Waiting for the End

This is it my friends. Less than an hour away from the quarter-final confrontation between Brazil and the Netherlands. The Dutch have gone one better than their effort in the 2006 tournament, but I lack faith that they will be able to overcome this South American hurdle. I am more nervous than I am excited, and as a result, my attention span is shorter than that of the average goldfish.

When I have been able to sit still and focus, I've enjoyed playing LocoRoco Midnight Carnival. I haven't been compelled to play through the first two installments, as they both travelled a little too slow for my liking. Midnight Carnival however, with its Boing mechanic is fast, striking in its use of colour and endearing. LRMC has you bounding across dark, cartoonish landscapes filled with crumbling platforms, hostile monkeys, beautifully-animated boss monsters and killer gaps. The unforgiving nature of some of the later levels is reminscent of the platformers of old. If you die, you are punished. You go back to the beginning of the level, and are then forced to remember your errors and learn from them. I love it! My only complaint is that the whole adventure is nearly over; and of late I haven't been one for score attack gameplay, so replay value is limited.



I also got to check out the Ron Mueck exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane today. Do yourself a favour and check out if you're in town. The sculptures on show are so unnervingly life-like that I will struggle to forget them.

This weekend I'm catching up with some good friends and enjoying some Gamecube classics. There weren't many good games on the Wii's predecessor, but there were a handful of true classics: Super Monkey Ball, Mario Golf, Mario Kart: Double Dash and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Not that we'll get to those gems. I'm pretty sure we'll be playing through some old, lovable trash like GoldenEye: Rogue Agent or even (hopefully) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005.



What are you playing this weekend? What are your guilty gaming pleasures?