Philosoraptor | 482 Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 (edited) There's been a bit of a paradigm shift with my short-term goals. I still plan on playing 75 games this year, but I've been focusing on quick playtesting sessions in hopes of selling games and streamlining the collection. Edited July 5 by Philosoraptor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor | 904 Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 i have not been motivated to play video games the last couple of months, so i am woefully behind on this year's list. but today we turn that around! Mega Man 9 is finished. this was tough, especially those Wily stages. lost many lives with some of those demanding situations. but finally was able to overcome all the spikes. fun game. this certainly builds on the skills you've accumulated over the previous games, so don't make this your first Mega Man game. But if you can't get enough of the Blue Bomber, this is a pretty great entry. cool moment at the end where MM shows Wily all his previous losses. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webhead123 | 736 Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 With Chrono Trigger finished (didn't expect to get sucked in quite like I did), I'm going to try to carry that momentum into finally closing out the last few chapters of FFIV. I'm about halfway through Skullmonkeys. It's a uniquely charming game in the way that only Doug Tennapel's twisted mind can conceive but semi one-hit deaths combined with some of the later stages can be a bit frustrating. Still, gonna try to power through. Also 90% done with DKC2. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor | 904 Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 Cuphead. i'm finished with it. i didn't beat the game, but for the purposes of this thread i'm considering it done. I beat all of the first two islands, earning all of the contracts. But i just wasn't enjoying the game- LOVE the animation, dislike boss fights. Anyway, i defeated all the enemies on Island #3, but on Easy mode. So i didn't earn the contracts and can't fight the final boss. But i'm considering it done. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webhead123 | 736 Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 2 hours ago, twiztor said: Cuphead. i'm finished with it. i didn't beat the game, but for the purposes of this thread i'm considering it done. I beat all of the first two islands, earning all of the contracts. But i just wasn't enjoying the game- LOVE the animation, dislike boss fights. Anyway, i defeated all the enemies on Island #3, but on Easy mode. So i didn't earn the contracts and can't fight the final boss. But i'm considering it done. Fair. I still haven't finished it myself. I liked it a lot, particularly in the first half but I got to one of the later bosses (I don't remember which now) and started noticing how much time/how many deaths it was taking to get through and I felt my enthusiasm slowly slipping away. Still, I have enough of an appreciation for it that I'll go back every now and again to see if I can make it just a little further. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,835 Graphics Team · Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 30/40 - Berzerk [Atari 2600 - 1982] Finished: 2024/07/07 Caveats: Scored 5k on Game 9. Scored 50k on Game 1. [T-Pac] 6 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webhead123 | 736 Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 Berzerk has always been one of my favorites from the second generation of games. Both the Atari and Vectrex ports were quite good, even without the iconic synthesized voice samples. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,835 Graphics Team · Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 2 hours ago, Webhead123 said: Berzerk has always been one of my favorites from the second generation of games. Both the Atari and Vectrex ports were quite good, even without the iconic synthesized voice samples. Dude - I didn't even know the arcade original had voice samples! Too cool. [T-Pac] 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webhead123 | 736 Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 Friday the 13th (NES) complete. You know, this game is a very interesting case. The opening screen makes this big deal about "You gotta go light all the fireplaces! Like...NOW, buddy!" And sure, the process of doing that can kinda help you on the road to victory but it all really only amounts to an optional side quest. I just find it amusing that the game really harps on this as though it were the primary objective. If you read the manual, the player gets a more accurate sense of what's going on here. Your objective: Find weapons and items strong enough to defeat Jason. All-told, I kinda like the game but I do have to admit that it is flawed and not without some major frustrations. The map navigation isn't as big of a deal as it's sometimes made out to be but it is still easy to get turned around at times. I like the idea that the different counselors have strengths and weaknesses but the reality is that some of the counselors just kinda suck. I also like that you can pass weapons between them...but why not items, as