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alienjesus
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by alienjesus Sat Sep 26, 2020 5:38 pm

1. Ys: The Oath in Felghana PSN Vita
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Switch
3. Super Mario Party Switch
4. Moss PSVR
5. Paper Mario: Colour Splash Wii U
6. The Firemen SNES
7. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SFC
8. Kuukiyomi: Consider It! Switch eShop
9. Valkyria Chronicles Switch eShop
10. Illusion of Time SNES
11. Trials of Mana Switch
12. Undertale Vita
13. Rastan SMS
14. Rainbow Islands SMS
15. River City Girls Switch
16. Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch
17. Streets of Rage 4 Switch eShop
18. Dragon Warrior IV NES
19. Super Tennis SNES
20. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Switch eShop
21. Pilotwings Switch eShop
22. Castlevania: The Adventure Switch eShop
23. Streets of Rage Game Gear
24. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix Switch eShop
25. Ninja Gaiden Game Gear
26. Psychic World Game Gear
27. The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury Game Gear
28. Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble Game Gear
29. Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu SFC
30. Pokémon Sword: Isle of Armour DLC Switch *NEW*
31. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter N64 *NEW*
32. Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse Game Gear *NEW*
33. Deep Duck Trouble starring Donald Duck Game Gear *NEW*
34. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch *NEW*



Pokemon Sword: Isle of Armour DLC

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The Isle of Armour is a DLC expansion for Pokémon Sword and Shield. It sees you visiting the titular island of the game, which is essentially a large new wild area for catching Pokémon in, and following through a simple storyline involving a dojo on the island. When you arrive on the island, you meet a new antagonist character (it varies between versions of the game who they are, mine was a poison type trainer girl) and are also introduced to Mustard, the head of the dojo. Mustard sets you about on some simple tasks to resolve issues at the dojo, which mainly serve to get you to explore the new wild area a bit, before giving you ownership of a new pokemon, Kubfu, to train. These sidequests are honestly a bit dull, but I was entertained by the first one which involved chasing down three exceedingly fast slowpoke.

Training Kubfu involves a set of additional sidequests, the final ones of which involve defeating Mustard in battle. This is where one of the big issues with the DLC comes into play – the level balancing. As this DLC needs to be accessible to trainers regardless of how far through the plot they are, levels are adjusted depending on story progress through the game. Unfortunately, this comes with a few issues – first off, if like me you already finished the main story of Pokémon Sword, the wild pokemon levels are high enough that you’re essentially consigned to continuing with the main team you used rather than enjoying capturing a new team. Secondly, all enemy battles are levelled up but are disappointingly easy because they all used unevolved early game pokemon. Finally, and most significantly, it adds in an annoying grind – because one of the challenges involves defeating Mustard’s Kubfu with your own, only his is at level 70, and you get yours at level 10. Cue a lot of running about grabbing level ups to stand a chance.
After the storyline concludes, you can evolve Kubfu into one of 2 forms of his evolution Urshifu, and then that’s pretty much it. There’s a bunch of other things to find, some gift pokemon obtainable by finding 150 hidden diglett across the island, 130 or so new pokemon to catch that aren’t in the main game, and some nice hidden items and new features – but mostly, this is a very content-lite update as far as storyline gameplay goes.
I enjoyed my time on The Isle of Armour, but there’s no doubt that the main selling point is really just having more Pokémon to catch, and that makes it really easy to know if you think that’s worth it to you. There’s more DLC out later in the year with more new pokemon. I wish there had been a little more to do on the Isle of Armour than just catching stuff, but that’s true of Sword and Shield in general. That said, like the main games I still found this charming and enjoyable. Just perhaps a bit pricy for what if offers.



Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

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Turok is an FPS game for Nintendo 64 which I played through as part of this year’s summer games challenge. Its based on a comic book series, and I don’t know the plot very well (the game doesn’t really expand on much) but you’re a native American stereotype who appears to be in some sort of scifi setting featuring aliens but also dinosaurs. Obviously, the best course of action is to shoot everything, which to be honest, is a course of action that generally seems to work in the game.

Turok is a pretty typical N64 FPS. It features my favourite control scheme for shooting games on the system (C buttons to move, stick to aim, Z shoots, R jumps and A and B change weapons). You explore some huge maps gathering up weapons and ammo and shooting things til they stop moving. Throughout the levels are lots of secrets, some accessible via mysterious blue portals, and some via hidden walls, climbable structures and more. Turok is a game with a life system – you have 3 to begin, and running out of health or falling off the level will cost 1 life. You can gather force points through the level, floating triangles which grant an extra life upon gathering 100. You have 100 health by default, but some health pickups allow you to go above 100 up to a maximum of 250 health total. You can also grab armour on top of this, although it’s rare in earlier levels.

The shooting and exploring gameplay is quite satisfying overall. Being the era and console it was on, there’s quite a hefty leeway for what counts as a shot hitting, so you can run and gun pretty quickly. Turok moves around the map quickly and this makes the running and gunning feel breezy and satisfying. In terms of weapons, there’s a good variety, although some early games are made redundant quickly, and some late guns are a little too awkward to use to feel worth it, which meant I mostly tended to stick to the same few. For example, the pistol from level 1 is utterly outclassed by the assault rifle, which is useful for most of the game. The assault rifle is essential the same as the pistol but fires bursts of 3 instead of 1 shot at a time, making it much quicker whilst not costing any more resource. Similarly, you find the shotgun on level 1 about 20 metres away from the vastly superior Auto-shotgun, a semi-automatic version of the same thing. This means the shotgun wastes space in your inventory and gets in the way when selecting weapons. Other useful guns include the plasma cannon, a laser machine gun with good power, the mini-gun which is good for shredding bosses when you run out of better options, the grenade launcher, which is unwieldy but very strong, and the quad-launcher, a rocket launcher that shoots 4 mini rockets for lots of damage but eats ammo fast. The final weapon of the game, the Chronoscepter, is divided into 9 parts spread across all the levels, and is reassembled right before the last boss, meaning you only get to use it on him. Hitting all 3 shots of ammo on him eats up about half his health pool.

