Summer Games Challenge 2025 - GET EQUIPPED

[Key-Glyph]

Are you getting the knives at the start of Bunker 2? They're silent.

Knives? No — I’ve never seen a knife in the game so far.

There is a safe in the first room I duck into after escaping, and I do pick up a Safe Key 1 in there, so I was hoping maybe I was just forgetting that I needed to equip keys to open things or something. But it doesn’t unlock, so that must not be it.

Can you give me a vaguey vague clue as to where the knives would be?

[prfsnl_gmr]

I don’t see nothing wrong with a little bump ‘n grind…so I started up Ys Book I & II this morning. After buying a sword, I promptly went off to bump enemies and grind out a few levels in the field just north of town. That accomplished, I bought some armor and a shield, and I’m ready to start the game properly.

After fretting so much in Dark Souls regarding leveling and stats, it’s refreshing (and relaxing) to just grind mindlessly and watch the numbers go up. Also, the opening cinematically are boss; the game sounds great; and the colorful graphics are really fun. Enjoying it so far (and definitely enjoying it much more than the comparatively weak NDS version).

……

My thoughts on some of your other game choices:

@alienjesus

Of the games on your list, I’ve beaten Sonic CD, Daytona USA, Mega Man Legends, and Mario Golf. These are all great choices.

Sonic CD is, probably, the second best 16-bit Sonic game, depending on how much you like Sonic 3, but it’s kind of weird how it doesn’t feature some of Sonic 2’s gameplay innovations (i.e., it plays like Sonic 1). I hope you enjoy it.

Daytona USA is actually a really deep racing game requiring a lot of technique, despite its arcade origins. The Saturn version is pretty barebones and adheres to the arcade original pretty closely. The DC version is definitive in my opinion, however.

Mega Man Legends is awesome. One of the best 32-bit action games, IMO, and I ADORED Mario Golf on the GBC. It is just a fantastic RPG and, again IMO, the greatest golf game of all time.

More to come…you all have some great lists!

[MrPopo]

Are you getting the knives at the start of Bunker 2? They're silent.

Knives? No — I’ve never seen a knife in the game so far.

There is a safe in the first room I duck into after escaping, and I do pick up a Safe Key 1 in there, so I was hoping maybe I was just forgetting that I needed to equip keys to open things or something. But it doesn’t unlock, so that must not be it.

Can you give me a vaguey vague clue as to where the knives would be?

So you know how you use the magnet to get the key and get out of the jail cell? They're in that hallway.

[pierrot]

10. GoldenEye (N64)

• - Pushed an intruder alarm button, thinking it was a door opener
• - Mistook a data upload timer for a time bomb and ran cursing out of a harmless room
• - Thought I'd jumped to my death without bungee equipment
• - Blew up the wrong tanks in a chemical facility ("Well you see, if you'd seen the movie..." -- Nathaniel)
• - Shot Sean Bean
• - "Covertly" copied a key by murdering all the guards in a building and chucking the original key onto the floor (no one will ever know I was there)
• - Tried to open a book with bullets ("Don't these books look like they're supposed to do something?!")
• - Somehow tossed a remote detonator onto a helicopter 200 feet away

Was reading this post last night, and it made me remember that I actually owned GoldenEye on the N64 when I was in middle school. I mostly had it because I enjoyed the multiplayer at parties and stuff, but I never had a good save of my own because I probably played it a lot like you have been so far, but without any of the conviction to actually see it through. lol

That boss shut down a Hugo run on PC a few years ago. I could not handle it.

Hugo seems like a pretty tricky character compared to Yunica anyway. Are you playing it on Switch this time?

The trick to most of the bosses is just to grab and extra level or two. Most bosses go from barely damage able to utter pushovers in about 2 level ups.

Yeah, I kind of ended up suspecting this last night, and it seemed to hold true through the rest of the game. Last night I started trekking further up the tower from that boss, and by the time I got to the regular plant enemies that spray a cloud of some kind of particulate, I was finding I just couldn't do any sort of decent damage to normal enemies, and the glowing red trigger ones were even worse. I was just wailing on shit with the lightning skill over and over for 1 damage per hit until they died after like five minutes of that shit. I struggled my way up to the mantis boss, but while it seemed easier than the previous boss, it was still a pretty big struggle that didn't feel like I was really getting anywhere after an hour or so. I then decided to just grab a level since my exp bar was about 3/4 of the way there, and also happened to notice I missed the chest with the last Ruby item to upgrade the fire skill. Between those two things, I was able to pretty easily finish off the mantis.

The two bosses after that I also had to stop and grind for levels a little bit, I obliterated the penultimate boss without even breaking a sweat, and the final boss was only a challenge in his final phase just trying to stay away from his two massive laser beam attacks.

