Games Beaten 2018

by **BoneSnapDeez** Sun Jun 24, 2018 2:56 pm

1. Antarctic Adventure (Famicom)
2. Nuts & Milk (Famicom)
3. Commando (Atari 2600)
4. Binary Land (Famicom)
5. Devil World (Famicom)
6. Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
7. Popeye (NES)
8. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
9. Ys: The Vanished Omens (Sega Master System)
10 Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter (Famicom)
11. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
12. Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
13. Otenba Becky no Daibouken (MSX)
14. Metroid (Famicom Disk System)
15. Mahou Kishi Rayearth (Game Boy)
16. Wabbit (Atari 2600)
17. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
18. Warpman (Famicom)
19. Final Fantasy (NES)
20. Transformers: Convoy no Nazo (Famicom)
21. Arcade Archives: Moon Patrol (Switch eShop)
22. Gremlins (Atari 2600)
23. Arcade Archives: Ninja-Kid (Switch eShop)
24. Shining in the Darkness (Genesis)
25. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Gate of Doom (Switch eShop)
26. Front Line (Atari 2600)
27. Donkey Kong 3 (NES)
28. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)
29. Exerion (Famicom)
30. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Bad Dudes (Switch eShop)

Bad Dudes is one of those quintessential late-stage Cold War games. All the necessary elements are present. An exaggerated interpretation of American machismo as viewed from a Japanese lens, twin tough guy brawlers, hordes of faceless "ninjas," a presidential rescue, burger feasting, plenty of Engrish, and the pejorative "bad" reinterpreted to mean something positive. Thank Michael Jackson for that last one.

The game was developed by Data East, and initially released in the arcades in '88. Numerous ports followed. Most notably on the NES, though there were also the semi-playable home computer variants. The arcade original was officially emulated as part of Data East Arcade Classics (Wii, 2010) and is now available on the Nintendo Switch eShop as part of the Johnny Turbo's Arcade line. There were a couple of hiccups with the Switch release. It launched with some control issues (the dudes were unable to execute their special attack), and the official dashboard icon displayed some (admittedly quality) fan art rather than the actual Bad Dudes title screen. Hilarious.

The bad dudes of Bad Dudes are named Blade and Striker. When President "Ronnie" is captured by the DragonNinja gang, the dudes are sent on a rescue mission. No reason to send in an army; if Contra taught us anything it's that two guys in tank tops can do the job just as effectively. The game's a beat 'em up with two-player co-op. All action takes place on flat planes with the ability to super-jump low to high, a mechanic similar to that of Shinobi and Rolling Thunder. Combat is close-range, with the standard array of punches, kicks, and jump attacks. There are weapons like nunchucks which aid in extending the attack range a bit. A "Qi" charge attack is available, but it requires holding down the attack button for just a bit too long, leaving a dude vulnerable. Controls will feel awkward to those accustomed to the NES, as they're unfortunately "backwards" (B is jump, A is attack). If you grew up playing Zillion and Quartet on the Master System (did such people exist?) you'll feel right at home with this one, though.

The game takes about thirty minutes to complete and feels long. Stages lack variety, most are just dull flat expanses, with the exception of the two unexceptional auto-scrollers. The stock ninjas are fist-fodder, most going down with a single punch. It's easy to smack these guys as soon as their sprites spawn onscreen; it's important to do so too as many will drop explosives. The majority of boss battles employ the same "gimmick" -- a long range weapon that's tough to dodge without applying some fancy footwork. Visuals are mixed. While the stage designs are rather lifeless, sprites are large and move fluidly. Some of the bosses look rather cool, and the cameo appearance of Karnov from Karnov always elicits a chuckle or two. I'm rather impressed with the soundtrack: saucy techno beats that vastly enhance this otherwise mundane button-masher.

This is a hard one to pin down. The game's more "funny" than it is "good." A single playthrough should set one for a lifetime, but I can't help but love the cornball 80s-ness about the whole thing. It's certainly not a bad game (see what I did there) but one should approach with caution and keep those expectations in check.

by **Markies** Sun Jun 24, 2018 3:20 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)

I beat Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the Nintendo GameCube this afternoon!

Golf on the original NES was one of my first and favorite video games to go back to for many years. It's simple and calming game play was a nice fresher and change of pace compared to the many other games I would play. Because of that, I have always enjoyed and had a soft spot for gold video games. My favorite so far would be Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 as that was a perfect pick up and play video game. It was just right to play while I was killing time or waiting for my friend to call. After getting burnt out on the game, I decided to finally get the GameCube version. I found it sitting in a store one day and after a short while, I finally got around to playing the game.

Not much has changed with the GameCube iteration compared to the N64 counterpart and that is a good thing. It still plays exactly like Mario Golf which is a fantastic combination of a light simulation feel of a Golf game. This is not EA Sports Golf, nor should it be as it is just an enjoyable and simple version of Golf. They did do some refinements with the largest being the automatic shot. Before, you would select your club, hit 'A' to swing, 'A' for Power and then 'A' for Accuracy. Now, the game randomly does the accuracy part for you. You can turn it off to do it yourself, but it obviously makes the game a bit more easier. Also, you can adjust where you want the ball to land with the shoulder buttons and that will change the target on the power meter. Now, you have a more refined ability to gauge your shot so that you are not blasting it all the time. The course design is rather unique especially the final course which is Bowser's Castle. With warp pipes, Boos and Thomps all over the place, it adds a nice touch and makes for a more interesting round of golf.

Some of the courses however can basically screw you. With large hills and a long distance for shots, you basically can get stuck and have to take a large penalty just to move onto the next hole. Thankfully, the old way of saving and reloading your game works well to diffuse this problem. Also, the power gauge moves faster than expected, so the first couple of rounds will be hard rather frustrating.

I mean, golf is a frustrating game, but it is also very calming. With so many modes that I haven't even touched yet, the replayability of the game is off the charts which is good for a really enjoyable golf game.

by **ElkinFencer10** Sun Jun 24, 2018 3:25 pm

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 72
* denotes a replay

January (16 Games Beaten)

February (18 Games Beaten)

March (10 Games Beaten)

April (7 Games Beaten)

May (6 Games Beaten)

June (15 Games Beaten)

72. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India - Xbox One - June 23

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is the second part of the AC Chronicles trilogy taking place in the mid-19th Century, a little over 300 years following the events of AC Chronicles: China. Mechanically, it's pretty much identical (as one would probably expect), but there are some key differences with regards to how stealth and combat are carried out.

The biggest difference is that instead of throwing knives, you've got one of the circle blade thingies like Xena had. It serves the same purpose as the throwing knives in China, but unlike those knives, this can ricochet, allowing for some added possibilities for puzzles and strategy. The only other really noteworthy difference - with regards to design, at least - is the increased difficulty; it's pretty apparent early on that, as the second game in the trilogy, Ubisoft expects that you've played through China first.

The story is...kind of dumb, frankly. You're an Indian assassin obviously, and you're trying to prevent the Templars from using some magic diamond to activate Ezio's Precursor box from the previous game. Oh, and your girlfriend is apparently a princess. The entire first level is sneaking into the palace to have a spiritual study of the Kama Sutra. And you can't kill anyone. It all has to be done non-lethal. Not a great way to make a first impression. The characters, at least, are likable enough, and it's cool that the British East India Company was the front for the Templars in this game, so you'll be killing a lot of Redcoats.

There's one more big difference, and this is one that I highly doubt Ubisoft intended; it's pretty buggy. There were a couple instances of guards spawning abruptly, disappearing, and - most hilariously/annoying - one instance where I clipped straight through the level and had to reload the previous checkpoint. Once or twice, okay, that's one thing. Games have bugs. But this was more of a "poor QA" situation. Granted, it wasn't NEARLY as bad as Unity, but it was still pretty bad.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India kept the same gameplay from China for the most part, but unfortunately, it doesn't live up to the quality of its predecessor. It's still a really fun game for fans of 2.5D action platformers, but the story is less interesting, the protagonist a bit is less likable, and performance took a serious hit with some pretty noticeable bugs. If you played China and enjoyed it, then it's definitely worth playing, but India definitely felt like a bit of a step back.

by **pook99** Sun Jun 24, 2018 8:19 pm

178. Super Ghouls n ghosts (snes)
179. bionic commando rearmed (steam)
180. Tupa (steam)
181. Indecision (steam)
182. Imperil (steam)
183. Jet Buster (steam)
184. xmen hunt for mutants(openbor)

With the school year officially over I will have tons of time for games, although I do work over the summer my job is far easier and I radomnly get to hide in my office and play games when no one else is around, which is most of the summer. To celebrate the end of the year I spent my entire day yesterday just playing games and beat the ones listed above.

178. Super Ghouls n ghosts: Both ghouls n ghosts and super gng are amazing games, super will always have a special place in my heart since it is the only game in the series I owned growing up.

The graphics in this game are top notch, and every level has a unique and memorable twist that really makes each level stand out. The graveyard where the environment warps around you and send rolling battering rams after you, the creepy ghost ship that has water flowing in and out of it, followed by a raft ride where you can see fishmen eyeing you up in the background before attacking, the bloody platforms in the fire stage, the rotating rooms, a hike up a mountain riddled with avalanches, and more. The levels in this game are all unique and set this game head and shoulders above the other games in the series.

Some people complain about the lack of being able to shoot up and down, for me that just adds to the challenge and the double jump feature adds much more depth to the gameplay than just being able to shoot in several different directions. The sound in the game is top notch, every level has beautifully orchestrated music that perfectly fits the environments.

The game is not much of a challenge for me anymore, but it is frequently listed in the top 5 hardest snes games of all time, and is definitely in my top 10 favorite snes games.

by **Flake** Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:36 pm

January:

Yakuza Kiwami (PS4)
Batman: The Telltale Series (PS4)
Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (DSi ware)

February:

Roundabout (PS4)
Pocket Fighter (PSX)
Double Dragon Neon (PS3)
Batman Arkham VR(PSVR)

March:

Gundam Versus (PS4)

April:

Batman: The Enemy Within (PS4)
Megaman 9 (PS4)
Megaman 10 (PS4)

May:

The Legend of Zelda: BotW (Switch)
Injustice: Gods Among Us (PS4)
Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA/WiiU)

June:

Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams (Switch)
Megaman (Switch)
Megaman 2 (Switch)
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS4)
Ikaruga (Switch)
Batman: Tell Tale Series (Switch)
Gunbird (Switch)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Switch)
Caladrius Blaze (PS4)
Mario Kart 8 DX (Switch)
Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard (PS4)
New Gundam Breaker (PS4)

I'm doing everything I can to finish out June strong!

Mario Kart 8 DX is definitely just a port of the same game for the WiiU with the addition of the Splatoon characters. There are some tweaks that I like and tweaks that I could do without, though. When I first started playing it, I thought I was losing my mind. I'd try to power drift to the edge of an obstacle to hit a specific line in a turn and then...I would miss. Over and over again. Turns out there's an AI assist steering option that is on by default so novice players can enjoy the game on any difficulty with their friends. This should not be on by default! I kind of like the two item slots. It reminds me of Double Dash. It also means you have a better chance of getting annihilated by multiple blue shells, tho.

Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard is a great expansion for Skyrim. I really enjoyed the storyline and new locations and items. I wish I'd gone with the humans but the chance to ruin the world for all mortals was too alluring. I especially love being able to shroud the sun in darkness. The only complaint I would have is that the addition of the two new factions wrecks havoc on the Radiant AI system - there are some shopkeepers and other imporant NPCs in Whiterun that are suddenly MIA.

