VideoGame_Discussion

I beat Rock Band Track Pack 1 on the ps2 (beaten with guitar)

#45

Dying Light 2: Stay Human

I've had this one in my queue for quite some time. Over a year and a half and I finally got around to it and I rather enjoyed my time with it for the most part but I would in no way replay it again unless it was in co-op on a new game plus perhaps. It suffers from the tired sandbox open world Far Cry like motif of checking off boxes to level up your character in the world, etc. Also, there's windmills like radio towers to take over and the fast travel system is terrible. You must pretty much do a quest within each metro station scattered around the open world city and only then can you fast travel to each one of them. Never have I ever quickly decided to skip fast travel in a game until this one and instead slogged around from one end of the map to the next. Traversal is okay but I expected more from a game heavily focused on parkour. They wanted you to spend all the time doing side missions, gathering resources, and what not to upgrade your traversal and paraglider and even then it still feels lacking in regards to getting around the big open world map. Some of the control precision could be a bit more tightened as well as I found myself falling to my death more times than I should have. And the combat had some cool ideas, like parrying and blocking at the right time to traverse over enemies and such, but I felt a lot of the time I was just mashing the right trigger while dodging left/right to kill enemies quicker that way other than the fancy ways they set out in front of me. But those grievances aside, the story was pretty solid about a guy in search of his long lost sister. I played the first Dying light years ago and I think it's the same dude from the first game. I stuck to mainly the story missions too and I'm glad so I didn't lose focus on the tale it was trying to tell. Upgrading the main character too lets you choose which function you favor upgrading, stamina or combat. I stuck with a balance of both but more so favored stamina to get more efficient traversal skills. And you can find special boxes hidden in the map or by progressing through the story to upgrade your health or stamina meter as well. Overall, the story and gore was enough to make me see it through to the end. The parkour was solid enough, albeit minor control issues, that it reminded me of Mirror's Edge from time to time, especially during some climbing missions and I love me some Mirror's Edge like traversal. If you want a new zombie first person action co-op game I will likely hope to suggest Dead Island 2 over this one, which I am about to play next and hear really good things about.

#23 -- Tzar The Burden of the Crown ()
As difficult an RTS as I've ever played. I'd only recommend it if you're looking for a challenge, AoE, C&C, WC, SC, etc. all outshine it. The campaign is fairly short. Took around 20 hours.
This clear combined with Heroes of Might and Magic II qualifies me for the The Best Offense badge

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#24 -- Galaga ( Arcade1UP, new high score = 73,430)
Pay no mind to the high score of 149k set by my Galaga-freak of a daughter. I've always been terrible at Galaga. Still, 73k is well beyond my previous personal high score of 48k.
This clear combined with my new high score on Pac-Man earlier in the year qualifies me for the Quarter Muncher badge

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I beat and 100%’d (takes deep breath) Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey, exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. It was great!
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I haven’t played the DS original in about a decade, so it was nice playing this new version with a superior art style. Unlike last year’s Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions, which was similar to playing a completely new experience, BIS is a game I have nostalgic memories of playing—comparisons were drawn this time. The DS game is often heralded as AlphaDream’s magnum opus, which I mostly agree with.

A disease called the Blorbs infects the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. The villainous Fawful is the culprit, and he tricks Bowser into eating a Vacuum Shroom. This makes him suck up a bunch of stuff—including Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Starlow. With them out of the way and Bowser incapacitated, Fawful conquers Bowser’s Castle and brainwashes his army. Now Bowser has to thwart his maniacal scheme while the Bros. manipulate him from the inside.

It’s generally the most emotionally impactful M&L game, with a memorable cast of characters and an awesome collection of special moves to use in battle. The soundtrack is one of the best in the series, and journeying through Bowser is brilliant. Every area of his innerds looks visually distinct and creative, never gross. Some even have fun minigames to play, like bulking Bowser’s muscles or making him violently sneeze.

The bosses are great, too. They have boatloads of health and varied attacks you need to dodge or counterattack. They give you a good reason to whip out those special moves and practice with them. (The 3DS version made one of the bosses especially adorable.) There are even fights where Bowser grows massive and punches buildings in the face! Top it off with a killer finale and you have an RPG for the ages.

Now for the cons. My goodness, 75% of the new characters have obnoxious speech patterns. Fawful’s dialogue is expectedly bonkers, and he’s always entertaining. But the others just pile on, making half the text irritating to read. Midbus uses choppy sentences; the Emoglobins talk like artsy, medieval criers; Durmite drawssss outttt her wordssss; zee deux French garacteurs ‘ave exaggerated accents; Dr. Toadley speaks in questions followed by answers; and who even knows what Chakron the sage is babbling about half the time. I think they should’ve reigned it in a bit more, focusing on eccentric personalities that are conveyed through regular English.

It’s weirdly difficult to save your progress when you’re inside Bowser, because the only save blocks in him are characters who disappear when the scripted event you’re playing is finished. It feels like you see what there is to see in the world before halfway, and then they make you backtrack to previous locations instead of making new ones. The enemy variety can get a bit sparse, making you fight the same enemy groups constantly. Dr. Toadley tells you to “prepare for the final battle,” but then the game continues for about four more hours after he says that—the last area is traversed as the Bros. and Bowser, unlocks another inside-Bowser area, requires several mini games, and has five bosses plus a giant battle. Aside from the aforementioned killer finale, the area drags.

As for some remake changes, the art is better than ever and the music is largely improved. Many of the special moves were tweaked—some are now easier to execute while others were nerfed hard. You can restart a battle immediately if you lose, even dropping the difficulty if you wish. Any use of the DS microphone was ditched, which I’m fine with. The Giant Bowser battles were adapted by the infamous developer Arzest, which is why they’re now sluggish and low-poly. The overall difficulty was toned down on 3DS as well.

The most indefensible change is the title screen: The original had a simple image of Peach’s Castle on the top screen and Bowser’s Castle on the bottom, with one of Nintendo’s most beautiful tunes playing over it. It was an elegant way to highlight the duality present throughout the story: The Bros. and Bowser are enemies, but with a larger threat looming over them both, they’re now two sides of the same coin. The remake ditched this visual and melody completely, opting for a forgettable, militaristic tune playing over a picture of Bowser and Bowser Jr. standing near lava. It’s a hard downgrade that, no joke, made me skip the game at launch. (The credits and end card of the 3DS version still use motifs of the original title tune, highlighting how strange this change was.)

