The 2023 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 2,969]

Now I'm confused. Which stage is that? Answer in spoiler tag if necessary  

I'm wondering if I missed something, or just remember stuff very poorly.

Wait, is it possible that the gimmick just has absolutely no bearing on the puzzle, and is just kind of a gag? The puzzle does look familiar, just the thing it does with the level escaped my mind.

[FireHazard51 | 2,047]

I beat the Last of Us (PS4) which though not on my "current" backlog was on a pervious one and I want to watch the TV show without spoiling the game.  Over all I really enjoyed the game.  The story was for sure a gut punch in some parts but overall I'm hooked and want to know what's next.  I think I'll play the game again before the next season starts as new game+ should be easy to play given I sharpened my skills and learned good tactics with more practice.  Overall is nice length of game with very little filler which is awesome.

[Sumez | 2,969]

"Very little filler"? Did the PS4 remake cut out the second, third, and fourth time you "cut through" yet another building of a post-apocalyptic American city?  

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

1 hour ago, Sumez said:

Now I'm confused. Which stage is that? Answer in spoiler tag if necessary  

I'm wondering if I missed something, or just remember stuff very poorly.

Wait, is it possible that the gimmick just has absolutely no bearing on the puzzle, and is just kind of a gag? The puzzle does look familiar, just the thing it does with the level escaped my mind.

I'll look tonight.  It think it was in the "flower" shaped world that has the secret entrance.  Or the one after that.

[Sumez | 2,969]

I must just have forgotten then

So many weird things this game does when you least expect it

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I'm starting to enjoy Baba is You less and less as I get further into it. I still think it's an interesting, unique concept, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired.

My biggest complaint stems from the fact that the rules are often unclear and unintuitive. There's no real way to know what some of the new words will do without a significant amount of trial and error. That means you spend more time combining different words to figure out the rules of the level than actually applying the rules to solve the puzzle. The puzzle solving is great, but the hours spent just pushing words around in a different combinations is more frustrating than fun.

I know it's a small indie game, but a couple more passes at the overall design concept would have improved it greatly. As it is, I still think it's a game all puzzle fans should play, but I would recommend people temper their expectations, especially as you approach the back half of the game.

I am going to try to see it through to the end and solve all puzzles without a guide, but I'm just going to play it on the side instead of as my main game. It loses a lot of its appeal during longer sessions, so it's better for me to play it in small bites.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

1 hour ago, DoctorEncore said:

I'm starting to enjoy Baba is You less and less as I get further into it. I still think it's an interesting, unique concept, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired.

My biggest complaint stems from the fact that the rules are often unclear and unintuitive. There's no real way to know what some of the new words will do without a significant amount of trial and error. That means you spend more time combining different words to figure out the rules of the level than actually applying the rules to solve the puzzle. The puzzle solving is great, but the hours spent just pushing words around in a different combinations is more frustrating than fun.

I know it's a small indie game, but a couple more passes at the overall design concept would have improved it greatly. As it is, I still think it's a game all puzzle fans should play, but I would recommend people temper their expectations, especially as you approach the back half of the game.

I am going to try to see it through to the end and solve all puzzles without a guide, but I'm just going to play it on the side instead of as my main game. It loses a lot of its appeal during longer sessions, so it's better for me to play it in small bites.

While I don't completely agree with this take, I will say that I've done all of my Baba playing while watching movies.  It's the perfect game for that.  I'm also kind of stalled out, because I'm far into the game, where the levels can get the best of me, but also have no idea what I'm supposed to beat to progress things.

 

Also, as of right now I'm thinking this is the rough idea of the tracking of every game I've done this year so far:

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Deathloop (9/10)
4. Baba Is You (9/10)
5. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
6. God of War (8.5/10)
7. Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
8. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
9. Nier Automata (8/10)
10. Dusk (8/10)
11. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
12. Hellblade (7.5/10)
13. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
14. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
15. Eternal Darkness (7.5/10)
16. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
17. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
18. Onimusha (7/10)
19. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
20. Fallen Order (6.5/10)
21. Pilotwings 64 (6.5/10)
22. Strife (6/10)
23. Mischief Makers (6/10)
24. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
25. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
26. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
27. Winback (4/10)

TBD:

1. Shenmue (crap)
2. Paper Mario (decent)
3. Xenoblade (great)

Not started

1. Yakuza Kiwami
2. Control
3. Nioh
4. Ghost of Tsushima
5. Dark Souls 2
6. REmake 2
7. Last of Us Part II
8. Danganronpa
9. Fata Morgana
10. Doom Eternal
11. Ori 2
12. KotOR 2
13. Trails in the Sky
14. LaPucelle
15. Ion Fury
16. Shadowgate
17. Prey

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

That's pretty positive set of scores overall, so I like to think I'm doing a good job of cultivating a backlog of good or great games, with a scattering of interesting or experimental titles that need to be experienced (ie Indigo Prophecy).

