Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)

Didn't play for long as my battery started to go flat. Did find a few more islands, and redid an earlier one to get some more Bronze Material so I could build a hovercraft. Well, so Tails could build it, but anyway.

With that, I found a couple more islands, and can see where I need to go next but didn't actually attempt to get there due to the battery thing - you don't want to be losing your game because the power goes off, do you?

MySims (Wii)

Or "MySims™" as the Wii's play log lists it.

Just played for about another hour or so, building stuff for people. Finished everything that DJ Candy and Sir Vincent wanted (a mixing deck and a sarcophagus respectively), and went round all my trees collecting fruit and flower essences. I then decided to demolish my house and rebuild it with the extra building blocks I now have, which are far more exciting than the ones I had built it with originally.

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)

After complaining about the backtracking and repeating levels thing on this game in ugvm, I got a reply saying that you don't need to redo levels so much, if you explore the map and find hidden islands, and do those instead.

So, armed with that advice, I set about finding hidden islands, which did indeed provide a larger quantity of Material needed to build things (in this case, a radio tower) than the proper "story" levels. I had to redo a few of them to get enough, but they're easier and shorter than the story levels, so that wasn't really a problem.

Hurrah, eh? That means the game instantly stops being crap and some of my former faith in the Sonic series has been restored! Only some mind - there's still all them horrid 3D ones...

Anyway. So with the tower built, and Johnny the Shark beaten a further three times (I have four Chaos Emeralds now), I found the next story island, the Ghost Ship one. And killed the far-too-easy boss at the end.

MySims (Wii)

Two Star Rating GET! Completed a few more tasks for Gino the Chef, and then moved in the bloke who runs the museum. A museum with very few exhibits, in fact, so I had to "create" some for him. Also built Poppy another flower stand.

For reaching two stars, I was given a saw, so I could get into the forest area. This gave me access to a few new trees (like the Rose and Orange trees - yes, I know roses don't grow on trees - try telling EA that) and some more areas for prospecting. Prospecting for bacon and cake, in fact. Amazing.

Heading back to the hotel to check for new people, I found a pile of them gagging to move into Cheese (the name of my town, just like in Animal Crossing). Moved three in, including "DJ Candy", a DJ who asked me to build "Club Candy" for her. Time to stop moving people in, and start completing tasks for them, I think!

Carcassonne (360)

Some of our games on this are now getting a little devious. Not only are we progressing onto nicking castles and roads from under each other's noses, but we're also planning ahead with hostile farm takeovers and castle completion sabotage with cunning use of roads.

I still won all the games we played this evening though. Tch, eh?

MySims (Wii)

With Super Paper Mario completed, I can move on to something else. Admittedly, this wasn't going to be the next game I was going to tackle, as I was planning on starting Bioshock, but I wasn't in the mood for shooty-watery-FPS-ness, and MySims was sat on the coffee table waiting for me...

So today, I progressed as far as gaining a One Star rating for the town. This was achieved by creating a podium for the Mayor (out of apples), building a new pizza resturant for the chef to move in to, and making lots of furniture for Poppy the flower shop owner and the chef. I also got a crowbar, which let me into The Great Video Game Mines, where I went prospecting for, well, video games. Amazing scenes.

Super Paper Mario (Wii): COMPLETED!

I've played a lot of games. And, in recent years, I've completed loads too - more than 150 in less than three years, in fact. That's all well and good, but plot twists and end boss "surprises" are becoming less and less, well, surprising. It's no real spoiler to say that the end boss, isn't actually the end boss as there's another boss afterwards. This is now The Done Thing with games these days, it seems.

Not that there's anything bad or wrong about this, it's just, well, expected now.

So Chapter 8 then. It's all (well, not quite all - see below) set in Count Bleck's castle, as you'd expect. A castle that throws pretty much everything at you. It wasn't difficult, but you do have pretty much every single puzzle and baddie in the game making a return. You also have a need for every character and almost every Pixl too, so it does give you that Nintendo feeling of "now use what you have learned!".

