VideoGame_Discussion

sailorneorune wrote:

I’m not sure winning one race counts as beating the game, but this is an arcade game… I’ll let it slide in this case.

I beat Mega Man 2 .
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/MsZRx0h.jpg[/imgt]
Beaten on Difficult mode. The stages and Robot Masters are bizarrely easy. Then you reach Wily Castle and things get much harder—almost jarringly so. Shoutout to the Mecha Dragon that has elongated knockback on his projectiles (and only those ones) so that he can effortlessly knock you into the pit below. Honestly, half my playtime went toward that castle. It's a little crazy. But still a great game overall.

Updated! I was really off on the badge count, but everything should be fixed. I clearly have too much freetime on workbreaks if I'm beating that many 3DS games each week. And somehow I took an entire month between Mega Man 4 and 3... how in the world did that happen?

Thanks @SupremeSarna! Just one small thing: I noticed that I’m missing the Level Up! badge. I previously beat Final Fantasy I and The Caligula Effect: Overdose.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:
Gotcha covered.

Thanks!

SupremeSarna wrote:

I just beat Shock Troopers for the 4th time now. I imported all of my PC games into Launchbox the other day and noticed that I had the PC port of this from Amazon Games so I figured I'd try that. It plays a little different as your 'credit' only earns you 1 health bar for a given character you select and I didn't do the 'team of 3' mode where I picked 3 players. So with that approach I cycled through each of the 8 characters and did okay with the faster ones and not so great with the 3-4 slower ones, which is how I've been playing before.
I also decided to try to switch the paths to the final boss. There are 3 and in my first 3 runs I did each one and this time I started in the Jungle and went to the Mountains when they give you the 1 chance, after like the 3rd stage. Anyhow doing that seemed to give me a new mission in-between the 2 paths, so for my 5th run I'll do yet another set to see if there's another in-between mission and if it's different. If so I might have to beat it 6 times to hit that final unique mission. I also beat the final boss with another person to get the 1 still shot for their unique 'victory screen'.
I do think I'll beat it the 5th time on my mini, so I need to get that hooked up.

5th of June, 39th overall, 12th
Tinykin
Likely really only counts toward Bear & Bird that I already have

Heard good things about this GP title and jumped into it the other night. It was addicting of sorts with me playing until 3AM the other night thanks to my feeling of, 'just do this one more task and be done'... only to keep doing tasks. It was an endearing and enjoyable title, though I didn't pay much attention to the oddball story and blew through much of the dialog you had to read - the aesthetic, art style and simple gameplay was the sauce. I ended up doing everything in the game except for collecting all of the pollen in 3 of 7 rooms b/c I didn't want to hunt for ~45 little bits to collect from ~7k total as some rooms have over 1k in them. But I found all the pollen in more than have of the rooms and found/did everything else.

#27

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond

I enjoyed the remastered edition quite well for the most part. I just wish the global trade system was a bit more polished and fleshed out. The final Elite Four champion gave me a little run for my money too. Took me a few tries to beat her. Other than that it was another return to my early 20’s with this one. Next I think I’ll try out Arceus to see how the new Pokémon formula works.

I beat Pikmin 3's DLC: all 36 missions and boss rematches. For some annoying reason, purchased DLC on Wii U seems to only work on the one user profile that bought. My Pikmin 3 file was User 2, but only User 1 had access to all of it. Regardless, I beat each pack. There's a ton of content here, lemme tell ya, but I wasn't particular about getting a platinum score on every stage. I got two plats, a few golds, a buncha silvers, and plenty of bronzes. I'm just not a fan of multitasking with three groups of characters, so I can't make the best use of time. But I know quality when I see it, and the DLC for this game is certainly that!

#43 down: American Idol on Game Boy Advance (emulated on my Anbernic), first clear for the rhythmic badge.

This was pretty easy but not particularly fun.

Against all odds, I beat Sonic the Hedgehog with zero lives to spare.
[imgt w=640 h=853]https://i.imgur.io/68VPCRI_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sha...[/imgt]
This game was like $2 at a garage sale last August, and now I’ve finally gotten around to playing it. Not a bad time once you get past Spring Yard Zone. This game is pretty guilty of reusing level geography—enough so that I questioned if I was replaying an area I’d previously finished multiple times. Spring Yard and Star Light Zone we’re the biggest offenders here.

I have to tiptoe through Sonic stages to survive, so a lot of the high speed fun is sucked out for me. But unlike the later games, this one was a pretty reasonable jaunt through just a few worlds, enough so to beat it in just two or three attempts. There’s no darn Death Egg Robot in this one, so I could actually beat it. (I like Sonic 2, for those asking, but I’ve never beaten its final boss. I’ve beaten Sonic 3 & Knuckles.)

After a bunch of research and asking around, I downloaded and beat Grimace’s Birthday (“originally” GBC).
[imgt w=640 h=853]https://i.imgur.io/knKRXJ2_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sha...[/imgt]
McDonald’s is currently celebrating the anniversary of one of its old mascots, apparently, and they tasked a retro game developer to make a free tie-in game that actually runs natively on Game Boy Color hardware. It even has a “please insert this into a colored Game Boy” screen like GBC games often had. The attention to detail making this a faithful retro game is admirable.

It’s a very short platformer that has running and jumping stages and skateboarding ones. Grimace face plants too often on his board, but the game’s over so fast, you’ll barely notice. The music goes harder than it needs to, which is funny. I was a tad distracted every time a character used modern slang or 2020s vernacular (“I can’t even with you, Hamburglar”), since it’s anachronistic. This game does a good job advertising the Grimace Birthday Shake, the collectibles scattered across the stages and undoubtedly a delicious treat at your local fast food establishment. The game’s greatest challenge comes in the form of the Score Attack mode—collecting all 20 birthday presents in the labyrinth as the timer ticks down can get pretty intense. Somehow I got 32/20 presents on my last run…? Weird.

