Games Beaten 2020

[Nemoide]

Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession

I'm impressed! I started that game a couple months ago because I felt like lockdown was a good time to explore the old SSI D&D games I bought in a collection 15+ years ago. I couldn't handle it. It probably took me a dozen tries of just trying to survive the first couple of battles with worgs as soon as I got into Ravenloft. Then I managed to actually explore a little bit, still dying regularly. I eventually found a walkthrough online and found out I missed a party member I could have recruited, but I guess I waited too long and he had died. Each time I got into combat, it just felt like I was clicking on enemies a thousand times until one of us died - one of my party members being just as likely as the enemy. I finally quit playing before I even reached a town. The game felt so clunky and awkward and the difficulty so high, I just couldn't take it. Maybe if it was turn based and grid-based or something I wouldn't have minded so much.

But yeah, I'm impressed that you managed to beat it!

[Ack]

Thanks, Nemoide. I admit, having experience with these games helps, as I have previously beaten Menzoberranzen. However, I did also get my butt kicked right at the start. A couple of things that helped: I built a party intending to handle a fight at the very beginning, hence Fighter/Thief and Cleric, and I found a safe spot to rest as quickly as I could. In that first area, there is a hidden trapdoor in the ruined cabin which leads to a basement with no enemies. You can rest down there without fear of attack.

Also, skip that first fighter NPC and instead hit the road! He's not worth the fights with the troop of goblyns and wargs, and you find a Fighter/Thief/Mage a little ways up the road.

[prfsnl_gmr]

First 25

1. Her Story (iOS)
2. Elminage Original (3DS)
3. Legend of Grimrock (iOS)
4. Silent Bomber (PS1)
5. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
6. Bust-a-Move 2 Arcade Edition (PS1)
7. Transformers Cybertron Adventures (Wii)
8. Squidlit (Switch)
9. Sydney Hunter & The Curse of the Mayan (Switch)
10. Mega Man Legends (PS1)
11. Revenge of the Bird King (Switch)
12. Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Switch)
13. Gato Roboto (Switch)
14. Kamiko (Switch)
15. Night Slashers (Arcade)
16. Subsurface Circular (Switch)
17. Iconoclasts (Switch)
18. Wonder Boy Returns Remix (Switch)
19. Resident Evil 3 (PS1)
20. The Messenger (Switch)
21. The Messenger: Picnic Panic (Switch)
22. Samsara Room (iOS)
23. Heroes of the Monkey Tavern (Switch)
24. Sayonara Wild Hearts (Switch)
25. Gris (Switch)

26. Donut County (iOS)
27. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
28. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES)
29. Contra (Arcade)
30. Super Contra (Arcade)
31. Minesweeper Genius (Switch)

Minesweeper Genius is a breezy little puzzle game that combines gameplay elements from Picross with gameplay elements from Minesweeper to create a fun, challenging-but-not-too-challenging experience. In it, you guide a little bearded man across a grid toward a glowing goal. Numbers along the grid’s sides indicate how many mines are in a row or column, and stepping on a mine costs you one of the three stars you have to complete the level. Special tiles cause you to shift, flip, or skip over rows or columns, and you must step on each special tile on your way to the goal. There is only one route to the exit, and as in Minesweeper, you can flag mines to make sure you don’t step on them. The puzzles are procedurally generated based on a set of conditions, and impressively, they are designed (like a Picross puzzle) so that you never have to guess as to your next move. (You just have to employ a lot of logic.) Moreover, if you fail a level, you get a new one; so, you can’t “brute force” your way through the puzzles either.

The game is by no means perfect. The music is bad, and the graphics make it apparent that it is a port of a mobile game. (You can turn off the music, thankfully.) Moreover, the main campaign is way too easy, and someone experienced with Picross puzzles could probably blow through all the normal levels in less than an hour. Getting a three-star rating in each level would take a little longer, and you can unlock drastically more challenging “advanced” puzzles. Getting a three star rating on all of those takes a bit longer, but completing the game still took me less than three hours. (That said, the puzzle format was getting a bit stale by that point; so, this is just about the perfect length, in my opinion.)

