Game 11: Bravely Default - 58:46 (Finished on 3/3)
I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome. I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome. I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome. I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome.
Creativity: Good Lord, is this game creative. I mean, really creative. In some ways I feel this game is more ingenious and original than LBP if it wasn't based on such a tried and tested genre. Not only that, it keeps innovating right up until the last moments of the game. There's gameplay and level mechanics in this game that I haven't seen in anything prior. Its use of the DS4 is unrivalled.
Art Design: Not much more to say than it's absolutely mind-blowing how much the team create out of paper during this adventure. Variety of level types, environments and characters and you hardly see the same "idea" or "pattern" repeated.
Charm: Unbelievable charm. It tries quite hard (like most MM games) but it really nails it sometimes eg. stroking animals in your controller, being able to make clothes and faces for other characters.
Cons
Pacing: I'd say this is the game's biggest flaw. THREE TIMES you're tricked into thinking it's the end of the game before the flow of the game is ripped out under your feet and you start at the beginning of a new area. It's not quirky, it's not endearing and it gets really annoying by the end (even though the latter areas are amazing). I guess it was a way for the devs to fit more things in to the game but it's frustrating.
The first 1/3 of the game: Looking back, the first 1/3 of the game is so dull and holds your hand so much, I almost felt like giving up. This game actually hits its stride and continues to improve from about the half-way point.
Base gameplay: Don't really know how to put this but I think the base gameplay (platforming/combat) was massively dull until about Sogport/The Lab which is when it got a kick up the arse and became brilliant.
Highlights
- The Lab.
- Platforming in the caverns. With all the button prompts etc.
- The level
This is pretty high on my list for things to play in the future, I've played the demo and while it felt hand holdy I enjoyed it and the creativity of the world blew me away. Good to hear the latter half gets even better
My latest completion was Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. This was actually my first Sly game and I enjoyed it a lot. I have the HD trilogy so that will be on my list later this year. I love the sneaking around and pickpocket idea. The camera was a tad wonky in some areas but not enough to annoy me. The characters where all fun and cool, and the music and level design where a great fit. This made me wish I played the OG trilogy back in the PS2 days when they originally came out.
Game #12: Luigi’s Mansion (GC) – 8 hours
Just finished my first game in the month of March. I did not enjoy it very much, mostly because of the horrible controls and repetetive gameplay. However it was nice to have played the game after all.
Game 5 - Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series (X1)
Started out ok enough, but halfway through I was bored out of my mind. It wasn't until the last two episodes that it got interesting.
Game 6 - Until Dawn
Very enjoyable and gorgeous game. Not to mention very likable characters.
Game 11: Bravely Default - 58:46 (Finished on 3/3)
I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome. I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome. I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome. I enjoyed the battle system and the depth it presents at times with the various jobs characters can take on. I also enjoyed the exchanges of cheesy, yet flavorful dialogue during cutscenes. ("When I saw her face amid the flames, I felt a spark. Not the customary running-for-your-life thrill, mind, but a real thundaga-to-the-heart epiphany!") The game's cute graphics are often offset by fairly dark happenings in the story, which was an interesting touch. I think my opinion of Bravely Default is a common one in that, it starts off great, but after a certain point it begins to overstay its welcome.
If the DLC is integrated (Artorias in Dark Souls, the Fallout 3/NV/4 stuff) and released when I play the game I just see it as part of the same game. If it's a separate story (Minerva's Den for Bioshock 2) I count it separately. I also count stuff separately or just count the whole game again as completed instead of beaten (by backloggery rules) if I get DLC after having played through the game to the credits before.
It's a personal "challenge" so it's completely up to you. If not counting it means that you feel like you're wasting time, count it!
Game #44: Freakyforms: Your Creations, Alive! (3DS) - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Freakyforms is a cute enough game, and the character creation system is pretty nice. There is a lot of capability in it to make identifiable figures, but me, I always find myself preferring just making random shit, haha. Unfortunately, the actual game has some problems - the controls are somewhat finicky, especially in the ocean area. Basically, you control your creature for a certain amount of time (150 seconds in the Ocean and 250 seconds in the Meadow) two ways - either you hold the touchscreen on the side of the screen that you want it to move, or you have it jump off of the ground by pulling a circle on the touchscreen into the opposite direction that you want to jump. That works well enough, though the overworld can sometimes get in the way. Also, having too big of creatures or too small of creatures can make it difficult to explore the area, which is a shame. Even then though, the actual game is decent enough to get a pass for that. If you enjoy creation tools, it's probably worth a glance. Another nice feature of the game is that you can scan QR codes to add other players' creatures to your game.
Game #00: Donkey Kong Land (GB) - ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
And to contrast the previous entry, here is a game so bereft of creativity it makes me damned angry. And I'll admit it, I didn't beat this game, but I sure as hell finished it - deleted it off of my 3DS and never looked back. There's just so many problems with this game that I don't know where to start. Firstly, the game has really bad momentum, often feeling really dodgy and sloppy. I will definitely say that I died quite a few times, but so often it felt like I was just getting fucked by bad game design. I could list them to you, but the most egregious one - and the one that made me ragequit - was shooting out of a cannon and landing right in the jaws of an off-screen Klaptrap. Ultimately, this game is representative of everything that I hate about some Game Boy games. Games like Donkey Kong Land simply do not at all take into account the limitations of the medium and try to make as close a game to the console iteration as it can possibly be. This, of course, usually leads to disaster. Even games with such a problem like Super Mario Land at least have some consideration - making Koopa Troopas explode instead of being kickable because the latter wasn't doable, or that the fireball has completely different properties - it felt like they slapped this together and didn't bother to do QA for it. I feel like giving it a 3 out of 10 is a bit extreme, but ultimately, I did not find a single redeeming quality besides being good-looking (which ultimately doesn't matter for a GB game). At best, at times, the game wasn't annoying me. A game that is neutral at best may as well not even exist.
Also, the second level is a fucking ice level, what were they even thinking? And on the Game Boy, not less!?
Game #45: Gunman Clive (3DS) - ★★★★★★★★★☆
Gunman Clive is a nice, solid, cheap game for the 3DS - like Aura-Aura Climber, there really is no excuse to not buy this game. You can play as a man or a woman (at least at the start) - I only ever played as the woman so I don't know if they have different properties, but I did note that the woman appeared to have a Peach-like hover ability. It has you traversing Mega Man-like levels while shooting your way through enemies. It's very simple but very fun. As you can see in the screenshot, the visuals have this nice "crudely drawn" style to them, which really helps to set it apart. I also strongly recommend the sequel, which I haven't beaten (yet).
Game #46: Kersploosh! (3DS) - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Kersploosh! is a bit of a different beast. In it, you play as a small object (ranging from a rock to a gem to a wooden fish) that must fall down a well, avoiding obstacles along the way (such as pizza). Each object has different stats, including HP, speed, and boost power, and the lower the HP of an object typically means that it can get better times in the drops. It is a decent enough concept, but ultimately, it falls flat due to some dodgy elements, short game length, and lack of variation. Its final level didn't really feel "final" at all - perhaps it would if I was using the "only one HP" object, but that just sounds like it would be miserable. I'd recommend it if you're truly that curious, but barely even then.
I'm feeling Poe's Law from this, but I was literally bored when I posted that, seconds after beating the game.
As a point'n'click released in '13, I expected it to not be that clunky and slow-paced. Some puzzles were maddeningly obtuse, and the ending was... well, the sequel will definitely not be "noir".
Game #47: Game & Watch Gallery (GB) - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
A good game that's a little difficult to properly assess. On one hand, it's very limited - only four games (eight if you count Classic/Modern separately), featuring only Fire, Manhole, Octopus, and Oil Panic. As far as the Modern incarnations go, there's really no reason to be playing these versions if you're looking for the definitive versions. In a vacuum however, disregarding its aging and the like, it's a pretty good game with some fun stuff included. I'm going to do an individual assessment of each game included.
1. Manhole (Modern) - Probably my second favourite of the collection, and is a really fun game in its own right. You have to manage to keep four manhole covers from falling into the sewer, thus putting passing Toads, Marios, and DK Jrs at risk of falling in. It's a really fun management game.
2. Manhole (Classic) - Basically the same premise, only it feels a lot more strict and a lot less fun as a result.
3. Fire (Modern) - My favourite of the pack, definitely. It gets really hectic, where you have three spots that you can stand in where you must bounce people jumping out of a burning castle into a waiting ambulance. There are three classes - Toad, DK Jr., and Yoshi, each with different weight properties that makes it really fun and interesting to manage.
4. Fire (Classic) - Unlike Manhole, Fire is a great game in either version. The Classic version is a lot simpler and more archaic, but it's not so strict as the Manhole game is in terms of when you must intercept it. It's also really hypnotic!
