Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2023 Edition Part II

(+) Yeah! (+)

Quake 2 Remastered (PC)

After several months of backing up my files, I finally got on Windows 10. To start, decided to play the remastered version of one of my favorite childhoood games. I'm late to the party but this is clearly one of the best improvements to a game ever. Revamped AI for most enemies (and turning one of the lulziest enemies into an actual threat), new graphics to go with the times, multiplayer bots, co-op multiplayer mode, and a brand-new episode much like what happened with Quake 1 where MachineGames came to produce something that is now capable on modern systems. I ended up playing everything all over again and had a blast with it.

I grew up in an odd time playing games. Megaman 4, Chrono Cross, and Quake 2---beta sequels that couldn't compare to their predecessor. I have fond memories of Quake 2 and its rockin' soundtrack. It was cool when I heard it then, and when I heard it in Doom Eternal and it's still cool now.

The new episode was great as like the previous one, introduced elements that made the game way harder and challenging than its oldschool brethren. Split into 6 sections, a vast array of styles are explored with the new engine and they did not disappoint. Well, except for maybe one chapter who tried to turn the game into Serious Sam. That was not fun at all and was actually forced to cheat. But the rest was neato. There was one chapter that was REALLY testy and challenging, adding a boatload of enemies at a proper pace and surprise. There were maps that were easier with more focus on the ambiance and exploration, something I didn't think was possible with this game and engine. And there was the one obligatory nod to Quake 1, unofficially tying both games together in some form of pseudocanon. All in all great exp. And one exp I sorely needed after forcibly trying to trudge through my backlog pre-update.

Super Mario Bros Wonder

100% completion. Final level was amazing. The final prize they give you even more so. Every single level had some crazy new mechanics and enemies, and all that plays off all the different power ups and ability badges you can equip. The online multiplayer is amazing. I had so many wholesome interactions with random people online. Just an amazing experience overall. Like 9.5/10

Minit Fun Racer (PC)

A neat usage of the Minit formula on another genre

Haunted Hell House (Switch)

You play as a bunch of teenagers that go into a haunted house at an amusement park and have to run away from a killer clown wielding an ax.

Game is really short and not really scary. All you really do is search the areas for a key, solve a simple puzzle and go onto the next area while dealing with the clown. Doesn't really have much replay value. It's a one and done deal.

Sludge Life 2 (PC)

Gotta play that mid-quel someday. Anyways, this chill surreal game is more of the same which is just a good thing honestly. Lots of exploration and parkour and tagging. I guess one thing against it would be how easy it's become to find tags in part due to ease in which key items are found. Perhaps foregoing a metroidvania approach and going freeform exploration is to this game's detriment. After getting all the necessary items within the first few minutes and them being in plain sight, the rest of the tagging felt easier and the places you could go to felt less than the original. Thankfully like the first game, it is also peppered with collectibles and To-Do's to keep you entertained. Just slightly disappointed tagging takes a backseat this time around (it was like a sign of rebellion in the first game).

Meeting fellow taggers and combo-ing with them has always been a treat though. The rep system of finding tags to find combos is still around but has lost its meaning narrative-wise. There is no story per se but several plot threads to follow each with their own conclusions. If I was concerned about that, I would say the narrative here is weaker than the first game but I'd say it just takes a different dimension and a different approach.

Traumatarium (Switch)

This game is a homebrew game from itch.io that can also be played on a Game Boy.

A randomly generated dungeon crawler in the style of Fighting Fantasy.

The aesthetic of this game drew me in. As soon as I started the game I couldn't put it down. It was very addicting.

F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch (XS/X)

With how meaty areas are with their length, obstacles, and puzzles, I think structuring this as a metroidvania was a bit of a mistake. This could have been a very good linear, stage-based game.

Amid Evil + Black Labyrinth DLC (PC)

First played this on launch and my opinion still stands. Pretty much the same opinion as the other guy who played this in this thread: it was kind boring up until the last 3 episodes. But I recall back in 2018 I also said that I should've played this on Hard as normal was just too easy. So I did. Did that improve the experience? ehhhh, kinda. I was forced to use the soul mode even more but I would argue that more enemies would've been nice. It seems that the game would rather bathe you in eye candy and creative environments than seriously give you a challenge. At least it's not Dread Templar braindead though where the enemies mindlessly just home in on you without any tactical consideration. This game's new score is a +0.5 which isn't really going to bump up into anything.

The real reason for the replay is the prequel DLC. Here the protagonist is on a quest to get his iconic Black Axe. So naturally you don't start with it rather you start with a pair of fists and omg they are fun and even more fun when you're in soul mode as you go ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA on these demons.

So is this DLC better? As mentioned, Amid Evil's apparent strength lies in its environmental design. What we get is an even better set of levels unrestricted from the narrative of the main story. A far cry from the exotic and otherworldly locations; instead we have mundane setpieces like a swamp and a temple and a coast made better by its intricacies. We also get a new set of enemies who are frankly more annoying but surprisingly better. Well except for one shieldbro who just reflects everything you throw at it. It expects you to take a break from the action and slowly wait for it to open up (which is a tiny window btw) in order to kill it. I couldn't be bothered and just whipped out the BFG equivalent everytime these guys showed up. And speaking of which, the BFG equivalent in the DLC is very cool---a scythe that cuts time and space. It's very metal.

The DLC is divided into 2 parts. The first part is basically the aformentioned mundane part. I would call this the set of levels left on the cutting room floor in the last game, which doesn't underscore how bad it is btw, I just felt like they were left out for being boring but it's been proven wrong. The second part is better---essentially it's a multi-stage attempt to reach the Black Axe in a fortress that loves to troll the shit out of you. And frankly that is much needed a pace change all things considered.

Ultimately though, despite the number of new enemies, I feel like Amid Evil's strengths really lie in level design. Yes there are alot of new things to fight and it's not even that they appear in all 12 levels (as opposed to the 4 per episode in the main game to shake things up) that was boring me, but rather that they don't appear to have any extra tactical learning other than "Use weapon X on enemy Y". And by the end that didn't even matter as the game practically throws the Scythe BFG on you as if to say "When you're done playing around, use this to erase everyone in one click so you can move on" Hard mode btw does not actually make enemies tougher, it's just more but with less items. It also honestly doesn't help that every weapon in the game was the same except it executed differently. I would kill for a grenade launcher or a sniper rifle equivalent and I felt like the DLC missed that opportunity.

Finally the DLC is met with 2 boss fights both at the ends of their aformentioned parts. The first one was kinda OP like what am I suppose to do with that other than spam the BFG. The second one was...I wanna say Epic. But at the same time, it was just me biding my time to use the BFG at the right moment. But it was interesting to say the least and certainly a step up from every single boss fight in the main game. It nearly ran my ammo dry before I could finish it off. Btw I discovered that you can pretty easily cheese the final boss of the main game by exploiting its environment and standing in one place.

Anyways, this is finally done. More boomer shooters coming soon.

EDIT: Oh ya forgot to mention. The Music is awesome. I love the atmosphere.

Flipping Death (PS4)

The followup to Stick it to The Man was good but also disappointing. It could get really frustrating at times with platforming and generally getting from Point A to Point B.

Water Margin - The Tale of Clouds and Wind (Switch)

Interesting thing about this game: This was a game released on the Genesis/Mega Drive and it was only available in Hong Kong during the mid 90s.

This game is well...not that good.
It plays like a Knights of the Round knockoff with very similar mechanics except it has no guard mechanic and it has a magic system to do item crashes. The magic effects are very impressive looking at least.

I beat the game with Hu Sanniang. She has the most defense and she has the most range.
The game is just...monotonous with very little variety. Lots of cheapness abound and it felt unbalanced/unfair in some parts. Nothing interesting happens in any of the stages except for the combat itself. I was glad to just be done with it by the end.

I don't think this is a game I will not be revisiting and would rather play much better beat em' ups out there.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (PC)

A visually-striking remake that oddly didn't do much in the way of quality of life improvements. Enemy hit boxes, jumping, and this weird state of invulnerability after getting hit that also doesn't allow you move are some of the more egregious oversights when they remade this. I do appreciate being able to turn remake/original graphics at any time. It actually made some bosses/segments easier to go back to the old style.

Multiple updates in one post!

Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)

Just beat this yesterday after 70+ hours of doing almost everything. This series just keeps on dishing out divisive entries that are a mixed bag (for me, at least). For a long time I found this game flawed, but at least clearly better than 13 and 15 and a very good game in general. But my opinion has gone down more and more and the things I disliked I feel more strongly about than at the start. The problem for me is that this game is all visual spectacle, but just really lacks gameplay. The story and characters indeed a lot better than the previous few main titles, but in hindsight, the pacing is all over the place and the cutscenes are way too much for an action game. The boss battles look fantastic and they are cool to battle overall, but again, too little substance for me with a lot of predetermined phases and it's hard to lose. You can literally die halfway through a boss battle if you like (and getting to that point is very easy), you just restart from that halfway point and get every single potion or tonic back. It's overly forgiving. There are more things, such as a boring villain, bad world traversal and exploration, and a complete lack of gameplay systems or depth in the ones that do exist, which also causes the side quests to be repetitive and predictable in terms of progression and tasks. Even the game's combat, which is a huge part of FFXVI's gameplay, was just not good or deep enough for me to carry a 40-60 hour game (depending on how much you do).

