52 Games. 1 Year. 2022.

[Rhaknar]

Game #18 - Lost Ark
Time: 90 hours
Platform: PC
Rating: ★★★

Long awaited mmo action rpg finally hit the west, and even tho I enjoyed my time with it, it feels too little too late, and a particularly disastrous EU launch really soured me on the whole experience. It's really fun to play and looks great, with some really cool classes to choose and some of the most flashy and impressive spell effects you'll find in one of these games, but unfortunately the endgame is super grindy (to the point the recommended way to play is to have a bunch of alts funneling upgrade materials to your main character), and it has a million systems on systems on systems, typical of F2P games. And like I said earlier, the EU launch was terrible with ridiculous queues and even if you could get in, terrible lag or matchmaking straight up not working for days just soured the whole thing. It's a bit better now (I guess people either quit or are busy with Horizon and Elden Ring) but much like the game's release in the west, it's too little too late.

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[Deleted member 32615]

Game 6: McPixel (PC) (1 Hour, 15 Minutes) (2/5) (February 23rd, 2022)
Not much to say on this one, fun point and click that hasn't aged TOO well. I actually think given the chance McPixel could be MUCH better given there are a lot of fun jokes in this game but a lot of jokes that don't land nowadays. I'm looking for to the 3rd one, but this one just doesn't hold up as much. Not really a fan of the soundtrack either, given the repetitive nature (not necessarily a bad thing) of the gameplay, it would have been nice to mix up the music so I don't feel like I'm in purgatory for an hour. The custom level feature is one thing I really appreciate it and probably the best part of it all these years later

For a game that's about 1 dollar, you can do much worse, but very clearly a product of its time

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[djinn]

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9. Mass Effect 3
I had a fair bit of anxiety going into this game. After all, 2 had been disappointing after the hype I had heard about it and this one was supposed to be bad. Remind me never to listen to the internet ever again because I absolutely loved this from start to finish. Gorgeous set pieces, nice combat, great quests and paced much better than 2. Any issues I might have with the game are insignificant next to the amount of emotions this game made me feel. I'm so attached to all these characters now and it's sad to leave. I'm going to miss Shepard most of all, one of the best female protagonists I've ever had the pleasure to play as. Mass Effect 3 is now one of my favourite games ever.

 

[Sillen2000]

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January update: 4/52

Okay, this is a very late update, but at least it's an update. Strong start to the year overall and four games from four different countries beaten. Obviously a complete coincidence and not really something I care that much about, but still sort of fun. Don't expect one 140 hour game every month, by the way. I really am aiming towards playing more shorter games this year.

1. January 5th | Samorost | Android | 14m | ☆☆☆(/5)

Starting the year off with a first for me since I started posting in these 52 games thread in 2020. I don't really have anything against mobile gaming as long as the game is good, but, I mean, most of them aren't and I do find with games that I actually might enjoy they can often be played on other platforms and I'd rather have at least a semi large screen to see the game on than my cellphone.

Samorost, though, feels like a pretty perfect game to enjoy on the phone. It's short, it's sweet and the whole thing can be completed in, like, one short bus trip. Not that I actually played the game in the sort of context. I was at home, sitting in my living room and suddenly remembered I had this charming little game that I should probably play.

And really, the entire experience sort of hinges on its charm. From the cute, tiny protagonist (who might be THE Samorost? Maybe?) to the surreal world he travels across, this is a game where you just want to stop playing and marvel at the imagination of Amanita Design's art direction. The puzzles are pretty so-so and usually extremely easy, but there's so much life put into this tiny, free game that really didn't have to be there. But it is there! And it's great that it is because what would otherwise be a pretty middling point & click game suddenly turns into something a bit more special.

At not even 15 minutes it barely has any time to begin before it ends, but it still feels like a complete game with a beginning, middle and end whit this tiny czech alien dude trying to save his tiny home planet from this industrial celestial body that's about to crash into it which obviously isn't the most subtle criticism against capitalism, but it's not like everything has to be subtle all the time to still be enjoyable. Also, every screen is so packed with strange, sometimes a bit unsettling details that even though the journey is short, there're are a lot of strange and memorable sights to see and suddenly remember long some day long after the game has been finished and deleted from your phone.

As far as I know, both Samorost 2 and 3 are a lot longer than the first game and I'm not really sure if I'm interested in this type of very simple puzzling for much longer than what was given here. Maybe the puzzle design got a bit more inspired as the team got more experience in designing games, but I don't know. Sometimes a short film shouldn't be adapted into feature length, and I feel like that holds true for Samorost too. Not just because of the puzzles, but also because of how alien and weird it is, and how that feeling might dissipate if you spend too much time in it and that feeling of experiencing something special is exchanged with the feeling that I'm just playing a pretty standard *gasp* video game.

Anyway, I'm probably the last person in the world to play Samorost, but if not: I highly recommend it to those who wants a satisfying experience 20 minutes or less.

Soundtrack highlight:
Rybar (this one sounds like something out of the Stalker soundtrack (the Tarkovsky movie, not S.T.A.L.K.E.R)

2. January 14th | Yakuza 5 | Playstation 4 | 140h 55m | ☆☆☆½

You know, I love the Yakuza series, but the more I play of it the more I realize I'm slowly killing myself by going for 100% in all of the games, and I don't feel like I've ever felt the sweet embrace of death quite as much as I did in Yakuza 5, a game that is honestly too big for its own good even if you just mainline it and just comically large if you go beyond that. It's no surprise it took me roughly four months to finally beat this beast, but beat it I did, and while the experience was a very uneven one, I still walked out with overall pleasant thoughts on the journey as a whole.

You really can't fault Yakuza 5 for its huge ambitions. Five playable characters with four having distinct fight styles, their own little side stories and a fifth character with a playstyle completely new to the series and devoid of any fighting. Also five different cities to explore, with three of them being new to the series. Also, every character has a story that somehow manages to work as a standalone thing while also all moving towards the same goal by the end in a way that, sure, isn't exactly super organic or something that feels like anything other than the writers had no idea how to make everyone meet up and end the game (not completely unlike the feeling I had with 4's finale, to be honest) and just made it up when they were, like, an hour away from deadline, but still: it's very ambitions! And most of it sort of works! It's not some award winning writing, but it does what it needs to do well: mask a myriad of plot holes (and if other Yakuza games already have their fair share, just imagine how many a game of 5's size has!) by washing over the player with a tsunami of pathos and men feeling strong emotions while doing cool shit. There are obviously scenes here and there with legit great writing (both dramatic and comedic), but I can assure you that it's the over the top, out of this world stupid, but also extremely cool things that will be what makes most people keep on playing the game. And that's not a bad thing! You can make a In the Mood For Love or you can make a John Wick and both work amazingly well in their own separate genres. As a melodramatic action game, Yakuza doesn't really have to be this subtle mood piece with the most clever writing, but should rather aim at being this maximalistic, almost parodically earnest take on manly men letting their emotions run wild and while it is focusing on these strengths inherent to its very niche genre and DNA of the franchise as a whole, Yakuza 5 really works. It doesn't make all that much sense, but it works and does manage to convey the emotions put on screen. You can believe what's going on since the game believes it and even when it takes such an insane turn – like a section where a character comes up with the insane plan of four people beating each other up to the brink of death in order to lure the real villain out of hiding – it's still really entertaining. It's really not all unlike JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in that way, I guess.

Despite all that, though, there are obvious pacing issues with Yakuza 5. Even if you don't even go for 100% and complete every single mini-game, this game is too long and never truly manages to justify its length. Kiryu and Haruka/Akiyama's chapters feel pretty essential to the overall plot and Saejima's does to some extent (though it's also his chapters that are by far the worst. His weird Matrix-like fantasies has to be both the most boring gameplay sections in any of these games, and they're placed within a prison section that's even worse than the one in 4), but Shinada, as much as I actually like his character and standalone story, could have been cut without any essential piece of the overarching story really being affected and it probably should have been since it just adds another layer of characters and events to remember and there were almost too many things to keep track of even before he was introduced! And, like, there is some sort of padding or needlessly slow, mandatory, tutorial in every single part so it's not like Shinada is the only sinner here, but he's the only one who doesn't at all feel important to the larger events occuring in the background across the other parts. Akiyama also really doesn't have all that much to do either now that I think about it, but he does have the essential role of filling in the other characters on important exposition investigating crimes. Not sure why the made him into the game's Tanimura when Tanimura easily could just have been in the game instead, but sure. Who am I to judge if he wanted to leave his life of being a pretty sleazy money lender to become an amateur detective?

The overall experience of playing Yakuza 5 isn't really all that different from other games in the series. It does have several cities, yes, and the characters have different fighting styles, yes, but it's still a Yakuza game. You fight hordes of bad guys (maybe it's just my imagination, but the encounters seem a lot more frequent in this game, though? It's extremely annoying either way), do substories and play some fun mini games (and pool) instead of moving the story forward. It's a fun gameplay loop, but there's not all that much to say about it that I haven't said before. No on is as annoying to play with as Tanimura was in 4, I guess? Haruka's dancing is fun but there should have been a bit better song variety. I've seen people say that's to give you the mindset of Haruka who's stuck in this tedious loop, just repeating the same thing day in and day out and there's obviously no wrong way to read things like this, but I never really got the feeling that Haruka ever felt like this? I mean, she's a saint like Kiryu so she obviously wouldn't complain openly, but even when she's alone it doesn't really seem like something that's bothering her. She just wants to get better and be the Dragon of dancing. Maybe the struggle should have been a bigger part of this and the very light RPG-elements should have at least made a bit more difference than they do? I mean, the very easy gameplay section start very easy and end very easy, so her struggle and growth is never really conveyed all that well and honestly does get a bit boring when it really is just the same few songs over and over again without any sort of challenge.

Oh well, most of the game's fun anyway. The side stories that most characters (i.e. everyone but Akiyama, for some reason) can do are great and honestly one of the most impressive things the game does. I mean, it's already impressive that it has four different fighting styles that all feel good, a dancing mini-game that's at least solid on a mechanical level, and so many different types of mini games that all feel at worst decent to play (even pool, honestly), and then to add these completely new gameplay mechanics to the series with the side stories that all also feel well made is an incredible achievement. Side stories are a different thing than substories, by the way, and involves every character embarking on their own, smaller adventure in set in what feels like completely different games from the rest of the game. Kiryu drives a taxi (and has missions that are both pure taxi simulations where you follow japanese traffic laws while driving passengers to their destinations, but you also get some high octane races against an evil car gang, with some great car heat actions. This side story is honestly so good that I wish it was made into its own game), Saejima hunts in the mountains, Haruka owns people in dance battles and Shinada has his own little baseball RPG while settling past feuds. It's not like Yakuza 5 needed more content to begin with, but it's not like I'm going to complain about optional content and certainly not when it's as fun as these scenarios are. It's honestly incredible how good they are considering how much work must have been put into making the rest of the game as large as it is, while still under the relatively short dev time that these games seem to have. I know it's 90% resued assets, gameplay mechanics and story beats, but still – really impressive.

I've gone off long enough now and I've probably made my main point pretty clear by this point: Yakuza 5 is huge. Definitely too huge for its own good, but it's impossible not to admire the ambition and the fact that most of it is still pretty solid. Yakuza 5 might be a master of none, but it's at least a jack of all trades without really nothing that's truly bad (talking purely about the gameplay here.) It doesn't truly stick the landing with a finale that feels improvised on the spot, with the weakest assortment of final bosses in the series (though the final, final boss is a great fight, despite the motivations behind it being weak at best) and the soundtrack is overall a lot weaker than what I'm used to with the series, but I still walk away truly impressed, if a bit tired, by it all. Doesn't hurt that the ending is an all-timer, I guess. The Yakuza formula is starting to feel a bit worn out by this point, though. And I don't just mean the gameplay, but so many story beats are reused over and over again that even those that were really good the first few times just feel rote at this point. I remember loving Yakuza 6, but I'm a bit worried about replaying it now and just seeing all of these things that I've basically seen with different characters in the previous games. Then again, 2 and 0 are still great despite including a lot of the Yakuza tropes, so I guess it just has to do with what you surround them with.

Soundtrack highlight:
Each of Their Dreams

 

[StarPhlox]

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14. Pokémon Legends: Arceus - I approached this game with a bit of hesitation because I genuinely can't remember the last time that I thoroughly enjoyed a Pokémon game. However, it's warm reception and my desire to actually have fun with the great concept lead me to give this game a fair shot and I'm so glad I did. Much of what this game does is quite simple/basic, but it's simplicity generally works in its favor and I think that they basically did a great job evolving Pokémon for the 21st century. I completed the main story in about 25 hours and there is still clearly so much to do to really see everything and to complete the Pokédex. My intention is to eventually do that, but not with the same intensity and dedication I applied to the main game. If I catch about one or two a day then I'll be finished for good within a couple months and that seems quite reasonable of a pace when I will want to dedicate most of my gaming time to Elden Ring, obviously! But this is a really cool game and an easy one to recommend by people who want to enjoy Pokémon more than they have in years. 8/10

15. Elden Ring - This game has been subject to praise that some could see as hyperbolic, but it is genuinely a contender for greatest of all time. My run through the game with main story and a lot of extra was about 55 hours or so and it's easy to see how someone's first experience of NG could double that without even trying. There is an immense amount to do, but that's not necessarily impressive in a vacuum as there are so many games that are bloated and boring. Elden Ring is neither. It has the superb combat that one would expect from a combination of Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro but with an amount of variety in character build, in environments, and in sheer options that is difficult to overstate. Never have I played something this ambitious and an open-world so exciting to explore thanks in large part to its minimalism and desire for you to actually explore and not be told exactly where to go and what to do next. The sense of freedom, discovery, and reward inherent to discovering so much on one's own is exhilarating. It is for sure my favorite game that From Software have made and perhaps my new all-time favorite. A true masterpiece. 10/10

16. Mega Man X6 - I continue playing one Mega Man game a month to provide me some joy in something that is brief, familiar, and (for the most part) a guaranteed good time. The late X games are not as good of a time as the early X games and despite generally working with a strong foundation they really fall off hard in terms of overall quality. X6 is the real beginning of the end, but playing in Rookie Hunter mode I find it to be a far more forgiving and forgivable experience because the level design is frequently terrible but only buoyed by how great the visuals, music, and control of X and Zero is. Despite all the flaws there is something I still enjoy but it is dire compared to X1-X5 which I consider to be varying degrees of incredible. 6/10

