OK – a few days on, and I’m forcing myself to write again. How’s my progress going?
Lumines Live – unlocked a bunch of skins (currently at 82%, what with the Base, Advanced, VS CPU & Puzzle packs), and managed to loop Advanced in Challenge Mode for a decent score of 457,000. My 60 second Time Attack is stuck at 57, though… well off the pace. Really enjoying Lumines, though, even though my Challenge Mode games are usually over an hour apiece; there’s a whole lot of blinking later in the game when my eyes have dried out from the staring :}
Geometry Wars – no real progress, though I did have one pearler of a game that yielded a first-life score of 425,000-ish (another two seconds and I would’ve netted that ninth life, but no, I had to run straight at that black hole, didn’t I? Idiot). The big problem with Geommie Wars – apart from the fact that I’m crap at it – is that it’s very hard for me to start a second game. Going from the frenetic late-game stages back to the start is so jarring it almost dooms the subsequent game.
Stranger’s Wrath – didn’t play it.
Phantom Hourglass – another few days away from home with work presents another perfect opportunity to belt this around. I’m now two-thirds of the way through the second “half” of the game – you know what I’m talking about, right? – and managed to have a blissful moment in the airport. To my left was a young girl, maybe twelve, playing Nintendogs on her white DS. To my right, a boy – about the same age – playing something D-pad-centric on his black DS. And there’s me, a fat dishevelled bloke in his late thirties, grinning like an absolute fucking loon because I just figured out how to deal with Gleeok, the Two-Headed Dragon, by scribbling madly on my little white screen. Some mad tapping battles raised some eyebrows on the flight, too.
The big winner, though, has been Super Mario Galaxy. 96 stars now, and they’re starting to get pretty damn devious. I left an infuriating bunny hunt to come write this, and I hear their little bunnyish snickers haunting me now, the bastards. SMG is obviously very polished, and a hell of a lot of fun to play… but Game of the Year material? Hardly.
Game of the Year, eh? There’s a thought for another entry…