Games Beaten 2019

[MrPopo]

Hey Ack, you should snag Project Warlock. I just finished the second episode (of five) and it takes a lot from Catacomb Apocalypse aesthetics-wise and then adds in a persistent weapon upgrade system and some really tight gunplay.

[Ack]

Hey Ack, you should snag Project Warlock. I just finished the second episode (of five) and it takes a lot from Catacomb Apocalypse aesthetics-wise and then adds in a persistent weapon upgrade system and some really tight gunplay.

I remember watching gameplay of that a couple of months ago when I was playing Dusk and was interested. Thank you so much for reminding me! I need to go put it on my wishlist.

There are a bunch of other budget FPS that interest me on Steam, but many are Early Access; keeping track is a little hard. Some others I'm keeping an eye on are Voltage and AMID EVIL. And then there's weird crap like SUFFER, Hectic, and Crimson Metal... I don't know if those three are worth actually paying any money for, but it's interesting to see what folks are trying to do with dirt cheap indie FPS these days.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, I've got Amid Evil on my radar as well.

[SamuraiMegas]

Beat Paper Mario TTYD. I really enjoyed it; but by hour 25 or so I was pretty ready to be done with the game. It kinda started dragging out too long for me, especially the last dungeon. I tried moving onto wario land but I didn't enjoy it at all, so I dropped that and started playing Magical Drop V, which I somehow got like five years ago and never played. Beat the campaign on normal with the fool, I think I'm gonna try Magical Drop 3 next because it's apparently loads better.

[Markies]

Thank You Bone!
Glad to see you had a similar opinion.

If anything that makes me look forward to Shining Force down the line, which I've not yet played.

I've got a few more Sega RPGs to get through before then though - Shining in the Darkness and Phantasy Star III are both on the agenda before that one.

Phantasy Star III is on my list this year as well. I've only played Phantasy Star II and I own the entire Genesis trilogy, so it is high time for me to play the next one.

Also, don't put off Shining Force. It's fantastic. I know how much you love Fire Emblem, so I know you will love Shining Force.

[MrPopo]

AJ is specifically putting off Shining Force so that he has known good games every so often in his journey.

[alienjesus]

Thank You Bone!
Glad to see you had a similar opinion.

If anything that makes me look forward to Shining Force down the line, which I've not yet played.

I've got a few more Sega RPGs to get through before then though - Shining in the Darkness and Phantasy Star III are both on the agenda before that one.

Phantasy Star III is on my list this year as well. I've only played Phantasy Star II and I own the entire Genesis trilogy, so it is high time for me to play the next one.

Also, don't put off Shining Force. It's fantastic. I know how much you love Fire Emblem, so I know you will love Shining Force.

AJ is specifically putting off Shining Force so that he has known good games every so often in his journey.

Yup Popo's got it. I'm playing all 51 games on the Switch Mega Drive Classics collection, but I've sorted them by genre and organised them so I don't front load or backload all the ones of lesser quality.

I've also ensured I play games in the same series in order, so Shining in the Darkness came first from that series. It's game 17 of 51, Shining Force isn't until game 34. Shining Force 2 is actually game 51.

[BoneSnapDeez]

1. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
2. Dragon Scroll: Yomigaerishi Maryuu (Famicom)
3. Ninja-kun: Majou no Bouken (Famicom)
4. Hello Kitty World (Famicom)
5. Galaxian (Famicom)
6. Esper Dream 2: Aratanaru Tatakai (Famicom)
7. Ninja Jajamaru-kun (Famicom)
8. Jajamaru no Daibouken (Famicom)
9. Front Line (Famicom)
10. Field Combat (Famicom)
11. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
12. Mississippi Satsujin Jiken: Murder on the Mississippi (Famicom)
13. Space Harrier (Famicom)
14. Geimos (Famicom)
15. Attack Animal Gakuen (Famicom)
16. Sky Destroyer (Famicom)
17. Ripple Island (Famicom)
18. Oishinbo: Kyukyoku no Menu 3bon Syoubu (Famicom)
19. Bird Week (Famicom)
20. Baltron (Famicom)
21. Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Famicom)
22. Challenger (Famicom)


Challenger is a 1985 Famicom game by Hudson Soft. You play as an Indiana Jones lookalike, attempting to rescue a Princess Leia lookalike from some big evil dude. This one character on the game's box art is exclaiming "Garf!" presumably as a tribute to the all-time Famicom classic A Week of Garfield.

