Games Beaten 2019
Re: Games Beaten 2019
Yeah, I have been that player too, specced out for a ridiculous amount of things except that one encounter that I know the DM will throw at me just to prove I'm not that tough.
- BoneSnapDeez
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 20118
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 1:08 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Games Beaten 2019
54. Fast Eddie (Atari 2600)
Re: Games Beaten 2019
January Games:
Megaman (Switch)
Megaman 2 (Switch)
Megaman 3 (Switch)
Megaman 4 (Switch)
Megaman 5 (Switch)
Megaman 6 (Switch)
Megaman 7 (Switch)
Megaman 8 (Switch)
Megaman 9 (Switch)
Megaman 10 (Switch)
Kirby's Dreamland (Wii)
Time Spinner (PS4)
February Games:
Megaman Legends (PSTV)
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PSTV)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
March Games:
Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Mario Galaxy (Wii)
April
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS4)
May
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Switch)
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
Castlevania (Switch)
Dragonball Xenoverse 2 (Switch)
Sonic Forces (Switch)
June
SNK: Heroines (Switch)
Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)
Saint's Row The Third (Switch)
Operation C (Switch)
Secret of Mana Remake (PS4)
The Banner Saga Pt 1 (Switch)
July
Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
The World Next Door (Switch)
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Switch)
August
Fire Emblem: 3 Houses (Switch)
Final Fight (Switch)
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3)
Darkstalkers 3 (PS3)
Another arcade game while I recover from the marathon that was Fire Emblem 3H. I've always had this fondness for Dark Stalkers despite never spending much time with the series. I finally took some time to play Dark Stalkers Resurrection on the PS3 and I have to say, it is a very nice release.
I'm more familiar with Vampire Savior from back in my Sega Saturn days but Dark Stalkers 3 seems to be almost the same game. Maybe it is? At any rate, the Resurrection version has a lot of settings and features to work with and the animation is much more fluid than what I remember it being like on the Saturn, even with the RAM expansion. Having little 'missions' to earn points and unlock artwork and character endings makes the single player mode feel much more purposeful - which is great because I have no clue if there is an online scene for DSR and I assume, if there is, they would all kick my ass.
As for the game itself - it's moody, spooky, alluring and fun. All the things that Capcom's Street Fighter V is not. Darkstalkers 3 fits right in with other CPS1/2 era Capcom fighters that I adored as a kid. I just wish my local arcades had stood up some Darkstalker's cabs when I was a kid so that I would have more direct memories of the series instead of just recognizing it as 'the game that Morrigan is from'.
Megaman (Switch)
Megaman 2 (Switch)
Megaman 3 (Switch)
Megaman 4 (Switch)
Megaman 5 (Switch)
Megaman 6 (Switch)
Megaman 7 (Switch)
Megaman 8 (Switch)
Megaman 9 (Switch)
Megaman 10 (Switch)
Kirby's Dreamland (Wii)
Time Spinner (PS4)
February Games:
Megaman Legends (PSTV)
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PSTV)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
March Games:
Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Mario Galaxy (Wii)
April
Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS4)
May
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Switch)
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
Castlevania (Switch)
Dragonball Xenoverse 2 (Switch)
Sonic Forces (Switch)
June
SNK: Heroines (Switch)
Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)
Saint's Row The Third (Switch)
Operation C (Switch)
Secret of Mana Remake (PS4)
The Banner Saga Pt 1 (Switch)
July
Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
The World Next Door (Switch)
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Switch)
August
Fire Emblem: 3 Houses (Switch)
Final Fight (Switch)
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3)
Darkstalkers 3 (PS3)
Another arcade game while I recover from the marathon that was Fire Emblem 3H. I've always had this fondness for Dark Stalkers despite never spending much time with the series. I finally took some time to play Dark Stalkers Resurrection on the PS3 and I have to say, it is a very nice release.
I'm more familiar with Vampire Savior from back in my Sega Saturn days but Dark Stalkers 3 seems to be almost the same game. Maybe it is? At any rate, the Resurrection version has a lot of settings and features to work with and the animation is much more fluid than what I remember it being like on the Saturn, even with the RAM expansion. Having little 'missions' to earn points and unlock artwork and character endings makes the single player mode feel much more purposeful - which is great because I have no clue if there is an online scene for DSR and I assume, if there is, they would all kick my ass.
As for the game itself - it's moody, spooky, alluring and fun. All the things that Capcom's Street Fighter V is not. Darkstalkers 3 fits right in with other CPS1/2 era Capcom fighters that I adored as a kid. I just wish my local arcades had stood up some Darkstalker's cabs when I was a kid so that I would have more direct memories of the series instead of just recognizing it as 'the game that Morrigan is from'.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
Re: Games Beaten 2019
1. Octopath Traveler - Switch
2. Dusk - PC
3. Forsaken Remastered - PC
4. Tales of Eternia - PS1
5. Resident Evil 2 (2019) - PC
6. Pokémon Trading Card Game - GBC
7. Metro Exodus - PC
8. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales - PC
9. Project Warlock - PC
10. Magic: The Gathering - PC
11. Ghost 1.0 - PC
12. Call of Duty 2 - PC
13. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - PS4
14. Revelations: The Demon Slayer - GBC
15. Mechstermination Force - Switch
16. Shadow Warrior Classic Redux - PC
17. Lost Sphear - Switch
18. Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal - PC
19. Dragon Quest III - NES
20. Rage 2 - PC
21. Blood - PC
22. Harvest Moon 64 - N64
23. Battlefield V - PC
24. Sigil - PC
25. Shining Force III: Scenario 2 - Saturn
26. Shining Force III: Scenario 3 - Saturn
27. Borderlands 2: Commander Lillith and the Fight for Sanctuary - PC
28. Gato Roboto - Switch
29. Timespinner - Switch
30. Amid Evil - PC
31. Pillars of Eternity II: Beast of Winter - PC
32. Pillars of Eternity II: Seeker, Slayer, Survivor - PC
33. Pillars of Eternity II: The Forgotten Sanctum - PC
34. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Switch
35. Orphan - PC
36. Project Nimbus - PC
37. Hardcore Mecha - PC
38. Grey Goo - PC
39. Giants: Citizen Kabuto - PC
40. Wolfenstein: Youngblood - PC
41. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Switch
42. Metal Wolf Chaos XD - PC
43. Ion Fury - PC
Formerly known as Ion Maiden (before Iron Maiden threatened to sue), Ion Fury is a new game using a modified Build Engine and starring the same character from Bombshell (though set before that game). It's another in the line of retro FPS games that manages to both stand alone from the games it is inspired by but also exceeds them in ways. It's certainly not just "Duke Nukem in setting X" like Blood and Shadow Warrior frequently are.
Ion Fury is set in a cyberpunk dystopia, and the level designers did a fantastic job of realizing the setting. You might have thought Duke 3D had great levels that were mimicking real life, but Ion Fury takes advantage of 25 extra years of learning around level design. Rather than be split up by formal levels, the game is divided into seven zones (akin to episodes, with six being full size and the final one being the boss gauntlet). Within a zone the levels transition from one to the next Half-Life style. While frequently these transitions are past a point of no return (e.g. a drop), they aren't always, and a nice feature is when you're coming up to said point of no return the game lets you know how many secret areas are remaining, if you're the type to hunt for those. Sometimes the game even has you revisit a previous level now that you've unlocked the appropriate door or turned on the power supply to get deeper into a facility. There's some pretty good variety; you've got your cyberpunk city streets and rooftops, a giant office building owned by the big bad, some nature areas, and a secret underground lab.
Unlike Blood, here the enemy balancing is appropriate. Enemies with hitscan weapons don't do a lot of damage and are quite inaccurate, whereas enemies that deal a lot of damage have travel time and can be avoided if you're paying attention. There's also the expected curve to enemy difficulty, so while the game does introduce enemies that can rapidly steal your health, they don't appear until later in the game. The enemy cast keeps growing over time, and there are some fun designs, including an enemy that is inspired by the centipede from Centipede; if you shoot a body segment it splits into two, but shooting the head starts a chain reaction that destroys the rest.
Your arsenal is mostly tweaks on the standard FPS set. You have a revolver as your basic weapon that remains useful throughout the game, a combination shotgun and grenade launcher, an SMG that can be dual wielded and fires incendiary ammo, a minigun, a grenade, a piercing crossbow, and bowling bombs. The latter are quite fun; like the name implies they are rolled at enemies and they have a bit of seeking to them (which is probably flavored as you applying a curve when you throw). They are the single most useful hand grenade in any FPS that doesn't have it as an offhand weapon. Additionally, every weapon has a secondary fire, though the shotgun secondary just swaps ammo with the grenade launcher. Some of these secondary fires really make a difference; the Ion Bow in particular is incredibly useful for certain boss fights due to the high DPS it puts out.
The only real complaint I have with the game is that there is one boss fight that has a tuning problem; it's against a flying enemy that is only vulnerable on the back, is usually over a pit (so you only can hit it at certain points in its pattern) and just straight up can't be hit with some of your higher damage weaponry. Not only does this make it take FAR longer than any boss other than the final, but you can get into a situation where you don't have enough ammo to take it down and the arena is not really stocked with ammo to any real degree. It also has the auto save be after you enter the arena and it locks, so when you get to the end of the third zone and are prepping for the boss make a manual save just in case.
2. Dusk - PC
3. Forsaken Remastered - PC
4. Tales of Eternia - PS1
5. Resident Evil 2 (2019) - PC
6. Pokémon Trading Card Game - GBC
7. Metro Exodus - PC
8. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales - PC
9. Project Warlock - PC
10. Magic: The Gathering - PC
11. Ghost 1.0 - PC
12. Call of Duty 2 - PC
13. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - PS4
14. Revelations: The Demon Slayer - GBC
15. Mechstermination Force - Switch
16. Shadow Warrior Classic Redux - PC
17. Lost Sphear - Switch
18. Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal - PC
19. Dragon Quest III - NES
20. Rage 2 - PC
21. Blood - PC
22. Harvest Moon 64 - N64
23. Battlefield V - PC
24. Sigil - PC
25. Shining Force III: Scenario 2 - Saturn
26. Shining Force III: Scenario 3 - Saturn
27. Borderlands 2: Commander Lillith and the Fight for Sanctuary - PC
28. Gato Roboto - Switch
29. Timespinner - Switch
30. Amid Evil - PC
31. Pillars of Eternity II: Beast of Winter - PC
32. Pillars of Eternity II: Seeker, Slayer, Survivor - PC
33. Pillars of Eternity II: The Forgotten Sanctum - PC
34. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Switch
35. Orphan - PC
36. Project Nimbus - PC
37. Hardcore Mecha - PC
38. Grey Goo - PC
39. Giants: Citizen Kabuto - PC
40. Wolfenstein: Youngblood - PC
41. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Switch
42. Metal Wolf Chaos XD - PC
43. Ion Fury - PC
Formerly known as Ion Maiden (before Iron Maiden threatened to sue), Ion Fury is a new game using a modified Build Engine and starring the same character from Bombshell (though set before that game). It's another in the line of retro FPS games that manages to both stand alone from the games it is inspired by but also exceeds them in ways. It's certainly not just "Duke Nukem in setting X" like Blood and Shadow Warrior frequently are.
