Hero-of-Time Posted March 6 Posted March 6 7 minutes ago, Glen-i said: Not sure if the game is good, or has an easy Platinum... Game is a standard licensed game and yeah the platinum is stupidly easy. I loved Care Bears as a kid and so I was buying it regardless. I nearly bought it on the Switch but seen it was getting a PS4/5 release and so held off.
Glen-i Posted March 6 Posted March 6 Just now, Hero-of-Time said: Game is a standard licensed game and yeah the platinum is stupidly easy. I loved Care Bears as a kid and so I was buying it regardless. I nearly bought it on the Switch but seen it was getting a PS4/5 release and so held off. Soooo... Both? Not the answer I was expecting. Good for you!
Helmsly Posted March 6 Posted March 6 9 minutes ago, Glen-i said: You're not helping my dilemma! 5 1 1
Glen-i Posted March 6 Posted March 6 Maybe before my time, I guess. But I feel like Care Bears were a thing in the 90's?
Helmsly Posted March 6 Posted March 6 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Glen-i said: Maybe before my time, I guess. But I feel like Care Bears were a thing in the 90's? Yeah, pretty big in the 1980s and had a spin off show called Care Bear cousins that I recall being popular. I actually barely watched the cartoon myself as a kid but I have a bit of nostalgia for them just because they were something that was pretty much everywhere along with He-man, Transformers and Real Ghostbusters. They seem to be popular again now though, i went to a toy store a few weeks back to get a gift for my housemates son and saw a HUGE Care bear display. I ended up getting the Grumpy one because he looks like he's unimpressed with everything Edited March 6 by Helmsly 2 1
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6 Posted March 6 3 minutes ago, Glen-i said: Maybe before my time, I guess. But I feel like Care Bears were a thing in the 90's? 80's but like a lot of stuff from back then, they keep getting revivals/remakes. 1 1
drahkon Posted March 6 Posted March 6 GLÜCKSBÄRCHIS!!!!!! Ich möcht' doch bloß ein Glücksbärchi sein Loved it as a kid 3
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6 Posted March 6 Just now, Helmsly said: I ended up getting the Grumpy one because he looks like he's unimpressed with everything Yeah, it's hilarious. I was looking at getting a small one for my desk at work. 1
Jonnas Posted March 6 Posted March 6 I thought I was going crazy, because those images and clips did not match my memories. Those bears were very different than what I remembered. And turns out there's a good reason for that. Who knew there were so many bear-themed cartoons during those times? 3
Hero-of-Time Posted March 6 Posted March 6 5 minutes ago, Jonnas said: Who knew there were so many bear-themed cartoons during those times? There was also this gem. 1 2
Dcubed Posted March 7 Posted March 7 I love how this thread has just become an unofficial Care Bears fanclub all of a sudden 2
BowserBasher Posted March 7 Posted March 7 Ah Care Bears. Good old times. Anyway just to have a little on topic talk, I started TimeSplitters Future Perfect from my pledge list this week. 2
Glen-i Posted March 8 Posted March 8 Yeah, that's the image they use on the Nintendo site for this. Weird... Wario Land 4 is a 2D platformer that originally released on the Game Boy Advance in 2001. As you probably know, it recently got added to the NSO service, and that's where I revisited it. Archaeologists have discovered and unearthed a solid gold pyramid! It's all over the news, the historical discoveries one could find in there are mind-boggling! Unfortunately, it's all over the news, and Wario found out. He's not the kind of guy who wants to further knowledge, he just wants all of the swag for himself! So he gets in his surprisingly sick car, and goes to rob the place. What a role model! Wario Land 4 differs quite drastically from the previous 2 games in the series. Wario is no longer invincible. This was a selling point, apparently. It also follows a more level based structure compared to the Metroid-esque approach the third game took. Despite having a health meter now, Getting hit by certain enemies won't actually damage Wario, but transform him into a different form, which can be used to solve puzzles and find loot. Each level has 4 parts of some kind of gem to find, as well as some strange key creature called Keyser. You need all of them to reach each boss. But the key thing to note is that in order to finish each level, you have to press some kind of frog statue, which sets off a bomb, forcing you to rush back to the start of the level before time runs out. These escape sequences are probably the most well known aspect of the games, and they're my favourite bit. One thing I also like is how this game handles difficulty modes. I played on Hard mode, and there's a lot of differences from normal. Harder enemies, but also, the gem parts are better hidden, and the time limits to escape are stricter. In fact, a couple of levels even change where the frog statue is just to mess with your expectations. The unlockable Super Hard difficulty is even more ridiculous, but I didn't do that. Anyway, the game is still great. I'm more partial to 3 and 2, mind, but I still enjoy this one. I'm of the belief that Mona from WarioWare was based off of whoever this is. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Omori Pokémon Scarlet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Albus Mode) Wario Land 4 (Hard Mode) 5 2
