Update: 50 by 4-19

Ah, yes! Much time has passed since the inception of my latest goal: to beat 50 games or more by the time April 19th is over. It is now April 20th, and what is there to show for my efforts? Let's find out!

As you can see, there were many games that I played in this time. The picture at left (which can be enlarged if you click on it) shows just some of the characters featured in the games I played over the last few months. See if you can guess who they are and what game they are from (the answers are listed below).

I started off really well at the start of the year. In fact, by January 4th, I'd already beaten 4 games, which put me a few days ahead of schedule. And then, oddly, I did not beat another game until January 18th. This may have been due to school, my own laziness, or because I started several games in this time and it took a few weeks to finish them. I don't remember which, so take you pick. In any case, once I did start beating games again, I was already a week and a half behind schedule, so I had to really focus on video games (what a hard life, right?) Then, finally, a month later, I caught up to where I needed to be. And I never looked back. Or did I?

There were two parts to my goal, both of which had to be completed if I wanted to consider the matter ended:

1. Beat 50 games (for any system) by April 19th.
2. Beat half of the unbeaten games for any system that had at least 10 unbeaten games.

To clarify, the second part of that goal was to put extra effort into beating games for systems with lots of unbeaten games. For example, at the start of the year, I had something like 22 unbeaten Gamecube games. Therefore, my goal was to beat 11 Gamecube games. The Wii had a similarly high number of unbeaten games, as did the N64 and NES. (My theory is that my console games get less attention simply because I can play DS or GBA games anywhere, but I can only play the Wii or other consoles at home.) So, I wanted to beat 12 Wii games, 11 Gamecube games, 7 N64 games, and 6 NES games. That makes 36 between those, so that gave me some room to throw in games from any other system, such as the insanely awesome DS, or the vastly underrated Virtual Boy. If that makes sense, continue reading. If it doesn't... that's not my problem.

So, in an attempt to seem like a valiant blogger and not a lazy turd, here is a list of some of the games I beat:

• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
• Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal
• Wario Land: Shake It!
• Mega Man 9
• Metal Slug 7
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
• Strong Bad: Episodes 3-5
• Pikmin
• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
• MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero
• Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
• We Love Golf!
• Mario Party 6
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
• Sega Superstars Tennis
• Pilotwings 64

These are just some of the games I beat since the end of last year. Also, as a note, for me to call a game "beaten", it can be a few different things:

• Typically, a game is beaten when I get to the end, such as in an adventure game. This is often signified by the end-credits roll.
  
• "Beaten" can be different for a puzzle game. For example, there are still hundreds of puzzles in CrossWorDS, but I count it as beaten because I made some good progress and know exactly how fun the game is.
• If a game is too hard, I'll try some cheat codes. If there are no cheat codes and/or the game is still too hard, I call it beaten anyways. After all, the point of a game is to be fun. When it ceases to be fun, I cease playing it.

So there you go. And with that, a revelation:

I did it!

That's right, I beat 50 games in a few short months. In fact, I beat 54, so I went a little beyond the goal, and that's ok. That averages out to about one game every 2 days. Considering many of these games can take 40+ hours to beat, this can be difficult. But I balanced it out with shorter games, puzzle games, and a few NES beat-it-in-10-minutes games.

And now, for your reading pleasure, some random trivia and facts about 50 by 4-19.

• Longest time without beating a game: 16 days (Jan. 4-20)
• Most games beaten in one day: 4 (Feb. 5 [Nightmare Creatures, Shadow Man, Episode 1 Racer, TMNT 3])
• Number of Mario games beaten: 2
• Number of Strong Bad games beaten: 3
• Number of pinball games beaten: 2

Games beaten per system:

• DS: 15
  
• Wii: 12
• GCN: 11
• N64: 7
• NES: 6
• PC: 2
• VB: 1

Top 5 best games of 50 by 4-19 (in no particular order):

• Rhythm Heaven
• Mega Man 9
• Wario Land: Shake It!
• Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
• Strong Bad's Cool Game 4 Attractive People

Top 5 least best games of 50 by 4-19 (in no particular order):

• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
• WWF Wrestlemania Challenge
• Sonic Riders
• Milon's Secret Castle
• Sonic Heroes

Most underrated games of 50 by 4-19:

• Sega Superstars Tennis
• Wario Land (virtual boy)
• We Love Golf!
• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
  
• WarioWare Snapped!

Hardest games of 50 by 4-19:

• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
• Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
• Pilotwings 64
  
• MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero
• Mercury Meltdown Revolution

And now, the list of the characters in the above picture and which game they came from (top to bottom, left to right):

• Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi (Mario & Luigi, Partners in Time)
• Strong Bad (SBCG4AP)
• Link (Zelda: Phantom Hourglass)
• Marco Rossi (Metal Slug 7)
• Mega Man (Mega Man 9)
• Samus Aran (Metroid Prime 2)
• Trucy Wright, Apollo Justice (Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney)
• Captain Olimar, blue Pikmin (Pikmin)
• Shanoa (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia)
• NiGHTS (NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams)
• Boulder (Excite Truck)
• Sub-Zero (MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero)

There you are, friends: just more proof of how awesome I am. And in case you were wondering, I have not set another goal yet, and I may not for awhile, since school starts today and I will have considerably less time to play. But I will (probably) post some information here on games I've played and other crap. Oy maybe I'll be lazy. Hard to tell, really.

-benjamines

Currently Playing: Animal Crossing: City Folk, Okami, Wii Music

Podracing! (Nothing to do with MP3s)

Way before podcasting was podracing. And some little kid was like the best one there. A 6-yr old was the winner. Which is crazy, cause I've been playing this podracing game for hours and I can't win very easily. So, the next game for N64 week is Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. It's an entire game based on the cool podracing scene in Star Wars Episode 1.

As far as racing games go, it's not too bad. You hop in a pod and race around. For an N64 game, it has really good graphics. The levels flow by really smoothly with very little slowdown. And it's fast. It doesn't seem quite as fast as F-Zero, but F-Zero is the ultimate in racing. Anyways, the pods are nicely rendered with interesting and active backgrounds to entertain the eyes.

Control-wise, it's not too bad. It's easy enough to pick up and win the first few races without much of a problem. The pod floats nicely side to side and around corners. There are a couple of problems, though. Really tight corners are difficult to get around without slowing down a whole lot. And of course, the computer players go around it just fine. Also, some levels require you to jump across large gaps, which tends to be problematic at times.

Anyways, let's talk about the difficulty. The initial races are easy enough to beat with no problem. But then the fun begins. To unlock a track, you only have get 4th or better in the race before it. That sounds easy enough, but some of the later tracks are difficult not to get last place in, so it can take a while to unlock everything.

As far as the music goes, the game actually features orchestrated music from the movie, which is nice. The weird thing is it only plays on the third lap. Which brings me to another point. Each track takes 3 laps to complete, which is normal. But each lap can take upwards of 2 or 3 minutes, so you could spend 7 or 8 minutes on some of the longer tracks. That's crazy. Maybe it's just because I've been playing Kirby Air Ride, whose laps can take like 30 seconds if you're quick enough. In any case, it seems a little long, but at least it's not like NASCAR (300 laps. In a circle. No kidding).

All in all, it's a pretty good game. Party-game-wise it seems a little hard to see everything that's on the screen, so it may not be the best multiplayer game, but it's not bad. I think that the later tracks are too hard, but that's just me. And I'm right.

Pros:

• Great sense of speed!
• Good graphics and music
• Lots of tracks and characters

Cons:

• A little too hard at times
• No music on the first two laps
• Opponent voice clips are repetitive

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

Shadow Man.. More like, "Bad? Oh, man!"

Here's a look at another bargain bin title for the N64. It's called Shadow Man, and it's loosely based on the comic book of the same name.

Shadow Man is the story of a guy who becomes some kind of creepy voodoo warrior. His mission is to retrieve a bunch of dark souls so the bad guy can't get a hold of them himself. Oh, and there's lots of creepy bayou undertones. And swearing. Oh, and zombie things that make same sound effect over and over again.

