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Game 48: Sonic Advance (7 1/2 hours)
Despite expectations going into this game (not much), I was pleasantly surprised by Sonic Advance. Graphically, it's one of the uglier games in the 2D series, but gameplay-wise, it's all there. Having briefly played Sonic 4: Episode II, I can say the level design is better than that, with fewer endless pits of death and more moments that keep the gameplay going. Highly recommended.
5/5

Game 49: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (15 hours)
I really love Circle of the Moon, and this is a bit of a disappointment compared to that. Not much, but a bit. You still run around a massive castle collecting odds and ends to reach the final boss. Speaking of the final boss, he was a bit easier than in Circle of the Moon, which I was grateful for. Undoubtedly a good Castlevania game, although not my favorite.
4/5

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Game 35: Furi - 3 hours - July 19th, 2016
S'alright. The soundtrack is great, the visuals are great, the game itself feels pretty great. I don't know about the whole product though. Constantly restarting sections because of the health regen just wasn't fun, and the walking sections were mindnumbing. Thank goodness for the autowalk. I'll openly admit that I just got sick of how difficult the normal mode was and bumped myself down to Promenade, and I still had problems with the game. It's definitely an interesting take on a "boss rush" kind of format, and I might give it a replay some day down the road.
Should I play Furi? If you got it off PS+, then yeah, I'd give it a whirl. Otherwise? Eh.

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42. Pokemon GO (Android, 2016) - 26:47 and counting
Level 20.

Pokemon GO is less a game and more a bizarre and wonderful social phenomenon. It's one of the things that, despite its many, many flaws (did I mention many flaws?), reminds you that you really do live in the future now, catching virtual monsters with your pocket computer. I've never even finished a Pokemon game in my life before this. I'm thinking of restarting Pokemon X, because now that I have the lingo down and know my pets, maybe the comprehensive Pokemon trainer experience will be more interesting now. Somehow, Pokemon GO does the thing Nintendo wanted its mobile games to do, the thing everyone thought was hopeless: it's actually pushing me to give their traditional games another shot.

It's been a week and a half of strange emergent effects that feel lifted wholesale from a William Gibson novel. People hanging out at the ferry terminal in the hundreds to catch Pokemon. Armed robbers using pokestop lures to attract marks. Two dead bodies found by roving trainers. Yelp making Pokestop proximity a restaurant search criterion. Animal shelters loaning out dogs that need walks (and homes!) to Pokemon trainers. Mobs of people in Central Park, by the CN Tower, in city parks all over the world, scrambling to catch that Vaporeon or Blastoise or Dragonair or any of a dozen more creatures whose names I've learned in the past few days.

Pokemon GO is less a game and more a bizarre and wonderful social phenomenon. And even if it ends up being a flash in the pan (which is very much a possibility), it'll still be a weird and fun thing I shared with millions of other people across the world and in my city, where we all collectively chuckled under our breath, swallowed our mild embarrassment, and asked total strangers with the same light in their eyes if they, too, managed to catch that Lapras. Congratulations, Nintendo. You did it.

Dragon Quest VI has been bested! Bring on DQ VII!


Games Beaten: 38 / 52
Total Playtime: 685:32:09
01 - 27
28 - ??

Pokemon GO is gonna keep me from completing the challenge this year I can feel it.

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24. Superhot
★★★☆☆ - 1.5 hours - Completed 7/14/2016
Innovative, sure, but short on depth and content. Felt more like a proof of concept for its mechanic rather than a full game.

25. Mirror's Edge Catalyst
★★★☆☆ - 7.5 hours - Completed 7/17/2016
Well, the parkour is still fun, the combat is still terrible, and the storytelling is still forgettable. In other words, it's essentially the first Mirror's Edge, but 8 years later and without any of the novelty.

26. Velocity 2X
★★★☆☆ - 5 hours - Completed 7/19/2016
Fun when it's just pure fast-paced action on a linear path. Unfortunately, the flow is far too often disrupted by its tedious teleport mechanic and forced backtracking.

The List!
Detailed Impressions 01-12
Detailed Impressions 13-26
Detailed Impressions 27-xx

28. Transmissions: Element 120 - 1.3 Hours


Transmissions is a fan-made Source engine mod that takes place in the Half-Life universe. The 'worst' thing about this is how heavily it lifts from the Half-Life 2 series. Featuring no new enemies or weapons, on a surface level this could easily pass as an outtake from Episode 1 or 2, or even a prologue to Episode 3. That's not really a bad thing, but personally after a decade+ since Half-Life 2 came out, I've worn thin of using the same pistol, shotgun, revolver against the same combine, zombies, and poison headcrabs. Fortunately for Transmissions, it quickly makes all those weapons obsolete by introducing a new wrinkle to the game play: transforming the gravity gun into what is essentially a rocket jumper. The primary fire launches an orb that can be used offensively and, if timed with a jump can send the player soaring through the air without taking any splash or fall damage. This adds a whole new dimension to combat, offering verticality and maneuverability in a series that traditionally limits you to moseying around on your own two feet. Once the level design opens up towards the end of the game and allows you to move around freely, there is a tangible sense of feeling like a super hero which contrasts nicely with the "every man" perspective of Gordon Freeman. Visually I found it to be beyond anything else with the words Half-Life or Left 4 Dead in the title. It's a testament to the developer that he was able to take the 12 year old Source engine and put out textures and lighting that made me take pause and appreciate the world he had built. The predominate black/blue/grey color scheme evokes a different feeling than City 17's orange and white housing, eschewing the overt European style for something more in line with Blade Runner or Deus Ex. Though the runtime is short, the game successfully sets the mood very promptly. Initially feeling tense and vulnerable (not unlike parts of Ravenholm) in claustrophobic sewers the game gradually opens up more and more growing in scale and culminating in a final battle encompassing a full city block. The whole package is impeccably designed and offers just enough differences from the canon Half-Life games to stand on its own two feet, while being reminiscent enough to its forebearers to ignite the imagination with ideations of what the future of the franchise might have in store.

5:42h. Completed Story in Hero (Normal) difficulty. As an action game, GoS is extremely satisfying, like any other God of War game. The difficulty seems to be just right, the feedback you get from your attacks is amazing, and the graphics are breathtaking for a PSP game - if it weren't for the low IQ and resolution, it would look almost like a nice-looking Vita game.

On the other hand, the story is sort of disjointed, and half of the time I didn't know why I needed to kill the guy in front of me, except for simple cruelty and lols, but that's to be expected of GoW by now. Also, it's hard to take Kratos seriously when he communicates by grunts, yells and death glares ( !!). But it's all part of its campy, narmy charm, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Updated OP

+30h-ish. Completed Shizune, Hanako, Lily, most of Emi and part of Rin's routes.

This is, for me, the disappointment of the year. I wasn't able to bring myself to properly finish it, but as I've completed most of the routes I consider it done. Don't get me wrong - there ARE lots of good things in Katawa Shoujo. The characters are likeable, the setting is nice and strong, the character designs are good and the music is great. Where's the problem, then?

Well, the routes themselves are a disjointed mess. Every route feels like you're playing a different game. Emi and Lily's belong to a "regular" school romance VN, easy and straightforward, and easily the best of the bunch IMO. Shizune's flagging phase is probably the best, as it has a variety of flags and interesting events that are mercilessly shot down with an one-choice route which boils down to "Do you want to win? (Y/N)". Hanako's is a goddamn liar of a route and Rin's is like having the worst, most convoluted route from a Type Moon game and twisting it further. It almost feels like every route was designed by a different person!
Also, the writing is not as good as the VN's fans want us to think. Loved Shizune's, with Hisao slowly learning ASL (JSL?) and Shizune's "voice" coming to life, and Lily's was the feel-good plot of the bunch, but the bad endings are sudden and somewhat lazy, and the good endings are cliche'd, though in a charmy narmy way. KS is not the worst VN I've played, not by a long shot, but it's not the western genre savior some people are selling. But is it worth a try? Well it's free, so at that price - totally! I'd also easily pay 5 or even 10 bucks for it.

Updated OP

Game 19: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE
Wii U - 81 hours - Beaten 22/07/16 - ★★★★☆
Well, this one sure surpassed my expectations.
Gameplay wise it's a pretty standard JRPG, you go through dungeons, the combat is turn based, you get new weapons, new skills, blah blah blah.
The game takes a page out of Persona's book though, with the game being set in modern day Tokyo, with the cast living two lives, one as entertainers, and one fighting the evil Mirages.
Then for the cross over part of it. TMS combat lifts heavily from SMT, it's a turn based system, and you have different damaging attacks, with enemies having weaknesses and resistances to exploit, then the very important buffs and debuffs, heals, status ailments etc.
Then from the Fire Emblem side, it's mainly just references, the allied Mirages (basically your Persona ) are all Fire Emblem characters, as well as the boss fights being Fire Emblem villains. Then rather than using the SMT slash/strike etc for physical attacks, it uses the Fire Emblem weapon triangle of sword/spear/axe which is cool.
For a game based so heavily on the entertainment industry though, the music was really disappointing, the battle and dungeon music is all pretty forgettable, and a large amount of the songs in the game are pretty bland, but there were a few nice ones.
Overall yeah, I really liked it and if you like JRPGs you really should give it a go.

Game 43
Shenmue II
XBox, 20ish hours
God dammit, I love Shenmue II. I havent played 2 nearly as much as I've played 1, but I still love it. Can NOT wait until III

Game 44
Panic!
Sega CD, 45mins
Got a new Sega CD and went through a couple games. Panic is hilarious. I love it. Simple little press the button watch what happens.

