Hope everyone has enjoyed their time this December and January to catch up on your backlogs, because February is here, and that means it’s time for the spring rush. Put those stacks of shame on hold until the summer, folks; it’s gonna be BUSY.

And this goes for the strategy guide season as well.

This week releases both the Fable Anniversary game and strategy guide. I wish there was going to be a strategy guide for Bravely Default, which launches on Friday, but I guess that’s for the best considering the strategy guide for Lightning Returns releases next Tuesday.

What else is releasing this month? The second half of the Pokemon X & Y strategy guide will release in February, although I’m sure many people will be saying “too late” for that one. I don’t care whose fault that was, whether it’s Prima Games’ or the Pokemon Company’s, that was a mistake to break up that guide into two books.

Moving on…

Plants v. Zombies Garden Warfare will also have a strategy guide, along with Thief. Oh, can’t forget Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, either.

And that’s just February, people. March has South Park: Stick of Truth, Dark Souls 2, Titanfall, and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD.

Maybe I’ll be able to take a breath of relief in April. Maybe that’s when I’ll finish A Link Between Worlds. (I really shouldn’t joke about that.)

Last week was a weird mixed-bag for me. I lost my news writing job at Game Revolution, which made me sad on several levels. I wasn’t writing a whole lot there as of late, but I loved my co-workers. Basically, they had to reallocate the budgets for their websites, and my portion was cut to make way for something bigger. And that something bigger was for the other site I write for, Action Trip, where I received a huge promotion to Lead Writer! I will still be able to write reviews and pitch features for GR, so I’m not totally gone from the site, just from the daily news writing. All in all, it was fantastic news.

Since I am still reviewing games for GR, they tossed two reviews my way that needed a fast turnaround: Dr. Luigi and Age of Zombies for the Vita. I was thrilled to do both.

I was a huge Dr. Mario fan back when it released for the NES in 1990. I played that game more than anything else in my library, always striving to see all of the secret cut scenes certain boards offered. No one in college believed how good I was at that game until they played against me. At first they praised me for it, but then it became a running joke that the only game I could play was Dr. Mario. It was very true, so I didn’t fight against it when they teased me about it. When the higher-ups at GR asked if anyone would be interested in reviewing Dr. Luigi, the successor to this landmark game for me, I was ready to knock down anyone I had to in order to claim it. Fortunately I only had to off my boss.

Dr. Luigi probably won’t appeal to anyone else who hasn’t played Dr. Mario, but I enjoyed it. It’s a great game to play while my five-year-old has the TV hijacked. It’s about as groundbreaking as every new twist we’ve seen with Tetris games, yet we still go back to those, don’t we?

Age of Zombies for the Vita is a Vita port of the original PSP Mini, but now it has what it’s always needed: twin stick support! The game is still overwhelmingly difficult at times (literally overwhelming with hordes of zombies), but it’s far more manageable and far more fun than the original. My only complaint? A lot of the humorous dialogue from Barry Steakfries was cut, especially the swearing. I guess they wanted to lower the ESRB rating, but I was still disappointed.

And now that those distractions are complete (both games are really short), it’s back to A Link Between Worlds, which is freaking fantastic, I must say. I has the most fun gimmick of any Zelda game I’ve ever played.

We FINALLY recorded our game of the year discussion on the EvilCast podcast this past week. We wanted to wait until everyone could participate before we recorded, and with the holidays and one cast member stuck in Arizona, literally, we had to wait until last week. While it may be late and you may not care what we had to say, a couple of stats about this podcast may interest you.

First of all, fellow SGR writer Chris and I were responsible for six of our top ten choices. The stat that most surprised me was learning that I am the only contributor who has picked the top game of the year the last four years in a row. In other words, listen to my recommendations, people. I obviously know what I’m talking about.

I haven’t hidden at all that I’ve been largely disappointed with this year’s games. I had such high hopes with several games, Gears of War Judgment and BioShock Infinite in particular, and as I’ve already discussed in great length, none of my anticipated games have met my expectations. Compiling my list of my top ten games of the year for the podcast was actually quite hard for me. I only had 7 before I broke out my games library and forced myself to pick three more that I didn’t think were that bad. I really hated feeling that way.

Two games that hit my top 5 were LEGO games–LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and LEGO City Undercover. These LEGO games have made leaps and bounds beyond what LEGO games used to be, and it has been these last two that have made me stop disliking spoken dialogue in LEGO games. The writing is amazing, and I laughed more at both of these games than I did at Saints Row IV, and that’s really saying something considering that game has a freaking dub step gun.

And that’s all of the podcast I’m going to spoil for you. You’ll have to listen to the rest whenever it updates (hopefully soon!). I know we ramble. Drink while listening. It helps.