Tag: Nintendo

When I saw that IGN had given SteamWorld Dig a 9.5, I figured I’d download it and give it a shot. Could use something new to kill some time with, plus I do like my trusty 3DS.

It was a very cool and addictive little game. I always root for the smaller game studios and their content on the eShop, and this one was pretty impressive. I’d have to agree with the reviews that compared it to a Dig Dug with some Metroid thrown in.

Power-ups are always great to get, and mining for treasure to buy them is very simple yet fun at the same time. A very simple but effective formula.

The pacing is what really made this one great to me. You’d sit for for small chunks of time and didn’t have to invest hours at a time to make progress.

Great little game.

I’ve found my trusty Nintendo 3DS to be a reliable killer of time over the past year or so. It’s done an admirable time of entertaining me from time to time.

So back when all the stores were running all of their big holiday sales I picked up New Super Mario Bros. 2 for pretty cheap and finally got around to playing it a few weeks ago. I’m a big fan of the New Super Mario style as it takes me back to the simpler yet still challenging days of my side scrolling youth.

I’m very glad to say that this is another excellent installment in the Mario franchise. It’s nothing groundbreaking and not quite as good as Super Mario 3D Land (which you should play if you haven’t) was, but still a very enjoying time.

It’s nice to be able to just pick it up and walk somewhere and try to beat a level while collecting all 3 Star Coins, then return to whatever it was I had just taken a break from. Though there are times where you do get sucked into numerous attempts to get a difficult Star Coin, overall the difficulty is just about right.

Very fun and just what you’d expect from a Mario game.

Every Christmas I usually end up playing some video game as a last resort means of escape from holiday craziness and such. This year I went with Paper Mario: Sticker Star on the 3DS since it’s Mario and who doesn’t like Mario and being on the 3DS it gave me more options to retreat with it as holiday craziness escalates.

I’ve enjoyed the previous Paper Mario games over the years, so I had some high expectations for this sticker fun. Once again I thoroughly enjoyed this Paper Mario fun. It was good stuff.

I thought the whole sticker system was pretty cool and a creative idea. Everything was pretty much sticker based, battles, secrets, etc.

However, my only complaint was that some parts were just difficult to figure out at times. Like when to use certain stickers to unlock things and collecting the Wobbler parts was kinda tough to figure out. Luckily the internet exists and got me through these few tough spots after numerous tries. Or maybe it isn’t hard to figure out, but I’m just too old for these games anymore.

One of the free games that were made available through the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program that I was looking most forward to playing was Metroid Fusion. The original Metroid for the NES way back in 1986 was one of my and my friends favorite games when it was released. It was so cool and different than anything else we’d played at that time.

I’ve since tried to play the majority of it’s sequels over the years. However, I never did get around to playing Metroid Fusion when it was released for the Game Body Advance in 2002. So when I found out that it would be available and for free nonetheless I was excited to finally play it.

Despite being 10 years old and for the Game Boy Advance originally, it’s held up really well over the years. I really enjoyed it, it was true to the side scrolling adventures I used to enjoy so much growing up.

Challenging, but not impossible this has given me something to entertain myself when I need some down time. It was nice to face off against arch-nemesis Ripley yet again (surprisingly that hasn’t gotten old to me), and battling a clone of yourself was strange as well.

They really did a great job of keeping that creepy aloneness feeling that has made so many of the installments so great. This was definitely a fine installment in the series and I’m glad I finally got a chance to play through it (I still have a battle or 2 for finish it).