Games Beaten 2018

Post by **Markies** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 7:59 pm

MrPopo wrote:I'm surprised you stuck with Cristo and his Beat/Defeat lust. Other two are very solid, with maybe switching Ragnar for one of the black mages if that's what you like. Alena is a machine.

I mostly did 'No MP' for my Strategy. I had the others do damage and I was the one to focus on the healing. It was only during the heavier boss fights that I change the strategy out.

I had a Black Mage for a while, but they do so little damage that I couldn't justify keeping them in for long dungeons. And I totally agree. Alena could be one of the best Dragon Quest characters ever. She is just a powerhouse! Her stat growth is INSANE!

Post by **Markies** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 8:00 pm

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2018!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*

1. The Granstream Saga (PS1)
2. Perfect Dark (N64)
*3. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PS1)*
4. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (XBOX)
5. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
*6. Pikmin (GCN)*
*7. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time (N64)*
8. Shining Force II (GEN)
*9. X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (PS1)*
*10. Mafia (XBOX)*
11. James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire (GCN)
12. ChuChu Rocket! (SDC)
*13. Super Metroid (SNES)*
14. Final Fantasy II (NES)
15. Devil May Cry (PS2)
16. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (GEN)
17. Secret of Evermore (SNES)
18. Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (PS2)
19. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GCN)
*20. Paper Mario (N64)*
21. Grandia II (SDC)
22. Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PS2)
23. Bomberman Hero (N64)
24. OutRun (GEN)
25. Dragon Warrior IV (NES)
26. Super Monkey Ball (GCN)

I beat Super Monkey Ball on the Nintendo GameCube this afternoon!

A little over 10 years ago, I discovered a video game website that had a forum I eventually became a part of. I grew to love the community and was even an Admin of the forums for a short period of time. One of the users was an older man who loved video games and he was someone that I greatly respected. He used to tell stories of on slow learning days, he would bring in his GameCube and the class would play Super Monkey Ball for fun. Many years later when I finally got my own GameCube, I put the game on my list and I eventually found it in a store a few years ago. I finally got around to playing it and then beating it this afternoon.

Super Monkey Ball is a very simple game that is easy to pick up and play. The nuances and the difficulty make it impossible to master, but anybody can play it and see the credits. The game has really fantastic music throughout the entire game and it is a joy to listen. The game only has three modes in the game with the Main Game, Party Games and Mini-Games. I played Mini-Games with a friend of mine and they were fun for a short while. I really enjoyed the one where you fly the monkey's off a ramp and try to land on a specific spot for points. The characters are all cute and varied though none of them really felt all that different. They were all basically the same except for how they look.

The interesting aspect of the game is that the buttons do nothing as you control the entire game with the Control Stick as you move the board the Monkey Ball is on. With that in mind, if you are constantly hitting the board little by little, it gets very disorienting. Sometimes, I would feel a little sea sick at it moving around all the time. Also, the difficulty spikes in the game are frequent and out of no where. You are doing well and then suddenly you are at a stage you cannot beat and that gets very annoying. Also, besides the Main Game and trying out the other modes, there is very little to the game.

Overall, Super Monkey Ball is a fun and very unique concept. It does have that mixture of easy to pick up, hard to master, though I wish the incline was less steep. It is still a very fun game to play and one I would recommend to Sega arcade fans. It's fun, short and worth a try especially if you can find the game rather cheaply.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:09 pm

First 50

51. Knightmare Tower (iOS)
52. 80s Overdrive (3DS)
53. Hitman Go (iOS)
54. Deus Ex Go (iOS)
55. Ecco the Dolphin (Genesis)
54. Double Dragon IV (iOS)
55. Double Dragon Neon (PS3)
56. Double Dragon (GB)

Double Dragon Neon is great. It’s fun, very funny, and has a spectacular soundtrack. My seven-year-old son and I played it together, and we had an absolute blast with it.

Double Dragon on the Gameboy is a slog. The brawling is too easy (until you’re facing multiple Chintais at the same time). Worse, it’s full of platforming, which has never been the series’ strong suit (to say the least). Also...no continues. As a result, you end up playing the same dull brawling sections repeatedly and burning all your lives falling into pits. No fun, but mercifully short.

