Games Beaten 2023

[prfsnl_gmr]

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)



I completed Dr. Mario on the GameBoy this afternoon!

If there is one game that I think that I am the best at, it would be Dr. Mario. It is rare for me to lose any matches and I have beaten anybody that has ever challenged me. Because of that, I like to collect and play the different variations of the game. I grew up with the NES version, I play the SNES version with Tetris almost every Saturday night and I have many fond memories of playing the N64 version with 3 other people at the same time. Since I now have access to the GameBoy, I decided to pick up a copy at a local convention. This is one of those rare GameBoy games I had earlier in life. I worked at a calendar kiosk in the mall after college and to pass the time, I would play Dr. Mario on my Gameboy.

The tried and true formula of Dr. Mario really hasn't changed for the GameBoy. You are still stacking pills to eliminate all of the viruses to move onto the next level. The virus colors have changed because of the GameBoy to Black, White and a Polka Dot color. I've tried playing Dr. Mario on a Black and White Television, so I am glad that they made those changes to be able to see them properly. Besides the color change, it pretty much is an exact port of the NES version. Though, when you do a 4 Hit Combo, you get a brief interlude of the Mario Invincible Star Music, so that was a very nice touch for the game. In Dr. Mario games, at a certain amount of pills dropped, the game begins to speed up just a little. That is not present in the GameBoy version, so that is a very touch and makes this version really nice for beginners to learn the game.

However, there are two hurdles in this version for beginners to overcome. One is that the piece selection could be the worst in the franchise. I would start at a bottle of almost one color and I would have to wait for several pieces to get that color. You have to make your own garbage and then remove it as well just to place them somewhere. Also, the screen is so small that when you get to the final levels, the viruses are too high to place them on top. You have to kill them from the sides to beat the final two levels.

Overall, it is nearly impossible for me to dislike a Dr. Mario game. I would probably prefer to play either of the console versions over the handheld one. I would say the handheld is a good place to start if you want to get good at Dr. Mario. But, for anybody else, I would stick with your favorite console version!

Great review. Have you played the mobile Dr. Mario World game? I am not a fan of F2P mobile games, but I LOVED it.

[prfsnl_gmr]

1. Kirby & The Forgotten Land (Switch)
2. Kirby’s Dreamland 3 (SNES)
3. Earthbound Beginnings (NES)
4. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (NES)
5. Tuff E Nuff (SNES)
6. Star Fox 2 (SNES)
7. Rival Turf (SNES)
8. Brawl Brothers (SNES)

Weird double post…Oh, well! I’ll make the most of it!

Rival Turf is the NA version of the first game in the Rushing Beat series, and it is a bad beat ‘em up. The graphics are meh; the music is, literally, two tracks; the hit detection is very poor (unless, of course, the enemies are hitting you); and the 1P mode is too tough. Getting through the game requires using my jumping attacks to conserve life and do chip damage to enemies. It was extremely tedious. Maybe it’s better with two players? Not recommended.

Brawl Brothers is the NA version of the second game in the Rushing Beat series, and it is a HUGE improvement. The graphics, especially the backgrounds, are awesome; the music is solid; the gameplay is varied; there’s a large playable character roster; the hit detection is fine; the difficulty curve is perfect; and it’s just a lot of fun. It is easily one of the best 16-bit beat ‘em ups., and it has a super cool cyberpunk aesthetic. Highly recommended.

The Peace Keepers (i.e., the third game in the Rushing Brat series) is up next!

[Markies]

Great review. Have you played the mobile Dr. Mario World game? I am not a fan of F2P mobile games, but I LOVED it.

Same. I also don't have a way to play mobile games.

To be honest, I kind of tapped out of the Dr. Mario Games after the N64. I never played any of the mobile, download only or even Dr. Luigi. They all looked interesting and unique, but not enough for me to bend over backwards to play them.

