CVG Christmas Game Guide (patent pending)

It's that time of year again! As much as I deplore the consumerist, materialist, fill-up-the-void-in-your-life-with-more-crap attitude that pervades Adventide here in America, this is a videogame blog, and as anyone who's got kids/young adults/teenagers/boyfriends/girlfriends undoubtedly knows, videogames are not only almost always on someone's wish list, but they can make a good "filler" gift, as well.

So, to make the secular side of the season a little more bearable, I'm going to use this post as a "catch-all" for those interested in discussing the various games available right now - want to know if a game is appropriate for your son/daughter? In a Christmas budget crunch and need to know how to get the most bang for your buck? Got recommendations for other readers on good deals? Bored out of your mind and just need to vent about the long lines and crazy soccer moms who apparently don't know the difference between Rock Band 3 and Epic Mickey? Well, here's your chance!

So there you have it: the first official authorized Catholic Video Gamers all-purpose awesomesauce on toast-fueled Advent-2-Christmas Game Guide. Post away!

Imagination Station

Something I frequently hear from video game detractors of all varieties is the claim that video games as a collective whole "stifle the imagination."

Here's a strawman to refute that claim: Scribblenauts, the new DS platforming/adventure title that should be available at most United States retailers as of the day of this posting.

Normally, I would offer the readership a quick soundbite about the game, but nothing I could say describes the game as well as this video:



Interesting, no?

Wii Gamers! Buy this game!

It's called Mercury Meltdown Revolution, and I found it at Gamestop yesterday for $10. Knowing the stellar reviews the game has received from critics and fans alike, I bought it - without having any real idea of what the game would be like. I hadn't even seen a screenshot before!

I've played it for all of 30 minutes. It's easily worth the $10 I spent, and though I'm a little miffed that I need to unlock the multiplayer "party games," the single-player game is more than enjoyable enough in it's own right; I'd play through it with or without the promise of unlockable mini-games (doesn't the wii have enough of those already, anyway?).

Anyone out there ever play with one of these as a kid?



The game is basically like that, except the game is more like an obstacle course than a labyrinth. There's some nifty puzzles to solve, too.

Here's a comparison for the gaming initiated: it's pretty much everything Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz should have been, but wasn't. The fact that it's STILL cheaper than the aforementioned gaming disappointment of the millenia just goes to show you how that quality gaming on a budget is still possible in this day and age.

Viva Mercury Meltdown!

Fellow Gamers! A Request!

After purchasing Knights in the Nightmare and Dragon Quest Swords last week, I foolishly forgot to inquire about a "wireless internet adapter" or some doohickey with a similar-sounding name for the Xbox 360 that lets me use a wifi connection to access Xbox LIVE. It's hard to believe I've owned an Xbox 360 for upwards of 3 years now and I STILL haven't been able to get on LIVE! That will change once I get my grimy gaming hands on this adapter thingamajig (hopefully!) Only problem: I don't know where to start looking for a good deal on this particular item (no surprise if I don't even know what the heck this thing is called, hence why I'm also refraining from googling about it, at least for now. St. Jude and St. Anthony, pray for me!) I'll probably cross-post this request on some gaming forums I visit regularly, but as this is my blog is my primary communication with the gaming universe these days, I'd be doing myself no favors if I didn't ask the readers here for some help. So, in brief:

1) Where can I find one of these things?
2) What's it gonna cost me?

In the meantime, my brothers back home are inquiring about HD Component Cables for the Wii; I'm slightly more familiar with this item (in fact, I recall seeing some "third-party" produced cables for this peculiar purpose while shopping at Sam's Club with my dad), but the Nintendo-produced, "first-party" cables were no where to be seen. I've heard that Nintendo currently only sells them online; is this true? I'm not much for third-party gaming supplies, though I certainly won't speak for my brothers; at this point, they'd probably take a functional, third-party device of questionable longevity and quality over nothing at all.

Detailed responses to either or both requests are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

UPDATE: So I went to Gamestop today, bought $99.20 worth of games and completely forgot to ask about either the cables or the adapter. ARGH!!!

Audiosurfin' USA

Anybody familiar with the gaming community/network Steam has doubtlessly heard (if not already a proud owner) of Audiosurf, a rhythm/"music" game with an interesting twist.

The megapopular mainstays Guitar Hero and Rock Band rely on a system of colored "bars" that more or less function as musical "notes" on a scoresheet. (Those unfamiliar with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc. are probably already lost at this point: take a gander at the Guitar Hero video review here for a glimpse at what I mean). In Audiosurf,, these on-screen colored cues aren't notes on a scoresheet; they're cars on a highway, and rather than tasking the player with matching these colored bars to buttons a joypad or controller to "play" a song, Audiosurf needs no newfangled, awkward insrument-shaped controllers: you need merely the arrows on a keyboard or a computer mouse to navigate your vehicle as you traverse the musical highway...crashing into as many cars as you can along the way.

Well, sort of, anyway. Think of this game as "musical Tetris": the color-coded "cars" on the highway don't cause your vehicle to crash immediately; they are stored in one of three columns (each column corresponding to a lane on the highway), and by placing three cars of the same color in either a row or column, the player not only scores points, but like in most "falling block" puzzle games, the blocks (or cars, in this case) disappear and the columns are emptied. Likewise, if the columns are filled, the car crashes and the player loses points.

