Advance Wars: Dark Conflict: big rotating gun

I've just finished a particularly nasty mission - where, to start with, I was hindered by mountains on the east side of the map, and there was a big cannon think in the middle, which attacked everything within range each turn reducing the health of each unit by half. Nice.

I built up a massive force, of bombers and tanks, and took them into the centre, bombing the anti-tank guns and shooting the missile launchers, avoiding the interceptors and rocketing their megatank. I was all ready to attack the HQ after destroying the big cannon - but once that went down (after one megatank strike and one bombing) it was mission over. Run away, fools!

Advance Wars: Dark Conflict: run away!

I've just finished the first mission that caused me real trouble - even to the point where I failed the first time. In it, I had to escort the Zephyian troops to the East, while the enemy chased me. The first time I thought I had to defend the captain's tank as well, but the second time I just ran for it and generally got in the way of the opponents. I only just made it - with two red units left - but that was enough for an S rank. Hoorah!

Dark Conflict is great. It's much more concentrated around the campain than previous games in the series - the war room equivalents are trials off the main campaign path - which in a way is a shame since the story's the weakest part. The combat, on the other hand, has been tightened up, and the revised mix of units seems to work very well. I particularly like the carriers, which can produce four seaplanes each over four turns, giving you an instant airforce even with no airports. The ability of mobile workshops to form a temporary airstrip is also genius.

So far, 10 S ranks and 5 A ranks, all from the main campaign.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

I have a world record at the 100m sprint, the 110m hurdles, and the triple jump. There's something rewarding about seeing your Mii cross the finish line ahead of Tails, the jumped-up little fool.

Super Mario Galaxy: forty-nine stars in

This game keeps on giving. This evening I've encountered fire and ice flowers, skated around a pit of lava, and found Luigi twice. I've become a ghost, and climbed massive walls of honey. I've listened to the story of the girl and the luna, and I've defeated moles and a massive poltergeist.

It's just great fun.

Super Fruit Fall: ow, my head

For Christmas, my sister bought me Super Fruit Fall, which was one of the Wii's launch games. I have a feeling I've seen the basic idea in a pub quiz machine, but this is obviously a lot more developed. I've played through the arcade mode, getting over half way through, but I've now got to the stage where I'm reduced to randomly rotating the stage around through lack of time, and my head can't keep track of what's going to move.

The idea of the game is to get three of a kind together, by flipping the stage through 90° at a time and letting the fruit ... er ... fall. On the stage I've reached there are two ends where one piece of fruit can get stuck and won't come out. I can't work out how to ensure that I don't get a piece stuck at both ends. I've played the stage several times now and each time I'm left with three pieces of one type, with two stuck a long way from each other.

Portal: completed!

Before you start trying to find where I played this before, well, I didn't. I've played it from start to finish today. It's a short game, but every minute of it has been great. The idea of using gaps in space to not only get around but also defeat enemies is great, and the puzzles are so varied across the 19 test chambers - and afterwards.

The whole story and way it's played out works so well, moving from test subject to rebellion and eventual escape. Some of the dialogue in the game is hilarious, both from the controlling computer and the gun turrets. The way the controller coaxes you on with the promise of cake, the discovery of backstage rooms with "the cake is a lie" scrawled on the wall, the line "I figured out what that thing you just incinerated did. It was a morality core they installed after I flooded the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin to make me stop flooding the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin" ... I could quote more, but it's best experienced within the game.

The game took me around four hours to play through the first time, and I'm going to play it through again with the commentary turned on very soon.

Animal Crossing: Wild World: weeeeeeeeeed

I bought my sister a copy of this, after setting up her wireless network. Since a lot of the game's charm comes out when you visit others, I've gone back to Bangaio - to find the town covered in weeds, with all my flowers long gone. The residents seemed surprised to see me, but my house was fine (if full of cockroaches) and I had 99,000 bells interest in my postbox from the bank.

I've done quite a lot of weeding now, and moved flowers back into grouped beds. And I've dug up around 20 gyroids and sold them to Nook. Ah, Nook, how I've missed your "thanks much".

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: completed!

OK, so it's a standard Zelda idea. Collect three things in dungeons, then collect three more things in other dungeons. Fight a big boss each time. It's just that this was all done so well.

I finally managed to collect the three pure metals (or should that be pure metals?), and after a
last visit to the spirit island I went to fight Bellum. A great boss fight, using the DS superbly, with its vertical aspect and accurate aiming. The new instrument was great as well, being able to stop time in order to get hits in without dying.