The game is normally $6 in the eShop, which is way too much, but I got it on sale for $1.01, which is $0.98 less than the game costs in mobile app stores. I heartily recommend picking up the game at that price, but if it’s much more than that, I recommend waiting for a sale.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Looks like a cute game. Is there no copyright for "Minesweeper"? There seems to be hundreds of these games. I mean, Steam has a "Hentai Minesweeper"....

It's always amusing to see how the "Nintendo Tax" plays out on the Switch eShop. Just check out the price differential here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/774171/Muse_Dash/
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/muse-dash-switch/

[prfsnl_gmr]

Looks like a cute game. Is there no copyright for "Minesweeper"? There seems to be hundreds of these games. I mean, Steam has a "Hentai Minesweeper"....

It's always amusing to see how the "Nintendo Tax" plays out on the Switch eShop. Just check out the price differential here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/774171/Muse_Dash/
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/muse-dash-switch/

Yeah...I was a bit surprised that Minesweeper isn’t copyrighted or trademarked too.

Also, I’m not sure Muse Dash is a great example of the Nintendo tax. That games has a bunch of DLC, and buying all of it through Steam costs $19.49 which, coincidentally, is exactly how much the game costs in the eShop!

[Juan Aguacate]

Pixel Ripped 1995 - Playstation 4 VR game

So here we have yet another indie studio trying to make money off of nostalgia. Yawn, these types of games are like a dime a dozen these days. The game makes good use of 3D/VR effects, but there's nothing else special about it. It has a mediocre, predictable story, and very shallow gameplay.

The game likes to try mixing up genres a bit. You get platforming, beat 'em up gameplay, and one boss fight that feels like something out of Road Rash, but it doesn't excel at any of these. The game always feels one note and shallow by the standards of the different genres it uses. In fact, the beat 'em up level is quite frankly some of the worst beat 'em up gameplay I've seen in a game. You have like, 2 moves, and the dudes wearing grey jackets are cheap as fuck and will ALWAYS hit you. This is followed up by a pathetic boss fight that I suppose is trying to mimic 1 on 1 fighting games but does it so pathetically.

Also, having to always lose control of Dot, in order to make the kid in this game use his toy gun is fucking annoying. I hate how some VR games seem to want you to do two things at once like we all have three or four arms. It's fucking stupid. I love Astrobot, but one of the challenge levels requires you to create platforms for Astro Bot to jump on with your dual shock's light sensor, while also moving Astro Bot around and navigating the environment with your analog stick and face buttons. Trying to control Astro while also moving your dual shock in all kinds of directions to create those platforms for him to use is not fun. The game literally wants you to do two different things with your controller and it's awkward and annoying.

Anyway, back to Pixel Ripped 1995. It's a bland, boring, game trying to profit off of your memories of the 80s and 90s without providing any of the stellar gameplay that many games had back then

Streets of Rage 4 - PS4

Ugh, what the hell. For a game that was supposedly inspired by Streets of Rage 2, this plays nothing like Streets of Rage 2. The enemy AI is cheaper, certain enemies from SoR 2 are cheaper and more annoying than they used to be (like the fire breathing fat guys and Galsias with knives), the characters don't feel the same (Axel's Grand Upper got nerfed to hell in SoR 4), bosses spam super armor like crazy, there's an annoying combo meter now that you have to keep building up to get S ranks. That's another new addition, the ranking system, and it relies heavily on players getting big combos. Given how cheap the overall game is, and the fact that if you take a hit you get ZERO credit for whatever you built the combo meter up to prior to that hit, the ranking system just ends up being annoying.

Also, many enemies just have insane attack priority now. You can't even Grand Upper a Galsia coming at you with a knife, you'll get hit and he won't. The speed on a lot of the game's enemies is ridiculous as well. Unless you're playing one of the faster characters, enemies can run circles around you. Even more annoying is when you get to the girls who keep throwing chemical vials at you and immediately move away from you whenever you get near them. They can play keep away all day long an it's annoying. Also, special moves no longer interrupt enemy attacks any more like they did in SoR 2 & 3. Who thought that was a good idea?

