Yay! My first game completed this year!
Game 1: Sonic the Hedgehog - 5 hours (estimated)
I played this on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (PS3). I'll probably be finishing a lot of games on this collection since I've got renewed interest in Genesis games thanks to the Genesis/Mega Drive Collected Works book.
Ever since I started retrogaming, I've tried beating the original Soinc off and on for years. Sonic just hasn't appealed to me. I decided to beat it out of a sense of duty more than anything else. I didn't really have much fun throughout most of my play through because it feels like you're only in control of Sonic 50% of the time and the game is just shuttling you around the level for the other 50%. Sonic's control is also really strange and numb. I still don't get it. I wouldn't even say "it hasn't aged well" because I'm the patient type so I usually don't hold a game back based on the age of its mechanics. I really think that had I played it when it was new I still wouldn't have liked it. I'm debating whether to play Sonic 2 and 3 or just stop with Sonic here.
Oh well, not the best start but it's a start nonetheless. I agree with a post from above, I don't see the utility in posting every time a game is beaten, I'll try to post next time when I've beaten at least 3 to 4 games.
EDIT: Hey, another one!
Game 2: Congo Bongo - 17 minutes to beat it, spent an hour trying to get a better score
True fact: one of my first memories in life was sitting on my dad's knee while he played a port of this game on Commodore 64. My dad always hated when I played video games so it's an odd memory that has always stood out to me. Again, this one was played on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, it's a port of the arcade original, an unlockable extra. I don't remember too much about the Commodore version but I certainly remember it being easier than this arcade version. I read in Retrogamer that the Commodre 64 version was one of the bad ports for this game, it cut our some of the stages. This game is hard as hell! Of course it is because it was a quarter muncher. But even after beating the game, it restarts and it's even harder! I can't get anywhere after that! It's also in that shitty isometric perspective, which causes the most headaches control-wise and you will get cheap deaths by enemies or objects that aren't in your character's plane of existence, which sucks.
The story is cool, a gorilla burns a safari-guy's tent while he's asleep, so in retaliation, the safari-guy chases down the gorilla through several stages and finally sets his balls on fire. Seriously, I know it's 8-bit graphics, but I could swear he gets that flame and applies it straight to his crotch. I had never been able to get to that point to see the last animation so that was a satisfying moment, it's probably one of the first arcade titles to have an "ending" and an end screen. It says: "CONGRATULATIONS !! GOOD !!" There's some other cool stuff that I noticed too. I didn't know that in the first stage if all three monkeys grab onto you, they'll throw your ass off the waterfall. I was laughing my head off when I saw that! I didn't expect it! Overall, okay game. I'll forgive its faults because even though the challenge is usually unfair, it's very satisfying to get to the next stage.
Top score: 22,970
Game 3: Manos: The Hands of Fate (iOS) - 41 minutes 30 seconds according to the game but I know I've sunk in at least 3 to 4 hours playing the game on and off
This was a really fun game! I love the subject matter and how they pay tribute to Z movies and NES games. I had to play this because I like the cult movie it's based on, which was made in my home town of El Paso! The retro aesthetics are just icing on the cake.
Unfortunately though, the controls are simple but horrible. This game is my "Exhibit A" to show that touch controls suck ass. And the game doesn't work with iCade or ipega controller devices. Still, I don't regret playing this game. When it wasn't frustrating, it was damn fun. I'm missing one of the crystal hands, so I might replay to get all and see how it changes the ending or whatever.
Game 4: Apache Air Assault (PS3) About 7 hours
This is an awesome game. I love Gaijin Studios so it was nice to see such an early entry into their air combat series. Some missions are way too difficulty with with player juggling several objectives and fighting dozens of enemies alone. Otherwise, I loved it, might even play it again. Helicopter vs. helicopter dogfighting is way more fun than it should be!
Game 5: Starfox 2 (SNES, via Android) 40 mintues
This is the game that was infamously canceled by Nintendo before released and leaked in near complete form. I was surprised it took so little time to beat, and I only died once. There are some great ideas and gameplay in this one but after playing it I'm not surprised at their decision to withhold its release. The main problem is the game's length, there's tons of good gameplay and you can tell its doing stuff the SNES had no business doing, but its only in short bursts. The 3D has all the problems with early 3D games- control issues and getting stuck in walls is common. Overall, this game had potential but I'm glad they used it as a learning experience and saved all of that for Starfox 64.
Game 5: Duet (iOS) 6-7 hours
I got this game for free a few months ago and it's one of my favorite games this entire year. The gameplay is simple, but it's old-school hard. I really felt a sense of accomplishment after beating each section. The narration is actually pretty compelling and the titles of the sections show that the game has themes involving depression and recovery. Very eerie. Overall, a great game and I can already tell my reflexes and ability to sense patterns has improved. A great game for retrogamers.
