Changes were in store for my beloved series. Would it mean the end for my love?

When last we left off, I was swooning over the storytelling prowess of Majora’s Mask and specifically, how dark the tone of the game placed the series. My hopes for a new Zelda game were high and I was eager to hear what would happen next. Before a real console sequel though, we’d be getting a little handheld detour first.

Oracle of Ages (2001):

If this looks a lot like Link's Awakening, that's because it looks a lot like Link's Awakening.

Nintendo Power did its usual thing of hyping me up for the new Zelda games, but this time things were different. Oracle of Ages was for the Game Boy Color, but it wasn’t being released all alone. It was one of two Zelda games released at the same time, so I was skeptical as to the true intentions of this noble little game. I still went out and rented Oracle of Ages, an odd thing to think about since renting Game Boy Color games was extremely rare. Anyway, I rented the game and played it, not thinking too much one way or another. This was another one of those cases where I needed to return once I was a little older and a little wiser. Sure enough, upon closer inspection I found Oracle of Ages to be an excellent game that specialized in the puzzles Zelda games are known for. But wait, there’s more.

Oracle of Seasons (2001):

Is there any wonder why I loved these two games?

Oracle of Seasons was released at the same time as Oracle of Ages, and while they had different core stories and different styles with Ages being more puzzle-oriented and Seasons much more about the action, it was the effect gained from playing them back-to-back that added an extra oomph to the experience. The reason being is that once you played one game, didn’t matter which first, you’d get a code to input in the other game when you started a new file. You’d get to begin the game with an extra heart and characters would reference your exploits from the other game, making the world feel more complete. Even better, these characters would give you a new code to input in the first game, unlocking new weapons and upgrades and such that could then be unlocked in the other game. And after beating the second game, you’d get the chance to fight with Ganon once more, tying things together so nicely. I was really amazed with how cool the whole package felt. Do not buy just one of these if you choose to play them. It’s required that you play both.

The GameCube is Announced:

But all was not well in Hyrule and lands beyond. A great schism was approaching. Nintendo had announced the GameCube and with it showed a now infamous tech demo that’d lead fans astray. The culprit? This image:

If you were a Zelda fan, this got you so jazzed it hurt.

The assumption was that this and a few other images shown in Nintendo Power were actual footage from a new Legend of Zelda game being developed for the GameCube. And why wouldn’t we believe that? It only made sense, plus it looked so much like Ocarina of Time but with better graphics. Except something was wrong. After seeing these images, Nintendo wouldn’t say anything for what seemed like a year until finally we got a look at the new Zelda title on the GameCube. And that’s when fans got mad.

Wind Waker (2002):

Goodbye Zelda series you knew and loved. Hope you like cartoons and sailing.

It is important to note that my opinion of The Wind Waker is this: It is an extremely great game, just a very bad Zelda game. I, like many other Zelda fans, believed the images previously seen in Nintendo Power were what to expect from the new Zelda title, so when a year later we see the equivalent of a cartoon penis pretending to be Link, we were miffed. And no, this wasn’t all fans, and even some fans that were miffed eventually didn’t have a problem, but the general feeling was that Nintendo had betrayed us somehow, regardless of their intent.

Despite any negative feelings due to a misunderstanding, The Wind Waker is a really great game. The art style is pretty darn cool and the controls are spot-on. But the tone doesn’t feel like a Zelda game. Sure, there are races from previous Zelda titles and landmarks mentioned, but overall it just didn’t feel that much like the games I grew up with. It just felt…foreign. And foreign isn’t a bad thing necessarily, unless of course I just wanted a true follow-up to Majora’s Mask with the same sort of mature themes done tastefully. This new cartoon style only pointed me to believe that the dark, sad atmosphere I had been touched by in Majora’s Mask would be replaced by this vibrant color scheme, as if to wash over any real emotion that could potentially occur. The cartoon-style Zelda games would continue to be decent, but they’d never come close to the expectations fans asked for Majora’s Mask’s sequel.

Four Swords Adventures (2004):

I assure you, it's a fun game, just yet another bad Zelda game.

And then something really odd happened. Four Swords Adventures was released on the GameCube to an audience that was mostly unaware (read: indifferent) to its appearance. I for one couldn’t muster a shred of interest when I read about it. I ended up playing it, as always, and all I could say was, “Wow, this is just Link to the Past 2.0.” Once again, it wasn’t a bad thing, per say. It was just another Zelda game that didn’t deliver where the fans were concerned. Art style, yes, it was yet another gorgeous title in the Zelda franchise, and once you got past how it broke with all Zelda conventions it was actually very enjoyable. But as I said, it just wasn’t what fans were asking for, and the multiplayer aspect that Nintendo was pushing for the title wasn’t available unless every player owned a GBA and a GBA-GameCube cable, of which I personally had the needed equipment but had no friends that did. I’d still recommend Four Swords Adventures if you want a simple, cheap game to pass the time in between larger titles.

Minish Cap (2004):

Good, the classic style gameplay. Fine, make it cartoony, just give me back my classic style gameplay.

Something had just broken inside me when it came to the Zelda series. My favorite games were still holding up, but the new releases were failing to stir any desire to fork over the money immediately and buy the next game. Minish Cap was one such example. Oh sure, when I finally played it I found that it was amazing, just as the rest of the Zelda games, but sadly the art style reminded me of Wind Waker. I’m not a snob, I assure you, but that art style doesn’t invoke joy from me. To me, the Wind Waker art style represents a movement away from anything serious within the series, meaning that ultimately the game is the adventure-genre equivalent of a Mario title, by which I mean the ultimate thing at stake is the same over and over again. Princess Zelda has been kidnapped and Link must go through a number of dungeons to get her back. No surprises, no real thrills. Great gameplay and dungeon design, but it feels like empty calories. I don’t feel as if the narrative if progressing towards bettering me as a Zelda gamer or rewarding me for continuing on in the series. All the older titles did, but now something feels like it’s missing. I needed more than trading Kinstones to keep me interested anymore. Would Nintendo ever satisfy fans like me anymore?

Twilight Princess (2006):

The Hero had returned at last.

Things were bleak in my eyes, and then the miracle that is Twilight Princess was announced. Suddenly I was more excited for a video game than I’ve ever been. That pure rush of excitement hit me and I was ready to experience a new Zelda title in the vein of my favorites. But a trailer wouldn’t be enough to satisfy. I’d watch it over and over, waiting for my game, MY game, to finally come out. But therein slept yet another problem.

Twilight Princess would be pushed back again and again until finally it became a launch title for the Wii as well as a GameCube game. I was confused about that, but I was already buying a Wii, so Twilight Princess was a no-brainer for a launch title. It’s still the version I recommend. And Twilight Princess is really recommended. The tone was darker without being overly serious, the story was pretty cool, and all the new elements were excellently added, such as the motion controls. I felt like a very powerful character once I had the bow in my hand, aiming with pinpoint accuracy. This was the game I’d been waiting for, no question. But in my ravenous greed for a new Zelda title I devoured it too quickly, beating the majority of the game (minus some tedious side-quests) in a little over 20 hours. I could only speculate where the series would go from here.

Phantom Hourglass (2007):

Crap, I spoke too soon. We're on a damned boat again.

And then the cartoon style of Zelda came back with a vengeance just to spite me. Phourglass appeared and as soon as I heard it was a DS title I was happy. I thought it would be like the older Zelda titles I enjoyed such as Link’s Awakening or Oracle of Ages. Then I heard you’d use the stylus to control, exclusively. That made me beyond sad. I don’t mind touch controls when they work, but I didn’t see any need to change basic movement and sword swinging from the tried and true D-pad/A button combo. It didn’t matter, I would still play Phourglass, and so I did.

Following directly after The Wind Waker, Phourglass had Link and Tetra/Zelda on an adventure that felt entirely unnecessary. A ghost ship appears and separates the two. Link must go find her through a series of dungeon-related events, accessible via boating. As I mentioned before, this just felt like empty calories. It didn’t feel like the series progressed anywhere but rather decided to fall into a rut. Repetitive gameplay, dull story and setting, and the first Zelda title not to add a single new weapon/item. Seriously, bow, boomerang, bombs? We’ve seen those before! Twilight Princess gave us things like the Spinner, the Ball and Chain, and the Double Claw Shots, but Phourglass couldn’t think of anything. How sad. I was painfully happy when Link saved Tetra in the end and the credits rolled, because it meant I never had to play this one again.

Spirit Tracks (2009):

If the characters in the artwork look like they don't care, that should be a pretty clear indication, shouldn't it?

Silly me, I had to play Phourglass again, except it was called Spirit Tracks this time. You’ve read my review detailing my numerous frustrations with Spirit Tracks, so there isn’t much more to say about this title. When it was first announced it seemed like it had to be a joke. Link on a train? Was there really nothing left to do with the Hero of Legend? At least it added new weapons/tools whereas Phourglass hadn’t, but these new items included the usual variety of bombs, bows, boomerangs, and the obligatory “odd” item, the pinwheel, an item I loathed because it required I used the microphone. Blowing into the DS microphone is NOT enjoyable in any game I’ve yet played. Even worse, the final boss fight felt nearly impossible due to the awful touch screen sword mechanics. I’ve never cursed so much while playing a Zelda game, a very bad sign. All Zelda fans could do was look to the future and hope, knowing that Nintendo had promised a new Wii Zelda sometime. But when would we know more?

Skyward Sword (2011?):

I'm ready for this game to knock my shorts off. It's got a lot to live up to.

This year’s E3 showed us our first true look at Skyward Sword, the official name of the new Zelda title for the Wii. It’s not out yet (obviously), but Nintendo has claimed it should be out around 2011. I’ll believe it when I see it happen, but the sooner the better. The last “good” Zelda game was in late 2006, so I’m ready for something new and something now.

Skyward Sword has a slew of screenshots, plus some gameplay footage and an excellent trailer showing off what we can expect. And what stands out the most? The art style. It looks very much like Twilight Princess but with a cell-shaded sheen, almost a hybrid between Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker. Naturally, this worries me. Has the precedence been set to ease the series once more toward the cartoony style? To me, this means a movement away from a deeper Zelda experience and a push toward more empty calories. The console Zelda games have always been excellent in one form or another, each very different from the last, but the cartoony-style Zelda games have a very repetitive feel to them. What also scares me is the decision of Skyward Sword to use motion controls for every action now, similar to how stylus control was forced work for the DS titles. Is the Zelda series officially dead to me? We’ll have to wait and see.

So what comes next? Where will the series take us in the future? Nintendo seems pretty keen on remaking Ocarina of Time for the 3DS, but that’s just a remake, nothing new. Will we ever hear Link truly speak? Will Ganondorf stay trapped or dead? I’m hopeful for what comes next, but how about you? Do you still love the Zelda series no matter what it does next? Or are too jaded at this point to care? I’m done with all my memories so now it’s your turn to pontificate about one of gaming’s oldest and dearest franchises. In the meantime I’ll just sit here and pray to Din, Nayru and Farore that Skyward Sword is awesome.

Need more retrospectives? Take a look at these:

-Mario: A Retrospctive

-Rare: A Retrospective

-Go Green Machine! A Ninja Turtle Video Game Retrospective

We knew Zelda was coming, but what surprises did E3 give us?

This year’s E3 is now over. As you may have guessed, I was not there. That’s not to say I’m completely without my knowledge of things that occurred during this year’s major press conferences. In fact, Other Chris is lucky and naturally talented enough to be an intern for a major game site (I won’t tell you who it is but it’s GameTrailers), meaning he was there and called me every night to give me the firsthand scoop. Utilizing all of my resources, I now present to you the big things from E3 2010.

Microsoft:

Oh look, another SKU of the 360. We really needed one of these, thanks.

It’s sad to say, but Microsoft may have just made a huge fool of itself this year with an incredibly lackluster showing of anything really interesting to its market of core gamers. The past few years it’s gone out of its way to point out how much it’s the “adult” system compared to Nintendo’s Wii. Then of course last year it showed off Project Natal, a version of motion control that requires only your body, similar to Sony’s Eye Toy from so many failed years ago.

Natal has a new name now: Kinect. It pains me to write that, it really does. Granted, it also pains me to see anything associated with Kinect because the games look exactly like you’d expect them to: Stupid. It’s like Microsoft isn’t even trying to differentiate itself from Nintendo either with titles like Kinect Sports and Kinect Party. Wii Fit clones? You bet, in bundles. Nintendogs with safari animals? Kinanimals, or some ridiculous name. That’s right, I won’t even bother to look it up for sure.

Don't these just make you wanna get up and spend $150? Me neither.

But what new games were shown at Microsoft’s press conference? Well, they showed off Gears of War 3, a title we already heard about last month and knew about even earlier. The new Call of Duty game appeared, which looks exactly as you’d expect it to. Once again, it was a title we had seen announced earlier. Same exact thing with Halo: Reach, a game that looks good, but still, we’ve already known about it. Finally, Metal Gear Rising, a game announced last year, was shown again. That means Microsoft showed four titles, only two that are exclusives, and spent the rest of their time pumping Kinect to an audience that couldn’t care less. Oh, and Kinect’s price point? $149.99. That’s a bit steep for the casual market, because the hardcore market sure isn’t going to buy the add-on, not even if they buy the new SKU of the 360, the Xbox 360 Slim. Wow, they’re really not trying to cover where they got all these ideas from, aren’t they?

Sony:

Hey, at least Sony had SOMETHING to surprise fans with, more or less.

The PS3 is slowly picking up some steam, and Sony’s press conference was thankfully better than Microsoft’s, at least a little bit. As also expected, Sony talked about their motion control device, the Sony Move, though it was toned way back compared to how much time Microsoft devoted to Kinect, possibly because Sony saw how badly Kinect was received. Little Big Planet 2 was shown, though don’t forget, that was announced a while ago as well. Will this E3 show any titles not previously shown?

Yes, actually. Sony surprised everyone by announcing a new Twisted Metal game for the PS3, a game fans have been pleading for and still somewhat expected, though not any time soon, making it a nice surprise. Another bit of a surprise was Gran Turismo 5. No, we’d heard about this one years and years and years ago, but Sony finally gave it a release date, which is big enough news. The release date is November 2nd, so we won’t know for a few months at least whether that is subject to change, though I’m willing to bet money that it will.

It's only taken them...I lost count how many years.

God of War has a new sequel for the PSP, another totally expected announcement, Killzone 3 was shown to utilize the 3D elements Sony’s implementing into the PS3 (as long as you have a $5000 3D TV), and a few other minor titles were shown off for the PSP and PS3 alike, but nothing that really stands out. A new feature for the Playstation Network was announced that says there will be a premium service added, priced the exact same as an Xbox Live Gold Subscription. Sony says the current free online service of the Playstation Network will not be changing, but if you pay to upgrade your account you’ll get early release demos, free games, and other things. I’m predicting that companies will begin requiring PS3 owners to upgrade to play more online multiplayer modes than “stock matches,” but this is just my speculation.

Nintendo:

This will be the thing everyone talks about for a while now.

Nintendo won this year, hands down. No way they’ll win next year because they showed everything they’ve had secret for the past few years. Last year was all about the casual market, but this year showed Nintendo franchise titles roll out one by one, mostly thanks to the 3DS. From what I’ve read, and even more mostly from what Other Chris told me, the 3D really works and blows your mind, but it doesn’t come without severe limitations. You have to be at the exact distance and holding the system at the correct angle for the 3D to work, but when it does it freaks you out with how cool it is. The graphics aren’t quite GameCube/Wii level, but they’re still impressive for a handheld.

So with this new system was the announcement of tons of titles, most noteworthy the launch title Kid Icarus Uprising, the Kid Icarus game fans have demanded since the last Kid Icarus game on the Game Boy. Nintendo’s toyed with fans long enough, putting Pit in Brawl, but now there’s a new game and it looks freaking amazing. Definitely a strong-looking launch title.

Okay, ya got me Nintendo, here is my money right now.

But that’s not all. Three more titles coming out for the 3DS caught my eye and got me happy. The first was a remake of Star Fox 64, a game that works absolutely perfectly for the handheld. The second was more hushed, but it’s a Paper Mario game, a series I figured lent itself perfectly to the new system (kind of sad I didn’t get a chance to pitch it first). And of course the biggest reveal: Ocarina of Time MIGHT be remade for the 3DS. Should it? Of course, the more people that play Ocarina of Time the better, plus the graphics even in the teaser demo were a huge improvement over the 64 graphics. That’s just astonishing to me. But remember, Nintendo has NOT confirmed they’re for sure remaking that game, just suggested that it’s a possibility. At this point though, it’ll happen.

Still more awesome titles were shown, such as the Legend of Zelda game we all knew was coming. It’s titled the Skyward Sword and has an art style somewhere in between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. Personally I think it looks cool, plus I’m a Zelda fan anyway, but I can promise you that fans will be angrily split since the overall graphical sheen looks brighter and happier in tone, a big no-no for fans, apparently. A bit of a surprise was the new Kirby game for the Wii with a really unique art style that looks like yarn. Not much to say, but it’s going to be a game Kirby fans will love. More than the Zelda release, one of the best-received games was Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. It’s being developed by Retro Studios, the company behind the Metroid Prime series, and looks like a return to form back to the SNES titles. Finally, Donkey Kong is awesome again.

Other Big Companies:

Hey, nothing wrong with a little Stormtrooper carnage.

Yes, there are more games to talk about other than just ones from the Big Three, but not a whole lot to go into. Square Enix did their usual thing by showing little pieces of games here and there, such as Final Fantasy IV, an online game they showed last year. Nothing new there, and since it’s an online Final Fantasy game the core fans are generally brushing it aside. Plus, Kingdom Hearts games were mentioned for the various systems, but nothing like the official Kingdom Hearts 3, so I didn’t really care.

EA came out and did its thing by just showing the Medal of Honor game developed by the guys booted off the Call of Duty series…so basically a new Call of Duty game from EA. Seriously, it looked the same to me, but I’m told it’s “better” than Call of Duty. Ask me if I really care.

Ubisoft seems to have given the most embarrassing press conference this year with one awkward moment after another, such as showcasing a DDR-style game controlled by breathing. I know, exciting, right? No, not really. I was happy to hear of a really cool Rayman platformer, but that was it. Nothing else from Ubisoft is worth mentioning unless it’s to explicitly mock them, or so I’m told. All second hand info here.

Totally forgot, Sonic has a new game for the Kinect. Who gives a crap?

Let’s see, other big titles…oh, Mortal Kombat is back and it remembered how to be Mortal Kombat. That’s good news, what with the blood and gore and real fatalities in a game that Mortal Kombat fans are pretty happy with. Infamous 2 was announced and shown with the big change coming down to ice as the primary power rather than electricity. Cool (oh, see what I just did there?!). I’m now racking my brain to think…Epic Mickey, yeah, that finally got shown, and it was pretty…meh, I’ll wait for more interesting gameplay to be shown before I make a real judgment call. Oh! Right! Force Unleashed II! Yeah, looks pretty much like a sequel to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Good for them, I guess.

