Games Beaten 2017

[BoneSnapDeez]

Damn you rolled through that fast.

I attempted it last summer. Got owned hard.

[ElkinFencer10]

Damn you rolled through that fast.

I attempted it last summer. Got owned hard.

Well, that was all but a couple hours of my Saturday and Sunday, and using Fast Forward on the Retron helps to speed through some of the monotony of the slow moving turns. Also save states are super useful in Fire Emblem.

[Exhuminator]

9. Air Combat | PS1 | flight sim | 1995 | 2hrs | 7/10



Air Combat is a semi-realistic flight-sim action game released by Namco in Japan in 1992 for their Namco System 21 "Polygonizer" arcade system, and later ported to the PlayStation in 1995. Air Combat is actually Ace Combat 1, as all subsequent games would adopt the Ace Combat name. Being a huge fan of Ace Combat, and on a mission to beat all of the 3D iterations I can play, I felt it necessary to go back in time and fly through the game that started it all.



A terrorist force starts an uprising, and efforts to defeat these terrorists through conventional means have failed, and the situation turns desperate. In response, a mercenary air force is a hired to defeat the terrorists. And you play as a mercenary as such, through a threadbare story that's just there as window dressing really. I did think it was interesting that you can hire other mercenaries as your wingmen, and give them combat instructions at the start of the mission. The better you do in a mission, the more money you make, and the better planes and wingmen you can buy. Better outfitting options make navigating the branching mission paths easier as such.



If you've played Ace Combat, that's what you're getting in Air Combat. You're flying a plane, you're shooting down baddies, blowing up the ground stuff, and trying not to fly into the side of a mountain. All similar to modern-era Ace Combat, just the graphics are more primitive. I was kinda surprised to find out just how little Ace Combat games changed from this first entry. But I guess Namco figured if something's not broke, don't break it. There are some hindrances like stupid long load times, and a flight model which causes jets to stall too easily, but this is still the Ace Combat that fans love to this day. Granted Air Combat is a bit more difficult than modern entries, but that's to be expected. Overall I'd say it's aged well.

[Xeogred]

Doesn't that series apparently have really good music?

[Exhuminator]

Doesn't that series apparently have really good music?

As a rule of thumb, yes it does. And Air Combat is no slouch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKz5v5 ... 93&index=9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STJm1Ro ... 93&index=1

Ace Combat as a whole is an amazing series. One of my favorites.

[Xeogred]

I can picture Top Gun Tom Cruise with that second track.

I'm intrigued, would that be a good first one to check out? I have a fetish for flight scenes in anime and all things mechanical.

EDIT: And a two hour run? Can't go wrong. lol

[Exhuminator]

I'm intrigued, would that be a good first one to check out?

I'll you what I think, and this is based off having beaten all these:

Air Combat (PS1)
Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (PS2)
Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (PS2)
Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (PS2)
Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception (PSP)
Ace Combat: Joint Assault (PSP)
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy (3DS)
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (360)

Go with Ace Combat 5. It's got the best presentation, the best story, and is polished to a sheen. However, if you want anime to go with the flying, give this a try:

http://www.romhacking.net/translations/2307/

I've still got to beat it, and Ace Combat 2 on PS1.

[alienjesus]

Being an older game for Nintendo's 8-bit titan, I expected the game to be much more basic than the later entries to which I'd gotten used. I supposed I allowed myself to be spoiled by the Super Famicom's Mystery of the Emblem, however, because I was surprised at just how primitive, for lack of a better word, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light was...

...That's not all that was omitted from this first title, however. I quickly discovered that this inaugural game lacked the feature central to all of my Fire Emblem tactics. Gone is the weapon triangle, a staple of Fire Emblem's tactical system.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the weapon triangle was introduced in Genealogy of the Holy War, which means it wasn't in Mystery of the Emblem either.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of complaints I have with the game that go beyond its status as first of the series and limits of the hardware. These complaints are pure design choices of which I question the efficacy. Let's start with my lesser gripe. There's no ability to grind whatsoever. This isn't unheard of in Fire Emblem games - if memory serves, the first game in the series to have an option for level grinding if your fighters are underleveled was Awakening - but that doesn't negate the fact that an RPG with no real ability to grind for experience is a recipe for brutality. You have arenas in a few towns in which you can try to grind out some exp, but if you don't get stuck until a mission without an arena, you're up a creek without a paddle.

Actually, you can grind in Fire Emblem Gaiden, which is the 2nd game in the series. Grinding then disappeared (other than arenas) until Sacred Stones on GBA, and then again until Awakening.

I personally prefer not being able to grind myself, because I feel pressure to do so but I find the game less fun as a result.

Because it's been remade three times (Mystery of the Emblem is an enhanced and expanded remake on SNES, New Mystery of the Emblem is a remake of THAT on DS, and Shadow Dragon is a straight remake of the original on DS)

Actually, it's only been remade twice. Mystery of the Emblem is divided into two books - book 1 is a retelling of the first game (although missing a few stages and characters), whereas book 2 is a sequel to it. New Mystery of the Emblem on DS is actually only a remake of book 2, so doesn't remake anything from the original game.

