Games Beaten 2015

[dsheinem]

nah I figure I'll work on Eggerland for a couple more months, then I'll post Elevator Action in disgust sometime around May, then start an F game that I lose interest in just in time to beat one game of the ten I've picked for my Summer Gaming list. It's gonna be awesome and anticlimactic.

update, on level 55 or so of Eggerland. 55 out of 105.

hey past half way! w00t!

[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
9. Lost Kingdoms 2 GC
10. Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon DS
11. Code of Princess 3DS DL
12. Discworld Saturn *NEW*
13. Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru [For the Frog the Bell Tolls] Game Boy *NEW*

Discworld

You might assume I played through this one due to the recent sad news of Terry Pratchett's death, but it was actually a coincidence - I beat this the weekend before the news, and I actually played it because it was game D on my alphabet marathon.

Discworld for the Saturn is a point and click adventure game taking place in the fantasy world from the books and featuring some of the most popular characters. The main character, Rincewind, is a favourite from the books, and here he's voiced by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame. The whole thing is very British - British humour, British voice actors (alongside Eric Idle are John Pertwee, Tony Robinson and Rob Brydon) and a very British feel to the game, if that's something that can be described, with all the positive and negative connotations that brings - it's a very pretty game, and often a very clever game, but it very much has that unpolished early 90s Euro game feel - a lot of cool ideas, but a lack of finesse in the execution.

The humour is reasonably faithful to the books, and is very dry and british. You can sense they sometimes struggled to translate the typical wordplay style of humour from the books to a video game, but for the most part it's well done. There's also a lot of fourth wall breaking and the odd visual gag. It does tend to repeat the same jokes a few too many times though.

The puzzle design is often very clever, but frankly, rather too clever for it's own good. Some puzzle solutions are so obtuse I still don't understand them now. Try this one for size (spoiler ahead):

I needed to get a golden belt from a fishmonger. To do so I needed to steal a ladder, travel back in time to start a bar fight, use the ladder to steal a drumstick, hit a gong to make a wizard go to dinner, nick his prunes and give the prunes to the fishmonger to make him go to the toilet, allowing me to reach under the door and steal his belt...but nope. That doesn't work. You also need to tie up an octopus, shove it down the toilet and feed him some custard which is apparently also an aphrodisiac, so that the octopus will 'hug' the fishmonger whilst hes on the bog, stopping him notice you. Of course.

Or how about this one. You need a fake moustache. A troll who has been around the whole game has suddenly gotten one, so obviously you think that's where you get it from. Nope. You need to cut some tail hair from a donkey. That's already some logic jump, but when you try, the donkey headbutts you and you cant get it. Throughout the game there's been a joke that when people get hit, they say 'did anyone get the number of that donkey cart?'. It's annoying, it happens all the damn time. Turns out, that's the puzzle solution. There's a dirty donkey cart, you need to find a soapy brush, clean the donkey cart, find the 'number' of it, cause someone to suffer and injury and then give the number of the donkey cart when they ask. That will cause the Donkey to get locked up in the stocks, allowing you to snip it's tail. All for a moustache that you dont even know the donkey tail hair will give you.

The game also suffers from lots of situations where things appear in places you've already been, or items you can pick up are tiny and hard to notice, or conversations pr items only open after you do a specific thing elsewhere. It's a pain in the neck.

My last complaint is that some of the characters from the novels aren't well represented here - it draws from the first 10 books or so, but characterisations of Carrot and Nanny Ogg for example just don't feel right.

Discworld is an interesting game, and it's a nice experience for fans of the books, but the difficulty and design choices just make it hard to recommend, even to the fans. I hear the sequels are much improved. On the other hand, it's nice to know that Sir Pterry is immortalised in the world of gaming forever - in a scene near the end, there's a sprite of him hidden in a crowd scene.

For the Frog the Bell Tolls

For the For the Bell Tolls is an action adventure game for the Game Boy. It is a precursor of sorts to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, in that the game engine of Frog Bells was used for Zelda. One of the characters of Frog Bells, Prince Richard, is even in Links Awakening in a minor role.

This isn't the only aspect in common between Zelda and Frog Bells. Frog Bells features an overworld to explore split into squares, dungeons to get through, an inventory to find and enemies to battle. That's where most of the similarities end though, as Frog Bells does most of these things it's own way.