Okay, what more? Goldeneye is getting remade for the Wii, and while it looks interesting, I doubt anyone will really go for it. Goldeneye’s charm is way past gone, so all it has remaining is the nostalgia factor going for it. Ah, but Portal 2, that looks promising. There’s a nice cross-section of the FPS genre with Goldeneye getting remade and Portal getting a sequel at last. Good news for everyone there.

Enough teasing already, just give us the sequel, please.

Alright, I’m out of news to share. A lot more was shown, but this is what stuck out to me. The rest is up for you to see. So now the question is, as it is every year, who do you think “won” E3? I’m voting for Nintendo for all the obvious reasons, but who did you pick? Or was E3 a total wash for you? Leave a comment and let me know. Besides, now that E3’s over we have to start speculating about what E3 next year will be like.

Because when I think "army of bombs," I think "time for a party."

Ah! We’re finally getting down to the party! Mario’s career has gone in many, many directions, but still one of the most unexpected and influential had to be Mario Party. It spawned a whole new style of party games, beyond inventing a genre that would be copied over and over. So let’s get this party started right with the N64.

Mario Party:

Boy does this screen take me back to the good old days.

Flash back to fifth grade for a moment. I walk into class in the early morning and my friends start telling me about a new game they’d just heard about called Mario Party. I press them for the details and they tell me it’s a game where Mario and his crew play tons of mini-games and go around a board to earn coins and stars and what have you. And it’s also a big multiplayer game. I’m pretty jazzed, so I head home and anticipate my Nintendo Power to confirm these accusations. Sure enough, Mario Party was a real thing and I was psyched.

While I didn’t own it myself for a while, I had a few friends that did, meaning I was no stranger to the game and its intricacies. The single-player mode was enough to keep me busy in the meantime, especially the mini-game challenge prompting you to play through all the mini-games in a sort of a single-player adventure separate from the main game, but it was clearly the multiplayer games that got people going the most. I still say it holds up well, so grab it used and invite your friends over.

The game certainly wasn’t without massive flaws. I’m not even talking about the dreaded bleeding palms caused by rotating the control stick at insane speeds. In fact, I considered it a badge of honor to have a callous on my palm showing that I had routered it harder than anyone else. No, the place where the game breaks is Chance Time, also known as “Now the Computer Decides to Win Time” where coins and stars could be traded to characters seemingly at random. If you landed on the space things were mostly gravy since you could make sure not to screw yourself over, but if a computer character landed on Chance Time, you know for certain that your stars are gone. You could be ahead with five stars and lose them all two turns before the game ends, just because the computer landed on Chance Time. No me gusta.

Mario Party 2:

I see pirates, wizards, and cowboys, and astronauts on the front cover. Sold.

A lot of people consider the second Mario Party to be the best, and while I won’t argue, I also won’t agree. Why? Because it did away with the palm-routering that I enjoyed from the first game. Otherwise the game was nothing but better with more interesting boards and a ton more mini-games. I was impressed that they didn’t just take all the mini-games from the first Mario Party and plunk them in the sequel with a few new ones. Instead the sequel had an entire new roster of mini-games, plus a few retooled favorites from its predecessor. I found that very cool. I also liked that each board gave the characters a unique costume such as cowboy or astronaut. It was just cool. But there wasn’t a lot to say about the sequel since it was simply a progression of the concepts.

Mario Party 3:

Hey, more isn't bad, so the more the better. Right?

And that’s about what every new Mario Party game would be: Just a progression of the concept. Mario Party 3 did add Daisy and Waluigi as characters, something I liked to see since more is generally always better in video games, and it had a definite “story mode” to play through, and by “story mode” I mean a rough framework to encourage single-players to play when friends weren’t around. More mini-games were added and nothing seemed to detract from the previous game. I wasn’t quite sure what would be next for the series but I had a suspicion.

Mario Party 4:

Okay, maybe more can be bad.

The GameCube finally got a Mario Party game to call its own and no one was surprised. Graphics were improved, but unsurprisingly, not much else changed. And this was a problem because there wasn’t much of a reason for owners of any previous Mario Party game to buy a new one. Why would we want a new version of a game we already had? The controls stayed consistently good and the mini-games were always the star of the show with excellent new ones added all the time, but it hardly seemed worth buying again. You really had to be devoted to the party to continue buying the new games.

Mario Party 5:

See? This counts as another Mario sports title now.

Are you noticing a trend? Mario Party 5 was once again just a new collection of mini-games and boards, but this time a few extras were added such as a beach volleyball extra mode, an ice hockey extra mode, and the Super-Duel Mode which had you assembling a combat vehicle for battle against the computer or other players. Were these extras beyond the standard game enough to differentiate it from previous titles? Well, not really. It was definitely nice to have more to do, but I’ll tell you, I got this as a Christmas gift one year and found myself really surprised. It was a Mario game, and a good Mario game, but I had no real excited feeling when I unwrapped it. I just thought, “Oh, cool, I guess I like these games.” Oh well, a free game is a free game. If I had to suggest a GameCube Mario Party, I’d suggest 5.

Mario Party 6:

I hate it when the sun and the moon argue like this.

More new mini-games, more new boards, but where could they take the series now that they’d pretty much done everything? “Add a peripheral!” Naturally, this was the go-to solution and would be for a while, but for Mario Party 6 a microphone was added to the game, allowing you to use it for a few mini-games here and there. And that was pretty much it. How was the story? Oh, the sun and the moon are arguing over who’s cooler, so Mario suggests they just go get some stars. Alright then, fair enough. I found it odd that Mario Party 5 took DK out as a playable character and Mario Party 6 decided that was still totally fine. DK fans were surely miffed. And he still hasn’t come back as a playable character.

Mario Party 7:

This is really the only reason anyone owns Mario Party 7, be honest now.

Okay, there’s no surprise but Mario Party 7 is just more of the same. The microphone was included, DK was still excluded, and it got mediocre reviews at best. The only significant thing I remember is I worked at Game Crazy at the time and there was a GameCube system bundle that included Mario Party 7 and an extra controller, but the total price was only $100. That’s as good a deal as any I’ve ever heard. But the game itself? Feh. You could have eight players now with two players sharing a controller, but that was the only really new thing. The story was about as thin as it could be with Mario and his friends on a cruise without Bowser, making Bowser really angry. Hilarity ensues, supposedly.

Mario Party 8:

Wiimote gimmicks? Check, with gusto.

The first and so far only Wii incarnation of Mario Party is, as expected, just like the previous games but now with Wiimote controls. Nothing new added, nothing old removed. Oddly though, Nintendo as forced to issue a recall after the UK release of the game because it contained the word “spastic.” Why? Because “spastic” has an entirely different connotation in the UK compared to the US and is considered extremely offensive since it refers to the disabled. Oops.

Mario Party Advance:

Yup, that looks like a Mario Party game for the GBA alright.

I had expected there would be a Mario Party on a handheld eventually, but when Mario Party Advance came out I was entirely oblivious since, well, I didn’t care. The main fault comes down to a complete lack of multiplayer capabilities. I hate games that force multiplayer experiences, but c’mon, this is a Mario Party game. You need multiplayer support. And to make matters worse, there were only four playable characters. For shame. Top it all off with “Random Chance” as the reason for most game losses and I’m glad I passed.

Mario Party DS:

Maybe there's hope afterall for the franchise. Let's just hope it quietly fades away now.

Happily, the DS version did portable Mario Party right and included multiplayer, of which you only needed a single game card (though that’s with reduced features, as usual). Still, it wasn’t completely without merit. It got good reviews and it played well. Mostly, how could you pass up a Mario Party done right on a handheld? You couldn’t, not really. Check it out if that at all sounds like a good idea to you.

Okay, I think this party’s getting out of hand, so it’s time I called it a night. But the Mario Retrospective still isn’t over. I need to conclude things properly with a few Mario games I missed, plus just some overall impressions. Come back for that tomorrow.

Don’t forget to read up on all parts of the Mario Retrospective while you wait: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

Can’t get enough Mario? Check out these articles:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 8

-Let’s Think Deep: Achieving Perfection

-Ten Ways The Real World Would Ruin Video Game Worlds

Man, it is so on now.

We’re knee deep in my memories of Mario, and now that both the 2D platforming and 3D platforming aspects of Mario’s career are out of the way, I figured I’d give him a break and focus on some of the other stars Mario has made along the way. This part is all about the spin-offs. We’re talking Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, and Peach. So what did they do that was so great? Well, let’s take a look.

Yoshi’s Island:

Remember, in the Mario Universe, babies come from The Stork. Apparently.

A lot of people were wondering what Nintendo’s next move after Super Mario World would be, and as usual, the next move wasn’t an expected one. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island came out for the SNES as a platformer, but the main character wasn’t really Mario, it was Yoshi. Mario was still there as a baby riding on Yoshi’s back, but he wasn’t necessarily a happy inclusion since whenever Yoshi was attacked, Mario would begin crying. Suddenly everyone learned to hate Mario, a feat that isn’t easy to accomplish.

Whining babies aside, Yoshi’s Island did its own thing, establishing Yoshi’s traits and abilities for years to come, such as his ability to shoot eggs, flutter for short distances, and perform a ground pound, a move that Mario wouldn’t even learn until Super Mario 64. But probably the best moment of Yoshi’s Island came at the end during the fight against Baby Bowser. The term “epic” gets thrown around constantly during video game discussions, but the final battle truly was. Go check this one out for the usual reasonable Amazon price.