I just find SoR4 a more annoying game overall than SoR 2 was. Hell, Bare Knuckle 3 (JP version) and Streets of Rage Remake are probably a better use of one's time. The devs are now working on a balance patch to address everyone's complaints about how cheap and annoying the game is (as well as how weak characters like Axel are). For me, too little, too late. I'm so sick of this culture of devs constantly patching their games post release to address issues that should have been addressed PRIOR to release. It's like you can't buy any game these days and expect it to play well or even be free of bugs/glitches (like Maneater, which is supposed to get patches to address all of its technical issues)

Resident Evil 3 Remake - PS4

This game has gotten criticized a lot. People say, "It's too short, Nemesis is too scripted, the game is easier than is should be, they cut content, etc, etc." I think those are valid reasons to dislike the game, but none of them bothered me. I don't care that the game is short. I LIKE short games. I don't have as much time to game as I used to so short games don't bother me. I also don't care that it's not getting DLC. Good. Fuck DLC. Does EVERY game have to have DLC? Can we not just get complete games at launch instead of getting part of the game now and the rest later? I never played RE 3, the original. So whatever content was cut doesn't really matter to me because I'm not even aware of it.

Also, I LIKE that many of the Nemesis encounters are scripted. In the early part of the game he seems to show up randomly after you leave the spider area and he's annoying as fuck because he's so ridiculously OP. The later scripted encounters are much more manageable as you can actually plan and prepare for him. Plus, you can actually fight him and get rid of him. Earlier in the game he just relentlessly pursues you and you can't kill him or get rid of him and it's annoying. I also like that getting an S rank isn't that annoying like in other RE games, because you can unlock powerful items and weapons and are allowed to use them (plus the game generously allows you 5 saves). And there is thankfully no S+ rank in the game. So no need to worry about that nonsense.

Overall, I kind of agree with Radical Reggie and Easy Allies on youtube regarding this game. I like it. Some might say it's a simpler, more streamlined, RE game. That's okay with me. That's kind of why I liked RE 4. Much like RE 4, RE 3 Remake also moves at a brisk pace, with a lot of action and I like that. Some people hate RE 3 Remake though and you're entitled to your opinion. This is a divisive game and I don't think there is a right or wrong perspective on it.

I will say this though, the spider area is obnoxious. Like it'll make you want to punch the devs in the face because of how cheap and BS that section is

[Ack]

1. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)(Adventure)
2. Final Fight [Japanese Version] (Switch)(Beat 'Em Up)
3. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
4. Magrunner: Dark Pulse (PC)(FPS)
5. The King of Dragons [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
6. Captain Commando [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
7. Knights of the Round [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
8. The Witcher (PC)(RPG)
9. Tenchi wo Kurau II (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
10. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (PC)(RPG)
11. Lichdom: Battlemage (PC)(FPS/RPG Hybrid)
12. Star Wars: Republic Commando (PC)(FPS)
13. DOOM 64 (PC)(FPS)
14. Half Dead 2 (PC)(Adventure)
15. Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
16. Torchlight II (PC)(RPG)
17. Battle Circuit [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
18. Hard Reset Redux (PC)(FPS)
19. The Stanley Parable (PC)(Walking Sim)
20. Waking Mars (PC)(Adventure)
21. Requiem: Avenging Angel (PC)(FPS)
22. Night Slashers (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
23. Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (PC)(Action Adventure)
24. Strikers 1945 (Arcade)(SHMUP)
25. SiN Episodes: Emergence (PC)(FPS)
26. Crysis Warhead (PC)(FPS)
27. Metro 2033 (PC)(FPS)
28. Good Job! (Switch)(Puzzle)
29. Blasphemous (Switch)(Action Adventure)
30. Two Worlds: Epic Edition (PC)(RPG)
31. Chex Quest HD (PC)(FPS)
32. NecroVision: Lost Company (PC)(FPS)
33. Icewind Dale (PC)(RPG)
34. Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (PC)(RPG)
35. Icewind Dale: Trials of the Luremaster (PC)(RPG)
36. Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession (PC)(RPG)
37. Singularity (PC)(FPS)

This is a game that I first became interested when I learned of its development in 2009. I didn't pick it up for its 2010 release, but I kept an eye on it. When it recently went on sale on GOG, I snapped it up in an instant. I'm happy I did.

