game(gender-neutral)
So the 15th has past and I'm still here so technically my days are numbered. I'm seething with anticipation!
So I'm taking three gameboy games with me. Any other's I'll have Katie send me as these three will occupy a good chunk of time.
Riviera: The Promised Land is a CRPG without anything prior to it to attribute it to. You don't directly control your character's movement, just which area to move to and who to talk to. It's very point and click. There's no experience points, instead if you use a weapon enough times you learn a special attack with it. Each character learns different attacks with different weapons and some weapons only give special attacks to certain characters. Your inventory is limited, the number of times you can use an item or weapon is limited before the item runs out or the weapon breaks, and you can only bring five items into a fight. This lends a ton of planning to each fight as you have to decide whether you want to bring that sword you've used almost to the brink of destruction with the bad ass skill attached or if you'd be better off bringing a brand new weapon and learning it's skill as you deal out less damage. Oh and you don't decided which enemy you're attacking. Each weapon attacks enemies according it's type with spears generally attacking the Sound complex? It kind of is. This game is next to impossible to describe properly but it's fun and I love the art style.
Rebelstar: Tactical Command has had a ton of hype already. Kind of cartoony, X-Com-ish, turn-based strategy game. It was supposedly designed by some X-Com creators and it shows. As far as I've gotten (mission 8 or so) there's no base, no research, and no disposable teammates so when one of your characters dies, it's back to the beginning of the mission which makes for some rather rough games the first time through. I usually die on the first time I try a mission just learning where the enemies are coming from and the nuances of the map. It's fun and criminally cheap for being a brand new game.
Finally, I just picked up Sigma Star Saga as the third leg in my search for entertaining time-destroyers. It's a more traditional action CRPG with random horizontal shooter space battles thrown in. I was almost blown away by the relative difficulty of the very opening of the game where you're thrown into a space battle and swarmed with enemies and are expected to live. I died twice just trying to pass that first section but the difficulty really eases up after that. I've hardly started the game and I wouldn't say I'm disappointed but it seems like this is a mediocre action RPG tied to a mediocre horizontal shooter with a competant storyline. But considering I paid $30 for it and $20 for Rebelstar, I got a much better value out of Rebelstar.
On my list of games for Katie to send me once I've beaten a couple of these are Super Mario World and Yoshi's Story. I looked everywhere for a decent copy of either of them (as they are Mario games and children have a tendency to put Mario cartridges of all types in their mouths, or so the labels of them would appear) to either no avail or at ridiculous prices so Katie'll have to find them on ebay while I'm gone.