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January Games:
Megaman (Switch)
Megaman 2 (Switch)
Megaman 3 (Switch)
Megaman 4 (Switch)
Megaman 5 (Switch)
Megaman 6 (Switch)
Megaman 7 (Switch)
Megaman 8 (Switch)
Megaman 9 (Switch)
Megaman 10 (Switch)
Kirby's Dreamland (Wii)
Time Spinner (PS4)

February Games:

Megaman Legends (PSTV)
The Misadventures of Tron Bonne (PSTV)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

March Games:

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Mario Galaxy (Wii)

April

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS4)

May

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Switch)
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
Castlevania (Switch)
Dragonball Xenoverse 2 (Switch)
Sonic Forces (Switch)

June

SNK: Heroines (Switch)
Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)
Saint's Row The Third (Switch)
Operation C (Switch)
Secret of Mana Remake (PS4)
The Banner Saga Pt 1 (Switch)

July

Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch)
The World Next Door (Switch)
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Switch)

August

Fire Emblem: 3 Houses (Switch)
Final Fight (Switch)


Quick thoughts isntead of a full impression -

Power Rangers - If the developers had more budget or ambition, this could be a very servicable Marvel vs Capcom 2-like. It may end up getting there, with future content updates. This game is definitely the stuff of dreams for 8 year old Flake.

Fire Emblem: 3 Houses - holy crap. They fixed everything I didn't like in Fire Emblem Fates. This is the first time I've ever beaten a Fire Emblem on Classic mode.

Final Fight (Switch) - I never got far in this game back in the arcades so having such a great version in Free Play mode is great. Played it on my HRAPV and it felt pretty authentic. Also, the Japanese version features Poison as an enemy which is a lot of fun. So many future enemies.

Flake wrote:Fire Emblem: 3 Houses - holy crap. They fixed everything I didn't like in Fire Emblem Fates. This is the first time I've ever beaten a Fire Emblem on Classic mode.

This is all Fire Emblem got? Three sentences? I am disappoint.

1. Dusk (PC)(FPS)
2. Project: Snowblind (PC)(FPS)
3. Soldier of Fortune: Platinum Edition (PC)(FPS)
4. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
5. Wolfenstein 3D: Ultimate Challenge (PC)(FPS)
6. Destiny 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
7. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris (PC)(FPS/RPG)
8. Destiny 2: Warmind (PC)(FPS/RPG)
9. Destiny 2: Forsaken (PC)(FPS/RPG)
10. Star Wars: Rebel Assault (PC)(Rail Shooter)
11. Castle Werewolf (PC)(FPS)
12. Project Warlock (PC)(FPS)
13. Castle Crashers (PC)(Hack and Slash)
14. This Strange Realm of Mine (PC)(FPS)
15. BioShock Remastered (PC)(FPS)
16. BioShock 2 (PC)(FPS)
17. BioShock 2: Minerva's Den (PC)(FPS)
18. Blood (PC)(FPS)
19. Blood: Cryptic Passage (PC)(FPS)
20. Blood: Post Mortem (PC)(FPS)
21. Shadow Warrior (PC)(FPS)
22. Shadow Warrior: Twin Dragon (PC)(FPS)
23. Shadow Warrior: Wanton Destruction (PC)(FPS)
24. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC)(FPS)
25. F.E.A.R. 2: Reborn (PC)(FPS)
26. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)(RPG)
27. Men of Valor (PC)(FPS)
28. Ultima III: Exodus (PC)(FPS)
29. Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space (PC)(Point and Click)
30. Midnight Ultra (PC)(FPS)
31. Amid Evil (PC)(FPS)
32. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC)(RPG)
33. Betrayer (PC)(Horror)
34. Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary (PC)(FPS/RPG)
35. Far Cry 2 (PC)(FPS)

This game is basically like that song by Toto, but imagine if the rains in Africa are bullets that I'm blessing into a hundred mercenaries' bodies. Ain't war Hell?

In Far Cry 2, you are a mercenary sent into an unnamed African nation on the brink of civil war with the sole purpose of finding an arms dealer named the Jackal and assassinating him. Unfortunately, you contract malaria, the Jackal catches you immediately, and everything goes to shit right from the beginning. From there you take jobs from both sides, team up with other mercs to do bad things, and gather up whatever diamonds you can to buy access to better gear and upgrades. Yes, it's basically Cabela's African Safari, only where the prey is people. People who suck.

Ultimately, this is going to be a game about war being a total shit show, because some folks profit off of it and then get the hell out as soon as everything goes south for them. The few who finally realize the error of their ways in causing all of this suffering do what they can to save the lives of the few, but they either end up killing themselves or irrelevant to the point of being voiceless. This is represented in two ways: the Jackal and a journalist you work with who once interviewed the Jackal as he came to the realization that what he was doing was terrible. The Jackal, now suffering a fatal cancer, decides to cut out the rot by saving as many civilians as he can and killing the mercenaries, arms dealers, and faction leaders involved, including ultimately himself and you. The journalist ends up toiling in obscurity, forced to publish to his personal blog as the only outlet he has. It's something of an exercise in futility, where the "bad" people die, while the "good" are forced out as refugees...but largely unhurt and alive.

This was early in the open world FPS trend that we now have. I don't mean early as in the days of Strife or Deus Ex's attempts at open worlds, but a much more expansive take, where the world is open and traversable in the vein of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Borderlands series minus the RPG elements of the latter. There are unfortunately a lot of birthing pains, such as limited fast travel across the open area and high respawn rates which mean you're going to have to bother wasting resources constantly or navigating around to avoid enemy checkpoints and hoping you don't get spotted...and you most likely will be. It starts off somewhat difficult until you get a few loadouts and upgrades, and then it's just tedious. Add in a system that only tracks main story missions as "progress" and a weapon wear and tear system that causes your guns to jam and misfire far more rapidly than seems possible, and soon the game feels frustrating.

Yeah, guns break fast except for the AK. My preferred load out ended up being a grenade launcher, AK, and silent dart rifle, and the rifle could maybe last a single assault before the scope rusted through and the thing basically exploded on me. I'd make constant returns to the various armories to grab replacement gear for it. Too much of the time in the game is spent having to go find somewhere to replace gear or traveling from point A to B to C through a bunch of enemies simply because my damn gun is jamming once again.

That's probably what I dislike about Far Cry 2 the most. It just feels like after a point I'm rehashing the same territory over and over again because, even upgraded, I'm being forced to travel through rapidly respawning checkpoints to fix my shoddy kit. As a result, I got bored. Bored and tired. This could have been a decent 15 or even 20 hour experience, which is longer than most FPS games, but instead I experience the bloat through design decisions that feel like they were bad birthing problems of a new way of approaching an FPS. RPGs figured out fast travel in the 1990s because they had to, but the FPS certainly took its time.

For what it is, Far Cry 2 is a fascinating experiment, trying to mix in statements on the nature of warfare, the impact that outside influence has had in modern Africa, and new ways of evolving an important game genre. It turns to mush due to the issues with the last part, but it was still an incredible step in how the FPS approached the open world and modern combat at a time when the genre was going way more regressively linear and Rah Rah Patriotic with games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. If you're a die hard fan of the genre, it's worth checking out. If you're not, then it can be skipped in favor of later Far Cry titles that had more polish.

And if you're not interested in morality, you don't have to think about the ethics of what you're doing at any time, though I recommend considering the ethics; it makes the game a more complete experience.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:

Flake wrote:Fire Emblem: 3 Houses - holy crap. They fixed everything I didn't like in Fire Emblem Fates. This is the first time I've ever beaten a Fire Emblem on Classic mode.

This is all Fire Emblem got? Three sentences? I am disappoint.

One sentence for each house.

This deserves a post: I beat The 7th Saga. Roughly 22 hours, Lux and Valsu at levels 36/37. Enemies in the final castle wrecked me in one hit, but I basically just dodged as many battles as I could and ran from the rest.

