Jonnas

There were like 15 options to check, and I would usually pick "regular" or "standard" when I was in doubt. Likely one of those "regulars" still allowed for glitches. I used the VARIA randomiser, and that one had a tracker and even a suggested walkthrough. According to those, my randomised ROM needed "13 out of known 38" techniques to beat. Indeed, the part I got stuck at was marked red because of the techniques I'd need on my trip to Crocomire (which according to the spoilers, would've gotten me the Grapple Beam) I don't know that game very well, no. My opinion of it isn't that high either. But I might do one for Link's Awakening at some point.

This is a bit of an awkward bump but... in preparation for Metroid Dread, I decided to take a stab at a Super Metroid randomizer. Supposedly it was a beginner-friendly seed, giving me the Morph Ball and a pack of Missiles early on. It started out pretty well, got the Power Bomb instead of the regular bombs, and when I lunged myself into a room where you needed to ball jump to get out, that room actually contained the Spring Ball, pretty fortuitous. So I continued like that, finding the Long Jump fairly early as well. This allowed me to do several rooms out of order, and made wall-jumping so much easier. I ended up finding and defeating Kraid without much trouble. Also, the Spazer Beam that somehow randomized into its own spot. But after that, there were no more tools to advance further. I had what I was supposed to have, but without regular Bombs and Varia Suit. I looked up what I could do from here, found some item rooms I had missed, but there was nothing useful to be found. And annoyingly, none of it was extra Power Bombs (which spawn scarcely), so I was still running on the 5 I got at the start. At this point I got desperate. I had to resort to tricks, exploits, and/or glitches. I learned how to Mockball, ffs. It's a technique that causes the Morph Ball to run as if it were dashing. Doing this allowed me to bypass a couple of tricky segments, giving me access to 6 more items! MOST OF WHICH WERE MISSILES! I learned that a "Billy Mays" is a room with two items in it, and that you can access one super early with a very well timed jump. And all I got for it was an Energy Tank and another effing Super Missile. I had access to Maridia, but... for what? I couldn't climb it, so there was no way to get any item there. And so I had to resort to the one thing I didn't want to do: enter Norfair and blaze through the hellish corridors. This is apparently known as a "Hellrun". If done well, it only takes a minute to find safe haven within Norfair, but...it's a very intense minute that took multiple tries just to survive. After grinding my health back for what seemed like an hour (actually just 12 minutes, it turns out), and overcoming a very tricky wall jump, I knew I now had access to 4 items. 3 of which were REGULAR OL' MISSILES. But the 4th item was........the Charge Beam. But maybe I can still run towards Crocomire, right? There's a bunch of items down there... Nope, in order to reach that spot, I would need to perform the "Green Gate Glitch", a precise technique that would allow me to bypass those annoying gates without needing the wave beam... and I would have to attempt it in the middle of lava-filled Norfair. TWICE! So I called it quits. I did what I could, and I had fun with it while it lasted, but I'm not doing some "I-need-a-moment-of-silence-here" speedrunner shit to complete what was supposed to be a beginner-friendly seed. Oh, and I still only had 5 Power Bombs. That's just the icing, isn't it? All things considered, this didn't turn me off randomizers or anything (I really liked the excitement of open exploration), but I think I'll be avoiding the ones where you're likely to need precise glitches/techniques. Maybe I'll try a Zelda one next time.

I recently came across this recent gem of a battle theme: Motoi Sakuraba has been accused of phoning it in for Tales games for a while now (by myself included), but it sounds like he may have gotten a bit more creative freedom with Arise. It's been a long time since I heard him go so wild on those violins, these are some serious Baten Kaitos vibes I'm getting.

