I'm nearly done with Metroid Prime. One last session tomorrow should see me done; I acquired the last of the ability power ups this afternoon and all that's left now is the final sweep for the remaining artifacts and health/missile expansions, and then the final bosses. It's amazing how much easier the game is when you're not battling the controls. Aside from the aiming differences there's one wii specific change which has brought sunlight and rainbows to my experience. Enabling the morph ball to jump once without laying a bomb is a tiny change and yet it makes a massive difference to ease of use. Jumps which used to take me multiple attempts I now manage on my first go.

After that I have a choice. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Mini Ninjas or .... Batman: Arkham Asylum. The last's a totally unexpected entry on the list - I don't have any interest in batman whatsoever. Far too many people of taste saying far too much good about it for me to pass over the chance to try it out though. According to a wide bunch of assorted folk it has stealth like the Thief (!) games, exploration and powerups like the Metroid series, combat which is simple to pick up and has great depth like Ninja Gaiden, polish and love in spades, and a design which keeps the game flowing without bogging down or becoming overly repetitive. I'm adding a dumper truck's worth of salt to that gushing and expecting nothing much more than a good, varied game with polish.

Might go with Mini Ninjas. Short, easy, silly, and stylish as can be - a perfect flavour break. I wasn't intending to pick it up until later but Zavvi had it on sale for £17.95 for a couple of days so it would have been daft to pass it over only to wait for it to drop back down to that level.