Aperson

Extensively working on this "Every game I've ever played" video for Youtube... and when I checked to see if anyone had done anything like this I couldn't find too much on Youtube though the search results may be skewed... The video is well over an hour long as things stand. Going to have to timestamp for viewer purposes I reckon. Anyway, here's a few tweets I put out during that time. In case you're wondering this all has lead to something productive on gaming front... I finally have unlocked the green stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Yes after 10 years. The stumbling blocks for me Starwise? The no damage run of Bowser Jr.'s Boomsday Machine and the second Fire Flower crate destroying game. I finally managed to do it after countless struggles and even then I don't know how I actually managed to do it in the end... the most annoying kind of level clear! So I proceeded to get the last remaining stars from the Special World levels and beat Bowser again... officially halfway to 100%ing Galaxy 2 now. Might work on trying to 100% all the 3D Mario games from this point on. Got a feel for it with Sunshine and past the stumbling block that saw me bench Galaxy 2.

Been playing a large variety of games recently, albeit mostly in short bursts. Why? I'm current in the process of compiling the largest Youtube video I've ever made, to celebrate 20 years since I started playing video games it's going to be a kind of slideshow retrospective on every single video game I've ever played. Yes, I'm insane for trying... It has lead to some interesting things though, like remembering that Donkey Konga has a story... Most of my gaming time has been on a dangerous addiction to Magic Arena. Live services these days I know right? Especially bad in light of the "Walking Dead" Secret Lair that they've announced that the community has deemed problematic to the health of game. The problem is that if these sell then it just means crossovers are going to become a lot more regular. Strong rumours of a Harry Potter crossover next year...

Officially 100% completed Super Mario Sunshine. Considering how infamous the Pachinko and poisonous lilypad levels are I'm surprised I never had any memory of doing either... turns out that I never actually did either level. I couldn't find the Pachinko level and never did the task of getting to the lilypad level. So in a mammoth gaming session when I was getting all the blue coins I noticed a shortfall in the amount of shines I had so I figured that I was missing a fair amount in Delfino Plaza. That was indeed correct. So yeah, I used internet guides to help me find the blue coins and after wrestling with Corona Mountain (worst final Mario level ever!) I was able to do this: Taking a break from playing briefly to work on a Youtube video now.

To think... other than Smash Bros. this is the only Metroid representation we got on Wii U. Anyway, update time, Mario Sunshine is going pretty well for collecting blue coins, I have all the blue coins on Bianco Hills, Ricco Harbor, Gelato Beach, Pinna Park and, thankfully, Sirena Beach! But I think there's still quite a few of these things to go, this is going to take a while... Even longer when I'm also playing Magic Arena in between. There's an upcoming banned and restricted announcement and it looks like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is going to be banned, so I guess I'm going to have to get the most out of my 4 copies of the card before it gets banned.

What is this? A gaming diary update WITHOUT any videos to post? I must be mad... So yeah, after finishing Timesplitters: Future Perfect I took some time out to do some of the extra content, mainly the multiplayer leagues. About halfway through the second league now. but there's something else I wanted to play... Inspired by the release of Super Mario 3D Allstars I decided to go back and boot up my Gamecube to play Super Mario Sunshine. That's right, I'm playing it on it's original console, not this fancy new Switch version everyone else is playing right now I never 100%ed this game unlike 64 and Galaxy so now seemed like a good time to boot up my old save file and do so. Let's see... Hmm, it looks like I was on 89 Shines. Well, that number is about 101 now. I was missing a Secret Shine on Ricco Harbor, the 100 coin Shine on Gelato Beach, all of the Secret Shines on the last three levels as well as the 100 coin Shines and I hadn't even done Pianta Village's final main Shine. That's a lot! I think after I beat the game by beating Corona Mountain I was ready to move on and play something else, I bought a lot of games that year and the seventh Shadow Mario mission basically opened up the endgame so I went and did that. So as a result I'm on track to finally getting 100% in this game. There's just one major problem to that... BLUE COINS Also... It's amazing just how buggy Sunshine can actually be sometimes. Clips are seemingly easy to do, some of which take you completely out of bounds. If the game really was rushed then it explains a lot about why it is the way it is.

Who knows? Maybe this is Microsoft's intent to become the Disney of video games by buying up all major franchises in gaming. Maybe they're getting buddy with Nintendo in an attempt to buy them out :|

Well, after over two months uploading this and posting the clips on here... the last episode is finally on here. Here's the Finale to Let's Play Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Goodbye Forever Dark Samus While I was at it, I also finished Timesplitters Future Perfect albeit on easy difficulty. Still a lot of content to do on that game. That being said, inspired by the release of 3D Allstars recently I'm in the mood to get back to playing some older Mario games that I've already beaten with a view to do the extra content.

Sad day. While I haven't played much of his games (only really a bit of Rayman 3) I have heard a lot about him and how he was one of the most genuinely creative developers in the industry, kind of a Nintnedo-like developer in many ways. Ultimately I feel like Ubisoft as a publisher did not really stand for the stuff the franchises and games he created for them as time went along, the sex scandals won't have helped things either imo but I always felt that Ancel was a big part of the reason why there is such a split in views on Ubisoft, as both a company that makes genuine good games and a company that is just like every other big triple A publisher in the industry in it's excessive greediness and annualisation. At least, that's my take on it.

PENULTIMATE EPISODE TIME This covers the travel to planet Phaaze and journeying into it's depths. The finale will cover the final boss battle. Also my mic is slightly louder than usual as I had to update Windows 10 so it reset some of my settings. I fix them for the Finale. @Sckewi might appreciate one of the jokes early on in the episode... Also played more Timesplitters: Future Perfect and made significant progress. I finished the Robot War levels so I only have three more to go in the campaign, albeit on Easy difficulty. The scenarios where you meet up with yourself are consistently hilarious, especially this one:

ASSUMING CONTROL OF THIS THREAD! WE ARE HARBINGER YOU WILL WATCH THIS VID... ...ahem sorry abut that. Anyway, the new episode of Let's Play Metroid Prime 3 Corruption is out now though going by viewing figures it seems Friday is a terrible day to upload so I won't be uploading the finale on a Friday, it will be on Saturday instead. That being said, I have yet to record the last two parts, plan to do that in one recording session.

Getting close to the end of the game now. With all the Energy Cells in hand the trek towards the end of the game begins by visiting the deserted G.F.S. Valhalla... Including this episode there are just 4 episodes left... ...in other gaming news no progress on Future Perfect since the last update, the other gaming time has been spent on Magic Arena as rotation approaches. I have basically finished my "Standard Jund" deck aside from one Scavenging Ooze "and Klothys makes for a nice substitute. Here's the deck below: Also this happened in a Ranked game while I was playing Mono Red I used Robber of the Rich to steal their Watcher of the Spheres, then cast it using Robber's ability. They weren't particularly happy about that immediately slamming down the Lofty Denial only for me to still be able to pay 1 to prevent the counter so they scooped as a result. Lol.

So... back in Episode 10 I mentioned about a Friend Voucher called Icy Reptilicide... Now finally in Episode 36 we get that Friend Voucher. Took long enough! Also going round and doing everything that I haven't done yet on Planet Bryyo. Basically done with that, just the Valhalla, Pirate Homeworld and Phaaze to go! The Valhalla is next by the way. Going to be a much longer episode exploring that abandoned Space Station. Speaking of abandoned, made some more progress in Timesplitters: Future Perfect and finished the zombie mansion level. This mansion also has a secret facitiy below it... I feel like the developers here were inspired by a certain Capcom game here. Also this game has aged pretty badly, your partner character, Jo-Beth, has a T-shirt that says Slut on it. Really Free Radical?

Playing through Timesplitters Future Perfect and while the game has a perfectly respectable soundtrack... it just reminds me how how good Timesplitters 2's soundtrack is: ^The background music for this one has some similarities to Prime Hunters' menu theme. And of course, cannot do this list without the game's most iconic theme:

That moment when you realise that Renault are ahead of Ferrari in the Constructor's Championship... Great result for Gasly.

Time to slay a giant colossus and save our girlfriend... wait... never mind, that's an entirely different game. Let's correct that. The Energy Cell sidequest is finished in this episode of Let's Play Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, but for some reason it needs a 40 minute episode to obtain. Welcome to the most infamous side quest in this game in Episode 35. Just a heads up, two of the next five parts are going to be item collection but apart from that the main story progress will be made as the end of the LP approaches... Also played more of Future Perfect and oh man, that fourth level was amazing. Especially helped with a bond villain that strokes a cat... which then turns out to be a robot with a flip top head that releases gas. Even better, after the sequence, if you press the X or A button depending on your system next to the cat... you can drive the cat!

