VideoGame_Discussion

Thanks @SupremeSarna! Also, sorry to bother you, but it looks like you accidentally moved my Mystical Mixing clear to Luna instead of Portal?

SupremeSarna wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Fixed.

Playing through Tekken 8 has made me crave some high quality fighting games again. With so many historical options to choose from, the Retro Talkshop Thread made the decision easy.

Number: 6
Full Title: Shaq Fu
Platform Played: Super Nintendo
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Super Nintendo
Original Platforms: Super Nintendo, Genesis
Applicable Badge: Street Fightin' (already earned), You're Winner (1/2)

Way back in the day, I may have babysat for a few kids that had a Genesis and a copy of Shaq Fu at the peak of Shaquille O'Neal's pop culture penetration. I don't remember playing it for very long before setting it aside. It took a lot for me to turn away a fighter at that point in my gaming career, so it must have been pretty bad, but not bad enough to burn it into my brain as one of the worst games of all time.

The above-linked article confirms a lot of my gripes about my game, as I played through the Story Mode with Shaq himself. Shaq is so damn tall that his regular attacks go over the heads of most of the other fighters. Special moves are extremely difficult to pull off, despite the actual on-paper commands being simple, and Shaq's specials aren't really worth doing away; they are slow and do terrible damage. Moving your character is inconsistent and imprecise, like steering a car in Jaguar's Checkered Flag. Half of each match consisted of me and my opponent just jumping past each other to opposite ends of the stage. When I did manage to do some damage, it was because I pinned the other fighter to an edge of the screen and just wail on an attack button until they fell down. Reminds me of another lackluster fighting game I played for this thread way back in the day.

I'm not even bothering to pick the game's obvious low-hanging fruit. That it's a supernatural fighting game. From Delphine Software. Starring a giant real-life basketball player. With no martial arts background.

But worst game of all time? Or even the worst fighter of all time? It certainly qualifies for the "You're Winner" badge just based on its legacy, but in a universe where E.T., Fight for Life, Superman 64, and Battle Beast exists, Shaq Fu barely makes it to the loser's podium. Though the awful soundtrack (which oddly sounds like a terrible remix of Super Meat Boy) tries very hard to kill any aesthetic goodwill, the game's animations and sprite artwork are actually really nice. We can probably thank Delphine - the brilliant minds behind Flashback and Out of This World - for that. And, at least, they didn't succumb to the temptation to fill the game with basketball references and mini-games. I even like the random, stupid "twist" in the ending, though that's par for the course for any Army of Darkness fan.

There's still three more platforms of Shaq Fu I want to explore/subject myself to (five, if I can figure out how to get Amiga working on the MiSTer) and a bunch of playable characters to use for badge fodder, but the big highlight of this month is going to be a replay of Quake on my retro PC. At least, until February 29 rolls around.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Just got done beating it in high chaos mode with Corvo. It only took me another 4 hours. Just an awesome game! Again, I can't get over how detailed and intricate the levels are. I've not the patience to pull off a non spotted run. I think I'll end here.

First game of 2023 is down. Portal for Nintendo Switch.

#9 down: Skylanders: Superchargers on PS4. I'd like to count this toward the Grown Ass Man badge, as I beat it on Nightmare difficulty (which only 1.0% of players have done according to the trophy data). I've beaten other Skylanders games before on the hardest difficulty (Trap Team and Swap Force), but this was significantly harder than those. Some of the bosses basically one hit kill your characters, and, if you don't have enough to swap out, you have to start all over again.

This was a fun game. There's car, plane, and boat racing, levels in which you attack bosses or destroy targets via all of those vehicles, and a number of levels in which you get out of the vehicles and walk around, platform, fight, etc. There are some really creative ideas in this game, such as a level in which you eat a giant popcorn kernal and become gigantic. It's really cool to play as any of your characters in giant mode and wreck buildings with single attacks. I'm definitely going to go for the platinum (although it will probably take me awhile longer yet).

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Was it actually difficult on that level? GA-Man is reserved for brutal expriences, like Castlevania or Ghosts 'n Goblins.

This is what the trophy guide says about it on PSN Profiles:

“For this stage, you may need a relatively large collection of Skylanders, as you will probably die A LOT. Be prepared to use them when playing through every level on Nightmare difficulty. Once you do it though, you will feel VERY accomplished.”

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Then I’ll count it.

