So you're in the last third of the game, you should really go back to it and finish it (you must have like.. 2 hours left before the credits).
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52 Games. 1 Year. 2019.
- Thread starter Wozzer
- Start date
Definitely will this week. Thanks for the reminder about this. I think I hit a part with light platforming, couldn't figure out where to go and then got busy and sidetracked.
I think I know where you might be stuck, but in doubt search the mission on youtube, if it is what I think it is, it's an hidden path.
Also, enjoy that last mission, it's a fucking ride.
1. Fallout:
A game I had started 3 years ago as part of Classic game of the Month I used to do with PlayerC90 a while ago. Back then I started it but I kinda just stopped playing almost right away. At first I didn't really what to do, everything was slow, leaving the cave at the start was tedious with all the rats trying to get me so I kinda just gave up right away. I decided to pick it up again because Fallout is a franchise with a lot of history behind it so I thought it would be fun to experience the franchise.
One of the issues going into the game the first time was that I just didn't know the commands or how to play the game. So the first thing I did this time was to just press every button on my keyboard to see what it did. Doing so I opened the help screen which was exactly what I needed and now I actually knew how to play the game (plus I put the combat speed on hardest). The fact that I now knew how to run made the game playable! And so I started my first decent playthrough of Fallout 1.
The game might be really old, but the game still felt like a breath of fresh air to me. The setting, while played out nowadays, still had a charm that not a lot of nuclear wasteland/post-apocolyptic games have. I loved exploring the wasteland and was always wondering what sort of settlement I would stumble upon next. Fallout respects its players and gives a great tools to play with and think outside of the box. The time-limit for the first main quest was pretty stressfull but in the end I managed to clear it with ample time left. After clearing the first main quest the world really opened up and it was time to explore and invest into my character! All of the settlements I stumbled upon from then on had something surprising and interesting going on in them which made going from settlement to settlement a great experience. Though one thing that was a bit disappointing was that most of the settlements had one single big main quest and then only maybe 1-2 side quests, because of that the first Fallout sometimes feels like it has the fundamentals right but it left it at that.
Even though the game gives you a lot of freedom to tackle things however you want sometimes I did have to google solutions because things weren't really clear enough. You'd think something would work but it didn't quite do the trick, and you'd have to do something very specific. All in all Fallout is a good game with the potential to be great/amazing. Which brings me to the game I played next; Fallout 2.
2. Fallout 2:
Because Fallout 2 is how a sequel should be done. It takes everything that the first game did and expanded on it in an amazing way. Where the first game became very run of the mill with its quests, Fallout 2 has quests that are almost always different and surprising. All of the settlements now have multiple factions with multiple options on how to tackle a quest and who to side with. Where most quests in Fallout 1 usually stayed inside the settlement or close to the settlement quests in 2 now intertwine between multiple settlements giving a sense of a living breathing world.
One thing I always really like in games and the reason why I usually start with the first game in the series is continuality. Fallout 2 really nails it in this aspect, it feels like the actions of the first Fallout are part of this world. The world has moved on since your last adventure and now it's time to explore it again. All the little nods and revisions to locations are always a treat. The world of Fallout is a pleasure to explore with its great lore, locals, characters, villains and so on. Speaking about villains; Frank Horrigan is a scary bad-ass which you quite honestly would never want to meet and even when you inevitably do it still feels impossible.
Through the first 2 games I have definitely getting an attachment to the world of Fallout and which I will continue with Fallout 3! (Already can't wait for New Vegas which I always see high praise for)
3. Donut County:
It's cute and funny. Honestly there's not much to say aside from that I enjoyed the time I had with it. It was short and sweet and it was fun to quickly pick this up in between Fallouts.
Currently playing:
A game I had started 3 years ago as part of Classic game of the Month I used to do with PlayerC90 a while ago. Back then I started it but I kinda just stopped playing almost right away. At first I didn't really what to do, everything was slow, leaving the cave at the start was tedious with all the rats trying to get me so I kinda just gave up right away. I decided to pick it up again because Fallout is a franchise with a lot of history behind it so I thought it would be fun to experience the franchise.
One of the issues going into the game the first time was that I just didn't know the commands or how to play the game. So the first thing I did this time was to just press every button on my keyboard to see what it did. Doing so I opened the help screen which was exactly what I needed and now I actually knew how to play the game (plus I put the combat speed on hardest). The fact that I now knew how to run made the game playable! And so I started my first decent playthrough of Fallout 1.
The game might be really old, but the game still felt like a breath of fresh air to me. The setting, while played out nowadays, still had a charm that not a lot of nuclear wasteland/post-apocolyptic games have. I loved exploring the wasteland and was always wondering what sort of settlement I would stumble upon next. Fallout respects its players and gives a great tools to play with and think outside of the box. The time-limit for the first main quest was pretty stressfull but in the end I managed to clear it with ample time left. After clearing the first main quest the world really opened up and it was time to explore and invest into my character! All of the settlements I stumbled upon from then on had something surprising and interesting going on in them which made going from settlement to settlement a great experience. Though one thing that was a bit disappointing was that most of the settlements had one single big main quest and then only maybe 1-2 side quests, because of that the first Fallout sometimes feels like it has the fundamentals right but it left it at that.
Even though the game gives you a lot of freedom to tackle things however you want sometimes I did have to google solutions because things weren't really clear enough. You'd think something would work but it didn't quite do the trick, and you'd have to do something very specific. All in all Fallout is a good game with the potential to be great/amazing. Which brings me to the game I played next; Fallout 2.
2. Fallout 2:
Because Fallout 2 is how a sequel should be done. It takes everything that the first game did and expanded on it in an amazing way. Where the first game became very run of the mill with its quests, Fallout 2 has quests that are almost always different and surprising. All of the settlements now have multiple factions with multiple options on how to tackle a quest and who to side with. Where most quests in Fallout 1 usually stayed inside the settlement or close to the settlement quests in 2 now intertwine between multiple settlements giving a sense of a living breathing world.
One thing I always really like in games and the reason why I usually start with the first game in the series is continuality. Fallout 2 really nails it in this aspect, it feels like the actions of the first Fallout are part of this world. The world has moved on since your last adventure and now it's time to explore it again. All the little nods and revisions to locations are always a treat. The world of Fallout is a pleasure to explore with its great lore, locals, characters, villains and so on. Speaking about villains; Frank Horrigan is a scary bad-ass which you quite honestly would never want to meet and even when you inevitably do it still feels impossible.
Through the first 2 games I have definitely getting an attachment to the world of Fallout and which I will continue with Fallout 3! (Already can't wait for New Vegas which I always see high praise for)
3. Donut County:
It's cute and funny. Honestly there's not much to say aside from that I enjoyed the time I had with it. It was short and sweet and it was fun to quickly pick this up in between Fallouts.
Currently playing:
- Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
- Fallout 3
1. Fallout (PC) | 1st Jan - 30hrs | 3.5/5
2. Fallout 2 (PC) | 15th Jan - 58hrs | 4/5
3. Donut County! (PC) | 17th Jan - 3hrs | 3/5
2. Fallout 2 (PC) | 15th Jan - 58hrs | 4/5
3. Donut County! (PC) | 17th Jan - 3hrs | 3/5
#4 Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen - 8.0 - PS4 - Jan 22nd - 40 hours
Awesome challenging combat, monster design and unique pawn system. The story is bad and so is the quest design, which is probably the worst designed part of the game, but I loved exploring the world (though it's a little small) and being able to play any class at any time meant the combat never got old. The dark souls esque DLC was also great though I stopped after the first run as it got very grindy
Awesome challenging combat, monster design and unique pawn system. The story is bad and so is the quest design, which is probably the worst designed part of the game, but I loved exploring the world (though it's a little small) and being able to play any class at any time meant the combat never got old. The dark souls esque DLC was also great though I stopped after the first run as it got very grindy
Main Post part 1
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3. LEGOⓇ Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures - 9 hours
It's not a bad LEGO game, but it does feel outdated in some parts and there are several terrible design decisions that can sore your experience, like endless waves of enemies, sometimes even armed with instakill grenade launchers and bombs. The core gameplay loop is fine, but it depends too much on Indiana Jones legacy, if you for some reasons never watched original movies before, then you'll miss 80% of what makes this game good. There are no voiced dialogues in this game, so if you never heard about Indiana Jones (or simply watched these movies a long time ago and forgot most of the scenes from them), then you'll have a hard time following what's going on. Like, if you never watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you'll be very confused at the final boss battle and which Grail is true. So, if you really want to play this specific game, it would be wise to rewatch original trilogy before starting to play it.
Unfortunately, there are also technical issues that worth mentioning. Game occasionally glitching, and sometimes these bugs can prevent you from completing the whole level and force you to restart from the scratch, which can be very frustrating. There are no checkpoints or manual saves, game saving you progress only after completing the level or buying something at the in-game shop. Also, you can't skip cutscenes and there is no online co-op.
If you want to just play LEGO games and not interested in specifically this one, then I would suggest you try recent games from this developer instead. Considering how many of these released in recent years, it's probably the best to ignore this one, you won't miss anything important unless you are a big Indiana Jones fan.
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3. LEGOⓇ Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures - 9 hours
It's not a bad LEGO game, but it does feel outdated in some parts and there are several terrible design decisions that can sore your experience, like endless waves of enemies, sometimes even armed with instakill grenade launchers and bombs. The core gameplay loop is fine, but it depends too much on Indiana Jones legacy, if you for some reasons never watched original movies before, then you'll miss 80% of what makes this game good. There are no voiced dialogues in this game, so if you never heard about Indiana Jones (or simply watched these movies a long time ago and forgot most of the scenes from them), then you'll have a hard time following what's going on. Like, if you never watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you'll be very confused at the final boss battle and which Grail is true. So, if you really want to play this specific game, it would be wise to rewatch original trilogy before starting to play it.
Unfortunately, there are also technical issues that worth mentioning. Game occasionally glitching, and sometimes these bugs can prevent you from completing the whole level and force you to restart from the scratch, which can be very frustrating. There are no checkpoints or manual saves, game saving you progress only after completing the level or buying something at the in-game shop. Also, you can't skip cutscenes and there is no online co-op.
If you want to just play LEGO games and not interested in specifically this one, then I would suggest you try recent games from this developer instead. Considering how many of these released in recent years, it's probably the best to ignore this one, you won't miss anything important unless you are a big Indiana Jones fan.
7. Catherine (13 hours)
Hard as nails but fair puzzles and a thought-provoking story make for a highly addicting experience.
Full list to date
Hard as nails but fair puzzles and a thought-provoking story make for a highly addicting experience.
Full list to date
MAIN THREAD
Two more games to add to the list:
#4: Metroid: Samus Returns (1-12-2019) | 8/10 | 3DS XL | ~ 15 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall -8 | Aggregate of 4 components below. Decimal rounded up or down by personal bias.
Gameplay -8 | Huge maps for exploration. My only fault is fighting the same boss types the entire game drags on
Sound -7 | Does not deviate from previous Metroid audio or add anything new
Story/Online -NA | ATTACK!
Asking Price-8 | For this genre, there is a lot of game and plenty of hidden paths to explore.
#5: No More Heros (1-21-2019) | 7/10 | Wii | ~ 12 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall -7 | Aggregate of 4 components below. Decimal rounded up or down by personal bias.
Gameplay -7.6 | The Wii remotes suited this game well. Some cool bosses and levels. General Enemies is re-used to often
Sound -7 | Some cool tracks that play on loop the entire game
Story/Online -7 | For the Grasshopper games I have played so far, this one was less interesting on the story aspect. Had some funny moments though
Asking Price-7.33 | It was a fun game to play, looking forward to #2 and Travis Strikes again. Some funny mini games to do on the side
Two more games to add to the list:
#4: Metroid: Samus Returns (1-12-2019) | 8/10 | 3DS XL | ~ 15 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall -8 | Aggregate of 4 components below. Decimal rounded up or down by personal bias.
Gameplay -8 | Huge maps for exploration. My only fault is fighting the same boss types the entire game drags on
Sound -7 | Does not deviate from previous Metroid audio or add anything new
Story/Online -NA | ATTACK!
Asking Price-8 | For this genre, there is a lot of game and plenty of hidden paths to explore.
#5: No More Heros (1-21-2019) | 7/10 | Wii | ~ 12 Hours | Recommend: Y
# Overall -7 | Aggregate of 4 components below. Decimal rounded up or down by personal bias.
Gameplay -7.6 | The Wii remotes suited this game well. Some cool bosses and levels. General Enemies is re-used to often
Sound -7 | Some cool tracks that play on loop the entire game
Story/Online -7 | For the Grasshopper games I have played so far, this one was less interesting on the story aspect. Had some funny moments though
Asking Price-7.33 | It was a fun game to play, looking forward to #2 and Travis Strikes again. Some funny mini games to do on the side
How are people here going to count their Resident Evil 2 playthrough? 1 for everything or 1 for each run?
1. Max Payne 3
2. Strange Brigade
3. Far Cry 2
4. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
5. Pillars of Eternity (52 hours, 2/13)
6. Resident Evil 2 (2019) (18 hours, 2/16)
7. Crackdown 3 (13 hours, 2/21)
8. Anthem (31 hours + ongoing, 2/21)
9. Assassin's Creed Unity
10. Downward (10 hours, 3/10)
11. Just Cause 4 (20 hours, 3/19)
12. A Short Hike (2 hours, 4/5)
Abandoned
1. Farming Simulator 2017 - maybe spending 2hrs real time harvesting a field is fun for some people
2. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - my goal was to finally finish Butcher Bay after originally starring it on the OG XBOX. That goal was completed. The sequel was frustrating and a lot less fun, and I have better games to play.
3. She Remembered Caterpillars - I just wasn't compelled to keep going with these puzzles. Got about halfway through.
2. Strange Brigade
3. Far Cry 2
4. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
5. Pillars of Eternity (52 hours, 2/13)
6. Resident Evil 2 (2019) (18 hours, 2/16)
7. Crackdown 3 (13 hours, 2/21)
8. Anthem (31 hours + ongoing, 2/21)
9. Assassin's Creed Unity
10. Downward (10 hours, 3/10)
11. Just Cause 4 (20 hours, 3/19)
12. A Short Hike (2 hours, 4/5)
Abandoned
1. Farming Simulator 2017 - maybe spending 2hrs real time harvesting a field is fun for some people
2. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - my goal was to finally finish Butcher Bay after originally starring it on the OG XBOX. That goal was completed. The sequel was frustrating and a lot less fun, and I have better games to play.
3. She Remembered Caterpillars - I just wasn't compelled to keep going with these puzzles. Got about halfway through.
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1 for everything for me.
I mean, say in Call of Duty 2, there are multiple campaigns but you wouldn't really say you finished a game just for beating the British one.
Personally I'll be counting it as one game because I know I'll have a few 1-3 hour games on my list and that feels a bit cheaty so I'm trying to balance it out for myself in the interest of fairness.
But in the spirit of this thread I imagine it's completely up to the individual. You do you just have fun, right?
One play through for me. I did this for the original RE 1 and 2 when I played through those. Did the same with KH: Chain of Memories. To each his own though...
I'm up to 4 this year already with Astrobot and Transistor finally done and now nearly finished with Shenmue, made a dent in Travis strikes again and will plow the hell outta Resi 2 when its here on friday, hopefully all of these and another game I'll hopefully complete before the next 2019 tentpole for me Anthem.
I'm going to count everything as one as well. I did last year or the year prior when I replayed REmake. Was just curious to see how everyone else would handle it.
9. Final Fantasy 13 - I loved the characters for the most part and Lightning is now 1 of my favorite FF protagonist. The battle system and OST were both sublime. The story was ok at best and the further it went the more convoluted it got, but I did like the ending and looking forward to playing the sequels sometime this year.
Master Post
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Main Post part 1
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4. Alone in the Dark - 9 hours
This game is crushingly disappointing, so many great ideas buried under incredibly dumb design decisions. This is what happens when you give too much freedom to art and design departments while forgetting about everything else. This game is so contradictory, for example, the engine - it has an impressive amount of interactivity with physically correct fire and liquids implementation, and it also actively suggesting that player would use them to progress through the game, like burn the wooden door, or smash it to pieces with an axe. But at the same time, the PC port itself is garbage, game starts in 720p resolution and crashes when you are trying to go to display settings, fixing it requires some effort (you can read it here - https://steamcommunity.com/app/259170/discussions/0/1733210552683758734/, god bless Steam forums, it saved me once again).
Even if you'll manage to run the game after dozens of failed SecuROM security checks, game greets you with ATROCIOUS controls - developers tried to make something new, instead of controlling the camera with mouse, you are controlling your hands instead. Problem is, no matter how you change your settings, sensitivity is always not there, it's always clunky and feels wrong while there are not many situations where such unusual controls absolutely needed. Not to mention keyboard controls, protagonist moving like a sack of coal and there are so many actions that mapped randomly all over the keyboard and doesn't make any sense, for example, there is a separate button just to jump from the rope and it bind at 3 by default, while "quick actions" are for some reason bind to Home, End and Insert buttons. Thank god at least you can rebind actions without crashing on the desktop.