Exploring is the other main aspect of the game, and the maps here are very big and often confusing, as they frequently involve backtracking, unlocking new pathways from old areas, 3 dimension travel (climbing and dropping to lower ledges etc). They can also be hard to figure out due to the games significant fog obscuring your view quite close, despite many big open areas. Luckily there is a map ovelay you can turn on with L which helps a lot, although can be annoying in the way all the time. On each level your goal is to find the keys which open later levels (3 for levels 2-8, and 6 for level 9) and the chronoscepter piece, before leaving back to the hub level and trying another stage from there. It’s very possible to miss the keys as some are hidden away, so expect to have to replay levels sometimes if you miss one. Luckily, this only happened to me once, but it is frustrating. Also frustrating is how many enemies respawn quickly, so if you’re a bit lost and trying to find where to go, you can often run low on health and ammo dealing with constant annoying enemies whilst you do so.

Not nearly as frustrating, however, as Turok’s immense love of first person platforming. Judging distance in turok is very difficulty when jumping, and the game makes you do precision jumping a LOT. Early in the game you will often either accidentally run off a cliff because you jumped too late, fall short of the other side because you jumped too early, or jump past the platform because you jumped too far. I eventually found it a bit easier to use the mini map to line up jumps, but they were a constant frustration throughout. The game also doesn’t really introduce you to them gradually – most early jumps are over instant death pits despite you having very few lives. Stage 3 features a brutal section of about 80 very narrow and tricky jumps of varying distances in a row, and whilst the game was nice enough to offer a save point just before it, I died quite a few times navigating this exceedingly boring and tedious section of the level. I game overed a few times early on due to pitfall deaths. They were the cause of 70% of my deaths in the game overall. Another 5% or so were from running out of health from common enemies. And the other 25% were from the stage 3 boss.

There are only 4 bosses in Turok, and 2 of them are on the final level. The final boss isn’t too difficult, but offers a challenge, and the T-rex battle before him is hectic but fairly easy. Stage 6 features a giant mantis boss who is exciting but a pushover, due to his big hitboxes and easy to avoid attacks. Stage 3 on the other hand, features the Longhunter and Jeeps. The jeeps are hard to avoid and take a beating to put down, and you fight 2 in a row. This normally runs out all of your ammo as you don’t have many weapon options at this point in the game. The you fight the longhunter, a human character with a powerful gun, homing projectiles, a small hitboxes and the ability to dodge. You have sod all ammo left, you’re low on health and he is a nightmare to hit. This boss was the single hardest part of the whole game to me, he killed me more than anything else. Even more frustratingly, the aforementioned series of 80 jumps over instant death pits comes right before him with no save in between, and I honestly almost gave up on the game right here. I made that series of jumps at least 8 times.

I’m generally thankful I didn’t though, because Turok improves from there. There’s still some annoying levels later, but they mostly dial back the platforming, or at least make it easier by having damaging floors below them instead of instant death, and wider platforms to land on. The focus moves more to shooting tougher enemies, and the game is much better at handling this than platforming. Turok is a decent game, and whilst I wouldn’t say it’s a must own, and it has a few too many flaws and frustrating bullshit design sometimes, I would say I enjoyed my time with it overall. Play GoldenEye and Perfect Dark before this if you want to try an old-school console FPS, but if you’re wanting more after those, you could do worse than Turok.


Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse

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Land of Illusion is a game starring Mickey Mouse, and is a part of the Illusion series by Sega – the most famous being Castle of Illusion for Mega Drive. There was also an 8 bit game of the same name which was similar in theme but different in level designs, and was quite excellent too. Land of Illusion is the follow up to that 8-bit Castle of Illusion, and is very possibly the best in the series – and one of the best platformers for both the Master System and the Game Gear.

Land of Illusion sees Mickey exploring the titular world to defeat the evil King Pete. Mickey starts with 2 health points, although he can gain more (up to 5) and he can jump and butt bounce on enemies to defeat them. He can also pick up certain objects and throw them at enemies or reposition them to use as platforms. Along the way to defeat Pete he helps rescue other famous Disney characters such as Donald and Goofy, who give him a variety of items to use which increase his abilities in game. One example is a potion which allows mickey to shrink by pressing down + B, to pass through small tunnels, and another is a rope which mickey can use to climb sheer walls.

The level design is simple but offers a nice variety of themes and ideas. One level sees Mickey in a giant land with huge bugs, another in a castle burning to the ground, and another in a haunted building where he must carry lights with him to be able to see. There’s some clever level mechanics too, like an auto-scrolling section with switches that can be held down to reverse the scrolling, requiring some puzzle solving to get a key at the end to a door at the start.

The game looks and sounds fantastic for either series, and is honestly a joy to play. I’ve beaten it before and it’s a great game to get down and play through of an afternoon now and again. I also highly recommend the sequel, Legend of Illusion, too




Deep Duck Trouble starring Donald Duck

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After playing through Land of Illusion, I decided to pull out another Sega Disney title I hadn’t played in a while to give it another go. Deep Duck Trouble is a platformer starring Donald Duck, on a quest to find a treasure to help Uncle Scrooge who has been cursed and inflated like a balloon. Donald explores various environments hopping and bopping his way through them. Unlike this games predecessor, The Lucky Dime Caper (another decent sega Disney game, though not as good as Quackshot or the Illusion series) Donald doesn’t have any weapons to use this time, so generally jumps on enemies to defeat them. Donald can also kick blocks and chests, and kicking blocks into enemies hurts them too. He also has a health bar now.

The levels of Deep Duck Trouble are generally more simple than Land of illusion, with some fun but basic platforming challenges. There’s a few creative uses of donalds abilities, such as kicking blocks along ice and riding them in the ice world, but overall nothing that really stands out. Boss fights are interesting though – rather than fighting enemies, they all take the form of escape sequences, where Donald runs from a chasing hazard, such as a shark, a volcanic eruption or a gorilla. Once you’ve run far enough, they will crash into something or otherwise be halted and Donald will received the levels treasure

The game is a real treat when it comes to presentation. The music is catchy and sounds good for the system, and the game features super impressive graphics– it looks outright incredible for an 8 bit console or handheld. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost. See, the elephant in the room with Deep Duck Trouble, is slowdown. The game is full of it, it’s a constant hazard. This wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t impact the game so much, but it unfortunately does. I replayed the ice world multiple times because it relied on a series of 2 quick, pixel perfect jumps over an instant death pit to finish – but every time I started the jump sequence, slowdown would kick in making it potluck whether my button presses would register at the right time or duration to make the jumps. It felt punishing in a way that wasn’t fair or fun. There are other instances of this too.

