Games Beaten 2017

[MrPopo]

1. Pokémon Moon - 3DS
2. Tony Hawk's Underground - GCN
3. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising - PC
4. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II: Retribution - PC
5. Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - PSP
6. X-Wing: Imperial Pursuit - PC
7. Star Wars Republic Commando - PC
8. X-Wing: B-Wing - PC
9. Blazing Lazers - TG-16
10. Tales of Xillia 2 - PS3
11. Shining Force CD: Shining Force Gaiden - Sega CD
12. MUSHA - Genesis
13. Sonic CD - Sega CD
14. Final Fantasy Legend III - GB
15. Tales of Zestiria - PS3
16. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch
17. Horizon Zero Dawn - PS4
18. Tales of Berseria - PS4
19. Battlefield 1 - PC
20. Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - PC
21. Mass Effect Andromeda - PC
22. Starflight 2 - PC
23. Armored Hunter Gunhound EX - PC
24. Space Megaforce - SNES
25. Persona 5 - PS4
26. Torment: Tides of Numenera - PC
27. Cosmic Star Heroine - PC
28. Prey - PC
29. Strafe - PC
30. Mystic Origins - NES
31. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - 3DS
32. Ultra Street Fighter II - Switch
33. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - PC
34. Ultima IV - PC
35. Environmental Station Alpha - PC
36. Dust: An Elysian Tail - PC
37. Hollow Knight - PC
38. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter - PC
39. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd - PC
40. Call of Duty - PC
41. Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 - 3DS
42. Sonic Mania - Switch
43. Mighty Gunvolt Burst - Switch
44. XCOM2: War of the Chosen - PC
45. Metroid: Samus Returns - 3DS
46. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - PC

Spoilers, the game ends with you removing the Outsider from the position of giving powers to protagonists of stealth assassination games. Death of the Outsider is a stand alone expansion set after Dishonored 2 and starring Billie Lurk, from the Knife of Dunwall. It's a 5 mission game that puts a final bow on the current Dishonored storyline, though it does leave open the possibility for other interesting things to happen in that world.

Since you once again have a new protagonist, you get new powers. However, unlike the main Dishonored games you don't have a skill system. All your passives come from Bonecharms and you get three active skills. The first is your movement ability; what makes this one interesting is that you first place down a marker, then you can teleport to it later if you are within range and have line of sight. And I do mean line of sight in the vision sense; if there's a fence in the way but you can see the marker you can teleport to it. The fence will block you from putting down the marker, though. Additionally, if there is a person in the same spot as a marker you will explode them from the inside, which does major damage to you. Your second power synergizes with the first; you freeze time and can temporarily scout out the area as a ghost. While doing so you can mark a certain number of targets; this might be items or enemies. Anything marked will show up in game through walls, and enemies will also show their cone of vision and patrol path. While in this mode you also get to see Bonecharms really well, so it replaces the heart. But the final part is probably the most important; you can place down a marker that you can teleport to. Since your teleport range is longer than the range to place a marker on its own, this can be used to set up longer jumps or multiple jumps (place one marker with scouting, one on its own). It really opens up the stealth traversal. The final ability lets you disguise yourself as someone you have knocked out; this runs down your magic meter when you walk, but not when standing still. The disguise is perfect; people will think you are the target, including voice. Her final ability is that she can talk to rats to get clues; sometimes these just build the world, other times they refer to actual secrets.

The game's missions are set up along a short story; find Daud and get the mission, find a way to kill the Outsider, get the way to kill the Outsider, find a way to get to the Outsider, and finally do the deed. I found the maps to be a bit smaller than Dishonored 2's. The black market returns, and a feature added is that the black market will have side missions available that will reward you on the next mission; this will be cash for a while but the final set will reward you with Bonecharms. In my playthrough I didn't end up doing most of them because I was going for high stealth and no kills, and half of them require you to murder. However, through some reading I discovered that this game doesn't emphasize chaos nearly as much as the previous games did; it's really only a choice for the end of the game and will affect the ending. But if you want to go on a murder spree in the other missions it won't do anything like create blood fly nests. In hindsight I probably could have done all those bounties if I was willing to get my hands dirty.

