Games Beaten 2018

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Bastion (iOS)
2. LaserCat (360)
3. Zombie Incident (3DS)
4. Bye-Bye BoxBoy! (3DS)
5. Monument Valley 2 (iOS)
6. Zenge (iOS)

Bye-Bye BoxBoy! is another excellent game in an excellent series. As with BoxBoy! and BoxBoxBoy!, HAL has crafted a delightful puzzle-platformer with tremendous character. This time Qbby can use a variety of “gimmick” boxes, such as bomb boxes and rocket boxes to work his way through each of the games many worlds. (These are a good addition to the series, but they do not add quite as much depth to the puzzles as the ability to create two sets of boxes added to BoxBoxBoy!.). As a veteran of the series who insisted upon completing every challenge the two previous games could throw at me, the difficulty did not really pick up until I completed the main campaign. The bonus worlds, however, were a delightful challenge, and I definitely earned my special Qbby princess costume when I put the game down.

Monument Valley 2, like its predecessor, is a fantastic work of art. The game is absolutely gorgeous, to the point of mesmerizing, and it is an aesthetic triumph. (Screenshots from the game are now the wallpapers on my phone and tablet.). That said...the M.C. Escher inspired puzzles are not the least bit challenging, and the gameplay leaves something to be desired. (The expansion to the first game at least offered some challenge.). It is just so pretty, however, that I forgive its gameplay for being so shallow.

Zenge is a sliding picture puzzle game with some cool mechanics. It is fun while it last, but it only last 1 1/2 hours. It is free, and I really can’t say anything bad about it at that price!

[MrPopo]

1. Ultima V - PC
2. Ultima VI - PC
3. Might and Magic VI - PC
4. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - PC
5. Pool of Radiance - PC
6. Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC

Now that your party is full of seasoned adventurers, you decide to seek your fortune in the wider world. Your initial thought is to take up the quest of the missing princess. However, midway through your journey you are waylaid by assaliants who knock you out, steal your stuff, and imbue you with five glowing blue marks on your arm. Shortly thereafter you discover these marks can be used to compell you to act against your will; you discover this when you are made to attempt to assassinate the king of the city you are in. So begins your quest; to undo these sigils so that you can get your life back.

CotAB does everything right in terms of a sequel. It takes everything that was good about the previous game and adds to it. The gear reset isn't so bad as long as you are packing a mage or two, and you quickly will replenish your stash. The more important thing is that you get access to dual classing your humans; this is going to be critical for taking your party through the rest of the game, as dual classing is awesome. You can have a high HP mage who attacks three times every two turns with a big sword before firing off deadly spells. The only downside is that unless you equip some armor that blocks casting your dual classed mage will simply guard during quick fight mode. Also, there's the whole level reset and lost access to fighter skills until you've surpassed your old level, but that ends up not being too bad since you'll get a truckload of exp early to boost you up.

Rather than mostly confining you to one city with a few jaunts to neighboring areas, this game is much more distributed. There are now many towns, though most of them aren't explorable in first person; merely being a waystation on the road and source of information, though the important ones are explorable (as they tend to have some sort of dungeon related to your quest). Initially you aren't sure where to look in terms of getting yourself free of the bonds that afflict you, but some standard RPG detective work will put you on the right path.

The graphics have taken a noticeable improvement, and the portraits aren't so amateurish. The dialog isn't anything to write home about, but it certainly gets the job done and isn't too far off from what you'd expect from a reasonably talented DM. The bestiary is much increased, and the combat requires a lot more attention from you. Getting off spells early to stagger enemy spellcasters is crucial, and positioning is more important thanks to the improved system of attacks of opportunity. Form that defensive wall!

There's not a whole lot else to say; if you liked Pool you'll like Curse, and probably better.

[alienjesus]

1. Bastion (iOS)
2. LaserCat (360)
3. Zombie Incident (3DS)
4. Bye-Bye BoxBoy! (3DS)
5. Monument Valley 2 (iOS)
6. Zenge (iOS)

Bye-Bye BoxBoy! is another excellent game in an excellent series. As with BoxBoy! and BoxBoxBoy!, HAL has crafted a delightful puzzle-platformer with tremendous character. This time Qbby can use a variety of “gimmick” boxes, such as bomb boxes and rocket boxes to work his way through each of the games many worlds. (These are a good addition to the series, but they do not add quite as much depth to the puzzles as the ability to create two sets of boxes added to BoxBoxBoy!.). As a veteran of the series who insisted upon completing every challenge the two previous games could throw at me, the difficulty did not really pick up until I completed the main campaign. The bonus worlds, however, were a delightful challenge, and I definitely earned my special Qbby princess costume when I put the game down.

