Games Beaten 2016

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Fri Dec 30, 2016 10:55 pm

ElkinFencer10 wrote:
noiseredux wrote:I want to find the Amiga CD Battletoads.
Not as expensive as I expected tbh

Now look up a NTSC system mwahahahahahahahahahaha.

HLTB · Post by **Xeogred** » Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:55 pm

Whenever Battletoads is thrown out like that again I always want to remind everyone of how badass and violent the arcade game is. It's the easiest one too for the most part, but yeah. It's the true form of M rated Ninja Turtles.

Post by **noiseredux** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 1:31 am

Battletoads Amiga is still up there though.

DD Neon is pretty meh in my book.

Post by **Exhuminator** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 1:55 am

132. The Shadow Sun | Android | 2014 | 7/10

The Shadow Sun's a pretty good action-WRPG for Android. Create your own character and explore the world of Shar, taking on the main campaign or a few sidequests. You're aided by a computer AI of your choosing, as well as a trusty dog. Above average graphics, a plot that's at least comprehensible, and a moderately entertaining battle system keep things interesting. If you enjoy seeking out ever better loot, there's a fair amount of that to do. A lot of work went into the character leveling system, plenty of customization there to create a warrior of your own design. All the same, The Shadow Sun only took me six hours to beat, but that was worth the $0.99 I spent on it. The Shadow Sun is not overtly amazing, but considering the limited choices of its ilk for its platform, this one's worth checking out for genre fans.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... wsun&hl=en

Post by **TSTR** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 1:59 am

DD Neon felt clunky to me, and I tried with both a pad and stick. Just couldn't click with it. Great soundtrack and art though.

In my experience, Double Dragon (and its various incarnations) is best experienced in the home ports. The arcade ones don't compare very favorably.

And DD2 NES is some of the best co-op fun you can have. The control scheme sounds weird at first, but it takes no time at all to adapt.

Post by **Sarge** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 2:22 am

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:

July:

August:

September:

October:

November:

December:
159) Rise of the Tomb Raider - Lara's Nightmare (PS4) (DLC)
160) Titanfall 2 (PS4)
161) Soul Blade (PSX)
162) Axiom Verge (PC)
163) Owlboy (PC)
164) Nitro Ball (ARC)
165) Desert Breaker (ARC)
166) Dead Connection (ARC)
167) Crystal of Kings (ARC)
168) Crime Fighters (ARC)
169) Vendetta (ARC)
170) Super Contra (ARC)
171) Contra (ARC)
172) Sunset Riders (ARC)
173) Rastan Saga (ARC)
174) Growl (ARC)
175) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (ARC)
176) Red Clash (ARC)
177) Dreaming Sarah (PC)
178) Crimson Clover WORLD IGNITION (PC)
179) Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4)
180) Adventures of Mana (AND)
181) Double Dragon Advance (GBA)
182) X-Men: Children of the Atom (ARC)
183) Double Dragon (ARC)
184) Double Dragon II: The Revenge (ARC)
185) The Simpsons (ARC)
186) Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone (ARC)
187) Return of Double Dragon (SFC)

Yeah, more Double Dragon. After the awfulness that is DD3, I had to play something worthwhile. Return of Double Dragon is that. It's a little slower than its contemporaries, but it's got a nice moveset, and is pretty fair about things. You have a cool block/counter move, although it's only really good on certain mooks for the countering part. You can block most attacks, though. Not swords, though, and those guys crop up all through the game. You'll also snag weapons every now and then, with the unquestioned best of them being the nunchaku. Again. Man, those things are mean.

The other change is that you can't do your cyclone kick like before. Instead, you've got a meter you charge by holding the R button, and the length of the charge determines what you get when you attack. Early in the meter, you get a spinning backfist or a sort of leaping roundhouse. Go past halfway, though... and there's your spinning kick. Except now, it's more like Chun-Li's spinning bird kick, flying across the screen. It's very useful, but takes time to charge. If you go all the way up, you'll enter a sort of rage mode where you have this sort of Bruce Lee look on your face and your attack do a ton of damage and instant knockdown. It's actually not as useful as it sounds, but it is kinda cool nonetheless.

