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1. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)
2. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (Arcade)*
3. Metal Slug 6 (PS2)
4. Time Crisis II (PS2)*
5. Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (360)
6. Shining the Holy Ark (SAT)
7. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
8. Soul Blazer (SNES)
9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES)*
10. Warriors of Fate (Switch)
11. Knights of the Round (Switch)
12. Armored Warriors (Switch)
13. Battle Circuit (Switch)
14. OutRun (GEN)*
15. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
16. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
17. Shadowrun (SNES)



18. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is a game I'd been curious about for a few years, as it seemed like a fun loot-based action RPG. I'm a fan of this style of game and it totally passed me by when originally released. I finally tracked down a copy earlier a few months ago. My partner and I decided to play through it together, as we have with a few other couch co-op titles recently. For this playthrough, I played as the dwarven fighter and my partner played as the archer.

Graphics wise, I think Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance looks pretty good for the time it was released. There's a nice variety when it comes to the dungeons and settings you'll be traversing, which I enjoyed. Everything from sewers, to desert mountains, to forests, marshlands, and fortresses. Some of the enemies and bosses are quite impressive looking as well, with some of the bosses taking up quite a large amount on the screen. My only criticism is that there are a few areas where the areas were quite dark, but for the most part this didn't affect the gameplay. In regards to the soundtrack, the music here is pretty minimal, however, during the menu screen and in some of the boss battles, the music transitions into quite a dramatic tune.

Regarding the controls, I think the development company, Snowblind Studios, did a great job of releasing this style of game to a console, when action RPGs were more known for their PC presence at the time. All of the buttons will come into use here, as the d-pad is used to select spells and switch weapons. You also have buttons dedicated to attack, block, jump, magic, use of potions, adjusting the map, and adjusting the camera angle. Regarding combat, I think it's fair to say that combat in this game is a bit more involved than in the Diablo series, as you will need to learn how to use the block mechanic to survive, especially in sequences where you're up against a large onslaught of enemies. It's quite unique for a game of this genre to have a jump button, and you'll need it for a few sequences. One of my only criticisms of the gameplay here is Dark Alliance does have a few areas where you have platforming. I found one of the platforming areas to be a bit frustrating, but eventually we were able to get through it.

Another difference between this game and other action RPGs, is that you'll have quite a lot of dialogue sequences throughout your adventure and you can choose your response to certain characters. However, I don't believe your response choices changes the direction of the story. Either way, this was still a nice touch, and my partner was having a fun time reading the character responses with different voices for the characters. It was cracking me up.

Overall, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was a really fun co-op playthrough and I would recommend it to fans of the genre. The game is a bit shorter than we expected but it was still a great time. I'd like to check out Dark Alliance II later in the year to see what the sequel has to offer, as I've read good things about that installment too. Definitely check this one out if you haven't already!

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

1. Underworld Ascendant - PC
2. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - PS3
3. Ni no Kuni - PS3
4. Operencia: The Stolen Sun - PC
5. RPM Racing - PC
6. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem - PC
7. Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Switch
8. Ni no Kuni II - PS4
9. Everspace - PC
10. PowerSlave Exhumed - PC
11. Horizon Forbidden West - PS5
12. Elden Ring - PS5
13. Shadow Warrior 3 - PC
14. Ghostrunner: Project_Hel - PC
15. Triangle Strategy - Switch
16. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - PC
17. Nightmare Reaper - PC
18. Kur - PC
19. Gundam Versus - PS4
20. BIOTA - PC
21. Chantelise - PC
22. Xenoblade Chronicles - Wii
23. Forgive Me Father - PC
24. Xenoblade Chronicles X - Wii U
25. Steel Assault - Switch
26. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - Switch
27. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Switch
28. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Switch
29. Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Switch
30. Toejam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron - Genesis
31. Postal Brain Damaged - PC
32. Valkyrie Profile Lenneth - PSP
33. Super Cyborg - Switch
34. Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2 - Switch
35. Stray - PC
36. Live A Live - Switch
37. Subwar 2050 - PC
38. Radical Dreamers - Switch
39. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Switch

Well, I've spent the past three weeks working on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and it officially takes the title of longest RPG I've played, clocking in at 136 hours before the post-game content (what looks to be some interesting backstory bits). And I gotta say, I enjoyed every minute of it. It serves as a very nice capstone for the previous games (except X, which is off doing its own thing) and I'm looking forward to the story DLC coming out sometime next year.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is set on a world of constant war. People are born as adolescents and spend the next ten years in constant warfare. The life essence of fallen foes can be collected to fuel your own forces, and those who can survive for ten years are given the honor of dying in front of their queen. In this world we meet our protagonists; three people from each of the two factions who find their fates intertwined when they encounter an unknown third force who gives them the power to break free of the endless cycle of war and begin to see if maybe there is a way for people to find something different.

