VideoGame_Discussion

incubus421 wrote:

Animal Antics is a doozy, alright. I always struggled on Windy Well, Toxic Tower, and Klobber Karnage. Zingers can be a real nuisance, especially when you have to line up a jump or barrel shot just right.

I beat Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (originally GB). I had a car trip to distract myself from, and this is great game to pass time with. I wonder what order I HAVEN'T play the worlds in?

My #14 is Kingdom Rush.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2Lk5wU5F8gCicGBo7

Fun tower defense from mobile, but plays well for PC. Easily recommended to anyone interested in tower defense games. 8/10

OP updated! How have I not earned a badge yet?

SupremeSarna wrote:

Thanks man, I've got 8 unique systems though, not 7.

Slickriven wrote:

Got it done.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I always remembered Toxic Tower being rage inducing in my youth. I was dreading my return there. Surprisingly, I jumped right through it and even remembered where the secrets were....repetition as they say.


#6 on 2/18
Silent Hill The Short Message

Nothing special here. A little scary/anxiety inducing before you know what to expect. After the first half hour or so, those feelings quickly fade. I found the last 20 minutes or so to be frustrating and it really took away from the unsettling/scary setting. A P.T. game this is not. Two and a half hours to clear this.
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Just rolled credits on Final Fantasy VII. (looks like you need to add PSX onto my list)

I can't say I liked how frequent the random encounters were, but overall I really really liked the story!

I'm not the biggest RPG guy, but I'm happy with the long hours spent finally beating a FF game.

I beat Gin Rummy on the xbox 360 (beating this and yugioh master duel gets me the all aces badge)

Game #10 of 2024

Aliens: Fireteam Elite on
This will go towards BFFL badge since I beat it in co-op with a friend online.

#7 on 2/19
Mega Man 2

Favorite boss, Quick Man because using his weakness on him is fun
Favorite music, Wily's Castle stage 1 & 2
Biggest annoyance, Quick Man's stage - Falling through multiple screens while laser's shoot from right-to-left and left-to-right. They're one shot kills, and your falling off a ledge timing needs to be quick and impeccable.
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#8 on 2/19
Mega Man 3

Favorite boss, Shadow Man because he's a cool ass ninja. Pretty difficult fight without his weakness that absolutely rocks him
Favorite music, Shadow Man's stage
Biggest annoyance, Magnet Man's stage - jumping on timed blocks that disappear/reappear.
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Looks like I'm now eligible for two badges
Heavy Machine Gun: Beat 2 run 'n' gun games (ex: Mega Man).
1 - Mega Man 2
2 - Mega Man 3

Hop 'n' Bop: Beat 2 platforming games (ex: Super Mario Bros.).
1 - Donkey Kong Country
2 - Donkey Kong Country 2 Diddy's Kong Quest

I need to beat some Mega Man games one of these days...

I beat my high score on Crazy Taxi on the xbox360

Game #11 of 2024

Nirvana Pilot Yume on

GBASP down! I beat Kirby's Block Ball (originally GB).
[imgt w=1536 h=2048]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GG1s_88XkAAlyWz?format...[/imgt]
It's been a few years since I played this. I like it overall, but it's certainly a weak Kirby spin-off. Reaching the final boss requires you to clear a border line on every stage, but most of them are reliant on you getting major bonuses under a time limit. The physics are also stiff, so hitting a tiny block in the corner of the screen can take minutes if Kirby wasn't already lined up to hit it. Not the worst game in the series, but a far cry from his previous Game Boy spin-off masterpiece: Kirby's Pinball Land.

#9 on 2/20
Mega Man 4

Favorite boss - undecided, probably a toss up between Pharaoh Man and Skull Man. Both are cool characters and each can be beaten without their weakness in a fair yet challenging way.
Favorite Music - Dive Man's stage, with runner up being Pharaoh Man's stage
Biggest annoyance - Holy crap Ring Man's stage is long and grueling with moving/disappearing platforms, lots of falling, tough mini-boss enemies (purple hippo on tall platform, red eyes surrounded by shielding green rings), and Ring Man himself is arguably the toughest boss. Also, the final Wily boss in the dark is terrible! Just shoot aimlessly and hope to hit him...until you look up his weakness.