Anyway, the run was pretty easy overall. I jacked up the continues, but I needn't have bothered; I only ended up burning two (the default is five). And several of my deaths were of the careless and/or changing things up for variety's sake type.

The Japanese version is a bit different from the American release, there's a little bit more at the end of the game, but nothing major. Both versions have no cutscenes at all, it's just one stage after the other. After a quick look at HG101 to see what I might have missed, there were apparently supposed to be, but it all got axed to get it to market quickly. Oh, what could have been. Seeing Technos run its series into the ground just wasn't a pretty thing. This was the last gasp of the traditional series, so at least it turned out pretty good, but it could have been great. 8/10.

(As regarding Neon, someone recommended treating it more as a Streets of Rage game instead, and I can definitely see the parallels. That was one of my favorite games of that year, so I guess it definitely clicked with me. It really took those extra runs to really come into its own, though.)

Post by **isiolia** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 12:08 pm

1. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox One)
2. DOAX3 Fortune Edition (PS4)
3. Uncharted 4 (PS4)
4. DOOM (2016) (PC)
5. Halo 5 (Xbox One)
6. Dark Souls (PC)
7. Call of Duty (PC)
8. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (PC)
9. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
10. King's Field: The Ancient City (PS2)
11. Bloodborne (PS4)
12. SOMA (PC)
13. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin (PS4)
14. Dark Souls III (PS4)
15. Lords of the Fallen (PC)
16. Demon's Souls (PS3)
17. Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss (PC)
18. Dark Souls III: Ashes of Ariandel (PC)
19. Dishonored (PC) (replay)
19a. Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall
19b. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches
20. Dishonored 2 (PC)
21. Aliens: Infestation (DS)
22. Dark Souls II: SoTFS (PC) (replay)
23. Bloodborne: The Old Hunters (PS4)
24. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4)
25. Saint's Row IV Re-Elected (PS4)

While I do own the third one on PC, I think via a Humble Bundle, I haven't actually played any of the other Saints Row games. More or less, I tend to buy one of my brothers a small stack of games for his birthday and Christmas - some that I'm pretty sure he'll like, others that I know are good if he wanted to give a new genre a chance, but may never even get opened.
SR4 falls more into the former. The Re-Elected version is the 8th gen port with all the DLC included. I wound up playing it myself because it was $5 on the PSN sale, so I figured I'd try it and see - the base game anyway. The stand-alone expansion Gat Out of Hell is a separate purchase, and only seems to be included as a download code in the disc version as well. All of the other DLC is simply rolled into the game.

I wound up having enough fun with it to do most of what there was to do, at least with regard to missions and activities on the map. It is, essentially, a GTA style game, though this one is essentially set in an alien simulation, kind of like the Matrix...or, really, the M. Night Shaym-Aliens! episode of Rick and Morty, which might be the more apt comparison (half wonder if that took some inspiration from this). In turn, you have superpowers for most of the game, albeit ones that get disabled temporarily during a fair number of missions.
Most of the game is basically going around completing challenges on the map - most/all of which you'd be directed to do by various members of your gang/crew, if you choose to do side-quests. I didn't realize that to start with, so I mostly went out and just cleared the map before even rescuing most of them....and wound up auto-completing a lot of stuff as a result.

In and of itself, most of that is okay, but gets somewhat repetitive fairly quickly, not to mention fairly easy (getting top rankings in activities probably isn't, but any completion level seems to be fine). What made Saints Row IV really work for me is that it's a comedy. Sometimes it's parodying movies or other games, sometimes self aware, or usually just being ridiculous. It made it just kind of a fun casual-ish thing - one that's definitely not all-ages, but also one that stays video gamey. The little I've seen of, say, GTAV, certainly has some parody to it, but it's a bit more mean spirited as well - and then there are things like torture worked in. That's...just not really here.

