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Post by excelsior on May 1, 2024 4:20:37 GMT -5
I beat some games!
Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi Wa Nice Body (SNES via Steam Deck, First Time, 40 mins appx)
I beat this for the SNES thread. What I said there, basically. Nice light game that's very well drawn.
Score - 7/10
Minishoot Adventures (PC - Steam Deck, First Time, )
I really liked this Zeldalike adventure. Was a good fit for playing in handheld where dungeons, caves etc are digestible in small doses. Powerups could be more imaginative, but they work and enable discovery nicely. I played on medium difficulty which was quite easy. Although it looks like a bullet hell game, bullets are slow giving time to fully comprehend and react to emerging patterns. Also, enemy variety isn't that great. Definitely play it for the unique and charming adventure, however.
Score - 8/10
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Post by spanky on May 1, 2024 6:43:31 GMT -5
I should be finishing up my playthrough of Final Fantasy V...but like all FF games I find myself stalling at the entrance of the final dungeon...I'll get to it, I swear. I should also but playing the SNES GotW but instead I found myself playing....
Toejam & Earl (Genesis via NSO, replay)
I haven't listened to it but I saw there's a recent Retronauts episode about the game and it made me realized I haven't played it in a very long time. It's a very funny and sorta roguish game....You can play a "Fixed World" mode or the Random World mode which randomizes the level layouts and presents. It's a very "casual" sort of game, as your character just sort of saunters around and most of the enemies seem to be just kind of doing their own thing instead of actively pursuing you. It's very light on combat too. But it's very fun, just running around the world, opening presents and avoiding Earth weirdoes. The main strategy or "meta" as the kids say is basically identifying the Randomizer present as soon as possible. Once you do that, the game becomes much more manageable and even kind of easy. Trekking around the edge of the islands to trigger a path to generate can get kind of annoying though.
Unfortunately I did not play in two player mode which is an absolutely great experience with it's famous split screen mode. Still, it's a lot of fun in single player and the old school hip hip/New Jack Swing aesthetic are both unique for the era it was released in and 2024. 9/10.
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Post by JoeQ on May 1, 2024 10:05:16 GMT -5
Baba Is You (Windows) - First playthrough, Time: 31.8 hours (Steam timer), Rating: 5/5Baba Is End. A fantastic puzzle game combining sokoban style block pushing with programming puzzles. Just all around incredible. My only real complaint is that some interactions you can create aren't as intuitive as others and I had to look a few solutions up, stuff I never would've figured out on my own. I actually kinda debated if I should claim this as beaten yet, since I've only gotten the first/basic ending and there's still tons of puzzles to solve and secrets to find, not to mention two whole other expansions with new puzzles. But I feel this is a good time to put the game down for now, I'll come back to it at some later point. Alphabet Challenge: BFPST
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Post by dsparil on May 1, 2024 17:51:00 GMT -5
Ghost Sweeper Mikami ~The Nice-bodied Exorcist~ (SNES, First Time)
I'm going with that as the English equivalent of the title. You'd think it'd be an ecchi game with a title like that.
Rating: 7
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Post by dsparil on May 1, 2024 17:55:59 GMT -5
Here are the current rankings:
Total Game Completions:
dsparil - 45 Apollo Chungus - 40 personman - 28 Woody Alien - 22 spanky - 14 JoeQ - 9 excelsior - 6 Digitalnametag - 5 alexmate - 2 Snake - 2 lurker - 1
First Time Game Completions:
dsparil - 39 Apollo Chungus - 30 Woody Alien - 21 personman - 10 spanky - 10 JoeQ - 8 excelsior - 6 Digitalnametag - 3 alexmate - 2 Snake - 2 lurker - 1
Total Time Spent (Reference Only):
dsparil - 279h Apollo Chungus - 221h personman - 134h 30m JoeQ - 106h Digitalnametag - 105h 30m spanky - 92h 30m Woody Alien - 70h excelsior - 60h Snake - 19h alexmate - 7h lurker - 1h 30m
First Play Time (Reference Only):
dsparil - 214h 30m Apollo Chungus - 162h Digitalnametag - 98h JoeQ - 98h spanky - 83h 30m personman - 68h Woody Alien - 63h excelsior - 60h Snake - 19h alexmate - 7h lurker - 1h 30m
Total Time Spent (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
JoeQ - 367h 34m (350h 4m/0s/17h 30m) dsparil - 251h 36m 34s (53h 36m 34s/111h/87h) Apollo Chungus - 203h 51m (63h 1m/2h 20m/138h 30m) personman - 132h 10m (40m/43h/88h 30m) Digitalnametag - 120h (0s/116h 30m/3h 30m) spanky - 92h 30m (0s/0s/92h 30m) Woody Alien - 83h 57m 27s (23h 7m 27s/60h 50m/0s) excelsior - 58h 10m (0s/14h 40m/43h 30m) Snake - 10h 33m (0s/10h 33m/0s) alexmate - 5h 25m (5h 25m/0s/0s) lurker - 1h 30m (0s/0s/1h 30m)
First Play Time (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
JoeQ - 352h 8m (334h 38m/0s/17h 30m) dsparil - 196h 43m 42s (38h 43m 42s/71h/87h) Apollo Chungus - 148h 46m (49h 56m/2h 20m/96h 30m) Digitalnametag - 113h 30m (0s/113h 30m/0s) spanky - 83h 30m (0s/0s/83h 30m) Woody Alien - 75h 57m 27s (23h 7m 27s/52h 50m/0s) personman - 68h 40m (40m/31h/37h) excelsior - 58h 10m (0s/14h 40m/43h 30m) Snake - 10h 33m (0s/10h 33m/0s) alexmate - 5h 25m (5h 25m/0s/0s) lurker - 1h 30m (0s/0s/1h 30m)
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Post by Digitalnametag on May 3, 2024 16:51:15 GMT -5
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PS5 FTP 86 hours
It's really good. The character bits are fantastic and the voice acting is (mostly) excellent. Makes you really care for all the characters. I never really cared what happened to Aerith in the original as I couldn't form much attachment to the poor character models and iffy translation, but Rebirth had me rooting for her. The characters are portrayed with depth and emotion. These people seem like they could be real. Rebirth is an experience that just wasn't possible on the PS1. The game has a lot character moments both big and small. This is far and away the strongest part of the game.
