Games Beaten 2012

[BoneSnapDeez]

Ys I & II Chronicles

I love Ys games and I had played the DS version of I & II last year. The PSP port looks much better, as it's all 2D. The two games have fantastic music, control and atmosphere... but both titles are essentially a series of fetch quests that are nigh impossible without some sort of maps/walkthroughs. It's forgivable though, given the age of the games. I'd like to beef up my Ys collection this year. I'll certainly get part 7, and maybe IV (PC Engine version) and the Turbo CD ports of I & II.

Kirby's Epic Yarn

Great game, first Kirby title I had played in years. A bit easy, seeing as how you can't die. The translucent yarn graphics caused me to become disoriented a couple of times, but it was nothing major. One of the best platformers for the Wii, I could play a bit more I guess to unlock the secret levels. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll revisit it.

Onward to Dragon Quest IV!

[YoshiEgg25]

1/6: Puzzle Agent 2 PC
1/11: House of the Dead (co-op) Arcade *NEW*
1/11: Avalanche Arcade *NEW*


Total: 3


House of the Dead is not an easy game. But it's short. But still, the only reason my friend and I were going to get through this is with it on free play. I felt like my arm was going to fall off after it.

Avalanche, again. Scored 3,451 points on it on Wednesday. That's 998 points over the world record. I'm counting this as beaten, even if you can't truly beat it. Maybe. I think there MIGHT be a kill screen. It's possible.

[J T]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (1/12)

I thoroughly enjoyed this game because the writing was top notch. It was philosophical, political, technological, psychological, scientific, and all around kick ass. The major dilemmas of Deus Ex's fictional year 2027 were believable because they feel so similar to the dilemmas of 2011: media manipulation, class divides, globalization, techno fetishism. This is a smart game, and it does something very rare for any modern form of entertainment: it assumes you are intelligent enough to understand it.

[SpaceBooger]

1/09 Golden Axe Warrior - SMS
1/15 Sonic Generations - PS3 NEW

This was the first game I paid retail price (gift card) for in a long time because of all the hype and discussion within these forums, and I admit you guys were right the game is great. There are not too many games that I set the goal to complete everything, but with this game I am having the urge to go back and do all the challenge levels I skipped and even turn some of my B grades into As.
I was disappointing in one thing - I have had the game for a couple weeks now and the price has already dropped $20 permanently (I think) on Amazon.

[Luke]

Metroid NES

Every time I hear the music that plays as Samus appears in the first few seconds of the game, I always think "Yup, it's going to be another long day of not getting off the couch".

To my surprise, I beat Metroid in a couple of hours. I guess when you have the Map from the second issue of Nintendo Power engraved into your brain the game keeps getting easier.

One thing I did this time that I don't usually do is let the title screen play for a few minutes. It may have been the first time I ever read the entire opening sequence.

[AmishSamurai]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic- PC
LIMBO- PC *NEW*

A pretty fun puzzle-platformer. Some of it is a bit trial-and-error, and dying is stupidly easy to do. The solutions are the kind that are so simple you feel like an idiot for overthinking. Fun, but I wouldn't have paid the full $10 for it due to brevity. I'd wait for it to be on sale.

[Gamerforlife]

Games beaten so far:
1. Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again - DSiWare
2. Sonic Generations - PS3

Super Mario 3D Land *new* - All levels beat, all stars acquired(and I got them without a guide or faq because I'm that good ), and 0 lives lost

Eh, a decent Mario game. Nothing more, nothing less. The 3D effect adds absolutely nothing to the gameplay despite what you may hear from others. Some of the special stages are obnoxious, like those stupid levels where that purple demon thing chases you or those stupid 30 second time trial levels with Bowser's Castle. Overall though, it's a good game. I mean, it's Mario. It's what you'd expect, which is both good and bad. It's all very familiar. Quality game, but also uninspired. Definitely not the killer app the 3DS needs

and one more thing, can we get off this stupid trend some games have of keeping track of your deaths? It adds nothing to the game and only serves to annoy OCD people like me, who are going to reset the game after any death just to keep the lives lost statistic at zero. I don't need annoying reminders of my failures so I don't want a stupid lives lost stat on my save file

Overall, I'd give the game a 7 out of 10

[noiseredux]

1. Sonic CD (PSN)
2. Golden Axe Warrior (PS3)
3. Ico (PS3)

wow. Just wow. I played through Shadow of the Colossus about this time last year. Seemed fitting to get sucked into Ico now. So my thoughts... uh. Let me gather them as best I can. First off, I'm glad I played this on PS3. I think that there is a big difference in appearance from videos I saw. But let me tell you, Ico ran amazingly in HD. It's impossible to talk about Ico (now) without comparing it to SotC of course. And that's a tall order, as SotC is easily one of my favorite games of all time now. First let me start by saying I loved Ico. I really did. It's a very different game, so comparing them is almost pointless. Ico had a lot more focus on puzzles. In that sense, it was often a very relaxing game. And for the most part the puzzles were well thought out. I was able to play mostly FAQ-less, finding myself really only stumped a couple of times (mostly during the waterfall section). But mostly the puzzles would get me thinking for a while, but weren't usually too obscure so as to feel unfair. I personally found the controls very easy to pick up after playing SotC as well. I think my only complaint would be with the combat. Personally, I almost feel like until the end of the game, the combat was almost unnecessary and in a sense felt like a jarring interjection to the puzzle solving segments. Perhaps that was the point? I will admit that the last battle took me a WHILE to figure out. But felt great once I knew what to do. And now the obvious stuff: Ico is beautiful. Just a gorgeous game to look at and listen to. I also found myself very attached to Yorda in a protective way. Funny, as I normally am not into escort-missions. But some Ueda scripted it all in such a way that it felt very emotionally-taxing for me. And some scenes toward the end really brought on a sense of high melancholy. The bit after the credits, where Ico is free to explore the beach -- and eventually see the words "the end" were another genius touch to the cinematic-gameplay experience. One that only makes me hope that Last Guardian is really going to happen soon. I can see myself playing through this one again -- maybe even soon. It only took me a little over seven hours. But they were seven hours well spent. And I feel like the world the Ueda built offered plenty to explore that I may have missed the first time.

[AmishSamurai]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic- PC
LIMBO- PC
Bastion- PC *NEW*

Continuing with the theme of clearing my steam backlog. Bastion was really fun- combat was great, the art and music were both beautiful, and I loved Ruck with his interactive narration. It was a bit short, though it has a New Game Plus, and several challenges with each weapon. I'd suggest grabbing a controller for this though- WASD and isometric view don't go together well.

[noiseredux]

1. Sonic CD (PSN)
2. Golden Axe Warrior (PS3)
3. Ico (PS3)
4. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (PS3)

I was a big enough fan of Continuum Shift to go back and pick up the first game. I think CT is really good, although there's definitely a difference in the two. CT seems a bit easier than CS (the arcade mode I mean). For one, V13 is not nearly as tough an end boss. But she is tough. But still, the arcade mode is a bit of breeze compared to the 2nd game. Of course there's plenty to like about any BlazBlue game: the graphics are beautiful and the music is great (though CS has even better music). It's easy to see that CT was a new IP and then CS perfected things. But I'm glad I played through the first, and I like that it features a Remote Play option for playing on PSP as well. PS, Noel rules.