Games Beaten 2017

[MrHealthy]

* Replays

January
1. Xevious - Namco Museum Essentials (PS3)
2. Xevious Ressurection - Namco Museum Essentials (PS3)
3. ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (PS3)
4. Magrunner: Dark Pulse (PS3)

February
5. CounterSpy (PS3)
6. Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL (PS3)
7. Galaga Legions DX (PS3)
8. StarDrone (PS3)
9. Mortal Kombat - Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PS3)
10. Mortal Kombat 2 - Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PS3)

March
11. Paint it Back (PC)
12. Retro City Rampage DX (Vita)*
13. Xeodrifter (Vita)
14. Flower (Vita)*
15. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 - Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection (PS3)
16. My Name is Mayo (Vita)
17. Uncharted Golden Abyss (Vita)*
18. The Unfinished Swan (Vita)*
19. The Muppets Movie Adventure (Vita)
20. Tennis in the Face (Vita)*
21. Super Stardust Delta (Vita)

April
22. LittleBigPlanet PSVita (Vita)
23. Gravity Rush (Vita)
24. Table Top Racing (Vita)
25. Assassin's Creed Chronicles China (Vita)
26. Assassin's Creed Chronicles India (Vita)

May
27. Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Vita)
28. Lego Lord of the Rings (Vita)
29. Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Plus R (Vita)
30. J-Stars Victory VS+ (Vita)

June
31. BreakQuest: Extra Evolution (Vita)
32. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Vita)
33. Desert Ashes (Vita)

July
34. Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified (Vita)
35. Minecraft (Vita)
36. God of War (Vita)*
37. Flying Hamster HD (Vita)
38. Hitman GO (Vita)
39. Ben 10 Galactic Racing (Vita)
40. Super Star Wars (Vita)

August
41. Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom (Vita)
42. Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
43. Severed (Vita)

September
44. Savage Bees (PS3)
45. Cloudberry Kingdom (PS3)

46. Sly 2: Band of Thieves (PS3)
I loved Sly 1, and I had always heard that this game was great, but didn't know how different it was. Well, it took everything I liked about Sly 1 and threw it in the trash before setting it on fire. I did not like this at all.

47. Elemental Monster: Online Card Game (PS3)
A very fun card game, but most of the cards are locked behind micro transactions and the online modes, which is unfortunate because the online is dead. Base game only costs a dollar though, so the single player component was still worth while.

48. Thomas was Alone (Vita)*
Got my vita back so I thought I would crack open my physical copy of this for a quick replay. Still good, but loses a lot of its impact the second time around.

49. Pocket God vs Desert Ashes (Vita)
Being a sequel to Desert Ashes I was hoping for improvements on a fun but very flawed experience. I didn't get that. Game was somehow buggier, had less content and a worse story mode. Very disappointing.

50. StarDrone Extreme (Vita)
Apparently not a unique game like I thought and just a port of StarDrone on PS3. Only allows for touch controls though, which never work well for me. So another dissappointment.

October
51. Motorstorm Apacolypse
Decided to go back and finish this up after putting it down years ago. The story they add is weird edgy stuff that seems like a teen wrote it. Overall lost a lot of charm from the original Motorstorm which I adore, but still a very solid racer with some impressive destruction effects and changing track layouts. Also very good in 3D if you can play it like that, but 3D seems to have gone the way of the dodo so you probably can't.

[Xeogred]

If you didn't like Sly 2 I dare you to try Sly 3, haha. Now that one killed me.

[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
47. Cuphead - Xbox One[

Cuphead is an absolutely gorgeous game that I think we all thought video games would end up looking like post SNES/Genesis era, before we realized 3D was going to be a thing. The whole thing is like playing through a 30's cartoon, complete with the same animation styles and quirks, old school music sounding like it was made on old school equipment, and a nice dirty film filter (including those little hairs that got stuck on the film). This playable cartoon is used to throw a massive number of multi phase bosses at you and make you earn your happy ending.

