PixlBit

Games Beaten

-Star Fox Guard (Wii U)

Imagine a tower defense game where you have to manually fire the weapons. That's Star Fox Guard and the devs have made the concept work well. Switching between and adjusting the cameras is easy thanks to the touch screen on the Game Pad and you'll have to hop around a lot to cover all the points of ingress and deal with the different types of enemies. The extra missions by the end of the game are truly difficult. I especially enjoyed the boss battles against the giant robots. The devs did a good job exploring this concept, making Star Fox Guard a solid game.

-Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)

Mario Wonder is full of crazed delight. Seeing what the wonder flowers do in each level is a lot of fun. On the whole, I feel that the focus on wonder flowers does detract from getting a pure platforming experience but I don't think every Mario game has to have such a singular focus. A lot of the badges—which are modifiers for how Mario controls—I think are just not useful at all and the Flower Kingdom prince is too wordy and annoying (though I love the talking flowers). But those things do not stop Mario Wonder from being a ton of fun. I played it with my wife and we had a great time!

-Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4)

Let's be honest. This game is basically a big expansion for the first Spider-Man game. You're still doing largely the same things (swinging through the city, finding things, stopping random crimes, taking down enemy bases, doing challenges, etc.) but that's okay. This is a very solid game, even if the ground it treads is familiar. Thankfully, this experience does not overstay its welcome.

Games Bought

At the end of December I used some gift money to order some games from Video Games Plus, a Canadian reprint company that had some pretty sweet sales going on. I got Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PS4)—I've decided I'm going to watch story recaps on youtube for Yakuzas 3-5 and then pick up the series with 6—as well as Shin Megami Tensei V (Switch), which I've been eyeing since it came out. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble (Switch) is the most recent Monkey Ball game and, from what I've heard, the best one since the first two games on the GameCube. I decided to get Lord Winklebottom Investigates (Switch) because it is a murder mystery point-and-click adventure that stars a giraffe and hippo, which are my sons favorite animals. We're playing it together. The last game I got was a collection of two arcade rail-shooter action games, ExZeus: The Complete Collection (Switch). You don't see many games like this and these are supposed to be pretty good, so I'm excited to try it.

I also picked up all three of the PS+ titles. I've heard that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (PS5) is more fun to play than it has any right to be but that the looter shooter aspects are obnoxious. I think my oldest son might like Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered (PS5) if I can get him to try it. And The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (PS5) is one of those indie darlings that I really should play at some point.

Games Being Played

-Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble (Switch)

I plowed through the first several worlds of this before it finally got hard (though, to be honest, I am simply trying to complete the levels, not do the secondary objectives) and it's pretty challenging now!

-Lord Winklebottom Investigates (Switch)

We haven't gotten very far in this yet but it's nice playing something with my sons. It is surprisingly hard to find time that works for all of us, despite the fact that we all live together.

-Picross S Namco Legendary Edition (Switch)

It's Picross!

-Monster Hunter Rise (Switch)

I have finally settled on a new set of armor to craft. Gonna have to kill a lot of Rathaloses!

-Destiny 2 (PS5)

Finally catching up on the current season content. The NPCs spend a lot of time gabbing!