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Today I beat what's likely to be a GotY frontrunner, Sylvie miniature. This time, Sylvie is smaller than ever before, but that doesn't mean she can't go on a big adventure! Explore the world and find the exit. It seems simple enough, but there's a surprising amount of depth to the game, with a lot of hidden mechanics that you can actually use from the very start; you just don't know HOW to use them. Thankfully you can learn them through exploration! There's lots of little secrets in the game, including some hidden warps! I wonder if you can find them...
A Sylvie game always brings a smile to my face. I hope we see Sylvie again soon!
A competent Metroidvania that sounds and looks pleasant, but which I found to be too easy in both exploration and fight aspects.
There are quite a few systems in this game to manage, such as companions and sigils, but after finding a few that I thought were good I never really engaged with them. The game didn't provide insentive by mixing my playstyle when I beat most of the bosses including all the final ones my first try.
Exploration isn't bad, but it's only fun because you keep finding permanent upgrades and not because you actually engage with the world. For some reason every single item gets marked on your map as soon as you uncover the map square, and if I remember right there are no hidden rooms at all, so it becomes a game about looking at the map to see if you missed anything.
I might get more enjoyment from the game via post-game "arranged" mode which promises more surprises, but the boss refight mode felt underwhelming. You refight bosses in one of two modes - original with health boosted to your stats, or remixed "nightmare" mode, and from what I've played "Nightmare" bosses are about as easy as normal ones, just with one attack added or a permadeath zone somewhere in the arena.
I've enjoyed what I've played of this game and I can't describe my 6 hours with it as bad, but I really wish there was more to test me, in terms of combat, platforming, exploration - anything! As it stands I can only describe it as fine.
I ended up clicking the link and spending my evening on this lol. What a clever little piece. I accidentally figured out how to moonwalk on air before finding the room telling you about the input needed for it, and it was so satisfying being able to "sequence break". Goodbye, Sylvie!
Marked this one off the list after playing and loving 1 and 2 in the Reignited Trilogy. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon so I assumed it was fate telling me it was finally time!
It's some good ol Spyro, not much more to say. It takes everything 1 and 2 did and gives you more. It's probably objectivley the best out of the 3, but I think Ripto's Rage will go down as my favorite. Though the trilogy is so seamless it doesnt really matter, it all feels like one mega game, and 3 was a great way to cap it off.
On the downside, some of the Eggs felt like a chore to get, and the game introduces several new characters that you can play as in select missions. I thought they were ok, but I found myself just wanting to get back to Spyro himself.
Hunter and Bianca are great characters, the worlds are all fun, diverse, and unique, and the game retains the comfy, wholesome vibe all throughout.
What do you mean this is only an hour long?! Granted you can set up endless configurations of matches against AI, but unless the challenge is handcrafted by the developers then I don't have the gumption to fiddle more with it. That's just how my brain works I guess.
Developed by Intelligent Systems this is a tactics game using Dragon Quest monsters as your chess pieces. It's a marvel concept as we've seen the monster designs from this series single handedly carry other spinoff games that focus on The Monsters. Being a $5 DSiWare title I should have expect as much, but the singleplayer is a short 10 training levels and not much else. There is wireless online play... which I'm about a decade late to enjoy.
There is a lot of potential here that I wish was fleshed out. Bring this idea back, flesh it out and charge me $60 for it. I'd gladly buy it and tell all my buds to buy it so I can have people to play against.
Did pretty good last year. Started this one off with a bang!
1) Riccchhhhhaaarrrrd Metal Wolf Chaos XD
Fun and wild ride. Not messing with hard mode. Final levels expected certain loadouts so I had to look it up and grind a bit since my mainstay was actually a dud(railguns). Fun run overall!
Still stuck in my home, so I've been giving my oft-neglected PC library some love. I'm aiming to finish a few games I'd left hanging, and one of them is The Dead Mines. You're the unfortunate soul who was tasked with finding the source of toxic fumes leaking from an abandoned mine, and to say that the mine's facilities has seen better days would be an understatement.
1. Six Cats Under
2. Maneater
3. Chained Echoes
4. Sylvie Miniature
5. The Dead Mines
Elite Beat Agents [(DS game on) 3DS] - 2 hours - 8.5/10
A really fun time - I just revisited it to play through each song. Could have spent a lot longer chasing high scores if I wanted. Crazy we've never gotten another in the West.
The Sims: Bustin Out [(GBA game on) 3DS] - 9 hours - 10/10
Just an incredible game - SimValley is a great setting that feels really alive, and the dev team managed to fill its denizens with so much personality.
It's a really simple story - you go out to your uncle's farm for the summer and get roped into the town's happenings, take on jobs (minigames) around the place for money culminating in getting on a rocket to space... Music is great, gameplay is engaging and the story/characters are fun, just an all around great time.
The Urbz: Sims in the City [(DS game on) 3DS] - 12 hours - 11/10
A straight sequel to Bustin' Out, Urbz sees you pick up from where you crash landed at the end of the first one, it's an improvement in almost every way, and the characters have even more personality. Miniopolis is a fun location with its districts each having its own vibe, and evolving (a bit, it's a GBA game at heart after all) through the story. The DS-exclusive Splicer Island lets you turn amber into pets that you can take around town and enter in pet shows too which is a lot of fun.
This is one of my big childhood games and going back to it for the first time in ages was a joy. Could have spent a lot longer with it, if I didn't have a bunch of others I wanted to get through too.
