#vs liking 3 specific characters from one game franchise | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thrilling-oneway · 4 days ago

Text

i got bored or smth so here's the games i think nene owns for her console collection (based on the list in this post). her favourite genres are PVP (fighting/FPS), but we know she also likes Open World and RPGs, so we'll be going off that and a few other details I'll expand on later.

chronological order

1. SEGA MEGA DRIVE 2 (Japan release)

This console was hardest to ID but eventually I settled for it being a fucked up MD. Sure whatever. The controller is most like an MD2, which was mostly sold on its own, but if it had pack-in games those were: Puyo Puyo, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, or Virtua Racing. In CGO Nene doesn't seem to be familiar with Puyo so we can rule that one out.

This console had loads of iconic fighting games, like Streets of Rage 1-3, Mortal Kombat 1&2 (uncensored), and Street Fighter II Dash and Super Street Fighter II (yes there's multiple street fighter 2s). There were also a few Phantasy Star entires, an RPG series I know nothing about lol. And Altered Beast, the beat-em-up that was the original pack-in game for America.

If Nene is based she owns Ristar and Sonic the Hedgehog/2/3&K but idk what her thoughts on platformers are. She might like Vectorman though there's a gun in that one.

2. SEGA SATURN (Japanese Model One)

Since this is a first release I'm gonna assume that it belonged to one of her parents first since these were sold for like a year before model two was thrown into circulation. I'm gonna assume that about the MD2 as well. And most of the stuff here that predates 8th gen considering Nene was canonically born in 2005. Anyway.

If the Saturn model one had a pack-in game it was Virtua Fighter Remix. Literally the only pack-in. Nene owns Virtua Fighter Remix. Even if it wasn't the pack-in she owns it dude trust me. There were a couple other Virtua Fighter games released for that console, with Virtua Fighter 2 actually being the best selling game on the hardware. AM2 also released Fighting Vipers and the VF/FV crossover game Fighters Megamix. Did you know Megamix has the palmtree from the AM2 logo as a playable character? Now you do.

The Saturn also had port of Doom, as well as the original Biohazard, Worms, and Tomb Raider games. Also apparently the original Marvel vs Capcom was on this console, under the name Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. JP exclusive too. Rayman, Bug!, and Gex were here too but idk how Nene feels about those though. Nenechan play Rayman.

Nene doesn't own an N64 so she does not own Smash 64. What the fuck Nenechan. This also means she doesn't own Ocarina or Majora's Mask, or any Zelda released in the 90s for that matter (I know Majora was 2000 don't even).

3. XBOX

For some reason Nene (or her parents) chose Xbox over PS2 or Dreamcast for 6th gen smh. However this does make sense when you consider the existence of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2. Which were never released in Japan apparently but we'll ignore that. There's also Dead or Alive 3. Maybe Nene bought the Xbox second hand.

Nenechan buy a Dreamcast. And a PS2. And a GCN. Actually just get a Wii NENECHAN WHY DON'T YOU OWN A WII. Nene continues to not own any Smash or Zelda games.

Anyway this does mean she can own Jet Set Radio Future but also idk if she cares. Nenechan play Jet Set Radio for me because I can't. It was a launch title in Japan and later a pack-in game (region unknown) though so maybe she owns it anyway.

4. PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

You could watch movies on this one just saying. I mean DVD players on consoles became commonplace during this era but you could like. Buy discs specifically for this console to watch movies on.

I don't really know much about the PSP so I'm kinda reading this off a list of console exclusive games. The original LittleBigPlanet was here apparently. Also some spinoffs to popular franchises, like Guilty Gear Judgement and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Also more Phantasy Star.

5. XBOX 360 (Pro)

Halo 3. Still wasn't released in Japan. Still a region locked console. Idc at this point. Microsoft please release Halo 1-3 in Japan. Make Nenechan happy. Halo 4 was released in Japan for Xbox 360 though so she owns that. Maybe Dead or Alive 4 and the 360 Gears of War games too. This is also the only console Call of Duty 2 was released on. Nenechan definitely owns COD2.

6. PLAYSTATION 3 (Super Slim)

Anyway game libraries are getting huge for consoles around this time so don't expect me to go as crazy. Also they start overlapping. Heavily. I don't really know why Nenechan owns two 7th gens and two 8th gens (i mean technically three 7th gens because that's the PSP too) but I guess I own four 7th gens and five 8th gens so. whatever. At least I pick the ones with varied game libraries unlike the person who doesn't own a Nintendo Wii.

We got the console version of LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, and multiple Ratchet & Clanks as exclusives here. Can we just assume that Nenechan owns Call of Duty games. 3, World at War, Modern Warfare 1/2/3, Black Ops 1/2/3, Ghosts, and Advanced Warfare were all this gen. 3 was also on Xbox and the latter three were also 8th gen.

Nenechan still doesn't own a smash or zelda game.

7. XBOX ONE

Halo Infinite.

8. PLAYSTATION 4 (Pro)

Again the games catalogue thing is becoming an issue so like. I dunno. We know Nene plays PUBG that's explicitly referenced in CGO but she probably plays the PC version. There's also PUBG's rival but if she plays it she probably would choose the PC version again. All the other COD games are on these two consoles so like. Probably owns those too. More Metal Gears, Street Fighters, Streets of Rage 4, etc.

I wonder if Nene would like something like Uncharted or Tomb Raider.

9. NINTENDO SWITCH (Lite, Blue & Turquoise)

NENECHAN FINALLY OWNS SMASH AND ZELDA. I GET TO HAVE FUN AGAIN. Yeah obviously Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are green and beautiful open world games. And Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fits Nene as a PVP fighting game.

I also get to have some more fun here because Nene owns a few amiibos. In the left image is an Animal Crossing villager, and what might be Legally Distinct Kid Icarus? In the right I'm not sure. The pink one looks like another AC villager maybe. Genuinely no idea what the gold thing is. Legally Distinct Ristar. Wait Sega made Ristar. Not sure if she owns these games or if these are just for smash purposes. I mean Not-Kid-Icarus definitely is there hasn't been a New KI game in 12 years. AC also doesn't really seem to be Nene's style based on some stuff she says in-game when talking with Shiho so it's probably also for smash.

That's Splatoon 2. Or the splatoon mangas.

10. Other stuff idk

I don't know what this is it's hideous and I don't wanna think about it.

She has a PC but Steam is a thing so like. Idk she can run anything on that. It can run Doom.

In Rui's 2022 bday card story 2 they play a kart racer that's like. weird as fuck it ain't MK. Name is close enough though it's called Cookie Kart. It's implied Nene owned it and the timeline lines up for it to be Mario Kart Wii BUT NENE DOESN'T OWN A WII. Nene PLEASE buy a Wii.

She doesn't own any 9th gen because the game predates them and the first three years of its run are set in the "PS5s are unobtainable" era anyway.

This post was an excuse for me to talk about video games. You have been distracted.

#mine #kusanagi nene #project sekai #fuck you im maintagging this

23 notes · View notes

bronzemettle · 1 month ago

Note

Superhero media is pretty popular IRL. If superheroes are part of the real world in the BronzeRealms, what does that mean for the movies and games and stuff?

Some of it still exists as in-universe licensed semi-biographical media or propaganda.

There is an officially licensed X-Men comicbook published by Image Comics since 2000. It was originally based on the adventures of the original X-Men in the 60s and 70s, but it runs to this day and has fictionalized versions of many more modern events in the current generation X-Men's lives.

Similarly, Fox made X-Men movies starting in 2005 with the participation of Consulting Producer Charles Xavier. He thought both these projects would help normalize Mutants for the public to see them in a heroic light, even if executives demanded they would primarily be fighting against other "bad" Mutants for most of the movies.

Spider-Man, thanks to debuting in Pro Wrestling before he became a superhero, is a copyrighted character whose name and image are wholesale owned by someone who is not Peter Parker. Wilson Fisk bought out that wrestling company in 2006 and immediately started marketing the fuck out of Spider-Man.

Halloween costumes, lunchboxes, popsicles, a newspaper strip, multiple movie series, many cartoons (often running during the same years as other Spider-Man cartoons on different networks), musicals, theme park rides... Spider-Man is just as much of a brand in the BronzeRealms as he is in our world, and he is NOT HAPPY about it.

Marvel Comics exists as a company. It is US government propaganda. It published heavily sanitized and fluffed accounts of the at-the-time recent exploits of Captain America during World War 2, and then continued with entirely fictional stories of Commie-punching after he went into the ice.

The Justice League as an organization assists any heroes who care to do so in managing their brand. They do not partner with any one specific comicbook company, but a collection of smaller companies, Charlton Comics, Fawcett Comics (based out of Fawcett City), Wildstorm, Quality Comics, Milestone, Gold Key Comics, and National Allied Publications.

Some of these Justice League-managed brand deals have led to movies and cartoons, but not anything directly analogous to the ones we know. The 60s Adam West Batman series is culturally more or less replaced by the Fearless Ferret and Grey Ghost franchises.

After the Mortal Kombat tournament concluded in 1990, Johnny Cage got most of the earth-based participants to sign him as their Agent, allowing him to license all of their likeness rights into a fictionalized arcade game retelling the story of their adventures, which quickly became a successful video game franchise under the new NetherRealm Studios, several movies, and more.

In 2005, to go alongside the first movie, Charles Xavier approved the creation of the fighting game X-Men Vs Street Fighter. In 2008, NetherRealm Studios would make Mortal Kombat Vs Justice League, and then in 2013, a much more popular and less charitable fighting game based on real superheroes, Injustice: Gods Among Us.

These two previously unrelated projects would crash together in 2014 with Injustice Vs Capcom 3 (titled such recognizing X-Men Vs Street Fighter and Injustice 1), which later became Ultimate Injustice Vs Capcom 3.

