I've been meaning to play Axiom Verge pretty much since it launched, and I finally got around to playing it on and off over the last few weeks. This game is exactly what I wanted it to be and what I thought it would be. It's a game that's built solidly on the Metroid formula with great pixel art, cool and inventive upgrades, a serviceable map layout, a story that's interesting enough to get you through it, and some bad boss fights. I really appreciate the fact that I got lost multiple times playing Axiom Verge, and I sometimes found some really cool secrets while I was trying to find how to progress the story. If you like these games, Axiom Verge is right up your alley, but it won't be the game to change your mind if you don't.
I hate this game. Let's ignore for a second that it's a bastardization of an incredible literary work (although that is a problem, and I'll get to it). This game ranges from boring to bad. It's like God of War with a less likable main character, more brain-dead combat, worse puzzles, and less exciting set pieces. The amount of times that I died from poor level design absolutely outnumbers the amount of times I died from challenging gameplay, and it's not even close. Nothing in this game is particularly interesting or new, and it's only worth playing to see how bad they butcher the source material. On that point, a God of War derivative was never going to be the best way to adapt something like The Inferno. But they could have done a much better job than they did. The characters of Dante and Beatrice are both handled really poorly, while Virgil is turned into a walking (or actually standing) exposition machine (not to mention the fact that turning Dante into a crusader as opposed to a poet means that he would have no connection to Virigil in the first place, but that's more of a nitpick). But the most disappointing thing is that they do a terrible job of showing the actual punishments of sinners. Of all the things they could have gotten wrong, that had to have been the easiest to get right. The frustrating thing to is that half of the time they absolutely nail it. The most egregious example of them failing on this front is the ten malebolge where the sinners are represented by statues of their punishments. There are no reasons from a design standpoint not to actually show these punishments, because none of them would get in the way of anything. Ultimately, this a poor idea poorly executed. There aren't a lot of good book to game adaptations, but this has to be one of the worst.
Meh. Premise was interesting enough, and I got it as one of the free PS+ monthly games. Sometimes a little unfair, but maybe I'm just terrible at stealth
19. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)
Amazing game. I was a little skeptical at first, mainly because it looked like a Far Cry clone. To be fair, it has a good amount of similarities, but it's gameplay and story are so much better.
20. Tearaway Unfolded (PS4)
I did not like this game. It had some charm to it, but between fighting the camera and a dragged out story, I just found it overly tedious to deal with. Might have been better on Vita, not sure.
April (so far)
21. Mass Effect Andromeda (PS4)
I get the disappointment with the game. I had way too many technical glitches happen, the faces weren't great by any measure either. But I really enjoyed it. It felt like a Mass Effect game, and that's exactly what I was looking for.
So much fun, an interesting story too. The free DLC is decent also.
6. Witcher 3
A great RPG that I enjoyed playing through for only the second time. It was good to do all the dlc in one sitting.
7. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
I played through the Criminal Past dlc. I feel it is quite sad this might be the last part of the series in a while. Not a great story here but the gameplay is excellent.
8. Horizon: Zero Dawn
GOTY year so far. What a fantastic story, game and setting. Cannot wait for more.
9. Disc Jam
Best new PS plus game in a while. Not quite the new Rocket League.
10. Mass Effect: Andromeda
Despite the gifs and janky dialogue there is a decent game in there. They need to do better with further games in the series.
17. Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel 5 hours
Rating 8/10
Although short and PvP focus (which I have little interest in), this was a really well-crafted single area for the game. The main boss was exciting and terrifying. I had a lot of fun with this.
18. Final Fantasy XV: Episode Gladiolus 1 hour
Rating: 6/10
Really short, but there was some substance to it. I enjoyed it for what it was, and there were enough gameplay differences to make the experience worthwhile.
Game #44 - The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild
Time 70 Hours
Fantastic game top to bottom, a game that I feel finally makes real the "you can go anyware" and "create your own journey" taglines that many games have used over the years. That the dungeons not being particularly inspired in a Zelda game doesnt make it any less outstanding is a testament to how good the open world stuff they crafted is. Gorgeous visuals, great soundtrack, amazing gameplay, I dont believe in perfect games, or hyperbole filled "greatest of all time" shit, but its certainly very very good and will probably end up as my game of the year (sorry Hollow Knight).
I would have posted this earlier, but I've been busy lately. This is the rest of my March games that I hadn't posted. I hope to get some more done in April, but I'll probably be busy with papers and stuff. I've been making pretty good progress on games in my eyes so hopefully I get some done and Persona 5 doesn't consume me too much that I don't wait until the last minute to get my papers done.
Game 17: NieR: Automata (PS4/PC) - 14 Hrs 4 Mins (3/23/2017)
#One of my favorite games of the year. This time up here was me beating the game (Route A), but I've progressed and beat Route B (Still have C to go through, which I'll get to). The characters were good so far, the OST is one of my favorites of the year and the combat was fun. I definitely liked this game a lot, even if some parts of the game got annoying for me. It's a great game!
Game 18: Rune Factory 4 (3DS) - About 80-90 Hrs (3/25/2017)
#This felt like it took forever to beat, going off and on, playing the game. It's definitely my favorite Rune Factory game and I don't feel like I wasted my time on the game at all. I'll still be doing some stuff in the game like marriage and such. The mix of farming and combat was good and this makes me hope for an RF5. The developers got acquired by Marvelous so here's hoping something comes out of that. The game was a great experience, even if it felt like it was never ending at times.
Game 19: 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (DS/iOS/PS4/Vita/PC) - About 16 Hrs (3/30/2017)
#I played the original game via my DS, back in the day, and felt the urge to replay it when I got The Nonary Games for my Vita, so I played it and I fell in love with the game again. I'm glad it had been a while since I played 999, because it made the game feel a bit fresh in my mind, even if i started to remember some plot points and twists as I went further into the game. I definitely enjoyed the improvements the remaster had like the voice acting and the flowchart that made the experience better. I still preferred some things like the ending puzzle and some of the pixel character portraits of the DS original compared to the final puzzle and the some of the art of the remaster, but those are minor gripes and the game feels the same as the original in, pretty much, every regard. The music is still great, the plot is still gripping, the characters are great, etc. Replaying the game reminded me of how I beat the original in a weekend because it engrossed me so much. Some of the magic was lost since I had already played the game before, but replaying the game was definitely worth it and renewed my love for the game that much more.
12. FAST RMX (Switch, 2017) - 2:46 Completed the championship on Subsonic.
Wipeout was one of the first games I ever bought for my PlayStation, the console my parents decided it was okay for me to have after years of denying me the NES and SNES that everyone else had. Wipeout nearly broke me as a kid; Ridge Racer was the other game I bought at launch, and it was much easier to wrap my head around how to drive a car versus this weird floaty hovercraft thing that couldn't even turn properly. It took a long time for me to figure out how to take the first turn in Altima VII without hitting the walls, but when I finally did, suddenly the whole package clicked. I've been a fan ever since.
FAST RMX is one of a new crop of racing games trying to recapture the lost glories of F-Zero and Wipeout, both of which have been missing in action for years, if not decades (Wipeout Omega Collection aside). There is clearly potential here for Shinen to carve out their own niche in the anti-grav racing genre. The whole Ikaruga-meets-racer idea is pretty neat, and I wish any of it mattered anything worth a damn when it comes to actually winning championships.
It's worth talking about that Ikaruga mechanic. Basically, FAST RMX places boost pads on the track that increase your top speed for a short while. Wipeout does something similar, but FAST RMX has two types of boost pads, each corresponding to a colour. Your ship has to match the colour of the pad in order to boost; get it wrong and the pads act as a friction brake instead, slowing your ship down. This lends a bit of a rhythm-game feel to racing; you not only have to hit your racing lines and be in the right places at the right times, but you have to make sure your ship's configured right. Sometimes the game throws at you rapid-fire sequences of alternating pads, and this is when the racing feels best. Hitting a chain perfectly and rocketing ahead of the pack never fails to feel good.
It's what happens right afterwards that tanks FAST RMX. The pack inevitably catches up, no matter how fast you think you're going or how many of those boost pads you hit. FAST RMX has some of the worst rubberbanding I've seen in a game, to the point where others on GAF and GameFAQs have seen final race results that are completely made up and bear little relation to how people actually finished--things like photo finishes turning into three-second differences and whatnot. All of this lends a real sense that what you do in a race kind of doesn't matter. Your mastery of the Ikaruga colour-changing mechanics? Doesn't matter. Which ship you pick? Kind of matters but not really. Top speed? Who cares, rubberbanding destroys that advantage. All else falls away and the game becomes about two things in total: memorizing the tracks and knowing when to use boost.
The boost pads are just one way to give yourself a kick; you also collect orbs as you race, and those orbs fill up a separate boost meter to be deployed at any time. This, not the boost pads, is the important boost mechanic, and that's because your tactical use of this boost is what sets you apart from the AI. Ideally, you would find a way to stay just behind first place and boost to victory at the last second, or gain first place and save your boost for when your nearest competitor inevitably passes you.
This robs the game of much of its joy, because all you are is your decision to press R1 and your ability to collect orbs on the track. All other racing considerations are practically meaningless. In Wipeout, I can replay tracks over and over and over again in a bid to shave precious tenths of a second off each corner, and those gains directly translate into better performance under race conditions. In FAST RMX, it doesn't seem to matter, because you'll get fucked either way.