Now, those who have played the previous games will notice that one faction is made up of races from XC1, while the other is races from XC2. This actually carries over into the mechanics. The game starts off with the same style of combat as XC2, where you have three arts and you auto attack, and doing enough arts will let you bust out a big move. Well, not technically enough arts, but rather specific arts that lean into your role (attack, defend, heal). But you'll notice that the characters who are from the XC1 faction have their arts recharge over time, like in that game, while the XC2 characters have their arts recharge based on auto attacks. This ends up not being an either-or proposition, though. Shortly after unlocking class changing you unlock the ability to combine both forms of abilities. So in addition to attacks mapped on your XYB you also get the opposite faction attacks (of your choice) mapped onto the URD d-buttons. Later on you gain the ability to activate both as part of a single attack, which is more powerful than each alone but also means you need to calibrate the cadences so you aren't sitting on unused arts and hurting your DPS. It's a really nice evolution of the battle system, and it also features my favorite implementation of the Chain Attack system; easy to understand but requires work to get all the value out of it. And speaking of your party, the game always has you use your full party of six main characters and one guest character, giving you important redundancy in roles.

Another notable change is to the quest system. While XC2 had started to move towards meaningful quests, XC3 finally gets both the cadence and importance and most importantly the effort correct. There are very few fetch/hunt generic-esque quests. Most of the quests have fully bespoke monsters or pickups in them, and the ones that ARE fetch quests helpfully point you where you need to go and highlight the correct items/monsters. All of the quests have meaningful dialog behind them, as you seek to make the world better. Even the more basic ones still form a building block to a larger story in a quest zone. I never felt like the quests were busywork, but were rather important parts of fully exploring the world and story. So hats off to the team.

One of the game's strong suits is the cast of characters. The game does a very good job of making sure all of the main cast gets features, without fading into the background as is so common in other RPGs. And all your guest characters also get a lot more detail than you might expect; just because you've recruited them doesn't mean there isn't more character development to be had. Backed up by an interesting story that pays off those who have played the first two numbered games and you have a recipe for fun.

Overall XC3 is currently the best RPG available on the Switch, and frankly it's in contention for best RPG of the current console generation. I definitely recommend playing the first two games before this, not only for the story payoff but also so that you experience the gameplay getting better with each installment. Just make sure you have time on your hands; the game is massive.

Previous Years: 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

1. Underworld Ascendant - PC
2. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - PS3
3. Ni no Kuni - PS3
4. Operencia: The Stolen Sun - PC
5. RPM Racing - PC
6. Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem - PC
7. Pokemon Legends: Arceus - Switch
8. Ni no Kuni II - PS4
9. Everspace - PC
10. PowerSlave Exhumed - PC
11. Horizon Forbidden West - PS5
12. Elden Ring - PS5
13. Shadow Warrior 3 - PC
14. Ghostrunner: Project_Hel - PC
15. Triangle Strategy - Switch
16. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - PC
17. Nightmare Reaper - PC
18. Kur - PC
19. Gundam Versus - PS4
20. BIOTA - PC
21. Chantelise - PC
22. Xenoblade Chronicles - Wii
23. Forgive Me Father - PC
24. Xenoblade Chronicles X - Wii U
25. Steel Assault - Switch
26. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - Switch
27. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 - Switch
28. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country - Switch
29. Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Switch
30. Toejam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron - Genesis
31. Postal Brain Damaged - PC
32. Valkyrie Profile Lenneth - PSP
33. Super Cyborg - Switch
34. Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2 - Switch
35. Stray - PC
36. Live A Live - Switch
37. Subwar 2050 - PC
38. Radical Dreamers - Switch
39. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Switch
40. Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 - Switch

Since this is apparently the year of the RPG I figured I'd spend some time on a quick palette cleanser before Soul Hackers 2 dropped. Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 came out at about the same time as Xenoblade Chronicles 3, so it got sidelined until I was done with that monster of a game. It ended up taking me just over an evening to get through, which was just right.