Either way, this obvious advertisement game had a lot of soul poured into it, and the fact that I can play it on a modded 3DS makes it way cooler. I’m quite happy I played it! Now go try it yourself if you have the means.

“I love war!” -Grimace, McDonaldland Card Game Party

The beats just keep on coming! I beat Gargoyle’s Quest II: The Demon Darkness (originally NES) at work.
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I played Gargoyle’s Quest for GB last year, and it kinda stunk. The screen was too small to display everything it should’ve, the text was poorly translated and barely fit on screen, it was far too open-ended, and there were too many identical enemy encounters. This NES sequel is an improvement. It’s far more linear, the screen shows you enough to play well, and the translation is decent. I had more fun and beat it far quicker. It’s no must-play, but it made a nice reprieve from Mega Man.

Just my 11th clear this year on 6/16.

Might and Magic book I

I do not envy anyone that had to hand draw out each and every map for this game. Different times for sure. It had to have taken hundreds upon hundreds of hours to beat this when it first came out. Auto mapping was the best thing to ever hit the cRPG genre! I received a party score of 420,326 upon completion. This was difficult to get into at first, and the difficulty is unforgiving at times. The classic grind is completely necessary here!

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OP updated!

My first impressions with Mirror's Edge: Catalyst weren't great. I'm a big fan of the original, in spite of its flaws, and I was thrilled to see the franchise called out as Frank's Game of the Month; but the lore reboot, the clunky platforming, and the cramming of a zillion unnecessary modern gaming conventions landed like a boulder. After filling out the Movement skill tree (ugh...) and reluctantly accepting the existence of the MAG, I was starting to really crave my playthroughs and the parkour zen that the series does such a great job of cultivating. I miss the original, though, especially its simpler aesthetic and dreamy soundtrack.

Number: 20
Full Title: Mirror's Edge: Catalyst
Platform Played: EA (Origin)
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Windows
Original Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Applicable Badge: Girl Power (1/2)

Five days until Final Fantasy XVI takes over my at-home game time. I'll be keeping busy with Golden Sun and Daytona USA in the meantime.

Renaissance2K wrote:

You played it on an EA (Origin)? What exactly is that? How should I classify it on the Google Doc?

I beat Mega Man (originally NES). At long last, I'm done with all six games on Mega Man Legacy Collection.

I was under the impression that Mega Man 1 was a bad game, being the first in a series that was revolutionized by its second game. Turns out I was wrong! I quite liked Mega Man 1, even if it has some slippery feet and only six Robot Masters. The Magnet Beam is a nifty gadget, the Yellow Devil is a decent challenge without being the brutal beast I'd heard about, and the music and graphics were better than I'd thought. Color me surprised!

I'd rank the first six games as follows: 6>4>2>1>3>5. 6 feels like the culmination of the NES series (ignoring 9 and 10 since those are technically Wii games) while 5 feels rushed and uninspired.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Just put it down as PC.

@SupremeSarna EA Origin is their PC storefront and game launcher. Similarly Ubisoft has uPlay. I technically beat Mirror's Edge via Origin as well.
Annoyingly thanks to Origin, uPlay and others I've got 7 game launchers installed on my PC, including Steam.

Since some folks wanted to count Steam as a platform and whilst Stream is amazing, there still are plenty of games for the PC that aren't on Valve's platform, thus the need for the PC platform listing as well.

#44: Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman! (Game Boy emulated on Anberic)- counts toward the Cross the Streams badge.

This was harder than I expected. The final boss took me a bit to figure out. Not a bad game. It was nice to play a stage here and there portably.

#45: Super Breakout! (Game Boy emulated on Anberic)- counts toward the Quarter Muncher badge.

An old classic. Since this is endless, I counted it as cleared once I beat the highest score from the original Breakout that you could get before it started repeating stages.

#46: Galaga (Game Boy emulated on Anberic)- This gets me the Quarter Muncher badge (alongside the Super Breakout! clear)

Another old classic. I beat the high score and went way beyond it, but this is also technically an endless game (although it has a glitch that gives you a game over once you get through 255 levels).

40th down, 1st on 6th in June
Strider 2014 remaster
Badge - I'm claiming this for Metroidvania as unlike the original (beat it in '21) which was more linear, this was an MV candidate - you gained upgrades to allow you to access doors and such that were blocked initially, there's plenty to hunt for in terms of upgrades and so on. Earns me the badge with 8 Doors being the first title.

Been meaning to give this a shot for a good while and it was actually a lot of fun, and not crazy challenging. I ended up collecting all 10 health and 10 energy upgrades and like 11/13 of the 3 other categories, plus a good number of the collectable things for I think art unlocks and outfits. I gained access to the final non-returnable boss area with only just over 60% completion and took a little time to hunt down some more stuff, but the game isn't fantastic with the map, fast travel nor the collectable % per area. There are large health containers that I came across and didn't need so I didn't acquire them, but they count towards the collectables and overall % complete for some reason. So I did revisit some areas and grabbed some as well as used all of my unlocks to search for and find a handful more stuff. I ended the game with a little over 80% on the completion listing, not that I really cared too much.
In general most bosses would beat me on the first attempt before I would get them on try #2. 2 outliers of that was the final boss's first phase (3-4 attempts needed, though attempt #1 I only had maybe 25% health to start) and the second phase (got him on my first try). The ascent to that boss encounter was tough as right before you reached him you faced 2 of the larger and nastier mini-bosses and they were freezing me and it took me 3-4 times on that as well. But besides all of that, I rather enjoyed my 6+ hour run, though Steam says I was 'in game' for 9.5, so the game's clock likely paused when I was looking at the map or cutscenes, maybe?

Non-Strider related.
I think I decided to give myself a new challenge. With SO dang many games in my library, I got the dumb idea to try to beat the alphabet the rest of this year. So I went through mainly my Xbox library of games (including all the GP and GwG titles), as well as my massive library from Steam, Epic, Amazon and a few others and added many games for each letter to a spreadsheet. I also went through my much smaller Sony and Sega libraries and I'm ready to try this personal challenge.
Clearly some letters (D, H, L, M, R, S, T) were really easy to find games and most of those I have 20+ to pick from. Others like (#, E, J, O, Q, U, X-Z) were a good bit harder to find options, so I don't think I'll be able to fully do an alphabet 'set' too many times. But I think I'm going to try pretty hard to complete a 'set' before repeating letters. I mean I have SO many games to choose from, this sort of helps me pick my next title.
Strider kicks this off, which sort of stinks b/c S is the strongest representation with just over 40 to pick from, but that's the goal of this. I'm working through Hi-Fi Rush, Uncharted 3 and about 5 others from different letters (with less progress), so this could be an interesting experiment. Depending on how it goes, I feel like I could maybe turn this into a new GTZ thread and pick like 2 letters per month and 'challenge' folks to beat a game or 2 from each letter in that month. But with the RTT and Frank's GotM threads already, maybe I won't bother... Heck, maybe I'll find this experiment annoying and abandon it, though really it was a way for me to get a good list of around 365 total games that I legitimately want to play, from the 10k+ that I have. I have complete sets of ROMs for many systems, plus a huge Mame set that I get the 10k+ number from, so surely many of those I have zero interest in. I mentioned before that I've beat north of 300 in the last 3.5+ years, so having this list of 365 doesn't feel too nuts... but yeah it sort of is.
Anyhow if anyone wants to join me on this experiment, let me know, be fun to chat about things.

Made a slight tweak and included 2 games I beat earlier in the year for the # (8 Doors) and Q (Quake) columns as they have very few game options. Figure that will make completing this now active set a touch easier. I might add a few other games that I already beat in '23 to this set, but the point is to beat more, not backfill.
I also added a count to the spreadsheet and brought over the 300+ that I've recorded as beat recently and S is surely the most represented letter at 43 beat, with a few multiple versions (like Soul Calibur 2 on and ) M comes in 2nd with 28, then 26 for T.

I decided to be daring and play a random Wii U game I bought months ago. This is Klonoa: Empire of Dreams (originally GBA).
[imgt w=640 h=480]https://i.imgur.io/leB2fVF_d.webp?maxwidth=640&sha...[/imgt]

I dunno what Klonoa normally is, but this is a quality 2D puzzle-platformer. You grab and inflate enemies, then throw them or leap off them for a double-jump. Run through each stage and pick up emeralds and Stars of David to open the exit door. The difficulty is kind of all over the place—I thought everything in it was easy or at least comfortably challenging, then the final world and the bonus stages are brain-bustingly difficult. I wish the end of the experience were as comfy as the rest, because it’s excellent otherwise. Bonus stages 2 and 3 are maddeningly tricky, but that just means you have to master the mechanics and use your mind to the fullest!

There are also autoscrolling stages and hoverboard challenges, which are the worst in the game. I resorted to save states on the last hoverboard stage, since you have to redo everything if you miss even one collectible (that is, if you’re trying to 100% the game like I was). Those were a pain, but the platforming stages are sweet.

I definitely recommend this one. I’d better try the rest of the series.

6/20 for these next two:

#12 -- The 13th Doll
Decent tribute to The 7th Guest. The original bad guy making a cameo was awesome. The soundtrack is great, upbeat and jazzy and somehow still fits the creepy mansion vibe perfectly. Puzzles were not nearly as painfully difficult as in the older games. Multiple endings and branching paths...you can't visit all the rooms in the mansion in one run, so I'll likely be playing through it again to see all the different puzzles. This is worthy of a replay being as it only took me 4-5 hours to beat it the first time.
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#13 -- Final Fantasy IX
FF9 felt a lot like FF8 for me, but then again I played each of them to completion for the first time just in the past few years. I find it unfair to these two FFs that I played them so late after their launch. I wonder how I would have felt about them had I played them around their original release. For me, I can't say they're better than say FF7, nor would I hold them as high as most of the other great RPGs we saw during the PS1 era. It's a shame I didn't get to appreciate them for what they were in their prime. Playing them so late I think has diminished their value to me personally.
I did have one major gripe: while I enjoyed that you could steal multiple items from enemies and bosses, I couldn't stand the drop rate...even with the success rate up items. It really took away from the boss battle experience when I had to have three characters heal and/or skip their turn for 10-20 minutes waiting for Zidane to steal everything. Let alone the fact that now your main character is essentially dealing no damage the entirety of the fight. I finished up all the side content, but did not max level any characters. In fact, I stuck with my main 4 as Zidane, Steiner, Freya, and Quina. They can output damage waaay quicker and just as effectively as your casters/summoners where you have to sit through constant casting animations. Completed in about 66 hours.
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#47 down: Diablo IV on PS5. I would like to claim the Hyrulian Hero badge with this clear and my previous clear of Star Wars Jedi- Survivor.

I have been excited about this coming out for years, and it’s everything I wanted it to be. Easily my Game of the Year and one of my favorites overall. I am moving on to FF XVI tomorrow, but I will definitely be coming back to this later in the year and going for the platinum.

I beat Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake .
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I believe @nonamesleft wanted to hear about it. It’s a twist on capture the flag with a humorous, medieval twist. Two teams of 16 depart their castles and attempt to seize the enemy princess, bringing her back to their dungeon. There are several classes each player can use, like a strong warrior, a sniping archer, or a healing priest. You can take enemy outposts, kill your foes, and use slices of cake to fatten up your own princess, which makes her harder to capture. It’s good, but I imagine it’s much more fun in an actual multiplayer setting. I played the story mode for this clear.

