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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by ElkinFencer10 Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:58 pm

Games Beaten in 2021 - 71
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. God of War - PlayStation 3 - January 1
2. God of War II - PlayStation 3 - January 2
3. God of War: Chains of Olympus - PlayStation 3 - January 3
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta - PlayStation 3 - January 4
5. God of War III - PlayStation 4 - January 6
6. God of War: Ascension - PlayStation 3 - January 9
7. God of War [2018] - PlayStation 4 - January 16
8. Epic Dumpster Bear 2: He Who Bears Wins - PlayStation 4 - January 16
9. God of War: Betrayal - Mobile - January 17
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Switch - January 18
11. Muv-Luv photonflowers* - Steam - January 22
12. Muv-Luv photonmelodies♮ - Steam - January 27


February (5 Games Beaten)
13. Gun Gun Pixies - Switch - February 1
14. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS4 - February 8*
15. Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s - Vita - February 13
16. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4 - February 17*
17. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Steam - February 23


March (3 Games Beaten)
18. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Steam - March 4
19. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3rd - Steam - March 7
20. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - PS4 - March 21


April (7 Games Beaten)
21. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - PS4 - April 5
22. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 00 - Steam - April 7
23. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 01 - Steam - April 10
24. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 02 - Steam - April 11
25. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 03 - Steam - April 13
26. Neptunia Virtual Stars - PS4 - April 18
27. Before Your Eyes - Steam - April 18


May (9 Games Beaten)
28. New Pokemon Snap - Switch - May 2
29. Resident Evil 8: Village - PS5 - May 8
30. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Switch - May 15
31. Torment: Tides of Numenera - Xbox One - May 18
32. Pepsiman - PS1 - May 20
33. Super Blackjack Battle II Turbo: The Card Fighters - Switch - May 20
34. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure - Switch - May 23
35. Planetscape: Torment - Steam - May 26
36. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Switch - May 31


June (17 Games Beaten)
37. Hentai vs Evil - Switch - June 1
38. Troll and I - Switch - June 2
39. Zombie Army 4: Dead War - PlayStation 4 - June 5
40. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Switch - June 6
41. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16 - June 7
42. Puyo Puyo 2 - Game Gear - June 17
43. Yakuza 0 - Playstation 4 - June 19
44. Neptunia Shooter - Playstation 5 - June 20
45. Little Samson - NES - June 22
46. Tiger-Heli - NES - June 23
47. Blaster Master - NES - June 23
48. Gun-Nac - NES - June 24
49. Rollerblade Racer - NES - June 25
50. Marble Madness - NES - June 25
51. Metroid - NES - June 25
52. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Switch - June 26
53. Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA - June 28
54. Metroid II: Return of Samus - Game Boy - June 29


July (17 Games Beaten)
55. Super Metroid - SNES - July 1
56. Where's Waldo? - NES - July 1
57. Metroid Fusion - GBA - July 2
58. Neptunia ReVerse - PlayStation 5 - July 3
59. Tetris Effect: Connected - Series X - July 3
60. Battletoads - Xbox One - July 4
61. Chicken Police: Paint it Red! - Switch - July 5
62. The Falconeer - Series X - July 7
63. Astral Chain - Switch - July 10
64. Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus - NES - July 12
65. Skull and Crossbones - NES - July 12
66. Sky Kid - NES - July 12
67. Top Gun - NES - July 12
68. Top Gun: The Second Mission - NES - July 13
69. Mega Man 7 - SNES - July 13
70. Mega Man X - SNES - July 14
71. Mega Man X2 - SNES - July 15


71. Mega Man X2 - SNES - July 15

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After playing Mega Man X - a game I felt was virtually perfect - I had high hopes for Mega Man X2. X2, while still an excellent game and superior to Mega Man 7, unfortunately, doesn’t quite live up to the astronomical standards set by X1. Don’t get me wrong - it’s great - but when that’s what it’s got to follow, it’s not terribly surprising that it feels a little lacking.

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s far as level design goes, X2 and X1 are about on equal footing generally speaking. X2 keeps its predecessor’s X-cellent controls (I had to make the joke at least once), and controlling the game is easy and responsive. The visuals are fantastic, and the bosses all look unique and creative. Where the game disappoints is with the boss battles. They just don’t feel quite as well-designed as they did in the previous game. You’ve basically got to have the weapon they’re weak to (or be significantly better at Mega Man than I am) to stun them enough and do enough damage to beat them whereas in X1, most of them were doable with just the X-blaster once you got a feel for their attack patterns. At least at my paltry skill level, these bosses just attacked too fast for that for the most part. That’s not necessarily a bad design, mind you, but it felt less about learning a boss’s movements and patterns and more about exploiting their weakness in this game, and it just didn’t feel as fun or rewarding for me.

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All that said, if you do have the weapon to which the boss is weak, the battle becomes a walk in the park. With the first eight bosses, it was one of those two extremes - extremely difficult or extremely easy. The Sigma Fortress bosses, of course, were a different story; even with their weakness, every single one of those bosses kicked my tail up and down the screen. That juxtaposition, as well, felt a little haphazard to me. I know part of Mega Man’s formula is being able to tackle most bosses in any order, but the difference in difficulty between regular bosses and Sigma bosses just felt more pronounced here than in most Mega Man games.

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I’ve dogged on the boss fights here a lot, but that really is my only major disappointment with X2. It’s an extraordinary Mega Man game, and I had an absolute blast playing it. It may not have lived up to X1 in my opinion, but damn if it didn’t come close. I can definitely call this one of the jewels in the SNES crown. With how accessible the X collection is on modern consoles, this is definitely a game to check out if you’re into action platformers and haven’t played it already.
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elricorico
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by elricorico Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:18 pm

marurun wrote:Elricorico, so glad to see someone else play and enjoy Grandia. It's beloved in Japan and somehow just passed the US by. Sure, it got a PS1 localization, but there were reasons that might have put people off (mostly the voice acting).

I definitely didn't love the voices, but I feel like there were a lot if years of bad voices in games, so I didn't have high expectations considering Grandia's vintage. I've heard worse!
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by VG_Addict Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:08 pm

So far, the only game I've beaten this year is Banjo-Kazooie.

I plan on beating Banjo-Tooie, Mega Man 3, Paper Mario, Donkey Kong Country 2, and Mega Man X.
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by prfsnl_gmr Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:24 pm

Raging Justice wrote:I don't think MM X is the greatest action platformer ever...far from it, but it is a classic.


Out of curiosity…what do you consider to be the best action platformers of all time? I very much respect your tastes, and I am always looking for new games to play!
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Raging Justice
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Raging Justice Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:38 am

prfsnl_gmr wrote:
Raging Justice wrote:I don't think MM X is the greatest action platformer ever...far from it, but it is a classic.


Out of curiosity…what do you consider to be the best action platformers of all time? I very much respect your tastes, and I am always looking for new games to play!


Well, it's a subjective thing of course. No one will completely agree on "best of all time". So I'll respect anyone's opinion on this.

I would say Mega Man X 4 is one since the thread is focusing on that series a bit. X4 is my personal favorite of the series. It's such a well designed game that you can play however you want. You can use X or you can use Zero. You can tackle stages in any order, and with enough skill, still beat the bosses. You can play it through it without taking a hit if you're good, which means you can go through the whole game without E tanks or heart upgrades. If you want an easier time though, than you can totally exploit boss weaknesses, grab E tanks/hearts, and get armor for X. There's even a boss that you can optionally fight with a ride armor if you want an easier time or fight him legit. There's even a technique speed runners have figured out with Zero where you can get a LOT of slashes off in a short amount of time for insane DPS on bosses (never really used it myself though).

I like the design of the bosses too, particularly if you play as Zero. He brought a melee style to a series that was more projectile based (going all the way back to Mega Man classic) and some of the bosses reflect that. One boss literally fights like Ken or Ryu from Street Fighter II, and another is a light sabre duelist which makes fighting him as the light saber wielding Zero feel epic.

