Two Games for the Price of None

Due to obvious financial reasons, I didn't get the chance to pick up a lot of new games during the course of this year. That kinda happens when you're unemployed for nine months and trying to live off of very slim resources. I did manage to scrounge up enough cash to pick up Ghostbusters: The Video Game on day one, but was only because I decided that I didn't need to send Wachovia the full balance for my car payment. Hey, true fans do what they have to do to get their fix.

Thankfully, the gaming gods felt that I had suffered enough and felt the need to send some good fortune my way. At two different points during the summer, I received two full games (as in not demos) free of charge. In early August, I received the Game & Watch Collection for the Nintendo DS from Nintendo and in latter part of that month I received Guitar Hero: Smash Hits from Activision. Since I haven't said much about games here lately, I figured I'd quickly toss in my two cents about both games. A two-pack of mini reviews if you will.

Game & Watch Collection
For what it is, the Game & Watch Collection is a nice collectible. As a Club Nintendo exclusive, it's offered only to members after they have accumulated at least 800 points. Points can be redeemed from Nintendo hardware and software alike, but unlike the requirements for the annual gifts, members have as long as they need to accumulate these points. So while the G&W Collection isn't as rare of a present, it still requires a great deal of effort to obtain. Having used points from my sister's DS and Wii collection in addition to my own, I originally offered the game to her as a gift. It only seemed fair -- she would get a free DS game for her portion the points, I would get the free Mario Hat for mine. However, I forgot about one thing in my moment of generosity. My sister is four years younger than I am.

The Game & Watch Collection is a title that mostly only older gamers will enjoy. Why? Because it's a game that's made up completely of reproductions of classic Game & Watch games. The dual screen versions of Oil Panic, Green House, and Donkey Kong have been faithfully ported to the DS, but they weren't given a makeover in the process. All of their rudimentary bleeps and bloops and simple graphics are present and accounted for. For gamers like myself who grew up with simple LCD games like Tropical Fish and Mario's Cement Factory, this is fine. Any shortcomings the games may have are covered by nostalgia. However for gamers who didn't join the hobby until after the PlayStation came onto the scene, the Game & Watch Collection comes off as a simple, dated game with little replay value -- one that would definitely cause a severe case of "buyer's remorse" based on the amount of points needed to obtain the game.

Final Verdict: If you're an old-school gamer, save up your Club Nintendo points and pick this up. It's the best thing in the marketplace. If you're willing to part with a little bit of money, scour ebay as there's plenty of sealed copies up for auction there as well. If you're a newer gamer, you may want to avoid this one. To quote my sister, "Thanks and all, but next time get the carrying case."

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
I won this title via some random Twitter contest and after spending some time with it, I'm glad that I didn't part with my money to pick this one up at retail.

Upon announcement, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits had my interest. It was a game built on the songlists of the first five Guitar Hero games, but reworked to take advantage of the drums and microphone support found in games like Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Metallica. And while that concept sounds great on paper, somehow, someway Activision found a way to make this game represent the best as well as the worst of the series.

Smash Hits isn't a bad game, but it doesn't do much to make itself a good game either. The songslist and notecharts are fine, but could be better. The graphics are good, but could be better. And the online play is fine but (you guessed it), could be better. As a result, the game as a whole has a soulless feel to it -- something can't be said for any of the other Guitar Hero (and by extension, Rock Band) games. And as if the game couldn't have any more things NOT going for it, Smash Hits does not support any Guitar Hero World Tour downloadable content. That's sort of surprising considering that Smash Hits and World Tour are almost identical sans setlists and venues. Lazy production on Activision/Beenox's part.

Final Verdict: As a free game, I can't complain about it too much. It's fun for what it is, but as an owner of Guitar Hero 1, 3, 80s, and Aerosmith -- games which all have a song or more featured on the Guitar Hero Smash Hits setlist -- it's a pretty pointless addition to my collection. Now to be fair, I haven't spent much time with it as I have previous Guitar Hero games, but it doesn't look like I will be doing so in the near future either. If you're new to the Guitar Hero series or just missed some of these songs the first time around, give it a spin. With the ability to import most of Smash Hits' setlist into the newly released Guitar Hero 5, it may be worth your time to look for it for on the cheap at a Gamestop near you.