As for the comedy, it made me laugh out loud a few times. One day, two princesses from rival kingdoms ate a giant cake they found mysteriously sitting in the woods, and it was so delicious, they ate themselves to giant sizes. The king is understandably upset and learns from the Oracle that the cake was cursed to have this addictive effect on its eaters. He says the only cure is the kiss of a prince, and as it so happens, Prince Albert is going to be visiting the land from afar in search of a bride. King Red becomes increasingly obsessed with making sure the rival princess is out of the picture so Albert chooses his daughter. There’s a crazy back and forth as war breaks out and casualties mount.

The funniest chapter is the dragon one, where the king swears and the game bleeps it out, but it’s obvious the VA dropped a real F-bomb in the recording studio and they just covered it up. And the kicker? The narrator who voices all the characters is Tom Kane, the prolific actor behind Prof. Utonium in the Powerpuff Girls and Admiral Yularen (the iconic announcer) in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, among many others! He adds quite a lot to the comedy, even in a match (“They’re in our base, killing our dyudes!”). There are plenty of 2000s memes in the game also, from “Pwn’d” to “All your base are belong to us.” They’re certainly a relic of their time.

So it was as funny as I expected, but you need a larger group of likeminded players to get the most out of it. There were a couple chapters that really stunk, too: You have to deplete the enemy force to 0 by taking their outposts and killing their units, but the CPU is just as fast as you and it likely to leave you in the dust quickly. Those were a war of attrition, but the rest is enjoyable.

I beat minecraft on the xbox1

Tears of the Kingdom on Switch. Now I can finally start looking for some other games to beat.

I’m probably crazy enough to do an alphabet challenge with you. Coincidentally, I actually thought about doing that earlier this year.

Slickriven wrote:

#48 down: Barbie: The Prince and the Pauper on Game Boy Advance (emulated on Anberic). This was about as bad as I had anticipated, but it did get me the second clear I needed (after beating Avenging Spirit earlier) for the Hop n' Bop badge.

7th of June, 3rd 41st overall
Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception

When I started the Uncharted series, I was sort of expecting a similar vein to the Tomb Raider series and 1 and 3 felt that way. 2 felt a bit more action-y and over the top with the opening train section, that you had to do part of twice, as well as take on several choppers and a tank - that turned me off with just too much bombastic suspension of belief type stuff. 3 was more like 1, with mostly grounded things, but surely a bit fantastical and yes some frustrations via some oddly placed checkpoints during gun fights, but top to bottom I liked 3 way more vs. 2.

I'm also stoked to have wrapped up my run through the trilogy and think I'll take a break before trying 4.

@Bleed_DukeBlue I welcome you joining my Alphabet challenge. I'm counting the following:
# - 8 Doors
Q - Quake ('22 remake)
S - Strider 2014
U - Uncharted 3

@Slickriven Since you started this sub-challenge halfway through the year, I’m including everything I’ve played so far. So that’s…

#
A Alleyway
B Bayonetta
C Crashmo
D Donkey Kong 64
E
F Final Fantasy VI
G Gargoyle’s Quest II: The Demon Darkness
H
I
J Junkbot Undercover
K Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe
L LocoRoco
M Mega Man Powered Up
N New Play Control! Pikmin
O
P Pikmin 2
Q
R Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure
S Star Wars Episode I Racer
T Tetris 99
U
V
W Wild Guns Reloaded
X Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Y
Z Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

It’s debatable if I’ve beaten E, since I played Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, which starts with a D, but only because the franchise owner is in the title. Some people just call the series Epic Mickey, like the Disney World vs. Walt Disney World debate.

I would never complete the alphabet challenge in a single year, but I kinda want to start tracking it just as a personal ongoing challenge. I think I'll do that.

Alphabet Challenge Progress So Far:

A: A Robot Named Fight
B: Barbie: The Prince and the Pauper
C: Cult of the Lamb
D: Dead Island 2
E: Eternal
F: Final Fantasy
G: Gotham Knights
H: Hogwarts Legacy
I: Inscryption
J: Jesus: The Terrifying Bio-Monster
K: Kayak VR: Mirage
L: (The) Light Brigade
M: Marvel's Midnight Suns
N:
O:
P:
Q:
R: Resident Evil 4 Remake
S: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
T: Tekken 3
U:
V:
W: Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!
X: Xeodrifter
Y:
Z:

I’ll play too!

Alphabet Challenge Progress So Far:

A: Atomic Heart
B: Bayonetta 3
C: Crysis Remastered
D:
E: Evil West
F:
G: God of War: Ragnarok
H: Hi-Fi Rush
I:
J:
K: Kirby’s Dream Land
L: Little Hope
M: Metroid Prime: Remastered
N:
O:
P: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond
Q:
R: Resident Evil 4 Remake
S: Stray
T: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
U:
V:
W:
X:
Y: Yoshi’s Story
Z:

It's cool to see a number of folks jump on this goofball idea I had. I think I'll update mine to include the games I beat already this year since most are as well. Will have to update that later when I'm on my PC.

To be clear, I’m not recording these specifically. This little game isn’t an official part of Beat a Game 2023.

Got it. I only have like 10-12 games left in me to get to hopefully by the end of this year. All longer titles too and only a couple with letters I’m missing so I probably won’t update the A-Z list after today but it’s fun to see like I got 14 out of 26 letters already with the titles I’ve beaten. Pretty cool.

My set thus far in '23
# - 8 Doors
A - Aces Of The Luftwaffe
B - Bugsnax
C - CupHead
D - Doom 2016
E -
F -
G - God of War 3
H - High on Life
I - Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
J -
K - Kentucky Route Zero
L - (The) Legend of TianDing
M - My Friend Pedro
N -
O -
P - Planet of Lana
Q - Quake ('22 remake)
R - Ryse: Son of Rome
S - Strider 2014
T - Tinykin
U - Uncharted 3
V - Virtua Fighter
W - Wreckfest
X -
Y -
Z -

I decided to exclude from above some E and F titles that were dumb, DLC or mobile games as personally I'm not sure they're worthy of counting. Plus I wanted to use this as another tool to help me pick new games to play and I want to find E&F titles to play. So I've got 8 letters to focus on next and after more time than I should've spent just now, I think I've picked some good candidates for those 8 letters.

