2004, What a year! Part 3

• August

This is the month I got my one week job, which gave me some spare cash and meant I could get games I had to overlook.

Purchase - Sonic Advance 3 (GBA):

It's been well overdue. A fantastic new Sonic game. Those annoying leaps of faith from Advance 2 are gone and it has a pretty good chaos emerald system (for once). It plays of Battle quite nicely and the partner system is a great touch. There's very little to fault Sonic Advance 3 except maybe hunting down Chao isn't the best solution to Special stages. Sonic should have as little exploration as possible.

Purchase - Phantasy Star Online Episode 3, C.A.R.D. Revolution (GCN):

New Sonic Team game, which means it's an instant must own. It feels like PSO out of the battles, but once you get in to the meat of the game it becomes on of stratedgy rather than skill. It wouldn't be a bad thing if it wasn't SO SLOW! Probably would've been better online but I haven't managed to do that yet, and even if I did I doubt I could afford it.

NES Classics - Ice Climbers (GBA):

After playing the brilliant Super Smash Bros Melee I was interested in playing this. To be honest it was kind of boring. Played it for a day and never went back to it.

• September:

After a holiday in Spain I was getting excited. The big hitters that would set this year alight were coming.

2 for £30 Return and repicked - Dragonball Z Budokai - Players Choice (GCN):

Early on my brother bought Need for Speed underground and Simpsons Skateboarding. Unfortunately for him Simpsons was Blue bottomed and so it would be difficult to play it. I said he could keep it and try to load it with difficulty if he wanted to. In the end he thought it would be best to return it and so I did for him and got myself this instead. It's OK but hardly in the same league as Virtua Fighter or Soul Calibur.

Purchase - Headhunter Redemption (Xbox):

Xbox for better graphics and the fact I had been neglecting it for a while. Headhunter Redemption is a fantastic game with a great plot, brilliant characters and decent gameplay. Ok so for a stealth game you don't actually need to use stealth, but when it's this fun who cares. Personally I like the option of blowing apart all the enemies who stand in my way, much more than get caught = game over. Definately worth it, especially since it's only £10 at GAME (I think, I know it's at least £20). Review

• October

The month of the Novelty game. My Bro, who's a big Nintendo fan, wanted Donkey Konga and he even agreed to get me a set of bongos. It turned out that the bongo's + game wasn't much more and so he got me that! This, FFX-2 and Samba De Amigo are all reasons why my brother rocks!

Purchase - Pokemon LeafGreen (GBA):

I jumped into Pokemon Yellow so I never actually owned a proper version of the originals. This remake was more than welcome into my collection. Do not think that Pokemon is just a kids game. The more you get into it the more you see just how deep the game is. I chose green over red as it's usually a second choice. I definately wasn't disappointed with this, just a little frustrated at times.

Purchase - Donkey Konga (+ Bongos, GCN):

These Novelty games have always been one of those genres I overlook. I curse myself for it because SDA would've cost half the price if I'd got it on release. I was getting it for free so I didn't care. I instantly got hooked but found a folly with these types of games. They don't last very long. One week and I had mastered all but 3 songs on Gorilla. By then I had got Sega Superstars.

Purchase - Sega Superstars (+ Eye toy camera, PS2):

Another Novelty game I just had to own. 1) The eyetoy had always intrigued me, 2) it's Sonic team. I was delightfully surprised. Most of the games were excellent. Flying as NiGHTS through a 3D Spring Valley and then Twin Seeds was definately the highlight. It didn't really last all that long but it was a great ride while it lasted, much like Donkey Konga. If it wasn't a blue disk I'd probably play it a lot more though.

NOTE: I did a head to head for these two games Here