Games Beaten 2014

Post by **Luke** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:21 am

prfsnl_gmr wrote: 33. Dig Dug (ARCADE/GBA)

Kill screen after round 250+? That's a lot of Digging and Dugging.

Post by **elricorico** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:53 am

1. Pikmin 3 (WiiU)
2. Kirby's Adventure (WiiU VC)
3. Rayman Legends (WiiU)
4. Mario Kart 8 (WiiU)
5. NHL14 (PS3)
6. NES Remix (WiiU)
7. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (WiiU)

8. Portal (PS3)

So I had been looking for a good deal on The Orange Box for a while and picked it up for $5 yesterday through kijiji. I had never played Portal before and for me that was the draw.

I'm sure Portal has been discussed/reviewed to death, so I won't give too much. I had fun, and I kept having fun through the whole experience. The learning curve was married to level design just right, though I will admit to looking up a solution to one jump in level 18 (using the angled platform). I'd heard the ending song before, even played it on Rockband, but I now get what was so clever about it.

Well worth playing. I don't know that I'll ever refer to it when making a list of favourites, but its a game that everyone should try.

Post by **Ack** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:07 am

1. Blood II: The Nightmare Levels (PC)(FPS)
2. Metal Slug (MVS)(Run and Gun)
3. Clive Barker's Undying (PC)(FPS)
4. Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death (PC)(FPS)
5. Lagoon (SNES)(RPG)
6. Tin Star (SNES)(Light Gun)
7. Cacoma Knight in Bizyland (SNES)(Puzzle)
8. World Heroes (MVS)(Fighting)
9. Mario's Early Years: Preschool Fun (SNES)(Edutainment)
10. Rival Turf! (SNES)(Beat 'Em Up)
11. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Genesis)(Fighting)
12. SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium (NGPC)(Fighting)
13. Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (SNES)(RPG)
14. Super Turrican 2 (SNES)(Run and Gun)
15. Brain Lord (SNES)(RPG)
16. Live A Live (SNES)(RPG)
17. Treasure Adventure Game (PC)(Platformer)
18. Realms of the Haunting (PC)(FPS)
19. Pocket Tennis Color (NGPC)(Sports)
20. Unreal Gold (PC)(FPS)
21. Puzzle Bobble Mini (NGPC)(Puzzle)
22. John Romero's Daikatana (PC)(FPS)
23. Scratches: Director's Cut (PC)(Point and Click)
24. Evoland (PC)(RPG)
25. Dead Pixels (PC)(Run and Gun)
26. Dungeon Defenders (PC)(RPG)
27. Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (PC)(FPS/RPG)
28. Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx (PC)(FPS/RPG)
29. Borderlands: Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution (PC)(FPS/RPG)
30. The Simpsons (Arcade)(Beat 'Em Up)
31. Borderlands (PC)(FPS/RPG)
32. Portal (PC)(FPS)
33. Math Blaster (SNES)(Edutainment)
34. The Walking Dead (PC)(Point and Click)
35. The Walking Dead: 400 Days (PC)(Point and Click)
36. Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot (PC)(FPS/RPG)
37. Cubetractor (PC)(Puzzle)
38. Tecmo Secret of the Stars (SNES)(RPG)
39. Wheel of Fortune: Featuring Vanna White (SNES)(Game Show Simulator)
40. Borderlands 2 (PC)(FPS/RPG)
41. Borderlands 2 Headhunter - T.K. Baha's Bloody Harvest (PC)(FPS/RPG)
42. Borderlands 2 Headhunter - The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler (PC)(FPS/RPG)
43. Borderlands 2 Headhunter - Son of Crawmerax (PC)(FPS/RPG)
44. Borderlands 2 - Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty (PC)(FPS/RPG)
45. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (SNES)(Edutainment)
46. Bust-A-Move (SNES)(Puzzle)

If you've never played Bust-A-Move/Puzzle Bobble, I pity you. It's a simple concept: each screen has a different arrangement of colored balls on it. Putting three colored balls together makes them vanish, and any balls that were relying on them for support fall away and are gone. But to get the balls together, you either shoot them straight up or bounce them off the walls, all while the ceiling is slowly lowered until the balls cross a line which causes you to lose. Simple, yet surprisingly difficult depending on the arrangement. The element of luck comes in with whatever color balls you are given to shoot by Bub. Yes, Bub and Bob are the lovable dinos from the Bubble Bobble series.

Anyway, I went through all 100 levels of the SNES port of Bust-A-Move. No, I didn't do it without losing, but I grabbed passwords that it would generate to keep trying and work my way through. There is something I find soothing about Bust-A-Move's simple gameplay, yet equally frustrating depending on the luck of the draw with the random balls. Not gonna lie, Bub must be a union worker or something considering he doesn't get fired no matter how many times he gives me a totally worthless ball that just gets in the way. This is what it's like sometimes with Bub:

Seriously Bub? A black ball? There's one of those, and it's at the top of the map surrounded by every other color. You could have literally given me anything else, anything at all, and it would have been useful, but you decided to give me the black one. Fine.

...and you give me another black ball. Ok, fine. I've now blocked off the orange ball because there was nowhere else to put them. So what have you got for me now?

An orange ball. I hate you, Bub.

That said, I often managed to recover and still got through the game. Certain layouts I find a lot harder than others, but after slogging my way through a difficult board or two, I'd be able to clear out the next ten or so with little problem. The frequency of difficult arrangements does increase in the latter half of the game, but even then it feels well spaced out, and I jumped from about 88 to 95 with no problem, and then 96 to 99 with no problems again. The final boss at 100 is an interesting fight that contains elements of the competitive mode, but I still managed to beat him after a few attempts.

That marks two Bust-A-Move games that I have gone through completely(100 for the SNES port, 99 for the NGPC port if I recall correctly). The NGPC port felt a lot easier despite the problems with determining ball color. The game just seemed a lot more cooperative with what balls it would give me. But I love them both and highly recommend them to puzzle fans, much more than the other puzzle games offered on both the SNES and NGPC. I really do enjoy Bust-A-Move!

Post by **BoneSnapDeez** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:55 pm

First 50:

51. Ys: The Vanished Omens (Sega Master System)
52. Code of Princess (3DS)
53. Ys (PSP - Ys I & II Chronicles)
54. Ys II (PSP - Ys I & II Chronicles)
55. Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (PSP - Sega Genesis Collection)
56. Gradius (PSP - Gradius Collection)
57. Shinobi (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
58. Otomedius Excellent (Xbox 360)
59. Deathsmiles (Xbox 360)
60. Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
61. The Lost Vikings (SNES)
62. The Lost Vikings (Genesis)
63. Final Fantasy II (Game Boy Advance - Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls)
64. Final Fight (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
65. Alien Syndrome (PlayStation 2 - Sega Classics Collection)
66. Exile (Genesis)
67. Ristar (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
68. Final Fight (Xbox 360 - Capcom Digital Collection)
69. Classic NES Series: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Game Boy Advance)
70. Classic NES Series: Metroid (Game Boy Advance)
71. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Xbox 360 - Konami Classics Vol. 1)
72. Ys (DS - Legacy of Ys: Books I & II)
73. Ys II (DS - Legacy of Ys: Books I & II)
74. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
75. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (PSP - Sega Genesis Collection)
76. Golden Axe III (PSP - Sega Genesis Collection)
77. Muramasa Rebirth (Vita)
78. Magic Sword (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
79. Mega Twins (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
80. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
81. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Game Boy Color)
82. Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (PlayStation 3 - Dungeons & Dragons: Mystara Eiyuu Senki)
83. Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara (PlayStation 3 - Dungeons & Dragons: Mystara Eiyuu Senki)
84. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (SNES)
85. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Genesis)
86. Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PSP)
87. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
88. Contra (NES)
89. Sonic & Knuckles (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
90. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
91. Ys IV: Mask of the Sun (Super Famicom)
92. Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys (PC Engine CD)
93. Ys (Famicom)
94. Ys (Turbo CD - Ys Book I & II)
95. Ys II (Turbo CD - Ys Book I & II)
96. Popful Mail (Sega CD)
97. Dodonpachi Resurrection (Xbox 360)
98. Ys V: Ushinawareta Sunano Miyako Kefin (Super Famicom)
99. Gorf (VIC-20)
100. Gorf (Commodore 64)

Triple digits now.