5. Octopus (Modern) - Octopus is a fun game that stands apart from the others. In this game, the objective is to score treasure from below an octopus while trying to dodge its tentacles. It's a really interesting, standout game because it has cool venues to try and maximize your profits before returning to the surface; however, the more you pick up at any one time, the slower you are.
6. Octopus (Classic) - Octopus is okay in Classic, but there's barely any reason to play it over the Modern version.
7. Oil Panic (Modern) - Oil Panic is the odd one out. It's not a bad game, but it just feels a lot less interesting. Basically, you're trying to catch oil in one of two buckets (each able to hold three drops of oil at one time), and empty it outside into Yoshi's mouth (??) before it overflows. It just doesn't feel like it has the congruity of the other games.
8. Oil Panic (Classic) - Basically, all the same complaints plus all of the problems with the older versions.
I'm feeling Poe's Law from this, but I was literally bored when I posted that, seconds after beating the game.
As a point'n'click released in '13, I expected it to not be that clunky and slow-paced. Some puzzles were maddeningly obtuse, and the ending was... well, the sequel will definitely not be "noir".
Hey, just appreciating someone giving an appropriate level of assessment of a game. Not too good to praise, not too bad to gripe about. Entirely "whatever."
I loved the original campaign, and Plague of Shadows is just as good if not better. It starts out a lot more difficult while you get the hang of the weird bomb jumping, and the changes and different bosses added as well as the new hub areas and story elements were great. Plus, Mona is best girl. Can't wait for King Knight and Specter Knight's campaigns.
--
I know this one is DLC, but when it's as long as the base game, I feel like counting it is fine.
Game 17: | Broken Age | - | March 3 | - | 8 hours |
I went in with very low expectations since I've seen people bash this game quite a lot. I totally loved it. Sure, it had some horrible puzzles but I generally hate P&C puzzles anyway and don't mind using guides for these types of games. I mostly play them for the dialogue or story and this game was pretty much made just for me in that regard. Fun characters, lovely VAs and just my type of humour. It also looks so amazing. A joy to play... with a guide. I also did the "speedrun" after I played through it and that wasn't fun at all. It removes pretty much everything that is good about the game. A speedrun cheevo in a game like this is the worst idea ever.
Game 18: | Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale | - | March 4 | - | 4 hours |
Had no idea what this game even was. I got this and a couple of the other guild games based on a friend's recommendation, so going in without a single clue was interesting. It started off really good but the story and dialogue wasn't as fun by the last third or so. It's cute, looks great and the card battles were suprisingly fun.
Game #48: Mario's Picross - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Honestly, the rating was a token one because it's not the game's fault that I found it so flawed. Back in the day this game was surely as good as any Picross game; however, compared to modern games, it has severe quality of life issues. The features it lacks include (this will probably only make sense for people who play Picross games, haha):
1. The ability to see which numbers have been filled in completely
2. The ability to draw a line of X's across to fill in spots where there isn't a part of the image and be able to cross over cleared spots without erasing them
3. A lack of touchscreen controls (obviously)
Ultimately, I'm so used to the modern Picross games that I just can't have quite as much fun with the experience as I could have if I played this game back in the day. Anyway, it's a decent game if you've never played a Picross game before, as its flaws are only for fans really.
Finished in one sitting. It's quite a good and not to hard puzzle game where you play as a spy. Focus is on moving/jumping around, taking out guards and hacking doors and such. I'd recommend it, but only for 2-3 bucks on a Steamsale. Don't get me wrong. It was good fun, but it's just very simple and short and I see no replay value at all tbh.
Game #51: Mario's Picross - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Honestly, the rating was a token one because it's not the game's fault that I found it so flawed. Back in the day this game was surely as good as any Picross game; however, compared to modern games, it has severe quality of life issues. The features it lacks include (this will probably only make sense for people who play Picross games, haha):
1. The ability to see which numbers have been filled in completely
2. The ability to draw a line of X's across to fill in spots where there isn't a part of the image and be able to cross over cleared spots without erasing them
3. A lack of touchscreen controls (obviously)
Ultimately, I'm so used to the modern Picross games that I just can't have quite as much fun with the experience as I could have if I played this game back in the day. Anyway, it's a decent game if you've never played a Picross game before, as its flaws are only for fans really.
This game was my introduction to Picross, and I adored it, but switching to Pokemon Picross was this massive eye opening experience. There's little quality of life things that I never would have imagined while playing this one.
Game #1: Digimon Cyber Sleuth - 109 hours 28 minutes[Complete]
This game really shocked me with how good it turned out. It's not that I expected it to be bad because I obviously was enjoying it quite a bit when I first started playing but the way the story picks up halfway through, the gorgeous music that keeps getting better as you continue, the amount of available digimon and party space giving me so many options put this game as one of my favorites and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested, especially if you're a Persona fan.
I was attempting the platinum but it's becoming quite time consuming to get the last 40 medals in the game for it so I'm happy with 95% trophy completion and owning all 242 digimon. I'm rating this game a 9/10.
Game #3: SOMA [Complete]
I was playing this with a group of friends so finding a time when we could finish it was limited to when all of us were free. We've had this on halt for months now but thankfully we were able to finish last week and my thoughts on this game is that it's fantastic. I've posted already in the SOMA OT about the game so I'll shorten it here.
The games horror is incredibly well done. It's not just jump scares or monster chases that produce the frightening parts of the game. No, it's the philosophical aspects that make you think and question.
I really loved this game and it's one of my favorite horror games. I would recommend this to fans of the genre.
Game #2: The Legend Of Zelda: Triforce Heroes - [In Progress]
Progress is slow with this but now with Cyber Sleuth complete I'm going to finish this game. I was originally trying to beat this with two friends but that would take far too long.
After Tri Force I'm planning to start Fire Emblem Fates.
Game 9: Lego City Undercover - March 7th
Being burnt out on open world games and Lego games, I did the only sensible thing and played an open world Lego game. And, surprisingly, I really enjoyed it, to the point where I spent nearly 42 hours getting 100%. It's just a relaxing, fun, virtually consequence-free game that was just what I needed at the moment.
Game #10: Killer is Dead (X360) - 09:01 h - 28/02/2016
I was little disappointed. I like Suda51 games, like NMH, SotD, but KiD in my opinion is very rough. Some missions and boss fights are good, others great, but some boring and repetitive. Average game.
Game #11: Driveclub - DLC Evolution (PS4) - 03:37 h - 29/02/2016
Next DLC to DC, which I beat this year. I think that one was more difficult, than Sakura, but maybe it's only my imagination. Still great racing game.
Game #12: Uncharted (PS3) - 08:16 h - 29/02/2016
Yes! Before incoming U4, I've decided to beat trilogy on PS3, again. It was my fifth playthrough and still...love it. 9 years old game, but looks good. Very good.
Game #13: Uncharted 2 (PS3) - 12:27 h - 03/03/2016
Amazing, wonderful, impossible title. Funny (it was my second time), but this time I enjoyed it much more, than almost 7 years ago on Day1. Brillant and still looking gorgeous. Elena <3.
Game 10: Fire Emblem fates Birthright (3DS) - 27 Hours
I feel similar to how I feel about Awakening with this entry, overall the game is fantastic and I can't wait to buy Conquest and Revelations to get through them to see and I actually want to see the over arching narrative, but I dislike the goofy tone in most of the supports and even sometimes in the main game.
Game 5: Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls -- PS4 -- 40~ hours? -- Beat on 2/27/2016
Bought this last April. My brother, in-law and I played it to Chapter 2, but it was dropped shortly thereafter. I think I can probably attribute the reason to the fact that Desert levels suck in any game ever. But I digress.
We picked it up again around New Year with new characters. Perhaps the character switch up was all that we needed, because this time the game was played all the way through to the end.
We played a lot of Dungeon Defenders (a Tower Defense/Loot Game hybrid) when it released. A lot. So while none of us ever actually played a Diablo game until RoS, the loot genre wasn't entirely new. Which probably works for the better, because there is a lot of loot in this game. Without the mentality gained from previous games that 99% is trash, I can only imagine how long sorting things out would take.
Which brings me to the first thing I have to say about the gameplay. The menu system SUCKS for local multiplayer. When you have three players that want to fiddle with abilities and different builds, the global pause that comes alongside one person's opening of the menu gets to be too much. Especially after end of chapter boss battles when multiple rare items are dropped. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say thirty minutes went towards menus after each big boss. It would have been a much smoother experience if a.) each person was able to look through menus when the game was paused or b.) the game kept moving for the other players. I don't want to let the negative overshadow the good, but I seriously can't say how much I hated the blasted pause menu.
Gameplay is fun. It's repetitive. It's grindy. It's Skinner Box. It's fun. With lots of different abilities, combos, and gear that will further break abilities down into new things altogether, it's not hard to spend countless hours killing things to get loot that will let you kill things faster. Sounds like horrible game design, but I swear it really is fun if you find a liking to the gameplay loop. My character was a Crusader who used abilities to decrease the resource cost and increase attack speed of everything else on him, which allowed him to spam large AoE shouts. But just hours before then, my entire Modus Operandi was throwing Hammers and summoning spirit partners. It's really cool being able to change up your entire gameplay by changing out just one or two skills.
