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Post by alexmate on May 14, 2024 15:41:16 GMT -5
Aero The Acrobat (SNES, 1st time, timer: 3hr24) Just to be many bad design choices to make this fun which is a real shame.
Rating:6
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Post by personman on May 15, 2024 4:26:39 GMT -5
Got my Wii U set up fixed and sorted my Gamecube library. Was thinking I'd try emulating them on Steam Deck but Excelsior reminded me (though I misunderstood at first lol) Wii U plays the things natively, Nintendon't is just a bridge program rather than an emulator really so I figured it was the best option. Besides I bought the damn thing I should take the first excuse to actually turn it on. Mega Man X Command Mission (GCN, replay, 43 hours) I actually wasn't too surprised when I saw this announced. At the time the Battle Network series was hitting it big already and from what I recall JRPGs were still riding that boom from the late 90s and the things were freaking everywhere so a true Mega Man RPG just seemed inevitable, much as I was worried it was spelling out the end of traditional Mega Man since at the time I got the impression no one was really fond of the Zero games up to that point. However I was interested in this as I was trying to get into RPGs at the time since all my friends were deep into them and figured some familiar ground with the MMX setting would help. Well I got it near release and didn't really care for it, finding it either boring or frustrating. I'm a very different person now though so revisiting it with the entire Mega Man series fresh in my mind and being more seasoned in these sorts of affairs I was able to see this game in a better light now a days and was happy I dusted it off. Not that it's great mind you, just better than I remember. At the time I really wasn't good at RPGs, I mean I loved action platformers and stuff, this series is called Jump and Shoot... Man! I'm still no expert now but I can see why I may have found it frustrating before because the battle system is actually really involved and ends up making you consider way more than it cares to spell out. Sure, you've got a plainly displayed turn order and there's the tried and true elemental trinity thing going on but how to prioritize your force metal set up and who to have on the field and when is really important and neglecting these things will turn the game into a slog. Thankfully these days I understand this stuff a little better and had a real good time with it lol it actually reminded me of both Wild Arms and Paper Mario at the same time, the former with Weapon energy that builds over time and you should expend as much as possible to power abilities and the latter with how lucrative it is to switch characters in and out of the fight at key times. Combine this with some certainly not earth shattering boss and enemy design but things are well thought out enough and I found it truly satisfying to play. Props to them making the entire cast useful too as its been my luck most RPGs I've gone through have a party member or two who is best at being a benchwarmer but here I found great uses for everyone even if their talents weren't at first obvious. Take Marino for instance, she's fragile and doesn't do much damage with an action trigger I can't use to save my life. So what good is she? Well put her in hyper mode now she has like 12 turns in a row so you can safely have her steal items or buff and support everyone else and get you ahead of the curve, she can be as excellent a support unit as Cinnamon. There's a lot of little tricks to discover like that and to me it has plenty of depth to play with. Now mind I haven't played many JRPGs so maybe it would be milquetoast to any veteran but hey, I got into a nasty situation at the game's one optional area where I was stuck fighting a group of enemies that don't show up till the end of the game normally. I think my average level was around 18 and they had to have been in the late 30s. I beat them fair and square using every trick I could think of and sure some of it was certainly luck but still, I can't think of many RPGs that let me do something as daring. Plus I just love using the hyper modes, its like if you ever played Wild Arms 2 where the main character gets to 'become the boss' as I loved to jokingly put it, everyone here can do it and I just love the idea. Don't mind the little mini game thing you do for each character's special either, I thought I'd hate them but nah they didn't really bother me and kept me paying attention, funny enough a much maligned (and rightly so) indie RPG, YIIK pretty much aped this aspect but did it horribly lol. Also I just thought it was really cool and clever how Axl with his shapeshifting ends up serving as your summoner. Has a unique healing system too where as you have a big pool to draw from that anyone can use, but there are no proper healing items and even though it looks like you can't lose since you quickly get so much of it you can run out really damn fast if you don't be conservative with rationing it out. I like it since it just incentivizes you to think of how best to end fights quickly as possible instead of having a healer prop you up all the time. Even Cinnamon who is supposed to fill the healer role won't be able to keep up all the time thanks to the way the system works. However that is about where the praise ends because anything outside of the battle system is either strictly adequate or just flat out bad which hey if you're going to get anything right then yes make sure its the gameplay and they did that here, great but when it comes to RPGs I don't think any of us are just playing for that alone. The dungeon design? Pretty generic as much as it tries to throw in gimmicks that kinda feel like a MMX stage they never impress. The music? I like the battle theme and the opening theme that's about it the rest is perfectly forgettable; though points docked for replacing the common battle theme with this travesty. Then the story is the worst part despite some potential, the script is the driest thing I've seen in a while and sometimes the word choice is awkward enough to make me wince and not even in such a way to be funny. The biggest weakness is the pacing that is in this huge rush all the time which then sometimes causes events to barely feel related to one another, hell when Massimo has his very tiny character arc (like tiny enough to be resolved in 10 minutes) he's asked to join and then the scene just cuts to black like they want to get him off screen soon as possible. Then of course he stops being a character all together after that point and barely gets any lines, much the same for the rest of the cast who aren't the main trio which is kind of a trend I've seen in JRPGs. This is all worsened by the cutscenes that are all weirdly animated and just so obviously lacking a budget. It really cuts a lot of scenes that are supposed to be climatic and poignant short just coming off really sad. The voice direction isn't the worst but isn't great either with people either sounding pretty wooden or just hamming it up so much as to suck any drama right out of the scene, the guy who did Botos for instance just tried way, way too hard. Mark Gatha really wasn't into this one either but at least he got to sneak in one of his wonderful outbursts though lol. Its a bummer but seriously the main line games had some more compelling plots and scripts than this and those were 1 to 2 hour affairs, this seems to last people like 25 to 30 hours and RPG combat always seems to wear out its welcome eventually so if you don't have