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Post by dsparil on Dec 30, 2021 8:17:57 GMT -5
Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx-16, First Time)
Kinda fun, mostly easy and the origin of the great laser in Super Aleste. Tyrian also seems to have taken its purple power up orbs from this game. I like the silliness of the middle phase of final boss is a dancing woman throwing missiles at you, but I wish it hadn’t ended on a generic robotic enemy. It’s also strange that the difficulty levels are hidden behind button combos that rely on the TG16 turbo switches. Maybe there’s a way to get them to work in a dedicated TG16 emulator as it didn’t work with my emulator’s standard rapid fire function.
I finished in 00:59:43.
Rating: 8
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Dec 30, 2021 12:19:06 GMT -5
Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx-16, First Time) That name always makes me chuckle whenever I read it. About a year and a bit ago, I briefly listened to RetroforceGO!, a retro gaming podcast run by Destructoid from 2007 to 2009. It was a fairly pleasant series where the people running it talked about retro games, either in general or about those that had came out on XBLA or the Wii Virtual Console (back when the latter actually released stuff fairly regularly). They had this in-joke of referring to Blazing Lazers as "Lazing Blazers", and now I spend myself calling the game that whenever it pops up in my existence. --- And now, onto my last trio of beaten games for the year! Saints Row: The Third - Full Package (Switch; First Time; 10 hours 30 minutes) Although I dearly love Saints Row 2 and IV, I was always hesitant to check out The Third simply because of the bizarre DLC situation. Back when it originally came out in 2011, Saints Row The Third promised something like 40 weeks of DLC, which resulting in lots of costumes, silly weapons and a trio of mission packs. I was always under the impression that the main game might've been insubstantial without those mission packs in particular, so I never gave it a look. Even the original Full Package version that included all the DLC on the Xbox 360 was something I didn't buy, as I was worried I'd need a download code in the box to actually see any of that stuff. Well, I finally got it a week or two ago, and I can say that it's... fine. Turns out those mission packs are just bonus things you can try, but don't heavily impact the game (which is why I haven't touched them yet). As for the main game, the only way I can describe is anemic. It's a pretty good game, with some neat missions and a fair few interactions that got me smiling, but it all feels so threadbare. Characters don't really feel established, rival gangs barely have a presence outside of the missions that involve taking them on directly, and you barely get to know anybody. It's such a stark comparison when going up against 2, where the gangs had loads of room so you knew exactly who everyone was and what the stakes, and against IV where all your friends got the time to shine through the main missions and optional side-quests. I haven't played 2 or 4 in a while, but I remember minor details about them way more fondly than The Third even though I'd been playing that throughout the week. Sonic Robo Blast 2: Speccy's Dungeon Crawler (Windows; First Time; 10 minutes)
An experimental game mode by Speccy that adds levelling up and item mechanics from RPGs. Defeating enemies gives you experience, and giant item boxes give you health potions and stronger equipment. It's a pretty cool way of rejigging the usual SRB2 mechanics, and the labyrinthe level design is basic but to the point. You can even design and add levels if you like. Nice for a quick blast, and I think you could do some cool stuff with this concept if expanded into the normal levels or had a new set of stages (something akin to the quest modes from Tobal or Ergheiz, but less boxy). mb.srb2.org/addons/speccys-dungeon-crawler.3556/ Super Metroid (SNES; First Time; 5 hours 30 minutes - ESTIMATION)
Decided I might as well give this a crack before the year was out. I'd previously tried it once or twice, but got stuck in a couple of tough spots and quit then and there. However, I finally had the nerve - and Let's Drown Outs playing on the side - to push through and make my way to the end. It's quite the good game, and I'm honestly surprised I ended up playing as much of the original Metroid series this year as I did. That was pretty neat.
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I have some thoughts on how I've managed this year, but I'll write them later or tomorrow.