Gunvolt 3 is set several decades after Gunvolt 2. Off screen, Gunvolt's powers ran amuck and he transformed into a dragon; he ends up getting sealed to keep the world safe. Now, decades later, his shackles are about to break. Your new primary character, Kirin, is sent in to keep him under control. And in the process you find that the leakage of his power is causing another outbreak of quirky bosses you need to fight at the end of fast paced stages like before. The plot is much more of an excuse plot than previous games, but it's not like they were deep to begin with.

As mentioned, you have a new character you play as. Kirin wields a sword that can combo on the ground or in the air, and as she beats bosses she gets some additional moves, like a rising slash and a falling spin. She also has a ranged option; she tosses talismans at enemies. These don't actually deal damage; rather they deal potential damage. To convert that to real damage you need to hit the enemy with your sword. Unlike Gunvolt's little bolts, these talismans do significant damage per; one to two is enough for most enemies in stages. But that's not all. Any enemy that is tagged with a talisman can be teleported to with the A button; if you tag multiples then you'll hit each one in turn. This teleport has invincibility and you get a height boost and a jump reset when you come out. You also can come out of it either in front of or behind enemies. This ends up being where much of the game's movement tech comes. Many stages you can constantly chain these teleports for long distances, flying through the stages. It's really fun once you get the hang of it (it helps that you can angle talismans up and down at an angle and there is a bit of auto aim).

But the game's name is Gunvolt, I hear you say. Well Gunvolt serves as a temporary powered up mode. You fill a meter as Kirin, then you can consume it to play as Gunvolt. This handles similar to when he's in Anthem mode in the previous games. You get infinite jumps and mid air dashes, you take zero damage, and you have infinite electric field. Like Kirin, you can now angle your tagger up and down, and if you dash into enemies you deal damage. This mode is time limited, so the more you fill up as Kirin before using the better. This also determines which of your three super moves you can use; using the super ends the mode early. Gunvolt ends up serving as a get out of jail free card, which helps ease the difficulty.

Otherwise, it's a lot of what you've seen before. Frantic boss fights with quite difficult patterns to avoid (you need to do a lot of split second tag and teleports), but on the flip side you get access to some healing and mitigation tools through a gatcha-esque skill system (beating a stage after collecting key items gives you rolls). And you still have the chance of triggering Anthem when you die as Kirin; this is Gunvolt taken up to eleven, and is straight up a free boss kill.

If you've enjoyed the previous Gunvolt games then you'll probably like this one, but I'd also say it is probably the most frantic, so keep that in mind.

Partridge Senpai's 2021 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
* indicates a repeat

1. Dandy Dungeon: The Legend of Brave Yamada (Switch)
2. Dandy Dungeon 2: The Phantom Bride (Switch)
3. Mon Amor (Switch)
4. Terraria (PC)
5. Puppeteer (PS3) *
6. Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon (PS1)
7. Project Altered Beast (PS2)
8. Devil Summoner II: Soul Hackers (Saturn)
9. Kirby Star Allies: Heroes in Another Dimension (Switch)
10. Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB)
11. Tales of Vesperia (PS3) *
12. Art Style: BOXLIFE (DSi)
13. Super Robot Wars F (Saturn)
14. Super Robot Wars F Final (Saturn)
15. Super Robot Wars 64 (N64)
16. Knight Gundam Monogatari (SFC)
17. Knight Gundam Monogatari 2 (SFC)
18. Mega Man Legends 2 (PSP)
19. Mighty No. 9 (PC)
20. Mega Man Xtreme (GBC)
21. Mega Man Xtreme 2 (GBC)
22. Super Robot Wars Alpha (PS1)
23. Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden (PS1)
24. Vampire Hunter D (PS1)
25. Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 (PS2)
26. Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 (PS2)

27. Super Robot Wars 2: Complete Box Edition (PS1)

I was in a bit of a rut on which SRW game to play next, and bounced off of the couple that I tried. It was then that I remembered that I have the Complete Box Collection, remakes of SRW 2, 3, and EX using the engine from F and F Final. It was released on the PS1 in 1999, and I see it as a sort of last hurrah for Winky Soft before they ceased making SRW games. Something more simple and like the first SRW game I played way back in March turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. These still don’t count playtime, so I reckon it probably took me around 30 or 40 hours to beat the Japanese version of the game on original hardware.