I would still say I think it's overall a solid experience as of now. The spectacle is indeed great, the voice acting and general audio are great, the bosses are cool if shallow and there are moments where the combat can be fun. The story and characters are quite good, not perfect, but better than 12, 13 and 15. But I really missed depth in general and for what is considered an RPG series, there is very little of that here. Whether the next game will be all action, traditional or a hybrid, it really needs to flesh out gameplay again.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Switch)

This is a game I've beaten in the past few weeks. Only played a tiny bit on a DS in the past, but now really dove in and I loved it, I enjoyed all the twists, the fantastic art style and music, really unique way of solving puzzles etc. Just really good, not too long but not too expensive so that's fine. Happy I finally played it.

Astro's Playroom (PS5)

Never really played it despite the positive feedback and the fact that it's literally free with the system. However, a friend urged me to play it when he was visiting me so I did while he watched and we were both just giddy the whole time. Since then, I've been going through the rest of the game myself and finished it 100%. This may be a short tech-demo like game, but more than that, it's a celebration of the history of PlayStation that is just amazing. Honestly, it's an incredibly good platformer on its own. Creative, buttery smooth to control and beautiful to look at, nostalgic with all the overt and covert references...glad I got to play it for the first time still, I really loved this one. The fact it's just free with the system, you have to really hate platformers to not play and enjoy it.

Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster (Switch)

Beat the game with a Knight, Master, White Wizard and Red Wizard. I bought this game on a whim a while ago for some relaxing, classic turn-based playing. This version was perfect for that, if anything the reworked music is beautiful. Other than it's pretty much faithful and it's nice that I can turn off encounters when I wanted to just relax. Overall, it's still an old game mechanically and it's small, but the PR updates make it more enjoyable considering I don't have the nostalgia of the NES version (although I did play and beat the NES version on an emulator ones, but in many ways that's a similar experience with the QoL-features of an emulator).

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

Super Mario RPG on the SNES is one of my favorite games. I played the ever loving hell out of it since 1996.

This remake is really good. It has a lot of Quality of Life changes and the Post Game Content is also really nice.

While I will miss some of the old names, a few minor lines and few other minor changes, this remake is so good and it's the definitive way of playing this game.

I feel that it might be better than the original. I still love the original no matter what. Both games are great.

Ion Fury + Aftershock (PC)

Revisited this game again. This time after playing Blood, I've come to appreciate the alt fires as well as weapons I don't usually use. I pulled up a guide and explored all the secrets this time around and was surprised to find this game make a lot of references. Clearly a labor of love, my opinion hasn't changed about this game albeit I recall previously saying the game got kind of boring by the middle part because it was all caverns and generic labs and idk on replay I just kept going and never felt the monotony of things.

Like Amid Evil, my true reason for replaying was to see the expansion pack Aftershock. They put in a vehicle section and an open world cross-country thing ala Half-Life 2. It's great. And I smiled as they finally included a Silent Hill 1 megasecret (the main game only put SH4) in this one. There were new weapons that I found situational at best but nontheless fun to use. And there were new enemies but they came like at the butt end of the campaign and I mean they were great additions, I just wish I spent more time with them and there weren't alot either. No, the main reason to play Aftershock really is that there's just more Ion Fury to go around and I honestly wasn't disappointed. They even just made the final boss a traditional circlestrafer (the main game final boss was a bullshit Icon of Sin reference that required precision aiming amidst a sea of mooks) which was refreshingly easy.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)
Yeah, can't complain. This is quite a solid remake of an excellent game, doing enough to modernize gameplay and visuals without changing much else. I appreciate the new superbosses, particularly Culex 3D, mostly for the concept and the nice remade soundtrack by Shimomura. The Yoshi race minigame is still abhorrent.

Jusant

Needed a break from long games and really enjoyed this one. Definitely an aesthetics game. Reminded me a bit of The Last Guardian, strange companion creature and all! Ending was pretty wild and I enjoyed the amount of optional exploration it offers. Solid 8/10 that's worth playing through on Game Pass.

I've moved on to Returnal and I freaking adore this game already.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling (Steam)

Quoting from GotM Replay:

What a good game. Among everything else that stands out - the charming storyline, the good music, the large number of combat builds - is how well balanced the difficulty seems. I played on hard mode and that was just about right, where basically every major boss required me to pull out all the stops. I'd usually end those battles with half my party downed, no TP, few items left. Admittedly it accomplishes this through the kinda annoying boss design where the boss ramps up as it gets closer to death, so the best strategy is almost always to conserve everything for the last third of the fight, but it made for some challenging and memorable bosses. The final boss in particular was a doozy and I had to use a pretty cheap badge combo to win that, even at max level.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this Paper Mario x Hollow Knight fanfiction!

Double Kick Heroes (Switch)

Grueling on the thumb. The artstyle looks really cool, but it's unfortunate that I didn't see a lot of it as I was way too focused on the rhythm meter. Even after beating the game, I'm not entirely clear on whether I'm terrible at rhythm games, this game is just hard, or somewhat poorly designed. There's certainly a lot to keep track of, as just pushing the buttons in the rhythm isn't enough, you also need to keep your peripheral vision on where the enemies are to shoot in the right direction. Couple that with the fact that enemies sometimes stay out of the line of fire but still 'near' that line, it can be confusing and difficult sometimes to really figure out what you did wrong in a given level if you can't succeed.

