VideoGame_Discussion

I beat Shrek: Fairy Tale Freakdown (originally GBC), getting me the Street Fightin' badge (SoulCalibur II, Shrek: Fairy Tale Freakdown). Took maybe half an hour, probably less. Game is garbage, but it's preferable to Shrek the Third. The character portraits are the best part.

[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/TCimTLr.jpeg[/imgt]
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/2YEgG1r.jpeg[/imgt]

Elden Ring

My #27 is The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan.

https://ibb.co/Ry1n9dS

I finished Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis on the OG Xbox. 8.5/10. I'm very pleased with that one.

----- OP is now updated

Pace seems to be slowing significantly, 13 days in and we're down to around 3/day pace (was 6.67/day in Jan). I'm not complaining but hope my pessimistic comments and/or slow pace on updates isn't causing folks to stop participating.

Since we're nearly to the half way mark of the month, here's the leaderboard:
1. BenStylus - 6
2. DemonAlcohol, SupremeSarna - 5
4. LegendRko25 - 4
5. BloodPuppetX, Razeak, Slickriven - 3

I would probably blame Elden Ring.

I would probably blame Elden Ring.

Also @Slickriven I completed the original Jurassic Park on a Sega Nomad, so 6/32 when you get a chance please.

It's Elden Ring. I've made decent progress on several other games but can't finish any of them, because Elden Ring is too good.

Slickriven wrote:

razeak wrote:

My bad, I recall seeing you said you beat on Nomad and I ignorantly listed Genesis. So just flip from to right?

y'all. i actually beat a good game this month.

A Way Out

it was fun! i had fun! video games!

razeak wrote:

Have you played the new ones? Is the old one better?

I beat Ultimate NES Remix , earning me the Making Money with Mini-Games! badge (Game & Watch Gallery 3, Ultimate NES Remix). ...What's that? That badge doesn't exist yet? Well, all in due time...

Regardless, it's a meaty collection of NES challenges from the most famous games featured in NES Remix 1 and 2. I got the best rank possible on every challenge. I felt that some games got too much spotlight, like SMB 1 and 3, while other games were starved for challenges, like DK Jr. The remixed stages were also a little lackluster; though they mix and match some games (fight Whispy Woods as Kirby while Boos from SMB3 attack you, or collect coins in SMB as Samus), they don't do it very often, instead just adding some gimmick to an existing game (play this stage in SMB but it's icy, or play this stage in Donkey Kong but the screen is mirrored). I can think of several fun ideas that would've worked well (defeat the Thunderbird from Zelda II as Samus, or shoot enemies as Pit from Kid Icarus while dodging a PUNCH-OUT!! boxer's punches that come from the background). It's also strange how some of the challenges feature elements from NES games that aren't included in Ultimate, like the few Dr. Mario battles against Wario and Birdo from Wario's Woods, or Mario Bros. featuring graphics from Ice Climber.

Good game, but the final challenge is terrible. Has 45 stages and offers little room for error! Have fun doing that at 2 AM when you have work in the morning but are just one try away from completing the whole game!

Gunbird 2 and Mars Matrix both on

Absolutely classic shootun.

Slickriven wrote:

Believe you missed Elden Ring for me.

@Slickriven yes, just flip it to Nomad when you update please.

@ErickRPG I think it is a little better.than Evolution. I haven't played Evolution 2. Evolution 1 is a fence repair simulator by comparison. You get to focus more on the park. You have less variety of dinosaurs accessible in 1 game as the console versions limit you to 5 out of 9 dig sites on any one save file.

The dinosaurs are more alive in JPOG. They pack hunt, snap at bugs etc. The buildings have less variety, but customizing the menus or toy options for sale to the needs of the 4 specific types of visitor adds a little bit of strategy. Evolution's biggest sin is how often dinosaurs escape even when managed well. You spend an inordinate amount of time repairing fence, order sedation and capture, and fighting ranger jeeps that don't quite path well. I'm not done with JPOG even though I finished it. I enjoyed Evolution, but Evolution is literally a prettier sequel to JPOG. It's a huge ripoff in features lol.

Bottom line, JPOG is less complex, more immersive (if you can abide the graphics), and a simpler excursion into park building. Both are good games, but I'm usually pretty forgiving of older games so keep that in mind.

I have Jurassic Park III: Builder in the mail for the GBA.

Gypsy wrote:

Sorry, added to the sheet for my next OP update.

Gypsy wrote:

My son and I spent quite a few hours on Gunbird 2 around 2013 when he was 5.

