PixlBit

Merry Christmas everyone!  It’s time for my annual Pretend Christmas Party here on my blog.  There will be pretend Christmas presents, game reviews, and other goodies!  Hop on in and read for all the fun!  Everyone’s invited!

First of all, let’s do the pretend Christmas gift exchange!  Here’s how it works.  In the comments section, post a present that you think I would like to get.  It can be anything you want.  It’s the thought that counts…literally!  Best of all, it won’t cost you a cent!  And when I reply to your comment, I’ll post a pretend Christmas present I think you’d like, too!  Try it, it’s fun!  Can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

So anyone have any favorite Christmas TV specials and movies?  My favorites are The Muppet Christmas Carol, stop motion Rudolph, A Charlie Brown Christmas, clay animated Robbie the Reindeer, and Olive: The Other Reindeer.  What are your favorite Christmas songs?  I have two favorites.  My favorite non-secular Christmas song is ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’ and my favorite secular Christmas song is ‘Snoopy’s Christmas’ (you know, the one with him and the Red Baron?).

OK, one last Christmas treat: Game Reviews!  As usual, here are links to game reviews I’ve been working on lately.  Please click on and read as many as you can, and maybe even post a comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  Thanks!

8-bit Christmas Wreath Decoration

I was ordering some Christmas presents online on ThinkGeek.com when I saw this and had to have it.  Plus it helped me get free freight.  I’ve had it hanging outside my cubicle at work all month long.  Check it out if you want to see a picture of it!

Hola! Amiibos!  (Wave 1)

When I reserved Super Smash Bros. for Wii U at GameStop, I also reserved all the Amiibo figurines, too.  Yes I am insane.  So after I got them, I wrote a little article about them, what they do, and what I think of them.  Click on the link to read it.  My favorites so far are Kirby, Villager, and Wii Fit Trainer figures.  I’ve also got Wave 2 and Wave 3 reserved and will write about them later, but it looks like they’ll be harder to get.  I’ve already got a part of Wave 2 already, as GameStop had Diddy Kong, Zelda, and Little Mac for me to pick up.  But there are supposed to be three more that aren’t available yet.  And then I hear some Wave 3 figures will be store exclusives.  It’s a little confusing and annoying, but hopefully I’ll be able to get them, too.  What I really want is a Pac-Man Amiibo.

Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom (PS3)

This game is basically paying direct homage to A Link to the Past.  It’s a top down action adventure game based on the cartoon.  You even start out in the rain and have to enter the castle by a bush on the side!  WayForward developed this game, like all the other Adventure Time console titles.  Some gamers may like that this game doesn’t hold your hand at all through the adventure.  They don’t even tell you where to go next.  But that’s also a double edged sword because it makes the goals very unclear and you’ll do a lot of needless wandering around.  The lack of any kind of instruction booklet doesn’t help either.  If you want to play a better Zelda clone on the PS3, I’d recommend tracking down 3-D Dot Game Heroes.

Costume Quest 2 (PS3)

I know it’s kind of weird to review a Halloween game around Christmas, but hey; it worked with Nightmare Before Christmas, right?  To be fair, the game was released a few days before Halloween, I just now got a chance to play it because I’ve been so busy!  I never played the first game outside the demo so I don’t know what’s new in the sequel.  They certainly captured the charm of kids going trick or treating on Halloween night.  But unfortunately, charm can only get you so far as the meat of the gameplay, the battles, feel a bit lacking.  But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, it just means I’ve gotten more selective about my RPGs over the years.  I just feel like action-battle RPGs like Paper Mario on GameCube are way better than this one, and other RPGs like Child of Light just held my interest more.

2nd Opinion: LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Wii U)

It’s called ‘2^nd Opinion’ because someone reviewed it at GamerDad already.  Nothing really changed or improved in this sequel, but it’s still silly yet buggy LEGO fun.  My favorite funny part is when you play as Wonder Woman and fly around; they play the Wonder Woman TV theme song from the 1970’s!  I had to explain why I was laughing at that to my younger brothers.

The Penguins of Madagascar (3DS)

I love the Penguins of Madagascar.  They’re the only reason why I watched all three dopey movies, and I loved the cartoon they had on Nickelodeon.  The new movie was all right, but I think the TV cartoon was funnier.  The game, of course, isn’t very good.  They don’t let you save often enough.  I played the first level for an hour and a half, passing checkpoints all the way thinking it was saving my game, and when I went back to it later, I had to start at the beginning.  Not good for a handheld game!

Reader Review: Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (360)

My good friend loves the Geometry Wars series.  One time he even said that’s why he bought a 360.  He’s really good at it, too.  I bet he could beat all of you reading this right now.  So I had him review the newest game.  Check out his review.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS)

I already talked about Sonic Boom more extensively in a previous blog, so I won’t go into it much here.  The 3DS version is a 2-D game and has some similarities to the classic Sonic.  But there are new elements, too, like switching characters and using grappling hooks, etc.  Only problem I had with this game is that you have to collect these emblems to progress, and you have to replay levels to get all the emblems and it can get tedious after a while, especially if you want to just blast through the game.

Grand Theft Auto V Strategy Guide (Book)

And finally is a review of the GTAV strategy guide.  Never played the game, but that won’t stop me from reviewing the guide.  This one features new content in the Xbox One and PS4 versions.  It’s not just a rehash of the hardcover guide I reviewed last year, either.  Not bad if you like the game, I guess.

Merry Christmas!

And that’s all for now!  Don’t forget your pretend Christmas present, and be sure to do something nice for the less fortunate this holiday and don’t forget the true meaning of the season.  I might do a blog next week featuring video game music that puts me in the Christmas spirit, but if I don’t do that, I’ll have my Game of the Year blog up in late December/early January.  So until next time, later!  --Cary