The pacing - direction, plot development, whatever you want to call it - of Partners in Time is all wrong. "Dungeon" areas (which are not always indoors, but are field areas in which enemies can be encountered) are too large, numerous, and populous. The links between them are also haphazard at best, with, as Brad mentioned, what amounts to a one-at-a-time sequence of rooms. On the surface this may seem like a non-issue but the story's sparsity makes most of the game feel unnecessarily claustrophobic. The game balance means that if you get fed up with constant fighting (which, given enemy abundance, can take forever), it's easy to skip some encounters, but as in any RPG this is a very delicate line.

Combat is really fun at first, but eventually becomes tiring. The four-character dynamic isn't all that different from the two-character dynamic, and with the exception of Bros. Items, the quartet actually has less abilities than Saga's duo. As for these Bros. Items, a few of them are easy and efficient, but the vast majority are just way more work than they're worth; having to coordinate four button-presses, as we should all know from Simon, stretches the limit of human reactivity.

The small-scale production of dialog scenes is pretty good. Most of the screen time in these scenes is of Mario and Luigi playing with their baby selves, and this all has great accompanying animation and sound effects. But I definitely feel like the writers lost the forest for the trees with this, in that the bigger picture is terribly mismanaged.

Still, there are parts of the game that are pretty fun, most notably boss encounters. It's actually somewhat startling, transitioning from hopelessly-easy normal enemies to hectic boss fights, which especially in the later game require pinpoint coordination of dodging and counterattacking just to survive. For this reason I would say if you enjoyed Superstar Saga and have 10-15 hours to blow, you could do worse than Partners in Time. But the GBA game is definitely the better of the two.

Progress: Beat final boss

Radiance's ending is pretty horrible. The promisingly deep plot is never given full closure; I get the impression that it's a reference to other events in the series, but standing alone this title is never truly wrapped up. Add to that a half-hour or so of agonizingly slow scrolling text and a surprisingly awful lyrical song, and you've got the 30-hour game's final moments.

But despite the sour taste the ending leaves in my mouth, I can still recall enjoying the rest of the game. There are some aspects that are mechanically frustrating - specifically, some events relying on randomness (e.g. the stat points you get when leveling up; sometimes, a unit will roll +0 on everything), and the permanent repercussions (dead characters) of mistakes. But nevertheless moving my units and murdering the enemy army was a real blast.

One of my favorite things about Path of Radiance, and this is why I'm not too motivated to look into the GBA titles, is the stellar presentation. The graphical style and detail of the battlefields and combat scenes are great, and the music, albeit repeated frequently, never seemed to get old. Plus! there were six extremely well-animated and -voiced cutscenes, which while infrequent, were very impressively done. I don't usually get hung up on aesthetics but I really have to tip my hat to Intelligent Systems on this one.

I would really like to replay this game at some point, and see the things I missed; it's just a matter of having the time for it. (Plus, I'm still not very good at it.)

Progress: Finished main game (in Easy mode)

Long story short: I bought Metal Slug Anthology because the box says it's 4 player. It isn't. True to form, the included Metal Slug games are for one or two players, no more. Caveat emptor.

Metal Slug Anthology is a 10th-anniversary collection of the seven most important games in SNK's Metal Slug series, including the never-before-purchasable Metal Slug 6. The collection also includes some underwhelming unlockables, namely image galleries, sound test music, and a text transcript of an interview with Metal Slug staff members that is basically impossible to read.

The arcade games, fortunately, are implemented (emulated?) with 100% faithfulness to the originals. Single- and two-player shooting action has few examples as prime as the Metal Slug series, and they're all here. There is not a ton of variation between the different games, but it's a lot of Metal Slugging nonetheless (and with infinite continues, there's nothing between you and raw shoot-em-up action).

For the Wii, the Anthology engineers made up a treasure trove of control schemes. In fact, so many that one suspects they were mostly an experiment. I haven't tried very many of them myself, but at least the default control setting is fairly easy to use; and many of them don't require a nunchuk, so they're very accessible.

If you're a fan of Metal Slug and/or the shmup genre, this is a collection you shouldn't go without. Plus it's great for two-player co-op. But bear in mind that the "4" on the back of the box is a typo - this is no party game.

Progress: Gave Up -- Beat Metal Slugs 1 and 2

Since I last spoke of the Wild World I began a gradual toning-down of my playing habits in it, eventually forgoing fossil collection, fruit picking, and even the weekly stalk market. I finished building up my house, and put a few new items in the museum, but by and large I was pretty much satisfied with my work.