But before I rip this game to shreds, let's talk about the good things. Control-wise, it actually works very well. It is similar to Zelda games in that it's 3rd person and you can run, jump, and grap onto ledges. You also have a gun. That shoots some kind of soul-breaking beam.

The character animations are actually done fairly well. You can swing across ropes and edge along cliffsides. If you have your gun out when swimming, the character uses his only free hand. So it works quite well.

The actual graphics, however, are not so good, even for N64 times. They either tried too hard to make things look good or they didn't try hard enough. Either way, people are blocky and walls have pretty low-resolution textures. The main character looks like a wasp with that 10-inch waist of his.

Anyways, at first it seemed like a kind of dark, cool adventure. But it's very easy to get lost, which makes it very easy to lose interest. And very easy to stop having fun. And aren't games all about fun?! Yeah!!

As far as the actual platforming goes, it works quite well. It's easy enough to swim, jump, and run around. The one thing that I do hate is that if you touch lava, you instantly burst into flames and die. And then you have to start the level over. So, a guy who can control souls is a walking tinder box. Lovely.

In short, it's kind of a weird game, and one that would require quite a bit of patience to complete. Patience that I don't have at the moment. Besides, I paid like $2 for it, so I'm not real worried about finishing it. I got my $2 worth.

Pros:

• Nicely animated character models
• Good platforming controls
• Decent voice-acting

Cons:

• Easy to get lost
• A little too weird
• Instant lava death

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

Opposite of Dream Creatures

This week I'll be reviewing several N64 games that I have beaten on my way to my 50 by 4-19 goal. The first is a bargain bin title called Nightmare Creatures that I bought without knowing anything about the game, other than I remember the commercial back in 1997-ish with a voice-over by Maurice LaMarche, who does the voice of Brain on Pinky and the Brain.

Alright, so the game follows the story of the London fires of 1834 (history, anyone?). Apparently, some jerk named Adam Crowley found a secret recipe for a potion that would horribly deform and disfigure whatever drank it. Naturally, this is where werewolves come from. And giant leprous sewer rats. And other... creepy... things.

When you begin the game, you can choose to play the heavily clothed and bearded man, or the scantily clad woman (stereotypes, anyone?) Your job is to rid London of the monsters and track down the turd who started this mess. Actually, you don't actually have to kill everything. Unless you want to clear each level with 100%. It's up to you.

Most of the levels are very similar. You run around, kill monsters, hit switches, and make your way out. But it's not a totally monotonous game. Your player has several combos you can use, like spin moves, jump attacks, etc. These can do more damage and kill enemies quicker than by just mashing B the whole time.

There is also a nice weapon system that lets you combine guns and explosives with your attacks. For example, my personal favorite is the buzzsaw weapon. Basically it makes every take slice enemies to bits. Plus, each enemy can lose appendages and still live, so with the buzzsaw item you can hack off the arms and legs and heads of your zombie attackers. Schweet. In the first picture above, you can see me slicing trenchcoated zombies in half (gratuitous violence, anyone?).

Naturally, a platformer such as this has to have boss battles. For the most part, they work well. You hit a switch to shoot spikes at the guy, or throw dynamite at him. As you can see to the right, a civil war veteran is throwing large kitchen knives at me. How quaint. The problem is it seems like they didn't test the boss levels very well, because they can be extremely frustrating if you don't do it right. Plus, your character does not become invincible after you get hit, so you can get pummeled with no chance of recovery.

The game isn't overly lengthy, which is good because it gets pretty crazy towards the end. The last couple of levels are actually really hard, simply because there are so many enemies to kill. I prefer to run past them if I can, but even that can become difficult since they like to bust through windows and jump on your head unexpectedly.

All in all, it's a decent game for its time. The controls work well and the items add some excitement and hilarity to the already-neat zombie slaying. It's probably a little too difficult and frustrating for most people, but the first half of the game is quite fun.