There are so many cool moments that completely ruined by stupid oversights, like that epic chase on taxi cab during the local apocalypse, you drive through streets of New York, buildings going down, everything is blowing up... And then you suddenly stuck in some corner, because car controls are as bad as your protagonist controls, and game forces you to replay the ENTIRE SEQUENCE because there are no checkpoints during this section and you need to make everything perfectly within one go. Same goes to cutscenes, most of them are well directed and at first story looks promising, but then you realize that you can't skip them, and game loves to make checkpoints right BEFORE long cutscenes, not after them like everyone with common sense would suggest.
Seriously, did anyone actually played this game before shipping it in this state? It really feels like devs haven't actually tried to play all of their cool concepts, because it's hard to believe that nobody in his right mind played through this game and didn't raise the alarm about controls or any other problem this game indeed have. Like, this game has an episodic structure and you can play most of the chapters whenever you want and even skip some scenes if you stuck, and at the beginning of every episode or after loading save game shows you "Previously in Alone in the Dark" montage that reminds you about important events in previous episodes. But despite me playing in the right order and not skipping anything, few times game showed me scenes that I never have seen in my playthrough, like they were removed from the game or it just glitched and the scripts didn't work as intended. The inventory system is interesting, to access your items you literally look at pockets in your jacket and combine them to get fire bullets and other stuff, but it's so tiny, you simply can't take much of different stuff with you and it limits your options and imagination, forcing to stick to the same ways of problems solving over and over again.
The whole game feels like a glitchy mess, beta-version of something great. The atmosphere is done right, puzzles are interesting and when everything works as intended, the game can be fun. But unfortunately, after that incredibly stupid ending (I mean, both endings, none of the choices doesn't make any sense anyway), I really can't recommend it to anyone. If you for some reasons already have this game and willing to put some effort just to run the damn thing, I still highly doubt you'll have the patience to complete more than first 2 episodes. It's a damn shame because it's obvious this game had a lot of potential, but the execution is deeply flawed and it aged badly.
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4. Alone in the Dark - 9 hours
This game is crushingly disappointing, so many great ideas buried under incredibly dumb design decisions. This is what happens when you give too much freedom to art and design departments while forgetting about everything else. This game is so contradictory, for example, the engine - it has an impressive amount of interactivity with physically correct fire and liquids implementation, and it also actively suggesting that player would use them to progress through the game, like burn the wooden door, or smash it to pieces with an axe. But at the same time, the PC port itself is garbage, game starts in 720p resolution and crashes when you are trying to go to display settings, fixing it requires some effort (you can read it here - https://steamcommunity.com/app/259170/discussions/0/1733210552683758734/, god bless Steam forums, it saved me once again).
Even if you'll manage to run the game after dozens of failed SecuROM security checks, game greets you with ATROCIOUS controls - developers tried to make something new, instead of controlling the camera with mouse, you are controlling your hands instead. Problem is, no matter how you change your settings, sensitivity is always not there, it's always clunky and feels wrong while there are not many situations where such unusual controls absolutely needed. Not to mention keyboard controls, protagonist moving like a sack of coal and there are so many actions that mapped randomly all over the keyboard and doesn't make any sense, for example, there is a separate button just to jump from the rope and it bind at 3 by default, while "quick actions" are for some reason bind to Home, End and Insert buttons. Thank god at least you can rebind actions without crashing on the desktop.
There are so many cool moments that completely ruined by stupid oversights, like that epic chase on taxi cab during the local apocalypse, you drive through streets of New York, buildings going down, everything is blowing up... And then you suddenly stuck in some corner, because car controls are as bad as your protagonist controls, and game forces you to replay the ENTIRE SEQUENCE because there are no checkpoints during this section and you need to make everything perfectly within one go. Same goes to cutscenes, most of them are well directed and at first story looks promising, but then you realize that you can't skip them, and game loves to make checkpoints right BEFORE long cutscenes, not after them like everyone with common sense would suggest.
Seriously, did anyone actually played this game before shipping it in this state? It really feels like devs haven't actually tried to play all of their cool concepts, because it's hard to believe that nobody in his right mind played through this game and didn't raise the alarm about controls or any other problem this game indeed have. Like, this game has an episodic structure and you can play most of the chapters whenever you want and even skip some scenes if you stuck, and at the beginning of every episode or after loading save game shows you "Previously in Alone in the Dark" montage that reminds you about important events in previous episodes. But despite me playing in the right order and not skipping anything, few times game showed me scenes that I never have seen in my playthrough, like they were removed from the game or it just glitched and the scripts didn't work as intended. The inventory system is interesting, to access your items you literally look at pockets in your jacket and combine them to get fire bullets and other stuff, but it's so tiny, you simply can't take much of different stuff with you and it limits your options and imagination, forcing to stick to the same ways of problems solving over and over again.
The whole game feels like a glitchy mess, beta-version of something great. The atmosphere is done right, puzzles are interesting and when everything works as intended, the game can be fun. But unfortunately, after that incredibly stupid ending (I mean, both endings, none of the choices doesn't make any sense anyway), I really can't recommend it to anyone. If you for some reasons already have this game and willing to put some effort just to run the damn thing, I still highly doubt you'll have the patience to complete more than first 2 episodes. It's a damn shame because it's obvious this game had a lot of potential, but the execution is deeply flawed and it aged badly.
UPDATE 1: I decided to do this in batches, deciding to post once I was satisfied with the list so far rather than do it every time I complete the game.
Update 2: 52 games done! I might update the list when I do more but I think this'l do.
I decided to only count getting to an "ending" in most of these games but in some cases I played well beyond that point in order to unlock more stuff and so on.
1. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Nomal + Nightmare
A great game in style of classic Castlevaia games. I only counted the "true" ending for the completion but I unlocked all modes by doing multiple playthroughs afterwards.
5/5
2. Shovel Knight: Shovel Of Hope - 100%
This game is amazing. What a joy to replay it again, a true masterpiece that will always find its way back into my hands.
5/5
3. Mega Man X - 100%
Speaking of masterpieces o hey there X, we meet yet again! This game consumed so much of my life, I cant stop replaying it alongside others in the series every so often. What a series.
5/5
4. Mega Man X2 - 100%
Honestly? This game is better than X1. VERY slightly, but still, it improved on things I feel X didnt do that well, added a whole lot of new things, and just in general its bigger nostalgia ride for me thanks to the fact that my fist X game proper was Xtreme 2 on the gameboy which used much of its music and bosses, so there.
5/5
5. Mega Man X3 - 100%
Good ideas, very flawed execution. Its still a good game, and Im always down for some X, but thats not the best way to end the SNES trilogy of games. Its the Dark Souls 2 of X games, essentially.
3/5
6. Mega Man X4 - X 100%
Fist time playing this actually, and already replayed it 2 additional times (one with X again and one with Zero, both 100%), so its definitely joining the other 3 X games in the mini "marathon" I made for myself.
5/5
7. Super Mario Bros. - Warp Pipe Run
Its Mario. Yahoo. Those last 2 levels are no joke tho, better pucker up or bring a fireflower.
5/5
8. Super Mario 64 - 16 Star Run
One of the greatest games ever made and I will never stop playing it probably. After learning a few tricks I cant even play thing game normally, I have to break it, but man is it fun to do so.
5/5
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 - Warp Run
This game is no joke, especially with its limited continues, but mastering it is very satisfying. And least we forget.... ITS A MASTAHPIECE
11/5
10. Super Mario Bros. 3 - Warp Whistle Run
This game is very nostalgic to me for a variety of reasons, mostly the music and the visuals thanks to the Super Mario TV show. Its a classic, no more needs to be said.
5/5
11. Super Mario World - Star Road Skip Run
Love this game, one of my favourites.
5/5
12. LoZ: A Link to the Past - Out of Bounds Speedrun
Alright listen. I really like this game, and I know this is kinda cheating... but, well, I reached the end, so Im counting it.
5/5
13. LoZ: Ocarina of Time - Casual Bottle Quest
A masterpiece, but nowadays I just go in for a quick fix with sort of a speedrun I guess? Still a great experience.
5/5
14. Hitman Blood Money - Pro/Silent Assassin
A classic game, up there with Mega Man X in terms of replayability. One of the best ever, in fact. Simply masterful.
5/5
15. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows - 100%
Barely counting this as a separate game, but since I'l be counting Specter as one I might as well include it too. A cool literal side-story, but obviously not as tight as OG Shovel Knight.
4/5
16. Hollow Knight - Ending 1
This game was bloody fantastic, no wonder it gets such high praise! I decided to chronicle just getting to the first ending, but I did get the other ones + 112% eventually (thought I didnt do all of the DLC because the final Pantheon can suck my everything).
5/5
17. Super Smash Bros Ultimate - World of Light True Ending 100%
Fantastic game, and probably the best Smash bros game made so far... but I do miss Adventure mode and Targets. World of light was very fun tho, so finishing it is what Im going to count as "finishing" the game.
5/5
18. Katamari Damacy Reroll - All Constellations
Classic game. Unique and fun. Hope other games in the series get ports as well.
5/5
19. Sonic Mania - All Emeralds Sonic & Tails run
Honestly, this might be the best Sonic game I have played, it really does deserve to stand alongside the Genesis trilogy. Good stuff, and like most games on the list I'm still playing this to get most of the stuff.
5/5
20. The Messenger - 100%
I took a chance with this game and boy am I happy I did. I was afraid after hearing that the game drags after second half, but honestly the game just kept getting better as it went, I loved the exploration and writing, the gameplay is phenomenal, the soudtrack is great, all in all a fantastic experience. Im honestly sad seeing its not getting as much attention as other indie games, but with the DLC on the way and a promise of a sequel I hope the game can be remembered.
5/5
21. DMC5 - All Missions
ALL OF THESE THOUGHTS RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD, ARM ON FIRE VEINS BURNING RED, FRUSTRATION IS GETTING BIGGER, BANG BANG BANG... PULL MY DEVIL TRIGGER!
...do I even have to say I kept playing afterwards?
555/5
22. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment - 100%
Fantastic side-game that stands on its own, the amount of effort put into making it different than Shovel Knight can be seen clearly, making me wish Plague got the same amount of attention but alas...
5/5
23. MK11 - Story Mode Completion
A REALLY good fighting game hurt by unfortunate circumstances and decisions. Let us hope the next NRS game ends up less fucked up. Will only keep tabs on the time spent in story mode since that's what I would count as a "completion" of a fighting game, but I'l keep playing after that because buying a fighting game only for the story is a waste of everyone's time.
4/5
24. Gargoyle's Quest 2 - Normal Playthrough
Really fun, really good, and really short game, especially impressive for the NES. Plus, best walk cycle in history of videogames.
4/5
25. Demon's Crest - 100% + Secret Boss
An amazing game that became one of my favourites a few years ago. Just good stuff all around with some minor issues (like backing out of levels, some weirdly hidden goodies, password system and the fact that the true final boss is locked behind it) that dont detract from the overall excellent quality of this game. I wish Capcom would revisit this IP someday.
5/5
26. The Last Guardian - Normal Playthrough
I wanted to play this game ever since it was announced, but never got around to it once it came out, so now I'm rectifying that mistake. This is a PS2-ass PS4 game, and I mean it in the best possible way, no one else is willing to make weird high budget games like this unless you are a high profile auteur like Kojima or in this case Ueda. This game was everything I expected it to be. I cried.
5/5
27. Donkey Kong Country - Normal Playthrough
A really good game, if a bit frustrating.
5/5
28. Donkey Kong Country 2 - Normal Playthrough
MAN this game is tough! Normally I would go for 102% but this time I decided to just get to the end. Next time I go through this game I'l go for full completion.
5/5
29. Cuphead - Normal Playthrough
Just a really good game, and gorgeous to boot!
5/5
30. Shinobi 3 - Normal Playthrough (with rewind)
This game is pretty cool, but its also pretty tough and the double jump being absolute ass doesnt help things. Maybe next time I'l give it a more honest go and try to master it but right now I just wanted to check it out.
4/5
31. Odallus - 100%
A REALLY nice throwback to oldschool games like Demon's Crest. It's homages are a bit too on the nose sometimes, and the game is a bit of a technical mess (one of the last levels has literal holes into nothing), but it was still an excellent ride all around.
5/5
32. Slain: Back from Hell - 100%
A very... interesting game. Its combat is in the bigger focus than I imagined which is cool and makes it different than most 2D games of this kind. The art is beautiful but the level design can be a bit crusty, and the game itself is shorter than I hoped (lengthened only by a lot of deaths on my part), AND for some reason you cant play it with the dpad which is just dumb since the right stick is more than enough for switching weapons, but all in all I'd say its a very good time and worth playing. Will be checking out the team's next game, Valfaris, for sure.
3/5
33. Blazing Chrome - Normal Playthrough
Very cool game, but also pretty short and pretty tough. Its obviously aimed to be mastered and replayed so maybe I'l come back to it one day. Also that final boss is a lot of things, too many in my opinion.
4/5
34. Oniken - All Missions
A true retro game, warts and all. A really great time all around, though some parts ware tricky, and the final boss was kinda easy.
4/5
35. Mega Man 11 - Normal Playthrough
A return to form and a fantastic game in its own right, might even be the best game in this subseries! If only we could get a new X game like this... well anyways, already beaten this 4 times, dunno if I'l try superhuman or any of the trials since that isnt my jam really, but this game is gonna be replayed a lot I can tell.
5/5
36. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike - Arcade Playthrough
Well, its Third Strike alright, but the Switch's D-pad was really not made for this kind of gameplay.
4/5
37. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Arcade Playthrough
So apparently this version of the game has broken hard difficulty... yea, yea it does. Still did it tho but fuck.
4/5
38. Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Arcade Playthrough
Good ole Alpha, nothing more to be said really, classic game. Having a forced game over after losing to a final enemy is still ultra poop tho.
4/5
39. Hitman 2016 - Normal Playthrough
What an awesome game, its good to see IoI got back on its feet after the blunder that was Absolution.
5/5
40. Dark Souls: Remastered - Normal Playthrough
A classic game, one of the best ever to be honest... you know, except the dragonbutt land and the angry tree boss, that will forever be lame.
5/5
41. SUPERHOT - Story Playthrough + Secrets
ITS THE MOST INNOVATIVE SHOOTER I PLAYED IN YEARS
SUPER/HOT
42. Hotline Miami - 100%
Just a good-ass game through and through.
5/5
43. Hotlne Miami 2 - Normal Playthrough
SIKE, THATS THE WRONG NUMBAH! Gotta say, I prefer the first one overall, but this game is pretty fantastic as well.
5/5
44. Resident Evil 4 - Normal Playthrough
Brilliant, classic, this game redefined its genre and is one of my favourites of all time. I'l come back to it any time.
5/5
45. Sekiro - Normal Playthrough
Fantastic game, though it REALLY made me wish Tenchu was around still. I needs it. In the meantime I did Platinum this game outside the challenge so I had my Fromsoft fill for now, but Eldenring better come soon.
5/5
46. Catlevania - Normal Playthrough
Just a classic game, not else much to say really.
5/5
47. Castlevania 3 (JP) - Alucard Ending
Very good game, but God damn is the US version hard. This is my first time playing the Japanese version and let me tell you its so much more manageable, these little changes done to the international release do stack together to make it so annoying... or maybe I just got better? Either way, classic game.
5/5
48. Super Castlevania 4 - Normal Playthrough
A superb experience, one of the best in the series. I still dont get why Dracula turns into a robot at the end tho, what a bold decision by Konami.
5/5
49. Kid Dracula - Normal Playthrough
This game is a trap. "Its like Castlevania for kids!", except for when the difficulty spikes and kicks you in the ass, especially with the last stage demanding near perfect play. But I got its number.
5/5
50. Super C - Normal Playthrough (10 lives)
Mamma mia, I needed a reminder how spicy Contra can get. Once the collection on the Switch is on some kind of discount I think I'l grab it.
5/5
51. Ninja Gaiden - Normal Playthrough
Super fun game but MAN that final boss glitch is annoying as fuck, having to re-learn the patterns under these conditions was rough but its doable, just needs patience.
5/5
52. Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge - Normal Playthrough
Wow, this game really surprised me with how good it was! This is especially shocking considering the first GB game was so bad it actually scared me off of the series up until the XBLA re-release of SotN, but this game is a lot of fun to play and has a lot of clever things going on that dont appear much in the series. I have to say tho, the final boss is probably the WORST Dracula fight I ever fought, just plain terrible, but at the very least the checkpoint is super generous.
5/5
53. Castlevania Bloodlines - John Morris Playthrough
Pretty awesome game. Limited continues sound scary, but 9 live code in hand it aint too bad. Heck, if you reset the game you can get your continues back, so as long as you dont run completely dry there is a way to circumvent starting all over (you only lose your score).