No worries @Slickriven appreciate you keeping the thread updated.

@razeak that's awesome.

10th overall, 4th of March, 1st
NBA JAM

Started this 2 night ago for the RTT GotM - owned (still do) and loved as a kid and played it a lot back then, used a ROM this time to save me copying down 20-digit passwords to resume my progress. RTT only wanted a single game victory which was easy, so I gave myself the challenge of winning with all 27 teams. A few matchups were rough and some teams sucked. The Spurs took my Jazz to OT before I got the win and then the Jazz led basically the entire game over my Nets before I retook the lead with under 10 and hard D prevented them from getting off a shot to beat me - 62-61 victory.
Counts towards Bo Knows... not sure what, if any other sport title I'll play, generally am not a fan of sports games.

I've beaten a couple of games since I last posted:

Game #3: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Game #4: Grid Legends (story mode)

Next game on my hit list is probably going to be Stranger of Paradise. Really looking forward to that one.

@Heavyd814life I'll put them both down as March clears since you didn't say and we're into March.
What platforms for them?

@Slickriven

13 Sentinels

also you've got horizon forbidden west down as psp lol. or did you do that to see how long it would take me to see it lol.. didnt we do something like that last year ? :P

Slickriven wrote:

PS5 for both. And yeah, both were March clears,

tonymack21 wrote:

What did you think of 13 Sentinels?

13 Sentinels is a game that makes me want to try Yakisoba Pan.

My #28 is The Artful Escape

https://ibb.co/wcC4nHb

Game #12 is Mirror's Edge on

Shining Force EXA

@Slickriven

Game #13 is The First Tree on

I beat paw patrol mighty pups save adventure bay for the xbox1

I beat Triangle Strategy on Switch. I sided with Benedict at the end there. I just looked up the golden ending on YT (didn't meet the requirements for that option) because I don't think I'll be playing it again any time soon. Great game, though.

tonymack21 wrote:

that was 100% a misplaced ctrl+V when I was updating my local copy of the OP that I then paste the whole thing into here when done.
Thanks for catching - this was *not* a test

Slickriven wrote:

haha

Heavyd814life wrote:

I liked it. i thought the characters were cool and though i kinda deduced alot of the plot before the big reveals there were still a couple twists that were fun. the combat really felt like an afterthought, but it doesnt seem like its really the focus of the game either. i usually dont chase platinums but after finishing all characters stories and the last battle of the story i had one left to get that took about 2 minutes to unlock a couple more weapons for the sentinels so i did it.

i thought the characters were interesting and the character relationships and interactions were pretty well done as well. visually its what i expect from vanillaware i found it pleasing enough.

I beat wwe2k22 on the xbox1

I'm currently playing the only Mario game (I think) to contain actual depictions of Playboy bunnies. Which game is it...? (Thousand-Year Door doesn't count, since the characters in question are just Boos with bunny ears, and those were changed to cat ears in the English version.)

SupremeSarna wrote:

Mario is Missing (and doesn't want to be found)?

benstylus wrote:
I mean, I think we know EXACTLY where he is if Playboy bunnies are part of it.
Not that game, though.

#37: Game Dev Story

image

Traveling to Europe for today's game, Fighting Vipers 2 for PAL Dreamcast.

It's a decent fighter, unless you've already played Virtua Fighter 3. It's basically Virtua Fighter's not quite as good cousin. Still ok, but it's not wonder 2 is as far as this series went.

Per the rules, I cleared it with two characters, Mahler and Honey.

So that's game #69 down.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qvwZCutLuRQnWGkP7

Helping run the OMG!Con booth and the VG room at Evillecon this weekend, so the photo is from there.

January:

February

March:

#70 has been hooked and dragged aboard ship!

Sega Marine Fishing for Dreamcast is so much more fun than Sega Bass Fishing, with lots more things to catch than just bass.

You really will enjoy your fishing.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/43Jw1vNSMZFiu3sN6

January:

February

March:

#38 - Pokemon Legends: Arceus

Definitely a fan of the new type of gameplay for a new era. I know a lot of people have been waiting for something like this. I still like the old fashioned stuff, but this was entirely well done.

image

Jurassic Park III: Builder on Gameboy Advance

5/10

Not worth the time it takes to get to build anything interesting. Basically it amounts to 5 or 6 hours of watching funds trickle in before you can afford a 3rd enclosure.