And that’s a shame, because if those issues weren’t there, this would be a pretty good, maybe even great platformer for the systems it’s on. I played on Game Gear, so it’s possible the issue is less pronounced on Master System, but given the similarities of the hardware I doubt it. As it stands, this registers as just decent. A short and fun romp if you can forgive the frustrations caused by the technical issues. Worth a play, but I’d recommend all of Sega’s other Mickey & Donald games first.




The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

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Link’s Awakening is an interesting game. I often see it pulled out as the most common of the left-field picks for people’s favourite Zelda games. You know, people generally choose Ocarina, Majora, Link to the Past, Breath of the Wild or even Wind Waker. But there is a small but committed bunch who know that Link’s Awakening is truly the best one.

I have never been one of those people.

I like Link’s Awakening on Game Boy, but it’s far from my favourite. It’s not my favourite 2D Zelda, or even my favourite Game Boy Zelda – both of those titles go to Oracle of Ages, with Seasons close behind. But all that said, I was still pretty excited to see Nintendo deciding to remake a 2D Zelda game for Switch in 2019. And it looked good! The art style was supposedly a little controversial with some, but I don’t see why, because it’s perfect for the game. It feels like a diorama, and I love how we see link in his hand animated style in the ‘real-world’ but in a toy-like form in the dreamworld of Koholint – it really sets things apart. I also quite enjoyed the childlike musical remixes, although I will say there is such a think as too much whistle sometimes!

Upon replaying Link’s Awakening, one thing that stood out to me was just how small the world is. It takes no time at all to scoot around it, and even with the addition of new heart pieces and secrets to find making it more densely packed, it still felt perhaps a little too snug to me. However, it’s nice to play a game with a brisk pace every so often – I just wish I got to spend a little more exploring the fun overworld of Koholint and a little less time inside the games dungeons, as often it only take 10 minutes or so after clearing a dungeon to get into the next one. As the dungeons get longer, this gets more pronounced. One the dungeons, they’re simple but fun enough. The first time I played the game I found the puzzles in the Eagle’s Tower frustrating, and that didn’t change second time around, but nothing was frustrating enough to put me off, except for one self-inflicted challenge…

That challenge was Hero Mode, an option I’d chosen to enable on my save file. Hero mode doubles the damage enemies deal, which is challenging early on, but not too scary on it’s own. The other thing it does is remove all heart pickups in grass and from enemies, meaning you can only replenish health by using fairies or visiting a fairy fountain. This was brutal in dungeons 1 and 2, where only 1 or 2 little mistakes could cause a game over – and I wanted the good ending which requires zero deaths, so every game over required me quitting the game to keep my save file clean. After dungeon 2 though I finally got access to fairies and to the blue armour from the colour dungeon, and suddenly hero mode was no longer a challenge at all. In the end, it’s only a problem for the first hour or 2 and then it barely even registers any more.

I hear people talk about how great the story is in Link’s Awakening, and I get it, but for me the writing feels a bit hamstrung. The concept of the game is really exciting, but I don’t feel invested enough in the world or characters to care. I get that they wanted to be true to the original, but I do think a little bit of extra dialogue and some rewritten text now it doesn’t need to be on Game Boy storage limitations and screen space would have maybe helped flesh it out a little more. As it is, I feel there’s a lot of missed potential here currently.

I made the mistake of aiming for completion on this game when I played through, which was a fun process for the most part. Finding all heart pieces was fun (except the dumb river minigame) and secret shells weren’t too bad either, especially with the radar you get now. However the other requirement for completion were the new dungeon creator challenges with dampe. These have you assemble your own dungeons using rooms you’ve visited in other dungeons and then playing through them for rewards. Unfortunately, these just feel like pointless time wasters, as there’s no new challenges to face here, no incentive to make it harder and very few ways to do so without just throwing bosses in your way. Because you want the rewards too, you’ll probably just throw the simplest rooms you can and make the shortest path possible – I did. This side mode isn’t really worth the time unless you want that 100% completion like I did.

Overall, I had fun with Link’s Awakening, but I did feel by the end that I still personally don’t love this entry as much as most people seem to. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but somethings missing for me. It has charm, and classic Zelda gameplay, but I find the story lacking and the dungeons a bit too simple aside from the random spike in difficulty that is Eagles Tower. The world is charming but small, and I find the pacing of the game too focused on dungeons – my favourite part of 3d Zelda games, but probably my least favourite part of the 2d ones. I’d happily recommend anyone give this a go, and I still really enjoyed it – but it’s one the lower end of my favourite Zelda game list I’m afraid.
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alienjesus
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by alienjesus Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:36 pm

1. Ys: The Oath in Felghana PSN Vita
2. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Switch
3. Super Mario Party Switch
4. Moss PSVR
5. Paper Mario: Colour Splash Wii U
6. The Firemen SNES
7. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SFC
8. Kuukiyomi: Consider It! Switch eShop
9. Valkyria Chronicles Switch eShop
10. Illusion of Time SNES
11. Trials of Mana Switch
12. Undertale Vita
13. Rastan SMS
14. Rainbow Islands SMS
15. River City Girls Switch
16. Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch
17. Streets of Rage 4 Switch eShop
18. Dragon Warrior IV NES
19. Super Tennis SNES
20. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Switch eShop
21. Pilotwings Switch eShop
22. Castlevania: The Adventure Switch eShop
23. Streets of Rage Game Gear
24. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix Switch eShop
25. Ninja Gaiden Game Gear
26. Psychic World Game Gear
27. The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury Game Gear
28. Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble Game Gear
29. Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu SFC
30. Pokémon Sword: Isle of Armour DLC Switch
31. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter N64
32. Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse Game Gear
33. Deep Duck Trouble starring Donald Duck Game Gear
34. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Switch
35. Baba Is You Switch *NEW*

Baba Is You

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BABA IS YOU. Except when he’s not. You see, sometimes BABA IS NOT YOU. Sometimes ROCK IS YOU, and BABA IS SHUT. Sometimes BABA IS EMPTY, and KEKE IS YOU. Sometimes BABA IS YOU, but also ROCK IS YOU. Sometimes, nothing is YOU and that’s ok, as long as something IS YOU eventually.

