Sup, SEGA homies! Time for games o’ da week!
Matthew Jay writer of 10 Things That Aren’t Sonic and Radvertisements:
After playing both versions of The Adventures of Batman & Robin for SNES and Genesis I did some non-SEGA Addicts related gaming with some games I picked up off of Craigslist. For 10 bucks I got Super Mario Land 1 and 2 and Tetris. That’s what you call a Craigslist hookup. Right?
Andrew Galbraith writer of Contemporary Alternatives and Miscoded Confidence:
Been getting my Halo: Reacharound on for a bit now and to be completely honest, I’m glad I haven’t written up my review for it yet because ultimately, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Everything seems solid, including the online douchebagery. In the meantime, been playing a ton of Jurassic Park on the Genesis, if for no other reason than I can be a Raptor devouring puny humans. Well, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go walk the dinosaur again. Rawr!
Bret Hatfield community manager and writer of Megadriving:
Had an amazing (to the rest of you, “boring”, for whatever reason) Tekken session last night/this morning with a couple of my favorite people ever. Best experience I’ve ever had with the series, by FAR. Also got around to playing Alpha Protocol, finally. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.
Stevie Grant writer of Top 10 Worst and Reviews of Games I Haven’t Played:
Nothing much. I’ve just been boring this week, searching my soul and life for meaning, taking long walks and contemplating life and love. Oh and I played Madworld where you have a chainsaw on your hand and get to kill a fuck ton of dudes boom boom awww yeah. But yeah, I picked up Madworld again and finally got passed a boss I couldn’t do for ages. So I’ll probably finish that off in the coming week. That’s all for now, kids!
Alex Barbatsis writer of Retro Reviews and Freaky Fridays:
I played Mario Galaxy 2. Dear Sega, please make games like this. Sonic Colors looks promising though. Also some dreamcast action, most notably Sonic Shuffle (in a horrible, no good way.) I also have switched my diet to replace one meal with bowl of oatmeal. I’m getting cut as shit.
Alexander Sargeant writer of Retro Reviews:
That aside, mostly just Ys Seven, because I realised that Valkyria Chronicles II will probably never end and it’s more likely I’ll be able to finish Ys so that I can get to ZHP or even Cladun sometime soon. Enjoying it a lot more now that I seem to have incredible, almost broken levels of power, and since I’ve started finding new weapons to turn Adol’s damage type from Piercing, Slashing or Striking I’ve been able to completely switch up the formation of my party. Very enjoyable, and somehow hasn’t quite overstayed its welcome for an entry that’s thrice the length of earlier Ys games.
Pat Reddick Community Manager and writer of Not So Classics and Forum NewsI need to drop some courses to get more time to play video games. All I’ve played in any non-trivial way was Panic! I’m still chipping away at Bayonetta from time to time, but I usually only play it for a few minutes at a time until I die. I think I’ve said this before a few weeks ago. God, I’m boring too.
Alex Riggen Editor in Chief and podcast host:
All I’ve played this week is Phantasy Star Portable 2. I like it.
Kris Knigge reviewer and podcast co-host:
What Alex Riggen said. And Valkyria II. I like that, too.
That’s it for the people whose opinions matter. What have YOU been playing?
I have been playing Sonic Adventure XBLA.
Nice. What do you think of it?
I recently got Sonic Adventure in a stack of Dreamcast games from Ebay. I hadn’t played it in years so I decided to pop it in. I got to the Casino level and figured EFF IT and haven’t gone back.
Aw crap, missed it.
Well, I stumbled upon my brother’s old SNES last week, so I’ve been playing a ton of Yoshi’s Island. I never realized just how tight of an experience it is. I’ve also been tooling around with the beginning of The Secret of Mana, but I wanna get a buddy in on it before I dive in.
Look at all that PSP love.
I’ve been playing through Yakuza 3 in little chunks each night before bed. Loving it! Since I just got my PS3 I’ve been demoing a bunch of games lately, too, finally having sampled Valkyria Chronicles, God of War III and Little Big Planet. LBP was cute, God of War was so addicting I had to play it twice (and buy the God of War Collection later) and Valkyria Chronicles lead up to the hype. That battle system is the tits, it’s like the Shining Force system grew up along with me as a person and evolved into that. Can’t wait to play through it all once I find a used copy.
I’ve also been chipping away at Shining Force on the iPhone. Just made it to Chapter VI…only two more to go. It’s pretty refreshing not having to deal with random battles in an old school RPG. Not having to grind is a nice touch, too (especially after coming off a play through of Phantasy Star II), but at the same time I am finding it a little easy. I hardly even have to apply strategy anymore because my guys are all so much more powerful than the adversaries right now. That’ll probably change.
Oh yeah, on the XBOX front, I too demoed Sonic Adventure, and my rosy memories are still very much intact. Even now, that game is so much better than all the other 3D Sonic games that have come out, save maybe for the day levels in the XBOX/PS3 Sonic Unleashed.
I also played Game Room a bit. Bought a Konami arcade game there, Galactic Warriors. Fun little pre-Street Fighter space brawler. Sort of reminds me of a 2D Virtual-On. Very fun and highly recommended.
@Josh Newey:
Secret of Mana is HAWT with a buddy playing along! Man I can’t tell you enough how me and a dear old friend of mine would make a one-player RPG into a two-player game. Particually one of his favorites was Vandal Hearts as he get his choice pick and I’d get my choice pick of crew.
Anyway about SoM, it was an FANTASTIC game, too bad I traded it in to some random dude I saw for Chrono Trigger. While CT wasn’t bad, it just didn’t compare to the two-player awesomeness that’s SoM.
grolt, so you’ve been playing Galatic Warriors.
Anyone else if you want to know more watch this quick look. Skip to 05:22. (I’d tell you more but that would ruin it.)
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-game-room-for-092210/17-3268/
Thanks for sharing that, Sanaj. Yeah, the game is pretty insane. The broken English translation gives it some charm, too, but yeah, the bit at 5:22 definitely stands out, haha. It’s kind of clunky, but I can’t help but be addicted to it. I’ve got about 20-odd Game Room games, but so far this, along with Shark! Shark!, Shaolin Road and Night Stalker have been my favorites. Definitely recommended.
I played more Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, still really enjoying it. (I still despise the sliding block puzzles.)
I played a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, it’s a great game. (A few years ago, I stopped playing because of the fishing mini-game in the introduction.)