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Post by dsparil on May 14, 2021 5:18:11 GMT -5
Athena (Arcade/Switch, First Time)
The NES port of Athena is famously awful, but the original still has enough of its own quirks that piling on terrible programming only made a poor game a total mess instead. This isn't to say the original game is devoid of any positive qualities as the RPG aspects are interesting. They are also very frustratingly implemented with armor easily destroyed and it being all too easy to drop down to a weaker weapon so it's a bit of a wash or even a negative. It's an exaggeration to say that I've spent years trying to beat this although it is literally true. It wasn't until I carefully studied the completion video all the arcade games have in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection have that I managed to actually finish this. SNK was definitely working outside their abilities with this one.
Rating: 5
Prehistoric Isle (Arcade/Switch, Replay)
As a lover of dinosaurs, I played this so much when I was younger. I think it holds up okay, but a couple of smalish issues hold it back. This is of course a dinosaur themed horizontal shooter set in the Bermuda Triangle but oddly not related to SNK's own Bermuda Triangle from a few years earlier*. The big feature is your R-Type style weapon pod which can be rotated into eight positions with five different weapons. The main issue is that you have to use a button to rotate the pod and only in one direction. It rotates quickly, but that also makes it a little too easy to overshoot the direction you want. This would have worked a lot better as a twin stick shooter with auto-firing. This predates SNK standardizing their hardware so it wouldn't have been difficult to include that. The more minor issue is that the pod is only partly indestructible, and it can be hard to know what will and won't destroy it. Enemies can come from all directions so its loss can be a big set back.
Rating: 6
* Interestingly enough, the Museum section of the collection says that the ending implies that there is in fact a connection. I don't see it, but I'll trust them on that.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 14, 2021 18:58:41 GMT -5
Minit (Windows; First Time; 1 hour 13 minutes)
I was asking about short games to play on a Discord chat I regularly frequent and somebody mentioned this, which I then discovered I'd bought as part of itch.io's famous Racial Justice Bundle. I'd heard loads of people talking about this one on and off over the last few years, so I thought I'd finally give it a bash.
It's a pretty neat game, with the central gimmick being that you only have one minute to make some amount of progress before you die and respawn at your house. It adds some cool ideas to the exploration and backtracking elements, as you're trying to weigh up whether you can do certain tasks in time, and I really like that you can cut your session short and respawn back at the house to cut down on the backtracking. There's also plenty of optional areas and secrets to find, making the adventure feel more spontaneous and something that is specifically yours rather than a pre-determined series of motions you go through to reach the end.
However, I wish you had a map. I've only started realizing that I'm quite terrible at navigating top-down 2D overworlds without a map because it's abstract enough that I can easily lose my bearings, and this made remembering where to go sometimes rather tough. The game's actually got a small enough map and all the locations are quite memorable in terms of landmarking, so this is more of a 'me' problem than anything, but I would've appreciated the option just so I didn't get too badly lost in either literally or metaphorically when I had to remember I could now use a newly acquired item to reach inaccessible places.
Still, it's quite a good time and there's plenty to find off the beaten path and afterwards, so I'd definitely recommend checking it out on itch.io or one of the half-dozen platforms it's been ported to: devolverdigital.itch.io/minit
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Post by spanky on May 14, 2021 19:56:58 GMT -5
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat (NES, Replay)
With the Indy 500 a couple weeks out I felt like playing this. It's basically a spiritual sequel to Super Off Road and plays very similarly, right down to the boosts and between race upgrades. Differences you ask? Well it's all on roads so there's no mounds or hills, but you do have a gas meter and have to take pit stops occasionally. This actually opens up a bit of interesting pit strategy at times. You can even upgrade your fuel efficiency and pit crews to further add to the strategy. Oh and there's 5 cars per race instead of 4. The game itself is pretty easy as long as you stay ahead of that damned yellow car. It gets pretty tough in later races but fortunately I was able to stay ahead on points.
It's very simple, and pretty short but I've always thought it was a fun game.
