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Post by Mikéy on Dec 27, 2014 21:36:42 GMT -5
Hit me up in Skype if you ever want an extra Charizard as a friendly foe.
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Post by Kyle on Dec 28, 2014 11:32:35 GMT -5
I loved the first one, so naturally I was eagerly anticipating the sequel's release. And of course I picked it up day 1! By the way, I have a confession to make: I actually made sure to play and finish the game before Kyle started his stream. I just couldn't wait to play it, and kinda wanted to experience the game for the first time myself (sorry Kyle!)
Don't sweat it! The main reason I was streaming it in the first place was to allow the non-Vita owners to experience it alongside everyone else. That being said, the video quality for certain parts sucked eggs. *Cough* Blurboarding *Cough* ...Besides. I technically owned it several months before its release! To be honest, I'm a bit iffy about streaming Island Mode. There are only really specific "before-and-after" changes, whereas I was hoping for a complete Free Time Event overhaul. But if there's anybody else that wants me to do it, let your opinion be heard. I'm reasonable-ish enough to change my mind.
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Post by Bean on Mar 15, 2015 11:50:48 GMT -5
1) NCAA Basketball (January 5th, SNES) -After doing the first two of three routes through Star Fox, I got stuck and wanted to play a sports game. This worked.
2) LittleBigPlanet 3 (January 14th, PS3) -An absolute, unpolished mess. Steer clear of it.
3) Pilotwings (January 16th, SNES) -This one was a semi-cheating one since I used restore points. It's no Pilotwings 64, but it's all right.
4) Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (January 29th, GBA) -Ah, here we go. The first actual good game of the year. Nice little system of using two cards to use different abilities.
5) Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (January 31st, GBA) -The music... agh. The gameplay was okay. It's trying so hard to be Symphony of the Night, but it just isn't working, yo.
6) Gunman Clive 2 (February 1st, 3DS [eShop]) -Another good one that was cheap but fun. Four different playable characters, but I only took Clive through this sorta-Mega Man meets the old west game.
7) Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (February 4th, GBA) -Yes! I loved Dawn of Sorrow on the DS, and Aria is just as great. Definitely liked both of Soma's adventures.
8) Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (February 11th, 3DS [eShop]) -Started off slow, then I unlocked new items that turned the game into a solid platformer. This one was fun.
9) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (February 24th, 3DS) -Great remake that changes up some things to make the game more accessible.
10) The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (March 3rd, GBC) -Back when I owned the original as a kid, I got stuck in the 8th dungeon. I knew what to do now (bombing a specific wall) and loved this. It's my favorite of the four Zelda games I played recently.
11) The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (March 8th, GBA) -The last sprite-based Zelda certainly had a good world going for it. It was like the Majora's Mask of 2D Zeldas in that there was a lot of side quests and stuff to find, but it had some great dungeons in the second half of the game. I liked it.
12) The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (March 14th, DS) -This game's good ideas are in the second half. Loved the Goron Temple and Temple of Ice, but man, it took a while to get into this. It was an average game, making it one of the lowest-rated Zeldas for me. Still, if you don't mind a touchscreen-based game, this one was all right.
13) Trine: Enchanted Edition (March 15th, Wii U) -Just aimlessly going about the world solving platforming and physics puzzles... until I'd get bored and lift my co-op partner all around the map because this game also encourages fun. Loses a bit of steam at the end, but the journey to that was fine.
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Post by Dashe on Jun 11, 2015 18:48:28 GMT -5
I can't believe I haven't updated my clearlog since last December! Here's my 2015 midterm report: Dragonsphere - A solid point-n-click that seemed more like a fantasy game made by the guys who made Beneath A Steel Sky than the fantasy game that was actually made by those guys. It has a plot twist. I liked it alright. Except for this minigame in the middle where you had to bet against a guy in a game where you have to guess what color stone he pulls out of a satchel. That was aggravating. for that, and it would have managed to earn the extra point if it WEREN'T for that stupid rock game and another particularly annoying puzzle where you had to catch and identify identical fairies to open a path. Duke Nukem 1 & 2 - Yeah, I beat them both. The first one reminded me a lot of a game called Math Rescue that I once pirated owned, which I then learned was developed by someone who really liked Duke Nukem but really didn't like the violence in it. The violence in Duke Nukem was about on par with the violence in that Commander Keen monstrosity I trudged through a year ago, so I don't know what she was even thinking. There was platforming and shooting and letter-collecting and it was pretty average, not to mention this version didn't have BGM despite the fact that my sister's boyfriend insisted Duke Nukem 1 had amazing BGM. Not that this was much of a problem, because a lot of the time with these old games, I replace the BGM with 80s music anyway. So Duke 1 gets overall. Duke 2 was more of a challenge and definitely an improvement over Duke 1 in all aspects. A logical progression for the series, which ought to be a given with things like this, but looking at Capcom and what they did with Classic Mega Man, all bets are off. Duke could now shoot in more directions, and the help screen was actually entertaining and enlightened me to the fact that Duke was actually collecting pieces of his own memorabilia. I'm sure this was stated somewhere in Duke 1, but I guess I never pressed F1. Aggravations here included airlock areas that randomly sucked you out into space and the dreaded bottomlessness of Episode 4, Level 1. I think this was the first time Duke Nukem could hang off of pipes and things without having to go find that glove item first. The sequel gets a . Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire - This was physically painful for me to hack through. It had a really awkward and cumbersome and outdated interface that involved typing commands. There was not much about it that I liked, honestly. I named my character Fart, and there was a caveman who could join the party who would say "I smell Fart" every time he talked to me, and it was pretty silly when the scantily-clad girl on the box professed her love for Fart, but that was not an intended feature so it didn't count towards the final score. The only thing that legitimately entertained me was the entire Disquiqui tribe. It was full of drunks and three of the people in it were expies of the Three Stooges. It gets its second just for the Disquiqui. I'm going to need a lot of plachta to get through Ultima IV when it's time to tackle that one. Howlongtobeat.com says it's over a hundred hours long. I am definitely not looking forward to it, because this was free and I think I paid too much for it. Treasure Adventure Game - After Worlds of Ultima, this was a very, very welcome relief. Aside from a few instances where the game would just plain freeze up for no reason, it was pretty enjoyable, and I recommend it highly to anyone who likes games where you can explore and wear cool hats. I liked this enough to 100% it. You're all in luck, too. It's free on GOG. . It's definitely one of the better permanently free offerings that site has to offer. There's an area where you have to both eat and smoke psychadelic shrooms to progress, and quite frankly that part reminds me of something Mirak would probably make. That area gets a Crowning Music of Awesome award from me. Tyrian 2000 - This game is pretty excellent for what it is, a vertical scrolling shooter where you customize your ship and occasionally pick things up. The logs and data cubes, however, are where this one really shines. It doesn't take itself seriously at all, and things get downright surreal at the very end. The last episode is pretty much just the developers just going, "Okay screw the rules, this game is going to get really weird." I'm giving it , because this is probably my favorite game of this genre that I've blasted my way through. It could have been way more boring than this, and it wasn't. And it was also free, so all the better. The soundtrack is included and contains this CMOA winner. Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space - At first, it was all over the place, and not necessarily in a good way. The plot just seemed really random, and it wasn't until the fourth episode, which involved time travel, that it actually started getting good. The third episode was also pretty neat. It made vampires seem slightly less lame even after Twilight, so it deserves some credit for that, but making me sit through the first two episodes was brutal. . Worth it, but you have to sit through quite a bit of crap before you start getting to some plot payoff. Without spoiling anything, it also contained one of my pet peeves: prepubescent boys played by grown men, but if grown men are still getting voiceover jobs playing prepubescent boys, I'm sure it's not that common of a complaint. That's it for things from GOG that I have knocked off of the backlog in the past six months. I also picked up and 100%'d Steven Universe: Attack the Light when it came out, because it was cheap and I like that show a lot. I'm not sure I'm in a good position to give it an objective review because I like the show so much, but it contained no microtransactions and no stupid ads and was pretty faithful to the source material. I managed to level Pearl up into a glass cannon, Garnet into the well-rounded one, and Amethyst into the tank. Pretty sure that's not the way it's supposed to go, but I liked skewering everything with an OP Pearl. Pearl's just strong in the real way like that. Compared with a lot of mobile games geared toward people who aren't too used to games, this actually has a modicum of strategy to getting ahead in it. I definitely recommend making Pearl hit hard and crit often. I would have liked to see more exploration elements, but isn't too bad of a score.
Finally, as Satoh and Kyle are both aware, I've been feeling masochistic enough to attempt the Classic series again and beat Mega Man 1 just now. Since it's somewhat relevant to the board's field of interest, here's a title banner. To the surprise of probably nobody here, while I did get better at the game the more I played it, I did not feel the profound sense of accomplishment that many kids growing up with this, way back when people had dinosaurs for pets, must have felt when they beat Dr. Wily, and still don't understand why so many people genuinely like this game. I'm sure if I were playing the NES version, where you weren't able to save at any point, I would have smashed the TV into useless chunks with a kayak oar a long time ago, but I was playing the Anniversary Collection, so that made things slightly more palatable. I also had to turn off the music (because in Anniversary collection you can do that and leave the sound on) and replace it with Celine Dion, because I just wasn't feeling the original score. Good old Celine Dion. First Final Fantasy Legend III, now this. She never lets me down. If you want to beat Yellow Devil without spewing nerdrage at your roommates and/or loved ones, jump blocks 1, 3, 6, 9+10, 14, and 18. It's always the same. Just make block 9 one big jump and you only have to count off six numbers. I actually like that one a little better now that it's been reduced to counting out blocks like you're conducting an orchestra or something. The verdict: for still being somewhat playable despite being as old as dirt. Actually, this game and I are the exact same age, which makes me equally dirt-aged. At least I'm not old enough for this game to have been at the cutting edge of technology when I was old enough to allegedly appreciate it. I'm torn between trying to just get all of the Anniversary Collection out of the backlog for good and trying something totally different next. I'll see how I do with Mega Man 2. Apparently Mega Man 2 was a claaaaaassic.