the garnish to get people invested enough to push through to the end you have a problem. Its artstyle is really hit and miss too like the new character design for X and much of the original cast are pretty cool but then the environments are typically really bland and boring to run through, just feels like the bare minimum. Suppose its to the games benefit it has such a short length and is pretty linear, there is only one optional area like I mentioned and like three secret bosses, four if you count the one that opens up after clearing the game. Has a dumb little mission table thing too where you send out little robot critters to find stuff which boy was that a trend that was recently popular to slap on your game for a while, think people got mad at the 3rd Dragon Age for that? Anyways at the end of the day I don't think its bad in fact I had fun with it just now, but I certainly didn't love it and if I wasn't going through this psychotic series marathon I'm doing now I'm not sure I would have had a great motivation to try it again even if I'm glad I did. It certainly did nail the most important thing and it should be commended for that but it lacks what any RPG needs in my opinion and that's soul. Like all the charming things you expect from RPGs like a town full of dumb people to talk to is practically hidden from you because most of the NPCs you're allied with are nested in the winding halls of what was the second dungeon of the game and you're always being rushed to keep progressing like they knew full well there weren't many roses to smell. It's a bummer cause damn it I want to see more stories in the X setting and see its potential realized and this would have been the perfect place to do it but alas. Could have been time or budget constraints, it may have been Inafune messing things up (I read somewhere he was opposed to the project) it could have been many things. In the least there is a fun game here and it does have some worth to fans for the novelty of the only pure Mega Man RPG and to fans of the genre I can see some of them liking this as a rainy day game due to its brevity. Otherwise its perfectly and utterly average. Rating-5
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Post by spanky on May 15, 2024 11:39:33 GMT -5
Super Mario Land (Game Boy via NSO, Replay)
I'm a sucker for NSO drops. Super Mario Land is something I have not played in a VERY long time but I spent hours playing it as a kid. As many people have noted - it's very weird thanks to being made by R&D 1. And honestly? It really lands for me. You can tell they were trying to mess with what you were expecting from a Mario title (despite the series being so young). Mario games generally stay on brand nowadays so it's refreshing to see one that has you battling kyonshis and Easter Island heads and doing SHMUP stuff and whatnot. It's short and straightforward - I beat it in about 20 minutes without losing a life and that's with the lousy Switch Pro Controller pad so the controls get a pass from me, though Mario is slightly stiff in his movement. The music might be the best part of the game. I like the Chai Kingdom theme (this sort of stereotypical Eastern sounding music sounds great on the GB sound hardware for whatever reason) and the creepy tune that plays during the fake Daisy scenes (left a big impression on me as a kid). The game is very good overall, especially for being such an early title, there's just not a ton there. 7/10.
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Post by dsparil on May 15, 2024 12:20:18 GMT -5
Super Mario Land (Game Boy, Replay)
Haha, spanky beat me to it. Played through both difficulties, and the harder of the two does have a bit more substance. More than anything, SML reminds me so much of all those bootleg TI calculator versions of popular games. Everything feels slightly off especially the physics, and it's really short. Unlike the sequel, I don't even think I played this at all until it got released as 3DS VC so I have zero nostalgia. Not like those calculator games; now I want to dig up my 83+ and 86 and see if they still work.
I finished in 00:53:43.
Rating: 6
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Post by personman on May 16, 2024 2:58:34 GMT -5
Kirby 64: The Crystal shards (N64/Wii U VC, replay) When I finished Command Mission last night I was just taking a look at my library and for some reason felt like dusting this one off on a whim. I rented this a number of times back when it was new and recall it being pushed quite a bit at the local game stores and a fair amount of advertising. However I think it wasn't received well much in part because it was such a late 64 title and as I remember it people were pretty dismissive of the system by this point, especially with the PS2 around by now. I myself enjoyed it enough but never got around to finding all the collectables and thus unlock the final boss and good ending so I figured hey, lets shoot for that. I'm a little ashamed now because back then I missed a crap ton of the crystals and declared the game was a little too cryptic for the demographic it was mostly shooting for... uh no I was just a really stupid kid lol. For the most part the roadblocks to various crystals are usually just calling for specific power combinations and usually they're all color coded so you know what to get. I think the only real deviation from that kind of thing is a repeat of a puzzle from Dreamland 2 where you need to use a spark power to light up a dark room and see what buttons to press in the next room. No surprise since this was directed by the same man who directed Dreamland 2 and 3. Which yeah, after having played Dreamland 3 and how much that one both bored and annoyed me I grit my teeth a little when the realization hit me upon looking at the UI and stuff. Thankfully this fairs a lot better with none of those needless empty transition rooms and the powers are a decent bit better. Though many are still duds, like cutter is just awful to use now for instance. Course its not too big a surprise considering the big feature this time around is being able to mix two powers at once and I remember the powers with the animal buddies from 3 having a similar situation with tons of duds too. Thankfully most of the required powers for the crystals usually aren't the bad ones but more the issue is once you get to the third world they'll start asking for powers you can't find in that level which is a problem the Dreamland games always suffered too; its just plain annoying especially since the first two world makes sure to have what you need in THAT stage. However to its credit usually you can find what you need in the first two levels of world 1 so it wasn't too painful this time around but still. The act of combining powers is pretty clunky too and can be annoying, you have to ready to throw the thing at another eligible enemy and the thing has a tiny hitbox and can be blocked by other projectiles thus leaving you with nothing. Great! There should have been an easier way to do this. Plus the powers aren't bad but they just aren't very exciting, like Superstar was out by this point and powers felt great and had a tiny bit a depth that was fun to leverage if you wanted it. Here things mostly work but that's all they do; just feels like a step down. Though cutter and spark gives Kirby a dual bladed lightsaber so least theres that. Otherwise though the game is fine, stage design is plenty adequate, theres some slight spectacle here and there with some mine cart rides and stuff. DeDeDe shows up to help out now and then and his segments seem needless but they're painless so I didn't mind them. Couple of the bosses towards the end actually get really tough for a Kirby game with the normal final boss taking me a few tries. I've always wondered about the true last boss for many years and I finally got to see it just now and... its discount Space Harrier lol. Its fine, nice to finally see it but nothing really worth the trouble. Game has a pretty nice soundtrack and looks real nice for a 64 game, course it better considering the time of release. Definitely has the Kirby charm you know and love and of course sneaks in a couple of weird things to get morons like me to think too hard about. People were shocked when Kirby was in a mall in the recent Switch game but that already happened here!