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dsheinem
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Games Beaten 2020

by dsheinem Tue Dec 31, 2019 11:51 pm

Welcome to the Games Beaten 2020 thread! In this thread, we list and discuss what games we've beaten this year.

Per Racketboy tradition, this thread is not a competition, not a place where we hold to hard and fast rules about what games can count, when, or why, etc. The only expectation is that you perhaps talk a bit about what you've beaten: What were your thoughts? Why did you play? Would you recommend it? This thread is about sharing our personal accomplishments and engaging one another about the games we have played!

Are you curious about what kinds of reviews people like to read in this thread? Take a look at this poll and discussion from 2017.

If you are new to this thread for the year, feel free to jump in any time between now and the end of the year. If you have questions or need help, feel free to hit me up! For reference, here's a couple of past threads so you can see how people have approached their participation, their list making, etc.

2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
Flake
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by Flake Thu Jan 02, 2020 10:19 am

January
Shovel Knight: King of Cards (Switch)

Woot! I have finally finished the final Treasure Trove game! And I feel...conflicted. Mostly just sad that it is over. I didn't realize when I first played Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope back in 2014 (and quickly shrugged and turned it off) that Yacht Club's quirky little IP would become one of my absolute favorites. It was 2017 when I really settled into the series, finally.

King of Cards is a really ambitious game and while playing it, I got a good sense of why Yacht Club had to take so much time during development. A lot of the efficiencies that the Plague Knight campaign had were not possible with this game. No levels were 1:1 re-used and it was an entirely different world map. That new world map made it impossible to take shortcuts with a Megaman-esque menu like the Specter Knight campaign used. Everything (other than sprite work) was new and, on top of that, a card game that is every bit as complex as Final Fantasy 8's Triad game is built into the experience, both as a part of gameplay and as a key portion of the narrative.

Oh and narrative! Where Plague Knight's storyline and (to a much lesser degree, Specter Knight's) were treated as 'what-if?' scenarios, King Knight's tale is a complete prequel to Shovel Knight. By the end of the game, Yacht Club managed to explain why every single side character in the original campaign was where they were, doing what they were doing when Shovel Knight happened upon them.

It's dawning on me as I type this how impossible it is to convey why any of this is impressive or important to someone who hasn't played any of the Shovel Knight games - but believe me, King of Cards is fantastic and an integral part what (I consider) to be the best new IP of the 2010's.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by prfsnl_gmr Thu Jan 02, 2020 10:59 am

Awesome review, Flake. I played through Dhovel Knight shortly after release, and while I really enjoyed it, I haven’t touched it since then. While home over the holidays, however, I downloaded all of the updates, and the amount of content Yacht Club games has added to the base experience (and for free!) is staggering. I’m looking forward to diving back into the game.

If I play through all of the content again, in what order do you recommend I tackle it? Should I start with King of Cards, replay the base game, and then move to the Plague Knight and Specter Knight scenarios?
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by Flake Thu Jan 02, 2020 11:24 am

prfsnl_gmr wrote:...the amount of content Yacht Club games has added to the base experience (and for free!) is staggering. I’m looking forward to diving back into the game.

If I play through all of the content again, in what order do you recommend I tackle it? Should I start with King of Cards, replay the base game, and then move to the Plague Knight and Specter Knight scenarios?


The 'For Free' is clever. It's actually only free if you bought one of the versions of the game earlier on. They've steadily raised the price of the 'Treasure Trove' as they've added more content. Early adopters keep getting rewarded while the increased price matches the phenomenal content.

As for the order, I think that Shovel and Plague should be first as they are interchangeable. They are mostly the same story told from slightly different angles. Specter needs to be played after Shovel for the story to have the right impact. I think King should be played last since it is incredibly self-referential and tells the backstory of all the side and background characters. The ending just feels so right. The whole world of Shovel Knight makes sense when you finish it.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by prfsnl_gmr Thu Jan 02, 2020 11:27 am

Awesome. Thank you!

(Also, the collector that I am bought physical copies of the 3DS and Wii U versions at release; so, I should have said, “Free for me”. :lol: )
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by Flake Thu Jan 02, 2020 11:30 am

prfsnl_gmr wrote:Awesome. Thank you!

