On the Fence: Tetris Party and Portal: Still Alive

Despite the crazy amount of big games out this week (I haven't bought any games this month yet, which is good considering how tempted I am to do so during this crowded fall season) like Fable II, Far Cry 2, and Midnight Club LA (I would so buy this), the downloadable services are also getting good big titles as well. First off for WiiWare this week is Tetris Party for 12 bucks (1200 Wii Points) and I do love Tetris (enough to buy Tetris Evolution and Tetris Splash on XBLA even though Splash was disappointing), but Party is almost like the second coming of Tetris DS in terms of new modes to mess around with Tetriminos. The video above is some new Race mode where you have to guide some piece through some obstacle course (Reminds of me that stick challenge in Unbeatable Basuke where you have to hold that stick in the air) where spins are a matter of success or failure. There are other new modes like a Shadow Puzzle mode of using Tetris pieces to make some shapes (a smiley face as an example) and another mode that requires the Balance Board. From what I read, only the default Marathon mode is the only online mode against other players and the Mii support is everywhere too. After beating Mega Man 9, my Wii is back to collecting dust, but Tetris Party looks like a great WiiWare game to get even though my fringe is starting to get full soon too (I'm passing on World of Goo despite how amazing it is).



On Live Arcade this week is Portal: Still Alive, which is my favorite thing of last year's The Orange Box plus some new content for 15 bucks (1200 MS Points). Sure, Portal is still amazing, but I don't know if the new content is enough for me to beat it again. Kind of like BioShock, I feel that Portal is an one time thing, meaning you see the awesome ending and that same feeling that cannot happen after multiple times. Plus, it is about a 600 MB download which is the largest XBLA game in terms of taking HDD space, but for those who never played Portal skipping The Orange Box last year, they should buy this game as soon as possible. I need to buy Points anyway to prepare myself for the next month of DLC and XBLA games (Buying Nevermind without the hits on Rock Band 2 on Tuesday plus other games like Super SFII Turbo HD Remix, Vigilante 8 Arcade, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 if Capcom confirms a surprise release on XBLA).

So yeah, I'm saving those big retail games for December during my Winter Break (my backlog list is in a previous post) as I'll let Gears 2, Banjo N&B, and XBLA be my fall gaming during this crazy and crowded stretch of greatness.