The basic premise is that the titular hero shoots dice against the Devil and loses, giving up his soul. But the Devil gives him a chance to get it back by getting the soul contracts of a bunch of other people. This requires you to beat them all up in the aforementioned series of boss fights. The game is divided up into three main worlds and an end game. These worlds will have entrances to the various boss fights, some closed off paths (that open when you beat bosses), a couple of run-and-gun stages (Contra) that you can collect coins in to buy powerups, and then a guy selling powerups. You can equip two types of shots, a passive ability, and a super ability. Finding the right shots that work for you and the boss you're fighting are critical.

The first two worlds have five bosses each, the third has seven, and the end game consists of two bosses (though the first is more of a boss rush boss). Most of these bosses are sort of like a Contra or Alien Soldier boss, where they're tossing stuff that's telegraphed at you while you try to take them down. Each boss goes through several phases, gaining and losing attacks in the process. There are also some shmup bosses, and as the game goes on they get more and more bullet hell style. A constant theme is learning boss tells and how to appropriately dodge the nasties coming at you.

As I mentioned, the end game consists of two bosses. The first is in the style of a boss rush; you will move along a board according to your ability to time hitting a die, and each square you land on might be a boss or a safe square. These bosses are single phase and have less health than the normal bosses. Get to the end and you get to fight the actual boss, which is another short single-phase fight (though it's quite challenging due to some very tight timing requirements to dodge his attack). If you die at any point in this process you go back to the start. And that's where the real frustration comes in. The fights are very uneven in their difficulty, so until you can get the timing down so that you can get through without taking hits you're in for a bad time. And you're just going to get trashed by the final boss of the sequence because you won't have the timing down. By contrast, the final boss is a standard multi phase fight that's much quicker to learn.

The game is quite hard, but it makes you feel great when you over come the accomplishments. It does have some balance problems (Charge is OP as hell, Smoke Bomb is the only passive worth using except Coffee on Shmup stages) but overall it's totally worthwhile.

[BogusMeatFactory]

You nailed it on how I thought games would look in the future when I was a kid. Games like Mickey Mania really encouraged that idea.

So glad to see you add this notch in your belt! Cuphead is a beefy game!

[Sarge]

Previous games:

January:
1) The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC) (8.5) (1/1) (~5.5 hours)
2) ActRaiser (SNES) (8.0) (1/2) (~4 hours)
3) Bonk's Revenge (GB) (6.0) (1/3) (~1 hour)
4) Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (GB) (6.5) (1/3) (~1 hour)
5) Blackwell Legacy (PC) (7.0) (1/5) (2.6 hours)
6) Blackwell Unbound (PC) (7.5) (1/7) (2.2 hours)
7) Blackwell Convergence (PC) (8.0) (1/7) (2.4 hours)
8) Blackwell Deception (PC) (8.0) (1/8) (4.7 hours)
9) Blackwell Epiphany (PC) (9.0) (1/9) (6.5 hours)
10) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) (8.0) (1/22) (~55 hours)
11) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360) (8.0) (1/28) (~.5 hours)
12) Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck (SMS) (6.5) (1/31) (~1 hour)
February:
13) Quackshot Starring Donald Duck (GEN) (7.5) (2/7) (~2 hours)
14) Fire Emblem Heroes (Android) (8.0) (2/9) (~10 hours)
15) Super C (NES) (9.5) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
16) Contra (NES) (10.0) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
17) Mickey's Dangerous Chase (GB) (6.5) (2/24) (~1 hour)
18) My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (3DS) (8.5) (2/25) (~19 hours)
19) Mega Man 2 (NES) (10.0) (2/28) (~0.8 hours)
March:
20) Final Fantasy XV (PS4) (8.0) (3/2) (~33 hours)
21) Blaster Master Zero (NS) (9.0) (3/10) (~6.5 hours)
22) Espgaluda II Black Label (360) (8.0?) (3/17) (0.5 hours)
23) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NS) (9.5) (3/28) (~70+ hours)
April:
24) Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (PC) (8.5) (4/7) (~5.5 hours)
25) Hyper Light Drifter (PS4) (8.0) (4/9) (~8 hours)
26) Gekido Advance: Kintaro's Revenge (GBA) (7.5) (4/16) (~3 hours)
27) Vanquish (PS3) (8.5) (4/17) (~7 hours)
28) Journey (PS3) (6.0) (4/19) (~2 hours)
29) GunForce (SNES) (4.0) (4/22) (~20 minutes)
30) GunForce 2 (ARC) (7.0) (4/23) (~30 minutes)
31) GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island (ARC) (6.0) (4/23) (~20 minutes)
32) Mighty Final Fight (NES) (8.5) (4/29) (~30 minutes)
May:
33) Final Fantasy V (SFC) (6.0) (5/1) (~33 hours)
34) Super Adventure Island (SNES) (7.0) (5/2) (~1 hour)
35) Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (NES) (7.5) (5/3?) (~30 minutes)
36) Mighty No. 9 (PS4) (5.0) (5/6?) (~5 hours)
37) Contra III: The Alien Wars (Hard) (SNES) (8.5) (5/11) (~1 hour)
38) Operation C (GB) (7.5) (5/22) (~1 hour)
June:
39) Super Dodge Ball (NES) (9.5) (6/1) (~15 minutes)
40) Bare Knuckle III (GEN) (7.5) (6/3) (~1 hour)
41) Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) (9.5) (6/5) (~30 minutes)
42) Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear (GB) (4.0) (6/8) (~1 hour)
43) Castlevania: The Adventure (GB) (3.5) (6/9) (~1 hour)
44) Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (PC) (8.0) (6/15) (~8.5 hours)
45) Streets of Rage (GEN) (9.0) (6/17) (~45 minutes)
46) Ghouls 'N Ghosts (GEN) (6.5) (6/17) (~4 hours)
47) Contra: Hard Corps (GEN) (8.5) (6/18) (~50 minutes)
48) Mighty Gunvolt Burst (NS) (7.5) (6/23) (~3 hours?)
49) Exile's End (PC) (8.0) (6/24) (~5 hours)
July:
50) Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) (8.5) (7/1) (16h53m)
51) Pharaoh Rebirth+ (PC) (8.0) (7/3) (7 hours)
52) Jackal (NES) (9.0) (7/9) (45 minutes)
53) Golden Axe III (NES) (2.5) (7/9) (~45 minutes)
54) Rygar (NES) (7.0) (7/10) (~2 hours)
55) Faxanadu (NES) (8.0) (7/14) (~6 hours)
56) Tekken 3 (PSX) (6.0) (7/24) (~20 minutes)
57) Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) (8.5) (7/30) (38h16m)
August:
58) Contra: The Alien Wars (GB) (3.5) (8/1) (~30 minutes)
59) Super Smash Bros. (N64) (8.0) (8/6) (~20 minutes)
60) Battletoads (Japan) (NES) (7.5) (8/10) (~40 minutes)
61) Castle of Dragon (NES) (2.5) (8/10) (~1 hour)
62) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (NES) (3.0) (8/10) (~30 minutes)
63) Strider (NES) (6.5) (8/11) (~2 hours)
64) Commando (NES) (3.5) (8/11) (~1 hour)
65) Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa (NES) (6.5) (8/12) (~1h30m)
66) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (GEN) (4.0) (8/12) (~1 hour)
67) Dragon Scroll: Yomigaerishi Maryuu (NES) (5.0) (8/13) (~4 hours)
68) Mega Man 8 (SAT) (7.0) (8/17) (~4 hours)
69) Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (PS4) (8.0) (8/19) (4h42m)
70) Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3) (6.5) (8/25) (~30 minutes)
71) Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS) (7.5) (8/27) (25 hours?)
72) Daikatana (GBC) (6.5) (8/28) (~3 hours)
73) Bionic Commando (NES) (9.5) (8/30) (~1.5 hours)
74) Adventure Island II (NES) (6.5) (8/31) (~3 hours)
September:
75) The Mafat Conspiracy (NES) (5.0) (9/1) (~1.5 hours)
76) Snake's Revenge (NES) (8.0) (9/4) (~4 hours)
77) Ys: Memories of Celceta (VITA) (7.5) (9/4) (~25 hours?)
78) Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble (NES) (5.0) (9/7) (~2 hours)
79) 1943: The Battle for Midway (NES) (7.0) (9/9) (~2.5 hours)
80) Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (ARC/360) (5.0) (9/9) (~1 hour)
81) Arkista's Ring (NES) (6.0) (9/9) (~1 hour)
82) Bad Dudes (NES) (4.0) (9/9) (~45 minutes)
83) G.I. Joe: The Atlantis Factor (NES) (7.0) (9/10) (~2 hours)
84) Target: Renegade (NES) (2.0) (9/10) (~1 hour)
85) Gyruss (NES) (8.5) (9/11) (~1 hour)
86) Renegade (NES) (3.5) (9/12) (~30 minutes)
87) Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) (9.0) (9/18) (11h35m) (16h total time)
88) Rambo (NES) (4.5) (9/19) (~3 hours)
89) Return of Double Dragon (SFC) (8.0) (9/20) (~1 hour)
90) Wizards & Warriors (NES) (6.5) (9/21) (~1.5 hours)
91) Wizards & Warriors III - Kuros: Visions of Power (NES) (6.5) (9/23) (~4 hours)
92) Wolverine (NES) (3.0) (9/23) (~1 hour)
93) The Jetsons: Cogswell's Caper (NES) (6.0) (9/23) (~1 hour)
94) Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (NES) (6.5) (9/24) (~2 hours)
95) The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy (NES) (6.0) (9/24) (~1 hour)
96) RodLand (NES) (7.0) (9/30) (~1 hour)
97) Gradius (NES) (7.0) (9/30) (~30 minutes)
98) Life Force (NES) (8.0) (9/30) (~1 hour)
99) Gradius II (NES) (8.0) (9/30) (~1 hour)