Pros:

• Kill zombies and monsters with dynamite and saw blades!
• Learn made-up early-19th-Century British history!
• Chop things in half!

Cons:

• Too hard toward the end.
• Controls are a little funky sometimes.
• Enemy AI is all over the place

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

Shake It Up!

Wario has been a mainstay of Nintendo gaming since his excellent debut in Super Mario Land 3 for Game Boy. In fact, there are now two Wario franchises: Wario Land and WarioWare, which are both totally different, but totally amazing series.

Last year, Nintendo released the latest of its Wario Land games, Wario Land Shake It! for Wii. You hold the Wii remote sideways, and if you give it a good jostle, Wario will punch the ground, shaking the level, which can trigger switches, set off bombs, and make enemies lose their balance.

The most notable trait of this game is the hand-drawn animation. Everything is very cartoony, and fluidly animated. It looks very nice, and helps add to the already absurd style of Wario games. Also, the controls are really good. If you pick up a dazed enemy or a bag of money, you can shake them (by shaking the Wii remote, of course) and see what comes out.

The game also features some anime-ish cutscenes to give the story a little more meat. Anime's not really my style, but it's always nice to see they put the extra effort to have things like that. Also, they have Wario in them, so they're automatically hilarious.

There are plenty of levels to play (nearly 30, I believe), and each one has its own hidden treasures to find and missions to complete. Some of the missions are easy, like shake garlic out of five enemies. Some of the missions are nearly impossible, like collect nearly every coin in the whole level, or complete the level without getting hurt once. Either way, the missions add lots of depth to an already fairly-deep game.

As we all know, the music in a game is extremely important. If the music sucks, it can tarnish the entire experience. Wario Land games have typically had really good music. This one... not quite as good. I'm not gonna say the music is terrible, because it's not. It just doesn't always fit the mood. Some level musics are better than others, but overall the music could have been better. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but it could have been better.

But that's really the only place where the game doesn't really shine. The levels are very well designed (some nice nods to the best Wario Land game ever), and there are some truly hilarious moments, especially in the boss fights. I've gotta say, these are some of the best boss fights of any Wario game (or any game for that matter) that I've ever played. Pure hilarity.

All in all, it's a great game, and one that Nintendo fanboys (such as myself) should add to their collection without question. Everyone else should become a Nintendo fanboy and then reread this paragraph.

Pros:

• Classic Wario Land action!
• Excellent level design
• Good controls

Cons:

• The music could have been better
• Some of the submarine levels are overly difficult
• Some of missions are near impossible

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

Nine means no in German, but not in English

Mega Man 9! It's a new take on an old classic! Play it!

If you haven't played any of the Mega Man games, stop reading and go play Mega Man. Now, continue reading.

We've all played at least 1 of the old-school Mega Man games. They're tough as leather, but they're loads of fun. Lots of crazy wacky bosses, tons of robotic enemies, and lots of robot-killing spikes. That always makes me wonder. The spikes are made of metal. The robot is made of metal. He can endure water, laser beams, and explosions. That's like humans being destroyed by piles of flesh. Ok, I never should have brought that up.

Anywho, Mega Man 9 is a new game based on the classic NES Mega Man games. In fact, to ensure that the game held true to the classics, they made the screen go all flickery and weird when there were too many enemies on the screen. Awesome.

One of the best parts of original games was the music. It was bumpin', it was kickin', it was awesome. And this one is no different. Naturally, not all the songs are #1 hits, but there are some memorable tunes. Hooray!

Mega Man 9 is, in short, a worthy retelling of a classic mad scientist tale. All the excitement and difficulty of the old titles is intact. Plus, to ease the pain of some of the harder levels, the game takes cues from some of the later Mega Man games by letting you purchase power-ups that can be used as any time. My favorite? The item that lets you hit spikes and not die. I love you, spike-death-preventer.

Conclusion? Buy this game. It's only $10! If you don't have a Wii, go buy one. Then reread this paragraph.

Pros:

• Classic Mega Man action
• Perfect homage to a great franchise
• You can save!

