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Post by alexmate on Feb 2, 2022 9:14:43 GMT -5
A Short Hike (1st time, timer: 1hr 14, Windows) I didn't do all the sidequests, just the main quest. Very charming and very good game.
Rating: 7
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Post by dsparil on Feb 2, 2022 9:32:40 GMT -5
P-47: The Freedom Fighter (TurboGrafx-16, First Time*) * I already "finished" the Arcade Archives version, but it loops.
Another game in the mid-tier of TG-16 shooters this time in the form of a horizontal take on 1942 or maybe 1941 since it's western front. The graphics are actually fairly close to the arcade game, but the train boss was cut and another duplicated in its place. The arcade game also gives locations for some of the stages which this version drops. The major difference is that this version is easier than the arcade game's default Normal difficulty and maybe even below its Easy mode. That's not necessarily a minus, but it would have been nice to have some kind of options screen. One of the funny things I noticed is that the placement of the plane's gun is actually lower than the hitbox so it's possible to get so low to the ground that you can't hit anything!
I finished in 00:29:15.
Rating: 6
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Post by Woody Alien on Feb 2, 2022 17:50:12 GMT -5
The Darkside Detective (PC/Windows, first time, 7 hrs according to the Steam timer)
A 2017 point-and-click adventure that was also reviewed on our site itself (by JDarkside, funnily enough). An affectionate parody of the paranormal investigation shows a la X-Files, several fantasy/horror films of the 80s/90s and of old-school adventure games, mostly the Lucasfilm ones. Played the version that adds the 3 DLC cases to the 6 baes ones, since the sequel has recently been released.
Several people complain that the game is too easy and linear, and in fact it is really fairly easy, I never got stumped once, object combinations are fairly predictable and when they're not there are heavy hints, also the various little puzzles are just brief intermissions. But I don't see it as a problem! You see, despite being Italian and having played Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders as one of my first games as a kid, I never was too fond of adventure games: I always found them too obtuse and with underlying logic that made little sense. But this game is all about the atmosphere, the weird comedy and silly rapid-fire dialogues between Detective McQueen and his dumb sidekick Dooley, the references and the great 80s-inspired soundtrack, it's more like a series of bite-sized games you play to spend some time every now and then. The graphic style made up of giant-sized pixels is also les annoying than it could seem at the beginning.
Some people hate this kind of humor and would rather have a more difficult/substantial game, but I'm cool with it. In any case it seems that the sequel drops some of the referential humor and is tighter in building a world and not just stringing together a bunch of homages to pop culture. So let's see how it goes. 7/10
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Feb 3, 2022 9:04:56 GMT -5
Speed Racer (DS; First Time; 6 hours 24 minutes)
Man, it's been twelve days since I last posted on here. That's the longest gap between game completions in quite some time, though that's likely because I was bouncing back and forth on a handful of games. I decided I might as well commit to beating something, and I went with this pretty sweet racer based on the Wachowskis' 2008 film based on the coolest 60s anime. (No joke, the OG Speed Racer may be a bit inept in execution, but it's got ambition for days and it's a cracking watch.) I remember playing this briefly yonks ago at a classmate's house, thinking it was quite cool but never having the chance to pick it up. That was the case until last Christmas, where I saw it in the local CeX and picked it up along with a couple of other obscure games that I hope to beat/write about.
I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed Speed Racer, flying around big rollercoaster tracks while making tight turns, flipping tricks in the air, and knocking other drivers with a well-timed spin. I suppose it's easy enough, until you get to the final batch of cups and really have to get good in order to win, but it just gelled for me. It's one of those games that I was always pumped to play, even if some tracks last a little bit too long and the overall package is a little anemic. Seriously, I won the final tournament, and the game didn't offer anything - not even a special congrats screen or some credits. I do think this game should've been in development a bit longer, so they could've sorted that out and maybe added a couple more tracks. But man, I'm so chuffed to have finally played this and found that it's as awesome as I thought it might've been all the way back then.
Letters covered: #AB-D-F------------S-----Y-
No new letters, as I beat an 'S' game previously.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 3, 2022 15:54:46 GMT -5
Blazing Lazers (TurboGrafx-16, Replay)
Technically I played Gunhed just to see if the title screen really is the only difference. I certainly did not notice anything else. I also found that getting to the hidden difficulty settings is possible in an emulator and should be in any version of the game. For some reason the process didn't work for me when I played it in late December, but it did this time. Anyway, the instructions are given as setting I and II to turbo high and holding down I, II and Select until you get brought to a secret menu with Normal Dog and Hard Human as the difficulties, and doing the same with turbo low allows for Super Mania and God of Game difficulties. What I found was using my emulator built-in turbo did eventually go to the Normal/Hard set; mashing I and II while holding Select also works. On this menu, holding down Select will cycle between the two difficulties. Additionally holding down I and II will cycled in Super Mania and God of Game. From there, press Run and Select at the same to soft reset and start the game at you selected difficulty.
