Games Beaten 2017

[Segata]

Flower.

Enjoyable for a game about nothing. Motion controls I dislike in this game. I enjoyed it nonetheless. Not a whole lot you can say about the game. You fly a flower pedal into other flowers until the stage is done. For how simple it is,it's a nice relaxing game. I'd day this is the game people should play who rage calling people slurs on Call of Duty online chat and throw controllers. Should relax them to sleep.

[marurun]

That thrash move was pretty reliable in the original Turtles arcade game and Turtles II on NES as well.

[MrPopo]

Turtles II on the NES had no thrash move. You had attack, jump kick, and that jumping slash that happened if you attacked while still in the vertical startup of your jump that one hit KO'd foot soldiers.

[marurun]

Oh, you're right. That was arcade-only, wasn't it... You know, Hyperstone Heist really feels like TMNT arcade 1.5.

[Xeogred]

Haha yeah, pretty sure I spent most of my PSO time playing Episode 1 as well. Overall somehow had 90 hours on that game all offline too. A lot was co-op with a buddy though. Great times.

[Sarge]

January:

1) The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC) (8.5) (1/1) (~5.5 hours)
2) ActRaiser (SNES) (8.0) (1/2) (~4 hours)
3) Bonk's Revenge (GB) (6.0) (1/3) (~1 hour)
4) Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (GB) (6.5) (1/3) (~1 hour)
5) Blackwell Legacy (PC) (7.0) (1/5) (2.6 hours)
6) Blackwell Unbound (PC) (7.5) (1/7) (2.2 hours)
7) Blackwell Convergence (PC) (8.0) (1/7) (2.4 hours)
8) Blackwell Deception (PC) (8.0) (1/8) (4.7 hours)
9) Blackwell Epiphany (PC) (9.0) (1/9) (6.5 hours)
10) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) (8.0) (1/22) (~55 hours)
11) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (360) (8.0) (1/28) (~.5 hours)
12) Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck (SMS) (6.5) (1/31) (~1 hour)

February:

13) Quackshot Starring Donald Duck (GEN) (7.5) (2/7) (~2 hours)
14) Fire Emblem Heroes (Android) (8.0) (2/9) (~10 hours)
15) Super C (NES) (9.5) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
16) Contra (NES) (10.0) (2/20) (~0.5 hours)
17) Mickey's Dangerous Chase (GB) (6.5) (2/24) (~1 hour)
18) My Nintendo Picross: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (3DS) (8.5) (2/25) (~19 hours)
19) Mega Man 2 (NES) (10.0) (2/28) (~0.8 hours)

March:

20) Final Fantasy XV (PS4) (8.0) (3/2) (~33 hours)
21) Blaster Master Zero (NS) (9.0) (3/10) (~6.5 hours)
22) Espgaluda II Black Label (360) (8.0?) (3/17) (0.5 hours)
23) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NS) (9.5) (3/28) (~70+ hours)

April:

24) Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (PC) (8.5) (4/7) (~5.5 hours)
25) Hyper Light Drifter (PS4) (8.0) (4/9) (~8 hours)
26) Gekido Advance: Kintaro's Revenge (GBA) (7.5) (4/16) (~3 hours)
27) Vanquish (PS3) (8.5) (4/17) (~7 hours)
28) Journey (PS3) (6.0) (4/19) (~2 hours)
29) GunForce (SNES) (4.0) (4/22) (~20 minutes)
30) GunForce 2 (ARC) (7.0) (4/23) (~30 minutes)
31) GunForce: Battle Fire Engulfed Terror Island (ARC) (6.0) (4/23) (~20 minutes)
32) Mighty Final Fight (NES) (8.5) (4/29) (~30 minutes)

May:

33) Final Fantasy V (SFC) (6.0) (5/1) (~33 hours)
34) Super Adventure Island (SNES) (7.0) (5/2) (~1 hour)
35) Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (NES) (7.5) (5/3?) (~30 minutes)
36) Mighty No. 9 (PS4) (5.0) (5/6?) (~5 hours)
37) Contra III: The Alien Wars (Hard) (SNES) (8.5) (5/11) (~1 hour)
38) Operation C (GB) (7.5) (5/22) (~1 hour)

June:

39) Super Dodge Ball (NES) (9.5) (6/1) (~15 minutes)
40) Bare Knuckle III (GEN) (7.5) (6/3) (~1 hour)
41) Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) (9.5) (6/5) (~30 minutes)
42) Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear (GB) (4.0) (6/8) (~1 hour)
43) Castlevania: The Adventure (GB) (3.5) (6/9) (~1 hour)
44) Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (PC) (8.0) (6/15) (~8.5 hours)
45) Streets of Rage (GEN) (9.0) (6/17) (~45 minutes)
46) Ghouls 'N Ghosts (GEN) (6.5) (6/17) (~4 hours)
47) Contra: Hard Corps (GEN) (8.5) (6/18) (~50 minutes)
48) Mighty Gunvolt Burst (NS) (7.5) (6/23) (~3 hours?)
49) Exile's End (PC) (8.0) (6/24) (~5 hours)

July:
50) Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) (8.5) (7/1) (16h53m)
51) Pharaoh Rebirth+ (PC) (8.0) (7/3) (7 hours)
52) Jackal (NES) (9.0) (7/9) (45 minutes)
53) Golden Axe III (NES) (2.5) (7/9) (~45 minutes)
54) Rygar (NES) (7.0) (7/10) (~2 hours)
55) Faxanadu (NES) (8.0) (7/14) (~6 hours)

Faxanadu may not be peak Falcom, but it's a darn good game regardless. A few quirks of the time; some strange hit detection and iffy clues mar the proceedings, but not enough to really diminish the game. It actually stacks up pretty favorably to Zelda II, although the scope is still a bit smaller. It's got a really nice cohesive theme and color palette, and really doesn't stray from its overall grungy feel.

Also, a word to the wise: Just skip the tower that has the Pendant. It's supposed to increase your attack power, but oh, no, it doesn't. You actually get weaker. Turns out to be a bug in the code, you basically start the game with the effects of the Pendant, and lose it upon acquiring it. You don't need it to finish the game, but if you're a completionist, you can use a patch to fix it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

1. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
2. Gyromite (NES)
3. Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- (Steam)
4. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
5. Radical Dreamers (SNES)
6. Video Games 1 (TI-99/4A)
7. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
8. Exile (TurboGrafx CD)
9. Exile: Wicked Phenomenon (TurboGrafx CD)
10. Xak (PC Engine CD, Xak I・II)
11. Xak II (PC Engine CD, Xak I・II)
12. Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
13. Captain Silver (Sega Master System)
14. Märchen Veil (Famicom Disk System)
15. Vanguard (Atari 2600)
16. Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
17. Front Line (Atari 2600)
18. Mario Bros. (Atari 2600)
19. Harmonia (Steam)
20. Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
21. Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
22. Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (TurboGrafx CD)
23. Gorf (Atari 2600)
24. Neutopia II (TurboGrafx-16)
25. Dungeon Magic (PlayStation 2, Taito Legends 2)
26. The Lost Vikings (SNES)
27. Blue's Journey (Wii Virtual Console)
28. Wizard Fire (Wii, Data East Arcade Classics)
29. Super Mario Run (Android)
30. Dragon Warrior II (NES)
31. Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (GOG.com)
32. Witch & Hero (Nintendo eShop)
33. Phoenix (Atari 2600)
34. Emerald Dragon (Super Famicom)
35. Sky Skipper (Atari 2600)
36. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
37. Cadash (TurboGrafx-16)
38. Cadash (Genesis)
39. Popeye (Atari 2600)
40. Mega Man 2 (NES)
41. Mother (Famicom)
42. Scramble (Game Boy Advance, Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced)
43. Super Cobra (Atari 2600)
44. Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II (GameCube)
45. Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo (Steam)

Well okay then. I didn't intend to buy this during the Steam Summer Sale. But I saw the recommendation pop up when I was scoping out Trouble Witches and thought why the hell not.

Mecha Ritz is a Japanese indie bullet hell shmup; from what I can tell it was mostly created by one person. Like so many modern shmups, there's some semblance of a plot here, though it's utterly bizarre and verges on the incoherent. Apparently a twelve-year-old girl creates mechas, they destroy the world, except one mecha carries a human inside it and is now determined to kill the girl and the other mechas.

Controls are mostly standard. There are two types of main shot, both mapped to the same button. Holding it creates a slow heavy attack, while tapping spews forth lighter spreading projectiles. There are a few ships to choose from, so specific fire patterns will differ a bit. There are also the requisite bombs, and shields that absorb one hit apiece. In addition to the shield cache, the player is also given an ample stash of lives right off the bat, so those who are sick of the one-hit-death variety of shoot-'em-up will be a bit more comfortable here.

The aesthetics are intriguing. The game has a wire frame look, which appears wholly crafted and deliberate rather than unfinished. Sprites are all shades of neon, while backgrounds are a consistent and comparatively dull gray. The music's cool and catchy, the type of thumping techno that meshes well with the frantic gameplay.

There are some weird quirks. There's a persistent coffee theme: enemies display drink sizes when they explode, and bosses include the likes of General Starbuck. Every enemy also has visible hit points that deduct when they're hit. It's a nice touch, even if most hostile ships can be obliterated in a second or two.

