Games Beaten 2018

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 4:16 pm

Well, it's more donating or giving them stuff, but they give you electrum for it, and with those cores, they give you nova.

The refineries and armories take metal shit, the observatories and workshops take biological shit, and they both take cores.

Post by **laurenhiya21** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 8:31 pm

Out of school on break so time to catch up to reviews... Just a short one to start

9/25: We Love Katamari (PS2)
Sometimes you just need something colourful and silly to play, and We Love Katamari fills that gap pretty nicely. Sometimes the controls are a little awkward for me, but overall it’s just a lot of fun to completely destroy the various environments by rolling everything up into a giant ball. The silly nature and catchy soundtracks really make the game pleasant and calming for me. I don’t think I liked it as much as Katamari Damacy, but that might just be because We Love Katamari, follows a very similar structure to the first game. The levels are different sure, but it doesn’t do too much to make itself different or better. It’s still a lot of fun though, so I would still recommend playing it, especially if you liked the original game and want more of the same.

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:26 am

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 102
* 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 (4 Games Beaten)

102. Ace of Seafood - PlayStation 4 - December 16

Ace of Seafood is a masterpiece. It's an absolute masterpiece. Just like Epic Dumpster Bear was for Wii U, Ace of Seafood is a bizarre indie game that scratches an itch you never knew you had - conquering the seas as a fish that shoots lasers out of its mouth. Seriously, that's the whole game. Humans have been wiped out in some nuclear war, and now fish fight for oceanic supremacy with lasers. It's the most gloriously stupid concept I've ever heard.

When you first start the game, you get to pick between three different starter fish, and from there, you have to kill whatever fish you come across and absorb their genetic material. If you get enough genetic material of a certain type of fish, you unlock the ability to breed that fish. Some of these fish are small, weak, and easy to breed like a hermit crab or a sardine. Some of these fish are big, expensive, and pack some serious muscle like the bluefin tuna and the leopard seal. Some of these fish are massive, behemoth boss-tier fish with a price tag to match like the great white shark or the giant squid. Depending on how many reefs you've found and secured, your resource pool for your school of fish increases. This will allow you to add more fish to your school and add better fish to your school. A sardine, for example, takes 10 school resources to add; the giant squid takes 300 school resources. It's all about picking the right tool for the job.

Bizarrely, there are also human ships that you can destroy and collect "genetic" material for to "breed." I don't really get why this is a thing - all the humans are dead, and boats aren't genetic anyway - but whatever, I can have a nuclear submarine fight alongside my giant squid and great white shark. I'm NOT complaining, that's freaking dope. One specific reef leads to the final boss, but it doesn't tell you this until you're there. You're just wandering around, minding your own business, and you beat the guardian fish for this reef, and you enter the reef to save and heal. Next thing you know, it throws you straight into a battle (after auto-saving and healing you, thankfully) with a genetically engineered super fish bio-weapon. That's a tough fight, to say the least, but when you beat Metal Fish Solid (not really the name. Just my dumb nickname), you're rewarded with the end credits. It then puts you back in the ocean by the reef to continue your conquest if you so wish along with some huge schools of invading fish that spawn and must be repelled. I mean, you could ignore them, but where's the fun in that? MUCHO MARINE MASSACRE MAYHEM!!

Ace of Seafood is my new second favorite indie game ever. Epic Dumpster Bear will always be #1 in my heart, but holy crap, Ace of Seafood is absolutely incredible. Objectively speaking, it's not perfect. The targeting can be a little bit finicky, the menus are fairly bare bones with minimal explanations save for the tutorial that's either go through the whole thing again or go through none of it. What it may lack in the final polish that games with the funding and manpower of big development teams or publishers, however, it MORE than makes up for in charm and sheer bizarre awesomeness.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:59 am

Amazing! I had no idea. Great review, Elkin!

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:18 am

prfsnl_gmr wrote::shock:

Amazing! I had no idea. Great review, Elkin!

Thanks. I thought of you the whole time I playing this. It's the same kind of WTF crazy as Epic Dumpster Bear. It's only on Wii U in Japan, but it's on Switch, PS4, Windows, and Android in the States.

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Wed Dec 19, 2018 6:58 pm

64. The Lost Vikings (SNES)

It's no secret that retro Western platformers have a reputation of being questionable at best. Especially those that existed on consoles. Sometimes, gameplay was diluted in an Amiga-to-SNES conversion; but oftentimes these titles were irredeemable from the get-go. One standout among the slovenly masses was The Lost Vikings (1993). This one was an oddity: developed initially and specifically for the SNES hardware by Blizzard (yes, that Blizzard of Diablo fame, though back in '93 they were called Silicon & Synapse), The Lost Vikings not only revolutionized the fledgling "puzzle-platformer" genre but also managed to outperform many of the established Japanese titans.

