PixlBit

So I'm fairly sure I didn't play anything IN this year, but I've cheated a bit to include the games I played at least pretty close to 2011. This was another one of those "transition" years where nothing happened. 

"Hey, I can drink! I'm an adult now!" I said only to realize how hard it was to be served on a busy night at a bar and realize that nothing in my life had changed for the better ... except I got a mid-level management job of sorts by promoting from Community Assistant to Assistant Hall Director at the university ... which would come to lead to some of the worst depression in my life when I actually started the job later that year. 

On the bright side, here are some games that may have cheered me up had I actually played them in their release year. 

Ghost Trick: Phanotom Detective

This is the only game that rivals Elite Beat Agents for me on DS. I absolutely loved the puzzles involving traveling through and manipulating objects as a ghost. I believe you're only able to manipulate objects a certain number of times, but can more or less travel freely as a blue light through different objects.

Also, the writing is excellent. I'm a big fan of story-driven games with a sense of humor and this game is both hilarious and heartwarming in all the right places. There are some out-there characters I couldn't help but smirk at every time they showed up and some much deeper moments about life and meaning that are mixed together really well. 

Of course, it is a Capcom game, so the sound effects and score are great as well. It really is some of the most unique and fun gameplay I've experienced on the DS and you should pick this one up if you haven't. I consider it somewhat of a hidden gem and I think it deserves to be seen ... and played!

Test Drive Unlimited 2 is a game I did not play, but I don't think I ever mentioned my favorite part of Test Drive  on PS2. There was something in that game I was hooked on, a mode of gameplay none of the rest of the game could rival. Here it is:

Yup. I played a crapton of Pong on the old PS2 Test Drive. What a fun loading screen. 

Okamiden is one I think I played quite a bit later, like maybe even 2014 or so, but again ... we're cheating. This blog uses GameShark. 

As far as I'm aware, Okami  is pretty much the same kind of game as Okami, just made for DS hardware and involving a child companion. I got stuck finding something in one of the areas (pretty much how I always get stuck in a game: I can't remember exactly where I'm supposed to look for some mcguffin BS and put the game down for long enough the hints don't make sense) and stopped playing a long while ago, but I mean to go back and finish it at some point. 

This will be one of those game where I say screw it and just use a guide whenever I need it if I do go back.

Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition is a game I only ever played via kiosk, but it almost made me buy a 3DS. Almost. 

I still think the 3D slider thing is a pretty cool gimmick, even though I never did end up owning a 3DS.

Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a game I know absolutely nothing about aside from the fact EGM was promoting it hard at the time. 

Aaaand I think they gave it a mediocre score after their glowing previews had faded from memory. That or they gave it good scores and people didn't like the game. Something like that. I have a vague memory of there being a controversy about this. I could totally be talking out of my ass.

The Oregon Trail released in some form on some platforms in 2011, but never mind all that. 

I just wanted to talk about the Oregon Trail I played in the 90s on PC in my computer teacher mom's computer lab. I never quite understood the object of the game and pretty much always died of starvation or dysentery or crossing a river improperly, but what I really played the game for was this:

Yeah, I don't think any of us realized the game was meant to be educational. We just liked to shoot buffalo. At least that was my takeaway. 

Sonic CD

This game was my waiting game, because in 2012 I installed it on my Android phone and from then on would play it over and over again while waiting for things to pass the time. 

I honestly prefer 2 and 3 to this game quite a bit and never really cared that much about Future/Past time travel mechanics except that I preferred the brighter future and the bouncier Japanese soundtrack included with the game. But I obviously didn't hate it, or I would not have left it on my phone for so long. 

At the time, I had an LG Optimus V, so this was really about the only game I could put on the thing, and I did ocassionally switch it out for stuff like a generic skateboarding platformer I found on Google Play. I was still happy to have Sonic CD though. At one point I pretended to still be playing it while kissing my girlfriend as a joke. 

But that was in 2012. We'll get to that year.