I'm months behind updating this list. Fortunately, I spend nearly every summer re-playing favorites so it's easy to keep track of what's missing. New additions in bold.
A couple new entries on this year's list:
Layer Section/Galactic Attack S Tribute is a ton of fun. I had Galactic Attack on the Saturn back in the day. I think everyone did because it was that rare Saturn title that was still very affordable CIB back in the early 2010s. My biggest complaint about that release was the difficulty level. It's just a super hard game. The new digital release on Switch allows you to have 99 credits which makes beating the game much more possible for the average player. Great sound track. Kind of a lackluster remaster but it does look very clean on a big TV.
MLB The Show 2023 is probably the first sports game I've ever posted on my annual Games Beaten list. I got really into the Rockies after the wifey and I got to see a game at Coor's Field in the Spring. I had a lot of fun with The Show 23. The graphics are impressive and a lot of attention was paid to small details that help make each game feel like you're watching it on ESPN. I took the Rockies from underdogs to World Series Champs in my baseball fanfiction game.
Nintendo Switch
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Kirby's Dreamland
Super Mario Bros (All Stars)
Super Mario Bros 3
Wario Ware, Inc Mega Microgames
Mario Galaxy (3D All Stars)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Hyrule Warriors Deluxe
Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee
Megaman Zero 2
Megaman Zero 3
Megaman Zero 4
Star Ocean First Departure R
Layer Section S Tribute
Tetris Effect Connected
Xbox Series
MLB The Show 2023
Megaman Zero
Megaman X
Megaman X2
Megaman X3
Megaman X4
Megaman X5
Megaman X6
Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes
Playstation TV
Megaman: Maverick Hunter X
Games Beaten 2023
Re: Games Beaten 2023
Maybe now Nintendo will acknowledge Metroid has a fanbase?
Re: Games Beaten 2023
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
First 50:
51. This Way Madness Lies - PC
52. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit - PC
53. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - PC
Phantom Liberty is a piece of story DLC for CP2077, providing a new storyline to follow and potentially a new ending to the main game. A new part of Night City will be available to visit, with new gigs and a decently sized main quest with a major branch near the end. It shipped along side the free 2.0 update which did a major overhaul of the skill system; it's been long enough that I don't remember how the old one felt, but the new one is quite impactful.
The content starts off with Escape from New York City. The President's space shuttle is shot down and crashes into Dogtown, and you're tasked to rescue her. Once you get her out of immediate danger and hook up with a sleeper agent in town you're able to transition things; you are now in more of a spy thriller a la James Bond. But remember, you're never hearing the whole story, up until the end.
Now, I never had issues with the original game, so I was definitely interested in more content. It took a bit to reorient myself with the systems in the game, but soon I was back to murdering people with my mind thanks to my tricked out cyberware. I did notice they changed things so I can't just ping and kill everyone through walls, which is probably for the best. There's a fairly beefy boss fight in the early section, but after that it's mostly just waves of mooks. There's no climactic fight with a super heavy like in the base game, but that's also not the tone of the content, so that's not a major problem.
Overall, the new content was fun, and I found myself also getting pulled back into the rest of the city for some follow up quests to stuff I did back on my old playthrough. I'm not sure when they got added, but they had some fun stories and interactions with characters. Again, good excuse to make sure I saw all the things that have come out since I last touched the game. If you enjoyed the base game, Phantom Liberty adds a lot of fun content, so give it a whirl.
First 50:
51. This Way Madness Lies - PC
52. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit - PC
53. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - PC
Phantom Liberty is a piece of story DLC for CP2077, providing a new storyline to follow and potentially a new ending to the main game. A new part of Night City will be available to visit, with new gigs and a decently sized main quest with a major branch near the end. It shipped along side the free 2.0 update which did a major overhaul of the skill system; it's been long enough that I don't remember how the old one felt, but the new one is quite impactful.
The content starts off with Escape from New York City. The President's space shuttle is shot down and crashes into Dogtown, and you're tasked to rescue her. Once you get her out of immediate danger and hook up with a sleeper agent in town you're able to transition things; you are now in more of a spy thriller a la James Bond. But remember, you're never hearing the whole story, up until the end.
Now, I never had issues with the original game, so I was definitely interested in more content. It took a bit to reorient myself with the systems in the game, but soon I was back to murdering people with my mind thanks to my tricked out cyberware. I did notice they changed things so I can't just ping and kill everyone through walls, which is probably for the best. There's a fairly beefy boss fight in the early section, but after that it's mostly just waves of mooks. There's no climactic fight with a super heavy like in the base game, but that's also not the tone of the content, so that's not a major problem.
Overall, the new content was fun, and I found myself also getting pulled back into the rest of the city for some follow up quests to stuff I did back on my old playthrough. I'm not sure when they got added, but they had some fun stories and interactions with characters. Again, good excuse to make sure I saw all the things that have come out since I last touched the game. If you enjoyed the base game, Phantom Liberty adds a lot of fun content, so give it a whirl.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2023
1. Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
2. River City Girls (Switch)
3. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
4. The Simpsons (Arcade)
5. Illusion of Gaia (SNES)
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Switch)
7. Shining Force III [Scenario 1] (SAT)
8. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES)
9. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1)
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN)
11. X-Men Legends (PS2)
12. Snatcher (SCD)
13. Smash Remix (N64)
14. Golden Axe III (GEN)
15. Iridion II (GBA)
16. Fatal Fury Special (SNES)
17. Harmful Park (PS1)
18. Gunbird (SAT)
After finishing Harmful Park on the PS1, I was interested in checking out another shoot 'em up with a cartoony style and landed on Gunbird for the Saturn, developed by Psikyo. I heard positive things about this game, but was more familiar with it's sequel, due to it being released on the Dreamcast in the States. Also, I recall Markies being a fan of Gunbird 2, which brought it to my attention again. For this playthrough I checked out the game via emulation, and played as the woman who rides the broom, Marion, which is fitting for some fall gaming!
Gunbird is a vertical shoot 'em up with 2D visuals, originally released in arcades in 1994 and ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995. The Saturn version features co-op gameplay and the ability to play the game in tate mode. A US release would eventually come out on the PS1 under a totally different title with generic artwork, called Mobile Light Force. For starters, the player has a choice of five characters, each with a different style of main weapon. Unlike other shooters, where you can get power-ups that change your main weapon, in Gunbird, each character only has access to that one main weapon for the whole game; however, it can be powered up. For this playthrough, I went with Marion who has a spreadshot and when powered-up she also fires homing stars, which is a really useful mix. And like most shooters, you do have access to a screen clearing bomb, which you're going to need in sections where the amount of bullets is overwhelming. Gunbird consists of seven stages, which I think is a reasonable length for this style of game. Also, I have to mention the hilarious difficulty selections here, with the easiest being labeled "Monkey" and the second easiest being labeled "Child."