@SupremeSarna and others - yeah I didn't want to replace the nature of this Beat a Game thread with 'Beat the Alphabet' or anything. I mainly came up with the idea after having WAY too many games in my LaunchBox, mainly my PC library. I think it can/should be a tool or mini-game/challenge for those who are interested, to simply have more ways to help pick their next or upcoming titles via.
Personally I was struggling a touch to for example find a title to play this year, so the Alphabet challenge helps me potentially narrow it down, but only b/c I have the full ROMset of that platform. So this isn't for everyone. Like Talon, I don't plan on posting my full list like I just did on every new game I beat. I will likely mention when I beat something that 'noted game checks off my letter whatever'. And once (if) I complete my set I might list them all.

OP updated! Keep up the gaming, chaps!

SupremeSarna wrote:

Not sure when your cutoff was, but you missed my #41 of Uncharted 3 - post #338

Slickriven wrote:
[imgt w=245 h=230]https://i.gifer.com/MldC.gif[/imgt]

#28 belongs to Immortals Fenyx Rising

8/10

This game was way too much fun to be put out by Ubisoft of all folks. It’s how I felt about the Mario+Rabbids titles in the sense of man how are these Ubi made games? Immortals is pretty much a Greek Zelda BOTW without such annoyances as breakable weapons. While it’s not perfect and has a lot of the usual open world tiresome tropes such as ticking off a million boxes of things to do, it’s just so much fun to engage in for the most part. The vaults (like shrines in Zelda) offer creative puzzle like challenges to overcome which rewards you with stamina upgrades and it’s pretty much the basis of the game. It’s one half hack and slash action game and one half puzzle platformer with some really unique puzzles to solve which aren’t going to stump most folks but offer just enough of a brain tease to feel rewarding and adds that sense of accomplishment once you figure them out by using objects in the environment as well as your godly powers which ranges from being able to lift up light and heavy objects or slow down time by shooting arrows in first person. The combat is fun the more you unlock abilities and godly powers but by the end of the 25ish hour journey rhe combat can become and feel a bit on the tedious side. And lastly the story is quirky as heck somewhat cheesy dialogue at times but overall it makes me feel like they were at least trying to give us a decent Greek mythology story and this version of Zeus in a video game has to be the most charismatic yet flawed version of the god that almost made me feel like he wasn’t a complete butt munch at times. Overall if you’re looking for a similar experience to Zelda BOTW without those darn breakable weapons with a story length about 1/3 of its size then this game may be worth your time.

Hi @SupremeSarna

Thanks for the update. Looks like I'm just missing one clear and one badge: #48: Barbie: The Prince and the Pauper on Game Boy Advance (emulated on Anbernic). That + my previous clear of Avenging Spirit should get me the Hop 'n Bop badge. Thanks!

#49 down: Alex Kidd in Miracle World on Sega Master System (emulated on Anbernic). I would like to count this towards the Facelift badge, as I'm planning on beating the remake.

@Bleed_DukeBlue Ah, I see it now. I think the Alphabet sub-challenge distracted me from that clear, same as Slickriven’s Uncharted 3. I’ll update all of this again on Sunday night when I return from the wedding I’m attending.

No worries at all! Have fun at the wedding.

SupremeSarna wrote:

8th of June, 42nd overall, 1st
X-Men Reign of Apocalypse
Already have badge
Gets me an X title in the Alpha challenge, need 7 more for set

With the 8 letters I had to go, X, Y, Z didn't exactly excite me for choices but I wanted a GBA title and after looking at HL2B I didn't think this would take long and I beat it in well under an hour. You pick 1 of 4 X-Men, of which the options are interesting: Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm and Rogue - I went with Logan and the game was very easy. It's a belt-scrolling beat-em-up and it was pretty easy to keep hammering A for the quick swipe and do a 5-6 hit combo that would knock down any foe, even bosses. B button was a stronger, slower attack that with Logan knocked down foes and you got a 'mutant power' that required a bar to be full to trigger that seemingly refilled over time, but also refill icons would drop periodically, health dropped this way too. Logan's power was a maybe 8-10 hit combo from his claws and against a boss, if landed, would take over 50% health.

Story sends you to an alt dimension and you fight through like a dozen stages and all have 1 or 2 bosses facing notable characters like Beast, Gambit, Magneto, Blob, Cable, etc. With only the boss to fight, it was pretty easy to keep them hit and knocked down off screen which generally meant they couldn't fight back. A few times I had to actually back off and allow the boss to get onto the screen to get a good idea of whom I was fighting - when I did they would fight back more, so that's mediocre design IMO. Normal enemies numbered around 5 sprite models (of which 1 amusingly looked like Pepsi-man), each sprite had 2-3 color variants and some levels had obstacles like spikes, falling boxes and such. With 3-6 or so foes to fight at a time, they could pose more of a challenge against nearly all of the bosses outside of Nightcrawler really. I set the game to 9 continues (the max) but after starting with 2 lives, I finished with 4 but did die like twice - so they gave me bonus lives several times, and obviously I didn't use any continues.

Oddly my ROM had no audio, so I might seek out a replacement and try it again with all/some of the 3 other characters since while it was surely easy, it was short and could be interesting to play as those 3 as I would hope they fight differently.

Ridge Racer for the PSP was the first game in the series that really made me pay attention, and it was the game that made me fall in love with the PSP as a platform. The flawless 3D graphics, earwormy soundtrack, and overflow of content was the perfect introduction to the new platform and its capabilities. I revisited it last year to collect footage for my 2022 30-Day Game Music Challenge video but got far enough long with it that it was worth finishing out the main campaign; something that I'd been wanting to do for a few years now.