5/5
54. Ufouria The Saga - 100%
A nice, pleasant little metroidvania. Ahead of the curve in many respects.
5/5
55. Castlevania Dracula X - Best Ending
A really good Castlevania that gets a lot of flack for not being Rondo of Blood, which I think is both fair and unfair as its different enough that a few changes could have made this its own unique entry.
4/5
56. Contra - Normal Playthrough (Konami Code)
Got around to that Contra collection finally. The game is a classic but a bit rough, doesnt help that Im sick and have less patience because of it but at least the Konami code guaranteed this was a smooth ride.
4/5
57. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - 100% Jedi Master Playthrough
Heyyyy that was pretty good! Despite the game being held together with shoestrings there was clearly a vision and an idea that was executed really well. Just wish they would patch some of this stuff up, especially performance, but thankfully none of it was game breaking or ruining (outside of one weird death).
4/5
58. Far Cry: New Dawn - Tough Playthrough
I kinda dont know how to feel about this one honestly. Its fun, but kinda mindless, and the more grindy aspects of the game that exist to hide the lack of content are very blatant. Far Cry has become kinda like a comfort food, but I miss when there was some ambition in these games, they're due to a shakeup like AssCreed Origins.
3/5
And here's the detailed stats:
Update 2: 52 games done! I might update the list when I do more but I think this'l do.
I decided to only count getting to an "ending" in most of these games but in some cases I played well beyond that point in order to unlock more stuff and so on.
1. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Nomal + Nightmare
A great game in style of classic Castlevaia games. I only counted the "true" ending for the completion but I unlocked all modes by doing multiple playthroughs afterwards.
5/5
2. Shovel Knight: Shovel Of Hope - 100%
This game is amazing. What a joy to replay it again, a true masterpiece that will always find its way back into my hands.
5/5
3. Mega Man X - 100%
Speaking of masterpieces o hey there X, we meet yet again! This game consumed so much of my life, I cant stop replaying it alongside others in the series every so often. What a series.
5/5
4. Mega Man X2 - 100%
Honestly? This game is better than X1. VERY slightly, but still, it improved on things I feel X didnt do that well, added a whole lot of new things, and just in general its bigger nostalgia ride for me thanks to the fact that my fist X game proper was Xtreme 2 on the gameboy which used much of its music and bosses, so there.
5/5
5. Mega Man X3 - 100%
Good ideas, very flawed execution. Its still a good game, and Im always down for some X, but thats not the best way to end the SNES trilogy of games. Its the Dark Souls 2 of X games, essentially.
3/5
6. Mega Man X4 - X 100%
Fist time playing this actually, and already replayed it 2 additional times (one with X again and one with Zero, both 100%), so its definitely joining the other 3 X games in the mini "marathon" I made for myself.
5/5
7. Super Mario Bros. - Warp Pipe Run
Its Mario. Yahoo. Those last 2 levels are no joke tho, better pucker up or bring a fireflower.
5/5
8. Super Mario 64 - 16 Star Run
One of the greatest games ever made and I will never stop playing it probably. After learning a few tricks I cant even play thing game normally, I have to break it, but man is it fun to do so.
5/5
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 - Warp Run
This game is no joke, especially with its limited continues, but mastering it is very satisfying. And least we forget.... ITS A MASTAHPIECE
11/5
10. Super Mario Bros. 3 - Warp Whistle Run
This game is very nostalgic to me for a variety of reasons, mostly the music and the visuals thanks to the Super Mario TV show. Its a classic, no more needs to be said.
5/5
11. Super Mario World - Star Road Skip Run
Love this game, one of my favourites.
5/5
12. LoZ: A Link to the Past - Out of Bounds Speedrun
Alright listen. I really like this game, and I know this is kinda cheating... but, well, I reached the end, so Im counting it.
5/5
13. LoZ: Ocarina of Time - Casual Bottle Quest
A masterpiece, but nowadays I just go in for a quick fix with sort of a speedrun I guess? Still a great experience.
5/5
14. Hitman Blood Money - Pro/Silent Assassin
A classic game, up there with Mega Man X in terms of replayability. One of the best ever, in fact. Simply masterful.
5/5
15. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows - 100%
Barely counting this as a separate game, but since I'l be counting Specter as one I might as well include it too. A cool literal side-story, but obviously not as tight as OG Shovel Knight.
4/5
16. Hollow Knight - Ending 1
This game was bloody fantastic, no wonder it gets such high praise! I decided to chronicle just getting to the first ending, but I did get the other ones + 112% eventually (thought I didnt do all of the DLC because the final Pantheon can suck my everything).
5/5
17. Super Smash Bros Ultimate - World of Light True Ending 100%
Fantastic game, and probably the best Smash bros game made so far... but I do miss Adventure mode and Targets. World of light was very fun tho, so finishing it is what Im going to count as "finishing" the game.
5/5
18. Katamari Damacy Reroll - All Constellations
Classic game. Unique and fun. Hope other games in the series get ports as well.
5/5
19. Sonic Mania - All Emeralds Sonic & Tails run
Honestly, this might be the best Sonic game I have played, it really does deserve to stand alongside the Genesis trilogy. Good stuff, and like most games on the list I'm still playing this to get most of the stuff.
5/5
20. The Messenger - 100%
I took a chance with this game and boy am I happy I did. I was afraid after hearing that the game drags after second half, but honestly the game just kept getting better as it went, I loved the exploration and writing, the gameplay is phenomenal, the soudtrack is great, all in all a fantastic experience. Im honestly sad seeing its not getting as much attention as other indie games, but with the DLC on the way and a promise of a sequel I hope the game can be remembered.
5/5
21. DMC5 - All Missions
ALL OF THESE THOUGHTS RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD, ARM ON FIRE VEINS BURNING RED, FRUSTRATION IS GETTING BIGGER, BANG BANG BANG... PULL MY DEVIL TRIGGER!
...do I even have to say I kept playing afterwards?
555/5
22. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment - 100%
Fantastic side-game that stands on its own, the amount of effort put into making it different than Shovel Knight can be seen clearly, making me wish Plague got the same amount of attention but alas...
5/5
23. MK11 - Story Mode Completion
A REALLY good fighting game hurt by unfortunate circumstances and decisions. Let us hope the next NRS game ends up less fucked up. Will only keep tabs on the time spent in story mode since that's what I would count as a "completion" of a fighting game, but I'l keep playing after that because buying a fighting game only for the story is a waste of everyone's time.
4/5
24. Gargoyle's Quest 2 - Normal Playthrough
Really fun, really good, and really short game, especially impressive for the NES. Plus, best walk cycle in history of videogames.
4/5
25. Demon's Crest - 100% + Secret Boss
An amazing game that became one of my favourites a few years ago. Just good stuff all around with some minor issues (like backing out of levels, some weirdly hidden goodies, password system and the fact that the true final boss is locked behind it) that dont detract from the overall excellent quality of this game. I wish Capcom would revisit this IP someday.
5/5
26. The Last Guardian - Normal Playthrough
I wanted to play this game ever since it was announced, but never got around to it once it came out, so now I'm rectifying that mistake. This is a PS2-ass PS4 game, and I mean it in the best possible way, no one else is willing to make weird high budget games like this unless you are a high profile auteur like Kojima or in this case Ueda. This game was everything I expected it to be. I cried.
5/5
27. Donkey Kong Country - Normal Playthrough
A really good game, if a bit frustrating.
5/5
28. Donkey Kong Country 2 - Normal Playthrough
MAN this game is tough! Normally I would go for 102% but this time I decided to just get to the end. Next time I go through this game I'l go for full completion.
5/5
29. Cuphead - Normal Playthrough
Just a really good game, and gorgeous to boot!
5/5
30. Shinobi 3 - Normal Playthrough (with rewind)
This game is pretty cool, but its also pretty tough and the double jump being absolute ass doesnt help things. Maybe next time I'l give it a more honest go and try to master it but right now I just wanted to check it out.
4/5
31. Odallus - 100%
A REALLY nice throwback to oldschool games like Demon's Crest. It's homages are a bit too on the nose sometimes, and the game is a bit of a technical mess (one of the last levels has literal holes into nothing), but it was still an excellent ride all around.
5/5
32. Slain: Back from Hell - 100%
A very... interesting game. Its combat is in the bigger focus than I imagined which is cool and makes it different than most 2D games of this kind. The art is beautiful but the level design can be a bit crusty, and the game itself is shorter than I hoped (lengthened only by a lot of deaths on my part), AND for some reason you cant play it with the dpad which is just dumb since the right stick is more than enough for switching weapons, but all in all I'd say its a very good time and worth playing. Will be checking out the team's next game, Valfaris, for sure.
3/5
33. Blazing Chrome - Normal Playthrough
Very cool game, but also pretty short and pretty tough. Its obviously aimed to be mastered and replayed so maybe I'l come back to it one day. Also that final boss is a lot of things, too many in my opinion.
4/5
34. Oniken - All Missions
A true retro game, warts and all. A really great time all around, though some parts ware tricky, and the final boss was kinda easy.
4/5
35. Mega Man 11 - Normal Playthrough
A return to form and a fantastic game in its own right, might even be the best game in this subseries! If only we could get a new X game like this... well anyways, already beaten this 4 times, dunno if I'l try superhuman or any of the trials since that isnt my jam really, but this game is gonna be replayed a lot I can tell.
5/5
36. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike - Arcade Playthrough
Well, its Third Strike alright, but the Switch's D-pad was really not made for this kind of gameplay.
4/5
37. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Arcade Playthrough
So apparently this version of the game has broken hard difficulty... yea, yea it does. Still did it tho but fuck.
4/5
38. Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Arcade Playthrough
Good ole Alpha, nothing more to be said really, classic game. Having a forced game over after losing to a final enemy is still ultra poop tho.
4/5
39. Hitman 2016 - Normal Playthrough
What an awesome game, its good to see IoI got back on its feet after the blunder that was Absolution.
5/5
40. Dark Souls: Remastered - Normal Playthrough
A classic game, one of the best ever to be honest... you know, except the dragonbutt land and the angry tree boss, that will forever be lame.
5/5
41. SUPERHOT - Story Playthrough + Secrets
ITS THE MOST INNOVATIVE SHOOTER I PLAYED IN YEARS
SUPER/HOT
42. Hotline Miami - 100%
Just a good-ass game through and through.
5/5
43. Hotlne Miami 2 - Normal Playthrough
SIKE, THATS THE WRONG NUMBAH! Gotta say, I prefer the first one overall, but this game is pretty fantastic as well.
5/5
44. Resident Evil 4 - Normal Playthrough
Brilliant, classic, this game redefined its genre and is one of my favourites of all time. I'l come back to it any time.
5/5
45. Sekiro - Normal Playthrough
Fantastic game, though it REALLY made me wish Tenchu was around still. I needs it. In the meantime I did Platinum this game outside the challenge so I had my Fromsoft fill for now, but Eldenring better come soon.
5/5
46. Catlevania - Normal Playthrough
Just a classic game, not else much to say really.
5/5
47. Castlevania 3 (JP) - Alucard Ending
Very good game, but God damn is the US version hard. This is my first time playing the Japanese version and let me tell you its so much more manageable, these little changes done to the international release do stack together to make it so annoying... or maybe I just got better? Either way, classic game.
5/5
48. Super Castlevania 4 - Normal Playthrough
A superb experience, one of the best in the series. I still dont get why Dracula turns into a robot at the end tho, what a bold decision by Konami.
5/5
49. Kid Dracula - Normal Playthrough
This game is a trap. "Its like Castlevania for kids!", except for when the difficulty spikes and kicks you in the ass, especially with the last stage demanding near perfect play. But I got its number.
5/5
50. Super C - Normal Playthrough (10 lives)
Mamma mia, I needed a reminder how spicy Contra can get. Once the collection on the Switch is on some kind of discount I think I'l grab it.
5/5
51. Ninja Gaiden - Normal Playthrough
Super fun game but MAN that final boss glitch is annoying as fuck, having to re-learn the patterns under these conditions was rough but its doable, just needs patience.
5/5
52. Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge - Normal Playthrough
Wow, this game really surprised me with how good it was! This is especially shocking considering the first GB game was so bad it actually scared me off of the series up until the XBLA re-release of SotN, but this game is a lot of fun to play and has a lot of clever things going on that dont appear much in the series. I have to say tho, the final boss is probably the WORST Dracula fight I ever fought, just plain terrible, but at the very least the checkpoint is super generous.
5/5
53. Castlevania Bloodlines - John Morris Playthrough
Pretty awesome game. Limited continues sound scary, but 9 live code in hand it aint too bad. Heck, if you reset the game you can get your continues back, so as long as you dont run completely dry there is a way to circumvent starting all over (you only lose your score).
5/5
54. Ufouria The Saga - 100%
A nice, pleasant little metroidvania. Ahead of the curve in many respects.
5/5
55. Castlevania Dracula X - Best Ending
A really good Castlevania that gets a lot of flack for not being Rondo of Blood, which I think is both fair and unfair as its different enough that a few changes could have made this its own unique entry.
4/5
56. Contra - Normal Playthrough (Konami Code)
Got around to that Contra collection finally. The game is a classic but a bit rough, doesnt help that Im sick and have less patience because of it but at least the Konami code guaranteed this was a smooth ride.
4/5
57. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - 100% Jedi Master Playthrough
Heyyyy that was pretty good! Despite the game being held together with shoestrings there was clearly a vision and an idea that was executed really well. Just wish they would patch some of this stuff up, especially performance, but thankfully none of it was game breaking or ruining (outside of one weird death).
4/5
58. Far Cry: New Dawn - Tough Playthrough
I kinda dont know how to feel about this one honestly. Its fun, but kinda mindless, and the more grindy aspects of the game that exist to hide the lack of content are very blatant. Far Cry has become kinda like a comfort food, but I miss when there was some ambition in these games, they're due to a shakeup like AssCreed Origins.