The battle system returns from Remake. They toned down the base difficulty a little I think, but there are still a couple fights that have some kick on normal. I enjoyed playing all the character aside from Cait Sith. I just couldn't get a feel for him but thankfully you don't have to play as him outside one mandatory scenario. I spent most of time split near evenly on the other cast. I do wish they would let you remove Cloud from the party when exploring the open world though.
And my big complaint for the game is the open world can be tedious. You like scanning towers? Nick-knacks to collect? Well we got those. And so many mini-games. Most of which are okay. Chocobo Racing is a decent 'Mario Kart' clone and the new card game 'Queen's Blood" has an interesting side quest. I did nearly all of the side quest stuff outside the last mini-game centered one and skipped the last batch of combat trials. Could probably shave 20-30 hours off play time skipping that stuff. The rewards often felt minimal. I found myself preferring the brisker pacing of Rebirth.
Music is spectacular, graphics are beautiful, and the game play generally fun. If you liked Remake I don't see why you wouldn't continue on to Rebirth. I don't think it is a perfect game like some of the reviewers though I do think it is really good.
I give it a 9 out of 10.
Edit: I do have to question how effective SE's sales strategy is here. The story takes for a given that you are familiar with the original FFVII (twenty-seven years old), Crisis Core (17 years old), and have played Remake which came out four years ago. Sure all of these are readily available on modern systems but still that has to be cutting into sales. That's a play commitment that would make Falcom proud. At least all of the Trails games came out this century. Same thoughts I had with Part 1 I would have been fine with the game being a straight story remake without adding in the alternate stuff that makes it feel like fan-fiction. Or Kingdom Hearts. Tetsuya Nomura gonna Tetsuya Nomura.
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Post by dsparil on May 5, 2024 8:12:02 GMT -5
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Switch, First Time)
I remember picking this up for PS2 from a video store liquidation sale, but I never finished it. My recollection has always been that it was because my controller didn’t have properly working pressure sensitivity, and I couldn't interrogate a scientist that had to be without killing him first. Considering that there’s no part that requires doing that and I remember some things that happen after the point in question, I have no idea why I didn’t finish the game back then.
As for the game itself, I feel like it’s one step forward and one step back from MGS2. The story is much more straightforward, but it tries for James Bond meets war movie and it mostly succeeds on that front. It also interrupts you much, much less without constant calls once you get past the beginning and with cutscenes that are less frequent but longer.
It really in the gameplay that the game suffers a bit. This is basically a full action game with some minor stealth elements rather than the opposite. The problem is mainly that the enemy count hasn’t gone up with the generally larger areas. Unlike MGS2, enemies don’t call in anymore so you’re pretty much free to take out everyone in your path with less worries about bodies being found. It’s fine for what it is, but the first section of the game makes everything seem like it’s going to be more varied than it ends up being.
The bosses are also all over the place in quality. It’s more like the best bosses especially the final boss make the poorer ones stand out more. They're just too wacky like the dog guy that shoots bees out of his mouth, The Pain. The fight with the flamethrower armed The Fury s also more annoying than it should be due to clipping issues with the flames. The same goes for the main villain who might as well be Electro from Spider-Man with zero explanation for all the electricity.
Still, this is a game worth playing if mostly for the plot for once. I still don’t think any of the Solid games ever managed to really to top MG2 on gameplay. I read that this was originally supposed to be for PS3 but delays in the system had it moved to the PS2. I wonder if that hypothetical version might have been fuller. At the same time, maybe not since the last sections of the game throw lots of enemies at you so the engine can clearly handle it.
I finished in 11:09:13 without taking restarts from the menu into account.
Rating: 7
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Post by spanky on May 5, 2024 20:05:16 GMT -5
The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES via NSO, Replay)
Yeah I've played this dozens of times and logged it at least once on the GFC, but my kid recently had "no screens week" at school and I bought him a collection of the old Nintendo Power Zelda comics to help get him through the week and he loved them. So naturally he wanted to see the game they were based on. Nothing really new to say except in the Dark World I played Dungeon 4 before 3 and Dungeon 6 before 5, which makes things a lot easier. It's a lovely, classic game and the end credits still get a bit of an emotional reaction out of me. My kid has watched me play LoZ and AoL already - I wonder what he will think about Ocarina... 10/10.
