VideoGame_Discussion

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Was it one a different platform? A second playthrough only counts if it’s a different version of the same software.

I beat Super Castlevania IV (originally SNES). I liked it a little better than before, but I still say it’s one of the lower games on the Anniversary Collection. Above Adventure and Kid Dracula, below Simon’s Quest.

My #50 is Yoshi's Crafted World. Was able to beat it before I give it to my daughter with a bunch of Yoshi stuffed animals and Yoshi shirt. She's really into Yoshi right now.

https://ibb.co/PFHZmt5

SupremeSarna wrote:


Nah it was on PS5 both times, we just always play through these games twice and swap the characters that we used in the first playthrough.

Got two more to report today... #123 is Nintendo Badge Arcade for 3DS. I'm filing this under the "seen everything the game has to offer" section rather than the credit roll, for reasons I will explain below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/83dcsjE8EqPSjAs79

This is a free-to-play game from the time wheb Nintendo was trying all kinds of things to staunch the bleeding of cash when the Wii U was performing so dismally.

It plays like a crane machine, except the only prizes you get are little pin badges you can affix to the touchscreen home menu. There is a LOT of variety in the badges and the ones available rotate out every day.

They currently give you two free plays a day, plus the chance to earn a few more through a daily practice game (generally 1 or 2, but sometimes it is generous and gives you more!).

Run out of free plays, and it's a dollar plus tax for 5 more plays, or come back the next day.

My biggest issue with the game is that the most recognizable or popular badges are usually behind or beneath other ones, so in some cases it's impossible to get them without paying, or getting extremely lucky with the practice game.

After a few months of almost daily play, I finally hit 1,000 badges. At that point you have to start managing them and decide which collections you want to keep available for your home screen and which you want archived. I thought 1000 was going to be the end but no, apparently it goes up to 5000, and there's no way I'll get that before the eshop shuts down in March. So I'm calling this one done.

Interestingly, while there are a lot of shared badges between regions, there are some badges in Europe and Japan that the US didn't seem to get. Anyway i hit 1000 badges a week ago (11/19) and haven't played it since.

Next up, another Mahjong game! Just kidding, it's
Pokémon Violet for Switch.

Breaking from the mold of the traditional Pokémon games, this one is very much open world (and gets more so as you defeat the Titans and gain additional options for traversing difficult terrain).

It's probably the best story a mainline Pokémon game has ever had (which admittedly is a low bar, and anyone even remotely paying attention will see the plot twists a mile away. Despite the graphical and early gameplay glitches I experienced, as well as a number of questionable choices for returning Pokémon from older games, overall it is a very good romp through a mix of new and familiar territory.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yBpa7bKbBh4ovUpV8

Clocked in the victory at slightly under 40 hours on this one, which I felt was maybe a bit longer than what my idea amount would have been (closer to 30). Of course that's also entirely my fault for refusing to use anything other than premier balls to catch Pokémon, so towards the beginning of the game when pokebucks are tight, I had to be very choosy about which mons I tried to catch.

Final endgame team was the water starter, the Cinnabon dog, the angry electric bird, the lawnmower engine, the game-specific armor evolved fire kid, and the olive (all fully evolved). No I don't remember most of their names because I gave them all Nicknames. If you want their nicknames, I named them all Steve. I started doing that in the GBA days thinking as a younger lad how hilarious that was that all the Pokémon are named Steve. And I still do it today not for teh lulz but because now it's an honest to goodness tradition.

The new gimmick of Terastallizing Pokémon is not as cool as the previous gimmicks of Gigantamax in sword/shield or Mega Evolutions in the 3DS games, but it does open up some fun strategic options.

I think this is one of the better entries in the series. Leagues ahead of sword/shield and the diamond/pearl remakes. Although they did add a crafting element to TMs, which I strongly dislike, you don't really need to do much of that to win the game. It's only if you want to play competitively against others and I have zero interest in losing to a 9 year old who can dedicate every waking hour to mons.

January:

February

March:

April:

May:

June:

July

August

September

October

November

@benstylus It’s cool yo see you enjoyed NBA. I played it religiously for years, amassing an impressive number of badges I don’t use anymore. Back when Nintendo cared about it, they would take user-created home menus and display a new one each day, with Arcade Bunny commenting on them. I was lucky enough to have one of my posts chosen, so I saved it on my computer. I’ll try to post it tomorrow.

