A rather large summary of games and gaming

Simply put, I've been playing a lot of great games recently but have yet to take the opportunity to summarize my experiences with them (aside from a few tweets here and there). The iPod Touch and the Wii are my top two consoles of the last couple of months, but the full array of games I've been playing include: New Super Marios Bros. Wii, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, A Boy and his Blob, Canabalt, Critter Crunch, Spelunky, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Edge, and Borderlands. Hit the jump for the full list!

"No One Wants to Play Sega with Harrison Ford" painting by Brandon Bird

Wii

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Planning ahead for once, I ordered New Super Mario Bros. Wii to conveniently arrive at my parents' house a day before Thanksgiving. Brother Chow, Steph, and myself played and finished the game in under three days. The whole play-through was a lot of fun and probably would have been way too easy if played alone. More than half of the charm was working cooperatively with the rest of my teammates, along with the occasional accident of pushing them off a ledge or bouncing them into an enemy. It certainly helped to have a set of bonafide "pro" gamers through it all, and despite the fun frustrations I wouldn't have had any any other way.

A Boy and His Blob
I never played the original A Boy and His Blob on the NES, so I'm not privy to making any comparisons between the new and the old. First off, I can't say that I was very compelled by the gameplay in this game. So far every level I've played includes hints about exactly what kind of blob I'm supposed to use to solve a problem, and overall the obstacles never seemed altogether that difficult. Perhaps it gets more complex as the game goes on or maybe the game is made for younger minds, but the first two worlds were a breeze. That aside, the environments and the art in this game are absolutely breathtaking and swelling with charm. The hand-animated sprites make all the difference, and I hope to see more of this in the future.

Handhelds (DS & iPod Touch)

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)
 
After reading a bit about the game at The Brainy Gamer, I decided to pick up Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story despite the fact that I've neglected to get involved in an RPG since Final Fantasy XII (and that was in 2006). I'm still playing this on my commute to and from work, and it's a really fun game. Playing as Mario & Luigi, you get to explore and battle within Bowser's internal organs, which sounds gross but the designers managed to pull it off in a really cool and colorful way. You additionally get to play half the game as Bowser which is pretty cool in terms of all the fire breathing, face pounding and minion ordering you get to do. I highly recommend this one!

Critter Crunch (iPhone & iPod Touch)
Well, I'm in love with Critter Crunch for the PS3, so it's hard not to love the portable pixelated iPhone and iPod touch version. I can't move around as quickly using my finger instead of the d-pad, but that's the least of my worries when it comes to playing with the adorable dot come big-cheeked biggs.

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (iPhone & iPod Touch)
Another game that came highly recommended by Brandon. You play as a spider who does spidery like things across and abandoned mansion full of secrets in which spinning webs and catching bugs is actually quite satisfying. There's also a subtle side-story developed in the background art from level to level, but I haven't really had a chance to get too in depth with it.

Edge (iPhone & iPod Touch)
I've only played this a little, but I love the style and music of the game. Worth checking out if you haven't!

Canabalt (iPhone & iPod Touch)
This has already been said by everyone else, but Canabalt is great. My tips for getting a over 9,000m (*ahem* this is me boasting a score of 12,680):

• Ask yourself, what are you running from? As far as we know, absolutely nothing, so it's in your best interest to take your time when leaping from skyscraper to skyscraper. You're not really in a hurry.
• The music is great, but it makes you think that you have to go fast fast fast. Turn it off in the game settings or replace it with something that sounds less like an action movie soundtrack. Neon Indian, Flying Lotus, and Enya are good choices for me.
• The boxes are there to hurt you, but more importantly, to help you when you're running too fast.

Other

Borderlands (PS3)
Brother Chow gave me Borderlands for my birthday (thanks brother!). The first night I played it I played it for a good 5 hours into the night. It's a lot of easy fun and it tends to be addictive with the constant leveling up and the multitude of badass weapons you can find. At the end of the day, I wouldn't say it's anything entirely stellar, but yeah, its fun.

... and finally

Spelunky (PC)

 I had been hearing plenty of buzz about Spelunky from Brandon for ages, but it wasn't until this past weekend that I finally had a chance to play it. Spelunky is the kind of game you love to hate. It's extremely difficult and totally unforgiving, with the tiniest slip-up ruining your game. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's refreshing in this day and age to get your ass kicked in a videogame (see Henry Hattsworth, for example). But with the levels randomly generating every time you play and my run-and-gun-it approach to platformers, I'm not only getting frustrated with every death but I'm also not getting any better. This is more or less my fault for not having the patience to improve. Either way, this is a great game, so check it out!

 

Okay, that's it. What are you all playing?

Comments

[Andreas]

Hm, I left my DS in Germany (my parents want to use to learn english) and I wanted to play Spelunky and Cavestory.
I´m not so sure now.. I should just buy this nerdy game instead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Rangers_%28video_game%29

Any other Pc recommendations?

[Andreas]

I should ADD that its an old Pc.

