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Post by UsualNoise on Jan 2, 2018 22:36:14 GMT -5
I hope to provide more competition to dschroll this year ... but I kind of doubt I will.
Have at it!!
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Post by dschroll on Jan 6, 2018 23:50:01 GMT -5
Ok, so, off to a good start so far. Finished the Breath of the Wild DLC Pack Champions Ballad. Was great to get some more story line content in the game, but I had hopes we could play as the actual champions rather than as Link. Seems like a missed opportunity as they could have fleshed out those characters more. Oh well. Still well worth the $20 for the DLC. Also finished Metal Slug X. This is just a remake of Metal Slug 2. Well worth a play through if you're a Metal Slug fan. My favorite moment had to be on one a mini boss where after you beat him your character says, "See you in hell..." and the character falls to his death only to have a killer whale come up from the water below to eat him on his way down. Even my wife was laughing at that one and she was fairly engrossed in doing whatever social media stuff she does on her phone  |
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Post by UsualNoise on Jan 12, 2018 1:10:42 GMT -5
Completed Picross 3D: Round 2 (3DS eShop title). Spent 79 hours on this game to complete everything! Certainly got my money's worth on this one. If you're not a Picross fan this is NOT for the faint of heart - some very long puzzles toward the end (took over an hour on the last one alone).
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NoThru22
Casual Gamer
Two Worlds > Elder Scrolls
Posts: 866
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Post by NoThru22 on Jan 12, 2018 8:54:20 GMT -5
Finished Frozen Wilds for Horizon. Pretty great DLC.
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Post by dschroll on Jan 15, 2018 9:11:15 GMT -5
Finished Snake Pass on Switch. This is a game I bought many months ago right after the Switch's release because I figured I'd like something else to play besides Zelda and Mario Kart and there weren't a ton of other options at the time. I picked it up as it was on sale and figured I'd play it soon. Here we are, several months later and I finally decided it's time to get around to Snake Pass as there are now a bunch of Switch games I want to play and want to cross that one off my list.
Snake Pass is a platforming game where you have to slither and climb around various obstacles to get through a level. Each level has 3 colored stones that you are required to get before you can move onto the next level. There are also optional collectibles in the game too. Each level has 20 blue orbs or bubbles that are hidden throughout the level but most are not too far off the beaten path. Finally you can collect 5 coins in each level. The coins are the hardest collectibles to get as they are often very well hidden or in very difficult to reach spots.
When I first started this game, I went in with intentions of getting all the collectibles in each level. For the first few stages, that's exactly what I did. A few levels in though, things start ramping up quickly and that all changes. There are a number of ways you can die in this game and while there are check points, if you collect anything and die before reaching the check point, then you will start at the previous check point and have to get it again as it didn't save. Of the ways you can die in this game, you will most likely plummet to your death because you lost your grip on some wooden poles you have to twist around between 2 floating land masses. You can also get killed with spikes which are instant death, and lava stages where too much time in the lava will kill you. Later stages also have high winds that can blow you off the stage if you're not gripping objects tight enough.
So a few levels in when things got hard, I decided I would stop trying to collect all the coins and instead go for all the blue bubbles and the 3 stones. Several stages later I am so frustrated with the controls and camera in this game that I don't even care about the blue bubbles and just want the 3 required stones to get to the next level.
There are no boss fights in this game or anything, it's pure platforming. That's not to say you don't have a villain in the game as the camera is your arch nemesis. Early stages are easy to navigate so the camera is fine, but later stages when you have to make these smaller, more precise movements, the camera will inevitably move to a position that is less than ideal. Of course, when you try and adjust the camera, you'll likely end up losing your grip and fall to your death, only to have to reface that challenge again.
The controls in the game also take some getting used to and ultimately don't work as well as you want them to. I found many times where I felt I was gripping some moving object well enough, only to watch the snake slowly unravel and fall to his death. The music in the game is pleasant and catchy though. It's my understanding the music is by David Wise who has done a lot of the Rare games, which makes sense why I enjoyed it so much. The graphics are also pleasant to the eye, very bright and colorful.
