Games Beaten 2015

[alienjesus]

Also, I love how it takes place int he distant future of...2010.

According to Crystalis the end day is October 1, 1997.

And Mega Man was built last decade, in the year 200X.

All you guys are assuming the years are being tracked in a decimal format for these.

How do you know it's not 1997 in hexadecimal or some other numbering system? You'd have to have quite a lot of characters before you reach X for 200X - a base 26 numbering system (would that be vigintihexadecimal or something?) at least!
This is the future man, only computers know what date it is anyhow

[MrPopo]

According to Crystalis the end day is October 1, 1997.

And Mega Man was built last decade, in the year 200X.

All you guys are assuming the years are being tracked in a decimal format for these.

How do you know it's not 1997 in hexadecimal or some other numbering system? You'd have to have quite a lot of characters before you reach X for 200X - a base 26 numbering system (would that be vigintihexadecimal or something?) at least!
This is the future man, only computers know what date it is anyhow

In that case Mega Man would start in the year 35175 as we reckon it.

[BogusMeatFactory]

1. Jazzpunk (PC)
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)
3. Grandia (PS1)
4. Hotline Miami (PC)


Grandia - So I completed Grandia right in the nick of time on January 31st for Together Retro. For those that didn't follow my thoughts in the particular thread, I will elaborate my feelings here. Grandia came out at a very opportune moment for Japanese RPGs. The 32-bit era was ripe with storytelling and character development as driving forces for large scale and long houred RPGs. What Grandia did was encapsulate a decent anime into game form, creating episodic events to help bring characters together and develop chemistry, as well as introduce over arcing themes of adventure, the power of a positive attitude and love for humanity.

What makes it better is that these themes are wrapped around some entertaining combat mechanics and leveling system that has left an indelible mark on me. As you fight, you use certain types of weapons and magic. As you do so, you gain experience in said skills and level them up to unlock more powerful moves and spells, as well as stats to power up your character. Add to it, the excellent real time combat system that is a blast to play around with, timing attacks and working as a team to interrupt enemies from even being able to move.

That is where the charm is. A game can not rely simply on story, but on solid and fun mechanics. I did not mind putting in the 48 hours of play time that I put into it, because the game was fun to play. They put intrinsic incentives to use a variety of weapons and to use magic constantly. These things make you change up your strategy as you played.

My gripes with the game are few and far between. I feel that the game had some issues with length. They could have easily trimmed down portions of the game, like the end segments in order to make things run smoothly. Certain characters started to behave illogically near the end and you started to lose those connections as you struggle to figure out their motivation for their actions. I also feel like many of the filler portions of the game did a bad job as filler. They created characters that weren't fleshed out, but were a focus for that particular segment, making them feel two dimensional. This is where I feel they should either delve more into the filler or just remove it all together, myself rooting for the latter.

Anywho, I loved it. Thought the game was a blast to play and was happy to see others like Bone, working hard to complete it and sharing his feelings in Together Retro as well.

Hotline Miami - Hotline Miami, for me, was a strange game. In it, you play a nameless, faceless killer, tasked on clearing buildings of badguys for a mysterious organization. You do so by using doors to knock out your enemies, as well as a bevy of other weapons to take advantage of the slightly stupid AI.

People tout the game for its art style and music, but to be quite honest, I was not a fan of either. I played the game with headphones and more time than not, I needed to turn everything down, as the music was starting to really grate at my nerves. The art style is very akin to the old 1980's PC games like Sierra's Manhunter series. Although the gameplay was fun and addicting, the game itself was very simple, having completed it in roughly 3 hours. I did not fall in love with the story, which was a convoluted mess, nor did I understand the hooplah people gave the game. It was a fun little indie title... that's about it.

[Ack]

Well shoot, Bogus, that's too bad. I absolutely loved the aesthetic of Hotline Miami. It reminded me a lot of the style, flair, and almost cartoonist ultra violence of a lot of my favorite films, and I loved the style as a result.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Well shoot, Bogus, that's too bad. I absolutely loved the aesthetic of Hotline Miami. It reminded me a lot of the style, flair, and almost cartoonist ultra violence of a lot of my favorite films, and I loved the style as a result.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game. Even the visual style wasn't really bad. I was more frustrated with the sound track and convoluted plot. When I stopped caring about what was happening, did I start to enjoy the game more.