Game 45
TimeGal
Sega CD, 30mins
Classic anime FMV game. I love the art style so damn much even if it isn't as smooth as the LD version.

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Game 36: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone - 10 hours, 53 minutes - July 22nd, 2016
I had heard many people make the claim that Hearts of Stone told a better story than the base game, and I came into the game with a fair bit of skepticism towards that claim. I was pleasantly surprised that the story was indeed pretty damn great. I think the Witcher universe really fits the kind of story told in HoS better than the one told in TW3 proper. That's not to say that TW3 told a bad story, but at times, the onscreen scale of the story didn't always seem to match what I thought the actual scale should be. HoS is tightly crafted, and well focused, which again seems to fit the Witcher universe better. At the very least, it fits Geralt better, and the story seems more like a Geralt-ish story of tracking monsters and solving problems (over the more "globe-trotting" W3 plot). Visuals are striking, characters are great, writing is tight and the length is near perfect.
Should I play Hearts of Stone? If you loved TW3, it's a no-brainer.

Index

29. Furi (PS4, 2016/07/15, 18.5 hours)

Now I've seen it all: Furi is a french made sword fighting boss rush peppered with bullethell elements, inspired by Japanese games, fused with western influence, stunning presentation, amazing synth soundtrack and highly technical combat. They managed to create a game more unforgiving as any Souls game. It's all focus, do or die. Never unfair, but the tiniest mistake will be punished, hard. Furi will happily crush you and then taunt you to come back for a second serving. You get up, dust yourself off and eventually crush Furi. Many people don't like the forced walking / story exposition in between fights. I never minded the calm moments before each encounter while looking at the beautiful scenery and listening to synth tunes. The story only made sense at the end of the game, which is totally fine. My only gripes were the rare sections which required "precision" dashing in moving close quarters and PS4's spotty performance spoiled the fun a couple of times: screen tearing, jumpy framerate, input lag by noticeable slowdown, all horrible for such demanding gameplay. I'll double dip down the line and buy the Steam version for a revisit without Unity performance woes.

30. The Path To Luma (Android, 2016/07/21, ~3 hours)

Completely free, no ad banner, no IAP, funded to promote clean and renewable energy. It's not preachy or anything, just a fun puzzle game. You have to revitalize 23 wilted worlds, the puzzles to complete this task span over the planet's sphere and require some spatial, but mostly logical, thinking. The difficulty wasn't very high, only the last planet present a real challenge. The low poly presentation reminded me a bit of Grow Home, also a big plus. Lovely little game, especially for being free. It's also available on iOS.

31. atorb (Steam, 2016/07/23, 5.8 hours)

This title looked like a relaxing little game, which was true for easy and normal difficulty. Hard, is a different animal though. The gameplay is pure simplicity, but hard to explain: single screen, various orbits, objects move at different speeds on each orbit, each orbit also changes spinning direction in predetermined intervals. The player needs to populate each orbit by precisely shooting objects at their correct* orbital position (*color coded), the level is cleared once each object is at its place. The key is precision aiming while avoid collisions with objects on other orbits. Not trivial since everything is in motion. The three difficulties come with around 120 levels each. It usually takes less than a minute to beat each screen. Easy and normal are very casual and allow unlimited retries per shot. Missing on hard will reset the level and requires a perfect run. This is when palms get sweaty and tension rises, 1 miss and 20 perfect shots were for nothing. Noteworthy is the really nice relaxing soundtrack, very clean and minimal presentation.

32. The Hurricane of the Varstray (Steam, 2016/07/23, 9.1 hours)

One of the easier doujin bullet hell SHMUPs, although the curtains are as meaty as it gets. Plenty of aids to make the player's life less bitch. Much climax and screen filling attackers to battle against. The localization very enrish (see what I did there, hehe), but serviceable. The gameplay is very frantic, but in a fun way. Two shooting buttons, one for fast movement and the second for slow bullet pattern navigation. There's the screen clearing "smart bomb" and 5 special attack unlocks. Mowing down enemy formations is super satisfying and borderline overkill. There's a surprisingly high amount of modes: arcade, score attack, story and unlock mode. The story mode caught me completely off guard: fully voiced, Japanese CV with English subs, 6 playable characters each with its own view point of the events. The story mode also unlocks special attacks 4 to 5 and the true end once all of the 6 girl's stories were told. The true end was highly disturbing and slightly out there, which is in line with most of the story. Some of the characters are down right vulgar and hate each others guts, the resulting dialogs not surprising yet somewhat shocking. Player's discretion is advised. I really enjoyed The Hurricane of the Varstray -Collateral Hazard- with all its "rawness", refreshing in a weird way.

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#24: Sonic the Hedgehog 2: 4.1 hours

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I said way back at the beginning of last year when I played Sonic 1 that 2 was more highly regarded but I didn’t know why. Well now I do. Sonic 2 is definitely an improvement in a few key areas. It’s more forgiving for one, I got most of the way through the game without cheating pretty hassle-free. The level designs are more interesting and intricate, there’s less obvious copy-pasted segments. The paths through the levels also intertwine a lot more which makes them a lot more interesting, and there are many segments that just let Sonic let loose and run for a few seconds which is pretty cool.

So yeah Sonic 2 is a big improvement… until the latter part of the game that is. The last few zones are really brutal, hard to avoid deathtraps are everywhere. This culminates in a final level that has no rings, no checkpoints and requires you to fight two bosses in a row to win the game. The boss designs really annoyed me because they require not only precise timing but precise spacing to kill. You have to hit Mecha Sonic in the face to damage it, if you jump too high you touch its quills and die, and if you hit it at the wrong angle you can bounce into the ground, uncurl and die. Once again I wouldn’t have been able to beat the game without the level select cheat, and it soured me on the game a little. But yes overall it’s enjoyable and a noticeable step up.

#25: Moirai: 0.1 hours

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This one is a bit older but it's newly on Steam. My attention was admittedly drawn to it because one of the developers is a friend of a friend, but it's 5-10 minutes long and free so what the hey.

Short story shorter it's really interesting. Go play it, that's about all I can say.

#26: Colorpede: <unknown> hours (iOS)

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Full disclaimer, I also found out about Colorpede through the local game dev community. But I had a lot of fun with it and I don’t think that that’s entirely bias. It’s a simple enough game, pairs of coloured blocks approach your Colorpede from the bottom of the screen. The colours change randomly but your Colorpede will always change colours to match the two on the blocks. Your job is to tap the screen to flip your Colorpede so it matches the colours as they pass it. It’s a very simple concept but it’s actually pretty engaging. I think part of that is due to the constantly changing colours which increases the amount of cognitive load required to do well.

It’s also worth noting that it’s a) iOS only and b) free-to-play with microtransactions. It’s a one time payment of ~$5 to remove incidental ads, but you’ll still have to watch an ad to receive a continue when you die. There’s not a whole lot of consistency to when you do and don’t get access to continues which is annoying, but there’s a limit of 1 continue before your score is recorded. In addition to that sometimes you won’t get a continue when it feels like you could use it but if you’re pretty close to beating your high score then you seem to always get one. All in all it’s a pretty inoffensive implementation of free-to-play.

Update

Game #14 : Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Rating: 8.5/10 - Platform: PS4 - Developer: Crystal Dynamics, United Front Games, Eidos Montreal
3rd playthrough for this game after the PS3 and PC versions and still loving it. The definitive edition comes with nice improved graphics and better framerate. Strangely enough, I've never been a big fan of third person linear adventure games and didn't enjoy Uncharted 1 and 2. Tomb Raider however was definitely a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to try the latest entry one of these day.

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Game 22 - Portal 2 (co-op) [PC] &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
I'd beaten Portal 2 when it first came out and I didn't think it stacked up to the original. The new toys weren't very fun to use, and an awful lot of the puzzles were boiled down to not much more than "find the surface you can put a portal on". I wasn't able to play the co-op at the time because anyone I played online with had already done it and knew the solutions before. But I was able to go through it recently with another player who'd not done it, and it was pretty good, but still suffered from the same issue of there being very few places you could actually put portals, and the solutions were just down to putting all 4 down in the right order. I can forgive that a little more here because designing these puzzles for 2 players seems like it'd be an utter nightmare, but it still kinda sucks. And I don't know if the writing has just aged poorly or if it was particularly bad in the co-op, but it really missed the mark. It was an interesting experience to play through, but there wasn't much fun to be had just fucking around with Portals, so it left me a little disappointed.

Dunno what the crisis was but I gots through Crisis Core: FFVII!

Thats 39 rpgs down so I'm now heading into the final quarter!


Games Beaten: 39 / 52
Total Playtime: 692:41:47
01 - 27
28 - ??

I did it!

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Game #117: BOXBOXBOY! (3DS) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;

If you liked BOXBOY!, you'll probably enjoy this. It has a lot of content for the price, and the puzzles are very challenging. It's not quite as good as the first game – I think particularly because it has too much focus on the two boxes mechanic (which to be fair is a nice innovation). There are some things from the first game that I missed, but ultimately this is a wonderful sequel – I just wish that they expanded the visuals somewhat. Maybe for the third game?

