Games Beaten 2018

[Markies]

There's a mod that changes the leveling system so that groups of weapons and spells share exp meters, and rebalances various stats, if you ever feel like revisiting it.

That would be SUPER nice. That is one thing I liked about Mana compared to Evermore. You level up your Sword Skill, not just one skill. Since I was walking around with the most powerful weapon, it would always jump between different weapons and it would take forever to level that one specific weapon up to Level 3.

@Markies: Don't want to knock on you there at all since you beat it! But something tells me maybe you missed some weapon power ups or something weird like that... I certainly remember that Evermore has some obtuse mechanics and the alchemy system is pretty bad, but I don't remember it being that hard or anything. The little trading area part was atrocious though. And did you get the bazooka near the end? I remember that making the finale easy. Hmm, who knows. I only beat it in full once many years ago.

Either way, rock on for finishing it and glad you enjoyed the music. I do wish Jeremy Soule did more work on the SNES or some old chiptunes in general.

Now... I don't know if you emulate, or import/patch games or whatnot, but next time... play the real sequel to Mana if you haven't! It's pretty hard though, but it has the best ARPG combat system of all time in my book.

Seiken Densetsu 3

There is some spells at the end of the game that make the final boss gauntlet quite beatable. One makes you super strong and makes many attacks against you pretty useless. Another makes all of your attacks Level 3 attacks. So, all I did was spam those spells on the two of us and the final boss went down pretty easily. If I did not have those spells, then I would question if I could have even beaten the game.

Oh, trust me, I will buy myself a Reproduction Cart and I will be playing Seiken Densetsu 3! I watched somebody stream the whole game and I am fully excited about the game. I don't own it yet, but I will someday.

I rather enjoy the series. I played Legend of Mana on the PS1 and I loved the hell out of that one. I don't consider Evermore a true Mana game, so my excitement was only partially dimmed for the rest of the series. But, in time, I will get excited again and I will buy/play Seiken Densetsu 3. That is a promise.

[Sarge]

The Mummy Demastered has a reputation for being a hard game. That's probably because there's a mechanic on which, if you die, your player avatar becomes a zombie you must fight to get your gear back. Depending on where you die, this could make things very difficult to reobtain said gear.

Well, there's apparently a solution for that, and it's just don't die. Somehow, that's exactly what I did through my run, although I had a few close-ish calls against the dragon boss (one reserve tank left) and the last boss (two reserve tanks left). It helps, of course, that I did a lot of exploring; pretty sure I found all the health packs, and a lot of the ammo upgrades.

It clocks in pretty short; I finished with 81% items and 97% map completion in 4:34. Still a fun time, though. Despite looking more like Contra, it plays much, much more similarly to Super Metroid, but with the aesthetics of Castlevania. The game also sports an absolutely stellar soundtrack by Monomer; I love virt, but WayForward picked the perfect composer for this game. Seriously, just have a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEjJid3 ... j4&index=8

Primo stuff there. Anyway, I'd give this one an 8.5/10. Probably needs a bit more length to it, but a really great-feeling and playing Metroidvania that really sticks close to its inspiration to excellent effect.

[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)
7. Master of Darkness (Game Gear/3DS)
8. Wonder Boy (SMS)
9. Full Throttle Remastered (iOS)
10. Adventure Island (NES)
11. Adventure Island II (NES)
12. Adventure Island (GB)
13. Super Adventure Island (SNES)
14. New Adventure Island (TG16)
15. Adventure Island III (NES)
16. The Legend of the Ghost Lion (NES)
17. Part Time UFO (iOS)
18. Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise (GB)
19. Adventure Island IV (NES)
20. Super Adventure Island II (SNES)
21. Adventure Island: The Beginning (WII)
22. Quell Memento (3DS)
23. Wonder Boy in Monster Land (ARCADE)
24. Saiyuuki World (FAMICOM)
25. Whomp ‘Em (NES)
26. Bikkuriman World (TG16)
27. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (TG16)
28. Go Series: Picdun (DS)
29. The Keep (3DS)
30. Dooors (3DS)
31. Ninja Gaiden (ARCADE)

Although it spawned a great series, the original Ninja Gaiden is a pretty rubbish beat ‘em up. There is almost no enemy or boss variety; the controls are, unbelievably, both too complex and too simplistic; it auto scrolls; the platforming is somehow worse than the platforming in Double Dragon; and everything about it is sluggish and dull. The best things about it are its detailed background art, which almost never repeats, the insanely awesome “game over” screen, and somewhat surprisingly, it’s very silly sense of humor. (In the cut scenes between levels, you see Ryu Hayabusa basically taking a vacation in the U.S. - sightseeing in New York, reading a newspaper on a train, gambling in Las Vegas, kayaking, etc. - in full ninja attire.) Also, it has two player co-op, and my six-year-old son thought playing through it with dad was awesome. (This genre is pretty easy for beginners and pretty forgiving when you can credit feed. He’s starting to get into video games, and we will play something good next.)

[Sarge]

I still have a soft spot for Ninja Gaiden. I know it's not the best, but I do like the feel of the combat, and that mid-air throw is just awesome.

[Flake]

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)

Quick blurbs for all!

Ikaruga on Switch - replaces the Gamecube version as the definitive home release, IMO. Has all of the features unlocked by default - it really is only missing the training features and epic replays the Gamecube one had.

Batman: Tell Tale Series (Switch) I'd played this on the PS4 and hoped that the re-visit to move the software to Switch would have meant some bug fixes and optimization. No fucking luck. It's even buggier than the PS4 version was. Still such a fun story, though.

Gunbird - Got this as one of the ACA releases. It's a fun? shooter. I literally have no clue what is going on except that I enjoyed the gimmick of the game being a running fight between my cloud riding Chinese lady and 3 bumbling villains running from mech to mech to try and stop me. It gave the game a lot of charm that it otherwise wouldn't have had.

[PartridgeSenpai]

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

1-20

1. Tyranny (PC)
2. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (PC)
3. SUPERHOT (PC)
4. Hotline Miami (PC)*
5. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC)
6. Mario X Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch)
7. Nine Parchments (Switch)
8. X-com: UFO Defense (PC)
9. Chocobo Racing (PS1)
10. Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak (GBA)
11. Dragon Quest Builders (PS4)
12. Dragon Quest (3DS)
13. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4)
14. Dragon Quest II (3DS)
15. Kirby Star Allies (Switch)
16. Hearthstone Dungeon Run (PC)
17. My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (3DS)
18. Tales of Legendia (PS2)
19. Retro City Rampage (3DS)
20. Hearthstone Monster Hunt (PC)

21. Deadbolt (Steam)
22. Legend of Grimrock 2 (Steam)
23. The Witness (PS4)
24. Uurnog (PC)
25. Fire Emblem Warriors (Switch)
26. Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
27. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

28. Magicka 2 (PS4)*

I had my friend whom I play Magicka 2 over with yesterday. We never really planned on beating Magicka 2, but we just eventually started playing just to see how hard we could get on BANANAS?! (very hard) mode, and then 6 or 7 hours later we'd actually done it! I never thought we'd actually be able to beat that game on that mode, but we actually did! I still can't believe it

God DAMN, that game is a mean son of a bitch on very hard mode. I don't think it's just because we had two people, but there were SO many really hard enemies SO much earlier than they should've been otherwise, and the fact the regen some monsters had was so fucking crazy didn't help things. We actually got WAY better at imbuing our melee weapons with elements, and the Mallet weapon imbued with something like fire or steam really wrecks shit up, because the beam weapons, even a lot of concentrated beams, really just aren't reliable enough on a DPS or "not getting interrupted"-level to actually be effective when you have the very hard mode difficulty modifiers on (50% health, slower Magicks regen, 300% friendly fire damage, crazy enemy health regen and 150% enemy health).

Verdict: (still) Highly Recommended. This game is still awesome. One of my favorite multiplayer action games I've ever played. I could and probably will beat it again someday with a friend. It's just so damn good. I go into more detail in my other reviews exactly how, so I'm gonna leave it a bit short here, but this game really is SO fucking well designed, and it's a damn shame that Magicka 2 never got any of the big story DLC's like Magicka 1 did.

[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)
5. Neo Turf Masters (NGPC)(Sports)
6. Fatal Fury: First Contact (NGPC)(Fighter)
7. Pac-Man (NGPC)(Action)
8. Golden Axe (Genesis)(Hack and Slash)
9. Blood and Bacon (PC)(FPS)
10. Gain Ground (Genesis)(Strategy)
11. Flicky (Genesis)(Platformer)
12. Zombie Shooter 2 (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)
13. Phantasmagoria (PC)(Point and Click)
14. SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighter's Clash - Capcom Version (NGPC)(Card Game)
15. Toonstruck (PC)(Point and Click)
16. Riven (PC)(Point and Click)
17. Dragon Wars (PC)(RPG)
18. Dungeon Hack (PC)(RPG)
19. SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (NGPC)(Fighter)
20. Portal 2 (PC)(Puzzle FPS)
21. Goat Simulator: Waste of Space (PC)(Action)
22. Goat Simulator: Payday (PC)(Action)
23. Goat Simulator: MMO Simulator (PC)(Action)
24. Goat Simulator: GoatZ (PC)(Action)
25. Goat Simulator (PC)(Action)
26. Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis)(Beat 'Em Up)
27. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PC)(Action Platformer)
28. Deadlight (PC)(Platformer)

Deadlight is a 2D platformer from 2012 set in an alternate history Seattle in which the zombie apocalypse has happened in the 1980s. It falls into the "cinematic" platformer category with titles like Flashback and Another World, where you run through, doing specific actions at very specific times to avoid the numerous hazards, pits, and traps you will encounter...and zombies. Every now and again, there is combat, but if you memorize the order you must do things, you can rush through the game in about an hour and a half.