In the end I found things to be a bit too focused and limited to be as enjoyable as the previous games. While you still can approach your given tasks from a few directions, it doesn't really come as close as the hoops you'd have to jump through to do a low chaos run of previous games. Also, there aren't any segments where you're not in hostile territory exploring; everything is a combat area, and I think that takes away from things a bit. While it's worth playing I think it's the weakest of the entries in the franchise.

[ElkinFencer10]

I didn't like the first reboot, but this one still looks kind of different and might work for me. Hard to tell though.

I think the pacing and level design in the reboot was bad.

The levels are much less linear in this one.

[Xeogred]

In the end I found things to be a bit too focused and limited to be as enjoyable as the previous games. While you still can approach your given tasks from a few directions, it doesn't really come as close as the hoops you'd have to jump through to do a low chaos run of previous games. Also, there aren't any segments where you're not in hostile territory exploring; everything is a combat area, and I think that takes away from things a bit. While it's worth playing I think it's the weakest of the entries in the franchise.

Yeah. And one level being re-used with another level from Dishonored 2 returning, it's like only 33% of the game is actual new areas.

One change I did like is the faster mana regeneration and no more MP vials. Kind of encourages you to use the powers more often, but then Billie only has a few. Ultimately it's not like I ever really ran out of vials in the others, but it was nice not having to worry about it.

A nice little "expansion" to Dishonored 2, but yeah not the best the series has had to offer and it weirdly does go against some of the philosophy the series had up to this point. I'm guessing it was kind of a small B-grade effort.

[Exhuminator]

Metroid: Samus Returns | 8/10

After the release of Metroid: Zero Mission way back in 2004, Nintendo made fans wait thirteen years for another side scrolling Metroid. During this tortuous span of time, we had an entire two term presidency come and go, three Igarashi metriodvanias released, and a little thing called Facebook took over the planet. (The only franchise fans who know more painful pining are us miserable F-Zero lovers.) But here we are in 2017! A new president, a new Igavania on the way, and all the cool kids use Instagram these days (I guess). It's a new era, and finally Nintendo saw fit to give us a fresh side scrolling Metroid experience. Well, kinda fresh... it's actually a remake. Sorta. It's also rather great.

You'll see no shortage of glowing Metroid: Samus Returns reviews, and well deserved. Nintendo contracted a Spain based developer named MercurySteam to produce this Metroid II: Return of Samus remake. I have to say MercurySteam did a super job. This Metroid (mostly) plays fantastically, looks amazing, runs smooth, sounds excellent, and never stops challenging its player. Samus Returns captures the base concept of Return of Samus successfully. That is to say you play as space bounty hunter Samus who travels to the metroids' home planet to kill them. All of them, a mission of genocide. Yep, that's the primary plot, and MercurySteam didn't mess with that. In reviewing this remake though, I don't think I'd do the reader much good to recapitulate the same glowing praise you'll find across the review-o-sphere. Rather, I will take some time to tell you what's wrong with Samus Returns. That is to say, why I personally rate Samus Returns an 8/10 rather than 9/10. Don't worry, my qualms are minor!

The first thing I don't like is that you have to use the touch screen to change beam and missile types. Considering 99% of the controls are non-touch based, this is ergonomically disingenuous. The Start and Select buttons do the same thing, so the Select button should have changed ammo type, a simple solution missed by MercurySteam. Secondly enemies, metroids, (and bosses especially) are bullet sponges. Even lowly creatures can take a charged shot or multiple standard missiles and keep coming. Considering the legions of enemies in the levels, having to wear your thumb down to a blistering nub to clear constant mobs gets old fast. Also there's not enough enemy types, it's not long before you fighting palette swapped enemies with ever increasing stats. And enemy density is too high for my taste; I miss the sparser more exploratory feel of other Metroids here. Samus Returns is simply overly combat centric, and trust me the final few bosses will test your patience. The OST while sounding nice consists mostly of reused earlier Metroid tracks, a tad disappointing in its lack of freshness. Lastly the claustrophobic, eerie and forlorn atmosphere of the original Return of Samus? Yeah, that's entirely absent in Samus Returns. This remake has a closer feel to Metroid Fusion and Meroid: Zero Mission in that regard.