NetherRealm would next attempt to separate from Capcom for another solo game, Injustice 2. However, now that this was becoming an undeniable franchise... the inevitable lawsuit arrived from the real world Justice League after years of being presented in game narratives as murderers, totalitarians, traitors, etc. The game was forced to release a major update renaming and reskinning the entire roster into original characters.

Capcom would return to the franchise with Injustice Vs Capcom: Infinite. Injustice 2: Monsters Never Die Edition would clean up many of the rough edges that the lawsuit-mandated updates had introduced and bring in a handful of new characters. The most recent game in the series, Injustice Vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, is a prequel that uses a retro pixel art visual style and was released in 2024.

Now we've been talking about superheroes, but the BronzeRealms is much larger than that, so let's talk about some other things that have various justifications to both exist as real things, and also be recognized as in-universe media in some way.

The Xena Scrolls, written by the Battling Bard Gavriil before she departed to Themyscira along with the rest of the Amazons, were found by Indiana Jones, and passed through various hands until they were acquired by Ted & Sam Raimi, who pitched an adaption of the scrolls as a tv franchise.

Benny Russell was a comicbook writer, artist, and sci-fi novel author in the 1940s and 1950s. Almost no-one knew it at the time, but he was psychically linked with Captain Benjamin Sisko across centuries into the future. So, when Gene Roddenberry acquired some of his unused worldbuilding notes and directly adapted them into the tv franchise Star Trek, he was unknowingly fictionalizing real future events. This same coincidence would repeat with a different collection of Benny's notes 10 years later for the series Galaxy Quest.

Now, you may wonder why, in the future, no-one starts to notice that these tv shows are coincidentally guessing a lot of real events. This is because, by an extremely convenient coincidence that most definitely wasn't assisted by the intervention of Time Agents, all historical record of the existence of the Star Trek franchise was destroyed in World War 3 and the Post-Atomic Horrors.

There are probably many other similar temporal shenanigans leading to franchises that most people reasonably assume to be fictional actually being loosely adapted from some account of real future events. There are also things like Wormhole X-Treme, a franchise that was knowingly created to obstruct the truth by presenting people trying to claim it's real as obsessive fanboys. This post is not a comprehensive list, just a grab bag of examples.

15 notes · View notes

funishment-time · 7 months ago

Note

haha, I can't relate - momota was very much my favorite character from the jump! (from the jump in this case meaning starting from the chapter 4 trial [which I took a chance with bc I was having a hard time getting into the earlier chapters] and then only going back to the prologue after watching all the way up to the start of trial 5) I wonder if I'd have had the same experience with momota as you did if I'd listened to the english cast (like I assume you did?), as I'm not as big a fan of his english voice compared to his japenese one...but either way, I'm really glad you grew to like him :D he's definitely my favorite character from v3- I really liked his scenes with saihara in chapter 2 especially, like when they were investigating + the talk they have right before the trial. if you don't mind me asking, do you remember if there was any specific thing in chapter 3 that made you come around to him? :o or was it just a general, 'eh, this guy's not bad actually/I kinda appreciate his presence' sort of thing?

I'm in the same-ish boat as you re: saimota vs oumota, I think, with the slight caveat that I not only think oumota is generally interesting, but I am just a huge fan of it in general. like to me they are Prime Yaoi, if that makes any sense- my impression is that oumota's the kind of yaoi ship people would go to war for, lol. like chapter 4 trial was just crazy bc of the oumota + saimota + saiouma dynamics all happening all at once

kaito growing on me like an Adorable Purple Moss definitely came along as a "aw, it's nice that he's around" kind-of thing. i don't think there was any particular moment, but the feeling started in chapter 3 and fully materialized towards the end of the game when i found myself legitimately Feeling Bad at his reaction to the "apocalypse." i mean, this sprite is painful:

poor guy. i also loved his Exit a lot, and that he totally seems willing to be a Wingman to some kind of potential Shuichi x Maki thing, ha. just a bro. we don't have too many of them in the Franchise. (Makoto really lacks one, and i think Kazuchi wanted to be something like Kaito for Hajime...unfortunately, he is Kazoo Itchy.) Kodaka didn't make one on Kaito's level again until Desuhiko in Rain Code.

regardless, V3 has the most interesting Yaoi for me in the series. before that, there's some cute-ish ships/funny ones/logical ones, but nothing i'd really want to see Explored A Lot. the boys of V3 knocked it out of the park there, much like how all the girl designs are chef's kiss best in the series overall

#danganronpa #kaito momota #ndrv3

9 notes · View notes

pixelsproject · 11 months ago

Text

『Marvel vs. Capcom∶ Official Complete Works』 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Sprites

The Marvel vs. Capcom series is affectionately known for it's stellar sprite work, so when Marvel vs. Capcom 3∶ of Two Worlds was announced to have 3D visuals, some fans were a bit disappointed.

Despite it not looking like previous entries in the franchise, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 ended up looking great. Less than a year after it's a debut, an updated version titled Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was released. This revision added characters like Hawkeye, Frank West, Iron Fist and Firebrand to the roster of playable characters.

In 2012, Capcom teamed up with their frequent collaborator Udon Entertainment to release Marvel vs. Capcom∶ Official Complete Works. This book contains concept art, promotional pieces and other works from the artists who worked on the series.

Two years later, a special "2D" edition of this book with a slipcover featuring sprites of the MvC3 & UMvC3 newcomers was released for a limited time. These new sprites were created by former Udon comic book illustrator and Overwatch character designer, Arnold Tsang.

Interestingly enough, (most of) these sprites were not created specifically for this book. Tsang originally posted these sprites on his DeviantArt page two years before this book was released.

The only exception is Arthur. As seen above, Tsang didn't create new sprites for MvC3's veteran characters like Ryu, The Hulk, Felicia and Magneto.

Storm's sprite is a heavily edited sprite of hers from previous games. Jill also received a new sprite, because her MvC3 incarnation is essentially a brand new character. A new "evil" version, if you will.

Even though he wasn't playable in a previous game, Arthur did appear as an assistant character in Marvel vs. Capcom∶ Clash of Super Heroes, so Tsang used his sprites from that for his collage of characters seen above.

For whatever reason, Tsang created a brand new sprite that more closely resembles his appearance and fighting stance from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the purposes of this book.

Tsang's sprites look like they were created by Capcom's best pixel artists during their heyday. If you're interested in seeing more his art, check out his DeviantArt and ArtStation pages. If you check out his DA page, you might even notice that some of his other sprites would also be retroactively used by one his former employers.

---

SOURCES ↴ Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3, 360) Custom sprites by Arnold Tsang (DeviantArt) Marvel vs. Capcom∶ Clash of Super Heroes (Arcade) Arthur sprites uploaded by Magma MK-II (The Spriter's Resource) Marvel vs. Capcom∶ Complete Works (2012) Cover artwork uploaded by Teoh Yi Chie (Parka Blogs) Marvel vs. Capcom∶ Complete Works, 2D Edition (2014) Cover artwork uploaded by Matt Moylan (@LilFormers, Twitter)

#marvel vs capcom #marvel vs capcom 3 #ultimate marvel vs capcom 3 #capcom #udon #marvel #arnold tsang #sprite comparisons #write up #pixel art #sprite art #concept art

15 notes · View notes

bi-bi-want-dragon · 6 months ago

Note

2, 7, 10 for the HTTYD ask game?

2. What part of the franchise is your favorite and why?

Oh boy, that's so hard. I want to say RTTE because of the characterization we get to see with the Riders and their dragons, but I think I'm going to have to go with HTTD 2. The themes and the portrayal of Hiccstrid are just beautiful, and the depth of emotion that they managed in the second movie, particularly with Stoick's death, on top of the animation just can't be beat in my opinion

7. Do you have any OCs? If so, talk about their appearance, backstories, and personalities.

I have a handful of minor OCs that I use for my one shots and fics. My main OCs would be Spero and Willow Haddock (baby #3 and #4 respectively), unnamed Haddock baby #5, Nutmeg Ingerman (Rufflout's daughter), and Eirson (son of Alvin the Treacherous). I have a post about them all here actually! Baby #5 isn't on that post, just because I haven't gotten that far in the oneshots/fic so her character isn't fully fleshed out yet. But I'll add some stuff I don't have in the linked post on the others!

Nutmeg looks up to Zephyr a lot, she admires that Zephyr is proud of her role as the chief's heir and to Nutmeg, Zephyr is unshakable. She spends a lot of time around the Haddock kids, as they're essentially her siblings.

Something I mentioned in the discord server is that Astrid's nickname for Spero is "little bird" because of how quiet he is, also playing off of the confusion of literally everyone of "Spero" vs "Sparrow." He is a sponge and learns a lot out of Fishlegs' archives, eventually taking over for Fishlegs' in Zephyr's council.

Willow... Is spoiled. There's no sugar coating it, she gets whatever she wants. Her teenage years are painful for Hiccstrid, but she grows to be the kind of girl who will not take no for an answer. In the modern day she would make an excellent lawyer.

Eirson wasn't very popular with the adults on Outcast Island, but all of the kids loved him. He would play games with them, sing them songs, tell them stories, he always loved being around them. I don't want to say too much about Eirson just because his characterization is closely tied with big plot points in Wingless and Warbound.

There's a lot of stuff littered through the Wingless and Warbound discord server as well, @sanfangirl-cynicalromantic is particularly notorious for asking character-specific questions (which I love, she's honestly added a lot of qualities to the characters that I hadn't even thought of until she asked about it, so thanks!)

