VideoGame_Discussion

For the first time ever, I've earned all three medals on a single Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon file. That requires you to beat the story (something I sometimes do), get a three-star ranking on each stage (the part I could never do as a teen), and catch every ScrareScraper ghost (something I do with glee on every file). I had no idea the bottom screen of the file select turned from purple-gray to gold when you did that! After a full decade of playing, I've learned something new about this classic. I wonder if next year's Switch remaster will replicate this gold effect, since there's no bottom screen to recolor? Probably not.

Heads-up: I’m taking a vacation on Friday, so I’ll be updating the OP again on Thursday.

#30 is Lost Judgment 7.5/10

The sequel spin off to the Yakuza franchise felt a little bit too long for my tastes in the dialog department but that’s Yakuza games for you. I did rather enjoy the 3 different combat styles though and the lite detective work. Although I will go on the record for saying the forced platforming and stealth sections did not belong at all and felt so out of place in this game. It was such a waste of time running thru those motions. Visual wise, the graphics look like they got a bit of an overhaul though which is kinda nice and I felt like the voice acting (I did Japanese) was as dramatic as ever and pretty solid. And the side cases were okay but I rather got frustrated trying to progress in some of them by using the keyword function app to find clues to their next waypoint section that felt like it took away from the overall momentum of those side cases. Other than that if you want a good action game which is lite on puzzle solving you may enjoy this one. Just forgive it’s completely awkward and wonky platforming and stealth segments.

7th in July, 52nd overall, 2nd
Killzone 2
Badge: Already have
Alpha: At this point I've got 12 towards my next set, of which I'm thinking I'll combine a few difficult letters into 1, like 1 from Q/U/X/Y/Z and 1 from 0-9/E/I/J or something like that - at least maybe.

Have wanted to focus more on my disk based systems this year, especially DVD and Blu-Ray disks, or effectively what comprises the 6th and later generations. That focus hasn't been fully realized as I've played a game on nearly all of my older, cart based consoles and a bit too many again (though it's easy to) on my XSX largely thanks to GP. But really I've paid for that active subscription, so I shouldn't (and don't really) beat myself up over playing many of those games.
I've yet to beat a PS2, GC, DC, Xbox, nor Wii-U game this year, but of the 6th-8th gen, the PS3 was the particular system that I wanted to get to more games from. While this is only my 2nd of the year, I beat all 3 Uncharted titles, just via the PS4's Drake collection since I had that and they looked and played a bit better on there (I do own them all for the PS3 as well).

Killzone is an odd series. I have all 4 of the main or console titles and played the first a LONG time ago on the PS2. It was alright, but like most Sony FPS titles, it was just not as good as the Xbox alternatives. But my dad played the first and 2nd some, so they do remind me of him and as decent enough games, they've been on my 'play eventually' list for a good while. Well 2 is finally off of that list and similar to Killzone 1 and the first 2 Resistance titles that I've played, it was just okay. The performance was acceptable, it was pretty dark at times and my more aggressive style could at times leave me dead from a melee attack as I'd get too close to a foe and couldn't move around fast enough to hit him if I missed him on my melee attempt or didn't see/expect him - i.e. the controls felt a touch sluggish at times and it was easy to get lost in all of the gunfire and mayhem. Thankfully it was generally a shorter title but they for sure setup the 3rd title thanks to Rico being a meathead - not that the story was all that interesting to begin with, it's a FPS, I'm not expecting much. I won't likely get to KZ3 right away, but I'm happy to have finally beat the 2nd game.

I beat Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing . It's a doozy.
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/Cp31GDW.jpg[/imgt]
I had a doctor's visit today that almost made me faint twice (apparently blood-sampling can do that despite the tiny puncture and miniscule blood loss), so when it was over, I drove to Wendy's for a pickmeup Baconator. Their lunch menu wasn't ready, so I swung by an overpriced retro game shop to pass some time. This $9 game awaited me.

