PekoponTAS

If you enjoyed the ToeJam and Earl series, the third one was exclusive to the Xbox. I've heard very mixed things about it, but that's kind of typical for the entire series to be honest. I've always wanted a little more of an excuse to buy an Xbox so I can play it.

I'm not a big fan of Sonic 3, though I don't hate it either. I actually prefer playing Sonic 3 by itself rather than with the S&K cart attached, as the Sonic 3 portion of the game has all of the good levels. Even the carnival area becomes incredibly fun once you've learned the quickest paths. Sonic 3 is also the most visually stunning of the three, and looks gorgeous to this day. If we're talking Sonic 3 and Knuckles, I prefer playing the game as Knuckles so I don't have to do blue spheres to see the end of the story. Even still, I rated the game a 4 as I still think it's the worst of the original three games. I'll play through Sonic 3 if I'm doing a marathon of the trilogy, but I'll never play it in any other context. While I think Sonic 1 is better than Super Mario World, Sonic 3 is certainly no Yoshi's Island.

Yeah, a cook book. I have no idea who this person is, I just wanted to make that joke.

More Bandai Namco Wii games!

I finished We Ski and Snowboard 100%. It was an amazingly unique game that was really fun for a long time, but it got really exhausting in the final stretch. The original We Ski is primarily a skiing game, and it grades your performance on each course based on five separate categories. The rest of the game revolves around little missions that take you all around the mountain to do various things. Completing missions and getting S+ ranks on courses gives you star points, and the game is essentially over when you collect all 160 star points in the game. We Ski and Snowboard changes things up drastically where the star point system is replaced by the "Thumbs Up" system, and the ranking system is removed entirely. Thumb ups are awarded when you complete certain tasks across the two mountains. What makes We Ski and Snowboard so unique is that the every objective in the game is a total mystery, and you're expected to look around and try to discover them yourself. The objectives are split up into ten categories, usually with three objectives each. Some objectives have multiple instances of it, so discovering it in one spot will unlock a list of them in the records menus. Let's give a fake example and say that there's a category for Hungry Customer. At the start of the game the entire category would be listed as ???, but it would be revealed as soon as you get a thumbs up from one of the three objectives. If you discovered a restaurant somewhere on the resort, you'd get a thumbs up saying "Restaurant Patron 1/4", which lets you know that there are three other restaurants you have to track down. Now that you know the category is "Hungry Customer", you know to keep an eye out for food to try and discover the other two objectives. It's an extremely cool system, and it works amazingly well. For the first twenty hours of the game it was incredibly fun, and I was ready to declare We Ski and Snowboard the best game in the trilogy. Like any scavenger hunt though, it became a major pain towards the end. In total the game took me thirty-six hours to finish 100%, and I'd say the last thirteen hours were spent tracking down the last few things. It kind of soured the experience as a whole to the point where I feel like the original We Ski is still the best game in the trilogy. If you like open world games and can get past the motion controls, there's a ton to love about We Ski and Snowboard. I'm not a fan of open world games in general, but the thumbs up system set this one apart from so many others of its kind. I'll never play this game again, but it was one hell of a playthrough I'll never forget. Score another win for Bandai Namco on the Wii.

I've almost finished "We Ski & Snowboard" for the Wii. There's really nothing else like it, and it's been an incredible journey. I've put over thirty hours into it though, so I'm happy it's ending soon. There's too much to talk about with this game, so I'll just say it's a must own for the Wii. It does what Go Vacation does a lot better, but at the end of the day the original We Ski is still the best of the three games. If you can only pick one, get We Ski. If you want more, play We Ski & Snowboard. As impressive as Go Vacation is, I don't really recommend it due to its ridiculous size and lack of focus.

I finished the original We Cheer one hundred percent! It's not as robust as the second game in a lot of ways, but I think that's a good thing. I've also determined that the first game is a lot more responsive, though there were still a couple of songs that didn't work very well. I'm playing on a flat screen with input delay though, and I know that Wii Remote games are a whole other experience with no lag. (Which is to say they actually work.) The nicest thing about the original is that hard mode isn't as ridiculous as in We Cheer 2. We Cheer 2 is fun on normal and infuriating on hard, where the original is challenging on normal, and more challenging on hard. It makes the whole package a lot more fun to finish, not swaying to the extreme in either direction. Both games excel in different areas, but I think the original's gameplay is its strongest point. Both games are worth owning, but you should start with We Cheer 2 to practice the game's mechanics. After you've figured them out, go back and play the first one. These are the only two games in the series, so I've finished the series one hundred percent!

