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First 50:

51. Ori and the Blind Forest - Xbox One
52. AM2R - PC
53. Total Annihilation - PC
54. I Am Setsuna - PS4
55. Planetary Annihilation Titans - PC
56. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - PC
57. Dark Reign - Rise of the Shadowhand - PC
58. Dragon Age Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon - PC
59. Dragon Age Inquisition - The Descent - PC
60. Dragon Age Inquisition - Trespasser - PC
61. The Witcher 3 - Hearts of Stone - PC
62. The Witcher 3 - Blood & Wine - PC
63. ReCore - Xbox One
64. Final Fantasy Tactics - PS1
65. Resident Evil 6 - PC
66. Knuckles Chaotix - 32X
67. Assault Suit Leynos - PS4
68. Might & Magic 2 - Gate to Another World - PC
69. Might & Magic 4 - Clouds of Xeen - PC
70. Might & Magic 5 - Darkside of Xeen - PC
71. Might & Magic 4&5 - World of Xeen - PC
72. Rise of the Triad - PC
73. Batman Arkham Knight - PC
74. Rise of the Triad (2013) - PC
75. Dishonored 2 - PC
76. TIS-100 - PC
77. Tyranny - PC
78. StarCraft II - Nova Covert Ops - PC

If you're like me you like RTS's but are terrible at them against a real person. Blizzard has heard you and released a new campaign pack for StarCraft II focusing on Nova. It's the closest we're ever going to get to StarCraft Ghost. And it's pretty fun on its own; definitely worth the money I spent.

Nova Covert Ops is set after the events of Legacy of the Void. It's clear from this and the upcoming Timothy Zahn book that Blizzard still enjoys the universe and seems to be settling in to seeing how the races get along now that there's no eldritch abominations forcing them to all out fight. This story follows around Nova; at the start she wakes up with amnesia and an ominous message on her visor; she needs to escape because the people she's currently staying with are terrible. Soon it becomes clear that you were being used by forces attempting to destabilize the Terran Dominion and bring the Korpulu sector back to war. Naturally you need to stop this, uncovering clues as to why you had amnesia and what's going on.

The game takes the most cues from Heart of the Swarm; the focus is on the Nova hero unit and throughout the campaign you unlock various pieces of gear for her. You end up with four gear slots, each of which can be swapped in between missions (and in one case, during a mission). These can give you special abilities, attribute boosts, and even changing your weapons. About half the missions are solo "installation" missions, while the other half are more standard base building missions. For the base building missions you will unlock several upgrades for your units that can be swapped between the various units, but also can only be used on one unit at a time. For example, if you give your Marauders the ability to be built without a tech bay then you can't give that upgrade to your Siege Tanks. This gives you a fair amount of flexibility in where you want to focus your energies during the missions, and it lets you customize your army to suit your playstyle.

The whole thing is 9 missions long and each mission lasts about half an hour. There's a mix of objectives in it as well, so things stay pretty fresh throughout. The campaign doesn't overstay its welcome; it's just about the right size for what they're trying to do with it.

1. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GCN)
2. Max Payne (XBOX)
3. Eternal Poison (PS2)
4. Dragon Warrior III (NES)
5. Arkanoid: Doh It Again(SNES)
6. Super Mario Brothers 2 (NES)
7. Phantasy Star Online (DC)
8. Power Stone (DC)
9. Bare Knuckle 3 (GEN)
10. Thousand Arms (PS1)
11. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN)
12. Mega Man 5 (NES)
13. Ninja Gaiden (NES)
14. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (XBOX)
15. Mega Man 6 (NES)
16. Metal Saga (PS2)
17. Mafia (XBOX)
18. Parasite Eve (PS1)
19. Shining Force (GEN)
20. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (N64)
21. Bushido Blade 2 (PS1)
22. Street Fighter Alpha Anthology (PS2)
23. ActRaiser (SNES)
24. Resident Evil 4 (GCN)
25. Mario Power Tennis (GCN)
26. Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge (XBOX)
27. Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice (PS2)
28. Ikaruga (GCN)
29. Doom 3 (XBOX)

I beat Doom 3 on the Microsoft XBOX this afternoon!

I have never liked PC games. Maybe it's because I stare at a PC all day at work that I just don't want to use one when I get home. However, when I was a kid, I had a handful of games that I would sometimes play on the PC. Wolfenstein 3D and then Doom were on that list.

I had heard some reviews of the game and they mentioned how they were let down by the game. They said the game was too dark and the game play was rather repetitive.

I, on the other hand, truly enjoyed the game immensely. The game scared the utter living hell out of me. Doom 3 is the scariest game that I have ever played. The amount of jump scares that popped out are too many to count. I lost track of how many times I jumped out of my seat and recoiled at suddenly being attacked.

