Games Beaten 2016

[Exhuminator]

9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors - the story is actually quiet good

I'm glad you were able to find entertainment in this game, but I strongly disagree with you that 999's story was good. I know it's a matter of personal taste though so please don't take offense.

For me the most interesting thing in 999 was its use of the Ice-9 concept (AKA All-Ice). But in reality the writers of 999 (Hideyuki Shibamoto & Shigeyuki Hirata) stole this concept from Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle". Also the morphogenetic field concepts were taken from Rupert Sheldrake's work. Ethylenediamine tartrate is an actual compound, the writers didn't make that up either. There are other examples. Again, no offense, but I think that people who really loved 999 probably haven't read enough classic science fiction to realize just how much 999 aped from other works. The game does have very good characterizations though, I'll give it that. And it has a very strong tense atmosphere. It's not all bad.

At least I have Virtue's Last Reward to look forward to

Yes, and it wasn't written by 999's authors. You also have this third sequel to look forward to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Time_Dilemma

[Blu]

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X - Nintendo Wii U - January 3
2. Fallout 4 - Xbox One - January 20
3. Yakuza 4 - PlayStation 3 - January 29

Non-stop violence. Endless shouting. Ripping off shirts. Super sweet back tattoos. Rampant child neglect. A back-and-forth train ride that flies of the rails with constant betrayal. Smashing people into cars, walls, and with bats, swords, and motorcycles. This is a tale of the skewed Japanese underworld as I know it. I'm talking about Yakuza 4.

There's so much that I love about this game. In a day of senseless gun violence, it's refreshing to see that the Yakuza still prefer to do it the old fashion way with martial arts, swords, bicycles, and couches. No guns needed here. Sure, some bad guys have guns, but it often seems that despite main characters being shot, they continue on unphased and obliterate their foes with bone and sinew.

The story goes like this. There's a plot brewing between one of the families either inside or outside of the Tojo clan. The police also want in. There's lots of money involved, and it's usually brought to a really inconvenient place. Eventually a betrayal leads to a plot twist, and then another plot twist. Everyone fights. Usually the big bad protagonist dies, the minor protagonists within the Tojo clan, when beaten, see the error of their ways and continue swimmingly in the family, their honor and faith restored after a nice sweaty brawl session. Cue Kiryu returning to 14 year old Haruka who has seemingly kept the household intact while Kiryu is off defusing a Yakuza civil war and saving Tokyo as we know it.

Still, it's fun, the combat is easy to grasp, the environments provide some laughs as you commit over the top violence on people who are too big for their shoes and accost you on the street and/or insult your masculinity. There's truly funny weird Japanese humor moments. There's also moments where the scenes turn tragic and I'm in this weird spot where I don't know if I should be sad or in the big picture of things it feels a little out of place.

I will say though, the last chapter of this game was awesome and I liked it.

I give Yakuza 4 a 9/10. I'm going to beat Dead Souls and Yakuza 5 next.

[Fragems]

9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors - the story is actually quiet good

I'm glad you were able to find entertainment in this game, but I strongly disagree with you that 999's story was good. I know it's a matter of personal taste though so please don't take offense.

For me the most interesting thing in 999 was its use of the Ice-9 concept (AKA All-Ice). But in reality the writers of 999 (Hideyuki Shibamoto & Shigeyuki Hirata) stole this concept from Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle". Also the morphogenetic field concepts were taken from Rupert Sheldrake's work. Ethylenediamine tartrate is an actual compound, the writers didn't make that up either. There are other examples. Again, no offense, but I think that people who really loved 999 probably haven't read enough classic science fiction to realize just how much 999 aped from other works. The game does have very good characterizations though, I'll give it that. And it has a very strong tense atmosphere. It's not all bad.

At least I have Virtue's Last Reward to look forward to

Yes, and it wasn't written by 999's authors. You also have this third sequel to look forward to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Time_Dilemma

Really the only thing I didn't care for was the difficulty variation between the puzzles most were ridiculously easy to the point you could simply spam the bottom screen with inputs and solve it in less then 10 seconds without even having to think. While a handful were really difficult unless you picked up on a single vague clue. The final puzzle was kind of a let down as well, but mainly because it was such a popular puzzle type and it wasn't even difficult if you knew that type of puzzle anyways.