Ys III is generally regarded as the "black sheep" of the Ys series, but to me Ys V sticks out like a sore thumb. It lacks the elements that made the first set of games unique - like the simple clean graphics, gorgeous soundtrack, and anime character portraits - and instead feels like Falcom's attempt to compete with Link to the Past and Secret of Mana.

Ys V is fundamentally well-constructed and has some decent controls, but the world simply isn't that interesting and it feels much too long even at 9 hours. Recommended for hardcore Falcom fans only. It's worth noting that this is their first true attempt at an RPG on a console.

Gorf is a classic arcade shooter that was eventually ported to the requisite pre-NES systems. It's one of those "one screen" shooters like Galaga or Satan's Hollow, though you can move vertically as well. The game has four very distinct levels before looping, which was a nice surprise. The final boss is the big daddy spaceship which makes an epic static-y boom when it explodes. You know what I'm talking about.

I played Gorf on two Commodore systems. As expected the C64 port has better graphics and runs much more smoothly. Better explosion at the end too.

Post by **Gamerforlife** » Thu Oct 09, 2014 8:49 pm

MrPopo wrote:
darsparx wrote:
Gamerforlife wrote:Finished Legend Mode on Hyrule Warriors (a.k.a.story mode)

This is officially my favorite 3d Zelda game
So wait...did you actually find a modern game that you enjoy now? Not trying to be rude but this seems like the first time I've read about a modern game you've played and liked...
Well, it's a Dynasty Warriors reskin, so it's not really a modern game. It's just a game that came out recently.

I wouldn't call it a reskin. It plays differently from Warriors games that I've played due to them incorporating Zelda gameplay mechanics. Zelda and Dynasty Warriors popped out a baby, and it's Hyrule Warriors. Plus, it feels more polished than a typical Warriors game, like a Nintendo first party product should.

And speaking of modern games, I have no complaints about Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor, which I've been playing for a while, but I love the Batman games and Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Mordor is basically a marriage of the two franchises with some new stuff thrown in and the Lord of the Rings license slapped on.

Middle Earth Bat Creed it should be called

I've killed five captains so far and no one has managed to take me down yet. At this rate, I'm not sure I'll even HAVE a nemesis. No one can kill me mwahahahahahah. You give me Arkham style combat and I will kick ass. That's all there is to it.

I LOVE both of these games, so I don't hate everything. Plus, I'm happy to see a game I fell in love with a while back return on the PS4 (Dust An Elysian Tail), and another old favorite come out next week (Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition).

Post by **REPO Man** » Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:13 pm

On Easy Mode, used save states.

Might try again on Normal and Hard modes.

Awesome game, but one has to wonder whether the Magical Quest trilogy is superior to the Illusion series or vice versa.

On Easy Mode, didn't need save states and just beat the damn thing in almost literally no time at all.

Maybe Normal and Hard Modes will be different.

While the game has slightly more improved graphics, they don't cancel out the game's overly easy difficulty enough to make it a superior sequel.

Gonna tackle the third game soon.

The second game was released on the Genesis as well as the Super NES (I played the Super NES version), though an ultimately-cancelled Genesis port the the first was in production.

The third game wasn't released in English for the Super NES, but it was remade for the GBA (along with the first two) and released Stateside.

Post by **prfsnl_gmr** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:19 am

First 25

26. Alien Chaos 3D (3DS)
27. Return Fire (3DO/PS1)
28. Puppeteer (PS3)
29. Giana Sisters DS (DS)
30. Street of Rage 2 (GEN)
31. Halo 2 (XBOX)
32. OutRun (ARCADE/GBA)
33. Dig Dug (ARCADE/GBA)
34. Tron (ARCADE/GBA)
35. Spider Man (2600)
36. One-on-One Basketball (7800)
37. Jak & Daxter (PS2/PS3)
38. Front Line (ARCADE/PS2)
39. DuckTales Remastered (PS3)
40. Donkey Kong Country Returns (WII)
41. Barbie & The Three Musketeers (WII)

I purchased this game beacause: (1) it is a 2D action platformer for the Wii; (2) developed by WayForward; and (3) that I thought my daughter would enjoy watching me play. Nonetheles - and given the property on which it is licensed and its target demographic - I did have some trepidation going into it. Thankfully, the game did not disappoint me, and I ended up enjoying my time with it. (My daughter, and son, also very much enjoyed watching me play it.)

