After an extended vacation from the game, I finished up the professor's first level; and though it was what I was most looking forward to, it's the most disappointing of the three. The professor's core puzzle-solving mechanic is by using and combining items into practical tools, and much of it is just nonsensical. Pipes and a blowdryer make a leafblower? Pipes and an extension cord make a ladder? Atomic toasters are one thing, but too much of his gameplay is randomly bumbling around to see what works.

I've also grown extremely bored of the tedious level design. I started the next level, another Kurt one, and it barely kept me awake. The sloppy controls, the repetitive music, and the half-baked design have conspired together to really make me want to put the game away. So I have.

Progress: Gave Up -- Level 4B

Out of shape, but too lazy to leave the house? You bet I am.

I really, really want to play this, because as much as I love pretending to be a lawyer, I think I would like pretending to be a stock broker even more. Unfortunately, I may have to learn Japanese first.

Progress: Gave Up

Phoenix Wright's greatest strength is in its storytelling, and this game's final case brings it in spades. Not just case 5, but Trials and Tribulations as a whole, is a thrilling story and an impressive conclusion to the series. Very satisfying.

Progress: Complete

Me and my brothers and uncle got this for my dad for x-mas, along with the Wii to play it on, so comparing it to Wii Sports golf was pretty convenient. At first, Tiger Woods was a visible failure. Its interface is hideously convoluted; a forceful first-time tutorial is nearly impossible to get through; and there are even graphical issues, especially when text is on the screen. But Tiger's real strength comes out with continued play, in some pretty impressive depth.

The gameplay system is one thing. Tiger gives you a lot more options for clubs, shooting times, and strength of the shot, with more possibilities for lie, wind, slope, and what forth. Different golfers even have different strengths, though nothing I've seen so far seems able to beat John Daly's superhuman drive. And there's a confidence system that allows you to build up players with experience if you so choose. I gotta say, though, the coolest thing about Tiger is the courses. A slew of real-life golf courses, from Sawgrass to Pebble Beach, have been put right in the game; so not only are there a ton of holes to play, they're all based on real pro golf situations.

So in the end, while there is a definite learning curve, even for real golfers - enough that it's hard to make a case for Tiger as a "casual-friendly" game - the rewards for a true enthusiast are pretty nice. If only EA cared about polishing their games.

Progress: Gave Up

My second trial was interrupted by demonic tiles, so I had a spot of difficulty getting through it, but it's also worth mentioning that the plot of the case really threw me for a loop. I didn't see the truth of the incident coming until it was right in front of me.

Case 3 is really interesting, and is operating as a showcase for the writing talent behind Phoenix Wright. They've managed to fit in a wide spectrum of scenes and witnesses, and after two days of investigation, there are still a lot of mysterious unanswered questions.

But I really, really wish that, at least once, the word "than" would not have been misspelled as "then." Like I said about Justice For All, it's obvious that the game's script was proofread by a machine rather than human eyes, and this is still a bit disappointing.

Progress: Third day of case 3

This game is pure evil. It's amazingly easy to pick up; even huge Normal-mode puzzles rarely take more than half an hour. But at the same time, the nature of fast-paced step-by-step puzzle solving is super hard to put down. I never thought a puzzle without rising or falling blocks could be so addictive.

Progress: Normal Puzzle 8-F

Getting the game from my Capcom store pre-order was an ordeal, but I'm finally starting into Phoenix Wright's third installment. There's been a lot of backstory-building since the first game, but Trials and Tribulations has done a great job of bringing me back up to speed.

I can also see that the action is really heating up; in the second case, I'm already running into a slew of hooks into the overarching backstory of Phoenix, Edgeworth, and the Feys. Godot is shaping up to be an interesting character as well. And what's really got me excited is the structure of case 2; I thought it was going to be over at the end of the first day, but some loose threads coalesced themselves into a dramatic turn for the case. It's already got me guessing in a way that the previous games didn't really get to until case 4 or 5.

Progress: Second day of case 2

I needed a distraction for my plane ride, and Picross is dirt cheap, so I decided to give it a whirl even though I didn't really understand how it worked. The super-good tutorial brought me right up to speed, and now I've wasted a good part of the past three days making my way through these picture puzzles.

The puzzle mechanic is pretty cool, in that it's more logic- than panic-based. But the really amazing thing about Picross DS is the amount of content in it. There are over 300 puzzles of varying difficulty built into the game, plus!, you can download more, and even make them yourself and trade with people online (the puzzle editor checks to see if the picture you draw is possible as a picross puzzle).

So while Picross DS is pretty good for puzzle game fans, I can see it being even better for people who just like to sit down and fill out a crossword or a sudoku, as this game will last them a long time.

Progress: Normal Puzzle 3-M

The endgame collectible stuff wasn't really all I had hoped for. For one thing, to get all of anything (e.g. "hidden treasures"), you pretty much have to collect everything (soundtracks and movies and all that). For another thing, there is no reward except in the accomplishment itself, which would be fine if not for the utter arbitrary difficulty of several hidden items.

Anyway, the main game is fun, and for most people should be plenty, if not more than.

Progress: 100%