Games Beaten : 2011

[SwooshBear]

This year: 19
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Ps3)
Soul Caliber 3 (Ps2)
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Snes)
Warioware, Inc (Gba)
Half Life 2 ep. 1 (Ps3)
Half Life 2 ep. 2 (Ps3)
Super Mario Land 2 (Gb)
Resident Evil 5 (Ps3)
Radiant (iPod)
Space Invaders Extreme 2 (Ds)
Dark Nebula Episode 2 (iPod)
Angry Birds (iPod)
Call of Duty Black Ops (Ps3)
Kirby's Dreamland 2 (Gb)
Portal 2 (Ps3)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Gc)
Warioware Touched (Ds)
Scribblenauts (Ds)
Kirby's Nightmare in Dreamland (Gba) *NEW*

Had a long car ride to Ohio so I decided to play the GBA remake of my favorite Kirby game. Everything I love about the Nes classic is in this game plus more. This one felt easier than the original, but was still fun for a 8 hour car ride. Kirby's Adventure still remains as my favorite Kirby, but Nightmare in Dreamland is a close second.

[BurningDoom]

Just beat Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. Very fun. Much better than Wario Land 2. I stayed away from Wario Land games for quite a while because of my experience with Wario Land 2. I hate that you're pretty much invincible, what's the point? But Wario Land felt like a Super Mario games. A lot of fun.

[Ack]

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (PC)(FPS)
X-Men: Mutant Academy (PS1)(Fighting)
Street Fighter Alpha (PS2)(Fighting)
Extermination (PS2)(Survival Horror)
Spyro the Dragon (PS1)(Platformer)
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (PS1)(Platformer)
Myst III: Exile (PC)(Graphic Adventure)
Shaq Fu (GEN)(Fighting)
Spyro: Year of the Dragon (PS1)(Platformer)
God of War (PS2)(Action Adventure)
The Simpsons Game (PS2)(Platformer)
The King of Fighters '99 (PS1)(Fighting)
EOE: Eve of Extinction (PS2)(Beat 'Em Up)
Final Fight (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
Gundam Battle Assault (PS1)(Fighting)
Dark Rift (N64)(Fighting)
Deadly Arts (N64)(Fighting)
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (PS2)(TPS)
Vampire Hunter (SAT)(Fighting)
Super Scribblenauts (NDS)(Puzzle)
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2)(Action Adventure)
Jet Force Gemini (N64)(TPS)
Super R-Type (SNES)(Shmup)
Mega Man X7 (PS2)(Action Platformer)
LittleBigPlanet (PSN)(Platformer)
Daikatana (N64)(FPS)
Kirby's Adventure (NES)(Platformer)
Viewtiful Joe (PS2)(Beat 'Em Up)
Final Fantasy II (SNES)(RPG)
Gex: Enter the Gecko (PS1)(Platformer)
Spyro: A Hero's Tail (PS2)(Platformer)
Deadly Premonition (Xbox 360)(Survival Horror)

TOTAL: 32

So I have just beaten Deadly Premonition, and it was quite a ride. There's so much I want to talk about and so much more I want to delve into with this title. It's both classical and fresh for the genre, paying deep respect to its predecessors while boldly striding into territory never before seen in a survival horror game. It's quirky, lighthearted, at times bizarre, depressing, and darkly disturbing. Few games have been able to elicit such a complex mixture of emotions from me, but Deadly Premonition has imprinted itself upon my mind quite heavily these last two weeks. And I honestly think it's one of the greatest games I've ever played. That is not to say it is perfect...no game is. Even in the greatest of games there are glaring flaws, and Deadly Premonition has its share. But even these lend themselves well to the experience and add to the flavor, the tone, and the overall experience.

