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!
Glad to see you back with your posts!
ReplyDeleteGravity Rush has an excellent art direction and the gravity gimmick is actually good! I was expecting it to be a shoehorned and forced gimmick just to showcase the Vita's capabilities but I was quite positively surprised with it (the same could be said about Tearaway, by the way).
Shining Soul 2 for the GBA was a huge timesink for me. Probably the GBA game where I clocked the most hours, more than the Golden Sun and Pokémon games. The game isn't anything special but it's fun. Really fun!
As for Super Mario Land and Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow, they are retro gems so you can´t go wrong with them!
As for the rest, well: Pokémon X&Y were a huge disappointment for me (they ARE good, but they felt too... Soulless, I guess?); Luigi's Mansion and Animal Crossing didn't click with me; I have the Neptunia games under my Wishlist for some time, including this Idol Simulator, but still haven't made the plunge; I never understood the hype for the Advance War games, they are nice and fun but are inferior to its cousin Fire Emblem or other SRPG gems like Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics or Devil Survivor.
Well, thank you! It's nice to know that I have picked up some potentially good material during my game shopping. Now I really want to try Gravity Rush and Shining Soul 2!
DeleteI really, really hope the X/Y pair won't disappoint me. We'll see! As for the Hyperdimension Neptunia series, another Vita entry is slated for release in Agust. It's supposed to be more of a traditional RPG, and it's definitely on my wishlist, as well as a couple of other Vita games slated for release in the next months. It's great to finally see the Vita gain some momentum and be showered with interesting games!
X/Y are good games really! They just felt a little dull for me though. By the way, all of those games are pretty good! If I sounded a little too negative on my previous post, sorry about that! :p
DeleteI'll probably try out the PS3 version of the Hyperdimension Neptunia games first since they're a lot cheaper. If I like them I'll buy the Vita ports (and to support the localisation).
Speaking of the Vita, I really don't get the hate it gets. Sure, it lacks AAA games but for a RPG gamer (and niche lover) it's becoming a heaven! And I'm fine with that! ^_^
I mean, we have excellent games like Persona 4, Muramasa, Gravity Rush, Dragon's Crown, Danganronpa, Disgaea 3, etc. In the upcoming months we will get Danganronpa 2, Oreshika, Freedom Wars, etc. Hopefully the Vita starts selling more so that we can get more localisations (like Meikyuu Cross Blood Infinity)! Personally, I don't regret one bit my Vita purchase.
I totally agree that the Vita deserves much more love! It IS an awesome piece of kit with great RPGs, especially for those who love niche genres. I bought it mostly for its ever-growing library of quirky dungeon crawlers, and despite not caring at all about technical specs, I have to admit that I was amazed at how gorgeous games looked on that sleek, glossy screen! (Heck, I hardly dared to touch the precious, pristine thing for fear of tainting or scratching it...) I hope the Vita will finally pick up the pace and find its stride in its late lifetime, much like the PSP did in its time!
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