VideoGame_Discussion

I'm so excited I bought a new OEM PSP charger bc I lost mine. Has been a couple years at least since I last played PSP. Gonna play Final Fantasy I and try to actually beat it this time. It's all because of this thread and your hard work supremesama, thank you.

ErickRPG wrote:

Happy to pay the bills, Otto!

That's cool. I just beat Final Fantasy I for the first time this year. I'd been meaning to play it for awhile and finally sat down and did it. Although I definitely missed some of the quality of life features from newer games, I appreciated it.

ErickRPG wrote:

Didn’t they recently remake the FF1, with the main character looking like everyone’s dad? I thought I heard something about that.

haha never heard of that. I know they have those pixel remasters, but that's it. I have FF1,2 on psp, 3,4 on ds, and 5,6 on gba. 7,8,9 on ps1. 10,12 of switch, and 13 on 360.

Heh, so for my Alpha challenge I'm now down to 5 letters left and I'm working on 2 right now. But what's funny is my remaining letters spell out ENJOY... and part of me is not doing that fully with the games I picked and debating what to pick for the other letters. Finding a Y title isn't easy, I may end up playing Yoshi's Wolly World which wouldn't be terrible, I just wasn't looking to play that this year.
Frank sort of helped me out by picking the NSMB series, so that's 1 of the games I'm working on, the other is Jotun since I got it for free on 3 different PC stores a good while back and it's been on my 'yeah I should give that a shot' list for a long while. That would leave me with E and O and I'm thinking I'll go with Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, which I started like a decade ago and made decent progress, but when my PS3 died the save went with it - dumb Sony policy to HDD key-lock drives to consoles. For O, I've got 3 in mind, Operation C on the GB, The Ooze on the Gen, or Ooga Booga on the DC.

I certainly think that after I complete this set, that I'll be combining a few more challenging letters into 1 option, X, Y, and Z together makes easy sense, but Q and a few others weren't easy either, so we'll see, still playing with the idea.

Slickriven wrote:

E: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
N: Ninjabread Man
J: Jelly Boy
O: Oddworld
Y: Yar's Revenge
X: Xevious
Z: Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon
Just thought I'd help.

SupremeSarna wrote:

So you purposely picked the worst of the worst games from each letter, right? LOL
What's sort of funny is Frank selected ET (sort of as a joke), but also an Oddworld game for his GotM - I beat Oddworld eventually for that thread, am NOT interested in playing ET.
But I am trying to find good games from each letter to play, Sarna, not absolute rubbish ones. Granted my X pick last week, the GBA X-Men title would qualify as pretty crappy.

#29 belongs to Like a Dragon: Ishin!

8/10

I’m glad this got a western release after I think it was 9 years. I really enjoyed the story as I do with most Yakuza titles. I loved the feudal Japanese mid 1800’s esque setting. It felt very The Last Samurai-ish and since I adored that film, it somewhat resonated here in it’s storytelling in a sense. With that being said though, the combat I felt like even with its 3 swappable play styles between swordsman, gunsmith or wild dancer (gun+sword combo) it felt a little too tedious towards the latter half of the game, even with various trooper cards you get to diversify your play style a bit. But then again most Yakuza games are a bit on the tedious side in regards to combat, albeit overall enjoyable for the most part if you can look passed the tedium. Overall length I clocked in at a little under 23 hours with doing about 1/4 of the sub stories. Technically speaking the performance mode was most good at 60fps with the exception of one chapter where there was lots of fires spread about and when fighting within the flames the framerate tended to die a bit. Since this got my Yakuza blood boiling again my next stop in my queue I think shall be Lost Judgment and the Yakuza 8.

2nd of July, 47th overall, 5th
Jotun
Did this one for my alpha challenge to get me J and break my ENJOY down - 4 left.