As for Bowser Jr.’s Journey, it’s an 8-hour strategy game that improves on the Minion Quest mode from Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions. You choose nine characters for your army and arrange them to defeat the advancing squads. The Best Fitness Friends villains are great here, and their dialogue is funnier than the main game. Bowser Jr. is insufferable through most of the quest, until he hits rock-bottom and has to mature. It’s a decent story, but the Minion Quest misadventure was more endearing. At least this mode did the unthinkable and made me kinda care about the Koopalings.

All in all, this game is worthy of your time. Play it on the DS for more difficulty and a wonderful title screen, play it on 3DS for superior graphics and sound, plus Bowser Jr.’s Journey.

Beat a few more games. Including a couple on my new replacement for my Micro. A nice small emu system with a small screen. Great little thing to play GBA games on.

Dream Town Story - IOS
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Another one of Kairosofts newer games. This was the first "modern town" one I've played as I haven't played any of their town story type games. I really liked it.

Mario Kart Super Circuit -
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Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland -
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First time playing and beating this game. Cute and fun. Looks great on a small screen!

I beat Mortal Kombat 11 on the xbox1

It's been a really slow year for me, but I managed to beat another game, Super Mario Wonder. My son and I played through it co-op. I also have another save file going where I'm playing through it solo.

NES -
SNES -
N64 -
GC -
Wii -
Wii U - Yoshi's Woolly World
Switch - Pokemon Scarlet, Super Mario Wonder
GB -
GBC -
GBA -
DS -
3DS -
360 -
XB1 -
PS1 -
PS2 -
PS4 -
PSP -
GEN -

2/19 - Unique systems

3 - Total games

I beat Zelda II: The Adventure of Link again, now on Wii U. Still great!

Zelda II. AKA The original Dark Souls. So good.

Scott wrote:

i dont know why, but i was kind of underwhelmed by mario wonder. I don't know why because it really did have its claws in me. I felt the drive to keep playing every chance I got. BUt something felt off for me.

Super Mario RPG Switch remake only took 13 hours:

https://twitter.com/fabledlife40/status/1732601276...

There is some post-game stuff, basically harder versions of the bosses.

#75 down: Rock Band 3 on PS3. This (alongside my previous clear of American Idol) gets me the Rhythmic badge. Only one badge left! This is also my first PS3 clear of the year.

I’d been meaning to play this one for awhile. Every Rock Band guitar I’ve been able to find is not very good. The buttons don’t react well and seem stiff, and, in general, they just are not reliable at high difficulty levels (unlike the Guitar Hero guitars I have which are great). The drums are very solid though, and the keytar is the best. I ended up using the keytar the most, as it’s really responsive and unique to RB3.

The way you beat RB3 is by beating all of the road challenges, but you have to unlock new forms of transportation (tour bus, plane, etc.) to be able to do the challenges. Unlocking the challenges is very time-consuming and requires you to get millions of fans by doing things like getting 3 stars or higher on all of the challenging songs on guitar or playing 300 notes without missing one on keys. One cool thing I discovered is that you can play the keytar for the guitar and bass parts in the road challenges and quickplay, and it won’t give you credit toward the goals right away, but, once you plug in a guitar and beat any song, you get credit for the parts you beat on keytar. As a result, I ended up using the keytar for everything, as it was fun to use.

There’s a nice twist to the ending of this game too that I won’t spoil, and the credits have individual goofy pictures for each person, which was a nice touch.

Johnny wrote:

A lot of people seemed to feel that way. I loved it overall, but much more in the first half of the game. In the second half, the novelty started to wear off a bit. I wasn't getting AS excited for each new wonder seed section.

BloodPuppetX wrote:

Wow, is the original that short too? Based on my vague memory of it, I would have guessed it was at least 20-25 hours.

It would seem the original is actually a bit longer. I don't know if it's due to walk speed, dumbed-down battles, stricter localization in the dialogue, but it's definitely shorter.
https://howlongtobeat.com/?q=super%2520mario%2520r...

It's probably a combination of these things. It seems the more I read/hear about the remake, the happier I am that I didn't day 1 it. I mean Valentina doesn't even jiggle anymore! How am I supposed to play this?

Maybe battles are a little faster. I'm fairly certain I had the game paused for a couple of those hours.

BloodPuppetX wrote:

Getting perfect hits deals damage to everyone on-screen in the remake, cutting down on battle time over the course of the game. That’s probably it. Item management and equipment are also snappier due to QoL changes.

yeah super mario RPG has always been a shorter RPG. It's a great intro to jRPGs because of it. Maybe a 20 hour game, 25 at most. That might also be a reason I've beaten it 4 to 5 times.

I beat Super Mario Land . It's good and short, which is nice this time of year.

#25 - Braveland Pirate
Beat the first Braveland game last year, a quirky Heroes of Might and Magic style strat RPG. Decided the series was good enough (and cheap enough, $2 or less on Steam sales) to play/buy the other games in the series.
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1st of Dec, 76th overall, 9th on
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China

I had a goal to beat a game for all 7 (why so many) PC platforms/stores that I own games on and the uPlay (now named Ubisoft Connect) platform was the last one left, so this checks that box and completes another personal goal for the year.
Game wasn't too bad as a 2D AC game vs. the main series. What's crazy is that I own pretty much every AC game before the most recent 3 (so up to Origins) and this is actually only the 2nd one I've beat (or really even played) after the original which I liked, I just simply didn't devote time towards the others - I should some day.

What's also crazy is there's only just over 3 weeks left in the year. I was hoping to make a big gaming push this month and have my way too long remodel fully in my rearview mirror, but so far neither of those have happened. I could say my new goal would be to finish in 2nd or 3rd place overall, but I wouldn't want to incentivize Ren2k or BleedDuke to push (any more than they might otherwise be doing) to get/stay ahead of me. Maybe my goal should be to finish with more than 50% of clears vs. Sarna...

I beat Ryse Son of Rome on the xbox1

moving on from my gb micro, playing a little more gba stuff.

