The Weekly Stack -- June 12, 2009

@KefkaTaran -- you're gonna cause New Super Mario Bros. to show up in next week's stack... ;)

1/ Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again -- first worthwhile DSiWare, and it's awesome. sure, similar to those who've played the previous installments, but this is a fully baked game, with an awesome level creation implementation. very cool, and it's been sucking down most of my time since beating Chinatown Wars (damned elusive Golden Lions!!)

2/ GTA IV: The Lost and Damned -- still haven't cleared this, but diving back into Klebitz's yarn is far more rewarding (story-wise) after clearing Chinatown Wars (great game, vapid storyline).

3/ Punch-Out!! -- can't seem to get enough of this game. update: playing with the wii balance board is really difficult. takes a lot of coordination, and even more getting used to. not sure how i feel about it, but the motion controls for the most part are the way to go here.

4/ Fallout 3 -- took a little break from the wasteland this week, but ironically jumping back on it after posting this.

5/ Left4Dead -- i don't care that they're releasing a sequel so soon, bring it. love this game, will likely love the sequel. just need people to play with (hint, hint): http://raptr.com/manima.

another great stack week!

inFamous- I've already played through the game once as a hero. Got all the blast shards, dead drops, and stunts. Now I just need to play it as inFamous. Platinum trophy, here I come!

The Darkness- Picked this up on the cheap. I heard mixed things about it, but I figured I'd at least get my $10 worth.

The Bourne Conspiracy- Got this from Goozex. I figured I can play it, and put it back on Goozex and get my points back.

Games I don't have yet but will this week:

Red Faction Guerrilla- Just bought it from Amazon. Bought this one so I can play with my friends online...fun shall ensue. If you'd like to play it with a fan Mr. Kollar I'm more than willing. :)

Ghostbusters- The kid in me can't wait to play this game. The adult in me expects it to be a fun game that will hold a lot of nostalgic value. I'm really curious as to how the multiplayer will be. I went ahead and Preordered so I can get the Ghostbusters II character skin.

Guitar Hero: Metallica - I've grown kind of tired of the whole Fisher-Price instruments genre, but Metallica is my favorite band, and the game was only $30, so I gave it a shot. And damn it if it didn't pull me back in. The track list is great - playing "Orion" while on bass is sublime - and the extras are pretty cool too. This is much better than GH Aerosmith and well worth grabbing if you're a fan of Metallica.

Farcry 2 - It took me a while to get into this game, but once it clicked, I got sucked in. The game does have its' share of problems - the map sucks and the respawning guard posts are a pain in the ass. But when it's firing on all cylinders, it's a really fun game - much better than Mercenaries 2.

Burnout Paradise - This is IMO the best racing game of this generation, and it just got better with the Big Surf Island DLC. Unlike the last couple of packs, which came off a bit like "horse armor", Big Surf is well worth the $13 from what I've played of it so far. The new dune buggy is awesome, and the mega jumps are absolutely sick.

Wolfenstein 3D - Picked up the PSN version on a whim and found myself plowing through most of the game's 60 levels. Yeah, it's dated, but as far as old FPS's go, the graphical style has actually held up fairly well (compare this to early PS1/N64 FPS games) and the action is good brainless fun. Plus who doesn't like taking a chaingun to Mecha-Hitler?

(not pictured)

Street Fighter Alpha 2 - Do I really need yet another iteration of Street Fighter? No, but I picked up the PSN version of this anyway. It's Street Fighter without a gimped version of Chun Li (*angry look at SF4*) so I'm digging it.

Late to the Party Edition! I've been catching up on a lot of games I missed when I was pretty much just playing WoW.

1) Professor Layton & the Curious Village -- finished it this week, except for the bonus puzzles. This is really fun, if possibly a bit stretched with similar puzzle types. Still, I'm very pleased to see a sequel is coming.

2) Chrono Trigger DS -- One of my favorite games of all time, but I haven't played it through since the SNES days.

3) Call of Duty 4 -- easily the best shooter I've played on the 360 yet, and the first game I've been playing consistently on Live.

4) Crackdown -- the jumping and exploration is a lot of fun; sadly, the combat doesn't hold up. I may be done with this.

5) Retro Game Challenge (Game Center CX) -- I'm on the third game, the racer. It really isn't one I would've played back in the day (or now, normally), but I know there are things I'm interested in past it, so I figure I'll have to push through.

1-Infamous : First PS3 game in a while I have really gotten into. I like it, but not as much as Crackdown on 360.

2-Left 4 Dead : I finally opened it up, and I am in love with this game. AWESOME

3- Broken Sword : I played this a long time ago on PC. This DS port is fantastic. If you like adventure games, so buy it ASAp

Not Shown
4- 1 vs 100 : I love trivia so been playing extended play on Xbox Live every night

5- EA Sports Active : Burning Calories, and having a good time. Forget Wii Fit, this is the one to get