Sarge wrote:This deserves a post: I beat The 7th Saga. Roughly 22 hours, Lux and Valsu at levels 36/37. Enemies in the final castle wrecked me in one hit, but I basically just dodged as many battles as I could and ran from the rest.

High five, bro. Welcome to the Winner's Club.

Oh, crazy. Congrats, Sarge. I've been streaming Elnard, and hope to be done with it on Sunday, but I'm really very happy to not be playing the US version. You 7th Saga apologists are nutty.

I've been fairly happy with Elnard, in general, though. It's become a bit of a trip.

Ziggy587 wrote:

pook99 wrote:@Ziggy: I agree that a romhack would be great, the odd thing about the castlevania series is there are DOZENS of rom hacks for the original castlevania and a pretty large number of fan games but the rest of the games in the series have virtually no hacks outside of asthetic stuff. Even the wildly popular Super Castlevania 4 only has 1 or 2 level hacks which is just crazy. I think if konami made a castlevania maker in the style of mario maker it would sell by the boatloads and I would love to see the kinds of things people could come up with.

A little late on the reply, but I only just saw this comment now.

It would be awesome if Konami made a Castlevania Maker. They could call it Castlevania Creator! The market for 2D Castlevania games probably isn't nearly as large as it is for Mario, and Konami doesn't seem to care much about 2D Castlevania games. But this would be awesome!

So sad, but so true. While the market is definitely not as big as Mario(what is) it definitely is sizeable enough that konami could make some serious money by giving the fans some love

pierrot wrote:Oh, crazy. Congrats, Sarge. I've been streaming Elnard, and hope to be done with it on Sunday, but I'm really very happy to not be playing the US version. You 7th Saga apologists are nutty.

I've been fairly happy with Elnard, in general, though. It's become a bit of a trip.

I definitely played through The 7th Saga just on sheer reputation alone. I love a lot of what the game does, regardless, but I'd definitely recommend folks that don't care for some insane difficulty spikes to play Elnard instead.

Honestly, though, I think its reputation might be a little overblown. It's hard, even brutal at times, but there are quite a few ways to mitigate that. The fact that I finished at such a low level comparatively should attest to that. Level 50-55 like the FAQs state is just overkill, methinks. But then again, I did use one of the best teams, and a Elnard-boosted Valsu by swapping to him late in the game.

Partridge Senpai's 2019 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018
* indicates a repeat

1. Night Slashers (Switch)
2. Bye-Bye BOXBOY! (3DS)
3. GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Xbox 360)
4. Katamari Forever (PS3)
5. Detention (PS4)
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *
7. OctoDad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) *
8. FlintHook (Switch)
9. God of War (PS4)
10. God of War HD (PS3)
11. Tiny Barbarian DX (Switch)
12. God of War 2 HD (PS3)
13. Starlink (Switch)
14. Shin Gundam Musou (PS3)
15. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS)
16. Banjo-Kazooie (N64) *
17. Super Mario 64: Rumble Edition (N64)
18. Mario Party 3 (N64) *
19. Paper Mario (N64) *
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) *
21. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) *
22. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC) *
23. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) *
24. Yoshi's Island (SNES) *
25. Super Mario World (SNES) *
26. Super Mario RPG (SFC) *
27. Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (GB)
28. Final Fantasy VI (SFC) *
29. Final Fantasy IV (SFC) *
30. Final Fantasy V (SFC)
31. Final Fantasy III (Famicom)
32. Mother 2 (SFC) *
33. Mother 3 (GBA) *
34. Hebereke (Famicom)
35. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SFC)

36. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SFC)

Didn't quite have the DKC itch out of me yet (and still might not ) so I decided to postpone my "current" games a little longer and do a full 103% run of DKC3 for the first time. Like with DKC2, I have beaten the game before, but never a full run of all the bonus coins, DK coins, and banana birds until this time. I have been somewhat converted over to the school of "DKC3 is the best of the original trilogy", but still think DKC2 is a fantastic game. DKC3 is largely a somewhat more polished version of that game. It took me about 5 and a half hours to do on the Japanese Wii U Virtual Console.