October:
100) Guerilla War (NES) (6.0) (10/1) (~1 hour)
101) Gun-Nac (NES) (7.5) (10/2) (~1.5 hours)
102) Mega Man 9 (PS4, via MMLC2) (9.5) (10/7) (~2.5 hours)
103) Star Wars (NES) (5.5) (10/7) (~1.5 hours)

It's been a while since I actually ran through Mega Man 9 again. Despite my love for the game, it's not an entry I like to boot up on a whim to relax. I can do that with all of the NES Mega Man games except the first one. I don't know if it's just sheer muscle memory, or that this is significantly trickier. Some of the deaths remind me more of the first game, and there's tons of opportunities for instant death. That's probably why it's so harrowing.

Still, these things can be alleviated using the shop, something not present in the original games. You can farm for screws, and spend them on lives and E-Tanks, which come in very handy during Wily's Castle, as always. However, there is a change in the PS4 release that makes that a little less necessary. While you don't get save states or a rewind feature like MMLC or the Disney Collection, you do get checkpoint saves at the midpoints of each stage. Normally, that's where you'd respawn if you lose a life, but you can also just flat-out restore your state there if things go really poorly with your lives. This let me get the "Tango" achievement, beating the game in under 90 minutes (at least by the in-game clock).

I will say, though, even without this feature, I had a easier time than I usually do, although there were certainly some bouts of frustration. That Rock Monster-style boss is frustrating when you can't remember the pattern anymore. And Wily at the end is pretty darn cheap, so having some extra E-Tanks would have been nice instead of leaning on the checkpoint system until I got through.

I'm not entirely sure that I put it even with MM2 like I usually do, but I think that's some of the frustration talking. To be honest, I've played that game so much that to some degree, the familiarity dings it a bit in my mind as well. Despite the presence of so many death traps, MM9 might be one of the most wildly creative entries in the series, and somehow actually brings a weapon lineup to the table that doesn't suck. Been a while since that happened! So... yeah, good stuff, despite my quibbles.

