VideoGame_Discussion

2nd in April, 21st overall, 1st on
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Badge: Super Mayrio makes sense to me, additional game necessary

Beat this a little late for March's pick in Ren2k's RTT GotM selection. Was a big fan of the original that I played as a kid with a friend, not sure we ever finished that one so I beat that back in '21 and wanted to get to DKC2&3 eventually - last month's pick of the franchise got me to start it, but I didn't get to finish until today as it was challenging. I don't recall thinking that DKC was as tough, though I do recall my childhood friend and I very likely didn't beat it, thus why I did so recently.
Didn't come even remotely close to collecting everything that was hidden in the levels, so it seems I didn't get the true ending or whatever, but I got credits and am moving on... in my 40's I don't have time for all that frustration.

image Level Up!: Beat 2 JRPGs

I'd like to use FF7 and FF7 Remake to cash in on this badge

#17 down: Unicorn Overlord on PS5. I would like to count this toward the The Best Offense badge.

This was a fun one for the most part. The story is pretty generic, but the art style is nice, and the gameplay is quite fun. You can spend a ton of time tweaking your unit formations and gear for various strategies. There's a boss toward the end that forced me to completely rethink how I played (which was annoying at first but which I appreciate more in hindsight). The only major downside was that some of the trophies on the way to the platinum were a little tedious (especially 100%ing the map-- I finally realized that I had failed to walk over a tiny part inside a village you can only access after you beat the game. I was sitting on 99.7% for awhile.)

I beat WarioWare: Get It Together! .
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WarioWare has never been Wario's best series, but it's fun to play on occasion--especially if you find it for the right price. I got a new copy from Target for $15, which I thought was worthy. The game focuses on making its microgames accessible for multiplayer, and having the typical WarioWare cast all be playable. Each character is controlled a different way, and the game swaps you between them at a rapidfire speed. It's as short as you'd expect, but it's fun for its brief playtime. I also love the way it swaps between artstyles in each level--especially the claymation style used in Dribble & Spitz's stage, which makes me demand a Kirby and the Rainbow Curse Switch port all the more!

Once the story mode is done, the game expects you to play selections of microgames online or replay the same microgame over and over for a high score. The playerbase for this game is dead by now, and I'm not psyched to play these ad infinitem. I had fun, but I'm calling it there.

3rd in April, 22nd overall, 4th on
Warhammer 40k: Boltgun
Badge - earns me 2nd Amendment along with Quake 2

Game was alright, enjoyed some parts, meh about others, wrote more about it in the Last Game You Beat thread if anyone wants to read more there. Was another good GP title as I generally enjoyed beating it, but don't feel really any reason to replay it or put more time in. I know it's not a pricey title, but I effectively paid nothing to very little for it and that's just fine with me. Need to decide what I want to play next.

I suffered through two more mediocre at best Game Boy Advance games, all in the name of the Retro Talkshop Thread.

Number: 20
Full Title: DK: King of Swing
Platform Played: Game Boy Advance
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Game Boy Advance
Original Platforms: Game Boy Advance

This game's shoulder button-driven swinging gameplay had me wanting to throw my Pocket across the room almost as quickly as it charmed me in the first place. Clearly just intended as a dusty revival of Clu Clu Land with the Donkey Kong franchise slapped all over it (with crisp, cheerful sprites, admittedly), there are too many hazards, gut checks, and frustrating mechanics to turn the relaxing puzzle adventure I expected into an exercise in frustration. The boss fights weren't exactly a picnic either. At least the game was short.

Number: 21
Full Title: Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness
Platform Played: Game Boy Advance
Collection: N/A
Native Platform: Game Boy Advance
Original Platforms: PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance
Badge: Girl Power (1/2)

Calling this a "true sequel" to the original Ms. Pac-Man is a bit of a stretch. Sure, it stars Ms. Pac-Man, and sure, you run around collecting dots - 'scuse me, Pac-Dots - while dodging immortal ghosts. The levels are less about survival and more about just making it to the end, making the game feel more like Chip's Challenge than Pac-Man. It gets off to a great start with simple controls (there are no action buttons) and decent design, but the moment levels start getting complicated, the GBA's platform limitations start to get in the way. The 90-degree isometric perspective and lack of shading make it nearly impossible to differentiate between floors of different heights, turning the game into a mind-munching game of trial and error.

