Glen-i

Heavy Rain is easily my favourite non-Ninty console game of the last generation. It's the only game I ever bothered to platinum, because it was just so much fun to experiment with what could happen. I particularly loved how even if a main character died, the story would just continue, it really added some weight if you messed up and gave the storyline some real consequences.

Like me... Luckily, I only actually purchased the third game. Which is the only one worth trying if you're curious about Ranger. I've played all three and they all kinda just blended together. You play one, you've played them all. That said, DCubed, don't you dare download Guardian Signs and rob me of my chance to finally try out the multiplayer on that game! I've been waiting FAR too long to try out co-op circles!

That combination was atrocious. Just like the idea behind my worst theme night ever, just with outward drifting! Which makes it even worse for me. @RedShell, do you remember the last time @Ugh first aid played, she gazumped me on Donut Plains 3 in the most meanest of ways? Well, she did exactly the same thing to @The Mole on Moo Moo Meadows this time. Absolutely hilarious. And don't forget that pileup you and I started on the last lap of Shy Guy Falls.

Oh, he posted his own art? Must be a PMD game... Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is the 4th retail game in the Pokemon spin-off series. It came out this year in Feburary. It's a roguelike game with mechanics from the Pokemon games. The story follows a human (Who I named Arthur) who, for some reason, finds himself in a world populated with nothing but Pokemon. Also, he's turned into a Chespin. That's kinda important. So far, so Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. This bloke then gets mobbed by some Beheeyem, and has to do a runner with a Nuzleaf who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once they get to safety, the Nuzleaf offers Arthur shelter in his house and suggests that he enrolls in the local school while they try to figure out how this mess started. While in school, another Pokemon (In my case, a Charmander called Jake) insists that they be friends, because he kinda doesn't have any (Mainly because he's more than a bit abrasive) The story, like every Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, takes a while to kick into gear, really pushes forward "The power of friendship" and has dialogue that's more than a little corny. But a bit into the game, it really starts to come into it's own. There's some remarkable twists in there that managed to catch me off guard. One in particular was so well pulled off that I never saw it coming, but after some thought, made me realise that it was subtly foreshadowed in a masterful way. I always enjoyed how the PMD series put the spotlight on the more forgotten Pokemon. This game does a great job of injecting some personality into Pokemon and it helps the game ooze charm. I know that before this game, I would never have thought of Farfetch'd as the teaching type, but now I can totally imagine it. You tell me in what Pokemon game, anime, etc heavily features a Carracosta as a major supporting character. It's not quite as brilliant as the story in Explorers of Sky, but I still enjoyed it a lot! The gameplay follows the same basic formula as the previous PMD games, so I won't go into too much detail on that. I'm just gonna copy paste the basics from last year's write-up I did for Explorers of Sky. That said, this game adds a couple of new mechanics, the main one being the looplet system, which replaces the previous entries traditional equipment system. On the surface, it works like most equipment does. You equip it on someone and it has an effect. But each looplet has a number of empty notches on it. During a dungeon, you can find these things called emeras, which you can put into your looplet's notches. These provide bonus effects on top of the looplet's effect. But if you don't want an emera, you can use it to temporarily boost a Pokemon's stats. The only issue is that once you leave a dungeon, all of the emeras and their effects disappear. The closest thing I can think of is Final Fantasy 7's materia system. With the large variety of emeras, this provides a load of variation on each dungeon you tackle, testing your ability to cope with what you're given. The other big change is the way you recruit Pokemon. Originally, whenever you beat a Pokemon, you might be able to recruit it. It was largely luck-based and there were no doubt moments when you just couldn't recruit a Pokemon because you're unlucky. In Super Mystery Dungeon, this method has been completely thrown out of the window in favour of the Connection Orb. A tiny fraction of the Connection Orb The Connection Orb, which looks suspiciously like the Affinity Chart from Xenoblade Chronicles, shows every Pokemon you meet. Most of these Pokemon have a problem they'd like sorted. If you complete their request, they'll join you. So instead of a luck-based recruitment system, you now recruit Pokemon by completing sidequests. And when you complete sidequests, that Pokemon's friends will get registered to the Connection Orb, letting you take more sidequests and get more Pokemon. This system is great! It's a massive improvement and adds a load of life to the game. There's something satisfying about slowly filling up this orb and getting every Pokemon. And there are a lot of Pokemon. This has all 720 Pokemon species currently avaialble in the mainline games (Volcanion doesn't show because it wasn't officially revealed). There's actually a total of 779 Pokemon to recruit though, because this even includes the Pokemon that look different when they're female as separate Pokemon. Which brings me on to the reason it took so long for me to write about this game... Because I got them all. All 779...