Singularity continues the trend of a certain type of FPS game that was popular in the waning days of this century's first decade: Soviet horror fuck ups. Yeah, you see it in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., you see it in Metro 2033, and you see it here, where Soviet R&D, corner-cutting, and disregard for human life just to claim some kind of advantage over the West has in turn led to some terrible radioactive thing causing mutation, horror, and the possible breakdown of reality. It's 1950s atomicpunk done through a pseudo-post-apocalyptic veil. But while both S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro 2033 focused on a nuclear aspect (the aftermath of a reactor explosions and nuclear war, respectively), Singularity goes for a different approach, using a MacGuffin element to incorporate elements of time travel and the breakdown of time at a fictitious island facility off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Yeah, in Singularity, you manipulate time. Your mission starts in 2010, but you get pulled into 1955, and the next thing you know, you've altered the present. You then spend the rest of the game trying to fix what you have done, only to inevitably make things worse and further diverge from the established timeline. By the end, the villain reveals you've gone through multiple timelines and iterations, trying to stop the various events you accidentally set in motion, but things only continue to get worse. The game offers you a choice in the finale between what are actually 3 options and tries to establish some of the missing pieces, though there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the storyline, such as who left all these messages?

Of course, since you're messing with the Soviet Union, radioactivity, and time, the game just wouldn't be complete without its fair share of hideous cannibalistic mutants. Some can phase in and out of reality, some can interact with the world in some interesting ways, and some are just annoying and best snuck past or avoided if at all possible. These fights are...well, they're what make up the bosses and things like that, and while some of the biggest battles are against them, so are many of the most annoying moments in the game. It's much more fun when you're facing down human opponents and able to bring your time powers and big guns to bear against squads and even platoons of dudes from the 1950s who have no idea what a handheld minigun is. Yeah, that is so satisfying.

You also get a variety of possible weapons and powers, upgrades for your weapons and powers, passive abilities that you can unlock, and so forth, but a lot of this is actually limited because you simply can't use it all. For instance, I could upgrade a bunch of weapons...or I could simply focus on the two I used the most, the assault rifle and minigun. While you can only hold two weapons at a time, the game comes complete with weapon lockers throughout which allow you to equip, upgrade, and load up whatever guns you want, so you really can just stick to what you enjoy once you've found it in the world. For a game with limited weapons inventory, this isn't a bad way to handle letting me use what I want when I want. Add to it that there are a couple of special weapons which are a blast to use (literally, a rocket launcher and a rifle that fires controllable explosive bullets), and the game provides a fun array of firepower that I liked a lot.

There is also an element of puzzle solving throughout, generally handled via your time powers. Since you can cause things to breakdown with age or restore to former glory as well as later levitate and even stop time in a small area, you must use this to navigate through the levels. The nice thing is that you see similar puzzles repeated but also get slightly expanded upon, so your skills stay relevant. The first time I had to open a shuttered door by stick a busted box beneath it and restoring it, it took me a minute to figure it out. The fifth time, it was easy, but I then had to pull the box out on the other side so I could use it to climb a fence. It makes sense and combines similar skills I had learned from previous puzzles in ways that work.

Is everything great? Well, some of the swapping between Russian and English is awkward, especially the use of Cyrilic characters for English sentences. Also, there are multiple videos that come off too much like Fallout and don't represent Soviet Realism the way it would have been used. But if that's my biggest complaint, was does that tell you about how much I liked the game? Again, minigun and 1950s Soviet soldiers.

I had a great time. I'm glad I finally got to play this. If you liked S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the Metro games but want something a little more arcadey and less tactical, with shades of the Puzzle FPS subgenre, Singularity is a good game to check out.

[MrPopo]

1. Elite Dangerous - PC
2. Soldier of Fortune - PC
3. Star Wars: TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire - PC
4. Star Wars: TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire - PC
5. Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter: Balance of Power - PC
6. Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - PC
7. Phoenix Point - PC
8. Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - PC
9. Descent II - PC
10. Inbento - Switch
11. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - XB1
12. Doom Eternal - PC
13. Serious Sam 2 - PC
14. Black Mesa - PC
15. Descent 3 - PC
16. Darksiders II - PC
17. Resident Evil 3 (2020) - PC
18. Overload - PC
19. Final Fantasy VII Remake - PS4
20. Trials of Mana (2020) - Switch
21. Persona 5 Royal - PS4
22. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered - PC
23. Sublevel Zero Redux - PC
24. Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age - PS4
25. Maneater - PC
26. XCOM: Chimera Squad - PC
27. Sakura Wars - PS4
28. Stela - Switch
29. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - DC
30. Darksiders III - PC
31. Shadow Warrior (2013) - PC
32. Robotrek - SNES
33. Shadow Warrior 2 - PC
34. EVO: The Search for Eden - SNES
35. Blast Corps - N64
36. Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations - PC