Game 6: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) 14 hours
I finally played it and beat it. It's a great game, I found myself smiling constantly. As someone who hasn't played a Mario game since Mario 64, this was a refreshing update on the same type of gameplay and it really blew me away. I really want to play Galaxy 2 now.
Game 7: Disaster Report (PS2) 5 hours
I played this game out of duty, because I really want to play its sequel, Raw Danger, because I heard many good things about it. The two games aren't really connected to the point where you have to play one after the other and I've read that you should skip the first one if you want to. But I'll be making a video about them so I thought it was best that I do check out the first game.
I almost wish I had skipped it. The game has you trying to survive and get to safety while a natural disaster sinks a man made island you're on. You have a backpack with supplies that you have to manage, but it never really becomes a critical part of the gameplay. There's not really a lot of survival gameplay aside from the regular move your ass to escape the falling buildings and whatnot. Most of the game consists of what I would call "lock-pick gameplay" it's like a point and click adventure, there's a single solution to solving a puzzle and the game won't let you progress until everything is put in place, only then will the new path open up to you. There's some interesting set pieces but the city seems so empty. You rarely encounter other survivors. There's a few action and stealth sections that feel tacked on to justify the yawn-worthy twist ending and overall I thought this game was "meh." There's multiple endings but I don't feel like unlocking any of them. I just got regular ending #1.
Game 8: Sky Crawlers (Wii) 8 hours
I LOVE THIS GAME. I also like the anime it's based on. I've watched the movie and I thought it was one of the best anime movies I've ever seen, right next to Akira. I would get tons of flack for that if people actually read the 52 games in a year section because the movie has a lukewarm fanbase. I don't care, I loved it. The movie, and this game, really reminded me graphic novel-like narrative from Ace Combat 4.
As a fan of the entire PS2 Ace Combat trilogy, I was amazed to discover this game and find out it was made by the same Project Aces team. It really shows, it is like an alternate history WWII Ace Combat game. That's exactly what I always wanted. Bravo! My dream game was made! ... Almost... The controls let this game down. They tried to be bold and use the Wii-mote nunchuck as a flightstick and throttle and it plainly doesn't work. You can't get the plane to do anything you want it to do. It is an absolute necessity to play this game with the Pro controller. Even then it's not perfect. You can't adjust the controls on the Pro and the rudder is stuck to the D-pad, so good luck using the controls in expert mode. It's unusual for me, but I used normal mode, which gives you controls similar to Rogue Squadron. Not too bad, I can deal with it. The game wasn't that difficult but everything else was awesome. I want to hug whomever came up with the idea for this game and hiring Project Aces to work on it, then punch whomever came up with the controls.
Game 9: Pony Express (Google) 15 min.
It's a nice little browser game. Somewhat frustrating because you have to memorize the route in order to get all the pieces of mail and if you hit anything you lose a piece. I got all 100 pieces and learned about the first delivery of the pony express!
Game 10: Super Metroid (SNES) 7 hours 2 minutes according to the game
Just finished this game and WOW it was great. Definitely one of the best in the genera but I was a little disappointed it wasn't as epic as I thought it would be. Honestly, I thought both GBA Metroid games were better so I blame nostalgia for the rabid fanbase around this game. But I can tell it was hot shit back in the SNES era. My favorite part is when you first arrive on the planet and all the bugs scatter away when you enter a room and the eye-light thingy and statures stare at you, it's such a strange feeling to play a game where you're a foreigner on an alien planet. So creepy!
I got lost a few times but nothing major and usually it was because the stupid game didn't tell me I could just walk through a solid rock wall. Ugh. I also got stuck at the n00b tube. I thought the final boss battle was anti-climactic. There wasn't a lot of skill required, it was more like a cutscene which felt really strange compared to the other boss battles in the game. I did like the traditional Metroid hurry-your-ass-to-the-ship final sequence. Not a bad game and while it didn't live up to the hype everyone gives it, I would recommend it to anyone.
Now I've got an itch for Metroidvanias again. I'm planning on playing Hero Core soon.
Game 11: PKA CHU (plug & play console) 5 minutes, 59 seconds
This game is a clone of Super Mario Bros. from China and just has the sprites slightly altered. Usually for the worse. The title is deliberate to try to cash in on kids thinking the game is related to the Pokemon universe but none of the sprite swaps have any relation to pokemon except for the main character who looks like Pikachu. I don't know if it was intentional but Princess Toadstood looks like she's in blackface, which was really shocking the first time I saw it.
