Games Beaten 2015

[ExedExes]

1. Call of Duty United Offensive Expansion Pack - PC (January 16)
2. Dead To Rights - Gamecube (January 24)
3. *NEW* River City Ransom EX - GBA (February 21)

There's a whole lot of NEW in RCR-EX. Besides the graphics and characters returning to their Japanese style flavor, there's new gangs, new weapons, new items, new techniques, and much more. Plus the ability to recruit other characters and have them fight alongside you. This update makes it lots more fun.

[noiseredux]

1. Beavis And Butt-Head In Virtual Stupidity (PC)
2. Renegade Ops (PC)
3. Arena Of Octos (Apple II)
4. Beauty And The Beast (Intellivision)
5. Chivalry (Apple II)
6. Donald Duck's Playground (C64)
7. Left 4 Dead (PC)
8. Left 4 Dead 2 (PC)
9. Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered (PC)

[alienjesus]

1. Star Fox 2 SNES
2. Sonic Advance 2 GBA
3. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Wii U
4. Advance Wars: Dark Conflict DS
5. Joy Mech Fight Famicom
6. Grandia PS1
7. Money Idol Exchanger Game Boy
8. The Battle of Olympus NES *NEW*
9. Lost Kingdoms 2 GC *NEW*
10. Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon DS *NEW*
11. Code of Princess 3DS DL *NEW*

The Battle of Olympus

This is the second game of my alphabet marathon.

The Battle of Olympus is an NES game that I feel doesn't get much attention. It's not considered one of the classics of the system, it's rarely even mentioned as a hidden gem or a cult classic.

This is a real shame, because The Battle of Olympus is pretty fantastic. It takes the gameplay style of Zelda 2, plenty of influence from the likes of Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden and Metroid, and wraps it all up in a Greek mythology theme. It's pretty great.

In fact, I'd argue that in a lot of ways, it outdoes it's influences. The hints and tips villagers give you are actually useful to know, and not too cryptic like the NES Zelda games. Graphically it's a much better looking game in my opinion too. The music is also pretty great, although oddly sounds very Master System-ish - not necessarily a bad thing in my eyes, but it doesn't have that typical NES sound.

The game features a variety of power ups, most of which are very location specific. Some of them are interesting though, like the staff that shoots arcing fireballs, which despite being one of the weaker weapons, is still very useful until the end of the game. Another interesting power up are the shoes that allow you to walk on the ceiling.

For the most part, I adored The Battle of Olympus, but it had one major flaw which holds it back from being one of the definitive games on NES for me. Grinding. Battle of Olympus has several points where you need to buy items for rather large amounts of olives (the game's currency) and enemies only have a chance of dropping one. Grinding for 80 or so can be a slightly tedious 15 minutes, but it's only made worse by the punishment for dying - losing hyalf of your Olives. Every single item you need to buy is over a section of bottomless pits or surrounded by the games most annoying and powerful enemies - or both. One death to the game's equivalent of a fleaman and bam, theres another 10-15 minutes of grinding before you can try again. It's annoying, but I'm not sure it's any worse than, say, grinding for health in Metroid.

Battle of Olympus is fantastic. It should be amongst the msot remembered NES games, but it's largely forgotten. In the UK at least, it's one of the absolute cheapest NES games worth buying. Pick it up and play it.

Lost Kingdoms 2

Technically, I've beaten this game before, which would normally mean I leave it off this list, but this is the first time I've played it in 10 years, and the first time I've owned my own copy. I have an awful lot of nostalgia for this series, from borrowing it from a friend as a teenager.

Lost Kingdoms 2 is an action RPG by From Software for Gamecube where you use cards to summon monsters to fight for you. These come in several varieties - weapons cards which do a quick attack directly in front of you and can be used several times, summons that deal out one of two big attacks, independent cards which summon a monster who runs around and fights alongside you, helper cards which have many effects - healing , support, shields etc, and transform cards which youturn into, and often have skills you need to progress.

The story of Lost Kingdoms 2 is weak, and the voice acting is even weaker. Graphically, the game is below par. The music is pretty great though. Despite all the flaws, this game is an absolute blast to play. Building your deck is fun, exploring the levels is interesting and I enjoyed every moment. There are over 200 cards to use in the game, and by gaining experience you can clone or upgrade the cards into other cards. Finding the cards you like is a lot of fun.

