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everygame · 1 year

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Battle City (NES)

Developed/Published by: Namco Released: 9/9/1985 Completed: 20/11/2022 Completion: Beat all 35 unique levels. Version Played: Switch Online Trophies / Achievements: n/a

[Apologies for interrupting, but before we get to the article I’d like to mention that you can pre-order a copy of exp. 2600, my brand new zine, right now and get more of–and help support–writing like what you’re about to read.]

There are iconic NES games–Super Mario Bros. and that. And then there are iconic NES pirate cart games. Battle City is the latter.

I have a funny history with NES piracy, actually. As most people know, the NES wasn’t really a thing in the UK for most people (I certainly didn’t know anyone with one as a child) and by the time I reached the age where my family were spending more time in Malaysia, I was already an avowed PC gamer. So even though I have so many memories of department stores with rows of pirate carts and knock off Famicoms… I wasn’t interested at all, and instead filled my boots with copied floppies (seeking out the stalls with the best reproductions of manuals and that sort of thing.)

In some respects, I regret this–so much of the video game culture of South East Asia in the 90s seems to be lost forever (see tweets) and now all I really have is snatches of memories–usually a gaggle of kids crowded round a pirate cart version of Street Fighter II in a Jaya Jusco–but I also know that games like Battle City squandered the chance to get me lugging a Malaysian famiclone home with a couple of 150-in-1 carts.

Let’s remember here I’m not yet a teenager and I’ve just discovered the glory of things like Wolfenstein 3D’s vibrant ultraviolence and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis’ cinematic narrative. And while in Malaysia I’m putting the exchange-rate equivalent of pennies into big fancy sit down/ride cabinets of the likes of Suzuka 8 Hours or Rad Mobile. So when an uncle digs out a faimclone and a pirate cart and you boot it up to find you can play 30 versions of the dustiest-ass tank game for babies you’d ever seen…

(And what was the deal with every single pirate cart massively over-inflating the number of games anyway? Was anyone fooled when they selected “Fancy Excitebike” in the list and just got Excitebike again??? I have one of those snatches of memory of standing in a wee store with my dad, him saying “you can get another game for the house!” and me, unable to tell which cart offered any value at all–after all, 80 of the games would probably be the same ones on the cart we already had–going home empty handed! Empty handed! When do kids ever do that???)

Anyway. When I think of pirate carts, I think of Battle City. Maybe it isn’t iconic to everyone, maybe it’s only iconic to me because it was on the cart I had for one summer at least… but it’s such a pirate cart game that it almost feels weird to play it in an “official” way.

And I suppose, this many years later, it’s kind of weird that I put a bunch of time into it?

I’ll say this. It’s not surprising that at the time I gave it short shrift. It’s got horrible sound (a constant buzzing of engines) and feels extremely simplistic and limiting as you awkwardly move your tank around sans diagonals. It was, after all, based on a game from 1980 with a bit of a graphical touch-up–contemporary with the timeless Pac-Man, sure, but this ain’t Pac-Man. I’ll admit the tank movement feels better than I remember it (smooth, and perfect speed) but the game sort of doesn’t really feel like anything.

Look at it this way. The game has you as a tank trying to defend one poorly walled-in base, always at the bottom center of the screen, from being shot by enemy tanks. There’s some terrain, but it’s mostly brick walls that can be shot through. Enemies spawn from the same three spawn points at the top of the level, and there’s some variation between them (some fast tanks, some tanks that take a bunch of hits). None of the enemies have any real AI–they don’t seek you, or really seek the base, either. Sometimes there are power-ups; you can improve your gun to destroy steel walls; there’s an occasional smart bomb or time-stop which are must-grabs. Shoot 20 tanks to get to the next level.

It’s, you know… fine. It’s an alright game design. But when you actually sit down and play it, the game very quickly devolves into getting your tank as far up the screen as you can manage where you are able to shoot clearly to both the left and right boundaries without being shot from a tank spawning above, and then just… firing constantly left or right based on which side tanks are traveling down from most urgently.

There are a few levels where this is not simple to do (a total bastard of a level mostly with tree coverage, making tanks near-impossible to see) and you can’t consider this tactic a total slam dunk because if a tank does slip past, they’ll often destroy your base before you can get to them, leading to an instant game over (no matter how many lives you have!) which can be infuriating. But it’s not like there’s better tactics; on a level by level basis you’ll do your best to shoot your enemies straight paths to your base, so you kind of just have to accept the variance.

In the cold light of 2022, Battle City is… a half-hour or so of near-mindless blasting that you wish had any sort of twist, or spark, or even particularly interesting level design, to make it a charming bit of classic arcade action worth score attacking.

In the early 90s it’s a dusty-ass tank game for babies that is indirectly responsible for the total lack of preservation of south-east Asian game culture history. Probably.

Will I ever play it again? Nope but I’ve got 1991’s Tank Force waiting to be played which is a baffling (and obscure) sequel that’s maybe brilliant. I mean who knows.

Final Thought: One of the most annoying things about Battle City of course is when you’re shot from the side by a tank that’s turned on a dime before you could notice, and I have to admit I’d be interested to play this exact game but with real, slow-ass tank turning. Would it be better? Would it actually be even more annoying? I’m kind of imagining these situations where you watch your tank turn, watching another tank turn, thinking “oh god, I hope I get this shot off” like you’re actually in the tank, feeling it slowly spin around… [“That’s why tanks have turrets though. So they can shoot in different directions more quickly”--Ed.] Shut up!

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#video games #games #gaming #battle city #nes #famicom #pirate cart #switch online #text #txt #review #namco #namcot

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eat-the-richard · 2 years

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GAME OF THE YEAR ("GOTY") (as they call it) 20222

Fellas!!!!! Howsit going Tumblr, felt like writing about video game again because my brain loves video games! I like thinking about video games more than actually playing them! There’s plenty of us out there who watched a baker’s million video essays in their adolescence and have been poisoned (PLAGUED... even) with gaming knowledge and insights. And I’m one of them!!!!!!!!!!! So here it is, Y'INZ... my top 300 games of christian year 2022.

And just to preface before one of you FREAKS gets any funny ideas, I think basing your GOTY lists on just what released in a given calendar year is bogus! If you do this, GET OUT OF HERE! If you only play the newest games on your PS5 and don't even look at anything released before 2018, everyone at the lunch table thinks you smell weird. So put on some antiperspirant and play freaking Halo Combat Evolved for pete's sake! (EDITOR'S NOTE: Despite this joke, Richard has not yet completed Halo: Combat Evolved despite owning it.)

HONORABLEST MENTION

Sometimes you have a list that has honorable mentions. me too!

Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pass (Nintendo Switch)

This is actually not very good since it's just cheap mobile game levels imported into the MK8 engine. Unfortunately I love giving Nintendo money AND happen to think that playing Mario Kart after a hard day at the mine shaft is pretty relaxing. So even if they imported levels from like Forza Motorsport I think I would like that.

Sonic Origins (Nintendo Switch)

Is this even really a game to rank on a list like this? 30 year old Genesis remakes shoddily copy pasted into the Hedgehog Engine for some reason? With extra content really not worth engaging with? Ehhhh whatever man, this guy has Sonic 3 in it. You ever play Sonic 3 before? If not go do that instead and come back ONLY IF you've completed at least Flying Battery Zone. I would go further but I'd totally understand if you stop playing after pushing the Sandopolis blocks.

WWE 2K22 (PS5)

Regrettably, the newest outing from 2K Sports and WWE is probably my second most played game on this list. Not that this game is even bad, I mean it is probably the best WWE game in the last 10 years. Tons of modes, good visuals, cool roster. I played the banana slamma outta this game for like a month. But then I realized I was having more fun assigning championships to created guys on my roster to match the week-to-week championship histories of modern WWE and AEW rather than, you know, actually playing it. So I haven't touched this in about seven months. Something about the moment-to-moment gameplay of 2K just doesn't engage me at all, feels too slow but also not impactful enough to match how wrestling actually feels to watch. Feels faker than the real thing, believe it or not.

Ship of Harkinian (PC)

This only didn't make the list since, I mean like it's Ocarina of Time from 1998 which I first played in 2010 and have replayed approximately 8 times. But I've been waiting for something like this since the Ocarina of Time source code was 100% decompiled late last year, and the fellas over on the King's ship have given me everything I wanted. 60 FPS gameplay, tons of tweaks to improve on OOT's core features, support for nearly every device under God's watchful glare, controller remapping AND analog camera. Still doesn't look as good as the 3DS version but if you choose to play Nintendo Switch Online version rather than this you are under arrest.

