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Get ready for an update blast, haven't been here in a while, so lots of games beaten in the interim...

66) Dragon Quest III (SFC)
67) Transistor
68) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (repeat)
69) King of Demons (bad ending)
70) King of Demons (good ending, no-death run)
71) King of Demons (good ending, hard)
72) Life of Pixel (100%)
73) Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (100%)
74) 8-Bit Commando
75) Freedom Fall
76) Shadow and Ash
77) Sorcery!
78) Super Cyborg (argh, this was hard!)
79) Job the Leprechaun
80) Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
81) Odallus
82) Samurai Pizza Cats
83) Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
84) Time Diver: Eon Man
85) Chrono Trigger (repeat)
86) Super Castlevania IV (repeat)
87) Psycho Dream
88) GS Mikami: Joreishi Wa Nice Body
89) Wario Land (VB) (how did I miss listing this one?)
90) Shadow Force
91) Cosmo Police - Galivan
92) Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC
93) Momodora II
94) Momodora
95) Strikers 1945 Plus
96) Double Dragon (Neo Geo)
97) Guardian
98) Solar Striker
99) Battle Unit Zeoth

So Dad had a health scare yesterday, but it doesn't look like a heart attack this time, which is a major blessing.

Anyway, during that time, I had to occupy my mind a bit to keep from stressing quite so badly, so I played some old Game Boy games that I've always had a marginal interest in. Solar Striker is a somewhat basic shooter, but it's also surprisingly competent considering it's a) an early Game Boy title and b) from Nintendo, who isn't really known for their shooters. Most of the game is pretty easy, but that fourth-stage boss was rough. I kinda save-stated a lot, but I can see where I could probably get through it legit now.

The other, Zeoth, always looked really cool to me in Nintendo Power. It's got some nice mech-based artwork and sprites, even if it's a pretty average game. Certainly not a classic, but passable.

I also wonder how much more difficult these would be on the blurry spinach screen that is the GB. Can't think it would make them easy at all, Solar Striker in particular.

Sarge wrote:So Dad had a health scare yesterday, but it doesn't look like a heart attack this time, which is a major blessing.

I hope he's okay, that sucks man.

Solar Striker is one of my favorite Game Boy shmups. I owned that one back in 1990, and remember playing it when I was in the hospital myself. (Although I was actually the patient, not being patient.) I never beat it, but I distinctly remember enjoying it.

Yeah, he seems like he's okay now. They're going to do a stress test and see if they can figure out what's going on. It might be the beta-blockers, it might be him pushing too hard after hernia surgery, there's no telling.

I was really surprised by Solar Striker. I mean, yeah, it's pretty basic, but there are nice little touches here and there, and plus, you have to remember the platform it's on. It's really impressive considering when it came out.

EDIT: I need to verify when I get home, but I think I beat Metal Slug 6 as part of Metal Slug Anthology and just flat out forgot about it.

1/10: Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP (Steam)
1/10: Rusty's Real Deal Baseball: Bat & Switch (3DS DL)
1/11: Time Fcuk (Steam)
1/11: Coil (Steam)
1/17: Portal 2 (Steam)
1/31: Tales of Xillia (PS3) (re-beat 3/31)
2/12: Tokyo Jungle (PSN)
2/22: LoZ: Four Swords Anniversary Edition (3DS DL)
4/25: Stanley Parable (Steam)
4/28: BattleBlock Theatre (Steam)
5/3: Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii)
5/9: Excite Truck (Wii)
5/14: Elebits (Wii)
5/26: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (DS)
6/9: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PSN)
6/11: Tappingo (3DS DL)
6/15: Galaga Legions DX (PSN)
6/22: Eversion (Steam)
6/25: Hatoful Boyfriend (GOG)
6/30: Silent Hill (PS1)
7/1: SteamWorld Dig (Steam)
7/12: Cook, Serve, Delicious! (Steam)
7/13: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni - Ch.1 Onikakushi (Steam)
7/14: Retro/Grade (Steam)
8/12: Onechanbara Z2: Chaos (PS4)
8/15: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Steam)
8/25: Ziggurat (Steam)
9/11: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Vita)
9/25: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Steam)
9/27: Freedom Planet (GOG)
9/27: Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - Rise of the Owlverlord (GOG)
10/15: Mad Maestro! (PS2)
10/16: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
11/5: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f 2nd (PS3)
11/14: eden*: They were only two, on the planet (Steam)
11/16: Super Mario 3D World (WiiU DL)
11/18: Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God (Vita)
11/28: Undertale (Steam)
11/28: Fantasy Life (3DS)
12/8: Trauma Team (Wii)

Total: 40 games

I'm sorry if my writing is a little funny, since I'm having trouble coming up with words right now (I'm really tired right now ._.), but I remember really liking this game when I played it a few years ago and playing it now... I honestly think I like it a lot more than back then!

