What Games Have You Completed? (2023 EDITION!)
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
Nothing wrong with the controls in the original imo. It follows classic Capcom game design where you have to commit to actions and give a risk reward feedback loop. Basically if you want to take aim you have to commit to aiming but if you can pull it off you can follow up with melee attacks. I find the remake which allows you to move and shoot less rewarding as a result. It's no where near as exciting or satisfying.
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
I think it's the same issue that people have with other older Capcom games. Ghouls n Ghosts is a good example. Controls are absolutely perfect but a lot of people refuse to get to grips with the fact you can't change direction during a jump and take their frustration out on the game. These types of games you have to learn the systems and then the game starts rewarding you. Modern games in comparison ate too afraid to lose the audience so are afraid of frustrating the player.
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
- Sonic Frontiers (PC)
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Aladdin (SNES)
- Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
- Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
- The Firemen (SNES)
- Omaze (Playdate)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess
Omaze
Hard on to descibe. It's one of the highlights of the the Playdate Season 1 for me. Like all the best puzzle games, it's simple, addictive and has surprising depth. The premise is you control a round object inside a circle. You can move around the circle using the systems crank. Each maze is composed of a grid of circles and as the game goes on these circles will contain hazards and other mechanisms that change up the gameplay. You switch between circles in the maze at the point where the circles touch. There's also some 'boss stages which has you jumping between the inner and outer edge of a circle to avoid hazards. I'm probably not doing this justice but I'm sure a video will help anyone interested.
The game is a bit short but didn't outstay its welcome and I really enjoyed the game as a fun distraction.
Deception 4: Nightmare Princess
I really enjoyed Deception 4: Blood Ties but the expansion, Nightmare Princess is even better for one simple reason, the shorter missions set in a single location that don't last longer than 10 minutes are a much better fit for this type of game. The core gameplay remains the same but each of the 100 missions having 3 other sub missions to complete that are totally optional. These missions range from finishing an enemy with a certain length combo, or using specific traps to finish enemies off. Although these are optional but are well worth doing because figuring them out is a lot of fun and the rewards are new traps and abilities to use in the rest of the missions. In fact some missions are locked behind the use of locked abilities or can remain locked off until certain submissions are completed.
Nightmare princess doesn't add a whole lot to the core gameplay. There's two new areas, one set in a school gym and the other in a children's playground. They aren't used enough as these areas are a lot of fun and people that have finished the base game have seen enough of the other areas. The game also gives the new protagonist a kick ability that can be used during combos to kick an enemy into a trap and continue the combo. It's kind of funny how the game's story makes the kick ability out to be some crazy arcane magic that is normally forbidden by trap users.
Deception 4 is an incredible game that only gets better the more you learn how to play it. It's been a rare reason for me to turn on my Playstation. Nightmare Princess expansion in particular managed to surpass the base game. There's even some fan service in nightmare princess for fans of the Deception/Trapt games with all the previous protagonists being unlockable and playable. Each has a playstyle that mimics their prospective games they came from. The most interesting being the protagonist from the very first game that can only lay 3 traps but traps refresh a lot faster for her. It's such a shame this series doesn't get the attention it should.
I've still got the 'Rachel' DLC to complete but that's only 10 missions so shouldn't take long.
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
- Sonic Frontiers (PC)
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Aladdin (SNES)
- Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
- Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
- The Firemen (SNES)
- Omaze (Playdate)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess (PS4)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess - Rachel Pack DLC (PS4)
Deception 4: Nightmare Princess - Rachel Pack DLC
And with this DLC I'm done with Deception 4. This DLC adds 10 missions to the Nightmare Princess quest tree which focus on taking out Rachel who is a fan favourite character from the PS2 game Trapt. If you've played Trapt you'll probably get a bit more out of the Story.
In terms of gameplay additions there's not a whole lot here. Each mission has 3 sub-missions and their requirements are some of the trickiest in the whole game. However they also only give extra 'Ark' (basically score) so there's very little incentive to go for them other than for swag. There's a new stage added but it's just the gym stage from the base game with traps from other stages places in it haphazardly. The DLC also lets you try out the DLC traps even if you haven't bought them and Rachel also uses the DLC traps exclusively when you fight her.
The DLC is a nice little extra if you can get it on sale but I don't think it's worth it for people that haven't played Trapt.
Post edited by Retr0gamer on
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
- Sonic Frontiers (PC)
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Aladdin (SNES)
- Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
- Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
- The Firemen (SNES)
- Omaze (Playdate)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess (PS4)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess - Rachel Pack DLC (PS4)
- Battletoads (NES)
Battletoads
I've mixed feelings about this one but thinking about it I'll come out on the side of it being a good videogame.