OK THIS IS THE LIST EVERYTHING BEFORE WAS NOT REAL

16. Super Kiwi 64 (PC)

I remember picking up this game while being stressed out about going to a social function. The sales pitch for me was simple: it plays like an N64 platformer AND you can beat it in an hour.

As someone who has more games in his backlog than iPhone chargers in his plastic bag of chargers (pictured), it feels good sometimes to just... crank one out y'know? One session of non-stop platforming and you never have to worry about it again. Pure dopamine to your chrome dome.

It helps that SK64 is a pretty fun time too. With controls so fluid that I don't think I messed up one of my thousands of jumps, levels which are just the right about of expansive as to not be too imposing or restrictive, and a story which makes me grin to the edge of my cheek bone but not further, this is an easy recommend for people of my age range and taste in gaming.

15. Astro's Playroom (PS5)

That's right gaming public, PROOF that I own a PS5. I purchased that white block of solid matter in January after realizing the sheer amount of gaming experiences I was missing by not being in the PlayStation ecosystem. Of course, directly after making the plunge, one of my main PS holdouts I thought would never release on PC (Spider-Man (2018)), well, did. So I haven't really used my PS5 as much as I probably should have for a $500 investment. My fault, of course, for being bad with money.

But for the brief three hours that I was playing Astro's Playroom, I was not thinking these things. Not that I was absolutely head over heels in love, just that I thought, "hey! this little (big) ps5 system ain't so bad! it has this cute little robot game where I can be surrounded by playstation propaganda and murder the dinosaur from the ps1 tech demo!"

I put this game right above Kiwi since they are both pretty short but the sheer effort put into Astro's presentation just notches it a little ahead. You can tell the devs of this loved making it and, hey, I loved playing it too. A little bit. Not $500 love but maybe $10 over the course of 50 years love.

14. Mario's Super Picross (SNES) (by way of Switch Online)

Much like Kiwi, I played the majority of Picross this year while being stressed out over a social arrangement. But while the social arrangement surrounding Kiwi's purchase and playtime was honestly not that bad and I was just being an anxious little bear, the social arrangement surrounding Picross was a wedding. A wedding I had no friends to go there with, taking place 6 hours away with a crowd full of people who went to Liberty University. Needless to say I was dreading the days leading up to this thing. I distinctly remember sitting there, in my rented Airbnb quite literally just in someone's house, thinking to myself, "why the fuck am I here in someone's house for a wedding I will not have fun at?"

So instead of thinking that, I got lost in Picross. While a game I've certainly heard plenty about, Picross seemed to me like it would be confusing to learn and not super fun for me to play. But all it took was a friend explaining the basics to this Japanese-language-only game for me to figure it out. The game started with easy 5x5 puzzles to get my feet wet with the idea of breaking blocks to match the numbers on each row and column. But before I knew it, I was staring down the barrel of a 25x20 board with 30 minutes to figure everything out. And the cool part was that I didn't necessarily feel overwhelmed by that point. The concept had seeped itself into my head that much.

I'll definitely be playing more of this game in the future. I don't think I've even completed a quarter of this game's gargantuan list of puzzles. I kind of don't want to complete this one because I know if I do I'll be sent down the rabbit's hell of Picross games. That puzzle debt is too great for me at the moment.

13. Sonic Frontiers (PC)

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a bunch of words about Sonic on this very blog that ended with this pretentious garbage:

I don’t want SEGA to half ass [the next Sonic game]. I want them to boldly step into that abyss with a vision of Sonic that appeals to the heart of the fandom. Because, even if it’s been down recently, that heart is still beating, and after the abuse it’s already taken, it’s going to take a hell of a lot to get it to stop. And if SEGA can get this heart pumping to its full extreme as it had in years past, we may have something legendary to look forward to.

And, uhh, that kind of happened? Sonic fans seemingly across the board (or as much across the board of lavishly online Sonic nerds as you can get) are utterly in love with Sonic Frontiers for appealing straight into the heart of early 2000s Sonic fandom.

There's plenty about this game that I can look at and say with certainty that I absolutely love. These main four hedgehog et al characters have never been written this well in a mainline title of the series. At its best, Sonic running around the open world is a straight up good time. And the three titan boss themes have been permanently stuck in my headphones and may be some of my favorite songs of the past several years.

So its a shame then that Sonic Frontiers doesn't quite come together very well. The gameplay loop just feels kind of... random to me in a way that no other game in the series has ever been. In a four hour Sonic Frontiers review podcast (*shudder*) JebTube calls some of the challenges that open the map up "Among Us tasks" which may have just ruined that part of the game for me. More than anything, though, the controls just don't quite stick the landing for me. You feel pretty magnetized to the ground even when running off a ledge, which feels pretty strange when the very foundation of this series is based on being launched up a vertical slope into the air.

Still, it's hard not to respect what SEGA was able to accomplish with this one. Harping on potential is often a fool's errand but sometimes, with a media property that has spat you into the dirt more often than not, its hard not to cling onto that potential so that hope isn't totally lost.

12. Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit (PC)

Thankfully, even if the mainline Sonic releases are spotty, fanmade content has kept the spirit alive and beating. And this title, made entirely by one guy (Noah Copeland of bearded twitter PFP fame), is the latest in the Sonic fandom's absolute service to older games in the series. From the Retro Engine decomp releases to mods that force games like Adventure DX and Heroes kicking and screaming to the operating table, Sonic fans love improving on older games. Because we love those games. And preserving the core of what made those games so special while improving on the many objective flaws they may have it's the highest tribute you could possibly make to it.

Triple Trouble 16-Bit may be the shining example of this phenomenon. The base of this remake is in an already decent Game Gear game released in 1994, at the height of Sonic's popularity. But it's just too hard to play those Game Gear games in the modern day. There's a certain retro crappiness that comes with playing a game like that, with cropped aspect ratios and 3rd rate visuals bringing down a decent concept. With a fresh Genesis inspired coat of paint and enough tweaks to the overall package that make things way better to actually play, Copeland's project is pretty clearly the only way to play that game right now.

Seeing this game given such love and care makes me yearn for this treatment for other older Sonic games. Like, hear me out OK? Sonic Rush. 16:9 widescreen. No screen switching weirdness to make it easy for modern screens. CD quality soundtrack. Turn down the trick SFX. And tweak the level design to not be so unforgiving. I would do that but I'm a talentless hack!

11. Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)

When I purchased my PS5 earlier this year, I had two games in mind to play on it. One of them was Spider-Man, which has been taunting me for the last five years since its unveiling at one of those old E3 shows. Swinging around like the red guy is just one of those innately fun ideas, I think. Kids think it when looking outside the car window. Adults think it when looking outside their office's window. I want to jump out of here and swing around monkey-style!

Really, Spider-Man only needed to do that right and, shocker, it does do the swinging right. It doesn't even really matter that the open world is in New York, the pinnacle of urban homogeneity and therefore not an incredibly fun world to look around in. New York City skyscrapers were tailor-made for web swinging and video games have been trying to capture that magic for 40 years. You can argue that the 2004 Spider-Man 2 game has a bit more depth to it, but 2018's version is just so smooth and effortless. Really makes me feel like Sp-

Of course there's a story and structure to this game too. Which were both fine. Both serviceable, both doing exactly what they needed to and nothing more. Which probably is bad if you like Spider-Man more for its narrative. But also you don't exist, I had just made up a guy in my head.

10. Dark Souls II (PC)

The end of 2021 revealed to me one crucial detail - I like Dark Souls and Soulslike games after years of failed attempts. This realization occurring conveniently before the release of FromSoftware's next behemoth Elden Ring. So the race was on - how many Soulsborne games developed by FromSoftware could I complete before getting to Elden Ring?

In January, all eyes turned to Dark Souls II as the immediate next step after slaying Lord Gwyn. I've heard a lot about it, not all positive of course. There's a lot of annoying little things about this one. The controls feel a little weird. The health bar is constantly going down. The levels feel kind of samey and lack a ton of level-to-level cohesion. The bosses are truly all over the place.

But, like, Dark Souls 1 had a lot of problems too. So why did I not love this one as much? The gameplay loop involved in tackling monumental challenge is still as fun as ever, and none of the areas are truly repulsive in quality or anything. Maybe it's the fact that I can't really remember much about the experience that says it all here. Still, I had a good time messing around with this one, and even from the bit I experimented with it looks like replaying DSII is definitely worth it.