As a WayForward title, the game boasts outstanding sprite work and gorgeous 2D backgrounds. Although jumping never feels natural (and although the game contains some entirely unnecessary motion controls), it controls well, and Barbie <*cough, cough*> "Corinne" and her companions control well. The game plays like a very easy, Barbie-themed Metroid with a touch of Blaster Master. Specifically, as she progresses through the game's levels, Barbie gains three new companions, each with a different ability. You switch between the companions on the fly to overcome obstacles, hit switches, and battle enemies (which include everything from mice, to swordsmen, to steampunk robots). You can also release your kitten, Miette, to explore small passages, find hidden switches, and "scout" certain sections of the level. Finally, each level contains 100 coins that you can use to purchase bonus items (i.e., costumes for the characters, still frames from the movie, etc.). While it is not necessary to revisit previous sections of the game to see the ending, it is necessary to revist those sections with all of Barbie's companions to obtain all the coins. Finally, the game contains several compelling boss battles...one of which I almost lost!

The game, as expected, is very easy and very forgiving. I acquired multiple extra lives, and I did not "die" at all. Likewise, the game is quite short, and while I played it over multiple evenings, I suspect that a dedicated player could get through it in a single sitting. Acquiring all of the coins adds some challenge to the game, but again, I would not expect to squeeze dozens of hours out of this game unless you are under eight years old.

That said, it was a a fun game that will probably never receive the respect it deserved due to the property on which it is based (i.e., a direct-to-DVD animated film meant to advertise a toy targeted to young girls). If you have a young child who is interested in video games, however, and would like to provide him or her with an introduction to old-fashioned video game design, I recommend giving this game a shot.

Post by **Ack** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 9:50 am

REPO Man wrote:

On Easy Mode, used save states.

Might try again on Normal and Hard modes.

Awesome game, but one has to wonder whether the Magical Quest trilogy is superior to the Illusion series or vice versa.

On Easy Mode, didn't need save states and just beat the damn thing in almost literally no time at all.

Maybe Normal and Hard Modes will be different.

While the game has slightly more improved graphics, they don't cancel out the game's overly easy difficulty enough to make it a superior sequel.

Gonna tackle the third game soon.

The second game was released on the Genesis as well as the Super NES (I played the Super NES version), though an ultimately-cancelled Genesis port the the first was in production.

The third game wasn't released in English for the Super NES, but it was remade for the GBA (along with the first two) and released Stateside.

Trust me, those games aren't a challenge on Normal or Hard. You can breeze through both of them pretty easily.

Post by **alienjesus** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:18 pm

First 50:

51. Sayonara Umihara Kawase 3DS eShop
52. Konami Krazy Racers GBA
53. Final Fantasy X HD Remaster PSVita *NEW*
54. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS 3DS eShop *NEW*
55. Kirby: Triple Deluxe 3DS eShop *NEW*
56. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call 3DS *NEW*

Oh jesus, 4 updates? This one is going to take me a while to type up...

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster

This wass my first time playing through Final Fantasy X, and I can definitely see how it it impressed back in the early days of the PS2. The graphics and spectacle take a big step up from the PS1 entries in a series that was already becoming quite known for them. The graphics in particular look even better in this remaster of course.

The sound of the game mixes things up from the more orchestral nature of the previous games, and includes some interesting heavy guitar riffs and the likes in some songs. That said, the best music is still some of the more classic stuff, and To Zanarkand in particular is an absolutely wonderful piece.

Story wise, I enjoyed this game as well. It's not the absolute pinnacle of storytelling and it's typically a bit cheesy and often predictable, yet it's engrossing enough that I wanted to play on and see more. It's definitely centre stage here too, with much less dungeon crawling and the likes compared to earlier titles. People complained about FF13 being a corridor simulator, but this game is absolutely the same. I didn't mind that though.

More so than the plot narrative, the characters and the world of Spira are centre stage here, and I feel the quick progression from point to point helps tie them together nicely. The characters are generally pretty likeable (although they have their moments) and I honestly never found particular characters annoying like some claim (Tidus, Wakka, Yuna and Rikku are often cited as the main offenders).

