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dsheinem wrote:
This is the first Mega Man X game I have ever beaten.

wow. You started with a good one, though. The first Mega Man X is my favorite - and actually, it's probably my favorite Mega Man game period. But X4 is awesome. I love that game.

I'm not even sure how Capcom made X4 so good after X2 and X3, and seeing X5 afterwards.

marurun wrote:I'm not even sure how Capcom made X4 so good after X2 and X3, and seeing X5 afterwards.

I haven't played all the X games myself. But I recently attempted X2 and thought it was pretty bad. I lost interest QUICK.

I’ve beaten the first four Mega Man X games. The first and fourth games are definitely the highlights. I didn’t think X2 or X3 we’re bad, necessarily, just forgettable (aside from the cool wire-frame sections).

I tried X5, but it was just painful. I need to push through it, along with the rest of the series, someday.

I own and have beaten Mega Man X7...

I've beaten X1-5. X4 is definitely well constructed, but I still can't get over the fact that they changed the jump physics slightly from X1-3; if you've played a ton of the SNES games you'll notice that things just don't feel quite right, and it bothers me. X5 isn't as bad as some people like to say, and if you ignore the existence of X6-8 it's worthwhile to go through to wrap up the X story.

X2 is very similar to X1, but since the weapons and levels aren't as neat, the game as a whole suffers imo. Plot wise it brought Zero back, so his sacrifice in X1 was ultimately pointless and the game just retreads X1's set up. And unlike Vile, the X-hunters didn't seem interesting to me or fun to fight.

Iirc, X3 was actually outsource to another studio. I haven't beaten X3 yet, but it is certainly a game of high, highs and low, lows. Difficulty is steep to begin with, but later upgrades make the last third I've played almost too easy. Some of the weapons being broken is good and bad. I like the Ride armors, but I remember being displeased with when you get them. Overall I like it more than X2.

X4 is great, but way too easy.

My rank of the first four X games (best to "worse"): X1, X4, X3, X2.

I'm wrapping up my first playthru of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I'll post my thoughts later in the week.

1. Blaster Master Zero -- Switch
2. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! -- DS
3. Steamworld Dig -- Switch
4. King of Dragons -- Switch
5. Steamworld Dig 2 -- Switch
6. River City: Tokyo Rumble -- 3DS

River City: Tokyo Rumble

I actually beat this one back in July, but I just haven't been in the right headspace to write about it. Now I am!

RC Tokyo Rumble is my first 3DS game and very much a successor to the original NES title. The character sprites are all low-color, NES-style, and the backgrounds, while more colorful, are still fairly plain. Even the music is trying to channel chiptunes. In truth, this could have been a tiny downloadable title on just about any previous Nintendo platform, except for the rudimentary 3D adding depth to the background. In some ways it even looks simpler than the PC Engine enhanced port of Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari and the GBA remake of RCR. It is really playing on nostalgia. Good thing this particular brand of nostalgia has quick, breezy, accessible play mechanics. Yes, the punch, kick, block, hit, throw, crazy special moves nonsense is back and just as crazy as ever.

You are Kunio, and you are on a quest around Tokyo to figure out what's going on with this new Tokyo Lion Alliance that seems to be slowly taking over Tokyo. In the process, you also encounter a figure from Kunio's past (who you won't know unless you are steeped in Kunio knowledge or know how to use a wiki). Unlike some early games in the series, you cannot play 2-player co-op, though there are a couple 4-player competitive modes like dodgeball (you remember the Kunio-kun dodgeball games, right?). Instead, you can have a CPU-controlled partner you can give basic instructions to (back off, be aggressive, defend me, etc...). Your first partner option is Rikki, the titular player 2 in the classic games, but you can choose to take others with you as well.

I'm not going to go into huge detail about the basics of River City Ransom, so instead let's talk about what's different, besides the loss of a second human player. Instead of navigating the entire game world screen by screen, instead you take the subway to new areas and explore them. Each area is relatively small and self-contained, not to mention circular (you loop around ala Pacman), but has a different theme dependent on the part of Tokyo. Further, each area has a full complement of shops, including hidden ones. You can still buy food to boost your willpower and restore your stamina and special moves in books and magazines, but you can also purchase clothes and accessories to buff your stats. Like previous games you can also get experience and level-up. As your allies level up they get new special moves automatically. You still have to find or buy them. One are that has seen a huge change is what happens when an enemy is defeated. Usually you get money, but they can also drop special items that can be sold, or even worn accessories or special moves. Fight the right enemy and you might just luck into the special attack you've been saving up to buy. There's more character dialogue and plot than previous titles (though still not much), but the game also lacks the bizarre reputation system that plagued the GBA version of RCR, thank goodness. And just like as in previous games, sometimes you have to use the menus to turn off some of your special abilities because your play style does not gel with them.