You purists will be happy to know I 1CC'ed this. That isn't as impressive as it sounds though. Here's the (cool) thing about Mecha Ritz. The game scales to one's skill level. Succeed and prepare to see bullet patterns reach levels of insanity. Fail and things are scaled back quite a bit. One of the most visible alterations I noticed after a couple of deaths is that enemy bullets no longer traveled across the entire screen. Instead they'd vanish after a set distance from the ship the were fired from. After I regained some composure the bullets returned to normal.

Such a scaling system enhances replay value immensely, as the game tracks a "rank" which effects not only the immediate difficulty but also final boss and ending. Combine this with some branching paths, and there's quite a bit to experience in the world of Mecha Ritz.

This is a good one. It's well-paced, provides ample but optional challenge, and doesn't overstay it's welcome. I approve, even if I don't drink coffee.

[o.pwuaioc]

Legend of Hero Tonma (PCE): http://minirevver.weebly.com/legend-of- ... ngine.html

Nice! I've been meaning to play this through for some time now. I got to get on that.

[laurenhiya21]

Previously Beaten:

1/15: Aviary Attorney (Steam)
1/16: Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star (Steam)
1/27: Sweet Fuse: At Your Side (PSP)
1/31: Harmonia (Steam)
2/21: Yakuza 0 (PS4)
2/28: Cooking Mama: Cook Off (Wii)
3/17: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
3/22: Kirby Super Star (SNES)
4/6: Nier Automata (PS4)
5/11: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
5/28: 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Vita)
6/2: DOOM (GOG)

*NEW*
6/10: Utawarerumono (PC)

Total: 13 games

(technically I've beaten a few other games but I'm just posting one right now since this took so long to write )

With the recent English localization of Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception, I decided that it would be a good time to finally play the original game. I had been meaning to for a while, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet haha.

The story involves Hakuo, a man with a mask stuck to his face and has amnesia. Since he has no where else to go, he sticks with a small village that doesn’t stay peaceful for very long, as the country slowly tumbles into war. Hakuo starts from basically nothing, and eventually is leading an army with various companions he meets along the way. Of course he also learns about his past and all that, but that’s gets into major spoiler territory so I won’t discuss that here. I really enjoyed the story overall, as there were both moments of serious political and war stuff, but also moments of humour and character development. Perhaps some people might not like the amount of character scenes that don’t have much to do with the larger picture, but I really enjoyed them all since I liked all the characters and they served as a nice break in between more tense moments. The only complaint I have with the story side of things is that there are a few random sex scenes that I don’t think really belong. A few of them just felt like “ok this is the scene where we have sex so let’s go!”. It’s not as bad as a few other visual novels I’ve read, but it was a tad annoying.

In addition to the story segments, Utawarerumono also has tactic RPG segments. Anyone who’s really into tactical RPGs might be a little disappointed in playing these, as they are very simple and basic, but for someone who is awful at them (aka me) these were just fine. There wasn’t really anything complex in the game that I had to worry about. No weapon triangles, magic types don’t seem to matter too much, and there aren’t too many stats to worry about. You do get BP points at the end of every battle, which are used to buff certain stats (I think there are 4 you can mess with?), but really I mostly just piled all the points into attack for everybody and I did just fine. That might not work so well on higher difficulties though, as I just stuck with playing on Easy. There’s also this QTE sort of thing when you attack enemies or heal party members, which I assume does extra damage/healing points but it didn’t work properly and I didn’t bother to try and figure out how to fix it. Since it’s an older game, the character animations and the QTE bits are based on your CPU’s clock speed. It’s not really a problem for the animations (just looks real funny as they run around), but it does make the QTE bits impossible. It didn’t make any difference to me on Easy, but if you’re playing on a higher difficulty then it might be more worth it to try and fix that. Either way I didn’t mind these sections at all, and I felt it was a good substitute to just words for the battle scenes. There was also just enough to mix it up a bit, without being super repetitive and annoying.

Also some other minor points…

- Music was not awful but not great either. Just kind of there.
- No auto advance feature for the text is kind of annoying, but since it is on the older side I was willing to forgive that.
- If you’ve seen the anime already, this is pretty much the same thing. You would be getting some extra scenes here (both the SFW and NSFW variety), but if you’ve watched the anime and didn’t like the story there, then I highly doubt that you’ll like it here.
- The original doesn’t have an official English release (and I doubt it will ever get one as it’s already 15 years old), but it does have a very good, easy to install fan patch.

Overall I really enjoyed Utawarerumono. There was hardly a time while I was playing that I wasn’t enjoying the game. I would really recommend this if you like VNs, as long as you don’t mind doing some gameplay every now and then and doing some very minor work to patch the game.

[ElkinFencer10]

I'm going to be out of town all week for AP training, but I finished the Hearts of Stone DLC for The Witcher 3 on Saturday, and I expect to finish the Blood and Wine DLC this coming Saturday when I get home from my training workshop with the rest of the game finished in the following days.