I'll probably play more FAST RMX, because it seems criminal to pay $25 for this game and not at least examine some of its harder difficulty modes and the Hero Mode. And I'd love to find some people to try this out as a local multiplayer game, maybe even at some hipster millennial's rooftop party. I have a feeling that taking the AI out of the picture makes FAST RMX a much more entertaining proposition. But as far as the Championship mode is concerned, I've given up on making much more progress on it. I'm taking my Subsonic pass and going home.
Game 1-Criminal Girls 2 Party Favors-Vita-Beaten on January 2nd
-I really enjoyed the grind in this game. I usually hate grinding but this game makes it very easy to do so. Fun little game that took about 25 hours. 8/10
Game 2-Shantae Half Genie Hero-Vita-Beaten on January 6th
-This was the perfect game after the long grind of my previous game. Very light-hearted and fun! Perfect on the Vita! 8/10
Game 3-Alone With You-Vita-Beaten on January 14th
-While this adventure game wasn't great, it was very relaxing to play which is what made me enjoy it overall. 7/10
Game 4-Call of Duty Infinite Warfare-PS4-Beaten on January 15th
-I might be in the minority that only play the story mode in Call of Duty games and have to say that I never tire of them. They are like a summer blockbuster. I really liked the on ground parts of his game but didn't really like the flying portions. Still waiting for a return to WWII. 8/10
Game 5-Severed- Vita-Beaten on January 17th
-I really enjoyed this game outside of a few difficulty spikes here or there. Great atmosphere and great touch controls which I usually hate. 9/10
Game 6-Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7-Vita-Beaten on January 19th
-This was the weakest game I have played in a long time. This game was before Lego characters talked so all it is is a disjointed story with very weird grunts/sounds from the characters. I really like the Harry Potter universe but this game is just bad. At least I got it super cheap from a PSN sale. 4/10
Game 7-Neverending Nightmares-Vita-Beaten on January 21
-I really enjoyed this little (2 hours long)horror game. It had great atmosphere and sound especially with headphones on. The title explains the game perfectly as you keep repeating the same nightmare over and over again with slight differences everytime you die. The story is slight but interesting as well. 7/10
Game 8-Trails of Cold Steel 2-Vita-Beaten on February 17
-Over the last 13 months, I have beaten all four of the recent Trails games and have loved every single one of them. This one took me 50 hours which is why this is he first game I have beaten in almost a month. If you like RPG's this is one of the best. 10/10
Game 9-World of Final Fantasy-Vita-Beaten on February 25
-Where January was meant for shorter games for myself, February has been dedicated to longer RPG's. I really enjoyed this game for the most part. It was great to see all the supporting stars from previous Final Fantasy games. The story was not great but kept me interested for the most part. I finished the game with the original bad ending and then saw all that I had to do to get the good ending and just decided to call it. I watched the good ending on YouTube. I had just had enough of all the random battles at that point. 8/10
Game 10-Odin Sphere Leiftrauser-Vita-Beaten on April 1
-Wow. Where did March go? I played a lot of games in March just didn't finish any. I finally beat this game on April Fools Day and as a game, it is no joke. What a great game! I really enjoyed the gameplay and while the environments repeated themselves over and over, the gameplay made up for it. 9/10
Game 11-The Walking Dead Episode 3 Above the Law-PS4-Beaten on April 2
-I am a sucker for all these Telltale games. Can't get enough of them. If you liked the previous games, you will like this. I like how Clem is really developing as a character as she is gets older. 9/10
#37 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings ★★★.5 Xbox 360 - April 3rd - 16 hours
I liked the story n all that but the combat didn't click for me at all. Encountered a few bugs which made me revert to older saves
#38 Splinter Cell Conviction ★★★★ Xbox 360 - April 4th - 4.30 hours
This was really fun, doesn't compare to the old Splinter Cell games stealth wise but as its own thing I had a blast. It's too short and easy on Normal difficulty though
I played the Wii U version last year and enjoyed it enough to grab the port for the Switch. The graphical improvements make it look even better than before. I appreciate that they added more tracks, and I love the change they made regarding recovery after crashing, so it's still possible to finish the race at a respectable place (instead of needing to start over), and how they essentially moved the perfect driving requirement into Hero Mode.
The game can be unforgiving if you're not intimately familiar with all of the curves, obstacles, boosts patches, and boost gems; proper car selection plays a big part too. Once you have a track memorized and settle on a car that works best for that track, the game really shines. The race feels like a dream - the steady beat of the music, your peripheral surroundings a blur, and just focusing on what's directly ahead of you. Boost...ZL...Boost...ZR...Switch.
So far I've finished 1st place in all 10 novice cups. Super Sonic is next! Really enjoyable game, and the added portability of the Switch made it a no-brainer for me when double-dipping.
This one interested me when it first released - a puzzle game, quirky humor, pleasant artwork, and fairly short - it seemed like a nice palate cleanser between two longer games. While it sat patiently waiting with the other games in my backlog, I read a lot of positive reviews, many which likened it to coding (sounds interesting to me). I finally got a chance to check it out, and although I've never really done coding (outside of programming a TI-81 calculator in math many years ago), it felt like how I imagine coding might be.
The puzzles started off easy enough, and then the difficulty ramped up. Each time I started a new level and read what they wanted me to do, I took a look at the available commands, and thought for a minute..."oh boy, this is nuts". But, after some thought, I just jumped in, and worked my way through it - sometimes needing several revisions before I got a large chunk of the code to work. The visual progress of the dude performing the functions (as you have them ordered) really made it clear what went wrong each time, and helped me refine the problem until I had a working solution. A lot of times I would look back at the initial problem after solving it and thinking "wow, I'm kinda amazed that I did ____ using only those commands".
The very last 3 levels (years 39, 40, 41) were beyond my un-trained knowledge in programming, so I looked online for help. Once it was explained to me how to solve those challenges, it made sense, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to figure them out on my own.
All in all, the gameplay was great, and highly satisfying. The characters were enjoyable, and the cut scenes were surprisingly good. Neat little game, well worth the price if you like puzzles/programming, and I'd highly recommend it.
I was intrigued by the Sonic games back in the day. Playing them was a rare occurrence since only a few friends had the Sega systems when I was young (while the Nintendo systems were far more ubiquitous). However, I do have fond memories of the graphics and music (compared to what I was familiar with at the time), and the differing play-style of this platformer, and it was these things that kept me intrigued over the years.
Although I had never played Sonic CD previously, the game felt very familiar from my time with Sonic 1 & 2 from many years ago. I thought the sprite work and music was great - giving a sense of refreshing nostalgia, rather than looking/sounding dated as some retro games do. The controls and gameplay were just as I remembered - mostly great, with rare instances of chance that detracted from my enjoyment. The surprise for me is that the substance of the game felt a bit narrower than I remember - and maybe this was because I had more free time as a kid, and thus spent more time exploring all corners of the levels, rather than just looking for the finish line.
The game was fairly easy, but enjoyable. The only part I found remotely difficult was the last stage, but that stemmed mostly from the "chance" related to gameplay that I mentioned earlier. All in all, it was a nice return to my past gaming days, and was a fun experience, albeit a bit short.
Okay, GAF was right again. This game was another hidden gem that I would have missed out on if I wasn't a part of this community. This further reinforces my opinion that Nintendo doesn't do enough to properly advertise their games (outside of the biggest titles).
The artwork and music were magnificent! The story worked well, and I especially love space-exploration (even if it revolved around exploring an Earth-like planet). The database of information to access/display via the gamepad worked really well. Similarly, the gamepad worked very well with controlling the explorers/pikmin, with the one caveat that it could have been enhanced if you could direct groups of pikmin to attack with a single/few clicks, rather than 100 taps of the stylus (maybe there is a way and I missed it).
I loved how the game was a mix of RTS, exploration, and metroidvania. Jumping back and forth between different zones to do further exploration after acquiring a new pikmin type was exciting. Locating the fruit and figuring out how to reach it and transport it to the ship was a challenge. The boss fights were thrilling, and really made you consider which pikmin were best suited for getting to that location as well as taking out the boss (and subsequently returning the rewards to the ships for processing).
I ended up collecting all of the fruit and getting most of the yellow info icons. I really took my time to enjoy this play-through, finishing the game on Day 51. I was a little worried about my juice levels early on, but as the game progressed I amassed a huge stockpile
that was rudely stolen from me, but then retuned after catching that punk!
I loved this game, and am curious to check out the other modes and DLC when I return to this game in the future. Highly recommend this game!
Nostalgia for retro consoles, a platformer game, and a cheap price sold me on this title.
It started out incredibly simple, but as I moved through the consoles the difficulty increased along with the graphic and sound fidelity. For me it really hit it's stride at the NES era, and continued nicely through the end
including the unlockable consoles.
I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, with my only complaint that the game's depth became pretty boring after a couple consoles. However, the changing graphics/sound, in addition to the increasing challenge of the levels kept me going to the point of a 100% completion. I thought the info on each console prior to starting their respective levels was a nice touch. Certainly a fun game for a playthrough, but I don't see it as one I'll come back to.
This was another game that I would have missed out on if not for GAF. After seeing continual praise for it (and SotC, along with fervent anticipation for TLG), I picked up the first two on a PSN sale some time ago. And after playing a lot of platformers lately, I needed something different, so I went with this.