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#10 on 2/21
Roller Coaster Tycoon

Beat all original scenarios in around 65 hours. There are just too many scenarios for it's own good and not enough varied of an experience between scenarios. You can unlock most rides by about the 6th or 7th scenario. After that each scenario plays about the same as the last. They try to present different challenges throughout, but if you just delete what is present in each map, you can basically start everything from scratch each time. The second to last level was probably the most difficult because the scenario does not allow you to remove trees or edit the elevation and the map is littered with trees.

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For anyone interested in some of my theme park work:

I beat Mario Kart Wii on the wii

#14

Assassin’s Creed Mirage

It was quite refreshing to play a recently released Assassin’s Creed title that wasn’t overwhelming in scope as the past several games in the series has been. The map is much smaller. The story is concise and focused. The combat is crisp and precise. The tactical stealth is in super abundance. I enjoyed my 15 hours with this entry and would happily return a second time around if it wasn’t for the performance issues I experienced throughout. The game suffers from a lot of screen tearing from what I noticed in crowded areas where it gives the GPU a workout. The framerate stutters as well during heavy trafficking areas. And the graphics are just not that well polished. I get it though. It’s a smaller game on presumably a tighter budget so it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as a larger scale game. What it lacks in performance and graphical fidelity it sure as heck makes up for in gameplay though. The tools you get within your arsenal to carry out your stealthy like objectives are simple, yet effective and range from noisemakers to blow darts to the game breaking daggers. Yes daggers have an upgrade that allows you not only to recollect your dagger and essentially never run out of ammo but also allows you to completely dissolve your enemy it lands on by means of a corrosive like acidic application. Quite gnarly yet quite game breaking as once I unlocked those upgrades it was all I was using until the end of the game but man was it useful! You can also upgrade your attire and weapons too by finding upgrade materials and upgrade diagrams by completing missions. And lastly the story is quite interesting and even has a twist ending I didn’t really see coming. Overall it’s a return to form for the AC franchise and I only hope it can keep up the momentum of having that familiar yet fresh reinvigorating spirit with future installments.

In anticipation of the remaster that just dropped over the long weekend, Frank's Game of the Month was Mario vs. Donkey Kong. I got a head start on the festivities by picking up the Game Boy Advance original and working my way through the campaign mode.

Number: 11
Full Title: Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Platform Played: Game Boy Advance
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Game Boy Advance
Original Platforms: Game Boy Advance

I started the Mario vs. Donkey Kong franchise right in the middle, picking up Minis March Again at the launch of DSiWare and playing through it - twice! I never touched the original, despite the number of times Nintendo offered it up to loyalists. I liked the Game Boy reimagining of Donkey Kong that inspired this game and was happy to see it'd gotten a new coat of paint and a lot of expanded content.

While the game got off to a breezy start, the game's difficulty quickly spiked, and Mario's quirky acrobatics started to become more frustrating than charming. Mario vs. Donkey Kong presents an alternative to the hop-and-bop parkour that made up Mario's moveset from New Super Mario Bros. onward, and while I'm impressed they could fit such a huge repetoire into just two buttons, the number of backflips I've done suggest it could have been less overloaded. Aside from a few really nightmarish puzzles, the game still managed to be a fun "snack" of sorts, even though it's not as memorable as some of Mario's other portable titles.

Number: 12
Full Title: Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Platform Played: Switch
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Switch
Original Platforms: Game Boy Advance
Badges: Facelift (1/2)

While I love experiencing the same game on multiple platforms, there aren't too many occasions where I immediately followed up a playthrough of a game with its remaster, especially so soon after the latter's release. Figuring "Why not?" I picked up the Switch remaster of Mario vs. Donkey Kong shortly before it dropped. The game adds two new worlds - each with a new mechanic to master - and brings all the graphics and level designs up to speed with the rest of the Switch library.

I couldn't put it down. The updated graphics adding a whole lot of clarity to the original's fuzzy pre-rendered sprites. The new levels and mechanics weren't particularly memorable, but they fit in perfectly with the rest of the game's original content. Most of the annoyances with Mario's moves were taken care of, and I didn't have nearly as many unfortunate accidents caused by poor timing or bad button presses. Purists may still prefer the original game and its difficulty, but I gobbled up the remaster, finishing it in less than four days.

While we're talking about Games of the Month, let's pivot back to the Retro Talkshop Thread for the other Game of the Month we picked.

Number: 13
Full Title: Quake
Platform Played: PC
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: PC
Original Platforms: PC
Badges: 2nd Amendment (1/2)

My family bought their first "real" computer - a Gateway 2000 desktop with a Pentium Pro 200 inside - right at the peak of Quake's influence on PC gaming. After putting the machine through its paces with a few PlayStation ports and classic DOS games, Quake was the first game that really blew me out of my socks. The dark atmosphere, fully 3D environment, and blazing fast gameplay were completely unlike the other shooters I'd seen up to that point, which seemed almost cartoony by comparison. I played through the Quake shareware countless times - trying out different graphics settings, console configurations, Redbook Audio soundtracks - but never actually played through the game until many years later where I used it (and its two official expansions) to break an 18-month-long gaming fast.

After loading Quake onto my retro PC, I'm surprised at how much I remember from that first episode: the six secrets in the first level, the low gravity secret level Ziggurat Vertigo, the giant lightning-shooting Shamblers that always seem to appear as an ambush, and the mad dash around Cthlon's lair once you realize all your weapons are ineffective. The remaining four episodes don't give the same nostalgic rush, especially as the difficulty spikes, but I still hugely appreciate Quake's aesthetic and its simple, fast-paced, explosive gameplay. It'll be worth checking out the recent remaster at some point, especially its new episodes.

With Quake in the record books, I started Quake II this afternoon, wondering if I'll be able to finish it before Final Fantasy VII Rebirth releases next week. On the portable front, after having so much fun with the Mario vs. Donkey Kong remaster, I decided it was worth picking up the Game Boy port of Donkey Kong that I started so many years ago.

My #15 is Yakuza Kiwami

https://photos.app.goo.gl/N5uj36tLDkd5rYYF7

Nice story, same button mashing gameplay. It's so easy to lose track of time doing side quests in this game. I think I did 40 of them. Mostly entertaining as well. Glad to play through this series. 8/10

@Renaissance2K You earned Facelift by playing both versions of MvDK.

I beat Bluey: the Videogame on the xbox 1

My #16 is Not for Broadcast: All DLC.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3zjBQ11a68URZAPb9

The first episode was pretty bad, and the second is average. Waiting for the third to be released.

My #17 is Donut County.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/A1yfTNsH6qCUHBhe9

Charming game about being a hole. 8/10

Game #12 of 2024

Resident Evil 4 on PSVR2
That goes towards the Raccoon City badge.

I finished Mario vs Donkey Kong on Switch.

I beat Viva Pinata Party Animals on the xbox 360 (beating this with monopoly plus gets me the chance time! Badge)

Game #13 of 2024

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on

I beat Assassin's Creed Rogue on the xbox 360
I also beat Dead Rising 2: Case Zero on the xbox 360

New Tales of Borderlands (PS4) don't think I can stomach any more in going for multiple endings for the plat. I know I don't have to play the whole game over.. let's just say once is enough.

Date: 2/24
Number: 11
Title: Mega Man 5

Favorite boss - Napalm Man. I recall his fight being brutal in my youth. One of the Mans I always saved for last. I picked his stage first just to check and beat him after losing the first time to get full health for his fight. Way easier to dodge than I remember. Fun fight, don't need his weakness. In fact I think MMV sees a major decline in difficulty.
Favorite Music - Honestly, probably the title screen track. I think the catchiness of the tunes took a hit on V. Wave Man and the Dr. Wily stages are good too, though.
Biggest annoyance - There isn't much difficulty to be had in MMV, but I'd have to say the section of Crystal Man's stage where the rocks fall from the ceiling vents. There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to how many fall before you can jump across to the next platform. Sometimes 1, sometimes 2, sometimes 3 rocks. Each mis-jump is an insta-death.

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Date: 2/26
Number: 12
Title: Octopath Traveler

Ugh, where to start. I spent 60 hours on this game hoping that some major event would occur to bring all of these stories together. Something to connect the characters, a common cause. I figured after completing each character's story a quest path would unlock that ties it all up. It never happens. I finished the last chapter of the character that I picked to start, Primrose, and credits rolled. Yes, there is a true-ending that contains one more dungeon and one more boss, but I'm not up to it. The combat system is great, and several of the stories are decent enough on their own, but there is just a huge lack of substance here. No character interaction aside from OPTIONAL "travel banter" skits in town. I was loving this game the first 30-40 hours, if on the combat system alone, and frustrated and ready for it to be over the last 15 or so.
Here's the formula for the game's entirety:
Character A goes to a town, finds out there is a boss enemy in dungeon 34, enter dungeon 34 which is either a cave, a forest, or a ruin, run though, grab mostly meaningless treasure because everything worthwhile is stolen, beat the boss, on to the next.
I'm being overly critical here because of the way it all ended, it was a good game, and I did enjoy it to some extent, but I'm in no hurry to start up the sequel. Triangle Strategy is a much better game.
Although I hear the sequel to Octopath is much better.

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Date: 2/26
Number: 13
Title: Mega Man 6

Favorite boss - So many cool ones to choose from in this one, though they're all pretty easy. Despite maybe being the easiest in the game, I think Knight Man is just a great character.
Favorite Music - The music really picks back up in 6. Some really good tunes here that I had forgotten about, Yamato, Flame, Tomahawk, Mr.X stages, but my favorite is Blizzard Man's stage.
Biggest annoyance - probably the Squidon enemy in general. Every time I saw one I knew I was going to take several hits. They have a lot of health, shoot ice cubes across the floor, and homing missiles up high simultaneously. Tough enemy to dodge.

and thus ends my Mega Man nostalgia run.
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...and that is probably my last clear for the foreseeable future. I'll be swapping between FFVII Rebirth (demo cleared) and Unicorn Overlord (demo started, but I hear you can play for many hours and your progress carries over) for the next month or two.

incubus421 wrote:

They tried a bit more story wise in Octopath 2 and while I felt the game was better all around it's still largely more of the same. It's hard for me to say how much better the story is because I generally don't care. They at least tried to tie things together more and had some storylines with two characters. I personally loved both but 2 was a clear step up. It has tons of interesting boss fights and more optional content. The super boss was handled a lot better as well not

. It's actually insane to me that they have a nearly identical metacritic score on Switch. That makes zero sense to me.

Gypsy wrote:

Thanks for greater insights on the sequel. Did you by chance play the iOS/Android Octopath game, Champions of the Continent? That had a solid story that really came together after completing all of the three lesser stories. Honestly the three lesser stories in that were probably better than any of the character stories in the first game. Maybe playing and beating Champions of the Continent is what ruined the first game for me. I was expecting something more akin to it.

Ah no, I haven't played that at all.

Gypsy wrote:

I should add that Champions of the Continent is a prequel to the first game and you will visit many of the same locations. If you need more of that sweet combat and want a better story, I'd recommend it. The combat is even cooler because you can run 8 characters at a time, and swap them to the active row during combat:
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Like most phone games it has that 'pay for random character rolls' twist to it, but I played through it with some powerful characters without dropping a dime into it.

I beat Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
[imgt w=854 h=480]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHe_UEXWMAA0Q6I?format...[/imgt]
The game turned 10 on Feb 13, so I replayed it to celebrate. I was going to play through it five times for the Gamer's Day badge, but after one regular playthrough and one Hard Mode playthrough, I decided I'd had my fill. It's still one of my all-time favorite games (either 9 or 10, can never decide), and it deserves your time.