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Game #118: Kirby Planet Robobot (3DS) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;

This game took me SUPER by surprise, for two reasons:

1. I've grown used to modern Kirby games to be usually good rather than great (besides spin-offs like Canvas Curse)
2. Triple Deluxe, my former second favorite Kirby, turned out to be a distant third after Robobot

Kirby Planet Robobot is, simply put, a hyper-quality production that pushed the series to places it hasn't been since Super Star. The level design is absolutely fantastic, among the best in the series; it looks nice, it sounds nice, and the bosses are a blast. It's thoroughly challenging (for a Kirby game anyway), and it's really content rich. In terms of the visual creativity of the levels, it's probably the best the series has ever seen (not counting Epic Yarn and Rainbow Curse). Not to discount Epic Yarn and Rainbow Curse – two beautiful games – but I really admired just how much fresh and neat design concepts went into each level.

One thing that pleased me in particular was the mech gameplay. In recent years, Kirby has gotten really weird with respect to mindless “run through the level with no challenge” shit. Return to Dream Land was just masturbatory with its super power-ups, Epic Yarn had some of the same stuff (as did Rainbow Curse too, I believe). Triple Deluxe had it, but at the same time, there actually was some interesting puzzle stuff to it. Planet Robobot is the first game though that I actually felt worked in the game and actually had some fun stuff to do that didn't erase the challenge.

If you like Kirby games, I have NO doubt that you will love this one. It's an amazing return to form for the series, and it managed to elevate it to heights in certain areas that arguably have never been seen in the series before now.

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Game #119: Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (Vita) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;

This is a game that really has me feeling kinda mixed. It's still an amazing game, don't get me wrong, but as a conclusion to a trilogy? It really dropped the ball. Like, a lot. It feels like it was pushed out the door too early, with a ton of arcs and plot details either left hanging or resolved in a really haphazard way. It also has super problematic characterization issues, like with I also didn't like how And yet, as it were, I still found it in me to consider this one of the best games I've played. Because while this game dropped the ball in very complex ways, ultimately it did hit a lot of the buttons that I ask a game in this series to hit. It had some fun philosophical stuff, I didn't hate any of the characters in the game (at least not like I hate Quark), and ultimately, even though it is a distant last place in the ZE series, it's a very memorable experience with a story delivery method that sets itself apart from other entries, for better or worse.

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Game #120: Proteus (Vita) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;

Originally I had taken this game as being a little too simple to be enjoyable and just being an empty walking sim – for a period of time I did not even know how to really advance in the game, though to be fair I hadn't even tried hard to figure it out. Once I started to get into it, I actually kind of liked it. It wasn't the greatest game ever made, and definitely not the greatest game of its type, but I definitely do not regret having played it. It's very visually nice and has a lot of creativity to it. Plus, it was really cheap!

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Credit for the image goes to Ms.Galaxy!!

Game #121: Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS) - &#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;

Had a big write-up, but posted in an LTTP thread instead.

tl;dr, probably my least favorite Nintendo game ever made, and for reasons that have nothing to do with The Thousand-Year Door or its genre.

Triggerhappytel said:

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Haven't done this in months. I'll keep the summaries for each game pretty brief.

14. Metro 2033 Redux (PS4) - 10th March - approx. 10 hours, a single playthrough on Spartan mode with 44% trophies
Really good game; an excellent throwback to the likes of Half Life and a lot slower-paced and more subdued than most FPSs nowadays. Superb atmosphere and nice depth to the mechanics. 8/10

15. Salt and Sanctuary (PS4) - 31st March - approx. 35 hours for 1.5 playthroughs and 84% trophies (I intend to return and finish the second playthrough for the Platinum)
I loved this; it's going to be one of my very favourite games of the year. It was a perfect realisation of Dark Souls in 2D, with a lot more difficult and some gameplay elements of Castlevania implemented as well, which really benefits the level design. 9/10

16. Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition (PS4) - 8th April - approx. 4 hours, a single playthrough and 17% trophies
I played this as I was in the mood for DC stuff due to BvS (and to a lesser extent, Teen Titans Go!). Not really a big fan of fighting games but the plot was the appeal here, but I didn't really think much of it. Fighting was okay-ish, although I felt like some characters had a very short attacking range which put them at a disadvantage compared to others. The silliness of it all is pretty fun, although NeverRealm's character models are goddamn hideous. 6.5/10

17. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS4) - 28th April - approx. 10 hours, a single playthrough for 37% trophies
Finished this up as I wanted to replay the whole series before UC4 was out. Really enjoyable game overall; I maintain my stance from back in 2011 that it's very, very good if not quite as great overall as its predecessor. Has probably the best set-piece from the trilogy in the sequence, but overall it feels a little too much like a retread of the things Uncharted 2 nailed. 9/10

18. Table Top Racing: World Tour (PS4) - 4th May - approx. 5 hours, played about as much as I was likely to for 22% trophies
A fun Micro Machines-style racing game, but it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi and I cannot put my finger on what's missing. Visuals are good and the handling is nice, but the tracks tend to be a bit flat and boring and I don't like the weapons much. 7/10

19. Firewatch (PS4) - 5th May - approx. 4 hours, 100% trophies earned
I like walking simulators and I enjoyed this a lot, although I found the ending a little flat as I was expecting more of a payoff, but I understand the story reasons for why they wrote it that way. Really great characterisation, a wonderful game world which I had fun exploring and the dialogue was excellent. 8/10

20. Severed (Vita) - 15th May - approx. 12-14 hours, Platinum trophy earned
I really loved this. It was such a strange combination of ideas but it worked so well, with this dark story interwoven through this excellent (if a little easy) Metroid-esque adventure, with genuinely good use of the touch screen, fantastic visuals and art style and a nice rewarding upgrade system. Currently my second favourite indie game of the year, coming in just behind Salt and Sanctuary. 9/10

21. Stories: The Path of Destinies - 23rd May - approx. 4-5 hours, 35% trophies earned
I found this game really creative and original in how it was structured; basically each playthrough is split into five chapters and at the end of every chapter you can make a choice in what to do next (i.e. go to save a friend or get a superweapon to attack the enemy empire), and this means there are 25 different endings according to what choices you make. I played through about five different endings and enjoyed it (it's top-down and the combat is similar to Batman Arkham, which is thoroughly enjoyable), but didn't have the enthusiasm to see everything. 7/10

22. Shadow of the Beast (PS4) - 26th May - approx. 5-6 hours, 27% trophies earned
As a fan of the original I was really looking forward to this, and it was mostly satisfying. I would have liked more open level design with more focus on puzzles, but the combat is enjoyable (very much timing and rhythm-based), I really liked how it handled unlockables and the visuals and presentation are amazing. 7/10

23. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) - 11th July - approx. 18 hours, 23% trophies earned
For the first 7-8 chapters I was kind of bored and didn't like the much slower, more story-focused pace, but then once you get to the Madagascar chapter it becomes possibly my favourite game in the series, and I really liked its focus on sandbox combat as opposed to scripted set-pieces. The change in pace turned out to be a really good idea and made it feel distinct compared to its predecessors, and I really liked the more involved platforming and climbing as well. Overall, a slow start but an incredibly strong finish. Now I'm split on whether I want another Uncharted game, or whether I don't want ND to bring it back. I'd probably lean towards the latter, as this would be a perfect ending for the series. 9/10

And a few games I'm not certain on dates for:

24. Kingdom Rush: Origins (Android) - June - probably 4+ hours
A very enjoyable Tower Defence game with really great visuals and presentation. 8/10

25. Kingdom Rush: Frontiers (Android) - June - probably 3-ish hours
I bought this off the back of the above game, and enjoyed it almost as much. I didn't spend quite as much time on replying missions or doing extra missions, but still found the campaign very enjoyable. 8/10

26. Game Dev Story (Android) - July - did the first 30 years of one playthrough, which took maybe 5-6 hours?
Re-downloaded this after recommending it to someone a week or two back. Still a great game and the best Kairosoft ...Story game in my opinion, although it needed an extra layer of depth somehow, as once you're in the cycle of creating moderately successful games it becomes very easy and is basically a rush from there to earning billions of dollars. 8/10

I think that's everything. I'm probably not going to hit 52 this year as I've spent a bit of time on bigger games like The Witcher 3, Bully and GTAV, and I anticipate No Man's Sky soaking up a lot of hours too.

This is a big update, but also master post 2. First master post. Final master post

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24. A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda EX (4 hours). This is supposed to be a tribute to the Mega Man games, but fails mostly at it. 4/10

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25. Momodora III (1 hour). Short and fun little platformer, only takes about an hour to beat. Made me put Momodora 4, which is more of a metroidvania, on my wishlist. 7/10

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26. The Wolf Among Us (10ish hours). Decided to try this after being so impressed by Tales from the Borderlands (see game 20). This is a prequel to the Fables comic series, which shows popular fairy tale characters still living in our world. It's a decent mystery story with a noir vibe, but it never grabbed me that much. 6,5/10

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27. Hard Reset: Redux (7 hours). Played the original when it came out, and decided to try out the Redux version, which adds the dlc. Still love this old school shooter with a Blade Runner vibe. It feels like they reduced the amount of enemies in this version, definitely feels easier and less frantic. Still fun to group robots together with the magnet and then throw a bunch of nades in the pile. You can get this for $3 on Steam if you already own HR or Shadow Warrior. 7/10

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28. Oxenfree (5 hours). A group of teenagers explore an island and discover it hides a dark secret. If you like paranormal elements in your games, you'll get a kick out of Oxenfree. It has elements of Twin Peaks, Lost and even Poltergeist. The biggest strength of Oxenfree is its developed cast of characters, that make the story gripping and believable. 8/10

