Games Beaten 2016

[Xeogred]

I've only beat one game this year (and bought three)

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X

Thoughts?

[noiseredux]

1. The Match Of The Millennium (NGPC)
2. Pocket Tennis Color (NGPC)
3. XCOM 2 (PC)
4. Street Fighter V (PC)

well, I beat SFV's Story Mode which is... short. My Steam-clock says two hours but that includes me setting up the game, messing with GPU settings, mapping the arcade stick, and also leaving it running while I did a few other things. Honestly, if you skipped over the story bits, I bet you have maybe a half-hour of fighting in Story Mode. Just saying.

At any rate, I can't fully judge this game yet. It clearly wasn't meant to be a single-player experience. From what I can tell so far, it's pretty much what I wanted it to be: Street Fighter IV with a more unique (less SF2) roster. It's got its quirks, and the inspirations of SF3 and the Alpha series are felt.

[MrPopo]

1. Oni - PC
2. Donkey Kong 64 - N64
3. Yoshi's Story - N64
4. Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide - PC
5. Forsaken 64 - N64
6. Bloodrayne: Betrayal - PSN
7. Fire Emblem Seisen no Keifu - SNES
8. Fire Emblem Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū - Nintendo DS
9. Valkyria Chronicles 3 - PSP
10. Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - DC
11. Rise of the Tomb Raider - PC
12. XCOM 2 - PC
13. Shadowrun Hong Kong Bonus Campaign - PC
14. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3DS
15. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 3DS
16. Lagrange Point - NES
17. Fire Emblem Fates: Revelations - 3DS

And the final chapter in Fates is finished. This is clearly the best chapter because you get to end with all the adorable little sisters. In terms of gameplay it's harder than Birthright overall but not as hard as Conquest. Additionally, the final map is bar far the easiest of the three (a general lack of anything to screw you over unless you're really dumb) and the two previous maps can be quite easily cheesed. The penultimate map gives your main unit a 3x3 square of healing tiles that give a ton of healing and evade that follows the PC around, so it is easily soloed. And then the first part of the final two marathon lets you quickly get to the final boss and kill it, whereas the other two paths made it long and grindy. So if you screwed up on the final map and lost someone you wouldn't want to do it again. By contrast with this one it would have been easy to restart but completely unnecessary.

The story gets at the root of the bad things that happened in the two other paths; the other two paths are stopping the big bad's current plan but not getting at the root of the problems facing the world. This path unites the two kingdoms against the real foe and leaves things much nicer off; absolutely no bitter exists in this ending.

Unfortunately, this also means you have a giant cast that you mostly don't get to use. Maybe if you play the game in an ironman fashion you need this many characters. Not helping things is just how many really underleveled units join you as you get further in the game. If you don't really like a particular unit/really want them for a pairing then you won't even bother. Bring back Seisen no Keifu's style of units.

[ElkinFencer10]

I finished the Iron League in Pokken Tournament and beat the Grand Master last night. It was WAY too easy IMO - I'm bad at fighting games, and I only lost two battles out of 152, and that was because I'm bad at fighting Suicunes - but it was a lot of fun. Too repetitive, but fun nonetheless.

[Blu]

1. Xenoblade Chronicles X - Nintendo Wii U - January 3
2. Fallout 4 - Xbox One - January 20
3. Yakuza 4 - PlayStation 3 - January 29
4. Yakuza: Dead Souls - PlayStation 3 - February 5
5. Yakuza 5 - PlayStation 3 - February 27
6. The Last of Us - PlayStation 3 - February 29
7. Yoshi's Wooly World - Nintendo Wii U - March 2
8. Bayonetta - Nintendo Wii U - March 6
9. Pikmin 3 - Nintendo Wii U - March 20

This is a lovely little gem. I've only played Pikmin and Pikmin 3. I do want to play Pikmin 2 eventually, but I'm holding out for the GameCube version. Here's my long and short of it all:

Pros:
+ Really beginner friendly, and has an edge for those up for a challenge.
+ A lot of intuitive puzzle challenges, clever mechanics.
+ Juicing all the fruits, with their weird names.
+ Lovely soundtrack
+ The same charming little universe, full of humor.

