My 2012 Video Game Challenge - Week 1 (Guitar Hero, Mario, One Piece)

I have, in the past, attempted a challenge twice: once in 2008, and once in 2010. My challenge was to beat fifty video games that I hadn't beat before. They could be new, they could be old, they could even be a game that I was stuck at the final boss on, but had never beaten (I tried to take advantage of this -- I still couldn't finish Lost Kingdoms.) In 2008, I finished 42 games, putting me in the general ballpark of completion. In 2010, I hit 48, which was actually kind of sad. What makes it worse, is I'm sure that if I hadn't tried it in 2008, and picked off so many easy games, I could have done it in 2010. Because of the nature of the challenge, the more games you've beaten, the harder it gets. That's the reason I didn't want to do it last year. But I've had some time to think about it. And it bothers me! I don't like failure, especially repeated failure. So this is going to be the year that I accomplish this goal. Along the way, I'm going to be documenting the games that I've played, and giving them either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

If a game's good, I'll link you to where you can purchase it, and hopefully we can all have some fun this year. If it's bad, I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you from purchasing it. Because bros don't let bros play crappy games (or something like that.)

You'll also notice I'm off to a quick start, and might think that this goal will be easy. Keep in mind several things: these are games I got in December of 2011 -- so I've played them already. Also, I'm currently on my winter break, and that will end on the 24th, at which point I'll have less time to devote exclusively towards being a lazy-good-for-nothing. I promise, this will turn into more of a challenge than it at first seems!

Xbox 360, 2010
Beat on: 1/1/12
Game: 1 of 50

I haven't played much of Guitar Hero in a while -- Rock Band either, for that matter. In 2008, me and some buddies would ocassionally go down to Best Buy, chill there for a while, and play on the demo display, but that's about as deep into the game as I got. I found this a lot of fun though. The "quest mode" in which you try and defeat the Scourge of Rock by rescuing the Demigod of Rock is beyond cheesy, but in a really good way: kind of like watching Batman clips from the 60s, but with less shark repellant. The set list is pretty good too. There's a lot of modern stuff that I dig, like Five Finger Death Punch, Flyleaf, and Foo Fighters, and then on the opposite side of the coin there's Queen, Metallica and Ozzy and Megadeth. I've also found out that I like a Red Rider song, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. But in closing, I'll say two things. One) it's an enjoyable game, especially with a couple of inebriated friends on drums and microphone. Two) Damn the orange fret button to hell.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock gets a thumbs up.
And you can get it here.

Nintendo 3DS, 2011
Beat on: 1/3/12
Game: 2 of 50

I received this one for Christmas, because presumably (with some encouragement) my mom know's what's up. This is the first original 3DS game that I was really excited to play -- because as awesome as Ocarina of Time is, I've beaten it twenty times on the Nintendo 64 already. This game has really raised my hope for the 3DS as a console, since it uses the 3D really well. More importantly though, it was just a lot of fun. In some ways, its a huge homeage to past Mario games. So many enemies, power-ups, and objects return. I mean, the tanooki suit was the big one -- and it was totally sick! -- but I also smiled when I came across the musical note boxes, just because I recognized them. Personally, I prefer the classic 2D Mario games to this, but I loved seeing Mario's return to form. There's a huge number of completely unique stages, rather than alterations to stages you've already been through. And I'm going to commit a blasphemy here, but I liked it more than Galaxy.

Super Mario 3D Land gets a thumbs up.
And you can get it here.

Playstation 2, 2005
Beat on: 1/4/12
Game number: 3 of 50

A while back, my Playstation 2 died on me. It was a tragic event -- I considered wearing black for three days, but decided against it because I didn't want to purchase new pants. What made it worse, was that it died right after I bought God of War II on launch. I never even got to play that game, and it's still sitting on my shelf. To make things worse, I missed out on a number of other games I wanted. Well, this year I decided that I was done with that nonsense, and I bought another one as a Christmas present to myself. Along with nine games. So yeah, I'm going to be having fun with that. Well, this game was sitting at the store for $1.50, so I decided to grab it as well. A dollar-fifty for a game in perfect condition with its instruction manual should have set off some alarm in my head, but I questioned: how bad could it be? Dear Jesus. The answer is "pretty freaking bad." The only good thing about this game was that it takes about six minutes to get through its "story mode." The bad part is I still had to put up with owning it after I finished it. Gameplay consists of "mash a button until an opponent dies." And the "story" is a series of one-liners that have little to do with the plot of the show. I chose to play as Zoro. I then beat up Nami because I owed her money, and Luffy because I had the audacity to exist. Basically, to get an idea of this game, I want you to think of the worst cash-in on the Dragon Ball Z license you can think of. And then make it worse.

One Piece: Grand Battle gets a thumbs down.

As of the posting of this hub, I have beaten 3 games, which accounts for 6 percent of my goal. Games I'm currently playing include:

Persona 4
Batman: Arkham City
Shinobi (PS2 -- where I am stuck on the final boss, and close to giving up.)