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I played the PSP version which is even more rebalanced I believe, was still easy to exploit. Cool stuff, but nothing I'd replay.

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:
159) Rise of the Tomb Raider - Lara's Nightmare (PS4) (DLC)
160) Titanfall 2 (PS4)
161) Soul Blade (PSX)
162) Axiom Verge (PC)
163) Owlboy (PC)
164) Nitro Ball (ARC)
165) Desert Breaker (ARC)
166) Dead Connection (ARC)
167) Crystal of Kings (ARC)
168) Crime Fighters (ARC)
169) Vendetta (ARC)
170) Super Contra (ARC)
171) Contra (ARC)
172) Sunset Riders (ARC)
173) Rastan Saga (ARC)
174) Growl (ARC)
175) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (ARC)
176) Red Clash (ARC)
177) Dreaming Sarah (PC)
178) Crimson Clover WORLD IGNITION (PC)
179) Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4)
180) Adventures of Mana (AND)
181) Double Dragon Advance (GBA)
182) X-Men: Children of the Atom (ARC)
183) Double Dragon (ARC)
184) Double Dragon II: The Revenge (ARC)
185) The Simpsons (ARC)
186) Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone (ARC)

Too much talk about Double Dragon on Talking Time after Aksys announced that they're working on a Double Dragon 4. It... doesn't look very good. But DD Advance is very good. It's bits of the first two games, with an expanded moveset (no, really, even more moves!), and zero slowdown. It's beautiful.

Stage 4 on the back of the moving truck can die in a fire, though. I seriously burned two continues right there, having only dropped one life in the prior stage to that point. Those blasted suited guys will absolutely destroy you if they get you trapped, plus you still have to contend with getting knocked off the edge.

Still, I recovered and had a continue to spare by the end. Good threat management is key, as always, and the non-disappearing weapons can help even up the cause. Many of the weapons are quite good. The whip is the first one worth holding on to, as is its cousin the morning star. The nunchaku are quite good, although it's got some serious delay in completing the combo, so you have to be careful how you trigger it. The tonfas are a little quicker to knock down, so they prove mighty effective.

Anyway, if you loved Double Dragon in the arcade, you'll love this. Heck, you might love it even if you didn't. 9/10.

EDIT: X-Men: Children of the Atom is the game that jump-started the Vs. series. No, it doesn't have the Vs. in the title, but it's very much the dashy, super-jumpy gameplay we know and love. My cousin had the quite good PC port of this, and I was pretty good at it then. Apparently, something has changed in the interim, because over the last few days, I've been getting smoked.

Well, two can play at that game. I can cheese with the best of 'em, computer AI. I pulled out Iceman, and chip-damaged a ton of folks to death. That worked great, until I hit Magneto. Magneto is much like M. Bison, full of cheapness with his overpowered super move. The rest you can handle a'ight, but if he lands his shockwave, you're looking at half of your life, gone in a flash.

I quite literally chipped him down enough and ran out the timer in both rounds of my winning run. I took it in the face more times than that, though. As far as I can tell, there aren't really any difficulty settings, either, so I'm assuming it's maxed out. The CPU blocks almost everything to a ridiculous degree, which might be why there's an auto-block option for the player as well... that I didn't use. Not my style.

Anyway, it's down and done. Now I'm going to go look up a video on YouTube and see Magneto mercilessly crushed.

EDIT: Moar Double Dragon! I don't know if I've ever finished the second arcade game. It's... well, it's not as good, full of all sorts of cheapness that even the first game didn't have. Of course, I was on Hard and not Medium, I discovered, after finishing things up. DD1 defaults to Medium, and is better for it. I'm not sure if Hard makes a massive difference, but there are enemies in DD2 that will take off half of your life bar in a single barrage. It's very, very unfair. The NES version is far, far superior.

Also, both games have significant slowdown. I remember playing as a kid, but it didn't have that issue. That's apparently because I was playing a bootleg copy, which runs better than the original release. Go figure! Anyway, I remember beating the original game on two quarters back in the day... although the default lives were jacked up to four, and I don't know what difficulty it was on. Ah well, I still claim it.