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Post by Bean on Jul 9, 2015 23:47:18 GMT -5
14) Mighty Switch Force 2 (March 27th, 3DS [eShop]) -This one's pretty much the same as the first only you use a fire hose instead of a ray gun. I think it's better with the puzzles. 15) Mario Party 10 (March 27th, Wii U) -Better than Mario Party 9 in terms of how the boards play out, but it is very bare bones. No story mode to speak of, so it won't last long. 16) Dragon Warrior (April 2nd, NES) -The NES version of Dragon Quest is very dated. Enemies don't hand out much experience, so I moved on to SNES fan translations after this. 17) Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (April 11th, 3DS [eShop]) -I did a small review of this game on a friend's site: www.superphillipcentral.com/2015/03/mario-vs-donkey-kong-tipping-stars-wii.html18) Dragon Quest II (April 15th, SNES) -This one was solid, but there was a huge difficulty spike near the end. This series is getting there, though. 19) Metroid: Other M (April 19th, Wii) -I don't mind the gameplay, but the story and constant breaks you're forced to take for it really bring this one down. I don't like this one. 20) Metroid II: Return of Samus (April 22nd, GB) -But the lone Game Boy Metroid title is pretty fun. You're traversing a map to take down multiple types of Metroids. Had some pretty fun tools. 21) Dragon Quest III (May 2nd, SNES) -Here we are! This one is great as it introduces a job class system into the mix. It caps off the original trilogy in style. 22) Dragon Quest (May 5th, SNES) -After going through II & III, I wanted to see what I's remake was like. It's still dated and my least favorite thanks to being stuck in one-on-one battles, but at least it's not as much of a grind as the NES game was. 23) Densetsu no Starfy (May 11th, GBA) -The first of four Starfy games we didn't get. This one's simple enough to understand even though it was in Japanese. It's pretty simplistic like the rest of the series, too, for better or worse. I still liked it. 24) Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (May 11th, DS) -Not as good as three, but it's still good in its own right. Before you play as the main hero, you get to play a few chapters as your other party members, thus the name of the game. It has some great music. 25) Super Push Adventure (May 16th, PC) -A friend's puzzle game that sees you pushing rocks to get to a bird because that's the goal of the game. Lots of different gimmicks to break up what would've been a bit monotonous. 26) Ys: The Oath in Felghana (May 26th, PSP) -First experience with this long-running series was a good one. Game's an action-platformer hack and slash with a great soundtrack. It wasn't surprising that I liked it since I was in the mood for something like this. 27) Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (June 2nd, DS) -My favorite in the series to this point. You go through the different generations with the main dude (childhood, young adulthood, fatherhood) and has a great cast to boot. It's also the first one where you can recruit monsters into your party, and you'll want them at times since the game can be hard with a human-only party until near the end of the game. 28) Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition (June 15th, 3DS) -Match-three gameplay is nothing new for mobile, but it isn't done as much for handhelds. I did a review for this game, too, so here it is: www.superphillipcentral.com/2015/06/puzzle-dragons-super-mario-bros-edition.html29) Uncharted: Golden Abyss (June 26th, Vita) -Another first was trying out the Vita. Went with this since I like Sony Bend. Turned out to be the better game between it and Uncharted 3, even if it goes way too heavy on the touchscreen stuff at times. 30) Sonic Colors (July 2nd, DS) -Might as well be Sonic Rush 3 only take out Blaze and add in Wisps. I liked the first two, but the formula was getting dated by this point. There. I'm all caught up now.
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Post by Dashe on Jul 16, 2015 22:56:05 GMT -5
I haven't been as busy at this as I'd have liked this summer, but I did manage to clear a few more games recently. The version of this that comes with the Anniversary Collection is the hard one, right? If it wasn't, then I hope to never play the hard version, ever. It started off okay enough. The graphics looked like an upgrade from Mega Man 1, the robot masters weren't too tough, the levels actually seemed to have better theming...add that to the general fandom's overall admiration for the title and I was primed to rate this well, a 3 at least. Then the Wily castles happened and it became quickly apparent that there was a huge problem with the level design of the thing. Specifically, the way ammo was distributed. There were way too many locations where I'd run out of ammo or item energy and have nowhere to get more, and I'd have to go kill myself over and over until I got to the game over screen. Difficulty isn't inherently a bad thing, but when a game literally becomes unwinnable to the point where it is more beneficial to jump into spikes than to even try and replenish your ammo, it goes beyond the realm of "difficult" and into "unfair." And it isn't just Boobeam Trap, though Boobeam Trap is probably the worst offender with this. I did, however, stumble upon a fantastic mashup when I beat the final boss. I'm not too big on the soundtrack so I had some Glee playing in the background on a loop. If you take approximately two minutes and three seconds to beat the boss, you too can accidentally sync it to Let's Have a Kiki/Turkey Lurkey Time and watch AMV cinematic gold unfold. It's like the people who arranged the mashup were syncing it to this fight on purpose. If I were actually good at the game I would probably sync it up manually and post it in video form. That mashup, by the way, is what saved me from giving this game a 1. all the way. In some aspects it improved since the last one, but there were too many design slip-ups that cancelled it out. I can see why Inafune might like the game a lot, since if I recall