The game is never hard unless you intentionally jack the difficulty way up. There's a lot of micro-management to keep you involved, but it's not difficult. I especially liked the ability to change game difficulty up or down in-game by one notch (out of... 13?). We would keep it as high as possible, but if things were too tanky, taking too long to kill (aka not being fun to spend time on) we'd bump it down one until some better gear was obtained so we had at least one guy that could clear hordes out faster. Then we'd put it back up.
I liked the music in the game. Mostly ambient, but with a few stand-out tracks.
As is standard place in Blizzard games, there's actually a lot of world-building. Though we didn't really pay attention to any of it. Not to say it's bad, but our focus was simply on the gameplay loop instead. Nonetheless, if you like some story in your games, Diablo 3 shouldn't really disappoint.
Partially due to the difficulty (read: time spent clearing hordes), but mostly due to the fun of others, I can't say the game is very fun to play alone. Not for me, anyways. And the online is unfortunately riddled with hackers who can skyrocket your level up hundreds of hours in a minute. So, while I think Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls was a fun game to play through, I can't bring myself to suggest it to anyone who plans on playing alone. With friends, though? Most definitely!
Its juice and jam time guys, after taking a long ass break of doing nothing but work and sleep, i'm gonna try to get back on track. Starting off I finished NUNS 4 a while back last month. The story mode was wonderful and I especially enjoyed the final battle in the game. I am a little disappointed by the lack of more cinematic cutscenes compared to NUNS 3 but its alright. The game is as fun as always with some new added perks.
Pick it up if you want to finish the Naruto series, or if you just want a fun fighter.
Now this game is one to take out a dictionary for. A pretty fun small game to play when you have the time. Its more enjoyable in bursts then a full sit down and play session. Pick it up when it hits a sale. However, if you aren't the type of guy who likes a good word game, I recommend picking something else to play.
Original List
Dun care what anyone says, the GBA version of Lunar is still fun to me! Some things may have been cut or changed altogether but its still pretty good anyhow!
Game 08: Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth
PS4 - 118 hours - Beaten 08/03/16 - ★★★★
There we go, another game that ate up nearly an entire month, but I have no regrets. Game was super fun and it rekindled my love of Digimon seeing I've ignored the franchise since I was a kid. Started rewatching the anime as well and am almost done with season 1.
Anyway, the game is really a really cool SMT-lite, raising Digimon is fun and satisfying and you can do it super quick with the right setup. Story was nothing to write home about but it got the job done and provided enough motivation. Went all the way to the platinum trophy and 242/242 Digimon.
Biggest disappointment is the shit-tier localisation, they clearly did not spend much money on it and some parts are almost incomprehensible, so here's hoping that Next Order gets a better one seeing this seems to have sold well.
Game #17 - Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon [3DS]
Time Played: ~12 hours
This is a game I was really, really excited to play. Even if I was very late to the party. I loved the first one, and being my first Gamecube game certainly helped. I think what I wanted was more of the same, and this didn't quite scratch that itch. The stage based setup with multiple mansions is a really neat setup, but most of them overstay their welcome and get you tracking through the same areas a few too many times, but, and here's my hypocrisy, I preferred tracking through the same big mansion in the original. None of these mansions are big and detailed enough to leave me wanting to get intimately familiar with the layouts. They all felt a little too throwaway, and I never felt confident in any one area before being tossed into a completely new zone.
The setup with the ghosts is much more repetitive, and there's very little variety in their designs. The original game had tons of unique ghosts with puzzle rooms dedicated to making them vulnerable. There's a couple here, and most side objectives just reward you with some extra cash toward your vacuum upgrades.
But the gameplay loop is fun, the visuals are charming as all hell, and every corner is full of character. I really hope they make more in this series. The potential is insane, and this is by far my favorite version of any Mario character.
GAME #3: Star Wars Battlefront - 08/02/2016 - [PS4]
I always feel a bit iffy including multiplayer only games on completion lists, but I think I have had my feel of EA's Star Wars Battlefront. The presentation is top notch and, whipped into Star Wars fever the likes of which I have not felt since 1999, I opted to play this and little else throughout the beginning of the year (severely hampering my progress in this thread, as it happens). Once the newness of that presentation wears off, however, you are left with a game that has very little substance to it and ultimately feels repetitive. This may change with the upcoming DLC, which will inevitable lure me back - I just hope future blockbuster Star Wars games have a bit more meat on the bones to compliment the incredible graphics and sound design.
GAME #4: Paper Mario: Sticker Star - 15/02/2016 - [3DS]
So this may be an unpopular opinion, but I actually really like Sticker Star. I like the level design and the battle system and the music. Granted, I have not played any other Paper Mario games nor have I played Super Mario RPG - doing so might make me look back on this negatively in the future. The only thing that irritated me about the game were the obtuse boss battles which gave you very few clues in figuring out the gimmick and usually resulted in me lobbing thing stickers until I brute forced my way through. Or maybe I wasn't being observant enough, who knows
GAME #5: Ultimate NES Remix - 19/02/2016 - [3DS]
I don't really know what to say about this, I have no strong feelings regarding it either way. It was a pretty fun mishmash of Nintendo NES games split up into bite sized chunks. It would have been pretty cool if it utilised longer games - play Metroid as Link! - or something but this game is not that. I got it very cheap, so no complaints really.
GAME #6: Pokemon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition - 07/03/2016 - [GBC via 3DS Virtual Console]
So the long awaited release of the Gen 1 Pokemon games on Virtual Console finally happened and I snapped up Yellow as soon as it was available. I originally played through Blue as a kid and ran through Red as a teenager so it made sense to pick up the third version for something slightly different. However, I have buyer's remorse. Pokemon availability is not as good as in the original games and the sprite work leaves a lot to be desired. There is something oddly surreal about the original Red and Blue sprites (I know Green was the real "original") and these were lost in this release. However, I still had a blast. The game has not aged nearly as badly as some would have you believe. The pacing is still excellent, the chip tunes are as good as my memory said they were and the comparative open world and arsehole rival took me back to better times. PC / Inventory management is still a pain in the arse though. Sod it, I might get Blue now anyway.
12. Tearaway Unfolded (PS4) - 6th March - approx. 10 hours, a single playthrough with 37% trophies
I first played this on Vita when it came out and really loved it, but I didn't quite enjoy it so much this time around. It's still a really great game, but I feel like the pacing needed some work (the beginning and third quarter really drag on), and I didn't feel quite so immersed by not having a PS4 camera and seeing my stupid grinning mush in the sun every time - I felt like the brilliant use of all the Vita's hardware features really added to it first time around. Anyway, it's still a really great and thoroughly charming game, with amazing visuals and a really nice papercraft theme that just felt like it didn't quite hit the highs of its Vita big brother. 8/10
I think I'll give this a go. I'm already playing as much as I can and already keeping track of what I played, so why the heck not. I won't be trying too desperately to hit the 52 mark specifically though; last year I ended up finishing 30+ games, but I also sunk countless hours into "endless" games like Elite: Dangerous and SWTOR. If I feel like doing so again, I'm not going to stop myself just for the sake of this challenge.
So far since year start, I've completed 14 games.
#1
The Novelist
PC (Steam)
Completed: January 09, 2016
Playtime: 3h 42m
A short narrative-focused indie game where choices/compromises you make help shape the future of a small family through a sequence of "chapters". While it's not anything special, I mostly enjoyed it for what it is; probably a good thing the game's not too long, as it was getting too repetitive towards the end.
#2
Grow Home
PlayStation 4
Completed: January 15, 2016
Playtime: 5h 48m
A nice-looking 3d puzzle-platformer with an interesting concept of growing and climbing the huge tree towards the skies, and with sometimes annoying controls. Or, rather, the annoying inertia effect that caused me to unintenionally run off the ledge and fall off so many times. I enjoyed my time with it, but not enough to chase after the extra goals it throws at you in the end.
#3
Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
PlayStation Vita
Completed: January 17, 2016
Playtime: 9h 34m
Second AC game I've completed after playing the original Assassin's Creed a long time ago. Also the first game I've played on my Vita. Gameplay-wise, it's very similar to the original, but with less mission and location variety. The story follows up on Altair's exploits after the first game, and I enjoyed discovering what little bits there are. Unfortunately, I found myself struggling with Vita controls for most of my time with the game. They chose to keep the entire moveset from the original, and it just seemed overly complicated on the handheld; I kept pressing wrong buttons at the worst times. A few time-based challenges were very annoying to beat because of that. In the end, I'm glad I played it if only for the story bits, but I'm also glad it's over.
