General Update -- Catching Up.

I've been chastised for not posting timely updates once again. It's a new year and with resolutions and the like maybe I can do something about that but first we'll have to play a little catch up. Going back to early to mid December I started LEGO: Harry Potter Years 5-7 because at the time The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was having technical difficulties and was awaiting a patch. I figured LEGO: Harry Potter would be a nice little way of filling the time while waiting for the patch. And it was, until I hit a glitch. A glitch that essentially prevented my from reaching 100% complete and blocked three achievements. The glitch allowed me to earn 99.8% complete. Needless to say I was more than a little annoyed and it's what kept me from posting initially. I went on to play another title and then went back and fully replayed LEGO: Harry Potter to get those last three achievements. It went off glitch free that time. And now that some considerable time has elapsed I can comment on the game without having some sort of conniption fit.

LEGO: Harry Potter Years 5-7 was developed by Traveller's Tales and it was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. I played the Xbox 360 version of the game. Once again if you've played any of the LEGO games then you already exactly know what this is. If you haven't played them then you should know they're great family friendly action games that deliver a wonderfully charming take on a famous licensed property. They're entirely played for laughs and are genuinely funny. Essentially you'll play through the game in story mode. You'll then need to go back and play through the game in free play mode which allows for you to use all the various characters and their specific abilities to unlock and find all the hidden collectibles. It's very much a collector's series in that regard. If you're one of those types of gamers who has to collect every last whatever it is then any of the LEGO titles will scratch that particular itch. If you're not a fan of collecting then you're still going to enjoy yourself through the story mode and its charming humor and gameplay but you'll lose a considerable amount of the game. Graphically LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 is a very good looking game with its simple and clean aesthetics. The music is great as it's from the films. The game is actually quite sizeable as well. There is a lot to do in and around Hogwarts between the levels themselves. I'd still highly recommend the game even if you've sort of got to cross your fingers and hope for the best to play it without a glitch.

I've also been playing Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS. Mario Kart 7 was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development as well as Retro Studios and was published by Nintendo. Some of you might be asking Retro? Apparently Nintendo EAD handled the racing mechanics and Retro handled the art and track design. Mario Kart 7 features a lot of firsts for the series. The first Mario Kart in stereoscopic 3D, the first with racing underwater, and the first with flight, as well as the first with customizable karts. Even with all the firsts Mario Kart 7 still feels like every other Mario Kart. This is the first entry where I've really started to feel that the series is growing long in the tooth as the saying goes. Graphically it looks good in that sort of simple and clean Nintendo fashion. Nintendo games never push the boundaries graphically and Mario Kart 7 is no exception. The same can be said for the sound effects and soundtrack. They're well within that Nintendo safe area. The game's controls are responsive and won't cause you any missed turns or the like. The amount of cramping your hands will experience of course will depend on how well they get along with the system itself as not everyone finds it to be the most ergonomic device ever created. The track designs are rather good, but again well within the safe zone. Nintendo isn't taking any chances here. The actual 3D effect works rather well and I found myself playing in 3D more often than not. There are a couple of aspects of the game I didn't like however. One being the new kart customization. It's not that it exists, it's more in the how you go about unlocking everything and the balance of it all. You're able to collect coins scattered across the course while racing. Those coins are used to unlock new parts for the karts. In previous Mario Kart titles I essentially went right through the 50 cc and 100 cc levels and would spend the majority of my time racing in 150 cc. But in Mario Kart 7 you're not exactly racing the most competitive kart until you've unlocked the better parts for it. I found myself having to race the lower speed levels over and over again to earn the coins to unlock the parts that would make me competitive in 150 cc. I found that tedious and boring. The other area I didn't like was how Nintendo is still employing hideous rubber band AI and items like the blue shell. Your skill level is essentially irrelevant and pure idiotic luck is far more important. And the AI just absolutely abuse the damn blue shell among the other items. It's almost guaranteed that you'll be leading the race on the final lap and you'll be hit with a blue shell, or hit one after the other with like three items. You'll go from first to sixth on the last turn because the AI comes as close to just out and out cheating as I've ever seen in my 35 years of playing video games. It's amazingly frustrating. It's also bad design. And it amazes me Nintendo gets away with this crap without so much as a word of protest.

I've also played Sonic CD, the 2011 version for Xbox Live Arcade. Sonic CD was originally developed by Sonic Team and it was published in 1993 for the SEGA CD by SEGA, of course. We might need a little history here. Sonic Team essentially split in two after Sonic The Hedgehog. One of Sonic's co-creators, Yuji Naka went East leaving Japan for SEGA of America and SEGA Technical Institute. They went on to make Sonic 2, 3, and Sonic & Knuckles among others. The other half of the team stayed in Japan under Naoto Oshima and began working on what became Sonic CD. In fact what became Sonic CD and Sonic 2 both started development as Sonic 2. What ended up released as Sonic 2 finished development first and got the title. The game's music is also worth discussing. Sonic CD ended up with two different soundtracks. One for Japan and Europe and one for North America. Japan's soundtrack was composed by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ohgata while America's soundtrack was composed by Spencer Nilsen and David Young. The soundtracks have some differences in tone but both are very good. The soundtracks have different opening and ending tracks. The Japanese soundtrack famously features a sample of Work That Sucker To Death from Xavier, George Clinton, and Bootsy Collins in its boss theme. As for the game itself, Sonic CD is great. If you're expecting speed to be the focus you're going to be surprised. Sonic CD is easily the most platform gameplay focused title in the series and as such it's one of my favorites. The gimmick of Sonic CD is time travel. By hitting a sign post that says either past or future, then achieving and maintaining enough speed Sonic will travel through time. You're essentially trying to make a good future by traveling to the past to destroy devices placed there by Dr. Robotnik. The game features seven zones with three acts each. The third act in each zone being a boss battle. The game features graphic variations and different music tracks for the past, present, bad future, and good future of each act with variations for good and bad futures in the boss levels. The game also retains Sonic 1's method of needing to be carrying fifty rings at the end of the stage to make the large ring appear that acts as the gate to the special stages. Sonic CD's special stages are very cool but arguably the hardest in the entire series. The enhanced port for Xbox 360 was developed by Blit Software based on Christian Whitehead's engine and published by SEGA. You know how you've talked to people or seen posts on message boards where someone has said something to the effect of why doesn't company A just hire that modder or the guy behind some fan project to port one of their games? That's essentially what SEGA has done here. The result is one of the best ports in the history of gaming. They really went above and beyond with this one. Why is that? Well, you get Sonic CD, including all the hidden goodies in the original, in HD and true widescreen. You get three graphic filters that all look great. You get both the Japanese and American soundtracks. Although the Japanese intro and ending tracks are the instrumental versions. You get cool little things that only the most rabid Sonic fan would even care about like the ability to switch between the Sonic CD and Sonic 2 style spindash animations. You also unlock Tails as a playable character once you've completed the game. Tails wasn't in the original game. All of this and it's $5. This is how you do a port. It was clearly a labor of love for Blit Software and Christian Whitehead. I was thoroughly impressed with the Xbox 360 version of Sonic CD. It was great fun to play the game again after all these years without having to dig out my Genesis and SEGA CD and my copy of Sonic CD out of the closet. This version is now easily the definitive version of Sonic CD.


LEGO: Harry Potter Years 5-7 -- 8
Mario Kart 7 -- 7
Sonic CD -- 9.5


I've also spent around ninety hours in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. But I'll save that for another entry...