For those who don't know, Trauma Team is part of a series of "surgeon simulator" type games where you operate on people. They all involve more normal surgeries (such as fixing broken bones or extracting tumors) to slightly more abnormal surgeries which involve crazy deadly viruses. Most of them tended to be on the punishing side, but Trauma Team is probably the easiest of the bunch, which I was grateful for. Between surgeries, the other games in the series would tell story with visual novel type segments, but Trauma Team steps that up a notch and has minimally animated comic book-eqsue sections instead. While I have nothing against visual novel story-telling, I really enjoyed watching these since I felt they were a little more engaging than just text and a sprite. The voice acting also seems to be a bit better here than the other games which probably helped a bit, although there still were a few voices that weren't so great imo.

What makes Trauma Team completely different to the other games (and why it's called "Trauma Team" and not "Trauma Center"), is the ability to play as six different doctors, each with their own area of expertise. They still have the regular surgeon, of course, but there's also a guy who works with bones (like the surgeon but slower and more precise), the first responder (like the surgeon but limited tools and a focus on working at multiple patients at once), a lady who works with an endoscope (involves a lot of maneuvering tight passageways), a diagnostician, and a forensic investigator (who also stars one of the few returning characters in the series).

That might seem a lot to add into one game which originally only focused on the surgery portion, but I think Atlus did a pretty good job adding it all in. I do have some cripes on a few of them (like using the endoscope can hurt my arms after a while) but I did appreciate the variety.

Now for some reason I'm just drawing a blank on what to say, but it's such a good game. I've played all the other games in the series (minus the original I guess but I've played the remake), and I can easily say that this is the best of the bunch.

My favorite part of the Trauma Team was the diagnostics mode, since when it came out I had been watching a ton of House.

laurenhiya21 wrote:I can easily say that this is the best of the bunch.

I've finished Trauma Center and Trauma Center 2 on DS, as well as New Blood and Trauma Team on Wii. And I agree with you.

Trauma Team is a seriously great adventure game/surgery simulator with a TON of content. (It's also a really fun co-op experience too.) My only complaint falls in line with your own, the endoscopy sections were kinda bad simply due to the ignorant motion controls. The other five disciplines were fine though. I particularly enjoyed forensics and the diagnostician stuff.

Trauma Team also has a god tier OST, I still listen to it periodically.

Damn shame it sold so badly (even in Japan), I think the Wii U's GamePad could have been used in really interesting ways for a sequel.

Terrordrome - Rise of the Boogeymen, Freddy Krueger playthrough on Normal.

Exhuminator wrote:Damn shame it sold so badly (even in Japan), I think the Wii U's GamePad could have been used in really interesting ways for a sequel.

Wow I didn't know it sold badly... I guess Atlus doesn't seem to be doing anything with the series, so maybe that's why. It would be a shame if they didn't make another entry though since I would also be interested on what they could do with the gamepad.

In the Trauma Center series I've only finished the remake for the Wii but I really enjoyed that one, definitely have to play the other ones someday as well.

For my own part I just finished "Little Nemo: The Dream Master" for the NES for the first time and what a game! At first I just wanted to test it for a bit, got kind of upset about the fact that I had to backtrack some and find the missing keys for the exit and where about to stop playing there since the game felt unfair already by the first level (I died way too many times than I should have). Although I didn't stop. I got through the first level, once again got owned by the next level by irritating enemies and by the fact that the animals you can control seemed to have more weaknesses than strenghts.

But after fighting my way through the second level it all just clicked. I started to learn how stuff worked and was actually having a lot of fun with the game, in hindsight it was much more fun learning the game the hard way than reading a tutorial for 15 minutes before starting off my adventure. I had a much better flow for the remaining levels after the second and really enjoyed the game.

Tiduas wrote:In the Trauma Center series I've only finished the remake for the Wii but I really enjoyed that one, definitely have to play the other ones someday as well.

The original Trauma Center for DS is notorious for its final boss battle, it has caused many the death of an otherwise innocent DS. To be honest though, I thought the final boss battle of Trauma Center 2 was the hardest. You might find Trauma Center: New Blood to be very difficult single player, as the game was obviously made to be beaten in co-op. Overall it's a great series, I'd rank them like this:

Trauma Team > Trauma Center > Trauma Center: New Blood > Trauma Center 2 (I own Second Opinion but haven't played it yet.)

Little Nemo: The Dream Master is such a good time that although I haven't played through its entirety since circa 1991, I still remember all kinds of things about the game. Especially that damned train level.