Game Quickies 05/15/10
Codiekitty.com

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS / E)
I'm not sure how I felt about the babies. On one hand the team splitting made some interesting levels and they were okay for babies, but I just find babies annoying. And four similarly sized and colored characters could also get crazy when doing Bros. Attacks which are pretty much required because of the insane amount of HP bosses have. And while I'm just nitpicking now, something about the sprites seemed off to me.
Rating: Decent


Exile (TG-CD)
It's solid and in some ways is like a more polished Ys 3. However, it needed to be longer. It only took me a smudge over a day to beat it.
Rating: Decent


Super Paper Mario (Wii / E)
Could somebody explain to me the point of doing things like holding right to run around in a hamster wheel for fifteen minutes? Or walking along a black line against a solid white background for so long when you finally find a rock on the ground it blows your mind? Really.
Rating: Eh


Banjo-Tooie (N64 / E)
The game has its moments, but Rare's mentality while making this game must have "Big levels are great, so TOTALLY FREAKING GINORMOUS LEVELS must be TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME" and the game spreads itself too thin. I'd bet you could fit all four seasons of Click Clock Wood into Mayahem Temple, the first stage. I guess I enjoyed Terrydactyland, but most of the levels are boring and the others are tedious. Jolly Roger's Lagoon is mostly swimming, the second worst thing about B-K, and Grunty Industries is Rusty Bucket Bay, the first worst thing about B-K, times a hundred. And as if trudging through these behemoths wasn't enough, you constantly have to backtrack and trudge through them again when you get the abilities you need to get more Jiggies. Yeah, there's warps, but they're not enough. Also, while I liked the majority of B-K's soundtrack, the only two songs in B-T I even noticed, much less liked were the Jinjo Village and the fire side of Hailfire Peaks.
Rating: Eh


Plants vs. Zombies (PC / E10+)
For all the plants you're given there's not much strategy involved. The same general formation works in any type of level with only minor changes depending on some of the opposing zombies. Sunflowers/Sunshrooms in the back, Peashooters/Launchers ahead, Wall-Nuts/Tall-Nuts in the front, fill the pool with Cattails because they're cute, and so on. Then throw in some Magnet Shrooms if you've got Zombies with metal items or Blovers for flying ones and whatnot. Still oddly addictive and kind of funny.
Rating: Decent


Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (PSP / E10+)
This is to Ratchet and Clank what Super Mario Land was to the NES Super Mario Bros. It's has only the most basic of gameplay elements elements and none of what made it any good. It's short, easy, and uninspired. Seriously, when I started the final area the clock was at just under four hours. And while I was at seven when I beat the game most of those three hours were spent grinding for levels and gear to beat the final boss, only to toast him in ten seconds with that laser gun. The plot is also completely incoherent (and if you've played up to the last stage and think you know what's going on, wait until you get to the pre-final boss fight irrelevence twist before you email me telling me what's going on).
Rating: Lame