Board 8 > Post Each Time You Beat a Game: 2021 Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

I remember playing the final boss with like 125 or so lives and used up virtually all of them
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That is a fascinating write-up of DKCR for someone like me who has some sort of sadistic fetish with difficult platformers. Honestly I think that's the only genre that ridiculous difficulty is a pro for me though. But yeah, the last level having you lose Diddy if you die once is the dumbest design choice in history and your complaints are absolutely valid.

Tropical Freeze is both harder than Returns in many ways but also more fair. It's just designed so much better and is so much more ambitious of a game that it feels warranted, if that makes sense. You will probably have complaints on the bosses, but they will never do bullshit like the final boss of Returns does. It's just an infinitely better game in every way and you should play it. Also I think the soundtrack is the greatest in gaming history and is David Wise's magnum opus so yeah.

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Shuyan Saga (PC)

A blend of beat 'em up, fighter, and graphic adventure, it is greater than the sum of its parts. It isn't a long game, but I have an issue with finishing PC games, so this took me several years.
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Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (SNES)

103% The trilogy is beaten.

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GOLF STORY 6/10/21

Took me a year and like 25 hours. But it was an awesome ride.
Knew I would like it from before I bought it and the instant it loaded I knew it was right up my alley. Phenomenal game.

New Mario Golf releases this month, can't wait.
Hope B8 matches happen.

The only thing I wish is that I had a physical version...and I should have too. Ugh

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All You Can Eat (PC)

Very short point-and-click adventure game that garnered a few laughs from me
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Mirror's Edge Catalyst (PC)

6/10

Glad I wasn't at all excited for this one. Beautiful game though.

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Tell Me Why (PC)

So every Dontnod game I've played so far was on PlayStation and when I found out that Tell Me Why was a PC and Xbox exclusive I was a bit bummed but, it is what it is. I added it to my Steam wishlist and was waiting for it to go on sale when one day I get an email saying the game is on sale for 100% off, and man, those are the best kind of sales.

I really liked this game. For all intensive purposes, it's a Life is Strange game without being called Life is Strange. I thought the story was very well done and that characters are really interesting. The gameplay itself was a bit lacking but I thought the storytelling more than made up for it.

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A Way Out (PS4)

Huh, not often that I post twice in a row!

I've been playing a bunch of multiplayer games with a friend of mine over the last year and he said he heard good things about A Way Out. It was on sale so we decided to give it a shot.

Was a very enjoyable game. Dedicated co-op games are pretty rare and I think this game did it well. The story was interesting, the game didn't take itself too seriously, and the co-op component was just pretty awesome. We're probably gonna have to try It Takes Two sometime as well now.

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Cyberpunk 2077 (XBO)

Wow, many thoughts about this game. Basically, it's a good/great flawed game.

Most of the writing is really strong. Judy, Panam, and Johnny are really well written and engaging to interact with. There's some fun and interesting sidequests, like the Delamain/Peralez/Brendan questlines. The main story also does its job well; the set pieces are engaging and give plenty of tension to the action.

Night City is great, but there's a problem there with the writing. Night City is divided into different areas: City Center, Heywood, Pacifica, Westbrook, Watson, Santo Domingo, and the Badlands. These areas are all distinctive enough that they're recognizable when you're there, most of the areas also have their own gang so you can identify the area just by checking out the enemies.

The problem is that the scope of the main story is very limited. You basically only go to Watson, Japantown, Pacifica, City Center and maybe the Badlands? The main story also really only focuses on Arasaka Corp. I would have liked some more sidequests or main questlines that really revolved around Night City and those different areas and what makes them distinct from one another aside from visual setting. Write about the gangs and give them different combat rules depending on what gang they are.

I think the world map also struggles because when you start the game, you just get a map full of quest markers. This actually discourages exploration; if there's no marker there, there's nothing important there. I understand it is difficult to give quests when you pass by a certain place because the game expects you to be in a car/motorcycle most of the time, but a map full of quest markers just gives the feeling of checking off a checklist, rather than exploring and engaging with the world that has been created.

Gameplay-wise, I think the game was fine. It has some cool things like the Mantis Blades and Gorilla Arms and really all of the body mods, but I think a lot of it also felt underdeveloped. There's a throwing knife skill which feels completely pointless, considering you can put a silencer on a gun and bullets are more easily found than random knives (as you don't get the knife back after a throw). There's a lot of hacks you can get, but I usually only used Breach Protocol, Short Circuit and Contagion. I did go for a mixed build, where I got a bit of everything, and it the endgame was quite fun when I just annihilated enemies like some killing machine. Most of the guns feel good too.

The inventory system is kind of a mess. There's just way too much stuff; I can't imagine anyone playing this game ever buys anything in one of the stores as you can easily find guns and armour everywhere, even outside of quests or combat encounters. Your inventory will also get cluttered, especially because the game doesn't allow you to quick compare or immediately decraft something you find (you have to pick it up first). Because of my spread build, I never got around to too much crafting, but I can imagine that makes shops even more redundant.

On a technical level it was fine. I can recognize the graphics weren't great, but as I don't play too many modern games I didn't really hate it. Most of the music is pretty cool.

