Games Beaten 2022

[Nemoide]

THE LIST:

1. Diddy Kong Racing (N64)
2. Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube)
3. Freedom Planet (Switch)
4. Aleste (PS4)
5. Gunpey DS (DS)
6. GG Aleste (PS4)
7. Dr. Mario (GB)
8. Motor Toon Grand Prix (PS1)
9. PaRappa the Rapper (PS1)
10. GG Aleste II (PS4)
11. Power Strike II (PS4)
12. Rusty's Real Deal Baseball (3DS)
13. GG Aleste 3 (PS4)
14. Darius (PS4)
15. Darius: Extra Version (Genesis)
16. Cave Noire (Game Boy)

16. Cave Noire (GB) - I played through this game until I got to the credits (IIRC after you've completed 6 or 7 levels of all 4 quests) for one of the Together Retros last year but now I played through to total completion!
The game was never released in English but is quite import-friendly if you're not literate in Japanese. Knowing katakana helps but isn't necessary though there is a translation patch if you're emulating or using a flash cart if you're unsure of things.
Cave Noire is a simple roguelike where you are tasked with four different quests: 1) Kill X monsters 2) Collect X gold 3) Collect X orbs/goblets 4) Free X fairies. It starts off extremely easy and becomes much more challenging. The game comes down to learning different monster behaviors and strategizing how to get away from them. Blindly entering combat is almost never a good idea: outside of the killing monsters quest, there's rarely any reward for killing creatures over just running away. You'll inevitably die many times as you attempt the quests (with the most frustrating deaths being when you are killed after completing a quest but before you find an exit) but it's never a big deal. You don't level up or keep items between missions, you just go back into the dungeon and try again. There's not much of a story either: when you complete the hardest level quests you get a fancy medal, they declare you a "Master" and you just walk away as the credits roll. No big bad guy, no fabulous treasure to find. Just a sense of accomplishment.

RPGs weren't popular in the US in the 90s, so I understand why it was never translated but the game is perfectly suited to the original Game Boy, not requiring fast reactions and no using fancy graphics. It's simple but challenging and is very much a "pick up and play for 20 minutes" kind of game.

[alienjesus]

It's almost the end of March and it's my first time posting in this thread. Whoops!

It's been full on in the world of AJ currently though, so writing reviews has seemed like a step too far - so I thought I'd do things a bit differently this time and give you my concise impressions of the games in the form of good points, bad points, and overall thoughts

1. Metroid Dread Switch
2. The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures Switch
3. Return of the Obra Dinn Switch
4. Policenauts Saturn
5. Pokémon Legends: Arceus Switch
6. Sam & Max Save The World Switch
7. The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve Switch
8. Dragon Force Saturn
9. Astro’s Playroom PS5


Metroid Dread

The newest entry in the Metroid series, which plays from a 2D perspective. It builds on the story of the franchise as the last chronological entry and introduces EMMIs – almost invincible robots which hunt you down and which you have to flee from.

Good:
• Samus controls amazingly – every action is super smooth and fluid and you feel in control at all times
• The game has good pacing – you always feel like you’re making progress. Exploration and movement are quick
• Atmosphere and graphics are great
• The game feels just the right length – doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, but doesn’t feel too short
• Boss fights were great – challenging but fair, always a big spectacle

Bad:
• EMMIs were a nice idea in principle, but I found my motivation to play disappearing whenever I hit an EMMI section. Tedious and frustrating.
• The ‘battles’ with EMMIs were repetitive
• Story wasn’t handled especially well – big plot dump in the middle and at the end. The post-final boss section was fun but kinda dumb story-wise
• Shares a lot in common with Fusion, which is my least favourite in the series
• Exploration is limited for much of the game. Frequently you are railroaded to the next section with no way to backtrack until quite late in the game.

Overall thoughts:
I enjoyed my time with Metroid Dread, but it’s probably on the lower end of the series for me. The action of the game was great with smooth controls and great battles, but the exploration was stripped back and I didn’t like the EMMI sections at all. I liked it more than Fusion. All of the 2D Metroids are great though, and this is no exception.

