Well I’ve unofficially stopped playing FFX… I was playing last Friday and I died after ~45 minutes of playing since my last save spot. That just BITES and really puts a damper on the desire to go back to the game (since I’ll just be replaying what I’ve already seen). I plan on returning to it soon (I’m really nearing the end), but I’ve also got new games to play… I bought a new PS2 game called La Pucelle: Tactics the weekend before last, but avoided putting it in my PS2 as long as possible (since it’d make FFX take a backseat). After the whole FFX die incident, I decided it was time to pop in La Pucelle. I’ve since put in around 3.5 hours on the game and I’m pretty intrigued by the possibilities. It seems to be a pretty standard tactical RPG, but it has a pretty original system with magic portals and stuff… I’m not gunna go into it, go read reviews if you want details.
I also picked up the GBA game Mario vs. Donkey Kong last night and this is a pretty neat game. I picked it up at EB, and since I traded in Harvest Moon, Metroid Prime and Jak & Daxter, I got the game for “free.” The game is basically a puzzle platformer that does a really nice job of hitting all the nostalgia buttons. You play as Mario, and you’ve got most of your N64 acrobatic jumps at your fingertips. You can also pick up baddies (ala Mario 2) or go completely old school and grab the original DK hammer (even the song is the same as the original arcade game). It’s really a perfect GBA game, because you can turn it on, play one level and then turn it off… no looking for save spots or worrying about missing cut scenes if someone starts talking to you, etc. My only problem is I don’t think I’ll be able to save it for the road. I played through 2.5 of the 6 worlds last night on my GB Player and then later, in bed, on my GBA SP. Supposedly there are additional levels once you beat the first 6 worlds, I just hope this game lasts longer than the last GBA game I bought (Metroid: Zero Mission, I’m looking at you).