(Also, the collector that I am bought physical copies of the 3DS and Wii U versions at release; so, I should have said, “Free for me”. :lol: )


I bought the Wii version back in the day but I was having a really off period with gaming in general. I wish I'd held on to it. SK finally clicked with me when I got Treasure Trove on Switch at launch.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by PartridgeSenpai Thu Jan 02, 2020 12:19 pm

Partridge Senpai's 2020 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat

1. Invisigun Reloaded (Switch)

Invisigun Heroes is a game my brother really wanted to play for the past couple holidays we've gotten together. I discovered it was on Switch a couple months back, or some version of it was anyhow, and he bought it for my Switch this year so we could play together. While he did some other chores, I played through some of the single player content to kill time, and I ended up just finishing it XD. It took me about 7-8 hours while collecting all but 8 of the chips.

Invisigun Reloaded is an expanded rebrand of the original PC game Invisigun Heroes. The core concept is that it's a top-down, grid-based competitive shooter, but the catch is that you're all invisible. Even YOU are invisible! Keeping track of where you are and trying to guess where everyone else may be is the main meat of the multiplayer. Additionally, there are 12 playable characters (3 unlocked by beating 3 of any of the other 9's story modes) each with their own special ability that really affects how you play the game. these can range from launching a drone that can reveal and slow players, to leaping over obstacles, to summoning a destructible block that can block shots. Shots will impact on each other, and you're revealed when you fire a shot or use your special power (usually), and if you bump into scenery, it'll wiggle and show your player color. It's a lot of mind games and we had a lot of fun playing the multiplayer with our sister across the 7 multiplayer modes (we didn't try much of it 2-player since that wasn't quite as fun).

The single player mode was added for the Reloaded mega patch (and consequently, the Switch port), as were some new cosmetics and the aforementioned 3 unlockable characters. Each of the original 9 characters gets their own 9 stage series of puzzle stages to go through. Their stages are based on their own particular power, and the 9th stage is a boss fight also tailored to that character (which range from super easy, one-try-and-done to horrific ordeals that require a degree of luck for the boss' RNG to win, at least for me XP). The levels are really well done little puzzles. The difficulty curve is not always consistent and the mechanics some bosses use doesn't always gel with the game's physics (you can kinda tell that the game wasn't designed with these kinds of encounters in mind), but none of those are deal breakers. Checkpoints are generous (usually) and loading times are super short, so it's easy to hop right back in and give it another go~

The campaign has 3 difficulties: Shadow, where you have checkpoints and you aren't invisible; Invisible, where you are invisible but still get checkpoints; and Brutal, where you have no checkpoints. The difficulties don't matter for anything other than Brutal saves your completion times. I did most of the game on Invisible, and a couple of the harder levels (and harder chips) on Shadow. Each non-boss level has a little microchip you can collect, and every 8 you collect unlocks some more emotes for multiplayer (and each campaign you complete unlocks a new cosmetic shot type that any character can use). Sometimes the microchip is just hard to get, other times it might be restricted behind using below a certain number of shots to complete the level, or completing it within a certain window of time. They're a great way to make the game far harder than it already is, especially if you're playing on Brutal XD

Verdict: Highly Recommended. Invisigun was already a really good concept for a multiplayer game, and the single player game does a great job of turning that into an action/puzzle game. I wouldn't say it should be your main selling point on the game, but for $20, it's a great competitive multiplayer game for Switch that now has a fairly significant single-player aspect to it.
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by pook99 Thu Jan 02, 2020 4:16 pm

@flake: I love king of cards, it was just an amazing end to an amazing series, and I agree that shovel knight was the best new IP of the decade.

@prfsnl_gamer: I would just play them in the order of their release, shovel, plague, specter, and finally king. I personally thought plague was the weakest of the 4 (still a very good game) but I think the way the story is told, you get the most benefit from going in that order.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by PartridgeSenpai Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:42 pm

Partridge Senpai's 2020 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019
* indicates a repeat

1. Invisigun Reloaded (Switch)

2. Human: Fall Flat (Switch)

Another game on Switch I played through with my family while on my visit to America. A game I bought nearly a year ago to play with entirely different people, this was when I was finally around people long enough to play through the whole thing XD. It took us about 8 or 10 hours to play through all the stages co-op.

Human: Fall Flat is a physics-based kiiinda puzzle platformer. The whole game is designed to be beatable with only one person (although some puzzles I have no idea how to do alone), but you can do two players locally and up to four using online play. You are a blobby sort of human thing and you can hold right trigger to extend and grab with (you MUST do both, and can't do one or the other by itself), and can hold left trigger for the left arm. Using the right stick looks around, but it also moves which direction you're pointing your arms. Using the control stick to move and A to jump (as long as your feet are touching the ground), you navigate through a series of stages that get longer with more difficult platforming and puzzles.

