Games Completed 2023

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)

JAN - Death's Door (Switch)

I liked this. I'll post full thoughts in the podcast thread. It's great, though.

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)

JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)

Well I enjoyed this! It's tough and unfair at times, but perfectly doable without resorting to save scumming thanks to the fact you can continue from the start of the level you're on, so you never start too far back, and you seem to have unlimited continues. Couldn't imagine doing a 1cc of the game though (although I'm sure Ben could manage it if he wanted to!)

I think this game is quite unfairly maligned, because it's certainly worth playing, and difficulty aside, I'd have been pleased with this as a kid!

[dezm0nd]

Finished Goldeneye last night. I'd managed to get to Control on 00 Agent but in favour of my sanity, playing that level on the hardest difficulty after the school run isn't the best idea so I knocked it down to Agent and ploughed through Caverns and Cradle.

The game is still alot of fun I believe but I'm so in tune with it, I don't really see it as a thing I can critique anymore because I know it so well.

It must be like what Neo in the Matrix is like when he sees all the code.

[Alex79]

The game is still alot of fun I believe but I'm so in tune with it, I don't really see it as a thing I can critique anymore because I know it so well.

I think it's just genuinely brilliant. As someone who has next to no nostalgia for the N64 or Goldeneye aside from a few multiplayer sessions back in the day, I played both the Switch and Xbox version yesterday and honestly, it's the most fun FPS I've played since Titanfall 2.

It's a shame the Switch version is really awful to control on standard pad and the Xbox version seems to have some performance issues (there's an awful lot of slowdown for me on Series S) but that aside, I was grinning from ear to ear running through the levels mowing down enemies.

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)
JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)

JAN - Final Fight (Arcade on Switch)

I wanted to go through the Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle, so started with the first game. I wondered if I'd enjoy this any more than the last time I went through it, and I did, a bit. I still don't think it's a great example of the genre, but I suppose as one of the earlier ones it still looks fantastic with its big sprites and colourful art. I was nicely surprised to see appearances from Sodom and Rolento who I recognise from Street Fighter - I either didn't know or had totally forgotten they made their first appearance in this game. It's far too unfair to even think about trying a 1cc, although I know it can be done. Just not by me!

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)
JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)
JAN - Final Fight (Arcade on Switch)

JAN - The King Of Dragons (Arcade on Switch)

Although I have played it before, I've generally overlooked this game in favour of Knights Of The Round, Capcom's other swords & sorcery type scrolling beat 'em up, but I shouldn't, because this is a lot of fun. It's got almost RPG-lite elements, with six classes to choose from who get stronger as you go through the game and upgrade their weapons and magic etc. Enjoyed this, and it seems as though a 1cc would be significantly more doable than with Final Fight!

[Jobobonobo]

Spoiler: show

Jan 8: Densetsu no Stafy
Jan 10: Parodius 2: Fantastic Journey

Jan 26: Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy

So this is the first of the Super Famicom trilogy but the second in the series as a whole and this was similar to Fantastic Journey in some ways but still had enough things to make it stand out. It was mostly a bit easier than that game as well for the most part except for the Moai head spaceship and the section with these annoying skeleton enemies just before the final boss. The Moai spaceship is massive and you need to be very precise witht he spots of the ship where you can avoid colliding with it. This usually involves destroying enough of the ship where you can blast holes in it and then when the ship has you trapped against the edge of the screen you need to just hide in those holes. Took me a while to figure it out but once I did, it was not so bad especially if your character is powered up enough. The skeleton section before the final boss is similarly tough where you are navigating between these tight platforms and you need to destroy enemies to progress through them. One of the enemies are these very tough skeletons that require a lot of hits to take down and usually you crash into them before they go down. UI kept failing at this over and over thinking it was impossible when I seen a walkthrough on YouTube that got past them by just flying through the space above them and below the ceiling. With that little bit of space I squeezed past and beat the boss quite handily, all things considered! This was a nice little shooter but sadly, it had a much smaller roster than Fantastic Journey which definitely makes it a bit lesser in my eyes. Also, go with Twinbee. When that lad is powered up enough, he just obliterates foes with his boxing glove missiles!

