52 Games. 1 Year. 2020.

5. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 18/01/2020

SotN is always going to be fantastic but losing the extremely cheesy voice acting in the PS4 version is a crime.

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10. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit - Awesome. Loved it. Even though its short it hit me right in the feels. Can not wait to crack on with LiS2. 4/5

11. The Stanley Parable - Straight up voice acted/mind controlled walk sim. Enjoyed it for what it was although it lasted mere minutes, I went back and replayed it in different ways. Think I got this in a humble bundle or something many moons ago. 3/5


On with The Last Door (Season 1) now and I've just played through the first episode and loved every second.

Here a recent purchase that I grabbed due to sounding interesting. Beatdown for the PS2.





Last pic doesn't do it justice since I can't really snap pictures in a beat em up without dying. Game pretty fun, reminds me of Yakuza at times with random people attacking you on the street while exploring a town. Do want to revisit this sometime.

5/52.


#5: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II (beaten 1/18/20) | Steam | 4/5 | 77 hours | Played with Whimsicalish
This is a video game about two travelers navigating through a civil war. One is looking for love and one has lost his memory. Oh wait..
I didn't "break" this game as I have read it is pretty easy to do since it was the first time I'd played it. I ran into some issues in some fights where they would be ridiculously hard and then the next dozen fights would be no problem. I liked this one a little better than the first one but they weren't THAT different. If you like the Trails games, this is another good entry. I am as caught up as I can be on these now (minus the Japanese only entries) and am looking forward to the third one coming out in March on Steam.

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05 | Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2

PC Steam | Jan 18th | 77 hrs | 4/5

Played the first game last year with Lobotomaxx side by side. We enjoyed picking different character to fight so we had slightly different play styles and special character scenes. I did enjoy this game over the first. The first was too repetitive. While this rpg is linear in direction, it felt more open. You have tons of items, orbments for magic and skills, and equipment to customize how you want to play.

They pushed more mech battles in this game than the first and I did not enjoy that gameplay. It felt uninspired. Just hit and heal over and over. It was either frustrating or not even a challenge. But the characters, voice acting, music, and story are wonderful. This was a memberable experience.

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First update, going to do 5 at a time



#1 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 7.5 PC - 14 hours
Feels like it needed a few more months in the oven, a lack of identity and technical bugs start to overshadow the simple but enjoyable story and combat

#2 Max Payne (Replay) 8.0 PC - 5 hours
Felt like blasting through this one again, as fun and difficult as ever. The quick load button got used more times than I would like to admit

#3 DUSK 8.5 PC - 8 hours
A year or so ago I played and loved the original Quake for the first time and this goes right into the same bracket. Fast, tight gameplay and quality level and sound design. I'm looking forward to the steam workshop integration to play more levels.

#4 Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls 7 PC - 1:40 hours
A very decent retro platformer/beat em up. Basically a mix of Mega Man and Shovel Knight, it's a bit easy but short enough to blast through in one sitting. Plus it's completley free.

#5 Into The Breach 9 Switch - 45+ hours
So I went into this not really knowing how much I'd like it and it ended up having me hooked to my Switch over Christmas. I think the game is pretty outstanding, just expertly designed mechanics. The unique aspect of minimizing your losses, making 200 IQ plays, unlocking all the achievements and the incentive for doing so.. it's just so addictive. the map designs are great, the all the classes have their advantages and disadvantages , playing and learning them all was a joy.

Got another update ready!

#5 Bloodborne – Completed 1/6/2020 PS4 – 26 hours
#6 Dragon Quest – Completed 1/7/2020 SNES – 10 hours
#7 Dragon Quest II – Completed 1/12/2020 SNES – 15 hours
#8 The Outer Worlds – Completed 1/18/2020 PC – 16 hours
#9 RiME – Completed 1/19/2020 PC – 4 hours

Bloodborne - I've had this on my backlog for nearly 5 years, and I bought it at launch... I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't get hooked back then. Well, since I went through DS3 and Demon's Souls last year, I figured it was high time that I finally played through Bloodborne, and I did. Great game, probably my second favorite behind Demon's Souls now.

Dragon Quest - Not much to say. It's the start of the series, and pretty simple. I enjoyed it, but I'm never touching it again.

Dragon Quest II - This is also pretty archaic, but when the game wasn't being too cryptic for its own good, I actually really enjoyed it! I probably liked it more than DQ1.

The Outer Worlds - New Vegas, in space. I enjoyed it, though it definitely felt too easy. Also, optimization is actual garbage for AMD cards. My laptop runs the game better than my desktop... ironic, considering the splash screen has AMD branding.

RiME - I remembered hearing that the game's PC version had some performance issues, but I didn't really see that in my playthrough. Besides some framepacing issues in the starting area, it seemed to be a locked 1440p/60 at max settings. I enjoyed it way more than I expected. Beautiful art, amazing soundtrack, and a great twist with the story at the end.

9. FEAR 2 Reborn


Short DLC campaign that involves Fettel as the primary story focus. Oddly enough he sounds like Mark Hamill :V

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#3 Judgment | 1/19/2020 - 25 hrs | 5/5
I finally got around to playing a Ryu Gotoku Studio game and wow, why did I wait so long. Amazing story, characters and environments. It makes me want to move the Yakuza games up on my backlog because I loved it so much.

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Gonna aim to finish up Braid tomorrow, because holy hell were some of these puzzle pieces a pain to get for me the first time I played it on PS3 XP
...or I could just say 'eff it' and just stop having gotten as many puzzle pieces as I have just now, hmm....

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Weekly Update 3:

No games finished this week, but made good progress in 2 of them and started a 3rd.

Death Stranding - Chapter 5 and about 30ish hours in.