Yoshi’s Story:

There's an art style you don't see every day. Why don't we?

Yoshi somewhat missed out when Mario 64 came out, being included only as that pitiful 100% completion reward, albeit unusable. He wouldn’t get his next big featuring until Yoshi’s Story, a game that was surprisingly looked over due to it’s more colorful nature and definite E rating. Still, you’ll have a hard time finding a better-looking game on the 64.

Gone was Mario, completely absent in Yoshi’s new adventure. Baby Bowser would make a return, but no Mario whatsoever. It was nice to be free of that shrill cry when hit by enemies, replaced instead with sounds of Yoshi nomming fruits left and right. While a typical playthrough of the game didn’t take very long and wasn’t all that hard, to unlock all 24 levels was just brutally difficult and only the best Yoshi players could manage the task. My wife, the Yoshi Master, did this without any trouble. Keep in mind, she’s also the only one of the two of us to have a 100% completion score in Yoshi’s Island, so I suppose not everyone is capable of something this challenging. Otherwise, the Virtual Console has this one as well as Amazon for around $10.

The Wario Land Series:

It's like if Mario just let himself go for a while.

Wario gets introduced as the villain of Super Mario Land 2, but after his defeat he next shows up as, of all things, the main hero of Super Mario Land 3, subtitled Wario Land. Thus began Wario’s individual career separate of his archrival, and while the first game was doing everything it could to separate itself from Mario, it still felt like a Mario game. Wario had power-ups and platforming similar to a Mario game, but the emphasis was placed much higher on treasure collecting. Collecting all the treasures and enough coins would reward Wario with a larger castle in the end, possibly even a planet if you were good enough. Mario made his one cameo at the end of the first game, just to spite Wario more or less, but after that Wario was all on his own.

The games after the first really separated Wario from Mario by making him invincible in some instances, placing a higher value on the power-ups as a means to progress and definitely on the treasure collecting. These days you couldn’t even recognize Wario’s games next to Mario’s, making him his own franchise. Still, the first Wario Land game is a fun place to start. Heck, you can get it for under $3.

The Warioware Series:

Do you understand what's happening here? Trick question, because no you don't.

But Wario wouldn’t just be content with platforming. Nope, he’d invent a whole new genre of games with the Warioware series, known for the incredible abundance of mini-games fired at lightning speeds. Each mini-game lasts for less than 5 seconds in some cases with a simple instruction like “Pick” or “Land” or “Chop” or something like that, purposefully disorienting you to make the challenge that much greater. Add to this a weird factor I can’t do justice to in words and you have yourself a winner.

The Warioware series would have a number of imitators over the years, as well as it’s own sequels whenever a new piece of Nintendo technology was introduced, such as the DS’ touch screen, tilt sensors for the GBA, or the Wii’s motion controls. For me though, my favorite game was the GameCube version. The controls lacked a gimmick, which I was fine with, but is supported excellent multiplayer. Take advantage of its obscurity and pick it up on Amazon while you have the chance.

Luigi’s Mansion:

A simple concept that turned out to be extremely enjoyable. Bravo on the launch title!

A lot of people were disappointed to learn that Mario wouldn’t be starting the GameCube off as a launch title, but rather his green-clad brother, Luigi. He wouldn’t even be platforming. Instead, Luigi was thrown into a ghost-busting adventure in a haunted mansion and while most people couldn’t get into the concept, I was amazed with what the new hardware could do. The lighting effects were amazing, as well as some of the finer graphical points. But people just couldn’t get past the obvious omission of Mario.

Mario was in the game though. The whole point of Luigi going to the mansion in the first place was that Mario was missing, except this time it didn’t include geography and learning, thank God. It was all about Luigi going room-to-room with a vacuum cleaner that could suck up ghosts. I’m still wondering where the sequel for the Wii is since it seems like a no-brainer of a concept. Flashlight? Perfect for motion controls. Vacuum cleaner? Also perfect for motion controls. Where is this game Nintendo? Oh well, the original’s a steal wherever you go looking for it, and as usual, I recommend checking Amazon first.

Super Princess Peach:

If you don't give this one a chance just because the main character's a girl, you fail at video games.

What’s this? The Princess is the main character, not Mario or even Luigi? Yes, Peach got her first taste of stardom with Super Princess Peach, a platformer with its own style. I spent this last December tracking down a copy for my wife as a Christmas gift, and naturally I had to play it was soon as she was done. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not only wasn’t the game lame, it was pretty darned good.

My only major gripe is the lack of a resolution to the umbrella’s story. They set up Peach’s umbrella sidekick with its own backstory, but they never really resolve it. At the end of the game Peach saves Mario and that’s that. No closure, not even with a 100% completion ending. Even if you have a slight curiosity, please do get this one. It gave me a solid week’s worth of gaming and I enjoyed every minute of it, more or less. Save some time and just take the online route rather than the painful trek I had from store-to-store.

Those are the main Mari spin-offs I played, though there are a lot more, believe you me. Yoshi, naturally, has a handful of games I didn’t even mention. And Wario only got a small section despite his dozen or so games. Of course, my Mario retrospective isn’t over yet. We’ve still got sports, karts, and RPG’s to talk about, but that’s something for another day. Come back late next week to read part 4. In the meantime, leave some more Mario comments, this time on his side-characters and the also-rans of the series. What is your favorite spin-off series? Or do you even bother? Me, I’ll just wait patiently for Luigi’s Mansion 2. I may just be waiting for a while.

Need more Mario? You can find him in these articles:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 4

-10 Games To Play on Thanksgiving

-Games You Should Have Played: Super Mario Bros 3

"You look sort of...uh...yeah I kinda already asked someone else to the dance. I'll call you another time."

I went on a long tirade yesterday regarding God of War III. I don’t want people thinking I’m just against Sony, so today I’m reviewing the other game I recently played: Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. This is the new Zelda game for the DS, and while it came out last year, I just now got around to playing and beating it. I fancy myself a Zelda fanboy, so let that be the basis for where most of these comments are about to come from. Without further ado, let’s hop on the Spirit Tracks and go for a ride.

Not the Best, But Not the Worst

Spirit Tracks is not my least favorite Zelda game. That honor goes to its predecessor, Phantom Hourglass. Because it’s slightly better than Phourglass, Spirit Tracks is only my second least favorite Zelda game. In the spirit of putting the good before the bad, I’ll talk about what Spirit Tracks does well before going off on why I disliked it so much.

My favorite aspect of Spirit Tracks is its reference to the world that came before it. Spirit Tracks is set roughly 100 years after Wind Waker with characters even mentioning Tetra, the Princess Zelda of that game, specifically, as well as other little references here and there to Link and characters/events that have already come and gone. I really like this and it’s what kept me going until the end because I was certain there would be further progress made for the series by the resolution of the plot.

Now I Get Mean

And here’s where the bad starts: There’s no further progress made to the world by the end of the game. I don’t feel I’m spoiling anything when I say that good vanquishes evil and the land is at peace once again before the credits roll. I expected a bigger, better payoff, but there wasn’t one. Even worse for me, the land this takes place in, which isn’t named, definitely isn’t Hyrule. This is a new land that I don’t particularly care about or have any interest in since it really doesn’t have a history. The world has a history, but this land I’m supposed to save doesn’t. It’s hardly 100 years old, so already I’m wondering why an ancient evil is attacking it again.

And why it also has an evil train.

I don’t remember who the final boss of Phourglass was. I remember the plot, but I can’t for the life of me recall whom I was supposed to defeat in order to save Tetra. I think it was a pirate ghost or something. All I know is it wasn’t Ganon, and that always sort of makes me disinterested in a Zelda game. I know, it’s strange to complain that the series isn’t just using the same formula, but I’ve come to like parts of that formula for whatever reason, and one of those reasons is I know who Ganon is and why he’s a good villain. Malladus, the Big Bad from Spirit Tracks, is another one of those villains that I’ll completely forget once a year or two go by.

The other big convention that’s broken is Zelda’s inclusion along with your journey, though she’s only in a spirit form since her body’s been stolen. This was supposed to be the big awesome new gameplay mechanic to hinge the game on since she can enter Phantom Armor and assist you in some dungeons. Sadly, she usually functions as an even more annoying Navi when she’s out of the armor by constantly bugging you with information and nagging at you, and as a complete moron when she’s in the armor. Telling her to do something as simple as “Follow me” makes her brain explode, causing you to manually trace her steps across a bridge or around corners so she can navigate the dungeons for you.

No really, it's okay if you just chill here for a while. I'll be back when I'm done saving the world again.

Simplicity Done Wrong

I did actually enjoy the dungeons, just like most Zelda games, since Zelda games have good dungeon designs. Also, Zelda doesn’t do anything within these dungeons, so it’s just me, Link, and a bunch of relatively simple but interesting puzzles. The bosses though, those were just plain frustrating or dull save for the boss of the Fire Temple. All of this is a result of the controls. Spirit Tracks, like Phourglass, forces you to use the stylus for everything. Movement, item usage, sword fighting, everything. And in attempting to simplify everything the game only gets more complicated.