Sadly, there is The Great Big No of games. That's right - a SuckySuck(TM) bit. You have to fight several previous mini-bosses again. This is RUBBISH and LAZY and should be banned. In fact, it gets worse - there's also a SuckySuckPlus(TM) bit. That's a new term for something that happens in Super Paper Mario and a few other games (including, if I recall correctly, Paper Mario 2) - whole previous sections of the game are repeated, not just bosses. There's a rerun of a bit of almost every world in Chapter 8-3. For no reason!

DEAR GAME MAKERS: DO NOT DO THIS.

But, save that couple of irritations, Chapter 8 was good. There's a twist at the end (actually, two, but one was obvious from some point in Chapter 2), and the final boss was suitably bizarre. In all, the whole game was fantastic, with a few slight dips although nothing to ever ruin it. And certainly no "slide into crap" like some people have been suggesting.

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)

I have come across a major, irritating, and almost game-breaking problem with this game today. I couldn't progress yesterday as I needed to build a new boat. But I couldn't build a new boat as I didn't have enough of the required Material.

The solution? Play levels I'd already played before. Again. And again. Until I'd collected enough to carry on. How annoying!

Then I had to race a shark on sea bikes, and got a Chaos Emerald for my trouble.

Finally (for today), I completed another island and the squid boss, and then bumped into both Eggman (or not?) and Blaze the Cat. Look Sega - STOP PUTTING YOUR STUPID CHARACTERS IN SONIC GAMES. Sonic games should have Sonic, Eggman, and perhaps Knuckles and Metal Sonic. THAT IS ALL. No, not even Tails.

Super Paper Mario (Wii)

Chapter 7 DONE! One of the bits was slightly annoying as you had to re-do a section a couple of times, but it was short and easy so I didn't feel frustrated.

I've got all the heroes together now too, and I've found the 8th Pure Heart, so I'm close to the end of the game now. I'm almost 17 hours in, so I'm betting I'll be done by 20. That's a lot of hours for what is, basically, a platformer!

Sonic Rush Adventure (DS)

Let me just start with one statement: This is not as good as any of the Megadrive Sonic games, nor is it even on par with Sonic Rush.

However, it isn't bad. Strangely, it is both alarmingly fast (during actual levels) and painfully slow (the "adventure" chatty story bits) with some mid-speed boating inbetween. Yes, boating.

So far, I've played the first two "zones", beaten two bosses (a dinosaur, and a big robot with swing-ball set), and I have all the "Material" (about which Sonic says "I've never heard of this 'Material', which just sounds stupid...) needed for my next boat, and Tails says to ask him to make it, but there's no option to do so. So I'm stuck. Pff.

MySims (Wii)

Time quota critical! Game bail! Game bail! Wii explosion imminent! Abandon console!

I have hit the Giant Brick Wall of Too Many Games. In the last couple of weeks, I've had Super Paper Mario, Bioshock, Sonic Rush Adventure, Mario Party 8, Phoenix Wright 3 and now MySims all arrive. None are especially short. I don't have time! Gah!

Especially since I can see MySims becoming the huge time drain that it's spiritual ancestors The Sims, Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon were. And my wife likes it too, and we can't both play at once. Unless I get the DS version too... NO! BAD THOUGHT.

So the game then. I've only played it for about an hour (as someone wanted to play it...), so I've not got that far in. I built myself a house and a workshop, put together a new chair, collected some Essences (apples, mainly), fished a bit, and got my metal detector out for a bit of treasure digging.

Firstly, the bad: There's a lot of loading, but most of streams - this does make the Wii drive squeal a bit and makes the game a little jerky. The building process is a bit tricky too, as you need to be really careful with positioning things as they have a tendency to "snap to" other things.

The good: Oh, it is cute. Very cute. It's also frighteningly addictive.

Super Paper Mario (Wii)

Chapter 6 went all strange! And then I ended up in the Underwhere (no, not Underwear), where game characters go when they run out of lives. Amazing!

Anyway, I've managed to do all that, and now I'm onto 7-2, and am about 13 hours in. I think people have been saying 16 hours is about how long it takes to complete, so there's not a lot of game left now, sadly.