Baldur's Gate - Also in Chapter 5. Think this will be the one I'm done with next.

Chrono Trigger - 1st playthrough in over a decade. 4 hours in.

PUNQ

Thanks for reminding me that SMB was on the switch online. I fancied a little platformer playthrough. Agreed with the rewind feature too!

Today game is Wave Race Blue Storm





Never played it back in the day but liked Wave Race on the N64 so I had to get this. Game pretty fun, I imagine I could easily finish this since it just a arcade racer.

Trying this year once again!

5. Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot (PSVR) - 4.5/10. This felt like a first-year PSVR "experience" that somehow tripped and fell into 2019. Super super basic as shooter, offers virtually no difficulty whatsoever and lasts like 90 minutes. I've had it rented for like 2 months but found it so dull I never finished it. Now I can send it back to Boomerang :)

11: Ninja Gaiden II. End: 1/19/2020. 11 Hours. Loved.

Ninja Gaiden II is a hot mess of a game, and I loved every moment of it. It has some of the best combat ever done in an action game. It is unpolished, to the point that I still can't believe they released it as is even back in 2008. And it is so much fun.

BPHusker said:

#3 Judgment | 1/19/2020 - 25 hrs | 5/5
I finally got around to playing a Ryu Gotoku Studio game and wow, why did I wait so long. Amazing story, characters and environments. It makes me want to move the Yakuza games up on my backlog because I loved it so much.

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I haven't played any of the Yakuza games, but I bought Judgement. I haven't played it yet. So it's fun to play without playing any of the other yakuza games?

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The January batch was getting unmanageably large, so I decided to dump it all and continue the rest of the month's games in another post.

January 2020 (Games 1-18)

1. 1 Screen Platformer
(1/1/2020, Steam)
Kicked off the new year with a completion, which has become tradition at this point. 1SP is a short but pretty enjoyable platformer that takes place on a single screen (a scrolling screen, with no transitions or levels). The three characters represent different playstyles – one for a vanilla time trial, the second requiring you to collect a special pickup to proceed (which increases the difficulty of the platforming, obviously), and the third requiring you to reveal 100% of the map (!!!), Symphony of the Night style, to unlock the exit. My first playthrough with all three characters was great fun! I attempted a fourth run in hard mode but the split second timing required to progress wasn't for me.

2. Rise of the Tomb Raider
(1/5/2020, Xbox Game Pass PC)
replay, previously beaten on Steam
Decided to quickly run through ROTR on Game Pass to refresh my Tomb Raider memory for an ongoing playthrough of the sequel, Shadow of the Tomb Raider (and to earn Xbox Live achievements, because I'm an idiot). It's still as good as I remember, although in hindsight the plot really falls apart near the end of the game, and it devolves into a fairly chaotic cover shooter, in the style of the crappier installments of the Uncharted series.

3. Wulverblade
(1/5/2020, Steam)
replay, previously beaten on NSW
Beat the Switch a few years back, got in the mood for a beat em up so fired up the Steam version, which I hadn't yet played. Wulverblade is gory and intense belt-action beat em up (read: Streets of Rage), but is often entirely too hard for its own good. Enemy AI is cheap as hell, and some of the later bosses are truly aggravating.

4. RefRain – prism memories
(1/5/2020, Steam)
A really good doujin shmup set in the insides of a computer, with the unique shtick being able to destroy enemy bullets using your ship's special ability (MEFA2). You get extra bits of plot for skilled play (told through "emails" sent on the in game messaging system). Note: Not recommended for people who aren't at the very least acclimated to modern bullet hell.

5. Donut County
(1/6/2020, Steam)
While I wasn't a fan of this game's dopey, "oh, look at me, I'm so random" humor, the gameplay is still quite fun while it lasts. Essentially, it's Katamari Damacy, but instead of a giant ball of crap you're playing as an ever expanding hole in the ground (sucking up smaller items makes the hole big enough to hoover up progressively larger pieces of junk). The game ends right at the sweet spot when its gimmick is about to wear thin - a solid game, certainly.

6. Raging Justice
(1/7/2020, Steam)
An intentionally low budget sidescrolling beat em up that plays like the game version of a D-Movie. Maybe the jankiest one I've ever played – but somehow it's not satisfying jank like the legendary Streets of Fury, this is your regular, appalling, poorly thought out jank. For some inexplicable reason, I somehow own this on both Steam and NSW. What the flying fuck, I need to stay away from the NSW sales tab.

7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered
(1/11/2020, PS4)
I have a soft spot for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as it was the first competitive multiplayer game I ever really got into on console. I only beat the campaign here though, and while some parts still stand out as great examples of mission design ("All Ghillied Up" is still fantastic), a lot of the other set pieces are a lot less impressive that they were in my memory. Maybe because the "FPS action movie" template made popular by West & Zampella has been iterated on by countless other titles since, including some from the COD franchise itself?

8. The Song of Saya
(1/11/2020, Steam)
I finally pushed myself to suffer through the remaining half of Song of Saya just to say that I finished it. Which is not to say that it's not good – it's an excellent horror/suspense visual novel, albeit one that's almost entirely devoid of a game component (there are only two choices total in the entire game, from my recollection). But it's just so heavy to push through – the most brutal, nihilistic visual novel I've ever played, by a long shot. I thoroughly enjoyed what I played, but I'm never launching this game again.

9. Way of the Passive Fist
(1/11/2020, Steam)
A curious beat em up in which you can't attack your enemies directly; you can only parry their attacks, Street Fighter III style, then gently push them over when they've tired themselves out. It's very enjoyable, and you can customize the difficulty of various parts of the game to your liking (You want a more lenient parry window? More health pickups and checkpoints?) to get the perfect difficulty. This game gets pretty hard if you're not a parrying vet though, I've played more than my share of Third Strike and the back half of WotPF was kinda rough.

