It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about gaming! I haven’t been playing as many video games since I started working full time, but I got some new games for Christmas that I’ve been enjoying working through!

So here are some of my favorites so far in 2017

Zumba

This is a game that I’ve been eyeing for a year or two now. I’ve always wanted to take a Zumba class, but haven’t been able to find a class at a good time or didn’t want to go by myself, so I thought this would be a fun alternative. I got this game as a Christmas present this year and couldn’t wait to try it out!

Overall, I really liked the game. There were songs that you would normally associate with Zumba from Latin American countries, but then there were also a lot of other regions and their dances represented at well. It provided variety if you ever got bored of one style of dance. It was a pretty good workout, too! The first time I played, I could only make it through about four songs before being beat. But I could feel myself getting stronger the more that I played, and that encouraged me to play even more.

There was also a kind of “training” mode, where you could learn complicate steps for each style of dance in slower motion and repeatedly practice them. That was a good introduction to the game for me since I don’t fancy myself that much of a dancer where I could work on those moves before being thrown into the song.

The only thing I didn’t like about the game is the user interface. Moving between menus was motion activated, meaning you had to raise your hand in the air to select songs. Oftentimes you would have to stand with your arm raised for thirty seconds or more before it even read that you were trying to navigate between the menus, and then you had to hover for a couple seconds for it to select. If your hand wavered slightly, it would come off the selection. It really didn’t make sense why you couldn’t use a controller to navigate through the game in addition to using your hand.

Castle Crashers

This is a fun arcade style game that Andrew and I have played on and off for a while now that we recently returned to beat. You play as knights who storm castles to rescue all of the kidnapped princesses. You can level up your knight and allocate your skill points, and in some parts of the game you compete for the princesses’ kiss. It’s reminiscent of older games to me since it’s pretty straight forward, which is why I think I enjoy it so much. There’s a lot of humor in it as well, like you can battle your allies and the winner receives a kiss from the princess.

We’ve only played this together so far, so I can’t attest to the single player, but the multiplayer is great! There are a lot of games that I’ve played with Andrew that aren’t really meant for multiplayer, but this one is perfect for it. There are a couple other mini games on the side that you can play online, and those are fun if you need a break from the main storyline.

 

LEGO Lord of the Rings

You guys know that I love the Lord of the Rings, books or movies, I’ll take ’em all. This game is no different. I’ve always been a big fan of the Lego video games, having played Lego Jurassic World, and Lego Hobbit.

The game does a good job of condensing the main plot line while still keeping the original charm of the movie. Many of the scenes are shot for shot recreations of the movie but with Lego characters instead, which I loved. Plus there is the standard Lego humor (i.e. one of the humans in the opening scenes of the movie drops his ring, a pig gets caught stealing carrots instead of Merry and Pippin, just funny little bits here and there that make you laugh).

The game breaks down the plot down into levels, but I love the game play between the levels. There is an open-world where you can move all over middle-earth and complete side quests, find letters to forge new items from the blacksmith, buy characters and power ups, etc. Plus it’s just fun to ride around on a horse through the Shire and through Rohan.

This is one of those games that I can’t play for just fifteen minutes because as soon as I pick up the controller I’ll play it for four hours. Plus, even though it’s a Lego game, it is still very pretty! From the setting in the Shire to Mordor, the scenery and background images are beautiful! It makes me want to watch the movies.

 

Have you played any good games recently?