For example, there is a puzzle at one point where I need to hit a blue-fire torch with my boomerang so that it will freeze the water wherever the boomerang’s path is drawn. I draw a squiggly path so that I’ll have the most coverage possible and then run out into the middle of this pond so that I can attack some water enemies that shoot things I have to blow back using the pinwheel item (that causes me to blow into the mic, something that’s equally as frustrating). I have to wait on the ice while they shoot at me, but if they don’t shoot right away, the ice will start to melt, meaning I have to go back into my menu, bring up my boomerang as my primary item again, redraw a path for the boomerang to freeze, run to the newly frozen spaces, pull out my pinwheel item, tap it to have it equipped, and wait to blow into the mic at the right time. That single puzzle nearly caused me to snap my DS in half from frustration.

I just wanted the game to allow for more control schemes. I have no problem with the stylus-only option if I have the option to customize it for my needs, specifically to incorporate other buttons. Just being able to use the D-pad for movement would have been enough for me. It’s already difficult enough to hold the DS with one hand, and I have the original DS Phat, so my left hand is going to have to become stronger by the end of the game, otherwise I simply can’t hold it without dropping the game. I’d frequently take damage in the game because I’d be trying to slash my sword but the game thought I was just pointing in a direction I wanted to run. A fireball is headed towards me, why would I just want to run into it?!

Because Everyone Loves Trains

Get used to the frequent train rides because you won't have a choice.

Besides the controls grating on my last nerve (seriously, I can’t repeat the words I said last night while fighting the final boss since this is a family website), the other huge flaw with Spirit Tracks is the train mechanic. Simply, the train elements are boring. I don’t care about trains. I’ve never cared about trains. You have to use the train to travel everywhere, back and forth, very slowly traversing the game’s map to go from one point to another. All the side quests involve elaborate fetch quests where I’m asked to go to some town in order to get some material, like wood, and bring it back to some person so they can build a fence. While transporting the wood I need to make sure not to take damage from enemies since that will cause me to lose materials. Other times I’m just asked to transport passengers from one place to another since they have nothing better to do. Once more, I’m not supposed to take damage from enemies because my passengers will get angry. Even worse, they critique my driving, complaining if I don’t blow my whistle at certain signs or slow my train down between speed zones, placed for no other reason in the world save for to provide these passengers with something to test me with. Why does every single random person in this land suddenly feel qualified to critique my train driving? The game goes out of its way to point out how “awesome” it is for Link to have become an engineer since it takes years of hard work to master, so what’s the point of having everyone complain at me when I don’t blow my whistle at a sign placed in the middle of NOWHERE when the world’s obviously in danger?

Also, get used to seeing this thing in caves because you'll have to fight it multiple times JUST BECAUSE.

The train driving slowly (emphasis on SLOWLY there) drags the game down from being a great game to just something that’s somewhat average. To say this is a Zelda game is like saying that a glass of milk with one drop of chocolate syrup in it makes it chocolate milk. The train driving is probably close to 90% of the time spent playing the game. This is a train simulator with some Zelda elements mixed in, not the other way around.

So once again I’m forced to say that a game isn’t bad but it isn’t good. Spirit Tracks has a lot of good in it, but it’s not a good Zelda game by any means. Zelda fans will probably not enjoy this one as much as they’d like. At least we have the promise of a new console Zelda coming within a year or so.

Yup, still looks like Pokemon.

My Pokeweek continues today after a bit of a day off yesterday, though the games still relate to the concept of completing everything in the game for simply no point. Nope, today we’re all about happy things because I’ve got a review for the remake of Pokemon Gold and Silver versions, called HeartGold and SoulSilver. Are they good? Well duh, they’re remakes of my favorite Game Boy games, of course they’re good.

More of the Same and No One Minds

If you haven’t played a Pokemon game at this point, you probably never will. You can move along now since you probably have better things to do at the moment. The concept of the games are simple: You Gotta Catch ‘Em All. The “all” in this case are Pokemon, literally Pocket Monsters that you keep in balls and send out to fight against each other. It’s classic turn-based RPG stuff here where after each battle you gain experience and level up your Pokemon until they evolve into bigger and better versions of themselves. HeartGold and SoulSilver don’t change that formula one iota.

The real question here is what has been added to the remake that wasn’t in the original. The mechanics from the newer versions have made a resurgence once again, so everything from Silver/Gold versions on is in the remakes. Also, there are alternate modes besides just battling, such as the Pokeathlon, which provide a nice break from the training that you’ll encounter in bundles.

Remember the Pocket Pikachus from a while ago? Sucker! Got you again!

Also, the big thing people are talking about in regards to the game is the Pokewalker, a device that allows you to transfer a Pokemon from your DS onto this pedometer and walk around with them, allowing you to collect experience points from what I understand. It’s nothing amazing but it’s a nifty little gizmo to dink with. As long as it comes with the game with no extra charge, I’m fine with it.

I’m actually interested in the ability to walk around with a Pokemon outside of battles, similar to the way Pikachu followed your character in Yellow version. It wasn’t since then that you were able to do this, so it’s nice to see that back. It doesn’t do a whole lot, but you couldn’t do it in Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum, so good on ‘em for that.

Nothing new to see here folks, move along.

In terms of improvements, there aren’t a whole lot. The graphics are the same exact ones from the other fourth-generation titles, and the sound effects are still, STILL, the same ones from the original Blue and Red version games, something that’s pretty much unacceptable. Pokemon came out over 10 years ago and we still have to listen to the chiptone screeches of each character. No sir, that’s just lazy. I want better from this remake.

This is another one of those no-brainer decisions when it comes to purchasing or not. You know if you’re getting it and you know if you’re not. I’ll just go ahead and say that HeartGold and SoulSilver are exactly what you think they’ll be and leave it at that.

Is the Wii a bad system? Let's Think Deep.

At this moment in time, the Nintendo Wii is set up to be known as the “winner” of the current console cycle due to the unexpected amount of sales and complete reversal from the previous console cycle. I for one couldn’t be happier for reasons I’ll get to eventually. Regardless of sales numbers, the Wii is nearly universally panned by gamers due to the high amount of shovelware populating the system. But does that make it a bad system? It got me thinking. What exactly makes a system good? Sounds to me like this would be a good opportunity for us to Think Deep. So Let’s, hmm?

“But The System Has So Many Bad Games”

The complaint I hear most often regarding the Wii has to do with the controls. Specifically, they don’t work. Publishers constantly release games that force the player to use either the Wiimote motion controls or even worse the Balance Board from Wii Fit that “works” about 25% of the time. This results in games that would otherwise end up being decent games turned into broken messes. It was a Godsend when Nintendo decided that Smash Bros Brawl would support GameCube controllers in addition to just about every other controller type they had. The complaint about controls is a valid one, but that doesn’t instantly mean the system is bad.

Right now we have the luxury of living in an age where there are three perfectly excellent systems to choose from. Even better is the effect the Internet has had on everything since reviews can come out before a game is even released, meaning that you know whether a game will be good or not. Think back to the time of the NES when the only system you could choose from was the NES. It wasn’t very simple to get reviews or news about specific games, so when you went to buy or rent a game, you did so almost entirely on the artwork and the description on the back of the box. How many NES games do you think were great? The NES was full of shovelware titles, as someone like the Angry Video Game Nerd can attest to, but I doubt anyone would ever call it a “bad system.”

Are you going to be the one to say the NES sucked? I don't think so.

Now we have the ability to know everything about a game before we even play it, plus there is an excess of reviewers out there contributing to the overall rating of a game (thankfully my silly little summaries aren’t counted in a game’s Metascore). The bad games get more press than they used to and the numbers we’re dealing with are heavily skewed. Simply put, the rating system isn’t perfect right now, but it does give us the ability to know more about our games in a way we didn’t have 20 years ago.

The Hardships of Luxury

So what does this mean for our friend the Wii? It means that everyone knows when a bad game comes out and gives the gaming community an opportunity to see the system’s shortcomings. The question remains though, “What makes a system good or bad?” Do bad games make a system bad? No, otherwise every system would be considered awful. As of now, all systems are roughly within the same general average game rating area between 65 and 75%, and that number is constantly shifting as new games come out. While the Wii may not be at the top of the list, it doesn’t mean it’s a crummy system.

The is the counter-argument for any Xbot speaking ill of the Wii.

Here’s the thing: People believe their favorite system is the best because it’s their favorite. What are your favorite games? If you love God of War and Metal Gear Solid, you probably believe that the PS3 is the best system and the other two are inferior. Huge on Halo and Gears of War? The 360 is clearly the best. Are you like me and love Mario and Zelda? How could the Wii not be the best system out right now? It’s all relative to what you like playing most.

To answer why I’m happy to see the Wii in first place right now, it all has to do with my favorite games. No, I don’t think the Wii is the best system out there, but I do consistently prefer it’s biggest and best games, such as Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, and especially Smash Bros Brawl. I’m ecstatic to hear that Nintendo’s doing so well because it means my favorite franchises will be around for a long time to come.

This is very much like the Console Wars of the early 90’s where it was either SNES or Genesis for the win. It didn’t matter what people said one way or the other about graphics or sound; it came down to whether you liked Sonic or Mario better and that was the decider. After the Genesis, Sega sort of lost its mind and ran everything that’s considered good about it into the ground. Sure, the Dreamcast was a nice glimmer, but it still failed due to Sega’s poor tactics in regards to marketing and just plain doing their fanbase justice. It’s only just now that they’ve announced Sonic 4, a game that fans have been telling them to make for over 10 years. I just can’t imagine the amount of agony a Sonic fan must have endured for over a decade, watching Mario fans get more or less exactly what they want while Sonic turns into a Werehog (which would mean “Man-hog” by the way).

Like him or not, this guy has ridiculous staying power.