Battling in Frog Bells requires you to simply move into an enemy. You'll jump into a cartoon smoke cloud and trade blows automatically until someone dies. Progressing in the game requires you to find hidden items to upgrade health, power, defence and speed - basically, battles are more about problem solving than combat skill. Dungeons in Frog Bells are different too - they're all side scrollers and involve more platforming than Zelda. There are still plenty of puzzles too, many of which make use of the main characters ability to transform - touching water turns you into a frog who can jump very high and walk underwater, but can't really fight unless the enemy is a bug (in which case they die instantly as you eat them) and eating a snake egg turns you into a snake who can't jump at all, but can slither through tight gaps and turn weak enemies into blocks. The human form can push these blocks and fight better but has a weaker jump than the frog.

The story of Frog Bells is very silly and light hearted too. You know the game is going to be a bit quirky at the start when your prince gives away 8999999 coins to buy a boat to catch up with his rival, then gives his last 1000000 away to a small child for giving him some wine. It's OK though, you just pull out another 1000000 out of nowhere. Money is actually quite a big plot focus as a lot of important plot elements require you to find several million worth of coins - luckily, finding it is all plot driven, no grinding for cash necessary (except for buying new shields along the way).

The whole game continues in this light hearted manner - you gain a helmet that lets you talk to frogs, mind control a mammoth, visit 'nantendo' HQ and meet people working on modern computers despite the swords and sworcery setting - it's all very fun. The difficulty is mostly fair low, besides a few peaks and the graphics are functional and pretty nice for a game boy game of it's era (1992).

There are some flaws - dying sends you back to the last town you visited, and replaying the majority of a dungeon over because you fell into an instant death pit is infuriating. The music is servicable but the tracks are too short and the looping can be grating. On a couple of occasions it's not clear where to go too.

That said, they're all minor flaws on an incredible package for Game Boy. The fact that this was never officially released in English back in the day, despite being released in the Game Boy's prime is a travesty. There's very little here that wouldn't have been approved by Nintendo of America either - a bunny girl here and there, 'wine' as a healing item and a few drunks at a bar - easily replaced with a classic 'coffee shop'. That said, the recently released fan translation which I used to play the game is great, and it feels very much like a solid translation of the era - simple, but fun and functional.

I highly recommend Frog Bells. It's should be known as one of the defining classics of the Game Boy, but weird localisation decisions stopped it achieving the recognition it deserved. It's only a 5-8 hour romp, but every bit of it is a joy to experience. Play it!

[Stark]

AJ, Frog sounds amazing, thanks for the write-up!

[BoneSnapDeez]

nah I figure I'll work on Eggerland for a couple more months, then I'll post Elevator Action in disgust sometime around May, then start an F game that I lose interest in just in time to beat one game of the ten I've picked for my Summer Gaming list. It's gonna be awesome and anticlimactic.

update, on level 55 or so of Eggerland. 55 out of 105.

You seem discouraged. Switch to Elevator Action.

[Stark]

nah I figure I'll work on Eggerland for a couple more months, then I'll post Elevator Action in disgust sometime around May, then start an F game that I lose interest in just in time to beat one game of the ten I've picked for my Summer Gaming list. It's gonna be awesome and anticlimactic.

update, on level 55 or so of Eggerland. 55 out of 105.

You seem discouraged. Switch to Elevator Action.

What year is this for? 85?

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yes. Also known as the year of ExedExes.

[Stark]

I've been thinking about doing the challenge, especially since the first couple of years should go quick and I'm a year off from Dave. Any suggestions for 1978-A?

Edit: Looks like Atari Football or Avalanche?

[BoneSnapDeez]

Only other pick I can think of if you are going with the alphabet theme:
http://www.giantbomb.com/armored-encoun ... 3030-8444/

[Sarge]

I forgot that I finished off Monument Valley: The Forgotten Shores a few weeks ago.

Also, For the Frog the Bell Tolls is undoubtedly cool stuff. I played through it as soon as the patch was released, definitely a great experience. As you say, it's more puzzle- than combat-intensive.

[dsheinem]

I've been thinking about doing the challenge, especially since the first couple of years should go quick and I'm a year off from Dave. Any suggestions for 1978-A?

Edit: Looks like Atari Football or Avalanche?

You could fudge it and do Adventure, as there is a lot of dispute about what year that game came out: http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2012/ ... ar-of.html