Games Beaten 2017

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Oct 29, 2017 4:22 pm

First 50:

51. Oniken - PC
52. Strife Veteran Edition - PC
53. The Mummy Demastered - Switch
54. Super Mario Odyssey - Switch

So I beat Bowser and did a bit of postgame stuff, but there is still a ton of moons to collect. Overall, I had a lot of fun with Super Mario Odyssey but I enjoyed Zelda more. I expect I'll plug away at slowly going for a 100% completion over time, as there are mechanisms in place to make it a reasonable goal (unlike the 900 Korok seeds).

So Odyssey involves Bowser kidnapping Peach to make her his bride (because he's a good devout evil lord who doesn't believe in sex before marriage), as usual. The twist is that your new power is your magic hat, with most of the bosses also having hat themed powers. The hat can be thrown out to collect coins, activate switches, and possess certain enemies. This is where a lot of the gameplay variety comes into play, as you will gain new powers as needed for short segments. So you might possess a bird to stick its beak into soft walls and then propel your way up, or a fireball to swim through lava. The hat also provides a bunch of mobility; when you throw it out you get a bit of an air boost, and you can jump onto a hat that has been thrown out for a boost. You can combine hat throws with other standard 3D Mario movement to create some really impressive movement chains, and this game is going to be amazing to watch speedrun.

The basic structure tends to be that you go to a world and get a couple of main quests in a series. This usually involves making your way to one or two bosses. Along the way you will have many opportunities to collect other power moons (the main collectable), and fortunately you just get a short ditty and continue. In order to move to the next world you need a certain number of moons from that specific world. I don't know if you can defer doing all the main quests or not and go to the next world, as I never tried; you can definitely get enough moons to qualify as enough without doing all of them. The other collectable is purple coins, which are unique to each world and can be spent in that world to purchase costumes and some souvenirs (which make your ship look nice). For the most part these costumes are meaningless, though certain moons are gated behind you wearing the right costume (which can be purchased in that world).

The game is fairly easy overall; in addition to the main areas you can go into pipes to get to specific platforming levels which can be harder, and there's also a feature where some pipes put you in 8-bit mode and you get to do a short 2D level in the style of the original SMB. These side levels tend to have a hidden moon in addition to the basic moon you get for completing the course, and these can be harder to get (though sometimes it's just noticing it's available). But all in all you should never be hurting to get enough moons for the next area, unlike SM64 if you got stuck on something. The levels will also transform a bit after a major quest, such as opening up new paths. This comes to a head when you beat the game; a very large number of moons (I'd say about 1/2-2/3) can't be collected until you've beaten the game, due to the necessary level changes not occurring until then. It ends up being a playbox; there's always something new to do every time you come back to it.

This is not my GOTY (that's probably Zelda), but it's still immensely fun, and definitely my favorite Mario game since World.

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Sun Oct 29, 2017 8:21 pm

Nice post Xumy. I kinda wanted that game but the price always turned me off. Sounds like it's certainly not worth it.

Post by **pierrot** » Sun Oct 29, 2017 10:44 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Nice post Xumy. I kinda wanted that game but the price always turned me off. Sounds like it's certainly not worth it.

Same. I kind of stopped caring about it a while ago, though.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 12:24 am

BoneSnapDeez wrote:I kinda wanted that game but the price always turned me off. Sounds like it's certainly not worth it.

pierrot wrote:Same. I kind of stopped caring about it a while ago, though.

What can I say? Sometimes I gotta take one for the team.

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92. Cotton 2 | Arcade | 1997 | 7/10

Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams originally released as an arcade game on Sega's ST-V hardware in 1997, and was ported to Saturn soon after. This is still a cute 'em up starring Cotton, the broom riding witch. She's out to destroy ghosts, ghouls, and monsters with her magic. For being an arcade shmup, Cotton 2 is relatively easy. The ST-V hardware is used well here, there's tons sprite scaling, stretching, and rotation. Cotton can also grab enemies and their projectiles, and fling them around using Newtonian physics. Unfortunately the background art is sometimes lackluster, and the OST is rather weak. Also the gameplay is run of the mill shmup. Hey did you know the first release of Cotton 2 on the Saturn included a mini-calendar for 1998? That's pretty rad man. If you enjoy cute 'em ups, witches, and scantily clad fairies, hop on this broom and shake some hocus pocus.