[Note]

Beale Brothers is the NA version of the second game in the Rushing Beat series, and it is a HUGE improvement. The graphics, especially the backgrounds, are awesome; the music is solid; the gameplay is varied; there’s a large playable character roster; the hit detection is fine; the difficulty curve is perfect; and it’s just a lot of fun. It is easily one of the best 16-bit beat ‘em ups., and it has a super cool cyberpunk aesthetic. Highly recommended.

The Peace Keepers (i.e., the third game in the Rushing Brat series) is up next!

I've played a bit of Peace Keepers and enjoyed it! However, I have to finally check out Brawl Brothers. I'm totally sold from your review.

[Jagosaurus]

You guys are absolute savages! Blowing throw games.

This year, I made a list of about 35 games I plan to pull from & knock out some backlog. Hypothetically, should help me focus on some solid experiences although I won't finish them all. So far I've beaten:

1. Sonic Adventure (DX HD)
2. Goldeneye 007 (Remaster)

Sonic Adventure:
So SA played a huge part in my early teen years as I had a DC at launch. Was fun going back through this HD version on the Xbox platform. I technically didnt pay the 3 bucks for the paywall DX material. The game looked amazing. Wish it was wide-screen like SA2 re-release, but as usual, I didn't mind the borders after long.

I did beat all 7 characters to unlock Super Sonic and beat the real final Chaos boss. By far ... the Sonic campaign is the strongest, but I give them bonus points for the multiple perspectives, abilities, and overlapping stories. I had fun revisiting this one.

Goldeneye 007:
So I received this back on Christmas morning 1997. I have fond memories of it, but expected it to be rough as many N64 titles didn't age the best. I was pleasantly surprised.

While I wish it was 60 fps, the Remaster was a lot of fun, was in wide-screen, looked sharp, and benefits from the dual stick control (on xbox, not Switch unfortunately). Also, I had a digital copy of Rare Replay so it was added to my XB library for free. Unfortunately, physical owners of RR don't get it due to licensing and delivery issues. I'm shocked this game even was released after the decade+ of licensing issues. Sticking to campaign...

First, the level variety surprised me. There are 10+ different backdrops including snow, caverns, city, soviet buildings, sky structures, trains.

Also, I had forgot how heavily objective based it was ... yet was also shocked I remembered so many nuances from 26 years ago ... looking at you laser watch on the train! I did only run through on Agent so I beat the original 18 levels. I likely won't run back through all 18 on Special Agent or 00 Agent to unlock Aztec or Egyptian as I experienced that during OG retail release days ... or I may very casually over time to experience the additional objectives.

Overall, pleasantly surprised and I 100% understand how influential this game was on the industry. Now ... good thing the Perfect Dark 2010 Remaster is on my "focus to-play list"

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2023 - 9
* denotes a replay

January (5 Games Beaten)

1. Banner of the Maid - Switch - January 2
2. Silver Falls: 3 Down Stars - 3DS - January 8
3. Silver Falls: Episode Prelude - Switch - January 8
4. The Pathless - PlayStation 5 - January 12
5. Modern Combat: Blackout - Switch - January 14

February (4 Games Beaten)

6. Fire Emblem: Engage - Switch - February 2
7. Dragon Quest Builders 2 - PlayStation 4 - February 15
8. Silver Falls: Undertakers - Wii U - February 16
9. Silver Falls: White Inside Its Umbra - Wii U - February 18

9. Silver Falls: White Inside Its Umbra - Wii U - February 18



Silver Falls: White Inside Its Umbra is Sungrand's fond farewell to the beloved Wii U console. Although it launched alongside the Wii U port of Silver Falls: Undertakers, White Inside Its Umbra is really Sungrand's true love letter to the Wii U. It was built specifically for the Wii U, and because of how it uses the Wii U's key features, it will probably always stay exclusive to Wii U as it's not really a game that could work on other consoles without totally changing the design and feel of the experience. With three difficulty settings - no enemies, normal enemies, and World 8 Mario enemies - this game has a very approachable story mode for players of all skill and patience levels. All screenshots are courtesy of Sungrand.



