Okay, I've finally got my list together. Check it out!!!
Highs:
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Rocket Knight Adventures (Genesis) (beaten on 2017-01-14) – I'd owned this game for like five years prior to playing it, but I'm glad I got around to going through it finally. This was directed by Nobuya Nakazato, who has also directed several games in the Contra series (including III: The Alien Wars, Hard Corps, and Shattered Soldier), all of which are incredible. This isn't a run-and-gun shooter, but it has the same sort of intensity and onslaught of hectic boss battles and setpieces that would later come to define the Contra series for awhile. It's quite an enjoyable action-platformer, and the main character Sparkster is a quite charming hero. I definitely recommend checking it out ^_^
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Katawa Shoujo (PC) (beat Emi's route on 2017-01-20; Hanako's route on 01-24; ) - ...Yes. I played this.
Katawa Shoujo, for those who aren't familiar with it, is a visual novel developed by anonymous members of 4chan, which is about dating various anime girls while attending a school for the disabled. There are so many ways that this combination of developer background and themes could go wrong... but ehh. I liked it. Keeping in mind I'm speaking as an able-bodied person (and thus might not perceive certain flaws regarding said characters' portrayals), I thought this was pretty well-written, for the most part. Its characters (minus Kenji, who irritated me and had nothing interesting going for him as a character) are interesting, fully-developed people, whose stories made me feel a lot of different emotions. It was entertaining, fun, occasionally funny, and quite dramatic as well.
I've only gone through a couple routes so far (Emi's and Hanako's), but I liked both of them. I intend to go through the other routes sometime down the line. I'd been wanting to get more into visual novels for awhile, and for a free game, this isn't a bad one to try out.
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Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (3DS) (first beat Classic Mode as Lucina on 2017-01-25) – I'd played the Wii U version of Smash Bros. 4 at friend's houses and parties before, but since I have yet to own a Wii U, I never had the opportunity to play it on my own time. With this 3DS version though, I've finally been able to really practice the newest iteration of Nintendo's long-running crossover series, and I think it's a lot of fun. Peach has been my Smash Bros. main for countless years, but I've actually been finding lately that I really like playing as Lucina. The fact I've been getting into the Fire Emblem games as of late probably contributes to my giving those characters more of a try in this game. Anyways, this is good fun. I've never been into other fighting games, but Smash Bros. really clicks with me in a way that other fighters don't. Probably because it feels kind of more like a competitive action-platformer than a typical fighting game does.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II (PS3) (beat Normal difficulty on 2017-03-16) – Holy shit. Thanks to various mishaps keeping me from doing so sooner (like my PS3 dying and my losing my save data after Act I), it took me over six months to beat this fucking game. Damn. I'm glad I was finally able to do so, though. In spite of any flaws the Cold Steel games might have (like their higher degree of otaku-pandering fanservice nonsense), I still fucking love the shit out of Trails; it's like my favorite game series ever. Oh my gosh. I really wanna see Cold Steel III come out in English now!!!! ahhhhhhhh
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Turrican (Amiga) (beat while using no continues on 2017-03-19) - This game really is fantastic. It's got a couple flaws here and there (mostly due to a relative lack of polish), but the overall experience is glorious. The presentation (art style, music, etc.) is rivaled by few, and after getting used to it, I enjoyed the flow of gameplay this had to offer. It plays quite differently from most Japanese-developed sidescrollers, which I'm more used to, but Turrican's cautious, steady pace does kinda reminds me of classic Castlevania. Either way, I'm happy to have finally experienced this <3
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Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS) (beat Normal/Classic difficulty on 2017-03-20) – As my first experience with the Fates “trilogy”, I had a lot of fun with this. This feels most like Fire Emblem: Awakening, but with some improvements to the game design/balance. I like that there's now an incentive in some cases to not pair up your units with each other, as paired-up units won't join in for bonus attacks with each other. Yet at the same time, if you don't pair a unit up with another unit, that unit won't receive the increased stats bonus, and will thus be left at a disadvantage when it comes to defense. This results in combat that requires more thought than that of Awakening's. I also felt more attached to the story/characters of this game than I did to much of anything in Awakening, personally. This is perhaps shallow, but it helped that I could make my Corrin look almost exactly like me IRL, tee hee. All things considered, I quite liked this <3
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Turrican II: The Final Fight (Amiga) (beat while using no continues on 2017-03-26) – I felt like jumping into more Turrican shortly after finishing the first one. Again, this is really great. In some ways it's even better than the first Turrican; from a technical standpoint it certainly is, with more flashy graphical/sound effects, and also level designs that are generally both more “guided”, yet at the same time offer more opportunities to break away from the beaten path and find secret alcoves to get health/weapon upgrades, or increase your current score. Like the first Turrican, this is also hellishly difficult, lol. Stages 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3 all break away from the standard sidescrolling platformer action, in favor of becoming a horizontal shmup. Those three stages I can imagine tripping a lot of players up, and causing one to lose all their lives. They are relentlessly tough, and you pretty much need to have great reflexes in order to weave between all the zigzagging tunnels and obstacles in 3-3 in particular. Overall though, if you can handle the difficulty, this is well worth playing. And, like the first Turrican, this game's music is wonderful. <3
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Rosenkreuzstilette (Steam) (beat on 2017-04-05) – If you've ever played Mega Man, and thought to yourself “You know what this game could use more of? Cute anime girls”, then this is your game. Also it's hard as fuck. It borders on “I Wanna Be The Guy” levels of difficulty at times.
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Twinkle Star Sprites (Steam) (beat Normal/Arcade Mode as Load Ran on 2017-04-06; as Kim, Nanja Monja, Tinker & Linker, Really Till on 04-07) – Interesting little Neo Geo game here. A hybrid between a vertical shmup and a competitive puzzle/fighting game. I love the super-cute aesthetic and intense action this has to offer.
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Phantasy Star II (Genesis) (beat on 2017-04-14) – This took me just over a year to beat. I'm glad I beat it (I started the game on April 13th of 2016). I have mixed feelings about this; the story is incredible, and the presentation/music/combat/etc. are all really good. However, the dungeon designs are very tedious and cumbersome to traverse, even while referring to maps online. There's also a fair amount of grinding which is required to beat the game. All things considered though, I'm happy I beat this. Also, holy shit at the story. I had some things about this game's story spoiled for me, but the stuff that I wasn't spoiled about was seriously mindblowing. Gosh. I need to play Phantasy Star III and IV so I can see what the rest of the series has to offer!
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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis) (beat on 2017-04-16) I was a pretty ignorant Nintendo fangirl growing up, so I automatically hated any company that competed with Nintendo, including Sega. As a result, I never grew up with any Sonic games. I played through the first Sonic years ago (while making numerous save states, so that probably doesn't count as truly beating it...), and didn't care much for it. Then, I went years continuing to mostly ignore the series, even after I stopped blindly hating anything that wasn't Nintendo.
Fairly recently though, I was recommended to give the sequels a try, since they improve on the first game's design. So... it took some getting used to, but once I got the hang of the controls/physics, I started to have a pretty good time with this
Sonic physics are much looser and unrestrained than Mario physics are, and the same can be said for Sonic's level design, which is kinda like Turrican in that levels are sprawling and filled with lots of hidden corridors and goodies, even though there is a defined end point to each area.
Overall, I think I prefer Mario's approach to platforming still, but this was quite a good game (if pretty frustrating with the difficulty in the final stages). I look forward to eventually trying some other Sonic games in the future, like CD or Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
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GIRP (web browser) (got the “Winner: You” ending on 2017-04-25) – This is my favorite Foddy game I've played yet. It gets very tough, but it's a novel concept, and pretty hilarious in a fairly subtle, earnest way.
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Silent Hill (Playstation) (beat Normal with both Bad & Good+ endings on 2017-05-17) – This game is a fucking masterpiece. Holy shit it was so good. I think this just might possibly be my favorite Playstation 1 game I've played yet... even maybe ahead of Mega Man Legends, and I fucking love Mega Man Legends. Uuuuuuugh this was awesome
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Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest (3DS) (beat Normal/Classic difficulty on 2017-06-01) – Another path in Fates completed. One more to go! This path's story was particularly tough for me to experience, for several reasons. It doesn't help that it's kind of more reliant on deus-ex machinas and convenient contrivances than Birthright's story was. Overall though, I did enjoy it, and I loved the more classic-style take on gameplay/chapter design that this game features over Birthright. I decided to take a break from Fates after this, however. I'll go back and play the final path, Revelations, sometime in the future.
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Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS) (beat Normal/Classic difficulty on 2017-06-16; beat extra dungeon on 06-25) – This was pretty good. I have a couple glaring issues with the story (mostly in the second half), and the map design could have stood to be more interesting, but overall I really like how this differs from previous Fire Emblem games in terms of gameplay. I also love the increased budget/presentation this has to offer, what with full voice acting and whatnot. This has one of the best English localizations I've experienced in a game.
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Hotline Miami (Steam) (beat game on 2017-06-28) – I have to be honest. I have no idea what happened in this game. Umm... the music was fucking awesome, in a dancey Streets of Rage-kinda way. Also the violence was pretty impressive. I tend to really struggle with overhead twin-stick games though. Ultimately, this was certainly a memorable experience, at any rate, but I wish it was easier to control.
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Mega Man 4 (NES) (beat game on 2017-06-30) – I never owned this game as a kid, but thanks to picking up the Legacy Collection, I can finally play this. Woo! For my first time experiencing it, it was pretty fun. There were a couple things that could have used some polish (such as the finer details of how the Mega Buster functions, but later Mega Man games addressed that), but I thought this was quite good. I'm one of the few people in existence who doesn't really care for Mega Man 3, so I think this was a nice improvement over that game, though it's still not quite up there with games like 2, 7, or 9, as far as original series Mega Man games go.
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Snake Pass (Steam) (beat game on 2017-07-02) – Super adorable experience. This could have used a little tightening-up with its controls, but all things considered, it's an original concept for a game (slithering through 3D obstacle courses as a snake) that works very well, and I'm happy to have played it.
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System Shock 2 (Steam) (beat game on Normal/Navy on 2017-07-22) – This was a real blast to play. I personally didn't really like the first Bioshock when I played it, so I put off System Shock 2 because I'd heard they were similar. Now however, I can say that both System Shock games are incredible experiences. System Shock 2 also feels a lot more open and freeform in design than Bioshock did, which is part of why I like 2 (and the first System Shock) so much. Ultimately, I think a big part of why I enjoy System Shock, is that it feels like what I was first expecting Bioshock to be, when I first heard people rave about that game. Although, it has been awhile since I played Bioshock. Perhaps I should give Bioshock 1 another shot down the line...
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Never Alone aka
Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Steam) (beat game on 2017-07-24) – Never Alone is a cinematic platformer, sorta in the vein of games like Limbo or Another World. Its story is based on a traditional Iñupiaq folk tale, called “Kunuuksaayuka”. Despite its similarity to Another World (which I found frustrating), I found Never Alone to be pretty enjoyable to play, however. The controls are mostly smooth and understandable (though aiming the bola can be a pain sometimes), and the game will sometimes pop up visual clues onscreen, which helps keep one from getting too frustrated by not understanding the solution to a particular obstacle. There are also short unlockable documentary clips featuring Iñupiaq people, as they speak about their traditions and culture. They were very interesting to experience, and helped provide cultural context for the situations and events in-game. All things considered, this is a very charming, satisfying game, and I definitely recommend it.
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Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Steam) (beat game on Bring 'em on! difficulty on 2017-07-29) – This is a pretty neat standalone expansion/prequel to 2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order. It's not perfect; playing this after Doom shows me how the design of the game's combat sections feels a little unfocused at times. Certain areas are a joy to fight in, while others feel like they kill you in seconds unless you adhere strictly to cover, despite the fact the dual-wielding and overcharged health/ammo seems to try and encourage one to fight by aggressively and quickly speeding around the battlefield. Overall though, it's still fun, and as expected, the writing, acting, and presentation are incredible. I can't wait to play Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus now
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VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action (Steam) (finished with “bad” ending on 2017-08-13) – Well, I've finished this now. This is mostly a pretty relaxed visual novel, in which the only significant interaction with the story consists of mixing together drinks (either alcoholic or non-alcoholic) for customers. Usually they'll straight-up tell you what they want, but occasionally they might be vague, which requires you to think hard about what would best fit their tastes, or to remember what drinks they have enjoyed in the past. In general though, this is mostly reading through text, as you interact with a whole host of varied characters and learn about them and their stories.
On one hand, the dialogue can sometimes be pretty poorly written. Some interactions between characters sound downright contrived and artificial, and it feels like it's trying too hard at times to be funny or raunchy. At the same time though, I felt pretty attached to some of the characters, and the game did make me cry when all is said and done, so it must have done something right. All things considered, the dialogue could have been better, but I still really enjoyed my time with this nonetheless. The retro presentation and soundtrack were incredible, and I'm glad I got to experience this.
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South Park: The Stick of Truth (Steam) (beat Normal difficulty as a Fighter on 2017-09-03) – When I was in high school, South Park was one of my favorite things ever. I loved its irreverent shock humor and aesthetic, and I still have some fond feelings for the first few seasons of the show. Today though, I really don't give two shits about the TV series anymore, for a myriad of reasons. Despite my not being a South Park fan anymore, I still decided to give The Stick of Truth a try, both because it's developed by Obsidian (who are awesome and cool), and because I knew The Stick of Truth took some gameplay influence from the Paper Mario games, which I absolutely love.
The Stick of Truth ended up being really, really good! I still don't care for most of the humor in this game (in fact, many jokes here are essentially copied from previous episodes of the show), but beyond that, it's quite fun. The town exploration and combat are really satisfying, as is the high level of customization, both of one's appearance and their abilities. You can't technically choose the gender of your character at all, so you're always playing a “boy”, but you can equip your character with some super girly outfits, which I loved. By the end of the game, my character was wearing a Xena-esque outfit and kicking ass with a flame-enhanced katana, which was fun. Ultimately, how much one will enjoy this game will definitely be affected by whether or not they like South Park in the first place, but much like Batman: Arkham Asylum, I think this is really fun to play, even if one is not a fan of the source material. It's definitely a memorable, imaginative experience.
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Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Steam) (beat Normal difficulty on 2017-09-19) – I've generally been down on the Resident Evil series ever since the disappointment that was 5. Resident Evil 7, however, is a true return to form for the series. It's so fucking good. It shows that Capcom definitely still has what it takes to make a good horror game. I'm genuinely excited for what the series has to offer for the future now. Bring on that Resident Evil 2 remake!
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The Beginner's Guide (Steam) (finished on 2017-09-21) – Umm... So, this is a game. Yep. By the same person who made The Stanley Parable, if that gives you an idea of what to expect. I feel like saying anything about this ahead of time would do it a disservice, so I really recommend just playing this if you get the chance. It's like 90 minutes long, so it's not a big investment time-wise to get into.
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A Normal Lost Phone (Steam) (finished on 2017-10-03) – This game is presented as if you happened across a cell phone that belongs to a random person. The objective is essentially to look through the phone's messages, calendar, etc. to piece together who this person is, and what circumstances led to this phone now being in your hands.
Having finished it... its story really affected me. I think it's comparable in some ways to Gone Home, in its portrayal of LGBT themes, although the means through which one uncovers pieces of the story feels totally different, due to the phone-like interface. By the end of the story, I found myself feeling sad, as I wished I could have had a chance to meet this person who the phone belongs to... yet I'll never have that opportunity. This is an unconventional experience, but if you're interested, it's worth going through. It's definitely one of the more memorable games I think I'll have played during 2017.