My first impressions were that the camera was frustrating, and this continued throughout the whole game. However, it did have it's moments of usefulness when it subtly hinted at where to investigate next. The graphics were pretty rough, but I kept reminding myself that this was PS2 era, and after a couple hours I was enjoying the gameplay enough that the graphics didn't bother me anymore. I thought that the sound was good (especially the ambient noises which served as another clue at times), and there were a couple very good tunes! The controls were unrefined in my opinion - jumping felt very floaty, direction control often was erratic and at odds with the camera at times.
The story was pretty minimal, but it worked for what it was.
And finding Yorda on the beach after the credits finished made me smile.
I thought the overall gameplay was great! It felt like one really long Zelda dungeon. The puzzles were well thought out (if a little obtuse on a couple occasions). I love how the path of progression wound around on itself, giving me instances of "Hey, this place looks real familiar!", "Ooooh! I'm on the other side of that wall from before", etc.
Moving on to the next Ueda game. Again with this one, I had no idea what I was getting into - but I gave it a chance based on GAF recommendations.
Playing right after ICO, my first impressions of SotC were that the controls are still floaty and erratic, the camera control is improved, the graphics are still dreary, and the music was excellent again!
Playing through this game was a mix of extreme frustration (when the controls were giving me repeated trouble), and exhilaration when I was in the midst of a Colossus fight (and the controls were functioning properly) especially with the epic music and the grandiose settings. My absolute favorite fights where those that took place in the sky on the backs of the bird and eel - my goodness, it was exciting!
The story was pretty loose again, but gave enough direction to set the motivation. The ending was real weird, and I wasn't sure if I was following the script or if there were other possible outcomes
like when I turned into the demon, and it seemed like I was intended to fist smash the other dudes that were fleeing, but then it moved on from there? And then I was running away from the pool of light, but couldn't get away so I ran into it?
Anyway, I loved what Ueda set out to do with the Colossi fights, but the controls made me consider quitting around the 3rd Colossus. However, I pushed through and by the time I was done with the 5th Colossus I was enjoying the times when things went right enough to want to finish the game. This is another game I don't think I'll revisit, unless there was a remake of this game, with improvements to the controls. Updated graphics would be nice too, of course. I think the substance of the game is incredible, but it needs refinement.
This was a beautiful game, both visually and emotionally. There was a tremendous leap from ICO and SotC in my appreciation for the game, and I feel like it was Ueda's opus.
I could identify with the main character and actually felt a bond with Trico. I like how the relationship between the characters felt real and organic, developing over the multitude of challenges and experiences we faced together through that game. Trico went from the beast next to me at the start, to someone I could team up with to progress, to a legitimate companion by the end of the game.
I appreciated all the details of Trico's personality. You could get a sense when he was curious, scared, hurt, lonely, etc. His animation/movements, although a mythical creature, embodied many idiosyncrasies that are familiar to a cat owner, making the experience that much more engaging. His companionship also reminded me quite a bit of dogs that I've had.
I loved the music/score, and thought that it really added to the intensity and emotion of the scenes, and the game as a whole. For me, the controls were a huge improvement over Ueda's previous games - there were still minor issues with them on rare occasions, and Trico's AI seemed a bit unresponsive a couple times as well, but these are minor blemishes in an otherwise incredible game. I highly recommend this game, and look forward to revisiting this game on a future play-through!
So, I've put over 500 Hrs into the Wii U version of this game, and I have no regrets about paying another $60 to get the Switch version.
I spent most of the weekend unlocking karts/parts, grabbing the 3-star gold trophies in all the cups, and beating all of the Nintendo Ghosts in Time Trials.
I've played a handful of online race mode (which is just as great as it was on the Wii U), but I have indulged in the Battle Modes. My goodness, they are so fun and addicting. It reminds me of the Mario Kart 64 days.
The improved graphics, added characters, and other enhancements make this game pretty much perfect to me. I hope they continue supporting this game via DLC, as I would LOVE some more courses/cups in the race mode, and maybe a few more characters & battle courses as well.
Update:
Battle Mode is once again (after its Wii U "hiatus") amazing, and I can't get enough of it!
Next Update:
I've played this on my big TV, and in handheld mode on a plane/train/car. I've played by myself, with random people online, with my Mom, friends, and cousin. The portability, graphics/sound quality, HD rumble, and general fun is always a pleasant surprise to the next person who plays with me.
So, this is the Mega Man game (other than MM2) that I remember playing as a child - for like ~25 years I thought I had played 2 & 3 when I was young, but it was indeed 2 & 4 - and as soon as I started playing 4 it was immediately familiar to me.
This was another fantastic entry in the series. I liked the addition of the charge-able buster. Once again, the music, stages, bosses, and controls were all on point. It felt like the game made improvements from previous entries, and kept the challenging gameplay while reducing cheap deaths.
There's not much more to say, other than this game was great, and I'm looking forward to the next entry!
This is another game I played when I was young, and I remember really enjoying my time with it, but as I'm playing through I'm realizing that I never made it much further than the 2nd world when I played it so many years ago.
I'm sure an any % completion of the game isn't very difficult, but since I'm enjoying the game so much, the completionist in me is going for the 100%, and it can be a bit challenging at times (which is great)!
This game's music, graphics, characters, and level of difficulty are all top-notch. My only criticism is the insistent crying of Baby Mario when I get hit - oh my goodness it's grating!
Random thoughts: With the added focus to finding all of the collectables, the game feels a bit more like a DKC game than SMW (which is totally okay with me, as I love both). It's a bit of role-reversal seeing Baby Mario float away from me when I get hit, versus seeing Yoshi run away from me when I get hit in SMW.
Game 27: Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (NSW) - 11.5 Hrs
I'm a little ways into the game, and even though I'm playing through the same levels, it's quite a different experience from my playthrough as Shovel Knight, and I'd say it's a testament to how important good gameplay is to my enjoyment of a game. I'm having to do a bit of retraining my brain as I play, with the differing play-style: some thing I used to bounce off of can be ignored, some jumps I used to be able to make now require double-jumps or alternative means, attacks are very different, and even the life bar has changed! I'm enjoying the different story arc that ultimately leads to the same conclusion.
Random thoughts:
It's neat seeing Shovel Knight walking above you the first time you pass through town, and get relegated to the sub-grade area. And then I got to fight him as one of the bosses (and he manages to win even after you beat him), and again in the boss rush. I love how the game's paths overlap, and it's endearing that the lead characters' motivations for both campaigns revolves around their love for another and an exciting adventure in the process.
Tetris is still just as great as it always was when I first played it back on the Gameboy in the 80's! I love the little improvements over the years like the fast drop, and being able to see more of the upcoming pieces. I think the amount of time you are given to move or spin a block after it touches the bottom is a bit absurd though.
Puyo Puyo while easy in concept will require a deeper dive for me to really grasp how to rack up the big points.
Update:
This game has been great for short bursts of time, and I'm working on the story mode which is both quirky as heck and oddly entertaining.
This game was pretty phenomenal. I loved the huge cast of characters, and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities when I got to do multiple team battles. The characters were all pretty versatile, which made playing as different setups a breeze, and I appreciated the sometimes forced team setups as it got me out of my comfort zone of the same 4 characters, and into more experimenting. Overall, Celes was my favorite character, but everyone had their own personality and skill-sets that made playing them interesting as well, and there wasn't a character I didn't like playing. I'd love to spend more time with
the Yeti and the Mime, since I didn't find them until I was nearly ready to fight Kefka
.
Once again, the music and sprites were top notch. The story did feel a little loose to me
aside from going after Kefka
, but the game was enjoyable enough that it didn't bother me all that much. Maybe that was on me for reading too much into
the War of the Magi, and expecting a grand coming together of the people against Kefka, and when it didn't happen (since the townspeople had seemingly accepted their fate), it was only my party (albeit a rather large one) against him, and it felt a bit lonely/sad to me
.
the content of the story aside, I felt that the story-telling continues to improve with each iteration. The opening and closing scenes must have something else at the time. The interactions between the characters were great, and the use of special sprites just for the characters shaking their finger like "Nuh uh, let me tell you what's what", along with a few others were a nice touch.
Overall I thought it was another great SNES RPG, and now that I've played FFIV, FFV, FFVI, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG over the past 2 years, my personal order of appreciation would be CT & SMRPG as the best, FFVI & FFV as the next best, and FFIV after that (all of them being great). I still want to check out the Mother series, the Mana series, and the Soul Blazer series - maybe over the next couple of years - and then come back to reevaluate my feelings on the SNES RPG offerings.
Finally getting to play this one is like finding money in your laundry - a pleasant surprise! By all accounts, it should have been great after playing the previous 2 games - but you never know when a series could taper off in quality. To me, the controls, music, and sprite work is what makes DKC great - and they were consistently great in this installment as well.
The story is simple - like many platformers - and I'm okay with that, since the game's fun derives from precise execution. Though I was wondering where
King K. Rool was - that is until he peeked out from behind the curtain in the final battle, hah!
Overall, this was another great installment in the series, and enjoyable to the point where I lost track of time on this one too, realizing it was suddenly four hours later. I would highly recommend giving this one a play if you enjoyed the previous two games!
Only made it to the late 30s last year, trying it again this year.
1. Metal Slug 3 - 1/1/17 (3 hours)
It was nice being able to play through one of these without quarters for once, because I died quite a bit (and continue spammed to the end). The gameplay is fun and feels like it's aged well, I'm just not good enough to properly dodge everything.