Turns out I collected a ton of badges from games that I only recently started caring about, like Zelda II and Rhythm Heaven Megamix. I obviously got every Kirby badge, which took three years and a bit of money. Which were your favorite badge sets to collect?

#63 down: Floppy Knights on Xbox Series X. This was a random Game Pass game that caught my attention, because I love games with card-based battle systems. You have a board with different objectives, and you move your creatures around and attack with them (among other things) using cards. As you complete challenges, you get currency to buy more cards and shape each of the three possible deck types. This game was pretty challenging at times (based on the achievements, apparently I'm part of the only 0.43% who beat everything in the last world), but it's satisfying. The new dynamics you encounter force you to think about new ways to structure your decks. When you find the right combos, it's really fun. I enjoyed this one.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" it. Let's be honest, it's barely a game - it's entire purpose is to prey on nostalgia and people with obsessive or addictive personality types.

As I mentioned, they often place the "best" badges in a catcher in places that make it so you have to get most or all of the other badges before you can get the one they know you REALLY want. Some of the catchers are frustratingly difficult. And since the catchers reset when you exit the app or when a new day happens, you are expected to spend to get them.

Likewise, the collection screens will show you cool dioramas with each set of badges... but if you are missing some then that diorama will be incomplete and not look as cool. So you are encouraged to clear out a catcher completely and finish the set. And to do that, you are again expected to spend.

Maybe you got all but one badge out of the catcher, and just need one more try to get that final badge. Well they sell them in packs of five, so when you get that last badge to complete your set, you now have four more tries to spend on another catcher. Didn't quite clear that one? Oh just buy 5 more and keep going. They don't let you carry your purchased tries over to the next day - use them immediately or lose them.

Finally a complaint about the UI. The bunny is VERY talkative. So much so that after a few plays you might eventually start rapidly tapping A to get through his dialog. After you run out of free tries he starts talking and asks if you want to switch to paid play, and it defaults to yes. Accidentally tap A there and you're in for 30 seconds of waiting for it to connect to the server and pull up the payment page before you can back out of it. And even if you say no, he has more dialog screens to get through before you are back in control. Except on the catchers themselves, if you have no tries available, the A button ALSO goes to the payment page (with the aforementioned connection and loading time) . I am sure Nintendo intentionally made the bunny long-winded, and only allowed you to advance dialog with the A button specifically to get you to try to speed through the dialog and accidentally go to that page because after you sit through the loading maybe you will figure you might as well do it.

So you have your "just to get my favorite badge" buyers, the "gotta complete the set" buyers and the frustrated "fine just shut up already" buyers. If I wanted to be in a manipulative relationship I would have stayed with my ex.

I tried it when it first came out, and if I recall correctly they didn't even give the 2 free plays every day back then - they encouraged you to check in every day for the training catcher, and occasionally they would throw free plays at you. I deleted it within a week the first time.

With the eshop closing down I re-downloaded to give it a second chance. It's not quite as bad with the two free plays each day, but I have zero desire to go back to it.

I guess I just was doing it to see if I could hit 1000. The only reason I stuck with it is because it was over quickly each day. Unfortunately with all the catchers changing every day it feels like it takes as long to load as it does to play.

The whole thing feels so antithetical to how Nintendo typically works. It stands alongside Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival in that regard.

God of War: Ragnarok

@benstylus There are a few more things to point out, good and bad. For the good, if you buy plays but fail to nab a single badge, the bunny does give you one of the set badges as a consolation prize. I can’t remember if it’s limited to the just the ones remaining in the machine at that moment, or if he can give you one that you got earlier (probably the latter), but it’s nice that they don’t just say “them’s the break, kid.”

For the bad, if you decline to buy any plays in the Japanese version, the bunny looks sad and asks, “Oh… really?” This got changed in Western releases to a smile and “Okay, that’s cool.” They did a similar thing to the StreetPass Mii Plaza, when the bunny there asks you to buy the StreetPass games—Japan and North America got a sad response if you decline, while Europe got a “Fair enough” answer.

Nintendo bunnies need to take a course on manipulation and how to control their habits. Next it’ll be the Jump Rope Challenge bunny.

I just got done with my yearly playthrough of Super Mario Land . I think I'm going to play again actually, with the DX mod

I had PAC-MAN Fever recently, so I got a GBA collection of PM games. Tonight I beat PAC-MAN (originally GBA) and PAC-MAN Arrangement (originally GBA).