Number: 21
Full Title: Ridge Racer
Platform Played: PSP
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: PSP
Original Platforms: PSP
Applicable Badge: Race Drivin' (1/2)

I'm about to start the final boss fight of Golden Sun, so I'll be back to add that game to my hit list as well as soon as I find a chunk of time to finish it. Final Fantasy XVI has me sucked in, though, and will be monopolizing my playtime for the new few months, at least aside from whatever portable games I pick up.

No picture this time, but I beat The Mummy Demastered on the car ride to the wedding/at the motel room after.

I’ve said it before, but I like this game better than Hollow Knight. It’s a short, concise Metroidvania by WayForward that sports beautiful sprite art, frantic gunplay, and five boss fights. The best thing to come from The Mummy (2017), no doubt, and probably the best thing to come the entire Dark Universe that Universal failed to fully establish. The game’s biggest flaw is how twitchy the aiming is. They want you to move and aim with the Analog Stick, but running forward will sometimes make your gun aim diagonally up, just because the stick has greater range of motion than a +Control Pad. (I confirmed that it wasn’t my Joy-Con drifting.) It isn’t a constant nuisance, but I know it isn’t supposed to happen whenever it does.

The Mummy Demastered usually goes on sale around Halloween, so I recommend buying it then. You won’t regret it!

14th clear on 6/23 - Might and Magic book II

Book ii is much more forgiving in that there are some pretty easy super level cheeses that can buff your party. Even so, some monsters/fights are just down right unfair. Even at max level and high stats there are monsters you can come across that can wipe your party in one swipe. The improved visuals and automapper were things I was truly appreciative of over the first game. The puzzles and cryptograms were still incredibly difficult to figure out on your own and I highly recommend a guide. I can now say I've officially beat each and every Might & Magic. I've enjoyed these first two games enough to continue the journey and perhaps start into my favorites in the series, 3 through 7.

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@SupremeSarna that Mummy game has been on my Steam Wishlist for a few years now. It landed in a few 'Top Metroidvania' lists and thus why I added to my list. Nice to hear it's solid from someone actually playing it. I keep hoping some service I have access to will just give it away free (like Epic or Amazon or whatever) since I'm cheap.

#50 down: Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX on PS4. This (alongside my previous clear of Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Sega Master System, emulated on Anbernic) gets me the Facelift badge. Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is a remake of Alex Kidd in Miracle World. The graphics are noticeably better. The controls are still not great, but they feel a little bit better to me, and the remake adds some new areas (that, according to Timetobeat, add about an hour to the average completion time). Even so, it felt like it took me less time to beat the remake, because I knew the game so much better after having beaten the original. (For example, the last puzzle takes awhile to figure out if you don't realize that you have a clue with you all along.) Also, the remake has fairly generous checkpoints which are very helpful. The Alex Kidd games are fairly unique. You die from one hit and have a very small range of motion to punch. You can get items to attack more effectively (like a ring that shoots stuff), but I mostly forgot about the items. What helped me the most was practice.

I was going to edit this tonight, but the power just got knocked out. It’ll be back tomorrow or Tuesday, probably, so I can edit things around then. Hang tight, everyone!

Sorry your power went out!

SupremeSarna wrote:

My power came back, so here's an update. Man, we really cleared 8 games in two days, didn't we?

Thanks for the update. Glad you got your power back. Just one small thing: I’m up to 21 badges. (You gave me the icons for all of them. It just says 20 in the badge count up top.)

SupremeSarna wrote:

SupremeSarna wrote:

hangin tight and hangin ten duuuude!

9th of June, 43rd overall, 13th
Hi-Fi Rush
I want to count this toward the Rhythmic badge since there is a rhythm aspect, even if you really don't have to follow that.
Alpha Challenge: I already had H, so I will save it for my next set I suppose.

This looked simply alright when it surprise dropped a few months back and I was more looking forward to games like Redfall and The Last Case of Benedict Fox from prior coverage on them. But those both came out a bit or very flat so I decided to give Hi-Fi a shot and found it to be rather enjoyable. The story/writing/jokes were great with some clever pop culture nods (hello Left Shark) and the cell shaded art really popped. I didn't love the music generally and landed attacks and interactions on the beat only around 55% of the time I'd say, but the combat was rather good and the variety of nearly 100% robot foes kept adding new ones throughout.
The final multi-stage 2x bosses were a bit much as I failed like 7 times to beat the final boss phase, which got annoying, but I also was doing what I too often do in melee games like this and was too aggressive and was way off the beat. Most of the game I was better with that, but 1 phase of the final boss you really had to be patient and the final phase was more about dodging and/or parrying and I didn't do too well with that, sort of obvious with that many retries. I had gotten better with the parry-dodge mini-interaction thing against some of the stronger enemies, but yeah that final boss phase was a challenge for me.
One bit I royally sucked at was the QTE style interactions that were around a fair amount - unlike better QTE design (sort of an oxymoron there) they were randomly all over the screen with ABXY vs. what the God of War series got right with them by putting Triangle always in the top, X at bottom, etc. Also you had to break some walls with the 1 support character and called them in via holding in the Right Trigger. With him, you lined him up and needed to release the RT on beat... well holy &^@$ did I suck at that... but really using an analog trigger for that was completely stupid.

I see I've unlocked some endgame stuff like challenges, a rhythm tower (endless enemy mode) or revisiting levels to access around 8 locked doors and collecting the last 15-20% of things I missed. I'm not sure if I will do that, I might at least seek out the first door to get an idea on what that's about... or maybe I'll just look that up online.

10th of June, 44th overall, 1st
Zen: Intergalactic Ninja
Alpha Challenge: Earns me Z, which is a main reason I tried it, down to 6 remaining

As stated I was seeking out a Z title and finding one on the NES was an added bonus since I didn't have a game for that console yet this year. Unlike years past I have been focused on my more recent consoles when I'm not just playing a GP or other Xbox game, so my older consoles and ROMs haven't had as much focus. The Alpha Challenge, in part, helps with that since older systems tended to have shorter titles.