Cons
- Relatively short story; replayable with challenges, two player mode, etc.
- Not the best control scheme. Locking onto targets with the Wii U Pro controller feels clunky, and the touchpad controls offer some better controls but to me it felt off. I'm contrasting with Pikmin on Gamecube, which I know is 10 years ago. I lost over 809 Pikmin in my playthrough, mainly because it was hard to target and wrangle my Pikmin when trouble came their way. Perhaps there's another control scheme that I was missing, but it definitely doesn't stack up with Pikmin's original controls.

I really liked it, you should give it a try if you haven't. For $20, you could do a whole lot worse. 8.5/10

[Blu]

I finished the Iron League in Pokken Tournament and beat the Grand Master last night. It was WAY too easy IMO - I'm bad at fighting games, and I only lost two battles out of 152, and that was because I'm bad at fighting Suicunes - but it was a lot of fun. Too repetitive, but fun nonetheless.

Would you recommend picking it up? Or waiting until a price drop? I love beginner friendly fighting games, and I think Pokken has something unique about it. What do you think Elkin?

[ElkinFencer10]

I finished the Iron League in Pokken Tournament and beat the Grand Master last night. It was WAY too easy IMO - I'm bad at fighting games, and I only lost two battles out of 152, and that was because I'm bad at fighting Suicunes - but it was a lot of fun. Too repetitive, but fun nonetheless.

Would you recommend picking it up? Or waiting until a price drop? I love beginner friendly fighting games, and I think Pokken has something unique about it. What do you think Elkin?

It's definitely beginner friendly. Don't listen to IGN's review; I'm bad at fighting games, and I mostly figured it out with little difficulty. I'd definitely recommend picking it up if you're interested in collector's value since only the first run games have the Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card. If you don't care about that, you can wait for it to drop a little, but you know how Pokemon games are; the price will only drop so much, and it probably won't be a fast drop. Personally, I suggest going ahead and picking it up to get the Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card; this first run print will have killer resell value years down the line.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2016

Spirits of Xanadu - PC
Tales From the Borderlands: Episode 1 - PC
Operation C - Game Boy
That Dragon, Cancer - PC
Contra - NES
Super C - NES
Contra III - The Alien Wars - SNES
Tekken - PS1
The King of Fighters '99 - PS1
Street Fighter Alpha - PS1
Call of Duty: Black Ops III - PS4
Three Fourths Home - PC
Firewatch - PS4
Street Fighter V - PS4
Far Cry: Primal - PS4
Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax - PS3
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma EXTEND - Xbox One
Android Assault Cactus - PS4 *new*
Table Top Racing - Vita *new*

Total: 19

Previously: 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

I finished the main mode in both of these today.

Assault Android Cactus is perhaps the best twin stick shooter I've ever played. It has great characters, bullet-hell inspired patterns, and a lot of that Sega Dreamcast-style charm. It has a nice scalable difficulty (fuck that last boss though) and a lot to unlock and do after you beat it. Highly recommended.

Table Top Racing is surprisingly robust and more fun than I figured it would be. It is basically a Micro Machines Kart Racing game, and features short tracks on tables (as the name suggests). There's lot of vehicle upgrades and the like, several modes, and a nice challenge to be had. I finished all four cups in the main championship circuit mode.

[Blu]

Are you on a fighting kick this year Dave? Are you exploring the genre a bit more with some intent or is it just a random dabbling?

[dsheinem]

Are you on a fighting kick this year Dave? Are you exploring the genre a bit more with some intent or is it just a random dabbling?

That's an odd comment after I posted two non-fighting games.

I didn't think I was playing fighters any more or less than any other year, but it turns out that you are on to something. I didn't realize my fighting game numbers have fallen off of late. Last year fighters were 6% of my final list, the year before that 11%, the year before that about 16%, and the year before that almost 20% . So far this year 6/19 (31%) have been fighters, but I would be surprised if I get much over 10% or so for the year. That said, I have been itching for a new fight stick...