[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/MBzHwLa_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sh...[/imgt]
[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/leCTPt6_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sh...[/imgt]

PAC is a classic, and it’s adorable on GBA because they give you a single-screen mode that crushes all the graphics down to fit. They’re absolutely tiny, and it’s funny to see. I reasoned that 20,000 points seemed like a fair goal to reach in a near-endless game like this. (I know there’s a kill screen after an obscene number or rounds, but no one on GameTZ is going that far without save states.)

Arrangement is a novel game that adds Kinky the Ghost, warp pads, dash panels, unique stage layouts, and a bunch of other stuff to make a completely new game. There’s even a final boss! It’s weird and not as good as the OG, but I liked it enough to play through the whole thing.

I wanted to beat stinking Pac-Mania, but it’s just so bad I gave up. Giant stages that don’t fit on one screen, lots of space between each dot, about ten ghosts relentlessly chasing you at every moment, a jump ability that becomes much less useful once jumping ghosts are added… it’s a mess. Even the unlimited continues can’t save it, since you restart the current stage whenever you continue—seems reasonable, but as mentioned, the stages are gigantic and they get brutally tough later on. After the fifteenth try in the Jungle world, I threw in the towel.

@Slickriven I’m back from my vacation, so I’ll post everything from PAC-MAN onward to the spreadsheet. Thanks for helping me out!

@SupremeSarna & @Slickriven

I have wondered about what counts as beat as far as classic arcade games might go. I play Pac-Man and Burgertime pretty regularly. I keep track of my personal best high score. It's real easy to beat the preprogrammed "hi score", so you could rattle off a ton of clears if that's all that is required. As SupremeSarma mentioned, I doubt we're seeing kill screens, and it would be far out of reach for most to ever consider an arcade game "beat" if that's the requirement. Any thoughts?

incubus421 wrote:

If you feel like you've "beaten" an endless game based on a score goal or a certain number of levels, post it. There are no game-beating police in this topic, just the peanut gallery who might give you some flak.

I beat Mario’s Picross (originally GB).
[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/9duiaT2_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sh...[/imgt]

Quality Picross, though the other two Mario ones are better. Every Mario Picross game has a bafflingly annoying design choice that sours the experience at the last minute—this game gives you 80 more puzzles to solve after you finish the Star-level puzzles but doesn’t let you choose them from a list like the other modes, instead giving them to you randomly and not recording which you’ve already cleared. Given that the game doesn’t tell you when you’ve finished the final batch of puzzles, and they’re technically postgame content, I’m calling this game done. Fun puzzles, though.

incubus421 wrote:

Agree with what BenStylus said, more/less - endless type old school arcade (and modern similar) games are basically 'use your own judgement' types. If you consider it beat, then it is. Sure that could mean somebody might claim beating a bunch of games but whatever makes them happy.

I've claimed DK Jr. in the past after getting as far as I could after a few attempts as that game has only like 4 different levels that repeat with faster foes and more of them. Similar to pinball games or whatever. Put some time in, earn some reasonable things/score/boards/etc and call it complete. For pinball, I've tried to trigger all of the areas to consider it beat, but with the 2 you mentioned that might not apply.

Still not willing to put down the can of turtle soup, I found an excuse to boot up the PC version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection and play through the original arcade version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.

I've played various ports and versions of Turtles in Time over the years and came to the conclusion (like many others) that the Super Nintendo port is my favorite, if not the superior version. Still, the arcade version has the best animation, a slightly better instrumentation, and a lot more voice integration than its console counterpart, and none of its shortfalls keep it from being a good time.

The Cowabunga Collection adds a couple of optional game tweaks, the most notable of which is Nightmare Mode. The enemy count seemingly triples (which the menu mentions), and the enemy difficulty shoots up (which the menu doesn't mention), effectively turning your turtle into the love child of a pinball and a green pinata. The game doesn't scale evenly on a Steam Deck, which was the driver for me getting the PC version, but it looks glorious and crisp on a full-size PC without too much noticeable lag either. But the most memorable - and probably the most unsettling - thing about the Cowabunga Collection is the acknowledgement that *some people playing Starbase 2100 today will still be alive when the actual 2100 rolls around*. Whoa, dude.