The story mode of White Inside Its Umbra is survival horror with a touch of walking sim. You play as Bjorna, a young woman whose cousin, Ken, has been lost in the woods around Silver Falls for two weeks. Together with a search party from town, you search the woods at night for your missing cousin. As is often the case in Silver Falls, mysterious and dangerous creatures stalk the woods, though, so cougars and bears are the least of your worries in the woods this night. As you trek through the woods, you'll have to contend with a multitude of enemies, twisting paths and dead ends, and a depleting smartphone and flashlight battery. Even when you have a charge, your light and the sounds from your smartphone can alert enemies to your presence; hope you've got some ammo. You control the flashlight and your weapon with the Wiimote and move with either the D pad on the Wiimote or with a Nunchuck depending on what you choose. The smartphone is controlled by the gamepad, and it's at the heart of the experience. There are invisible enemies that can only be seen with the camera app, strong enemies that can only be hurt after being weakened with a special phone app, a UV blaster app that can drive off enemies, a metal detector app, a GPS app to help you orient and navigate, and minigames including Pony Petter which featured in Sungrand's first weekly competition (a competition I placed 2nd in, by the way, and won Maverick D. Moose as an exclusive playable character in another game mode).



In addition to the story mode, you've got the "Zero Chapter" and Frontier Hunters. Zero Chapter is straight walking sim and entirely to help you get a feel for the world in the daylight with no enemies as well as to give some lore and character information as you meet folks walking through the woods. In Zero Chapter, you play not as Bjorna but as a random out-of-towner visiting to hike; "you" in Silver Falls, if you will. The super cool thing about Zero Chapter is that it supports the balance board for movement. You can use the same two control scheme options from story mode to move if you want, but if you have a balance board, you can use it to move; leaning forward moves forward, leaning left moves left, etc. This was supposed to be included as a control scheme in story mode, too, so that you could use the balance board, gamepad, and Wiimote all at once, but Nintendo made Sungrand remove it from story mode; it was apparently "too scary," and they felt it was a risk of folks' getting startled and falling and injuring themselves. Hella lame, I know. Maybe someone will find a way to trick the game into letting you use the balance board in story mode? Unity on 3DS and Wii U are notoriously buggy and unpredictable, after all...



The last game mode, Frontier Hunters, is probably my favorite. It's what gives the game the real value for play hours, and it's also the multiplayer mode. Frontier Hunters is a mission-based rail shooter lightgun-style multiplayer mode. Between one and four players (but trust me, you need more than one) can use Wiimotes to blast monsters as you are moved through a level. Think House of the Dead or Area 51. Each playable character has their own weapon proficiencies and unique Skill Wheels, and thanks to my finishing Sungrand's first competition in the top five, I get to use the eldritch moose god, Maverick D. Moose. He's actually just the town's mascot, but I unilaterally decided in the Silver Falls Discord server that he's actually an ancient eldritch god who protects the town from the worst of the supernatural horrors lurking in the woods. Find some friends, grab some Wiimotes, and get to monster blasting.



White Inside Its Umbra can feel a little pricey for a digital Wii U title at $25.99 if you're just looking at the story mode, but the game is so much more than that. Just like how Guardians and Metal Exterminators's "main" game modes are a tiny fraction of the content and Frontier Guardians is the real draw, Frontier Hunters is the real meat of White Inside Its Umbra. There are nods to other games in the Silver Falls series that longtime fans will notice and appreciate, but if this is your starting point, it's a great one. There's a lot of content here with Frontier Hunters, and there's more coming in a future update. It's unfortunately only available on the North American Wii U eShop, but if you have an NTSC-U Wii U, make sure you pick this up before the eShop closes in a month.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Brawl Brothers is the NA version of the second game in the Rushing Beat series, and it is a HUGE improvement. The graphics, especially the backgrounds, are awesome; the music is solid; the gameplay is varied; there’s a large playable character roster; the hit detection is fine; the difficulty curve is perfect; and it’s just a lot of fun. It is easily one of the best 16-bit beat ‘em ups., and it has a super cool cyberpunk aesthetic. Highly recommended.

