Since writing reviews is hard, I'm going to make commentary on games I've played.

Finished

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (360)

As a kid, I loved Pirate lego. I had a pirate ship, a soldier fort, a pirate island, some of the Islander sets. Playing this feels like I'm playing with Lego, but without the touch aspect. The stuff looks cool, though. This company just seems to be pumping out the Lego games based on movie IP's that Lego has licenced. The games seem to stick to the same formula, which is getting a bit tired, but their variations of the formula don't always work (Lego Indy 2), and then sometimes they do (Harry Potter). 5 levels from each of the 4 movies provides 20 levels, but this game does feel smaller in scope than Star Wars or Harry Potter. The hub is fairly small and again there's little to no challenge in the game. You simply walk through the levels breaking stuff, assembling stuff, killing enemies (there's a couple of creative boss fights) and watching the scenes from the movie acted out by mute Lego minifigs. Jack Sparrow's mannerisms and movements are captured quite well. I don't know what it is about these games that I keep playing them even though it's the same old thing - story mode, then free play where you collect all the extra bits and pieces using a variety of characters with different abilities... it's probably because the games are really easy and require only the smallest amount of brainpower. It's the sort of game I play when I don't feel like playing anything. Got to 100%, all achievements unlocked, and it's in my trade pile. I'm never going to play it again, and I'll likely wait for Star Wars: Clone Wars or Harry Potter Years 5-7 to drop in price, like this one did. This game is honestly not even interesting enough to review. It's a solid 7/10.

Still Playing

Mario Kart Wii

Time trials have been completed for every track, most of the expert staff ghosts are unlocked. None of them beaten. In GP mode, 150cc is finished, but a few are lacking a star rating so I'll have to go back and do those again if I want Dry Bowser. I don't, really, but I'm a bit of a completionist. Mirror mode is unlocked but I haven't played that yet.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I've made little progress. I've just been so tired lately and this game requires far more effort than most.

Super Mario 3D Land

Still plugging along, near the end of World 3. Game is getting tougher, but not too tough that I'm ragequitting (yet). I usually have my 3DS with me when I'm out, so it's cool to just play a level or two if I have to wait for someone.

Mario Kart 7

This game is going to kill my hands. I didn't even play the GP mode, only a few harmless time trials, and my hands started locking up when I was trying to drift around a corner. I'm tempted to trade this one in since it's pretty annoying, and now becoming quite painful to play. But then I'm going to miss it, since the courses are really good.

Pullblox (Pushmo)

This is a fun addictive puzzler on the 3DS. You have to pull and push blocks to reach the goal (a trapped child). Mallow is a strange, overweight guy who dresses all in red and seems to have a single-minded drive to solve puzzles, like some autistic ethnic boy. The 3DS makes this game's visuals really pop, giving depth to the whole thing. I'm over the halfway point and the puzzles are starting to get tough. I haven't even tried any of the custom made puzzles yet.

The Longest Journey

The Longest Journey seems like an interactive visual novel rather than a game. There aren't that many dialogue choices since you'll usually end up choosing them all by the time the conversation ends. The puzzles are fairly easy for anyone who is familiar with the adventure game genre. The Longest Journey excells at its storytelling. The characters are realistic and likeable, the story presents us with a mystery with many layers to be uncovered. Still about 6 hours in, and nowhere near done with this, so I'm guessing the Longest Journey will live up to its name. This could work as a novel or graphic novel, I feel.

The Polynominal

Picked it up on Steam. Not really sure what it does, yet.

Super Meat Boy (PC)

This is a stupidly insane game and I don't know why anyone would play it. I doubt I'll ever play it again. But then, I've been wrong before.

Universe Sandbox

This game does science so hard you say "I've never seen this much science!" and it's all "Check this out!" and then "Boom! More science!" You get to click on any star or planet you can find, start messing around with its size, axis, speed, whatever you like, and then you get to see what happened. I decided to make Earth bigger, and then it froze and flew off into the outer reaches of space, somehow losing its orbit. Not really a game, more a simulator.



2011 Game Completion List

January 7 - LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (360)

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Feedback
	honestgamer - January 07, 2012 (02:14 PM) With Super Mario 3D Land, you're still playing through the initial content, right? I found most of that really simple, but things get insane once you finish World 8. I felt like the difficulty up to that point was just about perfect.
	jerec - January 07, 2012 (02:26 PM) Yeah. So it's about to get even more insanerer...