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Guaranteed might be a bit of a stretch, but I know your gaming tastes, Bone. For you it's absolutely true.

(To back up my assertion: Earnest Evans. Also, El Viento is overrated, and Annet Futatabi is painfully generic.)

I'll concede that Beast Wrestler is questionable. Probably a game Ack enjoys though. Or would if it was on SNES.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Anything related to Telenet / Riot / Wolf Team / Renovation is guaranteed awesome.

Don't forget LaserSoft!

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Go full PCE for Xak. And don't skip the side game, Fray in Magical Adventure CD: Xak Gaiden.

Thanks and thanks!

Dude, Fray is all up IN that magical adventure CD! What if Fray gets stuck? How do we extricate Fray from the magical adventure CD? It is just too much!

[quote="ElkinFencer10"]Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 92
* 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 (2 Games Beaten)


92. Daytona USA - Xbox 360 - September 6



Daytona USA is the epitome of arcade racing perfection.  Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of playing the game in the arcades, and I've only played it a few times on Saturn, but when flake told me that it was on sale for like a dollar or two on Xbox Live Arcade, I knew I had to download it as soon as I got home. This is a game that one can't really "beat" per se, but I unlocked every achievement, so that's good enough for me.



Daytona USA is a simple game - you drive a fairly standard stock car on one of three tracks and try to win.  Its brilliance lies in its simplicity; it doesn't try to throw a million statistics at you to make a "hyper realistic" driving sim but rather perfect the basics of stock car racing.  Of course, it's a little more involved than NASCAR - you're doing more than just making 2000 left turns (in two of the three tracks) - but it's very much an "easy to learn, difficult to master" sort of game.  There are a handful of little secrets in the tracks, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports give some extra modes like time trials, various challenges, and even the bizarre karaoke mode.  All of that is in addition to the online multiplayer via Xbox Live or PlayStation Network that gamers today have come to expect.



The visuals are fantastic for a 20+ year old arcade game.  This port sees a nice bump to 720p and an unbroken 60 frame per second frame rate.  The latter especially is a big part of what ensures an unforgettable racing experience.  With such a simple game, there's not an enormous amount to say about Daytona USA, but the other side to that simplicity is that the gorgeous visuals and KILLER soundtrack really shine through.  Anyone who is even tangentially familiar with Daytona USA will recognize the iconic "DAAAAAAYTOOONAAAAAA, LET'S GO AWAY!" of the intro song.  Honestly, hearing that alone is worth the asking price in my opinion.



Daytona USA is not a complex game, but it's a masterful game.  It may seem a bit shy in content by today's standards, but if you keep in mind that it first came to the arcade in 1993, it becomes clear just how special this game is.  The visuals are a perfect fit, the music and sound effects are fantastic, the frame rate is rock solid, and it's just an all around uncommonly playable game.  It's not often that a racing game will really knock my socks off, but this one absolutely did.

1. Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys (PCE-CD)
2. Mega Bomberman (GEN)
3. Lost in Shadow (Wii)
4. Kirby's Dream Land (via Wii Dream Collection) (GB)
5. Kirby's Dream Land 2 (via Wii Dream Collection) (GB)
6. Kirby's Dream Land 3 (via Wii Dream Collection) (SNES)
7. Saturn Bomberman (SAT)
8. Rent a Hero (GEN)
9. Tricolore Crise (DC)
10. Super Mario: Yoshi Island (SFC)
11. Clockwork Knight: Pepperouchou no Daibouken (Joukan) (SAT)
12. Mickey to Donald: Magical Adventure 3 (SFC)
13. Kishin Douji Zenki: Battle Raiden (SFC)
14. Super Donkey Kong (SFC)
15. Super Donkey Kong 2: Dixie & Diddy (SFC)
16. Anearth Fantasy Stories: First Volume (SAT)
17. Panzer Dragoon (SAT)
18. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei (SAT)
19. Panzer Dragoon Orta (XBOX)
20. Cross Tantei Monogatari (SAT)
21. Dragon Quest V (PS2)
22. Ryu ga Gotoku (PS2)
23. Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu II (GEN)
24. Rokudenashi Blues: Taiketsu! Tokyo Shitennou (SFC)
25. Ranma 1/2: Bakuretsu Rantou Hen (SFC)
26. Contra Spirits (SFC)
27. Dennou Senki: Virtual On (SAT)
28. Dead or Alive (SAT)
29. Fighting Vipers (SAT)
30. Last Bronx (SAT)
31. Steeldom (SAT)
32. Street Fighter Zero (SAT)
33. NinPen Manmaru (SAT)
34. Street Fighter Zero 2 (SAT)
35. Street Fighter Zero 2' (SAT)
36. Virtua Fighter Remix (SAT)
37. Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart (PC)
38. Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia (PC)
39. Final Fantasy XI: Rhapsodies of Vana'diel (PC)
40. Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin (PC)
41. ToeJam & Earl (GEN)
42. Magical Taruru~to-kun (GEN)
43. Metal Slug X (PS1)
44. Phantasy Star III: Toki no Keishousha (GEN)


Technically I beat Metal Slug 2, on the Xbox One, but for a variety of reasons, I don't really feel like listing it anywhere. Anyway, Metal Slug 2 is absolutely dope. Yeah, there's excessive slowdown almost constantly, but it still feels great to play. Metal Slug X on the PS1 is still a good game, and a pretty decent port, but just feels like it loses something with all the added shenanigans. It's fun, just not quite as fun. I will say, though, that the extra modes in the PS1 version really add a lot to that particular package. I really like the mission that makes you defend the baby.


