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pook99
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by pook99 Sat Oct 19, 2019 12:18 pm

168. Valfaris
169. Bionic commando (nes)
170. Mega Man (nes)

168. Valfaris: incredible new run n gun, awesome metal soundtrack, awesome level design, solid challenge. There is an great review on the last page so I would feel redundant in writing a review of it, but if you like run n guns it is one of the best to come out in recent history, an absolute must play for fans of the genre.

170. Mega Man: I don't know what to say about mega man that hasn't been said before. The original mega man is a very solid game and a very solid start to the series. It gets a lot of flack for being a bit rough around the edges and a bit too difficult, but I just don't see either of those things. While it is certainly more challenging than the easier entries like 5 and 6, it is definitely not as difficult as 9, 10, and 11. I think it's overall difficulty falls somewhere square in the middle of the series.
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Ack
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ack Sat Oct 19, 2019 12:41 pm

1. Dusk (PC)(FPS)
2. Project: Snowblind (PC)(FPS)
3. Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition (PC)(FPS)
4. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
5. Wolfenstein 3D: Ultimate Challenge (PC)(FPS)
6. Destiny 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
7. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (PC)(FPS/RPG)
8. Destiny 2: Warmind (PC)(FPS/RPG)

9. Destiny 2: Forsaken (PC)(FPS/RPG)
10. Star Wars: Rebel Assault (PC)(Rail Shooter)

11. Castle Werewolf (PC)(FPS)
12. Project Warlock (PC)(FPS)
13. Castle Crashers (PC)(Hack and Slash)
14. This Strange Realm of Mine (PC)(FPS)
15. BioShock Remastered (PC)(FPS)
16. BioShock 2 (PC)(FPS)
17. BioShock 2: Minerva's Den (PC)(FPS)

18. Blood (PC)(FPS)
19. Blood: Cryptic Passage (PC)(FPS)
20. Blood: Post Mortem (PC)(FPS)

21. Shadow Warrior (PC)(FPS)
22. Shadow Warrior: Twin Dragon (PC)(FPS)
23. Shadow Warrior: Wanton Destruction (PC)(FPS)

24. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC)(FPS)
25. F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn (PC)(FPS)

26. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)(RPG)
27. Men of Valor (PC)(FPS)
28. Ultima III: Exodus (PC)(RPG)
29. Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space (PC)(Point and Click)

30. Midnight Ultra (PC)(FPS)
31. Amid Evil (PC)(FPS)
32. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC)(RPG)
33. Betrayer (PC)(Horror)

34. Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary (PC)(FPS/RPG)
35. Far Cry 2 (PC)(FPS)
36. Apocryph (PC)(FPS)
37. Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor (PC)(RPG)

38. Menzoberranzan (PC)(RPG)
39. TimeShift (PC)(FPS)
40. Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition (PC)(RPG)
41. Shadowgate (PC)(Point and Click)

42. Might & Magic Book One (PC)(RPG)
43. Miasmata (PC)(Adventure)

I took a break for a few days from Might & Magic 2 to finally check out Miasmata since it's October and there is an element of horror to the game.

In Miasmata, you're a scientist who has contracted a plague. To add to the problem, your nation has had some sort of violent Luddite revolution, so you've been exiled to a small island that other scientists had gone to try and seek a cure. When you get there, you discover the scientists have all been murdered, their work is only partially done, and some strange creature is stalking the island. Will you finish the cure? Will you succumb to the effects of the disease? Or will you be stalked and hunted by the creature, which may simply be a product of your sick and addled mind?

There are many questions that the game decides to leave open, but that's ok, it makes the creature more of a menace and the experience more mysterious and entertaining. At its core, Miasmata is about survivalism and learning to use the land to your benefit, be it in making medicines and drugs to boost your weakened senses, scrounging for water, or grabbing various objects for light and weapons when you might need them. The creature is a random threat, and apparently that randomness manages to scare off some folks from playing the game because they're not into being stalked, though I went toe to toe to it multiple times and managed to escape nearly every encounter. It really isn't that scary once you learn its rules, and during a speedrun I did for an achievement, I managed to beat the game without ever even seeing it.