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Post by personman on May 7, 2024 21:54:51 GMT -5
spanky You're raising him right! Megaman X8 (Switch via Legacy Collection Vol.2, replay, 6 hours) When this first released it was like the second coming. For me the series has been in the absolute pits since after 4 and as much as I was enjoying the then roaring success of the Battle Network series I wanted to see X get at least a modicum of respect. I think Command Mission released a little bit before hand and I wasn't impressed with and I liked the Zero games that came out at the point but they just weren't X. I was actually surprised to see a demo of this at a local Target out of the blue since I was so checked out with the series and once I got my hands on it this was amazing. A real X game! With actual production values! Great stages! and one of my favorite sound tracks that year! I absolutely loved it. So looking back now I realize it may have very well been more of a 'right place right time' sort of deals because I had a hard time getting into this one just now. It just feels so fidgety like everyone is moving way too fast for the scale things are usually at. Worse the hitboxes are pretty big and just kinda muddy with the 3d graphics so there are times things call for slight little adjustments but you'll just rocket ahead into spikes that you vaguely got near. Combine this with some pretty damn mean stage design here and there and I won't lie, I was put off the game a couple times. Usually the stage design is pretty okay with an emphasis on arcadey gimmicks which is great to me but many times I found a particular room that just blind sides you with spike traps you have to know are coming because things just move way too damn fast. I felt like the camera is JUST that tiny bit too close in to really get a feel for the stages in many rooms and as such they can just frustrate more than anything. When that's not going on the stage designs are okay but all focus really hard on a gimmick that sometimes is alright and sometimes just falls flat, like Gigavolt Man O war's stage is a weird rail shooter thing were you chase him and you either finish in like 10 seconds or just drags on for like 5 minutes if you're unlucky with no hope of catching up; the whole thing is pretty lousy. Ironically the other rail shooter stage goes for another take on the ride chaser like stages X4 started and is actually pretty damn good. The rest all make an effort to try some things the series did in the past or put spins on stages you may have seen in other game; like Optic Sunflowers stage feels like Black's Fortress from Gunstar Heroes. Some are kinda flat and annoying like Burn Roosters and Graviton Antione's has a section that seems so impossible it may overshadow the rest of the cool stage (advice: that part with the blocks? Just stay in the middle once you get to the third phase and hug whatever block comes down going back and forth. Looks like you'll get crushed but you'll be okay trying it any other way isn't worth it). The pacing isn't the best either as they are fond of just locking you in a room and fighting waves of enemies with no real special quirks or nothing, like could have you guys at least tried to make some mini bosses or something? Jakob Tower is seriously an entire stage full of this. What they make up for are the bosses who are all great. In fact looking at it now I get the impression they made all the boss fights first and then made the stages after as the crazy speed you have feels much better during the encounters and is in fact required. Only thing that bothers me about them is using weaknesses with them invokes Spark Mandril syndrome and pretty much invalidates them, but I guess that makes the traditional boss rematches quick and easy. The weapons themselves are pretty lousy for X as well, only one I really got any great use out of is Man O war's with the others being rather wonky and so niche you'll never bother with them outside of boss fights. Axl definitely steals X's thunder this time around with guns that are usually just better versions of X's and is who I usually prefer to play as as such, besides even if his actual character is meh a shapeshifting gunsligner who can hover is pretty cool, even his copy ability gets good use for the saecrets. Zero I just don't care for this time around as with the muddy hit boxes I just had a bitch of a time doing any damage to anyone without taking damage myself. He got a bunch of melee weapons this time around and while I didn't bother unlocking them this playthrough I do remember most of them getting good uses be it solid combat options or keys to finding upgrades in stages. Speaking of this game is loaded with things to find and unlock and really its a bit much. For one currency is back and they amount you need to unlock everything is pretty ridiculous but I guess no surprise, padding your game out with some form of grinding was a law back then. X's armor this time around is pretty cool in that you get to mix and match them between two sets. Downside is getting hem takes a ton of effort with bringing the right character combo to certain stages and other upgrades and I just couldn't be arsed this time around but I remember them being pretty useful. Though uh, it has to be the stupidest looking armor in the series lol. I'm not too hot on the games art direction either. It's not bad but I just thought the more bulky designs everyone had previously were more fun. Now everyone is all lanky and looks real meek though as a neat side effect I guess is it does kinda foreshadow how people were going to start looking in the Zero series. The game's plot has the most thread bare parallels to Milton's classic epic Paradise Lost which uh... you can just barely say Sigma and Lumine are like Lucifier and its been year since I listened to an audio book of that story but I'm pretty sure that's as far as it goes lol. A bit of a shame because biblical themes in my goofy robot game would be a lot of fun but they just let the opportunity slip by. The grandstanding the last boss does almost reaches for some of it with the context that even though these guys all talk and walk like people but are still ultimately robots that understand the world though 1s and 0s the villain actually sort of makes a compelling argument for them. But the barebones script and flat word choice don't sell it sadly, but this is all probably me just reaching for straws since I've wanted to see the X setting get developed more lol. In the least the voice cast is really well done and everyone gives a pretty good performance. Mostly. Last thing I want to touch on though is the music which I was obsessed with back in the day and hell with it I STILL love it today. I'm not sure this is the right term but it has a sort of grunge feel to me and rocks some really aggressive guitars that really get me pumped. And not every song stands out but those that do hit like a freight train and I adore them, even some of the ones that don't do that may be interesting in some way. And so because I have no restraint I must list the ones I like now: Just love the main theme. Its fast, aggressive and sounds rebellious, rip roaring and ready to go. Makes me think of a punk band song from the late 90 and early '00s just with out lyrics. This stage has a neat diegetic