What would you count as "beating" Forza Horizon 5? I'm gonna say completing all 65 story missions as there's no way in hell I'm ever gonna 100% everything.
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52 Games. 1 Year. 2021.
- Thread starter Wozzer
- Start date
This. When you see credits, I would count it. That's how I did with Forza Horizon 3 a few years ago.
My quest through short games continues.
31/52
Metal Slug X | Steam | 2/5 | 1 hour
Man, am I bad at this sort of game now. This is, I assume, a newer version of the game you used to play at your local pizza joint. There were four characters to play as but I'm not sure there was any difference. One shot kills you and there's stuff coming from all over the place. I disliked having to jump and fire down and had issues doing it reliably with my controller. Ran through the game once and saw the credits and didn't need to play further. My reaction time is not what it used to be.
32/52
Explosionade | Steam | 4/5 | 47 minutes
Another game I'm not sure when I picked up along the way. I didn't think I would like this game but it was actually really fun. You're in a little mech suit shooting alien guys. There's a little story where you're a loser military guy and you stole the mech but who cares? You can shoot and make yourself a little shield bubble (which you can use to bounce) to get gold or other boosts. Not as hard as I thought it would be but also harder than it should have been. You don't have to actually do any fighting and can go straight to the exit in each level but I tried to fight unless I got stuck on one of the levels. Fun, quick game.
33/52
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard | Steam | 4/5 | 70 minutes
The sequel to Frog Detective. This go around you're trying to figure out who ruined the parade for the invisible wizard who just moved into a remote village. You get a notebook this time that you put notes into regarding all the suspects in town. Slightly more going to and fro solving "puzzles". A lot of reading but just as silly as the first one.
34/52
Raiden V: Director's Cut | Steam | 2/5 | 50 minutes
MAN. I don't know, this game was weird. It is your typical top down bullet hell shooter similar to that Shoot 1Up game I played previously. This one the screen was split into multiple boxes with FAR too much information. A couple positives were the choice of weapons at the beginning for your ship, the ability to upgrade your weapons and branching paths. There was far too much going on for me to want to go back and through again to see the other levels. The entire time there were multiple different characters spouting out story and other exposition but I was too busy trying not to get blown up and was concentrating on playing the game, it was just a bunch of nonsensical white noise that I tried to ignore but somehow couldn't. They would frequently tease me for letting enemies get away, how dare they.
35/52
Gomo | Steam | 4/5 | 72 minutes
A point and click puzzle adventure game. I've probably had this in my library for over 5 years and just never played it. You're a mostly silent, Sackboy-like creature that can unzip his back and store stuff in it. An alien took your dog and you're trying to get it back. Not too difficult but it did have one of those sliding box puzzles where you make an image and I'm terrible at them.
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31/52
Metal Slug X | Steam | 2/5 | 1 hour
Man, am I bad at this sort of game now. This is, I assume, a newer version of the game you used to play at your local pizza joint. There were four characters to play as but I'm not sure there was any difference. One shot kills you and there's stuff coming from all over the place. I disliked having to jump and fire down and had issues doing it reliably with my controller. Ran through the game once and saw the credits and didn't need to play further. My reaction time is not what it used to be.
32/52
Explosionade | Steam | 4/5 | 47 minutes
Another game I'm not sure when I picked up along the way. I didn't think I would like this game but it was actually really fun. You're in a little mech suit shooting alien guys. There's a little story where you're a loser military guy and you stole the mech but who cares? You can shoot and make yourself a little shield bubble (which you can use to bounce) to get gold or other boosts. Not as hard as I thought it would be but also harder than it should have been. You don't have to actually do any fighting and can go straight to the exit in each level but I tried to fight unless I got stuck on one of the levels. Fun, quick game.
33/52
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard | Steam | 4/5 | 70 minutes
The sequel to Frog Detective. This go around you're trying to figure out who ruined the parade for the invisible wizard who just moved into a remote village. You get a notebook this time that you put notes into regarding all the suspects in town. Slightly more going to and fro solving "puzzles". A lot of reading but just as silly as the first one.
34/52
Raiden V: Director's Cut | Steam | 2/5 | 50 minutes
MAN. I don't know, this game was weird. It is your typical top down bullet hell shooter similar to that Shoot 1Up game I played previously. This one the screen was split into multiple boxes with FAR too much information. A couple positives were the choice of weapons at the beginning for your ship, the ability to upgrade your weapons and branching paths. There was far too much going on for me to want to go back and through again to see the other levels. The entire time there were multiple different characters spouting out story and other exposition but I was too busy trying not to get blown up and was concentrating on playing the game, it was just a bunch of nonsensical white noise that I tried to ignore but somehow couldn't. They would frequently tease me for letting enemies get away, how dare they.
35/52
Gomo | Steam | 4/5 | 72 minutes
A point and click puzzle adventure game. I've probably had this in my library for over 5 years and just never played it. You're a mostly silent, Sackboy-like creature that can unzip his back and store stuff in it. An alien took your dog and you're trying to get it back. Not too difficult but it did have one of those sliding box puzzles where you make an image and I'm terrible at them.
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44. Disney's Magical Quest (SNES) | 11/20/2021 | 1.5 hrs | 4/5
This is one game that I played back in the day when I first got an SNES, but I never beat it, so I decided to finally do it. This is pretty much a standard platformer starring Mickey Mouse. Throughout the game you gain different suits to help you through the game (Magician, Firefighter and Mountain climber), which adds a new element. The graphics and music were great. Even after all these years I still remember the first stage's music. There are 6 stages and each is interesting. Overall I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I finally beat it.
45. The Great Circus Mystery (SNES) | 11/21/2021 | 1 hr | 3.5/5
The sequel to Disney's Magical Quest, I'm not sure why they didn't give it that name. They gave it the subtitle the main title for some reason. Because of this, I never played this one back in the day. The game is pretty much the same gameplay as the original, but this time you can choose to be Mickey or Minnie. Again there are new outfits to use throughout the stages. I didn't find this one to be as memorable as the first. It is still solid, but it feels like something was missing. It might have been because it took me just over an hour to finish.
46. Disney's Magical Quest 3 (SNES) | 11/21/2021 | 2 hrs | 4/5
The final game of the Magical Quest trilogy. This one never came out in the US unfortunately, probably because it was a late SFC game. It eventually came out on GBA, but the graphics and sound was severely downgraded. This time you can choose between Mickey or Donald and each of them have their own style of the same outfit. The stages are fun to play through just like the original and are more in depth than the sequel. Overall it was a great ending to the trilogy and I wish they had made more.
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This is one game that I played back in the day when I first got an SNES, but I never beat it, so I decided to finally do it. This is pretty much a standard platformer starring Mickey Mouse. Throughout the game you gain different suits to help you through the game (Magician, Firefighter and Mountain climber), which adds a new element. The graphics and music were great. Even after all these years I still remember the first stage's music. There are 6 stages and each is interesting. Overall I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I finally beat it.
45. The Great Circus Mystery (SNES) | 11/21/2021 | 1 hr | 3.5/5
The sequel to Disney's Magical Quest, I'm not sure why they didn't give it that name. They gave it the subtitle the main title for some reason. Because of this, I never played this one back in the day. The game is pretty much the same gameplay as the original, but this time you can choose to be Mickey or Minnie. Again there are new outfits to use throughout the stages. I didn't find this one to be as memorable as the first. It is still solid, but it feels like something was missing. It might have been because it took me just over an hour to finish.
46. Disney's Magical Quest 3 (SNES) | 11/21/2021 | 2 hrs | 4/5
The final game of the Magical Quest trilogy. This one never came out in the US unfortunately, probably because it was a late SFC game. It eventually came out on GBA, but the graphics and sound was severely downgraded. This time you can choose between Mickey or Donald and each of them have their own style of the same outfit. The stages are fun to play through just like the original and are more in depth than the sequel. Overall it was a great ending to the trilogy and I wish they had made more.
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32. Little Nightmares
Really good little game. I had issues with the wonky controls every now and then but the overall presentation makes up for it. I loved playing as Six and exploring the Maw. Narrative was very good for a game with no dialogue and more I'm curious about the sequel.
32. Little Nightmares
Really good little game. I had issues with the wonky controls every now and then but the overall presentation makes up for it. I loved playing as Six and exploring the Maw. Narrative was very good for a game with no dialogue and more I'm curious about the sequel.
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20 - Deathloop - PS5 - 30hrs / 14th November - 9/10
I love the gameplay in Deathloop. The moment to moment action combined with the weapon configurations and combinations of powers is really enjoyable. It's a shame that it's so linear considering the possibilities of having multiple ways of completing the game with the loop mechanic. That's such a wasted opportunity but the game is still incredible despite this flaw.
21 - Mafia - PS4 - 15hrs / 23rd November - 9/10
I hadn't played Mafia before and I wasn't prepared for how good the story was. I was on the verge of crying by the end. It's a shame the story is so short and hat the open-world is under utilised. You don't have any reasons to explore, a few side quests or mini games would have been nice.
Currently playing: Unsighted and Hellblade.
20 - Deathloop - PS5 - 30hrs / 14th November - 9/10
I love the gameplay in Deathloop. The moment to moment action combined with the weapon configurations and combinations of powers is really enjoyable. It's a shame that it's so linear considering the possibilities of having multiple ways of completing the game with the loop mechanic. That's such a wasted opportunity but the game is still incredible despite this flaw.
21 - Mafia - PS4 - 15hrs / 23rd November - 9/10
I hadn't played Mafia before and I wasn't prepared for how good the story was. I was on the verge of crying by the end. It's a shame the story is so short and hat the open-world is under utilised. You don't have any reasons to explore, a few side quests or mini games would have been nice.
Currently playing: Unsighted and Hellblade.
47. Virtua Fighter (Saturn) | 11/22/2021 | 45 mins | 2.5/5
I recently got a RetroTink and have went back to my Saturn backlog. What game to start with than one of the launch titles of the console. Sadly, this game has BADLY aged. The graphics look awful and true it its arcade roots, was rigged as hell. The difficulty ramped up at Stage 5 and it probably took me 20 minutes to beat Pai. She blocked almost all my moves and scored tons of perfects on me. I finally got past her by cheesing and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. The game overall was not that impressive and the graphics really were ugly, so ugly infact that they did a new version with better graphics a few months later.
48. Virtua Fighter Remix (Saturn) | 11/23/2021 | 45 mins | 3/5
Coming out a few months after the original version, the graphics are massively improved over the original All the gameplay still feels the same, even down to the cheap ass computer in Stage 5. It looks a lot better than the original and sadly should have been the version they launched with if Sega of Japan hadn't launched early.
49. Virtua Fighter Kids (Saturn) | 11/24/2021 | 30 mins | 4/5
This is one odd game where all the characters are shrunk down and have super deformed heads. Coming from VF1/VFR, Kids' gameplay and graphics are on par with my memories of playing Virtua Figher in the arcades. This game was based off of VF2 and you can immediately tell its not on the VF1 engine. The gameplay is a lot more fluid and more fun to play. As this was made after VF2, all the VF2 characters are added as well. Overall this is MUCH better than VF1/VFR and on par with VF2.
50. Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn) | 11/24/2021 | 45 mins | 4/5
This was one game I played a ton of in the arcades back in the day and I am shocked how well it looks for a Saturn game. With the RetroTink it looks like a game made years later and not in late 1995. The game was a lot more fun to play compared to the first. The souped up engine is great. The graphics are sharp and smooth and I believe is 60 FPS. Overall VF2 is probably one of the best fighting games on the Saturn and I had fun playing it.
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I recently got a RetroTink and have went back to my Saturn backlog. What game to start with than one of the launch titles of the console. Sadly, this game has BADLY aged. The graphics look awful and true it its arcade roots, was rigged as hell. The difficulty ramped up at Stage 5 and it probably took me 20 minutes to beat Pai. She blocked almost all my moves and scored tons of perfects on me. I finally got past her by cheesing and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. The game overall was not that impressive and the graphics really were ugly, so ugly infact that they did a new version with better graphics a few months later.
48. Virtua Fighter Remix (Saturn) | 11/23/2021 | 45 mins | 3/5
Coming out a few months after the original version, the graphics are massively improved over the original All the gameplay still feels the same, even down to the cheap ass computer in Stage 5. It looks a lot better than the original and sadly should have been the version they launched with if Sega of Japan hadn't launched early.
49. Virtua Fighter Kids (Saturn) | 11/24/2021 | 30 mins | 4/5
This is one odd game where all the characters are shrunk down and have super deformed heads. Coming from VF1/VFR, Kids' gameplay and graphics are on par with my memories of playing Virtua Figher in the arcades. This game was based off of VF2 and you can immediately tell its not on the VF1 engine. The gameplay is a lot more fluid and more fun to play. As this was made after VF2, all the VF2 characters are added as well. Overall this is MUCH better than VF1/VFR and on par with VF2.
50. Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn) | 11/24/2021 | 45 mins | 4/5
This was one game I played a ton of in the arcades back in the day and I am shocked how well it looks for a Saturn game. With the RetroTink it looks like a game made years later and not in late 1995. The game was a lot more fun to play compared to the first. The souped up engine is great. The graphics are sharp and smooth and I believe is 60 FPS. Overall VF2 is probably one of the best fighting games on the Saturn and I had fun playing it.
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41. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered PS5
42. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered The Heist DLC PS5
43. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Turf Wars DLC PS5
44. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Silver Linings DLC PS5
45. Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales PS5
42. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered The Heist DLC PS5
43. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Turf Wars DLC PS5
44. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Silver Linings DLC PS5
45. Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales PS5
39) Trimps (Browser) (10/15) (4.5 out of 5 stars)
40) Liquids (Browser) (10/31) (3 out of 5 stars)
41) Resource Grid (Browser) (11/15) (3.5 out of 5 stars)
42) Pachinkremental (Browser) (11/20) (5 out of 5 stars)
43) Mage's Guild (Browser) (11/26) (3 out of 5 stars)
The last couple of months, I've been distracted by non-game projects and making up for that by bouncing around a bunch of incremental games (usually all at once) and while it's tough to gauge actual completion times - since many don't have proper end credits - there's a few that I've maxed out. The best of these is Pachinkremental, an idle game based on building and upgrading your own pachinko machines. It puts me in the sort of mindset that icon of stage and screen Nicolas Cage must have had when he filmed ads for Sankyo.
44) Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord (Sega Master System) (11/30/21) - Largely notable for being one of the early Sega Master System RPGs, but also for being one of only about three Kogado Studios games to make it outside of Japan in the decades before yuri visual novels became their moneymaker and sole focus. Not a great game, but at least it's short. The ending has shock value for the hell of it up there with NES Bionic Commando, with a completely nude female demon as the final boss. What's funny is, the boss is on both the Japanese and US/European box art covers, but on the US/Europe cover redesign, they put her in leather armor, so Michael Katz's underlings in localization clearly knew something was up, they just didn't have the resources to do anything about it. (about 6 hours) (2 out of 5 stars)
40) Liquids (Browser) (10/31) (3 out of 5 stars)
41) Resource Grid (Browser) (11/15) (3.5 out of 5 stars)
42) Pachinkremental (Browser) (11/20) (5 out of 5 stars)
43) Mage's Guild (Browser) (11/26) (3 out of 5 stars)
The last couple of months, I've been distracted by non-game projects and making up for that by bouncing around a bunch of incremental games (usually all at once) and while it's tough to gauge actual completion times - since many don't have proper end credits - there's a few that I've maxed out. The best of these is Pachinkremental, an idle game based on building and upgrading your own pachinko machines. It puts me in the sort of mindset that icon of stage and screen Nicolas Cage must have had when he filmed ads for Sankyo.
44) Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord (Sega Master System) (11/30/21) - Largely notable for being one of the early Sega Master System RPGs, but also for being one of only about three Kogado Studios games to make it outside of Japan in the decades before yuri visual novels became their moneymaker and sole focus. Not a great game, but at least it's short. The ending has shock value for the hell of it up there with NES Bionic Commando, with a completely nude female demon as the final boss. What's funny is, the boss is on both the Japanese and US/European box art covers, but on the US/Europe cover redesign, they put her in leather armor, so Michael Katz's underlings in localization clearly knew something was up, they just didn't have the resources to do anything about it. (about 6 hours) (2 out of 5 stars)
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51. Mega Man 3 (PS4) | 11/25/2021 | 4 hrs | 4/5
I decided to try to work my through the rest of the MM Collection I bought years ago and played through Mega Man 3. This is one that I played back in my childhood when it was new, but I never beat it. This was my favorite Mega Man from back in the day mostly because of the music and the cool way to battle the
I had a ton of fun working my way though the game. I would say this is probably the best way to play the game as you have save states and a rewind feature in case you make a bad jump... :) Anyway, I am planning on working my way through 4-6 at some point this year... We'll see if I do it.
I decided to try to work my through the rest of the MM Collection I bought years ago and played through Mega Man 3. This is one that I played back in my childhood when it was new, but I never beat it. This was my favorite Mega Man from back in the day mostly because of the music and the cool way to battle the
older robot masters from Mega Man 2.
66: Tell Me Why. Finished: 11/27/2021. (N/A)
I don't think I can put a numerical score to a game like this (as I have said previously), but I want it to be known that I have a lot of respect for the development team and what they accomplished with this game.
I don't think I can put a numerical score to a game like this (as I have said previously), but I want it to be known that I have a lot of respect for the development team and what they accomplished with this game.
big update time
Game #45 - Spider-Man Miles Morales
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Great sequel to Spider-Man, albeit a shorter and more down to earth one, nevertheless this does everything the first game did, and amps it up a notch with new moves based on Miles's bioelectric powers, powered by the same dark magic tech those Insomniac guys are using (more on that later with Ratchet) that makes this look the way it does, with ray tracing, and still run at 60. I just wish it was a "full blown sequel" instead of a smaller project (it really feels like a smaller game in general and not just length wise, there's not many villains in it for example which bummed me out), but I guess that's what next year's game is for.
Game #46 - Returnal
Time: 50 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Wow, this would easily have been by surprise of the year if not for GotG later, but at the very least I feel really silly for mocking it at launch for being a "$70 roguelike lol". Super addictive fast paced third person shooter with fantastic visuals and rock hard difficulty, with a dash (or more) of From's Souls games sprinkled in (in spirit if anything), it got a smidge too difficult and frustrating near the end (as do most Souls-likes for me, which this isn't... but sorta-kinda is... its weird man) this really blew me away and it's probably my GOTY, either this or Ratchet. Speaking of...
Game #47 - Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
And Insomniac proves they are the best developer at Sony at the moment, not only releasing a great Spidey small scale sequel, but a full blown next gen (current gen?) Ratchet game, probably the best Ratchet game so far. Easily the best visuals I've seen in a game (funny I really thought Demon's Souls would take that), super fun gameplay and actual fun and engaging story makes this one of the easiest recommendations I could make. Meaty campaign with a ton of variety too, great soundtrack, just a fantastic game all around that really cements Insomniac as my favorite Sony developer at the moment and I can't wait to see what they do with Spidey 2 and Wolverine.
Game #48 - Ratchet & Clank (2016)
Time: 10 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
And we keep the Ratchet train rolling by checking out the 2016 remake / reboot of the series and, with the 4k60 patch, it actually holds up really well. It definitely feels dated in some spots (especially since it was staying true to the PS2 original at the time, a problem another game later on also has in my opinion), but great visuals (as usual) and fun gameplay with all sorts of wacky weapons as you expect make this a worthwhile playthrough. It's a bit short and some level design feels dated like I said but still a great game.
Game #49 - Guardians of the Galaxy
Time: 12 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
And the surprise of the year goes to Guardians of the Galaxy, a game most of us had dismissed given the awful marketing and lead in from the not so amazing Avengers game, which goes to show we really should wait and judge games (or anything) on their own merits. And what merits it has! Great visuals, fun gameplay that makes great use of the team setting while still being a single player narrative focused game, and easily some of the best writing and dialogue in a game in ages. The campaign is great, there's lots of costumes to collect, and again, the story is actually really good, it's just a shame that it's quite buggy and janky, at least when I played it. Still, it was a blast and I hope the team gets a chance to make a sequel, which I imagine would do a lot better given the very strong word of mouth this one has. Also Mantis is the best character of 2021.
Game #50 - Demon's Souls (2020)
Time: 30 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
Let me say this off the bat, Demon's Souls is a fantastic game. It looks amazing, it plays just like you remember (if you told me From made this I would believe you) and is overall just a great "Souls" game. That being said (and the reason this Souls fanboy is only rating it 4/5 lol), I think I was ultimately a little let down. It looks amzing but at the same time a lot of the art direction is boring, it plays great but a lot of it feels dated or like a "first Souls game", which granted, it WAS, but much like the Ratchet remake earlier, this sticks a little too close to the original in some things that could have been improved. Still, it scratched the Souls itch (strangely the next game scratched it much better) and it opened up my appetite for more Souls experiences, leading us to...
Game #51 - Nioh Remastered
Time: 55 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
A replay for this one, having played it on PC back in 2017, and it's even better than I remembered. A fantastic Souls-like that honestly goes toe to toe with From's own games in my opinion, for what it lacks in level or zone design compared to the From games, it makes up in much more interesting gameplay, taking the core of the Dark Souls formula, and improving on it with every weapon having a much bigger variety of moves to use. This remaster at 4k60 also looks great and completely holds up, and the only bad thing I have to say about the game isn't even about the game itself, it's about the difficulty spike in the DLCs, something that actually made me sour on the game back in 2017 and made me drop it (long story short, its balanced around the notion that people would be much higher level from NG+ since the DLCs took months to come out, so when you play them back to back right after finishing the game... it's not fun to say the least), so this time I simply decided to not tackle the DLC and just moved on to Nioh 2, and I'm glad I did, but that is for the next entry.
almost there! I thought I wasn't gonna do it a few months ago, but I turned it around :D
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Game #45 - Spider-Man Miles Morales
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Great sequel to Spider-Man, albeit a shorter and more down to earth one, nevertheless this does everything the first game did, and amps it up a notch with new moves based on Miles's bioelectric powers, powered by the same dark magic tech those Insomniac guys are using (more on that later with Ratchet) that makes this look the way it does, with ray tracing, and still run at 60. I just wish it was a "full blown sequel" instead of a smaller project (it really feels like a smaller game in general and not just length wise, there's not many villains in it for example which bummed me out), but I guess that's what next year's game is for.
Game #46 - Returnal
Time: 50 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Wow, this would easily have been by surprise of the year if not for GotG later, but at the very least I feel really silly for mocking it at launch for being a "$70 roguelike lol". Super addictive fast paced third person shooter with fantastic visuals and rock hard difficulty, with a dash (or more) of From's Souls games sprinkled in (in spirit if anything), it got a smidge too difficult and frustrating near the end (as do most Souls-likes for me, which this isn't... but sorta-kinda is... its weird man) this really blew me away and it's probably my GOTY, either this or Ratchet. Speaking of...
Game #47 - Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
And Insomniac proves they are the best developer at Sony at the moment, not only releasing a great Spidey small scale sequel, but a full blown next gen (current gen?) Ratchet game, probably the best Ratchet game so far. Easily the best visuals I've seen in a game (funny I really thought Demon's Souls would take that), super fun gameplay and actual fun and engaging story makes this one of the easiest recommendations I could make. Meaty campaign with a ton of variety too, great soundtrack, just a fantastic game all around that really cements Insomniac as my favorite Sony developer at the moment and I can't wait to see what they do with Spidey 2 and Wolverine.
Game #48 - Ratchet & Clank (2016)
Time: 10 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
And we keep the Ratchet train rolling by checking out the 2016 remake / reboot of the series and, with the 4k60 patch, it actually holds up really well. It definitely feels dated in some spots (especially since it was staying true to the PS2 original at the time, a problem another game later on also has in my opinion), but great visuals (as usual) and fun gameplay with all sorts of wacky weapons as you expect make this a worthwhile playthrough. It's a bit short and some level design feels dated like I said but still a great game.
Game #49 - Guardians of the Galaxy
Time: 12 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
And the surprise of the year goes to Guardians of the Galaxy, a game most of us had dismissed given the awful marketing and lead in from the not so amazing Avengers game, which goes to show we really should wait and judge games (or anything) on their own merits. And what merits it has! Great visuals, fun gameplay that makes great use of the team setting while still being a single player narrative focused game, and easily some of the best writing and dialogue in a game in ages. The campaign is great, there's lots of costumes to collect, and again, the story is actually really good, it's just a shame that it's quite buggy and janky, at least when I played it. Still, it was a blast and I hope the team gets a chance to make a sequel, which I imagine would do a lot better given the very strong word of mouth this one has. Also Mantis is the best character of 2021.
Game #50 - Demon's Souls (2020)
Time: 30 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
Let me say this off the bat, Demon's Souls is a fantastic game. It looks amazing, it plays just like you remember (if you told me From made this I would believe you) and is overall just a great "Souls" game. That being said (and the reason this Souls fanboy is only rating it 4/5 lol), I think I was ultimately a little let down. It looks amzing but at the same time a lot of the art direction is boring, it plays great but a lot of it feels dated or like a "first Souls game", which granted, it WAS, but much like the Ratchet remake earlier, this sticks a little too close to the original in some things that could have been improved. Still, it scratched the Souls itch (strangely the next game scratched it much better) and it opened up my appetite for more Souls experiences, leading us to...
Game #51 - Nioh Remastered
Time: 55 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
A replay for this one, having played it on PC back in 2017, and it's even better than I remembered. A fantastic Souls-like that honestly goes toe to toe with From's own games in my opinion, for what it lacks in level or zone design compared to the From games, it makes up in much more interesting gameplay, taking the core of the Dark Souls formula, and improving on it with every weapon having a much bigger variety of moves to use. This remaster at 4k60 also looks great and completely holds up, and the only bad thing I have to say about the game isn't even about the game itself, it's about the difficulty spike in the DLCs, something that actually made me sour on the game back in 2017 and made me drop it (long story short, its balanced around the notion that people would be much higher level from NG+ since the DLCs took months to come out, so when you play them back to back right after finishing the game... it's not fun to say the least), so this time I simply decided to not tackle the DLC and just moved on to Nioh 2, and I'm glad I did, but that is for the next entry.
almost there! I thought I wasn't gonna do it a few months ago, but I turned it around :D
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first time posting an update since early February :x
4) Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS4 - February 10th - 3/5)
5) Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (PSVR - February 14th - 4/5)
6) Bowser's Fury (Switch - February 15th - 4/5)
7) Super Mario 3D World (Switch - February 26th - 4/5)
8) Persona 5 Strikers (Steam - March 29th - 4/5)
9) It Takes Two (Steam - April 5th - 5/5)
10) Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (PS4 - April 6th - 3/5)
11) Rez Infinite (PSVR - April 6th - 3/5)
12) The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (Steam - April 8th - 2/5)
13) Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Steam - April 12th - 2/5)
14) Life is Strange 2 (Steam - April 20th - 4/5)
15) One Finger Death Punch 2 (Steam - April 29th - 4/5)
16) Fortix (Steam - May 3rd - 3/5)
17) Luxor 2 HD (Steam - May 9th - 2/5)
18) Fortix 2 (Steam - May 12th - 3/5)
19) The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game (Steam - May 12th - 2/5)
20) Resident Evil Village (Steam - May 22nd - 4/5)
21) Touhou Luna Nights (Steam - May 24th - 3/5)
22) LOVE (Steam - June 3rd - 3/5)
23) Hotline Miami (Steam - June 9th - 3/5)
24) Resident Evil Revelations (Steam - June 16th - 3/5)
25) LOVE 2: kuso (Steam - June 16th - 3/5)
26) A Hat in Time (Steam - July 10th - 3/5)
27) Super Bomberman R Online (Steam - August 1st - 4/5)
28) Final Fantasy (Steam - August 10th - 3/5)
29) Final Fantasy II (Steam - August 21st - 3/5)
30) Final Fantasy III (Steam - August 30th - 3/5)
31) Retro Classix: Two Crude (Steam - September 4th - 2/5)
32) Retro Classix: Bad Dudes vs DragonNinja (Steam - September 5th - 2/5)
33) Retro Classix: Express Raider (Steam - September 6th - 2/5)
34) Retro Classix: Heavy Barrel (Steam - September 7th - 2/5)
35) 1 For Yes, 0 For No (Steam - September 8th - 3/5)
36) Okaeri (Steam - September 11th - 2/5)
37) WarioWare: Get It Together (Switch - September 22nd - 2/5)
38) Final Fantasy IV (Steam - October 1st - 3/5)
39) Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Steam - October 11th - 3/5)
40) Final Fantasy IV Interlude (PSP - October 16th - 2/5)
41) Resident Evil 6 (Steam - October 24th - 3/5)
42) Dead Space (Steam - October 31st - 3/5)
43) The Convenience Store (Steam - October 31st - 2/5)
44) The Ghost Train (Steam - November 4th - 2/5)
45) She Sees Red (Steam - November 7th - 2/5)
46) The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (Steam - November 13th - 3/5)
47) Dead Rising (Steam - November 17th - 3/5)
48) Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Steam - November 21st - 3/5)
49) Florence (Steam - November 23rd - 2/5)
50) Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk (Steam - November 28th - 3/5)
Just two more games needed. One of them will be Pokemon, not sure yet what the final game will be. I will play FFXIV: Endwalker, but I wanna take my time with it, so not sure if I will finish in time. May need to squeeze something short in
4) Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS4 - February 10th - 3/5)
5) Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (PSVR - February 14th - 4/5)
6) Bowser's Fury (Switch - February 15th - 4/5)
7) Super Mario 3D World (Switch - February 26th - 4/5)
8) Persona 5 Strikers (Steam - March 29th - 4/5)
9) It Takes Two (Steam - April 5th - 5/5)
10) Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (PS4 - April 6th - 3/5)
11) Rez Infinite (PSVR - April 6th - 3/5)
12) The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit (Steam - April 8th - 2/5)
13) Panzer Dragoon: Remake (Steam - April 12th - 2/5)
14) Life is Strange 2 (Steam - April 20th - 4/5)
15) One Finger Death Punch 2 (Steam - April 29th - 4/5)
16) Fortix (Steam - May 3rd - 3/5)
17) Luxor 2 HD (Steam - May 9th - 2/5)
18) Fortix 2 (Steam - May 12th - 3/5)
19) The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game (Steam - May 12th - 2/5)
20) Resident Evil Village (Steam - May 22nd - 4/5)
21) Touhou Luna Nights (Steam - May 24th - 3/5)
22) LOVE (Steam - June 3rd - 3/5)
23) Hotline Miami (Steam - June 9th - 3/5)
24) Resident Evil Revelations (Steam - June 16th - 3/5)
25) LOVE 2: kuso (Steam - June 16th - 3/5)
26) A Hat in Time (Steam - July 10th - 3/5)
27) Super Bomberman R Online (Steam - August 1st - 4/5)
28) Final Fantasy (Steam - August 10th - 3/5)
29) Final Fantasy II (Steam - August 21st - 3/5)
30) Final Fantasy III (Steam - August 30th - 3/5)
31) Retro Classix: Two Crude (Steam - September 4th - 2/5)
32) Retro Classix: Bad Dudes vs DragonNinja (Steam - September 5th - 2/5)
33) Retro Classix: Express Raider (Steam - September 6th - 2/5)
34) Retro Classix: Heavy Barrel (Steam - September 7th - 2/5)
35) 1 For Yes, 0 For No (Steam - September 8th - 3/5)
36) Okaeri (Steam - September 11th - 2/5)
37) WarioWare: Get It Together (Switch - September 22nd - 2/5)
38) Final Fantasy IV (Steam - October 1st - 3/5)
39) Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Steam - October 11th - 3/5)
40) Final Fantasy IV Interlude (PSP - October 16th - 2/5)
41) Resident Evil 6 (Steam - October 24th - 3/5)
42) Dead Space (Steam - October 31st - 3/5)
43) The Convenience Store (Steam - October 31st - 2/5)
44) The Ghost Train (Steam - November 4th - 2/5)
45) She Sees Red (Steam - November 7th - 2/5)
46) The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (Steam - November 13th - 3/5)
47) Dead Rising (Steam - November 17th - 3/5)
48) Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (Steam - November 21st - 3/5)
49) Florence (Steam - November 23rd - 2/5)
50) Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk (Steam - November 28th - 3/5)
Just two more games needed. One of them will be Pokemon, not sure yet what the final game will be. I will play FFXIV: Endwalker, but I wanna take my time with it, so not sure if I will finish in time. May need to squeeze something short in
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Figured I'd give this series another go after bouncing off of Super Darius earlier in the year.
