Board 8 > Para's Top 50 games from 2020-2021

Topic List
Page List: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... 10
LeonhartFour
06/24/22 11:22:52 PM
#102:


it's all I remember about the original Mario Golf

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#103
Post #103 was unavailable or deleted.
MrSmartGuy
06/25/22 1:39:09 AM
#104:


Super Rush is actually my favorite console Mario Golf game of all-time now. It really didn't start out that way, but the updates really flushed things out.

It started with 6 courses, and now I think there's 12 or 13? Online is fun again, now that they banned Super Shots when players would just sit there and wait for someone else to hit their ball on the green so they could knock them off, which held rooms hostage for 10 minutes at a time.

All in all, a great time.

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Xbox GT/PSN name/Nintendo ID: TatteredUniform
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Paratroopa1
06/25/22 3:43:03 AM
#105:


DragonGargoyle posted...


(Also your top 3 for 2010-2019 are some of my favorite games in general. rn I consider Undertale to be my #1, and BotW is the most relaxing experience I've had with a game)
I will say for the record that there is a game missing from my top 3 of last decade because I played it like a month after I finished that list, but it'll probably come up at some point in this list (hint)
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Paratroopa1
06/25/22 4:12:06 AM
#106:


#39: One Step From Eden

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/5/7/AAA-H0AADYWN.jpg

One Step From Eden is Mega Man Battle Network, but as a roguelite deckbuilder akin to Slay the Spire. Yeah, that's pretty much guaranteed to be a winner. I bought this one right away and I don't regret it, even if I do have a few issues with the way this game plays. Yeah, I'm just getting right into the game here, no rambling intro paragraph about some unrelated thing.

Mega Man Battle Network, for the uninitiated - if there's somehow uninitiated out there, who the hell are you - is a spinoff Mega Man RPG series for the GBA. In it, you move Mega Man around on a 3x3 grid against a 3x3 grid of enemies, and you have a 30-card deck of 'battlechips' that you randomly draw from, which give you a hand of attacks and abilities to use in the fight. It's one of the most elegant combat systems I think anyone's ever made, although that's really a writeup for a different list than this one (I'll get to it someday). While MMBN already polished its own system pretty much perfectly by the third game, there was always plenty of room for someone to come in and do their own twist on it. Hence, One Step From Eden's MMBN roguelike.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/5/8/AAA-H0AADYWO.jpg

There are some differences here; it's a 4x4 grid instead of a 3x3, and instead of having a 30-card deck of battlechips that you can't reshuffle, instead you start with a small deck of 4 and build it up, and you can reshuffle the moment you run out, though it takes a few seconds to get them all back. There are different characters with different starting abilities and decks, and you take them through a flowchart of levels very much like Spire's, fighting bosses and collecting items and such.

On paper, and mostly in practice, the game is really good. All of the characters are fun and different to play, and the variety in both chips and items is excellent. Bosses are well designed and have cool attack patterns. The presentation is sleek and stylish, with the visuals and music both on point; I'm kind of a sucker for this millennial cyber-anime vibe it's got going on, although I do think most of the character designs come off like edgelord deviantart OCs.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/5/9/AAA-H0AADYWP.jpg

I do think there are a couple of problems; mainly that there's a readability problem with this entire game where there's a lot of stuff flying around and it's really hard to keep track of the action at times, and most of the basic enemies are really hard to remember so it's not easy to internalize what they actually do. Also, this game moves faster than MMBN, so a lot of the times it feels like instead of lining up a chip to get the best shot in, the best thing to do is just spam every chip you have on hand and hope for the best, and just reshuffle if you have to. It can sometimes feel hard to build up the right synergies in your deck, at least for me, and I end up having a lot of random garbage that doesn't go well together - the strength of MMBN is that you can carefully plan your deck to synergize well, but here you're just kind of stuck with whatever you end up with and you have to make it work. There's some mechanics I don't intuitively understand well - I still can't really tell you off the top of my head what 'flow' does and how it works.

For the most part, though, even just resigning yourself to mashing attacks and hoping it works out is still a viable strategy, just because the game plays really well. It moves too fast and I don't feel like I've mastered it at all, and I'm not sure that I ever will, but I'm really glad that a game like this exists. They should combine all my favorite games with roguelikes, really. It's a free ride onto my favorite games list.

Next up: People who enjoyed Hypnospace Outlaw may also like:

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Paratroopa1
06/25/22 4:13:07 AM
#107:


Sorry about all these screenshots coming out in terrible quality by the way, I'm fucking some of them up apparently because I'm lazy - I'm just pulling them off the internet and resizing them to give a little bit of visual flair to my writeups.
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andylt
06/25/22 7:47:20 AM
#108:


Paratroopa1 posted...
stuffy white men in polo shirts
Mario is a stuffy white man in a polo shirt!

Golf has never been my thing, even with Mario, and I've only heard 'meh' things about all the Switch Mario Sports games but it's interesting to see it here (though I think most of the complaints were about a lack of content, not it playing poorly or anything).

Paratroopa1 posted...
Mega Man Battle Network, for the uninitiated - if there's somehow uninitiated out there, who the hell are you
It's me, I am uninitiated! I have heard the title, but aside from that I knew nothing of it until reading your write-up right there. It and Eden look like deceptively simple games that could get really addictive.

Paratroopa1 posted...
I will say for the record that there is a game missing from my top 3 of last decade because I played it like a month after I finished that list, but it'll probably come up at some point in this list (hint)
Calling it for Outer Wilds, and Echoes will show up on this list somewhere (I think I've seen you talk about OW before, and it'd fit with your other favs)

Predix for the Hypnospace hint: some even more obscure indie game that I've never heard of

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Dels
06/25/22 9:28:14 AM
#109:


mega man battle network is really fun. strong recommend if you've missed out.

definitely play that before trying eden, like para said eden is just way faster-paced and harder. i've beaten two MMBN games and i can barely handle the tutorial of eden.
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NFUN
06/25/22 9:57:27 AM
#110:


skip mmbm 1 and 4

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Paratroopa1
06/25/22 4:39:41 PM
#111:


Yeah just start with MMBN2 or 3
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azuarc
06/25/22 8:43:04 PM
#112:


A bag of milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk

Or in the opposite extreme, Paradise Killer

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Dels
06/25/22 10:41:28 PM
#113:


well i think mmbn1 is lovely idk if there's a reason people think it doesn't hold up.
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Paratroopa1
06/25/22 10:47:53 PM
#114:


Dels posted...
well i think mmbn1 is lovely idk if there's a reason people think it doesn't hold up.
It just feels like a prototype of the rest of the series to me. It's an easier, shorter game with largely less interesting bosses and less interesting chip designs, lacking some quality of life features that exist in later games, with an internet world that doesn't look as good. (Also Elecman's level is probably the most annoying puzzle area in the series I think)
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LeonhartFour
06/25/22 11:41:14 PM
#115:


it's okay I know virtually nothing about Battle Network despite being a fan of the Classic, X, and Zero games

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Dels
06/25/22 11:58:38 PM
#116:


oh. well, i like simplicity in games. but it's been maybe almost 10 years since i last played MMBN1 so maybe it's too outdated now. i never played 4/5/6 either.
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Paratroopa1
06/26/22 12:17:00 AM
#117:


MMBN4 is the black sheep of the series for a good reason but BN5 and BN6 are good
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Dels
06/26/22 12:18:27 AM
#118:


i should finish it out at some point.

i got stuck at a boss on mmbn3 that i could swear was like, absolutely unbeatable and 10x harder than anything i'd encountered in the games (beyond secret post-game bosses which i didn't do)

but also it was just a random story boss like 1/3rd through the game so there must have been something wrong with me for not being able to do it because there wouldn't just be a difficulty spike like that out of nowhere?
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Paratroopa1
06/26/22 12:19:20 AM
#119:


Dels posted...
i should finish it out at some point.

i got stuck at a boss on mmbn3 that i could swear was like, absolutely unbeatable and 10x harder than anything i'd encountered in the games (beyond secret post-game bosses which i didn't do)

but also it was just a random story boss like 1/3rd through the game so there must have been something wrong with me for not being able to do it because there wouldn't just be a difficulty spike like that out of nowhere?
BubbleMan is known for being one of the hardest bosses in the series
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Dels
06/26/22 12:22:48 AM
#120:


haha, it's not bubbleman though, it's kingman.
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Paratroopa1
06/26/22 12:26:31 AM
#121:


damn, oh yeah him. he's also hard!
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Paratroopa1
06/26/22 4:36:18 AM
#122:


Hey so, I actually forgot when I put this list up that I'm going on vacation this week! I won't have a computer, just a phone, so doing any writeups will be impossible, sadly. So bear with me while I take a week off and I'll come back with the rest of this list over the course of July. Didn't get a writeup done today because I was focused on vacation prep and I need to sleep now.

The list so far:

39. One Step From Eden
40. Mario Golf: Super Rush
41. Pawnbarian
42. RITE
43. The Pedestrian
44. BPM: Bullets Per Minute
45. Murder By Numbers
46. Fall Guys
47. Luck Be a Landlord
48. Webbed
49. Dorfromantik
50. The Legend of Doom

I'm really excited to talk about the rest of this list! I enjoyed all of the games I've talked about so far and they only get better from here.
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azuarc
06/26/22 1:36:31 PM
#123:


bye~

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.
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azuarc
06/28/22 9:29:51 AM
#124:


I'll probably forget to bump this later. Someone else's turn.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.
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Dels
06/28/22 11:30:53 AM
#125:


oh hey, mega man battle network legacy collection announced, huh. perfect time to get into the series then! i should finish it out.
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Paratroopa1
06/28/22 1:00:47 PM
#126:


Wow did we speak MMBN collection into existence?
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Dels
06/28/22 1:15:37 PM
#127:


i'm sort of surprised it didn't exist already. i kind of just assumed it did.
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Mac Arrowny
06/28/22 1:31:23 PM
#128:


It was rumored for a while, I believe.

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andylt
06/28/22 2:10:28 PM
#129:


Lol I just watched the Direct and this topic was the first thing I thought of when Battle Network came up. There are ten of these?!

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Dels
06/28/22 2:15:20 PM
#130:


no. there are six. but the second half of them go pokemon style with two versions.
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andylt
06/28/22 2:20:27 PM
#131:


Oh I see, I guess the dual versions thing was mandatory for GBA games.

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Dels
06/28/22 2:23:37 PM
#132:


i think the concept worked well for pokemon in a FOMO sense, with the whole "omg i have to trade with my friends to get everything!" probably helping sales

works less well for playing MMBN games 10 years later like "ok so i just have to miss out on some stuff? ok..."

but idk what the differences even are and its probably the case that if you didn't know about it you wouldn't even really realize
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Paratroopa1
06/28/22 4:51:27 PM
#133:


4, 5, and 6 give you a completely different set of bosses/allies and powers you get, which is pretty significant, but not worth playing both games for unless you really want to. It is a shame though because all the different bosses are fun and the fusions are fun to play with

3 was different - blue version was like a 'special edition' they released later in Japan but they gave us both versions. They're BARELY any different at all
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Kenri
07/04/22 12:57:41 AM
#134:


Safety bump

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Congrats to BKSheikah, who knows more about years than anyone else.
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Paratroopa1
07/04/22 3:16:40 AM
#135:


#38: Dum-Dum

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/5/AAA-H0AADaW7.jpg

One of the games from last decade that I played too late to include on my list, but would have, was Hypnospace Outlaw. Hypnospace Outlaw was a loving tribute to the anarchy and visual chaos of the late 90's internet in which you controlled the entire game through a virtual OS, your desktop being transformed into that of Hypnospace's own design. It is fully immersive in a way that few games are able to be; by taking you completely out of your own computer and into the fantastical simulacrum of another, it allows you to play pretend as though you really are in that OS, your very own computer taking the form of something from an alternate universe. Hypnospace Outlaw is great; it takes the concept of browsing an alternate universe internet in a fictional OS and gets really weird and creative with it, making for a fun literal-point-and-click adventure game.

