Endless Brawl

OK, so I lied when I said I'd be posting regularly again, but in my defence I do have an excellent reason, namely that my Freeloader finally arrived in the mail a few days ago, and ever since then I've been solidly stuck into Super Smash Bros. Brawl. What I've found has been interesting to say the least. I'm not going to write a proper review because I doubt I'd be able to be fully objective about the game, but it's certainly compelling. My main attraction to it is twofold, firstly the pure fun of the random four-way brawls, which are as silly as they've ever been, but secondly the pure nerdiness of the entire experience, which basically boils down to a smorgasbord of Nintendo related cameos, trivia and collectables.. For those unfamiliar with the company, I've no doubt it's baffling and bewildering, but for those of us who eat, sleep and breathe videogames, it's thrilling to see KK Slider playing in the background of the stage, or watch the Great Fox fly through the sky. introduced the idea of trophies as a reward for constant play, and Brawl takes the idea further, introducing not just more trophies, but stickers, soundtracks and classic demos to be collected while playing. It simply adds to the game's addictiveness, boiling down into an obsessive item hunt. In fact, my only real complaint with the game is the showcase singleplayer mode The Subspace Emissary. What was promised was an epic side scrolling adventure with a plot that tied together all the various franchise mashups into a cohesive whole. What we got was a run of the mill side scrolling beat 'em up with a load of (admittedly very cool) FMV cutscenes and a shameful amount of recycling. It's not really an exaggeration to say t6hat the last third of the game is material recycled wholesale from the earlier two thirds, and what started out as a fun, if lightweight jaunt through the cast rapidly becomes a brain deadening series of fights tapering off to a tepid finale. I completed it and can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt I will never touch it again. It's good for unlocking all the characters and laughing at the hammy cutscenes, but apart from that it's deadweight. Just as well that the rest of the game is so much fun. I'll hopefully be starting the 'Top Ten' blogs soon, provided I can tear myself away.

Grand Theft Nothing

Apologies for the length of time in between blog posts, unfortunately some other stuff has prevented me from getting writing. One of those things definitely hasn't been Grand Theft Auto IV, since I have neither a PS3 nor an Xbox 360. As a result it's been quite interesting to sit in and look from the outside as the twin trains of hype and controversy collided in a spectacular explosion of sales figures. I hope Rockstar issues a confirm or deny on the possibility of a PC port soon, otherwise I'll probably pick it up. Apart from that, I've been going through a bit of a drought recently, precipitated by both a lack of money and an absence of quality new releases. So I've mostly been replaying games, mostly Call Of Duty 4, Resident Evil 4 and Mario Kart Wii. The PC schedule is pretty quiet until Mass Effect drops at the beginning of June, and because my Freeloader is still missing in the post there still no Smash Bros.
Anyway, what I wanted to explain in this post is what will be going on over the next ten posts. Basically, it's going to be a rundown of my own personal top ten, each accompanied by a little mini-review/retrospective. Bear in mind these are my personal favourites, not necessarily the 'best' or most technically accomplished titles I've played. The first should be up later tonight.