9. Risk of Rain 2 (PC)

Gamer confession time - I do not care for Roguelikes. I've tried, believe me I've tried. Isaac, Gungeon, Necrodancer, Spelunky, none of these ever did anything for me. So what were these missing? At risk of going on too much of a tangent, let's just keep it simple. They didn't have multiplayer.

Risk of Rain 2, has multiplayer. And just by nature of that one addition, I'm sold on the idea of randomly generated runs of similar content. What can I say? Reacting to the different events in every run is a lot more fun when there's people to react with. Tackling the challenge of getting to the end of a 90 minute run is a lot more satisfying when it's a group effort. And learning the game's mechanics and intricacies by asking a question to a human is a lot more engaging than doing so to a Fandom page.

You know what else Risk of Rain 2 has? Loader. Gosh damped Loader is in this game. Loader has a grapple hook that can fling her across the level AND can uppercut small critters. I want to be her when I'm robotic and dead.

8. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PC)

Star Wars is kind of exhausting to engage with. Thankfully, beyond being another piece of the Disney media machine, Jedi Fallen Order is a pretty fun game as well.

I had this game on my backlog for about two years and I'm glad I finally got to it. The main make or break for me, the Metroid-enjoyer of my friend circle, is how the levels would be laid out to incentivize exploration and finding essential movement-based items along the way to facilitate progress. And while not as good as, say, Metroid Prime in that regard, Jedi Fallen Order hits a lot of those beats. I didn't even think there'd be a double jump in this game (for some reason) but when I got one it immediately made me think of all the new areas I could explore with that new ability. Combat is pretty fun here as well, with a slew of abilities both involving your saber and your force hands to obliterate the white menace (Stormtroopers) and all rats that come from the dirt.

Taken as just a game, it's a good time, albeit one that feels like a mashup of a lot of other successful game ideas and mechanics. But when all these mechanics and features are wrapped in a cozy Star Wars shaped wrapping paper along with a gift card to "Actually Tells an Interesting Story of Regret and Acceptance Without Relying Too Heavily on Star Wars Tropes And Areas," maybe it comes together better than the sum of its parts.

7. Splatoon 3 (Nintendo Switch)

Boy howdy, do I love giving money to Nintendo. One of my favorite pastimes, that and sitting. I'll be honest though, I wasn't too keen on engaging with Splatoon 3 up to launch. Nothing really grabbed me as someone who only liked Splatoon 1 and 2. To be honest, I was more of a fan of the single player modes of those earlier games. So if anything, I would just get it for the campaign. Which would have been fine, Splat 3's story takes the best of Octo Expansion's creative level ideas into a wild story that ends with a cool boss fight, like expected.

What I didn't expect was for one of Splatoon 3's multiplayer modes to make a believer out of me, which did end up happening. Not turf war though, at least not really. Still only think that mode is alright at best and infuriating at worst. Or Ranked/Anarchy, sweating in Splatoon feels like a recipe for a brain tumor. Splatoon 3's biggest win is the new Salmon Run. Well, "new" isn't really accurate since its mostly the same thing as Splatoon 2's mode. However, Splatoon 3 surprised millions and soared above the competition with just one innovative tweak and trick - throwing golden eggs with the A button.

And with that, Salmon Run can be played far more offensively, letting you run around all over the place with your Tri-Slosher while throwing eggs into the net from the lower level of the map. And my golly, when I nail a buzzer beater where the last second egg throw into the net just meets the quota to move onto the next level, I felt more comfortable with parting $20 a year for Nintendo Online than I ever have. Until the next communication error, of course.

6. Dark Souls III (PC)

Dark Souls III, the fifth Demon's Souls game and the fourth game on my Soulsborne list, was made for me by the Abyss Watchers. My experience with those guys is what these games are all about. A brutal challenge which I throw myself at time and time again, originally feeling so hopeless and beaten but gradually growing in both skill and confidence to conquer your fears and goals. Dark Souls III is also made by the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, a beautiful fight befitting of its name in which your rolls and R1 presses must fit in tandem with the bosses enveloping swings and spins. When judging Soulsborne boss fights, DSIII is easily my favorite in the series.

And on the quality of those bosses DSIII sits here on my list. Because the rest of the game is kind of forgettable. Maybe it was just Souls fatigue that did this to me but I really don't remember a whole lot beyond the bosses from this game. I remember the one terrible swamp area that felt like dragging my foot through a... mud... puddle. And I remember the area that was kind of black and white that looped back around on itself. That's about it though, and this Souls fatigue kind of bleeds into the overarching themes of the game, it seems like. This world needed to die, leaving it all in the past to chart new territory. Dark Souls is over, but it's spirit will continually revive into greater things.

5. Cuphead: Delicious Last Course (PC)

I have only played Cuphead as a multiplayer experience. Over the summer of 2019, my roommate and I gorged ourselves in Cuphead's challenge and aesthetic. He would wake me up at around 11am, staring with loving yet needy eyes which told me to get my ass up and back at the setup. Much like Risk of Rain 2, the joy of accomplishment feels all the sweeter when shared, and the journey to get there all the more fun. We even learned the Cuphead barbershop quartet jingle, singing it on the way to Frenchi's to the bereavement of passers by.

At the end of our journey, I distinctly remember feeling excited for the new DLC level to release, as at that point it was scheduled to drop later that year. Less than a year turned into three, and by the time the Cuphead DLC launched for a measly $8, I knew we needed to get together again to experience the heights of beating the piss out of bees and carrots yet again.

Cuphead's Delectable Lone Continuation is, put simply, more Cuphead. It didn't necessarily set to light the world ablaze like last time, but as a fun revisit of the mechanics and aesthetic, DLC was everything I could have wanted. We certainly didn't find it as hard as the end of the base game, given we beat everything within two sessions and five hours. But perhaps we have simply grown as gamers, and as men, since our last time at cartoon town.

4. Spark the Electric Jester 3 (PC)

Spark hit the big time this year, notable since it was the first time the Yellow Lanky Brown-Coated Hat Wearing Clown Man has ever hit my purview. Taken on its own, Spark 3 is an impressive feat for a single developer, as high speed 3D platformers are a tough mix to develop for. You have to simultaneously create large, sprawling landscapes for the characters to traverse through, while being keenly aware that the world is often going to be breezed by in a matter of seconds.

But taken as a culmination of developer Lake Feperd's body of work over the past decade, forged in the fangame scene before tackling the challenges and expectations of original IP, Spark 3 rises ever higher. Comparing footage of the game's two predecessors reveals a steady forming of confidence in how to make games that feel and, more importantly, flow like this. With controls that propel the titular character seamlessly to impressive speed, and level design that facilitates such high speed without becoming too much of a straight line. Developers with higher budgets have been treading this line for years, and often fail to hit the peaks of this wondrous adventure.

High speed doesn't define Spark though, as a character and as a game. There's a lot of thought put into how each level fits into the overarching world. You're not just running through levels for the fun of it, these are genuine places that are inhabited by people. If you stray off the linear path to collect any of the colored coins scattered through each level, you'll find each area is fleshed out beyond the point of necessity. The story is surprisingly deep and moving for a game of this style, with twists and turns that call into question the world you've just blazed through. More than anything, Spark feels like a labor of love, and hopefully that love is reciprocated.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Dolphin)

It's easy to take for granted the emulation paradise we're currently experiencing. Nearly every console ever developed has at least some group of passionate hobbyists working to preserve that hardware and software library therein to players and developers for years to come. Even modern consoles like the Switch and PS4 have impressive emulation solutions right now, with undoubtedly more progress to be made in the coming years.

Most impressively, though, is Dolphin. A combined emulator of the GameCube and Wii consoles, Dolphin has been polished to a mirror's shine. Nearly every game worth playing on these two systems have been made fully compatible, with remaining loose ends being closed every day. If Dolphin closed up shop five years ago, it would still be among the most feature complete emulators to this day, but the continued progress is nothing short of inspiring.

No emulation experience has left me in awe more than when me and three other friends played Four Swords Adventures earlier this year. By linking Dolphin and another GBA emulator (mGBA), utilizing the built in Netplay features in Dolphin to connect to each other, and remapping our controls to better suit modern pads, we were able to play one of the most chaotic, insane, well paced, and ultimately fun co-op experiences Nintendo has ever made. While the original game was hampered by insane accessibility concerns (four GBAs for crying out loud!) and has not been ported officially to anything since, this emulation solution has blown the door open for future players to experience this multiplayer masterpiece well into the future.

