Friday, September 22, 2006
LwT: Lego, Sony and idle NDS chatter
It has been so long since I have touched my NDS. There was a time when I would not leave my house without it. Heck, I wouldn't even leave the room without it. What if I broke my legs? What would I do for entertainment? It seemed like I was getting some fantastic new game every week. I would jump from Kirby to Advance Wars to Mario Kart in the blink of an eye. And when I ran out of new releases, I would import titles. Band Brothers is still the best multiplayer rhythm game I have ever played, and that includes the time I played bass with Pearl Jam. Ouendan is the perfect blend of solid gameplay and off-the-wall, Japanese quirkiness.
Oh NDS! Where have you gone?
While the NDS well has been boring dry so far this year, it looks like things are going to be very good for me the rest of the year. I'm finally getting Mario Basketball next week, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 a few days after that. And there's still Cooking Mama somewhere out there, with Touch Detective and Contact coming sometime in October. This is what I live for. Don't forget about Elite Beat Agents coming later in the year. Officially, it's being billed as a port of Ouendan, but with an all new story and American songs, it's a true sequel. Ouendan is one of those games that I loved but would never imagine I could get a sequel. I am so pumped I'm getting a new version so soon. The topper should be Castlevania, which has consistently been one of the best franchises since Symphony of the Night came out almost a decade ago. Since SotN came out, there have been four new titles made in that vein and they have all been amazing. To say I am excited for the fifth is quite an understatement.
As I sit here at work, trying to speed the clock up with my extraordinary cognitive abilities, I wonder how I will be able to play all these games. I used to take public transit all the time. I must have played through five or six complete games just waiting for my train to arrive. But now, living in the sprawled out suburbs, I don't have that luxury. Curse Henry Ford and his oh-so-convenient horseless carriage! How do people make time to play portable games with a fulltime job and an Okami waiting for them at home?
And then it dawned on me - it's a portable system. I can play it anywhere. Even in, say, the bathroom. But my NDS is too big to seamlessly stuff in my pockets, right? You know what that means! Field trip to Best Buy! To celebrate the coming of all these new NDS games, I am going to finally pick up a DS Lite of my very own. I have to do it. For the good of the site I must play Mario Basketball during working hours. Things just got much more interesting for me.
Before I move on to a long awaited review, I have one more bit of (possibly) negative Sony news. According to this site, and Gamespot says the same thing in one of their TGS videos, Sony is actually going to charge for game demos. It will cost $1 to try one of their games. I have no idea if this is actually true, or if it applies to every game, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. This is the type of thing a company comes up with after they spend a decade on top of the industry. This is the reason I am rooting against Sony this generation. They have gotten too big and greedy for their own good. A shot of humility will do them some good.
Do you want to hear about Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy now? I will say this - it's pretty damn fun. I played through all three episodes, as well as trying some of the bonus content, in just a few days. I loved seeing the original Star Wars acted out by mute Lego characters. Although I must admit it has been a very long time since I have seen Return of the Jedi. I actually gasped out loud when Darth Vader died protecting Luke. I had no idea he was killed! I'm about 23 years late on that one but it hurt like it was yesterday. Hope I didn't ruin the ending for anyone, but you really should know at this point.
Anyway, the game was clearly designed with co-op in mind. This is great if you have friends or a second Xbox 360 controller, but I was completely lacking in at least one of those during the past week. You travel through the game with at least one other AI controlled character at your side, but they don't actually do anything. It's really weird. They try to attack enemies, and actually do hit them with light sabers and phaser beams, but don't actually do any damage. So the only real flaw in this game comes in trying to balance the puzzle solving with combat. It wasn't a huge problem, but it was certainly annoying at times. Enemies continually swarm you until a certain task is completed. I imagine this works great with a second player but just makes me sad playing alone. If only this had online co-op.
Even though the X360 version is just a port from last generation, it's still worth the money if you have a hankering for some silly Star Wars action. I was just over 52.3% through with the game when I finished Jedi, so there is a ton of replay value in there. With the X360 schedule so dry for the next few weeks, it's hard not to recommend this as a suitable time waster. Just make sure you play it co-operatively.
Oh NDS! Where have you gone?
While the NDS well has been boring dry so far this year, it looks like things are going to be very good for me the rest of the year. I'm finally getting Mario Basketball next week, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 a few days after that. And there's still Cooking Mama somewhere out there, with Touch Detective and Contact coming sometime in October. This is what I live for. Don't forget about Elite Beat Agents coming later in the year. Officially, it's being billed as a port of Ouendan, but with an all new story and American songs, it's a true sequel. Ouendan is one of those games that I loved but would never imagine I could get a sequel. I am so pumped I'm getting a new version so soon. The topper should be Castlevania, which has consistently been one of the best franchises since Symphony of the Night came out almost a decade ago. Since SotN came out, there have been four new titles made in that vein and they have all been amazing. To say I am excited for the fifth is quite an understatement.
As I sit here at work, trying to speed the clock up with my extraordinary cognitive abilities, I wonder how I will be able to play all these games. I used to take public transit all the time. I must have played through five or six complete games just waiting for my train to arrive. But now, living in the sprawled out suburbs, I don't have that luxury. Curse Henry Ford and his oh-so-convenient horseless carriage! How do people make time to play portable games with a fulltime job and an Okami waiting for them at home?
And then it dawned on me - it's a portable system. I can play it anywhere. Even in, say, the bathroom. But my NDS is too big to seamlessly stuff in my pockets, right? You know what that means! Field trip to Best Buy! To celebrate the coming of all these new NDS games, I am going to finally pick up a DS Lite of my very own. I have to do it. For the good of the site I must play Mario Basketball during working hours. Things just got much more interesting for me.
Before I move on to a long awaited review, I have one more bit of (possibly) negative Sony news. According to this site, and Gamespot says the same thing in one of their TGS videos, Sony is actually going to charge for game demos. It will cost $1 to try one of their games. I have no idea if this is actually true, or if it applies to every game, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. This is the type of thing a company comes up with after they spend a decade on top of the industry. This is the reason I am rooting against Sony this generation. They have gotten too big and greedy for their own good. A shot of humility will do them some good.
Do you want to hear about Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy now? I will say this - it's pretty damn fun. I played through all three episodes, as well as trying some of the bonus content, in just a few days. I loved seeing the original Star Wars acted out by mute Lego characters. Although I must admit it has been a very long time since I have seen Return of the Jedi. I actually gasped out loud when Darth Vader died protecting Luke. I had no idea he was killed! I'm about 23 years late on that one but it hurt like it was yesterday. Hope I didn't ruin the ending for anyone, but you really should know at this point.
Anyway, the game was clearly designed with co-op in mind. This is great if you have friends or a second Xbox 360 controller, but I was completely lacking in at least one of those during the past week. You travel through the game with at least one other AI controlled character at your side, but they don't actually do anything. It's really weird. They try to attack enemies, and actually do hit them with light sabers and phaser beams, but don't actually do any damage. So the only real flaw in this game comes in trying to balance the puzzle solving with combat. It wasn't a huge problem, but it was certainly annoying at times. Enemies continually swarm you until a certain task is completed. I imagine this works great with a second player but just makes me sad playing alone. If only this had online co-op.
Even though the X360 version is just a port from last generation, it's still worth the money if you have a hankering for some silly Star Wars action. I was just over 52.3% through with the game when I finished Jedi, so there is a ton of replay value in there. With the X360 schedule so dry for the next few weeks, it's hard not to recommend this as a suitable time waster. Just make sure you play it co-operatively.
// posted by Tom @ 11:43 AM 
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