Games Beaten 2015

[Exhuminator]

The N64 ones are Modernvanias, along with the PS2 ones.

What determines this property? Polygons?

[MrPopo]

Classicvanias are 2D side scrollers in the vein of the original Castlevania.

Metroidvanias are 2D exploration platformers where you have a large area to explore that's gated by movement powerups.

Modernvanias are the 3D over the shoulder games, so they have a unique feel from the first two.

[TSTR]

1. Gone Home (PC)
2. Mario Party 8 (Wii)
3. Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)
4. River City Ransom (NES)
5. Persona 3 FES: The Answer (PS2)
6. Project X Zone (3DS)
7. Quake (PC)

Project X Zone

PxZ is a rather easy take on a strategy RPG, filled with crossover characters from Sega, Namco, and Capcom. The "strategy" elements themselves are mostly absent, replaced by a simple process of move, attack, heal, rinse, repeat. This leads battle to border on tedium at times (especially late-game), only relieved by the interjection of lighthearted conversation between the wide array of characters and the admittedly flashy, well animated attack sequences.

And those attack sequences are actually the most fun part of the game. In a nod to fighting game mechanincs, battles take place through a simple, yet engaging timing/execution sequence where you rack up huge numbers of hits by properly timing attacks with the game's assist system. We're talking well over 100 hits most every time. If that doesn't grab you, then not much else probably will.

Which leads me to my biggest complaint: the game is way too long. I spent 63 hours of playtime over 41 chapters. I wish it was more like half that. The story gets dragged on through repetitive text sequences that all pretty much go like this:

Good Guy: What are you doing here?
Bad Guy: Hahahaha, you'll find out later.

Eventually you do find out. Much later. Payoff wasn't really worth it, though.

Quake

IT'S BIG, IT'S BAD, IT'S BROWN! Classic FPS level design and a revolutionary engine. Nice difficulty ramp-up in the final episode. Somehow my saves got screwed up and I ended up with the fourth rune, but not any of the others I had already gotten. Oh well, just noclipped the floor into Shub's BBQ Pit. A little friggin and fraggin, and id Software congratulates me on my badassery.

[Exhuminator]

Classicvanias are 2D side scrollers in the vein of the original Castlevania.

Are you going to consider beating the handheld versions of these then?

[MrPopo]

I'm really on the fence about the three Gameboy games. I've watched some gameplay on Youtube and they don't seem very interesting, but maybe I just didn't see enough.

[ExedExes]

Somehow my saves got screwed up and I ended up with the fourth rune, but not any of the others I had already gotten. Oh well, just noclipped the floor into Shub's BBQ Pit.

Your save did too? I thought something was wrong with mine.

[noiseredux]

Somehow my saves got screwed up and I ended up with the fourth rune, but not any of the others I had already gotten. Oh well, just noclipped the floor into Shub's BBQ Pit.

Your save did too? I thought something was wrong with mine. Dang.

weird... same thing happened to me. I guess this is something that happens. Huh.

[TSTR]

Yeah, I googed it and it's apparently an issue with the Steam version. Oh well, whatevs.

[MrPopo]

It happened to me as well. I ended up cheating in the runes to get to Shub's pit.

[Sarge]

Finished up Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.

You know, there were concerns over whether Nintendo could spin a complete game off of those minigames in Super Mario 3D World. Those concerns were completely unfounded. I very much got my money's worth. They were nice enough to make it $40, and I probably got at least 15 hours out of it. I've still got some content that I need to go through. There are a few bonus stages, and at some point, I need to think about potentially getting an amiibo for the little bit of extra content in there.

Graphically, it's as good-looking to me as SM3DW was. Very nicely designed, great artistic style, just a pleasure to look at. Who needs next-gen power, anyway?

Y'all probably already know that the primary conceit is to only let Toad walk, run, and pluck stuff, and that's pretty much the extent of his moveset. No jumping at all. Somehow, it all works, the diorama-style stages are nice puzzles, and they get particularly tricky if you go for all the optional objectives. Snagging the gems is the first step up from getting the Star, and hitting the secondary ones generally requires some mastery of that particular stage.

All those stages are pretty bite-sized, too. It's almost a game that I think could work even better in a handheld format. Wouldn't be surprised to see it show up on whatever Nintendo's next handheld is at all, either in remade or new levels form.

Anyway, fun stuff all around. Probably going to move on to Rainbow Curse now, can never have too much cute stuff!