#4
Demon's Souls
PlayStation 3
Completed: January 30, 2016
Playtime: 48h 43m
Amazing game which made the Souls games finally "click" for me. I was wary of playing this at first after giving up on Dark Souls last year, but it turns out that upgrading your weapons, not wasting character points on useless stats and playing carefully to your build's strengths actually is a good idea and makes for a much more enjoyable experience in these games. In short, I loved it
(except that Maneaters boss fight. Man, fuck Maneaters. Fuck them hard.)
and would like to eventually come back to it to do NG+ and maybe try another build (I played pure STR melee this time).
#5
Kirakira
PC
Completed: February 03, 2016
Playtime: 48h 47m
An adult visual novel with a surprising amount of story, numerous choices to make and routes to follow. Liked playing through all girls' stories (especially Chie's). Didn't like the overabundance of stupid crossdressing jokes. The protagonist as usual is pretty dumb, ranging from mildly annoying to "WTF. Seriously? Did that just happen?" moments depending on which girl's route you pick. If you're into the genre, I recommend checking this game out.
#6
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
PC (GoG)
Completed: February 06, 2016
Playtime: 9h 56m
Felt like playing a classic point&click adventure game and remembered I had picked this one up earlier on a sale. It was a solid game for its age, I feel like I'd enjoy it a lot more if I was into Indiana Jones at all.
#7
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
PC (Steam)
Completed: February 13, 2016
Playtime: 62h 36m
My first foray into Souls games last year didn't go well - I started with Dark Souls and ended up ragequitting on it after dying like 20+ times to S&O. I remember loving the level and monster design, and the combat/equipment system where nearly every weapon feels unique and useful in some respect. I also remember some things were really frustrating back then like having to go through the same route and same enemies again and again after dying to a boss.
It's still kind of frustrating, I'm just dying less now I guess. I wish these games would respect my time a bit more.
After finishing Demon's Souls (see above), however, I was itching for more of the same and decided to have another go at this game. Again, it's amazing how much easier upgrading your weapons and keeping your equipment and level-ups relevant to your build makes it. This playthrough was with as tankiest a character as I could make. Endgame result: tons of END, tons of STR, full Havel's set with tower shield and greataxe +15. Clumsiest roll of course, but it made surprisingly little difference, and I actually had a pretty easy time with most of the late game bosses. Finished everything in the game, loved it. Will come back eventually to do NG+ and a different build.
#8
Dear Esther
PC (Steam)
Completed: February 14, 2016
Playtime: 2h 12m
I knew in advance from impressions what kind of game this was, so the lackluster and linear "gameplay" didn't bother me much. Kind of enjoyed it, not in the least due to great visuals and soundtrack along the way. The narrative, however, seemed too obscure and confusing. I kind of lost track of who's who between various names after a while, and, after completing the game, am still not sure
who Esther was for the protagonist (Wife/lover? Daughter?), or who the protagonist was among all the names.
. The lack of in-game journal or any kind of tool to help keep track of things didn't help.
#9
Life Is Strange (all episodes)
PC (Steam)
Completed: February 17, 2016
Playtime: 15h 15m
One of the things I enjoy most about creative/narrative experiences of any kind (be it video games, books or movies) is when they succeed in making me genuinely care about their characters. As such, Life is Strange was an amazing game for me. Playing it was like taking an emotional rollercoaster of a journey, feeling joy and anger, hope and despair, happiness and pain alongside Max and Chloe. It's the kind of game I wish I could have the ability to play again for the first time after erasing my memory. Of course, there were a number of flaws I could list or things I would love to see implemented differently:
for Warren to be a worthwhile alternative to Chloe instead of barely having any screen time at all; for an ending not to feel as ... forced and unfair, no matter the ultimate choice; for the time-travel mechanics involved to maintain consistency throughout the story and respect the rules established earlier instead of breaking them for greater dramatic effect (yes, it's about the ending again)
and so on. But in the end, this was the kind of experience (well, one of them at least) I seek when spending so much of my time playing games. Great game, maybe I'll come back to revisit it one day.
#10
Gone Home
PC (Steam)
Completed: February 19, 2016
Playtime: 2h 18m
Nice sweet short story, where you gradually discover (through found letters and notes) what has been happening in the family before you arrived. It was interesting and somewhat educational, but that's about it.
#11
Portal
PC (Steam)
Completed: February 22, 2016
Playtime: 3h 32m
1st-person puzzler. Ended up being shorter and ... less grandiose, I guess, than I expected from what I knew about it. Still, it's a good puzzle game with an interesting core mechanic based on the variety of things/interactions between the two types of portals you can spawn.
#12
Tex Murphy: Mean Streets
PC (GoG)
Completed: February 25, 2016
Playtime: 13h 03m
This game surpised me - I came in blind, knowing just that it's an old classic adventure game, and expected it'd be of classic point & click variety. Instead I got a keyboard-controlled game (read the digital manual before firing it up, folks), where I play as a private detective solving a murder mystery, and I actually have to TAKE NOTES. As, in a real notebook. With a real pen. You need to write down all kinds of info - names, navigation codes (addresses where you can travel to talk to people), conversation topics, passcodes. There's no in-game journal otherwise to keep track of all these things, and if you don't keep track of them, there's no progressing through the game, since you don't just pick conversation topics or destinations from a list - you have to type them in with the keyboard. So this was actually refreshing and different type of adventure game, and I found to my surprise I quite enjoyed it. I should note it's fairly easy to get stuck if you miss something, so my advice would be to explore each "room" location (where you can move) as thoroughly as possible. The story was interesting, and actually had me guessing wrong who the main bad guy was until the end. Among the downsides: the gunfight mini-game was mildly annoying; the "speeder" car you're flying between locations is way too slow; the CPU speed setting of the DosBox config for this game appears to be too slow - the game "stutters" occasionally when moving, and one particular timing-based puzzle near the end of the game I could only barely clear due to that after many attempts.
#13
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
PC (GoG)
Completed: March 06, 2016
Playtime: 30h 40m
Very atmospheric and unique post-apocalyptic shooter from the pre-open-world era, but with pseudo open-world interconnected levels. Features some of the most unique and terrifying "monster" types I've ever seen in a shooter game.
The first time you fight a Controller is not something you forget. Or that group of Poltergeists. Or whatever that flying-buzzing-fire-spewing thing was. So good.
. It has perhaps better post-apocalypse atmosphere than any of the Bethesda's Fallouts. The atmosphere is sspecially great in the bits where you dive underground to explore some old radioactive bunker or research station - in those moments the game turns into suspence/horror kind of experience. The story is good enough for a shooter, and even features 3 different endings (around 7 if you count all the little variations). I got the best "true" ending on first try, it's not hard if you don't try to skip important missions and don't rush to the finish without thinking. One negative I could mention is the annoyingly realistic inventory weight system, with strict limits on how much you can carry at once without getting overburdened (there are so many different weapons in this game, and I too often found myself in a situation where I'm already at my carry limit and then a new cool-looking gun drops...).
#14
The 3rd Birthday
PlayStation Vita (PS TV)
Completed: March 07, 2016
Playtime: 15h 35m
A solid 3rd-person action/shooter with light RPG elements, great production values (for a PSP game), great voice-acting and cinematic sequences (for ANY kind of game, really), and ... a sad confusing mess of a story. Having played both Parasite Eve games previously, it's also a terrible sequel, in how nearly all aspects of its gameplay and story seem inferior to the previous entries. Having finished it just yesterday, I could elaborate a lot more (still feel a bit sad about how convoluted and flawed the story ended up), but there's not much point.
Currently playing:
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (PC)
Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PlayStation)
Road Not Taken (PlayStation 4)
Game 19: Orcs must die 2
Fun little indie game, a mix of Tower Defense and (a very simple) Hack'n'Slay. Not very deep, but certainly entertaining in coop.
#13
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
PC (GoG)
Completed: March 06, 2016
Playtime: 30h 40m
Very atmospheric and unique post-apocalyptic shooter from the pre-open-world era, but with pseudo open-world interconnected levels. Features some of the most unique and terrifying "monster" types I've ever seen in a shooter game.
The first time you fight a Controller is not something you forget. Or that group of Poltergeists. Or whatever that flying-buzzing-fire-spewing thing was. So good.
. It has perhaps better post-apocalypse atmosphere than any of the Bethesda's Fallouts. The atmosphere is sspecially great in the bits where you dive underground to explore some old radioactive bunker or research station - in those moments the game turns into suspence/horror kind of experience. The story is good enough for a shooter, and even features 3 different endings (around 7 if you count all the little variations). I got the best "true" ending on first try, it's not hard if you don't try to skip important missions and don't rush to the finish without thinking. One negative I could mention is the annoyingly realistic inventory weight system, with strict limits on how much you can carry at once without getting overburdened (there are so many different weapons in this game, and I too often found myself in a situation where I'm already at my carry limit and then a new cool-looking gun drops...).