The darkness never truly bothered me as I always had my handy flashlight. Plus, the atmosphere just went with the tension in the game. The graphics are amazing and look almost too lifelike for my taste. They are very visceral in a way. There is also a wide variety and guns and enemies.

Overall, Doom 3 was quite the surprise. I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end. A fantastic experience and a must play for anybody that loves First Person Shooters.

116. King of Demons | SFC 1995 | 7/10



Majyūō (AKA King of Demons) is a 1995 Japanese platformer video game developed and published by KSS for the Super Famicom. The game was released exclusively in Japan on August 25, 1995, but did receive an English fan translation. Why this platformer never came to the USA is no mystery to me. It's got plenty of blood and many nude female sprites, and you can shoot zombies' heads off in spurts of blood. My favorite part of this game is the drop and roll dodge maneuver, although it makes avoiding enemies too simple. Yes if I were to complain about anything it'd be this game's perhaps a bit too easy. Still, a pretty fun action adventure platformer for people who enjoy Castlevania or Demon's Crest, as its aesthetics are similar. And the ending is total WTF.

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117. Psycho Dream | SFC 1992 | 3/10



Psycho Dream is a 1992 platformer released exclusively for the Super Famicom. An attempt to release it in North America as "Dream Probe" failed. The player controls two courageous demon hunters (Ryo and Maria); who decide to go on a mystical journey to free the world of living people from the demons. Ryo is a swordsman while Maria is an angelic warrior who uses a whip (that can be upgraded into metal claws or a laser gun). Having a limited amount of time to defeat enemies, the focus is on advancing through the stages as quickly as possible. That all sounds exactly fine, but in reality Psycho Dream is one of the more terrible SNES/SFC games I've ever suffered through. Have you ever played through a game just to see if it could possibly keep getting worse? Protip; this one does. All I could think as I played it, was I felt sorry for any Japanese kid who ended up with this pile of crap as their birthday present. The developers obviously realized Psycho Dream was a wreck, so they made Maria as sexualized as they could as a selling point. So if you want to endure an abysmally bad platformer as a whip wielding scantily clad woman, Psycho Dream is here for you.

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118. Axelay | SNES 1992 | 8/10



Here's a well known shmup released by Konami in 1992. It was created during Konami's golden years, so just about everything is solid. Nice graphics, great music, tight control... and kick you in the face difficulty. I'm not exactly a shmup god, granted, but man is Axelay brutal. For me the first stage is the toughest, if I make it past that, I can usually keep going. The thing Axelay is remembered most fondly for are its Mode 7 vertically scrolling stages. Konami pulled off some sweet eye candy with this one. But I prefer the side scrolling stages myself, as they just seem to play more intuitively. If by some chance you haven't played Axelay yet, and you enjoy shmups, it's worth your time. And you'll need plenty of that time to get good enough to beat it.

Had no idea Axelay had horizontal levels. I've actually been meaning to maybe make a thread here to see who prefers which style, but I'm in the unpopular camp that likes horizontal scrolling shmups more. I wish you could just play those levels in Thunder Force 2. Glad they ditched the weird overhead free roaming stuff in the sequels.

As for Majyuuou, I've been listening to this track a lot lately haha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEEaw194830

I beat both King of Demons and Psycho Dream around a year ago. King of Demons is a solid (and dark) platformer that feels more like an NES title. In a good way, though.

Psycho Dream was just a'ight. I did okay until that last boss, and it took me a while to finally get the patterns down to win. I don't think I rated it as low as you, but it's certainly not amazing or anything.

Sarge wrote:King of Demons is a solid (and dark) platformer that feels more like an NES title.

I was thinking the exact same thing as I played it. "This is a NES game with a SNES veneer." But I agree, that's not a bad thing.

Sarge wrote:I don't think I rated it as low as you, but it's certainly not amazing or anything.

I have a lot of complaints about Psycho Dream, but primarily the level designs were just atrocious. I'm glad others can get more enjoyment out of it than I can, different strokes as we say.

I think today I'm going to hit up some Genesis/Megadrive games if I have time. Trying to get some short playthroughs knocked out before I commit to Ys Celceta.

Psycho World > Psycho Dream

Axelay is awesome. I love that game, and the third boss is just amazing.

.....

I haven't beaten any more games recently, but I poured another 15 hours into Dragon Quest VII. The game is so addictive, but I plan on taking another break when I reach the 40 or 50 hour mark. I will probably beat it sometime in 2017...