Double Dragon Advance -
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I've been seeing Russ's video on this thing, luckily I dodged the bug to try it out. I've got a Miyoo Mini Plus, this seems mostly redundant. Only thing I have left to pick up when I'm out of the hole I'm in is an Odin 2

yeah I bought this because it was closest to the micro. It's pretty comfortable and I like it. But there is a little bit of struggling on some games, like the intro for FF6, even with frameskip.

So weird, I feel like most handheld chipsets are more than capable of handling SNES no issues... this a GBA emulation issue?

DarkFact wrote:

yeah it's prob the emulator. But problem is with the custom firmware is the only way this thing has a sleep/hibernate mode but that firmware only includes 2 options for gba emulation.

Anbernic is coming out with a micro one soon so I'm playing this only temporarily.

GM! It's me, the falls off every year in March and returns in December man

I've beaten 2 new games:

Halo: Combat Evolved
I actually own almost all the Halo games, but never beat the campaigns, I owe it to myself to rectify this. The flood is ridiculous, and the Library is the worst level. I really enjoyed playing through the campaign, and now I want to run it back turbo with all the Halos

Halo: Reach
Played this with some buddies, wasn't too hard but a lot of fun. The backstory to CE from Reach is really good, and I am excited to see how the story continues to unfold with Halo 2

OP updated! Keep on beating games and I'll keep on jotting them down.

Hey! Thanks for the update, and no big deal, but I think you missed my post from the 7th. (I beat Rock Band 3 on PS3 to finish off the Rhythmic badge).

SupremeSarna wrote:

My #48 is The Outer Wilds: Spacer's Choice Edition.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rBWBMZBwGFuMHUPEA

My #49 is The Outer Wilds: All DLC

#76 down: House of the Dead Remake on PS4. I beat this using the Move controllers, so I'd like to count it toward the Now You're Playing with Plastic badge.

There's only one game from this year that had any right to be the game that clicks my PlayStation 5 checkbox of 2023.

Number: 78
Full Title: Final Fantasy XVI
Platform Played: PlayStation 5
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: PlayStation 5
Original Platforms: PlayStation 5
Applicable Badge: Level Up! (already earned)

The release of a new Final Fantasy game used to be the gaming hallmark of the year, but for the past generation or so, it's filled me with skepticism more than anything else. Final Fantasy XV wasn't terrible, but it didn't take the franchise into the open world nearly as well as another massive franchise that made a similar transition a few months later. I haven't played Stranger of Paradise yet, but the readings I've picked up on it have ranged from "surprisingly entertaining" to "CHAOS". And I'm as big a fan as any of a decent remake, but Square-Enix seems morally opposed to releasing a true definitive edition of any of their classics. After all, if they gave us the perfect release with all the optional content, all the aesthetic options, and all the quality of life toggles, why would we ever need to buy another release the next time they needed another bite of the apple?

So, the whisperings that FFXVI would be darker, grittier, and more mature than previous offerings met my ears with a hard "meh." It's a cliché at this point that a flailing franchise or developer (especially during a transition to a new platform) runs out of ideas and tries to appeal to the Bro Generation and throw some blood, boobs and blasphemy into a game to make things seem New and Improved. And let's get this straight right off the bad: I couldn't give a flying flock that characters drop copious F-bombs in this game. Or that there's more side boob than an issue of Maxim. Or that the main character has more Stark DNA than Strife.

But there is a point to all the blood, and to all the other obvious fragilities of the game's main characters. For the first time in nearly two decades, the story of a Final Fantasy game had me by the balls.

I can practically visualize the board room conversation that led to the game's design. "Let's start from scratch," someone probably said, "and strip everything away, and then we'll slowly add back in the things that build the backbone of the franchise." The living Earth. Absolute power corrupting absolutely. Crystals. Magic. Chocobos. Gil. Awe-inspiring summoned monsters. A grisly, inventive geezer named Cid. "Okay, fine, we'll throw in a Moogle, too, but make sure you underline 'summoned monsters' to make up for it. Twice."

What didn't make it? Treasure hunting, and the bloated inventory that comes with it. The encyclopedia of status effects that could end a battle before it starts because you ran out of the precise curative you need to fix it. Active Time Battle. Overcomplicated growth and progression systems. Systems in general. Spikey-haired teenage divas with a "aw shucks" approach to the Apocalypse. Clive enters a battle with three potions, a handful of special abilities, a (properly-proportioned) sword, and a prayer. And as it turns out, that's all you really need for a satisfying - if not a bit repetitive - real-time battle system.

But back to the story for a moment: Clive is not my favorite Final Fantasy character, nor is he even my favorite character in this game in particular. (Sup, Cid. Need a throat lozenge?) But by the time the game's logo flashed on screen, I was on his side, where I remained for the next thirty-five hours. I didn't know or care if the world was ending. Couldn't be fazed by the various warring kingdoms or the respective bones they happened to be picking with each other. Wasn't thinking about what ability I was about to unlock, or what sword I would get next, or what was in the glowing spot of treasure up ahead. (Usually nothing...) But I wanted to see Clive get the justice and the victory that he deserved, and I was willing to mash my controller into oblivion over and over to make it happen.

The rogue's gallery of lesser antagonists made that even easier. The other dominants that run counter to Clive's mission (four fiends with elemental affinities... sounds familiar...) are have their fair shakes of mustache twirling and scenery twirling, but they serve their role well. Hugo Kupka is the personal standout, despite him originally being introduced as a beige Hulk with slightly better language skills. It also helps that the showdowns with each of these foes are some of the most memorable fights in the entire franchise, both as technical and cinematic showcases. The first ten minutes of the game, which serve as a preview for some of these unforgettable battles, may be one of the best cold opens in the series.

The downside into each of these set pieces is they shine a spotlight on how unevenly the game is paced. Without fail, each of these encounters is followed by a slower-paced, lower-stakes filler mission that serves only to fill out the game's 35+ hour runtime.

Clive defeats a beastman general. Then, Clive wipes out a small band of dirty raiders.
Clive destroys a massive magical artifact. Then, Clive fetches some rare herbs from a bush somewhere for... reasons.
Clive wipes out an unbelievable celestial beast. Then, Clive spreads rumors for some little kids.
Clive blows up a planet. Then, Clive waits in line in the DMV.

That last one may or may not have happened.

