But there's more here. My investment goes well beyond that of a book or a movie. I've logged well over a hundred hours in the three games over the past five years. In that time I became my Shepard. Now, in Mass Effect 3, this is completely my story, my conclusion to the fight, with all the ramifications of my actions and decisions come home to roost. Yet the immediacy of the action and the well-directed rhythm of its story make Mass Effect 3 not only the best of the three, but a game anyone could enjoy completely on its own.
If you’re not familiar with the original title (and you likely won’t be, considering that arcades in North America have long since gone the way of the Dodo), Tank! Tank! Tank! is essentially a Michael Bay movie filtered through the lens of a Japanese game. You and a teammate take on wave after wave of giant, mechanical foes, blasting your way through destructible environments to, ironically enough, save a city from destruction. Given its arcade origins, the gameplay is very simple, amounting to little more than shooting everything in your path. But it’s also a lot of fun, particularly when you have to do battle with one of its monolithic bosses.
Up for consideration as the saddest noise in the world: the sound Mickey Mouse makes when he dies/gets knocked out/whatever inEpic Mickey: The Power of Illusion.
It's a depressing, elongated "ohhhh " groan that immediately makes you feel disappointed in yourself for letting a beloved slice of your childhood keel over. Childhood—both personal ones and the younger days of the video game medium—figure prominently in this self-conscious platformer.
Power of Illusion harkens back to the kinds of richly designed platformers that thrived on the Genesis, Game Boy and SNES and shares a bit of DNA with the RPGs of that era, too. You control Mickey Mouse as he tries to rescue girlfriend Minnie and other famous toons from the clutches of evil witch Mizrabel. If these plot beats sound familiar, it's becausePower of Illusion is being positioned as a spiritual sequel to the 1990 Genesis gameCastle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. But, since it's an Epic Mickey game, players get the use of the series' Magic Paintbrush mechanics, which enables them to create and destroy objects with paint and thinner.
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