Star Wars: Episode I had a number of podracer spinoff games that were intense racers--I played the GBC version of it in February--but this is a traditional kart-racer with a funkalicious style. There are nine tracks, all themed to areas in the movie, and various power-ups and weapons. The most annoying is the flashbang that turns the screen red and pixelated while making you spin out. There's no drifting, but you can jump into the air with R2 and even a free-flight mode in two of the tracks. You also have a barrier that shrinks with each hit you take, eventually spinning you out if you take too many.

If you can’t tell from the title and screenshot here, this game is friggin’ weird and I like it all the more for it. The music is upbeat ragtime renditions of classic Star Wars songs. The characters are described as “super deformed” on Wikipedia. There are cheat codes that change the language to Battle Droid (all text becomes “Roger”) or make everyone play as a Kaadu duck-mount on a rocket-powered treadmill. The game has some bite to it as well, schooling me time and again in the Generator stage (where Darth Maul is fought in Ep I). Heck, that one pretty much requires you to make a specific jump with R2 or else you're guaranteed to fall behind.

Since I don't have a PS2 memory card, I had to give it one last smile before powering off the console, deleting five hours of progress. But I beat it, so I have no regrets. Besides, various cheat codes let you instantly unlock everything I earned, so that makes it better.

I miss LucasArts. Not everything they made was gold, but their games always felt like they wanted you to have fun, like with this game's bonkers premise and the funny cheats I mentioned. EA games don't really care what you feel as long as you bought the game and will pay for microtransactions. I'm sure their Jedi games are quality, but they don't feel as homegrown as the ones made by George Lucas' appointed designers. Maybe I should play more classic Star Wars games. I've been on a kick with those this year, and Knights of the Old Republic is sitting untouched on my shelf...

first Wii clear of the year. With MK8 coming in, I figured I better finish up my first replay of Mario Kart Wii for several years. And my first time playing since I Repurchased a brand new Wii and mkwii w/wheel. I’ve always thought of it as my favorite Mario kart, but after playing it again I think it’s just, pretty good. The nostalgia for the unique control method of using the plastic wheel probably tinted my memory of it. Don’t get me wrong, I still view this as one of the best Mario karts, and worthy of staying in the collection . I’m looking forward to playing Mario kart.8 again.

Mario Kart Wii -
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I beat paw patrol the movie on the xbox1

ErickRPG wrote:

MKW was amazing for it's time, but MK8 perfected the formula so much that now, MKW just seems ok when I go back to it. I still miss the mega mushroom powerup, I hope they bring it back in the next MK!

Ok, Tears of the Kingdom has me hooked.

I beat New Super Mario Bros. for Frank's Game of the Month thread.
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/OqzXtsd.jpg[/imgt]

This game was a big part of my childhood. I loved the stages, the powerups, the minigames, the 1-on-1 mode, all the new gimmicks, and everything! Going back to it now, it's still an excellent time... but these stages are way easier than I remembered. I beat everything and got every Star Coin and secret exit, but I'll admit, I found myself kinda bored a few times. It doesn't help that the game frequently puts an obstacle in your path that requires the Mini Mushroom or Blue Shell to conquer--the Mini Mushroom is always found in 1-4, but the Blue Shell has no guaranteed spawn point. You'll have to trial-and-error it whenever you need one. That gets to be a pain pretty quickly. Otherwise, the controls are great and the adventure is pretty memorable. But NSMB2's "story" mode is superior to this one, even if it's less original.

Scott wrote:

True MK8 is just so good it makes MkWii not as exciting. Plus they brought back the track with the bouncy shrooms which was one of my main reasons for liking it. Plus most of the best tracks from the past are in MK8 now. I still have MK7 for the 3D, MKWii for the wheel, and MK GBA for the mode 7 style graphics.

There are a few courses that are fire on MKWii, the mushroom gorge with the bouncy mushrooms, toad's river or whatever it is, and the desert one especially is made really well for fun drifting. I think the courses are a bit more open which allows for more fun to be had using the wheel. That is the one advantage it has over MK8. doing the gyro controls for MK8 doesn't feel as good as on MKwii. I think it's bc MKwii courses were designed with the gyro in mind.

I beat Picross e4 . I’m on a roll with these Picross e games!