SRW2, despite that “2” in the name, is actually the first SRW game in many respects. Way back in its original incarnation on the Famicom in 1991, it was the very first SRW game that Winky Soft made, and also the first one to have a story of any kind (with the first SRW on GameBoy, the one actually made by Banpresto, being more of a collection of maps not unlike the early Advance Wars games). This is the first in what’s known retroactively as the Divine Crusaders saga, where our heroes fight primarily against the group of bad guys (themselves primarily from U.C. Gundam, Getter Robo, and Mazinger Z) known as the Divine Crusaders. A great scientist foresaw the attack of Earth by mysterious aliens, and in order to defend Earth from them, he believed that the forces of Earth must be united entirely. To this end, he constructed the Valshion, a super robot of unimaginable power, and created the DC.

The plot of this game is primarily fighting against the Valshion and the DC, who are comprised mostly of bad guys from the original 3 Gundam series and F91 in a plot that *mostly* resembles the One Year War from the original 0079 Gundam series, but differs in many ways due to all of the other actors present in the story. To be honest, basically every other SRW game that adapts U.C. Gundam treats the One Year War as backstory, so it was mostly really cool to see that conflict adapted in any way at all for once. While I’m not sure how much this has been altered from its original Famicom release, it’s a *very* light story, and talking and quips are kept to a minimum to keep the gameplay flowing. It’s a formula that, while certainly different, I still found very charming and funny, and it does exactly what it sets out to do.

Mechanically, this is more or less identical to SRW F Final, which makes sense given that this is just a remake of a Famicom game, but that also makes it far more interesting. The original Famicom game has a lot of limitations by virtue of being a Famicom game: units and pilots are no discrete bodies (a unit IS their pilot and vice versa, so no swapping pilots between mechs), the only way units upgrade is by leveling up with EXP, units only have a couple moves each, and maps tend to be smaller and have very few reinforcements. What this means, however, is that when combined with F’s mechanics such as units separate from pilots, large move lists, and units upgradable with money, is that you have a really tightly executed SRW game in the Winky Soft model (complete with their unskippable albeit short battle animations). You have a pretty small total unit list of only 14 or so, so you’re generally fielding your whole army every map, and it makes the whole thing feel much more like an Advance Wars-style puzzle game as a result.

This is made even better by the addition of some rebalancing I now realize I falsely gave credit to Banpresto for innovating. The #1 case of this is how super robots (the slower tanky and hard hitting units), hopelessly inaccurate and damn near useless in F and F Final, have been given the big accuracy boost in their weapons that they so badly needed. This means your tiny army is *far* more able to take on the things your up against since everyone can actually pull their weight properly. They’ve even gone a little bit farther with the rebalancing than that, and made it so you simply don’t have the upgrades possible to create field-dominating dodge-tanks that are so incredibly powered in both Winky Soft and Banpresto SRW games, forcing you to really strategize around who in your army is going to take on which foes. The game is still only 26 missions with no skill points, alternate routes, or hidden endings, just as the Famicom game was, but that sat just fine with me. A short, sweet, yet very polished SRW game in this style wasn’t something I thought was possible for this series, but damn if I wasn’t impressed that they actually pulled it off so well.

As far as presentation goes, while this game *does* still mostly reuse assets from the F and F Final rosters, there’s quite a lot new or changed here as well. Most of the sprites, for starters, while still not animated properly like they’d start doing in SRW Alpha the next year, are smaller than their F Final counterparts. Whether that’s down to a matter of data compression (to fit all 3 games as well as the video cutscenes on one tiny PS1 disc) or a simple stylistic choice, I’m not sure (as they don’t particularly look like their Famicom and Super Famicom counterparts so much as they look like somewhat smaller versions of the F Final models, for the most part). Either way, it gives them a unique look to set apart the Complete Box from the scads of other PS1 SRW games.

