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Post by ZenithianHero on Oct 2, 2021 10:53:31 GMT -5
Life is Strange: Before the Storm (PS4, First Time, 11 hours)
This prequel hits hard knowing what we dealt with in the first game. This is told in the perspective of Chloe prior to the original game. I loved getting to know about Chloe some more, her narrative and attitude is refreshing as a lead and I like tagging stuff as collectables. We learn more about her friendship with Rachel, who lives up to the hype from the little pieces we known from the first game. We also learn about Chloe's grief and in the bonus episode, we get to see more young Chloe and Max and how much friendship is important to the troubled girl. The writing is quite top notch, it handles the on-the-spot drama and dialogue flow well. The first game had the better mystery and subplots overall. Chloe's gimmick is the talkback feature. It allows her to insult, pressure, manipulate and interrogate people. Quite opposite compared to Max's time rewind which is a deceptively clever way to wring out information out of people, but fitting to Chloe's character. No time travel/rewind means sticking with your choices and the progression may be a bit more streamlined. It bugs me to learn what the other choices was but then again playing a "choose your own adventure" you have to not be so indecisive in the first place. I'm simply more spoiled by the rewind feature.
Anyway, a good way to finish off the saga that is Max and Chloe. One of my favorite game stories in recent years. I will be playing 2 for next year.
8/10
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Oct 3, 2021 7:27:28 GMT -5
Thank you for all the continued hard work you put into this thread dsparil. I think at this point I may have to consider the possibility I might not catch up with yourself or Apollo in this years rankings. For what it's worth, a lot of the games I've played have been very short PICO-8 or homebrew games, and there's at least 15 mods for Sonic Robo Blast 2 on there. If it's any consolation, you've certainly gotten me beat in terms of hours. I guess we just kinda share opposite philosophies at the moment for what games we wanna play - you prefer to play fewer, but longer games and I prefer playing more games that happen to be shorter. Neither of them are better choices, since the main thing is that we enjoy and love whatever games we do play. On that subject... Gunple: Gunman's Proof (SNES; First Time; 3 hours 37 minutes)
Now that I've exhausted all the major level packs I can find for SRB2 (see what I mean, excelsior? XD), I decided to try and find SNES games to play on my PC when I want to chill out. There's tons and tons of games I could check out, to the point where it overwhelmed me, so I asked some friends what I should go for and I inexplicably got a couple of suggestions for cowboy-themed games like Wild Guns and The Great Battle V. For fun, I grabbed as many western-inspired games as I could find and see how it fared - granted, that only amounts to five games, but let's do it anyway. Gunple: Gunman's Proof is a Japan-only mix of an action-RPG (overworld, dungeons, upgrading gear and health) with mechanics of an arcade top-down shooter (strafing button, projectile weapons, temporary pick-ups, a lives system) wrapped into a charming, goofy adventure about a young buy fighting off weird aliens and monsters that have invaded his home island. People have compared this to Zelda, but I don't really see it beyond it resembling most action-RPGs of the day that took their basic cue from Zelda in terms of perspective and structure. Puzzles are non-existant apart from navigating dungeon layouts, and while you learn some abilities in the overworld to get around, they don't have any use when you're inside dungeons. I don't really mind that, though, since it means that Gunple has a pretty straightforward vibe that I quite enjoy. You head into a dungeon, shoot some guys, find treasure to give you more points, and have a generally good time. Dungeon layouts are at least varied, with the Ghost Town being a particular highlight in how you repeatedly head in and out of different houses in the overworld to find new parts of the dungeon below. This is aided by some very nice music to listen to, making for another SNES soundtrack that I don't think would work on other systems with its lovely strings and woodwinds, some Earthbound-as-heck trumpets, pleasant guitar and bass plucks backing up some pretty great tunes.
There are some things I'm not keen on; the game doesn't explain how you save so you could go through an entire playthrough without doing so (HINT: go to the top right bed in your house at the top of the village), and fighting bosses gets a bit too button-mashy as you're constantly shooting at them. But otherwise, it's a brief but very solid game I'd definitely recommend if this sounds like it might be up your alley. There's an English fan translation courtesy of Aeon Genesis, so just do the usual thing of patching it to a ROM or find a pre-patched version if you wanna be cheeky: www.romhacking.net/translations/622/
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2021 14:15:35 GMT -5
Oh, I definitely see what you mean. And I'll be honest there's been more than one time reading your posts in here where I wondered to myself 'how many of these Sonic Robo Blast mods are there'. Glad to have an answer.