So there you have it, my precious few complaints against an otherwise excellent 3DS Metroid. If you're a fan of past side scrolling games in this series, do not pass Samus Returns up. This is possibly the best Metroid since Super Metroid, and certainly the most challenging since the original Metroid. There's lots of new ideas like the aeon abilities and controversial melee counter, plus the mini-puzzles to obtain your upgrades are great. I really enjoyed the amount of detail and animation put into the wonderful backgrounds. Perhaps best of all, Samus is back to her brutal self in this release, a truly confident heroine! I hope all the praise and sales gives way to Nintendo producing further side scrolling games in this series. We should never have to wait so long again.

My finish time / item completion on first clear:

In game save time: 13:43:05

Item completion: 83.3%

3DS Activity Log time: 18:51

So my in game save is about 5 hours shorter than the 3DS time keeper record. I don't know exactly why. I certainly didn't die and retry 5 hours worth of times against bosses. Yeah I was nowhere near as fast as MrPopo, Elkin, or Sarge. Though to be honest, I was deliberately going slowly to soak up the atmosphere. It'd been far too long since I stepped foot on SR388. I definitely feel like I got my $34 out of Samus Returns.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Partridge Senpai's 2017 Beaten Games:

1. Tales of Hearts R (Vita)
2. UPPERS (Vita)
3. Volume (Vita)
4. Overlord: Minions (DS)
5. Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)
6. Overlord II (PS3)
7. Overlord: Dark Legend (Wii)
8. La-Mulana (Remake) (PC)
9. Infamous: Second Son (PS4)
10. htol#NiQ: The Firefly Diary (Vita)
11. Blood Bowl (360)
12. Dead to Rights: Retribution (360)
13. Bioshock Infinite (360)
14. Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Part 1 (360)
15. Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea Part 2 (360)
16. Singularity (360)
17. Seifuku Densetsu Pretty Fighter X (Saturn)
18. Ultraman: Hikari No Kyojin Densetsu (Saturn)
19. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) (repeat)
20. Song of the Deep (PS4)
21. Naruto Gekitou Ninja Taisen 3 (GCN)
22. Banjo-Tooie (N64) (repeat)
23. Wario Land (VB)
24. Yakuza HD Edition (PS3)
25. Yakuza 2 HD Edition (PS3)
26. Vanquish (PS3)
27. Watchdogs 2 (PS4)
28. Pikmin (Wii)
29. Pikmin 3 (Wii U)
30. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
31. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
32. Tales of Innocence R (Vita)
33. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
34. Boing! Docomodake DS (DS)
35. Kirby Triple Deluxe (3DS)
36. Magicka 2: Learn to Spell... AGAIN! (PS4) (repeat)
37. Pokemon Moon (3DS)
38. Pokemon Black 2 (DS)
39. Pokken Tournament (Wii U)
40. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth + (Switch)
41. Dynasty Warriors: Gundam (360)
42. Saints Row (360)
43. Saints Row 2 (360)
44. Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell (PS3)
45. Shadow of Mordor (PS4)
46. Youkai Watch 2: Honke (3DS)

47. Youkai Watch Busters Shiroinutai (3DS)

My Youkai Watch roll continues with the spin-off of the action-style diversion from the 2nd game. It's a mission-based class-focused 4-player action game with all the charm that Youkai Watch usually has. It's certainly not what I'd expected it'd be, but I still had a good deal of fun with it.

The story is all very light hearted and silly in normal Youkai Watch affair. To be honest, as far as narrative is concerned, this is probably the Youkai Watch game I've played that stays the most on focus with little mandatory filler. Given the title, there are a LOT of Ghost Busters references, as well as the Star Wars references and Terminator references they love so much. The persistant characters of Sgt. Burly, Fubuki Chan, and Koma San really make the interactions funny but varied. I enjoyed the story bits for the silliness that they are.

