Games Beaten 2018
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BoneSnapDeez
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 20118
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 1:08 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Games Beaten 2018
I like the graphics. Hopefully it gets a Switch port.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
1. Jungle Book (SNES)(Platformer)
2. Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (SNES)(Light Gun Shooter)
3. Might and Magic VI (PC)(RPG)
4. Revenant (PC)(RPG)
5. Neo Turf Masters (NGPC)(Sports)
6. Fatal Fury: First Contact (NGPC)(Fighter)
7. Pac-Man (NGPC)(Action)
8. Golden Axe (Genesis)(Hack and Slash)
9. Blood and Bacon (PC)(FPS)
10. Gain Ground (Genesis)(Strategy)
11. Flicky (Genesis)(Platformer)
12. Zombie Shooter 2 (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
13. Phantasmagoria (PC)(Point and Click)
14. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - Capcom Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
15. Toonstruck (PC)(Point and Click)
There are some games and movies which are advertised solely on the basis of their voice talent, and Toonstruck could have easily fallen into this trap. Christopher Lloyd is the star, but others involved in the project include Tim Curry, Ben Stein, Dan Castellaneta, Tress MacNeille, Dom DeLuise, Frank Welker, and many more. There is FMV of a live action Christopher Lloyd implemented relatively seamlessly into a cartoon. That could have been the highlight, and we'd wash our hands and declare it crap. But Toonstruck is not crap. In fact, it's actually a rather enjoyable and bizarre romp through a cartoon world through the eyes of the animator as he tries to solve puzzles and restore the balance between "good" and "evil" in a ridiculous cartoon world. Yet greater forces are at work, and the game's plot becomes surprisingly twisted despite the subject matter. Then again, the subject matter involves a cross-dressing bowling operator who uses his butt to score strikes, a cow dominatrix demanding her sub find new ways to bring her pain, kidnapping, scam artists, deception, and a very, very mentally disturbed clown.
Gameplay is your typical third-person point-and-click fare: you move around, you gather up objects, and you interact with your environment to try and solve puzzles. Many of these follow cartoon logic, but just about all make sense when you figure them out. There were a few things I did struggle on though, as they either require doing specific actions during very specific animations from certain characters or because they involve trivia on a phone that uses colors. Seriously, the phone thing was probably the toughest thing in the game to do, and you'll want to take notes for it because you have to do it relatively early. There's even a randomized door shaped like a clown's face which requires you play a long game of Simon Says that is way easier than answering color-based trivia questions for a can of beans.
Those few annoying sections out of the way, the rest of the game isn't hard to figure out and feels rewarding to slowly but surely uncover more and more of the world. To do this, you have to talk to characters, but many of them are quite forthcoming in what they want. One character wants popcorn. You get corn on the next screen. How do cartoons make popcorn? Why, they often throw corn in a fire. It's that kind of thing, the stuff we learned from watching Warner Bros. shorts from the 1940s. Toonstruck does a good job of making nods to those classics in terms of character behavior and puzzle design, yet it also often focuses on the adult edge that many of these cartoons possessed.
I liked this game quite a bit, and Christopher Lloyd's antics really helped sell the world. I recommend this to anyone interested in the genre, be they beginner or long time fan. There's a lot to appreciate, even with the few frustrating bits.
2. Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (SNES)(Light Gun Shooter)
3. Might and Magic VI (PC)(RPG)
4. Revenant (PC)(RPG)
5. Neo Turf Masters (NGPC)(Sports)
6. Fatal Fury: First Contact (NGPC)(Fighter)
7. Pac-Man (NGPC)(Action)
8. Golden Axe (Genesis)(Hack and Slash)
9. Blood and Bacon (PC)(FPS)
10. Gain Ground (Genesis)(Strategy)
11. Flicky (Genesis)(Platformer)
12. Zombie Shooter 2 (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
13. Phantasmagoria (PC)(Point and Click)
14. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - Capcom Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
15. Toonstruck (PC)(Point and Click)
There are some games and movies which are advertised solely on the basis of their voice talent, and Toonstruck could have easily fallen into this trap. Christopher Lloyd is the star, but others involved in the project include Tim Curry, Ben Stein, Dan Castellaneta, Tress MacNeille, Dom DeLuise, Frank Welker, and many more. There is FMV of a live action Christopher Lloyd implemented relatively seamlessly into a cartoon. That could have been the highlight, and we'd wash our hands and declare it crap. But Toonstruck is not crap. In fact, it's actually a rather enjoyable and bizarre romp through a cartoon world through the eyes of the animator as he tries to solve puzzles and restore the balance between "good" and "evil" in a ridiculous cartoon world. Yet greater forces are at work, and the game's plot becomes surprisingly twisted despite the subject matter. Then again, the subject matter involves a cross-dressing bowling operator who uses his butt to score strikes, a cow dominatrix demanding her sub find new ways to bring her pain, kidnapping, scam artists, deception, and a very, very mentally disturbed clown.
Gameplay is your typical third-person point-and-click fare: you move around, you gather up objects, and you interact with your environment to try and solve puzzles. Many of these follow cartoon logic, but just about all make sense when you figure them out. There were a few things I did struggle on though, as they either require doing specific actions during very specific animations from certain characters or because they involve trivia on a phone that uses colors. Seriously, the phone thing was probably the toughest thing in the game to do, and you'll want to take notes for it because you have to do it relatively early. There's even a randomized door shaped like a clown's face which requires you play a long game of Simon Says that is way easier than answering color-based trivia questions for a can of beans.
Those few annoying sections out of the way, the rest of the game isn't hard to figure out and feels rewarding to slowly but surely uncover more and more of the world. To do this, you have to talk to characters, but many of them are quite forthcoming in what they want. One character wants popcorn. You get corn on the next screen. How do cartoons make popcorn? Why, they often throw corn in a fire. It's that kind of thing, the stuff we learned from watching Warner Bros. shorts from the 1940s. Toonstruck does a good job of making nods to those classics in terms of character behavior and puzzle design, yet it also often focuses on the adult edge that many of these cartoons possessed.
I liked this game quite a bit, and Christopher Lloyd's antics really helped sell the world. I recommend this to anyone interested in the genre, be they beginner or long time fan. There's a lot to appreciate, even with the few frustrating bits.
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ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8621
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Henderson, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 49
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (18 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (5 Games Beaten)
49. Area 51 - Saturn - April 16*
Area 51 was always an arcade favorite of mine, and its Saturn conversion remains a Saturn favorite. Light gun arcade games were pretty big in the mid to late 90s; at least in my area, light gun cabinets and driving cabinets were usually the only machines that you could still find in commercial operation after 2000. It's a shame that Area 51 never got a cleaned up port to Wii or even PlayStation Move, but as long as you held on to your PlayStation or Saturn and a good CRT TV, the glory days of the 90s can still be relived.
Receiving ports on both Saturn and PlayStation, one cannot help but compare the two. I haven't played the PlayStation version, but I've seen enough footage to make some basic comparisons. While I normally consider the Saturn to be the 5th gen's light gun powerhouse, the Saturn port of Area 51 is, honestly, just slightly inferior to the PlayStation port. The Saturn version has a slight cropping on the game area, and while it is a pretty small frame crop, it is worth noting. Other than that, though, the two versions are virtually identical as far as I'm aware. The FMV and digitized actors look the same, they seem to have similar loading times from what I've seen, and the performance of the two are equally stable.
The game's story is that you're part of a special forces team sent in to sanitize the secret US base at Area 51 after an alien contagion spreads through the base and turns the base personnel into alien zombies. In the later stages of this infection, the victim eventually morphs completely into an alien. As you move through the base on the game's rails, you have to shoot any infected personnel to clear the base. Getting shot, obviously, takes away a point of life, and shooting one of your allies takes away a point of life as well. You can use grenades (if you have any) to clear the screen of enemies, and you can find powerups in the environment that can upgrade your weapon to either a shotgun or a machine gun. All in all, it's a pretty standard rail shooter, but it's absolutely expertly crafted.