3/5
And here's the detailed stats:
1. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch) | 5th Jan - 4hrs | 5/5
2. Shovel Knight (Switch) | 6th Jan - 4hrs | 5/5
3. Mega Man X (Switch) | 12th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
4. Mega Man X2 (Switch) | 12th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
5. Mega Man X3 (Switch) | 12th Jan - 2hrs | 3/5
6. Mega Man X4 (Switch) | 13th Jan - 4hrs | 5/5
7 Super Mario Bros. (WiiU) | 14th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
8. Super Mario 64 (WiiU) | 16th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 (WiiU) | 16th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
10. Super Mario Bros. 3 (WiiU) | 17th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
11. Super Mario World (WiiU) | 18th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
12. LoZ: A Link to the Past (WiiU) | 20th Jan - 5m | 5/5
13. LoZ: Ocarina of Time (WiiU) | 20th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
14. Hitman: Blood Money (PS4) | 26th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
15. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch) | 27th Jan - 5hrs | 4/5
16. Hollow Knight (Switch) | 4th Feb - 20hrs | 5/5
17. Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) | 16th Feb - 28hrs | 5/5
18. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch) | 19th Feb - 8hrs | 5/5
19. Sonic Mania (Switch) | 23rd Feb - 6hrs | 5/5
20. The Messenger (Switch) | 1st Mar - 11hrs | 5/5
21. DMCV (PS4) | 13th Mar - 20hrs | 5/5
22. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch) | 30th Mar - 4hrs | 5/5
23. Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4) | 5th May - 5hrs | 4/5
24. Gargoyle's Quest 2 (WiiU) | 22nd Jun - 1hr | 4/5
25. Demon's Crest (WiiU) | 23rd Jun - 3hrs | 5/5
26. The Last Guardian (PS4) | 26th Jun - 12hrs | 5/5
27. Donkey Kong Country (WiiU) | 27th Jun - 3hrs | 5/5
28. Donkey Kong Country 2 (WiiU) | 29th Jun - 9hrs | 5/5
29. Cuphead (Switch) | 6th Jul - 6hrs | 5/5
30. Shinobi 3 (Switch) | 7th Jul - 1hr | 4/5
31. Odallus (Switch) | 8th Jul - 6hrs | 5/5
32. Slain: Back from Hell (Switch) | 18th Jul - 5hrs | 3/5
33. Blazing Chrome (Switch) | 20th Jul - 2hrs | 4/5
34. Oniken (Switch) | 30th Jul - 2hrs | 4/5
35. Mega Man 11 (Switch) | 3rd Aug - 2hrs | 5/5
36. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike (Switch) | 4th Aug - 1hr | 4/5
37. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (Switch) | 4th Aug - 3hrs | 4/5
38. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Switch) | 6th Aug - 1hr | 4/5
39. Hitman 2016 (PS4) | 1st Sep - 10hrs | 5/5
40. Dark Souls: Remastered (Switch) | 17th Sep - 19hrs | 5/5
41. SUPERHOT (Switch) | 18th Sep - 4hrs | 5/5
42. Hotline Miami (Switch) | 18th Sep - 4hrs | 5/5
43. Hotline Miami 2 (Switch) | 19th Sep - 4hrs | 5/5
44. Resident Evil 4 (Switch) | 28th Sep - 15hrs | 5/5
45. Sekiro (PS4) | 7th Oct - 36hrs | 5/5
46. Castlevania (Switch) | 14th Oct - 1hr | 5/5
47. Castlevania 3 (Switch) | 20th Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
48. Super Castlevania 4 (Switch) | 20th Oct - 3hrs | 5/5
49. Kid Dracula (Switch) | 22nd Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
50. Super C (WiiU) | 25th Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
51. Ninja Gaiden (WiiU) | 26th Oct - 3hrs | 5/5
52. Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge (Switch) | 26th Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
53. Castlevania Bloodlines (Switch) | 2nd Nov - 2hrs | 5/5
54. Ufouria The Saga (WiiU) | 10th Nov - 4hrs | 5/5
55. Castlevania Dracula X (WiiU) | 11th Nov - 1hr | 4/5
56. Contra (Switch) | 7th Dec - 30m | 4/5
57. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) | 27th Dec - 20hrs | 4/5
58. Far Cry: New Dawn (PS4) | 30th Dec - 17hrs | 3/5
2. Shovel Knight (Switch) | 6th Jan - 4hrs | 5/5
3. Mega Man X (Switch) | 12th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
4. Mega Man X2 (Switch) | 12th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
5. Mega Man X3 (Switch) | 12th Jan - 2hrs | 3/5
6. Mega Man X4 (Switch) | 13th Jan - 4hrs | 5/5
7 Super Mario Bros. (WiiU) | 14th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
8. Super Mario 64 (WiiU) | 16th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
9. Super Mario Bros. 2 (WiiU) | 16th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
10. Super Mario Bros. 3 (WiiU) | 17th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
11. Super Mario World (WiiU) | 18th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
12. LoZ: A Link to the Past (WiiU) | 20th Jan - 5m | 5/5
13. LoZ: Ocarina of Time (WiiU) | 20th Jan - 2hrs | 5/5
14. Hitman: Blood Money (PS4) | 26th Jan - 1hr | 5/5
15. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch) | 27th Jan - 5hrs | 4/5
16. Hollow Knight (Switch) | 4th Feb - 20hrs | 5/5
17. Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch) | 16th Feb - 28hrs | 5/5
18. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Switch) | 19th Feb - 8hrs | 5/5
19. Sonic Mania (Switch) | 23rd Feb - 6hrs | 5/5
20. The Messenger (Switch) | 1st Mar - 11hrs | 5/5
21. DMCV (PS4) | 13th Mar - 20hrs | 5/5
22. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch) | 30th Mar - 4hrs | 5/5
23. Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4) | 5th May - 5hrs | 4/5
24. Gargoyle's Quest 2 (WiiU) | 22nd Jun - 1hr | 4/5
25. Demon's Crest (WiiU) | 23rd Jun - 3hrs | 5/5
26. The Last Guardian (PS4) | 26th Jun - 12hrs | 5/5
27. Donkey Kong Country (WiiU) | 27th Jun - 3hrs | 5/5
28. Donkey Kong Country 2 (WiiU) | 29th Jun - 9hrs | 5/5
29. Cuphead (Switch) | 6th Jul - 6hrs | 5/5
30. Shinobi 3 (Switch) | 7th Jul - 1hr | 4/5
31. Odallus (Switch) | 8th Jul - 6hrs | 5/5
32. Slain: Back from Hell (Switch) | 18th Jul - 5hrs | 3/5
33. Blazing Chrome (Switch) | 20th Jul - 2hrs | 4/5
34. Oniken (Switch) | 30th Jul - 2hrs | 4/5
35. Mega Man 11 (Switch) | 3rd Aug - 2hrs | 5/5
36. Street Fighter 3: Third Strike (Switch) | 4th Aug - 1hr | 4/5
37. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (Switch) | 4th Aug - 3hrs | 4/5
38. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Switch) | 6th Aug - 1hr | 4/5
39. Hitman 2016 (PS4) | 1st Sep - 10hrs | 5/5
40. Dark Souls: Remastered (Switch) | 17th Sep - 19hrs | 5/5
41. SUPERHOT (Switch) | 18th Sep - 4hrs | 5/5
42. Hotline Miami (Switch) | 18th Sep - 4hrs | 5/5
43. Hotline Miami 2 (Switch) | 19th Sep - 4hrs | 5/5
44. Resident Evil 4 (Switch) | 28th Sep - 15hrs | 5/5
45. Sekiro (PS4) | 7th Oct - 36hrs | 5/5
46. Castlevania (Switch) | 14th Oct - 1hr | 5/5
47. Castlevania 3 (Switch) | 20th Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
48. Super Castlevania 4 (Switch) | 20th Oct - 3hrs | 5/5
49. Kid Dracula (Switch) | 22nd Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
50. Super C (WiiU) | 25th Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
51. Ninja Gaiden (WiiU) | 26th Oct - 3hrs | 5/5
52. Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge (Switch) | 26th Oct - 2hrs | 5/5
53. Castlevania Bloodlines (Switch) | 2nd Nov - 2hrs | 5/5
54. Ufouria The Saga (WiiU) | 10th Nov - 4hrs | 5/5
55. Castlevania Dracula X (WiiU) | 11th Nov - 1hr | 4/5
56. Contra (Switch) | 7th Dec - 30m | 4/5
57. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) | 27th Dec - 20hrs | 4/5
58. Far Cry: New Dawn (PS4) | 30th Dec - 17hrs | 3/5
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GAME #03: Passpartout The Starving Artist
Flamebait Games - PC - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Saw a couple of the endings and painted a lot of bad paintings (20 hours, 72% Steam achievements)
Comments:
This is a game about making and selling painted art.
Working out of a lock-up in a dingy Parisian side street I, as Passpartout, the protagonist, started out with nothing more than a canvas, a single brush option, a limited palette of colours and vague aspiration to artistic greatness. To progress I created works of "art" to sell to a number of passersby who all have their own idea of what they want from their purchases. In the starting location these amount to Benjamin, who will pretty much purchase anything, the punks who like loud brash colours and passionate expressionist styles, and the old men who like more refined, muted, realistic works.
On the face of it the idea is simple, tailor my paintings to particular buyer types and progress through three acts of my career. In reality though the algorithm that judged my work is complex enough to make some of the routes pretty tricky, or, as an uncultured yokel like myself, damn near impossible! As hard as I try to make passionate, exciting abstract art I cannot fool the pesky expressionists and as much as I try to reign in my applications of paint and colour to canvas I just can't consistently please the fussy minimalists! In fact I've only managed to get the design and realism endings despite playing for twenty hours.
As I progressed through the acts I was given more tools to use but only three, the original brush; a speckling spray can; and a steady pen. It's a limited tool set which frankly is for the best but I'd still love to see a couple more advanced tools, perhaps a way to mask spaces and perhaps some actual paint options for example. I do however think the limited colour palette does limit creative choice, particularly for someone like me with quite bad colour perception. The ability to mix the current set of colours would be perfect and I could see a animated palette and brush being a rather nice thing.
The game mechanics are pretty fun but I have to say I found the underlying commentary on art, artists and indeed art buyers the most interesting thing. I'm not sure I agree with it but it certainly made me think about commercial art more than I have since I was a student. The underlying game mechanics could be argued to be in and of themselves a fairly broad brush commentary on artists consciously or unconsciously responding to an audience through their works. I mean it's pretty easy to simply pay the bills creating dross and it's just as easy to turn off an audience by simply creating what inspires you on any given day. The game actively pushes you to eschew you're own creative desires to please an audience and thus progress. It's an interesting dilemma but I'm not sure it's a satisfying one to pursue in a game. That might just be the overall feeling of general cynicism with the art world that the game seems to present though. From the very name of the game to the mostly snotty punters to the oh so very revered and pretentious critics, it surely takes a position, satire or not.
Regardless though, I've had a lot of fun and reservations about the way art is presented make me a miserable old sod rather than Passpartout a lesser game. It's certainly not enough to put me off saying this is a pretty good game with some interesting subtext that's worth a play through if you've ever spent an afternoon creating art in MS Paint!
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Main Post
#6: The Dwarves (PC) | 9.5h | Jan 23 | ★★
I really wish I would have been able to enjoy the game more since I'm a fan of the books. But I have to say that I was glad once I finally saw the credits. And it's not even a long game. But let me start off with the positive things about the game. I liked the characters and the story (as expected) even though it's "just" your usual fantasy stuff. It also looked quite nice and had well-done cutscenes. And I think that's about it. While I enjoyed the story in general, the pacing was off, especially towards the end. The voice acting was ok most of the time but they managed to screw up the German VA even though it's based on a German book series and developed by a German dev team.
Now for the stuff I didn't like. I expected a bit more freedom to skill your characters but it's on the same level as God of War (2018). Loot was pretty much non-existent. The movement on the map was annoying because they tied some food/resource mechanic to it. By far the worst offender was the fighting, though, and there's quite a bit of it in the game. It's RTwP which I usually enjoy. But they did a terrible job with it in the game. First of all, they don't do a good job explaining it. Until the last 1.5h of the game, I didn't know that you could switch skills and I still don't know how equipping stuff from your inventory (like health potions) actually works. Sometimes I had them available in combat, sometimes I didn't. Also, there were battles were my party started with just half of their health even though I made sure I selected party members that had full health. Those were just the basics. The fighting itself was nightmare stuff. Extremely chaotic, most of the time you don't know where your party members are. Then they or enemies kept shoving each other around and blocked each other's paths. That's especially bad since sometimes you encounter like 30-50 enemies at once and just get stuck and/or die because of it.
My rating might be a bit harsher than normal but I really am disappointed even though I didn't expect that much of the game.
#6: The Dwarves (PC) | 9.5h | Jan 23 | ★★
I really wish I would have been able to enjoy the game more since I'm a fan of the books. But I have to say that I was glad once I finally saw the credits. And it's not even a long game. But let me start off with the positive things about the game. I liked the characters and the story (as expected) even though it's "just" your usual fantasy stuff. It also looked quite nice and had well-done cutscenes. And I think that's about it. While I enjoyed the story in general, the pacing was off, especially towards the end. The voice acting was ok most of the time but they managed to screw up the German VA even though it's based on a German book series and developed by a German dev team.
Now for the stuff I didn't like. I expected a bit more freedom to skill your characters but it's on the same level as God of War (2018). Loot was pretty much non-existent. The movement on the map was annoying because they tied some food/resource mechanic to it. By far the worst offender was the fighting, though, and there's quite a bit of it in the game. It's RTwP which I usually enjoy. But they did a terrible job with it in the game. First of all, they don't do a good job explaining it. Until the last 1.5h of the game, I didn't know that you could switch skills and I still don't know how equipping stuff from your inventory (like health potions) actually works. Sometimes I had them available in combat, sometimes I didn't. Also, there were battles were my party started with just half of their health even though I made sure I selected party members that had full health. Those were just the basics. The fighting itself was nightmare stuff. Extremely chaotic, most of the time you don't know where your party members are. Then they or enemies kept shoving each other around and blocked each other's paths. That's especially bad since sometimes you encounter like 30-50 enemies at once and just get stuck and/or die because of it.
My rating might be a bit harsher than normal but I really am disappointed even though I didn't expect that much of the game.
It's not an idle game but as someone with over 300 hours into Kerbal Space Program over several years who hasn't yet added it to one of my lists in these threads, I feel your pain!
Master Post
10. Mortal Kombat 10 - Played the story mode. Really enjoyed the story mode and catching up with some of the lore as its my first Mortal Kombat since 5. Will absolutely play Mortal Kombat 11 one day.
11. Life is Strange 2 Episode 1 - Replayed the episode before episode 2 releases tomorrow. Explored a little more this time and was rewarded for it in a particular scene. Really loved the story and now to decide if I want to play the remaining episodes day 1 or 90 days later.
10. Mortal Kombat 10 - Played the story mode. Really enjoyed the story mode and catching up with some of the lore as its my first Mortal Kombat since 5. Will absolutely play Mortal Kombat 11 one day.
11. Life is Strange 2 Episode 1 - Replayed the episode before episode 2 releases tomorrow. Explored a little more this time and was rewarded for it in a particular scene. Really loved the story and now to decide if I want to play the remaining episodes day 1 or 90 days later.
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8. Okami (30 hours)
It's easier than Kamiya's games usually are, but it's a wonderful specimen of a game nonetheless.
Full list to date
It's easier than Kamiya's games usually are, but it's a wonderful specimen of a game nonetheless.
Full list to date
Not idle games but I get stuck playing Hungry Cat Picross on my phone instead of the handheld backlog most of the time. I also often get stuck playing another playthrough of Mass Effect or Dragon Age Inquisition, long games I have already beaten.
Right now it's going very well with the backlog battle. But I know I will fall down that hole sooner or later.
Here we go again!
1. Dishonored 2 (XBox One)
Recommend? Yes
Played through initially as Emily, I may play through again as Corvo to see if there is much differences in the nuances of the story and to use his powers, but on the other hand may not. This game didn't grip me quite as much as the first one. It's a fun game, and I would recommend it to most players, but not an all-time memorable game
2. Tropical Freeze (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
This is a replay for me as I played it on the WiiU. I don't like it as much as many gamers do, but it's still a great platformer.
3. Celeste (Switch)
Recommend? Absolutely!
This is one of my favorite games now that was released last year. If you like Super Meat Boy, you have to try this game. Tight controls, fair - but challenging - levels, etc. A great game that I think all should try
4. Mega Man 11 (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
This is a great return to the Mega Man series. Fun levels, the implentation of a new mechanic (the gears system) and nice clean graphics that fit the mood of Mega Man games.
5. Skyrim (Switch)
Recommend? Of course
I had started this game on the PS3 but dropped it due to life commitments. Glad I finally had a change to play it. Terrific game.
6. Gone Home (PS4)
Recommend? No
I always try to go back and play some of my GwG/PS+/Gamepass games from time to time - this was one of those times. My biggest problem is that this was a walking simulator to tell a story (and tbh not my favorite style/genre of gaming), but it was executed poorly as it was obvious very early how the story would go. This is a short game though if you want to play it as a palette cleanser.
7. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch)
Recommend? Absolutely
This is another replay for me as I also played it on the WiiU. I enjoy this more than DKCTF, and in fact is right up there with Super Mario World as my favorite 2D Mario (and 2D platfomer)
8. Thomas was Alone (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes
Played this via gamepass and really glad I did. It's a (light) puzzle/2D platformer. A bit easy, which is fine by me as I dislike ones that are overly difficult that are basically just massive trial-and-error fests.
9. Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix (PS4)
Recommend? Yes
Slowly getting caught up on the KH series. The improvements in this game from KH1 and Chain of Memories is incredible. I know this ranked high on the ERA RPG list last year and I see why - incredible game. Can't wait to play Birth by Sleep next
10. Cosmic Star Heroine (Vita)
Recommend? Only if you want a short vanilla JRPG or an easy Platinum trophy
I really wanted to like this game. A to the point RPG without a lot of fluff or unnecessary grinding. Unfortunately, due to trying to be that, it was hard to get invested into the story which is crucial for this genre. Just didn't stick wtih me. Easy platinum trophy to get though
11. Bloodstained (Xbox one)
Recommend? Yes; esp if you love NES Castlevanias
This is pretty much a NES Castlevania with some added spice to it. Which I loved as the original trilogy were some of my favorite NES games.
12. Metal Slug XX (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? If you have GamePass and have a couple of hours to kill
early 90's style shoot-em-up. Was mindless fun while playing it, and glad I did, but wouldn't go out of my way to play it again.
13. Sonic CD (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? Yes, if you are a Sonic Fan
This game is pretty much more 16-bit Sonic. Nothing new, but still classic gameplay
14. Resident Evil 2 2019 (PS4)
Recommend? OMG yes
I'm biased as the original was my favorite RE game of all time. But daaaaaaamn this game is amazing. As stated before this game now sets the new bar for remakes. Unless you are against the survival horror genre, I encourage people to try this game once it hits a suitable price point for them.
15. Crackdown 3 (Xbox One)
Recommend? If you have GamePass or once it's 50% off
Not to use the overused term to describe this game, but it is fun. I'm not bashing the reviewers as I don't think this is some great game everyone must try, but it's a fun 8 hour platforming and shooting romp. Nothing more; nothing less
16. Castlevania Lords of Shadow (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? If you really enjoy character action games
As a preface, I will admit that this genre (Character action games) isn't my favorite genre. That said, this game is a bit of a slog. It doesn't bring much new to the table IMO that isn't surpassed by the original God of War trilogy, DMC series or Bayonetta series. Also the controls gave me fits at time during platforming sections, a certain boss fight and a couple of other places. I love the overal Castlevania lore and world, and that is the only reason why I kept working....and I mean working....through this game.
17. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinte (PS4)
Recommend? No
Don't know how to begin with this. It's a major downgrade from 3. The story mode is a convoluted mess. The graphics are uglier (IMO) and the arcade mode is ridic to complete. I powered through it, but kinda wish I had my time back.
18. Super Luigi U (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
I never played the DLC on the WiiU so this was fresh for me. I really enjoyed the take on the SMBWU levels using Luigi. Short, sweet, more challenging.
19. Star Fox (SNES Mini)
Recommend? Yes
Still a fun game a quarter of a century later. IMO it's amazing how Nintendo just nailed the fun factor with games in the SNES era that many developers still can't do the same today.
20. Devil May Cry (Xbox One)
Recommend? Only if you want to play the best game in the "Character Action" genre
This was my first game in the genre (in fact is it considered the original label?) and IMO still the best of the ones I played. Just another testament that shows you that good games do in fact "age well"
21. Spyro the Dragon (PS4)
Recommend? Yes, it's a fun 3D platformer, but there are better out there
This is the first time I ever played any Spyro game. It's a solid game for when it came out and holds up pretty well. It's not a top-tier game in the genre but a good game nonetheless
22. MLB the Show '18 (PS4)
Recommend? Absolute must for baseball fans
This series is the best there is for baseball videogames. I stay away from Diamond Dynasty and the F2P aspects of it, but RttS and Franchise are phenomenal
23. Cave Story+ (Switch)
Recommend? If you want a short game to complete
Maybe I had my expectations too high from reading all the positive comments regarding this game. Maybe, despite already knowing that it was made by only one person, I expected more from the game, but the game just was kinda 'meh' for me.
24. Punch-out (Switch)
Recommend? It's an all-time classic
One of the very best NES games, period. Still holds up well to this day.
25. Red Dead Redemption 2 (XB1)
Recommend? The gameplay isn't the best, but everything else about this game is phenomenal.
26. Uncharted Golden Abyss (Vita)
Recommend? If you are an Uncharted fan
I'm a big Uncharted fan so I really enjoyed this game. Some parts of it were annoying (the forced touchscreen bits and forced gyro controls everytime you crossed a beam), but still was a good game
27. Far Cry 5 (XB1)
Recommend? If you like Ubisoft Open-World and Far Cry, then this is a good game (which I do)
I liked the slight tweaks to evolve the concept of story progression in this game and the Guns/Fangs for Hire elements. I enjoyed FC4 a lot more however. Look forward to playing New Dawn despite this.
28. Devil May Cry 2 (XB1)
Recommend? Only if you are like me and trying to play through the series
29. Castlevania (Switch)
Recommend? It's a classic game, but later sequels - namely III and IV - are much better
30. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch)
Recommend? If you like old-school Castlevania games - absolutely
I had never played Bloodlines before so was happy having the chance to do so on the Collection. It's a fun CV game. I like IV better, but still a great game
31. Sonic and Knuckles (XBox One BC)
Recommend? If you are a Sonic Fan, then yes
I'm not a huge Sonic fan (2 is my favorite by a mile), but this game did impress me with how open the levels were and if one were inclined to do so gives it a lot of added replayability
32. Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox one BC)
Recommend? Yes, a fun on-rails shooter
This was my first time playing any game from this series and was impressed with the gameplay.
33. Castlevania III (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
This game really was a major achievement when it was released and IMO the toughest Castlevania for the NES/SNES. The ability to switch characters and alternate routes really lead to a lot of content
34. Castlevania IV (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
Growing up this was my favorite Castlevania and to this day it still is. Just a masterpiece for that style of CV games
35. Contra (Switch)
Recommend? If you want to see how the series started
I had never, ever played any Contra game prior to getting the Collection on the Switch. The OHK makes it a very difficult game with some frustrating moments (this applies to all three games that I played and will mention below)
36. Super C (Switch)
Recommend? If you liked the first Contra
Pretty similar to the first Contra, despite different level design nothing really stood out to me
37. Contra III (Switch)
Recommend? If you like Contra and Super C, this surpasses them by a good bit
Since this was from a time where games made huge leaps in generations, this game is really polished and has expands on the NES contra games
38. Shadow of War (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes.
I never played any of this game prior to the major patch that came out last summer which really negated a lot of the elements that gave this game bad press so I can only speak for what I did play. This game was a blast, esp since I'm a Lord of the Rings fan. I was lukewarm about Shadow of Mordor, but I thought this game really refined the gameplay from that game and made everything regarding it much more fun to play
39. Streets of Rage 3 (Switch)
Recommend? If you enjoy old-school side-scrolling beat-em-ups
If you have played any SoR or any other 8- or 16-bit sidescrolling beat-em-ups you know what this is, it's more of the same tbh
40. Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox One) - This is a replay
Recommend? Yes, one of the defining games on console
My fourth or fifth playthrough of this game
41. Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
Recommend? Yes, a great take on the Mario formula
I loved the story mode. Was a great addition to an already great package/franchise
42. Devil May Cry 3 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes - my new favorite character (stylish?) action game
This genre isn't one of my favorite genres, but I loved the first DMC. This has surpassed that. I can't wait to play DMC5
43. Madden 20 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes - if you are an American football fan
It's Madden, you know what you are getting
44. Guacamelee 2 (Switch)
Recommend? If you like Metroidvania games, then yes. It's one of the better ones out there. Great mechanics
If you played the first Guacamelee you know what you are getting here
45. FFXV A King's Tale (Xbox One)
Recommend? To give backstory to any FFXV playthrough (at least I was told that)
It's a throwback to the 16-bit side-scrolling beat-em-ups. It's fairly short so not a big time investment
46. Assassin's Creed (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? Not really
I powered through this in order to get a sense of the backstory of Assassin's Creed, but honestly it's not worth the time.
47. Ys Origin (Vita)
Recommend? Yes, esp for any Ys fan
My only gripe on this game is that in order to get the complete story, you have to play through the game 3 times. Each playthrough seems to be very, VERY similar. I wound up dropping it halfway through my second playthrough. Still counting it as complete as I played through it with one character and saw credits roll.
48. Gradius (Switch)
Recommend? Not unless you are really bored.
I'm not a big fan of the genre, but this game harkens back to the arcade style games where deaths come quick and easy in order to suck quarters from you
49. Control (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes, very much so
This is my favorite Remedy game by far and IMO one of the best games I've played this year. The powers are fun to use in conjunction with the various forms of the gun. The storytelling is top-notch also
50. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Playstation 4)
Recommend? One of the best Action RPGs I've played and my favorite KH to date
Ys Origin should take notes, this is how you get me to do three different playthroughs with three different characters.
51. Devil May Cry 5 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes. One of, if not the, best character action games as well as a GOTY contender
This game is so damn good it's wanting me to keep replaying it. The gameplay is sublime
52. Link's Awakening Remake (Switch)
Switch? It's Zelda - hell yes
While I may not love this game as much as some, it's still a master piece and one of the best games of the year
53. Gears 5 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes
Gears 5 has probably gone down as my favorite gears game. Can't wait to see what comes next
1. Dishonored 2 (XBox One)
Recommend? Yes
Played through initially as Emily, I may play through again as Corvo to see if there is much differences in the nuances of the story and to use his powers, but on the other hand may not. This game didn't grip me quite as much as the first one. It's a fun game, and I would recommend it to most players, but not an all-time memorable game
2. Tropical Freeze (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
This is a replay for me as I played it on the WiiU. I don't like it as much as many gamers do, but it's still a great platformer.
3. Celeste (Switch)
Recommend? Absolutely!
This is one of my favorite games now that was released last year. If you like Super Meat Boy, you have to try this game. Tight controls, fair - but challenging - levels, etc. A great game that I think all should try
4. Mega Man 11 (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
This is a great return to the Mega Man series. Fun levels, the implentation of a new mechanic (the gears system) and nice clean graphics that fit the mood of Mega Man games.
5. Skyrim (Switch)
Recommend? Of course
I had started this game on the PS3 but dropped it due to life commitments. Glad I finally had a change to play it. Terrific game.
6. Gone Home (PS4)
Recommend? No
I always try to go back and play some of my GwG/PS+/Gamepass games from time to time - this was one of those times. My biggest problem is that this was a walking simulator to tell a story (and tbh not my favorite style/genre of gaming), but it was executed poorly as it was obvious very early how the story would go. This is a short game though if you want to play it as a palette cleanser.
7. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch)
Recommend? Absolutely
This is another replay for me as I also played it on the WiiU. I enjoy this more than DKCTF, and in fact is right up there with Super Mario World as my favorite 2D Mario (and 2D platfomer)
8. Thomas was Alone (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes
Played this via gamepass and really glad I did. It's a (light) puzzle/2D platformer. A bit easy, which is fine by me as I dislike ones that are overly difficult that are basically just massive trial-and-error fests.
9. Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix (PS4)
Recommend? Yes
Slowly getting caught up on the KH series. The improvements in this game from KH1 and Chain of Memories is incredible. I know this ranked high on the ERA RPG list last year and I see why - incredible game. Can't wait to play Birth by Sleep next
10. Cosmic Star Heroine (Vita)
Recommend? Only if you want a short vanilla JRPG or an easy Platinum trophy
I really wanted to like this game. A to the point RPG without a lot of fluff or unnecessary grinding. Unfortunately, due to trying to be that, it was hard to get invested into the story which is crucial for this genre. Just didn't stick wtih me. Easy platinum trophy to get though
11. Bloodstained (Xbox one)
Recommend? Yes; esp if you love NES Castlevanias
This is pretty much a NES Castlevania with some added spice to it. Which I loved as the original trilogy were some of my favorite NES games.
12. Metal Slug XX (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? If you have GamePass and have a couple of hours to kill
early 90's style shoot-em-up. Was mindless fun while playing it, and glad I did, but wouldn't go out of my way to play it again.
13. Sonic CD (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? Yes, if you are a Sonic Fan
This game is pretty much more 16-bit Sonic. Nothing new, but still classic gameplay
14. Resident Evil 2 2019 (PS4)
Recommend? OMG yes
I'm biased as the original was my favorite RE game of all time. But daaaaaaamn this game is amazing. As stated before this game now sets the new bar for remakes. Unless you are against the survival horror genre, I encourage people to try this game once it hits a suitable price point for them.
15. Crackdown 3 (Xbox One)
Recommend? If you have GamePass or once it's 50% off
Not to use the overused term to describe this game, but it is fun. I'm not bashing the reviewers as I don't think this is some great game everyone must try, but it's a fun 8 hour platforming and shooting romp. Nothing more; nothing less
16. Castlevania Lords of Shadow (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? If you really enjoy character action games
As a preface, I will admit that this genre (Character action games) isn't my favorite genre. That said, this game is a bit of a slog. It doesn't bring much new to the table IMO that isn't surpassed by the original God of War trilogy, DMC series or Bayonetta series. Also the controls gave me fits at time during platforming sections, a certain boss fight and a couple of other places. I love the overal Castlevania lore and world, and that is the only reason why I kept working....and I mean working....through this game.
17. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinte (PS4)
Recommend? No
Don't know how to begin with this. It's a major downgrade from 3. The story mode is a convoluted mess. The graphics are uglier (IMO) and the arcade mode is ridic to complete. I powered through it, but kinda wish I had my time back.
18. Super Luigi U (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
I never played the DLC on the WiiU so this was fresh for me. I really enjoyed the take on the SMBWU levels using Luigi. Short, sweet, more challenging.
19. Star Fox (SNES Mini)
Recommend? Yes
Still a fun game a quarter of a century later. IMO it's amazing how Nintendo just nailed the fun factor with games in the SNES era that many developers still can't do the same today.
20. Devil May Cry (Xbox One)
Recommend? Only if you want to play the best game in the "Character Action" genre
This was my first game in the genre (in fact is it considered the original label?) and IMO still the best of the ones I played. Just another testament that shows you that good games do in fact "age well"
21. Spyro the Dragon (PS4)
Recommend? Yes, it's a fun 3D platformer, but there are better out there
This is the first time I ever played any Spyro game. It's a solid game for when it came out and holds up pretty well. It's not a top-tier game in the genre but a good game nonetheless
22. MLB the Show '18 (PS4)
Recommend? Absolute must for baseball fans
This series is the best there is for baseball videogames. I stay away from Diamond Dynasty and the F2P aspects of it, but RttS and Franchise are phenomenal
23. Cave Story+ (Switch)
Recommend? If you want a short game to complete
Maybe I had my expectations too high from reading all the positive comments regarding this game. Maybe, despite already knowing that it was made by only one person, I expected more from the game, but the game just was kinda 'meh' for me.
24. Punch-out (Switch)
Recommend? It's an all-time classic
One of the very best NES games, period. Still holds up well to this day.
25. Red Dead Redemption 2 (XB1)
Recommend? The gameplay isn't the best, but everything else about this game is phenomenal.
26. Uncharted Golden Abyss (Vita)
Recommend? If you are an Uncharted fan
I'm a big Uncharted fan so I really enjoyed this game. Some parts of it were annoying (the forced touchscreen bits and forced gyro controls everytime you crossed a beam), but still was a good game
27. Far Cry 5 (XB1)
Recommend? If you like Ubisoft Open-World and Far Cry, then this is a good game (which I do)
I liked the slight tweaks to evolve the concept of story progression in this game and the Guns/Fangs for Hire elements. I enjoyed FC4 a lot more however. Look forward to playing New Dawn despite this.
28. Devil May Cry 2 (XB1)
Recommend? Only if you are like me and trying to play through the series
29. Castlevania (Switch)
Recommend? It's a classic game, but later sequels - namely III and IV - are much better
30. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch)
Recommend? If you like old-school Castlevania games - absolutely
I had never played Bloodlines before so was happy having the chance to do so on the Collection. It's a fun CV game. I like IV better, but still a great game
31. Sonic and Knuckles (XBox One BC)
Recommend? If you are a Sonic Fan, then yes
I'm not a huge Sonic fan (2 is my favorite by a mile), but this game did impress me with how open the levels were and if one were inclined to do so gives it a lot of added replayability
32. Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox one BC)
Recommend? Yes, a fun on-rails shooter
This was my first time playing any game from this series and was impressed with the gameplay.
33. Castlevania III (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
This game really was a major achievement when it was released and IMO the toughest Castlevania for the NES/SNES. The ability to switch characters and alternate routes really lead to a lot of content
34. Castlevania IV (Switch)
Recommend? Yes
Growing up this was my favorite Castlevania and to this day it still is. Just a masterpiece for that style of CV games
35. Contra (Switch)
Recommend? If you want to see how the series started
I had never, ever played any Contra game prior to getting the Collection on the Switch. The OHK makes it a very difficult game with some frustrating moments (this applies to all three games that I played and will mention below)
36. Super C (Switch)
Recommend? If you liked the first Contra
Pretty similar to the first Contra, despite different level design nothing really stood out to me
37. Contra III (Switch)
Recommend? If you like Contra and Super C, this surpasses them by a good bit
Since this was from a time where games made huge leaps in generations, this game is really polished and has expands on the NES contra games
38. Shadow of War (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes.
I never played any of this game prior to the major patch that came out last summer which really negated a lot of the elements that gave this game bad press so I can only speak for what I did play. This game was a blast, esp since I'm a Lord of the Rings fan. I was lukewarm about Shadow of Mordor, but I thought this game really refined the gameplay from that game and made everything regarding it much more fun to play
39. Streets of Rage 3 (Switch)
Recommend? If you enjoy old-school side-scrolling beat-em-ups
If you have played any SoR or any other 8- or 16-bit sidescrolling beat-em-ups you know what this is, it's more of the same tbh
40. Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox One) - This is a replay
Recommend? Yes, one of the defining games on console
My fourth or fifth playthrough of this game
41. Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
Recommend? Yes, a great take on the Mario formula
I loved the story mode. Was a great addition to an already great package/franchise
42. Devil May Cry 3 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes - my new favorite character (stylish?) action game
This genre isn't one of my favorite genres, but I loved the first DMC. This has surpassed that. I can't wait to play DMC5
43. Madden 20 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes - if you are an American football fan
It's Madden, you know what you are getting
44. Guacamelee 2 (Switch)
Recommend? If you like Metroidvania games, then yes. It's one of the better ones out there. Great mechanics
If you played the first Guacamelee you know what you are getting here
45. FFXV A King's Tale (Xbox One)
Recommend? To give backstory to any FFXV playthrough (at least I was told that)
It's a throwback to the 16-bit side-scrolling beat-em-ups. It's fairly short so not a big time investment
46. Assassin's Creed (Xbox One BC)
Recommend? Not really
I powered through this in order to get a sense of the backstory of Assassin's Creed, but honestly it's not worth the time.
47. Ys Origin (Vita)
Recommend? Yes, esp for any Ys fan
My only gripe on this game is that in order to get the complete story, you have to play through the game 3 times. Each playthrough seems to be very, VERY similar. I wound up dropping it halfway through my second playthrough. Still counting it as complete as I played through it with one character and saw credits roll.
48. Gradius (Switch)
Recommend? Not unless you are really bored.
