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Sarge wrote:The game really doesn't waste your time that much. The tutorializing has been pushed well into the background

This is what I wanted to hear.

Sounds like the pacing is much improved too. I'll be picking up Paper Jam soon.

Great review! And that track you linked was amazing.

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

wow. Only my third game beaten this year?

XCOM 2 is amazing. AMAZING. There's no denying my love of Enemy Unknown/Within. So I went into this as a nerd judging everything versus its predecessor. And guess what? XCOM 2 does EVERYTHING better. Which is mind-blowing.

It took me 39 hours to beat XCOM 2. And more than two of those hours was the last mission. Not a single hour felt "easy." This is not a game for someone new to the series. This one puts you through the ringers even if you've spent nearly 200 hours on the last. The entire game I felt like I was on the verge of losing. The entire game.

Just brilliant.

Also spoiler talk only for those who have beaten it:



The best part is I haven't even looked into XCOM 2 mods yet. Easily the best $ I spent on a game so far this year. And easily the best game I've played so far this year.

At your spoiler, god I hope so.

Me too!!

More updates for all to enjoy!

1. Ys Book II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter PSN Vita
2. 3D Streets of Rage 2 3DS eShop
3. 3D Gunstar Heroes 3DS eShop
4. 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 3DS eShop
5. 3D OutRun 3DS eShop
6. Mugen Senshi Valis II: The Fantasm Soldier PCE CD
7. Mugen Senshi Valis III: The Fantasm Soldier PCE CD
8. Bomberman PCE CD
9. Rocket Knight Adventures Mega Drive
10. Trax Game Boy
11. Panic Bomber Virtual Boy
12. Arcana Heart 3: Love MAX!!!!! Vita
13. Super Monkey Ball Gamecube
14. Lost Kingdoms Gamecube
15. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Gamecube
16. 1080° Avalanche Gamecube
17. Bubble Ghost Game Boy
18. Catrap Game Boy
19. 3D Thunder Blade 3DS eShop
20. 3D AfterBurner II 3DS eShop
21. 3D Fantasy Zone II W: The Tears of Opa-Opa 3DS eShop
22. Ikaruga Gamecube
23. Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal Vita
24. New Adventure Island PCE *NEW*
25. WarioWare Twisted! GBA *NEW*

New Adventure Island


New Adventure Island is a not-so-new anymore entry into the extensively confusing Adventure Island/Wonder Boy lineage(s) of games. Now, if you know the full history of the series, you should know that although they started in the same place, both series went in quite different directions. Whereas I typically prefer the Wonder Boy series over all, I certainly can't fault this game on how it plays - It's excellent.

I struggled to find a good screenshot to represent New Adventure Island - they all look bland and empty. That's not the case in gameplay - it all feels fast and frantic. New Adventure Island is a fast game - not in terms of actual technical speed perhaps, but in how it's played. You run through levels, grabbing fruit to stop your constantly decreasing health meter, and avoiding enemies which are basically all one hit kills. At it's best, it plays like the most fluid and best designed levels from any Mario game. Maybe even better - there's a real sense of speed and fluidity here that I love.

'New' Adventure Island actually is quite an old school entry in the series. It does away with the dinosaurs and the likes that apeared in Adventure Island 2 and 3 on the NES. It keeps it simple - you either run, or you ride a skateboard, which hurtles you forward and can allow you to take a hit, but you also risk flying off a cliff instead.

Where it does mix things up from the basic formula is in the weapon selection - The basic axes are back, which arc a little and are weak. Arrows fly forward much further before dropping making them a useful ranged weapon but harder to hit lower enemies. Boomerangs fly forwards a little way and come back allowing for extra control. They also break rocks and hit harder than the other 2 weapons. I found Arrows handier overall though. Finally, fireballs can be found in hidden eggs sometimes, which fall at an angle but instantly destroy all enemies. They're fun when you can get them.

New Adventure Island features 33 stages, including 7 boss stages. The bosses play out like the original adventure island bosses - shoot them in the head whilst they throw stuff at you, but with a little more attack variety. Still very simple though.

I liked New Adventure Island a lot. The game will kill you, over and over and over, but it doesnt really matter because it has infinite continues and you start from the stage you died at. Nothing in there reaches the insane difficulty of the end stages of the original game either. It's fast and fun and has a real sense of momentum that I just can't get enough of in platformers. A must-have for PC Engine or Turbografx in my eyes!


