What are you playing?

[Kriven]

I've been hooked down tight to Pikmin 3 for the past couple of weeks, but now that I've completed all of the on-disc content that isn't Co-Op (though I am steadily working through that with my girlfriend) I've got nothing to do until I have some pocket money for the DLC. Not wanting to give up the ghost, I booted the Wii and did a single-sitting run of the original Pikmin, albeit the New Play Controls version.

I honestly liked that a lot less than the GameCube version. Everything felt so imprecise and slow, and the ability to manually march your Pikmin was incredibly hindered with the new setup. (Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that I haven't played the New Play Controls version of either Pikmin game... 2 is going to happen soon.) I did appreciate adding some of the Pikmin 2 sorting options, though. If they'd mixed that with the option for GCN support, and NPC Pikmin would be the definitive version.

Also, I forgot how much stronger all the basic enemies are in the first game. I mean, in Pikmin 3 the Bulborbs are just barely even a threat. They created stronger, more formidable versions of the same enemies for that exact reason. Yet in Pikmin, a single Bulborb can devour scores of your tiny army if you aren't playing smart. This struck me as interesting, mainly because playing the franchise in order creates a tiered leveling system that demonstrates Olimar's evolution as a Captain. He develops better management techniques to more efficiently dispatch monsters and cover new terrain, he learns the weak spots and disadvantages of his enemies to more thoroughly thrash them when the time comes. I'm sure it isn't an intended aspect to the narrative, but I feel like it adds to the overall experience.

--I know the Koppaites kind of throw a wrench in this whole thing by waltzing onto the scene and already being superior to Olimar in these ways (although they haven't figured out sorting by stemming or tossing mixed Pikmin), but I still think it's a neat way to show character progression (considering Olimar does show the advanced Pikmin 3 qualities via Bingo Battle and Challenge Mode).--

Other than that I've been derping around with my Wii U VC titles (F-Zero mainly) and Wind Waker HD. I just played the original Wind Waker very recently, and I'm not particularly eager to do it again, but I do want to hold myself to this idea that I can't buy a new game unless I've played everything I currently own for whatever system. I don't have to play to completion if it isn't something I like, so I'm also using this to weed some games off the shelves and into storage where they'll wait until I need them either to sell or to try again. But no longer cluttering.

With that in mind I've got games currently going for the 360 and DS/3DS at the time: Watchmen: The End is Nigh and Glory of Heracles, both of which I'm enjoying. Watchmen is kind of low budget, but it's a pretty solid 3D beat-em-up in the same vein as the Tekken 6 story/adventure mode, which I also enjoyed. The visuals are really clear and easily read, which is a big plus when it comes to new games... I've had to put down both Sonic Generations and Force Unleashed recently because they just were not readable to me, and I really don't want to spend however many hours of my life waiting because "it gets better."

tl;dr: Glory of Heracles, Watchmen: The End is Nigh, Pikmin (franchise), The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, F-Zero.

Also, still chugging away at Mario's Picross.

Edit: Didn't mean to write a novel here. I guess I should go back to blogging >.>;