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I got one more game beat for this year...


Goldeneye 007 | Wii | 2010
Ex's Score: 7/10

This GoldenEye 007 remake is a decent FPS for the Wii. It's often graphically impressive from a technological standpoint, given the Wii's limited hardware, and the actual shooting controls are reasonably functional. However the moment to moment gameplay feels much closer to Call of Duty than James Bond, considering you have no exotic gadgets at your disposal, and many areas are full of waves of respawning generic baddies. Cutscenes and dialogue get really thin during the middle portion of the experience, making the plot feel shallow and inconsequential. Multiplayer is rather robust though, at least for local split-screen, and is pretty fun. There aren't a lot of good FPS games for Wii, and with such tiny competition reviewers often lauded GoldenEye 007 a bit too highly. However with its nice graphics, good controls, and a fairly well flowing campaign, this remake still earns its license to kill.

1. Call of Duty United Offensive Expansion Pack - PC (January 16)
2. Dead To Rights - Gamecube (January 24)
3. River City Ransom EX - GBA (February 21)
4. Call of Duty 2 - PC (February 28) (link missing due to this game's post being wiped during the great RB server move)
5. Quake - PC (March 31)
6. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - PC (April 5)
7. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon - PC (April 18)
8. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - PC (May 19)
9. Super Puzzle Fighter II - GBA (May 23)
10. Saints Row The Third - PC (June 24)
11. Konami Krazy Racers - GBA (June 27)
12. Medal of Honor: Airborne - PC (August 13)
13. Code Name: Viper - NES (November 15)
14. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon-Desert Siege Expansion Pack - PC (November 25)
15. Grim Fandango Remastered - PC (November 30)
16. Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike - Gamecube (December 25)
17. *NEW* Sgt. Rock On The Frontline - GBC (December 30)

I too have one final game for 2015. It's one I recommended in the new underrated games thread.

For those unfamiliar with Front Line, it's an arcade game from Taito released in 1981 that predated more modern takes on the vertical scrolling run n gun genre such as Commando and Ikari Warriors. This game continues that tradition from the first game, but while in Japan it was known as Front Line: The Next Mission, the North American release had a DC Comics license slapped onto it, featuring 1960s comic book hero Sgt. Rock. Also to note, the publisher for this game, Bam! Entertainment also used a Dexter's Laboratory license on a GBC Elevator Action game (Robot Rampage) and a Yogi Bear license on a GBC port of Pop N Pop (Great Balloon Blast).

Despite the new character added on, the gameplay is very true to Front Line. You go it alone with a gun and grenades that can now be powered up, and you still get to have a go inside vehicles such as tanks, jeeps, and boats. At the end of each area is a fortress where you have to knock out all soldiers and guns before moving to the next area. With 8 stages, it's easy to knock out in about an hour, and extra lives are plentiful. You would owe it to yourself to see how good looking and fun this GBC title can be.

First 50:

Second 50:

101. Alien Isolation - PC
102. Medal of Honor Allied Assault - Spearhead - PC
103. Medal of Honor Allied Assault - Breakthrough - PC
104. Castlevania Bloodlines - Genesis
105. MechWarrior 3: Pirate's Moon - PC
106. Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption - PC
107. Star Fox Assault - GCN
108. Contraption Maker - PC
109. Panzer Dragoon - Saturn
110. Hexen II - PC
111. Sin - PC
112. Jet Force Gemini - N64

Wooo! Finished my last game of the year. And what a game. I remember renting this back in the day, getting Vela to Mizar's Palace and making headway with the other two characters before I had to return it. Then I purchased a copy several years ago, got Juno to Mizar's Palace and got Vela to Ichor and then stopped. I think I was getting pissed off by the drones with shields. Well, it came up on the fortune cookie and I gave it a whirl. And after a few false starts I realized a good way to deal with the shielded enemies, and from there it was a steady march to the end.

Jet Force Gemini is a third person shooter by Rare. In it you control three different characters across a total of fourteen planets, several of which are divided into multiple stages. Each character has something that makes them unique; Juno can walk on lava, Vela can swim (the other two just tread water on the surface), and Lupus can hover for surprisingly long distances. You will need to make use of these abilities to finish the game, though Lupus's is the main one that adds to the gameplay, rather than just being a gate.

There is a large variety of weapons, and one nice thing the devs did was put ammo everywhere. Most killed enemies drop a pickup that will give you pistol, machine gun, or shotgun ammo, depending on what you currently have out. There are also a bunch of weapon crates across the levels. And here's one amazing thing; when you transition rooms items will respawn, but enemies will not. So if you run low you can always backtrack (this also works for health). This allows you to use the traditionally heavier weaponry a lot more freely, and is one of the ways I found to beat shielded enemies easily (turns out explosions are awesome).

