What Games Have You Completed? (2024 Edition!)
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30-12-2023 3:42am#1
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Join Date:Posts: 50004
Final tally for 2023: 37
- 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)
- Run Saber (SNES)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)
- Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intermission (PC)
- Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse (3DS)
- Parameters (Browser)
- Quake 2 (PC)
- Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
- Astroboy: Omega Factor (GBA)
- Resident Evil 4 Remake (PC)
- Knightmare (MSX)
- Echo Night (PS1)
- Pushmo/Pullblox (3DS)
- Armored Core 6 (PC)
- Starfox (SNES)
- Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly (PS2)
- Bugs vs Tanks (3DS)
- Mister Mosquito (PS2)
- Beyond the Labyrinth (3DS)
- Pilotwings (SNES)
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC)
Best game: Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Honestly beating this game was one of the most rewarding experiences I had playing a videogame. It genuinely holds up as one of the all time greats
Runner Up: Armored Core 6
Honourable Mentions (only listing the best of the best stuff that would be a GotY contender):
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero
Deception 4: Nightmare Princess
Super Mario Run
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse
Parameters
Super Mario 3D Land
Astroboy: Omega Factor
Knightmare
Beyond the Labyrinth
Pilotwings
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
Pleasant Surprise:
Sonic Frontiers
Not the best game I played this year but I had a lot of fun playing this, way more than the reviews would have led me to believe.
Biggest Disappointment:
Bugs vs Tanks
By far the weakest of the 3DS Guild games. Expected a lot better here.
Worst:
Crash Bandicoot 2
I normally have this for outright bad but I really didn't finish a bad game this year but Crash Bandicoot 2 and it's slight improvement over it's brand of weak platforming was the weakest game I finished this year.
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Join Date:Posts: 50004
- Megaman V (GB)
Megaman V
Let's kick things off.
Megaman V feels like a send off for the Gameboy Megaman series. Developed in 1994 with support and to coincide with the super Gameboy developer Minakuchi Engineering probably thought this would be their final Gameboy Megaman game since the GB was so long in the tooth. Of course nobody could predict the meteoric success of Pokemon 2 years later.
While previous Gameboy Megaman games had been remixes of bosses and stages from the NES series, Capcom seem to have let developer Minakuchi Engineering run wild with this title as it features all new stages, music and bosses. In this adventure the earth is attacked by a group of robots from outer space calling themselves the Stardroids. It's up to Megaman to stop this interstellar threat and take down two groups of 8 enemy droids named after planets of the solar system in Megaman's first interstellar adventure.
With the excuse for robot genocide out of the way it's standard Megaman stuff here. Like the other Gameboy games you are presented with 4 robot masters to destroy before moving on to the next set of four robot masters. Each of the stages are really well designed and the boss fights are excellent. Some levels even have branching paths like the later NES games. While Megaman does seem to take a lot of damage, I did find this one of the easier Megaman games but then again I find Megaman games easier than most people. The music starts good but the final set of robotmasters all have banging 8bit tunes. The robotmaster weapons as well are varied although I didn't find too much use for them outside of boss fights.
Megaman has had some changes as well. His megabuster has been replaced with the ability to fire out his fist. This can be upgraded so that Megaman can grab enemies to continually damage them or to grab far away items.
It could well be argued that MMV is the best of the Gameboy games. While MM3 and 4 were excellent, MM5 is just as good but also has brand new material rather than feeling it's built on the backs of the NES games. I've only minor niggles with the game. As mentioned I found it a little too easy. Also some of the earlier stages seem to blend into each other from a visual standpoint as they are just standard sci-fi. The four back end stages on the other hand are very inventive. This can be mitigated by playing a recently released GB colour fan hack which looks gorgeous and I kind of regret not playing that version.
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Join Date:Posts: 50004
- Megaman V (GB)
- Liberation Maiden (3DS)
Liberation Maiden
A videogame that ties with Radiant Silvergun for best videogame name. Liberation Maidan was developed by Grasshopper manufacturing and headed by Suda51 for the Guild series of games.
Liberation Maiden feels like a pitch for a much bigger project, which is fine as a Guild game being that these are smaller more experimental projects. There's a huge amount of lore and story to this game but it's barely touched on in its hour long game length. Apparently there was a Japanese only visual novel that fleshes things out.
You play as Shoko, the 16 year old school girl daughter of the former president of Japan as she is elected to replace him after his assassination. As the President of Japan it's up to Shoko to do her presidential duty and, eh, pilot a high tech mech suit to take out the dominion forces that are conquering the world and bring back peace and mother nature to the land.
Liberation Maiden has a very unique control scheme. You use the circle pad to move with the L button as a strafe modifier. The stylus and touch pad are used to control the aiming reticule to lock on to enemies and their projectiles. It works really well but it does tend to cramp the hand after a while. Also it's not conductive to the 3D effect of the 3DS unless you are using a New 3DW. In a way the game plays a little like a cross between Panzer dragoon and desert strike.
While the game is only 5 stages and about an hour long, what is here is a lot of fun. The controls feel great, the visuals are nice and theres lovely feedback of the world turning back to nature as you destroy the enemy forces. As a Suda51 game it has a strong aesthetic, very sci-fi anime. I love the encouraging messages Shoko receives from the populace as she destroys the enemy. What really sells the game is the voice acting, Shoko's VA gives an incredible performance.
Give this one a go if you get that chance. It's a very short but interesting game.
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I died once at the final boss. You just have to remember that your shots also steal from your shield so if you stop firing it will recharge the shield. It's not really that difficult except the final boss.