Though I haven't completed much lately, that doesn't mean I've been inactive. Recently I've also been playing: Advance Wars: Dark Conflict - Naturally, I had to revisit the series after the announcement. Fun times were had playing some games in the War Room, but considering that that mode doesn't have preset COs to beat, and the game seems to be very well balanced overall, it is the sort of game that functions better in multiplayer. For a challenging single-player experience, I did miss the original, colourful Advance Wars feel. Sadly, I lost my Dual Strike cartridge a few years ago... Advance Wars: Dual Strike - ...only to randomly find it a week later! It had been missing for years! Turns out, it was still in my old DS Lite, shoved into an obscure drawer For all the wacky shenanigans that this game has (that make it disgustingly easy to break), it's a lot of fun in single player, between the Time/Survival modes, the robust War Room, and the game modes I can't even remember right now, it's got a lot of variety. I'm trying not to play it too much, but it is making me extra excited for WayForward's revival. Adventure Bar Story - A 3DS game I got for a few Gold points a while back. A game about running a restaurant in a typical JRPG town. You occasionally go to dungeons to collect various ingredients to put on the menu. The writing is light hearted and silly, and I liked the recipe system where you need to figure out ingredients from context clues and irl common sense. But other than that, I found it pretty unimpressive. Farming for ingredients is repetitive and boring, the JRPG battles are painfully basic and dull, the art style is very bland, many recipes include typical Japanese dishes (most of which I don't quite know what they are), and the restaurant part (with the clients and sales) is virtually non-existent (baffling to me, that's the best part of a management game: seeing the fruits of your preparations in motion). This is apparently the port of a mobile game, but it's no excuse. I dropped this fairly quickly. And as for a game I did start and complete: Steamworld Heist Fancy name for a game about pirates... A strategy game set in the Steamworld shared universe, this 2015 game (released between Steamworld Dig 1 and Steamworld Dig 2) firmly establishes that the Swedish developers Image&Form want to make several games of various genres, all set in this bizarre universe of steam-powered robots. Like Dig 1, I played this on my 3DS. Heist is a 2D turn-based strategy game with guns where you aim and fire each shot yourself (a lot like the Worms franchise. Almost exactly so, in fact). During each turn, and for each character, you get to move a character and then shoot, or select a different action like using a personal skill or an equipped item (though you can't use your action, then move). You can also choose to "sprint", that is, move several extra spaces that turn, instead of acting. That's pretty much the basics of it. One thing of note is that these bots don't have very steady hands, their aim is always shaking a tad. I personally loved this, adds an acceptable layer of challenge, since you can always see the shaking. Another quirk of the gameplay is that bullets ricochet off walls, covers, and stuff, which can lead to very creative approaches and takedowns. There are 9 unique playable characters: Piper is the main character. She only has access to basic pistols, and her main role is support (she increases firepower to nearby units), but she's also very accurate, being the only character who can use scoped pistols (accurate trickshots are nothing to scoff at); Seabrass is an aggressive frontline specialist, capable of tearing holes through enemy defences with shotguns and automatics, and being built to take some hits himself; Sally Bolt is an even more aggressive shooter, being capable of mowing down enemies like they're butter, though she's built like a glass cannon; Valentine is a powerful sniper who's guaranteed to kill one enemy (or more) per turn, but somewhat immobile, being at his