17. Guardians of the Galaxy - Certainly the positive surprise I had heard it was! Although the combat is serviceable and nothing to write home about, I think the story and character development was wonderful. Small opportunities for exploration but you end up with a fully upgraded team by the end without too much worrying about it. Very few points of frustration and a whole lot to love in terms of plot development and execution. As a non Marvel fan this was a very pleasant experience and I imagine those who are into heroes will have a fantastic time. 8/10

18. Kirby and the Forgotten Land - A new high water mark for the Kirby franchise, easily. I love so many games in the series but this is unquestionably my favorite yet. It is a bold leap into a new dimension literally and figuratively and I think it's massively successful all the way around. A difficult game to 100% but an easy game to finish and one that it's hard to imagine somebody not loving. It is so charming, imaginative, fun, and sweet throughout. Can't see this falling outside my top 10 for the year no matter what else comes. 9/10

19. Elden Ring (New Game +) - This play though took me about 1/4 the time and effort of my NG but I still had an awesome time with it. I imagine I will be replaying it many times in the future. It is a true masterpiece and maybe the greatest game made in the past 40 years of the medium. 10/10

20. Mega Man X5 - I have been replaying Mega Man games one a month and was really looking forward to this one. It's not as strong as I remember, but I vastly prefer it to the games that followed in the X series. This time I went through as Zero which is always a blast, but I could replay again as X and enjoy more of the collectible aspect. Solid as hell game and would welcome another one in this style. 8/10

21. Horizon Forbidden West - Despite the shiny graphics and excellent presentation, I think HFW is largely a worse game than its predecessor. I feel like rather than show more ambition by tightening the gameplay or making it a denser experience they just threw a lot of money at it to make it bigger, bigger, and bigger. Ultimately I think this game is really disappointing and boring and a slog to get through even if you just stick to the main story. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody unless they wanted a graphical showcase that holds their hand the entire time and shows them literally nothing they haven't seen before. 5/10

22) Life Is Strange: True Colors - A nice breath of fresh air and a good return to form for the Life Is Strange series. While I like the characters, the overall story, the graphics, and the choices that were on offer I do think the game fell short in one key way. Mind-reader characters often end up feeling kinda empty and more like a vessel for others rather than a fully developed character in their own right and unfortunately Alex Chen is not an exception. There were so many more aspects of her that could have been explored which would have added more depth to her but ultimately she felt not fully developed. When this is the most important character that's a pretty significant drawback. In the end, LiS:TC still has so many good things to offer and I enjoyed my time with it. 8/10

23) Bloodborne - A pretty phenomenal game overall, I must say. While I think it's actually a bit more middle of the road in terms of how it stacks up against the rest of the greater Souls series for me (I am confident I prefer at least Elden Ring and Sekiro to this one and maybe one of the Dark Souls games, too) I applaud how focused and consistent Bloodborne is. It has such a singular vision and never really deviates from it even as it evolves from gothic horror to cosmic horror over the course of the relatively brief journey. I was able to get accustomed to the differences fairly quickly after picking it up but the QOL changes that From Software has implemented over the releases since Bloodborne were also felt by me. In a few years when it is due for a competent Bluepoint remake I am confident it will be a nearly flawless experience. Just needs a bit more convenience and 4K/60FPS! 9/10

24. Resident Evil - As usual I am on a Capcom kick which means replaying their games or playing some for the first time. It was great to go back to the REmake again after all these years and play through as Jill given that last time I played as Chris and that was probably about 5 years ago. Hard to believe this is (basically) a 20 year old game as it still looks absolutely phenomenal and the only things holding it back are dated design (the combat is clunky whether or not that is intentional) and so I must admit I prefer all the RE games that have come out since 2017 (the two remakes, 7, and Village). However, this game is still a phenomenal achievement and I think it may very well be the scariest of all of them. Despite some of the frustrations this game is a true classic and I wouldn't mind another remake of it again when they finish with 4 and hopefully a Code Veronica remake. 9/10

25. Mega Man X4 - I think this playthrough cemented it as my 2nd favorite game of the X series and therefore one of the top best Mega Man games and therefore one of the greatest games ever made. I absolutely adore X4 and think it has very few missteps. Controls are tight as ever, graphics are gorgeous, the soundtrack is outstanding, it does not overstay its welcome, and the two playable characters does a lot for replayability. If there is a downside it is probably how annoying the Jet Stingray stage can be and even then I don't hate it, but dedicating an entire stage to the jet bike is a mistake, I think. X and Zero are both amazing to play as so yeah it's a masterpiece. 9/10

26. Super Ghouls N Ghosts - I didn't grow up with Super GNG but I think the more I've played it he more I appreciate what it does differently. This series can really run together but it is so unique as a series that I don't think it's an especially bad thing (particularly because unlike how it was with Mega Man games coming out every year or more the GNG games are quite sporadic). This game's major flaw is the technical performance and also I think the double jump is more of a liability than a help. Beyond that, it's a really cool game and I am glad to have returned to it. 8/10

27. Kirby Super Star - It's almost always a treat to return to Kirby games and after the amazing Kirby and the Forgotten Land I still had a hankering for a 2D Kirby. Had no desire to go back to Star Allies any time soon so Super Star was the other one that fit the bill and I have fond memories of. Loved this game so much as a child and while I do not think it totally holds up there is a lot to love in the design and the more bite-sized games featured within. You can never truly go wrong with Kirby and while Ultra is the definitive way to experience Super Star I like this a whole lot. 8/10

28. Ghosts N Goblins - Played through the arcade version and think it's a pretty bullshit game overall. Performance far exceeds the NES port if I recall correctly, but this game is insanely hard and unforgiving. I think the rest of the series is exceedingly challenging but nowhere near as cruel as the original Ghosts N Goblins. Graphics, general aesthetic/vibe, and controls are still on point after 35 years. 7/10

29. Ghosts N Goblins Resurrection - The latest game in the storied franchise and not nearly as much of a reinvention as I was expecting. In fact, it's more or less a remake of the first two games with beautiful graphics, a few more options for difficulty, and an upgrade tree of umbral bee collectibles. This game is hard as hell but I had a tremendous time learning the ins and outs and overcoming the massive challenges along the way. Sometimes it felt unfair but I never doubted that I would be able to succeed with learning and persistence. It's a super underrated game compared to the other four games in the series and I am glad I gave my time and money to it. 9/10

30. Ghouls N Ghosts - This is the one I grew up with back on the Sega Genesis as a kid, however I played through the arcade version that is on the Switch. Game is just as great as I remembered and I would say it may still be my favorite in the franchise. I don't think it ever really feels unfair and I love the level design, graphics, and how different it feels from the other GNG games before and after it. One of the best action platform games ever. 9/10

31. Streets of Rage 2 - I haven't played through this game in many years but it feels quite good to return to. Many elements are truly timeless and while nostalgia does a lot of heavy lifting for this game the fact is that it's only been dethroned recently by the immaculate Streets of Rage 4. Still, 2 is iconic and has a killer soundtrack and tight controls. I played alone, but it's undoubtedly of the great co-op beat 'em ups of all time and is a legendary experience. Does it totally hold up? Not quite but there are far worse ways to spend an hour and a half. 8/10

32. Donkey Kong - This game is regarded as a classic for good reason. Taking it just in the historical context it really was an incredible achievement and that it is still so fun 40 years later is remarkable. It's not the greatest game ever made and has been surpassed so much that it's not even funny, but it deserves respect for what it achieved and that it continues to provide a good time. 8/10

33. Donkey Kong Jr. - Hard to follow-up what was at that point the biggest game on the planet. DK Jr. is an admirable attempt that I think really falls short in execution as it is not nearly as tight or compelling as the first game. Interesting that it started a trend in the series of playing as a different character in the sequel though! 6/10

34. Donkey Kong 3 - There is for sure something interesting here and I think it is bold just how different of a direction this one is from the first two but I just don't think it's a fun game. We never hear about this game or Stanley the Bugman these days for good reason. It's just a weak effort and consigned DK to the dustbin for almost a decade before the series needed both a reboot and a complete reinvention. 4/10

35. Kid Icarus - So I had never played this version all the way through although I did think very fondly of the 3D classics version that came out alongside Uprising back a decade ago. The backgrounds being just empty is so disappointing just like it was in Metroid and it's a shame that the graphics are often so samey or dull because Kid Icarus is a weird game that has a lot of unique things going on. It has slippery controls that haven't aged well and does a lot of things confusingly or poorly, but I found it hard to put down in spite of its many, many problems. It's little wonder that it took so long for this and the Game Boy sequel to get a follow-up because it's hard to imagine somebody really loving the first and second game. I do like it for what it is but I do not need to replay this game ever again. I think I'm good on Kid Icarus until we get a port of or sequel to the phenomenal Uprising. 7/10

36) Super Mario World - For some reason I never had much fondness for this game and certainly not as much as most Mario fans seem to, so I wanted to recheck my disposition towards it after several years away. I can say this time that I finally get it! Super Mario World is another beautiful and fun Mario platformer and while I don't think I love it as much as SMB3 it is right up there for me as the 2nd best game in the 2D series. 9/10

37) Shinobi III - I have little familiarity with the Shinobi series prior to this having only played Shadow Dancer as a kid. I'm glad that I finally corrected that gap in my gaming history because Shinobi III is a fantastic experience. The graphics, sound, and gameplay are impressive three decades on. It's a short but exciting action game that still holds up. Mostly fairly easy and fair, although there are some bizarre spikes that make it feel a bit dated. 8/10

38) Super Mario Bros. 3 - After all these years I really do think this is still the best 2D Mario. I think I prefer pretty much every 3D Mario, but this one is close to unimpeachable in terms of raw quality. For an NES game to still feel so great to control over 30 years later is ridiculous. Among the best platformers ever made and it is IMO the best game on NES. 10/10

39) Tetris 99 - I think this continues to be my favorite version of Tetris right up there with Tetris Effect. I have played so much online in my downtime and never seem to get sick of it even when I'm consistently getting 2nd or 3rd place. It's just a brilliant reinvention of the Tetris format that is evergreen in fun and engagement. 9/10

40) Pac-Man 99 - A really fun reinvention of Pac-Man that definitely learned a lot of the valuable lessons gleaned from Tetris 99. I wouldn't put this on quite that level for a few reasons. However, this one continues to delight again years after its original release which is a testament to the staying power of OG Pac-Man, too. 8/10

 

[Nocturnowl]

10. Sonic Colours Ultimate (24/2/22) ★★★

I have a huge soft spot for the original Sonic Colours, you've gotta understand that the year was 2010, Sonic was still reeling from the 06 disaster and while 08's Unleashed offered a promising new baseline in gameplay, it was bogged down by barely letting you experience that gameplay.
But hope was on the horizon, Sonic 4 was real, 2D was back, they finally understood and...oh no, oh god, Sonic 4 sucks?! that's it, it's over, hope is dead.
And then Colours just squeaked out at the end of the year to nowhere near as much buzz as any of those previously mentioned games, and it was....good?

Colours was never a true titan of platforming, it was just a well executed good time, the first game with Roger Craig Smith's Sonic and a story that basically went back to some Sonic 1/2 like basics, no friends, no gameplay genre shifts, it was simply put, refreshing and looked to be the beginning of a new era of Sonic, especially after its sequel Generations also stuck the landing.
As we know, Sonic went to shit again afterwards, surprise, surprise.
And in the time since, the unleashed and 06 fandom (yes, they exist for the latter, the mind boggles) have seemingly tried to paint Colours as the true harbinger of bad modern Sonic, because of its dorky cutscene humour and wisps that leaked into later lesser games and...well, that's kind of it. Not the best argument when you're batting for fuckin' 06 for sure, but it does beg the question, does Sonic Colours still hold up in 2021/22? and is this version as ultimate as it claims?
To which I say, yes it still just about holds its ground, yet also no, it's not really ultimate.

To play through Colours is a breezy 3 hour experience that never pushes back much, is more 2D than 3D and is clearly making flipping its assets like a pro in order to create a more complete game, where between the bigger and more notable stages (usually 2 per world out of the 6) there's stages that feel like you could build in a block placing stage builder or remix existing slabs of the bigger stages to make new ones. It's actually kinda impressive I find, I'm something of a sucker for when reusing assets is done well and I do think Colours manages to deliver on mostly solid stages with only a few standing out as complete filler fodder (hello asteroid coaster's winding tower of motobugs).

As a way to help create the classic sonic style of multi tiered stages without errr, having to actually put as much work in?
the wisps were this games main gimmick, giving Sonic timed power ups ala 3D Mario like the drill to burrow through earth and water, or hover and rocket as alternative ways to add verticality. The use of wisps in later games as a kind of shoehorned in feature has led to some detractors but in colours itself it's pretty good, revisiting stages for the red rings is a lot more interesting with them opening up new paths and all. Most importantly, they's entwined with the actual platforming gameplay, ain't no treasure hunting, mech shooting, werehogging here, just power ups.
And they even throw in the oddity of the co-op gameland stages, 21 brief stages unlocked via red rings actually built out of like a building block doodad to earn you the chaos emeralds, I appreciate them but they're also completely skippable.

Playing through this again made me note that I've actually replayed this a lot over the years, yet with my Wii and WiiU packed up, it's been a while since I went back through it and while I do now think that Generations is a more impressive entry with much higher highs, there's a consistency to colours that makes the whole game flow smoothly. The cutscenes are indeed full of some real dorky humour, yeah it was a relief after the years of EDGE and SERIOUSNESS, but I can't pretend the cutscenes offer anything to anyone beyond kiddos, though I do make sure to stick around for Eggman ones. What's still crazy to me is how good the actual in game humour is from Eggman's PA announcements taking place as you play, they almost make me want to stop and let them play out, colours simultaneously has bad humour and great humour.