Dum-Dum isn't as good as Hypnospace Outlaw, but for someone who's suddenly looking for more experiences in the genre of 'fake OSes', it's a real treat nontheless.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/6/AAA-H0AADaW8.jpg

Instead of the late 90's internet, Dum-Dum is instead a love letter to the operating systems of the mid-80's; in particular, Windows 1.0, though there's some Apple II influence in here as well. I think this is a game best experienced with little spoilers, since it's a little mystery/puzzle game with some fun twists and turns, but the basic gist is; you're a user of the HOGO OS 1985 edition, and through the use of the system's limited online functionality, you stumble into a vast corporate conspiracy which it is unfortunately up to you to solve with your dum-dum brain.

The big star here, of course, is the fake OS that is central to this game; the HOGO OS. Based off of the earlier versions of Windows - before 95, at the very least - booting up Dum-Dum forcibly full screens you into the game and into a fictional OS that would be more than 35 years old today, totally immersing you in the latest computer technology of 1985. Cyan and magenta abound, simple functionalities like a word processor or a clock seem state of the art, and everything has the feel of something like an elaborate toy rather than a modern computer. HOGO OS comes with lots of fun little gizmos to play with; just browsing its simple games and apps, LARPing being a child using an OS for the first time, is really half the fun of this game. You can't do too much with the apps, and most of the games are too simple to have much fun with, although a couple of exceptions exist - the surprisingly challenging puzzle game Hogoball, and one game that's basically a Wordle clone before Wordle! You can even literally write real code in Basic using this fictional OS, although I don't know Basic well enough to do anything more than print out "Hello World."

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/9/7/AAA-H0AADaW9.jpg

The actual story and the puzzles you have to solve are pretty fun themselves, too. The premise of the game is that the computer geniuses behind the conspiracy are so smart that they'll see any countermeasures coming - except for those thought up by the dumbest person alive, which happens to be you, making you the perfect unwitting operative for this mission. I found myself just a bit disappointed by this premise, as the game never quite lives up to the idea of "outwitting a smart person with dumb ideas" - most of the game as a puzzle game is really fairly straightforward and just requires straightforward smarts to figure out, and rarely does the game ever demand a truly stupid solution that would make you feel clever for thinking of something as stupid as possible. That said, the way the game weaves its story and its puzzle solutions into Dum-Dum's various programs and games is really clever, and surprisingly robust - the game took me over 5 hours to beat, which is longer than I expected out of a game like this.

There's a certain sort of nostalgia I have for old computers that Dum-Dum really effectively taps into. I prefer the much more functional computing technology we have now, of course, but Dum-Dum harkens back to a time when computers were just sort of fun, weird little gadgets that felt like their own little worlds, and I do kind of miss those days sometimes. Everything from the color schemes to the design philosophy to the lack of quality of life (only three windows) feels really spot on here, and perfectly evokes the feeling of an era I wasn't even alive for - my first Windows OS was 3.1. If Hypnospace Outlaw was appealing to you, I'd also check out Dum-Dum; it's a fully worthy companion piece, and it's a pretty obscure one, so I'm happy to signal boost it. And if anyone's played any other games kind of in this 'fake OS' vein, let me know, because I'm low-key obsessed with the concept.

Next up: This game has more reviews on Steam than Dum-Dum, but I still think it's the most obscure game on my list, bar none. It's a Sokoban-style puzzle game from late 2021. You're not going to guess it unless you've seen me playing it on Steam.
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Kenri
07/04/22 3:31:06 AM
#136:


Paratroopa1 posted...
And if anyone's played any other games kind of in this 'fake OS' vein, let me know, because I'm low-key obsessed with the concept.
The only other one I know of is Secret Little Haven, which I haven't played but I have it because it was part of the itch.io Racial Justice bundle a couple years back.

https://ristar.itch.io/secret-little-haven

I really need to get to Hypnospace Outlaw. I have it on Switch, but I imagine that's not the ideal format for it.

