Games Beaten 2018

[ElkinFencer10]

Did you play The Last of Us on PS3 or PS4? Having played through on both platforms, the game's feel DEFINITELY benefits from running 1080p60 on PS4 as opposed to the 720p30 on PS3.

[dunpeal2064]

Did you play The Last of Us on PS3 or PS4? Having played through on both platforms, the game's feel DEFINITELY benefits from running 1080p60 on PS4 as opposed to the 720p30 on PS3.

I just now realized I completely forgot to mention platform.

I actually played all of these games on the PS4. The Uncharted games via the Nathan Drake Collection, Limbo and Inside via the dual pack physical release they did. My TV is only 720p, but the frame rate was smooth as butter!

It might be my lack of playing modern games for some time, but TLOU is freaking gorgeous. I forgot it was a remaster for most of my playthrough.

[ElkinFencer10]

No, The Last of Us is a gorgeous game. It's definitely not the pinnacle of visuals anymore (although it was definitely one of the best looking PS3 games), but it's a beautiful game. The acting in that game really made it, though. Your thoughts on the story were spot on; it's not the star of the show. The game's overall plot really just serves as a vessel for the characters' development.

[Sarge]

1) Legendary Axe II (TG16) (6.0) (1/1) (2.5 hours)
2) The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (SNES) (7.5) (1/3) (1.5 hours)
3) Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! (SNES) (6.5) (1/3) (2.5 hours)
4) The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES) (7.0) (1/4) (2.5 hours)
5) The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minney (7.5) (1/6) (1.5 hours)
6) Phantom 2040 (SNES) (7.0) (1/9) (9 hours?)
7) Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) (8.0) (1/10) (0.5 hours)
8) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES) (8.0) (1/15) (0.5 hours)
9) F-Zero (SNES) (7.5) (1/16) (1 hour)
10) Star Fox (SNES) (7.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
11) Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems (SNES) (8.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
12) Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES) (7.0) (1/20) (1 hour)
13) Shinobi (GG) (7.0) (1/22) (2 hours)

So Anapan sent me a Game Gear flash cart as part of the charity auction. Naturally, that means I wanted to fiddle with it a bit. It's not quite as easy to use as the Everdrive line of products, but even the Everdrive apparently has issues with some games just like this little piece of kit. Anyway, it's bringing back memories of my GBA flash cart days, what with the flasher program and parallel port hookup. But it works much better than I was expecting, so thumbs up!

But that's beside the point! I wanted to play through a Game Gear game on there. So I booted up Shinobi, which is not a direct port of the game. Oh, no, it's more of a sentai action game, where you start with the default Red ninja with a sword, and select your stage and free the rest of your compadres. They sport abilities that can be quite useful; not just weaponry, but optional movement techniques like a double jump, the ability to walk on ceilings, use grappling points, or walk on waterspouts. It's actually pretty neat. On top of that (and this is where a manual would have helped!), they get special Ninjutsu that can also accomplish various tasks for moving forward. Pink, for example, can freeze enemies and reset time (useful in the last area), Blue has an invincible flying tornado move, and Red can clear out stone walls.

Thing is, as cool as this all is (and it absolutely is!), the game comes with an absolutely brutal difficulty curve. It's "Nintendo hard" (or Sega, whatevs), requiring a lot of foreknowledge of the areas and exactly how to use your complement of ninjas. In a lot of ways, it plays more like a platform puzzler, especially in the last area. The game knows you've got your full team, so it puts them all to the test. Expect to die a lot... or abuse save states. Honestly, the screen is pretty bad on the Game Gear, so I ended up swapping over to the PC. And yes, I abused save states. The game is certainly not impossible, but expect to practice a lot if you want to get through it without resorting to save states.

For some of the creativity here, especially considering the platform, I'll give this a 7/10. Excellent design, but it will punch you in the face repeatedly.