I also beat the Splatoon 3 Side Order
[imgt w=1280 h=720]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GHagXDWa4AAHHRw?format...[/imgt]
Now for the REAL reason I gave up on those five Tropical Freeze playthroughs: The Side Order is a roguelike that wants you to beat it a minimum of ten times. So that certainly gets me the Gamer's Day badge.

You climb a 30-floor tower while completing bitesized challenge floors. Each one gets you money and upgrade chips, encouraging countless playthroughs. They even turned one of my favorite characters, Pearl, into a drone who randomly attacks enemies. All in all, Side Order is surprisingly addictive!

The downside to the mode is that it gets fairly repetitive--there's only a handful of enemies, four possible bosses (the fifth boss is only fought in the tutorial), and no superboss at the end of the last run. Splatoon 2's Octo Expansion had a crazy endgame and one of Nintendo's hardest final bosses. This one is content to just throw the same Overlorder at you at the end of every run.

Side Order is like the rest of Splatoon 3: A good game that has its strengths and is definitely worth playing, but not as strong as the predecessor that no one's playing anymore.

SupremeSarna wrote:


I too am replaying DK Tropical Freeze now on my Switch. I haven’t played it since the Wii U days and forgot how incredible it was. I hope we get another DK game like it on the next Nintendo system.

To close out February and its Retro Games of the Month, I played through Quake II on my retro PC.

Number: 14
Full Title: Quake II
Platform Played: PC
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: PC
Original Platforms: PC
Badges: 2nd Amendment (2/2)

Unlike the original Quake, I played through Quake II a few years after it was released and its price had dropped to teenager-accessible levels. Like Quake, however, I remember the demo vividly. Quake II tried hard to distinguish itself from other shooters at the time. Enemies moved differently and would duck and dodge your attacks. Weapons themselves all had quirks that separated themselves from each other, like the accelerating fire rate of the Chaingun or the cooldown of the Hyperblaster. More than anything else, I remember firing the starting blaster into a dark crawl space and watching as the game's dynamic lighting highlighted the tiny bullet as it went from one end of the corridor to the other. Pretty stunning stuff, even without a high end video card.

Coming straight from a playthrough of Quake, though, all these little quirks - which are now standard in all but the most retro-inspired shooters - just serve to slow the game down. Once I got a feel for the game's level design and stopped ignoring the in-game tactical computer, I started to move through objectives a little more quickly, but the actual act of shooting never became as satisfying as it was in its predecessor. In the longstanding Quake vs. Unreal war, I've always planted myself firmly on the Unreal side of things, which dropped five months later. Playing through Quake II a second time, it was a fun trip down memory lane and an interesting contrast to its predecessor, but I don't think my opinion on it has changed much.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth finally dropped last night, and I dove right in. That will likely be my focus for a while, unless next months Games of the Month are portable-friendly.

I didn't think to add Slay the Spire to my list, I'm regularly playing through that game. I've beaten it well over 5 times already this year, so that can be my Gamer's Day badge.

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

2/19 - Unique systems

3 - Total games

Badges
Hop 'n' Bop (Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Wonder)
Gamer's Day (Slay the Spire)

My #18 is Yakuza Kiwami 2.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hnS3gpULV2p2zX4t7

A lot of improvements in this from the previous games. I didn't care for the whole middle section of the story though. 8/10

February, the slightly longer than usual month of love and Lent, has drawn to a close. But the gaming is as strong as ever, so that's what I'm concerned about right now. Here are our stats from the month:
-We beat 85 games/DLC this month. That's a little less than January's 96, but still respectable. @legendrko25 topped the charts with 11.
-We earned 10 badges this month, which is more than double the badges we earned last month (4). @incubus421 , @Scott , and legendrko25 all tied for top badge-earners, with two each. I finally earned a badge, too!
-I would write another thing here, but most of the other details are at the top of the OP.

As always, comment if I missed something in the update. And keep playing good games!