10. What are your favorite songs from the soundtracks?

Oh my gosh you picked the worst question on this list. I have tried to narrow this list down so hard and it still has like... 50% of the franchise's soundtracks on it. Okay okay okay so, my top 5 would probably be Downed Dragon, Forbidden Friendship, Test Flight, Stoick's ship, and Where No One Goes. And it is so painful to leave it at just five

#httyd #httyd fanfic #wingless and warbound #randis fics #ask me anything

5 notes · View notes

postgamecontent · 3 months ago

Text

Nintendo Switch Weekly Round-Up for the Week Ending September 14, 2024

Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the Nintendo Switch Weekly Round-Up for the week ending September 14, 2024. I've decided to carry this on in some fashion even though I'm not at TouchArcade anymore. It's going to be weekly, it's mainly going to be focused on new and notable releases, and I'm definitely not going to be doing the lists of sales. I might call out some specific ones here and there when I consider them juicy enough, though. With that said, let's see what this week brought us.

Select New Releases

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics ($49.99)

The wildest retro collection you have never dreamt! Capcom tosses all of its arcade-based Marvel games into a package very similar in terms of interface and features to 2022's Capcom Fighting Collection. You get X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and The Punisher. All really good games, and don't ignore The Punisher if you pick this up. It's quietly one of Capcom's better beat 'em ups. A great set, and it's nice to see these games in circulation again.

The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance ~Memories in Ice, Tearful Figurine~ ($44.99)

G-Mode presents a remake of Yuji Horii's classic mystery adventure game, The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case. It's very faithful gameplay-wise, so you can expect some very vintage Japanese adventure gaming from it. Talk to people, examine scenes for evidence, and try to figure out who was responsible for these grisly murders. This is the first official English release of the game, which is pretty nifty.

Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines ($17.99)

Grappling pupper Pablo returns for more platforming fun, this time joined by the gun-wielding Luna. Are two dogs better than one? I haven't played enough to say for sure yet, but if you liked Grapple Dog you'll almost certain have a great time with this sequel.

Yars Rising ($29.99)

WayForward does its best to make a sassy Metroidvania out of a property almost as old as ol' Shaun, and the result is about what you would expect from this developer. It's fine. If you want a new Metroidvania, a new WayForward game, or want your Atari fan itch scratched, this will serve you well enough.

Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland ($24.99)

A surprisingly solid platformer in the vein of Super Mario Bros. 2/USA starring the most popular babies of the 1990s. You can play in classy NES style or go with the very well-done modern presentation. Either way, some enjoyable hop-and-toss fun.

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP ($44.99)

Lollipop Chainsaw was a really fun game back in the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era, with a style positively dripping with James Gunn/Suda51 energy. So what happens if you take that game, drain a massive amount of the style from it, and port it badly to Switch? This. This happens. It doesn't even play Mickey when you go super. What the heck is the point?

Arcade Archives VS. Battle City ($7.99)

A Famicom pirate cart/handheld staple, Battle City is already on the Switch via one of Namco's 8-bit collections. But this is VS. Battle City, which… removes the stage editor and adds pretty much nothing! One for the completionists, I suppose.

EGGCONSOLE Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes PC-8801mkIISR ($6.49)

The sixth game in the Dragon Slayer series is also the first game in The Legend of Heroes, which is technically the same franchise as Falcom's recent bread-and-butter Trails games. A pretty good turn-based RPG for its era, but one look at the screenshot will tell you what the problem is for most people reading this. Japanese only, and very text heavy. Oh well.

Crossy Road Castle ($19.99)

Another Apple Arcade game escapes the zoo, this time the platformer based on the hit Crossy Road franchise. Up to four players on this one, online or local. Plenty of hats and characters to unlock. The levels are procedurally generated, so you can keep playing it infinitely! Whether you will want to or not is a different matter, though.

Wild Bastards ($34.99)

The follow-up to Void Bastards, and one I'm sure will find just as many fans. It's pretty different from Void, incorporating turn-based strategy, roguelite, arena shooter, and a few other bits and bobs into something quite distinctive. That uniqueness might turn off some players, but I suspect it will win over more than it pushes away.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Reckoning of New York ($19.99)

Here's the third installment in the Vampire: The Masquerade series of visual novels for the Switch. If you're new to these, play the other two first. If you're not, then I'm sure you can figure out if this is for you or not.

Elsie ($24.99)

Played the wheels of 20XX and 30XX but need more roguelite Mega Man X mash-up action? Perhaps Elsie is what you're after today. Procedural generation! It's a popular choice in the modern age. Still, if the bar napkin concept doesn't put you off, this is a rather enjoyable game.

Eden Genesis ($24.99)

A cyberpunk-themed precision platformer with an emphasis on speedy moves. It's decent enough, but not so good that I'd recommend it with any real vigor. It's stylish and functional, and that might be enough for some.

Beneath Oresa ($24.99)

Here's another game inspired by the likes of Slay the Spire, this one aiming to be a bit more lively with its roguelite deckbuilding turn-based gameplay. It's extremely demanding, the kind of game where exactly one wrong move can end your run. So don't make any mistakes, okay? Glad we cleared that up.

Celestia: Chain of Fate ($29.99)

In this otome visual novel, you play as a young woman who finds out she's half angel and half demon. She's been invited to attend the Academy of Celestia, where she will find among other things three hunky dudes to potentially smooch. But which one will she smooch? That depends on your choices, my friend.

Metro Quester | Osaka ($19.99)

Just like the original Metro Quester, this is a game that is very much tuned towards a particular kind of taste. If you're into what it's laying down, you'll likely be absorbed for a while. Everyone else is going to be repelled with the force of an angry pantsless Magneto. Dungeon crawling, turn-based battling, chunky character building… ah, I love it.

Doomsday Paradise ($14.99)

This might seem like another Slay the Spire-style deckbuilding roguelite from that screenshot, but it's also an off-the-wall dating sim and features multiplayer for up to four players via online, local, or local wireless. Quite well-liked on other platforms, and I think this particular combination will go over nicely with the Switch audience too.

Fabledom ($24.99)

A deliberately relaxed fantasy-themed city builder. As near as I can tell, it more or less does what it sets out to do. Not the fanciest of cat pajamas, but if it's the kind of jam you're after today I don't think it will let you down.

Jackbox Naughty Pack ($21.69)

Those Jackbox Party Packs sure are neat, but if you've got a room full of adults and want to dig into something a little more saucy, here's the Naughty Pack. The games in this one go a little more dirty, as you can tell by the publisher cleverly ending the price with a 69 instead of a 99. I can definitely see this one going over well at the right kind of parties.

NanoApostle ($19.99)

Nanotechnology? How nostalgic. Remember when that was the buzzword in video games? Here's another one of those top-down boss-rush action games where you have to dash and dodge around while attacking a far more powerful foe. A fairly good one, I'd say. It works the way this kind of thing usually does, with skill trees, multistage bosses, and so on. Solid execution makes it.

Caravan SandWitch ($24.99)

A game about traversing a small but fairly dense open world in your cool van, helping people out. There's no combat, and you can't die. So it's just you, the citizens you'll be assisting, the sci-fi world itself, and a mystery about your missing sister to serve as an overall goal. It's been getting relatively good reviews so far. Provided the Switch port has come out smoothly, this might be worth the pick-up.

Edge of Sanity ($19.99)

The core game here is decent enough. It's a The Thing-inspired survival game with a lot of interesting systems to deal with and fairly satisfying strategic combat. The big problem is that this game is really buggy at the moment, at least in this Nintendo Switch form. I wouldn't pick it up on Switch until it gets some patching up, but I'm not the mayor of Yourwalletonshire.

Deep Beyond ($9.99)

Today is a day for missing family members, it seems. The main character of this one is a sea explorer looking for her father, and her journey will see her taking deep-sea dives, solving puzzles, and hanging out with her dog. Not a terribly long game by any means, but I think it punches well enough for the asking price.

Selfloss ($29.99)

This Slavic-inspired action-adventure game ended up being more engrossing than I expected. Rough edges aplenty, but it feels good to play more often than it doesn't. Solid boss battles, a good story, and really satisfying puzzles to solve. I was really caught off-guard by this, in a good way.

Pixel Game Maker Series The Willow Man ($6.99)

A modest little survival-horror game where you're trying to survive long enough to escape a house that plays host to an unspeakable evil known only as The Willow Man. There are multiple endings to arrive at based on your actions.

Downfall ($5.99)

I'm sure at this price you're not expecting fancy dining, and you shouldn't. Pretty much just a mindless little grinder. The art is decent and it's not the worst time-waster for a short while, but it gets dull fast.

Line Time ($5.99)

Regular readers know I'm a bit of a sucker for puzzle games, and this one isn't too shabby at all. You have to push the ball or balls to the goal on each stage, and you're given a set number of moves to do it in. Plan things out move by move and if there are multiple balls in play keep in mind that they will interact. Over two hundred stages to play, which is probably more than you'll need but appreciated nonetheless.

Samurai Kento ($4.99)

An small Metroidvania-ish game with RPG elements that casts you in the role of a samurai trying to save Japan from evil yokai run amuck. Not a bad time for the price, if you're in the mood for one of these.

Nimbusfall ($5.99)

Ah, haven't seen one of these in a while. You're a tiny character and you need to square off against twenty-five big bosses. You've got a good array of moves at your disposal, so all you have to do is learn the patterns and land your blows. Seems fine.

That's all for this week, friends. We'll be back next Saturday with another Round-Up, this time featuring a review or two! If you enjoyed this and feel like tossing me a tip, I have a Ko-Fi where you can make that happen. I hope you have a super Saturday, and as always, thanks for reading!

#nintendo switch #switch round-up #marvel vs capcom

5 notes · View notes

liugeaux · 10 months ago

Text

The Best Games of 2004 | 20 Years Gone

A long time ago, in the late 00s, I REALLY wanted to be a Video Games Journalist. I was writing and podcasting for local tech website Techpedition and we even worked our way to E3 2009. I was able to parley my mask of legitimacy into getting a couple dozen free games from publishers, but was never able to break into the "business".

It's fine, I've still paid super close attention to the industry and have a handful of podcasts that I follow. One thing that I missed out on was creating the end-of-year best-of lists that have become so popular with pundits of video games. Partially because I didn't have a big enough outlet for it to matter, but more so because I didn't have the resources to play all the relevant games within their release years to render a judgment.