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Cuphead (Steam) (finished on 2017-10-21) – I'd been looking forward to Cuphead's release for years now. This probably isn't surprising to hear at this point, but I was very pleased with how well it turned out. I'm a huge fan of run-and-gun shooters like Contra and Metal Slug, and also have an enjoyment for classic American cartoons (my family had a lot of VHS tapes of old cartoons while I was growing up), so Cuphead's specialized focus in terms of both art design and gameplay happened to really click with me. I continue to be happy that Cuphead managed to sell a million copies within the first two weeks of its release; Studio MDHR totally deserve it, and I cannot wait to see what they've able to come up with next.
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Silent Hill 2 (PS2) (finished with “leave” ending on 2017-11-05) – ...This made me cry. Yep.
There really aren't enough games that manage to capture the lonely, emotional, dark atmosphere that these early Silent Hill games pull off so effectively. Silent Hill 2's story in particular really got to me, and I think ends up actually being better than the first game's story. There needs to be more serious, character-driven horror games like this one.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (Steam) (beat Normal on 2017-12-02) – I got this when it came out in May, but it took me awhile awhile to play through. I can finally say it's done though! Woo.
For anyone who isn't already aware, the main story arc of the Sky games was concluded in SC. Since it was originally planned as one big game, that ended up getting split into two releases (FC and SC), the main story takes place over those two games. Coming after them, 3rd's story features many of the same characters, but also features the beginning of a new story arc. It's basically like an epilogue/interquel between the two main Trails in the Sky games and the later Trails games.
So, with that said... I think I enjoyed 3rd overall. At the same time though, it might be my least favorite game I've played thus far in the Trails series. One of the main strengths of the series is its incredible story, particularly its world-building and character development. 3rd has that, but unlike the other Trails games, 3rd is basically structured like one huge dungeon crawler, that happens to feature a hub area you're constantly returning to. To be fair, there are a lot of concessions which help to streamline the experience (you can fast-travel between multiple points in the game at almost any time, so it's not too much of a drag to head back to the hub or to a point of interest), but there aren't any towns in the game. This results in a very different feel from the other games, as far as gameplay alone is concerned.
Story-wise, it's also the darkest Trails game I've played yet. The other games can get pretty dark at times, but 3rd is downright horrifying in places. I think overall, I like its story, and the role it serves, but I wish it was structured more like the other games. One of the main strengths of the series is how dynamic and memorable its NPCs in each area are (they often have new dialogue after every major story event, which is awesome), but 3rd's design means you rarely ever get to interact with other people in that way. There are some unique locations to explore here, but also a lot of rehashed areas from the first two games, and sometimes it feels kind of like a chore to run through. I'm really really glad XSEED patched in a fast-forward feature; that really helped the battles go by much faster, which made grinding at the end not nearly as much of a pain as it might otherwise have become.
So, overall I think 3rd is good... but geez, it was a real slog at times (Chapter 6 in particular...). It picked up toward the end however, and I really appreciate the various doors in the game (that lead to side-stories and minigames and whatnot); those featured some of my favorite moments in 3rd. From what I've read, 3rd was basically an extra game that Falcom put together as a story bridge to Zero no Kiseki (which was in development at the time), when they decided that there was too much backstory that would have been needed in order to suitably explain Zero's events... hence, why 3rd was created in the first place. Considering that, I appreciate it (especially being able to revisit some of my favorite characters and places from the other Sky games, which I personally prefer over Cold Steel's cast overall), but I prefer both FC and SC over 3rd, personally. If someone has already beaten FC and SC, and really wants more Trails, then I think 3rd is a must-play, for the sake of getting to see more of the world and learn more about the overall story. 3rd isn't as essential as FC or SC however, and it's definitely a bad idea to play before those two games, because it relies heavily on the player already being intimately familiar with the story and characters of FC and SC.
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Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach (Steam) (beat Big Kahuna difficulty on 2017-12-05) – With this, I have at long last completed all of the original Duke Nukem 3D expansion packs. A couple years ago I played through Nuclear Winter, which I thought was alright, but kind of a disappointment overall. Duke Caribbean, however, is really great. In some ways I think its level design is even better than in the main Duke Nukem 3D campaign; Sunstorm Interactive really make great use of the Build Engine here to make levels that feel unique and memorable. Lost Lagoon in particular is one of my favorite levels I've ever played in an FPS. This is great stuff. If you like Duke Nukem 3D and want more of it, consider this a must-play.