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29. INSIDE (8 hours, 2 playthroughs) Playdead takes everything they've learned from Limbo, and make something more polished and refined with Inside. What impressed me is the smooth transition between 'chapters'. Each section flows perfectly into the next, and it really feels like one continuous experience. The game is also best when played in a single session to enhance this effect. So the short length is a plus more than anything.
Inside also shows restraint: there are mechanics that other games would milk 20 puzzles out of, but Playdead just gives us a few, and then we move on. It shows how needlessly padded and stretched out other games are. So obviously I'd say that the pacing is on point.I'm not even going to expand on the story/setting that much, because I want to get a better grasp of that after a second playthrough. Suffice to say that there's a lot here to take in. The finale is especially memorable, and one of the major reasons why you should play this. One of the essential games of 2016. 9/10

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30. DLC Quest (2 hours). A short satire game that pokes fun at how ridiculous dlc can get. It's one joke stretched over 2 hours of gameplay. 5/10

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31. Broken Age. A point & click adventure that feels like it came straight out of the 90's, including some of the more frustrating elements. The contrast between the two acts is pretty big. Act 1 plays like an easier version of the LucasArts classics, with puzzles you could solve in a few minutes. Act 2 however changes the dial from 1 to 11.The difficulty of the puzzles ramps up considerably, and those in the finale (act 3 pretty much) have a lot of trial and error. Combine this with the short and sudden ending, and BA left me with a pretty bad taste in my mouth. 6,5/10

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32. Alien: Isolation (20+ hours) I'm huge fan of Alien, and Isolation turns out to be a great hommage to the classic, but is also a terrific horror game in its own right. In the first hours you're free to admire the attention to detail Creative Assembly has put into this game, but as the Alien gets introduced, it's time to play hide and seek. I played on hard, so the creature was on me all the time, and stalked me constantly. Luckily there are enough ways to outsmart it: throw noisemakers, scare it with fire, or lead it fellow humans to serve as bait.
The godlike sound design is maybe Isolation's biggest strength. If you play this with headphones, you'll hear the Alien stomping close to you, or hear when it's going back to the vents. The sound is your biggest help in the game, but also strenghtens the creepy atmosphere. I rewatched the original movie before playing, and the team managed to bring that tension over to a game perfectly.
My only real gripe is that the game is way too long. There are 2 climatic moments that would've been perfect as finales, but instead the game keeps going... and going. There's a stretch of missions (15-17) that feel pointless gameplay-wise, since you're just revisiting old areas. Gameplay-wise these levels don't bring anything new to the table either. If CA trimmed the fat a bit, they could've had a classic on their hands, now it falls just short of that. 8,5/10

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33. SOMA (11 hours) This was a complex experience. I'd definitely recommend this game for the story and overall atmosphere. The themes aren't as original as others would lead you to believe, but SOMA's story is very thought-provoking and memorable nonetheless. The other elements in the game are... not as strong.

The monster encounters were a major problem for me. Not that they were too scary, on the contrary. I beat Alien: Isolation right before starting SOMA, and that really brings the outdated and terrible monster mechanics to light. The Alien in Isolation is a real and unpredictable threat that you can't kill, but distraction and evasion make these encounters tense and horrifying (helped by the godlike sound design). Bottom line: you have a lot of options when facing it.
The monster mechanic in SOMA however feels extremely dated and is more annoying than anything. First there's the designs of all the creatures, which are not imposing or threatening at all (even though this is the intention). Some of the monsters scuttling towards me served more as unintentional comedy than anything else. You'll eventually get hit though, but you can retry from that point onwards. Good news right? Well not exactly, because in a wounded state your sight gets impaired, you limp and the screen gets filled with distracting effects. So sometimes an escape gets difficult because of this retry system. Luckily there are healing points in some places. Still, the monster encounters feel extremely limited and one-sided, because your only options are running, evading, or hiding in a corner hoping you don't get seen.

So if you want to get the most out of SOMA, I'd actually recommend the 'wuss mode' (ugh) mod, which disables enemy hits. I played through the vanilla version, but if I'd ever replay it, I'd do it with the mod enabled. It's obvious this team handles story and characterization better, I find it odd that they still cling to this outdated Amnesia monster mechanic. It's like they forced themselves to include it, because they felt the game needed tension. I agree with the gaming age review in that sense: "Their strong suit may have been in horror at some point, but sometimes moving forward means leaving something behind. In the case of SOMA, they've traversed far into the future without leaving the past where it lies."
Had they ditched this, they could've invested more in the puzzles, which were for the most part pretty entertaining and never too hard or frustrating. I'd rather have more puzzles than a half baked revolving door of monsters.

So ultimately I decided to grade based on the vanilla version, where I found that the terrible monster sections dragged the entire experience down. If you're okay with these, or decide to try out that mod, I'd easily recommend it. The sci-fi tale and its ending will likely stick with you for a while. I definitely felt like reading up on it after I was done. Play this if you're a fan of Moon, Ex-machina, Blade Runner or the work of Philip K. Dick. 7/10

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34. Hyper Light Drifter (10 hours main game, add extra for 100%) If you love 2D Zelda games and fast-paced, challenging combat, you need to try out Hyper Light Drifter. The artstyle and Disasterpeace OST are just icing on the cake. The 30 fps lock is disappointing, but overall I loved every second of this.9/10

34/52 completed.

Making updates is a lot of work, at least I'll only have to copy paste when goty '16 voting comes around.

Edit: final part

Dreamcast
OCDChewie

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Game 44: Inside (PC) | 3 Hours | 07/11/16 | 4/5

Inside is essentially Limbo but better, so it's pretty great. I didn't get too into the story, and reading into it I still don't feel it's super interesting, although there is some intrigue and its pretty open. The game has a really striking artstyle executed well and it looks super good. Gameplay wise it's more of the same from Limbo, but there are certain fun areas such as This would have been scored lower, but the day I beat it I watched another dude play it and I came across more positive to the experience, which for the kind of experience it is it makes sense I guess.

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Game 45: Gone Home (PS4) | ~2 Hours | 07/19/16 | 3/5

I sure did go home.

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Game 46: Omnibus (PC) | 3 Hours | 07/25/16 | 3.5/5

Aw geez guys it's fucking Omnibus the bus that never stops moving ever. Perform wacky stunts and shit in places like 'The Moon, USA', 'Wild West, USA' and H E Crossed Double Hockey Sticks. Graphics look like a polished PS1 game, a generally pleasing low poly artstyle executed well. Story mode consists of multiple objectives with multiple buses, each with their own gimmick. Due to the physics based nature of the game, some levels can be quite aggravating when being tipped on your side is an automatic loss; but generally most levels aren't that bad and can be quite creative. Overall it's good game, if you're into getting high scores and local co-op the game might just be for you.

Update :

Game #15 : Journey

Rating: 6.5/10 - Platform: PS4 - Developer: Thatgamecompany
There's definitely something mesmerizing about Journey, this game is beautiful to look at with a very nice spirit and absolutely gorgeous music. And yet, I'm not the biggest fan of Journey. It's short and has minimalist gameplay, it's a little boring. I get the praise and I'm very supportive of developers who work on this type of games. Journey just didn't hit any sweet spot with me.

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Hell I didn't know there was a thread for this - will add in what I've got here tomorrow. Wasn't even going for the challenge but I'm doing well anyway so may as well

Started off the year with a bunch of quick games out of the backlog. Those first 5 I think I all finished in the first 2 weeks of January. Slowed down quite a bit after that... until recently after the summer sale and I beat 4 more so far

1. Rituals - 1 hour
It's a neat little Myst-light. Not a whole lot to add. I think I got it from a bundle and I enjoyed my brief play.

2. Tengami - 1 hour
Lovely presentation, pretty light on the puzzles but there are some. If it was longer it would oustay its welcome but was pleasant for what it was.

3. Back to Bed - 1 hour
More of a serious puzzle game this time. The character auto-moves once you start the level so you have to move objects around to alter his path and get them to the goal. Some interesting mechanics, nothing mind blowing but a solid little puzzler.

4. Out there Somewhere - 1.25 hours
A mini-metroidvania, kind of cute, kind of hard, mostly just fun for a bit of an afternoon.

5. Corporate Lifestyle Simulator - 2 hours
It's a top-down-ish shmup that even at 2 hours short was too long. Kind of funny in parts but not really worth note in any way that I can think of.

6. Empyrion: Galactic Survival - 22 hours
Played this with my brother about 5 months of patches ago. A kind of Minecraft-survival-sci-fi mashup, some rough edges but the basic game was plenty fun if you like that kind of creative survival game. It's EA and they've patched it a TON since I played so it's probably even more fun now. Plus you get to build your own ships and pew-pew drones with it.

7. Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior - 1.5 hours
Meh. The concept is better than the realization of it in my opinion. I think maybe there could be a better game in this niche but a bunch of the "gameplay" just becomes incredibly tedious very quickly.

8. Year Walk - 2 hours
One of my favorites of these shorter games, it's based on an old folk tradition and includes a bunch of lore-based characters and scenes. It's really well presented, has some interesting puzzles to piece together, and is creepy in a good way (except for the one dumb jump scare). I think I played through it twice actually to get the other ending. Highly recommend reading the journal and lore in-game as you are able.

9. The Stanley Parable - 2 hours
Another really good short game, I spent entirely too long trying to get different reactions to things.

10. Diablo 3 Season 5 & 6 (and soon 7 & 8) season journeys - ~30 hours
I was tracking each season separately in my own spreadsheet but that seems to be against the spirit of the thread so I'm lumping them all in here. I really enjoy what the seasons bring, even though I mostly just want to reroll Monk every time~

11. Grim Dawn - 25 hours
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. It just felt verrrrrryyyyyy grindy to get through, you dump a lot of "skill" points into raw stats, and there's no way to like "quick level" a character to try out different builds, at least not when I played it. If there ever is a character builder or something in-game I would mess with it for at least another 25 hours I imagine.