Great Ace Attorney Investigations:

This is part one of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a collection of 2 games which were originally released on 3DS only in Japan. They feature Phoenix Wright’s ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo, who travels to Great Britain in the late 19th century to learn to be a lawyer and gets wrapped up in quirky cases along the way alongside his new friend Sherlock Holmes Herlock Sholmes

Good:
• Introduces new characters to the series who are immediately super charming – I love Ryunosuke and Susato and want to spend more time with them. Herlock Sholmes and Iris Watson are also fantastic
• The music and aesthetics in this entry are wonderful and they really make the world feel vibrant and full of life
• New systems in the game, whilst simple and limited, offer variety and pace to proceedings which make both exploring and courtroom sections feel more brisk and exciting then before
• Some surprising case structures – one doesn’t even include a courtroom scene and feels more like the Mile Edgeworth games
• The plot is good and sets up for the second game well – this is clearly intended to be played as a pair with it’s sequel
• References to Sherlock Holmes stories are odd but charming

Bad:
• Because the game is focused on setting up for part 2, it has slightly less of it’s own identity. The last case didn’t feel as climactic as in previous entries, and the game didn’t feel complete until I played the sequel.
• Some of the animations got repetitive, especially when my lawyer is shocked by something that was either blatantly obvious or patently stupid.
• The game has xenophobia as a theme but it’s hammered home a little much. It doesn’t do much with the theme which makes it feel frustrating to keep having it show up.

Overall thoughts:
This is a really fantastic entry into the Ace Attorney franchise, and it says a lot that I jumped into the sequel fairly soon after (50+ hours of Ace Attorney in all) because I found it fun, charming and compelling. I wouldn’t place it top of the pack, but it’s definitely in the upper echelons of games in the series.

Return of the Obra Dinn

A game where you investigate the wreckage of the ship The Obra Dinn armed with a magical amulet that let’s you see the last moments of someone’s life. You must figure identify who the crewman in each scene are, how they died and if relevant, who killed them using only environment and audio clues.

Good:
• The games monotone aesthetic is immediately engaging and stylistically distinctive
• The game has a lot of atmosphere and unveils some of the events slowly with lots of twists and surprises to uncover
• The mechanic to see people’s last moment is wonderfully compelling and you always want to try and figure out just one more
• The game doesn’t hold the players hand – you often need to put together small hints from multiple scenes to try and figure everything out
• The game resists blind guessing by requiring you to get 3 deaths perfectly right before it reveals if you are correct

Bad:
• Very rarely, the visual style can make some scenes hard to discern – normally where lots of gore is involved
• Although every death can be solved logically, you will sometimes resort to brute forcing one if there are a few possibilities, especially towards the end
• There’s an real difficulty hump about a third of the way through when the obvious deaths are solved where you need to really switch around your thinking to extrapolate stuff rather than be told it – eg. Figuring out that people in the same uniform have the same job, or picking up on people’s accents to match them to crewmen. The game doesn’t ease you into this very well
• The story is not quite as compelling as I hoped overall – it reveals most of the big surprises a little too early
• There’s a final few deaths locked behind completing everyone elses. I thought these would reveal something huge but they were very overwhelming and solved in a few minutes.

Overall Thoughts:
Despite my long list of flaws, the size of the goods massively outweighs the number of small niggles the game has. Return of the Obra Dinn is inventive, addictive and unlike anything I’ve played elsewhere and I’d definitely recommend giving it a try.

Policenauts:

A graphic adventure game from Hideo Kojima, Policenauts stars Jonathan Ingram, an ex-Policenaut (an astronaut police officer) who is now a detective on Earth. He investigates a missing persons case on the request of his ex-wife who is later assassinated and follows the trail to Beyond, a space colony where other ex-Policenauts are in important positions. He hooks up with his old partner Ed Brown to investigate and from there on we basically have Lethal Weapon in space, with sci-fi buddy cop action movie hijinks aplenty. And because it’s Hideo Kojima, you can also grope all the women on the colony for some reason.

Good:
• The game really goes in deep with it’s setting, with tons of information on both real world, theoretical and fictional science explaining the mechanics of Beyond and lives there which you can read more about at any time.
• Jonathan and Ed are pretty likeable protagonists
• The graphics of the game look great
• The game manages to avoid the type of pixel hunts that can be present in these things for the most part, although there are a few exceptions
• The pacing is a bit uneven – the opening sections take too long and then we hurtle to the finish once stuff starts happening
• The fan translation I used is quite well written and didn’t feel amateur

Bad:
• I love boobs as much as the next man but the way you could just randomly grope people here felt very uncomfortable as it was lacking context or repercussions
• The story is ultimately very predictable.
• The sci-fi elements and the buddy cop elements of the game feel at odds – neither really feeds into each other very well, they’re just kinda both there
• Combat sections are easy and dull
• The game drags a bit, especially early on

Overall thoughts:
I liked my time with Policenauts OK, but not as much as I hoped I would. The world can become a bit dry by leaning too hard into the hard technical sci-fi aspects, but this ultimately doesn’t feed into the buddy cop narrative in any meaningful way. Although I would say I liked it overall, it’s by no means a must play.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

A reinvention of the Pokémon franchise, Legends: Arceus features open environments which you can explore freely, a focus on catching Pokémon over battling, and a historical setting as opposed to the modern stylings of other entries.