Keep in mind that the "cars" that appear on the "highway" correspond to musical notes of a song; the game also marks changes in the rhythm of a song with sudden sharp turns and uphill climbs. The best part? Audiosurf doesn't use a pre-set song list like most games of its type; any music file on yor PC harddrive, music CD, mp3 file, etc. can be used! Scores are tracked online, as well, if you wish, and it was quite a shock to see that I had racked up a 15,000 point score on the Salve Regina highway only to find out that someone had outscored me! Apparently I'm the only one who's been travelin' down Fr. Groschel's The God of Mercy and You freeway, though. No surprises there...

With a $10 price tag, I can't recommend this game enough. I'll never understand how I missed Audiosurf when it released earlier this year, but I'm sure I'll be playing it for many years to come.

Kid-Friendly Games, Parent-Friendly Prices (and a question or two for readers...)

Apparently Toys-R-Us is having a 'buy one Xbox 360 game, get another xbox 360 game half-price' sale this week, August 17-23.

Quick note: The "half-off" discount applies to whatever game has a lower in-store price, so it's probably best to buy a couple of high-price recently released games with this deal. Moreover, you can't buy a copy of Beautiful Katamari ($7.68 in-store right now) and expect to get a half-price discount on the $160 Rock Band bundle.

In my case, I'll probably pick up Soul Calibur IV - I'm a big fan of the series, but Namco's treatment of the franchise, especially with this new iteration, has made me somewhat angry (scantily clad female characters, for example, dominate this game), so I decided that I wouldn't buy the game unless I could get it for cheap. I want very much to play the game, but I figure that "voting with my dollar"
as a matter of priniciple is more important.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience where you really want to play/buy a new game, but some morally objectionable content dissuades you from doing so? What would you do in such a situation?

Kid-Friendly Games, Parent Friendly Prices

Best Buy has a special deal for the recently released (and critically well-received) Wii game Blast Works. As of now, the game is available for a measely $9.99.

Toys R' Us is selling the Xbox 360 game Beautiful Katamari for $7.68.

I have not played either game, but both carry an "E for Everyone" ESRB rating, so content-wise there shouldn't be anything to worry about.

Player Diary: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

For those wondering about the lame excuse/reason for the tardiness of this latest player diary, it doesn’t really have anything to do with completing the game in time for the scheduled posting. In fact, I managed to finish the single-player adventure/story “mode” of Rocket Slime – that is to say, I annihilated the “final boss” and polished off the game’s extra “epilogue” content – in roughly 14 hours. While it’s certainly a serviceable (if simplistic) little adventure game, it’s certainly not some sort of existential gaming experience that’s capable of setting the world on fire – and that’s fine. That’s something best left to the Holy Spirit, anyway.

No, the reason I had to delay a write-up of this quaint and cute adventure game had nothing to do with the solo sections. It was the multiplayer features that kept me engaged long enough to once again fall behind my schedule. Don't get me wrong, shirking one's duties is never something to be commended (as St. Paul says, “those who shall not work should not eat”), but it’s a testament to good game design if the multiplayer component of a video game has me playing the single-player campaign again just to boost my chances at winning future multiplayer sessions. This game does just that.

As a video game, DQH:RS takes its cues from the much-lauded Legend of Zelda series despite the fact that the game is set within the world of Dragon Quest. Both Zelda and Dragon Quest are two of the oldest and cherished video game properties in existence, and it’s interesting that this game, which stylistically and substantially speaking is more in the vein of movies like Over the Hedge than anything else, seems to draw its inspiration from games designed with an older crowd in mind.

Alas, I digress. DQH:RS will do quite nicely as a single-player adventure game, even if it is a bit on the kid-friendly side: you play as a ball of slime who needs to save his village from the mob/“Plob”, who kidnap the village denizens (who are also slimes) and reduce it to rubble. Silly slime jokes abound (the village’s nun is named “Mother Glooperior”) as do some references to other Square Enix video games (a Benedict Arnold Platypus named Ducktor Cid, after the famous Dr. Cid character in Final Fantasy video games). Throw these ingredients together, and you've got Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime in a nutshell. But why settle for nutshells?

The real bread and butter of the game is in the tank battles, which do comprise a fair section of the one-player adventure, but really become something unto themselves when you play with others. It’s not nearly as violent as it sounds – “tank battles” bring to mind gruesome images of war and carnage, but here, it’s all about team work and cooperation. Without going into too much detail, it’s awfully fun catapulting dynamite, mirrors, and other silly things from cannons while desperately defending your tank from the onslaughts of interfering interlopers trying to destroy your tank from the inside. It’s hard to relate in words exactly what goes on, but rest assured, it’s well worth it!

File it under “kid friendly games, parent-friendly prices” as well – it’s probably a little hard to find in stores now, but I got my used copy for $12.99. It’s a silly diversion at worst, and arguably at its best as a hilariously fun game well-suited for long car rides and rainy days. There are certainly far worse things – video game or otherwise – that you could spend your money on.