Ultimately I forced myself to pushe through the game near the end. By the time I got to the last stage, I was ready for it to be over and didn't even bother with any of the collectibles save for the required ones. To me, this game is a swing and a miss. It started out fine, but quickly got difficult and for me it was not an enjoyable challenge. If you were thinking of getting this game on the eShop, I say don't bother. There are much better games to be had on the Switch. If I had to score this one, I'd likely give it a 6/10.
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Post by dschroll on Jan 16, 2018 16:28:13 GMT -5
Finished Sonic Mania today on Switch. Overall, this is a fantastic classic Sonic game and looks and plays just like the old Genesis games. Admittedly I did not get all of the chaos emeralds as the bonus stages are just so difficult for me. I'd like to think that at some point I will go back and play this more to get the chaos emeralds so I can get the "true" ending, but I'm not banking on that happening anytime soon, so I want to go ahead and count this one as completed. Still, with the exception of the last level, which is fricking hard as hell and had me running out of time and cursing several times when trying to finish it, the game is really well done. I'd easily give this one an 8/10 and say it's worth anyone's time that loved the old 16 bit days. And don't worry...all of the current consoles support Blast Processing  |
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Post by dschroll on Jan 16, 2018 20:11:58 GMT -5
Started diving into some of my VR catalog now.
Finished off Dreamworks Voltron VR Chronicles. I'm a big fan of the Netflix show, so I jumped all over the VR game. It was pretty good, but nearly as well done as Batman Arkham VR. Still, it was worth a play through if you're a fan of the show. I may play through it a second time to get any trophies I missed the first time around.
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Post by UsualNoise on Jan 24, 2018 3:12:42 GMT -5
Considering Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow (Android) finished. Most of the game was OK, but finishing is out of the question - requires unreasonable amounts of money and/or time. I hate these 'free' games, it will probably be my last attempt at one of them. Greatly prefer paid games to this crap.
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Post by UsualNoise on Jan 24, 2018 20:59:27 GMT -5
Completed Picross S (Switch) today. Pretty standard stuff, nothing new or exciting.
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Post by dschroll on Jan 25, 2018 0:05:52 GMT -5
I'm going to go ahead and count NES Remix on the Wii U as being completed.
I had fun for a while, but the difficulty level on some of those challenges was so high near the end that it stopped being fun for me.
As you progress through the game, you get stars for how quickly you defeated the challenges. After you collect so many stars you unlock new challenges. This was fine at first until you near the end and realize that the star requirement ramps up for future unlockables. I got up to about 548 stars in the game and I had nearly completed all the challenges I unlocked, getting 2 or 3 stars on each of them. It then dawned on me that the only way to get the rest of the items unlocked was to 3 star everything. I like doing the challenges because they are fun, but I am not a speed runner and have no desire to be one. Since the number of stars you get seems to greatly depend on you not only completing the challenge, but in a set amount of time, I decided this was my stopping point. I have no interest in playing something over and over again to shave a few seconds off my time. It stops being fun for me. I'm just disappointed to have items still locked in the game but such is life. Crossing this one off my list.
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Post by UsualNoise on Jan 25, 2018 1:50:36 GMT -5
Ah yes, NES Remix. I collected all stars for NES Remix and NES Remix 2, and it was NOT easy. And you know what the best part is? THAT'S NOT THE BEST RANK. There is an additional, HARDER, level for the absolute best time, and you receive 'rainbow' stars for that - the 3 stars become rainbow-colored. And yes, if you get those rainbow stars on ALL levels it unlocks a rainbow banner on the main screen. As a completionist, I was not happy about that game; I did not choose to go for rainbow stars. |
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Jan 25, 2018 11:02:31 GMT -5
I'm so glad I'm not a completionist...