For the first time, after jumping back and forth between Leonardo and Donatello for years, I finally played through the game as Michelangelo without too much of a fuss. He doesn't reach as far as his purple and blue brothers, but his special attack still covers a ton of ground, which makes him play about the same. When the Steam Deck failed to record my playthrough (I guess this is why they tell you to make a test recording first...), I attempted to play through the game again, this time as Raphael, but Raph's vertically-oriented special attack made the game feel clumsier than I liked. I switched back to Donatello and took down Shredder neither much fanfare nor a "Weren't you just here?" acknowledgement from the spiked one.

House of the Dead Overkill -
My first clear. One of my all time "gun game" favorites. Super funny, and amazingly fun levels. And my first officlal clear on my Wii I bought brand new for $300. Not regretting this purchase. I am going to have a lot of fun on the Wii.
image


Dream Park Story - IOS
A theme park building game from Kairosoft. Their first game to tackle that specific theme. It's good. not their best, but above average.
image


Sengoku 3 - MAME/arcade
image


Triangle Strategy -
Highly recommended by players on gtz. It's definitely a good one. It's quality is up there with tactics ogre and final fantasy tactics. Each playable character has a totally unique skill set. So while you might have 2-3 archers, they each operate differently and have different specials. Least favorite parts: The overuse of the word "pray", and the "dot . . . dot. . . dot. . . . " delay.'
image


TMNT: Shredder's Revenge -
I waited for the physical version. Really good. It's so fun and so well made. Now I have 2 what I consider amazing brawlers physically on switch. This and Streets of Rage 4 are both amazing and worth owning/playing.
image

I agree about Triangle Strategy. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. It was one of my favorites of the year.

ErickRPG wrote:

Game #20: The Chant

I beat Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions .
[imgt]https://i.imgur.com/mXDPR8F_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sh...[/imgt]
What a remake! I played the GBA version in high school after playing PiT through DT, and I had a few beefs with it. When they announced the remake in 2017, I nodded, figuring that a remake could fix the issues that bogged down my first playthrough. Alphadream did just that—the graphics look good now, the Bros. Actions are far more streamlined and less of a chore to perform, the special moves remind you how to use them in the heat of battle, and the map is more convenient. They brought out the best in that wacky adventure!

Additionally, that added a fun new mode: Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser. It tells the story of what happened to Bowser’s loyal followers after the Koopa Cruiser crashed at the start of the game. Turns out with the power of amusing retcons, a single Goomba—your unconfident hero—inadvertently caused many of the problems Mario, Luigi, and Bowser faced. Huuuuh-whoops! He and his band of fellow minion captains are a likeable bunch, and you find yourself really rooting for them to beat Fawful and earn the respect of their brainwashed superiors. The mode is a sort-of RTS, with two armies clashing and you passive influencing their stats and attacks. You might find yourself grinding a bit as it gets harder, as enemy levels just keep increasing and you’re frequently switching out your team, and the EXP isn’t evenly distributed as a result. But it’s worth it to see the conclusion:

8th of Nov, 72nd overall, 20th
Prodeus
Earns me the 2nd Amendment badge after completing Crysis 2 earlier

This was a solid title, with a few mehs. It clearly is an homage to the classic Doom titles as its look, atmosphere, some of the enemies and some of the weapons all feel like I was back in the early 90's. I enjoyed much of this, but did yearn for it to end oddly.
The few mehs were the enemies color choices - 1 line of them were all red, another basically blue variants of the red ones and they'd shoot you with those colored projectiles and many would explode in those same colors (covering the walls/floor/etc), so if you got close it was sometimes difficult to discern dead enemy guts from incoming projectiles or area of effect projectiles. Another meh was you needed to collect ore as currency to purchase some guns and all levels had generally 4-10 each. Well some were overly tough to find and then there were a few sort of optional levels for a weapon trial and you'd have to rush through it, shooting targets to reach the end fast enough to unlock like 3 bits of ore. Well I sucked at the rushing/aiming approach with an Xbox controller (that would do auto-aim assist and that was also blah), so I think using a KB/M would've been better there, but the whole locking of the weapons behind the purchase system was something I could have lived without.
Also they judged progression on a % scale and I finished the campaign, revisited 1 level and did all the trial levels (poorly) and only got to 68%. I did miss many bits of ore in mainly the earlier levels, so much so that I couldn't afford the final shop weapon and barely got the next to last one. But you also needed to get 100% kills and 100% secrets (which was often those ore bits, but not always). I got 100% kills pretty much every level as I was an explorer, but with my barely over 2/3rds percentage, I surely left a lot there.
I don't think I enjoyed it enough to replay most of the levels to find the ore even though in later levels, after unlocking the double-jump, I did generally find all or all but 1 bit.

