On the... DS?

Usually around this time of week I post an On the Shelf where I proceed to regale you with tales of plots, characters, and cliches. This week I'm mixing it up a bit. (And it has nothing to do with the fact I haven't finished my book yet.) This week I have ON THE DS!
I'll start off with Borderlands. Most people are sighing right now saying 'been there, done that, got the tee-shirt and the sequel.' I haven't had the pleasure of playing the game until recently. It was an interesting experience, combining the personalization and will of a RPG with the action and game-play of a First-person shooter. I was, of course, the Siren. The opening of this game, like many Xbox Games, is sprinkled with a hardy humor that is exemplified by scenes in which something terribly wrong or immoral happens but you can't help but laugh anyway. (ie. The dog alien gets hit by a bus.) From then on, you are stuck on the desert planet Pandora. It is desolate, overflowing with sand and destruction. The art-style of the game is unique, being both grotesquely realistic and sketchily cartoon at the same time, bringing together maturity and quasi-realism to the landscape and the creatures who populate it. I haven't played enough to comment on the plot (feel free to do so yourself if you have played, just remember NO SPOILERS) but I'm content enough with the current game-play to recommend it to someone else. A mature someone else, but someone else non the less. It looks like a decent game, good enough to have a sell-able sequel at least.
Next is Pokemon. Yes, for those in the USA who are nerds just like me you realize that yesterday was the official release of the American version of Black 2 and White 2. While there are a lot of haters out there who refuse to try it because it isn't the original Kanto game, I have no such bias. I love all the Pokemon generations (not equally, Hoenn is my fav.) and when Nintendo announced this new game, I was stoked (cool dude term meaning excited). I decided to go in with no prior knowledge, meaning I couldn't use Serebii.net to help me. So far at the third gym I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy it. No, it isn't any different in typical game-play and no, it isn't an action RPG all of a sudden, but I enjoyed travelling around Unova again. It had a nostalgia with characters from the original Black and White, but it also revamped with new gym leaders, new outfits, new plot points, and new routes. Most of all they brought back some of the previous generation Pokemon and I love my Growlithe to death. Of course I haven't played long enough to worry about Team Plasma all that much and my rival (you get to name him this time!) is sorta bland as a character, but I've enjoyed the crisp graphics and the upbeat music. I think it was absolutely brilliant to change the gym leaders final Pokemon music to the epic end music, reminiscent of Pokemon Advance Battle where the music would change when Ash or May pulled of a huge turn around. All in all, it's worth a chance, even if you do have a soft spot for the original 151.
IN OTHER NEWS: Do you like my Background?
I do. If you want to spice up your background for free, visit Jellypages and pick one out for yourself. It's fast, easy, and they have hundreds of choices from Anime to Nature. But try and be mature, they do have everything. Also visit cooltext.com to get the cool banners I used. Pretty neat way to spice up your blog.
Honorable Mention of the Week: TomSka
There are a lot of things I love about Britain: Tea, Sherlock, Doctor Who, BBC, Buses, Harry Potter, London eye, Parliament, The Queen, Their use of the word Bloody. But another thing I like about Britain is this guy. He makes the funniest and most well made Youtube videos I've seen on...well, Youtube. They're hilarious, bringing me to tears every time I watch. I think he owes me a spleen of two. He's brought you classics like, Deleted, Musical Suicide, Baby with a gun, Chaos Relay, Salon shootout, Ledge-man and the Assassin, and Mine Turtle. He also brought you this: