Currently Playing #8

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)

I cannot tell you how great it is to be able to play Brawl again. I opened my new copy on Christmas day and it's been working great thus far. I should go back to finishing All-Star mode and Event mode but I've been having so much fun doing standard Brawl against the CPU. Hopefully Nintendo does away with that dual layer disc nonsense that causes problems on certain Wii games for the Wii U. If I find out the next Super Smash Bros. game runs on the same type of disc, I will be quite annoyed.

Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (3DS)

Of all the Street Fighter series, Street Fighter IV is the one I've played the least. I played a few matches at a friends house and while I liked it, it was a lot slower than what I was used to from the Street Fighter games. Maybe I've played so many of Capcom's cross over fighters during the past few years that I'm not used to the slower pace, but I'm about positive that even Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike was faster than this. I was hoping you could increase the speed in the settings, but there doesn't seem to be an option to do so. Guess I'll have to learn to adjust.

Speaking of adjusting, playing Street Fighter titles on portables has always felt a bit odd to me. The GBA version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 felt a bit odd with the the system's limited amount of buttons, and I feel a bit perplexed playing this portable version of Super Street Fighter IV. True, the 3DS has a good button layout for fighters. But I've gotten so used to playing Street Fighter games with all six buttons on the pad. Reverting back to SNES-like controls takes some getting used to.

I tried going through Arcade mode with Ryu and took my first loss to C. Viper. No matter what I did, I just couldn't get past her. I switched to Guy and thought the game would match me up with Viper again, but it pit me against someone else. Whom I promptly lost to. I was playing on the Medium setting, which is the default difficulty and I could not believe how much trouble I was having. It could have something to do with me not be using to Street Fighter IV's play style. I mean, I'm not fighting game pro, but using continues this early in the game was embarrassing.

I do like how easy the game makes it to change the color of your fighter's costume before starting up. You can even select alternate costumes as well. The customization in your fighter's looks may not be as deep as that of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, but it's still nice to have. 

Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

After making it through World 5, I'v had my fill of mine cart levels. I thought I'd left them all behind but World 6-2 quickly threw me on a mine cart and this wasn't just any mine cart level. It was THAT mine cart level. The one I saw Matt and Pat fail on so many times in their Two Best Friends Play on DKCR. To my surprise, I died far less on this level than I did any other mine cart stage. Still, the amount of things this mine cart level throws at you is insane. Riding the cart on a giant egg that's breaking apart, dodging fire enemies, ducking under low spike celings, bouncing off enemies over bottomless pits... Sheesh! I probably didn't die as much as I thought I was going to because I was playing solo. Had I been playing with a friend, that level would probably be torture.

But even without riding on a mine cart, World 6 is still quite daunting. I can't remember if it was 6-3 or 6-4, but one stage was swarming with falling spiked boulders. Some of them were average size, others were quite huge. I lost Diddy about half way through the level and it made completing it a nightmare. Not having those two extra hearts really made things difficult.

Mega Man X3 (SNES)

Of the three SNES X games, X3 is easily my least favorite. That isn't to say it's a bad game. Certainly not. What makes X3 so irritating is the enemy types. See, X3 has far and I mean FAR too many projectile type enemies for my liking. If you're not being shot at with missiles, the robotic mooks are shooting plasma shots your way and sometimes they'll come at you in a zig-zag pattern.

Of all the "side Mavericks" that aren't part of the selectable eight, I've always found Bit and Byte to be quite the losers. Give me Double, Agile, Violen and Serges over them any day. At least Vile returns, though he's annoying to fight without his weakness and not enough Heart and Sub Tanks.

Mega Man Zero Collection (DS)

I finished Mega Man Zero 2 and now I'm making my way through Zero 3, my favorite of the Zero series. I love all the extra chip enhancements this game gives you. You can get a chip the makes your weapons charge faster, a chip for jumping on water, one where you can just stand there and refill your energy and by extension, your Sub Tanks. The Recoil Rod is also all kinds of fun. Knock one Pantheon into another, break walls, high jump and so on. I'd forgotten all the uses the thing had.

The Baby Elves are very annoying in this game. I mean, I know they are kids, but that laugh just grates on my nerves and they just repeat each other over and over. I took a great deal of pleasure in being able to lash out a them in that first fight. Pity I couldn't kill them at the time.

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge (GB)

I cannot believe how much trouble Flash Man gave me in this game. I mean, of all the bosses, I faced in the teleport hatches, he was the one that got me a Game Over. I actually had to look up his weakness, which happened to be Ice Slasher. Once I found that out, beating him and the rest was easy. OK, so Enker gave me some trouble. Whenever I play this game I have to relearn his jumping patterns. I don't know if it's random or based off how many shots you fire at his Mirror Buster.

The final Dr. Wily stage in this game is long and tough. But tonight I did something I was never able to do before: make it to Dr. Wily. Now if only I could beat him. The main obstacle during phase one are the enemies he shoots out. These things usually come in twos and as far as I can tell, there's no way to kill them quickly so I may just have to learn how to dodge them.