Games Beaten 2022

Post by **Markies** » Sun Oct 02, 2022 6:21 pm

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2022!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*

1. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (PS3)
2. Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne (XBOX)
3. Streets of Rage 4 (NS)
4. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest (GCN)
5. Dirge Of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2)
6. Darkstalkers (PS1)
7. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)
8. Ogre Battle 64: Person Of Lordly Calibur (N64)
9. Draogn Quest VI (SNES)
10. Batman: The Video Game (GEN)
11. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
12. Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA)
13. Pokemon Red (GB)
14. Wii Sports (Wii)
15. Splatoon (WiiU)
16. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)
***17. Final Fantasy IX (PS1)***
***18. Out Run (GEN)***
19. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
20. RBI Baseball 2 (NES)
21. Puzzle Kingdoms (Wii)
22. Operation C (GBC)
***23. Illusion Of Gaia (SNES)***
***24. Super Mario Brothers 2 (NES)***
25. Forza Motorsport (XBOX)
26. Super Mario Strikers (GCN)

I beat Super Mario Strikers on the Nintendo GameCube this afternoon!

Many years ago, my friend picked up a copy of Super Mario Strikers on the Nintendo GameCube. I thought it was a little strange considering he plays very little Sports games. Well, he wanted to do a Co-Op playthrough of the game and we did and it was an absolute blast. We loved every moment of it and so I knew I had to pick up the game for myself. So, when I beat my Backlog, it was one of the games added to my GameCube list and I eventually picked up a copy for myself later on. Since my friend dubbed the game 'Murder Ball', I thought it would be very appropriate to play it in October.

Super Mario Strikers is a Mario Soccer game in the loosest sense and the most Arcadey form. There are no penalties, special weapons are constantly used and there is an electrified fence around the entire field that you can check your opponent into. The game quickly devolves from Soccer and turns into one of the violent sports games you can ever imagine and it is fantastic. The game has only a little of the rubber band effect that comes with most Arcade Sports titles, so it never gets too cheap to play. Checking your opponents will never get old and I love throwing bombs and shells at my opponent the second they catch the ball. The game has incredibly tight and responsive controls that after one game, you should have it completely mastered. You can do quick passes, super shorts and switching characters in just a heartbeat. All of the regular Nintendo Characters are there as Captains and the smaller characters are there as Sidekicks and this is the most personality you will see from these normally reserved characters. I am expecting them to tell me to Suck It or Kiss My Ass at any moment, which is shocking coming from Nintendo.

Overall, I absolutely loved playing Super Mario Strikers. There is a part of me that loves Mario Golf, but the excitement and just joy to play makes Super Mario Strikers my favorite Mario Sports game that I have ever played. I don't think it could ever get old and the joy that comes from this game is just unmatched. I found it that the game is developed by Next Level Games, who was responsible for NHL Hitz Pro, one of the best Hockey games ever made, so I know that they know how to make a good arcade Sports title. Even if you only have a mild interest in Sports, this is still a fantastic game and one that is very easy to get into.

Post by **Note** » Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:14 pm

1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)
2. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade)*
3. Metal Slug 6 (PS2)
4. Time Crisis II (PS2)*
5. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (360)
6. Shining the Holy Ark (SAT)
7. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
8. Soul Blazer (SNES)
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)*
10. Warriors of Fate (Switch)
11. Knights of the Round (Switch)
12. Armored Warriors (Switch)
13. Battle Circuit (Switch)
14. OutRun (GEN)*
15. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
16. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
17. Shadowrun (SNES)
18. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
19. Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
20. Final Fight 3 (SNES)

21. The House of the Dead (Arcade)

Over the weekend I had a chance to hang out with a childhood friend of mine who's also into gaming, and on Saturday afternoon, we visited another buddy who collects, repairs, rents, and sells arcade cabinets. He stores them in a warehouse and invited us over to come by for a few hours to play some of the cabs. Some of his cabinets were loaded up in a truck for an upcoming event, and a few were in the process of being repaired, but he still had a lot of good games ready to go. It was an amazing afternoon, and I hope I'm able to come by again to hang there sometime.

