Assorted Wii Games (Wii)

A group of friends whiled away the evening running up to New Year by playing on the Wii. Mostly Wii Sports (and on that, mostly baseball and bowling), but also a bit of Rayman Raving Rabbids. It was all ace, and was the first time I'd played two player boxing and tennis. Both roxxored.

And there's my final entry for the year. How exciting!

ToeJam and Earl (Wii): COMPLETED!

Just squeezing in at the end of the year is this, my 45th completed title of 2006.

I got as far as Level 24, and was knocked down accidentally to Level 23, so I decided to keep falling until I reached 17 to see if there was a ship piece I'd missed - and there was. Found that, then dropped all the way to Level 1, used an innertube to swim to the island in the bottom left, dropped to Level 0 from there, got another life (just as well, as I had only one left), then returned to 24 again. On 25 I got myself two more lives (one from a promotion to Funk Lord, the other in a present), and then went up to 26 and found the final piece.

And then it was over! I did the "bonus" level back on Funkotron (which isn't really a level as such), and then reset the game. Aces.

ToeJam and Earl (Wii)

Pressed on from Level 7-ish all the way up to Level 20 today. I'm down to three lives (and not a lot of energy), and it's actually getting quite hard. I'm pretty sure I've missed a ship piece on Level 17 too, so I'll have to drop back down and check at some point.

I only have two ship pieces left, though. Can't remember how many levels there are - 26? 27?

We Love Katamari (PS2): COMPLETED!

After much playing of this today, and rolling up piles of animals, some clouds, loads more flowers, a gingerbread house, the sumo bloke again, and entire continents (including volcanoes, some sort of god, and a giant 1km octopus), I completed it.

I finally created enough celestial bodies to allow me to roll up the Earth, into these planets and moons and stuff, and then move on and actually roll up the Sun. No, really.

Excellent. And an excellent game too. I may only have been playing it for three days, but I've played it a lot, and I can see there's a load of replay value too. That's game number 44 for the year then, just in time for the end of 2006!

Guitar Hero (PS2)

DOUBLE PLAYER ROCK ACTION!

Me and my friend Chris played with two guitars on this today. We "won" about as many songs as each other, and it was aces. Slightly confusing due to the way it "splits" the notes up between the two players, as sometimes you play alternate sections, other times you play together, and sometimes you play alternating notes.

But yes, we RAWKED.

I also managed another track (solo) on my Hard Career.

We Love Katamari (PS2)

Still having niggles with the controls, but I'm finding myself avoiding the need to rotate the camera rather than getting used to them, so it isn't so much of an issue any more.

Lots more levels done today, including one where I had to get my katamari to 12m, which was ace, and one where I was rolling (automatically) around a race track, which wasn't so ace. Also had a level where I had to roll a sumo wrestler around to make him eat stuff (mainly food, but in the end, bikes and children too) to make him fat enough to knock another wrestler over, and a more sedate level where I had to build a snowman. Hurrah!

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Spent ages trying to get through the moths-and-triffids area, and found it pretty hard going. Retreated instead, and worked my way around areas of the castle trying to find new areas (which I didn't really manage), and secret rooms leading to power-ups (of which I found loads). My heart, HP and MP maximum levels were then somewhat higher than previously, allowing me to get through the moths to another save point.

I then wandered around to bump my level up a bit, and then found the next boss - a pair of dragon things. Which I can't seem to kill. I mean, I can hit them - it's just they seem to take a billion hits and there's no great place to stand to whip them without being hit yourself.

We Love Katamari (PS2)

Two more levels completed today, and I'm still struggling with the controls. In an ideal world, the left stick would move me around, and the right stick would control the camera, but it doesn't work like that. It seems to do the "rotating round the ball as you roll" thing I want to do, I have to hold left on the left stick, and up on the right, or up and right if I want to go the other way. It makes no sense to me at all.

Oh well. It's still pretty lovely though.

Guitar Hero (PS2): COMPLETED!

Hurrah! Many more attempts at "Bark at the Moon" later, and I'd finally done it. The trick, in the end, was to save my Star Power for a difficult section and use it then, so that missed notes matter less and hit notes count double. Aces.

I then went back and did the few tracks I hadn't needed to do, and so Medium is now complete.

After that, I made a start on Hard. And oh my, is it hard. I'd only just got used to using my little finger on the blue fret, but now the orange one exists and I've run out of fingers...

We Love Katamari (PS2)

Oh my. This has to be the most gay game I've played since Ai Cho Aniki. It's great though. Sort of.