The Peace Keepers (i.e., the third game in the Rushing Brat series) is up next!

I've played a bit of Peace Keepers and enjoyed it! However, I have to finally check out Brawl Brothers. I'm totally sold from your review.

Definitely check it out. It’s not Streets of Rage or Final Fight 3, but I’d put it on par with Final Fight 2. It’s also, IMO, better than The Peace Keepers, which I just finished up this afternoon.

…..

1. Kirby & The Forgotten Land (Switch)
2. Kirby’s Dreamland 3 (SNES)
3. Earthbound Beginnings (NES)
4. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (NES)
5. Tuff E Nuff (SNES)
6. Star Fox 2 (SNES)
7. Rival Turf (SNES)
8. Brawl Brothers (SNES)
9. The Peace Keepes (SNES)
10 Arm Champs II (Arcade)

The Peace Keepers is the NA version of the third game in the Rushing Beat series, and although I preferred Brawl Brothers, I think there’s an argument it’s the best game in the series. First, the graphics are great. Everything is wonderfully animated, and the stages are extremely varied. It also features semi-digitized character portraits that look really cool, and it utilizes a lot of SNES-exclusive graphical effects. Better, it features four, unique playable characters and dozens of branching pathways, guaranteeing a different experience each time you play the game. The branching pathways are particularly interesting, and they lead to unique story events, hidden characters, etc., giving the game a tremendous amount of replay value.

Unfortunately, the game’s fighting mechanics are underwhelming. Each character has a lot of different moves, but throws are extremely easy to execute and do way more damage than other attacks. Weapons are basically worthless, and whether you basic attacks connect is dependent on both you and the enemy being at almost exactly the same depth on the playfield. (Rival Turf also had this issue, but here, at least, enemy attacks also don’t connect if you’re at different depths.) Accordingly, the game gets to be a bit of a slog by the end. (Running around and throwing everyone gets old after a while.) The difficulty also spikes way, way up at the very end, and to my shame, I relied heavily on the rewind feature to defeat the final boss. Finally, the game feels a bit incomplete. There’s almost no music, and some of the later bosses are just palette-swapped versions of normal enemies, but with longer life bars and few extra attacks. It fees a bit like Jaleco had bigger ideas, but ran out of steam (or money) at some point during development. Still, I admire the game’s reach, and while I thought Brawl Brothers was ultimately the better game, it’s worth experiencing. Recommended.

Arm Champs II is an arcade arm wrestling game also, conincidentally, developed by Jaleco. I’ve been hitting the gym, and I absolutely demolished Specs, the last boss, during a recent visit to a local barcade. Recommended.

[Ack]

1. Northern Journey (PC)(FPS)
2. Hatchpunk (PC)(FPS)
3. Might and Magic IX (PC)(RPG)
4. Star Wars: Empire at War (PC)(RTS)
5. Chasm: The Rift (PC)(FPS)
6. Real Heroes: Firefighter HD (PC)(FPS)
7. CULTIC (PC)(FPS)
8. Consortium (PC)(FPS)
9. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (PC)(FPS)
10. Forgive Me, Father (PC)(FPS)
11. Teomim Island (PC)(FPS)

Teomim Island goes for next to nothing on Steam. We're talking like a dollar. Why? Because it was a kid's first game, so describing it as rudimentary would seriously overplay it.

You arrive on an island. You look in a house. You discover you need to find a guy. You explore another nearby facility in the woods. You learn you need two fuses. You end up in an alternate universe where you shoot ghost warriors. You return and fight weird cyborgs in a facility. The game ends.