touch where this track plays when you jump in a ride armor which the stages is built around. Otherwise is has a much more chill track that plays that still sounds some awesome guitar licks . May need to hear both to fully appreciate but I just dig the sound, makes you feel like you're geared up and ready to get to work. Again just the guitar, love it. Very much makes me think of something from Sonic Adventure but just punchier and more to my tastes. Again this just elevates the stage its in. The first half is a slower version as you're pursued by the big robot thing but once you turn the tables and pursue it this track changes and makes it a pretty nice set piece. Besides it's got a metal feel I'm always down for. One of my fav boss themes in the series. It does a great job of sounding like some kinda punk rock struggle and matches the real fast pace of the game. I don't like this stage at all but its theme though, I love. It very much hits the note of rising up to new heights through the struggle and having a hint of uncertainty with what could be next but ready to take it on anyways. It's probably just me but this has been in my motivation work out mix for years and means a lot to me lol. One of the slow tracks that makes it stick out for that alone but also has a real forlorn feel which is rare for the series in general. It makes you feel like you're in some shrine dedicated to a great disaster and you get that feeling like the dead are just watching over you silently begging you to learn from their mistakes which could kinda tie in well to the bleak places the series was heading in... again yes I'm well aware I'm thinking into this way too much lol. Sigma has had a lot of great themes through the series and this is one of my favorites as it characterizes this appearance really well. He's barely holding together this time around and just seems like his aimlessly spinning his wheels cause all he knows at this point is stirring up shit. Despite the dude is just a force of nature and whether there's not much rhyme or reason to it hes going to keep coming and this track brings out the ruthless determinism perfectly. Just a plain old neat final boss theme that sounds way overdramatic and gets you pumped. It's not just a fight between the Hunter trio and this random twink bot dude but also a battle for the generation, stasis vs. change, etc etc. I don't know if the composers actually intended it or its my over active imagination but that's what I get from it. Has real weight behind it. I've heard some people call the music generic and many don't seem too hot on it. Perhaps its just me then, it's just plain my jam and it helped me get through my senior year in high school so I guess it may just be sentiment on my part. Either way, you can tell this game had more a budget and they just plain gave a damn this time around. Its still shakey and makes decisions I don't like, it's bloated with a bit too much stuff to gather and controls take a lot of getting used to but honestly once I got into it I have an easier time overlooking those things since I can just tell there was heart in this one. It's not as good as I thought it was back in the day, not by a good margin but once given a chance I think it holds up, you need to be pretty patient with it so much so it'll turn many away. Not the greatest but a solid and honestly a pretty okay point for the series to end on (better than goddamn X5 at least). Figure if you liked an X game before you'll probably manage to find something to like about this one too just maybe save it for when you got through the great ones first since there are many entries just plain more worth the time than this. Much as it tries its little heart out I still found it kinda passable. Rating- 6 Well there we go. Got through the X series, that was harder than I thought towards the end because hoo boy does the series just dive off a freaking cliff in its later half and much as I like X8 its still a pretty weak redemption in the face of what came before. The classic series managed to keep at least a decent quality through its main line games but at the same time they were simpler affairs and didn't have to worry about things like thinking up new armors to get and multiple characters, even if classic did those things too after a while and sometimes I dare say better like MM8 I prefer to X4. However I still love the series to death for its style to me is unmatched and the highest highs it reached go way higher to me than the highs of classic. X1 is still a perfect game in my eyes, it has some of my favorite game music ever and its setting holds immense potential that sadly never gets realized. Its both a great series and kind of a tragic one as the first 3 entires I say are essential gaming still today and then the rest of the series is passable (some will argue for X4) or should just be avoided. It deserved better than it got, especially since it did so much for the series at the start. Regardless this series will always be held dear to me as I grew up with it and I had much of my taste informed by it. Maybe one day it'll get another chance since I believe the mobile game made Capcom a decent profit and with the recent success of the collections they might finally wake up to how good this brand can be for them. Even if Mega man does get a proper game again I bet they won't chose the X series but who knows. Least for now most of the series can be easily accessed today warts and all to enjoy and learn from. Okay so that's that! I have finished up with Powered Up as well but I figure this post is already way too long and I'll wait to write about that one. Otherwise I've been steadily working on Command Mission and that'll be all the Mega Man I can take for this year lol, sure there's Battle Network but as far as traditional Mega man goes I've got them all cov-
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Post by spanky on May 9, 2024 8:49:04 GMT -5
personman I try! I think he has a pretty good balance of gaming tastes. He has kids in his class already playing Fortnite mods though...lol Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (NSO, Replay)
Calling this a "replay" as I've beaten the GBA version but I think the balance mechanics and whatnot is almost the same. I like FFV but since I never played it in it's day, it never weaseled it's way in my head like a lot of other games in the series. Aesthetically and storyline-wise, it feels like the series is becoming a bit stagnant though I do like that a lot of the monsters are starting to resemble Amano's artwork. Where the game really shines of course is the gameplay with over two dozen jobs and a wide range of skills to choose from. It's incredibly customizable and open ended, and the game is well balanced enough that it can be beaten in almost party combination though I played it pretty safe, maxing out a few physical jobs for Bartz and Faris and a few caster jobs for Lenna and Krile. Threw money and cast Bahamut at Exdeath until he went down. Time Mages kind of break the game as you can just cast the Quick spell over and over to get extra turns. It's always a pleasure playing FFV. 9/10
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Post by Woody Alien 2 on May 9, 2024 17:41:36 GMT -5
As Schwarzy said, "I lied". So there's some more stuff and probably more upcoming.
