I really was sorry for the length of my last post to this thread.
I am even more sorry that this one is even longer. Better grab a beer and sit down for the long haul if you plan to read this
...Please read this, it's going to take me hours to type
First 50:
51.
Deep Duck Trouble starring Donald Duck Game Gear52.
Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX 3DS53.
Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush Wii U54.
Retro Game Challenge DS55.
Pop Island Paperfield DSiWare56.
Stranded Kids GBC57.
Bomberman 64 N6458.
Inazuma Eleven DS59.
Bust-a-Move 4 DC60.
Sega Bass Fishing DC61.
Mario Party 8 Wii62.
Sonic Chaos Game Gear63.
Sonic the Hedgehog SMS64.
Jet Force Gemini N6465.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U DL66.
Kirby's Ghost Trap SNES67.
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon GBC68.
Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 NGPC69.
LittleBigPlanet PSVita Vita70.
Donkey Kong Jungle Beat GC71.
Märchen Adventure Cotton 100% SFC72.
Luigi's Mansion 2 3DS *NEW*
73.
Portal XBLA *NEW*
74.
Game & Watch Gallery 2 GBC *NEW*
75.
WarioWare D.I.Y DS *NEW*
76.
Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash 3DS *NEW*
77.
Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed PSN (Vita) *NEW*
78.
Ys Book I: Ancient Ys Vanished: Omen PSN (Vita) *NEW*
79.
The Last Story Wii *NEW*
Luigi's Mansion 2Luigi's Mansion 2 is a pretty great sequel to the original game that has a number of advantages over the original, but which isn't as good in some ways.
Playing as Luigi, you are summoned (rather begrudgingly) by E.Gadd, the mad scientist from the first game, to help him figure why all the once friendly ghosts of Evershade valley ahve gone nuts and started causing trouble. You do this by taking on missions in one of the 5 different mansions (so really, this should be called Luigi's Mansions instead), sucking up ghosts and taking on bosses.
Due to the lack of a right analogue stick on the original 3DS, the controls have been adjusted somewhat, with X and B now looking up and down. A allows you to charge your torch for a quick light burst to stun ghosts, replacing the original games light toggle, and Y allows you to use your 'dark-light' to reveal invisible objects, which is mainly used for puzzle solving.
The missions based format has it's pros and cons - it allows the game to be split up into very focused chunks so you don't end up wandering aimlessly, but it's flawed in some ways - the missions are still pretty long, and the original game was plenty linear anyway. I think I would have preferred we just got to freely explore the 5 mansions. I also think that if we were gonna have missions, we should be allowed to take on more than one mansion at once - this game was strictly linear - 6 missions in mansion 1, followed by 6 in mansion 2 etc. A bit of freedom of progression would have helped ease reptition, which isn't helped by the very small variety of enemy types. There's a lack of unique boss encounters here compared to the first game too.
Despite repetition though, it's a fun game. Ghost battles are quick and fun, and the game positively exudes charm - the characterisation of Luigi, the ghosts, E.Gadd, the Toads and more is wonderful, and Luigi is surprisingly talkative and expressive, it's wonderful. The game can be tiresome in long sessions, but in quick(ish) bursts it's fun and easy to pick up and play.
Luigi's Mansion is not as good as the first game. The first one had better puzzles, better enemy variety and a better method of progression. That said, it's still a great experience and well worth a play. It's an absolute charm from starty to finish, even if it can be a bit samey and it's overall probably a bit too long. If they make Luigi's Mansion 3, I'd like to see the characterisations from this game come back, as they really are wonderful.
PortalThis is the first time I've played through Portal properly. I've helped other people play through, and I've watched bits of it being played, but this was my first experience from start to finish. And wasn't it great?
It's hard to think of what to say about Portal, because everyone already knows about it. Using the Portals to navigate through rooms is fun, and I expecially love mechanics like falling to gain momentum from portals and using angled walls to change angles. There's some really clever stuff at play here.
