Games Beaten 2023

Post by **Markies** » Thu Dec 07, 2023 8:48 pm

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2023!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***

***1. Dragon Valor (PS1)***
2. Breath Of Fire (GBA)
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (NS)
4. World Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse And Donald Duck (GEN)
5. XIII (GCN)
6. NES Remix Pack (WiiU)
7. Dr. Mario (GBC)
***8. Bully (PS2)***
9. Dragon's Crown (PS3)
10. Bangai-O (SDC)
11. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
12. Destruction Derby (PS1)
13. X-Men Legends II: Rise Of Apocalypse (XBOX)
14. Vice: Project Doom (NES)
***15. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)***
16. Terranigma (SNES)
***17. Super Street Fighter II (GEN)***
18. Guitar Hero II (PS2)
19. Kirby's Dream Land (GBC)
***20. Gunbird 2 (SDC)***
***21. Stella Deus: The Gate Of Eternity (PS2)***
22. I Am Setsuna (NS)
23. DuckTales: Remastered (WiiU)
***24. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES)***
***25. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)***
26. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA)
27. Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones (XBOX)
28. Baten Kaitos Origins (GCN)
29. Virtua Racing (GEN)
**30. Breath Of Fire III (PS1)***
31. Metroid II: Return Of Samus (GBC)
***32. Chameleon Twist (N64)***
33. Resident Evil 4 (Wii)
34. College Slam (SNES)
35. Hyrule Warriors (WiiU)
36. Tengen Tetris (NES)
***37. Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PS2)***
38. Golden Sun (GBA)
***39. Streets Of Rage 4 (NS)***
40. Super Mario Land (GBC)

I completed Super Mario Land on the Nintendo Game Boy this evening!

As a child, we had a Game Boy, but I only played it a few times as it belonged to my older brothers. Mostly saved for long road trips, I only played a few games while growing up. Tetris was a big one along with Link's Awakening one trip through Kansas. We also had Super Mario Land, which I played a few times, but I never actually beat. It always bothered me that I never finished the game, so when I got my Super GameBoy and started collecting GameBoy games, I was very excited to try it again. After a bit of hunting, I found it at a local retro store and I decided to pop it in for a quick play this evening.

Super Mario Land is a short and simple Game Boy game, which makes sense considering it was one of the first games ever developed for the system. And they do put in an impressive amount of stuff into this tiny little game. For one, the music is fantastic and instantly recognizable. It is so very catchy and fantastic throughout the entire experience. The game also mixes up the formula by introducing some Shooter style levels and I think they were great. It's like being introduced to your first Shooter game as they make great introductions to the genre. Also, for a Mario game, the game is quite forgiving. If you die, you don't have to redo the entire level as the game has some incredibly forgiving checkpoints. With special areas and bountiful coins, its easy to rack up a ton of guys and make it through the more difficult parts.

I just wish the game had a little more polish, like in other Mario titles. For example, Mario drops like a stone when he jumps. It is unlike any other Mario game and feels like a Castlevania game in the platforming area. Also, you don't get fireballs, but these bouncing balls that bounce around the screen. They work, but you have to be right next to an enemy to kill it. Also, the turtles explode as they are little bombs. None of these fit into the Mario series and it makes the game feel a little odd in comparison.

Overall, I still really enjoyed Super Mario Land. I'm not great at platformers, but this is one that I enjoyed and didn't have too much trouble with. I wish the weird little parts were ironed out first because this could have been one of the best Mario titles that I have played. As it stands, it is still a great little game. If you love platformers, give this one a shot as might be a little different, but still great!

Post by **Note** » Fri Dec 08, 2023 5:34 pm

PartridgeSenpai wrote:
marurun wrote:
MrPopo wrote:The fun part of Shining Force III is that the "..." is not an indication of silence; it's just you can't hear what he's saying. Some of those cutscenes get replayed in Scenario 2, and you get to see what he actually said (and meanwhile your protag now has his dialog you already saw in Scenario 1 replaced with "...").

