Lukewarm videogame reviews
I'm playing through Final Fantasy IV. I'm near the end. I get to a treasure chest, get attacked by a red dragon, and my party dies. This has happened about four times in a row. I don't even really need the gloves in that chest. I'm putting the game down until I get smarter. I figure if I enjoy the game enough to do the same dumb thing four times in a row, it must be pretty good. I'm playing through the games in order (more or less) and amazed at how coherent the first four are, in terms of style and gameplay. I didn't notice that the first time around; I suppose going from FF1 to FFTactics to FF7 to FFUnlimited makes it a strange journey no matter what.
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker is a gorgeous, amazing game. I was expecting Tetra to be more like Midna and was disappointed at the lack of screen time the pirates got; I suppose that just means that Twilight Princess was a better Zelda game. Nothing wrong with that. I tried playing this game back in 2004 originally, got horribly lost when I first started sailing around and put the game down for four years. Then I got a guide and picked it back up. I enjoyed the game, but I don't imagine anybody was waiting for my endorsement before buying it.
Battalion Wars - I liked the Advance Wars games, which this is marginally related to. This game has elements of both the real time strategy and first person shooter genre. By which I mean you have to do both at once. You're trying to coordinate five different troop types at once, and there's no AI to speak of. The vehicles have a MarioKart-on-ice floatiness to them. The sixth mission has you taking on a far superior force with no reinforcements or repair. I failed at it about four times in a row (doing different dumb things each time), didn't enjoy it, and haven't picked up the game again.
Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker is a gorgeous, amazing game. I was expecting Tetra to be more like Midna and was disappointed at the lack of screen time the pirates got; I suppose that just means that Twilight Princess was a better Zelda game. Nothing wrong with that. I tried playing this game back in 2004 originally, got horribly lost when I first started sailing around and put the game down for four years. Then I got a guide and picked it back up. I enjoyed the game, but I don't imagine anybody was waiting for my endorsement before buying it.
Battalion Wars - I liked the Advance Wars games, which this is marginally related to. This game has elements of both the real time strategy and first person shooter genre. By which I mean you have to do both at once. You're trying to coordinate five different troop types at once, and there's no AI to speak of. The vehicles have a MarioKart-on-ice floatiness to them. The sixth mission has you taking on a far superior force with no reinforcements or repair. I failed at it about four times in a row (doing different dumb things each time), didn't enjoy it, and haven't picked up the game again.