Jan 28: Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius

This is the final game of the Super Famicom Parodius trilogy and while there is a lot to like about it, it is definitely the weakest. This is due to the fact that the slowdown can be brutal when too many bullets are flying. Paradoxically, it also means that the more crazy bullet hell sections can be a bit more manageable but still these performance issues does make the game a lesser experience than the previous two games. If I had played this on PS1 or Saturn, this might not have been as big of an issue but I think this game pushes the Super Famicom a tad too much. But then no wonder, the presentation here is top notch with full voice acting in high quality through an announcer that is constant throughout the game with some of the most lush and gorgeous graphics that are up there as some of the prettiest on Nintendo's 16-bit system. This certainly has the most original content with you battling some pretty tough bosses such as a Geisha crossdresser with his fan boomerang, a giant Twinbee robot and a spaceship that is fairly ruthless with its lasers. Also, we are back to an expanded roster of characters and this time I decided to use Mike the cat which was a very effective little attacker when powered up. If it was not for the slowdown I would probably like this one the best so while still playable, check this out on other consoles like Saturn or PS1.

[Alex79]

JAN - Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur's Story (Xbox)
JAN - The Witcher 2 (Xbox)
JAN - Ori And The Blind Forest (Switch)
JAN - Shinobi III (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Sonic Spinball (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Super Fantasy Zone - 1cc (Megadrive on Switch)
JAN - Death's Door (Switch)
JAN - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES on Switch)
JAN - Final Fight (Arcade on Switch)
JAN - The King Of Dragons (Arcade on Switch)

JAN - Yakuza 3 (Xbox)

This was alright. By far the dullest story of the series so far, but Yakuza does what Yakuza always seems to do and brings it all to a thrilling conclusion. For the first time in the series I didn't bother with the side stories, and disappointing to see no arcade games to play in the town, but the game was ok overall. Easily the weakest I've played so far. And who on earth thought Chapter 10 was a good idea - wandering around looking for missing children and being bored out of my mind at the orphanage. Snore city. Still, interested to see what happens to Kiryu next as it was left on a bit of a cliffhanger!

[MattL]

Spoiler: show

Jan. 5: Streets of Rage 4 Anniversary Edition (PS4)

Jan. 22: Star Wars Jedi - Fallen Order (PS5) - Wow. I never expected an attempt to combine gameplay aspects of Sekiro, Uncharted, and Metroid with the Star Wars IP to come together this well. The worlds were fun to look at and explore. The combat was always engaging and stylish. And the story wasn't half bad. I'm super hyped for the sequel. Strong recommend.

Jan. 28: Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5) - It was fine. I think the talk on the internet that this was some overlooked, underrated, hidden gem that was ruined because of the reaction to the Avengers game is complete hyperbole. Is the dialog smart and fun? Sure. Is the sci-fi art style pretty to look at? Definitely. Is the gameplay engaging? Absolutely not. Use Guardian powers, shoot elemental shots, shoot regular shots, repeat. There's no variety. There's no complexity. There's nothing interesting. It's fun for one playthrough, if you enjoy Marvel properties, but don't let the internet hype machine fool you. You're not missing much if you skip out on it.

Jan. 30: Disney Classic Collection - Aladdin, Lion King, & Jungle Book (PS4) - Of these games, I only owned the Genesis Aladdin when I was child, which I believe I completed, so most of this collection was new to me and looked like a fun impulse buy when I grabbed it off a clearance shelf at Gamestop for under $15. My god, these games are hard. What were game developers thinking back in the day? Yeesh. I would not have finished any of these without cheats and save states. Fun bit of nostalgia, but I am not in any rush to replay them.

[markfm007]

Spoiler: show

January 5th - Final Fantasy VII
January 22nd - Death's Door
January 25th - Citizen Sleeper

January 31st - Dead Space (2008)

The remake motivated me to finally get the original off my backlog. Still a very solid game. Movement and shooting feel just right, and enemies are well designed to create fun combat puzzles. Supplies are doled out smartly to keep you on your toes. There's a few duff bits but nothing too painful. Makes Callisto Protocol look worse in comparison.