best when camping. Perfect character for getting those ricochet trickshots; Ivansky is meant to be a shield. Sure, he can pack powerful explosives, but he's definitely more focused on strong defensive stats, and the ability to absorb shots for his teammates; Bea is the more aggressive explosive user, having more options to cause a lot of wide splash damage, but not necessarily being safe about it; Payroll is a flanker or scout, meant to move a lot around the level and sneakily shooting enemies from the back. Quite risky and frail, though, it's a bit of a gamble to use him; Dora is a flanker/sniper hybrid, not quite as mobile as Payroll, and not quite as powerful as Valentine, but her flexibility also patches the biggest weaknesses of both. If you can master ricochets, I daresay she outclasses both; Billy the Fish is also restricted to pistols, but he's a close-quarters brawler, very mobile and capable of hit&run strategies. You pick a team of any 2-4 characters for any given mission/level, and off you go. Every character feels very unique, and though learning their skills is tied to experience points, it does feel like the learning curve is adequate for each character. I managed to find a use for pretty much everyone here (except Sally, who I really couldn't figure out), and when coupled to the variety of weapons you can equip, I do feel like there's a lot here to reward experimentation and satisfy any playstyle. Besides killing enemies, the general goal for each level is to also gather the loot (mostly money, but there's all sorts of items and weapons as well) scattered around each level before evacuating. Each level is randomly generated as to prevent simple memorization (though several important aspects of the layout are always preserved, it's usually the specifics that change), which definitely keeps you on your toes. The game also keeps introducing new mechanics/obstacles well into the end, keeping things always fresh. Plus, you can't simply quit a mission, as doing so will cost you half your money, Pokémon style. This game isn't accepting of any cheese, you face these challenges like a man. Finally, there's very few same-turn reinforcements, which is lovely. Writing-wise, it's cute. Here's a silly world where robots mine for water in space (needed to run on steam) in a sci-fi wild west kind of setting, and you play as a crew of Robin Hood-like pirates/smugglers that keeps boarding ships and stealing their loot. But in this cowboy setting, there's also a royal government of elite robots that run on diesel, and they're racist towards steambots, and that's kind of crazy. I feel like the world could be more interesting and fleshed out, but the lighthearted tone of the game, along with the jokesy writing and the multiple references to various media, makes it hard to get too seriously invested. I think the biggest weakness is the art style. The character designs aren't bland or anything, but they're not very expressive or animated and that leads to a painful lack of character. The writing does its job, and makes it clear this a cooky band of pirate robot cowboys from different backgrounds, but it's hard for me to get that invested in them. They're missing things like Kirby's dancing antics, or Wario's buffoonery, or Kratos' intensity (or even something as simple as SS Link's facial expressions), and that kind of leaves the franchise lacking. The level music is also plenty forgettable (though the vocal country-style tracks in bars and shops are pretty dang awesome and atmospheric. I wish those had been used for stages as well). In a nutshell, this game has very solid, fun, and varied strategic gameplay, with intuitive mechanics and level design (what Project S.T.E.A.M. didn't quite land), but it's missing quite a bit in the charm department (something Project S.T.E.A.M. did quite well). It's a shame, because Heist is otherwise very close to excellency, but as it stands, it's merely "very good". Though they're different genres, I can safely say this is a much better game than Steamworld Dig.