I did really like the music, though. The tunes for most of the levels are extremely catchy without falling head first into the tropes that such themed tracks - Egypt, Chinatown, etc. - tend to exploit.

I'm going to continue with Pac-Man month by starting Pac-Man World on the GBA next. With less than three chapters to go in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I'm getting ready to "switch discs" to something else, though I haven't decided what yet. A big part of me wants to load up the original Final Fantasy VII and play through the first disc, imitating what I did when I finished Remake and played through the original game's Midgar sequence. The rest of me is shuffling between finally starting Diablo IV or picking up a Psygnosis game for the Retro Talkshop Thread's annual challenge.

Renaissance2K wrote:

You only posted two, with no badge. What are the others you wish to update?

SupremeSarna wrote:

Copy pasta error.

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Game #19 of 2024

Pistol Whip on PSVR2
This, along with my previous clear of Metal: Hellsinger, earns the Rhythmic badge.

#18 down: Mortal Kombat 1 on PS5. I would like to count this toward the Street Fightin’ badge. I’m not a big fan of fighting games, but this actually had an engaging storyline and a legit campaign. It’s also impressive visually.

Doh, I somehow forgot to complete my post from last night and don't recall 100% what I wrote, oh well.

4th in April, 23rd overall, 5th on
SuperHot

This was on my list for a long while, stunned it came out in 2016. It was pretty short as I beat it in 2 session and just 1 evening, and enjoyed it. The story was cool and a bit unexpected. Doubt I'll get to the challenges nor endless mode right away, but can see possibly trying them out. But with the sequel Mind, Control, Delete available on GP I likely will play that before thinking about trying more of the base game.

For now I've finally gone back to Doom Eternal that I was playing a few months ago before getting sucked into Lies of P and I was rusty at DE... and just don't love it, the need for the chainsaw to earn ammo and the melee kills on random weak enemies that are basically necessary in a boss fight just doesn't jive for me. I am in the somewhat early level where you watch as the Doom Hunter get 'reconstructed' and then fight him and I tried like 4 times and died, twice before phase 2. Game is amazing looking, but I liked '16 Doom a good deal better. Will stay with it as I already bought the DLC, as I enjoyed it initially and had some M$ Rewards points already redeemed for Xbox funds that I spent on said DLC.

OP updated! The weekend got away from me, but now the OP's up to code.

@SupremeSarna: I have some PSVR games that have been delisted digitally and don’t have physical copies in America but technically have physical versions that are still available in Europe. Could those count for Delisted? It’s a tough category to find games for.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

I’m inclined to count them based on the rules of the Localize Mother 3 badge. Like that one, if the extremely specific version of the game you played meets the criteria, it counts. The Delisted badge uses an image of Qbby from BOXBOY!, a game that got a rare physical release in Japan while being delisted from digital stores everywhere. So the answer to your query is yes.

If you own an Xbox 360, its marketplace is closing in July. Just in case you need more delisted games.

Sounds good. Thanks!

SupremeSarna wrote:

#19 down: A Chair in a Room on PSVR. I would like to count this toward the Guybrush Threepwood badge. For some reason, I couldn't get my PSVR to work with my PS5, and, even when I got it working on my PS4 Pro, some of the padding was flaking off, which was annoying to deal with. Thankfully, someone on here hooked me up with a good deal on another PSVR, and, for whatever reason, it actually worked with my PS5! This game is pretty wild. Without giving too much away, it's a walking sim in which you are a psychiatric patient piecing together what happened and how you got there. The epilogue had a cool and unexpected twist. The controls were a little wonky with the Move controllers (which are hit and miss generally anyway), but, once I finally got everything sorted out, it was an interesting game and worth the time.

