lookin' for a partner
with the SNES hooked up i fired up super mario all stars and spent a few hours playing through mario 2 from beginning to end - something i've never done before, i always used warp zones. when i played it on my grandparents' NES, at nine years old, i was shocked by its difficulty... especially the boss battles. it was interesting, the trepidation i felt when entering the boss chambers, a carryover of almost twenty years of psychological conditioning. they were ridiculously easy now, though, and now undaunted i flew through the game, and the enthusiasm i felt finishing it was unmatched in my years of gaming.
man, how have i not talked about this yet? geometry wars: galaxies is the pick-up-and-play DS game i've been looking for, and my new favorite title for the platform. if you've never played the original, think asteroids + robotron - you fly your ship around with the d-pad and point in a direction on the touchscreen to fire, and the goal is to stay alive as piles of enemies fly at you from all directions. most of the enemies drop little nuggets that let you unlock helper ships and new planets. i haven't even tried multiplayer yet - the single player is just too satisfying, excellent for five-minute or 60-minute sessions.
for more days-of-computing-yore reminiscing - check out wired's Commodore 64 retrospective... what wonderful memories...
i never got into mario 2. it just had a funky look/feel to it for me. but mario 3 was IT.
you've sold me on geometry wars. i thought about it, didn't think i'd like it, but if its good for the pooper, then i'm all over it. it'll be a nice post-xmas purchase.
that, and this...
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2791856&cp=2367825.2795144.2769333&parentPage=family