2.Diablo 3 (10+ hours)
Played some more of my wizard and gained quite a few paragon levels. I feel like I'm done at this point until Necromancer comes out though. None of the other current classes beside wizard interest me all that much.
3. FTL - 1/2/17 (8 hours)
Skipping the tutorial probably wasn't for the best, as I spent the first few hours dying in the first few areas I went to. After that I got the hang of it enough to consistently make it to the last area or 2. That last boss is something else if you have bad rng throughout your run, as it took me 5 tries before I was able to get it down.
4. Megatagmension Blanc - 1/14/17 (30 hours)
This is one of the easiest games I've ever played, with one of the most boring stories I've seen. Most of the enemies just stand there and pose no threat whatsoever, while bosses are too slow to be able to hit you if you have any amount of awereness. I may like the characters and the mainline series, but these spinoffs have been really disappointing in regards to matching what I like about the main series.
5. Steins Gate 0 - 1/22/17 (30 hours)
While it was nice seeing the characters again and seeing some of what "could" have happened, it all just felt kinda pointless in the end. I may have really liked it, but at the end of the game I felt like I was left with the question of "why"? This was something that felt like it didn't need to be, due to how the first one ended. In some ways it feels like it took away some of what made the first one so great. I also went into it with extremely high expectations after how the first was, which is probably why I felt let down in the end.
6. One Way Heroics - 1/26/17 (8 hours)
This is the hardest roguelike I have ever played. It feels like too many of the classes are reliant on rng for what you find while traveling, because I could only beat normal difficulty with 2 classes, one of which needed gear carried over from a previous run. Dragon knight are essentially run enders if you run into them too early and don't have a good enough escape route, which you run into them far too often for it to feel fair at times. I may go back to it later to try again, but it honestly feels like too much for me.
7. Shovel Knight - 1/28/17 (6 hours)
A great indie that I should not have waited so long to finally play. I feel like many of the harder trophies are beyond me as I died...a lot and it would likely take a while for me to feel comfortable enough on some of the levels and bosses. Screw the airship level the most.
8. Muramasa Rebirth - 2/4/17 (22 hours)
For having multiple difficulties, normal mode felt way too easy. The only thing that was a threat were 2-3 bosses between the main 2 characters and then a few challenge rooms. I liked the art at least, but the story felt really lacking and the difficulty could have been harder since you have to wait to unlock other difficulties.
9. Operation Abyss: New Tokyo Legacy - 2/18/17 (30 hours)
As with most Experience games, random battles were way too easy, same with most bosses until the halfway point where there's a difficulty spike.
10. Galgun Double Peace - 2/24/17 (8 hours)
If it weren't for the constant low fps on Vita making it hard to aim and the touchscreen not being as responsive as I would have liked, I would have said it wasn't a terrible on rails "shooter". It's really hard to care more when the performance is holding it back so much. This is also lewd as all hell.
11. Dragon Quest Builders - 3/11/17 (35 hours)
Literally Minecraft, but with a Dragon Quest aesthetic. Had a lot of fun with this one, although the story got really repetitive as each new area is basically starting fresh but having to build new things to progress. Will likely go back at some point and finish the platinum as I also wanted to mess around in free mode at some point.
12. Trillion: God of Destruction - 3/19/17 (6 hours)
Went back for another ending this year with the intent to get the rest of them as well (the other 6), but when the game crashes on me multiples times every time I get to the 3rd form for Trillion and it just takes so long to raise a character, I just can't do any more. I really liked the characters and story too, but when it takes hours upon hours just to get one ending, I would rather spend that time doing something else.
13. Earth Defense Force 2 - 3/20/17 (7 hours)
Back for some more dumb fun trophy hunting. Got several more trophies I had been working on and finished another difficulty with the soldier.
14. Toukiden 2 - 3/29/17 (45 hours)
I got this on a whim and went into it with next to no expectations. This ended up being one of my top "hunting" games. I went with the chain sword for most fot eh game and had a blast with it. Even though the game definitely was not a looker, I'm surprised they got it to run as well as they did on Vita, as the game is essentially open world.
15. Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus - 4/9/17 (8 hours)
This is one of the tankiest 3d action games I have ever played. There is a massive difference between how this played and how any game they made past it does, to the point where I honestly did not care to continue on with the game past one story line in this. I only ended up doing Gessen's story line and doing all the side mission for the 5 characters. Even with it being an easy platinum, I just do not care enough to do 3 more story lines when I can not stand the gameplay.
16. A Rose in the Twilight - 4/15/17 (13 hours)
For a "sequel" to Firefly Diary, this blew it away in just about every regard. The puzzles were far more challenging and you didn't have to worry about maneuvering the fairies around with bad controls. The platinum took some real effort too with the the time trial trophy. Cutting off the final 10mins I needed was really stressful. Overall I would say this was a really good puzzle game, although just like Firefly Diary, it also has a really dark story.
17. Atelier Shallie Plus - 4/29/17 (40 hours)
After being kinda "ehh" on Escha and Logy I kept my expectations in check for this one, it ended up being significantly better than I expected. The alchemy system is quite a bit better and I was glad that there wasn't really a schedule that events needed to be done by. I liked the main characters more than E&L and liked how the game was a big "get together" with all the leads, even if some of them could have had more to them. I thought playing this game on hard was a challenge....until I found out that 2 more difficulties unlock after beating it. I do not think I will give either of those a go to say the least.
18. Trails in the Sky the 3rd - 5/11/17 (40 hours)
19. Odin Sphere - 5/24/17 (26 hours)
Overall I liked it, but I felt like it had several flaws that really brought it down. They really could have done with another 2-3 areas to go through so you're not looking at the exact same thing with all 5 characters. They also could have balanced abilities a bit more so it's not 1 or 2 that are clearly superior to the rest in every situation. While I really the story, I did not like Oswald at all and felt that if he were a bit less "edgy", the story would have been better for it.
20. Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception - 6/13/17 (33 hours)
The campaign was a campy yet serviceable romp, but the real appeal here is multiplayer.
Finding it very addictive and rewarding. It's the closest I'll get to playing a fighting game with friends who don't like fighting games!
Also Raider is bae.
Risk of Rain (PS Vita)
My favourite roguelike of recent years. Very easy to pick up and play, with a strong "one more go" hook.
Some nice dark, witty sci-fi writing and an excellent soundtrack complete the experience.
Aiming to finish by May:
Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City (PS4)
The Swindle (PS Vita)
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PS Vita)
Recently acquired:
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)
Notes:
Quickly found I wasn't going to finish Nioh anytime soon, so had to bang out a quick RoR playthrough to fill my March quota (I was still a bit late). Still such a great little game.
Gonna set my sights a little lower this month. Will keep making progress with the bigger titles while polishing off some more portable stuff.
For the sake of consistency, I went back and counted the paid episodic DLCs for Mass Effect 2 and 3 as adding to the count, since I'm playing other DLCs for other games and counting them.
Far Cry Primal - PS4
Really enjoyed it after feeling "meh" on FC4.
Quantum Break - X1
Disappointed in this. So much exposition in logs and emails. It's just not the way to tell a story. Shallow combat, terrible live action cut scenes and very little of that Remedy humour I enjoy so much... that 'Time Knife' script though!
RYSE - X1
Pleasantly surprised by this. I'd gotten it into my head that this was some sort of QTE adventure game and had given it the swerve. In actuality it's a pretty decent 'God of War' clone. Really pretty, some cool looking executions... Expand the combat, play up the supernatural elements and I'd be in for the return of the Black Centurion.
This was my first game in the Nier/Drakengaard Universe. What a great experience. I'm not the biggest fan of Platinum games on here but I liked the gameplay of this so much better than the previous ones I've played. Also this was my first Taro Yoko game and what a great story with so many layers! I would highly recommend this game to anyone.
30. Forza Horizon 3 (XB1)
Completed Final Showcase: 4/1/17
Time: 20 hours
This is easily my favorite racer of all time. Simply sublime game that everyone should be able to experience. Will continue to play this game through the next year, but will go ahead and count it completed. Also picked up Blizzard Mountain and can't wait to try that!
31. Resident Evil 6
Completed Main Story (all campaigns): 4/4/17
Time: 18 hours
Um.....I'm not for sure what I played here. I enjoyed all the previous mainline Resident Evil games (as well as Code Veronica which was probably my favorite of the original 'style' of the series and Revelations 2). I had heard the not-so-great word of mouth of this game so I went in with tempered expectations but still was glad to be done with this.
Top 5 played to date this year:
1. Arkham Asylum Remaster
2. Arkham City Remaster
3. Forza Horizon 3
4. Nier Automata
5. Zelda: The Minish Cap
Currently Playing:
Resident Evil 7
MLB The Show'17
Breath of the Wild.
#Game 8 - Mass Effect Andromeda - 60 hours for campaign completion
Good third person shooter game, bad story game, that's about how id sum it up aside from the deluge of bugs I encountered.
It's rough in it's current state, but there's still lots of fun to be had if you can overlook story and animation issues for good gameplay.
Imo the combat is at it's best the series have ever been at.
Next is a coin flip between EU4 or Stellaris, both releasing new DLC on the same day, why paradox, why...
