Games Beaten 2024
- PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2998
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Partridge Senpai's 2024 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
* indicates a repeat
1. Terranigma (SFC)
2. Eastward (PC)
3. Pulse (PC)
4. Lost Ruins (PC)
5. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC)
6. Dropsy (PC)
7. Call of Juarez Gunslinger (PC)
8. Pokemon Ruby (GBA) *
9. Secret of Mana (SFC)
10. Fire Watch (PC)
11. Bokura (PC)
12. Romancing SaGa (SFC)
13. Trials of Mana (SFC)
14. Castlevania Legends (GB)
15. SaGa 2 (GB)
16. SaGa 3 (GB)
17. Celeste (PC)
18. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PC)
19. Celeste 64 (PC)
20. CB Chara Wars: Ushinawareta Gya~gu (SFC)
21. To The Moon (PC)
22. LOVE (PC)
23. Pikuniku (PC)
24. Night in the Woods (PC)
25. The Beginner's Guide (PC)
26. Suikoden (PS1)
27. Chocobo Dungeon 2 (PS1)
28. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Advance! Fire Adventure Team (Wii)
29. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Go! Storm Adventure Team (Wii)
30. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Aim! Light Adventure Team (Wii)
31. Line Attack Heroes (Wii)
32. The Quest for Camelot (GBC)
33. Tales of Destiny (PS1)
34. Metal Walker (GBC)
35. Frog Detective 1 (PC)
36. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (GBA) *
37. Frog Detective 2 (PC)
38. Frog Detective 3 (PC)
39. Super Robot Wars Alpha for Dreamcast (DC)
40. Brain Lord (SFC)
41. Lagoon (SFC)
42. Dark Hunter: Jou Ijigen Gakuen (PS1)
43. Ys: Books I & II (PCE)
44. Ys III: Wanderers From Ys (SFC)
45. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SFC)
Continuing my journey through the 16-bit Ys games, next on the list was IV, a game I knew next to nothing about outside of it getting a remake on the Vita some decades later. Before even starting it, I was made very aware that this is one of two versions of the game, with the PC Engine version being developed by Hudson Soft and being completely different outside of sharing some similar plot beats, but this was the version I chose to play (if only because I already had all the stuff set up to play it and couldn’t be bothered to do the same for the PCE version X3). It took me about 8.5 or so hours to play through the Japanese version of the game on emulated hardware without abusing save states.
Mask of the Sun begins with Adol, our hero of Ys, finding a message in a bottle on the beach one day. The unfamiliar language inside, once translated for him by a friend, simply reads as a message to save a far-off land named “Celceta”. Adol quickly hops on a ship and sets off towards adventure in this land that apparently so badly needs saving. As was the case with Ys III, this is yet another good step forward in story writing for the series (despite effectively being written by completely different people). We have a more tightly paced story with better developed characters, and though I’d say we’re not quite at the level yet where we’re telling a story with deeper themes and messaging, we’re very nearly there! Granted, some of the messages you can read into Ys IV are less than positive in some respects, but they’re unintentional to the point that I don’t think they hurt the overall story too much ^^;. Oddly enough, even though this game has a ton of connective tissue to Ys I & II, it never mentions Ys III’s story at all. This isn’t really a problem, of course, but it was something that made me giggle nonetheless, especially with just how much this story so easily reads like an actual narrative sequel to Ys II, far more than Ys III ever did XD.
This goes beyond narrative as well, for Ys IV actually has a ton of connective tissue to I & II in its mechanics as well: Bump combat is back! I’ll admit, I was pretty bummed to see the return of bump combat, as I didn’t particularly enjoy it in Ys I & II, but I actually enjoyed it here a fair bit more than I did in those games. I understand that the overall premise (hitting enemies not dead-on deals damage where dealing direct bumps tends to just get yourself hurt) is basically the exact same way that bump combat works in I & II as well, but I noticed it far FAR more here than I ever did in those games. It’s an element of this game’s combat that’s far more unignorable than it ever was in those games due to how this game is balanced, and it makes for a much more challenging and interesting version of bump combat as a result. I found myself actually enjoying normal combat far more than I ever had in I & II, and it made combat feel a lot less overall pointless as a result.
Honestly, the mechanics overall are much stronger than I & II’s were, which I was very happy to see. Though there’s still some rough signposting here and there, it was never anything nearly so bad as plagued the far earlier adventure game designs of I & II. Though there were some things I had to look up in a guide at some points, they were almost always things that had just totally slipped my mind rather than things that I’d had no way of knowing the way those earlier games struggle with signposting. Level design on the whole was something I found markedly improved from the first two bump combat games, and the same goes for boss design as well.
These bosses felt far more actually designed than the first two games’ bosses usually did, and there was always some meaningful element of figuring out the strategy I needed rather than the old bump combat strategy I’d gotten used to where I just charged forward, hoped for the best, and usually won almost instantly. Magic is also back, and it depends on the sword you’re using instead of having bespoke spells you’re choosing from. I never found it super useful, as bump combat on its own was generally more than enough, but it was nice to have the option at least. I’m not sure this is going to convert anyone who already hated bump combat, and this game is certainly just as grindy as those old games were for having the right levels to take on the challenges you’re facing, but it was at least nice to see Ys return to that old formula and improve on it so significantly (despite the dev team being completely different x3).
The presentation is a bit simple for a mid-/late-life SFC game, but I still liked it quite a bit. Enemy, especially boss sprites, are well designed and cool looking, and the cutscene animations are very fun despite the relatively simple character and environment sprites. There’s a charm to things much like RPG Maker games would later have, with characters spinning on the spot or running around to indicate emotions in a way that I found very delightful, and some bespoke animations for certain cutscenes that had me giggling like a madman in my seat (like when Adol gets struck by lightning XD). The music is also unsurprisingly excellent. There were a lot of times where it almost felt like I’d stepped into a Mega Man X soundtrack all of a sudden, and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. An Ys game through and through, this game is packed with good and rockin’ tracks to fight monsters and witness drama, and that’s about all you could hope for, even in an Ys game not developed by Falcom themselves.
Verdict: Recommended. This is one that is very borderline between a hesitant and a normal recommendation, but I think it’s overall solid enough that I’d recommend it about as much as I would other less-than-perfect 16-bit action/adventure games I’ve played recently. Combat is quick and fun, boss battles are great, music is awesome, and the signposting is usually right on point. It’s honestly very confusing to me that this game has such a negative reputation. While I’d certainly believe the PCE version of Ys IV may indeed be better, I’d have a very hard time listing basically any way that the PCE version of Ys I & II is better than this game outside of that game’s CD-quality audio. This may not be the best of the Ys series, but I think that’s something you can really safely say about any of the Ys games made before Ys Origins. This game is good fun! Even if, as I said before, this probably won’t convert anyone who was already a non-believer in bump combat, I can still say with a good degree of confidence that, if you liked Ys I & II, I think you’ll probably really like this game too~.