Here's the trailer. Definitely going with Sun. Anyway, bullet points nicked from @Serebii's site. Solgaleo is Psychic/Steel It's ability Full Metal Body (Hah!) prevents it's stats from being lowered. Sunsteel Strike is it's signature move. Lunala is Psychic/Ghost (So close to being unique, but Hoopa got there first) It's ability Shadow Shield reduces damage taken when Lunala has full HP. (If it's anything like Lugia's hidden ability, I'm gonna guess half) It's signature move is Moongeist Beam. (It's super effective against Gengar, which is a Ghost/Poison, so it being a ghost type move makes sense) Am I the only one thinking Sunsteel Strike looks like a Fire-Type Move? But that makes little sense, having a signature move not be one of Solgaleo's types. And then I had a thought... What if these signature moves are dual-types? You know, like Hawlucha's Flying Press? That would be cool.

You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is a 3DS game that... Oh wait, that's not what it's called over here. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. (sigh...) is a 3DS game that came out December 2015. It's the 5th game in the Mario & Luigi series. Hmm? What's that? Some people thought it was the 5th game in the Paper Mario series? Then they're dopes! And it was a remarkable amount of people who thought this. Anyway, it's a turn-based RPG with action elements. So the story starts in Princess Peach's attic where some random Toad and Luigi are trying to find a draught. NO WAIT, DON'T GO! STUFF HAPPENS! Luigi gets spooked by a mouse and knocks over a suspiciously detailed book, which then proceeds to let loose a whole bunch of paper scraps all over the Mushroom Kingdom. Anyway, turns out that these papery scraps are actually from an alternate dimension where everyone is made from paper. Yeah, all the Paper Mario games take place in an alternate dimension. Mario Lore truly is the deepest, huh? Anyway, Paper Peach kinda wants to go back, but all of the Paper Toads are missing, and Mario & Luigi have to go get them back safely. Let's just hope that the Papery equivalent of Bowser doesn't complicate matters. What's that? He does? Bugger... The story isn't anything amazing. It's very obviously an excuse to get Paper Mario interacting with real Mario & Luigi. ...Did I really just type "Real" Mario & Luigi? Jeez... The comedy has always been a large reason for the games and thankfully, this game delivers on that. The interaction between characters and their paper equivalent provides a surprising amount of material. I particularly enjoyed the two Bowser's constant bickering and infighting. Strangely enough, Bowser Jr. turns out to be the most interesting character. The game delves into how he's ever so slightly neglected by his dad and how he has no friends. Still a funny game though. With a whole bunch of references. You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse The gameplay works like a traditional turn-based RPG, the key difference being that you don't have to just stand there and take hits from enemies like a chump. You see, when enemies attack, you can completely dodge them with well-timed jumps and hammer swings. This is the biggest reason why I think the battle system is one of the best in RPG history. Whether it's dodging progressively more complex attacks or pulling off your own elaborate maneuvers, the battles never got dull. Each brother has their own dedicated button, Mario performs all of his actions with A, while Luigi uses the B button. A series staple, because it works really well. But this game introduces Paper Mario, who uses the Y button. And he's more than just another version of Mario to use. You see, Paper Mario has the ability to photocopy 6 of himself. These copies can help make his attacks more powerful and they even take damage on behalf of the original, should you mess up a dodge. He can even hover in the air to evade attacks! Sounds overpowered, but he has his downsides. Being made of Paper, this Mario is much more susceptible to certain status effects. He doesn't like Fire, and is prone to getting all crumpled and creased, making the punishment for not dodging attacks potentially very harsh! Doesn't help that his defenses are... paper thin. Oh, shut up! I'm entitled to a paper joke! That said, if you've never played a Mario & Luigi game before, I wouldn't start with this one. Because it's pretty damn tough! This higher difficulty thing was in Dream Team as well, but this game is actually even harder. And personally, I welcome it. The attacks enemies can throw at you get very hard to evade later in the game, and they tend to hit like a truck. The game demands your concentration because every enemy has a tell for everything they do. Don't know which character they're going to attack? There's a tell for that. Will they try and trick you into jumping too early? There's a tell for that. Hope you counted how many times that enemy did something, because that's precisely how many times they'll attack you before deciding to switch to an attack that's aimed ever so slightly above you so you jump straight into it like a dope! And that's before we get into the chase sequences! Bosses tend to, now and again, forego the traditional attack in favour of chasing Mario and Luigi, peppering them with attacks. Again, Dream Team introduced this, but Paper Jam keeps it fresh by implementing Paper Mario, who will fold himself into a handy-dandy Paper Plane, allowing Mario and Luigi to use him to stay airborne for longer. However, these can get very complex, because PM can only be in one place at once. So you have to figure out which of the two bros needs that extra air time the most. And yes, there's a tell for that. This game also introduces Papercraft battles, fights where you must manuever around a giant papercraft character in order to break apart another papercraft. Which will no doubt look very silly. See? Awesomely silly! These are entirely action-based and provide a nice break from normal battles. I certainly enjoyed these fights, even if they're not quite as good as the giant battles from Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team. One of the problems with Dream Team was the pretty uninteresting overworld, there wasn't much to do in that game. Thankfully, Paper Jam seems to have learned from that mistake with an overworld filled to the brim with hidden goodies to find and a healthy supply of minigames and sidequests to tackle. Of course, you can just go from Point A to point B if you want, and the game will happily let you get on with it if you want. There are almost no forced tutorials, which was genuinely surprising because if there's one thing the Mario & Luigi games are known for, it's their forced tutorials. At most, you'll get a short pop-up message explaining how to perform a move. There's even the option to fast-forward cutscenes. Which I don't recommend on the first playthrough, because the comedy is pretty damn good, but it certainly makes the prospect of repeat playthroughs a lot more enticing! The one thing I am a little disappointed about is that they ditched Hard Mode, an unlockable difficulty in Dream Team you got for finishing it that made the game go from pretty challenging to utterly brutal! Don't get me wrong, Paper Jam is the toughest game to finish, but it would have been nice to have an even harder version to slam my head against. And while we're on disappointments, the soundtrack is probably the weakest of the series to date. It's not bad, but it's just not very memorable. The best music would probably be the main battle theme. But that's not saying much. And considering the quality of the Mario & Luigi soundtracks, it's a bit of a shame. The visuals are great though! The Mario & Luigi games always look great, they certainly don't skimp on the animations. Each special attack comes with an utterly well-animated sequence that are bordering on the ridiculous. Some of the last attacks are just outright insane!

I'll take that last spot! Sorry @Dcubed, but... I don't even need to caption this GIF.

Oh yeah, EarthBound was definitely the first to do it, along with a whole load of other stuff. (No, seriously. Why hasn't the Rolling HP Meter been ripped off yet? It's a brilliant mechanic!) Although, if you're really being picky, EarthBound Beginnings did colds first, but it's the same series, so who cares? Bowser's Inside Story is probably the most liked Mario & Luigi game by fans. And for good reason. It's definitely the one I'd use to introduce someone to the series. It also has some of the best sprite work you'll ever see on the DS. And most of it is Bowser. I'm sure it'll come out on the WiiU VC sooner or later. The first two games are there, so it just makes sense. I recommend giving it a go. Of course, you probably will for the purposes of review anyway. Oh, and I do own my own copy. And I'll probably download the eventual WiiU VC version despite that.

26. First game I played was Super Mario World at the age of 3. Why yes, it was @Dcubed's copy. How'd you know? At least I've always been consistent with my mooching. First actual console I owned was the Game Boy. I was 4. It was the Tetris/Dr. Mario bundle. And I'm still worthless at Tetris 22 years later.

I can believe it. It's the internet and change. I thought it was good. Matt LeBlanc does a great job. Chris Evans is too shouty though. But anyone who has seen him present could have predicted that. Will be interesting to see where it goes. And it will also be interesting to see how the old presenters hold up without the Top Gear production team.

So what are these games like? I love a good rhythm game, so I'd like to know other people's thoughts.

Hate to be that "Super Nerdy Guy" @S\.C\.G. That's a lie. But there is another RPG that has catching a cold as a status effect. Bowser's Inside Story It literally does exactly the same thing as in EarthBound. Great reads though! You really love Dual Strike, huh?

No, it was the first one-on-one duel with Serpentine, normal difficulty. If you happen to be touching him or above him when he begins that bullet rain attack, you get trapped in that barrage and will very likely lose half of your health. It got very frustrating. Especially seeing as it was during the 3rd or 4th stage. Actually, every fight against him was infuriating. The last fight against him was probably the hardest one for me. Another attack that does a ridiculous amount of damage is that Dragon's screen-filling laser. Granted, it's at least a little bit telegraphed. Not every boss was difficult, just about three quarters of them. Freedom Planet is a good game. I can see that. It's just the difficulty doesn't progress naturally, which makes it jarring and saps away a bit of the fun. If a sequel ever happens, I'd be interested for sure. If only to see if they can have a better difficulty curve. Because the ingredients of an amazing game are in here.

I'm not thankful, he got Frog Hop stuck in my head for the millionth time. Spin it, boys!

I just finished this. Freedom Planet is a game that started life as a Kickstarter campaign. It originally came out on Steam in 2014 and a WiiU version (The one I played) came out a year later. Most WiiU owners got it as part of the recent WiiU Humble Bundle. Not me though. I'm far too cheap for that. I just took @Dcubed's code because he had already bought the game. But are the best things in life free? Let's find out. The game follows Lilac (A dragon, apparently... despite looking nothing like one) and her best friend Carol (Who manages to look like a cat). A spacecraft crashes near their house and they go to investigate. Once they reach the ship, they meet a duck named Torque who tells them that they need to protect something called the Kingdom Relic or bad things will happen. This story is serviceable. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it is enjoyable. I have to give props to some of the voice actors as well, there's some great performances here. Although I couldn't help but notice some volume balancing problems with some of the more minor characters, I really had to strain to make out what they were saying sometimes. But anyway, enough plot. Let's talk about the game. Freedom Planet is a 2D Platformer that will make any seasoned gamer instantly think of the original Sonic trilogy on the Genesis. The game is heavily inspired by it (Shouldn't be surprising, it did originally start off life as a Sonic fangame), but play it for a bit, and you'll start to see that there's a lot more to this than the first impressions tell. Now don't get me wrong, you can run fast and you probably will run fast. But I always felt that I had total control over Lilac at all times, unlike in the Sonic games, where going too fast can easily get you killed. There's almost no cheap bottomless pits, enemies can't hurt you just by simply touching you and it's these small details that make Freedom Planet a lot more enjoyable to play. The levels are great too, you've got some basic levels where you get from point A to point B, and some more maze like levels, where you have to find a certain thing to proceed. And naturally, all these levels end up with a boss battle, which unfortunately puts a shuddering halt to my paragraph of praise. Yeah, sure. I'm meant to dodge this? Almost every single boss in this game is a ludicrous difficulty spike of unbelievable proportions. Now I'm not against making a game difficult or easy. That's totally up to whoever made the game, but I do take issue with having inconsistent levels of difficulty. Getting through the stages is, well it's not completely easy, but it's certainly doable. But the bosses just ate through my lifes faster than I could run! And I'm afraid it's a dreaded case of fake difficulty in some cases. Untelegraphed attacks up the wazzoo suck out all the fun that these could have been. There was one particular boss quite early on in the game that could get rid of half of your health if you just happened to jump at the wrong time, which was incredibly easy to do. After a while, I started dreading every boss, scared of what cheap tricks they'd hit me with, and I don't think that's what they were going for. It is a shame, because I did have fun with this game at times. But those unfair bosses just impacted my enjoyment too much. I definitely don't regret playing this game, not one bit. Especially for the price I paid for it (Nothing). The actual platforming is great fun, but those bosses make this very much a mixed bag. But you know what? I probably won't touch it again. And I can't help but feel a bit sad about that. It was so damn close!

I feel the same way about most of tonight really. It went terribly... The last race was the only good bit. @RedShell, @Ugh first aid gave a total middle finger to me at the end of Donut Plains 3. She was cracking up and I just felt like I've been punched in the face.

Uhhh, so who is in what group this week? @The Mole, @RedShell?

Well, I was gonna post the QR Code of this horse, but then the next horse had better stats and an absolutely amazing skill combo, so I'm gonna post that instead. You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse Auto-Draw is amazing! And combined with Speed Draw, you have no excuse to ever run out of time! I'm now racing on the 10th and last special horse. I won't spoil it, but let's just say I'm amazed the thing is even allowed to race.

You make it sound like playing on my WiiU is a bad thing. But I suppose I can not choose Random if it upsets RedShell so much.

I honestly have no idea whether either will be available. Sorry. Maybe if you promise that @Ugh first aid gets to be Baby Rosalina, it might convince her to join in if she isn't working. She's kind of a massive Rosalina nut! I understand the sentiment behind this, but there is never no way that I'm not choosing random when Player's Choice comes along.