Area 51 is an absolute cheese-fest, but it's the sci-fi B-movie kind of cheese which I absolutely love. Even if that kind of cinema cheese isn't your cup of tea, the gameplay is so on point here that it more than makes up for the cheese acting. Truthfully, the PlayStation port is the superior of the two, but I'm a Saturn guy, so this is my version of choice, especially considering that the only real difference that I saw was that there's a very slight frame crop on the Saturn version. Either version you play, however, is going to give you an AWESOME rail gun experience.
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (18 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (5 Games Beaten)
49. Area 51 - Saturn - April 16*
Area 51 was always an arcade favorite of mine, and its Saturn conversion remains a Saturn favorite. Light gun arcade games were pretty big in the mid to late 90s; at least in my area, light gun cabinets and driving cabinets were usually the only machines that you could still find in commercial operation after 2000. It's a shame that Area 51 never got a cleaned up port to Wii or even PlayStation Move, but as long as you held on to your PlayStation or Saturn and a good CRT TV, the glory days of the 90s can still be relived.
Receiving ports on both Saturn and PlayStation, one cannot help but compare the two. I haven't played the PlayStation version, but I've seen enough footage to make some basic comparisons. While I normally consider the Saturn to be the 5th gen's light gun powerhouse, the Saturn port of Area 51 is, honestly, just slightly inferior to the PlayStation port. The Saturn version has a slight cropping on the game area, and while it is a pretty small frame crop, it is worth noting. Other than that, though, the two versions are virtually identical as far as I'm aware. The FMV and digitized actors look the same, they seem to have similar loading times from what I've seen, and the performance of the two are equally stable.
The game's story is that you're part of a special forces team sent in to sanitize the secret US base at Area 51 after an alien contagion spreads through the base and turns the base personnel into alien zombies. In the later stages of this infection, the victim eventually morphs completely into an alien. As you move through the base on the game's rails, you have to shoot any infected personnel to clear the base. Getting shot, obviously, takes away a point of life, and shooting one of your allies takes away a point of life as well. You can use grenades (if you have any) to clear the screen of enemies, and you can find powerups in the environment that can upgrade your weapon to either a shotgun or a machine gun. All in all, it's a pretty standard rail shooter, but it's absolutely expertly crafted.
Area 51 is an absolute cheese-fest, but it's the sci-fi B-movie kind of cheese which I absolutely love. Even if that kind of cinema cheese isn't your cup of tea, the gameplay is so on point here that it more than makes up for the cheese acting. Truthfully, the PlayStation port is the superior of the two, but I'm a Saturn guy, so this is my version of choice, especially considering that the only real difference that I saw was that there's a very slight frame crop on the Saturn version. Either version you play, however, is going to give you an AWESOME rail gun experience.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
1. Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Genesis)
2. Darkwing Duck (NES)
3. Batman* (NES)
4. Journey to Silius (NES)
5. Aladdin* (SNES)
6. Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse* (SNES)
7. Run Saber (SNES)
8. Batman: Return of the Joker (NES)
9. Ninja Warriors (SNES)
10. Thunder Spirits* (SNES)
11. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
11. Thunder Force III* (Genesis)
12. Donkey Kong Country* (SNES)
13. Skyblazer (SNES)
14. Super Turrican* (SNES)
15. Donkey Kong Country 2* (SNES)
16. Super Turrican 2* (SNES)
17. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4)
18. Monster Hunter World (PS4)
19. Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PSX)
20. Resident Evil 2: DualShock* [Claire A/Leon B] (PSX)
21. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4)
22. Resident Evil HD* (PS4) [PLATINUM]
23. Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares* (PS4)
24. Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition* (PS4) [Vergil]
25. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4)
26. Nioh (PS4)
27. Super Mario Bros 3Mix (Romhack)
* = replay
Definitely very impressed so far. I'm up to World 3 now and each world seems to be themed around a specific game, I think. The first world was mostly Mario 1 stages mixed around, a lot of later tougher levels though. And world 2 was Mario 2 USA which was very impressive because this is a SMB3 hack after all. But it had a lot of vertical scaling sections, Shy Guys, Wart, Mouser, destructible blocks from bombs, etc. There's new music throughout this hack too.
