Your 2024 Gaming Diary

[nekunando]

I haven't started Pikmin 4 yet (other than playing through the demo last year) and I was tempted to dig into it but I ended up going with Pikmin 1 for now.

I'm not sure what the time would be for me, ultimately, but I had heard about Pikmin 4 maybe being 30-40 hours somehow and I haven't felt ready for that sort of commitment yet 😅

[Hero-of-Time]

2 hours ago, nekunando said:

I haven't started Pikmin 4 yet (other than playing through the demo last year) and I was tempted to dig into it but I ended up going with Pikmin 1 for now.

I'm not sure what the time would be for me, ultimately, but I had heard about Pikmin 4 maybe being 30-40 hours somehow and I haven't felt ready for that sort of commitment yet 😅

Yeah, it's a definite time sink. I still go back and forth as to whether I enjoyed it or not.  Pikmin 3 is still my favourite though.

[nekunando]

42 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, it's a definite time sink. I still go back and forth as to whether I enjoyed it or not.  Pikmin 3 is still my favourite though.

Pikmin 3 looks and feels so great that it's impossible to argue. Was absolutely gutted the pointer controls in Pikmin 1 and 2 weren't carried over directly!

 

Interested to see how Luigi's Mansion 2 goes. I didn't completely love it on 3DS!

[Hero-of-Time]

6 hours ago, nekunando said:

Interested to see how Luigi's Mansion 2 goes. I didn't completely love it on 3DS!

I remember struggling with the structure when I first played it. I'm sure I found the missions far too long. I think it won me over in the end. Like Pikmin, the 3rd game is by far my favourite.

[nekunando]

23 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I remember struggling with the structure when I first played it. I'm sure I found the missions far too long. I think it won me over in the end. Like Pikmin, the 3rd game is by far my favourite.

Ah.. we definitely differ there on Luigi's Mansion 3!

I was impressed visually but I wasn't entirely enthused throughout. I remember thinking it was a bit 'ploddy, ploddy, suck, suck' at the time and that wording has never left my thoughts about it 😅

The GameCube original was the perfect length with the right amount of exploration and variety. Plus, it felt incredible with the controller!

Unfortunately, more recent Nintendo controllers haven't been able to replicate that feeling even though I love the Joy-Con so much!

[Glen-i]

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a puzzle/exploration game developed by Simogo. It was released for the Switch and Steam back in May.

Select New Game, and after literally no intro cutscene, you take control of some random woman in some forest, outside some sort of hotel.
That's it. That's all you get.

The goal of this game, according to the game itself, is to "uncover the truth". Yes, it's deliberately vague. The entire game is. There's no point in me going into the plot, because everything is a spoiler. Sorry. It's good, though.

Piano

If I had to describe the game, I'd say it was "Resident Evil" with none of the survival horror, and wayyyy harder puzzles! The hotel has a ridiculous amount of doors that are locked, and most of them require you to solve a puzzle. These puzzles are no joke. The game encourages you to play with a notepad and pen on hand, and it is not kidding! There is a veritable ton of documents all over the place with seemingly unrelated information, but chances are they'll have something of use at some point. As well as that, puzzles involve maths, geometry, and even a bit of trivia.

This is a very difficult game, make no mistake. You will get stuck. Well, I did. A lot.

Foyer

As you can probably tell, there's a very striking artstyle in this game. Everything is shown through fixed camera angles, and also in monochrome, with hints of red. The soundtrack is well, muted. Which is fine, it fits perfectly.

Man, it's hard to talk about this game. Discovering what the hell this game even is is the entire point of it. So I can't really talk about too much about it. It's good, trust me on this.

Forest

 

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%, Under 2 hours, Normal) 
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX
Super Metroid Redux
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Densetsu No Stafy
Densetsu No Stafy 2
Densetsu No Stafy 3
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Gravity Circuit
Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster
The Plucky Squire
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Edited October 4 by Glen-i

[Dcubed]

Wow.  I've been lazy AF this year.

Well that changes here and now.  So buckle up, because this is gonna be a long read...

Gokujo Parodius – Pursuing the Past Glory/Fantastic Journey

 

Released in 1994 in Japan, Gokujo Parodius was a bit of a comeback for Konami in the arcades in a sense.  After the release of Detana Twinbee and Thundercross II in 1991, Konami stopped releasing traditional shmups in arcades for a good while, as the mighty Beat 'Em Up and then the Fighting Game swept the scene and took over the arcade game industry (no in small part due to Konami's own successful line of beat 'em ups, including TMNT, Turtles in Time and X-Men; amongst many other multiplayer run & guns made in the same mold, such as Sunset Riders).  Gokujo Parodius then, was a bit of an answer to the oversaturation of these two genres and a statement of intent; that being to reclaim the past glory of the Japanese STG.

This is more literal than might appear at first glance.  Not only is it baked into the Japanese title of the game, it also forms the basis of the game's "story"; as the cast of Parodius go on a fantastic journey to find the lost treasure of the past... their former glory.

From the recent fan translation of the SNES version... see! I didn't make it up!

 

The inspiration also bleeds over into the game itself, which took some cues from the burgeoning fighting game genre with a wide cast of playable characters to choose from that all come with their own unique abilities; as revealed in a recently fan translated interview from 1994 (see! I didn't make it up!).

Speaking of translations... this game actually did get a European release on the SEGA Saturn and the PS1 as part of the Parodius Double Pack (Simply titled "Parodius" over here), and while those ports were both very good; they're not quite arcade perfect, both featuring a bit more slowdown and some reduced resolution & missing animation frames (with the Saturn version faring better than the PS1 version in that regard).  However, the original arcade version (running on the 32bit "Konami GX" board) also had an official localisation, under the title of "Fantastic Journey" (no Parodius in the title here).  However, I can't find any evidence to suggest that this localisation was actually ever released in US or European arcades; despite a localised ROM dump being publically available.

With all that preamble out of the way, while I do own the Parodius Double Pack on the SEGA Saturn, I was incredibly lucky to find a real Gokujo Parodius arcade PCB running in a proper period appropriate Konami Windy arcade cabinet at none other than the London-based Heart of Gaming arcade! Such an insanely rare find that I knew I'd probably never see again! I got the chance to play the game as it was originally intended.

Now that the tone has been set...

 

I've never been the biggest fan of the Gradius games.  They all suffer from a critical design flaw, in that once you die and lose all of your powerups... you're fucked.  You get pushed back to the last checkpoint with nothing, you're literally too slow to even survive long enough to power yourself back up and you might as well start the entire game from scratch.  It's enormously frustrating, because I like shooters with checkpoint systems in general; it discourages blind credit feeding.  But in Gradius? You may as well have only one life and no continues for how much good it does you.

Parodius then does the same thing.  It is, after all, a parody of Gradius (WOW! Would never have guessed that from the name), but it is too, a parody of multiple other Konami series' such as Twinbee, Castlevania and Goemon.  Unlike the  hardboiled HARDCORE SHOOTER that is Gradius? Parodius aims to be somewhat kinder, nicer and a lot funnier.  As such, while it's certainly cut from the same cloth as the Gradius games, it is nowhere near as sadistic.  Make no mistake, this game certainly isn't easy to beat by any stretch (truely, you will die), but its absolutely doable for a normal human.  It actually feels like it was designed to be fun, fair and enjoyable; instead of being brutally punishing for the sake of being brutally punishing.

If even Moai can beat it? You can too!

 

Each stage feels well paced and thought out, never feeling overwhelming while always keeping you on your toes, and with checkpoints carefully thought out in such a way that if you die, you always have at a decent opportunity to get yourself back up to speed in time to stand a fighting chance.  While it does borrow some ideas and concepts from previous Parodius and Gradius games (such as the High Speed Zone from Gradius 3), it executes them better than in previous titles, while also introducing some really cool original set pieces of its own (such as the hidden stage that appears randomly throughout your run where you only get one chance to survive before it disappears for good).  The vast selection of characters also offers a strong variety of ways to tackle each stage, with each character offering distinct advantages in places over others (though my favourite character has to be Takosuke, with his Ripple Laser and Options turning himself into a beautiful death machine ).  I also really like how interactive most stages are, usually offering some way to blow up parts of the environment to clear space for yourself or defeat enemies around you.

The presentation is also utterly top notch, with excellent colours, animation and scaling effects.  It's a clear step up from the previous 16 bit titles in every respect; including the music, which once again is based heavily on bastardised versions of classical music to comedic effect.

Don't mind me, just on my morning constitutional spiderwalk

 

In short? It's Parodius at its best.  It takes all the best elements of Konami's storied history of shooters and polishes it to a mirror sheen.  It's fun, funny and funtastic.  A fantastic journey that will remind you of Konami's former glory.

Sonic Superstars

 

The first completely original classic Sonic game since Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Sonic Advance Sonic 3 & Knuckles! Unlike past attempts by SEGA to recapture the blue blur's former glory, this one wasn't made by fans, or by DIMPS... no! It was made by none other than Artoon Arzest! The guys responsible for classics like Blinx The Timesweeper, Yoshi's Island DS and Balan Wonderworld!

 

Wait! Don't run away! This one's actually good! In fact, it's REAL GOOD!

