VideoGame_Discussion

Slickriven wrote:

Wowzer! That's a lot of games, amd certainly a momentous occasion! Go out on the town top celebrate.

Ha, I won't be celebrating, I'm sure my wife would find that bonkers and more proof that I game way too much.

Slickriven wrote:

That's an awesome milestone. I've been keeping track of the games I beat since 2007 when I started putting 'beat lists' on my bio page here. I can't believe it has been that long now! I also record all of this in a comprehensive spreadsheet, including hours logged and number of games beaten on each console.

Despite how much I play video games, I almost exclusively play either online games that go on forever (WoW and FFXIV, Overwatch, GTA, R6 Siege, Rocket League, Chivalry) with my group of buddies, or lengthy RPGs. That said I generally beat 20-30 games a year. Your 300 games conquered in 4 years is putting into perspective just how little I get through. I've only beat 375 games since 2007, 23-24 games a year.

This might sound weird and a bit morbid, but I sometimes think about how many games I could potentially beat in the remainder of my life time. Life is short, right!? Just simple math, 23 games a year multiplied by hopefully another 40-50 years (if I still game at 70-80+) and that's give or take 1000 games. With hundreds of thousands of games already out there, and thousands more coming out every year, I'll never play everything I want to get to. Each game you start up is crucial!!

Alright, I don't take it that seriously. I won't be on my deathbed regretting if I never got around to playing "Final Fantasy XXIV FINAL CUT and a third", but the point remains.

Before 2020 I really wasn't beating all that many games. I had been putting a lot of hours into the Division and then its sequel and I enjoyed those 2. But in 2019 I decided to give GamePass a try for a buck and that, plus joining this thread in '20, and it getting me into emulation, really changed my approach.

My competitive side pushed me to wanting to be in the top few leaderboard positions for games, consoles and then badges earned and I achieved that most years. I surely beat many smaller games, especially for my older consoles, but generally have tried to focus on the better 8 & 16 bit titles I missed as a kid. This year, I have a goal to focus more on my disk-based consoles and specifically the titles I own versus so many GP games, that I've beaten recently... But I'm still beating a large % of GP Xbox games, and not yet pursuing that goal as strongly, <shrug>.

As for the never ending mountain of my backlog, @incubus421 I try not to get caught up in the sheer size of that as it's overwhelming. I've also finally realized that just because I own a copy of a given game, doesn't mean that I really need to play it, because I may simply dislike it and why play crap I don't like, though I surely do that at times. In terms of time sink, I don't record that per game, but with no kids, gaming is what I enjoy most in my free time, so I do put many hours in.

The 300 game milestone was more of a footnote after I got my lists into the spreadsheet vs seeking to brag or anything. In some ways it's a bit nuts that I played so many, but this thread, the 2 GotM ones and some other factors have contributed to that.

#25 Metroid Prime Remastered

Still a damn masterpiece 20+ years later. Minus some minor platforming timing on the buttons that is. Other than that, chefs kiss all the way thru from the music to the sense of wanderlust exploration. It’s a timeless classic and with the new twin stick revamped control scheme and silky smooth graphical polish, this feels like a fresh new experience to me. And Meta Ridley is still a welcomed pain in the butt to face. It only saddens me to know Metroid Prime 4 isn’t anywhere near completion. Ah well, maybe they’ll toss us a remastered Metroid Prime 2 and 3 in the next year or so to satiate our Prime appetites.

#12 - Grime (PC) Really enjoyable Metroidvania.

Updating... Please hold any new clears until I'm finished...
Done!

Got my 6th of May, 30th on the year, 2nd
Block Blast Adventure Master
Badge: 1st towards Brain Teaser

I saw several ads for this while playing Mighty Doom and like I sometimes do, decided to give it a shot... and it was a typical trash free mobile game. It showed off things in the ad that the game didn't do, was full of ads itself and was generally junk. I stuck with it long enough to beat the current running 96 stage adventure mode it touted and I've already deleted it. It's a slight spin on Tetris with an 8x8 board and you get 3 random pieces at a time, you need to fit those pieces onto the board and any full row and/or column will get eliminated. They have the traditional Tetraminos as well some other sizes/shapes like a single block, 2 in a row, 3 in a row, 5 in a row, 2 diagonally, 3 diagonally, a 3-block L, a 5-block L, a 2x3 and 3x3. You can't rotate the blocks either, which would've made it a lot more enjoyable, and even easier, so likely a good call.