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- Megaman V (GB)
- Liberation Maiden (3DS)
- The Starship Damrey (3DS)
The Starship Damrey
Only one more Guild game after this. The Starship Damrey was created for the Guild series with the involvement of some of the better known mystery VN creators of the 16bit era.
Starship Damrey is very much an adventure game. You wake up in a spaceship's cryopod with no way of getting out. After solving a few puzzles you gain control of one of the ships robots and must control the robot remotely to solve the mystery of the Starship Damrey.
This is another relatively short game, taking about 2-3 hours. You move around the spaceship picking up objects and using them to solve puzzles. While the puzzles are never too challenging the game can fall into the genres pitfalls at times with you getting hung up because you can't find the one object in the room or having to investigate some objects multiple times to get the desired effect
This game was good but nothing amazing. Again it's and interesting concept but I feel it falls flat in a few areas. The game has horror elements that mostly miss the mark. The storyline is a little weak and relies on a final twist. It's not bad but I just find stories relying on twists lazy, looking at you Christopher Nolan.
Definitely worth a play but don't expect to be wowed.
Only one more guild game left, weapon shop de omasse.
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Join Date:Posts: 50004
If you are going to play any of them then play crimson Shroud. It's absolutely incredible. Fun D&D tabletop aesthetic, great music and exceptional writing. And the new game plus is even better.
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Join Date:Posts: 50004
- Megaman V (GB)
- Liberation Maiden (3DS)
- The Starship Damrey (3DS)
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Thought I'd get this one out of the way before I started Mario wonder proper but I found out that this game has a substantial post game and it's also wonderful.
It's kind of weird to thank that for as long as Kirby has been around, this is the first Kirby game in 3D. Theres usually two types of Kirby games, the safe ones that play similarly to the NES game, and the experimental games that try brand new ideas. While Forgotten Land could be considered more safe since it uses all the same standard Kirby abilities, the move to the third dimension allowed the developers to have a lot of fun with game design. The level design can be quite inventive especially when one of Kirby's new abilities is in play where he can inhale some bigger objects in stages. It never reaches Mario levels but it's a step above the usually date from lesser competitors.
It was kind of shocking to see Kirby in a post apocalyptic wasteland setting but it really works and again is a source of a lot of the fun and weirdness this game offers. The music is excellent as usual for Kirby. Stages are very short but each stage has a set of objects to uncover and going for all these objectives means you will uncover secret area and sections of the stages greatly increasing the amount of time you spend in a stage. I really enjoyed all the boss fights in the game.
While the game is a little too easy it also does provide a decent challenge in the quite substantial post game. The post game consists of a handful of remixes stages that are both very long but also very challenging and really make you use Kirby's abilities in creative ways. Each one ends with a repeat boss battle but these have been given new moves and abilities and are substantially tougher than the vanilla bosses. There's also final Coliseum challenge that verges of dark souls levels of challenge.
This game seems to have been ignored by a lot of people but it's one of the highlights of the switches already exceptional exclusives library and really should be checked out. There's also a coop mode to help out younger gamers. I've a few issues with the game but they are mostly technical or minor. I found the waddle Dee world a little superfluous and it was a little annoying returning to it since you'd inevitably be hit with a lot of pop ups on arrival. Technically the game looks incredible. It uses a deferred renderer so the lighting and materials look amazing. The game runs at a mostly rock solid 30 fps but does dip occasionally. What I'm not a fan of are the half rate animations on distant enemies which I always find jarring.
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- Megaman V (GB)
- Liberation Maiden (3DS)
- The Starship Damrey (3DS)
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
- Doom Eternal (PC)
Doom Eternal
Little bit disappointed in this one even though I recognise that it's a great game. Doom 2016 was a revelation to me. It was a game that both mocked the industries fixation on bad narrative but was also a kick up the arse for first person shooters that had gotten stale.
Doom Eternal tries to add even more complexity to the doom 2016 combat and that's where it falters. Doom 2016 introduced it's mechanics early on in the game and then gave you tools throughout the game to exploit those mechanics. Doom eternal keeps introducing mechanics throughout the game, even into the final few missions. Enemies are introduced that have weaknesses to certain enemies. Doom 2016 as had a great loop of combat, glory kills and chainsaw. Now you have to juggle glory kills, chainsaw, flamethrower as well as a load of other abilities on cool down timers. There's just way too much to juggle. All this juggling of mechanics makes the game great once you get into it but it's also exhausting. I found the game way too intense and it was hard to play for long times.
It's also a game that doesn't leave a good first impression. Ammo is very limited in the game so you'll need to chainsaw fodder enemies a lot to refill but on starting the game this isn't really made apparent. I had a horrible time when I started the game until this clicked and it only clicked after I gave up on the game and restarted months later.
Another bugbear for me is the focus on story. The story just isn't good and if I'm roleplaying the doom Slayer I'm going to ignore all the codex and more logs you give me. All I needed to know is where the next set of demons are. There's some good scenes, arriving into the BFG 10000 area was a good laugh.
One thing I really need to bring up is the introduction of a late game enemy, the Marauder. This enemy isn't fun tonight and is a complete pain in the ass. I also don't appreciate one of them appearing at the the end of an intense battle and having to restart said battle because the marauder at the end killed me.
Doom Eternal is so frustrating because there's an incredible game in here if there was just a little more restraint in the mechanics. It looks and sounds great and the ID tech engine runs incredibly well. Shout out to the banger soundtrack as well.
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