Ion Fury is set in a cyberpunk dystopia, and the level designers did a fantastic job of realizing the setting. You might have thought Duke 3D had great levels that were mimicking real life, but Ion Fury takes advantage of 25 extra years of learning around level design. Rather than be split up by formal levels, the game is divided into seven zones (akin to episodes, with six being full size and the final one being the boss gauntlet). Within a zone the levels transition from one to the next Half-Life style. While frequently these transitions are past a point of no return (e.g. a drop), they aren't always, and a nice feature is when you're coming up to said point of no return the game lets you know how many secret areas are remaining, if you're the type to hunt for those. Sometimes the game even has you revisit a previous level now that you've unlocked the appropriate door or turned on the power supply to get deeper into a facility. There's some pretty good variety; you've got your cyberpunk city streets and rooftops, a giant office building owned by the big bad, some nature areas, and a secret underground lab.
Unlike Blood, here the enemy balancing is appropriate. Enemies with hitscan weapons don't do a lot of damage and are quite inaccurate, whereas enemies that deal a lot of damage have travel time and can be avoided if you're paying attention. There's also the expected curve to enemy difficulty, so while the game does introduce enemies that can rapidly steal your health, they don't appear until later in the game. The enemy cast keeps growing over time, and there are some fun designs, including an enemy that is inspired by the centipede from Centipede; if you shoot a body segment it splits into two, but shooting the head starts a chain reaction that destroys the rest.
Your arsenal is mostly tweaks on the standard FPS set. You have a revolver as your basic weapon that remains useful throughout the game, a combination shotgun and grenade launcher, an SMG that can be dual wielded and fires incendiary ammo, a minigun, a grenade, a piercing crossbow, and bowling bombs. The latter are quite fun; like the name implies they are rolled at enemies and they have a bit of seeking to them (which is probably flavored as you applying a curve when you throw). They are the single most useful hand grenade in any FPS that doesn't have it as an offhand weapon. Additionally, every weapon has a secondary fire, though the shotgun secondary just swaps ammo with the grenade launcher. Some of these secondary fires really make a difference; the Ion Bow in particular is incredibly useful for certain boss fights due to the high DPS it puts out.
The only real complaint I have with the game is that there is one boss fight that has a tuning problem; it's against a flying enemy that is only vulnerable on the back, is usually over a pit (so you only can hit it at certain points in its pattern) and just straight up can't be hit with some of your higher damage weaponry. Not only does this make it take FAR longer than any boss other than the final, but you can get into a situation where you don't have enough ammo to take it down and the arena is not really stocked with ammo to any real degree. It also has the auto save be after you enter the arena and it locks, so when you get to the end of the third zone and are prepping for the boss make a manual save just in case.
Re: Games Beaten 2019
@MrPopo: Nice review, I just stumbled on to ion fury a few days ago on the steam store and it looked really cool, I wishlisted it and will definitely pick it up at some point.
@flake: It has been awhile but I do believe vampire savior and darkstalkers 3 are the same game and just had different names depending on the region it was from. I can't believe that darkstalkers has not made some kind of revival yet, I feel like it was one of the cooler fighting game series of that era, the look and feel was very unique and outside of demitri, who was just vampire ryu, the cast had some pretty unique movesets.
I would love a reboot of the series or a new entry, I also feel like it would probably include akuma as a playable character and maybe simon belmont as DLC, I mean he is in smash so why not?
games beaten:
131. Final Fight 2 (snes)
132. Return of Double Dragon (snes)
133. Contra 3 (snes)
I have played all 3 of these games to death and replay them yearly
131. Final Fight 2
FF2 takes everything good about the original and improves upon it. It retains the large detailed sprites of its predecessor but since it was built from the ground up to be a SNES game it does not run into the issues that plague the original
The gameplay is fast, it has coop, there is no slowdown, and it has a decent sountrack. As far as beat em ups of that era go it is a top notch game, I wouldn't put it on the same level as streets of rage 2 or turtles in time but it is definitely one of the better games of its day that I feel does not get the attention it deserves. If you haven't played it and enjoy beat em ups its a no brainer.
132. Return of the double dragon
This is the japanese version of Super Double Dragon and is superior to its american counterpart. The core gameplay remains the same but there are a lot of little tweaks that just make it a better experience, off the top of my head here are some of the differences:
-The spin kick hits multiple times and is well worth using now as opposed to the waste of meter it is here
-enemy AI is improved, the non-standard grunts will now dodge attacks and it adds an extra layer of franticness to the battles
-the bosses are more challenging, particularly the clown boss who definitely rocked me a bit
-you have an options screen where you can change the credits from 1-9, the american version locks you at 5
-when you get hit by a knife you only lose a sliver of health as opposed to the 1/2 that you lose in the american version
-when you get the boomerang and throw it, you now catch it when it returns to you as opposed to it just pimp smacking you like it does in the us version
-there is an entire level that the japanese version gets at the end that was oddly omitted from the us version, which is a shame because it is a good level with the typical final dd room that you expect.
I may be leaving out stuff but thats the gist. Super double dragon is a different kind of beat em up and it may not be for everyone. The action is much slower than the popular beat em ups of the day but the trade off is a huge moveset and very tactical combat. The enemy ai is tough, they will gang up on you, they will block and dodge your attacks, and they put you into hit stun with every touch. But, this game just feels right, your moves really feel like they have oomph and catching an enemies punch and kicking them in the face of bunch of times is infinitely satisfying.
I love this game, it is one of my all time favorite beat em ups and is a game I replay annually, sometimes even more than once. It definitely is worth checking out and if you love super double dragon you owe it to yourself to play the super famicom version, it is the best version and after playing it you will likely never want to go back to the us version
133. Contra 3:
Nothing much to say here, one of the greatest games of all time, I replay it all the time and it never loses its charm.
