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First 50

51. Ninja Gaiden (GG)
52. SonSon (Arcade)
53. Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS)
54. Minit (iOS)
55. Ninja Gaiden (SMS)
56. Surround (2600)
57. Pocket Bomberman (GBC)
58. Shadowgate (iOS)
59. Kuru Kuru Kururin (GBA)
60. Metroid Prime Hunters - First Hunt (NDS)
61. Mekorama (iOS)
62. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
63. Akamajou Dracula Peke (TG16)
64. Darius Burst (iOS)
65. DoDonPachi Resurrection HD (iOS)
66. Vigilante (TG16)
67. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
68. Oxenfree (iOS)
69. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES)
70. Tormentum: Dark Sorrow (iOS)
71. Hidden Folks (iOS)
72. 3D Classics Urban Champion (3DS)
73. Ufouria (NES)

Hidden Folks is the ultimate “hidden object” game consisting of a series of animated, monochrome, “Where’s Waldo” pictures. In each picture, you must find multiple people and objects, but the game thankfully offers clues to their locations. Some light puzzling is also sometimes required to reveal things. I found everything, and the game’s pretty fun...but not so fun I purchased the DLC.

I achieved the title of “Urban Champion” in 3D Classics Urban Champion by punching a lot of dudes in the face in front of a book store, a discount shop, a snack bar, and a barber shop. IMO, Urban Champion gets a bad rap, and it certainly isn’t the worst game of all time (that would be To The Moon). It’s basically second-generation boxing gameplay wrapped up in early (and pretty good!) third-generation graphics. It has a strange tug-of-war/fighting mechanic, and everyone would have loved it if it had come out on the ColecoVision. The 3DS port changes the perspective a bit, but keeps the gameplay intact, and I recommend it to anyone seeking the sweet catharsis of punching a dude in the face hundreds of times.

Ufouria is one of the best NES games. It is an open-world platformer, like Metroid or Adventure Island IV, by Sunsoft, and it is really, really good. It is also, at times, really, really hard, but it is also consistently charming and goofy. I played the Wii U VC version, and I highly recommend it.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:IMO, Urban Champion gets a bad rap, and it certainly isn’t the worst game of all time (that would be To The Moon).

I used to respect your opinions Prof, but I'm starting to question that.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Ufouria is one of the best NES games. It is an open-world platformer, like Metroid or Adventure Island IV, by Sunsoft, and it is really, really good. It is also, at times, really, really hard, but it is also consistently charming and goofy. I played the Wii U VC version, and I highly recommend it.

Oh no, wait, you're still OK with me.

I just didn’t like To The Moon! And... I expected that response!

Hidden Folks is great. Its charm and visual style are really worth experiencing, and screenshots/videos can’t really do it justice.

dsheinem wrote:Hidden Folks is great. Its charm and visual style are really worth experiencing, and screenshots/videos can’t really do it justice.

Agreed. I particularly enjoyed the sound effects, such as cars honking, doors opening, etc., that were clearly just a person saying things like “beep! beep!” or “whoosh!”

59. Death Stranding (PS4)



Finished up Death Stranding last night. Clocked in 48 hours on this one. And I can happily report I pretty much loved all of it. AMA, otherwise I'll just ramble on a bit here.

First off, the game is obviously more in the Peace Walker + era wheelhouse for Kojima. Lots of systems and massive game ground to cover to get to those huge story dumps. We will never know the real story about what happened with MGS5 between Konami and Kojima, along with the odd release of Ground Zeroes itself. But MGS5 clearly felt unfinished in ways and with some leaked cut content/storyboards floating out there, yet what more really needed to be spelled out in the MGS timeline at that point? And I think it was clear Kojima was truly done with MGS, that interpretation and performance for Ocelot in particular really rubbed me wrong. Outside of Miller, the parasite/virus outbreak mission, and the little suggestive twists at the very end... story and context wise MGS5 was utterly barren. The gameplay was phenomenal but rather disjointed in a strange way, as it was never truly open world. You always get dropped off into zones. And nothing about the world design in general was ever exciting. It was just the brown badlands we've seen in hundreds of games by this point.

I like Death Stranding a lot more than MGS5 in basically every department. The story is fully there again, there's a bunch of excellent characters, there's humor that was severely lacking in MGS5 as well, and exploring this world felt like the closest thing to Breath of the Wild that I've played. People have made some Team Ico game comparisons as well that I can see too. There's a lot of systems like the modern Kojima games but when you're ready to gear up with you equipment, cargo, and maybe a vehicle or whatnot, the game just lets you be free and do your thing... exploring this vast and beautiful landscape that frequently changes in structure, climate, visuals and color, it was breathtaking. I continue to notice a trend in that, when Japanese developers do open world, they strip things down keeping it simpler and more focused. The games easily benefit from that. Like Breath of the Wild, while I'm literally carrying cargo around in this game, it didn't feel like I had any baggage on me and I could just slowly take in the sights and enjoy being in this world. Contrary to how a lot of other open world games operate and tax the player with lists of endless quests and menus, waypoints and countless clutter, taking you out of it.