It's far from perfect. I missed the treasure hunting and gear upgrading a whole lot more than I expected to. The music - though gorgeously-rendered, award-winning, and full of plenty of cues that reach all the way back to the very first Final Fantasy game - is much more of a single voice than the varied energies of past games' scores. And while the battle and growth systems improve on the mess that we were thrown with Final Fantasy XV, I felt like there's a core mechanic or strategy that I never picked up throughout the game's runtime, even when I found myself in the center of the final battle.

Still, Final Fantasy XVI gets a lot of credit for making me care about a well-crafted plot again, thanks to its interesting main character, mature storytelling, and its ability to set some fireworks.

As 2023 comes to a close, the current games of the month - Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - have both found themselves on my backlog. Miles is as much of a joy to play as his mentor, but I have a long way to go until I get used to Zelda II's unique mechanics, relative to the rest of the series.

I beat Super Mario RPG last night.
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SMRPG is a nostalgic game that, surprisingly, I haven't previously beaten during my time on GTZ. I've loved playing it since middle school, and I was very excited to play this remake. Sure enough, it's an extremely faithful remake that makes everything look/sound excellent. It makes a few QoL changes to the inventory and map, adds beautiful cutscenes, and even changes a few battle mechanics to improve the flow. The best addition is the scrapbook and monster list, which give you insights into the story and enemies--often to hilarious results! This might just be the definitive way to play.

The postgame is fire! They have you rematch several non-Smithy Gang bosses with far greater HP/attack power. The fights are typically remixed to only be beatable by a pro. Punchinello takes almost no damage from your attacks, and his Bob-ombs kill you instantly if you don't guard them--you have to use certain moves to turn his bombs backwards so they attack him instead. Johnny wants a one-on-one duel with Mario and forbids healing items, so you need to perfect guard his special attacks to survive. Bundt and Raspberry will KO your whole party if all his candles are lit, so you need to put out enough candles each turn to ensure that doesn't happen. And Culex's rematch is glorious in 3D! This twist on the original game makes it worth a play on its own.

My criticisms are mostly nitpicks. Since everything's 3D now, Mario tends to awkwardly slide off platforms if you only barely land on them, which makes a few tricks difficult to do. A lot of the character names and pop culture references were arbritrarily changed/omitted, which was kinda lame (you can't give Frogfucius a generic name like the Frog Sage, I won't allow it!). It's a little too easy to perfect guard everything when they give you prompts, and now your perfect attacks can defeat enemies they weren't even targeting--so the already low difficulty of the regular adventure is reduced further. Lastly, to get all the medals/scrapbook pages, the devs expect you to do some ludicrous stuff, like get a perfect score on the Midas River or score 3 million points in the Beetle Mania minigame.

So yeah, SMRPG still rocks! And now Nintendo can't call Geno irrelevant for Smash Bros. anymore.

pretty close to one of the screenshots I was going to show for my complete.

I beat Kirby's Dream Land 3 (originally SNES).
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This game's a real jam, and an easy one to boost your clear count in December. The graphics are lovely and the music is sweet. The physics are possibly the best in the series--it's really satisfying using a weighty Animal Friend like Kine or Nago and bounding across a row of enemies.

2nd in Dec, 77th overall, 2nd
Contra: Shattered Soldier

I wanted to get a 2nd game done and after getting an emulation setup for the system whilst and not really messing with that, I went to this game in part b/c it was notably shorter - I wasn't a fan. I've never been a huge Contra fan anyhow and this didn't change my view for the better. I died a lot and ended up using save states which feels lame but the 5 stages only have a single mid-way checkpoint each and you only get 3 hits before going down, zero chance to regain health and no health bars on the numerous big bosses.

I saw the credits after spending way too long taking on the bonkers 6-phase final boss. I earned a B ranking surely from unintentionally taking down the final phase before destroying all parts of it and when you get a B or worse ranking from your time and % killed score, you don't unlock the 6th mission. There's apparently a 7th as well.
Since I didn't care for this I don't intend to face the final phase again and try to unlock the 6th mission. Since I got credits, I'm alright with that and calling it beat.

I had wanted to make my physical copy of Jak 2 that I never got around to playing from ~20 years ago my 2nd PS2 title but my console is sitting on a shelf in my basement, not hooked up to my old CRT down there currently, nor back on my surprisingly supportive LCD in my den. I also don't know if I would've been able to find the time for that game.

I am hoping to at least hit 80 games again, like I did last year, since I'm pretty close. I only have the final stage of Timesplitters 2 to replay as in my final gaming session on that console, back in Sept, before the remodel, I reached the final boss but with only like 20% health and died. The checkpoint was a good 15 mins of progression back so I had to stop. I've also played a few stages of Asura's Wrath and that's a quick title that I think I'll get wrapped up soon as well. After those 2 I'll need to find just 1 more. I'm looking forward to being off work starting on the 21st til the 2nd so I ought to be able to get some gaming in then.

Beat A Space for the Unbound on Nintendo switch.

Extremely emotional game and would recommend it to anybody who enjoys games with a deep story. Hit on some really tough topics like suicide, loss, and abuse. All things that I resonated with a lot. Might be triggering for people (triggered me a lot in certain parts)
8/10

To finish the December tradition I started two years ago, I beat the last of the Griptonite-developed Harry Potter RPG: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban .
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People say this is the best of the bunch, but I'm mixed on it. It's slightly comparable to the great Golden Sun with its battles and graphics. They also fixed the party issue present in the GBC games, where most of the fights separate you from your teammates. While there are moments that do that here, PoA mostly lets you keep at least one teammate in battle. This game also marries the "unique" look of the GBC games with the movie aesthetic, which is the best of both worlds.

As for the downsides, the flow of this game feels incomplete. You get bits of the story, but it's mostly taking classes--no Dementor attack during Quidditch, no unfolding mystery regarding Prof. Lupin, not even the Marauder's Map. It ends with the Shrieking Shack and Time-Turner stuff, as it should, but they treat the werewolf twist as if the characters already knew it. Then the final battle is Draco Malfoy for some reason, despite the previous Werewolf Lupin fight being more final boss-esque.

It's also extremely easy to get massively overleveled. Hermione has a technique that boosts your EXP for no magic cost, and it can be used in every battle in which she's playable. You'd be a fool not to abuse it.

For my money, Chamber of Secrets was my favorite of the trilogy, but this one's a close second.

