Your 2020 Gaming Diary

[Jonnas]

Despite my recent laptop woes, I haven't finished much new recently... though I have made a ton of progress in Three Houses for the first time in a while. And also:

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

That quote sums up my recent playthrough of this game

The Sega AGES release for the Switch, which I got in the recent sale. I was only going to see how well it ran, and next thing you know, I beat it. Unlocked Super Sonic Mode and everything. Excellent platformer

Really smooth version, just like Sonic 1. Still a tad miffed that I don't get the "slow" PAL version but, eh, whatever. It was only really jarring in the final boss, making him less imposing than before. The game otherwise feels just like I remember it, including that weird kinda-glitchy shortcut in Wing Fortress Zone.

I didn't play the Knuckles version, nor did I check Hidden Palace Zone... but that's what future playthroughs are for.

 

Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido

Why does she even carry that bow?

I bought this quirky Nintendo title for a tenner about a year ago, and now got around to playing it. On the 3DS, I mean, the game seems made for the touch screen. Sporting a "cheap commercial Japanese cartoon" aesthetic and a ridiculous concept, I figured this would be a fun parody. I mean, eating sushi to fight the evil Sushi Empire? Complete with a Char Aznable expy? Sign me up.

As a puzzle game, it's quite competent, reminding me of a moving, fast-paced version of Bejeweled. Furthermore, your equipment influences a lot of what happens in your games, from your bonuses, to the skills you unlock, and even the general pace of each match. There are also side objectives for each mission, which kept me trying out different setups and aiming for varying playstyles. Better still is the "Puzzle Mode", in which you must clear a randomized table in less than 10 seconds, I could play that mode for hours.

The plot is... well...

That's... his father's technique!

...exactly what I expected it to be. Almost. I figured it would be a parody, but this felt more like a parody that also wants to legit be the thing it's parodying. Makes sense, there's a certain earnesty to this game that's endearing. Still, sometimes I find lines like "You say Sushi brings happiness? You fool, Sushi is merely a weapon!" or "To inflict Wasabi upon the populace? He has gone mad with power!" and I'm unsure if I'm supposed to laugh, or get immersed in this storm of absurd clichés.

But after a while (roughly 14 hours), the whole thing wore thin. The comical story lost its novelty, I started to see an overabundance of items/options to manage, and the level difficulty doesn't progress steadily enough to compensate. Furthermore, menus and dialogues are painfully slow and cumbersome in this game (the absurdly limited voice acting doesn't help either), which makes progress more tiring than it should be.

When I looked up how much longer there was to this game, and I saw I was only barely halfway, I decided to drop it. For now, at least. It's not a bad game, but it's way longer than it should be (and the slow pace doesn't help), so a break is warranted, at least.

 

  My 2020 log (Hide contents)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (2018) Completed (January 13th)

-Mr.Driller: Drill Spirits (2004) Beat (January 30th)

-Dragon Ball Fighterz (2018) Beat (February 22nd)

-Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (2008) Completed (February 25th)

-Capcom Beat'em Up Bundle (2018) No Goal (March 13th)

-Professor Layton and the Curious Village (2008) Completed (March 23rd)

-Kirby's Pinball Land (1993) Completed (March 28th)

-Pikuniku (2019) Beat (March 31st)

-Ori and the Blind Forest (2015) Completed (April 18th)

-Atomicrops (2020) Beat (May 24th)

-Infliction: Extended Cut (2020) Beat (June 28th)

-Bravely Default (2013) Beat (June 28th)

-Super Mario Land 2 (1992) Completed (July 13th)

-Pokémon Puzzle Challenge (2000) Beat (July 19th)

-Snipperclips (2017) Beat (August 15th)

-Yoku's Island Express (2018) Completed (August 18th)

-Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions (2017) Beat (October 4th)

-Projection: First Light (2019) Completed (October 7th)

-Dandara (2018) Completed (October 28th)

-Distraint (2015) Completed (October 30th)

-Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013) Dropped (October 31st)

-The Fall (2014) Completed (November 1st)

-Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) Replay (December 1st)

-Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido (2018) Suspended (December 4th)

 

Currently Playing:

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019)

 

 I haven't forgotten about Dandara. I'll get to it.

