wii

It’s Not You, It’s Me

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In November of 2007, Super Mario Galaxy was released to great fanfare. It received eye-popping reviews and a number of awards. I bought the game on day 1, but for a number of reasons, didn’t actually play it until a few months after the fact.

When I finally did play it though, I found myself in the midst of Nintendo magic. Even without the benefit of HD, Mario Galaxy is pretty to look at. The orchestrated soundtrack is excellent. For the most part, it controls really well. Most importantly, the game’s unique take on 3D platforming was highly refreshing and creative.

However, I got about 40 stars before I just stopped playing the game. Up until recently, I hadn’t played the game in years and forgot why I stopped playing it in the first place. After about an hour of playing the game again, I remembered why.

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“You” Suck at Making Best-Of Video Game Lists

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Normally, I am not one to argue a “best-of” list in any serious manner. Due to the subjectivity behind these lists, there will never be a definitive list that everyone can agree on. The “best-of” lists that are the worst are the ones voted on by “the people”, because regular people make the worst choices.

In spite of that, people love to make them anyway and argue about them till the cows come home. Recently, Guinness announced its top 50 video game franchises, as chosen by you. Snap judgment: you suck. If you would like to read the full list, I advise you to hit the link. Otherwise, continue to read as I highlight a few key spots and add snarky commentary.

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Closing Thoughts on de Blob

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When I first wrote about de Blob, I was really digging it. I loved the visual and audio presentation. The gameplay was really fun and easy to pick up. The second time I wrote about it, I voiced what was (and still is) my biggest problem with the game: its pacing. Now that I have beaten de Blob, how do I feel about this sleeper hit?

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de Blob Makes Me Think About Pacing

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I’m just over half way through de Blob and I’m still enjoying it. The gameplay mash-up of Katamari Damacy, Super Mario Galaxy and mercenaries mode in the Resident Evil series works really well and the developers at Blue Tongue have done a great job of polishing the details around that core experience to make the game a pleasure to play.

With the core game mechanics of de Blob, I would like to play this game in 20-30 minute chunks, with the ability to save mid-mission at any time. All things considered, I think this game works great in short bursts. If you want to speed run through it, you can beat each level in about 20-30 minutes. However, if you want to get a reasonable chunk of the levels done, your time per level will balloon to the point where it’s no longer a pick-up-and-play game.

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The Colour of Fun

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Not that many games are fun anymore. No, I’m not talking about the ratio between good games and bad games. I’m talking about games whose sole existence is to be fun. Street Fighter is fun, but wrapped in a game where you get enjoyment out of beating the crap out of someone else. Grand Theft Auto is fun, but that fun comes from wreaking havoc on a city an its inhabitants. The Resident Evil series is arguably not fun at all, as the enjoyment is derived from the games scaring the crap out of you.

This is why de Blob smacks me like a breath of fresh air. Behind the colourful visuals (which haters may call kiddie) and cheery music is a game aiming to achieve fun in it’s purest sense. I’ll be quick to admit that I’ve only played the first level, but this Wii game had me grinning from ear-to-ear from the opening cinematic to the end of my initial playthrough.

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Pick Up Post: You Say You Want A Revolution

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Over the weekend, I just so happened to be at an HMV when I stumbled across one of the most ill-conceived games of the last decade (if not of all-time). I have made fun of this game incessantly since it was announced in May of 2008 and have watched it fall into the absolute bottom of the bargain bin. I have seen stores have difficulty selling the full kit for $10 and the disc alone for $5.  At the price of $2 (which was the price I got it for), even I had to stand there and think about whether or not this would be a good investment. It probably wasn’t, but at least I can now speak first hand on why this game sucks.

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Pick Up Post: This Treasure Better Be Worth It

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On Saturday, I took a visit to one of my favourite independent video game retailers with my girlfriend because we just happened to be in the area. After circling around the store and trying out Blazblue on the PSP, a game in the bargain bin caught my eye, which I immediately picked up.

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Game Case Nightmares

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I get the feeling I’m in the minority here, but I know I’m not alone on this one. I like to take care of my games. I take pride in keeping everything intact and in top shape. This includes the cases that my games come in. Back in the days of Nintendo boxes, I would go as far as storing all of the cardboard boxes in a safe place. Nowadays, it’s a lot easier to keep everything in top shape, as game cases are well built to withstand average wear and tear.

However, having bought a number of used game stores and more recently, having bought a number of used games, I’ve seen so many games with messed up packaging. Everything from broken cases, to missing box art, to stickers all over the box. The majority of these cases makes me wonder: what are you people doing with your games?

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Reemployed Gamer

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These last two months have been difficult for me. At the end of January, I lost my job due to circumstances beyond my control. It was the first time I’ve been unemployed since I first began working in 2001. The good news is I just got a new job. I start as of Monday and I’m really excited to begin anew.

On my first day of unemployment, I wrote a blog post outlining a few gaming resolutions of sorts to tide me over during this tough time. I can say right now that I failed horribly at not purchasing games, having bought a total of 16 games during these last two months, but how did I fare at the rest of my resolutions?

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I Play Just Dance and See Why It’s So Divisive

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Hope you had a great Easter weekend. For me, it was a great opportunity to spend some time with my family as well as my girlfriend’s family. As far as gaming goes, most of it went down at my girlfriend’s house, where my girlfriend, her sister, her sister’s boyfriend and I played a bunch of Wii games. We played a bunch of games, including the Beatles: Rock Band, Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2, Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (which was really fun) and we beat New Super Mario Bros. Wii (which was epic, because we stayed up till 3am on Sunday night to beat it).

The one game I wanted to talk about today though was Just Dance. My girlfriend and her sister had been extremely excited to buy this game and finally picked it up over the weekend. Just Dance is the hottest new game on Wii, having sold over 2 million copies worldwide and garnering rave reviews from customers. However, the gaming press and core gamers have slammed Just Dance hard, claiming that it’s a half-baked product that doesn’t even work.

Now that I’ve played it, I see where both sides are coming from.

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