Overall, I did enjoy my time with this game. I think what I dislike most about the crappy launch is that maybe this game will get buried and forgotten about, when I think it's a good but flawed game (like Mass Effect 1 for example) that could totally be built upon and improved and perfected.

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Orwell: Ignorance is Strength (PC)

It's been a few years since I played the first one, but I want to say this was better across the board? The case was a captivating one, and the central figure of Raban Vhart was fascinating. The voice acting for him and the other characters were great. I feel very uneasy about what I did during the game's events, which is obviously what the game was going for, so I think they did an excellent job here.
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS) (Replay)

Third time playing through this and damn it still slaps.

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Treasure Planet (PS2)
I actually bought this for $3 at GameStop many years ago, with the intention of beating it in a week and returning it (their policy used to be you could return a used game within 7 days for any reason; not sure if that's still the case). Well, I never touched it in that week and so it ended up sitting in my pile of unplayed games for years. But I'm a big fan of the film, and have a few friends who are as well, and every now and then I'd get into a conversation with one of them about it and remember I had this. The other day, a Facebook memory popped up for me in which I said KH3 needed to have a Treasure Planet world. One of them said that there needed to be a Treasure Planet video game, and lo and behold, I got to tell him this was a thing. With it on my mind, I decided to give it a whirl this weekend.

I actually went in with moderate expectations. Most of the Disney movie tie-ins of the late 90s/early 00s were not-that-bad, and some were even outright good. And we may as well throw this one into the not-that-bad category, at least for what it is. It's 3rd party PS2 3D platformer in all the glory of the genre. It's a little clunky and buggy. It's unresponsive at times. A lot of the time you won't land on something or grab a ledge that you thought you should have. The tasks are repetitive, the combat is wonky, and the worlds have few defining landmarks so it's easy to get lost when every inch of a level looks the same. There's also NPCs awkwardly telling you what the tasks are, and, like most of the Disney tie-in games of the era, the cutscenes are ripped directly from the film. Not only that, but they took some creative liberties with the story, adding/removing/changing/rearranging key plot elements, and adding new areas that weren't present in the film, for the sake of a simpler gaming experience.

While this is fairly faithful to the film, it could have been more faithful if they were willing to be a bit more ambitious and not just make it a straight platformer. There could have been some really great action sequences, but instead we get three levels of wandering around Montressor and four levels of wandering around the port, not to mention going places with the ship that just didn't happen in the movie.

But what works really works. When the controls respond and the gameplay gets smooth, you can really get into a groove and have a lot of fun. Maybe being a fan of the source material helped, but I found myself (up to a certain point) wanting to do as much as I could in each level before moving on, even if I had done enough to do so. Once I got to the final world, there were a couple of levels that I said fuck it, did one task for my own OCD's sake (I hate when you can honestly just skip levels; by the time I got to the final world I actually could have just skipped all the levels gone straight for the final boss because I had done enough tasks in previous levels, but committed myself to completing at least one task in each level). There's definitely a certain charm to it, and I enjoyed solving a lot of the puzzles, as long as there wasn't bullshit holding them back. And of course, solar surfing, while not implemented QUITE as well as it could have been, was a hell of a lot of fun (I mean it better have been).

I am embarrassed that there were parts of this game that I struggled and got frustrated with, especially since GameFAQs users have rated it between "easy" and "just right." It also took me a lot longer than HLTB says it should (12:25 hours, as opposed to 6:30-8). So yeah, another one for the "I suck at video games" category. I struggled with a Disney game made for 10 year olds. Oh well.

When all is said and done, this was an unpolished but passable platformer that missed out on a lot of potential while still being serviceable enough for fans of the film. And as far as movie tie-ins go, there are much, much, much, much worse that that out there.

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Mayhem in Single Valley (PC)

Nice cool gem I found. Worth playing and I can forgive its flaws like the somewhat repetitive but jammy soundtrack and how perspective messes with you sometimes when shooting and platforming. Luckily you can pretty much save and load anywhere save the finale so its forgiveable.

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Katamari Damacy (PS2)
Man, I remember when this game was all the rage on Board 8. I didn't have a PS2 at the time though. I bought one used in 2010 and when I was thinking of games to get, my brother, who had played it at a friend's house, said, "get the one where you roll shit into a ball." And I was like "Oh yeah, I forgot that one existed!" So I bought it. Well, that summer was a pretty bad summer for me so I didn't get through it (my brother did though). Then I tried again in 2019 when it was selected for the Game of the Month club, and again, I didn't get through it. Can't exactly remember what happened then. But I always did enjoy the game.

So today I popped it in expecting to play through it in a few days and... did it in a day. Kinda says something about how hooked you can get on it. It really is very fun, although it can be pretty frustrating when you get stuck or pushed around and really can't get out. It's pretty wild seeing your ball at like 20% of expectations with minutes to go, and then finishing with almost 200% of expectations. It's just insane how quickly it ramps up at the end. That last level was pretty fantastic, especially with the main theme playing. It was like, here we go, one last hurrah! The final minutes when I was literally rolling up fucking clouds just felt so great.

I admit that the controls could be a bit clunky at times, but I'm wondering now if that's just my controller. I'm using a Logitec wireless controller because it's the only PS2 controller I have right now that works. I always thought it worked fine in the past though.

