Kirby's Dreamland 3

Kirby rides a hamster and fights a witch...

Date played: January 31st
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 7/10

I got this game for free from the dying Club Nintendo service. I've never really played the Kirby series when I was younger, aside from the occasional friend who would let me play the original Kirby's Dreamland on Game Boy. It wasn't until Kirby's Epic Yarn that I finally played a proper Kirby game, which I enjoyed.

I only played a single level of Dreamland 3, but it was immediately obvious that this game was different, mainly because of the animal buddies that can be ridden by Kirby. They can absorb abilities and can even use Kirby as a weapon in some cases. The hamster I rode was pretty cool. I'm interested to see the rest of this game. The art style is really nice too, so that helps. 

Front Mission 3

Date played: January 29th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 5/10

I love strategy games and I love giant robots, so naturally, the Front Mission series has always interested me, but I never really took the time to play it. When I saw Front Mission 3 on sale for 3$, I decided that now was the best time to try it out. The PS1 classic seemed like a great game to play on the Vita.

I only had time to play the tutorial mission, but it was enough to get a feel for the combat and I like it so far. Each robot has different parts, each of which can be damaged individually. For example, taking out an arm will prevent a wanzer (those are the robots) from using it's weapon. It's a cool system and I can't wait to see more of it. Outside of that, the game feels and handles like many other turn based strategy games, so I just need to get further than the tutorial to really start having some fun.

Fat Princess: Piece of Cake

Date played: January 29th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 6/10

Piece of Cake is a free to play game ported from mobile to Vita. It's a match-3 game where little soldiers battle enemies and bring the titular Fat Princess to her throne. Each gem type is tied to a soldier. For example, matching 3 guns launches a volley, ranged attack and matching 3 swords makes the little dude stab other little dudes. I can gather cake that can be used to summon Fat Princess who then stomps down on enemies. There are also gems that can be used to upgrade my soldiers.

Fat Princess attacks enemies with her large ass

It feels a lot like Puzzle Quest, the awesome match-3 RPG game, and that's a good thing. The only real problem is that, being free to play, the game has an energy system. This means I can't play for as long as I want, I must wait for a timer to replenish. To remove the energy system, it costs about 20$, which seems a bit steep for this type of game. I would have maybe paid 5$?

Halo 3

Date played: January 27th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

Having recently completed Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 from the Master Chief Collection, I decided to continue the adventure with Halo 3. I played through the prologue and 4 levels. After the events at the end of Halo 2, Master Chief crash lands in an African jungle and meets up with Johnson. He also finally meets the Arbiter properly, having been enemies when they first met with Gravemind. The group heads through the jungle to reach an extraction point and leave the area.

The first level is set in that jungle and acts as an introduction to the changes made from the previous game. Immediately obvious is the big change in the interface. The HUD is cleaner and easier to read overall. The graphics are better than 2 of course, but I really miss the cut scenes from Halo 2 Anniversary. The Needler can no longer be dual wielded, but is now much more powerful. One of the new weapons, the Spiker, is a great little automatic pistol that Brutes use. The Brutes are different in combat too, as I must now remove their armor before killing them in most cases. At the end of the level, there was a nice segment where a bunch of Brutes, Jackals and Grunts defended the extraction point. I picked up another new weapon, a large melee hammer that hits real fucking hard.

We left the jungle and went back to a large base where I met up with Miranda Keyes. The prophet of Truth is leading the Covenant assault on Earth, He sent troops to attack our base. Crow's Nest is a mission that's all about defending the base from the Covenant. I fought dozens of enemies and got a chance to play with the new deployable equipment including shields, jump lifts and more. The problem with that stuff is that it's very situational and is only available as a random drop from enemies, making it hard to use consistently. At the end of the level, Master Chief escaped through the hangar at the bottom of the base.