Against the odds, Arzest did a good here! While their track record has been... spotty, to say the least (Hey Pikmin aint bad, despite the negative stigma around it not being Pikmin 4), it feels like this is the game that they've really been wanting to make for a long time now.  Naoto Oshima returns to his rightful place as the true original creator of Sonic (Yuji Naka getting everything he deserved) and his team actually did a great job of recapturing the intricate level design and feel of the classic MD titles, without being beholden to nostalgia.

While I love Sonic Mania, I can't in all good conciousness ignore the fact that it was very clearly built on top of Sonic 3 & Knuckles as a base.  As great as it is, it's only really half new game, half remix; while Sonic Superstars then has to build its appeal on wholly original ground, a much taller order.  That being said however? Sonic Superstars does borrow heavily from Sonic Mania in one very important aspect... and that's its physics engine.

Unlike with previous botched attempts to replicate the feel of classic 2D Sonic (I'm looking at YOU Sonic Generations!), Sonic Superstars feels absolutely spot on.  The developers weren't shy about admitting that they reused Sonic Mania's excellent physics engine, and they were certainly telling the truth.  Sonic and friends are an absolute joy to control here, Arzest nailed the game feel, and that's no small feat when you're translating a physics engine based on a traditional 2D pixel art raster engine to a modern 2.5D polygon engine; especially when the Unity Engine is involved.  SEGA should know... they themselves tried to do this with Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and failed miserably.

Harder than it looks to pull off

 

Of course, nailing the physics is only part of making a brand new Sonic game that's actually good.  Arguably even more important is nailing the level design; something that endlessly plagued all of the previous DIMPS developed Sonic titles.  Well I'm glad to report that Arzest also nailed this aspect of the game too! And not only did they nail it, they did so without having to lean on nostalgia either!

Everything you would expect from the best MD-era Sonic games is present and accounted for.  The multi-tiered levels with higher paths rewarding the player with faster platforming, the different paths encouraging exploration to find hidden items and bonus stages? It's all here.  And every stage also brings about a healthy amount of unique and interesting gimmicks that are new to the series; never overstay their welcome and make each stage a joy to play.  I don't want to spoil too much, but the last couple of stages in particular are nothing short of...

 

The new big core gameplay gimmicks come in the form of having four (?) characters to play as, alongside a set of Emerald Powers that unlock each time you nab a chaos emerald from the special stages (BTW, I really like the new special stages, they're tons of fun!).  These powers are (mostly) entierly optional but are integrated well and feel like meaningful rewards for completing said special stages.

Not all is perfect though, in fact, the special/bonus stages are tied into one of my biggest gripes with the game; and that's the medal system, which makes its return from Sonic Mania.  You see, Sonic Superstars has an online multiplayer battle mode that's entierly seperate from the main game.  Unfortunately, said multiplayer mode is a big pile of cack that isn't worth anyone's time; let alone the time spent developing it.  Now, this doesn't really affect the main story mode in of itself... unfortunately, it does affect the medals though, because all of the medals you find throughout the stages and the bonus stages are exclusively tied to costume unlocks for said pile-of-cack multiplayer mode.  This means that, unlike in Sonic Mania (which had some awesome unlockables that made gunning for full medal completion a worthwhile endeavor), the medals are a complete and utter waste of time here.  Which is a shame, because hunting them down is actually pretty enjoyable in their own right; but there's just no reason to do so, because the multiplayer mode is... well... a pile of cack.

Ooh! Look at the shiny medal! Don't you want it?  Nah, not really.

 

The presentation also leaves something to be desired... at least for most people (more on that in a bit).  The visuals themselves are fine, a bit flat looking perhaps? But they get the job done... that is, until you play it in stereoscopic 3D! Quite frankly, it feels like the game was always designed with S3D in mind, because it literally adds a whole other dimension to the game's visuals.  Take the screenshot above, for you, it probably looks a bit on the flat side, but in S3D? Each of those individual bricks now have different layers of parallax, and you can see the cast moving in and out of the background as they travel through the loop.  Oh, and that extra path in the foreground with the broken loop and extra rings? Yeah, I bet you didn't even notice that it's actually meant to be way in the foreground from that shot, but when played in S3D? It's night and day obvious.  All of a sudden, the visuals literally pop! With a whole new level of visual appeal that simply isn't there in 2D.  Sadly, most people won't ever get to experience it this way, but if you do ever get the chance to try out a Spatiallabs View screen? Fire this game up on it, you won't regret it!

The music as well is also a bit of a mixed bag.  Some tracks are really great (usually the ones done by Tee Lopes), while others are just ok (Often the ones done by Jun Senoue).  The good tracks certainly outweigh the mediocre here though.

Another popular point of contention with this game lies in its boss battles, which most people seem to hate for dragging on too long and featuring too much waiting for invulnerability to end.  I get the discourse, but I find myself disagreeing with it for the most part.  I genuinely enjoyed most of the boss battles in this game, and I always found ways to speed things up when I wanted to... though I do have to make an exception for the final couple of bosses; which do fall foul of this sin a bit too much and start to feel like a slog.  Still, they're forgivable and certainly don't "ruin" the game like some would have you believe.

Two's company, four's a crowd

 

I suppose one other thing that irked me a little bit is how the stages all had to be designed around the movesets of all four characters; meaning that they couldn't really take advantage of each character's unique abilities.  That being said though, this is offset somewhat by the spattering of Character Specific Acts throughout the game that force the use of one specific character; and yes, these stages generally make much better use of each character's moveset (as does the post-game stuff... which I won't spoil here, but it's all pretty great!).  I do wish that these kinds of acts cropped up more often though, as they feel a little underutilised; even if they ended up being just optional (like the optional Fruit stages... which are still really weird BTW!).

But in the end? This is a really rock solid Sonic title.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and really, the complaints I do have are reletively minor in the grand scheme of things.  This is my 3rd favourite game in the series (right behind Mania and S3&K), a very worthy follow up to Mania and the classic MD Sonics.  Bravo Arzest! You did good.

 

Virtua Cop 3

 

Speaking of incredibly rare arcade finds, who would've thought that Heart of Gaming would manage to get their hands on this beast!? First time I had ever seen one in the flesh, and I certainly wasn't gonna let it get away without a play!

Released in 2003 for the Xbox-based Chihiro arcade board, Virtua Cop 3 is the final game in SEGA's seminal light-gun series.  It doesn't stray too far from the classic formula, you still have the trademark target sights system, where the game locks your view onto nearby targets that you need to shoot before the surrounding circle turns red and reaches its end.  New to this game however are two key mechanics, the first being the ES Mode; which is essentiall a bullet time mechanic where you can step on your pedal (ooh... Namco aren't gonna like that one...) when your ES gauge is full in order to active bullet time and pop off impossible shots in slow motion.  If you've ever played Afterburner Climax, its implementation is very similar and it works just as well here as it does in that game.

The other new addition are the QTEs, which play out more or less as you'd expect.  You're given a split second to shoot something out of your way, or stop something from flying into you or your partner.  The way that they're implemented is pretty interesting though, because instead of failure just resulting in an immediate loss/game over, it instead changes the path you take through the stage.  In fact, this also ties into the game's multiple endings (yes, this game has multiple endings!); with certain aspects of the final scene only giving you one chance to pull off some sick shooting if you want to see the best ending.

Better shot quickly!

 

The gameplay otherwise doesn't stray too far from the original model 2 Virtua Cop titles, it's fast-paced white knuckle action that retains the stoic simplicity that made the original VC 1 & 2 such classics.  The presentation however took a huge step up, far removed from the flat-shaded polygon look that defined the originals and into something much more sleek and modern.  It's a great looking game that would've been amongst the very best the arcade had to offer in 2003, and it still looks great today.  SEGA clearly threw a lot of budget at it, as one of SEGA AM2's last hurrahs within the arcade before the wider company was swallowed up by Sammy.

Not just a pretty face

 

What I really like about the VC games though is their simplicity.  The focus on the pure joy of light gun shooting.  They're not overly complicated, nor do they get bogged down by lengthy story exposition or attempts to introduce tons of different weapons, complicated controls or tons of branching paths.  They're laser focused on the pure joy of a good shooting gallery with the shooting action polished to a mirror sheen, and VC3 is no different in that regard.  It's a refreshingly simple game, with some pretty interesting wrinkles along the way and some rambunctious setpieces.  For my money? I'd take Virtua Cop over any Time Crisis game, that's for sure.

It's a damn shame that the home Xbox version ended up getting cancelled, because this is a corker of a light gun game! An excellent sequel to Virtua Cop 2, and one that almost nobody will ever get the chance to play.  I can only pray that some sort of home release happens eventually, because it deserves to not be forgotten.  Oh? And just for the record? No, I screwed up at the end and got the bad ending... gotta go back and rectify that at some point!

 

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore

 

Hey, do you remember my writeup about the Zelda CDi games a few years back on this very site? Remember when I said that there was a good game hiding underneath all that CDi hardware jank? Well guess what? I was right!

 

Cue the funky Euro Techno

 

Arzette is a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It follows on directly from where that game left off, with Ganon Daimur trapped inside the book of Koradai Oakurin and Duke Onklet Nodelki cursed to forever scrub the floors of Hyrule Faramore.  A hilarious premise that wears its inspiration on its sleeve, and not in the typical jokey memey sneering way that you might expect, but with genuine reverence that is both refreshing and wholesome.

Sorry to fans of Faces of Evil though!