And the game is... funny. Not laugh out loud funny (although there were a few lines that did actually make me laugh audibly, like the one where the King said he threw the Prince's present away because he was bored). I will admit that it took me until the end of the game to realize that whenever the King said "we" he was referring to himself. But the writing was amusing and it was just silly to see everything get rolled up, and people and animals reacting to it.

This is really just a feel-good game, which is what I needed right about now. I will very likely play more games from this series in the future.

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Underleveled posted...

Katamari Damacy (PS2)
Man, I remember when this game was all the rage on Board 8. I didn't have a PS2 at the time though. I bought one used in 2010 and when I was thinking of games to get, my brother, who had played it at a friend's house, said, "get the one where you roll shit into a ball." And I was like "Oh yeah, I forgot that one existed!" So I bought it. Well, that summer was a pretty bad summer for me so I didn't get through it (my brother did though). Then I tried again in 2019 when it was selected for the Game of the Month club, and again, I didn't get through it. Can't exactly remember what happened then. But I always did enjoy the game.

So today I popped it in expecting to play through it in a few days and... did it in a day. Kinda says something about how hooked you can get on it. It really is very fun, although it can be pretty frustrating when you get stuck or pushed around and really can't get out. It's pretty wild seeing your ball at like 20% of expectations with minutes to go, and then finishing with almost 200% of expectations. It's just insane how quickly it ramps up at the end. That last level was pretty fantastic, especially with the main theme playing. It was like, here we go, one last hurrah! The final minutes when I was literally rolling up fucking clouds just felt so great.

I admit that the controls could be a bit clunky at times, but I'm wondering now if that's just my controller. I'm using a Logitec wireless controller because it's the only PS2 controller I have right now that works. I always thought it worked fine in the past though.

And the game is... funny. Not laugh out loud funny (although there were a few lines that did actually make me laugh audibly, like the one where the King said he threw the Prince's present away because he was bored). I will admit that it took me until the end of the game to realize that whenever the King said "we" he was referring to himself. But the writing was amusing and it was just silly to see everything get rolled up, and people and animals reacting to it.

This is really just a feel-good game, which is what I needed right about now. I will very likely play more games from this series in the future.

nice

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Shantae (3DS)

I dropped this a long time ago but came back to it this month.
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Willow (NES)

This is a game that not only had I never played before, back in the day I didn't know anyone who owned it. I actually quite like(d) the arcade game, which is quite different, so if any rental place carried it I'm sure I would have at least rented it. This action RPG really flew under the radar for me and many others, I'm sure. That said, it's an okay-ish game. The map is actually too big, especially in towns, with a lot of empty area to traverse to get around. The combat can also get annoying with some enemies (the magical ones) only being harmable by using a sword that the rest of the enemies just plain ignore (and vice versa). The bosses also take very little to figure out the optimal strategy to defeat them. It is, however, pretty responsive and feels really good to control and the challenge level is quite reasonable. Not an all time classic by any means, but a nice diversion if you want a second rate Zelda clone.

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Robotics;Notes Elite (PS4)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79520195

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Dark Souls Remastered (PC)
A weird case since it's newer than Demon's Souls and older than Demon's Souls Remake. I think it wasn't as strong but still a solid experience. And we played offline on the advice of some others, which is disappointing.
Final Fantasy VII Remake InterMISSION (PS5)
An enjoyable, if short expansion. I thought it was funny to have FFVII Remake nostalgia throwbacks already.

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Everhood (PC)

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Spyro: Year of the Dragon (PS4)
And that wraps up the Reignited trilogy. Nice little series. Glad I finally played it extensively. I might, might check out Enter the Dragonfly someday, but I know it goes way downhill from the original trilogy.

I remember seeing the commercials for this game in 2000 while watching Pokemon Johto episodes and thinking it looked cool. The penguin absolutely stands out in my memory. Now I finally got to experience it in all it's "this is what we thought it looked like back then" HD glory.

Like the other two, this is definitely a PSX platformer, that is to say, not as in-depth as one you'd find on N64 but still totally acceptable. Many smaller levels as opposed to a few larger ones. And there's still plenty to do and find in them! This one takes all the best gameplay aspects of Spyro 1 and 2 and very little of the worst (except the egg thieves; every time I hear "nah nah nah nah nah!" I want to throw the controller). Some eggs are just there in the open as you travel around, like in Spyro 1, and some of them require you to do tasks and play minigames like in Spyro 2. Since the base seems to be split between which they like better, I feel like this is one that ought to please both camps. The characters, for the most part, were butter than in Spyro 2. The new pals amused me, and it was fantastic to see them beat the crap out of Moneybags constantly.

Speaking of the new pals, playing as these new characters was really the only thing they added gameplay-wise, and honestly, I didn't care for it too much. It was fine, but I wouldn't have missed it a bit if it weren't there. Furthermore, I think the level design was the worst of the three games, or at least the least-memorable. Also it got a little tedious getting my egg count up to 100 at the end, and I was totally lost on how to fight the final boss, but that's my own fault.

Overall I think I'd have to say 2 > 3 > 1, which I always thought was the consensus, but after seeing many posts in this topic and GotM back when Spyro 2 was featured, I think it's fair to say that that's not necessarily the case. But all three are very nice and I'm glad I got to experience them this way (I had played about half of the PSX version of Spyro 1 prior to this and that's it). I'll have to thank my brother, who gave me this for Christmas. Nice choice on his part.