One of the games he ready to go for us was The House of the Dead. I think it's safe to say that almost all of us hanging out at the warehouse that day were big fans of this game, and I was excited to be able to play the arcade version again, which I had not in at least a few years. This is up there as one of my favorite lightgun games, as it's a great mix of tough Sega arcade action and campy horror movie goodness. My partner and I played through the game together.

The visuals for The House of the Dead were good when originally released in the late 90s, and I still think they hold up well today. I also really liked the details in this game, with the ability to knock off zombie's heads and limbs, depending on where you aimed your shot. Also, Sega's development team did a good job on the environments, from beginning to end the settings and boss creatures are all quite creepy. The music perfectly fits the theme of the game, however, I don't think it's good enough to listen to outside of the game. The sound effects are very satisfying too, and many of us joked around by repeating "Reload!" which seemed to constantly appear throughout our time playing.

The only minor criticisms I can give for House of the Dead, is that if you were playing this with quarters, it really would take a lot of change to get through the game, as you're constantly being hammered by enemies. Luckily, the cabinet was on free play, so we didn't have to worry about that. Another issue we ran into, was that the calibration of the 2P lightgun seemed to be off. I was able to adjust and aim with this discrepancy in mind, but I'm not sure how to recalibrate the gun on an arcade cabinet. I'm assuming it's possible, but I didn't want to bother my friend about it. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know!

Overall, The House of the Dead is still a really fun game, especially for fans of the lightgun genre. My friend said that usually when he is working an event, this is one of the games that will constantly have people lined up to play it, which I think solidifies that it's stood the test of time. Definitely give this one a go if you haven't already! With October here, it's the perfect time for some zombie action.

Post by **Note** » Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:38 pm

1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)
2. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade)*
3. Metal Slug 6 (PS2)
4. Time Crisis II (PS2)*
5. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (360)
6. Shining the Holy Ark (SAT)
7. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
8. Soul Blazer (SNES)
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)*
10. Warriors of Fate (Switch)
11. Knights of the Round (Switch)
12. Armored Warriors (Switch)
13. Battle Circuit (Switch)
14. OutRun (GEN)*
15. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
16. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
17. Shadowrun (SNES)
18. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
19. Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
20. Final Fight 3 (SNES)
21. The House of the Dead (Arcade)

22. Die Hard Arcade (Arcade)*

While still hanging out at my friend's warehouse and checking the different cabinets he had readily available to play, another game struck my other friend's interest, and we fired up Die Hard Arcade. I've finished this game on the Saturn, using the Deep Scan mini game available as a way to get some extra credits and get through it. However, when I was playing on the Saturn, I had only played it in single player mode, so it was a lot of fun to experience the game with a friend in co-op mode. I already wrote an extensive review of this game last year, so I'll keep this one fairly short.

Die Hard Arcade is one of the first 3D beat 'em ups I remember seeing back when it was originally released, and with this type of game being relatively new, I think Sega did a great job of transitioning the genre into the next generation. The ability to use so many different things in the environment as weapons and the inclusion of long range weapons like guns and the ridiculous missile launchers made the game pretty unique. Also, it was funny to see your character's clothing begin to deteriorate the further you go in the game. Another aspect I like about Die Hard Arcade, is that it keeps the players on their feet with the quick time events between certain scenes. If you miss the button you're supposed to press, you'll either be roped into an additional battle that was totally avoidable, or you may lose a big chunk of health.

Since I had only played this game in single player mode before, I was not anticipating the duel between my friend and I after beating the last boss. We duked it out on the roof and I somehow made it out of the match as the victor. After that, we called a truce and watched the ending credits roll.

Overall, Die Hard Arcade is still a very fun co-op experience! It's on the shorter side, which I think is fine for this type of game, as you do not want the repetitiveness to drag on. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a quick and entertaining playthrough.