This game sort of sucked though. I thought for a moment about applying it towards You're Winner, but it's not that bad, I just didn't like it. Technically it looks vibrant and good, the music and sound were solid and the 4 levels plus boss-rush at the end were all pretty varied, impressively. I mainly didn't like the controls b/c I wasn't 100% sure on how they worked, plus I am so used to A on the Xbox controller being jump that when it's B, that messes with me (yes I could/should have looked into switching that). Additionally, I didn't like the isometric opening level with it's fall to death platforming and would not have put up with it without save states. The next to last boss, your clone, was also crummy until I learned my own technique on how to deal with him after looking up a few others, my technique was actually better IMO.

Update on that X-Men game I played recently without sound... it was better without it.
I grabbed a couple more ROM versions and each one still lacked sound, so looked into it and found that I didn't have a GBA bios setup, oops. Got that and got sound, but unlike good games the sound is odd and bad. You get a music track starting from the initial logo screens for Marvel, Activision, etc and it doesn't change once the title screen comes up, nor if you let the idle screen saving video start. Then if you hit Start to enter into the menu, all sound goes away and there's none for navigating/interacting in/with the menus which caused me to think the audio died again. Still no sound selecting a character or the few pages of background info about the story. Finally music comes back for the opening in-level dialog btwn the characters, but no sound for them talking... then you get control of your character and the only sounds I heard was the robots going 'ah' when you defeat them, no cues for punches thrown nor landed, no cue for the 'Go' icon pushing you to advance, nor if you get hit, it's strangely just the music (which I noted the options let you turn off, ditto the sound). Rogue cried out when I let her die, but that was it, very odd, low budget feeling to it.
This felt so odd that I checked it some more and played briefly as all 4 characters. I could hear Storm's electricity and Wolverine's claws landing some of the time but nothing for grabs and barely anything from Cyclops. So I finally turned off the loud, overpowering and garbage music and as Rogue I could hear hits landed from her and on her (very quiet), but confirmed no sound for jumps, throws, the dash or even some of the hits. I reached the Blob with Storm and he had like 1 unique sound, but that was it, pretty lame.

@SupremeSarna I want to count this for You're Winner - the sound design is terrible and trying Rogue for 3 just screens was bad. I didn't notice it as much with Wolverine, maybe b/c he's a melee fighter or the missing sound, but as Rogue the controls are bad, the movement is rigid and slow and the game just feels like you're wadding through a bucket of crap. Rogue's strutting animation as she moves around was funny, saucy maybe, but her punching animation was rough. It felt like her arms were like a foot long as I couldn't seem to hit enemies and took a lot more damage vs. my full run with Logan. Storm was decent with her 4-5 hit combo making noise and seemingly doing well, but too often it was apparently weak enough that the robots weren't getting stunned and would get off a hit on her before her last strike that normally is an uppercut wind thing that knocks them down. Cyclops was almost hilariously bad, his arms/punches just might be shorter than Rogues and his heavy attack is a blast from his eyes that looked lame and was short ranged. Lastly his jump attack was the worst and he does a split and looks like a clown - reminded me of some of the Battletoads attacks.

I had initially thought of replaying this with the other 3 characters but after 'fixing' the sound and trying them for around a min each, complete pass. I see Metacritic has the game at a 61, but that feel generous. I pulled up a lets play video to see if they had better sound and to check some things deeper into the game and they kept the opening music into the menu, unlike me, so with that music on I couldn't hear any menu interaction sounds. Then I jumped further into levels and noticed that the 'ah' sound upon death that the initial robots would let out... was exactly the same for The Blob, Juggernaut, Gambit and just about any other foe - that's so lame and lazy. And the music tracks on later levels also sounded crummy and overpowering.

I beat spongebob truth or square on the xbox360

Golden Sun was April's Retro Game of the Month. Throwing yet another long game onto the 2023 pile, it took almost three months to finish. While I'm happy to have another non-Square RPG under my belt, the slow pacing and clunky puzzle system weren't my favorite, save for a couple of really well-crafted set pieces.

Number: 22
Full Title: Golden Sun
Platform Played: Game Boy Advance
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Game Boy Advance
Original Platforms: Game Boy Advance
Applicable Badge: Level Up! (2/2)

With my portable queue clear, I picked SaGa Frontier back up after experimenting with it at the end of last year. I'm still having a hard time making sense of it and seem to either be ridiculously overpowered or underpowered, regardless of what I'm fighting. I'll continue to attempt to crack it, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XVI continues to rock my socks. These boss battles are top notch.

I have two more clears (#51 and #52) that get me the Pile Drivin badge: The Death and Return of Superman and Final Fight on SNES (emulated on my Anbernic). This Anbernic has been great. I got it for just over $40 and paid another $12 for a higher quality card to hold my games and saves. It handles everything through PS1 in full color with no problems, is really lightweight, and fits in my pocket. Using the Garlic OS, everything is automatically sorted under graphical icons for each system. Also, I don’t have to select BIOS files separately each time I switch. I just select a system and a game and can play right away. Shortcut button presses for things like save states are easy to use on the fly. It’s the easiest emulation set-up I’ve ever used. The portability and ease of use have me using this more than my Steam deck and Switch for older games.

#53: Final Fight 2 (SNES, emulated on Anbernic), beaten using Maki (the only female character)
#54: Final Fight 3 (SNES, emulated on Anbernic), beaten using Lucia (the only female character)

These two get me the Girl Power badge.

11th of June, 45th overall, 14th
Ravenlok
Badge: earns me Girl Power, with Planet of Lana and Ravenlok
Alpha: already had, so 'for later'

Watched the review of this from ACG a while back and thought meh, looks kiddy but he liked so I figured I would at least try it. It was a fetch quester with some okay fighting that took me just over 4 hrs to 'platinum' as I found, bought and did all that the game asked me to. 6/10 would be my score, moving on to something else.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

I def wanna play these this year.