Not terribly into metal, but I enjoyed the vast majority of the tracks in the game. I also appreciate that some effort was put into the writing; it could've easily been complete filler, but they made something out of it.

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE (Switch)

While most of the cases are pretty easy and lackluster, I feel like I wouldn't mind them as much if the gameplay during the Mystery Labyrinths, the game's equivalent of DanganRonpa's trials, weren't such a drag. Reasoning Death Matches are the equivalent of DR's Endless Debates, but they are definitely slower in comparison. You're forced to wait for any non-important statements to pop up, go towards your character and dodge them. There's also a lot of walking and talking where you have to manually move your character. You do get to walk through some nice looking environments though and Kanai Ward has a cool aesthetic though. Besides a neat little locked room recreation minigame and a short sequence in Case 4 where you control a robot, I don't think adding movement really added to the experience.

With Mystery Labyrinths taking place in their own world, it just isn't satisfying to dispute the statements being made with them being by representations of characters in the real world rather than the characters themselves. The figments don't even get any good reactions or dialogue with a bunch of them just giving a grunt. It's not like the culprits are given much characterization anyway since the suspects don't get too much screentime. The aftermaths of the Mystery Labyrinths don't help either.

The cast was ok. The main character gets some interesting development towards the end but I found his sidekick, Shinigami, to be pretty annoying the whole game. Your fellow detectives are pretty enjoyable, besides Desuhiko, who's just an arrogant pervert. A shame they only get to shine in their respective chapters that they're featured in and the each of them bring something unique to the investigation gameplay.

I didn't feel like the game got its gears going until Chapter 4, which is a long time to wait especially since the game starts at Chapter 0. The game definitely leaves you in anticipation for its last chapter where everything is revealed and I didn't think it disappointed even if it doesn't reach the heights of DR2 and V3. There are some good yet pretty predictable reveals but there was a particularly great reveal which felt aimed at DR fans. I think my thoughts coming out of the game are leaning positive but I still feel disappointed.

Tailbound (PC)

A lewd furry Zelda-like game.
I liked it enough to get all the achievements for it.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5)
Yeah, actually that was pretty great. While it starts as a safe follow-up with some clunky gameplay asides for the sake of narrative, it escalates. Oh man does it escalate. The finely-tuned cores of combat and movement established in SM1 and MM aid the succession of bombastic setpieces, staving off the AAA curse of a scripted-feeling experience. The key moment here is when you take control of Venom to rampage through Oscorp, smashing through walls and learning abilities on the fly. Nothing establishes a fearsome threat like embodying it yourself. Pete and Miles both get quite a few new tricks as the story proceeds as well, and even good old Mary Jane Watson sees DBZ-like power growth. It feels like the sort of dramatic events you would see in a superhero comic or battle manga, and it certainly is exciting throughout, in both presentation and gameplay. I don't mind seeing this up for Game of the Year anymore, although I'm not sure it would be my pick.

DUSK (Steam)

When this game is good, it's really good. I wouldn't call it scary, exactly, but it can be very tense and dripping with atmosphere. The look and especially the sound of the game are on point. It's incredible how quickly this game can turn on the paranoia with just a dark hallway and a few sound effects. Especially with the invisible wendigo enemies.

Of course, as you keep playing you'll realize a lot of it is cheating. Like, some of the ambient noises really are enemies but mostly it's just an ambient noise track. Like you'll hear something clanking but it doesn't actually exist in the level, you can't find it or interact with it. And of course when a game is pitch fuckin black it's scary but also it's bad game design. It was bad game design in the mid-2000s and it still is now.

Dusk plays pretty well. I wish the weapons were more interesting. You have a mostly useless pistol, two shotguns, an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, and a rocket launcher. Plus melee weapons of very marginal use. Level design is solid, though there's a lot of reliance on monster closets (and sometimes just spawning shit in out of plain air).

I loved the Christian horror stuff going on but the final couple levels really dropped the ball on it, with the final boss being especially doofy.

My understanding was that this was widely regarded as better than Amid Evil but I definitely preferred that game by a fair bit.

Planet of Lana (XS/X)

My gametime was just under three and a half hours, but it seemed like a lot longer. It's a pretty decent cinematic platformer on the back of its puzzles and vibrant art style. The protagonist though is abnormally clunky and sluggish to where it frequently got on my nerves. I'm not sure that I have played a game with a more horrible rope-swinging aspect.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5)

Super fun and smooth to play as always. Just the kind of game series where I waltz through the games. That being said, it is not my favorite of the series.