The Sims 2 [(DS game on) 3DS] - 9 hours - 8/10
A sort of sequel to the above two, The Sims 2's DS version (completely different to the GBA, PSP and home console versions - yes there was five versions of the game) puts you in charge of a hotel in Strangetown, bringing back a lot of the characters from Bustin Out and the Urbz, and seeing you take on Alien Emperors and crazy robots to protect the town, all while developing the hotel and keeping people happy. It has a lot less characterisation (fair, it released the same year as the Urbz did after all, which itself released less than a year after Bustin Out..). It's still a great time, but I didn't like the gameplay quite as much as Bustin Out/Urbz. I need to get around to the GBA version too - you're in a TV show in that one instead which sounds fun.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity [3DS] - 12 hours - 7/10
I missed this one back in the day despite being a huge fan of the first two Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games. The core story and gameplay are great, developing your town into a paradise could have been fanastic, but it's very undercooked. You build up a little village, but don't actually get to use the facilities because the story is over before you have a need to, and there's not really any postgame to keep you there. The battles are a lot easier too.
Rhythm Heaven [(DS game on) 3DS] - 5 hours - 10/10
I didn't play (I have zero sense of rhythm...), rather watched my wife go crazy on it. A great game and really fun to watch. Again, suprised we haven't gotten another on Switch)
Pokemon Conquest [(DS game on) 3DS] - 11 hours - 10/10
Brilliant, brilliant game. The story is a lot shorter than I remember, but postgame is very meaty (I won't be touching at this point though). Such a great concept that it boggles the mind that we haven't seen another Pokemon tactics game in the following 11 years (I get that it sold maybe a million copies, but it did so a year after the 3DS launched, with no advertising where I am). A lot of room for improvement in any sequel, but the base that's here is fantastic. Music is incredible too.
Finally polished off the last chapter in Good Pizza, Great Pizza, which had me testing my pizza-making skills against the Master Ovenists. The competition was tough and I got real hungry seeing all those delicious toppings landing on the soft, melted cheese, so excuse me I'm gonna go have dinner now.
Quickly finished Momodora: Moonlit Farewell before going back to Bayo Origins. First Momodora I played to completion and thought it was fairly decent albeit not overly complex in its layouts, puzzles or secrets, which is usually what I'm looking for in these games. The combat was nice at least. It feels good and has a good difficulty for the most part but they kind of trivialize it by the end. There are a few difficulty spikes here and there but once you get the MP recovery sigil you can practically heal to your heart's content. It's not completely ruined but drags it down a few notches. All in all it's just kind of metroidvania comfort food with a nice coat of paint. Not sure if I liked it enough to go back to the older ones but I'm looking forward to what the team does next.
Not a lot I need to say about this one. It's one of those rare masterpieces, and the modernized control scheme makes it even better. I absolutely love this game. Now, if only we also had equal versions of Prime 2 and 3 on Switch.
Also, yes. I made this my fourth completion of the year on purpose. You all know why.
One of the best parts about PC gaming is mods, and there are folks out there in the world cooking up some beastly stuff! Just finished the Designed for Danger mod for Portal 2, which essentially feels like a short bonus campaign. The puzzle structures are so on point you could believe Valve themselves made it.
Remember how I said I'd be "going back to Bayo Origins"? Yeah, well, I lied. Saw that the Panzer Dragoon remake was installed on my XBOX and did a quick run so I could free up some space.
I'm a bit torn on this release for multiple reasons. The first game in the series has always been my least favourite entry (not counting Mini which I haven't played) and I didn't really expect the remake to change that. It's a bit too simplistic though the 360 vision was always super unique for the genre. But it's a short experience mostly propped up by its vibes which were impeccable back in the day. And sadly the remake drops the ball pretty hard here. The original used the limitations of the hardware with its large and chunky polygons to give it an impressionistic look, an almost ethereal rendition of the post-apocalyptic world it is set in. The remake on the other hand looks like it was thrown together, has a real "Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine" look to it. Everything just kinda looks off, it's overblown, too saturated and only resembles the original in the basic shapes.
So it's not really a "bad game" per se but in my opinion definitely a bad remake. I was a bit bummed out that they never Zwei and Saga but maybe that was for the best. Hopefully Sega will give us a collection one day.
Just finished Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonace on the Castlevania Advance Collection. I didn’t play this game back I the Game Boy Advance days. I only played Castlevania Circle of the Moon, which is still the hardest metroidvania Castlevania.
I give Harmony of Dissonance an 8.5. It’s very fun and a breeze to play. It has great mechanics for combat but could hav better exploration. I had a ton of fun with it.
Next, should I play Metroid Dread or Bayonetta 3? I bought those games back in fall 2022 and intended to play them sooner but then I spent five months on the masterpiece that is Zelda Tears of the Kingdom then needed a few months off of video games after putting 210 hours into that gem.
Maybe Bayonetta 3 since you did just play a Castlevania? Mix it up a little?
Finished my first NSO title for the year, Super Punchout. You bet I abused the hell out of that rewind function, but I think that even without it, I would have enjoyed its challenges of pattern recognition.
I barely play shmups so I've got no idea what separates a good shmup from a great one.
All I can say is that I had a hell of a time with DRAINUS. Its mechanics are fairly simple - around 90% of shots thrown at you you can absorb by turning on the shield and then fire back. Throughout the game you also get energy tanks you can spend on upgrading your ship in any way you like, from adding more options, weapons, or base stats, to upgrading your shields and bomb capacity.
With how little experience I have with the genre I went into the game on Easy, and I think this might've been a mistake. The game has 5 or 6 difficulty modes, with some being unlocked after completion, and it seems like the easy skill is basically just power fantasy. I think I died 3 times in total.
The game seems pretty forgiving: it doesn't kill you on the first hit, so I'd advise even new players to go for Normal (unless it's a complete hell later on, but the first stage seemed fine to me). Rest assured, I'll be replaying this game.
