Andy Hoover
This should prove to be quite a busy weekend for gaming for me.
On the Nintendo front, I will once again be playing more Pokémon Y. The pace at which I have been playing has slowed over the last week as I’ve been taking on more and more games to play as we enter the busiest time of the year for game purchases. But that’s the thing about Pokémon games, you can just boot it up for an hour of grinding or sit down for a marathon session to take out a couple of gym leaders and you will always feel like you are accomplishing something. Also related to Nintendo, I picked up Call of Duty: Ghosts for Wii U and will probably be putting some more time in finishing off the campaign and then maybe see if I can get a friend to join me in some co-op Squad Mode.
Outside of the world of Nintendo, I am proud to announce that I have been keeping good on my word to get caught up on the Killzone franchise before the release of PS4; I beat Killzone 2 and will be starting Killzone 3 very soon, and if it is as short as its predecessor then beating it before November 15 will not be a problem. Last weekend, I pick up Rocksmith 2014 for 360 so I have been playing around with that, and this week they released a pack of Iron Maiden songs, so I will also be playing plenty of that as I attempt to build up my finger strength to keep up with the blistering gallops of Steve Harris.
Up the irons!
Joshua Johnston
Two years ago, I bought Metroid: Other M for $5 from Best Buy. This weekend, I think I just might start playing it.
Robert Marrujo
Call of Duty: Ghosts is upon us, and I’ve been sucked back into the online multiplayer yet again. I’m impressed, so far, with the online. At first, I felt like Black Ops II looked better than Ghosts, but the more I play, the more subtleties I see standing out. The lighting is outstanding, and some of the maps are just incredibly well designed. I have to agree with some of the critics though, as a lot of the maps are overly large. Everyone sort of congregates in the same spots on every map and leave the outlying areas untouched.
I’ve been doing some serious landscaping in my town in Animal Crossing. Not sure why, either; I randomly got this itch to chop down trees and reposition everything the past couple of days. I’m planning on putting in another street lamp or illuminated tree, too. Beyond that, I’m finishing up Arkham Origins on Wii U and 3DS, both of which have been excellent. Armature’s work with the 3DS version, in particular, is very impressive. It has managed to convincingly distill the essence of the Arkham series into portable form with hardly a snag. Wii Sports Club is going to be integrated into my Wii Fit U routine in some way, too– I’m just ironing out the kinks of how, at this point. Busy, busy weekend of gaming coming up!
Anthony Vigna
I was supposed to play more Eternal Sonata with a friend of mine this week, but when he visited my dorm room and found that my roommates were already using our PS3, we were restricted in our options. So, we wiped off the dust on my N64 and started playing a couple of classics in my room, which turned out to be a lot more fun than expected!
We first started to play Super Smash Bros., which surprisingly still holds up very well. What I love about the original Super Smash Bros. is that basically every character has a broken move, you can juggle people in the air like a rag doll, and grabs are always ridiculously powerful. Yet, the fact that everything is broken makes the game completely balanced, making it the equivalent of Brawl-, a Super Smash Bros. Brawl fan hack, before the idea of it was ever brought to fruition. Super Smash Bros. on N64 is over the top and completely unpredictable, and I love everything about it.
The other game we played together was Mario Kart 64, which was a lot of fun because both of us were absolutely atrocious at the game. Now, I love Mario Kart, but Mario Kart 64 is one of my least favorite entries in the series due to having controls that are not as tight as I’d like them to be and poor red shell accuracy. But, being that it’s a Mario Kart title, it’s still a pretty good game. However, my lack of skill from not playing this game is entirely evident, as both my friend and I failed to reach 4th place on Banshee Boardwalk at 150cc numerous times and were unable to progress in the special cup for a while. Yet, there was something so brilliant about repeatedly trying to cross the finish line and screwing each other over with our items in the process. There’s no better feeling in the world than pissing off your friends!
I’m glad this happened though, because I forgot how much I loved my N64. I’ll have to give it more use in the future!
Nicolas Vestre
I haven’t been able to play any video games for the past three days because I got really sick (very dehydrated), so hopefully this weekend will change all that.
Finally, in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I bred the much-coveted Blue Rose! It only took months upon months of breeding hybrids. Now, with my mom’s Blue Rose, I can breed a huge army of these things. Other than that, I caught all the newly available fish in November; the tuna was the most difficult to track down.
In related gaming happenings, my Wii U started having a problem with the HDMI cable. After playing a game in Wii mode and going back to the Wii U menu, the picture and sound were completely gone. The only way to get the picture back was to wiggle the HDMI cable, and that’s not a good thing. I tried another HDMI cable (the one I use with my PS3) and it had the exact same problem, leading me to believe that my Wii U has a faulty HDMI port. So I phoned Nintendo (a number I’ve had memorized for a very long time), and the first guy dismissed me. That caused me to phone again, and this time I got a repair set up. I have a box and bubble wrap, and just need to feel well enough to go and ship it. I live only one province over from where Nintendo’s Canadian repairs are done, so hopefully it comes back sooner rather than later (estimated time is a whopping three weeks). If I ever feel like having a break from Pokémon X, I have several games in my PS3 backlog to tackle that will easily last three weeks; after all, I’m not really a speedy gamer.
Sam Stewart
I’m excited to have my first review assignment here at Nintendojo, so I’ll likely spend a large chunk of my weekend digging into Call of Duty: Ghosts on Wii U to see what it’s all about. The response has been mixed, but I haven’t heard much about the Wii U version so maybe there’s some exciting use of the GamePad for me to check out.
Other than that, it is likely I will be returning to my full time job as a Pokémon breeder in Pokémon Y, though I don’t know how much longer my enthusiasm will last when it comes to hatching eggs. There’s also a good chance (as always) that I will play some Dota 2, so I’m looking forward to that!
What’s on your gaming plate this weekend? Let us know in the comments!