Always enjoy seeing someone react positively to STALKER. I would say there's no "perhaps" in regards to having a better atmosphere than Fallout, STALKER wipes the floor with those games. And it's too late now but, the game is very mod-friendly you could probably get rid of encumbrance with little hassle. Check out Call of Pripyat! A little more open-world and generally a slightly more refined experience. Great, great games.
GAME #4: Paper Mario: Sticker Star - 15/02/2016 - [3DS]
So this may be an unpopular opinion, but I actually really like Sticker Star. I like the level design and the battle system and the music. Granted, I have not played any other Paper Mario games nor have I played Super Mario RPG - doing so might make me look back on this negatively in the future. The only thing that irritated me about the game were the obtuse boss battles which gave you very few clues in figuring out the gimmick and usually resulted in me lobbing thing stickers until I brute forced my way through. Or maybe I wasn't being observant enough, who knows
I mean, I've read the criticisms regarding a watered down battle system and lack of original characters and the GC game's sense of humour. I can understand that those criticisms would make a new game in the series disappointing to the fan base. But I didn't have that frame of reference when playing through it - I'm even fairly excited for Colour Splash though it has been billed as "Sticker Star 2" from the little we have seen.
Game 09: Rhythm Tengoku
GBA - ~10 hours - Beaten 09/03/16 - ★★★★
Had a couple hiccups starting this game, but once I got it going it was bliss. This is one of my favourite franchises right now, and each game is fantastic.
I've played the other two games already, and I'm not sure if it's just age, but this one felt the weakest. It didn't have as good music, or as fun games (though it had a few I loved, Night Walk is the best), but it gets a free pass for creating this franchise.
All ready for Megamix now!
It's basically more Picross e, but with more 20x15 puzzles than usual (a great thing!) and a special power bar added. Some of the powers take the form of auto-corrects and hints from the other e games, which are missing otherwise. Other powers reveal squares in certain patterns or slow or stop the timer. Ordinarilly I would completely ignore something like that, as it sort of ruins the purity of a Picross but I ended up using these powers a lot. The game has 4 missions per level with the first always being a time limit and the last being to complete the other 3 missions in the same attempt. The final two missions vary between limitations and mandates on Pokemon or powers used. The missions are arguably just busy work but by revealing random sections of the puzzle you completely change the path to the solution which I found engaging enough.
So... the business model... each area, spare power slot, as well as a subset of puzzles and the entire Mega Picross section are locked behind in-game currency paywalls. The paywalls are enormous and there's a ton of them. The game also doesn't mention that the Alt-Word (Mega Picross) missions don't give rewards, so unlocking that section is a waste of currency. Luckily you can buy in-game currency for a nominal fee!
But I found the worst part about the microtransactions isn't that they're too expensive, some may argue that they (and they probably are) are but the way I played I found that I got my money's worth. The problem is that the game flow and mission system completely breaks down if you spend the wrong amount. Spend too little and you will be doing nothing but the 5 7x7 daily training puzzles for weeks at a time before progressing. Spend too much and the rewards the game gives you for completing missions and achievements become completely pointless because you receive infinite currency.
Oh and I almost completely forgot, there's a really annoying energy meter. It goes off of number of squares filled which means that it doesn't nicely divide into puzzles and it means that puzzles will be randomly more expensive than others. I forgot because it was the first thing I got rid of by upgrading it to unlimited. Fuck the energy meter. Once you get past all the bullshit this game throws at you and just pay it there's a solid entry in the Picross e series here, but I wish it was just a $20-30 game upfront. Don't be fooled this isn't the friendly gateway into Picross it presents itself as, play Picross e6 first.
Its hard to figure out where to even start with this game. For one, I spent almost 200 hours and almost 3 months playing it. On the other it has a lot of glaring issues I cant really overlook, and many of them are only relevant in the early game which is all but a distant memory. So I guess all I can do is give it a shot and hope I dont miss anything.
First up. Mira is amazing. Each continent has a ton of unique locations to see, and while most of them arent very varied in aesthetics, Noctilum is a work of art. I would however have liked some tweaks to the exploration mechanics. When you get to a new area it always feels like someone else has already explored it before you, which can detract from the experience somewhat.
Character customisation is a little lacking in some areas, but I loved that there was a lot of available voice actors and they were all listed by name. Gear is varied in a sort of dungeon crawl style, with lots of worthless loot apart from the few great pieces with the right rarities and passive bonuses. Said passive bonuses can be upgraded a limited number of times total per gear, and increased with by slotting in augments. Theres a huge number of augments which you a lot of room to craft (literally) a stat spread you want. What I also love about the gear system is that if you desire you can set a second set of gear, which is what you appear to be wearing in-game. It amuses me that weve come full circle at this point from wanting different gear to affect in-game appearance to needing a separate section of the menu to get back to a consistent outfit of your choosing. I ended up wearing a relatively low level of set of green and gold body armour for the entire game, and painted my Skell to match.
I really enjoyed the combat system, which is like MMO hotbar combat with a few extra systems mixed in. Your abilities are tied to weapon types and unlocked as your class levels up, and when you reach the maximum level of each path in the class tree that classs melee and ranged weapon are unlocked for use for all classes. There are bonuses to accuracy and crit chance when above/below or behind enemies, and knocking enemies down to do more damage generally requires comboing abilities with a party member. I like the Soul Voice system, which prompts party members to use certain kinds of attacks to heal and receive buffs when you meet certain criteria. Each enemy also has a number of appendages (armour plating, weak points, limbs) with their own HP and resistances. Its very satisfying to systematically carve up and enemy to weaken it and disable its attacks, though the appendage targeting system is dodgy. My main problem with the ground combat system is that most of these features are only explained in the electronic manual, and even then some basic things are best learnt from an FAQ.
Skell combat functions differently, with your abilities stemming from equipped gear instead of your class levels and chosen weapon types. There are significantly fewer abilities and I never felt that there was enough variety to create interesting builds like my ground build which focused on changing stances between high damage/low defence and high defence/low damage as needed, while maintaining debuffs to my main damage type on the enemy. In Skells most builds boil downs to various sequences of abilities that do damage, which when coupled with a significantly reduced number of targetable enemy appendages when in Skells leads to less satisfying combat overall.
By endgame the most important party of fighting large monsters on foot is chaining together abilities during Overdrive (your super mode) to build up enough meter to refresh Overdrive before it expires and keep your combo going. At max combo you do 10x damage and your abilities all charge essentially instantly turning you into a one person army.
The story is... serviceable at best theres some intrigue that doesnt pay off and some characters to get attached to if you want. My main problem with it is that its often so incongruent with the gameplay that it detracts from the experience. Why does the game assume that I dont have a Skell until the very end? Why does this cutscene act all amazed that we have to go somewhere I went 20 hours ago? The answer is usually because it wasnt mandatory until now, and its a problem a lot of JRPGs have but I just dont think it works here. Similarly you get so overpowered that story bosses cease to be threatening the second you find out that their level, no matter how big they are.
I also hated the mission structure. Basic Missions are terrible, MMO level fetch quests all around and the systems in place make them worse (Ill get to this in the next paragraph). Affinity missions, which are the meat of the characters and better but still not fantastic quests are way too hard to unlock. Until the post-game you need to use people in your party for tens of hours to get their affinity high enough to unlock them, and there are a lot of characters to switch in and out.
So the material drops... The game has a compendium of enemies and their associated drops, but theres no way to record where those enemies are found or which appendages drop which items. Similarly each of the 4 continents has an associated list of materials lying around, which change per area but the game will never tell you where they are. Good luck finding them without a guide.
In short: When it works, it really works, but it hardly ever works unless youre just wandering around without a care in the world.
Some friends of mine finally dragged me into their PoE guild with the release of the latest expansion and Ive got to say I had a lot of fun with it. Its a free-to-play game in the vein of Diablo or Torchlight and as far as I can tell its a solid entry in the genre.
My characters build was very passive and low maintenance, basically requiring me to left click the enemies and run away to heal as required, but theres a lot of variation in the aesthetics that keeps things from getting boring. I really liked that the passive skill tree is insanely large and intricate (Ive been told its reminiscent of FFXs Sphere Grid) and all of the active skills and their augments are just gems you can slot into weapons.
I cant really speak to the story because for the first act of the game I was partied with my 1000+ hour in friends rolling new characters. Theres a bunch of lore and story scattered around but theyd seen it all before and ran past. At that point I didnt see the point in caring so I ignored it for the rest of the game.
The game is really easy to play for free. Almost all of the microtransactions are cosmetic except for extra stash space and character slots and you get enough that I never felt I needed them. During the time I was playing they released a special page that can store currency thousands of currency items in a single stack instead of capping at their usual amounts. Its nice to have, and I bought one to give some money to the devs but again I never felt I really needed it. Since my friends are playing and Ive only made it through the game once (you get extra difficulties as a sort of new game plus you can move between using the map) Ill probably go back to it. But for no Im ready to officially move onto other things.