On a side note, the presentation of everything in Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 is pretty basic. I heard Digital Eclipse did a great job with the first one, but this just clocks in at "functional". Particularly disappointing is the pretty awful CRT filter, and the lack of a bilinear filter to reduce the dot crawl from being scaled to a non-integer resolution at full screen. On a positive note, you get all the DLC for MM9/10, and it's nice to own MM7 in a legit form for the first time. (It ain't my favorite, I'll tell you that much.)

EDIT: Lots of save states for Star Wars. Mechanically, the game finds itself on solid ground. It's just balanced really terribly, with lots of cheap shots and some absolutely brutal shooting sequences at the end. If you know exactly what to do, it might be a bit easier. You eventually pick up a playable Han Solo and Leia, and you don't lose an actual life until you lose your team. However, if you're on your ship, goodbye, life. You get ten continues, but I have a feeling you'd burn through them pretty fast unless you've got things memorized. It's not a bad game, though. In fact, for a licensed game of this vintage, you can do a lot worse.

[Xeogred]

Hmmm, I dunno man. My last two runs of MM9, I beat it both times about an hour shorter than you haha. I still don't know the game that well. I did get Mr Perfect for MM10 when it first came out though... maybe that says something. I will admit playing them back to back, yeah MM9 is better. But MM10 has a lot of cool new options, like the difficulties changing up the level layouts and enemy placement, playable 8bit Bass, etc. Cool extras.

Good luck with MM7. I almost ragequit at the end because I didn't have enough E-Tanks for Wily and didn't want to return to the map. With my MMLC2 replay of it that is the last time I ever play that one.

-----------------
1. Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour (PC)
2. Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter* (PC)
3. Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter (PC)
4. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (PC)
5. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (PC)
6. Deadcore (PC)
7. Yakuza 4 (PS3)
8. Hyper Light Drifter (PC)
9. Doom 2: Valiant (PC)
10. Resident Evil 7 (PS4)
10. Doom 2: Ancient Aliens (PC)
11. Doom 2: Vanguard (PC)
12. Doom 2: Doom 2 The Way id Did (PC)
13. Doom 2: Community Chest Pack 4 (PC)
14. Doom: Doom The Way id Did (PC)
15. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (PC)
16. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 (PC)
17. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (WiiU)
18. Dishonored 2 (PC)
19. Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
20. Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB)
21. Super Mario Land (GB)
22. Super Mario Land 2 (GB)
23. Mighty Final Fight (NES)
24. Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES)
25. Trip World (GB)
26. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Genesis)
27. Aladdin (Genesis)
28. Streets of Rage (SMS)
29. Bare Knuckle (Genesis)
30. Bare Knuckle 2* (Genesis)
31. Bare Knuckle 3* (Genesis)
32. Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% (SNES)
33. Earthworm Jim* (Sega CD)
34. Ghouls'n Ghosts (Genesis)
35. Contra (NES)
36. Super C (NES)
37. Final Fight 2* (SNES)
38. Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES)
39. Final Fight 3* (SNES)
40. Operation C (GB)
41. Contra Hard Corps [End B] (Genesis)
42. Mega Turrican (Genesis)
43. Prey (PC)
44. Dark Souls 3 DLC: Ashes of Ariandel & The Ringed City (PS4)
45. Spec Ops: The Line (PC)
46. System Shock Enhanced Edition (PC)
47. Tekken 7 (PS4)
48. Nier Automata [Platinum] (PS4)
49. Nier (B) (PS3)
50. Drakengard 3 (A-C) (PS3)
51. FEAR Extraction Point* (PC)
52. FEAR Perseus Mandate* (PC)
53. Transmissions: Element 120 (PC)
54. Ratchet & Clank (PS4)
55. Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4)
56. Sonic CD* (PC)
57. Alan Wake* (PC)
58. Deus Ex* (PC)
59. Momodora III (PC)
60. Mega Man 7* (PS4, MMLC2)
61. Mega Man 8* (PS4, MMLC2)
62. Mega Man 9* (PS4, MMLC2)
63. Mega Man 10* (PS4, MMLC2)
64. Rockman & Forte* (SNES)
65. Mega Man Legends (PSX)
66. Sonic Mania (PC)
67. Mega Man Legends 2 (PSX)
68. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (PC)
69. Yakuza 0 (PS4)
70. Metroid Samus Returns (3DS)
71. Blue Revolver (PC)
72. Caladrius Blaze (PC)
73. Crimson Clover World Ignition (PC)
74. Deathsmiles (PC)
75. Ikaruga* (PC)
76. Jamestown (PC)
77. Metal Slug (PC)
78. Metal Slug 3 (PC)
79. Metal Slug X (PC)
80. Mushihimesama (PC)
81. Dead Space* (PC)