The core gameplay is going into a mission, completing the objective, and getting to the evac point. If you run out of time (missions always have very generous time limits, though) or die before getting to the evac, everything you did (XP collected, items found, Youkai befriended) will be GONE. The missions are split up into 3 types, with a 4th added in the free expansion. The first are story missions, where you have to follow a set of objectives in relation to the story and then get to the evac point. Next are Patrol missions, where you just wander around a location fighting Youkai with the main goal to befriend them. Then you have Big Boss missions, which are just re-fighting the bosses from the story mode outside of the missions in order to farm their dropped items. You also have Super and Hell difficulties to fight these bosses on, and you can get some seriously good rewards for the Super and Hell ones, like rare crafting materials, evolution items, and even befriending the bosses themselves as playable characters! Lastly, the expansion added "New Challenge" missions, which are basically just time-trials for boss rushes and patrol modes that focus on grinding money/XP. It's by far the best way to grind cash/XP.

Each of the Big Boss and Story missions have 2 sets of 3 different tiers of rewards you can get (rare, uncommon, common), with each version of the game having a higher chance of getting the items in a certain set. There are also very rare item and Youkai prizes that can ONLY be gotten by beating Hell-modes of bosses in a 4-player match, so I never got any of those . There is a gear system and a crafting system, but that just entails picking up items from fallen foes and combining them with money/XP to craft them. The best stuff requires a LOT of boss farming, of course. However, a nice change from Youkai Watch 2 is that instead of Youkai being able to hold one or two equipment items or one spirit orbs, they can ALL hold one of each, which is nice. It's worth mentioning that your cash IS your XP. You don't get XP just for defeating enemies. Enemies might drop crafting items or they might drop Oni Orbs, which function as both your money and XP. You spend Oni Orbs to level up characters, buy/craft items at the shop, and evolve your Youkai. It's interesting, and also means it's very easy to just PUMP levels into a new guy you wanna try using.

The gameplay itself is pretty fun. You have tanks, healers, attackers, and rangers. Tanks are very fat, have high defense, and taunt enemy fire. Healers have friendly buffs and heal the party. Attackers are DPS, and rangers focus on debuffing the enemy and laying traps. Playing by yourself, you're gonna be wanting to play the attacker most all the time, but you can switch between characters on the fly during the mission, so you can shift roles as you see fit. It's a bit fiddly to do with the touch screen, but if you have a NEW model 3DS, the ZR button handles it, and it's a lot lot faster. I really quite liked the actual combat. Having a DPS with dodge as my main (Jibanyan), I loved getting really up close and personal, and then dodging JUST at the right second to have him hit my invincibility frames. Especially the later bosses which you might fight underleveled, the bosses are certainly the highlight of the game for me. I can only imagine how fun they are with friends (whom I had none to play with ;A;).

A bit of a problem this game has is the controls, tbh. It's just built in the Youkai Watch 2 engine, so it has a lot of the control and camera hang-ups of that game, but this is an action game, so they're far more pronounced. R and L control the camera's rotation, but you more or less never need to do that because you can only rotate it slightly on the overworld (like in YW2), and during boss battles you have a boss-targeting feature you can activate by a touch screen button (or with ZL on a New model). Meanwhile, the buttons to change whom you're targeting are left and right on the D-pad for enemy targeting, and up and down for allies. You also have two consumable items you can bring into each mission which can ONLY be used by touching them on the touch screen. Making up and down each be a consumable, left and right being rotating the camera, and making R and L switch between allies and enemies targeting receptively would've made this game control far far better. In terms of performance, the game runs servicably. Oddly enough, it seems to have more trouble in earlier, easier missions, but the later ones all ran just fine, even on a non-New model 3DS.

This IS a Youkai Watch game, so it has a lot of the issues those games have in terms of how the content is laid out. There are quite a lot of Youkai, but because of that, it can be quite difficult to find the one you want, let alone actually get him to join you with the usual low chance the rarer guys have in Youkai Watch. Add to that how the patrol missions have rotating special Youkai in them and also have a 20 minute time limit, and it can be absolutely infuriating to get your favorite Youkai to join the group. There's a TON of VERY hard end-game content, especially with the Gettogumi downloadable expansion they released for free which you can import your Shiroinutai or Akanekodan save directly into. If you wanna spend an absolute eternity grinding for XP to do more crazy boss fights, you bet your sweet ass you can do that for HOURS on end. You can do bosses under the recommended level, but it's DAMN hard without human players to assist you. With human players, it's far more manageable.

