Day 96: Action 52 Friday with Chill Out

I swear, these games are getting worse. Not only does Chill Out not have any penguins in it (thus bringing to an early end the First Annual Game Project 365 Penguin Parade), it doesn't really have much video game in it either. In fact, it's just Illuminator without the gimmick of the lights turning off and on. Depth-wise, I would have to say that Chill Out falls somewhere in between Pong and Chase. It shouldn't even count as one of the 52 games on Action 52. It's half a video game at best. Probably closer to a quarter.

Day 95: The First Annual Game Project 365 Penguin Parade Proudly Presents The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins

Day 94: The First Annual Game Project 365 Penguin Parade Proudly Presents Binary Land

Day 93: The First Annual Game Project 365 Penguin Parade Proudly Presents Penguin Land

Day 92: The First Annual Game Project 365 Penguin Parade Proudly Presents Hebereke

Day 91: Wacky Races

Wacky Races for the Sega Dreamcast is easily one of my top five kart racers of all time. Wacky Race for the Game Boy Color is okay, but nowhere near that good.

First, three of the racers are missing. Pat Pending , Lazy Luke and the Gruesome Twosome are gone. Whether this was a space issue or simply because eight racers was the established norm at the time, I don't know. Of the eight available racers, only four are available to start the game. Dick Dastardly, Peter Perfect, Red Max and Sergeant Blast all have to be unlocked.


The power ups are so generic that not only does the "ghost" do the same thing as Mario Kart's "Boo," it plays the same music while doing it. The courses are also fairly bland. Rather than laps around a circuit, each race is single end to end route, which fits more with the original source material, but makes for courses that feel more like a bunch of random left and right turns than a real track.

Wacky Races feels like it's just not quite there in a lot of ways. Most of that, I'm sure, can be attributed to the technical limitations of the Game Boy Color hardware. The game is certainly playable, but there are so many better options out there in this genre.

Day 90: Boom Blox

I would gladly pay twenty, even thirty dollars for Boom Blox. But, since it's a fifty dollar game, and fifty dollars is a lot to spend on what is essentially a carnie game without the slimy barker and the prizes that are impossible to win, I'll just rent it for now. It's not like Steven Spielberg is hurting for the money. And what exactly makes this a "Steven Spielberg Game"? Did he just throw a bunch of money at it to make it happen or what?


The premise is incredibly simple. Throw baseballs at stuff to knock it over. The trick, of course, is to throw a baseball in the right place to create the chain reaction that will make everything fall over. Getting to fake throw with the Wiimote once per level may be "winning," but it doesn't exactly add up to a lot of fun.

That's why I prefer the battle mode. Two players. Two castles made of blocks. Bowling balls. Each player starts with three balls and starts bombarding the other player's castle, earning more balls for doing more damage until someone's fortress is leveled.

The single player puzzles a clever and entertaining, but the real gold here is in the party modes. Invite some friends over and throw balls at each other. Maybe leave the Wii turned off.