Your 2018 in gaming – highs, averages and lows

[Purple Moss]

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄

Here's the yearly thread where we hardcore gamers sit around and share our experiences in gaming throughout 2018. If you wish to participate, simply list the games you've played this year in a highs-averages-lows ranking (or however you wish), with an additional comment (or however you wish!). As mentioned in 2017's thread, it doesn't matter if your post gets too long -- that's the idea! And don't feel like you must restraint yourself to ~games-only events and experiences.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in last year's thread! I hope to see you here once again!

⭐️ Links to previous editions ⭐️
2017
2016
2015
2014

2013

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✨ Entries (in posting order) ✨

kaoru

Apollo Chungus

jackcaeylin

Preki

Snake

🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀

windfisch

dsparil

Threads

X-pert74

ommadawnyawn2

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Hardcore Gaming 101's Forum Dweller's 2018 Collection Limited Edition DELUXE

Note: Only a few members specified their GOTY, and though I could pick one from the other members' Highs list, I was afraid I might choose the wrong game. Now, if you wish to find more great games, please read the entries above!

[kaoru] Monster Hunter World - 2018 - PS4/Xbox One/PC

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 2018 - Switch
[dsparil] Magicat - 2018 - Switch

[Purple Moss] Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX - 2011 - PSP

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Personally, I had a pretty active year during its first 5/6 months, but I have since cut down significantly on my gaming. Due to personal events I now wish to dedicate more time to other hobbies of mine. Thus, I fear I may not have much to share as before, and my comments are a bit brief this time. Apologies if I repeat myself from earlier threads!

Now, let's begin!

HIGHS

- Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX: Fantastic and simple two-button rhythm game with a large collection of songs, meaning non-stop fun. Lots of J-Pop, but also many other genres like jazz, rock, classical, techno -- you WILL find something you like!

I can even play a few songs on Oni (the hardest difficulty) now, despite having had very limited experience with rhythm games before, nor really practicing for it. I'd love to get the actual controller and have the proper Taiko experience (I say that now, though )!

Pretty much the only thing I'm playing right now. I ocassionally play a couple of songs every other day.

- Horizon Zero Dawn: Beautiful and pristine natural world populated with intricate machinery, and covered with settlements ranging from the quaint to the impressive. Its fast-paced gameplay is as varied as the large kinds of enemies and scenarios it offers; personally, I love sneaking around and using stealth to overcome my obstacles.

The crafting could be better, though. It's pretty lite, and important enough to not be ignored, but doesn't seem to offer enough. At least it doesn't break the game!

Photo mode is a lot of fun as I had mentioned before, hehe!

- Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue: The freeware platformer! I played it in January after reading wyrdward's glowing review. Tight mechanics with an Ikaruga-esque twist. Solid solid solid. I would love to play more like this.

- Phantasy Star 4: Finishing my Phantasy Star adventures -- here it is! A unique cast, huge worlds, beautiful artwork, and a gripping story that offers a very satisfying and respectful conclusion to the saga. Turn-based, yes, but fast enough for me to enjoy it.

AVERAGES

- Yume Nikki: Played this one on my phone with EasyRPG as I mentioned in the thread. A little gem. Playing it is the key to understanding all the weird and quirky RPG Maker (and inspired) games. If it were a tiny bit more accessible it would be up on highs.

Best approached blind so you may enjoy the many mysteries it contains, and explore them by yourself.

- Tomb Raider (2013): The Standard AAA Game of the Year. Quite good, though. Fun shooting. Lots of collectibles to keep you busy. The story has a pretty surprising twist in the end! But, as said before, Lara's characterization could have been better.

Last month I watched the movie. ~Similar ideas, but a totally different execution. It feels just like the game, though, so they got that right

- Ib: Exploration horror RPG Maker game, recommended by a friend. Lots of secrets. The art pieces are fantastic. I want to see them in real life!

The idea of Ib not being able to read some things because she doesn't know the Kanji (and thus keeping them unkown from the player too) is a fun little concept that plays with the Japanese language and I love it.

- Dragon Age: Inquisition: Finally got back to it and finished it. Super lost because I didn't play DA2, though. Due to that I also I didn't care for many of the characters. And I didn't like the villain -- boring!

Taking off to explore, fetch collectibles, and fill the bars is very tempting, but is too MMO-ish and you WILL burn out, so please be careful!

- Urban Legend in Limbo (PS4): Played this one with the friend mentioned above. We had pretty good matches! Orb mechanic is a bit strange, though. Art is super lovely <3

This game is for fans of the series, really. Not even a good introduction if you want to get into Touhou, but don't let me stop you!

- Final Fantasy VII: Playing a German retranslation, which is filled with dialects and expressions that add a lot of personality to the game. and no i'm not that lost in the story jeez doe

This game is setpiece after setpiece -- or at least Midgar was, and that was fantastic. With that, and the THREE DEE, I feel a huge change coming from FF6 and FF4 (on the SNES), and I'm surprised and amazed at every other corner. Plus I LOVE this german Dorf + makopunk + Japanese corporate aesthetic. Oof.

I remember watching my brother play it when I was little, so it felt good to finally get into it and understand it.

- World's Scariest Police Chases (PSX): I played this one with a friend one night we hanged out at his place. We both remembered it from when we were little, and were nostalgic to play it again. We only played free roam or whatever it's called, taking turns driving and shooting. It was a pretty fun evening.

Can't really speak for the game, though It's kinda raw. We had fun, it did its job, that's all!

LOWS

I can't really think of any game I'd put here. So little did I play, huh!

EXTRA

This year I'd like to propose each poster name their own Game of the Year! Put it in bold somewhere or mention it, and I'll be editing this post and adding your entries to Hardcore Gaming 101's Forum Dweller's 2018 Collection Limited Edition DELUXE (with figurine and authentic cloth game map) [this is not officialoranything]. Let's see what odd collection comes up!

If you guys wish we may have both a 2018 listing (games released this year) and a general listing (games released any year). So you may name two games of the year too (I hope I'm being clear enough).

My personal Game of the Year is Taiko no Tatsujin Portable DX!

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Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2019!

[kaoru]

Highs:

Monster Hunter World. The GotY of all GotYs I got a PS4 for.

Journey. Surprised myself at how much is simply enjoyed the experience.

Abzu. Same as Journey, but with fishes, so even better.

Dark Souls Remastered. The best game to love-hate, period.

Sakura Taisen 3. Not as short-changed as 4 but with better battle engine than 1 and 2, and the best cast of battle-showgirls in the series.



Average:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Transfers the Zelda formula into a 3D environment in a working condition, but does little else.

Birthdays the Beginning. Super cute and a fun idea, but often too obtuse in how to progress or how to make said progress trigger happen.

flower. Nice idea, but gets severely hold back by the motion control only decission.

Dragon Quest VII. The 3DS version is not as bad as the original, but it is still hubris in gaming form, and I can't shake the feeling someone would have rather made an adventure game than RPG when designing this. Something about it just doesn't quite work.



Lows:

Crimson Shroud. Restarted it this year, and was constantly annoyed by it. Gave up at the beginning of Chapter 2.

Final Fantasy XV. Starts out goofy-fun, but completely breaks down after a couple of chapters to never recover, only to become a constantly bigger trainwreck.

Alone in the Dark 2008. A not very good game at its core, getting obliterated into a borderline unplayable mess on the Wii.

flow. Another game that constantly annoys due to having to wrestle with the control scheme.

[Apollo Chungus]

Ooh, this sounds pretty cool. I've only joined on this year, so I think I'll take part. I haven't played too many games for the first time this year, largely due to not having the consoles or the eagerness to splash cash on getting games for consoles I already own, so this'll be fairly short.