The last thing I decided to hold out on was to get a golden axe. I completed the lengthy trading quest to get a Scallop item, which I held in order to give to town visitor Pascal in exchange for the axe. More than two months later, I continue to hold this accursed seashell; despite turning the game on to check the seashore every morning, the scurvy bum has not shown up. Thus I have finally resigned on this endeavor.

This leads in to one of my complaints about the game, namely that certain tasks take an exorbitant amount of time (and sometimes effort). Certain aspects of the game are very pick-up-and-play friendly, and some others, like this big dumb axe, could really afford to take a lesson from that.

Progress: Gave Up -- Full mansion, golden shovel and slingshot

As I go on I'm finding Partners in Time easier and easier to put down. I still like the core gameplay elements, although even with the necessary "Bros. Items" in gross abundance I rarely use special attacks; they are very difficult to pull off to the degree that they are more effective than regular jumping attacks. Perhaps that's why the battles are beginning to feel like a grind, despite the wealth of variety in figuring out how a foe will attack and how to avoid it (or turn it upon itself). I'm still holding out hope that this will change as I progress.

What bothers me the most so far is the long stretches of dungeon time. Rooms are large, enemies are very abundant, and it doesn't seem like there are as many helpful NPCs (as in Superstar Saga) willing to endow upon the super brothers new field abilities. Of course I can avoid almost all the battles and thus speed up the process considerably, but my #1 worry in any RPG is of being underleveled, so I find myself morally unable to do this.

In any event, I'm in the middle of a dungeon now, and can't wait until I get back to some witty repartee with the Professor.

Progress: Level 18, still two shards

As I continue to plod through the campaign, having now passed the 20-hour mark, I am still learning more about how the game works in every battle. As I said in reference to the early game, it is fairly easy to "get in to," but the complexity and somewhat difficulty of later chapters requires of the player a much deeper understanding of Fire Emblem's inner workings. The game has a fairly high learning curve, and if you want to do well, fairly steep.

Doing well is one of the more critical elements of Path of Radiance since, as with the rest of the Fire Emblem series, mistakes can have grave and permanent consequences. I'm speaking of the series' most oft-criticized feature: that when a member of your troop dies, he or she will never fight again (mission-critical members will stay on in an advisory role, but the majority of your team will simply die, never to return). Especially in the early game as you want for a larger force, this is a significant problem. It is expected of the player to restart a battle if this happens, and since you cannot save midway through a battle, accidentally bringing a weaker unit within archer range as you near the battle's final objective can have frustrating results.

This emphasis on precision planning is not something my game playing habits are compatible with. Luckily for me, Easy Mode is pretty forgiving, and I've only suffered a couple of casualties in my campaign so far.

What I read of unlockables after completing the game (e.g. items that enhance certain characters' strengths) makes me think that subsequent playthroughs become easier, thus making higher difficulties more achievable. There is also a very Choose-Your-Own-Adventure aspect to Path of Radiance - the majority of the chapters contain recruitable extra units (many of whom have easily-missed requirements for recruiting), and some character-related decisions will actually affect story portions of the game. Thus the idea of playing through a second or even third time is fairly tempting, but I doubt I will have the time for it, considering I currently prospect the game to have a 30+ hour length.

Nonetheless, it is still very fun, and even considerably engaging in terms of plot.

Progress: Chapter 23

Because two characters just weren't enough, Superstar Saga's follow-up adds two more: baby versions of the plumber brothers. That crazy old Professor E. Gadd has built a time machine, and through a series of predictably zany circumstances, Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi must rescue Princess Peach (Baby Peach is safe, at least for now) from invading alien mushrooms.

As with its predecessor, the plot and storytelling in M&L2 is brilliantly humorous, and just watching dialogue play out is a real hoot. As for the gameplay, I haven't gotten far enough to get all of the bros' abilities, but it's still fun - and, given that there are four timing-intensive buttons now, coordinating big attacks can be quite a challenge.

Of course the game looks and sounds great. The characters' animations are particularly well done, especially when an adult character will perform some wacky hijinks to entertain a baby counterpart. This coupled with the pseudo-Italian jibberish sound effects the brothers have really makes the presentation shine.

Progress: Level 8, two shards

As I said; it has remarkable features and polish, but at its heart, Metroid Prime Pinball is still a pinball game. I'm simply not good at pinball, which leads to a certain amount of boredom in the genre. This one is still pretty fun in short bursts, which makes it a good travel game at least. And I'm sure that if you're a fan of pinball this will be among your favorites.