45. Sagaia GB (1991/2021, Switch) ★★☆☆☆
Apparently fairly sought-after version of Darius II for the original Gameboy. It's a serviceable, if entirely forgettable little shooter. The slow procession through 8 horizontal stages gets dull once it runs out of new enemies by the mid-point, and resorts to reusing enemies, patterns, and even cycling in previous bosses as mid-bosses. Luckily every stage has a unique, detailed, ocean-themed boss of its own, which you tear apart slowly. Probably one of the better Gameboy shmups (no slowdown or shimmering sprites), but admittedly that's a low bar to clear.
46. G-Darius HD (1997/2021, Switch) ★★★☆☆
An interesting look at where shoot-em-ups could have gone, had their popularity scaled up alongside the push for higher production values. The early polygonal style meshes quite well with the eclectic music selection, and cleans up nicely in HD. There's a real emphasis on stretching value-for-money, so levels and bosses are all way too long, and feature multiple routes (even within stages) to prolong playtime. The mechanic from Darius Gaiden which let you capture mid-bosses returns, but this time you can capture almost any enemy and let them fight for you, or serve as shields for incoming fire. Unfortunately the difficulty is absurdly high, to the point of detriment since it feels intended purely to milk quarters in the arcade and/or prolong playtime of the home console release.
47. Dariusburst: Another Chronicle EX+ (2021, Switch) ★★☆☆☆
At least the sixth iteration on 2009's Dariusburst, with this one built on top of the arcade version's foundation. The result is a poor fit for Switch Lite: while the 3-stage sessions are perfect for short play, the 32:9 aspect ratio is comically miniscule on the console's screen. A baffling decision since Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours already exists in 16:9 and is a more recent release, too. Furthermore, if you're on the go without Internet access, the game keeps begging for a Wi-fi connection since much of its appeal is rooted in setting high scores with other players.
If you get over these humps there's an absolute avalanche of content here: dozens of stages and bosses which further fan out into hundreds of very slightly differently assembled challenges. The game looks shiny (albeit deeply generic outside of bosses) and has a really varied soundtrack, ranging from ethereal vocals to literal circus tunes. Unfortunately, presentation and volume of content are its primary assets, but the core methods of interaction never really grabbed me.
It flirts with bullet hell trappings, but rarely gives you the firepower needed to respond in kind. Bosses don't seem to care at all where you are: if you die they'll keep firing at nothing, and if you hide behind them they'll fire their giant beam attacks forwards anyway. The game could sell this as them being giant monsters who don't even register your existence, but the level design makes zero attempt at storytelling to explain what they're up to if not trying to block the player's progress.
Perhaps this experience works better in arcades, and I'll concede I played this in sub-optimal conditions on the smallest screen with the least Wi-fi. If you love Dariusburst, this is a basically endless source for more. But after trying 4 Darius games and loving none, I think I have to conclude the series just is not for me.
45. Sagaia GB (1991/2021, Switch) ★★☆☆☆
Apparently fairly sought-after version of Darius II for the original Gameboy. It's a serviceable, if entirely forgettable little shooter. The slow procession through 8 horizontal stages gets dull once it runs out of new enemies by the mid-point, and resorts to reusing enemies, patterns, and even cycling in previous bosses as mid-bosses. Luckily every stage has a unique, detailed, ocean-themed boss of its own, which you tear apart slowly. Probably one of the better Gameboy shmups (no slowdown or shimmering sprites), but admittedly that's a low bar to clear.
46. G-Darius HD (1997/2021, Switch) ★★★☆☆
An interesting look at where shoot-em-ups could have gone, had their popularity scaled up alongside the push for higher production values. The early polygonal style meshes quite well with the eclectic music selection, and cleans up nicely in HD. There's a real emphasis on stretching value-for-money, so levels and bosses are all way too long, and feature multiple routes (even within stages) to prolong playtime. The mechanic from Darius Gaiden which let you capture mid-bosses returns, but this time you can capture almost any enemy and let them fight for you, or serve as shields for incoming fire. Unfortunately the difficulty is absurdly high, to the point of detriment since it feels intended purely to milk quarters in the arcade and/or prolong playtime of the home console release.
47. Dariusburst: Another Chronicle EX+ (2021, Switch) ★★☆☆☆
At least the sixth iteration on 2009's Dariusburst, with this one built on top of the arcade version's foundation. The result is a poor fit for Switch Lite: while the 3-stage sessions are perfect for short play, the 32:9 aspect ratio is comically miniscule on the console's screen. A baffling decision since Dariusburst: Chronicle Saviours already exists in 16:9 and is a more recent release, too. Furthermore, if you're on the go without Internet access, the game keeps begging for a Wi-fi connection since much of its appeal is rooted in setting high scores with other players.
If you get over these humps there's an absolute avalanche of content here: dozens of stages and bosses which further fan out into hundreds of very slightly differently assembled challenges. The game looks shiny (albeit deeply generic outside of bosses) and has a really varied soundtrack, ranging from ethereal vocals to literal circus tunes. Unfortunately, presentation and volume of content are its primary assets, but the core methods of interaction never really grabbed me.
It flirts with bullet hell trappings, but rarely gives you the firepower needed to respond in kind. Bosses don't seem to care at all where you are: if you die they'll keep firing at nothing, and if you hide behind them they'll fire their giant beam attacks forwards anyway. The game could sell this as them being giant monsters who don't even register your existence, but the level design makes zero attempt at storytelling to explain what they're up to if not trying to block the player's progress.
Perhaps this experience works better in arcades, and I'll concede I played this in sub-optimal conditions on the smallest screen with the least Wi-fi. If you love Dariusburst, this is a basically endless source for more. But after trying 4 Darius games and loving none, I think I have to conclude the series just is not for me.
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33. FFXIV: A Realm Reborn - Patches 2.1-2.5
Way, way too long. The first few patches I don't even remember do it was fun when the credits rolled and suddenly all these scenes I'd forgotten showed up again. Apparently this section was trimmed recently and I honestly feel it could do with another. The story didn't get good until Lady Iceheart turned up and that felt like 20 hours in our something. But it had a fantastic ending and I'm completely psyched for Heavenward. Also, fighting Cloud of Darkness was really cool.
33. FFXIV: A Realm Reborn - Patches 2.1-2.5
Way, way too long. The first few patches I don't even remember do it was fun when the credits rolled and suddenly all these scenes I'd forgotten showed up again. Apparently this section was trimmed recently and I honestly feel it could do with another. The story didn't get good until Lady Iceheart turned up and that felt like 20 hours in our something. But it had a fantastic ending and I'm completely psyched for Heavenward. Also, fighting Cloud of Darkness was really cool.
November's pretty much done, and I'm still in the fight, but barely:
39. Lost Judgment (PS5, 2021) - 60:53 - November 4
40. Hot Wheels Unleashed (PS5, 2021) - 9:08 - November 20
41. Forza Horizon 5 (PC, 2021) - 51:05 - November 20
42. Forza Horizon 4: LEGO Speed Champions (PC, 2019) - 11:03 (+1:09 in 2019) - November 25
43. No Man's Sky: Pioneers Redux (PC, 2021) - 15:30 - November 30
I decided that since I'm spending all this time completing the various expeditions in No Man's Sky--almost 40 hours to date--I should count them after all (which means in October I actually did manage to complete more than a seven-minute web game, thank goodness). That means I'm within striking distance of 52, but it's going to come down to the wire.
Luckily, there are no more new games coming out to distract me. On the other hand, looking at some of the games I have on the go at the moment... well, Tales of Arise probably isn't going to be done in 10 hours or less. We'll see about Guardians of the Galaxy. And maybe I should give Deathloop another try before the year is out? But really I think what I'm going to need is a bunch of shorter games, so I may go through the Game Pass list to see what fun experiences I can pick up there. Unpacking is already in progress and probably won't be too much longer, so there's that.
39. Lost Judgment (PS5, 2021) - 60:53 - November 4
40. Hot Wheels Unleashed (PS5, 2021) - 9:08 - November 20
41. Forza Horizon 5 (PC, 2021) - 51:05 - November 20
42. Forza Horizon 4: LEGO Speed Champions (PC, 2019) - 11:03 (+1:09 in 2019) - November 25
43. No Man's Sky: Pioneers Redux (PC, 2021) - 15:30 - November 30
I decided that since I'm spending all this time completing the various expeditions in No Man's Sky--almost 40 hours to date--I should count them after all (which means in October I actually did manage to complete more than a seven-minute web game, thank goodness). That means I'm within striking distance of 52, but it's going to come down to the wire.
Luckily, there are no more new games coming out to distract me. On the other hand, looking at some of the games I have on the go at the moment... well, Tales of Arise probably isn't going to be done in 10 hours or less. We'll see about Guardians of the Galaxy. And maybe I should give Deathloop another try before the year is out? But really I think what I'm going to need is a bunch of shorter games, so I may go through the Game Pass list to see what fun experiences I can pick up there. Unpacking is already in progress and probably won't be too much longer, so there's that.
Little bit late but I feel Horizon is pretty flexible, as you're right, there isn't really a point at which you're "done" unless you 100% absolutely everything, and, uh... no. Personally I said I was done when I finished 1st in all the race events in the game, including the final races for each discipline (Colossus, Juggernaut, Goliath, etc.). I actually didn't finish all the Story chapters because they felt like the side dish as opposed to the main event, but honestly I think either would work. It's not like the game rolls credits at any point, as far as I can tell (and I don't think Forza Horizon 4 did either, even after 100+ hours).
Main post with all months here.
November was a weird month, it felt like I didn't really play a whole lot, but obviously the list does not lie. On to the end, December.
Completely (62/52)
61. Halo Infinite - Xbox Series X - 17 hours, 56 minutes
62. Judgment - Xbox Series X - 17 hours, 59 minutes
November was a weird month, it felt like I didn't really play a whole lot, but obviously the list does not lie. On to the end, December.
Completely (62/52)
61. Halo Infinite - Xbox Series X - 17 hours, 56 minutes
62. Judgment - Xbox Series X - 17 hours, 59 minutes
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Most if not all the people in our 52 games backlog beat discord count each individual MSQ as a separate game for the sake of getting to 52 games a year. Honestly I would too if I played FF14 some of those are quite the time sink.
Going off of this it looks like it's at 7. I probably worded my answer the wrong way 😂. Didn't mean each individual quest.
Main Scenario Quests - Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki - FFXIV / FF14 Online Community Wiki and Guide
God damn itGoing off of this it looks like it's at 7. I probably worded my answer the wrong way 😂. Didn't mean each individual quest.
Main Scenario Quests - Final Fantasy XIV Online Wiki - FFXIV / FF14 Online Community Wiki and Guide
ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com
Granted, there are a good number of shorter games and episodic chapters here, but a productive November puts me within sight of hitting 100 games beaten for the year, which will be a new personal record.
Master post here.
84. Super Castlevania IV (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 6 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Moving to the SNES, Super Castlevania IV is a notable step up from the NES games in a number of ways. Controls feel much slicker, particularly with jump patterns being more flexible; aesthetically the large sprites and some impressive graphical effects such as a simulated rotation effect) make the game more attractive and I think that I could detect some additional nuance to the classic soundtrack. Beyond that, the core gameplay mechanics are as solid as ever, though there's not all that much that's new here - combat is still primarily with a whip, while power-ups are directly brought across from the NES game. Arguably it's a case of not trying to change what already works well, but it would be nice at this point to bring in at least a little more variety, particularly with Castlevania III alreay having given us different characters to control (not seen here).
85. Castlevania: The Adventure (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 6 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Coming from Super Castlevania IV, the limitations of the GB platform really show themselves here - Castlevania: The Adventure, while having a few sequences of quite interesting level design, such as with the third level's spiked raising floor/spiked ceiling sequences, feels very slow and clunky to play. It's also (perhaps mercifully!) very short, with only four levels - albeit the difficulty tends towards series' punishing nature, so I imagine that getting through those levels successfully could take quite a while without the luxury of save states. Ultimately, from a modern perspective this is only really worth playing for historical interest.
86. Sam & Max The Devil's Playhouse Episode 1: The Penal Zone (Steam) | 6 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Moving into Sam & Max's third (and final) reboot season from Telltale, we see some nice additional polish at first, with a redesigned menu, etc., but frustratingly, the controls are now very focused on the console release, particularly with movement being with an analogue stick. There's an attempt to simulate that for mouse controls, which is workable, but far from ideal. That complaint aside, this episode maintains the fun story and great writing - and I particularly enjoyed the voice acting for the narrator who now introduces and closes out the episode. There's also a greater diversity of new environments here than we've previously seen, though this does mean that the puzzles can become somewhat more difficult to solve given the greater number of options.
87. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 7 November 2021
Complete playthrough. When it comes to Gameboy interpretations of the Castlevania series, this is much more like it! Controls are much more fluid than The Adventure, there's greater enemy variety, sub-weapons return and the game is somewhere around half as long again, supported by a password system. While still very much a challenging game, it feels somewhat fairer too - except for the final two boss fights, which were a struggle even with save states!
88. Kid Dracula (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 11 November 2021
Complete playthrough. More Mega Man than Castlevania in its gameplay, Kid Dracula see splayers taking control of the eponymous Kid Dracula, running, jumping and shooting across nine side-scrolling levels, seeking to recover his throne. Vividly-coloured levels take a variety of fairly common platforming themes, including cloud, city, ice and fire-themed areas. New powers earned upon completion of each level provide some measure of gameplay variety, replacing the standard fireball with a homing attack, an ice projectile, or more unusually, the ability to reverse gravity or transform into a bat - but for the most part these are very much non-essential and the standard fireball will suffice. Otherwise, the gameplay is fairly standard shooting and running - entertaining enough while it lasts, but not really all that memorable.
89. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak (PC - Steam) | 14 November 2021
Complete playthrough. With a time-based mechanic underlying much of the puzzle design, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak plays out the events of four separate film reels that the modern-day protagonists find themselves discovering at the end of episode 1, featuring an ancestor of each. Much of the puzzle-solving relies on switching between reels, using knowledge gained from one to tackle obstacles encountered in another - and not necessarily following a forward progression of time. There's very much a feel of certain discoveries acting as the key to make headway in a series of cascading puzzles, where solving the first provides the requirement to solve the next, etc. - making the discovery of that 'key' nicely satisfying, albeit a couple of times being somewhat obscure (not all that unusual for the series!). I'm really enjoying some of the characters that we see introduced and/or developed upon here, each wonderfully characterful, with the series typical fantastic writing once again a highlight.
90. UNSIGHTED (Switch) | 17 November 2021
Completed with with 'true' ending, 103.4% map exploration, 146/143 chests opened, all NPC rewards. Consider me blown away by this fantastic surprise - UNSIGHTED rapidly went from a near-unknown to a strong contender for the best game released this year. With a beautiful pixelart aesthetic and an overhead perspective, there are strong callbacks to 2D The Legend of Zelda classics throughout, extending to dungeon-like level design, complete with imaginative puzzles and bosses. There's also strong 'Metroidvania' design here, with regular ability upgrades opening up new avenues of exploration and encouraging backtracking to track down additional upgrades and other secrets.
Combat, however, sees significant improvements over older classics, fast and fluid in the same way that the new all-time great CrossCode was a year or two ago, but here with a strong focus on parrying enemy attacks to open up vulnerabilities rather than the CrossCode's system of 'breaks' - in so doing, achieving similarly incredibly satisfying combat, from a different direction. At times this can become rather challenging, particularly with multiple enemy attacks - with their own distinct patterns and timings - to tackle simultaneously, but fortunately there's a well-implemented customisation ability, allowing the player to customise the protagonist's abilities through installing a diverse set of chipset upgrades in combinations that best suit their own playstyle.
That reference there to chips brings us to the game's narrative, following the plight of a dying world inhabited now only by sentient androids, and in particular our protagnoist, Alma. Now, the amnesia trope that we start with is far from unusual, but the game doesn't lean too strongly on this, with a greater focus on a more unusual mechanic - every one of the world's robotic inhabitants, Alma included, relies on a substance known as 'anima', and once they run out of their own limited supply, they become 'unsighted' (from which the game of course takes its title), losing all control over themselves to join the ranks of the game's enemies. Collection of a mysterious 'dust' allows this time to be extended out, and players are presented with the dilemma of whether to use dust for the themselves, or instead whether to offer it to others (which can bring other rewards). Eventually a more readily-available source presents itself, but nonetheless this brings a distinctive urgency to the game's progression.
Arguably, that urgency could be antithetical to the exploration mindset that Metroidvania/Zelda-like structure lends itself too - and admittedly, I tend to agree with this - but fortunately a well-judged set of accessibility options allow this time mechanic to be completely disabled. Other options allow for more forgiving combat - or even invulnerability, if you want a particularly easy run through the game. Conversely, a challenging set of achievements allow players to test themselves in a range of different ways - from speedruns to limited-ability combat scenarios, alongside more routine collection-based objectives. Overall, there's very little not to like in this stunner of a game.
91. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 19 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Bringing some interesting departures from the typical Castlevania formula in this Mega Drive release, Bloodlines from the outset feels somewhat more action-focused than earlier games, even with the main protagonist having an appearance that would fit well with side-scrawling brawlers of the time. While a fair amount shorter than the SNES's Super Castlevania IV, in Bloodlines the choice between two characters with diverging abilities offers some longevity. The appeal of the level design here is going to be very much dependent on individual taste - for example, the inclusion of a lot of forced auto-scrolling sections is something that we don't see often in the series - but overall does provide some interesting variation while still being solid overall. Graphically the game is excellent for its time, with some flashy effects depsite lacking the SNES's Mode 7, and pixelart quality and particularly the classic soundtrack being as excellent as ever for the series.
92. Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss (Castlevania Advance Collection) (Switch) | 20 November 2021
Complete playthrough. More commonly known as Dracula X, with Vampire's Kiss being the European localisation. After playing through the whole of the Anniversary Collection, I felt that I should complete the set of 'classicvania' games to which I currently have ready access with this, from the recently released Advance Collection. Sadly, after the excellent Super Castlevania IV, this second SNES release feels like a step back in many ways. Combat and platforming is rather clunky, notably losing the ability to alter trajectory mid-jump or whip-attack vertically. Level design is still fairly decent but overall more punishing, which that control setback just serves to exacerbate, hanging over the whole game. We also also see significant slowdown in places, without even the justification of any fancy effects to explain it - bringing particular frustration when combined with the controls to give frustrating additional, artificial extra difficulty.
93. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 3: They Stole Max's Brain! (Steam) | 20 November 2021
Complete playthrough. There's a lot of substance to this episode, divided as it is between two distinct sequences. It would be a spoiler to say too much about each, but suffice to say that there's some really impressive environment design on offer here, with a major focus on an ancient Egyptian theme (episode 2 *definitely* didn't mark an end to the influence of Sammun-Mac!), though in the latter parts the puzzles each seem to have pretty much the same formula for their solution, becoming disappointingly repetitive. Of course, the arguable key strength of the series in dialogue and writing remains in fine form here, so They Stole Max's Brain! is still a good time to play through - even though the controller-focused controls remain a frustration!
94. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls (Steam) | 22 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Honestly, I wasn't as much of a fan of this fourth episode as some of the earlier ones, here focusing on Sam & Max's investigation of an 'army' of clones of Sam. While we see some good use of existing characters and the on-point humour remains, the episode's events and puzzles just weren't particularly compelling to me. There is, however, some good set-up for the final episode to come, helping the overall plot hang nicely together.
95. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 5: The City that Dares not Sleep (Steam) | 24 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Finally, we reach the wrap-up to the last series of Sam & Max's reboot and... well, it appealing was less than I'd hoped. The City that Dares not Sleep focuses on a giantised 'monster' transformation of Max, now terrorising the city. Looking at things from a more objective perspective, this is pretty strong, with an interesting puzzle concept built around controlling each of Max's limbs and good use made of the episode's premise, so my lukewarm feelings towards the episode are probably in large part due to the 'monster' scenario not being a scenario that I find compelling - perhaps unfairly so! The way that the events of prior episodes all draw together here is effective and the variety of new environments is quite impressive - so I'd expect that this finale is likely to have solid general appeal.
96. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS) | 28 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Combining an innovative puzzle mechanic that makes good use of the DS's touchscreen with a well-told lighthearted supernatural story, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a overlooked gem of a game, fortunately now somewhat more accessible via an iOS release. The game follows a newly-deceased ghost, finding himself with the ability to manipulate objects in the physical world - albeit only to a limited extent - who sets out to recover his memory of how and why he died, and who is was.
This plays out through various sequences where our protagonist tries to stop the deaths of various other characters, who then help to progress his 'investigation' - a common key element of these sequences being how to traverse to a key interactive area. Later in the game, the puzzle options become somewhat broadened - but it should be noted that really the story is the game's key focus. Fortunately, it's a good one! I'll avoid going into detail as spoilers would really, well, spoil the game, but suffice to say the key players are very well-characterised and throughout, there's a wonderful sense of style to proceedings, with distinctive animation and a memorable soundtrack.
97. Unpacking (Xbox One - Game Pass) | 29 November 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Unpacking is a nicely relaxing puzzle game built around the therapeutic mechanic of unpacking a person's belongings into the various rooms of their home. While that might seem a somewhat uninspiring activity, this can be a nice organisational challenge, as items can't be placed just anywhere - their location need to be appropriate to what they are, such as a towel on a towel rail, cutlery in the kitchen drawer, etc. As the game progresses, we work through eight different locations, the various homes that a woman has lived in during her life, and a light story can be seen to thread through these, through the various belongings that she keeps over the years, then eventually meeting a partner who she lives alongside.
Delightfully detailed pixelart enhances the relaxing tone to the game, though in a few cases there's scope for confusion as there are a handful of objects that I couldn't quite work out what they were supposed to represent - leading to a frustrating trial-and-error process to work out where the game wants them to be placed. The game gets its length just about right, as it feels that by the end it's just starting to wear out the ultimately simple concept that it builds itself around. - though a set of challenges based around the achievement system provides a little greater longevity and variety, rewarding players for specific arrangements such as placing all equipment for coffee-making together on the kitchen counter. Overall, Unpacking is a nicely original take on puzzle games and worth a try for anyone with who naturally craves organisation.
Master post here.
84. Super Castlevania IV (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 6 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Moving to the SNES, Super Castlevania IV is a notable step up from the NES games in a number of ways. Controls feel much slicker, particularly with jump patterns being more flexible; aesthetically the large sprites and some impressive graphical effects such as a simulated rotation effect) make the game more attractive and I think that I could detect some additional nuance to the classic soundtrack. Beyond that, the core gameplay mechanics are as solid as ever, though there's not all that much that's new here - combat is still primarily with a whip, while power-ups are directly brought across from the NES game. Arguably it's a case of not trying to change what already works well, but it would be nice at this point to bring in at least a little more variety, particularly with Castlevania III alreay having given us different characters to control (not seen here).
85. Castlevania: The Adventure (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 6 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Coming from Super Castlevania IV, the limitations of the GB platform really show themselves here - Castlevania: The Adventure, while having a few sequences of quite interesting level design, such as with the third level's spiked raising floor/spiked ceiling sequences, feels very slow and clunky to play. It's also (perhaps mercifully!) very short, with only four levels - albeit the difficulty tends towards series' punishing nature, so I imagine that getting through those levels successfully could take quite a while without the luxury of save states. Ultimately, from a modern perspective this is only really worth playing for historical interest.
86. Sam & Max The Devil's Playhouse Episode 1: The Penal Zone (Steam) | 6 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Moving into Sam & Max's third (and final) reboot season from Telltale, we see some nice additional polish at first, with a redesigned menu, etc., but frustratingly, the controls are now very focused on the console release, particularly with movement being with an analogue stick. There's an attempt to simulate that for mouse controls, which is workable, but far from ideal. That complaint aside, this episode maintains the fun story and great writing - and I particularly enjoyed the voice acting for the narrator who now introduces and closes out the episode. There's also a greater diversity of new environments here than we've previously seen, though this does mean that the puzzles can become somewhat more difficult to solve given the greater number of options.
87. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 7 November 2021
Complete playthrough. When it comes to Gameboy interpretations of the Castlevania series, this is much more like it! Controls are much more fluid than The Adventure, there's greater enemy variety, sub-weapons return and the game is somewhere around half as long again, supported by a password system. While still very much a challenging game, it feels somewhat fairer too - except for the final two boss fights, which were a struggle even with save states!
88. Kid Dracula (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 11 November 2021
Complete playthrough. More Mega Man than Castlevania in its gameplay, Kid Dracula see splayers taking control of the eponymous Kid Dracula, running, jumping and shooting across nine side-scrolling levels, seeking to recover his throne. Vividly-coloured levels take a variety of fairly common platforming themes, including cloud, city, ice and fire-themed areas. New powers earned upon completion of each level provide some measure of gameplay variety, replacing the standard fireball with a homing attack, an ice projectile, or more unusually, the ability to reverse gravity or transform into a bat - but for the most part these are very much non-essential and the standard fireball will suffice. Otherwise, the gameplay is fairly standard shooting and running - entertaining enough while it lasts, but not really all that memorable.
89. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 2: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak (PC - Steam) | 14 November 2021
Complete playthrough. With a time-based mechanic underlying much of the puzzle design, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak plays out the events of four separate film reels that the modern-day protagonists find themselves discovering at the end of episode 1, featuring an ancestor of each. Much of the puzzle-solving relies on switching between reels, using knowledge gained from one to tackle obstacles encountered in another - and not necessarily following a forward progression of time. There's very much a feel of certain discoveries acting as the key to make headway in a series of cascading puzzles, where solving the first provides the requirement to solve the next, etc. - making the discovery of that 'key' nicely satisfying, albeit a couple of times being somewhat obscure (not all that unusual for the series!). I'm really enjoying some of the characters that we see introduced and/or developed upon here, each wonderfully characterful, with the series typical fantastic writing once again a highlight.
90. UNSIGHTED (Switch) | 17 November 2021
Completed with with 'true' ending, 103.4% map exploration, 146/143 chests opened, all NPC rewards. Consider me blown away by this fantastic surprise - UNSIGHTED rapidly went from a near-unknown to a strong contender for the best game released this year. With a beautiful pixelart aesthetic and an overhead perspective, there are strong callbacks to 2D The Legend of Zelda classics throughout, extending to dungeon-like level design, complete with imaginative puzzles and bosses. There's also strong 'Metroidvania' design here, with regular ability upgrades opening up new avenues of exploration and encouraging backtracking to track down additional upgrades and other secrets.
Combat, however, sees significant improvements over older classics, fast and fluid in the same way that the new all-time great CrossCode was a year or two ago, but here with a strong focus on parrying enemy attacks to open up vulnerabilities rather than the CrossCode's system of 'breaks' - in so doing, achieving similarly incredibly satisfying combat, from a different direction. At times this can become rather challenging, particularly with multiple enemy attacks - with their own distinct patterns and timings - to tackle simultaneously, but fortunately there's a well-implemented customisation ability, allowing the player to customise the protagonist's abilities through installing a diverse set of chipset upgrades in combinations that best suit their own playstyle.
That reference there to chips brings us to the game's narrative, following the plight of a dying world inhabited now only by sentient androids, and in particular our protagnoist, Alma. Now, the amnesia trope that we start with is far from unusual, but the game doesn't lean too strongly on this, with a greater focus on a more unusual mechanic - every one of the world's robotic inhabitants, Alma included, relies on a substance known as 'anima', and once they run out of their own limited supply, they become 'unsighted' (from which the game of course takes its title), losing all control over themselves to join the ranks of the game's enemies. Collection of a mysterious 'dust' allows this time to be extended out, and players are presented with the dilemma of whether to use dust for the themselves, or instead whether to offer it to others (which can bring other rewards). Eventually a more readily-available source presents itself, but nonetheless this brings a distinctive urgency to the game's progression.
Arguably, that urgency could be antithetical to the exploration mindset that Metroidvania/Zelda-like structure lends itself too - and admittedly, I tend to agree with this - but fortunately a well-judged set of accessibility options allow this time mechanic to be completely disabled. Other options allow for more forgiving combat - or even invulnerability, if you want a particularly easy run through the game. Conversely, a challenging set of achievements allow players to test themselves in a range of different ways - from speedruns to limited-ability combat scenarios, alongside more routine collection-based objectives. Overall, there's very little not to like in this stunner of a game.
91. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) (Switch) | 19 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Bringing some interesting departures from the typical Castlevania formula in this Mega Drive release, Bloodlines from the outset feels somewhat more action-focused than earlier games, even with the main protagonist having an appearance that would fit well with side-scrawling brawlers of the time. While a fair amount shorter than the SNES's Super Castlevania IV, in Bloodlines the choice between two characters with diverging abilities offers some longevity. The appeal of the level design here is going to be very much dependent on individual taste - for example, the inclusion of a lot of forced auto-scrolling sections is something that we don't see often in the series - but overall does provide some interesting variation while still being solid overall. Graphically the game is excellent for its time, with some flashy effects depsite lacking the SNES's Mode 7, and pixelart quality and particularly the classic soundtrack being as excellent as ever for the series.
92. Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss (Castlevania Advance Collection) (Switch) | 20 November 2021
Complete playthrough. More commonly known as Dracula X, with Vampire's Kiss being the European localisation. After playing through the whole of the Anniversary Collection, I felt that I should complete the set of 'classicvania' games to which I currently have ready access with this, from the recently released Advance Collection. Sadly, after the excellent Super Castlevania IV, this second SNES release feels like a step back in many ways. Combat and platforming is rather clunky, notably losing the ability to alter trajectory mid-jump or whip-attack vertically. Level design is still fairly decent but overall more punishing, which that control setback just serves to exacerbate, hanging over the whole game. We also also see significant slowdown in places, without even the justification of any fancy effects to explain it - bringing particular frustration when combined with the controls to give frustrating additional, artificial extra difficulty.
93. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 3: They Stole Max's Brain! (Steam) | 20 November 2021
Complete playthrough. There's a lot of substance to this episode, divided as it is between two distinct sequences. It would be a spoiler to say too much about each, but suffice to say that there's some really impressive environment design on offer here, with a major focus on an ancient Egyptian theme (episode 2 *definitely* didn't mark an end to the influence of Sammun-Mac!), though in the latter parts the puzzles each seem to have pretty much the same formula for their solution, becoming disappointingly repetitive. Of course, the arguable key strength of the series in dialogue and writing remains in fine form here, so They Stole Max's Brain! is still a good time to play through - even though the controller-focused controls remain a frustration!
94. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls (Steam) | 22 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Honestly, I wasn't as much of a fan of this fourth episode as some of the earlier ones, here focusing on Sam & Max's investigation of an 'army' of clones of Sam. While we see some good use of existing characters and the on-point humour remains, the episode's events and puzzles just weren't particularly compelling to me. There is, however, some good set-up for the final episode to come, helping the overall plot hang nicely together.
95. Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 5: The City that Dares not Sleep (Steam) | 24 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Finally, we reach the wrap-up to the last series of Sam & Max's reboot and... well, it appealing was less than I'd hoped. The City that Dares not Sleep focuses on a giantised 'monster' transformation of Max, now terrorising the city. Looking at things from a more objective perspective, this is pretty strong, with an interesting puzzle concept built around controlling each of Max's limbs and good use made of the episode's premise, so my lukewarm feelings towards the episode are probably in large part due to the 'monster' scenario not being a scenario that I find compelling - perhaps unfairly so! The way that the events of prior episodes all draw together here is effective and the variety of new environments is quite impressive - so I'd expect that this finale is likely to have solid general appeal.
96. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS) | 28 November 2021
Complete playthrough. Combining an innovative puzzle mechanic that makes good use of the DS's touchscreen with a well-told lighthearted supernatural story, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a overlooked gem of a game, fortunately now somewhat more accessible via an iOS release. The game follows a newly-deceased ghost, finding himself with the ability to manipulate objects in the physical world - albeit only to a limited extent - who sets out to recover his memory of how and why he died, and who is was.
This plays out through various sequences where our protagonist tries to stop the deaths of various other characters, who then help to progress his 'investigation' - a common key element of these sequences being how to traverse to a key interactive area. Later in the game, the puzzle options become somewhat broadened - but it should be noted that really the story is the game's key focus. Fortunately, it's a good one! I'll avoid going into detail as spoilers would really, well, spoil the game, but suffice to say the key players are very well-characterised and throughout, there's a wonderful sense of style to proceedings, with distinctive animation and a memorable soundtrack.
97. Unpacking (Xbox One - Game Pass) | 29 November 2021
Completed with 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). Unpacking is a nicely relaxing puzzle game built around the therapeutic mechanic of unpacking a person's belongings into the various rooms of their home. While that might seem a somewhat uninspiring activity, this can be a nice organisational challenge, as items can't be placed just anywhere - their location need to be appropriate to what they are, such as a towel on a towel rail, cutlery in the kitchen drawer, etc. As the game progresses, we work through eight different locations, the various homes that a woman has lived in during her life, and a light story can be seen to thread through these, through the various belongings that she keeps over the years, then eventually meeting a partner who she lives alongside.
Delightfully detailed pixelart enhances the relaxing tone to the game, though in a few cases there's scope for confusion as there are a handful of objects that I couldn't quite work out what they were supposed to represent - leading to a frustrating trial-and-error process to work out where the game wants them to be placed. The game gets its length just about right, as it feels that by the end it's just starting to wear out the ultimately simple concept that it builds itself around. - though a set of challenges based around the achievement system provides a little greater longevity and variety, rewarding players for specific arrangements such as placing all equipment for coffee-making together on the kitchen counter. Overall, Unpacking is a nicely original take on puzzle games and worth a try for anyone with who naturally craves organisation.
53 | Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
PC | Nov 13 | 3.2 hrs | 3/5
A puzzle adventure that requires you to control two characters, sometimes at once. It's meant to be played on controller but I stubbornly used the keyboard. The controls are terrible on keyboard; I do not recommend. I used it thanks to joint pain using a controller for a length of time.
I wish there were options to make the controls easier. Toggle to hold items, instead of holding down three keys on each hand. The controls weren't taught either. I had to check the options screen or mash buttons to figure out what to do.
I did enjoy the fantastical world. It had different folklore creatures that was a treat to see.
54 | Slime Rancher
PC | Nov 13 | 23 hrs | 5/5
An adventure twist to the usual farming games. You inherit a farm, of course, with slimes! You're in first person mode ready to explore five different biomes. You can collect slimes, grow food, craft facilities, and build plots. I completed the story but I barely touched the challenge mode. There's many hours of gameplay I could have sunk into this one. I don't think challenge mode is for me; I really enjoyed playing it relaxed.
55 | Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises
PC | Nov 22 | 5 hrs | 2.5/5
Awfully forgettable game with very little substance. The main character is bland, the antagonist is cliche, and you'll feel nothing for any of these characters. The graphics are okay but the story is again, cliche. Rich family isn't rich anymore so a shady dude uses their family bank to stay afloat.
The important part is the puzzles. Unfortunately, they were mediocre. More mini games than hidden object. The only puzzles that stick in my memory are the two that were frustrating. The information tips to solve the puzzles without a hint were written vaguely. It'll take you a minute just to figure out what it wants you to do. Shame the game was disappointing because it was one of the few HO games that wasn't fantasy.
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PC | Nov 13 | 3.2 hrs | 3/5
A puzzle adventure that requires you to control two characters, sometimes at once. It's meant to be played on controller but I stubbornly used the keyboard. The controls are terrible on keyboard; I do not recommend. I used it thanks to joint pain using a controller for a length of time.
I wish there were options to make the controls easier. Toggle to hold items, instead of holding down three keys on each hand. The controls weren't taught either. I had to check the options screen or mash buttons to figure out what to do.
I did enjoy the fantastical world. It had different folklore creatures that was a treat to see.
54 | Slime Rancher
PC | Nov 13 | 23 hrs | 5/5
An adventure twist to the usual farming games. You inherit a farm, of course, with slimes! You're in first person mode ready to explore five different biomes. You can collect slimes, grow food, craft facilities, and build plots. I completed the story but I barely touched the challenge mode. There's many hours of gameplay I could have sunk into this one. I don't think challenge mode is for me; I really enjoyed playing it relaxed.
55 | Family Mysteries: Poisonous Promises
PC | Nov 22 | 5 hrs | 2.5/5
Awfully forgettable game with very little substance. The main character is bland, the antagonist is cliche, and you'll feel nothing for any of these characters. The graphics are okay but the story is again, cliche. Rich family isn't rich anymore so a shady dude uses their family bank to stay afloat.
The important part is the puzzles. Unfortunately, they were mediocre. More mini games than hidden object. The only puzzles that stick in my memory are the two that were frustrating. The information tips to solve the puzzles without a hint were written vaguely. It'll take you a minute just to figure out what it wants you to do. Shame the game was disappointing because it was one of the few HO games that wasn't fantasy.
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56 | Okami HD
PC | Nov 25 | 51 hrs | 4/5
First replay (since I played it back in 2007/2008?) and I was hit was nostalgia hard. I still love the gameplay: exploring, battles, and the brushes. One of the coolest things is using the paint brush. It was a unique experience for me when I first played it and I'm still in love with it.
The art style is amazing and it reflects the story and using your brushes. Its fun how it's all tied together. For the most part, the story doesn't take itself too seriously even though it's good vs evil. I do like you play as a god. It's a neat experience to me. The fights were an interesting balance of skill and learning weaknesses. Some fights felt like puzzles. You're using different brush strokes to aid you.
It's not without flaws. The camera could definitely be better. It felt too close to Ammy; while you're running and fighting, you have less sight. If you're in a tight space, it's even worse to time jumps and draw. At times, the brush would be really picky. You could draw one thing and the game guessed wrong. Issun is the worst. Why games and anime feel the NEED to add a sexual deviant is beyond me. It's really not difficult to not sexualize women. It's not funny. It's not an acceptable "joke." It's not asking for much. The bar is so low already.
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PC | Nov 25 | 51 hrs | 4/5
First replay (since I played it back in 2007/2008?) and I was hit was nostalgia hard. I still love the gameplay: exploring, battles, and the brushes. One of the coolest things is using the paint brush. It was a unique experience for me when I first played it and I'm still in love with it.
The art style is amazing and it reflects the story and using your brushes. Its fun how it's all tied together. For the most part, the story doesn't take itself too seriously even though it's good vs evil. I do like you play as a god. It's a neat experience to me. The fights were an interesting balance of skill and learning weaknesses. Some fights felt like puzzles. You're using different brush strokes to aid you.
It's not without flaws. The camera could definitely be better. It felt too close to Ammy; while you're running and fighting, you have less sight. If you're in a tight space, it's even worse to time jumps and draw. At times, the brush would be really picky. You could draw one thing and the game guessed wrong. Issun is the worst. Why games and anime feel the NEED to add a sexual deviant is beyond me. It's really not difficult to not sexualize women. It's not funny. It's not an acceptable "joke." It's not asking for much. The bar is so low already.
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57 | New Pokemon Snap
NSW | Nov 28 | 56 hrs | 5/5
I have memories of briefly playing the original on Nintendo 64 so I cannot compare the two. I was worried that either a) I would get bored of just snapping photos or b) run out of content early on. I'm happily wrong on both! I was satisfied with the number of islands and different types of biomes. I love that you level up the area the more you play. It was exciting to jump in and see what was new.
You get "tools" that can get a wide range of photos. For example, throwing apples (fluffruit) can anger or surprise a Pokemon. You can get new emotions or actions depending on what you use. The story took me about 24 hours to complete with requests. You could speedrun that much faster, but it's a joy to take your time. I did complete 213 requests. However, my Pokedex was not completely full. As in all Pokemon games...
Once you finish the story, you unlock new options and maps. This wasn't short of content. Super fun and adorable.
58 | Family Mysteries 2: Echoes of Tomorrow
PC | Nov 30 | 4 hrs | 2/5
This takes the terrible points I had from the first Family Mysteries. All the characters are bland. The story is ripped from probably X amount of B movies about technology taking over the future. Players in the comments said it's basically Terminator 3. It's predictable to a fault.
Worse, the mini games were unfun. A couple were literally the same puzzle from the first and the solution was the same. It was just reskinned to fit the futuristic theme. So bad that once I finished it and got my 100% achievements, I skipped the free bonus level. No thanks.
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NSW | Nov 28 | 56 hrs | 5/5
I have memories of briefly playing the original on Nintendo 64 so I cannot compare the two. I was worried that either a) I would get bored of just snapping photos or b) run out of content early on. I'm happily wrong on both! I was satisfied with the number of islands and different types of biomes. I love that you level up the area the more you play. It was exciting to jump in and see what was new.
You get "tools" that can get a wide range of photos. For example, throwing apples (fluffruit) can anger or surprise a Pokemon. You can get new emotions or actions depending on what you use. The story took me about 24 hours to complete with requests. You could speedrun that much faster, but it's a joy to take your time. I did complete 213 requests. However, my Pokedex was not completely full. As in all Pokemon games...
Once you finish the story, you unlock new options and maps. This wasn't short of content. Super fun and adorable.
58 | Family Mysteries 2: Echoes of Tomorrow
PC | Nov 30 | 4 hrs | 2/5
This takes the terrible points I had from the first Family Mysteries. All the characters are bland. The story is ripped from probably X amount of B movies about technology taking over the future. Players in the comments said it's basically Terminator 3. It's predictable to a fault.
Worse, the mini games were unfun. A couple were literally the same puzzle from the first and the solution was the same. It was just reskinned to fit the futuristic theme. So bad that once I finished it and got my 100% achievements, I skipped the free bonus level. No thanks.
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Nov update
30- Metroid Dread -9h- 5/5
I was excited for playing a new Metroid and man what a game.
We can see a big improve from returns in this one, more complex and connected maps but the game almost guide you to the next goal really well.
The emmi zones are an interesting addition and gives some extra tension as you progress the map, and some puzzles for killing the emmi are fun
Fast and exciting gameplay, good ost and kino boss fights with a great ending, amazing game and one of the best this year.
31- SMTV -72H- 5/5
As a long smtfan, most anticipated game of this year for me. Played on Hard and it was around 70h for the first ending and 80-90 for the superboss + all endings.
Firstly, they implemented the pseudo open world SO good, I was not sure at the start but they did an amazing job there and the gameplay feels fresh and faster paced than ever.
Then we have my favorite turn based combat, the press turn combat from others SMT, fast crazy and now with extremely well done animations for the attacks, you can feel the love they put on some attack animations. Well balanced experience with no excessive difficult spikes IMO.
Fantastic OST most of the time, although not at the SS tier level from IV.
On the other hand, the "routes" and alignment are terribly done, no extra maps-dungeons, rushed at the end and low to no impact decisions along the game, but the hidden true ending was sooo good.
Also, I missed some more dungeons with infernal layouts and crazy puzzles, smt trademark
The gaming hours I enjoyed the most this year, and possibly my goty 2021
32- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart -10h- 3,5/5
Best visual effects I have seen ever.
The gameplay sometimes feels like a DOOM, shooting, jumping and using 6 weapons like a madman, it's so fun.
Now playing
-Waiting for FFXIV:Endwalker to launch.
Nov update
30- Metroid Dread -9h- 5/5
I was excited for playing a new Metroid and man what a game.
We can see a big improve from returns in this one, more complex and connected maps but the game almost guide you to the next goal really well.
The emmi zones are an interesting addition and gives some extra tension as you progress the map, and some puzzles for killing the emmi are fun
Fast and exciting gameplay, good ost and kino boss fights with a great ending, amazing game and one of the best this year.
31- SMTV -72H- 5/5
As a long smtfan, most anticipated game of this year for me. Played on Hard and it was around 70h for the first ending and 80-90 for the superboss + all endings.
Firstly, they implemented the pseudo open world SO good, I was not sure at the start but they did an amazing job there and the gameplay feels fresh and faster paced than ever.
Then we have my favorite turn based combat, the press turn combat from others SMT, fast crazy and now with extremely well done animations for the attacks, you can feel the love they put on some attack animations. Well balanced experience with no excessive difficult spikes IMO.
Fantastic OST most of the time, although not at the SS tier level from IV.
On the other hand, the "routes" and alignment are terribly done, no extra maps-dungeons, rushed at the end and low to no impact decisions along the game, but the hidden true ending was sooo good.
Also, I missed some more dungeons with infernal layouts and crazy puzzles, smt trademark
The gaming hours I enjoyed the most this year, and possibly my goty 2021
32- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart -10h- 3,5/5
Best visual effects I have seen ever.
The gameplay sometimes feels like a DOOM, shooting, jumping and using 6 weapons like a madman, it's so fun.
Now playing
-Waiting for FFXIV:Endwalker to launch.
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November
63. Shin Megami Tensei V (Switch) | 19th November - 70 hours | 4/5 : Great gameplay (if you love turn based combat), great overworld exploration, and loved the fusions (like all SMT & Persona games). Shitty story
64. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5) | 29th November - 17 hours | 4/5 : Really surprised me, but I found very few faults with the game. Combat, characters, story, art design - all great
On Deck:
P4G on PC
Slay the Spire
November
63. Shin Megami Tensei V (Switch) | 19th November - 70 hours | 4/5 : Great gameplay (if you love turn based combat), great overworld exploration, and loved the fusions (like all SMT & Persona games). Shitty story
64. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5) | 29th November - 17 hours | 4/5 : Really surprised me, but I found very few faults with the game. Combat, characters, story, art design - all great
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P4G on PC
Slay the Spire
MAIN POST
I was busy with exam prep and starting long RPGs, so this November update is a little light on games. Still, not far to get to 52.
47. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (Xbox One) - ★★★★☆
Final Fantasy VIII is one of those games I've started playing so many times over the last decade and never actually finished before. I'm not sure why because I like pretty much everything about it. Junctioning magic, refining items into new spells to equip, customising your GF summons with new abilities that multiply the characters' stats… The game's systems are unconventional, but I find the way they all interlock to be incredibly satisfying. And then there's the card game Triple Triad, with the rewards of rare cards that can be modified to powerful items and spells, making it one of the best RPG mini games. I had fun maxing out many of the characters stats before the end of the game, since it's easy to do even while avoiding battles.
The story is confusing, but in a weird way I found compelling. Yes, the orphanage twist is dumb. Yes, the game seems to forget about half of the party members after the second disk. But it has fun set pieces and surreal moments that make even the awkward love story between Squall and Rinoa tolerable. When they're having a romantic moment in space and Squall suddenly says "I'm not your mom"? Comedy gold.
I do wonder if I'd enjoy playing Final Fantasy VIII so much if it didn't get such a good remastering. The character models got a nice glow-up and being able to play the game at three times the speed was a godsend for all those times when I wanted to draw magic or manoeuvre that sluggish first airship across the world map. It definitely seems like the ideal way to revisit this endearingly unconventional entry.
48. River City Girls (Xbox One) - ★★★☆☆
I played through River City Girls before it left Game Pass and I've already kind of forgotten about it. The game's presentation did stand out at least. The sprites look great, the music is on point and I was charmed by the goofy comic book style, especially when the girls jump out of their portraits to comment on events. The script is often painfully unfunny, but I liked the two leads and their messed up world of teenage delinquents and reformed Technos characters.
As a mashup of brawler and RPG, however, River City Girls has the same problems as a lot of those hybrids. The early game is rough and rather dull, as the characters have few moves to utilise. Then when the game actually opens up and you can go shopping, it's easy enough to stock up on enough healing items to get through any encounter, even when your opponents seem to be able to soak up any attack. Despite the rather harsh penalty of losing a chunk of cash when you die, I was never exactly hurting for money after the first hour.