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
* indicates a repeat
1. Terranigma (SFC)
2. Eastward (PC)
3. Pulse (PC)
4. Lost Ruins (PC)
5. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC)
6. Dropsy (PC)
7. Call of Juarez Gunslinger (PC)
8. Pokemon Ruby (GBA) *
9. Secret of Mana (SFC)
10. Fire Watch (PC)
11. Bokura (PC)
12. Romancing SaGa (SFC)
13. Trials of Mana (SFC)
14. Castlevania Legends (GB)
15. SaGa 2 (GB)
16. SaGa 3 (GB)
17. Celeste (PC)
18. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PC)
19. Celeste 64 (PC)
20. CB Chara Wars: Ushinawareta Gya~gu (SFC)
21. To The Moon (PC)
22. LOVE (PC)
23. Pikuniku (PC)
24. Night in the Woods (PC)
25. The Beginner's Guide (PC)
26. Suikoden (PS1)
27. Chocobo Dungeon 2 (PS1)
28. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Advance! Fire Adventure Team (Wii)
29. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Go! Storm Adventure Team (Wii)
30. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Aim! Light Adventure Team (Wii)
31. Line Attack Heroes (Wii)
32. The Quest for Camelot (GBC)
33. Tales of Destiny (PS1)
34. Metal Walker (GBC)
35. Frog Detective 1 (PC)
36. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (GBA) *
37. Frog Detective 2 (PC)
38. Frog Detective 3 (PC)
39. Super Robot Wars Alpha for Dreamcast (DC)
40. Brain Lord (SFC)
41. Lagoon (SFC)
42. Dark Hunter: Jou Ijigen Gakuen (PS1)
43. Ys: Books I & II (PCE)
44. Ys III: Wanderers From Ys (SFC)
45. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SFC)
Continuing my journey through the 16-bit Ys games, next on the list was IV, a game I knew next to nothing about outside of it getting a remake on the Vita some decades later. Before even starting it, I was made very aware that this is one of two versions of the game, with the PC Engine version being developed by Hudson Soft and being completely different outside of sharing some similar plot beats, but this was the version I chose to play (if only because I already had all the stuff set up to play it and couldn’t be bothered to do the same for the PCE version X3). It took me about 8.5 or so hours to play through the Japanese version of the game on emulated hardware without abusing save states.
Mask of the Sun begins with Adol, our hero of Ys, finding a message in a bottle on the beach one day. The unfamiliar language inside, once translated for him by a friend, simply reads as a message to save a far-off land named “Celceta”. Adol quickly hops on a ship and sets off towards adventure in this land that apparently so badly needs saving. As was the case with Ys III, this is yet another good step forward in story writing for the series (despite effectively being written by completely different people). We have a more tightly paced story with better developed characters, and though I’d say we’re not quite at the level yet where we’re telling a story with deeper themes and messaging, we’re very nearly there! Granted, some of the messages you can read into Ys IV are less than positive in some respects, but they’re unintentional to the point that I don’t think they hurt the overall story too much ^^;. Oddly enough, even though this game has a ton of connective tissue to Ys I & II, it never mentions Ys III’s story at all. This isn’t really a problem, of course, but it was something that made me giggle nonetheless, especially with just how much this story so easily reads like an actual narrative sequel to Ys II, far more than Ys III ever did XD.
This goes beyond narrative as well, for Ys IV actually has a ton of connective tissue to I & II in its mechanics as well: Bump combat is back! I’ll admit, I was pretty bummed to see the return of bump combat, as I didn’t particularly enjoy it in Ys I & II, but I actually enjoyed it here a fair bit more than I did in those games. I understand that the overall premise (hitting enemies not dead-on deals damage where dealing direct bumps tends to just get yourself hurt) is basically the exact same way that bump combat works in I & II as well, but I noticed it far FAR more here than I ever did in those games. It’s an element of this game’s combat that’s far more unignorable than it ever was in those games due to how this game is balanced, and it makes for a much more challenging and interesting version of bump combat as a result. I found myself actually enjoying normal combat far more than I ever had in I & II, and it made combat feel a lot less overall pointless as a result.
Honestly, the mechanics overall are much stronger than I & II’s were, which I was very happy to see. Though there’s still some rough signposting here and there, it was never anything nearly so bad as plagued the far earlier adventure game designs of I & II. Though there were some things I had to look up in a guide at some points, they were almost always things that had just totally slipped my mind rather than things that I’d had no way of knowing the way those earlier games struggle with signposting. Level design on the whole was something I found markedly improved from the first two bump combat games, and the same goes for boss design as well.
These bosses felt far more actually designed than the first two games’ bosses usually did, and there was always some meaningful element of figuring out the strategy I needed rather than the old bump combat strategy I’d gotten used to where I just charged forward, hoped for the best, and usually won almost instantly. Magic is also back, and it depends on the sword you’re using instead of having bespoke spells you’re choosing from. I never found it super useful, as bump combat on its own was generally more than enough, but it was nice to have the option at least. I’m not sure this is going to convert anyone who already hated bump combat, and this game is certainly just as grindy as those old games were for having the right levels to take on the challenges you’re facing, but it was at least nice to see Ys return to that old formula and improve on it so significantly (despite the dev team being completely different x3).
The presentation is a bit simple for a mid-/late-life SFC game, but I still liked it quite a bit. Enemy, especially boss sprites, are well designed and cool looking, and the cutscene animations are very fun despite the relatively simple character and environment sprites. There’s a charm to things much like RPG Maker games would later have, with characters spinning on the spot or running around to indicate emotions in a way that I found very delightful, and some bespoke animations for certain cutscenes that had me giggling like a madman in my seat (like when Adol gets struck by lightning XD). The music is also unsurprisingly excellent. There were a lot of times where it almost felt like I’d stepped into a Mega Man X soundtrack all of a sudden, and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. An Ys game through and through, this game is packed with good and rockin’ tracks to fight monsters and witness drama, and that’s about all you could hope for, even in an Ys game not developed by Falcom themselves.
Verdict: Recommended. This is one that is very borderline between a hesitant and a normal recommendation, but I think it’s overall solid enough that I’d recommend it about as much as I would other less-than-perfect 16-bit action/adventure games I’ve played recently. Combat is quick and fun, boss battles are great, music is awesome, and the signposting is usually right on point. It’s honestly very confusing to me that this game has such a negative reputation. While I’d certainly believe the PCE version of Ys IV may indeed be better, I’d have a very hard time listing basically any way that the PCE version of Ys I & II is better than this game outside of that game’s CD-quality audio. This may not be the best of the Ys series, but I think that’s something you can really safely say about any of the Ys games made before Ys Origins. This game is good fun! Even if, as I said before, this probably won’t convert anyone who was already a non-believer in bump combat, I can still say with a good degree of confidence that, if you liked Ys I & II, I think you’ll probably really like this game too~.