However, this game also is Rare's start of darkness; to complete the game you will need to rescue all 282 Tribals that are scattered across the stages. About a third of these can be picked up on your initial journey to Mizar's Palace. The other two thirds require either the jetpacks you get after defeating the boss at Mizar's Palace or taking a character to a planet they didn't start on. The level design and placement of the Tribals means that this isn't too onerous of a task, though, as long as you have the foresight to look up which character is needed on each stage to be able to collect all the Tribals. The other thing is you only visit about half the actual levels on the initial journey, so while you do backtrack through a few stages the majority of that time (if you were good about getting Tribals on the first run) is spent in new areas. Still, this is shades of things to come in the rest of Rare's platformer output.

Also, this game has the single best credits sequence ever. I highly recommend you look it up on youtube; there are no spoilers, just awesome.

January:

February:

March:


Previous undated:

100) Metal Slug 5 (via Metal Slug Anthology on Wii)
101) Metal Slug X (via Steam on PC)
102) Street Fighter X Tekken (Vita, Hardest, Ken/Ryu)
103) Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (3DS, Medium, Ken)
104) Castle in the Darkness (normal ending)
105) Castle in the Darkness (100%, secret ending)
106) Skullgirls
107) Super Dodge Ball

Well, finished off Castle in the Darkness. A splendid little game that reminds me a bit of Maze of Galious, although hewing a touch closer to Metroid-styled design. There's no map, like the original game. The action is ridiculously fast. The jumping, the stabbing, everything moves lightning-quick. Sometimes it's a bit too fast.

The game also pulls a lot of troll moves on you. Spikes abound, and many times, you'll get killed by surprise insta-kill spikes falling from the ceiling, or just find yourself failing the platforming challenges over and over again if you're going for full completion. I ended with 261 lives lost, although I burned about 60-70 in one spot. Unnecessarily, I might add, as I figured out what I was doing wrong, and I had a lot more room for error than originally anticipated.

It also sports the usual pixel graphics, and they're pretty decent overall. The soundtrack is pretty great in most spots, as well. I found myself humming along to quite a few, so that's a good sign... although I find them fading from memory as I type this. Mainly 'cause I've got a Retro City Rampage tune running through my head.

Much like that game, there are a lot of retro sendups. You'll find little homages to Mario, Zelda, Wonder Boy, Castlevania... heck, the game even goes so far as to slip in Monster Party and 8 Eyes!

There's a New Game Plus mode I've dabbled with, already got a crazy-fast sword that reminds me of the Crissaegrim, a frog costume, and a guy who asks if I want to purchase a "Full Moon", then proceeds to... umm... moon you. Sounds like it's going to be ridiculous if I play through it.

As a giant word of warning, if the number of lives lost didn't make it clear, it's a tough game. Checkpoints are pretty copious for most of the game, but they get a bit sparse in the last area, so it's a pretty hefty challenge. Still, I totally got my $3 out of it. It's still on sale on Steam, which appears to be the only place to obtain it currently. I probably wouldn't even have been disappointed dropping $15-20 on it.

EDIT: Somehow, I managed to not list Skullgirls. Definitely beat it this year.

EDIT 2: And Super Dodge Ball. I may be closer to 100 unique titles after all! Gotta keep jogging that memory!

Games Beaten 2015
First 50 of the year:

NotGTAV - PC
Flower - PS4
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture- PS4
Towerfall - PS4
Cyberbots - PS1
Battletoads (Arcade) - Xbox One
Forza Horizon 2 presents Fast and Furious - Xbox One
Gunman Clive 2 - 3DS
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions - Vita
Rocket League - PS4
Far Cry 4 - PS4
Her Story - PC
Destiny: The Taken King - PS4
Retro City Rampage - Vita
Ultraflow - iOS
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale - Vita
Tansformers: Devastation - PS4
Call of Duty: Black Ops - PS3
Call of Duty: Black Ops II - 360
Star Wars Battlefront II - PSP
Star Wars Battlefront (2015) - PS4
Bastion - Vita
Emily is Away - PC
Undertale - PC
Plug & Play - PC
Dyscourse - PC
Gunslinger (Dezaemon Kids!)- PS1 (Vita)
Nightmare (Dezaemon Kids!)- PS1 (Vita)

Total: 78

Previously: 2014 | The First 400 Games

I am stupid: stupid, stupid, stupid. I picked up Dezaemon Kids! a year or two ago thinking that it was a cute-em-up with a few cute-em-up building tools for kids. Nope. Little did I know that this entry in the series, which like the others allows you to build shmups, came not only with ~10 sample shmups from the devs but also a whopping 102 additional 16-bit style doujin shmups accessible via a second disc (or, if you played the PSN copy like me, via a "Reset w/Disc 2" choice in the settings). The quality on these varies, but there are about 20 ranked titles listed at the top of the directory which are all very, very good and quite varied. I first played the second listed dev game (a hori called "Gunslinger") which is a fast paced, mech-based excusion through 4 levels of parallax scrolling and generous powerups. That game was ok, and certainly a good showpiece for some of what is possible with the tools in the set.