The way the game encourages (and sometimes forces) you to use all of your party members to deal with different situations (Wakka vs flying enemies, Lulu vs magical enemies, Yuna heals and summons, Rikku vs mechs, Tidus vs fast enemies, Auron vs armoured enemies) works nicely and makes you feel more attached to the whole party, unlike some RPGs where you struggle to care about characters you never use. It can sometimes make it hard to use characters you want to level, but it's moe a plus than a minus overall in my book.

The battle system feels a little stripped back compared to earlier entries, yet at the same time this helps the game as a lot of what was stripped away was extraneous stuff you never needed to use anyway. Status effects available to you are limited but useful this time. The level up system is not as customisable as it likes you think on the default setting, but my understanding is that expert sphere grid allows you much more flexibility, so this point is moot.

Lastly, the voice acting. This is the infamous part of the game that everyone hates. My thoughts? Eh, I've heard much worse. The voice acting is actually a decent quality although often stilted due to a sometimes awkward localisation of dialogue and trying to fit sentences to the japanese lip synch. The ever so infamous laughing scene really isnt that bad in context - they even genuinely laugh literally right afterwards and that sounds totally natural and not bad at all. Tidus's accent is a little obnoxious but I'll chalk that one up to preference - I'm not a huge fan of that modern American accent in fantasy games, but it kinda makes sense in Tidus's case seeing as he's a sports star.

Overall, I really liked this one. It's not above IX or V in my books, but it's a lot of fun. Screw working on the superboss stuff right now though. So much tedious grinding.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

Rhythm games are on of my favourite genres, and Final Fantasy is a series I enjoy which is also known for great soundtracks. This seems like a win-win in my book.

And it is, for the most part. 200+ final fantasy themes playable in a rhythm game format, controllable in many ways using the stylus (which I prefer, as the game is clearly designed for it) or buttons. These cover a large expanse of the series, including all 14 numberED titles, X-2, XIII-2, Lightning returns, Crisis Core, Advent Children, Dissisia Duodecim, Crystal Chronicles, Mystic Quest, FFTactics and Type-0 in varying amounts.

RhythmCall: Final Theatre is fun, although the lack of structure irritates - most songs are available from the get go, they aren't ranked by difficulty, and the gap in difficulty between basic, expert and ultimate is exponential - expert was boringly easy for the most part to me, but ultimate was pretty damn tough in most cases.

The game adds on lots of Final Fantasy mechanics too, with battle mechanics and treasure hunting, skills your characters can learn and items they can equip, and even levelling up systems. This is a nice little nod to the series, but honestly is all seems like unnecessary fluff to me. I'd prefer they'd put a little more time into polishing up the aready good but not great rhythm system.

And thats an issue I had with CurtainRhythm Fantasy Theatre - something isn't quite there. I can't put my finger on it, but it's just not as addictive as the best games of this genre (stuff like Rhythm Heaven, Project DIVA and Gitaroo Man) have been to me. Perhaps it's the soundtrack - whilst wonderful, a lot of it clearly isn't geared for this sort of game and a few of the songs can be a bit dull because of this. That said, most of them sound great.

I also wish that they'd used new versions of tunes from the classic games. As classic as the NES/Famicom tunes for Final Fantasy 1-3 are, they just feel odd and out of place in a rhythm game like this. The SNES tunes werent so bad, but the more fun songs were generally taken from the later games. This was also aided by the fact that the songs there are generally longer before they loop - one song from FF2 loops about 20 times in 2 minutes and it did my head in whenever it came up in quest mode.

The credits theme is a funky ska-like version of the classic Final Fantasy theme that I absolutely loved and would fit a rhythm game perfectly. Seemingly, it's the only song in the game that isn't playable. I actually think a smaller song selection featuring newly recorded versions and remixes of songs would have been a better way to go about this game.

Despite my complaints, I did enjoy my time with TheatFantasy Curtain Rhythm. It's a massive gift to fans of the series, and it's stuffed to the gills with content. I just wish the tiniest little more time had been spent on improving the already good quality to match the amazing quantity of content.

Next up: I dunno? Hyrule Warriors maybe?

Post by **MrPopo** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:56 pm

See, I actually disliked the couple of the modern remix tracks of the old Final Fantasy games. But I really enjoy the chiptunes, so it feels "right" to me to have the old school NES sounds.

You should play Final Fantasy X again in a few years. There's a lot of scenes that take on a completely different tone when you've played through it once before.

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