A really nice and unique platformer with a chill soundtrack and great visuals. Learning how to control Noodle (the snake) was fun and it felt very fluid and rewarding slithering from one platform to another. There are no enemies but there are a lot of environmental hazards like lava and spikes and the later levels are definitely no walk in the park, there's a good difficulty curve for sure. The game is pretty demanding, I have an alright PC and I had a pretty low framerate and some screen tearing throughout the game. Still very playable though. David Wise's music was awesome and that + the game's art style reminded me of Rare games like Viva Piñata and Banjo. A very charming and wholesome game all in all and well worth the 20 it cost, pick it up! Hopefully Sumo Digital's next project is a new Sonic & All-Stars Racing game though, hah!
Even short but one of the best campaigns I played in BF series. Though that might not saying much since previous to this I only liked both Bad Company campaigns. 'Friends in High Places', 'Nothing is Written' and especially 'Through Mud and Blood' were my favorites from war stories. The later especially since atmosphere reminded me a little of psx Medal of Honor titles. Lone soldier, a lot of sneaking, might just be me but I loved.
Recently I got a 4K tv and since this game support's Pro it was a good opportunity to see what combination of 4K and Pro are capable off. I was not disappointed. Lightning in night levels looked unreal. Graphically is up there with Uncharted 4, Division and Horizon.
14) Horizon Zero Dawn - 55 hours - 4/6
I've been almost exclusively playing this for the past month and I can say without a doubt that it's my favorite game ever. The world is the best I've ever seen in a game, alive and rich with detail. The enemies are unique, challenging, and generally awe inspiring. Aloy is easily my favorite hero in ages, the gameplay and game systems are so polished and rewarding, and the story is a fantastic sci-fi tale. Everything about this game spoke to me and I tried to make it last as long as I possibly could by doing absolutely everything so that by the time I had finished the final mission and watched the credits roll, I had gotten the platinum. I've been thinking about this game so much in the past few weeks, much more than when I usually play games, and I just know this is going to leave me feeling empty for a while since it's finished now. I'm so excited that Guerrilla is working on DLC for this and hopefully it will be just the beginning of a fantastic franchise.
12. Fire Emblem Sacred Stones - 9/10, 25ish hours I think
Did a draft challenge run with some friends and replayed this. I forgot how much I enjoyed Sacred Stones until I replayed it. I got very lucky with the draft and got first pick, so I got Vanessa and she carried the game. Garcia was also incredibly useful. It was great revisiting this game, got me excited for Echoes too considering how Sacred Stones was directly inspired by FE Gaiden. I basically played the whole game on hard mode without a healer, magic, or bows, so that was interesting.
13. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 10/10, 100ish Hours
So much has been said about this game over the past month that I'm gonna keep this brief - this game is incredible and an easy GOTY contender for me. I've been playing Yakuza and it was my original frontrunner, BotW blew past it. In terms of games I'm currently playing, Nier Automata and Persona 5 may challenge BotW a bit, and some upcoming games like Mario Odyssey will also raise a challenge too, but BotW is definitely my current #1 of the year. It's phenomenal and I love it a lot.
14. Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City - 8/10, 10-15 hours
Much better than the previous Dark Souls 3 DLC. The bosses are good, the level design is okay, and a lot of neat new things were added in. A bit disappointing for the final Souls content ever, but after Ariandel all I care about is that this was good, and it was. Also the final boss was excellent.
15. Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel - 4/10, 1 hour
Did a quick speedrun through this DLC after playing the first one to see how it compared and to see if the DLC grew on me at all. Nope, still not a big fan. It's mediocre, the level design is pretty garbage, and I think both bosses are pure junk too. It's not a complete waste of time but it's some of my least favorite Souls content, made worse by the fact that it's something you gotta pay separately for.
Currently playing Nier Automata and Persona 5. Getting close to "beating" Nier, though I'm not gonna count it until I do all the main storylines. They're both pretty special games.
Overview
A few years ago, I played through Symphony of the Night, and really enjoyed it. It was the first Castlevania game I finished, and I really enjoyed the Igavania offerings of the series. I then played Aria of Sorrow, the prequel to this game, and enjoyed that one as well! Then. I played this one.
Gameplay
The game plays very similarly to its predecessor, Aria of Sorrow. Soma Cruz returns, traveling through a castle, gaining weapons and the souls of the monsters that you defeat. Equipping souls allow you a variety of moves, mimicking the monsters that they come from. The game is a "Metroidvania", a nonlinear maze where you need to travel to specific point to point to gain the abilities needed to travel further into the castle.
Story
About a year after the events of Aria, Soma Cruz is minding his own damn business, when a cult approaches him on the street and sets monsters upon him, he defeats the monsters and absorbs their souls, before traveling to the remains of Castlevania where the cult has been set up. Soma travels through the castle to stop the cult from reviving Dracula in his body, or by using his power to resurrect him in someone else.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
Solid Music. The Castlevania series is well known for its great soundtracks, and this game is no exception.
Cons:
The gameplay. Compared to Aria, this game is very stiff. Soma is much more clunky, his double jump looks much... cheesier than it did in prior games. Souls and weapons are much harder to come by, making customization much less ideal.
The art style. This is a well-known issue with the game. They went for a much more 'anime' style, which is fine, except it doesn't look as good. Julius in particular looks very strange in the anime style.
Rating
Average
In the end, I didn't enjoy this game too much. The story wasn't great, the gameplay was clunky, and the whole time I found myself wishing I was playing Aria of Sorrow instead. That being said, if you are a fan of Castlevania, it might be worth a look to see what the series all has to offer.
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For a list of the other games I've completed this year, visit my mother post here.
25. Speedy Gonzales (Game Boy, 3 ½ hours)
Speedy Gonzales for Game Boy is another game from my childhood. It is also, undoubtedly, a Sonic the Hedgehog rip-off. It makes sense Sonic is a fast hedgehog, Speedy Gonzales is a fast mouse. The development team had to draw their inspiration from somewhere. Unfortunately, the game falls flat in some of the same ways Sonic does, not the least of which is cheap deaths. I dont want to be too dismissive; the controls are good and the platforming can be enjoyable, but Speedy Gonzales is sadly an exercise in frustration more than anything else.
The game is divided into six zones, and each zone has three sections and a boss. Some examples of zone names are Mexico Zone, and Desert Zone, in which you will find some of the most racist depictions of Mexicans and Middle Easterners youll see in a video game. That said, each level has unique art with the exception of the occasional reused sprite, and the art is about average for a Game Boy game.
The game is like Sonic in that you run fast, there are springs you can bounce off of, and you collect spinning discs of cheese which is similar to Sonics rings. There are even loop-de-loops, waterfalls you can run behind, and trees to pass through all like in Sonic games. Its a little shameless how much Segas flagship franchise is ripped off. Then again, if you thought Sonic was cool and only owned a Game Boy, maybe this would have been worth picking up.
The levels, when theyre not about running to the right and avoiding obstacles, are about finding switches with question marks on them which change something in the level. A switch could start an elevator, open a passageway, or produce a series of blocks. Some switches are optional. I found the switches to be fun, though the puzzle-solving never got too intricate. You are on a 99 second time limit, after all.
Once again, the game has a fair number of cheap deaths. The obvious example is running so fast that you cant see the enemy / obstacle / pit ahead of you. But there are also creative cheap deaths. Theres a time where if you go left instead of right, a black wrecking ball drops from the sky and you cant escape it. There are enemies that fly up and down, and you have to jump with split second timing to not hit them and die. You have three lives, and as far as I noticed, there are no 1ups. If youre in Section 3 of a zone or facing a boss and you lose your last life, you start at Section 1 again. Its super frustrating if you dont have save states. Once you do clear a zone, youre given a password, so you can always return to the furthest zone youve reached. I guess the challenge of making it through three sections and a boss on three lives added to the games overall longevity, but it ends up resulting in level memorization.
Speedy Gonzales for Game Boy would have benefitted if everything was slower, but Im not sure how youd pull that off with the title character. Maybe this needed to be a Tweety Bird game. Its really not such a bad platformer, but emulate the game so you can save state your way out of dying all the time. As it stands, frustration is more frequent than reward. A slightly below average game. 2/5
GAME #16 - Valdis Story: Abyssal City - 5 hours - 9/10 - 4/8/17
Another replay, but kinda not really. See, I was in the mood for a Metroidvania game with some more 'Vania elements (more close range combat, leveling up, loot, etc) and I remembered that I played this back in '14 or so and decided to give it another go. Turns out a bunch of content had been added in for free since I last played, so I got to play as a brand new character and go to a whole bunch of places I never saw before. Hence the "replay, but kinda not really bit"
For this playthrough, I went with Gilda Ire, a half-demon, half-dragon mage character whose playstyle requires you to manage your MP and pay attention to your spell selection more than anyone else. She can't heal on her own early in the game, which makes for early bosses a bit of a challenge as you try to sneak in damage without getting hit, but in exchange she starts with a double jump that can later be upgraded in a triple (and even a quadruple) jump. Starting with a double jump makes exploration trivial and allowed me to reach a lot of areas that I probably shouldn't have as early as I did.
Aside from that, Valdis Story remains as well designed Metroidvania game that sets itself apart from the pack with a robust focus on combat. You get bonus XP for performing lengthier combos against enemies, you get multiple ways to launch foes and cancel attack animations, you're graded on your performance in boss fights and get bonus stats and XP for doing better/faster, there are few weapons but each dramatically change how you play the game, etc. The combat doesn't quite have the depth of a Platinum game, but it's more involved that mashing the attack button while dodging attacks, at least most of the time.