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Post by JoeQ on May 16, 2021 16:05:30 GMT -5
Titanfall 2 (PS4) - First playthrough, Time: no idea What do you get when you mix fun, dynamic combat, excellent mobility as the pilot and firepower as the titan with a varied campaign with great levels and ideas? One of the best FPS games of 2010s. The only major flaw I'd say is that a lot of the story beats, enemy designs and weapons just feel very "generic scifi", none of it is really memorable. Still a ton of fun both in sp and mp. I beat the campaign on Master difficulty and unlocked the platinum trophy. "...Becomes The Master" trophy was an absolute bastard to unlock. Rating: 4/5 (More like 4++) Alphabet Challenge: ---D--------M-OP--ST--W--- Number Challenge: 0-23------
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Post by dsparil on May 17, 2021 5:50:35 GMT -5
Bermuda Triangle (Arcade/Switch, First Time)
This is technically a successor to Alpha Mission (which I played but it's a looping game) although they're very different in gameplay. AM is roughly a Xevious clone, but BT gives you a gigantic ship that upgrades as you collect energy which doubles as your health along with Options that can be positioned in a few orientations and act as shields. This also features a rotating joystick Ă la Ikari Warriors for 8 way shooting which is nice because the screen sometimes scrolls backwards. Instead of rotating, each direction is mapped to the right stick so it's probably a little easier than on real hardware.
This sadly just is not all that fun. The concept is that you're traveling backwards in time, but every level might as well be the same aside from the difference in background. Each level has the same mid boss and final boss, and there's no climactic final boss and barely any ending either. The needless hugeness of your sprite also makes It very hard to dodge attacks, and like supposed follow up Prehistoric Isle, it's very hard to tell when an attack will destroy an option. You also can't move into the bottom 10% and top 25% of the screen for some reason.
Rating: 5
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 17, 2021 11:05:16 GMT -5
Time to discuss what's been my longest game by several thousand country miles this year...
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (3DS; First Time; 32 hours 53 minutes) The Ace Attorney series was one of my favourite games during the early 10s; it was the first DS game I properly got into after getting a 3DS and taught me to see how the handheld could do things with genres I previously hadn't known or experienced; it was a series that influenced my interest in writing dialogue and prose for a good few years; and it's a series where I'd played most of the main games. However, I hadn't played much of Spirit of Justice (the sixth main game) aside from an aborted attempt back in 2018. Finally getting round to playing it properly and beating it was one of my more personal goals in doing the Game Finish Challenge, and after quite a few weeks, I've managed to do it.
To be honest, I'm fairly ambivalent towards this one, and have been more or less from the start. That's not because it's a bad game or one full of problems. As far as AA games go, it's a pretty competently made one with a lot of complex mysteries, decent optional conversations and asides, and I got fairly invested into it as things developed (particularly anything to do with the Apollo Justice characters, as I'm deeply fond of that game). It's also a surprisingly ambitious game, both in terms of its gameplay (bringing back the various character-specific mechanics like Psyche-Locks and Perceive while introducing the Seance Insights) and what it's trying to tackle. It's almost admirable fo4r that, though it also results in a game that's much longer and wordier than any of the previous games.
Most of the previous games tended to be around 10-20 hours, but SOJ blows them out of the water in that regard, and it's something that I don't think is a positive. It drags the narrative side down with flashbacks that are frequent enough to annoy or text boxes full to the brim with ellipses, and the game itself is slower thanks to heavy framerate drops during more graphically intense sections and notable loading times for either reloading saves or loading new sections. It seems to be crumbling under the weight of that ambition, and makes for a game that I don't feel I ever want to really revisit.
Looking into the "How Long To Beat" pages for the Great Ace Attorney spin-offs that are being released in the West for the first time in the summer, I see that their average playtime is also around 25-30 hours. Considering I got into the series way back in 2012 and I haven't properly touched one of these games since 2017 or thereabouts, I'm half-wondering if that length is not a problem with SOJ and more that the series isn't for me anymore. Maybe I'd have no problem with playing games of that length had I done so back then, or maybe I'd be fine with it now if I didn't have game length on my mind more than usual - due in some part to this challenge. It's not a bad thing one way or the other; it's just something I'm mulling over at the moment.
Still, I'm happy to have finally played SOJ properly and I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, so there's always that no matter how I feel about the series going forward.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2021 12:09:51 GMT -5
A fair few completions to get up to date, so I will keep these brief - I will fill in missing times later:
Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter (PS2, First Time, 26 Hours) Excellent, thoughtful entry into Capcom's RPG series that stands out as something unique and engaging. It's bleak atmosphere is complemented by it's game mechanics and the two combine to tell a wonderful story. Highly recommended. - 9/10
Lonely Mountains: Downhill (Switch, First Time, 6 Hours) A nice looking downhill cycling game that values it's theme to the point that game design and controls feel on point in reflecting that, though often it comes at the detriment of player experience (less accuracy needed and a less flimsy bicycle would both enhance my enjoyment). The challenges often reach the point of ridiculousness in what is expected from the player. Also hardly the biggest endorsement of actual downhill cycling considering how frequent death is. I found the game to be at it's best when it allows casual play. - 5/10
Monster Hunter: Rise (Switch, First Time, 45 Hours) Monster Hunter has become more arcadelike in this entry with an increased focus on mobility, but also reducing grinding and difficulty significantly and with hunts being quicker than ever. High Rank mode does resemble old style Monster Hunter more, but by that point, having fought all the monsters once, it no longer has the ability to surprise. I would have preferred more difficulty from the offset, and it's a big deal for me, however, Monster Hunter otherwise plays better than ever. 8/10
New Pokemon Snap (Switch, First Time, 60 Hours) This is a game I've waited for for so long and it has absolutely been worth it for me. I've already mentioned I have some issues with the game, however the core concept of influencing behaviours, snapping photos and sharing them with others is simply delightful, and there's a great deal to explore here. Unlike the original game which has a high arcade feel to it, this new game is more chilled. This is a good one for when you have short times to play. 10/10
R-Type (Switch, Replay, 30 mins) I played this from the R-Type Dimensions collection. It's tough not to love R-Type. Not much hasn't been said. 9/10
R-Type Final (PS2, First Time, 2 Hours) Enjoyable level design and nice visual presentation is hampered by sluggish performance. A shame, but a nice enough time nonetheless. 7/10
Super Street Fighter IV 3D (3DS, First Time, 14 Hours) One thing that threw me playing SFIV was the localisation. Considering this is a game about fighters from different cultures why am I listening to a bunch of white American accents? I was actually really disappointed by it. As for the gameplay, in my opinion the 3DS nub is just not up to the task which makes the real fight controlling character movement. Street Fighter is great, but play it any other way than this. 4/10
Timespinner (Switch, First Time, 4 Hours) A heavily Vania leaning Metroidvania but with time travel elements. Gameplay is very much like the IGAvania's as is much of the stage design. What Timespinner does better than those is provide a consistent world aesthetically; even taking into account a time travel mechanism. I was impressed with how the two different times felt like they were of the same place, but over time, and with enemies having evolved also. In balancing play with the two overworlds though interesting traversal is mostly lost. There is a nice time freezing ability though. 7/10
Untitled Goose Game (Switch, First Time, 2 Hours) I was able to play this in co-op which made for a nice coordination game. The gameplay is mostly observational as you are required to perform various mischievous tasks from a checklist before moving on, which is generally interfering with or stealing from an NPC at the opportune moment. UGG's strength is in it's humour and so playing alongside someone else really allows it to shine. Unfortunately the game is very short. 8/10
Wallachia: Reign of Dracula (Switch, First Time, 3 Hours) A very authentic late 80's/early 90's arcade style hack n slash. Visuals, animation, music and sound effects all feel reminiscent, with the gameplay offering just enough modernisation to keep things interesting. The difficulty I found very fair, with learning each stage necessary before you can pass, and mastering them is quite possible. 8/10
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on May 18, 2021 8:46:54 GMT -5
