Games Beaten 2017

[dsheinem]

I just played the Star Trek VR tutorial this morning and so far am impressed. Maybe you'd be down to team up online sometime this week?

[BoneSnapDeez]

*I'm starting to wonder how many of these "aquatic shmups" there are? I know of Sqoon, Deep Blue, Submarine Attack, and In the Hunt. I've beaten all those except Sqoon. Any others? I guess Steel Diver on 3DS kind of counts. I played it too, but it's not very good. Not worth beating anyway.

There are more if you're willing to go back to the second gen and broaden your definition of what "shmup" entails. You also have to be okay with graphics that look like this:






And yeah, Deep Blue blows. I own it and haven't even finished it. Think I shut it off when I was maybe halfway through? Wretched game.

[Exhuminator]

There are more if you're willing to go back to the second gen and broaden your definition of what "shmup" entails.

My definition of "shmup" would already fit the pictures you posted, no broadening required. I'll reverse URL search the images back to GameFAQs and see what those were.

I found an arcade aquatic shmup called Dolphin Blue last night that looks interesting. I'm going to give it a shot sometime this summer. I might have to pop on over to shmups.system11.org and see if those guys can help me find more.

And yeah, Deep Blue blows. I own it and haven't even finished it. Think I shut it off when I was maybe halfway through? Wretched game.

It's pretty terrible indeed. The only reason I gave it a 4/10 instead of a 2/10 is I'm a sucker for aquatic themes.

[alienjesus]

There are more if you're willing to go back to the second gen and broaden your definition of what "shmup" entails.

My definition of "shmup" would already fit the pictures you posted, no broadening required. I'll reverse URL search the images back to GameFAQs and see what those were.

I found an arcade aquatic shmup called Dolphin Blue last night that looks interesting. I'm going to give it a shot sometime this summer. I might have to pop on over to shmups.system11.org and see if those guys can help me find more.

And yeah, Deep Blue blows. I own it and haven't even finished it. Think I shut it off when I was maybe halfway through? Wretched game.

It's pretty terrible indeed. The only reason I gave it a 4/10 instead of a 2/10 is I'm a sucker for aquatic themes.

Dolphin Blue is pretty fun, I played it in an arcade a few years back. It reminded me of Rapid Reload mixed with Metal Slug. It doesn't play exactly like either, but it's fun nonetheless.

[BogusMeatFactory]

It's pretty terrible indeed. The only reason I gave it a 4/10 instead of a 2/10 is I'm a sucker for aquatic themes.

I have a recommendation for you to fit your aquatic theme as of late.

Have you played Sea Rogue on PC? It is a 1992 underwater salvage sandbox strategy Sim where you hire a crew and dive team and work to salvage legendary wrecks while competing against other salvage teams. there is a loose plot. I thought it was great but a bit complex as a youth. Not saying you have to play it. but it may be up your alley. It is up on archive.org and it is super obscure.

[Exhuminator]

Have you played Sea Rogue on PC?

Never heard of it, but it does look intriguing. I nabbed it off Abandonia. Thanks.

[laurenhiya21]

1/15: Aviary Attorney (Steam)
1/16: Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star (Steam)
1/27: Sweet Fuse: At Your Side (PSP)
1/31: Harmonia (Steam)
2/21: Yakuza 0 (PS4)
2/28: Cooking Mama: Cook Off (Wii)
3/17: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)
3/22: Kirby Super Star (SNES)
4/6: Nier Automata (PS4)
5/11: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)

*NEW*
5/28: 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Vita)
6/2: DOOM (GOG)

Total: 12 games

999
I've heard many good things about 999 and the Zero Escape series as a whole, so I was looking forward to having a chance to play it. While I knew it had some escape the room type puzzle sections (which is not something that I usually enjoy), I love visual novels and murder mysteries so the game seemed really interesting to me. Unfortunately, the game fell a little flat for me.