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Post by dschroll on Jan 25, 2018 17:41:39 GMT -5
I am a pseudo completionist. I have ambitions to unlock and collect every little thing in a game and generally start out playing that way. I later then settle for getting "enough" collectibles and whatnot to feel like I've gotten my money's worth from the game. But game time is just too precious for me and I have such a huge backlog that I've relegated to giving the game a good chance, but as soon as it stops being fun to play it, I move on to something else. The exceptions are of course games like Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild. These games are so huge that I likely won't ever collect everything in the game, but I enjoy playing them so much that I don't mind going back to them at a later date to strive towards collecting everything.
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Post by dschroll on Jan 29, 2018 1:20:05 GMT -5
jincman got me hooked on this one game for the NES called Gyruss. Basically it's a shoot'em up but plays more like Tempest for those that are familiar. Came out on the NES and was also on the Famicom disk system. The FDS version is way better as it has enhanced audio, which sounds significantly better than the NES version. Still fun game either way though. Because of my overdrive, I was enjoying the FDS version on my retroUSB AVS, but sadly you cannot save state FDS games. I got pretty far in the game on my own, but tonight I decided to check out the NES version as I can save state that. I played all the way through and got to the final boss. Man, I thought I had a shot at beating this game legitimately until I got to that last boss. He was tough as nails and I must've died 7 times during that fight. This game doesn't shower you with infinite lives, hence the save state usage. I'm not confident I could beat this one without save state. I'll likely go back and play some more as I love seeing how far I can get, but that being said I'm going to count this one as being completed as I'm ready to move onto something else.
But for any of you looking for a good retro shooter to play, give Gyruss a shot. It's pretty solid.
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Post by oldskoolboarder on Jan 29, 2018 12:53:58 GMT -5
OMG. I LOVED Gyruss. I can't imagine how many quarters I dumped into that machine.
Curious which version is the closest to the original. Dammit, now you restarted my MAME wormhole...
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Post by dschroll on Jan 29, 2018 20:41:13 GMT -5
OMG. I LOVED Gyruss. I can't imagine how many quarters I dumped into that machine. Curious which version is the closest to the original. Dammit, now you restarted my MAME wormhole... I never played the arcade one, but the Famicom Disk System one is by far the best version between it and the NES version. The cool thing I just discovered is that the famous Konami code for Contra (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START), works on this game except you enter it in reverse (A, B, Right, Left, Right, Left, Down, Down, Up, Up, Start). This nets you 30 lives in the game. I replayed the FDS version this time using the reverse Konami code and managed to finish the game. What a great fun game. It gets crazy hard near the end, but I've really enjoyed playing this game. On normal mode, without any cheats or anything, I've managed to get as far as 1 warp away from Venus. However, now that I've used some cheats, I've had an opportunity to play through some of the later stages that often surprise me and end up ending my game. So I'd definitely like to try and play through this again without the cheats to see if I can get further. I don't know if I can beat the final boss given I even struggled with him using the 30 life code, but this game feels very doable to someone more dedicated and patient than I am |
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Post by dschroll on Feb 2, 2018 0:37:11 GMT -5
Going back to my PSVR, I've played through the Star Wars Battlefront VR X-Wing game several times. It's a total blast and I enjoy replaying it. It's honestly the only reason I picked up Battlefront, so I could play that mission. It lasts roughly 15 minutes or so, but what's there is just a lot of fun and if anyone here is a fan of Star Wars and has PSVR, you definitely should find a used copy of Battlefront to play it. It feels like something Disney should offer in their theme parks, it was so enjoyable.. Not sure if this counts as full on game completion, but figured I'd mention it since I've played through it several times.
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Post by dschroll on Feb 4, 2018 23:59:56 GMT -5
Went to jincman's last night. Booted up the Sega Genesis and went through Golden Axe 2.
Took maybe 20 minutes?
Love classic Sega beat'em ups.