2. Elden Ring (PC)

There was no doubt FromSoftware's latest game would hit this list, as it has and will do for the lists of thousands of gaming-obsessed wannabe writers over these past and future months. It's very concept left people in want - an open world Dark Souls game with the highest production values and development time in the Soulsborne semi-franchise. These games' following has progressed far beyond cult, as Elden Ring and its impact caused these games to hit the mainstream. Reverberations of which caused me and my friends to embark on our Souls experience in the preceding months. Along the journey, we fell in love with what was on offer - the world, the design, the challenge, the community, and the sense of achievement, specifically on my end, of finally putting a series that I always knew I would love solidly into one of my favorites.

All roads lead to May, when everyone I knew was either already playing or had just started playing Elden Ring. The experience of early Limgrave is something really special, and it remains my favorite part of the game. Truly no path in this early area is the wrong path. Each story and journey embarked is entirely unique to each of the millions of players. Open world games rarely get this unique part of their appeal; playing games like Spider-Man this year only reinforced this perspective. While each player is bounded to come across some of the same things, the pure scale and density of the world is something to behold, and to experience everything requires commitment and time.

But often, when beholding the monolith of something seemingly insurmountable, motivation is fleeting. Admittedly, after getting through Leyndell and conquering Morgott, I simply ran out of gas. It should have come as no surprise, given I had been gorging myself in Souls content for the preceding months and that Elden Ring on average takes around three times the hours to complete compared to the preceding titles. I took a three month long break from completing its remaining areas, in which even when I got there, I was struck by the quality difference between the early and end game. This is to take nothing away from what Elden Ring achieved, though, and the experience I had playing it. Ultimately, it's an experience I'm glad I had, particularly at the end of my Souls journey. But as the months went on, my experience with Elden Ring was not what stuck with me as the peak of my gaming year.

1. Bloodborne (PS4)

I bought a PS5 to play this game. I've owned Bloodborne for many years, with my first experience occurring in 2015. My time with the game was short, as very soon afterward I was whisked off to college without a PS4 to play with. But much like how the experience of trekking through the Undead Burg and Parish is still baked into my skull even years after first attempting it, I will never forget my first run through Central Yharnam. That packed alleyway full of damned locals wielding nothing but their bare fists and torches to light the way, dimly lit and dankly produced with the pronounced, overwhelming horror of a gothic town gone mad with sickness and death, remains the most striking opening to a Souls game FromSoft has ever made.

I didn't get much further than the Father Gascoigne fight before I stopped playing that first time, but something about those early hours kept drawing me back to Bloodborne. Even when I was pitch broke and jobless in college, I would frequently check for the price of PS4 Slims on Facebook Marketplace to see if I could get one for close to $100. While the PS4 has a great library, with tons of quality titles that I would like to play at some point, only one made me eventually pull the trigger when money was right.

And here I was, March of 2022, having bested Dark Souls 1 and 2 and becoming innately familiar with the Souls series, finally sitting in front of my obnoxiously high latency television that was stating the Bloodborne title screen. At last, I was ready to give this experience another crack. And of course, a master at gaming and gameplay that I am, I still got rocked at this same Central Yharnam graveyard. As I soon learned, knowledge of previous Souls games actually isn't that much of an advantage. You don't play Bloodborne like Dark Souls, a fact I was harshly reminded of going straight from DSII to BB to DSIII. It's been repeated to the point of chronic eye pain at this point, but the lack of shields in Bloodborne really makes a difference in how you trudge through it. This lack of instant defensive options combined with the regain system of getting back health upon hitting an enemy, the insane number of quality trick weapons at your disposal, and the complete lack of things like slow rolling and armor upgrades forces players to approach combat scenarios not so much as a studious, opportunistic Dark Souls player but as a ravenous hound, thirsty for carnage and blood vials.

Which, even in context of the game world, makes sense. You aren't a cursed undead trying to escape a rotten world by resetting the cycle of anguish, escaping this cruel engagement through wits rather than brawn. You're coming here. To this ruinous city on its most vile, violent occasion. The utter definition of eldritch, cosmic horror which unravels slowly and grotesquely as the game progresses. You, in your pride, come here to cure illness. And in your attempt, you find yourself adapting to match the furor and intensity of the beasts you fight in your path. Even if a cure can be found here (it can't), the sickness you receive in return can't be worth the trouble. Beasts all over the shop...

I usually don't think of games like this. I have what my goofy favorite YouTuber NakeyJakey calls goopy goblin gamer brain, a sickness which makes you compare every video game to Super Mario. Gameplay comes first and foremost; it doesn't really matter how it all comes together as long as the core is solid. So perhaps its because Bloodborne quite simply can't get out of my head months after completing it that puts it at the top of my list. The more I think about the experience in its totality, the more in awe I feel of it. Games like Bloodborne are not created by pure artistic competency or raw man hours put in. There needs to be a certain alignment of the moon and amygdala to have something so horrific and beautiful exist on our revolving hellfire.

My "New Year's Rockin' Wish" is for Bloodborne to release on PC, if for no other reason than for my friends to play it. They helped me get over the hurdles needed for me to enjoy this series, so they more than deserve to experience what I believe to be the crowning achievement of the FromSoftware catalog. But if Mark Sony hates God and mocks death as much as I think he does, he will continue restricting access of Bloodborne to a sub-30 FPS experience even on my $500 white rectangle. And for this, my gamer brainiacs, he will go to, and burn in, hell.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

#game of the year #goty #sonic #elden ring #dark souls #bloodborne #playstation #ps5

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scotts-takes · 2 years

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Best of Ensemble Stars 2022

Number 5- Tell Your World- Switch & 2wink with Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len

So this is a case where a Cover Series song really feels like cheating- not only do we have 2wink and Switch, but ALSO we have Hatsune F'n Miku and the Kagamines?!? Does this even count as an Enstars song?!?

Of all the cover series songs, this was the one I knew the most coming in- Tell Your World is a classic that you can play in many Project Diva games. It's probably one of Miku's 5 or 10 most identifiable songs. The Chrome commercial it was created for has over 5 million views!

So the question comes down to- why would you listen to this cover version instead of the original? This is a fair question, especially because unlike many cover songs, the original artist is a part of this. Hatsune belts out many lines on her own here. We are going from a solo song to one now featuring 8 total performers- it would be easy for someone to get lost. But the reason this made it to number 5 on this list is that I feel that the addition of all the new voices is addative to the song, instead of taking away from it. The autotuning effect they added to the Enstars characters make them fit in with the more robotic sounds of the vocaloids- right from the start, as Natsume opens up the song, you can tell this sounds different. This is a song that has been covered by thousands of utaite, and this still comes across feeling unique.

It should not be overlooked that Project Sekai/Hatsune Miku Colorful Stage is one of the most popular mobile games in the world right now, and it launched after Enstars Music. That is a game that also features 3D MV's- and it says something that the model and quality used for Enstars are worlds better than anything in Sekai. Really goes to show how well Happy Elements future-proofed the game!

This is the last cover song I am putting on the list-I'm a little dissapointed that in celebrating the best of new Enstars music, a full 25% of my choices are songs that had previously existed. That said, as long as they can figure out the copyright stuff (now that there is CN, KR, and EN, they really can't be doing these as JP exclusives), i'd be down for another round of Cover Songs. Let Switch and Ra*bits cover Despacito, let Ryuseitai cover the Power Rangers theme, and more! These were a fun distraction through the year

And regardless of anything else, this song proves that Sora Harukawa would be friends with Hatsune Miku if they met. And that is worth celebrating! (Also Yuta and Kagamine Len would be besties if they were real)

#hatsune miku #kagamine rin #kagamine len #2wink #ensemble stars #tell your world #2022 in review

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sulettaofficial · 2 years

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Unsolicited (un-Sulett-ited???) opinions on Gundam Evolution

The game is more fun than Overwatch, imo, despite being an Overwatch clone. That's almost 100% because I have zero emotional connection or investment in Overwatch, meanwhile my (poorly constructed) Char's Zaku II and RX-78-2 Gunplas cheer me on while I play GE.