Miasmata is an indie game from a two-man team, a pair of brothers that did this out of love, and you know what? It isn't perfect; there are visual bugs, there are typos, and there are some strange moments with the physics and AI. The movement system takes terrain and momentum into account, and it can take some getting used to a more realistic sense of motion, but it also occasionally leads to weird things like bouncing off the side of stairs. There are moments when things stutter while music kicks in, and pop up is a problem. Yet despite the bugs, when the music is playing and you're standing on the side of some little lake looking at a campsite and figuring out where it fits in on the map to determine your next move, there is a true bliss to the game too.

I adored Miasmata, and I recommend it, albeit it with the caveat that you should seek out the community patch. It fixes some of the biggest issues, and if you're going for achievements, it's a necessary component because it fixes some achievement breaking bugs. There are some mods too which can change things up, such as showing you what of the coastline you haven't mapped or making the creature more or less aggressive, though your mileage on these may vary. If none of this is important to you, then vanilla should be relatively ok, though the community patch still helps with stability.

Miasmata reminds me a lot of the best parts of Betrayer, another game that I enjoyed greatly this year. I really do recommend this to fans of adventure, horror, and first person games, and October is not a bad month to check it out. That creature adds just enough stress factor to push some folks over the edge, so it may work wonderfully for you. The game has its flaws, but the experience is fantastic.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by MrPopo Sun Oct 20, 2019 11:35 pm

First 50:
1. Octopath Traveler - Switch
2. Dusk - PC
3. Forsaken Remastered - PC
4. Tales of Eternia - PS1
5. Resident Evil 2 (2019) - PC
6. Pokémon Trading Card Game - GBC
7. Metro Exodus - PC
8. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales - PC
9. Project Warlock - PC
10. Magic: The Gathering - PC
11. Ghost 1.0 - PC
12. Call of Duty 2 - PC
13. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - PS4
14. Revelations: The Demon Slayer - GBC
15. Mechstermination Force - Switch
16. Shadow Warrior Classic Redux - PC
17. Lost Sphear - Switch
18. Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal - PC
19. Dragon Quest III - NES
20. Rage 2 - PC
21. Blood - PC
22. Harvest Moon 64 - N64
23. Battlefield V - PC
24. Sigil - PC
25. Shining Force III: Scenario 2 - Saturn
26. Shining Force III: Scenario 3 - Saturn
27. Borderlands 2: Commander Lillith and the Fight for Sanctuary - PC
28. Gato Roboto - Switch
29. Timespinner - Switch
30. Amid Evil - PC
31. Pillars of Eternity II: Beast of Winter - PC
32. Pillars of Eternity II: Seeker, Slayer, Survivor - PC
33. Pillars of Eternity II: The Forgotten Sanctum - PC
34. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Switch
35. Orphan - PC
36. Project Nimbus - PC
37. Hardcore Mecha - PC
38. Grey Goo - PC
39. Giants: Citizen Kabuto - PC
40. Wolfenstein: Youngblood - PC
41. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Switch
42. Metal Wolf Chaos XD - PC
43. Ion Fury - PC
44. Final Fantasy Adventure - GB
45. Astral Chain - Switch
46. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw - PC
47. Blasphemous - Switch
48. Daemon x Machina - Switch
49. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Switch
50. Borderlands 3 - PC

51. Valfaris - Switch
52. Unreal: Return to Na Pali - PC

Return to Na Pali picks up right where Unreal leaves off. Your derelict escape shuttle is picked up by a large battleship and they realize you're an escaped prisoner. Since another ship went down on the planet of Na Pali and it's impossible to scan thanks to all the Tarydium deposits. So the plan is that they send you back, because your ability to kill your way through everything on the planet is already demonstrated. So now we have an excuse to do more Unreal levels. The game continues the usage of large outdoor environments that Unreal first showed off, and several of the outdoor levels have multiple convergent paths to get through them. The levels are a mixed bag length-wise; a few of them are incredibly short while a few others are really long. There's a handful of new enemies, all of them are annoying humanoids that either have hitscan weapons or shields or both.

There's also a handful of new weapons; Unreal was notable for having a bunch of non-standard weapons, so the expansion had to dip into the normal weapon category. You have an assault rifle that does more DPS than the minigun with less spread (though the minigun might do more damage in total at max ammo), a grenade launcher that does more damage and a larger splash radius than the grenades of the nineball launcher (and the ability to detonate them prematurely), and a rocket launcher that does more damage and a larger splash radius than the rockets of the nineball launcher (and the ability to manually guide them to your cursor). The rocket launcher is a disappointment, but the grenade launcher is useful on a couple levels and the assault rifle is always good, it just pisses through ammo too fast to use regularly.

