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First 50:

51. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - PC
52. Starflight - PC
53. Skies of Arcadia - Dreamcast
54. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 - PC
55. Super Star Wars - SNES
56. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - PC
57. Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - PC
58. The Catacomb - PC
59. Azure Striker Gunvolt - 3DS
60. Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS
61. Catacomb Abyss - PC
62. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - PC
63. Strike Suit Zero - Director's Cut - PC
64. Wolfenstein 3D Spear of Destiny - PC
65. StarCraft - PC
66. Metal Storm - NES
67. Septerra Core - PC
68. Metal Warriors - SNES
69. Zelda II - The Adventure of Link - NES
70. Anachronox - PC
71. Faxanadu - NES
72. Adventures of Lolo - NES
73. Ninja Gaiden 2 - NES
74. Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming - PC
75. Mega Man 5 - NES
76. MechWarrior 3 - PC
77. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES
78. Faria - NES
79. Rebel Galaxy - PC
80. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game - NES
81. Grim Fandango - PC
82. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void - PC
83. Fallout 4 - PC
84. Bloodrayne - PC
85. Bloodrayne 2 - PC
86. Catacomb Armageddon - PC
87. This Starry Midnight We Make - PC
88. Shadowrun Dragonfall - Director's Cut - PC
89. Catacomb Apocalypse - PC
90. Super Mario Bros. - NES
91. Tomb Raider Legend - PC
92. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES

Did it with no continues but I did warp to 8 after getting the P-Wing from world 1. I used the P-Wing for 8-1, did the cheesy strat on 8-2 and got a 5-up from its card, then it was just a matter of getting to Bowser's Castle with a life left. Since there's that 1-up past the staircase as long as you don't do anything too stupid you can try it as many times as you like. And I'm amused by the fact that Bowser is easier to defeat as small Mario, thanks to how his hitbox works.

I like the physics in Mario 3 much better than Mario 1. And I like that the game has much more stage variety. Over the course of many attempts to beat the game as a kid I've played through about half of every world past 2. Mario 3 is where the series really hits its stride. Plus, who doesn't love Kuribo's Shoe?

1/3: Super Mario Bros 2: Lost Levels (Luigi Run) (3DS VC/NES)
1/4: Super Mario Bros. (Wii / All-Stars)
1/15: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
1/20: Super Mario Kart 8 (WiiU)
1/28: Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)
2/15: Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon (3DS)
2/15: Super Mario Land (3DS VC/GB)
2/16: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (3DS VC/GB)
3/3: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land (3DS VC/GB)
3/13: Dragon Ball Xenoverse (PS4)
3/23: Metroid Prime (Wii)
4/18: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Wii)
5/3: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii)
5/10: Donkey Kong Country (WiiU VC/SNES)
5/16: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Hyper Stone Heist (GEN)
5/23: Mario Party 10 (WiiU)
5/25: New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)
6/18: Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
8/9: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (WiiU VC/SNES)
9/5: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
9/11: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (3DS VC/GBC)
10/22: Splatoon (WiiU)
10/27: Street Figher Alpha (Arcade/PS2)
11/3: Super Mario Maker (WiiU)
11/11: Hyrule Warriors (WiiU)
12/4: New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii)

Surprisingly enough, I have owned NSMB Wii since it came out (2009, I think?) and I have never gotten the credits to roll till now. I think I had some kind of weird hang ups from the game since I got it when I was in a messed up relationship, as though some of those bad feelings were projected onto it. Which is dumb since I love all 4 of the other NSMB games.

This game is definitely not a brilliant entry in the Mario series. It doesn't have the fun factor that the original New Super Mario Bros has or the gimmicks of NSMB2. The level design doesn't even come close to NSMBU or NSLBU. Without those things, it's stuck in a weird place. It's not a bad game but it's an okay entry in a series of great titles.