10. Soul Calibur VI
(1/11/2020, Steam)
Another late completion - I bought this at launch but only managed to power through the story campaign now (I spent most of my time playing online, and in the CAC "RPG" mode). While SC6 is one of my personal favorite entries in the series (and definitely my favorite fighting game of the last couple of years), I must say that the single player content is some of the dullest stuff I've ever been forced to trudge through. Bamco seems to be acknowledging that the single player stuff brings people in, but they definitely went with quantity over quality here. So much of the story content feels slapped together to pad out the playtime, and by the end I was skipping over 100% of the story vignettes as it wasn't worth slogging through the boring "stories" just to view the (admittedly glorious) cutscene art.

11. Subsurface Circular
(1/11/2020, Steam)
replay, previously beaten on NSW
A very strange, short adventure game by Mike Bithell (of Thomas Was Alone fame), in which you play as a detective robot who is embedded in a subway train seat. You investigate a central mystery by questioning and interacting with the various other (mobile) robots who get on and off at each station. Exceedingly well written, and ends at just the right time.

12. Karateka
(1/12/2020, Steam)
A modernized remake on the old Jordan Mechner proto-beat em up (with the added bonus of, uh, also having been developed by Jordan Mechner). You get three "lives" to battle through a gauntlet of enemies, each life being represented by the three suitors trying to save the Japanese princess - the first being her true love (a "Prince Charming" archetype), and the last being some thug who fancies her. It's fairly rote and inoffensive, with its greatest sin being an overreliance on countering enemy attacks; essentially, the entire game is successfully reading and parrying enemy strings, then mashing attack to deal damage until they start blocking. I still had fun, though, and it's dirt cheap.

13. Assemble With Care
(1/14/2020, iOS)
A completely touch-screen based game about the simple joy of disassembling broken stuff and fixing it, wrapped up in a warm, if fairly cliché plot. This was absolutely worth playing, give this a shot if you've got Apple Arcade.

14. Caladrius Blaze
(1/14/2020, Steam) - replay, previously beaten on PS4
One of my favorite shmups ever, Caladrius Blaze offers an amazing amount of replayability - like 9 characters, each with their own suite of special moves and regular shots, 3 different modes (original, arrange, and arcade), and heavily customizable difficulty (the game is as easy or as hard as you want it to be, and makes an ideal entry point for shmup beginners). Fair warning that the game has some pervy content (you can "break" the clothes off the mostly female boss pilots by skilled play, all strictly PG-13), but otherwise Caladrius Blaze comes highly recommended.

15. Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition
(1/18/2020, NSW)
I want to say I love everything about Hyrule Warriors, but I can't – my biggest sore spot with this game, and the main reason why it's taken me this long to finally clear out the campaign, is that the large-size bosses are tedious and have entirely too much HP. They feel shoehorned into the game – think a regular 3D Zelda boss, with all the pattern watching and item using that requires, then drop them into an engine unsuited for such boss battles, and quadruple the HP. Aside from this one tedious point, HWDE is a really excellent game with a fun OST, and as much replay value as you can tolerate (thanks to the Adventure mode, which is definitely not for me). Switch portable performance is very solid.

16. The World Next Door
(1/18/2020, NSW)
A strange combo of narrative adventure/mild RPG elements with a quirky take on match three gameplay. I actually enjoyed the tropey plot somewhat (human from the present day gets locked away in an alternate universe, works to return to "our" Earth using the help of her outworlder friends) , and the combat is pretty entertaining - you can switch match three symbols around the board and trigger combos to attack your enemies, the catch is you're doing all of it by moving your character around the game board yourself. It's the indie game version of a McDonalds meal – cheap, reasonably satisfying, while not being particularly "outstanding" in any way.

17. Parascientific Escape: Cruise in the Distant Seas
(1/18/2020, 3DS)
This short adventure game is like a really, really bad Zero Escape, that is somehow even more anime. That about describes it; the post game epilogue has the saccharine lead characters threatening a sequel (which is probably already out, as this is a pretty old game), which I'll be sure to keep an eye out for (so I can stay far away from it).

18. Gekisou!BenzaRace-ToiletShootingStar-
(1/19/2020, Steam)
I've played a lot of middling to bad games for previous years' editions of the 52 Games challenge, in the name of clearing the crap out of my backlog. But this – this – just might be the worst game I've ever "completed".

Take note – I came in wanting to like the game, because it's a game about people racing around on flying toilets while taking a dump. The idea was solid enough for me to buy it sight unseen, clearly. But it's just execrable, complete shit.

The UI is barely functional and looks like it was made in Visual Basic. The screen is extremely busy at the best of times. The camera sucks. The AI is completely braindead, and appears to be screwing up on purpose to let you catch up (either that, or they're getting caught up on the extremely awful course design. The handling of your magical flying toilet vehicle is atrocious. The game is so buggy I've clipped into the back of the roadside scenery on several occasions, and become unable to continue. I managed to tolerate enough of it to finish every course just to say I did (placing first every time, naturally, despite running into every possible roadside ornament and falling into every possible lake). I could go on and on about how much I hated this game, but I'll stop here for my mental health.

#10: Nioh (1/19/2020) | 9/10 | PS4 | ~ 26.5 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall - 9| Aggregate of 4 components below. Decimal rounded up or down by personal bias.
Gameplay - 9.2| Game is so slick and I love the dodge feeling. Tons of enemy variety as well
Sound -8 | Hit or miss, has some good stuff and some wonky stuff. Not main driving force for game.
Story/Online - 8| Story is okay (Cool to see real histroical people). Levels are hit or miss but overall solid foundation
Asking Price- 9.67| NG+ offers great replaybility as well as variety of end game things to do.