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I should explain. Baba Is You is a mind-melting puzzle game about rules, and of course, about Baba. In each level of Baba Is You, your goal is to WIN, but it is up you to interpret and reshape the rules to make that possible. You (normally) play as Baba, a white creature who moves about a grid and can push things, sokoban style. In the levels of Baba Is You are words, which you can push around to change how the world works. BABA IS YOU means that you are in control of Baba. If you push the word rock to make ROCK IS YOU, you are now the rock and can walk around freely. Making both BABA IS YOU and ROCK IS YOU means you’ll control both Baba and the rock simultaneously. Normally, FLAG IS WIN, meaning if you touch the flag the level is completed. However, you could make ROCK IS WIN if you like. If you make BABA IS WIN and BABA IS YOU at the same you’ll win automatically because you are the thing which wins.

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Thus begins the logic bending mindfuck that is Baba is You. Most levels feature rules that cannot be broken due to placement, and those are conditions you have to work with, but you should always pay attention. For example, most levels with walls feature WALL IS STOP making them impassable and non pushable – but sometimes they don’t, and you can just walk right over them. Or change it to WALL IS PUSH to move them around. Or WALL IS YOU and shift it all at once. Figuring out the right sequence to make something WIN and YOU in contact with it is the name of the game.

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As the game goes on, more words get introduced that complicate matters. Some are adjectives, like SINK which makes objects that touch it disappear (sink into the ground) or HOT and MELT – an item that IS MELT touching an item that IS HOT will disappear. FALL is a property that adds gravity so it’ll fall to the bottom of the screen. PULL allows you to tow stuff behind you. SWAP makes you swap places with stuff you move into. Then things get complicated with conjunctives. AND appears so now you can do stuff like BABA IS KEY AND PUSH which lets you push baba into a locked object to unlock it. Or CRATE HAS KEY which means that the create will drop a key if destroyed (via SINK or MELT or many other options). They get more complex, what would NOT BABA IS YOU or NOT GRASS IS MELT AND NOT NOT LAVA do? Only one way to find out! Care has to be taken though, because if nothing on the map IS YOU, then the game becomes unplayable….at least, as long as you haven’t set up a sequence of events that moves stuff around so something becomes you again!

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And so, Baba Is You is somehow an intensely logical game, which requires you throw logic out of the window somewhat and think outside of the box. Sometimes way outside of the box. Experimentation is the key to success, but Baba is nice enough to make it easy for you by allowing you to instantly rewind movements one at a time – you might get in an unwinnable situation, but at least you can reverse out of it. And trial and error is definitely a big part of this. Baba Is You is a fun challenge for the first few worlds, but it gets very hard, very quickly. Some levels have tons of rules and tons of possible rules you could make, but only certain combinations will allow you to succeed. Many levels can be solved in several ways, but all of those ways take some incredible sussing out. Be prepared, if you play Baba Is You, to either put some serious time into each level, or be willing to skip over some or look up hints.

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There are some aspects of Baba Is You’s difficulty I didn’t like though, and those come down to some of the mechanics. Whilst I love the logic sussing of the rules, I find the Sokoban elements very frustrating. Sometimes I knew what I needed to get to solve a level but the issue I was having is not knowing how to push stuff around to get what I needed. These levels were a lot less fun for me. Another issue I had was with some later levels, which ask you to come up with solutions that actually don’t make sense with the understanding of the games rules you’ve been given. Normally, words cannot overlap under any circumstance, but there are some obscure ways to make it happen. These are required in many later levels to make multiple rules possible at once. This felt a little like glitching the game rather than solving a puzzle, but I guess that 4th wall breaking is part of the fun.

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Baba is You is a great game, and there’s a bit more I really want to talk about regarding it, but be warned that this is a major, major spoiler. If I’ve convinced you to give this game a shot at all, please don’t read this next section, as it is something that would probably be much cooler to discover yourself.

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Baba Is You is a game about breaking the rules, and being a bit Meta. And it knows it too. Towards the end of the game, you break Baba is You. Only, it’s expecting it, and comes prepared. Near the end of the main game, the word LEVEL is introduced. Adding it to LEVEL IS WIN is a great, easy way to finish the level you’re on. But you can do a lot more with it. What happens if we say ROCK IS LEVEL for example? Suddenly, we can access a new level – inside of another level. What about the other way around? If we say LEVEL IS BABA, what happens?

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Suddenly, we’re on the map screen, with Baba in place of level 8. And it turns out the map screen has rules too. BABA IS YOU and FLAG IS WIN. If we turn another level into a flag, we can ‘WIN’ the map screen. And when we win a level, we go out to the map. When we win the map, we go out….to another map! And things get super meta from there. Levels inside worlds inside levels inside levels inside worlds. Levels that can only be beaten by doing stuff on other levels. New mechanics that really mix things up, like individual letters you can spell words with. Things get very cool, a bit crazy, and very, very tough. But it’s still super exciting to see what you can do next.


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And so that’s Baba Is You. Baba Is You is an experience. Early on, you feel clever for figuring things out. And then it pulls the rug from under you and makes you work for the answers. New rules, challenging puzzles and an honestly quite extreme difficulty level await – and a whole lot of content, literally hundreds of levels to complete. And fuck, it’s tough. But it really is super satisfying when you figure one out on your own. Baba Is You is often too clever for it’s own good, to the point of frustration, but it knows it, and I love it. It wants you to think outside of the box, and it rewards you for it. I think it’s an acquired taste, but I’d recommend anyone give it a go at the least. It’s super cool.