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Post by dsparil on Dec 30, 2021 13:41:39 GMT -5
Blazing Lazers (Turbografx, emulated on 3DS; replay; 2 hours) its checkpoint system seems to glitch out half the time I think I can actually answer this now that I've finished it. When you collect one of the "glowing" balls, this adds a special kind of life that isn't shown that respawns you on the spot. I think Super Aleste and some other Compile games also do this, but you get an indication that you have these kinds of additional lives.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2021 13:57:23 GMT -5
Blazing Lazers (Turbografx, emulated on 3DS; replay; 2 hours) its checkpoint system seems to glitch out half the time I think I can actually answer this now that I've finished it. When you collect one of the "glowing" balls, this adds a special kind of life that isn't shown that respawns you on the spot. I think Super Aleste and some other Compile games also do this, but you get an indication that you have these kinds of additional lives. There's at least one secret that gives you a bunch of these respawning lives at once. They make for a good way of increasing accessibility for those of us who need it. As I recall your remaining lives are highlighted in gold when you have at least one respawn remaining. I think it's a pretty neat feature.
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Post by dsparil on Dec 30, 2021 14:54:32 GMT -5
I think I can actually answer this now that I've finished it. When you collect one of the "glowing" balls, this adds a special kind of life that isn't shown that respawns you on the spot. I think Super Aleste and some other Compile games also do this, but you get an indication that you have these kinds of additional lives. There's at least one secret that gives you a bunch of these respawning lives at once. They make for a good way of increasing accessibility for those of us who need it. As I recall your remaining lives are highlighted in gold when you have at least one respawn remaining. I think it's a pretty neat feature. I double checked and the ship icon turns gold if you have any respawns. Super is the same, but also shows the types of lives with icons if you have less than 5 total. It is a good feature and much more easily gained in Blazing Lazers than in Super Aleste. Edit: And also, aside from the two Xevious: Fardraut games and of course Guardian Legend which I was saving for last, are there any Compile shooters that I'm missing? Whatever came out on Disk Station issues is too far down the rabbit hole for me right now.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2021 16:09:05 GMT -5
dsparil - Devil's Heaven is all that comes to mind, though it's pre-Compile so I guess it's not of interest. Unless you want to get into ports handled by Compile such as R-Type Master System - actually the only one I know of but perhaps there's more.
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Post by personman on Dec 30, 2021 18:12:58 GMT -5
Ah so that is what was going on there. Been long enough I forgot that Super Aleste did that as well (and by your recent review I realize now I played the European rom instead of the Japanese one lol). Heck I didn't know there were that many Aleste games till now. That is a nifty feature. I still say Blazing Lazings was lousy though but maybe that's just me
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Post by Null0x00 on Dec 30, 2021 18:54:16 GMT -5
I'm sorry but games that loop infinitely do not count for this. Fair enough, I was mostly playing just to see what happens after all 8 stages were cleared.
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Post by JoeQ on Dec 31, 2021 5:38:27 GMT -5
Two more games for this year, hoping to squeeze in one more before the days is done. Doom Eternal (PS4) - First playthrough, Time: a lot, Rating: 4/5 Doom Eternal: Ancient Gods 1&2 (PS4) - First playthrough, Time: not quite as much, Rating: 3/5A games was super excited to play, but ended up being incredibly mixed on. I loved the 2016 Doom reboot, but it's one major flaw was that the game got too easy and peaked around the halfway point and never really evolved from there. Eternal fixes that, with redesigned combat loop, more and much nastier enemies and difficulty that keeps challenging you to the very end. It takes some getting used to and actually kinda sucks at the beginning because your abilities are so limited, but when the game finally stops hamstringing you the combat really flows and sings and is miles ahead of any other FPS. It's just too bad that pretty much everything else in the game is worse than in the previous one. Levels are much more linear and exploration is basically nonexistent. The game shoves it's story and lore down your throat and ends up just overexplaining and ruining everything, making everything just more banal. The excellent tone of Doom 2016 is replaced Saturday morning cartoon atmosphere, as cartoon villains taunt you while you travers colorful videogame levels collecting power-ups and Funko Pops for your awesome space mancave. Uuuuhhgggghhh. The