Thanks! =)

SupremeSarna wrote:

Game #8 of 2024

Shakedown: Hawaii on

I usually only open this thread only when I have a new clear to post, so I missed out on the discussion of the "Now You're Playing with Plastic" badge. I have a bunch of VR games I plan to complete this year, I assume PlayStation Move controllers count towards it?

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Sure.

Got my 1st in Feb, 10th overall, 4th on
Astalon Tears of the Earth
Badge - Really this should earn me the MetVania badge along with Valdis Story

I've been playing more on my PC and Steam lately, suspect that's a good thing with a decent gaming rig and 165Hz monitor, but the standout thing here is how excellent this game was. I gave it a glowing mid-play review in the 'scores for games you've been playing' thread and really it only got better. I 100 %ed the map, items and beastiary and got pretty dang powerful. So powerful in fact that the final 2 fights were almost too easy, but I suspect I paid my dues by dying and being a little weak to start. I know I complained about Valdis not having a good map, having weak controls and even a poor UI/UX, well this game was the polar opposite in all regards - really the only downside of those few things by comparison, is it would've been great to be able to put markers on the map for reminders of things - similar to Hollow Knight.

But overall this was fantastic and has rocketed to my top games list. Surely the best I've played in a few years and really top 10 all time. I put 19+ hrs into my save, though the clock doesn't stop when paused and that likely bumped me up a little. I did end up looking up a few things I got stuck on, but the game was WAY better vs. Valdis with giving you hints, the map and even tools to help you find things. After being sucked into this one hard this week - up at least 3 nights til 2 playing it, I am not sure what I'll move onto next. I did unlock a NG+ and some other things in Astalon, so I might start a new run.

I beat Mega Man 8 (originally PS1), getting me halfway to the BFFL badge.
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFTc1RWa0AAY6s5?format...[/imgt]
A friend is a big Mega Man fan, so he challenged me to race him at the game I knew best: MM8. It’s great race material—it’s fairly easy by MM standards, has an item shop that can help you strategize, and it’s fairly short. It’s the only MM game that I have intimate knowledge of, as it was the only PS1 game I owned for years. Jimmy is better at the series than I am, but he’s only played it once, years ago.

We set the rules. We could not practice 8, but we could research it as much as we wanted and play other MM games to shake off any rust. We both played the Legacy Collection 2 version so neither of us would have an advantage. We batted around a scoring system, but then simplified it to “first to beat Wahwee wins.” We’d then celebrate by getting ice cream, and the loser would foot the bill.

We started. I immediately took the long way through the intro stage due to muscle memory. Jimmy reached Tengu Man’s autoscroller stage first, and we both GO’d due to hubris. I managed to take the lead (and held it through the majority of the game). I got confused in the box maze in Clown Man’s stage, but I managed and even shared the path with Jimmy when he got there. I had trouble in the second half of Sword Man’s stage, as killer lava drained my life pool.

I had memorized Astro Man’s mazes beforehand, and I cleared it with little trouble. Jimmy, apparently, had done very little prep for this friendly race, so to be nice, I guided him through and even taught him a cool double-jump trick. I struggled against the second boss in Wahwee Castle, which helped Jimmy catch up. We both fought Wahwee simultaneously, and also GO’d on him. During the boss rematch, Tengu and Clown killed me twice, leaving me with one life to fight Wahwee; Jimmy held all three lives. I was afraid Astro Man would force me to use up my only HP refill before the final boss, but I managed to stunlock Astro and beat him easily.

So we both fought Wahwee at the same time again. I took hit after hit and used my refill. Then with low health and a short-ranged Flame Sword, I defeated Wahwee and won the race! Jimmy followed about 30 seconds later.

It was quite stressful for both of us. But it was a great time! I’m too compassionate to let my opponents flounder, apparently, but that speaks well of me. I got a surprisingly good slushy-ice cream mix at DQ, and the night was merry.

#12 Pikmin 4 -

#12 overall, and 1st for switch surprisingly. Loved everything about this one. It's the best of the Pikmin games. They pretty much have improved on every aspect of the formula. Limited time during the day, but you have unlimited days to play. Time completely stops when you go into underground caves, so you can take all the time you want looking around there. The dandori battles (limited time vs. bots) thing worried me when I first saw it, but they are fun. The Dog is a fun element even though I was worried at first. Being able to ride him with the Pikmin makes it easier, not worrying about Pikmin lagging behind. Lots of quests and stuff to do.

image

ErickRPG wrote:

They did a marvelous job on 4. It has the right amount of care put into it, with a sprawling world and quality Dandori. I wish they hadn't retconned the first two games to make it happen, though. Kinda feels antithetical to it being called Pikmin 4.