(also look at Shiver Star's texture, thats Earth baby) Through out the game there are these little witches riding on broomsticks in the backgrounds and their purpose is never clear, I've always wondered about them and thought there was some secret to them but nah, just there to taunt you. Also as per usual there is one segment that is really unsettling and feels out of place thanks to a really aggressively eerie track that plays during the second stage in the final world. Theres nothing even creepy about the stage its just the song making it sound like a ghost is about to jump you. Also this is like one of the only 64 games to not only use the d-pad but exclusively use it so theres that weird feather in its cap too. On a whole its not a game I love but I had a decent time with it, I was looking to kill an evening tonight and it did just that for me perfectly fine. Nothing I'd tell anyone to go out of their way for but if you have it on hand somehow its alright. Certainly better than Dreamland 3 by a good margin! Rating-6
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Post by Digitalnametag on May 16, 2024 16:31:36 GMT -5
Eternights PS5 FTP 10 hours
Indie game that takes a lot of inspiration from Persona (as stated by the creator) but actually reminds me more of the Akiba's Trip games. Combat is similar and characters feel just as ridiculous. It has dating VN elements as well. Nothing particularly stands out about the game but I did enjoy it. Short and mostly fun to play. I did experience a couple crashes but it auto-saves so often I never lost more than a few minutes. Really impressive game for a (mostly) solo developer.
Slay the Spire PS4 Replay 20 hours
It is very easy to lose time playing this. Just like Hades you say 'One more run!' and then hours have gone by. Still working on beating (hah!) the heart with the Defect. I did get another Silent full clear and made some progress on Ascension levels. Also got a couple more achievements.
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Post by dsparil on May 20, 2024 15:18:44 GMT -5
Gothic Classic (Switch, First Time)
With The Thousand-Year Door remake out in a few days, why not revisit a different action-based RPG from around the same time period. 2001’s Gothic is a cult classic PC action-RPG, but I don’t think it quite holds up still. I have fond memories of the sequel, but not so great memories of the first game.
The entire game takes place inside a prison mining colony sealed by a magic barrier. The greater world is in the midst of a war, and the magic ore in this area makes the finest weapons. The player character is a nameless and unnamable prisoner thrust into the colony along with the a message to the main group of mages.
You quickly find out that there’s actually three factions inside. The Old Camp is the original, allied with the mages that accidentally got trapped inside after creating the barrier and the one that trades with the outside world using the mined ore. The New Camp has their own mine and a splinter group of mages that want to blow up the barrier after collecting enough ore. The last is the Sect Camp whose god The Sleeper supposedly will lead them to freedom.
You have to join a camp to finish Chapter 1, and it mainly determines your class. The Old Camp has the choice of a fighter or a Fire Mage. The New Camp an identical fighter or a Water Mage. The Sect Camp only has the option of a fighter-mage hybrid. Once you join a camp, the game is actually more or less the same for everyone although supposedly there are some small differences.
What got people excited about this game really has more to do with the state of the 3D cRPG in 2001. Gothic gave a (small) world that felt very alive at first with NPCs that worked during the day and went to bed at night. There was a level of interactivity that was more Ultima VII-like than seen in other games of the time and better than the boondoggle of Ultima IX. As the game progresses though, things aren’t so rosy.
The main problem is the auto-targeting in combat. The game picks your target for you, makes you circle around it, wildly changes it and makes it hard to impossible to untarget anything. For what I’m assuming is programming limitations, you also can’t hit an enemy with melee weapons if they’re not targeted which is very annoying. Unless you’re trying to take on something vastly stronger than you, this really isn’t especially difficult combat-wise but the targeting makes fighting more than one enemy a chore. Also melee is the key word. For some reason, ranged weapons can hit non-targeted enemies.
The combat in general is really dull though. At the beginning, it does seem a little exciting with enemies having varied AI like wolves attacking in packs and bloodflies flitting around just outside your reach. After the early game enemies, almost everything has the exact same AI. They just rush towards you and do an invincible backstep whenever you try to attack. After they hit you, you can get in an attack or two. Even early on, you’re just swimming in healing items be it food or potions so its just boring. I finished the game with close to 2000 healing potions in the three strengths, almost as many mana potions and a grocery store’s worth of food.
And really, the whole game feels beta-like despite having four years of development time which was an eternity back then. There’s a lot of small examples like possibly cut quests. For a larger one, it’s very clear that alchemy/potion creation was cut from the game possible late. Not only is that the only explanation for the dozen plants that only vary slightly in healing along with highlighted-as-if-interactive but actually non-interactive potion stations, but there’s a reference to a brewable potion in the game’s data.
As a port, there are plusses and minuses. The main plus is the massively improved interface. It’s very fiddly in the original with weird controls for equipping weapons (Action + Up), and your inventory is presented in a single tabbed column that only shows five things at a time despite the large number of items. Here, everything just makes sense, and your inventory is a tabbed grid so everything is mostly easy to get to. Gothic was originally designed as being keyboard only with minor mouse use grafted on, so the controls adapt fairly well in general, and you have the addition of potion/food short cuts too.
The minus is the bugs. The original was buggy too so maybe its more of a neutral, but there’s so much occasional weirdness and crashing. The strangest thing is that right at the end of the game, I ran into some invisible save game limit after cycling my saves half a dozen times and quick saving frequently. I literally got a message saying I couldn’t save the game anymore. I double checked and this wasn’t a space issue. It turned out that deleting old saves got around this, but I couldn’t quick save anymore which had been pretty handy.