Regarding the graphics, I think the 2D sprite work here looks great, and are handled well on Sega's 32-bit console. The main characters while represented in a small manner on the screen, still have a nice bit of detail, and there are some impressive enemy designs and bosses. My favorite boss, design wise might have to be the large knight! There is no slowdown to be found, which is great, especially in sequences with overwhelming bullet patterns coming your way. Soundtrack wise, the game's music is mostly impressive, with a few standout tracks. My favorite songs from the game are probably the first Village tune, and the Sanctuary track -- both are melodic but energetic at the same time. The sound effects are also on point and are satisfying to hear while taking out the oncoming waves of baddies.
Overall, I think Gunbird is a fun shoot 'em up on the Saturn with great 2D sprite based visuals, challenging gameplay, and couch co-op. I would recommend the game to any fans of the genre or the console! Give this one a go if you have a chance. Now, I need to give the sequel on the Dreamcast a try!
2. River City Girls (Switch)
3. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
4. The Simpsons (Arcade)
5. Illusion of Gaia (SNES)
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Switch)
7. Shining Force III [Scenario 1] (SAT)
8. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (SNES)
9. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1)
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN)
11. X-Men Legends (PS2)
12. Snatcher (SCD)
13. Smash Remix (N64)
14. Golden Axe III (GEN)
15. Iridion II (GBA)
16. Fatal Fury Special (SNES)
17. Harmful Park (PS1)
18. Gunbird (SAT)
After finishing Harmful Park on the PS1, I was interested in checking out another shoot 'em up with a cartoony style and landed on Gunbird for the Saturn, developed by Psikyo. I heard positive things about this game, but was more familiar with it's sequel, due to it being released on the Dreamcast in the States. Also, I recall Markies being a fan of Gunbird 2, which brought it to my attention again. For this playthrough I checked out the game via emulation, and played as the woman who rides the broom, Marion, which is fitting for some fall gaming!
Gunbird is a vertical shoot 'em up with 2D visuals, originally released in arcades in 1994 and ported to the Sega Saturn in 1995. The Saturn version features co-op gameplay and the ability to play the game in tate mode. A US release would eventually come out on the PS1 under a totally different title with generic artwork, called Mobile Light Force. For starters, the player has a choice of five characters, each with a different style of main weapon. Unlike other shooters, where you can get power-ups that change your main weapon, in Gunbird, each character only has access to that one main weapon for the whole game; however, it can be powered up. For this playthrough, I went with Marion who has a spreadshot and when powered-up she also fires homing stars, which is a really useful mix. And like most shooters, you do have access to a screen clearing bomb, which you're going to need in sections where the amount of bullets is overwhelming. Gunbird consists of seven stages, which I think is a reasonable length for this style of game. Also, I have to mention the hilarious difficulty selections here, with the easiest being labeled "Monkey" and the second easiest being labeled "Child."
Regarding the graphics, I think the 2D sprite work here looks great, and are handled well on Sega's 32-bit console. The main characters while represented in a small manner on the screen, still have a nice bit of detail, and there are some impressive enemy designs and bosses. My favorite boss, design wise might have to be the large knight! There is no slowdown to be found, which is great, especially in sequences with overwhelming bullet patterns coming your way. Soundtrack wise, the game's music is mostly impressive, with a few standout tracks. My favorite songs from the game are probably the first Village tune, and the Sanctuary track -- both are melodic but energetic at the same time. The sound effects are also on point and are satisfying to hear while taking out the oncoming waves of baddies.
Overall, I think Gunbird is a fun shoot 'em up on the Saturn with great 2D sprite based visuals, challenging gameplay, and couch co-op. I would recommend the game to any fans of the genre or the console! Give this one a go if you have a chance. Now, I need to give the sequel on the Dreamcast a try!
Re: Games Beaten 2023
Gunbird 1-2, its spinoff Gunbarich and the Samurai Aces trilogy is part of the compilation Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo for the Switch. They and all the games in the Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha compilation, which includes the Strikers 1945 trilogy along with Sol Divide, Dragon Blaze and Zero Gunner 2, can also be purchased on Steam.
Re: Games Beaten 2023
First 50:
51. Contraband Police (PC)(FPS)
52. Quake II (PC)(FPS)
53. Quake II: The Reckoning (PC)(FPS)
54. Quake II: Ground Zero (PC)(FPS)
55. Quake II 64 (PC)(FPS)
56. Quake II: Call of the Machine (PC)(FPS)
57. Chernobylite (PC)(FPS/RPG)
58. Pedro's Adventures in Spanish (PC)(Point-and-Click Adventure)
59. CULTIC: Interlude (PC)(FPS)
CULTIC was a fantastic experience when I checked it out earlier this year, but the dev wasn't done with it. While additional episodes are being planned to continue the story, a free single level continuation of the story was released on September 30 for fans to find out more about our ass-kicking PI and how he's taking the fight to a crazy cult hellbent on summoning their terrible god...or rather, to not. No, because as our hero enters the portal, the cultists close the gate, resulting in the hero thrown out to his seeming death in the middle of the woods.
Weeks later, we're now in control of a city cop whose been busted down to the basement archives for some reason. He spends his days watching a busted TV and drinking from his coffee pot...until a records request suddenly goes nuts with explosions. Blood streaks the walls, bodies of his buddies are strewn about, and the cult is in the building. Keep going, and worse yet, the cult has in fact infiltrated some of the police force, so you're trapped inside a police station in Hell battling it out in offices, evidence lockers, and jail cells.
Unfortunately, you also can't access the guns from the previous episode, because they're all locked up and tagged in evidence. But that doesn't mean you can't use your trusty revolver and a shotgun recovered from a gas station robbery to do some serious damage to the cult. They're hunting you while you're hunting them, from snipers and traps strategically placed on the roof to battles in the darkened parking garage against a horde of leaping undead.
The new addition to your foes' army are the turned cops, however, and they're way better trained than even the cult snipers you find outside. Duck around a corner for cover, and they're smart enough to wait and get a bead on where you'll pop out. It's a nasty trick that caused me more than a little health as I'd jump back into the fray with a reloaded six-shooter only to take a round from a guy who fully knows what he's doing. The cop's sidearm packs a meaty punch though, so popping heads in the dimly lit hallways is more than easy.
The Interlude is a long level, but it's only a level. Still, it's the bridge to the next episode, with our new hero cop protagonist possibly going down while a body in the morgue's heart suddenly starts beating again. I eagerly look forward to the next CULTIC episode to see how crazy things will get.
51. Contraband Police (PC)(FPS)
52. Quake II (PC)(FPS)
53. Quake II: The Reckoning (PC)(FPS)
54. Quake II: Ground Zero (PC)(FPS)
55. Quake II 64 (PC)(FPS)
56. Quake II: Call of the Machine (PC)(FPS)
57. Chernobylite (PC)(FPS/RPG)
58. Pedro's Adventures in Spanish (PC)(Point-and-Click Adventure)
59. CULTIC: Interlude (PC)(FPS)
CULTIC was a fantastic experience when I checked it out earlier this year, but the dev wasn't done with it. While additional episodes are being planned to continue the story, a free single level continuation of the story was released on September 30 for fans to find out more about our ass-kicking PI and how he's taking the fight to a crazy cult hellbent on summoning their terrible god...or rather, to not. No, because as our hero enters the portal, the cultists close the gate, resulting in the hero thrown out to his seeming death in the middle of the woods.