correctly, it was the last Mega Man game he worked on without the Top Men rushing it out the door, but it certainly isn't without its issues if you're not looking at it from a designer perspective. After this, I just kept plodding forward with Anniversary Collection. I liked this better than 2 for sure. I wish it hadn't been so rushed, and I can relate to why it might have frustrated the developers having to get it out the door so quickly, because if they'd been able to take more time I'm sure it would have been one of the best in the series. Instead, they just tacked on old bosses from MM2 at the end and seemed to pad the crap out of it. Plus there was no intro. If I didn't know what was going on from hearing about the point of the game so often on the internet, I would have no idea what was going on with this at all. Being able to keep your E-cans after hitting the Game Over screen was a plus, you finally get to slide, and there were far fewer areas where suicide was the recommended means of advancing. I don't actually think there were any. Even at the remix of Needle Man's stage there was an armadillo guy who'd respawn if I climbed down the ladder a bunch of times so I could grind for ammo. Since I definitely liked it better than 2, it's getting , but only to show that I preferred it to 2. If I could go back I would probably nudge MM1 down to one Servbot head so I could match it with MM2, and then give this a 2, since for all its faults, it's probably closer to what I'd consider a 2. If Capcom ever got its head out of its asses, I'd actually like to see this one get remade in a way that's more faithful to what the developers might have wanted, assuming any of those developers even stuck with Capcom. I'm sure if any of them did, they're probably numbering in the single digits now. Keep moving forward, right? This one got cleared just today but I honestly don't remember too much of what happened in it. Toad Man and his stage reminded me of Rainy Turtloid, everything about Ring Man made me want to punch a wall, and the fact that beating Bright Man with the rain required you to use up all of your rain without any way to replenish it if he killed you in the Boss Rush was pretty terrible. He was like Boobeam Trap. He just was really, really cheap. I think if any boss touched you, that was 1/3 of your health, just gone. Seriously, what the what. As I was farming for ammo before the final boss, as many people probably have had to do, it really seemed like the programmers skewed the drop ratio to favor everything else above ammo, including 1-ups. I must have collected five 1-ups before I beat the thing. I managed to beat the last boss (spoiler alert: it was Wily) without hitting the game over screen once since I got through the boss rush, that's how many lives I managed to farm trying to squeeze ammo out of the worms. There's something very off about that drop ratio. I'm going to have to just give this the I probably should've given 1 and 2. They're pulling the bell curve up with this.
And now for something totally different! Super Mario 64 is one of the few games in existence I can honestly say I really, really like, so I was pretty hyped for this back when it was new and naturally never touched it until this year. Some parts of it, like Beach Bowl and Deep Dark and Freezeflame and Honeyhive/Gold Leaf galaxies kind of reminded me of 64, but even the most expansive of them were very linear. There was pretty much zero exploration involved, everything hidden was hidden in plain sight, and it was a lot more like checking off a to-do list than actually exploring different worlds. The one thing that felt like something I just stumbled upon was the green star underwater and the red star in the gate area. I didn't know there were green stars at all so it had me very confused for a while before I realized I hadn't found the star the level seemed to want me to find. I'd have liked to experience more of that in this game. Controlling Luigi was also a pain. Cosmic Luigi was the bane of my existence for about a week or so, and the low friction made getting the purple stars in Battlerock galaxy actually harder than getting the purple coins on the giant Luigi that everyone on Youtube seems to get so frustrated about. I've always liked Mario better than Luigi and this game really made that apparent. There was a good variety of gameplay, though. Some of the suits were crappy (yeah, spring suit, here's looking at you) but most of them operated alright even if the bee suit was tacky as all get-out. I'll be giving this a generous because it was a pretty solid experience, just not the kind of experience I'd been hoping for. I did 100% it. Not before Mr. Ninja did. He ninja'd me by one star because I didn't realize that last star had to be grabbed with both Mario and Luigi. I should have suspected as much from a ninja.
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Post by Bean on Jul 28, 2015 20:19:38 GMT -5
I've taken a break from being the Nintendo kid that I usually am to go try some Sony stuff out that I had been wanting to for awhile.
31) Syphon Filter (July 13th, PS1) -Familiar with the PSP entries, but I wanted to play one of the PS1 titles. My personal opinion of this game is that the controls are not the greatest, but you also have to understand that this game was made before dual-analog stick shooters were really a thing. In the grand scheme of things for the time and system it was on, it was actually pretty fun for the most part aside from a couple of spots where enemies would respawn at the worst times. I give this one a C-.
32) Ratchet & Clank (July 28th, PS2) -Now this one came out in a post-dual stick shooting world. I think I wound up being slightly disappointed at the lack of platforming in this game. At the same time, there are a ton of weapons to find or buy throughout the game, and a good many of them are fun to use. I liked the lively city levels the best. It finished strong and wasn't bad outside of not knowing where checkpoints were. I know sequels will fix that issue, but this isn't them. In the end, it's a C+.