The controls are horrible and it dented my thumbs pretty quickly. The music is absolute torture.
I played this for a while before being able to speed run it. I got my time down to just a hair under 6 minutes.
Watch the speedrun here
Game 12: Mega Man 2 (NES) 1 hour, 21 minutes
Before today I had never beat Mega Man 2 outside of an emulator. I wasn't the biggest fan when I beat it before but now that I've beat it on the cartridge I have a lot more respect for it. I'm starting to wean myself off emulators and back onto the real deal. I had such a sensation of joy after beating this game. Truly a beautiful game, both in looks and sound, and one of the greatest of all time.
All of these are arcade games I played while I was on vacation. It was a cheap Chinese emulator. It was nice to replay these, I've played almost all of them before, and it was a great time killer. I think they each took about 45 minutes to an hour to complete.
Game 13: Metal Slug
I love me some Metal Slug. Such great art style. I plan to play through the rest of them this year as well. It might be one of the few game series' that had consistent quality throughout. Except for that one that ran slow and needed to be fixed with Metal Slug X (I think it was 3?? I'll find out)
Game 14: Progear
I'm not the biggest fan of bullet hell shoot em ups. In fact, I hate them and it's probably why I avoid the shoot em up genre in general. This one started out all right but I hate it when a game is cheap and just fills the screen with shots that are unavoidable. Yeah, I know you can probably find a kid on YouTube doing a one credit run of this game but seriously, for 99% of the population, it's impossible and getting into that 1% just isn't fun. This game had a pretty good art style but the levels and boss attacks were too similar.
Game 15: The Punisher
This is a great arcade beat em up and it really got me interested in The Punisher back in the day. It's still as good as I remember it.
Game 16: Warriors of Fate
This game is okay. It was enjoyable and the sprites look great. I couldn't get into the story though and the stages were too similar. It was also really long, probably the longest game here. It's okay but I wouldn't play it again.
Game 17: Mega Man The Power Battles
I had always heard that this game sucked and should be avoided. I've only played it here and there and I thought it was okay. Now I tried a play through and yeah, it sucks. It's too easy and it has very little of the boss power rock-paper-scissors mechanic that's the trademark of the Mega Man series. You can really make it through the whole game with just the mega buster. The stages and bosses look alright but the menus make it look like a flash game, it really makes it look like they didn't give a shit about this game.. Such a missed opportunity.
Game 18: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs
I LOVE this game. I've seen a thread about "what game do you play every year" or something. I'm not the type that gives myself a schedule or a goal to replay a certain game every year. But looking back on it, I actually do play Cadillacs and Dinosaurs every year without even planning it. I love this game so much, it is the perfect beat em up for me. I need to look up the comic and see if it's worth it to get into that universe.
Game 19: Final Fight
This is a classic and while it's good, I think it's overrated compared to everything else out there. It's okay but the bosses can be annoying.
Game 20: Captain Commando
This game sucks. The characters look ridiculous and not in a funny way, with the exception of Baby Commando. He's awesome. The worst part though is that the final boss is the most aggravating quarter munching boss I've ever seen. He's so cheap and it really made me want to turn off the game. The whole game feels uninspired. C'mon "Captain Commando"? Who the hell thought of that stupid name?! It sounds like a knock off G.I. Joe action figure.
Game 21: Fallout 3: GOTY (PS3) not sure, 50 hours approx.
I have been addicted to this game for the past week. It's all I've played and it was getting kinda scary because I was spending so much time with the game, which isn't like me. It wasn't due to the Fallout 4 announcement, it was just a game I wanted to get off the backlog. I loved everything about it though. I though the story was incredible. I always heard that people were disappointed with the ending. I didn't spoil it for myself, but I was very happy with the way it ended and I caught myself with a smile from ear to ear. The last ability I got was the explorer perk so I can see that I've only explored like half the game. But really I don't mind that. I'll probably explore some more but I'm not going to be the type of person who 100% completes the game. I'll probably run through the extra GOTY content but that'll probably be the extent of it. Overall, it's an amazing game and I'd recommend it to anyone. It did freeze on me a few times and every now and then it would freeze for like 3 seconds but it didn't happen frequently enough to be a huge issue for me.
Game 22: Sub-Terrania (Genesis) 40 minutes or so for a playthrough
I never thought I would be able to beat this game. I love it, there's nothing else like it. It's like a mix between Lunar Lander and Choplifter. It is ball cracking hard. You basically have to go through every level as perfectly as possible so you can reach the final boss with enough health/lives/missiles/power-ups, otherwise you won't beat him. When I got to the final boss I didn't realize he had three different forms, the first time I destroyed his second form I was celebrating and got my ass killed. I did it on normal difficulty even though easy mode was tempting. After beating the game I tried out easy mode and I think it's even more aggravating, the only major difference is that your ship falls a lot slower which I think is a disadvantage because sometimes you need to fall quickly to reach things under you. The graphics and music are incredible in this game. It's even ranked like #13 or something in the top Genesis games of all time, I can't believe it never got a sequel. The only thing close to it that I can think of is Solar Jetman for NES, I was never able to beat that one either so maybe I'll give it another chance.