I'm not a big fan of the genre, but this game harkens back to the arcade style games where deaths come quick and easy in order to suck quarters from you
49. Control (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes, very much so
This is my favorite Remedy game by far and IMO one of the best games I've played this year. The powers are fun to use in conjunction with the various forms of the gun. The storytelling is top-notch also
50. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Playstation 4)
Recommend? One of the best Action RPGs I've played and my favorite KH to date
Ys Origin should take notes, this is how you get me to do three different playthroughs with three different characters.
51. Devil May Cry 5 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes. One of, if not the, best character action games as well as a GOTY contender
This game is so damn good it's wanting me to keep replaying it. The gameplay is sublime
52. Link's Awakening Remake (Switch)
Switch? It's Zelda - hell yes
While I may not love this game as much as some, it's still a master piece and one of the best games of the year
53. Gears 5 (Xbox One)
Recommend? Yes
Gears 5 has probably gone down as my favorite gears game. Can't wait to see what comes next
1. Dishonored 2 (Xbox One) | 2nd Jan - 13hrs | 3.5/5
2. Tropical Freeze (Switch) | 3rd Jan - 8hrs | 4/5
3. Celeste (Switch | 5th Jan - 5hrs | 4.5/5
4. Mega Man 11 (Switch) | 6th Jan - 5 hrs | 3/5
5. Skyrim (Switch) | 14th Jan - 73 hrs | 4/5
6. Gone Home (PS4) | 14th Jan - 2 hrs | 1.5/5
7. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch) | 20th Jan - 12 hrs | 4.5/5
8. Thomas was Alone (Xbox One) | 20th Jan - 3 hrs | 3.5/5
9. Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS4) | 24th Jan - 29 hrs | 4.5/5
10. Cosmic Star Heroine (Vita) | 1st Feb - 12 hours | 2.5/5
11. Bloodstained (Xbox One) | 14th Feb - 2 hours | 4/5
12. Metal Slug XX (Xbox One BC) | 15th Feb - 2 hours | 3.5/5
13. Sonic CD (Xbox One BC) | 18th Feb - 3 hours | 3.5/5
14. Resident Evil 2 (PS4) | 3rd Mar - 30 hours | 5/5
15. Crackdown 3 (Xbox One) | 5th Mar - 8 hours | 3.5/5
16. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Xbox One BC) | 6th March - 17 hours | 2.5/5
17. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite (PS4) | 15th Mar - 4 hours | 2/5
18. Super Luigi U (Switch) | 18th Mar - 5 hours | 3.5/5
19. Star Fox (SNES Mini) | 21 Mar - 2 hours | 3/5
20. Devil May Cry (Xbox One) | 4th Apr - 3.5 hours | 4.5/5
21. Spyro (PS4) | 12th Apr - 6 hours | 3.5/5
22. MLB The Show '18 (PS4) | 15th Apr - 50 hours | 4.5/5
23. Cave Story+ (Switch) | 25th Apr - 4 hours | 2/5
24. Punch-Out (Switch) | 3rd May - 1 hour | 4/5
25. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Xbox One) | 10th May - 46 hours | 4/5
26. Uncharted Golden Abyss (Vita) | 22nd May - 7 hours | 3/5
27. Far Cry 5 (Xbox One) | 24th May - 21 hours | 4/5
28. Devil May Cry 2 (Xbox One) | 27th May - 4 hours | 2.5/5
29. Castlevania (Switch) | 29th May - 2 hours | 3/5
30. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch) | 29th May - 4 hours | 4/5
31. Sonic and Knuckles (Xbox One BC) | 30th May - 4 hours | 2.5/5
32. Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox One BC) | 30th May - 4 hours | 3/5
33. Castlevania III (Switch) | 8th June - 3 hours | 4/5
34. Castlevania IV (Switch) | 11th June - 3 hours | 4/5
35. Contra (Switch) | 22nd June - 3 hours | 3/5
36. Super C (Switch) | 23rd June - 3 hours | 3/5
37. Contra III (Switch) | 25th June - 5 hours | 3.5/5
38. Shadow of War (Xbox One} | 26th June - 32 hours | 4.5/5
39. Streets of Rage 3 (Switch) | 8th July - 3 hours | 3/5
40. Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox One) | 25th July - 8 hours | 4/5
41. Mario Maker 2 (Switch) | 10th Aug - 7 hours | 4.5/5
42. Devil May Cry 3 (Xbox One) | 12th Aug - 11 hours | 4.5/5
43. Madden 20 (Xbox One) | 20th Aug - 11 hours | 4.5/5
44. Guacamelee 2 (Switch) | 29th Aug - 9 hours | 4/5
45. A King's Tale (XBox One) | 30th Aug - 2 hours | 2/5
46. Assassin's Creed (Xbox One BC) | 1st Sep - 15 hours | 2/5
47. Ys Origin (Vita) | 3rd Sep - 15 hours | 4/5
48. Gradius (Switch) | 10th Sep - 3 hours | 1.5/5
49. Control (Xbox One) | 12th Sep - 15 hours | 4.5/5
50. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PS4) | 19th Sep - 30 hours | 4.5/5
51. Devil May Cry 5 (Xbox One) | 27th Sep - 11 hours | 5/5
52. Link's Awakening Remake (Switch) | 1st Oct - 15 hours | 5/5
53. Gears 5 (Xbox One) | 1st Oct - 12 hours | 4.5/5
[/SPOILER}
2. Tropical Freeze (Switch) | 3rd Jan - 8hrs | 4/5
3. Celeste (Switch | 5th Jan - 5hrs | 4.5/5
4. Mega Man 11 (Switch) | 6th Jan - 5 hrs | 3/5
5. Skyrim (Switch) | 14th Jan - 73 hrs | 4/5
6. Gone Home (PS4) | 14th Jan - 2 hrs | 1.5/5
7. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch) | 20th Jan - 12 hrs | 4.5/5
8. Thomas was Alone (Xbox One) | 20th Jan - 3 hrs | 3.5/5
9. Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS4) | 24th Jan - 29 hrs | 4.5/5
10. Cosmic Star Heroine (Vita) | 1st Feb - 12 hours | 2.5/5
11. Bloodstained (Xbox One) | 14th Feb - 2 hours | 4/5
12. Metal Slug XX (Xbox One BC) | 15th Feb - 2 hours | 3.5/5
13. Sonic CD (Xbox One BC) | 18th Feb - 3 hours | 3.5/5
14. Resident Evil 2 (PS4) | 3rd Mar - 30 hours | 5/5
15. Crackdown 3 (Xbox One) | 5th Mar - 8 hours | 3.5/5
16. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Xbox One BC) | 6th March - 17 hours | 2.5/5
17. Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite (PS4) | 15th Mar - 4 hours | 2/5
18. Super Luigi U (Switch) | 18th Mar - 5 hours | 3.5/5
19. Star Fox (SNES Mini) | 21 Mar - 2 hours | 3/5
20. Devil May Cry (Xbox One) | 4th Apr - 3.5 hours | 4.5/5
21. Spyro (PS4) | 12th Apr - 6 hours | 3.5/5
22. MLB The Show '18 (PS4) | 15th Apr - 50 hours | 4.5/5
23. Cave Story+ (Switch) | 25th Apr - 4 hours | 2/5
24. Punch-Out (Switch) | 3rd May - 1 hour | 4/5
25. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Xbox One) | 10th May - 46 hours | 4/5
26. Uncharted Golden Abyss (Vita) | 22nd May - 7 hours | 3/5
27. Far Cry 5 (Xbox One) | 24th May - 21 hours | 4/5
28. Devil May Cry 2 (Xbox One) | 27th May - 4 hours | 2.5/5
29. Castlevania (Switch) | 29th May - 2 hours | 3/5
30. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Switch) | 29th May - 4 hours | 4/5
31. Sonic and Knuckles (Xbox One BC) | 30th May - 4 hours | 2.5/5
32. Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox One BC) | 30th May - 4 hours | 3/5
33. Castlevania III (Switch) | 8th June - 3 hours | 4/5
34. Castlevania IV (Switch) | 11th June - 3 hours | 4/5
35. Contra (Switch) | 22nd June - 3 hours | 3/5
36. Super C (Switch) | 23rd June - 3 hours | 3/5
37. Contra III (Switch) | 25th June - 5 hours | 3.5/5
38. Shadow of War (Xbox One} | 26th June - 32 hours | 4.5/5
39. Streets of Rage 3 (Switch) | 8th July - 3 hours | 3/5
40. Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox One) | 25th July - 8 hours | 4/5
41. Mario Maker 2 (Switch) | 10th Aug - 7 hours | 4.5/5
42. Devil May Cry 3 (Xbox One) | 12th Aug - 11 hours | 4.5/5
43. Madden 20 (Xbox One) | 20th Aug - 11 hours | 4.5/5
44. Guacamelee 2 (Switch) | 29th Aug - 9 hours | 4/5
45. A King's Tale (XBox One) | 30th Aug - 2 hours | 2/5
46. Assassin's Creed (Xbox One BC) | 1st Sep - 15 hours | 2/5
47. Ys Origin (Vita) | 3rd Sep - 15 hours | 4/5
48. Gradius (Switch) | 10th Sep - 3 hours | 1.5/5
49. Control (Xbox One) | 12th Sep - 15 hours | 4.5/5
50. Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (PS4) | 19th Sep - 30 hours | 4.5/5
51. Devil May Cry 5 (Xbox One) | 27th Sep - 11 hours | 5/5
52. Link's Awakening Remake (Switch) | 1st Oct - 15 hours | 5/5
53. Gears 5 (Xbox One) | 1st Oct - 12 hours | 4.5/5
[/SPOILER}
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#3. Monument Valley (iOS)
Bought this several years ago, but only ever played the first couple chapters back then... so I figured it was about time I fixed that. Short and very, very sweet. A bit on the easy side... my stupid ass managed to plow through the whole thing in little over an hour. But to be honest, that's a plus in my book (I'm not a huge fan of being stumped). Full marks for inventiveness, both in the puzzle design and in the aesthetics. Chances are good that I'll check out the sequel later this year. I wonder how Echochrome compares...
#3. Monument Valley (iOS)
Bought this several years ago, but only ever played the first couple chapters back then... so I figured it was about time I fixed that. Short and very, very sweet. A bit on the easy side... my stupid ass managed to plow through the whole thing in little over an hour. But to be honest, that's a plus in my book (I'm not a huge fan of being stumped). Full marks for inventiveness, both in the puzzle design and in the aesthetics. Chances are good that I'll check out the sequel later this year. I wonder how Echochrome compares...
#1. Shenmue (PS4) - 18/01/19
#2. Resident Evil 2 - Leon (PC) - 27/01/19
#3. Shenmue 2 (PS4) - 08/02/19
#4. Batman Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum (XBOX One) - 11/5/19
#5. The Gardens Between (XBOX One) - 18/5/19
#6. Thomas was alone (XBOX ONE) - 23/5/19
#7. What remains of Edith Finch (XBOX ONE) 30/5/19
#2. Resident Evil 2 - Leon (PC) - 27/01/19
#3. Shenmue 2 (PS4) - 08/02/19
#4. Batman Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum (XBOX One) - 11/5/19
#5. The Gardens Between (XBOX One) - 18/5/19
#6. Thomas was alone (XBOX ONE) - 23/5/19
#7. What remains of Edith Finch (XBOX ONE) 30/5/19
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3. Megaman X7
Holy hell I need to vent a bit since I'm frustrated with the game, the gameplay is horrendous, the camera suckass and why did they lock X from the beginning, I want to play X not some nobody named axl, for christ sake it called megaman x7.
I hate snipe anteator so much, in his 2nd phase i can't even see where the projectiles coming from. Sigma 2nd form is annoying too if you don't know how to handle him.
I don't think I'm gonna replay this game anymore in the future.
I'm trying to finish RE4 but I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish it before RE2make released, so I'm gonna postponed it until I finished RE2make.
3. Megaman X7
Holy hell I need to vent a bit since I'm frustrated with the game, the gameplay is horrendous, the camera suckass and why did they lock X from the beginning, I want to play X not some nobody named axl, for christ sake it called megaman x7.
I hate snipe anteator so much, in his 2nd phase i can't even see where the projectiles coming from. Sigma 2nd form is annoying too if you don't know how to handle him.
I don't think I'm gonna replay this game anymore in the future.
I'm trying to finish RE4 but I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish it before RE2make released, so I'm gonna postponed it until I finished RE2make.
#1: Kuso | Switch | 2.5 Hours | 01/20/2019
Picked this game up when it went on sale on the eShop for $0.99 recently and I had a few bucks of Gold Points sitting around. Saw a sale thread here on resetera and many commenters were saying not to sleep on Kuso. So I looked into the game to see if I thought it would be for me, and it looked very interesting! It's short, but challenging in a satisfying way. I had some issues with the controls that caused me to have to completely restart several levels I shouldn't have had to restart, but again, they're short. So ultimately it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the game and I would highly recommend the game whether on sale or at its regular MSRP of $4.99!
#2: Zero No Kiseki (Trails to Zero) | PC | In Progress
This one is still in progress, so thoughts/impressions will likely change as I complete it. Not gonna lie to you guys, I'm a HUGE Trails/Kiseki fan. Have already played FC, SC, Cold Steel, and Cold Steel 2. I've played ~12 hours of The 3rd, but haven't made it any farther as it just strays from the typical Trails formula a tad too much for me. Trust me, I will get back to it sooner than later though. I want all the extra world/character building that game has to offer. Anyways, with the recent announcement that NISA is localizing ToCS 3 (and presumably 4, though it remains unannounced for good reason), I knew it was time to play the Crossbell Duology in the best form I currently have access to. Ideally, I would wait for Geofront's edited translation, but they are estimating a summer release and I frankly wouldn't have the time to beat Zero and Ao before the anticipated Fall release of ToCS 3 (assuming no delays). So, I'm using the leaked largely unedited Zero translation and will be using Flame's released Ao translation, accepting them for their imperfections and all. Frankly, considering the Zero translation I'm playing is clearly a rough passthrough, it's surprisingly good! Far from perfect (things characters say in battle, some books, and other semi-important bits remain untranslated), but overall quite understandable and enjoyable. I'm currently about 10 hours in and playing through Ch. 1. Could probably be a fair bit farther, but I spent 1.5 hours at the beginning of the Prologue AND Ch. 1 running around all the districts of Crossbell and speaking to every NPC (a habit that was formed platinuming ToCS 1). Anyways, more to come!
Picked this game up when it went on sale on the eShop for $0.99 recently and I had a few bucks of Gold Points sitting around. Saw a sale thread here on resetera and many commenters were saying not to sleep on Kuso. So I looked into the game to see if I thought it would be for me, and it looked very interesting! It's short, but challenging in a satisfying way. I had some issues with the controls that caused me to have to completely restart several levels I shouldn't have had to restart, but again, they're short. So ultimately it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the game and I would highly recommend the game whether on sale or at its regular MSRP of $4.99!
#2: Zero No Kiseki (Trails to Zero) | PC | In Progress
This one is still in progress, so thoughts/impressions will likely change as I complete it. Not gonna lie to you guys, I'm a HUGE Trails/Kiseki fan. Have already played FC, SC, Cold Steel, and Cold Steel 2. I've played ~12 hours of The 3rd, but haven't made it any farther as it just strays from the typical Trails formula a tad too much for me. Trust me, I will get back to it sooner than later though. I want all the extra world/character building that game has to offer. Anyways, with the recent announcement that NISA is localizing ToCS 3 (and presumably 4, though it remains unannounced for good reason), I knew it was time to play the Crossbell Duology in the best form I currently have access to. Ideally, I would wait for Geofront's edited translation, but they are estimating a summer release and I frankly wouldn't have the time to beat Zero and Ao before the anticipated Fall release of ToCS 3 (assuming no delays). So, I'm using the leaked largely unedited Zero translation and will be using Flame's released Ao translation, accepting them for their imperfections and all. Frankly, considering the Zero translation I'm playing is clearly a rough passthrough, it's surprisingly good! Far from perfect (things characters say in battle, some books, and other semi-important bits remain untranslated), but overall quite understandable and enjoyable. I'm currently about 10 hours in and playing through Ch. 1. Could probably be a fair bit farther, but I spent 1.5 hours at the beginning of the Prologue AND Ch. 1 running around all the districts of Crossbell and speaking to every NPC (a habit that was formed platinuming ToCS 1). Anyways, more to come!
Game #16 - Devil May Cry 2
Time: 9 hours
Oh boy... where to even begin. It's actually very rare when I agree with internet vitriol about games, but this might be the first case where I actually completely agree with the vitriol. It's not hyperbole, DMC2 is really as bad as its fabled to be, if not worse. Easily one of the worst sequels (and worst games) I've ever seen in my life, it's baffling to even think about what happened with this train wreck. It somehow looks worse than the first game, with boring empty levels and brown everywhere, the soundtrack is shit, but the real tragedy is how boring and outright broken the gameplay is. You can literally play the entire game by just spamming the guns, most enemies dont even hit you, even bosses. No, REALLY. It is actually busted and horribly done, and the end result is a boring ass "action" game with little to no story and 2 seperate campaigns that just retread the same bosses for the most part. Just horrible all around, and I cant imagine being a fan of DMC1 at the time and then buying this thing. Yikes...