There have been a few refinements to the formula in this second game, some of which are better than others. The expanded card selection is much appreciated, as is summon cards having 2 attacks to choose from. Capturing monsters has been made much harder though, as you must use a specific card which is very expensive, instead of any old basic card like the first.

The one mechanic that annoyed me on my recent playthrough, was the requirements for the best ending. I did basically everything there was to do in game, but because I did most of it near the end, I made it impossible to get the best ending. For that, you need to clear a certain sidequest (which is very, very, very well hidden and obscure) before about the half way point of the game.

I love this series - it's greater than the sum of it's parts. Both this game and the first are worth picking up, and some of my favourite hidden gems on the system. Buy them!

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a DS remake of the first game in the Fire Emblem series: Fire Emblem: Ankoku no Ryuu to Hikari no Ken - or Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light for Famicom.

Shadow Dragon negotiates an awkward position between being true to the retro mechanics of the series and adding in modern refinements, and it's not quite perfect at doing so. The game features the same characters and stages as the original (besides some new sidequests I'll discuss later), has no support conversation system, and has many of the old-school classes and class upgrades - Ballistae users are a unique class to archers, hunters and archers are seperate, peg knights promote into Dracoknights, Thieves and Lords don't promote - it can be pretty oldschool. There are also no support conversations to mention, so characters feel rather more disposable - each chapter throws so many new units your way that you never have time to connect with any of them. This can be an issue in Fire Emblem even with supports, but here, it's so much worse.

On the other hand, some classes have been changed since the original - Fighters can upgrade now, horsemen promote from hunters, myrmidons and dark mages have been added. Units can reclass aswell. They've also added the weapon triangle - swords beat axes and so forth, which wasn't prevalent in the original. They've also added a new tutorial and a bunch of side quest missions where you can recruit new characters.

These sidequests are my least favourite thing about the game by far. Rather than being unlocked through skill as in other Fire Emblem games - exploring the rkight village, beating a chapter in a certain number of turns etc - this time, they're unlocked by being crap. Every single one of them requires you to have lost a certain number of units - the general requirement is to have less than 15 units left in your team. This is pretty extreme - some of the later ones would require you to have lost 30+ units to be able to go into the sidequest. I get that this is trying to encourage you to continue if you lose a unit instead of resetting as most people do, but this is too extreme - it punishes good players or forces you to deliberate kill everyone.

Another issue of the game is that the online is no longer available, and content is now lost to new players. There was an online wifi shop which sold items, amongst them the brave weapons which are not available to your units any other way, and, importanly, the Elysian Whip, an upgrade item that allows Peg Knights to become Falcoknight. This is now impossible to obtain, so an entire class is unavailable.

Graphically, the game is really ugly with horrible low quality pre rendered sprites and muddy colours and textures. The music is solid but not especially memorable.

That said, despite this game's numerous flaws and odd negotiation between old and new mechanics (it really should have gone one way or the other) it's still fun, which is a testament to the series mechanical quality - the polish is nice, but the basics hold well. This is the 1st of 3 times I'll be playing this game this year probably - I have the Famicom original and the SNES remake/sequel to play too. Like all the games in the series, it's worth a play, but it's still one of the weaker entries for sure.

Code of Princess

This was game C of my Alphabet Marathon.

Code of Princess is a fun beat-em-up that's very reminiscent of Guardian Heroes for 3DS - and if I recall correctly, it's developed by some of the Guardian Heroes staff.

Code of Princess has a lot of merits to recommend it. The music is awesome, and I knew I was going to like the game as soon as the intro video started playing. Visually it's not spectacular - the character models look a bit blurry, as do the small snippets of video in the game. On the other hand, the 2D character art is lovely.

The gameplay is very fast paced and fun - missions are divided into 2 minute long chunks, and so have a much faster pace than Guardian Heroes or other beat 'em ups. Characters could use some more moves - they're not as versatile as Randy from Guardian Heroes for example, but there's enough here to keep it interesting. The upgrade system is straight out of Guardian Heroes too - when you level up you can choose which stats to boost.

