NES Open Tournament Golf (3DS)

Golf.  GOLF!  Now I don't know what to say about this game.  I played a little of this and it wasn't all that great.  Sure it is likely I didn't play enough of this game but I guess this is okay.  I will probably play more someday but I won't really enjoy it.  Golf has never been my game.

Ice Hockey (NES)

What a simple game but what fun.  There is a lot to this game but it is so simple that you can instantly get into it.  First, there are three types of players.  The thing and fast skinny guy.  Although, he slides more when checked.  The big fat slow player, that is harder to knock down.  Lastly the average guy.  You can set up your team however you want and it adds some strategy to the game.

Playing the CPU is fun until it absolutely eats you alive.  Playing against friends is the way to go.  I had fun with the game but it is not something to pour a lot of time into it.

Championship Pool (SNES)

I don't remember much about this game but I do remember it being pretty fun.  It's a pool game and once you know what you are doing, you get to be decently good.  The problem is the CPU is also good.  Better than good, it is downright unfair.  It's like being hustled.  This game is like being hustled.  Still, if you really like pool and have a SNES.  Play this.  It is worth it.

Orbient (WW)

A not very well known WiiWare title.  I bought it during my phase of trying not very well known games.  This game is rather relaxing and quite simple.  You are a small planet.  You must orbit around other planets picking up smaller planets to get bigger.  As you get bigger, you can get planets to orbit you for more points.  Once you reach the correct size, you have to capture the wining planet or I think it was a sun.  I can't remember and it has been too long for me to remember.

The game itself is very solid.  The controls are simple and when you make mistakes, you are rarely punished that badly.  It's a fun waste of time game.  Getting all the secret moons is a little hard at times but I did pretty good without trying.  If you need a physics based puzzler, try this.  It's not super bad but again not shining through everything else.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong (3DS)

I played this game on the 3DS as part of the Ambassador Program.  It wasn't a terrible game but I don't remember too much about it being great either.  It seemed like a semi-solid title that didn't really do too much that was different but it was unique.  I only had one hang up and that was the sometimes inconsistent deaths that you would get from the random hits and sometimes unfair conditions.  It was a nice title and if I had paid for it, I would have been disappointed.

LittleBigPlanet (PS3)

This was the first PS3 game I had.  I received it for Christmas the same year I got my PS3.  It was amazing at the time.  Freedom to do what you wanted to do and it was just so quirky.  As the time went on, I quickly learned that the charm wears off.  This game touted the online as being infinite and the fun immeasurable.  That was a very big claim and one I fear this game didn't meet.

To start, the story mode ranges from fun to aggravating as often times the challenges would ramp up for no reason.  Take that into effect with floaty and imprecise controls for a game that demanded it at times and you get a headache.  Add onto the need to put life caps and you get something that is not fun to play through more than once.  Yes, I don't mind a challenge but when the controls are this loose.  Give me a break.

The online started out great.  Then as more and more people got into the H4H movement (Heart 4 Heart), the levels quickly spiraled into nothing more than rooms with nothing in them.  Just to get the trophies.  Creating levels was tedious and even if you put a lot of time into the level, nobody would play them cause all they wanted to do was H4H.  It ruined the experience.  For example, I went through and played a level.  This level consisted of nothing but the beginning portal blocked by immovable black substance all around it.  You could not complete this level.  This level had around 10 hearts.  My level that I put some time and though into, was completed, and even gave away some prizes was played by one person total.  I don't care if people though my level sucked and didn't heart it.  I could care less.  It's the principal of it.  A room with nothing to do and no objective should not be liked and played more just because.

This game was okay.  Nothing spectacular and with each iteration it just got too complex for me to even care.  If they would fix the loose controls and make the online levels not just heart fests with no goal, I would consider going back.  But for now, I'm burned to this series.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PS3)

Oblivion, a word that brings to mind great destruction and cataclysmic events.  That describes this game at times.  I have nothing against the game itself.  It is a very solid game and my first foray into the Elder Scrolls world.  It gave me lots and lots of hours of enjoyment and lots of hours of aggravation as well.

