Games Beaten 2016

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 3:45 pm

First 50:

51. Akumajō Dracula (Famicom Disk System)
52. Castlevania (NES)
53. Classic NES Series: Castlevania (Game Boy Advance)
54. Guardian Heroes (Xbox Live Arcade)
55. Metal Slug (Neo Geo MVS)
56. Metal Slug 2 (Neo Geo MVS)
57. Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo MVS)
58. Soul of Darkness (DSiWare)
59. Code of Princess (3DS)
60. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
61. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
62. The Legend of Zelda 2: Link no Bōken (Famicom Disk System)
63. Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC)
64. Shan Gui (Steam)
65. Space Fury (ColecoVision)
66. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (ColecoVision)
67. Gateway to Apshai (ColecoVision)
68. MURI (Steam)
69. Pink Hour (Steam)
70. Pink Heaven (Steam)
71. Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet (Steam)
72. Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (Steam)

This is a rad game. A free one, to boot.

The visual presentation is pretty striking. It looks like a ZX Spectrum title. Black background, chunky pixels, and plenty of garish yellows.

Though this reference may be lost on some, Princess Remedy reminds me of Esper Dream crossed with a bullet hell shooter. As the princess journeys through the kingdom she encounters a series of sick individuals whose ailments require treatment. Some of the "illnesses" are hilarious and nonsensical, like the girl who's sick because "she's five years old" and then becomes "six years old" after being cured. Curing an individual requires combat against the "bugs" that torment them - battles are initiated by speaking to NPCs. Combat occurs within the confines of a single screen and the princess is equipped with an evolving projectile weapon (pills at first, syringes later) throughout the game. As the game progresses, both princess and foes gain additional ammunition and at game's end combat becomes a delicate dance around a screen full of bullets.

Which isn't to say the game is hard. Permanent life upgrades are plentiful, as are "bomb" flasks. The princess also regenerates health during battle after set time intervals. I lost perhaps 3-4 skirmishes throughout the course of my one-hour playthrough, and there is no penalty for a loss. The enemy roster is pretty creative, best of all is the (literally) towering final boss which seems to be a parody of the final confrontation in Final Fantasy VI right down to the Kefka-esque nihilistic ranting.

Controls are spot-on, though there is no diagonal movement or strafing so some of those tough later battles do require some additional strategy.

Princess Remedy is brought to us by Remar and Ludosity, the developer of MURI (another game I played a short time ago and loved). A $3 sequel dropped a few weeks ago, so I'll be checking out that when I have a chance.

Oh, and in a strange stroke of un-luck I got really sick also immediately after playing this game. You failed me, Princess Remedy!

Next month: Nothing but spooky/monster/horror games.

Post by **Markies** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 5:07 pm

Sarge wrote:130) Street Fighter 2': Special Champion Edition (GEN)

I'm not even entirely sure he follows the same rules that human players do with his specials.

He does not. In fact, most charge characters don't follow the same rules as human players. But, M. Bison specifically breaks the game in so many ways. For the final four, I've come up with some tested strategies.

Balrog - He is basically a freight train. He is going to come at you and punch you. That is it. So, keep him at bay, leg sweep and fireball him. He never jumps and has no kicks. Straight and fast punches.

Vega - Distance and Countering. His fight is basically a little dance and will take the longest. When he jumps on his cage, go as far away as possible and try to meet him in the air with a jump kick. Otherwise, dance with him, leg sweep and keep him in a specific area.

Sagat - He's the opposite of Balrog. He high tiger, low tiger, high tiger, low tiger, uppercut and then repeats until you are dead. Go after him. Get in his face. Leg sweep some more and take advantages of his openings. His attacks are slow, so counter when possible.

M. Bison - He breaks the game. He is faster than anybody, stronger and can do special moves at will. He is going to fly across the screen, so meet him there. Don't let him bounce around you attacking at will. Keep him grounded, get close up and keep attacking.

It really depends on the game, but sometimes I'll have a tough time against Vega, other times it will be Sagat and others it will be Bison. They all can be pricks and can be difficult depending on what character you chose and your play style. Infinite continues helps a ton. They may beat you 15 times, but it doesn't matter if you beat him on the 16th time.

Post by **Sarge** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 5:27 pm

Yeah, I took M. Bison down on the third go. I figured out a few ways to bait him into doing what I wanted. When he's advancing on you, you can sometimes bait him into jumping in on you and hit him with a jump kick in the air. It seemed at least relatively safe. You can also take advantage of that head stomp, and sweep him when he comes down. If I ever got a chance to jump in on him after a knockdown, that's when I just let him have it. Crowding him worked well, it's just getting him down to begin with! :lol:

Yeah, and with Vega, I would time it where I was moving away from him, and jump kick him in the air as he comes down. Worked every time, as long as I didn't screw it up.

