1. SSX 3 (oXbox)
2. Mario Kart DS (NDS)
3. Fairune (Android)
4. Streets of Rage (Gen)
5. Amplitude (PS2)
6. Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
7. Crash Team Racing (PS)
8. Enchanted Arms (Xbox360)
9. Spyro the Dragon (PS)
10. Limbo (Android)
11. Konami Krazy Racers (GBA)
Rolled the credits on this one (twice, once for finishing the last set of courses and once for passing the "S" license tests). This game had been on my radar for a while after it popped up in a couple of "Hidden Gem" and "Mario Kart Clones" videos on YouTube. About a week ago I was rummaging through cheap GBA carts at a game store where I had a little bit of credit left and was happy to dig this out of the basket.
This was a good game that I think had the potential to be great. It has some very nice graphics, controls and personality. I was always having fun while playing. I didn't have a real connection to the characters, but they were all different enough to be interesting and it wasn't hard to find one or two endearing enough to try out. Colours are bright throughout and the track themes are pretty good. I didn't find it too challenging, but kart racing is one of my most played genres and perhaps the only type of games that I consider myself really good at.
On the downside, this game just felt too short. Rolling the credits only took a couple of hours of play and there isn't much left to unlock after a playthrough. There really weren't a lot of tracks (especially if compared to Mario Kart Super Circuit), and the lack of a power slide/drift boosting type mechanic left the time trial modes feeling a bit less attractive.
I like kart racing games a lot, and I really did enjoy this one, but I think this will remain a hidden gem and won't crack a lot of gamer's favourite list due to some of the unfulfilled potential
Games Beaten 2016
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PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2999
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2016
Partridge Senpai's 2016 Beaten List
1-50
51. Axiom Verge
52. Otomedius Excellent
53. JUMP Ultimate Stars
54. Dynasty Warriors 3
55. Fire Emblem if: Byakuya (Birthright)
56. Fire Emblem if: Anya (Conquest) (3DS)
Finished off Fire Emblem Conquest last night. Again, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet becuase there's already been a ton said about this game's mechanics and such on this forum, so I'll mainly just stick to my opinion.
This is my favorite FE game I've ever played. The virtue of working for the bad guys, the dynamic that the main character has to go through with his/her siblings is so much more explored and nuanced than in Birthright. I enjoyed the side characters far more as well, as they tended to be either more entertainingly strange/quirky, or just written from a very interesting perspective (with my personal favorite being Forrest). Though this game doesn't have the infinite grinding that you can do like Birthright and Revelations, it still felt like I had tons of time to work out character relationships, and even planning which charcters to bring to which mission to foster which relationships was a very cool element to consider.
Verdict: Highly recommended to fans of the series and strategy games. In my opinion, the best FE to date in terms of both mechanics and story. Loved it to bits!
(Onto Invisible Kingdom! (Revelations))
1-50
51. Axiom Verge
52. Otomedius Excellent
53. JUMP Ultimate Stars
54. Dynasty Warriors 3
55. Fire Emblem if: Byakuya (Birthright)
56. Fire Emblem if: Anya (Conquest) (3DS)
Finished off Fire Emblem Conquest last night. Again, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet becuase there's already been a ton said about this game's mechanics and such on this forum, so I'll mainly just stick to my opinion.
This is my favorite FE game I've ever played. The virtue of working for the bad guys, the dynamic that the main character has to go through with his/her siblings is so much more explored and nuanced than in Birthright. I enjoyed the side characters far more as well, as they tended to be either more entertainingly strange/quirky, or just written from a very interesting perspective (with my personal favorite being Forrest). Though this game doesn't have the infinite grinding that you can do like Birthright and Revelations, it still felt like I had tons of time to work out character relationships, and even planning which charcters to bring to which mission to foster which relationships was a very cool element to consider.
Verdict: Highly recommended to fans of the series and strategy games. In my opinion, the best FE to date in terms of both mechanics and story. Loved it to bits!
(Onto Invisible Kingdom! (Revelations))
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
Re: Games Beaten 2016
First 50:
51. Ori and the Blind Forest - Xbox One
52. AM2R - PC
53. Total Annihilation - PC
54. I Am Setsuna - PS4
55. Planetary Annihilation Titans - PC
56. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - PC
57. Dark Reign - Rise of the Shadowhand - PC
58. Dragon Age Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon - PC
59. Dragon Age Inquisition - The Descent - PC
60. Dragon Age Inquisition - Trespasser - PC
61. The Witcher 3 - Hearts of Stone - PC
62. The Witcher 3 - Blood & Wine - PC
63. ReCore - Xbox One
64. Final Fantasy Tactics - PS1
65. Resident Evil 6 - PC
66. Knuckles Chaotix - 32X
67. Assault Suit Leynos - PS4
68. Might & Magic 2 - Gate to Another World - PC
MM2 serves as a mechanical bridge between MM1 and MM3. MM1's main feature is that, while it's a Wizardry clone, it has a large overworld. This shifts the focus from one large dungeon to a bunch of small ones, as well as some quest solving. MM2 builds on that base and starts to introduce elements you will see in the rest of the games in the series. This includes secondary skills, hirelings, and the ability to raise your levels and stats to very large numbers. It's still a bit unrefined, however, and we won't see the formula mastered until the third game (which I played earlier this year as part of Together RPG).
MM2 lets you import characters from the first game, and it's highly recommended you do. A new party does have the ability to succeed in the game, but it makes the opening much harder. An end game party that is imported will start off at level 7, which gives your dedicated casters access to spell level 4, and gives most of your characters a second attack. You will be stripped of all your items, however, so don't forget to buy some in the shop before setting out.
The goal of the game is to go back to the past to improve history, then defeat the bad guy from the first game. I'm honestly not sure how they're linked; I don't think they are. Instead, the reason you change history is so that a character still lives and can tell you about the big bad's plan; apparently he's the only one who learns about it? This is still an early DOS game, so the storytelling is a bit thing.
The overworld is the main change between MM1 and 2. While 2 was just an extended dungeon, with the walls letting you know if you were going through forests, mountain passes, or deserts, in MM2 you now have a more traditional overworld that's seen through a first person perspective. Forests, mountains, and bodies of water are temporary obstacles that can be directly walked on with the appropriate secondary skills or magic spells. This allows you to more systemically map out the overworld. In MM1 you needed to level high enough for teleport to be able to map out a single square; here you just need some skills purchasable from the towns and walk on water from an NPC on the overworld near the first town. The game has also improved navigation between towns; now there is a chain of teleports between the five towns, with the last one having a quick teleport to the first one (but not in reverse). This ends up being necessary, as one of the secrets to success is to always train in the last town, as it gives the biggest HP boost on training (and it quickly adds up when a typical end game party is level 35).
The other major thing you'll find is the game likes big numbers. This is the game that really starts the tradition of being able to find repeatable stat boosters to get your party to major heights on their attributes. MM1 did have stat raisers, but they only raised it a couple of points and required a fairly long sequence of steps to repeat them. By contrast, once you figure out the Circus you can quickly get your entire party to 100 in all the attributes (and that doesn't count all the other stat raising points). The game also balances this by having enemies come in much larger packs. While only 10 can be targetable at one time there can be hundreds in reserve who come to the front as their compatriots are slain. This unfortunately ends up being more tedious than anything. Most battles ended up coming down to just holding down attack to grind through a large horde of monsters I could one shot. And then the couple times it's a horde of hard monsters you'll get annihilated trying to work through them. Similarly, the game uses a system of +'s like D&D; the largest I saw was a +20 and I believe you can get all the way up to +63. Frustratingly anything found with a higher + than 4 will be alignment restricted, arbitrarily.
The game's quest sends you to all four corners of the world (literally) and has better breadcrumbs than the quest in MM1. There is a fair amount of ancillary silliness in the game; to go back in time you need to rescue Sherman for King Peabody (quiet you!), most hirelings have extremely punny names, and the nastiest enemies on the world map are a pack of Cuisinarts. This gets cleaned up in the sequel. The other thing to point out is the very final puzzle gives you 15 minutes to solve and is probably unsolvable for a non-American player who didn't know about it beforehand. While it's not quite as bad as Zork 2's baseball puzzle (which was hard enough for an American to solve given its reliance on some very specific knowledge of the game), you do still have to realize that the hint of Preamble and the meter of the ciphered text means the text is the Preamble to the US Constitution, and you use that to write Preamble in the cipher. If you're a School Rock fan you'll probably get it, but otherwise you'll have to brute force it with frequency analysis.
I felt like the game was more playable than MM2; you're given more ways to succeed and I wasn't going through as many death cycles as I did in MM1. However, it's still fairly unrefined and it's not until the third game that the series really gets awesome.
51. Ori and the Blind Forest - Xbox One
52. AM2R - PC
53. Total Annihilation - PC
54. I Am Setsuna - PS4
55. Planetary Annihilation Titans - PC
56. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - PC
57. Dark Reign - Rise of the Shadowhand - PC
58. Dragon Age Inquisition - Jaws of Hakkon - PC
59. Dragon Age Inquisition - The Descent - PC
60. Dragon Age Inquisition - Trespasser - PC
61. The Witcher 3 - Hearts of Stone - PC
62. The Witcher 3 - Blood & Wine - PC
63. ReCore - Xbox One
64. Final Fantasy Tactics - PS1
65. Resident Evil 6 - PC
66. Knuckles Chaotix - 32X
67. Assault Suit Leynos - PS4
68. Might & Magic 2 - Gate to Another World - PC
MM2 serves as a mechanical bridge between MM1 and MM3. MM1's main feature is that, while it's a Wizardry clone, it has a large overworld. This shifts the focus from one large dungeon to a bunch of small ones, as well as some quest solving. MM2 builds on that base and starts to introduce elements you will see in the rest of the games in the series. This includes secondary skills, hirelings, and the ability to raise your levels and stats to very large numbers. It's still a bit unrefined, however, and we won't see the formula mastered until the third game (which I played earlier this year as part of Together RPG).
MM2 lets you import characters from the first game, and it's highly recommended you do. A new party does have the ability to succeed in the game, but it makes the opening much harder. An end game party that is imported will start off at level 7, which gives your dedicated casters access to spell level 4, and gives most of your characters a second attack. You will be stripped of all your items, however, so don't forget to buy some in the shop before setting out.
The goal of the game is to go back to the past to improve history, then defeat the bad guy from the first game. I'm honestly not sure how they're linked; I don't think they are. Instead, the reason you change history is so that a character still lives and can tell you about the big bad's plan; apparently he's the only one who learns about it? This is still an early DOS game, so the storytelling is a bit thing.
The overworld is the main change between MM1 and 2. While 2 was just an extended dungeon, with the walls letting you know if you were going through forests, mountain passes, or deserts, in MM2 you now have a more traditional overworld that's seen through a first person perspective. Forests, mountains, and bodies of water are temporary obstacles that can be directly walked on with the appropriate secondary skills or magic spells. This allows you to more systemically map out the overworld. In MM1 you needed to level high enough for teleport to be able to map out a single square; here you just need some skills purchasable from the towns and walk on water from an NPC on the overworld near the first town. The game has also improved navigation between towns; now there is a chain of teleports between the five towns, with the last one having a quick teleport to the first one (but not in reverse). This ends up being necessary, as one of the secrets to success is to always train in the last town, as it gives the biggest HP boost on training (and it quickly adds up when a typical end game party is level 35).
The other major thing you'll find is the game likes big numbers. This is the game that really starts the tradition of being able to find repeatable stat boosters to get your party to major heights on their attributes. MM1 did have stat raisers, but they only raised it a couple of points and required a fairly long sequence of steps to repeat them. By contrast, once you figure out the Circus you can quickly get your entire party to 100 in all the attributes (and that doesn't count all the other stat raising points). The game also balances this by having enemies come in much larger packs. While only 10 can be targetable at one time there can be hundreds in reserve who come to the front as their compatriots are slain. This unfortunately ends up being more tedious than anything. Most battles ended up coming down to just holding down attack to grind through a large horde of monsters I could one shot. And then the couple times it's a horde of hard monsters you'll get annihilated trying to work through them. Similarly, the game uses a system of +'s like D&D; the largest I saw was a +20 and I believe you can get all the way up to +63. Frustratingly anything found with a higher + than 4 will be alignment restricted, arbitrarily.
The game's quest sends you to all four corners of the world (literally) and has better breadcrumbs than the quest in MM1. There is a fair amount of ancillary silliness in the game; to go back in time you need to rescue Sherman for King Peabody (quiet you!), most hirelings have extremely punny names, and the nastiest enemies on the world map are a pack of Cuisinarts. This gets cleaned up in the sequel. The other thing to point out is the very final puzzle gives you 15 minutes to solve and is probably unsolvable for a non-American player who didn't know about it beforehand. While it's not quite as bad as Zork 2's baseball puzzle (which was hard enough for an American to solve given its reliance on some very specific knowledge of the game), you do still have to realize that the hint of Preamble and the meter of the ciphered text means the text is the Preamble to the US Constitution, and you use that to write Preamble in the cipher. If you're a School Rock fan you'll probably get it, but otherwise you'll have to brute force it with frequency analysis.
I felt like the game was more playable than MM2; you're given more ways to succeed and I wasn't going through as many death cycles as I did in MM1. However, it's still fairly unrefined and it's not until the third game that the series really gets awesome.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
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BoneSnapDeez
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 20122
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 1:08 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Games Beaten 2016
MrPopo wrote:However, it's still fairly unrefined and it's not until the third game that the series really gets awesome.
You've played these all before Popo? Back when I was more into gaming on a PC I did Ultima, Wizardry, and Might and Magic marathons. I assume you got that GOG.com six-pack?
The third game is indeed awesome. Even the SNES port.
Re: Games Beaten 2016
No, this has been my first time through them. I did MM1 last year, MM3 earlier this year, and just did MM2. I've done Ultima 1-3 but I've never played a proper Sir-Tech Wizardry game; just a couple of the Japanese ones.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2016
January
1. Fez (PC)
2. Sakura Spirit (PC)
3. Mega Man 1 (PC - Legacy Collection)
4. Mega Man 2 (PC - Legacy Collection)
5. McPixel (PC)
6. Tower of Heaven (PC)
7. Spyro the Dragon (PSP - PS1 Classic)
8. Reveal the Deep (PC)
9. Real Horror Stories Ultimate Edition (PC)
10.Mega Man 6 (PC - Legacy Collection)
February
11. Retro Game Crunch - Super Clew Land (PC)
12. Retro Game Crunch - End of Line (PC)
13. Retro Game Crunch - Wub-Wub Wescue (PC)
14. Stick RPG 2 (PC)
15. Uncanny Valley (PC)
March
16. Type:Rider (PC)
17. The Binding of Isacc (PC)
July
18. Space Pilgrim Episode I: Alpha Centauri (PC)
19. Space Pilgrim Episode II: Epsilon Indi (PC)
20. Space Pilgrim Episode III: Delta Pavonis (PC)
August
21. AM2R (PC)
September
22. Snakebird (PC)
23. Daytona USA (PS3)
24. Sonic the Fighters (PS3)
25. Tennis in the Face (PS3)
26. Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (PS3)
27. Marvel Super Heroes (PS3 - Marvel Vs Capcom Origins)
28. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (PS3 - Marvel Vs Capcom Origins)
October
29. Space Pilgrim Episode IV: Sol (PC)
30. Retro Game Crunch - Paradox Lost (PC)
31. Love (PC)
32. Zork 1 (PC)
33. Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (PC)
34. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (PC)
35. Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (PC)
36. Costume Quest 2 (PS3)
37. Tales from Space: Mutant Blob Attacks (PS3)
38. Proteus (PS3)
39. Limbo (PS3)
1. Fez (PC)
2. Sakura Spirit (PC)
3. Mega Man 1 (PC - Legacy Collection)
4. Mega Man 2 (PC - Legacy Collection)
5. McPixel (PC)
6. Tower of Heaven (PC)
7. Spyro the Dragon (PSP - PS1 Classic)
8. Reveal the Deep (PC)
9. Real Horror Stories Ultimate Edition (PC)
10.Mega Man 6 (PC - Legacy Collection)
February
11. Retro Game Crunch - Super Clew Land (PC)
12. Retro Game Crunch - End of Line (PC)
13. Retro Game Crunch - Wub-Wub Wescue (PC)
14. Stick RPG 2 (PC)
15. Uncanny Valley (PC)
March
16. Type:Rider (PC)
17. The Binding of Isacc (PC)
July
18. Space Pilgrim Episode I: Alpha Centauri (PC)
19. Space Pilgrim Episode II: Epsilon Indi (PC)
20. Space Pilgrim Episode III: Delta Pavonis (PC)
August
21. AM2R (PC)
September
22. Snakebird (PC)
23. Daytona USA (PS3)
24. Sonic the Fighters (PS3)
25. Tennis in the Face (PS3)
26. Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (PS3)
27. Marvel Super Heroes (PS3 - Marvel Vs Capcom Origins)
28. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (PS3 - Marvel Vs Capcom Origins)
October
29. Space Pilgrim Episode IV: Sol (PC)
30. Retro Game Crunch - Paradox Lost (PC)
- A short metroidvania with a neat time shifting mechanic. Unfortunately its under utilized. As well, the level design leaves a lot to be desired. Average all round.
31. Love (PC)
- A quick 16 level platformer. The twist is you can set your own respawn point but you only have 100 lives to finish all the levels. But ultimately it seems it wasn't hard enough, I finished with like 40 lives to spare. Also includes a YOLO mode and speed running mode.
32. Zork 1 (PC)
- Decided to relive some of my childhood. Used to play this with my dad back in the day. We both sucked at it. This time around I managed to find 12 of the 19 treasures on my own before I got screwed. Due to the random nature of the game I then used a guide to find the rest and finish the game. The text parser is surprisingly more complex then I remember it.
33. Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (PC)
- Decided to continue on my nostalgia trip with one of my favourite characters as a kid. Being the first game in the series, its stupidly easy, even a kid would find this game easy.
34. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (PC)
- Starting to get more complex here, still a children's game so still easy, but actually starting to get good.
35. Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (PC)
- And here is where I would say the series comes into its own. A lot more refined, better difficulty balance, better art, etc.
36. Costume Quest 2 (PS3)
- Excellent sequel to an excellent game. Changes up the mechanics enough to feel fresh, but still feels like more of the first game (which is a good thing).
37. Tales from Space: Mutant Blob Attacks (PS3)
- Had a lazy evening and played through this for the second time. First time through was on vita.
38. Proteus (PS3)
- Had a lazy afternoon the next day so decided to replay this game for a trophy I was missing. Basically just wander around an island and enjoy the sights and sounds. Very relaxing.
39. Limbo (PS3)
- And I continued that lazy afternoon replaying this for some trophies as well. I've tried this game multiple times now and I still don't get why it is considered good. Very over rated IMO.
Re: Games Beaten 2016
MrHealthy wrote:39. Limbo (PS3)And I continued that lazy afternoon replaying this for some trophies as well. I've tried this game multiple times now and I still don't get why it is considered good. Very over rated IMO.
Assuming that it is overrated, what about the game would make it not at least "good"? (Full disclosure: It's one of my favorite games.)
Re: Games Beaten 2016
pierrot wrote:MrHealthy wrote:39. Limbo (PS3)And I continued that lazy afternoon replaying this for some trophies as well. I've tried this game multiple times now and I still don't get why it is considered good. Very over rated IMO.
Assuming that it is overrated, what about the game would make it not at least "good"? (Full disclosure: It's one of my favorite games.)
I find the characters walk speed tediously slow. As well there are several sections that are just empty spaces, nothing even interesting to look at. I also find the physics (both jumping and movable objects) to be a little off, or inconsistent.
I've played through it twice now, both times I went in wanting to like it, but I just can't. It just doesn't feel well made or meaningful to me.
Re: Games Beaten 2016
elricorico wrote:11. Konami Krazy Racers (GBA)
This sounds interesting, going to have to check it out. Thanks for posting
Re: Games Beaten 2016
MrHealthy wrote:As well there are several sections that are just empty spaces, nothing even interesting to look at.
A big part of Limbo is predicated on atmosphere, sounds like you're just not digging that aspect of it.