Super Smash Bros., Flow, and Pata-Pata-Pata...

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a game I've been playing the last few days, and the onslaught of Nintendo happy-fun strangeness is very appealing...even if the gameplay is repetitive. Come on, admit it. I'm a Nintendo fanboy and I admit it, too. Still, there's something really addictive in trying to unlock all the characters. I'm dead set on Mr. Game and Watch. I spent days unlocking him in the last game, Melee.

I grew up with Nintendo Game and Watch flip-tops. I took them to summer camp before there was ever a Game Boy. Pinball, Oil Panic...they were the coolest things in Middletown, NY. I would look for new ones at the corner camera store in Smithtown. I love Mr. Game and Watch. Love, love, love.

Flow was a great draw for me to the otherwise uniqueness-deprived PS3. I go nuts over the biological aquatic theme...it reminds me of the Museum of Natural History. Or of dreams I've had. Releasing the game on PSP is genius. It works well, it's nearly the same game, and I am in complete support of this whole download-games-to-the-handheld idea. The iPod effect should spread to games: why do we have cartridges anymore? Nintendo, if you're not making your next-gen Game Boy/DS a solid-state GamePod that can download titles, I'm going to slap you.

Speaking of which...the iPhone just might beat the PSP and DS to it. If only the iPhone had buttons...

Patapon is addictive. Very addictive. Crack. Crack with a beat. I haven't put my PSP down. I take back any harsher criticism I gave. Well, the game's still less interesting than LocoRoco. But, I can't stop trying to advance levels. It's level grind with a drumbeat. EverBeat.

I'm playing Hold 'Em (I believe it's called Vegas Stakes Poker) on the PS3. This is because I lost in poker while I was in Aruba, and I blame my training. I play hands over and over to attempt to master the skills. In the end, luck is still too much of a factor.