This game feels like a turning point for the series. It has the usual Picross, Micross, and (sigh) Mega Picross, but this one has secret puzzles only unlocked by purchasing Picross e1-3. That’s a nice bonus. Micross only has two paintings to complete, but one of them is “The Birth of Venus,” one of my all-time favorites. Mega Picross only has a few pages of puzzles, and they wisely give you the option to turn on/off the autofill-time deduction option for it. The previous game, e3, forced you to play the most convoluted version of Picross with no corrections, making it a slog to clear them all. I appreciate them letting me choose which rules I prefer for my least favorite mode. It was even fun this way, I dare say!

OP updated! See you next week!

Thanks! Have a good vacay!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Nice, Enjoy yourself!

And so you'll have some work when you get back, lol.

Final Fantasy I -
My first PSP clear this year. I'm making some progress knocking off at least one for every system I own. I had to buy a new AC adapter bc I'm too lazy to look for mine. But some nice condition OEM ones were on ebay for like $12. So no biggie. My PSP 3000 still holds an amazing charge and is in mint like new shape. So it was fun to revisit this cool little handheld!
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Zoo Park Story - IOS
And another Kairosoft game down. I really liked this one. They have release a few new games in the span of a couple months so now I have some new kairo games to enjoy!
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My #30 is Horizon Forbidden West.

https://imgbox.com/t6h9c4dr

I spent 80 hours getting 90% in this game. I haven't been this into an open world game in a long time. Got all the collectables, did all the quests, side quests, and errands in the game. Would grind to level up my weapons but I assume i'll get better weapons in the DLC. This is the most beautiful game i've played. Everything from environments to character animation is amazing. Only complaints that keep it from a perfect 10: melee combat could be better and Aloy talks too much. You'll enter a room only for her to start talking about how to get to the next one without giving the player a chance to look around or figure things out for themselves. 9.5/10

yep, loved every minute of forbidden west. More next genny games plzzzz.

#15 Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) Finally got around to playing this masterpiece and I loved every minute of it.

I beat Dead Rising 2 on the xbox1

VedicBlade wrote:

It really was an amazing game. I may replay it on PS5 as I only played it when it came out on PS4.

Did a full playthrough of Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake on Switch. Fun way to spent 5 hours

@Frank Play it four more times and you’ll get the Gamer’s Day badge. No one else has gotten that yet, though Slicky’s working on it.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe -
beat the original 12 circuits. Will buy the DLC once the final wave launches.
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Castle Shikigami 2 -
first PS2 clear of the year, and the game with the best worst voice acting ever. Featuring such great lines as "2 choices, A. Beaten then caught, B. caught then beaten." . . . It has an unlock system of getting one more continue per hours played. Once I had 7 continues I had more than enough to beat normal mode. Actually had 1 more unused continue. So I logged about 3-4 hours on this one. It's worth playing 2 players just to see all of the various dialogues. Will have to get a second controller and do it myself some day.
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My #31 is Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC

https://imgbox.com/9EmerqBq

Great wrap up to the story. A few new enemies and a new toy to play with. Epic boss battle. Map is pretty small and little incentive to explore it. Overall a good DLC. 8.5

#59 and #60 down: Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix and All-Star Fruit Racing (both on Steam Deck). These clears earn me the Race Drivin' badge. The Nickelodeon Kart Racers game was OK but a far cry from Mario Kart. All-Star Fruit Racing, on the other hand, was more interesting. The pace is pretty fast, and every mistake matters. A lot of my wins were really really close. The cool gimmick is that you collect fruit in various combinations to use different offensive or defensive moves (and you get one unique move for each racer, such as a strawberry boost forward, a banana cannon to shoot at other racers, or a giant peach that rolls across the track to smush your opponents. It's a pretty solid kart racer.

