Games Beaten 2018

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 17
* 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 (1 Game Beaten)

17. Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD - Steam - February 3

17. Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD - Steam - February 3



Galaxy on Fire 2, the second of three games so far in the series, was originally released as a mobile game for Android and iPhone before being remastered for HD and released on PC and Mac. When I first started the game, I expected it to be something similar to Rebel Galaxy, and in some ways, it was, but unlike Rebel Galaxy, Galaxy on Fire 2 lacks a lot of polish and refinement, clearly showing its roots as a game for cell phones.



The game follows the events of the first Galaxy on Fire - which I never played - and has your character, Keith T. Maxwell, finding himself suddenly 35 years in the future and on the other end of the galaxy thanks to a hyperdrive malfunction. From there, you're picked up by a wandering miner, you do a little work for him, and then you're off on your own to find the Terran fleet and try to figure out what happened since you traveled through time. Like Rebel Galaxy, you do missions (or mine and/or pirate) to gather money and upgrade your ship as well as buy larger and more powerful ships. Whereas Rebel Galaxy was very much large scale naval combat in space, however, Galaxy on Fire 2 is exclusively small fighter combat. That in itself isn't bad, but the controls and physics all feel like a budget game.



The game is touted as "Full HD" (as opposed to the first HD remaster before this one and the original SD release before that), and while the screen resolution does go up to 1080p, it never really looks much better than a mid-tier PS3 game. It doesn't look bad, certainly, but it's not going to impress any PC gamers. The visuals are probably the highlight of the game, though; the music and sound effects range from boring to annoying, and the story and voice acting are downright bad. While not sharing any actual common events, the story and atmosphere of the universe have a bit of a Firefly feel...if Firefly had featured horrible writing and worse acting. Travel in the game suffers from the same problem that Star Trek Online did at launch - it takes forever to get anywhere, and half of your experience consists of just staring at your ship go in a straight line. Is it somewhat realistic for space travel to be monotonous like that? Yeah, sure, somewhat. Does it make for a fun video game mechanic? No, not at all.



The game does pick up a little bit when you start to accumulate some money and can buy a new ship and upgrade your equipment. Once you can get around faster, have the strength to start dabbling in piracy, and have the capital to experiment with different types of weapons, things start to get a bit more fun, but it's extremely slow and dull in the beginning. It also ends pretty abruptly; the story's climax comes way too fast, and you're left feeling a bit disappointed and thinking "Wait, that was it?" Lengthy pun 100% intended.



All things considered, Galaxy on Fire 2 is a decent game when you consider that, at the end of the day, it is just a spruced up mobile game. If you're into space combat games, then it's worth checking out if you find it on sale, but under no circumstances would I ever pay more than a maximum for $5 for this game. The quality just isn't high enough to warrant more than that. It's not a bad game, though, as long as you go into it with modest expectations. It's not Rebel Galaxy, and it's sure as hell no Star Trek: Bridge Commander.

[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

Here's an interesting contrast: Pool of Radiance and Blade of Destiny are two games based on pen and paper games that sometimes suffer from their tabletop rules, have tactical grid based combat, and are first person exploration when not on the world map. And yet, in terms of fun the games couldn't be more different. Which is a shame for Blade of Destiny, because PoR came out in '88 and manages to be more fun to play.

Pool of Radiance is the first of several "Gold Box" games produced by SSI when they acquired the D&D license. It's a solid engine that was used to make a grand total of 11 games, plus a game construction kit (D&D style RPG maker). Most exploration is first person; towns and dungeons are in 16x16 grids with some creative use of teleports (both squares and doors) to create maps that aren't always square if you're just mapping it out yourself without conforming to the grid. There's also an overworld available, though Pool of Radiance only uses it for a few sidequests. Interestingly, very little bars your way; you can freely move across mountains and rivers (barring one for plot reasons and that situation can be resolved). While wandering about you can encounter monsters and NPCs; monsters might be encountered in your square, or they might be more distant. You usually have the chance to attack right away, let them get closer, wait to see what they do, or bravely run away away. And when they're in your square you can talk to them, taking one of several dispositions. This might let you escape a fight or learn some information, but since most of the races are chaotic it generally only works in certain situations. Engaging when they're far away or closer has certain tactical considerations.