"Also according to our sources, several spooky-themed activities will reportedly take place across the country at the tail end of October, as well as some Christmas-related events throughout all of December."

At first, I thought you were artfully dodging the question, but judging from this clip... ...you're definitely on to something.

Goddammit, hearing those two tracks back to back made me angry. It's so painful! The one from Sonic Eraser sounds way worse for me, especially when it apparently plays during actual multiplayer gameplay? Sonic Spinball's stinker even has the decency to be in a menu where you can turn it off. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is such a weird game. It introduced the new designs, but it also included this weird grand adventure that's completely at odds with the tone that the specific Boom franchise would adopt going forward. The cartoon series is silly and comedic, with great writing, and Lyric himself would never set foot/tail there. Definitely a case where they should've let the cartoon air first (thus setting the tone and strengths of the spinoff), THEN make the game. @Glen-i, in the series, Vector only appears in one episode where he's a celebrity detective (Vector the Detector). With that in mind, what's your evaluation of that series' quality?

I said it right there! Was I too obvious? Indeed, I wanted to pay homage to my favourite E3 announcements in years, but wasn't sure if I could pull off a Metroidvania month (and it turns out, I couldn't pull off "a month", even)... But I did have a few WayForward games on my backlog (one of which is a Metroidvania!), so it was time to check out the pedigree of the people in charge of the Advance Wars revival. Shantae: Risky's Revenge More like... risqué revenge Originally released in 2010 for the DSiWare (and considered to be pretty much the only must-have title from that store), Risky's Revenge was the first ever sequel to the GBC original. The game that made Shantae a franchise. And at the time it was considered the revival of an obscure old title (likely because said old title was two generations old at that point). It's a bit of an unusually slow start for a videogame mascot and icon, you could say Shantae really had to earn her fame. And now I'm experiencing this on Steam. So, WayForward's own original character was to star in a much improved version of the original: Risky attacks the town, Shantae travels around a world map and a few dungeons to make things right. It's good to have a workable status quo like this. Through her journey, Shantae (re)learns how to turn into animals, and gains new spells and abilities. Compared to the first game, I'd say level design and playability are much improved: no more obtuse shortcuts, no weird niggles with the dancing mechanics, and no waiting around for day/night mechanics. Furthermore, the new spells/items make combat considerably more engaging, and the difficulty curve works wonders. And maybe it's because I haven't played a sprite-intensive game in a while, but I love the animations! So charming, so detailed, so fluid, so full of character. I confess this was a shorter game than I was expecting (roughly 4 hours), but it's in line with the Metroid franchise. Plus, they pack those 4 hours with quality time, varied levels and challenges, and plenty of nooks and crannies to explore. There are only 3 Zelda-style dungeons in the game, but they're all memorable. Plot and writing-wise, it's all humorous in the best possible way. NPCs lampshade some silly aspects of how "gamey" the town is, major events happen and characters are weirdly chill with it, and nobody knows that a genie can get trapped in a lamp. The main flaw in this game's writing... the font. Feels like such a cheap, default settings kind of choice. Overall, I feel like this was a 4.5/5 game. Short and sweet, and really good at being... good. I was on the fence after the rough GBC game, but this sequel, I can see why people fawned all over Shantae after this. Pirate's Curse is supposed to be even better, right? That one shot up on my consideration. I should mention, I beat the game once, collected 100% items, and then unlocked Magic Mode, which should spice things up, but I'll leave that for a future replay. Double Dragon Neon "Hole in One!" -Billy Lee, as he hits someone with a baseball bat Oh hey, a franchise revival. Radical! Double Dragon has always been a franchise I respected a lot. When I was a kid, that was THE Beat'em Up franchise. Contrary to what you may think, I'm not the biggest expert on this genre, so I didn't exactly keep up with it either... So imagine my surprise when I'm browsing SupraDarky's "Best VGMs" playlists, and this pops up. Is this Double Dragon? What? How? When? And where? As I would come to learn: There was a wild '80s style reimagining of the franchise, WayForward did it, 2012, and on Steam. So I got it at some point. First of all, the '80s aesthetic is totally out of this world. Bodacious babes, tubular levels, and humongozoid bosses. Heavy. With a rocking soundtrack and a spiffy sense of humour, I was smiling the whole way through. There are even plenty of references to other '80s pop culture stuff, like He-Man, TMNT, or Jurassic Park. Did I mention the humour? Because it's great, I'll say it again. Between the main villain's puns, the scientists with thick New Jersey accents, and Billy's rad 'tude, this is all very wacky. And the soundtrack is totally rocking, pretty much all of it 80s-style music (both pop and rock). It's amazing how much range Jake Kaufman has. Gameplay-wise... totally Double Dragon! Not that I remember much from the original games, but I do remember the opening, Abobo (the first boss), and the following warehouse stage with the rolling carpet and the pit. The game gets wilder from there, but there's still references here and there (like the Dragon Palace aesthetic, and even a reference to "Bimmy Lee", an infamous typo). What I figure is new is the "mixtape" (or cassette) mechanic. There are two slots for mixtapes, one relating to permanent stat changes, and another one that defines your super move. You can switch these freely on the fly according to what you want to do at that moment. I usually had "Training Wheels" equipped (ups defensive stats), but would often switch to "Power Gambit" (ups