The story is silly and the game knows it - the script is equally silly, and got mopre than a fewe laughs out of me. Characters acknowledge that the main character is seriously underdressed, talk about gaining exp and changing class etc - it's stupid, but it's fun.

As you enocunter new characters and enemies, you unlock them in free mode - this is like Guardian Heroes multiplayer battles but more fleshed out - you can unlock slimes, old ladies, living tress and more, and take on any mission in the game as them.

My biggest complaint about Code of Princess is that it's digital only over here in Europe, thank's to Atlus terrible rate of localisation to the region. Whilst it's not as good as Guardian Heroes or some of the other beat 'em up greats, Code of Princess was a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Whoa. Nicely done aj. All stuff I do/would enjoy playing.

[Opa Opa]

My biggest complaint about Code of Princess is that it's digital only over here in Europe, thank's to Atlus terrible rate of localisation to the region.

Atlus hasn't done Europe any favors, that's for sure. When was the last time you guys got a game on time (or relatively close, for that matter)?

Didn't NIS have to step up and publish some Atlus titles?

[Stark]

@brad, all we get from you beating Indio Prophecy is a clapping gif? Lame.

[BogusMeatFactory]

@brad, all we get from you beating Indio Prophecy is a clapping gif? Lame.

[noiseredux]

@brad, all we get from you beating Indio Prophecy is a clapping gif? Lame.

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[Fragems]

1. Injustice Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition(PS4)
2. Infamous First Light(PS4)
3. Drakengard 3(PS3) *Endings 1-4. Ending 5 I watched online due to BS boss.
4. Infamous Second Son(PS4)
5. Thomas Was Alone(PS4)
6. Uncharted Drake's Fortune(PS3) *
7. Uncharted 2 Among Thieves(PS3) *
8. Uncharted 3 Drake's Deception(PS3) *
9. Deadpool(PS3)
10. Red Dead Redemption(360)
11. Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare(360)
12. The Walking Dead Survival Instinct(360)
13. Fuse(360)
14. The Bureau Xcom Declassified(360)

Fuse

Short Version:
It's a generic yet enjoyable third person squad based shooter. It's week points are a lack of squad commands, a so-so story, shallow characters, and only a handful of interesting weapons. Strong points 4 person co-op, graphically it's not a bad looking game, and it has a pretty good length at around 8+ hours.

Fuse is a pretty generic but enjoyable third person squad based shooter when played in single player. There aren't a ton of weapons but their are enough to cover the standard grouping sniper, grenade launcher, pistol, shotgun, etc. and each agent has their own nano weapon with different effect and their own skill trees. The squad element of the game is really lacking in single player there aren't any commands that can be given so the AI does pretty much whatever it feels like. Luckily the AI is pretty decent so they manage to hold their own most of the time, but don't expect them to do much other then spray from behind cover at a distance from the enemy. You can switch between characters by hitting select but I found myself sticking to the medic role for pretty much the entire game since you had a projectile which could revive downed friendlies which was really useful in the later parts of the game since the enemy AI is insanely accurate and will shred you when out of cover. Aside from that the game is really easy and the story isn't really to amazing it never really goes anywhere interesting and worst of all it has an ending which screams sequel kind of like Bulletstorm yet you now that's probably never going to happen.

I would rate this game as OK to maybe slightly good, but I would say it is probably much improved if you can gather some friends for the co-op which supports up to 4 players.

The Bureau Xcom Declassified

Short Version:
It's a watered down version of a Band of Brothers style squad shooter, set in a watered down 60s era x com universe, and featuring pretty so-so graphics/story. It's strong points are the squad skills and commands, and side missions which have much better stories and pacing then the main game. Overall it's a decent game in general, but it is lacking a lot of the strategy and depth that you would expect from a Xcom game.

This is a decent game but it definitely falls short when compared to the rest of the Xcom series. Really this is like a very watered down Xcom universe in a really watered down Band of Brothers game . To put it simply this isn't the strategic game you might be expecting based on the other games in the series. There is no base building, no research(you can find weapons/back pack blue prints in the wild, but they are just instantaneously added to your inventory), there are no time limits, squads are restricted to 3 people, maps are pretty linear aside from a few short branching paths with loot, and you are confined to the U.S. except for 2 missions near the end.