EDIT: The Simpsons arcade game is pretty much a reskinned TMNT, which makes it pretty great. Been a while since I made a run through it. It may be the only Simpsons-related thing I actually like.

Just updating this for my own records. Might write little blurbs latter but I am too tired at the moment. 51 - 60 are the new additions.

EDIT: Just adding one more game.

January
1. Fez (PC)
2. Sakura Spirit (PC)
3. Mega Man 1 (PC - Legacy Collection)
4. Mega Man 2 (PC - Legacy Collection)
5. McPixel (PC)
6. Tower of Heaven (PC)
7. Spyro the Dragon (PSP - PS1 Classic)
8. Reveal the Deep (PC)
9. Real Horror Stories Ultimate Edition (PC)
10.Mega Man 6 (PC - Legacy Collection)

February
11. Retro Game Crunch - Super Clew Land (PC)
12. Retro Game Crunch - End of Line (PC)
13. Retro Game Crunch - Wub-Wub Wescue (PC)
14. Stick RPG 2 (PC)
15. Uncanny Valley (PC)

March
16. Type:Rider (PC)
17. The Binding of Isacc (PC)

July
18. Space Pilgrim Episode I: Alpha Centauri (PC)
19. Space Pilgrim Episode II: Epsilon Indi (PC)
20. Space Pilgrim Episode III: Delta Pavonis (PC)

August
21. AM2R (PC)

September
22. Snakebird (PC)
23. Daytona USA (PS3)
24. Sonic the Fighters (PS3)
25. Tennis in the Face (PS3)
26. Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (PS3)
27. Marvel Super Heroes (PS3 - Marvel Vs Capcom Origins)
28. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (PS3 - Marvel Vs Capcom Origins)

October
29. Space Pilgrim Episode IV: Sol (PC)
30. Retro Game Crunch - Paradox Lost (PC)
31. Love (PC)
32. Zork 1 (PC)
33. Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (PC)
34. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (PC)
35. Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (PC)
36. Costume Quest 2 (PS3)
37. Tales from Space: Mutant Blob Attacks (PS3)
38. Proteus (PS3)
39. Limbo (PS3)
40. Infamous: Festival of Blood (PS3)
41. Magus (PS3)
42. ToeJam & Earl (PS3)
43. Under Defeat HD: Deluxe Edition (PS3)
44. Texas Cheat'em (PS3)
45. Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent (PS3)
46. IMSCARED (PC)

November
47. Battle Fantasia (PS3)
48. Papo & Yo (PS3)
49. Arkedo Series 01 - Jump! (PS3)
50. Arkedo Series 03 - Pixel (PS3)
51. Arkedo Series 02 - Swap! (PS3)
52. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PS3)
53. Strider (PS3)
54. The Walking Dead Season 2 (PS3)
55. Skullgirls (PS3)

December
56. Soulcalibur V (PS3)
57. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (PS3)
58. Assassins Creed Rogue (PS3)
59. The Wolf Among Us (PS3)
60. Orwell (PC)
61. Cars 2: The Video Game (PS3)

Games Beaten 2016

First 50:

Battleborn - PC
140 - PC
Last Duel - Arcade (PSP)
Alien on the Run - 3DS
Undead Bowling - 3DS
Chain Blaster - 3DS
Runny Egg - 3DS
Bound - PS4
Parasite Eve - PS1
Destiny - PS4
Destiny: The Dark Below - PS4
Destiny: The House of Wolves - PS4
Destiny: The Taken King - PS4
Otomedius Excellent - 360
Crimsonland - PC
Planet of the Eyes - PC
Destiny: Rise of Iron - PS4
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut - PC
Eve Valkyrie: Gunjack - PSVR
Elegy for a Dead World - PC
SOMA - PC
The Typing of the Dead: Overkill - PC
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood - PSVR
Actual Sunlight - Vita
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Jackal Assault VR - PSVR
Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered - Vita
Thumper - PSVR
Burrito Bison: Launcha Libre - iOS
Trackmania Turbo (VR Campaign) - PSVR
Gears of War 4 - Xbox One
Caladrius Blaze - PS4
Dariusburst Chronicles - PC
Assault Suit Leynos - PS4
Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet - PS4
ABZÜ - PC
There's Poop in My Soup - PC
Forza Horizon 2: Storm Island - - Xbox One
Titanfall 2 - PC
Battlefield 4 - - PC
Super Mario Run - iOS
Nihilumbra - Vita
Murasaki Baby - Vita
Bullet Hell Monday - iOS
Tetris (Rev A and Rev B) - Game Boy *new*
Optimus Prime - Terror Of The Monstercons - Game Boy *new*