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Doki Doki Literature Club! (Steam) (saw the credits on 2017-12-09) – Well... how do I even describe this? This is... an experience. I'm really glad I've started getting into visual novels, because otherwise I would have missed this one. Doki Doki Literature Club could very well be my favorite game, not just from 2017, but one of my favorites I've ever played. This is not one that should be passed up. It's one of the most unnerving, emotional horror games I've ever played. It's also free on Steam, so as long as you have an afternoon free, you should give this a go.
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Nier (360) (saw Endings A & B on 2017-12-21; Endings C & D on 12-22) – This is a game I've had for several years now, and had gotten pretty far in awhile back, but never saw through to completion until now. Since it had been so long since my last playthrough, I decided to simply start a new game entirely. Overall, I really like this game. It's a little clunky in terms of design, and its combat is somewhat repetitive (but still enjoyable, and offers some variety here and there), but the atmosphere, story, and English localization are rivaled by few. The soundtrack also deserves recognition; it is hauntingly, chillingly beautiful. All in all, I'm happy I finally beat this. I'll have to give its sequel, Nier Automata, a try soon.
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Fire Emblem Heroes (Android) – This is so much fun! I love it. I was finally able to start this when my old shitty phone broke, and I got it replaced with a newer, better phone that was capable of running this game. At this point, I've gotten well over twenty different 5-star characters (including some of my favorite Fire Emblem characters, like Ike and Ephraim and Saber). I feel like I should mention a caveat however – I don't seem to have any issue with being addicted to gambling mechanics in games, which this game features (with the whole “summoning” random characters with in-game orbs, which can purchased with real-life money). Thus far I've gotten a lot of playtime out of Heroes, without spending a cent of my own money on the game. For me personally, I feel like the game has been worth it to get into, but that may not be the case for everyone, so if you're concerned that you might grow addicted to spending money on this, then beware.
I can't really count this as a completed game from this year, but I'm pretty close to the end of it, so fuck it I'm writing about my experience with
Prey (2017)! I haven't beaten it yet as of this writing, but I've been playing for 34 hours so far, and oh my gosh it's amazing. It's basically System Shock 3, without the license. I mean that in the best way possible. The upcoming System Shock remake and the actual System Shock 3 will have some steep competitition from this. It's sad that Prey 2017 didn't get as much attention as some other games from 2017 have gotten.
Averages:
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Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbone, via the Master Chief Collection) (beat Normal difficulty in co-op on 2017-01-27) – I tried this game several years ago, but never made it past stage 3. This time around I beat the whole thing in two sittings while playing co-op. I think it's a pretty neat game, and I can see how widely influential it was on so many shooters that came out after its release. It had some flaws (the environments get very repetitive and samey-looking, and I can't get over how ridiculous the Grunts are. They sound like fucking cartoon characters in what's supposed to be a mature sci-fi FPS), but overall, I'm glad I played it.
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Ico (PS3, via the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection) (beat on 2017-03-29) – I finally beat Ico. This game and its successor, Shadow of the Colossus, are often held up as defining examples of “games as art”, so for that reason I wanted to give them a try.
Overall... I think I liked it. It has a nice story/presentation, at any rate, and its music is absolutely beautiful. Enough so that I kinda sorta wanna overlook the issues I had with its gameplay. Its gameplay could get pretty clunky and annoying at times, but to its credit, it at least played more smoothly and fairly than shit like Another World did. I'm glad I finally got to experience the game, after all these years of people talking about how important it is to play.
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Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (Steam) (beat on 2017-04-02) – Overall, this '80s action movie tribute was decently fun. The presentation, especially with all the flashy colors and the wonderful music, was a joy to see. The writing could have been better, though; it usually felt like it was trying too hard to be funny. Gameplay-wise, this is pretty much more of Far Cry 3. I wish it had changed more from the main game, but what's there is still fun, provided you're looking for more Far Cry 3. I'm glad I played this, but I don't think it's amazing or anything. It probably would have helped if the writing team felt less like they were trying too hard to be witty or referential to '80s pop culture.