The big negative is in the images there... Ghost Houses. Yup, this hack brings in Ghost Houses with multiple exits and I'm just rarely in the mood for this junk thesedays. It's really impressive how they pulled this off though. You can also replay levels now and even go to a "Star Road" from the overworld, to backtrack to other worlds if you want. But the annoying thing about the Ghost Houses is how some of the secret exits block off levels and such, when I'd love to see everything this hack has to offer. I just don't want to bend over backwards to try and figure out the tricks to some of these levels, like world 2's... which lead to a pipe on the map so I have no idea where that might lead.
I'm not sure if Luigi or Toad play differently, I'll check them out. You can also save up to 3 files. Not sure if it keeps your lives and items in stock though, I'm using save states since this has been tricky in some spots. A bit tougher than vanilla SMB3 for sure. The star Mushroom above is a checkpoint which is really neat too. Overall this is really cool so far and very well put together.
---
Up to World 7 now.
World 1 - SMB1
World 2 - SMB2 USA
World 3 - Some Ghost world, not bad (was worried since I hate most Ghost Houses)
World 4 - SMW
World 5 - Some desert world, maybe it had some Super Mario Land in there but I'm not sure
World 6 - Sunshine, Delfino with oil in place of water that's harder to swim through haha
World 7 - Galaxy! Should be very interesting...
I think the secret Ghost House exits lead to some bonus world, but I couldn't figure out how to beat the one level there that I had access to.
- Yoshi worked pretty well. My theory is that they basically edited Kuribo's Shoe, but Yoshi can still eat enemies for a coin and spit out turtles. He can walk on spikey surfaces like in SMW and does double jump damage.
- There's a blue fire power in this, that freezes enemies and then you can kick them. It also has the frog outfit controls while swimming.
- They got tons of SMB2 mechanics in here that still impresses me, like in the desert world there was the big downward vertical pipe levels where you have to dig through sand and can do that here.
- Each world has unique bosses and they're all pretty cool. Bowser Jr and some gimmick takes the place of the Koopa Kids.
- The difficulty is maybe higher than vanilla SMB3, but otherwise not bad at all so it's not one of those annoying hacks.
- Not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but there's tons of new music and a bunch of remixes:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... jNeZ4BSOpG
- World 7 was definitely pretty cool! There was one memorable level from SMB3's original world 7, except in this you go through it upside down haha.
- World 8 was Bowser's Galaxy. More cool stuff.
Beating the game triggered the weird "new comets are showing up in levels" thing from the Galaxy's, not exactly sure what it does here. But I didn't find enough secret exits from the Ghost Houses to get through the secret world. Wonder how that ends. Kind of neat it has post end game content like the later 3D games, I probably won't mess with the rest though. Overall this was a blast though and a very cool rom hack.
2. Darkwing Duck (NES)
3. Batman* (NES)
4. Journey to Silius (NES)
5. Aladdin* (SNES)
6. Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse* (SNES)
7. Run Saber (SNES)
8. Batman: Return of the Joker (NES)
9. Ninja Warriors (SNES)
10. Thunder Spirits* (SNES)
11. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
11. Thunder Force III* (Genesis)
12. Donkey Kong Country* (SNES)
13. Skyblazer (SNES)
14. Super Turrican* (SNES)
15. Donkey Kong Country 2* (SNES)
16. Super Turrican 2* (SNES)
17. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PS4)
18. Monster Hunter World (PS4)
19. Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PSX)
20. Resident Evil 2: DualShock* [Claire A/Leon B] (PSX)
21. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4)
22. Resident Evil HD* (PS4) [PLATINUM]
23. Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares* (PS4)
24. Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition* (PS4) [Vergil]
25. Yakuza Kiwami (PS4)
26. Nioh (PS4)
27. Super Mario Bros 3Mix (Romhack)
* = replay
Definitely very impressed so far. I'm up to World 3 now and each world seems to be themed around a specific game, I think. The first world was mostly Mario 1 stages mixed around, a lot of later tougher levels though. And world 2 was Mario 2 USA which was very impressive because this is a SMB3 hack after all. But it had a lot of vertical scaling sections, Shy Guys, Wart, Mouser, destructible blocks from bombs, etc. There's new music throughout this hack too.