12. Hyper Light Drifter - 13 hours
Maybe my GOTY so far. I backed it on Kickstarter and am glad I did. It has amazing aesthetics, sound design, music, atmosphere, the gameplay is very tight and rewarding. There came a room early on (because I went the hard way I guess) that killed me maybe 8-9 times but I just hopped back from the checkpoint and went at it each time. The checkpoints are pretty forgiving which makes the super hard rooms less frustrating and more fun. The boss fights range from smooth and easy to chaos and pain depending what you're good at doing. The world building is told through pictures and observation as you travel, which reminds me of SotC, another of my favorites. I have no problem recommending this even at full price. The only reason I don't have more hours (and 100%) is because I wanted to prioritize playing other games first.

13. Rise of the Tomb Raider - 29
Felt like a direct improvement to Tomb Raider 2013 to me. The tombs are way more interesting, there's a lot more platforming and puzzling. The story is not great but honestly if you're exploring a lot the story is a small portion of the game.

14. SUPERHOT - 1.8 hours
A first-person-action-puzzler, it is a really cool system. I'm curious if we'll see inspiration from this in more normal games, like an FPS where you can pause, queue up some actions, and unpause as a replacement to bullet time.

15. Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - ~28 hours
I've only really played AC IV before this, but I heard decent things and I love the setting so I went for it. And indeed, I loved the setting, running around London and solving problems and generally being a badass. The DLC adds a preposterous amount of side missions, and I quite liked some of them (The Dreadful Crimes in particular).

16. The Talos Principle - 19 hours
It was a lot more Portal-y than I expected, I hadn't looked at the game much and was thinking it was more of a Myst-style game. Still, I liked the presentation, the philosophical stuff that was built up as you play, the graphics + music combined to be just excellent. There were times when I literally just stopped and looked around and enjoyed the scenery and sounds. I liked the approach to the multiple endings, as well. There were 1 or 2 puzzles I just didn't have the mindset for and it sort of felt a little long by the end, but still a very excellent game.

17. Axiom Verge - 9 hours
I have not played Super Metroid in years, but I can see where the comparison comes from. This is a great Metroidvania with all that genre usually entails. My only complaint is no fast travel between saves, which seems to be missing in a lot of Metroidvanias sadly. It's just an annoying omission in my opinion.

18. Shadow Complex Remastered - 7 hours
Never played Shadow Complex: not remastered so no comparison there, but this was a fun kinda light metroidvania game. Again, no fast travel, which sucks. That is compounded by the fact that a lot of the upgrades are much more linear than it looks like, which means I got 95% of the way to one only to realize I needed a different one on the other end of the map first. That happened a couple times and it detracted a bit.

19. HunieCam Studio - 4 hours
I enjoyed HuniePop a lot as a fairly interesting match-3 game, and it had boobs so hey bonus. For $2 I figured I'd dabble in the clicker genre as I've never played a clicker game before. There's not a lot to the game but there's different strategies that seem viable, and the different achievements can give you artificial goals to work towards if you want. I would have enjoyed more of the HuniePop style art but they clearly were going for something else here and that's fine.

20. Apotheon - 8 hours
I don't think I appreciated this game as much as I should have. The graphics are gorgeous throughout, the style working shockingly well in-game the whole way. The hubs are much bigger than they need to be with side houses and secrets aplenty to explore. The combat is really weird at first but you get used to it and it's certainly novel (with some tuning I think it could be great). The story is basically God of War 1-3 except with a silent protagonist. It's not really a metroidvania as there's no upgrades that help you move around, but you do get better weapons and items as you explore. It's pretty enough and novel enough to recommend for like a sale price.

21. Renowned Explorers: International Society - 4 hours
I only played through one game, but managed to eek out the win in the end through reloading the last fight a bunch of times basically. It's a neat game, but I feel like the rogue-like detracts from a game where the runs are this long. If there was a more stable core with the random elements being a little less impactful that'd be more enjoyable to me but I still may go play it again later.

22. Ghost 1.0 - 13 hours
The third of the metroidvanias I bought during the summer sale, this was probably my favorite. It also has fast travel, so perhaps that's the key to my heart. I like the variety of weapons, the upgrades you can get, I enjoyed the story and character banter, and the "ghost" mechanic was fun. The one non-combat level was way way way too long (you CAN skip it but I wanted to play it out) but otherwise a great game.

More to come!

6:01h. Completed Story in Bring it On difficulty, except for a certain chapter (more on that later). Some spoilers ahead.

I sort of understand why TOW got so much flak with reviewers. The first 20 minutes are a total crowd pleaser, with an amazing shootout in a nazi base. Then comes the most sluggish, unfair and unfun stealth segment on a previously non-stealth based FPS, ever. It is true that you technically can forego stealth and go guns-a-blazing after you take down the first SuperSoldaten, but it requires a lot of skill in evasive shooting. I had to bring the difficulty down a notch and even then more of a third of my gametime was spent stuck here.

After completing this, the rest of the prison is a bit dull but much funner, and eventually you visit the titular Castle Wolfenstein, which is probably the most fun and "Wolfensteiny" part of the game, with lots of nazi shooting, pretty locales and interesting weapons. After you escape in a really good sequence, the game slowly peters out to a RTCW-style plot, which is fun on its own, but... different. Then the game abruptly ends after a disappointing final boss fight.

I did enjoy TOB, particularly the middle-part, just... not as much as TNO, which was one of the best FPS I've played, period. The gameplay is more of the same, which is good, but the plot goes everywhere and nowhere and the stealth section at the start is a total ball-breaker. But I think it's good value for the money considering that you can find it for piss cheap most of the time.

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Game 23 - Tap Tycoon [Android] &#9733;&#9733;
I had an itch for an idle clicker game so I decided to try out Tap Tycoon. The first few hours were pretty impressive. The early game reward curve was satisfying, the presentation is sublime and having it still collecting stuff while you have the app closed is a relief after having played Cookie Clicker before. But it didn't take all that long for the shine to wear off. When you hit a wall and it's becoming too slow to progress, you prestige and get a huge global boost, which lets you get back to where you were in 10 minutes vs. the 10 hours it took the last time. Then you hit the next wall and repeat. And again. And again and again and again. Even leaving it for 24 hours just results in a 20 second spending spree then another wall. Before long, you're in made-up number notation and it's all even more meaningless, because your brain can't quantify what 342ab or 231af are at a glance. Tap Tycoon is very good at what it tries to be: a complete waste of time. Hey, if you want time wasted? Look no further. But if time is a scant resource, and you often find yourself annoyed at how quickly the evenings or weekends pass, it's a terrible idea to download it.


Game 24 - Civilization V - Brave New World [PC] &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Some recent Civ 6 coverage prompted me to take Civ 5 for another spin, so I bought the final expansion for it and played through a single-player game with it and Gods and Kings. And with it popping up in the recent Humble Bundle too, I had a key to gift to a friend and got some multiplayer vanilla in at the same time, so comparisons are easy to make. What I love about Civ is how it feels exactly like a board game, while not feeling like it would be better as a board game. There are too many players, too large a playspace, too many layers and systems for anyone to be able to keep track of without a computer to assist. And it lets you be as involved as you want to be. You can just listen to your advisers for most of the build decisions and just stick to the grand over-arching strategy, or you can be very granular, telling each worker specifically which tiles to improve and micro-managing your entire empire. I went for somewhere in between. My Shoshone warriors took over my home continent and eventually won through an entirely accidental cultural victory as my influence grew due to my many trade routes. The World Congress is a great addition that brings relevance to far-off Civs that you'd normally just ignore until the late game. I never had one bit of direct dealing with Egypt but I hated them as they'd always defeat any motion I'd put forward to advance science and learning, while tabling motions to tax everything I was doing. Overall, it's a great expansion. It gives you much more to busy yourself with as you're waiting for builds to finish, and makes you care about what's happening the world over. It takes a long time to play on default settings, and you're probably not going to be rushing to start a new game after you finish one, but it's hard to fault anything here. Again, just like any great board game, this is an excellent experience to pull out once every month or two.



Game 25 - Tom Clancy's The Division [PC] &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
I actually beat this a while back, so it's not terribly fresh in my mind. I was waiting to see if I'd go back and do more endgame stuff, but I'd say I'm past that now and the only playing of this I'm going to be doing in future is for quick sessions for novelty. It's weird, because I really liked it. It's great, even. As an open world squad shooter, forgetting that it's got this MMO-lite side to it, it's got plenty to keep you occupied during its campaign. It looks gorgeous, with a highly detailed world, and it plays an excellent class-based cover-shooter game. The two failings of its campaign are that it's just shooting dudes with little variation, and the sidequests are pretty copy/paste. That's not to say they stopped being enjoyable, but I've responded to small arms fire so many times the words have lost all meaning. The Dark Zone was an interesting experiment, but ultimately what stopped me pursuing the endgame. When the most viable way to get the best gear was in the PvP area, and with all the shit that was going around with boosting at launch, it was an instant turn-off. The Underground expansion brings procedurally generated missions with it, and it feels like a deliberate response to complaints about having to do the same missions over and over. But within a few hours, I was already able to see the template blocks it uses for the missions, and the slow progress towards adding modifiers for the best loot wore down my interest. If I had the time, and kept up with the pace, I'm sure I would still be playing and loving this. Compared to Destiny, it definitely seems like the easy choice, but a few launch window mishaps meant I got out of the pool and haven't done much more than dip my toes in since.

