Space is the place

Count me among those pleasantly surprised by Space Invaders Extreme. Still, there's not all that much I can think to say about it. This was a tough review to write, but an easy game to recommend.

I'm suffering from E3 overload right now, fending off dueling live-Twitters and redundant news posts in Google Reader. Even the interesting stuff from this show still isn't that interesting. It's a little surprising that Final Fantasy XIII is no longer PS3-exclusive, but what does that really mean for anybody? Exclusives are much more newsworthy than non-exclusives.

Anyway, I've railed against the culture of hype before, and I don't really have the energy to do it again. Suffice it to say that much of what comes out of E3 -- even in its newer, sleeker iteration -- is not news. It is publicity. The message is controlled fully by the marketers. By now, you'd think people would know better.

In a perfect world, maybe the only way we'd find out about any games would be by taking them off the shelves at random and discovering what awaited within. Probably not worth the effort pining for that world.

Zack attack

On a cheerier note, my review of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is up now at thephoenix.com. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

I'm actually still trying to finish it. I put just about 20 hours into the game for the review, but I keep getting sidetracked by the missions. There are a few in-game side-quests to undertake, but the bulk of them are menu-driven: at a save point, you just select the "missions" option. While I'm not sure just how many missions there are, it's got to be in the hundreds. I think I've spent the majority of my playing time on them and I think I've only recently crested 40% completion.

Yesterday I made the mistake of taking on the mission with 1,000 Wutai soldiers, which took over an hour and ten minutes. It wasn't hard, particularly once the DMW gave me no MP cost for the duration, but the lack of difficulty almost made it more boring. And then my reward was "Mug" materia, which I am sure not to use. (Frankly, I've barely deviated from a mix of Fire/Blizzard/Thunder/Cure/MP Up/HP Up since I started, and it's served me well.)

But I'm just bitching because I thought I'd make more progress toward the main storyline. One thing I've always loved about the Final Fantasy series is how they can tell these tales about the end of the world, but the real drama is essentially between the main characters. You don't fight the bad guys just because it's the right thing to do, but because you need to put right some personal conflict. And it usually works. Certainly works here.

Strike hard! Stick to the rhythm!

Okay, so one clever closing line can't make up for an otherwise uninspired Patapon review. But it sure can't hurt!

Patapon is part of a proud tradition of games whose intentions I very much like, and whose gameplay I do not. It's always a strange feeling to applaud developers for what they tried to do, but I do think it's important for them to take risks and stretch their creative muscles. Sometimes it may not pay off right away, but the experience of trying something like this may pay off later. (This is how I felt about Puzzle Quest, and as a result I have high hopes for its sequel, Galactrix.)

For a more positive and in-depth look at Patapon, I recommend Daniel Purvis's review.

Puzzle Quest

Puzzle Quest is puzzling indeed.

It's probably a lot more fun two-player.

One-minute game reviews

There's probably no reason to spend significant time or effort talking about games everyone else has played already, so I figured I'd sum up the games I've been playing in just a sentence or two.

Oblivion: A game that gives you as many options as you'd have in real life turns out to be just as boring as real life.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence: For Hideo Kojima, video games peaked with Dragon's Lair.

Lumines: There is at least one reason to own a PSP.

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII: Video games finally have their answer to Joanie Loves Chachi.

Actually, that Dirge of Cerberus line was in the review I filed with the Phoenix for this week. I'll provide a link when it goes up.