Sunday Roundup: 6/28/15

Whenever I can find a lot on eBay that’s for literally every game I want/need in a series I’m way more likely to buy. Take this one for example: it included Just Dance 2, 3, and 4, bypassing the first game which I already had, and then 2014 which I also already had! What a deal! I’m happy to finally have these games as well, and for not too shabby a price: I think they’ll come in handy for a day when I actually have a big enough place to play them!

Just Dance 3 is the first in the main series Just Dance games to come out for a system other than Nintendo’s Wii. Until this game, the PS3 and Xbox 360 didn’t have any support for motion controls, or at least they were in their infancy with the release of the previous installment. But with the PS Move and Xbox’s Kinect, gamers from every console could flail around wildly and groove to some top 40 hits from yesteryear!

With Just Dance 4 I will likely stop collecting the main series games on Wii. About a year back I picked up Just Dance 2014 for Wii U, and if I’m going to continue getting the games it’ll likely be for that console. That being said, there are quite a few spinoffs and collections of Just Dance games on the Wii that actually feature new and different songs, like the Just Dance Kids series and that weird Summer Hits one or whatever. Maybe I’ll get my hands on those too, but I’m not seeking them out as much as I was these.

Well, this might be the first PAL PS1 game I’ve owned! Dancing Stage is the name of the Dance Dance Revolution series over in Europe, and while most games in this series have counterparts to the DDR series, they also sometimes feature different music. This game in particular is the European version of Konamix, but also features some new tracks from artists like Kylie Minogue. Sadly, I probably won’t be able to play this since I believe it’ll be region locked out of my NTSC (North American) PS1 and PS2 and PS3. Oh well, hopefully it works!

The original Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii is one of the most coveted and sought after RPGs (and games in general) for that system, so seeing a remake here on the 3DS is likely the only way a lot of us are going to be able to find out who the hell Shulk is and why he is in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. Also worth nothing, and you can notice by the slightly different box art, this game is only playable on the New Nintendo 3DS system: any of the standard 3DS/2DS system’s won’t support it. Nintendo has said other games will have this as a requirement as well, but so far I believe this is the only game to do so. Yay more processing power and a second control stick!

There was a movement called Operation Rainfall which aimed to localize three RPGs from Japan to the West on the Wii: The aforementioned Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora’s Tower which I received a few months back, and The Last Story, which my good friend from back in Indiana bought for me! Of all those games, The Last Story was the one I wanted to play most: It is created by Mistwalker Studio, the company founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of the Final Fantasy series! The game is a real time RPG with gorgeous visuals and one of the last great games to come out for Nintendo’s console.

While perusing games online I sometimes stumbled across this one included in game lots to buy or related games to titles I like. WordJong Party is the Wii version of a fairly popular DS game in which you combine the elements of Scrabble and Mahjong into one. This Wii version lets up to four players play at once. For only two bucks I couldn’t resist. Also, and quite surprisingly, the game received fairly good reviews online as well!

Initially I thought this was a different fishing game for the Wii that I passed up sometime ago and wish I hadn’t: Xseed’s Fishing Resort. That game garnered awesome reviews and sells for a fairly high price. When I mistakenly thought it was this game I thought I was grabbing a great deal! But before I even bought the game I looked it up and realized it wasn’t what I wanted. Since I passed on a game like it before and regretted it, I decided to not make that mistake (possibly) again, so I grabbed it. This one’s by Hudson Soft too, so at least I know that name!

I’ve seen the game a few times before but always passed on it. After some research at home I found out the game is kind of like the PSP/PSN title Lumines, with an emphasis on music while matching colors on a Tetris-like grid. Well, I found the game on my Birthday and decided I’d give it a go. Oddly enough for how well received Lumines is and how much I personally like puzzle games, I never found the Lumines games to be all that enthralling. Maybe I never gave them enough love to really get into them. Or maybe they’re just not my cup of tea.

A GameStop store much closer to me than the Milpitas store has Puchi Puchi Virus complete and in the case, but they are considering it “New” since no one has ever bought it from them despite the fact that they’ve removed the plastic from the case and stored the game behind their counter so it doesn’t get stolen. Sadly, this means the game, at least to GameStop, is still worth $9.99 “New”. Well, for just three bucks I’ll but it used with no case, because I really just want to play the game and finally stop having to check that case to see if they got their act together and lowered the price.

My parent’s got another game for me this year for my birthday, and it happens to be the one game I wanted most to play! A sequel of sorts to the classic DS game Kirby: Canvas Curse, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse has you using the stylus and GamePad of the Wii U to control a claymation Kirby through a variety of beautifully animated and detailed puzzle levels. The gameplay gimmick worked on the DS, and I’m hoping it’ll work here as well!