Okay, let's address the ultimate part of the equation because this is where the game falters.
Firstly, Sega needed to give the devs more time, they had to rush this out late last year and it was busted as all heck, playing it now is a mostly fixed experience but I still had some bizarre glitches like not being able to jump in an aquarium park chase segment, rendering the section stupidly difficult. The same segment also highlighted to me that the visual upgrade has some real rough spots, like the pursuing enemies that have the player need to quickstep out of the path of incoming lasers, said lasers have like zero tells now, the visual got completely fucked in the HD transition.
Other gameplay cock ups seem to include Sonic's wall jump being extra sticky, the game either moving a touch too fast in places or failing to throw up the homing attack or pit warnings in time, once asteroid coaster stage hurtles you off a grind rail towards a spring and only gives you a half second window to homing attack.
There's a lack of visual clarity in places, the game by default has an atrocious blur effect when boosting that should absolutely be turned off as it makes it hard to see oncoming hazards, fuck the planet wisp act 1 quick step section near the start is all I'm saying.
In general there's something off about the gameplay, more prone to strange interactions, less reliability, basically the original game plays better.

Ultimate offers a new remixed soundtrack, it sucks, I'm sorry, it just does, there's like one or maybe two remixes that improve upon the already stellar originals, and then there's Sweet Mountain as a whole being massacred for no reason, mercifully the old music is still here but not for all tracks.
They added cosmetics, it's fine, a bit limited, no issues though, I do see Valkyria Chronicles being snubbed in my character icons Sega.
There's six time attack/races against metal sonic shoehorned in here with no in game reasoning already heavily memed out of place/lacklustre user interface, it's basically the simplest new content ever that doesn't change the stages you play in any way, though I was surprised that Metal Sonic does prompt you to get your speedrun shoes on, or at least note the fast routes.
And lastly, they actually added a new jade ghost wisp that adds nothing, detracts little, it basically lets you latch onto points out of bounds in specific places, a few red rings were shuffled to accommodate its otherwise pointless existence. I'd have traded this for shoulder button quick steps any day, just saying.

It's strange to say that the original wii version in all its standard definition and non ultimate glory is still the better of these two, but it just kinda is, still ultimate does the job, at least after all these patches anyway
On the whole Colours kinda hits a nice 7 or 8 platformer sweet spot for me, reminding me of games I played as a kid like bomberman hero, it ain't gonna blow you away but it's a perfectly fun time if you're a fan of the genre.

 

[KtotheRoc]

16: AI: The Somnium Files. End: 2/24/2022. (3.5 out of 5)

I must speak honestly that it took a while to warm up to this game. But its colorful cast of characters did eventually win me over. The humor was its weakest element as it felt a little too "standard anime" for my liking. The mystery aspect, and how everything tied together, were the best parts of the game. I don't regret jumping into this one, but its far from my favorite in the genre.

 

[His Majesty]

6. Dying Light 2 - 8/10

+ Parkour is the highlight of the game. I might come back to the game later to clear up the remaining challenges as they are a ton of fun. I wish there were more epic climbing and chase set pieces in the game.
+ That said, there are some great set pieces in the main quest. Broadcast is an obvious standout but the whole leadup to unlocking the Central Loop and the Veronika mission were also very well done.
+ One of the best looking open world games on PC.
+ Satisfying progression, especially early on. Skills you acquire are all very useful. Later on this becomes less the case but that's understandable.
+ More reasons to go out at night. This was a significant issue with the original game, where, aside from a handful of quests, you could completely skip night time.
+ I've seen a lot of reviews mention that choices do not matter but that was not my experience at least with exclusive quests, characters that refer to your actions and specific gameplay rewards for helping out a faction.
+ Very few bugs aside from some minor annoyances (e.g. survivor sense acting wonky and getting stuck in the geometry once).

= While I initially really liked the combat, it got stale halfway. I think the lack of special zombies in the open world has a lot to do with this. Some more weapon variety and/or combat skills would also be welcome.
= The city is clearly designed around the parkour, which makes the traversal much smoother. The drawback is that neither Old Villedor nor the Central Loop feel as 'real' for lack of a better word as Haran in Dying Light 1.

- The upgrade requirements for blueprints are ridiculous and require you to toggle zombie chases on purposes and farm them for hours on end. I still can't believe no one at Techland noticed how poorly balanced this is.
- HUD customization is terrible. It should be a crime to have a game so beautiful and no options for a dynamic HUD.
- Aside from several outliers (e.g. The Rose Garden and Missing Persons) most of the side quests were a disappointment to me. Poor writing and straightforward mission design means they are not much more than busywork. Still, any excuse for more parkour is good I suppose.
- While I actually liked the main quests and the set pieces, the actual ending makes no sense to me.
- Too much recycled content (e.g. the loot shops, the revenant boss fights and the GRE zones), it would have been much more interesting to have each area unique and have its self contained story.
- Night is not scary. At all. Volatiles only emerge at level 3 chases, which are very easy to avoid. While the original might have been overkill in the amount of volatiles patrolling the street, this is not the solution either. This also significantly impacts the atmosphere in my opinion. Rushing back to a safe zone when night set in was a core part of Dying Light 1 and dusk meant danger. Here it just means whatever.
- Game is way too easy, even on the hardest difficulty. Also this detracts from the horror experience.
- The faction of Colonel Williams is criminally underused and the renegades are reduced to cartoon villains.

Spoiler: All completions!

1. The Forgotten City (XSX) | 3rd Jan - 8 hrs | 8
2. Psychonauts 2 (XSX) | 8th Jan - 15 hrs | 7
3. The Gunk (XSX) | 9th Jan - 5 hrs | 6
4. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (XSX) | 13th Jan - 8 hrs | 8
5. Expeditions: Rome (PC) | 29th Jan - 70 hrs | 8
6. Dying Light 2 (PC) | 17th Feb - 60 hrs | 8

 

[KtotheRoc]

17: Cuphead. End: 2/26/2022. (4 out of 5)

I finally played this game after hearing about it for years, and I have to say. I really did enjoy it. I don't think people exaggerated its difficulty at all. There's a fine line between a challenging game and a frustrating game. But with a little patience, and the ability to buy power ups, this game becomes a lot more manageable. At least IMO.

 

[Lobotomaxx]

1/52

Final Fantasy X HD | 68 hours | Steam | 3/5 | 100%

Man, I don't know. Not sure I liked this game as much as I'm supposed to? I never played it when it came out on PS2 but I was familiar with it. I liked how you could switch teammates mid-combat and not lose a turn and I liked the leveling sphere (until the achievements related to it ruined it). I just thought the story was ok and most of the characters are goofy. Even the HD was almost like half done where all the party character got a re-do and then you'd see a guy with a pixelated face that clearly wasn't looked at. I'm glad I played it but not sure I get the fuss.

2/52

Guild Wars 2: Living World Season 3 | 63 hours | 3/5

A lot of set up for the new expansion. Added 5 new maps with various different things to collect (including an achievement line I'm STILL trying to complete). I maybe didn't like it as much the second time around as I did the first time. A couple of your guild mate characters from the story start to becoming pretty annoying and I'm not sure it ever ends.

3/52

Horizon: Zero Dawn | 55 hours | PS5 | 4/5 | Platinum

I liked this WAY more than I thought I would. I started trying to crush this because I knew the new title was coming out and I'd never play it so I figured I'd blow through it. Naturally my brain shut off when I saw the map fill up with icons to go to and achievements to get. Obviously, near the end of the game, I was just ready to move on after collecting everything. I made the mistake of doing a bunch of side stuff first and then would eventually get to story. And every time I did an Old World dungeon related to the main story I would always be impressed. Give me the lore dump. My brother in law is playing the opposite way and saving the optional stuff for later and that's probably what I should've done. I didn't learn my lesson because I'm doing the exact same thing for Forbidden West already.

Good action, good story (mostly, why are you so evasive Sylens?) and generally an overall good time.

4/52

Horizon: Zero Dawn - Frozen Wilds | 6 hours | PS5 | Did Not Finish

I'm counting this purely because of the fact that I put 6 hours into it. I did not like it at all and I'm not sure why. It was basically more Horizon, which I liked a lot. I think some of what soured me was they made sure to invalidate the armor I spent most of the first game getting which made me mad. The animations/mocap seemed a little better for this. There were new collectibles and story things to see, I just ran out of time and wanted to move on to Forbidden West. Maybe someday I'll go back and finish it but at this point most of the main story beats have already been told to me in Forbidden West so I likely don't need to.

5/52

Final Fantasy I (Pixel Remaster) | 18 hours | Steam | 4/5 | 100%

Two out of my first give games are Final Fantasy games, Wozzer must be proud. It had been a number of years since I played FF1 but this version seemed pretty tight. I remember the original game if you killed a monster on your turn and another party member had targeted it, they would just attack air and nothing would happen. I know this has been fixed in the years after, but it's pretty telling that I still made sure to manually target different monsters with each character. Most of the "story" in this game was honestly dumped on screens during the opening and closing credits. Most of the townspeople would just sort of hint at where to go and who to talk to but not really tie anything together. Whimsicalish and I maybe accidentally made this a Final Fantasy year as we plan on making our way through these pixel remasters.

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[Whimsicalish]

10 | The House in Fata Morgana
NSW | Feb 20 | +35 h | 5/5

I knew little about this visual novel and I'm thankful I wasn't spoiled. The storytelling is absolutely done well. I only had an understanding this was a mature VN. There are warnings of triggering subjects when you load the game. It is necessary since there are many, many instances of depressing, awful events. The only slight negative following the story was watching the series of inhumane events happening to the characters. Thankfully, it does balance out with kind, sweet moments.

The music is beautiful and haunting. All of the characters are well rounded; the antagonists show moments of humanity. Not an easy task when you're creating people doing monstrous acts. I am most impressed how the writers handled trauma. Most media shows a character suffered for either plot device or to "make them stronger." This game had discussions of how the characters processed their trauma. It is a very important topic, especially considering the actions and events they went through. Not something you could merely brush off.

I don't want to go into detail in case someone is interested. If you're interested and can take on the depressing story, experience it for yourself.

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[Whimsicalish]

11 | Final Fantasy 1 (Pixel Remaster)
PC | Feb 25 | 18 h | 4.5/5

Pretty fun for a game that's over 30 years old. I did play the PSP version years ago but I didn't remember much from it.

The music is fantastic; fun to listen in game. You can see original character and monster concept art and track your bestiary in the menu. I would encourage writing down locations for locked doors and clues from townsfolk (if you're not using a guide). I had no memory that you could use equipment like items during battles. That was very useful during certain encounters. I only wish you could see the equipment's descriptions from the equip screen.

It was a fun game. Soon onto the second!

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[KtotheRoc]

18: Battletoads (1991). End: 2/27/2022. (2 out of 5)

Previously I said there was a fine line between a challenging game and a frustrating game. This is the latter. It was also one of the most notable games that I had never beaten before until now.

 

[Supaidaman]

Two games finished this weekend:
6 - Sonic The Hedgehog 2(MD):
(4.5/5)
This game is almost perfect, there's only two things I kinda hold against it: Metropolis and the Special Stages. Metropolis has a lot of weird trial and error, with places that you really can't avoid getting hit and it sucks. The rest of the games has 0 of that philosophy. As for the special stages, it's a pure memorization effort. From the 4th one onward, you really need to know what's coming before you try to act since the game really doesn't telegraph where the itens are. Also, the view gets totally obscured in some parts where they change the camera view.

Besides that, I still love this game with all my heart.

7 - Forza Horizon 5 (PC):
(4.5/5)
This is the first racing game I've played till the "end" since... the PS2? I played GT5/6 a lot but never properly really got into them. The open world craziness that most of the "arcade" racers got into just pushed me out of the genre since I'm really not a fan of games like Burnout Paradise and the "newer" NFS games like the rebooted versions of Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted.

That being said, Horizon 5 actually got me hooked. The game has an interesting open world and the races are done in closed circuits, which I greatly enjoy. Being able to browse the shop to get custom weeb paintjobs was also super enjoyable for me (it's my first Forza game). The "story" is nothing to talk about but I do enjoy the crazier events where motorbikes just drop out of planes and stuff like that.

By "finishing" this game, I mean getting into the Hall Of Fame since it's pretty much a GaaS type of game in the way it's structured. That being said, I never really cared about any of the seasonal events and just went my way doing whatever I wanted. I just wish there was some sort of "ending" to it.

As a final note for Forza, I played it in Brazilian Portuguese and this is the first time I actually got to hear my own name in a videogame lmao.

 

[Lord Fanny]

Finished with February.

Completed (16/52)

February
8. Townscapper - Xbox Series X - 37 minutes
9. Sifu - PS5 - 15 hours
10. Lost in Random - Xbox Series X - 12 hours, 25 minutes
11. CrossfireX: Operation Catalyst - Xbox Series X - 2 hours, 31 minutes
12. CrossfireX: Operation Spectre - Xbox Series X - 2 hours, 1 minute
13. Windjammers 2 - Xbox Series X - 2 hours, 9 minutes
14. Contrast - Xbox Series X - 3 hours
15. Horizon: Forbidden West - PS5 - 25 hours
16. Sol Cresta - Switch - 2 hours

Click to shrink...

Felt like a really random month, but a lot of good stuff. There isn't a whole lot for me in March until the end of the month, so will probably catch up on some smaller things.

Completed (21/52)
17. Shadow Warrior 3 - PS5 - 3 hours
18. GhostWire: Tokyo Prelude: The Corrupted Casefile - PS5 - 30 minutes
19. Elden Ring - PS5 - 36 hours, 33 minutes
20. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - Xbox Series X - 24 hours, 11 minutes
21. GhostWire: Tokyo - PS5 - 18 hours

 

[Illusionary]

Time for February's update, with 6 games taking me to a total of 16 so far.

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11. The Gunk (Xbox Series X) | 2 February 2022 | 7/10
Completed with all achievements except for "All In" unlocked (950G). In a departure from their excellent SteamWorld series, Image & Form take their first steps into 3D with The Gunk, an exploration and light platforming game set on an alien planet. Perhaps the key mechanic features in the title, as our protagonist Rani finds the world plagued by a gloopy substance that she dubs simply "the gunk", which she quickly takes as a goal to clean from the planet using her vacuum cleaner-esque handheld gadget. Exploring the planet and seeing nature bloom into life as Rani sucks up this gunk is undoubtedly satisfying and remains so throughout the game's fairly short (typically sub-ten hour) length, though a sense of excessive repetition does start to creep in towards the end of the game.