With Ridley defeated... again... it's time to go round all the previous planets picking up items. But we explore new areas too and find another boss battle. Part 34 is out now:

OK, I will fully admit the last time I played New Super Mario Bros. Wii was over 11 years ago so I may be misremembering certain aspects of difficulty. I don't remember having too much problem with that game until I got towards the end, but perhaps also my viewpoint over difficulty in a 2D Mario game was more based on how often I might get a Game Over as opposed to how often I would actually be failing at levels and since the NSMB games give you so many extra lives it's not something that I considered as something to be difficult if going by that metric. Also this is going to be extremely contentious but... I don't consider Hammer Bros. to be that difficult. This might be my own selfish view though because I know very much how to deal with Hammer Bros now and that viewpoint has probably been skewed by Mario Maker. Difficulty curve in Mario games for me has always been viewed through the perspective of Super Mario World which was the first 2D Mario game I ever played. The first few levels in Mario World aren't very challenging, but for new players there's also a margin of error you can make. But overall once you understand how to play the game you beat those levels. As the game goes on and new powerups are introduced they also throw new types of levels in there, the Ghost Houses up the complexity of level design and you actually have to think about where to go next. The castles provide major platforming gauntlets that really test your mettle. I guess when I'm talking of NSMB difficulty curves my mind always goes back towards the original one on DS. For whatever reason, I never really felt that game got particularly difficult. It starts off on the right foot but for me that game never really pushed the boat out so far aside from a few difficult lava levels in the last world. The last castle is extremely memorable due to the Stone Tower temple like structure of how you flip the whole level upside down to progress but it never felt too difficult and then was topped off by a rather easy final boss. Now, this is going to be an aesthetic preference, but I also feel like the levels in NSMB games, as objectively well designed as they are, have not always looked as interesting as levels in other 2D platformers and honestly, as soon as Donkey Kong Country Returns came out I found myself much preferring that game to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The level design felt a lot more intense in some situations but... it runs into a particular problem with it's own difficult curve which I think is raised a bit too high too quickly. As soon as World 4 you are faced with an entire world of gruelling mine cart gauntlets which are extremely punishing and feel a bit too difficult for what is essentially the midpoint in the game. Now, I feel the DKCR games are in general designed for those who want a bit more challenge in their 2D platformers but ultimately what grabbed me with those games is Retro's design aesthetic and how every level feels totally unique. Well, almost as far as DKCR is concerned, Tropical Freeze then came out and was just in general a much better game than DKCR with a much fairer difficulty curve as well as combining how each level is distinct and unique. If you showed me any gameplay footage of a level from any New Super Mario Bros games without telling me what the level was, aside from a few I couldn't tell you which level that actually was. With Tropical Freeze which is personally my favourite 2D platformer of all time, I could very easily tell about 80% of the levels from that game. But... that's going off topic somewhat as this is talking about aesthetic over difficulty. Then again, considering how all of you lot panned my Super Mario Maker 2 levels, it's clear we're on different pages in terms of what we want from our level designs...

Here we go then, time for the final seed boss. The last Leviathan goes down in this episode after a major boss battle... against you know who! Yep, he's back!

