Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up – February 2016

I don’t know anymore, you know? I sort of force these intros to the monthend posts, but are they really necessary? I mean, mostly I just want something in there to break up the post title and “Game Over” heading. So I suppose that this silly rambling has done exactly what I needed it to.

~ Game Over ~

Xenoblade Chronicles X (WiiU) – Finally finished it, after 125 solid hours of wandering and cutting down wildlife (also, being cut down by said wildlife). The ending was a little… I dunno, bland, after the crazy ending to the previous Xenoblade. I didn’t think it was as mind-rendingly stupid as most do, but it certainly wasn’t anything to write about. Definitely gonna keep playing this one for a while.

Goosebumps (PC) – Played it again to rack up a few more cheevos. My first run took almost three hours, but as it turns out, you can finish it in well under 20 minutes if you know what to do. Neat!

Mega Man 9 (Wii) – You might be surprised to learn that I have never beaten this game before. It’s just so unrelentingly difficult! But I finally soldiered through, and I can now say that I’ve beaten all of the traditional Mega Man games. The Wily 2 and 3 bosses were utterly ridiculous, especially compared to how easy the Wily Machine is.

New Super Mario Bros Wii (WiiU) – Played through it again with a friend and her daughter. That was certainly not how I had expected to spend Valentine’s Day.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS) – I really like this game, and trying to 100% it would probably just make me hate it. So I took my acceptable completion rate and marched right into the final boss’ lair. That was an awesome fight. Not terribly original, but cool as heck.

Dr. Mario: Miracle Cure (3DS) – I sometimes with that Dr Mario didn’t end after 20 levels, but there’s really nowhere to go after the jar is filled completely with viruses. An hour well spent, at any rate.

The Legend of Dark Witch 2 (3DS) – I quite liked the first game, which was some godless amalgam of Mega Man, Gradius, and Anime. This is basically the same, but with more stages and the difficulty toned way down. Recommended, but not as heartily as the first.

~ Now Playing ~

Super Smash Bros 4 (WiiU/3DS) – Been plugging away at this again, now that the final pack of DLC came out. Corrin is, as I had predicted, one of my favourite characters to play, and Bayonetta is great (AVOCADOS!) but doesn’t really fit my style. Bayo’s stage is pretty amazing too, with a lot of cool stuff going on in the background, but no real interference on the stage itself. Plus, that music.

Fallout 4 (PC) – I did not know that Mr Handy could overheat and explode in a blaze of glory. Now I know. And knowing is… well, it’s something.

FreezeME (WiiU) – The indie scene has finally reached N64-styled games, apparently. This one is… shockingly accurate. It’s a little clunky, has slippery controls, and has a very colourful yet blocky look to it. I’ve only played enough to earn a couple of “golden cubes” but I can tell you for sure that it’s no Super Mario 64. Also it’s got some amazing bugs, like one that disables any button inputs. Probably won’t see it through to the end…

Dragon Warrior Monsters (GBC) – I pick this up every once in a while to grind a few levels for my slimes, and then get frustrated that it’s so difficult to make progress at a reasonable pace. I really ought to play the sequel instead, which is apparently a little less grindy.

Klonoa 2 – Dream Champ Tournament (GBA) – Klonoa games are generally awesome, but this one feels a little off. Mostly because the hitbox on Klonoa’s attack seems to be way smaller than it should be. Also the hover board stages are fairly awful. Thank goodness they’re few and far between.

The Deadly Tower of Monsters (PC) – Climbed up a few more levels, and smashed a couple of bosses. It feels a little sluggish, but I don’t know if that’s an intentional part of the effects, or my PC not being able to run it at quite 100% speed.

Molly Maggot (WiiU) – Trash. Even worse than The Letter, which I thought was impossible.

Bravely Default (3DS) – Picked it up again for a bit and got past the boss that I had gotten stymied by. Then Chapter 7 came along and threw even harder challenges at me (duh), and I decided to give it another short break while I go Pokémon crazy.

Pokémon Picross (3DS) – Still trucking along through the Alt-World, little by little. More than halfway through, but there’s still a long road and many puzzles ahead.

Pokémon Colosseum (GC) – I miss big-screen Pokémon battle terribly, so I started replaying this. Even if the animations are repetitive and kind of slow, it’s nice to watch the little guys duke it out on an HD screen (and with progressive scan on it actually looks really sharp). I even really like the story and dopey characters. Really with they’d make another sequel.

Medabots AX: Metabee Version (GBA) – I remembered liking this one when I tried it out way back when, so I bought it on Virtual Console. It’s a little less polished than I’d like to admit, but still fairly fun. My only gripe is that new parts seem to be handed out randomly and very sparsely, and mucking around with different builds is half the fun.

Pocket Mortys (iOS) – Basically Pokémon, but with a Rick and Morty flavour. It’s fairly good and funny, but a skewed a little more toward the “too difficult” side in an attempt to get you to pump money into it. You know, like a mobile game do.

Pokémon Yellow Version (GB) – Yes I bought this again at a slightly-too-inflated price. But they actually reprogrammed it so that you can trade/battle wirelessly, and transfer Pokémon to the new games coming out at the end of the year. Mostly, though, I just really like playing the original Pokémon games.

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