Board 8 > November Game of the Month Club ft. Star Fox, Grim Fandango, and Kentucky

(+) Yeah! (+)

Novembers Games:
Star Fox Adventures (GC)
Grim Fandango (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch/Vita/iOS/Android)
Kentucky Route Zero (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch)

What is Game of the Month Club?
Game of the Month is a community project open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a select few games every month. The games featured each month are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck)

The Basics
- Each month will usually feature three games that were chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated
- For each game you beat, you get a cool point on our just-for-fun standings as well as a nomination for next month's randomized drawing
- In order to receive the point and nomination, you must beat said game within the calendar month
- If you beat one of the current month's games in the previous month, you can apply for a "recently beaten waiver," but you will only receive a point and no nomination should you do so
- Drawing for next month's games is usually around a week before the end of the month
- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for every selected game that you beat
- Each game you nominate has to be unique from all other nominations and cannot include a game that has already been selected for GotM
- Each game must be a standalone game that can be acquired and played on its own (aka cannot be DLC/expansion that requires the base game)
- Nominations only carry over if you beat a selected game after the drawing for next month's games but before the end of the month
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Just-for-Fun Top 20 Standings
KCF - 117
gameking - 106
Mr Crispy - 68
ArkOfTurus - 64
Lolo Guru - 59
KnightOfNee - 35
Cody - 31
MegamanX - 27
Arti - 23
scarletspeed - 23
Wickle - 17
Fenny - 16
tazzyboy - 14
Robazoid - 13
Suprak the Stud - 12
FakeAccount - 11
GreatPaul - 10
Shonen Bat - 10
darkx - 8
MZero - 8
profDEADPOOL - 8
Wigs - 8

Spreadsheet with history
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM/edit?usp=sharing

Additional noms this month
darkx - 1
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We were supposed to have four months with four games, but things didn't turn out as planned, and that included a special month where we did five games. As a result, four games will ultimately be selected for December.

As a special case, I will allow users to nominate games that had been done previously during this month only. However, a maximum of one can be selected in the drawing. What I mean is if the top four in the drawing would happen to include let's say Super Mario Odyssey (1st) and Beyond Good & Evil (3rd), I would only accept Super Mario Odyssey and look at the 5th ranked selection or however further that I have to go to find one that was not featured before. The spreadsheet has a sheet dedicated to all games that we have done before.
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Tag

Through Act 1 of Kentucky Route Zero. Really enjoying the writing style so far, although I'm a bit surprised it wasn't longer, considering how long the acts took to come out.

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On Act 2 of KY Route Zero

Really liking this so far, love the atmosphere. And I admit it's really neat seeing all the towns and roads that I'm familiar with, one of which they mentioned I've lived 15-30 minutes away for most of my life and another I lived in for college.

Grim Fandango

Played for a while. Love the dialogue but trying to find out what you're supposed to do sometimes is a challenge!

Pretty cool that you're allowing four games, one of which is a replay.

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Started Star Fox last night. Kind of mindlessly wandering Thorntail Hollow right now. Need to consult Slippy.

I'd lile to start by nominating:
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Punch-Out!! (2009)

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Nominate Hypnospace Outlaw

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Played a lot more Star Fox this morning. Just reached Dark Ice Mines. 20% progress.

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I'm still debating if I want to drag out the Wii and play through Star Fox or not.

How is it so far, though?

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I would like to play either Star Fox or Grim Fandango this month but I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to.

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ViolentAbacus posted...

How is it so far, though?

Eh. Certainly making me wonder what could have been if we had gotten the actual Dinosaur Planet before they added the Star Fox IP. Apparently it was supposed to be Rare's magnum opus.

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Not that it matters but I should be at 13 in the standings now I think!

I might do Grim Fandango. Depends on how much time the PS5 takes up.

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Up to 31% progress in Star Fox and further than I ever got back in the day. There are definitely some frustrating parts of this game.

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Finished up Act II in Kentucky Route Zero this morning. Was trying to play with a controller but the rumble is insane so swapped to KB+M.

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So my start time for work today was pushed back because there was nothing to do until later so was able to get a bit more time into KY Route Zero.

Towards the end of Act III, definitely a lot longer than previous acts. The Song was great

Also, based on Underleveled's testimony I may be skipping on Starfox!