And I still don't understand those people who say the game gets worse as you get further in. Chapters 6 and 7 have been some of the best bits so far!

Super Paper Mario (Wii)

Hmm. I'm a little worried about spoilers now. I realise my last post on this did contain some minor spoilers (mainly only spoiling dialogue rather than plot), so I'll keep this brief.

I've made it all the way up to Chapter 6-2 now. Chapter 4 was set in space (and had a bit of a false start - play it and you'll understand) and had some side scrolling shooting sections. It was a bit of a dip after the genius of Chapter 3, but things went on the rise again with the modern Neanderthal rock-people themed Chapter 5.

And 6? Well, I had to kill 100 bosses. Or did I? Play and see!

Viva Pinata Party Animals (Demo) (360)

Downloaded this demo this morning and had a go. You know, I think the mini-game-tastic Wii has spoilt other mini-game titles somewhat. Just hammering buttons and stuff seems like a step back after the varied events in things like Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Mario Party 8.

It isn't bad, but there's something just not there with it. Oh, and the animals seem to be voiced by sound-alikes rather than the original voice actors, which makes it all the more... wrong.

Carcassonne (360)

My friend Ian came up for the weekend, mainly to help explode some concrete cluttering up my lounge, but this evening me, him and my wife played Carcassonne for a few games.

Of course, he had no idea how to play, so the first few games were somewhat hand-holdy (uh, not in that way), but once he'd grasped it, he then wiped the floor with us. That's the last time I explain all the rules to anyone. Bah.

Mario's Super Picross (Wii)

Just three more puzzles on Level 5 today, and then my eyes went wonky and I couldn't do any more. Pff.

Super Paper Mario (Wii)

OH. MY. LORD.

Chapter 3-4 is amazing, and one of the funniest sections of any game I've played ever. Francis the Nerd Chameleon is great, and his Nerd Castle is full of RoboCat maids and guards who give a, uh, frightening insight into Francis' personality.

And the castle security system is a robot cat, who won't allow you in to see Francis unless you're a "hot babe" (that'll be Peach then), and even then you have you agree with some of Francis' core values. Such as:



and...



Then, you get to take part in one of those bizarre dating sim games as a prospective partner for Francis:



See? AMAZING.

Super Paper Mario (Wii)

So, off into Chapter 3 (again having faffed around in town for ages, doing some cooking, exploring, talking to people, shopping, etc.) and again, it is ace.

I mean, what's not to like about a chameleon version of Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons who eats your Pixl-friend Tippi the moment you meet him? Amazing! And the graphics on this level - everything is giant pixels! And! There's a bit where a Koopa Trooper collects a star to make himself all 8-bit and huge, and then chases you, and you have to find a star and have an EPIC BATTLE (uh, you jump on it).

And! Bowser joins your party!

Assorted 360 Demos (360)

Wednesday is New Game On Xbox Live Arcade Day, and, in recent weeks, one of very few days when I actually turn my 360 on. I downloaded the trial version of today's "gem" - Geon, and a few game demos and gave them a go.

Geon
It's Pac-Man with two mazes, one on the back of the other, two players, and goal each. And some power-ups. I played for half an hour, and reached a stalemate position three times (neither I or the CPU player would budge, or the other would win). This shouldn't be allowed to happen. I won't be buying the full game as the actual concept of the game if crap anyway.

Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
Or, TMNT in different clothes and a two-player mode. It wasn't amazing, and the plot seems rubbish (Spider-Man teams up with assorted baddies to take on some other baddies in Tokyo - WHAT), but if I see it for a tenner I might give it a go.

Sega Rally
It's Sega Rally! Only new and shiny and you can actually feel the ruts in the road! But I'm crap and it's very slidey and not really my sort of thing. I can see that people who are into rally games will probably love it though. It certainly played better than Dirt, even if it is a lot more arcadey.

Super Paper Mario (Wii)

Sat and completed all of Chapter 2 today. Well, that and the half hour of wandering around the town of Flipside trying to find the next heart pillar, anyway.