Verdict: Recommended. It's a fun action game. If you like Youkai Watch and have friends who have Japanese 3DS's to play this with you on than this is a MUST buy. Of course, no one in the States actually has that qualifier list, so it's not so important. It's a competent budget action game. If you like action games on Japanese 3DS and can find it for like $20, it's a fun romp for sure

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2017 So Far - 103
* denotes a replay

January (10 Games Beaten)

1. Persona 4 Arena - Playstation January 1
2. Chrono Trigger - SNES - January 7
3. Ys: The Vanished Omens - Master System - January 8
4. MUSHA - Genesis - January 10
5. Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below - PlayStation 4 - January 11
6. Ys I - TurboGrafx-CD - January 13
7. Ys II - TurboGrafx-CD - January 14
8. Dragon Quest Builders - PlayStation 4 - January 23
9. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. School Girl/Zombie Hunter - PlayStation 4 - January 29

February (12 Games Beaten)

11. Fire Emblem Heroes - Android - February 3
12. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD - Wii U - February 5
13. Dante's Inferno - PlayStation 3 - February 7
14. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - DS - February 11
15. Persona 4: Dancing All Night - Vita - February 12
16. Sniper Elite 4 - PlayStation 4 - February 17
17. Pony Quest - NES - February 19
18. Halo Wars 2 - Xbox One - February 22
19. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions - PlayStation Portable - February 24
20. Hotline Miami - PlayStation 4 - February 26
21. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light - Famicom - February 27
22. Bad Dudes - NES - February 28

March (6 Games Beaten)

23. Root Letter - PlayStation 4 - March 2
24. Vroom in the Night Sky - Switch - March 10
25. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch - March 17
26. Super Bomberman R - Switch - March 18
27. Super Mario Run - Android - March 24
28. I Am Setsuna - Switch - March 24

April (9 Games Beaten)

29. Mass Effect: Andromeda - PlayStation 4 - April 1
30. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army - PlayStation 4 - April 2
31. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 - PlayStation 4 - April 2
32. New Frontier Days: Founding Pioneers - Switch - April 3
33. Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 3 - PlayStation 4 - April 4
34. Persona 5 - PlayStation 4 - April 17
35. Alienation - PlayStation 4 - April 18
36. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - PlayStation 4 - April 23
37. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - PlayStation 4 - April 29

May (14 Games Beaten)

38. Puyo Puyo Tetris - Switch - May 4
39. Fire Emblem Gaiden - Famicom - May 6
40. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Switch - May 6
41. Outlast II - PlayStation 4 - May 7
42. Dishonored - PlayStation 4 - May 10
43. Snipperclips: Cut it Out, Together! - Switch - May 12
44. Pikmin - Gamecube - May 12
45. Metal Slug - Neo Geo MVS - May 13*
46. Dariusburst CS: Chronicle Savior - PlayStation 4 - May 14
47. Batman: The TellTale Series - PlayStation 4 - May 17
48. Batman: Arkham VR - PlayStation 4 - May 18
49. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia - 3DS - May 25
50. Farpoint - PlayStation 4 - May 27
51. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Xbox 360 - May 29

June (10 Games Beaten)

52. Star Trek: Bridge Crew - PlayStation 4 - June 2
53. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - PlayStation 4 - June 3
54. Rebel Galaxy - PC - June 18
55. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - Vita - June 20
56. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - PC - June 21*
57. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Spearhead - PC - June 21
58. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Breakthrough - PC - June 22
59. Aliens Versus Predator - PC - June 23
60. Army Men - PC - June 24*
61. Apartment 666 - PC - June 26

July (20 Games Beaten)

62. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist - Genesis - July 12*
63. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone - PlayStation 4 - July 15
64. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine - PlayStation 4 - July 22
65. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - PlayStation 4 - July 24
66. Splatoon 2 - Switch - July 25
67. Kamiko - Switch - July 25
68. Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge - Xbox - July 26
69. Panzer Dragoon - Saturn - July 27*
70. Snake Pass - Switch - July 27
71. Buck Bumble - Nintendo 64 - July 28*
72. Castlevania - NES - July 29
73. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - NES - July 29
74. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - NES - July 29
75. Super Castlevania IV - SNES - July 30
76. Castlevania Adventure - Game Boy - July 30
77. Castlevania Adventure Rebirth - Wii - July 30
78. Contra Rebirth - Wii - July 31
79. Heavy Fire: Special Operations - Wii - July 31
80. Heavy Fire: Black Arms - Wii - July 31
81. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei - Saturn - July 31*