Jurassic Park: Evolution 1/7/2022
Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition 1/15/2022
Lego Jurassic World 2/18/2022
Jurassic Park 3/6/2022
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis 3/13/2022
Jurassic Park III: Park Builder 3/18/2022
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues
Jurassic Park
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Warpath: Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park: Evolution 2
Jurassic World: Aftermath

#29 for me is A Short Hike. Lives up to it's name.

https://ibb.co/cY0TF9n

#30 is another short game Adventure for a Bit

https://ibb.co/k1XgP4Z

I beat March's Zelda game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/jg5m4XH.jpeg[/imgt]

The game is great, but with the trademark Zelda obtuseness. LoZ converted beautifully into 3D back in 1998, and this version has great graphics and stereoscopic 3D visuals. The old tunes and sound effects from the N64 version were used, and while they still sound good, a rearranged alternative would've been a neat option. Combat on a 3D plane works quite well, with L-targeting being very helpful but unneeded if you don't feel like using it. Fast travel using the Ocarina is super satisfying and saves on time.

Collecting Heart Pieces and Skulltulas is pretty rewarding, but I don't recommend hunting for all of them if you value your time. I got all the Skulltulas, but I kinda wish I hadn't bothered, since one at Death Mountain had me stumped for almost two hours even with a guide. The Epona and Biggoron Sword quests are very worthwhile. Other items range from worth getting to absolutely monotonous to acquire, with many being hidden away for you to discover. I didn't know you could get Fire Arrows until I was stuck on Ganon's Castle earlier today, when I learned that a (boring) fishing minigame would gift them to you. (Fortunately, the Fire Arrows aren't mandatory on the Main Quest, and clever puzzle-solving got me unstuck.) I found it kinda lame that the first few items you obtain are just replacements for gear you arbitrarily can't use as an adult, and traveling back in time makes your newer gear useless. But the adult tools like the Hookshot/Longshot and Bow are really cool.

Now for the dungeons themselves. I'll always have mixed feelings on Zelda dungeons. They're the part of the game I want to reach the most, but once I'm in one, a frustration timer starts ticking down in the back of my brain. I almost always have to Google something or else wander for 20 minutes looking for the answer--I would probably love Zelda if all the "Aha!" moments came naturally to me, but I'm impatient and/or the dungeon does something obtuse. Regardless, I had little to no trouble in the Great Deku Tree, Dodongo's Cavern (weakest), and Jabu-Jabu's Belly (best). I got a little lost in the Forest Temple but enjoyed it; got stuck in the Fire Temple and needed a guide; hated the Water Temple like everyone else and used the guide liberally; got stuck once in the Shadow Temple but figured out the solution on my own; loved the Spirit Temple but needed Google at the end; and loved Ganon's Castle once I learned that Fire Arrows AREN'T required in the Shadow portion. Bongo Bongo is the best boss and Morpha is the worst.

I shipped Link with most of the girls he ran into. I doubt that will continue with future games, however. Watching the finale reminds me that Zelda II Link really does have the happiest ending.

I'm getting into Zelda this year with a new game each month! Watch my progress!
January: A Link to the Past
February: The Legend of Zelda and many playthroughs of The Adventure of Link
March: Ocarina of Time 3D
April: ?

Game #11, 3rd , 5th of March
Monster Killer Pro

Been playing this one for a while, you control a character who when not moving will fire a projectile weapon and you have to move through either 20 or 50 rooms to beat each level. You get gems to upgrade your character's weapon, companions and gear. On a given run you get perks like passive attacks, attack damage or fire rate boosts, health increases, etc. The rooms are randomized and the final level is basically a Boss Rush mode. Took me a bunch of attempts on the Boss Rush to finally clear it. I also beat most of the levels on 'heroic' as a means to boosting my skills and whatnot.

Wasn't too bad for an ad boosted free mobile title - I might play it a little more here/there, but I'm comfortable considering it beat, even though they have the 'more levels coming soon' banner.

----- OP now updated

Say hello to a new participant - buster4252. With his numbers we're back to an even 600 consoles and 163 already completed. Note that someone told me to remove them as they're not looking to participate, so buster basically is replacing them.
I think I gave a monthly leaderboard update in my last OP update post, but will put again as we get closer to the end:
1. 8 clears - Benstylus, DemonAlcohol
3. 7 clears - SupremeSarna
4. 6 clears - LegendRko25
5. 5 clears - Slickriven
6. 4 clears - 4 members

#8 BOXBOY!

#9 Mario Kart Double Dash

Now I see why you have so few clears, @Cevil -- you've been spending all your time on the 22 worlds in BOXBOY!