I just found it really weird how sharply the enemy stats spiked compared to Yunica's when I was having no trouble with anything through 70% of her story. I did find out toward the end that I had actually missed the penultimate pair of boots somewhere, and may have missed one (or more) chunks of Cleria, assuming the main weapon has a "max" level (I ended up with a level 6 main weapon).

Anyway, finished one story in Ys Origin. That's technically beaten, but I did unlock the third character, and started a Hugo save. I might poke at those a bit in the background, but I'll probably move on to something else for now. Might share some more thoughts about Origin later.

[marurun]

That boss shut down a Hugo run on PC a few years ago. I could not handle it.

Hugo seems like a pretty tricky character compared to Yunica anyway. Are you playing it on Switch this time?

I'm wondering if Hugo is actually kind of like playing in hard mode.

Daytona USA is actually a really deep racing game requiring a lot of technique, despite its arcade origins. The Saturn version is pretty barebones and adheres to the arcade original pretty closely. The DC version is definitive in my opinion, however.

Daytona on Dreamcast looks good, sounds good, and plays good, but it also handles very differently from the arcade and Saturn. That's what keeps it from being definitive in my book. It's a great racing game, but by changing the mechanical feel it doesn't quite hold up to the arcade original. My favorite Daytona game is actually Daytona USA 2, which never saw a stand-alone home port, only appearing as one of the arcade games in a couple Like a Dragon games.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Daytona USA is actually a really deep racing game requiring a lot of technique, despite its arcade origins. The Saturn version is pretty barebones and adheres to the arcade original pretty closely. The DC version is definitive in my opinion, however.

Daytona on Dreamcast looks good, sounds good, and plays good, but it also handles very differently from the arcade and Saturn. That's what keeps it from being definitive in my book. It's a great racing game, but by changing the mechanical feel it doesn't quite hold up to the arcade original. My favorite Daytona game is actually Daytona USA 2, which never saw a stand-alone home port, only appearing as one of the arcade games in a couple Like a Dragon games.

Fair. The best version, maybe, is the HD version released a few years ago for the Xbox 360 and PS3. I am not sure you can still get those, though, if you don’t already own them.

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@Key-Glyph

Thank you again for kicking things off this year! If the games on your list, I’ve beaten GoldenEye, Sonic CD, Bionic Commando, and Blaster Master.

Goldeneye is both a great single- and multiplayer game. I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far. (Also, you really should watch the movie. It’s both a silly spy movie and a silly 1990s movie.) my first experience with the game was like yours. That is, I spent a bunch of time getting my butt kicked in multi-player by kids who owned a N64. I bought a new N64 a few years later (i.e., too late to play much multiplayer), and I spent some time getting really good. I beat the game on all difficulty levels, unlocked everything, practiced multi-player with anyone still willing to play with me, etc.). I ended up loving the game, and I don’t think I’ve enjoyed any other FPS quite as much.

As I noted to @alienjesus, Sonic CD is basic Super Sonic the Hedgehog 1. It’s solid, and has great, unique mechanics. Sonic 2 really improved on it, though.

Bionic Commando remains one of the all-time great action-platformers. Removing the ability to jump makes the game radically more interesting, and everything about the game is just peak NES-era Capcom. It looks great, sounds great, controls wonderfully, and definitely holds up. It’s not that hard once you learn how to farm continues and figure out what you’re supposed to do. (Like many games of the era, it can be a bit cryptic, but it’s not too bad if you talk to all the NPCs.) It is a relatively lengthy game with no passwords or saves, however; so, unless you a lot of have time to dedicate to a single play session, I recommend playing it on an emulator. Also, please let me know when you get to this one. I can add Bionic Commando ReArmed to my challenge in solidarity, and we can compare our experiences with each version.

Everything I wrote about Bionic Commando applies to Blaster Master. It’s a GREAT game. Peak NES-era Sunsoft in terms of graphics, sound, and gameplay. It is also a lengthy semi-open world game that does not feature either password or saves, however, which dampen the experience a bit. I highly recommend an emulator and the judicious use to save states to avoid extreme frustration and make the game more “beatable.”

……

On my challenge…I started up Ys Book I & II for the TG16CD, and after some grinding, I beat the centipede boss in the shrine. I’m off to the mines next. The game is really colorful, and it has a very “early CD technology” soundtrack. Both the voice acting and art-direction are very early ‘90s anime. (Why do the female characters’ comically oversized eyes always look like they’re about to cry?) I am certain more modern remakes have improved on the games, but so far at least, the TG16CD version of the game is a great retro-gaming experience. )I don’t even mind the semi-mindless bump combat. There is a bit of technique to it, and the designer describing, it in a relatively recent interview, as “like popping bubbles on bubble wrap.” Is pretty perfect. It’s so relaxing!)

