Games Beaten 2015

[J T]

1. A Wolf Among Us

What a great title to kick off the new year with! I played through most of it in 2014, but finished out the final episode last night. I really enjoyed my time with this game. I love Telltale's ability to bring comic books to life while retaining their comic book aesthetic. I took a ton of screenshots, which you can browse through here if you don't mind lots of visual spoilers.

I like how the game handled choice. I really had a hard time to deciding what to do at the choice points and the ticking timer gave the game a sense of momentum and made you feel like a sheriff who was always improvising and making things up as he went along. I wish there was a bit more of an element of being able to choose the wrong guy in this whodunit mystery, but if there had been, I likely would have botched it all up, because the game as it is already reminded me multiple times along the way that I had forgotten important details of the case.

If you want to see the end game summary of what choices I made, they are behind the spoiler tags. Warning: if you haven't played this before, you will see which characters died based on my decisions.

[MrPopo]

1. Painkiller - PC

The game with a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning. I get the sense that they first decided they wanted a game with fast paced Doom-style gunplay, then told their level designers "make a bunch of cool levels", then finally they came up with the game's story. The guns are all immensely satisfying to use, and I liked their design decision of resetting your ammo between levels, so you don't end up saving weapons because they're too awesome to use. And they toss out a ton of ammo as well, so you can focus on mutilating the forces of hell.

Since my copy is the Black edition I need to do the expansion as well; I'll probably knock it out this next week since it's only 10 levels.

[Ack]

The stake gun is my absolute favorite weapon in Painkiller, though if I recall, the expansion has a crossbow looking thing that launches ball bearings, and it is absolutely devastating. Unfortunately the levels aren't as well balanced in the expansion in my opinion, though some of them are even more incredible to play through. Just wait for the haunted orphanage level, Popo.

[J T]

I started up Painkiller Black again last month. It's fun. I need to finish it this time.

[Flake]

1/3: Super Mario Bros 2: Lost Levels (Luigi Run) (3DS VC/NES)
1/4: Super Mario Bros. (Wii / All-Stars)

Believe it or not, for all of my Nintendo love, this is the first time in my 26 years of playing video games that I've actually beaten the original Super Mario Bros, or in this case, the pixel perfect remake. There is something about World 8 that always beat me back but this time I did not let it. I got super discouraged in the final castle after a silly mistake cost me my fire flower but I kept at it, feeding helpless Marios into the meat grinder until I finally made it to Koopa and caught a lucky break as he jumped twice in a row.

I will say that playing Mario Bros right after I beat the Lost Levels was interesting. I feel like I won a battle with a black belt and then proceeded to beat up kids at an elementary school. Either way I am a winner.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Nice work.

The original SMB ain't easy. There's very little room for error. Many levels have zero power-ups. Lots of tricky jumps.

When I replayed it a few weeks ago I went into 8-4 as small Mario with 2 lives left. Made for some tense moments. The hammer brother + fire pit with fire ball + hammer-throwing Bowser right at the end is brutal.

[Fragems]

1. Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition(PS4)


Was kind of disappointed by the game did enjoy it for the most part but found myself button mashing to get through it alot. Think my main issue with single player was swapping out characters every 3-4 rounds since I never managed to really nail down everybody's move sets. Also I didn't find the visuals to impressive and the cut scenes got really choppy at times, but that might have just been the game accessing the hard drive since this was a PS+ freebie download.

[Exhuminator]

1. Devil's Attorney | Android | 7/10

You might go into Devil's Attorney expecting a visual novel adventure game with logic puzzles reminiscent of Ace Attorney. However, you won't find that in Devil's Attorney. Instead, you'll find this game's challenges come in the form of simple number warfare based on numerical strategy. You're not proving innocence with deduction so much as you are beating a prosecutor's high score round per round. Despite the dry court tactics, the protagonist's witty banter versus his prosecuting counterparts provide consistent entertainment. Indeed the voice actors in this game all deserve awards for their perfect delivery line by line. Aside from winning cases your only other bit of gameplay is buying upgrades to your house and wardrobe. These upgrades slowly over time give you access to new number powers in the courtroom. And you'll need every edge you can get as many of the 58 cases in this game get quite tricky indeed. My one big complaint is you're never given closure per case as to the actual reason the verdicts are proven innocent, a game design oversight indeed. All the same Devil's Attorney may at first glance appear to be a Phoenix Wright wannabe, but soon enough its sheer uniqueness proves it worthy of acquittal.

[aaron]

1. Astroman - Xbox Live Indie Games (Xbox 360) 1/4/2015

Started this one on New Year's Day and just beat it last night. Plays like a simpler Metroidvania title, as you explore different planets to find item upgrades, heart containers, and pieces of your ship to finally blast off and head home. Fun, enjoyable title with graphics that look a little Fisher-Price-ish, with a decent amount of a challenge. There are certain items that you have to go back and replay levels to get once you obtain certain abilities, like a jetpack for hovering or a double jump. Could have been beaten in one sitting, I spent a total of 3 hours on it, but I just can't afford to sit for 3 hours at a time for gaming anymore, so i had to stretch this one over a few days.

[Crynox]

Hi guys! My first post here

I just started this year off with a bang by FINALLY beating Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! on my NES!

I fought my way to Mike a year ago, which I never was able to do as a kid. Mike immediately slaughtered me so brutally that it took me a whole year to feel like fighting him again! I was able to consistently get to round 3 with him after a few days of practice and then today I finally scored the TKO in round 3!

My story of this event follows, and feel free to skip over my enthusiastic and dramatic retelling

This was the most intense and challenging gaming moment I think I've had. Mike and I blocked, dodged, and pummeled the crap out of each other for two rounds. As round 3 started that I felt this feeling of destiny, of confidence. I knew it was going to happen.

I sent Iron Mike to the canvas once, twice... I started saying "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god" and sent him down for the third time. Everything seemed to freeze as I got on my knees on the floor and got the smartphone camera ready. My tradition is to take a picture as I beat a game, and that picture goes in the case with the game and I write the date on it. I'm eager to share that custom my son when he gets old enough

Anyway I just started breathing "I beat Mike Tyson! I beat Mike Tyson" over and over in shock. I shakily took my victory photos and ran up the stairs as quietly as I could since the baby was napping. My wife saw my face and said "YOU BEAT MIKE TYSON?" She just knew since I'd been talking the game for a while. I just blubbered and nodded and we hugged and jumped up and down with the excitement I couldn't restrain.

photo: https://imgur.com/xicrDfj

Ha! Your photo cheered me right up, reminded me of years ago when I beat GoldenEye's final level on '00' difficulty, dancing round the house sticking my fingers up at the monitor!