@flake: It has been awhile but I do believe vampire savior and darkstalkers 3 are the same game and just had different names depending on the region it was from. I can't believe that darkstalkers has not made some kind of revival yet, I feel like it was one of the cooler fighting game series of that era, the look and feel was very unique and outside of demitri, who was just vampire ryu, the cast had some pretty unique movesets.
I would love a reboot of the series or a new entry, I also feel like it would probably include akuma as a playable character and maybe simon belmont as DLC, I mean he is in smash so why not?
games beaten:
131. Final Fight 2 (snes)
132. Return of Double Dragon (snes)
133. Contra 3 (snes)
I have played all 3 of these games to death and replay them yearly
131. Final Fight 2
FF2 takes everything good about the original and improves upon it. It retains the large detailed sprites of its predecessor but since it was built from the ground up to be a SNES game it does not run into the issues that plague the original
The gameplay is fast, it has coop, there is no slowdown, and it has a decent sountrack. As far as beat em ups of that era go it is a top notch game, I wouldn't put it on the same level as streets of rage 2 or turtles in time but it is definitely one of the better games of its day that I feel does not get the attention it deserves. If you haven't played it and enjoy beat em ups its a no brainer.
132. Return of the double dragon
This is the japanese version of Super Double Dragon and is superior to its american counterpart. The core gameplay remains the same but there are a lot of little tweaks that just make it a better experience, off the top of my head here are some of the differences:
-The spin kick hits multiple times and is well worth using now as opposed to the waste of meter it is here
-enemy AI is improved, the non-standard grunts will now dodge attacks and it adds an extra layer of franticness to the battles
-the bosses are more challenging, particularly the clown boss who definitely rocked me a bit
-you have an options screen where you can change the credits from 1-9, the american version locks you at 5
-when you get hit by a knife you only lose a sliver of health as opposed to the 1/2 that you lose in the american version
-when you get the boomerang and throw it, you now catch it when it returns to you as opposed to it just pimp smacking you like it does in the us version
-there is an entire level that the japanese version gets at the end that was oddly omitted from the us version, which is a shame because it is a good level with the typical final dd room that you expect.
I may be leaving out stuff but thats the gist. Super double dragon is a different kind of beat em up and it may not be for everyone. The action is much slower than the popular beat em ups of the day but the trade off is a huge moveset and very tactical combat. The enemy ai is tough, they will gang up on you, they will block and dodge your attacks, and they put you into hit stun with every touch. But, this game just feels right, your moves really feel like they have oomph and catching an enemies punch and kicking them in the face of bunch of times is infinitely satisfying.
I love this game, it is one of my all time favorite beat em ups and is a game I replay annually, sometimes even more than once. It definitely is worth checking out and if you love super double dragon you owe it to yourself to play the super famicom version, it is the best version and after playing it you will likely never want to go back to the us version
133. Contra 3:
Nothing much to say here, one of the greatest games of all time, I replay it all the time and it never loses its charm.
Re: Games Beaten 2019
I agree, Return of Double Dragon / SDD are both great brawlers. I love technique-rich beat-'em-ups like this.
Re: Games Beaten 2019
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 - Arcade/Vita
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 *new*
Total: 25
Previously: 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
This is the first Mega Man X game I have ever beaten.
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 - Arcade/Vita
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 *new*
Total: 25
Previously: 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
This is the first Mega Man X game I have ever beaten.
- PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2991
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2019
Partridge Senpai's 2019 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018
* indicates a repeat
1. Night Slashers (Switch)
2. Bye-Bye BOXBOY! (3DS)
3. GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Xbox 360)
4. Katamari Forever (PS3)
5. Detention (PS4)
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *
7. OctoDad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) *
8. FlintHook (Switch)
9. God of War (PS4)
10. God of War HD (PS3)
11. Tiny Barbarian DX (Switch)
12. God of War 2 HD (PS3)
13. Starlink (Switch)
14. Shin Gundam Musou (PS3)
15. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS)
16. Banjo-Kazooie (N64) *
17. Super Mario 64: Rumble Edition (N64)
18. Mario Party 3 (N64) *
19. Paper Mario (N64) *
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) *
21. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) *
22. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC) *
23. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) *
24. Yoshi's Island (SNES) *
25. Super Mario World (SNES) *
26. Super Mario RPG (SFC) *
27. Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (GB)
28. Final Fantasy VI (SFC) *
29. Final Fantasy IV (SFC) *
30. Final Fantasy V (SFC)
31. Final Fantasy III (Famicom)
32. Mother 2 (SFC) *
33. Mother 3 (GBA) *
34. Hebereke (Famicom)
35. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SFC)
36. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SFC)
37. Donkey Kong Country (SFC) *
38. Wario's Woods (Famicom)
39. Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
40. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
And so completes my time with the final Mario & Luigi game I had not yet beaten. It isn't the best one, that honor still goes to the first game in the series (as far as my memory goes, although I plan to play the remake soon, so I'll be testing that memory soon enough), but it's a really strong contender for 2nd place. The crossover gimmick is one of the strongest the series has had and one of the best incorporated into the overall whole (a big complaint I've always had of Inside Story is that it feels like a game of two halves: a really fun Bowser half and a really standard, kinda boring Bros. half). It took me a little over 30 hours to beat the game, and I played it in Japanese. I didn't find ALL the things, but I did find most of them (and did 60 of the mini-game challenges).
So the main gimmick is that the Paper Mario universe has exploded out into the Mario & Luigi universe, and the Marios (and a Luigi) need to join forces to fight the power of two Bowsers and their combined armies from kidnapping the two Princess Peaches. The game has nowhere NEAR as much text in it as something like Paper Mario: Color Splash, but I enjoyed the writing that was there. The way the Mario & Luigi characters interact with their flat counterparts is consistently amusing, and I especially enjoyed the way that the Peaches and Bowser Jr.s respectively bonded with their doubles, and how the Kameks and Bowsers constantly fought and bickered with their respective doubles XD .
