I hate to say it, but the Tron mystique is beginning to wear thin. Plot related text and cutscenes are few and far between, and the light cycle arena is way behind me, with the vast majority of the game yet to come. The subroutine and light puzzle elements are still here; but the shooting challenges are becoming very hard for me to keep up with.

Progress: Legacy Code - Alan's Desktop PC

As the game goes on, it becomes more and more like Metroid. Jenosa (the bounty hunter)'s power suit gets capability upgrades, including a grapple beam, and her "projectile gauntlets" (power beam) get new powers, ranging from new abilities like time slow to rock-paper-scissors elements. This is one of the differences to the classic Metroid formula.

A combustion shot burns biological enemies but powers up mechanical enemies; an electric shock shorts out mechanical enemies but powers up energy-based enemies; and an energy dissipator shot vaporizes energy-based enemies but powers up biological enemies. When you use the right shot on an enemy, nearby enemies also take damage, and enemies come fast and frenetic enough that you need to keep switching to keep up.

There are two other things that make Scurge distinct from Metroid. One of them is the perspective, which as I've mentioned, makes aiming a bit trying. Dancing around in order to hit enemies is aggravating to begin with but later becomes the main challenge of the game.

The second difference is that Jenosa can level up, gaining experience points from items picked up from exploded enemies. Though the effects of leveling up are apparent as the game goes on, they come slow enough that grinding is pretty pointless. Instead the effect is making backtracking slightly easier, which is pretty cool.

The story is beginning to become more interesting than it was, but is still not very much. Thus far it's a fairly predictable military-versus-botched-research-installation plot... like, say, Metroid Fusion.

EDIT: I forgot to mention another difference between Scurge and Metroid, which is probably the most important one. In Scurge: Hive, Jenosa is vulnerable to the titular scurge, and becomes gradually more infected until she reaches a decontamination room (save point). When infection reaches 100%, your health will begin to deplete. If you move fast this should almost never happen, but it does persuade you to ... move fast, and keeps the pace of the game very fairly exciting.

Progress: Excerpt 5 - Before we knew it...

Thematically Scurge is a definite Metroid ripoff. Female bounty hunter, hired by an intergalactic military, fitted with a high-tech powersuit, sent to a secret planetary installation to fight a rapidly-multiplying alien organism. But it plays somewhat differently: there's very little jumping and puzzle solving, but a great deal of isometric 8-axis laser firing. Yes, now that you mention it, the 8-axis laser firing is quite difficult to aim.

It's pretty simple so far, but in that there's a certain charm of dumb shooting action. I wonder if it will last...

Progress: Excerpt 2 - Marooned

Yesterday was the birthday of a friend of mine, and a perfect excuse to steal my roommate's copy of Smooth Moves and finish the game for him to unlock multiplayer. Yes, like other games I have rained disdain upon, Wario Ware Wii requires that one finish a single player campaign before being granted entrance to the Realm of Party Game, but unlike the others this single player mode can be finished inside of an hour, maybe two at the most. And it's easy enough to enlist the help of others in this anyway, since there's enough time between the games to pass the wiimote.

I haven't delved into the Wario Ware franchise too much, but it's easy to see the advantage Smooth Moves has over its predecessors: variety of gameplay. The dimensions of movement (and, occasionally, button press) make this title's microgames a genuine surprise, and yet the presentation of controller position and on-screen action is just intuitive enough to lead you in the right direction. It's hard not to recognize a certain calibur of genius in the microgames' design, even if most of them last 5 seconds or less. And the timing is perfect for turn-taking, which both brings spectators into the fun and makes it super-accessible (no additional controllers required!).

Though I maintain that you'd have to be criminally psychotic to enjoy Smooth Moves by yourself beyond the time it takes to unlock multiplayer, the party game potential here is staggering. I haven't had this much fun in multiplayer since... well, I guess since Wii Sports, but other than that there's not much that can match it.

Cake!

Progress: Gave Up -- Tried all the multiplayer modes

I grew up watching ReBoot. I own The Last Starfighter on DVD. I'm a Computer Engineering student. The fact that I'm drawn to the Tron franchise as a firefly to the bug zapper should go without saying, and so far, Tron 2.0 hasn't driven me away.

In 1982 there wasn't a whole lot they could do to make a licensed game from the original Tron movie (other than countless lightcycle racing games, that is). Fortunately, sometime around the 20th anniversary hullabaloo, somebody realized that we now have the real-world technology to make the Tron-world technology interactive and fun.

Tron 2.0 is played from a first person perspective to ease combat, but despite the familiar trappings, it's no vapid FPS. It's not a Metroid Prime-level adventure game either, but Tron 2.0 is more like Deus Ex, with some puzzles to tickle the mind as well as stat points and equippable "subroutines" for performance upgrades. It's no brain-bender but these added levels of complexity at least make the game interesting to play.

The controls to make all this happen are pretty involved. There is some introduction on how to play, but it's pretty fast and loose. Fortunately (at least in Normal difficulty) I haven't been too outmatched yet, although I have availed myself of the Quicksave function a handful of times. And it even adapts well to the, drumroll please, lightcycle racing minigame.

Of course my favorite thing about the game is the atmosphere. Program NPCs, subroutine optimizers, milestones; the technobabble in Tron 2.0 is extremely satisfying. Your average game player probably won't be able to appreciate the programming jokes hidden in the game dialogue and events, but I, for one, welcome our new defragmented overlords.

Progress: Vaporware - Prisoner Bin

Case one is a crash course in remembering how to 'turn-about' a trial. Case two is a mysterious foray into character depth. Case three is on par with the difficulty in the first Phoenix Wright's fifth (and final) case. Case four? A rollercoaster ride through evidence and testimony that even had this overanalytical player hoodwinked until a climactic revelation, and plot events that could bring a killer robot to tears.