TheUnseenTheUnheard said:

I haven't played any of the Yakuza games, but I bought Judgement. I haven't played it yet. So it's fun to play without playing any of the other yakuza games?

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Judgement is awesome and is completly new cast of characters from the Yakuza series. The main city is the same (And in itself is a character throughout the series) but I wouldn't feel like you had to play other games before this one! (But play the others one day :) )

Bosh said:

Judgement is awesome and is completly new cast of characters from the Yakuza series. The main city is the same (And in itself is a character throughout the series) but I wouldn't feel like you had to play other games before this one! (But play the others one day :) )

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Wow thats awesome thanks! I'll likely try to play the other games after.

10. Prototype


This got hella frustrating from the mid game onwards due to the chaotic nature of enemies; there would be way too many enemies attacking you to the point that you can barely counteract properly.
While the traversal of flying and running along buildings is neat, the overall combat and missions got annoying in due time.
Didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped but this is one game that is best played on Easy due to how frustrating the late game gets.

Update 4!

This took longer than expected!



16. Sparklite (PC) | 12th Jan - 11hrs | 4/5 | 100% Completion

Prior knowledge:

The positives:

The negatives:




17. Descenders (PC) | 13th Jan - 4hrs | 4/5 | Career Mode Beaten

Prior knowledge:

The positives:

The negatives:




18. PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond (Wii) | 14th Jan - 20hrs | 2/5 | 100% Completion

Prior knowledge:

The positives:

The negatives:




19. Batman: The Telltale Series (PC) | 16th Jan - 9hrs | 3/5 | Story Completion

Prior knowledge:

The positives:

The negatives:




20. Batman: The Enemy Within (PC) | 18th Jan - 9hrs | 3/5 | Story Completion

Prior knowledge:

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12: Batman: The Telltale Series. End: 1/20/2020. 10 Hours. Liked.

I thought this was a pretty interesting take on the Batman mythos as a longtime casual fan of the franchise. But it suffers from the same problems as a lot of other Telltale games.

1. Katamari Re-roll - Somehow I've gone my whole life without playing the original Katamari. I really enjoyed it all of the main stages were really fun, though I wasn't the biggest fan of the constellation stages. I loved OST as well. I've had it on repeat ever since I finished the game.

2. Mario + Rabbids - I started this game a back when it launched but I never got around to finishing it. It's surpisingly good the gameplay is engaging and the characters are all very charming. I legitimetly laughed at some of the interactions they had. Also
3. A Hat in Time / End: 1-20-2020 - A bit shorter than I expected but enjoyable all the way through. Platforming is solid, I really enjoyed the different hat abilites and I really enjoyed the characters, they're all so loveable. I was really surprised with how much I enjoyed the boss battles. None of them were especially hard but I could feel my heart pumping at the end of every boss fight. This is another game that had a great OST. I can see myself listening to it in the coming weeks.

Currently Playing

• Tokyo Mirage Sessions
• Death Stranding
• Hellblade

6. Kind Words (PC) - Technically this game doesn't have an end point, but I unlocked every sticker you can get from other players, which is the closest thing the game has to anything "complete." Took me about 2 hours of play spread over a week.

11. Emerald City Confidential


A PnC game set in the world of Oz with many of the main characters of the series used for its story. The game follows Petra a private investigator in Emerald City who searching for a missing person which leads her to discovering a dangerous threat to the Emerald City.

It's a pretty basic PnC with hardly any puzzles, being more about talking to characters, then using the right item with the right object or person in order to progress. I still enjoyed replaying it though I can't guarantee it'll be for anyone as it has pretty basic animations for one thing and is pretty basic as I wrote.
Non the less it is a nice little adventure game IMO. Would be nice to have a sequel at least

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The Last Door - Season 1. This has been in my library for ages and I finally got into it and loved every second. An excellent pixelated point and click horror adventure. Really recommended. 4/5

I was redoing my gaming setup yesterday so I had no time to play anything while my systems were all unplugged so I moved January20th game today along with the 21th (of course posted on the 22th lol).





January 20th was Karnov for the NES. I honestly want to play more of this game. It not great, but there something charming about this fatman.




And January 21 was Donkey Kong 64. I must admit, I like this game. I did everything for it when I was a kid, and I found myself not wanting to stop tonight.

6/52


#6: Pokemon Shield (beaten 1/21/20) | Nintendo Switch | 2/5 | 32.5 hours | Played alongside Whimsicalish who played Pokemon Sword
I haven't played a Pokemon game since Pokemon Diamond/Pearl years ago and got sucked into the excitement of this title. I always had problems with the older Pokemon games because I wanted to "catch them all", the catch phrase tells you to! I was unimpressed with the lack of voice acting and the significant pop in that I didn't think would bother me as much as it did. The last like 4-6 hours of the game really dragged on. After I beat the unbeatable champion, I went back into the forest to try to catch the legendary Pokemon on the cover of the game and got accosted by two maniacs with sword and shield shaped hair. I had seen enough of this game by that point since I technically had beaten it and stopped. I am glad I played and beat it but will not be playing the expansion pass or whatever they just announced for it.

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06 | Pokemon Sword

Switch | Jan 21 | 32 hrs | 3/5

Another Pokemon game, what is there really to say? The park area is pretty cool. You're able to see Pokemon wander around, even if they're levels above you. It was fun fighting "dungeons" with friends. I like seeing the new Pokemon designs. Always interesting to see what they come up with for the area.