Surrounding all this was a pretty epic story with some big revelations for the series, a revamped art style and music for the series' Playstation/Saturn debut, and some great anime cutscenes. It's a shame the English version had some bad voice acting leading to some embarrassingly memorable moments in line with other games like Symphony of the Night and Resident Evil, all games with iconic, bad voice acting moments that everyone still remembers to this day.

Ninja Gaiden II on the NES comes to mind too, just because I played through that game so many times when I was younger. It was better balanced and designed than the first game, which is infamous for how frustrating it is, particularly towards the end of the game. NG II just has a certain rhythm to it once you know the stage layouts and enemy placement. I love the fast pace of it. The old NG games on the NES are very much go, GO, GO!!! Keep moving forward, don't stop, and don't look back. Then of course you have the story and cut scenes, which really made an impact back then, and a really great soundtrack too

Then you have Castlevania, boy so many great games to choose from there, it terms of "classic" Castlevania I think Super Castlevania IV is a perfectly designed game. I think the Angry Video Game nerd did a great video describing his adoration of this game. Honestly though, I think it's Sega Genesis counterpart is absolutely excellent as well - Castlevania: Bloodlines. It's a bit harder and more traditional in its design than Super Castlevania for people who may feel that Super Castlevania made the movement and whip mechanics too fluid. Nice visual effects too, both games really showed off some great graphical tricks for their respective systems. I hold both games in extremely high regard. Konami blessed gamers on both sides of the console war with something excellent to..."sink their teeth into" :wink:

The Earthworm Jim games. They were brutally hard, and in terms of gameplay, fall a bit short of some other great action platformers. The gameplay could feel a bit sloppy at times. But man they were so rewarding. It felt good to complete a stage simply because you wanted to see what crazy, wacky, hilarious things the games would throw at you next. The levels were so inventive and creative too. The levels that had you maneuvering through tight spaces were great as they required patience and skill. Plus, the animation and the music was sooooo good. Tommy Tallarico was making some great tunes back then. So many games come and go, but you could never forget the EWJ games after playing them. I believe a new one is in the works for that Intellivision Amico

The Adventures of Batman and Robin on the SNES also, it was just a PERFECT Batman game. The standard IMO until Rocksteady came along many years later

The Shinobi series was so good too, I think Shinobi III is the standout entry. God I loved that game, so epic.

I also love Donkey Kong Country 2 and Sonic 3 and Knuckles, but I guess those aren't "action platformers". They are masterpieces though. I feel like a lot of modern DKC clones haven't managed to capture the magic of the SNES games including Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze. Kaze and the Wild Masks makes a very respectable attempt though. I played a little bit of Sonic Mania and was impressed by it, but I still love Sonic 3 and Knuckles the most.

I could probably think of some other games too with a bit more time. Treasure comes to mind. Mischief Makers is criminally underrated, it was such a delight to play. N64 often gets ignored despite some amazing games. I'm trying to think of more modern examples, as this question immediately sent my mind back to the 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit eras. By the time the 32-bit era rolled around I feel like the 2d platformer genre had been perfected. Ironically, that's right around the time Sony wanted to kill it, at least on their platform.

On the subject of upcoming action platformers, I am holding high hope for the new version of Bloodrayne Betrayal. That was an amazing game, but I think the difficulty was a bit much. It could have been a classic if it was balanced a bit better I think.
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by prfsnl_gmr Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:53 am

Awesome post. I appreciate the response.

While MMX is probably my favorite MMX game, I recognize that MMX4 is probably the best. Such a solid game for the reason you stated above. For classic MM games, I always default to MM2 because it’s the one I’ve played the most, but MM9 is probably the best game in the series.