well? I think the biggest overall issue is simply that, as with the deceptive intro, the game doesn't really explain things very well and it makes learning the game unnecessarily clunky. What I do appreciate is that it becomes evident after a while that Jason has a routine, a pattern of behavior and you can kinda learn to anticipate it with time and practice. As much as was possible in an NES cartridge, it makes it feel like Jason is an active player and not just some random timed-event or scripted trigger. That said, the difficulty is all over the place. Once you figure out what you're doing, what parts of the map to avoid when and where Jason is likely to show up next, the early part of the game is almost trivially easy. It's the final part that is responsible for the most aggravation. Part of that is because, as careful as you try to be, there are enough cheap moments (I'd almost rather let Jason just kill those damn kids than have to get in that rowboat one more time) and necessary sacrifices leading up to the finale that you're just going to suffer some attrition of resources (counselors/health bars). Jason's final stage isn't a particularly fair fight considering how fast he is and how quickly he can drain your health (maybe it was a good idea to light those fireplaces after all) and it would be nice if it felt like you had a little more control in preparing for that battle. Anyway, it's a neat game and not as bad as the AVGN might have you believe but it is full of confusing/misleading moments and can feel a little unfair at times. I still enjoy it and wouldn't mind the occasional revisit. 6/10 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-type | 2,790 Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 12 hours ago, Webhead123 said: Berzerk has always been one of my favorites from the second generation of games. Both the Atari and Vectrex ports were quite good, even without the iconic synthesized voice samples. There was a homebrew version that added those voice samples back in 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 3,134 Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 (edited) Denjin Makai 2 / Guardians - Beaten 5/7 Denjin Makai 2, or "Guardians" as the title screen calls it, at least on my copy of the game. The first Denjin Makai had a somewhat notable port on the SNES, but this one is so far still stuck as an arcade only game, and arguably pretty obscure if you're not into beat'em ups. However, if you are, you're probably aware of it. I very frequently come across its name, dropped as one of the best of its genre. A "hidden gem" if you want. This is the Final Fight / Streets of Rage school of brawlers, done to a tee. Walk into enemies to grab them, press attack and jump together for a desperation move, throwing enemies gives you several frames of invincibility, and throwing them into others helps keep aggressors at bay - You know the drill. The biggest aspect that sets Denjin Makai 2 apart is its POW meter, which is used to pull off all of your special moves, including aforementioned desperation move. Instead of sacrificing a small bit of health to pull off these moves, you can use up your POW freely until it runs out. You will take damage (but gain a completely full bar) if it does run out, but refilling it is as simple as just punching more enemies, or standing still for a short while to recharge. In other words, the game entices you to use your special moves a lot. Each character has quite a massive set of moves, outside of just the ones the game tells you about, too. But what I enjoy about that is that it's not trying to play more like a versus fighter - your moves all play into the traditional Final Fight style encounters, and most of them serve some kind of useful utility. People who mastered the game can utilize all of these to pull off sweet combos, beating every enemy into oblivion without breaking a sweat. But for my purpose, playing the game merely for survival, I found it useful to just sticking to three or four of the most useful ones for the character that I picked. The game has an incredibly huge roster of eight different playable characters, each with their own advantages and weaknesses, which massively affects how it plays. I very quickly settled on Tulks though, and can't say too much about the others. Tulks is a massive body builder type, wearing those Japanese wooden clogs, and has the ability to move around carrying enemies that he grabbed, which gives him a very flexible crowd control ability. I'm not great at these sorts of games, but Denjin Makai 2 is a great one to tackle for beginners like myself. It doesn't overstay its welcome, and enemies generally die really fast, making sure it never feels like it's growing stale. I got my one credit clear after only a handful of attempts at the game. The biggest obstacle is figuring out how to deal with the bosses without losing any lives - most other places you don't need to go far before you find healing items, which makes it relatively simple to make it through most of the game on a single life. In fact, when I got my first clear, I didn't lose any lives until I was literally at the doorstep of the final boss, when I messed up at the preceeding mini-boss encounter, which frankly