Post by **MrPopo** » Sun Oct 09, 2022 8:40 pm

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

First 50:

51. Prodeus - PC
52. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero - Switch

Thanks to the sheer amount of text involved, we never got the Crossbell Arc of the Legend of Heroes series. After the third Trails in the Sky was localized they skipped to Cold Steel, which was newer and, more importantly, visually modern. Trails from Zero (and the upcoming Trails to Azure) were still built on the Trails in the Sky engine, which means very simple polygonal backgrounds and prerendered sprites in the style of Golden Sun. And it's a shame we didn't get it until now, thanks to how interconnected the series is. But it's being rectified thanks to how well Cold Steel did.

The Trails series presents itself as a series of game pairs, where the first one introduces the cast, deals with a localized threat, but during the course you start to see hints of larger events that will be dealt with in the second game. The third Sky game doesn't quite fit this, but they hadn't fully established the pattern yet. Trails from Zero is the first of the two Crossbell games, and it does do the work of setting up that this will be a pattern. Even the Cold Steel games hit this pattern; 3 and 4 reset the main cast to pull off the same pairing. In Zero the cast consists of the four members of the newly established Special Support Section of the Crossbell Police Department. They essentially serve as the group that does odd jobs similar to the Bracers of the Sky games, which allows for the scenario writers to have a main quest and several random sidequests in each chapter. Your roster is fixed with those four, with every now and then an extra character joining for a quest. So you get to know them a lot better than you did the non-Estelle and Joshua cast of Sky.

In contrast to Sky's standard JRPG tour the world style, Zero is set in the cosmopolitan city of Crossbell, though your duties will also take you to a handful of locations outside the city. But make no mistake, the city is your primary focus, and it lends a different tone to the game. While the actual moment to moment gameplay is pretty much the same as the Sky games, this change in setting and focus really gives the game a different overall feel, and helps breath more life into the world that is being built across all the Trails games. Another aspect that helps with this worldbuilding is the introduction of voice acting, which the Sky games lacked. There is no dub track given the age of the games; given how dated the engine is they probably figured the additional expense of voicing the huge amount of dialog would not be worth the sales they're already losing to the graphics, and anyone willing to overlook the graphics can overlook the Japanese vocals.

Aside from the voice acting the gameplay is essentially the same as the earlier games. You still have character-specific orbments that let you slot in quartz, and how much of a given color that quartz provides on a continuous line determines your spell set. About the only new things (and they might have existed in the third Sky game, but it's been ages since I've played it) are combo crafts and the team attack bonus marker. The former is two characters spending 100 CP to do big damage (though be careful; if one character is casting an art you lose the charge) and the latter normally only pops up on a stunned preemptive attack, though it CAN show up otherwise. When you get a turn with that as your bonus you can have all four characters do a regular attack on all enemies. This lets you turn pretty much every stunned preemptive into an enemy wipe without you taking damage. Cold Steel would later use this attack but put it more under the player's control with its own resource. It won't be until Azure that we start to see some major changes to the system.

Overall your enjoyment will come down to whether or not you're invested in the Trails series. There is a giant scenario document over at Falcom detailing all their plans for the overall movements of this fictional world they've crafted, and all the games contribute to these plans in a very meaningful way. This game has many callbacks to the Sky games, as well as setting up things that will show up as a bigger element in the Cold Steel games. If you're into the series then this will fill on some very crucial parts of the world and story. If you haven't played any of them then this is probably not the one to start with; you begin midway through a long story but are still on an old engine that frankly creates an average gameplay experience. Either start with Sky or skip to Cold Steel if you can't stomach the engine to see if you're interested in the world, then come back to this one.

Post by **elricorico** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 1:03 am

MrPopo wrote:Overall your enjoyment will come down to whether or not you're invested in the Trails series. There is a giant scenario document over at Falcom detailing all their plans for the overall movements of this fictional world they've crafted, and all the games contribute to these plans in a very meaningful way. This game has many callbacks to the Sky games, as well as setting up things that will show up as a bigger element in the Cold Steel games. If you're into the series then this will fill on some very crucial parts of the world and story. If you haven't played any of them then this is probably not the one to start with; you begin midway through a long story but are still on an old engine that frankly creates an average gameplay experience. Either start with Sky or skip to Cold Steel if you can't stomach the engine to see if you're interested in the world, then come back to this one.

