25 Days of Begging: Part Two

25 Days of Begging: Part Two

Well, week one is gone, and you still can’t be sure that your loved ones have made the right gift decisions, maximizing the awesome and limiting the suck. To improve your begging effectiveness, part two of this article has five more awesome games, more great honorable mentions, and another neat bit of kit for you to open, and then scream over like an eight year old kid.

20.

Super Mario 3D Land

         Let it be known: I am no big fan if the 3DS, it’s just not my thing yet. But more games like Super Mario 3D Land are going to change my mind in a hurry. I think this might be the first three dimensional Mario game that I like. Almost all the old suits, neat camera angles, Shadow Mario. and more await you when you pop this in your 3DS, and seeing as it’s the first new game just for the 3DS, it’s a must have.

19.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection

         If I have to explain to you why more Metal Gear Solid is a good thing, then I’m not even sure how you found this website. Computer glitch? Monkeys typing on your keyboard? That’s how this is getting written: some Reese monkeys, a couple cans of Four Loko, and some bananas. Bradjelina adopted all my child workers, so I had to diversify.

         All jokes aside, this is a remake: you probably had great fun beating Solidus, Liquid, Boss, and company already. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy doing it again with shiny new graphics! Plus, if you didn’t get the PSP entry Peace Walker, then there’s a whole new game waiting for you, complete with a brand new control scheme. Plus, Snake Eater: Subsistence still comes with Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. And a boss mode. And then there’s the online multiplayer to think about. And it only costs $50.

18.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition

         I heard that ‘Chief shows his face in this edition. You just have to put in the special code on your Game Genie. What, you can’t use a Game Genie on your 360? Well, no face for you. But what you do get is a completely reskinned edition of the reason that shooter games got hot on our current generation of consoles. Yes, Goldeneye did it big, and Doom before them, but the reason why we are able to enjoy the Battlefield, Call of Duty, or Gears of War franchises is because of the innovation in the genre by Bungie.

         So, what makes this game special? Well, HD graphics for the first two games in the series are a good start, and you can actually toggle between the old look and new in game with a button press. Pretty neat. Second, achievements and online multiplayer on the new XBL has been added, so if you’ve found yourself missing the three shot pistol of death, or the green gun combo, then you’re in luck. Just don’t expect them to add sword sniping back in.

17.

Resistance 3

         If you have a PS3, and only a PS3, you don’t have the new Halo. You don’t have Gears of War. You almost didn’t get Half Life. But what you do have access to is a downright silly roster of weapons, enemies, and game play options in Resistance. In Resistance, it is normal to get attacked by a facehugger. Or an Invisodemon. Or a platoon of zombified aliens. And to defend yourself you have a shotgun that lights enemies on fire, a gun that shields and shoots through just about anything, biological weapons, and everything gains perks over time. Plus, let’s not forget that if there were a competition of whose game has humanity at the most desperate position in any game ever, Resistance may well be a winner.

16.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

         You could make a reasonable fighting game from just the characters added in the new edition of the Vs series. It doesn’t matter if you gravitate for traps, chainsaws, penance stares, or objections, there’s probably a new character you have been looking forward to fight as, or beat up. This game is literally mind blowing, every match by similarly skilled players holds excitement and drama. Matches between uneven competitors become combo expos, which hold their own entertainment value. Don’t feel bad though: pwning builds character.

Honorable Mentions

Bulletstorm

Get rewarded for violence. What’s better than that?

Yakuza 4

Tired of old, fat Italian gangsters eating pasta, and killing each other with Tommy guns? Well prepare for young, tattooed gangsters drinking sake, and killing each other with katanas!

Crysis 2

Pretty enough that if your wife sees you playing with it, she might get jealous.

Fifa 12

Maa-den? Who ees Madden?

L. A. Noire

Use the lessons of sniffing out lies taught to you in this game to figure which one of your friends is in fact the one that dealt it.

Hardware

The Playstation Vita isn’t out yet. It won’t be out by Christmas. It won’t even be out by New Years. But in Febuary, we will finally get a chance to see Sony’s view of the future of portable gaming. One of the major gripes about the PSP, lack of killer games, seems to be a thing of the past, with AAA titles like Bioshock, Uncharted, and Call of Duty developing games just for the new system. With two touch screens, dual analog sticks, wifi and 3g, and by far the best portable graphics ever, the Vita will be finding its way into many happy pockets soon after all the Eggnog has been drunk.