See, the way combat works is you have an overhead grid, and the terrain is loosely based on the actual map terrain. If you're in a narrow corridor it's narrow; if there's rooms then you have choke points. Running into enemies who have their backs against the wall means they can't run. And engaging from far away means you start with some separation between you two. This can be both good and bad; good because you can used ranged attacks while they approach, bad for the same reasons on the other side.

The game is based on the AD&D 1st rules, which predate the AD&D 2nd rules that you see in the Baldur's Gate series. This means there are still a lot of weird points that come off as unnecessary. Female characters have less strength than males with no offsetting bonus. Non-humans have level caps in all classes except thief. The latter isn't a problem in this game (the game's level cap is higher than racial caps), but if you want to keep the same party through the series you're best off doing all humans except maybe your thief, if you want to multi him with something else. Also, being the first game, not all the UI kinks have been worked out, so post battle healing is an incredibly tedious affair. You have to manually memorize all your healing spells, cast them, rest, repeat. No automatic memorization of what you already had memorized like in BG. This gets alleviated somewhat in the other games (they have a Fix command that automates that). To combat that and the silly rules around females and racial caps I recommend you snag the Gold Box Companion; it sticks an auto map and a status bar next to you DOSBox window and has easy access to all the journal entries, and you can do character editing to get around the female penalty and to temporarily turn characters into humans to level up and then turn back.

My main criticism of the combat is the game likes to throw massive hordes at you almost from the get go. This switches from dangerous to tedious after a few fights, when you've scraped together enough gold for your meat shields to have plate. You never get a large number of spells while encounters are random, so you have to really pick and choose when to unleash the magic user artillery. Once you do it's devastating, but you can't use it all the time. On the flip side, this also means enemy spellcasters are extremely high threat (especially the clerics who know hold person).

The game is a series of quests targeted at taking back the ancient city of Phlan. You start by clearing a few blocks (another nice thing; you can wipe out encounters in an area but doing the right things), and slowly learn of an overruling influence that is directing these various incursions. Your ultimate goal is to defeat this influence and allow the forces of good to claim the entire city. You slowly gain quests over time targeted at each of the areas, and it helps direct you from one section to the next. It all flows quite nicely.

It's very clear why this series has been so highly regarded over the years.

[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}

After getting stuck for the last couple weeks on Crypt of the Necrodancer (so hard!) and Fire Emblem Conquest (so hard and so long!), I decided to take a quick break and try something new.

I got Roundabout on a PSN sale a long time ago and just forgot about it. I wish I hadn't. It is a short (unless you are a completionist) and amazing blend of old school Grand Theft Auto, spinning stick game "Kuru Kuru Kururin", and the low budget Sega CD FMV games of yore.

Starring Kate Welch (who apparently is a geek scene actress of some note) as Georgio Manos, the limousine driver who can only drive while rotating, you have to do the following tasks:

- Pass a driving test
- Play baseball in your limo
- Meet the love of your life
- Drop acid and run over triathlon athletes
- Jump your car over rooftops to defeat an arrogant Frenchman
- Choose which hat you want for your car
- Kill police officers

....and more!

The game is solid with a fun world that presents puzzle based gameplay built into driving across several towns. The thing that really stood out for me was the cheesy, hamfisted FMVs that introduce each level. They are simultaneously an indictment of the FMV game era but also a realization of how great that medium could be when it's more self-aware and doesn't take itself so seriously.

[PresidentLeever]

1. Ys IV (PCE CD)
2. Exile (w/ Unworked Designs patch)(PCE CD)
3. Macross 2036 (PCE CD)
4. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (PC)
5. AM2R (PC)
6. TaleSpin (NES)
7. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC)
8. Super Mario 64 (N64)
9. Star Fox 64 (N64)
10. Thunder Force V (US ver.)(PS1)

Star Fox 64 - Still holds up great. Just wish it was a bit more forgiving and intuitive in regards to the different paths and that all cutscenes were skippable.