Mediterranea Inferno (Steam, first time, about 4 hours)
Italian visual novel published by famed studio Santa Ragione and developed by Eyeguys which is actually a lone developer, Lorenzo Redaelli. It's a surreal and thriller story that however starts from very real themes: the struggles of LGBT young adults during the pandemic and post-pandemic situation in Italy. Claudio, Andrea and Mida are the "Boys of the Sun", close friends from the upper class who are the life of the most exclusive party scene in Milan, until covid hits and they are forced to go their own ways. Two years later the limitations are lifted and Claudio invites the other two friends in his late grandfather's villa in the South for a vacation at the peak of Summer holidays, Ferragosto, both as religious and secular celebrations. This is to make up for the lost time, however resentment and other feelings are boiling under the surface... and there's also Madama, a mysterious androgynous character who, like a "genie", is offering the boys some magical fruits that will make them experience "mirages" representing their innermost desires and fears. Will the friendship be rekindled or will they start to hate each other? What is real and what is illusory? The game is kind of difficult to describe but it's quite stylish and packed with symbolism, both religious and sexual, and with reflections towards the Italian contemporary society that however are mixed with universal struggles and feelings (and not just the ones evoked by the lockdowns' isolation). Definitely original though the manga-inspired artwork may be not for everyone, the backgrounds made of a mix of 3D elements, 2D and a few real photographs are more interesting especially if you like vaporwave and such, that also is linked to the themes of eternally re-living and re-mixing the past that are so prevalent in this visual novel. Played it twice to gain the "real" ending though I still didn't see everything I needed to see, given that (if you don't do certain things) only one of the boys can "ascend to heaven" thanks to Madama and the others, well... I enjoyed it but I bet it's even more up JDarkside's alley, maybe he could write a review for the site? 8/10
Escape Lala (Steam, first time, around 25 minutes)
Simple free point and click "escape the room" style game with a pixelated art style, a few surreal puzzles and a cute atmosphere, not much more to say, the main gimmick is that there are coins hidden everywhere, you can either try to find them all and/or use them to buy hints for the puzzles. Cute pastime, the two-man studio that made this later made a much more expanded sequel but with the same "old computer game" style, then they apparently vanished or dedicated themselves to other stuff since they don't seem to have other credits. I could buy Escape Lala 2 since it's cheap even if it's not going to fund their next projects. 6/10
Please, Touch The Artwork 2 (Steam, first time, 69 minutes according to Steam counter. Nice.)
Another free game, this time a hidden object game that was commissioned by the Belgian government to celebrate both Belgium being the president of European council in 2024 and the 75th anniversary of the death of Belgian surrealist painter James Ensor. You know, the one who drew all that weird stuff like masks and represented people and himself as skeletons... and in fact we play as the "zombie" of Ensor himself, a skeleton painter rising from his grave and traveling through the (real) paintings of the author himself to help the various characters in them to find the objects they're missing, it seems very basic at the beginning, but it's cool to be able to travel "inside" the paintings with various perspective tricks, and there's even a bit of backstory, with a maniac escaped from another painting who is slashing the canvasses and we have to fix them through simple mini-games. Reminds me of those weird Flash games from the past and the combination of classical music, surrealistic art, goofy humor is unique and very Monty Python-style. plus there are nice accesibility options and you also learn something about an underrated artist (and the last BGM in the soundtrack, when Ensor gets back to his apartment and studio after having found everything, was even a composition by Ensor himself!) You can give matches to a smoking duck and use its nicotine-addled corpse to travel to the next painting, or get flung around by Jesus after recovering His halo, it's all very funny but accurate to the artist's irreverent spirit. There need to be more art games like this one and in fact I'll probably have to buy the developer's previous Please, Touch The Artwork game to support him since I liked this one so much and liked the concept of learning in a funny way. Really charming and enjoyable all around. 9/10
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 12, 2024 4:24:35 GMT -5
Sonic Lost World (Windows; First Time; 3 hours 24 minutes - ESTIMATED)
Apart from Sonic Superstars, Lost World is the only main Sonic game I hadn't played to any substantial degree. I played it briefly back in 2015 at a friend's house, and I can't remember much about it beyond taking a while to get adjusted to the controls. I forgot I'd gotten this as part of a Sonic Humble Bundle some years ago until the other day, when NightlyComet off the World Animation Discord mentioned it was one of her least favourite Sonic games and I became legit curious to see for myself.
Having played it over a couple days, I can definitively say that I think it's okay.
