Games Beaten 2015

[laurenhiya21]

8. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS)

Such a fun game, but I wouldn't ever be able to beat it because the AI tends to beat me to a pulp >,<

[BogusMeatFactory]

8. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS)

Such a fun game, but I wouldn't ever be able to beat it because the AI tends to beat me to a pulp >,<

Yeah, it can be overwhelming. It is really important to work some synergy into the spells you select for your character and work your hardest to keep your turn going. A lot of times, I would spend my time making sure to force the AI to make a mistake. Only one move left on the board? Guess I'll cast a spell that will end my turn and make them have to clear the board and allow me free reign the next turn.

My mage character had a spell that would do damage with every 4 of a kind, as well as a spell that increased the damage done and then I would do spells that would convert blue gems into red gems and turn green gems into skulls, causing tons of damage and 4 of a kinds that just led to more damage. The final boss was really really hard and luck was very much involved, but I was thrilled to beat it.

It was very fulfilling!

[Exhuminator]

1. Devil's Attorney (Android) (strategy) (7/10)
2. Resident Evil 5 (360) (action adventure) (8/10)
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360) (kart racer) (8/10)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) (JRPG) (9/10)
5. Gears of War (360) (cover shooter) (6/10)
6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) (action adventure) (7/10)
7. Orcs & Elves (DS) (dungeon crawler) (7/10)
8. From The Abyss (DS) (action-RPG) (5/10)
9. Army of Two (360) (cover shooter) (7/10)
10. Psychic World (Master System) (platformer) (4/10)
11. Endless Ocean: Blue World (Wii) (adventure / simulation) (9/10)
12. Journey to Silius (NES) (platformer) (6/10)
13. Sword Master (NES) (platformer) (3/10)
14. Project: Snowblind (PC) (FPS) (7/10)
15. Yakyuuken Part II - Gal's Dungeon (Famicom) (maze / puzzle) (5/10)
16. Bishoujo Sexy Derby (Famicom) (horse racing) (2/10)
17. SiN Episodes: Emergence (PC) (FPS) (5/10)
18. Seirei Gari (AKA Ghost Hunter) (NES) (puzzle / adventure) (4/10)
19. The Guardian Legend (NES) (action-RPG / shmup) (9/10)
20. Prey (PC) (FPS) (7/10)
21. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SFC) (action-RPG) (4/10)
22. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GameCube) (combat flight sim) (3/10)
23. Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand (SFC) (action-RPG) (7/10)

After the disappointing farming out of Ys IV for the Super Famicom, Falcom took it upon themselves to develop the next Super Famicom entry, Ys V. Ys V broke with some traditions of the first four YS games, obviously taking a lot of influence from previous SFC action-RPGs not made by Falcom. Bump combat is gone for example, replaced by direct sword combat, along with platform jumping and a robust magic system. Indeed the alchemic magic system in this game is quite complex, but utterly useless considering how weak it is compared to your sword alone.

Not that you'll need much power, because Ys V is an embarrassingly easy game. The lack of challenge doesn't do much to engage the player. The plot starts off with Adol searching for crystals (what else?) but ends up a bit more interesting with human sacrifices, a philosopher's stone, and pseudo-resurrection of a lost city. The game's world is well realized in earth toned well drawn tiles, making backgrounds a pleasure to see. This atmosphere makes traversing Ys V's locales an engaging experience in and of itself. The OST sounds kind of generic in comparison to normal Ys bombast, but it fits well with other SFC JRPGs of its era in composition. Ys V does control quite well with a lot of customization for a SFC game, possibly a result of Falcom being such PC heavy developers beforehand.

All in all, Ys V isn't a SFC action-RPG that is going to make you forget games like Secret of Mana or A Link to the Past. Nor did Ys V manage to break the Ys mold and capture the typical action-RPG zeitgeist of its time in the way Falcom hoped. On its own however, Ys V is perfectly suitable JRPG comfort food for a breezy weekend jaunt into a yesteryear curiosity. (Thankfully we can play this game in English due to Aeon Genesis' wonderful fan translation.) Just don't expect for Adol to break a sweat here, even in the desert.

[BoneSnapDeez]

It's too bad Ys V Expert doesn't have an English translation.

(I'm also amused by the existence of Brandish 2 Expert. As if the Brandish games were't hard enough.)

[Exhuminator]

As if the Brandish games were't hard enough.)

It was for the Japanese versions of MrPopo.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Two updates in a single day!? Call me crazy!!!

1. Jazzpunk (PC)
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)
3. Grandia (PS1)
4. Hotline Miami (PC)
5. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
6. Off-Peak (PC)
7. realMYST: Masterpiece Edition (PC)
8. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS)
9. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
10. Space Pirates (PC)

Space Pirates - What can be said about this delightful FMV Light-Gun game? I will let This Video Speak For Itself. Absolutely worth the 15 minutes of your time as this game is an absolute riot. Loved playing through it and kudos to JoeAwesome for giving me this as a gift for the Secret Santa 2K14 last year! I finally took the time to beat it and record the results!