Comparisons to Lemmings are inevitable. Both games are predicated on leading not a singular protagonist, but a posse, from entrance to exit. But while Lemmings saw the player utilize a cursor to assign "jobs" to the mindless hordes, The Lost Vikings gives one full control over a trio of heroes. The rub is that the three vikings have entirely separate attributes. Erik the Swift is the only character with jumping abilities, and thus the only one who can immediately clear a hole or spike pit. He can also run, and subsequently bash his head into walls, ideally revealing an item cache or hidden passageway. Said charges can technically damage enemies, though it's a risky maneuver. Baleog the Fierce, as his title suggests, is endowed with offensive attributes. He's equipped both with a sword-range (sword) and long-range weapon (arrows), the latter of which can additionally be used to trip various switches. Olaf the Stout brings the defense. He carries a shield, which will not only block his own mass from most enemy attacks but can also provide refuge for his bros. Said shield has a secondary use; Olaf can lift it above his head and slowly glide down winding vertical shafts otherwise inaccessible to his compatriots.

These poor vikings are indeed "lost" in the literal sense. While chillin' in their village with hot viking mistresses and helmeted babies, they find themselves abducted by an evil alien lord named Tomator (who looks nothing like a tomato). The first few stages see the vikings attempt to escape from Tomator's spaceship. They are initially successful - sort of, as it's soon revealed that home can only be reached by first traversing several distinct worlds connected via "timewarps." It's a fundamentally silly plot, but one that gave the developers an excuse to showcase some wild and weird environments including a historically inaccurate prehistoric landscape, a hostile Ancient Egypt, a high-tech industrial factory, and a trippy fever dream "Candy Land," before looping back to deep space for a titillating climax.

All levels, save for the initial "tutorial" stage, are structured in the same fashion. Erik, Baleog, and Olaf begin clustered together, and must later reunite at a specific exit point. Vikings are not controlled simultaneously, but separately. Switching between each is seamless, with a simple press of the L and R buttons. Each vikings has three hit points of health, and a limited inventory, though items can be shared between vikings standing in close proximity. Vikings not controlled by the player are simply left standing (or, falling or bouncing) wherever they are abandoned -- either on or off-screen.

The "flow" of the game is perhaps best illustrated by providing concrete examples. The first cluster of outer space stages are simple enough. Use Erik to leap for the occasional key, Baleog is on alien-slaying duty, while Olaf provides the otf-needed cover. There are elevators to descend and anti-gravitational chambers (with insta-death lasers on the ceiling) to contend with -- both pretty self-explanatory. Come prehistory and things are kicked up a notch. The Lost Vikings is brilliant in how it slowly and subtly introduces the player to new gimmicks. There's never any hand-holding, but the game will drop a simple block of text periodically to keep us viking-wranglers up to date. So, a prehistoric stage can see Olaf block a fire-breathing dinosaur maw with his shield while Erik snags a key -- but then Erik can't continue because a duo of long-haired mammals are attempting to steamroll his scrawny behind, so we'll have Baleog steady himself to slay them, but Olaf could be useful here for his blocking abilities, but first we must delicately remove him from fire-blocking duty without getting singed, and then oh no the mammals are continually pushing Olaf towards lava while he blocks, so we gotta switch between having Baleog attack and Olaf move forward a few steps at a time to avoid getting tossed to his doom.

The aforementioned example encapsulates only about thirty seconds of gameplay, by the way. The Lost Vikings is truly an ingenious blend of puzzle and platforming elements (hence the genre tag) -- gray matter is just as essential here as twitchy fingers. The game steadfastly refuses to get stale by ramping up complexity (and sometimes downright insanity) in each sequential stage. Ancient Egypt brings forth climbable tree puzzles, godforsaken jumping enemies, and a downright nasty Tetris tribute where Erik must weave and dodge falling blocks. Factory segments make use of gadgets, magnets, and springs and trampolines that lend jumping abilities to the otherwise grounded duo of Baleog and Olaf. "Candy Land" is where many players will be tapping out for a break, featuring some truly analytical traps and puzzles. As for that last cluster of space stages, consider it a final exam, the culmination of all previously-acquired viking skills. It gets tough here, folks.