Total: 95

Previously: 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

I have decided to shoot for 100 again this year, but to do so I will be playing a few shorter games over the next few days.

I like to play the video game equivalent of "comfort food" over the last few days of the year, and so for this update I played one that I go back to almost yearly as well as a curious hack of another beloved classic.

In Tetris I got all the spaceships and all the dancers/musicians. Yay.

Optimus Prime - Terror Of The Monstercons is a Super Mario Land hack that does a good job of swapping everything out for Transformers characters. Optimus Prime is in truck form when you are little Mario, and in robot form when you are mushroom-enhanced Mario. The game is largely the same, otherwise, but it was a good way to play through the title in a different mode.

I plan to play Superhot and Inside today or tomorrow to round out my 2016 games. A few more classics will be in the mix too...

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 131

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (8 Games Beaten)


March (8 Games Beaten)


April (13 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (13 Games Beaten)


July (7 Games Beaten)


August (15 Games Beaten)


September (8 Games Beaten)


October (10 Games Beaten)


November (6 Games Beaten)


December (17 Games Beaten)


131. Battletoads in Battlemaniacs - Master System - December 30



This, ladies and gents, is one of the rarest games on the Sega Master System, and thanks to having the world's best roommate, I now have a copy. It's not THE rarest Master System game, but it's definitely one of them. I have been hunting this game for almost seven years, and in all that time I have it up for sale ONCE online. Battletoads in Battlemaniacs was, for most of the world, only released on Super Nintendo (which I have and have beaten). Virgin Interactive, had plans to publish a Master System port in Europe, but they scrapped that at the last minute. Since the Master System has such popularity in Brazil, however, Tec-Toy and Virgin decided to release the Master System port exclusively in Brazil. Unfortunately for the Brazilians, what they got was an finished game. I just played through this for the sake of reviewing it and comparing the two versions.



In terms of visuals, it's not bad for the Master System. It definitely doesn't push the console to its limits, but it's not a muddled mess. The problem with the game's visuals comes in with the sprite flickering, and I don't mean the common 8-bit sprite flicker. You'd have enemies vanish from screen for a full half second. Environment models would vanish for a second or two at a time. On the infamous speed bike level, once it got going really fast in the last third or so of the level, it was just about impossible to tell what was going on because the whole world would randomly flicker in and out of existence, leading to invisible obstacles on an already brutally difficult level in a criminally difficult game.



While we're mentioning it, let's talk about difficulty. I've beaten Battletoads on NES and Game Boy. I've beaten Battletoads/Double Dragon on NES. I've beaten Battletoads Arcade on Xbox One. I've beaten Battletoads in Battlemaniacs on SNES. All without cheats. This Master System port is, without a doubt, the most difficult Battletoads game I've played, and that's not just because the game is intended to be hard. I also have NO problem admitting that I played through this with an infinite lives cheat because even with that cheat, not dying long enough to finish a level was a monumental challenge. The stone pig boss pictured above is a great example of why this game is difficult. If so much as one of your pixels even briefly brushes a single enemy pixel, you take damage. You have to make sure that your attacks are timed PERFECTLY so that you're not touching the enemy when you hit the button but also so that your attack connects to deal damage. Couple that with a hit detection system that's shoddy at best, and you're in for a rough time.



