Games Beaten 2015

[Blu]

1. Super Smash Brothers - N64 (January 3)
2. Shovel Knight - Wii U (January 6)
3. NES Remix - Wii U (January 14)
4. NES Remix 2 - Wii U (January 14)
5. Streets of Rage - Genesis (January 16)
6. F-Zero - SNES (January 21)
7. Super Mario 3D World - Wii U (January 28)
8. Hyrule Warriors - Wii U (February 5)
9. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - 3DS (February 23)
10. Double Dragon Neon - PC (March 1)
11. Mario Kart 8 - Wii U (March 3)
12. Hotline Miami - PS3 (March 14)
13. Pokemon White - Nintendo DS (March 17)
14. Pokemon Soul Silver - Nintendo DS (April 2)
15. Pokemon White 2 - Nintendo DS (April 14)
16. Pokemon X - Nintendo 3DS (April 30)
17. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Xbox One (May 3)
18. Pokemon Shuffle - Nintendo 3DS (May 12)
19. Hearthstone: Blackrock Mountain - PC / iPhone (May 17)
20. Splatoon - Wii U (June 7)
21. Fallout Shelter - iOS (June 21)

This was a neat little Sim Tower-like game. The art style embodies the Vault Boy style characters frpm the Fallout Series You have SPECIAL Attributes that aid in the contribution of resources and well-being of your vault and its respective chambers. You have power, food, water, and happiness as resources to sustain, and caps as the traditional currency to build and upgrade rooms. Happiness is secondary to power, food and water, but is important. So you'll assign your dwellers to your diners, power plants, and water treatment, and later on you'll unlock more rooms to build as your vault population grows. Some of these rooms offer ways to train stats. You can equip them with special outfits and weapons to enhance stats and dispatch threats. The biggest threats you see besides resource depletion are raider attacks, fires, and radroaches, and if your dwellers die out in the wasteland (of you sending them there)

I managed to unlock nearly all the weapons, outfits and legendary dwellers. It was fun and I considered the game beaten when I got to the Nuka Cola plant. All is well in Vault 423!

[BogusMeatFactory]

1. Super Smash Brothers - N64 (January 3)
2. Shovel Knight - Wii U (January 6)
3. NES Remix - Wii U (January 14)
4. NES Remix 2 - Wii U (January 14)
5. Streets of Rage - Genesis (January 16)
6. F-Zero - SNES (January 21)
7. Super Mario 3D World - Wii U (January 28)
8. Hyrule Warriors - Wii U (February 5)
9. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - 3DS (February 23)
10. Double Dragon Neon - PC (March 1)
11. Mario Kart 8 - Wii U (March 3)
12. Hotline Miami - PS3 (March 14)
13. Pokemon White - Nintendo DS (March 17)
14. Pokemon Soul Silver - Nintendo DS (April 2)
15. Pokemon White 2 - Nintendo DS (April 14)
16. Pokemon X - Nintendo 3DS (April 30)
17. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Xbox One (May 3)
18. Pokemon Shuffle - Nintendo 3DS (May 12)
19. Hearthstone: Blackrock Mountain - PC / iPhone (May 17)
20. Splatoon - Wii U (June 7)
21. Fallout Shelter - iOS (June 21)

This was a neat little Sim Tower-like game. The art style embodies the Vault Boy style characters frpm the Fallout Series You have SPECIAL Attributes that aid in the contribution of resources and well-being of your vault and its respective chambers. You have power, food, water, and happiness as resources to sustain, and caps as the traditional currency to build and upgrade rooms. Happiness is secondary to power, food and water, but is important. So you'll assign your dwellers to your diners, power plants, and water treatment, and later on you'll unlock more rooms to build as your vault population grows. Some of these rooms offer ways to train stats. You can equip them with special outfits and weapons to enhance stats and dispatch threats. The biggest threats you see besides resource depletion are raider attacks, fires, and radroaches, and if your dwellers die out in the wasteland (of you sending them there)

I managed to unlock nearly all the weapons, outfits and legendary dwellers. It was fun and I considered the game beaten when I got to the Nuka Cola plant. All is well in Vault 423!