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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by prfsnl_gmr Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:48 pm

Sweet review, AJ. I love a puzzle game, and I really want to play that one. A game you should consider looking into, based on your experience, is Corrypt. It’s a pretty great sokoban game you can only when by causing the game to “glitch” to the point of being almost completely broken. I really enjoyed it, and it’s short enough not to wear out its welcome.
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by prfsnl_gmr Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:13 pm

First 50
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)
32. Kuso (Switch)
33. 20XX (Switch)
34. Spooky Ghosts Dot Com (Switch)
35. Aggelos (Switch)
36. Quell+ (iOS)
37. The White Door (iOS)
38. Grizzland (Switch)
39. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (Switch)
40. Silent Hill (PS1)
41. Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio (Switch)
42. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch)
43. Stories Untold (Switch)
44. Boxboy! + Boxgirl! (Switch)
45. R-Type Leo (Arcade)
46. Cybarian: The Time-Traveling Warrior (Switch)
47. Duck Souls+ (Switch)
48. Daggerhood (Switch)
49. Gravity Duck (Switch)
50. Biolab Wars (Switch)

51. Legends of Amberland (Switch)
52. Mega Man & Bass: Challenger from the Future (Wonderswan)
53. Double Dragon (Game Gear)
54. Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
55. SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash (NGPC)
56. SUPERHOT (Switch)
57. Dogurai (Switch)
58. Ori & The Blind Forest Definitive Edition (Switch)
59. Alchemist’s Castle (Switch)
60. Dear Esther (iOS)
61. Framed 2 (iOS)
62. A Noble Circle (iOS)


I’m clearing some space on my iPad by knocking out a bunch of short games.

Dear Esther is the original walking simulator, and in it, I walked across an island. I inadvertently killed myself a few times. With some practice, maybe one day, I could 1CC it...

Framed 2 is a solid puzzle game where you rearrange comic tiles to advance a cloak-and-dagger story. It doesn’t innovate much or improve much upon Framed, but that’s fine. It’s a pretty strong formula, and the puzzles can be quite challenging. I enjoyed it and recommend it.

A Noble Circle is a deeply personal story mixed with “Flatland” fan fiction and not-very-compelling gameplay. You can beat it in about 30 minutes, but you’re probably better off skipping it altogether.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by PartridgeSenpai Tue Sep 29, 2020 4:40 am

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

1-50
1. Invisigun Reloaded (Switch)
2. Human: Fall Flat (Switch)
3. Shantae: The Pirate's Curse (3DS)
4. Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (PC)
5. Splatterhouse (PS3) *
6. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
7. Tokyo Jungle (PS3)
8. Pictobits (DSiWare)
9. Puzzle Quest: The Legend Reborn (Switch)
10. WarioWare Gold (3DS)
11. Disaster: Day of Crisis (Wii)
12. Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (Xbone)
13. Sleeping Dogs: Nightmare in North Point (Xbone)
14. Sleeping Dogs: Year of the Snake (Xbone)
15. Dynamite Headdy (Genesis) *
16. Shovel Knight: King of Cards (3DS)
17. Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (3DS) *
18. Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch) *
19. Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch) *
20. Shovel Knight: Showdown (Switch)
21. Dragon Quest Builders 2 (PS4)
22. ActRaiser (SNES)
23. Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (WiiWare)
24. Mega Man X (SNES)
25. Breath of Fire II (SNES)
26. Ape Escape 2 (PS2) *
27. Doubutsu No Mori+ (GC)
28. Ape Escape (PS1)
29. Ape Escape 3 (PS2) *
30. Maken X (DC)
31. Cubivore (GC)
32. Wario World (GC) *
33. Hatoful Boyfriend (PC)
34. Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (SFC)
35. Baku Bomberman 2 (N64)
36. Chameleon Twist (N64)
37. Gato Roboto (PC)
38. The Messenger (PC)
39. The Messenger: Picnic Panic (PC)
40. Baku Bomberman (N64)
41. Bomberman Hero (N64)
42. Blazing Lasers (TG16)
43. Neutopia (TG16)
44. Neutopia II (TG16)
45. Bomberman '94 (PCE)
46. Super Mario Sunshine (GC) *
47. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (GC) *
48. Shenmue 3 (PS4)
49. Wandersong (Switch)
50. Ratchet & Clank (PS2)

51. Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (PS2)
52. Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
53. Nier: Automata (PS4)
54. Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
55. Itadaki Street Special (PS2)
56. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (PCE)
57. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
58. Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
59. Nazo Puyo: Aruru No Ruu~ (Game Gear)
60. Jumping Flash! (PS1)
61. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS1)
62. Crash Team Racing (PS1)
63. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS1)
64. Super Mario Galaxy (Switch)

65. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)

And so comes to a close my latest journey through a Ratchet & Clank game, and it's also the last of the pre-reboot games (well, at least the big budget, physically released ones by Insomniac). I got most of the collectibles, but not quite all. This game was just so fun to play, I didn't mind hunting around for the large majority of them, and I even checked out the whole of the in-game museum~. It took me around 15 hours to beat the Japanese (mostly) version of the game.

This game picks up sorta where Tools of Destruction leaves off, but more technically where the digital exclusive Quest for Booty leaves off, with Clank kidnapped by the Zoni and Ratchet off looking for him. Clank wakes up to find the recently returned Dr. Nefarious (from the third game) attacking the Great Clock, a giant complex that keeps time and space from ripping themselves apart. Ratchet still hasn't quite found Clank, but he knows where to look, and the story hops between both of their narratives before their final reunification. The story of this game is something I would call a step down from the previous game (and if you want 2700+ words on why I think that, you can read about it here), but it's still fine on the whole, save for how this is easily the R&C with some of the most poorly aged humor (a lot of really exhaustingly unfunny "oh look at what nerds they are" non-jokes as well as easily the most casual transphobia the series has ever had XP).

Gameplay-wise, this is easily the strongest the series had ever been up to this point. The platforming action that returned in ToD is back again here, and its bolstered even more with some semi-open world spaceship flying. Actually fun spaceship flying is back once more! You can fly around a 2D plane in each system you're in, going between the major planets as well as small moons that are either platforming or combat challenges that you can do for extra goodies. You can collect lost Zonis to upgrade your ship (and you'll also need to to progress the story), and there are also a good deal of little side quests to do. These spaceship segments are good fun, and a good way to break up Ratchet's platforming and action, which are as fun as ever. There are also a bunch more very fun guns in this game too, including one which I think is my new favorite. It's basically a burp gun, and you need to time when you fire it to get the biggest possible burp (and therefore the most AOE and damage out of it).

