Now Playing: Oblivion & Kirby

I’ve been playing the amazing RPG Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to get ready for the upcoming release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and I’ve been enjoying every minute, nay, hour, of it! I’ve also been dabbling in the fantastic little DS game known as Kirby Mass Attack. So what is it about these games that makes them so good? Read on…

 

 

 

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game that I’ve actually already played before (way back in 2006 when it came out on the PC). I wanted to play it again on Xbox 360 because that is what I’ll most likely be getting Skyrim on, and also I just wanted an excuse to play the game again. Oblivion isn’t a game for everyone, not at all. The RPG mechanics are laid on thick. Quests aren’t just do this and get a reward, they are often arduous tasks that take careful planning and execution to complete. The world is massive as well, and there isn’t any form of an overworld (except the map that you can bring up to fast travel places). Oblivion is unlike other RPGs, like the Final Fantasies or Mass Effects, and that is why the game is great: it offers something different that rewards those willing to put in the effort with a great story, deep and immersing gameplay, and the satisfaction of simply playing a finely crafted game.

This Oblivion art is flippin' awesome!

And then there’s Kirby Mass Attack. I just finished up the game and my review for Machinima yesterday, so expect that to be here soon. I think the reason I enjoyed the title so much was because the game never stopped being fun. Kirby is a cute character and his game looks the part: bright colors, fantasy settings, and a feeling of childlike warmth radiates from the gameplay. Also the touch controls were fairly fluid and intuitive: there were only a handful of times that I experienced any hiccups. It’s good to see Kirby there at the end of the Nintendo DS lifecycle: Nintendo hasn’t completely forgotten what made the original DS great in moving to the more powerful 3DS, and I respect that. Any DS owners should pick up a copy of Kirby Mass Attack and see just what made the DS such a fantastic handheld system.

More to come next time.
Laters,
Jsick