The atmosphere is pretty nice however and the whole 60s vibe is pretty neat. However this can be a very ugly game at times there is a lot of texture pop in and the textures themselves are still pretty pixelated and blurry when they load in making a lot of objects/characters look kind of portly constructed.

The game play while pretty good with a decent challenge from start to finish if you play veteran or higher. You have pretty solid control of your allies thanks to a very well constructed squad order system which slows time and gives you access to a decent amount of orders as well as an over head view of the map. About the only issue I had in terms of squad control were the ability boundaries of the soldiers many times their is a circular radius of effective range at which the skills can be used but the game has a hard time with vertical changes so if your squad mate is behind cover the cursor won't simply jump over the cover when moved forward you literally have to navigate around the obstacle which is impossible if the obstacle extends outside of the effective range since your cursor is restricted from moving outside of it. Other then that I really liked the skills and skill trees for each of the classes although I really feel that the lvl cap of 5 is way to low/easy to reach and the main characters lvl cap of 10 would have been more reasonable allowing for a lot more diversity in skills. Also while there are slots for 10+ squad members I never found myself using more then 5-8 since there aren't any time constraints on missions, their complexity sets a combined level cap which is never above 10 and there are only 2-3 dispatch(text based noninteractive) missions between each main mission which can easily be handle by 3-4 agents since they also complete as you do the side missions that open up between main missions .

The story on the other hand sucked in my opinion. The characters just weren't that great in my opinion and the overarching story quality while having a few interesting twists was pretty so-so in a lot of areas. I especially didn't like the main character Carter especially for the last quarter of the game and the ending was just crap . I think the place where the game did best was the side missions which came in at around 20-30 minutes in length and were much more interesting in my opinion. It was also nice that the locations were different for each mission and each one had elements that added to the mini story surrounding the events that took place there.

[dsheinem]

Games Beaten 2015

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call - 3DS
A Bird Story - PC
Quake - PC
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - PS4
Quake: Scourge of Armagon - PC
Quake: Dissolution of Eternity - PC
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis - NDS
Painkiller - PC
Gungrave: Overdose - PS2
Adventure -Atari 2600 (PS2)
Auto Racing - Intellivision (PS2) [1979]
Boxing - Atari 2600 (PS2) [1980]
The Count - TI99/4A (emulated) [1981]
Dragonstomper - Atari 2600/Starpath Supercharger (emulated) [1982]
Enduro - Atari 2600 (PS2) [1983]
Diablo III - PS4
Front Line - Atari 2600 (emulated) [1984]
Gertie Goose - The Lost Eggs - C64 (emulated) [1985]
Ocean Commander - Wii
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance - PS2
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PS4
Mortal Kombat: Deception - PS2 *new*
The Order: 1886 - PS4 *new*

Total: 23

Previously: 2014 | The First 400 Games

Goddamn these PS2 MK games are pretty great. I think I liked Deception even more than Deadly Alliance. I also spent a lot of time with this one on its PSP port ("Unchained"), though only cleared it on a reasonable number of credits on the PS2. I feel like they have made bosses much harder than they ever were on the 2D games. I can get straight to them without dying and then have to really struggle to not get wiped out.

The Order: 1886 is a solid game in the fine tradition of stuff like Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space, but set in a steampunk late 19th Century London against a Jack the Ripper, Arthurian, and Lycan mythos. Oh, and Nikola Tesla is basically Q to your 007, so that's cool. I don't get the hate that this game has engendered. It was a well-paced game with interesting characters, a memorable world, solid writing reminiscent of its pulpy influences, and top-notch voice acting and sound. It is also the best looking console game I've played. The combat is fast, fun, and has a lot of various weapons that are each unique. Yes, it is only 6-8 hours long. In my book, that's a sweet spot for a game like this and it is perfect for a weekend romp. I'd give it a solid 8.5/10. I wouldn't call it a system seller, but if you have a PS4 you owe it to yourself to jump on this one ASAP.