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Paratroopa1
07/04/22 3:32:14 AM
#137:


Hypnospace Outlaw on the Switch seems like an extremely weird fit - I can't imagine playing it without a mouse and keyboard on a computer monitor. It's great, though! Very worthwhile.
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-hotdogturtle--
07/04/22 3:37:40 AM
#138:


I can't imagine how Hypnospace would work on Switch considering the amount of typing involved. Which is the exact reason why I didn't play it years ago (on my old laptop where a few keyboard keys didn't work...) and had to wait until I got a new one earlier this year.

I'm surprised that I've never heard of Dum-Dum if even for the obvious "if you like Hypnospace then you should try this" comparisons that I assume were its main selling point.

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Hey man, LlamaGuy did encrypt the passwords.
With what? ROT-13? -CJayC
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Dels
07/04/22 6:54:29 AM
#139:


Kenri posted...
The only other one I know of is Secret Little Haven, which I haven't played but I have it because it was part of the itch.io Racial Justice bundle a couple years back.

https://ristar.itch.io/secret-little-haven

Oh, I've played this. For the same reason. It's a nice little story but it's nowhere near as involved as what Dum-Dum sounds like, basically just visual novel, nowhere near as many apps.
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azuarc
07/04/22 9:38:10 AM
#140:


I have never seen anything related to Windows prior to version 3. Logically I knew there had to be a Windows 1 & 2, but I thought everyone just used DOS at that point. Mac OS was certainly around and in use, though.

I will probably play Hypnospace Outlaw someday. I'll likely need a push to do it, though.

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Paratroopa1
07/04/22 2:30:06 PM
#141:


-hotdogturtle-- posted...


I'm surprised that I've never heard of Dum-Dum if even for the obvious "if you like Hypnospace then you should try this" comparisons that I assume were its main selling point.
This is probably the second-most obscure game on the entire list, and I have absolutely no idea why - I stumbled upon it doing some deep searches for new games to play and it's really very good and well-produced so the total lack of any kind of press surrounding this game is a bit baffling

This is why I was really excited to make this list! Eventually I will get into talking about all of the obvious great games that everyone's heard of, but a solid third of the list is still comprised of games that I think are more unknown than they should be.
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Paratroopa1
07/04/22 2:34:33 PM
#142:


Here's what Windows 2.0 looked like, for instance:

https://technirvanaa.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/210672-03_msft_history_slide.jpg

Every image I googled of Windows 2.0 has that extremely cyan vibe that Dum-Dum was going for, which makes me feel like it's really the inspiration for the entire game's aesthetic.

https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/ad9a603d79da853e7339d26d4bfbd8dcef671cf6/2015/07/23/db9b07b8-1bd3-4451-9365-7bd336f4d7dd/cmwindows1-0jul15a.jpg?auto=webp&height=675&width=1200

Here was Windows 1.0.

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HanOfTheNekos
07/04/22 5:23:28 PM
#143:


Dorfromantik is great!

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Paratroopa1
07/05/22 2:30:33 AM
#144:


#37: Bean and Nothingness

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/7/1/AAA-H0AADapT.jpg

One of my friends, incnone (former Necrodancer champ), is one of the designers of this game, so I was kind of obligated to play it on his behalf. Fortunately, it's actually really good, so I'm not just plugging it because a friend made it! It's exciting to get to recommend a super obscure game that a friend made that deserves a little bit of love - it's a big reason why I enjoy making these lists in the first place.

Bean and Nothingness is a sokoban puzzle game in which you plant beans and grow them into monsters, which you then have to manipulate to get to the goal. I absolutely suck at this game, to be clear, and I haven't gotten very far in it, because it gets pretty hard pretty fast, so I don't know exactly how long it is, but it seems likely to be pretty lengthy.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/7/2/AAA-H0AADapU.jpg

(Pictured: some stuff in the game I haven't seen yet. Oh god, what is happening? I'm scared)

I think the closest comp to this would be something like Baba Is You. It's nowhere near as good as Baba, absolutely nothing is, Baba is probably the best puzzle game of its kind ever created, but it does have a little bit of that same spark that Baba has. The puzzle solutions aren't quite as emergent as Baba's - there's usually one way to get through each puzzle - but every puzzle has that little spark of ingenuity that makes for a great puzzle. Surprising interactions between monsters and environment and solutions that lie just outside what the eye can obviously spot at a glance creates a fair bit of frustration, just enough to give you that great 'aha!' moment when you realize what you can actually do with the mechanical parts that each level gives you. Every monster does it own thing, and you have to figure out how to use the beans you're given to create the right monsters and deploy them at the right time to achieve your objective.