My favorite part about the game was all about how it handles the co-op, really. First of all there are tons of costumes you can use to dress up your blob person. I was a neon green dog fur suit, and my sister combined a Christmas pudding suit and a Santa hat + beard to make a horrific looking Santa who looked like he was melting and covered in horrible boils after she'd altered the colors on it XD. There's a lot of personalization that you can add to make things just that much more silly X3. The characters have a weird, almost uncanny aspect to how they lumber about and grab things, and it really adds a lot of character to how silly the game can already be.

That factors in great with the somewhat malleable solution many of the puzzles have. The game is a physics playground designed for one person, so there is a LOT of strange nonsense and alternate solutions you can come up with if you're determined enough. One of my personal favorites was when I stood on a switch to get my sister through a door, but then the door shut behind her (you're supposed to put a box on it). Instead of doing the puzzle properly, she held the door open with her body, and then I attempted to follow after her only to get my butt stuck in the door, and it took like 8 minutes of ragdoll-ing and pulling to get me un-stuck between all the laughing we were doing XD. The puzzles are really well designed, and you always feel clever for having solved them (even if at times it feels like you DEFINITELY did not do the proper way, and just messed with the game to the point where you did it XD). The game also gets pretty darn hard with its platforming, so having another person to play through it with makes those more difficult sections much more enjoyable to go through.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you have someone to play with, Human: Fall Flat can be an incredibly silly and fun time. If you're just by yourself, it's still a challenging but well designed physics puzzler. If I had only gone through it by myself, it certainly wouldn't be recommended so strongly, but this is an excellent game to play even with people only sorta used to video games. Not quite the level of Overcooked or Octodad in terms of how easy it is to learn and have fun with, but it follows closely behind~
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by Ack Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:54 pm

1. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)(Adventure)

First game of the year, and I figured I'd start it off right. Link's Awakening on the Nintendo Switch is a total remake, done in a visual style that reminds me a little of claymation and dropping many of the limitations imposed by the Game Boy's hardware and design. While this has a definite impact, the experience from someone returning many years later to a game I beat back on my Super Game Boy back in 1996...well, it was a sweet, nostalgic journey.

If you're new to Link's Awakening, the general plot is that Link is in a shipwreck, wakes on an island, and learns he must find eight instruments and wake the Windfish to be able to leave. As you go on your journey, a more melancholic undertone is revealed, but I don't want to ruin anything for you, because the game earns the whimsy and the emotional repercussions of what you are doing. As an adult, it wasn't as potent, but I also knew it was coming.

The controls have been upgraded, so Link is now always equipped with his sword and shield, instead of having to swap out between two slots with other gear. Instead, two items can be equipped at any time, and let me tell you, being able to attack, block, jump, and throw a boomeranged is a dynamite combo. Between that and the world no longer relying on set screens the way the dungeons do, the Switch remake feels a lot easier than the Game Boy original, which was not particularly challenging to begin with. I feel like I breezed through this one.

In addition to these changes, content from the Link's Awakening DX port was kept in, particularly the special secret Color Dungeon. On top of that is a figurine quest, compatibility with amiibos, and even a new quest line in which you build your own dungeons based on the rooms you encounter in others, including said Color Dungeon. Yeah, you can make your own, and while there are perks to finishing construction-related challenges, you can also make yourself a proper challenge. Want to build a dungeon composed entirely of a boss rush? Here's your chance.

In general, Link's Awakening is an easy time that continues on at a fair pace, and there are telephone booths throughout the island which provide tips on next steps...sometimes. Every now and then, I did get a little stuck while trying to track down some item or something that I really needed, but that was a pretty rare occurrence. I did take notes once, for the final dungeon path, and the final boss spikes in difficulty in a way that feels out of sync. He has something like six or seven different forms, a couple of which are much trickier than others. It felt odd, even if it did at least offer up more challenge than just about any other boss.

Bottom line, I had a wonderful time. I want to spend more time with my Switch in 2020, and this was a wonderful way to begin. After you beat the game, you can also go back to track down any remaining items or the like you miss too, and the ending sequence appears to be beautiful hand drawn animation. Appears being the operative word, as in truth I have no idea, but it reminds me of when I took notice of Japanese animation, around the time I first played Link's Awakening on Game Boy almost...30 years ago.

Man, time flies. I'm glad I had some time to spend with this.
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