It's prolly the most experimental of the main Sonic games. Not just in radically changing the controls and overall gameplay from the last few games, but the way it's structured. How it changes level styles every stage (both visually and mechanically) and leans much more into an abstract sense of place, with floating tubes, planets and other bits of geometry lightly decorated with whatever theme that level wants to have. Locales feel like the most general "desert/forest/sea" places with not much detail, to focus on more setpiece-driven designs that can completely reject the zone's established theme on a dime (e.g. going from desert temples to a candy void full of suspended cakes, sweets and liquorice). In a way, it reminded me the Master System version of Sonic 1, which also leaned into "level 1 does X, level 2 does Y" stage designs - although that game managed to retain a sense of place in the level themes.
On the one hand, I kinda admire that as an excuse to let Sonic Team stretch their legs and throw whatever at the wall to see what sticks. It also helps that if you don't like the stage you're on, you won't have to deal with something like it again for a good while if at all. But that abstraction means that level locales don't really matter like they do in other Sonic titles, to the point where the second-last world doesn't have a concrete setting and is just a bunch of random stages themed after earlier worlds.
Stuff doesn't build on top of each other either thematically or mechanically, and I think that causes the game to lose something. Sonic's wearing the skin of a more typical platformer, and it's a shame that the tube stages (its one distinct contribution) only appear occasionally. I can deffo see why Lost World tends to be remembered as more mediocre, while even more derided Sonic titles feel like they're trying to hit for something that's more distinct from other games. Even in games where it can be argued that Sonic doesn't feel like itself, such as the more dramatic RPG plot in 06 or the mysterious vibes and realistic worlds in Frontiers, that's something you don't see other platformers trying to do.
I thought Lost World accomplished its intentions well enough, though I wish it controlled better so I'd feel more encouraged to enjoy the feel of moving around and want to revisit stages to try alternate routes (the few that offer them anyway). I really dig the brassy, almost ska-like vibes of the soundtrack, I appreciate how easy and straightforward the bosses are, and I like that there's a Super Guide option to skip sections if you die too many times. The dub acting gives me hives though lmao.
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Post by personman on May 12, 2024 17:57:21 GMT -5
Mega Man Powered Up (PSP, emulated on Steam Deck, replay) This was the other killer app I was anticipating getting a PSP for. But I was far more interested in the X remake and my then co-workers at my Gamestop had to convince me to reserve it. When I got a hold of it I thought it was merely alright. I was also a little self conscious about it with its really cutesy art direction but you know, I was just getting out of high school that year it took time for me to get over that kinda thing lol. Revisiting it I like it more now though I still definitely prefer the X remake. They had a tougher job this time around because X1 was great already, MM1 on the other had isn't bad but very shakey and how to go about a remake that fixes the faults of the old without just reinventing everything is a tight rope to walk and I wouldn't envy anyone who had to do so. I feel with this attempt they just kinda ended up in the exact same spot as the stages don't stray far away enough from the parts people disliked about the original save for like the really mean part of Iceman's stage and the first Wily stage. Has a really spikey difficulty curve as well. I decided to play my first run on hard mode and they're all push overs while the bosses aren't a joke they aren't too tough either. Then you get to Fireman's stage and holy hell its a pain in the ass with a ton of cheap gotcha's wonky timing for hazards you have to slip though. I think I had to attempt that one like 12 times. Then the Wily stages ramp up and go nuts too, the first stage isn't so bad even if our good friend Yellow Devil is a little tougher now. The rest of them dear lord, the second boss is so tough just because it gets way, WAY too fast as you wear it down and it of course hits like a truck and I just barely managed to take it down by diving into the menu non stop to throw like every weapon at it. The third Wily stage isn't so bad for its boss but just the fact you have to rematch everyone in a row with NO health pick ups in between. They're aren't too tough as end of stage bosses but in a row was really, really obnoxious especially since some of the weakness being shifted around makes them annoying to deal with; like using the weakness for Elecman just pretty much meant I was sacrificing a life at the next boss. Then the Wily fight is really annoying, he wasn't great before but his saving grace is you could burst him down really quickly, now he still pushes you up into the left side of the screen and smothers you but now can only be damaged with a rotating weakness thing which just means your already bad boss fight is even more annoying, great thanks. Again though I went with hard mode like an idiot and decided I was going to play through the game backwards on normal to see how things fair and its much more reasonable then (though still no health for the boss rematches). Worse still this game focuses on unlockables and your reward for beating hard mode is Mega in his regular form who can do nothing but kick things. So for all that trouble I practically got nothing thanks lol. Beating everyone on normal gets you way more with the ability to charge and slide again which I kinda feel like if this is a remake why not just make those default? But alas, what is way more interesting is if you beat a boss without using any special weapons you can then play through the whole game as them, complete with special dialogue and areas only they can get to. This is really neat and all and I respect the effort though honestly I wasn't too tempted to try a playthrough with them now since some are just really bad and I imagine would be extremely annoying to try finishing the game with like Oilman. Oh, yeah there's two new stages and bosses with Oilman and Timeman where ones isn't really memorable with an average stage and a power that looks good but I could never get any good out of. The other is for all the wrong reasons, stage again is just whatever and his power has to be the most worthless in the whole series... Then his design is this. Yeah, what the heck was with Capcom around that time? So the main game already has got some experimenting going on and then on top of that there are 100 challenges all concerning the different characters and their abilities. I got half way through Mega's before avoiding all this flea things on tiny platforms just