Christmas Haul 2010

So Christmas has come and gone, and, as usual, has affected the games I'm playing currently.

Before I get to those, a simple list of the games I've gotten (so far, because I may be getting one or two more on New Years day):

-Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
-Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (DS)
-Prince of Persia (PS3)
-New Play Control Pikmin (Wii)
-Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
-Nier (PS3)
-Contra 4 (DS)
-Shantae: Risky's Revenge (DSiWare)
-Mighty Flip Champs (DSiWare)

I also got a swanky new DSi XL (midnight blue) that looks and plays great, but anyway.

I have begun Final Fantasy XIII and don't have much to say about it yet - I'm about two or three hours into it and it seems I've barely started, which is about what I expected given how much I've heard TWENTY HOUR TUTORIAL since the thing came out. Most of what I've done so far has been gameplay, though, which I'm happy about - it's not a boatload of text or twenty minute cutscenes the whole time. Granted, I just unlocked the ability to Paradigm Shift along with leveling up via the Crystarium, so I've got some learning to do (along with some reading, which is quite difficult on a SDTV - fucking dammit).

The other Final Fantasy I got, 4 Heroes of Light, is pretty great so far! I like the combat system a lot - it is challenging so far, but not frustrating or unfair. Depending on the fight, you have to be very careful, as one or two mistakes can cause you to lose. The nice part is that you don't lose too much if you get party wiped - the game randomly picks one of the types of gems you have and halves them. This means that you may have to grind for those gems again if you need them, as they provide both easy cash if you sell them and also they are used to upgrade your Crowns, which are similar to the old job systems of old Final Fantasys.

My big complaint is that the game, despite being called 4 Heroes of Light, actually splits them up pretty quickly, and that is quite annoying. I want to really delve into the Crown system but can't, really, because all my stupid guys are all apart so I don't really know which Crowns to level up yet. Hopefully it won't be long before they all get together and I can really start to grind them up.

I've also played a bit of both Mighty Flip Champs and Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Wayforward's DSiWare offerings which I downloaded for $20 total on Christmas day. I like them both quite a bit! I'm a bit lost as to where to go next in Shantae (I've beaten the first boss and I think I'll probably have to talk to townspeople for a clue as to where to go next), but the mechanics are pretty solid. I like the monkey transformation and I look forward to unlocking more transformations to maneuver my way around the delightful side-scrolling world better. By the by, Shantae looks absolutely fantastic on my majestic DSi XL, as does Contra 4 and Mighty Flip Champs (it seems 2D sprite art games are a good fit for the little beast).

Mighty Flip Champs is a puzzle platformer in which you press any face button on the DSi to make the bottom screen flip to the top screen. You must navigate the levels to get to the end using this mechanic. It is like 2D Portal, actually. I'm in the second set of levels and they are getting fairly devious, at this point. Great little game, though, easily worth the eight bucks.

And that is all for now, and likely all for 2010. My New Years goal? To write more blog posts next year than this year, which is already my most prolific year. Hopefully the writing competency gets better, too...