Games Beaten 2016

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Ultimate NES Remix (3DS)
2. Space Invaders Infinity Gene (iOS)
3. World of Goo (iOS)
4. A Dark Room (iOS)
5. Shovel Knight (WII U)
6. The Room (iOS)
7. Mega Man 10 (PS3)
8. The Room Two (iOS)
9. Braid (PS3)
10. Kung Fu Fight! (WII U)
11. Kung Fu Rabbit (WII U)
12. Escape Goat (360)
13. Canabalt (iOS)
14. Leo's Fortune (iOS)
15. King's Field: The Ancient City (PS2)
16. Grim Fandango Remastered (iOS)
17. Dust: An Elysian Tale (360)
18. Shantae (GBC)
19. 3D Space Harrier (3DS)
20. 3D After Burner II (3DS)
21. 3D Classics: Kid Icarus (3DS)
22. Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (GB)
23. Shantae: Risky's Revenge Director's Cut (WII U)
24. Final Fantasy Adventure (GB)
25. Furdemption (iOS)
26. Virtua Fighter Remix (SATURN)
27. Manos The Hands of Fate (iOS)
28. Virtua Fighter 2 (PS3)
29. Fighting Vipers (PS3)
30. Ikari Warriors (PS3)
31. Virtua Cop (SATURN)
32. Virtua Cop 2 (SATURN)
33. Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Director's Cut (iOS)
34. Virtua Racing (PS2)
35. Daytona USA (DC)
36. Sega Rally Championship (SATURN)
37. RayForce (iOS)
38. Hundreds (iOS)
39. Don't Look Back (iOS)
40. Finding Teddy (iOS)
41. Shantae & The Pirate's Curse (WII U)
42. Dragon Warrior II (GBC)
43. Guardian Heroes (360)
44. Ninja Smasher! (3DS)
45. BoxBoxBoy! (3DS)
46. 2 Fast 4 Gnomz (3DS)
47. Aeternoblade (3DS)
48. Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures (3DS)
49. Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale (3DS)
50. Bloody Vampire (3DS)[/spoiler]
51. Armillo (WII U)
52. Human Resource Machine (iOS)
53. Alone in the Dark (iOS)
54. The Room 3 (iOS)
55. Monument Valley (iOS)
56. Hysteria Project (PS3/PSP)
57. Azarashi (iOS)
58. Pink Hour (iOS)
59. Kero Blaster (iOS)
60. Pink Heaven (iOS)
61. Severed (iOS)
62. Rex Rocket (iOS)
63. Potatoman Seeks The Troof (iOS)
64. Bloo Kid (iOS)
65. Framed (iOS)

I pushed through Framed just before December 31; so, I am adding it to my list of games beaten in 2016. It is a puzzle game in which you rearrange comic panels to guide a spy/thief with a briefcase past guards and obstacles. Like Dragon's Lair, failures are almost as much fun as success, and Framed is a generally enjoyable experience. It is entirely too short, however, and it is also entirely too easy. (It introduces some interesting mechanics - such as rotating panels - about halfway through the game, but it doesn't do nearly enough with them.) Accordingly, I am not entirely sure it is worthy of its accolades, and I recommend entering it with tempered expectations.

.....

I moved this year, and many of my older systems are still boxed up. (I am working on that game room though!) As a result, my 3DS and iPad received a lot of attention this year. I now have my (relatively) modern consoles hooked back up, however, and I hope to do a little less portable gaming in 2017. I also found my PSP yesterday, and I plan to spend some time with it too. (After I finish up DQVII, maybe...) We'll see how it goes!

[alienjesus]

So, I already posted some stats, but here are some mini reviews of the 2 games on my end of year list from last year I haven't wrote about yet.


Freedom Planet:
This is a game made by someone who clearly likes Sonic. You play as anthropomorphic furries and run fast through levels defeating enemies. Lots of the level mechanics are ripped straight from sonic games - lots of times I went "oh that's from Flying Battery Zone in Sonic & Knuckles" or "That's straight out of Ice Cap Zone in Sonic 3". I wish it had used more of it's own ideas.

Or perhaps not, because it's unique aspects were some of my least favourites. You have more developed combat mechanics, and I hated it. It made the pace really odd, and the boss fights which accompanied them were often annoying difficulty spikes. I've heard someone say they were inspired by Treasure, but Treasure did it much better. The whole game is clearly a love letter to mega drive platformers though, as the main character also has a boost mechanic which works like the jetpack from Rocket Knight.

It might sound like I'm picking on Freedom Planet, but the gameplay was decent enough - less enjoyable than the games it was inspired by, sure, but that's a hard bar to reach. However, the other thing the developer clearly loved was BAD Sonic the Hedgehog comics and fanfiction. I chose to play with the story on (it's optional, which is nice) and I chose wrong, because without a doubt, the story of Freedom Planet is the most cliche, angst ridden, teenager on deviantart or fanfiction.net guff I've ever had the misfortune of sitting through. This isn't a 'bad' story in the way Super Mario Bros. has a bad story, this is a bad story in the sense that Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey are bad stories - it's truly awful all the way through, and there's a LOT of it. It literally soured the whole experience for me - something which no game story has ever managed to do before. So...er...congrats Freedom Planet?

