Games Beaten 2020

[pook99]

@Note: there is 99 life cheat that I use whenever i play through the x-men 2, it just makes the game far more fun IMO

@prfnsl_gamer: bird king is a fun game, I bought it a while back, I played through a few levels and have been meaning to get back to it for some time now.

Games Beaten:

47. Metroid: Other M (wii)

The metroid series is one of the more interesting among Nintendo franchises, it is definitely top tier franchise held in high regard among gamers, but there are definitely less entries in the series than flagship titles like Mario and Zelda. The series basically falls into one of 2 categories, the original games; Metroid, Super Metroid, Metroid 2, fusion which put the Metroid in Metroidvania and have inspired an entire genre and countless classics including the legendary symphony of the night as well as modern masterpieces like guacamelee and Ori. The more modern metroid games are all in the prime series and are deep, amazing, first person adventure games that retain the feel of classic series but in a different perspective. (or so I've heard, I've only played the first one but it was a great game)

And then there is Other M. Other M is the Zelda 2 or Mario Sunshine of the series, it is a game that plays far different than any other game in the series and although it is a good game in its own right, many fans of the series don't consider it a proper metroid game

A couple of things make this game stand out, first off there is a much larger emphasis on the story. WHere as in every other game, Samus is a mostly silent protaganist in mostly empty and barren worlds, this game has a heavy emphasis on cutscenes. You get an awesome cutscene retelling the ending of Super Metroid in glorious CG and you get a glimpse into Samus backstory as a federation soldier. You meet her old squad and learn of a galactic conspiracy to bio engineer invincible metroids to use as weapons. The story is a contentious part for some, but I really enjoyed it, there definitely are pretty long cut scenes but they are spaced out enough to not get in the way of gameplay.

The gameplay of this game is similar to the 2d metroids but in a 3dish space. The best way I can describe the perspective is to call this game the Super Mario 3d world of the metroid series. It is laid out like the old school games but you have free range of motion to move around as you please. There is some exploration and upgrades to be found that open up new areas, but the game is definitely more linear and structured than other games in the series.

There is a large emphasis on action in this game, with regular enemies requiring quick moves and dodges and some really awesome boss fights. Other M has a handy auto lock feature where Samus automatically shoots the nearest enemy, in additon there is a really cool dodge mechanic, basically tapping any direction right before you get hit causes samus to leap out of the way and if you are holding down the fire button it instantly charges your charge shot.

There is also a first person aiming mode that you can use to lock onto enemies and look around the environment. This game is played with just the wiimote held like a classic NES controller, by pointing the wiimote at the screen Samus enters into first person mode, it works really well to help explore and look around the environments, and you will need to quickly switch back and forth between modes in combat.

I get why hardcore Metroid purists may not like this game, but I absolutely loved it. It is definitely more of an action platformer than a typical metroid but is is a ton of fun to play, and worth checking out for fans of the genre or those looking to find a little more about the backstory and character of one of Nintendo's most famous heroines.

[Note]

@Note: there is 99 life cheat that I use whenever i play through the x-men 2, it just makes the game far more fun IMO

Thanks for the tip. Looked up some of the other cheats as well, these are good to know for the next time I fire up the game.

[Flake]

January
Shovel Knight: King of Cards (Switch)
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (Switch)
Super Metroid (Switch)

February
Megaman X (Switch)
Nekketsu Highschool Dodgeball Club (Switch)
Super Dodgeball (Switch)

March

Garou: Mark of the Wolves (SNK Pro Stick)
Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

XBC2 is as pretty as it is long. And holy crap, this game took me 89 hours to beat. I barely did any of the side-quests and dropped the difficulty in the last two chapters and it still took 89 hours.

There are a lot of things about XBC2 that I really liked - the setting, the artstyle, the diverse voice acting. Nopons. I really, really likeypon Nopons.

There are a lot of things that feel like unforced errors, too. The combast system is initially confusing AF but then once you figure it out, battle becomes formulaic and boring. It's a question of what is faster? Sitting back and letting my characters auto-attack these guys to death or pushing A every now and then. The story is so full of anime tropes that the charm of the rest of the game is seriously impacted. It wore me out, how tired and cliche things were. It felt like incredibly lazy writing and felt out of place given how beautiful everything else is.

And that's about it - XBC2 is definitely worth playing and a fantastic show-case of how powerful the Nintendo Switch is when the artstyle drives the visuals instead of a sense of photo-realism. I just wish that the combat was more involved and the story had a pay-off that wasn't taken away from you at the last moment.