8th of July, 53rd overall, 15th
Trek to Yomi
Badge: Already have
Alpha: Earns T towards 2nd set of which I'm around 50% already on

Decided to try this one as it looked interesting, after finally struggling to complete it, I partly wish I hadn't. It's designed to look like you're in a 50's era black and white Samurai movie and while they nailed that goal, ultimately those weren't great looking films, nor was this game. The graphics are actually a bit crummy, but a good 90% of the time that doesn't matter b/c it's either too dark or too far away to notice. A few of the cut scenes suffered from bad texture pop-in and the gameplay was considerably challenging. The settings were good and if you ignored the bad detail level, I could agree with some who've said it's good looking, b/c it spends much of the time in views that obscure how it looks up close.
Gameplay wise, you need to attempt to explore as much as possible and sometimes almost take both branching paths to avoid missing things b/c health, stamina and attack upgrades were hidden around and you for sure didn't want to miss any of them. But with zero color and mediocre graphics, they weren't the easiest to find. The final boss fight was insanely rubbish if you couldn't nail the very precise timing for parry's as he could take you down in like 5 seconds, even if you were blocking. I resorted to trying to hit him with my sub-weapons that are projectiles, but once depleted, he would rush me and wreck my day with me not getting off almost any attacks.

Mini spoiler ahead - I finally got him, but he got me at the same time and I was like crud... but a cut scene played and I was thinking okay, maybe I pulled it off, but nah there was another phase and my health fully refilled... and the screen was completely black except for his and my health bars... so I hit a few buttons, but with zero ability to know WTF was happening I died and needed to face him again. Thankfully I finally got better against him and took him down again with more health this time and the game skipped the cut scene (which was normal, I died a lot in this game and didn't have to skip too many cut scenes manually) and I was able to see and thankfully cleared the 2nd phase and got the credits.

I'm very glad I was able to stick with this to beat it. In some ways, it was a bit like Cuphead and thus was very rewarding to have completed it. I would've for sure considered this for Grown-ass Man badge and really in my view was harder than a game I claimed for that badge. But I don't see the need to claim that game for another badge, so it doesn't matter.

I beat Mega Man Battle Network on .

So close on F.I.S.T. - near end boss was an unholy massive b*srd. He ended my 1 session, tried another against him and still no luck, finally during a 3rd set of facing him I took him down, surely took me around or above 25 attempts. Thing was, he wasn't insanely difficult, but had 3 health bars and all 3 bars took a lot of hits to deplete, then a few of his attacks, if landed, would take around 1/3 of my health... and I have either all health upgrades or maybe I'm missing one.
After beating him I realized that you need to do some training to gain access to the final 3 upgrades for the 3 weapons, so I finally did that and acquired all of the main fighting skills. I also got 100% on all regions of the map except for the one against that hated boss, b/c annoyingly it seems they literally fire you out of his arena, but there was some more to explore after his room, so I'd need to revisit there - not horrible, but also annoying. I also am not 100% yet on the final section.
I did face the main antagonist and after a handful of attempts, was able to beat him, then you need to progress some more and ultimately face him again before the credits - which is where I'm at now. I've failed to beat him in this 2nd fight a handful or so times and like the crazy difficult dude, and the first fight against him, he's got 3 health bars. He's a good bit more aggressive and faster vs. the last dude, so mixing in patience is wise... and something I could benefit from.
I'm looking forward to finishing this one, it's been a generally solid Metroidvania and I've got more time invested than I expected to, but I've also explored 99% of the map and found a lot of the upgrades and such.

SupremeSarna wrote:
lol I rented it from the library and returned it yesterday. 1 5 hour playthrough was enough. 20 more hours I'd rather invest in something else.

I was gonna do airport story 5x but then kairo went and released 3 more games in a short amount of time.

Nice, beat F.I.S.T. Forged In Shadow Torch
54th overall, 9th this month, 7th on
I want to count it towards Metroidvania, that I already have, and might bump the 2014 Strider and go back and beat the original game for that Facelift badge, not 100% sure on that yet though
Alpha: 2nd F of the year - really need to play more Yoshi to wrap up that first set

I was able to do a better job of observing some patience and beat the final boss on maybe my 6th attempt today. I then reloaded my save and had 100% in his area, so I returned to the prior area and got it to 100% having to take on 2 sort of annoying foes which gave me possibly the final skin for you character's arms. I also looked up 2 things I knew I didn't have and the info on obtaining them leaves me uninterested in bothering to seek them out, since 1 is behind some training that I tried before and was crazy difficult to get the timing and inputs down accurately enough to be given credit for... and I am sitting at ~96% completion and that's good enough for me.
Fun game, solid Metroidvania, a few difficulty spikes, but some of that is on me for tending to be too aggressive at times. I put in nearly 17hrs into the game, decent length, but I'd guess over 40 mins were spent trying to beat 2 late game bosses.

