2004, What a year! Part 4

• November

Two massive things came this month. Samba De Amigo, the big hole in my Sonic Team collection, came early on and my Brother got his Nintendo DS.

Purchase - Samba De Amigo (DC):

The King of Benami. The best rythmn game of all time. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever. It may have been £163 but was worth every penny. Truely a masterpiece overlooked by many.

Purchase - Halo 2 Special Edition (Xbox):

I am convinced that there's two types of gamers. Those that value a one player more than a multiplayer, and those that are the opposite. I'm definately in the first category and so felt disappointed with this title as it's clearly geared towards the other type. The Campaign was too short and extremely linear. It could've had much better objectives and more good bosses. The DVD was OK but Bungie do seem to be up their own arses right now and those blind fanboys they have on the E3 footage doesn't help either. Halo 2's multiplayer is said to be amazing but quite frankly I don't care. I hope bungie look at other FPS' and see what's missing in Halo 2.

Import purchase - Nintendo DS

My Brother got this and I must say it's simply amazing. They could've got this so wrong but everything works well. It needs to really take off now cause there's only about 2 good games for it, but it is still close to it's launch. The GBA playback is brilliant and the sound is simply sublime.

It came with the Metroid Demo which is pretty good. I don't like the idea of tapping the screen to touch though. It does look amazing and it's great to see a real FPS on the portable console scene.

Import Purchase - Super Mario 64 DS

I had forgotten how brilliant Mario 64 was. This improved on the formula in every single way. The different characters, the new areas and challenges, the brilliant mini games, it's all good. I loved this game but I was very upset when it was all over and I didn't feel like going back to it at all. The ultimate version of Mario 64 and you all should own at least one version of it. You may wish for it to go down in price slightly if you own the N64 version though. Review

• December

Xmas was around the corner and the DS was wearing thin. I mostly played Samba De Amigo this month, and even went back to an old classic Timesplitters 2.

Old Classic - Timesplitters 2 (Xbox):

This is still the ultimate FPS to me. It has loads to do in one player and overall it's fun. Sure it's not as smart as other FPS' but when it's this fun who cares.

Preowned - Timesplitters (PS2):

I saw this in blockbuster for £4. It's pretty bad. I can't believe this was the prequel to the game above. It didn't suit the PS2 controls at all and I just felt very underwhelmed by it

Xmas game - Metroid Prime 2 (GCN):

The last game I played of 2004 is my game of 2004. Simply breathtaking, unique and addictive. More of the same but the original was brilliant anyway. Multiplayer is an OK bonus but when the 1 player is this good who cares. It's one shabby moment comes in the poor outdoor backgrounds that seem to be painted on and out of place. It wasn't an improvement on the original but the original was brilliant regardless.

Xmas game - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish cap (GBA):

I'm not that big a fan of the 2D Zelda's so it was a surprise to me when I played Minish cap and found how great it was. As a Link to the Past was to Ocarina of time, this feels like something similar to Wind Waker. Shorter but still very good. Very enjoyable and well worth the money.

I got three more games this year for Xmas but I didn't play Tales until 2005 and I haven't started the other two yet.