Wild ARMs XF
This is an odd game, reminding me at the same time of FFT, and Grandia. Gameplaywise, it's comparing favourably to FFT, with a somewhat more balanced job system, and a growth system that encourages you to choose between specialising and versatility. What's especially nice is that the carrying classes look like they have worse masteries than the classes with worse stats, so you can choose between stats and skills. As well, even though the combos you can build are rediculous, the game not only encourages this, but it builds its fights so as to reward it, and makes it easy to change around your party when you need to, as well as making it quick and easy to give up on a losing fight and return to the set up screen. My two main complaint is the fact that you need to invest a lot of time in order to get the higher tier skills from a class, and the final classes still haven't been unlocked yet, which will limit their usefulness without a lot of griding. And the synthesis system, which requires getting some luck in the Search menu in order to get the ingredients required to make certain weapons (Curse you, Lvl 3 Mineral! Why do you never come in more than 3 pieces a shot!)
Of course, on the flip side is the story, which compares favourably to Grandia 1, barely. Mostly, a group of idealistic heros, looking to wreck the economy of a great and mighty empire so that it's enemies can finally enjoy a peaceful and prosperous existance. Unless they were taken over before this happened, in which case they were too late to join in on the new status quo that will be preserved FOREVER. Of course, they're claiming that dismantling this place is in its own best interests. Their heroic creed is that fighting is evil, and that no man should be forced to surrender his life and well being and individuality to some faceless cause/nation, and they'll beat up anyone who disagrees with them with their army of nameless generics.
On the other side, you have the guy who thinks the heros are insane for wanting to leave behind the strategy which has won their nation prosperity, fame, a standard of living that is several orders of magnitude higher than anything else in the world (everyone comments on how insanely good Elesius is if they've ever been somewhere else). Really, his only flaw is that he seems determined to rule everything himself, when if it weren't for that, he'd actually be the stalwart defender of the nation. He's even shown as being moderatly effective, which is more than most villains ever get. Which brings me to Grandia, the other game where I was rooting for the 'villain' as being superior to the heros intellectually and morally, and yet still getting screwed over because of plot, and because he dared to think that Rousseau and the Divine Foundation of Nations are wrong.
So yeah, it's enjoyable, just... I needed to rant a bit about it.
Mario Kart Wii
Got this, and it's pretty fun. Currently unlocking things and playing online. The Downside first, as it's basically just the lack of the double dash mode. That was fun and enjoyable, and it's a shame to see it go.
Now, upsides. The classic tracks look great, and the care taken to make the track, walls, background, and even zips look like they did in the original is superb. There's also the nice bit about the small changes made so that the new track will fit in with the new mechanics that didn't exist in the original game.
The bikes work great alongside the karts. The karts having the two levels of mini-boost to give them extra oomph on the turns, but the bikes having the wheelies to give them extra speed on the straightways. As well, the trade off of weight v. acceleration is also interesting to choose between.
The long awaited addition of the 4P GP. And the fact that it's a make your own GP too. Granted, it's no all cup, but there's nothing saying you can't keep track and do the standings for that yourself (though I suspect in a month it'll be a while before there's any point in that around here, given we'll have to catch back up to the Elven driving standard.)
Finally, online play is much improved over Brawl, with there being no noticable lag, regardless of distance. Granted, I don't know if I got anyone from Europe yet, but playing with folks from the east coast and Japan simultaneously introduced no major issues. On that side note, a few random games of Brawl suggested lag isn't as bad there anymore either, so this is all to the good.
