Games Beaten 2016

[Exhuminator]

Have you played the Thunder Force series?

I rented two of them on Genesis back in the 90s. I did not beat them though. I remember being impressed with their programming, graphics, and music. I plan to revisit them as I slowly trawl the shmup waters.

Right now the most impressive shmup I can remember playing through was 19XX: The War Against Destiny via MAME. I beat that one only thanks to endless credits. I can ∞CC any shmup yo.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Try R-Type Delta sometime. It's great!

[fastbilly1]

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Episode 4 - Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective

Another decent Homestar game only marred by the early Telltale engine and game making style. So far it is the best of the series, and I really liked Episode 2 - Strong Badia the Free. It has a few puzzles that are Sierra difficult, but you cant die or get in unwinnable situations, so it all works out. Took me about four hours to play through only getting stuck twice. The highlight is that in a style later parodied by Kung Fury, several elements are fastforwarded through or have "tracking issues" to get around key parts. Homestar faking as a robot was my favorite part.

[Sarge]

I love me some Strong Bad.

[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

I think this was a pretty good game. I know Japan loves their spin-offs, and the Yakuza series has a few more that are Japan-exclusive. The controls are atypical of your third person shooter, but overall this game has a lot of comedy, some frantic action, and lots of tongue-in-cheek humor regarding the Zombie Apocalypse genre. Majima as always is a nut, and it's fun to play him as a main character. The only gripe is that there's sometimes real bad slowdown in FPS when the screen gets too cluttered. That and you can get combo'ed pretty hard when getting knocked down in a Zombie swarm. But I imagine that's what it'd be life if there was a horde of zombies trying to get you. Give it a go if you're a fan of the Yakuza series. 7/10.

[touchofkiel]

Have you played the Thunder Force series?

I rented two of them on Genesis back in the 90s. I did not beat them though. I remember being impressed with their programming, graphics, and music. I plan to revisit them as I slowly trawl the shmup waters.

Right now the most impressive shmup I can remember playing through was 19XX: The War Against Destiny via MAME. I beat that one only thanks to endless credits. I can ∞CC any shmup yo.

Ah, but not all of them let you spawn where you died! Some of them restart the level...

[Sarge]

January:

1) Bonk's Adventure (NES)
2) Little Samson
3) Holy Diver
4) Holy Diver (legit!)
5) Mitsume Ga Tooru
6) TMNT II: The Arcade Game (NES)
7) Mighty Final Fight
8] Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
9) Monster In My Pocket
10) Battle of Olympus
11) Gunstar Heroes (repeat)
12) Dragon Age: Inquisition
13) Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser
14) Captain America and the Avengers (NES)
15) StarTropics
16) Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES) (save states)
17) Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES) (legit)
18) Crisis Force
19) Esper Dream 2
20) Felix the Cat
21) Moon Crystal
22) Panic Restaurant
23) Frankenstein (NES)
24) Crystalis
25) Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu

26) Killer Instinct (GB)
27) Mashin Hero Wataru Gaiden
28) Sly Spy (Arcade)

I had started this game up a while back, forgotten where I was, and just decided to start over. It's apparently based on a anime mecha show of a more cutesy flavor. The game itself is a combination of Dragon Quest and... not quite Zelda II, but close. There's another game that handles random battles like this that I can't think of, but at any rate, they're single-screen affairs. They also feel significantly similar in mechanics to Wonder Boy... which makes sense, seeing as how Westone was the developer on this one. It's probably a 5-10 hour jaunt, depending on how thorough you are. The translation patch is a little quirky in places, but very solid overall. I recommend the game pretty highly, certainly up there with other action-RPG amalgams on the NES, despite its licensed nature.

EDIT: Saw this one on HG101, and thought it looked interesting. It's a bit of Rolling Thunder, with even more Bond influence, like a skydiving segment, underwater, motorcycle, and even a boss that's pretty much just Oddjob. It's a little awkward to play, as it feels you can never respond quite quickly enough to threats, and your gunshots in spots feel a bit weird. It also feels like the engine is probably the same or similar to the one in Robocop, and the game definitely gives a little bit of that vibe, too. Not a stellar game, but not a terrible way to spend 15-20 minutes or so.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Episode 4 - Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective

Another decent Homestar game only marred by the early Telltale engine and game making style. So far it is the best of the series, and I really liked Episode 2 - Strong Badia the Free. It has a few puzzles that are Sierra difficult, but you cant die or get in unwinnable situations, so it all works out. Took me about four hours to play through only getting stuck twice. The highlight is that in a style later parodied by Kung Fury, several elements are fastforwarded through or have "tracking issues" to get around key parts. Homestar faking as a robot was my favorite part.

I keep forgetting they have the 5-episode bundle on PSN for 15 bucks! Gotta pick up that bad boy sometime. I've only played episodes 1 and 5 on my Wii, and apparently I'm missin' the best ones :/

[BoneSnapDeez]

Isn't Keith Courage actually a Mashin Hero Wataru game?

[touchofkiel]

Just beat the first Gradius on PSP (Gradius Collection). Damn, my hands are cramped.

I'm a shmup noob, but I made it through on a single life on medium difficulty... with only 1 cheat: the PSP ports have an option to make your hitbox smaller. I'm not sure it made a huge difference, though... except in the third level with those horizontal orange face things. The only enemies that ever gave me any real grief in my earlier practice runs.

I played with 7 lives, but it didn't matter. If I died, I restarted... that's just how damn important it is to retain your power-ups. If you can manage that, the game is a little on the easy side... or at least easier than I expected.

Anyways, a damn fine game. I wish I had gotten into this genre earlier. Probably the most satisfying and fun game released in 1985... well, aside from that other game, whose name I forget, about plumbers or some shit.