It's also not quite as bad in Shining Force III. Golden Sun has a LOT of back and forth, and even disregarding the main character's "..." silence, every character has pronounced delays as they shake or nod their heads or bounce emotively. Every character is an emotionally overflowing blob of ballistics gel. I feel like it actually gets in the way of telling the story, which I think is a pretty good story.

The fact your main character is a character who talks yet doesn't is *such* a weird writing choice to me. Whether it's in Golden Sun or Shining Force, it's just kinda lost on me as to why they're actually doing it? Like, I get that it's to help facilitate this character being the avatar of the player, but they're also just literally a character who is talking, and the narrative is in some ways making important strides from the direction of their decisions. Why not show what it is this character is saying? O_o

Appreciate the info about how the dialogue scenes pan out in Scenarios 2 and 3, popo. I've only played the first, and have been contemplating on how I should play the later scenarios on real hardware with my imported completed save file from Scenario 1.

I totally agree with you Pidge, I think it's a strange choice to cut out the dialogue of the main character. Especially in major events which totally upend the plot.

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:45 pm

Note wrote:I totally agree with you Pidge, I think it's a strange choice to cut out the dialogue of the main character. Especially in major events which totally upend the plot.

And while this is a spoiler for Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the biggest thing for me with this is like

Post by **ZRofel** » Sat Dec 09, 2023 10:25 am

PartridgeSenpai wrote:
Note wrote:I totally agree with you Pidge, I think it's a strange choice to cut out the dialogue of the main character. Especially in major events which totally upend the plot.

And while this is a spoiler for Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the biggest thing for me with this is like

Felix talks quite a lot in the original Golden Sun, but once he becomes the main character in the sequel, now suddenly ***he*** has the "can't speak" disease that Isaac had all last game. Meanwhile, now ISAAC can actually talk! It's such a strange writing choice, especially for a duology with this narrative setup, I cannot fathom why they actually did it <w>

Don't they do this in Persona 2 as well?

Post by **elricorico** » Sat Dec 09, 2023 3:21 pm

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(Arcade)(XBONE)
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:Turtles in Time(Arcade) (XBONE)
3. Kirby Super Star Ultra (NDS)
4. Metal Slug II (PC)
5. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir (PS4)
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Android)
7. Horizon Chase Turbo (PC)
8. Streets of Rage 4 (XBONE)
9. Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - Owltimate Edition (NS)
10. Legend of the Skyfish (Android)
11. Triangle Strategy (NS)
12. Sea of Stars (PC)

13. Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)

I medaled in all of the levels in Link's Crossbow Training the other day so I'm calling it finished. There's no way that I am aware of to actually roll the credits on this one.

This is a gallery shooter/rail shooter/first person lightgun shooter depending on which portion of a level you are playing. It uses creatures and environments from The Legend of Zelda. Almost comes across as a tech demo, but it is a little too good for me just to call it that. The levels are fun, take only about 6 or 7 minutes each and you can work on your high scores to improve which medal you get. Not a ton of content, but considering how cheap the game was when I picked it up I'm happy with the couple of hours I've played so far(I actually think I got this from a $1 bin at a local game store a couple years ago).

I played it with the zapper that it came with, but you could probably play just with a wiimote and nunchuk as well. A fun little distraction from longer games that I had been immersed in lately.

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Sat Dec 09, 2023 7:06 pm

ZRofel wrote:
PartridgeSenpai wrote:
Note wrote:I totally agree with you Pidge, I think it's a strange choice to cut out the dialogue of the main character. Especially in major events which totally upend the plot.

And while this is a spoiler for Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the biggest thing for me with this is like

Felix talks quite a lot in the original Golden Sun, but once he becomes the main character in the sequel, now suddenly ***he*** has the "can't speak" disease that Isaac had all last game. Meanwhile, now ISAAC can actually talk! It's such a strange writing choice, especially for a duology with this narrative setup, I cannot fathom why they actually did it <w>

Don't they do this in Persona 2 as well?