[prfsnl_gmr]

@pook99

Finally! Someone else who appreciates Other M for what it is...a solid action game with interesting design and great boss battles. Your thoughts on the game nearly match mine completely. (I was a bit more critical of the “hidden object” puzzles at certain points in the game.)

Also, did you unlock the hidden “true” final boss? It was so, so awesome.

[MrPopo]

@pook99

Finally! Someone else who appreciates Other M for what it is...a solid action game with interesting design and great boss battles. Your thoughts on the game nearly match mine completely. (I was a bit more critical of the “hidden object” puzzles at certain points in the game.)

Also, did you unlock the hidden “true” final boss? It was so, so awesome.

<cries unrecognized in the corner>

[prfsnl_gmr]

Oh yeah...I forgot you liked it too.

[Ack]

1. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)(Adventure)
2. Final Fight [Japanese Version] (Switch)(Beat 'Em Up)
3. Ziggurat (PC)(FPS)
4. Magrunner: Dark Pulse (PC)(FPS)
5. The King of Dragons [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
6. Captain Commando [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
7. Knights of the Round [Japanese](Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
8. The Witcher (PC)(RPG)
9. Tenchi wo Kurau II(Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
10. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (PC)(RPG)
11. Lichdom: Battlemage (PC)(FPS/RPG Hybrid)
12. Star Wars: Republic Commando (PC)(FPS)
13. DOOM 64 (PC)(FPS)
14. Half Dead 2 (PC)(Adventure)
15. Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
16. Torchlight II (PC)(RPG)

Powered Gear

Powered Gear is the original name for what released in the US as Armored Warriors, the mecha beat 'em up that formed the basis for Cyberbots and offered up some characters to the Marvel vs. Capcom series. There aren't many changes between the Japan release and the US localization beyond Japanese text being translated and Jin's name changing to Rash at the time (which was later dropped, as he again became Jin in the MvC series). Beyond that, it's the same game.

What game is that? Ridiculous robot carnage is what it is! You're on a secret mission to take back an alien planet under invasion from other forces...but you're also there to covertly take the planet for Earth. Enough about the plot though, as this game is about fighting a bunch of giant robots, ripping off their limbs, and then deciding if you want to strap those limbs onto yourself to use to rip apart more robots. Oh, and stepping on people. That's important too.

There is a beauty in the mayhem of Powered Gear, but it's also not an easy experience partly because the customization options presented in different levels can become so deep. Some parts work better than others in different situations, so perfecting this title comes down heavily to understanding how to use the different parts to the best of their abilities as well as when. It can be daunting, and the enemy isn't exactly going to relent while you figure it out. If you want something with a lot of replayability, Powered Gear/Armored Warriors is a fantastic choice. It's also beautiful in its mid-90s 2D sprite glory. It makes sense, considering this is the beat 'em up Capcom made after Alien vs. Predator.

Torchlight II

If Torchlight was an attempt to build on the success of Diablo, Torchlight II is Diablo II, but in a way that builds successfully on the formula in interesting ways. That's not to say that Torchlight wasn't successfully in building off Diablo, but there was always an element of their experiment that felt...limited. The sequel refines some of these ideas, builds others, and drops things that were problems even back in the Diablo 2 era. It's not perfect, and there are still some rough areas, but the continuation of the vision from Torchlight to its sequel is sound.

In Torchlight II, one of the main heroes has now taken the heart of the first game's big bad and is on some kind of terrible journey, ravaging everything in his wake and pushing towards the center of all magic that is the gate between the realm of the living and the netherworld. The other main heroes fight against him but don't succeed, so it falls down to you as one of the new classes to try and turn the tide, warn those in his wake, and help those left behind in ruin. You generally only end up helping those survivors, as he's always a few steps ahead, but whatever. By the end of the game, you'll actually discover his intentions weren't necessarily bad either, but that's for you to learn for yourself.

Instead of the three typical archetypes of the previous game, you now have four classes: spellcaster, DPS dealer, tank, and ranged specialist. They change up how these work a bit for the most part, so three of the four classes feel fresh. And while they don't have the absurd overpowering build potential of something like the dual-classing Titan Quest, they still give enough options to let players create and focus down certain trees however they want while also encouraging the continued drive to max level by capping how far different skills can progress at times. Reach certain break points, and the skills also gain new abilities, like increased range or faster cast times, which can completely change how you use them.