Ultimately there's not a huge amount to the gameplay beyond the interaction with the gunk - navigating the world is fairly linear and while there's some puzzle-solving and platforming gameplay, and a few combat encounters, it's rarely much of a challenge, serving more to offer some greater variety. Away from the mechanics, there's a serviceable underlying narrative to drive forward the gameplay and the dialogue between Rani and her travelling companion is fun to follow - and overall The Gunk is a perfectly solid game, just not reaching the highs that we've come to expect from the SteamWorld games.

12. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (Xbox One - Game Pass) | 9 February 2022 | 8/10
Complete playthough with full map exploration, weapons and bestiary, 100% of achievements unlocked (1,000G). With plenty of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night vibes, Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a combat-focused 'Metroidvania' that does what it sets out to do very well. The mechanics involved in that combat make for a really enjoyable time throughout, with a well-balanced degree of challenge from run-of-the-mill enemies and the frequent setpiece boss encounters - our protagonist Deedlit eventually equips herself with a combination of primary melee weapon and bow, a wide range of elemental-based spells and a pair of companion spirits. The range of weapons have meaningful differences - range, speed and bonus abilities - but probably the standout feature here are the spirits that apply elemental strengths/weaknesses in the style of Ikaruga. All of these are used to good effect, with perhaps the only slight excepition coming in the puzzles requiring rapid use of the bow in a manner that can be somewhat imprecise.

While there are secrets scattered around the game world, the exploration and backtracking that's typically seen in Metroidvania games take a bit of a back seat here - this will appeal to some players but not others, as a matter of personal preference. There's also clearly some underlying lore that the occasional NPC interactions seek to draw upon - but with no existing knowledge of the source franchise, these went rather over my head. Nothing really lost here, though - these sequences are all fairly brief, and skippable if you need a checkpoint restart.

13. Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3 - Lair of the Leviathan (PC - Steam) | 12 February 2022 | 8/10
Complete playthrough. I'm a little conflicted in my view of this episode, as while I'm not being particularly keen on the primary setting inside a giant manatee, I can't deny that looking more at it objectively, this third episode as a whole is strong. We see some excellent new characters introduced, clever puzzle design and some particularly great interactions with Morgan and Van Winslow.

14. Tales of Monkey Island Episode 4 - The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood (PC - Steam) | 19 February 2022 | 8/10
Complete playthrough. Now well into its stride, episode 4 is my favourite of the entire series. While many of the environments are revisits of those seen in episode 1, the premise is great fun, as Guybrush seeks to clear his name from various spurious criminal charges - up to and including that of causing the pox. Particularly standout sequences come as Guybrush occupies multiple roles (defendant and defence lawyer) simultaneously, and then in the superb depiction of fast-talking salesman Stan, recurring character from LucasArts' classic games in the franchise.

15. Nobody Saves the World (Xbox One) | 20 February 2022 | 8/10
100% complete standard playthrough; all achievements unlocked aside from for New Game Plus (915/1,000G). In a change of direction after the excellent Guacamelee! and its sequel, Nobody Saves the World sees Drinkbox tackling the overhead action RPG genre. Gameplay is very much focused on hack-and-slash combat, but what makes the game particularly interesting is its range of 17 character classes, freely switchable between (almost) at any time. Each has their own unique set of skills, a mix of active and passive, which is great in itself, but the game's real USP comes from the ability to mix and match these across character classes - each retaining a 'signature' active and passive, but otherwise creating a huge range of possible builds. With many of these being very effective with the right play style, everyone will find their own preference, rewarding creative matches.

The game's progression challenges players to tackle four 'legendary' dungeons, broadly in the four corners of a 2D map, which is also strewn with a range of smaller 'demi-dungeons' with their own rewards, and a handful of towns where quests can be sought. With a unique modifier applying for each dungeon and enemies with their own range of abilities and immunities, a decent feeling of variety is maintained through most of the game... though the gameplay does begin to wear a little thin by the end of a completionist run. All the same, a more challenging "new game plus" is available for those who really love the game, providing a good degree of additional longevity/replayability.

Away from the gameplay, there's a quirky 'hand-drawn' artstyle which I found surprisingly attractive, and a well judged musical score. The main story around which the gameplay is threaded works well enough, though aside from positioning the protagonist as something of an underdog, doesn't do anything all that unusual.

16. Tales of Monkey Island Episode 5 - Rise of the Pirate God (PC - Steam) | 27 February 2022 | 6/10
Complete playthrough. Hmm... a decent premise here (Guybrush, now a ghost, seeks restoration to life to take on LeChuck), but in execution this felt a little weak. There's an enjoyable pirate-styled twist on the typical Death figure to start off the episode, but the main body of content sees Guybrush swapping back and forth between two key areas, but with a short trek between the two, rather than instant transition - which rapidly becomes a bit tedious. Of course, the excellent dialogue seen in the preceding episodes is just as strong here, so it's still a worthwhile playthrough, just not the climactic send-off that we might have hoped for for the series.

 

[Exile In Mudville]

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 (This Post!) - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9
​

17) Legend of Kalevala

2011 by ChainedLupine/Dit Dah Games - (2/27/2022) - Flash (via Flashpoint) - 1 hour 56 minutes - 4 Stars

A really fascinating and well designed Flash MetroidVania, was honestly surprised by the depth of the platforming and puzzles. A good story and kind of brilliant final boss fight to boot. Worth checking out on Flashpoint or Kongregate, either way.

18) Super Panda Adventures

2014 by BlueEagle Productions/Paul Schneider - (2/28/2022) - PC - 7 hours 52 minutes - 4.5 Stars

Honestly a pretty fun non-linear platformer - more similar in feel to Zelda II than a Metroid or a Monster World, but more polished than Adventure of Link which says something. Somewhat lighthearted and goofy at times, a really neat upgrade system, and lots of secrets to uncover. Just great work from essentially a staff of two people.

19) ENDER LILIES: Quietus Of The Knights

2021 by Adglobe/Live Wire/Binary Haze Interactive - (3/4/2022) - PC - 33 hours - 5 Stars

An absolutely fantastic game - when I went into it I saw a lot of Hollow Knight comparisons that had me worried - since every time I've tried Hollow Knight it's annoyed me with some idiosyncrasy of gameplay to the point that I just didn't want to bother with it. But Ender Lilies feels closer to the classic IGAvania motif than most other games with deep and creative systems for combat enhancement and very unique encounters all throughout. Can I call an audible on my 2021 GOTY list? Anybody? Hey where are you goi-

20) Cosmo Police Galivan

1988 by Nichibutsu - (3/7/2022) - NES (via Mesen) - 9 hours 10 minutes - 2 Stars

Flashing back to weeks ago when I had different hardware in my computer! Basically one of the games that could be called "Metroidvania before Metroidvania". It's got a level progression structure but every level is sprawling, so there's no heavy backtracking beyond the zone that you're in. There's also more than a few impediments that feel deliberately cryptic, and for that I'm glad there was a full strategywiki guide out there. Combat is fun until it isn't (usually later bosses and anywhere in the last two zones). Overall it was interesting to visit this one but it's only for genre completionists and game history buffs.

 

[BPHusker]

12. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (PC) | 2/28/2022 - 16.5 hrs | 4.5/5
I bought the DLC right after I beat the original game. Overall this is a great addon to an already great game. The puzzles were great and challenging and like the original when you figure out a puzzle it feels so damn good, especially when you accidently figure something out. The music and story are pretty good too - almost as great as the original game. If you are a fan of the original game, you will love this one. This one does have horror elements that really weren't in the first one, but has an option to tone it down.



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[chrominance]

February update!

7. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch, 2018) - 6:47 - February 3
8. Destiny 2: New Light (PC, 2021 version) - 4:51 - February 5
9. Destiny 2: Forsaken (PC, 2018) - 6:34 - February 8
10. Tametsi (PC, 2017) - 48:07 (33:42 + 15:05 in 2021) - February 13

Unfortunately this was a bit of a fallow month for me. While I did enjoy the Destiny 2 stuff because of the moment-to-moment gameplay, everything around it is kind of unfortunate--a horrifically fragmented story that actively discourages you from engaging with it as a newcomer, lots of stuff that gets locked out without apparent rhyme or reason unless you decide to pay for expansions and season passes, and a general sense of too much random stuff to do that never really coheres together. But it is pretty fun when you just get down to shooting things, and that still counts for something.

Tametsi and Captain Toad both wore out their welcomes for surprisingly similar reasons, given that they're very different puzzle games: Toad just got a little too frustrating with the occasionally awkward camera controls and annoying timed sections, while Tametsi's final puzzles felt like it needed me to be a computer rather than a human being, privileging perfect knowledge retention and the ability to track many different possibility trees at once. Looking to games I haven't finished yet, Lost Ark has taken up a fair amount of time, though the more I play it the more I wonder if MMOs, any MMOs, are really for me; I haven't even gotten to endgame and I'm already annoyed by the grind. It's not even a combat grind; it's just going from place to place to run fetch quests for everyone 80% of the time.

February wasn't all bad. I finally got back onto the Tales of Arise train, though only in fits and starts; I continue to enjoy it while also feeling like it's gone on quite long, a feeling exacerbated by the imminent release of Gran Turismo 7. And I got to start Atelier Sophie 2, which I can already tell is a more absorbing experience than anything else I've played so far this year. Between Sophie 2 and Gran Turismo 7, I'm expecting a lot of my play time to be locked to Playstation consoles in March, and that's not even considering the option to grab Horizon: Forbidden West if I finish both those games early.

Meanwhile, Rune Factory 5 could be a good game to start on Switch after I dispense with Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, or possibly even before then. I'm also hoping to finish Halo 2 and make some progress in Model Builder on PC. And then maybe I'll return to Guardians of the Galaxy, which doesn't really deserve to be in my purgatory pile right now but just kind of landed there for the same reason I'm making such slow progress with Tales of Arise.

 

[Neil98]

4. Pokemon Legends Arceus (Switch)
5. Unpacking (XSX)
6. Demon's Souls Remake (PS5)

 

[KtotheRoc]

19: Earthbound Beginnings. End: 3/2/2022. (2.5 out of 5)

This game launched one of the biggest cult series in the history of the medium. The foundation of so many classics. And it is kind of a slog to get through.

 

[Memory Pak]

It feels in very poor taste to think about gaming while yet another senseless war has started. Accounts of atrocities against the Ukrainian people are just a browser tab away, while I spent the morning writing about a fantasy sports game. I know my doomscrolling will not help anyone, but it's hard not feel guilty when turning my attention to something trivial.

Spoiler warning: contains ending spoilers for both Pyre and Hades.

08. Pyre (2017, PC) ★★★☆☆
This arcade fantasy sports game within the framework of a visual novel feels like a real labour of love. You functionally perform the role of a 3v3 basketball coach in a centuries old underworld, reading the stars to discover where the next NBA Finals will be held. The twist: winning key matches results in the winning team sacrificing/promoting one player back to the surface world. On your path you cross other teams of mythological creatures (wyrm knights, ents, harpies, hellhounds) who you'll want to either keep below you in the rankings, or purposefully let win to share in opportunities for class mobility.

Having fallen backwards into the Supergiant Games catalogue, it feels unfair to measure Pyre up against Hades. Yes, a lot of overlap is obvious: extensive dialogue branching to accommodate player choices, themes of escaping an underworld, and a healthy dose of melodrama are found in both titles.
However, unlike Hades, Pyre feels less safe and mainstream. Without the familiarity of Greek myths, you're asked to accept lots of Proper Nouns, and buy into centuries of interpersonal relationships between archetypical characters. Pyre is also decidedly revolutionary. This sharply contrasts to Hades, which frames Zagreus' (re-)absorption into the in-crowd of the elite as a solution to conflict, rather than a co-option of rebellion. Meanwhile Pyre draws a similar character arc for The Voice, but condemns him for kicking away the ladder in a fuck-you-got-mine to those left behind. Your (Black coded) leader is not content with maintaining the socially stratified status quo, which banishes people for literacy, and dissolves prison sentences by way of sports competition. The different focal POV allows Pyre to speak on inherited class privileges, and argue for an upheaval of them by way of revolution.

The path to said revolution, however, is too long and winding. I feel it's only natural to harbour a certain suspicion of anyone claiming to have The Plan to a more equal society, which they are furthering through unseen messengers and helpers. Yet Pyre is curiously low on betrayals. If you win most Rites, the story also wraps up a little too neatly, with happy endings abound. There's a slight mismatch between its message of lifting up individuals as a community, but then needing just 6 leaders to change the minds of an entire society. Some interviews with Supergiant developers emphasised the non-violent nature of the sport. I commend them for trying their hand at non-combative conflict design, but there's some friction with its underlying revolutionary elements -- many elites do not relinquish their power over peaceful protests. Rather, they crush and co-opt opposition to consolidate their position in power.

Other tenets of the game design also runs counter to its message: there are strong, unpunished incentives to crush every opposing team, letting only your in-group partners ascend, rather than sharing the opportunity. In-universe it could be argued the rankings, the winner-takes-all outcomes, and the fact opposing teams aren't in on The Plan are the result of how the status quo was built to pit the downtrodden against each other. But these barriers disincentivise players to share the rare opportunities at freedom to anyone unaffiliated.
On a non-thematic level, the gameplay interactions never quite delivered for me. The sports matches are tense, but sometimes plodding due to a lack of basic options, like letting multiple players move at once. The visual novel segments break up the action nicely, but the length of the game results in some repeated story beats towards the end, and the writing is a bit too pre-occupied with its own mythology at times. I would much rather see a stronger ending, even if it means cutting a third of the campaign's length. The emphasis on branching choices would probably be served by shorter replays, too. Complaints aside however, I do admire Pyre 's ambitions - it feels decidedly unique, and wholly-formed. Recommended to a generous and patient audience.

 

[nacimento]

11. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (PS4/PS5) - February 41hrs - ★★★★1/2

Whew, what a game. An incredible and unique game! I first played VanillaWare games this year, and they are already high up on my list. The story and the twists are excellent, and the story is build in a way that really fits the gaming medium. The battles are fine, and by playing them between story beats it doesn't get old. The plot is clever and the characters are great. The story could be a little less soapy though. The game has a few weaknesses which stop it from a five star levels, namely the soapy parts of the story, some parts being a little bit too long and some story beats being too much info dumb (I did love the secret files though). Other than that, it is excellent and truly a game unlike any other. It is a classic case of the whole being greater than the individual (great) parts.