OT

So for the 29th game on my list the GF and I completed Gears of Wat Ultimate Edition Co-op.Not to much to say other than I looked and played great. I f I never heard of the series and this was my first time playing I would have been blown away. Still great after what 10 years?

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Game 37: Zero Time Dilemma - 16 hours, 44 minutes - July 27th, 2016
I'm not really sure what I think of ZTD. It's really a hell of a game, one that defies expectations in so many ways. The more that I think about the game, the more that I feel it's the perfect embodiment of a "7." It does a lot of things really well, and it does a lot of things really poorly. The biggest problems I have with the game are probably presentation related. The English voice-acting is largely competent, but on occasion, there are lines read in such terrible ways that it really took me out of the experience. Similarly, the new visuals have moments of real class, but then there are fairly frequent character animations that are so awful that they would actually make me laugh in what should be totally serious and emotional sequences. Besides that, the cast is probably one of the least likable of the three, the twist is weak, and the end is a bit inconclusive. But still, somehow, there's a lot of good in here. I feel afraid to say much more for fear of spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. It really is the embodiment of an above average game.
Should I play ZTD? If you've played 999 and VLR, I'd say yes. If not, I'd say you might consider just playing 999 and VLR and then calling it quits.

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Game 5 - Game of Thrones: A Telltale Series (X1)

Game 6 - Until Dawn

Game 7: Tearaway Unfolded

Game 8: Skylanders Trap Team

Game 9: Skylanders Superchargers

Game 10: Disney Infinity 2.0

Game 11: Disney Infinity 3.0

Game 12: Halo 3: ODST(MCC)

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Game 50: Sonic Advance 2 (5 hours)
Not sure what I can say about this that I didn't say about the first game. This is more about holding down right and watching the game play itself. Boss battles are satisfying. Not as good as the first one but still enjoyable.
4/5

Game 51: Sonic CD (2 hours)
When I started playing this game, I waa getting sick of Sonic games. When I reached the end, I was certain I'd played the best Sonic game of my life. From the music to the Future / Past concept, this game takes the existing Sonic formula, and adds style and grace to it all. Levels are designed tightly, and boss battles are rewarding. Play this game if you play no other Sonic game.
5/5

rottendevice said:

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Game 50: Sonic Advance 2 (5 hours)
Not sure what I can say about this that I didn't say about the first game. This is more about holding down right and watching the game play itself. Boss battles are satisfying. Not as good as the first one but still enjoyable.
4/5

Game 51: Sonic CD (2 hours)
When I started playing this game, I waa getting sick of Sonic games. When I reached the end, I was certain I'd played the best Sonic game of my life. From the music to the Future / Past concept, this game takes the existing Sonic formula, and adds style and grace to it all. Levels are designed tightly, and boss battles are rewarding. Play this game if you play no other Sonic game.
5/5

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You're almost there

You gonna have a huge game to celebrate it?

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Game 38: Luftrausers - 2 hours+ - July 28th, 2016
Just deleted this off my Vita, so it seemed appropriate to post about it. I'll be honest, it didn't do much for me. It has a nice aesthetic, and it kept me interested for about an hour. After that, it was mostly just me picking up my Vita and playing it for a few minutes when I was totally bored. But the game didn't do much for me, though I could see how it might be attractive to other people.
Should I play Luftrausers? Eh, it's not a bad game to have on your Vita to play at "down" times.

6h-ish. Found gamebreaking bug in Mobile version, completed game in PC.

No review this time. This game is campy, old, cheesy, old, extremely outdated and hasn't aged well. But I know it's a cult classic so I don't feel qualified to comment. Plays well in mobile, apart from the ocassional bug that doesn't let you continue though.

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38) Life is Strange - 23 hours - 7/28
I started this game over a year ago but am just now finishing due to getting sidetracked after breaks in episodes. It was a fantastic experience that left my mouth wide open after some of the twists and turns. They did a great job with the characters and the setting that I'm sad to leave it behind.

Why there still isn't a Pokémon Conquest sequel? Games great an I'm not even a fan of SRPGs!


Games Beaten: 40 / 52
Total Playtime: 708:18:57
01 - 27
28 - ??

Big update:

Game #25: Remember Me (PS3) - 12:17 h - 21/06/2016
Very good game. I enjoyed almost every moment in this game - except too many fights in last stages. This title and Life is Strange proved me that Dontnod is one my favourite game developer.

Game #26: Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure (3DS - VC) - 11:45 h - 21/06/2016
Good rhythm title with funny heroes and good story. Besides it was my first rhythm game in gaming career.

Game #27: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (3DS - VC) - 12:23 h - 02/07/2016
Many people praise it. Many love it. Unfortunately not me. Average game. Maybe it's not for me.

Game #28: Rage (PS3) - 15:19 h - 05/07/2016
Bethesda wants to have Borderlands in portfolio and creates Rage. It's good game, but only good. Borderlands is bigger, longer, better and...much more fun.

Game #29: Zero Escape: 999 (NDS) - 12:44 h - 15/07/2016
I love good VN. Steins;Gate was my 2nd best game of 2015.
I heard many positives opinions about 999 and finally beat it. Yes, it's true. Game is brillant. Riddles are very good, fun and well-balanced. 6 endings (got 4 incl. true). Alongside U4 and Life is Strange the best game I've beaten this year.

Game #30: Retro City Rampage: DX (3DS - VC) - 05:27 h - 25/07/2016
I know this title has a huge fanbase, but sorry guys. Mediocre title for me.

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Game 31: Mass Effect

Since I'm trying to bush up on some of my languages, I decided to replay some text-heavy games (which, for me, more or less amounts to RPGs). After some contemplation, I settled on the Mass Effect trilogy, because it has the added benefit of setting up the eventual Andromeda run. I more or less played through Mass Effect over the course of a few days about two weeks ago, but haven't been able to finish it until today because of work. I originally intended to group all three games, but given that I don't know how long it'll take me to beat the other two, it's probably better to do them separately.

I was introduced to the Mass Effect series by the second game (I got a free download for my DA2 purchase) and only bought the original later. Being no stranger to Bioware RPGs, I more or less knew what to expect, but the reliance on TPS-style combat as opposed to the more deliberate pace of something like KotOR or DA: Origins really helps set it apart. To me, the first Mass Effect was always the weakest entry of the trilogy, mostly because it re-uses many of its environments, there is little actual incentive to explore planets using the Mako, and most side quests are utterly forgettable, although it does help that side content is limited (otherwise, this would probably feel very similar to large stretches of Inquisition). Not even the main missions (which are far better than the rest of the game) feel quite right.

In many ways, I think the main issue is that almost everything in the first Mass Effect feels a little rough, to the point where you can tell that the people at Bioware were still trying to figure out how to make everything fit together (Mass Effect 2 irons out practically all of these flaws, which is what makes it a much smoother experience in my opinion). This is also why I think it hasn't aged particularly well.

Still, I'd always recommend people give it a shot when they're thinking about playing the trilogy. It has plenty of flaws (some very rough animations and character models, half-baked RPG elements, the aforementioned lackluster side content), but the few places in which everything seems to come together, it is very memorable (this pertains especially to the Sovereign conversation on Virmire), and at any rate, the lore and universe make a lot more sense when you're starting at the beginning rather than just using the comic to set choices.

First update in two months! I didn't realize it had been so long... getting the screenshots uploaded seemed like a lot of work, so I just said fuck it and threw up a lazy header instead.



Game 45: Sky Force Anniversary (PC)
Finished 6/12/16 (1 pt)
Time to complete: 7.2 hours as per Steam

Really, really great shmup. Apparently it's a remastered version of some smartphone shooter that was big back in the day, but I would never have guessed if I didn't peek at the Steam reviews. Addictive upgrade system and challenge modes, if you see this on sale it's absolutely worth the money.

Game 46: Overwatch (PC)
Finished 6/12/16 (380+ games played)
Time to complete: Not "completed", but 46 hours played so far

Anybody who knows me and my taste in games (or hell, anybody who reads through the first 45 games that preceded Overwatch on my list this year) knows that I'm not much for multiplayer games in general... the last MP shooter I really got into was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the PS3. And yet here I am, lamenting the fact that I am not playing Overwatch right this very moment. It's my game of the year thus far, most definitely.

My love for OW has waxed and waned, though: like a lot of people I know, I initially came based on the character designs, which were appealingly non-traditional. And I really enjoyed the first 40 levels or so, playing almost exclusively in solo Quick Play queue. My faith started to waver a bit as my level went higher - a lot of the time, I just got matched with absolutely atrocious players that showed little interest in actually winning (and with the gall to bitch about other people not pulling their weight). I was ready to call it a day...

...and then a bunch of my friends bought copies, we built a solid team and everything was wonderful again. I'm talking Counterstrike levels of addiction, here.

Game 47: Mighty No. 9 (PS4)
Finished 7/16/16 (1 pt, +around half the challenge mode stages)
Time to complete: Around 5 hours

Aka the first time Inti Creates screwed me over in the month of July.

Bought Mighty No. 9 despite the intensely negative GAF hype, simply because I wanted a physical copy to collect (I had a feeling that the game's crappiness would deter the commissioning of additional print runs). And... welp.

MN9 was an absolutely awful game from the jump. Bad level design, annoying mechanics, atrocious graphics... plus, the control just feels "off" in the way that the best Mega Man games never are. I can't believe Inafune actually believed that he could start a new franchise off this tripe - I can only hope that Bloodstained will actually deliver.