I'm also trying to collect all the Fire Emblem games. I'm just missing Thracia 776 and New Mystery of the Emblem. I have a ton of them to finish still though...

[ElkinFencer10]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the weapon triangle was introduced in Genealogy of the Holy War, which means it wasn't in Mystery of the Emblem either.

You're right, I got that twisted a bit. Thanks for correcting me on that. As for New Mystery of the Emblem, I haven't played it, so I didn't realize it was only Book 2 (although that makes WAY more sense than releasing both AND Shadow Dragon).

I lucked out and found a copy of Thracia 776 for $109 a few months ago (albeit cart only).

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 22

January (10 Games Beaten)

1. Persona 4 Arena - Playstation 3 - January 1
2. Chrono Trigger - SNES - January 7
3. Ys: The Vanished Omens - Master System - January 8
4. MUSHA - Genesis - January 10
5. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below - PlayStation 4 - January 11
6. Ys I - TurboGrafx-CD - January 13
7. Ys II - TurboGrafx-CD - January 14
8. Dragon Quest Builders - PlayStation 4 - January 23
9. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. School Girl/Zombie Hunter - PlayStation 4 - January 29

February (12 Game Beaten)

11. Fire Emblem Heroes - Android - February 3
12. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD - Wii U - February 5
13. Dante's Inferno - PlayStation 3 - February 7
14. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - DS - February 11
15. Persona 4: Dancing All Night - Vita - February 12
16. Sniper Elite 4 - PlayStation 4 - February 17
17. Pony Quest - NES - February 19
18. Halo Wars 2 - Xbox One - February 22
19. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions - PlayStation Portable - February 24
20. Hotline Miami - PlayStation 4 - February 26
21. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light - Famicom - February 27
22. Bad Dudes - NES - February 28

22. Bad Dudes - NES - February 28



Bad Dudes is a love letter to the 1980s from itself. From the very first screen to the "You won" screen, it just screams 1980s 'tude, and just listen to the name - Bad Dudes. That's seriously the name of the game. Not only is this game stylish af, however, but it also asks the really important questions that we should all ask ourselves at some point - are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?



The basic premise of Bad Dudes is that a group of evil ninja (probably communists) called Dragon Ninja has kidnapped the president of the United States, and as a patriotic, freedom loving bad dude named either Blade or Striker, it's your job to introduce these bad hombres to your fists and your feet which you've probably named, Freedom, Truth, Justice, and The American Way. You punch, kick, and liberate your way through seven stages filled drug dealers, rapists, murders, and liberal professional protesters as you fight to free President Ronnie (even though he looks just like George H. W. Bush) and remind everyone in your way why democracy is the best.



In all seriousness, however, Bad Dudes is a mediocre beat em up for the platform. Beat em ups weren't exactly hard to find in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, and Bad Dudes does nothing to stand out from the crowd aside from being completely and utterly (and awesomely) ridiculous. The controls are okay, the hit detection is iffy, the sprite movement feels a bit jerky, and there's a lot of flicker. It's a fine, functional game, but nothing about the actual gameplay is very extraordinary. I've not played the original arcade game to compare, but I have a feeling that the translation from arcade to NES wasn't as smooth for Bad Dudes as it was for Double Dragon or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.



One thing that DOES kick ass about the game is the weapons. I mean, there are only two - a pair of nunchuks and a dagger - but those two weapons are SUPER BAD. And by bad I mean good. The dagger doesn't have a lot of range, but you're stabbing people in the face, so who cares? The nunchuks are the best weapon, though, combining great range with devastating attack power. These aren't terribly uncommon drops, and you have them until you die, so it's not too terribly difficult to find a keep a weapon.



At the end of each stage is a "super warrior" boss, and these bosses can range from easy to cheese to cheap as hell. There's one boss with a bo staff who's just the cheapest little MFer and drives me INSANE. On the other hand, you've some Robocop looking dude who, if you can get him into a corner, you can jump kick into submission without taking any damage if you can get your timing right. The hardest part of the whole game is the last half of stage seven, though. That has you go through a boss rush, fighting all six of the previous stages' bosses and THEN fighting the game's final boss. It's not undoable, but you'll definitely need some repeat gameplay because learning the attack patterns of these bosses is an absolute must if you plan to survive long enough to make it to the final boss.



All in all, Bad Dudes is a pretty decent game. It's not amazing, and there are much better beat em ups on the system, but if you can find it for $5 or so, it's worth picking up just to say "I have a game called bad dudes, and I am definitely a bad enough dude to rescue the president" if nothing else. If you've got a friend who has it and will let you borrow it or if you are a punk ass bitch who uses an emulator on a PC, then it's definitely worth giving it a go, but don't expect a masterpiece.