Something that does redeem it are the boss fights. They aren't hard and once you figure out the trick to each, it is pretty easy to curb stomp the Koopa kids and King Koopa himself. They are really just a lot of fun all the same. Each boss fight is distinct and balanced. A solid player has just as much a chance of finishing the fight with no power-ups.

MrPopo wrote:So I figured I'd try the Crystal Dynamics trilogy once it went on sale, and right around Thanksgiving it did.

I thought Legend was fun except for the motorcycle parts. I haven't played through Anniversary myself, but I've seen enough of it played to know it's pretty decent. However, I found Underworld to be terrible. Too terrible to even bother finishing. Underworld has nice graphics, but its level and puzzle design are just... not up to par, to put it nicely. Maybe you'll enjoy it though, it'd be interesting to see what you think.

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Games Exhuminator has beat in 2015...

65. Ace Combat 6 (360 | 2007 | flight combat) 7/10



Ace Combat 6 takes the designs and concepts of the Ace Combat PS2 trilogy and expands upon them. Bigger is better was definitely the mantra going on here, what with gaining the power of the 360. You see things you'd expect like improved graphics and larger environments, but the scope of the mission designs have increased drastically as well. Mission objectives can often be myriad and involve multiple checkpoints and a lot of map traversal. Luckily the environs are quite pretty and you might not mind flying around this countryside.



But, bigger is not always better. In past Ace Combat games you might be tasked with taking out 20 planes and 40 ground targets in a mission, but here you'll regularly face 50 planes and 100 ground targets in one scramble. Because of the increased complexity, missions can easily last 30 or 45 minutes at a time, instead of the average 10 to 20 minutes of past Ace Combat games. Difficulty has increased noticeably as well since the PS2 games. (It is harder to destroy enemy planes and much harder to evade locked on missiles.) You will get tired of missions before they are over and wish there'd been 26 short missions instead of 13 long ones. Or at least, I did.



But Ace Combat 6 does provide an ace up your sleeve to deal with so many enemies. Allied Support. Often you'll be up in the sky with lots of other allied fighter jets. If you perform well enough during a mission, you can command all of them to attack targets you decide on. Or command them to take out yet another bogey you just can't shake. You also have a permanent flight mate whom you can command to attack targets or cover you (he sucks at both). Maybe because the developers thought Allied Support would make the game too easy, they made normal flight combat noticeably harder.



Ace Combat 6's plot is standard fair for the series, military drama with anti-war sentiments with a touch of human emotion. The story isn't terrible but it's not all that engaging, and you will get tired of hearing the forced phrase "dance with the angels". The music feels uninspired and doesn't hold up to the fantastic OSTs of the PS2 trilogy. However sound effects are better than ever and really make you feel like you're flying a steel machine of death. The available jets you can buy at the hanger are standard fair. A-10 Thunderbolt II for ground targets, F-22 Raptor for air targets, you know the drill.



Honestly Ace Combat 6 just feels tired, like the series had run out of steam or new ideas. It's nowhere near as great as the legendary Ace Combat 5, or even as decent as Ace Combat Zero. (Worst of all there's only one rival ace, a serious misstep because rival aces are what make for the very best battles in this franchise.) I don't want to sound too down on this game though. It was fairly entertaining, has great graphics, and continued the legacy of Ace Combat being the gold standard in arcade flight sims. It's little wonder though that the next big Ace Combat following this one, made such drastic changes to its design. This particular Ace Combat flew on autopilot a little too often for me.

Flake wrote:Surprisingly enough, I have owned NSMB Wii since it came out (2009, I think?) and I have never gotten the credits to roll till now. I think I had some kind of weird hang ups from the game since I got it when I was in a messed up relationship, as though some of those bad feelings were projected onto it. Which is dumb since I love all 4 of the other NSMB games.

This game is definitely not a brilliant entry in the Mario series. It doesn't have the fun factor that the original New Super Mario Bros has or the gimmicks of NSMB2. The level design doesn't even come close to NSMBU or NSLBU. Without those things, it's stuck in a weird place. It's not a bad game but it's an okay entry in a series of great titles.

