While working on Zelda: Oracle of Hours these past few months, I kept away from games, and as I had finished that project past 11 PM on Mar. 31 (at least in my time zone), it's good that I didn't spend more time on playing games that I had!
I caved in to play some Super Smash Bros. Brawl and finished The Subspace Emissary (its adventure mode with an actual story of sorts). I also unlocked a bunch of stuff for multiplayer (all characters, all stages, the extra rules, all assist trophies, and a lot of music), though it's a good thing my brother swore off video games this semester and my friends are kind of busy lately that I didn't play much multiplayer yet other than to fiddle around. I played a few online matches, though. I've never been the winner, except maybe once by a fluke. There was a four-way Sudden Death one time, where I ended up being last for being smashed off first. All modes are available, and I've played them all, but I still have lots of music, trophies, and stickers to collect. I didn't use any of the sticker stat bonuses in The Subspace Emissary, but it's certainly a neat system that I will put to use when playing higher difficulty levels. It would be neat if there were more Masterpieces (demos of classic games that are available on the VC)...then again, I played like ten seconds of Super Metroid when I first got the game and didn't go into the Masterpieces again other than to see them there after I unlocked them all.
I did manage to not cut back too much on my DS playing, though, since I usually play DS games well past when everyone else has gone to sleep. So it didn't take away from any time I could've been at a computer working on my project. That said, I recently finished Professor Layton And The Curious Village and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Both are recommended, especially for people like TerraEsperZ that like graphical adventure games, though Prof. Layton is really more about the puzzles (think The Island/Castle Of Dr. Brain) and Apollo Justice is of course like the other Phoenix Wright games. I was surprised that it still managed to be epic, and eventually explains why Phoenix Wright isn't practicing law at the time of this game, seven years later.
Speaking of adventure games, I made time also to play some episodes of Sam & Max: Season Two on the PC. I haven't played the most recent episode yet, though. I liked the storyline in the first season better, but this current one certainly has had some fun moments.
Also on the PC, I'm playing Mega Man X 8. I'm like halfway through, as I never got a chance to get serious on it, and I wonder if I should have tracked down Mega Man X 7 first...that's the only Mega Man X game I haven't played (if you don't count the Xtreme games). But what's with the Mavericks? Optic Sunflower? o_0 Animals aren't enough now, I guess. And while pandas are my favorite animals, I thought that Bamboo Pandemonium was kind of a weirdo with a space rocket fetish. And Earthrock Trilobyte's stage was crappy. Oh well, I shouldn't expect every game to be as good as Mega Man II or III...though I wish they were. I'll finish X 8 soon.
Oh, yeah, and back to the DS...I've still got an active file on Pok?mon: Diamond Version, and I was planning to get all the Pok?mon before the one-year anniversary of playing, which I believe is April 28. Yes, I am catching them again, even if they are available in past games. Other than two of the three promotional ones, the remaining Pok?mon to catch are ones that appear with a 2% rate with Pok? Radar (Nidoran male, Miltank, and Trapinch). I'm through with the ones that need skill in this game...I hate that I have to depend on luck. Maybe I should just transfer those ones from Ruby/FireRed and move on to something else, as depending on luck is almost not worth the trouble.