Tsavo Highway is one of the coolest levels in the entire Halo series. At the base of the hangar, Master Chief and some marines hop into some Warthogs and head out to Voi, where the mysterious Ark is buried. The level is focused on vehicles, including Warthogs that have new weapon types, some Wraiths and the fun, but hard to use Brute Chopper. Every vehicle handles better than ever in Halo 3, the Warthogs in particular.

Fighting the Scarab was awesome!

The next mission, The Storm, has Master Chief and his colleagues take down anti-air defenses to allow the UNSC to bring ships and kill Truth, stopping the activation of the Halo rings. This level introduced the awesome Mongoose vehicle, a small, 2 person ATV. A marine with a rocket launcher hopped on to my Mongoose and we went to town on some Wraiths and Grunt driven ghosts. That's when the Scarab showed up...

The Scarab battle was fucking awesome. The large Covenant vehicle was a challenge, as I had to shoot it's leg joints with rockets until it buckled under it's own weight and I was able to attack it's power supply, destroying it. We then encountered more Brutes, but also the first Hunters in the game, which I promptly shot with rockets. We were finally victorious, allowing the UNSC to attack Truth's ships, forcing the Covenant to flee Earth. They had an ace in their sleeve though... A Flood infested Covenant ship was sent to Earth...

Halo 2 Anniversary

Date played: January 26th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I was planning on starting Halo 3, having recently completed Halo 2, but when I logged on, my brother invited me to a party. I only see him about twice a year, so I was happy to get a chance to chat with him. This was the first time I used the party and voice chat on the Xbox One and I was pretty happy with it. I used the headset that came in the box and the voice quality was clear, although volume was a bit low.

Anyway, he wanted to just join me where I was, which was the start of Halo 3. We ended up fiddling with the party and menus for 20 minutes before giving up. We simply were not able to start a multiplayer session for Halo 3. We definitely had some great conversations about Halo's inadequacies along the way...

My bro gets stepped on and killed by the Scarab

We settled for Halo 2 and played two missions on Heroic difficulty, Metropolis and The Arbiter. Metropolis is a great mission to play in co-op because of the vehicles and the final section where we assault the Scarab directly. The best part was when I drove the Warthog and my brother was the gunner on it. We also had fun with the sword on the level with Arbiter. The flying section with Banshees was really cool with a second player. At the end, we were amused at the achievements we unlocked, including one that was called Standard Operating Brocedure... That was oddly appropriate considering he's my actual brother.

Sunset Overdrive

Date played: January 25th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

Holy shit baby! I finished Sunset Overdrive, fuck yeah!

I simply, absolutely LOVED this game! It's one of the best games I've played in a long time... What was it that really made this game as fun as it was? Of course, it's a combination of many things. The first thing that comes to mind are the fabulous traversal mechanics. By the end of that game, I was swinging, grinding, wall running, bouncing, dashing and generally being incredibly awesome, even when I was just going from point A to point B.

BOOM motherfuckers!

Then there's the incredible style of the game. It oozes with color, energy and coolness. The amazing punk rock soundtrack, including this great, original song, really sets the mood throughout the game and even changes based on how much action is happening on screen! It's used to great effect... The awesome stylized use of words on screen also makes this game stand out. When an enemy dies, you'll sometimes see words form from their blood, guts and limbs. Every "POP", "SQUISH" and "BOOM" makes the game come to life like only great comic books can.

It's funny too! The script, while a little forced in the first few hours, gets better and better as the game advances. It knows it's silly and it doesn't give a shit! It also knows that it doesn't matter if things don't make sense. I loved that.

Then there's the combat. Man, did I love the combat! At first, it's more difficult than it should be, because you simply don't have the tools to do a good job, but after getting some weapons, amps and moves, everything becomes smooth as butter. The few times I died, it was clearly my fault. The already large number of weapons is made even better with the absurd quantity of amp and weapon combinations. There's guns for every type of player out there and it really pays to use them together.

The final stretch of the game had me get ready for a benefit concert (yeah), open up a new base, complete all challenges with a gold rating, raise some flags around the city and finally take on Fizzco directly. The concert stuff was pretty cool as I had to find band members to play a show for the sick kids the Las Catrinas were taking care of. The concert itself was more of a base defense mission, so I laid traps and blew every enemy into bits until the song was over.