I typically get around to playing all the games I'm interested in, but it usually takes me about 2-5 years. It's partially a time thing but mostly a budget thing. So, what this is, is the beginning of my trip through the last 20 years of video games. I'll be creating a top 10 list for the last 15 years and going forward, I'll post a new list every year of the top 10 from 5 years ago. That is assuming I keep up with it, lol.

These will be written as if they were published the year of the list, so there will be no references to future games or better sequels, etc. Let's get started. Travel with me back to the year 2004 which, news flash, is now 20 years ago.

#10 - Metroid: Zero Mission

Not only is Zero Mission a solid remake of the classic original Metroid, but it succeeds at both making it feel modern and ultimately super-playable, which isn't something you can say about the old NES game.

#9 - Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within

Much more agro than its predecessor, The Warrior Within builds on the foundation of the standout Sands of Time and smooths out a lot of the jagged edges, specifically in the combat department. Your mileage will likely be tied to how much you like Godsmack-itude, but POP2 is a great sequel.

#8 - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario was a weird novelty and shadow follow-up to Super Mario RPG, but despite its clear creative direction, it was missing the character needed to fully succeed in the RPG space. The Thousand-Year Door has character in spades, and it will charm your staples off.

#7 - Sly 2: Band of Thieves

Making Sly Cooper into an open-world heist game took what was a decent platformer to the next level. Where the first game was a solid third place behind Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter, Sly 2 makes the argument that it's a top-tier Sony series. Each mission matters and each of its characters is special.

#6 - Pikmin 2

Better than its predecessor in every way, Pikmin 2 shows the first game's primary game loop wasn't a fluke. The addition of Louie, as a second playable character who's played simultaneously with Olimar, adds a heightened level of stress, making each recovery mission a manic exercise in task prioritization.

#5 - Halo 2

Is Halo 2 as impactful as Halo: Combat Evolved? Not really. The story isn't stellar, and the surprise Arbitor missions are little more than a pallet swap, but dropping the proven Halo action onto the Xbox Live service is game and industry-changing. I'm not a multiplayer guy, but I enjoyed the single player and I recognize how important Halo 2's success is to gaming as a whole.

#4 - Mario vs Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong '94, on the Game Boy, is secretly one of the best games of 1994. Mario vs. Donkey is Nintendo fleshing out that idea and making an addictive puzzle platformer. It starts out simple and sweet and ends hard and satisfying. Had this been the direction the Donkey Kong franchise went rather than Rare's DK Country series, SNES games may have had a very different trajectory.

#3 - Spider-Man 2

Licensed games always suck. Movie tie-in games always suck. Spider-Man 2 is an anomaly on top of an anomaly and it's 100% powered by the Swinging mechanic Treyarch built for the web-crawler. It feels SO good to swing around NYC that it's hard to believe Spider-Man as a character wasn't created specifically for video games.

#2 - Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

R&C3 is undoubtedly a great game, I'd even say damn near perfect, but its placement this high on the list may seem a bit weird. That's where my opinion comes in. I'm a huge 3D platformer fan, it's probably my favorite genre. With that factored in with the depth and polish of this shiny new Ratchet game, #2 on the list doesn't seem so outlandish.

#1 - Half-Life 2

There's always talk of "importance" when it comes to works of art. Abbey Road is important, Michelangelo's David is important, and even A Clockwork Orange is important. Video Games, a medium that's still technically in its infancy, has only a handful of important titles. I'd say Half-Life 2 fits the bill. It's use of physics as a gaming mechanic is as technically impressive as it is clever. It's an FPS but it's not "just an FPS" and the mood and tone established throughout are as compelling as that of Blade Runner. Half-Life 2 is a stunner that will be studied for years.

Notable Omissions:

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - I've never liked GTA games. I respect their scope and ambition, but when it comes to playing them as games, GTA titles just stink.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - I've never gotten into the Metal Gear games and the more people yell at me to play them, the less I want to.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - This one technically came out in North America in 2005. So, with me being from the US, It will hit next year's list.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords - I might end up playing this one eventually, but as of 2024 I have not.

What are your favorite video games from 2004?

See you next time. Cheers!

#Half Life #Half-Life 2 #Sly Cooper #Ratchet and Clank #Mario vs donkey kong #spider-man 2 #halo #paper mario #The Thousand Year Door #Prince of Persia Warrior Within #Metroid Zero Mission

5 notes · View notes

thevaudevilledemon · 1 year ago

Text

With Season 10 finished, here are five Death Battles MUs I'd like to see

I don't think it is surprising to anyone who follows me that I'm a fan of the Rooster Teeth acquired series Death Battle. It's probably my big guilty pleasure series, and I've talked multiple times before about Death Battle MUs that I've wanted to see, but this time, I'm taking this a bit more seriously.

So, what are the likelihoods of any of these match-ups making full episodes? Probably not very, but it's not like they're not possible to do. I'm going to make it so not all of these picks have obscure characters, but I will have a couple more obscure characters on here.

Also to make things more clean, I will be disqualifying any match-ups that have been part of my Disney Duels Polls, so these are five of the many match-ups I would like to see Death Battle tackle.

#5. Lister & Rimmer vs Grif & Simmons (Red Dwarf vs Red vs Blue)

This one is at the bottom of the list because, I've already talked to death about this one, straight up even writing my own battle between these guys, which you can read here if you're interested.

This is a really good idea though because Grif and Lister are both underachieving, slobby, kind of in a position they really don't want to be in, and Rimmer and Simmons are both uptight, arrogant, rule-following, pseudo-human smeg heads. I think this would be a really fun battle between them both, and it's about time Red vs Blue got an episode with an opponent from a different franchise.

#4. Odo vs Shane Gooseman (Star Trek: Deep Space 9 vs Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers)

Okay, I'll be honest, I know next to nothing about The Galaxy Rangers, that was not something that aired on Teletoon Retro when I was a kid, in fact I really struggled to find a good MU for Odo, so this is more of my Dad's suggestion.

Can you believe that ten seasons have gone by, and not a single Star Trek MU? No, Kirk, Spock, Picard, Q, Sisko, Bashir, Garrak, Odo, Dax, not a single MU, well I think season 11 should have one, and while I'm gonna bet they'll probably have Captain Kirk, I can hope that they make this duel between the shapeshifters of space.

#3. Cybersix vs Jack (Cybersix vs BioShock)

Okay, this one would just be awesome. These two are genetically engineered who ultimately rebel against their creators. Oh this one would be so good, I wanted to write this as a battle, but I just... never felt like it. Writing is weird, don't take it up as a hobby.

I think this would be good too because BioShock could really use an MU, it is a franchise that is fading into irrelevancy a little, which sucks because the first game was so good, but I think it still has some interest that this battle could be done. Hey, if people can still be asking for Cole MacGrath vs Alex Mercer or Travis Touchdown vs Jack Cayman, I don't see why I can't ask for this one.

#2. Katara vs Lapis Lazuli (Avatar vs Steven Universe)

Straight up, Steven Universe needs another MU, and the Crystal Gems are so full of potential for match-ups, like Garnet vs The Meta, Jasper vs Luke Cage, Pearl vs Undyne (Though I'd personally prefer Pearl vs Zuko), and one I've been hoping for for ages, Katara vs Lapis Lazuli.

Two absurdly powerful water-benders pushing each other to their limits, this one would be so good. Plus. correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they've done a full on Aquamancer themed match-up, I think the closest may be Aquaman vs SpongeBob? But that was a joke... and kinda sucked.

Anyway, number 1!

#1. Lief vs Bilbo Baggins (Deltora Quest vs Lord of the Rings)

This is the Match-up I've been wanting since season one... Okay well more specifically I was asking for Lief vs Frodo, but my brother is more of a Tolkien fan than I am and he told me that Lief vs Bilbo was a better idea, so I'll go with that one.

However, the characters don't matter too much, because the real battle I'm curious about is between the Belt of Deltora and the One Ring.

Okay, bear with me, The Belt of Deltora is a magical belt, it can only be worn by the true king and it has several gemstones on each piece, gem has a magical ability, like the Topaz which can strengthen a clean ones mind, and the Lapis Lazuli that protects from evil.

I want to know if the Belt of Deltora can protect Lief from the One Ring, and if Bilbo could use the ring's corruption to his advantage.

I was a big Deltora Quest fan in middle school, I even found the anime adaptation on YouTube, so I really want more people to get into the series and pull it from obscurity, because I really want people to talk about this with.

Anyway, these were five Death Battle Match-ups I'm itching to see, here's hoping they eventually happen.

7 notes · View notes

thessalian · 1 year ago

Text

Thess vs the Video Game Awards

I obviously didn't exactly stay up to watch this, but I just read an article (before I start the workday) giving the overview.

Armoured Core 6 ... I mean, I wouldn't know but it's on the wishlist and I see @true0neutral playing it a lot, so I assume it's good?

Game of the Year ... I had a feeling it'd go to Baldur's Gate 3, but with a Zelda game and a Spider-Man game out, I wondered if it wouldn't go to a franchise that's ...not even better-known, I guess, but with more recent entries to the franchise? It's been a long time since Baldur's Gate 2, after all, and we're talking Zelda and Spider-Man here. I guess the D&D Renaissance beats out the Superhero Renaissance - and also BG3 is a pretty massive leap forward for the RPG genre just by how much choices really do matter in that game.

But the one that really got me interested was Best VA. Because I am me. Anyway. Neil Newbon. Yes. There are a lot of great VAs out there, but anyone who can channel two hundred years of pain and all the other emotional states that can go with it (depending on where you took your Astarion, I guess) ... yeah, he nailed it from what I could see. I mean, I always knew why he was a little shit. And Newbon plays a very convincing little shit. But he also plays a very convincing abuse survivor, however his story ends up. The fact that I can have a complicated relationship with the character is what makes me very, very glad that he's the one who won that. Many were deserving, both in BG3 specifically and probably in games in general, but he went above and beyond.

