Welcome back to another edition of Week: End Game: On! What games are the Dojo staffers playing this weekend? Read on to find out!
Robin Wilde
I’ve been playing through Tales of Symphonia— alas, not on GameCube as it should be– and am reminded of quite how much trouble I went through trying to get that thing for a reasonable price the first time round. If anyone has a copy, now’s as good a time as any to give it another play. The combat system is superb and its graphical style is simple but really quite lovely, especially the anime-style cutscenes.
That copy of Wind Waker HD is still glancing down from my shelf occasionally too, so I may give that a try soon.
Jake Shapiro
I just got into Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. It might have the most gorgeous 3D visuals I’ve seen on 3DS, and really shows what the handheld is capable of. But the game seems artificially split into levels to make it work on a portable, when it’s clearly begging to be one huge game world. I’d love to see a new Luigi’s Mansion on Wii U.
I’m still slowly making progress through EarthBound on Virtual Console. It’s a massive adventure. I’m glad I never spoiled the story for myself beforehand, because the Moonside segment may be one of my favorite weird twists ever put into a Nintendo game.
Anthony Vigna
I’m just starting to get into The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and I finally understand why everyone has fallen in love with it! Wow, it’s so refreshing to play a Zelda game without a constantly interjecting partner while having free rein within a non-linear world! Yes, there’s no hour long intro that is a pain to progress through! A Link Between Worlds is Zelda when it goes back to its basics, and I couldn’t be happier.
Not only that, but the rental system is phenomenal. Carrying around all of the game’s weapons within the first few dungeons let me feel powerful, yet weak at the same time since you can lose every item when you die. I find this brilliant because it gives a bigger significance to death instead of just having a simple game over screen. Also, renting and buying weapons means that the dungeon structure no longer relies on finding a weapon within a dungeon, making them feel fresh once more.
I apologize if I’m preaching to a crowd of people that know all of this already, but I just can’t help it! I’m a little late to the party, but I can’t stop talking about it. I can’t wait to pick up my 3DS again and jump back in!
Marc Deschamps
Like Robin, I also picked up Tales of Symphonia Chronicles. It was a favorite of mine on the GameCube, and when I heard it was getting an HD remaster on PS3, I jumped at the opportunity. I haven’t cracked into it yet, but I am eager to, especially since the sequel is also on the disc, which I never played when it released on Wii. I still have the gorgeous art book that GameStop gave away as a pre-order bonus for the GameCube version, though. It’s probably one of my favorite pre-order giveaways ever.
This week, I decided to wrap up Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate on 3DS so I could focus more on Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. I’m at the game’s end boss, but something weird happened last night. When I went to depart for the game’s final area, I was warned that, upon doing so, I wouldn’t be able to go back to Blackgate. So I opted not to go. Instead, I spent some time trying to finish unlocking Batman’s alternate costumes. And I’ll probably continue to do that before caving in and taking on the end boss. It’s definitely a testament to how much I’ve enjoyed this one. One way or another, I’m going to try finishing this one over the weekend.
As for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I had a real-life business lunch today, so I couldn’t make my 12:50 appointment for Cobb to visit my house. Now he might be upset with me, which stinks, because he’s one of my favorite neighbors. Nintendo totally made his house look like a serial killer lives there, though. I’m trying to give him stuff that fits more into his fitness theme, but then he tried to give me back the treadmill I bought him! Needless to say, I declined his invitation for me to find a replacement piece of furniture for him! Here’s a thought, Cobb: get rid of the human anatomy models instead! You look like a murderer. Also, I’m trying to find a sleek carpet and sleek wallpaper. No luck, so far.
Anthony Pershkin
I’ve been playing a lot of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze lately. And that game got much harder than Returns, but in a very specific way. Just getting through the levels is challenging, yet manageable. Collecting K-O-N-G letters and puzzle pieces, on the other hand, is downright ridiculous at times. I can collect all the stuff in Returns no problem, but in Tropical Freeze I need to turn on my imaginable Batman Detective Vision to find some of those puzzle pieces. I can’t really complain, though, since I do this while listening to the godlike soundtrack by David Wise. The Canopy Chaos track is my theme of happiness now.