I just beat my 150th game of the year. I decided it would be most fitting to make it Donkey Kong Country since I started it in January and just never got around to finishing the final world.
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I respect this as a good demake of DKC, though the K. Rool fight is way less forgiving here. But you can also easily grind lives in Misty Mine here, so you'll win eventually.

Just beat Venba. Did almost the entire game during my lunch/planning period at work today. Then booted it up just now and didn’t realize I was only a few min from the end.

Wonderful game. Felt like I was stepping into the life of an immigrant trying to raise a family in a country not welcoming to the culture. The story made me think a LOT about my daughters and how I second guess the choices I make.

Takes only an hour and a half to beat and the cooking gameplay is fun. If you haven’t played it and have a couple hours in, I recommend you squeeze this in before the end of 2023.

9/10

Johnny wrote:

What system did you beat it on?

Switch

#77 down: Unearthing Mars 2: The Ancient War on PSVR. I beat this with an Aim controller.
Alongside my clear this month of the House of the Dead Remake, this gets me the Now You're Playing with Plastic badge. When I first looked at the badges for this year, I wasn't sure if getting them all in a year would be possible, but, somehow, it all worked out with 16 days to spare! I still have three more systems to beat a game for, but I have games in progress on all three.

Unearthing Mars 2 is not a game I would necessarily recommend, but it was better than the review scores indicated. It got panned pretty intensely, and the first few levels are really repetitive and feature a lot of killing robots in hallways that look exactly the same as each other. However, things open up, and you eventually get to go outside into this expansive, beautiful spaces, and some of the boss fights are pretty cool. It's an older game on older tech, but even though the PSVR2 is noticeably better in every way, this still kinda held up at times.

I beat this year's book in Fire Emblem Heroes (iOS). I totally fell off FE Heroes this year, but I killed a little time with it here and there. I usually beat the paralogues on all difficulties, but not this time. If we go by our typical rules, paralogues are optional content, unnecessary for calling this game beaten.

I never pay attention to the stories, but Book VII had particularly bad or gratuitously-designed characters. I won't miss them in Book VIII.

OP updated!

3rd in Dec, 78th overall, 3rd
Asura's Wrath

This game was over the top. Having your dude's arms torn off/destroyed not once but twice and still fighting with your feet was crazy and that was the theme of this game - crazy. But it was pretty dang enjoyable. The fighting was generally solid, not that I was a pro or anything, I earned several overall C ranks on levels because I died and needed to redo sections. I did earn a few S ranks as well. The game is beholden to it's era, with a LOT of QTE button presses required which I was generally decent at except I really dislike when they require you to mash a single button a ton and there were lots of times that was required in this game. But it was still fun and I went ahead and bought the few additional DLC levels and already beat the first after finishing the main game. I will look to complete those as well, but with under 2 weeks left in the year I'll likely prioritize finishing Timesplitter 2 that I'm deep into and seek to hit 80 total games, vs focusing on Asura's DLC.

I beat Kirby's Super Star Stacker (originally ) -- I'm not calling it "Kirby's Star Stacker (Super Famicom)" like HAL wants, since NoA's old website already gave it a superior name.
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I played the whole thing, every mode. I maxed out the score in the endurance mode, which took hours to do. This game suggests that Kirby drinks alcohol, or at least drank it this one time.

The physical copy I bought at a retro game shop for $60 is currently mt second-most valuable game, being worth over $200.

SupremeSarna wrote:
Kirby at least drank alcohol just this once

4th in Dec, 79th overall, 4th
Nex Machina

This was on my Wishlist for a good while as it looked pretty cool and then a fellow GTZ'r had it available for like $2 so I snatched that up and now that I've got my PC set back up with my 165hz monitor I figured I would give it a go. I only beat it on Rookie difficulty, but I wanted to ease into it partly b/c I didn't fully remember what gameplay style it was, but with only 5 worlds I tore through it faster than expected and saw the credits.

It's a twin-stick shooter and was fun for the 55 mins Steam says I played it. I think I only ran out of lives and had to continue twice and Rookie mode gives me unlimited continues, so I'm certain I could beat it on the next higher difficulty and likely will play this more since it was fun and controlled really well. I generally enjoy twin-stick shooters and this one was solid with great graphics and a good sense of speed and chaos that make them fun. It's from the devs that made Returnal, which is cool.

#78 down: Mom Hid My Game! This is my first and only clear for the year on Switch. Two more systems to go. This looked like a throwaway game, but it’s actually kinda fun. It’s a 50-level puzzle game in which you try to get your game system back from your mom, and it’s a lot more creative than I expected. The ending was kind of nice but also made it seem like the game is judging you. (It’ll make sense if you beat it.)

My last three games of 2023 include two Games of the Month and a leftover from the Birthday Extravaganza.

Number: 79
Full Title: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Platform Played: Nintendo NES
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Nintendo NES
Original Platforms: Nintendo NES
Applicable Badge: Hyrulian Hero (2/2)

It's pretty telling that most of my childhood friends with an NES had a copy of Zelda, but only one had a copy of Zelda II. I was thrilled to discover that the very first "modern" video game I ever played had a sequel, though it was barely recognizable from its predecessor. I picked up Zelda II many times over the years - as a Classic NES release for the GBA, on an emulator, or as some other classic re-release - but other than completing most of the related challenges in NES Remix, I never put any substantial amount of time into the game. I don't recall ever even making it to the first dungeon, and if I did, I certainly didn't beat it.

The Game of the Month nomination gave me my first change to really dig into the game, and it was rough goings at first. Link is inundated by an endless stream of semi-random encounters on the new overworld map, and he may as well be trying to poke his enemies to death, given the limited range of his weapon this time around. I made it to the first dungeon (turns out it's really close to the starting area) and limped my way through it to the final boss, but it was such a pathetic display that I ended up starting over from scratch. Armed with some advice from @SupremeSarna about a few of the enemies, my second performance was much more respectable. Once Link learned the ability to heal himself, it was smooth sailing moving forward.

Zelda II's brutal combat, unclear puzzles, and long dungeons gave me serious Castlevania II vibes, though its tropes weren't taken to the same extreme. In the end, my only serious issue with the game is how unforgiving it was at the start. Once Link became self-sufficient, I learned to distinguish between the different enemies, and I stopped running into random battles every time I took a step, I had a lot of fun. I don't have much of a desire to endure the final dungeon again, though.