I also agree wholeheartedly on Ninja Gaiden II. That is the first game that comes to mind for me when I think about action platformers. On the topic of ninjas…I think Shinobi (3DS) is my favorite game in that series, but I’ve never beaten Shinobi III. I’ll have to remedy that soon. Natsume’s Shadow of the Ninja is also another great one, and it is probably the best of Natsume’s many excellent NES action platformers.

Rondo of Blood will always be the best classic Castlevania game, in my opinion, although both Castlevania IV and Castlevania Bloodlines are very strong.

Finally, I never could get into the Earthworm Jim games. They fall into this strange sub-genre of 16-bit action platformers where you just kind of wander around large open levels shooting stuff (and getting lost and frustrated). I think both Vectorman games fall into this sub-genre, along with games like Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure and Disney games like The Jungle Book and The Lion King.

I’ll have to keep thinking on this topic a bit to see if I can think of any more great games.
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by MrPopo Tue Jul 20, 2021 10:59 am

The Earthworm Jim games had good artists but refused to hire real level designers.
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Raging Justice
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Raging Justice Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:45 pm

I knew the Earthworm Jim games would be a controversial choice. I agree that they have issues, but with those games I look at the overall experience and I enjoyed my time with them and still remember them fondly to this day. However, many of the other games that both I and you guys mentioned are more solid in overall design. I don't disagree on that point.
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ElkinFencer10
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by ElkinFencer10 Tue Jul 20, 2021 4:22 pm

Games Beaten in 2021 - 72
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. God of War - PlayStation 3 - January 1
2. God of War II - PlayStation 3 - January 2
3. God of War: Chains of Olympus - PlayStation 3 - January 3
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta - PlayStation 3 - January 4
5. God of War III - PlayStation 4 - January 6
6. God of War: Ascension - PlayStation 3 - January 9
7. God of War [2018] - PlayStation 4 - January 16
8. Epic Dumpster Bear 2: He Who Bears Wins - PlayStation 4 - January 16
9. God of War: Betrayal - Mobile - January 17
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Switch - January 18
11. Muv-Luv photonflowers* - Steam - January 22
12. Muv-Luv photonmelodies♮ - Steam - January 27


February (5 Games Beaten)
13. Gun Gun Pixies - Switch - February 1
14. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS4 - February 8*
15. Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s - Vita - February 13
16. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4 - February 17*
17. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Steam - February 23


March (3 Games Beaten)
18. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Steam - March 4
19. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3rd - Steam - March 7
20. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - PS4 - March 21


April (7 Games Beaten)
21. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - PS4 - April 5
22. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 00 - Steam - April 7
23. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 01 - Steam - April 10
24. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 02 - Steam - April 11
25. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 03 - Steam - April 13
26. Neptunia Virtual Stars - PS4 - April 18
27. Before Your Eyes - Steam - April 18


May (9 Games Beaten)
28. New Pokemon Snap - Switch - May 2
29. Resident Evil 8: Village - PS5 - May 8
30. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Switch - May 15
31. Torment: Tides of Numenera - Xbox One - May 18
32. Pepsiman - PS1 - May 20
33. Super Blackjack Battle II Turbo: The Card Fighters - Switch - May 20
34. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure - Switch - May 23
35. Planetscape: Torment - Steam - May 26
36. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Switch - May 31


June (17 Games Beaten)
37. Hentai vs Evil - Switch - June 1
38. Troll and I - Switch - June 2
39. Zombie Army 4: Dead War - PlayStation 4 - June 5
40. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Switch - June 6
41. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16 - June 7
42. Puyo Puyo 2 - Game Gear - June 17
43. Yakuza 0 - Playstation 4 - June 19
44. Neptunia Shooter - Playstation 5 - June 20
45. Little Samson - NES - June 22
46. Tiger-Heli - NES - June 23
47. Blaster Master - NES - June 23
48. Gun-Nac - NES - June 24
49. Rollerblade Racer - NES - June 25
50. Marble Madness - NES - June 25
51. Metroid - NES - June 25
52. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Switch - June 26
53. Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA - June 28
54. Metroid II: Return of Samus - Game Boy - June 29