Buckled down and spent the day playing through the rest of the singleplayer campaign for They Are Billions, which is a steampunk zombie-apocalypse RTS. I definitely don't play a lot of RTS games nowadays, but I think I can safely say this one can stand up to the classics. It puts up some challenge, demanding you divide your attention between building your empire, hunting down feral undead hordes, and exploring ancient ruins or abandoned facilities. Utterly delightful stuff, and I'm already gonna go and fire up a new file for survival mode.
A somewhat overlooked game, Rygar is surprisingly good. It's an action game featuring both side scrolling segments and segments with a top-down perspective (similar to Blaster Master, if you've played those games). Although this is already kinda neat, the most interesting part of Rygar is that it's also built kinda like a Metroidvania (despite releasing before Metroid!), in the sense that progression is not linear and you'll have to return to old areas as you obtain new tools for your moveset.
Overall, it's a fun game. Like many NES peers, it's a little janky and the difficulty can get kinda BS at times, but for the most part it's a good game.
Tunic (sort of, rolled the credits, there's still stuff to do): What can I say? The manual gimmick is brilliant and adds the kind of mystery you'd have as a kid playing something you don't quite understand. Some of the later puzzles have felt more laborious than difficult, which is a bummer. I also didn't care about the combat.
Heaven's Vault (replay): I've been playing some other Inkle games recently, and there's also a Tunic connection through the language theme. There are some hiccups, such as the boring space travel or losing control of your character seemingly randomly, but I still simply adore this game thanks to its vibrant world and characters. The language puzzles are also enjoyable, but do admittedly feel a little less impressive in a world where Chants of Sennaar also exists.
6. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PCSX2 Nightly) (PC) [Finished January 19th, 2024] - 7.5/10:
Out of all the Playstation mascot platformer franchises Sly Cooper was definitely the one I was interested in the most. It's style and characters looked the most unique to me, and its mixture of stealth and platforming sounded genuinely intriguing. So I'm happy to say that for the most part after finally playing it I really enjoyed the first Sly Cooper. The art style of the game is amazing and in particular it's really impressive to me just how great the cutscenes' comic book art style looks as someone who generally isn't into western comic book art styles. There are actual characters in this game rather than just blank slates like you'd get in most 3D platformers, and while the plot is pretty basic it's still very good and fun to watch. It made me wish that more 3D platformers would have a world with characters this fleshed out.
The gameplay is pretty simplistic and there's definitely some things about it that I have gripes with. For one, the game is surprisingly challenging at times and I mostly felt the difficulty didn't match with what the game was going for at all. You die in one hit unless you've earned enough coins to get an extra hit, but it's pretty common to get hit and in cases where you get hit then fall to your death you essentially get hit twice for the price of one (since the extra hit accounts for falls normally). Sly can land on precise platforms with the circle button which will lock onto them, but the problem with this is that in more high octane portions of the game it can feel pretty finnicky changing from a normal jump to circle especially as it's not always clear when you should press it since it locks onto platforms and that can ruin timing in cases where platforms switch between dangerous states. In general the platform automation that the circle button provides is something that I thought automated the gameplay too much at first, only to realize why it was implemented the more I played as it's basically necessary for the more precise jumps. There's also a lot of mini games in the game to mix things up, and while I generally don't mind mid mini games as a way to shake things up as I can understand how challenging it is to provide variety in a video game, the chicken coup mini game was so bad it almost made me vegan.
Overall though the game definitely has enough charm to pull it through even if it can become too formulaic. The game just has a lot of personality and everytime I was encountering a low it would then be followed by a pretty big high. The sequences where Carmelita is shooting at you are probably some of the coolest levels I've played in a platformer. The last two worlds, despite being the shortest, are also the best, with the fourth world having the highest amount of genuinely great levels and the fifth world having such great use of story matching gameplay as you go through this insane rollercoaster (the ramp up in platforming difficulty is also nice here even if it's a bit much).
So while Sly Cooper is a game of many highs and lows, I really enjoyed my time with it and I'm really excited to get to II and 3 as I know they're considered to be the best in the franchise.
Also why the fuck is Bentley's asteroid mini game better than the one in Nier Automata? WTF? It's only used once and it's used for like 10 hours in that game
Also the fact that the in game reward for beating the game is just Bentley showing you the intro video in Japanese (with some parts maybe being edited to look more anime?) is the most weeb shit I've ever seen.
1. Hi-Fi Rush (PC) [Finished January 4th, 2023] - 9.5-10/10
2. Astro's Playroom (PS5) [Finished January 5th, 2023] - 4.0/10
3. Metal Slug (RetroArch) [Finished January 6th, 2024] - 4.0/10
4. Crash Bandicoot: Warped (N. Sane Trilogy) (PS5) [Finished January 11th, 2023] - 8.5/10
5. Spyro The Dragon (RetroArch) (PC) [Finished January 13th, 2024] - 5.5/10 6. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PCSX2 Nightly) (PC) [Finished January 19th, 2024] - 7.5/10
1. Hi-Fi Rush (PC) [Finished January 4th, 2023] - 9.5-10/10
2. Crash Bandicoot: Warped (N. Sane Trilogy) (PS5) [Finished January 11th, 2023] - 8.5/10 3. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PCSX2 Nightly) (PC) [Finished January 19th, 2024] - 7.5/10
4. Spyro The Dragon (RetroArch) (PC) [Finished January 13th, 2024] - 5.5/10
5. Metal Slug (RetroArch) [Finished January 6th, 2024] - 4.0/10
6. Astro's Playroom (PS5) [Finished January 5th, 2023] - 4.0/10
1. Spider Man 2 2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
Strangely enough, I never played Skyward Sword when it originally released. I think it was during this one phase of my teenage life where I wasn't playing many games. I'm glad I got around to it now! Some quick thoughts:
+Dungeons were amazing
+Great characters (Groose was especially awesome)
+Fantastic soundtrack
+Button controls, while not perfect, were a great option for me since I really didn't like the motion controls
+Some memorable boss fights
-Flying takes a long time, and there are parts where you have to travel back and forth between places to progress. The option for fast travel would have been nice.