Good:
• The new catching mechanics are great and make the game feel quick to play. They support the open world feeling of constantly spotting something new to engage with by not slowing the player down on the way
• The story was basic but enjoyable enough
• The game isn’t hard, but they definitely have been more willing to up the difficulty on players than normal – there’s more challenge than other recent entries
• The sidequests in game manage to be fun when they could have felt a bit of a slog
• I quite like the games art style
• The various Pokémon you could ride to traverse the environment offered enough interesting movement options to make exploring fun

Bad:
• Despite a nice artstyle, the game has lots of technical shortcomings with pop-in, ugly textures and other issues. Par for the course with the series lately
• The new battle system is OK for this game but feels less strategic than normal thanks to everything hitting way harder. Battles are much rarer too so you feel less connected to your team
• Some Pokémon spawns are too rare and there’s no easy way to reset them without leaving the entire area. Collecting the last few was tedious
• Some areas are better than others. The ice area was kinda bland for example, and the mountain was tedious to move around.
• More fast travel points in the environments would have been nice.

Overall thoughts:
It’s far from perfect, but Pokemon Legends is a really good time and I very much enjoyed playing it. There’s lot of good stuff here which I hope makes it into the main franchise, such as the capture mechanics and the open areas. However, I would like to see the classic battling and more focus on towns and NPCs make a return from the main series in conjunction. Either way, this is the best and most exciting the series has been in recent years.

Sam & Max Save The World

This is a rerelease of Sam & Max: Season One – a series of six episodic point & click adventure games released a good 15 years ago now, starring everyone’s favourite freelance police. Each case sets up a mystery to be solved which is solved through wacky hijinx and somewhat logical puzzles, which build to one overall conclusion by the end. The cases include saving a tv talk show studio audience who have been stuck in filming for days, defeating a giant animatronic statue of Abraham Lincoln in a presidential race, freeing the world from the VR MMO Reality 2.0 and more.

Good:
• The scenarios and setpieces of the games are still inventive and funny after all these years, although they’re obviously better on a first playthrough
• Some of the dialogue is excellent and made me laugh out loud
• Most puzzles stick to just the right level of wacky to make a certain kind of sense whilst still being inventive and funny
• Each case lasts about 2 hours and feels just right in length to pick up and play
• Sam and Max themselves are still super charming and funny

Bad:
• Some cases feel like they aged better than others
• Length and difficulty are sometimes inconsistent – case 3 is much shorter than the rest, and case 4 I found to be more tedious with backtracking environments
• A few supporting characters are (deliberately?) annoying. Perhaps a few too many
• Had a low budget feel to it, even when it was new

Overall Thoughts:
I’ve played through these games before and had a great time with them, and I enjoyed replaying them this time too. Obviously some of the novelty and surprise factor has worn off as I’ve seen it before, but I still enjoyed revisiting the game and would recommend it wholeheartedly to newcomers.

The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve

The second of the Great Ace Attorney games on the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles collection, Resolve picks up directly after the first game and builds upon many of the themes and mysteries the first game set up. As mentioned before, both games really feel like half of one whole, so I’d highly recommend playing the first game before this one!

Good:
• The cases here feel a bit more developed than those in the first game, with more investigation to do and more twists and turns throughout
• The game manages to provide payoff for some of the setups and mysteries the first game provided, with event background elements of the first game becoming bigger plot points here
• One case in particular pulled off something rather unexpected I wouldn’t expect the series to do – no spoilers here, but it did catch me off guard!
• The characters continue to be wonderful and charming and I didn’t want to the game to end
• Some of the xenophobia is dialled back here to focus on other story elements, and it felt more enjoyable as a result

Bad:
• The last case was great and climactic but required me to suspend disbelief a few times
• It takes a little while to pick up as the first case is more of a side chapter and the second is a flashback and takes place during the timeline of the first game
• There isn’t a Great Ace Attorney 3 yet

Overall Thoughts:
Like with the first game, I loved my time with Great Ace Attorney 2. It ‘completed’ the first game and wrapped up the saga in a well rounded way and I really enjoyed it. I only wish there was more Ace Attorney on the horizon to enjoy too! I’d absolutely recommend picking up the Chronicles collection if you like these type of games – it’s excellent.

