PixlBit

Two games I focused on, one handheld and one console, this week. 

I played a half day's worth of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth on 3DS. It combines the story and graphical look of Persona with the gameplay of Etrian Odyssey. I love it. I think the map making controls are even more intuitive than the first remastered EO game I played on Switch recently. I'm going to have to get Persona Q2 at some point but it's still almost $50 most places. 

Then, on a full day off, I finished the main stories in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. That's nine movies worth turned into fun lego games. Almost all of these have had their own full Lego game at one time and they didn't repeat anything that I could tell. Its all newly designed environments, mini-games and collectibles all the way through. Finishing off the stories is only half the game though. Now I'm combing each planet for side missions and collectibles. The side missions are amusing like one where you question residents of Mos Eisley on who shot first, Luke or Greedo, for a storm trooper judicial inquiry.

I like the space battles. Rock solid controls are the reason. I also liked the numerous boss fights during the story missions. They are quite rigorous, taking what seems like a long time to wear down your enemy with a combination of basic attacks, force powers, blocks, and timed-button sequences. They aren't hugely difficult but they made me pay attention and do a little work. I love force powers throughout the game. I just chuck my light saber or throw things all the darn time. Oh and running. You characters can run really fast which is very helpful. They'll even do it automatically if you walk for a certain amount of time, which is actually a nice tweak to the controls I appreciate. 

Overall just a really good Lego game made with all the experience of at least 20 years of Lego games like this (was Lego Star Wars out in 2004?).  

I'm gearing up for January with some recent retro game purchases and some planning. I think I'm going to start with the new DLC for Atari 50 that I haven't gotten to yet. Then a deep dive into brick breakers like Breakout and Arkanoid. Then into a large variety of Space Invaders games I've discovered. I'm not a huge fan of the original, but some of variations on it are quite interesting. I'll be breaking out the Retron 77, a plug-n-play I picked up, and various handheld devices I have. I can't wait.