With maybe 3 exceptions: Winback was rough, Yoshi's Story is so completely nonessential that I'm grateful it was only an hour or two wasted, and Shenmue seems like the big misfire at the moment, but I really do want to experience that trilogy.

[Sumez | 2,969]

6 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

I know it's a small indie game, but a couple more passes at the overall design concept would have improved it greatly.

What exactly could be done to improve it?

I don't understand the statement that the execution leaves something to be desired - I don't think I've never played another puzzle game that's as solidly thought out and executed as Baba is. The execution is exemplary.

I can understand the sentiment that some rules require some trial-and-error experimentation to understand the precise details of how they work, and I wrote as much in my own writeup several pages back - but at the same time, there is absolutely no way to make a game like Baba without having those caveats, and there is no way for a player to learn them without experimenting on their own, so I'm very curious to hear what you supposedly would have done to "fix" it.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Sumez

[fox | 1,668]

RE4R

 

[Jynx | 140]

Is it too late for me to join? ^_^

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

Just now, Jynx said:

Is it too late for me to join? ^_^

Nope, have at it.

[Splain | 2,572]

Been playing Cuphead. Made it through World 1 EZPZ, feeling pretty confident. The World 2 fights are taking me a lot more tries to beat, it's making me worried about what World 3 is gonna be like.

[Brickman | 4,000]

I finished Super Mario Advance 2.

All these polls about Mario games made me want to go back and replay Super Mario World. I never got around to playing the GBA version so I thought I’d give it a go.

The most obvious changes are a really ugly high contrast image, save any time and Luigi having his own move set.

It’s an ok port but the high contrast image is jarring. I’d recommend playing it on the SNES unless you have to play portable.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

1 hour ago, Splain said:

Been playing Cuphead. Made it through World 1 EZPZ, feeling pretty confident. The World 2 fights are taking me a lot more tries to beat, it's making me worried about what World 3 is gonna be like.

I loved that game. I didn't find it to be quite as hard as others and I think it's generally fair; it's not like NES games where the difficulty is due to bad design. I really need to give the DLC a playthrough.

I'm still working on Baba, Deathloop, and FFX. I'm about 110 levels into Baba and only have one stage I haven't cleared yet (Skull House in world 5). As I mentioned previously, it's kind of lost it's charm for me. I don't love the word puzzle format and feel like it's a little prone to frustrating design decisions. Other than that just sitting in a little competitive Halo and Rocket League whenever I find time.

[Sumez | 2,969]

5 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

I'm about 110 levels into Baba and only have one stage I haven't cleared yet

Spoiler

...Are you sure about that? 
Try returning to the game and... literally think outside the box  

 

[Sumez | 2,969]

9 hours ago, Splain said:

Been playing Cuphead. Made it through World 1 EZPZ, feeling pretty confident. The World 2 fights are taking me a lot more tries to beat, it's making me worried about what World 3 is gonna be like.

I think the fights are very uneven in Cuphead. Some of the later fights are super easy, but even World 2 introduces some of what I would consider the hardest in the game. On average, I think the difficulty curve stays the same after that. Which is fine, I think it's very well balanced.

[Floating Platforms | 729]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is done

It's good to finally have this one done and behind me. One of those all-time classics that I didn't grow up with so rarely played. There were a couple instances where I had gotten through a couple early parts on emulator but then abandoned it because the game never fully pulled me in.  Sadly, this was still true. I never really felt much desire to go back and keep playing and exploring. It's clearly well-made, but I did struggle with some of the controls and hit detection. I mentioned before that I was going to look up how to upgrade my sword as that was apparently required to beat the game along with getting an arrow upgrade. I wonder if the game's fortune teller would give you the proper hints. I just didn't feel like beating my head against the wall and there was no actual in-game guidance for most of the stuff you have to find. Just go out and explore everything and try everything, cut all grass, dig stuff, etc.  As a kid, that would be alright. I don't have the desire to dedicate that time to search up and down 30 times.

So yeah, not my favorite Zelda game of all time, but even the ones that aren't the best are still very, very good. I appreciated the challenge that certain parts gave me (but that also kept me away a bit longer than if I could cruise through some puzzle dungeons), and all of the boss fights were fun and unique. Personally I feel that later games done in this same style/perspective are a bit stronger because the developers were able to refine and fine tune things.

Other things I'm playing: Picross S2 - roughly 40% done.

The World Ends With You - I'm at day 6 of what they say is 7, but there's gotta be more to the story or it's one massive batch of postgame.

Yakuza Kiwami - Episode 7 but I've been doing tons of side quest stuff. 20+ hours in and still so much more to do.