The Covert Operations was an expansion released for the original Command & Conquer, back in the day. It adds fifteen new missions plus five secret missions. The regular missions are split between GDI and Nod and are selected from a list, so there is no real continuity between them. They all tend to have some sort of gimmick to them; some are fixed force missions (use this tiny squad to accomplish an objective) while others are base building. But all the base building ones have some twist at the beginning that complicates your start. Once you get past that twist you go into normal base building mode. None of them are to terribly hard once you've gotten yourself established; the biggest thing tends to be knowing where to wall off or to get an early Obelisk up and then sit back and take things at your leisure. You tend to also want to be relatively aggressive in hunting the enemy harvester to keep things from dragging on too long and resources running thin, since the original C&C had the computer get something like 5-10x the credits you do from a load of tiberium.

The secret missions are also known as the Dino Funpark missions (after the command originally used to enable them). They are quite rough, and in the original release were buggy. But the basic premise is that you have to take a Nod force and shoot dinosaurs because Jurassic Park had come out that year and dinosaurs were cool. You do four missions as Nod, none of which have any real challenge to it, and then a fifth mission as the dinosaurs to take out a Nod base. This is the actual tricky one, since you have a limited force that is all melee and the base has a good defensive cordon. You will need to micro properly to take out the perimeter defenses.

I'm also including in here the handful of extra missions that were on the console releases (which were ported to the Remastered Collection). There were six missions added to the PS1 release and four missions added to the N64 release. These again are split between base building and commando missions, and honestly they're easier than the main Covert Operations missions and don't have much that sticks out. Except the S3cr3t M1ss1on. That one is them just screwing around; the map is you having a massive amount of tiberium and no doodads on the map with the enemy base having a water moat aside from a land bridge. They never actually attack you and your Orcas have the Obelisk laser instead of their normal missiles. The intent is you just build a bunch of Orcas and steamroll the enemy base, as it has a stupidly high amount of ground defenses but the air defenses aren't too bad. It's basically the sort of map you'd expect from someone who first discovered a map editor, except it made it into a retail release.

[MrPopo]

1. Elite Dangerous - PC
2. Soldier of Fortune - PC
3. Star Wars: TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire - PC
4. Star Wars: TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire - PC
5. Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter: Balance of Power - PC
6. Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance - PC
7. Phoenix Point - PC
8. Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - PC
9. Descent II - PC
10. Inbento - Switch
11. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - XB1
12. Doom Eternal - PC
13. Serious Sam 2 - PC
14. Black Mesa - PC
15. Descent 3 - PC
16. Darksiders II - PC
17. Resident Evil 3 (2020) - PC
18. Overload - PC
19. Final Fantasy VII Remake - PS4
20. Trials of Mana (2020) - Switch
21. Persona 5 Royal - PS4
22. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered - PC
23. Sublevel Zero Redux - PC
24. Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age - PS4
25. Maneater - PC
26. XCOM: Chimera Squad - PC
27. Sakura Wars - PS4
28. Stela - Switch
29. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - DC
30. Darksiders III - PC
31. Shadow Warrior (2013) - PC
32. Robotrek - SNES
33. Shadow Warrior 2 - PC
34. EVO: The Search for Eden - SNES
35. Blast Corps - N64
36. Command & Conquer: The Covert Operations - PC
37. Command & Conquer Red Alert: Counterstrike - PC

Counterstrike is the first of two expansions released for Red Alert. It consists of eight missions per side, with the Allied missions being assembled into three mini campaigns while the Soviet missions are all stand alone. When the two RA expansions were released on the PS1 as part of the Retaliation pack they were remixed into two mini campaigns of four missions each for each side, with intro and outro briefings leading into and out of each mini campaign; this mostly serves to give context to the Soviet missions as the Allied missions already had a narrative thread. The two Greece missions serve as a final mission to each of the other two original mini campaigns, so they end up being a bit disjointed.

