Games Beaten 2018
Re: Games Beaten 2018
I think Castlevania is a great series of games to play through, for the most part the series is comprised of some pretty incredible games and none of them feel samey. I playthrough most of the traditional vania games pretty much every year, I would advise anyone wanting to play through the series to stay away from the game boy adventure series, all 3 of those games are incredibly slow and boring, castlevania adventure rebirth on wii is a solid playthrough though.
I would also say that if your playing through the castlevania series that bloodstained curse of the moon is a mandatory playthrough, although it is not technically a castlevania game, it is as close as possible and a very fun experience with a lot of different ways to play it.
I would also say that if your playing through the castlevania series that bloodstained curse of the moon is a mandatory playthrough, although it is not technically a castlevania game, it is as close as possible and a very fun experience with a lot of different ways to play it.
- BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
63. Sukeban Deka II: Shoujo Tekkamen Densetsu (Mark III)
The Sega Master System (Mark III in its native Japan) is a funny thing. Sales-wise, it was thoroughly trounced in both its homeland and North America. However, it was a success in Europe and Brazil, and saw many exclusive releases in those regions. Japanese exclusives were kept to an extreme minimum -- less than twenty, from my count (compare this to the hundreds of games that graced the Famicom but not the NES).
One title that remained marooned in Japan was Sukeban Deka II: Shoujo Tekkamen Densetsu. This is a licensed game, based on a media franchise that began with a manga series and later branched out to anime and live action television. There is a also a Sukeban Deka III, on the Famicom. Try as I might, I was unable to find a "part one." Turns out the II in the title refers to the fact that this particular game is based upon the second series of the TV show (likewise, III is based on the third series). That first season was apparently ignored by game developers, thus making Sukeban Deka II "part one" of an 8-bit gaming duo. This is a text heavy Mark III game, and one of the very few to receive a Japanese-to-English fan translation.
Sukeban Deka II is a Japanese adventure game. These generally have a distinct feel to them. They tend to be heavily menu-driven, with the first-person "action" relegated to a small window. Trial-and-error progress is typical. One is required to speak to everyone, search every inch of every onscreen environment, and test every item acquired. Success in this genre is predicated on the plot being captivating and not entirely obtuse. Unfortunately, this particular experience tends to be bland and cryptic. Now, I'm not familiar with the source material, and have no interest in becoming familiar after finishing this one. The lead heroine is a "delinquent" girl named Saki, not her real name but a government code name, tasked with infiltrating high schools to assist in taking down their internal crime syndicates. She carries a weapon, a lethal metal yo-yo. There are a couple of delinquent buddies of Saki's who appear as NPCs, Okyo and Yukino, though they make only brief occasional appearances. Yeah, the whole thing is comically preposterous, but never gets particularly interesting.
So, the bulk of the game is spent roaming around high school classrooms, searching for objects and then subsequently placing them in the correct spots. It's immediately apparent how bland the graphics are. The Master System had a great robust color palette, though it isn't utilized effectively here and the copy-and-paste locales get tiresome quickly. In contrast, the music is great - too great for this game - with a strong Phantasy Star vibe. Turns out the great Tokuhiko Uwabo served as composer here as well.
While looting the seemingly infinite number of desks and chalkboards, Saki will come across a string of bizarre references. The fourth wall is broken consistently, as copies of the Sukeban Deka manga appear in-game, and characters from Alex Kidd, Teddy Boy, and Fantasy Zone make cameo appearances, not to mention the string of "Sega rules!" sentiments. I'd call these things "Easter eggs" but they appear conspicuously and constantly; it's almost as if the game is loaded with advertisements. As for the actual obtainable items: finding and placing them is a colossal pain due to the game's overly picky "hit detection." For instance, an object behind a chalkboard can only be unveiled if the player clicks in one specific corner, rather than the logical dead-center area. At one point in the game something must be moved to a pedestal -- again, this is done by clicking on a single certain corner, though when the item actually appears it goes to the pedestal's center. More frustrating are the switches required to open off-screen doors and passageways. These offer zero audiovisual cues when properly activated so the player must loop around a given school to check if anything in the scenery has changed.
To give the game some credit, the developers of Sukeban Deka II attempted to shake things up a bit. While the "adventure" stretches comprise the majority of the game's playtime, there are also first-person dungeons and even combat sections. The dungeon visuals appear to be lifted straight from Yuji Horii's Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken. Gray, vapid, and dull. Dungeons serve little purpose, most contain no items or NPCs; they just exist to connect point A to point B with a few dead ends along the way. Hard pass.