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93. Cotton Boomerang | Arcade | 1998 | 6/10

Cotton Boomerang released in 1998, originally an ST-V arcade game. Not long after, Boomerang received a faithful Saturn port. Cotton Boomerang regurgitates graphics and gameplay from Cotton 2 to a ludicrous degree. If anything, Cotton Boomerang is a glorified remix of Cotton 2. It seemed like every enemy and boss is taken from Cotton 2, along with sound effects as well. More work was put into the backgrounds this time though, but the OST remains rather bland. The one big change in Boomerang is instead of only using Cotton, now you're allowed to pick from a roster of different witches to shoot with. Each witch has her own unique attack patterns. You pick three witches in total, which release a powerful spell whenever you switch to them. If they die, you'll automatically switch to your next witch. Cotton Boomerang is noticeably harder than Cotton 2, with more frantic enemy bombardments. Cotton Boomerang struggles for its own identity, considering it reuses so many assets from Cotton 2. However if you just couldn't get enough of Cotton 2, Boomerang will swing you right back to it again, but with a harem twist.

Post by **Segata** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 12:28 am

Loved Cotton 2.

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:09 am

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 109
* denotes a replay

January (10 Games Beaten)

February (12 Games Beaten)

March (6 Games Beaten)

April (9 Games Beaten)

May (14 Games Beaten)

June (10 Games Beaten)

July (20 Games Beaten)

August (9 Games Beaten)

September (14 Games Beaten)

October (5 Games Beaten)

109. Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online - PlayStation 4 - October 28

Anyone who knows me knows that the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is my all-time favorite and that I weeb fangirl HELLA hard for it. Some of the more recent Vita entries in the series haven't quite lived up to my expectations, but Megadimension Neptunia VII on PS4 was fantastic, so I had high hopes for Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online as well. Those high hopes were not in vain.

Although principally a JRPG series, one of the things for which the Neptunia series is known is the variety of genres its games have hit, and Cyberdimension Neptunia is no exception to that, marking the series' first foray into the action RPG genre. The game plays a lot like a cheap knock-off of some of the more recent Tales games, and I don't mean "cheap knock-off" in a derogatory sense. Neptunia games have pretty much always felt a bit like budget games mechanically in my opinion, but for me, that's part of their charm. The combat is simple; you just mash the square button a lot, occasionally hitting the triggers to guard or dodge, and expend SP to use one of eight of your selected skills when the situation calls for it.

The game's plot is appropriately silly for the series, although this one might take the title of second silliest plot so far (Producing Perfection is definitely the silliest). The four nations' CPUs (along with pretty much every other character who's appeared in the series) have all received beta keys for the testing of a new version of the 4 Goddesses Online MMORPG and have decided to venture into the world of Alsgard together, although a hacker quickly threatens the existence of the game's beta test. In terms of playable characters, you get the four CPUs, the four CPU candidates, and the in-game four goddesses (Purple/Black/White/Green Heart). That's my first disappointment - IF, Compa, Plutia, Peashy, and Uzume aren't playable characters. I was really hoping to have a party of Neptune, Nepgear, Plutia, and Uzume to hae the ultimate Planeptune team. They do make appearances, mind you, but at NPCs. Better than nothing, I suppose.

The scope of the game seemed a bit smaller than the previous PS4 title, although whether that's because the game actually has less content or because I went into it gung-ho and determined to get the Platinum trophy (I did, btw), I couldn't say. You've got around a dozen dungeons and a variety of bosses to fight, but it doesn't take long to figure out that the bosses can all be beaten with the exact same strategy. None of them have any elemental weaknesses, so they all boil down to "spam magic attacks to deplete the guard, spam the square button, spam magic attacks to deplete the guard again, use your now-charged special attack and then spam square, use an item to refill your SP, repeat the cycle until boss is dead.