I need to go back to II and the expansion sometime soon, but I do think that this game had its time and place and we’re past that now. Conditionally, I’ll say that this was more of a blueprint for a better sequel than something that great in and of itself. If you do want to play Gothic, the Switch port isn’t a bad option all things considered though saving weirdness aside. Oddly, the Switch is the only modern way to play the original game. Other consoles are getting a radically revamped remake (sadly not by the original developer Piranha Bytes which was recently shut down by Embracer) and I think this is why a Switch port got put out so it had something. Considering what I’ve read about the remake, maybe this is the ultimate version even with all the issues. And no else has the sequel either.
I finished in about 32.5 hours. There is a timer but it’s broken.
Rating: 6
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Post by personman on May 22, 2024 2:42:49 GMT -5
Mega Man Zero 2 (DS via collection, replay) I remember people not being too hot on Zero 1 back in the day. I loved it but I was dying for any sort of REAL new Mega back then and just got used to it's BS. Due to the luke warm to negative word of mouth I heard of it I wondered if the series was going to continue or just be a one off thing. Well lo and behold I found the japanese rom dumped to a rom site when it was new and I certainly wasn't complaining, really loved it in fact. It has another really neat intro once again though the really bleak mood of the first is diminished quite a bit after the intro stage veering closer to the tone of the X series though I wouldn't say its without tis own identity, the slight fantasy bend to it is still present and kind of exemplified by the plot macguffin. This is where the series would begin putting a greater emphasis on narrative with all sorts of nicely drawn stills for the cutscenes and way more dialogue than you'd expect from traditional Mega Man and heck going through this again with the soundtrack and presentation it almost felt like it was trying be a rpg sometimes. Jrpgs were still huge around this time so no surprise. Gameplay wise it also comes closer to its roots. The levels are no longer all connected but provide you with a hub area to talk to NPCs, though again there is barely any purpose to it outside of flavor. Rank actually matters this time around as finishing a stage with an A or S rank will get you a new skill that'll give you a couple moves to play with which on one hand is cool, I like earning new things and they make Zero feel more like himself by bringing back his anti air and downward attacks but on the other hand your rankings matter now which frankly is the worst damn thing about the game. In addition you can also gain new 'forms' that give you a variety of passive abilities which seems cool but unlocking them if often a bitch for what you actually get out of them. You are never told the requirements and you have to meet them in a single stage which some forms are pretty much impossible to get in some stages and you won't get anywhere near what is needed in one go without stopping to farm which you wont think to do that since you have the pressure to zip through the stage to get a good rank. Fortunately just disregarding these is no big deal as most of them dont really do anything of merit. Sadly the weapon skill levels are back but I believe returning to stages after finishing one of them will allow you to safely grind those out without fear of losing rank, plus they seem to come a good deal faster. Cyber Elves are about the same and I still hate the system but least now the currency needed to raise them has dramatically been reduced. My favorite feature though is the Chain Rod, which is a grapple hook spear thing that just plain looks cool as hell but has a ton of utility to it that I have always had a blast using. For one it can latch onto surfaces letting you swing around stuff, can attack in eight directions making it ideal for those evasive popcorn enemies, and can grab targets and remove their shields or just yank them over to you to kill them with the sword or pull them into spikes. It takes a bit to get used to but once you do it can be real run to play with and out side of bosses it never left my second slot and much of the stages are designed around it. A complete upgrade from the Triple Rod and hell even the returning shield boomerang has some sections where it really shines which is great to see. The stage design in general is much better this time around although it still suffers from the play field being way too zoomed in and can be diskish as usual. However between many of them having fun uses for the chain or its emphasis on set pieces that I feel has the most memorable stages in the series by a good margin. Only mess ups I can think of are one stage on a train were it deliberately feels like the tiny window you have to play in is being weaponized against you and the first factory stage has a gimmick where it loops around till you destroy these turret things. If you go through the stage linearly you'll wind up making the boss ridiculously hard which just came off like an annoying gotcha. Bosses are all pretty good too with the only one I disliked being the Panther one cool as the set piece is. Combine this with a more memorable and fitting soundtrack on top of a tidy little story (for a Mega Man game of course) and I think you have a decent time. I would have liked to see them carry forward the really somber tone of the first game but this OST fits the series way better and legit has some fun tracks. Though the boss theme is a complete downgrade. This backs a plot that again for Mega Man is actually decently fleshed out while providing the villain a proper character arc which many, many MANY games in general often fail to do. Only bad part is to really appreciate the whole thing you have to know of some details from material outside the game, specifically some kinda audio drama CD thing that stayed over seas (of course). But personally I think they did a good job portraying a tragic villain who was caught in a rock in a hard place, circumstance got him elevated to a position he was not cut out for and was overwhelmed by it thus falling to corruption. Sorta falls under the road to hell is paved with good intentions sort of deal. It's not Shakespeare or anything but for the series its way more developed decently for a little handheld action platformer. I say it deserves some props. So not bad at all. Still very much hamstrung by some really bad flaws but I feel like the good underneath shines out just enough that I can at least say this is worth a look for fans who may have not gotten to it yet. Rating-7 Assault Suits Valken DECLASSIFIED (Switch, replay) I stumbled onto this recently checking to remind myself of the Paper Mario release date earlier this week seeing it was on sale for 10 bucks. I had a bunch of points lying around to bring it down to 3 bucks and thought why not? I knew this game as Cybernator when I borrowed it from a neighbor in my youth and I think it may have been the first game I played involving mecha and stuff. Perhaps it influenced me into preferring the more industrialized look of things like Armored Core and Front Mission rather than the flashy stuff like Gundam and such. Anyways I just learned today that this was actually a sequel to Assault Suits Leynos which was a Genesis exclusive and titled the rather dull Target Earth over here; never