Balrog is ridiculously exploitable, and Sagat is too if you're careful. He's too fireball-happy for his own good. But dang, he can take a ton of life off if he pops you with his Tiger Uppercut.

Post by **Sarge** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 10:45 pm

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

134) JAWS (NES)

So, just goofing around on the NES, looking for short stuff to beat. Gotta get that count up, right?

(I just want something to feel like I'm accomplishing things, it's gonna take me a while to finish DQVII!)

Snake Rattle 'n' Roll is a really good isometric platformer from the guys over the pond at Rare. And it starts really well, where you go, "Hmm, this is a really fun little game!" Then it proceeds to, "Well, this is getting pretty tough." After that, it's like, "Holy cow, this is NES hard!", to finally, "They want me to do what?" Seriously, that last set of jumps is ridiculous. I'd actually call the game fair right up to that point, and then it's where you just hope you have enough lives to make it. You do respawn on the last platform you landed on, so that helps some, at least.

Actually, the last two stages can be summed up in two words: Nintendo ice.

Other than that, the last boss is pretty tough, too. The unfortunate thing with it is that you have to keep waling away on him, and if you leave a gap at all while you're hitting, it recovers full health. Yay! That sounds a'ight, I suppose, but there's nice little snowballs or whatever that crush you coming from two directions, not to mention the absolutely ridiculous floaty physics.

Oh, and the ending has me thinking of a sequel to Snakes on a Plane.

Rad Racer is up next. It's basically a Square-developed, Nintendo-published Outrun clone. Wait, you mean it's not Sega ripping Ninty off this time? Whoa! Anyway, it's a passable NES-era racer that leaves nearly no margin for error in the later stages. Perfect play is the name of the game. You will have to use your brakes, and the biggest hazard is other cars knocking you off the road. And when you flip, it takes forever to get rolling again, depending on where it spawns you back in. You could watch five seconds tick off the timer, and toward the end, that's a death knell.

Plus, one of the tunes is used as Stinkoman's theme song over at Homestar Runner. I knew I'd heard that tune somewhere before!

Oh, and Super Mario Bros.. Just wanted to see if I could push through it. I actually had a tough time with 8-3 last time I played, but this time, I breezed right through. If by "breezed", you actually interpret that as sliding through the Hammer Bros. gauntlet as little Mario by the skin of my teeth. Jumped over the first two before they started tossing hammers, and just managed to slide under the second set as they jumped. It happened so fast I was shocked I both reacted and time, and didn't screw it up somehow.

Once you know the routing on 8-4, it's not so bad, except for that last Hammer Bros. I think they're worse than Bowser himself.

EDIT: JAWS on NES isn't all that bad. Ridiculously short, though.

Post by **marurun** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 10:48 pm

Sarge wrote:Yeah, I took M. Bison down on the third go. I figured out a few ways to bait him into doing what I wanted. When he's advancing on you, you can sometimes bait him into jumping in on you and hit him with a jump kick in the air.

Neutral jumping roundhouse is the best strategy for Vega and Bison. It was the only way I could beat the game on difficulty level 8.

Post by **MrPopo** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:25 pm

Major props Sarge for beating Snake Rattle 'n' Roll. That game is nasty hard.

Post by **Sarge** » Sat Oct 01, 2016 12:16 am

Well, actually, I cheated a bit in the end with save states.

Forgot to note that.

When I was younger, I could get to the last stage, but didn't finish it. But my patience wasn't quite what it is now (ironic, given my penchant for Dragon Warrior and other RPGs then), and I also didn't have as much gaming under the belt. I couldn't beat Battletoads back in the day, either.

Strangely enough, though, I'm pretty sure I could do a legit run now. There's nothing that really jumps out at me as completely undoable until that last sequence, so if I get there with enough lives, it should be fine. The last boss can be taken down surprisingly fast if you play your cards right.

Post by **Flake** » Sun Oct 02, 2016 12:17 pm

3/19: Sonic Generations (3DS)
3/22: Sonic Colors (Wii)
4/10: Sonic Adventure DX (GCN)
4/17: Knuckles in Sonic 2 (SG/WiiVC)
6/15: Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (PSP/PSTV)
8/4: Metal Slug (Arcade/PS4)
8/5: Metal Slug 2 (Arcade/PS4)
8/5: Metal Slug X (Arcade/PS4)
8/5: Metal Slug 3 (Arcade/PS4)
8/22: Megaman X (SNES/GCN)
8/29: Megaman X2 (SNES/GCN)
9/3: Megaman X3 (SNES/GCN)
9/3: Megaman X4 (PSX/GCN)
9/4: Megaman X5 (PSX/GCN)
9/5: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PSN/PS3)
9/6: Street Fighter V (PS4)
9/10: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (PSX)
9/17: Dragonball Xenoverse (PS4)
10/1: Metal Gear Solid (PSX/PS3)

Usually when the urge to take an Alaskan vacation hits me, I fire up 'The Twin Snakes' but I recently purchased the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Collection which came with a free download of MGS. So why not?