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
- Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1428
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2024!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Jackal (NES)
***3. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)***
4. Skies Of Arcadia Legends (GCN)
5. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
6. Sunset Riders (GEN)
***7. Tactics Ogre (PS1)***
***8. Forza Motorsport (XBOX)***
9. Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
***10. Darkstalkers (PS1)***
***11. Splatoon (WiiU)***
12. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)
***13. Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (NES)***
14. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
***15. Puzzle Kingdoms (Wii)***
16. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (GB)
I completed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan on the Nintendo GameBoy this evening!
Before I had beat my Backlog, I thought I was finished with TMNT games. I owned and played through all of the classics on the NES, Genesis and SNES. A few short years ago, they made a new Turtles game that was amazing. I played that with a friend and then got it as a present. I was looking through my Wishlist and I realized that I had forgotten about the GameBoy games. The Backloggery Streams got me interested in those games, so when I did a big day of game shopping last year, I decided to pick up a copy of the first one. Now, I wanted to play a short and simple game for my GameBoy and I was glad that I did.
TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan is a rather short and simple game. It only has five levels with a boss at end of each level. You can actually select which level to start on from the menu screen, which is very forgiving. But, it is a single plane Beat'Em Up where you scroll to the right and enemies pop up behind you or in front of you. There is some platforming, but it is mostly just slowly walking and stopping to kill a little enemy here and there. It's actually really comforting and once you get in the groove of the game, it can feel a bit hypnotic. The boss fights can be a little annoying, but none of them were too difficult. If you have enough health, you can normally beat them as they all have very simple patterns. For a GameBoy game, it has some pretty nice visuals and the music is almost spot on. You hear the Turtles theme even from a GameBoy game and it is instantly recognizable. You know, sometimes, with these giant games with so much to do, it is nice to sit back and play a rather simple game that isn't too difficult. This one hits that target perfectly.
Overall, I really enjoyed TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan. The controls can feel a little sluggish, so it is easy to feel overwhelmed with all the enemies surrounding you. Also, the final level is a bit annoying. But, overall, the game is still really well done. It is nothing that blow anybody away or even top a list of the best GameBoy games of all time. But, this is a perfect game for the platform. It is something that can be beaten relatively easily and it is something that you pop in while on a car ride. If you can find the game for a decent price, I would recommend it. It is not a bad game to pass a few short hours on!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Jackal (NES)
***3. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)***
4. Skies Of Arcadia Legends (GCN)
5. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
6. Sunset Riders (GEN)
***7. Tactics Ogre (PS1)***
***8. Forza Motorsport (XBOX)***
9. Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
***10. Darkstalkers (PS1)***
***11. Splatoon (WiiU)***
12. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)
***13. Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (NES)***
14. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
***15. Puzzle Kingdoms (Wii)***
16. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (GB)
I completed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan on the Nintendo GameBoy this evening!
Before I had beat my Backlog, I thought I was finished with TMNT games. I owned and played through all of the classics on the NES, Genesis and SNES. A few short years ago, they made a new Turtles game that was amazing. I played that with a friend and then got it as a present. I was looking through my Wishlist and I realized that I had forgotten about the GameBoy games. The Backloggery Streams got me interested in those games, so when I did a big day of game shopping last year, I decided to pick up a copy of the first one. Now, I wanted to play a short and simple game for my GameBoy and I was glad that I did.
TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan is a rather short and simple game. It only has five levels with a boss at end of each level. You can actually select which level to start on from the menu screen, which is very forgiving. But, it is a single plane Beat'Em Up where you scroll to the right and enemies pop up behind you or in front of you. There is some platforming, but it is mostly just slowly walking and stopping to kill a little enemy here and there. It's actually really comforting and once you get in the groove of the game, it can feel a bit hypnotic. The boss fights can be a little annoying, but none of them were too difficult. If you have enough health, you can normally beat them as they all have very simple patterns. For a GameBoy game, it has some pretty nice visuals and the music is almost spot on. You hear the Turtles theme even from a GameBoy game and it is instantly recognizable. You know, sometimes, with these giant games with so much to do, it is nice to sit back and play a rather simple game that isn't too difficult. This one hits that target perfectly.
Overall, I really enjoyed TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan. The controls can feel a little sluggish, so it is easy to feel overwhelmed with all the enemies surrounding you. Also, the final level is a bit annoying. But, overall, the game is still really well done. It is nothing that blow anybody away or even top a list of the best GameBoy games of all time. But, this is a perfect game for the platform. It is something that can be beaten relatively easily and it is something that you pop in while on a car ride. If you can find the game for a decent price, I would recommend it. It is not a bad game to pass a few short hours on!
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Just beat Picross S7 for Switch.
Re: Games Beaten 2024
1. Live A Live (RPG)(Switch)
2. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (Action)(Switch)
3. Pathway (Strategy [Tactics])(PC)
4. Rewind or Die (Horror Adventure)(PC)
5. Tomb Raider (Action Adventure)(PC)
6. Remnant: From the Ashes (Action RPG)(PC)
7. House Flipper (Simulation)(PC)
8. Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (RPG)(PC)
9. Wild West and Wizards (FPS/RPG)(PC)
10. SPRAWL (FPS)(PC)
11. Lunacid (RPG)(PC)
12. PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants (FPS)(PC)
13. PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 (FPS)(PC)
14. PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future (FPS)(PC)
I'm gonna knock these out as a chunk because I went through them while the forums were down.
SPRAWL
Do you like mobility in your cyberpunk FPS? Because SPRAWL makes you move and makes you shoot. The game goes for a retro style but also brings in more modern mechanics, combining things like wall running into double jumps, shotgun jumping, stunning and decapitating enemies at point blank for sprays of items to keep you armed and going, and so on. You fight your way through a futuristic city run by the Junta, a militaristic government comprised of former arms manufacturers in a ruined world, and you're a well designed killing machine being up with an AI that wants to kill itself. You're gonna do the most of the killing.
The mobility and music were what got me; the weapons felt a little lackluster at first because the base pistols are so good, but after a while, you learn about the uses of your arsenal, what weapons work for what situations, and they open up new possibilities that had me continuously reevaluating. I like that. And I ended up really liking SPRAWL.
Lunacid
An ancient being awoke, covered the world in poison, and reduced the land to ruin. Centuries later, you're thrown into a pit where bodies get dumped, a subterranean prison that no one escapes from, but many try. And you're one of them. By exploring the depths, entering new areas, facing the hordes of sometimes bizarre monsters, finding new weapons, and gaining levels and stats, and all in a despairing world.
Yeah, it's inspired by King's Field. Is it as difficult? No, I don't believe so, though secrets around. There are multiple hidden endings, a variety of weapons and magic spells to find, and a couple of big, bad bosses to wipe the floor with you. I loved it, checking the depths, especially certain nasty areas where Death stalks.
It's a fun one, and a nice homage to these kinds of games. I hope it finds the audience it deserves.
PowerWash Simulator DLC
I'm wrapping all this up in one package. The three DLCs are similar, containing a handful of levels based on the theme. Each one features you clean items related to whatever the DLC is, from the Krusty Krab to the clocktower of Back to the Future to a Dreadnought for the Imperium of Man to slaughter the [REDACTED - HERETICAL]. The 40K levels seem the most ridiculous because of the nature of what isn't said, though activating the holographic shark from Back to the Future Part II is pretty awesome.
The biggest issue with the PowerWash Simulator's DLC has nothing to do with the game, it's honestly more that it's priced relatively highly for a few levels compared to how much you get with the base game. Truth be told, it's most likely due to the IP. More are apparently in the works, so we'll see.
2. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (Action)(Switch)
3. Pathway (Strategy [Tactics])(PC)
4. Rewind or Die (Horror Adventure)(PC)
5. Tomb Raider (Action Adventure)(PC)
6. Remnant: From the Ashes (Action RPG)(PC)
7. House Flipper (Simulation)(PC)
8. Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (RPG)(PC)
9. Wild West and Wizards (FPS/RPG)(PC)
10. SPRAWL (FPS)(PC)
11. Lunacid (RPG)(PC)
12. PowerWash Simulator: SpongeBob SquarePants (FPS)(PC)
13. PowerWash Simulator: Warhammer 40,000 (FPS)(PC)
14. PowerWash Simulator: Back to the Future (FPS)(PC)
I'm gonna knock these out as a chunk because I went through them while the forums were down.
SPRAWL
Do you like mobility in your cyberpunk FPS? Because SPRAWL makes you move and makes you shoot. The game goes for a retro style but also brings in more modern mechanics, combining things like wall running into double jumps, shotgun jumping, stunning and decapitating enemies at point blank for sprays of items to keep you armed and going, and so on. You fight your way through a futuristic city run by the Junta, a militaristic government comprised of former arms manufacturers in a ruined world, and you're a well designed killing machine being up with an AI that wants to kill itself. You're gonna do the most of the killing.
The mobility and music were what got me; the weapons felt a little lackluster at first because the base pistols are so good, but after a while, you learn about the uses of your arsenal, what weapons work for what situations, and they open up new possibilities that had me continuously reevaluating. I like that. And I ended up really liking SPRAWL.
Lunacid
An ancient being awoke, covered the world in poison, and reduced the land to ruin. Centuries later, you're thrown into a pit where bodies get dumped, a subterranean prison that no one escapes from, but many try. And you're one of them. By exploring the depths, entering new areas, facing the hordes of sometimes bizarre monsters, finding new weapons, and gaining levels and stats, and all in a despairing world.
Yeah, it's inspired by King's Field. Is it as difficult? No, I don't believe so, though secrets around. There are multiple hidden endings, a variety of weapons and magic spells to find, and a couple of big, bad bosses to wipe the floor with you. I loved it, checking the depths, especially certain nasty areas where Death stalks.
It's a fun one, and a nice homage to these kinds of games. I hope it finds the audience it deserves.
PowerWash Simulator DLC
I'm wrapping all this up in one package. The three DLCs are similar, containing a handful of levels based on the theme. Each one features you clean items related to whatever the DLC is, from the Krusty Krab to the clocktower of Back to the Future to a Dreadnought for the Imperium of Man to slaughter the [REDACTED - HERETICAL]. The 40K levels seem the most ridiculous because of the nature of what isn't said, though activating the holographic shark from Back to the Future Part II is pretty awesome.
The biggest issue with the PowerWash Simulator's DLC has nothing to do with the game, it's honestly more that it's priced relatively highly for a few levels compared to how much you get with the base game. Truth be told, it's most likely due to the IP. More are apparently in the works, so we'll see.
- elricorico
- 32-bit
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:02 pm
Re: Games Beaten 2024
1. Sonic Lost World (WiiU)
2. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (NS)
3. Kinect Adventures (XB360)
4. Metal Slug (PC)
5. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
6 Modnation Racers (PSP)
7. Mario Kart 8DX - Expansion Pass (NS)
8. Splatoon! (WiiU)
I finished the single player portion of Splatoon! last night. I've probably mentioned it before, but the WiiU is really the only system that I jumped on at launch, and this was one of the latest games I ended up getting for the system. Shooters aren't really my top of my list, so I didn't want to spend retail, but there aren't many Nintendo first party games I won't grab for $5 when they show up like this one did last fall.
The premise is about as oddball as you can imagine. Anthropomorphic "Squid kids" go to battle with octopus like creatures(including anthropomorphic ones) where the greatest weapon is brightly coloured paint. Fast paced, tight controls, bright and colourful with addictive gameplay, this is a worthwhile play even if shooters aren't really your thing. You might be surprised.
I spent about 7 hours with this game, even squeezing in a handful of online matches just before the service shut down. Mostly the single player campaign was easy and enjoyable, but the final boss was quite a difficulty spike to overcome. I'm happy to have it in my WiiU collection as I think it would have left a conspicuous gap if I hadn't found a copy.
2. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (NS)
3. Kinect Adventures (XB360)
4. Metal Slug (PC)
5. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
6 Modnation Racers (PSP)
7. Mario Kart 8DX - Expansion Pass (NS)
8. Splatoon! (WiiU)
I finished the single player portion of Splatoon! last night. I've probably mentioned it before, but the WiiU is really the only system that I jumped on at launch, and this was one of the latest games I ended up getting for the system. Shooters aren't really my top of my list, so I didn't want to spend retail, but there aren't many Nintendo first party games I won't grab for $5 when they show up like this one did last fall.
The premise is about as oddball as you can imagine. Anthropomorphic "Squid kids" go to battle with octopus like creatures(including anthropomorphic ones) where the greatest weapon is brightly coloured paint. Fast paced, tight controls, bright and colourful with addictive gameplay, this is a worthwhile play even if shooters aren't really your thing. You might be surprised.
I spent about 7 hours with this game, even squeezing in a handful of online matches just before the service shut down. Mostly the single player campaign was easy and enjoyable, but the final boss was quite a difficulty spike to overcome. I'm happy to have it in my WiiU collection as I think it would have left a conspicuous gap if I hadn't found a copy.