The adventure mode had really just 2 types of games, reach a certain score and you got points from placing blocks and clearing lines with bonus points for more lines at once and consecutive clears. The other type would put btwn 1 and 5 icons on a given blocks and you then needed to clear X number of those symbols, which really meant jack squat to how you were playing. Generally it was boring as they'd basically give you matching blocks to plow through, such that if you followed the flow you'd so easily clear lines or create good sized areas on screen that just needed a piece to wipe out several lines at once. But then after almost lulling you to sleep with just way too easy blocks, it would shift and you had to be careful and smart with placement b/c quickly your board would get all jumbled up and even though you were clearly setup and waiting for a specific common piece, it would not come. Generally they gave you 3 pieces that you could place on the board if you thought through it and didn't misdrop them or not pay enough attention, but a few times it felt like it was pushing you to fail in order to show you an ad. You could continue once, if you got around 50% complete before messing up enough where you couldn't place all 3 pieces. And those ads were trash and rather long and dumbly interactive. Then after a dozen or more sets of 3 'random' blocks where it was challenging and your board felt all cluttered, then you again get back to the given blocks flowing very easily and back to a complete or very near completely cleared board.

If it wouldn't have been for this thread and my dumb desire to complete games now, I would've given up on it as it was junk. Oh well, glad it's done. A few times it did challenge me and I passed which was nice, a few times I blew it too and had to watch some ads and/or restart. In the higher levels, some needed like 200-300 of those random icons cleared and that could take several minutes to get through and more phases of the tougher blocks, so it helped to pay attention and seek to drop pieces that eliminated both rows and cols at the same time.
There was an endless mode too that I played like 6 times and it had the same BS, where it was either too easy/boring and then it would swing to rather challenging and ultimately not worth the time.

After a childhood away, I finally beat Junkbot Undercover . That covers PC for the year.
[imgt w=645 h=415]https://i.imgur.com/DHKxaOs.jpg[/imgt]
In this puzzle game, the titular Junkbot walks back and forth in search of trash cans to eat. You use your mouse to pick up and place LEGO bricks to create stairs, bridges, walls, and more to help him. There are plenty of baddies and hazards to avoid, too. The game is a sequel to Junkbot, and a harder one at that. You'll have to think critically to get your moves under par in order to get every gold award. While I did use a guide for two of the 60 stages, the rest came down to my superior intellect and determination. It's free on Flashpoint--give it a try!

I had a nice bit of luck when I drove home from a funeral and found a flea marketer selling Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for $5. I'd heard it was an underrated gem for the early 3DS, and I was looking out for it, so $5 CIB was a great deal.
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/twnRAcU.jpg[/imgt]

As it so happens, this is an amalgamation of the semi-recent Disney Epic Mickey series and Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse . So unlike the rest of the Epic Mickey series, this one is a 2D platformer that uses old characters, terminology, and moves. The evil witch Mizrabel has taken over the Castle of Illusion in an alternate world called Wasteland, where forgotten characters and video games wind up. She plans to steal Toon Heart Power from other Disney characters to get back to the Cartoon World and wreak havoc, So Oswald the Lucky Rabbit summons Mickey to thwart her.

The platforming is pretty good. You can bounce off enemies to gain vertical height and make them drop hearts or money. You also have the Magical Paintbrush from Kirby: Canvas Curse to fire paint or thinner projectiles. At certain times, you may be forced to use the Touch Screen to draw or erase objects from the world, whether it's creating a cannon to launch yourself or removing a spiky block. This becomes a minigame or tracing a predetermined shape or efficiently scratching out that shape, respectively, and the better you do on the minigame, the more effective the results. While I do like the concept, it honestly gets pretty repetitive tracing the same outline or deleting the same hazard a dozen times in a world. I also wish Mickey could run faster or dash forward; he's pretty slow on the ground and has a floaty jump.

Throughout the game, you'll run into many classic Disney characters in need of rescue. While GameTZ's audience may be familiar with the likes of Snow White and Pinocchio , more recent characters like Ariel and the Beast also appear. The most recent of them is Rapunzel and Pascal from 2011's Tangled, though I personally think adding Wreck-it Ralph could've been a clever choice--this game released a few weeks after his film, and forgotten video games are established to enter this world, so it would've worked perfectly for everyone. Either way, the developers clearly did their homework on these characters. They all talk convincingly like their movie counterparts and reference lines any fan will appreciate. The Peddler from Aladdin, for example, notes that I'm "only interested in the exceptionally rare," and offers to sell Mickey magic beans at one point. Mickey turns him down, saying that he knows what magic beans do all too well--a reference to the Mickey and the Beanstalk segment from 1947's Fun and Fancy Free. Donald none-too-subtly hits on various princesses, which seems to be a facet of his character, and I think started in 1944's The Three Caballeros. It's entertaining seeing Mickey meet and pleasantly chat with all these icons!

Every toon you save gets or joins a room in the Fortress, your home base. They then give you sidequests to do, which upgrade their room when completed and earn you Toon Heart Power. Since you need a certain amount of power to unlock the next world, doing these quests is inevitable. They usually task you with retrieving an item/character from a previous stage or talking to another rescued Toon. While I didn't mind it at first, it's definitely needless padding. Whenever they ask you to find their thing, the thing then appears in an already-beaten level, so it's not like you can pick up their item on the first trip to save time. The best you can do is take on as many sidequests as possible and then collect numerous things in one go. Additionally, upgrading every character's room to the max doesn't do anything whatsoever--not even a buff against the final boss or something. I needed to grind a little money to get that 100% completion, but I'm not sure that was worth it. The final world gives out the most cash per stage, and the stages in it are a drag.

Lastly, the music is unremarkable, and Mickey never shuts up in play. He makes sound effects wth every action, which gets grating. Fortunately, the art direction is very high-quality! The sprites, backgrounds, and portraits are shockingly good. That made it all the more enjoyable to play. My total play time was 20 hours, though apparently most people complete it faster.

My rating: 7.5 out of 10.

My #25 is Atomic Heart

https://imgbox.com/P1Vqhu76

Bad dialog and nonsense story but fun shooting. Too much puzzle platforming and not enough FPS, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. 7/10

Given how few clears we've had this week, I'm planning to update next at the end of the month.

7th of May, 31st overall, 2nd
Uncharted 2 Among Thieves
Earns me the Hyrule Hero badge, after beating Uncharted 1 earlier

Had these for a long while, at least the PS3 versions, then I snagged the Nathan Drake collection pretty cheap a few years back and figured playing them on the 4 was better. Overall, I think I liked 1 better than 2. Maybe it was the hype that 2 got as I read it was 'the best of the series', but to me it was a bit much. Too much climbing, too many super bullet-sponge foes, too many times I needed to suspend my disbelief over just 'yeah not possible' type moments. I guess the first just felt a lot more grounded and I liked only really going around with Sully vs. the 4 others at different times in this game.
I do know that I'm comparing it to the 2013 Tomb Raider and Rise, which I both really enjoyed and they are more recent titles so they 'should' be better and for me were.

@SupremeSarna I have a minor correction to an earlier listed game. When I listed Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad for the NeoGeo, I actually beat the first game (just Shock Troopers). My LaunchBox setup had things wrong and it doesn't correctly list both the first and 2nd games, which is annoying. I went to play it a 2nd time tonight and I started playing the actual 2nd game and it was all new to me and I was confused.
Anyhow, please change that and I've beat the first title twice now, on the Mountain and now Jungle paths.

8th of May, 32nd overall, 10th
Planet of Lana
Badge - going to count towards Girl Power since the lead is a young girl

GamePass offerings have been a touch stale lately but this one seemed promising based on some reviews... and it was just okay. It was like Limbo and/or Inside, but with a slightly more warm feeling but also felt a bit barren. The atmosphere was pretty decent, it was short and your companion provided some nice company and feeling, but it wasn't all that great. It was a good GP title b/c it wasn't worth the $$ to buy but I didn't feel like I was wasting my time playing it.

My #26 is Kena: Bridge of Spirits

https://imgbox.com/njz1QLkN

Amazing graphics, good exploration and combat. Great experience all around. Surprisingly difficult at the end, i'm impressed by people that actually beat this. Only thing I didn't like is that most of the puzzles or hidden items were either hat unlocks for the little guys or currency to buy hats. They are cosmetic and effect nothing. I felt like reward wasn't worth the effort. 8/10

#4 (I think) Katamari Damacy Reroll Nana nanana nana nana nanana Katamari Damacy~

It’s the weirdest evergreen game I’ve played. Looking forward to We Katamari Reroll next week, even though it’s going to get steamrolled by Street Fighter 6 and Bandai Namco is going to blame the fans for their frankly idiotic release date decision. We’re buying them both though because OMG!Con.

1 toward Girl Power due to the aesthetic of Katamari.

9th of May, 33rd overall, 1st
Sunset Riders
Badge: earns me Heavy Machine Gun after My Friend Pedro

Tried this last year for Ren2k's RTT GotM and it was tough so I sort of gave up. Wanted to give it more time and it was still pretty brutal but I ended up getting it - thanks save states - <sigh> Seriously a few bosses and sections were bonkers challenging, like Chief WigWam and the final boss was no picnic either. The bonus stages were cool, but a touch difficult with a dpad, an 8-way joystick would've been better, guess this being an arcade port makes sense as a quarter munching challenge.

I'm focused a LOT less on my older systems this year, so this could be my only SNES title for the year, but we'll see.

#13 Mortal Shell (PC)

I enjoyed this game way more than I thought I would. I've never been able to get into the original Dark Souls games but I seem to like all the 'souls-like' games I've tried.

Probably my least clear of the month, I just finished Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land .
[imgt w=640 h=853]https://i.imgur.io/iu2Zqky_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sha...[/imgt]

I’m vacationing in Wisconsin right now with a trip to the Dells planned this afternoon. The last time I went on a Dells vacation, I played this on the ride there, so I thought, “Why not?” It was fun revisiting this classic game. It’s debatable whether or not this remake is superior to the original Kirby’s Adventure (I personally think it is), but it’s got the same level design and care put into it, plus the new Meta Knightmare mode. Restore the Star Rod and bring back pleasant dreams on whichever version you prefer!

Fun fact: One of the developers worked harder to make the game technically worse. Due to time constraints, they had planned to merge redundant abilities together, like Burning with Fire and Freeze with Ice, thus giving Fire and Ice two moves each. But one programmer was so adamant about keeping the abilities faithful to the original that he pleaded with chief director Masahiro Sakurai to let him work though the weekend to keep both abilities separate. So he did, and now the abilities remain less versatile than modern players appreciate. At least the Freeze parka is nice.

I didn't even know that! And I call myself a HAL fan.

I beat Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo on the xbox1

After being in limbo for a couple years as far as fix/sell , fix/sell? I finally got my GBA Micro with a new battery. I just shaved it down with a nail clipper and got it in there. I charged it up fully and am testing it now at work! I can finally continue breath of fire II! Pretty exciting. I also ordered a used PSP AC Adaptor since I couldn't find mine. So I'm finally getting around to getting my older systems playable again.

sailorneorune wrote:

I don't blame you; the developer interview from the 2000s that mentioned this was only recently rediscovered, so it's all pretty obscure information for now. But I did my darnedest to bring it to light on Kirby Wiki, even though I'm retired from there.

ErickRPG wrote:

That's great to hear! I've always wanted a GBM, but the prices were never justifiable. I just reclaimed a lost cobalt blue 3DS that I lent my cousin four years ago, so I can be content with that rare system for now.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I do know the very few mint GBA games I have left are in the range of $100 - $200. I do plan to buy a few more and keep a small collection. It WILL probably cost me about $1000 to add the small handful of games I want. But these are my oldest relics left buying from stores like fry's electronics and toys r us. So I want to keep them. I think I bought this famicom themed micro at walmart shopping with my old college friend when they were selling the rest of their stock for $50 each. And I have easily less than 1000 hours played on this beauty. It just needed a new battery, is all.