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Game #16 - Devil May Cry 2
Time: 9 hours
Oh boy... where to even begin. It's actually very rare when I agree with internet vitriol about games, but this might be the first case where I actually completely agree with the vitriol. It's not hyperbole, DMC2 is really as bad as its fabled to be, if not worse. Easily one of the worst sequels (and worse games) I've ever seen in my life, it's baffling to even think about what happened with this train wreck. It somehow looks worse than the first game, with boring empty levels and brown everywhere, the soundtrack is shit, but the real tragedy is how boring and outright broken the gameplay is. You can literally play the entire game by just spamming the guns, most enemies dont even hit you, even bosses. No, REALLY. It is actually busted and horribly done, and the end result is a boring ass "action" game with little to no story and 2 seperate campaigns that just retread the same bosses for the most part. Just horrible all around, and I cant imagine being a fan of DMC1 at the time and then buying this thing. Yikes...
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I always get a good laugh when someone experiences this abomination for the first time in all its glory. It was one of my most anticipated games back then and i got it day 1. I learned a valuable lesson that day.
For all the hate it got, the reboot was a true masterpiece next to this.
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#4. Florence
Another mobile quickie. Charming bittersweet short story about love and life, told in a clever fashion. Didn't make me cry, but it would be a lie if I said I didn't start to get a little misty-eyed. I absolutely adored the art style. Though when I said short story, I meant it... Florence is extremely short, but nonetheless I think its $3 pricetag is perfectly fair. Far from a steal, but certainly not highway robbery either.
#4. Florence
Another mobile quickie. Charming bittersweet short story about love and life, told in a clever fashion. Didn't make me cry, but it would be a lie if I said I didn't start to get a little misty-eyed. I absolutely adored the art style. Though when I said short story, I meant it... Florence is extremely short, but nonetheless I think its $3 pricetag is perfectly fair. Far from a steal, but certainly not highway robbery either.
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Games 1-5:
1. Wario's Woods | Jan 14 | 36:19hrs | rating: 5/5
Whoa, this quickly became one of my all-time favorite puzzle games! It's a classic "line up the same color" puzzle game, but you're controlling Toad to do the work.
- GAMEPLAY: There's so much depth to the controls that you learn new tricks 30 hours into the game. Going for the gold medals in the Time mode fits my gaming tastes perfectly, and even when I beat the records, I kept pushing myself to improve my times.
- AUDIOVISUALLY: It looks super neat for being NES, and the music is memorable.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: Wario taunts you now and then as you clear each puzzle, and that's all there is to the story. Nothing more is really needed though!
The main mode consists of a hundred levels that get harder and harder, and there's a B mode that occasionally throws in boss fights. It's a bit mindless but a relaxing way of learning the controls and getting efficient. The star of the game is Time mode, for me personally!
- MULTIPLAYER: There's a more than functional VS mode, which is a lot of fun even if you're at different skill levels.
This is a game I never hear anyone talk about, but I highly recommend it to any puzzle/platforming fan!
2. Guacamelee | Jan 15 | 6:24hrs | rating: 2.5/5
One of those metroidvanias that barely feel like one, because you're constantly shown exactly where to go on the map. As a result, it feels quite linear and mindless, and during the long final area (which felt like half the game), I just wanted it to end.
- GAMEPLAY: You're very limited at first, but once you've unlocked most abilities, it reminds me of Smash Bros (you dodge, double-jump and do tilted attacks), and this is a good thing. The wall-jumps feel a bit clumsy though, especially in combination with corners. Could overall be a bit more fluid/tighter.
They try to throw some gameplay variation at you, but it often feels shallow instead of well developed, like a few rooms with portals (basically what you find in Portal), and running up walls. The dimension swap mechanic is cool, but also under-utilized.
I hope that the second game will further develop what this game really did well, which was the colored special moves! They were often a lot of fun, especially when you were forced to use them well, like with the final boss.
- AUDIOVISUALLY: The artstyle is okay, and I especially like the shadow work. Pet-peeves like no feet-adjustment to tilted floors lower the overall impression a lot. The music sets the right tone but ends up being forgettable and quite repetitive at points.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: The humoristic references worked well enough for me (there's a lot of them), but the plot was forgettable and bare-bones. Maybe the pacing was a reason why I lost interest?
- MULTIPLAYER: Though you can co-op the entire game with up to 4 players (which is a great addition!), there's no character interaction and the gameplay-loop just didn't interest my friend for more than a few minutes.
All in all, it's a solid game. There are some village side-quests and a bunch of colored gates on the map that don't interest me enough to get back to, so my final playtime ends with 6:24hrs.
3. Super Mario Bros. | Jan 17 | 0:15hrs | rating: 3/5
Someone at Resetera brought up the hammer bros difficulty towards the end of the game, which made me want to go and check it out. Warp pipe to world 4, warp pipe to world 8, and there I was.
I still don't think they're THAT hard. It's easy to get past the first shower of hammers and wait right next to the enemy, and when he jumps, you run under them! Or, just run and jump right away.
I finished the game since I was almost there anyway, and got a quick addition to my 52 games in 2019!
Naturally it's hard to rate/judge a game that's been around me my whole life. The controls are clumsier than later Mario games, but functional when you know how they work. I still enjoy running through it every second year or so, because it's so immediate and fast-paced.
Let's see how replaying NSMBU fares in comparison.
4. Iconoclasts | Jan 20 | 13:40hrs | rating: 4.5/5
Another metroidvania, and this one feels great from the very first moment. And when it's nearing the end 10 hours later, I just wanted it to keep going. Luckily it did, at least until I was more or less satisfied.
- GAMEPLAY: Super tight controls and a lot of QoL functions that just make sense, like auto-angling weapons, stomping on enemies, a nice ledge-grab, character-switching, and the star of the game; a multi-purpose wrench that gets more uses as you upgrade it. Combined with wonderful animation and effective sound effects, it just feels great to play.
Though the game is often quite linear due to the heavy focus on story, there's always moments where you have to explore the current area, and it feels good figure out what to do and where to go due to the clever puzzles and level design.
I also have to mention that the enemy design and especially the bosses are GREAT and feel very fresh/creative.
- AUDIOVISUALLY: Very nice pixel art, with a lot of cute animation that makes the characters come alive. Some of the music reminds me of Metroid Prime, and it's great, but the non-Metroidy music is more forgettable.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: I rarely care for story in games, but this one mixes gameplay and plot very nicely, with mostly short cut-scenes that develop the characters and slowly unveil its world and religious/political dilemmas. At first I just found it non-intrusive (which was a good thing), but it kept growing on me and even got emotional towards the end.
- MULTIPLAYER: Sadly none, and it's what one can expect from this genre. But considering the game-feel and object interaction, I'm sure the developer could have put together a great co-op mode.
Just wow. As I finished the game, I felt that it's one of the best of the generation. It beats Hollow Knight for me, but doesn't have much post-content or the replayability of for example Celeste. Super recommended though! (And I will try the New Game+ some day.)
5. The Messenger | Jan 24 | 10:59hrs | rating: 3/5
An 8/16-bit action game (it jumps back and forth between styles) that gives you a map for backtracking once you've reached the "end". Some have called this a metroidvania, but in my opinion, it only uses the very worst aspects of that genre.
- GAMEPLAY: The hit-enemy-to-get-extra-jump move is a fun mechanic, but I often feel like I die unfairly due to half-wonky controls, for example when sticking to walls unwantedly, or the unclear glide mechanic. Except for one section late in the game there isn't much variation, just room after room that you run through and kill some enemies on the way.
When the big twist comes half-way into the game, I first got excited, but unfortunately it just made the game even more repetitive with constant backtracking in old areas. (And almost never any exploration since the map shows nearly everything.)
- AUDIOVISUALLY: Initially the graphics are too retro for my tastes, and the music is actually annoying (save for a couple of good tracks). It gets better three hours in when the 16-bit style kicks in, but it's never spectactular.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: There's a lot of fourth wall humor that often made me chuckle (seems like no indie games take themselves seriously these days!) and although the plot is generic at first, they throw a genuinely clever twist at you later on. I think this is what makes the game for some, and why it's gotten praise.
- MULTIPLAYER: None.
It's not a bad game (it works in the "play while watching tv" sort of way), but exploring is super unrewarding since there are so many long corridors that give you nothing, or worse; they're dead ends because you're in the wrong "dimension". I rarely get frustrated by games, but this one did it a lot. But by always using the hint system, the game recovered and had a satisfying (though oddly easy) ending.
Next up:
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (and New Super Luigi)
Pikuniku
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
Maybe Wargroove and more metroidvanias
Games 1-5:
1. Wario's Woods | Jan 14 | 36:19hrs | rating: 5/5
Whoa, this quickly became one of my all-time favorite puzzle games! It's a classic "line up the same color" puzzle game, but you're controlling Toad to do the work.
- GAMEPLAY: There's so much depth to the controls that you learn new tricks 30 hours into the game. Going for the gold medals in the Time mode fits my gaming tastes perfectly, and even when I beat the records, I kept pushing myself to improve my times.
- AUDIOVISUALLY: It looks super neat for being NES, and the music is memorable.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: Wario taunts you now and then as you clear each puzzle, and that's all there is to the story. Nothing more is really needed though!
The main mode consists of a hundred levels that get harder and harder, and there's a B mode that occasionally throws in boss fights. It's a bit mindless but a relaxing way of learning the controls and getting efficient. The star of the game is Time mode, for me personally!
- MULTIPLAYER: There's a more than functional VS mode, which is a lot of fun even if you're at different skill levels.
This is a game I never hear anyone talk about, but I highly recommend it to any puzzle/platforming fan!
2. Guacamelee | Jan 15 | 6:24hrs | rating: 2.5/5
One of those metroidvanias that barely feel like one, because you're constantly shown exactly where to go on the map. As a result, it feels quite linear and mindless, and during the long final area (which felt like half the game), I just wanted it to end.
- GAMEPLAY: You're very limited at first, but once you've unlocked most abilities, it reminds me of Smash Bros (you dodge, double-jump and do tilted attacks), and this is a good thing. The wall-jumps feel a bit clumsy though, especially in combination with corners. Could overall be a bit more fluid/tighter.
They try to throw some gameplay variation at you, but it often feels shallow instead of well developed, like a few rooms with portals (basically what you find in Portal), and running up walls. The dimension swap mechanic is cool, but also under-utilized.
I hope that the second game will further develop what this game really did well, which was the colored special moves! They were often a lot of fun, especially when you were forced to use them well, like with the final boss.
- AUDIOVISUALLY: The artstyle is okay, and I especially like the shadow work. Pet-peeves like no feet-adjustment to tilted floors lower the overall impression a lot. The music sets the right tone but ends up being forgettable and quite repetitive at points.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: The humoristic references worked well enough for me (there's a lot of them), but the plot was forgettable and bare-bones. Maybe the pacing was a reason why I lost interest?
- MULTIPLAYER: Though you can co-op the entire game with up to 4 players (which is a great addition!), there's no character interaction and the gameplay-loop just didn't interest my friend for more than a few minutes.
All in all, it's a solid game. There are some village side-quests and a bunch of colored gates on the map that don't interest me enough to get back to, so my final playtime ends with 6:24hrs.
3. Super Mario Bros. | Jan 17 | 0:15hrs | rating: 3/5
Someone at Resetera brought up the hammer bros difficulty towards the end of the game, which made me want to go and check it out. Warp pipe to world 4, warp pipe to world 8, and there I was.
I still don't think they're THAT hard. It's easy to get past the first shower of hammers and wait right next to the enemy, and when he jumps, you run under them! Or, just run and jump right away.
I finished the game since I was almost there anyway, and got a quick addition to my 52 games in 2019!
Naturally it's hard to rate/judge a game that's been around me my whole life. The controls are clumsier than later Mario games, but functional when you know how they work. I still enjoy running through it every second year or so, because it's so immediate and fast-paced.
Let's see how replaying NSMBU fares in comparison.
4. Iconoclasts | Jan 20 | 13:40hrs | rating: 4.5/5
Another metroidvania, and this one feels great from the very first moment. And when it's nearing the end 10 hours later, I just wanted it to keep going. Luckily it did, at least until I was more or less satisfied.
- GAMEPLAY: Super tight controls and a lot of QoL functions that just make sense, like auto-angling weapons, stomping on enemies, a nice ledge-grab, character-switching, and the star of the game; a multi-purpose wrench that gets more uses as you upgrade it. Combined with wonderful animation and effective sound effects, it just feels great to play.
Though the game is often quite linear due to the heavy focus on story, there's always moments where you have to explore the current area, and it feels good figure out what to do and where to go due to the clever puzzles and level design.
I also have to mention that the enemy design and especially the bosses are GREAT and feel very fresh/creative.
- AUDIOVISUALLY: Very nice pixel art, with a lot of cute animation that makes the characters come alive. Some of the music reminds me of Metroid Prime, and it's great, but the non-Metroidy music is more forgettable.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: I rarely care for story in games, but this one mixes gameplay and plot very nicely, with mostly short cut-scenes that develop the characters and slowly unveil its world and religious/political dilemmas. At first I just found it non-intrusive (which was a good thing), but it kept growing on me and even got emotional towards the end.
- MULTIPLAYER: Sadly none, and it's what one can expect from this genre. But considering the game-feel and object interaction, I'm sure the developer could have put together a great co-op mode.
Just wow. As I finished the game, I felt that it's one of the best of the generation. It beats Hollow Knight for me, but doesn't have much post-content or the replayability of for example Celeste. Super recommended though! (And I will try the New Game+ some day.)
5. The Messenger | Jan 24 | 10:59hrs | rating: 3/5
An 8/16-bit action game (it jumps back and forth between styles) that gives you a map for backtracking once you've reached the "end". Some have called this a metroidvania, but in my opinion, it only uses the very worst aspects of that genre.
- GAMEPLAY: The hit-enemy-to-get-extra-jump move is a fun mechanic, but I often feel like I die unfairly due to half-wonky controls, for example when sticking to walls unwantedly, or the unclear glide mechanic. Except for one section late in the game there isn't much variation, just room after room that you run through and kill some enemies on the way.
When the big twist comes half-way into the game, I first got excited, but unfortunately it just made the game even more repetitive with constant backtracking in old areas. (And almost never any exploration since the map shows nearly everything.)
- AUDIOVISUALLY: Initially the graphics are too retro for my tastes, and the music is actually annoying (save for a couple of good tracks). It gets better three hours in when the 16-bit style kicks in, but it's never spectactular.
- STORY/PRESENTATION: There's a lot of fourth wall humor that often made me chuckle (seems like no indie games take themselves seriously these days!) and although the plot is generic at first, they throw a genuinely clever twist at you later on. I think this is what makes the game for some, and why it's gotten praise.
- MULTIPLAYER: None.
It's not a bad game (it works in the "play while watching tv" sort of way), but exploring is super unrewarding since there are so many long corridors that give you nothing, or worse; they're dead ends because you're in the wrong "dimension". I rarely get frustrated by games, but this one did it a lot. But by always using the hint system, the game recovered and had a satisfying (though oddly easy) ending.
Next up:
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (and New Super Luigi)
Pikuniku
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
Maybe Wargroove and more metroidvanias
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11. FEAR
Rather decent fps, though too long for my tastes. It's slo mo mechanic is neat although I don't hink I used the game's covers to their full extent and enemies tend to deal sizable damage, which the gam compensates by providing a couple of health packs after each encounter.
Rather decent fps, though too long for my tastes. It's slo mo mechanic is neat although I don't hink I used the game's covers to their full extent and enemies tend to deal sizable damage, which the gam compensates by providing a couple of health packs after each encounter.
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4. Call of Juarez: The Cartel - Xbox 360 (on Xbox One)
Completed 1/24/19
Score - 4/10
Wow...I don't remember how I got the game but I have had it in my physical collection for years. I enjoyed CoJ and really loved Bound in Blood. I knew this didn't review well but I wanted to knock it out and figured it would be harmless. Well, I was wrong. This should be called F*** (The Game). They literally cannot stop saying the word in the game, it's ridiculous. Everything felt off in this, the shooting (inaccurate) , the driving (awful), the story (pitiful) and man it was pretty racist. I probably should give it lower than what I am, but it had it's moments I guess. I really don't know what they were thinking. You get to make 1 decision at the end and I made the decision I would never make in any other game. I made the decision because the characters were so Godawful and they deserved what happened.
I hear Gunslinger is a much better game and I plan on getting to that sometime this year. As awful as this game was, it felt like a nice cleanse to beat it and remove it from the shelf. I think I am going to make an honest effort to clear a bunch of the old ones from the library this year.