The Year of The Usual Promises

2010 is promising to be a big one once again as Microsoft is releasing Project Natal and Sony is releasing whatever the heck its motion controller is called. If the Wii’s controls make it a bad system, why are its competitors, companies run by intelligent people, rushing to match the same “gimmick” that defines the system? Money, of course. The Wii has managed to bring in a share of the market that was previously untapped and created new gamers from the casual sector. If this means I have to deal with a few dozen shovelware titles so that I get a new Metroid this year, so be it.

It’s becoming very tiresome to hear every company or analyst decide that “2010 is the Year of the PS3” or the “Age of the Xbox” or whatever. Do systems ever have a year that is undeniably its year? Other than the Atari or the NES? And even if it has a good year, does it instantly make up for the previous years or any years to come? No, it’s just a gage for fans to based judgment off so that they can argue that their system is winning or losing or what have you. I love the Wii, but I’m currently playing tons of great games on the 360, and in a month I plan to spend an epic weekend with one of my best friends beating God of War III on the PS3. In the meantime, I still spend my nights playing my DS before bed.

So which system do I think is best? I couldn’t tell you. I can’t even decide which I enjoy playing the most. It comes down to my tastes at the time. I am plowing through game after game on the 360 because I missed out on a lot at the beginning of the console cycle, but I keep going back to my Wii to play Brawl every so often. Both systems have a valued place in my home, but I couldn’t tell you which is the better system. I think both have too many faults for me to consider either of them “the best,” but they’re nowhere close to “the worst.”

When Project Natal is released and has the typical smattering of titles built to demonstrate its capabilities and titles built to get money, will it ultimately decide the 360’s fate? No way. Fans will stick around and haters will claim the system is falling apart. It’s a cycle that will never end.

Has there ever been a system that you feel is perfect? For me, I was always happy with my GameCube. It was one of my favorite systems despite its lack of first-placeness. But what are your favorite systems and why? I loved my GameCube because I was addicted to the games and felt its titles were best suited for the sort of games I play. Still, that’s just me. I don’t think we’ll ever have a perfect system, but we can have systems that do what their fans need them to. Now it’s time to hear from the fans, so leave a comment about what makes a system good for you. Represent!

Wait a minute, this looks somewhat familiar...

By now you already know that I take my Dragonball Z very seriously. I typically find myself playing any and every game associated with the Saiyans regardless of how good they may be. But should you be doing the same? This year we’ve had three new Dragonball games, so stay close while I give you the rundown for these three.

Dragonball Z Raging Blast:

Goku was able to transform into a Super Saiyan after becoming enraged at Raging Blast's controls.

Last year we got Dragonball Z Burst Limit for the PS3 and Xbox 360, a game done in the style of the first three Budokai games. The sad part was, the game fell guilty to my biggest sin for a Dragonball Z game: Not going through the entire story. It wrapped up at the end of the Cell Saga, meaning that a sequel was required to get all the characters you’d expect from a Dragonball Z game.

I expected Raging Blast to be the sequel with the proper roster of characters. Instead I was dismayed to find out that it’s not a Budokai-style game but a Budokai Tenkaichi-style game, which means that the game isn’t played with the characters side-by-side fighting with combos and things like that. No, it means you have an over-the-shoulder perspective of your character and more controls to figure out than centipedes have legs.

My biggest complaint with the three Budokai Tenkaichi games (which I played all the way through) is that the controls sucked, for lack of a better term. I hated the style of the games, mostly because they completely lost the feeling of really powerful moves being performed due to the perspective used for fights. And all the little touches of awesomeness, like dodging individual punches or performing a combo that resulted in a cutscene of your character basically destroying the world, were more or less removed. There were over a hundred characters, but none of them seemed to play that different.

Raging Blast disappoints me with the same problem of a loss of awesome. It can all be traced to the controls, too. I can’t figure them out. Sure, I can win fights, but I can’t do it the way the game intended me to do it with strategy and all that. No, I can find a few simple maneuvers and spam those over and over again and it should be no surprise but that gets boring really fast. The controls are just too much to learn, and the story is the same story DBZ fans have gone through over and over again. Forget this game and just go play Dragonball Z Budokai 3 on the PS2.

Dragonball: Revenge of King Piccolo:

Not bad. Now let me see you battle Freiza.

The Wii has recently been getting versions of the Budokai Tenkaichi games that involve motion controls and the option to not use the motion controls because they don’t work. Now the Wii gets its own Dragonball game. Take note that I said Dragonball, no Z included there. This is a game about the first series where Goku is still a kid. And the game actually isn’t too bad. It just isn’t very hard, is all.

You’ll find yourself running around areas as Goku in a classic beat ‘em up style that you don’t see very often anymore, doing exactly what it sounds like you’ll be doing: beating things up. It all works pretty well, assuming you aren’t looking for the best game out there. Dragonball: Revenge of King Piccolo isn’t a bad game by any means, but it isn’t winning any awards any time soon and by next year no one will remember it existed at all.

Overall there’s about six hours worth of playing here, which isn’t enough to warrant a purchase from me, but it does make for a good rental if you find yourself in the mood, and by “you” I probably mean your kids. The youngin’s will eat this stuff up with a spoon, but anyone past the age of maybe 13 and not diehard fans of everything Dragonball-related won’t find much here to keep them interested. Still a good gift idea.

Dragonball Z: Attack of the Saiyans:

Okay, I think we're done with the DBZ cash-ins, thank you.

Okay, I’m sorry, but the game already failed before it began for me on the basis that the title is “Attack of the Saiyans.” Dragonball Z fans, you know what this means right? You know where this ends up? The only point of the series where the main threat is a still-mysterious race called the “Saiyans,” of which there are three evil ones, one good one, and a halfbreed left, is the first plot arc of Dragonball Z. There are a total of four that span the 291 episodes. The Saiyan Saga spans episodes 1-36, which means that there’s still 255 episodes left of plot to go through. The game taps out at episode 36! That’s not even half way through the story. That’s not even a FOURTH of the story!

What makes this offense even worse is the fact that Attack of the Saiyans isn’t an action game; it’s an RPG. Those of you that love RPG’s probably love them because they have engrossing stories, right? Dragonball Z doesn’t have an engrossing story when they leave 88% of it out. Heck, it hardly has an engrossing story period if you don’t care about it. Anyone that would have any interest playing a Dragonball Z game at this point knows the story already and wants to see what more you’ll add to everything.

Sadly, just to fill out a game like this you’d need to pack in garbage that is hardly relevant to the game as a whole. No one likes playing through the periods of training, they like to play through the fights and the Saiyan Saga had a total of three villains and they were fought one at a time. Do the math for how many “epic” fights that can equal.

Technically, yes, the game is still okay. The battle system is solid enough to hold its own and the art style works to set up the DBZ world just fine. But like I said before, what more is there to say? The story is pretty simple, but even here you’ll be somewhat confused if you haven’t watched the show since they don’t spend any time dealing with character motivation or how one character relates to another or anything like that. There are just people who can fly and shoot energy blasts and you darn well better be okay with that. Period. You’re better off playing a Mario & Luigi game instead.

Don't forget to tell the man in red what you want for Christmas.

Do you have a loved one who’s into video games? Are you yourself into video games? Did you forget that Christmas is fast approaching? Yikes, looks like you could use a helping hand when it comes to what games to shop for. Lucky for you, I’ve compiled a handy little list here of some of the best games from 2009. I don’t have them all, mind you, but I have a good selection to choose from. So get those pens and papers ready and your wallets out and let’s go over my Holiday Game Guide.

Nintendo Wii Games:

The Nintendo Wii is always a good choice for the casual video game player. You’ll find a lot of family and kid friendly games on the Wii, as well as a very low failure rate for hardware or controllers (which is very nice). Also, the interface is about as simple as they come.

New Super Mario Bros Wii:

No, I'm not going to stop telling you to get this game until you do.

By now you’ve seen both my preview and review for New Super Mario Bros Wii, so you already know everything I could say about this one. This is the best title for the system at this point in time, either for one player or multiple players, though it will take some getting used to when you have two or more characters vying for limited platforming space. Basically though, this one is sure not to disappoint.

Rabbids Go Home:

Chaos is about to happen, you can be sure of that.

Ubisoft has been pumping out these Rabbids games for the past few years and unfortunately they come with the connotation of “Shovelware titles” since they’ve previously only been a collection of minigames. Well, Rabbids Go Home is an actual adventure game with a real plot, and the game handles itself really well to diversify the gameplay into great bursts of hilarious antics spliced with good fun. Kids will love this one.

Punch-Out!! Wii:

Get used to this view because you'll be seeing it a lot.

For those on your list with a Wii but an unquenchable thirst for punishment, Punch-Out!! Wii is probably one of the best titles you could get for them. I have a review article on Punch Out wii from a few months back that goes into my thoughts on the game, but I really can’t emphasize enough how brutally difficult the game is. But don’t misunderstand, that difficulty is a good thing. You want a challenge? A FAIR challenge? Punch-Out!! Wii is that challenge.

A Boy and His Blob:

Remember kids, cute alien blobs sound like a good pet at teh time, but they grow up someday.

Slightly less of a challenge is A Boy and His Blob (Hey, I wrote a review of that, too!), a game with hand-drawn artwork and just the right amount of difficulty for midcore gamers (which is somewhere in between casual and hardcore). Also, you might notice that A Boy and His Blob is slightly cheaper than some other titles on this list. Good for the more value-minded among us.

Metroid Prime Trilogy:

Can you handle the awesome power of the Power Glove? Samus totally can.