#28-God of War 2018
I adored replaying this again on the PS5 at a much deserved 60fps mode! It was smooth as butter. And of course everything else along with it right down to the iconic storytelling and voice acting and orchestrated score to really make you feel the weight of the journey at all times. I forgot how much the reinvigorated gameplay made the game feel that much more whole too. Now I am finally ready to tackle Ragnarok!

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Story was real good also. With the decisions I usually chose loyalty or honor (making house Waldorf seem like House Stark). I didn't hate the english VO either. I think the weakest part is there is zero chemistry between the main love interests, and the main character isn't that great of a VA. He's not terrible, but isn't good for the weight of the story. Also, they used "pray" too much. Other than that, the VA was never cringe bad to my ears. It was passable. With some characters being way above passable.

#64 down: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022) on PS5. The campaign wasn’t very long, but it was fun (other than a couple of tedious parts). Some parts were pretty creative, and it’s a good-looking game.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

very cool. Definitely want to play some day. But I only ever played the very first MW. So I'm playing that again, and gonna work my way up to modern COD campaigns eventually. Lots of FPS fun ahead for me!

I'm free! I've finished the last Zelda game in my year-long Legend of Zelda marathon! I'll be doing a full write-up in a few days to share my experiences with this star-studded adventure franchise.

[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fi8tESNagAE7y0u?format...[/imgt]
I beat The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening . This Switch remake is excellent, perfectly capturing the spirit of the original while updating the graphics to look like a diorama. You can equip more items and so you no longer have to pause every two seconds to switch things out. The Nintendo references remained untouched, right down to those characters the Zelda team used without permission (looking at you, Anti-Kirby). A few alterations were made to make the game more uniform across regions while removing any immature implications (the hippo and the mermaid, respectively). Koholint Island is more fun to explore than ever!

I respect that the goal was to remain extremely faithful to the Game Boy game, as that's an admirable goal. But comparing this 2019 game against 2013's A Link Between Worlds does make me think that they may have stuck a little too close to the 1993 original. Link's animations for turning are deliberately jerky with no frames between them. Any sprite that was created for the overworld in 1993 has been recreated and placed in the exact same spot here, which is evident when you see a large gap made up of five identical square holes placed side by side--a modern remake could've made that one big hole to make it look more organic. This doesn't affect the game's quality, but it's something I noticed. As a '90s remake, there are a couple moments that may tempt you to Google the solution, but I got through 99% of it using my own brain and Ulrira's phoneline.

Thanks to @Missile for the sale! Best price I've found for a complete copy!

Hi all, took a break from the site, but not from gaming I'll list most of what I've been up to the last few months and if you really need to know which month I completed them I'll check time stamps and throw up some pictures.

I got back into Destiny so I've spend allot of time playing that. I had allot of catching up to do given its been so long since I played. I went through and completed all the DLCs I had missed (that were still available, allot were vaulted).

I completed the story and raids for the following DLC expansions:
Destiny 2 Shadow Keep
Destiny 2 Witch Queen
Destiny 2 Beyond Light

I also completed these seasonal DLC story campaigns
Season of the Haunted
Season of the Risen
Season of Plunder

One thing I've been wanting to do for a while now was complete all the Skylanders Playstation games on my new profile. The only version I still want to play is the Wii and Wii U versions so I can use DK/Bowser finally. Since I have a ton of characters already max level (stats are saved to the character) it definitely made the games much easier. I even still had chaos trapped in a crystal. Some of the imaginator characters I had were super over powered, not even the bosses could put up a fight.

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
Skylanders: Giants
Skylanders: Swap Force
Skylanders: Swap Force
Skylanders: Trap Team
Skylanders: Trap Team
Skylanders: SuperChargers
Skylanders: SuperChargers
Skylanders: Imaginators
Skylanders: Imaginators

This next game I beat was a game that I really enjoyed. So much so that I bought it again on Playstation. Really fun game with some great music. I completed it a while ago on Game Pass then bought it again recently when it was on sale for Playstation.

Metal: Hellsinger
Metal: Hellsinger

Here are a few games I completed because I found the servers were going down. So wasn't something high on my to play list, but I had to bump them up.