There's still combat and funny enough this was the weakest part of the game to me in some sections. There are these enemy camps with people called MULE's who are obsessed with stealing cargo. You can't take them out lethally and the game starts feeling a bit like MGS5 around them. Thankfully, in these 48 hours I played I think there were only ~2 main story missions where I had to sneak into a camp to steal something. Otherwise it really wasn't that big of a deal to get through the camps, especially when you start rocking vehicles. The second part to combat are the BT's, the creatures from the "other side" when the game turns a bit into a stealth horror game. Sometimes these moments prop up in annoying sections but you soon learn ways to get around them, or how to deal with the mid boss BT's quite easily. There's story related equipment later on that makes these encounters easier to get through as well. Never my favorite part of the game, but not a real road block either. Beyond these two elements, there were a lot of big boss battles that I really enjoyed personally.

Delivering cargo while exploring this world and integrating mission bases into the "chiral network" is the meat of the game and what I loved the most. Once you get to Chapter 3 and the main map, you're frequently tasked with going through zones that are off the network and can only go in them with your own equipment. But once you bring that zone into the network, the online parts of the game come into play and it's all very much in the vein of how the Dark Souls games have done it with their message system, only here it's taken much further. You will see structures that other players have built or jointly upgraded, roads, shared vehicles, and whatnot spread throughout the world. Helping you and others traverse the land better than before. Giving some players enough "likes" makes you join some kind of pact behind the scenes with that specific player, so you'll see more of their stuff throughout it. Nobody still really knows all the tech and magic that went into it behind the curtain, but it's definitely awesome. Nor does it ever feel like cheating or anything weird like that. You can see the point of the "strand" and connections here.



Technically, the game was extremely impressive. This is on the Decima engine that powered Guerilla's own Horizon Zero Dawn and while Death Stranding might get some extra points here for simply being newer, I truly thought this game straight up felt and played better than Horizon in every way. You will see these characters tear up a lot too and the tear tech is amazing. Overall, this game really blew me away on the PS4, even compared to high end stuff you get on PC's right now. It's mesmerizing what they cooked up here in three years worth of time.

Aesthetically it's top level work as well with Yoji Shinkawa doing his thing as usual, if you like the look of the architecture and general art direction in Kojima's past games you'll appreciate that here again. Musically I think it's got some composers from MGS5, the usual 80's tint and some synths which I'm always up for, maybe Kojima's been rocking to a lot of Depache Mode thesedays. Huge thumbs up to the art and sound work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI0RsQDyHak

Game made me tear up in the end during a few parts, was blown away by some of the performances. The story is very Kojima and not subtle but you know what? I think that fits a lot with a ton of anime and other Japanese games I've played and love. There's just something about their way of storytelling that I actually dig a lot. I am also a big Kojima fan as well but I don't want to sound like I give him an instant pass, as I've clearly expressed here above with my take on MGS5. I was plenty worried about Death Stranding and pleasantly surprised by what I got, far surpassing my expectations. Death Stranding is abrasively strange but I'm also not going to give it a pass just because it's weird for the sake of being weird at times, it's actually a simple and straightforward experience in a lot of ways. Death Stranding is one of the coolest games I've played this gen and will leave a huge impression on me.

This is a game I think everyone who plays things this gen or will someday, has to check out at some point. And it won't be for everyone, but give it a shot. Don't over think it and just have fun.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlGdH9XCrgk

Games Beaten 2019

Kentucky Route Zero Act 1 - PC
All Our Asias - PC
Shape of the World - Switch
Hidden Folks - PC
Hyrule Warriors - Wii U
Onrush - PS4
Assassin's Creed Origins - X1
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown -360
Metro Exodus - PS4
Split/Second - 360
Far Cry: New Dawn - PS4
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - X1
Marvel vs Capcom Infinite - PS4
Rage - PC
Red Faction: Armageddon - 360
Momonga Pinball Adventure - Switch
Psycho Soldier - Vita (Arcade)
Super Mutant Alien Assault - Vita
Burly Men at Sea - Vita
Sigil - PC
Fat Princess - PS3
Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary - PC
Monster World IV - Genesis (PS3)
Marvel's Spider-Man - PS4
Mega Man X4 - Switch
Armored Warriors - Switch (Arcade)
Battle Circuit - Switch (Arcade)
Borderlands 3 - PS4
Hyper Dyne Side Arms - PS3(Arcade)
Legendary Wings - PS3 (Arcade)
The Outer Worlds - X1
RayStorm - PS2 (Arcade) *new*
Operation C - PS4 (Game Boy) *new*
Kid Dracula - Switch (Famicom) *new*

Total: 34

Previously: 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

I have been playing a lot more retro stuff this past month and really digging into the recent Konami compilations.

I had never played the arcade version of RayStorm (which is on Taito Legends 2) , but after playing it I certainly think the PS1 port by Working Designs is the superior version. This was a credit fed run - I can't imagine completing a 1cc run on this, as a lot of the boss attacks are just patently unfair (even compared to most shmups).

Operation C is an impressive game for the hardware, and was a lot more fun than I remembered (I beat this originally about 4 years ago). It is also probably the easiest Contra game I have played (I am currently banging my head against Contra III), but the change of pace was welcome.

Kid Dracula is also fairly easy game compared to the rest of the Castlevania series (at least until the last couple of levels), but it is worth playing through as it is a fine representative of Konami's programming prowess and general domination on the NES/FC. It also has a lot of charm.

I doubt I will get any more games in this month, so compared to past years I am probably looking at a pretty small total for this year when all is said and done. Maybe I can hit 50 if I really push it, but I'm guessing 40 or 45 is a much more realistic target...

Try Kid Dracula for the Gameboy sometime. Despite the lack of color, it is superior to the Famicom version in every way.

@xeograd: very nice review of death stranding, from everything I have seen it seems like the type of game that would absolutely bore me to death, it is also a game that seems to stir up alot of drama on the internet and I'm not really sure why people are so judgy over opinions of this game vs most other games I have seen.

182. New Super Lucky's tale (switch)

This is one of the most pleasant surprises of this year for me. NSLT is just a really cute, fun platformer that is easy enough for kids to play and fun enough to make anyone want to play through it.

Lucky is a fox and part of a clan of guardians tasked with protecting a sacred book of magic. An evil cat (all the bosses in this game are cats) named jinx attempts to steal the book and use it for his own nefarious purposes. In the shuffle all the guardians get locked away and the pages of the book are scattered throughout the world. It is now up to Lucky to find all the pages of the book before jinx and his minions can and hopefully free his relatives from wherever the magic transported them.

NSLT is broken up into 6 worlds, each world has an overworld with a whole unique cast of characters which give each level tons of personality. There are several levels in each world and these are broken up into standard 3d platformer levels, 2.5d levels, overhead levels, and auto running levels. All of these are very fun to play and the constant switching between gameplay types keeps the game fresh and fun throughout the whole adventure. Each level has 4 pages to find, one for completing the level, one for collecting 300 coins, one for finding all the letters in the word L-U-C-K-Y, and one that is hidden in some form of minigame or platforming challenge.

Controls in this game are simple, intuitive, and responsive. There is a jump button, a tail swipe button, and an interact button. Lucky can jump on enemies or tail swipe them and kick them when they are stunned. In addition to this lucky has a homing ground pound and can burrow underground to avoid obstacles and dig up hidden treasure. Lucky is a lot of fun to control and you can seemlessly string together his moves for some cool acrobatic stunts.

If I had to sum up this game in one word it would be charming. Lucky is adorable and there are tons of adorable costumes you can dress him up in, he is probably the most huggable video game character in history. The entire cast is equally cute and charming. Each world has its own inhabitants there are wrestling monk yetis, cowboy worms, and so much more silliness in this game, every world and every character is completely endearing. The bosses are also loaded with personality and each brings their own unique style to taunting lucky in each level before ending in a boss fight, all of which are a lot of fun. Each world is colorful and a joy to navigate.

If you are a fan of cutesy mascot platformers than you absolutely need to check this game out, it is one of the best I've played in a while and fits in nicely on the switch.

First 50

51. Ninja Gaiden (GG)
52. SonSon (Arcade)
53. Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS)
54. Minit (iOS)
55. Ninja Gaiden (SMS)
56. Surround (2600)
57. Pocket Bomberman (GBC)
58. Shadowgate (iOS)
59. Kuru Kuru Kururin (GBA)
60. Metroid Prime Hunters - First Hunt (NDS)
61. Mekorama (iOS)
62. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
63. Akamajou Dracula Peke (TG16)
64. Darius Burst (iOS)
65. DoDonPachi Resurrection HD (iOS)
66. Vigilante (TG16)
67. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
68. Oxenfree (iOS)
69. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES)
70. Tormentum: Dark Sorrow (iOS)
71. Hidden Folks (iOS)
72. 3D Classics Urban Champion (3DS)
73. Ufouria (NES)
74. Eternal Ring (PS2)

Eternal Ring is a From Software first-person ARPG that is also a PS2 launch title (and that I first started playing for September’s TR.) The game was fun, and challenging, but it has some flaws that kept it from greatness. First, it’s very linear, I stark contrast to other From Software first-person ARPGs. Second, it’s focus on “magic” projectile attacks makes combat a bit of a drag. Third, while it sometimes looks great, the textures are so repetitive that it’s very easy to get lost, making navigation of some areas extremely difficult. Fourth, it has a good bit of From Software trolling, thta is more annoying than challenging. Finally, most of the game feels incomplete. With a little more time, I expect From Software could have ironed out the issues and made a more cohesive game, but I suspect the game was a bit rushed to make the PS2 launch. I complain a lot, but i really did like the game. Parts of it were really enjoyable, and like I said, it is, at times, very challenging. Hesitantly recommended.