SupremeSarna wrote:

It's been so long I forgot 1 and 2, lol. But I did think to myself "Olimar, he's still not rescued? oh well" and kind of just shrugged it off. I don't mind that sort of thing too much.

Frank wrote:

Game #2 is done as well.

Hoa

I've been putting off playing this for quite some time. It's a pretty short experience, but a really fun one.

Game #9 of 2024

Star Wars: Squadrons on

#10 down: Skylanders Superchargers DLC. I’d like to count this toward the Race Drivin’ badge.

All of the DLC for this game are racing expansions. There is one for land (car racing), one for sea (boat racing), and one for sky (plane/helicopter racing). I beat all of the DLC tracks and went through the other stuff that the expansions add (time trials, races where you try to kill a boss in another vehicle before he or she finishes the race, etc.). The base game mostly uses vehicles for combat and traversal, so the emphasis on racing in the DLC was a nice switchup. The tracks are creative, look great, and have lots of shortcuts.

#12

Shantae and The Seven Sirens

This was the second Shantae game I experienced and the last one I played, Half Genie Hero, was nothing like this. That one was more platformer whereas Seven Sirens was straight up Metroidvania and it suited it well for the most part. While the combat is more on the simplistic side by just doing that hair toss, there was progression unlockable upgrades such as a quake, sparking and restorative abilities to unlock new areas and such. You also received character upgrades such as double and triple jumping alongside changing forms to better traverse the dungeons and interconnected map. And the story and characters were quite whimsical as always. This series typically reminds me of a morning cartoon show and it has some hits and misses in the dialogue but overall it’s a fun action adventure of the metroidvania genre.

Wanna hear more about Shaq Fu?

No?

TOO BAD.

Number: 7
Full Title: Shaq Fu
Platform Played: Game Gear
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Game Gear
Original Platforms: Super Nintendo, Genesis

Having played all five platforms now with varying degrees of success, the Game Gear version is my least favorite. The two-button controls aren't much of a downgrade - I could barely tell the difference between light and heavy attacks on the SNES - but the Lynx-ification of the graphics kills the game's one redeeming factor, and the controls are the wonkiest of them all. Not that I'm heavily invested in Shaq's interdimensional journey, but the Story Mode is the laziest as well. You fight the final boss midway through the game just for him to "The princess is in another castle you" into another four levels, the last of which has you face off against... well... the most hideous character in the franchise.

Number: 8
Full Title: Shaq Fu
Platform Played: Game Boy
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Game Boy
Original Platforms: Super Nintendo, Genesis

Maybe the pea soup screen is hiding all the terrible in the game, but I really didn't mind the Game Boy version that much. Having played a number of other one-on-one fighters on the platform, Shaq plays surprisingly smooth on here without as many of the shortcuts as the Game Gear version. It's still not great for all the same reasons as its cross-platform brethren, but it could have been much, much worse.

Number: 9
Full Title: Shaq Fu
Platform Played: Genesis
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Genesis
Original Platforms: Super Nintendo, Genesis

The Genesis and Amiga ports of the game have five more characters than the SNES version because the solution to bad food is larger portions. I played through the Duel mode - which plays like a standard arcade mode where you face all the characters, ending with the final boss - with Leotsu (old Mr. Miyagi type) and Diesel (generic tough guy), and TO MY SURPRISE I absolutely tore crap up as Leotsu. There's an odd bug in the fighter code where, if you execute a special move command correctly, you'll chain a regular attack on top of your special attack, often doing twice the damage in the same amount of time. Leotsu's long reach and projectiles make him one of the biggest beneficiaries of this behavior, and I plowed through all twelve fights with little issue at all. Diesel's run wasn't nearly as impressive, especially against the final boss, but it's nice to know I found a thread to pull in the game to make things more tolerable.

And speaking of the Amiga...

Number: 10
Full Title: Shaq Fu
Platform Played: Amiga
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Amiga
Original Platforms: Super Nintendo, Genesis

The Amiga is one of my neater discoveries of the past few years' retro boom. It's a surprisingly capable personal computer with a massive following and a huge game library. Seriously. If there's a console or PC game that came out during the Amiga's reign, it probably got an Amiga port that probably looks great but saw some serious concessions to satisfy the platform's architecture and omnipresent one-button controller.