Game 23: Stranglehold (PS3) about 7 hours
This is pretty much
John Woo Movies: The Game! I had a lot of fun. I will argue till I'm blue in the face that Hard Boiled is one of the best action movies of the 90's so it was awesome to find out that it has a bona fide sequel in the form of a PS3 game. It has everything you would expect- doves, dual-wielding pistols, jumping, strafing, slow-mo kills, and more doves! I was hoping the plot line wouldn't be the typical campy video game cheesiness since John Woo collaborated on this, but it's the same shit you'd find in any other shooter. But then I realized that most John Woo films aren't much better than campy video game plot lines, so I don't have much of a problem with it. Sometimes the jumping/shooting/cover mechanics can be frustrating and the last boss battle is a little aggravating but overall I thought it was money well spent. A bonus is that the collector's edition I have includes the entire Hard Boiled movie, but it's not an HD remaster so that's kinda dumb.
Game 24: Hard Drivin' (Genesis) about 30 minutes
I'm not embarrassed of my game collection, but Hard Drivin' makes me do a little explaining. I was mesmerized by this game back when I was kid. I played it at a friend's house. I know 3D games existed long before it, but nobody really had a computer that could run stuff like that back then. So this was probably my first 3D game ever. Seriously, when I started collecting for Genesis I knew I wanted to get this game immediately. I don't recommend it to anyone, only freaks like me would find something enjoyable in it. The frame rate is seriously like 5 fps and actually gets worse if there's more things on the screen. It also has early 3D polygons and I mean EARLY 3D shit, it's like everything was made out of Duplo blocks. According to the cover, you're supposed to be driving a Ferrari Testarossa, but in the game it looks like a Chrysler K-Car. There's also no sound, which feels odd for a Genesis game.
I've always just played around with the game and had fun because I never understood the objectives. The open world feeling really reminds me of playing GTA games, with a little Gran Tourismo mixed in. But just puttering around the world really helped me become good at it. One friend who remembers the game was actually amazed that I do so well in it. So this time I decided to try to complete the game. It's actually really short, all you do is complete two laps without running out of time. Then when you eventually do run out of time the game will tell you that Phantom Photon challenges you to a race. If you can beat him you won. Then you input your name into the high scores and go back to the title screen. After that you can complete another two laps in the regular game and when you do that it'll tell you that the name you entered into the high score is now challenging you to a race. You beat him [yourself??] and the process repeats itself.
It doesn't sound difficult but the gameplay is very challenging. The hit detection sucks so sometimes it feels unfair when you crash and because of the low frame rate it feels like the game has lag. But it's just such a fun game for me to play and I'm glad I finally figured out how it works. I found out the Saturn got the last game in this series but it was only released in Japan. I want to get my hands on it because it doesn't seem to have the low frame rate problem.
Game 25: F-Zero (SNES) about 10 hours playing the game
This is a pretty good game. I have the PAL version because that's just what they had when I went to a retro shop, but I don't see any difference between this and the NTSC version. I like this game, it can be pretty hard at the later difficulties but I was able to finish the game and overall I'm kinda meh about it. It's a nice time waster because the leagues don't take too long. I wish the racers had more difference between them, but they all feel the same.
Game 26: Super Mario Bros. (NES) 6 minutes, 30 seconds
I've gotten pretty good at speed running this game. I plan to get a lot of practice in it so that whenever I go to game conventions or just hanging out with people I can speed run it on the first try. I'm usually able to get pretty close to 6 minutes on the dot. I love the ending theme, it's so simple but it's so satisfying to get to it, it's like the perfect fairy tale out-tro. The whole game has incredibly simple but amazing music.
Game 27: Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis) 8 hours approx
This is an excellent game. It's not too long and I never had to look at an FAQ, the game is very fair. I love the pixel art and this game has some of the best design of its era or even today. The game isn't too difficult but some boss battles are a little aggravating until you get the hang of them. I was really happy to play this game, I've had it in the backlog for a long time. I also want to try out the sequel but I hear it's not as good. I think it's on the Sonic Genesis Collection, so I'll see how it plays because this first one is fantastic. It's so sad to see all weird smaller titles Konami worked on knowing they've left the business for the most part.