This meant the Las Catrinas were now willing to help me and we took on Fizzco head on. This meant a few large battles against OD and robots. My favorite new weapon, the Hairspray bomb, coupled with my favorite new amp, make for some fucking devastating explosions. The Hairspray bomb is already a large explosive, but I equipped it with the amp that gives it a chance to produce a small nuclear explosion on kills, this turned it into an absolutely amazing weapon.

They even joke around in the credits!

After some intense battles, the hero rode a giant Overcharge bottle into the Fizzco headquarters.... Once the hilarity of it all was over, it was revealed that the entire building was a robot and I had to fight it!!!

I chased the robotic mastermind throughout the city, dodging debris, projectiles, robots and even boats along the way. When I got close, I used my various platforming skills to reach the top and attack it's power core until it was destroyed. The whole time, the damn thing was yelling "FUCK YOU!".

Sunset Overdrive proves that there is still a place for big budget silliness in video games. It also proves that Insomniac hasn't lost it since it's days with Ratchet and Clank. I am so happy with this game, I immediately went out and bought the season pass that includes two expansions after the credits rolled. The first of which is available now, "The Mystery of the Mooil Rig". I can't wait to try it out and I really hope that Insomniac gets a chance to do a sequel.

Halo 2 Anniversary

Date played: January 25th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 8/10

I finished Halo 2 Anniversary from the Master Chief Collection!

The last two levels were both pretty good, but nothing spectacular. High Charity is all about Master Chief trying to stop the prophet of Truth. Most of it the level is spent fighting both Flood and Covenant enemies, including many Brutes. At the end, after some intense fighting through corridors and elevators, Chief must jump through a gate before the Flood get to him, but must leave Cortana behind...

The last level was a bit better, as it starred the Arbiter and an extended Banshee segment. The small aircraft is pretty cool to use, though Halo's unusual vehicle controls don't really mesh well with flying. There was also a section where I drove a Wraith tank that was pretty fun. I had many allies in this mission, including some Hunters and sword wielding Elites.

Of course, the big reveal in Halo 2 is that the Arbiter and his allies end up joining forces with Johnson and Miranda, humans. In fact, the Banshee section was all about escorting Johnson and his hijacked Scarab walker. The final battle is awesome because it's the Arbiter and Johnson fighting Tartarus as they attempt to retrieve the Icon before it activates Halo and destroys any form of life in the known universe. The battle against Tartarus is kind of lame... He wields his giant hammer and I must wait for his shields to be down from Johnson's sniper fire to attack him. Boss fights are always difficult to get right in first person shooters and Bungie didn't really get it right with this one.

After killing Tartarus, Miranda retrieves the Icon in time. Unfortunately, this activates an emergency signal that put all the other halos in standby mode, ready to be activated remotely from a facility called the Ark. Master Chief will (famously), finish the fight in Halo 3 as he hunts for the Ark.

Halo 2 is a pretty awesome game overall and it doesn't show it's age too much, especially with these amazing new graphics. However, it's clear that first person shooters have changed since the days of Halo 2. Today, levels are shorter, checkpoints and ammo are more generous and the penalty for death is almost nil...

PS Vita: "Fuck this small ass memory card" Edition

Date played: January 25th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 5/10

I decided to clean up my Vita's memory card again because, well, at 16 GB, it isn't keeping up with the awesome free games from PS Plus. I deleted some games I didn't think I would play again and ended up playing a few minutes of a few games to try them out and see if they should stay on there or not.

This comic says it all

I played Treasures of Montezuma Blitz, a match 3 game. I got bored real quick and deleted it. I played a few minutes of Whoa Dave! and again, was bored as fuck real quick. It's a recent game that looks like it was born on the Amiga or Commodore 64. There's a dude, then some eggs, then some skulls. I can destroy eggs with skulls, and eggs spawn monsters. It sucks and it's deleted.