Dragon Force:

Dragon Force is a strategy RPG for the Saturn. Taking command of the leader of one of 8 nations, you leads your army to conquer the world in order to unite the 8 members of the Dragon Force, destined warriors able to defeat the dark god who is due to rise again. You command various units around a world map in real time engaging in battles with enemy officers once you encounter them. These take the form of battles between armies of up to 100 soliders per side and require you to choose formations, determine when to attack or retreat and cast spells to attack the enemy forces. I chose to play as the Samurai nation.

Good:
• The battles can be very impressive with over 200 sprites running around the field during conflict at times
• There’s a surprisingly high amount of options between various commanders, troop types, spells, formations and actions to take
• It feels satisfying seeing the map slowly fill in with flags of your nations colour
• The game has a good sense of scale – you have a lot of forces to manage and fortresses to defend in the second half!

Bad:
• Working Designs translated this and it’s full of crap pop culture references, poop jokes and other stuff that doesn’t benefit the game
• The mid game is a real slog with hours between save points – you’ll have a lot of castles to defend, but a lot of enemies still to defend against. The early game is easier due to needing to defend less, and the later is too due to fending off advances from less directions.
• The end-game after uniting the world is tedious, and the final boss is full of RNG bullshit that makes winning as much about luck as skill
• Some strategies are overpowered (standby for example) and some seem useless.
• Troop types are very unbalanced and some completely invalidate others. Monks do everything beastment do plus kill zombies. Samurai are soldiers but also good against dragons. Why use beastmen or soldiers?
• Too much waiting to resupply troops after a big battle.
• No good way to defeat enemy mages without losing loads of troops and needing to resupply

Overall Thoughts:
There’s a lot I liked about Dragon Force, it has some interesting ideas and a great sense of scale and progression. However, the game drags on way too long, especially the mid game, and the overpowered nature of certain strategies means it can lack in variety. By the end of the game I was ready for it to have finished 10-15 hours earlier. It’s not one I’d recommend as a must play, especially at it’s current price point.

Astro’s Playroom:

Astro’s Playroom is the free game installed on all Playstation 5 consoles. It’s a 3d platformer in the vein of something like Super Mario 3D Land, and is a follow up of sorts to Astro Bot Rescue Mission on PSVR. You play as Astro, a small robot who lives in the PS5 as he explores environments based on the PS5 hardware (GPU jungle, Cooling Springs, SSD Speedway etc) finding ‘artifacts’ – past playstation hardware. The game celebrates the history of the Playstation brand with lots of references to iconic 1st and 3rd party Playstation titles. It also serves to show off the unique features of the hardware, especially the Dualsense controller.

Good:
• The game controls wonderfully
• Astro and the other bots are adorable
• The references to Playstation titles are charming, and there are some surprisingly deep cuts (Siren, Pain, Jumping Flash!)
• The level designs are creative and fun and offer a lot of variety in the games short runtime
• Final boss is a fun throwback
• Really shows off the gimmicks of the dualsense – adaptive triggers, touchpad, gyro controls, HD rumble
• It’s ‘free’!

Bad:
• Some of the controller gimmick sections are less fun than the core platforming – touchpad stuff for example
• It’s really very easy – don’t expect much resistance!
• It’s really short – I wanted more!

Overall thoughts:
Like Astro Bot Rescue Mission before it, I really enjoyed Astro’s Playroom. It is a Nintendo quality platformer on a non-Nintendo system, which I personally think is quite a rarity. It’s charming, polished and fun to play, and the fact that it’s ‘free’ is great (I am aware you need to sped £450 on the console to play it!). It might also be the game’s biggest downside though, because I wanted a lot more of it to play – I beat it and got the platinum trophy in about 3-4 hours or so. Here’s hoping we see a full length Astro game on PS5 sometime soon.

[Syndicate]

...I finished Ace Combat 7 Saturday. The final mission was more of the same foolishness that Namco has been pulling since the series started on the PSX but I still really enjoyed the game. I've heard really good things about the DLC, so I may have to check that out eventually.

