What Games Have You Completed? (2022 EDITION!)

1. Trails in the Sky Second Chapter|PC
2. Operation C|Gameboy
3. The Outer Wilds|PC
4. Kid Dracula|Gameboy
5. The Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye|PC
6. Illusion of Gaia|SNES
7. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3|Gameboy
8. Shantae|Gameboy Colour
9. The Forgotten City|PC
10. Bulk Slash|Saturn
11. Monster World IV|Megadrive
12. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Breakthrough|PC
13. Pikmin 3|Switch
14. Bayonetta 2|Switch
15. X-Com 2: War of the Chosen|PC

X-Com 2: War of the Chosen

X-Com 2 is basically X-Com, which is one of the best strategy games of all time, polished to an extreme sheen. The game makes a lot of changes, some of which are controversial, but after beating the game it's obvious the team made the right choices and its a much better game that the already amazing original.

X-Com 2 doubles down on the randomisation which makes each campaign far more interesting. In particular the levels are much more varied than the authored levels of the original. The most controversial addition is the time limits added to some missions. I can understand while some people don't like them, they can be intimidating. Ultimately they work great, you always have enough time to complete objectives and it's a more dynamic game when you can't play it safe with overwatch traps. The soldier classes now are much better balanced and usually have two or more ways to spec them into very different feeling units.

The war of the chosen content adds a huge amount to the game as well. The three new units are great fun to use. There's new enemies to fight including the lost which change the gameplay loop up considerably. There's a lot more to do in the overworld. The chosen are a great variable to shake things up in the main game and can really throw a spanner in the works when they show up at the wrong time in a mission. The game even gives you the option to fix the DLC which some people had an issue with where you could end up in a DLC mission way too early and end up getting destroyed.

There's just a massive amount of content here and it's all very replayable. It's pretty much one of the all time greats and can't recommend it enough. My only complaint is that the excellent soundtrack isn't as good as the Enemy Unknowns soundtrack but even here the game gives you the open to play with that game's soundtrack.

1. Trails in the Sky Second Chapter|PC
2. Operation C|Gameboy
3. The Outer Wilds|PC
4. Kid Dracula|Gameboy
5. The Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye|PC
6. Illusion of Gaia|SNES
7. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3|Gameboy
8. Shantae|Gameboy Colour
9. The Forgotten City|PC
10. Bulk Slash|Saturn
11. Monster World IV|Megadrive
12. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Breakthrough|PC
13. Pikmin 3|Switch
14. Bayonetta 2|Switch
15. X-Com 2: War of the Chosen|PC
16. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts|SNES

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

Always been a massive fan of this series. Ghouls 'n Ghosts was 'my game' in the arcade where I got to the point that I could beat it handily with one credit (as long as the dip switches were set low enough). I've always really enjoyed Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts but never beat it until now.

Super GnG is a standard 16-bit action platformer from Capcom and one of the best examples of the genre on the super Nintendo. Super GnG is basically a brand new entry in the GnG series and makes plenty of changes to the core gameplay. The biggest change is the double jump. One of the defining gameplay systems of the original GnG is that once you jump you are committed and can't make adjustments until you land. While the double jump allows you to make adjustments on the fly and also gain extra height, the game is designed around this mechanic leading to some fiendish level design. I'm sorry but Capcom aren't going to break series tradition and go easy on you. Super GnG might be challenging it's always fair.

While the double jump give Arthur some extra mobility they also inexplicably take away Arthur's ability to shoot above him and below him during a jump. It can take a while to get used to this but the most annoying this about this change is that it makes the series iconic annoying arseholes, the Red Arremer, more annoying to deal with. There are new weapons added and with a few are carried over from the first game. Unfortunately most weapons are really bad with strange arcs that are hard to account for. There's only really two useful weapons, the machine gun like daggers and the arrows which fire slightly upwards which are invaluable considering arthur no longer can fire directly up. The Red Arremer AI also has a terrible time dealing with this. There's new armour added as well. There's green armour that upgrades your weapon (homing arrows and nice and OP), which can be further upgraded to yellow armour that allows you to charge up a magic attack. There's also a shield which I think came in useful all of once for me. While I like the upgraded weapons the game is difficult enough that you rarely see the yellow armour.

