New Super Mario Brothers

Date Acquired: 11.14.2009

Date Completed: 12.30.2010

Thoughts: I could have completed this game a year ago, but It has always been my impression that this is a game built for multiplayer and that I needed to beat it in multiplayer. So I saved it for irregular co-op sessions, often with different people, forcing me to start at the begining again and again for them. Not a chore, the game's a ton of fun, especially in co-op. I was in no hurry to burn through it.

How does this game compare to SMB 1-3? That's hard to answer. It may technically be a better game, and certainly is light years better graphically, but SMB 1-3 and Super Mario World are legends, established in gaming's infancy. I'm not sure any new game could live up, particularily for someone who grew up on the original games. A young gamer, being introduced to all at the same time might like this one better, but for me, Nintendo was smart not to try to pass this off as Super Mario Brothers 4. There should never be a Super Mario Brothers 4. I won't sink countless hours into this game, playing it over and over again by myself, looking for hidden pathways and warp whistles, but that may speak just as much to my own different place in life as to this game's quality.

Pros: The Co-Op, obviously is the biggest draw to this game. Nintendo had co-op in the very first Mario Brothers game, but in all games after that, 2 players had to take turns through the game, if a 2 player option was even offered at all. So this represented both a welcome change for the series and a return to it's roots. The co-op is crazy fun. Insane. It's impossible not to play through this game laughing when you have 3 other people playing with you. It's pure chaos with 4 players all trying to jump to the same platform, and often jumping on other player's heads, which propells them further up into the air, and their unfortunate platform falls into the abyss. It is very, very easy to kill your fellow players in this game. Fortunately the game offers the bubble save. If you are about to fall to your death, be it because another player is advancing the screen too quickly, or through your own mis-jump, you have the option to go into a bubble at any point in the game by pushing the A button on the wiimote. Doing this will keep you from harm and you float around until another player pops you. Now if all the players go into a bubble (which happens a LOT), the level is exited and you have to start again, sans any power ups you may have had at the time, but not at the cost of any lives. This aspect saves the experience from becoming very frustrating and instead adds a lot of fun to the game.

Cons: My one big regret for this game is that there's no online co-op. The game is built around, and best experienced in co-op, and no online option was added. That was a crushing dissapointment to me. I dont' know what the reasoning for leaving it out was, it took 24 years for Nintendo to put co-op in a Super Mario Brothers game, so maybe in another 24 years they'll add online.

Another big annoyance was the controller. The Wiimote simply isn't suited for intense side-scrolling platforming. The placement of the A Button is too close to the arrow pad. It is way too easy to accidentally go into a bubble when you're only trying to move right, and get away, which leads to a lot of accidental level exits.

Outside of the multi-player, the game doesn't tread a lot of new ground. Most of the stuff in the game are things you've seen many times before in Mario titles. The largest surge of creativity is saved for the last fight with Bowser, which is both an homage to the past, and something new and different. The lack of new territory isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's a bit disappointing.

Conclusion: While it may not live up to the NES original games, this is a very good game in it's own right, and if you have people to play with regularly, then it's a must-own. Without that, it's likely in the same boat as the DS New Super Mario Brothers, a game I haven't touched since I completed it years ago. It stands up as a single player experience very well, but the multi-player aspect is what compels replays.

Mega Man 10

Date Acquired: 9.05.2010

Date Completed: 12.30.2010

Thoughts: Two years ago, Capcom surprised people by releasing a brand new 8 bit Mega Man game. The game was a throwback in all ways, complete with controller-smashing difficulty and critical praise. Two years later, Capcom surprises nobody by repeating themselves. This time around the biggest buzz is the fact that one of the 8 robot bosses is named sheep man, a baffling decision considering the character's power is electricity and he basically already looks like a big cloud.

I never played Mega Man 9. Well, I played the demo and couldn't beat the demo level. Also the game has NEVER gone on sale since the day it released. MM10 on the other hand has had 2 price drops this year alone. The Mega Man games aren't something you need to play in order to appreciate them, so I jumped right into 10. The only thing out of the status quo is that Dr Wiley is now a respected member of society, helping mankind. A plot device that obviously doesn't make it through the opening credits. Wiley releases a virus that only affects robots (such as Mega Man) called robofluenza and the plot only goes downhill from there. Fortunately nobody plays Mega Man games for the plot. They play them, well, nowadays they play them for nostalgia and/or masochism. I fall on the nostalgia side. The masochism is a bonus.