I didn't really enjoy this one. It wasn't bad overall, but the final boss sucked, especially with how much/far/swiftly he would move around compared with how SLOW your character was, plus I continually didn't get the controls right. Game reminded me a good bit of Titan Souls where you're really only fighting against bosses and that was good b/c the combat wasn't stellar. You got 2 strikes, X (on Xbox 1 controller) was the standard swing and that was okay but not fast, then Y was an overhead chop that was more powerful, but painfully slow. My issues came with how A was dodge roll, and B was your limited use Rune power trigger since I way too often hit that vs. A, for dodge. You collected 6 Rune powers and cycled through them with the shoulder buttons, either worked, then B would trigger the power. At the very limited checkpoints you could refill health and those used powers as you only got 2 per. A 3rd use for 3 of the 6 could be found (which I did) and they were likely the most useful - heal, faster movement and Thor's hammer. The other skills were a shield, decoy and a projectile thing. The best offensive power was Thor's hammer - it made your Y overhead attack a lot more powerful and increased the range, but it was still just so dang slow to trigger and you couldn't move, only change the direction of the strike once you hit Y. The powers were a touch under-powered I'd say, as the heal maybe did 1/3 of your overall bar and the others would expire pretty fast.
Game was hand drawn and looked great for that, the map was a little annoying since you couldn't see your character on it to know for sure where you were standing, so you had to pay attention. There were only 5 realms with just 2 levels and 1 boss fight per and the levels didn't really have foes, just some elemental obstacles to avoid or destroy. After having 3 copies of this for a good while, I'm glad I finally played and beat it. I wasn't crazy about it, but it was still a decent game and if I could've remapped the buttons and had my character move a little faster, I would've liked it a good bit.

I had a productive long weekend on the gaming front (which makes it a rather unproductive weekend by most other metrics, but whatever). I used it as an opportunity to take a break from Final Fantasy XVI and get the jump on July's Games of the Month.

Number: 23
Full Title: New Super Mario Bros. U
Platform Played: Switch
Collection: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Native Platform: Switch
Original Platforms: Wii U
Applicable Badge: Hop 'n' Bop (1/2)

I hit 100% on the original Wii U release of this - it was the first game I picked up for the console, after all - but barely touched the Switch re-release when it came out. Frank gave me an excuse to remedy that, and I used warp zones to power through the game. The memory of seeing Bowser's scales in HD for the first time is still up there with my biggest gaming memories, despite its relative recency.

Number: 24
Full Title: Bionic Commando
Platform Played: Arcade
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Arcade
Original Platforms: Arcade
Applicable Badge: You're Winner (1/2)

The console versions of Bionic Commando were voted in as July's Retro Game(s) of the Month, but I added the arcade original to the list because of how readily available it is; it's only $2 in the latest Capcom collection, for example. It's not quite as awful as I remember - it does include the Bionic Commando theme in the second level - but it's really terrible, with a bionic arm that's really just a glorified stepladder and a glaring lack of enemy management techniques. It's quick, though, and you don't lose progress by continuing, so it's no more painful than a dentist appointment... which is exactly how Capcom wants their games compared, I'm sure.

There's no Metacritic score for the arcade original of Bionic Commando, but considering other RTT folks have spent the morning posting about how awful the game is, I think it's a reasonable qualifier for "You're Winner".

Number: 25
Full Title: New Super Mario Bros.
Platform Played: DS
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: DS
Original Platforms: DS
Applicable Badge: Hop 'n' Bop (2/2)

Probably the game I've been looking most forward to replaying since Frank deployed his mission, I don't think many game announcements can match the sheer joy I felt when I saw the trailer for the original New Super Mario game for the DS. When the game dropped, I basically just sat in my office hunched over my DS like a hermit, loving every second of the throwback gameplay. This weekend was the first time in ages that I'd played through it since that original romp, and while it's definitely a breezier, simpler experience than its younger brothers, it's still a lot of fun. And I love seeing my level progress on the lower DS screen.

Number: 26
Full Title: New Super Luigi U
Platform Played: Switch
Collection: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Native Platform: Switch
Original Platforms: Wii U
Applicable Badge: Hop 'n' Bop (Already Earned)

While I didn't play Luigi U to death like I did Mario Bros. U, it's still a fun game in its own right with quick, snappy levels and enough changes to make it feel like a discrete game. The New Super Mario series has a reputation of being too easy, but Luigi U is an obvious exception. On my breezy playthrough (thanks, warp cannons), a handful of levels nearly depleted my entire life total. In fact, I think it's the first time I've seen what the actual "Continue?" screen looked like. Bowser was ultimately no match for Green Mar...uh, I mean, Luigi, though, demonstrating once again that, while it's not easy being green, green is good.