Number: 80
Full Title: Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Platform Played: PC (Windows)
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: PC (Windows)
Original Platforms: PlayStation 5
Applicable Badge: Quest for Peace (2/2)

I'm not a huge fan of Miles Morales, the character. Sure, I loved Into the Spider-Verse like everyone else with a pulse, but all the new electricity-based spider powers and his family tree - being conveniently chock-full of heroes, villains, and everything in between - just seemed like a board-room driven way of squeezing more mileage out of an aging brand. My feelings were strong enough that, while I wanted to play through Marvel's Miles Morales before picking up Spider-Man 2, I was dreading the experience.

Boy, was I wrong. Miles' venom powers take an already incredible combat engine and spice it up even more, making for even more impressive fireworks and acrobatics. And despite being a smaller, more focused story, the narrative in this spin-off was every bit as gripping as the one from the original game. Being Steam Deck verified was a huge bonus, as I was able to play through story missions at home on a real gaming PC (which finally saw some upgrades to fix some stuttering with this game) and side missions on the go with my Steam Deck. I don't think I'm done with this one. I may need to play through New Game+, if only to check out the locked-away abilities.

Number: 81
Full Title: Twisted Metal 4
Platform Played: PlayStation
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: PlayStation
Original Platforms: PlayStation
Applicable Badge: Mass Destruction (already earned)

While editing my year-end video for 2023, I found myself in a position where it'd be beneficial to beat one more Birthday Extravaganza game to make editing easier. Twisted Metal 4 immediately jumped to mind, as it's the last of the Twisted Metal games that I haven't ever beat. Sony sensed that something went wrong with Twisted Metal III, so they swapped in a completely new roster for the fourth game, filled it full of sprawling new levels, and crammed it with as much content as they could, including a vehicle editor, four-player support, and exclusive multiplayer maps.

I picked Calypso, who has been usurped from his Twisted Metal throne by Sweet Tooth and is now a run-of-the-mill contestant trying to win back what he lost. The level design is a massive improvement from the previous game, as is the filled-out roster, but the driving engine is still a chore, and enemies still manage to be bullet sponges. At least, they were until I learned to use Calypso's special weapon properly: a gigantic rear-mounted nuclear missile that can melt any enemy in the blast radius. The final boss is every bit as annoying as I can remember, arguably the sole reason why it took me twenty years to finish this one, but I managed to keep him from refilling his health long enough to destroy him with a final well-placed nuke.

At 81 games - one more game than my personal record, back in 2020 - I'm going to call it for 2023. Like Decembers past, I'm going to spend the rest of the year working on video stuff. I left a lot of platforms on the table, largely due to a renewed focus on PC (thanks to the Steam Deck) and Arcade August. We'll see what happens next year.

I beat Joe and Mac (originally SNES).
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I'm very close to beating 2021's total, nowhere close to 2022's. That's okay.

@Renaissance2K Which was your firest Quest for Peace clear?

SupremeSarna wrote:
The Punisher

It was clearly a good thing that I did Nex Machina on Rookie first as the on Experienced (normal) difficulty it was a good deal more challenging and the final boss sucked major a$$. I took more damage overall through the levels and used some continues to reach the final but had to give up after a good 20+ continues burned on just that fight. You can get some power ups from beating consecutive foes or destructible things or whatever and when you continue you can sometimes get those powerups back right away if you're quick and they dropped, but they don't drop 100% of the time, and having a weaker weapon, the sort of BS small arena and nature of some of the final boss's attacks meant I really was facing a huge uphill battle.

13.1% of players have beat the game on Rookie including me, only 2.5% have beat it on Experienced, so it's certainly not an easy feat. I am up to 2.6hrs now, so that attempt on Experienced took around 1.5 hours - I'm disappointed that I couldn't get over that final hurdle, but my best attempt I barely got it (it's a machine) down to 25-33% (I think) health remaining, which triggers the final phase where all bosses would stream out these purple skulls that make the arena nearly impossible to navigate around - you basically end up stuck in a small space dodging skulls and other attacks and hope that your gunfire is impacting the boss. It stinks when you feel hugely underpowered to take on a foe that that. The final boss sends out 4 guns to shoot at you and it easily takes a good 5+ seconds of dedicated fire onto any of the 4 to destroy it and thus temporarily reduce the firepower that you need to dodge. Any destroyed guns will come back before too long and I'm not sure if taking them out damages the boss itself or not, maybe not, but it's helpful to take them out b/c their attacks sweep over the whole, rather small arena that you can move around in.
I was playing on the Arcade mode that requires you to beat all 5 worlds in a row without taking a break. I might give world 5 a run in the 'single world' mode to see if I can beat that final boss as I don't necessarily want to replay all of the first 4 worlds to get there. Then again I may say, 2.6hrs was worth my $2 and not revisit this one for a while.

5th in Dec, 80th overall, 2nd
Timesplitters 2

This got me a few personal goals - 2 titles beat on 6/8 of my tier 2 consoles (mainly CD and DVD based); tied my total from last year; got me to 33 games from a list of the top 101 games from a YT channel I watch.

I mistakenly played Future Perfect first b/c I didn't realize it was the 3rd title and that hurt a little here, not because of the overall story really, but the 3rd was a slightly better game as you'd expect. I did not love the aiming controls and lack of a reticle as I wasn't anywhere near as accurate and I feel I could've been with those things. But the story and humor were pretty good here. I played the vast majority of this back in late Aug, early Sept and I was hoping to beat it before I started my remodel but that didn't happen as the final full level was rather challenging and long, but only had a single checkpoint. The final short level wasn't great either as I fell to my death in an elevator my first attempt, then ran out of time with merely 50 feet to go in the game's only timed section, I believe... so it took me annoyingly 3 attempts. Oh well it's beat and I'm glad I finally played these 2 games.

Now I've basically got no games going (outside of Chained Echoes that I've not played in 3+ months), so I need to decide on what I want to play next. I'd like to squeeze in a few more this year and only have work tomorrow, some holiday requirements, and 1 thing left to do for the remodel and then I should have a good bit of free time before January, so I'll need to pick a game or a few to get into.

I beat Gunman Clive
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I was surprised to find this was a Mega Man “clone.” It’s got memorable music and art direction, and I liked the unlockable Duck Mode—you’re totally defenseless, but you have a smaller hitbox and several jumps. I liked this game, though I’m glad I got it cheap.