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Post by personman on Oct 4, 2021 13:47:33 GMT -5
Thank you for your work on this dsparil! Though if I can be a pain I did notice that Nanostray 2 was missing from my tally (or atleast from the games by user records).
Wario Land 4 (GBA, emulated on 3DS; replay; 22 hours)
This was one of my first GBA games way back in the day and back then I was ultimately disappointed with it. It was really easy, level design seemed kinda meh and I really didn't see the point of going through so much extra effort to get the secrets since it just meant more money to play lame mini games to make easy bosses even easier. It was however charming as hell with great graphics and sound so I still liked it, just didn't stick with it long. It was the first game I played in the series though so imagine my surprise when I ended up finding the previous games a good deal better. Despite that I'm still going through a handheld gaming renaissance right now so I needed to give the game a second fair shake for nostalgia's sake and otherwise. When I booted it up this time though I forgot that there is a hard mode you can go with and I figured why not? Well, I ended up getting surprised by this game yet again.
Turns out hard mode means a little more enemies, you start each stage with less than half health and most importantly all the gems pieces you need to find to progress are actually freaking hidden now giving bonafide purpose to to all those secret rooms and paths I couldn't be bothered with before. This made a WORLD of difference. Before hand many of the gems were just sitting out in the open with maybe one of them being off the beaten path. Now the secret paths have them where before all you'd get out of it is money so the level design comes closer to 3 now which is only a good thing. Still though, its big brother did it better, I recall 3 had some sort of tell for breakable walls and the like many of them were really subtle but they were there. Here there was a good amount of times I just had to keep attacking every wall because there was at least one key item hidden behind a something I could break down with no indication it was possible. I also just preferred the more puzzle like direction 3 took where here it skews more towards a typical platformer from the stages to the bosses which were smartly designed but just so very typical.
I ended up liking this one much more than I thought I would and its sound and graphics still hold up I say, people go on about how bad the GBA's audio was but clearly some folks figured out how to make that thing work. This is also a notable game for the character himself since it was here he was established with this, I guess you can say 'texture' that he's carried from here on out. It's no wonder I liked him back then since as I recall the prime form of humor was off beat 'lolo random' sort and there's a lot of that here. Of course I think Wario was always supposed to be a more humorous character but until now I don't think it was completely embraced. Then there is the famous sound room where you can listen to what sounds like an audio engineer's art project with weird little soundscapes, some kind of unsettling even. Hell you could even say the Microgames series got their start here with the minigames you earn coins which can be traded for assistance with the bosses. Sure, minigames have been a thing with the series since 2 but the style they are in smacks of the micro game's so I guess I can blame this game for that mess getting off the ground lol.
Rating: 8 , I ended up liking this far better than I remembered. ONLY because I switched it to hard mode which really should have just been normal mode. But 3 was still a step above.
Iridion 3D (GBA, emulated on 3DS; first time; 1 hour)
So these days I understand gamers just kinda have a thing for being really critical. like its a therapeutic release to vent frustration or even worse a badge of honor demonstrating how discerning and cultured they are or whatever. Hell, I did the same damn thing when I was younger and it drove me insane after a while because I was so tired of feeling like I had to be so unhappy with every little blemish a game had. So these days I tend to get rather skeptical when I hear someone slam a title and when the GBA first released I recall everyone absolutely hated this game and tore it apart in typical nerd rage fashion. I avoided it like the plague back then but now I wanna see for myself to see if its that bad. Plus I've played the rest of the series so I feel like I need to give this just one play through for completions sake.
And okay. This time, yeah they weren't wrong this one is really bad. To briefly detail the hit boxes are humongous and its borderline impossible to avoid anything, enemies have way too much health, in typical eurojank fashion; weapons all pretty much do the same thing and still pretty weak even on the third level and the play field expands making the scrolling all wonky and picking up power ups a chore. What gets me is you had the shoulder buttons guys, you could have let us switch weapons or given us a shield you have to time to deflect enemy fire or something. Its really awful how picking up a different weapon brings you down to the first level too. Even with all that the levels themselves really don't have much going on in them. It is a launch title for the GBA but still.