While many things return in Torchlight 2 from the previous game, such as fishing, socketing gems, and enchanting items, all of these have received some makeovers. Fishing works fundamentally the same, but you now find limited-use fishing holes in the world that encourage taking a short break for potentially rare fish and items. Gems no longer get leveled up, so inserting and removing is now a regular part of gameplay. Enchanting no longer has a failure chance but now has a maximum, depending on the quality of the enchanter; you can also find different enchanters randomly throughout the world, and they can sometimes offer very specific benefits such as an elemental focus in their work. Add in the return of gambling and the overhauling of the map system for post-game mini-dungeons of your choosing, as well as phasebeasts now offering up little dungeons that feel almost like mini-games, and you have some great stuff.

Unfortunately, not all the good ideas pan out. One nice thing about Torchlight 2 is watching enemies come into the world to attack you. They might leap out of bushes or drop from the ceiling to attack, but sometimes they can take way too long to get there. The desert has these weird bat creatures which take a good five seconds to go through their full arrival animation, and there are a lot of them. It gets old fast. Compare this to werewolves later that take about as long but bound through ruined architecture of torched buildings in unique ways each time, making them fascinating to watch. One is interesting the first time but gets stale quickly, while the other continues to thrill even as I prep to kick some ass.

Overall I'm quite pleased with Torchlight 2. It offered up a lot of variation on the formula that I admire and enjoy. Which is great, because I'm probably going to continue playing it for a while; getting through all of the content will likely take beating it numerous times. That said, it took me nearly a decade to finish wrapping up Torchlight, so hopefully this won't last nearly as long.

[ElkinFencer10]

Games Beaten in 2020 - 14
* denotes a replay

January (1 Game Beaten)

1. Pokemon Sun - 3DS - January 14*

February (2 Games Beaten)

2. Star Wars: Jedi - Fallen Order - Xbox One - February 15
3. Pokemon: Let's Go, Eevee! - Switch - February 29*

March (10 Games Beaten)

4. Pokemon Shield - Switch - March 1*
5. Doom [1993] - Switch - March 6*
6. SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays - PS4 - March 6
7. Lego DC Super Villains - Switch - March 19
8. Doom II: Hell on Earth - Switch - March 19
9. Doom 3 - Switch - March 20
10. Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil - Switch - March 22
11. Doom 3: The Lost Mission - Switch - March 23
12. Doom 64 - Switch - March 26
13. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth - Nintendo 64 - March 28

April (1 Game Beaten)

14. Wolfenstein 3D - Steam - April 1

14. Wolfenstein 3D - Steam - April 1



Having recently played through the entire Doom series, I had the itch revisit id's FPS breakout success from 1992, the legendary Wolfenstein 3D. I had played some of the console ports of Wolfenstein 3D - mainly the horribly censored SNES port and the glorious Jaguar port - but I'd never played through all six episodes start to finish. After popo heard this and took serious offense at the prospect of my playing a console port, I had an e-mail to redeem a gift copy of Wolfenstein 3D on Steam (thanks Sugar Daddy <3). The next eight hours were filled with Nazi killing and my own screams of frustration at the massive two-dimensional mazes that make up the game.



Because I had played Wolfenstein 3D before I played Doom back as a kid, it never struck me just how different these games play. Doom had always just been "a better Wolfenstein with demons instead of Nazis," but going back as an adult and playing Wolfenstein 3D after recently playing both Doom and Doom II, the differences are FAR more stark than I realized as a child. Despite being "3D," Wolfenstein is an entirely 2D game, just from a first person perspective. There are no stairs, no elevators, no ramps, no higher or lower levels. Unlike Doom, each level is just a large maze on a single plane. Somehow this aspect of the game had faded from my memory, and that aspect leads to a VERY different gameplay experience than Doom.



The other thing that struck me about Wolfenstein 3D is how primitive the game is compared to Doom. The visuals obviously are much more primitive, but the game itself just feels and plays a lot more primitive. You've got four weapons - a knife, a pistol, a submachine gun, and a chaingun - but you've really only got two weapons - knife and gun. That gun has three different firing rates depending on what you choose, but they all use a common pool of ammo, and there's not really any point in using anything below the fastest firing because they all do the same damage per shot from what I could tell. The game just doesn't feel quite as smooth or fluid, either. Maybe that's because the version I played was the original DOS release running in Steam via DOSBOX whereas I played a Switch port of Doom that probably had some smoothing under the hood, but it felt like a more radically different experience than I was expecting. Not bad, per se, but definitely different.



In my Doom review, I said that the gameplay was still just as satisfying as ever even if the graphics hadn't aged well. I'm not sure I can say the same about Wolfenstein 3D. To be clear, I still had a blast playing Wolfenstein for the most part (Episode 5 Floor 7 can die in a fire, though), but as a whole product, it definitely hasn't retained all of the playability that Doom has. It's ABSOLUTELY still worth experiencing and playing, especially if you love to kill Nazis, but it's clear that id learned a lot and improved a lot in the year between Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.