As for the brawling segments, they're a welcome change of pace whilst also woefully inadequate. Combat is presented in a sort of 3/4th view, with a nice full view Saki in her hilarious schoolgirl outfit. Combat appears in two varieties. There are brawls that pit Saki against a group of male delinquents, as well as the (generally) one-on-one boss fights. The difficulty level of these skirmishes is paradoxically very hard and yet very easy. At first it seems like Saki is hopelessly unable to defeat her foes, as choppy movement and janky hit detection take center stage. After some experimentation, it soon becomes apparent that every enemy, from the first random thug to the final boss, can be taken out by unceasingly moving around the screen in a figure eight pattern, stopping short occasionally to get a single hit in. It's a chore, and takes a toll on the fingers. Saki can move in eight directions, but her yo-yo can only be fired in six. Most enemies need to be hit on a diagonal, which is easier said than done. Exacerbating the issue is the fact that every villain has a massive health bar (though, so does Saki).
All told, Sukeban Deka II takes about forty-five minutes to complete -- well, that's assuming one has a walkthrough handy. Expect a long and exasperating road otherwise. There are indeed plenty of retro Japanese "detective" video games that are true hidden gems, worthy of a second (or first) look. Despise lofty ambitions, this isn't one of them. It's tiresome, and the plot and aesthetics do little to lighten the load of constant object-clicking and arbitrarily-added fluff. Sukeban Deka II is a somewhat intriguing look into the old and forgotten Mark III scene, but little more.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
1. Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
2. Wonder Girl: the Dragon's Trap (Switch)
3. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
4. Chrono Trigger (DS)
I was anxious going into this title. I had tried to play it in an emulator maybe 14 years ago or so, but one boss shut me down. I think it was Golem. The first time you face Golem you are allowed to lose, but I was not in the mood for that, and I'd struggled some with the game prior to that as well. So I quit and never went back. Until last month. Thanks to Together Retro, I decided it was time to take a crack at CT again, this time on the DS, which is an excellent version of the game. It feels very true to the SNES, but with a few modern UI conveniences due to the DS's second screen. So let's talk, then, about Chrono Trigger. Just a warning in advance. This is a lot of text and no pretty pictures. And since I'm one of those people who tends to be overly critical at times, you're probably going to get pissed at my review if you're a real lover of this game. If you read my summary paragraph at the end, though, I think that'll help put it all in perspective.
Ultimately, Chrono Trigger is an auditory and visual feast that does some neat things, but ends up feeling a quite a bit incomplete. There are all these signs that the creators were playing with big ideas and straining against limitations but had to make some massive compromises. Chrono Trigger is a good game, even a great one, and I know why people hold it up as a masterpiece. But coming to the game so far after it was originally released, it's hard for me to really put it in context. I've played games that do all the elements this one did much better and more completely. And while I appreciate that the game was doing so much with the SNES hardware and trying to be all these different things, the game can, at times, feel scattered as a result. The first 2/3 of the game end up feeling quite different in some ways from the latter 1/3. Ideas and mechanics introduced early in the game are dropped or not fully capitalized upon, and new mechanics are introduced later which, rather than working with earlier mechanics and ideas, end up supplanting them. And yet, despite my complaints, I did enjoy the game, especially in that latter 1/3 where I was doing side quests and learning more about the characters, at least up until the last dungeon. Chrono Trigger is, despite its problems, a high achiever and deserves a good grade. I'm really glad I finally got to play it and actually beat it. I'm not going to call it the best RPG ever, or even the best RPG of the 16-bit era, but I will call it highly recommended.
2. Wonder Girl: the Dragon's Trap (Switch)
3. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
4. Chrono Trigger (DS)
I was anxious going into this title. I had tried to play it in an emulator maybe 14 years ago or so, but one boss shut me down. I think it was Golem. The first time you face Golem you are allowed to lose, but I was not in the mood for that, and I'd struggled some with the game prior to that as well. So I quit and never went back. Until last month. Thanks to Together Retro, I decided it was time to take a crack at CT again, this time on the DS, which is an excellent version of the game. It feels very true to the SNES, but with a few modern UI conveniences due to the DS's second screen. So let's talk, then, about Chrono Trigger. Just a warning in advance. This is a lot of text and no pretty pictures. And since I'm one of those people who tends to be overly critical at times, you're probably going to get pissed at my review if you're a real lover of this game. If you read my summary paragraph at the end, though, I think that'll help put it all in perspective.