[Sarge]

So, I legit ran through Street Fighter 2010. I appreciate it a bit more now, kinda like Battletoads. That last level, though, without starting with any powerups? Brutal. Takes a lot of skill, execution, and some good old-fashioned luck.

Really, the only problem is that it tries to do too much with the control scheme. Definitely a learning curve, and figuring out how to use that backflip is a life saver.

[J T]

A Wolf Among Us (01/03/15)
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ (All courses S ranked on 01/08/15)
Distance (beta 3315, 01/11/15)
Shantae: Risky's Revenge- Director's Cut (01/16/15)
Sega Bass Fishing (01/17/15)
Fairy Bloom Freesia (01/17/15)
BasketBelle (01/18/15)
Tiny & Big: in Grandpa's Leftovers (01/20/15)
Sideway: New York (01/22/15)
Doom 64 EX (01/23/15)
Shadow of the Ninja (NES, 01/29/15)
Shatterhand (NES, 01/30/15)
S.C.A.T. (NES, 01/31/15)
Abadox (NES, 02/01/15)
Never Alone: Kisima Ingitchuna (02/05/15)

My review of this game can be summarized simply: good view into another culture, poor gameplay mechanics.

Never Alone is a game about the Iñupiat people, a traditional hunter-gatherer group of Alaska Natives. You are playing out a folklore legend traditionally passed down from Iñupiat storytellers, with graphics inspired by the artwork of Alaska Native people, where the rewards for finding hidden objects in the game are documentary film clips about the Iñupiat people. This game is part interactive legend and part cultural documentary. The tale is lovingly told in its native language with English subtitles, and the artwork is gorgeous. In its goal to educate people about the Iñupiat in an entertaining way, this game succeeds.

The downside is that this game suffers from poorly implemented controls and glitches. You will fall through floors for no reason, your character will fail to grab ledges you clearly were in position to grab, you will get slowed down by extra animations that interfere with completing timed tasks, your AI controlled companion will get itself killed, jumps won't land as expected, and the bola weapon will not work a good majority of the time that it is supposed to (especially when using a controller instead of mouse). Much of the challenge of this game stems from a poor control system. The level design is not bad, however, and I enjoyed the puzzles. Unfortunately, I would see the solution to the puzzle and it would then take me 5 to 6 tries to actually get my character through it because of frustrating mechanical issues.

Nevertheless, it's a lovely look into another culture and it's nice to see a game that really isn't based on the same tired gaming narrative tropes. I wish this had gone through a bit more play testing and refinement, because it really is something special, it's just hampered by infuriating mechanical problems.

*click for images*

[Stark]

Well shoot, Bogus, that's too bad. I absolutely loved the aesthetic of Hotline Miami. It reminded me a lot of the style, flair, and almost cartoonist ultra violence of a lot of my favorite films, and I loved the style as a result.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game. Even the visual style wasn't really bad. I was more frustrated with the sound track and convoluted plot. When I stopped caring about what was happening, did I start to enjoy the game more.

I think I've listened to the soundtrack more hours than it took me to play the game. You cray cray son!

[Ack]

Well shoot, Bogus, that's too bad. I absolutely loved the aesthetic of Hotline Miami. It reminded me a lot of the style, flair, and almost cartoonist ultra violence of a lot of my favorite films, and I loved the style as a result.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game. Even the visual style wasn't really bad. I was more frustrated with the sound track and convoluted plot. When I stopped caring about what was happening, did I start to enjoy the game more.

I think I've listened to the soundtrack more hours than it took me to play the game. You cray cray son!

I also regularly listen to the unofficial soundtrack for the sequel that supposedly leaked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VNp3qFXFpM

[BogusMeatFactory]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game. Even the visual style wasn't really bad. I was more frustrated with the sound track and convoluted plot. When I stopped caring about what was happening, did I start to enjoy the game more.

I think I've listened to the soundtrack more hours than it took me to play the game. You cray cray son!

I think what happened was I went full old-man. All you crazy kids and your noise! I'll have none of it thank you very much! Either that or I went into bizarro world, because the battle music for Shining in the Darkness has not made me lose my mind yet and by all standards, it should have.