[MrPopo]

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

1. Underworld Ascendant - PC
2. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - PS3
3. Ni no Kuni - PS3
4. Operencia: The Stolen Sun - PC
5. RPM Racing - PC
6. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem - PC
7. Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Switch
8. Ni no Kuni II - PS4
9. Everspace - PC
10. PowerSlave Exhumed - PC
11. Horizon Forbidden West - PS5
12. Elden Ring - PS5
13. Shadow Warrior 3 - PC
14. Ghostrunner: Project_Hel - PC
15. Triangle Strategy - Switch
16. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - PC

Borderlands 2 was a game that massively improved on the original by tightening up the game systems, having some excellent writing with a fantastic villain, and having an amazing piece of DLC in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, which presented the veneer that the game was actually taking place in a D&D knockoff being run by the titular character. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands continues that legacy, by iterating again on the mechanics with some nice quality of life, having again some excellent writing and great performances by the main characters, and leaning even harder into the D&D knockoff idea.

The game is set shortly after Borderlands 2, and has basically no setup. Tiny Tina is on a crashed spaceship with newcomers Valentine (Andy Samberg) and Frette (Wanda Sykes). It starts with the end of the previous campaign they ran to segue you into the new one. You are the newbie; you haven't even painted your miniature when things begin. In order to let you shine Valentine and Frette serve as your advisors, which is how the game has them participate without actually being in game NPCs along side you. Cue a bunch of looting and shooting in the fantasy world coming out of the mind of Tiny Tina. You are the Fatemaker, and you must stop the resurrection of the Dragon Lord. And along the way you'll learn the true meaning of friendship.

Now, if you've played a Borderlands, you know what to expect. The game is a looter shooter with a Diablo-esque plethora of randomly rolled equipment and skill trees. You start by picking a class, which gives you a passive, a choice of one of two actives (that you can swap freely), and a tree of buffs. You might notice that this is a change from previous games, where you got three skill trees. Well, here you instead will get a secondary class midway through the game. This gives you the passive of that class, adds that class's two actives to your pool of selections, and now you have a second tree. In the post game you can even swap this secondary class as you like. As a result, your character ends up being more customizable than before, and it plays into how people tend to build their characters anyway (mostly one tree to get the top skill, then branch out).

There's a few other gameplay updates that are nice iterations. The first is that melee now has a dedicated equipment slot, and the damage to match. This makes engaging in melee FAR more satisfying and useful than before, as melee can hit as hard as a top tier sniper, apply elemental debuffs, and do something meaningful between reloads. They also swapped out grenades for spells. In addition to just having a wider range of possible effects, this also puts it strictly on a cooldown, rather than be resource limited. And a lot of the skills and affixes will key off of spell casts, so you're very much encouraged to put it part of your repertoire. Finally, a thing I noticed is that nearly all of the sidequests were picked up as part of exploring a zone for the first time; the handful that aren't have a good story reason for that not to be the case and the traversal accommodates that. One of my complaints about Borderlands 2 was the zones had a cadence of first do the main quest, clearing out the zone, then get a bunch of sidequests and do the zone all over again, which felt like major padding. Here the sidequests and main quests tend to take you to different parts of a zone, so they all flow together much better. The game also presents a world map dividing zones, and it's a cute representation of a map a DM might have put together (you'll even see real world objects as barriers and scenery).

Which leads to the last really strong part of the game; the writing. The game really leans into all the D&D campaign stuff, like the DM realizing they need to add descriptions and the scenery swaps ahead of you, or quests changing because the party goes off the rails or questions what the DM is doing. You even get two viewpoints through your advisors; Valentine is the player who is in it for the fluff, while Frette favors the stats and power gaming. If you've ever played a tabletop campaign a lot is going to resonate with you.

Overall this game really course corrects some of the mistakes Borderlands 3 made that brought it below 2. Personally, I think this game is my favorite of all the games. It's a bit shorter than Borderlands 2 for all the right reasons while still having the same strength of writing that makes the game compelling. It's also got a better end game loop pretty much ripped off from Diablo 3's rift system and paragon system (and hey, rip off what works) for those who want to keep engaging. I highly recommend this one.

[Note]

1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)
2. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade)*



3. Metal Slug 6 (PS2)

Last year I went through most of the games on the Metal Slug Anthology disc on PS2, but I after getting my fix of run and gun games, I had left the last the game untouched and aimed to return to finish it at a later time. Well, that time came last week as I was in the mood for some arcade action and decided to fire up Metal Slug 6. I never ran into this game in the arcades when released, so it was really fun having a new experience in the Metal Slug series.