To be frank, I have yet to play a game in this series (or the Fallout series) that doesn't play like garbage at times on the PS3.  This is not the devs fault, well not mostly their fault.  They know the market is bigger on PC, so they optimize the games for that platform.  As a console gamer, I understand that most of what I will be playing will be outdone graphically.  I realize that and don't really care that much about graphics.  The piece that gets me is the fact that parts of the game get to be unplayable because of this lack of support for consoles.  For example, the last big battle in the game, chugged at about 4 frames a second because there was so much on screen.  Yes, I'm sure on a PC it was spectacular but here it was bad.

Blame me all you want for not playing on PC but I don't want to play on PC.  Everybody always claims that it is just a choice and console gamers should just shut up about it.  I respect PC gamers and understand that they are superior.  Heck, I've tried gaming on PCs a couple of times and some of my favorite game moments are from PC games.  Then why do I still own a console?  Why have I not moved forward and joined the PC supremacy?  Because I like what I like and I group up with consoles.  There is nothing better than playing on a device that is specifically made to just run games.

All in all, this was a fun game. It gave me lots to do and I didn't even do everything.  I ended up doing most of the Mage's Guild line until I glitched a story quest to be irrecoverably uncompleted.  I will always remember walking into a dungeon and getting mobbed to death by zombies for hours before I learned how to play the game.

TMNT: Arcade Game (NES)

Apparently this is the worst version of this game.  I don't know why other than the graphics.  I loved this game as a kid.  It was great and my siblings and I had all sorts of fun popping this into the NES.  It brings back childhood memories of waking up on Saturday morning, eating Cookie Crisp out of a Raphael shaped cereal bowl and watching what the turtles were up to this week.

The game is solid.  You attack, move around, and dodge at what seems like a consistent pace.  There doesn't seem to be too many things that are unfair and when you die it is because you got careless.  I don't remember ever beating this game or at least beating it alone.  But that's okay, it was an arcade game, those weren't meant to be beaten.

This just reminds me of how well my childhood was.  I look at the turtles of this generation and just feel so sorry for them.  They will never have the classic stuff I had as a kid.  It makes me feel bad that people are taking these old shows and turning them into bastardized versions of them, just for some quick cash.  I mean the turtles have never been aliens, that has never happened once.  Now, they are aliens and it just makes me feel so bad inside.  Why do people have to ruin things I loved as a child?

Theatrhythm (3DS)

The first thing I usually tell people when they ask me about rhythm and music games is that I am terrible at them and rarely ever play them.  In fact, this game is the first one I ever played.  It's not a genre of game that I can ever really get into for some reason and I believe it comes from my own lack of musical talent.  Sure, I listen to lots and lots of music (mostly video game soundtracks) but that does not mean I possess rhythm.

This game showed me my true faults and it pushed me beyond my normal comfort zone for games.  I'm glad I played it, it was fun.  Being a Final Fantasy fan definitely helps when you play this.  Having beaten all the main numbered games, except XI, I could remember every single little moment from all the sections. I remember the music, I remember the characters and this game brought it all back up.

This game was a nice refreshment from my usual gaming habits.  Yes, it has RPG elements but it is not an RPG.  That was key, since I was playing this at a time where I was so overrun with RPGs that I had no clue what to play.  I'm still there now but I now know what I need to do to keep going.  This game showed me how I should balance my game playing so I don't get so into a rut with RPGs that I just stop playing everything.

Zone of the Enders HD Collection (PS3)

As my 100th post, I thought it was appropriate to do something special.  What's more special than two games in one?  So let's get started.  I've never done a double review.

Zone of the Enders is an interesting concept.  On the one hand, it has very solid gameplay.  Every action is fluid and controlled.  It is very easy to get used to and you progressively get better as you play.  This progression moves at a natural pace, you never feel like you are being punished but you know when you are doing badly.  The key difficulty I had with this game was the fact that I got lost in what to do at one point.  It may have just been me but I had no clue what to do.

2nd Runner improves on the first game in every way.  You still get that natural but now it is ramped up.  The missions are much more varied this time and the bosses more unique.  Sometimes it can be frustrating when bosses absolutely demolish you but you always feel like trying again.

The story in both games starts out pretty normal and then gets out there.  By the end of 2nd Runner, I had no idea what was even going on or why.  It was a fun story to get through though.  The game itself does have some flaws.  It often crashed for me when I tried to actually leave the game.  It would often hard boot my PS3 until I started exiting to the XMB first and then turning it off.  Even after I started doing that though, it would graphically glitch some of the menus.  I'm sure they fixed this in the patch but it wasn't released when I played this.