The big negative is in the images there... Ghost Houses. Yup, this hack brings in Ghost Houses with multiple exits and I'm just rarely in the mood for this junk thesedays. It's really impressive how they pulled this off though. You can also replay levels now and even go to a "Star Road" from the overworld, to backtrack to other worlds if you want. But the annoying thing about the Ghost Houses is how some of the secret exits block off levels and such, when I'd love to see everything this hack has to offer. I just don't want to bend over backwards to try and figure out the tricks to some of these levels, like world 2's... which lead to a pipe on the map so I have no idea where that might lead.
I'm not sure if Luigi or Toad play differently, I'll check them out. You can also save up to 3 files. Not sure if it keeps your lives and items in stock though, I'm using save states since this has been tricky in some spots. A bit tougher than vanilla SMB3 for sure. The star Mushroom above is a checkpoint which is really neat too. Overall this is really cool so far and very well put together.
---
Up to World 7 now.
World 1 - SMB1
World 2 - SMB2 USA
World 3 - Some Ghost world, not bad (was worried since I hate most Ghost Houses)
World 4 - SMW
World 5 - Some desert world, maybe it had some Super Mario Land in there but I'm not sure
World 6 - Sunshine, Delfino with oil in place of water that's harder to swim through haha
World 7 - Galaxy! Should be very interesting...
I think the secret Ghost House exits lead to some bonus world, but I couldn't figure out how to beat the one level there that I had access to.
- Yoshi worked pretty well. My theory is that they basically edited Kuribo's Shoe, but Yoshi can still eat enemies for a coin and spit out turtles. He can walk on spikey surfaces like in SMW and does double jump damage.
- There's a blue fire power in this, that freezes enemies and then you can kick them. It also has the frog outfit controls while swimming.
- They got tons of SMB2 mechanics in here that still impresses me, like in the desert world there was the big downward vertical pipe levels where you have to dig through sand and can do that here.
- Each world has unique bosses and they're all pretty cool. Bowser Jr and some gimmick takes the place of the Koopa Kids.
- The difficulty is maybe higher than vanilla SMB3, but otherwise not bad at all so it's not one of those annoying hacks.
- Not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but there's tons of new music and a bunch of remixes:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... jNeZ4BSOpG
- World 7 was definitely pretty cool! There was one memorable level from SMB3's original world 7, except in this you go through it upside down haha.
- World 8 was Bowser's Galaxy. More cool stuff.
Beating the game triggered the weird "new comets are showing up in levels" thing from the Galaxy's, not exactly sure what it does here. But I didn't find enough secret exits from the Ghost Houses to get through the secret world. Wonder how that ends. Kind of neat it has post end game content like the later 3D games, I probably won't mess with the rest though. Overall this was a blast though and a very cool rom hack.
-
Key-Glyph
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1709
- Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 12:38 am
- Location: Summer Games Challenge!
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Hello, Games Beaten thread! It's been a slow year for me so far, but here's what's been going on:
01. Contra: Hard Corps (GEN)*
02. Contra (NES)*
03. Star Fox 64 (N64)
04. Silent Steel (PC)
05. Ecco the Dolphin (GEN)*
* = replay
My husband and I sold our house and moved early this year, and what must one do when one moves into a new place? Hook up and test the consoles! And what is the result of testing a console for a few seconds? Getting sucked into playing through an entire game! For several days!
Thus I went on a Contra kick, gnawing the rust off my skills and making sure I could still beat all the paths in Hard Corps with my boy Brad Fang. After a few days of that it was on to the NES and the original Contra which, on one particular night, I wound up deciding to loop until I ran out of lives to see how long I could last.
Enter my first bonehead move: I decided to test the N64 with Star Fox 64, which I'd never played before, the day after looping Contra. Of course I got pulled into it and loved it... but holy smokes was my thumb PISSED. It took me about a day of practice to beat the easy path, and the joint of my firing thumb was visibly puffy by the time I was done.