The normal combat will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played a Mario & Luigi game, especially Dream Team. There aren't just a lot of animations reused from Dream Team, but a lot of Bro Moves taken wholesale from that game too (although Dream Team really needed improvements, so I'm completely fine with this game building off of what that game did well). As normal, Mario is the A button, Luigi is the B button, and the new addition Paper Mario takes the Y button.
Paper Mario fights really differently to the other Bros., and it really helps make up for how similar the Bros fight compared to Dream Team. Paper Mario can summon up to 6 copies of himself to help him fight and also tank hits for him. If he gets hit, he'll lose some copies, but he can just use his next turn to resummon them (meaning you REALLY wanna keep him from getting hit if you want him to be as effective as possible). His copies allow him to let each copy do a successive jump on a target, as well as spread out as evenly as possible to hit each enemy on screen with a hammer strike. He also has Trio Moves, which are basically Bro Moves that require all 3 Bros to be up and unincumbered to do, and they usually are effectively Bro Moves with better AOE damage. The Mario & Luigi games have always had very similar combat from game to game, but Paper Jam does a good job of varying things up without making enemies feel too spongey or the combo attacks feeling too technical (a problem Partners in Time had pretty bad). If anything, the game has a bit of the opposite effect where it can get pretty hard against later-game bosses and enemies, as both you and them tend to hit quite hard, and dodging their attacks gets pretty tricky. I never got a game over, but this is definitely one of the harder Mario & Luigi games there's been.
The last addition to the combat are battle cards (but not like Paper Mario Color Splash). As you do better action commands, you earn star points, which allow you to play battle cards from the touch screen. You can find cards from rare shiny enemies (who hit like freakin' cars and are real scary despite the rewards they give if they catch you off guard) as well as buy them from shops, and you can have a deck of 10 cards and you can see 3 cards to potentially play at a time. They go a long way as to making what is otherwise probably the hardest Mario & Luigi game a lot less unforgiving, and certain boss battles even put interesting spins on them.
Speaking of making things easier, this game has some incredible accessibility and quality of life features. The game has an easy mode you can turn on to make the whole thing easier, nearly every tutorial has a skip option, and you can hold R to fast-forward through any cutscene. The game does a really good job of giving the player the option to play it no matter their skill level, and that's something I always appreciate.
However, the best change, in my opinion, is they have FINALLY gotten rid of the gimmicky, slow, and simple giant battles that Inside Story and Partners in Time had. In their place are giant papercraft battles which are basically giant 3D environment mech battles. Now this is hardly Virtual On in terms of complexity, but it manages to be engaging and fun in a much more simple package. B is your dash, A is your jump, and you move vaguely like a tank with the L button focusing the camera and allowing strafing and the R button allowing for a quick 180-degree turn. You play as 5 different paper mechs through the course of the game, and each plays a little bit differently. It spices up the boss battles really nicely, and I never had the "oh heck this again" feeling that Inside Story and Dream Team's giant battles gave me.
What I did have a bit less patience for are the Paper Toad rescue missions. There are certain points in the game where you need to do different mini games to rescue Paper Toads who are lost and terrified in the Mario & Luigi kingdom. They vary them well, and they definitely don't grate as badly if you aren't doing the hard-mode versions of them (some of which are downright vindictively unforgiving) to try and unlock some of the best battle cards like I did, but it's still something I wish weren't in the game quite as much.
As a final note, I did play the game on a NEW 2DS XL, and that did bring with it some good things and bad things. The good things are some minor NEW 3DS functionality. You can press the ZR and ZL buttons to automatically top up your BP and HP respectively in the most efficient way possible from the items currently in your inventory. You can also use the C-stick to turn the camera (albeit a bit too slowly to be that useful) in the mech battle sections, and you can also use it to move the map around on the touch-screen when walking around instead of moving it with your finger. The bad parts came from the 2D. It doesn't happen that often, but there are a few bosses and normal enemies whose attacks are more difficult to dodge than they should be when playing in 2D rather than 3D. The game isn't really hard enough to make it anything more than an annoyance, but it's something that happened enough that I can't not mention it here.
Verdict: Recommended. Though it does not top the original, it is the Mario & Luigi game that has come closest. The games have always had a problem in not really sicking out that much from each other, and Paper Jam is no exception to that, but it is one of the better in the series for sure, and an excellent swansong to the series (at least a far better one than Dream Team was). If you can only play one Mario & Luigi game, you should definitely play Superstar Saga, but if you can only play TWO, there is very good reason to make Paper Jam your second pick. It's certainly not the best RPG on the 3DS, but it's still a great addition to any 3DS library, and an overall good time.