Playable Heroes/Mobile Suits

The small pool of Mobile Suits is frustrating (let me play a Qubeley!) but I feel like that's actually a good thing for the game There's less to learn and less to counter, meaning that you can probably become decent at a few mobile suits and become a viable player in pretty much every match. On top of that, it makes it easier on the developers when it comes to making ~ unique ~ effects. If you have five suits where their main gimmick is funnels (because who doesn't love funnels?) then it just becomes a game where everyone uses funnels and they might as well as change the name to "Funnel Evolution." Granted, I do want to play as a Qubeley >://

Customization/Battle Pass

The customization options feel really barebones. I'm hoping they add more interesting designs, skins, charms, etc. I don't have a lot of money right now, so I couldn't purchase the ~ Battle Pass ~ even if I wanted to, but I don't even want to purchase the battle pass. All the rewards are just. Meh? Halo Infinite has better battle pass rewards if I'm being honest. If Bandai is trying to pull in a new group of fans with a F2P shooter, they really need to add something to the game for the Fortnite players who are used to absolutely zany skins and the Halo Infinite players who are used to having a ~ super custom and personalized ~ SPARTAN-IV. Sazabi white lines? Sazabi black lines? Stop this. The most interesting skin is for the Nu Gundam - at level 60 - which is "Active Resonance". Nu Gundam with neon green lines. It looks nice but like. Okay? At level 51 you unlock Methuss "Sky Blue Lines" which is just the Methuss with...sky blue lines painted on it. Nu Gundam is an MS that you have to pay money for, about $10 USD. Over the course of the 60 levels of the battle pass you earn 990 EVO coins, which is the in game paid currency. Conveniently, 990 coins is the price of a MS. So you get to the final level, unlock the Nu Gundam skin, and assuming you haven't spent your coins on anything else, then you buy Nu Gundam. Otherwise, you'll unlock a skin for a MS that you don't even have. On top of that, since this is a hero based game, you're unlocking a skin for an MS that you might not even want to play. If you're a Barbatos/Exia main, I don't see you ever wanting to get Nu Gundam. If the final skin was for a free MS, I wouldn't have any complaints. Also you get an animated "stamp" - GE's version of "Sprays" - at Level 51 of a Psycommu but it's called "Psycho-Frame Light" and it's a 3D "T" spinning with green light around it. And I'm pretty sure the Psycommu in CCA was a bit more stylized than just being a gray version of the Teen Titans Tower. (I would check, but even the wiki doesn't have an image of the Psycommu, so maybe I'm wrong. And I don't feel like booting up my copy of CCA.)

There's also loot boxes that you open via tickets, which you can earn from the (paid/premium) battle pass. You can earn skins and other cosmetics from them. That's fine. I don't like loot boxes but between the minimal options and the fact that it doesn't feel like it's super monetized makes me feel like it's more acceptable compared to other loot boxes. Granted, I wish that there weren't loot boxes, but since I don't really care about the content it's like "Eh? Whatever?" At the same time though, that's more of a criticism of the less-than-stellar (in my opinion) skins/cosmetics. So actually no, loot boxes bad. Get them out of the game >:///

Also, the lack of in-character voice lines is insane. Why do you just have generic voice lines across all your suits rather than having some Char impersonator read an iconic "I came here to laugh at you." for the Sazabi? Where is the Setsuna-adjacent "I AM Gundam." line when you activate TRANS-AM? Who made this decision to not have any voice acting? Was it you, corporate?

Aesthetics

Absolutely not a fan of the art style nor sense of scale. In terms of scale, rather than feeling like I'm fighting giant mechas in a city, I feel like I'm fighting normal sized people - wearing power armor - in a toy city. MechAssault did a better job with scale (imo) and that game came out in like 2001. As for the art style, it just makes everything look like toys. I'm guessing they're trying to go for a CGI Anime look(???) but it doesn't look great. Between the toy aesthetic and sense of scale, I feel like I'm playing as the self insert of my 12 year old self with Gundam action figures in a game of ~ pretend ~ with my friend.

Thing I'm disappointed about >:///

The fact that it's an Overwatch clone is...disappointing. When my girlfriend told me (like months ago) there was a new Gundam game coming out I was so jazzed because I was hoping it was going to be a big(ger) budget game or at least something unique/interesting. Instead it's just...Overwatch. I understand it from a business strategy point of view but like c'mon. Where's my Gundam RPG where I go on missions with my pilot that I spent hours in Character Creation on and meticulously chose my skills and perks??? Or at least give me a PvP Online Only FPS that's not Overwatch.

TL;DR

Overall though, it's actually pretty fun. If you don't like Overwatch's gameplay then you'll obviously not like this. Some of the controls feel a touch off, but that's nitpicking and it's 100% tolerable. If you like multiplayer games then I'd say it's worth checking out. I've been playing exclusively Casual matches (though I plan to play Ranked when I unlock it) and I don't feel like I'm getting stomped by other players (of course some matches are better than others), so it's generally just been good matches. It boots you out of the lobby at the end of each match (at least I'm pretty sure it does. I always leave of my own accord, but there's a timer next to the leave button and I am assuming that means it either auto-queues you for another match w/o the people you just played with or it boots you to the main menu automatically. But I could be completely wrong). I mention this because I have been told this is a sign that a game is using SBMM, so if you don't like games that have universal SBMM that might be a turn off for you. Personally, I don't mind it in Halo Infinite, and if I'm right about GE I don't mind it here either.

"Neva, why are you talking about this game now? It came out in September!"

My PC is broken so I had to wait for it to come out on Xbox ;___; Pls be nice to me, a console pleb ;___;

Also when you open a loot box, RX-78 like fucking. Airdrops it to you, and it's just the most funny (in a good way) and endearing thing. It's like he's like "Hello, I brought this for you." and then the box dramatically opens.

#Mobile Suit Gundam #Gundam Evolution #Long Post #Neva Posting #The TL;DR is 'Its fun you can play it'

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doubleddenden · 2 years

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Okay so I'm thinking about how the Pokémon Day Presents is 20 minutes. I'm usually pessimistic about these because last time it was mobile game garbage with like a minute of okay stuff.

But here's what's guaranteed:

Scarlet and Violet DLC teaser or equivalent. Everyone that's played knows why so there's no point going further

What's most likely coming:

RBY, MAYBE Green for US I doubt it; GSC, and at the least RSE for NSO. I'd say FRLG too but they may opt to ignore it since LGPE exists on Switch. Either way, it's most likely the case due to the Nintendo Direct that announced Gameboy and GBA games but only showed the Pokémon TCG game for then. The trailer for the Presentation also previewed the old school sprites, the RBY intro, the RBG balloons- we know they like nostalgia, it's coming. Couple the GBA games with the events and the fact that 3ds will be closing shop next month, they pretty much are guaranteed to make it available.

PMD- something is being announced. My bet is on an Explorers remake since they recently dropped the OG remake. We know something is up due to the copyright being on the website code showing Spike Chunsoft 1993 to 2023, and unless they're suddenly going to drop Donphan Rompa and have Pikachu have to figure out which of his classmates killed Butterfree, that pretty much just points to PMD.

That alone should comprise at least 15 minutes. We could probably toss in a minute or 2 to casually remind everyone to download all the Pokestuff they can on the 3ds before the end time comes (so basically Bank- which will be free- and the SM demo for Ash Greninja).

Other than this that leaves a little wiggle room. A minute or 5 is guaranteed to be nostalgia bait and probably a montage of photos from the hashtag campaign they did for Twitter recently.

The only thing left I could guess would maybe be the usual rock cast at Pokémon Sleep, but only because it had a recent stir a couple of months back for... I think trademark, I might be wrong, but it was definitely a small behind the scenes ripple.

As always, I'll be praying for some reminder that Colosseum and XD existed. Won't happen because there's just not enough time. But I'll still hope for a third party studio to bring it back some day- and it'd fit since the GBA games will come back.

But anyway, why don't I have fun with a prediction of what the SV dlc will probably look like:

1. Hexagon legendary revealed, basically a piece of it exists in all Terra Orbs and its basically been soft fusion this whole time. Full form probably has something to do with a world turtle, 2 forms: ancient and future, dragon /Psychic type

2. New uniforms. Not full customization, but probably some special uniform for exploring deeper into Area Zero or some extra variants on the uniforms- maybe even straight up copies of Arven, Nemona, Team Star, and Clavell's uniform variants.

3. Probably mostly going to be artwork, couple of new characters locked to versions, and probably the professor OPPOSITE to the one we worked with- aka Arven's parent that bailed shortly after his birth- showing up suddenly.

4. 2 parts most likely, maybe a third if they really want to milk this. Hexagon is one part. The "Imagined" Pokémon the other (the Johto Beasts and Unovan Swords hybrids). Potential third is up in the air. One location is probably deeeeeeper into AZ and sort of a Hollow World (kinda like Halo 4). The other most likely that chunk on the north east of Paldea. My next guess would be islands way off the coast since apparently Paldea's oceans just go on forever, according to a recent Boundary Break video on SV- Essentially plenty of space for it.

5. More Paradox Pokémon. If I were a betting man- and I do enjoy gacha- I'd wager either paradoxes for Kanto starters OR Sinnoh starters since they basically got left in the rain for new forms. Probably Kanto because they love jacking Charizard off and Ohmori can't go one game without giving his favorite special privileges. But if they ever wanted to drop Gorochu, it's now or never. Probably an ancient pokemon with either a future counterpart or Eevee or Meowth gets a future counterpart.

6. a forgotten Pokémon gets a new form and evolution akin to Slowbro. Betting on Oddish or Poliwag, or generally a Pokémon with a split evolution so they can milk it like Slowbro in Isle of Armor and Slowking in Crown Tundra.

7. Called something like "Azure Ocean" or "Topaz Tunnel" or "Quartz Quarry"- keeping up with fancy color names.

Of course I could be entirely wrong, none of any of the above happens, and it's just something very, very minor.

#pokemon #pokemon day #pokemon presents

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ottspot · 2 years

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What In The World Is Sonic Origins Plus?? My Predictions

I'm back on my Badnik bullcrap, everybody. Today, we return to the very subject that started this blog off: Sonic Origins, but in a way I did not expect to happen. Sonic Origins might be getting DLC in the near future. Recently it was discovered that Korean ratings board had the game "Sonic Origins Plus" listed, with the same naming scheme as Sonic Mania's updated re-release, "Sonic Mania Plus".

This is something not everyone expected, but once word of the listing popped up speculation went rampant. Was this an update to fix all the bugs? Are we getting playable Amy and Metal Sonic? Well, today I'm going to be sharing what I think is going to be included in this DLC, along with what else might happen. Let's get started!

Games being "leaked" this way aren't that uncommon. In December a trademark was filed in the UK for a remaster of "We Love Katamari", and that turned out to be true, with its reveal in this month's Nintendo Direct. With things like this, it's only a matter of waiting until it's officially revealed to learn more about it.

So in the meantime, let's all put on our tinfoil hats and pray that we have playable Amy and Metal Sonic, and completely remastered versions of Knuckles' Chaotix, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R.

...Naaaah, I'm just messing with you. Those are obviously a bit outlandish, especially with the other games. It takes time to remaster Sonic games like how they've been doing it, especially with something like 3D Blast and R. Let's actually get into some of my predictions.

Firstly, the subtitle of "Plus" leads me to believe that Sonic Origins will be receiving a physical release like Sonic Mania Plus, and eventually having reprints that remove the downloadable content... for some reason. A physical release of this collection is something that fans have been asking for, and hopefully this means there will actually be one.

Like with most DLC these days, there will be an update to add compatibility with the content once it's been purchased. I assume this update will include lots more bug fixes, mainly in Sonic 3's Marble Garden Zone where debris keeps falling down even after the rumbling has stopped. I expect them to add in extra filter modes like Sonic Mania's as well, like a clear no-blur filter and the different CRT screen styles. I also hope for clearer music in Sonic 3 as well, or even the restoration of the original remastered music in Sonic 1 and 2's mobile versions.

As for the DLC itself, I'm not entirely sure of what it will contain. Sonic Mania's Encore DLC had the new Encore Mode, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel (from the SegaSonic The Hedgehog arcade game) as new playable characters in said mode, difficulty tweaks, a new special stage, and a new competition mode. I could see new characters like Amy and Metal Sonic happening, and of course Mighty and Ray wouldn't be hard to implement at all, but anything else, I'm not entirely sure of.

One thing that I've seen tossed around is having emulated versions of other games included, like some of the ones I mentioned earlier. I could see this as a possibility, as it's significantly easier to emulate games like Sonic R, 3D Blast, and Knuckles' Chaotix, although it's important that they get someone who is an expert with emulation to get it all working right. A company like M2 would be perfect for the job, as they have experience with emulating many of Sega's titles on other platforms, and also did great work with the Sega Ages series on the PlayStation 2. I can also see some criticism coming from this. Some people would probably like to have those games in their own collection and not have Origins as a required game to play them.

Hell, maybe it'll have some sort of 3D menu system like Sonic Jam. That would be fun to play around in, I'm sure.

In the end, though, I have no clue what this new DLC will bring us. More than anything, I just hope it has the necessary bug fixes to make this the definitive way to play these classic Sonic games. And more of them too, if Sega is feeling generous.

Thanks for reading once again! Writing about this specific game is strangely fun for me, and it's nice to revisit.

Next up: My First Impressions of Metroid Prime Remastered... Way Better Than I Thought!

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic origins #sega #sega genesis #tails #knuckles #sonic and knuckles #sonic origins plus #sonic mania #sonic mania plus

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threeboy · 2 years

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Games I finished in 2022 (and some I didn't)

Three years running, baby (read 2020, 2021 installments if you want). These are not in any particular order and it's also not the order I beat them in...

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U) 😀 Awesome. Better than I thought it would be. Full of charm as expected with things in the Mario Universe. Neat boss fights. I thought the game was over after Chapter 1 and then was happy there was more.

Pikmin 2 (Wii) 😍 I was hungry for more Pikmin after finishing the 3rd installment in 2021 and it was was a step down in fidelity (480p 😭) but still enjoyable. If you haven't played any of the series try the demo for Pikmin 3 on the Switch - there's nothing else like it.

Total Party Kill (iOS) 😍 I will rarely include mobile games because they are usually pseudo-gambly dogshit designed to bleed money. None of that garbage in this game it's just a bunch of cool levels and console game-like vibes. It's Lost Vikings-like but the puzzles are centered around killing your party and using their dead bodies to solve the puzzles. It's the game I've gifted to others the most on Steam.

Heart Star (iOS)😀 Same dev as Total Party Kill and it's another great console vibey puzzle platformer with less murder and more cuteness. It's totally playable on mobile but I'd probably get the Steam version if I wanted to do to another playthrough.

Kirby Star Allies (Switch) 😀 Totally Kirby and totally okay to play with my 5 & 7 year olds since slow characters get teleported to catch-up. You can tell Smash Bros was started by HAL with the similar chaotic vibes. My only complaint is this game skews too easy and it makes me wonder if they'll ever crank the difficulty of the puzzles up in a Kirby game because the setup has a lot of potential.

Starfox 64 (3DS) - two different playthroughs 😀 The original was already good but they updated the graphics and added some quality of life fixes so that was great. Starfox Zero gets shit on a lot but I'm interested in giving it a go next.

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) - 100% 😀 Bought a 3DS just to play this as I was flying high from finishing Metroid Zero mission in 2021. I explored the map pretty thoroughly so by the time I was near the end game I was close to 100% so I went ahead and did it anyway.

Metroid: Dread (Switch) 😍 This plays like a smoother version of Samus Returns and that makes sense since it was the same developers. The lore dumps were good. I liked how cinematic it felt when the camera zoomed out to show scale of things. I tried to 100% this but ragequit. Having beat the main 5 Metroid games I'm gonna try to get into the Metroid Prime series I skipped out on - I feel like I might like it now.

Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) - 100% 😀 It's everything you expect from a Mario game - tight platforming and lots of level variety. I felt a bit cramped not being allowed to control the camera but I got used to it. This just made me want to re-play Super Mario 3D Land and my kids are better at gaming now so that should be a fun replay. I'm surprised I 100%'d this.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) - 100% 😀 I liked this better than 3D Land - it's classic Mario platforming with a nice coat of paint. I'm surprised I 100%'d this one too but it's just too easy to have a 3DS on a nightstand and do a few things every night. I think this game made me develop "Mario Fatigue" because I need to take a break now.

Pokémon Puzzle League (N64) 😏 I never got into the actual Pokémon games but I have fun with the ancillary ones like the puzzle spinoffs. I replayed the single player hard mode to see if I could still beat it (and I can) and just when I started feeling good about my Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon skills I started playing Panel Attack (it's free!) against others online and got my ass handed to me repeatedly.

Zelda: Link Between Worlds (3DS) 🥰 This was marketed as a sequel to Link to the Past but it seems barely connected. I was worried the "wall walking" would be gimmicky but it added a lot of freshness. They had a lot of fun with "depth" and even with the 3D disabled some parts get very vertical. I didn't like the "buy all the tools" thing and I wish it was more of the traditional Zelda/Metroidvania styled with different areas unlocked as you gained abilities but I'm also glad they're trying new things.