Pros: I believe I already mentioned the nostalgia? Mega Man was one of my absolute favorite games on the NES, with MM 3 being my all time favorite even today.

The Easy mode has to rate as a pro as well. It's a good option for people who get frustrated with the game and want to dial it down a bit and relax. Am I speaking from personal experience?

The level design was creative. I enjoyed both the nods to older games, and the new ideas.

Cons: Why did they take away the slide? I loved that thing. Mastery of that move made it easier to miss certain attacks but was tricky enough to reinforce the game's hard core pedigree.

The plot was silly and the bosses fairly uninspired, minor quibbles of course.

Conclusion: Nothing can compete with Nostalgia. It doesn't really matter how good this game is, I can't go back to my childhood and compare it to Megaman 1-3. I don't really believe this game is as good as the original Mega Mans, but I acknowledge that my opinion is biased. It's a fun game still, and mercilessly difficult, but it's best value is as a novelty to older gamers who occasionally miss times gone by.

Red Dead Redemption

Date Acquired: 5.17.2010

Date Completed: 12.16.2010

Thoughts: I was looking forward to this game with great anticipation well over a year before it finally released. I loved the concept of a game set in the old west, along with the Rock Star Studios pedigree, I just couldn't wait. Then, early this year, word came of bad work conditions and poor morale from the San Diego studios while they were finishing up on this game. It was the kind of stuff thate could lead one to believe that the game wasn't going to get the polish it deserves and needs. Thankfully, those concerns proved unfounded and Red Dead Redemption is a certified hit.

I spent a long portion of the game trying to work out my feelings for it. It's VERY similar to the GTA games, similar to a fault, according to its critics. It's an open world sandbox where you accept missions to advance the plot. And just like GTA there'sa ton of side missions and optional activities you can spend hours doing that don't advance the plot at all. There's not a ton of variety to the missions. Mainly go here, go there, shoot till they're dead. But there are other types completely alien to GTA such as cattle rustling missions, duels, and lasoing and then breaking wild horses. I adored GTA4 and early on, I didn't feel like Red Dead measured up favorably. Riding horses might be an interesting novelty, but it doesn't compare to jacking a lamborghini and driving it off a building.

The game evolves though, and does a good job seperating itself from GTA. I liked the story a lot more than I have the GTA stories. There are a lot of nice touches. Hunting is great in the begining, and a welcome concept. Thanks to auto-targeting, it's not the most difficult activity, but it's nice riding along gorgeous outdoor environments and seeing the animals living there, and having the option to hunt or lasso them.

The Western element is captured very well in this game, and it probably helps to have seen a lot of old Western movies. Hell, I saw Tru Gritt yesterday, and there were several scenes that reminded me of RDR. I watched a couple of the Clint Eastwood Dollar movies while playing this and could see a direct influence.

Pros: John Marston himself comes immediately to mind. By far the most likeable of Rockstar's protagonists. I thought GTA4's Niko was a douchebag, but I like Marston. He does have a dark past, but he's beyond that now. He fights only to save his family. He has a wife whom he loves, which means no laying with prostitues for him.

The ending was a huge plus for me as well. The last 10 or so missions, the game ramps up to a whole new level, and I loved it. A very original direction and it worked well. Though I will admit to having to check Gamefaqs to be sure I did everything correctly.

This game has maybe the best acheivement I've ever seen, it's called 'Dastardly'. To get it, you have to lasso a girl and then hogtie her, carry her over to the railroad tracks and wait for a train to run her over. Genius.

Really a lot went right here. The graphics were gorgeous, the charactorizations of all the characters, main and supporting were great. The mood of the game, the pace and story and uniqueness. It all added up to make a fantastic game.

Cons: For some reason, there's only 3 save slots. I like to use a ton of these, and there's one very specific point in the game I want to keep a before and after save, which limits me to only one other save option. This isn't normal GTA procedure, not sure why Rockstar limited me like this.

I was also a little dissapointed in the time period the game is set in. It's set in the early 1900's. There are movie theaters for god's sakes. I would have preferred the game to be set during the California gold Rush period. It seems like a lot could have been done with this, including Indian wars and interactions.

To Do: There is some DLC I have to get back to, specifically the Undead pack, which looks to be a lot of fun, and there may be a few acheivements I have to make a run at before I'm done for good.