Ultimately, Chrono Trigger is an auditory and visual feast that does some neat things, but ends up feeling a quite a bit incomplete. There are all these signs that the creators were playing with big ideas and straining against limitations but had to make some massive compromises. Chrono Trigger is a good game, even a great one, and I know why people hold it up as a masterpiece. But coming to the game so far after it was originally released, it's hard for me to really put it in context. I've played games that do all the elements this one did much better and more completely. And while I appreciate that the game was doing so much with the SNES hardware and trying to be all these different things, the game can, at times, feel scattered as a result. The first 2/3 of the game end up feeling quite different in some ways from the latter 1/3. Ideas and mechanics introduced early in the game are dropped or not fully capitalized upon, and new mechanics are introduced later which, rather than working with earlier mechanics and ideas, end up supplanting them. And yet, despite my complaints, I did enjoy the game, especially in that latter 1/3 where I was doing side quests and learning more about the characters, at least up until the last dungeon. Chrono Trigger is, despite its problems, a high achiever and deserves a good grade. I'm really glad I finally got to play it and actually beat it. I'm not going to call it the best RPG ever, or even the best RPG of the 16-bit era, but I will call it highly recommended.
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
Very interesting writeup. I definitely appreciate reading comments from someone that is fresh to the game. As one of those "Chrono Trigger is the best RPG of all time" adherents, what would you say are the games that did various elements better? And I suppose a lot of that boils down to what you want from your RPGs. I think the biggest flaw was always that the game is mostly quite easy. But I enjoyed the light-hearted story, the combat gives you options without weighing you down too much in complexity, and the game moves at an extremely brisk pace.
I will also say that I think the script for the SNES version is a bit more colorful than the DS version, but both are good ways to play. I also thought, crazy optional weapons aside, that the additional content in the DS game was very lackluster.
Anyway, it's still my favorite JRPG; there are a few that have come close, but none have yet dethroned it. Most of those titles are also SNES games (Lufia II, Final Fantasy III), and I think a few Dragon Quest entries also get really close.
I will also say that I think the script for the SNES version is a bit more colorful than the DS version, but both are good ways to play. I also thought, crazy optional weapons aside, that the additional content in the DS game was very lackluster.
Anyway, it's still my favorite JRPG; there are a few that have come close, but none have yet dethroned it. Most of those titles are also SNES games (Lufia II, Final Fantasy III), and I think a few Dragon Quest entries also get really close.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Sarge wrote:Very interesting writeup. I definitely appreciate reading comments from someone that is fresh to the game. As one of those "Chrono Trigger is the best RPG of all time" adherents, what would you say are the games that did various elements better? And I suppose a lot of that boils down to what you want from your RPGs. I think the biggest flaw was always that the game is mostly quite easy. But I enjoyed the light-hearted story, the combat gives you options without weighing you down too much in complexity, and the game moves at an extremely brisk pace.
Well, for battlefield positioning and magical effect AOE I'd say Grandia and Grandia II are probably my top choice. You can move on the battlefield, you can delay initiative with attacks and spells, distance to the enemy affects your melee attacks (or even if you can make one at all), and spell positioning and range is important as well. Plus, the on-screen battle initiative bar and other prompts make it really easy to figure out how to implement positioning-based and timing-based strategy. For combination attacks I like Phantasy Star IV better. No, it's not as easy to do the attacks, but it feels more rewarding, and more powerful, to pull them off successfully. Chrono Trigger is merely average when it comes to handling things like elemental damage and status immunities.
I did ultimately like the Chrono Trigger characters, but until those side quests kick in they are pretty shallow. Lots of RPGs trump the characters if you exclude the side quest content. And once you include the side quests, I think CT is as good as most of the best RPGs, but there are some still that are better. Look at some of Camelot's output, especially Shining Force III. Phantasy Star IV has great characters, too. Dragon Force also has fantastic characters, though the way you interact with them is quite different. That's a necessity of the difference in gameplay. None of those are quite as light-hearted, however. I think Final Fantasy IV and VI have more complex characters, although I can't say I really like the FFVI characters better (I do not, in fact). Grandia has that same lighter tone as Chrono Trigger and has great characters.