Weeks later, we're now in control of a city cop whose been busted down to the basement archives for some reason. He spends his days watching a busted TV and drinking from his coffee pot...until a records request suddenly goes nuts with explosions. Blood streaks the walls, bodies of his buddies are strewn about, and the cult is in the building. Keep going, and worse yet, the cult has in fact infiltrated some of the police force, so you're trapped inside a police station in Hell battling it out in offices, evidence lockers, and jail cells.
Unfortunately, you also can't access the guns from the previous episode, because they're all locked up and tagged in evidence. But that doesn't mean you can't use your trusty revolver and a shotgun recovered from a gas station robbery to do some serious damage to the cult. They're hunting you while you're hunting them, from snipers and traps strategically placed on the roof to battles in the darkened parking garage against a horde of leaping undead.
The new addition to your foes' army are the turned cops, however, and they're way better trained than even the cult snipers you find outside. Duck around a corner for cover, and they're smart enough to wait and get a bead on where you'll pop out. It's a nasty trick that caused me more than a little health as I'd jump back into the fray with a reloaded six-shooter only to take a round from a guy who fully knows what he's doing. The cop's sidearm packs a meaty punch though, so popping heads in the dimly lit hallways is more than easy.
The Interlude is a long level, but it's only a level. Still, it's the bridge to the next episode, with our new hero cop protagonist possibly going down while a body in the morgue's heart suddenly starts beating again. I eagerly look forward to the next CULTIC episode to see how crazy things will get.
-
alienjesus
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 8838
- Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:10 pm
- Location: London, UK.
Re: Games Beaten 2023
1. Minit Switch eShop
2. The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors Switch
3. Cuphead Switch
4. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Switch
5. River City Girls Zero Switch
6. Bayonetta 3 Switch
7. Fire Emblem Engage Switch
8. Cannon Dancer - Osman Switch
9. Metal Slug X MVS
10. Metal Slug 3 MVS
11. Garou: Mark of the Wolves MVS
12. Windjammers MVS
13. Clockwork Aquario Switch
14. Psychonauts XBox
15. Yume Penguin Monogatari FC
16. Mappy Kids FC
17. Wonder Boy Switch
18. Wonder Boy in Monster Land Switch
19. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair Switch
20. Minecraft Switch eShop
21. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap Switch
22. Wonder Boy in Monster World Switch
23. We Love Katamari PS2
24. Monster World 4 Switch
25. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge Switch eShop
26. Parappa the Rapper 2 PS2
27. Gunpey WS
28. Magical Drop for Wonderswan WS
29. Buffer's Evolution WS
30. XI [sai] Little WSC
31. Kaze No Klonoa: Moonlight Museum WS
32. Dream: Art's Journey PS4
33. Dreams: LOCK PS4
34. Dark Cloud PS2
35. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest Switch eShop
36. Sly Raccoon PS2
37. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back PS1
38. Boku No Dracula-Kun Switch eShop
39. Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara No Chōsensha WS
40. Jumping Flash PS1
41. Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad MVS
42. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 GC
43. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader GC
44. Terranigma SNES
45. Neo Drift Out: New Technology MVS
46. Sakura Taisen Saturn
47. Samba De Amigo DC
48. Pikmin 4 Switch
49. Pokémon Emerald GBA *NEW*
50. Super Mario 3D World Switch *NEW*
51. Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin PSVR *NEW*
52. Stray PS5 *NEW*
53. Bowser's Fury Switch *NEW*
Pokemon Emerald
This is a game I’ve played multiple times before, both in this incarnation and in the form of the original Ruby & Sapphire. I decided to replay it recently as I’m aiming to go for a complete living pokedex in gen 3 (one of every pokemon in the PC). Gen 3 is probably the single most complex gen to get a full pokedex in despite a much smaller overall count than recent generations, because you need to play at least 5 games to get them all, of which Emerald is one.
As is my tradition, I try to use a team of pokemon I’ve never previously used on each playthrough, and because I’ve played this one so many times I’m really running low on new candidates. And so I played through with the team of the alright Hariyama, Seviper and Ludicolo, plus the terrible Ninjask, Spinda and Plusle to save the day. The team had a rough time at some points of the game, especially the 2v2 battle in the psychic gym, but they pulled through in the end.
I still really like this game, but it definitely has flaws which I’m noticing more on repeat playthroughs. The 7.8/10 too much water meme is abundant but in all honesty I don’t think it’s an unfair criticism – between team aqua, the 8th gym being water, the entire last quarter of the game being surfing routes and even the champion being a water trainer, things are a bit of a slog at the end. I was going to use Magcargo on my team until I realised it would be utterly unusable for most of the late game being weak to water.
Despite the flaws, I still enjoyed replaying the game. Next I need to catch all the legendaries to transfer over to the game I intend to get the living dex in (the entire reason I replayed it!), and start working on one of the other games needed.
Super Mario 3D World
Another game I’ve played through before, I was in the mood to replay 3D World, so I picked up the Switch version and aimed for as close to 100% completion as I could. I played through the whole game as Mario this time, and went through each level grabbing every green star, hitting the top of every flagpole, and grabbing every stamp along the way.
The first time I played this game, I fell in love with the sheer variety and inventiveness of the level themes, and this repeat playthrough showed that they still hold up well, although I definitely noticed the mostly pretty low difficulty more when I wasn’t being dazzled by the new ideas constantly.
After finishing up the main levels, I also cleared the postgame levels, completing everything I could whilst playing as one character. Technically I haven’t fully completed the game currently – you need to beat every level as every character, which I don’t fancy doing in one sitting, but at least by clearing out everything as Mario, I can replay as someone else next time and work towards the objective!
It was great playing through 3D world again, it’s definitely one of my favourite games in the Mario series.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
Earlier in the year I played through the first Psychonauts game on Xbox and had a fantastic time. I really loved the world and characters set up by that first entry, and I’m keen to experience more. And so with that, I decided to pick up the next game in the Psychonauts franchise – which isn’t Psychonauts 2, but rather Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, a VR side-game that takes place directly after Psychonauts 1 and before 2.
You play as Raz on his first mission with the Psychonauts, flying into the Rhombus of Ruin, a Bermuda-triangle expy, where the gang crash and are separated and captured by some evil group. Raz is strapped to a chair and must use his psychic powers to find his 4 friends and free them so they can escape. This is a nice in-game explanation for some quite standard VR controls – the game uses teleport movement, but because you do this by using your clairvoyance to see through the eyes of other characters, it feels natural to jump around. You can also use other skills such as telekinesis to move objects, pyrokinesis to light things on fire and psyblasts to destroy objects, although you gain these powers over time.
