Games Beaten 2016

[prfsnl_gmr]

Chain Blaster - 3DS *new*
Runny Egg - 3DS *new*
Unfortunately these games were as lackluster as the prior two 3DS games I played were enjoyable.

That's too bad. I haven't played through either yet, but I have played around with Chain Blaster. I agree that it is only OK.

89. Shadow Tower Abyss|PS2|2003|dungeon crawler|10h 47m|9/10

Awesome. I can't wait to play through this. It will be the first game I play when I have my TV set up again.

.....

First 25

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)

I am in the middle of move right now, which doesn't leave a lot of time for video games, and I am toying with the idea of plowing through all 73(!) of my 3DS eShop games. Accordingly, I polished off the gloriously-titled 2 Fast 4 Gnomz. It is a runner that is very easy to beat, but extremely difficult to complete. That is, you can run to the end of each level pretty easily, but gathering all of the collectables (which are socks, BTW), completing each level as quickly as possible, and completing each level without dying is quite challenging. I was not sure I liked the game very much, but for some reason, I...could...not...put...it...down...until I had completed most of the levels (and, in the process, repeatedly confirmed that the death counter can, in fact, reach triple digits). So...I guess I did end up enjoying it after all, and since I got it on sale, I certainly got my money out of it. (I still haven't unlocked all of the "nightmare levels" or achieved perfect times in all of the normal levels.) Finally, the game toys with some interesting design choices and mechanics near the end that add some interesting puzzle elements and that I would like to see implemented in other runners.

I also "completed" BoxBoxBoy!, and I can confirm that the post-game content brought the pain. (I loved it.)

[Xeogred]

Shadow Tower Abyss sounds insane to say the least. I imagine there is absolutely no storage/hub whatsoever as you progress, so the item management and sacrificial mechanics sound like they'd be pretty tough to me, since I'm pretty OCD about collecting and hoarding things. I guess it makes me think of Devil May Cry a little, since items can be extremely rare in those and so it's really critical whenever you use a single item.

I always get some Thief 1 vibes from the little bit I played and with the pics I see. I'll give it a real shot someday. I'll probably hit up the original first and some King's Field. 10 hours, but with some big progress losses and deaths I imagine it's probably more of a 15+ hour experience?

[Exhuminator]

I imagine there is absolutely no storage/hub whatsoever as you progress

Good news! You can store items at shop pillars, and retrieve them from other shop pillars. Bad news! If you are over encumbered you cannot drop items until you reach a pillar type that allows it. So you have to be really careful gathering items and watch your weight limits, or you'll end up moving like a sloth and being not able to fight very well.

I'm pretty OCD about collecting and hoarding things.

Oh man... this game will break you. There are hundreds of items to find. Many are extremely well hidden behind hidden walls, or even inside empty chests (as in the chest looks empty, but it's not). There are rare drop items as well. And since most enemies don't respawn, if that enemy doesn't drop the item, forget it, that was your one and only chance, unless you reload your game and lose whatever progress you've made up to that point.

Also STA keeps track of the exploration percentage of each area you've found. You can go crazy trying to 100% clear an area, trust me. And two of the areas in this game are completely hidden. As in you can totally miss two giant areas if you aren't exploring carefully. It's pretty crazy!

I imagine it's probably more of a 15+ hour experience?

If you fully explored the whole world 100%, it'd be 15 hours on the game clock. If you added all the times you died and lost progress, it might be 18-20 hours. My game clock said 10h 47m, but I was closer to 14 hours in reality. And I didn't even explore every nook and cranny. I missed the waterfall area entirely (sadly).

Once you beat STA, it allows you to do a New Game+ starting at the bottom of the tower with all your current stats/equipment. I think this is so you can start over trying to clear 100% of the areas and find all the stuff you missed.

[isiolia]

And since most enemies don't respawn, if that enemy doesn't drop the item, forget it, that was your one and only chance, unless you reload your game and lose whatever progress you've made up to that point.

Also STA keeps track of the exploration percentage of each area you've found. You can go crazy trying to 100% clear an area, trust me. And two of the areas in this game are completely hidden. As in you can totally miss two giant areas if you aren't exploring carefully. It's pretty crazy!

Seems like the game is designed to allow for reloading/retrying, or maybe even keeping older saves in case you paint yourself into a corner. Is there something preventing you from just running back to the previous save point as you clear things to a satisfactory degree?

[Xeogred]

lol, sounds a lot like Dark Souls in some regards there. In most of the Souls games there can be 2-3 hidden levels, that can be quite elaborate and the same size as any other normal place. Then there's Bloodborne which is just intricate as heck, super complex Metroidvania in design. One of my friends missed like half the game, so it didn't even sound like we were talking about the same thing.

