Wii owners. Why the hell aren't you playing Zack and Wiki?

The title says it all. It's a brilliant puzzle game that kinds of reminds me of those old Lucas Arts games like "Full Throttle and "Monkey Island" but simplified to perfection.

The tutorial seems a bit of a chore at first and the first few levels seem extremely simple but don't worry the difficulty ramps up nicely and soon you're in the middle of an amazing point and click puzzle game. Don't let the sugary anime graphics stop you from playing one of the years best Wii games.

Posted by Nitemare1 @ 11:37 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Game of the Year.....for me anyway!

 When I played Zelda: Twilight Princess last year I came to a sad realization. About half way in it dawned on me that in all my years as a gamer I had essentially been playing the same Zelda game over and over. I guess I'd known it before then but this time it left a bad taste in my mouth.

     Just before inserting the the disc for Super Mario Galaxy the same fear set in. What if this was just going to be another rehashing of the same old Mario mechanic. At first it felt a little bit like that. All the set pieces are intact. Collect a certain number of starts to carry on to the next level, the princess is missing and its up to you to save her. Bowser is an evil prick who insists that this time he's actually come up with a way to defeat you this time with turtles and goombas. It all seems so familiar and then you start playing.

     The single greatest thing you can say about Super Mario Galaxy is that every other time you end up in a new world you're doing something different. It starts you off simple enough with the basic jumping and stomping but before long your holding the wii remote up right to balance on a ball to roll around the level, or you're in a 2D world where the gravity changes from section to section, or you're floating through space using the controller to act as a sort of grappling hook to propel you from star to star along the level.  It goes on and on changing from level to level. Just when you think the game has run out of tricks you get dropped into another level and find yourself doing something completely different yet again.

     So just in case you haven't figured it out Super Mario Galaxy is my game of the year!

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Games of the Year in Review: Part 3

The Game of the Year in Review continues yet again!

September: Halo 3  (Xbox 360)
     There is no doubt that Halo 3 owned September. If nothing else, Microsoft sure knows how to throw a media blitz for their flagship title. Up to four player online co-op in the campaign mode gave us the opportunity to live out the final chapter with our friends by our side and we loved it.  The story might be over for now but not to worry. Halo 3 has probably  the deepest, most customizable online multiplayer ever built into a  game. Play the built in game types or make your own in forge.  Don't like a weapon placement on a level? Change it. Think another level should have a few more vehicles? Go ahead and drop them in there.  Then record it all for with the built in game recorder. Love it or hate it there is no arguing that Halo 3 does online like no other game.

October: The Orange Box (Xbox 360/PC/PS3)
     No game released in 2007 can match The Orange Box in pure value per dollar. It includes the previously released  Half Life 2 and  Half Life 2: Episode One. As well as the latest in the series, Half Life 2: Episode Two.  Valve could have stopped there but they didn't. Team Fortress 2 is one of the fastest and funnest multiplayer experiences available with a class system that has something for everyone no matter what way you like to play. Then you have Portal. A first person platforming puzzle game that description doesn't do justice. Worth considering by itself as game of the year Portal proves that with a great story, interesting characters and challenging game play you don't always need to be shooting at people in first person perspective to have a great time.

November: Call of Duty 4  (Xbox 360/PC/PS3)
     The first game in the Call of Duty franchise set in present time proves that infinity ward can do modern warfare just as well as World War II.  Wave after wave of opposing armies pour on the pressure from beginning to end.  No game captures the hectic pressure of being dropped into a war zone and trying to stay alive like Call of Duty 4.  On top of the single player is an incredible multiplayer game that introduces RPG elements for leveling up and collecting weapons that gets you hooked and encourages you to keep going.

December: Unreal Tournament 3  (PS3/PC)
    As far as twitch shooters go you can't do much better than the Unreal Tournament series. Built with the Unreal Engine 3 it has that unmistakable Epic games look with larger than life characters and huge detailed levels.  Most impressive though of Unreal Tournament 3 is that the PS3 version marks the first time users will be able to build original levels outside of the game and upload them to their console.  Hopefully the beginning of something more console developers are going to look at in the future.