I don't know how far I'll be able to get in this game - I'm going to have to chip away at this one pretty slowly over time, a couple of puzzles every now and then when I feel like it, but I'm excited to work on it because it does have that element of not simply being a series of chores to be worked on like some other games of this type, but a series of specifically tailored challenges to be pondered over. The different mechanics of each monster make every level feel unique and worth tackling.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/7/3/AAA-H0AADapV.jpg

(Pictured: some more stuff that I haven't gotten to yet. I don't understand, and I'm terrified of what this game will do to me if I get this far.)

I wasn't sure if I should include this game on my list since I didn't see that much of it - I'm not even really in the midgame yet - but what I've played of it I was pretty excited by so I felt like it was worth including on the list, especially due to its obscurity.

Next up: This game has a fucking BANGER of a theme that is in the ongoing VGMC.
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Paratroopa1
07/06/22 5:58:25 PM
#145:


#36: 30XX

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/0/AAA-H0AADbCS.jpg

20XX is a Mega Man X-style roguelike that came out a few years ago, and it did make my game of the decade list at #76. Let's pull up a quote and see what I had to say about it...

"A lot of UI things are kind of messy, some of the visuals don't really 'pop' all that great, the music and sound are average, some of the level design generation is ill-conceived at best, there's bugs, and it overall just sort of lacks a sheen of polish that I'm used to seeing in games; you can really feel how 'indie' this one is, to put it bluntly."

Glowing review! Of course, it goes on to say that in spite of all of this, the game is fun as hell, which it is. It's fun to dash and blast your way through enemies and wall jump off platforms and find cool abilities that let you shoot giant charged shots and double jump and stuff like that. The lack of polish is a little bit of a damper upon the whole formula, but there's always the possibility of a sequel. What if 20XX, but polished? A thousand years in the future (I guess), but only about four years in real time, 30XX enters early access.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/1/AAA-H0AADbCT.jpg

The first thing that immediately stands out is, holy hell, the visual style has gotten a complete makeover and it is gorgeous. The glow-up that this game has gotten is possibly unlike any sequel I've ever seen in gaming before, at least not since the 90's. The hand-drawn flash-game-like graphics of 20XX have been overhauled into an ironically more 'retro' pixel-art style that pops off the screen, and it's like going from a 4/10 to a 9/10. The difference is stark. The environments and backgrounds in this game are stunning, the animation is fluid, the character designs look great. I know I just said RITE had some of the most pleasing pixel art graphics I'd seen in a while but 30XX tops it. The soundtrack of this game, also, has really grown on me - I made a reference to Echocave's theme, which is in vgmc, but the whole thing stands out to me as an improvement on 20XX's competent but more forgettable soundtrack. Everything in this game is a bop.

As for the gameplay, everything has gotten a fine layer of polish. The level design has notably seen a huge uptick in quality. 20XX had a sort of problem where levels just felt like a weird mishmash of platforming sections cobbled together in a way that didn't always feel coherent, but 30XX seems to have solved this - even though levels are randomly generated, they are usually generated in a way that feels a lot tighter and more deliberate. Some weird open spaces pacing issues still occasionally exist, but for the most part every level's gimmick gets used in cool ways that somehow still seem different every time - the Penumbra level and its red, blue, and green platforms that swap every time you jump off of them is especially cool. Maybe because I just haven't seen all of the level building blocks enough to get tired of them yet, but nontheless I'm impressed with the level generation.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/2/AAA-H0AADbCU.jpg

There are still some issues I have with the game - the boss designs aren't always the most compelling or easy to understand at times, and I feel like powerups have been tamped down a bit; I feel like there's a lot of powerups that just feel like sidegrades or niche bonuses that feel beside the point. And while the controls are solid, I do feel like the dash is a bit slow - I really want the dash to propel me, but it doesn't feel like it gets much speed in this game compared to the MMX series or to 20XX. Also, I feel like this game, like its predecessor, continues to have a problem with sloppy UI and menus, as well as the weird presentation in its lobby area. It's hard to explain, but it just feels more slapdash than it should in a game that is otherwise presented beautifully. Maybe these issues are why I haven't gotten as hooked on this game as I want to be - it's also possible that some of this is just early access jankiness and things will be polished a bit more in the future, I don't know.

