My All-Time Favorite Game

I love the Animal Crossing series of games.

It was back during the Gamecube era when an online friend told me about the series. I thought it sounded interesting. I remember my dad wasn't so sure, but we had the money so he said I could get it. I got the game at K-Mart. They had a special deal where you got the game AND the strategy guide too! We got the home, popped into the Gamecube and I was hooked right away. My dad watched me play the game. He thought it was interesting. I told him he should create a character too. He resisted for awhile but eventually gave in and created his own character. He was hooked.

Flash forward to when New Leaf for 3DS came out, dad, mom, and I all bought a copy of the game. Mom had gotten hooked on Wild World and then City Folk. Dad and me had been hooked since the Gamecube and played every version since.We all love the Animal Crossing games. Why? Let me tell you:

For those who don't know, Animal Crossing is a sim.  You choose to be a boy or girl and then arrive in a town....a town full of animals. The animals talk and they are your neighbors. There are year round events in the town and the game uses a day/night time cycle (going by your real time zone). You can fish, do favors for the animals, catch bugs, fix up your house, and more. There is no goal for Animal Crossing. You make your own adventure. You create the town the way you want. Its a very relaxing game. The animals have goofy, sometimes funny dialogue. You never know what to expect in Animal Crossing. There are so many surprises. Nintendo has created an amazing, really fun series with Crossing.

And New Leaf added a new element to the series: you are now the mayor of the town. You can now add things like benches, street lamps, and other cool stuff to your town. You can also invite animals to move to your town now via a campsite (or from a friends town if that animal is moving). You can only have a certain number of animals, so you have to have room for a new animal of course. Still, a very welcome new feature.

In fact, New Leaf has a lot of new features. A brand new mall area to shop in, an island to visit, more interaction with your neighbors, etc.

Also like Wild World and City Folk before it, New Leaf as online multiplayer (and local too). Its a lot of fun to visit with far away friends. We have a lot of fun playing locally too.

New Leaf is the very best Animal Crossing game. I highly recommend it, not just for sim fans but to people who just want a fun, relaxing game to play.

Animal Crossing is my all-time favorite series & New Leaf, currently is my all-time favorite game.

Well...till the next Animal Crossing gets out (hopefully for Wii U). That said, I'm not in any rush for the next one. I'm still enjoying the heck out of New Leaf.

A Game in Progress

Thank goodness for the Wii U's auto download feature.

It seems like every month or more (sometimes), one game or another is getting patched. Plus there's Nintendo's occasional SYSTEM updates. I wonder how many hours of our life we would have to spend manually updating all these games (and systems if you have more than one or two or three).

The age of patching has been a upon us for awhile now. With patching, bugs that were missed in the testing phase of games can be fixed, new content can be added for free (or a store can be added for paid dlc), and more.

I like that developers patch games. It might not sound like it, but I really do. I think its great that publishers can fix any bugs they missed and if they have the resources, they can add new (sometimes free) content to the game.

Which brings me to the developer and game I want to talk about today.

The game is called ZaciSa's Last Stand and its developed by @ZeNfaGames. Its a 2D tower defense game set in space (only available on Wii U eshop). Graphics wise its very simple: circles are your robots that defend your bases and little triangles (enemy ships) attack them. You have to figure out where to place the robots (and how many to place with the money that you get from destroying ships) and you want to take out as many of the triangles flying at you as you can.

Its a very strategic and interesting game. How long can you last till the bad guys get you? You have different types of robots to use. There are also some different maps you can play on.

In fact, through an update recently, some more maps were added to the game. Some of the games features were tweaked too.

The developer isn't done yet either. On Twitter today, I saw him asking people what they thought would be a better name for the game. Also the developer is working on a playable demo for people to try out the game. I'm not sure if there will be anymore maps or patches but I would not doubt it.

ZaciSa's Last Stand is a game in progress. Its a very unique 2000s way of developing a game. I'm not saying its a bad thing. As I said earlier, I support patching. I think its a good thing.

I do wonder what the game will look like when the developer is done though. Should be very interesting to see.

ZaciSa's Last Stand is on the Wii Eshop right now for $1.99. I got my copy for free but I think $1.99 is a great price for this game. And I think once the developer is completely done with the game it'll be worth even more than that.

I love the Wii U eshop. So many cool, unique, fun games.

Its All Internal

Its not always about saving the universe, sometimes you just have to be happy saving one person.

A small robot is sent on a journey inside of a body. The body is infected with a virus and the robot must collect pills and find the source of said virus.

This is the set up for Internal Invasion, a unique Wii U physics based puzzle game from @BearBoxMedia.

In the game, you shoot the robot from cannons to reach the pills in the level and ultimately reach the levels exit. The levels start out very, very easy and then, before you know it, they get harder.

New challenges are introduced as you progress through the game. I won't spoil for you some of the surprises you run across. I'll just say that the levels do get very inventive.

I really like the games control method. Its completely controlled via the Wii U touch screen. Perfect for this game! Off-tv mode is included and I like playing it that way best.