[pook99]

@prfsnl_gamer: I forgot to mention the "pixel hunts" I actually detested those sections for the most part and spent way too much time just looking around aimlessly, I even had to look up a walkthrough once or twice. One particularly aggregious thing that stood out to me was when you are outside and the squad is standing around the dead body and you have to somehow find a tiny pile of green goo on an entirely green floor, I think if I didnt look up the walkthrough I'd still be looking for it.

I didnt fight the final final boss, I have a weird thing that once the credits roll, no matter how much I enjoy the game, I lose all motivation to keep playing it. I did look it up on youtube after the fact and it definitely looked cool

@MrPopo: I'm glad you liked it as well, it really is a fun and refreshing take on a classic series

@Ack: I feel reasonably confident that torchlight 2 is the game that gave me carpal tunnel, when I first started gaming on a laptop (prob around 2013/14) I discovered steam and torchlight 2 and played for dozens of hours on a laptop pad, and shortly thereafter developed carpal tunnel.

Games Beaten:

48. Pirate Blast (wii)
49. Ghost rider (GBA)
50. Mega Man 7 (snes)

It is funny how your perspective on a game can change after a short time. If you asked me last year to rate Mega Mans (I actually think I asked myself in a thread) MM 3 would have been very high on the list and MM7 was very low. It's not that I didnt like MM7, it just struck me as one of the weaker entries in the series

After playing through them both my perspective has flipped, for some reason the flaws of MM3 stood out in a huge way this go around and if I was to rate the series today MM3 would likely be in the bottom 3 (right above 10 and and MM7 would be much higher.

I'm not exactly sure why, but I just appreciated MM7 far more this go round, I appreciated the nice 16 bit visuals, the bosses and how they responded to weaknesses, and found myself really enjoying the level design. Outside of the unbearably hard final wily fight(probably the hardest in the series) and one godawful wiley level, I don't really have any complaints and definitely need to rethink my views on this game.

[Sload Soap]

Yakuza 0

I was in a debate recently on where the best place to start for a newbie looking to get into the Yakuza series. I said Kiwami 1 as the PS2 original is a bit outdated. Someone else insisted 0 as it's a prequel and therefore the beginning of Kiryu's story. Having now finished 0 I would stick with my first assessment as Yakuza 0 has too much in it that will only really make sense for a Yakuza fan.

I would also disagree that this is the start of Kiryu's story and actually see it more as Majima's game. Goro gets the best city (Osaka), the best business sidequest (the hostess club management game) and generally his tale has more heart and meaning than Kiryu's. Kazuma's story is mostly just a retread of his story in Yakuza 1 with some events shuffled. It's absolutely fine though and as ever serves its purpose of being backdrop for the main game which is as full of amusing sidequests and mini-games. As usual in a Yakuza game sidequests feature everything from dominatrixes to slot-car racing to a dance off with Michael Jackson. Standard bonkers.

The combat has had a slight shake up with both Kiryu and Majima having three fighting styles although I found that the heavy styles for both characters were overpowered enough to make the other two choices kind of pointless. Once you max complete each character's main business sidequest, which is admittedly a pretty decent portion of the run time, you then unlock an ultimate fighting style which is basically their default style from the other games. Majima's ultimate is so ludicrously overpowered there really is no reason to use anything else.

Money plays a bigger aspect in the game than before reflecting the late 80's time period the game is set. You now pour money into yourself to unlock abilities and the prices for these soon rocket into the billions of yen so although the business sidequests are optional, they're also kind of not as you won't earn enough through regular gameplay to get any kind of beefy. As mentioned Majima's sidequest is good fun with you recruiting and training girls for your hostess club, winning the best assets off your rival's, and eventually earning massive sacks of cash. Kiryu's actually end up with getting a steadier and healthier income through his real estate dealings but it's a much more laborious process than it needs to be and requires an absolute ton of cash to get anything done. I found it a bit tedious to be honest and it deffo takes longer than Majima's to reach its conclusion with a lot of forced waiting while your earning are collected. Maybe Yu Suzuki snuck into the office on the day they thought this side quest up?

The 80's theme was a bit of a let down as well. Don't expect Vice City styled nostalgia, the most that you get is a disco minigame, the aforementioned reliance on money and some women wearing suits with big shoulder pads. That's about it. Since most characters in Yakuza games either wear a suit of some form of traditional Japanese dress the whole look remains fairly timeless.

I still highly recommend it though and it's a must for fans of the series. I'd still say Kiwami 2 is the best in the series (although I'm yet to finish 5 or play 6) but it's pretty close.