I played a few minutes of Plants VS Zombies and honestly, I keep trying to like this game, but it's just not going to happen. I don't like tower defense type games at all. I mean, I've tried many, hoping to enjoy one, but I always end up hating them, even critically acclaimed games like Pixeljunk Monsters... I finally deleted PvZ.

As I was cleaning up my folders and stuff, I somehow ended up on the Playstation Store for a few minutes and discovered that I could download a version of Resogun for free!!! I jumped on the occasion and tried it out for a few minutes. Boy, even on the small screen and at 30 frames per second, Resogun is still fucking great. This will be a good time killer when I'm on the go.

Gunman Clive

Date played: January 24th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I started and finished Gunman Clive, a Western-themed platformer, reminiscent of Mega Man.

At 2$, it had always intrigued me when I saw it on the eShop. It has a great, unique look that kind of gives it a hand drawn feel. I wasn't disappointed. Even though it's really short (it took me a little more than an hour to beat), it was very well made, had interesting bosses and level design and kept me entertained the whole time. The 3D effect was also very well done, one of the best examples of it on the handheld in my opinion.

Clive is a cowboy and he must save a damsel in distress. I shot other cowboys, ducks (!), pelicans and even asteroids to save her! There are awesome power ups, including a powerful spread shot similar to Contra. There were challenging platforming sections and even a mine cart ride. The bosses were the coolest part. I fought a mini-gun wielding cowboy, a robotic train, a shadow Clive and other cool villains. I'm glad I played this awesome little game.

Sunset Overdrive

Date played: January 24th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I played a bit of Sunset Overdrive but didn't get as much time to play as I had hoped. I still managed to complete one challenge and a main mission. The main mission is really where I spent most of my time and had the most fun.

Excalamune, the nuclear sword!

In order to gain the favor of the Las Catrinas Mexican cheerleader gang, the hero somehow decided that the way to do that was to get them a sword. After fighting some Fizzco bots on top of a building in the hopes of stealing a fine sword from a rich dude's house, I discovered that there was no sword to steal, so I decided to forge one.

Now, I wasn't gonna forge any damn sword. Sunset Overdrive being constantly insane, I had to forge a motherfucking NUCLEAR sword! I grabbed some metal and headed to the nuclear plant. I fought tons of OD, then destroyed some equipment there for some reason. I then climbed my way to the top of the nuclear reactor, fought flying OD and jumped down into the nuclear core, smashing my trusty foam sword in it's plutonium fueled heart!

Surprisingly, this worked. I now had a flaming nuclear sword, which I had to now dowse with water from the nearby water treatment plant. After killing two dozen scabs here, I doused the sword and headed back to Las Catrinas with my offering.

Of course, this wouldn't be Sunset Overdrive without some crazy shit to finish off the mission. The nuclear sword now had both fire and electricity shooting out of it. On top of that, it healed me with every kill. I lured some Fizzco bots for some fun, destroying over 90 of them with melee attacks. The event culminated in a battle against another large tank bot, but with my insane nuclear sword, this was easy as pie.

Zen Pinball 2

Date played: January 24th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

As I was waiting for my daughter to finish her dance class, I popped out my Vita and tried playing Luftrausers. However, as my PS Plus subscription had lapsed and I hadn't connected my Vita to the internet since renewing, it didn't allow me to launch the game. I had to settle for something I had bought, so I played a bit of Zen Pinball 2.

This table is pretty good

I played a lot of the X-Men table, then a bit of the Street Fighter table and a bit of Boba Fett. X-Men is easily the best table of the three. Street Fighter is a bit too bare and Boba Fett just doesn't feel great to play. X-Men has good ramps, fun missions and a ton of different things to do. 

Sunset Overdrive

Date played: January 23rd
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

I completed a bunch of side quests today. Hardcore, the big dumb brute in the LARPer group, wanted to have some fun with me. I used a foam sword to smash things, then a crossbow to shoot stuff out of the sky, including a giant blimp. Finally, I fought Hardcore one on one with the foam swords...