New Gundam Breaker is a game best avoided. It is a pretty mess. Like the world's most beautiful dumpster - on fire. I already have it up on eBay.

by **ElkinFencer10** Mon Jun 25, 2018 6:58 am

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 73
* denotes a replay

January (16 Games Beaten)

February (18 Games Beaten)

March (10 Games Beaten)

April (7 Games Beaten)

May (6 Games Beaten)

June (16 Games Beaten)

73. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia - Xbox One - June 24

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia ends the AC Chronicles trilogy, and it also marks the closest to present day that the Assassin's Creed has come (talking just the main game, not the stupid frame story crap) taking place during the Bolshevik Revolution in late 1918 in which Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks overthrew Russia's last emperor, Czar Nicholas II, exterminated the royal family, and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Russia is by far my favorite of the three Chronicles games with regards to narrative. You play as Nikolai Orelov, a Russian Assassin on his final mission to retrieve Ezio's Precursor box before he leaves the Brotherhood and takes his family away from the war-torn and collapsing Russian Empire. What sets Russia apart from China and India, however, is that there are two protagonists; in addition to Nikolai, you spend about half the game playing as Anastasia Romanov, the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II. While the real life Anastasia was killed by communist revolutionaries during the extermination of the Romanov family (despite persistent rumors to the contrary), this game has her rescued from her imprisonment Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg by Nikolai and, through plot device wizardry, awaken to latent Assassin talents. From there, the two of them try to escape from Russia to live a more peaceful life in the United States. The two protagonist perspective gives the game's story a great spin, and questionable voice acting aside, both characters are fantastic.

As was the case with India, the game plays mostly the same but with a couple of key differences. First and foremost, the throwing knife/circle blade has been replaced with an INFINITELY more badass rifle seeing as how rifles were pretty standard by 1918. In addition to that, the rope dart has been replaced with an electric winch. Not only does this serve the same purpose as the rope dart in getting you to climbable ceilings, but it also gives you the ability to overload electric control boxes and electrocute enemies standing in water. Because of that, Russia definitely deviates the most from the other two as far as puzzles go simply because of how different the Assassin gadgets are. The platforming and combat, however, works exactly the same. Except that you can just say "Screw it" and shoot people in the head. Speaking of shooting people in the head, there are a few actual sniping sections in the game that break up the gameplay a bit and add some fun variety to the experience.

Unfortunately while Russia takes what made the previous games great and doubles down on it, it also takes what made the previous game disappointing and doubles down on that, as well. I didn't experience any bugs as major as clipping through the world like I did in India, but the more minor bugs - characters popping in and out of the world, clipping through objects, platforms' and objects' textures not rendering at all but still having collision physics - were pretty frequent. Truthfully, the performance issues are what keeps me from giving Russia a perfect score; I loved every single aspect of it otherwise, even the few BRUTALLY difficult sections that provide no margin for error and took me literally a few dozen tries to get past.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia is definitely the buggiest of the trilogy, but it's also the game in the trilogy with the most fun gameplay, the most interesting characters, and the most compelling story. Add to that the fantastic setting - the Russian Civil War - and the stylish af art style that adopts a largely monochrome scheme with the exception of parts you can interact with (reminds me a lot of MadWorld on Wii), and this is my favorite of the three by a large margin. Its positives FAR outweigh its negatives, and while it's not perfect, it's definitely worth playing. Even if you don't play China or India, it's worth playing, but China's story is directly and frequently referenced in Russia. India, however, being the disappointing one of the three, is never mentioned much to my delight. AC Chronicles Russia isn't perfect, and it gets HARD in certain parts, but I absolutely loved it.

by **ElkinFencer10** Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:47 am

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 74
* denotes a replay

January (16 Games Beaten)

February (18 Games Beaten)

March (10 Games Beaten)

April (7 Games Beaten)

May (6 Games Beaten)

June (17 Games Beaten)

74. New Gundam Breaker - PlayStation 4 - June 24

Once upon a time, there a franchise that seemed to revel in screwing over American fans. Dozens of fantastic (and even more not-so-fantastic) games were released over in Japan, but somehow, few seemed to make their way to American shores. American fans had either to go without or to go through the obnoxious and often pricey process of importing these games, and naturally, almost none were in a language they could read. But wait, what's this? A localization appears on the horizon! Gundam fans, rejoice! After paying an arm and leg for Asian imports with English subtitles, Bandai Namco FINALLY saw fit to grace American shores with a localized Gundam Breaker game! Except unlike the MASTERFUL Gundam Breaker 3, New Gundam Breaker is a garbage excuse for a Gundam Breaker game that disappointed so badly that it physically hurts.