Wandersong

Wandersong is a very cute game about a bard who goes on a quest to save his world from annihilation armed only with his amazing singing voice and his boundless optimism. The main two things you need to know are that there is a dedicated dance button and you can sing pretty much whenever you want. It's more puzzle platformer than rhythm game as it doesn't really punish you for being off beat and your singing is often used to solve environmental puzzles. It looks as good as it sounds and while the story starts cliche it becomes more character driven throughout and ends on a genuinely uplifting note. Literally. The below picture essentially sums up the entire experience. I liked it a lot.


Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

This was a bit of a disappointment. I beat the adventure mode and a few cups but I wasn't having too much fun with it so left it there. Beenox are in charge again after doing pretty decent work of the N-Sane trilogy but, like their remake of Crash Bandicoot, what has essentially happened is a less skilled developer has tried to remake an actual classic from a top tier developer and you end up with a game that is 90% solid remake and 10% oh god, why did you change this?

I found most issues arose from drifting which is really quite problematic when your game is based almost exclusively around CTRs take on classic Mario Kart drift mechanics. Basically I found that drifting sent your kart too far wide and actually in a lot of instances, when combined with the atrocious rubber banding of the AI, would leave you going slower in corners than if you just drove normally. And that rubber banding really is awful as the AI is actually pretty incompetent to the point it will frequently drive off the track into pits for no discernible reason. Let me tell you, it's pretty galling to be beat on the last corner by a Coco Bandicoot you've seen hit three TNTs and fall into a pit that same lap just because she has some mystery speed boost.

To makes things worse this artificial difficultly seems to come in peaks and troughs with most races being pretty challenging on standard difficulty with a few being, for seemingly no reason, absolutely maddening. So, Pinstripe (the penultimate boss) is hair pullingly, wall punchingly stupid hard but the actual proper boss of the whole game Nitrus Oxide is beatable first time. I can't really at that point say it's player skill because on average the game is less difficult than Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed but these spikes are like trying to play while on fire and someone is kicking you in the dick. It's a real shame as well because a lot of effort has gone into the game elsewhere with each character having a multitude of skins and new courses and characters from the inferior Crash Racing games upping the variety. The post launch support has also been excellent with new courses, characters and cups being added to make a robust single and multiplayer experience. It's all a bit surface level but it is appreciated all the same.

I'm also not really too keen on the structure of the adventure mode and with its overworld of adjoining maps. I get fans would have probably cried bloody murder if they were left out but unlike Diddy Kong Racing, the overworld is mostly static and frankly pointless. It just wastes time driving to the next event and then back there again to do the CTR/time challenges. Just give me it as cups with a boss battle, it's fine.


Unlike the N-Sane trilogy, which I do recommend because Beenox only ruined one out of the three games on that disc, here the whole package is kind of tarnished because what used to be a highly polished game that relied on it's precise mechanics has lost about 5-10% of that precision. And in racing 5-10% is basically everything.

Jurassic World Evolution

This was fun. It's a pretty shallow sim/management game where you get to basically make zoos for dinosaurs. There's a healthy campaign mode where you take control of parks with various existing issues and try to get them up to snuff. Generally this means getting from a no star rating to about three but the real game happens when you try to get each island up to the top five star rating as that takes more in depth use of the various ways you can arrange both your parks and your dinos.

Your basic resource here is fossils which you farm to research new and ever more exciting dinosaurs. You send out missions to dig sites around the globe and with the returning fossils are able to build up a genetic profile of a given dinosaur. Once it reaches 50% you can breed one and stick it on display. You then have to manage enclosure sizes, viewing platforms, guest aminities like hotels and restuarants, transport and diversity of dinosaur stock. There's not much point in having seven enclosures if each one has a couple of tricertops in it and conversely there's no point in having 15 different species if no one can see them.

There is some stuff the game doesn't explicitly tell you that is massively important on how dinosaurs will behave, namely what percentage of their enclosure needs to be woods/grassland or how many other dinosaurs they can live with before they start to rampage. You kind of have to learn this as you go as you don't know these requirements until you breed a dinosaur. However once you solve it you can basically ring a group of Raptors and a T Rex in tissue paper as they'll never break their confines if they're content. Again, it's not super deep but there is about enough there to keep you thinking, at least in campaign. The sandbox mode lets you turn these requirements off if you just want a massive pen with all your favourite dinosaurs knocking about.

If it wasn't for those semi-hidden stats it'd be too much of a breeze but if you just want to mess about or have dinosaur mad kids then stick it on sandbox and go to town. It's a good timesink and lord do we need those right now.