It's been exactly five weeks since I initially played Blazing Lazers so my opinion is basically the same. It's kinda fun but also too easy for most of it. On a replay, it did feel boring though. Changing the difficulty sadly is not a panacea. The problem is that upping the difficulty only seems to increase the fire rate of turrets. Bosses might have more health, but it's not huge. Turrets are significantly more dangerous especially on God of Game where they're basically machine guns compared to their languid default speed, but nothing else was modified. It ends up being a very lumpy experience because of that. Considering Gunhed was timed with a movie, I suspect that Compile didn't have enough time to create proper difficulties so they hid some tweaks.
I finished in 01:00:05.
Rating: 7
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Post by Null0x00 on Feb 4, 2022 22:58:05 GMT -5
Cleared Xmas Shooting - Scramble!! for Windows in 1.5hrs on medium difficulty in the 1CC Arcade mode. Repeat playthrough. Still a solid 7/10 shmup.
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Post by JoeQ on Feb 5, 2022 6:17:38 GMT -5
Metroid (NES via GBA) - First playthrough, Time: 5-10h, Rating: 3/5 The port I played was the unlockackle bonus in Metroid Zero Mission, which lets you save your passwords but to my knowledge is otherwise identical to the NES original. After bouncing off the original Metroid multiple times over the years I finally gave it a proper chance and beat it. Surprisingly I found myself enjoying it... for a while at least. It's definitely rough to go back to now, with the tedious health grinding, samey corridors with hidden paths and no map to guide you. But it was also interesting to see the origins of the series and how open and freeform it was compared to the later entries. I got about halfway through the game trying to figure things out on my own before getting stuck and consulting a guide. Glad I did, never would have found some of those hidden paths on my own. Alphabet Challenge: ----EFG-----M----RS------- Number Challenge: ----4-----
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Post by Snake on Feb 5, 2022 13:04:22 GMT -5
Valis IV, PC-Engine CD-ROM (1st Time, approx 2 hours 15 min)
Better than its Super Valis IV, SNES counterpart. Cut-scenes, voice, playable characters that includes the father of the final boss. It's an amalgamation rehash of the previous Valis games before it - twins, a conqueror, tragedy, powering up, etc. Overall, a more complete experience. But also feels like the most difficult game of the series. Got pretty stuck on the last boss, I had to resort to a youtube playthrough for some semblance of strategy. I prefer the way Lena plays in this version as well, even with less skills, I like how the special-attack/magic system is set up.
A product of its time, but not necessarily timeless.
7/10.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 5, 2022 15:00:10 GMT -5
Sidearms (TurboGrafx-16, First Time)
A follow up to Section Z e.g. horizontally scrolling with separate buttons to fire left and right. The arcade game's big feature is a two player merge power up which adds a constant 8-way attack until you get hit and presumably split again. This feature was retained in this one player only port with the second player presumably coming in from offscreen and then leaving after getting hit. This game is fine, but it's also isn't super interesting either. The constant boss reuse doesn't help either.
I finished in 00:36:55.
Rating: 6
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Post by Woody Alien on Feb 5, 2022 15:01:36 GMT -5
Gunmetal Arcadia Zero (PC Windows, first time, about 2 hrs)
From the same guy who gave us You Have To Win The Game and Super Win The Game. The "Zero" in the title refers to the fact that this is the prequel to a roguelite game with permadeath and multiple characters; since I'm starting to get tired of these, I bought this one that is a normal action platformer during the Steam sales. I had it in my wishlist for a long time, given that I liked the guy's previous titles. It's a near-perfect reproduction of NES games, for better or worse. Nice graphics homaging Zelda II and Faxanadu, cool chiptunes, but also shallow and repetitive gameplay, uninteresting clichéd characters and plot, and the New Game+ doesn't seem to change much if anything. As in the author's other games there are elements that seem important but are ultimately pointless: you can join one of the two guilds/factions, and the bad blood between the two seems part of the plot, but the changes are mostly irrelevant so why even bother? I get that this is supposed to be fleshed out in the main game, but as a game on its own it feels really forgettable, with nothing that can hold your interest for long. 6/10
Here's a pic that shows the saved games with New Game+ to show that I completed it:
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Post by Woody Alien on Feb 6, 2022 6:10:30 GMT -5
While I'm here I also wanted to ask dsparil how does he make the calculations for the rankings. I mean the estimated time of completion vs. the times reported by the player. Are the times taken from some database like "How long to beat" or are there other sources? I'm curious about the various calculations.
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Post by spanky on Feb 6, 2022 6:48:59 GMT -5
Mad City (Famicom, first time)
I was looking for something relatively short to play last night while my wife watched a Netflix show I'm really not interested in. The Adventures of Bayou Billy caught my eye since I've been playing lots of Konami stuff lately - but I realized what a punishing nightmare that game is. I don't think I've ever beaten the first level. The game is so challenging that even the Captain N episode references how tough it is. I've heard the Japanese version, Mad City is much easier so I loaded that up.