And while The Lost Vikings makes no bones about beating the player into submission, it's also strangely forgiving. In short, it features the same sort of life and continue system as Lemmings. Which is to say, there are no lives and continues. Get boned? Oh well, try again. Need a break? Every single stage has a password, each one being vowelless, four characters, and a reference to the environment in question. So, for instance, that stage with the all the bubbles? The password is BBLS. The one with the trampolines: H0PP. You won't even need to write these down. One strange quirk about The Lost Vikings is that, while all three characters are required to reach the exit to finish out a level, if one or two expires along the way the stage can still be explored but not beaten. It's not quite understood why this is allowed -- perhaps to give the player a chance to explore and learn from his or her mistakes. In any event, there's also a "suicide" option to immediately restart a given stage.

Punctuating the excellent gameplay is a quirky sense of style. All three vikings are cornballs. They joke, rib, jab, and mock. This even breaks the fourth wall occasionally: lose too many times, prepare to be insulted. Each member of the trio has his own personality. Erik is (somewhat) grounded but impatient, Baleog attempts to solve everything with violence ("bashing"), while Olaf is obsessed with food. Dialogue is frequent, though never overwhelming. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, and far too many pop culture references. The accompanying animations and sound effects arguably outdo the dialogue. The vikings flex, pick their noses, burp, and Olaf proudly displays crack upon reaching the apex of a ladder. Enemy designs are similarly silly, as are the cartoony R.I.P. headstones that pop up immediately upon their demise. The juxtaposition of high difficulty and goofy aesthetics is a pretty common retro gaming trope, and is mostly successful here.

Game controls are much more rigid than those of a "pure" platformer, which may be off-putting to some first-time players. Enemies, for instance, are true obstacles. There's no mercy invincibility upon being hit, and no recovery time. Somewhat paradoxically, foes that emit projectiles can only damage the vikings with said projectiles; the enemy sprites themselves can simply be run through. For such a complex game, one that requires the player juggle three protagonists, most everything flows smoothly. "Menus" are rarely utilized, and never obstruct the player's view of the action. The game can be "paused" but it's usually a short-lived affair, used for selecting particular item or transferring it from one viking to the next.

Visually, The Lost Vikings is competent, though not extraordinary. It's colorful, with a gentle soft palette. Backgrounds are well-drawn, though inherently simplistic and nondistracting. There are some really nice larger pieces of artwork found herein, specifically the giant viking portrait that graces the title screen as well as the oddly soothing "Game Over" (resurrection) animation. The original soundtrack is just fantastic. It wastes no time establishing itself -- the title theme begins with regal brass before segueing into a funky techno beat. The other tracks follow suit: plenty of pelting electronics, groovy bass, slick drumlines. The only issue is that there simply isn't enough music to go around. Each world features only a singular theme that repeats in every level. The prehistoric world, for instance, consists of outdoor forests as well as subterranean caverns. It would have been nice to have two different tracks for these varying locales.

Holistically, this is a brilliant game. It's like nothing else before it, and like nothing else since (save for the direct sequel). Forget the niche "puzzle-platformer" tag, this is one of the strongest 2D platformers ever made, period. Technically, it's incredibly impressive. Personally, I just can't get enough of it. Certainly one of the most overlooked retro games out there, the very definition of a hidden gem.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Thu Dec 20, 2018 12:03 am

ElkinFencer10 wrote:
prfsnl_gmr wrote::shock:

Amazing! I had no idea. Great review, Elkin!

Thanks. I thought of you the whole time I playing this. It's the same kind of WTF crazy as Epic Dumpster Bear. It's only on Wii U in Japan, but it's on Switch, PS4, Windows, and Android in the States.

But not on Wii U in the States! The injustice!!! :lol:

.....

Also, Lost Vikings rules. You’ve beaten the sequel too, I hope?

Post by **ElkinFencer10** » Thu Dec 20, 2018 8:50 am

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 103
* 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 (5 Games Beaten)

103. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - Switch - December 18

Question - what's better than brutally slaughtering Nazis and white robed Klansmen?

Answer - brutally slaughtering Nazis and white robed Klansmen on the go.

This is the beautiful world we entered when Bethesda had the brilliant minds at Panic Button port their Nazi-killing masterpiece Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus to Nintendo Switch. Crated with the same brilliance and attention to detail as Panic Button's previous but no less impressive Doom port, shows once again that when in the hands of talent developers, the Switch is not only the little system that could but the little system that does more than it has any business being capable of doing.

Since I already reviewed this game on Xbox One when it first came out, this is going to be a shorter review as I'm primarily going to focus on some comparisons between my experience with the game on the two different platforms as well as how it generally looks, sounds, and plays on Switch. As one would naturally expect when going from a 4K-capable console to a handheld, the visuals took a big hit on Switch, but as was the case with Doom, it's not as bad as one might reasonably assume. The resolution took a BIG hit - it drops down to the sub-SD resolution of 360p - but the trade off is that most of the lighting effects are kept intact (albeit blurry) and the frame rate is shockingly stable. That was one of my few issues with Panic Button's Switch port of Doom - the frame rate was fairly unstable depending on how many enemies were on screen. I didn't notice any of those issues in Wolfenstein II. It seems that the variable resolution system was much improved for this port, and it really shows where performance is concerned.