Battletoads was a pretty late NES game from Rare releasing in 1991 and hoping to ride on the wave of TMNT mania. Seems it was quite successful even if as a franchise its popularity was short lived. At the time Rare were one of the most prolific NES developers and also one of the most talented. They really are just showing off with this game. Right after turning the game on you are greeted by a spaceship smoothly scaling in 3D. I looked this up and it's actual true sprite scaling, something the SNES and Megadrive struggle with (you basically never see it in games) let alone the lowly SNES. The game is a real technical showcase for the NES and Rare as developers. It's a great looking game with big detailed sprites, gorgeous parallax scrolling backgrounds and effects that the NES has no right pulling off. The final stage's rotating tower looks incredible. It's not just the graphics that impress. The game runs at 60 FPS with no noticeable slowdown with responsive controls.
From the first stage you might be mistake for thinking that Battletoads is a belt scroller akin to Streets of Rage or Final Fight. While a few stages return to the belt scroller style, there's a huge amount of variety in levels. The second stage has you descending on a rope down a chasm. The third stage has the infamous turbo tunnel. Many levels play out as typical 2D platformers. While most games with this much gameplay variety tend to feel half baked, all the different gameplay types feel pretty solid here and play well.
So far I've been very positive about Battletoads but I have to address the eh... elephant toad in the room. The game is not only difficult, it's also mean. I don't mind difficult games but Battletoads can a bit much at times. Everyone knows about the infamous Turbo Tunnel at the end of stage 3 that's been lampooned by plenty of youtube celebrities. It's the first big difficulty spike in the game and while it's tough it's actually fun to learn and very satisfying when you can breeze through it in one try. The Turbo Tunnel is tough, but the game has way more sections that as as bad if not worse than the turbo tunnel. Most of these sections will destroy you if you go in without any foreknowledge. This is par for the course for NES game design but the issue is the game is quite long (well over an hour for one playthrough) and some of the toughest sections are backloaded on to the game. It's soul destroying to play for well over an hour and get to the infamous Clinger Winger stage and only have a few lives left to learn how the stage works.
There's also pacing and balance issues. The game can be mean with checkpoints. Some stages let you continue from where you died while others have you restart at a checkpoint. Some of the hardest stages in the game (Intruder Excluder, Rat Race and Clinger Winger) end in extremely tough boss fights that will chew through lives if you don't have strategies to cheese them. The game gives you 5 hitpoints which seems superfluous when the vast, vast majority of enemies, bosses and obstacles are instant death. The game does include secret warps that let you skip some of the earlier levels but you are better off not taking these if you are serious about beating the game. The best strategy to beating this game is getting good at the first few stages as you can build up a huge number of lives. The game is mercifully generous with handing out lives at least.
While the game is extremely tough it was immensely satisfying to get through, although nowhere near Punchout!! levels. When you get good at stages it feels good getting through them with ease, and being good at something like the Turbo Tunnel is not only satisfying but looks amazing when you pull it off. What I can't be so forgiving of are bugs and this game has a minor and a major one that stand out. Firstly the game is two player co-op. While it doesn't work that well it's a nice extra. However it's impossible to beat in two player as a bug will prevent you completing stage 8, Clinger Winger. The absolute worst offender is the bug in the Rat Race level. This level features races against a rat to bottom of a shaft to take out a bomb. The third and final race is absolutely brutal and requires near perfect movement to beat. However you can be too fast in this stage and if you are and finish it then you can soft lock the game, an absolutely brutal punishment after playing the game for over an hour at that stage. Thankfully the rare replay version of the game fixes both these bugs.
While this game caused a lot of swearing and frustration in the retr0gamer household I can't deny that the rat race bug aside this is a very polished and great playing NES game. It might be very difficult but the real issue is that it's just a little too long. When I think about it if I had a NES back in 1991 and this was one of the games I owned, I would have loved it and played it to completion. So taking this as a product of it's time it's actually pretty high quality NES game.
They won't read this but I'd like to reiterate that the 'U can beat Video Games' youtube series is a valuable resource and a massive help when tackling these old videogames. The boss strategies in particular were a lifesaver.
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
Star Ocean always annoys me as I was excited to play a Sci-fi RPG like Phantasy Star only to be told that the JRPG version of the Prime Directive is in place so we will be using swords and chainmail for the rest of the game.
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
- Sonic Frontiers (PC)
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Aladdin (SNES)
- Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
- Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
- The Firemen (SNES)
- Omaze (Playdate)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess (PS4)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess - Rachel Pack DLC (PS4)
- Battletoads (NES)
- Contra (MSX2)
Contra (MSX2)
Kind of beat this game by accident. I was pissed off playing Knightmare on MSX and decided to give this a quick go and managed to beat it.
