Games Beaten 2016

[Sarge]

Cally's Caves 3 is also in this Bundle Stars bundle.

[Exhuminator]

124. Lords of Thunder | TGCD 1993 | 9/10



Lords of Thunder is a freaking amazing fantasy themed shmup. It just gets everything right. Great game design, fun levels, a cool shop system, fantastic bosses, excellent weapons, and plenty of variety. And most of all, the blazing guitars OST is out of this world awesome. I also loved being able to choose the level order and type of magic armor (weapons) to start with. Being able to buy extra continues, shields, power ups and such may make the game too easy for shmup veterans. But you could always just not buy that stuff! My only complaint is after a while the constant sound effect of grabbing crystals starts to get really annoying. But if you're in the mood for a killer shmup, you'll find Lords of Thunder is a lord indeed.

[elricorico]

1. SSX 3 (oXbox)
2. Mario Kart DS (NDS)
3. Fairune (Android)
4. Streets of Rage (Gen)
5. Amplitude (PS2)
6. Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
7. Crash Team Racing (PS)
8. Enchanted Arms (Xbox360)
9. Spyro the Dragon (PS)
10. Limbo (Android)
11. Konami Krazy Racers (GBA)
12. Beatles Rockband (PS3)

13. Soul Calibur (DC)

Ran through this game unlocking all the characters and finishing it at least once with each. My history with the "Soul" series started with Soul Blade on the PS; I played it to death with a few friends in high school and really loved that game. That and Tekken 3 were my preferred fighting games back then. I missed the Dreamcast when it was a live console, but when Soul Calibur 2 came out for PS2 I also played that for countless hours.

Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast holds up exceptionally well today. The battle are fast, animation is smooth, graphics are still pleasant and there are enough characters to keep it interesting. You can get by with button mashing, but there is a deep fighter here if you want to explore and really get to learn a character's moveset. It is a true classic and deserves its place of reverence among the 3D fighters.

14. RockBand 3 (PS3)

Despite having played a plethora of hours of RockBand 3 back when it was new, I never actually rolled the credits. I really spent most of my time in the Quickplay choosing one song at a time and working on my scores. This morning I had the house to myself and decided to pull out the drums and make some noise. After a little while I was motivated to play the last set of tour challenges (or whatever they were called) and played well enough to get the ending.

Rockband was a huge part of my gaming life for a couple of years and I still enjoy going through a few songs from time to time. I prefer RockBand 3 simply because of the option for expert drums, but I was far more satisfied when I beat the story mode of Rockband 2 as I felt you actually had to work for it quite a bit more. If this game wasn't so loud and it didn't take up as much space I'm sure I'd still play it more frequently. Music + Video Games are my top two hobbies, so enjoying this is natural.

[ElkinFencer10]

Pleasant? Fam, the graphics on Soul Calibur are still damn good today. What output did you use? Hopefully you use at least S-video. Composite makes even those great graphics look rubbish, and we won't even talk about RF. VGA is definitely the way to go if you have the option, even if you have it run it through a VGA-to-HDMI converter (that's what I'm doing).

[Xeogred]

R-Type III never clicked with me but I grew up playing Super a lot. Aesthetically I love the R-Type games, but man are they slow or what. I like Gradius more, but I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the upgrade/weapon system in those and Salamander. Not that it's bad, but yeah.

I still can't beat Gradius V and it angers me. Always die on the one stage that has green goo covering nearly the entire screen all the while it's one of those stages where the entire level is wobbling around as you try to navigate it. It's insane.

[alienjesus]

Lords of Thunder is a freaking amazing fantasy themed shmup. It just gets everything right. Great game design, fun levels, a cool shop system, fantastic bosses, excellent weapons, and plenty of variety. And most of all, the blazing guitars OST is out of this world awesome. I also loved being able to choose the level order and type of magic armor (weapons) to start with. Being able to buy extra continues, shields, power ups and such may make the game too easy for shmup veterans. But you could always just not buy that stuff! My only complaint is after a while the constant sound effect of grabbing crystals starts to get really annoying. But if you're in the mood for a killer shmup, you'll find Lords of Thunder is a lord indeed.

Oh hey, that was quick.

You're clearly better at shmups than me - I thought Lords of Thunder was reasonably challenging myself, it took me a little while to finish that one

Which armour did you use? I'm a water armour kinda guy, but I like earth on a few of the stages.

[elricorico]

Pleasant? Fam, the graphics on Soul Calibur are still damn good today. What output did you use? Hopefully you use at least S-video. Composite makes even those great graphics look rubbish, and we won't even talk about RF. VGA is definitely the way to go if you have the option, even if you have it run it through a VGA-to-HDMI converter (that's what I'm doing).

Unfortunately all I have currently for Dreamcast is composite. I do have a 4*3 monitor set aside for a planned VGA setup in the near future though. Any suggestion on best place to get a VGA cable for DC?

[Sarge]

Lords of Thunder is pretty easy compared to a lot of them out there. I beat it on the Sega CD a long time ago. And I rocked out to that soundtrack for years.

By the way, the Sega CD version's soundtrack has been redone, it sounds a bit different. It's actually the version I prefer, at least as far as sound goes.

[Xeogred]

Lords of Thunder is pretty easy compared to a lot of them out there. I beat it on the Sega CD a long time ago. And I rocked out to that soundtrack for years.

By the way, the Sega CD version's soundtrack has been redone, it sounds a bit different. It's actually the version I prefer, at least as far as sound goes.

Same here.

[ElkinFencer10]

Pleasant? Fam, the graphics on Soul Calibur are still damn good today. What output did you use? Hopefully you use at least S-video. Composite makes even those great graphics look rubbish, and we won't even talk about RF. VGA is definitely the way to go if you have the option, even if you have it run it through a VGA-to-HDMI converter (that's what I'm doing).

Unfortunately all I have currently for Dreamcast is composite. I do have a 4*3 monitor set aside for a planned VGA setup in the near future though. Any suggestion on best place to get a VGA cable for DC?

I got mine from someone on here years ago, but I know RetroBit makes a cord with VGA for the video and two RCA cables for the audio. What I have is a VGA box that will output VGA, composite, or S-video depending on what you have it set for and has a 3.5 mm audio jack for VGA output. Boxes like that are the way to go IMO since it gives you some flexibility, but those tend to vary wildly in price and fluctuate often. I got mine for $30, and that was about standard then, but a quick 30 second glance just now makes it seem like $75 is closer to the current going price. I'd poke around eBay and Amazon to see if you can find a good deal.

I mean, just look at this though. And it looks even better IRL.