The reason that I haven’t done any of these dungeons is not an accident – I’ve purposefully avoided doing any raiding.  I believe I’ve mentioned here before that I suck at old games because they are hard, but I don’t really think that the games are really any harder to complete, I’m just not willing to put in the required effort anymore.  This parallels my attitude about instances in WOW.  Instances and raids require paying attention and actually playing the game, something which is at odds with the intended effect of my time in game.

The end result of this attitude toward a specific section of the game means that I miss out on personally experiencing a lot of the story and progression until long after it is no longer relevant.  I’m not really worried about it, however; I can live vicariously through others.  Even my brother tends to spend more time in that side of the game.  I will be content right now to continue trying to find rare mobs and grinding rep to get cool stuff and money.

The game that really hit home to begin with was Startropics.  It used to be my absolute favorite game back in the NES days.  (For the trivia buffs, the game’s sequel, Zoda’s Revenge, was the second to last game licensed in the United States for the NES.)  Most of the game still plays the same for me, and I actually still enjoy it.  The game is obviously dated – it is a NES game, after all.  However, the story is still fun (as long as you aren’t looking for anything too deep) and the game still provides losers like me with a challenge.

Most of the controls are timing based, with weapons such as the yo-yo and upgraded versions of it.  The monsters usually moved in a recognizable pattern, and a lot of the strategy in the game revolves around figuring out that pattern.  Especially the stupid bats.  Man, I hated those bats.  Bosses usually didn’t move, or if they did, moved to specific places.  As with many games of its era, the bosses were usually defeated with either something learned in that dungeon, or a weapon picked up there.

The puzzles really don’t hold up all that well in difficulty (as well as one that, if I remember correctly, you needed a piece of paper that came with the game – reminds me of the old LucasArts ‘copyright protection’).  However, the puzzles really are interesting, I think.  There’s one that requires you to find a famous pirate’s pet parrot (alliteration rocks) in order to learn the pirate’s favorite song.  Once you play the song on a giant organ you can continue on through the level.

The game’s locations are scattered around islands that are usually pretty unique, giving the game a little flexibility.  But where I run into the brick wall is when the game abandons the island setting and heads into space.  Seriously, it makes sense if you know the whole story.  It also sets up well for the story in the next game.  However, the game requires a lot quicker twitch reflexes in the last level, and I just fail miserably.  I really want to blame it on the translation to the Wii hardware, but I think I’m just deluding myself.

The end result of all this?  Here’s to many, many more classic games showing up on the Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade and Sony’s Home (though I’m not even sure if that includes downloadable games).

I don’t believe admitting that I’ve given up most of my other PC gaming habits is admitting that I have an addiction to World of Warcraft.  It’s the first MMORPG that I’ve played in earnest (my roommate in college played the original Everquest, so I got a tiny bit of that, and I don’t really count Phantasy Star since I’ve never played that online), and I held off on picking it up for a very long time.  I mean, the game was originally launched in 2004 and I didn’t start playing until earlier this year (2008); they had even announced a second expansion before I jumped on.

What keeps me playing now is that I’m actually enjoying myself.  I can’t remember when the last time I had this much consistent fun with a game.  I mean, there have been some that were terrific for a limited time, but I’ve played World of Warcraft for the better part of a year.  There’s also the fact that most of my playtime has been spent with my brother – co-op play is first and foremost the feature I look for in games.

And now the launch of newest expansion brings to mind another reason I like to play World of Warcraft: being a part of something bigger that keeps evolving.  Blizzard will continue to expand and improve the game for a while yet, so the story will keep growing.  As someone who basically devours well-written stories, an interactive one is just pure icing.

Fast forward to when I finally bought a Nintendo DS, and the newest Phoenix Wright was one of the games I purchased with it.  However, upon playing through the first case, I realized that the games followed a storyline.  Of course, that meant that I needed to purchase both of the previous games.  I was able to purchase the first game at a Gamestop, but I had a really hard time find the second game.  I finally decided to order it from Half.com, and it took forever but I got it.  And let me tell you, even though I find myself crammed between Warcraft, books, other video games, movies, and TV – I still find as much time as possible to play the DS.  And what game do I play?  Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, of course.

I’m just about finished with the first game, and it took me longer than most people in overall time.  However, I haven’t timed my actual in-game hours, which probably end up being around the average.

Don’t let me fool you, it’s not a perfect game.  Some of the characters are barely written with any…character.  Some of the witness quirks are a little annoying, such as the latest guy that I’m dealing with who makes me wait for him to wake up every time that I try to talk to him.  It gets a little old sometimes.

The game is by no means realistic in it’s portrayal of a trial system – trials are limited to three days, sometimes I’ve been limited to only using one item of evidence to prove my point (most of the time), and Phoenix seems a little altruistic to exist in law of modern times.  Maybe that’s the draw of it for me – perhaps it exploits the idealistic ‘fighter of justice’ lawyer image that seems like it will never exist.

The stories are excellent, and every case ties in with the ones before it, lending itself to have an overall story arc; this might not be expected with a game based on episodic trials.

All in all, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is what I would term a ‘must buy’ for the Nintendo DS – especially if you are interested in puzzle games or mysteries.