Another fun change that I can’t really chalk up to either a stylistic or data limitation reason are the music tracks which are all different from their F Final iterations. They sound much more old school, and the amount of “SNES Guitar”-type rifs in so much of the sound font makes me think this very well may be a stylistic choice rather than one made of data compression necessity. One or two of the tracks sound a bit off (particularly the Great Mazinger theme), but they all generally sound great as they always do in replicating the anime themes they’re representing~.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. While it’s far from the prettiest, most technical, or most anime-packed SRW game on the PS1, this is a title that does really well to set itself apart from its sister titles. Whether it was the intention at their outset or not, Winky Soft did a great job crafting a more streamlined and puzzle-like experience in the mold of one of their older titles, and it’s a blast the whole way through. If you’re into SRPGs and don’t mind that this version of SRW2 ain’t in English, this is definitely one worth checking out~.

1. Pokemon Snap
2. Yoshi's Story
3. Super Mario World
4. Paper Mario
5. Kirby Super Star

Games since last update are in bold.

- I beat Bayonetta 2 earlier this year but forgot to put in on here. It's a great game, a definite improvement over the first, but the story was unnecessarily confusing. For how much they tried to do timey-wimey connections with Bayo 1, you'd think they would have sign posted the narrative more.

- Megaman 7 remains a game that I like to like more than I actually like it. The graphics, music, and art are perfect but it's just so clunky to play. Also that Wily fight at the end is actual clown shoes.

- Cyberpunk 2077 is a fantastic game marred by its horrible launch. I finally got around to playing it and it was a blast. There were a few bugs here and there but no crashes, smooth graphics, and the game itself is fun. I think this is the first open world game since Breath of the Wild where I cared this much about the world around me and its inhabitants. Well, at least the inhabitants that I didn't murder in the streets just to test out my newest weapon or implant.

Switch
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
Time Spinner
Fire Emblem 3 Houses
Super Mario Galaxy
Dragonball Z Kakarot
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Fire Emblem Warriors 3 Hopes
Megaman
Megaman 2
Megaman 3
Megaman 4
Megaman 5
Megaman 6
Megaman: The Power Battles
Megaman: The Power Fighters
Hyper Street Fighter II
Street Fighter Alpha
1942
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Bayonetta 2

Xbox Series S|X
Blood Stained: Curse of the Moon
Blood Stained: Curse of the Moon 2
Megaman 7
Cyberpunk 2077

I keep forgetting to mention this, but I recently beat Sonic Mania Plus for Switch on Encore Mode, though without all the Chaos Emeralds.

Games Beaten in 2021 - 55
* denotes a replay

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (1 Games Beaten)


March (0 Games Beaten)


April (3 Games Beaten)


May (3 Games Beaten)


June (11 Games Beaten)


July (14 Games Beaten)


August (2 Games Beaten)


55. Radian Historia: Perfect Chronology - 3DS - August 24



You ever have a game with which you say “Wow, that game sounds awesome. Money’s tight, though, so I’m going to wait for a sale,” and then you wait too long and the game is suddenly $150? If you’re a JRPG fan and said no, you’re either rich enough to buy everything at launch or a liar. Well, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is that game for me. I’m a physical purist, but given how ungodly expensive it is on the second-hand market, I had to bite the digital bullet when Atlus ran a 3DS sale last Spring. This was a slow burn game for me, but I finally finished it, and while I absolutely loved the game, there are definitely a few aspects that weren’t my cup of tea.



The game feels, to a certain extent, like Atlus’s take on Chrono Trigger. You play primarily as Stocke, a former soldier and current intelligence agent for the city-state of Allistel in its long war against the kingdom of Granorg. For reasons unknown, though, the intelligence director, Heiss, gives you a blank book called the White Chronicle when sending you out on a mission, saying only that it’s a good luck charm of sorts. Next thing you know, you’re on a quest hopping through space and time to try to save the world from certain destruction at the hands of global desertification. Along the way, you meet allies from Allistel, other human nations, non-human nations, and even Granorg itself to help you on your quest to save the world and unravel the secrets of the long-dead Empire.



As this is a remake of a DS game - even if an enhanced one - the game only displays in 2D. No matter what your slider is set on, there’s no 3D effect at all. Bummer. It does look really good, though, with excellent character designs and sprites. There was a pretty big change to the character art between the DS original and 3DS remake, and while the fans seem fairly divided, I definitely think the 3DS art looks significantly better. There’s also added content to the 3DS version, so that’s the version to play if both are an option. The characters and their interactions were the highlight of the game for me, so the character design changes were a big factor in my decision to play on 3DS rather than DS. The added content was what pushed me over the edge to 3DS.