I have to admit that in spite of my complaints, this game is a really excellent sequel, and this is the first time on my list that I feel like I might be making a huge mistake ranking this too low. I look at how good this game looks and sounds and how fun it is to play and I go "#36? Really?" But then I look at the 35 games below it and I go, yeah, it really has been that kind of two years. Everything on the rest of this list fucks. 30XX is still in early access, so maybe I'll have a chance to revisit it in the future and get properly hooked on it and write about how I should have ranked it in my top 10 before. We'll see! Hopefully we'll still be in the year 20XX by the time it's all finished.

Next up: This game was the reason I bought the Ukraine bundle.
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andylt
07/06/22 6:15:13 PM
#146:


Bean and Nothingness sounds very cool! But I'm probably not good enough to get through it, especially if you hit the wall early on despite being very good at video games >_> And I'm guessing it's not on consoles.

The only thing I knew of 30XX is its (indeed bangin) theme in VGMC. I'm hit and miss on rogueli*es and I've never played a Mega Man so it won't be jumping onto my list but hey I'll probably give the OST a spin.

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Very slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado.
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Kenri
07/06/22 6:44:53 PM
#147:


30XX sounds cool. If you're into rogue-like takes on SNES classics, you might check out A Robot Named Fight if you haven't already. It's basically just Super Metroid as a rogue-like, though with an admittedly unappealing art style.

Paratroopa1 posted...
Next up: This game was the reason I bought the Ukraine bundle.
I'mma guess SkateBIRD again

Okay, not really. My actual guess is... let's say Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle.

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Congrats to BKSheikah, who knows more about years than anyone else.
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Paratroopa1
07/06/22 6:52:10 PM
#148:


Kenri posted...


Okay, not really. My actual guess is... let's say Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle.
(...Damn, I really should have played this)

(The best part of getting people to guess what game is next on the list is that they might unwittingly recommend me games they think I've already played and liked, which is probably a pretty good indicator that I should check them out)
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azuarc
07/06/22 6:53:23 PM
#149:


Paratroopa1 posted...
20XX is a Mega Man X-style roguelike that came out a few years ago, and it did make my game of the decade list at #76. Let's pull up a quote and see what I had to say about it...

"A lot of UI things are kind of messy, some of the visuals don't really 'pop' all that great, the music and sound are average, some of the level design generation is ill-conceived at best, there's bugs, and it overall just sort of lacks a sheen of polish that I'm used to seeing in games; you can really feel how 'indie' this one is, to put it bluntly."

I didn't have that impression with 20XX at all. All of the elements you described (other than maybe the level design, which is procedural,) was at least above average. I thought the graphics and the music were particularly decent. If I had any issues with 20XX at all, they were in other areas. Plus the fact that I've never played Mega Man games and kinda sucked at it.

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Only the exceptions can be exceptional.
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Kenri
07/06/22 7:00:37 PM
#150:


Paratroopa1 posted...
(...Damn, I really should have played this)

(The best part of getting people to guess what game is next on the list is that they might unwittingly recommend me games they think I've already played and liked, which is probably a pretty good indicator that I should check them out)
Unfortunately I'm not sure if I've played a single game I've guessed, this one included! I just know you like Ace Attorney and it's obviously Ace Attorney-inspired

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Congrats to BKSheikah, who knows more about years than anyone else.
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swirIdude
07/07/22 12:22:49 AM
#151:


Kenri posted...
Unfortunately I'm not sure if I've played a single game I've guessed, this one included! I just know you like Ace Attorney and it's obviously Ace Attorney-inspired

And I immediately bought this game. Thanks for letting me know it exists

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Azuarc is my favorite arc of the Game of the Decade 2020 anime.
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