 

The core mechanics and gameplay structure remain fairly similar to the original two Zelda CDi titles.  It's an action RPG sidescroller with individual stages that you select from a jpg world map.  Where this game differs from its inspiration however is in the controls, which are magnitudes more responsive and refined than the Zeldas of yesteryear.  And while the game keeps the various quirks that defined those original titles (often with some riotously funny canonical explanation, such as Arzette's "Smart Sword" that allows you to talk to people by whacking them with it ), it never allows them to get in the way of smooth & responsive gameplay.

With the jank out of the way, the underlying structure of the Zelda CDi games starts to shine through.  It's a fun setup, that mixes linear action stages with some almost metroidvania esc backtracking, as you get items that open up new parts of past stages.  The level design isn't particularily complicated or intricate, but it doesn't need to be.  This is a rather simple game with a breezy sense of play and progression.  It knows what it wants to be and doesn't try to be anything more; and it's all the better for it.

No! Not into the pit! IT BUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

 

The presentation is also spot on.  They got back many of the same animators and voice actors that worked on both Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon and it really really shows.  Likewise, the music is a perfectly inappropriate mix of ye-olde medieval chamber music and funky jazz & techno, while the writing is sharp & witty and very tongue in cheek.  It's hard not to crack a smile throughout the adventure if you have even the slightest sense of humour.  Needless to say, the game doesn't take itself overly seriously, but it also doesn't feel like it's directly poking fun at the CDi titles.  It's an earnest tribute that sands off the rough edges and gives plenty of winks and nods along the way (there's even a bonus stage that acts as a Hotel Mario tribute!).  With good-enough level design and some fun bosses & enemies along the way to give you some genuinely solid gameplay to go along with your jokes.

It isn't going to win any game of the year awards, but it's a genuinely solid action RPG platformer that was clearly made with a lot of love for the CDi Zelda titles.  A wonderful tribute to two terrible games!

 

Shantae: Half Genie Hero

 

Shantae: Half Genie Hero is the first game in the series specifically designed as a stationary home console title.  In many a sense, it represented a clean break for the series; starting afresh with a standalone story and a much more linear game design focus.  Gone are the interconnected Zelda 2-like worlds and dungeons of the original four three titles in favour of stage-based gameplay much more akin to Donkey Kong Country... at least the first time through the stages that is!

In this case, it's kind of all of these all at once?

 

Half Genie Hero was also funded via Kickstarter (so far, Wayforward's only attempt at crowdfunding), which meant that it featured a series of stretch goals, which included some additional chapters and gameplay modes being released as DLC.  These were fairly substantial additions that added quite a bit of replay value (and would later be bundled into the game as a single package in the form of the Ultimate Edition; which is the version available on modern platforms), but this playthrough was simply just for the base game as it was originally released.

Right, that's enough preamble.  I'm Ret2Go to start talking about the game itself!

As you'd expect from a Shantae game, you've got fast and responsive 2D sidescrolling action gameplay where your hair is your greatest weapon.  Stages are linear in design with a boss at the end of each one; very Castlevania esc.  And level design is fast-paced and focused on breezy setpieces, ala DKC.  Once you beat a stage, you are gifted with a new dance that you can use to transform yourself into a new creature.  However, it's not quite so simple as that... as you are soon tasked with backtracking to previous stages with your newfound abilities to find doodads, peeps and tings that you need to complete fetch quests, find even more new abilities and transformations and progress the stories.  Did I say stories? Why yes I did! Because unlike past Shantae games, this game is set up in sort of Saturday Morning Cartoon format; with a continual string of vignettes that see you solving various problems plaguing Scuttle Town.  Characters and Baddies Of The Week come and go as you complete each little story... eventually culminating in an overarching plot that you totally can't see coming a mile off!

I'm sure that only good things can come from finishing the Dynamo...

 

Like every other Shantae game, the story and dialogue is all very tongue-in-cheek and doesn't take itself too seriously (despite a few genuinely touching moments here and there).  All very entertaining stuff.

The game and level design however often feel like they're at odds with each other.  On one hand, the game wants to be a fast-paced DKC style whiteknuckle thrill ride of a 2D platformer, while on the other it wants you to stop, smell the roses and explore the environment as much as possible to find secrets and hidden paths.  While the levels are all fun to run through, exploration can sometimes feel a bit frustrating as the levels aren't really built with exploration in mind in the way that previous games were.  Some stages in particular (such as Ammo Baron's stage) can be pretty annoying to run through multiple times as a result.  But that being said? There are some clever ideas here, and exploration is better integrated in some stages than others (Mermaid Falls being a particular standout in that regard).

The bosses are every bit as spectacular and well endowed as you would expect from the series however

 

The presentation is also top-tier as well.  Using the same engine as Wayforward's only previous HD title (Ducktales Remastered), the game features lush polygonal watercolour backgrounds and impecabbly motion-tweened 2D handdrawn art (ALA Rayman Origins/Legends).  It all looks superb; perhaps even a bit too superb, as the total stage count isn't particularily high as a result.  It's no coincidence that its sequel (Seven Sirens) dropped the 3D backgrounds in favour of much simplified 2D images, in order to broaden the scope of the game's world map.  Clearly they really struggled to produce a HD Shantae game of ample scope, especially on a Kickstarter budget.  And it's also probably why the game feels like it had some of its exploration elements shoehorned into its DKC style levels... because they wanted to pad out the game's length.

It's not a bad idea though, and for the most part I'd say it was executed well.  But I've played enough games to know when a game is being padded out because of production issues, and this is definitely the case here.  Still, as far as padding goes? It's very good padding, and done very well.  After all, Wayforward were masters of the craft; they made their living off of working on ultra cheap and low budget licensed handheld games back in the day, they know how and where to spend their limited budgets and resources.  And they chose (mostly) well in this case.

Ughh... I don't feel so good...

 

One area that they absolutely did not skimp on the budget with however is the music.  This was Jake Kaufman's final stint with Wayforward (he went freelance during the middle of this game's production) and he went out with a bang.  Hot dahym is this soundtrack FIRE!  Every song is a winner.  Here's just a couple for you to salivate over...

 

Despite its issues, Shantae: Half Genie Hero is a fantastic game.  Ultimately I guess I just wish there was more of it, but what's here is A-Grade material from start to finish.  While it's not my favourite in the series (that honour belongs to Pirate's Curse), this is an excellent entry that is probably as good a starting point as any.  Just keep in mind that it plays rather differently from the rest of the games in the series.

 

Perfect Dark

 

This is the best first person shooter ever made, and probably the best one that will ever be made until the end of time.

Perfect Dark is the sequel to Goldeneye, but you already knew that, because you're smart people.  I don't really need to offer much background this time around, but I will note something that some of you may not know... Half of this game's development team left Rare in the middle of its development, who would go on to found Free Radical.  As such, Rare had to scramble together staff from other areas of the company to fill in the gaps and finish what had already been started.  Given the circumstances, it's a true miracle that the game came together as it did.  From chaos was born perfection.

 

Miyamoto Approved

 

You've assuredly all played this game, so you already know that it's an incredible mix of fast-paced almost arcade-light-gun-esc shooting action and immersive sim like world and level design.  The levels are all like intricate clockwork contraptions where characters roam around and you use various gadgets & gizmos to mess around with how it all works in order to manipulate your surroundings and achieve every given objective.  But it's wrapped up in fast-paced shooter gameplay that feels... yes, I'm gonna say it again, perfect.

I decided to play through all of Agent, Secret Agent and Perfect Agent again as soon as the game hit the NSO N64 service; and after a couple of months of on and off play? I finally pulled it off, without the use of save states.  That includes unlocking every cheat, which involved beating every speedrun challenge and achieving 100% completion in the firing range.  Long have I waited for a re-release of the original N64 version of the game, without all the horrible balance changes and butchered art and controls of the Xbox "remaster".  I cannot express my joy at being able to finally play the original N64 version, with its original controller and now running in HD with a framerate that's better than 3-7 FPS! It's the version of the game I've been waiting to play since 2006, when I first dreamed about it coming to the Wii VC; and the NSO release does not disappoint.

So rather than wax poetic about a game you all know like the back of your hands already? I'm just gonna post some choice clips I took from my playthrough...

What a game! Truly worthy of the title of "Perfect".  It will never be topped, because...

 

Balatro

 

The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.

Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory.

 

I... I made a mistake.  I started playing this game... and now I can't stop...

 

This infectious little parasite has wormed its way into my life and I hate it... but I love it even more...

It's such a simple concept.  Take poker hands, apply a score to each one, then start introducing modifier cards to either alter your deck, or multiply your score.  Sounds basic and simple, but oh the synergies... Oh the possibilities...

 

The gameplay setup is simple.  Your goal is to beat Ante 8 with a given Deck and given Stake (you start off on the basic White Stake, with no modifiers, but as you win runs, you gain access to increasingly difficult Stakes that further stack the odds against you with gameplay modifiers that act to make the game harder).  Each Ante presents you with an ever increasing Target Chips score to beat, and you either beat it, or you lose the run and have to start over.  You start off with a limited number of Hands and Discards, and you must beat the Blind within the limited number of Hands you have available.  Run out of Hands to play and it's Game Over.

You start off with a standard Regulation Deck of 52 playing cards.  Aces are high, but can be used as low if you want to play a straight (So both 10,J,Q,K,A and A,2,3,4,5 would count as a Straight).  Each poker hand has a different base score depending on the rarity of said hand (So a Full House is worth a higher score than a Two Pair for instance).  Crucially, scoring is divided into two seperate numbers; your Chips and your Mult.  Chips are your basic score, while Mult... is a multiplier (glad you figured that one out).  Every poker hand comes with a base Chips score and a base Mult; for instance, a basic Flush is worth 35 Chips and 4x Mult.  On top of this, each playing card is worth the amount of Chips that is listed on the card, with Face Cards (J,Q,K,A) all being worth 10 Chips and Aces granting 11 Chips.  Mult is always applied after the chips are tallied up (this is very important).

 

In this case, your base score is 35 x 4 = 140.  However, you also have the Chips from the playing cards themselves, which would be 11 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 4 = 40.  Because Mult is applied after Chips are tallied, the final score is calculated as thus... 35 + 40 x 4 = 300

 

Each Ante is broken up into 3 Rounds.  You have a Small Blind, a Big Blind and finally a Boss Blind (The latter of which introduces some sort of restriction that makes your life more difficult as you try to achieve the Target Score).

Skip Blind!? Why would I want to do that...

 

And inbetween each Blind, you get the opportunity to buy new cards from the shop... Wait? New cards!? Oh yes!  As it turns out, there are many other types of cards aside from the Regulation Playing Cards that we can use... Most important of all are the Joker Cards, as the game's name implies.  There are 150 of these wonderful little things that you can use to modify your hands and develop strategies with, but there are also many other types of cards too; including Celestial Cards (that can level up a particular poker hand and make it score more points per use), Tarot Cards (that can modify the playing cards themselves) and Spectral Cards (which have a variety of crazy effects).  Oh, and there may be a way to buy new Playing Cards too somehow...

Let's go over just a single, simple synergy.  Let's look at the Joker Card Scholar...

This handsome dude here

 

This interesting little Common Joker activates on the start of a new Blind and lasts the whole Round, making it so that any played Aces (of any suit) give 20+ Chips and +4 Mult when scored.  Naturally, this card will favour any hand that uses more than one Ace, so a Four of a Kind with 4 Aces will score much more than a Single Pair of Aces.  If only there was a way to get your hands on more Aces...

Oh... Oh SHI...

 

Did you notice how some of these cards also have different shiny effects on them? Did you think that there wasn't a way to upgrade your Playing Cards? Oh you best believe that you can...

Foil cards give an extra 50+ Chips whenever played, while Polychrome Cards MULTIPLY YOUR MULT, yes, you read that correctly!!! If you currently have a Mult of x10 for instance? That goes up to x15, just from playing a single card.  This can start to spiral out of control very quickly...

 

OH MY... I THINK I'M GONNA...

 

Oh, but we're only just scratching the surface of what's possible... They're not even the best types of Playing Card modifiers you can get... There's plenty more, but I'm just gonna go over one more, in order to discuss another potential synergy...

Glass Cards give you a whopping 2x multiplier to your Mult for each card played (naturally favouring played poker hands that use 5 cards, such as a Straight), but there's a catch... Each time you use a Glass Card, it has a 1 in 4 chance of being destroyed permanantly.  So each use is playing with fire, you don't wanna lose that valuable card that you worked so hard to make...

Enter DNA!

It's rare for a reason...

 

This Rare Joker is a potential monster in the right hands... It activates only once at the start of each Blind and deactivates after the first Hand is played.  What does it allow you to do? Why, it duplicates the first card played and places it into your Deck permanantly, so long as the Hand only contains a single card (i.e, a High Card Hand).  You may not always want to duplicate the first card that you can see, but fret not, you can use your Discards to throw away unwanted cards until the one you want to duplicate is pulled; so long as you have enough Discards at your disposal (I wonder if there's a way to increase the number of Discards and Hands available to you...).  All of a sudden, that Glass Card that you've been holding onto?

Ha ha! You'll never be rid of me!

 

I'm gonna have to leave it here, because I could literally spend my entire day just sitting here and discussing potential strategies, but needless to say; this game is just brilliant.  This is my Game of The Year, without a shadow of a doubt.  I've spent well over 150 hours playing this bloody game and I probably won't be stopping any time soon.  Try as I might to quit, ultimately the answer is...

 

 

 

I will leave you with the best Hand that I've managed to achieve so far in this game... Enjoy!

 

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

 

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Conquest is the sequel to the original Donkey Kong Country... shocking I know.  What is shocking however is that they somehow managed to make this game in just a single year.  HOW!?

Unnecessary? Guess you can't bring yourself to be harsh on DKC 2

 

I managed to tear myself away from Balatro long enough for a quick 100% playthrough of DKC 2 and yeah, it's still the best 2D platformer that the SNES has to offer.  It's the full package, amazing level design, spectacular presentation, legendary music, the works.  What is there to be said about this game that hasn't already been said?  You know it's The Tits, it will forever be The Tits.

Gifs you can HEAR...

 

Now, I'm pretty partial to the original DKC.  I think that it gets a bit of a bad rap these days from people who reckon that they're edgy and cool.  I don't subscribe to that.  DKC is a fine platformer, one of the best of its generation even (I'd actually rate it better than any of the MD Sonics, and better than Yoshi's Island), but DKC 2 really is just an order of magnitude better still.  They took everything that worked with the original DKC and cranked it up to 11.  Every single level introduces at least one original mechanic not seen before, be it a stage gimmick, a new enemy type or some sort of new type of obstacle/barrel or interactive element.  While it doesn't quite go as far as DKC 3 in that regard (which is basically the 2D predecessor to Super Mario Galaxy and it's Every Level Is A Gimmick Level approach to game design), every stage is just laid out to perfection; with an incredible flow that emphasises fast-paced but careful platforming.  Oh and the verticality? Oh the verticality! No other 2D platformer of its generation really nails the mixture of horizontal and vertical platforming that DKC 2 does; it has an unmatched variety of level design and flow that makes it the most highly regarded platformer of its generation (and arguably of all time).

Gifs you can FEEL...

 

The presentation is also amongst the best of its entire generation.  They really upped the ante from DKC1 here, with reference-level use of the SNES' colour and transparancy effect capabilities, as well as some excellent background raster effects that look almost polygonal in places...

Gifs you can TASTE...

 

Memorable characters, cheeky British humour, oodles of charm.  DKC 2 has it all!

Gifs you can... spot Battletoads references in?

 

DKC2's beauty is not just skin deep, it's a beautiful package of expertly crafted game design.  It's a Japanese style platformer done by the British.  Outdoing Nintendo at their own game.  Far removed from the myriad of Euro Platformers and American-made dreck of the 90s, this is a game that, if you didn't know any better, you'd swear that Nintendo made it themselves.  You know a game is special when Nintendo themselves co-opted it and based all their future Donkey Kong games upon it.

 

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

 

With the launch of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, I found myself ready for a replay of the first AAI game before diving into the long-anticipated second game.  It had been a very long time since I last played the original AAI and I was itching to rediscover Miles' adventure outside of the courtroom.  So.  How does the game stack up against my memories?

I wouldn't say it's perfect, but it's pretty darn good

 

AAI 1 is a damn fine entry in the series.  Far be it for me to get into the nitty gritty of the game's story, lest I spoil the entire point of the game, but I really dig the change of gameplay structure.  While it does still fall into the same trappings of finding evidence and presenting it in a cross-examination of testimony to find contradictions; the loss of demarcation between "Investigation" and "Courtroom" makes the gameplay a bit more dynamic, as you're never quite sure when you're about to be thrust into a cross-examination.  It also means that the scenario can change more dynamically and suddenly than before.  It makes a nice change of pace from having 4 very similar AA games before this one.

The story is overall pretty good, but it does fall into the trap of having the middle part of the game feel a bit disconnected from the beginning and end.  Nonetheless, it's engaging and filled with memorable characters and moments that'll get some good chuckles out of anyone with a funny bone in their body.  While I totally get why some people take grievance with this game's final Case in particular; the scenario is so ridiculous that it wraps back round to being entertaining for me.

I can't really delve much more into the game's scenario without delving into the realm of spoilers, so I just want to take a moment to discuss the remake itself.

Lookin' sharp there Edgeworth!

 

Capcom did a superb job here.  The new sprites are incredibly well done, matching the look and feel of the sprites of the original DS version perfectly (which, out of interest, were originally done by Arc System Works), while drastically increasing the detail and animation fidelity.  This is something that Capcom haven't always gotten right with their Ace Attorney remakes; with pretty much every post-DS version of the original AA Trilogy looking bloody awful right up until they finally got something decent looking with the modern AA Trilogy release on current consoles.  So I'm very pleased to see that they got it right with the AAI Collection; especially given its more heavy reliance on pixel art animation compared to the other AA games.

One thing that is a bit of a bummer though is that there's no touch screen support this time... which is a bit weird considering that literally every other Ace Attorney remake on Switch has full touch screen support.  Just not this one.  Granted, it's not a huge deal considering that you're directly controlling Edgeworth's movement in this game; as opposed to the menu-driven point n' click gameplay of the other games, but it still would've been nice to have, as the menus feel a bit clunky to use in comparison to the usual touch screen controls that we have.

Otherwise? Yeah, this is the same Ace Attorney Investigations that I thoroughly enjoyed the first time around.  It's still great, but it's ultimately just a prelude to come for a sequel that is orders of magnitude better.

Indeed it is...

