108 in 2008 Completion: Part 1

Yes, you read that right. The nigh-unreachable goal has been conquered. How, you ask? I do not know. I only know why. Because I had to.

Since the completion last night, I have pondered on the goal and taken a look back at the plethora of games I have passed through. Take a walk with me now.

Before I explain, see how many characters in this picture you can identify. If you can name more than I can, you can run the blog. Also, click on the picture to see the full-size version.

Look at that beast. It's an amalgamation of most of the games I beat from January through March. The first game I beat in 2008 was Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. It's the second chapter in the Phoenix Wright trilogy. And, of course, it is a lot of fun. It doesn't have quite the punch the first one had, but it's still exciting and fun.

Following that, I played through Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, the official Nintendo 2008 Olympic Video Game, and also the first game featuring Sonic & Mario together. It's not quite the explosion of awesome you might expect from a Sonic vs. Mario game, but it's still a lot of fun. Also, be prepared to have extremely achy shoulder and back muscles afterwards. You're not gonna beat Sonic lying down.

You can see the Wii Zapper in the middle of the bottom there. It came with the awesome Link's Crossbow Training game. While the design is somewhat strange, it works well, and the game is extremely fun. Kinda hard, but very fun. Sequel, anyone?

Following that, I played through a few games that should have been better. First was the TMNT movie game, which was still fun, but should have been better. Then I finished Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, which should have been much better. Anyone who thinks it's as good as Paper Mario is an idiot and should have all their video games taken away.

The next game I beat is the second-best Zelda game ever. Seriously! Twilight Princess is amazing in every way. It is only slightly less fun than Link's Awakening for the Game Boy. And that's saying something. It has everything a Wii game needs: fun, good use of motion controls, and also fun.

I also finished Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz. The main game is fun (except for the boss battles), and a few of the mini-games are good, too. But seriously. You can't expect to have FIFTY mini-games that are all fun. Even Mario Party doesn't have ALL good games (even though they are mostly good). I'd say maybe 10. If you're lucky. Which you're not. Unless you are… Ponder that for a while.

Anyways, Q1 2008 was not all broken expectations. I played through the short but fun Yoshi Topsy-Turvy. Why are Yoshi games almost always too short? Then I played the awesome and more awesome Trauma Center Second Opinion. I'm surprised how well the game works with the Wii remote. There are a couple of not-so-smooth moments, but for the most part, they did a good job. I need more!

After conquering a couple of dumb and lame games from the 80s, I had the extreme privilege of playing and completely conquering Elite Beat Agents, the best DS game in existence. This goal was worth beating for this game alone. It's just that good. But the greatness didn't stop there. I also played through the GCN version of Chibi-Robo, the under-sold and under-appreciated tiny robot. Poor guy. I can't wait until people appreciate you so we can see more of you!

Believe it or not, I actually beat two Zelda games in one quarter. The second was Link to the Past, the SNES classic. While it is still fun, I didn't enjoy it as much as many others did. Maybe because I played it after Twilight Princess. That's a hard act to follow.

Following that, I played the very entertaining Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for DS. It's kind of like an interactive novel. And it's fun. It's not as good as Trace Memory (made by the same people), but it's still very entertaining. Then came TMNT 2: Battle Nexus. This one is made for 4-players. Which gives it a pretty serious problem. If you play on 1-player, you still face the same difficulty that 4-people would face. Talk about unfair. Definitely more fun with more people.

You can probably see Megaman in the picture there. I played 10 of his games this quarter. What?! Yeah!! But it's not like you think. I played Megaman Anniversary Collection, which gives you rapid-fire. So it's a little easier. But I still beat all the games. Awesome!

An amazing thing happened in March of this year. I managed to obtain a copy of DDR Mario Mix. A feat in and of itself. The game does not disappoint in any way. It is incredibly fun, incredibly tiring, and just plain awesome. This is another one of those games that's worth getting a Gamecube (or Wii) for.

Rounding out the first 27 games was Donkey Konga 2, Picross DS, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Billy Hatcher & the Giant Egg. Donkey Konga 2 is fun, but not quite as fun as the first. Still good, tho. The others are good games. Picross is the only one worth playing after you beat it.

The final game for the Q! was Mario Party 8. Of course it's gonna be something awesome! While not as perfect as Mario Party 3, it still has some great games and loads of fun. Plus, it has something you can't do in Mario Party 3. You can play as Toad! Amazing!

So there you have it. The first quarter of the conquering of the 108 in 2008 goal of the universe time. Stay tuned this week to see more games, including much crappier ones!

-benjamines

Currently Playing: Animal Crossing: City Folk, Line Rider 2: Unbound, NBA Street v2