I've done the tutorial, and the first level, but I'm having real problems controlling my katamari rolling. I can't seem to "rotate" around the ball as I roll it - I just end up rolling sideways which doesn't help for navigation as you can't see a bloody thing.

And the music is stuck in my head.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

After what seemed like ages, I finally found another boss - a giant ram's head thing that threw ghost faces and stuff at me. He was really easy to kill though, as I had my magic fireballs-that-spin-round-me on (which killed most of the projectiles before they hit me), leaving me to just jump-whip his head over and over.

Once dead, I could hit a switch which I think has now made new pathways available elsewhere on the map. No new move power-up yet though, which is what I was expecting. Bumped into Hugh Baldwin again too, who seems to hate me. Hurrah!

I'm now exploring some area where there are lots of poisonous moths and some triffids and things.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

Well, I've managed to get past Pro and now I'm a Guitar Hero. Of course, I still have five more tracks to go, all of which seem completely impossible.

I'd read that "Bark at the Moon" was really somewhat difficult - not surprising since it's the last song on the list, but I hadn't realised how hard. Around ten attempts later, and I was still only 22% through the song. Impossible.

Luckily, I managed to get the other four tracks - eventually. I then went over to Quick Play mode and played a few tracks on Easy instead.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

Started Career Mode this evening, with the intention of unlocking some more tracks, but ended up wading through all the "levels" playing for real. I'm up to "Pro" level now, and the tracks have got really hard. It doesn't help that I'm playing on Medium, and it keeps throwing in a load of blue frets to make things harder and hurt my fingers ever more.

"Ziggy Stardust" for the win, though.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I've just realised that this game has an ID in my games database of "1337". Hilarious.

Anyway, I've now opened up what seems to be a huge portion of the map. I'm getting very lost still, trying every dead end with each new power-up I get. My most recent one is wall-jump, and with it I've got into an area full of were-bears and hippo things and all sorts of baddies that take loads of hits. I've found three teleporters now too, which is really helping get around the (growing ever-larger) map...

Guitar Hero (PS2)

RAWK ON!

Hurrah! Look what I got for Christmas! Didn't get chance to play on it for long, however, just a few tracks on Quick Play on Easy mode. It's ACES, but bloody hard, even on easy.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

I killed the puma boss thing without much difficulty on my first attempt today. I'd levelled up a few times first, however, and had picked up some better armour and a couple of cards (which when combined gave me a magic power that made my whip do more damage), all of which helped a lot. I then wandered round for a while trying to find where I needed to go next, which turned out to be pretty obvious as it was somewhere that I needed the "run" power-up I'd just gained from the boss to reach.

Anyway. I then found another boss, died, levelled up some more, and then defeated, giving me another power-up - a double jump! Again, this let me reach places I previously couldn't, and soon I'd found a third boss, which gave me a sort of dash-attack which breaks blocks - again opening new areas to me.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

Since I'm limited to handheld consoles at the moment (I'm at relatives for Christmas), I'm using this opportunity to actually start some games I've had for a while but not touched yet. See also Contact on the DS from earlier today.

Anyway. Since I have all three GBA Castlevania games, this is the one to start with. When it came out, people complained it was virtually impossible to play on the non-lit-screen original GBA. No such problems with the super-bright Game Boy Micro I have, though!

So I've done the intro, worked my way through some of the catacombs and stuff, killed what I thought was a boss (but it wasn't), found two save points, and attempted to kill an actual boss (a puma thing) a few times and failed. I'm now going to level up a few times and hope for better items to be dropped by baddies to help a bit...

Contact (DS)

So I made a start on this today, and so far, I'm really liking it. I've done the 'tutorial island' section of the game, found some kind of water ninja suit for Terry (the main character) and levelled up a fair few times in most of my stats.

I've also been to the island where the (literally) naked chef is, got his clothes back from a monkey, and moved on to the island where the next power cell is. I've found it, but was killed by someone else who also wants it. Bah.

Qwak (GBA)

Normal Mode is too hard. This is now a Fact. As such, I can't make it past level 14, so I've knocked the difficulty down to Easy (because I'm a coward) and managed to get to 23. I'd have managed much further, but the second Guardians level wiped out virtually all my lives, and all of my continues.

I wish I knew what all the little potion things do. I know the shield ones give you, uh, shielding, but the others? I should read the manual, really.

