Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: playing the circuits

Until this point I've only been playing the individual events, which, while ideal for learning, seems to mean that you can't unlock anything new to play. So yesterday and this morning I had a go at the circuit mode, which is where you have to play through three set events, being scored for your ranking at each. What with my previous practice, I breezed through the beginner circuits - although I really am hopeless at the long jump, and I messed up the archery since for all but the last two shots I forgot about adjusting for the wind (and as a result was getting really annoyed with my seeming inability to aim straight).

The last event of the circuits was the "dream race" - basically a Mario Kart meets Sonic R meets 100m sprint - which wasn't as good as any of those. I got in front at the start and stayed there, laying bombs behind me, never seeing a shell but occasionally being hit by lightning or a Boo. I never saw any other contestant though.

Hopefully the advanced circuits will unlock further events. But this unlocking idea is daft. I have to get good at the game to unlock stuff. Therefore in order to play the game in multiplayer, I will have had to practised a lot, meaning that I will have a significant advantage over whoever I'm playing against.

Geometry Wars Galaxies: β, γ, δ, and ε clear

I'm still getting silvers before I progress on to the next planet, which is causing problems for some levels - while I can get the bronze quite easily, the silver is a significant step up. One level had me stuck for a whole day - it included something in the centre of the level that was spinning space around it alternating clockwise and anticlockwise. It was hard enough to stay in one place, let alone watch out for enemies that were being thrown at you from the wrong direction.

I really like the way that the levels are so different. Some are non-stop frantic action, with enemies constantly appearing - even to the extent that some enemies will appear wherever your ship was a second previously, so that you need to be constantly on the move. Other levels are more relaxed and (in the case of those levels with large enemy containers) almost let you take them at your own speed (as long as you don't take too long ...).

I'm very tempted to get the Wii version of this as well at some point, to see how differently it plays. Plus, of course, to unlock the last galaxy on the DS game.

Super Mario Galaxy: sixty-one stars in

Back into the game for a bit, and it's every bit as amazing as when I left it. I was worried about having forgotten some of the controls, but it's all so natural - you run where you want to, jump how you want to, shoot star bits, collect star bits ...

I've now completed the first run of galaxies in the bedroom (missing out the hidden stars and most of the comet stars) and have gone up to the engine room. I've passed 60 stars so I could go and rescue Peach ... but no, I'll let her hang on a bit.

I had trouble with one level - a cosmic comet (so a race against Cosmic Mario) on the Gold Leaf galaxy. The main issue I had was with climbing up what was effectively a staircase of blocks, where I kept misjudging my jumps so I hooked onto the side of a block and had to pull myself up, losing time. I lost six lives - but each time I was picking up an extra one, and when I finally finished I won the race easily.

Geometry Wars Galaxies: α clear

I must admit, I never really clicked with Geometry Wars (included within PGR2) or its sequel on the 360. It always seemed a little too hectic, and there was far too much to learn - which enemies did what, how the multiplier system worked, how to maximise points, how to use black holes. It was, I'll readily admit, more my fault than the game's, but there was far too much thrown at you straight away to let you get to grips with it. I never bought the Xbox Live Arcade game - I just played the game within PGR3.

So I don't know why I bought Geometry Wars Galaxies. It might have been the cheap price. It might have been the praise it was getting online. It might have been just because I fancied a quick shooter session and I was out and about. Whatever it was, I'm glad that I did - it's brilliant.

One of my main concerns with the original game(s) was the lack of structure. It all felt very random, and I never got the feeling that there was a set wave pattern to the enemies. In this game not only are there many different levels, with defined goals and objectives, but it's clear that the appearance of the enemies and timing of their attacks has been tightly designed. I've played a couple of the levels through more than once and scores benefitted through understanding how the enemy's attacks were structured ... though not to the extent of, say R-Type, where you can move your ship to avoid or attack enemies well before they come onto the screen. There's still an element of flying by the seat of your pants - only partially alleviated by the presence of a drone which tries its best to help you out.

The structure of the game works well too. When you destroy enemies, they release geoms which you must then collect. These geoms, along with any bonus ones you're awarded for collecting a medal on a stage, are then used to unlock behaviours for your drone (one of which is to send it to collect the geoms for you) and new levels. Collecting geoms and defeating enemies also increases your multiplier. This introduction of geoms fundamentally changes the way the game plays - you need to chase enemies down so that you can collect the geoms once they're destroyed, whereas my previous tactic was to run away while firing behind me.

I've cleared the first stage with a gold medal and the second stages with silvers (therefore completing the first level). I think I'll set myself a limit of silvers before I progress - though I have a feeling this might get a lot harder than it currently is ...

Advance Wars: Dark Conflict: completed!

I think that must be a record for me - the final mission falling on my fourth go. If you don't want it to be spoilt for you, and you want to work it out yourself, then skip over the next paragraph. I mean you, Kieron.

There were three things you have to watch out for. Firstly, the lasers. But it helps to notice that there's a definite pattern they follow, in particular the three in the middle. They fire in turn. Lure the enemy into the path of the one that's about to fire, and they lose 8 health, not you. The lasers are destroyed by a bomber in two goes,even if said bomber gets hit by the laser in between. Secondly, the poison bombs. I diverted these by building a group of heavy tanks to the west, away from any other units - their value meant that they were targeted rather than anything else. And thirdly, the fighter with Stolos on board, which was ridiculously powerful. I simply lured that down to the south of the map with lots of infantry units (with anti-air units sent slightly north to discourage it venturing up that way), and sent a processin of bombers along the top, destroying lasers as they went. S rank and everything.

I even sat through the awful story at the end, so pleased was I. I then went into one of the trial missions and completed that with another S ranking. Excellent.

Of course, the game's not properly completed - far from it. I have only a handful of the 200+ medals available, for a start. I've only completed one of the trial missions. And the game seems to have got wedged into my DS - it just won't come out.

Advance Wars: Dark Conflict: rescuing the clones

And so on to the final level. I assume it is, anyway - there's nowhere for the map to go after this.

Mission 25 (called 'Final Destination') was actually quite easy, despite its first impressions - dumped on a map with very few units up against a massive army. Mission 26 is set at the enemy's lab, with big lasers and hundreds of bases. And it's very hard indeed.

Advance Wars: Dark Conflict: avoid the bomber!

Luckily, the enemy doesn't seem to realise that if she puts her units within the blast radius of the big bomber flying overhead, they'll get damaged too.

Campaign level 22 has been pretty difficult - it took me three attempts to complete. The centre of the map is really a no-go area, since every turn a big bomb is dropped, which halves the strength of any units in the zone. So I took my units around the bottom, built up a massive force of megatanks, and rolled around, supported by bombers at the end for anti-tank dispersement. I only noticed on my third attempt that the opposition had no airports, so as long as I captured the spare one at the start of the game, their air units crashed and burnt after a few turns. No more bombers meant no more need for anti-aircraft guns or interceptors, and my megatanks only had the anti-tank units to worry about. I captured cities as I went, and once I captured the South Eastern base, that was about it.

Only an A rank, given the length of time it took me, but I can live with that.

I've not got used to the way you build up CO powers now yet. You have to have your CO in a specific unit, and all attacks in range of that unit are increased. More attacks in there increase the range and eventually let you use a CO power. I've not got around to that yet ...

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 ...