Overall the game is fairly short, but you get it as part of Unreal Gold, which is the main way to buy the game digitally, so there's no reason not to play it if you've already played the base game.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by ElkinFencer10 Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:51 pm

Games Beaten in 2019 So Far - 61
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. Army Men 3D - PlayStation - January 1*
2. Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished - NES - January 4
3. Mega Man - NES - January 6
4. Mega Man 2 - NES - January 6
5. Mega Man 3 - NES - January 6
6. Mega Man 4 - NES - January 7
7. Dr. Discord's Conquest - NES - January 7
8. Mega Man 5 - NES - January 26
9. Just Cause 3 - PlayStation 4 - January 26
10. Mega Man 6 - NES - January 27
11. Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight - Vita - January 27
12. Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space - PlayStation 2 - January 27


February (2 Games Beaten)
13. Earth Defense Force 5 - PlayStation 4 - February 2
14. Fallout 76 - PlayStation 4 - February 3


March (4 Games Beaten)
15. Octopath Traveler - Switch - March 2
16. Resident Evil 0 - PlayStation 4 - March 9
17. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - PlayStation 4 - March 10
18. Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade - Game Boy Advance - March 30


April (3 Games Beaten)
19. Moemon - Game Boy Advance - April 5
20. Yoshi's Crafted World - Switch - April 10
21. Wargroove - Switch - April 26


May (8 Games Beaten)
22. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen - Switch - May 5
23. Battlefield V - PlayStation 4 - May 9
24. Timespinner - PlayStation 4 - May 12
25. Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain - PlayStation 4 - May 17
26. Shenmue - PlayStation 4 - May 19
27. Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - PlayStation 2 - May 26
28. Team Sonic Racing - Switch - May 29
29. Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse - PlayStation 2 - May 30


June (5 Games Beaten)
30. Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprache Zarathustra - PlayStation 2 - June 2
31. Gato Roboto - Switch - June 3
32. Katana Zero - Switch - June 4
33. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct - Wii U - June 8
34. Dark Savior - Saturn - June 12


July (12 Games Beaten)
35. The Elder Scrolls V: Skryim - Switch - June 7
36. The Elder Scrolls V: Skryim: Dragonborn - Switch - June 7
37. The Elder Scrolls V: Skryim: Dawnguard - Switch - June 7
38. Tiny Troopers - Switch - July 8
39. Tiny Troopers 2: Special Ops - Switch - July 8
40. Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth - 3DS - July 10
41. Super Robot Wars T - Switch - July 13
42. Super Mario Maker 2 - Switch - July 13
43. Command and Conquer - Saturn - July 16
44. Command and Conquer: Covert Operations - PC - July 16
45. Super Neptunia RPG - PlayStation 4 - July 18
46. My Girlfriend is a Mermaid!? - Switch - July 19


August (5 Games Beaten)
47. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Switch - August 10
48. Wolfenstein Youngblood - Xbox One - August 24
49. Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem - DS - August 27
50. Metal Wolf Chaos XD - PlayStation 4 - August 31
51. Fire Emblem: Archanean War Chronicles - SNES - August 31


September (5 Games Beaten)
52. Golf Story - Switch - September 2
53. Red Dead Redemption - PlayStation 3 - September 7
54. Far Cry 4 - Xbox One - September 14
55. Muv-Luv Extra - Vita - September 19
56. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - Switch - September 23


October (5 Games Beaten)
57. Muv-Luv Unlimited - Vita - October 1
58. Panty Party - Switch - October 2
59. Mario Kart Tour - Android - October 3
60. Muv-Luv Alternative - Vita - October 10
61. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Switch - October 25*


61. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Switch - October 25*

No review this time since I just replayed it on a different route than my playthrough back in August.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by PartridgeSenpai Tue Oct 22, 2019 2:27 am

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

1. Night Slashers (Switch)
2. Bye-Bye BOXBOY! (3DS)
3. GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Xbox 360)
4. Katamari Forever (PS3)
5. Detention (PS4)
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *
7. OctoDad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) *
8. FlintHook (Switch)
9. God of War (PS4)
10. God of War HD (PS3)
11. Tiny Barbarian DX (Switch)
12. God of War 2 HD (PS3)
13. Starlink (Switch)
14. Shin Gundam Musou (PS3)
15. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS)
16. Banjo-Kazooie (N64) *
17. Super Mario 64: Rumble Edition (N64)
18. Mario Party 3 (N64) *
19. Paper Mario (N64) *
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) *
21. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) *
22. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC) *
23. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) *
24. Yoshi's Island (SNES) *
25. Super Mario World (SNES) *
26. Super Mario RPG (SFC) *
27. Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (GB)
28. Final Fantasy VI (SFC) *
29. Final Fantasy IV (SFC) *
30. Final Fantasy V (SFC)
31. Final Fantasy III (Famicom)
32. Mother 2 (SFC) *
33. Mother 3 (GBA) *
34. Hebereke (Famicom)
35. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SFC)
36. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SFC)
37. Donkey Kong Country (SFC) *
38. Wario's Woods (Famicom)
39. Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
40. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
41. Luigi's Mansion (3DS) *
42. Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
43. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga & Bowser's Minions (3DS)
44. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story & Bowser Jr's Journey (3DS)
45. Tomato Adventure (GBA)
46. Corpse Party (PSP)
47. Rave Master: Fighting Live (GC)

48. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) *

It's been a good few years since my marathon of all the Igavanias, and I've been kinda in a gaming funk the past week or so, so I picked up Aria of Sorrow on the Japanese Wii U VC. My memory does blend together a little with the sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, but this is still one of my favorite Igavanias. Certainly my favorite of the 3 GBA Castlevanias. It also kept in line with this month's TR theme, so that was an even better excuse to pick it up and give it another playthrough. It took me a little over 5 hours to beat it, according to the in-game clock, and I got the best ending with 99.6% of the map revealed.

This Castlevania was a bit of an odd-ball at the time for being not only set in the future of 2035, but also for being one of the first of 3 games in the series that utilized the Tactical Soul system. In short, any enemy you kill has a chance of dropping its soul, and there are 3 types of souls, activatables linked to pressing Up and B, activatables connected to holding R, and simple passives. This combined with not only different weapons to find, but weapons that have different attack styles (rather than how Alucard just has differently ranged straight-forward swipes in SotN, for example) really brings a lot more to the table for how you can approach combat. It also makes exploring new areas that much more exciting, because a new enemy in itself can present its own new brand of loot aside from any neat new weapons it may drop. The game handles great and it never is a huge pain to navigate the castle to go back to new areas like it so often is in Harmony of Dissonance. It also has a much more friendly difficulty curve than a lot of its predecessors while still managing to be challenging.

It's not as pretty as the DS games, of course, but the graphics are very pretty. I never found the music super impressive though. I was listening to podcasts while I played it, but I still had the sound on, and only one song (Julius' battle theme) ever really managed to capture my attention. The game is identical to the American version for everything but the text (obviously), but I still found it interesting. It's nothing super special, but it takes a neat twist on the Castlevania stories up to that point, and it's never super obtrusive or boring beyond needing to mash through some conversations to retry boss fights sometimes.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. Still the best of the Castlevanias on GBA, despite not being better than its DS successors. Still very much worth your time if you're into Metroidvanias and want something on the GBA, and it still holds up just fine as a 7$ affair on the Wii U in the year 2019 when there is no shortage of excellent Metroidvania games on platforms like PC and Switch. Only barrier to entry might be if you actually wanna play it on the GBA, as it's a bit short for what a hefty price it demands these days.
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Ack
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ack Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:19 am

1. Dusk (PC)(FPS)
2. Project: Snowblind (PC)(FPS)
3. Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition (PC)(FPS)
4. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
5. Wolfenstein 3D: Ultimate Challenge (PC)(FPS)
6. Destiny 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
7. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (PC)(FPS/RPG)
8. Destiny 2: Warmind (PC)(FPS/RPG)