isn't even challenging. I'd recommend this game to anyone who enjoys traditional beat'em up games, but find most of them to be a bit of a slog, or too challenging to get far in. This is a super approachable game, and the large amount of characters, as well as alternate selectable stages, makes it customizable enough for everyone to enjoy really. Hopefully it's gonna drop as a part of Arcade Archives eventually. Edited July 8 by Sumez 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webhead123 | 736 Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 (edited) 10 hours ago, G-type said: There was a homebrew version that added those voice samples back in That's cool! I don't know if it was truly the first but Berzerk was one of the earliest games to incorporate synthesized voice. Supposedly, the process cost about $1,000 per word, of which the game has around 25-30 different words. Edited July 8 by Webhead123 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floating Platforms | 795 Posted July 13 Share Posted July 13 (edited) Roundabout is done This game appealed to me because of the FMV aspect. I honestly didn't really know what to expect on the gameplay side at all. This was a "free" game through PS+ so it was a no risk proposition. The actual game involves you driving a constantly spinning limo around an obstacle filled world (divided up into 3 areas). You pick up your passengers and then try to avoid cars, trees, buildings, etc by timing you spins to get around things. It's pretty neat and takes a tiny bit of getting used to. However, it can be a little confusing or frustrating at times as I think the hit boxes or collision detection is maybe slightly off. Either that or the perspective of the camera (which you can't change) is obscuring things or it's zoomed out a tad too much. There were a bunch of times where my car exploded and I had no idea what I actually hit. I also had many cases where the car would explode, load into the checkpoint and take instant damage and/or instantly die again. There's also a problem where you take damage from terrain height changes and that's really difficult to see sometimes. The overall campaign is really short and only takes a couple hours and the FMV was the star of the show in my opinion. I don't understand why more modern games don't decide to take this route and have filmed cutscenes and transitions. Seems like it would be cheaper to dress staff in costumes and have them deliver lines. I know it won't work for most things, but it fits perfectly in this instance. The acting is atrocious for the most part, but that's also part of the appeal as the story never tries to take itself seriously. Sometimes it's far too quirky for its own good and it would have been more successful in places if some of the actors could deliver lines with the proper emphasis, but the FMV was short and sweet (with some old 70s found footage mixed in at times) and gave everything a charming vibe. When I completed Yakuza 0, I mentioned that the trophies did not respect your time and this, even though it's a shorter game, is more atrocious in that regard so I have no desire to 100% this. I'd go for all the collectibles because the areas are pretty small, but some trophies require you to beat the dev times or go through the entire world without dying and that doesn't seem feasible for some of the reasons I mentioned above. Also, the worst offender is the "homage" to Desert Bus where you need to play for 8 hours without pausing or breaking to earn that last trophy. Nope. My body is not capable and while it's a cute reference to include, tying a trophy to it is absurd. Speaking of Yakuza, I'm thinking I'll start Kiwami 2 pretty soon but I want to get through one or two more - I still have yet to hit PS3 and WIi U, after all. Current progress on other games: Picross S3 - probably about half done. I have 3 pages of regular and Mega, 2 pages of Color and 3 Clips to do Figment - I just started this a couple days ago as well and I'm either half way through or 2/3rds done, depending on how may levels and bosses there end up being Danganronpa V3 - I need to buckle down and get this finished, but wanted to knock out a couple more easy games to get me halfway to my goal first. All that's left are the alternate modes of the board game and the dungeon crawler thing but it'll be a lot of time to get through it all. Mario & Luigi: Dream Team - Having a blast so far. About 20 hours in and currently almost done with the mountain section. I do plan to go through and 100% all the challenges and beans, etc., so I maybe have another 30 hours ahead of me still. Edited July 13 by Floating Platforms accidentally published too soon 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floating Platforms | 795 Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 Alright, I had a little extra time to play this afternoon and so Figment is done as well. Turns out there was only one level left. It was fun for the $2 or so I paid for it, but not exactly what I expected. I was thinking it would be something of an action platformer but it was really a very, very linear "puzzle" game with some very, very light combat. If I had one major complaint, it would be that your main character moves too slowly. The