Some other things to comment on:

• Length - there are two starting tables (Tallon Overworld and Pirate Frigate), two intermediate tables (Phazon Mines and Phendrana Drifts), then another table (Artifact Shrine) and a final table (Impact Crater). Which may not seem like much, but I personally was never able to progress past the second set of tables.
• Multiplayer - there is only one table (and one goal on that table, a score target) available for multiplayer, which makes it a little tedious, especially considering the matches are a bit on the short side. This is wireless multiplayer; no wi-fi here.
• Sound - MP Pinball's soundtrack is mostly comprised of slightly-remixed Metroid Prime music, and it sounds excellent, really one of the highlights of the game. Sound effects are also very crisp.

It also comes with a free DS rumble pack, which goes in the GBA game slot and is compatible with certain other games, like Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. The force feedback isn't extremely effective, but hey, free rumble pack.

Progress: Gave Up -- Unlocked Phendrana Drifts

I had been looking forward to this game somewhat before its release, it being billed as a Double Dragon-style beat-em-up game, with the added bonus of the anime series' alchemy abilities. Unfortunately FMA:DS underdelivers in almost every way, save for a fun main game, which curiously you must unlock by finishing Story Mode.

Initial reports of export copies expressed great dissatisfaction with the fact that the game's story mode follows the script of the anime, and no more, but this was not something I really cared about. However, as I played it, the significance of these reports became more apparent; the majority of the game's running time is spent in "cutscenes" that relay this story, rather than actual game playing. And I hesitate to call them cutscenes at all, because the scene is almost always static, subtitled with the dialog next to animated faces (and with infrequent voice-overs). I don't mind the story being the same one I've heard before, but I do mind it being the main focus, time-wise, of the game, and being implemented so poorly.

The actual game, as played in Story Mode, is not dissimilar from your garden variety side-scrolling fighting game of yore, except in one crucial aspect: variety. There are very, very few moves at your disposal, which makes the fights more of a button-mashing challenge than anything else, even in some boss encounters. The lack of alchemic options is fairly disappointing, as all you have is a selectable offensive move (most of them are remarkably alike) and a single defensive move.

Here I should point out that the controls for this game are slightly weird. The B and X buttons will jump, whereas A and Y are for attacking, and alchemy is performed not with buttons at all, but by pressing in the bottom-left and -right corners of the touch screen. Why this was not mapped to the L and R shoulder buttons, which are unused for the entirety of the game, I do not know. As a side-note, the puzzle segments of the game that use the touch screen are juvenile at best, the most challenging of which is a five-step Simon game.

As I complain about the lack of variety in Story Mode, though, I should note that the real winning part of this game - and the only thing keeping it from being completely terrible - is the mode you unlock after completing Story Mode, namely Character Mode. Story Mode limits you to playing as Edward nearly 100% of the time, but in Character Mode you can play through the game again, including some new scenes but without the story sequences, as one of six different characters. Each of them has different alchemy attacks, which are the same ones you could select from previously, but work to greater effect when wielded by their intended master, and each character also has different speeds and attack strengths and weaknesses. So the variety of characters actually rounds out the game pretty well, once you've already beaten it, and the cutscene-less game is actually really fun, though short. It would be absolutely perfect for a wireless multiplayer game, but unfortunately FMA:DS does not have any multiplayer ability.

Graphically, the game is pretty well composed, everything's in 2D but it's well drawn and it all moves fluidly. The music is pretty bland for the most part, as are the sound effects. The voice overs are pretty good some times, but other times can sound grating.

There is a ton of stuff in this game, extra little unlockable bits to fiddle around with, everything from a sound test and image gallery to a "Character Clock" where you can have a selected character's voice used as a (functional, if impractical) alarm clock. There are also a bunch of minigames, and though most of them are awful, a few aren't bad.

In short, FMA:DS has some good going for it (Character Mode), but a great deal of shortcomings. Let me put it this way: it's pretty fun for an anime license game.

Progress: Finished all Character Modes

Samus Aran's morph ball mode looks kind of like a pinball, doesn't it? Well, someone thought so. Metroid Prime Pinball is pretty much what you would expect, conceptually, a pinball game with Metroid (Prime) trappings. Luckily, the development studio behind it learned a lesson from the much-antagonized Sonic Spinball, and so MPP doesn't pretend to be something it's not; though it has "battle mode" minigames, bomb and missile powerups, and even a health meter, it is still a pinball game.

One might think this limits the game in terms of fun factor, but the Metroid formula enhancements actually work quite well. This is no high adventure epic in a sci-fi wilderness, but it is a rollicking game of pinball.

Unlocking more tables is actually pretty difficult, as you have to complete a series of tasks (moving from one table to another) within three balls; there is no incremental progress. Nevertheless I look forward to the challenge of it.

Progress: Unlocked Phazon Mines