Stemming from the necessary visual downgrades comes a similar situation to the Doom port. As was the case with Doom, the game looks pretty terrible when playing docked, but it looks totally fine when playing handheld. Its visual downgrades are still apparent, mind you. The small screen hides a lot of the game's visual flaws and blemishes, and the end result is that while it may look pretty disappointing on a 65" TV screen, it looks totally fine on a screen 90% smaller. The cutscenes, it's worth noting, look much nicer than the actual gameplay. That's to be expected, naturally, but the difference in this case is pretty major. Fortunately given the top notch voice acting and soundtrack, the audio carries over pretty perfectly to the Switch. The rockin' soundtrack still hits just as hard, and the voice acting is still just as brilliantly performed.

Given the system specs on the Switch, it's really amazing that Panic Button managed to fit the whole game onto the system without cutting any content. The physical release does require a download as not all of it was fit onto the cartridge, but still, the fact of the matter is that NOTHING was stripped out. This is a fully intact port. It's just a bit blurry, but again, that's really only going to be a major thing if you're playing it docked. If you want to play on your sofa with the TV, then yeah, go PS4 or Xbox One. If you want to be able to play on the go, at work, on the toilet, so on and so forth, then the Switch is a PERFECTLY viable option. It's really quite amazing that it runs so smoothly and doesn't look worse than it does given the system that it's on, and speaking as one who's played the game on the strongest system and the weakest system currently on the market - the Xbox One X and Nintendo Switch, respectively - this is a perfectly playable version and a downright remarkable handheld version.

Post by **Markies** » Thu Dec 20, 2018 11:13 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)
27. Mischief Makers (N64)
28. Dragon Valor (PS1)
*29. Beyond Good & Evil (XBX)*
30. Tokyo Xtreme Racer (SDC)
31. Black (PS2)
*32. Street Fighter II (SNES)*
33. Koudelka (PS1)
34. Bad News Baseball (NES)
35. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
36. Shattered Union (XBOX)
37. The Simpsons: Road Rage (PS2)
*38. Cruis'n Exotica (N64)*
39. Kid Icarus (NES)
40. The Lost Vikings (SNES)
41. Capcom Vs. SNK 2 (PS2)
42. Destroy All Humans! (XBOX)
43. Crystalis (NES)

I beat Crystalis on the Nintendo Entertainment System this evening!

I didn't discover Crystalis until much later in life. It took me a long while to warm up to NES Action RPG's. They were always too difficult with their small weapons. However, once I beat Zelda II and Faxanadu, my excitement for the genre grew in leaps and bounds. One of the first ones I wanted after those two was Crystalis. So, when I was at my favorite local game store and he had a near mint copy of the game, I decided to finally pick it up. I wanted to play a shorter game before the end of the year, so I finally sat down and played through Crystalis.

In classic SNK style, the music to Crystalis is absolutely fantastic. SNK was known for their arcade hits and they always had perfect music with all of their games. There is no exception here as the upbeat music is rocking throughout the entire game. The game's visuals is also incredibly bright and colorful with a great ending screen. The dungeons all kind of look the same, but the bright colors and unique graphic effects the game puts out throughout the game is a real treat to the eyes. Thankfully, especially for an Action RPG, the combat is brilliant. Much like other NES games, you have a puny little sword. However, you can level that sword up to have an attack that looks more like a Schmup attack. And with 5 different sword types, each attack looks and feels very different.

However, enemies are immune to some attacks, so you are constantly switching between swords. Until you just give up and run through the dungeon until you get to the boss. 75% of the way through the game, I learned that. Enemies take too many hits and respawn too quickly and the constant switching of your swords caused me to just race through the dungeons and then grind outside of the dungeons. Along with a story that makes no sense and a strange stock market flow of difficulty, there are some serious issues that bog the game down.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Crystalis. The annoying sword switching and mean enemies in dungeons aside, the game is very beatable and easy to understand. If you patient and take your time, it is fairly simple to get through. The combat is fun and you do get this sense of gaining power throughout the game which makes you feel like a hero. I can see it being mentioned in the same breath as Zelda II and Faxanadu, so if you are looking for another NES Action RPG, Crystalis is a good way to go!

Post by **MrPopo** » Fri Dec 21, 2018 12:58 am

The game's story really suffers from a bad localization. The GBC port cleans it up a bit and makes it so enemies are never immune to a sword, but then the restricted field of view ends up making it harder.

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