Daaaaaaammmnnn! You tore through that lasciviously!

[BoneSnapDeez]

First 50:

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)
37. Dig Dug (Wii - Namco Museum Megamix)
38. Phoenix (Xbox - Taito Legends)
39. Phoenix (Atari 2600)
40. Pleiads (Xbox - Tecmo Classic Arcade)
41. Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
42. Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy)
43. Gorf (Atari 2600)
44. Richard Scarry's Huckle and Lowly's Busiest Day Ever (Pico)
45. Mickey's Blast Into the Past (Pico)
46. Secret of Mana (SNES)
47. Psycho Soldier (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
48. Genshi-Tou 1930's (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
49. Datsugoku: Prisoners of War (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
50. SAR: Search and Rescue (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)

51. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
52. Tic-Tac-Toe / Shooting Gallery / Doodle / Quadra-Doodle (Channel F)
53. Robot War / Torpedo Alley (Channel F)
54. Pinball Challenge (Channel F)
55. Elevator Action (Xbox - Taito Legends)
56. Elevator Action II (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
57. Altered Beast (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
58. Congo Bongo (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
59. International Soccer (Commodore 64)
60. Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue! (Odyssey²)
61. Alien Invaders - Plus! (Odyssey²)
62. Ice Hockey (Atari 2600)
63. River Raid (Atari 2600)
64. Frankenstein's Monster (Atari 2600)
65. Ys II (Famicom)
66. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Turbo CD)
67. Gremlins (Atari 2600)
68. Frogs and Flies (Atari 2600)
69. Ice Climber (NES)
70. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (PlayStation 2)
71. Ghosts 'n Goblins (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded)
72. Ikari Warriors (Atari 2600)
73. Donkey Kong Junior (Atari 2600)
74. Donkey Kong Junior (ColecoVision)
75. Ys: Memories of Celceta (Vita)
76. Guevara (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
77. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)

Surprised it took me so long to play this one, I love these "New" Mario games.

The game looks and plays almost identically to New Super Mario Bros. on DS, thus making the 3D effect rather superfluous. Controls are flawless, as anticipated, and the levels are designed for maximum fun.

New Mario 2 is all about the bling. There are coins everywhere. Coins to accumulate, coins to unlock levels, big coins, little coins, coins popping out of pipes, coins popping out of enemies, coin-summoning fireballs, coins to gather during the (interactive) ending of the game - and yes, 100 coins will still give you an extra life. This means it's feasible to rack up 3-5 lives per stage with minimal effort, and the game allows more than 99 total lives (I think I finished with 120 or so)!

The real challenge here comes from searching for secret exits, collecting all the star coins, and seeking out the bonus levels. There's tons of extra content here, all of it worthwhile for the Mario fanatic.

While I prefer the console "New" Mario games, this one is vastly superior to its DS predecessor. An essential title for all 3DS owners.

[MrPopo]

1. Painkiller - PC
2. Front Mission 4 - PS2
3. Wasteland 2 - PC
4. Arcanum - PC
5. X-COM Terror from the Deep - PC
6. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16
7. Unreal - PC
8. Shadowrun - SNES
9. Warcraft III - PC
10. Dungeon Keeper - PC
11. Final Fantasy X-2 HD - PS3
12. Descent - PC
13. Quake Mission Pack 2 - Dissolution of Eternity - PC
14. Quake 2 Mission Pack 2 - Ground Zero - PC
15. Sokobond - PC
16. Hybrid Heaven - N64
17. Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
18. Castlevania - NES
19. Super Castlevania IV - SNES
20. Castlevania III - NES
21. Castlevania II - NES
22. Castlevania Rondo of Blood - Turbo CD
23. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders - PC
24. Fractal - PC
25. Kirby's Adventure - NES
26. Pillars of Eternity - PC
27. Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den - PC
28. Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour - PC
29. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - NES
30. Punch-Out!! - NES
31. Doom 3 - PC
32. The Even More Incredible Machine - PC
33. Contra - NES
34. Dark Forces - PC
35. Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - PC
36. X-Wing - PC
37. TIE Fighter - PC
38. Bloodborne - PS4
39. Gradius - NES
40. Marble Madness - NES
41. The Witcher 3 - PC
42. Mega Man X5 Zero Playthrough - PSX
43. Wolfenstein The Old Blood - PC
44. Might and Magic Book 1 - PC
45. Hexen: Beyond Heretic - PC
46. Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter - PC