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Final Fight (arcade) (beat as Mayor Haggar on 2017-05-01) – This is one of the more important games for the beat-em-up genre's development. I'd been meaning to play through it for forever, because of its historical significance. Honestly though, I didn't enjoy it quite that much. I probably wouldn't have played through to the end if I didn't have infinite continues. Maybe there's more to the gameplay than is immediately apparent, but I kinda struggled with it. I personally find Streets of Rage to be more enjoyable to play, as far as beat-em-ups are concerned.
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Halo 2 (Xbone, via the Master Chief Collection) (beat Normal difficulty in co-op on 2017-05-12) – In some ways, I liked this more than the first Halo. There's more variety in the level designs, which I appreciated, and there's also a greater variety of weapons to choose between. People sure weren't kidding when they said that ending was abrupt though, lol. Overall, I think I had more fun with this than I did with the first Halo, but at the same time, I think the first Halo works better as a standalone, cohesive experience.
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Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) (beat on 2017-08-26) – This is a pretty neat platformer. I greatly prefer the first Galaxy, however. The first Super Mario Galaxy felt like a complete experience, in terms of both gameplay and presentation, while Galaxy 2 is essentially a standalone expansion pack. It's fun, and worth playing if you want more Galaxy-style gameplay (or you really like Yoshi), but all things considered, I think the first Galaxy is more important to play.
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Slot Car Rivals (3DS) (finished on 2017-10-23) – This was a free game I got through the 3DS' Mii Plaza late in 2016. It's very simple (just hold A to accelerate, and let go at certain hard curves to not spin out), but it was pretty challenging. After several mini-sessions, I finally succeeded in beating the “Iceman” in a race, and thus completed this. I have some bonus stuff left to unlock, but for the most part, this is done. It was a nice little simple thing to get, especially since I didn't pay anything to enjoy it.
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New Super Mario Bros. (DS) (beat on 2017-12-26) – The first of many “New” Super Mario Bros. Games. It feels kind of off to call this “New”, though, since the game is over a decade old at this point, lol. But anyways, this first entry in the series, for the Nintendo DS, is pretty simple. It feels like it most closely leans toward the design of the original Super Mario Bros., with the Mushroom and Fire Flower being the only power-ups you'll encounter in the majority of stages here. All in all, this is fun. It's not one of my favorite Mario games, personally, but this is still a 2D Mario platformer, so you can generally expect to have a good time going through this.
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Overwatch (Battle.net) – It's okay. I'm not totally into multiplayer-focused games, but this is decently fun. This is actually my first Blizzard game I've ever played, so that might have something to do with why it's a little difficult for me to get into. Maybe I should try practicing on my own, to see if I can get the hang of the different characters here.
Lows:
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Shadow of the Colossus (PS3, via the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection) (beat on 2017-04-20) – I have to be honest here. I really did not care for this game. Ico was clunky enough, but this game takes the cake. I really found this game to be frustrating to play. The controls are fucking awful. Everything in this game is a chore to do. The controls feel simultaneously stiff in input, and yet loose in execution. The boss fights (with maybe a few exceptions) I didn't particularly enjoy. They feel more like giant puzzles, that constantly refuse to cooperate with the player. Even when I did actually figure out how to beat a certain boss, I had to repeat the steps two or three times over, because I'd lose my stamina while holding onto said boss, or I'd get thrown off, or I'd die and have to start all over again. The sheer amount of time that was spent holding onto a boss while he flung himself all around, causing you to have to wait for upwards of 1-2 minutes just to be able to finally strike one of his weak spots again... holy fuck!
Then as far as the story goes... unfortunately, I had almost every aspect of the story spoiled for me ahead of time, which is a drag. At least I can kinda see what Fumito Ueda was going for with the story of this game, but (partly because I was spoiled ahead of time) I didn't feel particularly involved in anything that was going on here. When I finally got around to playing this, I figured that even if I knew what to expect, I could at least enjoy the gameplay... but no. The gameplay is shit.