Main Post

 

[djinn]

Main Post

10. Welcome to Elk
Wow, am I having a good gaming year so far. Welcome to Elk was a game I was eyeing of back in its release in 2020. I'm kicking myself for not playing it sooner because it's honestly amazing. Reminiscent of What Remains of Edith Finch, a game I struggled to connect with, WtE makes stories about death and heartbreak funny, engaging and rewarding. The gameplay consists of a multitude of minigames that can range from drunken dancing to carrying a corpse to killing a bunny. The linchpin to this game is that everything is based on true events as told by the developers or people they know personally. I live for small town stories, they're probably my favourite topic in film, television and documentaries. WtE also has a great soundtrack and looks pretty too. This is going to become my go to recommendation for indie adventure games for a while now.

(A special shout-out to the dev team for personally helping me through bugs and glitches in the game! Great customer service!)

 

[KtotheRoc]

20: Earthbound. End: 3/5/2022. (4.5 out of 5)

One of the most charming, and outright strange, games out there. The cult-classic Earthbound remains one of my absolute favorites. I've also gotten to the point that I can beat this game in a little over 13 hours.

I know this game too well.

 

[Cheat Code]

Main Post

---

Game #24: Elden Ring - Platform: PS5 - Date: 05/02/2022 - Time: 55 hours - Rating: 4/10
Completion: Regular Ending

Well here it is, perhaps the biggest game of the year for Souls fans like myself. Elden Ring starts off so strong with Limgrave, it feels like there is solid variety, interesting field bosses, dungeons give you some cool stuff. Capping that off with the one-two punch of the Stormveil bosses gives you that immediate sense of "fuck yes it's Elden Ring time, game of the year".

Then it continues, and you do a big empty lake area, and then a big swamp area, and then the field bosses repeat, and then the dungeons start feeling exactly the same. This is especially problematic, because you have to do these boring ass dungeons to build up your character so you can move on with the main progression. This isn't an open world game when the repetitive side content is a sort of an extra, it's an integral part of the game, and eventually you will get sick to death of looking for a hole in a cliff with a 3 minute long dungeon finishing off with a boss you already fought like 10 hours ago.

Then you get to the "main bosses", the majority of which are so incredibly poorly designed they make Moonlight Butterfly look like fuckin Gehrman. Cheap one-shots, sweeping combos that go on forever, and very little room to actually attack if you aren't running a fast weapon or magic. Stuff like the guard counter or the Ashes of War basically become useless. The combat system basically feels like it was made for another game, because with most of the bosses you can only realistically dodge and hit to win, or use an OP spirit summon.

I know this is coming off as rambly, but my head has been scrambled by how badly they fucked this game up. It took up way too much of my time and effort, and I am so very happy to put this game to bed. Think I might do another playthrough of Bloodborne, it's been a while.

 

[djinn]

Main Post

11. Inscryption
I often find card games a little overwhelming and confusing, having to remember rules, synergy and combinations. But the hype surrounding Inscryption proved too great for me to ignore. It definitely lived up to the hype for me. Inscryption, as a card game, was fairly easy to learn. Early on you you're at the whim of RNG but as your deck builds you start to feel more in control. Along with the card game, though, Inscryption's mysterious plot kept me intrigued. There are lots of twists in this game and I would hate to spoil them for anyone interested. I was hooked instantly on the intrigue and then later the gameplay. Fascinating game.

 

[CubeApple76]

Full List

10. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond (Nintendo Switch) | 4 Mar - 20 hrs | 8/10

Having not played a Pokemon game since the GBA days (Emerald was my final one), and not having owned a Nintendo console since those days, the recent release of Pokemon Arceus, and now reveal of Scarlet/Violet has gotten me interested in getting the nostalgia trip going and getting back into the series. Researched the games available from the series on switch, and settled on Brilliant Diamond since it felt closest to the classic games I remembered, which is where I wanted to start off with my return to the series (Also considered the Let's go games, but tbh the motion control gimmicks put me off). I really enjoyed my return to the pokemon franchise, though I will say that still having to do trades to perform evolutions etc. is still a pain in the butt for someone who doesn't have friends into these games. Having enjoyed Brilliant Diamond, I'm now looking forward to trying to check out the newer style of game in the series once Scarlet releases later this year.

11. Unpacking (Xbox Cloud Gaming) | 7 Mar - 3.5 hrs | 7.5/10

A wonderful concept for a game that doesn't overstay it's welcome, Unpacking is a lovely game that I would recommend to anyone. It's gorgeous artstyle and the way it is able to tell it's story through the simple act of unpacking a unnamed character's belongings is brilliant. My only complaint would be occasionally it wasn't clear where the game wanted you to place certain objects which resulted in some degree of trial end error. Overall though it was a great experience. Shoutout to the level where the main character moves into a boyfriend's place, and just through the environmental detail the game is able to put through a feeling of claustrophobia.

12. Forza Horizon 5 (XSX) | 9 Mar - 27 hrs | 10/10

To me, essentially since the release of the first game, the Forza Horizon Series has been the best racing series on the market bar none, and that trend reaches a crecendo with Forza Horizon 5. With a bigger, more diverse map than ever, and a larger car list than ever before, this is the type of racing game that I will not stop playing until an inevitable sequel - I decided to call completing every base game race and event "completing" the game but be sure that I will continue playing it int he future. Arguably standing by flight sim as the best looking game on next gen for my money, alongside a best in class handling model that is flexible enough to range from a near-arcade experience to extremely realistic, Forza Horizon has never been better. I can't wait for the expansions.

 

[FRANKEINSTEIN]

14. Katamari Damacy Reroll (XB1 BC) 11 Mar - 6hrs | ★★★★
Been a month since I beat a game. Everything I started I didn't care about after a couple hours. I tried Cyberpunk, Horizon West, and some backwards compatible games. Finally just chose an old reliable series Katamari. I've actually had the disc for awhile but it was on Gamepass so I used it off there. Great series to just play a few levels then walk away.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Got some belated additions

10. Later Alligator ★★★ (19/2/22)

Later Alligator was never really something I wasn't enjoying, but it was something that had me expecting a bit more? There's a quibble for me here where I fully intended to go back through and get the full ending and see all the characters/minigames, but I swear the game just kinda finished and then reloading just threw me into the game's final section again and I couldn't find the option I was supposed to have to redo the loop. So I haven't been arsed to go back through yet, despite intending to before reaching a conclusion on it.
Oh well, so anyway, point and click adventure meets visual novel, meets minigames, meets alligator puns.
The dialogue is amusing, though didn't ever quite step up to that top level of humorous writing for me, the art and music were stellar and the animation tops.
Now the actual mystery side of things? well I got nothing, I guess this is where 100% rolls in to give you something to chew on but otherwise, it felt like a build up to the obvious punchline. The game has an interesting time mechanic that means you can only do so much in one run.
...yeah I don't got much else to add right now, it's a fun vibe, I just feel like I should vibe it more than I actually do.


11. Elden Ring (7/3/22)
The great time devourer itself hoovering up 80 hours for me to finally see the credits roll, mind you that's with most of the optional content tackled first.
You may notice a distinct lack of score here, and that's because I'm massively conflicted about this one.
I love Dark Souls, I love Bloodborne, and the rest of the extended family are all enjoyed by me as well, I went into Elden Ring surprisingly blind, I think I watched the initial reveal and maybe half of one other trailer before going dark.
So here's the first point of mixed reaction, the open world.
On one hand it's very impressive and one of the best out there, it is however not able to escape the open world bloat and overuse of certain aspects that left me feeling like I'd seen the bulk of what it had to offer after just two regions. I honestly think souls is not a great fit for a HUGE open world? everything ends in another boss healthbar, it's always combat, it's always death, it made the ridiculous runtime of the game just really start burning me out two thirds of the way in when your interactions with the world presented are so limited . The world size has a knock on effect to everything, the enemy types, the bosses, the ruins/castles/towers, you just keep bumping into the same stuff, the initial wonder of the first 20-30 hours was gradually lost for me, and it's a damn shame because Limgrave is an all timer opening area.

So far so open world then, the game's most impressive aspects in its world design are of course its trust in the player to explore on their own and to not overburden the player with map icons and such, this is not exactly new ground, but it's still the exception to the genre norm and files the game's world design away in my preferable folder alongside BotW and Sable to name a couple. The atmosphere is of course second to none, it boasts the best damn horse in a game because said horse is gamey as they come. Ultimately, there is very much a lot to like about it, but do I prefer it to a standard souls game structure? no, not really.
Don't get me wrong, I'm actually glad they didn't just make Dark Souls 4 and tackled the concept of open world, I'd sooner they try this, so I can see what it would be like, ultimately though the overworld never stacks up to the game's legacy dungeons.

I should add though, I'm incredibly impressed with how they managed to fit full blown classic souls areas in here, I always felt BotW's divine beasts were a compromise on the logistics of creating a vast new overworld and trying to cram classic Zelda dungeons in them, so seeing that From Software somehow managed to pull this equivalent off without taking ten years of development is madly impressive.
In turn though, this leads to another issue, I've mentioned the idea of DS4 here, and Elden Ring ultimately still feels like just that, it's Dark Souls 4 with the terminology changed enough to masquerade as "NEW" series yet again, with is also like the 6th game in this vein (leaving Sekiro out of this) and as someone who kept themselves in the dark here, I was expecting something fresher, bolder. Instead I was greeted with the same basic hud and inventory I've seen since 2009, the same stats, the same general concepts for combat and builds.
I've seen the same tricks so many times in just over a decade that it's hard for the game to surprise me anymore, and ultimately, I just can't shake the feeling that even shifting to an open world on hasn't shaken things up all that much.

And then, there are the bosses, without going into spoilers, this game leaves me pretty much thinking that my mounting fears from late game DS3, its DLC and Sekiro were entirely warranted, there's no turning back for From now, they're just gonna keep upping the ante to levels which I no longer find enjoyable. It cannot be understated how much the late game gauntlet of ER hurt the experience for me, doable yes, but enjoyable? for me, no longer with a few exceptions, and dropping an absolute unit of an AI companion to draw aggro in there sure ain't much of a fix in my mind.
Relief was the feeling I had when the credits rolled, that it was finally done. Too much of a good thing? maybe that's it really.
This game has some of the best and surprisingly worst of its extended family. Generally I actually prefer these games more when I hit my second run through, lord knows DS1 finishes with a divisive final third itself, and even titles like Bloodborne felt a bit abrupt to finish before the DLC swoops in and only elevates the title further.
So yeah, N/A on scoring this one right now, at times I'm wondering if I'm too critical of it, and then after I thought that earlier this week, I leapt back on, had my lvl 150 or so character get borderline one shot by the sixth magma wrym I've found, and I just sighed in exasperation, i'm tired
Jump Button > Open World


12. Hitman 2 ★★★★ (13/3/22)

Generally I'm thinking it's hard at this point to really score the modern hitman trilogy apart from each other, with how HM3 has pooled all the titles under the same engine/mechanics, it does make things all a bit like a series of crazy good level packs.
No bad thing I suppose because Hitman 2 has a heck of a lineup of puzzle boxes to commit shenanigans in, as such there's not much to say that I didn't say for HM1, and I'll probably echo the same for HM3 when the time comes.
Still let's highlight the sheer scope here, stages like Miami and Mumbai are sprawling, IO's work here is among gaming's very best slices of level design. There's no real weak links this time like Colorado, and there's even two DLC stages currently out of my reach that I hear great things about.
Actually even this game's tutorial level is a low key GOAT tutorial stage outing, I decided to just let my inner sadist out and made 47 a weeby ninja, no more chokeouts, just shurikens, swords and death, and damn was it a great time.
*ahem* yes, anyway, HM2 very good, 47 slowly becoming a dry humour icon for me, these games can be borderline comedic at times and that helps offset some of the grim things you do, even if they all tend to have it coming anway.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Not only am I gonna double post, I'm gonna go full return to the party here, I even got PICTURES

13. (replay) Rayman Origins ★★★★ (13/3/22)

Rayman Origins is a game on the cusp of that fabled five star owl ranking, and honestly in this replay I thought it was gonna ascend to that hallowed ground.
Origins stands out all the more now, where ubisoft will likely never touch the franchise in a notable way again, where Ancel is outed as a complete twat, we must now appreciate what a precious gem origins is.
First off, this game is gorgeous still, some of my favourite visuals in any game ever. From the vast array of animations each of the three characters have despite the simplicity of a 2D platformer, to the incredibly inspired stage theme like the glacier cocktail that descends into mexican kitchen hell, or the desert formed of instruments, some of this stuff is all time great stage theming in my book.
The music perfectly backs up the game's esoteric style, throwing in a lot of high pitched gibberish and ukulele into what could otherwise pass as fairly normal music tracks, somehow it works and it some cases like the aforementioned literal hells kitchen actually cracks me up with how nuts it is.

A great example of the collectathon style platformer too, in a way Rayman Origins reminds me of Yoshi's Island design philosophy crossing over with DKC2/3, it's not just about reaching the end of the stage, it's about reaching that high score (like island) and throwing in two hidden bonus rooms per stage (like DKC2/3).
This is where actually, the first gripe I have forms, Origins is very stop and start, the game wants you to collect as many lums as possible, the process of which can end up being drawn out as you ensure to double pop every enemy, interact with all the platforms that slip out single lums at a time, yet sometimes these come alongside sections where to get the points you have to scramble against the clock to make use of the "double score time" king lums.
Between squeezing out every last point and sections of the stage that have this great and intended forward momentum flow, it can end up feeling a bit like it's not sure what it wants to be.

Despite this, I was actually really enjoying going for the 300-350 points for most of the game, there's something rather chill about it.
The much loved treasure chase stages I'm a bit mixed on, basically runner stages but prone to a few odd interactions or timing mishaps, it's like the game wants you to jump very specifically at certain very precise pixel points, in a certain way (often simply high jump, low jump, never touch hover) but the crumbling scenery still just sorta doesn't always play ball. It's hard for me to explain but it would perhaps be easier to point out that the sequel Legends, tends to have some light rubberbanding for the player that keeps you on track with the set piece, while Origins seems like it's only sometimes there (especially in land of the livid dead's second section), but other times it's not, leading to you seemingly recovering from a slightly scuffed jump before the autoscroll consumes you, only for that mistake to eventually catch up to you three obstacles later when you're a fraction of a second behind the intended trigger point.
And this is probably why most games make these full autoscrollers (and on the flip side, you can use the spin attack and move too fast as well). Anyway, I ultimately like these a lot for the spectacle and fly by the seat of your pants vibe, it's just that other platformers do them more reliably (including the sequel).