Cons:

• Some levels are too easy, some too hard
• Some of the powers aren't very useful

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

Secret is the Operative Word

And here we are with yet another game that starts with M. How quaint. You've probably never heard of it. It is called Milon's Secret Castle. Now, you have heard of it. Let us discuss it. And by that, I mean let me tell you about it.

Milon's Secret Castle is an old NES game that borrows heavily from Super Mario Bros. and Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, both of which are great NES games. You start outside of a castle and you have to work your way in, unlocking items and buying potions to get to the end.

The controls are similar to Mario games, in that you can jump really high, and you can find things hidden in bricks. Also, Milon shoots bubbles which can break bricks. That's some heavy artillery bubblage there. An added 'feature' is that Milon starts walking slow, but if you hold down the button, he speeds up. So... yeah. Energy conservation or something.

As you progress through the game, you find shops in the most random of places. These shops provide you with the most random of items, such as a potion that will make you shrink if you get hit with a boxing glove (I'm not kidding). You need these items to progress. Otherwise, you just get punched for no reason.

The game sounds interesting, no? And it is. It's fun, too. At least, for the first few minutes. After searching for a very long time for somewhere to go besides the bottom floor of the castle, I just gave up. It's ridiculous trying to find everything. After looking up the location of some of the items, I found out for an essential item, you have to break a certain brick, then push the brick next to it in it's place, and then shoot the empty space. And somehow you're supposed to figure this out on your own. Yup. Another NES game with the difficulty set way too high.

The game certainly has its share of frustrations. There are enemies that can go through walls, so there's really no safe place to be. Also, when you get hit, Milon doesn't flash invincible for a few seconds like in most other games. So if you get stuck in a corner with an enemy, you'll be dead really fast. And since you get one whole life and 6 HP, you usually won't live very long. Also, there's no passwords or save points or continues. So... beat it on one life or be smart like me and give up.

To be fair, it has also has its share of good traits. It's done nicely with music and sound effects that fit the mood. The enemies are varied and difficult, but also predictable, so they are beatable.

All in all, it's a semi-decent game. I try to judge games like this based on other games of the same time period, and I can see myself playing this for quite a while as a kid. It's definitely not the worst game I've ever played.

At the very least, it's worth the $1 I payed for it.

Pros:

• (Mostly) good controls
• Good graphics and gameplay for its time
• Takes some of the good things from Mario and Crazy Castle

Cons:

• Extremely confusing
• No indication of where to go
• Very hard to find essential items

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

Have You Met My Friend Troid?

And here we are again, you and I. One of us, enjoying the fun and excitement of beating a new game every two days. The other, writing this blog. I kid, I kid!

This time, it was Metroid. For the NES. Yeah, it's an oldie. That much is for sure. And, like many games of the mid 80s, it was ridiculously difficult (I'm lookin' at you, TMNT 1!). But, as we know, these early and sometimes less-attractive titles has since blossomed into indispensable franchises.

In any case, this is the first time Samus was called on to save the galaxy. At least, the first time that was documented in video game form. We see many of the same enemies we see in current-generation Metroid games, only slightly less 3-D.

To be honest, Metroid starts out as a really fun game. The physics are nicely done, the graphics are good for their time, and the sound and music fit perfectly with the ambience. That luster tends to wear off, however, when you discover just how stinking easy it is to get lost.

Ok, I'm going to be frank here. I'm not the most patient person in the world. And when you've played games like Metroid Zero Mission, it's easy to say that this version is total crap. You have no map, no indication of where to go, no hints... you're in the dark, buddy. Yeah. It's a dang hard game. We established that. But even so, it's a fun play. Even for NES days, it has it's enjoyable moments.

Now, let me be honest again. I never actually finished the game. At least, not without cheating. A lot. I made a nice map to begin with, but the game got so hard that I couldn't get far enough to explore new areas. So... I used a small, but effective cheat code. It only gives you 30 health. But as soon as you drop below 30, it gives you 30 again. So... yeah. Minor cheat code.

The bosses are not what you might expect from current Metroid games, except that they are very difficult. I have decided that they are actually just baby versions of the monstrosities that Ridley and Kraid have since become. Very, very mean babies.