Additionally, I’m getting through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. I do acknowledge the game’s sometimes frustrating stealth sections, but other than that I can’t find anything particularly negative about it. The battle system is very smooth this time around. They finally ditched the God of War roll for a more technical dodge system. Add to this a pretty decent parry mechanic and you finally have solid defensive play mechanics. The Black/White magic system still works flawlessly, as well. Overall, if you liked the battle system in the original game, you’re going to have a fun time fighting monsters in the sequel. Just remember that some stealth sections of the game can get incredibly annoying.
Nicolas Vestre
After playing a level or two before each Animal Crossing session, I managed to beat all the CGA-Land levels in Mutant Mudds! Those challenges border on insane, but that just made them so much more satisfying when I conquered them. Interestingly, some of the earlier CGA-Land levels gave me much more of a hard time than the last few. I’d gladly play a sequel to this excellent game.
Playing Donkey Kong Country 3 on Virtual Console is going well. Every once in a while I’ll find myself at a level where I just can’t find that last bonus barrel! Sometimes it takes over an hour to find it, but I refuse to use guides for this game. My percentage counter is at 80, and I only have a couple of levels left (besides that whole Lost World thing, if you believe in preposterous things like that). One interesting thing happened while playing this game: I found my least favorite Donkey Kong Country level of all time: Lightning Look-out. The premise is that there’s lightning arbitrarily falling from the sky; you can’t really predict it at all. If you happen to be in water when it hits, one of the Kongs gets electrocuted. If you hesitate for even a second, lightning will fry you. This was one of the few levels that was more difficult to me for platforming than for finding all the secrets. I’m so glad I never have to go through that one again. 105 percent is within my grasp!
After months of catching lucrative fish in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I managed to finish the Fishing Encyclopedia! Now I just have to wait for the next fishing tournament to get my golden fishing rod. Other than that, I just sold a ton of perfect apples in my mom’s town for a 1.5 million Bell payout; not too shabby! I’ll still never catch up to my mom’s total, but what can you do? Rhonda just moved in from my mom’s town, joining Merengue to give me two out of the four available rhinos; we’ll see if I like her. But my town is named Duckburg! Where on earth are the ducks?
Angela Marrujo
I recently bought a copy of Wii Fit U, even though I already have the free version of the game downloaded, so I could get myself a Fit Meter. Every day for the past couple of weeks I’ve been faithfully inputting my data from my meter into my profile in the game and am officially addicted.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II has been back in my Wii U as well– sorry, but Ghosts really did nothing for me. I played it for about ten minutes when it came out, went back to BO II, and never looked back. The fact that BO II looks infinitely better than Ghosts (in my humble opinion) doesn’t help Ghosts at all, though I really have been meaning to go back and give it another shot.
Finally, I’ll be devoting more time to Tropical Freeze. I think everything about it is impressive, and the more I play the more I get sucked in.
Robert Marrujo
Well, I am super duper busy drawing something top secret that I’m looking forward to everyone seeing, so my gaming will be limited. I’m thinking it’s a Call of Duty sort of weekend, just some good old fashioned Team Deathmatch. Not with Ghosts, though. Black Ops II runs circles around it.
I am looking forward to spending more time with some of my 3DS games, though. I’ve been wanting to finish off Castlevania for a while, but haven’t had the chance to go back and see it all the way through. I don’t care what the critics say, this is a solid installment of the series that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. More New Leaf, of course. Who knew bamboo in a video game would be so intrusive?!
Now that you’ve read what we’re playing, it’s your turn to sound off! What games will you be spending the weekend with? Let us know in the comments!
On console I just started Bayonetta, with the occasional attempt at Champion’s Road, the only 3D World stage I haven’t beaten.
On handheld I’m playing the original Layton trilogy; as soon as I unlock all the puzzle houses in Diabolical Box I’ll begin story mode in Unwound Future.
And since for me game time is shared with anime time, I’ll get in a few episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, and may start Last Exile.