difficult (and to get the best ending), I’m entering the “TUFST” code, which allows the player to get 105 percent completion, instead of the normal 103 percent. I’ll miss those DK barrels…
Animal Crossing: New Leaf is going pretty well. I just got the curling stone, which is the last bingo item I needed from the Snowman! Thankfully, he doesn’t give repeats, so my bingo nightmare is now over. All that’s left is crafting perfect Snowboys! They’re extremely picky about how you build them, and I’ve only managed to get a few items from them so far. Other than that, I’m just going through the daily activities of the game, such as forcing villagers to buy my Blue Roses from the flea market for 9,999 Bells; they never say no! Also, I found a Scrooge McDuck costume online, and with my beak and top hat, I really look like I belong in Duckburg! And now that a couple of villagers have moved (I’ll really miss you, Broccolo), I’m accepting any and all ducks into fair Duckburg. There’s already a Beagle Boy (Walker), but it feels odd not to have a single duck. Just eight more days until I can catch a loach and finish my fishing encyclopedia!
Robert Marrujo
It goes without saying: Tropical Freeze will be taking up the bulk of my weekend. In those odd hours of the night, when your brain is tumbling and churning as you watch infomercials or play your fiftieth round of Team Deathmatch in Call of Duty, I sometimes think that Donkey Kong Country Returns is my favorite game of all time. It’s only when my guard is down and I’m a little sleepy, though! Seriously, the Wii-vamp of Donkey Kong Country has some of the most wonderful art direction and incredible graphics of any title put on Nintendo’s little white system. It’s fair to say my expectations for Tropical Freeze are huge!
Beyond DK, I have to admit that I’ve been sucked into the world of Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet & Clank over in the world of PlayStation. These are some great, great platformers, and I’ve been digging into their respective HD collections. I think the most impressive of the three series is Ratchet, but Sly is very close. Anyone with a PS3 collecting dust should give these games a shot. Don’t hate me, Nintendojo readers! If there were a fire in my home, the PS3 and Xbox would be little black cinders as I wrapped my Nintendo consoles in blankets and threw myself out the front window!
Angela Marrujo
I just picked up a copy of Bravely Default on Wednesday and am finally gonna crack it open and see if it lives up to the hype. However, I have a LOT of gaming to catch up on; college sort of destroyed any and all free time I had, so now that I’m free from the beast forever I have months’ worth of titles to either start or finish, both on 3DS and consoles.
Pokémon X has found its way back into my 3DS lately, and I’m on the hunt for a good Water type to round out my team. I’d like to finish Paper Mario: Sticker Star, but the apple of my eye has been A Link Between Worlds. Oh glorious, glorious Zelda…
Noticeably, I’ve made no mention of Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze. This is because my brother Robert will more than likely be playing it and I’ll be cursing– ahem– WATCHING him.
Anthony Vigna
I’m playing what is possibly the best Pokémon game ever created: Twitch plays Pokémon! Okay, it’s technically not a real Pokémon game, but it’s definitely one of the coolest social experiments I’ve ever seen. How cool is it that around 80,000 people are trying to play the same version of Pokémon Red at the same time? This is something that I absolutely must participate in!
Other than that, I’ve been playing Inazuma Eleven. I’m ecstatic that it finally released in the United States, and I’ve loved everything about it so far! I’ll be writing the review for it this week, so be on the lookout for its release! I’m also starting Attack of the Friday Monsters in lieu of Level-5’s eShop sale. The game has a wonderful narrative so far, and I’m excited to see how it develops later on.
What will you be playing this weekend? Did you also pick up a copy of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, or will you be spending some time with a different title? Let us know in the comments!
After giving our beloved ape the welcome he deserves, my daughter and I had a lovely discussion about how the series has changed over the years. She’s turning 7 next month and has never had the pleasure of the SNES experience, so I’m taking her on a two-player trip through DKC history.
On top on of that, Trine 2 just went on sale this week, and I’ve been meaning to pick that up since I got the Wii U. Weapons Shop de Omasse really caught my eye on Nintendo Direct, so I couldn’t pass that up. It’s an interesting twist on the RPG genre, with a rhythm game built in. Just remember, you are running a shop here, so it’s incredibly fast paced. That should keep me going for a while. Or at least until Prof. Layton comes out.
Love your DKC history lesson! It’s cool thinking how video games are something that can be shared like that between generations of people. I know that video games are a big part of what has kept me and my sister close over the years. There’s such an intangible joy that gaming can bring to all of us (you know, beyond the awesome feeling of taking out a row of Kremlings!)