Not too long ago (I can't remember when exactly), I started up a savefile in Golden Sun Dark Dawn. Thanks to three consecutive snow days (oh yeah), I was able to beat the game last night. Gotta say, it was great to see all of my favorite GS Psynergy spells, weapon unleashes, Djinn, and summons in 3D; however, I felt the story was super weak, not fleshed out at all, gave little detail or explanation, and just felt like a giant string of fetch quests for obnoxious story-related NPCs. Heck, even more than half of your own playable cast was lacking in any kind of significant personality or character development. It was nowhere close to being on par with the excellent storytelling that can be found in the previous two titles for the GBA. I really hope the sequel (most likely, there will be a sequel...) makes up for all the flaws I found in Dark Dawn. Still, I had fun playing it.

Everything in the game that can be done I have done with the exception of defeating Dullahan in Crossbone Isle. Screw him. I'll come back for his (lack of a) head after I've level grinded a great deal and perhaps found or forged some better armor and weapons. That won't be anytime soon, though, because I've got other games to play!

P.S. A note to those who own the guide: Where it says something like "there are two portals. Go in the northeast one first." right before the description of strategies for the Dullahan fight, they really mean to say "go into the northwest one first." Their maps imply the latter is what they actually meant. Of all the places to drop the one typo I could find in the entire guide...I walked right into Dullahan without saving first, let alone setting a slew of Djinn. I died. Harshly. Thank God I didn't lose all my progress...just half my coins and I ended up in one of the towns. Annnyywayyyyy.....

Progress in SMG2 is moving along. I almost wish Steve and I hadn't gotten my 119th and 120th stars because that gave me yet another game to feel inclined to play. Luckily, it's been much less difficult to hunt down and grab the Green Stars, at least in the earlier worlds. I'm in World 5 now, having gathered all the Green Stars from all the levels prior. Some of them were ingeniously hidden. Part of the fun with the Green Stars is listening for the "sparkly" sound effect, honing in on the star's exact location, and then figuring out how in the world you're going to get Mario or Luigi to that location. As an example, one time, I had to jump off the edge of a platform into a butt stomp, while upside-down, to reach one. On a great deal of occasions, I've had to long jump out into nothingness. The clouds, an endless pool of lava, lethal green goop. If you miss, you die and you have to start over again. Some of the Green Stars can be reeeeeal tough, for sure. I think I'll be cursing the game's very existence again very soon. I'm up to about 205 now, I think.

Now after I've had my fill of SMG2, I think my next gaming destination will be Lords of Shadow. I'm excited at the number of silver trophies that game offers. Although, if the new modem and router I bought at Best Buy work as advertised (the adapter thingie I bought a couple of weeks ago couldn't even get through its own setup procedure in my house) and have anything to say about things, I just might start playing more Hot Pursuit and maybe even get into some ModNation Racers instead.

I already know there's no way I'm going to make it through much of my backlog before the end of February. De Blob 2 will arrive and I won't be ready. Oh well. It just means I'll be able to wait til the price goes down a little bit.