The game is fairly easy, but has some fun and charming setpieces, and all your friends are experiencing hallucinations so it’s fun to jump to their perspective and see the weird stuff they see. The writing is funny with a few poignant moments, and I really loved my time playing through it. The main issue with the game is just how little of it there is – my first playthrough including lots of tinkering and listening to as much dialogue as possible took only 2 hours, and any repeat playthrough I’m sure I could do in well under an hour. What is here though was great fun, and it’s a nice prelude to the main event of Psychonauts 2, which I hope to play soon.
Stray
Stray is a game where you play as a cat in a post-apocalyptic city inhabited by robots. You accidentally fall into the underground bunket city at the start of the game and your objective is to escape back to the surface. As you do so you meet up with a robot buddy and also start to unravel some of the societal dynamics of the city, including the class divide between the bottom and higher levels and the fact that the robots can’t leave the bunker city, and you forge an alliance with a rebel group of robots who are determined to make it to the outside world, and you help them work towards this goal so that you too can escape.
If that last paragraph sounded odd to you, it does to me too. Stray feels like a game pulled in 2 directions to me – game 1, where you get to play as a cat, and game 2, where you support a robot rebellion against an oppressive society in a bid for freedom. These 2 parts never truly felt like they married up to me. When a robot gave me a mission to attach a tracker to a satellite dish early on, we are never given a convincing reason why 1. The cat would understand this request or 2. Why the cat would choose to do this quest. The cat we play as is never shown as being more capable or intelligent than a regular cat. In all honesty, everything about the story would make more sense if we were a person, or even another robot. The answer to the question of ‘why would this cat do this or understand this’ is because you, the player, choose to, which feels super immersion breaking to me.
Coming back to the cat part of the game, you can do cat stuff like leap up to high objects, walk along thin paths, scratch walls and carpets and knock things off of sides. The problem is that most of these things are rarely impactful to game progression, and are no more involved than hitting a button when a cue appears. So to me it fails on 2 fronts – it fails to make being a cat feel fun, and it fails to give a compelling reason for the role of the cat in the narrative. In the few sections where being a cat enables us to assist in ways other characters could not, it normally boils down to ‘we are smaller so we can pass through small gaps’.
I didn’t dislike Stray, there were moments I enjoyed and the plot was enjoyable enough. But overall I don’t personally find that there is a lot to recommend the game. The setpieces are pretty plain and unexciting, and being a cat isn’t particularly fun in a way another more standard character wouldn’t be whilst actively detracting from the context of the story. It’s fairly short so try it if you’re interested, but it’s definitely not a must play in my books.
Bowser’s Fury
After wrapping up Mario 3D World again, I decided to take on the new additional game of sorts that was added to the Switch version with Bowser’s Fury. This takes the physics, mechanics and power ups from the main 3D world and reimagines them into a more open 3D Mario style of game.
Bowser has been transformed into a giant inky monster in an uncontrollable rage, so Mario teams up with Bowser Jr to try and cure him. He does this by platforming through multiple levels completing tasks to earn cat shines, of which there are 100 in the game. Each of the main levels has multiple objectives to achieve, Mario 64 style, so you’ll revisit them multiple times to take on new challenges. New levels open up as you progress and they an all be navigated between in a big open map by riding Plessie, a dinosaur, across the lake to the starting point of each one.
Every so often, fury Bowser will awaken, at which point it turns dark, and blocks and fire will rain from the sky, presenting extra hazards as you work towards objectives. He also breathes fire at you directly, which can be used to break special Bowser blocks which hide more cat shines hidden away in each level. Despite Fury Bowser being the titular basis of the game, this was more often than not a frustrating mechanic – either because Bowser showed up during a fiddly platforming section and got in the way, or because you needed him to show up to break blocks but he was still quite a way from activating.
Despite the troubles with Fury Bowser though, I had a great time with Bowser’s Fury. Collecting all 100 cat shines took me about 4-5 hours or so, but I absolutely could have enjoyed a much longer Mario game set up with this gameplay loop – it was compelling, fun and hard to stop playing once you had started. This is a fantastic addition to an already excellent game.
2. The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors Switch
3. Cuphead Switch
4. Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Switch
5. River City Girls Zero Switch
6. Bayonetta 3 Switch
7. Fire Emblem Engage Switch
8. Cannon Dancer - Osman Switch
9. Metal Slug X MVS
10. Metal Slug 3 MVS
11. Garou: Mark of the Wolves MVS
12. Windjammers MVS
13. Clockwork Aquario Switch
14. Psychonauts XBox
15. Yume Penguin Monogatari FC
16. Mappy Kids FC
17. Wonder Boy Switch
18. Wonder Boy in Monster Land Switch
19. Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair Switch
20. Minecraft Switch eShop
21. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap Switch
22. Wonder Boy in Monster World Switch
23. We Love Katamari PS2
24. Monster World 4 Switch
25. Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge Switch eShop
26. Parappa the Rapper 2 PS2
27. Gunpey WS
28. Magical Drop for Wonderswan WS
29. Buffer's Evolution WS
30. XI [sai] Little WSC
31. Kaze No Klonoa: Moonlight Museum WS
32. Dream: Art's Journey PS4
33. Dreams: LOCK PS4
34. Dark Cloud PS2
35. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest Switch eShop
36. Sly Raccoon PS2
37. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back PS1
38. Boku No Dracula-Kun Switch eShop
39. Rockman & Forte: Mirai Kara No Chōsensha WS
40. Jumping Flash PS1
41. Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad MVS
42. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 GC
43. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader GC
44. Terranigma SNES
45. Neo Drift Out: New Technology MVS
46. Sakura Taisen Saturn
47. Samba De Amigo DC
48. Pikmin 4 Switch
49. Pokémon Emerald GBA *NEW*
50. Super Mario 3D World Switch *NEW*
51. Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin PSVR *NEW*
52. Stray PS5 *NEW*
53. Bowser's Fury Switch *NEW*
Pokemon Emerald
This is a game I’ve played multiple times before, both in this incarnation and in the form of the original Ruby & Sapphire. I decided to replay it recently as I’m aiming to go for a complete living pokedex in gen 3 (one of every pokemon in the PC). Gen 3 is probably the single most complex gen to get a full pokedex in despite a much smaller overall count than recent generations, because you need to play at least 5 games to get them all, of which Emerald is one.
As is my tradition, I try to use a team of pokemon I’ve never previously used on each playthrough, and because I’ve played this one so many times I’m really running low on new candidates. And so I played through with the team of the alright Hariyama, Seviper and Ludicolo, plus the terrible Ninjask, Spinda and Plusle to save the day. The team had a rough time at some points of the game, especially the 2v2 battle in the psychic gym, but they pulled through in the end.