In refining the DKC2 formula of a more meta-goodie-focused DKC, DKC3 does a much better job than 2 of designing levels and barrels that all fit well with each other. None of the bonus rooms or DK coins (which themselves are now a special enemy and not just another coin lying around) feel unfairly hidden, and the challenges you have to do to get them all feel better thought out and interesting than in 2 where a good handful of them feel like filler. The roster of animal friends have also received a slight change again, as Rattly the snake has been completely removed (while he was fun, I feel 2 really exhausted his potential), and the purple Skwaks the parrot who in 2 could only descend as well as not spit eggs can now both fly upwards as well as pick up barrels. Finally, the overly invincible (yet very fun) Rambi has been replaced by Ellie the Elephant, whose water spitting mechanics and fear of mice have her as the star of many of the more unique levels.

DKC3's best points, as far as the series go lie in these refinements and uniqueness of levels. Very rarely do two levels feel much alike in this game, as each one tries to do something in a way you've not yet seen. Sometimes it falls flat and is a bit miserable, like the rocketship level or Ellie's stampede level, but most often it provides a new challenge in an interesting way, like Ellie's mouse-avoidance level or the level where you need to keep a hungry fish fed behind you. This extends to even the boss fights, which also break beyond the mold of the more typical "dodge and smack with barrel" that 2 had mostly carried on from 1. All this on top of a really well thought out difficulty curve really do make the general quality of 3 stand above the other 2 original DKC games and puts it definitively as one of the best platformers on the system for me. Where 2 was as much of a sequel as it was a re-imagining of what DKC could be as a franchise, 3 is everything a sequel should strive to be in how it succeeds in innovating on the good ideas and paving over the not-so-good ideas and mundanities of its predecessor.

But no game is perfect, and neither is DKC3. In trying to innovate so hard, it does occasionally fall flat in some quite annoying ways. This mostly lies in the occasional gimmick that doesn't work quite right, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, as sometimes that drive to innovate struck on an idea that just didn't work as well as it needed to in its execution. That problem is most present in the final boss and secret final boss fights, which rather than feeling like tests of platforming skill and timing like they do in 2, feel like boring memorization tests with battle mechanics not always very clearly explained.

The other source of this also comes up with something I mentioned in the DKC2 review in the inherent problems with making a game with two main playable characters. Kiddy (or as he's amusingly called in Japanese, "Dinky") is a clever re-imagining of a "heavy" kong like DK was in the first DKC weaved into the throwing and partner mechanics expanded on in 2. However, this also just gets in the way of playing the game quite often. Dinky largely succeeds in feeling like a worse kong to be stuck with than Dixie, as he not only can't hover but also isn't faster like Diddy. He's also worse than Diddy in that he's physically larger, and the issue with the kongs being less pixely and more-animated makes Dinky's hitbox really difficult to judge compared to Dixie's, and this can make some of the trickier boss battles and enemy dodging really frustrating at times. They also made it so that Dinky's throws do the platforming leap like is done in DKC2, but Dixie's throws slam Dinky onto the ground to both attack enemies and break open the very occasional floor-hidden secret (not unlike slamming into the ground from a great height can do in DKC1). It's a neat idea, but the throwing for height is used SO much more often that it just makes it annoying to have to switch between the kongs so often.

Edit: Another important thing I forgot to mention; this game has very noticeable slowdown where DKC2 does not. The waterfall levels are quite pretty with how you can go in front of and behind the falling water, but if you have more than one or two enemies on screen while one is on screen, the game is gonna start to chug. It doesn't happen too often, but one bonus room in particular is made FAR harder because you're fighting against both the slowdown and the challenge of the room itself.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. DKC3 isn't a perfect game, but it's still a fantastic one. Even its biggest problems are still minor at best, and barely get in the way of an otherwise very fun experience. If you like SNES platformers, this is definitely not one to overlook.