I like that Chrono Trigger's combat was lightweight, but then it turns around and gives you sections like the Sewers and Black Omen which are heavy on combat. If combat is simple and lightweight, you need to be doing less of it. I felt like if could have leveraged character positioning better and it still would have felt decently breezy, but also added just that little extra strategic "oomph". And the Sewers and Black Omen also caused the game to drag down, especially Black Omen. Black Omen shouldn't have been the combat slog it was, especially right at the end of the game where people are looking forward to being finished. Both those areas really interrupt the pacing of the game, IMO. I'm also not sure I agree that Chrono Trigger is as short and breezy an RPG as folks claim it is. It took me almost as long to beat Chrono Trigger on DS as it did Dragon Quest IV. It was a difference of like 3 hours or so, which isn't that much. Admittedly, I did all the optional side quests, but if you skip those Chrono Trigger becomes a less good game. In order to really rank Chrono Trigger highly you have to include that optional content, but some of that optional content slows down the game. And to go through all of it does add significantly to the total play time.
Sarge wrote:I will also say that I think the script for the SNES version is a bit more colorful than the DS version, but both are good ways to play. I also thought, crazy optional weapons aside, that the additional content in the DS game was very lackluster.
I didn't really dig into the extra DS content. I decided beating the game was enough. And I think the DS script is quite well-written. It isn't quite as quirky as the SNES translation, but it's much better constructed.
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My Classic Games Collection
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The PC Engine Software Bible Forum, with Shoutbox chat - the new Internet home for PC Engine fandom.
Re: Games Beaten 2018
My problem these days is that I'm not coming in cold. My last time through the game only took 17 hours.
I actually like the Black Omen, but for other reasons. Gold Studs and Speed Tabs for everyone! Seriously, make sure to steal from the enemies there, they give really good stuff.
I actually like the Black Omen, but for other reasons. Gold Studs and Speed Tabs for everyone! Seriously, make sure to steal from the enemies there, they give really good stuff.
- noiseredux
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
1. Ducktales: Remastered
2. Grand Theft Auto V
3. Diablo III: Darkening Of Tristram
4. Final Fantasy Type-0
5. The King Of Fighters: Neowave
6. Guardian Heroes
7. Puyo Puyo Tetris
8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
9. Gunstar Heroes
10. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
11. Ultimate NES Remix
12. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
13. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
14. Madden NFL Football
15. Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire
well, damn. I didn't expect to actually enjoy a Pokemon game so much but I was sort of in the mood to give one another go after many years, and 20 hours later I had a blast. I'll write more about it later, but for now I'll just say I'm happy I gave this series another shot.
2. Grand Theft Auto V
3. Diablo III: Darkening Of Tristram
4. Final Fantasy Type-0
5. The King Of Fighters: Neowave
6. Guardian Heroes
7. Puyo Puyo Tetris
8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
9. Gunstar Heroes
10. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
11. Ultimate NES Remix
12. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
13. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
14. Madden NFL Football
15. Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire
well, damn. I didn't expect to actually enjoy a Pokemon game so much but I was sort of in the mood to give one another go after many years, and 20 hours later I had a blast. I'll write more about it later, but for now I'll just say I'm happy I gave this series another shot.
- PartridgeSenpai
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- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Partridge Senpai's 2018 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat
1-20
21-40
41-60
61. Iconoclasts (Steam)
62. Serial Cleaner (Twitch)
63. Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PSVita)
64. Hokuto Ga Gotoku [Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise] (PS4)
65. Pokemon Picross (3DS)
66. 3D Picross: Round 2 (3DS)
67. Vampyr (PS4)
68. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)
I was hype af for the new Smash Bros last week, and boy was that hype met and then some! Yesterday afternoon I finished the last of the game's content, and I reckon it took me about 40 or so hours to totally do everything in the game 100% (except the online challenges as I don't have online). Compared to previous games in the series, the amount of absurdly difficult challenges for any kind of reward is substantially less, but I'm totally okay with that. This is a brilliant game and yet another example of Nintendo blowing precedent out of the water with a new title on Switch in an established franchise.
First what I did was Adventure mode, and that took me about 15.5 hours to complete. Adventure mode is yet another new take on a single-player content for Smash Bros, and it's the best they've ever done it. The player goes along paths on a world-map covered with fighters to unlock and other smaller fights to do for the game's Spirits. Spirits are buffs you can give you fighter in Adventure mode or in a spirits-enabled smash battle, and they provide attack and defensive buffs that increase as they level up by using them more to fight. They also have equip slots where support spirits can be put in that have effects from having faster charging smash moves to dealing more damage with some directional special (they're basically stickers from Brawl). In over 600 fights (MANY of which are entirely optional), you can go around the world map fighting battles themed around these spirits. For example, the Buzz Buzz spirit is fighting a stamina battle against a very tiny Mr. Game & Watch in the Onett stage who likes to avoid combat.