I've gotta say, something about this game has me really interested even though I haven't played any of the Trails games. I'm hoping to see a perspective pop up from someone who's jumped on board with this game as their first. The fast forward function takes away some of my worry about an older engine, but I've certainly heard in other places that story-wise Trails is a series that requires a big time investment across multiple games.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:52 am

First 50

51. Super Cable Boy (Switch)
52. Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon (Switch)
53. Elden Ring (Xbox)
54. Rite (Switch)
55. Journey of a Broken Circle (Switch)
56. Don’t Touch This Button! (Switch)
57. Back Again (Switch)
58. What Remains of Edith Finch (Switch)
59. Bleed (Switch)
60. Tunic (Switch)

Tunic is an isometric ARPG heavily inspired by The Legend of Zelda. (Unlike the Legend of Zelda, it is an ARPG, with stats, rather than just equipment, governing your attack, defense, HP, MP, etc.). In it, you play as a little, anthropomorphic fox who washes ashore on a mysterious island, which contains the ruins of a mysterious fox civilization. You engage in Souls-inspired, stamina-based melee combat, and you navigate the island by discovering or unlocking new routes. You obtain a few mobility upgrades over the course of your adventure, and the game rewards experimentation and exploration. There are also several very challenging boss fights.

The game’s most interesting concept is a mechanic where, over the course of the game, you discover the pages of a guidebook, which provide you both with the backstory, gameplay instructions, maps, and all the hints you need to uncover all of the game’s many, many secrets. The guidebook is styled after The Legend of Zelda’s instruction manual, and poring over it really is a delight. It reminded me very much of poring over old print game guidebooks as a child, which is a feeling I haven’t had in a very long time.

I enjoyed the game immensely, and I played it almost continuously until I beat it. As much as I enjoyed it, however, there were a few frustrating elements, and a few design choices that left a bad taste in my mouth. First, the game’s difficulty is very uneven. Specifically, the difficulty spikes way up with each boss fight, which can be very frustrating. Additionally, too many of the game’s secrets require inputting very long codes. In several instances, I discovered the method for unlocking a secret, but writing down the instructions was such a chore, that I simply looked up the answer online. This is particularly true for the game’s most well-hidden secret, which requires nearly 100 keypad inputs to unlock. Finally, finding all of the instruction manual pages and unlocking the game’s true ending skips a battle against the last boss. This is probably great if you’re going through NG+, but since I found all the manual pages in my first playthrough, I never actually got to fight the game’s most challenging boss and am permanently locked out of doing so unless I start the game over and play through without finding so much stuff. Since the game’s challenging, boss fights were some of its most enjoyable aspects to me, I felt that I was punished, rather than rewarded, for playing through the game so diligently. That, more than anything else, really rubbed me the wrong way.

I don’t want to sound too down on the game, however. I really did enjoy it, despite some elements and design choices. I don’t hesitate to recommend it, but if you are considering playing a indie game like The Legend of Zelda, you may want to play Death’s Door or Unsighted, instead.

Post by **Ack** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:31 am

1. Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (PC)(Action Adventure)
2. The Citadel (PC)(FPS)
3. Gothic 3 (PC)(RPG)
4. Witchaven (PC)(FPS)
5. Unpacking (PC)(Puzzle)
6. Firewatch (PC)(Adventure)
7. Perilous Warp (PC)(FPS)
8. The Ascent (PC)(RPG)
9. Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced - The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (PC)(FPS/RPG)
10. Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx (PC)(FPS/RPG)
11. Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced - Claptrap's New Robot Revolution (PC)(FPS/RPG)
12. Kingdom of the Dead (PC)(FPS)
13. Monument (PC)(FPS)
14. Bloodwash (PC)(Horror Adventure)
15. Dead Estate (PC)(Isometric Shooter)
16. Lost in Vivo (PC)(Survival Horror)
17. Star Explorers (PC)(FPS)
18. Dark Souls Remastered (Switch)(RPG)
19. NAM (PC)(FPS)
20. WWII GI (PC)(FPS)
21. Necromunda: Hired Gun (PC)(FPS)
22. Quake: Dimension of the Past (PC)(FPS)
23. Quake: Dimension of the Machine (PC)(FPS)
24. Quake: Scourge of Armagon (PC)(FPS)
25. Quake: Dissolution of Eternity (PC)(FPS)
26. Huntdown (PC)(Run and Gun)
27. A.W.O.L. (PC)(FPS)
28. Hands of Necromancy (PC)(FPS)
29. Cyberpunk 2077 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
30. Prodeus (PC)(FPS)

