This week, my list of the games I’ve played throughout 2011 continues. First off, Metroid Prime. Yeah, the old Gamecube game. I just got around to finally playing it. I never owned a Gamecube, but a few years back, I’d played Eternal Darkness on my Wii and had a lot of fun. When I mentioned to a friend that I was interested in trying out other Gamecube games I may have missed out on, he recommended Wind Waker and Metroid Prime. I’d really enjoyed Wind Waker, so it was with much zeal that I dived into Metroid Prime. I was, frankly, disappointed. I understand that this game came out way before anyone had figured out the best control configuration for first person shooters on a gamepad, but the controls just did not gel for me. I played the game a good bit, and only quit while fighting the plant boss. Sorry, Samus. Did not like the game. C-.

Osmos is one of my favorite Humble Indie Bundle games. It surprised me, and in a very good way. The premise is simple: You’re a blob. There are other blobs. Eat the smaller blobs and avoid the bigger blobs. Sounds kind of boring, but a few mechanics they added make it a lot of fun. You move by expelling a tiny amount of your substance, so moving actually shrinks you an infintesmal amount. So you want to minimize your thrust. Also, the material you expel can push other blobs, and if it hits them, they get bigger.

The amount of complexity and strategy involved is far greater than you’d think. And there are multiple sections of the game that each introduce new mechanics. Osmos is a lot of fun, and I’ve heard they introduced an iOS version. If you’ve got an iPhone, I recommend Osmos highly. It gets a B.

I got a sweet deal on The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom when I bought it on Steam. I’m pretty sure I paid $2.50. It was an XBLA game that I’d missed and heard many good things about, so I jumped all over it. It seems like all XBLA puzzle/platformers get compared to Braid, and I suppose I can understand the comparison, but the only real similarities are that they’re both XBLA puzzle/platformers, and they both have sections of levels that each introduce new mechanics. For a while, I wasn’t sure I’d get through the game without a walkthrough, but in the end I managed. My daughter watched me play more often than not.

One thing that I nearly forgot to mention about PB Winterbottom is the amazing soundtrack. The music is so well written that I enjoy listening to it at work. It’s a beautiful orchestral score that integrates ticking clocks and other elements of the time-based gameplay very well. It’s second only to Bastion as the best music I’ve heard in a game this year. I really liked it a lot – I’ll give it a B.

I passed on Peggle when it first came out. Popcap has seriously impressed me with Plants Versus Zombies (and to a lesser degree Wordworm Adventures) but I never saw the allure of Peggle. If I was going to be on a PC, I’d much rather play a less causal game. But when the Android Amazon App store offered Peggle for free, I grabbed it. And now, I play the game nearly every day. I’ve finished the “adventure”, and begun going through all the “quick play” levels. I’ve aced roughly 75% of them, and I’m working on the remaining few. On a mobile platform, Peggle is a killer app. It gets a B.