knew! Maybe I'll have to go check it out sometime because this is one I've always liked quite a bit. It has a reputation of being really difficult and its not a cake walk for sure but really I feel like much of that is just people not realizing you can lock your aim and direction for all the zero G segments which if you don't do that they can be pretty miserable. Otherwise the rest of the game is just using your shield and taking pot shots when you can. Admittedly it can be a bit jarring with how the first stage is so gentle with you that being thrown into a pretty fast and kind of mean shmup like stage in the second. But I don't know even back in the day I just didn't have a problem finding the little tricks to easily get past it. The rest of the stages don't typically do anything too crazy being mostly standard faire for an action platformer though being in a mech of course has you feeling very slow and heavy calling for a bit more discernment into the moves you make. Fitting of its military theme the stages are objective based in such a way that it doesn't just feel like getting to the end of the stage and fighting a boss as many encounters just have little twists on them to make it feel like a mission in a chaotic battle you're scrambling to fulfil. These days it doesn't stand out I'm sure but back then to have a thing like this in such a game really stood out to me. Some of these encounters can put a lot of pressure on you but I don't feel they're unfair at all and again just call for you to learn the timing for blocking and shooting. what IS really harsh is you pretty much get 3 lives to go through the whole game (though there is of course a cheat code to raise that to 9) and I feel might be the real culprit for why people call this one so mean. Besides just being a solid action game I just plain like the theme. It's very much going for that war is hell space opera sort of deal and it takes itself pretty seriously despite being a simple game it manages to give you the impression of having the scope of some big space spanning war. Very much helped by the music which has that fun 80s/90s anime sound I really dig. Looking at the extra material on this particular release I get the impression the setting is pretty flesh out more outside of the game and makes me want to look into it more. Helps the final level is pretty memorable and has some details I totally don't remember like you break into the parliament building to take the enemies' capital but straight up the European Union's flag is in the background... huh I don't remember them getting that specific; then of course the scene when you confront the president I always heard so much about is restored in this version. Rough stuff that right there. This release comes with some extra bells and whistles as I mentioned with concept art and a remixed soundtrack as well as all the QoL options you'd expect from M2 like save states, filters and the like. They even got an interview with the art director of the game which is neat. As a cute touch if you let the credits play from the main menu it'll give you free play on top of access to a secret weapon I never knew about. Its a nice tidy little package but certainly not 25 bucks worth, if I wasn't getting this so cheap I would have just emulated it instead and I'd recommend most do the same. But hey, now that I go it I'm happy with it. Possibly nostalgia is making me look kinder on this than I should but again it supplied me with a nice evening so it gets a thumbs up from me lol. Rating-7
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 23, 2024 13:09:17 GMT -5
I might come back and try to add stuff to say for these games, just that I can't think of much at the moment. Funny that two of these are Android ports of fan remakes based on 30 year old games, though they go about that in very different ways lol. Another Metroid 2 Remake (Android; First Time; 4 hours 34 minutes)Pushed on by beating Sonic 1 SMS Remake down below, I was itching to try another 2D game on the Retroid Pocket and discovered this famous fan remake of Metroid II had gotten an Android port at some point. I've actually played this one a couple times, but I'd never beaten it. I even got to the final boss but gave up after dying since I hadn't saved in a while and couldn't be bothered redoing all of that. I was more cautious this time around, making sure to go back and save after any particularly challenging scrapes against the many Metroids you're meant to hunt down and kill. This remake sticks with the more linear structure of the original Metroid II, but adds in abilities and powers from later games and massively expands on the temples to make them feel more unique. It's a very impressive fan game, one that's since been held alongside the main titles in how effectively it pulls off the Metroid style mechanically and tonally. Still, while I enjoyed myself a good bit, I don't really plan on giving this a revisit. I found it quite challenging, even on the easiest difficulty, and the overall linearity means there isn't anything out of the ordinary I can try to keep things interesting (I'm certainly not skilled or knowledgeable enough to pull off any sequence breaks). That's fine, though. Sometimes you only fancy playing through a game once, whether that's only once in a while or once in general, and this is a good time if you're into Metroid no matter what. Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror Remastered (Windows; First Time; 7 hours 1 minute)The next stop on my slowgoing playthrough of all the Broken Sword games, for a sequel that I'd checked out years ago but did not at all enjoy. I got quite close to the end, to the deeply tedious wheel turning puzzle in the temple, but I had gotten so frustrated that even being aware of the (admittedly hilarious) skip, I threw in the towel and didn't go back to it until now. It had been long enough that I couldn't quite remember why specifically, other than a vague memory of aimlessly wandering through the jungle maze of Zombie Island. Coming back to it and finally pushing my way through, I think I have a better idea of why. Basically, the pacing of the adventure completely grinds to a halt after the midway point, when George and Nico head off to different locales and you cut back and forth between them. Nico's sections are super brief, only lasting one room that you can sort out in 10 minutes each, while George's adventures are lengthy excursions that stick to the same tropical theme for ages. By the time you do that, the game's already on the way to its climax and it all happens very quickly. While individual parts of the game allow for plenty of time to breathe and chat to characters in the way Broken Sword 1 did so well, overall it moves at such a breakneck pace that nothing has much time to sink in. A lot of the new characters feel underdeveloped, especially the villains who might as well be cardboard cut-outs. This is likely due to how quickly the game was developed, being made in just one year (and apparently with half the budget of the first game); according to Wikipedia and Mobygames, that first game had barely been out a year before this came along! That short dev time also resulted in a bunch of bugs and technical issues which have since been cleaned up for the Remastered version I'm playing. It also throws in the hint and diary systems from Shadow of the Templars' Director's Cut, though there aren't any new sections and you're still able to die. It's a shame that this wasn't