Only thing I really don't like is the constant screaming and discordant noise of combat scenarios. Becomes grating towards the end. Honestly think that's why it's taken me so long to finish it.

This game is timeless, but there's also clear room for expansion that the remake can take advantage of. I'll play it some day. I'd like to play 2 first, and maybe 3.

[Magical_Isopod]

Jan. 22: Star Wars Jedi - Fallen Order (PS5) - Wow. I never expected an attempt to combine gameplay aspects of Sekiro, Uncharted, and Metroid with the Star Wars IP to come together this well. The worlds were fun to look at and explore. The combat was always engaging and stylish. And the story wasn't half bad. I'm super hyped for the sequel. Strong recommend.

Right? I went into this one expecting fanservicey licensed game dreck, and I really only picked it up because I love Respawn as a developer and some of the cutscenes from a stream I watched looked really well done. I was absolutely not expecting to have as good a time as I did.

And my hot take: As much as the games media constantly calls this game a Soulslike (it's not), it really has far more in common with the N64 and GC Zelda games, or something like Okami or Arkham Asylum, than it does with those games. It's a pretty classical action adventure sort of game we don't see much of these days, but it's always been one of my favourite genres(?) in gaming. Hope to see more of it, honestly.

[MattL]

Jan. 22: Star Wars Jedi - Fallen Order (PS5) - Wow. I never expected an attempt to combine gameplay aspects of Sekiro, Uncharted, and Metroid with the Star Wars IP to come together this well. The worlds were fun to look at and explore. The combat was always engaging and stylish. And the story wasn't half bad. I'm super hyped for the sequel. Strong recommend.

Right? I went into this one expecting fanservicey licensed game dreck, and I really only picked it up because I love Respawn as a developer and some of the cutscenes from a stream I watched looked really well done. I was absolutely not expecting to have as good a time as I did.

And my hot take: As much as the games media constantly calls this game a Soulslike (it's not), it really has far more in common with the N64 and GC Zelda games, or something like Okami or Arkham Asylum, than it does with those games. It's a pretty classical action adventure sort of game we don't see much of these days, but it's always been one of my favourite genres(?) in gaming. Hope to see more of it, honestly.

I don't think classifying it as a Souls-like is wrong per se, because it's pretty clear the combat system cribbed heavily from Fromsoft games, specifically Sekiro's posture/deflection system. And really, the Souls games share some DNA with classic adventure games, specifically Zelda 1/2 and Metroid.

Now that I'm thinking about it more, it's in a weird position. On the easiest difficulty, you're right. Combat is not much of a challenge and then I think it leans more towards a classic adventure game. On the higher difficulties, combat relies much more on Souls-like skills to get through and then it leans more into the Souls-like genre.

That being said, playing it made we want to reinstall Sekiro, which I started last night. That game, man. So. Fucking. Good. I really want to see this combat system come back. Plus playing it on PS5 means rock solid 60fps and HDR now that I have an HDR tv. Beautiful game. Fromsoft are the kings of art direction.

Spoiler: show

January 5th - Final Fantasy VII
January 22nd - Death's Door
January 25th - Citizen Sleeper

January 31st - Dead Space (2008)

The remake motivated me to finally get the original off my backlog. Still a very solid game. Movement and shooting feel just right, and enemies are well designed to create fun combat puzzles. Supplies are doled out smartly to keep you on your toes. There's a few duff bits but nothing too painful. Makes Callisto Protocol look worse in comparison.

Only thing I really don't like is the constant screaming and discordant noise of combat scenarios. Becomes grating towards the end. Honestly think that's why it's taken me so long to finish it.

This game is timeless, but there's also clear room for expansion that the remake can take advantage of. I'll play it some day. I'd like to play 2 first, and maybe 3.

I haven't played Dead Space since I first bought it on my 360. What weapons did you use? Because to me, it lost a lot of the horror when I learned how easy it was to kill most enemies with the starting weapon (the laser cutter or whatever it's called). I found basically every other weapon to be way worse at killing the necro and used that starting gun for probably 95% of encounters.