Number: 27
Full Title: Bionic Commando
Platform Played: NES
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: NES
Original Platforms: Arcade
Applicable Badge: Heavy Machine Gun (1/2)

Rounding out this holiday romp and hopefully making up for playing through the "wet turd" arcade original, I played through the NES release of Bionic Commando. Despite being a massive fan of the Game Boy release (which is notably different from the home console release) and having played through the Re-armed release on the Xbox Live Arcade, this was my first time playing through the semi-classic NES release, from which most of the game's limited legacy stems. The mechanics and graphics aren't quite as crisp and snappy as the Game Boy version, but it still rights all of the arcade game's wrongs with selectable weapons, Spider-Man-like swing chaining, and excellent - albeit unconventional - platformer gameplay. And that soundtrack rocks, too.

Five games and two platforms isn't bad for a long weekend, but I'm still way behind where I was a year ago. Oh well. Continuing on with the month's themes, I'll probably be revisiting either New Super Mario Bros. Wii or 2 next to get 100% in those titles, as well as scared cow Bionic Commando for Game Boy; hopefully capturing a playthrough this time around. I'm missing Final Fantasy XVI, but I'm a big enough fan of July's Games of the Month that I'm happy to make the detour.

15th beat on 7/4 - Might and Magic VII For Blood and Honor

After beating 1 & 2 I decided to skip over 3 through 6. I've beat each of them in the past 2-3 years. I haven't beat 7 since I was probably a teenager/young adult. 7 was my favorite back then. Being able to choose whether you follow a good or evil storyline really captured me. This was still an enjoyable experience for me. I completed all quests and storyline in around 85 hours.

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haha, oops - in my quest to find an O title to play I ended up landing on Operation C for the only to fully recall after beating it that I beat it last year too.
3rd of July, 48th overall, 1st - I've tied you again @SupremeSarna
Alpha: down to 3 left - Y, E, N

I think I might have beat this via the ROM last year, but am not 100% sure. This time I beat it via the Contra Collection on my PC and since via the ROM or that, it would look and function the same since I use emulation, I'm counting it as my GB title. I'm thinking I might have beat it in the Contra Collection last year too since I partly picked it based on the GB box not looking too familiar in the LaunchBox UI, but I'll be sure to mark it as completed in there now. The game isn't too bad and is short, so playing it a 2nd time in 2 years didn't really bother me.

@Slickriven No, you haven't.
I beat Super Mario Run , getting me another system clear and putting me ahead of you again!
Now how do you post a picture of a game on the device you use to take pictures? Use a terrible 3DS camera, of course!
[imgt w=480 h=640]https://i.imgur.com/93QCY1N.jpg[/imgt]

The game is pretty good for mobile Mario, and makes some cool additions/changes that I'd like to see in future games. Bonus points go to the fact that Invincible Mario pulls coins toward him and Mario will do a forward roll when he lands from a great fall, which can defeat enemies. The Black Coins are tricky to collect and the Remix 10 mode lasts far too long for my tastes, but it was satisfying beating this game after all this time. There's also a customizable Mushroom Kingdom on the main screen, but that screams, "we heard customizable hubs were popular in mobile games" and not much else. I don't recommend spending $10 on this, but the Super Mario Bros. movie deal of $5 was definitely worthwhile.

Just beat my friend peppa pig on ps4 for the easy trophies.

- Warioware Touched!

As I try to actually beat a game for every system I own this year. Down is DS game #1. A very good Warioware, while not my favorite. Decent Warioware game with it's own set of unique games. And remixes of previous games using touch controls.
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I beat Weapon Shop de Omasse . This gets me the Rhythmic badge, paired with Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure.
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://i.imgur.com/mAcY34X.jpg[/imgt]

This game was a trip. It's essentially a comedy skit with an amusing premise: The Evil Lord f an ROG world was slain 50 years ago, but now he's on the verge of resurrecting. There are many brave heroes venturing to defeat his followers and eventually kill the lord himself... but you're not one of 'em! They've gotta get their weapons from somewhere, so Yuhan the blacksmith apprentice (you) and his master, Oyaji, start a fledgling weapon shop. You create weapons by playing a rhythm game, polish them by tracing them on the Touch Screen, and then rent them out to NPCs or important characters based on their needs. You can even keep up with their quests by reading the Grindcast forum.

The game is all about comedy. Every conversation plays like it was filmed in front of a live studio audience, with applause, gasping, boos, cheering, etc. The game is set in a medieval world but the characters love being anachronistic, as they'll text each other, use modern slang, post hashtags in the Grindcast, and more. Weapon Shop pokes fun at a lot of RPG tropes, like how NPCs pace aimlessly around town, have generic designs, and mostly exist to be damage sponges in boss fights. NPCs will post relatable comments like, "No random battle no random battle no random battle..." or "Why are there so many locked doors in this kingdom?"