- ElkinFencer10
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8670
- Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 8:34 pm
- Location: Henderson, North Carolina
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Games Beaten in 2024 - 12
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
February (1 Game Beaten)
March (3 Game Beaten)
April (7 Games Beaten)
12. Army Men: Sarge's Heroes - Dreamcast - March 28*
Army Men, as you’ve realized by now if you’ve followed my reviews of the series, is a bit of a bell curve series; a few games are horrible, and a few games are great, but most are middling and solidly okay. Sarge’s Heroes is planted solidly in the “great” camp. At the very least, it’s great in the context of Army Men. This game is a departure from the main series in that it’s an alternate universe; the characters are all different, and you discover the portals to our world all over again and in a different way, effectively serving a reboot of the series (despite the fact that the main timeline series kept releasing right alongside this...). It’s primarily a 5th gen game with most people having played it on either Nintendo 64, PlayStation, or PC, and I originally played through it on Nintendo 64 as a kid, but the version I just played through from start to finish for this review is both the best version of the game and the only version to release on a 6th gen console - the Dreamcast port of Sarge’s Heroes.
I’ll go through some of the differences between the versions as I played through parts of each game to compare them, but the most significant difference divides the versions into two camps. The PS1 version and the PC version are both visually inferior to the N64 and Dreamcast versions, but they do have one important thing that those versions don’t; PS1 and PC got full motion cut scenes. N64 and Dreamcast, on the other hand, got in-engine rendered scenes with regular character models, and while it serves just fine to tell the story and honestly flows more smoothly than the cutscenes with the gameplay, Army Men’s cheesy cut scenes have always been one of my favorite things about the series. They all play largely the same - the console versions, anyway; I didn’t play it on PC - but look radically different, and there’s a clear hierarchy of quality here. The worst looking version hands down and by a lot is PlayStation. That’s no surprise, really, as it’s a good bit weaker in terms of hardware than the Nintendo 64. It looks better than Army Men 3D or the World War games, but it’s pretty close. The bronze medalist is the PC version. Since it was essentially a port of the PlayStation version, it has the bad textures and low polygon models of the PlayStation version just running at a higher resolution. Silver goes to Nintendo 64. It was made separately from the PS1 version to take advantage of the Nintendo 64’s powerful hardware and 64-bit capabilities, and that shows with much better quality textures and higher poly count models. If you have the RAM expansion, you also have the option of running the game in 480i instead of 240p, an option PS1 wasn’t capable of. The supreme visuals, no surprise here as it’s a generation ahead of the other two consoles, is Dreamcast. It’s a port of the N64 version, so it starts out with baseline superior visuals, but the textures are improved and the rendering is smoother. Not only that, but if you have a VGA box or a SCART cable, Dreamcast Sarge’s Heroes can run at 480p, the highest resolution version out there. Full disclosure, you have to force it to run at 480p as it technically doesn’t support VGA, but there are some pretty easy ways to do that, and forced 480p works flawlessly.
There is only one thing (okay, two things, but mainly one) holding the Dreamcast version back from being a truly definitive Sarge’s Heroes experience - the cut scenes’ absence. It made sense for Nintendo 64 - those cartridges have much less storage capacity than a CD - but not only is that not an issue for Dreamcast, but Dreamcast GD-ROMs have a greater capacity than the PS1’s CD-ROMs. It would have been perfect to take the PS1’s cut scenes, polish and render them at the Dreamcast’s higher resolution, and put them in the Dreamcast version. That ways you’d have the superior N64 visuals with the Dreamcast’s enhancements plus the PS1’s cut scenes which could also conceivably have gotten some polish from the Dreamcast’s superior resolution output. That’s the main thing. There is one level that is completely exclusive to the Nintendo 64 version - a level where you move along pipes and wires inside the walls - and while its absence is missed in the Dreamcast version, I think the cutscenes’ inclusion would more than make up for that.
Anyway, now that I’ve rambled about version differences and extolled the Dreamcast’s supremacy, I guess I should talk about the actual game. As I mentioned in the beginning, this isn’t the same timeline as the first several Army Men games. Instead of “Sarge,” you play as Sergeant Hawk - who, confusingly, is still called Sarge - who commands the Green Army’s elite Bravo Company commandos. The game opens with General Plastro, the tyrannical Tan commander, launching a massive surprise offensive against a major Green base. Colonel Grimm, the Green military commander-in-chief, is at this base and needs to be rescued and escorted to an escape chopper. Note that Colonel Grimm is not the leader of the Green nation; Air Tactics, which takes place in the Hawk universe, had you rescue the Green president, implying that the president is the civilian political leader of the Green nation whereas Colonel Grimm - don’t ask why he’s not a general - is the leader of the Green military, presumably a step below the president in overall authority. Playing as Sergeant Hawk, you fight your way through the Tan forces occupying the base until you link up with Colonel Grimm. From there, you have to fight your way to the helipad, escorting Colonel Grimm along the way and ensuring he survives to escape. Unfortunately, the Bravo Company commandos are all captured by Tan forces. The rest of the game is Sarge’s missions to rescue his comrades and uncover and foil Plastro’s schemes.
The gameplay is a standard 5th gen third person shooter. Your control stick moves your character and camera, and firing your weapon is done with pseudo tank controls. You can fire while moving, and it will mostly auto aim if you’re pointed in the general direction of a Tan soldier, but when you’re manually aiming, it’s all tank style control. It’s not ideal, but it works, and it’s extremely in line with game conventions of the time. Camera controls are annoying and a little wonky, but it’s a minor issue. The bigger issue is the difficulty curve. The early missions in the first quarter or so of the game are short and easy. The second quarter gets longer and a bit tougher with ambushes, but it’s still reasonable. Then you hit the second half of the game, and it goes balls to the walls. It’s not even that the levels spike in true difficulty that much; outside of the giant robots, the enemies and difficulty stay pretty fair. The problem is that the levels get EXTREMELY lengthy, and there are no checkpoints. Fort Plastro is one of the mid-game levels, and I made it through like half an hour of the level sneaking through hills and minefields, taking out every enemy without taking a single hit, deactivated the electric fence, hopped the walls of the fort, took out the first few guards without being spotted...and then got ambushed and virtually insta-gibbed by a guy with a flamethrower. No problem, now I know where he is...is what I would normally say if it didn’t send me back to the beginning of the entire level from the start.
While the camera is annoying, and difficulty spike due to the level length and ambushes is infuriating, Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes is still more than worth it to play through. The music is rad as hell, and the game is just genuinely fun. It’s not just good for Army Men; the game is just plain good. Sure, it’s not a Game of the Year contender, but it’s definitely earned the nostalgia millennial gamers have for it, and it will absolutely stay a cult classic of sorts as it deserves to. Dreamcast is definitely the version to play, but Nintendo 64 is a bit more accessible and nearly as good. Play it on PS1 if you have to; it’s still fun, and while the visuals are...not great...you get the full motion cut scenes to make up for it. Regardless of whether you collect for PS1, Dreamcast, or N64, though, I definitely recommend giving Sarge’s Heroes a play.