I think I had more to say here but I'm pretty jittery right now as I've had too much coffee lol.

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Pic-a-Pix Classic 2 (Vita)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79520195#3

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Nier Replicant (PC, Steam)
Time played is probably not 152 hours like it shows, but not far off. I would assume 120 or so

I am..torn. It's pretty much exactly like Automata in terms of strong and weak points. Everything about the presentation is top noth - atmosphere, music, characters, story, world building etc.
But the gameplay itself sucks. Side quests are mostly a chore. Far too repetitive. You end up visiting the same 15 areas again, and again, and again because of the side quests and because of having to go through the game 5 times.
Playing this on normal is too easy, playing this on hard (which I did) is annoying - it isn't hard, it just takes forever because enemies are bulletsponge. I almost fell asleep fighting against the Orb boss in the Aerie, it took forever!!

Some achievements are also pain in the ass - upgrade all weapons is a massive grind that can take 20-30 hours depending on your luck. Some items drop rate is so damn low that you can grind for two hours and not get a single one

But..again - the story makes it worth playing. The major plot is pretty much incomprehensible nonsense, that I assume maybe if I played Drakengard I would have understood it a little better..but maybe not. But still, even though many things are left unexplained, there are so many fantastic moments and emotions in every scene that is impossible to not love it.
Kaine and Weiss, that I didn't like at first, also grew on me and I like them a lot
Giving you more details in future playthroughs and letting you understand the language of the shades and makes you realize that you are kinda the bad guy was also a nice touch

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Oh yeah, we got 100% on Dark Souls Remastered as well. Pausing before moving on but between us we now own 2, 3, Bloodborne and Sekiro as well.

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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All (DS) (Replay)

This game kinda disappoints me every time I play it. 2-1 is the worst case in maybe the whole series, 2-2 is just okay, 2-3 is, uhhh better than people say but that's about it, and even 2-4 is weaker than I remember it being (ugh that stalling on trial day 2). Plus a weird amount of typos, when the first game had few-to-none. Definitely one of the weaker games in the series.

This is where I stopped last time I tried to replay the series but maybe I'll make it through T&T this time, at least.

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We Love Katamari (PS2)
I told you I'd keep playing this series. I ordered this just hours after beating the first one. The difference between used and, get this, new was only about $10, so I spent the $10 to have a nice shiny sealed copy and enjoy the thrill of opening a brand new PS2 game in 2021 because how many more frigging chances am I going to get to do that?

I wondered what this would be like. Would it just be more Katamari Damacy? Well, yes and no. They actually added a really nice variety of objectives here, and not just "roll this big a Katamari in this time limit." There were actually some pretty bizarre objectives. Same fun-as-hell gameplay, but with enough twists to make it less static (not that the static of the original was necessarily a BAD thing, mind you). The music was top-notch, as it was in the first one (the music in the first one is just more memorable to me, but that's because I had played a lot of it long ago). The framing story was a heck of a lot better than whatever the heck that was in the first one (dare I say it, I actually got a tad bit emotional when the King's father threw away his second place trophy).

I loved how self-referential this game was. Probably the most insane example of breaking the fourth wall ever in a game. The King was hilarious, as always, but if I have one itty bitty baby gripe, it's that I think sometimes he rambled on way too much in this one, and that's saying something considering how much he rambled in the original and I was fine with it. He's still an excellent character who helps make these games what they are.

Overall, while this one was probably objectively the better game, I enjoyed the charm and simplicity of the original more. Don't get me wrong, this was still a fantastic game, just not the all-time gem that the first one is.

I'm sure I'll keep playing the series, and I'm sure I'll even go back and do more stuff in the first two. But for now I think I've OD'd on this gameplay just a bit. Time for other stuff.

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Mario Kart DS (DS)
What do I consider "beating" this game? Getting a gold trophy on every cup on every CC (for a total of 32 gold trophies) and passing all 54 missions (rank doesn't matter on either cups or missions). Did I do that all recently? Nope. This is finally wrapping up a save file that I began on Christmas Day 2008. That was nice. I'd just come home from my first semester of college, my Mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I threw the DS Lite with this game out there, kind of expecting her to ask me to come up with something cheaper, but she never did, and yet I was still actually kind of pleasantly surprised when I opened it that morning. I'm pretty sure my Dad ran out and got them on Christmas Eve. So this system/game holds some sentimental value to me.

Onto the game. I feel like this one kind of gets lost among some of the other Mario Karts and is today mostly remembered for its controversial online scene, which by the way I never attempted more than once or twice, if ever. I already knew that there was no playing this casually online and to even stand a chance you had to have mastered an unintended technique and I just wasn't up for that. For what it's worth, I still can't wavedash to this day, so I wasn't even going to try snaking. But there's actually a lot of stuff here that makes it stand out to me. First let's look at the racetracks. There are some really great ones here, among the standouts being Delfino Square, Tick Tock Clock, Waluigi Pinball, Airship Fortress, and as always, Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road. The good ones really overpower the crap like Figure 8 Circuit and Yoshi Falls (who the hell decided the latter was a good retro course for Mario Kart Wii?). A lot of the retro courses I could take or leave, but I give this game credit for starting that much-appreciated trend (not counting the SNES courses in the GBA game).