However, I really, really dug into the second game on the bonus disc, a vert shmup called "Nightmare" created by T. Iwata (I'd love to know if he has other work out there!). Make no mistake, I have played more than my fair share of 16-bit era shmups, and I would not hesitate to put this one in the upper echelon of available titles. Specifically, the game oozes aesthetic appeal - gothic and occultish imagery, spooky chiptunes, a nice variety of effects-driven weapons, and a creative use/manipulation of the various tools provided by the devs.

The whole time I was playing Nightmare, I kept thinking: noise would absolutely adore this.

You can read a lot more about the game (and the series) over at HG101, but suffice to say if you consider yourself a shmup fan you owe it to yourself to spend some time with these titles. I have only scratched the surface, but am thrilled to know that having this sitting on my Vita gives me quick and easy access to literally 100+ new-to-me 16-bit style shmups. You'd be hard pressed to find more bang for your buck in the genre.

80 by tonight is in my sights!

Wow, didn't realize Dezaemon Kids! was on the US-PSN. That's a must-buy for me.

Sounds like the guy who wrote the PSN description likes it too!

This version includes a fully-voiced tutorial, simplified interface, a huge amount of sample data, a horizontal scroll option, and 2-player simultaneous play options. Best of all, your purchase includes 102 great sample games, of which, Kagero is flat-out awesome.

retrosportsgamer wrote:Wow, didn't realize Dezaemon Kids! was on the US-PSN. That's a must-buy for me.

Me neither. I am buying this game when I get home.

I saw "Dezaemon" on my screen and got really excited for a second because I thought dish had played a N64 game.

I was thinking of Dezaemon 3D. I honestly didn't know any more about this series. Wild stuff.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:

retrosportsgamer wrote:Wow, didn't realize Dezaemon Kids! was on the US-PSN. That's a must-buy for me.

Me neither. I am buying this game when I get home.

Dezaemon Plus is too...

I was holding out posting this one just in case I finished one more before the end of the year. I didn't quite manage to finish Ys 2 on time though, so here we go. Stats will follow tomorrow!

First 50:

51. Deep Duck Trouble starring Donald Duck Game Gear
52. Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX 3DS
53. Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush Wii U
54. Retro Game Challenge DS
55. Pop Island Paperfield DSiWare
56. Stranded Kids GBC
57. Bomberman 64 N64
58. Inazuma Eleven DS
59. Bust-a-Move 4 DC
60. Sega Bass Fishing DC
61. Mario Party 8 Wii
62. Sonic Chaos Game Gear
63. Sonic the Hedgehog SMS
64. Jet Force Gemini N64
65. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U DL
66. Kirby's Ghost Trap SNES
67. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon GBC
68. Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 NGPC
69. LittleBigPlanet PSVita Vita
70. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat GC
71. Märchen Adventure Cotton 100% SFC
72. Luigi's Mansion 2 3DS
73. Portal XBLA
74. Game & Watch Gallery 2 GBC
75. WarioWare D.I.Y DS
76. Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash 3DS
77. Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed PSN (Vita)
78. Ys Book I: Ancient Ys Vanished: Omen PSN (Vita)
79. The Last Story Wii
80. Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars Wii *NEW*

A round 80 games finished this year, which I think is my new record.

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars
Mushroom Men was game M of my alphabet marathon.

Mushroom Men is a adventure/platformer/action game for Wii which draws elements from games such as Zelda whilst creating a unique world of it's own.

The game is split into 10 levels, each of which is generally fairly open ended and has multiple tasks you need to achieve to progress. You control Pax, a titular Mushroom Man, as he quests to find meteorites and defeat the evil amanita mushrooms and avoid the mutated local wildlife.

You do this by platforming around the levels, hitting enemies with weapons and making use of your 'sporekinesis' to move objects around if they've been infected with radioactive mushrooms. You can glide around to make platforming easier, and you can upgrade weaponry by finding objects around the levels, such as corn cob prongs, toothbrushes, chewing gum and the likes. Different weapon types attack in different ways, but they're fundamentally all the same.

Platforming is loose but functional, and combat works OK but really suffers from the lack of a lock on system. Both have issues with camera controls which are 100% manual - they work fine, but it can be tedious to constantly readjust the camera all the time.

Mushroom Men has a reasonably generic look, but with it's own style. The game tries to draw elements from schlocky horror films but it's a little underutilised unfortunately, probably due to the games lower budget. It would have been great if the game looked more like the game's concept artwork which is stunning. The level designs are still pretty cool though, as they do a great job of making you feel like a tiny mushroom in a big world - lots of indoor environments make the world feel big and the character feel small. The music is really bizarre and kinda awesome though. It's by Les Claypool and has a very odd and distinctive style. Definitely worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovgCknGwo4

Mushroom Men is by no means a must-own. But it is a very competently built and fun game that is absolutely dirt cheap, and at only 5 hours or so to play through it's worth a quick go.



That's all the games I'll be beating this year. Stats tomorrow!