Games Beaten 2015

[Exhuminator]

@MrPopo
@BogusMeatFactory

Indeed it seems Suda actually listened to his fan base and got rid of the junk that didn't work in the first NMH. I'm looking forward to NMH2, and I own a copy, but it will be a little while. I did pick up Killer Is Dead though because from what I've seen and read, it's sort of a mashup of No More Heroes and Killer7 in a lot of ways.

[Cronozilla]

I had Kirby and the Rainbow Curse from the library and I finished the story mode. It's disgustingly adorable. I liked it.

It's a game I felt like I wanted to go back to to finish everything. At the very least the challenge stages.

If the trophy shelf for the bosses is any indication, there's one more boss in the game that you don't encounter through the story mode.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I had Kirby and the Rainbow Curse from the library and I finished the story mode. It's disgustingly adorable. I liked it.

It's a game I felt like I wanted to go back to to finish everything. At the very least the challenge stages.

If the trophy shelf for the bosses is any indication, there's one more boss in the game that you don't encounter through the story mode.

YAY! I feel like the phrase, "Disgustingly adorable," is a great descriptive word for a lot of the games out on the WiiU lately. Captain Toad, Kirdby, Yoshi's Wooly World etc.

P.S. I miss you Crono.

[BogusMeatFactory]

1. Jazzpunk (PC)
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)
3. Grandia (PS1)
4. Hotline Miami (PC)
5. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS)
6. Off-Peak (PC)
7. realMYST: Masterpiece Edition (PC)
8. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS)
9. Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
10. Space Pirates (PC)
11. NiGHTS Into Dreams (PC)
12. Inherit the Earth (PC)
13. Saints Row IV (PC)
14. Grand Theft Auto V (PC)
15. The You Testament (PC)
16. Dark Forces (PC)
17. Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
18. Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC)

During the closing of Club Nintendo, I was able to procure this title as part of my gold membership reward. Having played Oracle of Ages as a youngster and viewing, Link’s Awakening as one of my all-time favorite Zelda games, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play this game. Add to it the Summer Games Challenge, there was more than enough encouragement to tackle the title immediately.

Oracle of Seasons is one of two Capcom developed Gameboy Color Zelda titles that catered to the gimmick of manipulating the seasons to alter the landscape and solve puzzles to save Goddess of the Seasons from imprisonment. As Link, you travel between the normal realm and another dimension to solve puzzles and manipulate the two realms to reach the next dungeon and collect various elements to confront the evil at hand. While the game is a lot of fun to play and has amazing sprite work for the numerous anime-style pictures that show up at various story points, I felt the game was lacking in a few departments.

Primarily, the game lacked drive in telling you where you need to go and what you need to do to progress. After the first four initial dungeons, things become vaguer in what you need to do and why, as well as where you need to be to accomplish this task. For instance, in the alternate dimension, you come across these skeletal pirates who are trapped and need a bell that was lost in the normal dimension. They keep talking about it, but you can’t do anything to progress until near the very end, when you have somehow proven your worth to the skeleton captain (which was never established) and then allows you to talk to a guard in the normal dimension to allow you into a desert to find a ghost that tells you that you need to recover his head. You recover his head and he says that he will tell you when you are close to the bell. Want to know when you are close to the bell? It is when his skull cracks slightly when you are about to fall into a certain area of quicksand. There are numerous areas of quicksand in the desert area and if you fall through the wrong one, you lose the skull and have to find it again, making you think, “It’s not in the quicksand.”

He even mentions that you will need to dig through the desert, insinuating that you should use the shovel to find it, but nope! It is falling through the quicksand.
It is these types of counter-intuitive puzzles that are peppered throughout the game and they can really dampen the experience. This doesn’t happen with every puzzle, but I did have to consult a guide more than once just to learn where to go.

The dungeons themselves were pretty self explanatory. The puzzles seem clear cut, minus a few issues here and there. The only real problem I had with them is that, the final dungeon called back to a game mechanic that was used only once in one of the very first dungeons, which I completely forgot about, which was using a slingshot to the eyes of the statues. The only other issues I saw was that the maps do not tell you which rooms contain stairs. It wouldn’t be that much of an issue, but some of the dungeons have a plethora of rooms that are only connected by stairs making it very hard to consult the map on where to go and what to do.

These gripes are minor, as the game itself was really fun to play, even though the game itself is somewhat flawed. Also, there are features that are locked in the game, because you are required to have Oracle of Ages to input codes and continue the connected storylines. Hopefully, I will grab Oracle of Ages sometime soon and complete that as well so that I can fully complete the two. All in all, it was a great game.

[Exhuminator]

Ages > Seasons, bet on it.

You know what else?

Ages > Awakening.

Come at me.

[Xeogred]

Ages > Seasons, bet on it.

You know what else?

Ages > Awakening.

Come at me.

Good LORD!

No way on both. I wanted Ages to be a bit like Link to the Past, but it was anything but that. The overworld was way too complex and not fun (the mountain area I recall being a huge pain to navigate), had some solid dungeons... but I was surprised by how much more I enjoyed Seasons all around.