It would be stupid to say Justice For All is dissimilar from its predecessor; but there is something more, too (and I'm not just talking about the much publicized Psyche-Locks). The scripting, the investigative interviews (here's where the locks come in), and the mysteries are all a step above the first game in terms of challenge. And since it still plays like a detective novel, the greater the challenge, the prouder you feel for figuring it out.

There isn't much else to say about PW2, except that typoes plague this game. They're not in every dialog box, to be sure, but it is a very clear case of the staff relying on a spell-checking program and not actually doing proper proofreading (think lots of homonyms). It's still not enough to lower my opinion of the game, but it is something I really hope someone got fired for regardless.

Progress: Complete

So far - that is, in the intro case - the gameplay and writing is functionally identical to the first Phoenix Wright for DS. In the words of Thomas Edison, "If it ain't broke don't fix it."

Justice For All has a modified soundtrack, which I had a little difficulty adjusting to at first, but is really just as rewarding as the original's. I wouldn't even mention it except the music was (and is) one of my favorite things about Phoenix Wright.

The intro case is slightly longer than the first game's, which I believe is a sign in general that these cases will be more involved than its predecessor's (I've been informed that there are four, to the first game's five). I've also already run into a few typographical errors and one obfuscated evidence presentation, but it's not enough so far to get me upset.

Progress: Finished first case

True to form, the difficulty in Yoshi's Island DS turns all the way up to 11, and World 5 is a collection of challenges which I estimate would cause most mortals to peel the flesh from their faces. Perhaps not, but I know it has been years since I swore at a game so much. Make no mistake - I'm not talking about fruitless frustration that forces you to replay the same five minute segment all over again; this is well-designed challenge. This kind of platformer hasn't been made in forever, and I love it.

All the new features flow perfectly. Baby Bowser's special ability is breathing fire, which, in addition to melting ice (World 4 has some skiing levels), acts as an offensive replacement for eggs. Between this, Wario's magnet, Mario's running speed, Peach's gliding parasol, and DK's vine-climbing, there is an amazing amount of breadth to the level design devices. And in World 5 the player's very understanding of physics will be put to the test, as Yoshi dares impossible obstacles, culminating in a four-on-one boss fight.

I'll gloss over the other things I haven't covered:

• Story - a bunch of babies were kidnapped. Including Baby Luigi. Like in the first Yoshi's Island, Baby Mario mistakenly lands on ... Yoshi's island, and the Yoshis team up to save his brother. Along the way, they rescue other little tykes, and use their assistance as well. Not epic by any means but an adequate backdrop to the game's progression.
• Graphics - drawn extremely similarly to the SNES game, I'm tempted to think that many of the images were copied and pasted. There are rare instances where something will look not-quite-right, but the overwhelming majority of the time, everything looks friendly and ready for action.
• Sound - the soundtrack isn't anything to write home about, but it's hardly noticeable during the high-action platforming sequences. Sound effects are poignant and meaningful, from Yoshi's ba-dum-bump! to the irritating baby crying alerting you that you need to save it.
• Replay - beating the game unlocks a Time Trial mode and a secret stage in each World. Also, as in the original title, each stage has collectible items (stars, red coins, and flowers), and how many you collect will net you a score at the end. Accumulating high scores will unlock new features in each World, namely harder versions of the mini-games (which, relatedly, you can play on their own whenever you want) and a second secret stage. Getting all 100 points in some of the early stages is tricky, and getting all 100 points in the later stages is damn near impossible, so if you're up to the challenge this will last quite a while.

I can't stress enough how impressed I am with the level design and challenge of Yoshi's Island DS. I really feel like I've gone back in time, to an era before complicated graphical effects and control schemes, and have been graciously allowed to re-witness platforming perfection. This game probably won't change your opinion of the platform genre, but if you're a fan, this is your game.

Progress: Clear! (haven't played secret stages)

It's evident from the position of things on the map menu that there are five worlds in Yoshi's Island DS - which doesn't seem like much (each world having eight stages), but assuming there is some crazy Raphael Raven nonsense in the last world, this portable little beauty will have accomplished even more than the original game did.

My upbringing on the SNES still makes me feel a bit off playing platformers on a DS, but that feeling is very subdued here. Not only are some levels startingly challenging, but Artoon has really taken advantage of the system: while there are already a lot of games working wonders with the touch-screen, and a lot of games using a second screen for secondary purposes, Yoshi's Island DS is the first I've seen that actually extends the action across both screens. This vertical panorama is super-effective in creating a refreshing platform experience.

Baby DK can climb vines and dash into objects, breaking them with ease. Baby Wario has a magnet, which attracts metal objects and coins to him when positioned correctly (this seems gimmicky but enables a lot of great puzzles). And it turns out each baby also fires eggs a little differently - where Mario's will bounce off walls, Peach's will break on impact, and DK's actually have a blast radius. Still no word on Baby Bowser.

Progress: Stage 4-2

The second-to-last mission is a salute to the physics engine, a massive sandbox in the theme park, where in the end you'll be throwing entire rides around. It's exemplary of the slowdown issue, but also of the fun you can have tossing stuff around.

The last mission is an obligatory boss fight, which mostly serves as a showcase for the single worst part of controlling the game, parts which require you to twist the remote with your wrist. Luckily it's pretty short.

The story in general is fairly brief, but, I think, just the right duration for it to keep from being stale. On the whole I would rank Elebits as the best one should rationally expect from a near-launch title (Twilight Princess being anything but the norm).

The level editor is, at least as far as I'm concerned, just hard enough to control/use that making new levels to fool around with is more trouble than it's worth. But going back to existing story mode levels for fun is easy enough.

Progress: Finished Story Mode: King of Curiosity