Got my 10th of May, 34th overall, 1st
GG Aleste
Badge: earns Destroy z Core with Aces of Luftwaffe

Got GameGear ROMs setup and was looking for something to play, read this was decent and short, so I tried it. It was more/less too easy. Especially once I noticed I could hold in the A to fire and not have to hammer it. That and keeping the Homing weapon was key since foes would come up from behind you or along side. The other weapons like Laser, Wide, Spread and Nukes weren't as good (I'm guessing on these names - pick up icons had H, L, W, S, N and D on them, not sure what the D was/stood for). I also good some nice power-ups to the main weapon.
There's a Normal mode, which I beat and a Special, which I tried after and it's a lot more difficult. With normal and powered up Homing, I was killing 90% of the enemies before they got off any shots and wrecked most mid-level and several final stage bosses. On Special, I was weaker as I only tried the first section, but they were firing a lot more. I might give the Special mode another few chances, but I got the credits, so this one is beat. Could also try the 2nd game, titled Power Strike 2 in the US - the first game didn't come to the US.

#39 down: Dead Island 2 on PS5. First clear for the BFFL badge. This game is super fun in co-op. It’s smooth, the graphics are nice, the art style is great, and the gameplay is exactly what I wanted. This really exceeded my expectations.

For May:

South Park: The Stick of Truth (PS4): Finally played this. It was great to find the jokes and easter eggs from the show. Battles are easy once you start getting multi-hit weapons and stack some debuff effects on those. That plus Butters as a companion. He hits like a beast and can cure you each turn. Overall, simple but fun RPG. Hopefully I'll play the second game soon.

TLoZ: Skyward Sword (Switch): Never played this one until now. I liked it, although it's far from perfect. The sky was nice, but I feel like there isn't much to do there, more secrets or subquests would have been nice. The loftwing is also underutilized in the story. In the beginning, I thought it would be more relevant, but it just serves as means of transportation. The game also felt like a giant repeating fetch quest. This is something that plagues some of the Zelda games, but I found it a bit amplified on this one. I played with the adapted controls and it could get frustrating sometimes to make a sword swing. It gets a bit better once you get used to it, but I think that would be my main gripe with the game. I would have to play it again with motion controls to see how much it changes. It has one of the best Zelda character iterations, IMO, and the lore this game provides is great.

I’ll update this tonight. Stay tuned!

@Best1989 Remember that part where you go on a scavenger hunt and explore 2-3 scripted places that don’t have the item you’re looking for? Good times.

I thought last month was a goose egg until I remembered that I finished Just Shapes & Beats for Frank's Game of the Month thread, and forgot to shout about it from the rooftops. Excellent aesthetic with an even better soundtrack, though it did get frustrating on the regular.

Number: 18
Full Title: Just Shapes & Beats
Platform Played: Steam
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Windows
Original Platforms: Windows, Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia
Applicable Badge: N/A

More notably, for the Retro Talkshop Thread, I finished Rayman. Despite taking an interest in this game long ago and it's amazing art, I never followed through with it because of how difficult it was. Despite my rack of expensive original hardware, I had to resign myself to emulation this time around. I understand that games need to be difficult sometimes, but the combination of needing 100% to finish the game, blind jumps and hidden triggers, and the very limited number of continues was just too much for me. Being able to set a checkpoint between levels gave me the breathing room to actually enjoy the game.

Number: 19
Full Title: Rayman
Platform Played: Emulation (BigPEmu)
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Jaguar
Original Platforms: Jaguar, PlayStation, Saturn
Applicable Badge: Hop 'n' Bop (1/2), Grown Ass Man (1/2)

What a month we've got coming. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is in progress (barely), Diablo IV drops tomorrow, and Final Fantasy XVI is coming in a few weeks. I don't know when I'm going to fit in Frank's June pick of Mirror's Edge, but I'll probably be able to squeeze in a few runs of Daytona USA for the Retro Talkshop Thread.