Game 48: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)
Finished 7/24/16 (1 pt)
Time to complete: Around 16 hours

Uncharted 4 was one of my most anticipated games of the year, but unfortunately fell victim to my unexpected Overwatch addiction (along with Doom 2016). After finally cobbling together enough hours to finish it, I... well... it was pretty good, I guess?

I love UC4 as a bookend to the Uncharted series in general... all of the main protagonists got satisfying conclusions IMO, the set pieces were still memorable, and there was a lot of character development. My biggest beef with the game was that the balance felt off between the action and the traversal gameplay this time out, heavily skewed in favor of platforming (which I've always found tolerable, at best). So much so that when the game ended (with a very nice playable epilogue), I felt absolutely zero motivation to go back and play some more.

It's like they took the criticism many have of too much shoot-bang going on in previous entries ("ludonarrative dissonance", etc.), that Naughty Dog felt they needed to tone it down a bit... and went too far.

Game 49: Gal Gun: Double Peace (PS4)
Finished 7/31/16 (1 pt)
Time to complete: Around 3 hours

Aka the second time Inti Creates screwed me over in the month of July.

This game. I can't even... urrrgh.

Bought it to support Japanese quirk after reading the Destructoid review. It's just... mind-bogglingly bad. A rail shooter with first-gen PS3 level graphics, the mechanics are so broken, they're irredeemable; the character models and environment assets are also constantly recycled. The same classroom, the same hallway, the same generic suburban street, shooting the same targets. I won't go into further detail about what makes the rest of the game tick, because it's freaking Gal Gun Double Peace, and catching a GAF ban over a game this awful would drive me nuts.

Still too much MLB 16 and Rocket League but this month I made progress unlike June where I finished 0 games. Still offpace to finish this challenge this year.

July Update

Game 22 - Little Deviants &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;
I was actually surprised how a bunch of games are fun but the problem is that leaderboards are dead because nobody plays, so there is no incentive to keep playing it. However some games are completely "let's use every piece of the Vita to showcase it" launch type game.

Game 23 - Assault Android Cactus &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
What a game. People said it was great and indeed they were right unless for me. The game pushes for continually improving previous scores but I can't figure how anyone can S+ rank some of the levels. Then some of the strategy where you pick your character is essential especially in some boss levels was what sold the game to me. The constant "go for battery or keep here safe?" when a battery spawns. Last boss is a bit OP but with the right strategy even a scrub like me can finish the game.

Game 24 - Alienation &#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;
To me this is the worst Housemarque game I've played. I can see how some people enjoy the constant grind and repetition of the game but I don't especially because the game gets very stale if you don't have anyone to play co-op with.

Game 25 - Gone Home &#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;
After hearing so much praise about the game I was always interested about playing it because it feels like something I would enjoy and while I was surprised by the constant threat of the game turning into a horror game and the attention to detail of the story via some hidden diaries in the world that helps build every character of the game (yes even considering that...) the game falls flat because there is nothing there. Heavy Rain is a gameplay heaven compared to this.

Beat .hack//G.U. Vol.2 in just 3 sittings! Thats the power of weekends!

This marks my 39th rpg beaten this year so just 13 more ta go! Didn't I say something like this before? Disregard that cause I couldn't count lol.


Games Beaten: 41 / 52
Total Playtime: 716:13:22
01 - 27
28 - ??

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Game #122: Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (PC) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;

So cute!!? I really loved this game, and it was free! I might be a bit of a hipster, but even though I never grew up with games of this graphical style, I'm really fond of it (it's actually the main reason I gave Undertale a chance in the first place). I'm a big fan of "nice" games, so this was definitely up my alley. It was very well made gameplay-wise, and the cameo of made me legit geek out.

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Game #123: Touch Solitaire (DS) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;

Touch Solitaire being "beaten" was a long time coming really; it's been a huge time sink for me, and the go-to game for when I wanted to play a game, but didn't want to play a "real game." Ultimately though it's lately been a huge distraction, so I'm retiring it finally. It's a fun solitaire game, but it definitely made me like solitaire less - just because I better understood the flaws of the game.

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Game #000: Rusty's Real Deal Baseball (3DS) - &#9733;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;&#9734;

I was actually planning on beating this game (I had deleted it because I didn't particularly enjoy it, at least from what I played initially). However, I opted to include it as a "0" because upon redownloading, I discovered that the game did not remember that I spent money on it. Maybe this is why people think Nintendo is behind the times. :v I'd say that without the bullshit I'd have given it a five, but the idea that I could spend money on this game and, say, have my memory unit become corrupted and lose it just makes it something that no one should play.

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Game #124: Kirby's Star Stacker (GB) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;

I don't know why it took me this long to buy this game on the eShop in the first place; it's really fun! It's legitimately challenging in its own right, but at the same time is very inviting to Kirby fans and does have the ease of entry for which the Kirby series is renowned. Combos are way easier to do than I've seen in most puzzle games and a lot easier to set up. It definitely bears similarities to other puzzle games, but I absolutely felt that this was a very unique game.

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Game #125: Game & Watch Gallery 2 (GBC) - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734;

A definite marked improvement over the previous Game & Watch Gallery game. The visual presentation is very nice, and it is more content rich than its predecessor thanks to some nice unlocks. As I did with Game & Watch Gallery, I'ma assess every game (w/ an assessment for the Modern and Classic versions, as they vary in quality). They will be ordered from best to worst. One general thing I feel about the two Game & Watch Gallery games is that sometimes, the modern games aren't as fun because there is too much ambiguity; I like some of the Classic games better just because it's very clear whether you got something or not.

Helmet Modern - I actually started off kind of apprehensive about it. I think it's just a bit weak early on, at least with the Easy mode. In Hard mode though it picks up a lot, and the later stages are really fun and challenging. So far, this game best exemplifies what a modern adaptation of a Game & Watch game should be.
Chef Classic - With respect to my point of ambiguity, Chef Classic vs. Modern emphasizes it best. In Chef Classic, it's very clear when things will land, but the upgraded graphics create situations where you feel like you were there in time, but apparently were not. This game is very simple (as one would expect), but it's quite fun.
Chef Modern - That said, Chef Modern is still a lot of fun (more so on Easy - Hard can just become a little too overwhelming). It also is basically a completely new game versus Chef Classic, where instead of simply juggling the food, you are actually cooking it and are given more points if you can cook it just right and feed it to Yoshi (who is there to catch your food).
Ball Classic - I was actually really surprised by how much I liked this one, it was just a whole lot of fun. I think one thing that influenced me was that when it gets really hectic, the ball actually looks like it is moving in a normal fashion instead of just doing LCD tricks.
Vermin Modern - This was a really fun one, and it could get super hectic. I like that it isn't a three-life system but instead has you protecting six eggs, with it being that any egg that gets hit three times is a loss. I really liked the unique properties of the enemies, especially with how you cannot be on the same side as the Boo that is approaching you or else it will stop.
Parachute Modern - This was a fun one (and the first one I tried). I could see me playing it again, but at the same time, I really didn't like how they had different characters with different properties (Toad, Yoshi, and DK Jr.) and yet would sometimes have two Yoshis behave differently or two Toads behave differently (interestingly enough, I don't think DK Jr. ever varies). I would have liked it a lot more if they had, say, Peach and Wario as two additional characters instead of having varying properties among the same character type.
Helmet Classic - Solid level. Not as good as Helmet Modern, but fun nonetheless.
Parachute Classic - It was okay, and I definitely appreciated that the parachuters had consistent properties, but it was slightly boring; nothing I'd play for any period of time again.
Ball Modern - It's not bad at all, but it doesn't feel like it justifies itself well enough in the face of Ball Classic to even be a separate thing.
Vermin Classic - It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. Very simple, very easy, and does little to change things up.
Donkey Kong Modern and Classic - I combined these because my thoughts are pretty similar. Some elements are worse than others or better, but ultimately I found both kind of boring and over-complicated.

Yeah, pretty good game all around! Only a few that I really didn't care about. Definitely looking forward to playing 3 and 4 soon.

Preview:

After beating Star Stacker, I decided that my challenge will be to beat all Kirby games that I own (that I haven't beaten yet), which will include:

Kirby's Epic Yarn
Kirby's Dream Course
Kirby's Avalanche
Kirby's Return to Dream Land
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Kirby's Pinball Land
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror

Excited!

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27. Moirai
&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734;&#9734; - 12 minutes - Completed 7/25/2016
Interesting experiment with asynchronous player interaction in this (extremely short) mystery adventure game.

28. Rhythm Heaven Megamix
&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9734; - 8.5 hours - Completed 7/31/2016
Smiled my way through this entertaining and often funny introduction (for me) to the Rhythm Heaven series. I'm itching to play through its predecessors.

July Update:

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Game 22: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - 31h [July 16th]
The game is good and dungeons are, mostly, fun but the exploration is boring and strenuous. This problem just keeps getting worse when nearing the end.

Game 23: Virtue's Last Reward - 30h [July 28th]
Excellent. Voice acting is top notch, gameplay changes from 999 are great. But i still prefer 999.

Game 24: Zero Time Dilemma - 22h [July 31st]
I'm not sure about this one. It is a great game, but some things are..off. Voice acting is all over the place. Puzzles are great fun but way too easy. Many scenes lose impact because of terrible animation. Sountrack is perfect. 999 can't be topped.

Game 25: SUPERHOT - 4h [July 31st]
Fun, short and memorable. Must be recommended.