9. Destiny 2: Forsaken (PC)(FPS/RPG)
10. Star Wars: Rebel Assault (PC)(Rail Shooter)

11. Castle Werewolf (PC)(FPS)
12. Project Warlock (PC)(FPS)
13. Castle Crashers (PC)(Hack and Slash)
14. This Strange Realm of Mine (PC)(FPS)
15. BioShock Remastered (PC)(FPS)
16. BioShock 2 (PC)(FPS)
17. BioShock 2: Minerva's Den (PC)(FPS)

18. Blood (PC)(FPS)
19. Blood: Cryptic Passage (PC)(FPS)
20. Blood: Post Mortem (PC)(FPS)

21. Shadow Warrior (PC)(FPS)
22. Shadow Warrior: Twin Dragon (PC)(FPS)
23. Shadow Warrior: Wanton Destruction (PC)(FPS)

24. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC)(FPS)
25. F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn (PC)(FPS)

26. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)(RPG)
27. Men of Valor (PC)(FPS)
28. Ultima III: Exodus (PC)(RPG)
29. Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space (PC)(Point and Click)

30. Midnight Ultra (PC)(FPS)
31. Amid Evil (PC)(FPS)
32. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC)(RPG)
33. Betrayer (PC)(Horror)

34. Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary (PC)(FPS/RPG)
35. Far Cry 2 (PC)(FPS)
36. Apocryph (PC)(FPS)
37. Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor (PC)(RPG)

38. Menzoberranzan (PC)(RPG)
39. TimeShift (PC)(FPS)
40. Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition (PC)(RPG)
41. Shadowgate (PC)(Point and Click)

42. Might & Magic Book One (PC)(RPG)
43. Miasmata (PC)(Adventure)
44. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (PC)(FPS)

About a decade ago, I bought the first Call of Juarez while on an FPS binge and eagerly played through it. The second game in the series is actually a prequel to the first, so it is fitting that in a year where I once again felt the need for an FPS binge, I should pick it up and finally play it. While it's a game with some growing pains and suffers from some interesting design choices, I still had a good time, the way I did with the original.

What is the CoJ series? Well, if you're unaware, they're a series of FPS, with 3 out of 4 games taking place in the Old West (the 3rd game in the series is a Neo-Western that has plenty of its own problems). The weapons are archaic. The storylines takes you across Texas, Arizona, and northern Mexico. There is a mixture of open world and linear level design. Frankly, the first two games were from an experimental time with FPS dabbling in open worlds, so you'll occasionally get a large area to explore while doing jobs and killing time. It's a fun diversion, but part of me always wishes when I get to these places that this was the whole game.

CoJ:BiB features two playable protagonists, which have different weapons available and different abilities. Thomas McCall is the agile one, capable of climbing, throwing knives, and using a lasso. He can vault up ledges and get to high ground more easily. He also has a handsome face, meaning he's dull. Then there is Ray McCall, one of the protagonists in the first game. Here he's scarred up, dressed in black, armed with dynamite, and can muscle his way through things that Thomas can't. Screw Thomas, I played as Ray every chance I got, and damn it, it felt good.

There is a variety of weapons available, mostly pistols with upgraded variations over the course of the game, but I stuck to what's called the "Ranger" for most of the game. It uses bullets, but the truth is that it was a cap and ball pistol originally manufactured in 1851 by Colt under the name Colt Ranger, but which eventually became known as the Navy Revolver. Funny enough, you'll find discrepancy in the game if you know your old firearms; the game is set in the late 1860s, but some of what you see are revolver models from the early 1870s. Also, there's a revolver referred to as the Hybrid that appears to be a rare LeMat. That doesn't make much sense for a bandito to be carrying around... Anyway, the point is that a good Navy Revolver will punch a hole in anything that gets in its way, so I stayed with it the whole game and only swapped off when I needed longer range.

Yes, the choice of brothers does give an element of replayability, as does finding the hidden secrets in each level. These give you access to hidden memories, which mainly consist of occasionally funny dialogues between the brothers, as well as U.S. Civil War-era photographs, though there is nothing gamechanging about any of this. Also, beating the game unlocks Very Hard difficulty, though I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's worth it. The game also had a lot of support for community made levels, though I believe those servers are long gone.

As for the transitory elements, it's not only limited to things like open world versus closed. CoJ:BiB utilizes a regenerating health system, so if you're not a fan of those, this may not be for you. It also has a cover system that behaves a little wonky, but I found it generally manageable and actually somewhat useful. Finally, there were achievements in the console releases, but the PC port did not get them for some reason.

