Games Beaten 2013

[AppleQueso]

City is excellent, it's bigger and has tons more content, but I think that Asylum was a bit more tightly designed all around, save for the boss battles. Asylum's boss battles kinda sucked.

[SamuraiMegas]

Forgot to post here,
Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengeance.
I think I am going to review it actually. Stay tuned.

[dunpeal2064]

City is excellent, it's bigger and has tons more content, but I think that Asylum was a bit more tightly designed all around, save for the boss battles. Asylum's boss battles kinda sucked.

I was actually going to say that, if I had to job one complaint at Asylum, that it would be the boss battles. They just didn't feel like boss battles. They were very cinematic, and still offered a cool experience, but it just never felt like I actually fought the bosses. Granted, that is probably how Batman would have done it, but it did leave me just a tad disappointed at times.

Still, when the credits were rolling and that music was playing, it really felt like a legitimate Batman experience, if that makes sense.

[Gamerforlife]

Damn, they actually put MORE hidden stuff in the sequel? I love collect-a-thon stuff, and I was pretty overwhelmed by the amount of stuff to collect in the first game. Its great to hear that City is even better though, as I already thought Asylum was top-notch.

I'll have to check out Sleeping Dogs too, as I really like that combat style, and I've heard great things about it.

Arkham City's combat is a bit smoother, making combat challenge rooms a bit less of a headache. They added some nifty stuff too like being able to counter two people at once, and being able to grab a guy's gun and dismantle it like a toy before you smash his face in. I noticed that Batman does different counters depending on his surroundings too. So he might grab a guys face and bash it into a rail behind him

The cool thing about Sleeping Dogs is that you get to use the environment around you A LOT. Plus, the main character has no qualms about killing dudes in combat, unlike Batman

City is excellent, it's bigger and has tons more content, but I think that Asylum was a bit more tightly designed all around, save for the boss battles. Asylum's boss battles kinda sucked.

Yeah, Arkham City feels less Metroid, and more Grand Theft Auto, but on a much smaller scale. Some of Arkham City's bosses are indeed epic though. Nothing in Arkham Asylum even compares to them

[SamuraiMegas]

Review is up

[Stark]

Review is up

You should change this post to tell the reader what game you reviewed and a link to where said review is "up".

[Ack]

1. Sniper Elite V2 (PS3)(TPS)
2. Teen Agent (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
3. Alpha Protocol (PS3)(RPG)
4. Beneath A Steel Sky (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
5. Imscared - A Pixelated Nightmare (PC)(Horror)
6. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (SNES)(RPG)
7. Celestial Mechanica (PC)(Platformer)
8. Gravity Bone (PC)(First Person Adventure)
9. Secret of Mana (SNES)(RPG)
10. Lure of the Temptress (PC)(Point and Click Adventure)
11. Mario's Early Years: Fun With Numbers (SNES)(Edutainment)
12. CoD of Duty (PC)(FPS)
13. The Bard's Tale (PS2)(RPG)
14. The Great Circus Mystery, Starring Mickey and Minnie (SNES)(Platformer)
15. Deus Ex (PC)(FPS)
16. The King of the Wood (PC)(FPS)
17. Shadows of the Damned (PS3)(Horror Adventure)
18. Chuck Rock (SNES)(Platformer)
19. Arcana (SNES)(RPG)
20. Jurassic Park (SNES)(Action-Adventure)
21. Brawl Brothers (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
22. Monopoly (SNES)(Boardgame)
23. Dr. Mario (SNES)(Puzzle)
24. Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (SNES)(Platformer)

So if I told you the SNES had a horror-themed Looney Tunes platformer, would you believe me? And if I told you that one of the worlds was suddenly and disturbingly inspired by Salvador Dali, what then? Or that the game would alter its visual effects, so sometimes levels were raining, sometimes normal, sometimes wintery, all of which was random at the start of the game, so you never are quite sure what setting you'll be wandering through? Or that the music is creepy and haunting, and the game unnerving in its little details?

Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday is at first glance a poor platformer: it's awkward when it comes to hitboxes, control feels a little sloppy, enemy designs are strange, and the bosses are extremely dull and repetitive. Yet it's one of the best SNES horror games I've ever played because of how bizarre it is. First, the game's music does a great job of setting the disturbing mood. Even the classic Looney Tunes opening is twisted and garish to the senses, driving a feeling of doom that enhances the gameplay. Second, while level designs are consistent, a level might be experiencing different seasons, or drastically different weather effects, or some sort of background object might be extremely warped from its previous iteration with no consistency beyond its effect on that particular world within the game, so no matter what you do, you can never be quite sure of what you are getting into.

Even the little touches get to me. If I move one way, Porky's sprite invariably turns the opposite direction, so I never feel I'm quite sure of which way I am going. Some levels feature segments of a somewhat 2.5D layout, messing with perspective. In most levels, Porky is in the foreground when passing traps, though in certain ones he is suddenly in the back. And then there is my favorite level of the game, The Alps, which in the middle of a wintery mountain escapade suddenly twists into what I can only describe as a Dali-esque nightmare world involving floating carrots, spitting ostriches, watermelon trees, and eyeballs for platforms. Also, it rains dead fish. What the Hell?

Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday is not a great platforming game in the sense that something like Donkey Kong Country is: at best, I would judge it as mediocre due to troublesome hit detection and simplistic boss designs, and I have to knock it for some of its poor sprite designs. But the bizarre nature of this game will stay with me for a while, so I'll argue that it's good namely because of its subversiveness.

Oh, and the highlight of change for me? In one level on one playthrough, I saw statues of men in their underwear holding out rings in the background. On the second plathrough, these statues were shrouded in dark cloaks and looked to be holding nooses.

[alienjesus]

1. Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions PSP
2. Pokémon: Dream Radar 3DS eShop
3. New Super Mario Bros. U Wii U
4. Paper Mario: Sticker Star 3DS
5. New Super Mario Bros. 2 3DS
6. Mario Tennis Open 3DS
7. Wario Land 3 GBC
8. Hana Samurai: Art of the Sword 3DS eShop
9. The "Denpa" Men: They Came By Wave 3DS eShop
10. Pokémon White Version 2 DS
11. Kirby Mass Attack DS
12. F-Zero Wii U VC
13. Jeanne d'Arc PSP
14. DoDonPachi Resurrection 360
15. Patapon PSP
16. F-Zero X N64 *NEW*
17. Cave Story WiiWare *NEW*

Oh hey look, I played some console games

I've been playing a lot of F-Zero games recently, with GP Legend being one of my last beaten games of 2012, and the SNES original being added to this years list last month, but I have to say that X is definitely one of the best - and that's not an easy decision, as I haven't found a single game in the series to be lacking yet. X had a lot to live up to as the last of the western released F-Zeros I hadn't spent much time with and it delivered. - the speed is solid, the framerate impressive and the course design is top notch. It's not without it's flaws - I hate the way it makes your cars back end spin out to the side if you go too tightly around a corner, a mechanic which seems unique to this one, and there are a few tracks that fall on the wrong side of frustrating too - normally ones involving driving along the inside or outside of a pipe.
However, the game does offer something a little different from the 2D games or GX - whilst both of those seem to be about perfecting your lines and boosting at just the right time, I found that beating the harder cups in X was more about being incredibly aggresive and pushing your rivals off of the nearest cliffs. This was partly down to the ridiculous advantages the computer gets in expert mode - they have better acceleration and top speed than you almost universally and get more air on jumps than is actually possible to get. Either way, I found that maintaining a respectable average position and murdering your closest competitors was the easiest way to victory. The game seems more set up for this than others too - the attack controls are easier to pull off than other in the series, and theres even a death race mode where you must try and kill all 29 other racers as fast as possible. X has a few nice extras aswell, with 30 racers to unlock, master difficulty hidden away and 2 hidden cups, one of which is made entirely of randomly generated tracks. Definitely a must have for N64.

Cave Story is a great little game, and the Wiiware port does it proud. Although no exactly bursting at the seems with extra features, it includes a few extras such as slightly higher quality graphics and a remixed (but sadly inferior) soundtrack. The game is a fun little romp, and very impressive considering that it was basically all amde by one guy. Theres lots of variety in the weapons you can equip, and a few areas in the game where you can trade or skip certain items for others, allowing for some replay value. There's also the infamous true ending which requires some real guide dang-it mechanics to get to, but I decided to save that for a 2nd run in the future. The game holds up well, and whilst short it never felt underdeveloped. The stroy is interesting enough for this simple type of game, the boss battles can be nicely chaotic and the difficulty is challenging but not unfair. The music of the game is good, but mostly not that memorable - after beating it the only two tunes I can really recall are the title/plantation theme and balrogs theme. The graphics are functional, but not exactly pretty. The games jumping physics felt a bit wonky to me at times, but luckily that became less of an issue about a third of the way in when I traded my pistol for a machine gun that I could use to basically fly, and then a little later when I got a booster pack to allow me some extra jumping control. Both are optional though. Overall, this game is definitely worth a play, no matter which of it's many ports you opt for. Although one of the pricier versions, 1000 wii points feels perfectly fair as a price for the game to me.

Next up: More console stuff probably? Trying to get through 1080, but it's tough going, but I'm also looking to play through some Cybernator or Bubble Bobble too. There's always those free PSP downloads to tempt me away though...

[prfsnl_gmr]

Cave Story is a great little game, and the Wiiware port does it proud...There's also the infamous true ending which requires some real guide dang-it mechanics to get to, but I decided to save that for a 2nd run in the future.

Cave Story is such a great game. You should go for the true ending now. (Also, skip the machine gun and get the Spur...you will not regret it.) The final cave is considerable challenge, and while I liked the game after my first playthrough, I fell in love with it while I was going for the the true ending.

[alienjesus]

Cave Story is a great little game, and the Wiiware port does it proud...There's also the infamous true ending which requires some real guide dang-it mechanics to get to, but I decided to save that for a 2nd run in the future.

Cave Story is such a great game. You should go for the true ending now. (Also, skip the machine gun and get the Spur...you will not regret it.) The final cave is considerable challenge, and while I liked the game after my first playthrough, I fell in love with it while I was going for the the true ending.

Yeah, I found out about the Spur after I beat the game, tried not to spoil stuff for myself before then. It probably works out nicer with the booster 2.0 anyway, although gotta say I will miss machine gun jumping everywhere.