The roster is pretty standard, with one exception. Long before Link, the first guest character to be playable in Mario Kart was actually R.O.B. That was a nice WTF addition to the roster and I still appreciate his inclusion, even if I still normally play as Toad. The game seems pretty balanced. I never encounter an unfair amount of Blue Shells, for example, and the AI seems pretty fair. Missions were a really great touch that added some substance to "beating" this one compared to other games in the series and I'm disappointed it hasn't come back.

I guess my one complaint is that it's a little intense to be playing on a DS Lite for long periods of time, but I don't blame the game for that. It's just weird to be pounding the D-pad like that on that system for more than a cup or two at a time, which is a little disappointing. I really haven't tried it on 3DS I don't think, so I should try it on there and see if it feels better.

Overall this is a fun little Mario Kart that, while I can't play for long periods of time, is really nice to pick up and play once in a while, even 16 years after its release.

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Masquerada: Songs and Shadows (PS4)

The isometric angle would lead to issues in combat with it being hard to discern the action, and the game dipped into melodrama more often than I would like, but this was a great game that is better than the sum of its parts. It oozes with style and has some pretty hefty world-building/lore. The real-time tactical combat was simple but had depth and more importantly fun. The plot was also quite interesting with great central characters. I've owned it for almost five years and feel bad it took me this long to go through it.
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God of War: Ascension (PS3) (replay)
I was right the first time. Okay, sure, the combat is questionable (but as good as any of the others pre-reboot) and I got a good number of "whoops" deaths on jumping/swinging/QTE segments and sweeping zoom outs during combat, but this delivers everything I want from the old series. The complex, absurd mechanisms! Time reversal puzzles! And some nice bosses too. No comment on multiplayer since that's gone I'm sure. It doesn't have a sex minigame, though. Maybe that's what the critics were missing.

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Nex Machina (PS4)

I was sitting there thinking what short game I wanted to play when I remembered that I didn't just have this on PC. It's still so good. I have loved Housemarque for over a decade, and if i ever end up getting a PS5, Returnal might be the first game that I buy/play. I'm not good enough to want to attempt it on Veteran or Master because I will need more continues than they offer on those difficulties just to beat the final boss, but I'm perfectly fine just doing Experienced and messing around with the other modes.
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Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
Wrapping up Mario Kart DS after all this time reminded me that I never completed this one to my own criteria either, and that it would be an easy one to knock out of my backlog and an easy number for my list.

Actually, despite having had this one basically since launch (it came out in early December 2011 and I got it for Christmas), I hadn't done too many cups. All 8 cups on 150cc, and the four main cups on 50cc.

This one certainly plays a lot better than DS. I really, really like the feel of this one. Almost as much as I like the feel of 8. Everything is pretty smooth and I like the gameplay additions.

This set of stages might just be the most unique in all of Mario Kart. It lacks a lot of the "standard" stuff that you see in each game, aside from Mario Circuit and a generic circuit to start out with, and of course the traditional Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road at the end, but those are always so unique that I hardly count them as "generic." But there's really nothing else quite like Music Park, Wario Shipyard, Shy Guy Bazaar, Piranha Plant Slide, Neo Bowser City, and the Wuhu tracks. Even some of the ones that are kinda similar to stuff we've seen, like DK Jungle and Rosalina's Ice World, are pretty good. And of course, the retro selection in this one is excellent. My only minor gripe here is a very personal and specific one - part of the appeal of retro tracks for me is to see tracks from handheld games on a console, and vice-versa. So to include Waluigi Pinball and Airship Fortress, as much as I love them both, in this one instead of saving them for 8, is a little disappointing.

While I normally enjoy the roster on the handheld games being smaller and thus largely void of filler like babies and pallet swaps, this one was just crazy. Lakitu and Metal Mario are one thing, but Wiggler? Honey Queen?? And both of them with no Waluigi? This roster was kind of a mess, even though my go-tos, Rosalina and Toad, were both there.

One thing I did do with this one was try playing online, and to my surprise, there were actually people playing it online! 10 years after release, and with Mario Kart 8 on both Wii U and Switch! And I had fun! I do remember playing some Board 8 Mario Kart 7 nights. Those were fun. I remember one time when we played a cup, and my placements in said cup were 8th, 8th, 1st, 8th. Wacky stuff. Man I wish we could do one of those for this game again.

Overall, this is a really solid Mario Kart. One that kinda gets lost being stuck between Wii and 8, which is a shame. I think even I've underrated it in the years since 8 was released. Not anymore.

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Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4)

The second game of the trilogy. I actually platinum'd this one since it didn't require any multiplayer to get. Was definitely better than the first one in pretty much every way. Story was more interesting and the gameplay was more fun. Looking forward to playing Shadow next.

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Clash Force (PC)

You are the Clash Force, a team consisting of an anthromorphic animals wielding guns Rhino (Voom, Scorpion (Scorpido) and a Platypus (Echid) that must stop CRACK MAN.

Gameplay is similar to Contra and the overall aesthetic of the game reminds me of Bucky O' Hare on the NES.
Game is pretty fun and short. You also have extra levels to playthrough on higher difficulties.