Freedom Planet is OK, but play it on Classic.

Rhythm Paradise Megamix:
Rhythm Paradise Megamix is known as Rhythm Heaven Megamix in the states. It's the latest in the Rhythm Paradise series, and is a compilation of sorts. The game features around 100 rhythm mini-games, with most of them being pulled from the 3 previous entries in the series - on GBA, DS, and Wii.

The pick of mini-games is decent, although some questionable ones definitely snuck through - especially from the GBA game, where some really boring basic games were chosen.

Of the new mini-games, several of them are new renditions of old games. Unfortunately, rather than being a more challenging version of them, they're generally an even easier version than the original. I guess they thought the series was too challenging, but I'd have rather have had something with some challenge, seeing as this is clearly meant to be a love letter to fans of the series.

There's a new story mode which has some goofy characters and dialogue, but mostly the structure is the same. Each stage has a mini game from each of the games in order (GBA, DS, Wii, new 3DS stage) and some, but not all, of the later stages feature a remix stage. It's a shame there's so few of these, as despite them being frustrating, they generally offered the most challenge.

The new minigames are pretty good, so it's a shame there aren't more of them. I hope we'll see a fully fledged new game in the series soon though.

If you haven't played this series before, this is a good place to start. It's the easiest entry, and it has the most content. If you're a long time fan, it's a good entry and the new content is great, but be prepared to sit through some slow stages early on to get to the more challenging ones. And hey, those perfects are still difficult to get.

[Sarge]

See, the addition of combat was what made FP appealing to me. I've never thought the Sonic games exceeded "good", although I can see their appeal.

I think more of FP as a 32-bit platformer, a sort of spinoff that might have appeared on the Saturn if Sega hadn't created so much non-Sonic stuff.

[Key-Glyph]

This thread shall wise from its grave briefly, as I never posted about my final game beaten in 2016.

01. MagMax (NES)
02. World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (GEN) [2-player]
03. Sonic Spinball (GEN)*
04. Sonic Spinball (GEN)* [complete]
05. Comix Zone (GEN)*
06. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
07. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Project (NES)
08. WCW World Championship Wrestling (NES)
09. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
10. Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
11. Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)
12. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
13. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (GEN) [2-player]*
14. Gunstar Heroes (GEN)
15. Columns III: Revenge of Columns (GEN)
16. Contra: Hard Corps (GEN)
17. The Legend of Zelda (NES) -- Summer Games Challenge
18. Metroid II: Return of Samus (GB) -- Summer Games Challenge
19. Bases Loaded II (NES) -- Summer Games Challenge
20. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB) -- Summer Games Challenge
21. Shenmue (DC) -- Summer Games Challenge
22. Super Bust-a-Move (PS2)
23. Super Spike V'Ball (NES)
24. de Blob (Wii)
25. Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)
26. Wiz n' Liz (GEN)

27. XCOM 2 (PS4)

For some reason I'd always had this assumption that I'd never be good at a tactical RPG, but as soon as I stopped backseat gaming on XCOM and actually stepped up to the plate, I fell for it hard. I've beaten it three times at this point, once on Ironman (permadeath, all choices final), and am currently in the middle of my second Ironman run on a higher difficulty.

I won't say too much about it because I already feel guilty about bringing this thread back from the dead, but something that really bears mentioning is the fantastic sound design in this game. Every single sound effect is so incredibly pleasing to me: the jingle jangle of my squad's gear as they dash around the map, the different voices of every gun and explosion, and holy crap, the sound of an overwatch trigger (when an enemy runs through the line of sight of a soldier waiting to intercept) makes my eyes dilate. I literally cannot be bored or unengaged with this game because the SFX light up my brain like Times Square.

Play it. Love it. Hate it. Live it. XCOM.

* = replay

[Xeogred]

You might be the first person I know that's conquered XCOM 2. And three times?

I hear nothing but good things about it but it sounds insanely tough.

[ElkinFencer10]

You might be the first person I know that's conquered XCOM 2. And three times?

I hear nothing but good things about it but it sounds insanely tough.

Bruh, I finished XCOM 2 seven months ago...

[MrPopo]

You might be the first person I know that's conquered XCOM 2. And three times?

I hear nothing but good things about it but it sounds insanely tough.

I finished it a week after release on Ironman Classic (or whatever they renamed classic to).

[noiseredux]

yeah I finished XCOM 2 not long after it came out.

Long War 2... now THAT'S a hard game.

[Key-Glyph]

There was a lot more activity about XCOM2 back when it was released. I was playing then, but alas that I did not post about it much and missed the opportunity to swap more war stories with my brethren.

[noiseredux]

I'm assuming console versions don't have mod support, key? The Long War 2 mod is insane.