In any case, the game really is well done, even through 1987 eyes. I actually wish more games like this existed, because that would mean we'd have more matured franchises to play today. But I digress. The game is good. I won't lie. It's hard. Harder than Contra (seriously!). But it's good.

And even if the game wasn't that good, I'd much rather battle Metroids than battle hemorrhoids.

Pros:

• The dawn of Samus!
• Great controls and presentation
• Classic music

Cons:

• Hard
• Very Hard
• Too Hard

This game has recieved a Blatantly Biased:

Pinball? Famous?

Another one bites the dust! This time it was Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection for Gamecube. It's a bunch of pinball tables! Alrighty then!

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Excessively Long-Named Gottlieb Collection is an amalgamation of several old-school (and I stress old) pinball games all rolled into one (get it?). It includes tables from all the way back in the 50s, to some that are a little less stupid. I kid. But seriously, compared to current video game pinball tables, some of these are lame.

And I guess, there's a reason for that. They're trying to conserve the nostalgia of the older tables. They have no music, they have really strange themes and backgrounds, and I kid you not, one of them has a score counter that can go no higher than 9,999. Wow.

In all seriouslessness, though, some of these tables aren't too bad. There's one from 1993 with a golf theme. That one's pretty good. And really, none of them are terrible. In fact, the physics are, for the most part, quite accurate to real life.

But we haven't even got to my favorite part yet. You can enter cheat codes. And one of those codes lets you play forever. How amazing is that? Yeah, I know. Cheat codes are for cheaters. No duh. But I think that's about the only way to unlock everything. Which I have done.

Ok, so, in addition to the pinball tables, they have a few old-style arcade machines, like the love machine, that randomly selects how much in love you are with the other person. I recommend not playing this game with a sibling of the same gender.

Also included is a Playboy table. Seriously! But it's not what you think. It's Playboy as in rich person who gambles, not Playboy like Women-As-Objects Monthly. It's not so much a pinball table as it is a table with holes in it that you launch a pinball into. Each hole is marked by a playing card, so you try to get good cards (as if you can control it) and get the best hand. Yup.

So, in conclusion, I believe there's a reason this one is a bargain bin title. It's pinball, yeah. And I love pinball. But after games like Metroid Prime and Pokemon themed pinball, it's hard to go back to stuff like this.

Pros:

• Classic pinball tables
• Realistic physics
• Bonus arcade games

Cons:

• BOOOOORING! (sometimes)
• Annoying announcer
• There's a scary monkey on the 'Central Park' table

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

They're Looney, alright

Hoo-hah! More games beaten for 50 by 4-19! Today it's Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal. The Looney Tunes are kinda like anything with Mario or Ninja Turtles. I just need it. Even if it's lame. Which, sometimes it is.

Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal is a platformer starring your favorite Looney Tunes characters. You can play as Bugs, Daffy, and many others. In the game, Dr. Frankenbeans has gone back in time to erase the Looney Tunes' ancestors. It's your job to go back and keep Tut Bugs, King Daffy, and Colonel Foghorn from being destroyed.

First, let's start with the good things. The voice acting is mostly really good. While it's not Mel Blanc, it's not too bad. Plus, there are some fully animated cut scenes in between some of the levels. They too, are mostly well done. Much of the classic Looney Tunes humor is intact. Also, there are some cool weapons, like a grenade launcher and flamethrower. And then there are really cool weapons, like a sawblade gun, a giant punching boxing glove, and a cream pie launcher. Awesome.

As far as graphics go, the game actually looks quite good. They're simple, but not crappy. The characters and enemies are animated well and I don't think there was ever any slowdown. Naturally, the characters have a nice and smooth elastic and animated feel. Very good.

Unfortunately, there's not much else that's great. Good, but not great. The levels are nice, but they're nothing over-the-top. Sometimes there are far too many enemies in one place, and some of them are shooting you from a distance, so you can't kill them if you don't have a gun.

