Games Beaten 2019:First 50:
51. Mario Party
N6452. ActRaiser
SNES53. GoldenEye 007
N6454. Mom Hid My Game
Switch eShop55. Money Puzzle Exchanger
Switch eShop56. Gunbird
Switch eShop57. Tokyo School Life
Switch eShop58. Musynx
Switch59. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
NES60. Subsurface Circular
Switch eShop61. Yoshi's Woolly World
Wii U62. ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron
Switch63. Bare Knuckle III
Switch64. Gunstar Heroes
Switch65. Space Harrier II
Switch66. Sonic Spinball
Switch67. Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium
Switch68. Sonic 3D Blast
Switch69. Rabbids Go Home
Wii70. Alien Storm
Switch71. Alien Soldier
Switch72. Untitled Goose Game
Switch eShop73. Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
Switch74. Fatal Labyrinth
Switch75. Ristar
Switch76. Golden Axe III
Switch77. Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Switch78. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Switch79. Bonanza Bros.
Switch80. Shining Force II [& Sega Mega Drive Classics]
Switch81. Castlevania Bloodlines
Switch eShop82. Puyo Puyo Sun 64
N6483. Chameleon Twist 2
N6484. Cruis'n USA
N6485. Darkwing Duck
Game Boy86. Fortified Zone
Game Boy87. Lock 'N Chase
Game Boy88. Spanky's Quest
Game Boy89. Looney Tunes Collector: Martian Revenge!
GBC90. Puchi Carat
PS191. Battle Garegga Rev. 2016
PS492. Flower
PS493. FlOw
PS494. The Longest 5 Minutes
Switch95. West of Loathing
Switch96. Pokémon Sword
Switch97. Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
DS98. Ace Attorney Investigations: Prosecutor's Path
DS99. Game Center CX: Arino no Chōsenjō 2
DS100. Bayonetta 2 Wii U
101. Thimbleweed Park SwitchBayonetta 2Sometimes I play a game I really enjoy, and decide that it would be a good idea to play the sequel soon whilst I remember more of the first title. An example might be Final Fantasy X, where I intended to play X-2 before I forgot the story. Inevitably though, I don’t get around to playing the sequel anywhere near the time I expect to. Bayonetta 2 was an example of that.
I enjoyed playing through Bayonetta 1 several years ago – and my wife really enjoyed watching it to. It was just on the right side of stupid for me to make the flashy combat, dumb story and hypersexualised protagonist fun, and I think she agreed. And so when I finally sat down to play Bayonetta 2 this year, I was looking forward to it – even if we had to remind ourselves of the first game’s story a couple of times!
Bayonetta 2 is basically ‘more of the same’ in terms of what it offers. This time, Bayonetta is on a journey to hell to rescue Jean, who has gone and gotten herself killed. Along the way she meets Loki, a child who seems to have some special powers, who guides her to the Gates of Hell (the real ones, not the bar which Rodin runs) on the sacred mountain Fimbulventr. All of the characters from before are here – Jean, Rodin, Luka and Lorenzo all make an appearance even if they feel somewhat underutilised. Loki is very annoying too – especially his god awful accent that I think is meant to be British. It makes Dick Van Dyke look like a born and bred Londoner, is all I can say.
Anyway, gameplay is the same combo of flash combat with some secrets to find in between. Bayonetta can attack with various combinations of weapons on her hands and feet – my favourites were the swords and whip, but the bow proved very useful on some of the games harder Muspelheim challenges – optional battle with special rules such as ‘don’t get hit’ or ‘maintain a combo the whole battle’. Dodging is super important, with a timely dodge activating witch time, putting all enemies in slow motion for a while. Double tapping dodge turns you into a panther for sprinting around at speed, but I wish this was on another button – I found myself constantly turning into a panther mid battle whilst trying to dodge, so I heard the roar a looooot.
Bayonetta 2 has some fantastic setpieces, much like the first game. Highlights include the opening battle on a jet, and a battle with a giant demon and angel wrestling in the background. I don’t feel like anything feels quite as impressive as the first game, but I’m not sure if that’s because it’s lesser in anyway, or if there’s just a lot more competition for spectacle these days and I’m more desensitised to it. Either way, it’s still fun.
One thing I did think about Bayonetta 2 though is that it seemed notably easier than the first game. In the first game, I died a lot, especially on bosses. It had a real learning curve to manage. In the second game, I played on Normal again, but this time I died only once in the whole game – to an unexpected insta-kill move. I only came close to dying one other time, and I never used a single health recovery item. Now, maybe it’s possible I’m just better now after having played the first game, but being that it’s been several years since I did so, I’m leaning towards this title just being more accessible and less challenging than before.
Either way, it doesn’t dampen the fun I had with the game – I enjoyed the game all the way through. The gameplay is fun, the music is catchy when it wants to be and atmospheric when it needs to be, the graphics are flashy and good for the system, and overall it’s just a real fun game to experience. I’m glad I did so, and happy to reach 100 games beaten in the year for what I think is my first time ever.
Thimbleweed ParkI quite enjoy the old LucasArts point and click games, so I was keen to give Thimbleweed Park a try. Made by Ron Gilbert, it aims to be a spriritual successor to those old point n click games, particularly the earlier examples like Maniac Mansion, which can be seen through the games art style. The game initially follows 2 characters, the newbie Agent Reyes and the experienced Agent Ray, two FBI agents who are investigating a murder in the sleepy town of Thumbleweed Park. The game takes inspiration from classic TV shows like The X-Files and Twin Peaks in it’s aesthetics for sure. Ray and Reyes are basically immediately revealed to have ulterior motives for being there, but what they are remains a mystery at first.
As you walk around town trying to solve the mystery of the murder, you uncover the backstories of a few potential suspects – first is Ransome the Clown, a mean spirited ‘insult clown’ who has been cursed to remain in makeup forever and is hated by and in turn hates basically everyone in town. Next is Delores Edmund, niece of the towns most wealthy benefactor, Chuck Edmond. She’s suspected because she ran away to become an adventure game programmer instead of taking over the pillow factory her uncle owned. And lastly, Franklin Edmund, brother to Chuck and Father to Delores, who has been missing for several weeks. You quickly discover he’s dead though – as each new suspect comes with a flashback where you play as them.
After you finish all the flashbacks, all 5 characters become playable – Ray and Reyes are generally interchangeable, but some other actions can only be performed by Delores or Ransome – Delores is the techy of the bunch, whereas Ransome isn’t scared of heights for example. Franklin is limited to the place he died for movement, but as a ghost can travel without being seen and pass through locked doors.
So far so good, right? Unfortunately, the game is pretty flawed. First of all, the game really dials back on that classic LucasArts comedy – there’s few laughs here, which means the story has to hold up the game – and it really fails to live up to this requirement, being mostly uninteresting and then having spectacularly poor payoffs at the end. The game world is also huge, and every character has separate inventories and moves independently – meaning lots of moving back and forth figuring out where to go next, and then also sometimes doing this 4 or 5 times to get everyone where they need to be. There’s also little reason given for why people are working together – I see no reason Ransome and Delores would be supporting Reyes for example. The only logic apparent is strictly limited to 4th wall breaking – the player knows, so that’s good enough.
I often found myself stuck not because the puzzles were complex, but because I had no idea what the next objective was, or I’d missed an item somewhere. The game is full of tiny items, just a few pixels on screen, which are required for progression. Luckily, there’s a phone number you can call in game for hints, but I found myself using it not for solutions but for item locations – usually the last hint given, meaning by the time I could do it, I already had the solution.
The controls are bad on switch. B is used to walk to a location, and A looks at the item selected. Otherwise you use the stick to control a cursor on screen and must manually navigate it to the verbs are the bottom to use. Touch screen controls are theoretically better, but they feel imprecise and I actually preferred the button controls. Pressing L and R should move the cursor to nearby interactable items on screen, but this felt inconsistent to me, and I sometimes struggled to highlight even items I knew I could interact with.
Overall, I found Thimbleweed Park to be a massive disappointment. It’s cumbersome to play, the puzzles felt awkward and not fun most of the time, the scope is too big to be fun, and the game is utterly lacking in any of the charm that defined those original titles. I think Thimbleweed Park isn’t worth the time or effort to play through it, and I’d advise you skip it. There’s better options easily available elsewhere.