What are you playing? c'mon, tell me punk!

[Kriven]

Finished Banjo-Kazooie... completely forgot how much bullshit some parts of this game can be (fuck you, Gruntilda fight... and Bottle's Jigsaw Puzzles!), but it was still as enjoyable as ever. I didn't notice too many difference between the version in Rare Replay/XBLM and the original game, although it was noticeably darker in some locations which hurt the atmosphere a little bit and in very few situations made things difficult to see (like the pipe in the room where you fight the Mutant Snippets is almost invisible) and there was significant noise distortion and crackling while underwater, at least compared with the original (which did utilize some distortion for an aquatic effect [please correct me if this is an instance where "Affect" should be used, I have a hard time trying to distinguish between them and I'm really trying to nail that]). The harsh underwater sounds made me avoid those portions, but otherwise the port was pretty accurate, and some of the adjustments made (like music notes behaving more as they do in Banjo-Tooie) make it a little more preferable. It's probably the version I'll replay in the future.

While visiting my grandmother's house I started playing through Legend of Dark Witch on 3DS, which I got on sale for like a buck just because and didn't really expect anything good to come from it... but it's actually a pretty solid game with cute characters and enjoyable gameplay which hits that border between bullshit and rewarding at just the right angle to be addicting. The reward-risk aspect to the leveling system helps that dramatically, as it keeps the player engaged in how they want to approach every situation, and there's so many different ways to go about everything. All I can really say negatively is with some of the boss behaviors being a little too difficult (although the free-choice stage order and the way the bosses are set up in general remind me of Mega Man, in a good way) in conjunction with the somewhat stiff (by design) character controls. It would have been nice if the levels themselves were a little less linear, because there's potential for the game to fully embrace its platforming elements, but they never really go through with that. The only other things (and it's somewhat minor) is that I haven't fully grasped how the secondary weapons work. When you beat a boss you gain one of their signature abilities, but it looks like they have shared ammo and can be used only in very limited amounts... then they're out for the rest of the level. That's not a problem because Zizou's primary weapon is pretty good and there isn't a real reason to change anyway (except during the final battle where the weapon gained from the tiger girl's battle is pretty important). Overall though, a great game... I guess I'm more or less actually done with it since I finished the main campaign (didn't find all the hidden gems or whatever, but I don't think I will... This isn't the kind of the game that hits my OCD hard enough to want to 100% it), and now there's just an extra mode with a secret character where basically you have the same levels with some different dialogue and completely different gameplay. Haven't decided if I'll go through all of that or if I'll call it done.