Contra is a very different game to the arcade and NES versions. Since the MSX2 has issues with scrolling the game has been changed to a flip screen game and the levels and gameplay changed accordingly. You now have a lifebar. And the game is very generous with doling out lives. If you pick up a weapon you get a menu to pick your weapon rather than getting one based on the icon. The weapons are all kind of uselss other than the rapid fire machinegun, no spreadshot in this version.
The game follows the level structure of the arcade game more than the expanded NES game until you get to the final boss. Once I finished the final boss I was surprised to see the game continue with new levels. The game ends up being twice as long as a result.
While Contra on the MSX2 is a pretty decent game it's no where near as good as the Arcade or NES games. Maybe it's due to the split screen nature of the game but the level design just is nowhere near as tight. It's also remarkably easy for a Contra game. I blitzed through it first time. While not a bad game Konami did so much better on the MSX hardware and this is definitely one of their lesser efforts.
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
- Sonic Frontiers (PC)
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Aladdin (SNES)
- Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
- Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
- The Firemen (SNES)
- Omaze (Playdate)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess (PS4)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess - Rachel Pack DLC (PS4)
- Battletoads (NES)
- Contra (MSX2)
- Super Mario Run (Android)
Super Mario Run
Mobile gaming is such a cesspit but it wasn't always so. Super Mario Run is a reminder of how good the platform could have been before it was ruined by greed and free to play apps. It seems sacrilegious to say it but Mario works extremely well on a touch screen interface and the developers have managed to translate the feel of a mario game to mobile.
Mario run differs from other mario games in that he is constantly moving forward. Tapping the screen causes him to jump and tapping again will help him extend his jump like in the New SMB games. The level design hues very closely to classic super mario levels. It also brings the nintendo inventiveness you expect from a Nintendo mario game. Each level brings a new twist to the formula and you'd be surprised how much they got out of a simple premise. There's a nice take on the lives system where losing a life puts mario in a bubble that moves backward through the level so mario can restart from a previous position.
The game consists of 6 worlds of 4 stages each and an extra 9 worlds (and a few secrets as well). It's a pretty sizeable game but if you just play to finish each stage you will breeze through the game very quickly. The real meat of the game is in the coin collecting challenge. Each stage has three coin challenges that has mario collect 5 special coins in each level. Collecting these coins requires you to use all the skills you've learned from the main game. Since mario is constantly moving forward, a lot of these challenges require you to come up with clever ways of making mario move backwards through a stage. They can become fiendish to collect and many coin challenges add new content to levels.
The game also has other modes to play around with. Remix mode has mario move through 10 small areas taken from areas in the main game. There's also a challenge mode that has you take on other peoples ghosts and compete for the most coins. Both of these are very enjoyable and good for a quick game. There's also a town building element but it seems totally superfluous and the rewards for it are pretty meagre.
There's two elephants in the room to address with this game. First the prices of 9.99 euro which I see as a non-issue. People are too used to free games on mobile but for a tenner you are getting a complete Nintendo quality platformer that is far better than any free to play skinner box nonsense game. The second I can't forgive and it's the always online requirement. I realise there's some online elements to the game but having to be online for the single player portion is ridiculous.
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Join Date:Posts: 50056
- Sonic Frontiers (PC)
- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
- Aladdin (SNES)
- Crash Bandicoot 2 (PC)
- Crash Bandicoot 3 Warped (PC)
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC)
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PC)
- Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC)
- The Firemen (SNES)
- Omaze (Playdate)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess (PS4)
- Deception 4: Nightmare Princess - Rachel Pack DLC (PS4)
- Battletoads (NES)
- Contra (MSX2)
- Super Mario Run (Android)
- Star Sled (Playdate)
Star Sled
Neat little game for the play date. It controls much like the old arcade classic Asteroids but without the shooting. Instead your ship leaves a trail behind it and you must collect 'Sparks' by closing a loop around them. In a way it's much like the Sega classic Nights into Dreams. Each of the 6 worlds introduces a new gimmick that changes up the gameplay. It throws enemies at you, some of which you can't catch in your loop. Some levels allow you to collect multiple sparks for bonuses. Control upgrades are also added to keep the gameplay fresh. Each world ends in a boss which are quite impressive and very challenging. Each boss is a giant battleship you have to fly through.
It's all wrapped up in some gorgeous vector wireframe graphics and a wonderful soundtrack. There's even a whole secret world to be unlocked linked to the hidden sparks you can find on each world. Apparently at release the controls were a bit wonky and inertia was too tough to account for but it's a much more playable game now and a highlight of playdate season 1.
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