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Post by Dashe on Aug 12, 2015 15:13:01 GMT -5
As of sometime last night, I finished every game featured in the Mega Man Legacy Collection and completely quashed any possible chance of wanting to pick it up at all. Out of the six NES games, I hated Mega Man 5 the least. The addition of having the BEAT letters to scavenge added some interest to what would have otherwise been your standard "Get to the Right Side of the Screen and Shoot Everything That Moves" affair. I noticed that the graphics for the stages seemed like they were a step up from previous Classic games and really gave more of a sense of location than usual. The falling rocks in Crystal Man's stage sucked. The easy-to-obtain e-tanks in all of the Wily castle levels helped. I saved the M-Tank for the final boss, which also helped because I ran out of Beat ammo. Honestly, there wasn't very much to complain about aside from "This game is ancient and the hardware limitations forced it to be a lot more simple than I'd have liked." out of 5, easy. It is probably the most solid 3 I've given any game in this series. The background sprites still give a solid sense of location, which looking at the flimsy excuse plot revolving around a global robot tournament (like I haven't been thrust into over a zillion video game Colosseum affairs in my lifetime) was probably make-or-break, since about half the Robot Masters didn't seem to have a stereotypically regional theme to them. I bet someone somewhere on Tumblr saw Tomahawk Man and just dropped dead on the spot. I digress. I liked the armors better than the actual Rush functions in previous games, and I liked that they didn't have ammo you had to go refill manually, but I didn't like having to skip through that long, cumbersome animation every time I changed into any armor. Thank god for the start button, but I wish the animation itself were actually convenient to watch and didn't interrupt the flow of things so much. Having the BEAT letters obtained by picking the right boss door out of two instead of finding them in the level also sucked. Like Scar from the Lion King, I despise guessing games, and the mechanic just seemed really cheap. They could have done some cool stuff with the letters in those branching paths they put into a bunch of the levels, or made it like that adapter Protoman gives you (which frankly should have been in every Classic game.) Ironically, despite this gripe I never actually needed to use Beat in the game. Having that underwater gauntlet before the boss rush blew chunks. "Okay, you now have to get past a bunch of spikes in water with fans blowing you into them and random fish everywhere!" No thank you. If Mr. X fooled anyone here, you'd better have been no older than eight when you played this. Final Verdict: out of 5. It wasn't great, but you could tell they were still trying to innovate and move forward with the series, which should really be standard procedure as far as games go. I'm frankly appalled that, considering where this series went from here, trying to expand on the previous game's mechanics is considered a pro instead of an expectation.
Moving on, I got some other things out of the way outside of the Anniversary Collection: Some backstory with this: About ten years ago, and I'd like to say it happened a bit before I opened this MMLS account, I was still rather young and stuck getting dragged to my boring aunt's house for many, many weekends during the summer. That place was, perhaps, the most boring place in the universe to be a kid who liked video games, TV, and electronics and hated sports, binge-drinking, and playing outside. I usually tried to buy myself a new game right before going there so I could hole myself up in some guest room with (at that point) the GBASP and the charger plugged straight into the wall. Usually it didn't work for very long because I needed more talent in the gaming department, but this one...this one was pretty legendary in that I was able to beat it in literally one sitting back then. My clear time was 20:48, I don't think I turned the SP off once, and for the most part due to the aforementioned lack of talent, I hadn't made it very far in a lot of games so the story pretty much blew me away and probably influenced a lot of things I made around that time. Little Me gave it out of 5, no contest. However, back then I literally just blitzed my way through it and skipped over the optional stuff, including an entire dungeon, so I decided this summer to go back and rectify it and try to go through as complete as possible. It helped that I'd completely forgotten the story except for the most basic of basic concepts. Needless to say, I did not get through the game quite so quickly, and I also found the cards to be the dumbest thing ever. A good chunk of them are randomly-generated and force you to play a lottery over and over and over to win the ones you need, and I think the odds are different depending on your cart or something to encourage trading or whatever. It was bullshit and if it was part of the original game I'll eat a hat. The story is nothing you haven't heard before if you have ever played any JRPG in your life. There are a few intentionally funny lines and one awkward use of the term "bod" during the game's climax that really broke the tension. I had no problems with any of the characters, including the talking mascot character. If I had to recommend a first RPG to a little kid or someone comparably genre-blind, then yeah, I'd pick either this one or some other remake of Lunar Silver Star Story (or the original). This is one of those weird situations where I'd do fractions with the score and give it a and a half. It's predictable, but it's not a bad predictable. It's average, but it's mildly enjoyably average. It's like the chicken pot pie of RPGs. Nothing new or exciting, but definitely something I'd play if it were put in front of me and there wasn't anything better. On the completely opposite end of the "Games I got during the GBA era," we have Super Mario Advance, which I somehow managed to play through to the final level, complete with taking the shortcut to world 7 in world 5 because the ice was irritating me, before setting it down and letting it gather dust for 10-15 years because it was too damn hard and weird. I would have probably found it less weird if they'd kept it as Doki Doki Panic without the awkward blackface, but then again, my mom probably wouldn't have noticed it and bought it for my birthday if it had still been Doki Doki Panic. The plot actually makes a little bit of sense as Doki Doki Panic. As a Mario game, however, Super Mario 2 in any form is going to be weird. The upgraded graphics were definitely instrumental in getting me through it. Getting through an NES Super Mario 2 would have been a near impossibility, an instant one-star rating, and it would have felt like filing taxes to me. I also got through all of it with Peach aside from about two levels. When I went back to get through 7-2 again, even Birdo commented that I'd come a long way before I slammed a bunch of eggs into her face and laid the smackdown on Wart. Then I discovered that there was a bonus part with Yoshi eggs, but honestly, this game did nothing for me, so I'm just not going to bother with it. out of 5 for this one. Also, does anyone use Toad in this, ever? His jump sucks so badly that I've never seen much of a point to it and his voice is like fingernails on a blackboard.