While Ratchet does his platforming and shooty-bang-gun stuff better than ever, Clank is off exploring the Great Clock, and he actually gets a bunch of unique mechanics to do it. Clank solo segments have been in just about every R&C game that Insomniac has done, but this is easily the best they've ever been and they've never felt nearly so mechanically or narratively justified. Clank is the keeper of the Great Clock, and therefore a keeper of time, so his segments are made up of some relatively simple action segments, but also a bunch of time-based platforming puzzles. You play through two to four "recordings" of Clank to simultaneously operate parts of puzzle rooms to open the door at the opposite end. They have a really good difficulty curve to them, and never quite out stay their welcome. More straightforward action segments and platforming parts also intersperse between them to give his segments a good sense of pacing. They're not nearly as long as Ratchet's segments, but they're a great and very clever spin on what has usually been a pretty underwhelming series staple up to this point.

The presentation is a pretty mixed bag, and honestly the biggest black mark on the game. Visually and musically, the game is great. It looks really clean and pretty, and the art style is good. This is also another R&C game with a pretty solid musical score, and is much closer to the previous Future game than the original series in how good it is. The audio balancing, however, is borderline unacceptable in just how poor it is. I said at the start that I played through the "mostly" Japanese version of the game, and that's because I switched over to English audio about a third of the way through the game because I was sick of just not understanding anything. Not only is this yet ANOTHER R&C game with no subtitles for the large majority of the dialogue, but the directional audio is completely broken. Voices are often far far too quiet to hear unless the camera's perspective is directly on top of them, so Ratchet facing a character is actually one of the worst ways to hear them, paradoxically enough. Even in English, I had a consistently difficult time actually understanding what characters were saying, and it's frankly shocking how it was able to launch in this state. It's far from a deal breaker, but it makes what story is there so much more frustratingly difficult to enjoy.

Verdict: Recommended. This is a bit of a weird one to recommend because while it is VERY fun to play, the writing also falls so consistently flat. I wanna say that the writing isn't THAT bad, but I also wrote over 2700 words about how poorly done it is (and that's not even mentioning just how poorly so much of the comedy has aged), so clearly I have a pretty meaningful problem with it XD. If you're someone who can safely ignore story in games, I think this is an easy suggestion to grab as a PS3 exclusive action platformer, and even then, it's fun enough to play that I think most people who enjoy action platformers will be able to look past its faults and have a good time with it regardless.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
pook99
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by pook99 Tue Sep 29, 2020 10:36 am

138. Mafat Conspiracy (nes)

It is rare that I play a nes game that is not a replay, but I was at my local game store and saw this game for 5 bucks, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Mafat conspiracy is the sequel to golgo 13(which I also never played but have heard of), when you turn the game on the title screen says "Mafat conspiracy golgo 13" but you would never know that by looking at the cart. It is interesting to see a game like golgo 13, based on a japanese anime, that sold poorly over here, get a sequel.

Like its predecessor, Mafat conspiracy is a multi-genre game. The bulk of the game consists of side scrolling shooter segments that feel very similar to rolling thunder. I like this style of shooting so I enjoyed these segments, however this game definitely places a greater emphasis on platforming, and for the most part it works really well. Later levels throw tons of stuff at you, but you have a generous life bar and unlimited continues that, except for one annoying section at the end of the game, place you right back to the start of the section, so while the levels are difficult, the game does not feel punishing.

There are also maze levels sprinkled throughout, navigating these levels without a map is quite literally impossible, but this is by design. In the games instruction manual there are maps of every maze that you are supposed to use to navigate these multi story high monstrosities. I discovered this after wandering around the first maze level for 20 minutes making absolutely no progress, a quick google search revealed the maps and then navigating these levels was much easier. After beating some of these levels you also have to backtrack through them in 5 minutes, meaning even if you did luck out making your way to the exit, you would never make it back without a map.

There are 2 driving levels, which play similar to pole position only with enemy cars that you can throw grenades at. I am pretty bad at driving games but I was able to beat these pretty easily and they were a quick fun diversion.

Levels end in boss battles that are either a beat em up style(why you cant just shoot the bosses is beyond me) or a sniper segment. The sniper levels are pretty tough, you line up the shot but the game also tells you the wind direction and speed so you cannot just aim directly at your target, you have to take into account which way the wind will push your bullet and how far it will push it. These are not too bad but you have one shot and failing these segments takes you back quite a ways. One particularly annoying part is on the second to last level there is a sniper section, leading up to it you are on a 5 minute timer where you need to backtrack through 2 mazes and 2 platforming sections, if you fail on the sniper section you have to do the whole thing over, very frustrating, but that is only one section at the end of the game, and the other sniper missions dont send you back as far.

This game also has Ninja Gaiden style cutscenes, the story did not grip me, but it was good enough for an NES game. It is basically a generic story about a shadow government trying to escalate tensions between the US and Russia.

Overall, Mafat conspiracy is an interesting game. I enjoyed it, but I don't think it is a game that everyone will enjoy, I would recommend it to people who enjoy rolling thunder and dont mind some weird gameplay tweaks in between their shooting segments.
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Markies
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by Markies Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:40 pm

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2020!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*

1. Pikmin 2 (GCN)
2. Banjo-Tooie (N64)
3. Contra: Hard Corps (GEN)
4. Super Baseball Simulator 1,000 (SNES)
5. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)
6. Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection (PS2)
***7. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2)***
***8. Cruis'N USA (N64)***
9. Arc The Lad Collection (PS1)
10. Halo 2 (XBOX)
11. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings And The Lost Ocean (GCN)
12. DuckTales 2 (NES)
13. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)
14. Rocket Knight Adventures (GEN)
***15. Skies of Arcadia (SDC)***
16. Dragon Quest V (SNES)
17. Marvel Vs. Capcom (PS1)
***18. Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition (GEN)***
19. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (XBOX)
20. Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
21. Flatout 2 (PS2)
22. Mr. Driller (SDC)
23. Blast Corps (N64)

24. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (GCN)

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I beat The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on the Nintendo GameCube this evening!