I still really like this game, but it definitely has flaws which I’m noticing more on repeat playthroughs. The 7.8/10 too much water meme is abundant but in all honesty I don’t think it’s an unfair criticism – between team aqua, the 8th gym being water, the entire last quarter of the game being surfing routes and even the champion being a water trainer, things are a bit of a slog at the end. I was going to use Magcargo on my team until I realised it would be utterly unusable for most of the late game being weak to water.
Despite the flaws, I still enjoyed replaying the game. Next I need to catch all the legendaries to transfer over to the game I intend to get the living dex in (the entire reason I replayed it!), and start working on one of the other games needed.
Super Mario 3D World
Another game I’ve played through before, I was in the mood to replay 3D World, so I picked up the Switch version and aimed for as close to 100% completion as I could. I played through the whole game as Mario this time, and went through each level grabbing every green star, hitting the top of every flagpole, and grabbing every stamp along the way.
The first time I played this game, I fell in love with the sheer variety and inventiveness of the level themes, and this repeat playthrough showed that they still hold up well, although I definitely noticed the mostly pretty low difficulty more when I wasn’t being dazzled by the new ideas constantly.
After finishing up the main levels, I also cleared the postgame levels, completing everything I could whilst playing as one character. Technically I haven’t fully completed the game currently – you need to beat every level as every character, which I don’t fancy doing in one sitting, but at least by clearing out everything as Mario, I can replay as someone else next time and work towards the objective!
It was great playing through 3D world again, it’s definitely one of my favourite games in the Mario series.
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
Earlier in the year I played through the first Psychonauts game on Xbox and had a fantastic time. I really loved the world and characters set up by that first entry, and I’m keen to experience more. And so with that, I decided to pick up the next game in the Psychonauts franchise – which isn’t Psychonauts 2, but rather Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, a VR side-game that takes place directly after Psychonauts 1 and before 2.
You play as Raz on his first mission with the Psychonauts, flying into the Rhombus of Ruin, a Bermuda-triangle expy, where the gang crash and are separated and captured by some evil group. Raz is strapped to a chair and must use his psychic powers to find his 4 friends and free them so they can escape. This is a nice in-game explanation for some quite standard VR controls – the game uses teleport movement, but because you do this by using your clairvoyance to see through the eyes of other characters, it feels natural to jump around. You can also use other skills such as telekinesis to move objects, pyrokinesis to light things on fire and psyblasts to destroy objects, although you gain these powers over time.
The game is fairly easy, but has some fun and charming setpieces, and all your friends are experiencing hallucinations so it’s fun to jump to their perspective and see the weird stuff they see. The writing is funny with a few poignant moments, and I really loved my time playing through it. The main issue with the game is just how little of it there is – my first playthrough including lots of tinkering and listening to as much dialogue as possible took only 2 hours, and any repeat playthrough I’m sure I could do in well under an hour. What is here though was great fun, and it’s a nice prelude to the main event of Psychonauts 2, which I hope to play soon.
Stray
Stray is a game where you play as a cat in a post-apocalyptic city inhabited by robots. You accidentally fall into the underground bunket city at the start of the game and your objective is to escape back to the surface. As you do so you meet up with a robot buddy and also start to unravel some of the societal dynamics of the city, including the class divide between the bottom and higher levels and the fact that the robots can’t leave the bunker city, and you forge an alliance with a rebel group of robots who are determined to make it to the outside world, and you help them work towards this goal so that you too can escape.
If that last paragraph sounded odd to you, it does to me too. Stray feels like a game pulled in 2 directions to me – game 1, where you get to play as a cat, and game 2, where you support a robot rebellion against an oppressive society in a bid for freedom. These 2 parts never truly felt like they married up to me. When a robot gave me a mission to attach a tracker to a satellite dish early on, we are never given a convincing reason why 1. The cat would understand this request or 2. Why the cat would choose to do this quest. The cat we play as is never shown as being more capable or intelligent than a regular cat. In all honesty, everything about the story would make more sense if we were a person, or even another robot. The answer to the question of ‘why would this cat do this or understand this’ is because you, the player, choose to, which feels super immersion breaking to me.
Coming back to the cat part of the game, you can do cat stuff like leap up to high objects, walk along thin paths, scratch walls and carpets and knock things off of sides. The problem is that most of these things are rarely impactful to game progression, and are no more involved than hitting a button when a cue appears. So to me it fails on 2 fronts – it fails to make being a cat feel fun, and it fails to give a compelling reason for the role of the cat in the narrative. In the few sections where being a cat enables us to assist in ways other characters could not, it normally boils down to ‘we are smaller so we can pass through small gaps’.
I didn’t dislike Stray, there were moments I enjoyed and the plot was enjoyable enough. But overall I don’t personally find that there is a lot to recommend the game. The setpieces are pretty plain and unexciting, and being a cat isn’t particularly fun in a way another more standard character wouldn’t be whilst actively detracting from the context of the story. It’s fairly short so try it if you’re interested, but it’s definitely not a must play in my books.
Bowser’s Fury
After wrapping up Mario 3D World again, I decided to take on the new additional game of sorts that was added to the Switch version with Bowser’s Fury. This takes the physics, mechanics and power ups from the main 3D world and reimagines them into a more open 3D Mario style of game.
Bowser has been transformed into a giant inky monster in an uncontrollable rage, so Mario teams up with Bowser Jr to try and cure him. He does this by platforming through multiple levels completing tasks to earn cat shines, of which there are 100 in the game. Each of the main levels has multiple objectives to achieve, Mario 64 style, so you’ll revisit them multiple times to take on new challenges. New levels open up as you progress and they an all be navigated between in a big open map by riding Plessie, a dinosaur, across the lake to the starting point of each one.
Every so often, fury Bowser will awaken, at which point it turns dark, and blocks and fire will rain from the sky, presenting extra hazards as you work towards objectives. He also breathes fire at you directly, which can be used to break special Bowser blocks which hide more cat shines hidden away in each level. Despite Fury Bowser being the titular basis of the game, this was more often than not a frustrating mechanic – either because Bowser showed up during a fiddly platforming section and got in the way, or because you needed him to show up to break blocks but he was still quite a way from activating.
Despite the troubles with Fury Bowser though, I had a great time with Bowser’s Fury. Collecting all 100 cat shines took me about 4-5 hours or so, but I absolutely could have enjoyed a much longer Mario game set up with this gameplay loop – it was compelling, fun and hard to stop playing once you had started. This is a fantastic addition to an already excellent game.
