"Wario" is "Mario" with the "M" flipped upside-down.

Yesterday I picked up two games; Fable 2 and Wario Land: Shake It.



Wario Land: Shake It is a 2-D sidescroller with amazing visuals. High(ish) res, hand drawn, fully animated... I love 2-D games. Even if the game itself is not exactly my thing, hand-drawn 2-D games are so few and far between these days I go out of my way to support them.

Wario Land is a perfect example. I played it when a friend brought it over and it's pretty fun. It's kind of simple, but it's a really well done old-school sidescroller with a couple gimmicky, Wii-specific features built in (read: needlessly shaking the controller). The only problem is I've got a whole lot to play right now, and I don't really need another game on the pile.

But, I want publishers to know that there's a market for this kind of game. I heard Wario Land is not selling too well, and that's a shame. As one of the (very, very) few Wii games that are actually good, it deserves to be noticed. So I voted with my dollar and bought it. I might not get around to playing more Wario Land right away, but it's a good game that I'm proud to add to my collection.

And check out this amazing bit of advertising... Holy crap. Watch all the way to the end...



Fable 2. I had my doubts about. I've read the previews and interviews, seen the videos, and I wasn't sold. In fact, it looked kind of bad. For for some reason, it really got Lindsay's interest. She loved fantasy themed games, especially Oblivion, and this just struck a chord.

So I checked out the reviews to make sure it wasn't unplayable. It fared well, so I picked it up. And it's good. Really good.

There's a lot of glaring problems. Animation that can be pretty wonky at times, controls that feel a little clunky, especially when you're in small spaces, poor user interface in the menus, somewhat inconsistent graphics (they look spectacular a good chunk of the time, just kind of ugly other times) and the game doesn't always do an awesome job at explaining what to do or how to do it.

I'll admit it. That's a lot of problems. But it totally doesn't matter. Like Oblivion (which I can't help but compare it to) Fable 2 is greater than the sum of it's parts.

The world is huge, detailed, and engrossing. The environments are what really look nice, and they are lovingly crafted and have a lot of character. The whole world was kind of silly at first, but quickly became kind of charming. I easily get lost exploring, shopping, interacting with the locals and doing odd jobs.

And unlike Oblivion, the combat is also really fun and graceful. I'm actually always looking forward to running into some bandits when I'm traveling from place to place.

By the end of the night, I was thinking I might have to put off Fallout 3 for a bit to make sure I really give this game the time it deserves... and that's saying a whole helluva lot.