-Some parts of the game felt unnecessary, especially in the last third of the game
Collecting tadtones in the flooded Faron Woods to "prove that Link is the hero" once again was annoying.
Skyward Sword HD is a great game, and it was nice to play a more traditional 3D Zelda again. Hopefully Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD find their way to switch in the near future!
I decided to roll right into the 2nd Shantae since I'm in the mood. Going from the GBC original to the sequel, It's easy to see that they improved on just about everything but I'm a little disappointed with the genie transformations in this one. They aren't bad at all! I just miss the belly dance move inputs making the cool 8-bit jingles lol.
For streamlining the games going forward and replayability they absolutely made the right move but I was a sucker for just doing that sometimes
and now I've played all the mainline Shantae games! My ranking of them is probably Pirate's Curse > Seven Sirens > Half-Genie Hero > OG Shantae > Shantae Risky's Revenge. Looking forward to Shantae Advance later this year hopefully
(I'm gonna start posting a screenshot or two of each game I beat to add a little more to each post update
I took some time off work last week which allowed me to finally sink some time in another backlog game. What a ride this game is!
I remember all those times they promoted this game and how "odd" it came across. Unique premise, snappy gameplay, playing as black characters...just a great time. There's many ways to approach objectives.
Wanna go full stealth akin to Dishonored? You got it.
Wanna go guns a-blazin? Go ahead!
Wanna focus on melee only and go slicing and dicing? The game says "Be my guest!"
Disclaimer: One thing about this game that puts a little damper on the entire thing is the menu UI bug. I was aware of it from some friends playing it at launch and experiencing it a number of times. It still exists, even after the big update they did roughly a year after the original release. Essentially what can happen randomly is that if you go into the game's menu to review notes on how to approach your missions it'll lock up and you can't return to controlling your character. You have to close the game and start it up. 2021 GOTY contender amirite? Not sure if this happens on Xbox or PC but it's something to consider. Within my 30 hour playtime I had this like 5-6 times. So weird.
That aside I do still recommend it on discount, which is easy to do cause it's older now.
Triangle Strategy: I posted my thoughts on the RPG thread. I loved it and I consider it to be in my personal Top 3 of Switch.
Metal Slug 2: I have only played previously 1 and 3, and I would rank it behind 3. I did not liked the mummy stage given that the controls were quite comber-some when it comes to shooting downwards. Also, I noticed quite a bit of performance issues on the Switch version that I do not remember were present on the 1 and 3 ports. The bosses I though were nowhere near as great as 3, and the final mission felt lackluster in my opinion the whole alien infiltration mission on 3 is hard to top, but this felt like it was building towards something more epic/a climax and, no, that was it. .
3. Pikmin 2
Bwoahh what an adventure this is. Cool, but also somewhat exhausting. Especially Hole of Heroes and Dream Den are on another level compared to the rest of the game. What I like most about this game is the new creatures it introduced to the franchise. Man at Legs, Water wraith, the President and Segmented Crawbster are some of my favourites in the series.
4. Ori and the Blind Forest
Lovely game. I had this in the backlog for a while, and the couple times I tried it, it didn't really click. However, last week it finally did and now I beat it! The movement was really fluent and satisfying. That combined with the soothing artstyle made for a chill experience. The game wasn't very difficult, because you can place save points everywhere and upgrades are quite easy to find. WIthout any of the map marker upgrades and just by looking at the map a bit I ended up with 95% completion. Some minor spoilers here: One thing I don't understand is why the tree killed the baby birds. It gave the big bird a good motive though, but I felt like the tree was the enemy afterwards. Especially after the bird died restoring the tree. Lastly, the upgrade that let you launch yourself of projectiles and enemies was amazing! My fav upgrade in the game and in general a really unique upgrade that I hadn't seen in any game before.
07 — Final Fantasy VIII
I mentioned this in a RTTP I posted recently, but I have absolutely zero ability (or desire) to look at this game reasonably! And that’s OK. I won’t score it…but I think I may be playing it until I’m dead.
08 — Frogsong
It’s action-adventure mechanics are straightforward, but it’s what is built up around the margins that makes Frogsong a memorable experience. Lovable characters, a relentlessly positive spirit, and a through-line about identity and the trans experience. Throw in some thoughtful accessibility features and as Carl Weathers might say:
Are you a fan of golf? No? Well, do I have the game for you!
What the Golf? is a golf game in the loosest sense of the word. It uses the basic mechanics of the sport and throws out everything else for the sake of wacky scenarios and funny gags. Sometimes you are still a golf ball. But then you're a soccer ball avoiding kids who want to kick you. And then you are the golfer being ragdolled to the goal. Or maybe you're a sticky ball in a 2D level, or you're in a video game parody, or you're a car, or a horse, or a crab, or in a first person perspective. There's a constant mixture of new gags and mechanics, all tied together through an incredibly simple and consistent control scheme (thanks to this game's mobile origins) and an irreverent sense of humor.
The main game is short but sweet - even a 100% play runs about six hours. I found this to be the perfect length, long enough to get a lot out of the mechanics but ends just as the gags start to get a little tired and I wanted to get to the end. There's lots of bonus content, from episodic new content to daily and seasonal challenges, but I'm content with what I've played. I do want to try out more of the multiplayer - I tried it with the demo and had a really good time.