Growing up, the only Super Heroes I really loved were the X-Men. I did love Comic Books in my preteen years, so I knew of the Hulk and of the Avengers. But, I just loved the X-Men cartoon show, so that made me love the Comics even more. I also remember my friend having a Hulk game on the Sega Genesis that was fairly terrible. Fast forward to my college days and I remember watching X-Play talk about The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and giving it a glowing review. They called it the perfect Hulk game where all you do is destroy things throughout the game. That seemed enjoyable enough, so while walking around a local convention, I decided to pick it up while it was still rather cheap.

I can confirm that you destroy many things in Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. After like the third stage, the game gets crazy and it just gets crazier throughout the entire game. Besides boss battles, you are going against the Army at all times and they are throwing tanks, missiles, jets and helicopters at you. It is 100% pure insanity and the most amount of destruction I have ever seen in a video game. Every second, you are destroying something while getting shot at. There is an extensive move list that has to go like 60 moves deep, so if you know what you are doing, you look very impressive. For me, I stuck to standard moves and was able to do well.

I wouldn't say the story is all that exciting. You are trying to collect items to build a machine to help Bruce Banner, but in the end, it really doesn't do anything. Besides a few stages, you are mostly fighting the same army enemies throughout the entire game. Also, some of these levels are insanely hard and can get very frustrating. I only won some because of dumb luck, but I had to do missions several times just to beat it. And because the game is so insane, you feel exhausted and spent when you do complete a mission.

Overall, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is a game that relieved stress, but also caused some as well. It is the most intense and action filled game I have ever played in my life. I felt drained after each mission, but I keep wanted to go back. There is something enjoyable about throwing tanks at helicopters, jumping entire city blocks and destroying an entire army chasing you. If you love intense action, this game is for you!
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by prfsnl_gmr Wed Sep 30, 2020 12:05 am

Sweet review, Markies. I’ve always been curious about that game, and I really should play it.

.....

First 60
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)
32. Kuso (Switch)
33. 20XX (Switch)
34. Spooky Ghosts Dot Com (Switch)
35. Aggelos (Switch)
36. Quell+ (iOS)
37. The White Door (iOS)
38. Grizzland (Switch)
39. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (Switch)
40. Silent Hill (PS1)
41. Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio (Switch)
42. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch)
43. Stories Untold (Switch)
44. Boxboy! + Boxgirl! (Switch)
45. R-Type Leo (Arcade)
46. Cybarian: The Time-Traveling Warrior (Switch)
47. Duck Souls+ (Switch)
48. Daggerhood (Switch)
49. Gravity Duck (Switch)
50. Biolab Wars (Switch)
51. Legends of Amberland (Switch)
52. Mega Man & Bass: Challenger from the Future (Wonderswan)
53. Double Dragon (Game Gear)
54. Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
55. SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash (NGPC)
56. SUPERHOT (Switch)
57. Dogurai (Switch)
58. Ori & The Blind Forest Definitive Edition (Switch)
59. Alchemist’s Castle (Switch)
60. Dear Esther (iOS)

61. Framed 2 (iOS)
62. A Noble Circle (iOS)
63. Lit (iOS)
64. SPL-T (iOS)
65. Florence (iOS)


Still clearing out games on my iPad in advance of a massive Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father download...

Lit is the mobile version of a WiiWare game by WayForward. In it, you navigate rooms by turning lights on and off. Stepping in a dark location will kill you, as will certain monsters that behave in predictable patterns, I like WayForward games, and I like puzzle games. Nonetheless, this game is pretty much garbage. The gameplay’s not that compelling; the puzzles are rudimentary; and it controls horribly. I got the bad ending because I didn’t complete each puzzle as efficiently as possible. You’d have to be REALLY bored to play this game enough to get the good ending, though, and I’ve got other things to do (like, you know, washing dishing doing my taxes, waiting on the phone with the DMV, folding laundry, or a host of other menial tasks more enjoyable than this game).

SPL-T is a pretty compelling puzzle game from Simogo, the creators of true stand out mobile titles like Device 6 and Year Walk. In it, you divide boxes alternately vertically and horizontally, clearing them to make room for more boxes. The game ends when you can no longer split the boxes on the screen. It’s a score-chaser, like Tetris, and you can’t really beat it. I’ve been playing it on and off for years, however, and I have a respectable high score (10,000+), which is good enough for me. I played a bit more and deleted it off my iPad today; so, it’s going on the list too.

Florence is a very short, but very sweet, narrative about first love. Everything about it is charming, and it really uses various gameplay mechanics to enhance the way it tells a simple story. (It’s about a young woman falling in and out of love for the first time.) I bothered enjoyed and appreciated it, and I recommend it to anyone.
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by MrPopo Wed Sep 30, 2020 6:15 pm

First 50:
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
38. The Last of Us Part 2 - PS4
39. Exodemon - PC
40. Halo: Reach - PC
41. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary - PC
42. Halo 2: Anniversary - PC
43. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS3
44. Halo 3 - PC
45. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4
46. Command & Conquer Red Alert: Aftermath - PC
47. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - Switch
48. Carrion - Switch
49. Ninja Gaiden - NES
50. Earthworm Jim - Genesis

51. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - Switch
52. Star Control Origins: Earth Rising - PC
53. Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX - Switch
54. Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith - PC
55. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls - PS3
56. Silicon Zeroes - PC
57. Warcraft - PC
58. Serious Sam 3: BFE - PC
59. Wasteland 3 - PC
60. Iron Harvest - PC
61. Serious Sam 3: Jewel of the Nile - PC
62, Homeworld Remastered - PC
63. Homeworld 2 Remastered - PC
64. Offworld Trading Company - PC
65. F-Zero - SNES
66. F-Zero X - N64
67. Gauntlet (2014) - PC
68. Gauntlet Legends - Arcade
69. Halo 3: ODST - PC
70. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - PS4

13 Sentinels is the latest game from Vanillware, chiefly known for their gorgeous hand-drawn 2D art. And that art is on display once again, only this time instead of fantastic settings we have a much more grounded setting of 1980s Japan. Well, grounded until the giant robots show up. Which happens in the opening cutscene. 13 Sentinels is a hybrid RTS and VN that masterfully tells an interesting and compelling story with a fantastic payoff at the end. Meanwhile, the RTS gameplay requires you to make use of a wide variety of units without ever getting overwhelming in terms of micro. It is an incredibly well crafted experience front to back.