(Plus it amuses me that I've probably seen him in British soap operas. Like so many other British voice actors, honestly.)

Right. Back to the overtime. AAAAAAAA.

#Thess plays video games

6 notes · View notes

stormbreaker101 · 9 months ago

Text

pinned post!

Call me Breaker. 22, he/him only.

not necessarily a fandom blog, but im here for fandoms and memes more than anything else. main fandoms at the moment are Wizard101, Dungeon Meshi, Epic the Musical, Undertale/Deltarune, Animation vs Minecraft/Animator (tagged as #sticksverse) (spoilers for the newest episode will be tagged #ava 11 spoilers) Pixar Cars & Planes (tagged separately), will rb stuff from other franchises tho.

i am also obsessed with my own independent writing, Corrupted Spiral (a Wizard101 AU). A lot of posts I rb will be tagged #Corrupted Spiral and/or #CCSAU. Feel free to ask me about it. I love talking abt my work, even if i dont like publish it officially.

I have OCs! a few of them have actual bio posts but they may be outdated lol. Their names and little blurbs r below the cut. Prone to updates as I remember more of my silly little guys.

Undertale...ish, the Quotev era characters. (Most of these characters are retired from my writing and don't have active stories but are still dear to me.)

Chancery Hope Gaster - my first ever official OC, Soriel ship child. She's my first and the foundation so I love her. basically 50s.

Renee - an alternate timeline variant of Chancery who became a villain for the majority of her conscious life, "The Glitch". Now a has-been trying to find something to live for. 30.

Shadow Rouge - Chancery's childhood friend turned boyfriend turned husband. Dragon. basically 40s-50s

Flare Rouge - Chancery and Shadow's eldest son, a major protagonist in CCSAU. Balance wizard. 24

Flint Rouge - Flare's twin brother, younger by 3 minutes :P

Spark Rouge - Chancery & Shadow's eldest daughter. 18??

Steele Rouge - Spark's twin sister.

Poacher - A mercenary, big game hunter, and all around tough but cool guy. Also a dragon. 50s but I think this dude transcends time he just doesn't die lol. A very old oc, I don't remember much about him.

Coal - All of Poacher's LV distilled into a separate entity. Not that bad. In fact, he comes off as less threatening than ol' Poach. Anime boy twunk guy. I cannot picture him as anything older than 26 but surely he's older than that. Much to figure out and rebuild.

Wizard101

Nora Gem - my main Wizard, the Scion in Corrupted Spiral who went astray. Now some unholy mix of human, divine, bogeyman, and Lost. Storm wizard. 28. Probably dating Renee.

Sarah Dragontail - Nora's mom, a Wizard who's taken up freelance wandering traveler heroics. Formerly Life wizard, now a Music wizard. 56.

Iridian Fairytail - Nora's adoptive baby sister. Myth wizard, untrained. 10

Emma Titansong - Nora's cousin, Nordic Champion, mostly-retired Life wizard. 20.

Emmaline Stargem, better known as just Star - Emma's twin sister. Death wizard.

Savannah Prismage - Emma and Star's younger sister. Fire & Ice wizard, young pioneer in the study of "Thermancy" (thermo + mancy). 16.

Kiyom - the Nothing, gone on a path unlike Dasein did in canon and so became Something Else.

Para - the Divine Paradox separate from Nora, and the Dreamer given consciousness.

Mauria Kutscherzo - Maulwurf von Trap's mom. 60s.

Malkah Hadas - Queen of Mandoria (the one who had been on the throne before Mandar showed up) and Mandar's wife. Late 60s.

Dr. Clark Savage, Sr. - Duck Savage's father and creator. Dead at 65.

Agnes Chastity-Crane - a crane in Night Forest who begins investigating the odd mana left in the wake of people questing through Lemuria's story. Also accidentally invented guns :D. 20s.

Mark Moonfisher - my interpretation of that one Schismist soldier in Karamelle, Novus, and the Test Realm raid. Because Arc 4 doesn't happen normally in my AU, his story ends up different. Sharkperson (specifically spiny dogfish) who was born to gamer but forced to minor/nonexistent npc.

Pirate101

Ruthless Dirk - my main Pirate, swashbuckler, Karamellian fae disguising emself as a human, grew up in Skull Island. 22.

'Fair' Sarah Paisley - my original Pirate, witchdoctor (with a LOT of creative liberty because KI didn't have sensitivity), grew up in Krokotopia but lived in Skull Island. 28.

Ieronim Masterson - I took an incredibly minor character (Jim Masterson) & gave him more attention than canon ever would. Living with his brother Bartolomeu & the rest of the Magnificent Seven, slowly healing from his time in the army.

#leah speaks :3 #pinned post

6 notes · View notes

andriod-apps-downloader · 11 days ago

Text

Top 5 Tips to Relive GTA Liberty City Stories on Modern Devices

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Liberty City Stories holds a special place in the hearts of gamers worldwide. Released initially for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in 2005, the game quickly became a classic, capturing the essence of the GTA franchise while adapting to the limitations of handheld gaming. Over the years, newer versions and remasters have been released, but many fans continue to gravitate toward the old versions of GTA Liberty City Stories. This blog explores why the old versions remain so beloved, diving into their unique features, nostalgic appeal, and timeless gameplay elements.

A Comparison of Old vs. New Versions

The gaming industry is constantly evolving, with new releases boasting better graphics, smoother mechanics, and added features. Yet, older versions of games like GTA Liberty City Stories still hold their ground. Here’s a breakdown of the differences:

1. Graphics and Visual Style

Old Version: The old version of Liberty City Stories embraced the gritty, raw visual style that defined early 2000s gaming. Though limited by the hardware capabilities of the PSP, the textures and character models carried a charm that resonated with players. The slight imperfections added a sense of realism that newer, polished versions sometimes lack.

Newer Versions: While remasters bring high-definition textures and refined visuals, they occasionally lose the “old-school” aesthetic. The nostalgia of pixelated streets and the moody atmosphere of Liberty City is irreplaceable.

2. Performance and Gameplay Mechanics

Old Version: Despite the hardware limitations, the old version offered a surprisingly smooth experience. The controls were simple and intuitive, tailored specifically for PSP users. The slight clunkiness of the mechanics was part of the game’s charm, making it feel like a true handheld adventure.

Newer Versions: While modern ports to mobile devices or consoles improve fluidity, the original controls and mechanics offer a tactile experience that reminds players of simpler gaming times.

3. Storyline and Authenticity

Old Version: The original storyline remains untouched across all versions, but playing it on the platform it was designed for—PSP—offers an authentic experience. The pacing, mission structure, and narrative were crafted with the limitations and possibilities of the hardware in mind.

Newer Versions: While the storyline remains engaging, the experience of playing it on modern devices sometimes feels disconnected from its roots.

Iconic Missions and Memorable Characters

One of the reasons fans continue to adore the old versions of GTA Liberty City Stories is its unforgettable missions and characters.

1. Standout Missions

"Smash and Grab": This mission, which involves rescuing a group of robbers from pursuing cops, is a perfect blend of chaos and strategy. The adrenaline rush it offers is timeless.

"Hot Wheels": A classic car chase mission that requires precision driving and quick reflexes. Missions like this exemplify the action-packed nature of Liberty City Stories.

"Love on the Rocks": A mix of betrayal, action, and drama, this mission showcases the depth of the storyline and keeps players on the edge of their seats.

2. Beloved Characters

Toni Cipriani: The protagonist of Liberty City Stories, Toni is a relatable character whose struggles and ambitions make him one of the most memorable figures in the GTA universe. His journey from an errand boy to a respected mafia figure resonates with players.

Salvatore Leone: A key figure in the game, Salvatore’s manipulative yet charismatic nature adds layers to the storyline. His interactions with Toni form the backbone of the narrative.

Maria Latore: Maria’s quirky personality and involvement in the storyline bring humor and emotional depth to the game.

These characters, combined with well-designed missions, create an experience that players fondly revisit, especially in the original version.

How the Old Version Captures the Essence of Classic GTA Gameplay

The GTA series has always been about pushing boundaries, offering players an open-world sandbox to explore, wreak havoc, and immerse themselves in compelling narratives. The old version of Liberty City Stories captures this essence perfectly in several ways:

1. Open-World Exploration

The original Liberty City was meticulously designed to feel alive. From the bustling streets filled with NPCs to hidden alleys waiting to be discovered, the game’s open-world design invites exploration. Players could spend hours ignoring missions just to roam the city, discovering Easter eggs and creating their chaos.

2. Freedom of Choice

The old version allowed players to approach missions and gameplay at their own pace. Whether it’s completing main storyline missions, engaging in side activities like taxi driving or vigilante missions, or simply causing mayhem, the freedom to play the game on your terms is a hallmark of classic GTA.

3. Music and Soundtrack

The radio stations in Liberty City Stories—featuring genres like rock, hip-hop, and talk shows—immerse players in the game’s world. The original soundtrack is a nostalgic trip, reminding players of the cultural context of the early 2000s.

4. Challenges and Cheats

Old-school gamers fondly remember the fun of using cheat codes to enhance their gameplay. From spawning tanks to unlocking unlimited ammo, cheat codes were an integral part of the GTA experience, and Liberty City Stories’ old version delivered in spades.

The Nostalgic Appeal

Nostalgia plays a significant role in why fans love the old version of GTA Liberty City Stories. For many, it represents a simpler time in gaming—a period when games focused on storytelling, exploration, and fun without overloading players with microtransactions or overly complex mechanics.

1. Memories of the PSP Era

The PSP itself was a revolutionary handheld device, and playing Liberty City Stories on it was a groundbreaking experience. The portability of the game allowed players to immerse themselves in the GTA universe anywhere, creating fond memories that are tied to the hardware as much as the game.