#20 down: Bandit Six on PSVR. I would like to count this one toward the Delisted badge. This is a PSVR game that was delisted from the PlayStation store and not available in the U.S. via disc, but I was able to play it from a European disc. It's a straightforward and repetitive air shooter in which you're a gunner at the back of a plane firing on enemy planes. Some of the levels involve time challenges, some involve defending bombers against attacking planes, and some involve destroying a certain number of enemies before dying. The levels toward the end get pretty challenging, but there are upgrades you can buy with in-game currency that improve your gun, increase your armor, and give you stronger/lengthier power-ups when you destroy a supply plane and then shoot the crates that fall from it. The thing that made me want to keep playing this is that all the targeting is via head movement. It's pretty fun aiming the guns at enemy planes with your head while shooting with the controller. It added a lot of immersion. I love games that use the headset for movement. (It's what made Headmaster so cool when I first bought my PSVR.)

I beat Crime O' Clock on Switch. Kinda like Where's Waldo with a story.

It took longer than I expected, but I finished Eliwood's story in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
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This game is fire (no pun intended)! It's definitely trumps Engage, which I played in January. It's an excellent strategy RPG on the GBA, with beautiful sprites and animations. As one expects from a 2000s FE game, cross-continent war and power politics play heavily into this journey--far more than a modern FE game. (This game will single-handedly teach you what a marquess is, something other games wouldn't do.) The writing is also more poetic; they aren't content to just use common English.

The story is rich and the characters are likeable. You immediately fall in love with the main trio of Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector, as well as the others you recruit. I could alway rely on Dorcas (despite his poisoned mutton) to bring down a tough foe, and I was determined to get the pitiful Florina to a usable state. Pent and Louise have a heartwarming relationship, too. Not to mention the adorable Ninian and Nils, who prove their worth immediately. And how can you forget Nino and her struggle with the Black Fang? And the Bern monarchy drama? Great stuff!

This was the seventh FE game but the first to come to the West, and you can tell the devs knew that would be the case while making it. You start by creating a silent, nonplayable tactician who doesn't appear in cutscenes--characters will occasionally talk right to the camera, complimenting your tactician for his strategies. This is obviously there to help newbies conceptualize what's happening in this foreign game. Lyn's story is a ten-chapter tutorial that effectively explains the meat and potatoes of the game. The recruitment music is the same one that was used in Super Smash Bros. Melee (though it originated in the first FE), and Roy appears in the final cutscene, too. Those were likely to gain some recognition from Melee fans.

Additionally, the game's overall challenge is pretty comfortable. Not as easy as Awakening or Fates: Birthright, but not as crushing as Radiant Dawn or Fates: Conquest. There were a few chapters that boiled my blood (looking at you, Ursula and Sonia chapters), and the final stage is a true trial, but it's pretty managable otherwise. Just how I like it.

If I have any criticism, it's with your convoy. Unlike Path of Radiance-onwards, you can't buy equipment at your base, nor can you access your convoy by standing next to your lord. You have to buy gear within each map, then divvy up the stuff later. A merchant named Merlinus allows you to have a convoy, so you don't have to discard items when your inventory is full. You also recruit him midway through the game in a bonus chapter. Any equipment change on the battlefield must happen through his stationary tent, which is susceptible to enemy attacks. I treated protecting the tent as a bonus objective, but that doesn't fix the issue.

Support conversations are also handled weirdly. If two compatible characters battle next to each other enough, then one of them can initiate a Talk action. Later FEs would give you a list of compatible characters and let you read the conversations at your base. This game does neither. You have to read the conversation on the battlefield and you have no idea which characters should be fighting side by side. I only ran into three support conversations a a result, which is unfortunate.
(For those curious, they were Eliwood+Hector, Pent+Louise, and another Pent+Louise).

All in all, this game was brilliant. Not on the same level as Echoes or PoR, but definitely better than Shadow Dragon, Fates (all three), and Engage. I liked this waaay better than Three Houses, too. I won't compare it to Radiant Dawn or Awakening as I'm going to replay those later this year. Go give this a try. It's on Nintendo Switch Online, and I'm sure there are *cough cough* other ways of accessing it.