I don't want to spoil it, so let's just say that the rest of the game after that boss fight was also great. As was the whole game. Great.

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: rolling out of the way

I found an actual hard bit of the game last night. So far it's been quite easy, though some of the puzzles in the temples have been quite clever, especially in the way they reuse rooms with different switches. One nice touch was the dual control of Link and a Goron, where you had to move them separately to trigger switches and assist the other. It reminded me of Mario and Luigi on the Game Boy Advance.

At the end of the Goron's temple was a monster, a big dinosaur thing, which was on the other side of a quicksand pit to Link. However, the Goron appeared on the same side as the dinosaur. To kill him, I had to roll around the pit as the Goron, avoiding the dinosaur's fire, until he charged me. I had to roll out of the way and then hit his side several times until he fell over. Then I had to switch to Link and send a bombchu across to hit the dinosaur in his mouth. Three times. It would have been easier if there weren't snakes attacking Link and the Goron all the time so you had to keep an eye on them too.

I'm actually very impressed with the thought that's gone into this. The general set of Zelda items has been nicely adapted, with things like the boomerang and bombchu using the touchscreen excellently to trace out their path. I've now got the grappling hook which'll let me access some other areas that I was barred from on previous islands, and I'm torn between completing the ice temple or just going exploring.

Oh, but before I went into the ice temple I had to solve a lovely little puzzle. It was a twist on the standard "find the liar" conundrum, with six people, two of which gave details of two others and the remaining four talking about one other each. I had to scrawl details down onto the map in order to solve it. Being able to make notes is very useful indeed.

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: running out of sand

Super Mario Galaxy has a contender for game of 2007.

Everything about this game shines. The graphical style, borrowing heavily from The Wind Waker, is clean and joyous. The story's really hooked me in, with its tasks broken down nicely so they're easily achievable while travelling places. It's a great example of a traditional videogame being slightly adapted for portable play - helped of course by the DS's sleep mode, which means the usual Zelda quirk of being put to the start of a dungeon whenever you save and quit doesn't matter.

I've rescued the three spirits, and have just been to the Temple of the Ocean King for the fourth time, in order to retrieve the south-eastern map. This was the first difficulty I had with the game - descending nine floors in fifteen minutes (before the sands in the hourglass ran out) was a bit of a rush, even with the ability to stand in safe zones where the timer didn't move.

I always loved the sailing in The Wind Waker, and the steamboat in this game is nearly as good - the only issue is that it's a bit of a faff to change course on the fly, since you have to switch to the map and redraw your course. Tapping to fire the cannon is great though.

Super Mario Galaxy: thirty stars in

I've collected stars from the terrace, from the fountain, and now I'm collecting stars in the kitchen. It may be just a sign of obsession, but I'm not moving onto the next area until I've collected all the stars I can from the existing one. I've even been travelling between the older areas just to see if I can make a comet appear.

There's so much imagination in the game. You're shown a new skill, and use it to get the star. In most games you'd have to then use that same skill for the next couple of levels. Here you're given something else new straight away. There's so much to discover, and the urge to collect just one more star has been the cause of a few late nights now ...

Super Mario Galaxy: three stars in

It's just amazing. To start with, it felt a little odd controlling it with separated hands, and for some reason, although it controls in the same way as Mario 64, I couldn't run in a straight line. But then it clicked, and all was good again.

And then I got to the first planet. I was running around, and accidentally jumped off the edge. Instead of falling to my death, I landed on the underneath of the planet, and ran around upside down. Running on the ceiling, walls, floor, being catapulted through space, jumping on and spin-stunning goombas ... it's all just so much fun.

Halo 2: Completed!

I was nearer the end than I thought. A stupid brute set off the halo, so I ran around as the Arbiter and killed him, eventually. Captain Keyes grabbed the index, but it was too late - the halo set all the others to be on standby, ready for remote activation. They can be activated from Earth, where the last remaining prophet is.

Cut to Master Chief descending towards Earth, and as I get ready to take control of him, the credits roll. A rather sudden ending to the game ...

Crackdown: pulsing noise

I hear the hum of agility orbs everywhere I go. My mind is playing tricks on me.

485 of 500 agility orbs collected, and 185 of 300 hidden orbs. Every skill's maxed out other than driving, which is on 31/100 on the last level.

I love this game.

Halo 2: Petey Piranha's really let himself go

I've got hold of another copy of this - my fourth in total - and carried on from where I left off, even seeing the cutscene.