In the first act/chapter/arc/whatever when Tetsuya is the main character, he's the silent protagonist, and Maya is the cheerful, bubbly party member. Then, in the second part/section/game/whatever, Maya becomes the main character and so becomes a silent protagonist, while Tetsuya, now a supporting character, suddenly can talk. But it's weird. Since Tetsuya had not real established personality in the first part, he's kind of a taciturn loner who rarely talks in the second part. But Maya was a real chatterbox in the first part, so it feels awkward having her suddenly completely silent.

Ooo, I haven't actually played those yet, but now I'm even more curious to eventually get to them! That'll have to be a goal for the new year~ ^w^
I've certainly owned the two games long enough XD

Post by **MrPopo** » Sat Dec 09, 2023 10:47 pm

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

First 50:

51. This Way Madness Lies - PC
52. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit - PC
53. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - PC
54. Sprawl - PC
55. Zortch - PC
56. Ion Fury: Aftershock - PC
57. Spider-Man 2 - PS5
58. Alan Wake II - PC
59. Ghostrunner II - PC
60. RoboCop: Rogue City - PC
61. Super Mario RPG - Switch
62. Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold - PC
63. Turbo Overkill - PC
64. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince - Switch

The Dark Prince is the latest Dragon Quest Monsters game, bringing back its take on the monster catching formula after a long absence. We're back to the world of adorable Akira Toriyama monsters that we recruit, smash together into new ones, and engage in some excuse plot that gives you a bit of direction while you work your way to making a boss from a previous mainline game.

Like the first game and Caravan Heart, The Dark Prince stars a character from one of the mainline games. However, this time you aren't playing a hero. You play as Psaro the Manslayer from Dragon Quest IV, as you experience his rise to be the threat that the main character needs to defeat. Of course, if you've played the epilogue of the DQIV remake, you know it's a bit more complicated than that. This game does an alternate take on those events, but the core of Psaro's story is the same.

This game features the most quality of life features of any DQM game. It builds on what we saw in the Joker subseries; monsters are captured through a special "scouting" maneuver and monsters have DQVIII-style skill lists. Now you get to have four monsters in your party, or you can take large monsters, which use two slots and can get extra actions. Monster genders have been removed, so synthesis is the easiest it has ever been. You also get modern result searches that remove some of the guesswork, though there are a lot of combinations that require specific monsters, or require specific grandparents (these are the hardest ones to guess; the grandparents merged together are just a copy of one of them, so it's not obvious you would do it in the first place). Monster rank has been deemphasized; your power primarily comes from ranking up your skill lists to get the best moves. And if you find a monster you like, you can always improve it by synthesizing in something else to gain stats; two of the selectable products of every synthesis are the parents.

This game has the most relevant story of any DQM, but it's still pretty threadbare. There's a lot of characters going with the flow because events in the original DQ4 requires things to occur at specific points, but meanwhile you're doing all this monster training. But that's fine; you came for the monsters. And the game delivers in spades. The lands all have the right length, with good checkpoints for Zoom, so it's very friendly to play through. When letting monsters pick their moves, they act very intelligently, including being able to act after being revived. This is the best DQM experience ever.

Post by **Note** » Sun Dec 10, 2023 3:36 pm

1. Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
2. River City Girls (Switch)
3. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
4. The Simpsons (Arcade)
5. Illusion of Gaia (SNES)
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Switch)
7. Shining Force III [Scenario 1] (SAT)
8. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES)
9. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1)
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN)
11. X-Men Legends (PS2)
12. Snatcher (SCD)
13. Smash Remix (N64)
14. Golden Axe III (GEN)
15. Iridion II (GBA)
16. Fatal Fury Special (SNES)
17. Harmful Park (PS1)
18. Gunbird (SAT)
19. DoDonPachi (SAT)
20. Gley Lancer (GEN)
21. Streets of Rage 4 (Switch)*
22. Water Margin: A Tale of Clouds and Wind (GEN)
23. Demons of Asteborg (GEN)
24. Super Mario Land (GB)
25. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (PS2)
26. Final Vendetta (Switch)
27. Way of the Samurai (PS2)

28. Ys Book I & II (TGCD)

Between my cousins and I, we were lucky to have access to a lot of consoles and a variety of games, but one console none of us had throughout the '90s was a TurboGrafx-16. I didn't end up checking out a TurboGrafx until around '99 or 2000, when a buddy of mine dug out his older brother's TurboGrafx from the back of a closet and hooked it up in his bedroom. I had heard of the system and associated it with the Bonk character, but other than that, the system and its library were a mystery to me. It was cool to finally try one out! Years later, as I began to read more about older games, I noticed a lot of praise for Ys Book I & II on the TGCD and I really wanted to try it. So, while my usual gaming setup was packed away earlier this year, I figured I'd make the best of it, and take the opportunity to finally play Ys Book I & II via emulation.