When this game was first announced, I wasn't intending on buying it. However, the release of the demo back in December changed my mind, after hearing the positive reaction to the game. I'm very glad I did; Another Code: Recollection is a fantastic game that is well worth playing if you enjoy visual novel games. I was too young to play Two Memories and Journey into Lost Memories when they first released, and I've always heard nothing but amazing things about the games Cing made before their bankruptcy, so I went in completely blind to both games.
I'd hesitate to call Recollection a remake - and certainly not a remaster, like on the back of the box! - but instead something closer to a reimagining of sorts. Both games have been heavily re-written, with the localisation leaning closer to the Japanese script. From what I can gather, the pacing has been very much improved, particularly for A Journey into Lost Memories, which was seemingly notorious for being very slow at points. However, Recollection goes further, by re-working some major events and re-ordering some moment-to-moment story beats; why those changes were made, I can't say. A Journey into Lost Memories - based on my reading of a simple plot summary - is notably different after Chapter 5 onwards, as Ryan (who remains as the the major antagonist) isn't even alive this time! While only true Cing fans can say whether these changes are good or bad, I do like the direction taken with the story in Recollection - it gives rise to a far more emotional ending than I would've expected.
Asides from the re-written story, the graphics are completely overhauled in Recollection. The game sports an anime aesthetic, which I do prefer to the slightly grungy look of the originals, particularly Journey into Lost Memories. The textures sport a somewhat watercolour-esque apperance, however they are slightly low-res, even in docked mode. Generally the game could look slightly better, as some models are rather low-poly even when seen up close. The games certainly don't look bad, but given the small scale of the game - there's never too much on screen - I would expect more.
The music, though, certainly feels like it was given more attention. They perfectly set the mood - I particularly enjoy the puzzle theme, which is seemingly a remix of the theme "Emotions", once used for the end-of-chapter quizzes (which, thankfully, are gone). The ending song, "To the place I call home", is a fantastic way to end the game, and is probably about half the reason I was bawling my eyes out after my 15-hour journey came to an end. The game also has full voice acting, which sounds pretty good. During emotional scenes, most of the VAs nail it, particular Matthew's VA in Journey into Lost Memories.
As noted above, the game does mix puzzles into the equation from time-to-time. Many of the puzzles are reworked here, given the absence of DS- and Wii-specific hardware gimmicks such as dual screens or (proper) pointing controls. As a result, most of the puzzles are just fine - none really stand out to me when I think back over my time with the game. They're mostly rather easy, too, with many involving pattern recognition or simply looking around. I do, however, appreciate that the puzzles take place in the game world, unlike the Professor Layton games. The only puzzles I didn't like were the motion controlled ones - they weren't properly calibrated for the Pro Controller, it seems.
My only other complaint with the game are the controls. The camera is rather sluggish, even after turning up the sensitivity. This is more of a problem in confined spaces, particularly the library in the first game (which takes place in first person for whatever reason!). Though, the in-game camera on the DAS seemed more responsive than the third-person camera, strangely enough. The DAS, generally, was rather cool - being able to refresh myself on character details, take pictures of clues/cute dogs/nice scenary, and track the small number of newly added collectables, was rather handy. It ties in well to the story, too.
In all, Another Code: Recollection is a fantastic game. If you like Cing's work, or things adjacent to it such as Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, Ghost Trick, or Famicom Detective Club, you owe it to yourself to give this game a shot. Minor graphical and control gripes are a minor dent in what is otherwise a must-play.
RoboCop: Rogue City - Wonderful game. Everything I'd want from a RoboCop game. Looks extremely nice as well, at least in regards to environments, People are ugly though haha.
09 — VVVVVV
Every couple years I give this game another playthrough, and each time its masterpiece status is further galvanized. The gravity flipping mechanic is put to maximal use. Each of the many permutations of it is well thought-out, tricky, exciting. The maps flawlessly tease out the complexities of these little modifiers. It’s amazing the ease with which this game can present a situation that feels impossible, even while its razor-sharp level design has already begun training you through it.
The vector between failure and success is always satisfying; repeatedly dying on an obstacle just gave me more time to appreciate its construction, more often than not. Checkpoints are generous enough to prevent things from feeling too hard. Setting the more bespoke stages in a little open world gives the many tense moments room to breathe, offering plenty of less-intense ways to mess around and secrets to find.
All in a 2-ish hour package that never feels repetitious or long-winded, perfect for revisiting any time. One of my favourite games…ever!
Does DLC count? Well, I'm going to include it anyway. The DLC was a good incentive to return to Paldea and enjoy more Pokemon. Sure, there is jank and all but it was fun reuniting with my friends, both digital and real. The new cast are interesting and with the epilogue, I'm happy to welcome the old cast too! And of course, having my internet friends join me in terra raids / BBQs are really fun.
The answer: Perhaps way too much
Of the new legendaries/mythicals, I think that Ogerpon is the only one that really stood out. Such a good girl. Everyone else (and I do make it a point for this) can be on the receiving end of her cudgel.
Now that I've completed the main storyline for Pokemon Violet, the only thing left is to complete the Pokedex. That, I intend, to slowly do so using Pokemon Go. No hurry there. I am ready to move on to new games and only returning to Paldea occasionally when internet/irl friends want to do some raiding and BBQ-ing together.
A servicable slasher CYOA game and better than most output of Supermassive for the past few years. I believe I watched some of it via a Let's Play when it came out but decided to come back to it for basically no reason.
A bit too quippy for its own good, which absolutely destroys any sympathy I could've had for the characters until basically the very end where it becomes much rarer.