I guess one thing I can say in this game's favor is that the presentation is pretty good. The music is incredible, and the art style is pretty neat. This is also a very impressive game from a technical standpoint, featuring wide-open environments in what was originally a PS2 game. To be frank, I think Fumito Ueda's games (really, this could apply to cinematic platformers in general, as I didn't like Another World either) are the type of game that would be more enjoyable to watch someone else play, than to actually sit there and play them for yourself. I think it's safe to say that I do not feel particularly interested in playing The Last Guardian, after having experienced this.
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Catherine (PS3) (got the “Katherine” ending on Easy on 2017-05-01) – I've got mixed feelings about this game. The block puzzling is great! I'm not always in the mood for this sort of gameplay, but Catherine's take on it was a blast! I had to play on Easy though, because even on that difficulty it's super hard (though you at least can undo your last move, and the game tosses extra lives at you like you're playing a New Super Mario Bros. game). I like the frantic, visceral pace and how most levels focused more on improvisation than knowing the "one" correct path to take. I did have to look at a couple youtube videos for the 7th night though, because that shit was hard.
The other side of Catherine... the dating sim/visual novel part... that I was not nearly as into. Almost none of the characters were even remotely likeable. Frankly, I kinda hated both Catherine and Katherine, as well as Vincent. I kinda liked a couple of the side characters you interact with though, such as the ex-journalist guy. Erika also seemed okay, initially, though holy shit they dropped the ball with her when all is said and done. By the end of my playthrough, Vincent had somehow decided on a girl to be with (despite my not really making strong moves toward anyone while playing), and the game ends with the culmination of one long, tired, shitty transphobic joke. Based on how bad this original version of Catherine got, I'm really not looking forward to the upcoming “Full Body” remake that's in the works.
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Half-Life 2 (Steam) (finished Normal on 2017-08-21) – I've tried to play through this several times over the past decade, but never made it very far in my previous attempts. It's been awhile, but I remember really liking the first Half-Life when I played that years ago. Compared to that, Half-Life 2 doesn't engage me nearly as much. I'll give it credit for having a lot of imagination in terms of scenarios/level design/gameplay mechanics, as far as the FPS genre goes, but the execution of said ideas often falls painfully flat. Certain sections, like the two vehicle sections bunched together in the first half of the game, or the part in Sandtraps where you need to keep moving wooden platforms around to avoid stepping on the sand, are an absolute pain in the ass to deal with. The second half of the game is more fun to play overall, but also has some annoying moments that felt basically like trial-and-error. The story also didn't really engage me too much; years ago I saw Campster's video about how everyone in Half-Life 2 basically spends their every waking moment praising Gordon Freeman and talking about how wonderful and incredible he is, and I couldn't get over that while playing, lol. It felt kind of like Wish Fulfillment: The Game. I am glad that I finally got this out of my backlog, and I had some fun with it, but I do not consider it one of my favorite games, personally.
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Super Columbine Massacre RPG! (PC) (finished on 2017-08-24) – Yes, this is a game that exists. It's a 5-ish hour game (most of which is taken up by incessant grinding) made in RPG Maker, that recreates the events of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. I'd heard about this game years ago, then forgot about it, and was reminded of its existence relatively recently. Since it's a free indie game, I figured I'd give it a shot, out of morbid curiosity... and I kinda regret doing so. I think this could very well be the worst game I've played this year. It makes light of a serious tragedy without really having the skill or gravitas to meaningfully cover such real-world events in a game, and its message (which seems to be that video game violence is abstracted and not real, as opposed to the real-life violence of the Columbine shooting?) gets muddled by having its second half take place in a Doom-inspired Hell, where you meet such real people and fictional characters as John Lennon or Mega Man.
Personally, I don't think it's necessarily impossible to make a game about a controversial subject and do it well; film and literature and other mediums are capable of doing it, so why can't video games do it too? This game is not the way to go about it though. The meaning behind the game is diluted through the silly moments injected into it, and it's not even much fun to play (featuring painfully boring turn-based combat with a clunky interface, and also an easy-to-miss item that's required to beat the game, which if you miss it, you're screwed and have to start all over). I do not recommend playing this.