I like that they are both much more challenging than Awakening which is a cake walk if you've played it a few times, but man you just can't compete with how awesome it is. I still can't believe this game is even on the GB, so ahead of its time and has some amazing music for the whole series.

Anyways, word is that Capcom were actually planning to do a trilogy, both Ages and Seasons are great in my book so it's kind of a shame we didn't get a third one from them.

I don't have much positive to say about Minish Cap and don't even get me started on the DS games. Phantom Hourglass is the only Zelda I've started ... and not want to finish. So yeah... Awakening and the Capcom games destroy these for me.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Ages > Seasons, bet on it.

You know what else?

Ages > Awakening.

Come at me.

GRAAAHH!!!!

Hahahaha...seriously though, why do you feel that is? I am curious!

Also, fun fact. Bill Trinen was the only man responsible for the localization of Oracle of Ages. How far he has come up the ladder!

The Oracle games do have the WORST bad guy in all of the zelda games. Twinrova? Seriously? That is your main bad guy!?

[MrPopo]

1. Painkiller - PC
2. Front Mission 4 - PS2
3. Wasteland 2 - PC
4. Arcanum - PC
5. X-COM Terror from the Deep - PC
6. Military Madness - TurboGrafx-16
7. Unreal - PC
8. Shadowrun - SNES
9. Warcraft III - PC
10. Dungeon Keeper - PC
11. Final Fantasy X-2 HD - PS3
12. Descent - PC
13. Quake Mission Pack 2 - Dissolution of Eternity - PC
14. Quake 2 Mission Pack 2 - Ground Zero - PC
15. Sokobond - PC
16. Hybrid Heaven - N64
17. Sonic the Hedgehog - Genesis
18. Castlevania - NES
19. Super Castlevania IV - SNES
20. Castlevania III - NES
21. Castlevania II - NES
22. Castlevania Rondo of Blood - Turbo CD
23. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders - PC
24. Fractal - PC
25. Kirby's Adventure - NES
26. Pillars of Eternity - PC
27. Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den - PC
28. Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour - PC
29. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves - NES
30. Punch-Out!! - NES
31. Doom 3 - PC
32. The Even More Incredible Machine - PC
33. Contra - NES
34. Dark Forces - PC
35. Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - PC
36. X-Wing - PC
37. TIE Fighter - PC
38. Bloodborne - PS4
39. Gradius - NES
40. Marble Madness - NES
41. The Witcher 3 - PC

Well, 70 hours later I've finished The Witcher trilogy, and Geralt's story comes to a close. I'm quite happy with how things ended and with the journey to get there. The game is split into a prologue to get you used to how things are going to go down gameplay wise and then three acts. In terms of main quest content the breakdown is 60/15/25, but act 1 gets a lot longer if you get distracted by sidequests, like I did. But compared to Skyrim the sidequests feel a lot better integrated into the experience. When you sidequest in Skyrim it feels like you're faffing about and utterly ignoring the main quest. Here the sidequests feel like diversions; Geralt can't help inserting himself into situations. Sometimes it's doing contracts for money; he is a witcher after all. Sometimes it's just that he hears some guys harassing someone and doesn't like the injustice. But the main quest still really looms over you.

This game is close to Witcher 2 in gameplay, though it does make some changes. The biggest change is how the potions work (and to a lesser extent bombs). In Witcher 2 you had to meditate prior to combat to use them. In this game you get to use them during combat. To balance things, potions don't last very long without specializing in them and you still have to deal with toxicity. Another thing to balance things is instead of having to craft each dose you instead craft a particular potion and then get a certain number of uses. Once you run out it can be refilled when you meditate using strong alcohol. The same limited uses situations applies to your bombs. I think it's a better direction for the freeroaming structure of the game; you never really know when combats are going to happen and it would be expensive to be constantly dosed with Swallow and others. Now you can use them when it's necessary.

The game continues the series trademark of long term consequences and a grey and grey world. Your best bet is to trust your instincts and accept that you are just a small player in a large world; though you get to make an impact you can't save everyone.

[Cronozilla]

YAY! I feel like the phrase, "Disgustingly adorable," is a great descriptive word for a lot of the games out on the WiiU lately. Captain Toad, Kirdby, Yoshi's Wooly World etc.

P.S. I miss you Crono.

It's true, but they also feel like they've completely cut out video game drama bullshit and are just delivering wonderful games. I appreciate that.

I'd love to see some Kirdby games, I'm imagining that'd be some Russian knock off series or something.

You know where to find me :p

[alienjesus]

Ages > Seasons, bet on it.

You know what else?

Ages > Awakening.

Come at me.

GRAAAHH!!!!

Hahahaha...seriously though, why do you feel that is? I am curious!

I agree with Exhuminator on this one. Oracle of Ages is my favourite handheld Zelda. It's actually my favourite 2D zelda in general.

Thats right, I went there. I like it more than A Link To The Past.

Also, fun fact. Bill Trinen was the only man responsible for the localization of Oracle of Ages. How far he has come up the ladder!

The Oracle games do have the WORST bad guy in all of the zelda games. Twinrova? Seriously? That is your main bad guy!?

But....have you finished a game of the two joined together? You've not seen everything until you have!