HIGHS:

Sonic Unleashed (360/PS3) - I haven't played this particular version since it first came out in '08, but I thought I'd give it another go since it was on sale for €10. I think it's ended up becoming my favourite 3D Sonic game, but what might surprise you is that I genuinely enjoy every element in the game. The Sonic stages are tense as heck, but pulling them off and learning to memorize the levels is really satisfying. The Werehog levels, though a bit too long in some places, have some fairly good combat and slow-paced platforming that I can dig. My favourite part of the game, weirdly enough, are the hub worlds. They're completely optional (despite what some reviews at the time said), but the sense of community that develops between the people in the various locales and the positive impact you make on their lives is incredibly uplifting. It reminds me of how good old-school 3D platformers were at that sort of thing (this video by lovely YouTuber B-Mask in regards to Spyro 2 just about covers it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fiESUHLn-Q), and how eager it made me to explore worlds, talk to people, and do optional stuff that doesn't reward you with anything except the feeling of helping make other people happy.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii) - It's really fascinating to me how the Forgotten Sands was one of the last examples where each platform basically had its own unique game (the PS360 version was one type of Sands-of-Time inspired platformer, the DS one was one type of 2.5D platformer while the PSP had something completely different), and it's especially cool how the Wii version got its own take on Sands-of-Time inspired platforming. Not only that, but it's also a really solid game full of challenging platforming and puzzles. The way the Wii pointer is integrated into the game is really cool, and makes for something that the game can call its own. I haven't beaten it, but I hope to get onto that soon enough.

AVERAGES:

Sonic 3D Blast: Director's Cut - I've always been of the opinion that 3D Blast was unfairly shat on for not being the type of game people expected, and that it's actually quite good when you accept that and take the game on its own terms. That was the main reason I wanted to review the game for this website, and doing so gave me the excuse to finally play the Director's Cut hack made by Jon Burton, the game's original programmer. If I had to recommend a version to play, it would absolutely be through this hack. It radically changes the structure of the game to make it feel more like the 3D platformer it's always felt like, and a whole ton of quality-of-life improvements reduce some of the major annoyances.

The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds - This is the first game I've played seriously on my 3DS in about a year and a half, and it's also the first 2D Zelda I've ever beaten. It's quite a good game, though I think it offers a bit too much freedom in getting to any of the dungeons that it's lacking in the kind of memorable moments or challenge progression I prefer from more linear, structured games in this style.

Quake 2 - I finally managed to play this thanks to it being included as a bonus port with Quake 4, and damn, it's a good game. I like how the various areas are split up into smaller chunks divided by loading screens, as it makes compartmentalising where you need to go and what you have to do much easier. Movement is quick and fun to control, the gunplay is quite satisfying, and the music is pretty baller.

LOWS:

As it turns out, I haven't played enough that there's anything that stands out as a low. The worst I can think of is Resident Evil 6, and I've not played anywhere near enough of that game that I can feel I can say that.

[jackcaeylin]

HIGH:

Evil Within 2: I played the game january 2018. It reminds me of playstation 1 & 2 days due to importance of side quests. Some people really hated the game, but this game was quite interesting to me in the highest difficulty. I really like the idea of side stories in the overworld. All of them have unique moments and it will reward you with items that makes a playthrough really convenient. Something that I forgot in gaming. The experience during the side quest can be enjoyable and not just "oh found random note about a characters".  This game took a very different approach from the first game and I am glad about the result of the second game. I hope we will get a third one in the future.

Powerslave: I played it on the Sega Saturn and I am surprised about the quality. It is kinda like Doom, but as a Metroid game. You need to find items (like jumping), thus you have to revisite old levels and solve the puzzle to progress. I thought, it was kinda smart to use a Doom similar engine and to make it into a Metroid game. The visuals are great. Egyptian themes are kinda rare.

Death Mark: A solid adventure game with an interesting idea with its way to defeat ghosts. My only concern is the extra chapter that felt like a fandisc with no actual purpose, but everything else was great. The characters aren't open books and the monsters were interesting. Too bad the duration is only about 12 hours, I liked the game very much.

Shenmue 1 & 2 collection: Everything what I wanted with minor quality of life improvements.

AVERAGES:

Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind: Bubsy has a questionable career, but the first game was solid. It has some issues. It is a bit weird that Bubsy can be very fast, but at the same time he can be killed immediately with one touch, thus you will be punished, if you try to be fast, which is such a fatal flaw. The first game had interesting level designs as well as great visuals. It is decent.

Dragon Quest 11: I adored the game at the beginning, but the joy faded. I was excited at the beginning with a excited lvl of 100 %, but when I finished the game my excited lvl was around 20 %. The structure of the game is a bit dry and every "episode" was solved within 2 or 3 hours. It has many mini chapters, but I cannot feel emotion for people that I only met for 2-4 hours. It is a solid game, but it could be much more. The music was horrible!

Valkyria Chronicles 4: A solid entry in the series, but the series was finished with the 3rd game. The 4th game doesn't really provide something important to the lore and the chapter style doesn't really work with the narrative. It is kinda weird that certain pictures have a duration of 15 mintues, but some are roughly about 20 seconds. Nevertheless the gameplay was fun and the missions had some unique moments.

Wolfenstein 2 New colossus: Due to the bad reputation I was afraid to play the game, thus I bought it on a sale and the game is actually good. I can't really understand the problem with the level design. I never felt lost. I mean, you can even press Down on the D-pad to find your goal. The ending was anticlimatic and they could do much more with the setting. I see too many factory levels in the game.

Monster Hunter World: Actually, I hate hunting games, but this game had lots of different monsters with their unique approaches, thus I started to like the game. I am glad that I played it online. I think the game would be too dry for me in solo play.

Fast Beat Loot Racer GT: The RPG mechanic are messy and the maps are dry, nevertheless I enjoyed it!

LOWS:

428 Shibuya Scramble: It could be great, but the pacing in the first 50 % of the game was annoying. The real people approach was awesome, but the plot and the characters could not do much for me.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2: The first game was solid, but the second game chewed the one plotline until the end. The level design is awful and the enemy variety is poor. It lacks the charm of the original.

Yours sincerely

Jack Caeylin

[Digitalnametag]

Dec 25, 2018 18:07:42 GMT -5 jackcaeylin said:

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2: The first game was solid, but the second game chewed the one plotline until the end. The level design is awful and the enemy variety is poor. It lacks the charm of the original.

Surprised to see someone liked the first game! I remember reading it was mediocre action RPG whose claim to fame was how offensive the Witch was. My PS3 version is still sitting in the shrink... I completely agree with you on Dragon Quest XI too. Terrible music.

[Preki]

HIGHS:

Battle Mania Daiginjou - a solid Forgotten Worlds-style shooter I was aware of, but didn't play it until this year.
Getsu Fuuma Den - this game is feels like Castlevania and Zelda II combined together and set in Japanese hell. A Konami cult classic. I even have the original cartridge.
Shatterhand - I almost beaten this game on a Famicom fan convention this year. It's relentless, but also satisfying. What's better than shattering everything that moves with your FISTS?
Kabuki: Quantum Fighter - another cool game for my favorite Nintendo console ever - who doesn't want to defeat enemies with headbanging like a metalhead? And just like Shatterhand, I almost managed to beat it, but the final boss got me and I ran out of continues. That won't stop me though.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance - remember how I couldn't beat those Metal Gears when I played the PC port (yeah, I've been doing this, forgive me), now I've managed to almost beat the game and right now I'm doing as much VR missions as I can.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - I thought I might drop it even before finishing Virtuous Mission due to lots of changes in game mechanics, but I got used to these after a while and realized this is a Metal Gear game, through and through.
Over Horizon - what a cool underrated NES shooter. I couldn't beat it, but I will keep trying, it's worth the effort. And that music - I can't get enough of the title theme!

AVERAGES:

Karnov - I wouldn't play that if it weren't for Weird Video Games channel on YouTube, seriously. Quite enjoyable platformer (and the main character is hilarious if you ask me), but gets too frustrating towards the end. NES version.
WURM: Journey to the Center of the Earth - decided to play this one after browsing through NES Cult Classics. I like the idea, but the execution is kinda sloppy and ending isn't satisfying.
Power Blade - this would be in "highs" if it weren't for too easy enemies and cheap deaths when jumping. Gonna replay the game in Expert Mode.
Choujin Sentai Jetman - kinda too easy even on the higher difficulty (well, except bosses) and there's not that much variety but it's Natsume, 'nuff said.