Right off the bat, I noticed the amount of characters you're able to select here. Most of the previous games had four characters to choose from but in this entry, you get a choice of six. Fio is my go to character in the Metal Slug games, so I stuck with her. An additional gameplay mechanic that's different here is the ability to have two special guns in your inventory, which reminds me of the system in some Contra games. Another thing I noticed, is the background graphics in this game are pretty impressive. They do seem a bit more detailed than previous entries. The boss fight in the second level was pretty impressive visually, as the battle is taking place while moving down hill and the fight scales in and out when the vehicle begins aerial strikes. Awesome!

There's a few things I need to critique in this entry though. While it's nice that there's a difficulty selection here, it's a pain that the easier difficulty only gives you access to the first four levels of the game. I think having an easier setting that lets you finish the game would be much better for a casual co-op experience. Another issue that I need to bring up is with the boss fights. The bosses do not flash to indicate that you're damaging them! This is really a pain, as it can take some time to figure out where you need to attack the enemy. This is a visual indicator that appeared in all the previous games, so it seems counter intuitive to remove it in this entry.

Overall though, I really enjoyed my time with Metal Slug 6! For me it was awesome to finally experience the last of the main title games. I've mentioned this before, but Metal Slug is my favorite run and gun series. While the sixth installment does not best my favorite entry, Metal Slug X, I still think it holds its own, and may even be better than some of the other late entries. If you're in the mood for some arcade action, I definitely recommend this one!

[marurun]

Metal Slug 6 was developed on the Atomiswave arcade platform instead of the Neo Geo, so it makes sense it would have some differences. I don’t know how accurate the home ports are.

[Note]

Metal Slug 6 was developed on the Atomiswave arcade platform instead of the Neo Geo, so it makes sense it would have some differences. I don’t know how accurate the home ports are.

I don't think I ever ran into any Atomiswave arcade games in the wild when they were newly released but more recently I became aware of some games from the platform. Dolphin Blue is another shooter developed on the platform that I want to try! Looks ridiculous and really fun.

The ports on the PS2 Anthology feel like there is some input lag. There's even a difference from the Metal Slug X release on the PS1 and the version on the PS2. I played this game a lot in the arcades and on the PS1, so I think it's the easiest for me to judge, and I can feel a difference.

[Note]

1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)
2. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade)*
3. Metal Slug 6 (PS2)



4. Time Crisis II (PS2)*

Another game I revisited lately was Time Crisis II on the PS2. I already wrote a lengthy review of it a year or two ago, so I'll keep this one pretty short. I haven't spent as many hours with this game as I have with the original release on the PS1, but I think it's a worthy successor. The graphics are impressive for the time, and there is some great action sequences here. The shootout while riding on a boat is fantastic, and the mandatory train section is also a lot of fun. Also, it's cool that the sequel has some different guns to be found throughout the game.

My main criticism is the two-player mode. I think it's a cool idea that each character has their own unique path through the level, but it's kinda rough that they made co-op split screen here. It just makes each player's side so much smaller when playing on a CRT. There is also double gun mode, which can be used as a substitute, but then you're sharing a life bar.

Overall, I do think Time Crisis II is one of the best light gun games for home consoles and it's highly recommended. I'd like to grab a few more light gun games for the console, to see what else the PS2 has to offer in this genre. Check it out if you haven't already!

[Raging Justice]

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars - PS 4
Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden - PS 4




So I was curious about these two due to Yoko Taro's involvement. Both games are very similar and can be played in any order as they are stand alone stories. They were released only a few months apart, almost like they were both being worked on at the same time. They even share a lot of visual assets. A big selling point (or turn off) is the unique presentation of these games. They are your basic JRPGs, but the adventures are laid out like a Dungeons and Dragon campaign with a narrator (who is the Game Master) and with dice rolls determining a variety of things like the effectiveness of attacks in battle or completely random things like whether or not your characters avoid getting hit by random lightning strikes while exploring an area. There's actually a lot of random events throughout the game to keep things interesting when you are exploring. Something to keep your interest beyond the numerous random battles you'll face. There are moments as well, where you will be presented with choices during these events, or during the main story



The random stuff can be quite fun, like you randomly acquiring a powerful weapon you shouldn't have access to for another two chapters (and getting it for free no less), random events giving you money, randomly fighting a rare monster, or random events that heal your party, etc. Some of the random stuff can screw you over too though. Some of those natural events I mentioned before like lightning or tornadoes can damage your party if you get a bad dice role. Making poor choices during some random events can screw you too. There's a lot of fun, quirky, comedy surrounding most of these random events.