Press the start button on the title screen and the game opens in a spectacular fashion. "STOP THE EXPRESS!" flashes boldly, and diagonally, as a speeding train whips into view. Indiana Clone skillfully hops on top. The goal is to work him to the train's end, enter the innards, and then approach the supreme villain and his hostage. Attempting to thwart Indiana are a barrage of thugs, dive bombing ducks, sentient clouds, and invincible fireballs ripped straight from Donkey Kong. The game plays nicely here, for the most part. It's fast-paced, fun, arcade-y action with a simple-but-pleasant graphical style and upbeat soundtrack that fittingly complements the action. Indiana can leap high into the air and toss knives. My only quibble is with the backwards controls: B is jump and A is attack. While there's nothing objectively wrong with this (Challenger was released a month after Super Mario Bros.) it will screw with the muscle memory of anyone who grew up playing the NES. I suppose Master System kids (insofar as such a thing ever existed) will feel right at home.

Reach the end of the train only to see Indiana booted out before he can successfully save Leia. Stage two beings and... What... Suddenly Challenger transforms into a completely different game. Now it's like a top-down proto-Zelda adventure. There's a vast cluttered landscape of towns, roads, and mountains to be explored. Caves to be entered and plundered. The old-school one-hit-death system of stage one has been traded in for an actual lifebar. What gives!? The transition from stage one to two was so jarring that it prompted me to do some actual research(!). The story here is somewhat interesting. See, in 1983 Hudson released a game called Stop the Express for the Sharp X1 computer in Japan. It was later ported to the MSX, ZX Spectrum, and Commodore 64. The entire game consists of nothing but the eponymous (and aforementioned) "Stop the Express!" train scene, repeating on a loop. Standard design philosophy of games of that era. When Hudson decided to craft a Famicom variant of Stop the Express it was presumably deemed too simplistic and archaic, thus additional content was (quite literally) lobbed on and Challenger was born.

Stage two features the exact same enemy sprites as stage one, which is a bit surreal as the viewpoint has been flipped. It's like watching cardboard cutouts slide across the screen. In any event, this "adventure" sequence is rather lacking, featuring an ugly sloppy monstrosity of an overworld. The goal is to enter a series of caves and collect treasures (referred to as "keywords" for some odd reason), which will open the pathway to the final area. Said cave entrances are guarded by dancing skeletons. It takes a powered-up knife to slay the bony fiends. Obtaining these power-ups requires that one "grind" briefly, slaying regular foes until the item appears. It's tedious, and though Indiana technically has a lifebar there's no mercy invincibility, which means that his entire cache of HP can be depleted by a foe in a matter of seconds. Enter a cave and Indiana must navigate across a series of rising and falling geysers to reach a sparkling treasure. It's here that the jumping controls completely fall apart. Crossing the geysers requires pixel-perfect precision. Failing early, and often, is inevitable. Oh, and there's fall damage too, so you can't simply "drop" to a lower geyser.

Following the treasure hunt comes the game's final segment: an interior single-screen cavern level like something out of Canyon Climber or Miner 2049er. It's a sleek-looking stage, but once again the jumping mechanics are unacceptable. Oh yeah, there's also a final boss battle at the cavern's top tier, which is lazily programmed and just brutally uninteresting. Shame.