* denotes a replay
January (1 Game Beaten)
Army Men, as you’ve realized by now if you’ve followed my reviews of the series, is a bit of a bell curve series; a few games are horrible, and a few games are great, but most are middling and solidly okay. Sarge’s Heroes is planted solidly in the “great” camp. At the very least, it’s great in the context of Army Men. This game is a departure from the main series in that it’s an alternate universe; the characters are all different, and you discover the portals to our world all over again and in a different way, effectively serving a reboot of the series (despite the fact that the main timeline series kept releasing right alongside this...). It’s primarily a 5th gen game with most people having played it on either Nintendo 64, PlayStation, or PC, and I originally played through it on Nintendo 64 as a kid, but the version I just played through from start to finish for this review is both the best version of the game and the only version to release on a 6th gen console - the Dreamcast port of Sarge’s Heroes.
I’ll go through some of the differences between the versions as I played through parts of each game to compare them, but the most significant difference divides the versions into two camps. The PS1 version and the PC version are both visually inferior to the N64 and Dreamcast versions, but they do have one important thing that those versions don’t; PS1 and PC got full motion cut scenes. N64 and Dreamcast, on the other hand, got in-engine rendered scenes with regular character models, and while it serves just fine to tell the story and honestly flows more smoothly than the cutscenes with the gameplay, Army Men’s cheesy cut scenes have always been one of my favorite things about the series. They all play largely the same - the console versions, anyway; I didn’t play it on PC - but look radically different, and there’s a clear hierarchy of quality here. The worst looking version hands down and by a lot is PlayStation. That’s no surprise, really, as it’s a good bit weaker in terms of hardware than the Nintendo 64. It looks better than Army Men 3D or the World War games, but it’s pretty close. The bronze medalist is the PC version. Since it was essentially a port of the PlayStation version, it has the bad textures and low polygon models of the PlayStation version just running at a higher resolution. Silver goes to Nintendo 64. It was made separately from the PS1 version to take advantage of the Nintendo 64’s powerful hardware and 64-bit capabilities, and that shows with much better quality textures and higher poly count models. If you have the RAM expansion, you also have the option of running the game in 480i instead of 240p, an option PS1 wasn’t capable of. The supreme visuals, no surprise here as it’s a generation ahead of the other two consoles, is Dreamcast. It’s a port of the N64 version, so it starts out with baseline superior visuals, but the textures are improved and the rendering is smoother. Not only that, but if you have a VGA box or a SCART cable, Dreamcast Sarge’s Heroes can run at 480p, the highest resolution version out there. Full disclosure, you have to force it to run at 480p as it technically doesn’t support VGA, but there are some pretty easy ways to do that, and forced 480p works flawlessly.
There is only one thing (okay, two things, but mainly one) holding the Dreamcast version back from being a truly definitive Sarge’s Heroes experience - the cut scenes’ absence. It made sense for Nintendo 64 - those cartridges have much less storage capacity than a CD - but not only is that not an issue for Dreamcast, but Dreamcast GD-ROMs have a greater capacity than the PS1’s CD-ROMs. It would have been perfect to take the PS1’s cut scenes, polish and render them at the Dreamcast’s higher resolution, and put them in the Dreamcast version. That ways you’d have the superior N64 visuals with the Dreamcast’s enhancements plus the PS1’s cut scenes which could also conceivably have gotten some polish from the Dreamcast’s superior resolution output. That’s the main thing. There is one level that is completely exclusive to the Nintendo 64 version - a level where you move along pipes and wires inside the walls - and while its absence is missed in the Dreamcast version, I think the cutscenes’ inclusion would more than make up for that.
Anyway, now that I’ve rambled about version differences and extolled the Dreamcast’s supremacy, I guess I should talk about the actual game. As I mentioned in the beginning, this isn’t the same timeline as the first several Army Men games. Instead of “Sarge,” you play as Sergeant Hawk - who, confusingly, is still called Sarge - who commands the Green Army’s elite Bravo Company commandos. The game opens with General Plastro, the tyrannical Tan commander, launching a massive surprise offensive against a major Green base. Colonel Grimm, the Green military commander-in-chief, is at this base and needs to be rescued and escorted to an escape chopper. Note that Colonel Grimm is not the leader of the Green nation; Air Tactics, which takes place in the Hawk universe, had you rescue the Green president, implying that the president is the civilian political leader of the Green nation whereas Colonel Grimm - don’t ask why he’s not a general - is the leader of the Green military, presumably a step below the president in overall authority. Playing as Sergeant Hawk, you fight your way through the Tan forces occupying the base until you link up with Colonel Grimm. From there, you have to fight your way to the helipad, escorting Colonel Grimm along the way and ensuring he survives to escape. Unfortunately, the Bravo Company commandos are all captured by Tan forces. The rest of the game is Sarge’s missions to rescue his comrades and uncover and foil Plastro’s schemes.
The gameplay is a standard 5th gen third person shooter. Your control stick moves your character and camera, and firing your weapon is done with pseudo tank controls. You can fire while moving, and it will mostly auto aim if you’re pointed in the general direction of a Tan soldier, but when you’re manually aiming, it’s all tank style control. It’s not ideal, but it works, and it’s extremely in line with game conventions of the time. Camera controls are annoying and a little wonky, but it’s a minor issue. The bigger issue is the difficulty curve. The early missions in the first quarter or so of the game are short and easy. The second quarter gets longer and a bit tougher with ambushes, but it’s still reasonable. Then you hit the second half of the game, and it goes balls to the walls. It’s not even that the levels spike in true difficulty that much; outside of the giant robots, the enemies and difficulty stay pretty fair. The problem is that the levels get EXTREMELY lengthy, and there are no checkpoints. Fort Plastro is one of the mid-game levels, and I made it through like half an hour of the level sneaking through hills and minefields, taking out every enemy without taking a single hit, deactivated the electric fence, hopped the walls of the fort, took out the first few guards without being spotted...and then got ambushed and virtually insta-gibbed by a guy with a flamethrower. No problem, now I know where he is...is what I would normally say if it didn’t send me back to the beginning of the entire level from the start.
While the camera is annoying, and difficulty spike due to the level length and ambushes is infuriating, Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes is still more than worth it to play through. The music is rad as hell, and the game is just genuinely fun. It’s not just good for Army Men; the game is just plain good. Sure, it’s not a Game of the Year contender, but it’s definitely earned the nostalgia millennial gamers have for it, and it will absolutely stay a cult classic of sorts as it deserves to. Dreamcast is definitely the version to play, but Nintendo 64 is a bit more accessible and nearly as good. Play it on PS1 if you have to; it’s still fun, and while the visuals are...not great...you get the full motion cut scenes to make up for it. Regardless of whether you collect for PS1, Dreamcast, or N64, though, I definitely recommend giving Sarge’s Heroes a play.