Visually, everything in the game from your characters, to the NPCs, to your enemies, to the environment itself, are represented by cards. So it's almost like watching someone play a CCG game like Magic: The Gathering, mixed with a D&D campaign as I mentioned earlier.



There's also a fun card game within the game itself you can play, and it seems to have a multiplayer mode. While it is fun, it relies heavily on luck, which can get annoying. In fact, if you play on "include all" mode which throws in every rule set into one game, things get chaotic. Random events happening, random skills triggering, luck of the draw, Joker cards making players exchange their cards, so many rng elements come into play it's ridiculous. It's fun though if you like playing something that is so luck dependent it just feels like pure chaos, where victory is 30% strategy on your part, 10% what other players decide to do, and 60% luck.

These are very basic RPGS. Nothing too complicated or challenging, they are piss easy to be honest. However, the unique presentation and characters keep the games engaging. Every NPC and enemy in the game has a backstory that is fun to discover, and the main story lines are entertaining enough with a cast of funny characters. The games have some weird, quirky, and occasionally dark, humor too, particularly with some of the NPC and monster backstories. Sometimes you think an NPC's story is going one way, only for the game to subvert your expectations. Like a seemingly romantic story about a man promising his loyalty to his wife, only for that same man to be relieved when she dies of illness years later and he is no longer bound to his promise. Plus, the entertainment factor that the narrators bring to the table is nice, similar to games like Bastion. The random stuff that happens when exploring areas are fun too as it breaks up the repetitive combat and keeps you on your toes

If you want to try something a little different, or are in the mood for an RPG that won't be too challenging, give them a shot. These by the way, would be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for introducing someone to Japanese rpgs. They are EXTREMELY accessible. Just something for you guys to keep in mind. Particularly someone who is a big fan of D&D or card games, but has never played a video game or specifically an rpg video game.

[Nemoide]

THE LIST:

1. Diddy Kong Racing (N64)
2. Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube)
3. Freedom Planet (Switch)
4. Aleste (PS4)
5. Gunpey DS (DS)
6. GG Aleste (PS4)
7. Dr. Mario (GB)
8. Motor Toon Grand Prix (PS1)
9. PaRappa the Rapper (PS1)
10. GG Aleste II (PS4)
11. Power Strike II (PS4)
12. Rusty's Real Deal Baseball (3DS)
13. GG Aleste 3 (PS4)
14. Darius (PS4)
15. Darius: Extra Version (Genesis)
16. Cave Noire (Game Boy)
17. Mary-Kate & Ashley: Get a Clue! (Game Boy Color)

17. Mary-Kate & Ashley: Get a Clue! (Game Boy Color) - Yes, I beat one of the Olsen Twins games. I actually finished it earlier in the week and I have to say, this game wasn't that bad! It's based on the direct to video series "The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley" from the 90s where they solved mysteries with a dog. Apparently the rebooted the series as The New Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley but never made videos: just books and video games, which makes sense since the girls are obviously tweens rather than very young children. It's obvious that this game was not designed from the ground-up with the license in mind, the gameplay is mostly a throwback to The Lost Vikings. You control three characters (Mary-Kate, Ashley, and their dog Clue) - each with different abilities and try to reach a puzzle piece. Ashley can flip switches and throw Clue, Mary-Kate can jump higher and other characters bounce when they jump on their head, Clue can defeat enemies when thrown at them, swim, and other characters can stand on him. I find it amusing that this game for children requires you to abuse animals: picking up and throwing the dog, step on the dog, etc. There are terrible cut-scenes with the Olsen twins endlessly repeating variations on "we'll solve any crime by dinnertime" which border on funny just for being so bad, but they can be skipped, but the game itself is very light on story.
The puzzles are never too hard, but they also get challenging enough to hold my interest later in the game. With 50 stages, it's good for a couple hours of entertainment but not much more than that. Considering that this game is one of the least-valuable titles on the platform, I'd say a couple hours of entertainment is good enough! It's not exactly a hidden gem, but it's a lot more fun than you'd probably expect.