I do wish that they allowed you to replay the actual missions though, since that's where a lot of the parodies are - including a Streets of Rage tribute rendered in filters to make it look 2D. The DLCs can be repeated anytime, but all the other unique content requires replaying the game to that point.

Suffice to say, I think my brother will enjoy it when he gets around to it, and it was well worth the $5 I spent on it too.

Post by **marurun** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 12:09 pm

I still think the PC Engine Double Dragon II is the best version. I don't like the music, but the graphics and play control are great.

Post by **Stark** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 12:52 pm

I've been terrible with keeping up with this thread, as usual for me towards the end of the year. I beat VVVVV yesterday, it is free on Vita for PSN Plus. Fun platformer with some challenging gameplay and catchy music. The gameplay all revolves around being able to swap gravity up and down at will. Definitely a great use of a couple of hours!

Post by **PartridgeSenpai** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 12:58 pm

Partridge Senpai's 2016 Beaten List
1-50

51. Axiom Verge
52. Otomedius Excellent
53. JUMP Ultimate Stars
54. Dynasty Warriors 3
55. Fire Emblem if: Byakuya (Birthright)
56. Fire Emblem if: Anya (Conquest)
57. Fire Emblem if: Invisible Kingdom (Revelations)
58. Stubbs the Zombie
59. Mori Mori Slime
60. Metal Slug 7
60. Dream Mix TV: World Fighters
61. Youkai Watch
62. Legacy of Ys: Book 1
63. Legacy of Ys: Book II
64. Blur
65. Limbo
66. Overcooked: Gourmet Edition

67. Magicka 2: Learn to Spell Again... AGAIN (PS4)

I really enjoyed Magicka 1, but was so disapointed with its lack of a functioning local multiplayer. It did have local multiplayer, but it was just unplayable on a gamepad with the control set-up they had. This being the case, I was very excited when I not only heard of Magicka 2, but also that it was being developed with gamepads in mind. I am here to confirm, that BOY did they ever deliver.

On a control basis, the game is now as perfect as it's ever going to get. None of the functionality of the old methods of the keyboard-based set up are gone: There's still self-cast, AOE-cast, and weapon-cast bound to the shoulder buttons, with the beam-directional casting now bound to the direction your point the right thumbstick. Additionally, you can now MOVE while casting, meaning the whole dynamic of combat has fundamentally changed. There are still 8 spell elements, and you can pick one of the eight by pressing one of the four right-hand face buttons, and then holding L1 to toggle between the first set of four and the second set. It takes a little getting used to, but I picked it up really quick, and it's far FAR better than the horrible old method of doing different-directioned quarter-circles on the right joystick to pick elements.

Other miscelanious control and gameplay improvements are that the d-pad is now used as hotkeys for your different magicks (the specific, special spells gotten by combining different spell elements (things like haste, or revive)), and the single player mode has been improved dramatically by the addition of a familiar which will revive you upon death, and can be resummoned with the revive key. It certainly beats just having to NEVER die like the first game Xp

Other than those control evolutions, the core of the game is still good ol' Magicka. A silly story for one to four wizards led by "definitely not a vampire" Vlad, on a mission to save the world! A very light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, self referential fantasy story, with tons of pop-culture references sprinkled throughout. My personal favorites being "Sir Antburrow," who gives you weird nature trivia when you talk to him, and "John Frost," who will warn you of an incoming cold-front from the north

Verdict: Highly recommended. The co-optional wizard homicide simulator has still got it! An action game that's still great fun to play on your own or with friends. However, I'd still be hesitant to play it with young children not only because of the somewhat complex control nature, but also because things tend to blow up into bloody chunks when killed with death magic

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