The game's few boss fights are also like, bad, really bad, full blown trial and error. Intentionally so I'd say where even the odd weakpoint reveal is a blink and you miss it as if to say "now next time you'll know to be at this point in preparation". I think it's a case of them being mercifully short once you get them down that has people kinda look the other way on these. Look once more to the sequel dancing circles around this.

One last knock before we go back to happy land, the shmup stages. These are actually a lot better than I remember but damn, there's so many of them, 10 by my count and a bunch of bonus rooms as well. I'm here to JUMP, not to pew pew. Still they're quite dynamic, the final two can suck my nuts though when you're going for the 300 lums, basically involve a lot of knowing what's coming up to shoot things from off screen if you want all those tasty lums (which I do, give me them collectables)

Right but that's kinda all the issues I have, it's interesting that pretty much every possible gripe I have, right down to "it's a shame the aerial attacks suddenly slow the player down", are all remedied in Legends, yes as you may have guessed, Legends is the one that truly has my heart.
Origins does however still hold some pros over its refined follow up, firstly it feels much more like a full game, a proper adventure. Even the aforementioned shmup stages are initially used to transfer the player from world to world with you leaving one theme and arriving at another in the same stage, and that attention to detail gets me going, phwoar.
It's a tougher game, in places it can get a bit frustrating even, but there's a greater sense of escalating challenge compared to Legends being pretty breezy throughout, heck this one has a proper final stage AND a proper super secret final stage in land of the livid dead, which is like 4 treasure chases back to back (and another shitty die n'retry boss but uhhh whatever, the rest is good enough I'll let it slide)
Time attack is also good fun, sometimes this game shines all the more when you can ignore the lums and just beeline it, dependant on stage, Mecha no Mistake for example is a top tier speedrun/time trial stage, and a fiddly collectable stage (eff the cog room).
We've got the smoothest swimming stages, only bettered by (guess who) the sequel, I'm already a filthy water stage fan, many others aren't however, yet people always pop out of a trip to origins having to accept that the game makes swimming fun and fluid.

This was a purely single player return, I long for another multiplayer run though, this game slips ahead of NSMB in the four player sidescroller department.
Due to Legends including around 80% of this games stages (don't ask me why not all of them, it bugs me so much), I hadn't actually played Origins itself in a while. And it's best experienced as it should be, in its source game, with all the content and even the gradual drip feed of abilities.
Interestingly it seems all the stages with the nymphs that grant you a new move are missing from Legends, I'm sure they could've just recontextualised/removed the "power to glide/swim/attack/wall run" bits, or maybe the nymphs designs were just too horny to bring back, we may never know.
Anyway the point is, these stages are good so Legends can never truly replace Origins as is.

Top notch platformer, I'm gonna have to replay Legends now aren't I? oh no, what a shame

 

[Memory Pak]

09. Giga Wing (1999/2021, Switch) ★★★☆☆
When Toaplan fell apart, several shoot 'em up studios rose from its ashes, such as Raizing, Gazelle, Cave, and Takumi. The latter two produced arcade shooters for Capcom around the turn of the century, with Takumi heading up the Giga Wing series as well as Mars Matrix. This first Giga Wing instalment introduces a Bullet Reflect, letting you reflect big swathes of bullets back at enemies. It needs to recharge after use so cannot be spammed, challenging you to find the optimal route along which to detonate your devastating mirror blasts. I feared it would feel gimmicky, but the mechanic is deftly interwoven with score, and easily wasted if you misjudge.
Unfortunately it's also the game's chief strength, since its levels aren't terribly original. The art style has that typical late nineties futuristic military anime look, and the music is outright annoying. It all plays well, so still comes recommended - if nothing else because this is the first re-release since its DreamCast port 21 years ago.

10. Progear (2001/2021, Switch) ★★★★☆
Finally re-released in the Capcom Arcade Stadium compilation, Progear is Cave's first horizontal shoot 'em up. The eye-catching steampunk artwork is an immediate draw, and enemy designs have that Metal Slug quality of compact, intricate machinery to them. Controls are precise enough to squeeze between tiny gaps in the screen-filling bullet patterns. It's often cited as one of the easier Cave shooters, and it does have a more gradual difficulty curve, but I still died a lot before getting the hang of how to cancel enemy bullets.
I have some complaints: first, this predates Cave's habit of indicating your hitbox with a glowing dot, which makes dodging more precarious than it needs to be. Second, I'm not a fan of needing power-ups in bullet hell, regardless how generous the pick-ups are here. Third, putting 2 upwardly scrolling stages back-to-back in a landscape screen layout feels a little cheap, since you get less reaction time to dodge, and can't rotate your main fire vertically. Lastly, the music is not very interesting - like a series of Pokémon Gym Leader themes in a row.

 

[Tambini]

#6 Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Replay, Co-op) - Xbox - 6 hours - 7.5
Well designed co op experience, good blend of twin stick shooting and puzzle solving. a little buggy and janky at times but in a co op setting this often just ends up being funny. The challenges are a good way of providing replay value and the difficulty is well balanced.

#7 Stardew Valley (Co-op) - Xbox - 72 hours - 8.0
Very chill and relaxing game with a lot of personality. Don't think I'd play a lot of it on my own but in co-op it's a great experience. A ton of content, we finished the main quests and all that's left is some very grindy completionist stuff, so gonna call this one here.

#8 Far Cry Instincts: Evolution - Xbox - 5 hours - 5.0
Starts off stronger than the first game as you start with all your powers unlocked and you get some open levels to play around in. Then it becomes very linear, frustrating and boring. And after playing the previous one not too long ago, safe to say I was sick of it by the end.

#9 Infernax - Xbox - 6 hours - 8.0
This was a nice surprise, a game I hadn't heard of until it dropped on Game Pass. It's Castlevania 2 but good! Challenging but fair and a suprising amount of content, especially with how repeat playthroughs can differ. Just the one for me though, for now.

#10 Elden Ring - Xbox - 90 hours - 9.0
I was very much looking forward to this, and it didn't dissapoint. The change to an open world was a total success in my opinion, like a kid in a candy store there are so many things you can see in the distance, ooh i wanna go there, ooh and over there. Not to mention all the small hidden surprises you find along the way. The combat has some fun upgrades with guard counters and being able to jump, just feels a lot smoother than Dark Souls.
The quests I found easier to follow this time and there's just some stunning locations, with art direction more than making up for the less than stellar technical side of things.
The only thing that needed some tweaking is the balance, both of the weapons (some builds are just over or underpowered) and the bosses (some are overtuned and their movesets a little over the top). Other than that I loved it

 

[FRANKEINSTEIN]

15. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (Series X) 15 Mar | ★★★★
I played this last year on the PS5 and really enjoyed it. When it got announced for Gamepass I thought, yeah, I'd play that again. So I did. Still great. Enjoyable story, good to great performances, combat could be better. Plus a few hiccups where I had to restart last checkpoint or turn game off then on because either game wouldn't move forward or audio issues or some frame rate issues.

 

[Neil98]

7. Ratchet and Clank HD (PS3)
8. Kingdom Hearts III Re:MIND DLC (PS5)
9. Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Remastered (XSX)
10. Gorogoa (XSX)

 

[Decarbia]

I keep meaning to make a post in this thread. Currently I'm at 12.

1. Sakura Wars PS4 - finally got around to this one. Some of my favorite characters in the franchise but some of the worst gameplay.

2. Gundam Last Shooting Arcade - Picked up a few Gundam boards for my supergun. And one kit I can't use because I don't have the NAMCO system hardware. Fun shooter, used a trackball on this one with some super interesting redesigns from the early 90s.

3. G-Saviour PS2 Super underrated early PS2 game from the more underrated G-Saviour.

4. Spider-Man PS5 - been meaning to play this for YEARS. It was a lot of fun even if it was a little bloated and repetitive.

5. CastleVania Curse of Darkness. PS2. Best 3D Igavania.

6. Halo Infinite. Runs like shit on PC. But it's a lot of fun still.

7. Spider-Man The City that Never Sleeps. PS5. Meaty Spider-Man dlc. More streamlined and I dug it.

8. SD Gundam Neo Battline Arcade. Another Gundam board. Gundam shmup with some interesting Ms choices. Like Cluster Gundam.

9. The Evil Within 2. PC. Great little title I played via gamepass.

10. Final Fantasy 7 Remake. PS5. I liked it but I hope the rest of the game isn't so bloated or it's gonna be like 10 parts.

11. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intermission. PS5. Awesome little Yuffie diversion. More of this please.

12. Visage. Xbox Series X. Fun horror game. The end game bit was boring getting all the mask pieces and an absolute nothing ending.

 

[DestinyArrives]

Time to Give a February to Mid-March Post Update!

Link to Main Post


February to Mid-March Completions/Reviews (Spoiler Warning Potential in Reviews):

2. Battlefield 2042 (PS5) | 8th Feb - 15hrs

I'm very much a big first person shooter fan (specifically anything that feels like Battlefield 3/COD MW/COD Black Ops 2), however I felt that Battlefield 2042 fell a bit short. I actually enjoyed the gameplay a lot more than I heard other players experienced - this was my first Battlefield since BF4 and I felt that the series has a distinctive feel to it. I felt like this was a mix of BF4 and COD MW's (2019) mechanics - which as a fan of both games made me happy. Where the game fell short was in the lack of content. I felt that the main mode was plagued with too few maps, some of which had such large draw distances that they became boring to traverse. The lack of a scoreboard, many technical issues that popped up during my gameplay (including a couple of crashes on my PS5) ultimately soured my experience. The roadmap ahead does not look great for the title and as a game that is catering a live service model, I feel that it's just all around disappointing. Let me reiterate - I enjoy the general structure to the game (mainly it's gameplay), but it's clear this should of been delayed until Fall 2022. The game was just not ready to release.

6/10

3. Hearts of Iron IV - No Step Back (PC) | 12th Feb - 25hrs

I'm an absolute fanatic for strategy games and HOI IV has continued to amaze me ever since its initial launch. This expansion has added much needed aspects to the Soviet Union as well as surrounding areas. I'm a major fan of what if type of scenarios, so trying to start revolutions in the USSR while hiding from Stalin's wrath made it a blast to play. If you played the base game, you probably could tell that there wasn't a variety of Soviet national focuses available - but this one I felt added plenty to for interesting gameplay experiences. This is one of those games like the Civilization series where you can easily become lost in each moment - the expansion helps continue (and worsen, in a good way) that tradition and will surely be something I will continue to play into the future.

9/10

4. Pokemon Sword - The Isle of Armor (Switch) | 27th Feb - 15hrs

I didn't touch my Pokemon Sword save for over a year, so it was excellent to finally have a reason to go back. The story in this expansion was fun to go through, especially with each individual challenge having its own little quirk to it. One major aspect that left me a bit disappointed was the lack of legendary Pokemon. Usually hunting for legendaries give me a great incentive to go back to the game, so seeing this case was a bummer.

7/10

5. Pokemon Sword - The Crown Tundra (Switch) | 14th Mar - 10hrs

This expansion gave me more of what I was looking for. The story was fun to go through - I wanted to engage more and more with some of the characters as I progressed (especially the main legendary that can speak to you). The mystery factors in finding all of the legendary pokemon associated with certain quests was extremely exciting for me (as that's the main priority for me in Pokemon games most of the time). I completed one round of the max lair and legendary clues 1-3. I believe there is one more I can complete, but I decided that I wanted to focus my attention on other games for now and possibly go back to this in the future.

8/10

 

[Nocturnowl]

14. Hitman 3 ★★★★ (16/3/22)

The inevitable addition of Hitman 3 to the list of completion arrives, what's left to say?
Here's more mini sandboxes of stealthy shenanigans and murderous machinations? mostly yes, but there is actually something different in Hitman 3's approach to level design, to a small extent anyway.
I would say that much like a lot of third entries in a series, usually platformers, we have here the more gimmick focused entry.
A stage built around a whodunnit alongside your assassination plot, a role reversal that you then re-reverse as you try to track down multiple unknown targets out to get you and even a linear action finale to round off the plot that took greater precedence in this entry.
Straight up, I think this game peaks with its first two stages in Dubai and Dartmoor, not to say the rest was middling or anything, just that with such a high standard already set, the combo of familiarity combined with the shake ups not landing quite as strongly makes for stages that feel a bit more limited.
Notably the mission stories seem to come in smaller supply, the ones for Chongqing were waaaay too much walk n' talk or watching interactions play out.
Though I don't argue against the decision to end on a linear stage you can either rambo through or solve the "stealth puzzle" for your silent assassin run, it's not the series strength but it helps the ending not just feel like one more of the usual.

As such I think my skim over the stages of the trilogy has me land at
2>1>3
2 is the most consistent and has some real standouts, I might even tackle the DLC stages in the future for this one.
1 has the highs and...well not lows, but Marrakesh and especially Colorado fall a bit short

Taken as a whole package though?


N/A number: Hitman Trilogy ★★★★★

The cohesive bundling of all three titles together, with an overarching plot, all the extra content like escalations, elusive targets, bonus side missions and basically just pure replayability/mastery.
This is an absolute top notch package, worthy of 5 stars

 

[KtotheRoc]

21: Astro's Playroom. End: 3/17/2022. (4 out of 5)

It's a nostalgiac look back at the Playstation's legacy AND a glorified tech demo for what the PS5 can do. And I thought it was quite charming.

 

[5pectre]

#13 Sega Bass Fishing (Dreamcast) | 11 Mar - 1 hrs | 3/5

Sega Bass Fishing got added to retroachievements, so I had to give it a go. Not the deepest game in the world, as it is an arcade titles, but damn is it fun.

 

[Whimsicalish]

12 | Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire
PC | Mar 02 | 42 h | 4/5

Replay of the second expansion to Guild Wars 2. I still enjoy it more than the first expac. I hate the earlier maps with a passion. The desert is open, you're introduced to mounts, and the story is fun to replay. There are rewards to encourage you to replay the story such as back armor achievements based on your choices.