I keep to a steady diet of first person shooters and black coffee. Any time I'm not working on set, there is a good chance I'll be chugging bean liquid and blasting fools in the face. I have my beliefs in what makes for an enjoyable experience, and I stick to my guns quite literally. And Prodeus is exactly what makes me get out of bed in the morning.

There are portals. There are two groups, Chaos and Prodeus. They're fighting. I'm killing all of them. That's the plot. You don't need anything more; the levels will tell you the rest, whether it's fueling a tram, clearing the dirt out of an alien facility, or crashing a space station into a planet. If it moves, it dies. Understood?

The plot ain't important, but that level design is so fantastic. The main campaign builds across levels that string together similar to Unreal's progression, but with the industrial hell vibes of Doom. And Doom 3. And Doom (2016). Prodeus is a throwback to the classics, but with updated mobility mechanics that take a little time to unlock. And once they're unlocked, the full verticality of the levels goes on display. You're gonna be flying through the air, blasting away.

And that blasting...oh man, that blasting. The firearms of Prodeus feel great. Fire off a round, and you're greeted with a satisfying sound effect, a visual response from the weapon, and a blood spray as limbs get blasted off which makes you feel that you're playing with power. I have a personal belief that if a game can't get a shotgun right, it's not a good game. Prodeus gets three shotguns right, all with different uses and characteristics. Even the starter pistol is useful at the end of the game and feels great in your hands for popping weak zombies and distant targets.

And when the campaign is all said and done, there is already a massive set of user-developed maps to check out to stem your bloodlust. It's like the good old map packs in the Doom days. You know, the kind of thing that fueled Unreal and gave Quake continued longevity. The kind of thing that built '90s FPS and brought more fantastic creatives into the industry.

Is it always perfect? No, there are a couple of annoyances a la Doom 3, like enemies on the other side of the door ready to pounce the instant you open it. But that was the inspiration for only some of the map designers. The good far outweighs the bad. Prodeus is a machine of guns, gore, and glory, and any fan of '90s FPS owes it to themselves to check it out.

Post by **Raging Justice** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 5:20 pm

Cowabunga Collection - PS 5

It's really awesome to have all these classic turtle games available on a modern system. It's cool to have a release of the TMNT arcade game on a playstation console, since it originally was only available on Xbox Live Arcade. I believe that was de-listed too, so here's another way for people to play it. The NES port is here as well. Also, the second arcade game and its SNES port are here, which makes up for the travesty that was Turtles Re-Shelled a.k.a. that garbage remake that we got instead of just straight ports of the arcade game and its SNES counterpart. All that being said though, I think both arcade games are crap. They're both cheap quarter munchers unless you use all kinds of cheap tricks (like standing in the middle of the screen in the sewer level of the first game making the AI unable to attack you). Frankly, the console ports of both are better balanced difficulty wise, have better controls, and more levels and bosses, though it sucks that the NES port of the first game doesn't come close in terms of graphics and sounds unless you are a fan of "demakes". Fortunately, the two console ports are included here as I said and are more worth revisiting than the arcade games they are based on. Turtles III Manhattan Project is awesome too. Lot of nostalgia I had re-visiting those. The SNES version of Turtles in Time is the best turtles game ever IMO, not counting fan made games, though some people will now make a case for Shredder's Revenge. Fair enough I guess.

You also get Hyperstone Heist, a fun port/remake of Turtles in Time on the Genesis that is similar to but different from the SNES game, bringing me back to the fun of the 16-bit era where we would often get two different games on each console for various IPs, like how we got two different Contra games and two different Castlevania games from Konami or Sega and Capcom giving us two different Aladdin games.