It really is rather good, isn't it? I know Nintendo manage to take the rise out the Mario titles in just about every other Mario title they now make, but somehow, they always seem to do it just right. Super Paper Mario is no exception - the in-jokes are still funny, and there's plenty of them.

Chapter 2 was all about finding Merlee in her house, which had been turned into a factory full of slaves. I became a slave there too, and had to work off a debt of a million Rubees (more than a slight nod to Zelda's Rupees there) carrying out menial tasks. Now, some of the people of rllmuk (a forum I frequent) have been quite vocal about this particular part of the game, saying how the tasks were rubbish, boring, and took far too long. To that I say a) that's the point, and b) if it takes you more than 10 minutes to pay off the debt - you're doing it wrong. Seriously - there's a quick way.

Oh, and thanks for the warning from Luffer about the potential crash on 2-2. I actually already knew about it (as has the entire internet, it seems), but without spoiling anything, don't talk to Mimi on 2-2 again after talking to her the first time, until you have the key.

Bioshock (360)

It would appear that not only was Monday a "new game day", but today was too! Both this and Phoenix Wright 3 for the DS arrived from Play Asia today.

I didn't play Bioshock much, as I'm concentrating on Super Paper Mario at the moment, but I wanted to make sure it worked since it's the NTSC-J version that Play Asia are selling.

Imagine my horror when it didn't work. I put the disc it, it started to load, and then a message came up telling me that in order to play the game I needed to put the disc in an Xbox 360 console. Oh noes!

Luckily, removing the disc and putting back in again and all was well. Phew!

And it is, of course, ace. I played through the same bit that was in the demo, and found it much easier going. Apparently, this is because they filled the demo with extra splicers to make it a bit more exciting. It certainly feels less like a FPS and more like an exploration-game-with-combat title, which is a Very Good Thing.

And the water is still gorgeous.

Super Paper Mario (Wii)

Hurrah for Mondays when new games arrive!

I knew this was more "action" based than Paper Mario 2, but I was still surprised to find it so different. Not in a bad way - just, well, different. And everything is so much flatter than in Paper Mario 2, especially when you flip into 3D. Yes, I realise that makes no sense.

So I've completed all of the first chapter, taking just over an hour an a half. I have to say, the dialogue is excellent. Nastasia (who appears to be Count Bleck's PA) is amazing, and Fracktail ("fractal", get it?) has some hilarious lines. And when he's scanning? His eye does the Wii Virtual Console "please wait" spinning ring thing. Genius! And Watchitt! He was great too.

The only thing I'm slightly concerned about is that I get the feeling I'm going to have a load of pixls following me around. I've already got two...

Carcassonne (360)

Just the one go on this with my wife, as my eyes were starting to fail me (a combination of dust/soil/pollen/spider webs from today's Big Gardening Adventure and Mario's Super Picross). That doesn't mean I didn't win though, as I did.

When is the next expansion pack out? We really need it now, I think.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD (360)

My wife was not impressed with today's performance on SPFIITHD. We played 8 matches, and I won them all, as Ryu each time.

Since realising you can press Up on the D-pad to instantly drop blocks (rather than Down which drops them quickly) I've been able to improve my skillz somewhat.

Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels (Wii)

At first I thought "Hang on, isn't this supposed to be hard?" as I got to 2-2 without losing a life or even finding it particularly tricky. Sadly, there's a bit in the middle of 2-2 which seems totally impossible. So I lost all my lives. Bah.

Mario's Super Picross (Wii)

That's all of Level 4 done. And, since Level 4 was the last level, I thought "only the Wario Levels to go now!". Only, of course, I was wrong - I unlocked Levels 5, 6 and 7. Um.

Anyway, completed most of the Level 5 puzzles. Still no Nintendo ones though.

Mario's Super Picross (Wii)

Finished all of Level 3 and have done a few puzzles on Level 4. Still no really hard ones yet, and I'm slightly disappointed that there haven't been any Nintendo-themed puzzles either. Still ace though!

Mario's Super Picross (Wii)

Picross is ace. Mario is ace. So Mario's Super Picross has to be acetwice, yes? Yes! And it is!