August (9 Games Beaten)

82. Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius - Steam - August 4
83. Panzer Dragoon Saga - Saturn - August 5
84. Sunrider: Liberation Day - Steam - August 6
85. Emily is Away - Steam - August 8
86. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys - SNES - August 19
87. Nights of Azure - PlayStation 4 - August 25
88. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - PlayStation 4 - August 26
89. Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut - Xbox One - August 27
90. Devil's Third - Wii U - August 30*

September (13 Games Beaten)

91. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - Switch - September 4
92. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom - Wii U - September 4
93. Daytona USA - Xbox 360 - September 6
94. Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara - Wii U - September 6
95. Cave Story+ - Switch - September 10
96. Cosmic Star Heroine - Steam - September 14
97. Lego Worlds - Switch - September 16
98. Metroid: Samus Returns - 3DS - September 18
99. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls - PlayStation 4 - September 23
100. Weeping Doll - PlayStation VR - September 23
101. Dying: Reborn VR - PlayStation VR - September 24
102. Shadow Warrior 2 - PlayStation 4 - September 28
103. Pokken Tournament DX - Switch - September 29

103. Pokken Tournament DX - Switch - September 29



Pokken Tournament was one of the most unique Wii U exclusives and really could have (and should have in my opinion) been a system seller. While part of me is always disappointed to see a game for my favorite underdog console lose exclusivity, it really would have been a shame for Pokken Tournament to have been played by so few gamers relatively speaking, but what would be a bigger shame is for console players (as opposed to arcade) never to have gotten the extra content added over time since Nintendo and Bandai did not deign to give Wii U owners any of the arcade DLC.



For those who aren't familiar with Pokken Tournament, it's a fighting game with Pokemon characters. Given that it was developed by Bandai Namco, it feels a lot like Tekken in many ways, although it's important to note that Pokken definitely does have a very distinctive feel that makes it far more than just "Tekken with Pokemon." The game features 21 playable Pokemon as well as 32 non-playable assist Pokemon (which are bound in preset pairs) as well as a very nice variety of stages with an array of themes. There's a single player mode, online play, local play, and - added to DX given the handheld nature of the Switch - a wireless play mode. The game gives an all around very nice choice of game modes, stages, and characters. The cherry on top is that has a clever "phase" system that will switch between a 3D "Field Phase" and a 2D "Duel Phase" whenever a player makes a strong hit. It sounds like it would get jarring and obnoxious, and I'm sure that there are some who dislike it, but I personally find it to be an extremely clever feature that flows very well and adds a depth and quirk to the game that makes me stand out from the fighting game crowd even more.



Given that Pokken Tournament DX is an enhanced Switch port of the original Pokken Tournament for Wii U, the game is mostly the same as the original release although there are some key differences. First and foremost, the four characters added post-launch to the arcade game that were omitted from the Wii U port - Croagunk, Empoleon, Darkrai, and Scizor - are all included as well as one character that neither the arcade version nor the Wii U version will get - Decidueye. Also exclusive to the Switch port is a new pair of support Pokemon - Litten and Popplio. My only real complaint with the character roster here is that Shadow Mewtwo is unlocked right from the start; in the Wii U version, you had to finish the story mode in order to unlock Shadow Mewtwo or use the Shadow Mewtwo amiibo card included in the first print of the Wii U game. Not only is it nice to have the "boss" character as a goal to unlock, but it does kind of suck that my sexy Shadow Mewtwo card doesn't really have any use here. Sad face.



While the Wii U wasn't a graphical powerhouse and, as a port, the Switch version doesn't make any big changes to the visuals, the game is still a very good looking game. There's an impressive amount of detail on the character models that make the Pokemon feel more "real," for lack of a better word, and they ever did in the other games. The music - especially on the Magikarp Festival stage - is also fantastic. Legit I think Magikarp Festival has the greatest background music of any stage in any fighting game ever made. It's a light but infectiously catchy EDM beat that you'll start bobbing to without realizing it. While Magikarp Festival certainly stands out as the most memorable, all of the music in the game is quite well done. The sound design in general is, for the most part, quite good with attack sound effects that make the stronger hits really have a satisfying feel to them.



