So, I basically finished Mario and Sonic: at the Winter Olympic games. And really, I pretty much said everything about that one I need to last blog. The minigames are hit-or-miss, but for a minigame collection, it's surprisingly deep. And while the controls aren't always accurate, they're definitly fun. And the music and graphics are great. It might not be the best DS game out there, but it's still a nice little diversion.

And I finished Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. Fun game. Like I said before, it's basically just an expansion pack to the last games in the series, so only hardcore fans really need it. That being said, the original games were pretty great, so if you didn't play them, now's the time to play. It's definitly a fun little stratagy game with a lot of extra content. Seriously, there's a lot of content in here. The original game was pretty big, and this one has extra episodes, which add another chunk of gameplay to the game, even if they don't have much replay value. So yeah, if you didn't like PMD before, you won't like it now.

And I finished New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Like I said before, it's definitly a good game, but I just don't think it's great. The controls aren't quite as annoying later on in the game, but they're still annoying. And another issue I found was inconsistant difficulty; at times, one level seems ridiculously hard, then the next feels like it should have been a level from much earlier in the game, and then the game goes back to being hard. What the heck? Shouldn't it just get harder the more you play? Unfourtantly, this was also one of my few issues with Super Mario Galaxy, but it's more apparent in this game because it's more linear. But my biggest complaint is how little new it brings to the series. Most everything in this game feels like it's been done before by another Mario game. However, with all of those complaints out of the way, it's still a great game. The level design is wonderful; classic Mario. As uncreative as this game can be by copying other aspects of Mario games, occasionally there will be a level that feels downright original. And the game is still very fun, with all of the core pieces that make a Mario game great intact. It's just not as good as it could have been

Moving on, I also got Guitar Hero 5. Pretty good game, I must say. For those who don't know, it's Guitar Hero. You rock out according to the notes on screen. Pretty simple, and no big changes this time around either. However, I have to say that the song list is by far the worst of an main-series (as in not band-based) GH or RB game since the original GH. GHWT had an odd but interesting mix of niche songs and legendary rock songs. Almost everything in here is something that most people would either have never heard of. And apparently, according to some of the forums, a lot of the niche bands in the game aren't even liked that much amongst the fans of niche rock music. That being said, there are a couple handfuls of fun songs in here, and the game is fun as always. The note charts, while still not as good as RB, are good. They feel somewhat more realistic this time around. However, because my GHWT drum set isn't working properly right now, I've been having to use my Rock Band 2 one (which I actually perfer, but the game was meant to be played with a GHWT kit, so that would have made more sense for playing through all the songs at the least). And I must say, Neversoft really didn't put much time into converting the charts from GHWT kit to RB2 kit. Some of the charts make not much sense when played with the RB2 kit. However, all of the extra features are really great. The music studio is much, much improved over GHWT's, and the abillity to move in and out of a song whenever in mutiplayer is pretty awesome. All of the other little touches a good as well. However, they also made it nearly impossible to see the Star Power Meter unless you squint. So some changes are good, some are bad. But ultimately, this is probably my least favorite GH/RB game so far, but it's still good.

I also recently bought some DSiware games. The first one I bought is Domo's Rock-N-Roll Adventure. Despite the incredibly cheesy title and the fact that the game is based upon some sort of mascot for a Japeneese TV Station that has plushies in America (but not the actually TV station 0_o), it's actually really good. For a two dollar game, that is. The game is a rhythym game with two difficulty levels, and it's pretty hard. It's basically standard rhythym game fair; touch the notes when the game tells you to, they go along with the song, but for two dollars, it's a really good deal. You get five songs, two difficulties, plus the game is pretty darn hard so it'll take you a while to beat. I also downloaded some of the Electroplankton games on the DSiware. They're...pretty much a mixed bag. Some of them are incredibly shallow, while some of them are incredibly deep. Luminarrow in particular is awesome; in just a minute you can make some cool sounding Christmas-like music, it's diffrent every time, and it's really fun. Others, like Luminloop, are pretty darn pointless; after playing around with it for 30-60 minutes you'll be inredibly bored with it. Now, granted, each downloadable game is just two dollars so it's not a big deal, but still. I also downloaded Dragon Quest Wars. And I must say, the game's quite inferior to Fire Emblem. The game basically plays out like a game of chess, except it's not as fun and it's easier to exploit. The game only gives you the tutorial levels, and then basically the free play mode and the online mode. The core game is incredibly shallow, and the AI in the tutorial levels is incredibly easy, but then once you get to free play they go incredibly hard . Still, it's an interesting concept, and it can still be fun, especially since it's only five dollars, but I'd expect a lot better from a collaberation between the makers of Fire Emblem and the markers of Dragon Quest. I also downloaded Pop + Solo. It's a lot better than the Wiiware game. Basically, you pop bubbles, increasing your combo, increasing your points. The more bubbles you pop, the more your time limit increases. If you run out of time, you get a game over. The game is much more meatier then its Wiiware brother, and the controls are more suited to the DSi. There are now bosses and a longer story mode. It's a little expensive for a DSiware game, but it's still a great game.