And wow, yes it is much easier. I beat the game with very little difficulty. Enemies go down much faster, and you can just skip over the annoying alligators whereas you have to fight them in the US version. Once you get the whip, the game becomes belt scrolling Castlevania and is a cakewalk at that point.
Mad City and it's counterpart are ostensibly a beat-em-ups but throws in some driving and shooting stages to mix things up. Like a lot of games of this era that try to combine different genres, it doesn't really excel in any of them. The controls in the beat-em-up sections are a bit stiff and I noticed a lot of dropped inputs. The shooting stages seem to have random ammo drops which can results in you dying if you run out of shots, and the driving stages are a bit half baked.
Still, it's engaging enough and the variety keeps things interesting. Louisiana swamps and New Orleans are great settings for a game and I feel like it's a theme you don't see too often in games. Not sure why the bad guy's robot bodyguards wait until you kill him to attack you though.
This is a decent game but not one of my favorites. 6/10.
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Post by Digitalnametag on Feb 6, 2022 9:44:14 GMT -5
Pokemon Legends: Arceus Switch FTP 32 hours
Monster Hunter Stories is Capcom's take on Pokemon. Arceus feels like Game Freaks' take on Monster Hunter. You have crafting, a central hub, different zones, and large monsters to hunt (oops capture). The goal is to complete the Pokedex. To fill each entry you have a task list of stuff you can do ranging from feeding it in the wild, to capturing a big one (Alphas), seeing it perform certain moves, and other stuff. While interesting at first this drags later on especially when it is the only thing left to do post game.
The battle system sees some neat changes. The game switches to a more traditional turn based system. Meaning generally you trade off turns after a K.O. and faster Mons will get more moves than slower. Coupled with the new 'agile' and 'strong' styles this makes battles a bit more strategic. This makes it harder for one Pokemon to sweep the other team as the sweeper will have to suffer a hit at some point due to the turn mechanics. It's just a shame there aren't more battles! There are only like 20 something throughout the campaign and only one trainer with a full party. I would like to see a future game using these mechanics.
Kind of a shame battling and raising a team is so secondary in this one because all the new mechanics are neat. Bunch of new forms for old Pokemon and no EV's or IV's makes training easier than ever. Without online play or some battle tower/arena you don't have much reason to raise Pokemon post game. The focus is definitely on catching monsters and filling out the Pokedex. That's my biggest complaint. The game is tied to the Diamond/Pearl monsters and right after seeing them in the remaster a few months ago seeing all the repeats is boring. D/P has one of the worst selections anyway. So tired of seeing all the Gen 1 repeats especially. I would love the next game to not feature any earlier gen mons.
Overall a decent outing. Is it great? No. Monster Hunter Stories 2 is the better game. But hopefully Game Freak capitalizes on the work done here and turns it into a full featured Pokemon game. Sword/Shield with DLC is still the premier Switch Pokemon experience.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 6, 2022 13:52:36 GMT -5
While I'm here I also wanted to ask dsparil how does he make the calculations for the rankings. I mean the estimated time of completion vs. the times reported by the player. Are the times taken from some database like "How long to beat" or are there other sources? I'm curious about the various calculations. I've mentioned it before, but the source for the reference times doesn't seem to have made it into the rules so I'll make sure to add it in. The primary source is the HLTB Main Story time. If that isn't available, I go with the average playtime listed on GameFAQs divided by two which is roughly accurate in my experience outside of some edge cases. I use the time listing for the platform specified, and the one with the most submissions if that one doesn't have any. After that is a complete non-speedrun play through on YouTube which I generally only have to use if it's a mod, really obscure or a newish indie game. If nothing turns up still, I just go with whatever the reported time is which has only happened a handful of times. I do keep track of if the time is HLTB or not, and it's been around 90% HLTB. There's two situations where I skip a site. HLTB has a tendency to lump together games that have the same title even if the title is the only similarity making the overall average time nonsense. HLTB does breakdown times by platform, but there usually aren't enough submissions for me to feel confident in the average. GameFAQs / 2 doesn't work that well for arcade games, but those don't tend to vary much in terms of time taken so YouTube does end up working fine to those. Speaking of arcade games, HLTB is fine for ones that didn't received reworked ports.
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Post by dsparil on Feb 7, 2022 9:39:10 GMT -5
Section Z (NES, First Time)
The arcade game is okay, but the NES port is so much better. I've played it on and off over the years, but never put in an effort to finish it. I'd always get stuck in the last area, and then move on to something else instead. Some sections have hidden warps, but they're not necessary for progress except in the last area where they lead to new sections instead of sending you to restoration rooms or to places you can reach without them. The warps aren't conceptually dissimilar from finding bombable walls in Metroid, and having the sections with warps not scroll would make them easier to find. That aside, the move to a maze environment is a good change overall. The arcade game moves in a spiral that changes direction every five sections (right, up, left, down, right) ending of course at Section Z. Adding in an exploration element gives the game some heft that the arcade game lacks.
I finished in 2:35:33.
Rating: 8
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