Patron Saint of Bitch Mode
- Jagosaurus
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 3944
- Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 12:15 pm
- Location: Houston area, TEXAS
Re: Games Beaten 2024
I played TMNT Fall of the Foot Clan so much as a kid on my OG Gameboy. I've gone back through and beat it a few times in emulation... need to revisit it soon.
My first reply this year below. Here's to beating more.
2024 Games Beaten
Bold = new add
1. Wolfenstein 3D (XB360)
2. Gears of War Judgement
3. Gear of War 4
Believe it or not, despite owning the DOS version of Wolf 3D in the early 90s, the only version I had beat prior to this was on the Atari Jaguar ... which is actually quite good on its own & ported by Carmack himself, but truncated. The 360 port is based on the Apple version with enhanced music, higher resolution, improved sprite work, and additional weapons. I really enjoyed going through it.
And yeah ... I'm "gearing up" for a potential GoW Collection or GoW 6 announcement this summer. Here's to dreaming about both but I imagine we do get one dropped during showcase season with all the rumors flying.
Edit/Add: Archiving my 2023 games beaten here:
Games Beaten 2023
My first reply this year below. Here's to beating more.
2024 Games Beaten
Bold = new add
1. Wolfenstein 3D (XB360)
2. Gears of War Judgement
3. Gear of War 4
Believe it or not, despite owning the DOS version of Wolf 3D in the early 90s, the only version I had beat prior to this was on the Atari Jaguar ... which is actually quite good on its own & ported by Carmack himself, but truncated. The 360 port is based on the Apple version with enhanced music, higher resolution, improved sprite work, and additional weapons. I really enjoyed going through it.
And yeah ... I'm "gearing up" for a potential GoW Collection or GoW 6 announcement this summer. Here's to dreaming about both but I imagine we do get one dropped during showcase season with all the rumors flying.
Edit/Add: Archiving my 2023 games beaten here:
Games Beaten 2023
1. Sonic Adventure (DX HD)
2. Goldeneye 007 (Remaster)
3. Panzer Dragoon (Remake)
4. Halo 5 (Heoric & Skulls Replay)
5. Policenauts (PS1 English Translation)
6. Aaero
7. Gears of War Ultimate Edition
8. Gears of War 2
9. Gears of War 3
10. Doom 3 BFG Edition
11. Halo 2 (Heoric & Skulls Replay)
12. TMNTs Shredder's Revenge
13. Sonic & All Star Racing Transformed
14. NiGHTS Into Dreams (HD)
Last edited by Jagosaurus on Sun May 26, 2024 12:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
My Retro Achievements | Games Beaten 2023 & 2024 |
xJAGOx = Xbox Gamertag | Console Mods
- PartridgeSenpai
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2998
- Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 9:27 am
- Location: Northern Japan
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Partridge Senpai's 2024 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
* indicates a repeat
1. Terranigma (SFC)
2. Eastward (PC)
3. Pulse (PC)
4. Lost Ruins (PC)
5. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC)
6. Dropsy (PC)
7. Call of Juarez Gunslinger (PC)
8. Pokemon Ruby (GBA) *
9. Secret of Mana (SFC)
10. Fire Watch (PC)
11. Bokura (PC)
12. Romancing SaGa (SFC)
13. Trials of Mana (SFC)
14. Castlevania Legends (GB)
15. SaGa 2 (GB)
16. SaGa 3 (GB)
17. Celeste (PC)
18. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PC)
19. Celeste 64 (PC)
20. CB Chara Wars: Ushinawareta Gya~gu (SFC)
21. To The Moon (PC)
22. LOVE (PC)
23. Pikuniku (PC)
24. Night in the Woods (PC)
25. The Beginner's Guide (PC)
26. Suikoden (PS1)
27. Chocobo Dungeon 2 (PS1)
28. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Advance! Fire Adventure Team (Wii)
29. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Go! Storm Adventure Team (Wii)
30. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Aim! Light Adventure Team (Wii)
31. Line Attack Heroes (Wii)
32. The Quest for Camelot (GBC)
33. Tales of Destiny (PS1)
34. Metal Walker (GBC)
35. Frog Detective 1 (PC)
36. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (GBA) *
37. Frog Detective 2 (PC)
38. Frog Detective 3 (PC)
39. Super Robot Wars Alpha for Dreamcast (DC)
40. Brain Lord (SFC)
41. Lagoon (SFC)
42. Dark Hunter: Jou Ijigen Gakuen (PS1)
43. Ys: Books I & II (PCE)
44. Ys III: Wanderers From Ys (SFC)
45. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SFC)
46. Dark Hunter: Ge Youma No Mori (PS1)
47. Ys V - Expert (SFC)
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
* indicates a repeat
1. Terranigma (SFC)
2. Eastward (PC)
3. Pulse (PC)
4. Lost Ruins (PC)
5. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC)
6. Dropsy (PC)
7. Call of Juarez Gunslinger (PC)
8. Pokemon Ruby (GBA) *
9. Secret of Mana (SFC)
10. Fire Watch (PC)
11. Bokura (PC)
12. Romancing SaGa (SFC)
13. Trials of Mana (SFC)
14. Castlevania Legends (GB)
15. SaGa 2 (GB)
16. SaGa 3 (GB)
17. Celeste (PC)
18. Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit (PC)
19. Celeste 64 (PC)
20. CB Chara Wars: Ushinawareta Gya~gu (SFC)
21. To The Moon (PC)
22. LOVE (PC)
23. Pikuniku (PC)
24. Night in the Woods (PC)
25. The Beginner's Guide (PC)
26. Suikoden (PS1)
27. Chocobo Dungeon 2 (PS1)
28. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Advance! Fire Adventure Team (Wii)
29. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Go! Storm Adventure Team (Wii)
30. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Aim! Light Adventure Team (Wii)
31. Line Attack Heroes (Wii)
32. The Quest for Camelot (GBC)
33. Tales of Destiny (PS1)
34. Metal Walker (GBC)
35. Frog Detective 1 (PC)
36. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (GBA) *
37. Frog Detective 2 (PC)
38. Frog Detective 3 (PC)
39. Super Robot Wars Alpha for Dreamcast (DC)
40. Brain Lord (SFC)
41. Lagoon (SFC)
42. Dark Hunter: Jou Ijigen Gakuen (PS1)
43. Ys: Books I & II (PCE)
44. Ys III: Wanderers From Ys (SFC)
45. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (SFC)
46. Dark Hunter: Ge Youma No Mori (PS1)
I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me
- RobertAugustdeMeijer
- 24-bit
- Posts: 138
- Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2022 10:15 am
Re: Games Beaten 2024
First 20:
21: Bayonetta 2
Awwyeah, fast and stylish, this is peak hack 'n' slash action. Has a lot of depth for a single player game, but why delve into this when there's Guilty Gear / Soul Calibur / UNI2 / etc.?