allowed more time to cook, because it manages to be as cozy and enjoyable as before when given the room. But stuff like the fewer locations which you spend either loads or very little time in, the lack of optional conversations where you can show characters most of the junk you're carrying, and the abruptly told story make this feel more hollow than it wants to be. I wish I liked this one more, cuz this is the end of the old style of Broken Sword. The series will return to the traditional point-and-click look, but not with this artstyle (unless you'd like to count the fan game Broken Sword 2.5 which I might try at some stage). For now, we're heading into the 3D games of the early-mid 2000s: starting with the biggest mechanical departure (and the first game in the series I ever played), The Sleeping Dragon. If all goes well, I'll hopefully be back to report on it. Sonic 1 SMS Remake (Android; First Time; 1 hour 2 minutes - ESTIMATED)I'd heard about this a while back, a fan remake of the excellent Master System/Game Gear take on Sonic 1 that introduces a bunch of new things including extra playable characters, levels based on those from the 16-bit game like Marble, Spring Yard and Labyrinth, and some new modes to play around with like time attack, a boss rush and an Encore mode borrowed from Sonic Mania where you swap characters by hitting an item monitor. I was curious to try out a 2D platformer on my Retroid Pocket, so I gave this a go and ended up enjoying this quite a bit - enough that I played through it three times within a couple of days. I've always liked Sonic's first 8-bit outing, and this keeps a lot of what makes that game good while adding a bunch of new things on top. The new characters (Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray) pull from their Sonic Mania incarnations in terms of abilities, which allows them to easily overcome the linear level designs if you know how to use them effectively. The special stages have been reworked so that you collect the Chaos Emeralds in them, rather than finding them in hidden parts of the regular levels, and doing so earns you the super transformation. This also causes a big ring to appear at the beginning of each level that'll give you 50 rings and let you transform immediately. It's a bit game-breaking but what's really nice is that this also happens in the boss stages, which you previously had to take on with no rings. I think the boss fights are manageable enough, but it's a nice consideration for players who aren't able to handle certain fights. Just do a bit of exploration, hold onto your rings, and if you get all seven emeralds, you're good to go. I'm not entirely sure about the new zones; they're straightforward adaptations on the Mega Drive stages, which works really well for Marble Zone since that zone was always more linear and fits right at home with everything else. I don't really like Spring Yard Zone in general, so having it here did nothing for me, and although I like Star Light Zone's sudden introduction of a motorbike stage for the second act, the game overall feels a little bit flabbier with 9 extra levels to contend with. Still, that's only in the "remake" mode and you can always play the "original" mode if you wanna experience 8-bit Sonic as it was back in 1991. It's a cool way of playing one of my favourite 2D Sonics on the go, and I'm pleased that it resulted in a bunch of extra projects thanks to the "Open Sonic SMS Remake" engine released by the developers. There's a remake for Sonic 2's 8-bit version by the same studio (which I tried out and gave up on after not being able to figure out the awful boss in Aqua Lake), and a new game currently in the works that seeks to mash up elements of Sonic CD, Chaos and Triple Trouble. Elsewhere, the engine's been used by others to remake Sonic Chaos and Sonic Blast, though I can't say much more since I haven't checked them out. sonic-sms-remake.blogspot.com/p/one.html
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Post by personman on May 27, 2024 18:47:28 GMT -5
Mega Man Zero 3 (DS via collection, replay) So as I said back with X4 every Mega Man series has that one entry everyone seems to love that I just don't get the same feel for. Even back when I played through this with the japanese rom near release it just didn't grab me, game play wise anyways. Being unable to read the dialogue and seeing the final boss certainly had me intrigued as to what the fuck was going on lol. Matter of fact it was the sole motivator for me buying a copy of the thing when it released over here. I did the usual routine and tortured myself to S rank it all and I just didn't come away from it liking it as much as 2 even if it's narrative focus pays off above and beyond nearly anything in the whole series. Things are over all easier this time around with less aggressive enemies and while the constant annoyance of the play field being too small is still ever present there aren't as many gotchas as there were previously. Problem is now the stages are just flat out boring and have very little mix up to them at all with like the one or two stages that do just don't impress. Worse still the bosses are an absolute jokes now save for like two of them. Least many of them still look really damn cool. That's a let down but one thing I did like is they added some new items to find and earn with equip able gear to supplement yourself thus given people upgrades to play around with if you don't want to touch cyber elves. I don't find any of them really exciting and many barely get any use but the thought is appreciated all the same. The elves themselves (heh) though been tweaked as well allowing you to actually equip some of them without sacrificing them so you can get a buff without tanking your score which is neat! Only problem being of course the amount of currency to do this is prohibitively high so for one just wanting to go through the game real quick I wasn't going to bother. There's also these door through out the stages leading you into cyber space where all elves in your possession will be active without using them which then tanks your rank so... once again heres a feature we gave you but we'll swat you on the nose if you dare use it! Just stop, stop it stop doing this! The real star of the show is supposed to be the new weapon which is a pair of laser tonfa things (though it looks like your only using one in game which annoys me) and tries to be a versatile tool to help with fights and manipulate things in the stages. People love this thing and admittedly it does a fair bit: can attack in eight directions, charging and holding down will give you a high jump, it can knock projectiles back at enemies as well as send them flying as well which is admittedly very entertaining; also things around the stages can be pushed with it though rarely. However I just never liked the thing, it doesn't do much damage has short range and takes forever to charge which is were most of its utility comes from. I believe there is a helmet and elves that can be found to remedy those issues but one of those is a late game item and the other calls for a lot of grinding and screw that, this isnt a RPG grinding doesn't belong in Mega Man. Further the EX skills for the saber have elemental bonuses now and they wind up making the saber itself very versatile one its own so personally I never saw the point of trying to fiddle with the other stupid thing and just see the classic sword and gun combo with situational element swapping