And then there are the named heroes, who have memorable designs, personalities, and storylines. From the samurai immigrant with lousy luck, Izo-san, to the girly-girl pirate with terrible taste in men, Captain Malibu, they develop as they complete their quests. Malibu started as my favorite, but I eventually grew to prefer the young acrobat twins, Mei Lan and Mei Hong. Their sisterly love and youthful immaturity make them an effective, if bickering, team. Mei Hong delivers some of the best lines in the game. To top it off, the dynamic between Yuhan and Oyaji is thoughtful. Oyaji is jaded and world-wise, so he imparts good practices and philosophies to his apprentice. Yuhan is chipper and outgoing but niave for his age, so they've got a lot of good talks in between weapon orders. They have solid characterization.

The game's only downsides are the following: The minigame and the length. Forging weapons to the beat is fun, but sometimes it feels like my success is random. I'll tap with good timing and build up a chain, but the stat boosts are all in the "lame" category and the weapon turns out dull. Then other times I'll miss a few beats and get a sharp weapon, which is all-around better. I got a few Master weapons, but I have no clue what I did to earn them. And if the gameplay loop sounds a bit repetitive, it is. The game shouldn't be 12 hours long for the amount of gameplay, but it is. I feel 7-8 hours would have been better for it.

TL;DR: Game funny and memorable, minigame repetitive and length long. I'd recommend it for anyone who bought it before the eShop closed, or anyone with access to the hSho--er, forget I said that last part! (laugh track, cut to credits)

I'm getting cooking mama 2 in today. Pretty hyped to play it actually. I never cared much for it back in the day but I'm trying to expand my library. And having some games that use the touch screen heavily is kind of cool.

ErickRPG wrote:

If you want Touch Screen games, I recommend:
-Kirby Mass Attack (best game of all time)
-Kirby: Canvas Curse
-Drawn to Life and Drawn to Life: The Bext Chapter (that game makes you cry)
-Scribblenauts Collection or just Super Scribblenauts
-Rhythm Heaven
-Feel the Magic: XY/XX
-Wario: Master of Disguise (no matter what Benstylus says)
-Bookworm DS

SupremeSarna wrote:


Thanks I am getting many of those. Mass attack and canvas curse, rhythm heaven, feel the magic. I've actually owned all of those before, and currently own Rhythm Heaven. One of the DS games I never sold. It's an amazing game IMO. Cooking Mama series is just completely new to me.

@ErickRPG I actually have a spare DtL: The Next Chapter, but I encourage you to find an original version. That game had two print runs, the latter changing its controversial (but excellent IMO) ending to one with less impact. If you want the one with the original ending, buy a cart with the PIN number ending in “BDREN0J20.”

I beat Dead Island on the xbox1

I beat NES Remix . Thanks to @SherlockLogic fir the trade!
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/DDGRhhY.jpg[/imgt]

This game is okay at best, mediocre at worst. You play bite-sized bits of various NES games for the purpose of adverti—I mean, entertainment, completing a specified objective as quickly as possible. As the first installment, this one contains the early NES games. So there are some good ones like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Clu Clu Land, and The Legend of Zelda, but a lot of duds, too. Wrecking Crew, Golf, Ice Climber, Donkey Kong Jr., and even bits of Urban Champion stink up this assortment. One of the Golf challenges took me a good 20 minutes to successfully pull off 7 seconds of real game time!

There are also a handful of Remix challenges, which often leave something to be desired. A few of them do something creative, like having Link navigate through a Hyrule cave only to find himself on 25m from Donkey Kong! Then he has to save Lady while dodging barrels, but in true Link fashion, he can’t jump over barrels. That’s an intriguing mashup, and a few of the remixes do this. But sadly, most of the remixes are just a graphical filter applied to a normal challenge. Collect the vegetables in Ice Climber, but the screen goes black and white occasionally. Defeat all the enemies in Mario Bros., but the screen is constantly zooming out. Minimalist stuff like that. In a game with so many lame NES games, I’d at least like the devs to put ‘em together for some imaginative challenges.

Fortunately, NES Remix 2 and Ultimate NES Remix have much better games inside them (Kirby’s Adventure! Zelda II! PUNCH-OUT!!), so I can safely say the others are more worthwhile than this first game.