Back to controlling the Arbiter, I was instructed to go and retrieve the 'index', which is basically the ignition key for the halo system. This was, of course, hidden within the halo, protected by loads of automatic sentries and big enforcer things. These were both a blessing and a curse, since they destroyed the flood (or the flood destroyed them), and if I waited around I'd only have one set of enemies to contest with. But the enforcers were a pain, covered by a massive shield in front and lots of firepower. In the end I generally destroyed them by activating invisibility, running behind them and throwing sticky grenades at them - though in a couple of cases there were handy rocket launchers laying around.

I was a bit worried with the constant references to "the library" in the in-game dialogue, but luckily there were no long repetitive corridors to fight along ... there were lots of big open areas, with the flood controlling vehicles, and some big firefights with allies. Great fun. At one point I got on a big lift thing, and had to run around killing the flood who jumped onto it - mainly by making myself invisible, running up to the group and throwing a grenade into their midst.

In the end, I got to the sacred icon - the index - only to find that Captain Keyes was there first. A cutscene showed her and Sergeant Johnson being captured along with the index, and then a brute came and took them off the Arbiter. It seems that the elites have been demoted - and have been ordered killed. The arbiter falls to his death ...

... or not. Previously, I'd seen Master Chief falling through the water after Regret's temple was destroyed. he was grabbed by a big tentacle thing. The same catches the Arbiter, and reveals how halo will destroy everything in the galaxy - he's the parasite, the father of the flood. He looks like a big toxic version of Petey Piranha. We need to get hold of the index.

Master Chief is warped into the middle of the prophets' meeting. Oops. Somehow almost everyone disappears and I ended up having to fight just a few brutes and jackals. The elites are now a third party ... as I found out when I got outside and found them in combat with the brutes. Whichever party is left then tries to kill me. Charming.

I went and rescued some captured marines, and then worked through fights between elites and brutes, and even fought two hunters with very little ammo. I'm now on a floating platform with hovering elites killing me constantly. I think I need a break ...

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All: completed!

I played this a bit in Egypt, but finished off the last case over the weekend. The third case was a bit tricky in places, but the last case was just a bit pants. It went from being very linear and obvious to the infuriating problem of having a clear solution but having a stupid circuitous route to get there. I want to present the spy camera now, not after going to the police station to have it explained what it is.

Anyway, finished now, and I even waded through the very long endstory. How was I supposed to know that I should have given Edgeworth the whip? I gave him the figurine. It seemed more apt.

Halo 3: you lucky bugger

I won an online game! Really convincingly!

Halo 3 has a section in its matchmaking aimed specifically at beginners, to help you learn the maps and the rules and the changes to controls. I'm still adjusting to look-on-right, and particularly weapon collect being on a shoulder button, so I feel justified in playing there. For the first couple of games, I came second or third - and then came the rampage.

I got nine kills in a row. I threw a grenade around a corner as both opponents approached it (prompting the exclamation in the title). I killed with the battle rifle, needler (so much more powerful than in Halo 2), grenades, pistol and spiker. And my fists. I won the game 25-14-11 - yes, I got as many kills as my opponents put together. Monumental. It won't happen again.

One of the funniest bits was when I turned a corner to find a firefight between Mucky Bandit and Spitmonkey. Mucky Bandit had just dropped a bubble shield, so he was protected. He evidently wasn't watching his radar very well, since I could just walk up and ...

Straight after that, Spitmonkey jumped through the shield and I punched him - and he fell over the side of the level to his death.

I almost wanted to never play it again, to bask in glory. But that would be daft, so I played a few proper matchmaking games and was back to my rubbish self.

Halo 2: possible salvation

Rather than continuing from my last save, I looked at the chapter list - and the chapter following "Regret" is listed ... meaning I can carry on from that point (although I'll probably miss the cutscene). Well, theoretically I can - my disc won't load it. How frustrating!

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All: clowning around

While the game is mostly great, the some of the characters are starting to ... well, grate. Moe the Clown, for example, with his constant laughing at himself and failure to get to the point. Von Karma with her constant whipping - it's just too far-fetched.

I'm around halfway through the third case, and I think I can see where it's going - Max had a life-size bust, Moe saw the silhouette of his face, someone else could wear his cloak - but I'm enjoying getting there.

Halo 2: a wasted hour

Last night, I continued the single-player game. I fought my way to a lake, and across to a temple, where the prophet sat. After a number of attempts I finally managed to kill him, and saw the cutscene. And then my Xbox 360 told me that the disc was dirty or damaged, and put me back to the dashboard.

I was sure that I'd gone past a number of big checkpoints, but on restarting and electing to play from my last save, it put me back to the sniper valley. Over an hour down the drain.

Good job it's fun to play.