Tomorrow: Over all Game of the year 2007!

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Games of the Year in Review 2007: Part 2

The Games of the Year in Review continues....

May: Forza Motorsport 2  (Xbox 360)
     Simply put, Forza Motorsport 2 is as good as it gets for car fanatics. A sim racer with so much potential for customization it can make your head spin. The game blends seamlessly between online and off and the only thing better than tweaking, tuning, and painting the over 300 cars included in the game was actually racing them. With scaling difficulty to accommodate any gamer from casual to hardcore, the only person you had to blame for putting your four hundred thousand dollar Ferrari into the wall and Laguna Seca Raceway was yourself!


June: Dirt  (Xbox 360/PC/PS3)
     Dirt was probably the most graphically gorgous racing game that came out this year. Even better still, the first time you slam the railing with your rally car at 90mph and realize how elaborate the damage system is your jaw drops even further. Codemasters dialed back the sim racing a little in the latest Colin Mcrae game and made the near perfect arcade racer.  It also wins the first annual Nitemare1 slickest interface award for outstanding accomplishment in menus!
    

July: Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks  the 80's  (PS2)
     Guitar Hero Encore won July by default. If it teaches us anything it`s that in those lazy days of summer there`s money to be made from gamers.  The track list was small and the graphics were recycled from Guitar Hero 2 but we bought it anyway. Why, because it was more freakin` Guitar Hero. Maybe game publishers will catch on. Gamers don`t care if it`s summer. We still want good games to play!

August: Bioshock  (Xbox 360/PC)
     In August Bioshock was released and we couldn`t believe what we saw. Here was a shooter with original ideas, a setting like we had never seen and characters that really got under your skin. A story with more twists than a bag of pretzels was just the icing on the cake. When it seems like the majority of store shelves are crowded with games that have a sequel number after the title it was a beautiful thing to venture into a deep rich world where we had never been.


Tomorrow: September though December also known as: The fall my wallet cried!

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Games Of The Year!

So I had this idea that it might be cool to do my own personal year in review of the things that I liked in 2007. I put a few ideas into the brain blender and this is what came out! The Game Of The Year In Review! Here' a month by month look back at the games that had the biggest impression on me this past year.

January: Lost Planet (Xbox 360/PC.. coming soon to PS3)

It's January in northern Canada. The mercury is well below zero and all I wanted to do was sit inside and escape the outdoors. So what do I do? Why buy Lost Planet of course! This 3rd person action adventure/shooter feels a little like a nuclear winter bionic command with a little mech assault thrown in for good measure. January is usually a pretty dry month for game releases but Lost Planet filled the void nicely. Though this January I think I'll dig out Farcry or DOA Extreme, just to feel a little warmer.

February: Crackdown (Xbox 360)

You only need two words to describe Crackdown. Agility Orbs. The majority of people who picked up Crackdown did it for one reason, the promise of the Halo 3 multiplayer beta. Imagine their surprise when they found out there was a great game on the disc along with it! A nice big open world to do as you saw fit. We spent hour after hour scaling the buildings of Pacific City looking for Agility Orbs and we loved every minute of it.

March: God Of War 2 (PS2)

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Kratos returned in March for the next tale in the God Of War mythology, and what a tale it was. Looking as good or better than a lot of next gen games at that time God Of War 2 pushed the PS2 to the limit. It may have been a lot more of the same as far as gameplay goes but when you do it as well as the God Of War games you don't really need to break the formula. A lot of people will argue that this was the first true triple A title of 2007.

April: Pokemon Diamond/ Pokemon Pearl (Nintendo DS)

The kiddies sure do love those pocket monsters! Don't tell anyone but so did a few of us adults. The basic formula hasn't changed a whole lot in the ten plus it's been on the scene. Pick a monster, go out into the world, fight against other monsters, pick up defeated monster, rinse and repeat. Maybe it appeals to our obsessive nature to collect or maybe its just cause they are so damn cute. The only thing that's sure is the Pokemon juggernaut isn't showing any sign of slowing down.

Come back tomorrow for May to August!

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