For the jump to PS5, way too little steps are made with this one I feel. They tried to make your movement more open ended and provided larger areas, but too few of the already small amount of planets really let you play with that. Also, enemy/boss variety could be better, as does the spawning of enemies. The platforming and puzzle sections are also half-baked and a little repetitive in this one. And the planets are also not that strong to me. I liked Savali (despite the emptiness) as it actually makes use of Rift Apart's new stuff and you can tackle some objectives in the order you like. Most others felt structurally too similar to each other or something.

I don't know what it exactly was overall. It feels like this one was a little more focused on story than the average R&C game and that shows in the design. It's a fun story, but not necessarily something I play the series for. The whole rift stuff also didn't really change much gameplay-wise imo, in some cases it changes the level but in a very structured, linear way. So again, feels mostly like a story elements rather than anything else.

Post overall may come across as negative, but I still loved playing the game. But this time around I have more clear (still relatively small in the grand scheme) negatives than with some of the other main titles.

Hollow Knight (PC)

I'm now finding myself having to reevaluate my entire previous position on not liking 2D metroidvanias. This game is amazing.

Weirdly, I hated it in my first time trying to play it. I felt like it was opressive, and eventually gave up after getting stuck in Fungal Wastes without a map. But then it stayed in my mind for almost a year, and I just had to come back to it, even if it was out of spite. But this time it just clicked. I loved the whole thing from start to end.

I just finished with 107%, having done everything except Godhome and the Trial of the Fool. Not gonna do those though, I don't enjoy bosses THAT much tbh. But I'm def playing SIlksong when it comes out, and I'm now considering trying metroidvanias again.

Hollow Knight really does make other Metroidvanias feel inferior though.

El Paso, Elsewhere (PC)

I've never seen anyone talk about this game. It came out September this year and that's it. But it's overwhelmingly positive and given a higher score than your standard fare indie game affair.

It's Max Payne 1 and 2. The UI, the controls, the mechanics, the bullet time, even the weapons and physics and how they operate are similar. If you ever wanted more of the oldschool Max Payne well here is 50 levels of that. It even has a dude monologuing noir style and his voice is amazing it totally sets the mood. I could listen to this guy all day long. It also takes a page from Painkiller in that you are fighting monsters of all kinds including Old Testament angels.

Off the bat, I like how just like in TUNIC there are options to give you invincibility or adjust the amount of pain your receive or dish out. There's even a "story" setting that's equally casual. Ahh the story. Well it's a basic plot: You're trying to stop your ex from ending the world. Just so happens she's the queen of all vampires. The location you're in is kind of a mind fuck place so you traverse through strange locales as the architecture fucks with you. So yeah this game's got a little bit of Alan Wake and Control to it as well.

This game has some really dark themes. Spoilers ahead as you continue descending it becomes really obvious that this relationship was abusive. That the abuse forced you to become addicted to painkillers (explaining the healing mechanic---I just like that it is exactly painkillers like in Max Payne but given context this time). James goes through an entire arc being down here as the location messes with him psychologically but also as he messes with himself in his tireless monologues.

How you think 50 levels is too long totally depends on you. I didn't think it was padding at all; all the cutscenes matter. However, I will say the pacing kind of peters out right around 2/3rds into it when a big thing happens but I thought it was justified. Spoiler: So as you go deeper you find out that the eldritch location messing with you has sentience and has sent something to torment you. You spend a significant amount of time dealing with it and immediately after, you finally see your ex as you approach the lower layers of the game. But in a surprising reveal, she actually lets you go early and it is in fact you who has been agonizing yourself on the kind of person she might or could be or would've been. So I feel like the padding was justified in that it's just you suffering the effects of the manipulation and agonizing yourself on whether she's still there or if you're actually gonna do it and kill her. And I think that's great storytelling.

Best of all, both endings are neither good nor bad. They are simply reprises of the same conclusion, leaving it up to you to decide how it ends and leaves this profound thought on the themes of abuse and control. I don't get though the trigger behind those 2 endings but I guess they had to find a way to make it and that was the only controllable element.

Like Max Payne, there are a lot of sidestuff to collect and see such as the radio and projector items that tell side stories with similar themes. It's not as hidden and intuitive but the things you find are odd in itself to stick around listening to. But also like Max Payne, the game's levels wasn't made with cover in mind so you are encouraged to perform bullet time to solve some tough problems. This antiquated design is both a good and bad thing as that means you are attributed more abstract levels of design which could get boring as you go. All the enemies have headshots and are still just as dangerous down to the common ghoul so weapon control is extremely important so you don't get mobbed. Speaking of the weapons they are great. The switching is almost seamless, the reloading is a bitch though so you have to make shots count and every single one save for the rifle has a punch to it moreso in bullet time. I think my favorite part is seeing smoke from recently fired barrels. It's a nice touch.