2. Shared Experiences

For gamers who played Liberty City Stories during its initial release, the game often brings back memories of shared experiences with friends. Whether it was comparing progress, trading tips, or discussing favorite missions, the old version fostered a sense of community that remains unmatched.

Call-to-Action: Relive the Classic Today

The old version of GTA Liberty City Stories is more than just a game; it’s a piece of gaming history that continues to captivate players. If you’ve never experienced the classic version or want to revisit the streets of Liberty City as they were meant to be played, now is the perfect time.

Download the old version of GTA Liberty City Stories today from modversionapk.com and immerse yourself in the nostalgic charm, unforgettable missions, and iconic gameplay that made this game a legend.

Don’t just play—relive the legacy!

0 notes

wiptw · 5 months ago

Text

Banjo-Tooie

Nintendo 64 - Rare Ltd. - 2000

Okay so I swear I play games other than Nintendo 64/Nintendo games in general and I play games made after 2003 for sure, but I the worms in my head chant the games I want to rant about online and until I do as they say I can’t progress forward with anything else like some sort of Ratatouille situation. Except instead of an adorable cartoon rat, it’s my own ADHD riddled brain

So, video game culture is fun because you could be a dyed-in-the-wool Gamer™ like myself, spend decades of your life playing video games, keep up with whatever gaming rag is sold at the local news stand, and you’ll still be blindsided by the most out of pocket weird ass bullshit you’ve ever seen. And I’m not talking about things that are considered culturally weird here in the states like the Katamari series or Cubivore, I’m talking about those weird rental store finds and obscure games that leave you wondering who could’ve thought up this one. Like ‘Mr. Mosquito’, a game about harassing a Japanese family as a small flying insect until they all mentally break or ‘Hide and Sneak’, a Disney game developed by Capcom (Specifically Capcom Production Studio 3, makers of Clocktower 3 and several Resi games) for the Gamecube.

Which means that little baby me in the Hollywood Video grabbing ‘Banjo-Tooie’ with the bright box art and bear/bird combo front and center could be forgiven for not knowing somehow that the game was a sequel to ‘Banjo-Kazooie’ despite the fact the box clearly states “The bear and bird are BACK!” on it in big violet letters.

It's not even really subtle about it

Yes, I will spend three paragraphs of preamble and apologetics to say roughly that I didn’t play Game 1 first. Banjo-Tooie, the sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, is a collect-a-thon platformer developed by British studio Rare about anthropomorphic bear Banjo and less Anthro bird Kazooie embarking on a journey to defeat Gruntilda after she’s saved by her sisters (neither of whom are the pink fairy one from Kazooie) and zombifies Jinjo royalty in an attempt to become more than just the grungiest skeleton of the 2000s. Traversing the Isle O’ Hags and its eight main stages you’ll find a wide cast of characters new and old, levels distinctly unique from Kazooie, and new abilities that will further build upon the ones established in Kazooie

That’s right, as anyone who has even tangentially heard of this game may already be aware of you start the game with every ability from Banjo-Kazooie unlocked. One of the main features that gets brought up anytime this game is dissected in articles or video essays, but with good reason; as to this day it’s not exactly a common practice in the industry. Metroid, Zelda, many other franchises either contrive ways to deprive you of the gear you got in previous games or just plain pretended they don’t exist since these upgrades typically act as keys to puzzles.

Some powers let you slay fierce bosses, some let you play the game like it's Goldeneye, this one lets you do both.

This is true for Banjo-Kazooie as well. Getting the ability to fire eggs unlocks the ability to solve any challenge that requires eggs; likewise getting the ability to fly, run up steep slopes, or wear different types of shoes will solve puzzles with those required materials so how do you keep the game interesting? Easy, you just make more locks and keys.

Really that just describes Tooie overall. More moves which leads to more eggs, more spacious worlds with more sub-areas and more collectibles. It’s more refined than Kazooie sure, but it’s also much larger in ways that make me wonder how much space Kazooie takes up on a game cartridge vs Tooie given how radically different the games are.

More references! Rare hid references to many different properties throughout the game, like this Donkey Kong plushie!

The larger size, however, doesn’t wholly work to the games benefit. The two most commonly brought up negatives for the game are the size of the levels and game world, and backtracking (exacerbated by the size of the game worlds). These are both valid criticisms, almost every level from Mayahem Temple to (especially) Grunty Industries has at least one jiggy that requires you to come back when you’ve unlocked a gate or earned a new power in a future stage. In the case of Grunty Industries, you need to even enter the level to hit a switch, then leave and come back through one of the game’s fast travels ‘Chuffy the Train’ to actually play the level.

I can’t argue against either point really, the backtracking is inoffensive at best and infuriatingly tedious at worst and the stages all at least feel substantially larger than any stage in Kazooie, but that feel is why I don’t mind it too much. Because in Kazooie, the smaller stages and Grunty’s Lair overall feel like a theme park; like I’m wandering through a more dangerous but still family friendly amusement park, a deranged witchy version of Disney world.

Despite having a literal theme park, the worlds of Banjo-Tooie feel like part of a large, actual world.

In Kazooie, I don’t feel like I’m on an epic quest to free my sister from a witch obsessed with the beauty of someone worryingly young; I feel like I’m on a journey through Epcot. I’m wandering from point to point in a witch themed thoroughfare until I end up at Beach Zone or Christmas Zone or Halloween Zone, with each level wrapped around a central weenie (large prop usable as a landmark for orienting yourself). The worlds of Tooie while no less cartoony are not only larger but interconnected through trains and tunnels except for Cloud Cuckooland; which itself is still connected by being the location for two different backtrack jiggies in the game.

Worlds and the game overall also feel darker than Kazooie. From the start exploring the destroyed remains of Spiral Mountain and Grunty’s old lair and all throughout the game events are tinged with more death and sour notes. Even the very start of the game features Bottles the mole, your mentor in Kazooie, getting blasted and remaining a ghost throughout the game. Death is mentioned several times, you even get to murder a side character (don’t worry, it’s funny!) creating a more dour mood than the previous game, while not being so gloomy it becomes unenjoyable. After all, one of the levels is set in a wacky cloud world with giant garbage cans and jello buildings.

Rated E, because even if he talks he's still just a pile of coal.

As annoying as those flaws are though, I feel that the benefits vastly outweigh even the worst levels. My least favorite world in the game is Terrydactyland as it’s overly large, empty for it’s size, and has some of the worst backtrack jiggies in the game; but the distaste I feel for this world is overwhelmed by my love for all the refinements Rare put into this game versus the previous one. Best Note Score (BNS) is removed, with notes now being a grand total carried across all worlds. Eggs, feathers, and notes are all in bundles now instead of being scattered individually; with eggs and feathers cycling through their different types (allowing you to just wait patiently for whatever you need instead of hunting for them).

Sure things are bigger, but the controls are just as tight if not tighter than they were in Kazooie and the additions of Mumbo (the first games shaman) as a playable character for some parts and the transformations being in every level now thanks to Humba Wumba (It was 2000, it was a different time) the Native American shaman keep things feeling fresh. The new moves bring on new challenges, and the inclusion of minigames (while sometimes overplayed) allowed the developers at Rare to have jiggies that were different and fresh (except kickball, fuck kickball).

Humba Wumba takes over the role of transformations from Mumbo Jumbo, while he transforms aspects of the game world instead.

Overall, Banjo-Tooie was a gem. It’s one of the few games I’ll replay on a semi-regular basis and one of the even fewer games I’ve 100%’d. It’s a great platformer that didn’t try to copy Super Mario 64’s homework too closely, has plenty of charm, built upon the previous game’s foundation expertly, and offered so much new content compared to the previous game that I’m still baffled both games came out on the same 64-bit console.

Every collectible collected, every world scene, at least one night where I forgot to exit the emulator before bed.

It’s an evergreen platformer in my eyes, and with ports to the Xbox consoles it’s one of the few retro platformers you can still play easily to this day. Definitely no Tonic Trouble or Earthworm Jim 3D on Nintendo Switch Online. But unlike those games, if you haven’t played this and you have an interest in game design or level design you should at some point.

Overall Score: 10/10 Memorable Moment: Destroying Grunty once and for all after about six tries.

#wiptw #review #nintendo #nintendo 64 #long post #long #gaming #retro gaming #retro #Banjo tooie #banjo kazooie

0 notes

eliwray · 2 years ago

Text

Okay. I'd like to offer up that this attitude is more about a pervasive fandom habit than the actual content of the franchise, and I like to gently offer that you're doing yourselves and other fans a disservice by buying into this. It's very easy to train ourselves to constantly scan for shark jumping. Its kind of countercultural tho, to give franchises room to adapt and evolve.

But let's look at this. Because in all honesty, MCU pre- and post-2015 is p much exactly the same ratio of creative development vs cash grab. And Marvel has always done p solidly on both counts.

The phase 1 & 2 linchpins were written and directed by Joss Whedon ffs, which means beyond on set abuse, actors also got interchangeable glib one-liners instead of characterization. Being a Steve fan, the essay i could write is how Whedon has no clue who Steve is in particular, but Im sure there's plenty more to write from other character perspectives. Phase 1 & 2 is where the MCU first grew into The Tony Show with Some Supporting Characters, where the overwhelming focus was on cishet white guys, where the universe stands still while long plans develop, where we got two films a year if we were lucky. It has always taken patience to wait for the MCU to piece together anything theyre aiming for, but theyve always built their brand on long games. I remember piecing together over a cpl years who the orig 4 Avengers would be. It took ages to see Modern Steve evolve. It took ages to see Nat get ANY characterization besides hot chick. This isnt a place built on instant gratification.

