#93-#91

I'm ditching the screenshots, they're a real hassle to sort out on Blogger. So there.

93. Earthworm Jim
Mega Drive, 1994, Shiny Entertainment/Virgin Interactive

Yet another game I’m really bad at. But who cares. Launch cows! Fight dustbins! Whip duodenums! Ride hamsters! Bungee-jump with bogies! Also, the music for the Psycrow boss levels is one of the MD sound chip’s finest hours. Hoo-ray for JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!

92. Sonic Advance 3
Game Boy Advance, 2004, Dimps/Sega

I loved this bad when it first came out, but sadly it’s not as replayable as other Sonics. This is a shame, because it’s arguably one of the best of the lot, balancing the series’ essential simplicity with a partner system that’s surprisingly complex if you bother to fiddle around with it. (For the record, Cream and Knuckles is my team of choice.) Still, the levels are decent, if unremarkable, there’s a couple of good bosses, the hub concept’s quite fun, and the Special Stage entrance is actually achievable, if too convoluted (I think I got five Emeralds, then gave up because it just took too long).

91. Electroplankton
DS, 2006, Nintendo

Another one that’s not really a game, Electroplankton is just a glorified music toy. But Jesus, what a toy. Using one of ten different types of plankton, you poke the screen/draw lines/make spinning motions/clap into the microphone to produce music. But it gets really fancy with the Rec-Rec and Volvoice plankton, which let you record loops of your voice to mess with. Recording a list of obscenities and playing it back at triple speed so it sounds like the Chipmunks are dissin’ your stylez is far funnier than it probably should be. It’s a surprisingly sophisticated tool, letting you produce some genuinely great tunes with a bit of work, but because the developers are idiots you can’t save them, instantly pricing this as an expensive novelty. But if you do splash out, it’ll last you forever – it’s the sort of thing you ignore for months at a time, then pick up and have a blast for an hour with, then ignore again. Repeat for the rest of your life.