 

Haunted Castle: Revisited

 

Here's something I never expected to see in my lifetime... A genuine, brand new Castlevania game!  Well, sort of.  It's also something I never expected to see in the Earth's lifetime, a re-imagining of Haunted Castle of all bloody games.  And it's finally something I never expected to see within the heat death of the universe... Something that makes Haunted Castle actually bloody good!

This certainly isn't the Haunted Castle that I know and hate...

 

If you've ever read any of my posts about the Castlevania series, you'll know that Haunted Castle is amongst the worst games ever released by a major pubilsher.  Hell, I wrote about this steaming little pile of secrets in a previous NE Gaming Diary post a few years back (which I can't find for some weird reason; even Google and the site's search feature is embarrassed by this game!) where I tore it into shreds.  It's a Castlevania game! Developed by Konami! In the late 80s! Released for the arcades! How could it possibly be anything but amazing!? Oh, you have no idea...

... broken and stiff controls, braindead "level design" that consists of mostly flat ground and basic jumps, broken hitboxes that don't work and overall game design that feels like it was cobbled together in a weekend.  It's remarkable just how bad it is.  It is legitmately perhaps the worst game I've ever played, and to think it was a Classic Konami 1987 Castlevania Arcade game!  How!? How did it all go so incredibly wrong!?

So then, Haunted Castle Revisited is that incredibly rare thing.  It's a remake of a game that actually desperately needed one.  Far removed from the unnecessary remakes of good games that currently flood the market (I'm looking at YOU Silent Hill 2!) and the remasters of games released just a couple years prior (TLOU 2? Why!?).  But this goes beyond mere remake, this is an entire reimagining of the original Haunted Castle from the ground up; much like Metroid Zero Mission was to the original NES Metroid, or indeed, what Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth was to the original Game Boy game.

Covering up one's modesty rather nicely here 

 

It's no accident then that Konami tasked M2 with doing the impossible here.  After all, they were the developers of Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth on the Wii; a similar reimagining of a much malligned Game Boy entry in the Castlevania series.  And that pedigree is pretty clear to see here as well, as the visuals and engine are very clearly built on top of that Wii game; with a very similar look and feel that should be immediately apparent to anyone who has previously played Adventure Rebirth before.

The task involved with Haunted Castle Revisited is much more herculian however, because while the original Castlevania: The Adventure had its share of problems, it was still a generally competent if basic take on the Castlevania formula; with some interesting ideas and concepts.  The source material had something worthwhile that could be moulded into a good game with a bit of rethinking.  Haunted Castle however? No.  That game offers nothing.  It is an irredemable mound of festering waste; outside of its soundtrack, which is a given for any game bearing the Castlevania name (even when it doesn't actually bare the name itself, in Haunted Castle's case!).  So how do you take such ignoble material and make something good out of it? Honestly? I'm not quite sure how they pulled it off, but they did!

More blue and yet somehow less blue than the original

 

Overall, I'd say that Haunted Castle Revisited actually veers closer to its source material than Adventure Rebirth did.  While the levels have all been heavily redesigned, they are recognisable in comparison to the original game; unlike with Adventure Rebirth, which barely resembled the Game Boy title at all.  Certainly the levels have been expanded and altered tremendously, but the set-pieces you may deplore from Haunted Castle are all present and accounted for (save for one).  The burning bushes in the first Graveyard stage? Yup, they're here.  The mansion with the crying paintings in Stage 3? Present and accounted for.  I can look at the stages and recognise where they came from, which wasn't necessarily the case in Adventure Rebirth.

The enemy placement is far more fair and well thought out than in the original game, with a few new enemy types thrown in too, including a couple taken straight from Adventure Rebirth (you will recognise the crow's movement pattern immediately if you've played M2's other Castlevania game!).  And each subweapon is actually useful this time around, instead of the complete deadweight it was originally.  The controls are like greased lightning in comparison to the original game, now much more in-line with Adventure Rebirth; though you can't jump directly onto stairs like in that game.  And the hitboxes actually work now! Praise Dracula!

Overall, the game is pretty easy for a Castlevania game.  I almost 1cc'd the game on my first attempt; a world apart from the original game in that respect.  It's still only 6 stages long, and the level design is pretty simple compared to other games in the series (it was clearly built like an arcade game would've been built back in the late 80s); but it's actually fun to play! They did the impossible! They coaxed something worthwhile out of something worthless!  And speaking of something worthwhile, the bosses have all received a complete overhaul.  They share more or less nothing in common with their original arcade counterparts, and are actually genuinely thrilling to fight! Bravo M2!

Hey! It's that dude from Dawn of Sorrow! I would never of guessed that he was supposed to be a Haunted Castle throwback originally!

 

While I don't think this game is as good as Adventure Rebirth, it's arguably a more impressive feat; because of just how little they had to work with.  I wish more bad games could get this kind of treatment, too much emphasis is placed on remaking the games that are already good in this industry; there's so much potential for bad games to finally become good, that it's just so wasteful.  I hope M2 get another chance to make a new Castlevania title at some point.  They've proven themselves more than worthy at this point.

Yoshi's Story

 

As I mentioned in Cube's N64 playthrough thread.  Yoshi's Story is an experimental game that came out at an unfortunate time.  Since I actually put some effort into my post in that thread, and we're already past 8,400 words written so far (no, really, I counted!), I'm just gonna lazily copy/paste what I said there into this thread.  Enjoy!

 

Quote

This game gets a really unfair bum rap, usually being reviewed for what it isn't (A straightforward sequel to Yoshi's Island) rather than what it is (A score attack focused action platformer).

For better or worse, it's a very experimental game; with some outright strange level design and gameplay structure.  It was probably the wrong game at the wrong time, and I don't just mean that because it's Nintendo's one and only sprite-based game released for their shiny new polygon pushing 3D powerhouse; but because it was seen as a slight game when Nintendo desperately needed a sprawling and meaty adventure title to impress their early 1998 audiences (it only squeaks into 1997 in Japan on a pure technicality).

When playing this game, you can tell that it was viewed by its developers as a bit of a game design playground of sorts, it's gameplay structure is outright bizzare, with its stages not even having a defined ending; only being completed whenever Yoshi has had his fill of fruit (though there are always exactly 30 melons to find; eat melons only for the best score!).  Even the basic controls can be described as experimental, with a lot of focus being placed on what the N64's analog stick can bring to the table with very fine and granular movement and aiming controls (the d-pad goes completely unused here), while the enemy designs and level gimmicks come across as drug fuelled nightmare spawn... I mean...

Just LOOK at this menagerie of monstrous designs

...UGH!!

This bizzaro world concept also spreads to the music too, as Kazumi Totaka decided to coke up and thrust out some... experimental stuff...

... oh shit! That's a fan mashup, how did that one slip in there!? Lemme try that one again...

... some smooth Wave Race 64 vibes goin' on with that last one there... I see what you did Totaka 

Anyway.  I can dig Yoshi's Story.  It's a weird game that came out at an unfortunate time, where people wanted something grander and more contemporary, but I still have a soft spot for it 

If I do have any critisism to level at this game, it's that it doesn't have a huge amount of depth as a score attack game.  There's a simple and obvious critical path to achieving a perfect score (eat 30 melons) and once you've done that? The game is clocked; there's no further capacity to chase higher scores.  It's still enjoyable despite this, but there isn't much longevity as a pure score-attack game.  Its DS follow-up (Yoshi's Touch N' Go) would end up being a far more compelling pure score-attack game, probably in response to the scoring limitations seen in its N64 predecessor.

Despite the above, the game still stands out as being totally unique, both within the N64's library and within Nintendo's catalogue as a whole.  And despite its gameplay structure never making a return, it would ironically end up being perhaps the most influential game within the entire Yoshi series (indeed, it's the game that turned what was once considered to be "Super Mario World 2" into its own entire franchise!)

What I will say is that I originally started this playthrough with the intention of doing an All Melons run... I quickly gave up on that idea once I realised just how much it was gonna end up driving me completely insane; so I just settled for a basic playthrough on Stage 4 of each world (the hardest stage, and the one that requires finding 3 Hearts in each stage to unlock).  I had fun! But yeah... I can't see myself ever attempting an All Melons run ever again.  It's just too much work, and far too frustrating.

Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit

 

Now we get to the main course.  This is the big one, the one that got away in that case 13 years ago...

Without being able to discuss spoilers here (I do mention a few in the game's official thread here, go read them there if you're interested, but only if you've already beaten AAI2, please), I'm just going to be able to discuss the game's overall structure and flow.  Needless to say, this game's story is everything an old school Ace Attorney fan could possibly ask for; filled with endless twists and turnabouts that will make your jaw drop so hard that it'll go through the floor, including some long desired appearances and closure.

The game plays out broadly similarily to its immediate predecessor, with a similar out-of-courtroom investigation focus.  I will say that AAI2 takes much better advantage of that lack of demarcation between Courtroom setting and Investigation setting than the first game did; playing around with the very structure of the AA series to pretty surprising effect.

There are some new mechanics that are introduced with this game, as well as some surprising returning ones that I didn't expect to see, but the main one that I can talk about is Mind Chess; since that's the one that the game was originally marketed around.  I really like this mechanic, and I feel that it not only allows for a new form of interrogation/questioning, but it also acts to further establish Edgeworth as a character.  That being said, I do feel that it was perhaps a bit underutilised; it felt like there was some more room left unexplored with it, which is a bit of a shame.  However, this mechanic would end up being repurposed into the Logic Line, as seen in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice; so it worked out in the end.

Four Move Checkmate

 

This game is a big character study for Edgeworth, and character development is a real strong point within this game in general.  I can't really say any more than that, but I am confident in saying that this is now the best game in the Ace Attorney series.  Yes, Trials & Tribulations has been beaten; and the student has surpassed the master.  How ironic that Capcom buried their best work as a Japan exclusive for 13 long years; but the case has finally been solved.  May this be the beginning of a bright future for the series going forward.

Nothing but Debeste

 

Phew! And here we finally reach the end of this marathon.  That'll teach me for typing up a whole year's worth of diary entries in one go... what do you mean we still have 3 months left to go!?!? Are you saying that I'm gonna have to type up my thoughts on Emio: The Smiling Man, Great Ace Attorney 1, 1000x Resist and Great Ace Attorney 2 as I finish them over the next few months!?!? Oh you've gotta be kidding me!!!

Spoiler

Gokujo Parodius – Pursuing the Past Glory/Fantastic Journey
Sonic Superstars
Virtua Cop 3
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore
Shantae: Half Genie Hero
Perfect Dark
Balatro
Donkey Kong Country 2
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Haunted Castle: Revisited
Yoshi's Story
Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit

 

Edited October 9 by Dcubed

[WackerJr]

Some fab write-ups there.  That hand in Balatro was just insane too!  I was trying to work out how you got there, and has made me realise just much I have to learn in that game!

[Dcubed]

5 hours ago, WackerJr said:

Some fab write-ups there.  That hand in Balatro was just insane too!  I was trying to work out how you got there, and has made me realise just much I have to learn in that game!

Funnily enough, I just did another run last night and managed to get to Ante 16 with a best Hand going up to e19! Sadly I just couldn't get the Negative Jokers/empty slots or Red Seals I needed to pull off anything further.

There's lots of different ways to get there, but my go-to strat involves Baron + Steel Kings + as many Blueprints, Mimes & Brainstorms as I can get my hands on (The top-tier strats also involve the use of Cryptids & Perkeo, but you'd have to get insanely lucky to pull it off; or play a Seeded run to get them).

I'm just currently trying to beat every Stake with every Deck right now, rather than specifically playing to "beat" Endless Mode.  So whenever I end up getting an accidental "God Run", I just let it play out as far as it'll go for fun; but I'm not specifically trying for it.

Edited October 9 by Dcubed

[CrowingJoe79]

Currently playing Silent Hill 2, and Bloober Team hit the ball right out of the park. For anybody who was doubtful before, man. I honestly wish they'd take over from that lousy M-Two for Capcom. They did a stellar job.

The game is longer than the original, and the story isn't a flipping hack job of a state either, like what Capcom did with their RE remakes. The creatures are all faithfully redesigned. There's more places to explore. It's a win-win all around.

Some cutscenes feel a bit wooden when they talk, but I mean. SH characters were always rather confused in their tone anyway.

But hell. Just be glad Konami is back, baby. Back with a vengeance!

[nekunando]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jonnas]

Something curious happened, recently. I started a new job (which made me a lot busier as of late), and an unexpected perk came with it: there's an Arcade machine in the break room! This is one of those quasi-bootleg machines with hundreds of emulated games inside ("Pandora's Box 4" is what says on the title screen), but they're there, and they're free.

As such, I took the opportunity to fill some holes on my gaming history:

A Jonnas Arcade Update

Just, some things to clarify for added context

• I've only had 30 minutes at most per session with each game. My lunch breaks are all I get to explore these classics;
• Emulation is inconsistent. Games like SF Alpha seem to run just fine, whereas SFIII: Third Strike chugs a lot (curiously, SFIII: New Generation runs without issues as well);
• I'm not used to Arcade pads, but even taking that into account, this joy stick is wonky AF. I can't do hadoukens easily (some games are harder than others in this regard, but no game where they're easy to pull off), dragon punches are out of the question, and my characters would occasionally short hop at the slightest of touches upward. 360º motions are a blast to pull off, though.

Because of these factors, these "Arcade" updates will be sparse and few. But we'll see.

Art of Fighting

Credit: Fightersgeneration.com

Released in 1992, Art of Fighting was quite the experiment by SNK. It's a fighting game for sure, and one that's fairly derivative of Street Fighter II, but it brought a lot of unique features to the table.

Characters have a "ki" bar that gets depleted with each special move, you can charge it in place, you can taunt to deplete your opponent's ki, you can perform certain moves off the wall or in mid-air (IIRC only Vega could pull that off in Street Fighter, and he wasn't playable at first), there are Desperation supermoves, the camera is very dynamic (zooming in and out), characters' faces get bruised as the fights go on, and most memorable of all, this game was actually built with a single-player campaign in mind.

The story follows Ryo Sakazaki, a young karateka (his father owns the dojo) whose sister got kidnapped by thugs. His best friend Robert (a student of the dojo, and Yuri's boyfriend) joins him in this quest. It's got a very "Steven Seagal movies from the 80s" vibe.

While there are 8 playable characters in multiplayer, the single-player arcade mode only allows you to play as two: Ryo and Robert. Each fight is predetermined, with specific dialogue playing at the start and end of each match, advancing the story. And between each match, there's a ridiculous shot of Ryo riding his motorcycle (or a less ridiculous shot of Robert driving his car) to the next location and monologuing.

At some point, there will be minigames. While smashing cars is fun, these AOF minigames are more rewarding. You pick one of 3: the arm-wrestling minigame is about mashing A, and if you win, your character gets stronger for the remainder of the campaign; the bottle-opening minigame is about timing A, and if you win, your character's ki bar gets larger for the remainder of the campaign; the hadouken minigame is about practising a specfiic input to launch a Very Large Hadouken (not the official name), and if you do it 6 times within the time limit, you unlock that move, the VLH, for the remainder of the campaign.

It's a fun idea that gives your playthrough a bit more choice and replayability. Since I couldn't input most of my moves properly anyway, I always went for the arm-wrestling.

Honestly, despite how janky and dated it feels, there's a... weight to it. Fights feel pondered, simpler moves are more powerful than in modern games, and there's a chunkiness to the sprites and sound effects that feels really good. It's a very unique fighting game, and it's worth trying.

Sadly, the fifth fight is as good as I reached in less than 30 minutes, but I watched the rest online. I already knew the plot, but it's actually pretty cool to see the pace at which it unravels. It's a 3 star game, and my heart kinda wanted that score to go even higher.

Art of Fighting 2

Credit: Fightersgeneration.com

I played this one before. I just wanted to re-check it to get a better idea of the series' evolution.

Released in 1994, this one is structured more like a typical fighting game, which makes it less unique. Sure, the ki bars and bruised faces are still there, but it lost the invested single-player experience. Thankfully, the goofy writing still tries to go for memorable interactions, characters, and relationships, so it still has its own identity.

In this environment, the jank hurts the experience, more than me finding it quaint. Everything is a pain to control in this game. Worse, the difficulty is unforgiving, easily the hardest in the trilogy. The first fight kicked my ass over and over.

Sadly, this game has aged pretty poorly. 2 stars is all I'm willing to give it.

Art of Fighting 3

We then arrive at AOF3, released in 1996. This one goes in a wild new direction, both in aesthetics and in gameplay.

Starting with the obvious, animations in this game are incredibly fluid (for the most part). This was the first time that SNK experimented with rotoscoping, and they had fun with it. You can see some rough edges here and there (characters get up way too quickly, for example, and characters like Jin have very stiff movements), but it was Streets ahead of anything else back then.

The soundtrack goes for some very jazzy ambience, which I appreciate. New for the series, as well.

Gameplay-wise, some series elements like the ki bar and taunts are retained, but the flow of the fights is now very different. Imagine my surprise when I started attacking, and found out that punches and kicks flow into each other seamlessly, like... a 3D fighter. Indeed, this game feels like they looked at Tekken or Virtua Fighter and thought "Can we do those strings of moves in a 2D game?".

Some 2D games attempted that sort of thing before, with really poor results (*cough* Virtua Fighter Mega Drive *cough*), but AOF3 seems to have been able to actually strike something functional. Enemies can be launched and juggled in a way that feels very Virtua Fighter-esque. Once again, still a bit rough in some aspects (striking an opponent while they're down can feel really finicky and unnatural), but for a first try, it's great!

SNK wrote this game like a side-story. While the previous games focused on Ryo, this game is about Robert and him going to Mexico to help out a friend, with Ryo being the one who tags along this time. Outside of Ryo and Robert, the roster is entirely new, made up of folk that's involved in this Mexican business. Weirdly enough, Yuri's in the plot, but not playable.

The single-player is far more traditional this time around (not even minigames this time), with vague hints about the plot being told between matches. The writing feels weirder than usual, like the plot was written out, but the machine can only display half of the dialogue at any time. It's disjointed too, for example, there's a cutscene dedicated to introducing Karman Cole to the plot, but you only fight him a couple of matches later, and he has zero consequence to anything that happens.

Special shout-out to Wyler, the goofiest SNK boss I've ever seen. He doesn't move much, he spams bitch-slaps where he only moves his wrist, and his get-up animation is just embarrassing (seen at 13:09 in the video above). There's something lovable about this, of course, but holy shit.

Despite the rough edges, I had an absolute blast with this game. Punishing enemies with simple juggles and combo strings feels rewarding in a casual playthrough. I wish SNK had continued to develop games in this style, "2D fighter that feels a lot like a 3D fighter". The general vibe of the game is very pleasant, as well. I didn't have enough time to defeat Wyler, but he didn't seem too hard. I respect the decision to reboot the roster too, and while these new blokes aren't very popular, I think there's a charm to them.

My heart wants to give this 4 stars, but my head knows it should be 3 stars. (My opinion is always subject to change, of course, but 4 stars is where I put games DB Fighterz or Guilty Gear XX. Perspective is important)

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

This is a fascinating series. It did a lot to push the genre forward (heck, Ryo was even the first-ever guest character in a fighting game, in Fatal Fury 2), despite none of its entries being very popular by themselves. Its characters would live on in King of Fighters, where they made the vast majority of their fans (and even in Street Fighter, where Dan Hibiki is a parody of Ryo, Robert, and Yuri all at once).

Each game looks different from the others, but there's a cohesive line in there. I respect that as well. Interestingly, I used to hear that AOF1 was rough and mediocre at best, AOF2 was the only decent entry, and AOF3 was "the weird one" that didn't do much of note. These are wildly different opinions from the ones I got after playing these games myself, and that's fascinating. Is it a sign of the times, maybe? Where janky-but-creative games like AOF1 have far more value in 2024 than a dated traditional fighter like AOF2? Meanwhile, AOF3 was my favourite hidden gem here.

The most surprising thing? SNK revealed they're working on a new Art of Fighting game back in July. This is crazy to me, this was a series made to experiment and innovate in fighting games back in the 90s (when the genre practically only existed in Arcades), and I can't imagine it existing outside of that context. What are they even going to do, here? I'm very curious.

Heck, I'd even argue that "Schlocky action film starring Steven Seagal" isn't that popular of a film genre anymore. The modern equivalent would be... I don't know, John Wick? Should Robert be played by Keanu Reeves? On an unrelated note, does anybody have SNK's e-mail for fan suggestions?

Edited October 19 by Jonnas

[Nolan]

I’ve played various titles but none I want to talk about so much as Laika: Aged Through Blood. I’m slightly surprised I didn’t see a thread for it but I’m not about to be the one to make it. 

Game was great. Absolutely brutal storytelling right from the opening to the very damn end. I really enjoyed it overall and loved the music. I’d put it up with the Nier games in terms of music. 

Gameplay is all solid and serviceable but I could see how some wouldn’t enjoy it. It’s like a fusion of the Trials games with Metroidvania and a small smattering of soulslike. When everything clicks you can feel like an absolute badass, but plenty of times something can go wrong and you flub it and die.

On Steam (and I think maybe other platforms) there’s a fairly long demo that I really recommend to make sure the gameplay jives before buying. Progress carries over but can be bugged and may involve moving save files manually from one folder to the other. 

[Jonnas]

2 hours ago, Nolan said:

Laika: Aged Through Blood

Wow, hadn't heard of this one before. Looks stunning. Not on Switch yet, but Steam and GOG both have it. I'll wishlist this for sure.

[Glen-i]

...That's a trick question, right?

Banjo-Tooie is a 3D platformer game developed by Rare that originally released on the N64 in 2000. It's the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, and was just added to the N64 NSO app. It's quite important that you know I played that version, by the way.

2 years have passed since Banjo (The bear) and Kazooie (The bird) pushed an old woman off of a tower. Said old woman is Gruntilda, and she's been trapped under a boulder outside of Banjo's house for the past two years. This can't possibly be a bad thing, so Banjo is playing Poker with his pals.

But oh no! Bad thing! Two of Grunty's sisters break into the Spiral Mountain area with a massive tank and free her from her rocky prison. Her skin has kind of decayed, and now she's a skeleton. Being the calm, non-vindictative type of person, Gruntilda decides the best course of action is to total Banjo's house, and kill Banjo's friend, Bottles. That last bit isn't very important, he was no-one's favourite character in the first game anyway. So it falls to Banjo and Kazooie to traverse the nearby Isle o' Hags, find Grunty, and make sure we don't get a third game.

*sigh* Now I'm sad.

Being a Rare game from the 90's, the game is naturally chock full of jokes and a crapton of innuendo, even by 90's Rare standards. I still find it funny. The characters are great, and the dialogue is a joy. The humour is also noticably darker then it's predecessor.

The main goal of the game is to explore 8 different worlds and collect golden Jigsaw pieces (They're called Jiggies), there are other things to collect as well. Music Notes are used to learn new abilities for Banjo and Kazooie, and then there's less important ones that offer various benefits.

Banjo-Tooie is a bit of a deceptive game. If you've played the first game, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Tooie is similar fare. But the surprising (and most divisive) thing is that instead of the more straight forward progression of Kazooie or Mario 64, Banjo-Tooie is more like a Metroidvania. Even in the first world, it's impossible to get every Jiggy on your first visit (Normally), as you'll need abilities from later stages to complete some tasks. As well as this, the worlds are noticably larger, and they even connect to each other at times. People give it a lot of flack for this, but I much prefer it this way. I find it weird that in this era of massive open worlds, Banjo-Tooie is seen as inferior to Kazooie for this reason, but Tooie has far better level design anyway. Every Jiggy feels like a more signifcant achievement compared to Kazooie, and Banjo has an impressive repertoire of abilities (They start with every ability from the first game, Samus would be appalled).

The reason that I said that me playing this on the NSO app is important is because Banjo-Tooie is a very ambitious game. It really pushed the N64 to it's limits, the lighting in particular is amazing for the time, and it didn't utilise the Expansion Pak. This meant that the framerate was prone to cratering all the bloody time. The emulator used in the NSO app means that games with uncapped framerates or drops run a lot more smoothly. Banjo-Tooie really benefits from this, as almost the entire game now runs at a steady 30 frames per second.

Eurgh... no, you can keep that game.

To be fair, the Xbox Live Arcade version of this also has an improved framerate, but that was an amateur job, as this meant that cutscenes (Which utilise musical cues) desynced. The NSO version doesn't suffer from that issue, as it restores the original framerate in cutscenes.

Also, the NSO version's HUD isn't ugly as sin, the controls aren't borked, Breegull Blaster sections that require you to aim up aren't literally impossible, you're allowed to use in-game cheat codes and still save, and it has online multiplayer. Yeah, it's no contest. The NSO version is the definitive Tooie experience. It's beautiful.

Canary Mary is still the literal worst, though...

Special shout out goes to the many, many ways that you can sequence break certain things, mostly courtesy of the "superbanjo" cheat, a deceptively simple cheat that makes Banjo run faster.
I love this cheat, it makes the game even more fun! Here is just some of the nonsense you can do.

Fair warning, there are some spoilers here.

Spoiler

OK, that one above isn't actually a sequence break, it's just really funny that you can die that way.
Here's an actual Mingy Jongo sequence break!

I wonder how many of you know about that one? Considering Mingy Jongo is one of the harder bosses in the game, that trick is very useful!

Also not a sequence break, just flexing.

Speaking of, the bosses are so much better then Banjo-Kazooie! Like, I honestly think they're among the best of the 3D platformer genre. The minigames are also really great too.

Anyway, that's my 100% completion time. Pity I didn't break 10 hours...

 

So that's Banjo-Tooie, my favourite single-player N64 game ever, and it's been an utter joy to play such a good version of it. Give it a chance. Go in expecting more of a 3D metroidvania than a 3D platformer, and you might just like it.

Spoiler

Sea of Stars
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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%, Under 2 hours, Normal) 
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX
Super Metroid Redux
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Densetsu No Stafy
Densetsu No Stafy 2
Densetsu No Stafy 3
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Gravity Circuit
Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster
The Plucky Squire
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Banjo-Tooie (100%)

 

[WackerJr]

Thanks.  I’m so pleased to hear they’ve got the emulation right for Banjo-Tooie. I’ve been looking forward to replaying this for years, and was worried after hearing the issues with the XBox version. 
 

Can’t wait to play this again (apart from Canary Mary naturally….).

[WackerJr]

Thanks.  I’m so pleased to hear they’ve got the emulation right for Banjo-Tooie. I’ve been looking forward to replaying this for years, and was worried after hearing the issues with the XBox version. 
 

Can’t wait to play this again (apart from Canary Mary naturally….).

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, WackerJr said:

Thanks.  I’m so pleased to hear they’ve got the emulation right for Banjo-Tooie. I’ve been looking forward to replaying this for years, and was worried after hearing the issues with the XBox version.

To give a real sense of just how well it runs, @S.C.G recorded three of us playing the multiplayer mode.

Hopefully, the timestamp is during our first Squawkmatch. But three player split screen? With Wide-screen enabled? The original version would never be able to pull off 30 FPS there!

[Cube]

1 hour ago, WackerJr said:

Thanks.  I’m so pleased to hear they’ve got the emulation right for Banjo-Tooie. I’ve been looking forward to replaying this for years, and was worried after hearing the issues with the XBox version. 
 

Can’t wait to play this again (apart from Canary Mary naturally….).

The issues for the XBLA version are immensely minor. It has better loading and smoother controls, especially the camera. 

Until a better port is made (either officially or unofficially), it remains the best way to play to play both games.

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Cube said:

The issues for the XBLA version are immensely minor. It has better loading and smoother controls, especially the camera. 

Until a better port is made (either officially or unofficially), it remains the best way to play to play both games.

We've had this conversation before, and we're never gonna agree with this. But I'm gonna have to remind everyone that me, a person who just two days ago, beat Tooie's final boss while only getting hit twice, couldn't even beat it on the XBox because Breegull Blaster's controls were that bad.

EDIT: No, actually, there is something that confuses me. What do you mean by "smoother controls"? The most complex button combination this game asks is holding the crouch button, pressing a different button, then continuing to hold crouch while moving around. Which is exactly the same as what the XBLA version asks of the player.

Edited October 27 by Glen-i

[Hero-of-Time]

October is over and that means so is my spooky game marathon. I also played a few other games in between all of those as well.

Vampire Survivors 

I played a lot through the DLC at the very start of the month. I spoke about it in the thread but it was due to trophies being broken and then finally being fixed that got me playing it again..

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

I wasn’t a fan of this at all. It started off pretty decent, with the game having a very Resident Evil feel to it thanks to a mansion to explore and puzzles to solve. Eventually the game just feels like it runs out of ideas and the puzzles just go out the window and it instead has you traipsing through corridor after corridor, with enemies popping up left and right. I had to go through the game twice due to it being like Resident Evil 2 and having 2 different characters to play as. Unlike Resident Evil 2 that used this system quite well, this one doesn’t really do anything special with it.

Little Nightmares 2

Thoughts haven’t changed since the last time I played it back a couple of years back. The game got a PS5 update and so I decided to platinum it again.

Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed 

Loved this. I played a couple of games online but spent most of my time just playing against the bots. Being able to play as both a Ghostbuster and a ghost meant the gameplay was varied enough to keep things feeling fresh. Very surprised by this one.

Gungrave: G.O.R.E 

I didn’t think I would get to play this due to Sony secretly kicking it off the PS+ list this month but I managed to play and platinum it before it happened. I loved the original game on the PS2, as well as the anime that was released in the early 2000s. The game is a pure definition of run and gun. It’s like playing a 3rd person version of contra. Completely over the top but fun enough to warrant a couple of playthroughs for the platinum.

Ghost Hunter

I loved this back in the day but playing it again some 20 years later I don’t think it holds up that well. Don’t get me wrong, the visuals and effects that are being pulled off for a PS2 game are amazing, but the gameplay is pretty bland, as are the environments. 

Spidersaurs

Really enjoyed this one. It’s been on my wishlist for a while, and it was recently reduced to £6. Anyone who has played any of Wayforward’s games should know just how good their cartoony visuals are. The gameplay is stupidly fun as well, with the game being essentially their take on the Contra franchise.

Ghoul Boy

I had a couple of quid left in my PS wallet and seen this was in the Halloween sale. It’s an indie platform game that has a spooky setting, with the main character hacking and slashing his way through zombies, skeletons and ghosts. What was a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be, with some checkpoints being very harsh with their placements but it was enjoyable enough.

Crow Country 

I’m still not sure what to make of this one. It’s an indie game that takes inspiration from Resident Evil. It certainly looks the part but it just lacks something that made me really enjoy it. I think the map had something to do with it. I found traversing though a lot of the areas a little confusing at times. The respawning enemies didn’t help either.

Bayonetta 1-3

I had played the first 2 games back on the Wii U but had yet to play any of them on the Switch. I could have gone straight to the 3rd game which I have never played at all but with it being the spooky season, I decided to do the trilogy. My thoughts remain the same about the first two games (fun enough but very overrated) and so will just speak about the 3rd game.

Awful game. I hated the new design and look of the characters. The first two games struck a nice balance between realistic and a more anime type style but here they push for a more realistic look, and it doesn’t pay off. Bayonetta has been toned down about (thank goodness) but Viola unfortunately makes up for the lack of sass due to how annoying she is. Thankfully, she plays pretty well and feels a bit like Vergil from the Devil May Cry series. Also, the game is very bland and dark. The heaven and hell settings of the first two games allowed for some contrast between the light and dark levels, but here everything is very doom and gloom.

Story wise, the narrative is a mess. It’s like the jumped on the MCU bandwagon of multiverse shenanigans and, just like Marvel, didn’t really pull it off. The levels themselves felt very disconnected and it was if they had a bunch of ideas but couldn’t merge them all together in a cohesive way and so went with the alternate realities setting instead.

The Kaiju style battles are a miss for me as well. They are so slow and don’t really add anything to the game other than dragging it down even further.

I honestly didn’t start enjoying the game until around chapter 11 where there was a Panzer Dragoon type stage. From that point on until the end of the game I actually did have a little fun and there was one section that did get a good laugh out of me.

I will say that playing these back to back you can definitely notice a difference in the voice acting between the two actresses. I certainly prefer the first. Looking back at the whole situation, I wonder if when she was asked to do a cameo it was for when a certain set of Bayonettas show up? It would make sense that it was going to be for that.

Overall, it was a meh experience and once again highlighted that the series is a poor imitation of Devil May Cry.

Final Fantasy 1-6

With the physical release of the game finally being made available for purchase this month, it was time to play through the early games of the series.

It was nice to finally finish Final Fantasy III. It was the only game in the main series (outside of the MMO’s) that I had never finished. It was also nice playing through Final Fantasy VI again. I had only ever played through the PS1 version of the game and had to endure the long load times between random battles and so this was a much better experience. It’s probably been 20 years since I played through it and I certainly enjoyed it more than I originally did back then. I still find it overrated though.

Having played through them all I can understand why Final Fantasy VII was such a big thing when it first released. Sure, the graphics helped but it is such a change when compared to the first six games. 1 through 6 do feel really similar, what with the fantasy/sword and sorcery setting and so Final Fantasy VII was probably seen as a breath of fresh air at the time.

One thing that did hit me when playing through these is just how many times the party needs to be switched. 2-6 have you constantly switching party members, with some being killed off or others disappearing for large parts of the game. It got pretty annoying and FFV was even worse with how many times I had to keep switching jobs for certain situations.

Trophy wise, I pretty much had to 100% every single game. All hidden items needed to be found, all beastiary entries had to be entered and all treasure chests opened. It took some doing but the platinum was achieved for each and every one of them. The RNG for some of the enemies or items needed was a bit of a nightmare at times.

From best to worst, this was probably how I would rank them all.

Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy 
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy V

Busty month. lots of games played and finished but I still didn't get through everything I wanted. I was planning on playing Luigi's Mansion 2 HD but unfortunately I ran out of time. Hopefully I will get through it this month.

[bob]

58 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Busty month. 

Well you did play Bayonetta.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, bob said:

Well you did play Bayonetta.

 

Haha. Yeah, I'm not even gonna edit that out.  

[Glen-i]

At least @Hero-of-Time put the correct Final Fantasy on top. But you gotta give credit, it did go for a more Steampunk vibe.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack is a collection of two rhythm games that originally released for the 3DS. These original releases were Japan only, but the Switch ports came out worldwide. Said ports came out in 2020.

As the subtitle suggests, these games have plots. They follow Don and Katsu, two sentient taiko drums with no indoor voices as they save the world from, stuff. Really, it's an excuse plot for the game, an RPG format where battles are replaced with rhythm games!

Also, Kirby and Phoenix Wright are here, don't question it.

My god, I can't believe Kirby RPG has existed for 8 years!

Anyway, the best way to describe the game is Donkey Konga with a Taiko drum. Which makes sense, Donkey Konga was a spin-off of this series in the first place. But if you've played any of those games, you'll have a good idea how this plays.

I mean, there's not much to say, it's a solid rhythm game. It's a very Japanese centric soundtrack, and I do wish harder difficulties wouldn't tighten the timing of hitting the notes. It's already hard enough with more notes flying at you...

If you're craving more Donkey Konga, this series is likely the best you're getting.
If you want more rhythm games? Go for Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line first.

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%, Under 2 hours, Normal) 
Chico and the Magic Orchards DX
Super Metroid Redux
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Densetsu No Stafy
Densetsu No Stafy 2
Densetsu No Stafy 3
Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team
Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Gravity Circuit
Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster
The Plucky Squire
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Banjo-Tooie (100%)
Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure Pack

[Hero-of-Time]

Following on from my Final Fantasy 1-6 marathon, I decided to play through INTERmission again.

I first played it earlier in the year, just before Rebirth was released, but I never bothered with the trophies. I decided to fix that.

I had to go through the game again on hard difficulty and tackle a couple of super bosses as well. 

I finished the story yesterday evening and also tackled Weiss. It was an interesting battle because you have to load up a save from the main game and defeat him using characters from there, rather than Yuffie and Sonon. Dude packed a punch but with all my materia maxed out, it didn't take many retries before I took him down. The team of Tifa, Cloud and Aerith was more than enough.

Ultimate Weapon was a fun fight. You have to defeat Bahamut, Ramuh and Pride and Joy one after the other on hard difficulty. I could consistently defeat the first 2 summons but kept struggling with the lumbering robot. I then read that it's best to stay behind him. Downed it first try this morning after adopting that tactic.

It was fun playing on the hardest setting. Like the main game, you really start to appreciate the battle system more when faced with harder opponents. The synergy system with Yuffie and Sonon really came into its own during this playthrough. The rate that you can stagger enemies when using it is a little nuts.