Meanwhile. Post 2015 is the entirety of the Black Panther franchise, built on foundational rships. It's two separate deep dives into Wanda's grief and loss and character. Its exponentially more women characters. Its a whole Dr Strange that I had no intention of finding this complex. Its a stunning story about the Partition of India and its impact on Kamala and her family. Its Loki *finally* having something interesting to do! And multiple people to be vulnerable with! Its the entirety of MCU Peter Parker. Its Nebula's amazing arc. Its the introduction of the Bradley family and John Walker, both of which extend and complicate what the Cap mantle means in world. Its Sam finding his Falcon, and his next big challenge. Its Bucky in therapy and finding peace and personhood. Its Nat's Russian family, and Alexei and Yelena coming back to keep building together. Its She-Hulk offering a new absurd humor. Its the seeds of Young Avengers. Its a brilliant re-work of the Kree-Skrull conflict and how that impacts individuals.

And this is just from one single, pretty limited fan perspective tbh; somebody else could have an equally long list of amazing relationships that are entirely different. I havent touched on Eternals or Hawkeye or Moon Knight or Carol or Shang Chi or Guardians or Antman or much Thor or... THIS was the point of expansion, so they could capture more of us and our money. Beyond, like, Endgame, which was wall to wall splash pages, theres rich rships and a MUCH broader group of differing characters unfolding in all of these shows and movies.

If you prefer the non-expanded space and original characters, thats cool, Im not here to trash that. Weve all got our personal preferences. But really, please own that and delve into that so we can all understand the canon texts in more depth from your perspective, ESPECIALLY considering the representation issues they are improving on since. If you're just not over not getting specific plot points you wanted, say that too, and we can all commiserate or ignore as desired. If you havent been around since the start, and absorbed pre-2015 in 3 days time, own that bc it shapes your perspective too. Real time 2008-2015 was a slog. If youre just exhausted all over, and dont know how you want to plug into the current MCU, I mean real fair, that makes a lotta sense. If you truly wanna look at how capitalism and militarism have profoundly shaped every single second of this franchise from the start, lets do it! That doesnt get talked about enough!

Because boiling the point down to "all true fans hate the franchise now" is honestly something that diminishes fandom as a whole. It helps us all train ourselves for less joy. I dont think thats your intention, its just a thing fandom does, but it really doesnt feel like we can afford this anymore. We're all getting too desperate for joy.

The thing is, it also absolutely bleeds through and impacts indie creators as well, diminishing our trust in ourselves to build something new that our audience won't be fickle and mean about. Consider what attitides feed you and the folks around you too. Consider how you treat the folks making stuff for you. The whole "so-and-so won't see what you say but your friends will" absolutely applies here. I guarantee you indie creatives are paying more attention to everybodys treatment of content than you realize. Maybe even including you, with your complicated rship to your own writing or art? What thoughts and fears do you have about how audiences will respond to your stuff? What kind of audience do we want for ourselves, and what does that say about what kind of audience we want to be?

If you dont hate the mcu are you really an mcu fan

#mcu #i disagree if that impacts whether you expand the post #audiences

38K notes · View notes

celepeace · 4 years ago

Text

A monster-taming game recommendation list for fans of Pokemon

Whether you're a pokemon fanatic obsessed with all things pokemon past and present, or a veteran fan disillusioned with GameFreak's recent adoption of monetary philosophies and strategies reminiscent of other major game publishers, or looking for a monster-taming fix as you await new Pokemon content...

I'm compiling here a post of little-known games in the genre that Pokemon fans are likely to enjoy!

Under readmore cause long, but some of these games really don’t get the attention they deserve, so if you have the time, please read!

(I am also likely to keep updating and editing this post)

First up is Temtem!

Temtem is a game made by and for Pokemon fans, from the spanish indie developer Crema. Temtem is currently in early access on Steam and PS5, and is likely to remain in early access until sometime late next year. Full launch will include a Nintendo Switch release, too. Despite this, it has plenty of content to explore before full release. The developers are active, release new content on a semi-regular basis, and are responsive to the community as a whole and individuals if you happen to come across a bug you want to report.

Temtem boasts a wide variety of monsters to collect and train. It takes place in the Airborne Archipelago, a system of floating islands that orbit their star, the Pansun. The monsters inhabiting the archipelago are called Temtem, or tem(s), for short.

As far as game mechanics go, it has many similarities to Pokemon, but also many important distinctions. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the element of chance has been removed from battle entirely. Moves cannot miss, have the same power constantly, and status afflictions have an obviously displayed countdown to when they will wear off (for instance, sleep lasts as long as it says it will last. Not 2-4 turns). PP does not exist, either. Your tems can battle for as long as their HP holds out. In place of PP, a new system called Stamina exists. Stamina is an individual stat, like HP and Attack. Each move costs a certain amount of stamina. If you go over the amount of stamina your tem has, the deficit is detracted from your health instead, and that tem cannot move next turn. Stamina passively regenerates a certain amount each turn, and items and moves exist that can heal stamina. All battles are also double-battles, you and your opponent will typically have two tems on the field at a time. This is just a few of the differences Temtem has from Pokemon, but they're some of the biggest ones.

Temtem is also a massively multiplayer game. You complete the storyline independently (or with a friend through co-op!), but in the overworld you can see other, real players moving around and interacting with the world. There is also public and area-specific chat you can talk to other players through. Despite this, all multiplayer functions are (currently) completely optional. You do not need to interact with others to complete the game.

Overall, Temtem is suitable for the Pokemon fan who is looking for a more challenging experience. Temtem is not a walk in the park you can blaze through with a single super-strong monster. For one, individual tem strength is more well-balanced than it is in Pokemon. There are very few (if any!) completely useless tems. Even some unevolved tems have their niche in the competitive scene! Aside from that, enemy tamers are scaled quite high, and you typically cannot beat them just from the exp you get from other enemy tamers. You have to do some wild-encounter grinding if you want to progress.

Temtem is a very fun game and I've already gotten over 100 hours out of it, despite only 3/5-ish of the planned content being released!

However, I do feel obligated to warn any prospective players of one thing: the current endgame is quite inaccessible. After you complete what is currently implemented of the main storyline, there is still quite a lot left to explore and do, but much of it is locked behind putting a lot of hours into the game. You kind of have to get perfect temtem to do the current PVE (and this is also somewhat true for the PVP too). By perfect I mean you have to breed a good tem and then train it to get the preferable EVs (called TVs in temtem). This takes... well, for a whole team... tens of hours. Of boring grinding. Some people enjoy it! But I don't. Regardless, the game was still worth buying because the non-endgame content is expansive and fun.

So overall, pros & cons:

Pros

Battle system is more friendly towards a competitive scene

Cute monsters

Lots of gay characters, also you can choose pronouns (including they/them) independently from body type and voice

Less difference between the objectively bad tems and good tems than there is in Pokemon

Lots of stuff to do even in early access

Most conversations with dialog choices have the option to be a complete ass for no reason other than it’s fun

Having less type variety in your team is less punishing than in Pokemon due to the synergy system and types overall having less weaknesses and resistances

At least one major character is nonbinary

Cons

Falls prey to the issue of MMOs having in-game economies that are only accessible to diehard no-life players

Related to the above point, cosmetics are prohibitively expensive

Endgame CURRENTLY is inaccessible to most players unless you buy good monsters from other players or spend tens of hours making your own. However I must add that the grind is great if you like that kind of thing and is quite easy and painless to do while watching a show or something.

Here is their Steam page and here is their official website.

Next is Monster Hunter: Stories!

This is a spinoff game of the Monster Hunter franchise released for the 3DS in 2018. If you're anything like me, and you've played the core Monster Hunter games, you've often thought "Man, I wish I could befriend and ride these cool dragon creatures instead of killing or maiming them!"

Well now you can! In Stories, as I will be calling it, you play as a rider rather than a hunter. Riders steal monster eggs from wild nests to raise them among humans as companions and guardians. And yes, egg stealing is a whole mechanic in of itself in this game.

This game works pretty differently from most monster-collecting games. You do battle (usually) against one or two wild monsters using your own, except you fight alongside your monsters too. With swords and stuff. There's armor and weapons you can smelt to make yourself stronger. Type match-ups also kind of don't exist in this game? Except they do? But not in a way you'd expect?

The vast majority of attacking moves you and your monster use fall into categories reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors. Moves can be categorized as power, speed, or technical. Speed beats power, technical beats speed, and power beats technical. The matchup of your move vs your opponent's determines how a turn will go down. If one move beats the other in matchup, then the winner's move will get to go and the loser doesn't get to do anything. If you tie, you both get hit, but for reduced damage. There's also abilities and basic attacks, with abilities basically being the same as pokemon moves, and basic attacks just being "I hit you for normal damage within this category". Also, you don't control what your monster does all the time in battle. You can tell it to use abilities, but what kind basic attacks it carries out is determined by its species' preference. Velicidrome, for instance, prefers speed attacks, but Yian Garuga prefers technical. Stamina also exists in this game in a very similar manner to Temtem.

Overall this game carries over a lot of mechanics Monster Hunter fans will find familiar (how items and statuses work for instance). You don't have to have played a core Monster Hunter game to enjoy Stories though! It's fine and is easy to understand as a stand-alone.

The story has some likable characters and is rather long (it was actually adapted into an anime!), for those of you who enjoy a good story.

I'd really recommend this one especially. If it sounds fun to you and you can drop $30, just do it. I bought it on a whim and I got a few weeks' worth of playing almost nonstop out of it, and I didn't even get to do everything! (I got distracted by Hades, oops)

Stories is also getting a sequel later next year on the nintendo switch! How exciting!

And yes, you do ride the monsters.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Large variety of cool monsters to befriend and raise

Pretty lengthy story

Every tamable monster is also rideable

Deceptively simple combat mechanics, easy to be okay at, hard to master

Incorporates some mechanics from early turn-based party rpgs like Final Fantasy for a nice twist on the monster collecting genre

Cons

Many monsters are objectively outclassed by other ones, making what can be in an actually good team more limited than you’d expect

3DS graphics inherently means the game looks like it was made 7 years before its time

Here is the Monster Hunter Stories official 3DS product page.

