Games Beaten 2016

by **ElkinFencer10** Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:06 am

PartridgeSenpai wrote:Tl;dr: It's shit and I want the hour it took me to beat it back.

I tried to warn yall in my reivew of it...

by **dsheinem** Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:54 am

ElkinFencer10 wrote:
PartridgeSenpai wrote:Tl;dr: It's shit and I want the hour it took me to beat it back.

I tried to warn yall in my reivew of it...

having recently beat this one myself, I would concur that it is a shit game all around.

by **ElkinFencer10** Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:56 am

Which is a shame because it looks so weeby and awesome. Just stick to Raiden IV or Akai Katana for your 360 shmup fix.

by **prfsnl_gmr** Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:58 am

ElkinFencer10 wrote:Which is a shame because it looks so weeby and awesome. Just stick to Raiden IV or Akai Katana for your 360 shmup fix.

I've also heard about this game called "Deathsmiles" that's supposed to be pretty good...

by **ElkinFencer10** Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:59 am

Oh yeah, I've actually never played that, so I keep forgetting about it. :oops:

by **MrPopo** Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:50 am

ElkinFencer10 wrote:Oh yeah, I've actually never played that, so I keep forgetting about it.

That one seems like it's massively up your alley.

by **alienjesus** Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:23 pm

51. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X PSN Vita *NEW*
52. Um Jammer Lammy PSN PS3 *NEW*
53. Space Channel 5: Part 2 PSN PS3 *NEW*

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X

If you guys have been reading my games beaten lists of the past few years, you'll know that I have a real soft spot for the Project DIVA series. DIVA F and F 2nd were my favourite games the year they came out, unbelievably beating out Smash Bros U for my number 1 spot that year. I've played the games to death, putting well over 200 hours into each, and I've gotten rpetty damn good at them.

So, you might thionk that it'd be pretty easy to win me over with a new entry in the series, but actually, I think it's the opposite. Diva F and F 2nd were so good that the new game needs to impress to hold up. The PSP games which came oput prior to DIVA F are hard to back to now in retrospect, as they just somehow feel a lot more basic and limited, despite similar core gameplay. And Project DIVA X tries to mix some stuff up, which could either be just what the doctor ordered, or could sour the whole experience.

What it actually does, is create a game which in some ways feels like a step forward, and in others feels like a step back. The main new mechanic here is the story mode which has you playing songs in order to fill 'clouds'. Each cloud is filled with songs that fit a specific theme such as 'Cute', 'Cool' or 'Quirky'. In realitry, this doesn't change stuff up much, but it has little cutscenes as you progress which are inoffensive, if not especially notable.

The other big change in this mode is the voltage meter - as you pl;ay songs you fill a voltage meter which gives you extra points and unlocks items and clothes to wear. This takes the place of the previous completion bar, as completion in story mode is determined by achieving a minimum point score rather than a minimum hit percentage. This is kinda dumb, because it means the story mode songs are way easier to beat than the free play, which for my money is the real way to play the game.

The aforementioned costumes have been given bonus effects in story mode too - stuff like 'makes' rare costumes appear more' or 'offers a voltage bonus on a combo of 50'. Clothes are themed around the cool, classic etc themes just like songs, and wearing clothes of the right design for the song awards extra voltage. Costumes are earned through hitting chance time sections of songs, where a giant star appears if you hit enough notes, granting you a costume change, hopefully into something new. Inm DIVA F and F 2nd, you'd be given a flashy video effect for htting these, and I kinda miss them. Unlocking costumes only through story mode also means that you can't get them fthrough free play, which is frustrating as it's a much more enjoyable and challenging way to play.

Other big changes include the ability to change the background stage for a song, which sucks because it means they don't have the cool animated videos they had in previous games. Now every song just has your vocaloid dancing about, which I find dull. They added a concert mode which lets you play 3 cut down songs in a row, which I ignore mostly too - I'd rather just play the 3 songs in full seperately. They add 6 medley songs which at first I was unsure about,, but they grew on me. In terms of listening, I'd rather have full songs instead of a medley, but for playign the game the changes of rhythm offer a lot of challenge, making them fun to play. Unfortunately, with 6 medleys and only 24 other songs in the game, the package feels really sparse - DIVA F had a similar number, but the lack of medleys made it feel fuller somehow. DIVA F has 42 from the start iirc, meaning this package feels very lightweight.

