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!

I always love when people say Pokemon isn't really a JRPG, considering it's the most successful JRPG series for not doing the same thing as every other JRPG. I know you're not saying this so don't take it the wrong way, but I think a lot of JRPG fans resent Pokemon for being a JRPG so successful that it broke genre barriers and became the most mainstream thing around. The fact that it doesn't follow the conventions of most other JRPGs makes those other series look bad in comparison, as it shows that the RPG formula that fans love so much isn't a very popular thing. Most other JRPG series are still pretty niche all things considered, so Pokemon tends to get a lot of people feeling a bit put out and frustrated.

I had always been curious about Tales of Symphonia when I was younger, but my mom got rid of our Game Cube before it came out because my brothers and I argued over Smash Bros. too much. I'm planning to play a few of the games since I've been playing Namco's Wii games lately. I'm planning to start with Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, and then eventually go back and play the one on Game Cube. I know that's doing it out of order, but I genuinely like jumping on to a series I've never touched out of order. I used to do it unintentionally, but these days I always do it on purpose since there are some fun unique benefits to doing so. Eventually I'd also like to get Tales of Graces on PS3, since it was originally a Japanese exclusive Wii game. Those are likely the only three I'll end up playing though.

I cut a lot out of the post because it was too wordy, so I guess it sounds odd the way I left it. XD What I mean by We Ski being a good example of less is more is that each sequel doubled the amount of content in the game, and yet the more minimalist original is the most fun to just sit down and finish. The original We Ski has one mountain for you to explore, and you traverse exclusively on skis. We Ski and Snowboard has two mountains to explore, and obviously snowboards were added in. The control scheme was also made to be more robust, but it over complicates an already complicated control scheme. Go Vacation has FOUR much larger resorts than the previous two games, with each resort representing a different season. Each resort has multiple vehicles, there are fifty mini-games to play, finishing each mini-game 100% unlocks items for your private villa, (which is a fifth area in the game) there are hidden achievements in each resort that unlock really cool items for your villa, each resort has seven hidden treasure chests, and there are dog companions you can bring to each resort. Go Vacation is a technical marvel for the system, but it got out of hand. I obviously like it as I've played it for over twenty hours, but the smaller scale We Ski is better for focusing on one thing and making it fun.

I bought the original We Ski at a game store and sat down and played the entire game 100% in one sitting. (With breaks of course) It took me nine hours, and I loved every second of it. I've always been a firm supporter of less is more when it comes to video games, and the We Ski series is probably the best example I could ever point too to demonstrate that point. We Ski is such a small scale game compared to We Ski & Snowboard, and it's absolutely tiny compared to Go Vacation. While Go Vacation is good at what it does, it doesn't do it as well as what We Ski succeeds at. We Ski has an enormous learning curve due to its motion controls, and I only picked it up so quickly because I had been playing Go Vacation for a week prior. It's a massive hurdle to get past, but once you understand how it all works it's extremely fun to do, and it would be way less enjoyable if it just controlled normally. I'm still working on Go Vacation, but We Ski was a really nice break from the slower paced exploration of Go Vacation. Looking forward to We Ski & Snowboard showing up too.

I've been playing Go Vacation on the Wii. It's an open world resort game, but also a mini game collection. While the mini-games are surprisingly good for a mini game collection, it's the open world resort part that's more interesting to me. The game is kind of a technical marvel considering it's on the Wii, and I have no idea how they got it running at all. What I found out tonight though is that the previous games in the series didn't have the mini games at all, and were focused more on the open world aspect. We Ski only has the snowy mountain location, but it grades you on skiing in a way I wished it did in Go Vacation. Go Vacation does have the benefit of doing everything it can to make you fall in love with the Miis though, which I had never had an interest in before this game. I gotta make some Miis I can use as main characters for the We Ski series.

Now that I'm done with the Wii U, I thought I'd go back and look at the Wii again. I've already been playing the Wii alongside the Wii U anyway, so it's an easy switch to make. Like I mentioned in the post above, I've been really enjoying Namco's games on the Wii and Wii U, and I want to look into them a little more. This is where I'll be starting a new approach to collecting this year. I'm normally always looking at as many games and companies as possible to have more to play, but this year I'm going to focus on one thing at a time, and finish it without bouncing around too much. So for the next couple of months I'll be focusing on all things Namco for the Wii. In order to make this all happen though, there are some big purchases that need to be made. First of all I need to buy a Wii to go with my Wii U, as the Active Life games use an accessory that is incompatible with the Wii U. I won't delve too far into the other thing yet, but I'll say that it's something I haven't owned in a very long time, and I'm really excited for it.

I now have all of the Wii U games I want, and sold off the ones I didn't want. Here's the set!

I didn't forget! I was just busy today. Steel Diver I enjoy Steel Diver, but I've never finished it before. It's not a great game, and in order to beat all of the stages you have to replay the first bunch a few times. I recently mentioned how in Tank! Tank! Tank! this wasn't a big deal since it's a much easier game, but Steel Diver is a lot more calculated and difficult. Playing through some of these stages once is plenty for me, so going through them all again with the other subs is not something I've ever felt like doing until now. Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon I wish I liked this game, but I can't stand it. The original Luigi's Mansion is such a flawless game, and I love it more than anything else on the Game Cube. It's in my all time top five games, and I think it's a masterpiece. I won't bore you with the details as to why though. Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon treats the series like a lighthearted Scooby-Doo mystery, and is such a bore that Nintendo of America didn't have the confidence to actually label it as the real sequel. (Though it is labeled as such elsewhere) I honestly don't think it has anything going for it, but I've always wanted to go back and finish it. I've had a lot of success with Bandai Namco lately, as I loved We Cheer 2, Go Vacation, (Wii version) Tank! Tank! Tank!, and am currently enjoying Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2. I played a couple of stages The Munchables and enjoyed it, though it's similar to other Namco games where it won't light your world on fire. It's just a simple little game that's a lot of fun. In other news I'm now 100% happy with my Wii U collection, and I'm considering it finished. I ended up with 25 games, all of which I enjoy to some extent. I've played a good deal more than what's pictured, but I ended up selling those games off for various reasons. I think 25 is a nice number, and I'll definitely play through all of these games to the end. See you next Sunday!

I guess that's an interpretation, but I'm not oblivious either. I still think The Legend of Zelda Tri Force Heroes sucks, and there's an absolute crap ton I love about that game. I'd love to defend that game, but I can't consider its gameplay good in any way. I'm pretty open about making fun of the games I love too. I think Ecco the Dolphin is the absolute best game on the Genesis, but I won't go out of my way to pretend it's not extremely frustrating and horribly designed.

There are many M rated series I've watched and enjoyed on Youtube, but would never want to play. I love me some Uncharted, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Devil May Cry and Bayonetta in video form, but I would never want to play those games as they're just genres I don't care about. I played and loved the first two Parasite Eve games, because the real time RPG combat was just a good idea and it was fun.