Another sore point: gimmicky boss battles that simply aren't fun. One plays like a boss from a bullet hell shooter, forcing players to awkwardly dash between bullets before they finally get the chance. There's a lot to like about River City Girls' presentation, but I hope the sequel plays much better than this.
I was busy with exam prep and starting long RPGs, so this November update is a little light on games. Still, not far to get to 52.
47. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (Xbox One) - ★★★★☆
Final Fantasy VIII is one of those games I've started playing so many times over the last decade and never actually finished before. I'm not sure why because I like pretty much everything about it. Junctioning magic, refining items into new spells to equip, customising your GF summons with new abilities that multiply the characters' stats… The game's systems are unconventional, but I find the way they all interlock to be incredibly satisfying. And then there's the card game Triple Triad, with the rewards of rare cards that can be modified to powerful items and spells, making it one of the best RPG mini games. I had fun maxing out many of the characters stats before the end of the game, since it's easy to do even while avoiding battles.
The story is confusing, but in a weird way I found compelling. Yes, the orphanage twist is dumb. Yes, the game seems to forget about half of the party members after the second disk. But it has fun set pieces and surreal moments that make even the awkward love story between Squall and Rinoa tolerable. When they're having a romantic moment in space and Squall suddenly says "I'm not your mom"? Comedy gold.
I do wonder if I'd enjoy playing Final Fantasy VIII so much if it didn't get such a good remastering. The character models got a nice glow-up and being able to play the game at three times the speed was a godsend for all those times when I wanted to draw magic or manoeuvre that sluggish first airship across the world map. It definitely seems like the ideal way to revisit this endearingly unconventional entry.
48. River City Girls (Xbox One) - ★★★☆☆
I played through River City Girls before it left Game Pass and I've already kind of forgotten about it. The game's presentation did stand out at least. The sprites look great, the music is on point and I was charmed by the goofy comic book style, especially when the girls jump out of their portraits to comment on events. The script is often painfully unfunny, but I liked the two leads and their messed up world of teenage delinquents and reformed Technos characters.
As a mashup of brawler and RPG, however, River City Girls has the same problems as a lot of those hybrids. The early game is rough and rather dull, as the characters have few moves to utilise. Then when the game actually opens up and you can go shopping, it's easy enough to stock up on enough healing items to get through any encounter, even when your opponents seem to be able to soak up any attack. Despite the rather harsh penalty of losing a chunk of cash when you die, I was never exactly hurting for money after the first hour.
Another sore point: gimmicky boss battles that simply aren't fun. One plays like a boss from a bullet hell shooter, forcing players to awkwardly dash between bullets before they finally get the chance. There's a lot to like about River City Girls' presentation, but I hope the sequel plays much better than this.
and with the completion of dragon quest vi, i've completed 100 games in a year for the first time - and very likely the last - because holy shit, that's a lot.
the pandemic helped me focus on the amount of stuff i had. just the sheer glut of it that was filling shelves just to fill shelves. shrines to utter uselessness. so i just got rid of a lot of it. goodwill, giveaways, selling 'em... literally hundreds of games sold. it was a bit of a tug of war on my anxiety/depression and ocd, as i then started to fill the void with new stuff to purchase digitally. panic buying due to the psp store closure led to a new collection, this one digital, on the psp and wii u. although in some cases they functionally replaced some of the physical games i owned as a far more accessible way to approach them (not going to hook up a game boy player to the gamecube and hop into drill dozer if my wii u can play it and many other games in my backlog).
so it was kind of messy, but the early to mid part of the year was a lot of getting rid of and acquiring things at the same time. but what i was ultimately left with was a collection of stuff i wanted, i liked, or i might want to share with people in the future. that didn't stop me from acquiring new stuff for 2021, but it did stop me from buying new things just to have them on the chance that i might play them years later. if i purchased a game in 2021, i've played it (except for... five, by my count, but that's pretty good considering).
about three dozen of the games i beat this year came from my backlog. there's still about 70 games on the thing. that's literally years and years of games to play. and i think i'll stick to that for now and pull back on the acquiring of new things for a while. next year is kirby, pokemon legends, and re-boot camp (partly because aw2 satisfies one of my backlog titles and i'd rather own it on switch) early on. botw2, splatoon 3, and others are basically locks too. but, otherwise, when there's some leisure time, i've got a lot to sink my teeth into.
about 60% of this year's games were 2021 titles or from the backlog. the remaining 40% were games i purchased this year that weren't from 2021. they sort of existed in a mental backlog - games i heard were good and never checked out: stuff like hitman 2016 or toki tori 2.
the backlog stuff was mostly what i expected: games i put off for a reason. i'd kinda started on assault on dark athena a long time ago and never finished it, so i did that. it's all right. i had apparently made progress halfway into star fox zero and completely forgot...so i finished that too. it was about as frustrating as i feared. but it also led me down odd little rabbit holes. playing star fox zero led me to finally play the original star fox, and then star fox 2 - both games i wasn't expecting to appreciate as much. i played demon's crest, which was a lot of fun. zelda ii finally was finished. so was kid icarus! i'd purchased those games years ago, but i was finally able to complete them thanks to the features on the nso.
the same was true for other collections and re-releases. dynamite headdy was weird and kind of good? ristar was a bit boring. sonic spinabll was all right until it was too dull to live. and then there were so, so many games on the wii u virtual console. in 2021, that thing brought a lot of good stuff to the table. it was actually frustrating going from that to the ps tv and playing actual rom dumps that don't allow for anything as simple as analog control for old ps1 games that didn't allow it. the 100th game i completed was dragon quest vi, and i played it on the 3ds, which lets you play the game with the slide pad. it is downright frustrating the gulf of attention and care nintendo and sony put into their respective legacy content.
and speaking of dqvi - that was quite the 100th game to finish. it's a prequel to dq iv and v (i guess?), and knowing that, i made sure to start it first - especially since dqv is considered the best of the trio. i plan on eventually working my way up to dqvii, which i only put an hour into a few years ago. credit partially goes to dqxi for its 2d mode. it wound up a great gateway drug to 2d dragon quest. these things are like pokemon: i'm usually not feeling them until i'm in the middle of playing and then they become an obsession.
but i've also started valkyria chronicles 2 - a game from my panic buying earlier this year. i'm not too deep into it, but it's a great accomplishment for psp hardware, and looks good (for my eyes at least) on tv. skipping all that story nonsense and getting a lot out of the gameplay stuff. the core gameplay of these games is so dang good.
main post
the pandemic helped me focus on the amount of stuff i had. just the sheer glut of it that was filling shelves just to fill shelves. shrines to utter uselessness. so i just got rid of a lot of it. goodwill, giveaways, selling 'em... literally hundreds of games sold. it was a bit of a tug of war on my anxiety/depression and ocd, as i then started to fill the void with new stuff to purchase digitally. panic buying due to the psp store closure led to a new collection, this one digital, on the psp and wii u. although in some cases they functionally replaced some of the physical games i owned as a far more accessible way to approach them (not going to hook up a game boy player to the gamecube and hop into drill dozer if my wii u can play it and many other games in my backlog).
so it was kind of messy, but the early to mid part of the year was a lot of getting rid of and acquiring things at the same time. but what i was ultimately left with was a collection of stuff i wanted, i liked, or i might want to share with people in the future. that didn't stop me from acquiring new stuff for 2021, but it did stop me from buying new things just to have them on the chance that i might play them years later. if i purchased a game in 2021, i've played it (except for... five, by my count, but that's pretty good considering).
about three dozen of the games i beat this year came from my backlog. there's still about 70 games on the thing. that's literally years and years of games to play. and i think i'll stick to that for now and pull back on the acquiring of new things for a while. next year is kirby, pokemon legends, and re-boot camp (partly because aw2 satisfies one of my backlog titles and i'd rather own it on switch) early on. botw2, splatoon 3, and others are basically locks too. but, otherwise, when there's some leisure time, i've got a lot to sink my teeth into.
about 60% of this year's games were 2021 titles or from the backlog. the remaining 40% were games i purchased this year that weren't from 2021. they sort of existed in a mental backlog - games i heard were good and never checked out: stuff like hitman 2016 or toki tori 2.
the backlog stuff was mostly what i expected: games i put off for a reason. i'd kinda started on assault on dark athena a long time ago and never finished it, so i did that. it's all right. i had apparently made progress halfway into star fox zero and completely forgot...so i finished that too. it was about as frustrating as i feared. but it also led me down odd little rabbit holes. playing star fox zero led me to finally play the original star fox, and then star fox 2 - both games i wasn't expecting to appreciate as much. i played demon's crest, which was a lot of fun. zelda ii finally was finished. so was kid icarus! i'd purchased those games years ago, but i was finally able to complete them thanks to the features on the nso.
the same was true for other collections and re-releases. dynamite headdy was weird and kind of good? ristar was a bit boring. sonic spinabll was all right until it was too dull to live. and then there were so, so many games on the wii u virtual console. in 2021, that thing brought a lot of good stuff to the table. it was actually frustrating going from that to the ps tv and playing actual rom dumps that don't allow for anything as simple as analog control for old ps1 games that didn't allow it. the 100th game i completed was dragon quest vi, and i played it on the 3ds, which lets you play the game with the slide pad. it is downright frustrating the gulf of attention and care nintendo and sony put into their respective legacy content.
and speaking of dqvi - that was quite the 100th game to finish. it's a prequel to dq iv and v (i guess?), and knowing that, i made sure to start it first - especially since dqv is considered the best of the trio. i plan on eventually working my way up to dqvii, which i only put an hour into a few years ago. credit partially goes to dqxi for its 2d mode. it wound up a great gateway drug to 2d dragon quest. these things are like pokemon: i'm usually not feeling them until i'm in the middle of playing and then they become an obsession.
but i've also started valkyria chronicles 2 - a game from my panic buying earlier this year. i'm not too deep into it, but it's a great accomplishment for psp hardware, and looks good (for my eyes at least) on tv. skipping all that story nonsense and getting a lot out of the gameplay stuff. the core gameplay of these games is so dang good.
main post
67: Guardians of the Galaxy. Finished: 12/3/2021. (4 out of 5)
After the disappointment that was Avengers, Square Enix takes another chance with a Marvel IP and brings us Guardians of the Galaxy. It succeeds where Avengers did not, bringing a solid and enjoyable experience to its players.
After the disappointment that was Avengers, Square Enix takes another chance with a Marvel IP and brings us Guardians of the Galaxy. It succeeds where Avengers did not, bringing a solid and enjoyable experience to its players.
Game #52 - Pokemon Shining Pearl
Time: 35 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★
So I'm not a "serious" pokemon player, I enjoy them as simple rpgs with a very addictive collection hook to them and some flashy special moves, so in that sense, I enjoyed Shining Pearl, but I enjoyed it in the same way I enjoyed Shield. I don't really play the post game content of these games, I get what I want out of them and by the time I reach the credits I'm pretty much checked out. Still, I like the chibi art style evocating the gameboy original (kinda like what Link's Awakening did), I liked the pokemon in this one more than Shield, but a frustrating last boss gauntlet really soured me on the game, and if I wasn't already inclined to do much post game, that ending section sealed the deal. Much like I felt with Pokemon Shield, its alright but I'm glad I got it cheap.
Game #53 - Nioh 2 Remastered
Time: 70 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Nioh 2 does everything Nioh 1 did but bigger and better, and with a lot of new systems that really make the first game basically obsolete. Remaster still looks great, I really like the new systems like the demon forms replacing the powered up weapon, the new burst counter is super satisfying to use, the new weapons are great and the game is much bigger than the first (a lot more than expected), with a ton of post game content too. In fact, since I notoriously gave up (on my first playthrough years ago) and straight up skipped the first game's dlc this time around because of the silly difficulty spike, I'm happy to say the way they handle it in the sequel is much better, as you can do all the dlcs properly scaled for the level you are when you finish the game, so I'm actually going to do them this time around.
Game #54 - Nioh 2 The Tengu's Disciple
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Very impressive first DLC, with a couple of fantastic main missions (fuck they are long) and some good sub missions too to round up the package (in new locations too which is always nice even if theya re shorter). Bosses were very good also, especially the last one, he is a doozy. It's not very long, but it's basically more of the best parts of Nioh 2, so can't complain.
Game #55 - Nioh 2 Darkness in the Capital
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★
Another great DLC, with some really good bosses, just the main mission zones are a tad weaker compared to teh first DLC. Still a great addition tho.
Game #56 - The First Samurai
Time: 8 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
Final Nioh 2 DLC, and what a great way to go out, with some of the best bosses in the game, aand a couple of fantastic maain missions, one of them is probably the best level in the game. Just fantastic all around, all of the DLCs for the game really are some of the best DLC I've ever seen.
yay I did it, really thought I wouldnt a few months ago. Main Post.
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45) Hero of the Kingdom III (PC) (12/4/2021) - 14 hours/Main Quest Complete (3.5 out of 5 stars)
46) Hero Of The Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1 (PC) (12/4/2021) - 3.5 hours/All achievements and post game complete (3 out of 5 stars)
47) Hero Of The Kingdom: The Lost Tales 2 (PC) (12/4/2021) - 3.25 hours/Main quest complete/25 of 26 achievements (3 out of 5 stars)
Ah, the Hero of the Kingdom series - I really got into the first two games a few years back but never picked up the third one until a recent bundle. This one had more in the way of content, but a lot of it was thanks to a monolithic amount of backtracking, much more than the previous two games combined. A lot more in the way of resource hunts as well which called attention to the fact that this series really needs better UI for non-skill based item pickups, whether it's glowing when hovered over or something else. Also, I really wish skill mastery gave you something more than the satisfaction of maxing out a skill. It doesn't make sense that items using a mastered skill still break just as easily, especially when by the time you get to late combat encounters you're breaking your most expensive weapons every 2-3 fights.
Before I started this I picked up the Lost Tales games during the last sale to complete the series. In TLT1 there's a bit of an improvement in the UI and grind, but what's taken away (a tougher economy with no respawns and a much more linear quest) is significant as well. What's good is there's no need to level skills, once you learn how to do something you can do anything you encounter in the world. Also, there's unfortunately not much of a post-game to speak of outside of a couple of story wrap-up missions. TLT2 is even more streamlined, but even less post-game than the first, also even more resource drought by the end, I was nearly zeroing out of coins a few times, which I never did in the previous games.
46) Hero Of The Kingdom: The Lost Tales 1 (PC) (12/4/2021) - 3.5 hours/All achievements and post game complete (3 out of 5 stars)
47) Hero Of The Kingdom: The Lost Tales 2 (PC) (12/4/2021) - 3.25 hours/Main quest complete/25 of 26 achievements (3 out of 5 stars)
Ah, the Hero of the Kingdom series - I really got into the first two games a few years back but never picked up the third one until a recent bundle. This one had more in the way of content, but a lot of it was thanks to a monolithic amount of backtracking, much more than the previous two games combined. A lot more in the way of resource hunts as well which called attention to the fact that this series really needs better UI for non-skill based item pickups, whether it's glowing when hovered over or something else. Also, I really wish skill mastery gave you something more than the satisfaction of maxing out a skill. It doesn't make sense that items using a mastered skill still break just as easily, especially when by the time you get to late combat encounters you're breaking your most expensive weapons every 2-3 fights.
Before I started this I picked up the Lost Tales games during the last sale to complete the series. In TLT1 there's a bit of an improvement in the UI and grind, but what's taken away (a tougher economy with no respawns and a much more linear quest) is significant as well. What's good is there's no need to level skills, once you learn how to do something you can do anything you encounter in the world. Also, there's unfortunately not much of a post-game to speak of outside of a couple of story wrap-up missions. TLT2 is even more streamlined, but even less post-game than the first, also even more resource drought by the end, I was nearly zeroing out of coins a few times, which I never did in the previous games.
I think I've meant to use these threads for the past three years now, but I end up never actually posting my Word documents. Regardless, this year I won't make 52. Too many periods of little to no gaming. Though I'm still in the mid 40s, so I've played plenty of stuff. And for the most part, I'm seeing the end to my backlog, which is crazy since it's taken so much time to get to this point 🤣 and there's still plenty of backlog games I've yet to buy, but that can wait until next year.