July (18 Games Beaten)
55. Super Metroid - SNES - July 1
56. Where's Waldo? - NES - July 1
57. Metroid Fusion - GBA - July 2
58. Neptunia ReVerse - PlayStation 5 - July 3
59. Tetris Effect: Connected - Series X - July 3
60. Battletoads - Xbox One - July 4
61. Chicken Police: Paint it Red! - Switch - July 5
62. The Falconeer - Series X - July 7
63. Astral Chain - Switch - July 10
64. Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus - NES - July 12
65. Skull and Crossbones - NES - July 12
66. Sky Kid - NES - July 12
67. Top Gun - NES - July 12
68. Top Gun: The Second Mission - NES - July 13
69. Mega Man 7 - SNES - July 13
70. Mega Man X - SNES - July 14
71. Mega Man X2 - SNES - July 15
72. Second Extinction - Series X - July 15


72. Second Extinction - Series X - July 15

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Part of me is still eight years old. What I mean by that is that most boys go through a phase where they're crazy about dinosaurs, but they eventually grow out of that. I never really grew out of that. Dinosaurs are and always have been friggin' awesome, so when I saw a trailer months ago for a Left 4 Dead style co-op shooter about dinosaurs, I flipped. When it came out on Xbox, it kind of flew under the radar even though I had been super hyped pre-launch; I just never heard anything about it when it actually came out. When I saw it as I was scrolling through Game Pass after signing up, then, I immediately downloaded it. It's a good thing it's on Game Pass, too, as it's still in Early Access, and as excited for it as I was, I have a personal rule against buying Early Access games and an iron-clad personal rule against buying live service games. If it's on a subscription service that I'm already paying for, however, then all bets are off (and so are the dinosaurs' heads).

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The premise of the game is that mutated dinosaurs have taken over the Earth (I don't think it ever explains how), but a group of humans have survived and formed a new world government aboard an orbital space station. From there, three-person strike teams drop to the surface and carry out missions to retrieve supplies and cull dinosaur numbers and nests. Other than being dinosaurs instead of zombies and teams of three instead of four, this is basically another Left 4 Dead clone. It is, however, the absolute best Left 4 Dead clone I've ever played, and because it's set up as an open world with optional objectives randomly scattered throughout, it's better than Left 4 Dead in my personal opinion (although, for reasons I'll explain, missing all of the polish of Left 4 Dead).

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As I mentioned, the game is still in Early Access, and while it's significantly more polished than the average full release for an Ubisoft game, it's obvious in parts that it's Early Access. It doesn't have any glaring technical issues aside from the infrequent abrupt disconnect, but there have been several instances where a group of raptors spawned in the air above me, fell to the ground, died on impact, and exploded in blood. My friend, Grant, with whom I've played several hours of this game, described it as "Bethesda bugs," and that's a fairly accurate assessment; most of the bugs don't hinder your enjoyment or overall experience but are just bizarre and hilarious.

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As the game is still in active development, it's changing constantly, but as it stands right now, there are three difficulties, five playable characters, and six core missions. There are a plethora of little side missions that you can find in the world as you play, and the developers have said for sure that at least one more character is coming this year along with new weapons and dinosaurs. There are a variety of types of smaller dinosaurs - regular raptors, electric enemies that can cloak and flit about, acid spitting dinosaurs, etc - but three big enemies in the game right now are the Ankylosaurs, the Triceratops, and - of course - the Tyrannosaurus. All three of these are virtually impossible to take down solo unless you've got some wicked skills and amazing gear, and the Tyrannosaurus pretty much requires at least one teammate.

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As you kill dinosaurus, you collect research points and various drops. These are used to upgrade your weapons. Every weapon has three main categories that can be upgraded - usually damage, recoil stability, and switching/reloading speed - with unique abilities in each of those categories that can be unlocked. There are a lot of weapons, so it definitely pays to experiment around and see what suits your playstyle and each individual situation. I, personally, use either the minigun or - if someone else is playing tank - the assault rifle, although the machine gun and artillery cannon are pretty glorious weapons as well. You also unlock more weapons and support equipment as you level up not unlike Call of Duty, so your options continuously expand as you progress.