Overall, if you want to play a different type of puzzle game on the Wii U, you can't go wrong with Internal Invasion. Its currently on sale for $3.49 on the Wii U eshop. I recommend it!

Rolling Around the Universe

Its time to save the universe.

You're Armillo, a fuzzy creature who rolls around the universe and saves blue critters from dark robots.

Thats the basic premise for ARMILLO, a unique (and very cool) platformer that can be found on the Wii U eshop. You should buy it now. Don't even bother reading the rest of this, just go buy it! Its 7.99 on the eshop and worth every. single. dollar.*

Need more convincing?

What makes Armillo so unique? Why should you go and buy it now?

Armillo is a 3D platformer with some of the speed of Sonic and the absolute fun of Mario. You hop from planet to planet saving the aforementioned blue critters and lay the smack down on robots that won't shut up. The planets are much like the planets found in Super Mario Galaxy. Small, round planetoids that you have to transverse and get to a goal so that you can move onto the next one.

But Armillo isn't a Super Mario Galaxy ripoff. It offers plenty of unique twists and crazy characters along the way that set it apart. For instance, each level also finds you going into a dark alternate reality thats poison to your character. You have to race through these short areas, usually to grab a key, and get back out before you die.

Armillo also has some 2D levels. These are hidden and you usually find them off in a hidden corner of the alternate reality. YOU WANT TO FIND EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE 2D LEVELS.

Seriously.

The 2D levels are really amazing and fun. They are shorter experiences than the 3D levels (and timed too unlike the 3D levels) but man, wow, so much coolness is in store for you there.

Anyway, I could go on and on forever about this game. I've probably told you too much about this game already.

GO BUY ARMILLO. NOW!

(*note: I won my copy in a contest on twitter. If I could go back in time and pay for this game, I would. I can't go back, so all I can do is tell you about how awesome this game is & hope you'll buy it).

Puzzle It Out

Blok Drop U.

Poker Dice Solitaire Future.

Shut The Box.

These three Wii U eshop games were all developed by RCMADIAX. All three of them are very simple looking games on the surface. DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU. All three games are very addictive. All three games make you pause, strategize, and then move on. You want that PERFECT score with all three of them. It just gets worse with each game.

Blok Drop U makes you want to beat all those levels. Bouncing boxes? Buzz saws? Yeah, like thats going to stop me from beating this game!

Poker Dice Solitaire Future makes you want to get the highest score. Its not an easy game to understand. You want to play it anyway! You must get that high score and show it off on twitter.

Shut the Box has a high score that you just HAVE to reach. You want that 135/135! YOU MUST HAVE IT!

Each of these games are really fun and, as I said, very addictive. Also: they are SUPER CHEAP on the Wii U eshop.

I highly recommend that you buy them all.

Robots Heisting

Imagine you're a robot...seriously just image it for a second...you're a robot and you live in space. Yes, a space robot. Image your a robot who lives in space and robs other robots spaceships. Are you a bad guy? Not really. You're just doing whatever you can to survive in a future where resources are not so great. Plus, those guys you are robing from are bad guys. Feel better?

This is the setup for ImageForm's upcoming 2015 video game Steamworld Heist. Its a turn-based strategy game that is planned for...wait for it...just about every video game system you can imagine. Well all the ones that are still popular anyway. It won't be on the SNES. sigh. But it'll definitely be on Wii U, 3DS, Vita, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS4 and PC. And YOU SHOULD BE EXCITED! Why? Let me tell you more about this cool game.

In Heist, you play as Captain Piper, a robot captain who has her own ship and has to recruit a bunch of robots to go loot ships. You start out by taking your ship to a Space Bar where you recruit the robots (you gotta pay em). Then you go look for missions. Heist is only one of the missions. Sometimes you'll have to go rescue someone, go on stealth missions, and possibly other missions ImageForm hasn't announced yet. Once you find a mission, you go look for the ship the mission is on, and board it. Oh right, I haven't even told you about the combat!

The combat in this game is very unique. You play in a 2D perspective. Moves are, as I said, turn-based and you have to plan out what you want to do. Also unlike other strategy games, you have to aim your gun (or other weapons) as you move. There will be places to hide behind for cover and objects to shoot that'll damage foes. To me, the most exciting thing: the robots all wear hats! YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SHOOT THE HATS OFF OF YOUR FOES!!!

Heist, like ImageForm's previous game Dig, has a bit of western to it. You could call Dig a Steampunk Western. Heist would be a Steampunk Western Set in Space. I'll let you decide which one you think is cooler (I like them both but have to admit that Heist is getting me even more excited than Dig).

The title is set for Spring 2015. ImageForm doesn't know which system they'll put it on first. Personally, I'm hoping the 3DS. Steamworld Heist sounds like it would be a blast on that system. Although, I'm sure it would look amazing on the Wii U too.

Here's the teaser trailer for this awesome game:

I can't wait to play this! IS IT OUT YET?!