Fundamentally, the gameplay is still pretty much the same, and still really great. They removed the double swipe stars and the chain stars from DIVA F 2nd, but they felt kinda forced anyway mechanically. Instead they've added icons where you must mash the button rapidly to get more points for a while, which work ok. Crucially, the note charts are still great, and on Extreme difficulty, the challenge level is pretty darn high, meaning I can still enjoy the game - as soon as I finally unlocked the difficulty anyway (seriously,. playing through 30 songs on Normal first really fucking sucks when it's so easy to me now).

DIVA X is probably worse than DIVA F or F 2nd, but it's still great. It could really use some more content in terms of more songs, and I'd rather they spent time on more songs and note charts than on all the new stuff they added, which is fine but mostly forgettable.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering, my favourite song in the game is Brain Revolution Girl. The extreme notechart is a ton of fun.

Um Jammer Lammy

So, I love a good rhythm game. I decided to play a few more this weekend.

Um Jammer Lammy is a PS1 rhythm game which is a spin-off/sequel to Parappa the Rapper. Instead of playing as a rapping dog who has just gotta believe, you play as Lammy, a guitar playing lamb whose guitar is in her mind. Lammy is a member of a band called MILKCAN, and they have their first concert coming up, but she had woken up late and must run to the gig as fast as possible. Unfortunately, a bunch of bizarre situations keep holding her up, and she must fly planes, carve guitars, babysit and fax herself from hell her way through 7 levels. Yeah, it's pretty short.

But that's fine, because Um Jammer Lammy is HARRRRDDDD. Like Parappa the Rapper before it, Um Jammer Lammy has a ridiculously tight timing for hitting notes, along with a button prompt meter at the top that isn't toitally accurate in time, and a slightly confusing improv freestyle system which allows you to hit the complete wrong notes and rhythm for extra points if you do it in a convincing way. It's a real challenge though. For comparion, I beat this song on DIVA X on the hardest difficulty first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKyRbjQJ5KI but it took me 5 attempts to finish the first song on Normal in Um Jammer Lammy: https://youtu.be/4iFGL2VkIPc?t=1m20s

As I mentioned before, Um Jammer Lammy allows you to freestyle, offering you more rewards for mixing it up then playing it straight. The exact mechanics of this are confusing - sometimes I thought I did a really cool mix up and I'd get a bad rating, and other times I'd screw up playing normally, cover up by hitting random buttons and ace it. I found freestyling to be way harder here than in Parappa, mainly due to it being clear how long Parappa would take to say a phrase. Parappa had simpler button phrases on screen to begin with too, allowing more time to freestyle, whereas Lammy tends to have some very quick twiddly guitar bits instead. Freestyling is a cool mechanic, but it'd be nice if it taught you the mechanic so you could truly understand what it wants. On the plus side, Lammy is slightly more forgiving on button timings than Parappa, but considering how absolutely ridiculous Parappa was on that front, it's not much extra leeway overall.

Um Jammer Lammy is a fun little game with a silly story and silly songs and a difficultycurve so steep it tilts backwards. It's very short, and I enjoyed it well enough, but like Parappa, it's probably more interesting in how it contributed to the start of the rhythm genre, rather than as a prime example of the genre itself. I liked it overally, but I won't be coming back as often as a lot of others.

Space Channel 5: Part 2

And here's another rhythm game! I love me a good rhythm game. Space Channel 5 is a good rhythm game. Space Channel 5 Part 2 is also a good rhythm game.

Space Channel 5: Part 2 feature mostly the same gamplay as the first game - a call and response rhythm game with funky music and a stupendously camp scifi setting which is hilarious. Playing as Ulala, reporter for SpaceChannel 5, you report on variosu evil plots which inevitably involve forcing people to dance.

In this game, the enemy is comprised of funky robots instead of funky aliens. The cast of characters is somewhat expanded in a charming but not overly significant way - rival reporter Pudding, space pirate Jaguar and Space Michael Jackson are all given expanded storyline roles, and there are some 'dramatic' moments.