Previously: 2016 2017 2018
* indicates a repeat
1. Night Slashers (Switch)
2. Bye-Bye BOXBOY! (3DS)
3. GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Xbox 360)
4. Katamari Forever (PS3)
5. Detention (PS4)
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *
7. OctoDad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) *
8. FlintHook (Switch)
9. God of War (PS4)
10. God of War HD (PS3)
11. Tiny Barbarian DX (Switch)
12. God of War 2 HD (PS3)
13. Starlink (Switch)
14. Shin Gundam Musou (PS3)
15. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS)
16. Banjo-Kazooie (N64) *
17. Super Mario 64: Rumble Edition (N64)
18. Mario Party 3 (N64) *
19. Paper Mario (N64) *
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) *
21. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) *
22. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC) *
23. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) *
24. Yoshi's Island (SNES) *
25. Super Mario World (SNES) *
26. Super Mario RPG (SFC) *
27. Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (GB)
28. Final Fantasy VI (SFC) *
29. Final Fantasy IV (SFC) *
30. Final Fantasy V (SFC)
31. Final Fantasy III (Famicom)
32. Mother 2 (SFC) *
33. Mother 3 (GBA) *
34. Hebereke (Famicom)
35. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SFC)
36. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SFC)
37. Donkey Kong Country (SFC) *
38. Wario's Woods (Famicom)
39. Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
40. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
And so completes my time with the final Mario & Luigi game I had not yet beaten. It isn't the best one, that honor still goes to the first game in the series (as far as my memory goes, although I plan to play the remake soon, so I'll be testing that memory soon enough), but it's a really strong contender for 2nd place. The crossover gimmick is one of the strongest the series has had and one of the best incorporated into the overall whole (a big complaint I've always had of Inside Story is that it feels like a game of two halves: a really fun Bowser half and a really standard, kinda boring Bros. half). It took me a little over 30 hours to beat the game, and I played it in Japanese. I didn't find ALL the things, but I did find most of them (and did 60 of the mini-game challenges).
So the main gimmick is that the Paper Mario universe has exploded out into the Mario & Luigi universe, and the Marios (and a Luigi) need to join forces to fight the power of two Bowsers and their combined armies from kidnapping the two Princess Peaches. The game has nowhere NEAR as much text in it as something like Paper Mario: Color Splash, but I enjoyed the writing that was there. The way the Mario & Luigi characters interact with their flat counterparts is consistently amusing, and I especially enjoyed the way that the Peaches and Bowser Jr.s respectively bonded with their doubles, and how the Kameks and Bowsers constantly fought and bickered with their respective doubles XD .
The normal combat will be immediately familiar to anyone who has played a Mario & Luigi game, especially Dream Team. There aren't just a lot of animations reused from Dream Team, but a lot of Bro Moves taken wholesale from that game too (although Dream Team really needed improvements, so I'm completely fine with this game building off of what that game did well). As normal, Mario is the A button, Luigi is the B button, and the new addition Paper Mario takes the Y button.
Paper Mario fights really differently to the other Bros., and it really helps make up for how similar the Bros fight compared to Dream Team. Paper Mario can summon up to 6 copies of himself to help him fight and also tank hits for him. If he gets hit, he'll lose some copies, but he can just use his next turn to resummon them (meaning you REALLY wanna keep him from getting hit if you want him to be as effective as possible). His copies allow him to let each copy do a successive jump on a target, as well as spread out as evenly as possible to hit each enemy on screen with a hammer strike. He also has Trio Moves, which are basically Bro Moves that require all 3 Bros to be up and unincumbered to do, and they usually are effectively Bro Moves with better AOE damage. The Mario & Luigi games have always had very similar combat from game to game, but Paper Jam does a good job of varying things up without making enemies feel too spongey or the combo attacks feeling too technical (a problem Partners in Time had pretty bad). If anything, the game has a bit of the opposite effect where it can get pretty hard against later-game bosses and enemies, as both you and them tend to hit quite hard, and dodging their attacks gets pretty tricky. I never got a game over, but this is definitely one of the harder Mario & Luigi games there's been.
The last addition to the combat are battle cards (but not like Paper Mario Color Splash). As you do better action commands, you earn star points, which allow you to play battle cards from the touch screen. You can find cards from rare shiny enemies (who hit like freakin' cars and are real scary despite the rewards they give if they catch you off guard) as well as buy them from shops, and you can have a deck of 10 cards and you can see 3 cards to potentially play at a time. They go a long way as to making what is otherwise probably the hardest Mario & Luigi game a lot less unforgiving, and certain boss battles even put interesting spins on them.
Speaking of making things easier, this game has some incredible accessibility and quality of life features. The game has an easy mode you can turn on to make the whole thing easier, nearly every tutorial has a skip option, and you can hold R to fast-forward through any cutscene. The game does a really good job of giving the player the option to play it no matter their skill level, and that's something I always appreciate.
However, the best change, in my opinion, is they have FINALLY gotten rid of the gimmicky, slow, and simple giant battles that Inside Story and Partners in Time had. In their place are giant papercraft battles which are basically giant 3D environment mech battles. Now this is hardly Virtual On in terms of complexity, but it manages to be engaging and fun in a much more simple package. B is your dash, A is your jump, and you move vaguely like a tank with the L button focusing the camera and allowing strafing and the R button allowing for a quick 180-degree turn. You play as 5 different paper mechs through the course of the game, and each plays a little bit differently. It spices up the boss battles really nicely, and I never had the "oh heck this again" feeling that Inside Story and Dream Team's giant battles gave me.
What I did have a bit less patience for are the Paper Toad rescue missions. There are certain points in the game where you need to do different mini games to rescue Paper Toads who are lost and terrified in the Mario & Luigi kingdom. They vary them well, and they definitely don't grate as badly if you aren't doing the hard-mode versions of them (some of which are downright vindictively unforgiving) to try and unlock some of the best battle cards like I did, but it's still something I wish weren't in the game quite as much.
As a final note, I did play the game on a NEW 2DS XL, and that did bring with it some good things and bad things. The good things are some minor NEW 3DS functionality. You can press the ZR and ZL buttons to automatically top up your BP and HP respectively in the most efficient way possible from the items currently in your inventory. You can also use the C-stick to turn the camera (albeit a bit too slowly to be that useful) in the mech battle sections, and you can also use it to move the map around on the touch-screen when walking around instead of moving it with your finger. The bad parts came from the 2D. It doesn't happen that often, but there are a few bosses and normal enemies whose attacks are more difficult to dodge than they should be when playing in 2D rather than 3D. The game isn't really hard enough to make it anything more than an annoyance, but it's something that happened enough that I can't not mention it here.
