There's a good amount of breadth to Planet Puzzle League. I haven't seen it all yet, but so far I'm fairly impressed.

There are a slew of single player modes. One of the new ones, "Garbage Challenge" - in which the player's goal is to destroy as many garbage blocks as possible, as they drop down without end - is kind of a bitch. Most of the other stuff is pretty cool. At first I thought the game's obligatory move-limit Puzzle Mode was pretty easy; but several stages in it's gotten very tough.

One of the neater features is "Daily Play," where the game challenges you to a single round in each of its three main modes, Score Attack, Garbage Attack, and Lift Attack, each with a time limit. The scores for each of these three rounds is saved every day, and your progress is charted over time. Think Wii Sports's fitness chart, but for your block puzzle ability. This is something I have a keen interest in.

There are a bunch of multiplayer options, including single-cart and multi-cart wireless, online friend battles, online world battles, and a bizarre Birthday Battle mode, where you play online against people with the same birthday (saved in your DS, remember?). In a rather ... unorthodox design, Birthday Battle is the only way in which players are ranked online; the other modes don't count. More on this as it develops - currently, all the other players are Japanese, who, as it turns out, are fairly good at this.

Progress: Basic Puzzle 5-3

I intended to do some Glog software work this weekend, but instead spent most of my time pseudo-adventuring around Outland. The marketing of this trial is really quite brilliant - it prevents you from getting to or beyond level 61, which means that you can, with a little effort, see almost all of the new continent, but are unable to enjoy the overwhelming majority of it. My taste has really been whetted. I fear it's only a matter of time before it gets me again.

Fun fact: new Master profession level + Gnomish racial Engineering bonus = level 78 mechanical pets.

I made a new Draenei Paladin, and tooled around in the starting area for a little while. The starter quests - like most others as I recall - have a real charm to them, and so far I'm really happy with it. I've also inspected Outland a little bit. Hellfire Peninsula is kind of dull; I hope I can get somewhere else.

Footnote: the download ended up taking only 6 hours, rather than 10. I still think they need to work on their direct download reliability.

I think Wii point-and-shoot controls will finally make this game easy enough for me to become fully engrossed in.

It's like Phoenix Wright, but instead of law, it's about the stock market. I can't wait [for an announced American release].

Ever heard of Panel de Pon? No? How about Tetris Attack? Pokémon Puzzle League? Well this is the same game, but with obligatory DS touch control and network play. I dream about this game.

I finally bit the bullet and clicked on the large Confirm button to begin my 10 day free trial of Burning Crusade. Then the page tells me I need to download a client updater. This updater, through the satanic, dark magicks of the Blizzard Downloader, will have taken in the neighborhood of ten hours before it is ready to even begin installation. This really only serves to remind of WoW's, and every MMO's, major failing in the subscription model: rather than paying for a product, one effectively pays for time, time which is already a volatile and precious enough resource. The fact that I'm not actually paying is only a minor technicality.

Progress: 20%

I was trying to get perfect scores - which I remember doing in the original with much pride - but I got to the bonus stage in the first world, and it's ridiculously impossible. There's rising lava, and enemies everywhere, and bullet bills, and coins in the middle of nowhere. It's the kind of challenge that would be great to master, and I do intend to at some point, but currently there just isn't room in my schedule for this level of dedication.

Progress: Total score: 2905

Oprah? I'm done.

Progress: Gave Up -- 235 points

Progress: Working on scores - current total: 2872