It was fun coming back to them. It had been awhile, and they’re still a blast.

ErickRPG wrote:

This one game is SO DIFFICULT… It really caught me off guard. I’ll probably beat it tonight, but hot dang is this a departure from what came before.

Updating... Please wait to post...

Update complete! With June now finished, we're halfway through the year. I hope it's been kind to you thus far. In that time, we've cleared a whopping 440 games! That's impressive, y'all. Here are a few stats and shoutouts:
-We cleared 66 games this month. That's not outstanding by any means, but it is better than May (58) and February (59).
-We earned 12 badges this month. Not shabby! That's less than March (16) and April (15), but still nothing to scoff at.
-@Bleed_DukeBlue passed 50 clears, getting him the second bacon badge on this forum. Congrats, sir!
-I beat 19 games in one month, with my first DLC clear of the year being one of them. What can I say, Pikmin 3 is worth playing the DLC for.
-@Slickriven has caught up to me in terms of systems beaten. Have at you, mate! I didn't adjust the cake badges, though, since I'm very close to finishing another system.

Let's keep the games going for the rest of the year!

@SupremeSarna I started a game on my 17th console tonight, I likely won't finish it for a few weeks, but it will be a target of mine in July, so I hope to get 17 complete soonish and now I might have to push to find another title on yet another system
Otherwise keep up the good work and thanks for the mid-year report.

Yikes. Been a while. I haven't played a game since early March.

razeak wrote:
Go ahead and play something. I’m always curious what people want to play at any given time.

1st of July, 46th overall, 2nd MAME
FInal Fight
Badge: Already have
Alpha: Earns me F, 5 left

I was actually looking to see if I had Bionic Commando in a few places for the RTT GotM and lastly looked at the Capcom Arcade Stadium on my XSX and while BC is in that package, I didn't have access to it. I did notice that they give you 1943 for free and I had apparently acquired Final Fight as well, but it wasn't downloaded... so I downloaded it and fired it up. I beat it back in '21 on the SNES but just got sucked in and beat it here. Since it's the arcade port and you literally play it on an arcade cabinet in the CAS application, I'm claiming as MAME vs. XSX or anything else. The arcade port seemed different as I didn't remember a few parts, but that's not really surprising as it's designed to eat quarters and well I used several. Game is cheap as a few times I revived, dropped into the fight, which knocks everyone down, and was out of health in like 5 seconds.
Oh well, it was still pretty fun and fast and earning F for my Alpha challenge was an unintended added bonus.

I beat Toy Story 3 on the xbox360 (beating this and spongebob truth or square gets me the bear and bird badge)

I toldya, @Slickriven : I beat my 17th console, and it was a real doozy. It turned out to be a twofer, as I had no idea some of the stages on the select screen were DLC in the original version. So here it is: LocoRoco Midnight Carnival and LocoRoco Midnight Carnival DLC .
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/q7hzVgk.jpg[/imgt]
[imgt w=2048 h=1536]https://i.imgur.com/Ot5PgHI.jpg[/imgt]

Have I got something to talk about here! This was a Halloween-themed (apparently) spin-off to LocoRoco 2 that was the last new release in the series. I quite enjoyed LocoRoco 1 a few months ago--the gameplay was a little unremarkable and lasted too long, but the rest of the experience was brilliant. Vivid colors, happy little characters, a seriously upbeat OST, and an alien language that just makes the world so memorable! So while I took a break from the series, I saw this one on the PS4 Days of Play sale for $7. How could I stay away?

One night, as the LocoRoco slept outside, the diabolical monsters mischievous pranksters known as the BuiBui rolled into town. They built their own extremely hazardous wacky theme park underground and abducted the LocoRoco! Now the LocoRoco must survive their tricks and traps in order to escape, all for their captors' sick amusement. But hey, at least the heroes will have a miserable fun time escaping!

I like that this game has a theme to it. We don't often get entire games that are going for a specific motif or holiday-feeling, so that's neat. This game also puts an emphasis on a new move, Boinging. If you keep bouncing consecutively, you'll maintain a colored trail, which gives you increased jump height and maneuverability. You need it to wall-jump, which is crucial in later stages, for example. That's a cool gameplay change.

I expected this to be a short romp through the LocoRoco world with a night backdrop. The PS Store only advertised 16 stages, so how long could it be? Initially, I was right: The stages were breezy and only occasionally tripped me up. But as it went on, the stage difficulty ratings started increasing dramatically. The game becomes like a Kaizo hack, littering spikes everywhere and forcing you to keep your balance atop tiny, spinning platforms. Want to use a checkpoint? Hope you have deep pockets, because every three attempts cost money, with the price rising if you need more attempts. I spent almost the entirety of today playing two stages! Dolangomeri 2 (final story stage) and BuiBui Fort 3 (final DLC stage) were agonizingly tough, rarely offering any health pickups and demanding precise wall-jumps around spiked corridors. Somehow three DLC stages lasted somewhere in the ballpark of 7 hours, with 6 of them going toward one stage.

I'm no stranger to challenge, but these two levels were so brutal that I nearly gave up. I ended up using the PS4's rewind feature to get through them, though I did go back and beat Dolangomeri 2 legitimately, and I only started rewinding in the second half of BuiBui Fort 3. Fun fact: The PS4 version of Dolangomeri 2 removes the checkpoint present in the delisted PSP version, so I had to start from the beginning almost 200 times. Simply maddening!
You can see these horrorshows for yourself here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RSViHPJnXY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwFF071_0wI

The first game might've been a little shallow in terms of gameplay, but at least everything came together to make a cozy game. This one is more a super game for super players, but loses a lot of the charm the series had as a result. After this, it's not surprising the franchise went dormant for 8ish years. I don't plan to replay this one.