I didnt initially have much interest in the rereleases, but in the end I decided to check them out by way of my first Nuzlocke run. In the end it was good and stressful to see (most of Kanto) again in this manner. Im not sure Generation I is too well suited to Nuzlockes though, as I rarely lost Pokemon in circumstances that didnt involve Self-Destruct or Psychic attacks.
Even though the UI is horrible, the early version of the battle system still works pretty well. Being able to easily look up move statistics online nowadays helps with that too. Yellows sprites are still the best of the first two generations, even if their palettes are limited.
There were three massacres during my run, and Im to understand that theyre pretty standard for a lot of Nuzlockes. Firstly, I forgot that Lt. Surge has a single high level Raichu with Mega Kick instead of a more balanced team in Yellow. Quake (Diglett) and, my favourite at that time, Babydoll (Nidoqueen) unexpectedly fell before Raichu decided Id learnt my lesson and just growled at me until going down itself. After that I slowly rebuilt, I found a Nidorino and named it Killer Croc in honour of Babydoll but alas he too fell during Rock Tunnel, along with Phoenix (my first of 4 Psychic types to bear the name) which was unexpectedly dangerous.
After a long journey, with periodic losses to critical hits, Self-Destructs or errant Slowpokes I decided to tackle Fuchsia Gym before going to fight Sabrina. I wanted to be ready for her because as I already mentioned Psychic is terrifying in this generation. Unfortunately the ostensibly poison Fuchsia Gym is also heavily populated with Psychic types, and we suffered a few more losses before reaching Koga. When Koga sent out his first Venonat I knew we were in trouble, it was several levels higher than my best team members and the levels only increased from there. His Venomoth, which as it turns out knows both Psychic and Double Team, proceeded to wipe out my team. Poison Ivy (Weepinbell), Nightcrawler (Gengar), Hawkguy (Fearow), Magneto (Magneton), Batman (Golbat) all died, leaving Clayface (Golem) the sole survivor. But I persisted and rebuilt from near scratch, training a few new Pokemon and bringing back some of the old reserves, and after many hours of grinding we were ready to move on.
During the grind I obtained a Slowpoke, the last remaining Psychic type available to me, and thus it bore the name Final Phoenix. After evolving it into a Slowbro we easily defeated Sabrina, then Blaine, everything was going great. Then in the final battle with Giovanni at his gym disaster struck.
The first action of the battle, Dugtrio used Fissure and killed Final Phoenix. It was at that point that I knew that this was the end, and that only a miracle could save me now. Syndicate (Dodrio), Quicksilver (Magneton) and Hulk (Gyarados) fell in quick succession. Clayface, who had been with me since Mount Moon was the oldest surviving member of my team by far, fought valiantly and was able to take out some of his team but was eventually broken apart by an Earthquake from Giovannis Nidoking. This left Bug Eyed Bandit (Venomoth) to finish the fight, and while Parafusion hax were able to bring Giovanni to his last Pokemon, a Rhydon, Bug Eyed Bandits 15 level disadvantage proved too much in the end, and it too sucumbbed.
So thats how my 20 year anniversary experience with Pokemon Yellow ends. Giovanni wins, and presumably rebuilds and conquers Kanto. Depressing.
A hit in its day, but one I never got around to. A simple puzzle platformer with an amazing dark and bleak atmosphere. It's very well put together, and after the proliferation of similar games recently it's still pretty high in the pile. But I feel like it's not as unique as it was 5 years ago.
699 deaths, 100% completion. There's not that much to say if you've already played Mutant Mudds, if you haven't played Mutant Mudds go give that a try, it controls a little stiff so it's not to everyone's tastes but I really enjoy it. Also worth noting is that this game has cross-buy with the Wii U, but I played it on 3DS because I really like the way Mutant Mudds uses 3D.
Super Challenge functions as a stand-alone expansion from a design perspective, though I believe its full price. It's been compared to Lost Levels but I don't think the jump in difficulty is that severe, it's a hard game though. There are no new enemies and I believe no new obstacles, but the level design more than makes up for it. If you love carefully timing jumps this is for you. Really the only new elements are secret (though marked) passages into blocks that contain either doodads or the secret door to unlock the level's new character. Speaking of, being able to run around a game shooting mud monsters as Shovel Knight or Captain Viridian is kind of weird but I really liked it.
My main gripes is that some of the boss fights are obnoxious and also that I can't stand the ice platforms whenever they show up. But it hasn't been 10 minutes since I finished and I still want more.
This game grabbed me pretty quickly (after a few tries where I was having bad days that don't count) but by the end it really surprised me. I liked the dynamic of being able to rewind time to cheat in social situations. Though there's a lot of clunky dialogue, mechanics etc there's also a lot of good that I think overpowers any jank in the end. And it's not often you get a game that has this sort of indie high school aesthetic which was part of how the intro grabbed me.
Originally Chloe and her mannerisms (verbal and physical) annoyed the hell(a) out of me but by the end I did get really attached to her. The game is good at making almost every character believably sympathetic and making a lot of the choices very difficult, which means that it achieved what every game in the genre strives towards.
By the ending of the last episode this game had showed that it had a lot to say about the use of time travel, but I don't want to get into spoilers. I just wanted to say that it really surprised me to see it touching on things that I didn't think it would.
#8: My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: 8.3 hours
More Picross! It's not a bad amount of content for a free game. There are 3 pages of puzzles which can be played in both normal and Mega Picross modes ranging from some 10x10s and 15x15s up to 5 20x15s and then a single 80x80 Micross.
What I can't understand though is why they've ruined the controls. Ordinarily in a Picross game you hold up and down to fill squares and mark them empty respectively. In this version however it's changed from a hold to a toggle, making using the neutral cursor much harder to use. Because of this you lose a lot of fluidity if you're trying to rapidly switch between counting out squares with the neutral cursor and filling them with the other two because you have to press the button again instead of just letting it go. Awful change and I hope it doesn't persist, if I wanted to play a Picross game with slow controls I'd play them on iOS.
I've never really liked 16-bit era beat 'em ups and this was no exception. It's alright, the emphasis on timing and grappling is interesting. But I found most of the bosses incredibly obnoxious and I couldn't get past the first half of the last stage without cheating myself extra lives. Still, it was a pretty unique diversion for me and the music is really catchy.
What a great concept! Murder mystery, where the murder and the mystery have long been solved and you're trying to piece the facts together from interview fragments. There's not a whole lot more praise I can give it without getting into spoilers (I think she was telling the truth by the way) but it's definitely something everyone should try. Something that sort of frustrates me though (and this is mostly a personal issue) is that the way the game is structured makes it impossible to get the whole picture. It's still worth the experience though.
In days gone by where I had more time and less games I could see myself losing a lot of time in this game. Great concept, it's like a very stripped down Cities in Motion with restriction on parts instead of monetary ones. You have 3 lines and 3 trains, make a network that gets the people where they need to go. Every few minutes you gain another train and then another thing (tunnel, line, carriage) of your choosing. Last as long as you can while stations randomly pop up and people start showing up more often.
So, my impressions of Zero without (almost)any spoilers:
- The story is great, much better than FC and definitely up there with SC and 3rd. Almost every chapter has something big happening and a lot of surprises in it.
- Most of the characters range from great to regular. While Lloyd and Eri are your regular protagonists, Randy and Tio are much, much better than I though they would be.
-The battle system could be faster and I liked most of the new mechanics in play.
-The game was much, much longer than I expected. Took me almost 80 hours to finish, but I did almost all side-quests
- The main story is strong and I am actually happy that they finished a lot of it by the end of this game, while leaving a few questions that give enough reason for the sequel.
I am also very happy about how
Ren
story ended.
It's a great game and now I just started Trails in the Blue. Hope I can finish it without taking 2-3 months.
Game 1: BioShock Infinite (~15 hours)
This has a much deeper story than the original BioShock. The first BioShock has been called a thinking man's game, with an Ayn Rand-inspired story. It's actually one of my favorite games (like, top three) because of this. I think a game should be able make you think differently, or question widely-held beliefs, like objectivism, no different than any other form of media. Infinite's story is so good, I was thinking about it for a solid day before starting my next game.
This is a minor complaint, but the difficulty level ramps up way too high for the last battle of the game.
5/5
Game 2: Bastion (~15 hours)
Bastion has very good artwork... playing felt like walking through a painting. I spent a lot of time in "Who Knows Where" (a battle arena-type place), getting points to level up my gear. This made the game much easier. I still had a lot of fun with it. I have no interest in New Game Plus.
3/5
Game 3: Grim Fandango Remastered (19 hours)
Again, I really like a good story, and this game certainly has that. GFR had a few laugh out loud moments, and really good voice acting. You learn from the commentary (part of the remaster) that the voice acting was done with people in conversation being in the same room. Sadly, this isn't so common in modern games, making voice work feel really stiff. The puzzle solving was way too complicated, and I had to use a guide (and a YouTube video) to figure everything out.