DLC duology takes place after the main game and amps up everything about it, for better and worse. The story, which already wasn't great, takes a real nosedive and ends up in a place where it's pretty much irredeemable. Special mention to the last boss, which is the worst one yet when it should be the culmination of the whole series. I beat the maingame and DLCs on Ultra-Violence difficulty, which for the most part was just right but at times dipped into too much. Got all the singpleplayer trophies, working on the multiplayer ones but the mp is quite dead (at least on PS4). ------ Resident Evil: Code Veronica X HD (X360) - First playthrough, Time: a decent chunk, Rating: 3/5 The infamous CVX, often cited as one of the worst in the series. I actually kinda enjoyed it! The boss fights were awful and the game had some real bullshit segments and pacing issues, but for the most part it was a fun oldschool Resident Evil romp. Got all the achievements except the speedrun one, which I'm hoping to beat today. Alphabet Challenge: A--D-FGH---LM-OP-RST--W--- Number Challenge: 0-234---8-
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Post by dsparil on Dec 31, 2021 9:31:09 GMT -5
dsparil - Devil's Heaven is all that comes to mind, though it's pre-Compile so I guess it's not of interest. Unless you want to get into ports handled by Compile such as R-Type Master System - actually the only one I know of but perhaps there's more. I also missed Guardic which is a single screen shooter but doesn't seem to loop based on videos. I found a few listings for other MSX games, but I'm going to consider those lost unless I get really deep into all this. Some of those are Disk Station games too, and they do not seem well preserved on the English speaking internet. I gave R-Type a try, and I'm surprised at how bad a port it is especially since it wasn't Compile's first Master System game. So much slow down and flicker although it is recognizable as R-Type and the music isn't too bad. I did find Devil's Heaven, but either the dump I found was bad or there's some specific settings it needs to work.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Dec 31, 2021 17:37:26 GMT -5
Since New Year's is only an hour and a bit away over here in Ireland, I thought I'd talk about my thoughts on taking part in the Game Finish Challenge this year, as it was my first time doing so.
I initially used to it to get through the collection of games I'd acquired for various systems and emulators over the last few years, since I knew I'd just keep getting games I'd otherwise never play. And to that end, it worked out mostly well - I've certainly gotten through a good few games and gotten rid of just as many for the sake of closure (don't worry, it was pretty much all-digital in terms of what I chucked out). But there's plenty of games I haven't gotten round to, and since I've gotten a few more in the meantime, it can seem like I'm back to where I started. Perhaps, but I don't mind when I've got to play so many cool and interesting games, some of which I never wouldn't given much thought if I didn't have this challenge as reason to give the whole thing a bash.
It also served as way to keep myself feeling grounded, because I was particularly anxiety-ridden this year due to college projects and the stress & uncertainty of my dad receiving three or four surgeries, and having to help him recover while my mom had to work most days. I needed to play games as a way to just exist, give my hands something to do without it being something related to college or creative interests that I was honestly too tired to push through, and this challenge helped enormously with that.
However, I'm also aware that having this challenge on my mind has changed my gaming habits. I played a good deal more than I normally would, and I've even done mad things like beat games such as Intelligent Qube, REZ or Rocket Knight in a single setting. Those were definitely memorable experiences, but something else is that I've become more impatient with games. I can't really stand playing slow-paced efforts that I normally would've given a bit more time such as King's Field or the old Tomb Raiders; my focus has been very arcade-y or fast-paced games, or visual novels. I don't know how to feel about that shift, honestly.
But I do know how I feel about how I've come to treat games in a more disposable manner due to this challenge, and I don't like it. I'd normally give games a bit more time to linger, but now I'm just blitzing through them and just as easily starting up another game the next day or later on that evening. If I do decide to take part in next year's challenge, I want to try and stop treating games like that. Just be more casual with them like I normally would be, but with a little more motivation so I actually finish things I get in less than half a decade.
All in all, it's been a really fascinating and fun time taking part in this challenge, and I'd like to thank dsparil for managing the thread, along with everyone else who's posted on here. Y'all are awesome and I hope you're doing well wherever you are.
(P.S. dsparil Can you fix the listing for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to "First Time"? You've had it marked "Replay".
To bow out of the year, here's a list of my favourite games that I played for each month: JANUARY
-Polyroll -Tanglewood -Stacking
FEBRUARY
-Super Mario 64 DS -The Firemen -Ihatovo Monogatari
MARCH
-Castlevania: Circle of the Moon -Play Novel: Silent Hill -Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!
APRIL
-Crystal Towers 2 XL -Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call -Destrega
MAY
-Armed and Dangerous -Intelligent Qube -The Flower Collectors -R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 -Jumping Flash!
JUNE
-Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure -A Tempting Fate: The Interactive Card Game -Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
JULY
-Last Window: The Secret of Cape West -Bushido Blade -Sonic Robo Blast 2
AUGUST
-Astro Boy: Omega Factor -Aviary Attorney -Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories
SEPTEMBER
-A Short Hike -Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening SE -Speed Dating for Ghosts
OCTOBER
-Gunple: Gunman's Proof -Weapon Shop de Omasse -She Sees Red -Rez HD -Attack of the Friday Monsters
NOVEMBER
-SteamWorld Dig 2 -BoxBoxBoy! -Spider-Man 2 (Replay)
DECEMBER
-Is Lupin Still Flirting? -Arcade Spirits -Pikuniku
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Post by JoeQ on Dec 31, 2021 17:47:26 GMT -5
One more! It's still 2021 somewhere dammit! ZeroRanger - First playthrough, Steam Timer: 17h?! That can't be right..., Rating: 5/5 A fantastic indie shmup dripping in style, excellent tunes, tight gameplay, intriguing story and loving homages to shmup and anime history. Easily one of the best games I played this year. I beat the main game mode (Green Orange) and plan to go back for the extra modes and 1CC playthrough one day. Now, there's one caveat. The game does a rather nasty trick where you only get one shot at the last boss and if you fail it deletes all your progress and boots you back to the beginning. It's a weird kick in the balls in an otherwise friendly game. To be fair, it should only take you about an hour to back to the same point, but after doing that a couple of times I got frustrated and backed up my save file to save time. I shall leave it up to our benevolent overlord dsparil to decide if he accepts my playthrough or not. Alphabet Challenge: A--D-FGH---LM-OP-RST--W--Z Number Challenge: 0-234---8-
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Post by dsparil on Dec 31, 2021 19:47:57 GMT -5
I'm a little split to be honest. It does go against my admonition to "in general, please play the game as intended" which is not a concrete rule in the strictest sense. However, there also isn't a rule against externally backing up and restoring a save. On this technicality, it is allowable.
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Post by dsparil on Jan 1, 2022 5:52:25 GMT -5
Here are the final ranking for 2020!
Total Games: 🥇Apollo Chungus 🥈personman 🥉excelsior
First Plays Only: 🥇Apollo Chungus 🥈excelsior 🥉alexmate
Total Time by Reference Time (generally HLTB) 🥇excelsior 🥈Digitalnametag 🥉Apollo Chungus
Total Time Using Timers, Estimates and References 🥇excelsior 🥈Digitalnametag 🥉ZenithianHero
First Play Time (Ref) 🥇excelsior 🥈Digitalnametag 🥉Apollo Chungus
First Play Time (T/E/R) 🥇excelsior 🥈Digitalnametag 🥉Apollo Chungus
Enjoy these celebratory emoji in all their platform dependent splendor!
