Nintendo’s newest handheld collected here
This is going to be one of the biggest Roundups for the site! I made it a goal last week to hit up literally every GameStop in the greater San Jose area in hopes of finding some harder to find gems in the ranks of old DS, Wii, and even some Xbox 360 and PS3 racks. While most of the GameStop’s I won’t be making special trips to again, there were a few stores in some nicer areas that really surprised me! Unfortunately none of these games I would classify as “Super Rare” or anything like that, but there are some fun games here that I’m happy to have in the collection. And I can safely say if you are looking hard enough, you can still find some diamonds in the rough that is retail video game shopping. (more…)
While Laura’s out of the country for work, I decided to do a bit of a game collecting experiment: Determine of GameStop’s in my area are conducive to collecting. There have been many negative comments on the internet about GameStop, how they’e a terrible place to shop for games, they charge too much for games and give too little with trade-in prices, and in general that they’re a bad place/thing for gamers. Personally I’ve never had a problem with GameStop: they don’t have all the stuff I want all the time, but I can usually find some quality games there time to time. So this week I’m going to try to hit up each of the dozen or so stores in my general vicinity and see if I can actually find decent stuff at each one. Here’s the first part of that, with two brand new GameStop’s I’ve never been to giving me some games I’ve actually been looking for for nearly 5 years! (more…)
The Skylanders series of RPG/Platformers is the grandfather of the NFC toys-to-life genre so rampant today. With the LEGO games jumping into the fray, kids/parents/gamers have a mountain of toys to buy for a variety of games. While the first Disney Infinity attempted to bring the game to the portable 3DS (and failed), only Activision’s Skylanders series has maintained an enjoyable presence on Nintendo’s handheld since the very first game. With each iteration of the Skylanders franchise something new is added to enhance the gameplay, sell more times, and convince you that $100 purchase last year is obsolete compared to this year’s bundle. On the 3DS though, the game’s offer a completely different story and gameplay experience, and Swap Force on 3DS is no exception. It’s nothing compared to the console versions, but it’s still a good play for someone who’s invested money in lots of plastic figures and portals! (more…)
Collecting two weeks, this Sunday Roundup has a few targeted pickups I knew I was going to grab, as well as some totally random ones, and even some awesome sale prices! Whenever there are sales that lump together a few solid games and some average one in a bundle price, I’ll always take a look if not grab a few to add to the collection. It’s good, though, these don’t come by too often, otherwise I’d have no money at all! (more…)
I’m happy Nintendo keeps revisiting the idea of multiplayer Zelda games. If you haven’t played any of the Four Swords games before (which I can totally believe, because getting together four people with a Game Boy Advance and Link Cable each, and a copy of the Gamecube game is challenging) then you’re actually missing out on something special. When there are multiple Link’s on the screen, vying for the same items, rupees, and points, things get chaotic. And it’s not like any other Zelda game, because the puzzles are totally different, the gameplay can take interesting twists not seen in other games, and it still remains Zelda and it is still fun!
Coming later this year is The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes for the Nintendo 3DS. A multiplayer focused portable Zelda game isn’t anything new, but the way this game feels and the odd-yet-familiar approach to gameplay and puzzles certainly is. I was able to get a hands-on with the game during PAX Prime 2015 and have some thoughts to share with you on the newest entry in the classic series. (more…)
A new Roundup for a new month! Laura and I found ourselves in Mountain View this past week on a day off, and while we weren’t particularly close to GameStop, since we weren’t really doing anything anyway we made the adventure and headed there. I wasn’t disappointed, as a Buy 2 Get 1 Free deal was going on for all used Wii and DS products! Also, some friends of ours are moving this month and they decided to clear out some of their unwanted stuff, some of which included a small box of Xbox 360 games! And, surprisingly enough, I didn’t have many of them! Huzzah for free games (but sadness from friends moving). (more…)
This blog has been stagnant for the past few weeks because life has been getting in my way. We’ve recently had a handful of birthdays come up (including mine and Laura’s!), a friend returned to the US after studying abroad for a year, and both of my brothers from out of state and out of town visited to go to California Extreme (more on that bit later). With work and other responsibilities getting in the way as well, unfortunately SlickGaming/DownStab has been thrown to the wayside. But that certainly doesn’t mean I haven’t been looking at games when I can get the chance! And with three weeks making up this Roundup, there are plenty of titles to discuss. So let’s begin! (more…)
Nintendo is synonymous with the video game industry. For decades now, lots of folk have been calling video games in general Nintendo games, despite the games they’re sometimes referencing are exclusive to consoles other than Nintendo’s. You don’t become that iconic without a handful of recognizable and influential series’ and characters under your belt. Nintendo’s got tons of big hitters, not the least of which being the red capped Mario and pals, Pikachu and the other hundreds of Pokemon, and the epic adventures of a young boy named Link, but they’ve also got some other franchises that for whatever reason just don’t get enough love. Included in this list are the games that Nintendo seems to have forgot they made. For every one of these games we got 10 Mario’s. With the 3DS and Wii U bringing back a good amount of old classics like Star Fox and Fire Emblem, here’s hoping the ten following entries will see some love from Nintendo in the near future.
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Once again we’re bringing together a couple of Roundups into one, namely a few Just Dance games from last week and then this week’s extremely generous and awesome birthday gifts from friends and family! As always I felt super grateful and loved to be able to have people in my life that want to give me presents such as these, and I am eternally grateful for all that love and support.
I was also able to swing by a few different GameStop’s I don’t usually venture too, and while neither of them had anything too grand to call out, I was able to pick up a handful of Wii games on the cheap as well. (more…)
All the excitement and buildup to the year’s biggest video game show has come and gone, and left in its wake are dozens of new game announcements, trailers, demos, and press conferences. On the whole I felt this year’s E3 dwells in comparisons to last years (which may stem from my Nintendo fandom), but nonetheless there were plenty of great experiences to take away from this years show. Even if Capcom didn’t announce Power Stone 3 yet. (more…)
