PixlBit

Alongside my PS2 gaming is also me trying to play the handheld out at the time, GBA. I've had trouble getting to it, but this week I got super sidetracked on GBA games. I also touched on PS4 and XSS and bought a bunch of stuff both digitally and at my game stores. 

GBA (but actually nearly all on Switch Nintendo Classics)

These are the ones I put the most time into. I mention the others in my next blog. I found almost all of the top 25 GBA games from the Metacritic list on Nintnedo Classics for Switch. 

Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Bros 3 - I played a bunch of Yoshi's Island. I love throwing eggs around, I guess, while riding Yoshi. I did tire of the platforming after a while though. I'd own this game if I ever came across it for a good price. 

Golden Sun - After getting stuck early on with my physical copy and then trading it, I blasted through the previous difficulties I had in the Nintnedo Classics version and got through the Mercury Lighthouse section. But I got stuck trying to get the Psynergy Mind Read to work after that. There's always something. 

Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga - I was sure I was going to get to the end of this, I was so enthusiastically playing it, but I got stuck on that machine that asks you to collect 10 items using the spin move across pillars within 30 seconds. I just could not beat this thing and felt like I couldn't proceed without beating it. I have the physical game for this and so will play it again. Maybe the handheld version will give me an edge?

Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap - Oh man, did I get a lot farther in this than ever before. It feels like the gaming gods are looking favorably on me lately. What a great game! I love shrinking down to mini size and solving puzzles and battling what are normally small creatures as boss fights. I got a little tired of the endless search for solutions to problems though. Often areas in the large world are blocked off until you find that one secret that gets you past. How long do I have to circle around until I find that one thing? Urggg, Zelda!. Still, brilliant game. 

WaroWare Inc. Mega Microgames - Oh, I fell in love with this. I love the wacky Wario style. The mini games mostly riff on actual Nintendo games which are fun to pick out as you're playing. The mini games get lengthier and harder as you beat various funny characters. I love the designs of each character's U.I. before each mini game - such creative designs! Fantastic! I will probably never find a reasonably prices physical copy of this nowdays though. 

Wario Land 4 - More Wario goodness. I just love crashing and bashing while platforming. It makes the platforming tolerable to me. But it gets to me eventually. Love the Wario style! 

Fire Emblem - I played so much of this I thought maybe I had nearly finished it, but I found out I had only finished the prologue of 10 missions, or nearly so. This was Lyn's story and I died in the 10th and final mission. After that there is Eliwood's story which is 20 missions long and the main story of the game. Wow! I had so much more to do. Luckily, I own this physically and will play it again. 

Namco Museum - I finally got to my physical games and played this first. I played Galaxian, Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man on my DS Lite. The screen is very small but I was ok with it. The sound is really good too. I use the DS Lite for the brighter screen even though I have a GBA SP. 

PS4

I bought the original version of Resident Evil 4 again and again found the controls so annoying I couldn't get very far in it. Why on earth does this game control so badly in 2004 after games like Half-Life and Halo? Why is it considered one the greatest games of all time? Maybe there is a way to get the hang of the way the right stick controls aiming and the left that slow movement plus looking. I just can't get comfortable with it. I died by chainsaw, head off and all. Haha!

XSS

Leo & Mia: Animal Rescue - I wasn't going to play a recent game, but I gave in. I ripped through this pretty quickly but couldn't 100% it as finding those last pinatas and photographing all the albino animals was very arduous. I must've circled all three locations several times before giving up. There aren't any guides up yet except for lengthy youtube walkthroughs I don't want to plow through. But, it was fun.

It takes place in a plains area (Africa, I guess), a mangrove swamp and a mountainous region. You have a glider, a boat and a jeep to navigate each respectively. You battle lizard poachers, resuce the animals and put them in your camp where you can heal and feed them. I found it fun. Boss fights were actually a little challenging but not much, really. 

The game has a little more polish and content than Honkiou's previous game Leo The Firefighter Cat. I can't wait to see what developer Honikou does next. Good casual fun. 

Purchases

Hot Shots: Out of Bounds (PS3) $10 - The next Hot Shots after Fore!. I can't wait to check it out. 

Extreme-G3 (NGC) $15 - I'm glad to try this series on GameCube. I really don't have many games for the system anymore. 

NCAA Football 2004 and Madden 2004 (Xbox) - Got these as part of a buy-three-get-one-free deal at $5 each. I want to try taking a created player from one to the other. They are very clean, almost new discs too, which is key. I've had so many issues with dinged up game discs lately. 

Motor Storm (PS3) - Part of that 4for3 deal I just mentioned. I'd like to try the other games in this series too on PS3 at some point. 

Top Gear Daredevil (PS2) - Same 4for3 deal bundle. I've been curious about the Top Gear games from previous systems. A bundle just dropped digitally of the first three games. Maybe this is a spinoff from those, I'm not sure, but the game looks interesting as it includes a lot of driving mayhem I enjoy. 

Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch) $10 - I got this to go through the top GBA games and have been wanting it for a while now because, even though I can never progress very far in these games, I love the graphics and presentation so much. On sale too. I'll mention this in my next blog, but I got farthest in Harmony of Dissonance. I think I'm getting some grip on the series gameplay finally. 

Resident Evil 4 (PS4) The original game, not the remaster on sale for $5. 

And that's a week. I am prioritizing my PS2 gaming next week and getting back to Maximo Army of Zin. I still have a lot of physical games to get through before I move on to GameCube.