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A nice facelift to the original game that keeps everything intact. Serious Sam fits somewhere between Doom and Painkiller in gameplay style. Sometimes you're barreling through and killing dudes as you through corridors, while other times you get locked in an arena and kill a ton of dudes. It's the latter where you see both Sam's huge areas that was its claim to fame back in the day as well as the general frustration that these arena fights can generate. Many of them turn into affairs not too dissimilar from Smash TV, though you lack the overhead view that lets you see all the threats as they appear. This is a game that will actually justify a surround sound setup, as all the enemies have sound cues but half the time they might be spawning behind you.

The place where the game really shines is when they do a few of the hallways, which are areas that tend to be long and have a series of monster spawns as you traverse them. There it feels like you get the chance to really mow down dudes and show your ability to keep going in the face of all odds. The arenas, by contrast, is an exercise in spinning in place a lot and trying to dodge the enemies that charge you and if you get off beat you're going to take a ton of hits. I'm happy to say that the final level is probably the best hallway in the game, where you need to dash to your objective while the boss chases you and massive hordes of enemies are in your way.

The weaponry is utterly standard, with the only weapons that don't already appear in Doom 2 are the tommy gun (slower minigun), the grenade launcher, and the cannon. The cannon is the kind of gun that in any other game would be seen as massively overpowered, but in Serious Sam is considered a necessary tool. The weapon fires out cannonballs that are as tall as you are that will roll on the ground until they either hit an enemy they don't one shot, hit a wall at sufficient speed, or time expires, in all three cases exploding. I did mention that the cannonballs tend to one shot nearly everything in the game, which rewards you for lining up your shots to clear a ton of dudes at once. The cannon is also chargeable, with a higher charge increasing the speed at which it fires as well as increasing the damage it does (the rocket launching walkers die to a single fully charged cannon but are left barely alive if you only half charge).

[Exhuminator]

While I prefer the console "New" Mario games, this one is vastly superior to its DS predecessor. An essential title for all 3DS owners.

I've been putting off the 3DS New Super Mario for years now, but on your recommendation, I'll pick it up this week. I absolutely LOVED Super Mario 3D Land though.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I tend to put off first-party Nintendo games because of their price. I keep hoping to see the prices drop. But then they don't. And I cave and just buy the games eventually anyway. Nintendon't ever go on sale.

I loved 3D Land too. Only aspect I disliked was the forced Star Coin collecting, in New Super Mario Bros. 2 those are only used to unlock optional content.

[ExedExes]

I tend to put off first-party Nintendo games because of their price. I keep hoping to see the prices drop. But then they don't. And I cave and just buy the games eventually anyway. Nintendon't ever go on sale.

Aye, me too. Seems to be a thing from the NES to the DS. I look for the absolute best deals when it comes to first party. But some stuff you just want.

[Key-Glyph]

1. Pokémon SoulSilver (DS)
2. Sushi Academy (DS)
3. Alcahest (SFC)
4. Comix Zone (GEN)
5. Lost Vikings (GEN)
6. Beautiful Katamari (360)
7. Toejam & Earl (GEN)*
8. Final Fantasy Legend III (GB)
9. Toejam & Earl [2-player] (GEN)*
10. Mass Effect 1 (360)*
11. Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (N64)
12. Pokémon Diamond (DS)
13. Donkey Kong Country (SNES) -- Summer Games Challenge!
14. Earthworm Jim (GEN) -- Summer Games Challenge!
15. Phantasy Star III (GEN) -- Summer Games Challenge!
16. Super Mario Bros. (NES) -- Summer Games Challenge!