The premise of the Gundam Breaker games is that you're building Gunpla - plastic Gundam models - and using some fancy hella VR machine to simulate digital battles with them. Unfortunately New Gundam Breaker falls short of the standard set by Gundam Breaker 3 in pretty every criterion except "number of regions available." Visually, they're about on par although I think Breaker 3 looked a little better, and the audio has a few tracks from a handful of different Gundam series, but the biggest thing to make note of is the gameplay. The interface for New Gundam Breaker is MUCH less intuitive than that of Gundam Breaker 3, and either I never figured it out or there aren't as many customization options for your Gunpla as far as little frills, decals, and absurd paint jobs go. There may well have those same options there, but the interface is so convoluted that I got frustrated and gave up. It's also SIGNIFICANTLY shorter than Gundam Breaker 3. There are four sort of "intro" missions that you do before the game breaks into four or five different "character" paths, each with a different waifu as the central character, and each path has eight missions. That makes a single playthrough 12 missions long which took me somewhere between four and five hours. I didn't lose a single mission, and there's no difficulty setting. Considering that I managed to beat it without having to retry anything, and I suck at games, there isn't much challenge here for Gundam veterans.

Folks who know me will, by this point, be asking "How can you dislike the game so much? You said there are waifus!" Yes, there are waifus. Unfortunately, they're all meh-tier waifus. There's your token tsundere, your token childhood friend with a strong sense of justice, your token awkward and nerdy introvert, and a mystery character you have to unlock. Nothing outside of the literally-every-anime-game-has-them archetypes, and none of them have personalities at all interesting. Even in the context of visual novel-esque characters, they're like cardboard cutouts of anime girls. I'm basically a massive slut for anime waifus, and even I was like "Okay, these girls suck. I legit wish y'all had just omitted them entirely." In perhaps the most egregious crime against waifus, the game's dialogue is set up as if it had dating sim elements, but like 90% of the time, you only have one dialogue choice, making the entire format completely useless.

While story isn't really the focus of Gundam Breaker - it's basically just a frame to have an excuse to make a game about building model robots and using them to blow up virtual giant robots - New Gundam Breaker's story still manages to disappoint. You're a transfer student at a private high school (because of course you are) that is built entirely around building and battling Gunpla, but the student council has turned tyrannical and is acting more like a mafia than a student government, so of course you form a resistance team to challenge the student council and various supporting minion clubs to Gunpla battles and restore freedom and happiness and generally positive emotions to the school. That's it. That's the whole story. At least Gundam Breaker 3 had an underdog story about trying to save a local shopping arcade from an American megacorporation that ended with the world almost being destroyed. I mean, it's no Pulitzer winner, but it was decent enough. New Gundam Breaker's story is just....cliche crap.

New Gundam Breaker is bad. If you had never played a Gundam game before or seen anything about previous Gundam Breaker games, then you might get away with thinking it's okay, but I don't see how anyone can play this game and think "Wow, yeah, this is a great game." "This is okay" is about as generous as I can see anyone being. The mobile suit movement feels sluggish, the battle objectives are literally pointless, the interface is a mess, the story is crap, the characters are flat and boring, and the game is ridiculously short. There's just not much to love here, and the fact that it's selling for a full $60 is complete and total shenanigans. This game's worth $20 MAX. If you've never played a Gundam Breaker game before, do NOT let New Gundam Breaker be the basis of your opinion on it. It's like "New Math;" it sucks, no one likes it, and we all just need to go back to the "old" version and pretend this "new" one never existed.

by **noiseredux** Tue Jun 26, 2018 8:37 pm

1. Ducktales: Remastered (360)
2. Grand Theft Auto V (Xbox One)
3. Diablo III: Darkening Of Tristram (Xbox One)
4. Final Fantasy Type-0 (Xbox One)
5. The King Of Fighters: Neowave (Xbox)
6. Guardian Heroes (Xbox 360)
7. Puyo Puyo Tetris (Switch)

Just rolled the credits on the adventure mode or whatever the story mode is called. The story is... I just skip over it. But the challenges are all fun. Great game and now it'll be a go-to for random online matchups.