One thing I was disappointed about though was the length, and not because the game as a whole is too short (although it probably is) but because the 'tutorial' stages of it seemed too long. The game takes the form of 19 test chambers making up about 75%-80% of the game before things go a bit nuts and you can wander around freely, but of those chambers, the first 16 or so are basically just teaching you mechanics. It feels jarring to be thrown in the deep end come chamber 17 or so and then to have the really complicated puzzles not last long after spending so much time spoon feeding. The difficulty progression is there, but I would have liked more puzzles that weren't just teaching you the mechanics.
The humour is much talked about in the game, and it was great. GlaDoS is pretty awesome and a lot of her quips made me laugh out loud. Again though, I was suprised by just how... few there seemed to be.
I loved my time with Portal, the mechanics, story and gameplay are a ton of fun. It controls perfectly. But going back all these years later and seeing the game as a whole, it does seem to be a test run - it feels a little underwhelming in the amount of content. I was surprised when Portal 2 was announced originally, but having played Portal 1 now,it seems like a no brainer to me - there was so much that could be expanded on here. And I guess it was!
Portal is great. It's pretty unique to play, it's charming and fun and fast paced and I like it. But in retrospect, it seems a lot lighter than I realised. Luckily, I still have Portal 2 to play, hopefully some time soon.
Game & Watch Gallery 2The Game & Watch Gallery series is a series of Game Boy games featuring both ports, and 'modernised' remakes of a selection of Game & Watch titles. This second game in the series includes 6 games - 5 to begin, with 1 unlockable for later. These games are Parachute, Vermin, Donkey Kong, Chef, Helmet and Ball. Like with G&W Gallery Advance earlier in the year, I'll do a mini review of each one.
Parachute:
Classic mode features you moving left and right catching falling parachutists (is that a word?) in your boat. They fall at different speeds depending on position, and on mode B (hard mode) they can also get snagged on a tree changing their fall speed. Modern instead features 3 types of falling characters who fall in different ways, making things even more complicated - DK Jr falls almost to the water before his chute opens, making him a priority. Yoshi normally falls halfway before it opens, but sometime seems to randomly fall as far as DK Jr which feels a bit unfair and inconsistent. Toad falls very slowly as his chute opens instantly, but he can drift to a cannon on the right which blasts him back over at a faster speed. This game is fun, but the difficulty is a bit too high with very strict timings, meaning it wasn't my favourite.
Vermin:
Classic has you moving left and right to bop moles with hammers. They come up in one of 5 spots, and you cover 2 at once - the one directly left and right of your character (not the one below them). You lose if the moles nick your vegetables. Modern has Yoshi defending eggs from Shy Guys, and Koopas, as well as boos who only move when your back is turned. Each egg can take 3 hits before it's smashed, but if one is smashed you're out. The oddest thing about this game is the hexagonal layout, which makes moving yoshi kinda awkward. It's still probably the best one on here though.
Helmet: Classic has you moving from one door to another dodging falling tools. They move at different speeds and it's very difficult to get points. Modern is similar (with hammers and fireballs falling) but it's more forgiving. I also adds coins which give extra points, but these slow your movement til you go through the door, so they're risky. After 500 points, it switches to a second stage which has diagonal falling obstacles, but which I found easier overall. A decent game.
Chef & Donkey Kong:
These were both covered in my review of G&W Gallery Advance and are exactly the same as there. The review is in my list up there ^.
Ball:
This one is unlockable, and it's an odd one. I didn't play modern much, so I couldn't tell the differences, but it seems to be the same as classic - move your arms left and right to catch the balls, but both arms move at the same time. Drop a single ball and you lose, as opposed to 3 misses in most other games. The scoring on this one isw odd - stars are awarded every 200 points in G&W Gallery 2, with 60 needed to earn credits, but the easy mode of ball scores 1 point per catch. Hard mode has the balls worth 10 per catch, making hard mode much, much easier to finish than easy. This one is ok, but it gets a bit dull quite quickly.
G&W Gallery 2 is a fun enough game, but I definitely feel 3 and 4 are better. I still need to play the first G&W gallery, but I suspect the series improves with each entry, so no rush.