Let's see what else. The OST is fantastic. There's 50 levels right? Every single level has its own track and there's no underlying theme; it ranges from hip hop and rap to synth to rock. And the rapper I think is the same as the voice actor so that's amazing. The game also acknowledges setting tone and mood as the music dips in and out seamlessly during sequences in the levels.

Finally some quick bad stuff. The framerate for some reason goes down significantly in some levels and for others, only trigger after performing bullet time so you might be discouraged to use it. Fortunately this has only happened to me twice I think. I've also only encountered one instance in which a checkpoint screwed me over, but that was my attempt to rush a level. There are only 2 bosses spread across 50 levels so unless you're not really into this you might get bored real fast especially in the last 10 levels or so. There's also only 5 "biomes" to see and strangely one of them is in outer space and it only happens in exactly 1 level. Wasted potential I say.

But yeah, go check this game out if you want to get your oldschool Max Payne fix.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)

I actually 100% this game last week. WONDERFUL game through and through.

Genuinely enjoy most of.....but holy balls was that final level tough.

You know, I started Wonder right after completing NSMBU, and while I think NSMBU is a harder game on average, it doesn't have any stages nearly as tough as the final level in Wonder. Though I would say it has a level on par with Climb to the Beat.

I really don't think I would have beat the final level as soon as I did if I wasn't playing online and a very kind person was helping me throughout the whole level. I sent them a friend request shortly after and we became friends on Switch.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is my GotY 2023!

.....because I only played a couple releases from this year.

The Demon Crystal (Switch)

This is an enhanced remake of a game released in 1984 in Japan.

You play as Ares Knither, an imperial guard who has to rescue Princess Chris from the demon Sharud.

You find keys to open doors while you find a master key to proceed to the next level. Bombs are your main attack against the enemies. In some of the levels, you're also given hints to find new item upgrades. Some of them are also cursed to troll you.

Really nice little arcade type of game.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game (Switch)

Replayed. Beat the game with Ramona.

Rocket League (PC - Steam)

I made Grand Champ
Eff this awesomely terrible game.

2469 Hours Played since the last week of December in 2015

I made my goal, I beat the game. Nobody can make me think otherwise.
I am quitting now. The never-ending grind at least.
I ain't making it to whatever the next reward level is. GC2 is probably achievable but screw that. Said I would like 2 years ago "Once I make GC, I am done"

Heck yeah baby!!!!!

After being so close so many times. (Heck even this time lol ... Last day of the season and all)

I feel free.

Last night felt so good!...eff this game lol

Flipwitch: Forbidden Sex Hex (Steam)
I played this one because a friend sent a copy as a joke, and I thought it would be funny. Well, it wasn't that funny. It also wasn't that good. Nothing about it is terrible, and of course nobody expects this sort of game to hold up to real games, but the controls, movement, enemies and stage design are all half-baked. I think the main reason it isn't that bad is that it isn't a difficult game, and so nothing stuck around long enough to particularly annoy me.

FEZ (Steam)

I liked it, shoddy movement and confusing navigation aside. I'm also not smart enough for the harder puzzles, or at least not patient enough. I got the 32 cube ending and I feel like going much further would require me to start working on these ciphers and like. You gotta give me something to go on. I've seen the clues for them and I still don't really know where to start.

The ending sequence was fun. Damn I wish I still smoked weed.

paperwarior posted...

Flipwitch: Forbidden Sex Hex (Steam)
I played this one because a friend sent a copy as a joke, and I thought it would be funny. Well, it wasn't that funny. It also wasn't that good. Nothing about it is terrible, and of course nobody expects this sort of game to hold up to real games, but the controls, movement, enemies and stage design are all half-baked. I think the main reason it isn't that bad is that it isn't a difficult game, and so nothing stuck around long enough to particularly annoy me.

Steam has been recommending me this game nonstop lmao, didn't expect to see anyone on B8 play it though.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil Remastered (PC)

I don't have much memories playing this game as a kid since I never really owned the cartridge and instead played it on my friend's N64. But having now the opportunity to beat it for real, I can see why I never could. This game is hard and sometimes just plain unfair. What I appreciate is how significant head shots are and how 90% of the enemies are humanoid hence they have heads that are shootable so the basic pistol and shotgun never became obsolete.

Turok 2 was touted at the time to have had massive levels and exploration potential even bigger than the first game anyway and I commend that. I'm not gonna rag on the linearity of the maps in the end as well as their confusing layout esp one particular zone which was infamous in fact. The fact is, the remake had to remake some of those levels to even be less of a pain in the ass to function. They were products of their time so I'll let it slide. What irks me though is in the end the game expected you to remember where everything was in order to make significant progress in the campaign and when everything was said and done, the backtracking was kind of a bitch.

Anyways glad to get this one down. I finished the first game's remake I think a year ago and I kinda preferred that game to this one honestly despite the longer length. I'll be loading the controversially bad/good 3rd of the trilogy soon so we'll see how that fares.