1. Sly 2 Band of Thieves HD (PS3)
2. Black (Xbox)
3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)
4. Super Mario Bros Advance 4: SMB3 E-Reader Levels (WiiUVC)
5. Galerians (PSX)
6. Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (WiiU)
7. TRAG / Hard Edge: Mission of Mercy (PSX)
8. Soul Blade (PSX)
9. Castlevania Circle of the Moon* (WiiUVC)
10. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess* HD (WiiU)
11. Mega Man 9* (PSN)
12. Mega Man 10* (PSN)
13. Dark Souls 3 (NG++) [PLATINUM] (PS4)
14. Mega Man 1* (PS4, MMLC)
15. Mega Man 2* (PS4, MMLC)
16. Mega Man 3* (PS4, MMLC)
17. Mega Man 4* (PS4, MMLC)
18. Mega Man 5* (PS4, MMLC)
19. Mega Man 6* (PS4, MMLC)
20. Doom [PLATINUM] (PS4)
21. Quake (PC)
22. Quake 2* (PC)
23. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3)
24. Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon (PC)
25. Quake 2 Mission Pack 1: The Reckoning (PC)
26. Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity (PC)
27. Quake 2 Mission Pack 2: Ground Zero (PC)
28. Quake: Dimensions of the Past (PC)
29. Bayonetta 2 (WiiU)
30. Wolfenstein The Old Blood (PC)
31. Dishonored DLC The Knife of Dunwall (PC)
32. Dishonored DLC The Brigmore Witches (PC)
33. Metro Last Light Redux (PC)
34. Doom 3 BFG Edition* (PC)
35. Metro 2033 Redux (PC)
36. Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil* BFG (PC)
37. Doom 3 The Lost Mission* BFG (PC)
38. Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge (PS3)
39. Ultimate Doom* (PC)
40. Devil's Third (WiiU)
41. SOMA (PC)
42. Doom 2* (PC)
43. Gone Home (PC)
44. Metroid Other M (Wii)
45. Deus Ex Human Revolution Director's Cut* (PC)
46. AM2R: Return of Samus (PC)
47. Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS4)
48. Metroid Zero Mission* (WiiUVC)
49. Alan Wake's American Nightmare (PC)
50. Odallus: The Dark Call (PC)
51. Deus Ex Mankind Divided (PC)
52. Resident Evil HD* [Chris & Jill] (PS3)
53. Resident Evil Revelations 2 (PS4)
54. Resident Evil Code Veronica X* HD (PS3)
55. Resident Evil 5* [PLATINUM] (PS4)
56. Resident Evil Zero* HD (PS4)
57. Resident Evil 4 HD* (PS4)
58. Titanfall 2 (PS4)
59. Another World: 20th Anniversary (PC)
60. Xeodrifter (PC)

Two fun romps from some Steam sale purchases.



Another World (Out of this World SNES USA) is one of those cool games basically made entirely by one person. I played Out of this World originally back in the SNES days with my dad and boy was it tricky to navigate and figure out. I can only recall maybe beating it once back then. The 20th Anniversary Edition is pretty cool, worked great with a controller and the smoothed out graphics are nice while keeping true to the original aesthetics I thought. You can change the graphics back on the fly, which I did a few times and was really cool to see.

I did have to look up one part, so I cheated a bit this time around haha. It was later on when you end up holding a guy up with your gun, so he activates a door above him. You backtrack to a set of stairs, then there's a guy behind a breakable door wall. What you have to do here is jump over the stairs to the other side, break the wall, then he starts throwing those ground bomb things that ends up blowing up a hole down the stairs on the other screen. Nothing about it seemed obvious, so I was stuck there for a bit.

Overall pretty cool, with a hilarious premise and ending (ride off on a dragon?) ... this was my precursor to Flashback back in the day, which is one of my favorite games for sure. Speaking of, did anyone play the remake or was it a sequel? Thoughts? I've always wondered what people considered the best version of Flashback to be too. I played a lot of the Genesis and SNES versions. The Genesis one is a bit taxing with the 3 pad though.



Xeodrifter was a nice fun simple game. It's one of the better indie Metroidvania's that stuck out to me awhile ago and I enjoyed the demo, so I knew I'd grab it sometime. Took me about 2 and a half hours to finish up. It was actually tougher than expected, as I died quite a bit. But the challenge felt just right. I ended up making my gun fairly Metroid-esque in a strong Wave Beam kind of way, which worked very well for me. I didn't really care for the bosses all being the same thing, just evolving and getting harder as you go. I also got stuck through the walls at one point and had to exit the game, lost my progress so that sucked. But yeah, overall a charming fun adventure. I'm always rough on indie games and hard to please with them, but I can definitely give this one a thumbs up.

I've beaten both Out of this World (SNES) and Flashback (GEN). I appreciate what they're trying to do, but I don't think that "cinematic" platformers are really my thing. I will get through Prince of Persia someday, and then I may call it on the genre. Are there out there that might change my opinion or that I absolutely should not miss?