Games I've recently played

Inspired by Zifnab's summary of his 2008 favorites, I'm going to belatedly blog about some games I've recently played. (Once I'm back in Oxford, I'll write an entry about some movies and plays. I have my ticket stubs there, and I plan to use those to remind myself about many of the ones I've seen. I'll also try to comment about rentals such as Annie Hall, which is a highly appropriate movie to mention if one wants to bring up good Woody Allen films. For some reason, my brother started out with Curse of the Jade Scorpion. I'll never trust his movie opinions ever again---not that I particularly trusted them before that comment.)

Anyway, here are some comments on a few games I've played in the not-to-distant past (several of which I am, of course, still playing):


N+: I had been waiting to buy N+ for the Nintendo DS since I saw this at PAX in August 2007. This was the game that excited me the most at that convention. I played this cooperatively with Lemming on his XBOX Live version, and we got through over 100 levels together. This was one of my best cooperatively video game experiences in recent memories. It was awesome how we worked together. On one particular level, we had given ourselves way too little time to get through things, so we had to rush and devise a strategy (one person drawing missile fire at appropriate times, etc.) to be able to get away with it, and even then it took several dozen attempts because we had so little leeway that even missing one jump was a killer. I also played the DS version a bunch; it seems much easier than the XBOX Live version, but that's probably partially because I developed a few skills while I was playing with Lemming. I should try making my own levels at some point---just like in Loderunner (one of the game's spiritual ancestors and the game it immediately made me think of when I first saw it).

Super Mario Galaxy: I finally started playing this a few months ago. It's extremely fun, and I like it much better than Super Mario Sunshine (which I enjoyed for a while but didn't find sufficiently different from Super Mario 64 for me to want to play it too much). I currently have 79 stars, and I plan to get a few more before I try to beat the final boss. I don't anticipate trying for all 120 stars because there are several that I think will be too much of a pain in the ass to get. Also, I don't play if I'm feeling even remotely bad (so I occasionally have really long gaps between play sessions), because this game tends to make me rather dizzy on occasion.

Zelda for the Wii: I must have blogged about this before, right? Anyway, I finished it a while back now. I still want to do the Cave of Ordeals, and one of these days I will actually be in the mood to go and do this.

Castle Crashers: I first played this at PAX 2007. There was one level that people were allowed to play, so I watched others play and then along with Lemming and two random people got most of the way through before a power outage in the exhibitors hall finished us. (Then we had another event to attend, so we didn't get back to it.) I had a lot of fun with it---it was the other game besides N+ that really struck a chord with me at PAX---but I didn't get a chance to play again until last night. Along with two of my pre-Caltech friends, we got a decent chunk of the way through the game last night. (There is a certain dragon boss which---along with falling rocks---is currently kicking our butts. The highest level among us is now 17. It's often difficult to figure out where you are during the game, but I had a lot of fun button-mashing last night.) Also, I really dig the CPR mechanism in the game and there is a lot of other humor as well.

Arkanoid DS: I bought this recently after arriving in LA. I was playing this on New Year's Eve when the clock struck midnight. Unsurprisingly, it's been spruced up from the arcade version, but its seems way too easy (especially in comparison with the arcade). I'll play some more later, and we'll see how things are at higher difficulty levels. Maybe it's just trying to balance out the ridiculous AI level in the DS version of Puyo Puyo?

Super Paper Mario: I also finished this one a while back, although I still want to do what I will call its 'Pipe of Ordeals' (a la the pipe of challenges in the previous iteration of this series) and I want to beat the Samar Guy challenge. I tried the Samar Guy challenge before and I got somewhere into the 90s before I died. Bloody Hell. That was so annoying that I haven't tried the thing again since then!

Super Smash Brothers Brawl: I played this for a while as well and then I started (finally) playing Super Mario Galaxy. I naturally still play on occasion when I have friends over, and I anticipate I'll do some more of the single-player at some point as well. I have several trophies I still want to get. I also want to do the two-player challenges at some point, and I would like to try my hand at making my own levels. Maybe I'll even play this with other people if/when I get around to connecting my Wii online again. I should also play this with my students and try to kick their asses. :) Oh, and Jigglypuff rules!

Rock Band 2: I played this when I visit Caltech in December. It seems to have taken an evolutionary step from the first game, though I definitely like the song list much better in this version of the game than in the previous one. There were many more songs in my paradigm this time around. My limited skills with the drums had eroded in my one year between playing, so I'll try to pick those up a bit during a future visit. I'd consider buying a version of this game for the Wii if customs and shipping weren't going to be such a pain to actually make it workable.

Super Munchkin: I bought this early in my visit as well. I had a chance to play with the Caltech gang over at 170 and also a bit with some of the Beverly Hills gang. It turns out that it only came out last October, so it makes sense that I hadn't actually encountered it before. My two favorite moments so far are a seriously-augmented 21st level Potted Plant---that was one dangerous beastie!---and my friend's turning himself into a woman so that the Amazon would ignore him. I'm definitely looking forward to playing this one more.


Other games that I am either playing now or soon will be playing: I'll be doing more Super Mario Galaxy once I am back in Oxford. I will also continue playing N+, Arkanoid, and Phantom Hourglass. (I have mostly played the last one of these while on the road, so I haven't gotten very far, and now I am planning to just sit down and actually finish the game. I'm currently at an annoying part that I don't have the heart to repeat more than once every few days because of how repetitive it is---I am back for my third trip in the dungeon where one has a limited time to do stuff---but I'll get past that eventually and then continue with my progress.) I also bought Samba de Amigo, which should be a nice game for when I have friends over. Finally, I bought Okami, which I will start working my way through after Super Mario Galaxy. The presence of this game may well delay my completion of Phanton Hourglass further...

I'm not sure if there are any other games I wanted to discuss here, but I haven't really had a big post about games for a while and I figured this would be a nice one to write (given that I'm not doing year-end reviews for 2008).