Gaming Haul: Summer games ‘14

I was abroad on holiday lately, hence the lack of any new post these last three weeks. Despite my best attempts, I hardly managed to write a couple of paragraphs, let alone a full article. However, I did stay tuned into gaming, both in terms of playing and purchasing, and my trip ended up being quite a fruitful one in both departments. 

When it comes to playing, I firmly intended to maintain a healthy diet of daily gaming, and I managed to stick to it, to my great delight. (Not that I had to force myself too much, as you may expect.) These special circumstances called for special games: given that I was not on my usual premises, I wanted something fairly laid-back and relaxing that wouldn’t request too much brain-racking and would fit into the whole ‘lazy holidays’ picture. After a bit of pondering, I elected my newly imported copies of Hometown Story and Pokemon Platinum as my gaming material for this trip, and it’s fair to say that they played the part beautifully—and so did I. But more on that in future posts. 

For now, let’s concentrate on the purchasing part of my trip. I had access to a choice of games much larger than the one I’m usually offered, and I used this great opportunity to the fullest by reaping a handful of games that had caught my eye and my interest lately. Here are the lucky winners that were granted a well-deserved place in my precious, ever-growing collection:

Pokemon X&Y (3ds): Now that I’ve become a proud Poke-aficionado, I couldn’t let these two pass me by. I bought the pair, of course; what else could I have done? Choosing between these two mighty Legendaries was just impossible. I will probably shelve them for a while, though, given that I’m planning to play the other DS entries first and foremost… Unless a sudden urge to tame Xerneas and Yveltal takes over, of course. My gaming instinct is one wild, unpredictable beast!

Animal Crossing (3ds): I hesitated a fairly long time before purchasing that game; and to be honest, even to this day, I’m not quite convinced that this is the right game for me. I like my games to have some solid sense of purpose, some ultimate goal to reach, and I’m not quite sure that taking massive loans to fancy up my village and make my house Ikea-perfect and then spending hours collecting money to pay my colossal debts are objectives juicy enough for my taste. Oh, well. Time will tell!

Luigi’s Mansion 2 (3ds): This one is actually not a personal purchase, but rather a gift of sorts from my sister, who purchased it based on stellar reviews only to realize after a few playing sessions that she didn’t like it. This is not a game I would have bought on my own free will, so I’m quite curious to try it and see how it will turn out. 

Gravity Rush (Vita): This game interested me for a number of reasons. The gravity gimmick is original and worth trying, the main character is refreshingly different from the ones you usually control in this type of game, the neon-colors-meet-steampunk art direction pleasantly reminds me of the movie Dark City, and last but not least, there is a cat involved, and I just can’t resist cats. All this promises a very good experience indeed, o yes precious. I only hope that the gameplay is not similar to the Tomb Raider series, forcing you to constantly perform insanely hard jumps and acrobatics, or my fun could be seriously ruined. 

Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection (Vita): I’ve read mixed critics about this game, ranging from stellar to derogatory. What I extracted from that uneven bunch is the notion that Hyperdimension Neptunia PP is a game that can be appreciated to the fullest only if you already know the eponymous series quite well—which I do not. However, my gaming instinct imperiously told me to buy this game anyway, and I happily complied. Blame it on the summer, but I’m in the mood for some moe and kawaisa indulgence these days. 

On top of this, I had the opportunity to visit a second-hand electronics shop. And what did they have in store, nested somewhere between so-90’s digital alarm clocks and dusty CD players? Well, you guessed it: video games, of course. Game Boy and Game Boy Advance cartridges, of all things! Now, when one is hunting for games, shopping in a non-specialized second-hand store is the trick: since the owner usually doesn’t know that much about games, one can find rare and valuables offerings at a very fair price. It was the case in that shop, where all the cartridges cost 5 euros/$6,5 each; and sure enough, I managed to extract a handful of gold nuggets from what was mostly a mine of crappy licensed turds. The happy few rescued that day with the promise of a happy and peaceful second life (or third, fourth or even tenth, who knows) were Shining Soul 2 and Advance Wars 2 for the Gameboy Advance, as well as Super Mario Land for the Game Boy; but the most glorious purchases of the day were undoubtedly Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Yellow for the Game Boy, in great condition and with the batteries still working to boot. Oh, the joy! I may thus indulge in retro Pokemon entries much earlier than I’d expected, which is quite a pleasant development. 

So, this was the loot that I proudly brought back home from my lounging on foreign grounds. All these games will be played when their time is ripe, and hopefully the next trip abroad will be as rewarding as this one when it comes to game purchases. I will come back soon with meatier reviews; as for now, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!