PixlBit

I decided to play DS and Xbox 360 at the same time. I start a gaming session with DS, and when I’m done (or the battery gets used up), I turn on the 360.  

DS 

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story – I usually have trouble sticking with platformers (see NSB below) but, if you throw in a bunch of other gameplay styles, I could just love it. This has your platforming, but it also has turn-based combat, free-roaming adventure, RPG style equipment management and leveling, and rhythm games. I'm never left getting hung up on a particular jump that stops my progress. 

I went as far as I could but got stymied by the boss fight with Midbus. I used two Star Rewinds and then got the game-over screen. I wish there was a health meter on Midbus. If I was close to victory I might have jumped in again after the game-over. As it is, I’ll take a break and come back to it another time. These boss fights in this game are pretty challenging.  

Advance Wars: Dual Strike – This feels like more of the same from the previous two games on GBA but with special mechanics for those two screens on the DS. Now you can have two COs at a time and use both screens: one for air combat and the other for ground. And, of course, the story continues from previous games, which I'm not so interested in. I mean, I am, but games have a special style of storytelling that I have a hard time following because learning and mastering the game mechanics distracts me so much.  

I got to mission 9 where you are introduced to the dual CO mechanics. The battle is large, and if you don’t win the air battle on the top screen, the mission seems impossible. I just kind of stopped rather than restart the whole mission. Like many turn-based war games, missions can take a while. I’ll drop back in where I left off next time.  

New Super Mario Bros – And here we have the pure platformer I love to hate. This, and many good platformers, amaze me with their wealth of creative features, but I really tire of the challenge quickly. It’s just a lot of failure and retries usually. My thing is to progress and discover, not repeat and perfect. But, like I said, this game is astonishing in its creativity. The number of variations on the Mario Bros formula here is a joy to experience. Notable to me was Mario's helicopter form, his change in size to bigger and then VERY big - so big that even a green pipe is broken by him - , and his ability to scamper up an extra block when wearing white (I’m not sure what form that is). I played through four or five levels until I accidently squeezed the DS too hard and it turned off. I stopped after that. 

Xbox 360 

Bioshock – As the introductory slide show ended, and the underwater city appeared, I spoke the last lines along with Andrew Ryan out loud, “I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose. . . Rapture.”  

First on my list for 360 and the third highest rated 360 game after GTA IV and V on Metacritic. I’ve played this many times on many systems but mostly on easy difficulty. I went for medium this time and finally got frustrated after several Big Daddy battles stripped my health to the bone, leaving me extremely vulnerable. That’s the thing with higher difficulty in games, it enhances the tension and excitement, but it forces you to conserve and scrounge for every bit of health, ammo and upgrade you can find. It’s exhausting. So, I took a break.  

I really got into the hacking this time around, as I usually do, really. That pipe arranging mini game is addictive, and I was thrilled to complete them in record time every time, ending them with a yell of victory (MK was not amused). I save my instant hacking tools for the safes, which are significantly more difficult. I recall a PopCap game I used to love called RocketMania, which was very similar.  

Orange Box – “Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. . . Wake up and smell the ashes.” What a great intro to Half-Life 2. It's my main interest in this collection. The Orange Box collects Half Life 2, its two expansion chapters, Portal (I'll replay this later) and Team Fortress 2. I got to Half-Life 2’s Anticitizen 1 levels before getting burned out on firefights with The Combine. I was playing on “normal” difficulty, so that was partly the reason. Gun battles are no joke later on in the game.  

I’m just really thrilled by everything Half-Life 2 brings to the table. Every area has some new mechanic to learn and have fun with. The Gravity Gun is the standout. What can’t you do with such a device? I remember going through the whole game with nothing but the Gravity Gun for an achievement years ago. It’s also fun to pick up random things with “X” and see what you can do with them. I picked up a doll and tried to carry it through all the levels. One of the expansion chapters has an achievement for carrying a garden gnome through the whole game and putting it in a rocket at the end. I remember trying that way back but never completed it.  

Purchases

I couldn't find any of the DS or 360 games I wanted at one of the Classic Game Junkies stores I go to, and so I got these for my collection I'll be getting to next. 

Overlord Dark Legend (Wii) - I remember this was a surprisingly good addition to the Overlord series. The series uses a mechanic of manipulating minions not unlike Pikmin. 

Overlord Raising Hell (PS3) - This one maybe not so great an addition to the Overlord series. I've played it on a digital copy and found it wanting, but I love the series so much for Overlord 1 and 2 and Dark Legend, that I wanted a physical copy of every Overlord game, good or bad. 

Super Paper Mario (Wii) - I had missed out on a previous chance to buy this, but grabbed it when I saw it again and my store credit was flush from OG Xbox trades. The Paper Mario games are so inventive. Plus, I love paper craft. 

That was last week. I’m currently about to play The World Ends with You (DS) and am already deep into Skyrim on 360, which I can't wait to write about. I’ll report on both when I’m in-game dead, dead, dead. 'Cause that's how I'm doing it this year.