Unfortunately, that's not a long time, and even if you go for seeking out all of the hidden collectables, you probably will only spend a few hours here...until you beat it and unlock Nightmare Mode. In Nightmare Mode, the game removes checkpoints except at the beginning of the three Acts, and there is no saving; you beat it in one sitting or not at all. This wouldn't be so bad if Act 2 wasn't roughly 2/3 of the game, but it's a nasty hurdle, and much of the in-game dialogue can't be skipped. I have yet to beat Nightmare Mode.

The base game itself is best played with a controller. The keyboard commands aren't laid out well, so I quickly moved to an Xbox 360 controller to deal with the issues I was facing with manipulating the lead character. The game is plot heavy, but it's fairly cliche: main character is searching for family, finds Seattle safe zone isn't actually safe, has major realization in the end about something he did that has been driving him insane. It's a "twist" that I saw coming from the first act, so I wasn't really impressed with it.

For the most part, Deadlight is a short game which offers some challenging parts but can be gotten through quickly enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome, except for Nightmare Mode. Nightmare Mode is where the claws come out, and suddenly Deadlight finds itself on par with its fellow cinematic platformer brethren, where perfect jumps and dodge rolls are required along with memorization of whole sections and fewer "checkpoints" than are found in Prince of Persia. If you like that style of game, then you might consider Deadlight worth trying out.

[laurenhiya21]

Still catching up on reviews!

4/30: Hatsune Miku Project Diva 2nd (PSP)
It’s been over a year since I played a Hatsune Miku game, so I thought it was about time to play another. I really enjoyed playing the other Hatsune Miku games so far, and this one is no different. This particular one is basically the game as the first Project Diva game (just press or hold the different buttons in time to the music), except it doesn’t just have Miku songs and includes songs from MEIKO, KAITO, Rin/Len, and Luka. It’s still mostly Miku songs, but I appreciated having some variety. The only complaint I have about the game is that switching characters or outfits takes a surprisingly long about of time. This was especially annoying since the game doesn’t have the option automatically switch characters for their songs, so unless you don’t mind having a character sing with another character’s voice, then you have to manually switch the characters every time you switch to another character’s song. It’s probably because of a limitation of the PSP, but it was still a little annoying.

I don’t have much else to add, but one thing that was interesting was I was actually able to clear all of the songs on Normal instead of just on Easy! I’m not sure if this particular game is easier than the others or if I’ve gotten better, but it was nice to not have to stick solely to Easy this time haha.

Anyway, this is a pretty good rhythm game if you’re into Hatsune Miku songs. There are many others that are probably better to start with, as there are many newer ones that are in English, but this game is still a good game to play. It’s not too difficult to get through the menus either, but I do recommend that you know はい (yes), いいえ (no), and セーブ (save). You can probably stumble through the rest without too much difficulty even if you don't know much/any Japanese.

5/12: Monument Valley (Android)
I don’t really play mobile games that often as I would almost always would rather play on a handheld instead if I was out and about, but Monument Valley was temporarily free and I heard it was good so I gave it a shot. I don’t tend to like puzzle games that much, and while I can’t really say that I loved Monument Valley or anything, I still thought that it was interesting. The levels were never too long and there were a lot of little mechanics that were added throughout the game which I thought made it stay fresh. The biggest plus to the game (at least for me) is that the game looks really pretty. Most of these levels wouldn’t look out of place framed on a wall.

If you don’t mind playing games on you phone, this might be a good one for you to check out. Even if you can’t get it for free like I did, it’s probably not too expensive.

[dunpeal2064]

Project Diva 2nd was my gateway into vocaloid and Miku way back, I thought the game was a ton of fun, and had some lovely songs (I think that is where I first heard DYE?)

Jump to 2018, and I am dragging my wife and best friend to see Miku and friends in concert. Its a slippery slope!

[Flake]

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)

More progress on my mission to beat ElkinFencer for at least one month out of 2018!

Street Fighter Alpha 2 - I'll be honest, I still don't get what the big deal is in a word were Street Fighter Alpha 3 is a thing. It's definitely a step above the original Street Fighter Alpha and I really, really like the introduction of Sakura. I don't like how weak super moves are or how hard it is to pull off alpha counters (for anyone except the CPU). I just don't see what makes it stand out, though.

Also - why is there no Alpha 2 Gold content? It was included in the old SFA Anthology release on PS2. Weird.

Caladrius Blaze - I bought this during a sale on PSN when it was dirt cheap. Never really got into it. Last night I finally sank an hour into it and I've got some real appreciation for it. The multiple, evolving methods of attacking make this less than of a bullet hell and more of a shmup that focuses on zone control. The mechanic of the pilots outfits getting shredded is cheesy as all get out but it...I dunno, works. I'll come back to this again for sure.