the most comfortable way to get through things. The other big thing people love about this game is it fleshed out this hidden system where your hits you inflict on someone, mainly bosses, have priority that counts against someone's iframes. In other words you can do stuff like this if you know how to combo into the right moves thus giving the game quite a bit of tech if you want to pursue it. It is neat and I see the appeal but like, its the same deal as things like speed running to me sure if you're into that thing I can see why the game may have more value to you but ultimately it still feels like something just kind of tacked on and I just plain don't care to learn about it since nothing in the game really pushes you to do so. For me personally it may as well not be there and while I tried to mess with it back on the Switch collection I just didn't see the point in all that extra effort for simple methods that work just fine so how much should it really factor into my judgement? Also I'm gonna be a jerk and just call it out: I see so many people praise this game for this point alone but I'm sure less than a third of them actually engage with it in reality but just pretend to for gamer cred. That all said what keeps this game together for me is of all things its story. Yeah I know, I'm crazy and all for caring about Mega Man's story so much be really for a GBA game the presentation is great, the pacing is perfect for an action game and the over all plot line is solid. Sure, some of the dialogue certainly could have used another pass but its fine for what it is. Is it still a silly little anime/game story? Well yeah of course but that can still be plenty entertaining. Plus much as I don't care for the actual fight itself thematically the last boss is really cool and plays into things that I wish the series did way more often acknowledging that these guys are actually robots and get to do things we can't... like have all the software that holds his personality, memories etc. uploaded into another shell for instance. I'd say the only gripe I have is they try to do a puppet master thing with the new main villain but he's so overt about it I don't find his grand scheme too convincing and felt like he should have just been stopped immediately by the dumb ass generals. Also he looks ridiculous though I kinda love him for that also lol, you see a man walk down the street wearing a lava lamp you know he fears nothing. He's fine as a villain I just would have written him to be craftier. At the end of the day the game is a perfectly good title. It stands head and shoulders above the first Zero and I can even see why some may like it more than 2 but for me its just a dud outside of the story. I miss the chain, I thought the weapons were used way better, the soundtrack was MUCH better outside of like the last boss theme and everything else is just milquetoast to me. It does have some great ideas for some of its half baked systems with the cyber elves and such but I just can't abide the grind needed to play with it. It's fine, very playable and all that but personally I don't think I'll be revisiting it anytime soon. Rating-6
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Post by dsparil on May 29, 2024 16:55:29 GMT -5
Picross -LogiartGrimoire (Switch, First Time)
Here’s Jupiter’s second crack at a non-Picross Picross although on Switch it does have the branding. The first was all time great NuPa, but this doesn’t reach anywhere close to that height. In fact, it’s actually a pretty weak outing.
The conceit is that some kind of quasi-spectral mage named Emil needs help completing the Logiart Grimoire due to being awful at puzzles. You start out with some basic puzzles and combine them Doodle God style based on hints to create new ones in a variety of categories. Emil also levels up based on puzzles completed which unlocks more puzzles. This is all well and good, but the combinations frequently make no sense at all and the categorizations are weird too. The ordering of the puzzles is also really odd and you jump around puzzle sizes. This makes it a bit underwhelming to finish this mode especially since the final puzzle which is the only puzzle unlocked at max level is not a culmination at all and might as well have been picked at random.
That aside, this is very sparse on modes. It’s all standard black & white with nothing else. No color puzzles, no Mega mode and no Clip Picross equivalent either. The S series has inflated puzzle counts because of the doubling from Mega and the sometimes small Clip pieces, but it’s undeniable that you’re paying more for less here. LogiArt has 419 puzzles split between 280 in the main mode, 24 “combination error” puzzles, 75 created by Kickstarter backers (they’re okay), and an extra 40 that were a Kickstarter stretch goal. This is compared to a price equivalent 450 for the S series without taking Mega and Clip into account.
If you’re on PC, this is the first chance to get a real Jupiter game so maybe there’s some value in that. On Switch, you’re better off with the standard releases. Also a little weird this came out so close to Picross S Namco Legendary Edition. That’s out tomorrow and is a bit pricier than usual, $11, but that’s certainly going to be a better choice overall.
I finished in about 42.5h.
Rating: 6
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Post by Apollo Chungus on May 29, 2024 19:16:56 GMT -5
Oh heck, I posted this write-up on Backloggd a couple days ago and only just realized that it's the 30th (where I am anyway)!
Portal (Xbox 360; Replay; 2 hours 10 minutes - ESTIMATED)
I played Portal once or twice over the years, but I admit to being enough out of the loop with what it was doing that I didn't really get the hype about it being an amazing or especially hilarious game. That I think put me at odds with the game, enough that I gave up on my last attempt back in 2016 or thereabouts after getting stuck on one of the later puzzles.
For whatever reason, I gave this a bash the other day, seeking to play something relatively straightforward where I wouldn't have to be dealing with too many things. Admittedly a strange sentiment to hold considering what Portal asks of you, placing portals carefully to make your way around and solve puzzles, but you only have to worry about one puzzle at a time. The overall clean design means it's easy enough to figure out what and how you need to do things, though I admit that the later tests got quite tricky.
That final part of the game is a very nice change of pace, focusing purely on navigational puzzles, and there's some great visual design that creates a tangibly grotty, depressing monolith of machinery. In general the presentation's really good in that subdued fashion where you can sense something in the moment, like the ambient synth score by Kelly Bailey and Mike Morasky.
It's such a frequent thing to happen with these super well-regarded games, that I eventually come round to them on my own terms and find that they're pretty cool titles even if I don't love 'em like everybody else does. But that's not a bad thing, and that's pretty much what happened here. Cool little puzzler that I could comfortably play through, though I don't fancy trying those more difficult challenge rooms lol. Not sure whether I'll pick up Portal 2 and give that a go, though apparently its single-player campaign is more focused on the puzzles seen in that final chunk (the co-op campaign's where you get the more traditional tricky portal puzzles).