Thunder Force V - Not quite on par with TF4 for me but still a solid shmoop.

[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)

Forgot to update with this one. I've beaten it before as Guy, this time as Lucia. I need to try an Expert run, though; much like Konami, Capcom decided to taunt the player with a screen at the end saying to try the "next level". Not sure what it changes in the ending, though.

Lucia is pretty effective; very quick, decent range, and a great dashing attack. Don't like that rising kick (Guy's fireball is much more useful), but overall she's a good choice to take on the game. I also hate the penultimate boss; I have no idea why he gives me way more fits than the final boss.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 18
* 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 (2 Games Beaten)

17. Galaxy on Fire 2 Full HD - Steam - February 3
18. Final Fantasy Legend - Game Boy - February 5

18. Final Fantasy Legend - Game Boy - February 5



Final Fantasy Legend is actually the first game in the SaGa series and was simply given the Final Fantasy brand in North America to encourage sales. As it's the first RPG to be released on the original Game Boy, it's naturally a bit rough around the edges, but if you take that into account, there's a pretty decent little monochrome game to be found here.



The game's story revolves around a party of heroes' quest to ascend a massive tower to "paradise," but to do that, they need to find four sacred orbs to unseal four doors. The gameplay is largely standard for a JRPG, but the way parties and attacks are set up is a bit different. You can choose between a human character, a mutant character, or a monster character. Human characters only get attacks based on the weapons they have equipped, and they don't gain stats through combat; there are items that must be bought and used to raise each of the stats along with some stat boosts from equipped armor and weapons. Mutants can equip and use weapons and armor but also gain certain abilities as they level up in combat. Monsters have certain abilities based on what type of monster they are, and you can consume meat from defeated monsters to change your monster's type and move set. It's an interesting mechanic.



The visuals actually look pretty nice for such a relatively weak system. It's best enjoyed on something other than an actual original Game Boy in my opinion because of the ghosting on the screen, but regardless, its looks quite nice. The music is EXCEPTIONAL as well, but I'm a bit biased as I just generally love the Game Boy's sound chip. My only real gripes with the game are that the story isn't particularly interesting and, as a result, the game can start to drag in places; and the uneven difficulty curve. It's a fairly rough-around-the-edges game. The game's difficulty is pretty fair and reasonable in the first two worlds, but it spikes in the third world and spikes dramatically in the fourth world and endgame.



Final Fantasy Legend is definitely a rough game, and there are some serious quality of life issues, but for being the first on the system and almost 30 years old, it holds up surprisingly well. It looks nice and sounds great, and while the difficulty curve and balance leaves some to be desired, the gameplay is good enough that I think it's definitely worth a playthrough even if you end up getting frustrated and quitting partway through. Maybe emulate it to see if you like it, but if you're a fan of Square JRPGs, it's worth checking out.

[REPO Man]

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for PS4 on Easy. Aside from a few minutes of the Vita games, I've only played the fourth game (came with my PS4). I liked its blend of action and adventure, not to mention its gorgeous visuals, but felt like there was so many plot details that make no sense to anyone who hasn't played the first few games.

So... when the Uncharted Collection was on sale back in December I snagged it and am so glad I did. Of course, I don't know how far into the second game I can go since after buying it, I deleted it and began redownloading it prior to my internet getting shut off. And while I was able to complete the first game, I don't know how much of the collection was downloaded. I think I'm around 55-65% done.

[PresidentLeever]

FFL1 got a pretty nice fan translated remake for Wonderswan Color which also includes a bug fixed version of the GB original, it's about on par with the GBA FF remakes in terms of the visuals and interface.

[MrPopo]

FFL1 got a pretty nice fan translated remake for Wonderswan Color which also includes a bug fixed version of the GB original, it's about on par with the GBA FF remakes in terms of the visuals and interface.

But the bugs are part of the charm, like cheesing the last boss.

[Sarge]

What was the cheese method, anyway? I don't remember taking him down any other way but the normal "spam my most powerful attacks" method.