Chibi-Robo!: Zip-Lash:
I am a massive fan of the original Chibi-Robo! for Gamecube, it's one of my favourite games of all time. I love the charming characters, the whimsical but touching story and the inherent silliness of the world that is still pretty grounded in reality. It's brilliant. I also love the explorative nature of it - it had elements of Metroid or Zelda, but on a less grand scale.
After the original though, Chibi-Robo disappeared a bit. The DS Sequel never got a PAL release, played somewhat differently and was Wal-Mart exclusive. The New Play Control version for the Wii never made it out of Japan.The 3rd game for DS was a Japan only exclusive, which is a shame as it looked to build on the first games play mechanics. And then when we finally got another PAL release, it was a kinda shitty photo game for eShop.
So when they announced Zip Lash for 3DS was coming west, I was curious - a platformer was not what I wanted from the series, but I was hoping it'd be decent, see some success and then maybe more Chibi-Robo would be in our future. Alas, it's sold terribly and it's probably not to be.
But how is the game? That's a difficult one - it's a real mixed back. It's full on interesting design choices and gameplay mechanics that aren't always interesting for the right reasons. But it is pretty fun overall.
Chibi Robo must save the world from mischievous aliens (alreayd kinda odd, seeing as aliens were allies in previous games) and he does so by platforming through a sidescrolling world and hitting things with his plug. As well as a weapon, he can spin his plug in the air to hover a little, break blocks with it, use it to pick up some items, and most importantly, use it as a grappling hook to swing from platforms and pull himself to higher ground. This mechanic is used extensively, and is pretty well implemented. The grapple shot bounces off of walls too, meaning that there are some pretty cool tricky shots you can pull off, and in many cases are expected to.
Gameplay ismixed up occassionally by vehicles stages which are all quite fun - my favourite being the chibi skateboard where you can rev yourself along by latching your plug to boosters and then catch massive air afterwards though.
There are flaws here though - Chibi-Robo's movements are a bit stiff, and he doesnt jump too well - the focus here is definitely on grappling and attacking, conventional platforming is pretty minimal. The worlds are pretty long with a ton of collectables, and many are easy to miss - it tedious to replay the stage if you want to get them all. And speaking of replaying levels, the absolute worst mechanic is a roulette feature to choose which level you'll play next. Get the wrong number and you'll skip right past level 6 (the final level of a world) and back round to level 1, and yes, you do HAVE to play it again to keep going. This is pretty easily avoidable if you know what you're doing, but I had to do it once and it's unbearable to be forced to play levels you've just beaten all over again for no good reason.
There's also some odd product placement - you find sweets (real ones, like Mentos) and some toys in some levels ask you for them whereupon they dance around happily and tell you about the sweet. It feels really out of place and awkward, and the reward for it is insigificant - it seems to just be there so they can get product placement in. The 2D gameplay means that this is basically the only time you see the toys too, which is a shame as the dialogue and characters in the previous games were Chibi-Robo's strong points.
Lastly, as well as promoting real-world products, you'll need to BUY real world products to see everything here - the 7th world is only available after beating the game through luck - you find it in a capsule machine. And the way you access the capsule machine - Amiibo. A whole world is locked away from you if you don't have the Amiibo to go with the game, which kinda sucks. Equally, even if you do, it could take hours to unlock that world, which also sucks. An odd decision all around.
Chibi-Robo Zip Lash is a game I enjoyed. But it is a game which is let down by so many baffling choices which undermine the pretty solid platforming and level design which is present. Unfortunately, the most baffling choice of all is why this is a Chibi-Robo game. It ...just doesn't fit the character. If this is to be the last game poor old Chibi-Robo appears in, it's not a bad game to go out with, but it just misses so much of what made the original so great. It's worth a play, but it's not a must-own, that's for sure.
WarioWare DIYWarioWare is a series where you play a bunch of microgames back to back, each only a few seconds long to achieve high scores. They're pretty simple, press a button to jump something, press a button to jam a finger up a nose, etc. Each successive game added a new gimmick to how this played out - the first game used buttons, then game rotation, touch screen controls, motion controls. They were all good.