8/10
22: Prince of Persia
There's some fascinating stuff, like the mirror image. But the slow platforming, tedious puzzles, and random combat keeps this from being worth your time.
3/10
23: Papers, Please
In retrospect, perhaps the choices are shallow, and the document checking too taxing. And yet, striving for a just society via paperwork is an unforgettable and often touching experience.
8/10
24: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
It's more Tony Hawk! I'm not sure if this one features anything that weren't already in the second game, but the levels are cute, and long strings still feel great.
6/10
25: Doronko Wanko
Within an hour, you get to totally mess up a house because you're a cute dog. And collect accessories to dress up. And it's free!
7/10
Awwyeah, fast and stylish, this is peak hack 'n' slash action. Has a lot of depth for a single player game, but why delve into this when there's Guilty Gear / Soul Calibur / UNI2 / etc.?
8/10
22: Prince of Persia
There's some fascinating stuff, like the mirror image. But the slow platforming, tedious puzzles, and random combat keeps this from being worth your time.
3/10
23: Papers, Please
In retrospect, perhaps the choices are shallow, and the document checking too taxing. And yet, striving for a just society via paperwork is an unforgettable and often touching experience.
8/10
24: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
It's more Tony Hawk! I'm not sure if this one features anything that weren't already in the second game, but the levels are cute, and long strings still feel great.
6/10
25: Doronko Wanko
Within an hour, you get to totally mess up a house because you're a cute dog. And collect accessories to dress up. And it's free!
7/10
- Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1428
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2024
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2024!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Jackal (NES)
***3. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)***
4. Skies Of Arcadia Legends (GCN)
5. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
6. Sunset Riders (GEN)
***7. Tactics Ogre (PS1)***
***8. Forza Motorsport (XBOX)***
9. Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
***10. Darkstalkers (PS1)***
***11. Splatoon (WiiU)***
12. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)
***13. Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (NES)***
14. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
***15. Puzzle Kingdoms (Wii)***
16. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (GB)
17. Steel Empire (GEN)
I beat Steel Empire on the Sega Genesis this evening!
Many years ago when I was creating my Genesis wishlist, I was amazed at how many good Shooters I found on the system. I now know that the Genesis is known for its Shoot'Em Ups, but discovering many games that looked interesting was eye opening to me. Unfortunately, that left me rather paralyzed as I never knew where to get started. Randomly, I found a video on YouTube talking about some of the best Shooters for Beginners and Steel Empire was on it. It looked very interesting and I was happy to see it was on my Wishlist, so it jumped up on my games to buy for the system. Looking for another Genesis game to play, I decided to jump in and see what it was all about.
Steel Empire is a horizontal Shoot'Em Up set in a SteamPunk style environment. With so many space Shooters, the Steam Punk style is the game's best characteristic. One of the planes you can choose from is a Zeppelin, which is very large, but it does have the most HP, so it is perfect for Beginners. The Steam Punk setting goes into the enemies, Bosses and story as it feels like a weird take on World War II. Besides the Zeppelin, the game has different difficulty settings and you don't have to mash the fire button as you can just hold it. With a large life bar and these quality of life improvements, the game was a nice step into the Shooter pool. Also, you have the unique ability of being able to fire backwards and forwards, which works remarkably well when you fight the large bosses and different enemy patterns.
Unfortunately, some of the bosses have incredibly tiny and hard to reach hit boxes, so it can be quite challenging to hit them on a consistent basis. And if you lose your two Option planes, then it becomes even harder. Also, there are parts in the game where you are forced to take damage. You don't know where to go and whats coming next, so you just have to plow through walls and hits the floor or ceilings of wherever you are.
Overall, I still really enjoyed Steel Empire. I have been getting into Shooters because of playing through several arcade games, so it was fun to play one on a console and be able to beat it. I think the game is a great Introductory Shooter game and something that anybody can enjoy. The music, graphics and slowdown aren't very technically impressive, but the ease of play and difficulty make them somewhat of a hidden gem. Give it a try if you are interested in trying the genre!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
1. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
2. Jackal (NES)
***3. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)***
4. Skies Of Arcadia Legends (GCN)
5. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
6. Sunset Riders (GEN)
***7. Tactics Ogre (PS1)***
***8. Forza Motorsport (XBOX)***
9. Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA)
***10. Darkstalkers (PS1)***
***11. Splatoon (WiiU)***
12. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (NSW)
***13. Dusty Diamond's All-Star Softball (NES)***
14. 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
***15. Puzzle Kingdoms (Wii)***
16. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (GB)
17. Steel Empire (GEN)
I beat Steel Empire on the Sega Genesis this evening!
Many years ago when I was creating my Genesis wishlist, I was amazed at how many good Shooters I found on the system. I now know that the Genesis is known for its Shoot'Em Ups, but discovering many games that looked interesting was eye opening to me. Unfortunately, that left me rather paralyzed as I never knew where to get started. Randomly, I found a video on YouTube talking about some of the best Shooters for Beginners and Steel Empire was on it. It looked very interesting and I was happy to see it was on my Wishlist, so it jumped up on my games to buy for the system. Looking for another Genesis game to play, I decided to jump in and see what it was all about.
Steel Empire is a horizontal Shoot'Em Up set in a SteamPunk style environment. With so many space Shooters, the Steam Punk style is the game's best characteristic. One of the planes you can choose from is a Zeppelin, which is very large, but it does have the most HP, so it is perfect for Beginners. The Steam Punk setting goes into the enemies, Bosses and story as it feels like a weird take on World War II. Besides the Zeppelin, the game has different difficulty settings and you don't have to mash the fire button as you can just hold it. With a large life bar and these quality of life improvements, the game was a nice step into the Shooter pool. Also, you have the unique ability of being able to fire backwards and forwards, which works remarkably well when you fight the large bosses and different enemy patterns.
Unfortunately, some of the bosses have incredibly tiny and hard to reach hit boxes, so it can be quite challenging to hit them on a consistent basis. And if you lose your two Option planes, then it becomes even harder. Also, there are parts in the game where you are forced to take damage. You don't know where to go and whats coming next, so you just have to plow through walls and hits the floor or ceilings of wherever you are.
Overall, I still really enjoyed Steel Empire. I have been getting into Shooters because of playing through several arcade games, so it was fun to play one on a console and be able to beat it. I think the game is a great Introductory Shooter game and something that anybody can enjoy. The music, graphics and slowdown aren't very technically impressive, but the ease of play and difficulty make them somewhat of a hidden gem. Give it a try if you are interested in trying the genre!