You also got a bunch of the cool handheld Turtles games. When people were clamoring for more quality turtles beat 'em ups on consoles, there was at least some good ones to find on the GB and GBA systems. Sadly, the GBA games aren't here though, just the original Gameboy games. I have a lot of great memories with Fall of the Foot Clan though.

We also got Tournament Fighters, the brief foray into the fighting genre, and every version of it no less

And last, and certainly least, the very first and very infamous TMNT game on NES. I actually beat this as a kid because I had nothing better to do with my time, but man this game didn't age well. Much like the arcade games, it's pretty awful...except much worse. Easily the worst game in this collection, but it's still a part of turtles' gaming history so I get why they included it. Frankly, it's impressive how many games are in here, more than I expected, just unfortunate that it's missing the awesome GBA games though. That would have made this truly complete

Also, the games have input lag, an issue with many older games on new consoles.

They also put in a new intro theme for the first arcade game. Copyright or licensing issues I guess.

Back on a positive note though, I love how they handled the trophies. First of all, they didn't half ass it as companies often do with these collections. There is an actual platinum trophy, something which ALL PLAYSTATION RELEASES should have. One could argue that each game should have had its own list, but these are old games you can beat in like an hour. Not enough to work with there trophy-wise so one combined list for all of them makes sense. I also love how simple the trophies are. Just beat every game and you get a trophy for each one. No stupid, ridiculous trophies that you have to look up online, no obnoxious speed run trophies, or "beat the game without dying" trophies, or annoying don't get hit trophies, which I think Mega Man 9 or 10 had. It's very old school. JUST BEAT THE GAME. Member when simply beating a game was an accomplishment? I still member. THIS THREAD STILL MEMBERS :lol:

You also get all the perks of an emulator with save states and other cool little extras that they didn't have to include but did like:

Newly made strategy guides in the style of 90's video game magazines like Nintendo Power

Awesome UI featuring the games, boxart (which changes when you change region) and original comic book art

Screenshots of the TV show, linking video game characters to their TV appearance

Collection of magazine, trade show ads and press releases of the games

Hundreds of pages of original Japanese design documents....translated to English.

An auto-play mode where you can jump in and play at any time. .

Anyway, this collection is awesome. Probably the best retro collection released thus far other than Sonic Origins. The quality of some of these games is questionable, some things don't age well, but the collection itself is great. If you loved Shredder's Revenge, this is a no brainer. Both of these in the same year is like getting a birthday gift AND a Christmas gift right after.

Post by **Note** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 10:02 pm

1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)
2. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade)*
3. Metal Slug 6 (PS2)
4. Time Crisis II (PS2)*
5. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (360)
6. Shining the Holy Ark (SAT)
7. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
8. Soul Blazer (SNES)
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)*
10. Warriors of Fate (Switch)
11. Knights of the Round (Switch)
12. Armored Warriors (Switch)
13. Battle Circuit (Switch)
14. OutRun (GEN)*
15. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
16. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
17. Shadowrun (SNES)
18. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
19. Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
20. Final Fight 3 (SNES)
21. The House of the Dead (Arcade)
22. Die Hard Arcade (Arcade)

23. Final Fantasy II (SNES)

(For starters, this is the fourth game in the series, but I will be referring to it as FF II throughout my review to distinguish the port I played.)

After finishing the 3D platformer Ratchet & Clank, I was in the mood for a 16-bit RPG, and since I had never finished the first Final Fantasy released on the SNES, I figured I'd give the game a go. However, I wasn't going into FF II totally blind. Back in the early 1990s, my cousins had Final Fantasy II and I would watch them play it from time to time. Also, my cousins accidentally left the cartridge at my family's apartment one weekend, which I remember being very excited about back then, as it was my first time being able to try the game on my own. My older cousins wouldn't let me play it, probably because they were worried I would screw up one of their save files, which is fair, as I was really young at the time. I recall being very interested in the game, as it was so different from what I played up to this point. It was my first experience with a RPG, so it's cool to now have finished it all these years later.