4th of July, 48th overall, 6th
Shadow Warrior 2
Badge - Played this co-op with a friend, so counting towards BFFL
Alpha: Saved for next set since I only have 3 letters remaining currently

Friend and I started this like 5 years ago then sort of had a falling out and didn't play for a while. We 'got over' that spat and resumed playing this and a few others, but were focused on this once he got his new gaming laptop setup. Game was alright. Per usual, when we play co-op, we chat about random stuff and have different priorities, so the story largely gets ignored, therefore don't ask me for too many details about that. But it was alright, got a bit annoying at times with a boatload of enemies all over us, but I suspect it scaled the difficulty for 2 players. He played via KB/M and I used an X1 controller so our inputs didn't align but overall it was decent enough.
That said, some of the GoG things and game things were a pain to deal with in terms of getting the co-op session to work, plus I earned no story progression nor story achievements since he hosted, though I do not care about that. He and I are playing another game as well, so looking forward to finishing that at some point and earning that badge.

5th of July, 49th overall, 1st
New Super Mario Bros Wii
Badge: Earns me Hop 'n' Bop, after beating Rayman prior
Alpha: Gets me N, only E and Y remain

Beat this for Frank's GotM club and hated the majority of it. I don't have the patience for 2D Mario titles anymore. I finished with ~33 lives so I'm 100% the dumbass for pushing and dying so much, but also complaining about it being challenging since that's hard to justify with that many lives remaining. My tendency to push/rush in 2D platformers for some dumb reason is why I hated this, I pushed to my death and further frustrations a lot.
By beating this I knew it would get me my Alpha challenge N title, a Wii game, and earn me Hop 'n' Bop, so that was my incentive to complete it - and I like earning badges in Frank's GotM thread too.
I left all of Worlds 4 and 5 untouched, basically all of 7 as well, plus half of 3 and a few others throughout, but I don't think I'll be going back to this anytime soon. Plus I want to move onto Yoshi's Wolly World on my since that's what I played this on, but b/c of stupid Nintendo, I was forced to use the Wiimote in landscape mode vs the far more comfortable Wii-U gamepad or even just a Pro/better controller for the Wii.

@SupremeSarna are we tied with 17th platforms now, or did you get an 18th yet?

@Slickriven If you beat it on Wii U, wouldn’t it count as a Wii U game? That’s how I’ve always catalogued these.

I’ll count it for Wii if you want, though… I’m only four stages away from another system clear, anyhoo.

@SupremeSarna When I ran this and how I've classified things personally is when a game is completed, it's up to the poster to decide where to count it.
I didn't want to get into disagreements with folks who wanted to claim a game for either the system it released on (vs. where they played it), or the system they beat it on (vs. where it released).
Certain consoles make that distinction a PITA, like the X1 and XS consoles. I've largely stuck with 'if I beat it on the X1, I counted it as an X1 title', but I largely use my X1 now for 360 games, and don't keep my old 360 connected to a TV.

For NSMB-Wii - it's clearly a Wii released game, I mentioned that I had to play it with the original Wiimote controller, so the only thing that the WiiU granted me was better visuals thanks to its HDMI output and 720/1080p signal. Also the WiiU never shipped (to my knowledge) with a Wiimote, so to me I was playing a Wii game on the U, just like when I play a 360 game on my X1 or SX. I have 2x Wii consoles that I could've used, but I didn't bother. Same with emulation, I've played lots of ROMs this and prior years and haven't used my original consoles.

I finished Tears of The Kingdom last night. 130 hours

@Slickriven Gotcha. For the record, some Wii U bundles came with a Wii Remote, just not the typical ones.

I beat LEGO Star Wars , which clears another system for me.
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/30I7Vlf.jpg[/imgt]
This game is a fun romp through all three Star Wars movies, concluding with Anakin and Obi-Wan's fateful duel on Mustafar. You play six scenes per movie (or five for Ep II), use characters with different abilities to fight and solve simple puzzles, and collect LEGO studs and canisters along the way. Free Play lets you revisit each stage with you choice of characters, using their abilities to access previously-inaccessible areas and collectibles. There's charm aplenty here, and the fantastic John Williams score.