The set-ups for these fights just never ceased to be clever and interesting, and some of them downright brutal in how challenging they are. Adventure mode also adds 7 new boss battles (like Brawl had in its adventure mode) against a powerful AI NPC opponent, and you can also unlock every fighter in the game by going around the board and fighting them (but only unlocked for normal Smash when you finish Adventure mode). Outside of Adventure mode, there is also the Spirit Board, where you can just do these spirit fights outside of adventure mod against a cycling selection of 12 spirits to fight (and even after 100%-ing adventure mode, there are like 400 spirit fights not in Adventure mode only on the spirit board).
Now on the topic of unlocking characters, this game has a TON to unlock. In a roster of 74 fighters to unlock, only 8 are unlocked at the start: the roster from the original N64 game. Every 10 minutes played in any mode, you'll get a new challenger approaching from the list. Alternatively, completing anyone's classic mode will get you a new challenger to fight, and each classic mode takes about 10 or so minutes as well, as every character has their own specific classic mode with 6 fights centered around a theme (for example, Dr. Mario's is fighting 1 v 3's against opponents colored in yellow, blue, and red XD ). The classic modes are clever and fun just like the spirit fights are, and it was a joy to go through them just as it was go through the Adventure mode.
That said, for over 60 characters at 10 minutes a piece, that's over 10 hours to unlock every fighter in the game. In a game with nearly 1300 spirits to collect, I think this game already had MORE than enough collectables to hunt down to have them put the main meat & potatoes of the game behind a slow grind of over 10 hours of play time. This is compounded further by a lot of these challenger fights being quite legitimately hard (even for an experienced, decent Smash player like myself). The AI in this game ain't no slouch, and I have seen no shortage of complaints online about what a pain unlocking all the characters is, particularly for someone not that great at the game. Not having an easier method outside of using amiibos to unlock the characters really flies in the face of Smash being a party game, and is one of very few things I would say the previous Smash game did better than this one (as nearly every character was already unlocked).
This huge time investment to unlock characters is really the one significant complaint I have with Smash Ult, and even then it's not that big a complaint. Other complaints are far more minor, with the most minor being some somewhat problematic (although very Japanese) spirit design as both black human spirit characters (Dee Jay from Street Fighter and Mr. Sandman from Punch Out) are 1v1 fights against primates (Diddy and DK respectively Xp). And then this game also doesn't fix Smash 4's problem of a generally confusing and not entirely intuitive main menu system full of menus within menus that take some time to just suss out what is where through trial and error.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. As I said earlier, I loved this game to pieces. I was super hyped for it, and it delivered on everything I hoped for and then some. With a massive roster and an equally massive amount of single-player content (even outside of unlocking characters), Smash Bros Ultimate has really earned its title of the "Ultimate" Smash Bros game.
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat
1-20
21-40
41-60
61. Iconoclasts (Steam)
62. Serial Cleaner (Twitch)
63. Silent Hill: Book of Memories (PSVita)
64. Hokuto Ga Gotoku [Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise] (PS4)
65. Pokemon Picross (3DS)
66. 3D Picross: Round 2 (3DS)
67. Vampyr (PS4)
68. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)
I was hype af for the new Smash Bros last week, and boy was that hype met and then some! Yesterday afternoon I finished the last of the game's content, and I reckon it took me about 40 or so hours to totally do everything in the game 100% (except the online challenges as I don't have online). Compared to previous games in the series, the amount of absurdly difficult challenges for any kind of reward is substantially less, but I'm totally okay with that. This is a brilliant game and yet another example of Nintendo blowing precedent out of the water with a new title on Switch in an established franchise.
First what I did was Adventure mode, and that took me about 15.5 hours to complete. Adventure mode is yet another new take on a single-player content for Smash Bros, and it's the best they've ever done it. The player goes along paths on a world-map covered with fighters to unlock and other smaller fights to do for the game's Spirits. Spirits are buffs you can give you fighter in Adventure mode or in a spirits-enabled smash battle, and they provide attack and defensive buffs that increase as they level up by using them more to fight. They also have equip slots where support spirits can be put in that have effects from having faster charging smash moves to dealing more damage with some directional special (they're basically stickers from Brawl). In over 600 fights (MANY of which are entirely optional), you can go around the world map fighting battles themed around these spirits. For example, the Buzz Buzz spirit is fighting a stamina battle against a very tiny Mr. Game & Watch in the Onett stage who likes to avoid combat.