WarioWare Twisted!


WarioWare is a series where you play a stream of 5 second long mini games that get progressively faster and more difficult to achieve high scores. They're frequently really weird. As a series, it often tries to make use of the latest technology gimmicks of the platform it's on to define it's minigames. This was true of WarioWare Touched! for DS which made extensive use of the touch screen and microphone. It was also the case with WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Wii, which used the motion controller in various ways. Even WarioWare DIY on DS used the DS screen for something different to Touched!.

Twisted was the first WarioWare game to make use of a tech gimmick for it's gameplay, and is also arugably the best at doing so - it's probably the best game in the series. Interestingly, it's also the only game that doesn't make use of the hardware of the console it's on for it's tech - it's all built right into the cartridge - the bulky cart features a very responsive and precise tilt sensor, as well as a small rumble motor to boot.

Minigames in Twisted involved physically rotating your GBA to interact with the game. It's very intuitive and super accurate- I rarely had any issues doing what it asked me to do. The only issue I can see is that it can be hard to see the screen sometimes on games that require much more vigorous movements, but they're short enough that it's not an issue and you can always tell when the game is finished.

Like all WarioWare games, the presentation is very bizarre. A mix of hyperrealistic graphics and super crude doodles, clashing art styles, bizarre sounding music and lots of recurring things like noses. It's an odd experience that I kinda feel I'm just used to at this point The song for the final boss mini-game in this one is a classic though, have a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmtez97NtGQ (WA-RI-O DE MAMBO!)

Anyway, if you like WarioWare, this is the best one, so go buy it I guess!

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 *new*
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma EXTEND - Xbox One *new*

Total: 17

Previously: 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

1cc'd arcade mode in a couple of fighting games I picked up on the cheap recently. Fighting Climax had a fairly basic system but it was quite functional and pretty to look at and fun. BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend doesn't muss with the standard BB formula too much, which is fine with me as it has probably been my favorite fighting game series of the past decade now. The big beautiful sprites and best-in-class character designs really shine on current gen hardware, and I even managed to enjoy it with a controller instead of an arcade stick . If anyone is interested in this one, it is just under $17 on Amazon right now...

1. Flag to Flag - Dreamcast (January 12)
2. The Battle of Olympus - NES (January 18)
3. Thunder Force AC - Arcade/MAME (February 6)
4. Golden Axe - Arcade/MAME (February 14)
5. Rod-Land - Arcade/MAME (February 22)
6. *NEW* Xexyz - NES (March 14)

It's a platformer!
It's a shmup!
Guys..... it can be all those things, and more!

Xexyz, the game with a silly name (although far better than the Japanese title for this) is from Hudson Soft and combines platforming and shmup action. The game breaks down like this.

- The first part of each level is the platforming action where you get information, obtain weapons and items, play bonus games for more money, and where you must find a FORCE STAR to enter the area's mechanical castle.

- In the mechanical castle, a little more platforming before taking the shuttle vehicle through the castle, this is the first shmup portion. You must choose the path correctly otherwise you'll have to do the previous section again.

- After making your way through this section, back to platforming until you reach the boss. Here you will receive an extension of your life bar.

- After defeating the boss and using the FORCE STAR to free the ruler of the area, you get a CYBORG RIDER to travel to the next area. Another shmup section.

That's pretty much it. But the journey as well as the game are fun. If you like platformers and/or shmups, it's a good length and a cheap grab.

After playing The Guardian Legend, I was keen on anything similar. Xexyz fit the bill, and even if I don't like it quite as much, it's still quite solid. Definitely a gem, and as mentioned, it should still be pretty cheap.

There's a game called Ginga Denshou: Galaxy Odyssey on Famicom Disk System that's very similar to The Guardian Legend (in fact, it predates it) with the same sort of alternating shmup and exploration sequences. Unfortunately, it happens to be pretty terrible.

Xexyz rules. I have yet to finish it though.

Sarge wrote:After playing The Guardian Legend, I was keen on anything similar. Xexyz fit the bill, and even if I don't like it quite as much, it's still quite solid. Definitely a gem, and as mentioned, it should still be pretty cheap.

$10 and under, last I checked. I also found out Atlus co-developed it.