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Post by Buster Cannon on Aug 13, 2015 12:34:00 GMT -5
So the Wii U store was having a Kirby sale, and I'm like "hey, let me finally try this game out"! For those of you that don't know, there was a Kirby game announced for the GCN wayyyy back, but it kept getting delayed until they finally pushed it out later on in the Wii's lifespan. It doesn't disappoint. Return to Dreamland is more or less the spiritual successor to Kirby Superstar. Instead of different sub-games, however, RtDL sets its stages up like Kirby's adventure does; different hub worlds with multiple stages and a boss. The plot is standard Kirby fare; a guy who looks friendly wants you to help him out, and towards the end of the game he exposes his true motives and Kirby has to stop him. Kirby, I'm really gonna need you to start running background checks on folks before you start running around the planet collecting stuff for folks. Gameplay-wise, it's nothing that you haven't seen before. Kirby travels through different levels, copying powers from enemies and wrecking enemies. One thing I did like is that Kirby's powers have been expanded on, even moreso than they were in Superstar! Most powers have at least 2 full pages of moves that they can perform, and they all have enough functionality that you won't get bored using one. Stone Kirby finally has an offensive move that doesn't involve dropping on folks' heads, Fighter Kirby gets a Hadouken that can be performed with a SF-style command, Spark and Plasma have been merged into one power along with a couple of new tricks, they finally used Water Kirby from the anime...there's a lot of fun to be had with the different abilities in the game. There are also "Ultra" abilities that certain enemies drop in key areas; these are crazy powerful moves used to clear away blocks/puzzles in different ways. The only real criticism I had at first was the difficulty, or lack of. Kirby games aren't renowned for being hard, but throughout the first part of the game it feels very elementary. The puzzles are simplistic and you don't feel yourself breaking much of a sweat. However, once you get off of planet Popstar, the game gives you a slap in the face. Puzzles get more challenging, stage layouts get tougher, and enemies get deadlier. The game also features "Extra Mode" after you clear the main game, which is more or less hard mode with some interesting changes. The minigames and ability challenge rooms keep you busy as well. I'd have to give the game 5/5 Kirbies! The game really is a complete package, and feels like a love letter to the folks that enjoyed playing Superstar. Co-op and multiple playable characters keep this one fun long after you've cleared the main game.
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Post by satoh on Aug 13, 2015 14:20:12 GMT -5
My latest conquests are a pair of indie-before-indie-was-a-thing-that-existed games by Foxeye, called Ikenie and Holdover. Thought the games are natively Japanese, English versions are available on their respective webpages. Holdover is a fun little metroid-vania style platformer that really puts exploration first. This one is hard to describe beyond that since part of the fun of it is simply learning what its about. You can find it here. It does contain some pixelated nudity. Non-explicit. Ikenie is a different sort of game, truly unlike any I've played before. It takes place almost entirely underwater, yet you must surface to breathe. Exploration is again the primary feature, but instead of typical free movement, you actually swim, in a fairly realistic way, with momentum and drag and turning radii and such. It adds a puzzle solving aspect in that you must collect items to open new paths... But be warned, there are enemies that can be hiding around any corner, and you won't be able to fight them. Ikenie doesn't give much in the way of plot exposition in the game, but the story is available in English on the site. (You should probably read it as it does explain why you're there, but its not strictly required) Be wary about each corner, and remember that sea-snakes sometimes lose sight of prey around corners. You can get it here.I recommend both for a refreshing change of pace from 'modern', 'indie', and 'retro' games you're probably familiar with.
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Post by Bean on Aug 27, 2015 15:46:38 GMT -5
33) Wario Land II (August 8th, GBC) -This is the first of two Wario Land games where you can't actually lose. Enemies will take coins from you when you get hit and bosses will just take you out of the arena, forcing you to get back to them and try again. It's an interesting approach. I enjoyed this game, but I do think health bars or the usual Mario power-up style works better, but this game was fun for its exploration aspects. Solid B from me.
34) Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (August 25th, DS) -Coming off of the previous two DS Dragon Quest games, this one feels like a small letdown. It's more lighthearted in nature which is fine by me, but the game really loses its focus once things start to open up. Sometimes, having linearity or a focus in your games is a good thing, and this one just never hooked me in as much in spite of it being the longest entry in the series to date. Still, it does a lot of things right, so it also gets a solid B rating here.