ToeJam and Earl (Wii)

Friday is "New Games on the Wii Virtual Console Day" (rather like Wednesday is "New Games on Xbox Live Arcade Day"), and in today's batch of new old titles was ToeJam and Earl for the Megadrive. So of course, I bought and downloaded it.

And it's still great, even though I played with the Wii Remote, which really doesn't work well. The most used button is A, which when you use the remote sideways is next to the d-pad, so hardly easy to access. I should have just plugged the Classic Controller in, but it was just so far away on the coffee table.

Anyway. I reached level 8, and have 3 parts of the ship already. Hurrah for the Save State facility of the Wii!

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii): COMPLETED!

Two days and two Wii titles finished! This one feels like the first "proper" game on the Wii that I've completed, however.

So there was more dancing, shooting, warthog racing, marbles-in-the-brain maze tilting, pulling worms from teeth, barrel bowling (with rabbids as pins), and Super Bunny launching. Amongst other things, anyway. Overall, I've only skipped two mini-games (you only need to do three of the four each day to progress, but I've done 4 each day bar two), so I think I've done pretty well. The ending was a bit rubbish though, but the credits more than made up for it with all the dancing rabbids.

Gottlieb Pinball Classics (Wii): COMPLETED!

Yes, I know Pinball is generally a high-score based genre of gaming, but Gottlieb Pinball Classics does have a single player Tournament Mode, which is essentially a set of levels. So I've taken this as a "story mode" or something, and after many attempts this week, I've finished it.

There's a bug in the game though - I'm sure of it. The "points" you gain from each table when qualified and completed are generally in the range of 1-10. For some reason, on the "Tee'd Off" table, it gave me 217. I hadn't even got an especially high score, and it wasn't an isolated incident either, as myself and my wife both had 150+ points from that table on several occasions. Very odd.

Anyway - the game is complete! Now to concentrate on unlocking the Arcade Mode tables for Free Play!

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii)

And so the games get more bizarre. Today, I had to fall from the sky, through a load of smoke rings, as quickly as possible. Then I had to play some kind of four-player curling, slap some bunnies that were singing out of tune, and do some more dancing.

I'm now 72% complete on the game, and it looks like I have four "days" of events left.

Qwak (GBA)

Wow. This is my 100th GBA game, which is a milestone in itself, but it's also the first non-licenced, home made cartridge-based game I've ever bought!

Qwak is a remake (or port, or mix of the two - I'm not entirely certain) of the Amiga game of the same name. The GBA version is done by the original author too, so you can be sure it's authentic! I don't have the Amiga version, and I don't recall playing it either, but the game is very much in the style of other platformers of the time - Bubble Bobble, Snow Bros, that sort of thing. Small levels with baddies to avoid or shoot, and things to collect before the exit opens.

It's great. Colourful and cute, rock hard to play, and very professional. I'm amazed the author didn't try and get it published properly, as the quality is far above many "real" GBA releases.

Anyway. I played a few times, managed to get up to level 14-ish, and then it all got a bit too hard for me. On my first go I'd only managed to get to level 2 before using a continue, so I had actually shown some improvement...

If you want to buy the game yourself (it's limited to 300 copies), you can get it from here.

Novadrome (Demo) (360)

Hmm. This was today's Xbox Live Arcade download. I applaud all the recent new titles (rather than arcade conversions), but some haven't really been very good at all. Novadrome is just awful. It's like a crap Twisted Metal Black clone, and that wasn't any good to start with.

I certainly won't be buying the full version.

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii)

This game is completely insane. During today's play, I raced around on the back of a warthog, milked a cow, made rabbits run into cacti, played What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?, collected pigs as a bat, run round a graveyard shooting plungers at things, danced to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" whilst dressed as a goth, and pounded a bunny's head in with a hammer. As you do.

It's a great game, mainly because it is so completely, utterly, nuts.

Gottlieb Pinball Classics (Wii)

Oh shush. Just because I already have 65453435674346 unplayed games doesn't mean I can't buy another one, right? Right?

So I got this this morning. At first I was confused that a game requiring just three buttons necessitates both the Wii remote and the nunchuk. That's not a problem, it just seemed a bit odd.

Anyway, so I've played through Challenge Mode a fair bit, unlocking several tables, but getting stuck on the Tee'd Off table. I've also ploughed most of my earned credits into the Arcade Mode and unlocked a few more tables that way too. It's pretty good overall, but some of the tables, although authentic and everything, are a bit sparse and unexciting.