[alienjesus]

1) Legendary Axe II (TG16) (6.0) (1/1) (2.5 hours)
2) The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (SNES) (7.5) (1/3) (1.5 hours)
3) Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! (SNES) (6.5) (1/3) (2.5 hours)
4) The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES) (7.0) (1/4) (2.5 hours)
5) The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minney (7.5) (1/6) (1.5 hours)
6) Phantom 2040 (SNES) (7.0) (1/9) (9 hours?)
7) Batman: Return of the Joker (NES) (8.0) (1/10) (0.5 hours)
8) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES) (8.0) (1/15) (0.5 hours)
9) F-Zero (SNES) (7.5) (1/16) (1 hour)
10) Star Fox (SNES) (7.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
11) Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems (SNES) (8.0) (1/17) (1 hour)
12) Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES) (7.0) (1/20) (1 hour)
13) Shinobi (GG) (7.0) (1/22) (2 hours)

So Anapan sent me a Game Gear flash cart as part of the charity auction. Naturally, that means I wanted to fiddle with it a bit. It's not quite as easy to use as the Everdrive line of products, but even the Everdrive apparently has issues with some games just like this little piece of kit. Anyway, it's bringing back memories of my GBA flash cart days, what with the flasher program and parallel port hookup. But it works much better than I was expecting, so thumbs up!

But that's beside the point! I wanted to play through a Game Gear game on there. So I booted up Shinobi, which is not a direct port of the game. Oh, no, it's more of a sentai action game, where you start with the default Red ninja with a sword, and select your stage and free the rest of your compadres. They sport abilities that can be quite useful; not just weaponry, but optional movement techniques like a double jump, the ability to walk on ceilings, use grappling points, or walk on waterspouts. It's actually pretty neat. On top of that (and this is where a manual would have helped!), they get special Ninjutsu that can also accomplish various tasks for moving forward. Pink, for example, can freeze enemies and reset time (useful in the last area), Blue has an invincible flying tornado move, and Red can clear out stone walls.

Thing is, as cool as this all is (and it absolutely is!), the game comes with an absolutely brutal difficulty curve. It's "Nintendo hard" (or Sega, whatevs), requiring a lot of foreknowledge of the areas and exactly how to use your complement of ninjas. In a lot of ways, it plays more like a platform puzzler, especially in the last area. The game knows you've got your full team, so it puts them all to the test. Expect to die a lot... or abuse save states. Honestly, the screen is pretty bad on the Game Gear, so I ended up swapping over to the PC. And yes, I abused save states. The game is certainly not impossible, but expect to practice a lot if you want to get through it without resorting to save states.

For some of the creativity here, especially considering the platform, I'll give this a 7/10. Excellent design, but it will punch you in the face repeatedly.

I seem to remember a room in the final castle where you had to jump across water spouts as the yellow ninja caused me all sorts of grief when I beat this game a few years back!

[Sarge]

Oh, yeah, that room sucks. That final area is littered with pixel-perfect jumps. I'd score the game higher if it weren't for the precision the game demands at times.

Wow. I just thought of something I could have done. Green ninja, double jump, then swap back to Yellow. Wonder if that's even doable. I think I might boot it up this evening and find out!

[noiseredux]

1. Ducktales: Remastered (360)
2. Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox One)

Finally played through the full story this month and had a blast. Will post more thoughts later.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 9
* denotes a replay

January (9 Games Beaten)

1. Phantasy Star Portable - PlayStation Portable - January 1
2. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - Xbox One - January 9
3. Duck Tales - NES - January 10
4. Yakuza Kiwami - PlayStation 4 - January 14
5. Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament - PlayStation 4 - January 20
6. Doki Doki Literature Club - Steam - January 20
7. Deep Space Waifu - Steam - January 21
8. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - Steam - January 21
9. Duck Tales 2 - NES - January 22

9. Duck Tales 2 - NES - January 22



DuckTales 2 is one of the more attainable "super rare" games for NES collectors. Being released several years after the release of the Super Nintendo, it saw a very low print run, making copies of the game extremely uncommon. Add to that the fact that it's an absolutely incredible game that improves upon its predecessor in pretty much every way imaginable, and you've got a perfect recipe for rarity and demand.



The game follows the same basic formula as the first DuckTales game; you play as impossibly lovable capitalist Scrooge McDuck on a quest to get even richer in a platformer adventure that spans five worlds (plus a secret sixth world). Every complaint I had about the first game was fixed here; levels are less obtuse in design, the pogo mechanics feel fantastic, and rope/vine/chain climbing is exactly as response as one would hope. It's a shame that the legitimate cartridge is so expensive because this is the pinnacle of Disney licensed 8-bit game design. At least we have the Disney Afternoon Collection and, if all else fails (or, like me, you're stuck in a classroom for two hours after your students finish taking a state test), you've got emulators.