The story is a convoluted mess, and the voice acting varies, but the music is fantastic. Also, nearly every level involves a duel of some kind. It took me a while to get the hang of these, and even then, I never quite felt entirely sure if I was controlling them right, even against the final boss. You have to pace around, keeping your opponent in sight and your hand near your weapon; when a bell tolls, you draw and shoot. The trouble is, my guy didn't always seem to grab his pistol, and I wasn't sure if I had to pull up to draw or if the game did it on it's own. Also, you have to wait a split second further to actually target the enemy; I lost quite a few duels early on because I shot between someone's legs. I also won quite a few duels by blowing off someone's testicles...sorry about that.

Yeah, so that's Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. If you want a Western FPS, this will scratch the itch, but it's a painfully limited subgenre to explore: Outlaws, Darkwatch, three of the Call of Juarez games, a few mods like Fistful of Frags, and then some Neo Westerns or Western-inspired games like Blood or Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. I wish we had more. CoJ:BiB was short, but it fit the bill for what I wanted. Now if only it gave me more of an open world to wander around, like Red Dead Redemption, only, you know, an FPS.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by prfsnl_gmr Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:51 am

First 50
1. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary (NDS)
2. Reigns (iOS)
3. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
4. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB)
5. Castlevania Legends (GB)
6. Yankai’s Triangle (iOS)
7. Mega Man III (GB)
8. Mega Man IV (GB)
9. Mega Man V (GB)
10. Sin & Punishment (N64)
11. Love You to Bits (iOS)
12. Mega Man Powered Up - Old Style (PSP)
13. Mega Man Powered Up - New Style (PSP)
14. Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA)
15. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (NDS)
16. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (NDS)
17. Detective Pikachu (3DS)
18. Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis)
19. Fantasy Zone Gear (GG)
20. Fantasy Zone - The Maze (SMS)
21. Fantasy Zone (Famicom)
22. Fantasy Zone (NES)
23. Kung Fu Master (2600)
24. Kid Dracula (Famicom)
25. Kid Dracula (GB)
26. Fantasy Zone (TG16)
27. Double Dragon V (SNES)
28. Fantasy Zone II (Famicom)
29. Street Fighter: The Movie (PS1)
30. Fire Fly (2600)
31. Pac Man (2600)
32. Extreme Sports with the Berenstain Bears (GBC)
33. Fantasy Zone (PS2)
34. Space Fantasy Zone (TG16)
35. Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf Fantasy Zone (Genesis)
36. Mega Man (GG)
37. Konami Pixel Puzzle (iOS)
38. Qix (Arcade/NES)
39. Congo Bongo (Arcade)
40. Phantasy Star Gaiden (GG)
41. Phantasy Star Adventure (GG)
42. Panzer Dragoon Mini (GG)
43. Spartan X-2 (Famicom)
44. BS The Legend of Zelda: The Ancient Stone Tablets (Super Famicom)
45. BS The Legend of Zelda (Super Famicom)
46. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (NDS)
47. Double Dribble (NES)
48. Super Pro Football (INTV)
49. Indy 500 (2600)
50. Tecmo Bowl (NES)

51. Ninja Gaiden (GG)
52. SonSon (Arcade)
53. Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS)
54. Minit (iOS)
55. Ninja Gaiden (SMS)
56. Surround (2600)
57. Pocket Bomberman (GBC)
58. Shadowgate (iOS)
59. Kuru Kuru Kururin (GBA)
60. Metroid Prime Hunters - First Hunt (NDS)
61. Mekorama (iOS)
62. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
63. Akamajou Dracula Peke (TG16)
64. Darius Burst (iOS)
65. DoDonPachi Resurrection HD (iOS)
66. Vigilante (TG16)


Touch screens are great for shmups, and both Darius Burst and DoDonPachi Resurrection are pretty great shmups. They’re also both pretty short and pretty easy. (OK...I didn’t REALLY beat them because it took me about four credits to get through each. Still, though, they’re nothing like Raiden or R-Type.) I’ll be playing these some more to improve my scores, unlock more ships, etc., but I did roll the credits on each.