The desert is expansive for you to explore with an array of mounts. All the mounts move and work in a different way. A rabbit will help you jump to high cliffs while a skimmer will glide you across water and quicksand. After you complete the main story, a hidden mount collection unlocks. The storytelling improves and you may feel closer to certain characters. (Canach ftw!) While other characters may have you scratching your head with their decisions.

I had fun replaying the story; really that's all I can ask for in a game. That I was entertained a second time. Looking forward to the episodes.

Main Post

 

[Whimsicalish]

13 | Rider's Republic
PS5 | Mar 06 | 70 h | 4.5/5

When I first saw the trailer, it looked like a good time to mindlessly play for fun. And was I right! The open world is much, much larger than I anticipated. Every solo and pvp event is on the map for you to explore. You can trick out on bikes, snowboard down a mountain, ski a race, glide through hoops, or test your rocketwing through natural arches. The map is a beautiful blend of real world national parks. From snow covered cliffs to red rock stone arches, it's gorgeous. They did an amazing job with the environment.

You can explore with a radio station or turn it off if you prefer. When you first experience a big event with an edited song playing in the background, it gets you pumped! However, there is a downside to having songs tied to events. If you're a completionist, you may have to replay event for stars. Hearing the same song, over and over, was annoying. The radio is limited and you cannot change it during an event. I am burned out on certain songs. The main narrator is overly talkative. I had to mute my sound a couple of times because I wanted to concentrate; not hear his terrible puns for the 47th time.

The sound is a minor complaint. The most complaints I have seen online, and experienced, are about mass races. Every 30 minutes, the game runs an event with 64 players in real time to compete. It can be fun, but frustrating if you're wanting top three. Some of the races use your equipment. Each equipment has its own stats. That means someone can easily pass you if their bike/ski has a higher speed stat than you. Players complained about the unfair balance. So the game added more races to have everyone on the same piece of equipment with the same stats. Now there's an issue of 64 players all bound together by moving the same speed ping ponging together. You can be moving straight, have another player bump into you, and be launched a direction. It's less about stats and more on luck, hoping you aren't tossed around. They need to continue tweaking this but overall the game is well done.

At 70 hours I have earned my platinum trophy. But I did not complete every event, earn every star, or finish every challenge. There's a ton of content and I felt it was well worth it.

Main Post

 

[Sillen2000]

Main Post

February update: 8/52

I really don't like updating twice on the same page since I know all of my posts tend to be pretty long and I don't want to fill up the page with my insane ramblings, but I guess it can't be helped this time. Anyway, the strong start to the year continues with another four games, with my favorite of the bunch very much not being the one I'd have expected. Honestly a pretty fun month overall with no real duds.

5. February 5th | Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception | Playstation 4 | 8h 9m | Replay | ☆☆☆☆(/5)
Uncharted 1 was the first one I played, 2 was the first one I bought, but Uncharted 3 was the first one I actually got on release (on, I think, November 2, 2011) and I remember being so hyped for it that I even bought the strategy guide alongside it. Not because this is the type of game where you need a guide, but simply because it acted as a nice companion piece to the actual game. I also remember absolutely loving the game, beating it several times over. Back then I even placed it above Uncharted 2.

But, I mean, I had just turned 16. Who has decent taste at that age? Before this playthrough, I hadn't touched Drake's Deception in almost a decade, and while the game was somewhat controversial even on release, the discourse around it just seems to have turned more and more negative as years have passed. Especially considering how I played Uncharted 2 and didn't really find that one to really hold up (it's still a great game, but not an amazing one imo) anymore, I was a bit worried about how the experience with 3 would be when I played it with the wisdom of a very old man that I now possess.

But honestly? Uncharted 3 is still a great time. I am more aware of how absolutely, almost distractingly bad the story is. The villains seem to actively try and help Drake as much as they can in thwarting their evil plan and doing their best not to kill him whenever they have the chance, and there are more strange coincidences progressing the story further on and plot points that don't really connect to each other than I can count. Also, as heart warming as Drake and Sully's relationship in this game is, it's a complete retcon from previous games where they really didn't seem like anything other than barely friendly business partners. Not to toot Neill Druckman's horn, but I feel like it's pretty telling that the Uncharted game with the weakest writing also is the only one he wasn't at all involved with. To the game's defense the dialogue is just as good as in previous games, but witty banter and some genuinely emotional moments can't really make up for the bigger whole when it's such a huge mess. Just like with Drake getting shot in 2 and later climbing out of a train and moving as normal while killing a million men, I'm really not a huge fan of how he just gets back to business after walking across a desert for days in this one (the desert section itself is great and really bold for this type of game, but the game does not find a good transition from that section to the more traditional gameplay)

Still a great time though, I promise! I don't really care all that much about what other people think of a video game, but I must admit I'm pretty confused when one of the complaints about Uncharted 3 is that it apparently plays worse than 2? Maybe I played Among Thieves the wrong way or something, but at least on hard mode that one felt a lot more like you were just ducking behind cover or cursing the Tv whenever you had to fight the warriors at the end, but in 3 I constantly moved around, alternating between melee and shooting, switching out weapons constantly and reacting to the fairly dynamic and very aggressive enemy AI. There are definitely too many men with rocket launchers spread throughout the game, but otherwise this is almost 100% a better experience gameplay wise than both previous games in the series and one that really rewards you for playing super aggressively. Okay, the desert storm section is some bullshit, but otherwise it's just banger after banger in combat arena design. Also, as inconsequential as it is to the overall story, the entire ship graveyard and cruiser section is a masterclass in TPS action (plus extremely impressive technically for a PS3 game) that definitely would overwhelm anyone who plays these games just ducking behind cover, but if you actually run around the environments and switch positions fairly often it's not actually that difficult and the enemies give you just the right weapons to overcome whatever wave comes next.

In my mind Uncharted 4 is still my favorite in the series (though I haven't played that in almost seven years...), but at least I feel like I can at this point in time point to 3 as my favorite of the PS3 trilogy. It's certainly not without its pretty huge issues, but the gameplay is so much fun that it (almost) doesn't matter when you're in the midst of the action. Though I am very disappointed that they removed the trophy for standing on a crocodile in the PS4 remaster :(.

Soundtrack Highlight:
Ambushed

6. February 6th | Kirby's Adventure | Switch | 3h | Replay | ☆☆☆½
Another replay and a game that it's been so long that I can't even remember when I first played it. I know either Kirby's Dreamland 3 or Superstar was my first Kirby game and I'm pretty certain I played Nightmare in Dreamland before Adventure as well, but for some reason this is still the one that makes me the most nostalgic these days. Not sure what it is, maybe I'm just nostalgic about the NES overall and Kirby gets some of those nostalgic feelings by proxy, but it is what it is.

I obviously replayed Adventure here in this Year of Our Lord 2022 because of some sort of Forgotten Lands hype, but experiencing all of it again,I feel pretty foolish for not having revisited it since I last played it, however many years ago that was. On paper Kirby's Adventure really is one of the absolute best NES games, and often in reality as well. It looks great, the pacing is 5/5, the difficulty curve is surprisingly kind for a game of its era, and it ends on an absolutely insane note. Also, Sakurai is a genius who came up with the copy abilities and managed to implement them so well both as weapons but also as ways to solve optional puzzles in the stages. I also really can't stress enough how cute Kirby's 8-bit sprite is here. I'm not sure if it's the same as in Dreamland, but even if it is then just making him pink just makes him go to an even higher level cute, and it doesn't hurt that the little skits to introduce every world are also just the cutest things around (also such a charming thing that didn't have to be in the game at all, but here they are anyway and they're all absolutly lovely). Even the game had been bad, just looking at this iteration of Kirby had been enough to make me at least a bit happier.

And oh my god I forgot about the intro where you're taught how to draw Kirby. Just one out of those many things that gives this game so much more personality than almost everything else made at the time. Also all the flavor text for every power-up that pops up every time you pause the game is such a genius move to even make pausing fun and I at least don't think any other game did this before Kirby's Adventure which just... I really can't get over how creative and full of life this little platformer is in that Symphony of the Night where there are so many details that don't really affect the gameplay at all, but which makes the overall experience rise above other games of a higher quality gameplay wise. It's certainly not on SotN's insane level, but it's still super impressive and fun that they even though to do a lot of the things they do.

And it's not like the personality doesn't seep over into the gameplay either. Outside of some great animations, you also have these weird things like the Museum and Colosseum which give you power-ups you rarely need, but they're still there and I love them! The mini-games are absolutely bizarre and distinct from both each other and the rest of the game, and while Quick Draw requires you to have the fastest reaction time known to man in order to beat it (at least on the highest difficulty), they're all a fun distraction from the main game. Also, a throwback level in an NES game? In the second game in the series? Absolutely insane and it should be a technical mess considering how much else is crammed into the NES cartridge, plus pretty boring since Kirby's Dreamland really didn't have the most inspired level design, but not only does that GameBoy work, but is also one of the most fun levels in the game! I don't want to repeat myself, but: Sakurai is a genius.

It really is just too bad that for all the absolutely amazing things Kirby's Adventure does, it really doesn't play all that great. I think the 3D version fixes some of the flaws, but in the original NES version (or Switch version, I guess, but I can't seem to recall any differences between them) the game really can't handle itself. Kirby's Adventure looks great, but that comes at the price of frequent slowdown and I'd assume it's also that slowdown which makes the game eat inputs at times, making the experience feel more unfair than actually challenging at times. Also, even with those flaws fixed, hit detection isn't great and Kirby can be a bit too slippery, resulting in me just running into enemies by accident when I'm using a short ranged power. I sort of love Kirby's Adventure for a lot of thing that it does, but I don't really love playing it. It's not bad when compared to a lot of other NES games, but it betrays itself by having all this personality and charm, and then not being able to back those up with more solid controls and performance. Maybe it contributed that I played on extra mode where you only have three lives instead of six, but I feel like I would be annoyed even then, if less worried about dying because an input just wouldn't register at a bad time.

I was going to say that I'd love to see a remake of this game before remembering Nightmare in Dreamland exists and that a lot of the charm got lost in the translation to 16-bit there, so maybe that's not what's needed. Maybe I should just try out the 3DS port? Probably, but anyway: fun game! Doesn't play great, but goddamn if it doesn't have to personality to almost make up for it. Great soundtrack as well, just like every Kirby game before and after. Despite my complaints I really recommend it if you've never played it before and want to kill three hours with a really charming experience!

Soundtrack Highlight:
Vegetable Valley 1

7. February 6th | Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 | Playstation 4 | 10h | ☆☆☆
It's a Lego game so you already know how it's played and it's Harry Potter so I think it's maybe better to just move along to the next game instead.

8. February 28th | Pokémon Legends: Arceus | Switch | 64h 21m | ☆☆☆½
First game of 2022 beaten! I'm not really one of those people who think Pokémon necessarily needs to change its fundamentals, but it is true that the core games have been feeling stale for quite a while now, so I was definitely interested in seeing how Legends: Arceus would be able to shake things up and how GameFreak would be able to handle another kind of Pokémon game. "Pretty good!", is the answer to that last question because Legends: Arceus is truly a pretty good game. Not great as a whole, but pretty good.

If I had to describe Legends: Arceus, I'd say it's the gameplay of Pokémon Snap and traditional Pokémon Frankensteined together with an excel document, with the map philosophy of something like a Monster Hunter. This might sound incredible, and it sort of is for the most part. You're checking boxes for every Pokémon in the Pokedex, walking around big, often surprisingly decent looking (artistically speaking) zones and seeing Pokémon exist in their natural habitat where some are friendly, some afraid and some just want to murder you as soon as you're in their sight (who would have thought Paras would be so aggressive?). It's a fun gameplay loop of constantly thinking "just one more", combined with the already pretty addicting elements of the more traditional Pokémon with catching the monsters and evolving them. It's chill, pretty aimless most of the time and just generally a good time, while also being almost dangerously addictive. Like, I played 64 hours of Legends: Arceus over two weeks. I basically slept, ate, worked, played this game and not much else. I haven't really cared about catching 'em all since I actually managed to do so in Omega Ruby back in 2015, but despite being extremely repetitive while trying to do so here, I pretty naturally caught everything in Legends: Arceus and almost completed every Pokedex entry as well. Not sure what it is, but there was something extremely satisfying about checking those Pokedex boxes and trying to reach that coveted (and ultimately pretty pointless) level 10 star rank. Like, I certainly grew tired of how the game never really shook things up and how boring some of the maps were to traverse through, but that gameplay loop kept me going even through those slumps. Honestly really impressive to see GameFreak make a system that's this hard to put down on their first try with this type of game. Also, how satisfying is it to actually be able to aim and throw a Pokeball yourself after all of these games where, for practical reasons obviously, the game has done it for you? Such a good feeling. Honestly, the whole procedure of figuring out how to best approach Pokémon, feeding them with berries to cause different effects, sneaking around, hiding in tall grass and striking their backs with the ball is a really good take on the stealth genre for kids. Not especially hard, but still requires some thought and planning. The only times this gameplay loop doesn't really work are the few times you have to traverse across water, where Pokémon are barely visible and it feels like the pokeballs somehow miss even when they clearly hit whatever you're aiming at. Thankfully you rarely have to spend any time away from land, but it feels pretty awful whenever that's the case.

Also some really good QOL things that probably should be carried over to traditional Pokémon, like how you can switch out your Pokémon's moves at any time, or choose when to evolve it. I wouldn't say the actual battles are all that great, with weaknesses being even more important than usual and levels at times not feeling important at all. Also, why do some trainers use several Pokémon at once against you while you're still stuck to only using one? Same case with when several wild Pokémon attack you at once (which is honestly pretty cool when it happens and, for example, a Machoke just happens to be close by and wanders into the fight with a Geodude) and you're still, like, "no, the honourable thing to do is to only use one Pokémon at a time here." I do appreciate that the game actually tries to challenge the player at times, and it certainly does with its true final trainer battle, but I feel like there are times when it's challenging more because the game limits you from doing what the opponents are doing rather than them being especially good at actually fighting with their Pokémon.