Other then that I can say the story was pretty weak on some of the bad endings especially after repeated play throughs but I thought it was pretty solid for the Safe and True ending even if it was a little cliche. One thing I have to say though is whoever proofread the translations fell asleep at the wheel . There were quite a few mistakes in spelling and grammar but nothing to major.

Started up Virtue's Last Reward and made it through the first puzzle digging the flow system which I'm guessing will save me from having to replay the game in it's entirety to experience the twenty four endings. Think I'm going to go back and try to finish Fallout 4 first though before I end up abandoning it since I'm 66 hours in already might just blow through the main quest as opposed to trying to complete all the fetch quests for the different factions.

[Exhuminator]

1. Mega Man ZX Advent|DS|2007|platformer|8h|7/10
2. King's Field III: Pilot Style|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|1h|8/10
3. Sleeping Dogs|360|2012|action-adventure|20h 45m|8/10
4. Sleepings Dogs: NiNP DLC|360|2012|action adventure|1h 22m|5/10
5. Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS|GB|1992|shmup|33m|8/10
6. Vattle Giuce|GB|1991|shmup|45m|5/10
7. MechWarrior 2 (Clan Wolf)|PS1|1997|mech sim|2h 35m|7/10
8. Gradius: The Interstellar Assault|GB|1992|shmup|27m|8/10
9. SolarStriker|GB|1990|shmup|23m|7/10
10. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|45m|6/10
11. Dead or Alive (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|23m|5/10
12. Asuka 120% Burning Festival Final (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|26m|8/10
13. Soul Blade (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|18m|9/10
14. Trax|GB|1991|shmup|23m|7/10
15. Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1995|fighter|36m|5/10
16. Warpath: Jurassic Park (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|17m|4/10
17. Psychic Force (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|figher|22m|7/10
18. Touki Denshou: Angel Eyes (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|27m|7/10
19. Advanced V.G. 2 (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|15m|8/10
20. StarHawk|GB|1993|shmup|1h 15m|4/10
21. Nemesis|GB|1990|shmup|28m|7/10

Caught the PS1 fighting fever again last night. Reached the credits of three more game's arcade modes in a little less than two hours. Here's what I beat...


22. Cardinal Syn (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|54m|7/10

Here's a game I've literally never seen anyone talk about on any gaming forum ever. I figured this was gonna be trash, but to my surprise Cardinal Syn's actually a decent arena fighter. The arenas have hazards you can use to damage your opponent with, along with health and attack boosts to pickup. Combat is weapon oriented, and the ability to do decapitation attacks exists. Graphically the 3D models are well detailed (they even get bloody during battles) and animated convincingly. However I didn't find the character designs all that appealing personally. If you're looking for a technologically impressive and decent enough gore fighter for PS1, it'd be a cardinal sin to pass this one up, hyuk.

Finishing tournament mode in Cardinal Syn took me almost an hour. The final boss (huge dragon) took half of that time alone. If you take the time to train and learn all the special moves, you could probably toast tournament mode in twenty minutes though.


23. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|15m|7/10

Street Fighter goes polygonal for the first time on PS1. And that's the main draw here, really. SFEPA plays just like you'd expect from Street Fighter, with tight controls and polygons zipping at 60fps. There's some stuff added here like super combo gauges, guard breaks, super cancels, and whatever. None of that stopped my Ken from blitzing arcade mode in all of 15 minutes on normal difficulty. Maybe the AI steps up its game massively on hard mode, I don't know. If you're hankering for a 3D Street Fighter that plays just like classic SF, you'll get that here. Not much else on offer beyond that.


24. Street Fighter EX 2 Plus (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|22m|8/10

When a SF game puts Ken on the cover, you know it's got its priorities straight. SFEX2P evolves beyond its predecessor in some meaningful ways. Graphically the models have more polygons now and delicious gouraud shading all at 60fps. Backgrounds actually have animation this time and are more convincing. The OST is freaking AWESOME, I really loved the music in this one. From a gameplay perspective the big addition in EX2 over EX, is its Excel Combo system. Very powerful when used properly but I'm not getting into the nuances of that here. And beyond that even, there are Meteor Combos, haha, I'll just let you see what those do for yourself. There are some cool bonus rounds in EX2, including one where you beat up a space satellite as it crashes to earth. Street Fighter EX 2 Plus is a rock solid PS1 fighter and is strongly recommended to anyone who enjoys fighting games.