The story is whatever. Stuff doesn't really happen until the very end so...yay? It was fun at first and then kinda started to drag on. Nothing really new about it. Beat this gym, go to the next city and repeat. One city was literally an alley way with nothing in it but the gym leader.

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12. G-Force


Pretty decent action game, but could've benefited from being shorter because by the time I reached the final area in the game, I felt like the game's already exhausted all it show gameplay-wise.
Non the less i was quite surprised with how well it is for a licensed title. There's some light puzzle solving and platforming and the shooting and melee combat is competent for the most part.
I should've played this on Easy as some enemies do take a few hits to die but aren't necessarily a major inheritance.

Second set of 5 for the year. Full list here.

6. Pikmin (GameCube) | 11th Jan - 3.5hrs | 5/5


Pikmin is one of my favorite game series of all time, and one that influenced me a lot growing up. I love all three Pikmin games in their own ways, but Pikmin 1 is my favorite to just jump into and play through real quick. Every time I play through this game I get a little better at it, this time I used bomb rocks a lot more and ended up accepting that some pikmin would die. I ended up finishing in 13 days which I was very happy with considering it's been a little while.

7. Can Your Pet? (Web Browser) | 16th Jan - 10mins | 2/5


I played this one because of that "Images that precede unfortunate events" twitter account. I mean it is what it is. I'm not a huge fan of it but it's for a good cause so it gets a 2/5.

8. Makyō Densetsu (PC Engine) | 17th Jan - 3hrs | 5/5


The greatest hidden gem of all time. This was a launch game for the TurboGrafx-16, but it's one of the best 2D action games I've played this side of Castlevania NES. It checks every box- good controls, good music, amazing graphics and vibes, and satisfying hits. The first time you get the level 4 axe power-up and use it is memorable as all hell. I can't recommend this game enough, it's just really really satisfying and it isn't long if you want to try it yourself.

9. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (Playstation) | 18th Jan - 5hrs | 3/5


Klonoa is a bit of a cult classic from what I understand, and it's easy to see why. I like the story book vibes and a few levels are really cool the way they fold in on themselves. It's not my favorite 2D platformer though, it goes on a little too long and some chapters are much worse than others. The bosses and story are pretty bad as well. But all in all it's a pretty unique game that's worth a playthrough.

10. Sea World: Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures (Nintendo DS) | 22nd Jan - 2hrs | 3/5


What a journey. You start off as Shamu at SeaWorld during the normal routine for your human trainer. It's a pretty standard tutorial. Then BAM! All the humans? Dead. They don't come back. Ever. SeaWorld? Destroyed. By the Mad God Poseidon and his minion the Kraken. Suddenly a manatee named Horatio is telling you he's spent the most of the past 300 years of his life guarding hiding sacred tablets from Poseidon in Sea World. This game is like objectively bad, just a crappy 2D DS game, but it's just an all killer no filler emotional journey. Highly recommended.

Master Post edited. 13/52.

13. What Remains of Edith Finch - Feels like I've had this in my backlog for a long time and I sure am glad I finally played through it. Only took a couple of hours but really did enjoy every second. 4/5

Here we gooooooo:

1) Jedi: Fallen Order
This is one of the better Star Wars games. There are some things that I wish they would tidy-up though (like the backtracking) in the sequel. I would recommend for any Star Wars fan.
2) Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Interesting mix with Platinum's action formula with some Metal Gear story craziness and items thrown in. Really fun stylish action game that any fan of the genre should play
3) Assassin's Creed 2
I didn't play any of the Ezio games (or III or Rogue) from last gen. This is now one of my favorite AC games and I had more fun with this game than many of the current gen games I've played. A really good game
4) Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Expands on what they laid in in AC2 and made a lot of really interesting sidequest stuff. I enjoyed the Sideq content as much or more than the main game
5) Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
This game is a typical 16-bit side-scrolling beat-em-up. It gave me a lot of Golden Axe vibes as I was playing it.
6) Steam World Dig
Rather short Metroidvania game. I'm a fan of the genre so I enjoyed the game, but it doesn't do anything to set itself apart from a somewhat crowded field of games in said genre.
7) Forza Horizon 4
This game doesn't have a typical "end race" like previous Forza Horizon games so counting it as done after putting in 15+ hours and doing all the showcases. Really great game and will play the expansions as I'm sure they will deliver.
8) My Friend Pedro
Games like this is another reason to love GamePass. I'm not for sure if I would have played this game if it wasn't for GamePass and I would have missed out on a great game.
9) Detroit: Almost Human
Not a pick fan of *my name for this type of game* interactive movie games, but this one I enjoyed a lot. Feels like your choices actually have some weight unlike other similar games *cough* TellTale *cough* and the story was pretty well done.
10) GRIS
Relaxing game to play for a few hours. Also am a big fan of the art style. Would recommend to anyone wanting to just sit and chill with a game for a bit.
11) Outer Worlds
Was really into this game for about 15 hours then it started to wear on me just a tad. At that point decided to go ahead and just blow through the main story quests to finish the game. I do like how there were often multiple options to complete quests and if you built your skills the right way and choose to find other means, you could complete much of the game without much aggression.
12) Assassin's Creed Revelations
Completed the Ezio Trilogy as I clean up the remaining AC games I haven't played. Even got the platinum trophies on all three (which is a big deal for me as i have very few plats) as I thoroughly enjoyed all three games. I went into Revelations with tempered expectations as I heard a lot of negativity towards the game, but it's a damn good game.
13) Street Fighter 3 - Third Strike
Street Fighter has always been my favorite fighting series ever since SFII came to the SNES. That said, I never wound up playing SFIII - any iteration of it - until now. It did not disappoint. One of the best 2D fighting games I've played.
14) KH: Dream Drop Distance
Really loved the game play with this and ever iteration of the main games I've played in the series so far keeps improving from the previous. Storywise, this game completely lost me by introducing time travel into the mix. The series overall story is complicated as it is, esp with the soft retcons, without adding this in. Oh well - still a great game.
15) Mortal Kombat 11
My second favorite fighting series and wow this entry was great! As primarily a single player gamer, this game delivers in spade the amount of content for someone like me.
16) Darksiders Genesis
Confession - I own Darksiders 1 and 2 but have never played, this is the first one I played even though it's a spin-off that's is very different than the mainline games (from what I've read). This is a short but fun Diablo-style dungeon crawler. The difficulty spikes with some of the bosses, esp the final boss, is pretty damn annoying though and held it back in my eyes.
17) Mario + Rabbids
Really fun take on the Mario franchise. I was kinda meh on the game until the 2nd world then everything started to click and I really enjoyed myself with it.
18) Assassin's Creed III
This game was a bit of a let-down after the amazing Ezio trilogy. That said I do respect them for trying to add different aspects to the game in order to spice up the formula.
19) Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Great Metroidvania. I loved the first Ori and since this is very similar - loved this one too. The artstyle of these two games is beautiful. The combat is better than the first but still a weakness to the game. The platforming is still superb.
20) Tyranny of King Washington
I will count this DLC as one of my completed "games" since it took me about 5-6 hours to go through all of it. It's basically a "what-if" version of ACIII with some cool powers thrown into the mix. People who liked ACIII will probably like this and those that didn't.....won't.
21) Resident Evil 3 Remake
RE2Make was probably my GOTY last year and this one shows that Capcom keeps delivering. OG RE3 was one of my least favorite RE titles (outside of 6), but I love this remake. I'm not a big platinum trophy chaser, but I had too for this game as I enjoyed playing it so, so much
22) Baldur's Gate
This was my first traditional CRPG. I had to tone the difficulty down as I struggled a big with the concepts and mechanics. Once I did that, I rather enjoyed the game for what it was.
23) Kingdom Hearts 0.2 - A Fragmentary Passage.
I've been playing through the series and now I'm finally at the last step before 3. Really short game with the similar basic BBS gameplay.
24) Ys - Memories of Celceta
Ys has become one of my go-to series of games on the Vita. I had never played a Ys game before playing Books 1 and 2 a couple of years ago. Now I've beaten a total of 4 of them and really enjoy to keep pushing through this series.
25) Donut County
Really fun game. It's short, but i feel it's the perfect length for this game as to not to overstay it's welcome.
26) Final Fantasy VII Remake
Wow. Such a great job here by SquareEnix. How they are handling this remake from both the gameplay design (though I'm hoping the SSD on the PS5 will help with the loading times :) ) to handling the story is awesome. That's not to say the game is perfect, because it's not - e.g. forced walking/load times, some of the chapters drag on unnecessarily - but it's still a great package and a must for FF fans.
27) Assassin's Creed Rogue
Still working my way through this series. This feels very much like Black Flag - which is a good thing. I appreciate how the story shows that there can be subtleties between good/evil and there are a lot of shades of gray.
28) Streets of Rage 4
PLayed this on GamePass. If you played 2 or 3, this is pretty much similar. It's a nice throwback game, just don't expect anything revolutionary.
29) Ghostbusters Remastered
Originally started the PS3 version, but dropped it at the 2nd level. If you are a fan of Ghostbusters, this is a must-game as the story is solid and a nice sequel to the movie. IMO if you don't have that fanhood (or unfamiliar with the movies), I would pass as the gameplay isn't the best and the equivalent to bulletsponge enemies that get tiresome. The game is fairly short though which is good given the design.
30) The Division 2
I felt this was a great improvement over the first Division game (which I liked). As far as the looter-shooter genre goes, I still like Destiny 2 better, but this was fun to play. I'm interested in doing more of the endgame stuff, but have a healthy collection of games I haven't touched yet so may have to pass.
31) Soldier Blade
Just got my Turbografx 16 mini and this was the first game I completed on it. Wow it's a great game, but damn was it ever difficult. I will admit I had to "scum-save" the last stage in order to beat the game. Anyone that beat it straight-up back in the day had to be a tremendous player and I tip my hat to them.
32) Mega Man Zero
Never played any of the Zero games before so bought the collection on sale at the eShop. Really glad I did. Great MM style game with differences that freshen up the formula. Really looking forward to playing more in the series.
33) Rondo of Blood
The Turbografx 16 mini has me on a retro kick and the next game I went with on that console was the Castlevania game I always wanted to play but never did. It did not disappoint me whatsoever. As a big classic 'Vania fan, this is the pinnacle of that style of Castlevania. Played through as Richter, will have to play again as Maria
34)Yakuza Kiwami
This is only the second Yakuza game I played (started with 0) and found it very similar and my taste for it similar. Really, really enjoy the story and will dabble in the side content, but there is just too much of it and the gameplay doesn't grip me enough to go overboard on all the side content. That said, I love the stories of Yakuza games so far and will continue with the series.
35) Mega Man
I have had this for a long time but never put in enough time until now to complete it. The Zero collection got me back into Mega Man games so finally finished it. Pretty tough game, but still holds up well 30+ years later.
36) Mega Man X
Another game that I've had for a long time and never finished. Definite improvement over the NES Mega Man games (I have only played 1 and 2 so far) so this was a treat coming off the original Mega Man. Sigma's fortress was a big difficulty spike IMO and threw me for a loop for a long time.
37) Gunstar Heroes
Still on my retro kick, I fired up my Genesis mini. I had heard a lot of great WoM regarding this game. It was all true. A great 16-bit sidescrolling shooter. If you like Contra games or Metal Slug games, you should try this game.
38) World of Illusion
Stuck with the Genesis mini and tried this game out. I was very surprised by how much fun it was. Easy, which is a good thing considering the market it was going for, but still a fun romp.
39) Modern Warfare Remastered
I bought the MW2 remastered campaign and decided to play through this (i got it with Infinite Warfare but never played) as I hadn't played it since COD4 first came out on the X360. Still one of the best FPS campaigns of all time and a great remaster IMO.
40) R-Type
Amazing shmup but there is zero chance I could have finished this without save states and "save-scumming" Brilliant game, but the design to suck quarters in an arcade machine is very evident especially in the 2nd half of the game.
41) Blazing Lazers
Another TG16 shmup and another fun one. This game reminded me a lot of Soldier Blade but quite a bit easier (or my skills improved after R-Type lol).
42) Modern Warfare 2 Remaster
I had never played MW2 before so this was a completely novel experience for me. This was a great FPS game. There are a few COD campaigns I enjoyed more (COD4, MW, IW mainly) this is still a top tier experience.
43) Contra Hard Corps
I never got into Contra back in the day so playing through the Contra Collection has been a blast for me. I enjoyed this probably more than Contra III, but both are extremely good.
44) Operation C
For a OG Gameboy game, this is pretty solid. Classic Contra gameplay and wasn't just a remix/rehash of NES games which a lot of games did during that time. Worth a playthrough on the collection if you like the other games.
45) Mega Man 3
Going through the Mega Man collection as I had only played MM2 originally. This is the game that many consider the pinnacle of the OG MM series. It really is a fantastic game and has a lot of content for the NES MM game series. I still like MM2 more due to the level and boss designs, but I completely understand why so many consider this one the best.
46) Gradius
Still in my retro kick, I played through Gradius on the TG-16 mini for the first time. While I realize the historical significance of this game, I feel that there are plenty of better shmups out there to spend your time with unless you are a huge fan of the genre.
47) Air Zonk
Sticking with TG-16 shmups, this one is quite fun but very, very tough. If it wasn't for save-states there is zero chance I could have finished it. It's a fun take on shmups as it's very colorful and has goofy characters, etc.
48) Metro Exodus
I have mixed feelings on this game. I enjoyed the first two Metro games, but not a huge fan of them. That said, this doesn't feel like a Metro game and I didn't like it as much. About the only thing that carried over was the stealth option aspect. The story is vastly different as well as the atmosphere, etc. It's a beautiful game though esp on XBX/Pro
49) Mario Lost Levels
Ugh, this game is okay, but a step down from SMB1 and not as fun as US SMB2. Probably my least favorite Mario game ever.
50) Donkey Kong 94
Wow, this was a fantastic game. It's a puzzle(-lite) platformer which is a genre I don't do well in or particularly enjoy, but this was so much fun. I had a blast playing it and picked up Mario vs. Donkey Kong due to it. Has aged extremely well for an OG Gameboy game
51) Kirby's Dreamland
I had never played any Kirby game before. The game is not bad, but not great either. I suspect this might be a combination of being the initial game in the series as well as the hardware limitations of the Gameboy. It's good enough though I'm going to try other games in the series.
52) Blazing Chrome
With my retro infatuation, I wanted to play this modern retro-style game before it left gamepass. Really awesome game that is in the Mold of Contra/Metal Slug. Looks like a 16-bit game which is an aesthetic I'm very fond of.
53) Mass Effect 2
Such as step up from the previous Mass Effect game. I enjoyed ME1 and thought it was very good, but this blows it out of the water. Just a fantastic game that I truly believe anyone should try.

