ShareThis
Iiiiit’s the weekend, and you know what that means! Time to ignore our friends and family and play video games! … just kidding. Although, come on, it’s just so alluring, that little 3DS in the corner. Its Star Fox 64 3D siren song is just so– so compelling. If we were to abandon our social lives and play that game, it’d be justified. We just can’t help ourselves. Right?
Nicolas Vestre
I’ve been playing Beyond Good & Evil for GameCube and just finished the factory level. It’s a shame I didn’t experience this game back in 2003, but I’m loving it now. Being stealthy and taking pictures is a lot of fun, and the story is very easy to get attached to. Right now I’m racking up some pearls to use in the black market; sometimes they are extremely tricky to get. I’m talking dodging security lasers and being laser beamed on sight if a guard sees you. Thankfully, the game is forgiving and doesn’t make you do the whole level over if you get to a certain point before you die.
Pictured: the sequel we’re all waiting for.
Second, I plan to finish Mega Man & Bass for Game Boy Advance this weekend, and I’m very close. All eight Robot Masters have succumbed to my Mega Buster, and now I tackle the end levels that a are a trademark to every classic Mega Man game. After that, I’m going to do the whole thing over with Bass– apparently the game is much easier using him. Once all that is done, Donkey Kong Land 3 for Game Boy is next. It’s been far too long since I went through that gem.
Also, I plan to start Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley for PSP. It looks like another promising Harvest Moon game that will steal hours away from my life.
Lastly, I’m investing in an NES clone to play all those Disney and other licensed games that have zero hope of being brought to the Virtual Console; Hopefully Amazon sends me one that functions decently (or at all). I’ll start with Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers— the last time I played that, I was five years of age!
Oh yeah, and if doesn’t come with a composite cable, I guess I’m going to Radio Shack.
Kevin Knezevic
Truth be told, I’ve been taking a little break from gaming these past couple of weeks. I’ve been using my free time mostly to indulge some of my other interests, so my Nintendo consoles have largely been neglected as of late.
Was this the first Wii game you ever played? (Other than Wii Sports?)
That said, I did play a few titles this past week. Aside from trying out a couple of my Ambassador games, I also revisited an unfinished file in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. When last I played I had just arrived at the Palace of Twilight. I remember disliking the area in my previous playthroughs of the game (especially having to outrun the sentry hands after acquiring the Sol orbs), but it was far less troublesome than I anticipated. I actually quite like the look of the Twilight Realm– it exudes an almost suffocating atmosphere not unlike Dark Aether in Metroid Prime 2, but something about it makes it even more ethereal and entrancing than its Metroid counterpart. In fact, the art in general is still impressive despite the title’s age, and while I do think it has its fair share of flaws, playing the game again has only reinforced just how much I really enjoy it.
Lewis Hampson
I have been playing a combination of Mortal Kombat, Uncharted 2 and Tetris this week. As I have mentioned previously, I really like the feel of MK9. It has solid mechanics whilst keeping true to the original three games (which I liked best anyway). However the game is nowhere near as simple as those early entries into the series. MK9 offers a fighting experience which can match the Street Fighter games of today, something which could not be said of the original games during the 1990’s, and offers a genuine leap forward for the series.
Uncharted 2 is a stunningly beautiful game, from tropical jungles to snow covered Tibetan mountain ranges the graphical style and art design of this game is astounding. Of course what really matters is the gameplay, and once again Nathan Drake does not disappoint. Tight controls, intense battles and a solid story made this a great choice– and for £10, who can complain?
Finally we have the stalwart of puzzle games in the shape (or should that be shapes?) of Tetris. I downloaded this game from PSN and have been playing it a lot (mainly on marathon mode) attempting to climb those darn leaderboards. Tetris remains as addicting as ever and with multiple online offerings it now has legs to carry it even further.
Dustin Grissom
I haven’t been playing too many games lately for multiple reasons, so perhaps this is why I decided I’d order Star Fox 64 3D from Amazon for release day shipping. You see, I honestly wasn’t very excited for this game for reasons that I do not even know, but then I did the math in my head (Nintendo + Games= Good), and decided to drop 40 bucks on this game. Boy, was I surprised when I popped the cartridge into my 3DS, booted up the main game, and played into the wee hours of the night– this game was awesome. My friend was always a huge Star Fox fan, but besides Star Fox Assault (yeah, I liked that game), I never really got into the series myself. Plus, I barely even remember playing Star Fox 64 back in my youngster days. Luckily for me, Nintendo blessed us with a remake, allowing me to realize what I’ve been missing out on. Star Fox 64 3D is a great game, with surprisingly great graphics, that I definitely recommend to any 3DS owner out there that beat Ocarina of Time 3D and was left with nothing less than Pilotwings and Street Fighter IV 3D Edition to play. “Good luck!”
Andrew Hsieh
Does anyone realize how compelling the Final Fantasy Tactics series is? I’ve been playing Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for PSP recently, which so far is just as good as Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and its DS sequel, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance R2. I know a lot of people think that the original Tactics is superior, but I feel like both of them have their merits. I really appreciate the whole Job Points system– it allows for so many creative ways to play the game, and really marks a shift in the otherwise boring Job System of the Final Fantasy series. While I actually prefer the weapon-based Job Points system in the Advance sequels, the job-based one in War of the Lions is also great. It helps that it’s a tactical game. Man, I love me some RTS and TBS games. Watch as I play every single one ever this weekend. (Not really.）
And no, I haven’t beaten Xenoblade Chronicles yet. Stop judging me. Okay, you can judge me a little.
What are you playing? Tell us in the comments below!
Besides the occasional playing of Conduit 2 on my dead Wii console I haven’t been playing much besides occasional demos on my 360 to see how games like Bodycount and SpaceMarine are.
Same here. Except for Netflix and the weekly update on Nintendo Channel. Speaking of which, they FINALLY added a new demo, for Kirby’s Mass Attack. Nice, Kirby’s always fun, even better running in a pack. But I’m not buying anymore DS games.
That brings me to the “DS” game I have been playing: the rerelease of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor [Overclocked]. I’ve never checked out the SMT series, but this is pretty amazing, a strategy JRPG, kind of like a dark, demonic version of Pokemon. Fight the demons (or buy them) and then use them in battle.
Tough, even on easy mode. The only issue is the graphics. Okay, so it’s not in 3D. I can handle that; we knew not every game was going to be, and this one was ported off the DS. But it doesn’t even use both screens 90% of the time. It looks like a GBA game. Even Phoenix Wright did a better job porting to the DS than this. Put the HUD on the bottom, and the action on the top. Nope, everything’s on the bottom, the HUD, the dialogue, etc, blocking the picture. The top screen’s off, O-F-F, off for almost everything except the battles themselves. Not happy.
I played Devil Survivor on DS and it just beat on me every time! Just color me very bad at monster/demon-catching games that aren’t Pokemon. Oftentimes, anyway. Glad someone’s standing up to that tyrant! (I did like it, though.)
Incidentally, I never check Nintendo Channel, but now I hav to. Kirby Mass Attack you say? It’s mine.
I really enjoyed Beyond Good and Evil right up until the final boss fight. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say that it was the only time I’ve ever thrown my controller down in a fit of rage… :/