Category: Monthend

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: December 2013

Hey, the year is over, and so are some video games that I was playing. Though, since December is kind of a busy time, there was a lot less going on than usual. Let’s have a look-see.

~ Now Playing ~

Dark Souls (360) – Have you been following the weekly Dark Souls feature? You should be. They happen on Thursdays.

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 (iOS) – I thought I was done with PvZ, but somehow the sequel drew me back in. Mostly because it was free. And then I saw that it was free because it was built almost entirely on microtransactions. Yuck. That’s awful, EA.

Pikmin 3 (WiiU) – It’s not often that I get excited for DLC, but the new Mission Mode stages that Nintendo keeps rolling out for Pikmin 3 are pretty darn good. Also, pretty darn hard! My bro and I have been slowly plucking away at them, but those platinum medals aren’t coming as easy as they did in the original stages.

~ Game Over ~

AdventureTime: ETDBIDK (WiiU) – The last 5 floors wrecked us several times over, but we finally pushed through to the end. It was a delightful game, but I don’t think it’s quite delightful enough that I’ll be able to convince Wifey to battle through the Nightosphere with me.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) – Finally got around to finishing the Master Quest run that I started many, many months ago. You could probably even measure it in years at this point. Anyway, Master Quest is such a nice addition to this game. I’ve played OoT so many times now that I need remixed dungeons to keep it interesting.

Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS) – As much as I like this game, I found it very hard to stay really interested in. Believe it or not, I bought it when it first came out and have only now gotten around to beating it. It makes me sad that there’s still so much game left in there that I know I’m not going to bother playing.

Eathbound (WiiU) – I’m pretty proud to say that I played through Earthbound twice in 2013. Most RPGs I don’t play through twice at all, but this one’s probably getting close to a dozen. And I love it more every time. I’ve never really considered the possibility before, but I think that Earthbound might very well be my Favourite Video Game.

Paint it Back (iOS) – Victory! That’s yet another picross game in the can. Did I mention that I don’t really like the touch controls? I think I’ve probably said that already. Anyway, it’s still a damn good picross game.

Bleed (360) – A cute little indie game about killing all the current video game heroes so that you’re number one. Sounds oddly familiar. Only this one is a side-scroller mashed up with a twin-stick shooter, and I might add that it’s quite stressful, but also a lot of fun. It’s even been recently updated with a co-op mode! The really weird thing about it though, is that while you can unlock a pretty decent variety of guns, the default SMGs are always the most effective weapon.

The Simpsons Arcade (iOS) – I bought this some months ago, and beat one level before forgetting about it. I decided to push through to the end before deleting it, just so that I could say I finished it. This was not the fun revival of the old arcade game that I was hoping it would be. More like a single-player slog with poor touch-controls.

~ Reruns ~

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS) – Had to play through this one again immediately, because I liked it so much. This is the first time I’ve played a Zelda game in Hero Mode and… it wasn’t really that much harder. The first few dungeons were tough due to a lack of hearts and the Blue Mail, but once I hit Lorule it was smooth sailing.

Picross e (3DS) – I’ve been itching to get e3, but couldn’t be bothered to actually spend the money, so I just replayed the first one. It’s pretty great!

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: November 2013

The good news is that winter is here and I no longer have to feel bad about spending all my time inside playing video games. The bad news is that… well, there isn’t any bad news at the moment. It’s December that’s got all that holiday business to it; November is fairly smooth sailing as far as having free time goes.

That said, real life tried its best to get in the way, but November was still a fairly productive month for gaming. This month, I continued my recent trend of finding games that I could finish in an afternoon, and I think I’ll be keeping that up for a while. It’s fun to dive into epic games that take the better part of a year to finish, but sometimes the thing that really hits the spot is a game that I can start and finish in one sitting.

I don’t have any new categories for this feature this month, so that’s good. I figured that my tendency to obsessively categorize things would have me introducing a new one each month. But that doesn’t seem to be the case… yet.

~ Now Playing ~

Adventure Time: Explore The Dungeon Because I DON’T KNOW! (Wii U) – It was a small pain in the butt to actually secure a copy, but it was worth it. Between the abundance of Adventure Time charm and having another game that The Wife will play with me, I’m pretty happy with this game. It’s also a lot of fun too, being a dungeon crawler that hearkens back to old-school fare like Gauntlet. Games like this aren’t really made any more, which is too bad because I quite enjoy them. We’re currently 50 floors down.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: November 2013

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: October 2013

Hey! It’s this thing again! Now it’s officially a recurring feature! That was my plan all along, of course, but I’m kind of a flake so who even knew if I was going to even get around to writing up a second entry. That said, I’ll probably stop caring about this stupid thing by the time 2014 rolls around.

In the interest of further categorizing and complicating things, I’ve decided that MVGW needs a third header. I felt like “Now Playing” and “Game Over” were pretty self-explanatory, but you might wonder about what exactly the new “Reruns” header is for. It, my friends, is reserved for short games which I have played before and which were started and finished within the month. You can think of it as a subsection of “Game Over” if you’d like.

~ Now Playing ~

Pokémon Y (3DS) – Just assume that this is the only game I played after the 11th. Aside from short breaks to collect the Spooky furniture series in Animal Crossing. I have, of course, beaten the story, but I still have a bunch of post-game stuff to do and plenty of empty pokédex entries.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: October 2013

Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: September 2013

Welcome, good reader, to a new thing that I want to be doing each month. I’m calling it Monthend Video Game Wrap-up, and it’s basically just going to be a snapshot of what I’ve been up to in the world of video games over the course of each month. Why? I dunno. Same reason that I put anything on this blog, I guess: to keep a cheap record of stuff I do and think.

Okay fine, I’ll admit it. This is all just a big excuse for me to make a banner. It’s one of those odd little things that I really love doing, and I can’t really be bothered to make them for common blog posts. Also I guess since it’s going to be a big thing I’ll make a section for it on the Features page.

~ Now Playing ~

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Wii U) – I played through WW only twice on Gamecube, but it’s still one of my favourite Zeldas. People seem to be pretty split on the graphical changes, and I am firmly in the “I love them” camp. The swift sail changes the pace of the game from “pretty slow” to “not as slow” which is nice, but what really I appreciate is the improved Picto Box. It’s making completing the Nintendo Gallery seem less like the most horrible, tedious task ever and more like something that’s actually pretty fun! I’m about halfway through the game, just entering the Earth Temple.

Continue reading Monthend Video Game Wrap-up: September 2013