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Post by kire-kitsune on Aug 29, 2015 3:53:59 GMT -5
I've been playing a trio of games, two of which I've cleared and the other I'm nursing though it is a former conquest of mine. Firstly is Nier. This game, man. This game. Of the surprisingly quality JRPG's to release in the 7th gen this one really stands above the rest for me. And when your competition includes several Tales games and Xenoblade that is a real compliment. First thing to note is the fantastic script. This game has one of the few narratives to not only shock me-(second playthrough and on completely changes your perspective on the action and it becomes painful to fight the same foes you gleefully cut down last playthrough.)but also sneak a tear out of me. It was a deep emotional journey-and you have to take it at least four times to see it all. It is by Taro Yoko and his team at Cavia which means two things: It is an intensely strange, alternately beautiful auteur experience and a somewhat iffy one to play. lol The game is wonderful and a lot more competent than your average critical review may suggest, but it feels like a mid-range PS2 game, qualitatively speaking. I don't want to delve too deeply into this game here because I think everyone should play it for themselves. It is one of those experiences. Also, as I'd be remiss to forget it, the soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard. Here's a sample, it's divine. www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5xZbJDZZo4Next is Drakengard 3, another game by Taro Yoko and gang.This one is a doozy. Firstly, this game is not for everyone. It is crude, popping at least one brazen sex joke every thirty seconds, occasionally featuring a dragon pissing himself in fear or engaging in a protracted bowel movement for laughs. The characters-except the dragon, Mikhail, whom is so sweet and innocent that I just want to hug him all day-are all despicable, insane mass-murdering sexual deviants. On top of this, the combat that makes up three fourths of the game is stiff and lathered in technical hiccups such as a stuttering framerate, completely ineffectual party AI and a slow-minded camera. This may all sound horrific-and to a point it is-but I loved every. Blessed. Moment with this game. It's a cast of misanthropic psychopaths whose goals are initially more villainous than any of the game's antagonists, but this is all apart of the typical Taro Yoko package. It starts that way, but as you play the game anew, new scenes and endings unlock, each more contextually layered than the last. The first playthrough is short, shallow and mean-spirited. But as the game troops on-as with Nier-you begin to understand more and more about these characters and their motivations. They go from whacky, sexually-charged stereotypes into genuine, layered personalities in a world far more complex than it once seemed. Unfortunately, the combat only becomes better if you put in the time to master it-and therefore tame it's inconsistencies and shortcomings. But with fully upgraded weaponry and a well-honed button mashing skill, it can be quite enjoyable. This one, as I said, is not for everyone. but I recommend a peek. It goes for 20 bucks, so, it's not a bad deal. It's also mercilessly funny if you're like me and have a shameless, horndog sense of humor. lol Also, fourth wall breaks. "Why the hell did I earn experience for that?" Zero says as she completes a stupidly simple box puzzle. And finally, Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix.This one'll be quick as I haven't technically beaten *this* game, but I have completed all that is in the package in their original incarnations. Basically, I love Kingdom Hearts almost as much as I do breathing. This series has been with me through all my ups and downs and I've always enjoyed it. This collection is fantastic-bringing KH II Final Mix stateside and giving Birth by Sleep the console treatment it deserved. The higher resolution really shows-I compared them side by side myself. It is a huge difference. The worlds feel so much more vivid than before. Also on disc is a film version of the Mobile-turned DS game, re:Coded. It's alright. It's a well put together film, and frankly is better than the actual game, but it still feels silly and inconsequential in the broader scope of the series. Anyway, if you are a fan of Kingdom Hearts and possess a PS3, get it. No questions asked. You won't be sorry. If you're not, well, this and the previous collection are a perfect start. It has been a very Square-y month for me. I'm even replaying Final Fantasy VII for good measure.
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Post by MegaTuga on Sept 7, 2015 11:21:17 GMT -5
Dashe :Ohhh. Lunar Legend. Funny story is that my own experience of that game is not too different of yours, although It took me more time because I wanted to get all the stuffs and so I beat it in two or three attempts. I became very interested and decided to try the PS1 game to see how it goes since the story is basically the same... uhh... I didn't get too far, the battle system was a neat idea but I just couldn't get used to it. Anyway, as for me, I've been playing some Megaman games in some way of "preparing" myself for the Legacy Collection. Yes it doesn't make much sense but hey, I have the NES and GB collection in my 2DS so getting the Legacy Collection is just for the extras. I still haven't bought it out of "meh, Winter is not that far, let's wait for the sale". So, to begin, Megaman. It was nearly a year or two since I last touched the game. I noticed that my save was always near the final stage or in the beginning of the credits. Sometimes the game also saves the moment when I turned it off (I don't know what triggers this, 3DS/2DS users, help?) which let me see the very last moment of the credits before I even start to play the game. Maybe that's counter intuitive for the gameplay since that's supposed to be the "reward" for playing the game? Right, I steered off-track for a bit. So, I always do the usual route in this game starting from Cut, then Guts, and Elec and only at that point I follow the weakness route. Weird I know. , if I was to fight Gutsman after cutman I should have reversed the order since I would go Buster-only for them, but I always stop myself from even attempting to use super Arm against Cutman, due to being easily