Post by **Markies** » Mon Aug 27, 2018 7:18 pm

PresidentLeever wrote:
Markies wrote:
Overall, Super Monkey Ball is a fun and very unique concept. It does have that mixture of easy to pick up, hard to master, though I wish the incline was less steep. It is still a very fun game to play and one I would recommend to Sega arcade fans. It's fun, short and worth a try especially if you can find the game rather cheaply.

How far did you get in the main modes? I agree that more mid-difficulty tier levels would've been nice, I could only beat a few on Expert and apparently you can unlock Master after that which seems nightmarish. Also did you use a GC controller?

Obviously, I beat Beginner. And then I got about halfway through Advanced. I got to maybe stage 20 or so and that was after several tries. That was when the stages started getting stupid ridiculous. It would have been nice to have some like 'Medium' Stages to ease up the difficulty.

Yep, I used the regular GameCube controller. At first, I felt like I should be pressing an actual button, but I eventually got used to using the control stick.

Post by **RigglesGiggle** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 2:36 am

Last game that i beat was Phantom 2040 on Super Nintendo. The game actually took me extremely long to finish, which is rare because I usually fly through those type of games. But all in all, I believe i put in a good 17 hours total.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:04 am

First 50

51. Knightmare Tower (iOS)
52. 80s Overdrive (3DS)
53. Hitman Go (iOS)
54. Deus Ex Go (iOS)
55. Ecco the Dolphin (Genesis)
54. Double Dragon IV (iOS)
55. Double Dragon Neon (PS3)
56. Double Dragon (GB)
57. Shadow Tower (PS1)

Shadow Tower is an ambitious and engaging FPDC that, in my opinion, clearly laid the groundwork for From Software’s Souls series. Like many From Software games, the difficulty is front-loaded, and most of my deaths came in the first few areas, when both my equipment and supplies were very low. Nonetheless, by the end of the game, I was nearly invincible, and the combat in the last third of the game was very, very easy. Most of the challenge, however, comes from the game’s open-ended nature. It doesn’t hold your hand at all, and it provides you only the most limited direction. Accordingly, you have to figure everything out on your own, and you’ll spend a lot of time searching the walls for hidden passages (which are essential for finding equipment, building your character, and progressing through the dungeon).

As I noted earlier, the game is very ambitious, but its ambition sometimes exceeds its grasp (i.e., the PS1’s technical capabilities). All of the monster models are very detailed, and they exhibit that distinctive From Software monster design (i.e., they’re surreal and occasionally terrifying). Moreover, the game uses unique models for all of your equipment; so, when you change your shield and sword, you will see something different when enter combat again. The game also utilizes about 20 unique stats; so, your equipment choices affect you in all sorts of different ways. This means, however, that the game has to load every time you access your inventory, which is a lot, and that monsters often materialize in front of you as the game gathers the resources necessary to render them. Moreover (and, I think both by design and necessity), the draw distance in the Shadow Tower is incredibly short. Accordingly, you often cannot see more than a few feet in front of you. This makes navigation very difficult at certain times, but undoubtedly adds to the game’s oppressive atmosphere. Thankfully, the sound design is absolutely spectacular, and you often have to use your ears to find your enemies, secret doors, etc. (Headphones are a must for the full experience.). In sum, the game will be fun and engaging for the right type of gamer, but it certainly isn’t for everyone. If you appreciate bold design choices and are seeking a challenge, the game is for you. If you are seeking something more accommodating, however, this game might not be for you...

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 9:41 am

Partridge Senpai's 2018 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017
* indicates a repeat

1-20

21-40

41. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Expansion Pass DLC (Switch)

I enjoyed BotW so much that I decided to immediately spring for the DLC. Though there are technically 2 DLC packs and a bonus you get for buying the season pass (Expansion Pass), there isn't actually a way to buy both DLC's individually anymore, so it's just $20 for the whole thing. I did everything in it and it took me about 15 or so hours.