This is definitely an interesting topic to discuss. One boss I always think of when it comes to difficulty is the Boost Guardian from Prime 2. In the original Gamecube version this boss was a huge difficulty spike and the general design of the boss was very difficult, you needed multiple attempts just to be able to clear this thing. But, as I found out earlier this year when I LP'd the game, they nerfed the boost guardian on the Trilogy version and it was significantly easier as a result. Prime 3 I feel goes on a reverse difficulty curve when it comes to it's major seed bosses, with the game putting a large difficult spike towards the end of Bryyo which culimates in the Mogenar boss fight but then everything after that somehow ends up easier. I'm a big fan of difficulty curves and I always think a game should be easy (but not TOO easy) to begin with and then ramp up the challenge as the game goes along. Mario games are usually excellent at this... though it is debatable how far up the difficulty curve the New Super Mario Bros. games go, it does seem like the difficulty for the final levels in those games has been set somewhat lower than normal with the levels that would generally be reserved for the higher portions of that difficulty curve reserved for the secret worlds. If a game stays too easy throughout then it's not really much fun and if it's too hard throughout then it can be rather frustrating. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dark Souls in this thread yet. That game has a really high difficulty curve, but in many ways it skirts the line between frustrating in fair. Perhaps it's because the combat and game design in Dark Souls is built in a way to remove randomness from the equation, if you do certain things in a certain way you will succeed and if you do anything else then it doesn't usually end well. The difficulty ends up coming from a lack of knowledge which you gain. That probably clashes with some of my approaches to boss battles and explains why I have yet to beat Ornstein and Smough and why I put the game back on the shelf after getting stuck on that boss battle. Fundamentally with Dark Souls I feel ike the combat is fair in one on one encounters, you can read the movements of one enemy and react accordingly, add multiple into the mix though and the timing can be thrown off. So, if you ever have to fight two bosses at once it is flat out mean. Other difficult bosses and moments I've had to face include the Biolizard from Sonic Adventure 2 which I was stuck on for ages. Probably because the speed based gameplay was not very well suited to a boss battle where you are cornered in to a limited area of the environment. Then he starts moving around the arena so your natural instinct is to run away with Shadow but oh, if you run too far there's a random tail in the way and you have to run another way... that doesn't seem very fair. Also the boss changes the way you get to it's weak point about halfway through and it isn't very obvious that you're supposed to homing attack the floating balls around the area. Much like many things in 3D Sonic games I think this one goes into the frustrating category. Ansem's second fight in Kingdom Hearts is another example of a boss battle that is particularly brutal. When you have a third person camera and a limited arena to fight in, is having a pinball like attack that launches the boss all around the arena really that fair to deal with? Yeah, you can counter it with good timing but the split second window in which you need to react to it is so specific that most people who do this fight will end up either getting hit by the attack or then actively focus on dodge rolling out of the way of it, which can be slightly awkward to do due to the nature of said attack. Not to mention that you then get in such a situation where attacking can harm you thanks to the Guardian "SUBMIT" attack so that situation requires you to basically dodge every time he's shouting SUBMIT. Also, there's a particularly brutal enemy gauntlet right before the final boss which imo drags on for way too long and requires you to do a ridiculous amount. Also, in Ratchet & clank 2, the planet Grelbin has one ridiculously annoying Snowbeast enemy. The enemy spawns at a relentless rate and constantly chases after you, in a level which is basically a massive snow field which you have to go around collecting crystals. This becomes particularly annoying but then I heard from the uselesspodcasts Youtube channel which is run by two ex-Insomniac developers that they had a very limited time in which to complete the level so they needed to do something quickly, hence why such a ridiculously unfair enemy like the Snowbeasts exists. Insomniac has since had an "Annual Snowbeast Award" for the worst game design decision in each of their games. So, in general I think the most infamous moments in gaming tend to come because of difficulty spikes and while some are fair difficulty, a lot of bad game designs are generally responsible for some ridiculous boss battles.

Everyone who hasn't played the original PS2 Ratchet and Clank games are missing out on absolute comedy gold. They are some of the funniest games I've played... the gameplay foundations for the modern games were built up during that period of time. The first game is a bit patchy in some of it's controls because they didn't have strafing and the health progression system was somewhat questionable but they fixed that from the second game onwards by adding RPG elements, the more you use certain weapons the better they become, so you become incentivised to use all your weapons so that you can level them up, something which was expanded upon as the series progressed. Oh, and Doctor Neferious, the villain mentioned in the Rift Apart Trailer, is one of the best villains in gaming. Is it any wonder that he became the regular series antagonist when you have instances like these: As for Rift Apart, it looks very solid. Very much like a Ratchet and Clank game in HD but with way more inventive level design thanks to the portal mechanics. I haven't seen Captain Qwark in the new game yet interestingly enough, so it would be interesting if they can do a game without him in there. If anyone's interested in picking up some of the older Ratchet and Clank games I definitely recommend the first three games in the series, they all got released on an HD collection on PS3 but I think that's the latest release any of them got. And if the first one doesn't quite hit home in every way I assure you the series gets better with each entry as they refine the games a bit more, with Going Commando/Locked and Loaded and Up Your Arsenal/3 fixing all the major problems with the first game.

Thank you. On the handle I should have always been on to begin with!

The only thing I can tell from Gamescom so far is that Nintendo doesn't really have much to give and somehow Activision is publishing the game that would appeal to me most that's coming out in the latter part of the year, that being Crash 4. Well.. I suppose Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart also falls into that category but I really don't want to buy a PS5 on launch as the console will likely be super expensive and the reason that neither Sony or Microsoft have mentioned a price yet is that they are waiting on each other to reveal first (that's what I think anyway) and I'm not convinced I would buy a PS5 just for Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart.

Would it be possible to change my username to just Aperson instead? None of that generic stuff.

IT'S TIME! The Federation has landed and now Samus is assisted by a Federation Force... no, not THAT Federation Force... as the invasion of the Pirate Homeworld gets serious. We have to fight a ton of Space Pirates en route to the seed as we eventually find out entrance to blow open in order to get inside. Part 32 is out now!