[Aperson]

Continuing to play Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS4). Just got up to the part where you have to save the bridge. Actually, I just finished that segment.

 

 

 

 

Also I dabbled in some third party client that allows you to play Yu-Gi-Oh online since Konami doesn't have a similar official client as of yet that is constantly updated, here's a video on it.

 

 

[Londragon]

This one turned out to be a disaster, wonky left analogue stick, and an unwanted face reveal, which is not inkeeping with the aesthetic of our channel, or anonymity for our son, so a little post production octopus was necessary.

[Together] NintendoLand: Octopus Dance

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son contemplate a face reveal, but damn those Octopi, and that wonky left analogue stick. Shocking performance.

[Happenstance]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieXtXBJy_s5ILKumSeWdknVn6PK89NVwXeEbYo9n5CY/edit?usp=sharing

Put together a spreadsheet to try and help motivate me to work through my backlog. Playing DMC5 Special Edition at the moment.

[Cube]

Metro 2033. An interesting setting, but the game is filled with loads of issues. It's one of those games that has a "mute" character, but doesn't work well at all, because your character just doesn't respond to any dialogue and it feels empty, but at the same time the game treats your character as having a personality and other characters who seemingly respect your character's opinion and trust in them...despite you never saying a word (which makes you think you're missing all the dialogue - perhaps it happens between missions). What makes even less sense with this one is that your character has an internal monologue that you hear in his voice, so you can't even "insert yourself" into the character either. So it doesn't even have the only potential "benefit" of having a mute character.

The game tries to do a lot with immersion. There's very little to the HUD. This would be fine...but the gameplay doesn't actually seem suited to such a low detailed HUD. On top of this, the game lacks any sort of good tutorial. Half way though the game I had to google how to throw a grenade as I had no idea how to. Turns out that holding the change weapon button brought up an additional menu where you could change your throwing weapon. I also ended up looking into issues due to having no ammo, especially on levels where you only fight monsters (one of these is a terrible section where you slowly realise that the enemies are actually endless and that you need to just ignore them and run to the points you need). Turns out that the mass amounts of bullets that serves as the game's currency I had could be loaded into weapons - the game just failed to let me know. The game also doesn't point you in the right direction very well, and if you mishear some dialogue (or miss it because you're trying to find secrets and the character your with continues forward and talks without you nearby) you pretty much have no idea what you're supposed to do. Oh, I also had to google how to wipe the gas mask as a hint on a menu said to do so but nowhere in the game said how.

The game simply tries too hard for immersion. What makes no sense is that there are copies of the Metro 2033 and 2034 books everywhere. Not a little easter egg, but all over the place - including one section where the book takes up a good chunk of the screen during a cutscene that lasts a couple of minutes and you're just forced to stare at the book that the game is based on. It's bizarrely immersion breaking and right in your face. It just kind of slaps the face of the entire game's design. 

It also felt like entirely trial and error and not skill based in any way. Almost every death felt like there was nothing I could have done differently without prior knowledge. It wasn't about reacting to enemies, it was about knowing that they're there to begin with. 

Add in confusing levels, really annoying outdoor levels with enemies that pick you up, fly you around and drop you right where you were, I don't understand how this game has good reviews.

This part has you hiding under a train and you're forced to stare at this book for a few minutes!

 

The Raven Remastered. It's a fairly entertaining point and click adventure game. Has some interesting twists (even if some don't make much sense) and was quite good fun. 

[Londragon]

[Together] NintendoLand: Takamaru’s Ninja Castle

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son follow the path of the Ninja and slice their way through the competition.  Another great little mini-game.

[Hero-of-Time]

Since finishing my run through the Yakuza games my gaming time over the past two days has been a bit of a mixed bag. 

I played through Streets of Rage 4, the first time doing so since launch, although this time I did so on the PS4. I forgot how amazing the game is and it's certainly going to be in my list when thinking of the best games of 2020. Platinum trophy looks to be a nightmare and may be beyond my reach but I'll see how I get on.

I fired up The Last of Us II but didn't get very far. I think I put an hour into it before knocking it off. It's gonna be one of those games that I have to be in the right mood/frame of mind to play. Graphics and animation are stunning though. I was blown away by what ive seen of the visuals so far.

Yeaterday evening I tried Destroy All Humans and I think this is the one I'll be sticking with. It seems very lighthearted and a right laugh to play. I played through the first 6 missions and it looks to be the type of game I want to play at the moment.

I'm still thinking about going for the platinum on Yakuza 6. I'm not that far off it but it will require another playthrough. It will be my first Yakuza platinum and probably be the milestone of my 425th platinum trophy. Very tempting....

[RedShell]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm still thinking about going for the platinum on Yakuza 6. I'm not that far off it but it will require another playthrough.

Really? You shouldn’t need to do a second playthrough for the difficulty trophy (if that’s what you mean) you can just change the setting and then replay the final boss.

[Hero-of-Time]

39 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Really? You shouldn’t need to do a second playthrough for the difficulty trophy (if that’s what you mean) you can just change the setting and then replay the final boss.

Do you not need a separate save file for that? I completed the game and now it's in Premium Adventure mode.

Can you fight the final boss in that mode?

 

[RedShell]

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Do you not need a separate save file for that? I completed the game and now it's in Premium Adventure mode.

Can you fight the final boss in that mode?

 

Oh right, yeah it might need a pre-completion save to do that trick  actually. Not sure if it can still be done in Premium adventure.  

[Aperson]

Made a significant amount of progress on Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS4).

 

Spoiler

I've just defeated the Prowler. Don't know how far through the game that is but it's after the second Rhino fight. Fight didn't feel too difficult but it wasn't too easy either due to the fact that the way you are supposed to defeat him with Venom moves but he can disable them due to working with Roxxon.

Got some Twitter posts to share too

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

Yesterday evening I completed Destroy All Humans.

Fun game. I can see why so many people have fond memories of it and I think it holds up very well.

I actually found the game to be a breath of fresh air. More and more games are pushing large, open spaces to run around in and this game goes back to the PS2 era, where games were smaller in scale. Instead of one HUGE world to explore you instead get smaller sandboxes to play in, each of them with a different theme.

The game's structure kinda reminded me of Ratchet and Clank. You would go to a new stage/world, do the main missions and then attempt the challenges. You would then return later after you had powered yourself up and bit and tackle some of the harder tasks.

It was nice playing something in the AA space for a change and it's something that THQ, both old and new versions of the publisher, are good at spitting out. I enjoyed the game so much that I picked up the PS2 port for the PS4 that is currently on sale for a couple of quid.

Well, I wasn't expecting to get through this so fast but here we are. I got the platinum on Yakuza 6. Yup, I finally platinumed a Yakuza game! 

I set about going for the platinum this afternoon. Completing the 100 clan missions trophy and the hostess side stories were very boring. I actually nodded off multiple times during the clan missions. Once I set my soldiers away the game took care of itself and so I kept falling asleep and then waking up when the menu screen appeared after the mission.  

Grinding for the green experience needed to fully level up was....a grind. Very strange how you get little of that experience and yet get an abundance of the other colours. Thankfully I had earned enough money off the clan missions to keep buying goods from the gym to help speed things up a little. Still took some doing though.

Once I was fully powered up I decided to start New Game+. Seeing as I didn't save before the final battle this was the only way to get the Legend trophy.  

It's CRAZY how fast you get through the game if you are powered up to the max and skip the cutscenes. I think I started the game at around 20:15 and finished it at around 23:45! It was hilarious just mowing through all the enemies and bosses. You could just pop Heat mode and be done with them in a few seconds.  

The game did indeed end up being my 425th platinum trophy. I now need to think ahead for the next milestone of 450 and put a worthy game on that pedestal. Possibly another Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy/S-E game.

Methinks I'll start Granblue Fantasy: Versus as my next game. That will have to wait until the morning though.

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I now need to think ahead for the next milestone of 450 and put a worthy game on that pedestal.

What is there to think about? There's only one choice:

My Name is Mayo 2

 

[Londragon]

[Morgan Plays] Thumper (Level 2)

Morgan tackles the slightly longer and more precarious 2nd level. This time adding in the ability to fly for a short distance to clear tricky spike traps.

Trying to get Morgan to play more things by himself, this time with me commentating and trying not to distract him too much.  This game is so hypnotically mesmeric.

[Hero-of-Time]

I finished Granblue Fantasy: Versus, yesterday evening.

Great game. I do love fighting games but often find that the single player portion of them is lacking. That isn't the case here. The RPG mode is a great addition and one i'd like to see implemented in other fighting games.

In the RPG mode you have regular fights, stages that feature a massive boss or levels that put you against hordes of enemies. Completing each of these will gain you experience points and new weapons. You can then fuse the weapons to create more powerful ones or ones with a different element type. Using the correct element type in a fight can really turn the tables. I was struggling with a boss battle but once I changed to the correct type it became much easier. 

The game is gorgeous to look at, which is standard for an Arc System Works game. Anyone who has played DB FighterZ should know what to expect in terms of visuals.

I played a few games online (needed to for trophies) and there's not much of a player base kicking around, despite the game only being released this year. Most of the people playing were stupidly high ranks and so even getting a single win took some doing.  

I'm still dipping in and out of Worms Rumble. I played a Last Worm Standing match this morning and ended up winning  by simply hiding in a vent the whole match while I got ready for work. I didn't even get a single kill.  

I'm not sure what game to start next...

 

[Dufniall]

Right, I've been neglecting this thread for too long again, so time for an update. I'm not in the mood to put down thoughts for all of these games so here's the quick and dirty version:

StarCraft II 10th Anniversary and the Nova DLC (PC)

It’s the 10th anniversary for Starcraft II, and for that reason a substantial update dropped. It adds a plethora of new options for the level designer, as well as new achievements in the single player campaign.

I’ve been meaning to replay the single player so this was a good incentive to do so. I finished all three main campaigns and got all anniversary achievements for it. Some of the achievements were pretty uninspiring (finish under a time limit) but some were fun, like use only certain units. It mixed up the way I usually play, and I experimented a bit with different tactics. 

The game doesn’t play like a 10 year old game; it still feels perfectly balanced which is thanks to the continuous updating and balancing going on. The story in the campaigns is a bit more all over the place compared to the first Starcraft, but the characters are great and some of the dialogue is amazing as well. Cutscenes are superb despite being a bit on the low resolution side. These have not been updated.

The Nova DLC was new content for me, and it was pretty good. Some nice new mechanics got introduced, and the stealth missions were a nice variation. So all in all StarCraft II is one of my favourite all-time games, and I’ll be dipping into the co-op missions every now and again. I fear for the future of the series as the story really is finished now, and Blizzard has said as much about it. And even if it was not, I’m wondering if Blizzard in its current state could craft another masterpiece like this.

A Short Hike and Minit (PC)

 

Two short games I had hanging in my Epic Games library (gotta claim these weekly give-aways) and I finished both quite recently. A Short Hike is a pretty relaxing game to just breeze through. The writing was a little bit "popular" but the general feel and mood of the game is good. A perfect game to play between bigger games. Minit however is the better game of the two. The idea of having only one minute works great as a gaming concept, and keeps you on your toes throughout the game. Definitely worth playing.

Resident Evil 6 - Leon's campaign (PC)

After about 10 hours into the game I put it away for a while, but I picked it up again last weekend and completed Leon's campaign in RE6. I wasn't really feeling it in the beginning but now it clicked, and I enjoyed playing it. His campaign ended with one of the greatest boss battles ever in a RE game so that was pretty awesome. Started Ada's campaign next, and it's cool to see how it intertwines with Leon's. Don't know if I will finish all 4 campaigns, but for now I still enjoy it.

Hyrule Warriors: Legends (Nintendo 3DS)

I finished the main single player campaign, plus Linkle's quests. Currently going through Cia's missions. Coming from Fire Emblem Warriors on Switch to this on 3DS I was expecting it to feel really outdated, but surprisingly I loved playing it. The fanservice, good cutscenes and Warriors-gameplay made me enjoy this quite a bit.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars (Nintendo Switch)

I finished all three games in the collection, and it was a very nice experience. Mario 64 is still good, but definitely the lesser game of all three and the age of it is showing. I also have no nostalgia for that one so that isn't helping. Playing Mario Sunshine again however was a joy. The tropical setting, FLUDD, the graphics that still hold up well. Loved going back to it. Mario Galaxy is still one of the best, and probably my favourite 3D Mario. I loved breezing through it again, it's such a feel-good game with some amazing gameplay concepts. The touchscreen doesn't work great though in this version. I play mostly handheld but for Galaxy I tried to play on TV as much as I could, as the motion controls definitely outclass the touchscreen.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered (Nintendo Switch)

 

I played this gem from Platinum for the first time, and wow, what a rollercoaster of a game! It's even weirder than most Platinum games, it's colourful, it's hardcore, and it's got some amazing gameplay elements. Loved this to bits. I'm probably going to play it again on PC as I got a key for that with my Kickstarter order just to experience it in glorious 4K 60 frames. 

YesterMorrow (Nintendo Switch)

 

I reviewed this game for the main site, and the link can be found in the tweet above. Why I'm mentioning it here is because the Switch port was pretty shoddy when it came out, but the devs put out an update a few weeks after release that fixes most of the bugs and slowdowns. It's a shame they released the game in such a wonky state, as it cost them dearly on Metacritic while the other versions score much higher.

Well, that should bring me up to date again.  Currently I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (12 hours in), Kid Dracula in the Castlevania Collection, OlliOlli, and Dragon Ball FighterZ on the Switch. On PC I've gone back to Jurassic World Evolution and I made a start with Sonic Generations. Updates on these in a future post.  

[CrowingJoe79]

Oh, 2020 was a hell of a crazy year for gaming as a whole, and because of a certain other worldwide thing we had to endure. But we made it and got to play some gems and downright stinkers too. That's what matters! 

We are not out of the woods yet, unfortunately. A new strain of the coronavirus was identified in England. So I hope 2021 won't be even more miserable. 

[Aperson]

So I finished Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS4) recently. A fun sequel though it was rather short in the end. Felt the final boss was kind of there as something that would make sense as the final boss rather than who the real villain was. The guy ends up just being a plot device for the final fight and the final boss is somewhat misunderstood.

 

I mean, I kind of get what they were going for. You're effectively a neutral party in what is this all out gang war. But at the same time I felt that one side had one more reason to be stopped than the other... don't want to say too much because spoilers.

 

Today I went back to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch)... yeah, you all know why!

 

 

On that note...

 

 

[WackerJr]

Lego The Incredibles (Switch)

Played through this almost completely in Co-op after trying to find a game my wife & I could play together.  As a co-op experience it was fun, not being particularly complicated destroying enemies and much of the surroundings made up of the hugely popular little bricks. If you die you’re immediately plunged back into the action only being penalised with losing a few bricks from your total haul.

The typical Lego humour is inserted throughout, although much of it comes off better if you’ve seen the movies.

I did have a few major issues with the game though. It is incredibly buggy. It froze and had to close on over half a dozen occasions, usually at the end of a level which was a real frustration.  We also managed to get ourselves into inescapable situations on a few occasions, such as being stuck on the rails of the train track (normally causing the character to die & spawn back on the train) so when the game wasn’t freezing we had to quit a level manually.

I also found the objectives were not always clear.  Both in the overworld and in levels, besides destroying things we weren’t sure what was going on or where we were supposed to be going on a number of occasions, even with two of us trying to work it out.

I also found that the load times are looooong (over a minute to load a level).

I don’t know if these problems are rife in other Lego games, and it’s a shame as it really affected our experience with the game, in what could have been a much more enjoyable co-op experience.

[Londragon]

Jumping on the zeitgeist, the band wagon and everything else, and maybe a little too late, but we had fun playing through a couple of rounds of Among Us.

[Together] Among Us (Part 1)

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son tackle 2 games in the social phenomenon. Sitting and chatting in the same room, is it fair to help each other?

[Londragon]

We carried on the Among Us theme, but played in separate rooms, and recorded our voices as we play independantly.  What results is 2 videos with the same visual feed, i.e. my play time as we can only record off the one Switch, but different audio logs taking you through the thought process.  Quite happy with the outcome, as my son is hilarious after you've watched my video first for context.

[Together] Among Us (Part 2) Old Nintendo Gamer Talks

 

[Together] Among Us (Part 2) Son Talks

[drahkon]

Just finished the campaign of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

It was your typical Call of Duty game, but the ending...

Spoiler

Man, MkUltra is some scary shit.

Once it hit me, I was actually angry It became personal and I decided to take revenge...no matter the cost.

It was weird seeing the mighty United States of America on the losing side.

I refuse to play it again to see the other ending...this is now what the game's story is to me and I love it.

Gotta say, I'm a sucker for Call of Duty I enjoy these games quite a lot.

[Cube]

Played my yearly playthough of Banjo-Kazooie, with all notes, jiggies and honeycomb pieces. Managed it in 6h and 3 minutes (I don't do any glitches so can't really compare to speedrunners, just timing for fun). Spent about 5 or so minutes posing tome teddies for some tweets, has to return to Bubblegloop Swamp for a honeycomb piece I missed, and fell down the tree in Click Clock Wood, so still plenty of time for improvement.

 

After that, decided to do also play Banjo-Tooie. Didn't go a 100% completion because some of the game is a right pain. It's still a fine game, but the levels are just too big (without having that much in them, they could be condensed massively without losing anything) and there's a lot of back and forth. While it's fun to be Mumbo, a lot of his sections are unfortunately just walking to a button (nothing interesting to be done along the way) and pressing B, sometimes having to repeat the same journey multiple times. I do think it's great that you start with all moves from Banjo-Kazooie and they manage to add a load more. 

 

Now I'm on Donkey Kong 64, which I never completed as a kid. I got all bananas, but couldn't complete the DK arcade a second time. I have no idea how I got all the bananas as a kid, though, because some parts are frustrating. 

One thing that is annoying is that the "widescreen" option does not work on the Wii U virtual console. The way it worked on an N64 (as it could technically only output 4:3), was that it rendered it wonky and then relied on the screen to stretch it to the correct resolution. The Wii U, however, outputs the signal s a 16:9 output with the game in 4:3 and black bars. Luckily, my new TV has a manual stretching mode so I was able to sort it out myself, just a shame that Nintendo didn't put much effort into it.

The controls and camera are the biggest enemy in DK64. Walking along a plank is incredibly difficulty, especially when the camera does not want to be behind you. There are some areas with a "fixed" camera but then places platforms close to walls, but because of the non-moving camera you can't actually see that there is a gap between the platform and wall. I'm now wondering if it's because it's an N64 game, and these things were improved in the 360 ports of Banjo. 

The strangest thing I've encountered is a jetpack section where you have to fly through rings. The big problem is that the rings are 2D (the effect used so they're always facing the screen), meaning it's almost impossible to tell precisely where they are. Sometimes it looks like you've flown through one but it just doesn't register. 

Due to this, I am kind of cheating. I'm utilising the save state feature on the Wii U's emulator, to massively speed up restart times for these bits. There's nothing more annoying than a really unfair section than having to do bits before it again to get back to it.

[Aperson]

Got back into Soul Calibur VI again... so decided to upload a video of all my custom characters I've made up to this point...

 

 

 

Immediately after that I went and made another...

 

(I have tweaked the design a bit since this screenshot)

 

On a related note I'm doing a Youtube collaboration with a friend on Magic the Gathering Arena in the future, we thought since we both had the means to record the game that it would be good to do a collab, that's planned for the new year.

[drahkon]

Ladies and gents,
welcome to a new segment called "drahkon's (almost) 50 games of 2020".

"Why 'almost', you annoying little shit?"
Good question, Timmy. This is because in the app I'm using the "finished-list" currently has 48 entries and some of them are DLCs.
"But why not call it 'drahkon's fourty-something-games-plus-DLCs-list'?"
Because that's a stupid name, Timmy. Now shut the fuck up and go to your room.

I've started using the app Game Backlog to track my gaming progress this year. It's a neat little app that let's you track games you're playing and games you've finished (and even a backlog, if you're willing to put in every single game). Throughout 2020 I've set my limit of games that I'm currently playing to 4 and in the backlog-list I've put down those that I wanted to take a break from. So far, I've finished 48 games ("PLUS DLCs!", screams Timmy right before being struck by a tranquilizer dart) this year. Not too shabby. And yes, we all know @Hero-of-Time has completed 8 million games in the last 72 hours and yes we all know he's a great person and yes we all know that I DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

A nice little feature of the app: you can give games a rating (x out of 5) and also write a review. What I've done is: Give a rating and write down a few words about how I felt about each game.
And because this is all oh so interesting I've decided to share it with you in the order of completion. So buckle up, people, it's about to get

Spoiler

Astral Chain

2/5 stars
"Tedious, unfocused mess that's only fun at times."

Yup, I stand by what I said. I remember some horrible platforming sections, bad fights, boring characters and a dumb story. It was enjoyable occasionally but overall quite overrated.

Spoiler

Super Mario Odyssey

3/5 stars
"Lovely platformer. Way too easy, though, and bosses are reused a lot."

I liked it, but it was not difficult enough. And fighting those rabbit bosses got old very fast. There are much better Mario games out there.

Spoiler

20XX

4/5 stars
"Great rogue-lite Megaman-"clone". Cool music, nice graphics (cut scenes look a little cheap) and fun gameplay."

Very much enjoyed the concept. Tight controls combined with Megaman-esque gameplay and rogue-lite mechanics make for a great time.

Spoiler

Dragon Quest I

4/5 stars
"A classic that defines JRPGs even now. A little obscure but never too cryptic. A wonderful but short journey."

YES! I've finally played the first game of my favourite JRPG-series. Funnily enough, I've only played DQI, DQVIII and DQXI, so lots to catch-up with.

Spoiler

Shovel of Hope (Shovel Knight)

4/5 stars
"Great old-school platformer. Highly enjoyable. Awesome music."

What else is there to say...it's a good game.

Spoiler

Golf Story

2/5 stars
"Tedious fetch quests, boring story, bland characters. Good golf mechanics, though."

One of the biggest disappointments this year...I'm still cautiously optimistic for the sequel.

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Super Mario Kart

3/5 stars
"Classic kart racing. Insane rubberbanding."

Well...it's fun, but quite unfair at times.

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Plague of Shadows (Shovel Knight)

1/5 stars
"Too floaty, unbalanced and simply not fun"

Yeah...the Shovel Knight series could've done without this one.

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Spectre of Torment (Shovel Knight)

4/5 stars
"Same quality as Shovel of Hope."

Says it all, I think.

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Dead Cells

4/5 stars
"Great rogue-lite metroidvania with top-notch combat."

Ah yes, Dead Cells. A game I've followed for quite a while. Many game changing updates made this one even better. Highly recommended.

Alrighty. 10 games down. A couple more to go.