Best I can say is some of the prerendered backgrounds do look half way nice in some of the stages and once again the composer figured out how to make the GBA sing. I'm not sure if this is a case of they had to spend all their time figuring out how get the graphics running at the expense of the gameplay or what because presentation is really the only merit this one has to it's name.
Rating: 2, this one earned its poor reputation. Just about all the decisions for the gameplay just seem like someone didn't know what they were doing. BUT I feel I want to say they either had extenuating circumstances or something because as they had proven moving forward Shin'en can do great work and this may have just been a fluke of some sort. I'm happy I played it though since it makes me respect the sequel even more.
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Post by dsparil on Oct 4, 2021 13:58:11 GMT -5
Thank you for your work on this dsparil! Though if I can be a pain I did notice that Nanostray 2 was missing from my tally (or atleast from the games by user records). I post that list specifically for error checking. I actually did record that one, but I accidentally left off the 2 so it didn't get imported. I've updated the main listings. I bring this up every time music on the GBA comes up, but it doesn't have any specialized hardware for producing high quality music. It all has to be handled by the CPU which gives developers more flexibility than the hardware-based sample system the SNES used, but that ends up taking up cycles that could have gone into graphics. Developers could also use the GBC processor to generate music which is where I think the bad audio reputation comes from. A good example is the Castlevania trilogy on GBA. Circle of the Moon goes full tilt towards complex arrangement at the expense of graphical effects while Harmony of Dissonance goes completely the other way and uses the GBC for nearly all the music. Aria of Sorrow hits the right balance.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2021 15:04:31 GMT -5
Wario Land 4 (GBA, emulated on 3DS; replay; 22 hours) Hell you could even say the Microgames series got their start here with the minigames you earn coins which can be traded for assistance with the bosses. Sure, minigames have been a thing with the series since 2 but the style they are in smacks of the micro game's so I guess I can blame this game for that mess getting off the ground lol. Microgames started off in Mario Artist Polygon Studio for the 64DD as a mode called Sound Bomber. I don't think it's very well known. I've put a video below. As far as Iridion 3D valuing graphics at the expense of gameplay it's kind of Shin'en's shtick; or at the very least prioritising the technical aspect of the game is.
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Post by personman on Oct 5, 2021 4:34:46 GMT -5
Crud, yes I remember now. I believe I listened to someone do a retrospective on the series and they went over that but I already forgot it. Hell I can't even remember who it was... Slopes game room? Ugh I'm senile already.
But that's totally fair really and speaking of Shin'en:
Iridion II (GBA, emulated on 3ds; replay; 2 hours)
Yeah, after I had to go on about how much better the second game was I had to go right to it and try it again to see if it holds up still. Honestly it does, really! It's a tidy little game. But is it as good as I remember? Of course not. It's really on the easy side, the level design has some gimmicks to shake things up but none of it is too exciting, though appreciated; and the bosses only ever really manage to be mildly interesting if they aren't flat out dull. And of course the weapon balance isn't great since the straight forward red weapon is the only one really worth using since the other ones have utility but are so weak that they aren't worth it. Game doesn't look too pretty these days either with the backgrounds looking really crunchy. I guess they weren't meant to be put on a screen as wide as the 3DS XL so they can only be blamed so much. However I saw there was a port of the first game and this one on Steam and just, what? Just imagine how bad that looks lol.
I suppose I have to remember that this was pretty impressive for the time. The GBA didn't have a wealth of shooters on it and those that were often were pretty lousy. This one wasn't great but it was a diamond in the rough in comparison, hell beyond this game I think the only shmup I thought was worth a damn on the GBA was Gradius Galaxies. I spent a ton of time on this and had a lot of fun trying to get all the secrets in the arcade mode. But that was then, these days its just adequate really. I still like it a bunch besides the nostalgia I just like what it does I guess, its a vert shmup with a kinda isometric perspective which is fairly unique, the power up system is nifty letting you grab a new weapon or heal yourself, the satellites you can use defensively compliment the close quarters. I dunno I just really like it even if I know its nothing special. Besides the music, you can't tell me it doesn't have a nifty soundtrack.
Rating: 6, personally its more a 7 for me but that's my bias talking. It's an okay game that really not worth a look past curiosity these days. I thought this was the best of the series but really I think Nanostray 1 & 2 surpassed it in about all ways. Save for the music.