* replay

Dead Space is almost 10 years old and still holds up flawlessly. It's an evolution of RE4's gameplay and combat, in the world of Alien meets The Thing meets Event Horizon. There is no boring cover mechanics or generic humanoid enemy types, every single chapter introduces new enemies along with some bosses further along the way (it's strange the sequels dimished the enemy roster as the series went). The sound design is phenomenal and the gritty metalic sci-fi aesthetic is unnerving yet really cool. I got all the achievements for this on the 360, bought and played it again on the PS3, and did the same here for PC. A timeless masterpiece that I will continue to go back to forever. Make us whole again.

[Sarge]

Well, to be fair, it has been a long time since I played through the whole thing. The regular stages went down fast, it was the Wily stuff that slowed me down. I died a good amount there. I figure I'd be a lot faster now. Maybe just a few more plays is the secret...

[Exhuminator]

69. Strike Witches: Silver Wing | 6/10



Strike Witches: Silver Wing is a Japan-exclusive bullet hell shoot 'em up based on the Strike Witches manga/anime franchise. This game was originally released on Xbox 360, but later received a PSP port. Silver Wing consists of horizontal shoot 'em up stages punctuated by cutscene driven narratives. The cutscenes are text based and entirely in Japanese. However you don't need to be able to read Japanese in order to play through this game. After choosing your three-team strike witches from a roster, you proceed to shoot all aliens. Each girl has their own special power, but they share a magic point pool which doubles as their life points. Every time you're hit, you lose magic/life points, so using your magic attacks too often sets you up for a quick death. Also when a strike witches uses her power, there is a cool down period before she can use it again. Stage and enemy design is repetitive, but bosses remain interesting in their transformation abilities. The production quality overall is lackluster, but the gameplay gets the job done. If you're able to read Japanese you might get more out of the experience, thanks to its hefty visual novel style cutscenes. Ultimately Strike Witches: Silver Wing is a mediocre bullet hell fluff piece bolstered by solid source material.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I enjoyed that Splatterhouse game. It's not amazing, but it's a fun little romp with an interesting sense of humor.

Splatterhouse 2010 is up there with Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom for me as Namco Bandi published games of last gen that went criminally unnoticed. You can find all 3 for damn cheap these days (although Majin will likely be a fair bit harder to find), and all three are great!

[Exhuminator]

70. Armored Hunter: Gunhound EX | 8/10



Armored Hunter: Gunhound EX is directly influenced by mecha classics such as Assault Suits Valken and Front Mission: Gun Hazard. Armored Hunter: Gunhound EX apes their graphical style and gameplay extremely accurately. However there is one big difference, Armored Hunter: Gunhound EX is incredibly more difficult than its influences. Checkpoints are sparse and enemies hit hard in this unforgiving mecha shooter. Despite the amped up challenge, Armored Hunter: Gunhound EX is still very enjoyable with its rocking OST, huge explosions, varied level designs, and nonstop action. You can unlock additional weapons for your mech, and customize its arsenal and color scheme. There's a fairly involved plot going on as well. So if you care about reading the dialogue in the cutscenes, try the English PC port of this Japanese PSP original. If you're seeking to test your skills, while piloting a giant robot and blowing everything up, then give Armored Hunter: Gunhound EX a shot.

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This is the second of three PSP shooters I planned to beat this weekend. I'm awful close to beating the third one.