4. Call of Juarez: The Cartel - Xbox 360 (on Xbox One)
Completed 1/24/19
Score - 4/10
Wow...I don't remember how I got the game but I have had it in my physical collection for years. I enjoyed CoJ and really loved Bound in Blood. I knew this didn't review well but I wanted to knock it out and figured it would be harmless. Well, I was wrong. This should be called F*** (The Game). They literally cannot stop saying the word in the game, it's ridiculous. Everything felt off in this, the shooting (inaccurate) , the driving (awful), the story (pitiful) and man it was pretty racist. I probably should give it lower than what I am, but it had it's moments I guess. I really don't know what they were thinking. You get to make 1 decision at the end and I made the decision I would never make in any other game. I made the decision because the characters were so Godawful and they deserved what happened.
I hear Gunslinger is a much better game and I plan on getting to that sometime this year. As awful as this game was, it felt like a nice cleanse to beat it and remove it from the shelf. I think I am going to make an honest effort to clear a bunch of the old ones from the library this year.
Game #17 - Virtue's Last Reward
Time: 37 hours
Whew what a ride. Fantastic sequel to 999 that improves on the game in every way, from the puzzles to the new 3d model "art" (I really wasnt a fan of the art in 999), the much better use of the flowchart system (since the game is built aroud it this time) and of course, the insane story that I feel is just as good if not better than 999 (your milleage will vary here I guess). It's also a much longer game, about twice the size of 999, but I never felt bored. The story gets a bit TOO crazy by the end, and it ends on a huge cliffhanger which is annoying, but overall I loved it and it might just place in whatever list of best games i've ever played is... maybe, need to sleep on it. Another notch in my VN cap, clearly making 2019 the year I fell in love with Visual Novels.
Game #18 - Rusty Lake Roots
Time: 4 hours
This was a neat point and click puzzle game with some really creepy art and undertones, that unfortunately can be a bit too obtuse for its own good. I'm not the greatest puzzle solver in the world but I get by, but this had quite a few puzzles where I just had to check a solution. It doesnt help that the game alternates between very easy levels and very hard ones at the drop of a dime, which was weird. Still, well worth playing for puzzle fans, if only for the atmosphere. Hopefully the next few games in the series are a bit more forgiving.
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I've never done one of these before, I'd love to. I've got a nice backlog of games I want to play or am currently playing through and this gives me some motivation. I don't remember the exact date up to this point but I'll track the date finished going forward. I guess this'll serve as my main post. 1-10 scale, 5 is average. I'll do write ups for the games already beaten the next time I finish one so they don't clog up my main post. I started this TW3 playthrough last year but finished it in January so... I guess I'm counting it.
Scale:
1-2: One of the worst games I've ever played, probably won't see this number. I can only hope.
3: Bad game but has some good qualities that redeem it slightly.
4: Below average, more bad than good. Has a decent amount of good qualities however.
5: Perfectly balanced, the Thanos of video games. Equal amounts good and bad.
6: Good game, enjoyed my time with it. Far too many problems to ignore however.
7: Good game, solidly above average. Few things hold it back from that great tier.
8: Great game, well above average. An 8 is a really good score for me, probably means it's in my top ~15 of it's gen. It's problems are just enough to keep it from being elite.
9: Elite game, probably in my top 30-40 all time. Has a couple of problems that are too noticeable for me to give it a 10.
10: An all timer, probably in my top 10 all time. If it has any problems they don't really detract from the experience.
Game Name | Estimated hours | Rating | Date finished/counted
01. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | ~90 hours | 9.5/10 | 1/?/19
02. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone Expansion | ~15 hours | 10/10 | 1/?/19
03. Overwatch | ~250 hours overall, ~20 hours this year | 8.5/10 | 1/29/19
04. Rocket League | ~500 hours overall, ~10 hours this year | 9/10 | 1/29/19
05. Marvel's Spider-Man | ~20 hours | 8/10 | 1/31/19
06. Resident Evil HD Remaster | 11 hours | 7/10 | 1/31/19
07. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | 100 hours | 8/10 | 2/10/19
08. Resident Evil 2 | 10 hours | 7.5/10 | 3/11/19
09. Apex Legends | 50 hours | 7/10 | 4/1/19
10. Minecraft | 300 hours overall, 30 hours this year | 7/10 | 4/17/19
11. Destiny 2: Forsaken | 250 hours overall, 20 hours this year | 8/10 | 4/17/19
12. Fortnite | 300 hours overall, 10 hours this year | 5/10 | 4/17/19
13. Town of Salem | 5 hours | 4/10 | 4/17/19
14. Skribbl.io | 3 hours | 5/10 | 4/17/19
15. Sea of Thieves | 7 hours | 5/10 / 4/18/19
16. State of Decay 2 | 3 hours | 3/10 / 5/10/19
17. ARK: Survival Evolved | 3 hours | 1/10 | 5/16/19
18. Monster Hunter: World | 3 hours | 4/10 | 5/10 | 5/18/19
For the parser:
Scale:
1-2: One of the worst games I've ever played, probably won't see this number. I can only hope.
3: Bad game but has some good qualities that redeem it slightly.
4: Below average, more bad than good. Has a decent amount of good qualities however.
5: Perfectly balanced, the Thanos of video games. Equal amounts good and bad.
6: Good game, enjoyed my time with it. Far too many problems to ignore however.
7: Good game, solidly above average. Few things hold it back from that great tier.
8: Great game, well above average. An 8 is a really good score for me, probably means it's in my top ~15 of it's gen. It's problems are just enough to keep it from being elite.
9: Elite game, probably in my top 30-40 all time. Has a couple of problems that are too noticeable for me to give it a 10.
10: An all timer, probably in my top 10 all time. If it has any problems they don't really detract from the experience.
Game Name | Estimated hours | Rating | Date finished/counted
01. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | ~90 hours | 9.5/10 | 1/?/19
02. The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone Expansion | ~15 hours | 10/10 | 1/?/19
03. Overwatch | ~250 hours overall, ~20 hours this year | 8.5/10 | 1/29/19
04. Rocket League | ~500 hours overall, ~10 hours this year | 9/10 | 1/29/19
05. Marvel's Spider-Man | ~20 hours | 8/10 | 1/31/19
06. Resident Evil HD Remaster | 11 hours | 7/10 | 1/31/19
07. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | 100 hours | 8/10 | 2/10/19
08. Resident Evil 2 | 10 hours | 7.5/10 | 3/11/19
09. Apex Legends | 50 hours | 7/10 | 4/1/19
10. Minecraft | 300 hours overall, 30 hours this year | 7/10 | 4/17/19
11. Destiny 2: Forsaken | 250 hours overall, 20 hours this year | 8/10 | 4/17/19
12. Fortnite | 300 hours overall, 10 hours this year | 5/10 | 4/17/19
13. Town of Salem | 5 hours | 4/10 | 4/17/19
14. Skribbl.io | 3 hours | 5/10 | 4/17/19
15. Sea of Thieves | 7 hours | 5/10 / 4/18/19
16. State of Decay 2 | 3 hours | 3/10 / 5/10/19
17. ARK: Survival Evolved | 3 hours | 1/10 | 5/16/19
18. Monster Hunter: World | 3 hours | 4/10 | 5/10 | 5/18/19
For the parser:
1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PS4) | 1st Jan - 90hrs | 4.75/5
2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone (PS4) | 1st Jan - 15hrs | 5/5
3. Overwatch (PS4) | 29th Jan - 20hrs | 4.25/5
4. Rocket League (PS4) | 29th Jan - 10hrs | 4.5/5
5. Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) | 31st Jan - 20hrs | 4/5
6. Resident Evil HD Remaster (PS4) | 31st Jan - 11hrs | 3.5/5
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) 10th Feb - 11hrs | 4/5
2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone (PS4) | 1st Jan - 15hrs | 5/5
3. Overwatch (PS4) | 29th Jan - 20hrs | 4.25/5
4. Rocket League (PS4) | 29th Jan - 10hrs | 4.5/5
5. Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4) | 31st Jan - 20hrs | 4/5
6. Resident Evil HD Remaster (PS4) | 31st Jan - 11hrs | 3.5/5
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) 10th Feb - 11hrs | 4/5
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Just segued from RDR2 into my eighth and hopefully final Witcher 3 playthrough (still haven't done Blood and Wine, I don't want to be "done").
I keep getting the urge to pet and feed Roach. Do you do too? Am I crazy?
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14. Bioshock Infinite - 15h50 - 22.01
Bioshock Infinite is a wonderful mess. It has so much to say without a clear idea of how to say it or contextualize it. Its heart is (mostly) in the right place, but the simplistic way it defines some of its characters and conflicts overshadows it at times. Not so much when it comes to the more prosaic elements of the sci-fi plot, which works for the most part, but the themes behind Columbia and the Vox Populi are mangled through an ill thought out bothsideism that ignores any kind of nuance. Daisy Fitzroy's crimes are not equal to Comstock's in any way, shape or form. This cowardly nonsense casts a disappointing shadow over what is otherwise an often well written tale. The dialog is all around pretty good, and Booker's in particular is tone perfect, as is the delivery.
This might also be the most well visually realized shooter i have played. I am incapable of moving through this world without constantly pausing to admire it. The first half of the game is absolute perfection in this regard, with the Hall of Heroes as the climax of visual storytelling. The game does take a sharp downturn after the halfway point, on almost every aspect. The worldbuilding and careful plotting get thrown out the window, and the levels become mostly bland and geared towards being plain shooterboxes. The exception being the last hour or so, where things really ramp up and become arresting again.
The gunplay feels better than the earlier games, but it's also severely limited by the less generous systems around it. While in the first two games, we had a vast array of offensive, defensive and support tools which could be combined in a myriad of ways where creativity and necessity were king, Infinite is content with being a straight up shooter with some powers as a side dish. When it comes to gameplay, it's a Shock game in name only.
15. Burial at Sea ep. 1 - 3h30 - 23.01
Eschewing Columbia and open sci-fi trappings for a very adequate noir approach works wonders for this first episode. A tight, contained story that manages to also ultimately wrap up Booker's story. Sometimes simple is better, and this particular story really worked for me. Though somewhat predictable, it gripped me from the start and never let go until its end. It also serves as both a short nostalgia trip back to Rapture and as a prologue for some of the events leading up to the first two games, though those connections will get more fleshed out on the second episode. One thing that stood out to me in terms of gameplay was the ammo scarcity throughout, making this feel a bit like a lost descendant to the survival horror genre.
16. Burial at Sea ep. 2 - 6h20 - 24.01
And this is where everything Bioshock wraps up. We get a fantastic, very emotional ending to Elizabeth's story that manages to recontextualize the entirety of the first Bioshock's main story arc as well. A very grim and oppressive campaign that focus on stealth elements. A very strong effort indeed. Just like the previous DLC, scarcity of resources makes the gameplay much more engaging than the main campaign. Survival requires careful traversal and enemy management.
I think that DLC is often very poor, but i'm glad that this series bucks that trend. Both these episodes and Minerva's Den were amazing.
14. Bioshock Infinite - 15h50 - 22.01
Bioshock Infinite is a wonderful mess. It has so much to say without a clear idea of how to say it or contextualize it. Its heart is (mostly) in the right place, but the simplistic way it defines some of its characters and conflicts overshadows it at times. Not so much when it comes to the more prosaic elements of the sci-fi plot, which works for the most part, but the themes behind Columbia and the Vox Populi are mangled through an ill thought out bothsideism that ignores any kind of nuance. Daisy Fitzroy's crimes are not equal to Comstock's in any way, shape or form. This cowardly nonsense casts a disappointing shadow over what is otherwise an often well written tale. The dialog is all around pretty good, and Booker's in particular is tone perfect, as is the delivery.
This might also be the most well visually realized shooter i have played. I am incapable of moving through this world without constantly pausing to admire it. The first half of the game is absolute perfection in this regard, with the Hall of Heroes as the climax of visual storytelling. The game does take a sharp downturn after the halfway point, on almost every aspect. The worldbuilding and careful plotting get thrown out the window, and the levels become mostly bland and geared towards being plain shooterboxes. The exception being the last hour or so, where things really ramp up and become arresting again.
The gunplay feels better than the earlier games, but it's also severely limited by the less generous systems around it. While in the first two games, we had a vast array of offensive, defensive and support tools which could be combined in a myriad of ways where creativity and necessity were king, Infinite is content with being a straight up shooter with some powers as a side dish. When it comes to gameplay, it's a Shock game in name only.
15. Burial at Sea ep. 1 - 3h30 - 23.01
Eschewing Columbia and open sci-fi trappings for a very adequate noir approach works wonders for this first episode. A tight, contained story that manages to also ultimately wrap up Booker's story. Sometimes simple is better, and this particular story really worked for me. Though somewhat predictable, it gripped me from the start and never let go until its end. It also serves as both a short nostalgia trip back to Rapture and as a prologue for some of the events leading up to the first two games, though those connections will get more fleshed out on the second episode. One thing that stood out to me in terms of gameplay was the ammo scarcity throughout, making this feel a bit like a lost descendant to the survival horror genre.
16. Burial at Sea ep. 2 - 6h20 - 24.01
And this is where everything Bioshock wraps up. We get a fantastic, very emotional ending to Elizabeth's story that manages to recontextualize the entirety of the first Bioshock's main story arc as well. A very grim and oppressive campaign that focus on stealth elements. A very strong effort indeed. Just like the previous DLC, scarcity of resources makes the gameplay much more engaging than the main campaign. Survival requires careful traversal and enemy management.
I think that DLC is often very poor, but i'm glad that this series bucks that trend. Both these episodes and Minerva's Den were amazing.
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14. Bioshock Infinite - 15h50 - 22.01
Bioshock Infinite is a wonderful mess. It has so much to say without a clear idea of how to say it or contextualize it. Its heart is (mostly) in the right place, but the simplistic way it defines some of its characters and conflicts overshadows it at times. Not so much when it comes to the more prosaic elements of the sci-fi plot, which works for the most part, but the themes behind Columbia and the Vox Populi are mangled through an ill thought out bothsideism that ignores any kind of nuance. Daisy Fitzroy's crimes are not equal to Comstock's in any way, shape or form. This cowardly nonsense casts a disappointing shadow over what is otherwise an often well written tale. The dialog in particular is pretty good, and Booker's in particular is tone perfect, as is the delivery.
This might also be the most well visually realized shooter i have played. I am incapable of moving through this world without constantly pausing to admire it. The first half of the game is absolute perfection in this regard, with the Hall of Heroes as the climax of visual storytelling. The game does take a sharp downturn after the halfway point, on almost every aspect. The worldbuilding and careful plotting get thrown out the window, and the levels become mostly bland and geared towards being plain shooterboxes. The exception being the last hour or so, where things really ramp up and become arresting again.
The gunplay feels better than the earlier games, but it's also severely limited by the less generous systems around it. While in the first two games, we had a vast array of offensive, defensive and support tools which could be combined in a myriad of ways where creativity and necessity were king, Infinite is content with being a straight up shooter with some powers as a side dish. When it comes to gameplay, it's a Shock game in name only.
15. Burial at Sea ep. 1 - 3h30 - 23.01
Eschewing Columbia and open sci-fi trappings for a very adequate noir approach works wonders for this first episode. A tight, contained story that manages to also ultimately wrap up Booker's story. Sometimes simple is better, and this particular story really worked for me. Though somewhat predictable, it gripped me from the start and never let go until its end. It also serves as both a short nostalgia trip back to Rapture and as a prologue for some of the events leading up to the first two games, though those connections will get more fleshed out on the second episode. One thing that stood out to me in terms of gameplay was the ammo scarcity throughout, making this feel a bit like a lost descendant to the survival horror genre.
16. Burial at Sea ep. 2 - 6h20 - 24.01
And this is where everything Bioshock wraps up. We get a fantastic, very emotional ending to Elizabeth's story that manages to recontextualize the entirety of the first Bioshock's main story arc as well. A very grim and oppressive campaign that focus on stealth elements. A very strong effort indeed. Just like the previous DLC, scarcity of resources makes the gameplay much more engaging than the main campaign. Survival requires careful traversal and enemy management.
I think that DLC is often very poor, but i'm glad that this series bucks that trend. Both these episodes and Minerva's Den were amazing.
Always nice to see more love for these games' DLC. Infinite definitely alienated some people but I think in retrospect, playing through the DLCs offered a redeemable experience.
Really cool to see these in a 2019 thread.
Hahahah you're not alone, and in addition to that I got a girl, white horse with an ashen white mane/tail in RDR 2 and named it Cirilla.
.... Seriously.
Ah we're alike. At least you didn't name her Cirilla Ellen Rhiannon something something I can't remember. (Fiona was in there, too).
I always found Infinite a very interesting game that sort of falters a bit at half of what it tries, while being outstanding at what it does achieve. It's a pretty disappointing Bioshock game though. I had never played the DLC before, and was very surprised at how coherent and consistent it is.