....It's because I've been busy playing so many new games. Seriously, I have like, a bunch of games I have to write about now.

So first off, I near the end of Resident Evil 5, and I pretty much stand by everything I said about the game in my first impressions. It's basically more RE4. I would have preferred it on the Wii but otherwise it's a great game. The gunplay is excellent, the co-op's intense, and while it may have a few problems here and there, I definitely wouldn't skip out on it if you liked RE4.

Second, I'm pretty much done with Halo 3: ODST. And I have to say, I don't know why everyone's saying it was one of the most disappointing games of the year. First of all, it barely had any hype, and almost everything I saw about the game before its release just basically said "itz a 0v3rpric3'd eXpansi0n pack". Seriously, how is that over hyped? But I actually enjoyed it more than the original Halo 3. Campaign was shorter, sure, but they fixed most of the problems I had with the first game; it felt more liner (which I like), and I think that they took out almost all of the filler and backtracking. Not to mention they also threw in Firelight on the campaign disk, which is incredibly fun, even though I'm pretty terrible at it. It's still addicting and the maps are pretty varied. The fact that you can't actually search for people on Xbox Live on that mode is pretty terrible, though. The multiplayer's pretty much more Halo 3 multiplayer, just with DLC maps (which I never got). Which is to say it's probably one of the funniest multiplayer games of this generation, online and offline. My only other issue with the game is that I still dislike how the vehicle controls, although that's pretty much just me.

I also beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up! And well, basically, it's exactly what I said in my first impressions. It's basically a watered-down version of SSBB on all fronts. It does offer decent online, and the health aspect makes it a good alternative. And the fighting engine is still fun. But the modes, characters, and just everything about it makes it pretty much the shallowest fighting game on the market right now. It's still fun, just not the kind of game you'd spend a lot of time with. My friends hated it, though, so I probably won't really be playing multiplayer.

And then there's Pokemon SoulSilver. Honestly, I haven't spent more time with any other game this year; I spent about 44 hours on this one. And really, it's extremely fun. I wrote some pretty detailed first impressions last blog, so if you want a lot of information, just read that, because I pretty much stand by everything I said there. But it's basically a remake of Gold and Silver with aspects from all of the different generations in the series. Pokewalker's one of the stupidest features in a Pokemon game ever, not to mention the fact that it makes the import tax even higher, but everything else about the game's pretty much flawless. And the 16 gym aspect almost makes it feel like two games in one. There's just so much content in this game, you'd be a fool not to get it when it comes out in the US. Definitely one of my favorite games of this year and probably my favorite game next year as well .

As for recent purchases, I recently got Mario and Sonic: at the Olympic Winter Games for the DS. While I was originally going to get the Wii version, the DS version got better reviews so I decided to go with that. For those who haven't heard of the game, it's basically a series of winter-themed minigames with Mario and Sonic, but produced by Sega. Despite what a lot of people say about minigame collections, I still enjoy them. This one's pretty good, but it's a lot different from the original game. To start out with, instead of a circuit mode, there's actually a story mode. And when I say story mode, I literally mean some idiot at Sega decided it would be a good idea to somehow put a story into a minigame collection. Seriously, whoever wrote the script for this game must have been smoking something, because it makes no sense. Mario and Sonic (and all of their second cousins and little woodland friends) are, for some unexplained reason, in a completely new winter-themed world together that sort of resembles both of their worlds together. And now, Bowser and Eggman teamed up to take over this world. And to somehow get it back from them, Mario, Sonic, and all of their obscure relatives their henchmen challenge you to equally ridiculously obscure winter supports, just as "rocket ski jumping" "Snow machine battles" and curling "Curling". To top it all off, the Olympics aren't mentioned once in the entire course of the game's story. And I'm not making any of this up. But as for the gameplay, it's surprisingly deep. There's a fair amount of meat in this game compared to the other Mario and Sonic game. Unfourtantly, the minigames are hit-or-miss. Some of them are really fun; the figure skating one, the ski race one, and surprisingly, the snow machine fight minigames are all really fun. However, some are not. Curling, I'm looking at you. And then some are in the middle, like hockey. The stylus controls are somewhat accurate, and the button presses are pretty good. The character roster is also pretty good. Even though the story is completely ridiculous, not all the minigames are that great, there's still a decent amount of depth in this game.

