Here I am again, rolling on quick from my previous blog. At this very moment my Xbox controller has a rubberband wrapped around it's left trigger and zombies are going splat by the hundreds. I'm grinding the last three or four thousand kills I need to unlock Zombie Genocidest, the last achievement I need in Left 4 Dead. I'm still half in shock because I remember thinking after trying my first campaign on Expert that there was absolutely no way I was ever going to complete this game. Yet here I am, on the cusp of another completion. 
 
I thought I would stop staring at the mass slaughter of zombies for a while and write some more about the games I've completed. I still don't really have any idea how I managed to rack up so many without writing some blogs. 
 
Costume Quest 
Double Fine brings it again. At this point I don't think these guys can do any wrong. They always manage to bring something fresh and different to the table. Costume Quest is a cool little RPG. You explore your town and other locations during your halloween trick or treating. Your sibling gets kidnapped by Grubbins and using the powers of different costumes and collectable cards found throughout the game you fight to try and get her back. 
 
The combat is a classic turn-based style with a slight action twist, which keeps you engaged. Every attack has some sort of button prompt or movement that if you complete successfully can result in a more powerful attack or counter attack. It's never too demanding however, which fits with the rest of the game. It's a leisurely RPG that has it's own style and while not a complete gimme, won't put you in the thralls of frustration to complete either. 
 
One of the coolest parts of the game is when you get a new costume. As you equip it you can see it for what it really is; a robot made from cardboard boxes, or a knight costume with a trash can lid shield. However when a battle rages you're transformed into a giant merchant of death. The game never really explains if this is some sort of magic and everything is real or if you're just transfered into the imagination of the children that you are playing, seeing through their eyes just how badass that cardboard robot is. 
 
If you're looking for a quality game that you can relax and playthrough and that isn't patronisingly simple or easy then you should really look into Costume Quest. I enjoyed pretty much every minute I spent with it. 
 
Golden Axe 
Golden Axe marks the first of the many games I grabbed for just 200 points when all the Sega games were marked down on DoTW a while ago. This is really a simple completion, it only took me and a friend maybe just over an hour to wrap the whole thing up in a pretty bow. As with all the Sega games the way they are emulated lets you simply state save your way through the game, turning achievements that should be frustratingly hard into a simple process of save and load. 
 
Golden Axe is already a short and simple game, taking all of 15 minutes to run through. Pick a hero and play a fairly simplistic beat 'em up with 5 or so stages and you're done. Always use any and all mounts you come across, and horde magic potions for tough spots and hey presto, the end. You'll have to run through it 3 or so times to grab everything but it's so quick it doesn't really have time to get boring. I don't have any sort of nostalgia for the game, if you do you may see it differently, but I couldn't really recommend this to anyone right now. For 200 points I got 200 gamerscore so at the time I thought it was worth it for that alone and along the way I could experience what some would consider a real classic. 
 
Shinobi 
Now here's a game that I have a heap of nostalgia for. I was genuinely dissapointed that the Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection only had Shinobi III in it. I have a lot of fond memories playing this game over and over on my Mega Drive, though I could never get past the helicopter, so with the magic of state saving this is the first time I've ever seen the end of this game. 
 
If it were not for the save and load options available to you there is no way I could have made it through this game. It is super hard, even with the ability to basically cheat your way through the game it still offered me a decent challenge in some spots. You play as Joe Musashi sent on a mission to slice and stab your way through a crime syndicate and save the many hostages in each level. Shinobi has a reputation for being one of the hardest series of games ever, though I remember playing it incessantly and loving every moment of it. I don't think I've ever spent 200 points on anything better.  
 
That's going to be it for this one. Super short but what can I say, Zombie Genocidest just popped and with that I have just finished Left 4 Dead. Time to wrap this up, take L4D out of my console and keep working on Bioshock 2. Though it has also just hit 1am so I think it's past my bedtime. As always send a message if you want to boost anything, I'm always willing.