One last time: Happy holidays!

The message above isn't from me, by the way; It's from Santa Mario (below).

Sorry, I've had too much spiked egg nog. Anyway, I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas day/weekend!

See also: 'Have a Merry Mario Christmas'

Early impressions: Donkey Kong Country Returns

So, I just played through (most of) Donkey Kong Country Returns' first world. My initial impressions: It's GORGEOUS! Oh, and it controls like a dream.

The latter is important because I can tell, even at this early stage, that the game is going to be tough. I've already died quite a few times and I've also had more than a few sweaty-palm moments.



Is it going to elbow Kirby's Epic Yarn out of the way and become my favorite Wii game of 2010? It's too early to say, although I'm pretty sure it's going to give it a run for its money.

Well, there goes the holiday weekend ...

The husband and I opened half of our Christmas gifts last night--and two of mine were games! Here's one of them:

Don't worry, I didn't have my parents buy me the Japanese version of Donkey Kong Country Returns; I just used the Japanese cover art here because I like its green accents.

Unfortunately, I already own the second game I received as a gift: Art Academy. I think I'm going to exchange it for Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light--or maybe Mario vs. Donkey Kong Mini-Land Mayhem!

Was Santa good to all of you? I sure hope so! Let me know if you got any game-related gifts, OK?

Christmas Seaman

Get your mind out of the gutter; I'm talking about the limited edition Dreamcast game, which was released (alongside a red, Seaman-branded Dreamcast system) just before Christmas in 1999.

Although I have never before played Sega's strange "virtual pet" game, the holiday-themed box art below (and the alternate box art that can be seen here) is making me wish I had.

Maybe I'll pick up a copy of the North American version of the title after my Famicom and PC Engine obsessions have subsided.

(Via boxart.tumblr.com)

The 12 Days of Famicom

Are you sitting around twiddling your thumbs today? If so, here's a suggestion: Head over to videogamesarerad.com and check out the site's "12 Days of Famicom" posts.

These posts cover a wide range of Famicom-related (obviously) releases and topics, from the Family BASIC add-on to promotional Famicom Disk System titles (All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. specifically) to Punch-Out!! Special (swoon).



I've read each entry about five times already, so I'll be spending my day doing something else--like scanning the catalog at gameofjapan.com.