missable. The rest of the game went by smoothly. I had some trouble in Fireman stage (darn Tackle Fires fell faster than I expected) and in Wily 1 (still can't figure out a good way to bypass the fire towers without wasting Ice Slasher almost to half). The problem was when I got to the final stage. Getting to the rematches was troublesome already but getting out of them with a good chunk of health is worse. So what did I do? Cheese the pause trick. Until now I always thought it only worked for thunder beam but apparently it works for all weapons except Mega Buster and Hyper Bomb. SO GLAD TO GET RID OF FIREMAN. He was my worst problem in all of the rematches because Gutsman was right after him and I always got there with one or two hits left to die... or never got to him at all. No, I do not regret cheesing the game, if I wanted to play it fairly, I would have done so back when it was new and I never played it before. Megaman 2 was nothing short of... well short. Since last time I knew a couple tricks than before (yes, I used Item 2 in heatman stage but I get the Extra life as well), like freezing Quickman with Metal Blade, or using Air Shooter to bypass Woodman's barrier. And I wish I knew that Air shooter was effective against the Sniper Joe Walkers (Forget their names). The Buebeam trap is always a thing as well, but I made the rash decision of farming for health and everything went fine. It was also my first time playing on Difficult. I also got to play Dr.Wily's Revenge, since... well it was right next to Megaman 1 in my 2DS. Adn I was surprised at how easy it was to beat! I feel so proud of myself really, the MM2 Boss fights were always a thing for me that I could never beat them properly, now I was able to Perfect Quickman with Atomic Fire and Time Stopper. You can't imagine how happy I was then. I was also able to dodge Wily's 2nd form Claw attacks. How come I never knew it was that easy? Ah, that's right, I also finished a game that I began playing, uh... 4 years ago? And I left it at an interesting point, may I say. The game was Psychonauts, and boy, oh boy. it was one of the most amazing hidden gems I ever came across. For basically being a "collect-a-ton" type of game, the evolving abilities are so fun to use. For example, picture this: You find an hidden garden where four bosses you just took on are lamenting their loss by gardening. And then what did I do? There is an ability for your Levitation ball called "Wrecking Ball" which is exactly as it sounds. I spent a good 10 minutes running back and forth and destroying vases everywhere while laughing maniacally. That's how fun it was. But back to the game itself. I guess that the wacky, aged cartoon-ish style of the game can be a turn-off but it's easy to ignore that when everything is so vivid and colorful. Getting all the things can be difficult at first but when I came back with new abilities that made it a no-issue, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment that you can't imagine. Before the endgame, I tend to go back and see if I get all he things, or most of the things I can (I avoided re-visiting the mental worlds because all I missed was some figments and those were more a case of "meh", simply because they can get really hard to get.) and it didn't took me 10 minutes before I was back, facing the point of no return (how nice of the game to make a save slot specifically for that) and taking on the most ridiculous (and nightmare-inducing) bosses. There is another thing that I would like to point out, When I watched the credits I was amazed at the sheer amount of voice actors. No one had more than three parts but those who had, were very few. Making almost half of the credits with nothing more than Voice actors. This.. is quality right there. I never once was dissatisfied with the voice acting in this game and now I know the reason why. The only annoying thing is most of the battle grunts, other than that, it was seamless. I've also been messing around with Super Smash Brothers for 3DS (in my case 2DS), but since that one doesn't have a clear ending other than beating All-stars and Classic with all characters (which I would rather avoid doing), I don't think it's worth mentioning. The only thing that bothers me is how hard it is to figure out the characters' movesets and abilities, since the game doesn't explain this to you. Yes, it tells you via the tips but the tips are too random to be helpful. Also, I can't seem to do any worthy combo which begs the question "how the hell can I do this 100-hit challenge". And on the subject of challenges, I let myself get too much into them and eventually threw the game away because of that. I should try to get back to it so at least I can be decent when fighting real players online or wireless. (on that subject, I'm always available to fight if our schedules happen to coincide)
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Post by satoh on Sept 7, 2015 20:35:54 GMT -5
I can sum it up in two words: Zerg. Rush.
I recently obtained Heart of the Swarm, and I was not disappointed. Nothing is quite as satisfying as dragging somewhere close to 500 zerglings through an enemy encampment and basically insta-gibbing the entire base in one go. Firepower-be-damned, I have superior numbers and they're all expendable!
I'm also more than pleased by the custom map editor, which allows for the creation of generally any kind of custom content you can imagine... with enough effort. For example, one map is in fact a proper shmup.
I'm almost convinced a platformer would be perfectly feasible as well, though I'm not particularly eager to attempt it myself. For now I'm just learning the basics, but oh-boy do I have plans.
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Post by Bean on Oct 2, 2015 4:33:35 GMT -5
I only beat one game last month, and that was...
35) DuckTales: Remastered (September 5th, Wii U) -I never played the original, but I have watched a run of it. This one is more modernized so that you don't have to backtrack to make mad stacks of cash. A huge plus for me is that it uses as many of the old DuckTales cartoon cast as voice actors in this game. I just loved that touch, and I wouldn't mind seeing WayForward get another chance at remaking some of Capcom's Disney games from that era. Solid B- but nothing too spectacular overall. I'd still recommend it easily.
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