This being a first game, it doesn't feel great to criticize things, but there are criticisms to make. What little story there is seems unconnected, like it's ideas strung together incoherently just to see if different set pieces would work. Enemies also make little sense, ranging from giant wolves to dinosaurs to spirits to killer robot things. Their AI is consistent; they come at you until you drop them and can get confused on pathfinding. And then there are the problematic design choices.

The problematic design choices start with simply installing the game, when you realize the files were not compressed for download off Steam. You're grabbing a 28 GB file for something that looks like Doom 3 and can be beaten in half an hour. Start the game up, and there are weird issues like the menus not registering when you select certain options and your mouse cursor remaining on screen when it shouldn't. Worse yet is saving, where the game utilizes a checkpoint system but somehow keeps track of your current ammo count and saves that, so if you hit a save spot, fire off five rounds, and die, you reload missing the five rounds. This means if you struggle at some point, you're unlikely to be able to beat the game. And then there are the simple physics problems, like bodies being objects you cannot walk over. The final area is a series of narrow corridors, so if you kill something in a doorway, you may have effectively blocked your way forward.

But hey, it's a game from a first timer. I don't expect it to be perfect, and truth be told, it has some high points too. During one section, you have to wander through a forest full of wolves to reach a hidden house. You can see the roof when standing on high ground, but getting to it can be nerve wracking when you hear the wolves howling. Get inside, and it's a strange and mysterious place that feels like it belongs in a survival horror. There are moments of mystery where you realize this kid has a good game somewhere inside, he just needs the experience in game development to know when some things will work better than others.

Teomim Island wasn't ever going to be stellar, and I don't think its flaws can be fixed, but it's a first step for someone. That, and it cost a dollar. I've seen way worse things for a dollar before. I don't recommend it to y'all, but I do recommend this dev keep trying, because he has talent. The experience will come.

[Raging Justice]

So with the eshop closure around the corner, I put cfw on a new Nintendo 3ds XL with dual IPS screens and have been having fun exploring the 3ds library. I'm focusing especially on digital only games as they'll be the ones gone with the eshop closure while physical games will always be available on the after market. I've finished a few games recently. Note that some of these games still have content I haven't completed, but I got to a credits screen which counts as "beaten".

Boxboy - A simple, fun, puzzle platformer with emphasis more on the puzzling than the platforming. The graphics are very simplistic, but the platform gameplay is clever, fun, and challenging without ever getting frustrating as puzzle games often do. Your character creates blocks and you use them to navigate the environment and avoid hazards. There's other games in the series that I will probably try as well. There's kind of a story in the game, but I didn't make much sense of it.

Rage of the Gladiator - A punch out type game set in a sort of medieval fantasy world where you are forced to fight in a combat arena. Unlike Punch Out you have weapons and a shield. It plays well and is fun (and funny). You can purchase equipment, items, and acquire skills and special attacks. This is all really helpful for anyone who maybe struggles at Punch Out games. It has a bit of a story too. On the negative side, it's fairly short with few fighters for you to take on. However, there are three difficulty modes and the fighters get stronger and get new moves on each one. Also, while the 3d effect is nice, I noticed some ghosting. I only seem to notice ghosting when using 3d in games that are ports and not original 3ds games.

The Battle Cats POP! - A fun Tower Defense type game with wacky, cat themed, characters. It's a light hearted game that is simple to play and fun. It can get repetitive over long play sessions though. Nice, subtle, use of 3d to add depth to the stages. Some games try too hard with the 3d, this game does it just right. I called it tower defense, however you do have to destroy the enemy base to win a stage. Fun game, but with little depth. You can tell it was originally a mobile game. This would be a great game to get on a sale, though I don't know if there will be any more sales before the eshop closure

Pazuru - Fun puzzle game where a ball bounces around the screen like a pinball, you have to manipulate these flipper like things to navigate the ball towards a bunch of stars in each stage while also making it avoid hazards in order to beat a stage. You get ranked based on how few times you manipulate the flippers to beat a level. Later stages require serious reflexes and finger dexterity to solve the puzzles as that ball is moving quickly around the screen and you're trying to keep up. The game is more complex than it sounds on paper. There's a choice of three music tracks to listen too while playing the game, I found the second one to be very catchy and upbeat.