[Fragems]

1. Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition(PS4)
2. Infamous First Light(PS4)
3. Drakengard 3(PS3) *Endings 1-4. Ending 5 I watched online due to BS boss.
4. Infamous Second Son(PS4)
5. Thomas Was Alone(PS4)
6. Uncharted Drake's Fortune(PS3) *
7. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves(PS3) *
8. Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception(PS3) *
9. Deadpool(PS3)
10. Red Dead Redemption(360)
11. Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare(360)
12. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct(360)
13. Fuse(360)
14. The Bureau Xcom Declassified(360)
15. Asura's Wrath(360)
16. Beneath a Steel Sky(PC)
17. Soul Gambler(PC)
19. Harvester(PC)
20. Coma: Mortuary(PC)
21. Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure(PC)
22. Freedom Planet(PC)

Awesome platformer. Basically this game does Sonic better then sega currently does .

Story:
The story is pretty good with a nice variety of likable characters and decent voice acting. You can also play the story from the perspective of two separate characters.

Gameplay:
This is a really solid platformer with pretty simple controls which you master over the course of the game. Each level also had a nice variety of unique enemies, and interactive objects, and I rarely found myself having to back track to much. The difficulty isn't to bad either once you get the hang of things only ended up having to use continues near the very end mostly due to difficult bosses in smaller areas. However the continues don't penalize you to much since their are plenty of check points which help keep you from losing progress. The game also has solid controller support I ran through it with a wired 360 controller and it handled very well.

Visuals:
The 16bit visuals are great the sprites have really nice animations and the enviornments just really pop with all the bright colors they chose. Also really like the variety of environments there are multiple nature sections, neon cities, space ships, caves, and etc. The mechanical monsters/bossed are also very nicely done.

Really I can't find anything bad to say about the game. Aside from the final boss being a bitch , but at least their are checkpoints between each of his three phases and like with all the other bosses once you get his attack pattern down it's just a matter of time before you beat him.

10. Space Pirates (PC)

That looks awesome .

[Exhuminator]

1. Devil's Attorney (Android) (strategy) (7/10)
2. Resident Evil 5 (360) (action adventure) (8/10)
3. Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (360) (kart racer) (8/10)
4. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) (JRPG) (9/10)
5. Gears of War (360) (cover shooter) (6/10)
6. Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita) (action adventure) (7/10)
7. Orcs & Elves (DS) (dungeon crawler) (7/10)
8. From The Abyss (DS) (action-RPG) (5/10)
9. Army of Two (360) (cover shooter) (7/10)
10. Psychic World (Master System) (platformer) (4/10)
11. Endless Ocean: Blue World (Wii) (adventure / simulation) (9/10)
12. Journey to Silius (NES) (platformer) (6/10)
13. Sword Master (NES) (platformer) (3/10)
14. Project: Snowblind (PC) (FPS) (7/10)
15. Yakyuuken Part II - Gal's Dungeon (Famicom) (maze / puzzle) (5/10)
16. Bishoujo Sexy Derby (Famicom) (horse racing) (2/10)
17. SiN Episodes: Emergence (PC) (FPS) (5/10)
18. Seirei Gari (AKA Ghost Hunter) (NES) (puzzle / adventure) (4/10)
19. The Guardian Legend (NES) (action-RPG / shmup) (9/10)
20. Prey (PC) (FPS) (7/10)
21. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SFC) (action-RPG) (4/10)
22. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GameCube) (combat flight sim) (3/10)
23. Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand (SFC) (action-RPG) (7/10)
24. Bonk's Adventure (TurboGrafx-16) (platformer) (6/10)

There was a time in gaming history when every console manufacturer wanted their own clever platforming mascot. And so it was that Nintendo has Mario, and Sega has Sonic, and NEC had Keith Courage Bonk. Bonk's first outing to come stateside was this game; Bonk's Adventure. And what an interesting though flawed adventure it is.

Traveling the prehistoric country side, Bonk goes about his personal mission to exterminate every dinosaur he comes across. Bonk being the sole human present, I can only assume he's doing this to promote his future species territorial advantage. To kill dinosaurs, Bonk bashes them to death with his large deformed skull (a result of calcified hydrocephalus as best I can tell). Sometimes Bonk gets hurt while doing this, and so he eats copious veggies and fruits to restore his life. Once in a while Bonk will accidentally eat a chunk of dinosaur meat broke off from their mutilated corpses after he cranial-assaults them. Being a vegetarian such as myself, accidentally ingesting meat causes Bonk to fly into a furious rage which makes him temporarily invincible. Somewhere along the way Bonk ends up being excreted out a crying dinosaur's rectum, after which he travels up on the moon, and falls in love with a pink alien plesiosaur. That's about the gist of it best I can tell.