The set-ups for these fights just never ceased to be clever and interesting, and some of them downright brutal in how challenging they are. Adventure mode also adds 7 new boss battles (like Brawl had in its adventure mode) against a powerful AI NPC opponent, and you can also unlock every fighter in the game by going around the board and fighting them (but only unlocked for normal Smash when you finish Adventure mode). Outside of Adventure mode, there is also the Spirit Board, where you can just do these spirit fights outside of adventure mod against a cycling selection of 12 spirits to fight (and even after 100%-ing adventure mode, there are like 400 spirit fights not in Adventure mode only on the spirit board).
Now on the topic of unlocking characters, this game has a TON to unlock. In a roster of 74 fighters to unlock, only 8 are unlocked at the start: the roster from the original N64 game. Every 10 minutes played in any mode, you'll get a new challenger approaching from the list. Alternatively, completing anyone's classic mode will get you a new challenger to fight, and each classic mode takes about 10 or so minutes as well, as every character has their own specific classic mode with 6 fights centered around a theme (for example, Dr. Mario's is fighting 1 v 3's against opponents colored in yellow, blue, and red XD ). The classic modes are clever and fun just like the spirit fights are, and it was a joy to go through them just as it was go through the Adventure mode.
That said, for over 60 characters at 10 minutes a piece, that's over 10 hours to unlock every fighter in the game. In a game with nearly 1300 spirits to collect, I think this game already had MORE than enough collectables to hunt down to have them put the main meat & potatoes of the game behind a slow grind of over 10 hours of play time. This is compounded further by a lot of these challenger fights being quite legitimately hard (even for an experienced, decent Smash player like myself). The AI in this game ain't no slouch, and I have seen no shortage of complaints online about what a pain unlocking all the characters is, particularly for someone not that great at the game. Not having an easier method outside of using amiibos to unlock the characters really flies in the face of Smash being a party game, and is one of very few things I would say the previous Smash game did better than this one (as nearly every character was already unlocked).
This huge time investment to unlock characters is really the one significant complaint I have with Smash Ult, and even then it's not that big a complaint. Other complaints are far more minor, with the most minor being some somewhat problematic (although very Japanese) spirit design as both black human spirit characters (Dee Jay from Street Fighter and Mr. Sandman from Punch Out) are 1v1 fights against primates (Diddy and DK respectively Xp). And then this game also doesn't fix Smash 4's problem of a generally confusing and not entirely intuitive main menu system full of menus within menus that take some time to just suss out what is where through trial and error.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. As I said earlier, I loved this game to pieces. I was super hyped for it, and it delivered on everything I hoped for and then some. With a massive roster and an equally massive amount of single-player content (even outside of unlocking characters), Smash Bros Ultimate has really earned its title of the "Ultimate" Smash Bros game.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
- ElkinFencer10
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- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2018
Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 99
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (18 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
May (6 Games Beaten)
June (20 Games Beaten)
July (8 Games Beaten)
August (4 Games Beaten)
September (1 Game Beaten)
October (6 Games Beaten)
November (2 Games Beaten)
December (1 Game Beaten)
99. Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu! - Switch - December 12
Among Pokemon fans, the two newest games in the series, Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, are pretty controversial. A lot of the more hardcore fans don't like how "dumbed down" the game is in a lot of ways, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's essentially a remake of Pokemon Yellow, but the 3D visuals and the jump to HD make this the most immersive Pokemon experience for me personally to date despite the simplified mechanics and strictly Gen 1 Pokedex.
As the titles suggest, your starting pokemon with either Pikachu or Eevee depending on your version. You quickly get the opportunity to catch the three traditional Gen 1 starters, though, and they became the bedrock of my team. My team ended up being Pikachu (whom I nicknamed Marth), Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Gengar, and Starmie. While some folks have criticized the game for being too easy, I found it to be relaxing more so than childish. That's not to say that the game is completely devoid of challenge. You still need to use some strategy - you can't go fight Lt. Surge with a team of water and flying types and expect it to go well unless you're way over leveled - but it's not nearly as challenging as some of the older entries.