[masayume]

I had more than 300 runs in Spelunky and still I didn't get the chance to see the damsel in distress thing from your point of view.
You are probably right to be irked by it, but I firmly believe it was totally unintentional by the designer, Derek Yu, who was targetting the cliche about the hero of movies/games who constantly dies trying to save his blonde sweetheart. This time is though for her too.

The game was developed with a software tool that simplified very much the implementation of the damsel like a proper game item, and as Derek isn't a professional programmer things turned out this way.

If you read the forums this aspect of the game was considered hilarious by many. Because it's so damn politically incorrect...

[.tiff]

@Masayume I don't believe that Derek Yu intentionally designed her to offend, but at the same time the fact that she functions the way she does makes me wonder if he considered that it could appear somewhat abusive to some folk. Even if, say, he designed her to *not* get knocked out when she was thrown, which I can assume is simple enough to program, I think it would have come across as a slightly less disturbing interaction.

Out of curiosity, how many women commented on this as "hilarious" in the forums? While the whole scenario is so politically incorrect and could potentially be seen as a satire of the damsel in distress role, I didn't notice an overarching theme of satire or any other politically incorrect instances in the game. This inconsistency is what makes me uncomfortable with this particular treatment of the one woman in the game.

[.tiff]

@Andreas Despite the qualms I had with Spelunky, you should still give it a try... it's a fun platformer at the end of the day :) (but frustrating as all hell!)

I don't have a PC (I played on someone else's computer) but I'll keep an eye out for any PC gems I come across!

[Scotty G]

Did you manage to take advantage of the Steam sales at all? There was some good buys there. :)

Of the ones you listed the only one I'm really interested in is Mario and Luigi 3. I'd say New SMB Wii (because I heard they improved on the poor control the DS game had), but I don't have a Wii. ^_^

I'm playing... too many games tbh. :P Going through Overlord on 36 and GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS. Both are definitely games I'd recommend. Other than that the usual Audiosurf, and Killing Floor.

I suppose I should also add that I'm STILL playing the Retro/Grade demo. SO GOOD. I hope PS3 isn't the only platform they wind up releasing on.

[Shamous]

Wow, "pro" gamer is quite the compliment. Maybe I should go pro and leave this whole college thing behind?

L4D2 is turning out good. Popped it in the other day and spent a good 2 hours when i didn't have 2 hours to spare playing through the first campaign. Apparently, the campaigns now have a linear progression as opposed to being random scenarios with the same people, making it that much more interesting progressing through them. Also, has sorta 'goal oriented' sections that differentiate it from the first, so instead of going straight from safehouse to safehouse, they're also throwing in a task of fetching this guy some cola, or filling a gas tank of a car to get away from the hoard. Overall good, do recommend to get.

Also finally purchased and finished the campaign of Modern Warfare 2. Enjoyed the storyline (prolly better than the 1st on initial thoughts), enough to want to replay it on Veteran mode (superhard, working on it now). Skipped No Russian the second time, just figured I didn't need to deal with it.

My roommate also introduced me to the xbox live game 1 vs. 100. Apparently you can win free gamerpoints and arcade games on it, but is ridiculously hard to win since they time your answers so if you're a millisecond off, you don't win anything cuz everyone else is so fast. But an interesting concept nonetheless.

Kinda want to play Spelunky now, given the scandal and challenge.

[.tiff]

@ScottyG Unfortunately I do not have Steam functioning capabilities on my Macintosh computer... wish I did...

I'll have to check out the Retro/Grade Demo. Sounds good.. thanks for the suggestion!

[.tiff]

@Shamous Ah, I forgot to mention I played a little of L4D2... not enough to be totally memorable. I need to get on live and play that with you, that would be a lot of fun... I tried doing the fetching the cola exercise but when I was playing with my roomie we totally skipped the instructions, thus, not knowing exactly what we were doing when we were in the super market.

Would like to try MW2 and 1 vs. 100 (Sean always plays that). Speaking of games, can I borrow GOW2.. since.. you kids have a million other games to play co-op with :D

Def. Play Spelunky, I think you'd enjoy it. Steph just beat it so you have to keep up with being a better gamer than him.

[ScottyG]

Apparently there are ways to use Steam on a Mac with things like Crossover. I hate having to resort to workarounds like that, but it is an option if you want it badly enough. :)

It is weird that they haven't gotten Steam to Macs yet. Surely there is enough of a market to justify it.

1 vs 100 is great when you're in a party with other people playing. As for Retro/Grade, I swear I'm not recommending them just because they quoted me on their website (http://www.retrogradegame.com/). ;)

[masayume]

Well Spelunky is a bloodbath of cultists, exotic snakes and rare spiders, not to mention the sheer folly to shotgun shopkeepers. And I won't remember you also the "kiss for sale" in the shop thing.

I took it also like an awesome metagame where you may laugh at every side of cliche game design.

I think that everyone that found the damsel thing hilarious was male. But I grant you that every time she died I personally felt a little sad.

I take that you haven't played with GTAIV yet, do you ? :-)