PixlBit

Today I knocked off a bunch of games off my shortest-to-longest playlist. I skipped handheld titles because console is what Mark and I do. I may try to do them next time though, they are piling up on my list. I've gotta hook up my Wii again too. I think I've discovered enough room for it in my rig at Mark's place. 

First was Angry Birds Star Wars. Still fun. Started in Cloud City where I still have levels to unlock. Did about four or five levels before I'd had enough trying to figure out these ballistic puzzles. 

Midway Arcade Origins was next up. I tried to get the achievements I didn't have. They were each about hitting various goals while playing Score Attack Mode in each game. First was 720 Degrees, a skateboarding game. It's pretty cool and i started to get the hang of it a little bit. I needed a gold medal in one skate park and I got silver in the downhill one. Then I played APB. This is a variation on Spy Hunter where you are a cop and have to pull over traffic offenders without crashing into them. You have to meet certain quotas and return to headquarters. The achievement was for capturing a specific criminal, but I didn't get that far. The controls were difficult to say the least - probably fine on a cabinet though. Championship Sprint was next, a top-down-view racer. The controls were way too sensitive and I kept crashing. Again, probably great on a cabinet, but not good on console. Defender and Defender 2 I've always disliked because I hate the way the screen shifts every time you turn around. I always drift into an enemy. I only had to rescue three humans though for both games. Still coudn't do it. Just couldn't get used to the feel of these games. Gauntlet and Gauntlet 2 in score attack mode are both really unfair. You can't avoid getting hit. I believe you just had to get to level 7 or something in both for the achievement. I got to 2. Joust 2 was equally frustrating. There's something about those old arcade cabinet control boards that make these games a dream to control, but with a tiny analog stick, it's a nightmare. Rampage was the most fun of these for me. Just smash and grab baby. But you have to clear three cities for the achievement. I did one. Sinistar was one of my favorites in the arcades, and on console it's not bad. But, again, I play better with a good stick I can lean into. You have to beat Sinistar once for the achievement. I got about four pieces off his stupid, ugly face. Smash TV was fun too. Just a twin-stick shooter with lots of pickups. I don't remember what the achievement was for, but I didn't get it, Super Off Road is a top down view monster truck race on a bumpy track. At least you can bump against the guard rails and not stop dead. I did better on this racer, but didn't get the achievement for 3 consecutive wins. One was all I was willing to put up with. Super Sprint is another top-down view racer. I got the handle of the super sensitive controls for one whole race before I lost it again and crashed constantly. Bah! I think I'll keep all my collections and not trade this one. Collections are cool because you have so many games on one disc. 

Then I synced up the uDraw tablet and played uDraw Studio: Instant Artist. This game really annoyed me. I couldn't get it to draw at first until I realized you have to give the stylus some significant pressure on the pad. Then I couldn't get the tutorial pages to advance. I put the stylus on the appropriate place and nothing. I discovered, after a while, that you have to hold the stylus in place to activate a spot. But later I couldn't save my picture doing that. I don't know why. I guess I was a little impatient, but I thought this game would have a very intuitive interface and it didn't. Plus, for heaven's sake, I want to play a game, not draw pictures. 

Next was Red Faction II, an original Xbox game that's backwards compatible on 360. I might have played this way back but I couldn't remember. I mostly remember the first Red Faction game I played on PC and then PS2. Well, this is a solid FPS like the first game. I thought I would finish it too but I got put in this room (I guess it was a museum because it had vases everywhere) late in the game and couldn't get out. You get ambushed right away, and I cleared the room with dazzling destruction with the chain gun I had just got, but then I was stuck. There wasn't a secret door, the main door was locked, and I couldn't find anything to activate in the room. Restarting from the last checkpoint just put me inside the room again at the beginning of the fight. I guess I could've looked up a walkthrough, but I was in no mood. If this game can get me stuck, then I don't need to keep playing it. Bye bye. 

Onto Deadlight, a Xbox Live action puzzler that I must've gotten free on Games for Gold, because I don't normally play this type of game. This is a zombie game even though they call the infected "shadows". It's a 2D side-scrolling game with beautiful urban environments. You have collectibles to find and environmental puzzles to solve. There is some action in that you can swing an axe, or shoot a gun, but mostly you want to avoid the shadows or get them killed in traps. I was having fun with it until I got to this small room in a multi-level building that had a jump spot directly above me I couldn't reach. I jumped from every angle, did every possible trick and couldn't get to it. I was at a complete loss. I backtracked for anything I might of missed and still ended up stumped. I could've looked up a walkthough again, but seriously, there was no clear way to reach it. I can figure out most puzzles with a little thought, and i gave it a lot because I wanted to move on. Ah well, lots more to play. 

Next was another orignal xbox game that works on 360, MechAssault 2. I played the first one way back and might have played a demo for this, but I'm not sure. Anyway, this seems to be a really fun mech game full of arcade style action, not the sim kind of gameplay that a game like Armored Core gives you. Right up my alley. I only had 90 minutes with this before the day ended but I will definitely be playing more of this next week. 

Toodle pipsy!