Including Shaq Fu.

At first glance, the Amiga port looks just like the Genesis port, but once you pick up the controller, things start going awry. The game supports a maximum of two buttons with most of the third-button's functionality activating when holding a direction and an attack button at the same time. For someone who spends a lot of the match doing sweeping kicks, not being able to easily crouch and attack quickly put a damper in my plans. After a whole lot of false starts, I managed to finish the game with Auroch - who has a devastating 2-3 hit special move that's great on a cornered opponent - and Leotsu, with whom I wiped the floor with the Genesis' duel mode.

It's not the game I expected to pop my Amiga cherry, but hey, first times never go as planned.

Man, if you had told me that half the games I'd play at the start of 2024 would be Shaq Fu, I probably would have unplugged and moved to a desert island temporarily.

On the non-Shaq side of things, I've started the original Mario vs. Donkey Kong for Frank's thread. I'm not sure where I'll go from there once I finish it; either move on to the sequel, or wait for the remake to drop later on this month. Once I finish the last of the Shaq characters, I'm going to move on to the RTT's other monthly mission - Quake.

My #10 is Not for Broadcast

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2JrtegktAGW8ZRtV9

Fun FMV game where you are the man behind the cameras on a nightly news program. 8/10

2/5, #4 -- Donkey Kong Country

cleared in 2 hours 29 minutes with 68%. Gosh haven't played through this game in probably 20 years. I think a clear of the sequel is in my near future.

image

It took a bit, but I beat Fire Emblem Engage . It's the first part of my Days Gone By badge.
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFofpLsbYAA05Hh?format...[/imgt]
The rule with Fire Emblem on Switch seems to be that if you like Three Houses, you have to hate Engage over vice-versa. Comically, I actually follow this rule, but the other way around: Three Houses didn't do much for me years ago, but I enjoyed my time with Engage.

Compared to Three Houses, Engage has a simpler, more straight-forward story with only one route. It has a goofier, lighter tone than the gritty 3H. The characters are trope-y, but generally pleasant. I found the Somniel to be a step-up from Garreg Mach Monastery, as it's a homey vacation resort against a gothic college. It gets to be a bit of a chore doing the Somniel routine after every battle, of course, so it hasn't fixed that problem from 3H.

Everyone who plays Engage agrees that its gameplay is buttery-smooth compared to past games. They're right. Battles are easy to grasp, stylishly presented, and fun to play. The Emblem Rings add a fun twist, giving their owner new weapons and unique attacks--Lyn's Astra Storm lets a unit shoot five arrows across the map, and Byleth's Goddess Dance lets up to four units act a second time. These are extremely satisfying to use.

The game has its weaknesses, though. As much as I'd like to love the story, it spends too long having every character fawn over you, and a lot of it is cliche and predictable. Then there are moments where characters have massive exposition dumps and then immediately, as a cheap way of making you sympathize more with 'em. There are repetitive moments, too--Zephia is an overused (and over-defeated) villain, and Sombron steals your rings every time you run into him.

It's not a perfect game, but I had fun with it. I'll buy the DLC someday, but not any time soon.

Renaissance2K wrote:

You should definitely be counting these for You’re Winner (you counted the SNES one, after all) and Facelift. You’ve earned them.

I beat Shaq Fu . It stinks, but you knew that.
[imgt w=900 h=1200]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFq3QV_W0AAhUqX?format...[/imgt]
It’s nonsense, a poor fighter, and doesn’t even let you choice a fighter for the story mode. The final boss is broken, and your continues are limited. Heck, Shaquille O’Neil looks more like Michael Jordan than his real self. Sad.