Turok 2 sighting hell yeah. That game remains an atmospheric masterpiece imo. It would be way too high on my top games list if I made one. Loved the remaster and the ability to teleport between save portals.

I'm also excited to play Turok 3 again. It's not as good as the first two, but I still kinda love it. Level 4 is especially a treat if you just played the other two games.

My BF's playing Turok 2 now too.

https://youtu.be/jBnCqgxtS6o?si=RHirl_3HONobvm9f

I recall Turok 2 being my first M-rated game, and it was a birthday gift from a friend.

I remember being so shocked when I received it, "Whaaat??? You got me an M-rated game????"

I think I was only like 10 or 11 at the time, so I was a fairly innocent child......though ironically, I had no problems with playing Conker's Bad Fur Day.

I don't think I got very far in Turok 2 single player, I should probably give the remaster a try.

Might as well include this
TEVI (demo) (Steam)
The successor to Rabi-Ribi, this feels like what Flipwitch was vaguely imitating with its Metroidvania melee-and-shoot mechanics. And it's decidedly more fun. Those who balked at Rabi-Ribi's characters and writing will appreciate that they've toned it down. I'm currently playing through the demo on max difficulty after collecting stuff and clearing the optional post-demo bosses. It's a pretty nice, substantial demo. I'll probably buy the game soon after I finish it.

WhiteLens posted...

I recall Turok 2 being my first M-rated game, and it was a birthday gift from a friend.

I remember being so shocked when I received it, "Whaaat??? You got me an M-rated game????"

I think I was only like 10 or 11 at the time, so I was a fairly innocent child......though ironically, I had no problems with playing Conker's Bad Fur Day.

You never forget your first! Mine was Perfect Dark and I was 12.

I actually don't quite remember mine! I'm not seeing a definitive list of M-rated SNES or N64 games anywhere, but after doing a little bit of research, my guess is one of Mortal Kombat Trilogy and South Park in 1999 or 2000 when I was in elementary school.

Mine was Turok 1! ...and I was like 8.

My parents gave no fucks. Though I do recall being 12 or so and playing Vice City and my brother and I turning down the volume when my dad walked by lol

Fearmonium (Steam)

If I had a nickel for every metroidvania I've played about living with your abusive dad, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

Weird plot choices aside this game is pretty good. It's so, so close to being great but just needs more polish, particularly on the controls and character movement. e.g. this game has possibly the worst slide I have ever seen in a side-scroller. it is so bad. A lot of the art is also really bad, which is a shame because some of the art is really good too.

also can we talk about how "fearmonium" means nothing? Pandemonium is pan- (all/every) plus daimonion (demon), in other words "(the city with) all the demons" which then came to be used metaphorically as a word for something as chaotic as that fictional city would be. A play on this should be like "Panphobium" but that also sounds really stupid so maybe it should just be titled something else entirely.

Some short and free VN clean-up:

I Told You So! (Steam)

This is a series of four dubcanon vignettes featuring the characters and in-universe podcast from The Heart of the Woods. I'm not sure it's actually worth playing on its own merits, but I love these characters and it was nice to see them again.

missed messages. (Steam)

A slightly time loop VN about connecting with people during college. Relatable characters. Has very pretty art and music, and the writing feels natural despite (because of?) leaning on a lot of millennial slang. Pay attention to the trigger warnings before playing.

The Waters Above: Prelude (Steam)

A mystery VN about lesbian sea nymphs, set in a heavenly ocean. The main project has been unfortunately canceled, leaving only this prologue behind. It's a shame because I want more of these characters and their stories, but there's value even in creative projects that don't get a real ending. As with abandoned webcomics, fanfiction, etc: you gotta think about it as the journey, not the destination.

I think my first M rated game was the first Postal game. And I was not suppose to have this---I snuck into my uncle's room and stole it lmao.

Anyways, I was going to play Turok 3 when another FPS came into my radar and I had to finish it. This has officially dethroned DUSK for me. Time to bring back the tier list of retro first person shooters:

Hedon
Ion Fury (previously 3rd)
Turbo Overkill (PC)
DUSK (previously 2nd)
Hands of Necromancy
Cultic - is only this low because they decided to release it as "Episode 1"
Cruelty Squad
Dread Templar / HROT
Project Warlock
Amid Evil - This is my "Its okay, Average" Rating
Powerslave Exhumed
Warhammer 40K Boltgun
Postal: Brain Damaged
Prodeus
Forgive Me Father

For those playing at home who have seen this list previously, the footnote here is that no game is bad. Forgive Me Father was fun but incredibly imbalanced and a waning plot. Prodeus has no checkpoint system as the devs double down on this being an arcadey shooter. In fact the oddest thing is a recent update added QuickSave and QuickLoad as if they were new features. And Postal was balls to the wall, but enemy placement and the ability to snipe enemies ahead ruined some of the challenge.

