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. 

Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

Date played: January 15th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

I've been interested in Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon since it was released, but I wasn't ready to pay 40$ for it. I finally spotted a deal for it and bought it. My daughter was immediately interested in the game, mostly because of the box art and the flashlight in the pictures...

She was glued to my side the whole time I played. In fact, she asked me to replace her bed time story with 10 minutes of playing Luigi's Mansion! The game's setup is that a ghost destroys the Dark Moon near Luigi's house. This moon had kept the nearby ghosts docile, even friendly. Now with the moon gone, Luigi must gather it's pieces and capture the ghosts.

He starts with only his flashlight and has to go get the Poltergust 5000 from the garage. The Poltergust 5000 is a sort of vacuum device that Luigi uses to capture ghosts, Ghostbusters style! I found a few keys and money by sucking things into the vacuum and reached a bathroom with a secret door panel. That's where I fought my first ghost.

Fighting ghosts requires that I stun them with a sort of strobe light. Then I must aim the vacuum towards the ghost and start sucking, moving in the opposite direction from the ghost. Then I press the button prompt when it appears to end the battle. It's a cool system that's been fun so far.

What I like the most about the game is the wonderful animation. The game is actually pretty funny, mostly because of Luigi is a fucking pussy who is scared of everything. He makes wonderful faces and sounds and is generally hilarious. The graphics are pretty good too, though I haven't had a chance to try 3D since my daughter was watching the whole time. She loves it so much, she asked me not to play without her!

Bravely Default

Date played: January 14th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 4/10

This rings a bell..

I wanted to play a bit of Bravely Default before bed, but it seems like this isn't a game to play in short bursts like that. I didn't actually get to play, I only managed to do some shopping for new weapons, progressed the story, got a new character in the party and read some entries in the new journal I received.

Ringabel is the new character and he seems to know all about Tiz and Agnes, but otherwise suffers from amnesia. It seems he doesn't know anything except what he saw in his journal, which I can now access from a menu. It acts as a database of sorts with entries on everything I've seen in the game so far including characters, locations and story. I took him outside for a quick battle and stopped there. We are heading to some ruins next to find a sorcerer who set fire to a house in town.

Yoshi's Island

Yoshi takes drugs. Fuzzy drugs.

Date played: January 13th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 8/10

Sitting in bed and having recently completed Minish Cap, I started browsing my games on 3DS for something new to play. I decided to play a little bit of Yoshi's Island, the classic SNES platformer. I had played it once during the summer of 2013, but haven't touched it since.

I played 4 levels, completing the first world. The highlight was the hilarious "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy" level. Filled with round, fuzzy, floating creatures, this simple level gets more challenging when I touch one of these monsters. Basically, Yoshi loses his shit and gets high on Fuzzy, distorting the screen with a cool effect and making him difficult to control. It's a clever level that still makes me laugh. 

The Swapper

Date played: January 13th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 7/10

I finished The Swapper!

I only had 3 puzzles left and they were the ones that had stumped me before. I was able to complete 2 of them fairly easily as I was much more comfortable with the mechanics than when I first encountered these rooms.

However, there was one last puzzle that I just could NOT figure out! After 30 minutes of trying everything I could think of, I resorted to a guide for the second time in the game. I was SOOOO close too, I was simply missing a small piece of the solution. I had done everything right and was primed for success. This was a room where I had to press 4 pressure plates to open a path to the orb. Two of these plates were upside down. At many points in this puzzle, I had a clone on the ceiling above me or on the ground below me. What I didn't know is that I could merge clones together by having their heads touch! If only the game had explained to me that it was possible, I would have solved this puzzle on my own...

The ending is as creepy as they come. I made the station crash onto the ground and somehow survived. A rescue ship finally arrived, but after scanning my body, they reluctantly told me that they couldn't risk taking me on board as it was a risk.