Streets of Rage (Genesis/PC)

Replayed via SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics on PC and played multiplayer with a friend online.
It was my first time beating the first Streets of Rage with a friend and we got both the Good and Bad endings.

Diabolic (PC)

I also own this game on Switch but decided to play this on PC when I double dipped for it.
Right off the bat, this game only uses keyboard controls with no controller support. That's not a problem thanks to Joy2Key.

The story is nothing to write home about and it's not the strongest part of the game.
It's the gameplay of course.

You are a knight that is set out to kill demonic diabolic beings. Yeah.

It's an overhead action game. You can use a Sword, Arrows and Magic (you get new spells when you reach the next level).

Gold acts as Experience Points and you can use the Experience Points to level up a number of statistics: Max HP, Run Speed, restoring more Health/Mana when you pick up their respective spears, Sword Damage, Sword Vampire, Protection from Ranged Attacks (extra defense from projectiles), Magic Damage, Max Mana, Mana Regen, Bolts (Arrows) Damage, Poison Bolts and Chances of not spending Bolts. You also have the ability to spend Gold to reset points. The more you level up a stat the more expensive it gets. You can easily get Gold by farming off the first boss of the game.

The game may have been nothing special but it was a fun game to play for the most part.


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Bug Fables (XB1)

I wish there were more Paper Mario clones, but I have doubts there would be better ones than this.
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Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa (PS4)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79546642

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The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)

Extraordinarily satisfying. It always takes me a while to get through these games (if you look at my Steam achievement dates for this one in particular you'll see at least two long gaps in playtime) because the combat system isn't my favorite (I find that it's either weirdly unfair or mind-numbingly easy; I didn't take a single point of damage against the final boss with the setup I had) and, more importantly, because I always manage to somehow start them right before something crazy happens in my life that ends up eating all of my free time. But I really, really do adore the series. My two favorite aspects of fiction are characters and worldbuilding, and it's hard to find media that do those two things better than Trails.

Like, on that note, I'm pretty sure this game confirmed that I'm the biggest dork in the history of the world, because when I stumbled upon a few books in the Hermit's Garden talking about Liberl's economy, of all things, not only was I legitimately stoked to read them, I was outright disappointed that they were as short as they were.

Anyway, in what I imagine is a common story among franchise fans, Kevin Graham immediately went from a guy I had no real opinion of whatsoever to being far and away my favorite character in SC's ending, so I was stoked to find he was the main protagonist of this entry, and he didn't disappoint. Just got better and better as the game went on - he's very easily a top 10 video game character for me at this point. The whole cast is great, though - I will never cease to be astounded that this game's party is made up of 16 (!) members, and I actually like all of them to at least some degree. What an accomplishment. It could almost be mistaken for something of a fanservice game on its surface, what with its litany of reused areas, a chapter that lets you fight against a bunch of folks that there would otherwise never be a story reason to, and its letting you actually play as such names as Julia and Mueller that have been such badasses in prior games. But look, that's the kind of fanservice that'll always be A-okay with me, especially when it culminates in my boy Alan effing Richard showing up about ten minutes after I actually thought "Man, it'd be awesome if Richard was playable in this one, but there's no way they'd get that crazy."

But that wouldn't be a fair classification anyway. This story very clearly has an incredible amount of care and heart put into it, just like the other games did. The main narrative meanders a tiny bit at times but is always compelling and extremely well-written, the side stories range from great to tremendous (with one "appalling" thrown in there that I had to make a separate topic about and that will forever stay with me), and the ending is perfect in just about every way imaginable.

I'm very much looking forward to the Crossbell duology, which I'll probably wait to play until the official translations come out now that they've been announced. I've still got a hell of a backlog to keep me busy until then.

Character Ranking with not a ton of thought put into it: Kevin > Richard > Agate > Estelle > Olivier > Ries > Mueller > Schera > Kloe > Joshua > Renne > Anelace > Zin > Julia > Josette > Tita

Also, Kevin/Ries >>>>>>>>>> Estelle/Joshua

People who claim video games aren't art can, as my buddy Steiner might say, get in the bin. I'm gonna miss this world and its characters like crazy.

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Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (GB, via 3DS VC)
You want fun? Wario show you fun! (okay, I promise that's the only time in this topic I'll use that... this year)

This had been sitting on my 3DS for years, because the first time I tried it I couldn't figure out how to finish the second level. And I still had to look at a video AND check the instruction manual. After figuring that out though, I was fine.

This game took some getting used to. The physics and mechanics, particularly how Wario interacted with some things, were weird to me. I hated that there was no real "run" feature, and there were some really tricky platforming moments. Additionally, that bird boss in the middle of the game was infuriating. The rest of the bosses were pretty fun though. I actually managed to find a few of the treasures, but got enough Game Overs to lose them all. I ended with the birdhouse, but I don't care. According to a guide, I actually skipped one world entirely.

But onto the good. This game was a self-parody, and a pretty decent one at that. By that I mean it was not only clearly a parody of the Super Mario Land games, but it was made by the same company and even bore the series name as a subtitle. The rest of the Wario platformers drop that subtitle and from what I can tell are much more their own thing.

Tricky stuff aside, this was actually pretty fun. I'll admit it took me a long time to figure out what one of the power-ups did (the hat with the horns), but otherwise I really enjoyed how they made levels easier or, in a couple of cases, more challenging.