Just beat Elden Ring

@SupremeSarna haha yeah some of the levels gave me a hard time for sure

For the Retro Talkshop Thread's Game of the Month, I finished a full season of NBA Jam: Tournament Edition for the 32X, beating every team with the Knicks.

Arcade sports games are generally the only sports games I can tolerate, and I can count on NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, SSX, and any number of other ridiculous franchises to give me a jolt of nostalgia. When I think about NBA Jam, however, what comes to mind first are all the things about the games that drove me absolutely nuts. The fact that it took eight credits to play through a full game in the arcade. The way the opposing team would become superhuman the second you managed to squeak out a lead. Goal Tending. Goal Tending. GOAL TENDING.

That all said, when we assembled a short list of Big Head-enabled games for the Retro Talkshop Thread, I silently rooted for NBA Jam to get picked. It's such a warm snapshot of that era of 16-bit gaming where a single arcade blockbuster could resonate throughout the home gaming landscape. NBA Jam was ported and re-ported to every console under the sun, including the esoteric 32X that I chose for my playthrough. Back in the day, I played through it the most on the Super Nintendo with a friend who was absolutely ruthless in PvP play and a monstrous ball hog during co-op. The phrases "He's heating up!" and "He's on fire!" were burned into my lexicon. It's amazing how after so many years and so many subsequent matches in short succession, I still get a surge of adrenaline after scoring two baskets like I know something cool is about to happen.

NBA Jam: Tournament Edition's season requires you to play through each of the game's 29 teams without any of the game's special tweaks enabled; a fact I wish I had known before I made Hot Spots my preferred means of play. The first few matches were on auto-pilot as the CPU teams didn't put up much of a fight. After my first loss, however, I realized that I needed to tweak my defensive strategy to maximize turnovers and take advantage of Hot Streaks to spam three pointers as long as I could. When Patrick Ewing started to play like Patrick Stewart midway through each game, getting overrun (literally) by the opposing team, I had to start taking advantage of the game's substitution feature to make sure nobody fell asleep on the court. Finally, for the last few matches, when the CPU upped their steals game and got extremely aggressive, I was scrambling to get under the hoop as much as possible, even if it meant giving up a Hot Streak or making a long pass to a crowded melee.

NBA Jam's presentation is filled with jokes, non-sequiturs, and a whole bunch of other references to a time when game development still sounded like "fun" and not the industrial complex it is now. There's a code that swaps out the opening attract crawl with a rambling story about nothing in particular. The end credits are 50% employee names, 50% inside jokes. The game's Baby Mode delivers on the promises of Big Headbruary, even if it was a month late. While I don't have any desire to repeat another 29-team season, I can see myself jumping back in for a quick game every now and again on one of the game's million supported platforms.

Banjo-Kazooie's final world is giving me grief, so I'm holding off on finishing it until I can play for a longer stretch than my usual hour-long capsule. In the meantime, Horizon: Zero Dawn bubbles at the top of the backlog, I remembered another loose thread - Freedom Planet - that needs tugging after exploring the game's awesome first few levels a couple years ago. Aloy's going to have to wait again. Poor girl.

SNES down! I beat Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest . Did it 102%, game's still excellent. Chain Link Chamber is the best stage, though Castle Crush and Toxic Tower are great, too.
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/LbTs8wo.jpeg[/imgt]

@Slickriven I've earned the Hop N Bop badge (DKCTF, DKC2).

@benstylus When you gonna play Fantasy Zone II: The Tears of Opa-Opa? I'm dying to know!

#14 for me is Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered on
I cleared each of the Racer and Police events with at least a bronze medal

Rolled credits on #31 Rock Band 2 (Hard)

https://ibb.co/YBfrWhw

I beat Disco Elysium on Switch. Put around 35 hours into over the past week. Really good game.

Game #10 - Gran Turismo 7

Online issues aside, my son and I had a blast. This is his first real racing game he's shown interest in, and it was a joy to show him the ropes and see him build a little bit of automobile knowledge.
image

I beat Joe & Mac (originally SNES). Probably should've done it on the original console. Fun if flawed, and it's better because an old JonTron video introduced me. "Every time this boss takes damage, he says, 'Pear!'"
[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/akDhla1_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sh...[/imgt]

I'm well into playing illusion of Gaia about 6+ hours and I'm stuck at this part where there's a ton of strong enemies and I'm completely out of hearts and healing items so if I die I have to go all the way to the beginning of the dungeon. I would be fine with that except that when you die every single enemy respawns and you lose all of your points toward an extra life (you need 100 pts for a free life and you get points by killing enemies). There's no healing items available to me and it's hard to rack up 100 points before you die. I really don't wanna have to restart the game but at the same time I don't like the feeling I get every time I die and have to do everything I just did over and over again. So frustrating lol. I might just put it down for a bit and work on a different game and come back to it later cause it's not worth stressing over I know that much lol.