There was an awesome scene where I was given the choice to swap into the body of one of the rescuers or stay on the planet. I decided to stay on the planet, where my only option was to jump down a huge ravine to my death. During the fall, I saw glimpses of conversation between the intelligent rocks, the Watches, discussing the reasons for my choice. It was pretty deep and made me think a bit. However, when I died at the bottom, I was happy to see I was taken back to the last checkpoint and was able to see the real ending. I swapped into the body of the other person and got on board the rescue ship. The other crew members stated that I looked and acted different, then it cut to credits.

I also figured out along the way that the Scavenger, the other lady that I saw during the game, was in fact some version of myself. It's unclear how all this happened, but it was cool nonetheless. I loved playing The Swapper. It was a great puzzle game with an awesome atmosphere, a cool vibe and a mysterious story.

The Swapper

Date played: January 12th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

I am captivated by The Swapper. It's puzzles are intense and clever, but the weird story is thought-provoking too. It asks great questions about what it means to be alive. Do we have souls? Are we just the result of chemical reactions? What makes a human, human? What is the magic that makes a person be who they are? Can that magic be manipulated? Can it be moved? Preserved? Killed? Merged with others?

It's a bit confusing at times, but The Swapper manages to make ask these questions in the midst of complex, brain-melting puzzles. A new element was introduced to the puzzles that adds a very challenging layer of complexity. I can now walk on ceilings in some areas. Clones can only be placed in the same direction, that means if I want a clone on the ceiling, I need to create him from a ceiling.

The Scavenger speaks with some of the entities on the station...

This created some crazy fucking shit in terms of puzzles, but with some perseverance, I made it through most puzzles. I found the "head" of the intelligence on board the station. This is a giant stone carving held in a cargo bay of sorts. Strangely, the other "person, the scavenger, convinced me to detach three solar panels from the station to eventually crash the entire thing onto the planet below.

I'm very near the end of the game, but now I think I have to complete every single puzzle. So far, I had been able to skip a few when I was stumped. However, with only about 3 puzzles left, I simply couldn't figure it out. I resorted to a guide for one of the puzzles and may have to do the same for the remaining rooms... 

Sunset Overdrive

Date played: January 11th
Platform: Xbox One
Session fun rating: 9/10

You know what? I fucking love Sunset Overdrive.

I played a few challenges, a couple of side missions and two main missions. The thing that really keeps me interested is the insane traversal mechanics. Now that I have the air dash ability, I bet I could get across the entire map without ever touching the ground. Every grind, bounce, dash, dive, water slide and wall run is very satisfying. It was a bit confusing and difficult at first, but now that I'm used to it, I just love it.

I got a new weapon, a sort of boomerang that is useful against Fizzco bots. I also bought a couple of new weapon amps to beef up my arsenal, including an awesome one that spawns missiles on weapon hit. One of the main missions had me investigate a hot dog factory to find Bryllcreem, the scout leader that went missing. To get inside the factory, I had to play a fun mini-game where I used a wrecking ball to smash the walls... Before that though, I smartly decided to smash some crates of energy drink, thus luring dozens of OD. Thankfully, I was able to easily smash, squish and pop the enemies with the wrecking ball.

Pure fun

Another great mission, maybe my favorite in the game yet, had me chasing a runaway train and shoot out it's jet engines as it destroyed everything in it's path. It required that I use every skill in the book to chase it down, then I shot out 6 of it's engines with my trusty, single shot, Dirty Harry pistol.

Halo 2 Anniversary

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

The Arbiter attempts to recover the icon, the key to activating Halo. I played 2 levels, Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone. Sacred Icon was kind of boring... Most of it was the Arbiter making his way through tunnels and fighting the Flood and some sentinels. The one part that was interesting was fighting huge rocket launching sentinel robots. These things have shields in the front, so it was easier to use Arbiter's cloaking ability, get behind the robot and stick some plasma grenades on it.