[bmoc]

Quick update on my list of games. There are only 3 GameCube titles available at launch on Switch 2 and only one of them is on my list. For some reason, I though the entire announced lineup was going to be available. I'll work through the other games first, but I may have to swap out Luigi's Mansion and Fire Emblem, it they don't show up soon-ish.

I'm grateful you spelled this out, because I did not actually know that "rewind" referred to a rollback feature. I think that's great! What other QOL improvements were there?

I had to look it up since my last attempt at playing Clock Tower was so long ago.

- Run up and down stairs
- Recovers stamina faster when sitting
- Scissorman's appearances are more frequent and random
- Scissorman can climb stairs

Also it turns out that I was incorrect in my statement that Rewind is a port of The First Fear. Some of the feature from that game have been brought over but not all. I'll amend my original post.

[Key-Glyph]

- Scissorman can climb stairs

THIS IS NOT A QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENT

This is actually super funny to me, because in the first Resident Evil that allowed this (not mentioning which one, muahaha) I was specifically taunting a zombie for being unable to reach me at the top of some stairs when it started following me. "YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO CLIMB STAIRS, THAT IS AGAINST THE RULES!!" is what I believe I shouted. Rules are rules Scissorman, kthnx.

Thank you again for kicking things off this year!

Of course! Thank you for participating, as always. And thanks for your thoughts on Blaster Master and Bionic Commando; I will probably take your advice on using save states. These are two games I mostly want to "tour," to get a general feel for and see what I missed. If I get really into them, I'll probably buy physical copies and get fixated on finishing them in one run later on.

I don’t even mind the semi-mindless bump combat [in Ys]. There is a bit of technique to it, and the designer describing, it in a relatively recent interview, as “like popping bubbles on bubble wrap.” Is pretty perfect. It’s so relaxing!

Ahhh, I feel this way about grinding in certain games for sure. The comparison of popping bubbles on bubble wrap is so fitting. Sometimes something just really scratches your brain right and can become almost meditative, or a steady drip of dopamine.

So you know how you use the magnet to get the key and get out of the jail cell? They're in that hallway.

Sheesh Louise. Thank you. I had looked in that general area, but apparently not from enough angles to notice there were some telltale wavering pixels to perhaps do something with. I don't think I would have figured this out without a nudge, especially since knives had not been introduced as a weapon yet (they're generally mentioned in the manual, but that's all) and the game hadn't prompted me to think I needed anything else here. I certainly felt like I was "missing something" during this mission, but I could not even begin to imagine what. I thought maybe I just stunk.

And now, some updates!

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1. Mario Tennis (N64)

This game is as much fun as I remember, if not more so. The controls are so satisfying, the moveset is surprisingly nuanced, matches are fast, and the upbeat style is so endearing. It fully commits to not taking itself too seriously with an opening sequence that depicts Wario and his new pal Waluigi looking like they're about to sabotage something, then revealing that they do in fact just want to play tennis. I love the trope of punch-clock villains who just kick back and do normal things when the villaining day is done (the Powerpuff Girls had some amazing episodes about this), and Mario Tennis doesn't just lean into that. It is that.

This is the kind of game where even if you lose, you will probably laugh. Part of that is because it's pretty forgiving -- you are allowed to infinitely replay a tournament match you've lost until you win, for example -- but another is because the characters handle very differently and are imbued with so much personality. Each one has unique animations for winning/losing a game, winning/losing a match, winning a full tournament, walking onto the court, idling, and so on. I'm having a lot of the fun seeing how the characters react to events and what that says about them, you know? Like, Luigi is super hard on himself. His negative emotions range from frustrated to total meltdown. Yoshi just gets depressed when he loses, poor baby.

Another thing this game does very well is train you how to be a good at it. There are a series of minigames that hone your targeting and scoring abilities, which you'll just keep playing them because they're fun. But in doing so, you'll continually discover nuances you hadn't picked up on before that will help you win proper matches. There's also a completely bananas minigame that fuses tennis with Mario Kart. It's so silly.

I really recommend this one if you're looking for simple yet deep mechanics that seem infinitely replayable, or a title you can pick up for fifteen minutes and then walk away happy. It's like a fighting game in that respect: as complicated or lengthy as you want it to be, with a lot of modes and characters to explore. I won both sets of the three tournament cups in each respective mode (singles and doubles) and am still going back to this as a pick-me-up from time to time when I get too burnt out with...