With May squared away, I can now give out some stats:
-We only cleared 58 games last month. That's the lowest number of any month this year. As expected, the dawn of summer likely played a role here. It's also possible players have started some recent, lengthy games that take much more play to complete--I know I have.
-I may have gone overboard on gaming, because I beat 15 games last month, our current record for monthly clears.
-We now have some competitive badges distributed: a pink circle for the badge leader, the first bacon for 50 clears, globes for half of systems finished, and ghosts for no clears. I completely forgot about them, but I'll try to keep up with them from here on out.

Keep up the good gaming, everyone!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Tears of the Kingdom

I’m sure a few of us started that one, but I haven’t tried it myself. I’m currently playing something much more magical.

No TotK for me, and strangely I knocked out 10 games in May, that was my most since January. Things just ebb and flow with this thread, though the group is smaller than in prior years and the big pushes from '20/'21 have likely fully dried up. I found when I was running it that Jan-April was generally strong and it slowly dropped off as the months went on. 58 does seem low, but oh well, less to record, right?

@Slickriven It’s unfortunate most people left in protest of me running it, but oh well. I think I’ve done a pretty good job running the thread, with consistent updates and more badge rewards to keep players motivated. Maybe I’ll attract more new blood as time goes by—fingers crossed.

@SupremeSarna if they left b/c of you, that's too bad and their loss. You know this, but maybe others don't, but this thread takes a LOT of time and effort and is a labor of love of sorts to record and update the OP every week or so.

I think this thread is excellently updated. Thank you for this. Even tho I haven’t beaten as many games in 2023 as prior years, this thread makes me strive to finish games and cycle them out of my queue.

@Slickriven @TalonJedi87 Thanks for the kind words, you two. It's good knowing that my efforts aren't in vain.

I beat four games. Shall we run down the list?

Picross e3
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/14odrJm.jpg[/imgt]
I bought all the Picross e games available on the US eShop before the closure, and now I've got five left to go! These work really well for work breaks. Picross e2 was better because it introduced Micross mode, where you solve a quick picross puzzle and every square you filled in becomes its own puzzle. Once they're done, they form a famous painting, like Mona Lisa. Picross e3 ditches Micross in favor of Mega Picross, which is picross with a ton more guesswork. It's pretty obnoxious, so I hope it's not in every following game. I remember Picross e9 having it, so I'm concerned.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/6mE5xBk.jpg[/imgt]
I beat Classic mode on 9.0 difficulty with Little Mac and Shulk. Love this version! I still think it's the second-best Smash Bros. game after Ultimate. Convenient to carry around and play with others, has Smash Run mode and a great version of Classic mode (better than Wii U's), and generally gets a lot more right than the hit-or-miss console counterpart. It gives you exactly what you need to have a sweet Smash Bros. experience on the go.

Chubbins
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/JC2NN3D.jpg[/imgt]
In the three days after the Wii U eShop closed, some indie devs gave away free download codes of their games while the download code function was still accessible. Dahku Creations gave away copies of Chubbins and Soon Shine on their Discord server, so I nabbed some codes for myself and a friend. As a reward for their generosity, I felt obliged to try at least one of them. Chubbins has you bouncing a fat rabbit across springy platforms to reach an exit while dodging animals and spikes in your way. Physics are the name of the game here. It gets really hard as it goes, since every hit is an instant death. The final two stages before the last boss are aggravating beyond measure, but also well-designed. Maybe if you like Super Meat Boy, you'll like this. I'm not playing hard mode, since it just removes all checkpoints and gives bosses more health. No thanks!

Pocky & Rocky with Becky (originally GBA)
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/Pk8weS6.jpg[/imgt]
I played Reshrined last Christmas, and I had this on my Wii U eShop wishlist for seven years before I finally bought it for the closure. I beat both normal and expert mode as Becky since her name warrants a special mention in the title. It's a weak sequel to the SNES version and a major step back from my experience with Reshrined, but it's not awful. I still had fun for an hour, even if the game was super short, the music was worse, and the moveset was less helpful.

I also appreciate the effort and time you put into this. It's motivated me to try all sorts of games I wouldn't otherwise (and to stick with games that I might have given up on previously).

Also, I just picked up an Anbernic RG35XX. Could I add it to my console list please?

SupremeSarna wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Thanks. Do you mind if I classify it under Evercade? That’s a similar system to my knowledge.