LOWS

The Wing of Madoola - Sunsoft before Blaster Master wasn't one of the best developers for FC/NES, and this game is a proof of that. No continue passwords, cheap deaths and sketchy enemy spawning - that's a recipe for disaster (but then there's Atlantis no Nazo, which is even worse). Beaten on the actual Famicom with the original cart.
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down - I expected good ol' open spaces and long-range shootouts, but this game is much more closer to recent installments of Call of Duty than any Delta Force game released prior to it. Total disappointment and waste of money, even if it wasn't that expensive on GOG.com.


I don't recall anything else particular this year.

[jackcaeylin]

Dec 25, 2018 19:11:03 GMT -5 Digitalnametag said:

Dec 25, 2018 18:07:42 GMT -5 jackcaeylin said:

The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2: The first game was solid, but the second game chewed the one plotline until the end. The level design is awful and the enemy variety is poor. It lacks the charm of the original.

Surprised to see someone liked the first game! I remember reading it was mediocre action RPG whose claim to fame was how offensive the Witch was. My PS3 version is still sitting in the shrink... I completely agree with you on Dragon Quest XI too. Terrible music.

I think, TWATHK 1 has one of the better stories in NIS games, especially regarding characters and character development. I agree that the Witch is devilish and offensive, but she was humiliated by witches and humans. Besides, she is living in the swamp for hundred years. She is isolated too, due to the witches.  To be honest, her character makes sense to me, due to the stuff that is mentioned in the early chapters. Besides, she even has character development and I don't really see that in many NIS games. I mean, lots of Disgaea characters are just typical shounen heroes disguised as horned demons. I agree that the gameplay is not unique and it can be repetitive. The biggest sin is the terrible random bug that sends you to the ps3 screen. I got the bug at least 4 times, when I played the ps3 version.

Your avatar reminds me to play the newest Megaman game.

Yours sincerely

Jack Caeylin

[Snake]

HIGHS

Monster Hunter World - Surprised by how many hours I've put into this game. 370+ currently.  It's been a long time since I've played socially with friends, and this does it in a way that is both old-school and new-school.  I like that you can get by through many situations on sheer skill, instead of mindless grinding.  I got it as a birthday gift, because I would've never went out of my way to explore the series on my own money. But it's definitely worth the initial release price of $60.  Visually impressive, overall, complex but interesting system of rewards and upgrades.  My only criticism is the nature of the soundtrack.  Good music, but nothing with a fetching melody, that you would find in Capcom games of the 1980's or 1990's.  

Gran Turismo Sport - This game also takes a lot of my time, on a daily basis since it it incentivized.  I felt kind of cheated for spending $60 when it first came out, but with all the free updates and continual additions of cars, tracks, and features, I would say I actually love it a lot.  What really wows me is the photography and livery editting features.  The quality and ability of what you're able to do is quite astounding.  I've been thinking of making my own high-res custom car posters using the photography mode.  I'll have to test that out very soon.  My criticism would be that this game has lost the ability to customize your own soundtrack, compared to the freedom allowed on Gran Turismo 5 and 6.

Dragon Quest XI - This game consumed me for the month I was playing it. Being able to avoid 90% of battles is a huge, huge plus. Longest time I've put into a Dragon Quest game yet, and I like most Dragon Quest games.  The music, while I actually enjoy classical music, does feel limited. A few more variations to the overworld theme would have been good.  I would say half the tracks are rehashes and refreshes of music from throughout the series.  Though final final ending credits really does put in an homage to all the previous games, while giving it a tie-in to Dragon Quest III.  I enjoyed the unexpected turn the game takes, once you continue after getting the first ending.  It's been a while since I felt some melancholy after completing the game.  Well, since Persona 5, which I played early in the year. I could really only recommend this game to hardcore Dragon Quest fans.  

Persona 5 - Thank goodness this is easy to play.  Fairly simplistic and straight forward.  Visually interesting style.  There's just so much content in this game, it's a bit overwhelming.  I'm just impressed with how well it captures the atmosphere of being in Tokyo, and just even the cultural nuances of how they choose to celebrate or go eat.  The soundtrack is lush and colorful, smooth and soothing.  I would certainly recommend Persona 5 to a casual gamer over Dragon Quest XI.   The game plays a bit on the long side... again for 80 hours, and more so with the New Game + option to try for completionist.  But certainly smart on how the game is set-up to take place over the course of a school year.  


MIDS

Final Fantasy XV - I'll give credit for at least the vastness of FF XV's open world portion of the game.  The concept for it is quite ambitious.  I'm impressed with how it captures the feel of being on a road trip through what feels to be mostly American west to midwest, with some of hints of central America and Europe.  In the trailers, I thought there would be something more in terms of a megalopolis to explore.  The chatter and interaction between the characters is pretty fun.  The scale of all the genjuu/eidolon/summon monster battles are all pretty cool to.  Where FF XV falls short is polish, detail, and execution.  Everything falls apart into a linear mess by the 2nd half of the game.  And the way the plot culminates in the end is so damn depressing.  Rushed, sloppy screenplay.  Product placement of Cup Noodles and Coleman camping gear is laughable at best.  Glad to play through it once, don't think I will ever yearn to relive it from the beginning.  I usually love Yoko Shimomura's music, but the amount of music and the mood of the game makes it pretty sparse.  Like Monster Hunter World's soundtrack, there isn't any captivating melody, or like Shimomura's previous works on Street Fighter 2 or Front Mission or Parasite Eve.  Plus, it's been like 10 years since she originally composed FF XV's title track, Somnus. Talk about a song you could play at a funeral. Too much production hell, for not enough game.  


LOWS

Battle Arena Toshinden - Man this game plays sloppy.  Beating the game only gives you ending credits.  Overall, it has not aged well.  The cheap voice acting is pretty hilarious.

Fatman/Mondu's Fight Palace/Slaughter Sport - Lord only knows I tried playing this game.  I genuinely want to complete it, but the controls suck, and I don't have the patience just yet to waste time on the learning curve.  The aesthetic is so post-apocalyptic alien.  The product of its time.

[silentstorm]

Dec 26, 2018 11:31:02 GMT -5 jackcaeylin said:

Dec 25, 2018 19:11:03 GMT -5 Digitalnametag said:

Surprised to see someone liked the first game! I remember reading it was mediocre action RPG whose claim to fame was how offensive the Witch was. My PS3 version is still sitting in the shrink... I completely agree with you on Dragon Quest XI too. Terrible music.

I think, TWATHK 1 has one of the better stories in NIS games, especially regarding characters and character development. I agree that the Witch is devilish and offensive, but she was humiliated by witches and humans. Besides, she is living in the swamp for hundred years. She is isolated too, due to the witches.  To be honest, her character makes sense to me, due to the stuff that is mentioned in the early chapters. Besides, she even has character development and I don't really see that in many NIS games. I mean, lots of Disgaea characters are just typical shounen heroes disguised as horned demons. I agree that the gameplay is not unique and it can be repetitive. The biggest sin is the terrible random bug that sends you to the ps3 screen. I got the bug at least 4 times, when I played the ps3 version.

Your avatar reminds me to play the newest Megaman game.

Yours sincerely

Jack Caeylin

My only interaction with Metallia comes from Disgaea 5 Complete where she's an extra character, and she is a pretty fun and really damn good character, like, she may very well be the best spellcaster in the whole game and she has a suprisingly high endurance and attack stats as well.

She is also the only character that always swears calling enemies pieces of shit, tends to have some evil grins and actually talks about making you work for her as you seem to be stronger than a certain knight that works for her.

She doesn't come off as the most heroic character in the game so i imagined the same goes for her own game...though who cares when she is a really useful and fun character in Disgaea 5?

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

GOTY: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

HIGHS

-Mega Man 11: Worthy 11th installment in the series

-Metroid and Metroid -Zero Mission: The original Metroid holds up way, way better than I ever imagined and is definitely one of my favorite NES games. Zero Mission is a fun 'Super Metroid Jr.' and lives up to Super's quality.