There's also a number of ways to build each character, with four different stats you can allocate points in a three separate skill trees for each character. That being said, there's often no reason not to simply dump all of your points in one skill and focus on only one tree per playthrough, so it's not like your building your own builds, but instead choosing one at the start of the game. Combined with the handful of weapons that each character can wield and you've got a lot of diversity in how you can play through the game.
There are a couple of flaws though. The game doesn't look fantastic, with player-characters and allies often resembling the old digitized 3D model Rare-style characters from the SNES days. The story isn't anything to write home about either. A lot of jargon is thrown at you fast and hard, and there's so much backstory to this world that it seems very bloated if you try to keep a handle on all of it. Some of the platforming puzzles are a bit finicky as well, and it takes a while for the game to open up (both in exploration and character builds), so most playthroughs start out the same even if they end radically differently.
Still, a hardy recommendation from me if you're a passing fan of Metroidvania games.
So it took me under 8 hours to beat the game's main story mode. The game dragged on longer than it had any right to mainly due to having 'filler' missions, such as Guts saving villagers from a group of bandits tha apparently number in the hundreds, among other things.
I enjoyed my time with the game mainly as you're cutting stuff up as Guts but having beaten it recently, I don't see myself going back to it any time soon.
I'd recommend it for fans of Musou, though I don't know if Berserk fans would enjoy the Musou formula for about 7-8 hour playthrough
This beat'em-up is weird.
OK first off, the biggest highlight of this beat'em-up, despite having the most basic combat system a beat'em-up could ever have, is that you can play as a 2 year old baby piloting a green battle suit, and this concept alone is aweomse; Baby Commando is the bro-est baby there ever lived, just look at this character select artwork-
Now let me get to where this game is weird; it is the stages you go through.
The game consists of around 9 stages, but each stage is short, beatable in under 10 minutes.
Stage 1 has you start off with your regular '10 minutes into the future' street side where thugs are looting stores and loitering and what have you, ending wiht a boss fight in a bank.
Everything's standard so far.
Stage 2 has you go to a Museum, with its icon on the game map looking like a t-rex taking a shit on a building-
You beat up some baddies and then some scantly clad women show up brandishing their electricifying tongs for you to beat up. The background in the first half has a display of various creatures and a large fish.
You eventually reach a dead end and find a secret underground door that leads you to...
a prehistoric cavemen dweling. There are cavemen under the museum
Living with their families and children
Under the Museum
You fight off against more baddies and eventually reach a dead end where you fight a roided up Blanka who jumps around firing a Repeating Harpoon Gun.
Stage 3 has you head towards the Ninja House which is basically a Ninja HQ situated directly behind the Museum.
You beat up some ninjas and some roided up Samurais then you face off against a Kabuki whose Naginata can cut your characters in half, with blood spilling out of your decapitated corpse!
Stage 4 has you go to a circuis camp, the usual mooks show up and then you get to face them inside the Big Top with dozens of mooks watching on as spectators.
After beating up some more baddies you find a secret door that leads to
A genetics laboratory; they've been conducting illegal genetic research right under a circus! NO ONE WOULD SUSPECT SUCH A THING!
At the end of the lab you find Doctor Wily's long lost brother who has mutated a tall businessman into a 3 eyed green monster. After defeating it, you head towards a 'breather stage', as the circus is near the seaside, making it the perfect location to have a secret emergency escape route via the sea.
Stage 5 is the shortest stage in the game, as you are riding on a surfboard and beat up enemies for some quick score points before catching up to the escaped scientist and beating him before a timer runs out.
Stage 6 is called 'Aquarium' in the game, but it is more of an underwater city with you going through one of the facilities. You can see some domed buildings while in the underwater area too.
Stage 7 has the bad guys' underground base, where you eventually face off against Alex from Street Fighter III who is hooked on Bane (from Batman)'s Venom, making him more roided up. Thankfully he doesn't use wrestling moves on you.
Stage 8 has you boarding the enemy's spaceship to their main base of operations. There isn't much noticeable about this stage except for its boss: Some fat guy in a green jumpsuit who uses a device to transform into one of the 4 characters, basically being a doppelganger.
As if that wasn't whack enough, his device eventually lets him split into 2 Doppelgangers.
Stage 9 is the final stage in the game, being some kind of spaceship HQ in the shape of Saturn. Inside you find out it is a high class casino with rich people hanging about partying and what have you.
Makes one wonder why they even bother causing mayhem on Earth and when they are fully loaded if they got a spaceship HQ that also serves as a casino.
Being the final stage, you get to go up against the final boss, Genocide/Scumocide, who looks like a mix between Shao Khan from Mortal Kombat and Apocalypse form X-Men except he has a discus halo on his head and has fire and ice powers.
I honestly wonder what they were thinking with the design of the stages, but I like how odd they are, gives it that lost 90s/80s gaming feel.
There is some fun to get in this game, esp. if played co-op, as Single Player doesn't offer much in terms of gameplay, but beating up mooks as a group has a certain charm to it.
15) Ryse: Son of Rome - 5 hours - 4/8
After beating Horizon, I wanted to play something much smaller in scope before I jumped into another huge, open world game and since we got Ryse for free with Gold this month, I thought it would be perfect. I really enjoyed the story and some of the supernatural intrigue,
especially how the game was a chess match between gods meddling in people's affairs.
Although this was a launch title for the Xbox One, it is still absolutely stunning, only matched by a select few games on consoles. The combat was a ton of fun and although it wasn't exactly deep, I never got tired of it and it was more complex than the QTE's that I thought it was primarily made up of before I started playing. Some of the locals you visit were absolutely gorgeous and overall it was a great experience.
Overview
Finally, the third character/expansion to the excellent Shovel Knight is here. After the excellent original game, and the somewhat lacking Plague Knight campaign, I was very eager to see what Yacht Club had next up their sleeves.
Gameplay
The game plays somewhat similarly to the original Shovel Knight game, where you must traverse 8-bit inspired stages to defeat the boss at the end of the game. Specter Knight has a variety of abilities unique to him, which are somewhat based on Shovel Knight's original moveset. Returning are the variety of different outfits that grant different abilities, and the "Curios" which are the new name to the relic items that were used by Shovel Knight. Where the Plague Knight mode simply had Plague Knight go through Shovel Knight's levels, Specter Knight's mode has all the level completely reworked to better fit his abilities. This makes the game much more refreshing to play than Plague Knight, and its definitely the hardest character to play through so far.
Story
Specter of Torment takes place shortly before the original game, where Specter Knight has been tasked to recruit the other knights into the Enchantress' Order of No Quarter. The game is interlaced with flashbacks to 'Donovan', Specter Knight's prior human form, and shows him how he (and Shield Knight) became the forms they are now. The story takes an interesting turn, making some of the minibosses have a more significant part of the story. Overall, I think the story in this game might be more engaging than the original game.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
Excellent gameplay. New, remixed levels and new abilities really makes the Specter Knight mode definitely worth your while.
Remixed music. While it can be hit or miss sometimes, all of the levels have remixed themes, which are based on their original versions, but have differences that help make this feel like a prequel.
Difficulty. While this might be a con for some people, the higher difficulty of the game really adds appeal for me, rather than it just being another rehash.
Cons:
Controls. While the gameplay works 95% of the time, in the end I would rather be controlling Shovel Knight. The gameplay is almost as smooth, almost as precise, but it isn't quite as nice. This isn't game-breaking by any means, but it does mean I prefer the original game over the expansion, but only slightly.
Rating
Very Good
Yacht Club Games does it again. With each passing year, the spectacular Shovel Knight continues to get better and better. With the addition of the Specter Knight, plus body swap and co-op modes, the game is a must buy. (Not to mention the upcoming King Knight mode).
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For a list of the other games I've completed this year, visit my mother post here.
Game #16 Dragon Quest VII, 3DS
Well, it took me almost 20 years, but I finally finished it. I gave up on it multiple times on PSOne. And it has taken me MONTHS on 3DS. but I finally completed it. Fuck, this game just never ends, but it is really, really good. As streamlined as the 3DS version is, it could have used a little more fat cut.
Game #17 New Super Mario Bros. 2 Gold Edition, 3DS
It's fun, but probably the worst 2D SMB. There is some really great, elegant level design, but the game is so small and the coin gimmick really makes the game feel dirt simple. There is little to no challenge to the game.
This is a 2D Platformer based on the 2015 Peanuts movie. You play as Snoopy as he goes through stages collecting jellybeans and finding Beagle Scouts, navigating through hazards and light platforming challenges. You can also unlock costumes that give you a unique power when you equip it in a stage such as High Jump+Floaty decent, or the ability to climb certain vines or grates.
It is a very light and straightforward game, but being made on Unity, it had some odd slowdowns on PS4 at certain points.
Overall I enjoyed it, but the Platinum would take a lot of time to get so I mainly went through it and beat all main stages.
It was odd though that Charlie Brown just...shows up once you complete all stages.
I played the remastered Gravity Rush for the first time last year and came away thoroughly satisfied, so I was interested in the sequel. Having played and completed it, I'd say it's a great time and mostly met my expectations.