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Post by windfisch on Oct 5, 2021 18:26:24 GMT -5
(...) its a vert shmup with a kinda isometric perspective which is fairly unique (...) Putting on my snob-glasses for a moment... just a sec ...god, those things are uncomfortable... okay, here we go *ahem* :
This is kinda isometric:
...while this is kinda perspective:
and, for some odd reason, this is Viewpoint:
...
I think I get what you mean, though: Iridion 2 does have a certain Zaxxon feel.
Also: Please don't hate me.
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Post by alexmate on Oct 6, 2021 10:23:02 GMT -5
The Cyber Shinobi (Master System, 1st time, timer: 35 minutes) Not a good game, but nowhere near as bad as is made out.
Rating: 6
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Post by spanky on Oct 6, 2021 13:09:48 GMT -5
Akumajou Densetsu (Famicom via PS4 Castlevania Anniversary Collection, First time playing this version but I've beaten Dracula's Curse before).
Every October I make it a point to play at least a few Castlevania games and this is the one I chose to start out with this year. It's rightfully considered one of the top 8-bit Nintendo games. It's (forgive me for using this term) epic - 4 playable characters, multiple paths and some of the best graphics and music on the system. It's a lot like Super Mario Bros. 3. Back to the original formula after the experimental sequel, but greatly expanded. It's a meaty game, not meant to be in a single sitting, and there's plenty of reasons to justify a replay of it.
The multiple partners is a great idea. Grant with his high, controllable jump takes a little getting used to compared to Belmont's deliberate and strategic movements. Plus you sometimes just kind of fall off the ledges. The knife is very useful in this version though. Sypha's orb magic is borderline game breaking and just rips through bosses. Alucard is situationally useful but I didn't get him this time around.
I've played and beaten Dracula's Curse before but this is the first time I've played the Japanese version. I think most people know about the differences, like the special music chip (sounds different but the NES version sounds fine), less censorship and changes to the damage system (Japanese version is easier overall). The game is still a bear though, especially the last couple of levels. At least this version throws you a bone by placing you right outside Dracula's lair when you die.
It's been a while since I played this one. While it is technically better, I think I prefer both the shorter, more straightforward original game and it's SNES successor. Still an excellent game in almost every aspect.
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Post by Woody Alien on Oct 6, 2021 15:49:42 GMT -5
Super Daryl Deluxe (PC Windows, first time, about 41 hours)
A bizarre comic-book-styled action-platform game with extensive maps and elements of brawler and RPG (the devs describe it as a "RPGvania" but the metroidvania elements are negligible if you ask me), I saw some screenshots of it and I thought it was right up my alley so when I found it discounted on Steam I bought it- it was the right choice.
Daryl is a strange dweeb who never speaks or even emotes but, in his first day at the new high school in this post-apocalyptic world, gets involved in this twisted plot involving time travel, reality distortions and a mysterious self-help manual who gives him powers, that will be useful in surviving alternate dimensions based on mishmashes of high school subjects such as Literature, Art and Music, History, Biology and so on. Really liked the stylized/indie comic-style graphics, tunes, RPG skill system, quest system and of course the gleeful absurdity of it all. It loses steam (no pun intended) near the end, the final phase seems a bit rushed in parts (but that may just be another gag) but there's a lot of things to do, tons of sidequests (that's why I have so many hours in it), character and plot descriptions (maybe a little too much even) and secondary content, so much that I still haven't completed it 100%. The whole game was made by only two people (not counting the soundtrack) and they did an impressive job, but I doubt they'll ever get to make another game since "Super Daryl Deluxe" came and went unnoticed and seems to have sold quite poorly... too bad, because I've seen very few titles like it!
8.5/10
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2021 3:40:38 GMT -5
Super Daryl Deluxe (PC Windows, first time, about 41 hours)
A bizarre comic-book-styled action-platform game with extensive maps and elements of brawler and RPG (the devs describe it as a "RPGvania" but the metroidvania elements are negligible if you ask me), I saw some screenshots of it and I thought it was right up my alley so when I found it discounted on Steam I bought it- it was the right choice.