-Sonic: I played a lot of classic era Sonic games this year. Didn't quite finish all of them (still have to finish Sonic Labyrith through Sonic Jam), but I did quite a few. Of course replaying S3&K and Sonic CD were great, but Sonic Triple Trouble and Sonic 1 (SMS) were nice surprises to come across. Also finally being able to run Sonic Generations (a game I bought at launch I think) on my laptop was nice.

-Dark Souls Remastered: Haven't finished it yet, and it's far from perfect, but when it's great, it's super engaging and the exploration is some of the best.

-No death-running Super Mario Bros. on the NES.

-Finally getting around to playing Splinter Cell and Wonder Boy in Monster World and enjoying both very much.

-Finally beating Dragon Warrior III. One of the best games I've ever played for sure.

-The Smash Ultimate reveal and the hype and reveals leading up to release.

AVERAGES

-Finally played beloved SNES games Mega Man X and Super Castlevania IV but I don't think they're as good as their classic status would suggest. Any Classic Mega Man beats out MMX, and Castlevania was better on NES. They're not bad, but nothing special if you ask me.

-Mario Tennis Aces: Great foundation, and fun to play locally (and online if you got an opponent with a good connection), but the single player is dissapointing and the matchmaking is inconsistent.

LOWS

-Though I played some good Sonic games, I also played some that were meh or just downright shitty. Sonic Spinball was the worst one, but Chaotix, Sonic 2 8-bit and Sonic Eraser are dissapointments too. Sonic Chaos is probably the most boring game I've ever played in my life.

-Didn't get to play nearly as much as I wanted. Part of that is due to Splatoon 2 taking up a lot of my time, other is just being busy with life stuff.

[windfisch]

Here are *some* games I've played this year:

HIGHS

Mole Mania (GB) - Started playing a few days ago and I've not quite finished it. But I can already say it's one of the best and most original Sokoban-likes I know. Lots of variety and an adorable audio-visual presentation that rivals Link's Awakening and the Kirby's Dreamland games. The Super Game Boy color palettes look especially nice.

Intelligent Qube (PS1) - Rather simple, yet fun action-puzzler. What elevates the experience is the bombastic orchestral score, which brilliantly clashes with the game's rather basic (yet well made) visuals, its absurd premise and the occasional slapstick elements.

Adventure Island 1 & 2 (GB) - The momentum-based gameplay took some getting used to. And losing your weapon or dinosaur companion after taking a hit can be occasinally frustrating. But this also adds a resource management element, making it stand out from similar games. And the abstract, vaguely expressionistic backgrounds (love the bold shapes and "black and white"-contrasts), cute sprites and excellent music kept me motivated.

AVERAGES

Bomberman Quest (GB) - It's Bomberman meets Link's Awakening. And it's not subtle about it's inspiration, since some power ups and background tiles are almost identical to L.A.. However, B.Q. is smaller, more condensed. The main focus here is on finding the right tools and strategy in order to defeat enemies. Another game that looks best on Super Game Boy (the GBC coloring looks a bit sloppy). Would have almost been a highlight, if it weren't for some annoying design quirks. The worst offender is your regular walking speed, which is really slow and the speed-upgrade item has to be manually equipped and unequipped, taking up one precious item slot.

Goodbye Deponia (PC) - Skipped the previous two installments, since I don't find the humor that appealing and most of Deadalic's earlier games tend to be ambitious but unpolished. This also applies here. There are some fun and clever moments, but it's dragged down by too many obtuse puzzles, a tonally uneven and questionable plot and dialogue that doesn't know when to stop. Almost a "low", but not quite.

Resident Evil 2 (PS1) - Played on "Rookie"-mode, since I'm not a classic Resident Evil person and I wanted to finish it quickly. The B-movie presentation still holds up rather well. But the switching camera angles can be painfully disorienting, especially in the Police station. I suppose it's somewhat intenional to make you feel helpless, but artificial restraints like not being able to see enemies that are right in front of your character are more frustrating to me than enhancing the mood.

Sonic Blast (GG/SMS) - An ugly duckling that grew on me. The first half is actually quite good, but later stages can be annoying.

LOWS

Golden Axe 1-3 (MD/Genesis) - I want to like them, but I can't, due to cheap enemy behavior. Graphics are a mixed bag, too: special attacks look cool, but overall I feel they were overusing browns and greys (especially in 3).

Dino Crisis (PS1) - Another title I've tried to get into several times (first time was years ago on the Dreamcast), but quit before getting very far. While its dynamic camera mostly manages to solve one of my main issues with the PS1 Resident Evils, I find the initial location very, very bland from a visual standpoint. The computer-terminal puzzles are also not that appealing to me. It's seems like a quality game, but it's just not for me.

[dsparil]

This is so long even though I left out some things… Almost all of these are Switch games/versions.

Game of the Year

Magicat - This is totally without exaggeration one of the best Switch platformers! There’s a huge amount of variety mainly through variations on a few basic elements, but there’s also a few totally new elements that’ll pop up every once in a while. There’s literally only 1 review of this on Game Rankings for the Switch release and none for the previous PC version. This is a totally unassuming game that completely surprised me. It’s $5 and amazing; there’s zero reason to not get this.

Highs

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - A nice take on Castlevania III although a little on the easy side.

Car Quest - An interesting Switch-exclusive adventure/“platform” game where you play as some kind of sentient car. It’s a little weird with a nice aesthetic and a lot of monologue which actually does help in this situation. I got it for 99¢ but it’s definitely worth the full price of $10.

The Count Lucanor - A good “horror” adventure game set in a castle with a fairytale atmosphere. The low resolution graphics help keep this from being too disturbing and keeps it light.

Deep Ones - A pretty good platformer inspired by ZX Spectrum games. I didn’t like it at first, but it really picks up in the second half.

Defoliation - A good escape room game although the story is a little skimpy and not well translated though not to the point that it becomes hard to play.

Detective Pikachu - So adorable and it really made me miss the screenshot capability that came with Miiverse. Still a little weird that the original downloadable Japanese game spurred an American movie and this full length expansion.

Dragon Quest Builders - A good take on a “Minecraft-style” game with an actual story and objectives. There’s some good environmental and gameplay variety between the 4 chapters. I’m very excited for the sequel!

Dragon Sinker - Did you know that Kemco occasionally publishes RPGs that are actually fabulous? The description seems intimidating, 3 4 member parties and 20 jobs, but it’s actually quite manageable and fun. Bonus points for having both an adjustable encounter rate plus a whistle command and low level enemy avoidance.

Gaokao Love 100 Days - A pretty good VN set during the college entrance exam period in China which is apparently quite rigorous. It’s pretty relatable to anyone that’s had to cram for school. The translation seems like it was done by some that doesn’t natively speak English, but it’s very good overall. This also has my new favorite line of all time: “It’s better to be the head of a donkey than the butt of a horse.” That makes sense in context, but I would have gone with “It’s better to be the head of an ass than the ass of a horse.”

Kirby Star Allies - I love Kirby so much, and this does not disappoint. Clean coming back was all it needed to do to win me over, but everything about this is so great. The Switch Channel is also pretty active, and the director seems like he’s actually nice.

The Lost Child - There aren’t too many pure SMT clones, and this is quite close to one. There’s no demon negotiation (you hit them with a special attack), fusion (you can swap their skills though) and only one ending, but I liked it quite a bit regardless. It gets bonus points for being a dungeon crawler that’ll let you pick a previously visited point and auto-navigate to it. The 100 floor extra dungeon is nice too, but I didn’t manage to finish it.

Lost Sphear - A good follow up to I Am Setsuna that cleans up some of its issues and adds in new features. It’s a shame that it was kind of a flop though.

Mega Man 11 - Who knew Capcom was still capable of making good Mega Man games? Being better than Mighty Number 9 was not a high bar to clear, but this went way beyond that.

Miles & Kilo - I really hated this game’s predecessor, Kid Tripp, which made the high quality of this game all the more surprising! The original was a level-based autorunner, but this makes the autorunning optional except for the Kilo the dog parts. Just better designed all around.