Gameplay is sometimes mixed up with new instrument playing bits, but these are honestly not that different - you just hit down to play the instrument. They also refined the laser beam mechanic - in the previouisly game the laser beam signal was always 'chu' but whether you pressed A or B was entirely down to whether the enemy was an alien or a hostage to rescue. In this game, they say 'hey' whenever you need to use the b button beam instead, simplifying this a bunch.

The game looks a bit prettier too, but being a dreamcast title initially it looks somewhat rough around the edges. That didn't stop the games camera from being position in some much pervier places than the previous game though - the game sure wants you to know what colour Ulalas polygonal panties are. It seems kinda ill fitting in such an unabashedly silly and camp game to be honest.

The msuic this time round is excellent - in the first game it was awesome too, but prehaps over-relied on the main game theme a bit too much, meaning a a lot of the music was quite similar overall. This game mixes it up a lot more, with levels featuring waltzes, dance music, jazz and all sorts of other stuff. It's much more eclectic.

The game is a little longer than the first, but not by a lot - there are 6 stages total. That said, the game offers more replay value, with unlockable costumes that can be obtained by saving certain hostages, secret buttons press points that are spelled out to you, an endless dance challenge mode, 2 player modes and some other stuff too. It gices more incentive to replay the slightly sparse content, but I didn't need it anyway - the game is plenty fun as is. It is a bit easy though - the timing windows seem a lot more lenient than the first title.

Space Channel 5 part 2 is pretty great. I don't think it has quite the impact the first did, but I think it does improve on it in several ways. Both games are brilliant and worth your time. Definitely play this one.

by **prfsnl_gmr** Mon Sep 26, 2016 1:10 pm

alienjesus wrote:Space Channel 5 part 2

I played through the Space Channel 5 games four years ago when my daughter was three. She loved watching them, and when I got home from work, she would ask if we could play "robot dancing" (or, as she called it with her baby lisp, "bobot dancing").

I love those games, and I associate them with an incredibly happy time.

by **BoneSnapDeez** Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:34 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)

After derping around with goofball ecchi visual novels for some time, I decided to play something more substantial. I've always heard that Clannad is the big daddy of the genre. And while I own a (digital) copy of that game I don't have the stomach for a 50+ hour clickfest right now. So I went for the next best thing - a shorter game by the same developer.

Planetarian was released on the PC in Japan back in 2004. It was ported to the PS2 and PSP, and then eventually found its way to Steam.

First impressions: whoa. This game is gorgeous. The character artwork is stellar. As are the backgrounds, which usually featured some subtle type of animation, like falling rain. The soundtrack is equally impressive. It has a tendency to get swallowed up by the ever-present voice-acting, so I recommend giving it a listen once the game is beaten (the soundtrack and still images will unlock at this point).

Without giving too much away... The player takes control of a bitter man scavenging around a post-apocalyptic Earth. He stumbles upon a planetarium, which is solely inhabited by a chipper and naïve android who's completely unaware of the cataclysmic events that have taken place and patiently awaits for the next wave of customers. The two chat about all sorts of things (this is the bulk of the "gameplay") before venturing outside once supplies get low.

The game is very well-written and the abundant use of voice-acting is a welcome touch. The play between the cranky protagonist and flighty robot makes for some hilarious and bittersweet moments. Should you wish, you can turn off the voice-acting and text-scrolling and read the story "page-by-page" instead, which will quicken the pace significantly.

I initially thought the story would be similar to the (excellent) Chobits manga/anime, which explored the nature of love and attraction. Instead, Planetarian is more of a commentary about the will to survive and, dare I say, the "meaning of life." This is one of those "you will cry" VNs and I'd say the reputation is well-deserved. I hate to be "that guy" but I managed to figure out how the story would end about halfway through - still, the ending hit me pretty hard. Brilliant execution. I think I'm a believer in this genre now. Well done, VisualArts.

by **Kuruwin** Wed Sep 28, 2016 6:31 am

I have pretty much opposite view on Miku games. I think the PSP entries are actually lot better than the VITA one's because of their simplicity. Lot of the new addition's like the star notes have made the games worse (they really suck with the touch screen way and are still awkward even with sticks)

I still like the newer Miku games but this series really suffers from complusion of having to "innovate" the gameplay.

Of course that's just my take on it.

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