WarioWare DIY mixes up the series in a different way. It is a game where you
make a bunch of microgames for people to play back to back, each a few seconds long, to achieve high scores. It offers the ability to create art assets and music snippets, and add some basic AI to create your own microgames. It's pretty cool.
As someone who is familiar with creating scripts, the most interesting thing about this game for me is how it goes about teaching you how to add AI to your games. Its fairly robust, but simplified and friendly, and it comes with an amusing and extensive, but sometimes a bit slow-paced and wordy in world tutorial to train you in how to make your games. To get you started it also includes some 'almost finished' games made by Wario which just require you to add your own art to complete them, and eventually you can unlock challenges which require you to fix a bug in some code to make a game work as intended. It's a very clever introduction to the world of game creation.
The game is very user friendly with it's asset creation too - very simple drawing and colouring options are a little limiting, but based on the scope of the games in question, they're perfect for not overcomplicating things. Music creation is actually similar to actual game music creation too, on a much simpler and more user friendly UX, but if it's too complicated the game has a very handy automatic music generation feature too.
The game also includes some pre-made games for you to play, ostensibly made by other memebers of the WarioWare cast. These are cool as they're made with the same tools, but they do highlight some issues with the idea - there's less variety in one game than in other WarioWare titles, and they just don't feel as refined in general as the games elsewhere in the series.
The game features connectivity with a WiiWare game called WarioWare DIY Showcase, allowing you to play games on your TV usibg the wii remote. This, unfortunately, is the probable cause of the games biggest issue - it allows exactly one form of interaction - tapping the touch screen. This is a very limiting way to design games in my eyes and limits the games a lot. The original WarioWare used the d-pad and A button only, giving 5 input options, and it still felt a little samey in what you could do. The more complex control schemes of the later entries really did a lot to improve the series variety, and being forced to a simple tap command here means that it's just not as compelling to actually
play the games for as long
WarioWare DIY is a pretty excellent introduction to game design, and it's a lot of silly fun to make your own games and have them be really screwy. As a play experience though, it's limited. You'll get a lot out of this if you're a creative type, but if you prefer to just play stuff others have played, you'd be better to just avoid this one.
Akiba's Trip: Undead & UndressedAkiba's Trip is a game where you run through the streets of Akihabara, Tokyo stripping clothes off of people in broad daylight. It's OK though, y'see, because they're vampires or something similar, and exposing their skin to the sun is how you defeat them. Except when they're not. But it's not like you leave them completely naked, they still have their underwear. Except when they don't/
OK, so the premise isn't really defensible - it's a silly, over the top fanservicey type of game, but it's worth noting that it doesn't really seem to be targeting 'sexy' as something it's going for, just 'silly'. The character models are cartoonish and not very sexual, and besides a few artworks you can get there's not a lot that seems designed to be sexually provocative.
The story has it that an organisation has been turning people into the undead - taken over by the power of their greed for all things anime, figurines, games and comics. They plan to take over the world or something, and it's up to you and your ragtag team of Akiba freedom fighters to save the day by defeating the undead menace the only way you know how - with partial nudity!
The combat in the game is pretty rough and unfocused, which is a shame as it's ostensibly the focus of the game. Triangle attacks the head, circle the body and X the legs, and holding the buttons attempts to remove the clothing on that body part, if it's weakned enough. R is a block button. If you strip an item of clothing and other enemies nearby have significantly wakened clothing, you can keep hitting button prompts to 'chain strip' and emove multiple clothing items at once. Get a high enough chain and you'll strip underwear too afterward - this again is not played sexually - naughty bits are obscured with bright light and characters run away embarrased, it's just a way to get underwear you can equip and a few cheap laughs I guess.