This entire genre restarted back into the fore when DUSK reared its ugly head. Since then, several clones have surfaced following a distinct retro shooter formula but there's only been a few successors who've even come close to being on DUSK's tier, much less transcend it. That day ends today. Turbo Overkill is what happens when you take the insanity of Ultrakill and the brutality of DOOM Eternal, and give it a cyberpunk twist.

Man, where do I even begin. This game just kept escalating in scale and stakes. I will be spoiling the plot so skip this paragraph if you don't wanna hear it. You start out as this half-human bounty hunter working for a corpo who wants a sentient bio-organic virus eliminated. Episode 1 is classic cyberpunk in its level design and the final level punctuates that by making you go jumping through some flying cars in a tunnel and fighting on a runaway train. But it just gets worse: the bad guy wins and the virus takes over the entire planet. Episode 2 has you explore a post-apoc cyberpunk setting as you try to go to space to face the virus but it doesn't end the way you think it does. Turns out a rival bounty hunter kills you and leaves you for dead and uses the artifact to rule the universe. Episode 3 takes place 2 years later as your resurrected body must now face the insanity that is a planet long since forsaken and a mad god running rampant destroying what's left of humanity. The stakes are always so high and it just keeps getting worse and worse.

Throughout your game you'll acquire many upgrades of which your body gets more and more spliced so that you're doing quadruple jumps off of walls, wallrunning around cylinders, grappling and dashing around to not get killed. Your arsenal also grows, having some of the most unique mechanics in play. You got a sniper rifle that lets you telefrag your targets. You chainsaw legs (cheggs in the game) that let you slide around the level when you press crouch. You got an ion cannon where you paint your targets with a satellite lazor as this game's BFG. And if the weapons and abilities escalate you can bet your ass so do the enemies.

It's one of those "stand still and you're dead" kind of games. What I love is you can customize yourself to a point that there is room to experiment certain builds. Ultimately I went with buffing my chainsaw legs which proved useful later on when this was the only way to regain health and armor.

Also be prepared to have some spare time. Secret hunting nonwithstanding, some of these levels take 30 minutes approximately. One level even lasted an hour. The levels command your attention and your patience as it weaves some narrative and takes you for a ride with it, sacrificing the time it takes to be a decent level in a first person shooter.

This game sorely needs a community-driven map mode. One of the collectibles for this game unlocks secret levels that are just insane in of itself. So imagine 30 levels of 3 episodes with 10 levels each. And each level has a secret level. Well thats 60 all in all.

Turbo Overkill is insanely good. Best FPS of the last 10 years.

Honestly the only reason Hedon and Ion Fury are above Total Overkill in my tier list is because of the technical wizardry behind the efforts. I recognize Ion Fury being built on the ancient build engine and Hedon with GZDoom and just being exploited to create levels and setpieces that fit modern standards is a feat in itself. Hedon in particular being made by only 1 person.

Final Fantasy XVI: Echoes of the Fallen (DLC) (PS5)
Went through this in a sitting. It's basically an action stage with a side-story around it. I think it fits fairly smoothly into the part of the game they stuck it into, and it's a cool stage. Once I acclimated to combat again, it was exciting to take on a new threat on Final Fantasy mode.

Minit (PS4)

I have technically beaten this 9-12 times on 3-4 platforms now. I would have to assume this is near the top of my most-beaten games list and maybe even the top non-Super Mario game on said list.

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Remastered

Well. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to play this right after Turbo Overkill. I wanna say its been a terrible experience all in all; essentially stripped everything that made the first 2 Turok games great but retaining everything that was terrible about it such as the inconsistent hitboxes and the terrible linearity of it. I didn't stick around to do a 2nd playthrough much less a 3rd. But yeah, at least this one is over and done with. Yeah, now I see why the fans say its terrible.

I will say though. One thing I forgot to mention was how in Turok 2 remastered the model for Turok looked absolutely terrible. I just couldn't take him seriously. And this I feel is where most of the budget for the 3rd game went: the animations and models are better and certainly not silly. That's all. Dump this trash fire out of here.

The King of Dragons (Arcade/PC)

Replayed via Capcom Beat Em' Up Bundle with a friend. He was the Wizard and I was the Cleric.

SEGA AGES SHINOBI (Switch)

It felt good beating this for the first time. I am excited for the new Shinobi coming out soon.

Mighty Gunvolt Burst (PC)

I have some history with this game. I first bought it on my 2DS XL with all the DLC. Only got through the intro stage and took down 2 bosses, then I got lost in my backlog.

I bought this game again on my Switch. Only played through the intro stage and...well, backlog happened.

I bought this game again on PC and got all the DLC only this time I finally got around to spending time with this game and finally beating it as Gunvolt.
I'm finally glad I spent time with this game. It definitely is better than the first Mighty Gunvolt as many have said (a good game still!). The amount of customization that you can use on your character is incredible and it's fun doing high score runs. I think I'll come back to this game again and play with the other characters at some point.