Monument Valley 2, like its predecessor, is a fantastic work of art. The game is absolutely gorgeous, to the point of mesmerizing, and it is an aesthetic triumph. (Screenshots from the game are now the wallpapers on my phone and tablet.). That said...the M.C. Escher inspired puzzles are not the least bit challenging, and the gameplay leaves something to be desired. (The expansion to the first game at least offered some challenge.). It is just so pretty, however, that I forgive its gameplay for being so shallow.

Zenge is a sliding picture puzzle game with some cool mechanics. It is fun while it last, but it only last 1 1/2 hours. It is free, and I really can’t say anything bad about it at that price!

Hvae you played Gorogoa yet? It seems like something that'd be right up your alley based on the stuff you do play. I really enjoyed it when I played it on Switch at the end of last year.

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Bastion (iOS)
2. LaserCat (360)
3. Zombie Incident (3DS)
4. Bye-Bye BoxBoy! (3DS)
5. Monument Valley 2 (iOS)
6. Zenge (iOS)

Bye-Bye BoxBoy! is another excellent game in an excellent series. As with BoxBoy! and BoxBoxBoy!, HAL has crafted a delightful puzzle-platformer with tremendous character. This time Qbby can use a variety of “gimmick” boxes, such as bomb boxes and rocket boxes to work his way through each of the games many worlds. (These are a good addition to the series, but they do not add quite as much depth to the puzzles as the ability to create two sets of boxes added to BoxBoxBoy!.). As a veteran of the series who insisted upon completing every challenge the two previous games could throw at me, the difficulty did not really pick up until I completed the main campaign. The bonus worlds, however, were a delightful challenge, and I definitely earned my special Qbby princess costume when I put the game down.

Monument Valley 2, like its predecessor, is a fantastic work of art. The game is absolutely gorgeous, to the point of mesmerizing, and it is an aesthetic triumph. (Screenshots from the game are now the wallpapers on my phone and tablet.). That said...the M.C. Escher inspired puzzles are not the least bit challenging, and the gameplay leaves something to be desired. (The expansion to the first game at least offered some challenge.). It is just so pretty, however, that I forgive its gameplay for being so shallow.

Zenge is a sliding picture puzzle game with some cool mechanics. It is fun while it last, but it only last 1 1/2 hours. It is free, and I really can’t say anything bad about it at that price!

Hvae you played Gorogoa yet? It seems like something that'd be right up your alley based on the stuff you do play. I really enjoyed it when I played it on Switch at the end of last year.

I have! It is one of the last games I beat in 2017, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

[alienjesus]

Hvae you played Gorogoa yet? It seems like something that'd be right up your alley based on the stuff you do play. I really enjoyed it when I played it on Switch at the end of last year.

I have! It is one of the last games I beat in 2017, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Knowing me I probably commented on the review too

[prfsnl_gmr]

Hvae you played Gorogoa yet? It seems like something that'd be right up your alley based on the stuff you do play. I really enjoyed it when I played it on Switch at the end of last year.

I have! It is one of the last games I beat in 2017, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Knowing me I probably commented on the review too

I hope it inspired you to pick the game up for your Switch!

[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)
14) Iconoclasts (PC) (9.0) (1/27) (11 hours)
15) Final Fight 3 (SNES) (8.0) (2/3) (1.25 hours)
16) Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (PSX) (7.0) (2/6) (0.4 hours)

Just a quick run through while messing around with my dying PSX hardware... game is pretty solid overall. I'm sure I'm missing some intricacies with the Stand mechanic. Nice pixel art, although the game really could have used a quick continue feature so that I don't have to sit through so many loading screens after losing. Of course I want to continue on the last boss! C'mon, guys!

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 19
* denotes a replay

January (16 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
11. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - NES - January 23
12. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 - NES - January 24
13. Global Defence Force - PlayStation 2 - January 24
14. Darkwing Duck - NES - January 25
15. Tiny Toon Adventures - NES - January 26
16. Poi - Steam - January 28

February (3 Games Beaten)

17. Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD - Steam - February 3
18. Final Fantasy Legend - Game Boy - February 5
19. Valkyrie Drive Bhikkhuni - Vita - February 5

19. Valkyrie Drive Bhikkhuni - Vita - February 5



Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- is another of the plethora of "titty anime" games on Vita. Those games usually fall in one of two categories - JRPG or beat 'em up. This one is the latter. It's made by Marvelous, the studio responsible for the Senran Kagura series, and that shared pedigree is very apparent as the game plays a lot like most of the Senran Kagura series. As such, it can feel a bit boring and repetitive at times, but it's a fun albeit mindless game nonetheless.