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom - I’m playing this now and about a third of the way through. It hasn’t grabbed me as much as I was hoping, but it’s still pretty good. Mainly I think the areas could be a little smaller. This is 100% a Wonder Boy / Monster World game rather than being simply “inspired” as it was originally; Sega was even involved in some capacity.

Oxenfree - I liked the the teen drama aspect, but the main ghost story gets iffy towards the end. It would have been nice if there was more “game”, but the dialogue does make up for it.

Phantasy Star (Sega Ages) - The Sega Ages version makes this so much less tedious to play with an optional automap and experience+meseta boosting to eliminate grinding. It’s still an 8-bit RPG with the interface issues that go along with that, but other aspects make up for that.

Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu - I could have written a dissertation on this as I had so many thoughts. My post in the game finish thread was two pages single spaced and I still threw out half the stuff I had written down. There are some positive changes (follower Pokémon, visible encounters), some negative changes (candies in general, limited battles) and some weirdness (move learning levels). I liked it overall as Pokémon in HD was enough for me anyway.

Quest for Glory I/III/IV/V - Finished off the rest of the series which I ended up liking for the most part although III is clearly the weakest game. I also found V to be a little underrated as it’s the only game with decent combat although the adventure elements of that game are diminished. What did surprise me is that character importing is actually handled fairly poorly with little feeling of actually getting stronger aside from accumulating spells if you’re a wizard.

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology - A fabulous rerelease of an already classic game that neatly ties everything up and includes great voice acting as a bow on top. The new content is mainly new quests that take place in alternate dimensions which leads to fun scenarios that don’t need a lot of set up. The expansion of the story really takes things to a new level.

Skies of Fury DX - A nice WWI arcade dogfighting game with quite a few Pilot Wings style time trials too. It falters a little bit towards the end in being a little too hard at times, but I liked it overall.

Starlink - Hard to tell, but this seems to have flopped a little bit. It’s weird to come out with a new “toys to life” game after the market for that collapsed. The digital version at least doesn’t require any physical toys and comes with more stuff. Not that any of that matters because the Switch version has Star Fox! Why anyone would willingly choose a non-Switch version is beyond me as this is the Star Fox game people want but Nintendo won’t make. This would have been infinitely better as a pure Star Fox game as the story is a little generic. The gameplay is fun though and got some new additions a few days ago.

Valkyrie Chronicles 1/4 - I liked both of these for the most part although 4 is better than the first one with more varied gameplay and a better story. The APC is a little overpowered in 4.

Violett - A nice semi-Alice in Wonderland inspired adventure game that’s a little too abstract due to it’s general wordlessness. The weirdness of the “levels” makes up for it though.

Wheels of Aurelia - A dialogue driven game like Oxenfree. Rather than being a ghost story, it’s about a former kidnapping victim driving up the Italian coast to confront one of her kidnappers during a specific time in Italy history when a politician actually was kidnapped. There’s a lot of different endings that touch upon a lot of different aspects of Italian culture in the late 70s. This is a nice “coffee break” game and not actually heavy on the kidnapping element.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna - The Golden Country - A good expansion to my favorite game of last year. I do wish it was longer though as I liked the gameplay more than in the original.

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Averages

Alwa’s Awakening - Pretty good, but a little too easy for almost the whole game with a final area that a spike in difficulty.

Celeste - Challenging, but fair. I have a tendency to turn on games that start to get overhyped and I am getting to there although the actual game is nice. I thought the story was not good and completely unnecessary but that gets all the press.

Chasm - Pretty much the most direct SotN clone I’ve ever played done to the varying save game icons on the load screen! The game is procedurally generated, but the rooms are hand created which keeps away dumb level layouts. The pixel art is high quality, but the areas themselves are bland and there isn’t enough weapon variety.

Damascus Gear -Operation Tokyo- - For the most part, this is a good Diablo-esque mecha RPG, but two specific missions really drag down the whole experience. I actually played through this twice regardless!

The Fall Part 2: Unbound - The adventure aspects are an improvement over the first game although combat is totally vestigial and not as good.

Fear Effect Sedna - Not the third game people wanted, but I though it was okay. Reviews were really overly harsh which softened my feelings towards it a little bit.

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition HD - Possibly the most comprehensible version of FFXV since the developers knew that they couldn’t cram in the whole game. It’s a little funny that this is basically the inverse of the original with the first half being worse than the second.

forma.8 - A slightly interesting take on Metroidvanias as you’re a probe that can fly, but the story and progression is a little too abstract for my liking.

Ghost 1.0 - This would have been much better without having a bunch of unnecessary dialogue interrupting you seemingly every 5 minutes.

Goetia - In theory, this has an interesting premise for an adventure game. You’re a ghost trying to figure out what’s happened to you and your family estate which has been overrun with 5 demons. There’s two problems. The first is that you only actually interact with one demon which is relatively friendly as you have to banish the others before you can explore the area they are in. The second is that it’s a somewhat buggy game that more than once made some puzzles moot.

Into the Breach - Some people like this a lot, but I found the randomized elements so-so. It has some interesting ideas for a strategy game, but I found the implementation lacking.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate - There’s nothing wrong with MHGU, but after importing my save from the 3DS game, I didn’t make it too much farther. I played more of MHG than any other, but I think the lack of levels coupled with the extreme material grinding was a little to tedious for me.

NORTH - A very short first person sci-fi adventure game about the plight of refugees, but way too weird to really gets its point across. I did like the ending though.

Pianist - A rare case of a mobile game becoming diminished coming to a console. The mobile version has very good touch screen controls that as well adapted to piano music. The Switch version is a pretty direct Beatmania clone with 4 key and 6 key variations. It’s made harder to play due to the lack of touch screen controls. This is also dying for Labo Keyboard support which also would have made it easier to play and a complete no brainer.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux - A much less ambitious update than RH:PC although some of the gameplay changes are welcome namely being able to disable getting a game over on MC death and being able to see where teleporters go. Voice acting did get added, but it’s still in Japanese. There’s an added dungeon which allows for an additional set of endings. The main issue is the same as with the original, it’s way too long and the dungeon crawling itself gets tedious towards the end. On the other hand, I’ve always loved the combat and don’t mind that aspect at all. It just should have ended after the fifth dungeon.

Shining in the Darkness - I just gave up on this after getting through 7 of the 10 dungeon levels. I’ve never managed to finish this over the years, and I was hoping this time would be different. My main problem is that it’s just too boring. There’s no class system and no MP restoratives which makes combat very dull. The enemy graphics are nice though.

Spellcasting 101/201/301 - The first is an okay text adventure with some graphics, but the second and third get progressively less interesting. I mainly expect more from the designer, Steve Meretzky.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - It’s Smash. Spirits are an expanded take on Brawl’s Stickers, but they lack the text that came with Trophies so they’e not an adequate replacement. WoL is a good single player mode, but it’s no Subspace Emissary from a story perspective. Brawl is still my favorite although having every single character is nice.

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Lows

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy - This is a low for the remaster itself. The jumping really and truly is completely messed up. I played through some of the PSX Crash 1 after playing through the first level of the remastered one, and it’s definitely the game and not me. At least Warped managed to get through relatively unscathed as it’s far and away better than the first two.

Dead Cells - I really did not like this at all and feel like it was money completely wasted. The levels are completely random so you get nonsense layouts too frequently. Progress is also way too luck based.

The Deer God - I played this way back in January knowing it was bad, and I was not disappointed. So boring and possibly irredeemable.

Noctropolis - One of the worst adventure games I've ever played. The developers seemingly did not go beyond the premise of "comic store owner gets sucked into a comic" as everything is really dumb and fairly generic. For some reason this uses digitized actors which clashes with the backgrounds and doesn't look good.

Octopath Traveler - My vote for most overrated game of the year. I finished every character’s story, but not the final dungeon. 8 characters is way too many with some having story that are drastically underserved by the format and others that have very thin plots. From what I’ve read, everything finally gets tied together in the last dungeon (which itself has unclear unlock requirements), but only through dumps of text which killed my interest. To gameplay itself is worse than the Bravely games with a less interesting job system and less interesting jobs.