Games I didn't finish

I tried a smattering of other games but didn't finish them - these were the most notable:

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS) 😭 I like it but rage quit pretty bad and not sure if I'll go back before I try the Switch remake (when if it's eventually released). I'm also going to try some Fire Emblem games to see if I like them too.

Any Mobile Game (They're all shit) 🤬 I didn't finish any mobile game beacuse they aren't designed to be finished they're designed to sell you crystals and shit - fuck 'em they're garabge.

Pic: I got into pearler beads / beadsprites pretty hard this year - it's pixel art IRL!

#videogames #video games #videogame #video game #blog #mario #zelda #games #nintendo #gaming #3DS #Switch #Wii #Wii U

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clambuoyance · 3 years

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About Kingdom Hearts.

I would recommend playing them in order of release, bevause things make most sense that way.

The order would be:

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories

Kingdom Hearts 2

Kingdom Hearts 358 1/2 Days

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep

Kingdom Hearts Recoded

Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover + Union Cross

Kingdom Hearts 0.2

Kingdom Hearts 3

Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 has Kingdom Hearts 1 to ReCoded

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 has 3D to 0.2 (Excluding Union Cross. It's a Mobile game. The game is offline, but you can download it to watch all the cutscenes)

And the rest is not in Bundles.

I would recommend either getting 1.5+2.5 for Ps3, ps4 or PC and 2.8

Or getting the Story so far (1.5+2.5 and 2.8)

Or The All in one Bundle that has everything except Melody of Memories.

1.5 + 2.5 is normally like 15 bucks and included 4 games and 2 movie version of games, so it's the best point to start.

oh dang theres a lot more content than i knew existed :0c i’ll probably have to wait till summer to try to get thru it all tho

thank you for the info :)

#kingdom hearts #clam answers

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movie-robotnik-positivity · 2 years

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Hey! I'm new to your blog and also fairly new to the Sonic fandom (I've always loved Sonic, but never really played more than one game and I don't even remember what the game was seeing as I was only 6 or 7 years old..) anyways I was wondering if you could share some of your favorite sonic games? I'm very overwhelmed because it seems like there are so many and I don't know where to start. Thank you!

Welcome to the blog! And same here, I've always had an interest in Sonic for its characters and multimedia content, but I didn't know much about the franchise until 2019 happened and I decided that "the Sonic movie looks like it could be good" was a good hill to die on.

I didn't have access to many consoles growing up so my catalog is small (unless you count flash games). Here are my favorites though!

Sonic Heroes: the first Sonic game I've ever played, I remember being obsessed with it as a little kid (probably never got past Seaside Hill though). It was the PS2 version which is somewhat buggy and very slippery. I enjoy it though, despite its flaws.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles: I don't enjoy replaying Sonic 1 and 2 for a variety of reasons, but the third installment is good all the way through! If you want to get into Sonic games, I think this is a good place to start.

Sonic CD: I played the Christian Whitehead mobile port a few years back and I loved it! I suggest you go for the robot generators rather than the Time Stones, the game is a lot more fun that way.

Sonic Generations: My favorite 3D Sonic game (even though I've only played..two). It doesn't have a lot of levels but they're all SO good, it's the perfect game to just replay over and over again. Sounds like it could be a good first 3D Sonic for you!

Honorable mentions would be Sonic Mania (which is great) and Team Sonic Racing (don't own it but I've played it plenty of times at a friend's house and I'm apparently really good at it).

#never played any of the adventure games though I'd love though #and I really want to play Sonic Unleashed at some point

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repentantsky · 3 years

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The difference Between JRPG’s and WRPG’s, and why we should stop comparing them

If you’re like me, you love RPG’s of many different genre’s. Whether they cover fantastical realms like Skyrim and Final Fantasy, or more technologically advanced ones like Borderlands or Star Ocean.

Like all genre’s most RPG’s of different genre’s also suffer from different problems because of tropes and reused settings that people can grow tired of, but talking about RPG’s from two different parts of the world, is a whole other problem. Japan for example, is mostly marketing itself to Western players, while Western RPG’s, are mostly marketing themselves to Western players...uh wait, why does that make them different?

It’s all because of style choices. See, Japan like most countries, has a lot of traditions that make a lot of it’s products fairly same-y. As I said that happens with everyone, but Japan has to try harder with smaller series to get western appeal, which is required to have a successful selling game, unless it’s a mobile title, since those all do really well in Japan, because people can just game on their way to and from work. I digress, but Japan is so rooted in tradition, that you can watch an episode of Gigantor, the anime that is considered by many to be the first anime ever created, and Demon Slayer, and notice a lot of similarities in the way the characters are speaking, because Japan has always made their shows where actors talk like they would in real life, which isn’t always true in other acting platforms around the world, which of course means, this translates to video games.

Specifically what it means, is that Japan has to hop a cultural barrier that Western games don’t, and they have to rely on a lot more tropes, because there are only so many ways to translate the same basic plot of a JRPG, for Western audiences, before things become too cliché. A lot of RPG’s are successful in doing this, like the aforementioned Final Fantasy, and other JRPG’s are coming through with successful games to, like Fire Emblem. Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, Atelier, and several others. All of the games coming through lately, lead people to believe that JRPG’s are a thriving genre in the west, but that’s not really true.

If you were to ask any random person what the most successful JRPG of all time was, a lot of people would probably think of a Final Fantasy game, but not even Final Fantasy 7, has come close. In fact the only JRPG that even made it to the top 10 best selling games ever, is Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow as a collective, with four different versions. The next best selling one is Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal, and in fact, only 11 of the top 49 best selling games of all time, are RPG’s, and all of the JRPG’s are Pokemon titles. Final Fantasy 7 has still been wildly successful, as the original has sold over 11.8 million units, and the remake over 5 million, but the fact of the matter is, that even though RPG’s as a whole are the biggest genre of the top 49, the few that made it are exceptions to the rules. In fact, of the top 10 best selling games of all time, 6 of them are by Nintendo. The other 5 excluding Pokemon, are Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros. Mario Kart 8/Deluxe, Wii Fit/Plus and the original Gameboy version of Tetris, which itself is on there twice because EA’s version is number 3. so you’re actually better off in Japan, not making a JRPG.

There’s a lot more that can be gleamed from looking at the list, so you can check it out here if you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

The point is that JRPG’s, aren’t always as successful as people think they are. I mean sure, you don’t have to be on the top best selling games list to be successful, but Persona 4 Golden on PC is considered a massive success for selling only just over a million units since it’s release, and the Tales of Series, which is one of the longest running in gaming, as recently as April of this year, had it’s sales numbers made public, and Tales of Symphonia, the undeniable Final Fantasy 7 of the series, sold a total of 940,000 units in the United States, and the game, easily the most successful title from Tales of, only managed 2.4 million in total. None of this is to say, that JRPG’s are struggling, because most of the ones I brought up are shining examples that they aren’t, but going back to that top 10 list, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V, just the top two of that list, have sold 345,000,000 total units. That not only beats the entire mainline series of Pokemon, it’s only about 2.5 million short extra, of beating the original 151′s total sales, with how many spare units the two games over Pokemon’s 300,000,000 million total sales mainline games, which means likely, the two of them will beat the series out at some point in the future.

Western RPG’s, don’t often suffer from as many problems, because they don’t have a border to hop, and it shows with Elder Scrolls, which has sold 58 million total copies with only five mainline games, and 30 million of those came from Skyrim alone. It took Pokemon, the undisputed champion of JRPG sales, 20 mainline games to reach 300 million, which means arguably, by the time Elder Scrolls reaches it’s 10th installment, it will have caught up to Pokemon’s first 20 games total sales. Borderlands, which is arguably the Tales of to Western RPG’s in most people’s eyes, has actually outsold Elder Scrolls with only 4 mainline entries, one of which is considered bad by many, with a total of 60 million total units sold. The better comparison, surprising for many I’m sure, for a Tales of comparison, is actually Fallout, which has sold 13.51 million units, to Tales of 23.5 million units.

Enough about numbers for a few minutes, 3 paragraphs about it is a bit much, but the fact of the matter is, Japan struggles more overall to make successful RPG’s in the West, than the West does in the West, and it’s all due to how much of a challenge it is to hop that border.