I also got Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. It's a pretty good expansion pack, but it's exactly what you'd expect from the series. For those who don't know, PMD's a Pokemon spin-off series. There sort of a rouge-like type game; characters move through randomly-generated dungeons in a turn-based fashion. The actual battling is a slightly tweaked, more fast-paced version of the normal Pokemon battle system. I'd say it's one of the better Pokemon spin-off games. But yeah, it's pretty much just like the other games in the series, so if you didn't like the games before, you won't like them now. But it's still fun. The dungeons, while somewhat generic, have a fair amount of variety to them, and the story's surprisingly good. Instead of playing as a trainer, you play as a Pokemon now (which doesn't seem so groundbreaking now, since this is the third game in the series, and another Pokemon game with a similar concept was recently released on Wiiware). But the an interesting aspect of the game (and I don't really remember this from the first games all that much), is that, like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, you're probably going to end up doing a lot of side missions in between the main story ones. Because of this, the main story arc seems to progress slowly. Not the sort of thing that really affects your enjoyment with the game, but it should be noted that the game progress in a very similar fashion to FFTA, and sort of has a similar charm as well. Of course, the game can get repetitive over time, but it's overall a really fun game.

Also, unsurprisingly, I recently got New Super Mario Bros. Wii. And so far, I have to admit, although I haven't played very much, I have to say it feels somewhat disappointing to be quite honest. It's still a good game; don't get me wrong, but it's probably one of my least favorite Mario platformers. For those who don't know…well, you need to die, because it's freaking Super Mario Bros. And if you don't even know what those games are like, then you probably haven't played very many games. Anyways, the level design's solid, and the game's progression feels great. But my biggest issue is with the game's controls; couldn't Nintendo have added classic controller support?! And the game feels more like Super Mario Bros. 3 than Super Mario World to me, and IMO, World's by far the better game. My other issue with the game is that it does very little original. Almost everything the game does seems to be stolen straight out of Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, or New Super Mario Bros. DS. Heck, even NSMBDS had its own little charm; this game just seems like it took NSMBDS's charm, and mixed it with different aspects from SMB3 and SMW. It really just doesn't do much new. Now, if you're getting the impression that this is a bad game, don't, because it's a pretty good one. And the platforming's pretty fun. The level design is ace, and while I haven't tried out multiplayer, I'm sure it's a blast. But amongst all the positive press the game's getting, I just have to say, I don't think it's one of the better Mario platformers. And this may seem extremely weird, since I, one of the biggest Nintendo fanboys you've probably met on the internet, is saying this. But I don't love Mario. I just like his games. I'm more of a Nintendo fanboy because of Super Smash Bros, Pokemon (no surprise there, if you read the rest of my blog), and Fire Emblem. But I don't love Mario. I really like him, but I don't love his games. And just like NSMB Wii; but I don't love it.

On a slightly different note, I've been playing some of the downloadable episodes for Final Fantasy IV: the After Years. And, well, basically, they're just more of the same. Some of them are quite long for a 4-dollar episode, but then they also have a somewhat unreasonable amount of grinding. Other episodes are shorter, but then they don't have much grinding at all. An interesting trade-off. But yeah, not much I can say about that game that I haven't already said.

So yeah, I really have been playing a lot of games lately .

So, Bart247 has recently tagged me. Oddly enough, I was waiting for this to happen for a while, because everyone on my friends list was tagging each other for quite a while, but I was never tagged . So, here we go:

1. If you don't already know, I'm a huge Nintendo fanboy. If you don't know that, then you don't know me very well at all .

2. I have near-illegable handwritting, unfourtantly.

3. I've been gaming for 8-13 years now, to give you an estimate.

4. I don't like any mainstream shooters aside from Halo. This includes Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Metal Gear Solid.

5. I play the drums. For a time estimate, I'll say 3-6 years.

6. I'm playing Pokemon SoulSilver right now. In Japeneese. I'm currently backtracking for a bike and a radio since you didn't need them to get through Johto but you need both for diffrent parts in Kanto.

7. My favorite game of all-time is Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

8. The worst game I own is American Gladitors for the SNES. Pure sholveware that game is, I'll tell ya. Apparently the NES version was actually pretty good, though.

9. The 360 is my first non-Nintendo console. And no, I didn't get it because I think "the Wii sucks".

10. Of the three websites I mainly vist, I probably visit this one the least. GameFAQs is probably the first with Backloggery being the second.

I'll PM the people I'll tag because, 1. Most people on my friends list don't actually read my blogs, and 2. I haven't actually decided who I'm going to tag yet .