Save Me Mr. Tako! - The absolute worst game I played this year. There’s a plethora of bugs, poor design and it’s way too long. It was 21 hours of almost pure pain, and I only pushed myself to finish because it kept seeming like it was about to end for about 15 hours. The story is actually not bad, but it’s saddled to such an awful game.

Sunrider: First Arrival/Mask of Arcadius/Liberation Day/Academy - A series of not that great SRPGs/VNs and a pure VN. Academy (the VN) was obviously a censored adult game and I later learned that they all are (I got them on GOG). FA and MoA are actually free so I bought the other two while they were on extreme sale, about $9 total down from $35, as FA seemed okay at first. LD is ridiculous short and Academy is a terrible and overlong experience.

[Threads]

Just going to make a list from stuff I played for the first time in 2018.

Highs:

Soma (PC) - The first Frictional Games release I can fully get behind. As someone who genuinely fears the ocean and any animal/creature that can swim I've never felt a stronger sense of dread playing a game in my life. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Prey (PS4) - I rented this sometime last year but couldn't get into it. After hearing praise from people I gave it another go and I'm glad I did because it really clicked. One of my absolute fave games of this gen.

Bully (PS2) - I've played this on and off almost since launch but finally beat the game for the first time early this year. It's as great as I had remembered, perhaps even moreso. Probably my favorite Rockstar game overall.

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition (PC) - Got to this really late but better late than never. Absolutely loved the open ended level design and path taking. I don't know if I've seen anything else like it.

Dino Crisis (PS1) - Don't know how I just now beat this in 2018 as an almost lifelong survival horror fan but here we are. Going to go back for more endings and maybe play DC2 in 2019.

Averages:

The Evil Within 2 (PS4) - Not the mess I was expecting but definitely a step down from the first game overall. The more open/mini-sandbox structure fared a lot better than I had expected. It almost felt like a successor to Silent Hill: Downpour in that regard. I wish we got as much DLC/content for this as we did Prey.

Yakuza: Kiwami (PS4) - Coming from Yakuza 0 didn't do this a favor. Sub-stories and (especially) combat took a hit quality wise. Combat became a chore in the back half of the game and I just wanted it to end.

Lows:

Assassin's Creed (PC) - Don't have a lot of experience with this series so I thought I'd give the first game a go. I usually think of these games as mindless music/podcast games to consume while listening to something so I'm not just being completely aimless. This wasn't even a success in that regard. Things start off okay enough if not too samey/bland but in the back half things got increasingly combat heavy and it was just a mess.

Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (DS) - A potentially solid foundation absolutely ruined by enemy balance/combat. The enemy HP in the NA release of the game was inflated in comparison to the JP version to the point where literally every boss encounter was a chore. I hope the other M&L games after this fare a bit better.

[X-pert74]

Compared to previous years, I really didn't play that much this year; I didn't even finish any actual 2018 releases in 2018, lol, so I don't have a favorite game of 2018, much less a top 5 of 2018 releases. A good chunk of what I did play, consisted of replays of games I've beaten before. Usually, because enough time had passed that I wanted to re-experience it, both to refresh my memory and see if I feel differently about said game today. These replayed games are marked here with italics.

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Highs:


Prey 2017 (Steam) (beaten on Normal on 2017-01-02) – Wow. This is incredible. But seriously, what a mindfuck of a game. This is one game where for nearly the entirety of my playthrough, I wasn't truly sure where I should be going, or if I was even doing the right thing or not. It has an incredibly uncanny ability to fuck with the player the whole way through; geez. It was totally awesome though. Both the story and the gameplay can change quite a bit depending on what you do throughout, which I imagine would add a lot of replay value to this. It's really a shame this didn't get more attention when it came out, because it's easily one of the best first-person shooters ever made. If you like games such as System Shock, Bioshock, or Dead Space, there's really no reason not to play this.


Rise of the Triad: Dark War (Steam) (got Good ending on Normal on 2018-01-13) – First-person shooters really developed tremendously in the '90s, didn't they? They were around before then, but Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 helped popularize the genre in a way that nothing before it had really accomplished. Then one year later, Doom came out and blew everything else away. Doom's influence was overwhelming enough that almost every FPS that came out after it (before “FPS” as a label caught on) got labeled as a “Doom clone”, regardless of how much said games actually played like Doom.

With practically every new release, id Software was blowing away the competition, and even their own previous games, in terms of graphical tech. Just a couple years after Wolfenstein 3D's release, Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth were already making the once-revolutionary Wolfenstein 3D look archaic and obsolete. Doom itself would soon go on to look technically underwhelming compared to id's later game Quake, which would feature a true 3D engine.

Despite being based on Wolfenstein 3D's engine, Rise of the Triad uses a heavily-modified version, which allows for a bunch of neat stuff that would never have been possible in Wolf 3D. Things like different lighting in certain environments, breakable glass, hover platforms (which can be kept in place, and function essentially as makeshift stairs), jump pads, etc. Some of this stuff Doom doesn't even do. The fact that a game that uses Wolfenstein 3D's engine at its core is able to stand up as a worthwhile contemporary to Doom, which used far superior tech in general, is quite a feat.

The game itself is super fun, too.

I have a couple grievances; most of the levels were great, but a couple (like E2A5, and E4A4) were either boring and aimless, or absolutely infurating to go through due to enemy/trap placement. The final boss fight is also pretty bullshit, lol. You're pretty much guaranteed to get a bad ending the first time you beat him, which means you have to do the fight all over again, this time while fulfilling the requirements to get the good ending (thankfully the game takes you to the start of the final level again, so it's not too much of a setback). All in all it's still great though, lol.


Resident Evil: Director's Cut (Playstation) (beat as Jill on 2018-01-19) – Still a survival-horror classic. I do think this is kind of barebones compared to most of the later games, but it still has an incredibly sound design backing it, and it's still fun to go back to.


Resident Evil 2: Dualshock Ver. (Playstation) (beat Claire A & Leon B on 2018-01-21) – I think this is my favorite classic Resident Evil game. More than anything else, this game offers a ton of replay value, thanks to not only having separate campaigns for Leon and Claire, but also having the story/gameplay adjust itself in different ways depending on whose game you play first. In effect, you don't get the full experience just playing through as one character, but thankfully the B scenario you complete has plenty of twists and turns to keep players on guard. This is just such a good game. I'll have to check out the remake when that releases later in 2019.


Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (Gamecube) (beat on 2018-02-10) – Code Veronica is the one Resident Evil game that really stands out. In retrospect, it essentially served as a bridge between the more horror-focused Playstation trilogy, and the action-oriented batshit ridiculousness of Resident Evil 4 and onward, thanks to certain decisions with its story that had repercussions on the series to come. Overall, I do like it, but ultimately feel that the potential this game hinted at was not delivered on by its follow-ups. It's kind of a shame, really. This is also possibly the hardest game from the classic era of Resident Evil, as it features map and puzzle designs which are way more obtuse and involve way more backtracking than even the original game. My goodness.


Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (Game Boy Advance) (beat Normal difficulty on 2018-02-18) – Over the past few years, I've been getting reeeeeeeeeally into Fire Emblem; with this, I continue my effort to play all the Fire Emblem games I missed out on. To my knowledge, this is the only main Fire Emblem game that's completely standalone; there's no sequel or prequel (or interquel) to this game's story. Because of that, this is pretty easy to get into, as there's no need to play another game first in order to catch up on any story events here. Overall, it was pretty fun. As far as classic Fire Emblem goes, this is definitely one of the easier games, thanks to being able to grind after you gain access to the world map, though there are still some spikes in difficulty at key points. If you like turn-based tactics, this is a good game to play.


Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (aka Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu) (Super Famicom) (beat with a D rank (lol) on 2018-05-18) – This is a pretty unusual game, even by Fire Emblem standards. Its gameplay features a much more vast, grander scope in design than other Fire Emblem games usually do, and its story is... something else. With a storyline that features some rather stomach-churning themes, as well as possibly the highest body count in the series, Genealogy ends up proving to be incredibly dark and disturbing, especially for a game developed by Nintendo. It's kind of like Nintendo's equivalent to Game of Thrones (though this game actually came out a little before the first Song of Ice and Fire book). There were honestly multiple points while playing Genealogy where I found myself thinking “Holy fuck, I cannot believe this is a Nintendo game”, lol.

Genealogy of the Holy War is a pretty brutal game in other ways, too. Most Fire Emblem games tend to consist of a larger set of maps that are of a decent size; perhaps 20 to 30-ish maps depending on the game, which can be beaten usually in less than an hour each. Genealogy features only 12 maps to fight through, but each one of those maps is maybe three or four times the size of an average Fire Emblem map. It can take several hours just to clear one of these maps, so it's definitely a relief that unlike other Fire Emblem games, you can save (permanently) at the beginning of literally every turn, so you at least don't have to start each map all over if you mess up. Even with that in mind, this can be very hard. The RNG is punishing (moreso than in recent Fire Emblem games), and the large size of the maps means that cavaliers are usually going to have an edge over other units, due to their higher movement range relative to infantry units.

Overall, this was definitely tough to play. I had fun, don't get me wrong, but wow was this a challenge. Playing through this from start to finish took me almost three months to do, haha. From the high difficulty of the combat and map design, to the uncomfortable places its story goes, Genealogy pulls no punches as a game. It's not flawless, but it's definitely an experience I'll never forget. (It's also worth noting that this game's soundtrack is incredible. The Super Famicom/Super NES was capable of outputting some absolutely amazing tracks)


Crysis (Steam) (beat Normal on 2018-05-27) – A couple years ago, I played through the original Far Cry, and I looooooved it. It was super challenging and tough, but it offered a ton of freedom within wide-open areas (that are still segmented into separate levels in a single-player campaign), and it was very satisfying to beat. The later Far Cry games are fun too, but they shifted over to being fully open-world sandbox FPSes.

Crysis on the other hand, serves specifically as a spiritual successor to the first Far Cry, by the same developer as that game (Crytek). In a lot of ways it's similar, including the fact that it takes place in a tropical jungle island setting, though it also features a special suit the main character wears, which can provide super-strength, super speed, invisibility cloaking, etc. As a result, it's significantly easier than Far Cry, but still a ton of fun. I just love having gigantic areas to explore at my own free will, with multiple ways to enter each area and tackle each situation.

I played Crysis 2 a few years back, but now that I've played the first Crysis, I can easily say it's a far superior game to Crysis 2, which cuts down significantly on the openness of each area compared to the first game. All in all, if you like super-open FPSes, that still provide some sense of guidance (ie are not Grand Theft Auto-style sandbox games), then Crysis is a must-play.


Mega Turrican (Genesis) (beat Normal on 2018-06-21) – Last year I played through Turrican and Turrican II for the Amiga, which were pretty fun run-and-gun action platformers with a sci-fi aesthetic. Mega Turrican is much in the same vein, though was designed firsthand for a console rather than a computer. It's still pretty similar to the previous entries however. The biggest difference is that there's no multi-directional machine gun that you can fire in any direction in Mega Turrican; that got replaced with some grappling-hook tool, which is a bit clunky to use, but is a nice addition, all things considered. As usual for Turrican, the music here is incredible; this is some of the best usage of the Genesis sound chip I've ever heard. All in all, Mega Turrican is super kewl and awesome and stuff, and it's worth giving a go!


The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) (beaten on 2018-08-31) - I've never been a huge Zelda fan; I mean that as in, I generally enjoy Zelda, and I've beaten several Zelda games, but I've not generally considered it a favorite series of mine, in the way that I love something like Mario. I think part of it is that pretty much every Zelda game since A Link to the Past patterned its game progression off of that game in some form or another; Zelda definitely fell into a rut for awhile of feeling like the same old, same old, which is kind of a strange thing to say for a Nintendo series (being a company that usually loves to innovate with their mainline series).

Breath of the Wild, however, successfully revitalizes the series. It takes quite a bit after the very first Legend of Zelda for the NES, in that it offers a wide-open world with virtually no limits placed on where you can go at any given time. It's one of the most satisfying worlds I've explored in a sandbox game, being both wide-open and densely-packed with interesting challenges to solve, and interesting rewards for completing them. It's a return to form for Zelda, and I'm happy to see it turn out so well. Great job, Nintendo.


Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) (reached credits on 2018-10-10) – Super Mario Odyssey is like a gigantic world tour through really interesting, imaginative locales, peppered with fun throwbacks to previous games in the series, both 2D and 3D. It's a blast and I love it.

One thing in particular that I really like about Odyssey, is how the basic controls and mechanics can be picked up in seconds, yet there are little intricacies concerning how they all come together, which allow you to pull off some really neat tricks. It's not necessary for the main game, but when it comes time to start hunting down some of the extra moons, being able to jump up in the air, throw your cap forward, then dive forward onto the cap, bouncing off of it as a makeshift platform, and using the extra leverage to reach a higher platform... tricks like that are simultaneously really satisfying to pull off, and may possibly be a necessity to clear some of the harder content. It kinds reminds me of Umihara Kawase, albeit to a lesser degree, in terms of how dynamic the cap mechanics are, and how you can grow to master them over the course of your playthrough.

It's pretty difficult for me to complain about much in Odyssey... well, its story is nothing special, honestly. Pretty much the typical damsel-in-distress shit the Mario series is known for. The game as a whole is really good, pretty much in spite of its story, not because of it. This is one area where I'd say Galaxy has an edge over Odyssey, because while you still had to rescue Peach in that game, the addition of Rosalina was quite nice (and I looooooooved the storybook that you could read throughout the game; while it was optional, it really added a lot of depth and characterization to Rosalina). In general however, I don't play Mario games for their story, so shortcomings in that regard aren't really going to drag down the rest of the experience for me. I'm not sure what I'd consider to be my favorite Mario game, but Odyssey is definitely somewhere up there.


Resident Evil (REmake) (Steam) (beat Mountain Climbing as Jill on 2018-11-18) – So, I didn't really intend for this (a game I'd already beaten years prior) to be the last game I'd beat in 2018, but it kinda worked out that way, lol.

Anyways, this game remains a masterpiece. One thing I really love about REmake in particular is how it stays true to the original in a lot of ways, yet it tweaks just enough and adds enough new content that it manages to feel like a new experience all around. There are also certain things about this game's design that feel specifically intended to throw off people familiar with the original game, which is clever and fun to experience. Resident Evil 2 is still my favorite classic Resident Evil, but REmake is a must-play for anyone who enjoys survival horror.

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Neutral:

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Gamecube) (beat Hard difficulty on 2018-01-30) – I still enjoy this game, but I think its flaws are more readily apparent to me today than they were when I first played this in 2009. It's still a good game, but certain things about it really irritate me, like the poorly-implemented dodge mechanic. Whoever thought it was a good idea to map dodging to the same shoulder button you use to aim your gun, really failed tremendously. Ugh. Still though, it's nice to actually be able to explore a good chunk of Raccoon City itself, after RE2 basically showed you five minutes of it before locking you to the Police Station and onward for the remainder of the experience.


Crysis Warhead (Steam) (beat Normal on 2018-06-14) – Much the same as the first Crysis, basically. This is a decent standalone expansion to the first game. I don't think the pacing matches up to that of the original game, and the level design felt somewhat more compact, though ultimately this still offers more freedom in terms of tactics than Crysis 2 does. It's worth playing if you liked the first Crysis and want more, but I wouldn't consider this a must-play.


Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed (Steam) (beat Casual – Tohko's True End on 2018-07-08) – Akiba's Trip is a beat-em-up, in the vein of games like River City Ransom or Yakuza, but with the gimmick of being focused around literally stripping your enemies' clothes off. You see, you're fighting Synthisters, which are basically like vampires, and in order to defeat them, you need to expose as much of their skin to the sun as possible... which means lots of fanservice ensues. It's pretty over-the-top, and it probably won't be to everyone's taste. It's pretty lighthearted and silly in tone however, featuring lots of easter egg references and in-jokes to video games and anime and manga and the like. I wasn't expecting much when I started this up, but it kinda grew on me, admittedly. I don't think it's quite as good as Yakuza or River City Ransom (the combat is definitely much more simplistic, at any rate), and this game's story is not going to be winning any awards, but it's still pretty fun to mess around with, and I'm glad I played it.


Neo Contra (PS2) (got bad ending on 2018-09-02; good ending on 09-08) – Contra is one of my favorite series of all time. I fucking adore it. I've beaten multiple Contra games without dying, if that gives you a sense of how much I love it, haha. Neo Contra however, is pretty different. Unlike most Contra games, which primarily feature side-scrolling run-and-gun stages, Neo Contra is entirely an overhead run-and-gun shooter, in the vein of some of the overhead stages from Super C and Contra III, or like other overhead run-and-gun games such as Shock Troopers or Commando.

Honestly, I'm not as big a fan of this type of run-and-gun; I'd much rather have a game that focuses on sidescrolling. The last game in the series prior to this one, Contra: Shattered Soldier, was 100% focused on sidescrolling action, and it was a blast. It built off of Contra: Hard Corps' focus on boss-fights, and offered a spectacle of over-the-top action and elaborate setpieces. It was also incredibly difficult, enough so to where many players likely never did completely beat it (even if you beat the first several stages, if you didn't get a high-enough rank, you'd be forced to view a bad ending and get locked out of the final stages)... so I doubt it sold particularly well for Konami's liking.

Thinking about it, Neo Contra seemingly tries as hard as possible not to be Shattered Soldier. It's not side-scrolling, it ditches the awesome metal music that Shattered Soldier had, it ditches the relatively serious story that Shattered Soldier had (in favor of an over-the-top Metal Gear parody), it focuses more on fighting minor enemies as opposed to bosses, and it is relatively more forgiving to the player in terms of difficulty (you can get hit twice in a stage, and still potentially get an S-rank if you had a 100% hit rate). I don't know if I'd consider Neo Contra “bad” (I did have some fun overall, despite some annoyances with the confusing camera perspectives and the kind of strange controls), but this is not what I look for when I want to play a Contra game. I'm glad that later entries went back to being side-scrollers again.

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Lows:


BioShock Remastered (Steam) (beat on 2018-01-17) - Overall, I enjoyed this more now than I did when I first played this on the 360, several years back. Having keyboard and mouse helps in terms of aiming, though I still needed to adjust the controls a little to feel truly comfortable with it. I think it's at its best when you're making use of the plasmid powers in conjunction with your guns (particularly stuff like telekinesis), as the gunplay on its own is kind of barebones in comparison.

I'm still not particularly a big fan of this game, though. Story-wise, I just don't care about much of anything here. It fell flat to me the first time I played it, and I still don't find myself any more engaged in it today. I'm not even totally sure how to explain why I feel the way I do. It doesn't help that the subtitle implementation is bad (often showing entire paragraphs on screen, which sometimes fade away before the actor even finishes their lines), or that people often tried to talk to me over the radio while I was engaged in combat, and thus couldn't really pay attention to what they were saying.

Most of all, however, I just get the feeling from BioShock that... people are just talking past me? I'm not sure how to put it, but it feels like the game just won't shut up, yet most of what's being said doesn't really directly connect with what I'm doing in-game. Or... I really don't know how to describe it. I don't have this problem with System Shock or Prey or Dead Space or even BioShock Infinite (all of which are games that have similar presentations/game designs/etc.), but with the first BioShock specifically, I just feel really detached from the story and setting, and it's as if the game continues on without bothering to actively involve me in it at all. It just assumes that I'm ready and willing to join it for the ride.

umm... yeah. I hope that makes some sense?

[ommadawnyawn2]

This is out of what I finished (mini-reviews here: minirevver.weebly.com/gaming-platforms.html
), which skews everything obviously but I don't keep track of the games I really don't care for.

Highs:
Star Fox 64 (N64) - 8.5
G-Darius (PS1) - 8.5
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (PC) - 8
AM2R/Another Metroid 2 Remake (PC) - 8
Aleste 2 (MSX) - 8
Space Manbow (w/ Fixes Hack) (MSX) - 8
Mendel Palace (NES) - 8
Blood Bros. (ARC) - 8
Bomberman '93 (PCE) - 8
Super Bomberman (SNES) - 8
Gran Turismo (PS1) - 8
Super Monkey Ball (GC) - Beginner & Advanced incl. Extra levels - 8
Choujikuu Yousai Macross 2036 (PCE CD) - 7.5
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC) - 7.5
Thunder Force V (US ver.)(PS1 & SAT) - 7.5 PS1
Kirby's Adventure Wii (Wii) - 7.5
Final Fantasy Adventure (GB) - 7.5
Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC) - 7.5
Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition (PC) - 7.5
Vixen 357 (MD) - 7.5
Herzog Zwei (MD) - 7.5
Metal Warriors (SNES) - 7.5
Eggerland Mystery (MSX) - 7.5
Firebird (MSX) - 7.5
Mr. Ghost (MSX) - 7.5
Pirates! Gold (MD) - 7.5
The Magic of Scheherazade (NES) - 7.5
Detana!! Twinbee (ARC) - 7.5
Xexex (ARC) - 7.5
Kingdom Crusade (GB) - Easy only? - 7.5
Gekisha Boy (PCE) - 7.5
Spyro the Dragon (PS1) - 7.5
Devil May Cry (PS2) - 7.5
Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand (GBA) - 7.5
Sid Meier's Pirates!: Live the Life (PC) - 7.5
Psychonauts (PC) - 7.5

Mids:
Ys IV (PCE CD) - 7
TaleSpin (NES) - 7
Caesar III (PC) - 7
Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (PC, 2015 ver.) - 7
Master of Magic (PC) - 7
Splatterhouse 3 (MD) - 7
Penguin Adventure (MSX) - 7
King's Valley (MSX) - 7
The Treasure of Usas (MSX) - 7
Knightmare II: Maze of Galious (MSX) - 7
Shin Maou Golvellius (MSX) - 7
Psycho World (MSX) - 7
Gryzor/Contra (MSX) - 7
Super Cooks (MSX) - 7
Pirates! (NES) - 7
Dungeon Explorer (PCE) - 7
The Secret of Monkey Island CD (PC) - 7
Bomberman/Dynablaster (ARC) - 7
The Simpsons (ARC) - 7
Growl (ARC) - 7
Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru/For the Frog the Bell Tolls (GB) - 7
Virtua Fighter (ARC) - 7
Parappa the Rapper (PS1) - 7
Dragon Force (SAT) - 7
Suikoden II (PS1) - 7
Shenmue (DC) - 7
Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (DC) - 7
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GC) - 7
LocoRoco (PSP, 2006) - 7
Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer/Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Fuurai no Shiren (SNES) - 7
Super Mario 64 (N64) - 6.5
Märchen Maze (ARC) - 6.5
Vampire Killer (MSX) - 6.5
Zanac EX (MSX) - 6.5
Golvellius (MSX) - 6.5
Nemesis 3 (MSX) - 6.5
Undead Line (MSX) - 6.5
Quest for Glory VGA (PC) - 6.5
Crossed Swords (ARC) - 6.5
Battletoads (GB) - 6.5
Pyuu to Fuku! Jogger Byuu to Deru! Megane-Kun/Blow and Pyuu! Jaguar 2, Enter Megane! (GBA) - 6.5

Lows:
Exile (w/ Unworked Designs patch)(PCE CD) - 6
Welcome to Heaven (MSX) - 6
Defender of the Crown (NES) - 6
Defender of the Crown (AMI) - 5

Unfinished:
Exhumed (SAT), Super Adventure Island II (SNES), Romancing Saga 2 (SNES), Medieval II: Total War (PC), Aquaria (PC), Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen (SNES), Hired Guns (AMI), Fire Emblem: Monsho no Nazo (SNES), Exile II (PCE CD)