#21 down: Salvo on PSVR. This, with my previous clear of Bandit Six, should get me the Delisted badge. This is also a PSVR game that was delisted from the PlayStation store and not available in the U.S. via disc, but accessible via a European disc. This takes the head movement of Bandit Six, but, instead of being in the back of a plane shooting other planes, you're switching between and firing four different gun placements, taking down planes, ships, tanks, transport vehicles, etc. on beaches and in cities with goals like securing a bridge, protecting generals, and just destroying the enemy. This was a fun one.

Edit: I just realized that you changed the Delisted badge to Bye Bye. I'd like to claim that one please with Bandit Six and Salvo.

Date: 4/20
Number: 16
Title: Disciples Liberation
Play Time: 64 hours 13 minutes
Badge: Girl Power [with Dishonored 2]

A series similar to Heroes of Might and Magic and King's Bounty. It's not as good as either of them. In fact, this entry is about 20 hours too long. The story is decent, but a bit convoluted. The battles and especially boss fights are soooo long and repetitive. Seriously each boss fight takes 30-45 minutes on the same battlefield, with the bosses doing a rotation of 3-4 moves on their turn. Also, as is the trend, it tried to introduce more mature themes including sexual encounters. These are not graphic and instead are completely text-based that read like a bad erotic novel. Kind of strange

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#24

Super Mario World Yoshi’s Island via Online

I haven’t played this one in about 5 years or so and it still holds and stands the test of time. Especially with some of the more clever platforming puzzles and creative boss fights. You can definitely see how it translated into modern day Yoshi titles. Some of the controls though I felt need to be tightened up a bit back in the day as Yoshi sometimes moves a little bit too fast and feels a tad too slippery. And also keeping baby Mario from getting kidnapped always irked me a bit. Other than that it’s still a grand old time.

#25

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown

What a breath of fresh air this experience was. When I first heard the series was getting a new entry I was very excited but also a tad disappointed seeing as though the Sands of Time remake was put on hold in favor of returning to the roots of the series as seen here but low and behold it was worth it and then some. I thought it was going to be yet another simple Metroidvania, but it turned into having elements from other game franchises like Dark Souls like shortcuts and even some boss encounters in tandem with the treacherous platforming and puzzles of, well, the original Prince of Persia games! Man, some of the puzzles and platforming challenges in this game was so damn clever and even a little frustrating but in a good way. No challenge ever felt too tough although I will say some of the more several minute long gauntlet infused challenges could have used better payoffs than simple colored character skins. But besides that little minor gripe and the fact that some of the side quests leave a little to be desired, the game is a delight. Air tight traversal controls and a pinpoint precise combat system makes for quite the delicacy. The sense of wanderlust believe it or not is quite immense as well in the massive interconnected map. Countless times I found myself just going off the beaten path just to see what was around the corner only to find myself rewarded with slews of treasures, upgrades or optional boss battles. The story is pretty cool too about a tale of betrayal and redemption that has some twists, turns and revelations along the way with a cast of interesting memorable characters. I didn’t like Sargon’s overall look though and the character models graphics wise are a little rough. You can tell the budget did not go deep into rendering those models to their fullest potential. The visuals within the environment though are a different story entirely. Gorgeous vistas and saturated portraits of a ruined yet mystical place within and surrounding Persia await you as you soak in all of the vibrant and vivacious color palates. In regards to your arsenal you are equipped with two swords and a bow which can be upgraded 4 times and you get amulets that work as perks to enhance your skills in combat. You can also possess special abilities called surges that you can equip 2 at a time that unleash a variety of overpowered attacks to either counter or do massive explosive damage to foes. And lastly the numerous boss fights in the game range from quick and simple to quick, fast and furious. There’s one boss in the game that took me so many tries to beat all because of his nimble nature and how hard he was to catch. Seriously this game pulls no punches when it comes to it’s fluidly fast nature. Jedi reflexes preferred. Overall, I loved this game and would gladly replay it on a new game plus. I just hope the Sands of Time remake is around the corner too because this game got me jonesin’ more for it.

