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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by BoneSnapDeez Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:50 pm

ElkinFencer10 wrote:
BoneSnapDeez wrote:where's my 13 Sentinels PC port?? :evil:

Get a PS4, scrub


No.
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by marurun Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:06 pm

BoneSnapDeez wrote:
ElkinFencer10 wrote:
BoneSnapDeez wrote:where's my 13 Sentinels PC port?? :evil:

Get a PS4, scrub


No.


In 2 years the PS4 will be retro. Then you can get one.
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Note Mon Sep 20, 2021 11:59 pm

Games Beaten 2021 List:

1. Golden Axe II (GEN)
2. Time Crisis [Special Mode] (PS1)
3. Streets of Rage (GEN)
4. Time Crisis: Project Titan (PS1)
5. Rayman Origins (360)
6. Borderlands (360)
7. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch)*
8. King of Dragons (SNES)
9. Wild Guns (SNES)
10. Star Fox (SNES)
11. Guardian Heroes (SAT) [2x]*
12. World of Illusion (GEN)
13. Raiden Fighters Jet (360)
14. Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive (360)*
15. Streets of Rage 3 (GEN)
16. Street Fighter III: Third Strike (Xbox)*
17. Mushihimesama Futari (360)
18. Guwange (360)
19. Star Fox 64 (N64)*
20. Soul Calibur (DC)*
21. Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (GEN)
22. Xeno Crisis (GEN)
23. Galactic Attack (SAT)
24. Die Hard Arcade (SAT)
25. Luigi's Mansion (GC)

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26. Steel Empire (GEN)

Steel Empire is a shooter that I wasn't aware of until the past few years, as I had never come across it around the time of its release. The awesome box art got me intrigued, and the fact that you could control a zeppelin in this style of game also seemed pretty awesome, as that's something I hadn't seen before in a shmup.

For starters, the player has a choice of controlling two different types of ships, and you have the opportunity to choose your ship before each level, in case you think one might perform better than the other in a certain stage. You can either select a smaller, faster plane or be the larger and slower zeppelin. Each ship also has a life bar, which is not common for shmups. This also comes into play, as the plane has a smaller life bar than the zeppelin. Another difference between the two ships is their ground attack. Besides your screen clearing lightning bomb, each ship also has a second grenade attack that automatically fires when using your standard shot. The plane's grenade attack shoots below you to hit enemies located on the ground, while the zeppelin's grenade attack shoots in an upward arch before descending to the ground. The timing for the zeppelin's ground attack is a bit different and you'll have to plan accordingly. One more important gameplay mechanic, is that you can shoot your standard shot either in front or behind you, I feel like this is especially important for the boss battles and even certain enemy patterns. For this playthrough, I chose the zeppelin as I couldn't resist controlling that style of ship.

Regarding the graphics, I think the steam punk look is really awesome and it gives this game a very unique feel. I can't say I've played another shmup with this kind of art style. Many of the levels contain multiple layers of parallax scrolling with industrial looking elements, and purple and blue tones to them. My favorite being the third stage, which contains multiple layers of purple clouds in both the foreground and background, and a fortress looking structure in the distance. That level just looks amazing to me, and the developers did a great job with it. The soundtrack is also pretty great IMO, and I love what the soundtrack's composers did here. My favorite song also happens to appear in stage 3. Everything comes together really well in that level.

One thing I have to criticize about Steel Empire though, is the fact that this title does contain a good amount of slow down. I was a bit surprised to experience that, since it's not nearly as common for shmups to have much slow down on the Genesis, but this is one of the titles that has it, and it occurs frequently. Another element I have to point out too is the game contains bosses with similar looks that appear multiple times. I would prefer that with a game as short as seven levels, the developers could come up with all unique bosses. Perhaps this is an issue with the amount of data the cart could hold, but I still wish we saw more different boss designs here. And the last item is that the game is only single player. With the ability to choose between two ships, I think this would've made for a very fun co-op experience. However, even with these various points brought up, I still think the good very much outweighs the bad here.

Overall, Steel Empire is a great 16-bit shooter. I think this is also a very good starting point for those looking to get into the genre, since your ship has a life bar, it helps the player get further into the game and get used to the controls and mechanics without being too punishing or frustrating. The unique art style and fun gameplay mechanics combine for a great experience on the Genesis. I highly recommend Steel Empire, check it out if you haven't!
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by o.pwuaioc Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:58 am

I bought and sold Steel Empire many, many years ago, and the main reason I sold it was that the slowdown was unbearable. I don't know why slowdown doesn't bother me as much on Gradius III or Twinkle Tale, but it really did on Steel Empire. The aesthetic was cool, though, and was the chief draw for me in getting it. This was probably one of the only games I regret selling.
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Flake Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:01 am