FarCry 3
Onrush

I've been wanting to finish up watch dogs legion for a while now. I completed it a long time ago, but to get all the DLC trophies I had to start the game from scratch. So I played through the entire game again on resistance mode and I also completed the Aiden/Wrench DLC story lines (Bloodline). The game was so much better getting to use the DLC characters. I mainly used Aiden, Wrench and Darcy.

Watch Dogs Legion
Watch Dogs Legion

Watch Dogs Legion: Bloodline DLC
Watch Dogs Legion: Bloodline DLC

As good as Legion is, it still had me thinking about how good the previous games were. I must admit the DLC characters in Legion made the game better, but I still liked Chicago and San Francisco much better. So I decided to play though them again. I was a bit worried with all the games Ubisoft was taking offline I might loose my chance. The PS3 version is a mess, it never finds people even where your standing in the same spot on the map. I still haven't gotten some of the PVP stuff done.

Watch Dogs 2
Watch Dogs

I'm going to be doing a Resident Evil marathon as well, it wont be all the games, but plan to play 5/6 for PS3/4 and all of the remakes. So far I have completed 1 RE game.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Echo Six Expansion Pack 1
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Echo Six Expansion Pack 2

Some easy games I added in between longer games:

Magus
Ice Age 3
Synergia
The Bunker
The Little Acre
Alien Engine
Organic Engine
Steam Engine
Cyber Engine
Windmill Engine
Alexio
Black Death: A Tragic Dirge

And here is another random DLC I completed

TOEM: Basto DLC

I also completed the Cowabunga Collection again on the not sure if you will count them, but I'll list them anyway since I did clear them all again on

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Back from the Sewers
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters

I'm about to play through Goat Simulator and the DLCs before I take on the newest game.

@WithinTemptation It would be a huge help if you sorted them by month, since you probably don't want them all added to November. Thanks!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Agreed. I wish they had done more with it than just a 1-for-1 remake.

For November:

Kromaia Omega (PS4): Interesting game for some quick plays. It can get headache-inducing sometimes and it's not that long to beat, but it seems like it needs multiple playthroughs to see the real ending. Might go for it later.

Assassin's Creed II (PS4): Had an impulse to play some AC and went with this one as I had the Ezio Collection installed for some time now. I played the first one a long time ago, but this one definitely feels better to play. The history is cool, although I think it drags a bit at the end. Also, the map is a bit sluggish. Got the plat for it.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (PS4): Started it immediately after ACII. Having it confined to a single, larger region makes it flow better. The main story also felt shorter, although the post-game clean-up feels heavier because of the synchronization requirements. The map is smooth this time, and the visuals are better. The store/income management made more sense in the previous game though. I'm missing 2 trophies for the plat (all flags, 100% sync) but idk if I'll go for it soon, I might just move on to Revelations.

Earthworm Jim 2 (Genesis): Finally beat this after 25 years of first playing it, god bless save states lol The last stage was infuriating. It's cool how every level has its own thing going. Such a shame this was the last good EJ game we got.

@WithinTemptation How was Synergia? I still haven't beaten a game on the Vita this year and I'm thinking of playing it since I hear it's not very long.

#46 is BioShock 2 on

#65 down: Captain America: Super Soldier on PS3. I did it. I finished all of the badges. This clear + my previous clear of Henchman Story on PS4 gets me the Quest for Peace badge. This was a pretty solid superhero game. They got the shield mechanics just right, and the fighting was decently fun. They gave the Captain a good dodge option and counters. I found myself getting lost a few times, because the game has you backtrack several times to areas you've been to previously, and, at times, you have to navigate a sewer system to get from place to place in which pretty much everything looks the same. Still, there were some cool cinematic moments, and some of the boss fights were quite solid. The Metacritic score has this at 61%, but I think it's a little better than that.

Heavyd814life wrote:

If you like visual novels then I think you will enjoy this. Story is great. I wont say much more to avoid spoilers. There is a kickstarter page you can check out that gives allot of information about the story and characters. I'd guess you can beat it in 3-6 hours depending on how much you "explore". There is also multiple endings so you could maybe double that time.

For Frank's Game of the Month thread, I finished Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo.