[Sumez | 2,969]

AVGN Adventures 1+2 - Completed 11/3

I have vague memories of playing the first AVGN game when it came out. It's not even that long ago, so it can't have been that memorable, but I do recall it as a fun little Mega Man-like, that was much more enjoyable than you'd expect for what it is. At least my memories of it were nice enough that I thought it would be worth picking up this package when LRG dropped it.

But going into AVGN 1+2 with elevated expectations is probably gonna leave you a little disappointed. It has all the usual trappings of an amateur platformer. Stages lasting a little too long with a lack of gameplay theme and creative goal for the level design, repetitive, spongey enemies, and unreliable hitboxes.
Ultimately it doesn't actually feel as much like a Mega Man as it looks. In fact you'll probably not be shooting very much, and when you do it's usually about standing at a safe distance to take enemies out one at a time before you proceed. Most of the time is spent dodging jumping sawblades, flames or whatever design the same environmental hazard has taken in each individual stage.

There's a few fun visual gags, usually poking fun of video game tropes, as you'd expect from an Angry Video Game Nerd themed product. It's a little surprising it doesn't actually go heavier on the gags, but it's probably better for it. The most outrageous stages, thematically, are probably the super-happy-cute-and-colorful one, as well as a stage themed entirely around Beat'em And Eat'em - a game I don't even remember being featured in AVGN (but I think it was probably featured in a compilation episode?)

The difficulty is weirdly all over the place, and clearly something the developer didn't think too much about. Some stages I went through with one death on my first try, while others took upwards of 30. I think it's fairly easy to learn most of the stages, but it leans much more on memorizing odd things than actual skill and practice, and especially the final stage (in both AVGN 1 and 2) ramps up the die-and-retry design so hard that it's nearly impossible to play the game as a balanced arcade-style single session. You'd have an easy time right up till you run your head against an obscure challenge that takes multiple tries.

That's no issue on the default difficulty, which allows you to die and retry as much as you want. And with three hit points and healing pickups showing up very frequently, that makes it very easy to just brute force your way through every single checkpoint on a stage. But even the next difficulty limits your lives to 10, which makes it extremely challenging to beat the entire game without getting a game over - meanwhile, if you do accept using infinite continues as a completion, it doesn't really change the perception of the difficulty at all.

Since both games in the collection are fortunately rather short, I played through both of them again on the +2 difficulty (from selections ranging from -2 through +4) which creates a bit more of a challenge on a few stages even if you do allow yourself infinite continues, but I didn't have the patience for the final stage on either - the game simply isn't well enough designed for that to be satisfying to me.
I think ultimately AVGN 1 and 2 are designed with the expectation of the modern styled "infinite attempts between checkpoints" mentality, but the stages often don't commit to this, making it a little hard to gauge who the intended audience really are.

Well, aside from AVGN fans who just want to see things they recognize and laugh at that. I think both games in the collection achieve that, so a least fans gets a decently entertaining game out of it. The rest of us will probably instead see a game not really worth spending a lot of time on, in the light of all the great stuff already out there.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

I think I'm working my way back up to a 9/10 or even 9.5/10 for God of War.  The last two nights I ended up playing it for like 2-3 uninterrupted hours, which I think says something about how engrossing it was.

I don't know that I completely buy some of the Kratos "reformed/remorseful concerned dad" traits, but I feel like I've bought into the story, so I'm eager to see where this and Ragnarok go.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

Now that I say that, I'm remembering there's a movie with the same plot.  Man is a mass murderer, meets the love of his life, and he completely changed for her.

But I can't think of what it is.

[Jynx | 140]

26 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Now that I say that, I'm remembering there's a movie with the same plot.  Man is a mass murderer, meets the love of his life, and he completely changed for her.

But I can't think of what it is.

I think the movie you're thinking of is The Iron Giant. : P

I'm still working on my list. I will post it at some point.

[Jynx | 140]

There are many games I want to beat, but I will only list a small amount of harder ones.

NES:

Gyruss
Metal Gear
Rush N Attack
Life Force
Jackal
Track & Field II
Top Gun
The Goonies II
Roller Games
Tiny Toon Adventures
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

Wii:

Ultimate Party Challenge
Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2

Let the games begin!

[Floating Platforms | 729]

Jaws is done

3 days a week (most of the time), I'm streaming Game Boy stuff and I've decided to make more of a concerted effort to continue playing retro stuff on stream late night.  Monday was LTTP, which I had been whittling down for several months. Tonight was time for a quick one.

I've weirdly never beaten this one, but have gotten close many times. I remember getting to the final part where you have to make Jaws pop out of the water, but as kids we never figured out exactly how things needed to be done.  I know it has the AVGN reputation, but I enjoy this one quite a bit. It's reminiscent of a solid 80s arcade game with a bit of progression mixed in on your way to an end goal. I could see the various single-screen shooter parts being one of my favorite Atari 2600 games if that were real. Leveling up and fighting the big bad shark (who can wander into your screen unannounced sometimes) is kind of a bonus.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,558]

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury