Your 2024 Gaming Diary

[nekunando]

 

 

[lostmario]

The next game in the GBA lunch break series is complete.

Seeing as I'd finished the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and Returns recently, my next game series to play made sense really.

Donkey Kong Land

This game has so much charm, it's hard for me to find any faults with it. This was a joy to play again after so many years.

Graphically is really pushes the Gameboy with the level design and the character models.

Sound/Music - Rare did a fantastic job with the Gameboy limited sound chip here bringing some of the classic tunes from Donkey Kong Country here along with some very catchy new ones.

It's actually a really challenging game at times. I was surprised by how long some of the levels were.

Boss battles are okay, they keep it simple with the limitations of the Gameboy so nothing too challenging.

Next up Donkey Kong Land 2

Only played a couple of levels so far but the jumps feel really floaty compared to DKL1.

[Jonnas]

Alright, it's time to wrap up that mini-project of mine:

A Jonnas NSO Update

When I said I was going to tackle a genre, I meant it!

The ones I missed

I mentioned this before in the thread, but my last NSO update was made on the same day that Super R-Type released. This is a famous series in the genre, so I was looking forward to see what it offered... and it's not much. Really, this game is actually pretty dull, both aesthetically and gameplay-wise. Pretty decent graphics for the SNES, but that's pretty much all I can say. Gameplay-wise, there's this clunky system where you can attach a secondary weapon to either the front or the back of the ship, but you have to launch it forward and manually attach it to the back, it's a mess (especially embarrassing when compared to the next title). Very disappointing, I ended up dropping this out of boredom.

S.C.A.T.: Special Cybernetic Attack Team has the most ridiculous title I've seen on the NSO so far. I had originally grouped it with a bunch of other titles, as I thought it was a run&gun type of game. A recent video by GVG actually called my attention to the fact that this is a shmup! It definitely is, and actually technically impressive for the NES. Kind of silly in its marketing/localisation as well. It does a few cool things, like having auto-scrolling levels that actually go up and down, as well as allowing your character to turn left and right (very few of the titles I tried in this genre allow you to do this). It also has a health meter, instead of being all one-shot deaths. You're also accompanied by two drones at all times that fire shots of their own, and you have the option to lock them in a specific position, so you can set them to fire diagonally, behind you, or go all out in front of you (in other words, a much more practical system than whatever R-Type was trying to do). Sadly, there's a fatal flaw to the game: if you run out of health, it's game over. No lives, no continues, it's that unforgiving. Couldn't make it past level 2.

On 08/05/2024 at 5:31 PM, Dcubed said:

Personally I get more annoyed when people don’t consider Space Harrier or Afterburner to be in the rail shooter genre, despite them basically being the progenitors of said genre!

I certainly agree!

The 3D On-Rail Shmups

Space Harrier is a famous series, and Space Harrier II is available on the NSO. I respect how advanced it was for the time, but I personally got very dizzy playing this. Furthermore, I often felt like my skill mattered little, like, should I keep shooting so much? Am I dodging properly, or is it just luck? I also got the frequent feeling that firing randomly into emptiness was a better strategy than... actually reacting to what I saw on-screen. I will say, really cool-looking enemies and bosses. In fact, the bosses were the best part, I actually felt like I was learning, playing with intent, and strategising. But that was it, this game wasn't my cup of tea.

Keeping with sequels, I next played Starfox 2 a 2017 game, never released for the actual SNES. After the first game earned my respect, I expected this one to be fairly enjoyable as well... And it surprisingly wasn't. The all-range missions controlled terribly, the on-foot missions on those duck-like Arwings were awful, and the missions that resembled the first game were now entirely controlled in first-person, which was pretty wonky. I do like the new mission structure, but the actual gameplay turned me off. Oh, and the graphics were still as eye-hurting as they were in the first one. Massive disappointment, to be honest...

...followed by a massive pleasant surprise!

Starfox 64

I have tried to play this game before, I have tried to play airplane/spaceship shooters before, and of course I played the Arwing missions in Starfox Adventures as well. I never really enjoyed it, and I had always labeled Starfox as the type of series that just wasn't for me... But somehow, after all these years, I finally got it.

Compared to all of the Shmups I tried, Starfox 64 is very forgiving, giving you a health bar, health pick-ups, and lives/continues. Compared to other On-Rail shooters, it's much easier and smoother to control, to the point that fancy moves can be pulled off with relative ease. Even the all-range mode works properly.

I had a blast playing through this game. Levels are well designed enough so that you can dodge attacks, and fire at the right enemies even during your first-ever run. Objectives are varied, and it legitimately keeps the experience fresh. I love how dynamic the difficulty and the different routes are. The bosses are all very fun as well (except for that annoying disc from Area 6, hated that guy), and I don't think any two bosses ever felt the same.

I first casually played through the easier path. Then, being aware of the alternate routes, I did my best, and ended up falling mostly on the neutral path. Then I used save states (only in-between missions) to try and see the Hardest route in one go (under normal circumstances, it would probably take me dozens of tries to ever see Aquas. Also, Sector Z is a bitch of a mission to complete, I'd probably only ever reach Area 6 via the train mission). I got to see every mission this way, and I won't resort to this tool in future playthroughs.

The one medal I ever got was, of all places, Venom Hard. After several tries, the one time I finally defeated the real Andross was also the same try where I luckily shot down Wolf during the mission's first 5 seconds. Mind you, defeating Andross still took me bumbling through several more lives, so I have no idea what's the criteria behind those medals.

I can also see why the voice acting captured the hearts of so many people. The writing is the right balance between serious and cheesy, and the voice acting somehow nailed that balance.

After much consideration, I give this game 5 stars. Somehow, it took almost 30 years, but I now officially... really like Starfox 64.

Sin and Punishment

One more to go! Ever since I heard of S&P, I was curious to try it. Not curious enough to buy it on the Wii VC, I guess, only mildly curious. Now that we have it on the NSO, no more delaying it.

It's really fun! It's just oozing with this...specific, early 00s style. Even the graphics resemble the Dreamcast (or at least a high-end PS1 title). The plot is nonsensical, and I kinda love that. You can tell the developers were trying to tap into that zeitgeist that Neon Genesis Evangelion created.

The real star of the show is the shooting. Namely, the confusing way the controls work is meant to make a light-gun experience work with a controller. To be frank, and with a pro controller in hand, I didn't like the default controls (then again, I never liked using the shoulder buttons to fire, either), but Type-C worked for me, so that's what I went with.

It's a fun game with a lot of cool set pieces, where there's a lot of choice on how to handle the various threats that come at you, and some strategies that require proper skill (namely when the sword needs to be used). Bosses and mid-bosses are wild too, some of the best ones I faced during this whole shmup marathon. It's also very short, and I think that works on the game's favour.

The game is plenty accessible on Easy Mode, but Normal Mode makes it much more challenging (and properly so, with new enemy placements, bosses having different strategies, etc. Entirely new experience). The game throws a lot of continues at you, so it's still feasible to drag yourself through beating Normal. Then I unlocked Hard Mode, and I do not have the heart to try it right now, maybe at a later date!

And as for flaws... Level 3-2 is cack, it's a genre shift that just doesn't work with these controls! Also, the character known as Saki Mamma Mia is kinda lame, the girl in blue tanktop, Aira Jo, is a much cooler protagonist.

Overall, this stylish romp deserves 4 stars. Really cool stuff, it was worth the 10€ back on the Wii, and it's a worthy addition to the N64 NSO library now.

-------------------

After some consideration, I think I was too harsh on Enemy Mind. That game deserves the 5 stars for sure. I'll edit the original post to reflect this.

-------------------

And that marks the end of my shmup journey. While fun, I think it only worked precisely because it's such a quick genre. It's either working for me, or it isn't. And if it is, it's still quite short to finish. By the end, I was more capable of recognizing what I like about it, and what I dislike (and why I seem to dislike it more often than not), so at least I think I fulfilled my goal with this project.

It also nearly burned me out on a single type of experience, so I'll keep that in mind going forward. Next time I do a bunch of similar games in a row, I'll try to keep it limited in scope.

[WackerJr]

Vampire Survivors (Switch)


Great value for money and I can see why it’s been so popular. Really does feel like the videogame equivalent of popping bubble wrap!

I enjoyed this for a few hours. I also had that great feeling where the first few times I was left wondering how on earth I was supposed to last longer than 10 minutes until I finally had one of THOSE runs!

I’m not sure I’ll be returning to it now, but for those few hours this was I was engrossed with the ‘just one more go’ mentality.

 

[Glen-i]

So, I'm talking about two games today. Two very special games that are special for very different reasons.

1000xRESIST is an adventure game developed by Sunset Visitor that released for the Switch and PC quite recently. The developers are relatively new to the gaming scene, which includes some people who worked in Performance Art.

The game takes place some time after almost all of humanity has gone extinct due to the "Occupants", some kind of alien that visited and brought a disease along for the ride. The human race now consists of one girl who was immune to the disease and the many, many clones of her that followed. These clones hold the original girl in high regard, akin to a God, and call her the "Allmother"
The game focuses on "Watcher", one of said clones, whose duty consists of observation (shocker). The game opens with her stabbing someone in the back, and quickly flashbacks to a few days before that event.

What made her do this? Well, that would be telling, wouldn't it?

The plot is the main focus, so I won't be going into much detail on it, but it's truly excellent. Thought-provoking and hard hitting. The developer's experience in performance art really shows, with surreal and striking moments in abundance, with some plot points being open to interpretation. I saw someone say that this is the kind of game that people will write essays about, and I believe that. Quite frankly, it's excellent proof that video games are art.

What a coincidence! I like pizza too!

The general tone is unsettling, which is helped by the great voice acting and stylistic choices (Characters generally don't have mouth animations when they talk) serve to emphasise that. It's not a game you'll play to feel good, but that only makes it more memorable.

Gameplay mostly consists of moving Watcher around simulations of the past. You have to use the ability to jump around points of time to solve puzzles and find the information you're looking for. It helps to break up the constant barrage of conversations. There are also sections where you slingshot her through abstract landscapes to navigate towards a destination.
It's all very weird, but that's the point.

But like I said before, the plot is the focus here, and I can't stress it enough. It's excellent. I wish I could go into more detail, but that would ruin things. If you're remotely interested, go in as blind as possible.

So here's a screenshot that makes no sense with no context

So that's 1000xRESIST, a game that's special because of what it brings to the medium of video games as an artform, the next game I'm talking about is special because of the sheer scope of it.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a Turn-Based RPG developed by Rabbit and Bear Studio that released on all modern platforms this year. I played the PC version, due to numerous issues with the Switch version. The development was spearheaded by Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of the Suikoden series, and for all intents and purposes, this game is very much a spirtual successor to the Suikoden games he worked on. Murayama would sadly pass away before the game released, so this would be his final project.

The game mainly follows Nowa, a new recruit in the mercenary group known as "The League". They're tasked with assisting a group from the empire of Galdea led by Seign in excavating some ruins in an attempt to ease tensions between the two nations that are close to all out war breaking out.

Spoiler alert, war were declared.

Nowa quickly finds himself thrust into leading a resistance group to fight against the Galdean Empire, and to do so, he's gonna have to find like minded individuals to help build an army.
Political intrigue is abound here, and I enjoyed the plot on offer. It's somewhat carried by the great characters, they might be many, but they're all fun and interesting, and some of them have some great backstory to them.

Much like the Suikoden games, the main gimmick here is that there are over 100 characters to recruit throughout the game. Some help run shops and services, but the majority of them are full fledged party members that you can bring into fights. Each one tends to have specific skills and using certain combination of characters lets you use "Hero Combos", they're kinda like Dual Techs from Chrono Trigger.

Of course, me being me, I just went with mostly funny animal people

The variety of characters here is staggering. I've said it before, but I always appreciate an RPG with a fantasy setting that actually leans into it. Don't just give me a bunch of humans. Give me weird! Give me wonderful! Give me a Kangaroo with a sword as massive as his Aussie accent! Give me a shark that lives in the desert somehow, and doesn't have a clue what an "Ocean" is!
But what really impresses me is that cutscenes don't just treat who you bring along as onlookers, they comment on what's going on with surprising frequency, and everything there is fully voiced. No seriously, everything. More on that in a bit.

Battle formations are split into the front row and the back row. Characters in the back row are less likely to get punched in the face, but need ranged options of attack. Those in the front row are more in danger, but can get right in the enemies face. You need a decent balance so you're not blindsided by the genuinely tough boss battles this game has. The game makes no apologies with it's old-school roots, so save often.

The visuals are possibly some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in a game. Taking clear inspiration from the HD-2D games Square Enix have been publishing lately, but with somehow even more elaborate spritework. It's hard to show in screenshots, but the animation here is exemplary. Add on some great looking backdrops, and it makes Eiyuden Chronicle one of the best looking games in recent times.

But the most impressive thing about this game is the side content. Because who cares about the very real war looming when you can play Beyblade?
No seriously, there's an extensive 5 hour side quest where Nowa tries to become the greatest Beigoma player of all time, and gets far too into it.
Not your cup of tea? How about a card game that pits Nowa against every character he's recruited? Or Fantasy Horse racing? Or maybe helping the chef fight the local crime syndicate with cook-offs.
And it's all voice acted, all of it. And none of them were even my favourite minigame. No, that honour goes to the Theater.

OK, so get this. This theater needs actors for the five plays you can perform there. Who are the actors available? How about all of them? Every character you recruit can be cast in every role! But Glen, I hear you cry, "They can't be all good actors".
Yeah, about half of them are awful, and it's beautiful. Because like everything else, it's all voice acted! Every voice actor had to read Romeo and Juliet's lines as their character as well as around 20 other parts.
I may have wasted 30 hours faffing about with that alone...

Shakespeare would be utterly proud!

So yeah, I loved this game, it does have a bit of jank to it at times, and I would never recommend playing the Switch version due to the long loading times alone. But this is a truly excellent game.
Mad to think I already have some real contenders for my Game of the Year.

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Hi-Fi Rush
Sonic Superstars
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Premium Digital Deluxe Edition (100%)
1000xRESIST
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

 

Edited May 31 by Glen-i

[Julius]

Great write-ups as always @Glen-i, especially appreciate the write-up for Eiyuden  had to put it down myself for a bit but I'm sure I'll get back to over the summer. 

Now we just need to wait for that Suikoden collection to hit so we can get you hooked on those first two games from Murayama 

[Glen-i]

3 hours ago, Julius said:

Now we just need to wait for that Suikoden collection to hit so we can get you hooked on those first two games from Murayama 

No effort required on your part. I am all in when that comes out!

[Glen-i]

Thank you random guy on Era, for reinforcing the point I made about the insane effort with voice acting Eiyuden Chronicle shows.

[Julius]

After a tumultous few months for my gaming habits, I think it's past time for a bit of a catch-up on my Gaming Diary entries. Going to try to keep this relatively brief as I've talked about a number of these games before or in their own dedicated threads. 

 

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | 2019

The 2019 remake of 1993's Link's Awakening was an absolute blast to play through. It's overflowing with an ensemble of charming and memorable characters, plenty of whimsy, and so much vibrancy and life, whether it comes from its bright colour palette to just how animated so many of its characters are. Being a fairly faithful remake of a Game Boy title, it dazzled me as part of the first 2D Zelda outing I've seen through to completion just how much content was packed into what is such a relatively short and small game, and just how much impactful it is at times, especially towards the end; what I really want to highlight here is that as someone whose proper entryway into the franchise was newer titles such as Breath of the Wild (after having admittedly dabbled some in older 2D and 3D entries in the past), just how easy it was after the original hump of going from 3D to 2D to transition into a game of those style because of how much is consistent across the titles. Its myriad of temples and secrets are a joy to explore and seek out, with every newly introduced item adding another layer to the exploration of its world, and this was helped out massively by some Quality of Life things included in this remake, such as getting to pin things on the map, which backtracking and figuring out how to get those pesky heart pieces so much more inviting a prospect than I feel it otherwise might have been. These QoL features paired with the game's condensed world just feels like you're - generally - being catapulted through the game at such a brisk yet inviting pace, and I think this game turned out to be the ideal length. 

Now, I don't want to overstate this, but this game is host to some technical jank and weirdness that feels more befitting of a game such as Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl rather than a gorgeous Zelda remake, and I think it would be poor form to not mention it. First and foremost, I knew that the game launched with the framerate being a bit all over the place, but that this is still the case today kind of boggles my mind. The depth of field also goes a bit too hard at times, and to not have an option to tone it down seems like poor form on Nintendo's part - in fact, this game has surprisingly few options to change in its settings, which I was a bit surprised to find. We discussed it at length in the game's own thread but not being able to tell whether things like BowWow snapping back to Link is as a result of poor thinking or just trying to keep things in line with the original to an absurd degree does raise questions about some of the ideas behind certain decisions in this game as a remake, but when coupled with some other things in the game (like hard-headed Bidoof creatures suddenly doing a 180 and protecting themselves despite appearing to look off in the opposite direction, or overworld music following me into a cave and having its audio overlap with the music in the cave) certainly makes me lean towards some of these being oversights or poor thinking rather than by genuine good design. And it's a bit of a shame if that is the case. 

To finish on a high note, though, this game's soundtrack is SUPERB. Whereas the music in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom leans hard into subtlety, and Ocarina of Time leans into classic heroic music tropes, the diversity ranging from whimsy and silliness to outright bombastic in Link's Awakening is a true highlight of the game for me. I think that this great variety and ability to successfully capture the ideas of the original and flesh them out this much is apparent in no track more than the Staff Credits:

As the first 2D Zelda I've played to completion, Link's Awakening cerainly makes me hungry for more of the same, as well as some more of that Game Boy-era charm. A brilliant game. 

 

This is also the first game we can cross off from my list of 10 pledge games for the year! 

 

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission | 2021

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission is DLC which released for VII Remake way back in 2021, as a way of tiding us over until and teasing what was coming next in this year's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, while also introducing Yuffie and a bit of her backstory. Yeah, I don't have a great deal to say about this when compared with the base game - it's..fine? I didn't mind Yuffie all that much, though I know she tends to split opinion amongst fans, but not much of great interest happens story-wise until the DLC's latter half, which is incredibly short as it is, so while a fine intro to the character, it doesn't really do much to truly grab your attention in the same way that I feel Remake did. The highlights of the DLC for me were some more great tracks being added to the ridiculous catalog of tracks already in Remake, the boss battles, and also Fort Condor - a lovely little strategy game, though it probably verges on being a bit too easy and a bit too short to feel fully fleshed out. 

 

Star Wars Battlefront II | 2005

I have talked about this game several times before, but playing through Battlefront II as part of Aspyr's Classic Collection to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the franchise was ultimately a bit of a mixed bag. Look, in terms of the actual gameplay? It's the same Battlefront II I've always known and loved: the campaign is still great, Galactic Conquest is still addictively fun and brilliant, and this is still probably my "stuck on an island with 1 game for the rest of my life" game. Getting new content added to this release of the game, such as new hero and villain characters, as well as maps being copied over from the original game, added more content to a game I already loved. 

The mixed bag aspect comes from Aspyr's release of the game. It was a mess at launch, many - myself incldued - lost progress at multiple points due to bugs, the added content seems to have been transplanted from an outdated fan mod, and this all ultimately boiled over with me losing enough progress to feel - for the first time ever - frustrated with the game. Which, for me, when re-releasing a game, simply isn't acceptable. 

 

Star Wars Battlefront | 2004

Going back to Battlefront after revisiting Battlefront II and actually having not touched the game for about a decade was an interesting experience. The game is so much more methodical, the camera so much closer to your character who can't sprint, you can't play as heroes or villains, the maps seem to be oriented more around elevation variety and strategy compared to the run-and-gun, condensed maps of Battlefront II...and yet, it's still brilliant. 

I will always hold Battlefront II in much higher regard than Battlefront, but it is the basis on which the second game was built, and it's crazy going from the first game to the second and seeing how much changed in just one year!

 

Lost Judgment | 2021

Lost Judgment is a massive improvement on the first Judgment game.

From a gameplay perspective, the overall number of tailing missions have been greatly reduced (and the ones which still feature are tweaked to be far less annoying and tedious, and long gone too is the alarm noise as soon as a character leaves your eyesight; instead, the music just picks up a bit), the new Snake style of combat is brilliant with its focus on fluid locking and countering (and, I'll be hones,t is what I used for 80%+ of my playthrough), and there's a skateboard to help you get around town much faster, which is definitely needed seeing as this game stretches across both Kamurocho and Ijincho (the latter first introduced in 2019's Like a Dragon). 

From a story and quest perspective, the title has moved on from its explorations of the various ailments of the mind to bullying, which is front and centre throughout the game. Yagami goes undercover at a school to investigate reports of serious bullying and typical RGG hijinks ensue which will ultimately leave your jaw agape and your heart crushed, before patting you on the back with some great levity to pick you back up. The content of Judgment felt generally much more serious than the Yakuza games released before it, and Lost Judgment feels it goes a step beyond that, focusing not only on the challenges of taking on bullying in high school (and, similar to Judgment, doing a great job of educating the player throughout) but also just how far bullying can push someone - it deals with suicide and suicide attempts, not in an overly explored way, but in a way which would make me suggest scrutinising if that's something you want to be handled in that setting in a video game; I think it's well handled, but depending on where you are in your life, this might not be a great game for some, and it's not exactly something they can throw on the box. The returning cast of characters were brilliant, as were plenty of the newly introduced ones, and some characters from the first game even return in the background as unvoiced cameos, which I actually quite liked. The story deals with other heavy subject matter, too, mainly taking aim at the concept of who has the right to judge others and what actions could be taken to bridge that gap when said judgement is unfair or unjust. 

With the story as captivating as ever and the gameplay pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an RGG brawler, the game dabbles heavily with side content; not only are there the usual Side Cases (this game's substories) making a return, but there are also School Stories; with Yagami accepting an undercover role at a school by joining as a counsellor for the investigative Mystery Research Club, he has the option to help out numerous clubs and students, and while this is generally handled well, these side activities boost certain personality stats, and certain stat requirements or story progression is required to unlock certain clubs, and beyond that some of their next story beats, which means there are some which you don't unlock until quite late on. This all means that, not for the first time, RGG has a game which I think has a bit of a side content-story balance issue: while both are great, the full effect of the story is dampened when its pace is dragged along by some great side content, and despite being a large part of the initial story, there is a bit of a disconnect at the end which might be a bit too wide for my own personal liking. What's more, the quality and quanity of these school clubs vary greatly: some might take the length of two or three substories to wrap up, whereas others, such as boxing - yes, there's a complete boxing mini-game in this - are much more involved and drag on much longer. There's then another which involves talking to some girls and drinking at a bar, but due to the drinking gauge in the game, there's a cut-off point you'll then be driving down for a while after unless, like me, you go off and drunkenly stumble over towards another activity. One of my favourite club activities was the motorcycle battles, which feel like a successor of sorts to the taxi races back in Yakuza 5, and it's definitely one of the wackier highlights of the game; also, tiny tidbit I really appreciated, was that I couldn't take part in the races when I was drunk! Lovely touch, a message comes up on screen if you try to do so. Anyways, on the flipside, one of the club activities involves robot battles and customisation, and up to a point this is fine - but there's a pretty stark spike in difficulty which is all but guaranteed to have you seeking out a guide (I strongly suggest this one) part of the way through, and it's such an unnecessary one when you think of the sheer volume of School Stories activities that are already available. The crazy thing about it is that School Stories - and the story proper - both have some EXCELLENT payoffs, so it's a bit of a shame to me that it feels like a bit of a pain at times to actually get through the stupid pile of content. Ultimately, this ended up being the first RGG game since 5 (where I think I only had one quest line left?) where I didn't 100% complete all of the substories/Side Cases (32/42) because I was simply done with them by the time School Stories wrapped up, and it added little to the game by comparison; I would absolutely recommend prioritising School Stories over Side Cases if you ever get around to playing this game, because it has the Avengers-esque cap-off Side Cases did in the first game with its final quest line! 

Say what you will about Yakuza 5 and its crazy amount of content spreading it thin, I think a similar approach should've been made here to side content. 5 is fairly linear and introduces you to a new type of side content, allowing you to go through as much of it as you want before moving on (unless you return to it later on), whereas Lost Judgment has you running all over the map like a headless chicken, waiting for certain stats to increase or other attributes to lower before carrying on, and at the cost of the Mystery Research Club and School Stories - which is great stuff - feeling so separate from the main story by the end. Really grated my gears, too, that the final part of the quest needed to be started at noon (the game also has afternoon and evening) when you don't have a way to change the time until after completing the game (which, if you've played enough of these games, you'll know is an option which normally becomes available ahead of the final gauntlet at the end of the game), and with the final stretch of the game only taking place in the afternoon and evening (and when it's not, areas are gated off), for the first time ever, I had to continue with a completed save to get back into the School Stories action! What was that about RGG?!

Overall, this outing was a noticeable step up from Judgment, but in the wider spread of RGG titles? It's probably at the top end of the middle of the pack; both Judgment titles are well worth the time invested, but are by no means the best RGG has to offer, from where I'm sitting. 

 

Spoiler

1. Chrono Trigger (1995) - completed 16th January [REPLAY]
2. The Last of Us Part II (2020) - completed 30th January [REPLAY]
3. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019) - completed 18th February
4. Final Fantasy VII Remake: Episode INTERmission (2021) - completed 29th February
5. Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) - completed 28th March [REPLAY]
6. Star Wars Battlefront (2004) - completed 29th March [REPLAY]
7. Lost Judgement (2021) - completed 2nd June

And with that, I'm caught up once again on Gaming Diary entries. It's been a weird past few months for me in terms of gaming, starting some games off but not seeing them through to the end (so hopefully I'll get back to them over the summer) and even with Lost Judgment I'm gutted that I didn't get to try out the Kaito Files DLC...but I was ready to move on by the time credits rolled at the end of the game, so maybe I'll get back to that at some other time. Regardless, I'm finally starting to feel in the mood for gaming once again, and am looking forward to what I pick up next! 

 

[Jonnas]

Always happy to see some love for Link's Awakening

3 hours ago, Julius said:

Quality of Life things included in this remake, such as getting to pin things on the map, which backtracking and figuring out how to get those pesky heart pieces so much more inviting a prospect than I feel it otherwise might have been. These QoL features paired with the game's condensed world just feels like you're - generally - being catapulted through the game at such a brisk yet inviting pace, and I think this game turned out to be the ideal length. 

Out of curiosity, did you perchance try the original game out for a bit (like on NSO) just for comparison's sake? I personally find it fascinating to examine differences between an original and remake.

[Julius]

21 hours ago, Jonnas said:

Out of curiosity, did you perchance try the original game out for a bit (like on NSO) just for comparison's sake? I personally find it fascinating to examine differences between an original and remake.

I haven't yet, no.

I'd definitely love to, but the pull of seeking out fresh and new experiences is often too strong, I find  at the same time, though, when I do get around to it one day, I do think it would be interesting to compare as someone going from the remake to the original rather than the other way around, which is how I imagine a good number of fans went into this particular remake. When I get to the Resident Evil games I'm also planning to play the remakes first before one day going back to the originals – if nothing else, I find the idea of going into a remake fresh and blind without the original experience really intriguing! 

Plus, there's a long list of other Zelda games I should probably get around to checking out for the first time before doubling back to any 

[WackerJr]

Spoiler

I recently plunged into NSO to finally beat a couple of Rare games I was never able to originally complete when I was younger.

Snake Rattle N Roll

An isometric action platformer, with one of its main selling points being that it can be played in simultaneous local co-op (one of you as Snake, the other, unsurprisingly as Roll).

Start each level as a floating snake head, your aim is to negotiate the various ledges and obstacles, while eating enough of the fabulously named ‘Nibbley Pibbleys’ in order to weigh enough to ring the bell at the end of the level, opening the exit.

The controls feel floaty and loose, making it quick to move around, but tricky to gain precise control of your snake. Add to this the difficulty in judging the distance of gaps, with one false move plummeting you off the edge and losing a life, make this a very frustrating experience.

Later levels add ice physics and slopes on corners, making jumps ridiculously tricky.

Thank goodness for the save and rewind feature of NSO. Without which I never would have gotten through it, and I’d’ve had no interest in attempting to otherwise.

I remember volunteering at an after-school club, and it happened it have a NES. Many times my ‘work’ involved being the 2nd player for Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll sessions. I have good memories of these, even if we never got past the first couple of levels. Playing this now, I’m struggling to find the fun in it. Maybe I’m that much older, maybe the mechanics just feel that much more aged now, or maybe it was never really that good in the first place?

Glad I persevered and saw that completion screen, but I won’t be going back to this one.


Blast Corps



You don’t always need a plot that makes sense. That a nuclear missile is moving in a straight line and the only way to avoid mass carnage is to smash and destroy everything in its path is a ludicrous excuse for some immensely satisfying destruction!

Each of the vehicle types you encounter feel unique enough, whether it be the simplicity of the bulldozer or the ‘roly-polys’ of a giant robot. Backlash remains the most frustrating still, requiring a Mario Kart-esque drift turn with enough momentum to destroy buildings with its solid posterior. I felt like a boss when it worked, but frequently filled with frustration when all too-often it simply tapped buildings with the force of a limp pillow so the building remained upright, taunting me with my failure until the nuclear missile took it down for me, sadly resulting in the failure screen.

Each level can be replayed after initially clearing a path, in order to find and destroy every building and activate every light in the level. Eventually you can replay the missions with the carrier again, with medals based on how fast you clear a path.

I’m delighted to brag that I finally earned a few platinum medals, something I never accomplished on the original N64 (yes I happily admit to using the NSO save states to help!). I was surprised at how much replayability there is, and how the game frequently threw up new challenges. Most of the time trial driving levels were also more of a puzzle to work out the best vehicle and short cuts or tricks to earn the medal times.

I had a great time playing through Blast Corps. Rare truly shone in the N64 era.

Edited June 6 by WackerJr
I didn’t code the spoiler tag correctly.

[Glen-i]

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a turn based RPG developed by Intelligent Systems. It's a remake of the 2004 Gamecube title of the same name, and the second entry in the Paper Mario series.

Princess Peach is on a trip to quaint little port town Rogueport, where she comes across a treasure map. She sends that map to Mario, demanding that he comes help her look for the treasure. Upon arrival, Mario inadvertently helps a Goomba called Goombella deal with a thug problem. Goombella is an aspiring archaeologist, and introduces Mario to Professor Frankly, who reveals that the map Peach sent him is linked to the Thousand-Year Door, a massive door underneath Rogueport that someone clearly lost the key for. The map reveals the location of the Crystal Stars, which are said to open the door. With Peach nowhere to be found, Mario and Goombella set out to find the Crystal Stars in the hope of finding Peach along the way.

Like most Mario RPG's, the plot focuses more on the humour, Paper Mario also has the benefit of the world being made of paper, leading to some visual gags along the way as well. It's a fun plot, and Mario meets various weirdos along the way, like a timid Koopa who can breakdance like a boss, or a newborn Yoshi with a serious Napoleon complex, which help to add to the quirky nature of the game. Mario has some great character designs, and it's endearing to see these off-beat takes on established Mario staples (Plus, a few original characters on Intelligent Systems part)

Orange Yoshi is the best Yoshi, and that's that!

This Paper Mario game is a lot more traditional then later ones, battles are turn-based, and has a standard experience point system. Every 100 star points lets you increase Mario's HP, FP, or BP. His partners take up the second slot in the party and only get set upgrades by collecting Shine Sprites.

BP in particular, is what sets apart this game from it's contemporaries. It stands for Badge Points, and the more BP you have, the more badges you can equip. Badges provide a veritable smorgasbord of passive effects, stat buffs, and usable skills for Mario and his friends. It's kind of the defacto stat to invest in, it's just so much more useful then the other two, so it's a bit imbalanced, but it's the fun kind of imbalanced where if you know what you're doing, you can become ridiculously overpowered, and do stuff like this.

For reference, Yoshi there wouldn't be able to damage that enemy normally. With badges, he becomes the biggest damage dealer in the game! By the end of my playthrough, he was doing 21 damage (Trust me, in Paper Mario, that's a massive amount!) to all enemies! Maybe that Napoleon complex is warranted...

You probably noticed in that video, that I had to mash ZR before Yoshi attacked. Like every Mario RPG, every attack you do has you play a quick little minigame to increase the effectiveness of the attack. It helps to keep those who might not be into this kind of battle system more engaged.

Compared to the Gamecube version, the gameplay hasn't changed too drastically. There's a few changes, like some extra shortcut pipes to ease backtracking and side quests. Although why they nerfed Power Bounce/Multibonk is beyond me.
I'm fine with this, the game is a great RPG, don't fix what isn't broken. It is a massive shame that the Switch version runs at 30 FPS. Not a huge dealbreaker, due to the turn-based nature, but it's still a shame.

The biggest changes come from the presentation. Using a similar engine to The Origami King, the game looks way more convincing as a "Paper" game then in 2004. It's beautiful! Not only that, but characters that aren't Mario have more elaborate animation, reactions, and positioning. As well as just nice little details that help to make the world feel more in-depth.

Even if it is forever weird to me that I can see the back of the partners now.

But the biggest upgrade has to be the music! Modern Paper Mario games have absolutely amazing soundtracks that make the original entries look kind of amateurish in comparison, and it's an utter joy to see this game get such great remixes. Not just remixes, mind you. Completely new music too! How much new music? Well, compared to the Gamecube version, there's more then double the amount of songs! Bosses that reused music now have their own unique remixes. Some minibosses have completely new music. Every chapter has it's own version of the battle theme. Random NPC's have their own theme tune. There's even dynamic music changes depending on the area you're in. It's staggering how much effort was put into that aspect. It's so much of an improvement that the game offers you the option to use the original GC soundtrack, and I never once felt the urge to use it. It's kinda like Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. Sure, the option is there, but why do that when it makes the game objectively worse?

It's not just the songs, the sound design is better too. It takes cues from Origami King and has every character have "voices" for when their dialogue scrolls. I say voices, but it's more akin to Banjo-Kazooie's random noises, but it helps give character to the game, so I'm all for that.

So yeah, this is a very good remake, even with the minor downsides, I don't think I can go back to the Gamecube version. This is the best way to play the game, and not just because it's easier to get a hold of these days.

Anyway, I got 100%. Was surprised that I actually got something for it.

Spoiler

Flashy! Acrobatic! Useless!

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Hi-Fi Rush
Sonic Superstars
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Premium Digital Deluxe Edition (100%)
1000xRESIST
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) (100%)

 

[Glen-i]

There's a demo available, apparently...

Miitopia is a turn-based RPG that released on the Switch in 2021. It's an enhanced port of the 3DS game of the same name, as well as a sort of spitual sequel to Tomodachi Life.
It's also completely insane!

An evil Dark Lord is bringing terror to Miitopia by stealing people's faces and sticking them on monsters. It falls to a random Mii tasked by some kind of deity to sort this out.
With Miis making up the entire cast, the onus is on the player to choose who plays what role. You can use the vastly improved in-game Mii Maker to do this, or go online and use other people's creations to do that.
However, I don't have an internet connection at home, and I am not talented enough to make around 100 different Miis to fill those roles. Unfortunately, I can't use the Friend List like I could with the 3DS version, so for this second playthrough, I decided friends are overrated.

What a coincidence! That's my name too!

So yeah, I made everyone me. A veritable "Me"topia, if you will. Egotistical? Yeah. Hilarious? Definitely! Confusing? You tell me. I had to tweak the hair colour of the 10 Miis that make up the main party, because I literally couldn't tell them apart in certain menus.

How do letters even get anywhere in this environment!?

Gameplay is mostly automatic, apart from the Glen that's the main character, everyone acts of their own accord. It sounds like an absolute disaster, but the uncontrollable-ness of the Glens adds to the comedy of the situation. And believe me when I say that this game is weird. The heroic Glens have to face terrifying monsters like goblins, demons, sandwiches, sentient noses, and most terrifyingly of all, a Turkey that twerks (It's called a "Twerkey"). This game was made on drugs, and you can't convince me otherwise!

Throughout the game, random stuff happens, and this is an absolute goldmine of comedy, because the fantasy RPG setting doesn't stop the most stupid of settings from taking place. This is expanded upon with the "Outings", a feature added to the Switch version that involves 2 Glens going on a trip together. Why they can go to a cinema in the middle of a snowy mountain is not elaborated on, and that's for the best.

Anyway, here's a minute amount of the stupidity that I saw.

Spoiler

 

Mad props have to go to the European localisers for their effort here. A lot of mannerisms you'd only see in the UK show up in this game. "Nosh", "Soz", "Cream Crackered", it all helps to elevate the absurdity, and it makes the American localisation look really dry in comparison.
Music is pretty catchy, and the visuals are nice enough. Some of the outing backdrops look really great though. It's a simplistic style, but that fits the Miis anyway.

Anyway, Miitopia is still a very unique RPG, it's probably the RPG that best represents the "Role-playing" aspect of the genre. Even if going for 100% is incredibly grindy...

Didn't stop me, though

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Hi-Fi Rush
Sonic Superstars
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Premium Digital Deluxe Edition (100%)
1000xRESIST
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) (100%)
Miitopia (100 flipping per ceeeeent!)

 

Edited June 14 by Glen-i

[drahkon]

Played this at my friends place in...HERE IT IS: MILAN!

Probably one of the most infuriating games I have ever played.
Atrocious combat, terrible controls, no enemy variety, voice acting was mostly rather terrible...

And yet, I played through it over the course of two days because the plot and story-telling are sublime!

So yeah...don't play it. Just watch a summary.

[Glen-i]

Not a usual post from me. I just need to vent.

Seriously, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, you need to chill! It's only Hard difficulty and you're throwing literally hacked units at me!?

Spoiler

The level cap is 120, in case you're wondering. And 130 is just the standard enemies. The bosses are level 150!

The embed is bugging out. Clicking on that should get you to the clip.

EDIT: And now it's fixed itself. Complaining on the internet always works!

Edited June 21 by Glen-i

[Ike]

On 07/06/2024 at 5:58 AM, Glen-i said:

Orange Yoshi is the best Yoshi, and that's that!

Good taste. That's the colour I went for too!

On 21/06/2024 at 5:42 PM, Glen-i said:

Not a usual post from me. I just need to vent.

Seriously, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, you need to chill! It's only Hard difficulty and you're throwing literally hacked units at me!?

  Spoilers for the final secret character (Reveal hidden contents)

 

Possibly controversial , but 

Spoiler

Abysskeeper (From the Three Houses DLC) > Gatekeeper. Should have gotten the same amount of meme-ing, or more!

Speaking of Three Houses, curious to know why you refuse to play it when Three Hopes has the same Persona elements, that I seem to recall is the reason why you said you wouldn't play it. Hopes' is it a bit more streamlined but still there.

[Glen-i]

9 minutes ago, Ike said:

Hopes' is it a bit more streamlined but still there.

Precisely the reason. It's why I prefer Engage as well. Three Houses is just too much in between faffing around stuff for my liking. It's also not as useful in Three Hopes, partly because you recruit other characters through the battles themselves, not by trying to win them over during the school sections. So if I chose to ignore it, it didn't feel like I was handicapping myself.
There's no planning school sessions for the students, no fishing minigame. It's a lot more straightforward, and not nearly as integral to success. Three Hopes's "hub" area is also far easier to traverse, I got lost in Garreg Mach a lot, but the HQ is easy to find stuff in, and they give you a way to jump between facilities super early.

I don't mind preparation in Fire Emblem, but when it feels like that makes up more of the game then the actual battles themselves, well, it's not the main draw of Fire Emblem for me.

Spoiler

I'll have to take your word for it, but if he's even half as great as Constance, I can believe it.
Although it is really funny that Gatekeeper in Three Hopes is by far the strongest character in the game!

 

[Ike]

I was under the impression you hadn't played it at all. If you played it and didn't like it then fair enough.

I do agree there's a lot of faffing in between missions. I think they took onboard the feedback and made the HQ more concise. Three Houses lets you warp once you've unlocked the facility though.

21 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

partly because you recruit other characters through the battles themselves, not by trying to win them over during the school sections. So if I chose to ignore it, it didn't feel like I was handicapping myself.

You're not really, I know it feels weird not to recruit everyone in a Fire Emblem game (it did in my first play through), but there's really no reason to recruit everyone, you don't have enough deployment slots. Even just having the DLC students felt like there were too many to manage. I find it easier to focus on that class's students only (+ the professors). Actually means there's less faffing later on. You technically can't recruit everyone anyway I think.

Do you not use the training facility in Hopes (I forget what it's called) to build their skills quicker or do you just switch classes/weapons more frequently. That's the main reason for building the motivation for your units.

I guess that means you didn't use the Somniel in Engage much then?

 

[Glen-i]

20 minutes ago, Ike said:

I guess that means you didn't use the Somniel in Engage much then?

I used some of it during the main playthrough. Mostly, the arena. It was a relatively short time investment for a tangible effect. But if I was a few Bond Fragments short of getting someone up a bond level, then I'd do something else once just to get me there.

Ironically, when I boot Engage up to play around with Relay Trials now, I spend time waiting for other players by fishing. By the time I'm done, the mission I played would probably be done and I can collect the rewards.

For that same reason, it's why I use the Training Grounds in Three Hopes, slap some units there, click Successive Training, and mash A. Cook up some buffs per chapter, and that's about it. I never went around talking to everyone or giving them gifts. Couldn't be bothered. Shez naturally builds support just by being mandatory in important battles.

Edited June 22 by Glen-i

[jayseven]

Blasphemous was a great re-play. i wasn't really into metroidvanias for a bit, but I re-hit this up and found it a joy to play. I'm in love with the feeling of the game mostly. Just bought the sequel and played it a small bit but not hit anything grotesque yet so it's not really sticking for me.

 

I was really expecting to love Deathloop, and it's probably my fault, as i play super cautious and slow. At this stage I haven't yet killed all the peeps i am supposed to kill, but after 40 hours the idea of stringing together the calculation to kill all of the people in one 'run' is just offputting. But I am sure i will go back to this at some point.

 

Similarly, the elden ring dlc - i bought it, installed it, realised that i can't even remember the controls, so closed it there and then. iDK. i need to re-learn to give games time to breathe.

 

... Ship Graveyard Simulator 2 has just been an easy slot. No real learning curve, just pure do this do that get satisfaction. Like Powerwaster sim but without their shit dlcs. Braid's re-release has been pretty cool too,.

Dunkey game was really good tho.

But yeah i need to get back on the elden ring dlc.

[Glen-i]

I have almost certainly talked about Metroid Zero Mission before, so I won't go into too much detail, it's still my favourite 2D Metroid, and part of that is how much the game encourages sequence breaking. Hell, the game expects you to do this if you want to see all the ending screens.

Anyway, here's a few. Try them next time you play it if you haven't.

Early Super Missiles is a bit tricky to pull off, but it utterly destroys the game in hilarious fashion!

Amazing what 6 extra Super Missiles can do. Anyway, here are my play stats.

 

Zero Mission laughs at my glacial 100% clear!
(Seriously, you have to do it in under 2 hours, on both difficulties!)

Moving on...

Chico and the Magic Orchards DX is an adventure game developed by Daikon Games that released in 2022 for the Switch and PC. Despite the "DX" moniker on it, it's not an enhanced version of any previous game, but much like the entire game, is a throwback to the Game Boy Colour.

Chico the Chipmunk accidentally steps into a portal which teleports him into a magical world with massive nuts! Walnuts, that is. Chico has to get them back to his home in the forest, because what else would he do?

Like I mentioned before, the game is a massive throwback to the Game Boy Colour. It plays a lot like a top-down Zelda, except there's basically no combat (Outside of the handful of bosses). Instead the game focuses on the puzzling aspect. Each of the levels has a walnut that you can roll around, and your goal is to utilise that walnut to reach the end of the level.
It's a simple concept, but it's executed well. It is quite short, but it costs less then 5 quid, so I can't say I didn't get my money's worth.

The presentation is great! It really captures that Game Boy Colour feel. From the optional dot matrix screen, to the many colour palette options available, the developers here know what they're doing.

But yeah, @Hero-of-Time is right. This is a delightful little game, and well worth spending some loose change on.

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
Chained Echoes
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game
Star Ocean: The Second Story R
Hi-Fi Rush
Sonic Superstars
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line: Premium Digital Deluxe Edition (100%)
1000xRESIST
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) (100%)
Miitopia (100 flipping per ceeeeent!)
Metroid Zero Mission (100%, Normal)
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX

 

Edited June 27 by Glen-i

[Jonnas]

It's been a while since I last posted, but there's plenty of games I've been tackling. Curiously, it's been mostly compilations...

Capcom Beat'em-up Bundle

I have played this one before. Posted about it, even. But at the time, I hadn't actually finished most of these games, which means they were marked as "Unfinished"... Since one of my gaming resolutions for 2024 was to clear my unfinished games, I had to tackle these properly:

• The King of Dragons - One of the most accessible titles in this collection, and one that I found very enjoyable. It's 2 basic movesets distributed among 5 characters (each with different stats), but it's pretty well designed. Projectiles are surprisingly rare in this genre, so the fact that I can play as an Archer or Mage is pretty novel. It's got some tough, but surprisingly fair bosses, too. The only thing to keep in mind is that it's also surprisingly long for an Arcade game (something like 12 levels). Finished it with the Archer. 3 stars
• Knights of the Round - Back then, I thought this was the worst title in the collection. I still think that. The attacks don't feel impactful at all, and it's got a needlessly high barrier of execution for its most basic moves (a parry that needs to be timed, a jumping attack that barely works...). Dreadful experience. Dropped. 1 star
• Armored Warriors - Really fun Mecha-themed beat'em-up. Controls smoothly, difficulty feels fair, and it's got plenty of style. It's got a complex weapon/equipment system (you can equip stuff to your arm, shoulders, and feet separately) that feels more accessible than it sounds. A minor gripe is that the characters lose their unique moves the moment they pick up a weapon, but it's still a worthwhile experience. Finished it with... the main character whose name I forgot 4 stars
• Warriors of Fate - I thought this was fine back then, but I came to dislike it the more I played it. The various mechanics don't work quite as intended, but that's not what makes the game bad... it's the fact that enemies have gigantic health bars, and your attacks cause pitiful damage. And get this, when you die and Continue, every enemy on-screen takes damage equal to about half of their health. Never before have I felt an Arcade game that feels so pay to win. Dropped. 1 star
• Captain Commando - Is a fun and accessible one. There's 4 distinct characters, difficulty curve is fine for the most part, and it's got plenty of style. My only genuine complaint is that the final boss is a ridiculous difficulty spike. Finished it as Captain Commando himself. 3 stars

That's 5 previously unfinished games cleared from my backlog.

Overall, the Capcom Beat'em-up Bundle is still a lovely, well-put collection that's worth visiting, 5 stars. Even if a couple of games in there are poor, I'm very glad the collection exists.

 

Double Dragon Trilogy

So, this one wasn't exactly on my plans at first. Since I was blasting through beat'em-ups, I decided to give Double Dragon (NES) a try on the NSO. That game felt basic, but there was some depth to it. Billy gains experience throughout the game, and unlocks some new moves along the way. Furthermore, the bosses are set in creative environments where you can try to defeat them via punching or via ring-out, it's got some interesting ideas. Ultimately, the game got too difficult to continue, and despite its ideas, it just didn't grab me enough to continue.

I then tried Double Dragon 2 (NES). This one was more interesting. You press one button to always attack left, and another to always attack right, regardless of orientation, which means that the A button is either a punch to the right, or a back kick to the right. It's so bizarre! Truth be told, they're good moves: the punch is quicker and shorter, the kick is longer and slower. Turning around to use one or the other is kinda fun, actually. Furthermore, the game actually has plenty of ideas throughout the playthrough (cramped corridors where you can't jump, a tank as a boss fight where you need to platform a bit, etc.), and what brings it down the most are the absurd platforming segments in the lategame. I needed the rewind feature to finish the game on Normal (and then they don't even have the decency to give me the proper final boss).

I've had the trilogy on GOG for a very long time, so I decided, now's the time to check it out! Double Dragon (Arcade) turned out to feel more enjoyable than its NES counterpart (the entire moveset is available from the outset, and there are cutscenes that transition between levels), though those ring-out bosses were exclusive to the NES. The game definitely felt more difficult, with certain enemies even punishing me for landing a punch if I didn't mash fast enough. While enjoyable, it didn't hold my attention for long, for similar reasons as the NES version.

Double Dragon 2 (Arcade) felt much different than its NES counterpart, not offering any of the kooky ideas from that version. I hear the original game did have the left/right dynamic, but this rerelease did away with it, reducing controls to a simple "A to punch, B to kick backwards", which manages to be more confusing than the original idea. All in all, this felt like a much more generic affair, and worse of all, boring.

Double Dragon 3 (Arcade) was just a big stinker. Clearly made by a different company, this game runs horribly, feels janky and unpolished up the wazoo, and clearly cares not for balance or difficulty spikes. The worst aspect though, is that this may be the first-ever instance of pay-to-win microtransactions. That's right, you can purchase upgrades and new moves with extra coins. Disgusting.

Finally, the Double Dragon Trilogy itself, released in 2015, might just be the worst compilation I've ever played with. Instead of preserving the original games, they made a bunch of needless changes to them (like redoing the UI, or the aforementioned rework of the controls in DD2) without giving the player any option to turn them on or off. Furthermore, they added widescreen to these versions... without changing any specifics of where the player can move to. In other words, you now run into an invisible wall where the old aspect ratio used to be. Did a weapon land on the edge of the screen? Tough luck, you can't get there. So obnoxious. DotEmu always had good intentions, but they were obviously not good at this endeavour back then.

It was interesting to play through such historic titles, though I'm more saddened by the sorry state of their curation and preservation. The NES versions and the first Arcade game get 2 stars each. Everything else (including the collection) gets 1 star.

Megaman for the NSO
The Gameboy Wars

See, this game does have a nice boxart. Shame on the NSO for showing us a NTSC abomination.

Anyway, this was a replay of a childhood game. Game is still lovely and nostalgic, and I'm really happy it's on the NSO, exactly as a I remember it. There was a brief scare where I couldn't replicate a platform skip in Iceman's stage... but then I eventually did it. I've just gotten old, my timing isn't what it used to be

I also (re)played MMII and MMIII. From the NSO thread:

On 18/06/2024 at 10:04 AM, Jonnas said:

• Mega Man II - Actually does remixed levels, yes, including adding water sections to levels (to make use of Rush Marine) and many sections that make good use of the slide. The issue is that, because it was made by a different developer, the physics feel oddly different with this game (Megaman's jump being the most notable example), but the level design was better than I remembered it, it's actually pretty decent. The music is still badly mixed and high-pitched, but if you turn your volume way down, you can still appreciate some decent compositions.
• Mega Man III - The MM3 (NES) based levels here don't feel remixed at all, in fact, they're surprisingly bland. The MM4 (NES) based levels feel more properly remixed. However, what I previously called a "solid" game... actually has so many moments of frustrating design. From having two distinct enemies that look exactly the same, to nigh-impossible "trap" platforms above spiked pits, to even enemies that feel unchanged from their NES counterparts (meaning they're way too fast or have too much range for the GB screen), it's shocking how much this game spikes its difficulty artificially. I didn't expect to say this, but this might actually be the worst of the 5 games.

On instinct, I rate these three games, in order, 4 stars, 3 stars, and 2 stars, but my enjoyment of them kind of transcends this grading system.

Without much else to add... here's an attempt to lower the pitch in MMII. With corrected instrumentation, that soundtrack actually sounds pretty catchy.

 

Megaman: The Wily Wars

Still itching for Megaman, I decided to take the Wily Wars for a spin: I had never played this game, you see. Inspired by Super Mario All-Stars, this game is actually a collection of MM1-3, remade for the Mega Drive. The first time that classic Megaman was done in 16-bit, predating even MM7. Incidentally, this was developed by Minakuchi Engineering, the same guys behind the Game Boy games (except MMII).

It... feels a bit off. The controls, I mean. Megaman feels a bit stiff, his sprite is definitely taller than in the NES, and he does NOT shimmy easily anymore. He also fires a bit slower, just enough to be noticeable. Some seemingly arbitrary changes were made to the enemies as well, as most bosses feel much sturdier (they have way more i-frames than before), but many of them also slower (most noticeable with Quickman, Shadowman, and Heatman).

Once you get over that initial barrier of Megaman feeling "off", this is actually a competent and interesting version of all 3 games. The redone graphics look pretty nice, enhancing the intended atmosphere for many of the classic stages (for example, adding swaying heat waves to Fireman's stage, and Bubbleman's underwater segments), and in some cases making them feel entirely new (Topman's stage is now a toy factory instead of a greenhouse, and Cutman's stage doesn't look like rubble anymore). There are some annoying moments where you can't quite tell what's foreground and what's background, but they're few and far between.

The soundtrack for each game was also redone with the MD soundfont, and many classic tunes sound pretty dang nice. The password system is gone, as you can now save in all 3 games (a godsend for MM1 especially). I dare say this might legitimately be the best version of MM1, in fact. (Granted, I haven't played the PSP remake, but that one looks like an entirely new game)

And because remaking games wasn't enough, after beating all 3, you unlock a really fun new campaign: Wily Tower. There are 3 new robot masters designed for this game (they do look more like MMX mavericks), each with their own stage, and after defeating them, you have 4 more stages of Wily, with more bosses. They're all pretty cool, actually (shout-out to Buster Rod G., which is a worthwhile addition to Megaman, despite the ridiculous name).

It sounds like a typical MM game, sure, but what makes this mode unique is that you can build your own arsenal. Yeah, you can choose 8 weapons and 3 helper items out of any of the first 3 NES games! It's a really fun idea, and I really enjoyed being able to use my own preferred weapons (none of which come from MM3). Since this extends to the items, I was even happy to use Item-1 instead of being stuck to the wonky Rush Coil.

I had great fun revisiting this trilogy in such a new way, and I enjoyed Wily Tower even more. This quirky experiment deserves 4 stars for sure.

[WackerJr]

Return of the Obra Dinn (Switch)

This proved to be one of the more creative games I’ve played. Difficult, clever and puzzling, although somewhat arduous later one, Return of the Obra Dinn to me was like a mash-up of What Became of Edith Finch, Moby Dick, Cluedo, and Sudoku.

Played from a first-person viewpoint, you’re an investigator exploring the now empty ship The Obra Dinn, to try and determine what happened to its crew and passengers five years ago. 

It’s not long before you stumble across the remains of a corpse. This is the main premise of how to investigate what happened, as the game then prompts you to use a mysterious pocket watch to transport you back to a freeze frame scene showing the moment of their death. This is usually preceded by whatever the victim heard in the seconds prior to this. From there, you can walk around the scene looking for any clues that may help identify the people in the scene or learn what’s actually happening.

These scenes are the main mechanic for trying to solve the mystery. You’re given a logbook at the start, which you need to complete. Initially all this contains is a list of the names of those on board, along with their nationality and a sketch of those on board. Whenever you find a scene, a new page is revealed in the logbook, which shows an image of a person or persons in the scene, and then leaves it for you to fill in the gaps for their name, what fate befell them, and if they killed then who was responsible for their death.

Rarely are all three key bits of information revealed in one scene. Sometimes you may hear a name said, and usually you’ll be able to work out how the perished. The game is quick to tell you that inferring things is key, and won’t try and trick you. If someone’s acting like the surgeon say, they’ll be the surgeon, if they look of a certain nationality they will be that nationality. 

Often in a scene who will discover another dead body, and this will then transport you to another scene. The logbook carefully groups these into a set of events, which help reveal the story of what mysterious happenings occurred the vessel.

As I was quick to discover, the game’s not afraid to throw into your face that a person is in the throngs of death. If they’re been shot you will see gussets of liquid shooting out of their body. Or at least I assumed it was. To this end I was glad at the design decision to make everything black and white and grainy. Often you’ll be able to tell what’s happened, but thankfully the graphics don’t reveal the gore in HD detail. On the flip side though, it caused some of the clues to be a little too subtle due to the lack of clarity. 

I thought I’d be able to brute force some of the details, and I could for a bit. The game only reveals you’ve got someone completely correct once every time you get three people and their fates right. I did find I would get to a stage where I was confident of two, then would go through guessing the options of a third person until the game told me it was right. 

To that end, most of the clues made me feel smart when I worked them out. It wasn’t easy though, and for many of the ones I brute forced I never found out what the clues were. It also got very arduous towards the end. Once I found all the scenes there was no quick option to go back to them. 

Instead, I’ve have to remember where a corpse was and find it, which considering some were contained within a scene contained within a scene within another scene, made things a little too tedious. I wish I had kept track of some clues with pen and paper and I’d often find myself meandering around not remembering where or if I’d spotted something.

Finding a corpse and the surprise of not knowing what scene I was about to observe, and the mechanic of playing a tricky and dark game of Guess Who were enjoyable and fresh. It lost it’s freshness in the second half, but for the first initial hours this was a really fun sleuth-em-up.

Spoiler

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

We are now halfway through the year and so I decided to look back at what I've played and finished so far in 2024.

Spoiler

Jan

• Assassin's Creed Mirage - PS5
• Astalon: Tears of the Earth - PS4
• Tinykin - PS4
• Cannon Dancer: Osman - PS5
• Tinykin - PS5
• Kirby Air Ride - GameCube
• Rally Cross - PS4
• Rally Cross - PS5
• PJ Masks: Heroes of the Night - PS5

Feb

• Oninaki - PS4
• Mario & Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - Switch
• Mario vs Donkey Kong - Switch
• Jet Moto 2 - PS4
• Resistance: Retribution - PS5
• Jet Moto 2 - PS4
• Final Fantasy VII Remake: INTERmission - PS5

Mar

• Outer Wilds - PS4
• Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - PS5
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Switch
• Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection - PS4
• Princess Peach: Showtime! - Switch
• Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection - PS5
• Splatoon 2 - Switch
• Robocop: Rogue City - PS5
• Metal Gear Solid (Master Collection) - PS5
• Bat Boy - PS4
• Super Princess Peach - DS
• Bat Boy - PS5
• Panorama Cotton - PS4

Apr

• Cotton Fantasy - PS4
• Tekken 8 - PS5
• Persona 3 Reload - PS5
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown - PS5
• Resistance: Retribution - PS5
• VA-11 Hall A - PS4
• Carto - PS4
• The Wild at Heart - PS4
• WarioWare Inc. Mega Microgames - Switch
• MediEvil - PS5
• Energy Cycle - PS5
• MediEvil - PS4
• Star Ocean: First Depature R - PS4
• Chico and the Magic Orchards DX - Switch
• Wario World - GameCube
• Gravity Circuit - PS4

May

• Wild Arms - PS4
• Pokemon Shining Pearl - Switch
• Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered - PS5
• Ys IX - PS4
• Tunic - PS5
• Super Mario Land - Switch
• Alleyway - Switch
• Burger Time Deluxe - Switch
• Dr. Mario - Switch
• Kirby's Dream Land 2 - Switch
• Dark Forces Remastered  - PS4
• Dodgeball Academia - PS4
• Mario Kart 64 - Switch

Jun

• Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge - Switch
• 2Xtreme - PS5
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - PS4
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - PS5
• Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue - PS5
• 2Xtreme - PS4
• Toy Story 3 - PS5
• Sly Racoon - PS5
• Daxter - PS5
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - PS4
• Daxter - PS4
• Monster Hunter Stories - PS4
   

• PS5 = 28 Games
• PS4 = 24 Games
• Switch = 15 Games
• GameCube = 2 Games
• DS = 1 Game

Looking through the list, I have certainly gotten my a lot out of my PS+ Premium subscription, with 26 games played coming from that. Granted, a lot of them are double playthroughs to earn 2 platinum trophies but it's still giving me value for my money. NSO has done some heavy lifting as well, with 8 of the 14 Switch games I have played coming from that service.

I've also managed do well to keep up with big releases on the PS4/PS5 I wanted to play this year, especially when you consider a lot of them are JRPGs. Still left to play are Unicorn Overlord, Granblue Fantasy Relink and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (still need to purchase this one). I've still got a backlog of purchases made from other years though. 

One area I need to get a grips with is the Switch releases. I've yet to pick up Paper Mario and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD arrived on Thursday. I've still got Another Code ReCollection, WarioWare: Move It and Endless Ocean to finish. Like the PS4/5, I still have a decent sized backlog to get through of older purchases. I would like to think I would get through them all before the Switch 2 arrives but I just don't see it happening.

My gaming pledges for the year are going well.

5 down and 5 to go. 

I'm not sure if I'll actually get through them all though. I've tried multiple times to get through both Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Astral Chain but have always failed to get very far into them. Same goes for The Last Guardian. Playing any one of the Trails games (going to go with Zero) will be a huge time sink as they are all long games and the platinum usually involves playing through them twice. If I can finish 1 more game from each of the lists before the year is out then I'll be happy.