The game isn't difficult in the slightest, but that's par for the course with Neptunia games; none of them (at least none of the post-PS3 games) are difficult in the slightest. You don't play Nep for the difficulty, though; you play Nep for the characters, the humor, and the spiritual experience. My only two real gripes with the game are that Black Heart's face looks wrong, and the quests get repetitive. For the first one, Black Heart's face just looks....off. In some stills, she looks alright, but in most, she looks more like Nepgear than Black Heart. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I think it's the mouth and perhaps the eyes. They just don't quite look right, but I'm not sure if this was intentional or not because Uni and Nepgear make a comment about Black Heart's looking not exactly like Noire's CPU form. As for the quests, they're not awful or anything, but they get really same-y. You get like three or four quests to kill the same boss with the only difference being an increase in HP. The first story-based boss fight could have 35,000 HP, and by the last optional quest boss fight, he'll have 820,000 HP. Otherwise there's no difference; he just takes longer to kill. Other quests are your usual fetch quest or kill-X-number-of-this-monster quests. There's just not a lot of variety for the number of quests there are if you're going for completion or Platinum.

Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online is a competent entry in the Neptunia series and a decent action RPG. It's not a landmark game for the genre, and it's not the greatest game in the Neptunia series, but it's a fun game, and for fans of the series, it's a fantastic entry. Your usual heaps of fanservice are present, although Neptune breaks the fourth wall a little bit less than usual which may be a bit disappointing to some. Regardless, though, it's definitely a must-play for fans of the Neptunia series. Those who aren't Nep fans might not find much alluring here, but I'd still recommend giving it a shot if you've got a friend from whom you can borrow it.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 10:47 am

ElkinFencer10 wrote:Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online is a competent entry in the Neptunia series and a decent action RPG.

Very nice review, and I'll get this on PC when its port releases (2018).

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:01 am

Exhuminator wrote:
ElkinFencer10 wrote:Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online is a competent entry in the Neptunia series and a decent action RPG.

Very nice review, and I'll get this on PC when its port releases (2018).

Thanks! It's not terribly long; it only took me about 18 hours to beat and 24 hours to Platinum.

Post by **Ack** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:35 am

1. Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide (PC)(Action)
2. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (SNES)(Fighting)
3. DRAGON: The Bruce Lee Story (SNES)(Fighting)
4. Eradicator (PC)(FPS)
5. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PC)(FPS)
6. D-Force (SNES)(SHMUP)
7. Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon (PC)(RPG)
8. Dying Light (PC)(FPS/RPG)
9. Dying Light: The Following (PC)(FPS/RPG)
10. Gauntlet: Slayer Edition (PC)(Hack and Slash)
11. Dear Esther: Landmark Edition (PC)(Walking Simulator)
12. Dead Pixels (PC)(Run and Gun)
13. Half-Life: C.A.G.E.D. (PC)(FPS)
14. Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PC)(Action Platformer)
15. Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (PC)(FPS)
16. Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory (PC)(Platformer)
17. Zombie Shooter (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)

I beat Alien Shooter and Alien Shooter 2 last year, so when I saw Zombie Shooter on sale for less than a dollar on GOG, I figured I'd go ahead and snag it. Hey, it's October, it fits the mood. I'm glad I paid less than a dollar, as Zombie Shooter has some serious hindrances in its design, and it's quite short. I knocked it out in only a few hours. But I still had fun with what I played.

Here's the gyst: you don't get a story. You're entering a facility, you get the choice only of the gender of your protagonist, and you have to shoot anything that moves inside. That means zombie rats, zombie dogs, zombie SWAT, zombies, zombie mutants, zombie mutants armed with rocket launchers, skinless psychic zombies, mutating tentacled zombie patients which hurl exploding zombie worms at you, etc. To do this, you find and upgrade guns. You probably won't get all the guns in the game, and you probably will only upgrade the ones you really like. For me, it was the base pistols, then the shotgun, then the minigun, and then the flamethrower and magma minigun for my final choices. The grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and plasma minigun didn't click, and I never even bothered with the disc launcher. But that's ok, my stuff was good enough to make it to the end. You also gain experience, which you can use for stat upgrades, though you definitely won't fight enough enemies to max everything out, so keep that in mind.

So yeah, if it moves, shoot it until it dies. Every now and again you'll have to interact with something, though this is mostly done automatically. The biggest exception is a giant cannon you get access to that you must aim and shoot of your own accord. Trust me, when you get here, you're gonna want to use it. The game likes to throw hordes of enemies your way, so most rooms in which you engage in fire fights end up blood splattered messes. This can occasionally make some enemies and power ups tough to see, so be careful when this happens. Also, if you get stuck in a horde, there's a good chance you'll lose track of yourself, and the game puts up a red filter as you near death, so try not to die. You can change the blood color to green if you prefer and then password lock it as a sort of child filter, but that's your call.