[markfm007]

I haven't played Dead Space since I first bought it on my 360. What weapons did you use? Because to me, it lost a lot of the horror when I learned how easy it was to kill most enemies with the starting weapon (the laser cutter or whatever it's called). I found basically every other weapon to be way worse at killing the necro and used that starting gun for probably 95% of encounters.

Plasma cutter haha, yeah I used that about 90% of the time. Flame thrower for the remaining time, for the little wormy enemies or when I ran out of plasma clips. It's pretty overpowered. I upgraded that, my stasis and my health, and had an easy time. Honestly the game wasn't that scary to me throughout, and I'm a pretty easy scare. Tense when things got hectic, but not scary.

[MattL]

Plasma cutter haha, yeah I used that about 90% of the time. Flame thrower for the remaining time, for the little wormy enemies or when I ran out of plasma clips. It's pretty overpowered. I upgraded that, my stasis and my health, and had an easy time. Honestly the game wasn't that scary to me throughout, and I'm a pretty easy scare. Tense when things got hectic, but not scary.

That's exactly how I approached the game as well. The flamethrower was only other weapon I spent any time or upgrades on. That makes me happy to hear they haven't messed with the gameplay and just made it prettier for modern consoles.

[Truk_Kurt]

Playing this myself too now and about half way through. I'm finding it more tense than scary but I thought that was because I don't find sci-fi horror that scary. It still gets me when a monster comes out of nowhere though and when you're on you last few bits of ammo with monsters coming straight at you Fantastic game so far though

[markfm007]

That's exactly how I approached the game as well. The flamethrower was only other weapon I spent any time or upgrades on. That makes me happy to hear they haven't messed with the gameplay and just made it prettier for modern consoles.

Oh I was playing the original, not the remake!

[markfm007]

Playing this myself too now and about half way through. I'm finding it more tense than scary but I thought that was because I don't find sci-fi horror that scary. It still gets me when a monster comes out of nowhere though and when you're on you last few bits of ammo with monsters coming straight at you Fantastic game so far though

They like to creep up on you from behind! I'm not sure why it didn't really scare me, hard to say. Still enjoyed it though.

[Scrustle]

Spoiler: show

03/01 - The Last Campfire
05/01 - Splatoon 3
17/01 - Wolfenstein (2009)
22/01 - Fragments of Euclid

02/02 - Postmouse

Another short little free game I came across. This is a little platformer/adventure game where you play as a postal delivery mouse in the grounds of an old abandoned mansion. You get to chat to various other critters along the way and solve the occasional environmental puzzle too. It's a very cute little game. It's got a lot of charm and some very nice, lush environments too. You get to explore the overgrown rustic gardens as well as the dilapidated interiors where nature has been encroaching back in. It's a bit janky though, and controls are pretty slippery. There's a chase sequence at the end which isn't great as the controls just aren't up to it. But there are very frequent checkpoints, so it's not too bad. This was apparently an animation student project too. It's pretty impressive considering that. Animations for gameplay could perhaps use a bit of work in terms of feedback and making it feel like you're actually connected to the game world. But when it came to the cutscenes and more static character animations, it had a lot of personality to it and was well polished.

[dezm0nd]

The game is still alot of fun I believe but I'm so in tune with it, I don't really see it as a thing I can critique anymore because I know it so well.

I think it's just genuinely brilliant. As someone who has next to no nostalgia for the N64 or Goldeneye aside from a few multiplayer sessions back in the day, I played both the Switch and Xbox version yesterday and honestly, it's the most fun FPS I've played since Titanfall 2.

It's a shame the Switch version is really awful to control on standard pad and the Xbox version seems to have some performance issues (there's an awful lot of slowdown for me on Series S) but that aside, I was grinning from ear to ear running through the levels mowing down enemies.

Glad that you're enjoying it with fresh eyes! In regards to slowdown on series S, I had very little. (But i am very much in N64 land so any fps is a bonus to me)

Wonder whats causing it?

[RetroClarence]

How many games per year do you guys usually finish? I finished 10 games in January which I reckon was a record for me. They were mainly short games or games I had started at the end of last year.