You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse I played through Super Metroid on the New 3DS VC recently. It originally came out on the SNES in 1994. It tends to show up quite often whenever someone does a "Best game ever" list, and I'm willing to bet Monopoly money that the majority of Metroid fans would say that Super is their favourite. I am not one of those people. I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a Metroid fan, (I mean, I have already played through 4 of them this year, 5 now with this) and I am in no way implying that Super Metroid is bad. Far from it, Super Metroid is a brilliant game, but it's not my favourite Metroid game. To be honest, I'd say it ties 2nd place with Other M. (I don't care what you have to say, that's for another time.) The game takes place after Metroid 2, Samus has delivered the infant Metroid she just found to the Galactic Federation after managing to not explode a planet for once. (Good for you, Samus. Way to show self-control!) and is off on her next thing to do. However, the moment she leaves, the space colony she just left gets itself under attack. Typical... So back Samus goes to find all the researchers dead. But good news! The infant Metroid is completely unscathed! Good thing too. If the Metroid Prime games taught us anything, it's don't let bad things get their hands on Metroids! Oh... Never mind! Somehow, Ridley is still alive, and not robotized for some unexplained reason. (Gee, it's almost like this game came out before the Prime games...) He jacks the infant Metroid and flies to Planet Zebes, where Metroid 1/Zero Mission happened. I gonna assume he's got his own spaceship, he had one in Zero Mission, so he clearly can't breathe in space. Samus then proceeds to blow up the Space Colony because Ridley's been there, which means it stinks of Space Dragon and is unsalvageable for that reason alone. So Samus has to go back to Zebes, find Ridley, teach him that stealing is wrong and bad by firing Super Missiles down his throat, and just for kicks, blow up Zebes again. Because some planets suck so much, they just need to explode twice! The one thing I will say is that this game has the best atmosphere in Metroid history. You truly do feel alone with absolutely no idea where to go. Well, OK, I've played this so many times, I actually do know where to go, but that's just me and my creepy Metroid Memory. My point still stands. The music is great too! From the eerie, yet somber Maridia theme to the strangely funky Brinstar theme, this game has a wide variety of tunes to accompany your aimless wandering. The world design is top notch too! Zebes is a truly massive place with all sorts of hidden goodies to find, from the series staple Energy Tanks and Missile Expansions to completely optional suit upgrades. (I really hope you find the Spazer Beam, it's so useful!) And like so many good Metroid games, there's more than a few opportunities to sequence break the game and get stuff before you're supposed to. My particular favourite is getting the Super Missiles before the second boss, making a normally long-winded, boring fight go by about 5 times quicker! You normally need the Speed Booster for this. So with all that, what stops this from being my fave Metroid game? Well it's two things, and they are pretty small complaints. First up is controlling Samus, she doesn't feel as responsive as she does in the later Metroid games. It's not that big a deal... well, until I get Space Jump, which, to this day, I still can't consistently pull off. Sometimes the game will just decide that I didn't do it right and that Samus should go down instead. It's very annoying when I need to be precise with the jumps and I fail for the 15th thime. Another problem is getting 100%, which you either need an insane amount of time or a guide to do. The map is not helpful for this at all, and some of the hidden stuff is in the most obscure places. And there's only so much scanning everything with the X-Ray Visor can do... You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse They are very small niggles, but it's those things that stop this marvelous game from claiming the title of "My Favourite Metroid" It's still a brilliant game and I can't recommend it enough! You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse

Actually, I'm racing with that one right now, @VsPhoenix's description is spot on. It's totally killing it at the moment, definitely my best horse so far. It actually managed to get to triple digits stamina! Will definitely post the QR code once it retires. The Elvis style horse was definitely my worst one, won't even dignify this board with it's god-awfulness! Amazed I managed to win even one G1 race with it. It clearly didn't like being called "Moist" I've not actually bred any new horses yet, every time I finish with one horse, another new design comes along. I have won at least 1 G1 race with every special horse so far, maybe that has something to do with it? Or it could be because I've not begun breeding stuff yet... Anyway, got over half of the trophies and am one puzzle piece away from completing 2 puzzles. The reward you get for finishing them better be worth, considering how much dough I've been spending on it.

Aw man! Late again. I'll take a reserve spot then.

Got this yesterday! Great game! It's got that "Just one more go" factor. Although, this needs to be said... What is up with that GLORIOUS music they use for the G1 cups!? Audio And don't get me started on the Farm music, it's way too elaborate for what is basically a menu. Audio Anyway, @RedShell, don't want you accidentally causing inbreeding, so here's some of my horses! You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse

Actually, I noticed as well. Would explain why the first race was just you on my back throughout.