Downloaded it for the Wii Virtual Console this afternoon (along with Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels) and completed all the puzzled on Level 1 and Level 2. Nothing hard yet. Also unlocked Wario's Super Picross in the process, although I'm not sure how I managed that.

Call of Duty 4 Beta (Demo) (360)

I hate soldier games. Almost all of them. I didn't like any of the other Call of Duty games, nor did I like any of the Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Battlefield or Medal of Honour games. And FPSes are not really my thing, generally, anyway.

But, getting on a beta is a special thing, so when I got a code to join up, I thought I should at least do Ubisoft the service of giving it a go.

Wish I hadn't though. Urgh.

It's jerky. It's laggy. Starting a game from the lobby takes aaaages. And, like all of these deathmatch games, unless you put in a million hours of play, you die within seconds of respawning as everyone else can do headshots from miles away and you can barely even hit them, let alone pick out a bodypart.

I did my best to get into it, and yes, I am crap, but it just felt exactly the same as all the other games of its kind. I don't think I'll be bothering any more.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (360): COMPLETED! AGAIN!

Only this time with less emeralds (none, in fact - I didn't even try) and more speed (achievements for completing Chemical Plant 1 and the whole game quickly - GET!).

I then had a go playing online in VS mode. Oh dear. Whoever hosts, wins. This seems to be a common thing with these Sega XBLA games (see also Streets of Rage 2). If you're not hosting, there's a second delay between pressing a button and the action being carried out. This makes the main VS levels really difficult to win as you can't time jumps properly, but makes the VS Special Stages impossible as you also have the handicap of being Tails, who starts behind Sonic. Rubbish.

Timeshift (Demo) (360)

Another day, another FPS with a "gimmick". Timeshift's gimmick is, as the name suggests, the ability to shift time. A bit. You can slow time, stop time for a couple of seconds, or reverse time (which didn't seem to do anything when I tried it). Aside from that, this just seems like a very generic shooter. It wasn't awful: being able to blow up and shoot away walls was great, and there were a few puzzles where you have to stop or slow time to make things behave differently so you can pass, but lack of a map to see where you're going and dark and drab locales don't make me like it all that much.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (360): COMPLETED!

Seeing as I'd left Sonic "parked" on Wing Fortress, I wasn't surprised to finish this almost immediately after starting to play it today. Super Sonic made short work of the boss at the end of Wing Fortress, and Metal Sonic and Eggman proved to be no challenge at all.

However, although I got the achievement for completing the game, I need to go back and do it again, only more quickly! There's an achievement for doing Chemical Plant 1 in under 45 seconds, and another for doing the game in under an hour. It should be easily gettable, it's just I spent so long hunting rings on this run through that I spent way too long on it.

Assorted 360 Demos (360)

Yes, time again to catch up on some demos that I've downloaded recently...

Cyberball 2072
Rubbish. Hated it on the Megadrive, and although this is a conversion of the superior arcade original, it's still rubbish. American Football games are all crap, and this one adds crap robots to double how crap it is. Amazing.

Fatal Fury Special
Hmm. It's not awful, but with Street Fighter II and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 already available on XBLA, it isn't really wanted. The Fatal Fury games never really got good until they morphed into King of Fighters, so I'll wait until that gets an airing.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (360)

Made it up to Wing Fortress without too much difficulty. In fact, the only times I died were due to Super Sonic kicking in and then the floaty-slidey nature of his jumps causing me to fall down holes and stuff. Tch.

Wing Fortress isn't going too well either, as I keep having to lose my rings on purpose in order to not become Super Sonic!

Carcassonne (360)

You know, I do play this a lot more often than I normally report on. It's a regular "a couple of goes before bed" game.

Anyway, played two rounds with my wife, and won both. I always seem to score badly through the game as she picks up huge castles and long roads, and then make a killing with carefully planned farms.

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (Demo) (360)

Oh my! First skate. and now this! Amazing!