Bomberman '93 (Wii)

Killed the plant boss on World 2, and now I've moved on to World 3 - Lava World (or something). The levels are getting a bit tricky now, as there are floor panels you can't drop bombs on (or kick bombs across), and teleporters too.

Super Mario 64 (Wii): COMPLETED!

Right. So that's now two Wii games completed, but both are actually old titles. Ho hum.

Anyway. Most of the rest of the required stars came from Jolly Roger Bay, Tall Tall Mountain, Dire Dire Docks, and the ghost house. Also picked up a few secret stars (two from the rabbit included), and one or two each from Rainbow Ride and Tick Tock Clock.

Finally, it was on to Bowser, who I defeated first time (I didn't even die on the level reaching him), and then the end of game sequence and credits. 70 stars done. I've done the 120 several times before, so I might not bother again. Ace game though!

Super Mario 64 (Wii)

Ploughing through this a bit more today. Got myself up to 50 stars, meaning I could reach the third floor of the castle (and access Tock Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride). The next target is 70 stars, which, if I remember correctly, is all I need to complete the game.

Went into Rainbow Ride and got one star, as well as open up the cannon there. Didn't try for any more after that though. Don't I have Zelda to play or something?

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Hurrah! I found a place that had some component cables in stock, so I decided to test them with Twilight Princess. And it looks amazing. Yeah, so it isn't up there with Oblivion, but it waaaay ahead of anything the Xbox or GC have ever done.

So the game then. It was alarmingly easy to get used to the controls, and soon I'd found my horse, rounded up some goats, found a bird, smacked some bees up with it, took a cradle from a monkey, caught a fish, fed a cat, bought a slingshot, shot some stuff, got a sword, sworded some stuff, then chased another monkey, got lost, and found a lantern. ACE!

Super Mario 64 (Wii)

Yes! I'm playing old games on my new console again! There's something very special about Mario 64 though, isn't there? It's also amazing how it's now 10 years old. It really doesn't look or feel like it.

Anyway. I got a star or two in some of the levels I'd opened up last time - Tiny Big World and Wet Dry World, for instance, and a Toad gave me a star too. That's taken my total up to 38 now. 50 is the next "target" to open up the next big star door.

Super Mario 64 (Wii)

So I spend all this money on a new console, and I spend all my time playing ancient games on it? Something wrong there!

Anyway. I finished up all the stars on the first two worlds, got most of them in the third and fourth (taking my total to 30), then did the first star in Dire Dire Docks, opening up the entrance to Bowser again. Went in there, defeated him, and then opened the door up to the next floor of the castle.

Elite Beat Agents (DS)

This is one of those games you can just go back to for a bit, then stop for a while, then have another go at and so on. With this in mind, I had a go at the three "open" levels in Hard mode.

And failed to complete any of them. I think I need more practice. Which completely negates the thing that I just said just now.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

I forgot to play yesterday to see the "snow blizzard" that was promised, so I set the clock on my DS back a day and went to see.

It wasn't very exciting. In fact, it wasn't a blizzard at all - just a few flakes of snow, none of which settled. Went and had a chat with most of my animals (most of whom complained about the cold, or remarked about footprints in the - non-existent - snow). Nibbles is trying to move out. I'm past caring, to be honest.

Super Mario 64 (Wii)

18 stars now! Got a few on Cold Cold Mountain, some in the water world, and some up Thwomp's Tower. Hurrah for me!

Bonk's Adventure (Wii)

Bah. How did this suddenly get hard? I got to level 2-2, died, and you have to start from 2-1 again if you continue. Pah.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Wii)

Well, this isn't quite what I was expecting. I've played (and completed) the DS version of this already this year (just last month, in fact), and I thought this would just be the same game only flashier. It isn't, exactly. The game is structured differently in terms of locations and events, you can't go back up hills as you've gone down them, and the controls are entirely different.

You hold the remote horizontally, steer by tilting, ollie, grab, grind and flip by pressing 1 and 2 with combinations of the d-pad, and you can slap people too.

But it does seem pretty good so far. I've managed to get 9 points (I think) out of the 16 required to complete something - it doesn't say what.

Bonk's Adventure

It's dangerous having all these Wii Points sat on my console, as I've downloaded another game. Another game I already own at least twice. Cue Nintendo "It prints money!" picture.

Anyway. It's great, but then, it always was, wasn't it? I've gone through the first world, and beaten up the end of world boss (who was easy).

