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Small Worlds is a short, simple Flash game about exploration. There’s not much to collect, nothing to kill you, and an almost non-existent ending.  The music is okay and the control is kind of meh.  But the level design is amazing, with loads of detail and atmosphere packed into a retro style. Though there’s nothing to be earned from doing so, if you’re anything like me you’ll avoid your goal until you’ve explored every corner of the map.

If you’ve got a computer then you can use it to play games! Sometimes these games are free and awesome, like Knytt Stories. Exploration is the name of the game, with simply designed but nevertheless beautiful and atmospheric areas to navigate. You may want to give the equally wonderful Knytt a try as well.

I have a review of Tetris DS in my stack of unpublished blog posts, but this is far better. The country that brought us Sputnik and vodka can now claim one more world altering breakthrough: Tetris magnets!

They come in sets of seven (of course) and are available for preorder for the low, low price of 198 rubles! That’s, like, seven bucks! Great for sticking on your refrigerator, car, metallic knee, or ferrous satellite hull!

I had wanted to get the Logitech case for my PSP since it came out, and this Katamari “mod” makes it all the sweeter. I didn’t like the premade skin though, so I went ahead and made my own, which still needs a bit of work. Also, the laser printer at work is teh sux0rs. Once I get the Logitech logo off of the front, I’ll have a very Princely PSP indeed. I’d like to do this for the back, too (which I found on this site). You know, it’s gotten to the point where I really should just create a Katamari Damacy category.

GASP! IGN and I agree on something: Super Mario 64 is better on the N64 than the DS. The article is part of their Insider whatsit that they sucker me into with low, low prices every E3, so if you weren’t similarly hoodwinked you’ll just have to believe me. The major point that we agree upon is that control on the DS is terrible compared to the original. It’s decent enough if I didn’t know any better, and quite usable by the uninitiated if its successful use by the witty and attractive Susan is any indication. I do find, however, that I prefer the graphics of the newer version, aliased and pixelated though they may be. The backgrounds and draw distance are both vastly improved. Textures don’t repeat as much and the ever-present N64 fog is nowhere to be seen. Most strikingly, the enemy models are more accurate, as I will show in these images shamelessly (or -fully?) stolen from IGN.

Hopefully those make up for the dearth of pictures recently. Regardless of which graphic style you like better (blurred beyond hope or pointy and jagged), it cannot be denied that the DS version of the enemies look more like they should.

As for the game itself, I’ve only played using Mario and Yoshi thus far so I can’t say much yet. I’ve found a couple of the levels that are new for the DS and defeated Bowser in the Dark World, but then got distracted by chasing bunnies around. Catching them unlocks a myriad of mini-games which I was initially entranced by. This wore off when I realized I needed to get a cover for the touch screen. I’m afraid I’ll scratch it up with some of the violent actions the games want me to perform (like in the curling mini-game). I’ve gotten use to a cover on my PDA, so now I press way too hard on touch screens. I heard that they’ve created some sort of unscratchable DVD coating. They need to start putting that on touch screen devices, stat.

Playing this game has made me realize something that average video game playing has not: the sun is really bright! And hot! It’s, what, 150 million kilometers away? Where’s all of that heat coming from? I mean, it’s not like the sun has a fusion core or anything! Oh wait.

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I had been intrigued by Iridion 3D because shooters, “shoot-’em-ups,” (“shmups” if you wish) are a rare and valuable commodity in today’s world of Madden NFL 2004 and Madden NFL 2004 for the Xbox. However, it turned out that the freshman entry in the Iridion saga was more or less an excuse to have a 3D game of the GBA, and was devoid of things like fun or the ability to have any clue what was happening on the screen. Thusly, I moved on.

Like all decidedly sub-par games, the Powers That Be deigned to give us a sequel. Thankfully this sequel turned out pretty well, gaining reviews of 8 and other numbers such as “not quite 9,” and “better than 7.” IGN, of course, gave it an “8.372719 (not an average).” I was able to find the game cheap, decided “why not?” and bought it.

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