The basic premise of the game is that there's a virus that has started to spread throughout the world - the V-Virus - that only affects young women and gives them the ability to form a mental "link" with one another called a Valkyrie Drive in which one maintains her form - the Liberator - and the other turns into a weapon - the Extar. A small number of girls have a mutated form of the virus called the VR-Virus that gives them the normal abilities of the V-Virus but with significantly more above-average physical strength. There have been five artificial islands created - one of which is Bhikkhuni - to house treatment programs for those infected by the virus. You play as a group of girls infected with the VR-Virus and undergoing treatment on the island of Bhikkhuni.



With regards to gameplay, it plays almost exactly like Senran Kagura. It's a 3D beat 'em up (except for one level which is bizarrely 2D), and each chapter has two or three stages. There are also three difficulty levels - Easy, Normal, and Hard - but the difficulty has zero impact on either trophies or on the game's ending (and there are multiple endings), so you're safe to pick whatever difficulty is appropriate for your skill level and desired amount of challenge. Throughout the level, there are extra challenges that can net you some bonus experience as well as three emblem pieces to find in every level and some floating robot that will literally grab your character's breasts and measure them if they have the right "bust level." It's these optional things that will determine what ending you get. I ignored almost all of them, so I got whatever the default ending is.



By this point in the system's lifespan, folks typically know what to expect from the Vita in terms of visuals, and this game is no exception. It looks good but not mind-blowing. What was impressive, however, was that the performance stayed pretty consistent. There were a few frame rate drops here and there, but for the most part, it performed much better than a lot of Vita games with comparable visuals. The music was rather uneventful - good but meh - and the voice acting is all in Japanese, so I usually just turned off the Vita's volume and listened to Rob Zombie or Slipknot instead.



Overall, Valkyrie Drive -Bhikkhuni- is a competent beat 'em up, but it's also a very niche game. It's pure fan service, but if you're into the anime style fanservicey games, this is a good one. The gameplay is competent but pretty standard; it's the ecchi fanservice that sets the game apart, although within the context of ecchi fanservice games, it's fairly standard. In the end, though, if you're into that type of game and you have a Vita, I definitely recommend this one. It's fun, and the characters are likeable even if a couple of them have some rough-around-the-edges character development.

[Ack]

1. Jungle Book (SNES)(Platformer)
2. Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (SNES)(Light Gun Shooter)
3. Might and Magic VI (PC)(RPG)
4. Revenant (PC)(RPG)

Revenant is an action RPG released in 1999 by Cinematix Studios and published by Eidos. In terms of style, it pulls heavily from Diablo, though Cinematix took crucial steps to reshape the combat and magic system as well as focus the story on a main protagonist as opposed to the "nameless adventurer" style you often find with Diablo wannabes. Instead, this time you're playing as Locke, a revenant whose soul was pulled from Hell by a sorcerer so you can take down an evil cult and rescue the kidnapped daughter of the local town's warlord. There are some interesting twists and turns along the way regarding Locke's connection to the island and the cult and why he was chosen to carry out this mission, but the central objective doesn't ever really change. You're always going for the girl.

Combat is an area that takes a little getting used to, but once you have an understanding of it, it can shine. You start with three attack commands with variable speeds and strengths, but as you level, you can learn new combinations which will greatly increase your offensive abilities. You can also block, which is crucial to get the hang of if you want to survive. It doesn't matter whether you wield a sword, axe, or mace, your combat style never changes. What does change are your skills, such as whether you hit, how much damage you do, etc. Unfortunately, these stats are tied into your level, so the higher your level, the fewer points you gain towards skills. If an enemy gives you 3 skill points, then next level they'll likely give you 2, regardless of the level of your skill. And since you need hundreds and then thousands and ten thousands of experience points to go up, just don't bother thinking you'l ever max out any combat skills. In fact, it's not really worth using anything besides a sword and your fists for one particular fight.

