Games I shouldn’t have bought: Part 1

1. Mario Strikers Charged (Wii)
OK this one might be a bit controversial. My reasons for putting it in this list are probably unique!
First I was quite surprised that I enjoyed it. I never play football games and the only reason I did buy it was due to the things I read and saw that suggested it was not very football-y anyway. This is true. If you want a football game, buy something else! It’s more like ice hockey in the way the players glide about the pitch and the tackles/checks you lay into other players with. Which is good because I do like ice hockey.

My wii is not online at the moment, hasn’t been for over a year. So I couldn’t get involved with any of the online features – I’m sure I missed a large chunk of the game’s good bits for this reason.
I generally played with my housemates. Two of them really love football. One of them also plays ice hockey. As a result, with me playing against the two of them, even though I was ok at the game, they just ganged up on me and continually checked me to make me lose the ball. I then got fed up of the game entirely and traded it in because it sat gathering dust for months.

I found it a bit one-dimensional but I suppose many sports-based games are, or even fighting games. It’s just one level after the other, difficulty curve increasing. As I say though, I didn’t get too far with it so I’m sure it has its good points but this certainly wasn’t a game for me.

2. Starshot: Space Circus Fever (N64)
I doubt many people have even heard of this. The reason I bought it was because I read a very short early review of the game before its title had even been decided on and the reviewers were enthusiastic, it looked promising. It was not. It’s a decent length and some of the levels are... interesting! However, it doesn’t make you want to play it. You feel quite cut off from it most of the time in that it barely hints as to what you’re supposed to be doing. Now I don’t like being babysat by games and every next move being so obvious you may as well sit back and let the game do it for you, don’t get me wrong. But this game is odd.
I’ve been a gamer for a long time so I have that feeling about games like knowing when something is background decoration or actually important to the current puzzling situation or when a suggestion from someone else is ridiculous and the game wouldn’t make you do that. This game does make you do that. Some of the ways I ended up getting through levels just seemed ridiculous.

It’s not easy but it’s not even particularly fun. Avoid.