A Week in the Life of a 40-Year-Old Gamer: January 29-February 4
PURCHASES:
None
YTD TOTAL: $238.11
PLAYTIME:
- Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam — 3DS — 5h 19m
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze — WiiU — 3h 28m
- Dishonored: Definitive Edition — Xbox One — 2h 2m
- Final Fantasy Explorers — 3DS — 1h 28m
- Mario Kart 7 — 3DS —51m
- Mario Kart 8 — WiiU — 34m
- 3D Sonic the Hedgehog — 3DS — 25m
- F-Zero: Maximum Velocity — GBA — 24m
- 3D Streets of Rage 2 — 3DS — 13m
- Super Mario Bros — NES — 8m
- Wario Ware, Inc: Mega Microgames! — GBA — 3m
- Punch-Out!! — NES — 2m
THOUGHTS:
It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t had a lot of time for gaming. But I still managed to push forward in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS), which continued to deliver an entertaining story. The action mechanics really set it apart from other turn-based RPGs, adding a layer of mastery that is very satisfying. I’m mystified by the 5.9 score that IGN gave the game… that assessment must have come from having to play the game in gigantic gulps. When I was in editorial, I always found this to be the biggest challenge in reviewing games. You want to be thorough, to see all of the content in the game. But you have a deadline, which means that you have to blast through the content at a pace that won’t represent how people actually consume the title. I am really enjoy playing this one in 38-minute spurts (the length of my BART commute), but chugging hours at a time would not serve the experience well.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze becomes an easy go-to when I sit down on the couch next to my wife and pick up the WiiU pad. Almost all of my playtime is off-screen, in one-or-two stage sprints. I know exactly what I’m getting when I turn it on. I’m reasonably challenged, and I’m constantly impressed by creative design of the stages. One thing that strikes me is that I’m playing stages that I had completed two years ago, but I don’t remember them. At all. In most cases, you could have told me that this was a totally new game, and while playing, I’d believe you. This speaks to either the ability of games to remain fun over multiple play-throughs, or to problems with my memory — not sure which.
I picked up Dishonored: Definitive Edition (Xbox One) again, after having hung the game up for more than a week. I made the mistake of picking up mid-stage. I was under-equipped, stuck in the middle of a fight. This left me disoriented and frustrated. In the two hours that I played, I was ultimately able to complete the mission, but I was really struggling to use stealth effectively. There were weird bouts of slowdown — as if I was stuck in perpetual bullet-time. And unfortunately, this game just does not age well graphically. The characters look stiff, and the backgrounds look low-poly. Load times were frequent and distracting. It was not a fun session. I’m going to give the game one more try, but if I have another bad experience, I’ll be done with it for good.
Not much more to say about Final Fantasy Explorers (3DS) this week. I still have not tried it in multiplayer. I’m still not deeply impressed with it visually. But it is fun to play on the go, providing a steady drip of accomplishments without having to put in too much effort. Honestly, I think I’d be playing more if I wasn’t having such a good time with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. If you are playing this one, and are looking to partner with somebody, let me know.
Mario Kart is the ultimate evergreen title, as fun to play on 3DS as it is on WiiU. I’m always a bit bummed by a seeming lack of content when I buy them, but then I find myself playing for years. When you only have ten minutes to spare, few games satisfy on this level.
The rest of my game time this week was devoted to quick slices of retro games. I’m playing 3D Sonic the Hedgehog (3DS) With the intention of finally grabbing all of the Chaos Emeralds from the bonus stages — a feat I’ve never accomplished, despite playing through the game countless times. I’m cheating to do this, of course. I’m creating a save state every time I get to a bonus level. But just once, I want to get to the end without Dr. Robotnik laughing at me, juggling the pathetic number of Chaos Emeralds I managed to secure. F-Zero: Maximum Velocity (GBA) was one of the Ambassador's Games that I had never bothered to open up on 3DS — thought I may as well give it a spin. It doesn’t age well, but it does bring back fond memories of the GBA’s launch day. And it’s nice to be able to play it on a fully lit screen.
I was given the recommendation to try playing 3D Streets of Rage 2 (3DS) on ‘Easy’ with 9 lives. I started down that path, and it was a great suggestion. The game remains fun, but now, it no longer feels impossible to beat. As a kid, I would never have allowed myself to set the difficulty down to the lowest level. But nowadays, playing on ‘Easy’ helps me get the nostalgia sugar rush I’m craving more quickly, and somehow, my pride stays intact.
Super Mario Bros. (NES) is always fun to pop in, even if only to play through a single world. Whenever that theme kicks in, I’m a sixth-grade kid all over again. I remember being amazed by WarioWare Inc: Mega Microgames! (GBA) the first time I played it; fellow Ziff-Davis editor Chris Johnston introduced me to the game. It’s an outstanding creative accomplishment, and stands as one of my all-time favorite Nintendo games. It’s really, really funny, too. Punch-Out!! (NES) only got a few minutes, but I had to try to beat Mr. Dream just one…more…time. I got further, but he still kept knocking me out in the first round. Damn you, Mr. Dream.