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Post by Woody Alien 2 on May 30, 2024 5:14:11 GMT -5
ASTROLANCER (Steam, first time, about 4.5 hours)
A retro-style game openly inspired by NES cult classic The Guardian Legend, starring a robot girl who can turn into an aircraft. It's funny how it's been like 35 years ever since TGL came out and nobody could really replicate it despite being considered such an influential game, the only games I remember being similar to it being Sigma Star Saga for the DS and the unknown indie game The Indie Game Legend (which I liked). ASTROLANCER is admittedly very similar to it but it doesn't have the overworld, being instead divided into 7 stages. There's still a minimum of exploration in that you have to find hidden power cells that can be used to buy new weapons and power-ups between the stages, but it's not really the same thing. Also it's much more of a bullet hell game since it doesn't have to adhere to the NES' limitations (so I had to play it at Normal difficulty since I'm quite bad at those - that's also why it took me so long to complete it), and many of the subweapons aren't really useful or at least I never found an use for them. That said, it's still competently made with very nice pixel art illustrations between stages, stages' graphics being varied enough despite imitating NES' limitations, the geometric shapes of the mooks are kind of boring but there's some interesting mid-bosses and bosses designs, and the final form of the final boss is openly based on "IT", The Guardian Legend's final enemy. I can't fault it because it achieves what it tried to do, but I can't help beng slightly disappointed because I thought it was going to be even more similar to TGL, it being one of my favorite games overall. 7/10
Escape Lala II (Steam, first time, around 3 hrs)
So I bought it even knowing it will never have the promised sequel or anything else from the devs. Not much more to be said, it's a longer version of the first one with the same whimsical setting and puzzles but a little more lore involved and some very simple mini-games. What more can I say about a retro point and click adventure beside the fact that it's difficult to progress without hints because of the surreal nature of some puzzles? It's nice and cute. 6.5/10
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Post by dsparil on Jun 1, 2024 4:19:41 GMT -5
Here are the current rankings:
Total Game Completions:
dsparil - 49 Apollo Chungus - 45 personman - 36 Woody Alien - 28 spanky - 18 JoeQ - 9 Digitalnametag - 8 excelsior - 6 alexmate - 3 Snake - 2 lurker - 1
First Time Game Completions:
dsparil - 42 Apollo Chungus - 34 Woody Alien - 27 spanky - 11 personman - 10 JoeQ - 8 excelsior - 6 Digitalnametag - 5 alexmate - 3 Snake - 2 lurker - 1
Total Time Spent (Reference Only):
dsparil - 336h Apollo Chungus - 244h personman - 178h Digitalnametag - 175h spanky - 140h 30m Woody Alien - 112h JoeQ - 106h excelsior - 60h Snake - 19h alexmate - 10h 30m lurker - 1h 30m
First Play Time (Reference Only):
dsparil - 270h 30m Apollo Chungus - 182h Digitalnametag - 155h 30m spanky - 115h Woody Alien - 105h JoeQ - 98h personman - 68h excelsior - 60h Snake - 19h alexmate - 10h 30m lurker - 1h 30m
Total Time Spent (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
JoeQ - 367h 34m (350h 4m/0s/17h 30m) dsparil - 338h 39m 30s (65h 39m 30s/186h/87h) Digitalnametag - 236h (0s/232h 30m/3h 30m) Apollo Chungus - 222h 2m (74h 36m/8h 56m/138h 30m) personman - 199h 10m (40m/92h/106h 30m) spanky - 140h 30m (0s/0s/140h 30m) Woody Alien - 102h 1m 27s (24h 16m 27s/77h 45m/0s) excelsior - 58h 10m (0s/14h 40m/43h 30m) Snake - 10h 33m (0s/10h 33m/0s) alexmate - 8h 49m (8h 49m/0s/0s) lurker - 1h 30m (0s/0s/1h 30m)
First Play Time (Timer + Estimated + Reference):
JoeQ - 352h 8m (334h 38m/0s/17h 30m) dsparil - 282h 52m 55s (49h 52m 55s/146h/87h) Digitalnametag - 209h 30m (0s/209h 30m/0s) Apollo Chungus - 164h 47m (61h 31m/6h 46m/96h 30m) spanky - 115h (0s/0s/115h) Woody Alien - 94h 1m 27s (24h 16m 27s/69h 45m/0s) personman - 68h 40m (40m/31h/37h) excelsior - 58h 10m (0s/14h 40m/43h 30m) Snake - 10h 33m (0s/10h 33m/0s) alexmate - 8h 49m (8h 49m/0s/0s) lurker - 1h 30m (0s/0s/1h 30m)
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Post by JoeQ on Jun 1, 2024 16:41:08 GMT -5
Catherine: Full Body (PS4) - First playthrough, Time: 24h 07min (In-game timer), Rating: 3/5A loser by the name of Vincent Brooks gets drunk and cheats on his long time girlfriend. Now his life consists of navigating a web of lies by die, drowning his guilt with his buddies at the local bar in the evenings and surviving his bizarre nightmares where he gets turned into a sheep and has to climb an ever expanding tower to escape death in real life. Catherine was originally developed as a technical prototype for Persona 5 and follows a somewhat similar structure to those games. By day you watch cutscenes and interact with other characters, by night you battle shadows in dungeons climb a crumbling tower. On the surface Catherine has a lot going for it. Like Persona it's stylish and has nice music and the arcadey tower climbing can be pretty fun. Unfortunately the story, which is like 70% of the game, is where it falls flat. It's hard to care about Vincent's plight when neither he or the women he is involved with are likeable or have any chemistry between each other. So watching endless cutscenes of him lying and drowning in guilt instead of manning up got old fast. (There's also supposed to be some transphobic content in the game, but I didn't run into it on the story route I took). I reached an ending where Vincent was dumped by all the girls and nearly got run over by a car. That was good enough for me. There's plenty of other endings in the game and tons of extra content and modes, but for now at least I'm done with it. Alphabet Challenge: BCFPST
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