Games Beaten : 2011

[REPO Man]

I encountered a bug in Dante's Inferno. The Cerberus boss in Gluttony. When you get hit, you sometimes get sentback into the sinking pits. And one time, I ended up falling forever and eventually couldn't even look up just to see Hell (guess what that's a reference to).

[Hateshinai]

Serious Sam Second Encounter HD.

Total games beaten: 4

[SpaceBooger]

01/15/11 Tatsunoko VS. Capcom - Wii
1/22/11 TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist - Genesis
1/30/11 A Boy and His Blob - Wii

At first I loved the look of the game but was annoyed at how easy it was with unlimited lives. As I got farther through the game the challenge and uniqueness of the puzzles keep me interested. Plus the last two bosses (same dude) were quite fun.

The best part about the game was in the last world. I had to get to a passage below me. To the right was spikes, platforms, and enemies. I tried for almost an hour (slight exaggeration) to navigate to the right, down, then back to the left. After tons of tries I made a hole out of sheer frustration and wala... it was that easy. Just because it didn't look like it would be that easy sometimes it was.
I had a blast and have a couple more treasure chests to collect to finish unlocking all of the extras. If you have a Wii and don't have this game, I highly recommended it.

[Luke]

Soul Calibur IV 360
TMNT Gameboy
TMNT II Gameboy
Golden Axe Sega CD
Streets of Rage Sega CD
Revenge of Shinobi Sega CD
Rebel Assault Sega CD
Jurassic Park Sega CD
Sonic CD Sega CD
Soul Calibur II Crube
Altered Beast Genesis
StarBlade Sega CD
Madden 94 SNES
Madden 94 Genesis
Sewer Shark
Zillion II SMS
Strider NES new!
Jackal NES new!
Bionic Commando NES new!


Finally I got around to my NES this year. I'm still playing my season of Tecmo Super Bowl, but I also ran through some games in the meantime.

Strider: Jerky controls, glitchy graphics, phantom weapons that seem to pass through enemies, but I still love the game. Put this one also down in the "Saturday Morning Games that take less than an hour to beat" category (or SMG>1hr). It still baffles me how the main villain in the game is so easy to beat.

Jackal: Jackal Squad Unite! Still great, still makes me want to be able to play this online simultaneously with a friend. Actually... They don't even have to be a friend, just someone who can play the game decently and doesn't go after all my pows and powerups. Plus, only one "Here?" screen this time. I'm hoping to pull a perfect game on this one day this year.

Bionic Commando: Beautiful game all over. If it were a movie, 4 stars. This one take just about an hour to beat, but sometimes longer especially if you need to rack up continues. To those who have not yet played this gem, your true goal is not to save Super Joe, but to blow up Hitler's face. If you want to play a game where you see Hitler's face explode on an 8-bit system, look no further; Bionic Commando is the game for you.

[FerretGamer]

So far this year:

Dementium 2 - NDS
Call of Duty: World at War - 360
Call of Duty: World at War Final Fronts - PS2
Call of Duty: Black Ops - NDS
Quantum of Solace - 360
Quantum of Solace - PS2
Resistance Retribution - PSP

Working on:
Yakuza 3 - PS3

Right now I'm playing through Yakuza 3 for the PS3 and I'm really enjoy it. I went on a little bit of FPS spree with CoD and QoS. My last game beaten was Resistance Retribution, which was a fun little game.

[Ack]

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (PC)(FPS)
X-Men: Mutant Academy (PS1)(Fighting)
Street Fighter Alpha (PS2)(Fighting)
Extermination (PS2)(Survival Horror)
Spyro the Dragon (PS1)(Platformer)
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (PS1)(Platformer)
Myst III: Exile (PC)(Graphic Adventure)
Shaq Fu (GEN)(Fighting)
Spyro: Year of the Dragon (PS1)(Platformer)
God of War (PS2)(Action Adventure)
The Simpsons Game (PS2)(Platformer)

TOTAL: 11

While the track record for video games based on the Simpsons property could be argued as abysmal at best, recent titles haven't been quite so bad. In my time with it, I found The Simpsons Game to be a high point in the series, reminding me why I enjoyed the ridiculousness of the old Konami beat 'em up while pointing out and mocking video game cliches as it satirized the classics of the genre. Levels contain references as varied as Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat, Frogger, Pac-Man, Everquest, Madden, The Legend of Zelda, Medal of Honor, Dance Dance Revolution, Grand Theft Auto, Enter the Matrix, and many more (there's even a reference to Jack Thompson). The self-referential plot hits off with Bart discovering the game's manual and ultimately winds up with the family facing off against God in a game of Dance Dance Revelation while Rock You Like A Hurricane plays in the background. Enemies along the way include a 50ft tall Lard Lad, aliens, dolphins, Bender, Zoidberg, lawyers, Matt Groening, William Shakespeare, and Benjamin Franklin. It's worth playing this game for the plot alone.