I never liked it when people say "Snez" all as one word, so I've always said each letter separately like I would for the NES. I usually say S.N.E.S or Super Nintendo. I agree that shmup is an annoying term. It's not that much harder to say or type shoot 'em up, and it just sounds and looks better. Whenever I see shmup I think of that Strong Bad joke where he says "people always have to abreeve everything."

I'm not so sure if I'll continue in my own thread, as it's more fun to post in here. As I've mentioned in a bunch of threads, I've been enjoying Bandai Namco's games for the Wii. The next barrage of arrivals will be centered around them, but here's some stuff from the last few weeks. I've been slowly rebuilding my collection of 3DS games, but I'm mostly sticking to first party releases this time around. Miitopia is genuinely great, and one of my favourite 3DS games. The Wii has been my main focus lately, but I won't sit and talk about every game in a ton of detail. Here are some bullet points though! Lost in Shadow: I bought it when it came out, but never got very far. I thought I'd revisit it. Wing Island: A mission based piloting game by Hudson. I've been enjoying their Wii games lately too. We Love Golf: A Camelot golf game without the Mario characters, so basically Hot Shots Golf. A Boy and His Blob: I also bought this when it came out and never finished it. I remember it being great. Cooking Mama World Kitchen: The best Cooking Mama! Mama is extra cute due to the 3D models. Tamagotchi Party On: A port of a Japanese exclusive Game Cube game. We Cheer: An awesome motion control cheer leading game. It has a high learning curve and skill ceiling. We Ski: An awesome skiing game with a high learning curve. I've already finished the game 100%. Active Life Extreme Challenge: This game uses a power pad-esque mat, but I don't have the mat yet. Active Life Explorer: Same deal as Extreme Challenge. This was a $90.00 system, and it came with an extra Wii remote and nunchuk, and a copy of Wii Sports. I needed to buy a Wii because the Active Life mat plugs into the Game Cube controller ports. The entire series is incompatible with the Wii U. On the bright side I'm going to save a bunch of time not having to bounce back and forth between the Wii U and Wii menus anymore. I don't think much will arrive for me next week, but the week after that should be pretty exciting.

Track and Field II is kind of underrated honestly. It's a really solid Konami game for what it is.

Here's another sillier one, but between the Game Boy Color, Sonic Colors, and Paper Mario Color Splash, I have to concede and spell colour as color more often than I'd like in order to be accurate. It's technically not gaming terminology, but it is something I had to give in to for the sake of games. The reverse is sometimes true too though, where I eventually give up on the fan terminology and start saying things properly. Over time I learned to stop saying "Wii-mote" and call it a "Wii Remote".

At times I have to concede to using the term "gameplay", even though it's the most simplistic and least descriptive term in the business. Every single aspect of game design contributes to the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that's watered down into one non-word. Sometimes it is just the easiest way to string a sentence together though. This is a brilliant thread. I'm sure I can come up with more, so I'll think about it.

I'm playing the original We Cheer; and despite it seeming worse than its sequel at a glance, the actual gameplay is more impactful and satisfying for a few key reasons. The most obvious reason is that the soundtrack is WAY better, which makes a mountain of difference in a music/dance game. There's also way less filler, so the game just flows better. The character creator isn't so robust that you want to use it between EVERY song, and the achievement system doesn't exist at all. For those of you who dislike achievement systems, you understand why that's a good thing. There are some subtle things too that give the game a lot of punch. Something as simple as the transition to the results screen can make a huge impact when it's pulled off with style. It makes the victories more exciting, and the failures more crushing. If anybody knew about these games at all, they'd be the kind of games that fans endlessly bicker over which one is better. The second game's good qualities are way easier to understand, but the original's more subtle good qualities are what fans would be infuriated trying to explain to people. Luckily for me nobody cares about these games, so you'll just have to take my word for it!

Judging by your username, you'd be a great help when playing the 3D Wave Race games. Welcome to the site!