I have around 13 games to play and I will be done. I wonder if I will be able to come close?
Granted I do have like 5 games I am nearing the end of but work made me much more busy these past few months.
Granted I do have like 5 games I am nearing the end of but work made me much more busy these past few months.
68: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond. Finished: 12/5/2021. (3.5 out of 5)
So I'm not a "serious" Pokémon player. I just enjoy crafting a team and going through the campaign. So in that sense, I enjoyed my time with the game. But I won't deny it is quite flawed.
So I'm not a "serious" Pokémon player. I just enjoy crafting a team and going through the campaign. So in that sense, I enjoyed my time with the game. But I won't deny it is quite flawed.
48) Aero Blasters (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021)
Yeah, okay, whatever, sure.
(35 minutes) (2 out of 5 stars)
49) Atomic Robo Kid Special (PC Engine) (12/5/2021) - Starts off alright then devolves into incoherence. Why are mazes with hidden passages here? Anyway, not great. Next. (45 minutes) (1.5 out of 5 stars)
50) Barunba (PC Engine) (12/5/2021) - Continuing a marathon of PC Engine/TurboGrafx shooters - I had this weird assumption that this was a sequel/spin-off of Ordyne, but it's not nearly as charming or fun (since Namco didn't actually do the work on it, it was a ZAP project). Nothing special. (35 minutes) (1.5 out of 5 stars)
51) Bouken Danshaku Don: The Lost Sunheart (PC Engine) (12/5/2021) - This is a little more like it, super-inspired rare weirdness wrapped in a functional horizontal shmup. The absolutely wild character and enemy designs are the main draw here. Nearly impossible to find - I was thinking because it was may have been based on an even more obscure manga, but that's not the case it seems. However you play it, also keep in mind there's a translation patch out there so you can get the gist of the story. (37 minutes) (3 out of 5 stars)
52) Coryoon: Child of Dragon (PC Engine ) (12/5/2021) - I'd played this one years ago, but it still holds up as a solidly fun, challenging, and cute shoot-em-up. A good one to get the last one I need. (46 minutes) (3.5 out of 5 stars)
Wait, does that say "trim"? Anyway....B-B-B-B-BONUS
53) The Legendary Axe (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - Breaking from the shooters, here's one I'd never got to back in the day, but decided to tackle it now. Honestly, not bad considering it was a launch window title - less a Castlevania clone as reviewers said and more like a Lord Of King/Astyanax, although it does have a really neat final full stage with branching paths. (52 minutes) (3 of 5 stars)
54) The Legendary Axe II (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - Followed up with the sequel and it's admirable that they tried to do a lot more with it, but at the same time it made mechanics and navigation kind of confusing, they leaned harder into the maze levels and it was just annoying by the last level. Hilarious ending at least. (57 minutes) (2 out of 5 stars)
55) SomerAssault (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - A pretty fascinating platformer to say the least. You're a slinky with a gun mounted on you and your entire movement pattern is slinky based (how it would work in a perfect environment, not how it usually goes). It's one of those games that would really stand out if there was an expansion of its ideas in, say, a Metroidvania style. Then again after SOTN, Atlus (the developer) was already committing to having their blood replaced with RPGs and nothing but, so I doubt this game has even entered their minds since it was released in 1992. (1 hour) (3.5 out of 5 stars)
56) Vigilante (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - History lesson on Vigilante. In 1984 Irem released Kung-Fu Master (called Kung Fu on the NES). Director Takashi Nishiyama left soon after and did Trojan for Capcom as his own successor, among other things elsewhere. Meanwhile, the crew that stayed with Irem decided to do a sequel to Kung-Fu Master which didn't turn out how they wanted, so they changed the presentation up (heavily influenced by Taito's westernization of Kunio-kun to Renegade, as well as Double Dragon) and delivered the very American feeling Vigilante. The gameplay loop is still the exact same as Kung-Fu Master, which is a bit of a detriment since it felt dated even in 1988, but the new variety of enemies helped cover some ground. Still, it moves along at a pretty quick clip. (22 minutes) (2.5 out of 5 stars)
And with that, I'm done with the official tally, even though I might keep going. Here's the final signoff screen from SomerAssault, which is certainly a lot.
MAIN POST ONE MORE TIME!
Yeah, okay, whatever, sure.
(35 minutes) (2 out of 5 stars)
49) Atomic Robo Kid Special (PC Engine) (12/5/2021) - Starts off alright then devolves into incoherence. Why are mazes with hidden passages here? Anyway, not great. Next. (45 minutes) (1.5 out of 5 stars)
50) Barunba (PC Engine) (12/5/2021) - Continuing a marathon of PC Engine/TurboGrafx shooters - I had this weird assumption that this was a sequel/spin-off of Ordyne, but it's not nearly as charming or fun (since Namco didn't actually do the work on it, it was a ZAP project). Nothing special. (35 minutes) (1.5 out of 5 stars)
51) Bouken Danshaku Don: The Lost Sunheart (PC Engine) (12/5/2021) - This is a little more like it, super-inspired rare weirdness wrapped in a functional horizontal shmup. The absolutely wild character and enemy designs are the main draw here. Nearly impossible to find - I was thinking because it was may have been based on an even more obscure manga, but that's not the case it seems. However you play it, also keep in mind there's a translation patch out there so you can get the gist of the story. (37 minutes) (3 out of 5 stars)
52) Coryoon: Child of Dragon (PC Engine ) (12/5/2021) - I'd played this one years ago, but it still holds up as a solidly fun, challenging, and cute shoot-em-up. A good one to get the last one I need. (46 minutes) (3.5 out of 5 stars)
Wait, does that say "trim"? Anyway....B-B-B-B-BONUS
53) The Legendary Axe (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - Breaking from the shooters, here's one I'd never got to back in the day, but decided to tackle it now. Honestly, not bad considering it was a launch window title - less a Castlevania clone as reviewers said and more like a Lord Of King/Astyanax, although it does have a really neat final full stage with branching paths. (52 minutes) (3 of 5 stars)
54) The Legendary Axe II (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - Followed up with the sequel and it's admirable that they tried to do a lot more with it, but at the same time it made mechanics and navigation kind of confusing, they leaned harder into the maze levels and it was just annoying by the last level. Hilarious ending at least. (57 minutes) (2 out of 5 stars)
55) SomerAssault (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - A pretty fascinating platformer to say the least. You're a slinky with a gun mounted on you and your entire movement pattern is slinky based (how it would work in a perfect environment, not how it usually goes). It's one of those games that would really stand out if there was an expansion of its ideas in, say, a Metroidvania style. Then again after SOTN, Atlus (the developer) was already committing to having their blood replaced with RPGs and nothing but, so I doubt this game has even entered their minds since it was released in 1992. (1 hour) (3.5 out of 5 stars)
56) Vigilante (TurboGrafx-16) (12/5/2021) - History lesson on Vigilante. In 1984 Irem released Kung-Fu Master (called Kung Fu on the NES). Director Takashi Nishiyama left soon after and did Trojan for Capcom as his own successor, among other things elsewhere. Meanwhile, the crew that stayed with Irem decided to do a sequel to Kung-Fu Master which didn't turn out how they wanted, so they changed the presentation up (heavily influenced by Taito's westernization of Kunio-kun to Renegade, as well as Double Dragon) and delivered the very American feeling Vigilante. The gameplay loop is still the exact same as Kung-Fu Master, which is a bit of a detriment since it felt dated even in 1988, but the new variety of enemies helped cover some ground. Still, it moves along at a pretty quick clip. (22 minutes) (2.5 out of 5 stars)
And with that, I'm done with the official tally, even though I might keep going. Here's the final signoff screen from SomerAssault, which is certainly a lot.
MAIN POST ONE MORE TIME!
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Game #57 - Ruiner
Time: 5 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★★★
Wow why did I wait so long to play this. Super stylish top down shooter, fantastic art design, cool cyberpunk world, great gameplay, doesn't overstay it's welcome, and albeit it's a bit too short with "only" three actual levels (the levels / zones are huge to be fair), like I said it doesn't overstay it's welcome and I loved it in the end. Props to the Switch port too, it looks and runs great, always nice to see. Man, Devolver really knows how to pick them.
Game #58 - Gleamligt
Time: 2 hours
Platform: Switch
Rating: ★★
Oh what could have been. What starts of as a very simple platform with some really good (albeit very flash-game looking) art develops into a neat little platformer as you traverse the various short levels and kill a plethora of bosses, getting new powers from each of them, adding a lot of mobility to the game. It's very short and the main gimmick is one that I unfortunately can't be arsed to engage with, as to get the real ending you need to replay the game in NG+, but without killing any enemy, so what could have been a cool, Nier style replay of the game for different stuff thing, ends up horribly frustrating as you both need to avoid dying from all the enemies, and especially need to avoid killing any of them, and since you need to hit various switches with your sword to progress, you end up hitting some enemy by mistake (as I did when I tried NG+ once) and have to restart the whole thing, and nobody got time for that shit. It's a shame really, if it was just "you have to play NG+ now with added switches and shit" it would be completely fine and I would do it, but not like this. I didn't hate it like the steam reviews seem to, but overall I can't really recommend it either, not even for the $2 or whatever I spent on it.
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MAIN THREAD
Quick Update:
Quick Update:
- Resident Evil REmake: I played this years ago and bounced off of it quickly. Came back and I absolutely adore this game now. Very interesting setting and great area to explore.
- Lost Judgement - One of my lower ranked games in franchise. That being said a low Yakuza/Spinoff game is still better than 95% of any game on market and its still fantastic. Skateboard was great addition, combat felt fantastic. Same great voice acting and interesting story.
- World Ends With You: Concept & Art was interesting, I didn't particularily enjoy the game though. Played on Nintendo Trial so can't complain
- Resident Evil 7 VR: First playthrough, wow what an experience in VR. Everything in your face and the tension is hard to describe in words
- Forza Horizon 5: Another great game in Horizon series. Mexico is a fantastic map. I do feel like map was underutalized and I did not have seasons changing my game so it was dry and sunny the entire time. Felt like Horizon 3.5 because of that. Really enjoyed how seasons were implemented in FH4. Sounds like Seasons are happening more regularly now though, so price I pay for beating game to quickly.
Game 22: Castlevania (NES) (5 Hours) (3/5) (December)
I said to a friend a while back that I thought that the NES only had 3 good games. Tetris, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario Bros. In that time I finished Super Mario Bros again and didn't really enjoy it, but I got around to replaying the original Castlevania, and it seems the original number of 3 games is correct. Now first things first, the game IS hard, but for the most part (I'll get to the unfair part later) it's not too unfair. If you go in with a strategy you can usually beat a level/boss with enough tries. That is, of course until the last level, where Konami throws that all out the window and says okay, here are infinite respawning monkeys also the tankiest boss in the game. In one level the game goes from okay to ridiculously unfair. Gameplay aside, Castlevania really impresses in two areas, atmosphere and music. First of all, I do not like 8-bit music, in fact it's my least favourite form of music, but Castlevania manages to produce some of the BEST songs in any game out there, with almost every level having its own original song that is always a banger. And then Castlevania nails the atmosphere. Dracula is such a classic character and the idea of wanting to kick this guys ass is on show through the whole game and it makes the experience that much more fun. I really enjoyed this, and it was a big surprise
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48. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box EXHD Android
49. The Matrix Awakens PS5
49. The Matrix Awakens PS5
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Been gradually chipping away at R-Type Final 2 since May, but now it's time to call it completed (until the next big update I guess).
48. R-Type (1987/1989, TG-16 Mini) ★★★★☆
Very impressive horizontal shooter for its time. An ominous soundtrack compliments the dripping H.R. Giger art style, and your weapons feel excellent. This blows Gradius out of the water, despite having the same punishing loss of power-ups upon death. R-Type isn't just mercilessly difficult; this game hates its players. I used savestates to keep up. Stage 6 in particular is a meat grinder and has an extra boss in this port. This and other bosses start relying on tricks to beat them, which I've never been a fan of. Deserves its reputation, but my God, this might be the hardest game I've played in years.
49. R-Type Dimensions EX (2018, Switch) ★★★★☆
An upcycled X360 dual release of the first two R-Type games. It lets you toggle between original art & music, and a glossy paintjob with trance remixes. The new style is a poor fit at times: the music is too upbeat, incoming shots can blend into the background, and some enemies lose a lot of menace or look outright goofy in this plastic sheen.
This was my first time playing R-Type II, and it's really impressive for 1989. Controls are great, it attempts some cinematic flair, and the shorter overall lengths makes it less of a gauntlet despite some wildly difficult bosses.
The real reasons to get this are the co-op mode, or as an easier introduction into these deviously hard games. You can induce slowdown at will which greatly helps, and the Infinite Mode removes the checkpoints upon death in favour of endless instant respawns. It's a fairly basic package altogether, but these games remain eminently playable. I wish I'd played this first, instead of bashing my head against the wall of R-Type I for a week.
50. R-Type Final 2 (2021, Switch) ★★★★☆
A giantess awakens from her 17 year slumber. During her hibernation, the space shooter genre receded to smaller developers, and niche audiences. Smaller hitboxes, higher movement speeds, instant respawns, and bullet hell became the norm. R-Type Final 2 rejects these developments and remains focused on painstaking memorisation. Your hitbox is massive, death sets you back to a checkpoint, there are power-ups, and you will lose them often.
Older design sensibilities are fine, but being explicit about hitbox size should be a QOL feature at this point. Other decisions also impede your precision at times: Stage 3 has a slowly swaying camera, which affects your ship's position. I've definitely crashed into the boss because the camera slightly shifted, which is frustrating, because it injects unpredictability into a game about repetition.
Where Final 2 chiefly impresses, is in its presentation and amount of content. The shiny, metallic look set to a trance soundtrack is a departure from the organic, Alien-inspired biomes, and does cost the series some sense of identity, but looks slick in isolation. The series' emphasis on replaying is better justified with 11 stages divided over 3 branching paths, 7 difficulty levels, dozens of unlockable customisable ships, and loads of varied enemies. Despite all their variety though, several bosses are just boring machines which don't even have the decency to perish in spectacular fashion. Another bummer is when all those enemies appear in clusters, it can cause slowdown on Switch, particularly in Stage 7.1.
Overall this is a welcome return, but it's an acquired taste, and its best levels are weirdly all back-loaded. At its best moments the game manages environmental storytelling (Stage 7.0's implies hundreds of failed previous missions, while 7.1 envisions a dark future), which clearly set it a cut above the genre competition. To get there however, you'll encounter some nasty difficulty spikes which force you to play on the game's terms.
Unfortunately few shmups receive this level of production values nowadays (only Resogun comes close), so I wonder if I'm being too generous and mistaking a snack for a feast here. But once I got over the hump and could reliably clear the lesser first three stages, the game began to come alive for me.
51. R-Type Final 2: Stage Pass 1 (2021, Switch) ★★★☆☆
Despite rejecting much of modernity, R-Type Final 2 cannot withstand the siren song of live services (and recurrent user spending). Thus, here we are: the first Stage Pass (another of which is planned). Containing 3 sets of DLC, this is basically a collection of 7 stages from past franchise entries, remade in the Final 2 framework, and with new musical renditions of past songs.
It runs the gamut, remaking iconic stages from the first R-Type (truncated versions of both "Encounter", and the battleship are here), the absurdly difficult factory chase from R-Type II, a fire corridor from R-Type III: The Third Lightning (I hate the boss in this one), the ruins from R-Type Leo, an impressive city level from R-Type Delta, and even the marsh from the first R-Type Final on PS2. The selection includes a few too many cramped corridors with moving stage hazards, but feels like an appropriate vertical slice of almost the entire series.
By pulling from all these sources, going forward the game can cement itself as a unified platform for the franchise. All the disparate art styles and musical directions are realigned under the Final 2 umbrella. In some ways that's disappointing, since the cleaner look with trance music continues the shift away from the dark H.R. Giger influences, and papers over the rich series history by homogenising everything.