1. 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors (DS)
2. The Order 1886 (PS4)
3. The Division (PS4)

Beat all of the main story events and most of the side content and I'm currently sitting at the current lvl cap of 30. Overall I really enjoyed the game it isn't anything ground breaking, but the game play is solid and this has been probably the smoothest ubisoft launch I have ever experienced. Really there has only been one bug I've consistently experienced and that is the music goes in and out for a few seconds while entering some areas which while noticeable is no biggie.

As far as gameplay goes it feels like a much improved version of Watchdogs with the god awful vehicles stripped out of it. There are also a nice variety of weapons and skills that are fully customizable, as well as plenty of perks to choose from. The enemies are pretty bland, but missions are always a challenge for the most part due to the fact that the enemies are pretty spongy (unarmored enemies at or around your level will take 2-3 shots to the head from a high powered sniper rifle before going down the only ones I've been able to 1 shot are guys at least 2 levels below me), plus the game usually throws between 5-15 at you in most areas, and if you don't use cover properly you can get taken down extremely fast. The game always kept me feeling challenged, but was balanced to the point that I never felt like I was cheated by a cheap kill the only times I died were due to errors on my own part or risking going into areas which were beyond my characters abilities without taking proper precautions.

That being said the map is massive it is a solid chunk of New York and I've heard they did a really good job with a lot of the little details. I myself find it pretty interesting to walk up a street and just admire the buildings. The only downside to the huge map is there are no vehicles so you will find yourself having to run everywhere which thankfully isn't reliant on a stamina bar and they provided plenty of little things along the way to keep you occupied on longer marches across town. There are also quite a few safe zones for fast travel which helps out a lot. It also appears to me that they could and most likely will expand the map in the future expansion

This game is definitely best experienced in co-op which you really have no reason for avoiding since it's online only. The game is playable solo, but as you progress it really helps to have some players around to help you otherwise you end up getting overwhelmed by enemies at times or spending way to long whittling down the health of some of the boss enemies. Luckily even if you don't have any close friends who play the game matchmaking is pretty fast at the moment even with missions that were 1-2 out of 10 on the popularity meter managed to find matches within 1-2 minutes. As for lag issues I haven't really had any once or twice I've had the game hang from a possible disconnect, but it's always bounced back pretty quickly and things have run seemingly smooth for 99% of my play time.

As far as story goes it's actually pretty decent although it's got a somewhat open ending which will probably lead into the expansion coming down the road as well as a leaving room for a sequel. One nice thing is the ending gives you a logical reason for still being in the city post game and it does ties up the majority of the loose ends. That being said you could easily skip through the entire story if you were just into the game play and not really miss much since you don't really have any motivations above being a generic good guy.

I really like the multiplayer in this game though. The map is kind is kind of like a square with the campaign missions being setup like a U and the MP "Dark Zone" taking up around a third of the map in the middle. The DZ is pretty awesome basically it's a free for all area that is populated by npcs and other players. While playing outside the DZ the only players you will encounter are those you have partied with aside from safe houses which act as hub areas. However in the DZ the game tosses in random players in your levels bracket and once you hit the lvl cap everything all of the AI enemies are rebalanced as opposed to being broken up in lvl segments that go up as you go farther north. Really I was afraid it would be a free for all once you get in there but at the moment it seems pretty chill there is plenty of loot to go around and killing or injuring a player marks you as rogue which honestly sucks at the moment. Going rogue means everyone gets a nice big icon showing your location on their minimap and removes all penalties for killing you so really hunting players solo is suicidal and when rogue the exp and currency penalties for dying increase. There is also the issue of idiotic players walking into your line of fire causing you to accidentally go rogue which luckily if you do minimal damage only lasts around 9 seconds. Overall the only day I experienced PKers was on day one ever since then most of the randoms I've bumped into have been friendly and even gone as far as to revive me when I'm downed by NPCs.

Will probably finish off upgrading my base of operations today and continue playing the DZ for at least a few more weeks. Also your lvl doesn't really mean much in this game aside from what equipment you can use and all your stats are tied to your gear(health, DPS, and skill power) so I'll be able to continue improving my character without feeling like I've hit a wall now that I've hit the cap. There are also supposed to be daily missions now that I've completed the game as well as "constant content updates" so we will see how those pan out.