Perhaps instead of merely saying whether I liked the graphics or controls, I should instead contemplate exactly where Deadly Premonition fits amongst its survival horror brethren, as well as across all horror mediums in general. I recognized influences from many sources, making it a hodgepodge of some of my favorites of the genre. Twin Peaks is the most obvious influence, and the one people immediately jump to: a young woman has been murdered in a quiet American Northwest mountain town, a quirky FBI agent has been sent to investigate, and the town's inhabitants are an odd mixture of lovable oddballs and rotten bastards. But Deadly Premonition goes beyond Twin Peaks' tale of demonic possession, combining it with a Silent Hill-esque tale of a small town with a dark secret willfully forgotten by even the townsfolk old enough to remember. Hell exists in Greenvale, where affluent citizens hold secrets they wish to keep from each other.

The villain also borrows from a variety of sources, echoing a slasher stereotype with shades of both Clock Tower and Psycho, but with a far greater God complex. The designs of certain enemies, including the final battle with the Raincoat Killer, reveal a Japanese horror influence which melds unexpectedly well with the middle-American trappings, far greater than any recent Western remake of Japanese horror films, save Steve Raimi's version of Ju-on. In fact one particular enemy appears to have been inspired by the same folklore as films like Ju-on and Ringu; fans of the game will likely already know which one.

The controls for Deadly Premonition will probably be one of the greatest sticking points for enjoyment of the series with non-survival horror aficionados. Movement is similar to the controls from classic late-1990s horror titles like Resident Evil, particularly Resident Evil 3: Nemesis with its incredibly useful quick-turn feature. But combat with firearms is handled in an over-the-shoulder perspective a la Resident Evil 4, making for a nice fusion of the classic control style with the more modern third-person action shooter aspect found in games like recent Resident Evils and the Dead Space series. For myself, this feels like a mark of respect for the good old days, and I found I could just as easily go back to how I used to play my survival horror just like riding a bike. But that style isn't for everyone, and it will likely illicit many complaints.

Graphically the game first appears to be of quite poor quality, at least until you realize the scope of the world. Greenvale is actually quite large, and Federal Agent Francis York Morgan is able to traverse the entire area with no loading periods. That may not sound that impressive, and up close there are issues with bland and archaic looking textures on trees and buildings. But at that range, you are literally unable to see the forest for the trees. If you play the game and wish to criticize its graphics, fine. I just ask that you make the long drive up to Harry Stewart's mansion. When you get to the wide open ledge with a guard rail, climb out and look down the mountain at the city of Greenvale. Do you see those two tall pink trees way off in the distance? That's the town hospital, roughly 7 miles away. From that vantage point you can make out many of the town's landmarks as well as the thousands of poorly-rendered trees which serve to make Greenvale feel like an actual place. There's a beauty in its simplicity which can't be viewed until one considers the bigger picture of the game's world.

Speaking of the game's world, Deadly Premonition is very open, allowing players to traverse just about everywhere from day 1. There are some exceptions depending upon the plot at that moment, but for the most part the player could sit back and watch the world pass by as people go about their daily routines, go to work, eat at their favorite restaurant, sleep late, hit up the bar, visit the bank, and so on. It's not like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion either, where characters would sometimes spend hours staring at a blank wall. Instead these people are minding their shops, tinkering on their motorcycles, or hiding in their bedrooms and weeping. These open world segments dealing with the town's strange inhabitants are punctuated by levels reminiscent of Silent Hill's hellish alternate reality locales, with monstrous zombie-like entities roaming dilapidated buildings overrun with crimson plants and purple fog. If anything the open world section actually makes these levels seem more perverse than Silent Hill's transitions, as Silent Hill's regular world is messed up to begin with.

Deadly Premonition leaves many of its questions unanswered. Agent York, as Special Agent Francis York Morgan prefers to be called, seems to have previous experience with the hellish nightmare worlds he traverses. But then there are important plot devices revolving around Agent York which call into question his view on reality. Yet his bizarre internal thoughts and creepy alternate realities are traversed by others in the town, and he questions them openly about it in the real world. Even worse, he openly talks with someone named Zach, implied at points to be the player, but who is in reality...well, you'll just have to play to find that one out.

Oh, the music of the game is an interesting mixture of jazz, elevator muzak, and some other interesting choices. I greatly enjoyed turning on the game and just listening to the music at the title screen, but perhaps the soundtrack's most powerful (and unexpected) moment comes during a flashback, when, of all things, Amazing Grace is sung hauntingly while chaos reigns in the Greenvale streets.

If there is one issue I have with the game, it's that it generally is quite easy. Combat is extremely repetitive solely because there's a distinct lack of enemy types in the game. There are three real boss fights, two of which are broken into distinct parts, but all of these occur in the latter half of the game. Beyond this, each level generally offers attempts to use the same base enemies in new ways but doesn't manage to keep them from growing stale by the end. To add to the fun, life becomes much easier once the player picks up a few of the infinite weapons, particularly the infinite submachine gun, which can be found quite early. That weapon alone got me through the game, with the sole exception of the infinite magnum, which I used against one type of enemy.

After this game, I'm quite interested in what else Access Games can come up with. The game's director, Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro, seems to know what he's doing. He had previous experience working in survival horror as a writer on Extermination, but this one completely blew me away. There are also many little touches by the game developers that will mess with the player once they take notice. One of them even gives away the identity of the Raincoat Killer, though the player probably won't realize it until too late.

I suppose I should take a moment and note that I did everything I possibly could in the game. I need to play through it on Easy and Hard, but Normal is done. I completed all 50 side missions, found all 65 trading cards, picked up all infinite weapons, bought every car, and earned nearly every achievement in the game, save the ones for beating it on Easy and Hard. But that will come later.

[noiseredux]

So I have just beaten Deadly Premonition, and it was quite a ride. There's so much I want to talk about and so much more I want to delve into with this title. It's both classical and fresh for the genre, paying deep respect to its predecessors while boldly striding into territory never before seen in a survival horror game. It's quirky, lighthearted, at times bizarre, depressing, and darkly disturbing. Few games have been able to elicit such a complex mixture of emotions from me, but Deadly Premonition has imprinted itself upon my mind quite heavily these last two weeks. And I honestly think it's one of the greatest games I've ever played. That is not to say it is perfect...no game is. Even in the greatest of games there are glaring flaws, and Deadly Premonition has its share. But even these lend themselves well to the experience and add to the flavor, the tone, and the overall experience.

Perhaps instead of merely saying whether I liked the graphics or controls, I should instead contemplate exactly where Deadly Premonition fits amongst its survival horror brethren, as well as across all horror mediums in general. I recognized influences from many sources, making it a hodgepodge of some of my favorites of the genre. Twin Peaks is the most obvious influence, and the one people immediately jump to: a young woman has been murdered in a quiet American Northwest mountain town, a quirky FBI agent has been sent to investigate, and the town's inhabitants are an odd mixture of lovable oddballs and rotten bastards. But Deadly Premonition goes beyond Twin Peaks' tale of demonic possession, combining it with a Silent Hill-esque tale of a small town with a dark secret willfully forgotten by even the townsfolk old enough to remember. Hell exists in Greenvale, where affluent citizens hold secrets they wish to keep from each other.

The villain also borrows from a variety of sources, echoing a slasher stereotype with shades of both Clock Tower and Psycho, but with a far greater God complex. The designs of certain enemies, including the final battle with the Raincoat Killer, reveal a Japanese horror influence which melds unexpectedly well with the middle-American trappings, far greater than any recent Western remake of Japanese horror films, save Steve Raimi's version of Ju-on. In fact one particular enemy appears to have been inspired by the same folklore as films like Ju-on and Ringu; fans of the game will likely already know which one.

The controls for Deadly Premonition will probably be one of the greatest sticking points for enjoyment of the series with non-survival horror aficionados. Movement is similar to the controls from classic late-1990s horror titles like Resident Evil, particularly Resident Evil 3: Nemesis with its incredibly useful quick-turn feature. But combat with firearms is handled in an over-the-shoulder perspective a la Resident Evil 4, making for a nice fusion of the classic control style with the more modern third-person action shooter aspect found in games like recent Resident Evils and the Dead Space series. For myself, this feels like a mark of respect for the good old days, and I found I could just as easily go back to how I used to play my survival horror just like riding a bike. But that style isn't for everyone, and it will likely illicit many complaints.

Graphically the game first appears to be of quite poor quality, at least until you realize the scope of the world. Greenvale is actually quite large, and Federal Agent Francis York Morgan is able to traverse the entire area with no loading periods. That may not sound that impressive, and up close there are issues with bland and archaic looking textures on trees and buildings. But at that range, you are literally unable to see the forest for the trees. If you play the game and wish to criticize its graphics, fine. I just ask that you make the long drive up to Harry Stewart's mansion. When you get to the wide open ledge with a guard rail, climb out and look down the mountain at the city of Greenvale. Do you see those two tall pink trees way off in the distance? That's the town hospital, roughly 7 miles away. From that vantage point you can make out many of the town's landmarks as well as the thousands of poorly-rendered trees which serve to make Greenvale feel like an actual place. There's a beauty in its simplicity which can't be viewed until one considers the bigger picture of the game's world.

Speaking of the game's world, Deadly Premonition is very open, allowing players to traverse just about everywhere from day 1. There are some exceptions depending upon the plot at that moment, but for the most part the player could sit back and watch the world pass by as people go about their daily routines, go to work, eat at their favorite restaurant, sleep late, hit up the bar, visit the bank, and so on. It's not like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion either, where characters would sometimes spend hours staring at a blank wall. Instead these people are minding their shops, tinkering on their motorcycles, or hiding in their bedrooms and weeping. These open world segments dealing with the town's strange inhabitants are punctuated by levels reminiscent of Silent Hill's hellish alternate reality locales, with monstrous zombie-like entities roaming dilapidated buildings overrun with crimson plants and purple fog. If anything the open world section actually makes these levels seem more perverse than Silent Hill's transitions, as Silent Hill's regular world is messed up to begin with.

Deadly Premonition leaves many of its questions unanswered. Agent York, as Special Agent Francis York Morgan prefers to be called, seems to have previous experience with the hellish nightmare worlds he traverses. But then there are important plot devices revolving around Agent York which call into question his view on reality. Yet his bizarre internal thoughts and creepy alternate realities are traversed by others in the town, and he questions them openly about it in the real world. Even worse, he openly talks with someone named Zach, implied at points to be the player, but who is in reality...well, you'll just have to play to find that one out.

Oh, the music of the game is an interesting mixture of jazz, elevator muzak, and some other interesting choices. I greatly enjoyed turning on the game and just listening to the music at the title screen, but perhaps the soundtrack's most powerful (and unexpected) moment comes during a flashback, when, of all things, Amazing Grace is sung hauntingly while chaos reigns in the Greenvale streets.

If there is one issue I have with the game, it's that it generally is quite easy. Combat is extremely repetitive solely because there's a distinct lack of enemy types in the game. There are three real boss fights, two of which are broken into distinct parts, but all of these occur in the latter half of the game. Beyond this, each level generally offers attempts to use the same base enemies in new ways but doesn't manage to keep them from growing stale by the end. To add to the fun, life becomes much easier once the player picks up a few of the infinite weapons, particularly the infinite submachine gun, which can be found quite early. That weapon alone got me through the game, with the sole exception of the infinite magnum, which I used against one type of enemy.

After this game, I'm quite interested in what else Access Games can come up with. The game's director, Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro, seems to know what he's doing. He had previous experience working in survival horror as a writer on Extermination, but this one completely blew me away. There are also many little touches by the game developers that will mess with the player once they take notice. One of them even gives away the identity of the Raincoat Killer, though the player probably won't realize it until too late.