I feel compelled to touch on the adjustable difficulty setting. By default it's set to "medium." This is the only way to play the game if you wish to hold on to some semblance of sanity. Adjusting the difficulty does little other than adding or subtracting enemy sprites. Set the difficulty high, and the game just transforms into an annoying jumbled mess. Conversely, the game essentially becomes broken if the difficulty is dropped too low, as the enemies that drop essential power-ups never show up. What a hilariously embarrassing oversight.

Truth be told, the only real quality to be found within Challenger is contained within that initial "Stop the Express!" train stage. Everything else is shoehorned in haphazardly and the overall game experience lacks cohesion, no to mention competency. I'd wager that the original loopin' score-chasin' Stop the Express is actually the superior experience. Sometimes less is indeed more.

[pook99]

Also, don't put off Shining Force. It's fantastic. I know how much you love Fire Emblem, so I know you will love Shining Force.

Agreed, I played shining force for the first time ever this year and it was absolutely amazing. Anyone who has any interest in srpg's need to play it.

Games Beaten:

27. Duck Souls
28. Jumping joe and friends (switch)
29. Zombie Panic in Wonderland dx (switch)
30. Jackie Chans action kung fu (nes)

30. Jackie Chans Action Kung Fu:

Speaking of amazing games that I played for the first time this year, Jackie Chans action kung fu is an incredibly top notch action platformer. It is a game that I never heard about when I was young but will randomnly pop on youtube channels as a hidden gem, it always looked like my cup of tea but for some reason I never played it until now.

The story is simple enough, Jackie chan is hanging out with a girl, a demon comes steals her, zaps Jackie and floats away. The opening scene is reminiscent of ghosts n goblins, it is short, simple, and to the point.

Jackie has to journey through 5 levels in order to rescue the girl. The game is your standard 2d action platformer but there is a lot to like in this game. For starters the graphics are top notch. Jackie's sprite is large and detailed, the levels are all unique with some very high quality nes graphics, there are a decent number of enemy types, and the bosses are mostly large and take up a good portion of the screen. I'm not sure when this game was released but it is a very technically impressive nes title.

The game is also very accessible, controls are simple and tight, one button jumps, one button attacks. Jackie has a few moves at his disposal, his standard attack is a punch with a nice reach, he can duck and kick, jump kick, and he gains access to special moves that can be executed by pressing up + attack but have limited uses. In addition to this he can also hold the button down to throw a fireball but can only execute this 5 times so you really should never use this outside of boss fights.

Each of the 5 levels are fairly large and different enough that the game never feels repetitive. Sure you have a few standard video game tropes thrown in (ice level, fire level, dark level etc) but there are also some other more original levels that have you bouncing through clouds, riding rafts down rapids, and stuff like that. The only level I did not enjoy was the ice level as the controls are slippery as anything but the level is not really challenging so it did not bring down my enjoyment of the game.

Every level ends in a boss fight, the bosses are pretty easy for the most part once you learn their patterns with only the final boss causing me to die a few times.

You are given one life and 5 continues, you can earn more continues by finding hidden bonus stages and doing well in them. When you die and continue you are not taken back to the beginning of the level and each level has a few checkpoints meaning you won't be replaying long sections very often. One life sounds unforgiving but its really not, you have a life bar, health pickups are scattered throughout levels and most things that insta kill you in other games do not kill you here. For example if you fall into a laval pit Jackie bounces out of it and takes some damage, in the mountain level when you fall down a pit you just fall down to the screen below and have to replay the section, in the raft level if you fall into the water you do not die but without the raft the enemies are a little harder to avoid. Things like this make the game a fun playthrough and I never felt myself getting frustrated playing through this game.

I did beat the game on my first playthrough so it is not one of the harder nes games out there, but it does present a decent challenge and is a ton of fun to play. It is definitely a title I will revisit in the future and if you haven't played it and are a fan of action platformers it is definitely worth your time.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Great reviews!

Challenger is one of the games in my small Famicom collection, and Jacki Chan’s Action King Fu is, IMO, one of the best NES games.