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I wish I weren't completely trashing the game because there is some good stuff in it, but it's not the masterpiece it could have been.

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I neglected to mention this, but Grim Fandango is on Game Pass for XB1 and PC.
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After a couple days of days away from it I played some more Star Fox tonight. Made it to Cloudrunner Fortress. 43% progress.

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Tag

Started Star Fox this week, only got a few hours in.
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Dum-de-dum!

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There's something near!

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Stah Fahx update: 51% progress. In the process of bringing the second force crystal back to its rightful home.

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Make that 59%. Just beat one of the most infamously annoying/unnecessarily difficult parts of the game... very quickly and with 0 difficulty.

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66%. Soft-locked myself on a boss so I gave up for the night.

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God I regret picking this game. What on earth was Rare thinking with some of this shit?! I'm currently throwing rage over a boss fight where the boss acts with absolutely 0 pattern to his behavior, yet you're expected to fight him as if he does.

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77% through Star Fox. I anticipate beating this tomorrow, but maybe Wednesday.

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ArkOfTurus has beaten Kentucky Route Zero

I didn't really know what I was getting into with this. I respect what they went for, and was very impressed with sections, but I'm not entirely sure how much enjoyed it, and am entirely sure that some of it went over my head. I think I'll need more time to reflect on it. It's a very unique experience, though, so I'd still recommend it to anyone interested in it.

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Monthly Progress
Star Fox -
Grim -
Kentucky - Ark

Nominations
darkx - Super Mario Galaxy 2, Punch-Out (2009)
MMX - Hypnospace Outlaw
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94% through Star Fox. I should finish this up tonight but I remember my brother being stuck on the final boss forever. Maybe he didn't even beat it. So we'll see.

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darkx has beaten Star Fox Adventures

It's hard to really review this game without explaining a bit of its history. This actually started development in the mid-late 90s as an N64 game called Dinosaur Planet, an original IP that was going to be Rare's answer to Zelda and according to some their best game ever. The game suffered numerous delays and was further pushed back when half the team split off to make Jet Force Gemini, eventually looking to be the console's swan song and ultimately pushed to Game Cube. Additionally, Miyamoto noticed a striking resemblance between the male lead (I say male lead because originally Krystal was going to split lead duties with said male, although her role was greatly reduced in the finished product) and Fox McCloud, so he worked his magic to get the Star Fox IP added, which resulted in many plot changes. The game was released in September 2002 for the Game Cube, with extremely unfortunate timing - a month after Super Mario Sunshine and about six weeks before Metroid Prime. Needless to say many Big N fans glossed over this one in favor of those two heavy-hitters. Additionally, Microsoft's buyout of Rare was announced concurrently with the game's launch, so fans were pretty disappointed.

While playing this game, there were times when I tried to think of it as Dinosaur Planet instead of Star Fox Adventures, because it's nothing like any other Star Fox game. For the first Zelda-like game from a company that primarily made Mario 64-esque platformers, it was... not a bad attempt. There were some really fun areas to explore, and puzzles to solve, but also some dull areas, a ton of repetition (including a few dungeons that you had to do multiple times with very little variance between the two visits), and some puzzles/tasks that were either needlessly difficult, extremely frustrating or tedious, or what you were supposed to do was so incredibly cryptic. Combat was also very repetitive and boss battles were not fun. They did incorporate some classic Star Fox gameplay, but even that was boring and repetitive. The voice acting was bad. Fox was pretty good (in fact I really liked Fox's personality overall in this one even if it was pretty inconsistent with everything else he's ever been in), but everyone else was meh-to-bad, Tricky being particularly atrocious. The graphics were nice though. Definitely one of the best-looking Game Cube games.

Overall this had me longing for what it was originally supposed to be. I wouldn't call it a bad game and I guess overall I'm glad I finally played it and knocked it out of my gigantic collection of games I never beat, but I don't think I'd play it again. Not for many years anyway.