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Post by dschroll on Feb 8, 2018 11:14:18 GMT -5
Finished a game on the TG-16 called Blazing Lazers.
This is a great vertical shoot'em up. This game really showcased the power of the TG-16 back in the day as there is a ton going on onscreen and not one bit of a slowdown. Very impressive for a system designed to compete with the NES.
The game has 9 levels in it and what's cool is that you can quickly become a badass by leveling up weapons. The downside is that if you die you lose all of your powered up weapons and start with the basic one, which offers you very little aid. And if you die, you have to restart at a checkpoint within the game, of which there are 1 or 2 per area.
I started out playing this game on my TG-16 and had managed to make it to level 9. Unfortunately I kept dying in the same spot each and every time and had gone through all my lives and continues, so I needed to start over. I did this a few times, always dying in the same spot on level 9 each time. And the problem is once you lose all those weapons, it's almost impossible to survive with your basic weapon. And no save states on the Turbo Everdrive.
So, I went over to my hacked Wii and booted up the TG-16 emulator, which not only had the Blazing Lazers game ready to go, but offered save states. It took some time, but I finally made it through the entire game. The last boss was actually kind of easy, but getting to the last boss was a PITA.
Still, this is a pretty solid shooter game overall, so if you have an emulator give this one a try.
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Post by dschroll on Feb 15, 2018 23:50:24 GMT -5
Chalk up 2 more games.
First off, I finished Power Stone for the Sega Dreamcast. This is a game I never played back in the day when I had a dreamcast. I was at a friend's place for a game night and I was showing off my modded Dreamcast. We booted up Power Stone and started playing and it was a ton of fun. So when I got home I wanted to start playing it through just to get the hang of it. At first I was loving it, but by the second play through I was swearing like a sailor. I felt the AI was so one sided and the computer was beating the crap out of me, pulling off moves I had no clue how to do. I was just about to write the game off, but decided I would give it one more shot, this time trying to figure out how to do certain moves. Lowe and behold, I finally started figuring out more of the moves and how to do them. I was cranking through stages fairly quickly by that point. Thus, I decided to keep playing until I beat the game with all the fighters and unlocking everything there was to unlock. There are only 2 things I haven't unlocked in this game because it requires you to download some mini games onto the VMU (Dreamcast memory card with a screen and controls....man, Sega was so ahead of their time). Anyway, I don't have any fresh batteries for the VMUs, so I'll check out the mini games another time. But I consider this one completed as I did all there was to do on the console. Great game and a TON of fun when playing with others. Check this one out if you still have a DC and want to play with some friends.
The second game I completed Space Megaforce on the SNES. Except I didn't play this game on the SNES, I played it on my brand new Super NT. If you don't know what a Super NT is, youtube reviews on it. Long story short, it's an SNES clone console where the system uses an FPGA to simulate electrically an SNES. The end result is lag free, picture perfect and game play perfect version of an SNES. Its truly an awesome device. So, I decided I was going to google the best shoot'em ups for SNES and the one that popped up near the top consistently was Space Megaforce (aka Super Aleste in Japan). Immediately when I started playing this game, I started noticing things similar to Blazing Lasers on the TG-16 where you can power up various weapons in increasing levels, and many of the weapons looked similar to Blazing Lasers. Looking into the makers of this game (Compile), it turns out they were the ones also behind Blazing Lasers and many other great shoot'em ups. Anyway, while overall Blazing Lasers I felt was a better game, Space Megaforce was a total blast to play. For starters, I actually finished this game without the need for save states or any other cheats. The reason for this is that the game has unlimited continues, even allowing you to continue at a checkpoint or the beginning fo a level. This makes is MUCH easier to complete than Blazing Lasers which limited your number of continues. Second, Space Megaforce has some AWESOME mode 7 effects. Level 2 is one of my favorites. Check out the below video just to see what i mean by how good this game looks.
This is definitely one to play if you're a fan of shoot'em ups. But definitely check out Blazing Lasers as well as that game was fantastic.
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