From a technical perspective, Bonk's Adventure has some positives. The sprite work is all above average, very expressive and humorous enemies abound. The soundtrack is quite good, with catchy and moody tunes in equal measure. And the controls are simple enough to be mastered in mere seconds. That said, most of this game's levels are very straight forward boring affairs. Being a platformer that's a real detriment, instead of clever challenges the player is often merely subjected to waves and waves of silly enemies. Making levels even more mundane is the fact most areas lack background artwork entirely. At least boss battles are done quite well, often being very large and well animated.

On one hand Bonk's Adventure is a cool game, with its silly setup and lively graphics. But on the other, Bonk's Adventure feels amateurish compared to the likes of Mario or Sonic. One has to take into account this game had a development time of only three months. For such a tight schedule, what's here is a little impressive. But the fact remains the bulk of Bonk's Adventure's gameplay is so shallow to make in the first place, that even a caveman could do it.

[Erik_Twice]

Awesome platformer. Basically this game does Sonic better then sega currently does .

"This cake tastes better than shit" - Fragems

[BoneSnapDeez]

1. Grandia (PlayStation)
2. Jungle Hunt (Xbox - Taito Legends)
3. Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
4. Jungle Hunt (Plug & Play - ColecoVision Flashback)
5. Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
6. Donkey Kong (Intellivision)
7. Donkey Kong (ColecoVision)
8. Bubble Bobble (NES)
9. Side Arms: Hyper Dyne (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
10. 1941: Counter Attack (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
11. Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (PSP)
12. The Ninja Kids (Xbox - Taito Legends)
13. Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
14. Golden Axe Warrior (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
15. Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (Dreamcast)
16. Growl (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
17. Arabian Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
18. Dungeon Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
19. Gekirindan (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
20. Ys II (Saturn - Falcom Classics II)
21. Darius Gaiden (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
22. G Darius (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
23. Giana Sisters DS (DS)
24. RayStorm (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
25. Mr. Do! (ColecoVision)
26. Beauty & the Beast (Intellivision)
27. Boxing (PlayStation 2 - Activision Anthology)
28. Crystalis (NES)
29. Dragon Warrior (NES)
30. Faxanadu (NES)
31. Tombs & Treasure (NES)
32. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
33. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
34. Kirby Super Star (SNES)
35. Hoshi no Kirby 64 (Nintendo 64)
36. Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS)

Confession: outside of Epic Yarn and the Kirby Collection (which is really just old Kirby games emulated) I haven't played any of the 6th, 7th, or 8th gen Kirby games. So Triple Deluxe came as a bit of a shock - in a good way. I think I really love "modern" Kirby.

Upon booting Triple Deluxe one sees a menu screen similar to that of Super Star. However, while Super Star was comprised of several subgames, all of equal weight and importance, Triple Deluxe consists of a Story Mode and some minigames.

Story Mode plays out like your traditional Kirby experience, but with some twists. Kirby can use stars to travel to and from foreground and background, a mechanic reminiscent of Virtual Boy Wario Land and SNK's Top Hunter. The 3D effect works well in this regard, in fact I found things more disorienting when it wasn't on. In addition to the traditional power-ups (HINT: if you want to utterly break the game become an archer) Kirby will occasionally stumble upon a Miracle Fruit which grants him the Hypernova ability. In Hypernova mode Kirby can inhale anything in sight: giant tanks, trees, even enemies' HP bars. It makes for some hilarious visuals.

As expected, difficulty is kept to a minimum. Kirby can easily overpower most enemies, food is abundant, and many tricky areas can simply be flown over. Most of the challenge comes from a forced collectathon element, where Kirby must collect a certain number of sun stones in order to unlock the boss of each world. Many of these require some sort of puzzle-solving to obtain and players who miss too many will be forced to backtrack later on to snag them. There are also some keychains to collect, though these seem to mostly exist for fun and bragging rights.

Triple Deluxe is a pretty game with a gentle, soft, and "dreamy" color palette. The music is stellar, with several old favorites making (remixed) appearances once again. My favorite element may be the boss battles. They're epic and lengthy, and the bosses switch up battle tactics periodically. The highlight is the final boss, which goes through a straight-up ridiculous number of forms before finally expiring. Each time I thought "this is it, right?" there was another segment.

There's a lot to do in Triple Deluxe and I honestly beat just the bare minimum. Also present are rhythm and fighting minigames - fun, but not exactly my cup of tea. The game can also be replayed as King DeDeDe and of course completionists can search for every sun stone and keychain.

This is a great game and shows that Nintendo still hasn't lost the potential to crank out solid 2D platformers. Highly recommended.