Like the previous game, the visuals are bright and colorful, and the music is absolutely delightful. At no point does the soundtrack begin to sound repetitive, and at no point do the visuals grow disappointing or dull. The bosses are straightforward in design but still offer a good challenge, and they always feel fair. 8-bit bosses that never cross into feeling cheap aren't always common, so it's nice to see that DuckTales 2's bosses were so well designed in that regard.



DuckTales 2 is a great example of a licensed platformer done right. This was Capcom on their A game. This was Disney before every game using one of their licenses was straight trash. Unfortunately few people will have the privilege of owning the original NES cartridge (I doubt I ever will), but however you're able to play, fans of 8-bit games owe it to themselves to play DuckTales 2. It's not perfect, but it's about as close as a licensed game can get.

[Flake]

January

Yakuza Kiwami (PS4)
Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)
Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

Super Mario Odyssey is the game that everyone has spent 20 years trying to convince me Mario 64 was. It was fun, charming, easy to play, still a little challenging, and really encapsulated what a Mario adventure should be.

My only gripe is that not enough of the cast showed up. We did get Captain Toad cameos, though. So that is nice.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 10
* denotes a replay

January (10 Games Beaten)

1. Phantasy Star Portable - PlayStation Portable - January 1
2. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War - Xbox One - January 9
3. Duck Tales - NES - January 10
4. Yakuza Kiwami - PlayStation 4 - January 14
5. Xuan-Yuan Sword: The Gate of Firmament - PlayStation 4 - January 20
6. Doki Doki Literature Club - Steam - January 20
7. Deep Space Waifu - Steam - January 21
8. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - Steam - January 21
9. Duck Tales 2 - NES - January 22
10. TaleSpin - NES - January 22

10. TaleSpin - NES - January 22



TaleSpin is, unlike Duck Tales, an IP with which I had no experience prior to this playthrough. I never saw the cartoon as a kid, and I'd never even heard of the NES game growing up. This was a totally new experience for me. While I found the characters much less endearing (partly because I had no nostalgia, I'm sure, and partly because the use of bears and a tiger brought flashbacks of furries), the game itself was a TON of fun to play and honestly much better suited to my preferences and genre taste than Duck Tales.



Whereas the two Duck Tales games were platformers, TaleSpin plays like a horizontally scrolling shmup. It's a lot slower paced than a true shmup, and you can turn your plane around and go backwards, but that's the best way I can think to describe the core gameplay. The game is spread out over eight levels with bonus levels hidden along the way for extra points. Between each level, you can upgrade your plane if you have enough money (which you get from increasing your score during the game). Some of these upgrades include extra lives, a faster gun, more health, speed boost, etc. I mainly focused on the gun because pew pew.​ The story didn't interest me (not that it really needs to); you're an overweight bear flying a plane to deliver stuff for some yiff fuel chick while some ass hole tiger is trying to stop you because he's a cat and they're jerks. Not interesting, but it serves the purpose.



The music I found to be much less endearing than Duck Tales, but how much of that was nostalgia and how much that is honest and objective preference, I can't say. Visually, however, it's about on par; it's bright and colorful, and the sprites look fantastic. It controls extremely well, too; at no point did it feel somewhat iffy like the pogo cane in the first Duck Tales game. You can't aim upwards without moving up (it's a plane and not a helicopter, after all), and that took a little bit of getting used to with regards to shooting enemies without running into their bullets, but it's a pretty shallow learning curve, so I can't imagine that would take anyone particularly long to adapt to.



TaleSpin is a license that doesn't interest me in the slightest, but I can't deny that the game itself is well made and a ton of fun to play. It's got the core play style of a horizontal shooter like R-Type or Gradius but with a slower pace and overall less stressful feel (at least until the last couple levels). Its inclusion in the Disney Afternoon Collection makes it readily available to modern players (I'm hoping Capcom will port that collection over to Switch as it's the perfect platform for it), and it's definitely worth playing for fans of the scrolling shooter genre.