I beat the elder scrolls V Skyrim on the xbox1

I forgot to post before I started Elden Ring I beat Horizon Zero Dawn. I completed all the DLC/trophies as well. Great game, but got a little repetitive. I really enjoyed the story. The Ultra Hard NG+ run was pretty much a joke since you have all your gear and skills. I think I only died like 2 times from messing up jumps. What was odd is the DLC weapons did just fine despite having 1 less mod slot like the NG+ adept weapons. So I didn't have to grind for weapons. I told myself if I ever hit a spot where I'm struggling then I'll get the new weapons. But that never happened. At the start I did buy the adpet hunter bow, but even with the extra slot its stats were much worse than the DLC bow with only 3. So I just reloaded my save and forgot about them.

I played allot of it in February, but didn't finish until the first week of March.

At 16:16:13 I beat Horizon Forbidden West while doing no side content besides one Tallneck:

image

So, the game is 75% fluff side content and open world map barf?

Which I will end up doing all of when I get around to playing it, lol.

There are some Trophies tied to side quests, like 14 or so I think. The second Tallneck I encountered I had no clue how to get up to cause there's literally nothing in the area to jump from, so I gave up on them after that.

I guess thinking about it, a 25/75 split in an open world game is pretty much par for the course. They are all like that.

Not sure, I mostly hate Open World besides Horizon, but the second one didn't feel as good. Most of the cool mystery was solved in game 1. I likely will just move onto something else and not Trophy Whore this one.

I just beat an arena match on Super Auto Pets on android. It gets frustrating sometimes cause there are people that come up with some amazing pet builds but I'm glad I finally got this one done for the first time this year

#32 is Life is Strange: True Colors.

https://ibb.co/PxqFWvZ

Next i'm headed into Elden Ring so goodbye for the foreseeable future!

I beat Subsurface Circular on Switch for the GotM club.

BloodPuppetX wrote:

I was thinking this might be the first month nobody would get the badge.

I beat Sneak King , which earns me the You're Winner badge (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sneak King).
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aRRcLfNzCSg/maxresdefault.j...[/imgt]

The game is cheap and bizarre, but not terrible. Bad by most game standards, it gets by on its unique premise and humor. It treats its strange objective as creepy and unsettling, and even suggests that The King attempted to murder a construction worker before reassuring the audience that he didn't really do it. There are 80 challenges spread over four areas, starting in a forest sawmill of all places. My favorite touch is first-person mode, where you see through two eyeholes and hear a man breathing heavily, like he's just some creep in a costume. The intro also shows real footage of him roaming around your driveway at night, with him leering at you numerous times. Bear in mind, this is how a seven billion-dollar company portrayed its mascot.

Sneak King is definitely worth the $5 I paid for it, and I wholeheartedly think a modern remake with the same Burger King meal promotion from 2006 would make this game worthy. I consider everything in this game canon to the BK universe, so he shall be called the Sneak King from now on. I like this game more than Kirby Star Allies.

SupremeSarna wrote:

*gasp*

the side content in forbidden west feels like they played alot of the witcher 3. alot of it is well done and i was interested in every quest. there are even some things that dont even show up in the quest log you are just going from A to B and they just happen. they are smaller events than the actual quests but was still pretty cool. def added some realness to things. the npc will mention the quest and outcome next they see you, cool stuff like that. if they say stop by such and such place sometime they are actually there etc. plenty of callbacks to the first game. Talanah still bae.

there are still some things about horizon 1 i liked better but overall i dont see this one not being my personal goty. (unless that FE9 remake is annoucned this summer for a fall release, that could be a contender)

Just got the plat for Elden Ring.

I should have earned Grown-Ass Man badge (Sekiro and Elden Ring)

#15 for me is A Short Hike on

#10 Super Monkey Ball

#11 Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Minis March Again!

Slickriven wrote:
I started playing NBA jam as well and was gonna challenge myself to a full season before I consider it beaten. Maybe if either one of us figures out how to do a net play session you'd like to play against me?

Cevil wrote:

Good picks

SupremeSarna wrote:

Honestly it was probably the better bk game of the 3