Another worrying sign is the technical performance on Switch. I was pretty forgiving of the base game, but Stage X5 in particular routinely chugs at every difficulty level. This package is meant to keep getting updates over months or years, and already the Switch version is pushing up against its technical ceiling. However, with market realities being what they are, perhaps this live service model will prove to be the silver bullet solution to keeping space shooters viable without sacrificing on production values, unlockables, or features.
Love seeing these small insights into development history. I should check if Vigilante is still on the Wii U eShop - I know they pulled some of the IREM releases from Virtual Console, but perhaps not all.
48. R-Type (1987/1989, TG-16 Mini) ★★★★☆
Very impressive horizontal shooter for its time. An ominous soundtrack compliments the dripping H.R. Giger art style, and your weapons feel excellent. This blows Gradius out of the water, despite having the same punishing loss of power-ups upon death. R-Type isn't just mercilessly difficult; this game hates its players. I used savestates to keep up. Stage 6 in particular is a meat grinder and has an extra boss in this port. This and other bosses start relying on tricks to beat them, which I've never been a fan of. Deserves its reputation, but my God, this might be the hardest game I've played in years.
49. R-Type Dimensions EX (2018, Switch) ★★★★☆
An upcycled X360 dual release of the first two R-Type games. It lets you toggle between original art & music, and a glossy paintjob with trance remixes. The new style is a poor fit at times: the music is too upbeat, incoming shots can blend into the background, and some enemies lose a lot of menace or look outright goofy in this plastic sheen.
This was my first time playing R-Type II, and it's really impressive for 1989. Controls are great, it attempts some cinematic flair, and the shorter overall lengths makes it less of a gauntlet despite some wildly difficult bosses.
The real reasons to get this are the co-op mode, or as an easier introduction into these deviously hard games. You can induce slowdown at will which greatly helps, and the Infinite Mode removes the checkpoints upon death in favour of endless instant respawns. It's a fairly basic package altogether, but these games remain eminently playable. I wish I'd played this first, instead of bashing my head against the wall of R-Type I for a week.
50. R-Type Final 2 (2021, Switch) ★★★★☆
A giantess awakens from her 17 year slumber. During her hibernation, the space shooter genre receded to smaller developers, and niche audiences. Smaller hitboxes, higher movement speeds, instant respawns, and bullet hell became the norm. R-Type Final 2 rejects these developments and remains focused on painstaking memorisation. Your hitbox is massive, death sets you back to a checkpoint, there are power-ups, and you will lose them often.
Older design sensibilities are fine, but being explicit about hitbox size should be a QOL feature at this point. Other decisions also impede your precision at times: Stage 3 has a slowly swaying camera, which affects your ship's position. I've definitely crashed into the boss because the camera slightly shifted, which is frustrating, because it injects unpredictability into a game about repetition.
Where Final 2 chiefly impresses, is in its presentation and amount of content. The shiny, metallic look set to a trance soundtrack is a departure from the organic, Alien-inspired biomes, and does cost the series some sense of identity, but looks slick in isolation. The series' emphasis on replaying is better justified with 11 stages divided over 3 branching paths, 7 difficulty levels, dozens of unlockable customisable ships, and loads of varied enemies. Despite all their variety though, several bosses are just boring machines which don't even have the decency to perish in spectacular fashion. Another bummer is when all those enemies appear in clusters, it can cause slowdown on Switch, particularly in Stage 7.1.
Overall this is a welcome return, but it's an acquired taste, and its best levels are weirdly all back-loaded. At its best moments the game manages environmental storytelling (Stage 7.0's implies hundreds of failed previous missions, while 7.1 envisions a dark future), which clearly set it a cut above the genre competition. To get there however, you'll encounter some nasty difficulty spikes which force you to play on the game's terms.
Unfortunately few shmups receive this level of production values nowadays (only Resogun comes close), so I wonder if I'm being too generous and mistaking a snack for a feast here. But once I got over the hump and could reliably clear the lesser first three stages, the game began to come alive for me.
51. R-Type Final 2: Stage Pass 1 (2021, Switch) ★★★☆☆
Despite rejecting much of modernity, R-Type Final 2 cannot withstand the siren song of live services (and recurrent user spending). Thus, here we are: the first Stage Pass (another of which is planned). Containing 3 sets of DLC, this is basically a collection of 7 stages from past franchise entries, remade in the Final 2 framework, and with new musical renditions of past songs.
It runs the gamut, remaking iconic stages from the first R-Type (truncated versions of both "Encounter", and the battleship are here), the absurdly difficult factory chase from R-Type II, a fire corridor from R-Type III: The Third Lightning (I hate the boss in this one), the ruins from R-Type Leo, an impressive city level from R-Type Delta, and even the marsh from the first R-Type Final on PS2. The selection includes a few too many cramped corridors with moving stage hazards, but feels like an appropriate vertical slice of almost the entire series.
By pulling from all these sources, going forward the game can cement itself as a unified platform for the franchise. All the disparate art styles and musical directions are realigned under the Final 2 umbrella. In some ways that's disappointing, since the cleaner look with trance music continues the shift away from the dark H.R. Giger influences, and papers over the rich series history by homogenising everything.
Another worrying sign is the technical performance on Switch. I was pretty forgiving of the base game, but Stage X5 in particular routinely chugs at every difficulty level. This package is meant to keep getting updates over months or years, and already the Switch version is pushing up against its technical ceiling. However, with market realities being what they are, perhaps this live service model will prove to be the silver bullet solution to keeping space shooters viable without sacrificing on production values, unlockables, or features.
Love seeing these small insights into development history. I should check if Vigilante is still on the Wii U eShop - I know they pulled some of the IREM releases from Virtual Console, but perhaps not all.
Game #59 - Kena Bridge of Spirits
Time: 15 hours
Platform: Playstation 5
Rating: ★★★★★
I knew I was going to like this, just didn't expect to like it so much, as it was easily one of my favorite games of the year. Gorgeous to look at (this was made by a 15 man team???), gameplay is solid with some very obvious Souls-games inspiration (which is funny given the look of the game), great soundtrack and fantastic level and mechanics design make this one of those rare full packages. It can get pretty hard, again clearly leaning on the Souls inspiration (especially some of the bosses) which might be a turn off for people expecting something more like Jak or Ratchet, but it never got TOO crazy in my opinion, and if you explore a lot and get all the collectables, it actually improves your character's combat and survivability a lot which I loved, made it feel like exploring was meaningful. I could go on and on gushing about the game but yeah, fantastic indie title that is well worth the price.
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Game 23: Superliminal (PC) (1 Hour and 38 Minutes) (3/5) (December 12, 2021)
Wow! Two games in one week, maybe I can actually get to my goal of 26 games.
Superliminal is a game I've been interested in for a while, I saw it in a State of Play a while back and I remember thinking "this is my kind of game". I love first person puzzle games like Portal, The Witness and now this! Superliminal does such a good job of messing with your mind and introducing new ideas that are both confusing and jawdropping at times. Few puzzle games have the ability to make you feel as smart as Superliminal does. The soundtrack is really nice and soothing, and those moments when the soundtrack stops are so jarring and makes you realise that you're not really meant to be experiencing what you're experiencing. The story is pretty good, has a really good message to it that hits pretty well at the end, although the final twist isn't too unexpected.
The ending half of the game goes on a bit too long, and fails to introduce as many new ideas as the first half of the game, but that's to be expected from a smaller indie team, I also found placing objects and moving them around to be very tedious, especially when turning something small into something big. Superliminal is like the original Portal where it doesn't overstay it's welcome and does what it accomplishes in a short amount of time. Really glad I played this, and would love to see more like this from the developers one day
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59 | The Norwood Suite
PC | Dec 06 | 1.5 hrs | 3/5
This one is a bit hard for me to rate. It wasn't a bad game. It's a psychedelic experience, like walking into a surrealism painting. Personally not my go-to genre but someone else might love it. The atmosphere and design is memorable in a bizarre dream-like trip.
There's a story to uncover as you explore the hotel and speak with odd NCPs. You can eavesdrop and assist them in return for items. They will also give you backstory to better understand the setting and important characters. It plays like an adventure game.
60 | Lilly Looking Through
PC | Dec 07 | 2 hrs | 2/5
This puzzle game started off fairly strong; sadly it did not end that way. The hand drawn art style is captivating. The animations are done well, although I do understand why some players asked for a skip. However, the menu is clunky and does not warn you if you accidentally restart a level. The puzzles were challenging. Vague instructions but rewarding when you figured it out.
Until you got to the last two levels. They rely heavily on color sight and color theory. Not helpful if you are color blind. I guess many developers forget color blindness is a thing? Then if you can get past those levels, the game just...ends. No animation to give you satisfaction after all your hard work. Just abruptly ends on a cliffhanger with no word on a second installment. It felt rushed with little to no thought. Good slap to the face.
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PC | Dec 06 | 1.5 hrs | 3/5
This one is a bit hard for me to rate. It wasn't a bad game. It's a psychedelic experience, like walking into a surrealism painting. Personally not my go-to genre but someone else might love it. The atmosphere and design is memorable in a bizarre dream-like trip.
There's a story to uncover as you explore the hotel and speak with odd NCPs. You can eavesdrop and assist them in return for items. They will also give you backstory to better understand the setting and important characters. It plays like an adventure game.
60 | Lilly Looking Through
PC | Dec 07 | 2 hrs | 2/5
This puzzle game started off fairly strong; sadly it did not end that way. The hand drawn art style is captivating. The animations are done well, although I do understand why some players asked for a skip. However, the menu is clunky and does not warn you if you accidentally restart a level. The puzzles were challenging. Vague instructions but rewarding when you figured it out.
Until you got to the last two levels. They rely heavily on color sight and color theory. Not helpful if you are color blind. I guess many developers forget color blindness is a thing? Then if you can get past those levels, the game just...ends. No animation to give you satisfaction after all your hard work. Just abruptly ends on a cliffhanger with no word on a second installment. It felt rushed with little to no thought. Good slap to the face.
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I typed this once and the website ate it, so I'm going to try once again.
36/52
Metal Slug 3 | Steam | 2/5 | 64 minutes
Gonna just reuse earlier comments for this one: Man, am I bad at this sort of game now. This is, I assume, a newer version of the game you used to play at your local pizza joint. There were four characters to play as but I'm not sure there was any difference. One shot kills you and there's stuff coming from all over the place. I disliked having to jump and fire down and had issues doing it reliably with my controller. Ran through the game once and saw the credits and didn't need to play further. My reaction time is not what it used to be.
37/52
Okami HD | Steam | 3/5 | 51 hours
I never played this when it initially came out, so I guess I don't have the nostalgia for it that others do. Part of my problem is taking a giant year plus break in the middle of this game. That being said, I still had issues with the camera not doing what I wanted it to do, especially when trying to traverse via the vines or up walls and in dungeons in general. The combat was fine after I figured out how to do it again. It was good but do I think it is the best Zelda game? Not really, no. I don't really have a fond spot for Ocarina of Time either, which is what this get compared to. The best part of this game is being able to piss on your enemies and then drop a HUGE turd on them as well. I am a 6 year old.
38/52
Trash TV | Steam | 4/5 | 2 hours
I originally confused this with Smash TV and was surprised when this wasn't it. A puzzle game where you play as a TV (that is trash) trying to escape the dump / incinerator. You would get different weapons that you could use to help you solve puzzles and shoot things in your way. I'm finding that I am generally bad at puzzle games but this one didn't frustrate me TOO much.
39/52
Out There Somewhere | Steam | 3/5 | 73 minutes
Another puzzle game that starts out as a shitty looking side scrolling shoot em up. Once you die, you land on a planet and it turns into a puzzle platformer. You have a portal-like gun where you shoot and are teleported to where the bullet hits. There are enemies and other obstacles such as beams that "kill" your shot. Later in the game you were required to use momentum from your jumps to time with your teleport which I never fully got the hang of. Not too bad, though. Just get past the first part of the game!
40/52
Diablo 2: Resurrected | Battle Net | 3/5
This game is good, but I'm giving it a 3 because it runs like garbage on my computer and it shouldn't on my hardware. I've been playing this with a buddy exclusively in hardcore mode. We've each permanently lost a character at various times but that's how I generally find the game at it's most fun. Not able to completely rush through it and a little bit of time each fight. No time as I'm still playing it on and off and have been on multiple characters. We've beaten the game on normal hardcore and will continue to work into harder difficulties.
41/52
The Norwood Suite | Steam | 2/5 | 86 minutes
Man, what is this game? A trippy walking simulator / light puzzle solver where you're in some weird hotel / hell that you're trying to get out of? Solve a mystery? I don't know. It was interesting but I'm not sure what happened in it.
42/52
WWE Supercard | Android | 3/5
NERD ALERT. I've played this game on and off since it launched several years ago. You build up a deck of wrestlers trapped in rectangles and go against bots/other players in a multitude of modes. The new season launched recently and for whatever reason I fell back into it. You can pay money to improve your overall deck quickly, so I'm sure there's some whales out there that just buy their way to max deck strength and I've spent a few bucks on it over the years, but I don't like it enough to really sink money into it.
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36/52
Metal Slug 3 | Steam | 2/5 | 64 minutes
Gonna just reuse earlier comments for this one: Man, am I bad at this sort of game now. This is, I assume, a newer version of the game you used to play at your local pizza joint. There were four characters to play as but I'm not sure there was any difference. One shot kills you and there's stuff coming from all over the place. I disliked having to jump and fire down and had issues doing it reliably with my controller. Ran through the game once and saw the credits and didn't need to play further. My reaction time is not what it used to be.
37/52
Okami HD | Steam | 3/5 | 51 hours
I never played this when it initially came out, so I guess I don't have the nostalgia for it that others do. Part of my problem is taking a giant year plus break in the middle of this game. That being said, I still had issues with the camera not doing what I wanted it to do, especially when trying to traverse via the vines or up walls and in dungeons in general. The combat was fine after I figured out how to do it again. It was good but do I think it is the best Zelda game? Not really, no. I don't really have a fond spot for Ocarina of Time either, which is what this get compared to. The best part of this game is being able to piss on your enemies and then drop a HUGE turd on them as well. I am a 6 year old.
38/52
Trash TV | Steam | 4/5 | 2 hours
I originally confused this with Smash TV and was surprised when this wasn't it. A puzzle game where you play as a TV (that is trash) trying to escape the dump / incinerator. You would get different weapons that you could use to help you solve puzzles and shoot things in your way. I'm finding that I am generally bad at puzzle games but this one didn't frustrate me TOO much.
39/52
Out There Somewhere | Steam | 3/5 | 73 minutes
Another puzzle game that starts out as a shitty looking side scrolling shoot em up. Once you die, you land on a planet and it turns into a puzzle platformer. You have a portal-like gun where you shoot and are teleported to where the bullet hits. There are enemies and other obstacles such as beams that "kill" your shot. Later in the game you were required to use momentum from your jumps to time with your teleport which I never fully got the hang of. Not too bad, though. Just get past the first part of the game!
40/52
Diablo 2: Resurrected | Battle Net | 3/5
This game is good, but I'm giving it a 3 because it runs like garbage on my computer and it shouldn't on my hardware. I've been playing this with a buddy exclusively in hardcore mode. We've each permanently lost a character at various times but that's how I generally find the game at it's most fun. Not able to completely rush through it and a little bit of time each fight. No time as I'm still playing it on and off and have been on multiple characters. We've beaten the game on normal hardcore and will continue to work into harder difficulties.
41/52
The Norwood Suite | Steam | 2/5 | 86 minutes
Man, what is this game? A trippy walking simulator / light puzzle solver where you're in some weird hotel / hell that you're trying to get out of? Solve a mystery? I don't know. It was interesting but I'm not sure what happened in it.
42/52
WWE Supercard | Android | 3/5
NERD ALERT. I've played this game on and off since it launched several years ago. You build up a deck of wrestlers trapped in rectangles and go against bots/other players in a multitude of modes. The new season launched recently and for whatever reason I fell back into it. You can pay money to improve your overall deck quickly, so I'm sure there's some whales out there that just buy their way to max deck strength and I've spent a few bucks on it over the years, but I don't like it enough to really sink money into it.
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