6th in Dec, 81st overall, 2nd
House of the Dead Overkill
First towards Playing w/Plastic

I picked this up a while back when I got interested in some light gun style games for the Wii and felt like giving it a shot tonight... wasn't a big fan. The 70's grindhouse aesthetic it was going for was decently fine, but the story was dumb and I don't tolerate egregious swearing, especially dropping the F-bombs in almost every sentence. I can understand the way they were trying to setup the cop, but it irked me after only maybe 3 MF's... and he easily said that 40-60 times in the short campaign. It was bad enough that I sought to skip the cutscenes as I cared less about the story over listening to that junk... and was annoyed that I could not skip them.

Gameplay wise wasn't a ton better: the game would slowdown a bit too often even running on my WiiU, the aiming could've been better, the on-rails camera was too erratic at times and the simulated recoil felt exaggerated - a LOT. It could've been good fun, but also looked very much like a Wii title with weak textures and poor graphics overall. I saw a review online for the PS3 version and it not surprisingly looked a TON nicer, but seemed to have several additional things in the game to collect like cash to buy/upgrade your weapons. Those weren't in the main story mode on the Wii, but maybe are in the now unlocked Director's Cut mode, that I'm not sure I care to play. I suppose if I could skip the cutscenes and thus avoid most of the garbage dialog, then the shooting wasn't that bad. I was using one of my Nyko Perfect Shot peripherals and it was fairly decent, though near the end my hands and elbows were sore from shooting my TV for 3+ hrs - the Wiimote is heavier than I thought.

If I can beat another Wii or a PS3 title, then I'll hit my final personal goal for the year, of the 10 I set for myself, so I need to find something to play on one of those systems.

#79 down: Gun on PS2. This is one I had been curious about for awhile, but I never owned a PS2 until a couple of years ago. It’s a rough around the edges Western where you can shoot off people’s limbs, ride a horse, fire a cannon, and assassinate people for bounties. The gameplay is pretty fun except the last boss (who was tedious and annoying to fight). I had to save frequently, because the game crashed on me several times. Gun is gorier and darker than I’d expected with scenes of torture, sex workers getting murdered, liberal use of racial epithets, etc. I’m not sure I’d recommend it, but it was interesting. One more game before I’ve beaten one for every system, and I’m almost finished with it.

#26 - Dead Space (Remake)

Just a blast from start to finish. So well done. Honestly, I had more fun playing this than at least the first 30+ hours of FFXVI, and therefore is my game of the year. I think the original Dead Space should truly be in the conversation for game of a generation. I can't praise it enough.

Completed with only the Plasma Cutter (because it's the best weapon hands down, and because they brought back the achievement from the original to do so) on Medium difficulty, with all side missions complete in 17.5 hours.

Unless I somehow find time to complete Dishonored 2, which I just started, this will likely be my last clear of the year. I don't plan on having much time to game over the next 9-10 days.

image

Dishonored 2 is one of my favorite games. Enjoy!

incubus421 wrote:

So I'm working on a game for what would be another platform - Luna, Amazon's Stadia competitor - I don't pay for the + version of the service, but as a Prime sub, I get access to a rolling set of generally 4-7 games/month and I've considered playing something on the service in the past but nothing really caught my fancy until yesterday when I decided to give a BloodRayne game a shot. I don't love the game and see on the Luna page for it that Metacritic only lists it at a 63, which feels about right to me. After getting annoyed by a section in level 4 and taking a break I just put in my second session and am nearing 50% complete so I think I'll stick with it. The service and input response is actually pretty solid, so that's nice.

@SupremeSarna you might need to add Luna for me soon as I do plan on beating this before it leaves the service in Jan.

I beat Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun and one of its DLC packs. I beat every song on Easy, Normal, and Hard, and beat a handful on Extreme/Master.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival feels like a more complete game. It has a leveling system, a lengthy story, currency and a shop, costumes, and more. Drum ‘n’ Fun is far more basic, but I enjoyed it a bit more. Could be the fact that you get different playable characters (including Kirby and an Inkling Squid) who come with different advantages. It could also be that DnF cost five times more than Rhythm Festival, and I needed to justify the purchase by playing it more.

#80 down: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger on Xbox 360. This was pretty fun. It’s a Western with a bit of magical realism and some occasional arcadey bullet time dodging. With that, I’ve beaten a game on every system I own!

7th in Dec, 82nd overall, 1st on Amazon Luna
BloodRayne Betrayal Fresh Bites
If I didn't already have 2 for You're Winner, I would 100% be counting this, but eh

I recall trying the non-Fresh Bites version of this a few years ago on the 360 and it didn't suck me in, but likely b/c I wanted to try a game on Luna, this time it did even though parts of it royally sucked. Some of it was controls, though it didn't feel like it was lag from remote-play, more frustrating inputs or choices like this one big backwards leap you could do by running a direction, hitting back to slide and then A to jump back the way you were running from. There's more, but 3 sections stuck out as bad design causing me way too many attempts to get through. 1 was right after they gave you an alternative means of travel only to completely prevent you from using this new method and requiring you to navigate across a section without taking a single hit and nailing a good 20+ inputs near perfectly, and then right at the end they throw another wrinkle... it was just lots of terrible design choices like that where frustration could become bonkers.

The combat wasn't too bad, even the bosses were mostly all beaten on the first 3 tries or so. The bugger was you had a lot of attacks, but only the X button doled out damage, so you needed to use directions and timing to pull off those moves and at times you didn't want to pull them off but did. Oh well, I'm glad it's over, it was a bit of a slog in sections. Maybe the stupidest thing was they gave a score for each level and I got Fs on basically every level - so I sucked at it.... or it was crap.

This is my 26th platform, though GTZ doesn't have an icon for Luna.

Slickriven wrote:

Well done for beating a game fir the Luna! I've never even heard of that system.

I finished Process of Elimination and Little Witch Nobeta on Switch. I now have eight days to beat something on another system. I probably won't even try lol.