Then came my second bonehead move: I decided to keep messing with the Star Fox paths the next day, which led to the discovery of a final boss variant, so of course I got pulled into that. When I finally watched the game's alternate ("true") ending, it was with an ice pack on my thumb.
I took a break from video games for a few days.
When I recovered, I was inspired to join this month's Together Retro and play a game that had fascinated me back when it was a pack-in demo with my first Windows computer: Silent Steel. This is a full motion video experience wherein you make dialog choices at decision junctures, stringing together the fate of an American submarine crew being stalked by a nearly invisible and hostile enemy. I enjoyed the heck out of this game -- loved the characters, the actors, and the slow way the story unpeeled -- but you can't exactly logic your way to a good ending, which might be a drawback for some. The best way to describe the experience is that you're basically playing a choose-your-own-adventure book, just in video form. In other words, ideally you're just trying every choice combination to see where they lead for the fun of it. Sure, I was also playing to win, but truth be told I was more drawn in by the mystery of the game's story than anything else. I needed to know what was going on, and that's what kept me coming back to it -- even after getting my submarine blown to smithereens for the umpteenth time. Bonus side effect of playing this game: I now know a lot about submarines. I think that's pretty cool.
And to finally get caught up to the present, I was playing the Ecco games with a friend and his six year old over the weekend, so I was absolutely seized with the need to replay them when I got home. I couldn't actually remember if I'd beaten the first game as a kid without taking shortcuts or using the invincibility code as a crutch on certain levels (I'm looking at you, Dark Water), so I wanted to settle things with myself for certain. As one of the most profound gaming experiences of my life, going through Ecco again was a powerful journey... but I also completely understand why people hate it. The object and enemy placement is downright unfair at times, frequently bordering on sadistic when you're seconds away from a level's exit. Still, I made it through, and feel good knowing that I can still finish this thing.
01. Contra: Hard Corps (GEN)*
02. Contra (NES)*
03. Star Fox 64 (N64)
04. Silent Steel (PC)
05. Ecco the Dolphin (GEN)*
* = replay
My husband and I sold our house and moved early this year, and what must one do when one moves into a new place? Hook up and test the consoles! And what is the result of testing a console for a few seconds? Getting sucked into playing through an entire game! For several days!
Thus I went on a Contra kick, gnawing the rust off my skills and making sure I could still beat all the paths in Hard Corps with my boy Brad Fang. After a few days of that it was on to the NES and the original Contra which, on one particular night, I wound up deciding to loop until I ran out of lives to see how long I could last.
Enter my first bonehead move: I decided to test the N64 with Star Fox 64, which I'd never played before, the day after looping Contra. Of course I got pulled into it and loved it... but holy smokes was my thumb PISSED. It took me about a day of practice to beat the easy path, and the joint of my firing thumb was visibly puffy by the time I was done.
Then came my second bonehead move: I decided to keep messing with the Star Fox paths the next day, which led to the discovery of a final boss variant, so of course I got pulled into that. When I finally watched the game's alternate ("true") ending, it was with an ice pack on my thumb.
I took a break from video games for a few days.
When I recovered, I was inspired to join this month's Together Retro and play a game that had fascinated me back when it was a pack-in demo with my first Windows computer: Silent Steel. This is a full motion video experience wherein you make dialog choices at decision junctures, stringing together the fate of an American submarine crew being stalked by a nearly invisible and hostile enemy. I enjoyed the heck out of this game -- loved the characters, the actors, and the slow way the story unpeeled -- but you can't exactly logic your way to a good ending, which might be a drawback for some. The best way to describe the experience is that you're basically playing a choose-your-own-adventure book, just in video form. In other words, ideally you're just trying every choice combination to see where they lead for the fun of it. Sure, I was also playing to win, but truth be told I was more drawn in by the mystery of the game's story than anything else. I needed to know what was going on, and that's what kept me coming back to it -- even after getting my submarine blown to smithereens for the umpteenth time. Bonus side effect of playing this game: I now know a lot about submarines. I think that's pretty cool.