The highlight of the game in terms of my immersion is definitely the HD visuals and having a pokemon of your choice follow behind you. Being a remake of Yellow which was inspired by the anime, the game features the images we've come to know and love for Professor Oak, Jessie and James, Blue, Nurse Joy, and Officer Jenny. The nostalgia here is real for millennials like me. It's not just for my age group, though. In a lot of ways, Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee is for Pokemon what Mystic Quest was for Final Fantasy. It's designed intentionally to be an entry level game to bring newcomers to the series into the fold. As such, the biggest drive was accessibility. From that perspective, yeah, it's much simpler and less challenging than the mainline entries in the series. If you let that dissuade you from playing it, however, you're making a big mistake.
One of the ways The Pokemon Company tried to make these games accessible is by only including the original 151 pokemon. Part of the reason for this is obviously that diving in head first to nearly 1000 pokemon is going to overwhelm potential newcomers. As a longtime fan, I was personally disappointed that the later pokemon are totally absent from the game, but I can hardly hold that against it; it would be judging the game on what I wanted it to be rather than what it was intended to be. That's what a lot of the user reviews I've seen seem to forget. This isn't a game for the established Pokemon fanbase. There's a lot there for us to love if we stop looking for flaws, but the game isn't for us. It's for newcomers who may have been hooked on Pokemon Go but never played a Pokemon game otherwise, and that's no small group of folks.
What really sets Let's Go apart from the other Pokemon RPGs (as the title should suggest) is its links to Pokemon Go. First and foremost, it uses Pokemon Go's catching mechanic. With the exception of a few boss pokemon, you don't battle wild pokemon, and even those that you do battle, the battle is a separate phase from the catching. The actual capture consists of throwing PokeBalls at the wild pokemon until they decide to stop breaking out. You can do this by "throwing" the Joycon or PokeBall Plus controller as if you would throw a PokeBall or by playing handheld and using the system's gyroscope to aim and pressing A to throw the ball. I personally preferred the latter, but I did get the bundle with the PokeBall Plus controller to try it out. Then my dog ate the controller. It still works and everything, but it looks all chewed up and terrible. So I bought ANOTHER controller! It's fine, though, because you can put a pokemon in the controller (think the PokeWalker from HeartGold and SoulSilver) and "take it for a stroll," using the internal pedometer to level up your pokemon and collect items the more you walk.
In addition to the shared catching mechanic, there are more direct connections with Pokemon Go. First and foremost, you can link your Pokemon Go account with your Switch and transfer pokemon from Pokemon Go to your Pokemon Let's Go game. It's not a two-way transfer - you can only transfer FROM Go TO Let's Go - but it's still super cool that there's a connection. You can also use your PokeBall Plus controller (if you bought one) as a Pokemon Go Plus accessory when you're playing Pokemon Go. These are all pretty small things, but given that the intention is to pull in those Pokemon Go players to the mainline series, it's a really nice touch, and it's a cool little extra feature.
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee aren't the games that established fanbase was wanting, but it's not the established fanbase for whom the game was made. This is a game that was designed to be a more casual, approachable experience to bring new players to the mainline series, and it plays like that. To expect a competitive game with deep battle mechanics is to expect the game to be something it was never intended to be. There is a LOT to love here. 3D visuals in 1080p. Pokemon followers some of which you can ride. A more relaxed experience. Nostalgia for the days of the 90s with the original anime and Gen I games. Even for Pokemon veterans like me, there's a lot to love. As I said with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, if you let the accessible difficulty level and relatively simplistic mechanics deter you from giving it a play, then you're seriously missing out. This isn't going to challenge an experienced tactical mind, but it will definitely please the nostalgic child from the 1990s trapped within the bodies of cynical and underpaid adults. Really, that's all I need in life.
* denotes a replay
January (16 Games Beaten)
February (18 Games Beaten)
March (10 Games Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
May (6 Games Beaten)
June (20 Games Beaten)
July (8 Games Beaten)
August (4 Games Beaten)
September (1 Game Beaten)
October (6 Games Beaten)
November (2 Games Beaten)
December (1 Game Beaten)
99. Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu! - Switch - December 12
Among Pokemon fans, the two newest games in the series, Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee, are pretty controversial. A lot of the more hardcore fans don't like how "dumbed down" the game is in a lot of ways, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's essentially a remake of Pokemon Yellow, but the 3D visuals and the jump to HD make this the most immersive Pokemon experience for me personally to date despite the simplified mechanics and strictly Gen 1 Pokedex.