Most fighting games aren't really known or played for their narratives and single player campaigns, but as such things are a big deal to me, I have to address Pokken Tournament's story mode. In the context of fighting games, it's not terrible, but it's certainly not one of the better single player experiences I've played. The story itself is okay - something made Mewtwo turn dark and go crazy and you, for some reason, seem to be the only one able to stop him and turn him back to normal - but it's not particularly memorable or compelling. The pacing is pretty bad; I understand that a lot of developers want to make a single player mode last more than an hour or two, but through a single playthrough of the story mode, I fought nearly 150 battles. When you've only got a character roster of 21 Pokemon, it starts to feel repetitive. I really think the single player could have benefited from some brevity. As tired and stale as the story mode itself can be, however, the greatest sin that this game's single player commits is having what is truly among the worst voice acting of this entire console generation. If HD graphics had been a thing in 1997, I'd absolutely believe that this game was from that year. That's how atrocious the voice acting is. It's bad enough that your "adviser" won't shut the hell up and even her "Please don't talk to me" option just makes her limit her obnoxious voice to before and after a battle, the terrible voice acting makes it extremely cringe-worthy. Just hit the mute button while characters are talking; none of them were voiced by legitimate actors.



hile I found the story mode to be every bit as disappointing as I remembered from my Wii U playthrough a couple years ago, this is a game that not even I play for the single player. This is one of the few fighting games that I've found that I actually enjoy. It's extremely approachable with simple controls and easy to learn combos and controls that allow customization. It also supports the Pokken gamepad that Hori released back when the Wii U original came out, and the Wii U controllers are identical to the Switch branded one in all but color scheme and branding; 90% of my playthrough was done with my Pikachu Pokken controller. The online matchmaking is fast and stable, and the array of local play options make this a game that is absolutely able to fill the void until the inevitable Super Smash Bros game for Switch.



Pokken Tournament DX may not be the next Dreamcast Soul Calibur in terms of fighting game masterpieces, but it's an exceptionally well crafted and well balanced fighting game that's had more care put into its development than pretty much any traditional fighting game of this generation. Between its beautiful visuals, its clever 2D/3D hybrid style, and it's nearly perfect gamepad (assuming one chooses to buy one), it's an extraordinary game that is an absolute must-own for Switch owners and especially Pokemon fans. As fantastic as the Wii's Pokemon Battle Revolution was, a fighting game like this really is the closest we'll probably get to the Pokemon battles we all watched on the anime, and that's hella dope.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Surely you still gotta beat most of the story mode to unlock normal Mewtwo, though, right? You've still got that to look forward to in terms of a goal for the story mode. You probably need to finish what you had to for old Shadow Mewtwo to get all the supports anyways, yes? Just curious. No unlockable fighters would make that game FAR better to me (I've wailed on about that plenty on here before though, so I'm not gonna go into it again).

I really like the Magikarp Festival theme, but I also reaaaally like the Haunted Mansion theme as well :3

[Xeogred]

Do you guys count Freeplay arcade ports as "beaten" when you've cleared them? I've beaten a bunch on Steam the past few months but haven't been counting them.

Just beat Metal Slug 3 at 32 continues. How many quarters did this game take?

This series is cool but I like the more methodical Contra games way more.

[Sarge]

I don't think I disagree with any of your criticisms, Exhuminator. Some small tweaks and it would have been even better. But it's a great return to form, and I hate to see some of the harder-core fans ripping on MercurySteam; I thought they did a great job.

[Exhuminator]

But it's a great return to form, and I hate to see some of the harder-core fans ripping on MercurySteam

I've seen lots of people complaining about the controls. I think that stems from folks not really trying to acclimate. I saw a guy on another forum complain that you have to touch the screen to turn into the morph ball. Somehow he missed the part where the game tells you to press down twice on the circle pad to go into morph ball form. It's always difficult when remaking a game, honestly you just can't make everyone happy. But as someone who has beaten the original Metroid II, I for one found Samus Returns to be a fulfilling homage.