The King also had a quest for me. In fact, it was a mini-RPG. I had to complete tasks to level up! The small quests ended in a huge battle against both OD and Fizzco bots where I used a new trap to make things easier for me.

My hero!

The Las Catrinas asked me to find one of their members who has gone missing for a few days. Everyone is convinced she is dead, but I searched around to find her. I found traces of blood and her shoes, so I went on a ceremonial scab killing spree to the tune of authentic Mexican music. After the battle, I discovered that the chick was just pretending to be dead so that she could be with her boyfriend instead of helping the Las Catrinas tend to the sick children... I also completed a small quest to find a girl's father. I found him but accidentally sent him flying to his death in a Fizzco escape pod.

Another side quest was set on the wreck of the boat I had used earlier in the game. A pirate dude decided to make the wreck and the island it rests on a real fortress against OD, Fizzco and scabs. The only things he couldn't defend against were air attacks, so he asked me to kill flying OD. I killed a few of them, which are pretty difficult to take out. He built some anti-air cannons of some sort, so I helped him try them out by aiming the cannons at attackers. It was pretty awesome...

Finally, I completed a really funny, self-aware quest. In fact, I found a lady with a blue quest marker on her head, only to discover that she was renting out the icons to citizens when they needed help... I was tasked with recovering the quest icons from various people around the city. I traveled through most of the city to recover these.

I have a new weapon that I really like too, the Hairspray Bomb. I replaced the TNTeddy with it as it plays pretty much the same role. It's essentially a large bomb, but it scatters missiles as it explodes, hitting enemies that are farther off. It really works well.

Super Mario Bros.

Date played: January 23rd
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I finished Super Mario Bros!

I was trying to kill time as I waiting for my work PC to finally load fucking Outlook, so I booted up Super Mario Bros. real quick. I had a save state from a long time ago that started me at 8-1. I simply abused the save state feature to stumble my way through the last few levels. There's a couple of places that are tricky, but nothing close to being very difficult.

Halo 2 Anniversary

Date played: January 21st
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 8/10

I played through 2 levels of Halo 2, Gravemind and Uprising. Gravemind was a rather boring level where Master Chief just shoots his way through dozens and dozens of enemies. This was the first encounter with the Brutes, the large, gorilla-like enemies that overturned the Elites as the most important race in the Covenant, after the prophets of course. The Brutes don't have energy shields, but they have very high health. They also like to charge around on foot when they are desperate. Thankfully, three or four headshots from a Carbine will finish them. They also have two new weapons for me to use, the Brute Rifle and the Brute Shot. The Brute Rifle is pretty great as it's basically a plasma rifle, but it shoots faster and overheats quicker. I find it very useful. The Brute Shot kind of sucks, but can be useful in some situations. It's a small grenade launcher.

The prophets are heartless

Uprising features the Arbiter as he rebels against his masters. He often had some friends with him, so at many points in the mission, there were 3 or 4 energy swords slicing up Brutes at the same time. The mission had a segment in a Ghost, where I slaughtered a slew of Brutes. At the end of the level, one of the prophets gets caught by a Flood parasite... 

Volgarr the Viking

Date played: January 20th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

Volgarr the Viking is a brutal, unforgiving retro action game. There is zero story. You're a powerful viking that fights monsters and navigates through dangerous terrain. That's it.

This game is motherfucking hard as hell! While Volgarr is pretty strong, killing most enemies in a single sword swipe, he is also quite vulnerable to enemy attacks. If I get hit once, I lose my valuable shield. After that, a hit means death. I can collect a helmet too, which grants me another hit point. The catch is that the levels are pretty long and have no checkpoints. There are swarms of goblins, deadly spiked pits, acid spewing flowers, dangerous snakes, killer bees and tons of other ways to die.

