Ramblings and musings of John Zeitler.
At 2:24p, I defeated the Evil Wizard, final boss of Castle Crashers on Xbox Live Arcade. This is the fortieth game cleared in 2008. Game was cleared over 116 days.
No further games are scheduled to be cleared in 2008.
On December 20, 2008, I completed the final achievement in Dash of Destruction on Xbox Live Arcade. This is the thirty-ninth game cleared in 2008. The next game that is queued for completion is Chrono Trigger (DS), followed by Castle Crashers (360) and Psychonauts (Xbox). Game was cleared over one hour. It was not initially considered a clear, but counts as one anyway due to having collected all of the achievements.
Square-Enix’s first foray into the world of iPhone gaming brings us this wonderful little gem, a port/compilation of three DoCoMo games that we’d never see otherwise (since DoCoMo is a Japan-only cell phone standard). While it’s primarily a simple tower defense-style game (at least in the W1 chapter provided in the demo), it does it with the charm and style familiar to players of the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games, borrowing most heavily from the recent A2. Bear this in mind: I had never, to this point, played a tower defense game for more than ten minutes, thinking they were largely boring; the implementations of the genre that I’d tinkered with were atrociously hard or too simplistic. I’m still not entirely sold on the concept, but at least I know it’s not as boring as I’d expected; while the gameplay limits the kind of strategy involved, it’s still very fun.
Many folks who’ve played the demo have complained about the control scheme used; the game divides the screen in two, with the top screen being the display and the bottom screen being a virtual cross-pad as one might find on any recent traditional cell phone. This seems kind of clunky at first, but you can still touch the top screen to jump the cursor as you see fit. I think it works pretty well, given the game’s roots, but at the same time I think the controls could have been made a bit smaller to provide more real estate for the main graphics.
I didn’t buy the game– not yet, anyway; it’s on my list for a future date. Still, I have to say that it’s a recommended purchase if you dig tower defense, and if it prompts Square-Enix to port over more of its cell phone games (or, heaven forbid, prompts other companies with significant mobile divisions to consider the English-speaking market; I’m looking at you, Capcom), all the better. It’s a good first foot forward for S-E’s mobile division.
At 6:11p, I completed Official Mode with Amuro Ray in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam on the Xbox 360. This is the thirty-eighth game cleared in 2008. The next game that is queued for completion is Chrono Trigger (DS), followed by Psychonauts (Xbox) and Brave Story: New Traveler (PSP). Final clear time was 4 hours over an unknown number of days.
At 4:16p, I completed the Rolling Stone Rock Immortals setlist in Rock Band 2 on the Xbox 360. This is the thirty-seventh game cleared in 2008. The next game that is queued for completion is Psychonauts (Xbox), followed by Chrono Trigger (DS) and Brave Story: New Traveler (PSP). Game was cleared over 98 days.
At 8:33p, I defeated Seraph Lamington, final boss of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness on the PSP. This is the thirty-sixth game cleared in 2008. The next game that is queued for completion is Chrono Trigger (DS), followed by Brave Story: New Traveler (PSP) and Psychonauts (Xbox). Final clear time was 55:33 over 96 days.
When I reviewed the original Meteos way, WAY back in 2005, I said that it was quite possibly the DS’s first killer app. It was a clever and inventive puzzle game that used the stylus controls to great effect. It still is a good game, but in transitioning to the big screen and a traditional controller, Meteos Wars loses a great deal of its charm. The core game itself is unchanged: match three blocks vertically or horizontally to launch them skyward and assault your opponents. In concessions to the drawbacks of the controls change, the action is a tad slower and a bit more lopsided (in that stacking blocks to the ceiling can sneak up on you and trigger a loss before you can react to it at all). Overall I think it’s a good try at the game, but unfortunately it’s just not suited for traditional controls. If you don’t have a DS you might be able to enjoy it, but try the demo first for an hour or so. If you do have a DS, hunt down a copy of the original (or if you absolutely can’t find that, the Disney edition works in a pinch too)– it’s worth the extra outlay of cash.
I honestly have nothing terribly good to say about PowerUp Forever. It’s a good try at being a frantic shooter along the lines of Super Stardust or Geometry Wars, but the rules for the special weapons are unclear and unintuitive, and it’s just painfully generic otherwise. Shooter fans should give this a look at least to see if they can figure out what differentiates it from the aforementioned games, but I think I can safely skip this one, too.
At 7:54p, I defeated the final boss of Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness Episode 2 on Xbox Live Arcade. This is the thirty-fifth game cleared in 2008. The next game that is queued for completion is Chrono Trigger (DS), followed by Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP) and Psychonauts (Xbox). Game was cleared over 6 days.
The Wii.
(Place your bets now on how long it takes for someone to accuse me of being directly responsible for the death of gaming.)
At 9:55a, I destroyed Dr. Wily’s escape pod, the final boss of Mega Man 9 on WiiWare. This is the thirty-fourth game cleared in 2008. The next game that is queued for completion is Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 2 (XBLA), followed by Castle Crashers (XBLA) and Chrono Trigger (DS). Final clear time (not counting unsaved failed assaults on Wily Castle) was 4:50 over 75 days.