-
Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1514
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2023
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2023!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
***1. Dragon Valor (PS1)***
2. Breath Of Fire (GBA)
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (NS)
4. World Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse And Donald Duck (GEN)
5. XIII (GCN)
6. NES Remix Pack (WiiU)
7. Dr. Mario (GBC)
***8. Bully (PS2)***
9. Dragon's Crown (PS3)
10. Bangai-O (SDC)
11. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
12. Destruction Derby (PS1)
13. X-Men Legends II: Rise Of Apocalypse (XBOX)
14. Vice: Project Doom (NES)
***15. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)***
16. Terranigma (SNES)
***17. Super Street Fighter II (GEN)***
18. Guitar Hero II (PS2)
19. Kirby's Dream Land (GBC)
***20. Gunbird 2 (SDC)***
***21. Stella Deus: The Gate Of Eternity (PS2)***
22. I Am Setsuna (NS)
23. DuckTales: Remastered (WiiU)
***24. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES)***
***25. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)***
26. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA)
27. Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones (XBOX)
28. Baten Kaitos Origins (GCN)
29. Virtua Racing (GEN)
**30. Breath Of Fire III (PS1)
31. Metroid II: Return Of Samus (GBC)
I beat Metroid II: Return Of Samus on the Nintendo GameBoy this evening!
Metroid was one of the few series of games that I was actually pretty much caught up on when I beat my Backlog. I owned and have beaten all of the games released for the systems that I own. So, when I added six new consoles, I was excited to fill in the gaps of the games that I had missed. The very first one was Metroid II on the Gameboy, which was one of the games I quickly got when I started rebuilding my Backlog. I was looking for a Gameboy game to play and this one immediately jumped out as one that I must play. With the last Metroid game I played was Metroid Prime II and the last 2D Metroid game being the original Metroid which I played well over a decade ago, I jumped in for a whole new experience.
Metroid is one of the series that is actually enhanced by being on the Gameboy. The tiny screen and sparse enemies make the atmosphere that much more disturbing. It really feels like you are exploring a desolate planet and its quite strange not to see signs of life around you. The game also has very sparse music, so you really don't here all that much as you are exploring the caverns. The main difference in Metroid II is that you are looking to kill a certain amount of Metroids to move on. They are small mini-boss fights, but you only have one large boss and that is the final boss. It's a bit more structured as you have to defeat the Metroids for the lava to lower so that you can explore more. It's a nice mechanic and does off a semblance of progression. The game is more about exploration and finding the Metroids than anything else.
Unfortunately, the combat takes a back seat. It is easy for Samus to get hit by an enemy and then juggled in the air while taking damage. Also, the Metroid fights are either annoying or simple, so they aren't too exciting. With a small amount of enemies, it is easy to get low on health and missiles in the game and you need a ton of them, especially for the final boss.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience with Metroid II. I do kind of miss the combat and more enemies that the NES and SNES version offered as it was a bit too hard not to grind for health and missiles. With that said, the game runs fantastic and makes a great jump on the Gameboy. It really doesn't feel like a shrunken version of the Metroid series, but its own fleshed out game. Its a game in a series that is easily overlooked, but I would not skip this one!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
***1. Dragon Valor (PS1)***
2. Breath Of Fire (GBA)
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (NS)
4. World Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse And Donald Duck (GEN)
5. XIII (GCN)
6. NES Remix Pack (WiiU)
7. Dr. Mario (GBC)
***8. Bully (PS2)***
9. Dragon's Crown (PS3)
10. Bangai-O (SDC)
11. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
12. Destruction Derby (PS1)
13. X-Men Legends II: Rise Of Apocalypse (XBOX)
14. Vice: Project Doom (NES)
***15. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)***
16. Terranigma (SNES)
***17. Super Street Fighter II (GEN)***
18. Guitar Hero II (PS2)
19. Kirby's Dream Land (GBC)
***20. Gunbird 2 (SDC)***
***21. Stella Deus: The Gate Of Eternity (PS2)***
22. I Am Setsuna (NS)
23. DuckTales: Remastered (WiiU)
***24. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES)***
***25. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)***
26. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA)
27. Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones (XBOX)
28. Baten Kaitos Origins (GCN)
29. Virtua Racing (GEN)
**30. Breath Of Fire III (PS1)
31. Metroid II: Return Of Samus (GBC)
I beat Metroid II: Return Of Samus on the Nintendo GameBoy this evening!
Metroid was one of the few series of games that I was actually pretty much caught up on when I beat my Backlog. I owned and have beaten all of the games released for the systems that I own. So, when I added six new consoles, I was excited to fill in the gaps of the games that I had missed. The very first one was Metroid II on the Gameboy, which was one of the games I quickly got when I started rebuilding my Backlog. I was looking for a Gameboy game to play and this one immediately jumped out as one that I must play. With the last Metroid game I played was Metroid Prime II and the last 2D Metroid game being the original Metroid which I played well over a decade ago, I jumped in for a whole new experience.
Metroid is one of the series that is actually enhanced by being on the Gameboy. The tiny screen and sparse enemies make the atmosphere that much more disturbing. It really feels like you are exploring a desolate planet and its quite strange not to see signs of life around you. The game also has very sparse music, so you really don't here all that much as you are exploring the caverns. The main difference in Metroid II is that you are looking to kill a certain amount of Metroids to move on. They are small mini-boss fights, but you only have one large boss and that is the final boss. It's a bit more structured as you have to defeat the Metroids for the lava to lower so that you can explore more. It's a nice mechanic and does off a semblance of progression. The game is more about exploration and finding the Metroids than anything else.
Unfortunately, the combat takes a back seat. It is easy for Samus to get hit by an enemy and then juggled in the air while taking damage. Also, the Metroid fights are either annoying or simple, so they aren't too exciting. With a small amount of enemies, it is easy to get low on health and missiles in the game and you need a ton of them, especially for the final boss.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience with Metroid II. I do kind of miss the combat and more enemies that the NES and SNES version offered as it was a bit too hard not to grind for health and missiles. With that said, the game runs fantastic and makes a great jump on the Gameboy. It really doesn't feel like a shrunken version of the Metroid series, but its own fleshed out game. Its a game in a series that is easily overlooked, but I would not skip this one!
Re: Games Beaten 2023
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
First 50:
51. This Way Madness Lies - PC
52. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit - PC
53. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - PC
54. Sprawl - PC
Continuing on the cyberpunk theme, Sprawl is a two dev indie FPS whose pitch is effectively "what if Ghostrunner gave you a gun?" It combines the emphasis on movement and time slowing of Ghostrunner, along with its cyberpunk dystopia, and combines it with more traditional FPS action. In a way, it can almost be thought of as a first person cyberpunk Max Payne in terms of how it plays.
The story is pretty threadbare. You are Seven, a cybernetically enhanced operative of the junta that runs The Spire, but you get betrayed and get contacted by the AI Father that runs things, with the goal of burning it all down. First you need to escape the depths of the slums you start off in, then go blow up their weapons factory, and finally destroy the Spire itself.
The primary movement option is the wall run. Jumping into a wall when moving begins the run, with a parabolic trajectory. You can jump off of the wall up to three times before you need to touch ground again; after each jump you begin the wall run again, likely at a higher elevation. This allows you to get a lot of verticality and progress past obstacles. The second main mechanic is the adrenaline time slowing feature. Now, unlike most games with time slow, this is intended for very short bursts; rather than a toggle on, toggle off, it's a hold on, release off system. Going into slow mo highlights enemy weakspots, and killing enemies with those weakspots will make them drop health, ammo, and adrenaline. You get a variety of weapons, and each one has at least one enemy that it is particularly suited for. Mixing up your weapon usage and judicious use of slow mo are all critical for progressing.