From a graphics standpoint, FF II's visuals are pretty standard for the time, as it was an early SNES title, and I don't think developers weren't familiar enough with the hardware to pump out the visuals we would see in the console's later years. However, I do think the character's sprites in the menu screen, which contain a portrait of each character are pretty awesome. There is also some nice Mode 7 effects used for certain cutscenes and the world map. The soundtrack in this game is very well done IMO, and the music throughout the game totally fits the mood as the story progresses. This game's plot has its ups and downs, and the composers did a good job creating music for the roller coaster ride.

That brings me to the next point of the review, FF II has a memorable plot and a good mix of characters to accompany you along the journey. The game starts out with a pretty dark event, which I found somewhat surprising. With a variety of characters joining and leaving your party quite frequently throughout your adventure, I feel this keeps the player on their toes, as you never know when someone might veer off to do their own thing, away from your adventure, or when something more sinister might happen. The battle system is standard fare I did not find the game to be overly challenging, especially with some grinding in certain areas. I think players that are familiar with the genre would probably find this port to be on the easier side, but the difficulty does ramp up a bit late in the game.

However, I do have some criticisms to point out. The first being the script for the English translation is pretty rough. This isn't an uncommon thing for the genre, especially at this time, but I think if this port had the help of an additional copyeditor, it would've really helped this game's script a lot. Some of the text for the dialogue during various cut scenes are very poorly written. It's just decent enough to understand what's going on and direct you to the next point in the game. My other critique is the issue with the "pause" feature in battle. When you press start to pause the game during an enemy encounter, the battle keeps going! This is a huge oversight, as if something comes up while you're playing and you have to step away, it could be game over. What's the point of adding a pause feature if the game doesn't actually stop? Not sure what they were thinking here, but I hope this was changed in later releases.

Overall, Final Fantasy II has a very memorable ride of a plot and a good mix of characters of different classes and story arcs. I think fans of the genre and of the Super Nintendo would really enjoy this one, despite some of the shortcomings with the game's script. It took me just under 40 hours to finish the game, however, I did stop and grind in areas to make things a bit easier. Give it a chance if you haven't played it yet!

Post by **MrPopo** » Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:59 pm

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

First 50:

51. Prodeus - PC
52. The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero - Switch
53. Arkos - PC

Arkos is a cute little FPS done with voxels that gives it a visual style akin to Catacomb 3-D. There isn't really much of a story, in keeping with the conventions of what it's aping. The devs did a good job with the lighting engine; although everything is a 3D shape made with voxels, the lighting always causes any non-terrain object to be flat lit facing you, so the look like sprites until they explode on death. The only time this visual effect has a seam is when one gets right on top of you; then your camera clips in and the renderer lets you see the thickness.

You have six (well, six and an upgrade) weapons, all modeled as wands. You have an infinite ammo pistol, a machine gun, a shotgun (with a late game upgrade to auto shotty), a gun that lets you teleport to the shot, a plasma gun, and finally a Quake 3 style BFG. All of these draw from the same ammo pool (except for the pistol), which ends up causing you to realize that there are really only two guns; the plasma and the BFG. Now, the BFG eats ammo like nobody's business, but it has two important properties. The first is it lets you walk on lava, which is essential in many levels. The other is that while walking on lava it refills your ammo almost instantly. So you don't get to bust it out all the time, but when you do it's blammo time.

The game is divided up into seven episodes of around 5 levels apiece, with the last level being a boss level. Each level is about 5 or so minutes to complete, making the game an overall bite size adventure that keeps from overstaying its welcome. The enemy variety is pretty thin; various reskins of melee guy, various reskins of ranged guy, some stationary guys who either are ranged or spawn melee guys, and then the bosses. The bosses all have some sort of interesting component that makes them more than "circle strafe and win", and overall the difficulty feels pretty well tuned. The levels also have solid layouts for the intentional limitations, with destruction of pillars and windows a feature (and many times required to proceed).

Overall it's a solid title for the price. It gets in, does its thing, and gets out.

racketboy.com

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