Bomberman '93 (Wii)

Played through the first world of single player mode. Erm. There's not really much more to add, except it wasn't very hard and I only lost one life. The boss was easy too.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii)

OK, so now it's getting hard. I'm onto World 7 now, and have spent far too long trying to do the second level. The previous world (Cobolt Caverns) was also pretty difficult, although I did manage to complete two levels first time. And the boss was really easy.

I've noticed that it isn't really the same game as previous Monkey Ball titles, in that there's less "balancing on a thin platform" to do. That isn't a bad thing, it's just an observation.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii)

I've now worked through the first five worlds of the game. Still nothing especially taxing, except for the octopus boss at the end of the 5th world. He was a right pain, as it seemed to be entirely random as to where his tentacles would end up when he landed on the platform you're on, meaning you can't avoid being knocked off and into the sea. Anyway, killed him eventually, and moved on...

Bomberman '93 (Wii)

Another downloaded game, this. It's the PC Engine version of Bomberman '93, which I actually have for the PC Engine somewhere too. Tch, eh?

Anyway, so played several two player battle games with my wife, and won most of them.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Really need to finish up with this soon. It's just not fun any more, and I'm only going through the motions each time I play it.

K.K. Slider played me King K.K. today, no-one has moved out (or is trying to) and my notice board says there will be a snow blizzard tomorrow. Looks like winter is about to begin - and it was winter when I started playing. Come in AC, your time is up. Nearly.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Wii): COMPLETED!

How strange that the first game I complete on the my new Wii console, is the first console games I ever owned. Well, one of two - I got Altered Beast on the same day, but that doesn't count...

So I managed to make up for missing out on two Chaos Emeralds by carefully getting to the end of the remaining Acts with 50 or more rings, and got myself all six emeralds by the time I'd done Starlight Zone Act 2. Just as well - that's the last chance you get at trying for them.

And then I completed it. Although I've completed it about a million times before, this was the first time I've done it in at least a couple of years, and the first time with all the emeralds in even longer.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Wii)

Today, I are mostly bin playing this. And it's great. After the awful (and broken) Super Monkey Ball Adventure this really is a return to form.

At first, the control in the single player game was impossible. After a while I got used to it, and now it makes way more sense than a "normal" controller ever did. So I've completed all of the first four worlds so far. None of the levels have been especially difficult, although I've lost four or five lives on a couple. The bosses have been relatively straight-forward too.

I also played loads of the party games with my wife. Some are awful (like Monkey Golf - there is no consistent way of controlling it), but some are great (like the ladybird one, and ring toss).

Sonic the Hedgehog (Wii)

Played through a bit more this morning. I'm up to Act 1 of Labyrinth Zone now. Chaos Emerald hunting isn't going as well as I'd hoped - I've only got three so far.

Assorted Games (Wii)

I went and picked up my Wii this morning, and so much of the day has been spent playing on it. The verdict? It's ACES.

Firstly, I played Wii Sports and had a go with the baseball, tennis and boxing games. They're all pretty good, but boxing is sheer genius. You use the remote and the nunchuk as boxing gloves and actually punch and block with them. Amazing.

Had a few goes on the bowling game then, and lost to my wife who scored a staggering 178 points. Bah.

Then it was time for Wii Play. It's not really much more than a training guide for using the remote, but since it was only 5 quid more than a remote on it's own (it came with one, you see), it was worth getting. Billiards on there was by far the best.

After that, I put Rayman Raving Rabbids on. It's another game full of mini-games, most of which are totally bizarre. Made it through to the end of the second day, although I did have my Wii crash on me once.

Next up was Super Mario 64, which I'd downloaded for the Virtual Console. It's just like I remembered, and is over a million times better than the DS version due to having analogue controls. I've done the first star in each of the first two worlds so far.

Finally, I downloaded Sonic the Hedgehog for the Megadrive, also for the Virtual Console. Haven't played it much, but I'm through to the last Act of Marble Zone. And it seems you can save (or rather, suspend) your game! Excellent.

Viva Pinata (360)

My first job of the day was to become a Master Romancer for Pigxies, which didn't take long. I then named them all after people like Ringo Starr and Craig David and sent them to random people. After that, I tried and successfully managed to coax two Doenuts into the garden, and got romancing them (also becoming a Master Romancer for them). Sold most of them, and renamed and sent the rest to people.

I then smacked Seedos "upside the head" (which I'm told is the correct term for beating him with my spade) until he exploded.

Finally, I bought a second Moozipan and bred loads of them, making my third Master Breeder award for the day. I now have about 15 of those awards, am on Level 47, and am now going to embark on a Taffly breeding programme...

