Continuing with a line of thought that I commented to pr0 about (here), I’m rather disillusioned with this generation of games. I love the Wii as a system, and the DS has always been a good thing, but it seems like every time I get excited for something, it falls short. I can carry over that excitement for a few hours into the game, and then I just think about how I’d rather be doing other things.

Maybe it’s me. I have a job where I read all day, I have an apartment and a sick girlfriend, I have music to make, I have photos to take, drawings to doodle, museums to visit, restaurants to eat at, et cetera times infinity. I have a new city to explore.

Maybe it’s the state of gaming. The generation is turning, and developers are still growing into it. Games are generally longer and more involved than I have time for.

Whatever it is, I’m not compelled to play anymore.

The latest victim was Super Paper Mario. I was on Chapter 3-1, and I loved it so far. It’s full of great setpieces and the gameplay is rather enjoyable. However, at a point, I said “I just don’t feel like playing this.” A couple days later, the urge to play it hadn’t hit me. I took it to the Hastings by my new place (awesome store btw. good mishmash of about anything i’m interested in, retail-wise.), and traded it in and bought

wait for it

Pokemon Pearl.

Almost on a whim.

I intended to play it at some point, even just for a little bit as an homage to my high school days, and I’d heard it was a decent Pokemon game. But this idea seemed great at the time. I have no money for games (and at that, barely enough to get by after doctor’s visits and things like that), and I have a very healthy collection. I decided right then: Pokemon Pearl is going to be the last game I buy.

I know I’m not going to stick with it forever, of course. It isn’t a promise, just a threat. But I’m not going to let myself down for a while.

So far, it is a fantastic final game. I’ve been playing it at work. I caught a Shinx. It’s kind of free without being completely lost. It’s self-confident and good enough to make it work. It feels special. I’ve played 1.5 hours of it.

We’ll see!

I sold those RPGs! I feel much better about my life afterward, and I made enough to cover buying Super Paper Mario. Some people I’ve talked to are still convinved SPM is an RPG. I have no idea why, it’s never been presented as anything but a platformer sorta based on an RPG series.

GameFly is pretty good for trying out stuff I’d never pay full price for. I think if I actually ran a game review site, I’d score them a dollar amount based on what I’d pay. This would allow me to use negative scores effectively (i’d play Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for about twenty bucks, hence a score of -$20). Also, I’d include the actual retail price for comparison. It doesn’t necessarily tell you what a game is worth or if it’s good or not. If done right though, it could tell you how fun a game is. However, I’m really cheap and poor right now. My economic situation would skew things. Just because I could pay $35 for Hotel Dusk doesn’t mean that it’s actually the score. (for the record, i’d give it $30/$35.)

I have Super Monkey Ball out. (disclaimah: i’ve never played a Monkey Ball before despite being told i should all the time) It’s hard and sometimes frustrating. It features minigames that are a little like a box of puzzles that someone might give you on your birthday. You’d tinker with it and forget about it. Most fail only at having easy-to-use controls. It’s early DS time all over again!

I give it $20/$50.

The game flows like a game should, teaching you new things and testing your knowledge. Eventually, all this knowledge should culminate in some great level design, but I’m still waiting on it. The controls, obviously the game’s crux, are smooth and intuitive and work great most of the time. They’re still weird, and it makes me wonder why going from digital control to analog, then to a motion-based analog, was an improvement. Maybe I’m just old. I’ve always been wary of analog for adding too many degrees of freedom where they don’t necessarily need to be.

The same problem applies here. I tend to overjudge the tilt, even after playing for a while, and it leads to some wacky motions while I try to recover, if I don’t just roll off an edge.

But the paradigm of infinite chances always gives me another go. Each level is a rung on a ladder that you can’t fall from. I kind of wish things weren’t like this, or that lives and continues were done away with. But without them, what’s the motivation to collect bananas?

Still, the main game would be great if it weren’t so eager to please. Beat the first boss and… credits plus banana collecting?! C’mon, the nice graphics and happy monkeys are a reward in themselves. The credits cheapen the experience.

I’m plodding through, and kind of frustrated. There’s not a big reason to go on, besides “completion.” I’m done with playing things for completion’s sake.

After I give this back, I think I want to give a couple RPGs a chance. Final Fantasy XII is intriguing. However, I also have Yoshi’s Island DS out, and the first level was kind of… well, let’s say the original Yoshi’s Island grew up, but never really matured. So what you have is a larger, slightly oafish version of a friend you used to know. It’s the same person, so you can still hang out a bit, but don’t expect any great conversation.

— Kickin’ Wii Update Note: hey, the full Opera browser is out. Nintendo woke me up at 5 a.m. to tell me. (i can see the Wii slot’s glow from the bedroom, and when I can’t sleep, I will find any reason to get up) It’s improved, sure, but definitely still a little lacking. I wish I had used more TV-based browsers to compare features and ease of use, since I suspect that they are all gimped.

The zoom, while now totally free and nearly unbounded, still never really makes most pages comfortable, i.e., readable AND not needing a lot of horizontal scrolling or other awkwardness.

And for some reason, the browser’s picture seems to be tilted in my TV. about 5 degrees counter-clockwise. Barely noticeable, but weird. I can’t tell if it’s my TV or not.

I realized again that I dislike RPGs about a week ago. I can’t get into them anymore. I’ve tried to start playing Final Fantasy III about a million times since December to no avail. I have a handful of other DS games that just don’t do it for me. Lately, they’ve started to feel like such a thorn that I have decided to make the ebay sacrifice.

OK, I’m being dramatic. But I don’t want to be compelled to play these. At all. They will go cheap. I will be pleased. Maybe I’ll replace the copy of Star Fox Command I sold. Maybe I will buy ingredients for an intimate Japanese dinner.

In other news, I GF’d Kirby: Squeak Squad, beat it in 100% a couple days and sent it back. That was a very satisfying experience.