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There are obviously some Early Access issues that still need to be worked out - little bugs, disconnections and crashes, and the fact that the frame rate apparently just plummets on Xbox One when things get busy on screen (this does not happen on Series X) - but for being Early Access, this game is incredibly well-made. If you showed me this for the first time, I would think it's a final retail release and never question it. It's a shame that you can only have three people on a team - four would really be ideal, I think - but if you can get a couple of good teammates, this is one of the absolute best co-op experiences I've had on an Xbox since Halo 2. If you have Game Pass, ABSOLUTELY check this game out. If you don't have Game Pass but dig co-op shooters and are okay with live service and Early Access games, definitely check it out; I definitely think it's worth the $25 is sells for even in its current state.
Exhuminator wrote:Ecchi lords must unite for great justice.

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Raging Justice
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Raging Justice Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:45 pm

ElkinFencer10 wrote:Games Beaten in 2021 - 71
* denotes a replay

January (12 Games Beaten)
1. God of War - PlayStation 3 - January 1
2. God of War II - PlayStation 3 - January 2
3. God of War: Chains of Olympus - PlayStation 3 - January 3
4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta - PlayStation 3 - January 4
5. God of War III - PlayStation 4 - January 6
6. God of War: Ascension - PlayStation 3 - January 9
7. God of War [2018] - PlayStation 4 - January 16
8. Epic Dumpster Bear 2: He Who Bears Wins - PlayStation 4 - January 16
9. God of War: Betrayal - Mobile - January 17
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit - Switch - January 18
11. Muv-Luv photonflowers* - Steam - January 22
12. Muv-Luv photonmelodies♮ - Steam - January 27


February (5 Games Beaten)
13. Gun Gun Pixies - Switch - February 1
14. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - PS4 - February 8*
15. Pantsu Hunter: Back to the 90s - Vita - February 13
16. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II - PS4 - February 17*
17. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Steam - February 23


March (3 Games Beaten)
18. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Steam - March 4
19. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3rd - Steam - March 7
20. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III - PS4 - March 21


April (7 Games Beaten)
21. Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV - PS4 - April 5
22. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 00 - Steam - April 7
23. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 01 - Steam - April 10
24. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 02 - Steam - April 11
25. Muv-Luv Unlimited: The Day After 03 - Steam - April 13
26. Neptunia Virtual Stars - PS4 - April 18
27. Before Your Eyes - Steam - April 18


May (9 Games Beaten)
28. New Pokemon Snap - Switch - May 2
29. Resident Evil 8: Village - PS5 - May 8
30. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Switch - May 15
31. Torment: Tides of Numenera - Xbox One - May 18
32. Pepsiman - PS1 - May 20
33. Super Blackjack Battle II Turbo: The Card Fighters - Switch - May 20
34. Reel Fishing: Road Trip Adventure - Switch - May 23
35. Planetscape: Torment - Steam - May 26
36. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - Switch - May 31


June (17 Games Beaten)
37. Hentai vs Evil - Switch - June 1
38. Troll and I - Switch - June 2
39. Zombie Army 4: Dead War - PlayStation 4 - June 5
40. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Switch - June 6
41. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16 - June 7
42. Puyo Puyo 2 - Game Gear - June 17
43. Yakuza 0 - Playstation 4 - June 19
44. Neptunia Shooter - Playstation 5 - June 20
45. Little Samson - NES - June 22
46. Tiger-Heli - NES - June 23
47. Blaster Master - NES - June 23
48. Gun-Nac - NES - June 24
49. Rollerblade Racer - NES - June 25
50. Marble Madness - NES - June 25
51. Metroid - NES - June 25
52. Mario Golf: Super Rush - Switch - June 26
53. Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA - June 28
54. Metroid II: Return of Samus - Game Boy - June 29