Unfortunately the game's not without problems. It suffers from a camera that has a bad tendency to get caught on walls and in corners. There were multiple times the perspective killed me, and several times where the camera got caught on something, stopped focusing on the characters, and then refused to respond to controls at all. The controls also aren't the most responsive, with combat controls particularly bad when standing right next to an enemy. I usually found it was best just to run down a group or let a character's special power take care of things for me. While the game doesn't penalize you for dying beyond tracking whether you beat a level without doing so, on the first run through the game I died a fair bit, often due to one of the two reasons above.

Still, the game is enjoyable. Each member of the family has different abilities, most of which prove to be extremely useful. Bart was my favorite character, but Lisa came off as surprisingly strong once she received a couple of upgrades, and Homer was a lot of fun despite my never getting much use out of his belching ability. Marge is the weak one of the group, but is also used the least because her power is strange: she starts angry mobs. Seriously. Maggie is playable, but technically only as one of Marge's abilities.

If you're willing to put up with a few glaring flaws, this game is well worth playing. Now that I've beaten it I'm eagerly considering going back through the levels to find the things I missed or attempting to beat each one within the proposed time limit. I had fun and found myself laughing constantly at the cut scenes and some of the level-specific one-liners, though they did get a bit repetitive.

[SpaceBooger]

01/15/11 Tatsunoko VS. Capcom - Wii
1/22/11 TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist - Genesis
1/30/11 A Boy and His Blob - Wii

2/1/11 Batman: The Brave and the Bold - Wii NEW

This was a fun old school 2d style beat-em up/platformer game. I had a couple complaints though. First there is no classic controller option and two you had unlimited lives. After I got used to the chuck/wiimote control with obligatory waggle mechanics I really got into the game. As for the unlimited lives complaint, I realized that like the Lego games you may have unlimited lives but every time you die you loose points that are used to upgrade items. And the best part is now that I beat the game I unlocked a new item that opens up access to different parts of the levels.
Since this game is a fun old style beat-em up/platformer game where I have new unlocked items, I easily see myself picking this game up again.

[Luke]

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (PC)(FPS)
X-Men: Mutant Academy (PS1)(Fighting)
Street Fighter Alpha (PS2)(Fighting)
Extermination (PS2)(Survival Horror)
Spyro the Dragon (PS1)(Platformer)
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (PS1)(Platformer)
Myst III: Exile (PC)(Graphic Adventure)
Shaq Fu (GEN)(Fighting)
Spyro: Year of the Dragon (PS1)(Platformer)
God of War (PS2)(Action Adventure)
The Simpsons Game (PS2)(Platformer)

TOTAL: 11

While the track record for video games based on the Simpsons property could be argued as abysmal at best, recent titles haven't been quite so bad. In my time with it, I found The Simpsons Game to be a high point in the series, reminding me why I enjoyed the ridiculousness of the old Konami beat 'em up while pointing out and mocking video game cliches as it satirized the classics of the genre. Levels contain references as varied as Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat, Frogger, Pac-Man, Everquest, Madden, The Legend of Zelda, Medal of Honor, Dance Dance Revolution, Grand Theft Auto, Enter the Matrix, and many more (there's even a reference to Jack Thompson). The self-referential plot hits off with Bart discovering the game's manual and ultimately winds up with the family facing off against God in a game of Dance Dance Revelation while Rock You Like A Hurricane plays in the background. Enemies along the way include a 50ft tall Lard Lad, aliens, dolphins, Bender, Zoidberg, lawyers, Matt Groening, William Shakespeare, and Benjamin Franklin. It's worth playing this game for the plot alone.

Unfortunately the game's not without problems. It suffers from a camera that has a bad tendency to get caught on walls and in corners. There were multiple times the perspective killed me, and several times where the camera got caught on something, stopped focusing on the characters, and then refused to respond to controls at all. The controls also aren't the most responsive, with combat controls particularly bad when standing right next to an enemy. I usually found it was best just to run down a group or let a character's special power take care of things for me. While the game doesn't penalize you for dying beyond tracking whether you beat a level without doing so, on the first run through the game I died a fair bit, often due to one of the two reasons above.

Still, the game is enjoyable. Each member of the family has different abilities, most of which prove to be extremely useful. Bart was my favorite character, but Lisa came off as surprisingly strong once she received a couple of upgrades, and Homer was a lot of fun despite my never getting much use out of his belching ability. Marge is the weak one of the group, but is also used the least because her power is strange: she starts angry mobs. Seriously. Maggie is playable, but technically only as one of Marge's abilities.

If you're willing to put up with a few glaring flaws, this game is well worth playing. Now that I've beaten it I'm eagerly considering going back through the levels to find the things I missed or attempting to beat each one within the proposed time limit. I had fun and found myself laughing constantly at the cut scenes and some of the level-specific one-liners, though they did get a bit repetitive.

Ack, your updates are astounding. Good on you for putting effort into your Games Beaten 2011 posts.

[REPO Man]

Soul Calibur II Crube

What the frakkin fuck is a "Crube"? Is it like a Dreancaft or more like a PlateStration?

[Czernobog]

Soul Calibur II Crube

What the frakkin fuck is a "Crube"? Is it like a Dreancaft or more like a PlateStration?

It's like a Gamecast, but crubier. Duh.

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N72BAg7c ... 0DC97C6736

Towards the end of video.