dartmonkey

Finished A Link Between Worlds. Really enjoyed it. After disappointment with A Link To The Past last year, this was the game I wanted the original to be. Perhaps it's the result of it being a portable game designed for shorter play sessions, but it feels lean and trimmed where Link to the Past felt bloated after 20 years. Back then the trek across the map on a television probably felt epic whereas now it gets wearisome. That overworld theme got repetitive but here you spend less time in the field and the orchestrations really transform them - there's fantastic music throughout.The shorter dungeons were perfect for handheld sessions and even if I only had 5 minutes on the bus, there was always something useful I could do in that time. Great controls, fluid 60fps, 3D so good that I never turned off - I felt like I was missing out without it. And So basically what everyone else has said. A brilliant game which has made me excited for Zelda again.

Windu worked wonders with a foot massage.

Shit. So it's not some last minute deal I've managed to charm out of them - it's an alteration fee plus the original ticket price. The game doesn't communicate that very well. Or I'm just an idiot. No, that should have been communicated better. To idiots.

Arnie has put in a some great performances and a few real turkeys. The cameo in the first Expendables is one of the worst things I've ever seen on film. It's like when someone films you and asks you to walk for the camera. Suddenly you can't walk normally. Think it's called 'acting' and Arnold gets rusty when he doesn't do it for a while. A few of the lines in this seem a bit forced but otherwise I quite enjoyed that trailer. Salvation couldn't set the bar much lower. Stealing from or invoking T1 and T2 has to be a good thing after that, no? Anyone think they'll try a CG Robert Patrick cameo? Otherwise, my only first impression negatives are: Obvious CG endo shooting laser gun. Obvious CG back and shoulders of the 80s Terminator. Kyle Reese looks 'bland generic Hollywood pumped' as opposed to the wiry fighter he was.

Mario Kart 8 is pretty excellent. Certainly wins Best DLC. Dark Souls 2 would have to be up there, though I burned out on it a bit. The co-op side was totally unexpected and wonderful. Crossy Road is a late entry as the only game to make me envious of my wife's iphone 6. Makes my lowly 4 look like I'm playing on a VMU. But the Capital V, Capital G award for Best Video Game goes to Bayonetta 2. It's like a glorious video game simulator, that thing. Special mention to Monument Valley. My Old Game of the Year (MOGOTY) would be Ghostbusters. Low expectations may have helped, but I had such a great time with it. Harold Ramis died a couple of days after I finished it and for several days I was in a melancholy nostalgic funk. It's exactly the romp you want with those characters. All the voices, looks great. Nothing not to like. Edit: to add 2014 games I haven't got to yet but think I'll like: Transistor, Jazzpunk, Shovel Knight, Captain Toad. 2nd edit: Sportsfriends! Persuaded me to buy 6 Move controllers - must be goty material!

I'm assuming Nelson was an assassin and didn't really die at Trafalgar and has to get the Victory back to Britain and up the Thames from his hiding place inside a barrel of navy rum. And then his descendent in Victorian London has to find some relic buried under Nelson's Column. Shit writes itself. I've never played a Creed game, apart from 20 mins of II in Venice which looked amazing when it came out. I've never been inclined to jump in, and all the Animus baggage looks heavy. I'm not keen on Ubisoft's sweatshop-style conveyor belt approach to designing these games either. I might try Black Flag for my Wii U if I see it cheap. Would that be a good idea I I were only to play one?

Perhaps I'm misremembering, I just recall that episode being disappointing and Homer becoming more irksomely dickish than endearingly oafish. There were a few smirks but it was a wasted opportunity. I also remember the 'buzz' around a mystery main character's death and then discovering it was Maude. Not Grampa. Not Santa's Little Helper. Not even Barney or Moe. Maude 'Megaton' Flanders.

Bah, I'm done with 80 Days. Three times now I've been planning a route, negotiated a reduced price for passage somewhere, paid and then when I return in 2/3 days time it says I can't afford the fare, despite my money having been taken! Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I think the UI could be a little clearer. I'm in Port-au-Prince, day 96ish, penniless.

When did Maude die? That was the first time I thought Homer was a complete dick. The lobster one was patchy I think. I'm about a decade behind.

Just tried Sonic Adventure for the first time in many many years. Blimey. I quite like the character models (when their jelly jaws aren't moving). And that's about the only good thing I can say about it. It's interesting to me how comprehensively they wiped away what I'd consider the main components of the games (precise control, flowing level design that allows for speed, colourful diverse environments and catchy electro-funk music) in the step to 3D. The opening cutscene very literally washes it all away with a tidal wave through a grey human city. Perhaps it's to do with the long gap between Sonic & Knuckles and this and the aborted projects in between, but...blimey. What a load of rubbish.

