I played a lot of this Greek Mythology action game last month. Puzzle elements eventually wore me out, but I enjoyed everything else. 

I read this book about the history of board games recently. It was very well done. 

Lego: The Hobbit is a 2014 game based on the Peter Jackson films that came out after he did Lord of the Rings. I finished the main storyline and am in the process of hunting down and crafting every darn thing in it. I quite like this post game challenge in Lego games. It's where the real exploration and problem solving come into play. 

Games Beaten

I revisited this 2006 PopCap game on Xbox Series S and discovered I hadn't got all the achievements. Weird. So I attacked this thing with the hunger of a shark and got pretty close to completing everything. 

As soon as I saw a new release of Catan for consoles last month, I got the game. I have the board game too, but I haven't had an oportunity to play it. Console versions, however, I've played a lot, including this new one. 

Hey folks, I have some big news for you all!  You know how the Super Mario Bros. Movie is coming out soon, right?  Well if you go to see it, make sure to watch the credits because my name is in there under “Plumbing Consultant.”  You see, in the movie, it shows the bros. as plumbers, and the animators needed to make sure the pipes they were working on looked correct.  And since I work in the plumbing section of a major hardware store chain (true story), they had me do that.  So why didn’t they hire a real plumber for that?  Well, licensed plumbers are expensive, and they wanted to save some money so they had me do it instead.  And because I do work for a major hardware store, they’re partnering with the Mario movie to sell special plumbing tools.  So for a limited time, you can get plumbing wrenches, pipe cutters, and plungers with red or green handles, like Mario and Luigi!

...Or is it DOA? I always get those two mixed up.

Wow, I haven't stopped in here in forever! How is everybody?

This is the third game I'm playing on Android for Xbox achievements. It's a good quality Mahjong game. I'm enjoying it. 

A few weeks ago I revisited these two PS4 exclusive games and readded them to my library. Yes, physical games still exist, and I am still interested in building a library of them. I was thrilled to play some of both and remember. 

I returned to ReCore, after having played the demo in 2017, a few weeks ago on a random spin of the "Surprise Me" button on Xbox and enjoyed it enough to keep going with it all that week. Check it out. 

I checked this out when it was new on Game Pass. The match-3 like segment shown reminded me strongly of a game I love called Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, a game by Capybara that came out for DS in 2009 and then Xbox Live Arcade in 2011. So I had to play it, and soon I was hooked. 

Last year there was a game that came out that I really wanted to review called Arcade Paradise.  I requested a review code three different times and was denied each time!  I really wanted to review it, too, because it’s a time management sim where you must run a laundromat business, but you are secretly running an arcade in the back with dozens of fictional arcade games you can actually play!  I actually had an idea for a business that was half laundromat, half arcade, and I was going to called it Quarters: Good Clean Fun.  So this game really resonated with me.  If I had gotten a chance to review it last year, it definitely would’ve showed up on my Game of the Year list somewhere.  But this year I used some Christmas present PlayStation Store points to buy it, and sure it was only 20 bucks so I was kind of cheap, but this stuff adds up if you’re not careful.  Anyway, so now that I’ve played the game, I thought I’d write a blog about the arcade cabinets you can play on it.  Oh yeah, and slight spoiler alerts here and there, but I don’t think it matters much.

Microsoft Rewards on Xbox offered me points for getting an achievement in any EA game offered through Game Pass Ultimate. I chose to return to Mass Effect Andromeda and got very invovled with it and still am. 

Sometimes Games with Gold sends me adventure games. Somerville and Truberbrook were two recent ones I tried. 

From February 'til now, I've managed to pick up quite a few new games and consoles. Bargain bins and trades have been good to me this past month and a half. Here's the lot:

In honor of MAR10 Day (March 10), I did a little video on Mario's debut game. It also happens to be my all-time favorite arcade game, as well as one of the very first video games I ever played, even before Pac-Man, which was the first video game for a lot of people of that time.

Every day that I visit the comic store, I browse the bargain bin for interesting single issues from the past. In addition to trying out new stories and characters, I find video game ads. I started scanning (and now photographing) them. Here are the latest ones. 

One free comic book day, I spied a fantastic cover for an upcoming Bloodborne comic, Lady of the Lanterns, and had to follow it being a fan of Bloodborne and the souls games in general. I finally read the fourth and last issue in this story in February. 

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and it’s your lucky day!  Here’s some more game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com.  Please click on the links and read as many as you can and maybe even post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  OK let’s begin!

I finally stopped playing Microsoft Solitaire Collection on Android in February. I got all the achievements that were fun to get, so I moved on to another game with Xbox achievements, Microsoft Sudoku. It's free but ad supported. Apparently it's not on Game Pass because that's probably how I got the premium edition of Solitaire. I know I didn't purchase it. Ads are annoying but not a game breaker for me. 

In February I was still using the "Surprise Me" button on my Xbox to generate random games from my collection (I give myself the right to veto anything unappealing). I didn't veto Capcom Arcade Stadium 2 when it came up.