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10. GoldenEye (N64)

I'm about halfway through the game at this point (just finished Train, the only level I ever remember seeing someone play way back in the day), and I'm realizing a few things. One is that I really should not be playing this in the full afternoon sun, because it's hard enough to see things in the game as it is. So that's my bad. But another is that we've reached the point where having knowledge of the movie would really and truly help, and so I'm often confused over what I'm supposed to be doing, even despite reading the mission briefings. On top of this, GoldenEye is occasionally throwing last-minute surprises at me at the end of fatiguing levels that I then fail multiple times before I can even figure out what it wants from me.

Train was a perfect example of this. I saved Natalya on the first try, no problem -- but then I just stood there watching her tap away at a computer until the train blew up. (I had assumed I needed to let her finish what she was doing and tell me what was next. "Natalya? Uh... I think we need to go?" I said aloud, before we died. ) The second time through I noticed the dialog hint of "Good luck with the floor, James," which led me to the trapdoor, but it took me too long to realize there were brackets on it that needed breaking. Third time through I tried shooting the brackets off and thought I'd managed it, but there must have been one remaining that was obscured by a bullet hole, because it never unlocked. Fourth time I decided to check my watch and found the laser, but it handled so oddly that I decided to go back to bullets, only to fail again. Runs six and seven ended in tragedy before I even got that far. Then the seventh (and final, thank god) time, I managed to get all the brackets off with the laser and dropped down below, but was surprised this didn't end the level; I kept popping back up into the train and thought I was hitting a bug. I would have been so upset if I'd died there, but somehow I went in the right direction and ran out alongside the train with Natalya in tow.

I've definitely been having fun, but I do feel like Bunker ii was a turning point for how much metagaming GoldenEye expects you to be able to do, as well as a threshold for a general difficulty spike. Right now I'm kind of feeling like I want GoldenEye to wrap up, but each level has been so different that I can't assume future stages will necessarily take after Statue or Train in obliqueness or surprise twists. I'm hoping there are still some neat surprises in store!

[prfsnl_gmr]

I’m almost through Darm Tower in Ys. May finish up the first game in Ys Book I & II tonight!

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More thoughts on other people’s lists:

@Ack

I’ve played through none of the games on your list! No thoughts on those at all!

@pierrot

Of the games on your list, I’ve beaten DQVII and Fighter’s Megamix.

DQVII is loooooooooong. I think you already know that, though. It’s fine, and it helps that the game is basically broken up into “episodes” of sorts. Made it a lot easier to put the game down for a while and pick it up again. That said, it also didn’t make for a particularly memorable experience, and while I could tell you all about DQ I, II, III, IV, and IX, I honestly don’t remember much about DQVII except that it is so long.

Fighters Megamix is fun! It is basically, a very silly version of Fighting Vipers, and it has a bit more in common with that game than with Virtua Fighter. It has a wide cast of characters, and it’d be fun to see Namco do something similar with their 3D fighters.

@bmoc

I got Super Mario 3D Land with my 3DS, and it blew my mind. The game is really fun, classic 3D Mario platforming, bridging the gap between Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Auper Mario 3D World. The game was really designed to show off the 3DS’s 3D effect, and it’s spectacular. I highly, highly recommend keeping that feature turned on when you play it.

Luigi’s Mansion is also a stone-cold Nintendo classic. It still looks and sounds great, a testament to Nintendo’s art direction in the GameCube era. Also, it’s really fun and only a few hours long; so, I think you can get through it pretty quickly.

@ SpaceBooger

On your list, I’ve beaten Phantasy Star, StarTropics, and MGS2.

I ADORE Phantasy Star, and it’s a contender for the best 8-bit console RPG. Graphically, it blows every other console RPG of its era out of the water. Also, I love the sci-fi aesthetic, and I am one of this weirdos who likes the first-person dungeons. It can be a bit cryptic at times, like a lot of games of its era, but if you can get past that, I think you’ll find a really engaging experience.

StarTropics is Nintendo’s most in-loved IP. It doesn’t even show up in Smash Bros! That said, it’s still fun, playing like a tropical-themed mash up of LoZ and Earthbound.

MGS 2 is also great, and I think it’s the game where Hideo Kojima really found his voice. Spoiler…you won’t always play as Solid Snake, buts it classic MGS stealth action from start to finish with, arguably, the series most bonkers storyline. Enjoy!

[MrPopo]

Yeah, I got stuck on that part of Train in a similar fashion. It's also easy to miss one of the stickers when doing it. It's also easy to fail on harder difficulties; you need to wait for Natalya to finish all her computer stuff (you'll get multiple goal complete messages).

I don't think there's anything else in the game that is reliant on knowing the film. That said, the final level has a mechanic the game doesn't tell you about that is used to try and get the events to match the movie. But you don't actually need to do so.