But my biggest gripe is with the controls. I'll bet this isn't an issue on other versions of the game. There are certain parts where you have to use a spin move to be able to make it across large gaps. To spin, you have to turn the nunchuk a quarter turn either left or right. But to say that the move is unresponsive would be an understatement. I'd say it works about 1/3rd of the time. That's just stupid. All they had to do was make it so you pushed a button instead of twisting the nunchuk sideways (which is kind of uncomfortable anyways).

Now don't get me wrong. That game has its fun parts. It's just that it feels unfinished. Which is really too bad, because the game would have been much more fun with more polish. For example, when you die, the character says something, but it doesn't even give the character enough time to say it before the level reloads. Also, one of cutscenes is wrong, so you never really get to see what happens to Colonel Forgorn. Again, these are things that should have been fixed before production.

All in all, it's not a terrible game, but it could have been much better. Hopefully someday someone will make a great Looney Tunes game. Maybe they should let Nintendo have a shot at it...

Pros:

• Classic Looney Tunes humor
• Nicely animated cut scenes

Cons:

• Merciless and unresponsive motion controls
• Many glitches
• Simply feels unfinished

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

You got street in my jam!

NBA Jam was the best basketball game of its time. You could play as real stars, and you could push Dennis Rodman to the floor. It was great. There was no out-of-bounds, no fouls, and if you knew the cheat codes, you could dunk from anywhere on the court. It was pure fun.

NBA Street is the best basketball sim since NBA Jam. (Looney Tunes B-Ball is better, but there are no real players, so it's different). You can play as your favorite team, plus you can create a custom player so you can play alongside all-stars from years past. Surprisingly, NBA Street v2 is even better. It takes the adrenaline up a notch, intensifies the frenetic gameplay, and adds even more trick moves.

The premise of the game is street basketball, obviously. The courts range from trash-strewn alleys to high school gyms. It's all 3-on-3, so you can pick 3 out of the 5 best players of any team. If you beat enough teams, you can unlock legend teams and players, like Magic Johnson and Bob Cousy.

Now don't let the real players get you down. This is not real basketball. Anyone can dunk. Seriously. Anyone. You can alley-oop from 20 feet away, or do trick moves to throw your opponent off. There's no double-dribble or travelling either, so feel free to play like a girl. And my favorite part? No goal-tending. So feel free to grab the ball no matter where it is. Stand under the rim and block shots all day. No one cares.

One of the stand-outs of NBA Street is the Gamebreaker. It is similar to the Gamebreaker in NFL or FIFA Street games. If you build up enough trick points, you can shoot or dunk the ball. If you make it, you'll get points, plus your opponent will lose points. So make sure you do lots of tricks. Like a dog. Or... a rabbit.

In short, the game is a lot of fun. It takes everything great about NBA Street 1 and improves almost everything. It has great multiplayer and loads of replay value. Seriously. I never get tired of pushing Kobe Bryant in the back.

Anyway, this is the 5th game on my goal of 50 by 4-19. Yeah, I know, I'm way behind. But I'm workin' on it. I've got several games in progress, so I think I can still pull it off. More on that later in the week...

Pros:

• Awesome NBA Jam-style b-ball action
• No goal-tending!
• Loads of fun, with lots of unlockables

Cons:

• One-player mode can get a little repetitive
• AI is crazy sometimes

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

And so it begins...

Imagine sledding down a hill. But not just any hill. This hill is enormous. And it has loop de loops. And it's completely impossible. And don't expect to live through the ride. At the very least, expect to hurl all over the place when you finally stop. Or while you're still moving. It's your choice, really.

Alright, so if you were reminded of Line Rider, nice job! If not, then... um... good try? Either way, I finished the game this morning, so chalk up the first beaten game for 50 by 4-19.

Line Rider 2 Unbound for the DS is actually a really cool game. It takes all the coolness of the original and adds a bunch of new stuff. Like new lines, such as speed up and slow down lines, trap door lines, and my personal favorite, trampoline lines. Also, the rider is much harder to kill, which lets you have much crazier tracks.