While the back half of the game is pretty good, the first half is real dire. For a Friday the 13th parody which references Evil Dead a lot it doesn't have even a tenth of the violence that made those movies special, and constantly bringing up better slashers as well as having some paths in the menu have "Video nasty" sticker really makes me think they dropped the ball there. Maybe I missed the scenes which would categorize the game as that if it were a 1980s slasher, but from what I've seen it's pretty mild.
The most unfortunate thing about this game is something that'll have to be spoiled, but I believe it's a very predictable thing.
Throughout the game you meet a LOT of characters which game will try to frame as imposing and scary. The issue, they never are. It's clear from their first scenes that the hunters don't actually do anything to kids you play as, yet the game tries to keep them spooky for no reason. There are many characters in this game that could just... talk to you about what's happening, but since that would destroy the tension game instead pretends that everyone acting like morons is somehow better. There are multiple characters who try to protect the protagonists but don't say anything about ongoing situation which just makes it all so much worse, and all of that is clearly done so that the player can make a stupid choice and shoot them instead.
The really bad thing is that there's no way to do anything about that, as your choices basically do nothing in half the places. For example, I've tried being nice to Ted Raimi cop, and it really felt like the game didn't expect that as it was going from my choice to "Fuck you, you bastard!" type dialogue in the next sentense despite me clearly trying to go the other way with my choices multiple times within the same scene. There are a lot of choices that do stuff in this game, but I wish the game didn't lie to you and just played an overly long cutscene in places where nothing happens if you go against what the game wants.
There's some fun to be had with the game, a few good scenes and several cool character moments (for example, a queer relationship, which was nice to see), but the game really didn't need to be 8 hours, could stand to be less quippy and more violent. It's WAY better than any of the Dark Pictures games, but it doesn't hold a candle to 80s great slasher movies.
3.0/5
Cleared to credits, I plan to wrap up the Pokedex and legendary/BBQ spam in the following days. While I love the new characters I'm really scratching my head at the story beats. Trying not to spoil anything here I just wish Terapagos had more to do with the story considering the entire DLC bundle is titled The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero.
Truly, I get what they were going for. I know what the Hidden Treasure is meant to be. It didn't come together right for my tastes; my patience is wearing thin having to constantly connect the dots and give the benefit of the doubt to this franchise.
I hate to say all this too because it's not like I had a bad time overall. The Pokémon formula is a winning one that keeps bringing me (and really most of us) back. I'm even feeling like a bit of a hypocrite myself because the negativity surrounding Pokémon wears me out, yet here I am being a negative Ned.
Finished the first game of Another Code Recollection. I finished the DS game before but seeing as how I barely remembered anything about the story and puzzles I'm counting this one. I will go onto the second game next weekend.
Please Nintendo let me have some profile icons for this game.
Cleared to credits, I plan to wrap up the Pokedex and legendary/BBQ spam in the following days. While I love the new characters I'm really scratching my head at the story beats. Trying not to spoil anything here I just wish Terapagos had more to do with the story considering the entire DLC bundle is titled The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero.
Truly, I get what they were going for. I know what the Hidden Treasure is meant to be. It didn't come together right for my tastes; my patience is wearing thin having to constantly connect the dots and give the benefit of the doubt to this franchise.
I hate to say all this too because it's not like I had a bad time overall. The Pokémon formula is a winning one that keeps bringing me (and really most of us) back. I'm even feeling like a bit of a hypocrite myself because the negativity surrounding Pokémon wears me out, yet here I am being a negative Ned.
I think your criticisms are valid. Terapagos... did nothing exciting for the player. Maybe their story will be fleshed out in the anime but in game, into the box it goes immedately. That said, Pokemon SV had been some of the best Pokemon fun I had for a long while and I think much of it comes from having a group of friends to play together with.
It's like Monster Hunter. It's more fun playing with others than by yourself. Having the group of friends to commiserate about the highs and lows of Pokemon-ing really enhanced my experience with Pokemon SV despite all the valid criticisms.
I decided I'm actually going to use this thread this year, so!
1) Afterimage
Crossposting from the metroidvania thread:
Afterimage is a really unusual game. It's very pretty, the combat is fast and fluid as is the movement, exploration is a treat, the map is absurdly massive but mostly remains fun to explore up to the end, and there are some cool abilities and ideas the game plays with. And the music is mostly good, too.
But it feels like it needed another good round of polish: There's some jank and rough edges, sure, but also the script and translation are very messy. The game is also really bad at explaining things to you like how basic mechanics work and how to do a lot of things that should be tutorialized at least a bit but aren't.
And probably the biggest downside: I'm all for having lore and obtuse story elements that make sense over time - I'm a huge Souls fan and I love that story approach! But this game takes that and does it badly, so that lots of things are just not explained at all or feel almost completely random or unconnected. Combined with the bad script and translation and in-game text, and the overall story and characters are pretty much incomprehensible.
Overall I'd give it an 8/10. If the plot/script/text were cleaned up and a lot of that side of the game improved it could easily be a 9. From a pure gameplay perspective is where the game really sings.
I'm really happy to finally write my first completion here in this thread! I'm relatively new to Nintendo games, this was actually the third title that I've completed on the Switch (which is the first Nintendo console I ever owned).
I went into this game completely blind, not knowing anything special about the series—only that many of my favorite game reviewers praise it, and never fail to recommend it to their viewers!
I have to say, this title absolutely blew me away. In only one week, I managed to put more than 25 hours into this game, which is something I almost never do!
Even with limited experience in strategy titles, I really enjoyed playing Pikmin 4 - the difficulty curve was really gentle, and while the first hour was a little bumpy, the rest of the game completely hooked me in. The most fascinating thing for me in this title is the way it encourages me to explore each area: after a while, I had far more sparklium than required, so I could easily just go with the main mission; however, collecting everything and discovering all the nooks and crannies was a far more entertaining thing to do!