July (17 Games Beaten)
55. Super Metroid - SNES - July 1
56. Where's Waldo? - NES - July 1
57. Metroid Fusion - GBA - July 2
58. Neptunia ReVerse - PlayStation 5 - July 3
59. Tetris Effect: Connected - Series X - July 3
60. Battletoads - Xbox One - July 4
61. Chicken Police: Paint it Red! - Switch - July 5
62. The Falconeer - Series X - July 7
63. Astral Chain - Switch - July 10
64. Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus - NES - July 12
65. Skull and Crossbones - NES - July 12
66. Sky Kid - NES - July 12
67. Top Gun - NES - July 12
68. Top Gun: The Second Mission - NES - July 13
69. Mega Man 7 - SNES - July 13
70. Mega Man X - SNES - July 14
71. Mega Man X2 - SNES - July 15


71. Mega Man X2 - SNES - July 15

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After playing Mega Man X - a game I felt was virtually perfect - I had high hopes for Mega Man X2. X2, while still an excellent game and superior to Mega Man 7, unfortunately, doesn’t quite live up to the astronomical standards set by X1. Don’t get me wrong - it’s great - but when that’s what it’s got to follow, it’s not terribly surprising that it feels a little lacking.

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s far as level design goes, X2 and X1 are about on equal footing generally speaking. X2 keeps its predecessor’s X-cellent controls (I had to make the joke at least once), and controlling the game is easy and responsive. The visuals are fantastic, and the bosses all look unique and creative. Where the game disappoints is with the boss battles. They just don’t feel quite as well-designed as they did in the previous game. You’ve basically got to have the weapon they’re weak to (or be significantly better at Mega Man than I am) to stun them enough and do enough damage to beat them whereas in X1, most of them were doable with just the X-blaster once you got a feel for their attack patterns. At least at my paltry skill level, these bosses just attacked too fast for that for the most part. That’s not necessarily a bad design, mind you, but it felt less about learning a boss’s movements and patterns and more about exploiting their weakness in this game, and it just didn’t feel as fun or rewarding for me.

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All that said, if you do have the weapon to which the boss is weak, the battle becomes a walk in the park. With the first eight bosses, it was one of those two extremes - extremely difficult or extremely easy. The Sigma Fortress bosses, of course, were a different story; even with their weakness, every single one of those bosses kicked my tail up and down the screen. That juxtaposition, as well, felt a little haphazard to me. I know part of Mega Man’s formula is being able to tackle most bosses in any order, but the difference in difficulty between regular bosses and Sigma bosses just felt more pronounced here than in most Mega Man games.

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I’ve dogged on the boss fights here a lot, but that really is my only major disappointment with X2. It’s an extraordinary Mega Man game, and I had an absolute blast playing it. It may not have lived up to X1 in my opinion, but damn if it didn’t come close. I can definitely call this one of the jewels in the SNES crown. With how accessible the X collection is on modern consoles, this is definitely a game to check out if you’re into action platformers and haven’t played it already.


The original 8 bosses get easier with practice, but I say that as someone who replayed X2 like a million times :lol: I think I did eventually manage to beat them all buster only and even with no damage, but it takes practice. They DO have patterns and tells, but it takes time to learn them. The X hunters on the other hand, 2 of them kind of irritate me to this day. The one with the big ball and chain. It's really hard to avoid since it just bounces randomly around the screen. The old man is the other one. He used to be easy for me back on the SNES, because his fight ALWAYS had slowdown. I tried playing the Mega Man X Legacy Collection on PS4 a while back though, and they removed the slowdown. Without it, I actually found him hard :lol:

Do you know about the street fighter moves in X 1 and 2? Unless I missed it I don't think you mentioned them. They are the big, hidden, secrets of the games. There is something similar in X 3 as well.

Also, I'm curious, did you get all the Zero parts? The reason I ask is that it determines whether or not you have a certain boss fight, and also slightly changes the ending.

I bring up these things because I think it can enhance one's enjoyment of the game.
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