The DS Line Rider is much more than just a toy, however. There is a fairly well-thought out story mode that puts you in the role of Bosh, the world's best sledder. But how could a story mode be any fun when you can just draw whatever lines you want? The trick is that you can only draw in certain areas. Most of the level is already drawn. But that doesn't make it easy. In fact, it makes it very difficult. There are some levels that can take close to an hour to beat, even though it only takes a couple of minutes to ride the whole level.

In story mode, the point is to get Bosh (or whichever character you choose) to the end of the level, collecting targets and optional coins along the way. Collect enough coins to unlock new characters. The final unlocked character is pretty cool, actually. In any case, guide the rider to the end and keep him alive the whole time. It's a tall order, I know.

After every 5 levels, you get to view a cut scene, featuring Bosh saving the day from Chaz, a jerk bully who wants to be the better sledder. The movies also feature Bailey, a girl line rider. So yeah. There's a girl you can play as, too. The movies are actually quite cool. They are 3-D rendered, with a style similar to Jimmy Neutron. I was actually surprised at the production quality. Usually games like this don't have cool things like that.

In any case, the best part of the game is obviously free mode, where you can just draw lines all over and let Bosh (or Chaz or Bailey) ride them forever. Plus, you can make your own puzzle tracks and share them with friends over Wifi. Awesome! I'm surprised at how much flexibility there is in the drawing tool. You can draw freely, or use the curve tool, which lets you draw a line and then really fine-tune the curves (or straightness) in said line. Well done, I say.

The game isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good. The music ranges from really good to really weird, so I usually just play with it off. Also, it would have been nice to have checkpoint flags in story mode, along with the ability to save replays or the whole track.

But really, other than that, the game has very few flaws. It's one of the cheaper DS titles, but still one of the better ones. There are games published by major production houses that are less fun that this. So, all in all, I think they did a great job and kept the classic Line Rider spirit of fun intact.

Pros:

• It's Line Rider!
• Save and share crazy tracks
• Cool cutscenes and a very good level editor

Cons:

• Kinda weird music
• A couple of really hard, confusing levels
• The physics can get slightly wonky at times
  

This game has earned a Blatantly Biased:

Happy Haulidays!

Well, Christmas is over, and now the tinsel comes down and the lights go out, but what we have left is still amazing... presents! And of course, many of those are awesome video games! Behold! My Holiday Stash!

1. Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 (Wii)
2. Quantum of Solace (Wii)
   
3. Sam & Max Season 1 (Wii)
   
4. Shaun White Snowboarding (Wii)
5. Sonic Unleashed (Wii)
6. Wii Music (Wii)
   
7. Metal Slug 7 (DS)
8. My Japanese Coach (DS)
9. Goldeneye: Rogue Agent (GCN)
10. Soul Calibur II (GCN)
11. SSX Tricky (GCN)
12. Earthworm Jim 3D (N64)
13. 2000 Wii Points (1000 used for SBCG4AP Ep. 3)
    

So there you go. An awesome Christmas, plus awesome games to celebrate it with. The only one of those I've played so far is Wii Music, and I likes it mucho. Where else can you play F-Zero music in polka style? Or whatever style you feel like?

So that gives me plenty to work on this next few months. Which brings me to my next point: a new goal for 2009! The 2008 goal was smashed to bits, so I decided to up this one by quite a bit. And it's slightly different. Since I'll only be taking one class, I'll have more time for games at home, like the Gamecube and Wii, who have been neglected lately. In any case, my goal is to beat 50 games by the end of the semester, which is April 19th. So 50 by 4-19 is the new goal. I shall conquer it! Oh, and in case you were wondering, that goal starts now, not Jan. 1. So yeah. I have to beat a game about every 2 days instead of every 3 days. But I think I can do it. Huzzah!

So there you have it! New games, a new goal, and a new year! Oh, and as far as new year's resolutions, I have one: play Wii Fit and DDR a lot so I can stop getting fat. Yes! Happy December 29th!

-benjamines

Currently Playing: Wii Music (Wii), Excite Truck (Wii), Line Rider 2 Unbound (NDS)