6. Resident Evil 0 (PS4) Jan 22 12 Hrs ★★★★
Quite enjoyed RE0. By adding a buddy though, certainly made game less creepy than 1. Puzzles were much easier too. I actually appreciated that. And much more ammo than 1 too. Appreciated that too.

First 5 down, hope I can keep this up. I can see my backlog visibly shrinking already.
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1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS4) 70 hours, Jan 6
This was supposed to be a quick replay but I did it on nightmare mode without NG+ and decided to stick with it. Not the greatest idea really, I still need to replay Cold Steel 2 and then play through Zero and Azure so my copy of Cold Steel 3 will remain sealed a few more months it seems. It'll be worth it in the end I hope, I want my CS3 experience to be the best one possible.



2. Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition (PC) 8 hours, Jan 12
It seems the game isn't that bad now with all the updates it has gotten. Unfortunately I don't care for much of the roster. My favorite Street Fighter character (Makoto) isn't here and probably won't make it in so I'm ok with just doing the story content and dropping it. Hope SF6 interests me more.



3. Sakura Wars (Sega Saturn) 30 hours, Jan 19
I've always wanted to play this, thank god it got a fan translation. It's a pretty great adventure game with some strategy mixed in. The battles could get really slow and drag on without any way to skip animations and such though so I'm eager to try the PS4 game. If that one doesn't have an annoying child character like this one then it's instantly better.



4. Soul Calibur VI (PC) 10 hours, Jan 20
Haven't played one of these since Soul Calibur 2 on the gamecube. This feels really hard to learn for some reason. The inputs are simpler than other fighting games but there are so many moves that it just feels like you're button mashing at some point. The singleplayer content was enough for me, unfortunately I don't have hundreds of hours to dedicate to a single game so I can learn how to play it properly.

I absolutely love the character creation. I usually ignore characters if they are visually unappealing, not even giving their playstyle a chance. Now I can just make a good looking character and use their weapon on my own character. More fighting games need to do this.