4/5
Game 4: Jet Set Radio (9 hours) "How do I get rid of these nasty roaches?" "Easy... just burn your house downnnnnn!!!"
I played Jet Set (actually, Jet Grind) Radio on Dreamcast when it was first released. I love this game. I love the song "Bout the Town". JSR proves you don't need a high polygon count to make a great looking game. Looking at it now, it's funny that SWAT teams and missile-equiped helicopters are used to stop vandalism. I guess a complaint is that it's somewhat short and easy (though that might be because I've played it before), but it's a joy throughout. You owe it to yourself to play this game.
5/5
Game 5: Dust: An Elysian Tail (22 hours)
I don't like furries. I do like Castlevania. This game combines the two.
There is a lot that could be said about Dust. But succinctly, it is a Metroidvania game with God of War-style combat. The progression of the game was good, introducing new abilities at appropriate points and letting you learn the ropes in subsequent parts of the map. Unfortunately, the difficulty ramps up very slow and gets crazy hard at the end. The game was too long, and perhaps would have worked better episodically. I didn't like the music.
2/5
Game 6: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (~45 hours)
I did not expect to sink forty-five hours into GTA: Vice City, but I did.
It's important to remember this is an important game. Rockstar North proved they weren't just a one trick pony with 3D open-world games after GTA3. It's also important to remember Rockstar popularized the 3D open world genre with this game's predecessor.
Vice City builds and/or improves on what GTA3 established in pretty much every way. It's a bigger world, there is better voice acting, they've done away with the silent protagonist, there's more licensed music... the list just keeps going.
The biggest shortcoming of Vice City is this:
toward the latter half of the game, you are required to go on a TON of side missions. The main story starts to get really interesting, and then it just drops off, because you have to do so many unrelated missions. By the time you get back to it, you've done so many of these unrelated missions that the main story feels irrelevant to how you spent the past 10+ hours.
As a big fan of GTA4, it's nice to play Vice City for some perspective on how 4 came to be. This said, the game is too long, and the flaws GTA4 does away with are noticeable having played the next generation's sequel.
3/5
Game 7: Metal Slug (45 minutes)
This game is pretty fun. It seems loosely based on World War II. Neo Geo was pretty cool back in the day. MS took forty-five minutes to beat. I had unlimited continues.
4/5
Game 8: Commander Keen: Episode 1 (2 hours)
I'm going to share a really controversial opinion
I think the six Commander Keen games are more fun than the original Mario Bros. trilogy. You have to understand the context. When I was a kid, my friends all had NES, SNES, or Genesis. I had a home computer. Keen was about all I could play (or maybe all my parents bought), so the the series has a special place in my heart.
You sort of get in this rhythm where you memorize levels to beat them, but I don't mind it. The levels are short. Also, this game doesn't have continues. You run out of lives, and that's it... game over and start over. I played with an SNES-style USB controller, which made the game more fun than using a keyboard. It's certainly not the longest game of the Keen series, but it lays the groundwork for future titles.
5/5
Game 9: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (12 hours)
This is either my second or third time beating Circle of the Moon. It is a really good game and I am not tired of it yet. If I have one complaint, it's that I had to do a lot of grinding to beat the game. But the grinding never felt like a chore. This is the sequel to what many consider one of the greatest games ever made. Five stars from me.
5/5
Game 10: Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World (~10 hours)
Despite being a lifelong gamer, I had never made it to the end of Super Mario World... until now. This is a really great game. The difficulty level feels about perfect. It was never so challenging that I didn't want to play. But it also wasn't so easy that it felt like a cakewalk. The game has a number of secret areas, many of which I didn't discover. It certainly adds to the replay-ability. Now that I beat Mario World, I'm kind of curious to see what Super Mario Maker is all about.
5/5
Game 11: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (3 1/2 hours)
Some people say that music is the universal language. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons attempts to include video games in that description as well. The game has no decipherable spoken language, and the only time there's written language (outside of menus) is at the beginning of the game, when the fairly simple controls are explained to you. This game deserves a lot of credit for being so bold as to do away with language.
The gameplay is good. You control two brothers... one with each analog stick... on a mission to retrieve an antidote for a sick man.... presumably their father. The game is mostly about puzzle-solving. There are some things both brothers can do. There are other things that only one of the brothers can do. Puzzles are built atop this concept.
There was one point where the game restarted me at a checkpoint that was missing a scripting sequence, so I couldn't progress in the game. Also, there is a bit of clipping that occurs with the brothers' hands, going through, for example, a log. These are minor quibbles for what's otherwise an excellent game.
4/5
Game 12: Mario Kart DS (7 hours)
If you compare this game to Mario Kart 64 or Double Dash, it doesn't hold up. On it's own though, it's a competent kart racer. There's a wide selection of courses as well as karts. The power-ups are decent. Unfortunately, the speed of the game is quite slow. Also, playing at 100cc or 150cc is fairly challenging. All told, I recommend 64 or Double Dash to this.
3/5
Game 13: Limbo (3 1/2 hours)
This is a really good game. It very much reminds me of Braid, seeing that both games are side-scrolling puzzle-solving games. The checkpointing is generous, which I'm grateful for. I wish more games checkpointed as frequently as this.
One thing about this game is that the puzzles start out easy, but get pretty darn hard toward the end. Keeping the Braid comparison going, I never once looked at a walkthrough or FAQ for Braid, but had to refer to one a number of times for this game.
All in all, really well made.
4/5
Game 14: Super Mario Bros.(~1 hour)
What is left to say about this game? This is one of the greatest games of all time. It invented the platforming genre, and put video games back on the map after the Atari crash in the 80's. Perfect score, no question.
5/5
Game 15: Mass Effect 2 (19 hours)
I think the Mass Effect series is pretty cool. I like sci-fi as a genre, so that might explain why.
I played through the first Mass Effect and really enjoyed it. I later played Mass Effect 2, probably a little past the halfway point, and then stopped. My save got lost, so this is my second attempt to get through Mass Effect 2.
The mission structure is pretty formulaic: go to a location (planet), kill the enemies, progress the story (usually recruiting someone on your team). This said, it's a fun cover-based shooter, and the story is good, albeit densely written.
The game looks beautiful on PC, despite being a last-gen game. Any modern graphics card should have no trouble handling it.
One minor grievance is that the load times seem longer than they need to be. Seeing I'm playing off a hard drive, it shouldn't take as long to load the data as it does.
All told, it's rare that we see a game come out with this much production value. It feels like a high budget Hollywood film. I'm glad it exists, and I'm looking forward to the third game.
5/5
Game 16: Tetris - Android F2P game (~7 hours)
Despite being a free-to-play game, this version of Tetris doesn't bombard you with micro-transactions. You are instead presented with an ad when in-game, as well as an ad before each game.
The most interesting thing about this version of Tetris is that because it is a mobile game, you're presented with an outline of the locations where you can drop the pieces. You tap the location you want, and that's where the block goes. It doesn't list every location, but rather the most practical ones. It's an interesting twist.
I can't give this game a bad score. It's a classic. Five stars, easily.
5/5
Game 17: Metal Slug 3 (~1 & 1/2 hours)
It was nice playing something a little more accessible after playing Mass Effect 2.
There's not much new to say after writing a review for the original Metal Slug. This is a very similar game. The last mission is cool.
It sort of turns into a shmup for a little while.
You can really tell playing arcade mode that they're trying to squeeze every quarter out of you that they can.
My review score is based on the assumption that you know this is a one and a half hour game.
4/5
Game 18: Metal Slug X (~1 hour)
Another Metal Slug game? Well... yeah. Another Metal Slug game.
This Metal Slug is my favorite of the three I played. The difficulty feels about right. I mean, the game is designed to eat quarters still, but it's nowhere near as hard as 3 was. The soundtrack gets a little jazzy in one part. As a fan of jazz music, I appreciated that. Not sure what else to say. It's a fun game. It's also an hour long.
My review score is under the assumption that you're aware the game is an hour long.
4/5
Game 19: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD (4 1/2 hours)
I had the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater on Dreamcast and had a great time with it. It was the best version of the game in terms of graphics. But also, I liked the way it played on a Dreamcast controller.
When I bought this game, I expected it was going to be the original Tony Hawk in HD. Well, turns out, this is more of a greatest hits of (presumably) previously non-HD Tony Hawk courses.
It's not a hard game. It took me less than five hours to get all the levels. There's the option to play through the game again with a different character. But the way you can max out stats, different characters are more like different skins. There's no specific benefits you get from one character or another after you upgrade stats.
The game doesn't feel right. The controls are imprecise compared to the Dreamcast game. I also don't think the courses picked are the best. Playing all the original Tony Hawk courses would have made for a better game than the levels selected here.