I'm beyond excited to play the other Pikmin games as well; however, now I'll switch to something different!
This is an update on my progress regarding a - quite, frankly - gargantuan game. As such, I will not be counting this as a 'completed game.' But, since I have many thoughts, I figured I'd post it here anyhow mainly for my own personal records.
And with that, I am done with Act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3.
Wow.
I know that I'm still only 1/3rd of my way into the game, but this has felt like more of an adventure than many full games I've played before. I'm incredibly intrigued to see how this story plays out, and how all these conflicting groups and such intertwine when I finally get to the titular city. Also very impressed by just how 'consistent' everything feels despite the fact that there's so much going on, it genuinely feels like this is 'my' story here, even if it's ostensibly just the same sorts of choices made in other games.
As for gameplay itself, I'm finally getting into a groove with things and finding how I like to play. Got my Tav on support/vibes duty as Bard, Karlach/Lae'zel on 'hit things very hard' duty, and then a mixture of Gale, Shadowheart and/or Astarion throwing out some more ranged DPS and support. I'm also really surprised to see just how rewarding genuine exploration is here. It's refreshing to play a massive RPG like this where its 'levels' are not made to be returned to constantly, but are simply large, complicated steps along your journey. Genuinely I can't really think of any titles that structure their worlds in this way, especially at this scope. It reminds me of all that I loved about pre-Elden Ring From games, but much, much grander and with far more to do than just 'kill enemies.'
Honestly, the one thing I have to criticise here at the moment is how it feels like, if you are thorough enough, you can find 'everything' in a single playthrough. 40 hours in Act 1 meant that I've seemingly seen practically everything these starting areas have to offer, which definitely lowers the incentive for future playthroughs. It also leads to sometimes exploring unnaturally due to the FOMO that comes from knowing what you might be missing. I know it's weird but I think I'd have preferred more points-of-no return and genuinely hidden areas based on what you choose, who you side with, your class, etc. Also did get hit with some bugs, including one I had just an hour ago where - after deftly defusing (i.e. 'destroying') a trap, my Tav, and Gale, were seemingly banished to the Shadow Realm. Not dead, or knocked out, they were just... gone. Hopefully there's not too many more.
But, despite all that, this is still my definite GOTY (from last year now lol) without a doubt. I've 'only' played 35 hours of the game so far, but those 35 hours have felt like a genuine adventure in a way few other games feel like. Everything is so precise, so elaborate, and so 'new' that it consistently surprises and delights. Each quest is a short-story and each area a novel; all combining together to make that feeling of 'adventure.' I think after the combat depth, story choices, and what-not, that is the key defining feature I'm going to think of when I'm - eventually - done with the game.
So, whilst I will be taking a decent break from the game to play some other titles, I will be coming back to it, and I bloody-well look forward to doing so.
Forgot to add in the 2023 topic, but finished Pokémon White yesterday. Currently ping-ponging between Pokémon White 2, Pokémon X and Super Mario RPG. I also want to make a start with Metroid Prime Remastered but I still keep playing other stuff .
Updated my list with Another Code as my first full game I finished. Today I also finished with a group the Bishi Bashi Arcade as in we were the Bishi Bashi top streamer . Furthermore, I added some ongoing games as well and one of the demo's I played .
Another Code was a delight to play! Enjoyed both stories and the puzzles were pretty good as well. Fun to do! Hope more games will come out from this franchise.
1. Spider Man 2
2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
3. Kuru Kuru Kururin
A short, fun puzzle game on GBA NSO! There's lots of replay value if you want to go for high scores or perfect runs, but I will leave that to the people who are actually good at this game. It took me many retries to make it through some of the later levels.
I'm really happy to finally write my first completion here in this thread! I'm relatively new to Nintendo games, this was actually the third title that I've completed on the Switch
Spyro, Year of the Dragon. Okay so this game is actually a pretty good sequel to Ripto’s Rage. It adds tons of new features, expands on the collectibles, and has far more in depth characters than either of the previous games. But goodness I was tired of this game by the end, maybe it was because I played all 3 of the games in quick succession but still. Sorcerer lady isn’t as good as Ripto but gets the job done for a villain in a 3D platformer, and I like how every game has a new villain to fight. Oddly enough, the most fun I had in this game was watching the credits. I swear it went on for like 30 minutes, and seeing how many sub divisions of sub divisions of sub divisions they listed was kinda hysterical. I think things peaked in insanity when they credited the Spec Ops, like why would you ever need the spec ops for a 3D platformer game? Also, I thought it was nuts how they had dozens of QA testers for this collection, yet none thought to mention how atrocious the load times were. Also also the “thanks for playing” image had 4 dogs in it, so point for that. Credits get a 10/10, game gets a 7/10. Upon further inspection, I think crash takes it out over Spyro for me. Spyro 2 is probably better then any crash game, but I think the crash games were able to be far more unique then the Spyro games, which felt like 1 big game split apart
I loved Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight but I didn't like the way Minoria looked so I never got it. Instead of the gorgeous pixel art of RUtM and the smooth animations, the game uses very 3D characters and very simple animations. At first I thought it was done using cardboard-style 2D animation with sprites, which often ends up looking void of life and with no impact at all, but recently I found in an interview that it all was in fact 3D. The same effect takes place though; The artist just relies on the interpolation provided by the software to create the in-betweens of the animation and foregoes the basics, like easing and squash-stretch, resulting in a very lacklusting result. But it's not just the animation, the artstyle itself is miles below what the sprites in RUtM achieved, the design was miles better there. And to top it off, movement is also a bit clunky: It looks like the hitbox for the MC's feet is just a couple of pixels, which will make you miss the most simple jumps more than once. The jump physics don't feel right at all, so when you add the weak animation and hitbox shenanigans it feels bad to control and this is THE main mechanic of the game, the one that you'll constantly be using while exploring the world. The level design itself is not very good either; Platform distances and enemy placement don't allow for a good flow of movement. Overall, the game feel is way off.