Firstly, let me just say one thing: TONY HAWK AND SKATE ARE NOT THE SAME TYPE OF GAME. It really annoys me when people say that TH games are redundant now that skate. is here, and it does everything TH games should have done long ago. This is not true. Tony Hawk's Proving Ground is, like all TH games, an arcade game. skate. is a simulation.

Like how Gran Turismo isn't Outrun 2. Or how Cannon Fodder isn't Ghost Recon.

I loved the skate. demo. But I also love the THPG demo. There is room for both. I will buy both, in the same way I have bought both Bioshock and Mercury Meltdown Revolution. Anyway. Rant over.

I like the three playing styles (hardcore, career and rigger), and thing the new Nail-The-Trick extensions are great too. The only slight niggle in my head is that it seems to be moving back towards Tony Hawk's Underground territory, and I'm not sure that was a great alley to be walking down. You even have a rival called Eric - just like THUG and THUG2. Hmm.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (360)

It was only fairly recently that I completed this for the Wii. So why get it for the 360 as well? Because it's Sonic, of course! (NB: Rule of "It's Sonic, of course!" does not apply to Sonic Heroes, Sonic and the Secret Rings or Sonic the Hedgehog 3D)

So I've managed to complete Chemical Plant Zone, having nabbed all the Chaos Emeralds before the end of Chemical Plant 1. It really helps not having picked Tails to accompany me. Stupid fox. PUNCH HIM. No lives lost yet either.

It, obviously, is the same as the Wii version, only with slightly wonky controls (the 360 pad isn't a patch on the Classic Controller) and over sensitive steering on the special stages. But ace!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Wii): COMPLETED!

Picked up the final Chaos Emerald on the first Marble Garden level, and then went on to complete the game!

I only died once, and annoyingly it was a completely avoidable crusher on the very last level. How irritating!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Wii)

I actually bought this on the Wii's Virtual Console on Friday when it was released, but apart from a very brief play, I didn't really get into it right away.

Today, though, I made a proper start on it (which involved deleting my saved state data, as the display was shaking horrifically, in the same way it does with Kid Chameleon, but it's OK now), and by the end of the second act of Hydrocity Zone I'd already managed 6 of the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Ace!

Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Wii)

It's a bit tricky now, it seems. Having finished all of the 4th lab, I'm now onto the 5th (the Geo Lab, I think), and it's a big step up. Amongst other things, so far I've had to navigate hundreds of angled conveyors, and split a blob into three and keep a track of all of the bits.

However, I have unlocked all of the "party" games (I say "party" as, although that's what the game calls them, they're all single player only!) now, and played each of those for a bit. The Paint one was OK, but got dull after 8 or so levels, the Metris one is just rubbish and Race is alright, but being single player (with no CPUs to race) makes it seem pointless.

Mario Party 8 (Wii)

It seems an hour and a half is the going rate for a two-player game of this. Today's board was "Koopa's Town", or something named similarly, and was somewhat different to any of the other boards I'd played (even on previous Mario Party games). You see, there are hotels along the board, and as you pass them, you invest coins in them. Whoever has the most coins invested, owns the hotel.

However, if the total number of coins invested (by all players) in a hotel is less than 20, the owner gets a star. 20-50 coins, and two stars. 50+ coins, three stars. And I expect there's more too. Things get interesting when one player owns (for example) a two-star hotel as the sole investor and 25 coins invested. Then, someone else comes along, invests 26 coins, and not only gains ownership, but three stars, AND the previous owner LOSES two stars! Then the original owner can just invest two more coins to become owner again! It was star-tennis galore today!

I came second, and my wife first this time, although, like previously, the outcome could have been entirely different on just the final dice roll.

Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Wii)

I'm now half way through the 4th lab (Electro Lab, I think), and things are getting difficult now. There are things chasing me, blocks that move that I have to block the path of to get them to go the way I want, but they leave a trail of slime that kills me, and levels where I have to direct two lots of blobs at once are becoming more common.

I've unlocked all bar one of the party games now too!

Sega Classics Collection (PS2)

This was just £10 in HMV today, and as I looked at the back and realised that Tant-R seemed to be, in fact, the western version of 2DO Arukotowa Sandoahru - something I didn't know existed - so I bought it.