This game was rushed in places and feels a bit unpolished sometimes. There were cut stages, some stages that bear only a passing resemblance to the film (looking at you, General Grievous), and studs can fall through the floor or go OOB easily. The music sometimes skips or repeats in places, cutscenes are often very brief or lacking in substance, and the voice clips barely sound anything like the movie actors (Qui-Gon and Padme are the starkest examples). Future LEGO games would improve on all of these elements, but this one's still pretty fun.

Can you imagine if they had made more Star Wars movies? This game ends on a strange cliffhanger where a woman with cinnamon bun hair is messing with R2-D2 on Bail Organa's ship, and she looks kinda like one of the babies Padme birthed in the last Episode 3 cutscene, but an adult. I know TT Games was given creative freedom here, but that's an odd sequel hook considering there's no source material. If only they'd actually made a LEGO Star Wars 2, but alas, t'was not to be. Disney bought the studio that made Star Wars, realized the movies were unprofitable, and cancelled all SW projects, including video games, even third-party ones. Now all they ever make is direct-to-DVD and -streaming Strange Magic sequels. How the mighty fall when Disney takes over...

Updating the OP momentarily!

OP updated! @Slickriven , you'll never beat me, neener-neener!

#55 down: Robocop Versus The Terminator on Super Nintendo (emulated on my Anbernic). This, alongside my previous clear of Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman, gets me the Cross the Streams badge. This game was harder than I’d expected and took longer than I thought it would. The last boss was rough and then you have to complete a timed escape sequence.

SupremeSarna wrote:

You've only got 23 total systems... I've got 25, so IF I do them all, you can't hang with me - so there!!!
Of those I've got left, I've really not started anything on them. I will be jumping into Yoshi's Wolly World like mentioned on the but that will take some time. I had started on Timesplitters Future Perfect (on ) before realizing that was the 3rd game and I went back to 2, but made no progress there. I did barely start on Jak 2 on my but I only really watched the opening. So you will hang onto that cake for now, but I do want to beat several more of my systems.

Also thanks for correcting me, I do have 50 games, I listed 48th overall twice.

#56 down: Battle Axe on Steam Deck. This is a simple but fun Gauntlet-style game that poses a decent challenge. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it’s much shorter than I had expected. For the few bucks I got it for in a Fanatical sale, it was worth it. If I had paid full retail ($29.99), I would not have been pleased though.

Slickriven wrote:

SARNA used Cut!
[imgt w=612 h=408]https://media.istockphoto.com/id/138072901/photo/c...[/imgt]
It’s super effective!

I beat Dead Rising on the xbox1

#57 and #58 down: Clue (SNES) and Monopoly (SNES). These clears get me the Chance Time badge.

6th of July, 51st overall, 7th on
Etherborn
Badge: Earns me Brain Teaser along with Block Blast
Alpha: E completed, only Y remains for my first full set

Was looking for an E title and tried out Earthworm Jim (on ) and EGG (on ) but got annoyed with Jim in 5 mins and got confused in EGG and then watched 2 video reviews on it and they both complained about how difficult it was with the fighting and I wasn't crazy about it, so I gave up. So Etherborn it was!
Game was rather short, took me 2 sessions to run around collecting these light ball things and then slotting them into places on the floor to move things around in the world. It's a 3D perspective type game, a little bit like Monument Valley, only you don't use perspective to align things, more just you run around on all 6 faces of a platform. It pretty easy, though 2-3 times I was confused for a bit. There's an almost tempting NG+ where they claim to have moved the balls to 'harder to locate' positions and maybe the levels themselves didn't change at all/much. I don't think I'll bother with that since I've simply got too many other games and this one had some philosophical-esque pointless monologue in between the levels and just wasn't all that great to want to play it again, even with an elevated challenge level. Thankfully this was an Amazon Games freebie, as paying for it would've stung, just too short and overall meh - could've been (maybe is) a mobile title.

July 10th, 16th clear:
Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer

The downward spiral in quality and 3DOs eventual bankruptcy is evident in MM8. Quality and presentation is worse than VII, and even VI I'd say. The game is shorter by at least 20 hours for a typical MM experience. Some graphics and monsters are recycled from VII, which has never been a thing from one MM to another (Heroes series aside). Still, it was enjoyable for the shear fact that I hadn't played this one in 20 years. I reckon I won't be coming back to this one in at least another 20 years! It's time for me to back away from the PC games.

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Next up:
Fire Emblem Engage
and
Final Fantasy XVI

Frank wrote:
Nice amount of hours. Time worth having spent?

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.