---

It just occurred to me that on PS1, you can play SF with real life graphics (SF:The Movie), hand drawn 2D graphics (SF3A), and polygonal graphics (SF:EX). If that doesn't speak to both the popularity of the franchise and the longevity of the PS1, I don't know what does.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Street Fighter EX 2 Plus is a rock solid PS1 fighter and is strongly recommended to anyone who enjoys fighting games.

I agree wholeheartedly. The first two Street Fighter EX games were really great. Arika/Capcom really dropped the ball with the third one for some reason, however...

[touchofkiel]

Always wanted to try the Ex series, if only for the novelty of seeing the characters in 3D. Glad to hear it's easy! Despite how much I enjoy SF I've never been very good...

At this very moment I just played a few ranked matches of SF4 on PS4. Embarrassing, to say the least...

[Ack]

22. Cardinal Syn (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|54m|7/10

Here's a game I've literally never seen anyone talk about on any gaming forum ever.

That's because everybody gave up on Kronos Digital fighters after we played Criticom and Dark Rift.

[Exhuminator]

Always wanted to try the Ex series, if only for the novelty of seeing the characters in 3D. Glad to hear it's easy!

It was easy for me to cheese the arcade modes on normal difficulty using Ken. But I am a Ken master in SF. If I was using a different character it might be more difficult. Also, if you put the difficulty on hard mode, the games might be challenging to even a Ken master. If normal difficulty is too hard, there's also easy mode.

By all means though, give EX2 a shot. I wish I hadn't waited so many years to try it.

---

@Ack

Haven't played those yet, but they're in the "try 'em out" bucket.

[Ack]

@Ack

Haven't played those yet, but they're in the "try 'em out" bucket.

I put some time into Dark Rift back when I was collecting all of the N64 fighters. It's not the worst the console has to offer in that department, but it's very limited and bland in what it can do. It's also not aged well at all, which is unfortunate since its graphics were a big selling point back in the day. Feel free to track it down, but I definitely suggest putting it at the bottom of that bucket of yours.

[Exhuminator]

Ex's 2016 beat list:

1. Mega Man ZX Advent|DS|2007|platformer|8h|7/10
2. King's Field III: Pilot Style|PS1|1996|dungeon crawler|1h|8/10
3. Sleeping Dogs|360|2012|action-adventure|20h 45m|8/10
4. Sleepings Dogs: NiNP DLC|360|2012|action adventure|1h 22m|5/10
5. Chikyuu Kaihou Gun ZAS|GB|1992|shmup|33m|8/10
6. Vattle Giuce|GB|1991|shmup|45m|5/10
7. MechWarrior 2 (Clan Wolf)|PS1|1997|mech sim|2h 35m|7/10
8. Gradius: The Interstellar Assault|GB|1992|shmup|27m|8/10
9. SolarStriker|GB|1990|shmup|23m|7/10
10. Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|45m|6/10
11. Dead or Alive (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|23m|5/10
12. Asuka 120% Burning Festival Final (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|26m|8/10
13. Soul Blade (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|18m|9/10
14. Trax|GB|1991|shmup|23m|7/10
15. Street Fighter: The Movie (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1995|fighter|36m|5/10
16. Warpath: Jurassic Park (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|17m|4/10
17. Psychic Force (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|figher|22m|7/10
18. Touki Denshou: Angel Eyes (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|27m|7/10
19. Advanced V.G. 2 (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|15m|8/10
20. StarHawk|GB|1993|shmup|1h 15m|4/10
21. Nemesis|GB|1990|shmup|28m|7/10
22. Cardinal Syn (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1998|fighter|54m|7/10
23. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1997|fighter|15m|7/10
24. Street Fighter EX 2 Plus (Arcade Mode)|PS1|1999|fighter|22m|8/10

25. Battle Unit Zeoth|GB|1991|shmup|24m|6/10



Beat this one over my lunch break today, only took 24 minutes.

Battle Unit Zeoth is a mecha themed shmup for the Game Boy. It differentiates itself from most shmups in that there's a gravity effect. Meaning that you must manually keep your mech boosted in the air via timed thrusts. The stages are also quite large insofar as maneuvering is concerned. Stages are short however, and not all that challenging, provided you can avoid enemy fire. Bosses are all large and intimidating looking, but quickly brought down once you find the safe spot to attack from. (By safe spot I mean a point on the screen that bosses miss with their attacks.) The graphics are convincing in their theme, but the OST is bland. I recommend this game to mech loving Game Boy enthusiasts, but BUZ won't offer enough content or variety for most players to get excited over.