My biggest complaint is the lack of video options. I was stuck playing on a tiny resolution that made text difficult to read and sometimes caused enemies to be almost impossible to spot among the fields of exploded bodies I left in my wake. There doesn't seem any way to change that. Thankfully there were volume options present, though the game starts out at max volume, so do your ears a favor and turn it down. There's also not much of an ending; you pretty much get a "Thanks for playing" screen. There are a couple of alternate game modes beyond the campaign, but these center on how long you can survive and don't really add much life to the game. As for your sole gender choice, this does change starting stats...slightly. So replay value isn't exactly high.

Hey, I got stuck on a lot fewer things than I did in the original Alien Shooter, so Zombie Shooter was an improvement on the original formula. Yeah, some of its enemies feel like bullet sponges, but they did in the original game too, and despite how excessive the hordes are in this game, they're nowhere near as bad in ZS as they were in AS. If you've played Alien Shooter, Zombie Shooter doesn't really change up the formula, so you'll know what you're getting. It's not a bad game though. I'm totally happy with what I got for $0.89.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:58 am

94. Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir | 3DS | 2012 | 8/10

One day you receive a mysterious package. When you open the package, you find a cryptic old diary. Opening the diary, you decide to take a picture of one of its pages. But the next thing you know, you're sucked into a mysterious old house. As you wander its halls, you meet a desperate spirit named Maya, who warns you to leave this place. Maya and you both jump back through the diary into your own world again. Except something has followed you both. It turns out the diary is a portal to a hellish old mansion, with a malevolent female spirit haunting it. She has seen your face, and now you're cursed. Your own world is no longer safe, angry spirits now fill your own home, and the dark phantom has vowed to steal your face. You must use Maya's guidance and your camera to put an end to the vile diary's curse, and all the angry spirits coming with it.

Such is the premise of Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir. This is an augmented reality survival horror, an offshoot of the Fatal Frame series. Tecmo works the 3DS here like no other 3DS game has since. The diary is a physical object which comes with the game itself. The diary is used like AR cards traditionally are. Every page has its own special purpose. Some pages are puzzles, some reveal movies, and some act as gateways for spirits to enter your home. Once a ghost is in your reality, you must chase it around your physical surroundings, taking magic pictures of it to exorcise it away. This is harder than it sounds, as timing is critical. You have a life bar, and can "die" if you screw up too much. Yes this means you will see evil ghosts flying around your own living room. When you're not fighting ghosts, you're helping Maya figure out what's going on. (She's an amnesiac, of course.) And when you're not doing that, you're solving crazy and creative puzzles from within the pages of the diary itself. Your camera gains various lenses that act as filters, adding further complexity to the game design.

Not everything is perfect, of course. For one thing, you must play Spirit Camera in a very well lit area. That's so the 3DS cameras can actually see the AR diary pages. It's kinda hard to be scared of ghosts in a brightly lit room. There are also technical problems at times, just little things that flake out now and then, no big deal. Perhaps the biggest disappointment for some was how short this game is. I beat it in about two hours, and I wasn't rushing. Spirit Camera does offer mini-games outside the main story mode, so maybe that can pad the length if you care about that stuff.

While I don't by any means think Spirit Camera is a perfect game, I came away mostly impressed. Tecmo put a lot of work into designing something that (in 2012) could only have worked on the 3DS. There's a lot of innovation in Spirit Camera's design, it was more than just a glorified tech demo. Spirit Camera's goal was to make its player feel like part of the experience. This game accomplishes that goal. Seeing ghosts climb out of the diary's pages, and then stalk my gaming room, was really cool. Spinning around fighting them was a physical experience that felt tangible. Unraveling Maya's tale of woe and misery was legitimately interesting. In many regards, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is one of the most unique games I've ever played. It is rather fun, it is super creative, and it is tremendously idiosyncratic. Too bad it's not scary.

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Well folks, I've only got two games left to beat on my Halloween-athon list. Here's hoping I can have them finished tomorrow!

racketboy.com

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