Games to watch for:

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (w Cole from Infamous)

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

BlazBlu: Continuum Shift Extend

Touch my Katamari

Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) Review

Platform(s): Nintendo WII
Developer(s): Retro Studios
Genre(s): Action-Adventure/Platformer
Rating: E for Everyone on the Wii

Story:

“Something shifty is going down on Donkey Kong Island… A tribe of mysterious marauders are putting some kind of musical voodoo spell on the island wildlife, and using them to make off with every banana in sight! Naturally, this doesn’t sit too well with Donkey Kong, whose personal banana horde has been ransacked. With pint-sized pad Diddy Kong on his shoulders, Donkey Kong sets out to get to the bottom of this banana burglary brouhaha.” (This is straight from Nintendo’s site)

Pros:

Everything J I fully admit to loving this game from childhood but it is a great game and continues to impress on the Wii. The games consists of eight worlds and 40 levels. There are multiple features that are bound to amuse, entrance and enjoy. I’ll list a few of my favorites: What was quite amazing and lots o’ fun was barrel shooting. This feature existed back when the original came out (on SNES in 1994) yet there it is even more thorough as you can do so from a foreground to a background. (Although this is true, this is a 3D rendered game yet with 2D playing) You can then proceed forward in the background (with Donkey’s size still small - reflecting the adjustment for depth) - so absolutely neat! Amidst this barrel shooting, you can also break through walls. This has no functional purpose but is another detail-oriented visual that makes you appreciate all the work put into this game.

What makes having it on the Wii an advantage (besides the vibrant and sharp coloring, of course) is what you can do as a result of the motion sensitive controller. For Donkey Kong to pound the ground you shake the Wii-mote up and down. In addition, he can blow by holding the down arrow and shaking the Wii mote up and down. (This is needed for those Tiki monsters that are ablaze or to blow on flowers that reveal hidden treasures)

Another new and fabulous feature is Kong’s ability to hold onto any grass that covers ceilings, boulders etc. This allows for many new ways to travel (and avoid enemies) along with a newly learned, bit-of-skill-requiring boss battle.

What we all look for in games besides the fun factor, is replay value. After hours of working on a game run, what makes you want to pick it back up and play again? Donkey Kong Country features the collection of letters to spell out KONG (as was true of the first one) and puzzle pieces throughout each level you have to collect (New). Once you’ve collected each piece and reached the end of the level, all the pieces fit together to create one puzzle piece. Not certain yet what picture this puzzle is creating but I can’t wait to go back and find out! This video seems to imply that if you finish the whole level without dying, you’ll obtain both the KONG pieces and the puzzle piece yet maybe this is an interpretation issue:

I’m pretty certain that attempting to obtain all these items is enough to keep you busy for quite some time.

To add to the replay appeal, is the option to have two players. As was the case in the New Super Mario Brothers game, also on the Wii, this was a struggle as you had to pick a leader and a follower from the outset. Yet it provided many laughs and I know as a gamer, a healthy challenge is always what our pride desires. A quite helpful addition is Diddy’s stuttering jetpack. Although he cannot last long, the few seconds longer of flight time has saved my keister more than a few times

The game is not easy or hard but certainly challenging especially new the end. A helpful feature for those who may get stuck is an “auto play” feature that appears if you’ve died enough times in a level. It gives you the option to have the system play through the level for you. It will complete it and you’ll be able to move on but the world view will still show that level as if it were incomplete (hinting at you to finish it yourself!).

Cons:

I have none! The only complaint I’ve heard was the inability to play with Diddy unless you are in co-op mode. If this is all there is to whine about, I’d say you have a winner!

Overall:

BEST INVESTMENT OF THE YEAR (even over Christmas gift ;)) Seriously though, there seem to be no downsides with the exception of the number of hours of sleep you will not get as a result of playing.

Final Rating: 5 out of 5

sources: http://donkeykong.nintendo.com; www.youtube.com