EDIT: Also, I had put this in the Games NOT Beaten thread, but since I beat the story mode I guess it can be reposted here for your reading enjoyment...

When Puyo Puyo Tetris was announced for the Switch it almost made me want to pre-order the new console. Almost. But instead I went and imported an Xbox One copy of the game from Japan. I played it briefly but it - surprisingly - didn't grab me for some reason. But when I finally decided to pull the trigger on a Switch last summer, Puyo Puyo Tetris was one of the first games I picked up for the system. It just seemed like a puzzle game should fit perfectly when the Switch was played in portable mode. And in fairness, portable mode is how I generally do play the Switch anyway. Well... it turns out I was right.

It turns out that my problem with Switch on Xbox One wasn't the game - it was the setting. I didn't want to play a puzzler like this sitting alone in my game room on a 4K TV. Nope. It turns out I wanted to play Puyo Tetris in the living room while listening to my wife binge Parenthood; or in the gazebo out on our back patio with the tablet propped up on a little table - each of us taking one of those teeny tiny little Joy-Cons off the sides of the system. It turns out that Puyo Puyo Tetris is the sort of game that totally shows off what makes the Switch's hardware so brilliant. And in turn the flexibility of the hardware elevates the game. There's really no difference between the Xbox One and Switch editions other than I have the freedom to choose HOW I want to play the Switch version.

So what is Puyo Puyo Tetris anyway? It's all right there in the title. It's two of the greatest puzzle games ever made being mashed together. It's easily the most exquisite combination of falling block puzzles since Tetris and Dr. Mario were crammed on to the same cartridge in the 90's. But how exactly does that work? Well, it works in a lot of ways. Which is to say there isn't a pure Puyo X Tetris formula here - instead it's all variations on themes. Maybe you want to just play some marathon Tetris? Fine. Maybe you and a friend want to see if you're better at Tetris than they are at Puyo Puyo? You can do that. You can play PvP that involves switching back and forth between the two games. You can literally play BOTH games at once where Tetrimos fall on top of your little Puyos. You can play solo or against AI or against friends in the same room or randos online. There's a story mode and an arcade mode or just endless modes. To put it mildly - while the idea of combining Puyo x Tetris seems exquisitely simple, Sega have crammed so much content into this release that it is infinitely replayable. Which is kind of insane as nobody ever needed any incentive to replay a Tetris or Puyo game, did they?

I will say that both puzzle series have had entries in the past that didn't quite deliver for me. Tetris Worlds comes to immediate mind, where things like the physics of how puzzle pieces fell into place just felt off. And the lack of certain highly desirable modes felt (sorry) puzzling. Overall the Puyo series has probably had a higher consistency over the years, but truthfully there were some overly gimmicky entries that while fun, possibly missed the point of how fantastic a pure Puyo experience can be. Just give me little blobs and let me make a house of cards that dominoes into a cascading array of tiny explosions and I'm happy. Somehow Sega has managed to take those two simple and pure games and stripped them off all their unnecessary bells and whistles and combined them into this perfect thing - complete with its own bells and whistles. When I was a kid Tetris felt ubiquitous with my Game Boy. And I want to say Puyo Puyo was the same way with my Game Gear but it would have been Columns... I didn't really discover the Puyos until years later. But still my point stands: Puyo Puyo Tetris feels ubiquitous with the Switch. Even if it is based on an arcade game that's been around for four years now and has already seen ports on other consoles, it just makes sense on this platform.