The story and characters were great, but I have to admit that the time hopping got tiresome for me. It wasn’t the concept of time travel that bothered me but having to figure out exactly when to go and what to do there to progress the story and which universe - the “Standard History” or “Alternate History” - I needed to be in. That’s definitely a “me” thing, not a genuine complaint with the game, but it’s definitely not quite as linear as I generally like JRPGs to be. Still, though, the story and characters and world lore was more than enough motivation for me to get over myself and power through those parts.



Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is definitely a game that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves, and I’d love to see it get a 3D remake or sequel on Switch. It is, unfortunately, extremely expensive physically, so I’d highly recommend you download it on your 3DS sometime over the next six months or so while you’ve got the chance (unless you’re reading this after March 2023 in which case ya-harr, me matey). It may not have been exactly what I usually look for in a JRPG, but that story was a caliber that only comes a few times a generation, so if you’ve slept on this so far, go ahead and wake up.

Markies' Games Beat List Of 2022!
*Denotes Replay For Completion*

1. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (PS3)
2. Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne (XBOX)
3. Streets of Rage 4 (NS)
4. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest (GCN)
5. Dirge Of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2)
6. Darkstalkers (PS1)
7. Evolution: The World Of Sacred Device (SDC)
8. Ogre Battle 64: Person Of Lordly Calibur (N64)
9. Draogn Quest VI (SNES)
10. Batman: The Video Game (GEN)
11. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
12. Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA)
13. Pokemon Red (GB)
14. Wii Sports (Wii)
15. Splatoon (WiiU)
16. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2)
***17. Final Fantasy IX (PS1)***
***18. Out Run (GEN)***
19. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
20. RBI Baseball 2 (NES)
21. Puzzle Kingdoms (Wii)



I beat Puzzle Kingdoms on the Nintendo Wii this afternoon!

Puzzle Quest is one of my favorite Hidden Gems on the PS2. It combines RPG elements with a Bejeweled style gameplay. Since college, I have loved to play those little flash games and Bejeweled was always one of my favorites. So, to be able to play it on my TV with a story and a leveling system had me sold instantly. With little physical releases and the series mostly going digital or on handhelds, unfortunately, I could not continue on with the series. Thankfully, the game got a successor on the Nintendo Wii and it was one of the first games I wanted to pick up. I was extremely excited to play it, so after Wii Sports, I wanted another Nintendo Wii game to play and Puzzle Quest jumped out immediately.

The gameplay is relatively the same though they did make some changes. Instead of swapping jewels to make three in a row, it's more of a sliding puzzle where you push the gems to make three in a row or three in a cluster. It adds a bit more of a strategic element to the game that sets it apart from Puzzle Quest. Puzzle Quest had insanity as combo after combo would happen. That is still here a bit in Puzzle Kingdoms, but its a bit like chess as well as you are strategically moving the board around. You also have small mini games to spend your gold to unlock characters, troops, items and spells to beef up your army. By the end, I felt quite powerful and it was really fun to see the progression of my army throughout the game.

With that being said, the game becomes a bit tiresome. 20 Kingdoms is a ton especially when the gameplay doesn't change all that much. Near the end, it began to drag especially when the Mini-Games became much harder. It no longer became a game of figuring out the puzzle, but more like waiting around until the RNG let you win. These little games took over 30 minutes and I didn't feel like I had control in many of them. The game is mostly fair, unlike in Puzzle Quest, though by the end, it began to sway a bit more away from me.

Overall, it took me a bit to warm up to Puzzle Kingdoms and I would prefer Puzzle Quest any day over it, but I still really liked the game. I never tire of Bejeweled and the light RPG elements were incredibly fun. It's not an amazing game, but for a fun little game that is very cheap, I felt it was worth it. If you like Bejeweled style puzzle games, Puzzle Kingdoms is a more strategic version that is still fun to play.

Games Beaten in 2021 - 56
* denotes a replay

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (1 Games Beaten)


March (0 Games Beaten)


April (3 Games Beaten)


May (3 Games Beaten)


June (11 Games Beaten)


July (14 Games Beaten)


August (2 Games Beaten)


September (1 Games Beaten)


56. Silver Falls: Ghoul Busters - 3DS - September 3



Silver Falls is a series I've become a huge fan of over the past year. It's an indie horror series made Sungrand, a one-man studio based in Australia, that focuses around the quaint little town of Silver Falls. This quaint little town isn't quite as normal as it looks, though; strange things keep happening, and strange creatures keep appearing. Each game in the series has a very distinct feel and style that matches the time period when the game takes place, and the fact that everything about the games from the visuals to the coding to the audio is all done by one person gives each entry a real labor-of-love feel that big studio AAA games just can't replicate.