On a side note, holy crap can you do a lot with the new N3DS with cfw. I'm talking specifically about the new 3ds model, not the old one. I've even got Playstation 1 games like Spyro running full speed on this thing through retroarch.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2023 - 10
* denotes a replay

January (5 Games Beaten)

1. Banner of the Maid - Switch - January 2
2. Silver Falls: 3 Down Stars - 3DS - January 8
3. Silver Falls: Episode Prelude - Switch - January 8
4. The Pathless - PlayStation 5 - January 12
5. Modern Combat: Blackout - Switch - January 14

February (5 Games Beaten)

6. Fire Emblem: Engage - Switch - February 2
7. Dragon Quest Builders 2 - PlayStation 4 - February 15
8. Silver Falls: Undertakers - Wii U - February 16
9. Silver Falls: White Inside Its Umbra - Wii U - February 18
10. Silver Falls: Guardians and Metal Exterminators - 3DS - February 22

10. Silver Falls: Guardians and Metal Exterminators - 3DS - February 22



Silver Falls: Guardians and Metal Exterminators had a troubled history on the eShop. Due to a clerical error in the eShop filing (it was listed as working on all models of 3DS whereas it actually only works on New 3DS), it got pulled from the eShop very shortly after launch and took a couple months to get restored. Despite that difficulty, though, it was worth the wait because this is a truly excellent 3DS game. I was fortunate enough to snag it before it was initially delisted, so while the version I've spent the most time playing has some glitches and bugs that were fixed in the updated version that was re-listed on the eShop, I still had an absolute blast with the game. All screenshots are courtesy of Sungrand.



Guardians and Metal Exterminators is a bit of an odd duck in that the "main" game modes only make up like 5% of the content in the game. Game A and Game B are designed to emulate the old Tiger Electronics handheld LCD games. They're simple score chasers with shallow but addicting gameplay. Unless you're a serious score chaser, they're unlikely to hold your interest for more than five or ten minutes here or there. That said, that's part of the purpose of Guardians and Metal Exterminators; it's meant to be a game you can pick up and play for a few minutes when you have downtime without needing to invest a lot of time in a long story mode or keep up with a lengthy narrative.



That said, Frontier Guardians, the game's ostensibly-extra content, is actually where the vast majority of the gameplay is. It's a mission-based RPG mode where you start off with two playable characters, Oxa and Gold, and play through set missions. Don't let the mission objectives fool you; the way you earn moose tokens to buy items and xp to upgrade your character is through killing enemies, not completing objectives. Completing the objective just gets you 100% of your earned rewards instead of the 50% you get from failing the mission; if you manage to complete the mission's optional objective, you get 125% of the earned rewards. The missions involve your chosen character running around in an overhead view, killing enemies, and completing your objectives. As you progress through the game, you'll unlock a couple other characters, and there are even more characters you can unlock by using the Code Linker functions and connecting with other Silver Falls titles. You can also play as the Metal Exterminators, too, but whereas every Guardian character has at least a few story scenes, none of the enemy characters do. Bummer. The way you see these story scenes is by upgrading your character, and you can see the story completion % on the character select menu, so you'll easily be able to tell what characters are complete and who still has unviewed story scenes.



For me, Frontier Guardians and the story scenes were the draw. I get bored of old LCD games quickly, so that didn't really grasp me as anything more than a novelty, but Frontier Guardians is a lot of fun and provides a lot of Silver Falls lore if you go through the story scenes with every character. The missions don't take long - on average five to ten minutes - and I've completed some in under a minute. The objectives are randomly generated each time, so if you get a super hard one, no worries; you can either switch to a better character or just fail the mission, and the game will roll you a new mission. It's a ton of fun and a great way to kill some time or unwind. I definitely recommend this one highly.