January Thru July:
January
Thirteen Sentinels: Aegis Rim (PS4)
Dark Stalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (PSTV)

February

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3)
Metroid Prime (Wii)
King of Fighters 14 (PS4)
King of Fighters 2002: Ultimate Match (PS4)
Splatoon 2 (Switch)
Super Mario 3D World (Switch)

March

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch)
Bowser's Fury (Switch)
Triggerheart Exelica (Xbox Series S)
Guardian Heroes (Xbox Series S)
Megaman 4 (Xbox Series S)

April

Megaman 2 (Xbox Series S)
Megaman 3 (Xbox Series S)
Megaman (Xbox Series S)
Megaman 5 (Xbox Series S)
Megaman 6 (Xbox Series S)
Disgaea 1: Complete (Switch)
NiGHTS into Dreams HD (Xbox Series S)
Megaman Zero (Switch)
Megaman Zero 2 (Switch)

June

Mass Effect (Xbox Series S)
Mass Effect 2 (Xbox Series S)
Castlevania (PS4)
Super Castlevania IV (Switch)


August

Yakuza Kiwami (Xbox Series S)
Megaman X (Xbox Series S)
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Xbox Series S)
Metroid (Switch)
Metal Slug (Neo Geo MVSx)
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus (Switch)

September

Batman: The Telltale Series (Xbox Series S)
Metal Slug 2 (Neo Geo MVSx)
Ultra Street Figher II (Switch)


Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is weird, obnoxious, and joyous. I love how it subverts the pervy VN tropes and the meta nature of the gameplay and how you interact with the characters is clever. I do feel like some of the emotional pay off that games in this genre come with is missing - and I think that is by design, but it still left me feeling a little 'meh' and unaccomplished at the end. All in all, a great addition to the Switch and a surprising game for Nintendo to greenlight for their store front.

I typically play Metal Slug X instead of Metal Slug 2 since they are essentially the same game and, generally, X replaces 2 in most compliations. After reading a technical comparison between the two, I decided to give 2 a run and it really is quite startling how badly it runs. The artwork, level design, and all of the surrounding elements are amazing but the slowdown is rough. Still, playing the game on a replica 'Big Red' cabinet is pretty nice and I was surprised to get through the game on only 25 or so credits.

Batman and Ultra SF2 are both replays. These are games that I legit love and are wonderful mind candy.
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by Note Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:56 pm

o.pwuaioc wrote:I bought and sold Steel Empire many, many years ago, and the main reason I sold it was that the slowdown was unbearable. I don't know why slowdown doesn't bother me as much on Gradius III or Twinkle Tale, but it really did on Steel Empire. The aesthetic was cool, though, and was the chief draw for me in getting it. This was probably one of the only games I regret selling.


It's cool that you have some experience playing this game as well. I didn't find the slow down unbearable but I was pretty surprised it was in the game, as the Genesis managed to run so many other action packed shmups and run and guns little to no slow down whatsoever. With all these rom hacks coming out the past few years that remove the slow down from games, I wonder if the community will eventually remove it from Steel Empire too.
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by o.pwuaioc Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:14 pm

Note wrote:
o.pwuaioc wrote:I bought and sold Steel Empire many, many years ago, and the main reason I sold it was that the slowdown was unbearable. I don't know why slowdown doesn't bother me as much on Gradius III or Twinkle Tale, but it really did on Steel Empire. The aesthetic was cool, though, and was the chief draw for me in getting it. This was probably one of the only games I regret selling.


It's cool that you have some experience playing this game as well. I didn't find the slow down unbearable but I was pretty surprised it was in the game, as the Genesis managed to run so many other action packed shmups and run and guns little to no slow down whatsoever. With all these rom hacks coming out the past few years that remove the slow down from games, I wonder if the community will eventually remove it from Steel Empire too.

I might think differently about it if I played it again today, but with a hundred shooters still left to master, who has time? :P
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by prfsnl_gmr Tue Sep 21, 2021 4:39 pm

o.pwuaioc wrote:
Note wrote:
o.pwuaioc wrote:I bought and sold Steel Empire many, many years ago, and the main reason I sold it was that the slowdown was unbearable. I don't know why slowdown doesn't bother me as much on Gradius III or Twinkle Tale, but it really did on Steel Empire. The aesthetic was cool, though, and was the chief draw for me in getting it. This was probably one of the only games I regret selling.


It's cool that you have some experience playing this game as well. I didn't find the slow down unbearable but I was pretty surprised it was in the game, as the Genesis managed to run so many other action packed shmups and run and guns little to no slow down whatsoever. With all these rom hacks coming out the past few years that remove the slow down from games, I wonder if the community will eventually remove it from Steel Empire too.

I might think differently about it if I played it again today, but with a hundred shooters still left to master, who has time? :P


The 3DS port is sharp. If you’re still curious about it, I recommend picking up that version.
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by ElkinFencer10 Tue Sep 21, 2021 7:20 pm

Games Beaten in 2021 - 91
* 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 (31 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
73. Mega Man X3 - SNES - July 16
74. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge - Game Boy - July 19
75. Mega Man II - Game Boy - July 19
76. Mega Man III - Game Boy - July 19
77. Mega Man IV - Game Boy - July 20
78. Mega Man V - Game Boy - July 20
79. Mega Man Xtreme - GBC - July 21
80. Mega Man Xtreme 2 - GBC - July 21
81. Portal Runner - GBC - July 22
82. Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind - SNES - July 22
83. Mega Man and Bass - SNES - July 23
84. Cotton Reboot! - Switch - July 27
85. Yakuza Kiwami 2 - PlayStation 4 - July 29


August (2 Games Beaten)
86. Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 1 - Series X - August 7
87. Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part 2 - Series X - August 7


September (4 Games Beaten)
88. Maneater: Truth Quest - PS5 - September 5
89. Empire of Angels IV - Switch - September 5
90. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - PS4 - September 19
91. Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force - GOG - September 21


91. Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force - GOG - September 21

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For literally my entire life, I've been a massive Star Trek fan, and when I first got into online PC gaming, it was through Star Trek games. One of the two Star Trek games that really got me into competitive multiplayer was a Quake 3 based game called Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force. For pretty much my entire time in middle school and a good chunk of high school, I sank hundreds of hours into this game between the single player, the multiplayer, and the prolific modding community. When GOG added a ton of Star Trek games from the Activision golden age recently, I basically just offered up my credit card to them. While the game's now old enough to buy alcohol in the United States, it's surprising how well it still holds up minus the outdated resolution support.

Image

Elite Force takes place sometime during Voyager's sixth season. Seven of Nine is already part of the crew, and most of the major Delta Quadrant species are either outright mentioned in the single player or at least playable skins in the multiplayer. You play as either Alexander or Alexandria Munro (depending on if you choose a male or female character) and are second-in-command of a special Hazard Team that Tuvok created to handle especially dangerous away missions. As Voyager is voyaging around the Delta Quadrant on its long journey home, a mysterious probe shows up, beats the hell out of the ship, and then transports it to some mysterious sector of space when it explodes. A dampening field pretty much knocks out all of their ship systems (except life support) and auxiliary power. From there, you play through a few dozen linear levels as you investigate where you are, what brought you there, what's keeping you there, and how to get out.

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The game definitely shows its age visually, especially where supported resolutions are concerned, but thankfully, the modding community has stepped into alleviate some of that. While it's not perfect and can leave some of the models (most notably weapons) looking just a little wonky, I did find a mod that polishes the textures a bit and forces a pretty decent 1080p resolution. On top of performance mods like that, there are a veritable buttload of map, character, and weapon skin mods for the multiplayer. There are also mods that add an entirely new fan-made single player adventure as well as total conversion mods available.

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The official servers are, unfortunately, all down for Elite Force, but there are a still a good number of player-run servers up. Of course, these are filled almost exclusively with bots, and if you're cool playing with bots, you're probably better off just setting up your own custom match offline, but still, it's nice to see that there's an option if you and a friend want to find the same bot-infested server and play together. The multiplayer is mostly your basic deathmatch, team deathmatch, or capture the flag; although there are a couple interesting ones like the one-life gladiator matches and the one-shot-kill disintegration matches. At one point, I was basically unbeatable at Elite Force online. Of course, this point was a solid 15 years ago, but still, the point stands that I was a virgin-tier badass at one point.

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The story in the single player is surprisingly solid for a licensed game, and Raven really showed that they knew what they were doing here. I'm not gonna say that this is the best Star Trek game ever made, but it's definitely in the top 3. I'll admit that a lot of my fondness for this game probably is nostalgia, but I absolutely adore it. Even playing the multiplayer by myself with bots is immensely enjoyable for me, and going back through the single player was the best kind of trip down Memory Lane. The single player may only be five or six hours long, but it's a damn fun five or six hours. If you're a fan of late 90s/early 2000s PC shooters, I strongly recommend this game; if you're a fan of Star Trek: Voyager, this game is an absolute must-play. For only $10 on GOG, this game is absolutely worth it.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Games Beaten 2021

by o.pwuaioc Tue Sep 21, 2021 7:23 pm

prfsnl_gmr wrote:
o.pwuaioc wrote:I might think differently about it if I played it again today, but with a hundred shooters still left to master, who has time? :P


The 3DS port is sharp. If you’re still curious about it, I recommend picking up that version.

Ah, but that would require buying a 3DS and games for it. What makes it different from, say, simply emulating? The removal of slowdown?
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