As a sequel, it's more iterative than anything. Core gameplay and story progression is largely the same, but the scope has been enlarged and there's a lot more shit to do. Much like the first game, after you complete a story chapter, certain sidequests/challenges/dialogue open up along with the next story chapter. The main difference here from the first game is the amount of sidequests has increased dramatically. The gameplay here is varied, though the design can be hit or miss, but I had a lot of fun doing them and they let Kat be cute which is one of the main selling points of this franchise, really.
Combat is a mixed bag, but is generally improved over the first game. The first game's combat heavily relied on the gravity kick move, but in the second game, it's the stasis field that gets all the glory. In the first game, the stasis field had a small area of effect and forced you to float after use. Now, the AoE has increased and you can essentially just mash circle and throw all the random crap you want, while having free movement to run, slide and dodge making it the best offensive move you can do whenever there's stuff to throw, and there's always stuff to throw.
A couple of notable things, the story is alright, I wasn't feeling Part 3 all too much but then it ends on a wacky finale and a good end boss so I felt it picked up the slack. The game's new area is good, with how the worlds are layered on top of each other, jumping over the mid starting area into a whole new area down below was one of the points that made the game for me. The photo mode is fun and how the game utilizes it for sidequests and online events was one of the more fun things to get into. You can take selfies, place props and stack toilets, it's great!
To end, Gravity Rush 2 is ultimately more of the first, which is a pretty good thing to be. While the design of specific chapters and specific sidequests leaves a bit to be desired, I had a fun time all the way through and will come back to the DLC when it comes out.
Refunct is a first person platformer. It retails for three whole dollars. It takes about half an hour to complete on your first playthrough. It doesn't have any real glaring flaws. It does what it does and it does it good enough. It's alright, I don't know.
Game 6: Fire Emblem: Heroes (Android) | 10+ Hours | 02/09/2017 | 3/5
Another foray into the moblie world for Nintendo, this time it's Fire Emblem and it's what you'd expect. It's a free to play gacha hell money hole with a nice fire emblem skin. Gameplay is a simplified version of Fire Emblem, you have up to 4 units at a time fighting anywhere from 3-5 enemy units, maps are smaller vague recreations of other games maps and there no dodging. There's a simplified version of the weapon triangle (Blue units beat Red units, Green beats Blue, Red beats Green) and characters have specific skill sets that you need to look out for, anything from debuffs after combat to countering enemies you otherwise wouldn't.
Content wise, the game is a bit iffy. As someone who has beaten everything on all difficulties, content is thin and the microtransaction system is arduous. To get more characters, you need orbs, it's 5 orbs to pull a character or 20 orbs to pull 5 characters. At higher difficulties characters that aren't five stars are worthless and five star units aren't exactly common. What happens is you spend a lot of time grinding to get orbs only to get a group of pointless losers. You can get those units to five star status, but that costs coloured crests earned easily enough through the grinding tower at high levels and 'hero feathers' earned weekly from the arena mode or through 'sending home' your jobbers, and while they've made steps to improve it, the grind for those feathers is annoying.
But yeah it's addictive Fire Emblem for dummies, don't get addicted to it if you value your money
Yakuza 0 is the latest in the long running franchise, but serves as both a prequel to the entire franchise and as my first Yakuza game. Having played it, it has left me with a positive first impression of the franchise and has me on the look out for future games.
Playing this game, you can see why the series is so lauded. The story is good, characters are fun with their quirks and they weave a twisted web of twists and turns. The game's story is rather serious, filled with drama and high stakes, but for the most part it's rather funny. The game's sidestories are optional side quests that get unlocked as you walk by certain areas and they usually involve you doing wacky shit like standing in as a producer or teaching a woman how to be a dominatrix. Despite these wacky things, it never detracts from the other serious parts of the game. The game knows when to be serious, when to be silly, and when it can get away with doing both.
The main aspect I felt the game faltered in was the combat, now I played this on normal difficulty so my experience will probably be different from others playing the game on higher difficulties, but the game's a real masher. Combat mainly revolves around how much pressure you can put on the AI before they start blocking/countering/doing anything. Both characters have access to three different fighting styles
and a secret fourth after completing their side money making opportunities
but due to no real benefit to switching and terribly lackluster skill trees, you can stick with one and just go with it through the whole game. I stuck with Beast mode Kiryu because grappling is strong and he can loop his ground throw on people until they die (even bosses) and I stuck with Breaker mode on Majima due to a certain string that makes you do a low profile multi hitting move that moves at normal speed, which will pretty much pressure any enemy to stop blocking at which point they're free to get tripped, bleed money and eat shit.
Overall, Yakuza 0 is a great experience. The main story is generally gripping, the substories are quirky and consistently funny enough to do anytime they pop up, even the copious amount of side shit like UFO catching, bowling, the real estate/club management shit, karaoke, dancing stuff is all well done. Even if the combat is a bit of a let down, the rest of the game is quality and is definitely worth a look even if you're only vaguely interested.
Game 8: Horizon Zero Dawn | 46 Hours | 03/08/2017 | 5/5
Horizon is pretty damn great. I have very little negative to say about the game. The game looks pretty as shit, the world is varied with luscious forests to barren deserts and snowy mountains, enemy designs are fantastic and even the town designs are really nice. The story is fun with lots of wacky sci-fi shit going on, and even though the story is pretty much centered around Aloy, Aloy is a good protagonist and a fun character all around.
Combat is super fun and varied. You're given a lot of freedom and a lot of tools to use to defeat the robo animal hordes. You can set up traps before you are spotted and bait unsuspecting enemies into them before firing off any of your multiple arrow types from the different bows you get. Enemies can be dispatched through a number of options, you can stick to standard arrows and target weak points, you can use elemental weapons like certain arrow types and slingshot bombs to inflict different status effect like damage over time from fire or lowered defenses from ice, or you can use tear ammo to strip parts off enemies, which can disable some of their attacks or, for certain larger enemies, strip away weapons that Aloy can pick up and deal heavy damage with.
After a lengthy 'prologue' bit that sets the stage for the rest of the game, the open world is fun to run around and explore. The general lack of invisible walls, save for specific circumstances, is very good. There is uncharted-esque climbing in specific places, but a great deal of the time I found myself jumping on actual mountain geometry and managing to get to places, it ended up being some of my favourite stuff to do when I was exploring the games world. In general, there's always stuff to see and do and it's all pretty good.
Overall, I loved the game. There are a few nitpicks (aiming is odd at the beginning, lip syncing isn't the greatest, random drops from hunting animals for crafting stuff is too rare with no option to buy) but it doesn't pale to how much is does right. Everything is just super solid and great and it seems to be a good starting point to a budding franchise.
26. Skies of Arcadia: Legends (~38 hours, in-game clock)
Skies of Arcadia: Legends is, for the most part, a delight. Although my favorite Dreamcast RPG is Grandia II, this is a very close second. Skies is a classic turn-based JRPG about exploring the skies on an airship and the locations and people you meet along the way. The game does drag a bit at the end, but if you're into really great early 3D role-playing games like those on Playstation, here's one for Dreamcast and GameCube.
The story mostly revolves around Vyse, Aika, and Fina, who are air pirates fighting against the evil Valuan Empire. Vyse and his crew are after the six Moon Crystals to restore peace to the world, while the Valuans wish to obtain them to rule over the world with an iron fist. You meet a lot of interesting characters on your journey, including a old man looking to kill a giant whale (Moby Dick?), a womanizer, and a Valuan Prince who wishes to fight against the empire that raised him. The story doesn't really have a lot of plot twists, but I enjoyed following along.
A lot of the fun of the game is exploring the world. The game takes place entirely in the air, and you fly an airship to various flying islands. You start out being restricted to a small part of the map, but as you progress, your ship gets enhancements that lets it explore more of the world, until eventually the entire map is open to you. Without spoiling later game locations, much of the world is inspired by locations from planet Earth. An example is Nasrad, which could easily be compared to a Middle Eastern city, existing in the desert and home to a giant palace.
Being a traditional role-playing game, cities have weapon and item shops where you can stock up on gear, but you can also upgrade weapons and buy items for your airship, as the game features airship battles in addition to regular battles. Most interesting, is that almost every town has a Sailor's Guild, where you can buy discoveries to look for, or sell discoveries you've found. Discoveries are rumored locations on the map that you have to find with your airship. There's a reward for each discovery. Also, every Sailor's Guild has a Wanted List of pirates that have a bounty to their name. These pirates scale to your level, so fighting them is always a challenge. The Sailor's Guild was a fun hook, and good way to stock up on gold.
As mentioned, you can get in airship battles, though these are sort of low points in the game. You and your opponent need to spend a lot of time ”focusing" to prepare for attacks, which, along with the slow pace of the battles, makes it feel like a Dragonball Z episode, where more time is spent watching two parties (or people, in DBZ) charge than watching much attacking. Airship battles are more strategic however, where you often get an option midway through like deciding to move in closer or hold your distance. One of these options is the *right* option, giving you more chances to attack or allowing you to use your ship's most powerful cannon, so use your best judgement for every battle.
Normal battling is really fun. It's very much a traditional RPG: You're in a party of one to four people, and can attack, defend, use magic, or an item. Unique to Skies, are ”Spirit Points", which are shared by the entire party. Every magic attack costs one magic point, but any number of SP. There are also ”S-Moves", which cost only SP, and are unique to each character. If you want to use an S-Move that costs four SP, and magic that costs six SP, but only have nine SP for that round, you're out of luck. You can have your characters ”focus", which raises SP for the next round (on top of the SP you automatically get for a round) although focusing costs that character's turn. Balancing your parties SP meter is a big part of the challenge in battles, as well as the fun. Otherwise, turn-based RPG fans will feel right at home as it's pretty standard combat.