annoyed me enough that I couldn't be bothered but again, I respect the hussle and its cool that finishing them all gets you Protoman. Even more notable though is a whole damn level editor, one which I remember there being a circle on this very forum that were trading levels with one another way back when I first signed up here. Being on a handheld it seems extremely clunky and a pain to make anything with but back then the novelty was pretty wild. One of those things that again is cool just I don't think I'll ever mess with it myself and I'm sure no one else would when Megaman Maker is out there these days. I wasn't feeling this one too much at first but as it went the game grew on me. Its charming as hell and even if the whole super deformed thing isn't usually my style it fits the classic series perfectly and they do well with it. The presentation is great with silly little banter between all the bosses (and unique exchanges for every character!) everyone has loads of personality now and it had me cracking a little smile very often. It's just a great presentation and the voices are fittingly cast. The guy who did Yellow Devil just had way too much fun. There was a lot of ambition and effort put into this and when taken as a whole I can't help but like it even if I don't love it. They just don't seem to do remakes like this anymore content for things like HD re-releases with minimal changes which aren't bad in of themselves but I do miss older titles getting this sort of treatment; Just seems rare now. If you like Megaman in general then this is worth a look. Would have been interesting to see how they would have given the same treatment to 2 which supposedly was in the cards but poor sales stopped that. Shame. Rating-7 Mega Man Zero (NDS, via Collection, replay) I first learned about this in a random magazine at the library and it always stuck with me that that snidely stated 'There's so much Mega Man even his damn spin offs are getting spin offs' which still makes me chuckle. I was game for it either way as I believe Battle Network came out first and while I liked that it wasn't REAL Megaman and all that. I ended up stumbling onto the japanese rom randomly a while later at some fan site called Dustman's Domain that just randomly had the rom. Downloaded it, surprised it was the real due when I threw it into visualboyadvance and then told my friends where they could get it... only for that site to disappear off the face of the earth and they all thought I was lying to keep the thing to myself lol. Anecdote aside I liked it a bunch back then since not only was it traditional Megaman but it was real difficult too! Back then I of course had to prove something to everyone and myself so that was a huge bonus for me no matter how it came about. These days I'm not nearly as enthusiastic. I decided to grab a rom of the DS collection on my 3DS. I never got the thing on release since I owned all the GBA carts but I was intrigued when I heard that there was a new mode that simply strings all the games together kinda Sonic 3 & Knuckles style. It's not as cool as that which I kinda figured but the game calls it 'Easy scenario mode' and pretty much just gives you every upgrade unlocked at the start. I wasn't too keen on that, like at least give me the option but after I played through the intro I decided you know what? I busted my ass S ranking this game on the GBA forever ago, I did it all again on the Switch collection so I've been there, done that got the lousy t-shirt. I'm familiar enough with these damn games that I think a breezy ride just to remind myself of the game itself will be just fine. I've earned the right I'd say lol. So yeah the game itself then. I still find it very striking, right away with its intro the tone is extremely grim for Megaman and back when I couldn't read the script and with no censorship it looked like human were getting wasted with blood geysers going everywhere like it was Metal Slug. Combine this with the tone of its music being very dour and the washed out gritty art style and post apocalyptic setting its remarkable still and honestly I dig it. I don NOT like the character designs of Zero and the more humanoid like reploids like him, they all look twiggy and weak now which is just bleh, though the big empty doll like eyes gives them kinda a creepy look that I kinda like and fits the meaner feeling of this series. The character designs of the animal like bosses however are some of the coolest of the series and I love the 'false eye' thing they have going. It's a really different feel for the series that has a kinda fantasy flavor to it and at least to me really stands out. The game itself even though looking very drab and washed out sports some really detailed backgrounds I respect a ton and along with the music give s really, really strong mood I still find pretty impeccable today, like even in its tinny bit crushed state I think the soundtrack has some great tracks that kinda make you ask 'is this still a Megaman game?' like this track here wanted to be in Metroid or Castlevania game. Or the boss theme really nails the bleak setting and just not a crazy bombastic clash as usual but a desperate struggle between two survivors at the end of the world. Maybe its just me but I just love it. So what about the actual game then? Well... that's where my gushing ends. I still like it and even if it was baby steps it did try to experiment with the formula but did so in such half hearted ways that they didn't amount to much and then got hamstrung by the hardware. Biggest issue is the draw distance is way too short and you are going to be constantly bonked on the head by things you barely have time to react to unless you know they're coming. So perfect memorization is the name of the game and there are definitely some cheap leaps of faith along with timers and all sort of crap that turn some stages into real tests of patience in pretty bad ways. The stage design itself is okay but the fact you can just never tell whats around the corner hampers you so much and feels unfair and especially maddening now that letter grading takes place and the punishments for a single mistake are harsh when half the time they don't feel like your fault. Maybe they woke up to this and decided there must be a way to counter it all so they'll give you upgrades to your health and such, after all this is a spin off of the X series. However the way they approached it as absolutely awful, you got these things called Cyber Elves who most of the best ones are rare drops and often are in select spots you only have a CHANCE to get in a single play through, that's bad enough but then on top of that you have to grind a currency to level them up so they can be used... and when I saw grind I mean GRIND. They require an obscene amount and the drops for items in general tend to be rather stingy. So say you do finally get one of the bastards ready, well for one they guilt trip you about it since you're killing some digital entity or whatever which boy is that just eye rolling but then you're ranking