And here is Monster Sanctuary!

Monster sanctuary is a game that just had its 1.0 launch- meaning it was in early access and no longer is! Although the devs say they still plan to implement a few more things into the game in future updates. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Monster sanctuary is a metroidvania twist on the typical monster collecting game, meaning it is also a sidescrolling platformer in which you use abilities you gain throughout the game to explore the world around you. The abilities in this case are the monsters you get! Every monster has an ability that helps you traverse the sanctuary.

Speaking of the sanctuary, the game is set in one. The monster sanctuary is a magically shielded area, cut off from the rest of the world, created by an order of monster keepers, people who befriend and protect the mystical monsters inhabiting the world. Humankind encroached too far on the natural habitat of monsters and were hostile to the native wildlife, so the keepers created an area of varied environments to safely protect and preserve the remaining monsters of the world.

Unlike many other monster collecting games, this game only has 5 types: fire, water, earth, air, and neutral. However, the types themselves do not possess resistances and weaknesses. Instead, each monster has its own assigned weaknesses and resistances. And yes, this can include things like debuffs, physical vs special attacks, and the typical elemental types.

All battles are also 3 vs 3! And unlike in pokemon, where you can only hit the enemies nearest, all monsters have the ability to hit any opponent they want. Turns also work a little differently in that speed doesn't exist, you just use 1 move per monster in your turn and then it goes to your opponent's turn. Your monsters hit in whatever order you want them to.

There is also a quite important combo system in this game, where every hit builds a damage multiplier for the next. Moves often hit multiple times per turn. Healing and buffing actions also build this combo counter. So what monsters you have move in what order really counts!

But the main mechanical difference between this and other games in the genre is how it handles levels and skills. Instead of learning a set move at a certain level, this game incorporates a skill tree, and you get to allocate points into different skills as you grow stronger. And jeez, these skill trees are really extensive. Monster sanctuary is a theorycrafter's dream. Each monster has a unique, specially tailored skill tree, making every monster truly able to have its own niche. You can make use of whatever monster you want if you just put thought into it!

And like Temtem, this game is not made to be beatable by children. I'm sure a child could beat it, but it's not made to be inherently child-friendly like pokemon. It's honestly quite difficult.

On top of that, you are actively encouraged to not just be scraping by each battle. Your performance in battle is rated by an automated system that scores your usage of various mechanics like buffs and debuffs applied, type matchups, and effective usage of combos. The rating system directly influences the rewards you get from each battle, including your likelihood of obtaining an egg from one of the wild monsters you battled (no, you don't catch wild monsters in this game, you get eggs and hatch them). If you're not paying attention to how the game works and making good, effective use of your monsters, you'll have a hard time expanding your team!

The music is also really good, it's made by nature to be able to play over and over and not get old as you explore each area, and the composer(s) really did a good job with this. Some area songs, namely the beach one, I especially enjoy, so much so I've actually played it in the background while I do work.

This is a game I would really recommend. If I made it sound intimidating, it is by no means unbeatable, you're just gonna have to put some thought into how you play. At no point did I actually feel frustrated or like something was impossible. When I hit a wall, I was able to recognize what I did wrong and how I could improve, or I could at least realize something wasn't working and experiment until I found a solution. It's challenging in a genuinely fun, rewarding way.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Extremely in-depth combat system

I genuinely don’t know if there’s an objectively bad monster in this game

Evolution exists but is completely optional, as even un-evolved monsters can be great

Entire soundtrack is full of bangers

Large and diverse variety of monsters to tame

Cons

Story is a little lackluster, but passable

That’s the only con I can think of

Here’s a link to their Steam page and the game’s website.

A kind of unorthodox recommendation is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series!

Likelihood is that everyone reading this has heard of this series already, but just in case anyone hasn't, I thought I'd include it! I would categorize this as a hybrid between the mystery dungeon genre and the monster collecting genre, because you recruit pokemon as you play and can use those pokemon on your team!

If you're unaware, the mystery dungeon genre is a small subset of dungeon crawler games where you progress through randomly generated levels called mystery dungeons. Throughout the dungeons, there will be enemies to fight and items to collect. The challenge of these games is mostly due to the stamina aspect of them, in that you have to manage your resources as you progress through the level. If you go all out in each fight, you will inevitably lose quite quickly. You have to learn to win against enemies while balancing your use of items and PP, so you have enough for the next fight, and the fight after that.

Pokemon mystery dungeon in particular is famous for its stories, the likes of which isn't seen often in Pokemon games. They are hugely story-driven games and are notable for the emotional depth they possess. It's pretty normal for the average player to cry at least once in the span of the game. There's lots of memes about that specifically.

This entry in my list is also unique for being a series. So, which one should you play first? It actually doesn't matter! Each storyline is entirely self-contained and requires no knowledge of prior entries. The quality of each entry varies and is a point of contention among fans. I say you should play all of them, because they all have their merits (though some more than others.... coughgatestoinfinitycough). They're mostly distinct for the generation of Pokemon they take place in. Rescue team is gen 3, Explorers is gen 4, Gates to Infinity is gen 5, Super Mystery Dungeon is gen 6, and Rescue Team DX is a remake of a gen 3 game but has the mechanics and moves of a gen 8 game.

My only real caution is that you play Explorers of Sky, not Darkness or Time. Sky is basically a combination of the two games with added items and content. It's an objective upgrade over its predecessors, and I honestly wouldn't waste money on the other two.

I’m not going to include a pros and cons list for the PMD series because I’m incredibly biased and it wouldn’t be an honest review.

Next is Monster Crown!

Monster Crown is a monster collecting game that seems to take heavy inspiration from early-gen Pokemon games in particular. It is currently in early access on Steam and is not expensive. I learned about it through the developers of Monster Sanctuary, when they recommended it on their official Discord.

The game has lots of charm and interesting creature designs, and an entirely new take on monster typings as well. Instead of monster types being based off of natural elements like fire, water, electricity, etc. Monster Crown uses typings that seem to be influenced by the personalities of the monsters. For instance, Brutal, Relentless, and Will are all monster types!

It also captures a lot of the charm many of us look fondly upon in early GameBoy-era games. The music is mostly chiptune, with some more modern backing instruments at times, and the visuals are very reminiscent of games like Pokemon Crystal in particular. Monster Crown is definitely the monster collecting game for fans of the 8-bit era!

The thing that stands out the most to me about this game is the breeding system. Instead of one parent monster passing down its species to its offspring, you can create true hybrids in this game.

However, it is very early access. I would consider the current build as an alpha, not even a beta yet! So temper your expectations here. I have not encountered any major bugs, but visual glitches here and there are quite common. The game also could definitely use some polish and streamlining, and is quite limited in content currently. But the dev(s) seem quite active, so I fully expect these kinks to be worked out in time!

The reviews are rather positive, especially for being in early access. I'm all for expanding the monster collecting genre, so if you're looking to expand your horizons in that sense, I would recommend you at least give this one a look! I personally had quite a bit of fun playing Monster Crown and am going to keep an eye out for updates.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Charming artstyle, appealing monster designs

Faithful callback to a bygone era of gaming

Controls are fairly simple and easy to get the hang of (and are completely customizable!)

Cool breeding and hybridization mechanics

There's a starter for each monster type!

You can choose your pronouns, including they/them!

Cons

Inherent nature of being very early access means can be clunky and unpolished at times

Also not much content as of right now, see above

User interface could use some redesign in places

Here’s their Steam page and the official website!

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, Azure Dreams!

This is one I actually haven’t played, mostly because it’s really old and therefore only practically accessible if you play it on an emulator, unless you're one of those old game collectors. Azure Dreams was developed by Konami and released for the PS1 in 1997. My impression of it was that it either didn’t sell well or only took off in Japan, because it’s actually really hard to find any comprehensive information about it on the internet.

Azure Dreams is a monster collecting - dating sim hybrid. You can build relationships with various characters and can pursue some of them romantically, although that isn’t the main draw of the game. There is also a stripped-down version that exists for the GameBoy Color, which forgoes the dating portion of the game entirely.

Azure Dreams is kind of like a mystery dungeon game in that you progress through a randomly generated, ever-changing tower using the help of the familiars you have accrued throughout your adventure. Similarly to Monster Hunter: Stories, you yourself also take part in the fighting alongside your monsters. Each time you enter the tower, your character’s level is lowered to 1, but your familiars keep their experience. Thus, progression is made through strengthening your monsters. To obtain monsters, you collect their eggs, just like in Monster Sanctuary (which, turns out, was at least partially inspired by this game!)

Due to this game being very old and on the PS1, the visuals leave a lot to be desired... but if you can get past that, Azure Dreams has lots of replayability and customization to how you play the game. To this day, it appears it has a somewhat active speedrunning community!

If you don’t mind the effort of using an emulator, and like old games, Azure Dreams just might be that timesink you were looking for in quarantine.

Honorable mentions:

Pokemon Insurgence (or any Pokemon fangame/ROMhack, really!) is a Pokemon fangame that introduces Delta Pokemon, which are really cool type-swapped versions of existing Pokemon. It’s sufficiently challenging and has a lot of variety in what you can catch in the wild, so you can pretty much add whatever you want to your team! The story is quite good, and the main campaign is multiple times longer than a typical Pokemon game’s campaign. Download it here!

ARK: Survival Evolved is NOT a monster collecting game BUT you do get to tame and fight alongside a lot of really cool extinct species, including but not limited to the dinosaurs we all know and love. This game is genuinely fun as hell, especially with friends, but I must warn you: never play on official servers. I highly recommend singleplayer, playing on a casual private server, or making your own server. Here’s the Steam page.

#pokemon #temtem #monster sanctuary #monster hunter stories #monster crown #azure dreams #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon alternatives

693 notes · View notes