The way the game controls makes it feel right though. Every action is precise. A well timed shield block can save an entire run. A good spear throw can mean the difference between victory and death. I played through the first world, which has 2 levels. The first level was set in a jungle while the second was in a temple.

At the end of the grueling levels, I fought a boss, a giant monster with a shield and club. I had to avoid his long range attack, then stick spears in his shield, climb on top of them and stab him in the face until his head came off. It was quite satisfying.

Sunset Overdrive

Date played: January 18th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

Well, it turns out, the LARPers aren't the last group of weirdos in Sunset Overdrive!

For some odd reason, they asked me to recover their figurehead, which, it turns out, is a huge triceratops head. I had to fight some powerful OD for it, but when I got it, I just dropped it on my head as if it was a helmet and ran off to my crew. The best part is that I was able to use the head to gore enemies and charge at them. It also acted as sort of a shield.

With the figurehead recovered, the king decided it was time to take back the dock's amusement park from the scabs, the human enemies. Using the triceratops head as a makeshift battering ram, I had to escort my new friends through multiple barriers and defend the ram from projectiles. When we reached the large roller coaster at the end of the path, the King Scab came out and challenged me. He hopped onto a fire breathing dragon train and rode the roller coaster. This was one of the coolest sections in the game as I used grinds to catch up to him then shot his train to bits, piece by piece. The last train car was reinforced and immune to my weapons, so I went back to my LARPer friends and borrowed the triceratops head. I then rammed the fucker head on and destroyed his train in a fiery, and very satisfying explosion.

The King of the LARPers agreed to finally build my boat, so after completing a few challenges, including pot-smashing with the triceratops head, I went to see my new "water craft", This was a tough mission where I had to defend the boat as it waddled through the city's canals so that I could escape Sunset City for good. Along the way, I could repair the boat by grabbing junk from the streets and throwing it into the engine... Anyway, I encountered a new enemy along the way, some flying OD. These dudes hit real hard and have lots of health. I ended up dealing with them by shooting them with TNTeddys, the grenade launcher equivalent. As we finally escaped the city, the hero decides to go back and save his friends from Fizzco attacks...

I went back to Bryllcream's hideout and saved their ass from Fizzco, then went to see the university kids and did the same there. There was a Fizzco boss, a gigantic tank-type robot, that I took out with a variety of weapons and traps. It was a tough fight, but it wasn't as interesting as the other bosses so far.

Finally, the hero decides that he might as well take down Fizzco for good and save Sunset City in an emotional and funny speech. I tried scoping out their headquarters, but was kidnapped by a bunch of South American ladies with weird face paint and an attitude problem! In a great, self-aware moment, the hero tells the leader that "I'll just do a few errands for you, then you'll like me and help me, trust me, I know how this works.". So anyway, it looks like I'm gonna take out Fizzco soon.

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Date played: January 18th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played through the second level with my daughter. One thing that's pretty cool about Luigi's Mansion is that while the game is separated into real levels, they explore some of the same areas. For example, the second mission starts Luigi deeper into the mansion than the first mission did. Every item I collected is still gone though. They even have a dumb way to explain it as the professor "beams" Luigi into rooms by turning him into pixels and shooting him through security cameras that Luigi has seen already. It's pretty clever and works well.

Luigi fights one of the thieves

The mission had me collect 4 gears to rebuild a machine in the foyer. These gears were stolen by large, red ghosts. I explored the area and found the 4 thieves in various rooms where I had to fight them for the piece. These ghosts have a lot more health than the earlier green ghosts, so that means Luigi must "suck" them in for longer before they are defeated. I also encountered some blue ghosts that like to hide in objects and won't come out until I find their hiding spot. 

Sunset Overdrive

Date played: January 17th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

I played a ton of Sunset Overdrive and met the faction that will help me in the third section of the city, the docks. Apparently, the man who will build me a boat to get out of the city is the king of a group of LARPers. LARPing is Live Action Role Playing of course...