This probably isn't something I'll play again anytime soon, but I'm glad I played it. Having played some of Wario Land 3 and Wario World years ago, and heard nothing but good things about Wario Land II, I know this is a series that gets better from here.

As a side note, I've now tied by personal-best for number of games beaten in a calendar year.

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (PS4)

I played the hell out of this series as a kid like so many others, but I always did prefer THPS3 and 4 over the first two, which I think is actually kind of a minority opinion?

Major props to Vicarious Visions for pretty much nailing the feel of those later games and making the old levels look as great as they did. It doesn't feel like it controls exactly the same, but part of the difference might just be my relatively smaller amount of familiarity with said levels, and anyway, after the horrifying Frankenstein that the franchise gradually turned into, I'll take a close approximation any day of the week.

Not a whole lot to really say otherwise. Fun game, glad it exists, glad it's in my collection.

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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations (DS) (Replay)

This game is still so ridiculously good.

Next up is Apollo Justice which I'm half excited to replay and half dreading. I remember liking it the first time I played it but it definitely didn't stand up to the original trilogy. Guess we'll see if I still feel that way years later.

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Barrow Hill: The Dark Path (PC)

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Minecraft: Story Mode (Season 1) (Wii U)
I actually started this playthrough back in March and finally came back to finish it. Also, I counted "beating" this game as beating all 8 episodes, which includes the 3 that were originally DLC (but included with the package in the disc version), and here's why - the main story ends at the end of episode 4, but episode 5, which sets up the story for the DLC, was included as part of the "main" season. So I felt it only right to finish both stories before calling this beaten. That being said, I really don't see why they didn't split this into two seasons and call the actual season 2 "season 3." Would've made sense narratively and financially.

Anyway, I bought this with a gift card back in January 2017. I tried playing it and... it was fucking unplayable. I mean, I really just couldn't play it. All kinds of lag, insane load times after almost every line of dialogue, I didn't even make it to the opening credits of the first episode before I said "fuck it." I was told that deleting some stuff off of my Wii U might help, but I hardly found that that should even be necessary, so I didn't bother. Well I always felt guilty about spending the gift card and saying "fuck the game" after 10 minutes, so earlier this year I decided to try deleting some stuff and hoping for the best... and it worked. There was still the occasional asinine load time, graphical glitch, or other weird happenings, but at least it was fucking functional to the point where I could potentially have an enjoyable experience with it...

And that's what I had. An enjoyable experience. Not thrilling, but enjoyable. Out of all the Telltale games, this one was clearly made with children in mind. Most of the "major" choices didn't really affect the course of the story and were mostly just moral dilemmas as opposed to things that actually affected the fate of the characters and world. Many of the QTEs you could fail royally and it wouldn't make a lick of difference. There was very little exploring and it was mostly dialogue and QTEs. Out of all the Telltale games I've played, this one definitely felt most like a graphic novel.

The music was good but I think they went a little too hard on it. Some of the more somber tunes felt like they belonged in the more mature Telltale titles. I'll admit, I enjoyed the characters a lot. They weren't deep, many of them weren't even that interesting, but they were amusing, and I enjoyed the RPG-party-like camaraderie they shared. The characters and story really kinda reminded me of the LEGO Movie, and not just because Minecraft resembles LEGOs.

The voice acting was terrific, but that's to be expected because, I know most of you will probably never touch this game but I want to take a moment to point out how fucking stacked this voice cast is. Patton Oswald, Ashley Johnson, Scott Porter, Paul Reubens, Ashly Burch, Corey Feldman, Grey DeLisle, Jim Cummings, Kari Wahlgren, Phil LaMarr, Billy West, Samwise Gamgee Sean fucking Astin, man this has to be pretty close to the most insane voice cast in a video game of original characters (meaning movie/TV-based games and massive crossovers like Kingdom Hearts or LEGO Dimensions don't count).

One episode I particularly liked was Episode 6. I'm sure a lot of people would call that one their least favorite, but it was one of my favorites. I really liked having the Youtubers voice their own characters, and comedic murder mysteries are always fun for me. I really liked Episode 7 as well and you know what, pretty much all of them. I just felt the need to point out 6 and 7. Even though parts of 7 hurt my ears through headphones.

I'd post my choices but because each line counts as a new spoiler tag now, I wouldn't be able to fit nearly all of them in a single post, so screw it. I will say that I picked female Jessie without even realizing it (in my original save file I apparently picked the male) but I'm glad I did. Based on the relationships I formed and the dialogue choices I picked, I think the female Jessie worked best.

Overall, I'm glad I finally got to play this and may even play season 2 at some point!

And with that, I officially have a new personal record for number of games beaten in a calendar year (and counting)!

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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PS4)

Metroidvanias were a genre that just completely passed me by as a kid for whatever reason. Certainly never avoided them intentionally - just so happened that I was always playing something else. And to this day, I still have never actually played an official Metroid or Castlevania game.

But I've completely fallen in love with the genre over the last year or two, and this is another great example to add to the list. The lovely music, the interesting areas that never overstay their welcome (well, except for the Forbidden Underground Waterway), the formula that's pretty much been perfected at this point of frequent, incremental improvements to the protagonist... Just a dang good time.