Verdict: Recommended. Though it does not top the original, it is the Mario & Luigi game that has come closest. The games have always had a problem in not really sicking out that much from each other, and Paper Jam is no exception to that, but it is one of the better in the series for sure, and an excellent swansong to the series (at least a far better one than Dream Team was). If you can only play one Mario & Luigi game, you should definitely play Superstar Saga, but if you can only play TWO, there is very good reason to make Paper Jam your second pick. It's certainly not the best RPG on the 3DS, but it's still a great addition to any 3DS library, and an overall good time.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
- ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8621
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Henderson, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2019
Games Beaten in 2019 So Far - 48
* denotes a replay
January (12 Games Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (4 Games Beaten)
April (3 Games Beaten)
May (8 Games Beaten)
June (5 Games Beaten)
July (12 Games Beaten)
August (2 Games Beaten)
48. Wolfenstein Youngblood - Xbox One - August 24
Wolfenstein Youngblood is a pretty big departure for the rebooted Wolfenstein series in a number of ways, and that's been pretty divisive among fans. In a lot of ways, it's still Wolfenstein - you still run around killing countless Nazis with a massive arsenal of weapons - but make no mistake about Youngblood. It's not the Wolfenstein that I've come to know and love with New Order, Old Blood, and New Colossus.
The first major issue I had with the game - and the pettiest - is that the protagonist twins aren't as gruff and badass as BJ. Don't get me wrong, Soph and Jess are total badasses in their own way, but I've come to adore the gruff badassery of BJ. The aloofness of Soph and Jess, while entertaining at first, just didn't sit as well with me as BJ's darker, quieter demeanor. On the topic of the two protagonists, the use of multiplayer not just as an optional inclusion but as a core gameplay mechanic felt odd and out of place for Wolfenstein. This is a game that, just a few years ago, prided itself on being a strictly single player experience. I have nothing against multiplayer shooters - Left4Dead and Borderlands both proved how amazing they can be even beyond the dudebro Call of Dutys and prepubescent Fortnites - but it just feels foreign for this series.
My problems with the use of multiplayer don't stop at its mere existence. The implementation left a lot to be desired, too. The game utilizes those obnoxious multiplayer gimmicks - doors that can only be opened with two players, chests that can only be opened with two players, etc. While the AI was competent enough for the most part to make playing the game solo a decent experience, there were some issues. One of the cooler team mechanics was the ability to revive the other protagonist if done quickly enough after going down. The problem here was that my AI partner would randomly decide that she just didn't want to move. At all. Like, she literally just stood there shooting and taking every bullet flying her way. I'd half-dead crawl my way over to her and be like "Hey, sis, kinda dying of blood loss here. Halp plz," and she'd be like "WHAT?? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF ALL THESE BULLETS PIERCING MY BODY BECAUSE I REFUSE TO MOVE." And then I'd die and have to respawn by which point she'd need to be revived because she refused to move. Fortunately that little bug seemed to go away after I revived her, but it happened probably half a dozen times throughout my playthrough and seemed most severe in the last quarter of the game.
Visually, aurally, and mechanically, the game the largely identical to New Colossus. The only major mechanic changes worth noting are the RPG-esque leveling up that's used to unlock new abilities and the tedious coin grind to upgrade your weapons. I don't have a problem with either of these in principle, and the level up system really wasn't that bad, but the silver coins needed to upgrade your weapons just got annoying. Your weapons also get upgraded by using them and "ranking" them up, but the improvements that these silver coins buy are more substantial (so it makes sense that it takes more effort) and can shift the gun's focus towards accuracy, magazine capacity, and damage. It's less HOW you acquire these upgrades that bother me and more the fact that a large part of your coin supply is found just lying around in the world, making it a mundane Easter egg hunt.
The game's story - something I've always loved about Wolfenstein - is...okay. And that's sad because it's been ten years since Wolfenstein has been just okay. The New Order, the Old Blood, and the New Colossus were all absolutely fantastic, but Youngblood is just mediocre. The story starts off interesting enough - BJ has vanished, and his twin daughters take it upon themselves to travel to his last known location in Nazi-controlled Paris and find him themselves. Far fetched, sure, but considering that the guy they're looking for is just a head on a synthetic body, suspension of disbelief is kind of a must as it is. The problem is that, beyond that premise, the story just falls flat. Aside from Soph, Jess, and Abby Walker, none of the characters are even remotely interesting. There are only four "main" missions in the game - attack Brother 1, attack Brother 2, attack Brother 3, and attack Lab X - and until you do find BJ, it never feels compelling.
Wolfenstein Youngblood isn't a bad game. It's just a terribly disappointing game. It takes a series that's always been known for badass Nazi killing and turns that into okay Nazi killing. At the end of the day, you're still slaughtering hundreds and hundreds of Nazis, so that's always a good thing, but it doesn't have the charm or personality that other Wolfenstein games have. I can see this being a pretty good time if you have a friend to play through the campaign with, but as a single player experience, it's fully functional, but there just isn't any real draw when you could just replay one of the far superior recent Wolfenstein games.
* denotes a replay
January (12 Games Beaten)
February (2 Games Beaten)
March (4 Games Beaten)
April (3 Games Beaten)
May (8 Games Beaten)
June (5 Games Beaten)
July (12 Games Beaten)
August (2 Games Beaten)
48. Wolfenstein Youngblood - Xbox One - August 24
Wolfenstein Youngblood is a pretty big departure for the rebooted Wolfenstein series in a number of ways, and that's been pretty divisive among fans. In a lot of ways, it's still Wolfenstein - you still run around killing countless Nazis with a massive arsenal of weapons - but make no mistake about Youngblood. It's not the Wolfenstein that I've come to know and love with New Order, Old Blood, and New Colossus.