Okay, late to the party but I got MK on Friday. This first pack is off the hook! I was grinning like an idiot on Hyrule Circuit. On top of all the myriad touches and considerations, I really like the approach they've taken with this DLC specifically. The core game is Mario Kart as it's always been with a few new options (the multiplayer match editing options are very welcome), but they're opening it up with the DLC for people who want it, mixing obvious fan service with marketing strategy in an interesting way. For example, with no F-Zero on the horizon, Mute City is a cool nugget for fans, whereas Link and the Hyrule track (and the upcoming AC pack) also theoretically introduce people to other available games. I stumbled on this while registering stars the other day. Obviously they want to expand the audience for their existing games, and I like how this DLC seems to work for everybody. Plus, the tracks are fantastic. Pikmin would fit in nicely, I think. Olimar and three pikmin could be a good roster addition. A garden circuit and a bulborb cart. Ties in to another available game. Makes sense. Kirby. Yarn Yoshi. Star Fox and Metroid could also fit, depending on if/when those games come. I was also wondering if a Greatest Hits track pack would work. Imagine if they spent the next 3-4 years releasing all the tracks from previous games, all rejigged and sparkly. Admittedly, that's a stretch, but a retro pack with past favourites could work. Or imagine a Virtual Console pack, with 8/16-bit versions characters and a blocky 8-bit circuit.

I saw that and immediately got excited because it looked cool, then disappointed that the trailer confused me with the spin, and finally worried that I'm too old for this shit. By which I mean crazy spinning cameras and busy frames. I've seen part of the first Transformers film and couldn't stand it. Optimus Prime was fighting someone else on the side of a building (I think) and I couldn't make any sense of it. There were thousands of pieces of concrete debris and metal fins and moving doohickeys and I couldn't see what the hell was going on. Now I'm wondering if it's a fault of the film (which has many other faults besides) or if I'm the olde timer running away from the screen as the train approaches. I'm a relatively film and media-literate 30 year old. Is it possible that I'm over the hill and just not fast enough to read this filmic txtspk?

Just a quick heads up - Game Boy Tetris is being removed from 3DS VC at the end of the year, so get downloading if, like me, colour tetronimos are weird and scary to you.

I'm sure it'll be a fun competent film, just like the last two Star Treks. My concern is that the last two Star Treks jettisoned the (warp) core of the series as stories about ideas and zeroed in on the Kirk-Spock conflict between two boys from different worlds who must resolve their differences yadda yadda, and made it into a slick Mission Impossible JJ lensflarefest. Now, they can be very entertaining but is that Star Wars? Do I want JJ Abrams' fingerprints smudging my ideas of Star Wars? Does it even matter? Probably not. I think this may survive JJisation better than Trek because Trek's ideas are always better explored in the context of a TV series. But the panning, lens flare, sabre doohickeys and the impossible rotating camera with the Falcon set off small alarm bells.

I got a DS Lite with Metroid Prime Hunters in 2006. I never really got on with MPH. Then I picked up Animal Crossing Wild World and lost 18 months. Ah, Dibly... I'm still mopping up the DS catalogue. Never played a Phoenix Wright (I think they're coming to 3DS soon, right?), still on the lookout for TWEWY and the Chrono Trigger port. I don't think Rhythm Heaven's been mentioned here. Whaddagaim.

I had a similar experience with A Link to the Past. I was on a mission to get through all the Zeldas I hadn't played and ended up doing Spirit Tracks, The Adventure of Link and Link to the Past back to back. I completed the lot but was running only on OCD fumes by the end. Stupid of me, but I wanted to be ready for Link Between Worlds. After not really enjoying The Citizen Kane Of Zelda GamesTM I realised I should give it a rest. After a year's break I'm really looking forward to Link Between Worlds next week on a couple of train journeys and flights, and then Majora's Mask next year. I also have the Prime Trilogy disc sitting on the shelf but I can't quite bring myself to plough through all 3 games.

I played much more Sonic than Mario as a kid. Sonic 2 physics felt very precise to me whereas Mario was twitchy and precarious. Sonic's invulnerability while jumping made the experience calmer and it flowed better - with Mario I was always on edge and invariably walked into a goomba or some such easily avoided thing. I may be misremembering but I'm pretty certain you have to press A again mid-jump to transform into Super Sonic. Difficult to resist, but avoidable if you wanted to hoard rings. The other day I found a hack which puts the Sonic 2 sprite into Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Bliss!

I finished The Unfinished Swan. What a breath of fresh air that game is! Short, sweet and beautiful. Echoes of Gilliam are suitably supported with a drop of actual Gilliam too. Up there with Journey for me, really recommended, especially as an antidote to the 20 hour+, over-serious slogs. Also save-stated my way through Sonic 2 on the Game Gear (3DS). Great music!