Super Street Fighter IV 3D (3DS, First Time)One thing that threw me playing SFIV was the localisation. Considering this is a game about fighters from different cultures why am I listening to a bunch of white American accents? I was actually really disappointed by it. As for the gameplay, in my opinion the 3DS nub is just not up to the task which makes the real fight controlling character movement. Street Fighter is great, but play it any other way than this. 4/10 This was my launch title back when the 3DS released, and I always found it played pretty well. I hadn't played any other version of SFIV back then (or have since, I believe), and I usually have trouble pulling everything off in fighting games, so I was, and remain, pretty impressed by how well it plays. Being able to pull off moves with the touch screen was very handy and negated some of the additional difficulty of pulling things off on the 3DS (and just difficulty in general, since I am, again, not good at pulling stuff off in fighting games). Especially since the 3DS isn't that great for 6 button fighting game controls. Maybe if you're more of a hard-core SFIV fan and you can pull off a lot of more advanced techniques that go beying merely being able to perform the moves it would be different. But that's not me.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2021 9:07:29 GMT -5
Super Street Fighter IV 3D (3DS, First Time)One thing that threw me playing SFIV was the localisation. Considering this is a game about fighters from different cultures why am I listening to a bunch of white American accents? I was actually really disappointed by it. As for the gameplay, in my opinion the 3DS nub is just not up to the task which makes the real fight controlling character movement. Street Fighter is great, but play it any other way than this. 4/10 This was my launch title back when the 3DS released, and I always found it played pretty well. I hadn't played any other version of SFIV back then (or have since, I believe), and I usually have trouble pulling everything off in fighting games, so I was, and remain, pretty impressed by how well it plays. Being able to pull off moves with the touch screen was very handy and negated some of the additional difficulty of pulling things off on the 3DS (and just difficulty in general, since I am, again, not good at pulling stuff off in fighting games). Especially since the 3DS isn't that great for 6 button fighting game controls. Maybe if you're more of a hard-core SFIV fan and you can pull off a lot of more advanced techniques that go beying merely being able to perform the moves it would be different. But that's not me. I wouldn't call myself 'hardcore' at all, and generally I'm not good at fighting games. Pulling off the moves though was generally not a problem. Every conversion will vary mostly based on the controller. On the least suited of other conversions I'd still find I could pull off specials 80% of the time; on 3DS is was more like 30%. The touch screen is beneficial in that it negates the need to input the motion, however the moves it allows you to perform are limited. Also, I found moving between the two doesn't have the same fluidity as sticking to the standard buttons and I would have a few frames where I was therefore left vulnerable. I found it to be more of a necessary solution to a problem that didn't exist elsewhere than anything, and an imperfect one at that. I had actually not played SFIV before, hence my surprise at the localisation, and found that without having perfect control over movement I wasn't able to learn new characters. I actually had to drop the difficulty right down to very easy to beat the game. I'll also mention that my difficulty wasn't limited to performing special moves and supers, but also blocking effectively, jumping in the right direction, grabbing and dashing, which I found the 3DS nub ineffective for. Generally speaking it is not well built for speed. Heck, my circle covering broke off the last fighting game I played on it.
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Post by spanky on May 18, 2021 10:44:30 GMT -5
Mega Man 9 (PS4 Via Legacy Collection, Replay)
Yeah I skipped MM&B. Let it be known that I love Mega Man 9. At the time the "retreaux" trend was still really new and I remember being so stoked for this.* They really pulled it off. Just brilliant design that strips away so much but still manages to feel fresh and original.
The aesthetic is way more than a gimmick, Mega Man just works better with 8-bit graphics - I can't really explain it. Everything feels so much more tight and smooth than the past few games in the series.
I also think it has absolutely one of the best soundtracks - Tornado Man, Jewel Man, Splash Woman, We Are The Robots are all bangers.
It is pretty tough but the only thing approaching "8-bit bullshit" are those helicopter robots that drag you into spikes. Everything else I think is very fair - and if you're having that much trouble you can stock up on items in the shop. I think the Hero and Superhero modes are actually very well done too.
This game is generally well liked but I do see people occasionally saying they don't like the game that much. An opinion I find baffling - I think it's as good as the best games in the series - II, III, X1...
Rankings:
II IX III VI V I VIII IV VII
*Having nostalgia for late 2000's makes me feel ancient.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on May 18, 2021 12:46:14 GMT -5
excelsior Now I'm really curious to play it again. Last time I booted it up was years ago, probably still on my original 3DS. I've always found the circle pad to be pretty much as good as a control stick. In fact, it probably works better for me than a lot of control sticks for fighting games. Hell, I remember playing BlazBlue just fine with the 3DS D-pad. Now I'm kind of curious about revisiting that one too. Guess I'll pull them both off the shelves this week. Big mistake.