The first major issue I had with the game - and the pettiest - is that the protagonist twins aren't as gruff and badass as BJ. Don't get me wrong, Soph and Jess are total badasses in their own way, but I've come to adore the gruff badassery of BJ. The aloofness of Soph and Jess, while entertaining at first, just didn't sit as well with me as BJ's darker, quieter demeanor. On the topic of the two protagonists, the use of multiplayer not just as an optional inclusion but as a core gameplay mechanic felt odd and out of place for Wolfenstein. This is a game that, just a few years ago, prided itself on being a strictly single player experience. I have nothing against multiplayer shooters - Left4Dead and Borderlands both proved how amazing they can be even beyond the dudebro Call of Dutys and prepubescent Fortnites - but it just feels foreign for this series.
My problems with the use of multiplayer don't stop at its mere existence. The implementation left a lot to be desired, too. The game utilizes those obnoxious multiplayer gimmicks - doors that can only be opened with two players, chests that can only be opened with two players, etc. While the AI was competent enough for the most part to make playing the game solo a decent experience, there were some issues. One of the cooler team mechanics was the ability to revive the other protagonist if done quickly enough after going down. The problem here was that my AI partner would randomly decide that she just didn't want to move. At all. Like, she literally just stood there shooting and taking every bullet flying her way. I'd half-dead crawl my way over to her and be like "Hey, sis, kinda dying of blood loss here. Halp plz," and she'd be like "WHAT?? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF ALL THESE BULLETS PIERCING MY BODY BECAUSE I REFUSE TO MOVE." And then I'd die and have to respawn by which point she'd need to be revived because she refused to move. Fortunately that little bug seemed to go away after I revived her, but it happened probably half a dozen times throughout my playthrough and seemed most severe in the last quarter of the game.
Visually, aurally, and mechanically, the game the largely identical to New Colossus. The only major mechanic changes worth noting are the RPG-esque leveling up that's used to unlock new abilities and the tedious coin grind to upgrade your weapons. I don't have a problem with either of these in principle, and the level up system really wasn't that bad, but the silver coins needed to upgrade your weapons just got annoying. Your weapons also get upgraded by using them and "ranking" them up, but the improvements that these silver coins buy are more substantial (so it makes sense that it takes more effort) and can shift the gun's focus towards accuracy, magazine capacity, and damage. It's less HOW you acquire these upgrades that bother me and more the fact that a large part of your coin supply is found just lying around in the world, making it a mundane Easter egg hunt.
The game's story - something I've always loved about Wolfenstein - is...okay. And that's sad because it's been ten years since Wolfenstein has been just okay. The New Order, the Old Blood, and the New Colossus were all absolutely fantastic, but Youngblood is just mediocre. The story starts off interesting enough - BJ has vanished, and his twin daughters take it upon themselves to travel to his last known location in Nazi-controlled Paris and find him themselves. Far fetched, sure, but considering that the guy they're looking for is just a head on a synthetic body, suspension of disbelief is kind of a must as it is. The problem is that, beyond that premise, the story just falls flat. Aside from Soph, Jess, and Abby Walker, none of the characters are even remotely interesting. There are only four "main" missions in the game - attack Brother 1, attack Brother 2, attack Brother 3, and attack Lab X - and until you do find BJ, it never feels compelling.
Wolfenstein Youngblood isn't a bad game. It's just a terribly disappointing game. It takes a series that's always been known for badass Nazi killing and turns that into okay Nazi killing. At the end of the day, you're still slaughtering hundreds and hundreds of Nazis, so that's always a good thing, but it doesn't have the charm or personality that other Wolfenstein games have. I can see this being a pretty good time if you have a friend to play through the campaign with, but as a single player experience, it's fully functional, but there just isn't any real draw when you could just replay one of the far superior recent Wolfenstein games.
- prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12202
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2019
First 50
51. Ninja Gaiden (GG)
52. SonSon (Arcade)
53. Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS)
Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS) is the iPad version of the remake of the best Wonder Boy game. (It is re-titled “Wonder Girl” if you choose the female character at the beginning of the game.) The basic gameplay and design is unaltered, and the game plays almost exactly like the SMS version. There are a few extra features, such as challenge rooms for each transformation, that add a bit to the gameplay, and the game also seemed a bit easier than the SMS version (but that may have been because this was my second time through it). The main reasons to play the remake are the gorgeous, hand-drawn graphics and remastered soundtrack. Both are spectacular, and they make the game look and sound as good as it plays. (Moreover, there is always the option to switch back to the original graphics and sound, which is a nice touch for people who, like me, enjoy the original’s 8-bit aesthetic.) In essence, this is the definitive version of a really great SMS game, and I highly recommend it. (Also, for those who are interested, the iOS version plays great, with highly customizable touch controls, and it is only a fraction of the price of other versions.)
51. Ninja Gaiden (GG)
52. SonSon (Arcade)
53. Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS)
Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS) is the iPad version of the remake of the best Wonder Boy game. (It is re-titled “Wonder Girl” if you choose the female character at the beginning of the game.) The basic gameplay and design is unaltered, and the game plays almost exactly like the SMS version. There are a few extra features, such as challenge rooms for each transformation, that add a bit to the gameplay, and the game also seemed a bit easier than the SMS version (but that may have been because this was my second time through it). The main reasons to play the remake are the gorgeous, hand-drawn graphics and remastered soundtrack. Both are spectacular, and they make the game look and sound as good as it plays. (Moreover, there is always the option to switch back to the original graphics and sound, which is a nice touch for people who, like me, enjoy the original’s 8-bit aesthetic.) In essence, this is the definitive version of a really great SMS game, and I highly recommend it. (Also, for those who are interested, the iOS version plays great, with highly customizable touch controls, and it is only a fraction of the price of other versions.)