As the titles suggest, your starting pokemon with either Pikachu or Eevee depending on your version. You quickly get the opportunity to catch the three traditional Gen 1 starters, though, and they became the bedrock of my team. My team ended up being Pikachu (whom I nicknamed Marth), Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, Gengar, and Starmie. While some folks have criticized the game for being too easy, I found it to be relaxing more so than childish. That's not to say that the game is completely devoid of challenge. You still need to use some strategy - you can't go fight Lt. Surge with a team of water and flying types and expect it to go well unless you're way over leveled - but it's not nearly as challenging as some of the older entries.
The highlight of the game in terms of my immersion is definitely the HD visuals and having a pokemon of your choice follow behind you. Being a remake of Yellow which was inspired by the anime, the game features the images we've come to know and love for Professor Oak, Jessie and James, Blue, Nurse Joy, and Officer Jenny. The nostalgia here is real for millennials like me. It's not just for my age group, though. In a lot of ways, Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee is for Pokemon what Mystic Quest was for Final Fantasy. It's designed intentionally to be an entry level game to bring newcomers to the series into the fold. As such, the biggest drive was accessibility. From that perspective, yeah, it's much simpler and less challenging than the mainline entries in the series. If you let that dissuade you from playing it, however, you're making a big mistake.
One of the ways The Pokemon Company tried to make these games accessible is by only including the original 151 pokemon. Part of the reason for this is obviously that diving in head first to nearly 1000 pokemon is going to overwhelm potential newcomers. As a longtime fan, I was personally disappointed that the later pokemon are totally absent from the game, but I can hardly hold that against it; it would be judging the game on what I wanted it to be rather than what it was intended to be. That's what a lot of the user reviews I've seen seem to forget. This isn't a game for the established Pokemon fanbase. There's a lot there for us to love if we stop looking for flaws, but the game isn't for us. It's for newcomers who may have been hooked on Pokemon Go but never played a Pokemon game otherwise, and that's no small group of folks.
What really sets Let's Go apart from the other Pokemon RPGs (as the title should suggest) is its links to Pokemon Go. First and foremost, it uses Pokemon Go's catching mechanic. With the exception of a few boss pokemon, you don't battle wild pokemon, and even those that you do battle, the battle is a separate phase from the catching. The actual capture consists of throwing PokeBalls at the wild pokemon until they decide to stop breaking out. You can do this by "throwing" the Joycon or PokeBall Plus controller as if you would throw a PokeBall or by playing handheld and using the system's gyroscope to aim and pressing A to throw the ball. I personally preferred the latter, but I did get the bundle with the PokeBall Plus controller to try it out. Then my dog ate the controller. It still works and everything, but it looks all chewed up and terrible. So I bought ANOTHER controller! It's fine, though, because you can put a pokemon in the controller (think the PokeWalker from HeartGold and SoulSilver) and "take it for a stroll," using the internal pedometer to level up your pokemon and collect items the more you walk.
In addition to the shared catching mechanic, there are more direct connections with Pokemon Go. First and foremost, you can link your Pokemon Go account with your Switch and transfer pokemon from Pokemon Go to your Pokemon Let's Go game. It's not a two-way transfer - you can only transfer FROM Go TO Let's Go - but it's still super cool that there's a connection. You can also use your PokeBall Plus controller (if you bought one) as a Pokemon Go Plus accessory when you're playing Pokemon Go. These are all pretty small things, but given that the intention is to pull in those Pokemon Go players to the mainline series, it's a really nice touch, and it's a cool little extra feature.
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee aren't the games that established fanbase was wanting, but it's not the established fanbase for whom the game was made. This is a game that was designed to be a more casual, approachable experience to bring new players to the mainline series, and it plays like that. To expect a competitive game with deep battle mechanics is to expect the game to be something it was never intended to be. There is a LOT to love here. 3D visuals in 1080p. Pokemon followers some of which you can ride. A more relaxed experience. Nostalgia for the days of the 90s with the original anime and Gen I games. Even for Pokemon veterans like me, there's a lot to love. As I said with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, if you let the accessible difficulty level and relatively simplistic mechanics deter you from giving it a play, then you're seriously missing out. This isn't going to challenge an experienced tactical mind, but it will definitely please the nostalgic child from the 1990s trapped within the bodies of cynical and underpaid adults. Really, that's all I need in life.
- noiseredux
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Re: Games Beaten 2018
ugh, that game looks so good but 99% of the appeal for me is that I want to see those nice new HD visuals on a big TV with Pro Controller in hand. So annoying.