The Arbiter is a great character

Quarantine Zone was a lot more fun. It's mostly a vehicle level that starts in a Spectre, the 4 passenger assault vehicle of the Covenant, similar to Warthogs in a lot of ways. Along the way, I stole a Scorpion tank that had been taken by the Flood. I figured even though it's a lot slower than the Spectre, it's also a lot more powerful and would make the mission easier.

I was right. In the Scorpion, I blasted through dozens and dozens of Flood driven Ghosts, Warthogs, Wraiths and Scorpions. I also took out a large number of Sentinel robots. Finally, I reached the lift that leads to the Library and it's Icon. I defended myself from attacking Flood on foot, using mostly the shotgun and the energy sword. When I got to the relic, there was a great scene where Miranda Keyes and Johnson recover the icon, then Arbiter attacks them to steal it. Suddenly, the group is interrupted by Tartarus, the leader of the Brutes. The gorilla-looking dude steals the icon and throws the Arbiter into an abyss... It seems the Elites have been replaced with the Brutes as the top brass of the Covenant's army.

Luftrausers

Date played: January 9th and 10th
Platform: PS3/Vita
Session fun rating: 9/10

Luftrausers is the best "5 minute" game of 2014. The awesome physics, the great art and the fun combat are enough to keep my attention. However, what keeps me coming back is the fucking bangin' soundtrack. I mean, just listen to this awesome shit! LISTEN!

You killed me? I nuke your ass, motherfucker!

I played a bit of the PS3 version with my bro, taking turns. The next day, as I was waiting for my daughter's dance class to be over, I played a solid 45 minutes of this 2D air combat game in the lobby... I unlocked a sort of useless, but really fun plane body, the Nuke. This guy sets off a giant nuclear explosion, complete with skull-shaped mushroom cloud, upon death. While it's a loser's weapon, it did help complete some challenges, such as blowing up a submarine. Luftrausers fucking rocks.

Alien: Isolation

Date played: January 9th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 8/10

I've been wanting to play this ever since I saw the first screenshot... I'm a huge fan of the 4 Alien movies and Prometheus, but sadly there's never really been a good Alien game. Isolation looked like it could be great, so I bought it and tried it out with my brother last night.

We really didn't play a lot, only the intro, but it was impressive nonetheless. The story is about Amanda Ripley, Ellen Ripley's daughter, going out on an expedition in space to investigate the disappearance of the Nostromo, her mother's ship. The game is set about 15 years after the events of the first movie, but before the second movie.

Just like the movie!

The portion I played was mostly inside the small ship the team used to reach the space station they want to investigate. I explored the ship and was struck at the detail shown by the artists of the game... The ship is the same model as the one from the Alien movie and honestly, it looks identical. Hell, I was able to tell which rooms would be on the other side of some doors just from memory of the movie...

After exploring and meeting the small crew, we reached the space station and discovered it had been severely damaged. This meant 3 of us would attempt to enter it by moving through space. There was an accident, and Amanda is stuck alone on the space station. That's the extent of what I played, but so far, I'm very much intrigued. 

The Swapper

Date played: January 9th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 10/10

Playstation Plus is a fucking gold mine...

The Swapper is a creepy puzzle game set on a space station. As far as I could make out from what I played, there are two people on the station and rocks that have been classified as intelligent beings. It's all told through computer terminals and...conversations (?) with the rocks as I walked in front of them.

However, the real reason this game is cool is because of how it plays. It's going to be very difficult to explain in text, but I'll give it a shot. The main character is controlled with the analog stick and can jump. With the second analog stick, there is a cursor on screen that can be moved anywhere. The character can create up to 4 clones of himself anywhere on screen as long as he has line of sight. He can also swap his "soul" to any of them as long as he has line of sight. When swapping, the selected clone becomes the character controlled by the player.

The Swapper and his clones

The trick is, all clones respond to the movements of the analog stick, so all 5 bodies can move at once. On top of that, when a clone dies, he can immediately be replaced with a new clone. It's also important to note that time slows down when selecting an area for a clone to be produced. This means that I was able to climb into empty space by creating a clone above myself, swapping to it and leaving the one below me to die. I could then repeat the process to basically move anywhere by simply making sure my old bodies died fast enough...