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Post by dsparil on Jan 1, 2022 5:52:51 GMT -5
The final rankings:
Total Game Completions:
dsparil - 225 Apollo Chungus - 161 personman - 63 excelsior - 53 spanky - 50 alexmate - 41 JoeQ - 30 Son of Suzy Creamcheese - 30 Woody Alien - 30 ZenithianHero - 30 halftheisland - 29 Digitalnametag - 28 Snake - 11 Null0x00 - 9 lurker - 2 protoman85 - 2 toei - 1
First Time Game Completions:
dsparil - 170 Apollo Chungus - 147 excelsior - 50 alexmate - 39 personman - 35 ZenithianHero - 28 Woody Alien - 27 halftheisland - 26 JoeQ - 26 spanky - 25 Digitalnametag - 22 Son of Suzy Creamcheese - 20 Null0x00 - 7 Snake - 7 lurker - 2 protoman85 - 2 toei - 1
Total Time Spent (Reference Only):
dsparil - 1488h 47m 20s excelsior - 784h 40m Digitalnametag - 633h 47m Apollo Chungus - 616h 48m 20s ZenithianHero - 353h 30m JoeQ - 349h spanky - 249h 32m halftheisland - 240h 51m personman - 225h 24m Son of Suzy Creamcheese - 193h 5m 54s alexmate - 140h 9m Woody Alien - 123h 54m 21s Null0x00 - 67h Snake - 63h 38m lurker - 12h protoman85 - 10h 30m toei - 4h
First Play Time (Reference Only):
dsparil - 1170h 49m 20s excelsior - 760h 10m Digitalnametag - 573h Apollo Chungus - 552h 47m 20s ZenithianHero - 277h 30m JoeQ - 273h 30m halftheisland - 221h 21m spanky - 151h 45m Son of Suzy Creamcheese - 137h 35m 54s personman - 137h 24m alexmate - 136h 9m Woody Alien - 110h 24m 21s Null0x00 - 54h lurker - 12h Snake - 11h 38m protoman85 - 10h 30m toei - 4h
Total Time Spent (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
dsparil - 1285h 1m 46s (703h 43m 26s/287h 30m/293h 48m 20s) excelsior - 878h 21m (256h 51m/602h/19h 30m) Digitalnametag - 673h 10m (12h 10m/661h/0s) ZenithianHero - 448h 30m (20h 30m/428h/0s) Apollo Chungus - 432h 39m (395h 59m/36h 10m/30m) JoeQ - 413h 20m 32s (141h 20m 32s/32h/240h) personman - 410h 49m (1h 20m/357h 50m/51h 39m) halftheisland - 351h 27m (19h 12m/332h 15m/0s) Son of Suzy Creamcheese - 318h 52m 44s (200h 37m 44s/118h 15m/0s) spanky - 249h 32m (0s/0s/249h 32m) Woody Alien - 167h 46m 21s (5h 31m 21s/157h 45m/4h 30m) alexmate - 138h 27m (84h 37m/53h 50m/0s) Null0x00 - 65h 42m (12h 42m/41h/12h) Snake - 41h 2m (4h 17m/36h 45m/0s) lurker - 12h (0s/0s/12h) protoman85 - 10h 30m (0s/0s/10h 30m) toei - 4h (0s/0s/4h)
First Play Time (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
dsparil - 1090h 2m 43s (572h 47m 23s/286h 30m/230h 45m 20s) excelsior - 842h 51m (256h 51m/566h 30m/19h 30m) Digitalnametag - 620h (11h/609h/0s) Apollo Chungus - 403h 27m (368h 47m/34h 10m/30m) ZenithianHero - 349h 30m (20h 30m/329h/0s) halftheisland - 332h 27m (19h 12m/313h 15m/0s) JoeQ - 324h 5m 2s (118h 35m 2s/17h/188h 30m) Son of Suzy Creamcheese - 276h 40m (173h 5m/103h 35m/0s) personman - 258h 43m (40m/215h 10m/42h 53m) Woody Alien - 153h 31m 21s (4h 16m 21s/144h 45m/4h 30m) spanky - 151h 45m (0s/0s/151h 45m) alexmate - 136h 57m (83h 7m/53h 50m/0s) Null0x00 - 57h 42m (12h 42m/33h/12h) lurker - 12h (0s/0s/12h) Snake - 11h 45m (0s/11h 45m/0s) protoman85 - 10h 30m (0s/0s/10h 30m) toei - 4h (0s/0s/4h)
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