I can't hate on the game too much. Nailing a big combo is it's own reward. This game is competent, but not excellent.
3/5
Game 20: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (4 1/2 hours)
This is a really good game.
It's interesting, having played Super Mario World before this, to see how much Mario World borrows from Mario Bros. 3. Enemies especially appear to have originated in Mario Bros. 3 and been used in subsequent Mario games. Dry Bones, Thwomp, Bullet Bill, and the Koopa Bros, to name a few.
The difficulty level is a bit higher than in Mario World. It was never unbearable though.
I recommend this. It's among the best side-scrolling platformers I've played.
5/5
Game 21: Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (1 1/2 hours)
Before you pass judgement, know that Ron Gilbert worked on this game.
This is a game I played as a little kid. I was surprised when I found it on Steam later in life. It was cheap, so I bought it.
The game actually runs on the SCUMM Engine... same as Maniac Mansion and Sam and Max. Humongous Entertainment made it, along with a number of other SCUMM Engine games geared for little kids.
The fun of the game is that you can click on almost anything that looks interesting and something will happen. Usually an animation and a sound. There's beatnik monkeys and joke telling parrots waiting to be clicked on.
I don't know. It was really easy to beat the game now as an adult. It's a great game if you're a parent and you have a 4-7 year old kid. But I'm not.
3/5
Game 22: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (~4 hours)
I played the Android version of this. I mention this because it's not the original game being emulated, but a recreation of it. The most noticeable difference is now the game is widescreen, which is nice!
This game is very colorful. The soundtrack is rocking. This really shows off what the Genesis was capable of. Unfortunately, this game has the most cheap hits from enemies of any Sonic game. It's very easy to run directly into an enemy and lose all your coins. Bummer.
Also, the end of the game is hard.
You have to fight three bosses back to back on one set of rings.
Once you do beat it though, it's a nice reward watching the credits roll.
Great game overall.
4/5
Game 23: Sonic the Hedgehog (~4 hours)
Again, I played on Android, so it's a recreation of the original game.
This is a fun game. It's a bit easier than Sonic 2.
The end boss is especially easier than Sonic 2.
I enjoy the special stages. I really enjoy the music from the special stages.
I think I like this better than Sonic 2.
4/5
Game 24: Mario Kart: Super Circuit (~5 hours)
This... this is a good Mario Kart game.
Seeing that this is a GBA title, there are technical limitations. The game is emulating the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 with it's tracks. Also, like in Mario Kart 64, the character's are 2D sprites, not 3D models.
All that said, it's a really fun Mario Kart. Most of the power-ups from the 64 game are present, including Lightening, Blue Shells, and Stars. The difficulty ramps quite high on 150cc. I found that 100cc was just right for me (though I ranked in all cups and all CC's).
I'd give it a perfect score, except that Mario Kart 64, and Mario Kart: Double Dash are undoubtedly better games. Double Dash especially.
4/5
Game 25: Sonic Adventure 2 (7 hours)
The first Sonic Adventure was an OK game. It created an experience you would expect for Sonic the Hedgehog in three dimensions. Unfortunately, it also created boring experiences, like playing as Big the Cat.
Sonic Adventure 2 does away with the boring stuff by having you play as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles (in Hero mode). The Tails sections were my favorite. You pilot a mech and shoot down robots that get in your way. The Sonic parts were similar to those in Adventure 1, which is to say it's like a 2D Sonic game in 3D. The Knuckles part... well, it's kind of like using a metal detector at the beach to find buried treasure. It's the least exciting of the three.
The game starts out fantastic for all characters. It's really a lot of fun. Sadly, the level design starts to deteriorate around the middle of the game.
The last Sonic level is especially bad. You're grinding rail after rail (on your SOAP branded sneakers). Trying to accurately land on each rail is an exercise in repeated unnecessary death.
It's a shame, because Sonic Adventure 2 has the potential to be great from start to finish. But it just starts to feel lazy and sloppy toward the end.
2/5
Game 26: Tomb Raider [2013 Reboot] (12 hours)
Rise of the Tomb Raider came out late last year, and people were impressed by how good it looked. But... wow, does this game look good too.
Tomb Raider is something of a cinematic experience. You move in generally a straight line, and the world unfolds before your eyes. But it's a really beautiful world. I'm playing on PC. I have to imagine this was pushing previous gen systems to the limit. On PC, it's silky smooth.
There's a bit of combat in the game. I generally don't like when you're killing people in video games. I didn't mind, say, Mass Effect 2, cause I was generally shooting aliens. But killing people isn't something I enjoy in games.
Also, Lara gets hurt. A lot. I could do without all the abuse.
All in all, this deserves to be seen. A graphical achievement most of all.
4/5
Game 27: Mario Kart 64 (~6-7 hours)
This is one of, if not, the greatest kart racing games ever made. Enough said.
Well, one more thing to say... the real fun is multiplayer.
5/5
Game 28: Donkey Kong Country (~7 hours)
This is a good game, albeit flawed. The graphics are superb for the time. Also, the music is good. I'm a fan of David Wise (and Grant Kirkhope).
On the downside, the collision detection is fuzzy (probably because they used 3D models). There's no reward for defeating an enemy (no points, high score, etc). Finally, the difficulty level is inconsistent.
Good, but not great.
3/5
Game 29: Kirby's Adventure (3-4 hours).
It's crazy to think that an NES game came out in 1993. But this one did.
I owned the original Kirby's Dream Land for Game Boy, as well as the sequel. I remember thinking they were incredibly polished games, especially for a handheld. This is very similar to those games. Kirby can still suck up enemies and take their powers. Kirby can still fly over difficult levels. It's a great platformer, and if you've played any of the Dream Land games, you know what to expect... but now it's color.
Major Spoilers:
It was great to see that they included a level from Kirby's Dream Land toward the end of the game. It was also cool that King DeDeDe wasn't the final boss
4/5
Game 30: Forza Motorsport 4: Essentials Edition (~28 hours)
I played Forza 3 and had a really good time with it. What I specifically remember being fun was before a race, going into a menu and upgrading parts in your car, then participating in the race and smoking the competition.
Well, Forza Motorsport 4 takes this fun away. Before a race, you have to go back a menu to upgrade car parts. Worse still, even after upgrading your car, the game is going to ask to automatically upgrade your car to fit the specifications of the race before the race. This takes half the fun out of car simulator games: speccing your car to have the best performance it can have.
Because this is the Essentials Edition, there are cars you really want to drive (read: Ferrari California) that are locked behind a paywall. Unlock the full game to drive any car you like... well, except for the ones that are DLC. I miss the days when you'd go to the game store and get a full game out of the box.
I can't be too hard on this game. The joy of racing cars you will probably (possibly) never drive in real life is still there. But I remember Forza 3 being a better game all throughout.
2/5
Game 31: Kirby's Dream Land (1 hour)
This game is a classic. I played it as a little kid, but haven't beaten it until now.
It's really short, but it lays the groundwork for future games in the Kirby series. The controls feel spot on. Swallowing enemies doesn't give you their power. That would be introduced in a later game.
There are basically four stages and a final boss. You can beat it in an hour. And it leaves you wanting more. Which is what Kirby's Dream Land 2 provides.
5/5
Game 32: Kirby's Dream Land 2 (~5 hours)
This is the best Kirby game I've played. In my opinion, it's one of the best 2D platform games ever.
Kirby now has the ability to take enemies powers, which (I think) was introduced in Kirby's Adventure. Kirby also has three friends who help him along the way. What's interesting about his friends is when you ride on (or in) one of them, if you're carrying or you pick up a power, the power becomes slightly different. It adds a lot of abilities to Kirby's arsenal.
Spoiler:
It's a shame the final boss is practically identical to the one in the first game.
But that's my only complaint in what is otherwise a flawless platformer.
5/5
Game 33: DmC: Devil May Cry(~6 hours)
I'm struggling to think of good things to say about this game. The story is boring and the cutscenes are unskippable. The music is bad death metal. The gameplay is not as good as other games in the genre. The controls for jumping are at times confusing. There is unnecessary swearing.
I really can't recommend this game less. I know some people like this game. This is only my opinion.
1/5
Game 34: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (about 45 hours)
This has become my favorite Zelda game.
It certainly is the best looking Zelda game, with it's distinctive cel-shaded art style. The visuals are great everywhere you go. I'm not sure exactly what changed in the HD remaster, but I'm glad to have it in HD and widescreen.
The dungeons are clever but not annoying. The music feels Zelda-y. Perhaps most notable outside of graphics is the English translation. It's really well done. It's perhaps second to Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door as far as best translated games I've played.
Spoiler:
The Triforce Chard fetch quests were annoying. But, on an unrelated note, it was cool how the music paid tribute to previous Zelda games.
Currently playing a shed load of the division. I've already counted the beta since I played so much of it. Do I list the retail game as a separate thing it just include it as game 26.5? :3