The sound is another interesting testament to the game's unfinished status. The first two levels of the game have music. The last three levels of the game have music. Levels 2 and 4 are randomly silent, however. They have sound effects, but no music. In addition to the lack of music in some levels, there's an absence of introductory storyline stills at the beginning of the game, and the game over screen is very abrupt. It's very clearly a game with which the publisher said "Eh, it's good enough. Let's just sell it as is." It does, however, shorten Pimple's name to "PIMP" in game (look on the top left of the screenshots).



As I wrap up my review of this, let me be clear about something - I am tickled to DEATH that this game is in my collection. The game itself it complete shit and should never be played on Master System rather than Super Nintendo, but this is the kind of game that collectors have wet dreams about. This is the kind of game that you covet as a collector and play when drunk at a parties. It's just not the kind of game you EVER play sober or to win. The Super Nintendo version is a fantastic game and a finished product; this, however, is an unfinished port to an inferior system, and that much is apparent in every aspect of the game.

Partridge Senpai's 2016 Beaten List
1-50

51. Axiom Verge
52. Otomedius Excellent
53. JUMP Ultimate Stars
54. Dynasty Warriors 3
55. Fire Emblem if: Byakuya (Birthright)
56. Fire Emblem if: Anya (Conquest)
57. Fire Emblem if: Invisible Kingdom (Revelations)
58. Stubbs the Zombie
59. Mori Mori Slime
60. Metal Slug 7
60. Dream Mix TV: World Fighters
61. Youkai Watch
62. Legacy of Ys: Book 1
63. Legacy of Ys: Book II
64. Blur
65. Limbo

66. Overcooked: Gourmet Edition (PS4)

Far and away one of my favorite couch co-op games ever now, this game looked like such amazing fun the first time I saw it streamed, and it definitely didn't disappoint.

Overcooked is a game about 2 to 4 chefs in a kitchen, chopping, fetching, and preparing ingredients into requested dishes. However, the twist is that the 2 to 4 chefs are you and 1 to 3 friends (in single player mode, you toggle between operating two different chefs). As with most co-op games, this is most optimally enjoyed with a full compliment of people, and as I had that, I had a blast! There are only two necessary commands as well: Picking up/putting down, and operating (be it the fire extinguisher, the flamethrower, etc.), so even gamers of lower skill can still meaningfully contribute to the cause with a little practice.

For reference, the group I played through with was with two veteran gamers (one of whom was myself), and two very newbie gamers, and we were still able to 3-star the whole main campaign. There is also a button to launch yourself forwards, but we got by just fine with only the veterans using it, as it usually made things too complicated for the newbies. You can even play 4-players with only two controllers, with each player sharing a controller, and each player just using R/L 1,2 and 3 along with the joysticks to play. We tried it for a fair bit, and it actually works pretty well, although everyone having their own controller is probably most optimal. My only complaint about the game is that it's probably impossible to 3-star the main campaign on your own, as a lot of the later levels really require at least two brains working at once, if not 3 or 4 most optimally.

The paid DLC levels pack is INSANELY difficult as well. You'll need to have people who really know what they're doing, and even then it'll probably take a lot of tries to 3-star all of those levels. The free holiday DLC, however, we found to be a very fun romp, especially once you get to the flame-thrower cooked turkey levels XD

Verdict: Highly recommended. If you have someone who you can play this with, I can't recommend it enough! If you can only ever really play games by yourself, however, I'd probably give it a pass until you can secure a friend for a day to really give it the shot it deserves.

Double Dragon III in the arcade is straight up trash. Did this single-handedly kill the series? Probably not, but it sure couldn't have helped.

Sarge wrote:Double Dragon III in the arcade is straight up trash. Did this single-handedly kill the series? Probably not, but it sure couldn't have helped.

It sucks.

Did you guys know DD4 is coming out in 2017?

I want to find the Amiga CD Battletoads.

noiseredux wrote:Did you guys know DD4 is coming out in 2017?

Saw that. Hope it's better than Neon; that kinda sucked.