at the end of stages get heavily penalized for using even one of the stupid things... okay partner if you give me something to help out and then swat me on the nose for daring to use what you gave me then you can just fuck right off. In this game your rank doesn't actually matter but its just the principle of it. They also decided that since RPGs were still pretty big around then that'd you'd need to level your skill up with all the weapons which is not great and pretty much just means you'll need to park yourself and start spamming attacks on something just to get the leveling over with and get the function you should have had at the start back. Whats even worse is the sword only levels from certain kinds of attacks so many people end up doing this for a couple hours not realizing they need to do air attacks to get past the third skill level; this just plain shouldn't have been a thing. You need to do this with the other weapons you get as well but I wouldn't really worry about them besides the gun which is a good back up but the extendable spear thing and the shield aren't really useful in this game unfortunately. That all aside in the least most of the boss fights are pretty good and challenging but fair, save for like the couple that like to zoom around off screen now and then. Unfortunately X's first phase is one of these. Oh yeah and that was another cool thing: X is the main antagonist this time around or at least he was supposed to be. It would have been a killer twist with how much the series was dropping hints that X was gonna have to put Zero down instead and its too bad they didn't have the guts to stick with that but apparently there were concerns that too many younger fans would be upset with that conclusion and go out of their way to specify this X is a copy. It's alright though, they turn that into an interesting enough plot point later on. In fact as the series would go one of its strongest point would be its narrative crazy as that sounds. It's not the too strong this time as this game mostly ends up establishing the setting and little else but later on it'd make strides which made me happy since I've wanted to see this series delve deeper like I keep saying. It still could have done it better but they gave a good effort at least. I was actually surprised to see this become a series since the ending could have reasonable stopped things there. The really somber credits song helps that notion. So as you can see I'm pretty fascinated by this series. But the game itself I can't say I love playing too much. Its hard for the wrong reasons and has a lot of systems just thrown on that didn't need to be there or where so half hearted I don't know why they bothered. Like technically you can free roam all over most of this games levels but there's nothing to find and no reason to do so, though they'd try that for real in ZX to... well I'll wait to talk about then when I inevitable revisit those. Anyways I think its a fascinating game and while I wouldn't call it bad time really hasn't been kind to it either. Least if you do it with the recent collection they have a generous check point system to help smooth it over and that's how I'd recommend most play it. But on a whole I'd say only die hards should apply to this one, its not the worst but definitely skippable. Rating-5
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Post by Woody Alien 2 on May 13, 2024 13:02:19 GMT -5
BOSSGAME: The Final Boss Is My Heart (Steam, first time, around 5 hours)
By chance this is another game I've played featuring queer themes after Mediterranea Inferno, but they couldn't be more different from one another. MI is a visual novel featuring three gay male friends with a hedonistic lifestyle whose mundane lives are getting ruined by world-changing events and featuring fantastical elements that are a metaphor for their feelings, while BOSSGAME is a sort-of rhythm game structured around, well, a series of boss fights and featuring two lesbians in a relationship who fight against demons and other creatures in a fantasy setting, that however is meant to be a parallel to the harsh world of today and so on. I bought it during a sale because I liked the Undertale-esque pixel graphics made with just a few colors and the chiptune-esque soundtrack. The "warrior nun" and the witch need to synchronize their attacks to build up their magic meter to defeat bosses more easily, and parry their attacks according to the clues in their animations and behavior, a la Punch-Out! and similar games in a sense, so it's not really a rhythm game but I don't know how to describe it. Fairly short and full of chat-style text-only cutscenes between one boss and the other, it's certainly a product of its times. It also lasts 2/3 hours but I wanted to improve my records in the various battles also because it's not that easy: the life meter is shared for both attacks and for reviving our partner and enemies' attacks come quick and in some unpredictable patterns. So I had to tweak a bit the difficulty, without however enabling stuff like invincibility and automatic parrying (I may suck but at least want to still have some challenge). There's several clever ideas to break the monotony of the gameplay and of the simple graphics, the story is nothing really original but it has its moments, all in all I did enjoy it and will try to improve my records again. 7.5/10
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Post by spanky on May 13, 2024 13:14:02 GMT -5
Batman (NES, Replay)
I had about 30 minutes to kill after a day of yardwork yesterday and decided to unwind with this...Well maybe "unwind" is the wrong word here because it ended up taking me over an hour to beat and probably raised my blood pressure a bit. Pretty sure everyone has played this but this ia a Ninja Gaiden-esque platformer based on the first movie. Batman's movement is slightly stiff, even his jumps has a slight pause while he crouches a bit to gain momentum. This actually doesn't bother me as it really forces you to be strategic and think about your moves. There are times you get sandwiched between enemy's and obstacles and they just dogpile you until you die (hint: don't get in these situations in the first place).
Fortunately, the game is very forgiving. You have infininte continues and the game will actually restart you at the sublevel you die at. Even the penultimate boss does not reappear once you beat him. Once you figure out that the Batarang racks up multiple hits if it curves back to you while overlapping with an enemy's sprite, the bosses and tougher goes get much easier.
Where the game really shines are the aesthetics. The backgrounds all have clever use of shadow and it helps evoke a mood. The spritework and cutscenes all look phenomenal, especially for a 1989 NES game and every song in the game is great. You could probably deduct points for the movie ties to the game being pretty tenuous but that doesn't bother me. This is one of the best, if not the best licensed game on the NES. 9/10.
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