Anyway, these guys are fucking insane and are fully in character. They have the speech, the clothing, the bad eating habits and the general attitude of medieval people... They are pretty funny actually. I first completed a side quest that had me destroy Fizzco devices around the docks. After that, I helped them defeat some OD in a large courtyard as they chopped trees for their bark...which they use as food. Crazies... This was a cool sequence as I had to defend the area from the OD, but I was given access to some awesome catapults around the yard.

I then helped these guys get some real food by finding a spot with tons of pigeons, then jumping on fire traps to roast the birds. The announcer was funny as hell during this sequence, shouting comments about the number of pigeons I killed. The king then agreed to help me build a boat, but I have to give him some time.

A different side quest with the LARPers was awesome too. I had to attach leeches to my naked body by jumping into some ponds. Then, I took some weird medicine so that the leeches would suck it into their bodies, which we would then transfer to a patient... It's complete nonsense of course, but the medicine was an opportunity for the game to be even more insane than usual. The whole world became filled with lava and the hero had to chase after a Fizzie balloon. There were even skeletons instead of OD!

I will defend the Overcharge vats!

I completed a bunch of challenges, then headed to the next main mission. My friend set up a new base at the docks in a large ship. This became another place for him to cook amps and place Overcharge vats. Of course, this meant fighting OD at night to defend the place. The layout is a lot more interesting than the other 2 forts because of the way the OD swarm the place. I was able to really take advantage of the machine gun traps.

Yoshi's Island

Date played: January 17th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

I played through 4 levels of the second world in Yoshi's Island. It's surprising how long the levels are in this game compared to recent platformers. I encountered Koopas for the first time in the game, I met the adorable baseball boys, rode Poochy for a bit, fought a giant monster, got my eggs stolen by rats, ate gusty ghosts and defeated the Bigger Boo.

The Baseball Boys are Shy Guys that play baseball with Yoshi's eggs. Those with mitts will catch and throw the eggs, while those with bats will bat the eggs away. This makes for some pretty interesting level design in spots. The boss level was pretty great too, where I entered a Boo fortress and fought a giant Boo. The trick to fighting these guys is to look away, then bounce eggs on the walls as they are chasing me. 

Sunset Overdrive

Date played: January 15th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 10/10

Fuck yeah baby! Sunset Overdrive just keeps getting better and better.

I started by opening up the new base of operations. I had to defend it's Overcharge vats from enemies in a more difficult night defense mission. I love using deployable weapons to wither down the enemy forces, then take out the rest with explosives and automatic weapons.

Then, I finally found Bryllcream by triangulating his position with a satellite dish. I rushed to his location only to discover he was stuck in a garbage truck...and the truck was on fire. I grabbed some Overcharge barrels and extinguished the fire with the dangerous substance. That was a real fucking dumb move as it summoned a slew of OD mutants. I fought them off and eventually saved Bryllcream. It turns out, the troop leader has no limbs! That's why he was easily imprisoned by troop leader Norton...

I went back to the dojo with Bryllcream and confronted Norton. The coward decided to drink Overcharge instead of backing down. He transformed into a giant OD dragon, grabbed Bryllcream and ran off. This was one of the coolest sequences in a video game in recent memory... I had to chase the dragon, shoot the spikes on it's back, grind on it's back, then stab it in the head. The animation, the action, the explosions, the music, the voice acting, everything was completely ridiculous and amazing! Hell, the hero even grabs a piece of the UI to stab the dragon at one point...

Norton Dragon is a very memorable battle

After defeating the dragon, I completed a bunch of challenges, some of which are starting to be pretty difficult, though I've managed to get gold on all of them so far. I bought a new weapon, a Fizzco rifle that is powerful against robots. I didn't really have a great weapon for these guys, so I felt this was a good purchase.

I played a side quest also. A friend of 4Kim, Just Kim, is adept at making traps. I went with 4Kim to find her by exploring a building. When we found her, she decided to share the plans for a firework trap, but only if I manage to kill 125 OD without using guns. I set up traps and used melee attacks to take them out and was rewarded with the new trap.