Spare Time Gamer

I'm really starting to wonder about my postcards - I haven't gotten any in sometime. I don't know if they've been lost in the mail, or are still traveling or if the receipents are just lazy about registering them XD Cards get 60 days of traveling time before they're marked as expired, and two have already done so. The rest are still in transit; the oldest has been traveling 54 days while the most recent has been 12 days.

I'm feeling much better today, which means good enough to go pick up some medical gowns for my Mom's office, but still kinda weak. Little man felt like being especially difficult today - I couldn't even sit down for ten minutes to read my stupid Cracked article.

But if I start going down that tangent I'll begin rambling. I tend to do that around video games as I'm rather interested in their status as a legitimate artistic medium, a topic I'll have to post about some other time. But speaking of video games, I've been able to play some good ones lately:

Pokemon Black/ White

I count them as a single entity because, technically, they kinda are. I happen to have Black version, and it's the first Pokemon game I've played since Silver. I'd honestly forgotten how much I loved the franchise. Somehow, the same basic plotline just doesn't get old. I don't pretend to understand it; just accept it.

I think I actually enjoy the games more now than I did at a ten year old. Partly due to how much more expansive the world is, but also because it does take a certain amount of finesse to capture certain mons and defeat bosses than I was really capable of when I was younger. My ten year old self favored brute force to get through the League for example (strategy has never been my forte XD). I'm also finding there's a lot of mystery to really dive into that I may not have noticed or thought about before. Nothing that really applies to the core of the game, but the nameless side characters and out of the way areas.

There was this one town with a plateau with an item ball on it - I couldn't reach it at all. No way to climb up, no stairs, no twisted pathway through the trees - no clue what it was I needed to do. I shrugged it off an assumed it was just one of those things the programmers forgot. Months later, I realized it had to do with the seasons mechanic - you had to wait for Winter to get the item. When it snowed in that town, you could walk right up the snowdrift. It's little things like that that really make a game for me and the Pokemon franchise is really good at it.

Professor Layton

I like puzzle games, but I've always loved a good plot more. The Layton series has been kind enough to provide both. I really love the animation style of these games - this warm, simple, old-European kinda thing going on. It's just charming <3

Like with Pokemon, each game in the series is much like the others, yet never really seems to get old. The puzzles never feel repetitive and the plot and environments for each game are totally unique and seperate from games previous. The cast of characters if fantastic - even if each person isn't fully fleshed out, you still get a sense of how different each person is. It's one of the best things about the games.

I've yet to begin the fourth game, but the formula has held up splendidlly thus far. I expect it to be another fun playthrough with the occasional brain-melter of a puzzle (I'm not kidding - I've had to look up solutions to at least two puzzles per game).

9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors

If I'd noticed this game had a mature rating on the cover, I might have thought a little harder about asking for it for Christmas. I'm glad I did get it, but good LORD this game gets creepy in places. I'm squemish at best when it comes to gore - more often than not I have trouble stomaching even medical shows. While the game barely shows much of anything, the descriptions of mutilated bodies blown up from the inside are more than enough to make up for it. Adding to that, the general atmosphere of unease and paranoia can be really unnerving. That said - I love this game.

Since this really isn't a very well known game, here's the plot rundown: nine people trapped on a boat that may or may not be the Titanic. You have all been invited to play a game. You have nine hours to get out, or all of you will drown. You can get out by finding a door marked with a "9" - but to get to this door, you're going to have to hunt it down with your companions. Each person has a bracelet on thier wrist that acts as a detonator - if you try to cheat the game in any way, the bomb in your small intestine will go off. The bracelet will only come off if you finish the game or your heart stops beating.

The best way I can describe it is Choose Your Own Adventure meets an Escape the Room game. There are multiple endings though I've only found two thus far and am currently on my third run through. The various choices you make in the game influence what ending you get - it's a LOT of text to read, but it's such an intriguing story that I honestly don't care. Probably not for everybody, but I'd think even a casual gamer with a love of good reading could get into this one.

And that's my life lately - babysitting and video games when I'm not online. I might review some of these more intensively at a later date, especially 999 once I get all the endings.