I already talked about how Super Mario World was my favorite Mario game when I beat the Game Boy Advance port last year. If there was any doubt to that devotion, I picked the game again back up again year to take it all the way to 100% with every exit and every Yoshi Coin collected. Despite the love I have for the game and its portable version, never having a childhood Super Nintendo means I've spent comparitively little time with the original, save for a brief playthrough with the Wii Virtual Console release, and a 100% run on an emulator back in college.

(Bonus Artifact: One of my suitemates noted that the mustachoed, baseball-capped "fall" variant of Koopa Troopas looked like a mutual neighbor named Adil. I still have the 22-year-old screenshot that we used to immortalize that revelation.)

Taking Frank's nomination as an opportunity to revisit one of my favorite games, I played through it this time on my MiSTer for the first time on an analog display since I played it in a friend's living room three decades earlier. As usual, I spent way too much time uncovering secret exits in Donut Ghost House, breezed through Star Road with an arsenal of colored Yoshi's under my arm, and limped my way through the front door to Bowser's Castle after the trial and error of figuring out which doors don't lead to deathboxes.

Before long, I was starting at the end card that a friend had once - in the pre-Donkey Kong Country era - considered the best graphics he'd ever seen.

We're approaching the end of the year, and with a long vacation and another large video project on the horizon, it doesn't seem likely that many of my ten remaining platforms will see a completed game by the time 2023 rolls around. I'm expecting to finish Mega Man 7 for the Retro Talkshop Thread, and I'm working my way through the epic final stages of Kid Icarus: Uprising, but both of those are on platforms that have already been checked off for 2022.

There's a chance I might be able to squeeze in a Game Gear, Vita, or even a Stadia game because of their portable natures, but we'll see how time and network connections can afford such things. With my Analogue Pocket Game Gear adapter (and dock!) coming tomorrow, I'm itching to try the console's Game Gear support and screen filters.

For Frank's Game of the Month thread, I beat Mega Man 7 .
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjAdGZwaMAAf5hy?format...[/imgt]
Great game for sure, but the final boss kinda ruins the ride at the very end. Oh well, I'll forgive it and play it again eventually. I wish the series had more games with the MM7 art style--it's really good! I always hear the Mega Man 8 voice actors when I read the dialogue in 7.

I kinda wish they made the original version of MM7 available as an option in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2. They used the superior second print, evident by the cool credits scene I posted above. The original is just as important though, as it forces Mega Man to battle Dr. Willy and a potty-mouthed Bass. Some things must die for some to live, I suppose.

SupremeSarna wrote:

That's the wrong GotM club.

Time for me to add a December clear. Decided to see what had been added to Switch Online and found Psycho Dream, a super famicom game that I had considered buying before but decided against it due to the price.

Although the cost of the cart is a bit high, there's really no better way to describe this game than a poor man's Castlevania.

You start out with a ridiculously short range weapon, but after several powerups you get a six-way screen filling shot that makes short work of anything but bosses (and it makes long work of them).

Take too many hits when powered up though and you go back to the original dinky weapon of worthlessness.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fmeGstWbLq7m1Ro78

It's...okayish. Controls are average, hit detection is very sloppy. Level design is sometimes a slog but they do try different things in some of them which is nice. The bosses are large and cool and easily the best part of the game.

It takes maybe 45 minutes to an hour to clear it, so if you have Switch Online you might want to check it out. No English required - there is some story text at the very beginning of the game but that's about it. It's an action game the rest of the way through. Honestly though, any castlevania game is better.

January:

February

March:

April:

May:

June:

July

August

September

October

November

December

Got my first clear of Dec, 73rd overall, 7th MAME
Spinmaster
Would've got me the run-gun, but already have it

Had a personal goal to beat something on all of my mini/classic type systems and I only needed something on my Legends Gamer Mini and this fit the bill. Was a decent run-gun (yo-yo) game that looked/felt a little like Metal Slug. I beat all 5 levels pretty easily, burning through maybe 8+ credits and the final section was annoying with green poison water I suppose coming out of the walls in certain areas that was a bit too easy to miss and get hit by. The final boss was also kinda crazy as he had 4 phases and therefore simply took to longest to beat, though really none of his phases were overly difficult.

I beat Super Metroid. Though I didn't list listed under consoles, since I don't currently play it that often, so no need to count it. Wanted to post a beaten game here, since it's been awhile.

Pretty fun game. Holds up well. I got lost numerous times, which sometimes made things tricky, but overall it was a fun experience, and worth playing.