Tokyo Rumble is just River City Ransom with everything cranked up just a little bit. It's not quite as tight and exciting as RCR, but it's fun and nostalgic and if you have any fond memories of RCR this is worth a play. Just don't pay too much for it, as it is a fairly short game. If the game ran any longer it would wear out its welcome.

If you need some screen shots, Natsume's screen shot page has some slightly too-small images to work with.

River City: Tokyo Rumble - what a title! - is a really solid Kunio-kun game. I’m glad someone else on here has played it. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I appreciated all the call backs to Renegade.

BTW...if you haven’t played it yet, skip River City: Knights of Justice (3DS). It doesn’t touch Tokyo Rumble in terms of depth and gameplay.

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)

41. Luigi's Mansion (3DS) *

This is technically the 3rd or 4th time I've beaten the game, but the first time I've played it on the 3DS. It's a game I have a lot of nostalgia for the original Gamecube game, but I have a lot of anxiety these days about buying Gamecube games with how temperamental Gamecube discs can be (and I don't like buying them second-hand because of that reason), so I was excited (albeit a little confused) to hear that it was getting a 3DS port. It was on sale on Japanese Amazon last week, so I thought it was the perfect time to finally pick up what I think will be a rare game in the future. It may not quiiite be a definitive version, but it's damn close. It's a fantastic port whose biggest problems are even then not that bad. I got every Boo and it took me a little under 6 hours playing on the Japanese version.

The game itself is Luigi's Mansion as it's ever been: A kind of Resident Evil meets Ghost Busters with a Nintendo twist. It's a horror game for those just starting to be able to play scary games. You go around a mansion as Luigi, trying to save Mario from ghosts who have kidnapped him. All you have his your trusty Poltergust 3000 (ammusingly called the オバキューム in Japanese) and a flashlight to combat 26 special ghosts and a handful of generic ghost types. As a concept, it still holds up as well as it ever did, even if it is a little short at the end of the day.

The main features the port adds are a menu to the touch screen (you can see the Game Boy Horror on the lower screen so you have a map, your ghost info, and your inventory to look at quickly whenever you want) and, more importantly, a co-op feature. If your friend has their own copy of the game, you can explore the mansion side-by-side as Luigi & Gooigi. I have no friends to play with, nor do I have a second copy of the game, so this wasn't something I could test. However, if your friend doesn't have a second copy of the game, you can still do the time-attack modes against the special ghosts and boss battles via Download Play. It's a pity the whole game can't be played via download play, but that would be a LOT to download at one time, so I get it :b

The other unavoidable thing this port changes are the controls, and this is likely going to be where most people either gel or don't with the game. The game does have NEW 3DS compatibility, as LZ is a duplication of the interaction button, and ZR is a duplication of the flashlight button (both of which are also on the face buttons). The C-stick on the NEW 3DS can also be used, and I would recommend using something with a second joystick if you're going to play this. The game does have the ability to use the 3DS gyro to aim up and down while using the vacuum, and that works alright (not as good as a proper C-stick like the Gamecube has, but it's fine), but you can't aim left and right that way. The NEW 3DS's C-stick has always kinda sucked, and it still kinda sucks here. One day I shall blow a bunch of cash on another 3DS and a Circle Pad Pro (which are absurdly common in Japan) to give playing it that way a try (as I imagine that's by far the best way to play this), but on a normal NEW 3DS, this is a compromise from the Gamecube version. There's no way around that. It still plays fine, but it is a noticeably hampered experience.

Edit: (8/31) I just beat the Secret Mansion (hard mode) and have a few thoughts on it I'll just plonk here. It honestly wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, although it's definitely a lot harder. No health pick-ups outside of the bonus ones you get for sucking up multiple ghosts at once, which basically means you can't heal without going back to the lab over and over if you don't wanna die. Given that if you have a Toad amiibo, you can make it so talking to Toads heals you (and they're you're save points anyhow), there's really no reason the game couldn't've been like that from the start because Nintendo knew it was a good idea. Not a game breaker, but it definitely means you'll be back tracking back to the start (or to a mirror to warp back to the entrance) more often than you really have any reason to have to. The ghosts have 1.5 times as much HP and there are a LOT more of them. Some rooms are just utter hell because you'll have like five or six ghosts mobbing you at once, appearing and disappearing and stunning you with being scared. This is definitely not the ideal way to play this game in any way shape or form (and certainly not with a compromised C-stick), but it's a fun bit of extra stuff if you aren't quite Luigi's Mansion'd out after the normal mansion.

Verdict: Recommended. With Luigi's Mansion 2 also being on 3DS and being far cheaper and Luigi's Mansion 3 on the way for Switch this October, this port is definitely a steep ask for the price you're likely going to have to pay for it. Unless you're someone who either has nostalgia for it or fancies going through over and over to try and beat the harder mode and get better cash scores, you are likely going to be disappointed in just how short this game is when so many longer games are cheaper and equally long games are cheaper. That said, this is still a great game, and this is a great port of it if you've always wanted to experience Luigi's first spoopy day out~