Daryl is a strange dweeb who never speaks or even emotes but, in his first day at the new high school in this post-apocalyptic world, gets involved in this twisted plot involving time travel, reality distortions and a mysterious self-help manual who gives him powers, that will be useful in surviving alternate dimensions based on mishmashes of high school subjects such as Literature, Art and Music, History, Biology and so on. Really liked the stylized/indie comic-style graphics, tunes, RPG skill system, quest system and of course the gleeful absurdity of it all. It loses steam (no pun intended) near the end, the final phase seems a bit rushed in parts (but that may just be another gag) but there's a lot of things to do, tons of sidequests (that's why I have so many hours in it), character and plot descriptions (maybe a little too much even) and secondary content, so much that I still haven't completed it 100%. The whole game was made by only two people (not counting the soundtrack) and they did an impressive job, but I doubt they'll ever get to make another game since "Super Daryl Deluxe" came and went unnoticed and seems to have sold quite poorly... too bad, because I've seen very few titles like it!
8.5/10
I really don't know how posters like yourself and some others here are able to dig out so many unsung games, but checking this one out and I find the artwork to be really fun. The game is available on consoles so I will pick it up for myself. There was a physical PS4 Limited Run edition too. Since there's likely others who are unaware of the game like myself I will post a trailer:
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Post by dsparil on Oct 7, 2021 7:23:34 GMT -5
I had stayed away from Super Daryl since the reviews were a little iffy, and the eShop screenshots didn't make it look super appealing. Might pick it up next time it's on sale.
Toree 2 (Switch, First Time)
A few months after the first game comes this sequel which is just more levels. So more fifth gen. graphics and short levels with mostly obviously placed stars to collect. I still prefer the developer's Macbat 64 and it's focus on exploration than the speed running of this now series. Worth the $1 though.
I finished in about an hour.
Rating: 7
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Post by spanky on Oct 8, 2021 7:28:50 GMT -5
Bonkers (SNES, First Time)
Had about an hour to kill after work yesterday and wanted to play something short and low commitment, not necessarily good or enjoyable. So after going through a list of ROMS on my Super NT, I chose Virtual Bart, a game I liked quite a bit as s kid. But I had forgotten how lousy the control for this game was. A few minutes of slipping off ledges in the pig factory stage and I realized I didn't have the patience for it.
So I scrolled through my list again and chose Bonkers. This is one of the last of the much celebrated Capcom Disney games. There was another Mickey game released in Japan and that Tetris game for the N64 but Bonkers is the last of the classic Capcom Disney platformers released in the west (I think, anyway!). As a result, this has a bit of an "end of an era" feel to it. It's a very low key game - no one ever talks about it and I think part of the reason is that not many people watched the show. I sure didn't. It also came out late in the SNES's life and in the shadow of some much higher profile games.
That being said, it's not bad at all! It's a standard hop n' bop. You can jump on enemies. You can also do a dash and throw bombs. Both the dash and the bombs have a bit of cooldown which is annoying. Like all Capcom Disney games it's pretty easy. It's only 6 levels long and can be beaten in about 30 minutes. It does have it's moments of difficulty towards the end game with some annoying cheap deaths. Fortunately with plenty of extra lives, heart containers and infinite continues, you're not going to be slowed down at all.
The sprite art is very charming and I actually think the game has some great backgrounds. The environments are very detailed like the dirty LA streets with hazy Los Angeles skies or the movie set stage with gimmicky sci-fi and western sections. Developers were really starting to master 16-bit sprite art at this time and even a B-tier title like this looks gorgeous.
Overall it's good but average. Would have made a slightly disappointing purchase back in the day but a good weekend rental.
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Post by Woody Alien on Oct 8, 2021 13:01:09 GMT -5
excelsior basically two things: I have too much free time on my hands and, as I wrote on my Steam profile, I enjoy going around browsing all those strange, weird, unknown and/or charming 2D games that may be of interest to me. I don't really have an interest in AAA gaming, but I'm not elitist or a hipster, I'm just cheap and living like we're still in the era of SNES and Genesis
spanky Bonkers was never one of Disney's most celebrated or interesting characters, I used to like it as a kid but I barely remember anything about it now. There may be the fact that making a series about a toon living in the human world doesn't really work if everyone is drawn and it's not in the Roger Rabbit style (and even then it may not work ever again, given the resounding flop of "Son of Zorn"). I guess it was inevitable that it was going to be turned into the usual generic platformer.
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