The game is fairly short; it took me about five hours to beat. The game's movement options are not as interesting as Ghostrunner's, and it seems to understand that, so it ends before you get bored with it. Falling off bottomless pits carry no penalty; just a quick respawn near where you fell off and no loss of progress or health. It's critical to stay moving, as your health drops fast. Enemies fire where you are, so constant movement helps keep the damage off, and slow mo is extremely useful for aiming.
The game never tries to overreach, and pulls of what it's trying to do well. It's not the kind of game you would likely come back to again, but it's fun for a one time romp.
First 50:
51. This Way Madness Lies - PC
52. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit - PC
53. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - PC
54. Sprawl - PC
Continuing on the cyberpunk theme, Sprawl is a two dev indie FPS whose pitch is effectively "what if Ghostrunner gave you a gun?" It combines the emphasis on movement and time slowing of Ghostrunner, along with its cyberpunk dystopia, and combines it with more traditional FPS action. In a way, it can almost be thought of as a first person cyberpunk Max Payne in terms of how it plays.
The story is pretty threadbare. You are Seven, a cybernetically enhanced operative of the junta that runs The Spire, but you get betrayed and get contacted by the AI Father that runs things, with the goal of burning it all down. First you need to escape the depths of the slums you start off in, then go blow up their weapons factory, and finally destroy the Spire itself.
The primary movement option is the wall run. Jumping into a wall when moving begins the run, with a parabolic trajectory. You can jump off of the wall up to three times before you need to touch ground again; after each jump you begin the wall run again, likely at a higher elevation. This allows you to get a lot of verticality and progress past obstacles. The second main mechanic is the adrenaline time slowing feature. Now, unlike most games with time slow, this is intended for very short bursts; rather than a toggle on, toggle off, it's a hold on, release off system. Going into slow mo highlights enemy weakspots, and killing enemies with those weakspots will make them drop health, ammo, and adrenaline. You get a variety of weapons, and each one has at least one enemy that it is particularly suited for. Mixing up your weapon usage and judicious use of slow mo are all critical for progressing.
The game is fairly short; it took me about five hours to beat. The game's movement options are not as interesting as Ghostrunner's, and it seems to understand that, so it ends before you get bored with it. Falling off bottomless pits carry no penalty; just a quick respawn near where you fell off and no loss of progress or health. It's critical to stay moving, as your health drops fast. Enemies fire where you are, so constant movement helps keep the damage off, and slow mo is extremely useful for aiming.
The game never tries to overreach, and pulls of what it's trying to do well. It's not the kind of game you would likely come back to again, but it's fun for a one time romp.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
-
Markies
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 1514
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2015 4:29 pm
- Location: St. Louis, Missouri
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2023
Markies' Games Beat List Of 2023!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
***1. Dragon Valor (PS1)***
2. Breath Of Fire (GBA)
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (NS)
4. World Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse And Donald Duck (GEN)
5. XIII (GCN)
6. NES Remix Pack (WiiU)
7. Dr. Mario (GBC)
***8. Bully (PS2)***
9. Dragon's Crown (PS3)
10. Bangai-O (SDC)
11. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
12. Destruction Derby (PS1)
13. X-Men Legends II: Rise Of Apocalypse (XBOX)
14. Vice: Project Doom (NES)
***15. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)***
16. Terranigma (SNES)
***17. Super Street Fighter II (GEN)***
18. Guitar Hero II (PS2)
19. Kirby's Dream Land (GBC)
***20. Gunbird 2 (SDC)***
***21. Stella Deus: The Gate Of Eternity (PS2)***
22. I Am Setsuna (NS)
23. DuckTales: Remastered (WiiU)
***24. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES)***
***25. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)***
26. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA)
27. Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones (XBOX)
28. Baten Kaitos Origins (GCN)
29. Virtua Racing (GEN)
**30. Breath Of Fire III (PS1)***
31. Metroid II: Return Of Samus (GBC)
***32. Chameleon Twist (N64)***
I completed Chameleon Twist on the Nintendo 64 this afternoon!
A few years ago, I went through Chameleon Twist on the Nintendo 64. It was mostly an easy playthrough and wouldn't be too bad to go through one more time for completion. I was looking for a nice breather of game after going through the long haul of Breath of Fire III and I was looking for a Nintendo 64 game, so I figured Chameleon Twist would be a nice short break before my next long RPG adventure.
I don't think I have ever seen a more forgiving game. Every time you die, even when you game over, you start right back at the room where you died. So, each little room or small area is its own check point. This is really nice considering some of the control and camera issues you have with the game. But, for now, in the story, you are chasing a 'Alice In Wonderland' style white rabbit as you are chameleon that got turned into a person. You do your normal running and jumping, but you can use your tongue to reach tall ledges, grab onto things and suck and then spit out various enemies. The levels are fairly short, but they are extremely varied along with some nice music to make the game go by in a brisk pace. It's not a long game either as you can beat it in less than 3 hours.
My major flaw is the camera and the perspective you have. There are several jumps that make it hard to distinguish if you need to use your tongue or not. Also, some of the tongue swinging can be so precise that it is impossible to see where you are exactly. The camera is very far away and does not swivel like you would like it too. Along with two control figuration that you are very similar, but different in the game makes the game a little tough to move around in sometimes.
Overall, I really had an enjoyable time with Chameleon Twist. I really only had a few areas where the camera and controls were a major problem. Besides that, the game went by in a brisk pace and it was a fun romp all the way through. The game never blew my mind, but for a short game with little stakes to it, I'm glad I got to play it. Obviously, I wouldn't compare it to other platformers on the system, but for a short game and a nice after dinner mint between my steak dinners, I thought this one fit the bill quite nicely. If you looking for a break from the more intense and heavy games and enjoy platformers, give Chameleon Twist a play!
***Denotes Replay For Completion***
***1. Dragon Valor (PS1)***
2. Breath Of Fire (GBA)
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (NS)
4. World Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse And Donald Duck (GEN)
5. XIII (GCN)
6. NES Remix Pack (WiiU)
7. Dr. Mario (GBC)
***8. Bully (PS2)***
9. Dragon's Crown (PS3)
10. Bangai-O (SDC)
11. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
12. Destruction Derby (PS1)
13. X-Men Legends II: Rise Of Apocalypse (XBOX)
14. Vice: Project Doom (NES)
***15. Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm (PS2)***
16. Terranigma (SNES)
***17. Super Street Fighter II (GEN)***
18. Guitar Hero II (PS2)
19. Kirby's Dream Land (GBC)
***20. Gunbird 2 (SDC)***
***21. Stella Deus: The Gate Of Eternity (PS2)***
22. I Am Setsuna (NS)
23. DuckTales: Remastered (WiiU)
***24. The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (SNES)***
***25. Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 (NES)***
26. Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (GBA)
27. Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones (XBOX)
28. Baten Kaitos Origins (GCN)
29. Virtua Racing (GEN)
**30. Breath Of Fire III (PS1)***
31. Metroid II: Return Of Samus (GBC)
***32. Chameleon Twist (N64)***
I completed Chameleon Twist on the Nintendo 64 this afternoon!