loop of the game is that you enter a specific area and solve extremely simple puzzles to get the items needed to unlock the next path. Solving usually means taking the two or three side paths, picking something up, using it in another place and then you're done. Maybe whack a monster or two along the way. There's no worries about inventory management or even figuring out what item goes where. It's all extremely spelled out and there's hardly anything difficult about the entire experience. Story wise, I wasn't super thrilled either but it was fine. This is one of those indie games that wants to tell a moving, emotional, sad but uplifting story. It didn't land. It also wanted to be a musical of sorts for some reason? The script has some noticeable parts where you can tell that English was not the primary language as the phrasing isn't exactly what would be used, but the points come across. The acting is largely fine too. The best part is simply the visual styles of the levels. I love the art and it has a unique painterly atmosphere. If you can pick it up cheap, it's not a terrible way to spend a few hours, but would not be worth the full price to me. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,835 Graphics Team · Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 31/40 - Super Aleste [Nintendo Super Famicom - 1992] Finished: 2024/07/14 Caveats: Cleared on Normal Mode (only using save states to pause between sessions.) [T-Pac] 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Rothchild | 9,909 Editorials Team · Posted July 14 Author Share Posted July 14 Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations Probably my favorite in the trilogy. You get the series' most hateable villain, and a greatest hits collection of the series' prosecutors, including newcomer Godot. And all of the typical humor and charm is present. …of course all of the series' shortcomings are present as well. Including the endless gated progression that is waiting for you to talk to everybody about everything until something somewhere opens up. And there are a number of "contradictions" in the trials that were a bit too loose for me. "Oh, I needed to use this piece of evidence slightly further down the dialogue chain for a statement that is basically the same as the one I presented against? Thanks game." Still, I really like these games, and look forward to tackling either an Apollo Justice or a Miles Edgeworth game in a few years. Or maybe I'll jump straight to the prequel series. Bloodborne (9.5/10) The Witness (9/10) Tunic (9/10) Inscryption (8.5/10) Yakuza 2 Kiwami (8.5/10) Firewatch (8.5/10) Assassin's Creed: Black Flag (8/10) Horizon Zero Dawn (8/10) Spider-Man (8/10) Bayonetta 3 (8/10) Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (7.5/10) The Walking Dead Complete (7.5/10) Rise of the Tomb Raider (7.5/10) The Stanley Parable (7.5/10) Resident Evil 3 (7.5/10) The Talos Principle (7/10) The Quarry (7/10) A Plague Tale: Innocence (7/10) Bravely Default (6.5/10) Pikmin 1 (6.5/10) Dark Forces (5.5/10) Beyond Oasis (5/10) Turok 3 (4.5/10) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor | 904 Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 Mega Man 10 has been conquered! another retro style game from the Wii's eShop in the vein of MM9. this one is weird. the initial 8 stages all feel built around a new gimmick mechanic, making the game feel familiar yet different. some work better than others. these stages are relatively short, but the Robot bosses are a bit tougher. then you get to the Wily stages. man, the first two are BRUTAL. i considered giving up, and indeed had to set the controller down to cool off and focus. But then you face Wily and he is comparitively a cake walk. overall, this is on the low end of my favorite MM games due to that imbalance. still worth playing, but beating it is no small feat. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhuno | 161 Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 Adventure Island 2 is complete, and with it, my list for the year. Hoozah! This is another first for me and it's a game I've enjoyed since childhood. It's a great game and a significant improvement over the original. It's just a fun game all around. I had enjoyed doing some trial and error to see which eggs would take me where and ended up plotting a course out for the final run. Below are the worlds and the egg number I grabbed at the end of each stage to get through the game. World 1: 4, Warp World 2 1, 1, 1, 3, 2 World 3 3, Warp World 4 All 1 World 5 1, 1, Warp World 6 All 1 Get Pterosaur in 6-1 World 7 All 1 World 8 2, 1, 3, 3 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,835 Graphics Team · Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 10 hours ago, Rhuno said: Adventure Island 2 is complete, and with it, my list for the year. Hoozah! Congrats, dude! What was your favorite game that you finished for the backlog challenge this year? Any surprise, sleeper hits? [T-Pac] 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhuno | 161 Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 1 hour ago, T-Pac said: Congrats, dude! What was your favorite game that you finished for the backlog challenge this year? Any surprise, sleeper hits? [T-Pac] Thanks! Adventure Island 2 is my favorite of the bunch; it's one I can just pick up and play for a few minutes any time. As far as surprises, Dreamfall was the only game that I had never played before and I did really enjoy it. But I think my biggest takeaway is that the original TMNT game is actually pretty good. It gets panned for being a bad game, but I think the mix of gameplay elements makes it more interesting than the other entries on the NES. I like the other TMNT games as well, but the original is better than people give it credit for. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 3,134 Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 22 hours ago, Rhuno said: But I think my biggest takeaway is that the original TMNT game is actually pretty good. It gets panned for being a bad game, but I think the mix of gameplay elements makes it more interesting than the other entries on the NES. I don't think the first TMNT NES game really had a bad rep at all until AVGN came around and misrepresented it. I was always a fan, and everyone I knew spoke fondly of it. To be honest, I think it's actually less great than I've given it credit for myself. It's elevated by its unique design concept, which felt especially fresh at the time. Being able to switch to a different turtle when you're about to die, or rescue one that you have previously lost, added a whole new sort of in-game world building I'd never seen in a platform game before. But, once it starts getting more challenging, the awkwardness of the controls and combat start showing. Most of the boss fights are really poor, and when you make it to the technodrone the whole game becomes a super memorization-heavy endurance run of avoiding enemies rather than trying to deal with them. It's honestly not a great game, but it's one I've always had some undeniable fondness for. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-type | 2,790 Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 6 hours ago, Sumez said: I don't think the first TMNT NES game really had a bad rep at all until AVGN came around and misrepresented it. I was always a fan, and everyone I knew spoke fondly of it. I think it was in the Nintendo Power top 10 more than any other non-Nintendo game. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wongojack | 308 Posted July 18 Share Posted July 18 I didn't like TMNT bitd. It soured me quite a bit to the "turn a popular property into a side-scrolling platformer" trend. Although, I don't remember anyone really agreeing with me back then, so I could be a relative outlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brickman | 4,187 Posted July 19 Share Posted July 19 A few games knocked off since the last update. 3 to go to reach my 45 GBA games challenge and still need to knock off the remaining trophies. Donald Duck Advance (GBA) - 6.5/10 This is a decent platformer but ultimately doesn't really push the limits on anything. It's a good game to kill some time but it never really challenges you or do anything out of the ordinary. Super Mario Advance: Super Mario USA (GBA) - 7.5/10 This is probably my least favourite mainline Mario game but if I ever play it again this will be the version I play. I forgot how repetitive the levels are in this game, so much of it looks the same. What saves this game I think is that it is an OK platformer and moving up and sideways is a nice concept. Sudoku Fever (GBA) - 5/10 I like Sudoku and this isn't too bad of a way to play it. It's pretty much never ending with the puzzles. It's the literal definition of middle of the road game. Tak: The Great Juju Challenge (GBA) - 6.5/10 As a wayforward fan I was looking forward to playing this game. It didn't quite live up to their usual games but it did have some of the Wayforward touches like animating the characters when they're standing still. It has some decent platforming in this game but there's so many sections of the levels that are just empty and there is very little enemy variety. It looks beautiful but has too many hard to ignore faults to put it on the level of the Shantae games. Aleck Bordon Adventure: Tower and Shaft (GBA) - 7.5 This is a pretty fun game. The story is split over two games. Tower is the first story where you have to climb levels like an arcade game but you can only use the jump button while the game moves you left and right. Along the way you can collect items for points and power ups while trying to avoid items that harm you. Shaft flips it around and you have to go down levels but you can only use the left and right button. Along the way you have to avoid obstacles and can get power ups and items. The game has a few characters and they each have a different story but the levels are the same. It also has an endless mode where you try to see how high you can climb (or descend) while also trying to get a high score. Arcade fans will probably really enjoy this game. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,835 Graphics Team · Posted July 21 Share Posted July 21 32/40 - Strider [Nintendo Entertainment System - 1989] Finished: 2024/07/21 Caveats: Used save-states and an online guide / walkthrough. [T-Pac] 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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