It adds like 20 or so treasures to go and find that are new tools like a teleportation node you can place yourself, a super saddle for your horse that lets you summon it anywhere, and a Korok Mask that starts to rattle when you're near an undiscovered Korok. You can also find new, fun armor that references older Zelda games (like a Tingle costume, Zant's helmet, or armor like the phantoms wear in the DS games). All of them are hidden through riddles, and only the location of the riddles are given to you. Most of them were pretty easy to find for me, but there were a couple I had to look up

. They're neat, but given that the armor isn't upgradable, it's really only gonna be any actual use to you game-wise if you go for it around the time you start the game (the Phantom armor especially is basically tier-2 Berserker Armor but way easier to find, so that would've been a REALLY big one at the start of the game for me). Definitely an element of the DLC that you probably won't get that much mileage out of if you'd already gotten all 120 shrines and beaten the game like I had

The other elements are the Trails of the Sword, which are a set of 3 progressively harder gauntlets centered entirely around combat that, if cleared, will power up your Master Sword to 60-power level all the time (not just around Guardians), and the Ballad of Champions. The Ballad of Champions is a new bit of story that is 16 new shrines and a little event you go through to unlock each of them, some harder re-fights of each of the original 4 bosses, 5 new memory cutscenes, and a whole new Divine Beast-style dungeon to go through complete with its own new boss enemy to fight at the end. I really liked this stuff. The Trials of the Sword need to be done only with equipment found within the trial, so they're probably some of the toughest actual combat in the game given that you can't even use your Champion abilities within them, let alone stock up on food beforehand. The Champion's Ballad is also a really well done set of new trials, with all the trials being longer, more challenging ones than a lot of the main game's original 120. The new music, of what there is, is also really good. I think the new boss' music track may be my favorite music track in the entire game <3

Verdict: Recommended. If you liked Breath of the Wild and want more of it, then the Expansion Pass is a safe bet for you. For the amount of content it offers proportional to the main game's, I gotta say that the cost is a little steep at $20, especially if you aren't a fan of the combat (therefore won't like Trials of the Sword) and mainly want the Champion's Ballad stuff. If you're someone who wanted all new lands to explore out of their BotW DLC, you won't find that here. But if you just want MORE BotW, then you'll probably be very pleased with what you find here

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:27 am

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 85
* 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)

85. Nurse Love Addiction - Vita - July 17

Nurse Love Addiction is basically the perfect visual novel for me (as far as what would actually make it onto a console), and I mean that in all of the creep ways you're probably thinking. Post-secondary students at a nursing school in a story filled with lesbian pseudo-incest (basically the whole "step-sister" trope) and a surprisingly interesting plot albeit one that's a bit slow to get started. Best of all is that there are nine endings, so for super ecchi lords like me, there's enough here to keep you busy for a decent little while.

The basic story of Nurse Love Addiction is that two sisters enroll at a nursing school together for reasons that I can only describe as "anime af." The older sister enrolled because she wrote in a book "I want to be a nurse when I grow up!" when she was a little kid and spend the rest of her life thinking "Well, I wanted to do it when I was a kid, and I don't want to do anything now, so I guess I'll do this!" The younger sister enrolls because she seems hellbent on following the older sister everywhere for the rest of her life. I'm not kidding. When they're there, they meet two particularly bright personalities, a rich girl with a hoity-toity attitude that wouldn't be out of place for a family with a nine digit income and her girlfriend, a blunt-to-a-fault tomboy from a poor family and a motorcycle.

What adds the bit of plot point foreshadowed early on is that your main character has amnesia. As a kid, she at some point hit her head and lost her entire memory. Something something plot devices. I won't say anything more than that because it is a pretty cool story once it gets going, and with the different branches that it can take based on what waifu you pick. Each of the game's five core characters have unique and interesting personalities, and while they do hit the big anime tropes - you've got your tsundere, you've got your borderline yandere, etc - the characters themselves are pretty well written. Unfortunately, the game crashed on me a couple times leading to a couple hours' worth being lost between the crashes.

