PixlBit

I ripped through a bunch more on my quest to get through my collection and decide what stays and goes. 

DS

Mario & Lugi: Partners in Time - I haven't figured out why this is my favorite M&L game but it is. Maybe I just like those cute UFOs flying around or the baby versions Mario & Luigi. I did, however, get stuck on a challenge I didn't want to complete. It was the one where you have to walk a path in the dark that only illuminates briefly when you fall off it. So you have to do it by memory without any precise way to measure distance. I nearly cleared it (and have long ago), but I just didn't want to fail it one more time. I'm keeping this game forever though. I've beaten it before and I will again, just not right now. 

Planet Puzzle League - An interesting puzzle game matching colored tiles by moving them in horizontal directions and sometimes letting them fall vertically. There are a lot of modes of play but none that particularly interest me. I'd like an adventure mode or battle mode. I mean, there is a progression mode where one puzzle solved unlocks another and a battle mode against an A.I. but neither of these excited me. I dunno. I still like Super Puzzle Fighter best of all. I think I'll trade this one. 

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - I really like the hand drawn, Studio Ghibli style animation, the story and the music, but I got a little fatigued solving puzzles after several hours of play. This world is puzzle crazy and every little thing you do revolving around a puzzle. Even picking up a banana peel from the road has you do a puzzle to teach the value of proper trash disposal. There are special puzzle modes you do on the side that are different than the usual logic and math puzzles in the main game. One is finishing a picture book with stickers and another directing a car through a maze. But you have to do the main game puzzles to unlock them. I love this game anyway, I must not have the patience for so many puzzles anymore. In small doses, perhaps. I'm keeping it for those moments. 

X360

Batman Arkham Asylum - I played on normal difficulty this time and found it even more engaging than on easy. I did get a ltitle stuck on finding a scientist's notes in one of the mansions like I have once before. I've searched the whole building but still can't get into the lab. I believe I missed something in the library I have to scan for, but this delay has soured me on returning to it. I'm keeping it for sure, though. What a fantastic story, voice work and presentation this game has!

Mass Effect 2 -  I got so into this for a good long while again. I was an engineer. What's the deal with every human being a super model? Anyway, I always love exploring, gathering resources, hacking, and dialog choices, but I got fed up with the gunplay. I've always sort of recoiled at the awkwardness of the battle system - less so with the remasters for some reason. So, I stopped playing. But I will always have this in my collection. 

Gears of War - Part of the reason I stopped ME2 was in anticipation of playing a game with really good shooting mechanics, this Gears of War. I, however, got stuck yet again on the giant Corpser battle. It's just Dom and Marcus vs The Corpser underground where the Hammer of Dawn doesn't work. Nothing you do against it indicates any sort of damage or progress against it, and I always forget the solution. I think it's shooting it in its mouth after it screetches but who knows. There's no health bar or reactions that tell you anything. I could've looked it up but the battle just annoys the heck out of me. I will always have this game around though. 

A Note on 360 Usage

I got youtube to work on 360 finally. I'm not sure what clicked because last time I tried it seemed inoperable, but it works now. I love taking youtube breaks between games, and I've been denied that up to now with these older systems. 

And that's all for this week. I'm playing Advance Wars Days of Ruin on DS and Oblivion on 360 next.