Pushing Buttons

If you told me, in 1998, that my console of choice in the 21st century would be a DVD box made by Microsoft, I'd call you a liar. I've been posting a little less everywhere because in the past few months, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has managed to be consistently entertaining to the point where-- *gasp*-- games are preferable to working.

This month's two big draws were Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which took me 4 days to finish, and Mega Man 9, which is at 4 days and counting. (Didn't get to play much on Friday and I spent much of Saturday fixing my Mac.) Both are big draws on my childhood-- Star Wars is obvious, and I went back and forth between action figure collecting and parking my butt in front of an NES and Super NES for most of my pre-high school years. So The Force Unleashed gave me more of that Star Wars video game action that I never quite got, and Mega Man 9 is proof positive that someone, somewhere, understands where I'm coming from as a gamer.

Much time was also spent with the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, as I was itching to play the originals. I beat 1 and 2 and need to go back and finish the others.

I also picked up Scene It? for $15 at Target this week. It's a board game for movie trivia, and it doesn't seem to require too much movie trivia-- a lot of it is "here's two minutes of a movie and some questions." It's like a game show, complete with buzzers to answer questions.

I'd like to point out that I'm a Nintendo fanboy and I also own a Wii, which has not been switched on since I got and lost interest in Wii Fit this past summer. I'd like to get Wario Land: Shake It but based on the reviews, that ain't gonna happen at full price. As someone with pretty much every Nintendo platform, including a Virtual Boy, it's a little disappointing that Nintendo isn't really churning out the titles to turn my crank-- although Capcom and Konami sure seem to be doing a great job. But where, WHERE is my next 2D Metroid? Where is my sequel to New Super Mario Bros.? And why hasn't Nintendo introduced a new mascot character worth a damn since Wario?

Soul Calibur IV and Civilization Revolution are on my short list to try, but at $60, it's going to be a while. In my old age I'm finding that if I pay full price for a game, or if I get it for under $20, I get about as much fun out of it-- so better to wait it out. Especially given The Force Unleashed and its length, which I must say would have made a top-notch $30-$35 title. As far as I can tell, the less I pay for a game, the more I tend to like it. Well, except The Force Unleashed, I enjoyed that a tremendous amount.

Oh, and I'd be a bad old fart gamer if I didn't also mention that Contra 4 for Nintendo DS was pure awesome. It is to Super NES gaming what Mega Man 9 is to NES gaming.