Friday, May 30, 2008

May Pick-up recap

I made a conscious effort to cut back on gaming expenditures this month, and had it not been for my Wii arriving mid-month as a debt payment from a friend, I wouldn't have bought any games whatsoever.  I was compelled to pick up a few things, though:


I had to pick up a fresh Wiimote, and of course that meant Wii Play and a nunchuck.  Then, I felt obligated to pick up the reigning champ of casual games, Boom Blox, which rocks.  That would have been the end of this torrid affair, but I spied a copy of Hotel Dusk in the glass case for only $20, and judged that a good deal, and an easy and profitable flip online if I don't care for it, myself.  Not pictured is the Wii component cable I had to run out and buy to maintain some semblance of a respectable resolution and progressive scan in my console gaming.

My Wii came with well-rounded suite of entertainment software applications, gratis, as pictured here:


I have yet to try any of these games besides Wii Play (more like Wii Lame) and Boom Blox.  I'm not too sure about some of them, but I hope to put in a couple hours with them before hawking them toward Wii Point cards or better games for other systems.  Super Mario Galaxy, is of course at the top of this pile.  It's the rest that receive the gaze of suspicion.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, your friend must have owed you lots of money.

I heard good things about RE4 and Zelda.

Can't vouch for the others, but Galaxy is awesome. I need to get through some games before I can go back to it, though.

Count Elmdor said...

Yeah, he was paying me pack the cost of one of my guitars I let him sell when he got an offer. He was keeping them for me while I was in Japan.

Speaking of games to get through, I need to knock out some more GTA4 or I won't be done by the time Metal Gear gets here. Hell, I probably won't be anyway...

Greg said...

Nas,

I haven't played MP8 but I have played all the other Wii titles you got and can say confidently that they are worth your time. RE4 may be the best RE yet. I have it on the 'cube and enjoyed the first few levels before I got distracted by ffxi smithing or something else...

Zelda is cool but I didn't go nuts over it like most. I thought it was solid, just a little too cutesy.

Smash Bros. is fun if you like fighters and it is one of the few reasons to get online with the Wii.

Mario Galaxy has its moments although once again, I just didn't think it was as magical as the gaming media lead me to believe.

One game I did try this weekend that might be worth your time is a quirky surgery "simulator" called "Trauma Center: Second Opinion". This is one of the Wii launch titles that intrigued me but I never picked it up. My girlfriend and I decided to rent it this weekend and we had a pretty good time up until the end. We got close to finishing the story mode when the gameplay got frustratingly difficult. It's a really cool game with what I would call a very Japanese presentation. I certainly recommend renting it as it is feasible to beat it in a few days.

Count Elmdor said...

Cool, thanks for the recommendation. I've heard about one of those Trauma Center games, though it may have been one of the DS ones. They were talking about it on some podcast recently and were saying it was insanely difficult. Those are put out by Atlus, which do some things I'm a fan of.

I played through all of RE4 (and I mean all!) this past winter, actually, but it was the PS2 version. I thought it was great, if a little too long. Being as that was so recent, I dunno if I care to try the Wii one for anything more than just to see how the aiming is implemented.

I have a confession to make regarding Zelda. I never finished Ocarina of Time for N64. I can't even remember why; I made it all the way to the final dungeon and just never went in. Maybe I just didn't want it to end?

Anonymous said...

Hey man,

Is puzzle quest worth it? I'm thinking of picking up the PSP or DS version. Man, I never beat ANYTHING on the portables

Count Elmdor said...

Puzzle Quest is awesome. It's totally worth the $15 I spent. I probably put 60 hours into it, if not more.

I do have to recommend the XBLA version though, because the screens I've seen of the portable ones look... not bad, but just not what I've become accustomed to in 720p.

I know it's ridiculous to be a graphics whore about something like Puzzle Quest, but that's actually not the only concern. The music in the game is really great, even if there are only like 5 tracks, and it would be a shame if it suffered, too. Lastly you have to consider achievements and online play if that stuff matters to you.

For DS, get Etrian Odyssey/Sekaiju no Meikyuu (2 is fine, since there's no story connection). So good.

PSP, well, I liked Crisis Core pretty well. MGS: PO has some real control issues, but it's worth trying at least, and the plot is both canon and relevant to the rest of the series.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. I get Etrian 2 for free from the guys at Atlus. At least, it was promised me in a meeting by their localization head. Working in games ROCKS