Although the gameplay focuses around this fighting, there are other elements to the game that make it more than just it's clunky combat system and weird premise. There are some light dating elements that determine which ending you will get. There are a ton of sidequests. And the most interesting thing about the game - it's use of real-world locations. The Akiba of the game is the same as the Akiba of the real world, at least at the time the game was created. The streets are the same, the shops are the same, there are adverts for shops and games and anime on billboards, and snippets of commercial jingles and pop songs, even some vocaloid sometimes. You can get flyers in game for real shops in Akihabara. It's kinda cool to see such a place in a virtual world, and adds a lot to the games charm.
Akiba's Trip isn't really a game I can whole-heartedly recommend. There's far too much dialogue for such a silly game with such a dumb story, and it's taken too seriously for it's own good a lot of the time. The fighting mechanics are clumsy and unrefined, and the sidequests have too much tedious back and forth. The game has loading issues too - when you enter an area, it can take upwards of 15-20 seconds before any NPC characters populate it.
That said, I did like Akiba's Trip. It was goofy, sometimes charming and inelegant in kind of a quirky and enjoyable way. It's worth picking up for cheap like I did and giving it a try. Don't worry too much about the content and subject matter - it's not really very titillating and for the most part it seems to be trying not to be. It's also pretty uniquely unisex - you strip guys and girls in the game, and the western version even added some male character artworks to match the ones that were only shown for certain female characters in Japan. Give it a try sometime, but don't expect to be blown away.
Ys Book 1: Ancient Ys Vanished: OmenOK, so I've technically beat Ys 1 before, on the Master System. I started up this PSP version with he intention of adding the whole game to this list as 'Ys I & II Chronicles'. However, rather than being one continuous experience like the TG16 game, this is very clearly presented as 2 seperate games, with different title menus, credits etc., so I'm going to count both books seperately here too.
Ys 1 on PSP doesn't mess with the formula much, and it's interesting to see how well it holds up. What I've played here is almost identical in content to what I played on the SMS port, despite it's age. The PSP game comes with a stunning graphical facelift (it looks great!) and an awesome new soundtrack (plus 2 alternate versions from older versions of the game) but maintains the same basic run n bump gameplay and the same dungeons and levels as before.
There are a couple of key difference here though, the first being the translation. I actually sort of understood the plot here this time, though I think I#m still missing some stuff (I should read the digital manual and figure it out). I have a much better idea why I keep talking to people in Darm Tower to progress, who the people of the town are and what they're talking about. The game also has a cool glossary with descriptions and names of every character and enemy, down to the lowliest NPC, which is a really charming way to draw me into the world, and works very well due to the small size of the place.
Secondly, the game is way easier here. Much less grinding needed early on, and the higher enemy respawn rates and the greater experience gain made it go by much quicker this time. You also encounter more enemies while exploring as they've made the world map much bigger since the SMS - all the same stuffs there, there's just more fields between them, which fits the more zoomed in perspective and the incredibly nippy movement, especially when using the analogue stick to move.
I do have a few faults with Ys 1, mostly with some things being a bit obtuse. In particular, I found the quest to find the Silver Sword a bit unfair - the items you need for it (the Roda Fruit and the Silver Harmonica) are oth found in the mine dungeon, but you can't finish that dungeon without the sword as the boss takes too much damage without it. That means you have to backtrack, complete the quest and go back through the mine to continue, and thwe quest is pretty obscure anyhow - there are hints, but I had to look up the solution for this one. There's another annoyance in the last dungeon when the game grants you 3 amazing bits of equipment but forces you to downgrade if you want a realistic chance against the boss.
One last annoyance I had is that I couldnt use healing potions in boss fights? Why? What's the point of healing potions otherwise, especially as I get a regen granting ring halfway through the game anyway!
Either way, Ys 1 is fast paced, focused and a lot of fun. It's flaws are pretty minor and it's aged very well as an experience for a game that old - sure, there have been some speed, control, translation and presentation tweaks in the intermediary years, but the core game is still a good experience.
Now I'm onto Ys 2 for the first time ever. Lets see how it holds up.
The Last StoryThe Last Story was game L of my alphabet marathon.