The boss fights – the ones where you're just yourself dodging around attacks and throwing food at a big Pokémon – are mostly pretty decent. The dodging feels a bit stiff and the middle ones tend to go on for a bit too long, but at least they're not actively bad and the final fight with a noble Pokémon and the secret(?) final boss are pretty fun to fight and satisfying to beat. I sort of wish the bosses were a bit more difficult considering how much time it takes to beat them, but at least with those two you really have to react quickly to a lot of things in order to win and do some pretty cool dodging. At least the music is great for each and every one.

Now, most of what I've talked about might be flawed, but at least I still like those aspects overall. I wish I could say the same for the story, but, like, the kindest thing I can say about it is that it's just there without really being in the way too much. Uncharted 3 may have a bad story, but that one at least feels like it has a beginning, middle and end (well, at least a beginning and an end), but in Legends: Arceus I sort of feel like GameFreak (or whoever wrote the game's story. I assume it's not the entire company that did it together) came up with a new idea for every new zone, but couldn't keep more than one idea in their head at a time and so just completely forgot the one the game was working with previously. Also, considering how this entire game begins with you being involuntarily being transported from your bedroom into the distant past, it is sort of strange how the main character really doesn't seem to care at all about how strange that is or never really seems to want to return to their own time.

It almost feels pointless to do by this point since it's something absolutely everyone mentions for every modern Pokémon game, but this game really doesn't look good. Like I said previously the artstyle is fine and really works at times, but the game just can't handle itself with some of the worst draw distance I've seen in a modern, fairly big budget game and some terrible texture pop in. It's rare that I care all that much about how a game looks, but these technical issues really bring the game and the overall experience of wandering in this usually super pleasant Pokémon world down. Like, I know every game I play is a game and I'm never really immersed in the way that I forget that what I'm looking at isn't real, but when things just pop in on screen and textures fill in gradually, I really can't help but think how this is just code and it makes the entire experience feel a lot more artificial than it could have been with just a bit better performance. I get that it's on the Switch and the zones are pretty big with a wide variety of Pokémon with some impressive and lively animations, but surely it must have been possible to make something more structurally sound than this? At least it runs at a pretty stable FPS, I guess.

So yeah, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is pretty good. There are flaws everywhere, but the main gameplay loop is so incredibly addicting and (for most of the game) fun that I still couldn't put it down. I'm not really sure if I want mainline Pokémon to be like this since I think I prefer the more involved battling and RPG elements of those games than in this, but it's at least a nice experiment and definitely one that I'd like to see GameFreak return to and improve upon! Maybe in a Johto Equivalent?

Soundtrack highlight:
(ENDGAME SPOILER)

Currently playing:

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (PS4)
Pokémon HeartGold (Nintendo DS)
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PS4)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations (3DS)

 

[Nocturnowl]

Sillen2000
If you do ever go back to Kirby's Adventure in the future, it might be worth making sure to grab the 3D classics version of the game while you still can, because as you theorise, it's basically Kirby's Adventure without the slowdown.
Some nice tweaks to the visuals as well, and no more audio SFX overriding the music, it's very good and I'd consider it the definitive version ahead of the NES original and GBA remake

 

[Sillen2000]

Sillen2000
If you do ever go back to Kirby's Adventure in the future, it might be worth making sure to grab the 3D classics version of the game while you still can, because as you theorise, it's basically Kirby's Adventure without the slowdown.
Some nice tweaks to the visuals as well, and no more audio SFX overriding the music, it's very good and I'd consider it the definitive version ahead of the NES original and GBA remake

Click to shrink...

Thanks for the confirmation! I'll probably grab it before the eShop closes, then.

 

[Nocturnowl]

15. (replay) Mario Kart 64 (20/3/22) ★★★

Well, this wasn't planned at all
While waiting for those new mario kart 8 tracks to drop, I dropped into MK64 for the first time in decades, fully expecting to do one race and then bounce.
So here was the result of my first race...


you fucking what? are you challenging me Mario Kart 64?!

Following such flagrant rubberbanding (does that even count as rubberbanding? that's like, teleportation or a bribed flagsman), I was now in for the long haul.
Turns out I had more fun that I expected, Mario Kart 64 is a completely nonsense game.
To try and run down the various CPU quirks is like an exercise in explaining the unexplainable, you'll see them get hit by an item when almost off screen and instead of soaring into the air they just kinda stop and then accelerate again, they can get into first and just break away like they're moving at double speed, never to be seen again.
They'll get hit and be back seconds later, sometimes they just seem to stop and let you catch up, I have no idea what they're playing at, I'm not sure they do either.

Interestingly though, they lack much capability to do anything to you outside of sheer rubber band boosting, the items are more your friend than theirs, the game is generous throwing the player third place superstars/lightning/triple red shells, not that you can count on red shells for much here. The CPU are more focused on overtaking you than avoiding hazards, so you can lure them into obstacles.
They also lack consistency, one races winner and can be next racers loser, the field kept shifting among the 7 CPU and thus you can win the cups without nailing 1st and 2nd every time, this might be the most RNG mario kart out there.

Control wise this played better than I remembered, it's not great by any stretch but there's still joy in a good powerslide and it's interesting how this entry doesn't crater your speed when you hit a wall (unless you hit it dead on) so you can bumper car about chaotically.
There's a very solid selection of tracks here, the only one I flat out don't like is Rainbow Road being tedious as all heck.
A lot of these tracks never quite feel the same when removed from their source, this isn't to say the remakes in future entries don't land (Bowser's Castle 64 in Wii and Royal Raceway in 8 deliver), but some of them really need that MK64 gamefeel and quirks to deliver on their intention. Notably DK's Jungle Parkway needs those mystery arseholes pelting spiked fruit when you go off road, needs to let the player try and shave time by angling the big jump, try and chance going up the cave wall and most importantly, need that one bridge to be narrow as can be.

MK64 has this cruel punishing edge to it, that I'm glad isn't part of future games, but I have a twisted love for it here.
Where you can bolt people down the big jump in wario stadium and they lose so much time, where a heavy character can ram a light character into a full spin out, where you can just spinout for taking a turn poorly at speed, where rolling off Yoshi valley takes like 10 seconds of homer simpson going down the gorge.
Maybe it's the nostalgia, this was my first N64 game after all, where I started it up trying to use the dpad and just grinded the edge of Luigi Circuit, thinking it was a koopa troopa beach because that was the stage highlighted as I selected mushroom cup (look, there was sand alright?)
But what I expected to be two stars was worthy of three, I earned my alternative title screen with prime Donkey Kong Presence, relived just pressing every option so I can hear Charles Martinet's best Mario work
"TIIIIIME TRIAAAL"
"Versus?"
"DAY-TAH"

It was a fun nostalgia trip, now to force my nintendo online family members to play block fort battle mode with me.


16. (replay) Batman: Arkham Asylum (21/3/22) ★★★

The recent movie for bats got me in the mood to finally return to arkham, geddit because that's the name of the remaster.
To think, I haven't actually played this one since it first released. Era just loves a best Arkham game thread and in the past I leaned towards Asylum, yet couldn't shake that I was lowballing the many improvements City makes to the core gameplay, and overestimating the metroidvania lite antics of Asylum.

Asylum is an interesting game in that it's half trendsetter, half "it was the style at the time". AA's freeflow combat system and detective vision modes became commonplace in future AAA titles, elsewhere the game loves itself a slow walk scene or audio recording.
Anyway, this is batman's grate ad-vent-ure, you see what I did there? because Bats is gonna be spending a lot of time checking out arkham's ventilation, the amount of time spent mashing to open another grate leaving me both like "why does this have to take so long?" yet also "it's neat that he has a stealthy variant, that's attention to detail".
And attention to detail might be this game's secret sauce, from Bat's continually worn appearance as the game goes on, to the many environmental details that make up a number of Riddler's challenges, this wasn't some throwaway licensed game, can't forget that at the time that was the expectation for superheroes after all.

While Batman gets a lot right, there's always a feeling I've had that the game is never quite as fun as it could be, Batman's movement in this series has never felt quite right to me, caught between moments of smooth gliding that has you like I'M BATMAN, and then the rigid clumsiness of running about, trying to grapple to the right places and being at the mercy of a lot of automation. There's very much a first game in a series syndrome here, at the time the predator sections were praised for how well they gave you that...well, predatory feeling, and that they do. But in a post City/Knight world, you really feel the lack of options Batman has in stealth and combat for that matter. As such it makes returning to Asylum feel like it's missing pieces of the puzzle.
For as much as people, including myself, have played up Asylum's condensed map compared to City, fundamentally it's not far removed from the same logic, you have four main "dungeons" so to speak, and a central hub connecting them that are the grounds of the asylum. The game never really incentivises the player to backtrack and get collectables, it's very much a guided tour where areas lock themselves off anyway, so all that riddler stuff might as well be a post game wrap up.

For the most part the game handles escalation well, in both combat and stealth, the segments slowly up the ante
guards>guards with guns>guards with alert collars>booby trapped gargoyle statues
or grunts>grunts with knives> grunts with batons> annoying titan enemies
Meanwhile the standard exploring side doesn't get quite as strong progression, a lot of the final third is all about batman tuning into frequencies via turning the analogue sticks, it's like if a Zelda game was wrapping up Link's robust item collection with like the lens of truth and then abusing it for the endgame.
Still, overall the game holds up, the final third feels a touch tired, to the point that it feels like the game intentionally tries to shake things up as it goes from Scarecrow's third and most robust segment, to croc's sewer setpiece, to poison ivy boss fight, and it's a mixed bag that lead right into the titan joker finale.
I can't truly nail down what I'm getting at here, just that the game feels more out of juice and just throwing ideas at the wall maybe? triple batclaw upgrade? yeah I think they'd taken the base combat and stealth as far as they could without adding more gadgets and enemy types at this point.

Happy to have revisited, probably wont again though, I will move onto City some point soon but not before a break from the bat and Kevin Conroy shifting between sounding pretty damn good and pretty damn tired of this shit.

 

[5pectre]

14. Lawn Mower (NES) | 20 Mar - 3 hrs | 3/5

Lawn Mower is an addicting homebrew game for the NES. It's so simple, yet so challenging, largely due to you loose patience. As soon as you try to rush things it all goes wrong. This could easily have been an arcade hit in the early 80s.



15. Burnout 3 Takedown (X360) | 21 Mar - 19 hrs | 5/5

What a fantastic replay of one of the best arcade racers to grace the home consoles. I was very surprised that this was available for purchase on the Xbox 360 store. It's the Original Xbox version, backwards compatible, and it plays without a hitch. The game is fairly straight forward with rubberband AI, but if they get ahead, it's no mercy. And this game is SO REWARDING to play. After every event you unlock something. Early 2000s soundtrack is very nostalgic for me too.

Btw, if you want to see the end credits you have to get GOLD in EVERY single event in the game. They don't make games like this no more.



16. Micro Mages (NES) | 11 Mar - 7 hrs | 5/5

This fantastic NES platformer from 2019 landed on my radar about 2 weeks ago when I was at a private arcade event and the host had just gotten this for his PlayChoice-10 machine. I was hooked from the first play and when I got back home I found it for NES. It's a 2-loop game with 4x3 stages and an end boss. First loop is fairly easy but then they change it up in loop 2 and make it extra challenging.

 

[Griffin]

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#4 - Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) - ★★★★☆

It had been a while since a game completely sucked me in like this one. I haven't quite gotten there yet, but I got immersed in trying to capture every critter in the Hisui region. This ended up being an Interesting change to the series' structure as gradually filling out the Pokédex made it rewarding to fight and catch as much as possible while constantly changing up my team. Between completing the Dex, handling sidequests, hunting down giant Alpha Pokemon and riding on Pokemon to explore more of the world, there's so much to do and very little downtime between the action. The game flows well and the story managed to surprise me with some interesting twists.

Some aspects were a bit of a letdown. The changes to the battle system work OK with the different format, but it lacks the variety of moves and abilities that gave the fights in the mainline series more depth. Obviously it's not much of a looker either. That said, I really enjoyed my time with Pokemon Legends and I'm hoping the releases of Scarlet and Violet later in the year take more than a couple of cues from it.


#5 - Touhou Luna Nights (XB1) - ★★★★☆

This was the first title I tried on Game Pass well over a year ago and yet I didn't get around to finishing it until right before it got taken off the service. The long gap made the difficulty spike near the end quite an ordeal, but I had a great time overall. Though frustrating in places, it does a terrific job of adapting the Touhou series of shooters into a 2D action game. Using Sakuya's powers to stop time and set up volleys of knives makes the gameplay unique, the bosses all have crazy attack patterns and of course the remixes of Touhou tracks are great. This is one of the best "Metroidvania" games I've played in a while, even if the levels are so linear that there's not much exploration. The sprite animation is absolutely gorgeous, too.

 

[djinn]

Main Post

12. Tunic
Surprisingly difficult to rate this one or really consolidate my thoughts. Firstly, I loved it. But it's got some glaring problems. It's a beautiful live letter to Zelda 1 and perhaps with one of the most unique and innovative uses of an in-game manual/guide I've ever seen. Picking up pieces of the instruction manual not only slowly drip feeds you mechanics in the game bit also subtly pushes you in the direction you should go next. The first half of them game, I found very fun. That's despite the clunky and unbalanced combat, because it's saved by in-game accessibility options.

The second half of the game is an entirely different beast. Once you've cleared the game you can go back and solve a lot of the game's bigger secrets. The reward is getting a true ending and discovering large parts of the game that were hidden in plain sight. It's unfortunate that i didn't have the patience for a lot of these puzzles. Some aren't too bad and require a small bit of effort. Some are stupidly obtuse and I needed a play guide. And some actually aren't so bad but require a lot of effort to piece together. I'm just not the type of player that had the patience for these things. I did what I could and looked up answers for the rest. I didn't get the 100% but I'm satisfied with what i managed and I, mostly, had fun doing it.

 

[5pectre]

17. Bioshock 2 Remastered (Xbox One) | 24 Mar - 11 hrs | 4/5

First replay since it was released. I had forgotten everything about this game. I thought I knew a little bit but that turned out to be something from the ending of Bioshock 1. So, it was like playing the game for the first time again which was nice. A lot of new perspectives given during the playthrough because of your character, but you also get an insight into the little sisters etc.

It was an entertaining playthrough but I think the first game does it better. Big sisters were a pain to take down in the beginning.