offensive stats) and "Desperation" (ups every stat during low health). My usual super move was Hurricane Kick (great for crowd control), but would sometimes use Fireball (ranged attack) or One-Inch Punch (close-range high-damage move). With 10 different mixtapes for each slot, I'm sure there's a lot of gameplay variety. I eventually figured out how to do proper combos, but the game never lost its challenge. I doubt it ever would, considering there were higher difficulty levels to unlock. There's also a very healthy variety of great bosses, it's a really fun game, potentially the best Beat'em Up I've ever played (though do remember I'm not that deep into the genre, haven't played Streets of Rage yet). I only played through it once, but I'm sure this is one I'll revisit in the future. (Sadly, I didn't get to play this in co-op. Don't know anybody who'd be up for it, anyway) A Boy and His Blob "Now who is the Boy, and who is his Blooooob" Originally released for the NES in 1989, A Boy and His Blob was a creative game about a boy with limited movement, solving puzzles with the help of his shapeshifting pet buddy, but its reception was lukewarm at best... It nevertheless captured the imagination of one Sean Velasco, and when he became a Game Director for WayForward in late 2000s, he chose to produce a high quality re-imagining of a childhood favourite. And thus, this lovely title got made for the Wii in 2009. And eventually made its way to the PC, where I now played it (on GOG). So, getting the obvious out of the way: this game looks absolutely stunning. The backgrounds and characters look super cute and colourful, the animations are very elaborate, and the whole thing feels like a playable Ghibli film. It's been 12 years and this game still looks fabulous, once again confirming that a strong, well-executed art style is as timeless as it is memorable. The game itself is a somewhat straightforward puzzle platformer. You control the boy as the blob follows you around. You always have a number of seemingly endless jellybeans on your backpack that you can throw onto the floor, platforms, and such. The blob will then rush to it and eat it, transforming into an object (depending on the colour of the jellybean) that can then be used to solve puzzles and overcome specific obstacles (for example, blob can turn into a ladder so the boy can reach higher platforms, or into a parachute to then navigate a perilous pit). Which types of jellybean you have access to depend on the level you're at, but you always have access to the dark blue bean: the one that turns blob into a balloon that floats to your location. This is made to prevent unwinnable situations where blob can't reach the boy (though I somehow found myself in unwinnable situations at least twice). The boy is very awkward and clunky to control, but this is clearly intentional. The boy is just a physically weak child, using clever solutions to avoid danger. Every hit is a kill in this game, and there's even fall damage for the boy. This isn't much of an issue until the final levels, which can get excessively dangerous. Nevertheless, there are bosses anyway, they're all just puzzle battles, is all. Each level, besides the direct route to the end, also has 3 treasure chests to be found, and swallowed by the blob. Finding all 3 unlocks an extra bonus level, usually with intensive uses of a single blob form. So it's basically the DKC system, but with extra steps. So the game is sweet, gorgeous, substantial, and perfectly playable. The puzzles are fine, creative, and consistently throw new concepts at the player. Is there any significant flaw? Well, yes. For starters, the game is too beautiful for its own good, by which I mean, every animation takes a very detailed long time, which isn't much of an issue at first, but in trickier puzzles, if you need to get finicky with the blob's specific location, it can get infuriating. Plus, then the boy might die, which also takes time, and if you're fighting a boss, you'll need to see their introduction again, it's all a big bother. Another big issue is that the last few levels are a bit worse than the rest oft he game. Besides the problem with a lot of enemies around to kill you, there's the issue that hitboxes aren't clear (I've gotten killed by explosions I swear weren't near me), and one of the levels somehow trapping blob in a visible room. But at least I could still die to restart from a checkpoint, a later situation literally had a checkpoint on a spot I literally could not escape nor survive from (so I had to manually exit the level). All of this is already annoying during regular levels, but bonus levels lack checkpoints entirely, so these problems get even further exacerbated there. In a nutshell, lategame level design gets annoying, on top of wasting your time. But don't let these issues detract you, it's still a very delightful game. I just figure, it takes a certain level of patience for full enjoyment. On a final note, I recall this game originally came out during an era where Indie titles were "supposed" to look budget and/or limited. Something that looked this good had to be a full-priced game, and I think that ultimately hurt its sales and visibility. I'm positive it would be 20-30€ if it had been released today. ------------------------- So, I have two conclusions: the first is that WayForward is really good at not just remaking older titles, they're great at giving them new life, and a whole new identity of their own. They're also really good at coming up with memorable visual styles that are distinct in their own right. The second conclusion is that... this monthly pot-pourri has run its course. It was getting stressful to play a handful of games in such a hurry, and I certainly wasn't fulfilling those deadlines) I mean, just look at the dates I completed these titles, they were meant to be for July! Plus, it's preventing me from playing bigger games I also want to play (like Bravely Default II). And with the further knowledge that Metroid and Advance Wars are coming, plus my Halloween weekend (the thing that gave me the idea in the first place) is likely busy this year, it's best to give the pot-pourri an official end. I'm not discarding the idea of themed bundles/months/playthroughs, but they're likely to be more sporadic from now on.