Level design is mostly excellent with some gorgeous looking levels. The game opens with the traditional graveyard but the ground shifts constantly under you before moving to a tidal wave section and a ruin filled with plants and fiendish traps. Next is a ship graveyard filled with ghosts that then because a pretty annoying auto scrolling level (it's quite long so if you die it can be infuriating). Stage 3 is a lave stage with some tricky platforming that then gives way to a rotating tower section that doesn't look great, there's better looking examples of this in the likes of Mickey Mania (and even battletoads on the SNES). The fourth level is your disgusting organic stage that serves as a showcase for the super nintendo with plenty of mode 7 effects (and also a multi sprite boss that slows the system's framerate to a crawl which I also suppose showcases the SNES, in this case the weedy CPU). Stage 5 is the ice stage. Then there's Stage 6 and 7 which are kind of boring looking boss Gauntlets and are a little disappointing. Also infuriating as Stage six expects you to take on 3 Red Arremers before the boss. All stages are accompanied by an excellent soundtrack.

So is Super GnG better than the original GnG? In ways it is but I prefer GnG. I find the level design a little better and the weapons a lot more useful. I also find the soundtrack more iconic (although that's nitpicking). I do love the green armour weapon upgrades. However one big issue I have is with the series' traditional kick in the arse. If you aren't familiar with the series the game won't let you fight the final boss and will send you back to the beginning of the game tasking you to collect a secret weapon that can be used to defeat the final boss. Due to the amount of upgrades this is a lot tougher to do in Super GnG as the weapon only appears once fully upgraded. You can also lose this weapon by accidentally picking up another weapon so you need to be super careful.

Anyway enough nitpicking. None of my small issues take away from the fact that this is one of the finest SNES action titles.

1. Trails in the Sky Second Chapter|PC
2. Operation C|Gameboy
3. The Outer Wilds|PC
4. Kid Dracula|Gameboy
5. The Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye|PC
6. Illusion of Gaia|SNES
7. Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3|Gameboy
8. Shantae|Gameboy Colour
9. The Forgotten City|PC
10. Bulk Slash|Saturn
11. Monster World IV|Megadrive
12. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Breakthrough|PC
13. Pikmin 3|Switch
14. Bayonetta 2|Switch
15. X-Com 2: War of the Chosen|PC
16. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts|SNES
17. GG Shinobi|Game Gear
18. Elden Ring|PC

GG Shinobi

The analogue pocket as been a bit of an eye opener for me to not just how good the Game Gear was but also Sega as a developer. I always viewed the game gear as a machine that Sega just ported master system titles to but it has a fair few exclusives as well. What stands out about these exclusives is just how good they are.

Nintendo gets a lot of credit for the design of its portable games and how they perfectly fit the portable platform but in retrospect Sega were just as good and GG Shinobi is a great example of this. GG Shinobi is very much a Sega action game but built around a handheld experience. It's very tough but also very short so can be played within 30-60 minutes. The game features a Megaman style level select where you can choose the order of which of the first 4 starting areas to tackle first. Defeating the boss of a stage will free one of your ninja friends who all have different weapons and abilities that can help them get around levels. Each level also has a permanent health upgrade to be found that requires the abilities of one of your ninjas, so there ends up being an optimum path through the game. The game then ends with a massive maze level that is insanely challenging and forces you to utilise the abilities off all your ninja companions.

GG Shinobi is a fantastic handheld action game. It's pure Sega at their 16-bit best. It looks great considering the 8-bit hardware and has a Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack. Definitely a pleasant surprise.

Elden Ring

I won't go into this too much but I'll just say it's one of the best games I've ever played. From Software's take on an open world is an absolute triumph. It's challenging and obtuse in the best way From Software can be but it's also From Software's most accessible game with welcome quality of life features like being able to respec and the ash summons. With Breath of the Wild and now Elden Ring I really hope other developers start taking lessons of them when it comes to making their open world games because stuff like Horizon coming out with the same old ubisoft monogame template just isn't acceptable anymore.

My only very slight negative is the soundtrack for the bosses isn't as strong as other from games, although I love the ambient music. However it's far from the disaster that is the Demon's Souls remake's soundtrack.