The expansion only adds two new units; a foot soldier with a silenced pistol which serves as Stavros and the new Soviet Commando Volkov (with different stats between the two). The other new unit is the Radar Jammer has been repurposed as a Tesla Tank (which would get a proper model in the Aftermath expansion). None of them are multiplayer buildable.

The missions continue the trend from Covert Operations of tending to have some sort of commando action at the start before a proper base building section. The quality ends up being a bit of a mixed bag; while all the Soviet missions are fairly strong the Allied missions tend to be not nearly as fun. This comes down to two different things. The first is that the Allied tech level is kept lower than the opposition, which is made worse thanks to the fact that at a given tech level Allied strength is lower in the base game. So in the first mission you are taking Light Tanks into Heavy Tanks, V2s, and Tesla Coils. The second is that the Allied missions tend to have alternate fail conditions that are kind of a pain to deal with. Three of them have you needing to stop convoy trucks from leaving, and due to how the pathfinding likes to work in the game even trying to block off their escape will lead to them finding some weird alternate route. And since Command & Conquer limits how you do base building you can't just stick static defenses in the destinations. And since the Allied units are weaker just leaving guardian forces at the exits is a good way to get them killed by a patrol. One of the missions ends up being easier to just rush the enemy, blast into the base and take out the convoy (which is helped by the fact that the trucks drop nuke crates you can suicide on to take out the rest).

The other thing worth pointing out about Counterstrike is it includes the Ant missions. These are an evolution of the Dino Funpark from Covert Operations. It's a four mission campaign where you need to defeat giant ants that seem to have been created as a biproduct of a Soviet lab. Interestingly, the game actually gives you a GDI force; you color is tan and you have a selection of units split between the two base game factions. You get minigunners, grenadiers, rocket troops, jeeps, APCs, medium tanks, and mammoth tanks. It's a nice callback to the fact the Dino missions were Nod exclusive. The first mission ends up being the hardest because it works against your normal reactions. The best way to beat it is to spam infantry; you can't produce vehicles fast enough to deal enough damage to take out the ants before they hit you. And the ants are nasty; they can one or two shot most things. But once you're past the first mission you have enough resources in future missions to build a more conventional force to deal with the mission objectives.

All in all, Counterstrike is a decent enough expansion to the base game, though it does highlight the imbalance between the Allies and the Soviets in terms of the force balance.

[Flake]

January through May:

January
Shovel Knight: King of Cards (Switch)
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (Switch)
Super Metroid (Switch)

February
Megaman X (Switch)
Nekketsu Highschool Dodgeball Club (Switch)
Super Dodgeball (Switch)

March

Garou: Mark of the Wolves (SNK Pro Stick)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

April

Batman The Telltale Series (Switch)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Switch)
SNK Gals' Fighter (Switch)

May

King of Fighters 97: Global Match (PS4)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

June
Megaman X3 (Switch)
Megaman X4 (Switch)
King of Fighters 98: Ultimate Match (PS4)

Work has me too mentally exhausted to focus on games that are either long or require me to 'learn' how to play. So some old favorites go through their paces on new systems.

Notably, this is the first time I've unlocked the 'gold chip capsule' in Megaman X3 without using a code. Of all the SNES X games, X3 really forces the player to figure out a path forward at the beginning of the game. Most of the bosses are extremely tough to beat without the weapon they are weak to and most of the powerups require you to have access to special weapons to access. Once you get some momentum, things get better. I generally have only ever played X3 as part of an X marathon, meaning I was a little too fatigued to find 'all the things'.

Also - Megaman X4 with the Nintendo Switch SNES controller is a very, very nice time.

After playing the heck out of King of Fighters '97 Global Match, I decided to play King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match. Previously, I played KoF '98 on the Dreamcast as KoF '99 Dream Match. Most of the Dreamcast build is present in UM but there are a few extra characters, some neat 3D back grounds, and other stuff. It's a good game but the lack of a story mode makes it hard for me to want to really invest like I did with '97. Also, where '97 Global Match was re-built for Vita and PS4, '98 UM is just a digital re-release of the PS2 version. There's a little bit of trophy support...and that's about it. The visuals aren't that great and the 3D effects injected into the back ground just take away from enjoying the Neo Geo era artwork. I think that I'll stick with the Neo Geo Mini for my King of Fighters '98 needs going forward.