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36. Lone Survivor (WiiU replay) - 4 hours

I've picked this up again when I (by chance) saw that it was given away for one buck. The atmosphere and game design felt great still. However, the ,,experienced"-difficulty was nothing but a slight annoyance. Nothing seemed to change about the game, other than the fact that they didn't let you use the map. Dumb.



37. Wonder Boy in Monster World (PC) - 8 hours

A great mixture of both Zelda 2 and Metroidvania, if you will. The level design isn't all that complex, however, satisfying combat and light RPG mechanics make up for it. The game is ridiculously hard, which constitutes it's only problem: The eventual need to grind for better gear, unless you want to make the game impossible for you. Also, the final boss was ridiculous. When it comes to progression in general, it thankfully doesn't hold your hand at all, but the amount of hints are just about right.
Presentation-wise the Wonder Boy games are fun, though somewhat lacking in environments, which I always found generic.

Completed games list

JULY END (7 games completed, 41 games total)
Another really good month, more for progress on currently unfinished games than for the list of admittedly shorter titles below. I am very close to finishing the 2nd Penumbra game, 999, Rainbow Moon, Sticker Star amongst others. Shooting for a solid game per platform in August which should put me on the verge of clinching the 2016 challenge in September (again.)

Game 35: Grim Fandango (PC) - July 1 - 13 hours
I have played Grim before, but it was years ago and in tandem with my D&D buddies after gaming sessions, so this is my 1st solo playthrough and I'm counting it here. I think this is the best Lucas adventure game of them all, and that's very high praise. The Land of the Dead is an absurdly fabulous Noir setting, with a great soundtrack and populated with excellent characters (particularly Manny himself.) Puzzles are better than previous games (glares at Maniac Mansion) and are not too troubling. Was prompted by the Remastered version, but wanted to hold off a bit and do an original run first.

Game 36: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed II (PS3) - July 4 - 9 hours
Very quick sequel, finished it in three sessions over a weekend. I loved the original, and the gameplay here is actually a tad better and feels completely natural to wreck the universe with your skills. Where the sequel fails is the story, which is a mad dash just to come full circle and fight Vader again. Ignoring that, I like Witwer as Starkiller and the rest of the game looks and plays like a million bucks. Will miss this series.

Game 37: Star Wars: the Force Unleashed II: the Battle of Endor (PS3) - July 6 - 2 hours
Very cool add-on for FU2 consisting of a single level, a "what if?" scenario that has the bad guys winning Return of the Jedi through your efforts as Starkiller having chose the Evil ending in the original game. Lots of old faces return, and the final boss is a very cool twist. Quick enough that I played through twice in a trophy hunting effort.

Game 38: 5-in-1 Arcade Hits (PSP) - July 10 - 2 hours
Mishmash of 5 mini-games, played them all a few times plus some extra runs of the matching game with my 2-year old. Decent enough time waster for a quick game of pool.

Game 39: Jetpack Joyride (Vita) - July 16 - 5 hours
My favourite Endless Runner game, now on the Vita. Yet another simple game that works better on handhelds for me, but it is objectively identical to the PS3 version. Got some trophies over the weekend and calling it a day.

Game 40: Top Eleven Football Manager 2015 (Android) - July 18 - 11 hours
Fun Football sim, easy to jump in and tweak at a moment's notice. Slimmed down over other games of this sort, and that's not a poor thing at all. Hard to play over SI's FM games, but the price + tablet gaming is a pretty good duo to have in your corner. Won at the bottom tier, and that's a far as I will go with it.

Game 41: Balloon Fight (3DS) - July 23 - 5 hours
Ambassador game, plays pretty much like joust, and some fun was had. I like the "2 hits" life system better than instant death, making you more defensive with one balloon down. Lightning strikes in the later levels can kiss my ass, though.

(Late) July Update, as I hit 32 games, keeping just ahead of schedule:
Cade - 32/50

This is going to be the hardest year to pick a GOTY for me in a long time. I didn't even think some of the games that I'm considering now would be contenders.

Highlights of the last few months: Overwatch, Doom, Refunct

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Game 47: Action Henk (PC) | 3 Hours | 07/27/16 | 3.5/5

It's good game. It's a 2D score attack platformer about going real fast by sliding with your ass. Levels are moderately varied and there is some variety with some levels having a hookshot, the hookshot itself comes with a nice learning curve. Game generally has a good difficulty with needing silver medals on most levels, but the final boss is a bit of a spike and the optional after end game world is for real professional video gamers. Overall it's worth a go with a lot of content should you want to delve into it.

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Game 48: Dropsy (PC) | 4 Hours | 07/31/16 | 3.5/5

It's a point and click adventure game about being a clown and hugging people. As a mildly disturbing clown with your little animal friends, it is your duty to solve random people's problems even though most of them dislike you and think you stink. The story is alright with some darker twists and turns, played out with dialogue that's composed of pictures of things. Puzzles are generally straightforward, with some pixel hunting for optional objectives. Worth a play through.

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Game 49: Pokemon GO (Android) | 10+ Hours | 08/01/16 | 1.5/5

Yeah, I'm just gonna add this now. The loss of pokevision hit my friends, who really liked this game, hard and have pretty much given up on it, so this seems as good a time as any to put this up. Pokemon GO is a bad game. Catching pokemon loses its appeal when, to conserve battery, you turn off the camera which also disables the horrible turning gimmick so that aspect is good. Even then, after the 75th Drowzee it just becomes a chore. When you see a rare pokemon it's cool until you realize you can't do shit with it until you find more to evolve, whether it be from random spawns or from eggs (which offer at least a fair amount of candies to train/save up to evolve). Not like you're gonna see that rare shit now with no real in-game tracking or pokevision. The rest of the game isn't that interesting, you need to be real high level to participate in gym shenanigans (I'm Level 10 at the time of this writing) and battling is a dull, boring affair of mashing a touch screen. The game lives and dies based on people being out and playing so for the Summer months try to have fun with it until temperatures start to turn sour and people don't feel like going out for that 329th rattata candy.

Hooray, next update is going to hit the challenge mark, and I'm gonna make it a real good one.

Full list.



26. Valdis Story: Abyssal City - &#9733;&#9733;
A 2D Metroidvania/Devil May Cry hybrid sounds like exactly the type of game I'd be into but man, I have so many issues with the design of this game. This is just a personal thing, but I hate heavy RPG elements in action games, and Valdis Story has them in abundance: skill-trees, gear, min-maxing stats, a billion crafting materials, fuuuuuccckkk. Exploration isn't satisfying because the treasures you find have no inherent value (piece of cloth, chunk of iron, etc.). The platforming controls lack precision. They're fine for getting around, but the game has timed platforming challenges that demand absolute perfection. The combat is pretty fun, but the combat difficulty isn't well balanced. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's cheap, but it's obnoxious. Bosses have massive health bars and moves that can one-shot you. Enemies are placed specifically to knock you off high ledges and when you get hit in the air, you're stunlocked until you hit the ground. What sucks most about this is that levels are laid out in such a way that falling down a pit will often force you to repeat lengthy platforming/combat sections. Aside from being annoying, the level design just isn't very good. Every layout looks similar, and you can only ever view a map of your immediate vicinity, so it's difficult to decipher how the world fits together. As you progress, you unlock different combat spells, a few of which double as a traversal ability. Problem is, you likely won't have the proper traversal spell equipped to one of the four spell slots when you need it, and the spell equip menu is clunky. I had high hopes for this one. Too bad.

27. Ys: The Oath in Felghana - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Simple, fast, and fun. It's a hack-n-slash action RPG with light platforming elements. Admittedly, the combat is very mashy. You're rewarded for taking out enemies in quick succession and your attacks come out about as fast as you can hit the button, so it gets pretty hectic. It's fun though. You can do a basic ground combo, an uppercut, a downward stab when falling from a jump, and a few magic spells. There's enough to hold your interest. The platforming won't blow anyone away - it's more of a means to get you around - but movement feels responsive and there are a few fun segments here and there. One thing I don't like is how big of an impact your stats have on the game's difficulty. I was struggling with a boss, so I decided to grind for 10 minutes to gain a couple levels. Came back and beat him first try like it was nothing. It wasn't very satisfying. Otherwise, the bosses offered a nice challenge and were probably the highlight of the game.

28. The Talos Principle - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Challenging and rewarding puzzle game. Some of the puzzles have similar solutions so there are brief moments where it feels like you're going through the motions, but it's impressive how many ideas they were able to squeeze out of a small set of mechanics.

29. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
It holds up.

30. Super Metroid - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Timeless masterpiece, best SNES game, level design, atmosphere, etc.

31. Metroid Fusion - &#9733;&#9733;&#9733;&#9733;
Fusion is missing the freedom of exploration, sequence breaking tricks, and atmosphere of Super Metroid. It's disappointing in that regard, but it's not all bad. It feels great to control and there's a good sense of progression and empowerment. The world is very segmented, but each small area is well laid out and finding secret nooks and crannies is always fun.

32. Velocity 2X - &#9733;&#9733;
I don't like how rigid the levels are. Aside from having a button to speed up the scrolling speed when in your ship or the running speed when on foot, there are no opportunities to play strategically or creatively because every obstacle can be overcome in exactly one way. Take this boss that's repeated a few times throughout the game, for example. You hit the numbered circles in the correct order, then fly inside the boss for an on-foot section where you shoot some more numbered circles, and you repeat those steps a couple times to lower the boss' shield. Doing things in a certain order is nothing new to games, but floating circles with numbers on them is just about the least interesting implementation of that concept. When you get a good speedrun going, the game can be fun, but it's a bit too mindless I think. The one thing I really enjoyed is the soundtrack. Some great spacey synth tracks!