Outside of sales numbers, the other major difference between JRPG’s vs Western RPG’s is how they are classified. Generally, when someone thinks of a JRPG, they think of a fantasy world, with leveling, where rare items can be won off bosses, but your main way of improving stats is to level up, and have enough money to buy the best equipment at each new town you enter with a shop. However, a lot of games have been getting that label slapped on them by their marketing teams or fans, and some of it is just wrong. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one such game, despite the drops from enemies being the only correlation between BoTW and JRPG’s. The correlation was made by fans, which might seem like an innocent mistakes, and in fact could be nothing but that, but then there’s Monster Hunter, which actually does have two JRPG’s attached to it, in the Stories 1 and 2 games, but who took the reigns of JRPG to market, calling Monster Hunter World, a JRPG. despite it having few differences from other Monster Hunter action games, outside of having a story, and having nothing more to do with JRPG’s than Zelda. A lot of fans of Japanese games will classify simply playing as a fake character an RPG, which normally would be fine, but in games, that’s not how genres are defined. If that were the case, all of Yakuza’s games would be JRPG’s, instead of just Like a Dragon, and in fact most games would be RPG’s, and they obviously aren’t. Bubsy 3D RPG anyone? No? Ya sure? Yeah I didn’t think so.

The west has the exact opposite problem of under classifying it’s games as RPGs. While sure, you wouldn’t call Halo an RPG, unless you know, Master Chief was shooting an RPG, you absolutely should call Ratchet and Clank one. Think about it, your main playable characters all have HP, most of them have weapons that can level up, and the action setting of these games, basically should make Ratchet, a response to Level 5′s Dark Cloud series, which did all the same things for combat. However, it’s just seen as series of action games, despite it also being a lot like Borderlands.

The point is, there are a lot of things that differ JRPG’s and WRPG’s from sales, to marketing, to style and so many other factors, I would run out of characters available to me, before I get through them all. There’s nothing wrong with these genre’s being different, but people classifying them as similar, could harm either since they don’t often jell that well together. So please, think before you compare, and for those rare RPG’s, where you can’t tell the difference, makes sure you find out where they were developed, because a lot of games you might think are JRPG’s, could in fact be Korean or Chinese.

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aotopmha · 3 years

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Sonic the Hedgehog turned 30 years today.

In celebration, I downloaded all 3 classic games available for mobile and tried to get as far as I could before getting a game over.

For Sonic 1 it was Marble Zone Act 1, for Sonic CD it was the Collision Chaos boss and for Sonic 2 it was the Chemical Plant Act 2 boss.

I'm much better at these games on an emulator/PC, using the arrow keys rather than a controller (or apparently with the android touch controls) because that's how I've played them the most.

Sonic is probably the franchise I've (on and off) followed the longest and I remember fairly precisely when I played my first Sonic game: it was in my second year in school, but I stopped because the crusher section in Hydrocity terrified me and I couldn't get past it.

I also have vague memories of both of the most famous old cartoons and briefly trying the PC version of Sonic CD and Sonic 3D Blast.

My next notable experience with a Sonic game is actually the old Newgrounds game Ultimate Sonic Flash.

This is what opened the Sonic floodgates with other stuff for me, too.

Besides that game there were the flash animations like Nazo Unleashed and Super Mario Bros Z that also appealed to the Dragon Ball fan in me.

Through that stuff, I got into the Sonic Advance games and I was particularly drawn to Sonic Advance 2.

It's strange because Sonic Advance 2 seems to be considered the most "hold right to win" game in the Sonic Advance series, but I find the stages in that game to be the most satisfying to perfect and play.

I also dig Advance 1 and 3, but I remember having the most frustration with 3.

Discovering the Advance series lead me back to the Classic series. Sonic 1, CD, 2, 3 and Knuckles.

Somewhere around here, I also remember the demo for Sonic Adventure DX.

After that I got to the Rush games (which I also found satisfying to complete despite, again, being called "hold right to win" games).

I just found doing as good runs as possible to be satisfying to pull off.

Then I got to Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.

I think I spent hours replaying and perfecting the Sonic Adventure 2 speed levels in particular. I think those games were absolutely worth it for just the replay value of Sonic's/Shadow's stages. Any frustration with the other gameplay styles was worth all of the play time I got out of those stages and I think the only truly bad gameplay style was Big's fishing stages.

Even then, in Adventure 1 all the other campaigns were also pretty short.

In Adventure 2, I think the only source of true frustration for me were some of Knuckles/Rouge stages.

I think the reason why the other gameplay styles are so frowned upon is that they're not what you come to Sonic for, but I think only Big actually controls badly in terms of the fishing mechanics – the frustrations really come from level design.

After those two comes Heroes, which I think could've been my favourite out of these "adventure style" games, but the controls just were too stiff to not get in the way of enjoyment.

The long stages would've actually been awesome instead of frustrating if I didn't have to fight the controls (and occasionally camera) along the way.

It had some great level design with some really good level themes.

But it just wasn't as responsive as I would've liked it to be and movement over-adjusted really often, leading to deaths and a bunch of frustration not of my own making.

If any game deserves a remake with better controls, I think it is 100% Heroes.

But I still did get some fun out of it when everything worked as well as it could. I kind of love the Haunted House level and all of the interesting things it did.

This is the point where I no longer could play the games for a while.

Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06 and Unleashed HD are the games I've never gotten to play in this gap. But the only bit I'm truly actually interested in are the day stages of Unleashed.

I feel like they have the Rush games effect that despite some of the cheap stuff in those stages, they are very satisfying to complete.

The next games I got to play were Unleashed and Colours Wii (though I never got to finish Unleashed Wii). I like Colours Wii more than Unleashed Wii.

Colours might be mostly 2D and more "generic" blocky stuff, but I still had fun blasting through it.

Unleashed Wii's day stages didn't really have that satisfaction of perfecting the stages like the Advance or Rush stuff. The Werehog was okay and I think sometimes actually better than the day stages, so the game as a whole was just okay.

But I think Colours DS is my favourite of the "Rush-style" games. The Wisps are really satisfying to use and the level design is more involved and less "cheap" than in the other Rush games, where sudden spikes and death pits are much more common.

Somewhere in here is Sonic Chronicles. I actually liked executing the moves with the characters for a little bit, but not much else about it. I think it's the only game in the series to this point I truly dislike.

There are more like okay games, good games and great games in this series for me because it looks like I've managed to avoid the biggest duds.

The final two games in the series I've actually played chronologically are the PC versions of Sonic Generations and Sonic Mania.

And I think both are really good!

Generations still wasn't 100% there with the controls, but I think it was the closest to Adventure series controls. Probably my favourite 3D Sonic game next to Sonic Adventure 2. I spent ages replaying all of the stages. I adore all of the open space and alternate routes there.

Sonic Mania is the best game post transition to 3D to me, though and would maybe even tie for my favourite Sonic game with Sonic CD if it was completely new.

It fixed some of the dated level design of the classic games – unfair spring and spike placement is at an all-time low, it evolved the usage of shields in a really cool way and added some really interesting level-specific mechanics, my favourite is probably the bouncy gel in Chemical Plant.

I 100% want a completely original Sonic Mania 2.

I have not played Sonic Generations 3DS, Lost World, any of the Boom games or Forces.

All of which are supposedly okay/terrible, too and honestly even don't have anything interesting going on to catch my eye in footage. Forces especially looks frustrating to me because it just looks like hallways and doesn't even look to have the satisfaction of perfecting a stage the other boost games have.

I really seem to be in a position where I've missed all of the worst stuff.

I actually probably find Secret Rings and 3D Blast to be the worst Sonic games because I remember being the most frustrated with them. Chronicles is still just mostly boring.

Black Knight has the really satisfying spin slash attack and you can keep the flow and control Sonic much, much better.

In-between all of this I've tried some of the 8-bit games which I liked just fine, but which all really blended together.

I've also tried the Sonic 4 parts, which I also find okay. Not good Genesis-style games, but okay, functional enough Rush-styled games.

So I can say that I don't think Sonic has ever "jumped the shark". There are good old games and good modern games.

From leaks, the upcoming game at least sounds much more ambitious than some of the previous games like Forces or Lost World.

I predict something like Unleashed where there is a sound foundation in there, but it is unrefined, as there seems to be talk that it's another really big switch-up – it possibly being an open world game.

I think I really appreciate the series' willingness to switch things up even if it doesn't always work out.

The Classic, Adventure, Advance, Rush/Boost games all are very different styles.

I've had a lot of fun over the years with this series and I hope I'll have more fun in the coming years.

I think the Adventure + Heroes remakes are 100% overdue. Also please, Sonic Mania 2 with all-original stages.

#Sonic #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic Adventure #Classic Sonic #Sonic Advance #Sonic Rush #Boost Sonic

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