Ghoul Busters takes place in the early 1990s and, as such, has an aesthetic intentionally reminiscent of the original Game Boy (that's also why the game's initials are "GB"). It follows two young best friends forever, Starlin Allerdyce and Atticus Longdraw, on their adventure-turned-nightmare in the woods. The two boys had gone to the woods one night to play Ghoul Busters, pretending to be the heroes from their favorite television cartoon, but they quickly stumble upon real monsters lurking in the woods as well as adults from the town who seem to know more about the strange goings-on than they're willing to admit. Now their playtime has turned into a very literal fight for survival.



The game is a 2D platformer although one that makes heavy (and excellent) use of the 3DS's stereoscopic 3D effect. It's totally playable in 2D, but like Super Mario 3D Land, there are obstacles - like blades swinging between the close foreground and the background - that the 3D effect makes easier to see and dodge. Each of the two characters - Starlin and Atticus - plays somewhat differently. Starlin is a bit slower in jumps, attacks with a hockey stick, and seems to deal a little more damage with more knockback. Atticus, on the other hand, moves much faster in the air, attacks with a slingshot, and trades some of that damage and knockback for attack range. Personally, I preferred playing as Atticus, although Starlin felt more useful to me in the last few levels. The action takes place on the top screen while the touch screen holds items in your inventory that can be used by tapping as well as a pocket pet toy that emits a sound that causes a particular spinning spike enemy to retract its spines for a brief period of time.



The game isn't very long, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in quality. There are nine levels and three bosses (one at the end of each three-level stage), and they are, as one might hope, increasingly challenging. On level 1-1, for example, I only died once; by level 3-3, you'd have thought I was playing Super Meat Boy. By the time I had cleared the final boss, I had died 421 times during my playthrough, and it would have been a lot more if I hadn't had items to use. Between levels, you get the chance to spend the bottle caps you collected thus far to buy items for use later, and fortunately, you're able to go back and replay levels to grind more bottle caps if you find that you're in need of items but out of funds. There are box tops hidden throughout the levels, as well, and each level that you end with three box tops gives you a special item that you can't normally buy.



The coolest thing, in my opinion, about the Silver Falls series as a whole is the connectivity between games courtesy of the Code Linker system. Jerrel, the developer, really went out of his way to make sure that his games connect with each other in some way. The way it works is that one Silver Falls game - let's say Episode Prelude on Switch - gives you a blue code in its Code Linker menu. You then plug that blue code into the Code Linker menu in Ghoul Busters on 3DS, and it spits out a yellow key code. Plug that yellow code back into Episode Prelude, and a character from Ghoul Busters is now playable in Episode Prelude. That's just an example - I'm not sure if that particular example is actually viable - but that's the gist of how it works. Jerrel designed it to be like amiibo but without the need for an additional purchase and as a sort of bonus for buying the other games, although he's stressed multiple times that he actively encourages folks' sharing codes with friends who may not have all of the Silver Falls games; he just wants people to play and enjoy what he's made.



Silver Falls: Ghoul Busters is really an extraordinary platformer. It's short and extremely challenging at parts, but at no point does it ever stop being fun. It's got its moments where you can tell you're being directly trolled by obstacle and enemy placements, but it's never to the point where you rage quit; it's always just reasonable enough to make you say "One more try." There's also just this unexplainable magic that comes from a game made entirely by one guy who's genuinely super passionate about gaming and making games that people want to play. It's made in Unity for 3DS, so it's got some random and impossible-to-replicate-on-command bugs and crashes here and there, but the game's got a good auto-save system, so I've never lost any progress from crashes, and it doesn't take long to load back into the game. The music is absolutely phenomenal, and while you'll hear the low-fi voice saying "Bummer!" every time you die in your nightmares, it's a wholly satisfying, enjoyable, and charming platformer from start to finish. I enjoyed this game more than any other indie platformer I've ever played and for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, but regardless of why, I honestly can't recommend this game highly enough. Releasing at the very end of the 3DS's life span puts a quickly ticking timer on its availability, so make sure you don't sleep on this one.