#22 down: West of Loathing on Steam deck. This is my first clear toward the Vault Boy badge. West of Loathing is a really unique game. It's a turn-based Western RPG with black and white stick figure art and over-the-top ridiculous humor. I found myself laughing pretty often. This one is an easy recommend.

#23 down: West of Loathing DLC- Reckonin' at Gun Manor on Steam deck. This (with West of Loathing) gets me the Vault Boy badge.

#24 down: Golfie on Steam deck. I would like to count this toward the Bo Knows badge, as it's a golf game. This was a little more interesting than the standard golf game, as it's set up as a roguelike with cards you can use to do things like set up a gravitational pull zone to hit your ball toward or make your ball explosively clear obstacles. I'm still not really into sports games in general, but this was OK.

Date: 4/22
Number: 17
Title: Burgertime
Play Time: 3 hours

Beat my former highest score of 68800 set on 6/30/2019, with a 74000. Took several hours to do so. Got to level 9. It irks me that I hit my game over while still having a pepper shake in reserve.
Burgertime is without a doubt my all-time favorite arcade game.

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Date: 4/22
Number: 18
Title: Tetris
Badge: Quarter Muncher [Burgertime & Tetris]

Like Burgertime, beat my former high score of years ago of 22337. Also received a cut scene and "Tetris Master" title. I've not seen these screens before.

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5th in April, 24th overall, 6th on
Bot Vice
Badge: Want to count toward Heavy Machine Gunner, need a 2nd still

This landed on my Wishlist quite a while ago and after getting some funds from Ren2k I bought this one finally and gave it a shot the other night. It hooked me even though it was tough and you needed to adjust your approach almost every level. A few levels caught me out and I had to tweak the controls to get more comfortable with gameplay. The final fight was tough for me as I couldn't grasp what approach to take against phase 1 and barely even got to phase 2. But I finally got through and beat it. After beating it and its absurd story I unlocked the bonus levels which seem to be more/less the same base set of 25 levels but with tweaked enemy deployment. I already beat around a dozen of those extras and even went back and improved my time on some of the first few level since a quick time is given higher ranking. The game is more akin to the 'vertical' levels in Contra, so it's less Metal Slug like but it for sure lives up to the bullet-hell-esque aspect of that badge.

#25 down: Fated: The Silent Oath on PSVR (53 on Metacritic.) This, alongside my previous clear of Adam's Venture: Origins, gets me the You're Winner badge. Fated: The Silent Oath is an interesting game. It's mostly a walking sim but has moments of action that are pretty varied (e.g., steering a moving cart, shooting deer with your bow, dodging traps etc.). It’s better than the reviews but suffers from a couple of major things. First, the walking speed is annoyingly slow. Secondly, it ends just as the story starts to pick up.

#3: Persona 5 Royal on the Switch

8/10. Been off and on again with this game since it released on the ps3. Finally got back into it a few weeks ago and pushed my way through to finish it.

Wonderful game with great story and incredible soundtrack.

I beat LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (originally 360).
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Anybody remember that old show, Star Wars? I loved it growing up. I’ve watched all seven seasons and nerded out about the characters and story arcs. In 2011, Traveler’s Tales made a LEGO game about its first two seasons. It’s pretty good!

It’s great hearing most of the show’s voice cast grunting and mumbling throughout gameplay. Vehicle and battlefield stages are pretty novel, though I enjoy the latter more than the former. The hub is really explorable, full of secrets and even special missions. Heck, you can mount a starfighter and fly over to the Invisible Hand to run around a second hub, complete with secret stages! It’s a great game loaded with charm.

