Monkey See, Monkey Do

We have been long time players of Carnival Games for the DS.  It is a favorite title.  The games are short, sweet, and simple.  The kiddos love it.  I've also heard good thing about the Wii title, but have never played it.  This week, we got Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do for the Xbox Kinect, and we are totally loving it!  There is just one drawback...

He will haunt your dreams.

This little creeper is the monkey helper for the carnival barker, and he is so ... scary looking.  The rest of the game graphics are to be expected.  The games look like real carnival games.  There is one where you ride a roller coaster and catch coins as you go and that one is a blast, and the roller coaster looks really real.  The carnival barker has smooth animation, and more of that Mii/Avatar look than the really "3D" graphic look.  And then there's Mr. Terrifying himself, the monkey with odd teeth and buggy, too human eyes.  I love monkeys.  They are adorable.  Why did they have to make this one look like it will take your soul through the cold, mechanical eye of the Kinect?  And he's everywhere!  He turns on the games.  He doles out tickets.  He is even the star of games, and you have to dance with him.

Ok, so I may be extra swayed because I get totally ooged out easily.  I'm terrified of ET and that creepy dancing baby from the Ally McBeal show.  Now Mr. Monkey is just part of that group.  It's not really "scary" necessarily - my children aren't the least bit afraid of him.  They just don't know.

Other than the monkey though, the game is so fun.  The carnival games are all done by simple motions that you would expect to do if you were playing the games in real life.  That said, there are games that are totally, insanely frustrating because you just can't get them.  Just like the frustrations of playing these games in real life!    If you like playing carnival games at real carnivals, you will enjoy this game, it's as simple as that.

And the best part of this game?  Just playing through each carnival game gives you like, 140 gamerscore!  Winning!  The rest of the achievements seem do-able too, they will just take some practice at perfecting the games.  I will dominate this one.

Aaaaaaaand Here We Go

After a lengthy, relaxing, and joyous holiday, Linz and I are back in action here at Achievos.  During our break, we spent time with family, devoured some delicious holiday eats, and played all the new games left for us under the tree.  Starting off a brand new year, I had some major gaming victories.

First, my gamerscore broke 30,000.  Keeping in line with Lindsey's trend of blasting past milestones, I have added over 400 points to my score in the eight days since it happened.  While reaching that high number felt nice, it definitely didn't feel as amazing as I thought it would.  Hitting the 5,000 mark was fun and reaching double digits with 10,000 was great.  And I remember losing my mind when I hit 25,000; it felt like such a big deal.  But 30,000 just hasn't done it for me.  I took pictures, I let out a little brag, but I mostly just kept playing.

One of the major gaming events that did rock my world was reaching the final level in Age of Empires Online.  My Greek civilization final hit level 40 unlocking 100 glorious points.  Of those who know me, or better yet, have me on their Xbox friends list, can easily see that a huge amount of my 2011 was spent playing AoE.  I might be playing less in 2012, but it will still be on my to-do list.  I have already started my Egyptian civ and so far I'm sitting pretty at level 7.

The best was yet to come.  On January 1, 2012, the very first day of what is destined to be a wicked awesome year, I completed Skyrim.  I didn't just finish the main story line, I earned every single achievement that game has to offer.  The only other time I have felt this proud was when I completed the last Elder Scrolls game, and Fallout 3.  All of these were made by gaming behemoth Bethesda Software, and all three of the titles clocked me in at over 100 hours of gameplay.  There should be an achievement alone for dedicating 300+ hours of your life to one developer.

This is my 105 hour victory

All that being said, we have major things in the works for our personal lives, our gaming lives, Achievos, and for you.  Be on the lookout for more blogs, more misheard titles, and more free stuff !  We found a hidden cache of leftover PAX goodies and an OnLive console that are just dying to be shipped to a deserving reader.  With that, we here at Achievos wish you all the gaming best in the new year !