Conclusion: If you're someone who doesn't like the GTA games, I'd think long and hard before getting this game, depending on what your reason for not liking it is. If you're burnt out on those games, maybe wait a bit before picking it up, but definately pick it up.

Dead Rising 2

Date Acquired: 11.13.2010

Date Completed: 11.25.2010

Thoughts: This game wasn't on my radar too much. I played the original, and to be honest, my brain didn't know what to do with it. I see that now. It didn't follow many of the conventions I have come to expect from a video game. For starters, you're not supposed to beat the game. Not right away anyway. You're supposed to play through a little bit, level up your character, get overwhelmed and die, then you can start a new game with that same leveled up character to make getting through the game easier. The Time limit really frustrated me at first. I like taking my time and doing everything I want to do in the game I paid for, but that isn't allowed here. There's plenty of time to finish the game, but it's very difficult to finish the game 100%- ie rescuing every civilian and killing every psycho. I definitely didn't realize in my play through the first game that the psychos and civilian rescues are all optional. You can do them for more points to level up faster, but no big deal if you don't, just do the main story stuff.

As I said, this game wasn't on my radar, I wasn't going to buy it. So what changed my mind? An ingenious marketing tool called Dead Rising: Case Zero. In lieu of releasing a DR2 demo, Capcom released Case Zero- a $5 prequel chapter to the events of DR2. Now before you complain that I am praising Capcom for tricking me into buying a demo, there WAS a demo for Case Zero, and the gameplay is the same in both games, it really is just a missing chapter from DR2. Anyway I DL'd the demo, played it, decided it was worth my $5 and finished the prequel 100%- got all 200 achievement points. I really enjoyed it and got addicted to it, so I knew I would need to get DR2.

Pros: Well, to start off, there's Case Zero. It was handled very well, and I liked the fact that I could import my leveled up character from Case Zero into DR2 proper. Sadly CZ caps you out at level 5, but it was better than nothing. In the original Dead Rising, the gameplay is supplemented with possibly the most annoying gameplay mechanic ever- taking pictures. You could take pictures of different events and characters to earn more experience points and level up faster. That's gone in this game, new character Chuck Green is a mechanic, not a photographer, so you get extra experience points by taking the existing weapons and combining them into new weapons. Have a boat oar and a chainsaw? Duct tape them together to create the mighty paddlesaw. A Bucket and some drills combine into a drill helmet you can put on the heads of zombies, and by far the most used weapon is a handfull of nails and a wooden baseball bat that become the spiked bat. My personal favorite though, was a pair of boxing gloves and some knives could be combined into knife gloves where you could embrace your inner wolverine and tear shit up.

The game just feels so much more polished than the original Dead Rising. I can read the text on the screens now. The survivors are generally good at not running into shit and getting stuck on the environment. The characters were done well also. The voice acting was very good, and the psychos....man some of them were very creepy and disturbed. These fights were usually pretty hard, but they are optional and you can save them for a later playthrough when you've leveled up more and can take them on. The game is still saved in bathrooms you have to find throughout the malls, but now you get 3 save slots, so you aren't stuck with a bad decision. (Also good for going back to an earlier period for achievements) The achievements in this game are handled pretty well also. There are only 2 story-related achievements. Everything else is optional (though a few would be tough to beat the game without winning) Every Achievement is worth exactly the same: 20 points.

The option of Co-op is nice also. A new player can play with an experienced player, and learn the layout of the land, and level himself up quickly, then import that character into his new game.

Cons: While the idea of Co-op is nice, it's not handled in the best way. Whenever I save the game, as the host, it kicks the guy I'm playing with out and i have to re-invite him. Considering there are achievements for beating the whole game on co-op, I don't see how this is possible because it seems to mean you would have to beat the whole game in one sitting without ever saving, which would be very difficult and not a lot of fun.

While I get the idea behind the time limit, I'm still not crazy about it, and I don't understand why I can't unlock a new mode after finishing the game that turns off the timer? This seems like a nice compromise and would give me incentive to play through the game a 2nd time and kill every psycho and rescue every hostage.

To Do: Not right away, but eventually will have to replay some of the game on co-op to go hunting for a few achievements I don't have yet like killing all the psychos, probably a lot easier on c0-op.

Conclusion: This game was a very pleasant surprise. It went from being a game I expected to buy in a year or two after a heavy discount to legitimately one of my favorite games of the year.