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2021 13:02:54 GMT -5
excelsior Now I'm really curious to play it again. Last time I booted it up was years ago, probably still on my original 3DS. I've always found the circle pad to be pretty much as good as a control stick. In fact, it probably works better for me than a lot of control sticks for fighting games. Hell, I remember playing BlazBlue just fine with the 3DS D-pad. Now I'm kind of curious about revisiting that one too. Guess I'll pull them both off the shelves this week. Interesting. Certainly everyone is different and will experience different control difficulties. I assumed you'd need some kind of mutant hands to play with the 3DS d-pad with any comfort though. For me I get really bad hand cramps trying to use it. I assume if it fits your hands the d-pad would do a good enough job. I guess I'm not a huge fan of the 3DS hardware overall. Nice software though.
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Post by dsparil on May 19, 2021 7:07:58 GMT -5
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir (Switch, First Time) Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind
It’s interesting that Nintendo decided to bring back this pair of adventure games written by a possibly pre-Metroid* Yoshio Sakamoto. They haven’t really “modernized” either except to add in animations which goes to show why this style of quasi-adventure eventually turned into the modern visual novel. Most of the interactivity is fake, and you’re really just trying to find the magical order of actions that let you continue. The Missing Heir at least has a decent plot with a nice ending, but The Girl Who Stands Behind has a worse plot and more frustrating progression so it’s an easy skip to be honest.
Rating: 7, 5
* This timeline doesn’t actually make a lot of sense to me since Metroid was ’86 and these were ’88 and ’89.
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Post by dsparil on May 20, 2021 5:51:39 GMT -5
Chopper I (Arcade/Switch, First Time)
A little funny SNK stuck a I in the title of this game since there was never a sequel. The Japanese name is the less reckless The Legend of Air Cavalry. This is a fairly simple vertical shooter with a helicopter of course. Your hitbox thankfully does not include the tail of the helicopter so it's actually fairly small. Main problem is that it's overly long with a whole lot of repetition. There's only a handful of bosses, enemies and level themes so you've seem almost everything the game has to offer after a few stages.
Rating: 5
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 20, 2021 8:34:32 GMT -5
The Flower Collectors (Switch; First Time; 2 hours 49 minutes) This is a first-person adventure game by Austrian developer Mi'pu'mi Games, where you play as a retired police officer named Jorge who sits in his apartment, bound to his wheelchair, and observes the various people outside. It takes a turn for the mysterious when a man is found dead in the plaza and a girl called Melinda barges into his apartment, asking for help to figure out what happened. The gameplay largely consists of watching people, taking notes, and guiding Melinda to places where she can talk to people or find more clues. It's fairly simple, but it was quite a compelling game. The fact that it's rooted in real-life history is what makes it especially interesting, being set in late 70s Spain following the death of Francisco Franco. As the characters try to fight back against the fascist forces ruling the country for nearly 40 years, and observing how those forces affects the people around Jorge, there's a lot to mull over. My only complaint is that you can only save in between chapters, some of which go on for around half an hour. Considering it's on the Switch and can be played on the go, having to wait until you finish the chapter can get pretty annoying. Otherwise, it's a cool little game worth checking out (though maybe not for its $20 asking price).
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (PlayStation; First Time; 1 hour 7 minutes) I'd always wanted to check out this one, since I really liked the look of its visuals whenever it popped up in YouTube videos, and finally went through with it since it's on the PlayStation Classic. I've only played this and the DS version of RR64, but I'm liking what I've played. The drifting does throw me off enormously with how... automated(?) it feels, in the sense that you're suddenly being placed onto an invisible track where you're swerving around madly. I prefer to have the drift be more useful like in OutRun 2, so I try to not get into drifting if possible. Otherwise, it's really solid racing that's backed up by levels filled with gorgeous colour schemes and a glorious soundtrack. I played through the Grand Prix mode, and while it's something I'm never going to do, I like how there's loads of different dialogue exchanges and car unlocks depending on whichever position you come in. Makes for a lot of replay value if you're really into the game, and the stylish presentation of the cutscenes is very cool. Maybe I'll pop back in every now and again to try a different car or team to converse with, but I'm happy to leave it at that for the time being. EDIT: I ended up replaying something to pass the time, so I'm adding that here. Hexic HD (Xbox 360; Replay; 51 minutes)
Replayed the Survival mode, which goes on for 50 stages. I've always dug this mode for allowing me to do some puzzle solving at a more casual pace compared to its more frantic contemporaries (and even the Marathon and Timed modes in Hexic!), as it makes for something I can do while thinking about stuff or listening to a podcast. Just a simple and swell game all round, really.
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