The problem with Metroidvanias is that they really, really tempt my completionist tendencies, but I was able to mostly resist the urge this time. I was very close to 100% map completion when I beat the final boss, so I went ahead and finished that up afterward along with the secret bosses, but that'll be where I stop with this one for now. I know it's still getting content updates so that could certainly renew my interest in maybe going after that Platinum one day, though.

Video game Kickstarter successes are pretty few and far between but I'd say this definitely qualifies. And we even got two Curse of the Moon games out of it as a bonus (the second of which I just now grabbed in the Steam sale and will likely be the next title I run through).

All of us on B8 enjoy ragging (mostly affectionately) on our fellow posters when it comes to their tastes in pretty much every form in media, but at the end of the day, they've never really steered me wrong when it comes to video games. So for everyone who posted in that topic I made a month or two ago asking if this game was worth the buy, thanks for helping me get down off the fence!

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The Council (PS4)

I'm not sure how any other endings play out, but I don't think they quite stuck the landing. That being said, it was a wild and fun ride.
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Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (3DS)

Well, I just beat the main game and didn't touch the extra content. Had already beaten this on the GBA soon after its release and loved it, so I decided on a whim to revisit the game through this remake and I have to say I really liked the art style. Very smooth, but still colorful. Controls beautifully. I blazed through it in less than 20 hours, it's short but it feels like a proper adventure nevertheless.

Upon replaying it I do see some flaws that I didn't notice before, like some rushed parts and main story progression coming in the form one-off minigames, but the overall experience is still so much fun!

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Metroid Fusion (GBA)
Okay I actually have a lot of weird stuff to say about this.

I definitely got this game as a Christmas gift the year it came out, either from my grandparents (read: my Mom picked it up and put their name on it) or my aunt and uncle. But, like many games of my childhood, this is the first time I've actually beaten it. The furthest I got in the past was Nightmare and I can see why. Upon looking at that game's board, it seems many people consider it to be the hardest boss in the game, and I'm inclined to agree (it's a three-horse race, but I'd probably give it to that one). A weird memory I have about this game is that the anticipation for it came during the summer of Pepsi Blue, which was advertised as a "berry-cola fusion." And I thought it was kinda funny how there were two "fusion" things that were blue that year. I definitely made sure to drink some Pepsi Blue while playing it this time.

TRIGGER WARNING: MENTAL HEALTH
My playthrough of this game was kinda reflective of my current mental health status. A lot of anger and frustration, cursing, screaming, shitposting, apparently I even damaged my DS Lite a bit, which makes me sad because it holds some sentimental value to me (it still works fine, the upper screen just doesn't hold in place as well anymore). And yet I persisted enough to beat the damn thing, even if I needed to look for help (guides) at parts. Kinda shows how I feel like my mental health is really deteriorating yet somehow I'm still hanging on.

Anyway, weird stuff aside, this game. Frustration aside, this was fun! I haven't played many Metroidvanias, mostly because I'm just not that good at them, but I've always liked the concept. This one was easy to learn but tricky to master, which is a great difficulty curve for any game. It was really fun opening up the map and exploring all the nooks and crannies to find items (energy tanks felt especially rewarding), and beating bosses felt like an accomplishment. I also liked Samus and Adam's interaction, which, from what I understand, is a lot more dialogue/monologue-heavy than most games in the series.

Oh right, my clear time was 4:12, and my item rate was 46%. (cue Price is Right trombones)

I'm really really glad I finally finished this, and I'll definitely check out more of the series (I actually have a few of them, but never finished any). Maybe Zero Mission next? Who knows?

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Castle of No Escape (PC)

This turned out to be one of those game where you dislike it at first but the more you play it, the more you enjoy it as you figure out how the game works/operates.

The game is entirely luck based/RNG.
It's a roguelike so RNG does come with the territory.

You have 3 classes to choose from: Champion/Human, Bandit/Wolfman, Shamaness
Each of them have their own statistics. Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity. Bandit seems to be the best character in the game due to his high dexterity which is very useful at the chance of running away. You also have 3 spells. Web is the only one worth using cause it helps you stun enemies and you can either fight them while they are stunned in the web or a chance to run away. You mainly want to run away from monsters most of the time as you search for the Artefacts.
You also don't ever want to have any of your stats reach zero, otherwise it's game over.

You are thrown into the Castle with 6 floors and have to find 5 Artefacts to stop the demon Nikolai.

The whole game is on a grid and in every room you'll either encounter an Artefact, items, torches, monsters, Nikolai, chests, books, merchants, gold, pools of liquid, crystal orbs.

I ended up liking the game so much I even went back to replay it a few times with the other classes to beat the game 3 more times.

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Strider (2014) (XB1)

It didn't leave a strong first impression due to it being dated upon arrival, but once I started gaining powers, it ended up being quite fun in traversal. Combat was still a little underwhelming. That being said, the game really disincentivized exploration due to a poor fast travel system and being forced to due things in a certain way (forced fights, environmental puzzle platforming, etc...) over again just to grab something you couldn't do the first time. I ultimately didn't both grabbing everything as it eventually was just not fun to do so.

93.6% completion in 6:26:38
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140 (PC)

I was not expecting it to be as challenging as it was. That third boss wrecked me.
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