I suppose I should take a moment and note that I did everything I possibly could in the game. I need to play through it on Easy and Hard, but Normal is done. I completed all 50 side missions, found all 65 trading cards, picked up all infinite weapons, bought every car, and earned nearly every achievement in the game, save the ones for beating it on Easy and Hard. But that will come later.

my PS3 version just arrived a couple weeks ago. Now you've got me excited to get into it. Sounds truly like a game I'll love.

[Stark]

1/15 Dynamite Cop (DC)
2/4 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3)
5/19 Portal 2 - Single Player (PS3)
5/22 Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished (PSP)
6/5 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Reverie (PS3)
6/28 Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X (PSP)
7/17 Golden Axe (PSN)
7/22 Red Dead Redemption (PS3)
7/31 Heavy Rain (PS3)
8/16 Jeanne d'Arc (PSP)

I really enjoyed this game and I think the only Turn-Based Strategy game of this type I've ever taken the time to finish. I think the thing that usually turns me off to games in this genre is the level of complexity. Games like Disgaea are fun at first and then just get overwhelming with the depth. This game wasn't too long, had a little bit of depth with gems and creating new ones with gem-fusion and was a good length for a portable (around 25-30 hours for me to finish). I had to grind some at the end which annoyed me, but other than that, thumbs up!

[noiseredux]

I really enjoyed this game and I think the only Turn-Based Strategy game of this type I've ever taken the time to finish. I think the thing that usually turns me off to games in this genre is the level of complexity. Games like Disgaea are fun at first and then just get overwhelming with the depth. This game wasn't too long, had a little bit of depth with gems and creating new ones with gem-fusion and was a good length for a portable (around 25-30 hours for me to finish). I had to grind some at the end which annoyed me, but other than that, thumbs up!

this is one I keep meaning to pick up.

[Stark]

I really enjoyed this game and I think the only Turn-Based Strategy game of this type I've ever taken the time to finish. I think the thing that usually turns me off to games in this genre is the level of complexity. Games like Disgaea are fun at first and then just get overwhelming with the depth. This game wasn't too long, had a little bit of depth with gems and creating new ones with gem-fusion and was a good length for a portable (around 25-30 hours for me to finish). I had to grind some at the end which annoyed me, but other than that, thumbs up!

this is one I keep meaning to pick up.

Hard to beat it for around $10. Has anime sequences from (I think) the same artist as the Layton ones, if that is a plus or not.

[noiseredux]

Hard to beat it for around $10. Has anime sequences from (I think) the same artist as the Layton ones, if that is a plus or not.

meh. I've helped my wife solve a handful of Layton puzzles. Never played one of them myself. I prefer my anime sequences to by chicks with crazy colored hair haha. BUT one thing I adore is the old RPG-on-a-chessboard style of games like Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics and so on. So it does look great to me. Plus, I find those sorts of games very condusive to portable gaming. I tend to play my PSP for an hour or so in bed before I fall asleep. They're kind of relaxing/thinking games that don't require a lot of quick reflexes.

[Xeogred]

That sounds like a short SRPG to me. Tactics Ogre (SNES) took me 60 hours to beat. lol, of course I got to level 50 of the Hell's Gate so that took up sometime.

[Flake]

1/11 Guardian Heroes (SAT)
1/14 Sonic Adventure (GCN)
1/17 Marvel vs Capcom 2 (DC)
1/17 X-Men vs Street Fighter (SAT)
1/22 Dragon Ball Z Budokai (GCN)
1/24 Street Fighter III - The New Generation (DC)
1/24 Street Fighter Alpha 3 (DC)
1/25 Mega Man X (GCN)
1/26 Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure (GBA)
1/31 Tatsunoko vs Capcom (Wii)
2/1 Megaman X2 (GCN)
2/2 Marvel vs Capcom (DC)
2/3 Megaman X3 (GCN)
2/3 Megaman X4 (GCN)
2/4 Megaman X5 (GCN)
2/5 Megaman X6 (GCN)
2/7 Gundam SEED: Never Ending Tomorrow (PS2)
2/8 Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (DC)
2/9 Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams (PS2)
2/9 The King of Fighters XI (PS2)
2/11 The King of Fighters '99 Dream Match (DC)
2/13 SNK Gals Fighter (NGPC)
2/16 The King of Fighters '98 (Wii)
2/17 The King of Fighters '96 (Wii)
2/17 Metal Slug (Wii)
2/17 Metal Slug 2 (Wii)
2/18 SNK vs Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (NGPC)
2/19 The King of Fighters '97 (Wii)
2/19 Street Fighter II' (Wii / VC)
2/22 Metal Slug 3 (Wii)
2/25 Super Street Fighter IV (PS3)
2/27 Capcom vs SNK 2 (DC)
2/27 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
3/3 Mega Man II (GB)
3/5 Super Street Fighter II: HD Remix (PS3)
3/6 Mega Man III (GB)
3/11 Mega Man IV (GB)
3/13 Mega Man: Powered Up! (PSP)
3/14 Garou: Mark of the Wolves (DC)
3/15 Street Fighter III 3rd Strike (PS2)
3/15 Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold (PS2)
3/15 Street Fighter Alpha 2 (PS2)
3/15 Street Fighter EX 3 (PS2)
3/15 Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (PS2)
3/16 The King of Fighters R2 (NGPC)
3/16 Project Justice: Rival Schools (DC)
3/17 Capcom Fighting Evolution (PS2)
3/20 Zone of the Enders (PS2)
3/21 P.N.03 (GCN)
3/21 Super Puzzle Fighter II (GBA)
3/27 Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (3DS)
4/10 Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 (GCN)
4/28 Vampire Savior (SAT)
5/3 Advance Guardian Heroes (GBA)
5/7 Virtua Fighter Kids (SAT)
5/12 Soul Calibur II (GCN)
5/13 Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland (GBA)
5/14 Dead or Alive 2 (DC)
5/14 Gigawing (DC)
5/15 Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 (Wii)
5/23 Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (NGPC)
5/24 Mega Man 8 (SAT)
5/27 Kirby's Dream Land (GB)
6/4 Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land (GB)
6/18 Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)
6/20 Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (PS3)
6/20 Street Fighter Alpha 2 (SAT)
6/20 Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams (GBC)
7/10 Kodou Senshi Gundam (SAT)
7/10 Super Mario Land (GB)
7/16 Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
7/18 NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii)
7/25 Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter (SAT)
7/26 Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team (XBLA)
7/27 The King of Dragons (PS2)
7/31 Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
8/2 The King of Fighters '99 Evolution (DC)
8/2 Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing (Wii)
8/6 Sonic Advance (GBA)
8/13 House of the Dead: OverKill (Wii)
8/14 Rival Schools: United by Fate (PSX)
8/17 Maverick Hunter X (PSP)

Yikes...Maverick Hunter X...where to start.

The problem with Maverick Hunter X is that no one at Capcom stopped to ask themselves why they were making the game. It doesn't really fill any niche. It doesn't have as much charm or as many extras as Megaman Powered up. It doesn't flesh out the story of the original Megaman X in a satisfying way. It actually makes an already convoluted tale even more confusing.

There is something iconic about Megaman spritework, but Maverick Hunter X features polygonal characters on a 2.5D plane - which makes it look like any other number of PSP games with competent but soulless visuals that are forgotten as soon as the credits roll.

So while Maverick Hunter X is not a failure on any level...it also isn't a success. It jumbles a legendary game in a clumsy way, the graphics are bland, and the extras are paltry compared to other (earlier) PSP remakes.