Something that does redeem it are the boss fights. They aren't hard and once you figure out the trick to each, it is pretty easy to curb stomp the Koopa kids and King Koopa himself. They are really just a lot of fun all the same. Each boss fight is distinct and balanced. A solid player has just as much a chance of finishing the fight with no power-ups.

So is the DS one better? (is that "2"?)

I keep thinking maybe I should give this one a chance, but yeah it didn't click and nor did what I played of the DS game back when it was new. As you and others along with myself seem to all agree though, NSMBU was fantastic, along with the Luigi expansion. I figure... I could just replay that instead of trying the others again.

First 50:

51. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - PC
52. Starflight - PC
53. Skies of Arcadia - Dreamcast
54. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 - PC
55. Super Star Wars - SNES
56. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - PC
57. Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - PC
58. The Catacomb - PC
59. Azure Striker Gunvolt - 3DS
60. Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS
61. Catacomb Abyss - PC
62. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - PC
63. Strike Suit Zero - Director's Cut - PC
64. Wolfenstein 3D Spear of Destiny - PC
65. StarCraft - PC
66. Metal Storm - NES
67. Septerra Core - PC
68. Metal Warriors - SNES
69. Zelda II - The Adventure of Link - NES
70. Anachronox - PC
71. Faxanadu - NES
72. Adventures of Lolo - NES
73. Ninja Gaiden 2 - NES
74. Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming - PC
75. Mega Man 5 - NES
76. MechWarrior 3 - PC
77. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES
78. Faria - NES
79. Rebel Galaxy - PC
80. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game - NES
81. Grim Fandango - PC
82. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void - PC
83. Fallout 4 - PC
84. Bloodrayne - PC
85. Bloodrayne 2 - PC
86. Catacomb Armageddon - PC
87. This Starry Midnight We Make - PC
88. Shadowrun Dragonfall - Director's Cut - PC
89. Catacomb Apocalypse - PC
90. Super Mario Bros. - NES
91. Tomb Raider Legend - PC
92. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
93. Tomb Raider Anniversary - PC

Anniversary is a remake of the original Tomb Raider on the Legend engine. I found it to be a stronger game than Legend; you spend a lot more time on the platforming and puzzle solving and several of them really require thinking. The game does a good job of ramping up the challenge; you start off with all the time in the world but by the end you need to hit a series of jumps, climbs, and pole vaults one right after the other or you die. There are no human enemies; everything is some kind of creature that has a melee attack (although endgame there are a few enemies with ranged fireballs). This feeds in to a combat system based around enemies enraging. If you do enough damage in a short enough period of time the enemy will flash and charge you; at this point time slows down and you can dodge and them get in an instant kill attack. The bosses are defeated in the same fashion, though the instant-kill is replaced with staggering the boss in some fashion to move the fight forward. Each boss has a different mechanic from the stagger; the T-Rex at the start just runs into stuff and hurts himself while the centaurs get stunned and can have their shields removed (which is necessary to kill them). The final boss even requires you to be specific in how you dodge if you want to make any headway.

The biggest complaint I have is that Lara is too quiet. Legend had the banter with her mission control and the reboot had her doing a lot of internal monologue: she comments a lot on what's going on around her. Lara in Anniversary is almost a blank slate, which is unfortunate. I enjoy her character and it's a real shame that you don't really get to see much of it in this game.

Underworld is next. I probably won't start it until tomorrow, but when I do I'll see if I can knock it out in one day.

I beat Dead or Alive 2 on the Dreamcast!

I've had Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore on the PS2 for several years now and I absolutely adore that game. Because of that and wanting to play all games in series', I picked up Dead or Alive 2 on the DreamCast. I think the game runs better on the Dreamcast. It loads once at the beginning and then never does throughout the entire game. It ran so smoothly and the graphics look freaking amazing.