I'm back, chumps! While the severity of that insult sinks in, I'll begin updating the OP. Save your vicious retorts for after the update is finished.

Updated! Now sling an equally-cruel barb if you're not chicken!

welcome back BUTT BURGLAR. Hope you enjoyed your vacay CHUMP CHANGE.

#6 Pokémon Puzzle League via Switch Online

Y'all already know I love Panel de Pon. Here is its evil younger brother that lures children into its grip and CRUSHES THEM!

Anyway, I cleared Hard Mode. I'm trying to clear Very Hard Mode, in which your opponent will pull massive chains out of nowhere. If I remember correctly, this game forces you into 3D mode against the final boss (surprise, it's Mewtwo!). I am not nearly as good at the 3D mode so I'm sure I will be wrecked by Mewtwo again and again and again. #20yearoldspoilers

Since I got the credits and Iwata Stamp, I'm calling this one for the Brain Teaser badge.

sailorneorune wrote:

What?! I thought the final boss was Giratina!
In what ways does this differ from the original Panel de Pon? Is one mechanically superior to the other?

Pokémon Puzzle League has the aforementioned 3D mode. I don't like it very much because it's harder to get chains and you have to mind a whole cylinder of blocks.
Other than that, it's not all that different.

I beat stinking PiCTOBiTS .

I was liking this one until it got about halfway in. You use the stylus to pick up colored squares and place them to destroy colored shapes that descend from the top of the screen. Line up four squares of the same color to delete them, causing pixels of that color to fill in an NES sprite. This also causes the remains of that shape to drop much faster. As the levels progress, the shapes get more complex and start moving more quickly, and the number you need to break increases. Stage 14 took several hours to get down, and I’ve never been happier to see an 8-bit sprite of Bowser walk.

One issue is that they really don’t give you enough time to put down squares after you start a chain reaction. The thing just plummets with little delay, causing the area to fill with spare blocks. Half of your time will be spent desperately sucking up blocks high on the board and spitting them out lower, only for another ominous shape to land on them and turn into more refuse. Not to mention when you whittle a shape down, you can’t place a new square in the newly-created gap. It’s tough to explain, but there were many cases where I could’ve destroyed the whole shape if they’d just let me put a square right there… but they wouldn’t.

I’m not returning for the hard versions of the stages.

could you add to my owned systems? I nabbed a nice barely used PS3 slim, super happy about that. Playing Neptunia Victory rn.

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- Octopath Traveller II
- Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory
- Tropical Resort Story

Don't you just love it when you get a game from ebay and it's in BETTER condition than you imagined. It's happed only a few times for me. I remember getting King's Field Ancient City and the pictures looked great, but it felt untouched in person. Just got Heavenly Sword in, I don't even have to replace the case. (Yeah I'm a nutter like that, I buy brand new game cases to replace ones if they aren't glossy smooth)

I beat LarryBoy and the Bad Apple (originally GBA).
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/vofqykO.jpg[/imgt]
Recommended by TheLonelyGoomba YouTube channel, it's strangely similar to Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA). You platform, hit switches, roll through tubes, and avoid enemies while paying attention to your time limit. Every few stages, you play a boss fight that's pulled from some random old game (Donkey Kong, Breakout, Pong, etc.). The game is fairly short and easy as one would expect from a kid's licensed game, but it doesn't overstay its welcome and Expert mode limits you to one minute per stage! That definitely made it more frantic.

VeggieTales was and is a certified classic no matter who you are, and I was delighted to hear instrumental covers of several of the show's famous songs used as background music, from "Promised Land" to "The Rumor Weed" (I think the latter is based on The W's cover rather than the show's original, in fact). They sound nice! There's even a line that mentions the Stuff Mart from the old episode, "Madame Blueberry," which tells me these devs did their homework when making the game.

For $4, I had a pretty good time. Worth the price, I'd say.