You want value? How about three games in one? Metroid Prime is a trilogy that I place great stock in as one of the best video game trilogies to date. Now that it’s been packed into one case, there is no better time to give the gift of Metroid. If you’ve heard a guy complain about the lack of “non-kiddie” games on the Wii, see if he’s played the Metroid Prime Trilogy, and if he hasn’t, bam- you win Christmas.

Muramasa The Demon Blade:

I don't know what the heck that thing is, but I'm pretty sure it needs to die.

Please don’t pass this one up because you haven’t heard of it. Muramasa The Demon Blade is another game with hand-drawn artwork in it and even though it pains me to say this, “It is important to support hand-drawn art in video games so that we get more of it.” Hacking and slashing your way through this game looks better than some 360 games, purely because of the amount of detail done with the art. Also, the game is great. It’s a bit on the short side, but it’s also not overly expensive, either.

Xbox 360 Games:

Most of you probably have an Xbox 360. The 360 has the best online system for play at the moment and the best exclusive DLC, usually getting things long before the PS3 does. If you’re looking for a good gift for a 360 owner, Xbox Live Arcade Points is always a good idea, as well as a Gold Subscription for Xbox Live.

Assassin’s Creed 2:

Just give up now; you're not getting away from this guy.

One of the newest games on this list, Assassin’s Creed 2 is a game for the murderous hitman in all of us (or at least every college male). The game sets about correcting most of the faults people had with the first game and does a rather good job of improving as a franchise. Stealthy kills and parkour over rooftops just makes for a great gift, wouldn’t you say? Also on the PS3.

Modern Warfare 2:

You better make your next move count because you're losing at the moment.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is a single player title, but Modern Warfare 2 is a game almost best played online. The only thing I can fault this gift idea with is the fact that most people already probably have it. If you have a gamer on your list that loves First Person Shooters, ask if they already have Modern Warfare 2. If they don’t then they’re just hoping to get it for Christmas, so make sure to right that wrong. Also on the PS3.

Halo 3: ODST:

Still delivering the spank to alien scum after nearly a decade.

The Halo franchise is still going strong this year with Halo Wars and Halo 3: ODST. The star of the franchise, Master Chief, is gone from ODST, but surprisingly that doesn’t turn out to be a terrible thing. ODST is a good gift for anyone you know that can’t get enough Halo, but hasn’t been given enough Halo recently. Also, it makes for a good alternative to online play if you’re tired of Modern Warfare 2 kicking your butt.

Borderlands:

You know, I don't think those bird things should be up there. Better take them down just to be safe.

First Person Shooters and Role Playing Games don’t typically sound like things that go well together, but Borderlands proves the theory spectacularly incorrect. The art style (man am I talking about art styles a lot lately), is pretty fluid and the controls work as good as you could hope, but the selling point here is the sheer amount of guns you can collect. All the weapons in the game are randomized, making for constant switching and swapping to take place to find the gun that works best for you. Also available on the PS3.

Guitar Hero: Metallica:

I said it before and I'll say it again: No one can destroy The Metal.

Hardcore Guitar Hero fans, this is the game you wanted to play since Guitar Hero first came out. The entire tracklist consists of Metallica songs (gee, didn’t expect that), as well as a few selected songs from bands that toured with Metallica. The basic Guitar Hero format doesn’t change, but Metallica is the perfect band for causing yourself endless strife attempting some truly epic guitar parts. Also on the PS3.

Batman: Arkham Asylum:

Who doesn't love a good Joker choke?

I played through Arkham Asylum twice in one week. I don’t do that very often, but in this case I made an exception. In fact, I have nothing left to do in the game since I did everything possible. That’s how addicted I was to Arkham Asylum. It has the best combat system in any game I’ve played in recent years and excellent pacing to go along with it. Any Batman fans, this is the best gift out there. Actually, anyone with an Xbox 360 should have this one. Also available on the PS3.

PS3 Games:

The PS3 has recently dropped its price down to a reasonable $299.99, making it a decent option as a video gaming platform at last. And to go with that, it started getting some excellent games this year. But keep in mind that it’s still one of the best Blueray players currently on the market, so anyone you know with a PS3 is fair game for Blueray movies as well.

Uncharted 2:

Why does everyone insist on shooting you when you're running across dangerous bridges?

The best exclusive Sony got on the PS3 this year was without question Uncharted 2. I gave my review already, so you’re well aware of its system-selling qualities. It’s a game that plays like a movie, and a fun movie at that. It improved over the first game, making sure to fix everything fans disliked about the previous installment. Support companies that do this. It’s hard to find a video game developer that actually listens to its fans.

Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time:

Ready to waste more enemies Ratchet & Clank style? You should be.

While Uncharted 2 may be a bit violent for the younger crowd, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get an equally amazing game as well. The Ratchet & Clank series is solid all the way through, and A Crack in Time only continues this trend with great platforming and fun characters. Basically, Ratchet & Clank is the Mario for Sony consoles.

The Beatles Rock Band:

Remember kids: Don't do drugs.

Oh The Beatles, how more iconic can you get than the band that just about everyone respects? Somehow through some deal with demonic forces, Rock Band was able to make a version filled out entirely with Beatles songs (a feat I find difficult to imagine considering how tough it can be to get those rights). You can even buy instruments that look like replicas of The Beatles’ actual instruments. And the game adds harmonizing to the vocalists among us, a welcome new feature that should have been in Rock Band from the start. Perfect for Beatles fans, obviously. Also available on the Xbox 360 and Wii.

Killzone 2:

This is the reason you don't typically sleep at night.

Sony’s been looking for a worthy combatant to Halo’s crown, and Killzone 2 does a fine job of letting PS3 fanboys know that they have an awesome First Person Shooter as well. Killzone 2 was a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait. Don’t listen to any hype surrounding the game. Just be aware that the game is good and needs to be played should you own a PS3.

InFamous:

Yeah, I'd do about the same thing if I got electrical powers.

While it sounds a lot like Prototype, InFamous did its own thing with a sandbox-style game involving a character with crazy electrical superpowers that let him shock people, heal people, and even fly. That makes sense, right? Ah who cares? InFamous is a great gift for fans of super heroes that have to make many moral decisions between helping people and shocking people. The correct answer? Always shocking people.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2:

Man, being a ninja must be rough.

I was pretty bothered when I saw the ads for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 since Ninja Gaiden 2 was SUPPOSED to be a 360 exclusive and I just can’t stand lies such as that. But then I found out that Ninja Gainden Sigma 2 isn’t just a port to the PS3. It’s actually a completely retooled game with extra characters and features. The game even got a little easier, which makes it accessible to a whole wider audience than the 360 version. They also scaled back the blood a little bit, but that doesn’t mean the game isn’t still meant for mature audiences only, since it absolutely is.

PSP Games:

The PSP is a powerful little handheld system, but it does have trouble coming up with solid titles to call its own. This year, Sony released the PSP Go, a new version of the handheld that eliminated the UMD drive altogether and does everything based on an internal memory system. Beware of this new system as it is incredibly limited in what games are available to download for it. Rest assured though, these three games are among the downloadable titles.

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny:

Dang Kratos, why you gotta be like that?

I reviewed Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny already and mentioned how it is a perfect transition of the Soul Calibur series from consoles to handhelds. The big selling point is the inclusion of God of War’s Kratos as a playable character, but beyond just that the game is an excellent choice for fans of Soul Calibur that own a PSP.

Little Big Planet PSP:

Parents, better learn who Sackboy is now before it's too late.

Little Big Planet is a strange game. It’s a platformer that relies entirely on the player to generate content, forcing you to create levels to play after you complete the single player mode. This is the strength of Little Big Planet. The content is endless and the amount of things you can create is staggering. If you know someone that wants to get into designing video games and has a PSP but not a PS3, then Little Big Planet PSP is the gift to get.

Final Fantasy: Dissidia:

I can't even begin to explain this one.

Final Fantasy: Dissidia is a love letter to the fans of the long running series. It takes heroes and villains from every numbered Final Fantasy title and throws them into huge battles against each other. The gameplay is very similar to Kingdom Hearts and looks utterly confusing when viewed from the outside in, but once you get used to the mechanics of the game everything works great. This is a game that every Final Fantasy fan wants to have if they don’t already own it.

DS Games:

The DS is the cheaper of the two main handheld options, but it’s also the less powerful of the two. Typically that doesn’t stop it from pumping out some memorable titles as often as it possibly can and this year we got a nice selection. The DS in general is cheaper than the PSP or the three consoles mentioned earlier, games included, so it makes for good gift ideas such as cases or fancy styluses.

Scribblenauts:

Oh how delightfully absurd!

I gave a preview of Scribblenauts a while back (it should count as a review as well), in which I said you should buy Scribblenauts. I stand by that statement as the game came out and put me into shock with the kind of things I actually got to do. This game is for the creative puzzle solvers in your family and seeks to push them to think up new items to write in as much as possible. Yes, there are some control-based hiccups that can become downright infuriating, but overall the game is a great option for casual gamers looking for short play sessions.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars:

Seriously kids, don't do drugs.

The Grand Theft Auto series is usually only console-based, but Chinatown Wars burst out on the DS and showed that it can be just as good on a handheld. The style harkens back to the pre-GTA III days when the perspective was top-down but the action remains fast-paced and fantastic. However, this is GTA, so it’s not for the young kids out there. There is violence and theft and drugs and all sorts of bad things, but if the gamer is old enough to play, they’ll enjoy themselves here. Also recently released on the PSP.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story:

Please, just listen to me already. Why won't you just listen to me?