It’s not perfect, though. About a third of the episodes represented here miss the point of the original story. The Hidden Enemy completely cut the titular subplot about a traitor in the clone ranks. Innocents of Ryloth omits the young Twi’lek refugee, effectively cutting the innocents out of it. Jedi Crash is based on a five-minute fight scene from that episode, and Anakin doesn’t get mortally injured (y’know, the Jedi crash). Couple that with the cutscenes being overzealous in the comedy, and you get pretty bad adaptations of the source material. Fun to play, obviously, but a little lacking in sincerity. (And yes, older LEGO game cutscenes DID have sincerity in addition to silly humor.)

I’d love to see a new LEGO game that takes a Skywalker Saga approach, covering the vast majority of the seven-season series. I wonder which arcs would make the cut?

#26 down: Unearthing Mars on PSVR. I’d like to count this toward the Guybrush Threepwood badge. With my previous clear of A Chair in a Room, that should get me the badge.

Last year, I played Unearthing Mars II (which is mostly wave shooting with the Aim controller), so I was curious about the first game. Unearthing Mars got pretty bad reviews, and I partially get it. It starts slow and is pretty ugly visually. However, they do a good job with getting the sense of scale right when you’re in space which makes parts of it neat even if everything is rough around the edges. I liked that the gameplay was more varied than the sequel. You’re doing everything from adjusting instruments in the cockpit of a rocket to finding food for these weird alien teddy bears that do this creepy pelvic thrusting dance to open a portal. It’s a weird game.

#27 down: Dexed on PSVR. I would like to count this one toward the Destroy the Core badge.

Dexed is a unique on-rails shooter in which you have two guns (one for each Move controller). One shoots fire, and the other shoots ice, and you aim at various moving targets trying to neutralize ice targets with fire and vice versa. If you hit fire with fire or ice with ice, you get attacked and have to deflect with your shield. There is one boss, and that encounter was pretty cool. The graphics are really nice for PSVR. I’ve been playing a lot of PSVR games lately, and many of them have had a lot of fuzziness and blurriness, but this was crystal clear by comparison.

#28 down: X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse on Game Boy Advance. Alongside my previous clear of Young Souls, this gets me the Pile Drivin' badge. This was a pretty straightforward beat 'em up with some X-Men powers when you fill up your special attack meter. I beat the game with Storm.

#29 down: Afterlife on PSVR. This was really interesting. You're basically inside a movie. (I won't give away exactly why you're taking the perspective you are, as it's a major plot point. It's also a plot point that you learn about in the first few minutes of the game, though, so be careful about Googling too much if you don't want to spoil that part.) There are multiple decision points that allow you to alter the storyline (which leads to changes that determine which of the three endings you get). The really unique part is that there are decision branches in the story based on what you do subconsciously too. The story branches out in some places based on what you look at the most. I've never experienced something like that in a game before.

Not even sure why I signed up for this haha. I’ve beaten 3 games this year. Hopefully the next half of the year will be better than the first half.

#26

Spider-Man Miles Morales

Pregamed before diving head first into Spider-Man 2 which is next and it was still for lack of a better word, amazing 3.5 years later. Short sweet and to the point with cool new Spidey abilities and some clever mini-games and lite environmental puzzles. The story was a bit expected here and there to the Spider-Man cliche storylines but overall, graphics, gameplay and presentation were just as awesome as the first Insimniac installment back in 2018. Can’t wait to dive into the sequel next.

Game #20 of 2024

Super Death Game SHOW! VR on PSVR2
This will count towards the Makin' Money with Minigames! badge.

My #30 is Yakuza 5 Remastered

5 protagonists in this one. They wrap up a story much cleaner than they did in the previous title. Different things to do break up the constant button mashing gameplay. This is a longer game than any of the previous ones.

@Bleed_DukeBlue So much VR! When was the last time you saw a glimpse of the real world?

That’s fair. I got a good deal on here for a PSVR to replace my old one that had a few issues, and I had been meaning to go through my big PSVR backlog for awhile anyway. Then, my cat of 16 years that I was really close to went downhill with cancer, and I had to say goodbye to her, so I’ve been escaping a bit.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

I'm sorry about that. I've been in a similar spot with pets quite a few times, and it's always hard. Stay strong, man--things will get better. Do whatever you need to take your mind off the pain.