I loved the initial setup. Nine people are trapped on a boat being forced to play Zero's games or else they die, but is Zero a separate person or are they among the nine? Why were these nine people chosen? Who will escape? I love those sorts of questions! Then the game starts introducing more supernatural elements. I won't get into detail on that since it might be considered spoilery, but the way the game explains it just feels like IT'S MAGIC. The true ending doesn't really explain it well, and ends with a few questions unanswered (and maybe potential plot holes but I don't know). It really left me feeling unsatisfied and disappointed. The fact that you have to go through the game three times to get the true ending was a bit annoying as well (mainly because the first route I picked was partially the same as the true route gah), but at least the Vita version makes it nicer with the ability to skip a bunch of sections so you don't need to re-read much. I believe the DS version doesn't have that, so I'm glad that I didn't play that version ha.

Unfortunately since I don't really like puzzles much, the puzzle rooms were never going to save the game for me. Luckily most of them were pretty fair and they give hints if you mess up too much, but I have a feeling that most of them would be too easy for someone who really likes this sort of thing.

So yeah I'm a little disappointed in this one. I'll still probably try out the second game (Virtue's Last Reward) just because it's included in the same cart that 999 is on, but I'm definitely not as interested as I was before.

DOOM
The first game for my Summer Games Challenge! FPSs aren't really my strong suit (in fact I think this is the first one I've ever beaten), so I was prepared to be really bad at this, but what I wasn't prepared for was how mazey this game was! Most of the levels felt like a labyrinth to me, especially since in most levels you have to search for different coloured door keys. It felt a bit weird to me, since I had no idea that was such a large part of the game. I thought it would almost exclusively be shooting baddies! There is a lot of that too, but I think I was so bad at navigating the levels that most of my time was just trying to figure out where to go and what to do (especially in the early levels when I didn't know about the map).

Unfortunately I think overall the maze stuff was a little too much for my tastes. I can see why people enjoy the game, since the shooting is fun and I'm also just really bad at puzzles anyway, but it slightly missed the mark for me. I think I would have more fun with the new DOOM, so I think I'll be checking that out at some point.

[ElkinFencer10]

I just played the Star Trek VR tutorial this morning and so far am impressed. Maybe you'd be down to team up online sometime this week?

Dude, I'm pretty much always down for Bridge Crew. Just shoot me a PM or something when you want to play. I've got the PSN Android app and my Gmail both synced to my phone, so I'll get the notification quickly.

[Exhuminator]

35. Dive: The Medes Island Secret | Wii | action adventure | 2010 | 2h 35m | 7/10

Dive: The Medes Island Secret is not surprisingly a game about diving, or rather treasure diving. The dive setting is around the Illes Medes, a small and craggy group of seven islets in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. You play the part of a solo diver, seeking lost treasure given precedence by an old legend. The gameplay is very simple, and to me seems a spiritual successor to 1983's Scuba Dive for the ZX Spectrum.



That is to say you navigate underwater mazes seeking treasure, avoiding dangerous sea creatures, and constantly risk the chance of running out of air. Air also doubles as your HP, so getting hit by enemies saps air supply too. Thankfully you can sell treasures for the cash needed to upgrade your diving equipment. Upgraded diving equipment allows you to return to previous dive areas and explore further, due to being able to dive deeper and longer. Ultimately there are 10 diving areas, and to beat the game you have to find all 10 of the primary treasures in each area. This is made enjoyable by simple controls, immersive graphics, and a relaxing atmosphere.



Many "professional" reviewers decried Dive for being overly difficulty and too hard to enjoy. I have no idea what those people were doing wrong. I beat this game in two and a half hours on normal difficulty without any issue. If you can take advantage of checkpoints and read a map, you'll be fine. And while we're talking about maps, if I could make one change to the game, it'd be to add a mini-map to the screen. It becomes quickly tedious having to constantly swap between the game world and map screen.



Dive: The Medes Island Secret is a short and sweet experience, though perhaps too single minded in its approach. There's certainly not much variety in game design here. Once you've beaten one level, that's what the next nine are like (just progressively more complex). However, if you can get into the relaxing atmosphere and enjoy exploration, you may find Dive: The Medes Island Secret is a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Suit up, splash in, and have a nice swim outside the typical genres.

[Sarge]

Perhaps The Hunt for Red October on NES and GB?