Ys Book I & II are the first two titles in an action RPG series developed by Falcom and originally released on the PC-8801 home computer in Japan. The TurboGrafx-CD port consists of an enhanced version of each game packaged together. My understanding is that this is one of the first video games to use the CD-ROM format, released in the North American market in 1990, and I have to say the developers really took advantage of what they could do with the technology at the time, as it includes a CD quality soundtrack, voice acting, and huge character sprites with an anime influence for certain dialogue scenes. I was pretty impressed with the presentation, and would have been totally blown away if I saw this around the time of release.

The gameplay and controls in Ys are quite simple, and the game does not even require you to press a button to slash at enemies. Instead a "bump combat" system is implemented, where all you have to do is run into enemies to attack and damage them. At first I thought this was a little odd, but I quickly got the hang of it, and actually I think it's kinda nice that you don't have to constantly be pressing the button, especially in a game like this, where it requires some grinding. Later in Ys Book II, you will have access to magic, which is a nice addition to the combat system, and will require you to press a button to use whichever magic ability you have selected. The other button on the controller is mapped to whatever item you have selected in the menu screen. You'll have to be aware of what item you have selected, as there's no icon in the main interface to remind you. In most instances this won't be an issue, but you could accidentally use something that restores HP or MP when you didn't mean to if you leave something selected unintentionally. Regarding equipment, there are things to be purchased at shops or found in dungeons, but it's not an excessive amount, which I see as a plus, as the game does not require much inventory management. Another really nice feature in this title is that you can save anywhere you want, which was really uncommon at the time. It's great to be able to save when needed and not have to worry about perishing before reaching the next save point.

Regarding the graphics, I think the developers did a great job here. The character sprites, dungeons, and towns all look fairly detailed, but the cutscenes and dialogue sequences are what really steal the show. I wasn't expecting to see a large character sprite the first time I entered a random home in the starting town. The large character portraits that look like something straight out of an anime are very impressive. These portraits take up about half the screen, and the art for them is really well done. There is some phenomenal usage of color in the environment designs. Towards the end of the game, you're traversing a tower and can see a brooding orange and purplish sky in the background that just looks awesome. And I just want to bring up the cover art, which looks great and has a mysterious fantasy tone to it. The illustrator did a fine job for sure. Regarding the audio, the soundtrack for Ys Book I & II is absolutely outstanding! I was blown away by the various themes here that were all on the mark and the CD quality music is definitely something I can listen to in the background without having the game on. Going into this, I didn't realize Yuzo Koshiro was involved in the soundtrack. The composers deserve a lot of credit as the music really enhances the atmosphere. Even my partner stopped to check what I was listening to on one occasion. Also, I have to commend the voice acting. The voice acting sounds great, as the the quality of the voice samples are crisp and the actors did a good job in their roles, IMO.

I only have a few minor criticisms to share. The first being that when you finish Ys Book I and are thrown into Ys Book II, you start the second game without any of the money, equipment, or abilities you had in the first. I just found it a bit jarring to begin the next game without the abilities you just had and starting from scratch again, but I understand the two are totally separate games. Also, I wish the main interface for the game had an icon to display what item in your inventory was currently mapped. Early on in the adventure I accidentally used an item (that didn't come by often) to regain MP unintentionally. And lastly, there is a sequence towards the end of Book II that includes voice acting from other characters, but the background music volume does not lower. This made it very difficult to hear the dialogue in a pivotal sequence! In other areas of the game the music volume adjusts to be much lower so that you can hear the voices okay.