Vigilante is a pile of garbage. Ostensibly, it’s part of the Kung Fu Master series, and ostensibly, the TG16 version is the best version. The hit detection is absolutely horrendous, however. Moreover, the game is completely uninspired, and the controls are sluggish. Avoid. (Should I try out the SMS version? Is it any better?)
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by marurun Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:45 am

It's just kind of a crap game. Would not recommend Vigilante in any form.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by PartridgeSenpai Wed Oct 23, 2019 6:57 am

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

1. Night Slashers (Switch)
2. Bye-Bye BOXBOY! (3DS)
3. GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Xbox 360)
4. Katamari Forever (PS3)
5. Detention (PS4)
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *
7. OctoDad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) *
8. FlintHook (Switch)
9. God of War (PS4)
10. God of War HD (PS3)
11. Tiny Barbarian DX (Switch)
12. God of War 2 HD (PS3)
13. Starlink (Switch)
14. Shin Gundam Musou (PS3)
15. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS)
16. Banjo-Kazooie (N64) *
17. Super Mario 64: Rumble Edition (N64)
18. Mario Party 3 (N64) *
19. Paper Mario (N64) *
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) *
21. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) *
22. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC) *
23. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) *
24. Yoshi's Island (SNES) *
25. Super Mario World (SNES) *
26. Super Mario RPG (SFC) *
27. Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (GB)
28. Final Fantasy VI (SFC) *
29. Final Fantasy IV (SFC) *
30. Final Fantasy V (SFC)
31. Final Fantasy III (Famicom)
32. Mother 2 (SFC) *
33. Mother 3 (GBA) *
34. Hebereke (Famicom)
35. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SFC)
36. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SFC)
37. Donkey Kong Country (SFC) *
38. Wario's Woods (Famicom)
39. Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
40. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
41. Luigi's Mansion (3DS) *
42. Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
43. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga & Bowser's Minions (3DS)
44. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story & Bowser Jr's Journey (3DS)
45. Tomato Adventure (GBA)
46. Corpse Party (PSP)
47. Rave Master: Fighting Live (GC)
48. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) *

49. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

In a trend this year of giving second chances to games I gave up on previously, I picked up CotM on the Japanese Wii U eShop. I ended up liking Paper Mario: Sticker Star a decent amount playing through it earlier this year. The second chance was worth it for me. This game however, the second chance was not really worth it for anything other than being able to say that I've now beaten all the Metroid-style Casltevanias. It's easily the worst of the Metroid-y Casltevanias in almost every way. I did everything but the hella difficult battle arena, and it took me around 7 or 8 hours.

So where to begin with this game. It's the only Metroid-style Castlevania game not to have production involvement from Koji Igarashi, and it was a very early title for the GBA. A problem back then that I did not have was that the backgrounds for the stages were nearly impossible to see on the OG GBA's super dark screen, and being that I played it on a Wii U with a Pro Controller, I also had a much bigger screen and different control method than one attached to the screen. It has a number of strange design decisions and steps backwards from Symphony of the Night that make it feel overall like a simplified version of SotN but with worse controls and less variety. It's almost like someone took Casltevania 3 on the NES and morphed it into a Metroid-style game.

The first really baffling design decision is that the main character Nathan has no default run ability. You start off only being able to walk, and you walk SO slowly. The first power-up you get is the ability to run, but you run by double-tapping left or right. All that constant double-tapping really starts to hurt your thumb after a while. The combination of the removal of SotN's back-dash means your only fast movement for dodging is either this double-tap running or doing a Mega Man-style floor slide. This makes the game's movement really clunky and not terribly fun to do, as the need to double-tap means you're constantly reminded of how pointlessly awkward they are. The whip attack that Nathan uses is also quite slow and methodical, and he absolutely FLIES backwards when he gets hit, which when combined with the awkward walking really makes it feel like a weird Metroid-ification of a classic Castlevania game (and I never found that to be a positive comparison).

The castle itself isn't super interesting or memorable. Almost all of it is either long hallways or vertical S- or U-shaped corridors in a way that makes the castle simultaneously vast and boring to traverse. In another strange step backwards from SotN, there is also a very strange utter lack of warp points in most of the castle for no good reason, meaning that you'll be doing a ton of backtracking on foot if you wanna use your new movement powers to get all the health, mana, and heart-count (for sub-weapons) upgrades littered around the castle. A lot of the movement powers also aren't that interesting or are entirely for opening up content gates. Outside of the double-jump and vertical leap, almost all of them are useless outside of the traversal sections that outright require their use. No bat-form, panther-speed, or special dodges to unlock here.