17. Metroid (NES) -- Summer Games Challenge!

Right on the heels of Phantasy Star comes another series for Key to fall in love with.

I didn't get the chance to play a lot of NES games growing up, so Metroid was one of the many classics that passed me by. I was aware of the metroid aliens themselves, probably from gaming magazines, but I never really got their story straight. Were they villains? And was there only one? Every time I asked friends these questions I got some variation of "well... yes and no." This was equal parts frustrating and fascinating. All in all I got the impression that this was a sad tale I wanted to experience and understand for myself -- so I used the Summer Games Challenge as my motivation to finally nab it.

Not only am I thrilled to have bought it, but I'm so happy I wound up playing it last. This was the perfect ending to my summer challenge proper. I absolutely adored it.

One of my favorite general objectives is finding stuff, and Metroid is pretty much Finding Stuff: The Game. Every time I came across those telltale signs of items/powerups or blew open a secret passage, I sat up straighter and broke into a huge grin. If my husband was co-piloting, we'd make that long, unified noise that studio audiences made during sitcoms like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when some juicy secret got dropped.

Speaking of, my husband wanted to be around as much as possible while I was playing this game in particular, because it's one of the few NES titles that made a real impression on him as a kid (he didn't get into gaming as a hobby until the N64/Playstation era). This is a guy who doesn't typically get the nostalgia feels, but when I brought the Metroid title screen up for the first time, he stopped dead in his tracks halfway across the living room. He mapped most of my way through the game and was vital for discovering a few passages, but he wound up having to leave the room during the Mother Brain showdown because my stress level was too overwhelming.

And I'll admit, I died a lot at the hands(?) of Mother Brain. I kept panicking and not mastering my environment, which made me frustrated -- and the more frustrated I get, the more my gameplay suffers. I had to make the attempt maybe five or six times. But my eventual triumph was glorious, and I didn't even get the worst ending!

So yeah. I hear that Super Metroid is even better. I can't wait to see for myself.

* replays

[CFFJR]

* are replays.

1.Alien Isolation - Xbox One
2.Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES *
3.Popful Mail - Sega CD
4.Final Fantasy - PSP
5.Super Mario 3D World - Wii U
6.Actraiser - Snes
7.Final Fantasy IV - PSP
8.Batman: Arkham Origins - Xbox 360
9.Contrast - Xbox 360
10.Deus Ex - PC
11.Ghouls 'N Ghosts - Genesis
12.Earthworm Jim - Genesis
13.Dragonball Xenoverse - Xbox One
14.Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Xbox One
15.Sally Acorn in Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis *
16.Endless Ocean - Wii
17.Star Wars: Dark Forces - PC
18.System Shock - PC
19.Strider - Genesis
20.Streets of Rage - Genesis *
21.Vectorman - Genesis
22.Mega Man X - Snes *
23.Streets of Rage 2 - Genesis *
24.Toejam & Earl - Genesis

Played Streets of Rage 1 & 2 co-op with my girlfriend. She loved them (naturally) and we had a blast. We're working on 3 now.

Vectorman and Toejam & Earl are games 4 and 5 in my Summer Challenge.

Mega Man X was this month's Together Retro of course. Its been years since I played it last, so it was nice to experience it again.

[alienjesus]

So yeah. I hear that Super Metroid is even better. I can't wait to see for myself.[/spoiler]

Super Metroid is the best one. It's worth noting that the next in the series is Metroid II for Game Boy though. I think it's worth a playthrough, especially right after Metroid for NES when the more archaic design of the GB game won't feel as out of date as it would after playing Super Metroid.

Not everyone loves the GB one, but I do!