The game has three main modes to it. The first is the encyclopedia/glossary that slowly unlocks as you play the game. It details all the events that happen as well as all the key terms. You'll want to check back on this regularly, as the key terms will gain additional information as the story unfolds. The second mode is the RTS gameplay. You will have a selection of units representing your giant mecha and you will have one of two objectives. The most common one is to defeat all enemies or keep them from destroying your base for two minutes. The less common one is that you will need to defeat all the boss enemies; these latter missions have on time limit to them. The gameplay leans more towards the tower defense side of things, where you have to manage waves coming in at your fixed point. Unlike traditional tower defense, here you don't really have the ability to corral or anything like that. Instead you will use your units to unleash large amounts of destruction. Your dudes are much more mobile, so you will be dashing from location to location. Helpfully, when a unit is selected to act time pauses. The flow actually ends up resembling the ATB era of Final Fantasy; after taking an action a unit will have a cooldown before they can act again, and when you aren't selecting an action time is running. You have four general types of units and each unit in a type has some differences in loadouts which will adjust how each one approaches battle. You can upgrade your abilities and there is a mechanic that regularly forces you to switch from unit to unit. The whole thing keeps you on your toes, but they also provide just the right amount of these battles so it doesn't start to turn into a slog when you hit a rhythm.

The bulk of the game time is in the VN portion. This is presented in a side scrolling view, similar to a belt scrolling beat 'em up. You select from one of thirteen protagonists and play through their story to learn more about WHY you're fighting in giant mecha. These stories are all heavily intertwined, and each story has several stopping points after some revelation or impactful event that will put you back to character selection. Unlike other VNs this one doesn't have mutually exclusive branching paths; you will eventually see everything as the story unfolds. You can pull up a flowchart at any time to see how things might proceed; this gives you hints as to how to trigger the next scene, as it might require talking to character A to go one branch this run and instead going to location B in a different run. Unfolding the mystery of the events going on is one of the main draws, as the story is told in such a way that there is always a new reveal that changes the nature of the information you'd previously been working under. The stories themselves will also get locked at times until you've met some precondition; most of the time these preconditions involve moving other parts of the story forward (or moving the RTS part forward), as you need to see both sides of an ongoing arc before they want you to move forward. It has all been carefully metered for maximum impact, and kudos to the scenario directors for their work.

And that's all the detail I can get into, because this is the sort of game you really want to avoid spoilers on. There's real joy in the slow gain of knowledge of the plot, and if you ever get lost the aforementioned reference section can quickly get you back on track. I enjoyed every minute I spent with this game, and I'm willing to call it my Game of the Year for 2020 (and given we also saw RE3, Doom Eternal, and Wasteland 3, among others, that's a strong statement).
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2020

by prfsnl_gmr Wed Sep 30, 2020 11:46 pm

First 60
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)
32. Kuso (Switch)
33. 20XX (Switch)
34. Spooky Ghosts Dot Com (Switch)
35. Aggelos (Switch)
36. Quell+ (iOS)
37. The White Door (iOS)
38. Grizzland (Switch)
39. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (Switch)
40. Silent Hill (PS1)
41. Tcheco in the Castle of Lucio (Switch)
42. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch)
43. Stories Untold (Switch)
44. Boxboy! + Boxgirl! (Switch)
45. R-Type Leo (Arcade)
46. Cybarian: The Time-Traveling Warrior (Switch)
47. Duck Souls+ (Switch)
48. Daggerhood (Switch)
49. Gravity Duck (Switch)
50. Biolab Wars (Switch)
51. Legends of Amberland (Switch)
52. Mega Man & Bass: Challenger from the Future (Wonderswan)
53. Double Dragon (Game Gear)
54. Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
55. SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash (NGPC)
56. SUPERHOT (Switch)
57. Dogurai (Switch)
58. Ori & The Blind Forest Definitive Edition (Switch)
59. Alchemist’s Castle (Switch)
60. Dear Esther (iOS)

61. Framed 2 (iOS)
62. A Noble Circle (iOS)
63. Lit (iOS)
64. SPL-T (iOS)
65. Florence (iOS)
66. Wurroom (Switch)
67. Warlock’s Tower (iOS)


Wurroom is an interactive art exhibit that you can “beat” in 15 minutes. I’d complain about the incredibly short length, but it only cost me $0.99. Also, it’s a really cool 15 minutes. Recommended to anyone who can spare a dollar.

Warlock’s Tower is a puzzle game in which you guide a mailman up the titular Warlock’s Tower. To reach the top, you must avoid monsters, disarm traps, switch levers, and find keys. Adding to the difficulty is the Warlock’s Curse, which makes you lose a life every time you take a step. If you run out of lives, you have to restart from the beginning of the room. Thankfully, the rooms are littered with 1-, 3-, and 5-ups.and solving each puzzle requires careful navigation to ensure you have enough lives to reach the exit. The monsters move in predictable patterns, and later levels involve coordinating movement between two playable characters to disarm traps and manipulate monster behavior.

The later levels are really, really, really, really, really really hard. It’s not always clear whether you’re making progress, and one wrong move will result in eventual failure. I got about 85% of the way through the games when it was released in 2017, but I gave up after throwing myself at a few difficult rooms for hours. More than three years later, I decided to swallow my pride, consult a walkthrough, and finish the game. I found some walkthroughs for the console port, but to my dismay, I discovered that the developer watered down the difficulty significantly for the console release, excising nearly a dozen of the game’s most difficult puzzles (including the two that had stumped me for years)! I eventually found a solution on a Steam discussion board (where I also learned that many players thought the game, due to its extreme difficulty, was glitched and that the puzzles that had stumped me were literally unsolvable). After I got through those two rooms, the difficulty scaled back down a bit, and I was able to beat the game tonight. (Finally!). The last boss was really good, and despite my frustration, I think Warlock’s Tower is a really good puzzle game. I would encourage anyone interested in it, however, to pick up the console release which, as I mentioned earlier, appears to scale back the difficulty to a more acceptable level.
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