Something to the game's credit, is there is very little grinding. So little, in fact, that I only recall doing it one time. Maybe the game is just too easy, but the character leveling is right in line with where you're supposed to be fighting, and not a lot of great RPGs are great at that (Earthbound, e.g., or even Final Fantasy). The game is around forty hours long because it's a seriously long game, not because you're running around the world grinding all the time. Pretty amazing.
I have to give Skies of Arcadia: Legends five stars. For one thing, it makes me nostalgic for the Dreamcast. But for another, it's a seriously great early-3D RPG from an era when a lot of 3D RPG makers were still finding their footing. Sega and Overworks really nailed it. I shudder to think what this game would have been were it released today, with streamlined combat and uncanny valley graphics. Skies has excellent writing, a long fun adventure, and charm. What more does a JRPG need? 5/5
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I decided to play through Double Dragon 1, which is available in the DD Trilogy available on PC and mobile systems.
The original arcade game will feel as if it hadn't aged well to many, and I would agree; it is very basic and straightforward and the difficulties higher than Easy have the enemies be too tanky, requiring multiple hits for them to be taken down.
It was a short game thankfully, but I wasn't much of a DD buff outside of the Neo Geo fighter which itself has nothing to do with the mainline game.
Amazing experience. One of the best games I played this console generation. GG Guerrilla, studio back on track to be one of Sony's best since after Killzone 2 other games were mediocre.
Game borrows a lot of elements from other games - especially Far Cry but I don't mind since I loved those series. Graphics are gorgeous,especially on Pro but base model holds well too. Who would have thought back in 2013 that this underpowered PS4 with Jaguar CPU are capable of achieving this. Also - 42h in but I'm still not done. I completed only main story missions but there is still plenty to do.
Sequel is a must.
I've finally done it. I finished the original gen 1 Pokedex. Been playing since launch, 550+km walked, 350+ eggs hatched, and still I'd been missing one sole Pokemon for months now, and then I look at the app while sitting on my bed this morning and...
My heart was racing as I drove over there to grab it haha.
This game has definitely given me a lot of joy. The social factor from the game blowing up was a big part of it. I ended up catching up with a friend from high school over it and we went out hunting quite a bit when it first came out.
More recently I've been going out after work with a coworker, especially thanks to gen 2 getting us excited again.
Of course some parts of the game aren't that great but who cares? No point getting nitpicky about a game that's so fun anyway.
Let's hope my gen 2 post isn't far away, only need a few more to finish that pokedex (one of which is Unown though...).
DD2 is more of the same, and I overall didn't find it to be any better than the first.
I've played the Arcade ver. that is part of the DD Trilogy but may give the other home console versions a play if I ever get around to them
16. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (13 hours)
Turok 2 follows the trend of sequels that strive to be bigger than their predecessors, and like most games that strive for that, it suffers for it. Levels are labyrinthine, sometimes ridiculously so, and that creates a lot of unnecessary confusion for the player. It doesn't help that this game is based around collectibles, and some of the necessary collectibles are hidden too well. One of the main objective collectibles for the first level, for instance, is absurdly easy to miss. However, it is a very fun game nonetheless, just not as good as the original Turok.
JOINT REVIEW:
27. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Turtles in Time (~50 minutes)
28. The Simpsons (~40 minutes)
I can say with 60% certainty that my local roller skating rink (now demolished) had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time arcade cabinet. I can say with 100% certainty that my local bowling alley (still open) had a Simpsons arcade cabinet (and possibly still does). And I can say with 100% certainty that my friend had TMNT: Turtles in Time for Super Nintendo. Either way, these are two classic arcade brawlers that are sort of boring to play without quarters.
These games deserve to be reviewed together, as they are both arcade games released in 1991 from Konami. While they have their differences, namely that The Simpsons is four player and TMNT is two player, they both are two button brawlers (jump and attack) where youre generally fighting the same enemy type over and over. The real fun of both games is looking at the graphics (in which TMNT has a bit of an edge), and listening to the music and sound, both of which have voice samples, and both of which use the same sound chip. Both games are designed to eat quarters, although neither is nearly as unforgiving as, say, Metal Slug.
Onto some differences. TMNTs story revolves around Krang stealing the Statue of Liberty, and Shredder opening a portal in time to keep you from getting it back. You travel through some American history like Wounded Knee, and move on to the (distant) future of 2020 A.D., where theres a neo-metropolis, and also the year 2100 A.D. fought on a space base. You finally make it back to New York to fight Shredder, whos pretty darn tough. Once the battle ends, the turtles return Lady Liberty to Liberty Island. Roll credits.
Meanwhile, in the Simpsons, Smithers and Mr. Burns steal Maggie after she replaces her pacifier with a diamond jewel. You travel to Springfield locations such as Moes Tavern, Channel 6, Dreamland, and last, the nuclear power plant, chasing Smithers carrying Maggie. In the end you fight Smithers, and then Mr. Burns in a robot suit. Once both are defeated, Maggie is released, and the Simpsons have a happy family moment. Roll credits.
Again, youre generally fighting the same enemies throughout both games. In TMNT, its Foot Soldiers, in the Simpsons, its business people in suits (likely henchmen of Mr. Burns). The Simpsons has two button-mashing mini games, but is shorter by about ten minutes. Both games have health items. In TMNT, its always pizza, where in the Simpsons, it could be any number of things, from apples to hoagies (grinders, subs, whatever you call them). TMNT has a pizza box with a bomb on in, that, when consumed, has you spinning around destroying every enemy in sight. In the Simpsons, there are multi-use weapons like a slingshot, and single use weapons like a bowling ball.
Its hard to believe arcade brawlers were so popular that the same company would make two in the same year, especially considering how expensive arcade hardware was to produce. The games arent as fun with unlimited continues. Instead, its better to play where every hit you take gets you closer to losing another quarter. But alas, these are two very similar games that were fun at the bowling alley but havent aged especially well. Score for both games: 3/5
There was a TMNT 4p cab as well iirc. But 2?, Konami released Sunset Riders and Vendetta in 1991 as well, so that's 4. In 92 they released another 5, GI Joe, Bucky O Haire, Asterix, Moo Mesa and the pinnacle of the genre, X-Men.
Game#18 Dishonored
PC, 8ish hours
Bought this years ago but never got around to it until now. My laptop only has a 960M, and I am underway atm, so I installed it as it seemed like something easily handled and it was. It was fun, I got the High Chaos ending and saving Emily. For a "bad" ending it wasn't too bad, plus its way more fun murdering everyone than sneaking. And fuck Samuel, I cut him up on the shore when the bitch pulled a gun and tried to alert everyone to me.
GAME #17 - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment - 3 Hours - 9/10 - 4/11
I figure this has enough changes from the main Shovel Knight campaign that I don't feel too bad calling it another game. Seriously, I'm really impressed at how much has been changed from the vanilla Shovel Knight experience. New remixes for almost all of the music, remixed levels, some new enemies, redone bosses, completely new gameplay, there was clearly a lot of work put into this.
That being said, I don't think this is quite as good as the normal Shovel Knight campaign. The main thing is that Specter Knight's movement mechanic, the aerial Dash Slash, isn't as reliable as Shovel Knight's Pogo attack. I had a tough time landing the dash slash in the direction I wanted, even though I thought I was close enough for it to trigger, whereas with the Pogo attack it's a lot more reliable because you have to make contact with your target. And, while it makes some platforming harder, it inversely makes boss fights really easy as it takes no effort to bounce off of a boss repeatedly for easy damage (at least Shovel Knight requires you to aim your downward attack). Other than that, I miss the overworld screen and everything that came with it. I liked the towns, and the random encounters and especially the optional treasure stages. Specter Knight's campaign just has the required levels, a small hub area, and some VERY short sections where you try out the new items you buy.
Still, this is a very good game and a very good expansion. I can't wait to see what they do for King Knight's campaign.
Initially quite charming. Has a nice roguelike hook coupled with interesting upgrades.
Slowdown, long load times (especially for this sort of game), and annoying traversal/hit detection bugs soured me out by the end.
Might play again on PS4 at some point, but honestly quite glad to have this one out of the way for now.
Aiming to finish by May:
Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City (PS4)
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PS Vita)
An Adventure game where you guide a child through a dying world to restore it's sun and revive it.
It has some light Undertale vibes and I quite enjoyed it for how charming and light it is.
I only beat the game once but will aim to replay it in the future as there is an expansion to it now.
Decided to replay an oldie I own on PS3.
Final Fight 1 is IMO pretty decent, although the last 2 stages are too long for their own good.
On higher difficulties enemies really lay the smackdown on your ass, it doesn't help when some bosses are pretty BS like Eddie whose gun is OP mainly due to your slow movement speed.
I beat the game as Haggar, I'd always take the big tanky character in a beat'em-up and Haggar was an obvious pick, but what makes Haggar the most fun to play for me in this game is that his grabs are either suplexes or pile drivers! You can even piledrive bosses and the Andores!
It may be a short-ish game and some would say it is outdated/did not age well but I enjoyed my time with it overall.