Of the 3 'Project Rainfall' games, it seems like the only one people really remember is Xenoblade Chronicles. And rightly so, Xenoblade Chronicles is a phenomenal RPG and deserving of it's praise. But the thing is, The Last Story is also a stunningly good RPG. And it is one which does things so very differently from Xenoblade that it deserves to stand alongside it as a totally unique but utterly compelling RPG adventure.
The Last Story is an Action RPG focusing on a band of mercenaries - you play as Zael, one of the band, and along with your troupe you arrive at Lazulis Island, ready to make your fortune and achieve your dreams. From the start, you are thrown in the deep end storywise - it's clear that all your characters know each other, have been together for some time, and have a lot of history behind them, but most of it will not be revealed to the player until later. In fact, you have 6 of your 7 party members right from the beginning of the game basically.
And your party members are interesting. At first they seem like caricatures - ones an alcoholic, ones a playboy, ones a bit stuck up and confrontational blahblahblah. What's great is how the game lets you understand why they are who they are, and how they grow over the course of the game. And a lot of this stuff is hidden, so best make sure to look around.
The gameplay is very focused. The game is completely linear, with 40 chapters over the course of a 20 hour or so adventure - very short by JRPG standards, but perfect to do what it sets out to do. Whereas Xenoblade has phenomenal grandeur fitting of it's high concept world and big picture narrative, The Last Story has a much more focused plot which better gels with it's focus on the people who make up the story. There's only a few major areas in the game, and only one town.
Combat is simple, but with surprising strategy to it. You push the control stick at nearby enemies to attack, press B to block, Z to aim and shoot with your crossbow, and C to activate 'gathering' mode, which draws enemy attacks to your main character. These all build up though - you can use the bow to aim at structures and tell ally mages to demolish them to take out enmies below. You can block whilst gathering to charge a burst which slows enemies down when you release gathering. Whilst Gathering is active you can revive KOed allies by walking over them, but you'll draw attacks by doing so Allie mages shoot spells which leave magic circles on the ground, and walking through them adds that spell element to your sword for more powerful attacks, but you can also dispel these circles with an attack for status effects at the cost of losing the circle. There are even more layers of complexity that are added, but it is all simple to control and understand, and feels great.
The story in the game is interesting, with numerous villains all of whom have at least semi-believable motivations and most of whom you have at least a little bit of compassion for. The build up in the story is interesting and fun and the stakes raise constantly as you progress. The character designs look a bit offputting at first, but they grow on you very quickly as they're very good at expressing emotions through facial expressions and body language, which is uncommon on non-HD games. The music score (by Nobuo Uematsu no less!) is stunning and compelling and really drives the game forwards.
The smaller scale but more personal conflict is really well defined by the games presentation - there is a narrator for certain events, we see the game from one characters perspective only, and allies talk through battle plans before a fight begins. This is done whilst an overhead view of the battlefield is shown, and it kinda feels a bit like we're playing someones D&D campaign and working together through the plot. It's utterly compelling (unlike actual D&D) and I adored every moment I spent playing the game. A lot of times the game puts most or all of your party members on the field with you too - no more bringing 3 team members to a fight when you have 6.
On the negative side, some parts of the game can feel a bit forced and cheesy, a few character motivations or actions seem a little poorly explained at points and the last few sections can feel rushed even though they take up quite a big portion of the game. But all of that is overshadowed by the sheer fun I had playing through this game. I love the combat mechanics, they're fast and chaotic and fun but with layers of strategy that become really important later on. I adore the characters, they're likeable, charming, convincingly animated and acted and make the game a joy to play.
I think if I was asked to pick, I would still say I enjoyed Xenoblade more than the Last Story. Just. But why pick between them? They're both fantastic JRPGs with incredibly different approaches that both pull off what they aimed to achieve amazingly.
Phew..... That was a beast of a post. Apologies for typos, I've been typing for ages and I was getting lazy with my proof reading.
Next up for me: Mushroom Men, for game M of my alphabet marathon, and Ys 2. Hopefully both before Christmas!