Magic also has an overhaul. Instead of learning spells from books, you gather runes which can be arranged in various ways to teach new spells. Any spell you have previously cast is remembered, so over time you can gain quite a few. At different times you'll also find scrolls that teach you spells, but you can figure out combinations on your own long before if you have the necessary runes. You can also store up to 4 spells at a time for quick access, and since you can cast spells even during stun or burning animations, correct spell choice is key...or even overkill, depending on the spell.

While this may sound good so far, there are some massive downsides to Revenant. Skills are poorly designed, not just regarding combat but in general. The lockpicking skill is basically worthless, the bow skill is barely used, and the Attack and Defense skills do literally nothing in the game and serve no purpose. The magic skill can be raised independently of level, unlike your weapon skills since killing monsters is the only way to increase it, so cast as much as you can early on. In fact, learn the invisibility spell, and you can pretty much win any fight: no enemies in the game can see you while invisible, even the final boss, so just go invisible and beat your foes into a pulp.

Then there are the bugs, which I found to be constant. These ranged from graphical glitches to crashes, the game randomly minimizing itself, NPC dialogue not always appearing, shopkeepers suddenly vanishing, duplicate items appearing in the shops, failures to properly load the game, levels not loading right, etc., etc., etc. I believe GOG listed my time around 25 hours, but 10 of those were spent dealing with killing the program or loading an old save because of glitches or other problems. I learned to save often, but even this started to scare me as I worried about the game locking up while I did it. Seriously, it was such a massive issue that I really struggle to recommend Revenant to anyone. It has some things I like, but there were just so many problems.

There are better Diablo clones out there, but there are also many less buggy ones, so if you're into the genre and are looking for a new game to play, I highly suggest you look elsewhere. Revenant was more of a hassle than a good time, and by the end I was yawning with boredom and slogging through just to get it over with, saving roughly every five minutes. Even then, I still had a couple of bugs impede my progress. Go elsewhere. I mean it. Which is a shame, as I did want to like this game.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 20
* denotes a replay

January (16 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
11. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - NES - January 23
12. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 - NES - January 24
13. Global Defence Force - PlayStation 2 - January 24
14. Darkwing Duck - NES - January 25
15. Tiny Toon Adventures - NES - January 26
16. Poi - Steam - January 28

February (4 Games Beaten)

17. Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD - Steam - February 3
18. Final Fantasy Legend - Game Boy - February 5
19. Valkyrie Drive Bhikkhuni - Vita - February 5
20. Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo - 3DS - February 8

20. Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo - 3DS - February 8



Originally released on iOS as "Little Acorns," Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo is a cute little 2D platformer in which you play as a squirrel and collect acorns. Along the way, you have to avoid water (apparently squirrels can't swim), spiders, bumble bees, and just unnecessarily rude raccoons. I got the game for free with some My Nintendo gold coins a few months ago but never actually played it until this week. It's not a game that I can see ever having the "urge" to play, but as a time waster in line at the bank or in bed before you go to sleep, it's decent enough.



The game is divided into 60 levels - three years with four seasons and five levels per season. To advance to Year 2 and Year 3, you have to have collected a certain number of acorns from the previous year (I think it's 800 out of a possible 1200 if I remember correctly). Each level provides four ways to get acorns - collecting all of the acorns in a level to unlock the exit obviously, collecting the five pieces of fruit that appear after all acorns have been collected, defeating all of the enemies in a level, and clearing a level within a special time limit. The levels themselves don't really start posing a challenge until Winter of Year 3, but some of the extra objectives - the fruit, enemies, and speed clear - can start putting up some real resistance around the end of Year 2.



With regards to visuals and sound design, it does the job well enough, but it does show its mobile phone roots. The music is basic but decent enough as background music. The sound effects can get annoying, but that's easy enough to turn off. The visuals are nice and colorful, but they're just too basic to really stand out on a system with Gunvolt and NES and SNES Virtual Console games. What the game does do extremely well is control. The game has extremely tight controls that are responsive and easy to use. Between jumping across gaps, timing jumps on moving platforms, or swinging from ropes, the controls respond smoothly and exactly how you'd expect them to.



Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo is a pretty standard 2D platformer in most regards, but standard isn't necessarily bad. It may not stand out much stylistically, but what it does, it does very well, and while it shows that it's a port of a mobile phone game, it's ported very well. Performance never dips, and the controls are as tight and responsive as you could want. I wouldn't pay more than a maximum of $5 for it, so wait for a sale to download it. If you can find it for $5 or less, however, I'd definitely give it a go.