Board 8 > November Game of the Month Club ft. TOEM, Strange Horticulture, and Ace Attorney

(+) Yeah! (+)

Novembers Games:
TOEM (PC/Switch/XS/X/XB1/PS5)
Strange Horticulture (PC/Switch/XS/X/XB1)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (PC/Switch/XB1/PS4/iOS/Android/3DS/DS/Wii/GBA)

Games of the Month of the Year:
Mass Effect (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3)
Mass Effect 2 (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3)
Mass Effect 3 (PC/XB1/PS4/360/PS3/Wii U)

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 on the 25th
- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will obviously think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for every featured 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 featured game after the drawing for next month's games but before the end of the month
- You have 9 supports you can use throughout the year. Your only limitations are that you can't support your own nomination, and you can only use one support per game per month

Just-for-Fun Top 20 Standings
KCF - 177
gameking - 116
ArkOfTurus - 109
Mr Crispy - 102
Lolo Guru - 70
Cody - 61
KnightOfNee - 35
Seanchan - 33
ViolentAbacus - 29
MegamanX - 28
Wickle - 27
FakeAccount - 26
Arti - 23
scarletspeed - 23
darkx - 18
GreatPaul - 18
MZero - 17
Fenny - 16
Suprak the Stud - 16
JONALEON - 14
tazzyboy - 14

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

Additional noms this month
Cody - 1

TOEM and Phoenix Wright are on Game Pass

Strange Horticulture is on sale for $7.50 USD on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574580/Strange_Horticulture/

Everyone should play Ace Attorney, it's one of my top ten video games ever. >__>

By the way, I know this is very early to nominate but I already know what I wanted to nominate for December for a while

Nominate: Cthulhu Saves Christmas

throwyour supportmy wayall, it's going to be very festive and horrific and hilarious

I'm at 71% in Toem after two and a half hours into the game. I beat this less than two years ago, so that's helped speed things up, but I'm also forgetting the solutions to many of the stamp requirements. I do remember taking a bunch of selfies my first time, and I've took just one this time, but I think that maybe I just enjoyed taking selfies of my character in dumb outfit combinations.

KCF has beaten TOEM

I like Basto even more now that I had an opportunity to play it right after the main game as opposed to many months when it was released I think last summer. Somehow I took almost exactly the same amount of time (5.0 hours vs 5 hours, 5 minutes) my second time playing this as my first time. I would think that I had more idle time while playing on PC vs XS/X here.

Damn, I'm older than Gumshoe in PW:AA. I haven't played this since I was a teenager, but I assumed he was 35 at the minimum.

I installed TOEM on gamepass.

Kenri has beaten TOEM

100%'d the main game in a 3 hour marathon but I'm also gonna do Basto (which I didn't do, or it wasn't out, when I did my previous playthrough). Still a great little adventure though I wish the pacing was better in the final area. Letting your character climb ropes faster would be a game changer there.

KCF0107 posted...

Damn, I'm older than Gumshoe in PW:AA. I haven't played this since I was a teenager, but I assumed he was 35 at the minimum.

Ace Attorney ages are complete nonsense. Definitely one of those series where I have to mentally add like 7 years to most of the cast to make it make sense.

Kenri posted...

Ace Attorney ages are complete nonsense. Definitely one of those series where I have to mentally add like 7 years to most of the cast to make it make sense.

I've found that for anyone over ten years old adding a decade works quite well.

VeryInsane has beaten Toem

oh hey I saw this and decided to clear it

100% the main game pretty quickly and effectively, cute puzzle game probably the right kind of game to just go through after finishing up Sea of Stars.

will probably do the update tomorrow or Monday.

I own Strange Horticulture, and might do it? Theres a few games I want to try to wrap up first.

I did Basto in TOEM today and it definitely lived up to the rest of the game. Next up is Strange Horticulture I guess.

I'm now into the fourth case of Phoenix Wright, and I think so far that this has reaffirmed my belief that this is my favorite game in the franchise. Aside from some hiccups in the investigation process where I have to do things in a specific order to trigger like five different scripted events in a row (really just in Case 3), everything moves at a resonable pace, especially the trial portions.

The last time that I played an Ace Attorney game was in 2017 with Spirit of Justice or whatever it was called and man did they really bloat their runtimes by dragging things on and on by that point. Then I played Aviary Attorney later that year or early in 2018 (as part of my Steam Secret Santa gift from VI), and that game had more style and deftness in five hours than games like the Ace Attorney franchise did in 4-10 times the time.

Replaying this is a huge breath of fresh air.

Spirit of Justice might be the worst paced game I've ever played. What I wouldn't give to go back to the days of AA1 pacing.

KCF has beaten Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Other than the second trial day of the final case and the aforementioned running around in a very specific manner in Case 3, I had a great time again! I lament how this series became one of many that felt it was necessary to go bigger (with lackluster execution more often than not) when I think less is more in this particular case.

I completely forgot how the culprits would largely accept their defeat or require one last piece of evidence instead of later games having them drone on and on and make you go in circles for another hour.

Since we will be having four games next month, I'm going to nominate some sub-10 hour games.

Freedom Planet
Huntdown
Stacking

I'll support Freedom Planet, that one's been in my backlog for ages.