I’m just a Mario fan, and I’m guilty of telling everyone to go play the Mario & Luigi games more than I probably should, but I haven’t overdone my telling of you to buy this game for people you know and love. Bowser’s Inside Story is an RPG with Mario and his crew. Battles are turn-based but you constantly have to press buttons at the right time to either increase your attack or dodge an enemy, which keeps things from getting boring. Plus, the writing is as funny as ever. Great for kids and people that enjoy having fun while playing games.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks:

A great way to end the year.

On December 7th Nintendo will release The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks to a nation of people that so sorely need a new Zelda title. After giving a preview of the game, I got a chance to see a lot more in terms of what the game is about and how it’s played. At this point I’m happy to say that Spirit Track is infinitely better than Phantom Hourglass, making it a great experience for DS owners and Zelda fans. I want this game for Christmas, but I know I’m not the only one.

Obviously, this list isn’t entirely complete. My goal was to find a handful of good games for each system that show off the best the system has to offer in terms of everything. But I couldn’t include every single game that came out this year.

What games do you want for the holidays? What games are you buying for your loved ones? Do you have some suggestions or questions about any of these games or others? Post a comment and get the conversation going.

Nintendo has never shied away from making what some would call “risky” moves, something the Wii has shown us with gusto. I had the classic gray brick Game Boy as a kid until finally the Game Boy Advance did away with the need for any previous Game Boy iteration. But it wasn’t to last, as the Advance SP came out and made me extremely jealous of its backlit glory and rechargeable battery core. And then came the DS, and I was hooked all over again.

The first Christmas the DS was out, I was lucky enough to get it sneakily wrapped in a box with a shot put to throw me off, (no pun intended). I had the Alpha version of the system, so when the Omega came out as the DS Lite, I was jealous again but refused to drop the cash for the definite new upgrade.

Now we have the DSi, yet another upgrade to the DS, but this time we’re losing some aspects as well, and it makes me very sad. The drawing point of the DS for me was the inclusion of a Game Boy Advance slot, allowing me to play Advance games on my DS without having to spend copious amounts on batteries, as well as having it backlit at last. But the DSi doesn’t have a slot for Advance games, eliminating it to make room for two cameras and new internal memory. The loss of the Advance slot was what kept me from upgrading.

But we’re not just losing everything here. We are gaining the use of a new service that allows us to download DSiWare games, and while the majority of them are just fancy clocks, there are a few shining examples of excellent titles. Basically anything listed under the Art Styles logo is considered fantastic, but I still haven’t been convinced to plunk down my money for another full system when my original DS works just fine.

As noted, two cameras have been added to allow for you to take pictures and then dink around with them similar to the Game Boy Camera from the old days. But the quality is roughly the same as a decent cell phone, so the feature is somewhat underutilized at the moment, lacking the drawing power it’s attempting to sell the system with. It also gets an Internet browser, but once more, nothing a decent phone can’t do.

All in all, while the DSi isn’t a bad system, if you already have a DS there’s really no fantastic reason to buy the DSi, especially at $169.99. Then again, if you don’t already have a DS, now may be a good time to give it a try.

I am a Pokemon Master.  Good, we got that out of the way.  I went out and bought Diamond Version day 1 and instantly jumped back into the swing.  Well now Platinum Version is out and it’s time to let y’all know what’s up with it.  So let’s catch ‘em all again, shall we?

I hold my Pokemon games up to a very high standard, but I also realize the entire point of games, so I overlook a lot of things that other reviewers are going to slam on.  The graphics during Pokemon battles, (the meat of the game), are not improved nearly as much as they should have been 10 years after the first game, and the sound effects are still just computerized screeches, but like I said, I don’t care.  The new Pokemon games are just as good, if not better, than the originals.

Platinum Version is like the greatest hits version of Diamond and Pearl.  You’ll get slightly more story than before with a big emphasis on catching Girantina, the cover star of the game.  No, the story isn’t compelling or original, even by Pokemon standards, but if you’re playing for the story then you’re missing the point of a Pokemon game, which is to, (say it with me), “Catch ‘em All.”

You’ll be busy for hundreds of hours if you want them all.  There are 492 total Pokemon now, at least a dozen of which you can’t get unless you attend a special event, go to the Pokemon Center in New York City, or trade with a friend who cheated to get it.  If you really want all 492, you’ve got your work cut out for you, but it does definitely gives you something to do for the extent of the game.  You’ll never be bored, assuming you enjoy Pokemon.

Platinum is only a mild upgrade from Diamond and Pearl.  If you have either of those, it’ll be a tough sell to buy Platinum.  If you’ve been holding out, just go buy Platinum, or wait until the remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver come out next year.

Well, the Japanese box sure looks promising.

Pokemon has rocked my world for well over a decade. I was introduced to the phenomenon just after it became required for me to know the difference between a Pikachu, a Jolteon, and an Electrode. If you know the difference, congrats. Either you’re also a Pokemon Master, or your kids are.

Nintendo releases a new game with the word “Pokemon” in the title every year, but they don’t release a fully new title in the franchise often enough. The first generation of Pokemon titles consisted of Blue, Red, and then Yellow Version. The second generation had Gold, Silver, and then Crystal. Generation 3 had Ruby, Sapphire, and then Emerald. Currently, we have Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. But we’re about to get Gold and Silver again on the DS.

New Is Relative

Heart Gold and Soul Silver are the two “new” versions being released in the US sometime next year. They are not “new.” They are remakes of Gold and Silver, games that are at this point around 10-years-old and probably the best games in the series (according to myself). Seriously, go pick up a copy of silver for yourself. While what fans REALLY want are entirely new video games, we’ll have to settle for rehashing…again.

Okay, don’t get me wrong, movies remake and update all the time. And sometimes it works well, such as I Am Legend. Other times, we get Rob Zombie’s Halloween. The Gold and Silver remakes will be good, but I doubt they’ll be anything completely awesome and definitely nothing new to Pokemon fans that reveled in the hay day instead of the current generation of “Meh.”

These people are still in the game.

Better Graphics, Same Story

Yes there will be updated graphics and yes there will be compatibility with the fourth generation titles (so that means hundreds of Pokemon and moves not originally in the game), but there will be no new Pokemon. It will become simpler to “Catch Them All,” but we’re not treading new ground. I already became the very best, like no one ever was, and I’m sorry, but I don’t really feel like doing it again.

Also expect a special pedometer to be included in the box that gives you a virtual Pikachu to take care of, but that also is not new. It’s a spit shine to a game that already stood out as a work of perfection. We don’t need that. What we do need is an evolution for the series, and we definitely are not going to get that any time soon.

Simple and Cheap = Perfect

Brain Age! What a game! In case you haven’t been paying attention to the world, Nintendo has been making quite a name for themselves by means of making games for their two major consoles that…aren’t technically “games” as the hardcore community sees fit.

Thus far, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day and Brain Age 2: The Revenge of Brain Age (not actual title), have been released on the Nintendo DS and each stormed the sales charts for the past two years. Celebrities have done commercials and plugs for the games. You should know they exist by now. If you don’t, time to learn.

The entire concept of the Brain Age games revolves around simple exercises that supposedly “train your brain” to respond quicker and more accurately the more you practice. A standard test will consist of something like, “Subtract the numbers” or, “Count the number of people.” The goal is to complete the exercise as fast as possible while still being correct. The basic concept will become addicting to just about anyone.

Smarter In Minutes a Day?

This guy knows more about you than you think.

It’s so simple to use, but does it really work? Well, not really. Studies have been done and they are mainly inconclusive regarding how much your brain actually improves overall. However, I still believe that it works for getting your brain focused on a task. I’ve had people tell me that before a major test they’ll play 15 minutes of Brain Age to snap their mind into action and as a result they score higher on tests. So really, the game doesn’t make you smarter, but it can be a very useful tool.

Both the Brain Age games are extremely easy to find for really cheap. You could probably find either for $10 used at a local game store. A great gamers’ game, these are not. A fun time waster? Check and mate. Plus, they have Sudoku on them. Yup, now you’re sold.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is the third game of the series and it’ll be on the DS this September.  Surprisingly, the Mario & Luigi role playing games don’t get nearly as much credit as they deserve.

Look, I’m a Mario addict, especially anything that plays like Super Mario RPG.  The Paper Mario series is also great, but people forget about the Mario & Luigi games on the Game Boy Advance and DS.

So why should you be buying it?

The Mario & Luigi games are turn-based role-playing games that put you in control of Mario and Luigi.  Different from most RPG’s is the ability to increase the damage you can inflict on an enemy by timing a button press correctly, so when Mario is about to stomp on a Goomba for instance, a quick press of the A button before he lands will do increased damage.

Likewise during defense, pressing the A button will save Mario from damage if timed correctly.  For Luigi, just insert the letter B instead of A.

That’s where the fun comes in as you have to keep track of Mario and Luigi individually and time things right, so if an enemy swings a bat or something, you have to evade as Mario and then Luigi.

It’s tricky to figure out, but once you get going, everything just feels awesome.

The biggest draw of these games is the humor.  Few games are written with as much obvious humor as the Mario & Luigi games.  When people say, “Oh, this game is funny,” it’s hard to believe them.  But I promise, with these games, I’ve found myself guffawing multiple times, running to find someone to show off the funny thing that just happened.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is one of the few games I actually plan on getting the day it comes out.  It’s both lighthearted enough for kids to play, but offers a great deal of challenge for the older gamers.  Thus far the game has been fairly popular in Japan, but why gamers in the US haven’t gotten excited is completely beyond me.