I also just beat Phantasy Star III. I'm a little surprised by this, because I've tried to play it a number of times in the past, and been unable to stick with it for more than an hour or two. This time around it kind of clicked without too much gnashing of teeth. It turned out to be not really as bad as I had feared. I don't like it, per se, but it's entirely playable, which I wasn't entirely expecting. I still find it to be a severely flawed game, though. For starters, the entire combat system belongs in the garbage. Assigning turn actions to individual characters is arduous, to say the least, and that wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the encounter rate being a level of bonkers that exceeds MegaTen II / SMT I. It doesn't really matter though, because I can count on a little more than one hand the number of times I actually took the time to do anything other than mash the auto-battle option. Even fewer times actually required that I divvy up tasks. There's just no need for anything that resembles tactics, and if they didn't comprise 60% or more of the game, battles could be entirely forgotten. Oh, and then there's the lone status effect, that happens to be one of the most annoying status effects in any video game: poison. Not because it really even does anything, it's just that early on in the game, pretty much everything can poison, limited space and a lack of cash make it tough to cure with items, and oh yeah, the technique (ie. spell) that can cure it doesn't always work. I'm pretty sure all it does is keep a character's current HP hidden, though. It's just a nuisance. Then there's the part where enemies ambushed me more than I got the drop on them by a ratio of about 3:1. So, my party would just get pinged with pot shots, regularly. It's just not enough for the combat to be boring, it also has to be a nuisance. Why?

Those are really my biggest grievances with Phantasy Star III. Otherwise I feel like it's just sort of unspectacular. I feel like they spent too much time trying to fit in a branching scenario, and sort of forgot to work on things like varied assets, and world building. The scenario, overall, is probably the least offensive thing about the game. A lot of the things that seem like insane plot holes, during the first half of the game, do get relatively filled in at the end. I just didn't really feel any attachment to the game/story/characters--aside from the little robot that begged me not to kill its masters--because everything looks and feels so austere. It doesn't help that one has to trek over hill, and over dale for even a glimmer of narrative at times.

My final verdict is that I'm glad to have finished it; It might not have been what I would necessarily consider "worth playing," but it's probably as good as (if not better than) Phantasy Star II, and considerably less strenuous to play, too. It's kind of interesting to see the generational aspect to the scenario, and even though it might have done it first, it didn't do it better than Dragon Quest V. So, from that perspective (and almost every other one) I would really encourage someone to skip PSIII in favor of DQV. Really the only reason I played it was because I felt like I had to in order to allow myself to play Phantasy Star IV, which I'll probably play next. I'm a little worried that it won't live up to hype at this point, though.

(I'm sorry I couldn't lavish the game with praise, Key. )

pierrot wrote:It's kind of interesting to see the generational aspect to the scenario, and even though it might have done it first, it didn't do it better than Dragon Quest V.

I disagree. I thought it was interesting that you could pick your mates in PSIII, and then you'd have different kids based on that. Also physical traits carried over. Over multiple generations this was very interesting. In DQV you didn't have nearly as many options, and it felt more streamlined in a constrictive manner.

pierrot wrote:I had to in order to allow myself to play Phantasy Star IV, which I'll probably play next. I'm a little worried that it won't live up to hype at this point, though.

I can't speak for your tastes, but I for one enjoyed PSIV more than Chrono Trigger, FFVI, or Terranigma.

Exhuminator wrote:

pierrot wrote:It's kind of interesting to see the generational aspect to the scenario, and even though it might have done it first, it didn't do it better than Dragon Quest V.

I disagree. I thought it was interesting that you could pick your mates in PSIII, and then you'd have different kids based on that. Also physical traits carried over. Over multiple generations this was very interesting. In DQV you didn't have nearly as many options, and it felt more streamlined in a constrictive manner.

In terms of number of times the game lets you make a binary choice, sure. I can't disagree there. DQV does a lot more from a story perspective to make it a meaningful choice, though. In particular, with all of the extra party dialogue added to the PS2 version, there's a lot more of a sense of bonds shared between the characters, and they actually have personalities. Choosing a different partner might only give the kids different hair color, and names, but aside from some (meaningless) differences in stats, the kids in PSIII follow, largely, the same pattern. Also, the main characters in PSIII are almost completely devoid of personality. So I have little reason to care about my choice, or the choice I didn't make. I just don't think it does a very good job of investing the player in its slightly more dynamic system. I also thought it was kind of dumb that each generation gave you a choice between two people with almost the same name: Marlina, and Lina; Lan, and Lin.

Listening to Pokoshuke narrating the lines from DQV kind of enhances the charm inherent in that game to extraordinary levels, also.

I'll have to watch a bit of an LP of PS before I can try one again. I tried some of them on the Sonic's Genesis Collection a good few years back and I found the the battle system impenetrably confusing. I think someone pointing me in the right direction would help a lot. Though from Pierrot's comments, it seems like I'd be better off starting at IV since I don't think I'd have any patience for II or III. Billions of uninvolved random battles are the #1 thing to decrease my sanity playing a JRPG XP

Also, why the heck hasn't Sega remade any of the classic Phantasy Stars? Even just givin' 'em ugly graphics and chargin' a fortune for 'em on the IOS store? Just one more weird thing Sega will not do O.o Then again, perhaps classic PS is hopelessly unpopular in Japan (as the Mega Drive was pretty damn unpopular over there) and it's still hella niche over here, so that may explain their lack of enthusiasm.

pierrot wrote:Listening to Pokoshuke narrating the lines from DQV kind of enhances the charm inherent in that game to extraordinary levels, also.

There's a remake of DQV on PS2 with VOICES? Added to the list of PS2 games to import~!