Hardcore had more unlockables and replayability which is sorely missing in the Dreamcast version, but it still is a wonderful game and I absolutely love replaying this game.

It is bettervon Dreamcast, agreed. Played some last night myself.

First 50:

51. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - PC
52. Starflight - PC
53. Skies of Arcadia - Dreamcast
54. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 - PC
55. Super Star Wars - SNES
56. Shadowrun: Hong Kong - PC
57. Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel - PC
58. The Catacomb - PC
59. Azure Striker Gunvolt - 3DS
60. Mighty Gunvolt - 3DS
61. Catacomb Abyss - PC
62. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - PC
63. Strike Suit Zero - Director's Cut - PC
64. Wolfenstein 3D Spear of Destiny - PC
65. StarCraft - PC
66. Metal Storm - NES
67. Septerra Core - PC
68. Metal Warriors - SNES
69. Zelda II - The Adventure of Link - NES
70. Anachronox - PC
71. Faxanadu - NES
72. Adventures of Lolo - NES
73. Ninja Gaiden 2 - NES
74. Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming - PC
75. Mega Man 5 - NES
76. MechWarrior 3 - PC
77. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES
78. Faria - NES
79. Rebel Galaxy - PC
80. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game - NES
81. Grim Fandango - PC
82. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void - PC
83. Fallout 4 - PC
84. Bloodrayne - PC
85. Bloodrayne 2 - PC
86. Catacomb Armageddon - PC
87. This Starry Midnight We Make - PC
88. Shadowrun Dragonfall - Director's Cut - PC
89. Catacomb Apocalypse - PC
90. Super Mario Bros. - NES
91. Tomb Raider Legend - PC
92. Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES
93. Tomb Raider Anniversary - PC
94. Tomb Raider Underworld - PC

The final chapter of the Crystal Dynamics trilogy. Underworld wraps up the story points from Legend and Anniversary and ends on a nice conclusion to the arc. There aren't really any leftover plot threads, so while they could have started a new chapter in the series they ended up going for a reboot instead.

The game is sort of a middle ground between Anniversary and Legend in terms of how its set up. You lose mission control but Lara does a lot more talking to herself (taking notes into a Dictaphone). It gives you more context into what you're doing, as several puzzles are based around mythological elements from ancient cultures. There are human enemies but they only show up twice (technically three times, but the third time you have a one hit KO weapon so it doesn't matter what you're facing), and in general combat is deemphasized like Anniversary. It's there, but only to keep you on your toes. The levels are longer and more intricate than Legend but not quite as long as Anniversary, which is good, in my opinion. A few sections of Anniversary felt like they could have done with one puzzle fewer. And finally, there are no bosses. There's a final boss puzzle, if you will, but no enemies with health bars you need to reduce to zero.

The game also starts off and end with scuba sections, which look amazing. It's a real visual treat and the swimming controls work rather well; if you hold forward you move in the direction you point the camera, with the option to use jump and crouch to shift to straight up and down as necessary or to do some fine maneuvering. I definitely appreciate the addition. There's also the return of the motorcycle, but this time it's used to traverse long stretches of terrain and to get over areas you can't cross on foot, rather than Legend's chase with guns sequences.

Finally, the game demonstrates that all these ancient cultures didn't survive because they spent all their wealth on insane stone mechanical boondoggles that manage to last through the millennia. The third area is holy shit.

Not sure why Exhuminator didn't care for the game; he must be a little dead inside or something.

MrPopo wrote:Not sure why Exhuminator didn't care for the game; he must be a little dead inside or something.

I found the review I wrote for why I quit playing it back in a Games NOT Beaten thread:


But that's just me, the game's got its fans.

The last "Tomb Raider" game I played that I really enjoyed was Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. You might enjoy it. But I beat it co-op and the co-op aspect is what made it so much fun for me.

Also you are a MACHINE Popo.

I have never played a good Tomb Raider game.

But I also enjoy games that look like this

so take everything I say with a grain of salt.