Yeah, it should read Pokëmon Prêsents

I think he's right, though. High hopes and high expectations are entirely different things.

Will you be playing the Wii/PS2 version of Sonic Unleashed as well? That's the version I have, and I felt the pacing was much quicker than what I keep hearing about the 360/PS3 version.

I bring you the King of all Boo-mps Get it? Because I boo-mped the thread and nevermind. As you might already know, the R button on my 3DS has been shaky lately. I have my eyes on this game right now, and I already know I have to use the R button to suck, which is THE main mechanic, if I understand vacuums correctly. My question is, can I either remap that button, or use the touch screen for that?

Freedom Planet 2, come on, please, throw us a bone...

This is a game/console I never ever expected to see in the flesh, and yet today I somehow found one at a small games store (well, a second-hand copy for sure). The box was in Portuguese (something virtually unknown at the time for videogames), which makes me wonder if the game itself was translated as well. It probably wasn't, but it was wild seeing "Tails e a Caixa de Música" written on an actual box! Quite the obscure relic to run into.

Well dangit, I don't own this game, nor do I have a Wii U! That's on me, of course (the game always interested me, but I somehow never got around to buying it), but it does mean I can't really play or give my impressions on it Looking forward to reading impressions, though. At the time, a lot of the discourse around this game focused on the novelty of the controls, so I'm curious to see how opinions are like in 2021.

I remember there was a tricky one in Faron Woods. There was a bombable wall there that I had just completely forgotten, and somehow missed on my revisits. For a more concrete method... I can only recommend that you open a guide/FAQ, and then check only the Heart Piece locations that you have no memory of.

This was a surprise! Sadly, Nelson Évora could not get the respectable send-off I was hoping for (got injured in his first jump, and failed to qualify for the finals). I was aware another athlete actually did manage to qualify, but since nobody was talking about him, I didn't think he was one of the favourites. Lo and behold, Pedro Pichardo (virtually unknown before today) actually won the gold in Men's Triple Jump! A surprise to be sure, and a very welcome one. He is now the 5th Gold medalist ever for Portugal (the previous one being Nelson Évora himself), and it's kind of poetic, that he wins the Gold in Évora's last attempt. Now I wish Patrícia Mamona had gotten the Gold too, would've been a display of total dominance. Funnily enough, most people's first reaction to Pichardo has been "Born in Cuba? Figures that Portugal had to fetch someone from abroad to win the Gold". After his victory interview, the reaction shifted to "Nevermind, he speaks Portuguese better than some people in my family" It's oddly funny how consistent those comments have been today, across everybody I've spoken to (including... my family). On more bittersweet news, today I learned these have been Portugal's most successful Olympics ever... Because apparently never before have we won 4 medals in a single year. That's pretty embarassing, our country needs to invest a lot more in non-football sports.

It's 3 posts above yours ...

Well, well, this is the first time we decide this via forum poll, I believe! Intriguing selection of games we landed on, and we can't change votes... As I said, I was undecided between two games. After doing some thinking, I settled on... I own three of those games, and it's difficult for me to get a hold of the other two. So I'm hoping one of the three wins.

Aw hell yeah, she got Silver! And we actually got to watch it this morning, it was pretty exciting stuff. The woman who got first had a sizeable lead, managed to break the World Record twice, and was Venezuelan, so I ain't even mad. Furthermore, the cherry on top of the cake was that Spain got Bronze, so hah! Very uplifting picture On more bittersweet news, Portugal got 4th in Women's Shot Put (didn't even know we had chances. Maybe in Paris she'll get something), and far more annoyingly, the Handball team failed to qualify from their group by one measly point. Dangit, I thought for sure they'd do it. I think the last big thing to watch from my end is Nelson Évora's olympic sendoff. He's sadly pretty beat up from injuries, but he's a stand-up guy, and an accomplished Gold medalist in his own right, so I'm hoping for a respectable performance.

Are we doing nominations? I'm undecided between Elite Beat Agents (officially the best DS game, it's a proven N-E fact) and Spirit Tracks (a game I feel like replaying)... Wait, what are the nominations for, exactly? Anticipated votes?

I do not have a Wii U... but I think it's a good theme, totally ok by me. I own a few of the ones already mentioned, anyway. There are also a few others that could be part of it, though since they haven't been rereleased, it's difficult to justify their inclusion. Still, just for reference, these are the ones I can think of:

He did it! Jorge Fonseca won Bronze, Portugal's first medal this year Really happy for him, and hoping he can do even better in 2024

Hm, it's been a long time since I played that demo, but I only remember being dissatisfied with the way it played and aimed. If the motion controls involved moving the 3DS too much, that may have been something I rejected. Didn't know the Switch version had RE4-style controls... I guess I conflated it with the RE4 port. My interest in Revelations Switch is piqued, then.

Curiously, the button prompts show the Playstation D-pad when the game isn't planned to be coming out to that system... Development shenanigans? I'm looking forward to hearing the full soundtracks later, at any rate. Is it true that Nobuo Uematsu is directly involved with these re-orchestrations?