I'm officially bringing back the birthday polls for 2024 that we did in 2020. I can't think of anything to change about them. For those who are interested but weren't involved back then, we'll use my birthday as an example, which is in January.

- After the drawing for December's games in November, I would decide two games (that satisfy nomination rules) I wish to put in a 1v1 poll (others would let me know via PM here or a DM on Discord)
- The poll would be posted manually within the December topic, as opposed to adding via GameFAQs options when creating the topic
- The game with the most votes when the January drawing during December occurs will be featured in January, taking the place of one of the usual three games.

If there are multiple birthdays within a month, we run however many polls, and those months will feature four games instead of three so that at minimum two games are selected via the drawing. It worked out perfectly last time to have 3-4 multi-birthday months for the purpose of having some four-game months. If that doesn't happen this time, then I will figure something out.

If interested, you can post here or PM/DM the month you were born and I will put that down in a private doc/sheet.

In other news, I'm going to keep the support system, but I'm going to simplify it so nobody has to track anything outside the progress reports I post several times each month. Starting in 2024, you can support one game a month if you so desire.

I'm the same month as you - January

My birthday was two days ago, so I'll be waiting the longest, I suppose.

Those all sound like good changes!

My birthday is in October.

KCF0107 posted...

If interested, you can post here or PM/DM the month you were born and I will put that down in a private doc/sheet.

February birthday right here.

Monthly Progress
TOEM - KCF, Kenri, VI
Strange -
Phoenix - KCF

Nominations
Fake - Cthulu Saves Christmas
KCF - Freedom Planet, Huntdown, Stacking

Supports
Kenri - Freedom

I'll sign up for June

I'm loving Strange Horticulture so far. Definitely gonna be a love it or hate it game because you have to like... do in-game research to make progress. But it's surprisingly fun research. Also, the vibes are immaculate.

Side note: if anyone plays on Steam Deck, I highly recommend turning on automatic labeling in the settings menu to cut down on the tedium of using the virtual keyboard.

Kenri has beaten Strange Horticulture

Great game! I could barely make myself put it down last night and finished it in a second sitting today. Super recommended for people who like detective games.

Drawing in almost a week

Not gonna get to Toem before the drawing so

nominate Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus

Monthly Progress
TOEM - KCF, Kenri, VI
Strange - Kenri
Phoenix - KCF

Nominations
Fake - Cthulu Saves Christmas
KCF - Freedom Planet, Huntdown, Stacking
Sean - Wolfenstein II

Supports
Kenri - Freedom

Drawing on Saturday

Nominate First Snow and Baten Kaitos

Tried to find wintery/vaguely Christmas-y games from my backlog

Abacus Nominates Chuchel + Demon Turf

Trying to decide if I want to support Stacking or not.

I guess I need to DM you my two games for my January B-Day as well.

Nominate: Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

Support Cthulhu Saves Christmas

Last call for noms, changes, and supports

Everything is closed. I will draw soon-ish

And your December Games of the Month are...

Pseudoregalia (PC)
Freedom Planet (PC/Switch/PS4/Wii U)
Demon Turf (PC/Switch/XS/X/PS5/XB1/PS4)
Monster Train (PC/Switch/XB1/iOS)

Congrats to Kenri, myself, Abacus, and Crispy for having their games selected!

Freedom Planet is on sale for $7.50 USD on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/248310/Freedom_Planet/

Freedom Planet is on sale for $4.50 USD on Switch
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/freedom-planet-switch/

Demon Turf is on sale for $15 USD on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1325900/Demon_Turf_Queens_Edition/

Monster Train is on Game Pass for PC and console

Monster Train is on sale for $7.50 USD on Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1102190/Monster_Train/

Monster Train is on sale for $7.50 USD on Switch (includes DLC)
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/monster-train-first-class-switch/

Well, besides Freedom Planet and Pseudoregalia, I think I also own Demon Turf. Next month gonna be busy for me.

Whoops, I forgot to nominate.

I'm probably going to beat Pseudoregalia this month, so that'll be a waiver unless I feel like replaying it (it will probably be a short replay when I know where I'm going, so maybe?). I'll always play Monster Train again, though. Might finally go and beat Freedom Planet, too.

Hmm, December is a short month for me and I'd prefer not to spend money but that Pseudoregalia game looks kind of interesting...

No Cthulhu Saves Christmas?

>_> I feel like pulling a topic creator prerogative move and just adding it to the replay even though it wasn't played before

Let's see if I still feel that way in December

It's just so festive.

Tbh, maybe some kind of seasonal game club might be fun. Wonder what seasons have thematic games though, beyond maybe Christmas and Halloween?

I started on TOEM last night. Pretty fun, chill game so far!

TOEM beated!

That was fun! A chill little game in the mold of A Short Hike, but focused on taking pictures rather than platforming. I didn't 100% everything but I did finish Basto as well. Good nomination!

FakeAccount3000 posted...

Tbh, maybe some kind of seasonal game club might be fun. Wonder what seasons have thematic games though, beyond maybe Christmas and Halloween?

I think you could do it but some months would be kind of a stretch to find anything on theme. For instance you could use August for specifically Japanese horror games, because summer is spooky season in Japan and Obon specifically is in August. Does that have any relevance to 95% of the board? Not really, but at least there are lots of games to choose from.

March through May is a tough stretch though. Not many Easter or even generically spring-themed games out there, and I can't think of much else that fits either.