It sounds like most of the item management quirks carried over into Demon's. Which is the only one with both a general item/carry weight (everything) and equip load. You have a nice hub and storage guy though so it's not very hard to manage. Dark Souls mainy just has equip loads and Bloodborne doesn't have neither. It sounds like all their first person dungeon crawlers have their differences, which is true to the Souls line as well.

[Exhuminator]

Seems like the game is designed to allow for reloading/retrying, or maybe even keeping older saves in case you paint yourself into a corner. Is there something preventing you from just running back to the previous save point as you clear things to a satisfactory degree?

You can keep a lot of saves, no shortage of save slots. If I wanted to go back and explore the waterfall area I missed, I could do it now with my New Game+ save. Or if I had known about it before I beat the game, I could go down the tower and explore it that way. But I didn't find out about the waterfall area until after I beat the game. (I often go back and check walkthroughs for games I just beat, to see what I missed.) Since I already beat this game and consider it "done", I decided to just watch someone play through the waterfall area on Youtube. It was quite nice.

It sounds like all their first person dungeon crawlers have their differences

The King's Field and Shadow Tower games are quite different overall. Both series focus on particular game design aspects that the other doesn't. To put it simply... KF is more cerebral whereas ST is more visceral.

[fastbilly1]

I am so terrible at keeping this up

1. Portal DS - DS
2. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Episode 4 - Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective - PC
3. Metal Slug - Coop - MVS
4. Mario and Luigi RPG 3 - Inside Bowser Story - DS
5. Payday 2 - PC
6. Akalabeath - PC
7. Kings Quest 2 – PC
8. Kings Quest 3 – PC
9. Kings Quest 4 – PC
10. Kings Quest 5 – PC
11. Kings Quest 6 – PC
12. Battle Block Theater – Coop – PC
13. Lode Runner – Apple ][ Plus
14. Space Eggs – Apple ][ Plus
15. SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium - NGPC
16. Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - PC
17. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Episode 5 - 8bit is enough

New:
18. Rocket League - PC
19. Wits - Famicom
20. Vs Excitebike - Famicom Disc System
21. Moero! TwinBee: Cinnamon-hakase wo Sukue! - Famicom Disc System
22. Ultima 1 - PC

18. Rocket League - Completed the campaign mode.
I have about 40 hours in the game and have enjoyed most of it. Its still just Carball with an excellent soundtrack and a boatload of polish. And unlike most of the community, I love the non standard maps like Pillars and Tokyo.

19. Wits - Beat the doctor.
So this is not a normal one on my list. Wits is a famicom exclusive that came out in the early 90s that is best described as multiplayer Snake. Up to 4 players duke it out in a snake/tron bike battle with a variety of playing fields - like sky where you move faster, or ice with sliding. You can also jump and speed up, so there is strategy. I found it when looking for 4 player games for my AVS when it arrives, and this is by and large one of the best 4 player Famicom games.

20. VS Excitebike - placed in every race.
Unlike the Vs System version of Excitebike, Vs Excitebike on the FDS is awesome. Take Excitebike, add the ability to save tracks, and a VS mode. Yes 2 player Excitebike on the FDS. If you love the original, this is the version. I wish someone could put it on an NES cart.

21. Moero! TwinBee: Cinnamon-hakase wo Sukue! - Credit fed the main game.
While it was released in the USA as Stinger, I had to give the original a spin because I was told it has a three player mode. Sure enough, it does and it is awesome. Its still Twinbee, but 3 player NES is a rarity and I am all for it. Sadly this one can be pricey.

22. Ultima 1 - Defeated Mondain.
I cant let Ack beat all the CRPGs without me. Ultima 1 was beaten over the weekend fairly quickly. I hated the dungeons, more than Akalabeath, and hated the space part even more than that. I had to shoot the tie fighters three times. First because I did not realize I was running low on fuel, got Space Ace then couldnt get back. Second because I got back and didnt realize I did not have enough money to dock. The final battle was aggravating until I played Yakety Sax. Gripes out of the way, it is a fine CRPG from a time when anything was fair game. I recommend everyone to atleast try it, just to see what game design was back then, but I do not view it as a must play.

[noiseredux]

Ultima 1 was beaten over the weekend fairly quickly.

how long do you think it took you?

[fastbilly1]

Ultima 1 was beaten over the weekend fairly quickly.

how long do you think it took you?

About six hours. I did use a guide in spurts and a map the entire time.

[MrPopo]

The map for Ultima 1 is fun because it consists of four screens that wrap 1, 2, 3, 4 as you go horizontally and 1, 2, 3, 4 as you go vertically.