Went through most of the games giving each a quick play. They're a real mixed bag, with some (such as Tant-R and Virtua Racing) being little more than ports of the originals, whereas Golden Axe is a full 3D remake (although sadly, crap, as the levels are too long and the baddies repetitive) and Outrun seems to be somewhere between the two.

Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Wii)

Just in time to fill the Resident Evil 4-shaped void in my Wii drive slot, Mercury Meltdown Revolution arrived this morning. If you want it yourself, it's a bargainlicious £14.99 at Shopto.net at the moment.

I was expecting more of the Super Monkey Ball/Kororinpa thing with this, but it doesn't feel like them at all. In fact, it's more puzzles and less steady-hand, and you even hold the remote 90 degrees left from those other two games. Many of the puzzles revolve around you splitting your mercury blob up, colouring each part a different colour, then merging them to form a third colour, which is totally different to the other ball-steering titles.

So far, I've done the tutorial, all of the first "lab" (world, basically), and half of the second lab. I've also unlocked the Rodeo minigame, so played that a bit, and messed around in the playground for a bit. Seems pretty ace so far!

Resident Evil 4 (Wii): COMPLETED!

Seems the truck bit wasn't so difficult in the end, although I had virtually no ammo by the end of the first part of the run, so the second bit was done almost entirely with my knife. Soon, Ashley got kidnapped for the 26536th time, and I had to fight with "It" in some caves.

With almost no ammo.

Then there was another "boss" fight: Krauser - who I'm guessing made an appearance in another Resident Evil game that I haven't progressed very far in. This fight took almost an hour on its own, as he seemed to have stacks of health. Although I'd picked up a pile of ammo before reaching him, I used almost all of it up on him, and so when I reached a stronghold full of infecteds I had none left. Thankfully, Mike in his chopper showed up to give me a hand.

Eventually, I found Ashley again (but not much more ammo), and had to kill two of those huge armoured blokes with big axes using a knife and some flash grenades. Amazing. Then... Saddler! The end of game boss, who was actually pretty easy. Partly because I had so many health items (6 sprays, 6 G+Y+R herb combos, and loads of green herbs, as well as a few eggs), and partly because I'd wisely kept my Broken Butterfly ammo. Oh, and Ada's rocket launcher helped a little, of course.

Game winned! And very ace it was too.

Mario Party 8 (Wii)

Another game tonight, this time on the King Boo level. Waluigi won this time though, nabbing the "proper" star just before I got the "hidden" star twice, resetting the castle and sending us back to the start. Bah!

After that, we played the bowling and puzzle mini-games.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Finally managed to complete Chapter 5-1, and bought another rifle (just to get some more ammo, really). The rifle came in useful though, as I'd found a scope that let me see the weak spots in the slow moving but nasty spiky recovering things.

Now I've got Ashley following me again. Joy. There was also a strange bit where we had to escape down a rubbish chute - the same one I previously chucked baddies down to kill them. So why didn't we die? Tch.

So, with 5-2 well underway, I died trying to fend off baddies from the back of a big truck driven by Ashley. Another truck crashed into us. Pff.

Mario Party 8 (Wii)

This arrived today, and my wife and I played one game on it this evening. A game that took an hour and a half! That's a bit of a stretch compared to our usual games of Carcassonne and Puzzle Fighter.

We played the "Goomba's Booty Boardwalk" course over 15 turns, and, of course, I won. However, I only won because of the outcome of the final turn, which could have caused any of three of us to win.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Chapter 5-1 is the longest chapter evaar. FACT.

I've wandered round the outside of the island, gained entry to a research lab, killed loads of baddies that can re-grow body parts, found Ashley (again) but can't reach her yet, and have almost run out of ammo far too many times. I've taken almost two hours on this chapter alone (more than twice as long as any previous chapter), and it still isn't over yet.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

OK, so I've completed Chapter 4-4 (that's all of 4 done now), and I'm out of the castle. There was a huge Salazar statue that (as suspected) "came to life" and chased me, then there was a climb up a huge tower, complete with Donkey Kong homage, and finally a fight with Salazar and his "other" hand man, who combined with a big slimey thing.