Hero-of-Time Posted Wednesday at 09:23 AM Posted Wednesday at 09:23 AM Yesterday evening I finished another game from my Switch backlog, which was Pokken Tournament DX. I just had a look at the Wii U thread and coincidentally it's nearly 9 years to the day since I rolled the credits on that version. Man, 9 years ago! Crazy. The game is still fun enough to play though, although the AI does get a little cheap in the later tournaments. I decided to counter this by using Chandelure. It's insanely broken to the point where you can literally stand back and mash the A button. It sends out a bunch of projectiles and the AI characters don't know how to counter it. It's a shame the game is just a port and not and actual sequel. The Wii U version laid the groundwork nicely but Nintendo/TPC/Namco didn't really capitalise on it. 3 1
Dcubed Posted Thursday at 01:43 PM Posted Thursday at 01:43 PM Pokken is a fun game, it’s just really lacking in single player content as there’s barely anything to do outside of VS battles and the fairly vanilla arcade ladder. 1
WackerJr Posted Thursday at 11:48 PM Posted Thursday at 11:48 PM On 3/6/2025 at 10:01 PM, Jonnas said: I thought I was going crazy, because those images and clips did not match my memories. Those bears were very different than what I remembered. And turns out there's a good reason for that. Who knew there were so many bear-themed cartoons during those times? Now these are the bears I remember! 😂 Dashing, daring, courageous and caring… In fact, being heavily involved in trampolining nowadays I wonder if those Gummi Bears last a more lasting impression on me than I realised…! I didn’t realise Care Bears were making a comeback either! Sorry, gone off topic, I’ll bring it back shortly. I think I’m just excited to finally chalk a game off my pledge list! Uncharted 2 thoughts coming soon!
WackerJr Posted yesterday at 12:36 AM Posted yesterday at 12:36 AM Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (PS4, played on PS5) Finally, the first game off my pledge list! 😁 I’d never played any of the Uncharted games before this so I can’t compare any to their original releases, but ultimately I had a great time with all three games. I’d heard great things about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves over the years, although was slightly concerned over how well it’d hold up. I needn’t have worried, I thought it was tremendous! Each game essentially breaks itself up into action sequences, traversing the linear path usually via climbing and acrobatic leaps, and the occasional puzzle. This fairly simplistic gameplay loop doesn’t change dramatically across the three games, although certainly becomes more refined. However, the narrative, the story, the action sequences and the set pieces certainly do! The majority of action sequences in the first game were combat-based where you’d hide behind walls and take on enemies in shoot-outs, occasionally finding ways to stealthily take down enemies instead. Uncharted 2 ramps this up, so the action sequences were much more thrilling, varied and cinematic. There were still plenty of combat sequences, although this time the areas you fought in were more diverse and gave more tactical options, such as finding higher ground to get a better viewpoint to take on the increased number of enemies. The biggest improvement for me were the volume of memorable set pieces, from the first moment and then plenty of varied ones throughout taking place (on most methods of transport!). They were astounding in their execution and thoroughly entertaining! Uncharted 3 is similar, although with such a high bar to follow, I enjoyed it but didn’t find it quite as memorable as Among Thieves. Graphically it all looked impressive, as Naughty Dog games generally do. I also thought your AI companion was excellent and genuinely helpful in gun battles, especially in Uncharted 3. They tended to be invulnerable, which I was thankful for with some of my errant shooting (especially when grenades were involved!), but they would take out enemies and move to sensible positions and I never noticed them getting stuck or going anywhere they shouldn’t. I played all three games with my wife, taking it in turns, and we both had a blast. The dialogue was funny and I grew to like the characters and their relationships with each other. I only a had a few minor gripes. There were hidden treasures throughout, but unlike games like the newer Tomb Raiders which indicate how many are in each area and offer rewards for finding them, there was no such assistance here, and the rewards didn’t affect gameplay anyway, so I wasn’t fussed about them. There were a few difficulty spikes along the way too, which made me grateful for the quick loading checkpoints. Ultimately though, I thoroughly enjoyed this, and we’re going through Uncharted 4 now as a result (and as I also got it free via the PSPlus monthly games!). 4 1
Glen-i Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago I didn't even know this box art existed, it's beautiful! Suikoden is a turn-based RPG that originally released on the PS1 in 1997. It was developed by Konami, and apart from a Japan-only PC and Sega Saturn port a year later, it never got a re-release. That is, until very recently, when a HD remaster of this and the sequel was released on all current platforms last week. I played that one, on the Switch. The game follows Tir, son of one of the Great Generals of the Scarlet Moon Empire. His dad has been called away on business, leaving Tir in charge of the household. Naturally, things go awry when Tir's friend, Ted, gets in a spot of bother and begs Tir to take his Soul Eater Rune, a magic orb that some woman who works for the Empire called Windy really wants. This forces Tir and the people his dad employs to go on the run. And this eventually leads him to the Liberation Army, who are looking to overthrow the Empire. But Tir needs to find more people to fight for the Liberation Army, 107 more should do the job. Thankfully, the sword isn't one of them The plot is... an interesting take on the whole "Ragtag army VS Evil Empire" plot. Suppose I should put this in spoilers, because hey, don't know if you know yet, but the spoiler tag is working! Spoiler If you were just to blitz through the game, this would just seem like that typical kind of plot. But I'm the kind of guy who likes to speak to NPC's, and it soon became apparant that the Emperor has become quite depressed after his wife died. He's basically nothing more then a puppet for Windy at this point. It's a weird way of doing things, telling the backstory of one of the main villains mostly through completely optional dialogue. Actually, I guess this game is just weird in general for the era it came out in. The main selling point of Suikoden is the 108 Stars of Destiny. 108 people, including Tir, that you can recruit throughout the game. Most of them can be used to fight the many random encounters you'll find along the way, but some also provide services for your headquarters. Shops and such, you get it. Unfortunately, this is a PS1-era RPG, so it does fall into the expected trappings of being basically impossible to get everything in the game without some kind of guide. Not really a fault with the game, just the general way this genre was made back then, so I won't hold it against this game. I will, however, point out the incredibly antiquated item system. It's very clunky, even for the time. Especially seeing as the game really likes to shift your party members around as the story progresses. A lot of times, I had to shuffle people around because they had items or equipment I needed, but got swapped around. So I had to get them back in the party, take the stuff I need, and then put it on the characters I was forced to use. As well as that, things are very expensive, and with each character having their own unique weapon, costs pile up. Thankfully, I stumbled upon an easy to exploit gambling minigame to get hundreds of thousands in a relatively short time. Despite that, it's a solid RPG. It goes along at a brisk pace, so it shouldn't take the average player more then 25 hours. Can your dogs wield swords? Didn't think so. The battle system is very similar to Eiyuden Chronicle (Unsurprisingly). You have a front row, and a back row, and each character is designated a "Range". Short range weapons can only hit the opposing sides front row from your front row, Medium range can attack from either row, but can only hit the opposing front row, and Long range has no restrictions. As well as that, using particular pairs of characters lets you use Unite attacks, basically Double Techs from Chrono Trigger. The sprite work is really nice, very detailed and big, and the HD remaster preserves this very well (Take notes, Grandia). The main difference is in the background environments. I do dig that aesthetic, even if the likes of Octopath Traveler outshine it. But Suikoden scrubs up really well. There's also some nice quality of life improvements such as not needing a particular orb to be able to run (Oh man, wouldn't want to play this at that walking speed). Suikoden is one of those games you can just tell has a lot of love and ambition behind it. But whether it's a lack of experience, or a lack of budget (Probably both), it can't really reach those heights it shoots for. I did enjoy it though, and it's been great seeing the origins of Eiyuden Chronicle here, and I'm looking forward to Suikoden II, which is supposed to be a big improvement. The Kobolds are wrong though, worst remaster ever. Spoiler Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Omori Pokémon Scarlet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Albus Mode) Wario Land 4 (Hard Mode) Suikoden HD Remaster 1
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