Being a visual novel, there aren't any moving 3D character models to animate, so some of my pet peeves like hair clipping through shoulders are avoided. As a result, the 2D character images are absolutely fantastic, and the voice acting - all in Japanese, by the way - is great. My only real gripe with the visuals is that there aren't many backgrounds, and for a visual novel that took me around 25 hours to get through, it would have been nice to see a little bit of variety in the image backdrops. Other than that, it looks great. Unfortunately, it does suffer from a bit of the game fatigue problem that a lot of Shin Megami Tensei games have with me - it just lasts too long. It's a really good story with great characters, but it just lasts longer than it probably ought to.

Nurse Love Addiction is a very enjoyable visual novel and one of the few good ones that I've played on Vita. It gets a bit tedious and drags on a bit longer than it should, but it's still a really enjoyable story, and since it's on a handheld that you can just put in sleep mode and then pick up whenever you have five or ten minutes here or there, it's a perfect fit. It's one of the best pooping games I've ever played on Vita. It's not without its flaws, though. I had some crashes, and as I said, it wears out its welcome. I absolutely recommend giving it a download if you see it on sale, though. I wouldn't dish out the money for the Limited Run release like I did unless you collect LRG releases (like I do) or just LOVE ecchi VNs (like I do), but definitely give it a download.

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 2:44 pm

46. - 52. Metal Slug Anthology (PSP)
53. Gorf (Atari 2600)
54. Phoenix (Atari 2600)

Finally got my hands on the Metal Slug Anthology. This contains the seven games in the series that were initially released on the Neo Geo. I had played five of 'em before in some format (MVS or PS2) but X and 6 were brand new to me.

For the unacquainted, this is a series of run and gun games known for their comedic plots/characters and big bold graphical styles. Unlike many games of this genre, the Metal Slug games actually allow you to touch enemies, you can only be damaged by actual attacks. All of these installments share a nearly identical art style, and control scheme, though 6 switches it up a bit with weapon-switching and some "3D" cutscene visuals (which look like azz).

Game quality is kind of all over the place. I appreciate the straightforwardness and brevity of the first game, though it lacks a full roster of playable characters. Part 2 (and its faster remake X) start to get a little indulgent but are still fairly solid. 3 would be awesome if it was't for that ridiculous trollish 35-minute (I shit you not) final stage. That just sucks. From this point forward the games start turning into "unfair" mindless quarter-munchers, too. 4 and 5 are decent, though nigh indistinguishable. 6 is kinda cool I guess. Exhaustion had already set in at that point.

Some of the later games have "status effects" that showcase a bunch of slow ass animations and generally just result in a death 20 seconds later. Not a fan. Also, why the hell are the character portraits so ugly on the character select screen? I know I'm nitpicking here, but this has been a longstanding series trend that drives me insane.

Overall, though, fun times. And it's great having all of these in a handy compilation. I do have a few quibbles about the compilation itself. There's a lot of loading, sometimes at inopportune sports. Like, during the course of gameplay. Also, I experienced two heavy duty glitches. In one of the games, I had a boss never appear so I had to start all over. And the first time I tried to boot 6 the game crashed. I've heard the Wii Metal Slug Anthology has some control issues; maybe this is best on PS2? When in doubt always go with the oldest hardware!

---

As for Gorf and Phoenix, those are classic fixed shooters I tend to replay annually. My daughter got in on the action this time and had a blast.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:07 pm

Gorf rules. Have you ever played the arcade original? It is a unique experience. I had a chance to buy a cabinet a few months back, but it was in too rough a shape...

Also, if you haven’t beaten them already...Metal Slug Advance and Metal Slug 7 are both solid. The final bosses in each arereally, really tough, though. If, after those, you still haven’t had your fill, you could check out Commando Steel Disaster for the Nintendo DS. It is a pretty great Metal Slug clone (that is also drastically harder than any game in the Metal Slug series...it is like playing Metal Slug XX without the ability to respawn). If that still doesn’t do it, then play Alien Hominid, which just rules.

Edit: Looking back on my post makes me think I’m a fan of this genre...You learn something every day! :lol:

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