And to finally get caught up to the present, I was playing the Ecco games with a friend and his six year old over the weekend, so I was absolutely seized with the need to replay them when I got home. I couldn't actually remember if I'd beaten the first game as a kid without taking shortcuts or using the invincibility code as a crutch on certain levels (I'm looking at you, Dark Water), so I wanted to settle things with myself for certain. As one of the most profound gaming experiences of my life, going through Ecco again was a powerful journey... but I also completely understand why people hate it. The object and enemy placement is downright unfair at times, frequently bordering on sadistic when you're seconds away from a level's exit. Still, I made it through, and feel good knowing that I can still finish this thing.
Last edited by Key-Glyph on Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
BogusMeatFactory wrote:If I could powder my copies of shenmue and snort them I would
-
alienjesus
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8776
- Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:10 pm
- Location: London, UK.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Key-Glyph wrote:(I'm looking at you, Dark Water)
Dark Water is probably the second hardest level I've ever beaten in a video game.
The hardest was Welcome To The Machine
-
ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8621
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Henderson, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 50
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (18 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (6 Games Beaten)
50. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - Sega CD - April 17*
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers for Sega CD is one of the cheapest and most shameless cash-grabs I've ever seen out of a video game. Fortunately, this game was never ported to other systems as far as I know (other games titled "Might Morphin' Power Rangers" are totally different games). This is the epitome of how NOT to do an FMV game.
The game consists of pressing the right button at the right time during live action fight scenes pulled straight from the show. That's it. That's the entire game. It's nothing but a constant quick time event. Your performance makes no difference with regards to what happens on screen. If you miss a button, nothing changes except that your "life" meter depletes a little. When that meter is fully depleted, Rita Repulsa appears on the screen to taunt you for getting a game over. This is honestly little more than a low quality VCD. There's zero replay value here, and there's not really any play value in the first place.
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers on Sega CD is nothing more than one massive quick time event, and it's not even a good one. I like QTEs in games, but I decided that I hated this after about three minutes. It's literally just random episodes' fight scenes with some QTE prompts thrown in to call it a game. Even at the time, you could have gotten a VHS of the show that was higher quality and lower cost. This game is terrible, the people who made it are terrible, and if you actually enjoy it, then your taste in games is terrible.
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (18 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (6 Games Beaten)
50. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - Sega CD - April 17*
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers for Sega CD is one of the cheapest and most shameless cash-grabs I've ever seen out of a video game. Fortunately, this game was never ported to other systems as far as I know (other games titled "Might Morphin' Power Rangers" are totally different games). This is the epitome of how NOT to do an FMV game.
The game consists of pressing the right button at the right time during live action fight scenes pulled straight from the show. That's it. That's the entire game. It's nothing but a constant quick time event. Your performance makes no difference with regards to what happens on screen. If you miss a button, nothing changes except that your "life" meter depletes a little. When that meter is fully depleted, Rita Repulsa appears on the screen to taunt you for getting a game over. This is honestly little more than a low quality VCD. There's zero replay value here, and there's not really any play value in the first place.
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers on Sega CD is nothing more than one massive quick time event, and it's not even a good one. I like QTEs in games, but I decided that I hated this after about three minutes. It's literally just random episodes' fight scenes with some QTE prompts thrown in to call it a game. Even at the time, you could have gotten a VHS of the show that was higher quality and lower cost. This game is terrible, the people who made it are terrible, and if you actually enjoy it, then your taste in games is terrible.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
ElkinFencer10 wrote:The game consists of pressing the right button at the right time during live action fight scenes pulled straight from the show. That's it. That's the entire game. It's nothing but a constant quick time event. Your performance makes no difference with regards to what happens on screen. If you miss a button, nothing changes except that your "life" meter depletes a little. This is honestly little more than a low quality VCD. There's zero replay value here, and there's not really any play value in the first place.
I mean, this is a pretty good summary of most "FMV games" from that era, right?
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
Hey now, I've played three that are more than that this month!
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.