Yep, those round edges are sexy. I wonder if rounding them off helps extend the life of the disc load mechanism or if it's simply an Easter Egg style differentiator. After having my Wii U for a couple of weeks, I've now managed to clock up a few hours with it. Overall it's a solid little system. It could be faster, but seeing Miis in HD is still a novelty and firing up the old Wii menu now feels like I've got cataracts. The console itself is small and quiet and I'm embracing it as possibly the last one I'll buy physical media for. I've just plugged an old 320GB HDD into the back to handle eShop-only games which should be more than enough. One surprise is the browser is actually really good - fast and it makes sensible use of the game pad buttons. Scrolling with the left stick, hitting the bumper to go back and tapping with the stylus, you don't have to move your hands so much when using it. It's nothing groundbreaking but I think I prefer it to an iPad for quick general surfing on the sofa. The TV control is handy too, though the EU has yet to see anything from TVii. In terms of the games, Nintendo Land is actually a really nice showpiece that suffers from some terrible tutorialising ('Monita' has all the personality of my BENQ). It also REQUIRES at least one other person to share it with, and does kind-of kill your new console buzz if you sit down alone with it. I managed to get my wife interested for an hour and we had fun (the Zelda, Yoshi and Donkey Kong games being particular hits). ZombiU does what it sets out to do very well, though I'm not in the mood for that type of game. I may burn through it on Easy at some point. Wii Party U was in the disc slot for about 10 minutes before I realised I need friends to get anything out of it. Could be a laugh with a few people, if Mario Kart's a bit too much for them, but even then I doubt it'd be the first thing you'd grab to get the party started. Bayonetta 2 is the most mutherfuckin' video gamey video game I've played in years, and it's just beautiful. It crackles with arcadey Sega energy, from the fonts to the menu music, to the questionable accents (the squirrel kid's British accent is all over the place, don't you think, love?) It's batshit crazy but it's honed and precise and sublime to play. The Wii Sports Club games function as you'd expect. I'll be getting golf to play with my Dad when he comes for Christmas. Wii Karaoke isn't really my bag, but my wife got into it. Don't think it'll dethrone Rock Band though. But here's the rub - I don't have 3D World or Mario Kart, and I NEED THEM! We had a load of people round last weekend, but the Wii U stayed off while we played Rock Band 3 and Johann Sebastian Joust. Mario Kart would have KILLED! And it will, come the end of the month, but damnit if the DLC isn't making me eye the credit card right now. Also want to get Earthbound, though I'm tempted to wait to see if they announce SNES on the New 3DS VC - I'd rather have it in portable form. There are a few other things I may investigate in the future (like that longer life Gamepad battery) but right now it's all about 3D World and Kart. Gimme.

Yep, that's what I thought. It's a tiny thing but so welcome. Having to plough through the slower CCs to unlock stuff was just laborious. All the pics of Link look great - he looks so happy to be racing! I wonder if they ever thought of choosing Toon Link over er, 'proper' Link for the DLC.

You know, having played the Nintendo Land Captain Falcon minigame recently (got my Wii U a couple of weeks ago) I think they could do something with F-Zero and the gyroscope. The reason they're not doing a new one is they can't think of any way to bring something new to the table, but on the basis of that minigame, I think they could make something responsive and satisfying with gyro controls. I barely feel in control when I play F-Zero anyway - gyro isn't going to impact my play, and it could be a way in for novices. I really am jonesing for some Kartage. Is it right that if you beat the 150cc the 50 and 100cc unlockables... unlock without having to beat them individually?

Have to wait til the end of the month to get the game I can't come to the party My face is sad

With every new Sonic game I scuttle out, watch a gameplay video and then retreat into my hole with my Mega Drive and the first 3 and 1/2 games. I've expanded into the Master System games because they have great music and I used to have a mate who had one. It's crazy that 20 years have passed since the last indisputably(!) great Sonic game. You know, all the transparent bits in the 2015 wave look fine. The worst thing about the first wave was that everyone saw the hi-res pics of the prototypes at E3 and the 'pee-rod' plastic is rancid compared to the clear/frosted variety. From all the ones I've seen, I like Villager, Yoshi, Rosalina, and Toon Link best. The plastic doesn't do Luigi or Captain Falcon any favours, but who knows until you see them in the flesh. That said, maybe these are glamour shots of the new wave and they'll all end up in traction too.

Some new amiibo announced. Might get me a few of the chunkier ones without the translucent pee rods. That Bowser looks weighty.

I played through Bowser's Inside Story a couple of months back, and while I appreciated the writing and the mechanics, it certainly dragged for me. It hasn't inspired me to go back to the series, although several people recommended Superstar Saga. Majora's Mask is imprinted in my mind as the best because I did 100% it back in the day. I must have used guides or something because I'm really not great at games. But that game had several moments that knocked me for six. The tone it went for after the straightforward Hero's journey of Ocarina surprised me when I was 16 and the horror inflections struck a chord. I guess at the time I was starting to think about mortality and the cyclical nature of things and the inherent sadness and inevitability of human existence and the game touched all of those points in an elegant manner, especially for a video game in the year 2000. I have vivid memories of a moment where, expecting the final boss, I was left confused and delighted and agog at what video games could do. I haven't played it since and have been busting for the 3DS remake so as not to tarnish my nostalgia with the crudeness of 14 year-old polygons. Sorry guys, but you do know we're all hipsters now though, right? People see irony in my sincerity. It's horrible!