by **ESauced** Tue Jun 26, 2018 10:39 pm

1. Panzer Dragoon Zwei (Saturn)
2. Batman: Return of the Joker (NES)
3. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch)
4. Firewatch (PS4)

Finished two games yesterday. My wife and I managed to beat Firewatch in two nights. It was very suspenseful but ultimately the story is so grounded in reality the ending feels a bit mundane. Probably the saddest game I’ve ever played too. I also wrapped up Bloodstained while lying in bed. Last boss was easy by spamming the lightning but I feel like I didn’t really learn how to avoid its attacks. Might actually play through this one again. Had a lot of fun with it and playing without the extra characters would make for a nice challenge.

by **ElkinFencer10** Wed Jun 27, 2018 8:48 am

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 75
* denotes a replay

January (16 Games Beaten)

February (18 Games Beaten)

March (10 Games Beaten)

April (7 Games Beaten)

May (6 Games Beaten)

June (18 Games Beaten)

75. Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard - PlayStation 3 - June 25

I'm a sucker for B-movie style games. The "so bad it's good" kind of games. To a certain extent, that's what Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is. Unfortunately, I found the game to be more "bad" than "so bad it's good." The potential for a fantastically terrible game is, but they missed the execution, leaving off the "fantastically."

Eat Lead is a cover based third person shooter, and unfortunately, that's where its problems start. I absolutely love third person shooters, but the gameplay here is extraordinarily dull and monotonous. Pretty much the entire game consists of "run into a room, take cover, kill everyone, walk through the newly opened door, repeat." That's it. The only variation is the boss battles which are usually just short quick time events. The only boss battle that felt at all interesting to me was the second to last boss that you had to trick into shooting itself. Even the final boss sucked - it was just three or four MASSIVE hordes of enemies with a control panel to activate between them. You don't actually get to fight the boss himself at all; it's just a cutscene.

The game's story is....interesting. It's a giant parody of video games. You have "Nuke Winters" instead of Duke Nukem, the Master Chef instead of Master Chief, the Mace of Mourning instead of the Hammer of Dawn, etc. In that regard, it's actually pretty clever. Unfortunately the game stars a self-aware video game character whom a pissy corporate CEO is trying to kill off my spawning random swarms of enemies into his new game to force the character to die permanently. I'm all for suspending my disbelief with even some outlandish situations, but this one is just a stretch. Just delete the game files. Poof, character gone. Archive the character and stop making games with the IP. Sega is BRILLIANT at doing that. It basically feels like if Hyperdimension Neptunia were a shooter with all the waifus replaced by machismo guys and made by Americans who try waaaaay too hard to be funny.

The music is good, and the voice acting is actually pretty good with a decent cast featuring a few fairly well known actors. Unfortunately the visuals don't match the audio. It looks like any random Wii shooter just upscaled to 720p. That's not a knock on the Wii, but given how much more powerful the PlayStation 3 was than the Wii, you'd expect more of a visual improvement than a 30% resolution boost. It looks fine, but it's not even close to living up to the PS3's graphical capabilities. Normally when a game looks far below what a system is capable of, it's because the developers wanted to go for solid performance. If that were the case here, the visuals would be totally understandable, but the game runs like crap, too. Sometimes it keeps a good 30 fps, but at seemingly random times with little happening on screen, it will start to just churn, dropping to around 10 fps. I get that frame rate drops aren't uncommon especially on consoles, but for a game to look "meh" and still have severe performance issues in even low stress situations, there's not much excuse.

For fans of super cheesy B-movie games like me, Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard had a lot of potential. It just LOOKS fantastically terrible, like a Steven Segal movie with more machine guns. Much to my dismay, it lives up to very little of that potential. The script is on point, but the execution overall is a mess. It looks bad, it plays bad, and the one thing that could have redeemed this into a fun experience - co-op play - is nowhere to be seen. So close, yet so far, Vicious Cycle Software. You know the phrase "Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you'll land among the stars" you often seen on posters in schools? Well, they shot for the moon, but instead of landing among the stars, they're spinning out of control through the void of intergalactic space.

Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Re: Games Beaten 2018

Who is online