Despite the fact I’ve been good and have held off on buying a full price game since Mario Galaxy 2, I’ve somehow gotten myself buried in a bunch of games over the last few weeks. I’m at various points in several different titles, like Final Fantasy XIII, Shadow Complex, and Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker (I’d include Gears of War on the list, but I’m officially done with that game and series for like, ever).

So with all these high profile games waiting to be played, I find it odd that Patchwork Heroes for PSP, which I downloaded simply because it was on sale a week ago, is the one that managed to grab my attention the most. I’m not sure if it’s the combination of it being the perfect pick up and play game, or because it’s all I have time for between feeding and cleaning up new born babies (I’m almost frightened of trying to get into FF13), but it ended up being the one I’ve spent the most time with.

I’m not sure exactly how to peg Patchwork. The only game I can think of that comes close to playing similar to it is Taito’s classic Qix. If you haven’t played Qix, the object of the game is to fence off the playing field from the “invader” or whatever the heck it is. Eventually when you claim most of the play field, you win. Patchwork is similar in that the object is to claim the playing field, but in this case you’re sawing it off. While you’re not trying to trap an invader as in Qix, you’re still whittling down the playfield. So in it’s most basic form, the game is like a new age Qix, but that would be selling the game short.

While my love affair with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker continues to flourish, I had the chance to pick up another highly anticipated title of mine, Super Mario Galaxy 2. As I continue my slide further and further into the realm of the “casual gamer”, I’m finding that my consoles are collecting and ever growing coat of dust. Believe me, it’s not for a lack of wanting on my part. So when I had a few minutes to kill the other day, I stumbled into the Best Buy in Union Square (open 24 hours no less), and picked up a copy of SMG2.

Yesterday, after pulling my hair out trying to coax my rechargeable batteries into actually charging, I popped it in my Wii and gave it a spin. Like I said, it has been some time since I picked up a Wii remote. I plugged in the nunchuck and was smiling to myself as I played through the opening little cinema. However, I instantly noticed one of the biggest flaws with the remote and nunchuck set-up that has plagued me since I first played Zelda: Twilight Princess at the Wii’s launch, and that is which it is not friendly to left-handed people such as myself. Allow me to explain.

Historically speaking, a large majority of home consoles all have similar button layouts. Since at least the NES, all major platforms have a controller where the directional D-pad is situated to the left, and a varying set of secondary buttons to perform actions are to the right. Meaning, to move a character onscreen has always been done using my left thumb, and jumping and shooting is done with my right thumb. This has almost always been the case. Then the Wii comes along.

As big a Metal Gear fan as I am, I have to admit I was not at all interested when Konami first announced Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP. There were a few reasons for this. After playing MGS4 I felt very satisfied and complete with what Kojima and company created. Despite the winding plot line, I felt like I had a really good handle on everything that happened through the course of the series, and I didn’t need to know anything else. I have also heard from numerous sources that previous MGS games on the PSP have been less than stellar. Then, there is the matter that I personally don’t own a PSP. It’s just another mouth to feed in my dwindling video game family, so please do not read any bias into this, ok? Ok!

That being said, I was hardly keeping up with MGS:PW as it progressed. In fact, I was outright ignoring it. However, when it was finally released a few weeks ago, I started reading reviews giving the game praise, and suddenly I started caring about my old friends again. After splitting it with Phil and borrowing his PSP (hey, he gets to keep it!), and spending around 30 plus hours into it, I can firmly agree that its one of the best in series. There’s a lot to love about it.

At first, I found myself wrestling with the stripped down controls that are a necessary evil to port it to a hand held. I actually considered myself quite good at sneaking bad guys on the home console versions, so it took me some time to acclimate myself to the new button layout. One of the biggest adjustments I had to tackle was the placement of the Equipment and Weapons selections. This has traditionally been mapped to the shoulder buttons, however in Peace Walker (PW from now on) these are now relegated to the D-pad directional buttons. Re-locating almost over ten years of muscle memory from my index fingers to my left thumb took some getting used to. The shoulder buttons in PW are used for aiming and shooting much like MGS4 and the Resident Evil series, and that works just dandy actually. My other gripe, which actually never went away really, is getting used to the PSP’s analog nub. Its a horrid little beast and I find it not to be very responsive.

The Last Airbender – Aang (Noah Ringer) is a young successor to a long line of Avatars who learns that he possesses the power to engage the Fire Nation and hopefully end their century-long war against Water, Earth, and Air nations. Prince Zuko (Dev Patel) is the son of a Fire Lord looking to capture Aang. Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village).

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – Bella (Kristen Stewart) is torn between a marriage proposal from Edward (Robert Pattinson) and a declaration of love from Jacob (Taylor Lautner). Meanwhile the Cullen vampires and Quileute werewolves must team up in order to protect Bella from an army of more powerful vampires. Based on the third book in the Stephenie Meyer series.

The Book of Eli – Its post-apocalyptic United States and Denzel Washington plays a loner fighting his way across the country in order to protect a sacred book that apparently holds the secret to saving humankind. Also starring Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman. Directed by The Hughes Brothers (From Hell).

Youth In Revolt – Michael Cera plays Nick Twisp, an awkward teen who desperately wants to start up a relationship with a new girl in the neighborhood, Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday). But Sheeni only likes the bad boys so Nick creates an alternate personality who does all the opposite things Nick would do and tries to win Sheeni over.

When In Rome – Kristen Bell plays a young New Yorker who is unlucky with love. While in Rome, she steals some coins from a popular fountain of love and causes the owners of those coins to fall in love with her. Josh Duhamel, Will Arnett, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, and Danny Devito play the dudes.

If you tuned in for the pre-show during this month’s Shamoozal Radio Podcast you were treated to some of this. Eminence Symphony Orchestra is well known for their renditions of music from games, anime and other soundtracks. I own their 2 disc “Echoes of War” album which features tracks from Blizzard Entertainment games. This track is from the original Starcraft’s Terran campaign and is full of win. Please enjoy.

Sorry for missing the past couple weeks, been busy.

http://www.eminenceonline.com/

Sorry about the late notice, but we’ll be recording a new SRP tonight around 8ish. Hope to see a few of you there! Come on over to chat!

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Just a quick heads up. We’ll be getting together Saturday night at 9PM EST to record a new Shamoozal Radio Podcast. We’ll be doing our yearly Summer Movie Preview, and we’ll actually have some stuff to talk about on the Shamoozal News segment this time around. Wow. Though if you visit here regularly, probably stuff you’d already know. Anyway, we’ll post the feed right here on the Nerdlog that night, but just wanted to let everyone know.

Thanks to Frank the Gank for turning me onto these guys a couple weeks ago. I was originally just going to post the first song, but realized it just needed Swollen and Halo since it’s the track right after it. So enjoy these two tracks, they’re both off of The Blue Record by Baroness.