8th in Dec, 83rd overall, 2nd on Luna
Steel Assault

Two years ago I pushed to beat 2 games for every system I had and fell just 1 console short, since then I generally do, at least try, to beat 2 on most systems, so after beating that BloodRayne game I figured I'd try for another on Luna and that led me to this game. I think it was made available on there before as it looked familiar, but I don't believe I tried it out. It's a classic style platformer where you need to dispatch a bunch of foes, this time with a whip and there's a zipline you can use to traverse above the ground. Gameplay was pretty cool and enjoyable, if short. I turned on the game's CRT filter and it did feel a little like a 16-bit side-scrolling brawler.
I ended up beating it on easy vs. normal (or very easy or hard) b/c the chapter 2 area was kicking my butt before I could reach the first mid-level boss. The game was generally decent with checkpoints but not in this case. Switching to easy still had some challenge, though a few bosses went down unfortunately too easy on that difficulty, but eh I'd rather be able to get through a game vs. banging my head a bunch in frustration or get pissed or just giving up. I did try some different tactics in the area that dogged me but every hit you took, including falling off of a moving platform into the water took 2 HP and you only get 10. Going to easy did lower the total amount of foes and the amount of hits a boss would take, but it also reduced the damage your dude took when hit, which was key.

I'm on a bit of a roll with this being my 6th game beat in like 6 days. I think I'm catching up a little after not getting to play much at all in Sept-Nov. I do expect this to slow some next week, even though I'm off of work, b/c 2 of the games I beat I was fairly far into before and just needed to finish, as well as several other shorter ones and I did beat 2 on easier difficulty.

I'll go ahead and report my final clear of the year, doubt I'll get another one in 2023. Beat it a couple of weeks ago. Of course enjoyed it throroughly. Enjoyed playing this magical game with a fresh coat of paint.

Super Mario RPG -
image

After having the Switch OLED for a couple of years. I just craved that super comfortable switch lite. So I went back to switch lite, and got the slate metallic grey pokemon one. Looks and feels great. And I hope all had a happy merry x-mas.

#46 (and possibly my last clear of 2023, although I am almost at the end of Sea of Stars and may try to squeeze that in before the new year)

Street Fighter 6 (World Tour Mode)

Well I didn’t really care for SF5 due to its constant barrage of microtransactions but I absolutely adored the accessibility controls to modern style here. I haven’t been this into a SF game since SF4 back in the 360 days. The implementation of a story like mode in World Tour made me feel like I was playing a bit of Yakuza with the ability to literally beat the crap out of anyone on the streets, from young dudes to old fools. I also enjoyed leveling up and unlocking new fighter skills and abilities you could add to your avatar as well as learn new techniques from classic SF characters as you enroll as their students. You could even call in some of your masters in battle by using a super meter and they can assist in non rounded fights. Now I absolutely stink for the most part in regards to the competitive aspect of this title and only play casually for the cool tricks and moves to pull off fluently and that’s exactly where SF6 shines. It allows the non-elite fighters like myself to have a chance against either super difficult AI or pro gamers online. And for me I still struggled a bit even with the AI in the late game story where I had to grind a little to match or go above their levels a bit. That would be one of my few gripes with this game. The difficulty spikes and the need to grind in late game areas to stand a chance at progressing. And of course the story mode while neat and all is just there to get you ready and take on multiplayer either online or via couch versus play. Overall whether you’ve been out of the SF game for a while like myself or are curious to start I think SF6 is a great jumping off point. You cannot ask for more accessibility than what is present here I feel and it’s really gnarly for those newcomers and folks like myself who strayed away from the franchise for a while due to not feeling confident enough to be good enough to extract any fun from it.

I hope everyone had a happy holiday! I’ll be updating the OP on New Year’s Day. Keep posting your final clears in the meantime.

Please tell me which of you are participating in 2024. I’ll need full console lists for everyone. For those who are continuing on with no console list changes, just say so.

@PizzaTheHutt @Gypsy You’re rejoining, yes? I recall you both saying that earlier.

I’m in for 2024! Thanks for doing this! I just hope I can do as good as I did in 2021-2022! This year I was slow for me for beating games even with almost 50 clears. I got up to almost 100 a couple of years back. I’m slacking! Haha

Current Console list below:

PS5
Xbox Series X
Switch
PS3
PC
2DS

@SupremeSarna yeah I'm in next year. My list won't change except maybe adding the Luna platform. I'm not sure if I'll push for second place which I'm hoping to secure this year, but likely. There are still a lot of games I want to finally beat from my massive backlog. This year I focused a bit more on my more recent consoles and not much on the older smaller titles from the 8 and 16-bit generations. I still want to focus on those and may not bother with my older consoles, nor my portable ones, including .

@SupremeSarna

I'm in. I currently got Wii U, Switch, PC and PS5. Also PSVR if that counts as its own thing. But PS+ Premium gives me access to a bunch of PS1, PS2, PS3, PSP and PS4 games as well. Do those just get lumped under PS5 when I clear them? I forgot how it went last time.

9th in Dec, 84th overall, 3rd
Call of Duty: World at War

This gets me my 10th and final personal goal of beating 3 games per on 6 of my 8 more recent consoles. I did adjust my goals a little, but I think it might be the first year that I got all of them, though I did go a little less ambitious I suppose this year vs. years past. This might be my final in '23, but we'll see.

I ended up collecting a good number of CoD titles over the past few years via trades/buys on here and I figured it was finally time to put some focus on those, especially since I wanted a 3rd PS3 title and WaW fit that bill and wasn't overly long. Game was alright, if a little more chaotic at times vs. what I'd prefer, but eh. I hadn't played a more 'grounded in reality' FPS in a while since the last several I played or beat this year include Doom '16, Halo Infinite, High on Life, Crysis 3, Quake, Killzone 2 and Wolfenstein Young Blood. My controllers were dead after having not played this system if many months, so when I started playing the other day I had to play whilst charging my camo one and I'm not sure if that controller is a little messed up or when it's charging that causes issues b/c a number of times I had like phantom button presses as I threw grenades more often (via R1) than I know that I actually clicked said button. After getting frustrated with that I charged up a different controller and that seemed a little better, but I still would have some funky 'nade tosses when trying to run and clicking in the left stick - odd - I think I died more to my own throw 'nades than just about anything else.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I typically default to them counting for the system you played them on, like how I played a PSP game on my PS4 and counted it for PS4. If you wish to count each of those system libraries separately, you may.

@SupremeSarna I'm back in for 2024 as well.

These consoles can be removed from my list:



MAME