RoboBlitz (Demo) (360)

Hmm. This is clearly very impressive for a 50MB game (most of which I'd imagine is the Unreal 3 Engine it uses), and it's nice to have more original content on the Xbox Live Arcade service, but it isn't that fantastic a game. It's a bit puzzley, a bit platformy, and a bit smacky-shooty, but has control and camera issues.

So, nice to play for a while, but not worth the 1,200 points it costs, I don't think.

Viva Pinata (360)

Didn't play for very long today. Started a new garden, and filled it with grass. Also built a Pigxie house, emptied my four Pigxies into the garden, and romanced them a few times.

I'm also building a house for the Moozipan I have, and I'll be breeding some of them soon too, as well as trying to tempt a Doenut or two in...

Viva Pinata (360)

Having sold all my Swananas, and packed up and sent my Pigxies to myself (to put in another garden away from the Rashberry they keep fighting), I then concentrated on getting the Master Romancer awards for Cinnamonkeys (which didn't take long), and then Reddhotts, which was much faster than I expected too.

After that, I sold all my Reddhotts and set about breeding Salamangos, having evolved a couple of Newtgats into them.

Viva Pinata (360)

I posted lots of presents to people today. Mainly, it was pinatas I no longer wanted (like spare Cinnamonkeys and Pigxies), having renamed them to be members of Take That. I then set about breeding as many Swananas as I could, eventually getting the Master Romancer award for them.

I also got the achievement for completing 20 challenge quests too. ACES!

Assorted Amiga Games (Amiga)

Since I'd set my Amiga up today, I thought I'd have a play on some of the games I had installed on it.

First up was Brutal Homicide, a game my wife and I used to play all the time. It's sort of like a two player cross between Bomberman and The Chaos Engine. It used to be great fun, but I forgot you had to plug in a second joypad, so we didn't really get much out of it...

Then I played Marvin's Marvelous Adventure, which (Great Giana Sisters aside) is probably the closest to Super Mario Brothers the Amiga had. It's great. I played through until I got to the level called "Jump Exactly", where I died a few times and then recalled that it's from that point on that the game gets a bit hard, so I stopped playing.

I also played Top Hat Willy for a bit. It's probably my most played Amiga game of all time, and although I have the PC version too, it just never felt the same. I had a wander around the game world for a bit, but didn't even attempt to play "for real". I never did get more than 36% of the items...

Elite Beat Agents (DS)

Finally got back into this today, having finished some other games and stuff in the last couple of weeks. And it's still ace.

I'd previously only completed the one level on Hard, but I rattled through about 8 or 9 of them, including "ABC" which I unlocked. I also ranked up a couple of times too, and managed my first Perfect (on "YMCA"). Excellentia.

Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)

Really getting somewhat bored of this now, especially in the wake of Viva Pinata. It's not that VP is better, it's just newer and stuff. Probably.

So I visited K.K. Slider as usual for a Saturday night, and he played me Aloha K.K., which was actually pretty crap. It was also the flea market today, so I bought some stuff from my anteater since he had some stuff I hadn't seen before. Mallary is trying to move out too, but I don't think I care if she does or not.

Guitar Hero (PS2)

Went round a friend's today as it was his birthday yesterday. One of his presents was Guitar Hero, so I had a go. And I RAWKED, of course. Or not.

It's a bit bloody hard has you have to strum and press frets and waggle the wah-wah thing all together. But it is ACE.

Viva Pinata (360)

I bred another Pigxie today, and got fed up with all the fights they were causing, so sent them off to my wife, so she could send them back to me and I could put them in another garden where they won't cause problems.

I also bred loads and loads of Dragumflies (to the point where I got a Master Breeder Award for it), then sold them all. Bred loads more Swananas and Cinnamonkeys too, but haven't had an award for them yet.

An Elephanilla visited today too, as did a Galagoogoo. And a Roario. I've made an effort to get the Elephanilla to stay, but no joy yet...

Viva Pinata (360)

Got a few more achievements this evening, and also managed to prevent all Sours and nasties (like Dastardos and the Ruffians) from entering my garden by buying the remaining parts of the Tower of Sour and the required items to keep things at bay.

That certainly made things a lot more relaxed in the garden, until I mated my new Rashberry and a Swanana to make a Pigxie. Thos things are vicious towards their parents, attacking them all the time. They're also deformed as they have one leg shorter than the others and freaky faces. Nice.