5. Yakuza Kiwami (PC) 12 hours, Jan 22
I started playing this the moment it came out on PC. Coming from Yakuza 0 I was immediately turned off by how the combat got worse so I've been putting this one off for a long time now. The story and side activities are just as great as Yakuza 0 though so once I got far enough into it I couldn't put it down.

Today game is Mutant League Football.





Must admit, I am not a sports person and I am terrible at this game, but I love it as a kid for the ability to kill the other players and the ref...and it still fun to do that today.

6. Resident Evil 4 - 22/01/2020

I want to make a thread about this so I'll just say it's a literal perfect video game and leave it at that.

13. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed


Man why do I keep playing these games on Normal? Decided to revist this old game and while it got tedious late game on Normal, I still think it holds up fine. Sure some areas are re used like the later half of the game, but otherwise it is fun to use the Force Grip to throw enemies around among other things.

#4 Blood and Truth | 1/21/2020 - 5 hrs | 4/5
I finally played Blood and Truth after hearing so much about it. It was a damn fun time when it worked correctly. As I played, it seemed to drift and it became hard to switch guns and reload using natural motion. I really enjoyed it and hope the sequel uses an eventual PSVR2 with better sensors.

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Master Post edited. 15/52.

14. Sky Force Reloaded - Love a good shmup game but the grind in this to upgrade gets rather tedious. Picked it up in the steam sale for under £2 so I'd say I got my moneys worth. 2/5

15. Super Mario Bros - Original on the Switch online stuff. Some of the later levels get rather difficult (annoying). To be honest I never remember actually completing this as a kid because we pumped so many hours into 3 instead. Glad I got back through it. Aiming to complete 2 and 3 again soon. 3/5.

Today (23rd) game is Dragon Quest Rocket Slime.





Fun little game where you save your trapped slime friends leading up to a big fight in a tank. Game is great and I should try the fan translation on the 3DS game.

4. Spiderman (PS4) - Easily one of the best open world games I've played, the world is so well realised. The traversal as Spiderman is so addictive, I rarely used the fast travel even if I had to travel the other end of the map! The fighting is also excellent, the acting in the game is brilliant and I liked this version of Spiderman and the other characters.

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14. Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise


One of the last Humongous Entertainment games' children oriented adventure games they made. A rather solid little game, with a few puzzles and mini games to engage in, though the biggest oddity in this game is the lack of Subtitles.
I at least like how this game comes a bit 'full circle' with the duo's relationship, as Putt-Putt celebrates Pep's birthday as the day they first met in the very first game, d'awwwww X3

15. Bone: Out from Boneville


Some of Telltale's early output wasn't all that good, this being among them. The voice acting feels flat and while a simple game that could appeal to younger players, it just doesn't evoke the same charm and charisma that the comic series has.

07 | Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Switch | Jan 24 | ~20 hrs | 4/5

By far the best part of this game was the turn-based tactical battles. You have customization between the characters. Luigi is styled as a long-range sniper while Peach is close range with a shotgun and healing capabilites.) You can level up with a skill tree and upgrade their weapons.

There's secrets and challenges to collect. One area caused graphic glitches; too much was moving on the screen and created pop up textures and objects. Thankfully I closed the game and it fixed itself. I did not care for the "puzzles" between the fights. It was either too easy to solve or trial and error. Not really fun for me.

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Snowfruit said:

First 5 down, hope I can keep this up. I can see my backlog visibly shrinking already.
Main post



1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS4) 70 hours, Jan 6
This was supposed to be a quick replay but I did it on nightmare mode without NG+ and decided to stick with it. Not the greatest idea really, I still need to replay Cold Steel 2 and then play through Zero and Azure so my copy of Cold Steel 3 will remain sealed a few more months it seems. It'll be worth it in the end I hope, I want my CS3 experience to be the best one possible.

2. Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition (PC) 8 hours, Jan 12
It seems the game isn't that bad now with all the updates it has gotten. Unfortunately I don't care for much of the roster. My favorite Street Fighter character (Makoto) isn't here and probably won't make it in so I'm ok with just doing the story content and dropping it. Hope SF6 interests me more.

3. Sakura Wars (Sega Saturn) 30 hours, Jan 19
I've always wanted to play this, thank god it got a fan translation. It's a pretty great adventure game with some strategy mixed in. The battles could get really slow and drag on without any way to skip animations and such though so I'm eager to try the PS4 game. If that one doesn't have an annoying child character like this one then it's instantly better.

4. Soul Calibur VI (PC) 10 hours, Jan 20
Haven't played one of these since Soul Calibur 2 on the gamecube. This feels really hard to learn for some reason. The inputs are simpler than other fighting games but there are so many moves that it just feels like you're button mashing at some point. The singleplayer content was enough for me, unfortunately I don't have hundreds of hours to dedicate to a single game so I can learn how to play it properly.

I absolutely love the character creation. I usually ignore characters if they are visually unappealing, not even giving their playstyle a chance. Now I can just make a good looking character and use their weapon on my own character. More fighting games need to do this.

5. Yakuza Kiwami (PC) 12 hours, Jan 22
I started playing this the moment it came out on PC. Coming from Yakuza 0 I was immediately turned off by how the combat got worse so I've been putting this one off for a long time now. The story and side activities are just as great as Yakuza 0 though so once I got far enough into it I couldn't put it down.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Love your Polaroids with your screenshots! Very creative. 5 down, you're on your way. :)

First attempt at this! Claiming my spot.

Currently Playing:
Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)
Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5)

7. Deponia (PS4) Jan 24 6 Hrs ★★
Deponia was not that good. Pretty unlikeable protagonist. Only a few chuckles throughout. Some of the ways to move forward were over done. I'll play the sequel because I already own it but if it doesn't improve I'll skip 3 and 4.