Well, I say a fight, but in reality it was easy. I stood still, went for the weak spots with my Broken Butterfly, and after about 6 hits he was dead. I didn't even get hit. Or nearly hit. In fact, he didn't even appear to attack. Amazing.

After all that, the woman in the red dress (Ada?) appeared again and gave me a lift across to an island for Chapter 5-1, some of which I played but died before getting to a save point.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Two more chapters down, don't know how many to go because they're not consistent when it comes to the numbering...

Anyway, I seem to have ended up in some mines. With (dahn dahn daaaaahni!) a mine cart "level"! I'm also horribly short of ammo (although health is doing fine), and was so short on space I've sold my TMP and shotgun, but bought a Striker (which is better than a shotgun, but smaller). I seem to have a million grenades.

Oh, and I had to kill loads of flies on a section that reminded me of the underground hives on Earth Defence Force 2017, and kill not one, but two giants, although I dropped one into a fiery pit. Now, I seem to be entering another castle. Or the same one, again?

Gauntlet (360)

There's a sale on at XBLA at the moment (although it's only two days long), with Gauntlet reduced to just 200 points. Rude not to, eh?

It's a lot harder than I recall. So hard, in fact, that in single player I think Level 8 is impossible, with Questor at least. You can continue as many times as you like, but you're returned to the start of the level rather than just carry on. I know this is probably how it worked in the arcade, but it's not this way either on the Spectrum, nor on Gauntlet IV on the Megadrive, both of which I've spent millions of hours on.

However, I've managed to get the achievements for high scores for each character, and then set about playing online. This makes things much easier, and I soon picked up the "Bling" (collect 10 chests) and the Anti-Thief (uh, kill a thief) achievements. Unfortunately, I was playing with idiots for most games, and so didn't complete Level 10 for another achievement.

On the occasion when I wasn't playing with idiots, the three other guys were all Japanese. I suspect they're the three Japanese Xbox 360 owners. They were good, but on Level 8 there's a warp where you have to press down on the pad to direct your rematerialisation to be below the "receiving" warp, otherwise you go round in circles. Sadly, they couldn't figure this out, and so the discussion went along the lines of:

Me: Uh, Warrior wa nihonjin desu ka (Warrior is Japanese?)
Them: Hai! Wa-re-o-ru! (Yes! Warrior!)
Me: Um, you need to press down
Them: [something I can't understand]

Warrior then warps incorrectly.

Me: Iie! (No!)
Them: Yoshu desu ne! (I have no idea what this means)
Me: Down! Puresu dawonu!
Them: Wakaranai! (I don't understand, as in, that's what he said)
Me: Down!

And so on. Eventually, Warrior warps, but in the mean time the other two have died. Then we all got to Level 10 and died because no-one knew where to go. Gah!

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD (360)

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Fun Fact #1: Completing "Y" Mode on Hard is impossible. In fact, just defeating the first character is impossible.
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Fun Fact #2: Getting the "destroy a 25-gem block in Arcade Mode" achievement is also impossible, as if you play it on Easy or Normal, the CPU character dies before you get there, and if you play on Hard or Expert, you die before you get there.

Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Ah! I have keeeeled heeeem. Mainly by luck rather than skill, as he had his back to me at the beginning and so I could blast the plagas thing on it quickly to see him off. I then had to deal with some monks around the outside of the cage, but they were easy.

Eventually, I found Ashley again, protected her from some more monks, and then had to play a whole chapter as her. The Ashley Chapter was pretty rubbish, as she had no weapons at all and basically just had to run and hide a lot. And throw lanterns at things. And press switches a lot. And run from suits of armour that came to life. Ho hum. She was reunited with Leon soon enough though.

But not for long. Some giant fly things nabbed her. Tch.

And then I fell in a big hole, and had to kill Salazar's right hand man (oh, there was a joke in the dialogue about Salazar's hand being detachable) who was nails, until I realised what the liquid nitrogen canisters were for... Chapter completed!