SupremeSarna wrote:

YES! I thought the same thing whenever he was on screen, but that complaint was totally dwarfed by all the others.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I dunno, I think we're so used to how he's looked the past 15+ years that we forget that back in his younger years, when his face/head seemed smaller

EDIT - stuck these in a spoiler as they were too big

My #11 is Ravenous Devils.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/USEi3Tek1aerYZsf7

Time management game about a couple who run a tailor and restaurant serving human meat. 7/10

2nd of Feb, 11th overall, 3rd on
Quake 2
Badge - 1st towards 2nd Amendment

Never got into the Quake series from back in my youth, was playing Doom or not into PC gaming when they arrived, but when they got remastered and made available on GP I figured it was time. I beat the first last year and it was alright, then for Ren2k's RTT GotM club Quake was part of the selection and he allowed me to do 2 instead since I wasn't going to redo 1 so soon and had wanted to get to 2 anyhow. I suppose I liked this better, but really Doom, for me, is the better series. I'm a much more methodical type of player with these, so I was backtracking a bunch and saving ammo/health when I could, so it surely took me longer than most other players, but in the end I prefer to play that way as I find more secrets and explore more. The final boss was actually really easy for me b/c I had saved an invulnerability and quad damage, popped them both and wrecked his day without concern from taking damage nor even moving around. That made it a touch less enjoyable, but the level leading up to him was tough with so many Tank Commanders I think they're called, so I was saving often and had more challenge from them vs the final boss, but I could've or should've used those power-ups sooner and I really didn't use power-ups at all. Oh well.

I will almost certainly keep this installed and give the 2x DLCs a go, but may not prioritize that.

I just played the 1st DLC for Quake 2 and whoo that wasn't easy, but it was an enjoyable challenge. I think there are 6 levels to visit and collect 6 data disks and maybe I picked a challenging one, but it started me with only the base gun and ammo capacity and some sections were nuts - I 100% had to use every pick-up they gave me for invincibility and quad damage but I beat the level and went back to the main hub. Thinking about it, each area I will need to 'deploy' a new soldier into, so I'm going to guess they'll all start with nothing but the base pistol, so they should feel similar. This level's design was pretty cool, a tower of sorts with lots of looping paths and revisiting rooms, but it was solid and I think I'll stick with it.

My #12 is Thronefall.

Simple little tower defense that uses the same mechanics as the Kingdom games. 7/10

I thought I had made a post here a couple weeks ago but I don't see it, weird.

Last year was my slowest year of gaming since like 2016 (I pretty much only played Mario Maker that year). Pokemon Scarlet took up so much of my time, and I was also still hooked on Salmon Run for a large portion of the year. This year, I'm determined to play many games in my backlog, plus replay a few of my favorites since I always have the itch to re-visit games I like. I kicked off the year with a quick and easy one, Super Mario Bros. To make it more challenging though, I beat it with no deaths, no warps, plus I collected every hidden 1-up mushroom (harder than it sounds, many of them have to be "unlocked").

Now that I'm finally done with Scarlet, my first goal is to complete several games that I started over the last year or two but didn't finish:

Zelda: Skyward Sword
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Shovel Knight (100%)
Pokemon Y
Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
SteamWorld Quest
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Super Mario Wonder (solo, 100%)
Super Mario RPG
Spider-Man: Miles Morales

That will be a pretty good start! Even if I only play those games this year, that would be a solid lineup. But, I hope to play way more than that.

Here's my new list for 2024:

NES - Super Mario Bros.
SNES -
N64 -
GC -
Wii -
Wii U -
Switch - ,
GB -
GBC -
GBA -
DS -
3DS -
360 -
XB1 -
PS1 -
PS2 -
PS5 -
PSP -
GEN -

1/19 - Unique systems

1 - Total games

No new clears to report but it's been awhile, figured I'd post. I have been playing some games. Arc the Lad 3 and Final Fantasy V currently.

Gypsy wrote:

FF5 only released in Japan initally, right? How does it compare to its successor IYO?

That is correct. It was one of the first fan translated games if I recall, done back in the late 90s. It was of course since released in the US on PS1 and GBA.

I think it's a truly great video game for the most part. I love the job/class system thing in general so that is always a plus for me. I have some small complaints. The main one would be every time you change your job it "optimizes" your equipment. This is generally good but I wish I could be given the choice to hit optimize (also a menu option) or not. Because sometimes it takes off equipment that is "worse" but is actually just different and better for the purpose I am using it for. Basically it only check attack value for weapons.

If I'm lumping together mainline FF games in basic groups it would look like this for me

Loved: 4, 5, 6, 9, Lost Odyssey (lol!)

Enjoyed: 3, 7

Have lots of historical value: 1, 2

Lukewarm: 10

Oh right, I did play through Lost Odyssey again. Used my clear save which reaaally made the game faster. Love that game.

Gypsy wrote:
Is this a new clear? What system?

OP updated! I hope I get more time to beat games soon. Year's been pretty busy for me so far.