Combat is also very clunky: The forced recovery after dodging and the input buffering don't always work as intended. Getting damaged by enemy hitboxes that are not attacking after rolling through them feels really bad every time. Having charge moves be consumable is not fun: You already have to charge them, there's no need to put another restriction on them. This only makes me not use them as I always save them for a boss, so I ignore them for 99% of the rest of the game. Parrying breaks the flow of combat, it shouldn't go into such a long counter attack. It should also have more cooldown as you can just spam it a lot of times. Bosses feel very simple as well. At times it looks like the game wants to go into DMC territory with juggling and long combos, but it just lacks the tools for that and the hit reactions and poor animations make it look too clunky. Overall the combat's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's too good either.
Enemy design is not good either, some of them become hard to see with the backgrounds and it took me until the 3rd or 4th slime until I could make up it's shape. Apart of that, they all suffer from the same animation shortcomings as the MC.
I also think that the levelling system is busted: I just went through and early area and suddenly enemies are taking more hits to die. And it's not 1 or 2 more hits: Instead of dying in one counter they now require 3 or 4 and instead of dying with a simple combo they now require a very long one with juggling and everything. This is a very bad design decision for a Metroidvania: The 4th time I go through the same area I don't want to take more time to fight enemies that I've already defeated several times, instead I want to feel stronger or have new tools that allow me to blaze through those. This is making traversing the world a chore. The macro-design is not good either, with branches in the levels that require you to backtrack just tor each an unexplored dead-end. The rewards you find are often not worthy: I don't care about the lore or story (more about this later) and the many magic powers you get are useless; You get very few uses of them so you just save them for the bosses and end up never forgetting about them and never using them.
The game is too talkative, after a little while I just started skipping everything and ignoring all lore pieces I found. The story beats are really poor, I remember that just after beating a boss, a shady character interrupts a conversation to handle some berries out of nowhere, which turns into a very forced piece of dialog, just so the game has an excuse to poison you and put you into the jail area. If the game is going to be so talkative, with many conversations and cutscenes, it should at least be done properly, but the moment it feels a bit amateur and even childish.
The map is horrible: You can see it by holding a button but that doesn't pause the game nor allow you to scroll through it, so once it grows and parts of it go outside the screen, tough luck. You can't put markers on the map or anything, it's very limited. It's the most barebones, feature-lacking map I've found in any game that I can think of in the last decade.
Music is nothing special either. Sound effects are very strange, there are some enemies in the cells area that make a strange roar that is really loud and out of place with everything else.
I don't really understand what happened, because RUtM nailed all of these aspects: It had amazing ambience, the story was in the background but interesting, the movement was great, combat felt awesome, the artstyle was great, animations were superb...Maybe changing from a pure 2D to a 3D environment impacted game development too much. Like I said, there are several aspects that RUtM did really well and that are in turn very lacklusting in Minoria, it looks like the game's been done by different people.
I got the double jump upgrade and have escaped the cell area, I don't think I'm even halfway through the game. I left some unexplored parts in the cell area but I wont go back there until it's absolutely necessary or I unlock fast travel, which I wish I do soon because the map's getting too big and traversal isn't very fun. I'll keep going forward some more, but it's becoming a bit of a chore.
A competent Metroidvania that sounds and looks pleasant, but which I found to be too easy in both exploration and fight aspects.
There are quite a few systems in this game to manage, such as companions and sigils, but after finding a few that I thought were good I never really engaged with them. The game didn't provide insentive by mixing my playstyle when I beat most of the bosses including all the final ones my first try.
Exploration isn't bad, but it's only fun because you keep finding permanent upgrades and not because you actually engage with the world. For some reason every single item gets marked on your map as soon as you uncover the map square, and if I remember right there are no hidden rooms at all, so it becomes a game about looking at the map to see if you missed anything.
I might get more enjoyment from the game via post-game "arranged" mode which promises more surprises, but the boss refight mode felt underwhelming. You refight bosses in one of two modes - original with health boosted to your stats, or remixed "nightmare" mode, and from what I've played "Nightmare" bosses are about as easy as normal ones, just with one attack added or a permadeath zone somewhere in the arena.
I've enjoyed what I've played of this game and I can't describe my 6 hours with it as bad, but I really wish there was more to test me, in terms of combat, platforming, exploration - anything! As it stands I can only describe it as fine.
I've played that game long ago and seen an LP of it recently, and if I remember it right I found it to be a little better. I thought Moonlit Farewell was a bit long with too many systems that didn't really mesh together well. I also remember struggling a lot more with Reverie. That said, if you liked previous Momodora it's likely that you'll enjoy this one because it's still pretty good. I don't remember if Reverie puts question marks whenever you're near an item, either, and I think it doesn't, making its exploration way more engaging.
First time I'm hearing about Minoria but it looks good!
I've played that game long ago and seen an LP of it recently, and if I remember it right I found it to be a little better. I thought Moonlit Farewell was a bit long with too many systems that didn't really mesh together well. I also remember struggling a lot more with Reverie. That said, if you liked previous Momodora it's likely that you'll enjoy this one because it's still pretty good. I don't remember if Reverie puts question marks whenever you're near an item, either, and I think it doesn't, making its exploration way more engaging.
First time I'm hearing about Minoria but it looks good!
Thanks, I'll add it to my wishlist then
Regarding Minoria, look a couple of posts above, I'm currently playing through it and have given some detailed impressions. TLDR; I'm a bit disappointed.
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get better soon!