A few years ago, I went through Chameleon Twist on the Nintendo 64. It was mostly an easy playthrough and wouldn't be too bad to go through one more time for completion. I was looking for a nice breather of game after going through the long haul of Breath of Fire III and I was looking for a Nintendo 64 game, so I figured Chameleon Twist would be a nice short break before my next long RPG adventure.
I don't think I have ever seen a more forgiving game. Every time you die, even when you game over, you start right back at the room where you died. So, each little room or small area is its own check point. This is really nice considering some of the control and camera issues you have with the game. But, for now, in the story, you are chasing a 'Alice In Wonderland' style white rabbit as you are chameleon that got turned into a person. You do your normal running and jumping, but you can use your tongue to reach tall ledges, grab onto things and suck and then spit out various enemies. The levels are fairly short, but they are extremely varied along with some nice music to make the game go by in a brisk pace. It's not a long game either as you can beat it in less than 3 hours.
My major flaw is the camera and the perspective you have. There are several jumps that make it hard to distinguish if you need to use your tongue or not. Also, some of the tongue swinging can be so precise that it is impossible to see where you are exactly. The camera is very far away and does not swivel like you would like it too. Along with two control figuration that you are very similar, but different in the game makes the game a little tough to move around in sometimes.
Overall, I really had an enjoyable time with Chameleon Twist. I really only had a few areas where the camera and controls were a major problem. Besides that, the game went by in a brisk pace and it was a fun romp all the way through. The game never blew my mind, but for a short game with little stakes to it, I'm glad I got to play it. Obviously, I wouldn't compare it to other platformers on the system, but for a short game and a nice after dinner mint between my steak dinners, I thought this one fit the bill quite nicely. If you looking for a break from the more intense and heavy games and enjoy platformers, give Chameleon Twist a play!
Re: Games Beaten 2023
Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
First 50:
51. This Way Madness Lies - PC
52. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit - PC
53. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - PC
54. Sprawl - PC
55. Zortch - PC
Zortch is an indie FPS whose defining feature is reminding one of N64-era console FPS's. It's hard to articulate exactly what separates it from what was appearing on PC at the time, but once you play it you'll definitely feel that "yeah, this is more console". It might be physics related; one thing you'll notice is that the enemies all are extremely floaty, with huge jumps they like to use liberally.
The game is divided into five episodes, each of which consists of three regular levels and a boss level. The regular levels are your standard key hunt, and most of them include a "destroy the generator", which brings down forcefields that were previously blocking your path. The level design is kind of all over the place. The early levels are more methodical mazes, but later levels are more frenetic, with multiples that are more of an area. There's even one level that encourages you to just dash through and ignore everything (by giving you enough invisibility to avoid all enemies if you go in the right direction at all times).
The game has a fairly standard arsenal for the time. None of the guns feel like they have the right impact; there's a lacking of oomph in both the visuals and the sound. In fact, the sound is my single biggest complaint about the game. Aside from your weapons having very muted sounds, enemies make almost no sounds whatsoever. No firing noises, no alert noises, no jump noises. All you get is projectile whoosh. This leads to a fuckton of bullshit damage from unseen enemies. This is especially egregious with the large slug enemies, which have a lot of health and fire a "end of game" level of rocket barrages that you aren't aware of until the first one hits you in the back. About midway through the game you realize that actually fighting enemies is a fool's errand and you should try and blitz through when you can.
But a couple of things I can appreciate. The first is that the enemy AI is quite good; enemies reposition well and present a genuine threat in areas. If the game afforded you more ability to have situational awareness it would be fun, rather than feeling like the devs hating you. The other thing it does is that while every resource has a cap, like other FPS's, here it's a "you cannot grab another pickup when above the cap". But the game never gives you a partial pickup. If you're one bullet down from the cap on the SMG and pick up a 50 round ammo pickup, congrats, you're now 49 rounds over the cap. This would lead to interesting strategies around health pickups, except the game does feature "your health ticks down to the cap", and at a fairly fast rate.
As indie FPS's go, Zortch has some neat ideas, but it really shows its amateur nature. There's a lot of other ones you should play first before picking this one up.
First 50:
51. This Way Madness Lies - PC
52. Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries: The Dragon's Gambit - PC
53. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - PC
54. Sprawl - PC
55. Zortch - PC
Zortch is an indie FPS whose defining feature is reminding one of N64-era console FPS's. It's hard to articulate exactly what separates it from what was appearing on PC at the time, but once you play it you'll definitely feel that "yeah, this is more console". It might be physics related; one thing you'll notice is that the enemies all are extremely floaty, with huge jumps they like to use liberally.
The game is divided into five episodes, each of which consists of three regular levels and a boss level. The regular levels are your standard key hunt, and most of them include a "destroy the generator", which brings down forcefields that were previously blocking your path. The level design is kind of all over the place. The early levels are more methodical mazes, but later levels are more frenetic, with multiples that are more of an area. There's even one level that encourages you to just dash through and ignore everything (by giving you enough invisibility to avoid all enemies if you go in the right direction at all times).
The game has a fairly standard arsenal for the time. None of the guns feel like they have the right impact; there's a lacking of oomph in both the visuals and the sound. In fact, the sound is my single biggest complaint about the game. Aside from your weapons having very muted sounds, enemies make almost no sounds whatsoever. No firing noises, no alert noises, no jump noises. All you get is projectile whoosh. This leads to a fuckton of bullshit damage from unseen enemies. This is especially egregious with the large slug enemies, which have a lot of health and fire a "end of game" level of rocket barrages that you aren't aware of until the first one hits you in the back. About midway through the game you realize that actually fighting enemies is a fool's errand and you should try and blitz through when you can.
But a couple of things I can appreciate. The first is that the enemy AI is quite good; enemies reposition well and present a genuine threat in areas. If the game afforded you more ability to have situational awareness it would be fun, rather than feeling like the devs hating you. The other thing it does is that while every resource has a cap, like other FPS's, here it's a "you cannot grab another pickup when above the cap". But the game never gives you a partial pickup. If you're one bullet down from the cap on the SMG and pick up a 50 round ammo pickup, congrats, you're now 49 rounds over the cap. This would lead to interesting strategies around health pickups, except the game does feature "your health ticks down to the cap", and at a fairly fast rate.
As indie FPS's go, Zortch has some neat ideas, but it really shows its amateur nature. There's a lot of other ones you should play first before picking this one up.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.