Overall, I think Ys Book I & II is the total package when it comes to an action RPG game. The storyline is interesting, the graphics and animations are impressive, the music and voice acting are outstanding, and gameplay is easy to pick up. The game is a bit challenging and will require you to grind, but I think any fans of the genre from this era should expect that. This is definitely one of the best action RPGs I've ever played and the game totally deserves the high praise its received over the years! Ys Book I & II has aged very well and is totally worth a play for anyone interested in this style of game. I give this game a very high recommendation and hope to check out other titles in the series! Give this one a go if you haven't already!

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Sun Dec 10, 2023 3:45 pm

^ Pretty much mogs every other game in existence.

Post by **Ack** » Sun Dec 10, 2023 3:58 pm

First 50:

51. Contraband Police (PC)(FPS)
52. Quake II (PC)(FPS)
53. Quake II: The Reckoning (PC)(FPS)
54. Quake II: Ground Zero (PC)(FPS)
55. Quake II 64 (PC)(FPS)
56. Quake II: Call of the Machine (PC)(FPS)
57. Chernobylite (PC)(FPS/RPG)
58. Pedro's Adventures in Spanish (PC)(Point-and-Click Adventure)
59. CULTIC: Interlude (PC)(FPS)
60. Station to Station (PC)(Puzzle)
61. Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PC)(RPG)
62. Aliens: Fireteam Elite (PC)(Third Person Shooter)

If ever you watched Aliens and thought to yourself, "I want to be a hapless space marine shooting at terrifying exoskeleton acid bags which want to eat my face," then there are a whole slew of Alien franchise-based games. Aliens: Fireteam Elite combines the prequel films like Prometheus with the regular films in the Alien franchise, but puts you in the position of a lowly grunt in a fireteam that has to blast their way through hordes of xenos, armed synthetics from the Weyland-Yutani corporation, and a special third...thing based on mutated animal life. So, do you want to use a smartgun to blast xenos that are trying to leap into your buddy's back? Here is your way to do it.

Unfortunately for PC players, it's pretty obvious this game was made with console markets primarily in mind. Menu navigation is bizarre, including the option to quit the game being found in your Settings menu. Controls aren't bad, but the max sensitivity for a mouse feels painfully slow, especially when foes come from front and behind, and pretty much all directions for that matter. Ideally you'll have other folks watching your back, but you can only communicate with them via emotes; there is no way to type text to send messages. And despite repeated patches and an expansion, there are still some bugs, including one class ability that regularly crashes the game if used.

But when the game gets going, you have some solid options for building out a team and gearing up. Weapons can be customized in a variety of ways, as can class skills, and there are challenges cards which can have major impact to benefit players or screw them over while providing huge rewards. This customization means two people playing the same class can have varied ways to do it, though you'll still fit a predefined role based on said class. For example, the Doc is a support specialist that can provide healing and benefits; it's not a class to be focused on taking down the bigger enemies. Conversely, the Gunner can drop a massive for and take on horses of enemies, but you're gonna burn through ammo and might need your team to keep you up on your feet since you have no way to heal on your own.

Each class has two types of weapons based on four weapon classes, but even here there are options for customization. For example, you may be using Close Quarters Weapons and Heavy Weapons, so do you bring a shotgun, submachinegun, or small flamethrower, and is your heavy weapon a big machine gun, rocket or grenade launcher, or a big flamethrower? Each has plusses and minuses, and different weapon attachments may change how you use them, so find how to build to meet what you like.

There aren't a lot of levels to play through, only 12 split across four mini-campaigns, with three more levels from the expansion. Five difficulty levels add more replayability along with the challenge cards, and there is also a horde mode with a few levels to give more options as well as a permadeath hardcore mode, though you're still playing through mainly 12 (or 15) levels over and over again. If you like the game, awesome, you get more of the same. If not, well, you don't have a lot to get through at least.

Hey, I like the game. I'm working my way up through the higher difficulties, Extreme and Insane. But I do wish things were a bit more PC-centric. I still get confused on navigating those menus, even after a lot of hours. At least I'm decent in a firefight.

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