The most fun I had with the castle was just going from place to place ticking boxes off a list getting more upgrades for my base stats, as the enemies are almost never really threatening (and when they are they kill you FAST), but the very rote feeling of reward of "I completed a task" is a fairly low bar for a game to provide enjoyment with. Speaking of the enemies, they're nothing really special either. The game has pretty low enemy variety even for a Metroidvania. It's not laughably paltry or anything, but it feels noticeably lesser than the other games that had the luxury of ripping sprites from older Castlevanias (a place where age has been unkind to early games in the series like CotM). The bosses aren't very good either. Most of them range somewhere between very strangely easy or super duper hard due to attacks that require outright luck to dodge and/or do more than half of your healthbar in damage. The final boss is particularly guilty in that regard. There are a couple fun fights (I liked the big green Ram thing and the fight with the guy with powers like yours), but most of the fights are forgettable even for a Metroid-y Casltevania game.

Where the special stuff does lie is in the DSS card system the game has, and it messes that up too in a way that feels really unnecessary. The DSS card system is a system where you can find base and modifier cards (a dozen different kinds of each, iirc), and by equipping one of each and pressing the L button, you'll activate a special power. You don't know what they do until you activate them the right way, and the game won't even tell you what they do or how much MP they cost until you've activated them. There were a couple I couldn't even figure out how to properly activate, so they were left as "???" for the entire game. This lets you get stuff like a kinda crap mid-run shield (it's not active as you jump, so it's useless around 60% of the time, and some enemies phase right through it because of how they spawn), more powerful elemental whips, damaging shields, longer invincibility time, or even new weapons like turning your whip into a giant elemental sword. Of course, I didn't get to try out most of the DSS system because of the main flaw in it: The cards for it are far too hard to find. Certain enemies drop cards, and you have no idea which. Many of them are quite rare drops as well, so unless you know where to look and deliberately farm them, you very likely won't find many or even most (as was the case with me) of the cards in the game. The DSS feature is by far the best thing the game has going for it, so other than an adherence to genre conventions, I can't really imagine why they'd hide their best content this way.

Graphically I have seen the game described as an enhanced GBC game, and that just about fits. The animations are very limited (especially compared to other Castlevania games), with most enemies only having a couple frames of animation, and the sprites aren't super detailed either. Some of the backgrounds are quite nice, although as said previously they would've been quite hard to see on an original GBA screen most of the time. Despite the limited graphics, the game still has problems with slowdown. It often isn't much of a problem, and is only present when certain enemies or several of a certain type are on-screen at once. However, it's an AWFUL problem on the final Dracula fight. There were many times on failed attempts at Dracula that button presses not registering how I wanted them to (particularly for the upwards high jump) had me falling into a powerful attack that got me killed.

The other elements of the presentation are a mixed bag. The story is unobtrusive, sure, but it's also very uninspired and honestly might as well not even be there. The context it provides to certain fights is nice, but it's definitely the least ambitious story out of any of the Metroid-y Castlevanias. The music is largely remixes of older Castlevania music, so it's usually really good. The music is probably the #1 thing this game easily has over its GBA Castlevania counterparts.

Verdict: Not Recommended. This is a trudging, sub-par Metroidvania affair the whole way through. Frustratingly difficult far more often than enjoyably challenging, clunky controls, boring presentation. Especially with the inundation of fantastic Metroidvanias coming on the market these days, your money can go towards much better than Circle of the Moon as can your time. I know this game has its defenders, especially on this site, but I can't enjoy this game the way they can. Before I started this playthrough I held the opinion that this was probably the worst of the Metroid-y Castlevanias, and the only thing this playthrough has changed is that now I know its definitely the worst.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Ack Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:30 am

Wow, I don't recall Circle of the Moon nearly so harshly, but then I played it upon release and never really delved into the handheld games that followed. I'm guessing it's more of a stepping stone to what would come later, both for the series and for the GBA in general. Would you say it's more of an experiment to see if that style would work on a handheld?
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