Now add puzzles to the mix and things get real fucking tricky real fucking fast.

The main objective is simply to progress. There are terminals that block further progress until I gather a certain number of "orbs". These orbs are locked in puzzle rooms and must be captured with the body that contains the "soul". There are also 3 types of light that block clone creation, swapping or both, respectively.

I swear, every time I solved a puzzle, I felt like a fucking genius. And it's not just a thinking man's game either, there are puzzles that require precise timing. I really love everything about The Swapper and can't wait to play more of it. 

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Wii U

Ok? I guess?

Date played: January 9th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 6/10

I played some 3 player Smash with my girlfriend and one of my brothers. We tried out Smash Tour which is kind of a board game...sorta. It was very confusing to us. The instructions were very vague, there was a LOT of stuff happening on screen and it was just chaotic. There are items to pick up on the board as well as fighters, which will be used in the final battle. The items boost fighter stats and provide bonuses I think, but it was unclear. When too characters meet on the board, there is a fight or challenge of some kind to decide a winner. Winner of what? I don't know.

Anyway, the final fight was pretty cool and I managed to win. My brother got the hang of the game pretty quickly and was able to win a few rounds rather easily. My girlfriend still doesn't really understand. I think the controls are just a bit too much for her. We had fun, but it would have been a lot better if the Smash Tour mode was explained better.

Sunset Overdrive

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

I had a great time playing Sunset Overdrive! I played the final mission in the comic book side story with a big scavenger hunt for 10 more comics. The best part was the dialogue throughout the mission, as the comic book guy's completely stereotypical personality is shown and exploited for comedy. I then played a few challenges, but nothing too interesting there. I bought a new weapon that I like a lot, the hover turret. It's a deployed mini-helicopter that hovers over enemies and shoots at them with a pistol. Combined with the acid sprinkler and my other weapons, it creates a powerful, fun and frantic combat area, which I used to fight an invasion of enemies in the night defense mode.

Wooooohoo!

I also fought my first real boss, the giant Fizzie blimp. The mission starts with a mission to destroy communication devices used by Fizzco, but soon enough, the large and fully armed blimp shows up to crash the party. Using a combination of grinds and bounces on a structure built from metal pipes or something, I had to deactivate the blimp's weapons, then shoot at it's weak spots. It was simple, but very exciting and fun! 

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

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

I finished Minish Cap!

I went around the world to grab the last few moves from swordmasters, including a fantastic new spin attack. By tapping the attack button while performing the spin attack, Link begins spinning on himself and can move around quickly. It's devastating, it is easily the most powerful move in the game.

I then reached the sanctuary and received the Four Sword. This thing hits harder, shoots out a beam of light and allows Link to make 3 clones of himself. It can also revert people from the stone spell put on by Vaati. As soon as I got out of the sanctuary, I discovered that Vaati had turned Hyrule castle into a dark, evil version of itself.

Dark Hyrule Castle was the last dungeon in the game. Mostly, it was a very standard dungeon except that everything was more difficult. It was a long dungeon that required that I use all the items and skills I've acquired during the game, but nothing really stands out outside of the final battle.

Vaati was a really cool, three part battle. He took on an appropriately evil form, a giant eye with wings... During the first phase, I had to kill little things that flew around him, then attack Vaati directly. I even had to use the gust jar to pull away some armor from the flying things at times.

The second phase was my favorite. Vaati grew bigger wings and 8 circular appendices. I had to shoot these appendices to find out which 4 of the 8 were vulnerable. When I knew which to attack, I then had to clone Link into 4 copies and attack the vulnerable appendices simultaneously. With projectiles flying around from the boss and other obstacles, it was pretty difficult to land a solid hit at times.

Vaati must be defeated!