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Nominate: The Simpsons Hit and Run

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I've been very slow to get to this month's games. Surprisingly, the only one that I've played is the one that I wasn't expecting to. Seeing Grim Fandango on Game Pass motivated me to replay it. I'm still on Year 1.
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I finally started up Kentucky Route Zero today, completing Act I as well as Limits & Demonstrations. I had heard I'd be able to choose a name for the dog, so I went with the nameless option in hopes I'd get to pick a different moniker than Homer or Blue. That didn't happen, so I've taken to calling him Benny in lieu of the game itself doing so. Otherwise, I'm finding the atmosphere outright palpable so far.

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Congratulations on beating Starfox, darkx!

Anyway, got distracted for a while. Hoping to either beat, or get close to beating, Kentucky Route Zero this weekend.

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Started Grim Fandango.

So far I'm just running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to figure out how to get the work order signed. I've been doing that for like 45 minutes now.

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I'm on Year 2 in Grim Fandango. It has been quite some time since I first went through the game, but I seem to recall that this was the game's longest year. I also had to laugh that I was playing with the original graphics for the longest time. The difference between original and remastered graphics isn't that much lol.
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Nearly done with Year 1 of Grim Fandango, I think.

I'm in the same boat as darkx most of the time. Spend so much time wandering around!

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I'm thinking this might not be the game for me, which is a shame because it's hilarious. But this is already the third time I'm stuck to the point where I need to look up help to proceed and I'm like, only a little bit in. I guess I'm just not good at thinking outside the box. I kinda feel stupid. But I don't want to beat the game by following the guide step by step. I think I might switch to Kentucky Route Zero.

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I forgot how criminally underutilized Lupe was in Grim Fandango.

80s and 90s point-and-click adventure games were notorious for their "moon logic" so I always have a walkthrough handy if I ever get stuck. I wouldn't feel bad about having to resort to using one.
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Made it through the Darkice Mines in Star Fox. Progress has been slow thus far.
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Nominate Mercenaries Saga: Will of the White Lions. There are other Mercenaries Saga games, but this is the first.

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KCF has beaten Grim Fandango

I powered through the last third I had to go today. The Secret of Monkey Island will forever be my favorite of the LucasArts game, but this is probably my second favorite? I've gone through it before, but I like it just as much as the first time. It would have been to their benefit to give some characters an expanded and/or better role and for them to not rush the world-building that hampered the plot, but the game still feels very special.
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I will nominate games that I have spare Steam keys lying around that I have been saving in case they are ever selected for this (I do this theme for every December it seems like)

Get Even
Republique
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I finished Act II of KRZ tonight, as well as The Entertainment. I can't say I found the ambience nearly as absorbing this time; instead, the unconventionality of its presentation within the basic framework of a narrative-oriented point-and-click adventure was what stood out to me. As a result of some of the choices I made, and the consequent dialogues, I've taken to headcanoning a distinct personality contrast between an assertive, straight-to-the-point Shannon and an out-of-it Conway given to rambling. Benny happens to be stuck in the middle with these companions of circumstance.

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KCF0107 posted...

80s and 90s point-and-click adventure games were notorious for their "moon logic" so I always have a walkthrough handy if I ever get stuck. I wouldn't feel bad about having to resort to using one.

Yeah, I'm not against guides as a rule, but I don't like to use them every step of the way (usually only for sidequests/100%ing, or if I'm hopelessly stuck in the main story), especially in a game like this where once you know the solution, there's little to no skill required in executing it.

Also, I took a look at KRZ and it's not what I thought it was. For some reason I was expecting something in the style of Telltale or Life is Strange. So I might be passing on that too. So, depending on whether or not I decide to get back to GF, I might be done for the month.

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On Act IV Scene IV of Route Zero. Surprisingly, I think I'm liking it less the more I play.

I'm taking a vacation next week so I should have both games beaten by the end of it.

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ViolentAbacus posted...

Surprisingly, I think I'm liking it less the more I play.

That was more or less my experience.

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Drawing likely on Wednesday
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It's looking increasingly unlikely I'll end up replaying Grim Fandango (I dunno why my brain decided I needed to replay a ~50 hour RPG that I just played late last year, but here we are.)

I'll nominate Dicey Dungeons and re-nominate Ys Origin

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While I pushed for this (nominate a game that's been done before) thing, I don't have any game to push for right now. Just hoping it gets utilized. Hoping to play Grim Fandango but haven't had the time.

That said, I'll continue my nominating of Assassins Creed 2

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