In the last decade since I played this game, I forgot how hard it is. Even on normal difficulty you can be cruising along happily and then 'wham' one mistake and you're dead. It's a very satisfying game to beat and the graphics have aged surprisingly well, all things considered. The low res, low polygon images still do a wonderful job of conveying a narrative.

Post by **isiolia** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 1:19 pm

1. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox One)
2. DOAX3 Fortune Edition (PS4)
3. Uncharted 4 (PS4)
4. DOOM (2016) (PC)
5. Halo 5 (Xbox One)
6. Dark Souls (PC)
7. Call of Duty (PC)
8. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PC)
9. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
10. King's Field: The Ancient City (PS2)
11. Bloodborne (PS4)
12. SOMA (PC)
13. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4)
14. Dark Souls III (PS4)
15. Lords of the Fallen (PC)
16. Demon's Souls (PS3)

Played: A little shy of 21 hours, basically doing a magic build despite that it’s easy mode for this game. For me, it was variety, since I did melee centric builds in Dark Souls III and Lords of the Fallen (not that the latter has much choice). Didn’t go out of my way to skew things towards Light or Dark world tendency, and went with the “good” ending.

Thoughts:

I did play Demon’s Souls a little prior to even Dark Souls coming out. I just never really made it past 1-2. Not due to getting stuck, but just from drifting back to playing FFXI or something instead. Few games would keep me away from that past when it was down for maintenance or the like :roll:

.
Finally getting back around to it after playing the rest of the games in the Soulsborne series made it interesting...so many parts got reused later, albeit often improved on. I think there was a major evolution of the intended gameplay loop between Demon’s and Dark Souls, which makes me wonder just how much of the game was there when Miyazaki took over the project.
For example, tedious as farming them can be, Demon’s Souls essentially allows the player to carry a hospital’s worth of healing grasses on them (theoretically, something like what, 594 healing items?), only potentially limited by their carry weight (which was thankfully done away with after this game). While the Estus Flask in the Dark Souls games nets a consistent source of healing every time you use a bonfire or respawn, it’s far more limited, starting with a handful, and maxing out at 15-20 depending on the game and player investment. DSII does have readily available consumables as well, but for the most part, the games operate on a modest allotment of healing items. You can only afford to trade hits so many times, whereas DeS pretty much lets you do that if you’re willing to go farm.

Additionally, the difference in the way bonfires and lamps are placed versus the fixed after-a-boss placement of Archstones really changes the way areas play. It felt to me like Demon’s Souls levels more often lended themselves to be endurance oriented. Taking things slow tended to work well, but if there didn’t happen to be a good (or any) shortcut to open, some of the routes got to be quite long. 4-2 was like that for me, and the less said about the Valley of Defilement the better. None of the poison swamps are endearing, but that was just the worst. :evil:

Subsequent games mostly break things up better, outside of DSII DLC, and end up creating a shorter loop, albeit with a higher standard for success. At least, that's what it seemed like to me.

On the plus side, at least for me, the boss fights were fairly easy. I beat most of them on the first attempt, though again, being a caster probably helped a lot there. Plus, I’d say quite a number of them allowed for, if not favored using ranged or casting strategies. Even the ones that didn’t tended not to be as aggressive or dangerous. Couple that with having scores of healing items on me at any given time, and there was just a lot more chance to recover. So, it largely rendered the (potentially) long routes to some of them less of an annoyance than they had the potential to be. Some of the more unique fights, like the Storm King, were pretty cool to boot.

Overall, it’s a fun game, albeit noticeably (and understandably) a little rough around the edges after having played the newer iterations. Mostly I did appreciate that it’s overall a little slower, more easily allowing for methodical play. Plus it’s relatively short, which does favor the intended replays more.

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:06 pm

Yep, by doing a magic character in Demon's, you played easy mode. :roll:

Really glad you enjoyed it though. I've had yet another friend in person that tried it and "couldn't get into it" which is disappointing. I don't know anyone in person that's played and beaten it. But it's still quite possibly my all time favorite to this day. As you said at the end there, the shorter length and linearity lends itself well to replays. It's very easy and fun to approach again, and outside of some tricky trophies getting the platinum was pretty fun to me (required NG++++ I think).

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Games Beaten 2016

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