The final form grew two large arms that were being passed through portals in the ground to attack Link. In this phase, I had to flip over the attacking arm with the cane of Pacci, then shrink down to Minish size and climb into the wounded arm. I attacked weird spinning things in there until the arm was damaged enough, then did the same thing with the second arm. Without his arms, Vaati attacked by shooting 4 lighting balls at me. I cloned myself into 4 and reflected the balls back at him by swinging my swords at the right time. After a few rounds of that, the evil villain died.

Link rescues Zelda! Ezlo, my hat person thing, reverted back to his Minish form and gave the Minish Cap to Princess Zelda, who used it to restore Hyrule to it's original form. The world is saved! Minish Cap is a fantastic Zelda game, it's better than most people give it credit for. It stands on it's own with the cool kinstone system, the shrinking mechanic, fun and unique items and a great art style. 

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

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

I played through the Palace of Winds, the dungeon that held the wind element. To get there, I had to complete a few more golden kinstone fusions by exploring the area in the clouds, then using a giant whirlwind to throw me higher in the sky!

The temple itself was awesome! It was quite long and featured a very cool new mechanic thanks to the Roc's cape. This wonderful item allows Link to jump and travel about 4 or 5 spaces in the air! The dungeon was built so that the cape became a crucial tool in navigating it's perils. This was definitely one of the best dungeons in the game and was remarkably lengthy too.

The boss was an epic battle against two flying creatures that have a bunch of eyes and look a bit like manta rays. I had to use the cloning ability to stab one in the eyes, then jump onto the second one and stab it's eyes too. It required a lot of precise jumping and fast movement, but I got it done and retrieved the last of the 4 elements.

This was a fun boss fight!

Back in Hyrule Town, it seems monsters have invaded the castle, though I haven't been there yet. The residents are hiding in their houses mostly. I spent some time exploring the world again to find new kinstone fusions and grab heart pieces that are available because of the cape. In the process, I also found the remaining two bottles and filled them with potions and other good stuff.

Final Fantasy XIV

Date played: January 7th
Platform: PS4
Session fun rating: 9/10

There is a 14 day free trial for FFXIV on PS4. My brother downloaded it and seemed to like it, so I got it too and made a character. I always love to heal in MMO's, so I made an arcanist, the main healing class in FFXIV.

FFXIV is better than I expected

The game feels a lot like World of Warcraft, as can be expected. However, playing on PS4, I have to use a controller. Surprisingly, this works very well. It uses a clever combination of L2, R2, the face buttons and the directional buttons. That makes for a total of 16 actions available at any time, which is pretty great for a game like this.

I made it to level 11 by completing a bunch of normal, MMO-type quests. You know, collect this crap, kill this stuff, etc. There's a pretty cool public quest system too, where any players who reach the quest's zone will begin participating and earn rewards.

I like my class, I have mostly healing spells, but my two offensive spells have been enough to kill enemies so far. I like what I've played so far, but I'm a bit worried about not having a keyboard to talk to people...on screen keyboards suck...

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Wii U

Pac-Man is a great fit for Smash

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

I played a few quick matches because my daughter wanted to show my girlfriend her Zelda figurine in action. The Amiibo is actually really strong now and I just can't seem to beat it. I can always take it out once or twice, but she beats me every time.

I've tried out a few other characters including Link, Toon Link, Marth, Olimar and Pac-Man. Olimar is really fun to use because he throws pikmin at enemies, then plucks some new ones out of the ground. Pac-Man is cool too, but his moves will take some practice. I feel like I need to use something like a practice mode or something to really find a character I'm comfortable with.

My girlfriend played a little bit too, using Mario. She didn't seem to really enjoy the game too much, but she liked the levels and characters.

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition

Date played: January 6th
Platform: Vita
Session fun rating: 7/10

Well shit, Duke Nukem 3D is free on Vita this month!

I have to admit, the original PC game was fucking glorious when it first came out in 1996. It's the only thing the nerdy kids at school were talking about, myself included. I mean come on, awesome guns, jetpacks, pipe bombs, working mirrors, space pigs and interactive strippers? What's there not to like?

Hail to the king baby!

Weirdly enough, the game still holds up today. It's fun, it's fast and honestly, it's just satisfying. This Vita version is not too shabby either, featuring great controls with both analog sticks and an amazing checkpoint system. It's a great game to have on the little system. I thought I was gonna kill a couple of pigs and call it a night, but the action kept me going for 3 full levels!

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Wii U

Date played: January 6th
Platform: Wii U
Session fun rating: 8/10

I was out shopping with my daughter and traded in a few games, when she saw the Amiibos and the box for Smash, she was super excited... I guess I didn't realize it, but my 4 year old really likes some of these characters now. When she looked at the box, she immediately recognized Mario, Pikachu, Link, Peach, Donkey Kong, Samus and Kirby. Then she looked at the back and loved seeing Princess Zelda, Yoshi, Olimar and Toon Link. Either way, I couldn't resist and bought Smash with an Amiibo for each of us, Samus for me and Princess Zelda for her.

Now, I've never been a huge fan of Smash Bros, but that doesn't mean I don't like it at all. I played a few rounds with a bunch of characters against weak CPU opponents to get familiar with the basics since I haven't played this since the Melee days. The Amiibo thing is kinda cool...sorta. Basically, each figure becomes a CPU controlled player that can level up and be customized.

I then tried a few other modes, including a cool "classic" mode that is a series of battles that ends in a challenge from a new character and a battle against the master hand, a weird boss thing. I unlocked Falco from Star Fox!

I then played a few rounds online and was quite satisfied with the performance and easy to use interface to get a match going. I am not very good at Smash Bros., but I still managed to get second place a couple of times.

The characters are really the big draw in this game and no one does it better than Nintendo. My favorite was always Samus, but I'm not too picky in this game. I tried out a bunch of them, but one of them stood out to me as really fun and fitting to my style of combat. The Wii Fit Trainer. She has great attacks based on aerobics, including a soccer ball kick to the face, a yoga-type "focus" move that increases her smash power and a fun hula-hoop move.

I like what I've played so far, mainly because online works well and this game is nothing without other players, but we'll see if I stick to it. My daughter REALLY loves her Zelda figuring though, so I'm sure I'll get to play lots more.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

Date played: January 5th
Platform: 3DS
Session fun rating: 7/10

Cluck cluck motherfucker!

Fuck. Cuccos.

Seriously, fuck them. Why don't you stay in your fucking pen you assholes? What, you don't get fed enough? You hate your owner? Maybe I should be bitching about the owner? If your puny little fence doesn't work, and clearly it doesn't, then maybe it's time to invest all these rupees you've been giving me into a better fence? Maybe you should just get out of the finger-licking good business? Maybe you should go fucking get them yourself instead of standing next to the little useless door to the pen? Also, who the hell keeps a dozen chicks in their house? I mean, aside from Hugh Hefner of course...

Well. Anyway, I got all the cuccos after multiple attempts using my trusty flippers and Pegasus boots to get around town fast enough. At least I got a piece of heart out of it... I also spent some time getting some kinstone fusions done and was handsomely rewarded with a huge bomb bag, a giant quiver and some remote bombs that can be detonated at will.

I then went to Royal Valley to figure out where to go next to find the last element. There was a cool little puzzle through the dark forest where I had to read sign posts and follow their clues to reach the graveyard. I got the key to the graveyard from Dampé, the weirdo from Ocarina of Time and solved a short puzzle to reach the king's tomb. He told me to find the next element where the water flows from...

I headed for Veil Falls and found a new path that led to a new area, Cloud Tops. As you would expect, this is set entirely on top of clouds. I must find a few different golden kinstones to progress. So far, it's mostly been about digging through clouds with the digging mitts and floating around in the air with the parachute. I'm thinking the dungeon will be revealed in this area.