The 2023 Backlog Challenge

[Webhead123 | 687]

I'd been dragging my feet but I'm finally back to the backlog grind again. Just a few more hours to put the nail in Psychonauts 2 and I started the process of reacclimating myself with Guardian Legend today. I'm going to give Gremlins 2 another shot, now that I've had some time to cool my frustrations but we'll see if I actually have the tolerance to beat the thing.

Randomly booted up Eliminator Boat Duel and finished it for the first time. Cool little racer. I have to give props to the developers for how they kept the game interesting despite the inherent repetition. I definitely would have appreciated having it in my library as a kid, if I'd ever known about it.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

I'm on chapter 5 of Danganronpa,and I'm starting Prey once I finish.

The question is, will I find a large window during the holidays to binge it?  Like maybe stay up super late on Wednesday, and just be wrecked for Thanksgiving 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

I haven't been doing a lot of gaming this year, but I FINALLY found time to knock one off my list.  Wizardry: Legacy of Llylgamyn is finished.  

[BlackVega | 583]

Completed Ultimate Stuntman for NES with the best and most badass coverart in history. Really polished Codemasters game (albeit undeservedly unlicensed) but really hard as many NES games are but thank goodness it has unlimited continues. However my only complaint is he looks like Duke Nukem on the cover but in the game he looks like regular Hank Hill. Just WTF why??? There was literally no reason to do that. False advertising. If he looked like Duke Nukem in-game I would give it 10/10 just for the memez

[BlackVega | 583]

Beat JFK Reloaded for the 60th anniversary of JFK's assassination

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

Well that game seems, uh, of questionable taste.  Is one way to put it.

I'll be putting the 2024 thread up right after the holidays.

[BlackVega | 583]

37 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Well that game seems, uh, of questionable taste.  Is one way to put it.

I'll be putting the 2024 thread up right after the holidays.

Yes personally I am into all kinds of black humor and I seem to tolerate everything but yes there are definitely people who will feel offended. Now I am waiting for all the hate comments towards me how much of a human trash I am for making fun out of such a serious subject and how much politically incorrect that is (it is really short though, all you need to do is, as the theme suggests, kill JFK and there you go game completed so if anyone wants to bump their progress this is a very good choice and this game is free to download as abandonware now)

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

12 hours ago, BlackVega said:

However my only complaint is he looks like Duke Nukem on the cover but in the game he looks like regular Hank Hill. Just WTF why??? There was literally no reason to do that.

He's a stuntman. He's not supposed to look exactly like the star.

[Sumez | 2,987]

6 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I'll be putting the 2024 thread up right after the holidays.

Which holidays? Christmas? 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

6 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Which holidays? Christmas? 

Smart guy.  I do this at work all the time.  Speak in loopholes 

In the next week.  It's an Americastan thing.  We have a football holiday tomorrow, and then an Amazon holiday on Friday (which is now also a football holiday).  And some made up "cyber" holiday on Monday.

[Sumez | 2,987]

I just had absolutely no idea what you were talking about. You can call me smart if you like 

I already have most of a 2024 list ready to go

Edited November 22, 2023 by Sumez

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Whelp. I got behind on reporting back again. I've beaten a couple more games since the Rozen Maiden experiment, mostly on my Japanese PS2:

• Fate/Unlimited Codes (PS2 - Japan)—8.5/10—A fantastic, fast-paced "3D fighter" that's much more 2D in practice. It's got all the characters you'd want to play as from a Fate game from that time, and it runs at 60 FPS on PS2. The big issues are balance-related. At harder difficulties, enemies can basically hit you with two chains to kill you. Also, this is one of the older Capcom fighters that require incredibly precise combos to actually get your character to perform them.
• DreamMix TV: World Fighters(PS2 - Japan)—6/10—A Smash clone that just…doesn't take enough from Smash. The goal is to reduce an enemies' health low enough to where their soul exits their body. Collecting their soul takes them out of the match, but when there's four players (or more than two), they can still run around and hit players still in the game. Aside from that relatively novel idea, the star studded character lineup doesn't control well, and nothing else about the game is particularly memorable or interesting.
• Battle Stadium D.O.N. (PS2 - Japan)—8.5/10—The only major gripe I have with this game is you have to use a rigged slot machine to unlock characters, stages, and so on. It's got to be the worst mechanic for unlocking content I've ever seen. Otherwise, this is a very fun take on a Smash clone. This one is just about either reducing your enemies' health to 0 or having the most health when the timer runs out. If your health hits 0 and there is more than one other fighter with health, you can gather health and continue fighting. Health pops out of characters and can be collected similar to how the coin battle modes worked in Smash. The character controls are mostly responsive and you have a solid assortment of moves, but there are definitely balance issues. Ring outs hurt your character a bunch, and Luffy with his extendable arms can very easily punch multiple opponents out of the ring at the same time with his normal attacks. Other character's ultimates do the same. However, the cast of characters is possibly the best an anime fighter made in 2006 can offer, with the main cast and villains of DBZ, the main cast of One Piece, and the main cast of Naruto and Gaara. Even the items from each series are well implemented and not overpowered. Even though it doesn't stand on equal footing to even the worst Smash games in quality, this might be the best of the clones I've played to date.
• The Battle of Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Shitou! Ankoku Bujutsukai! 120% (PS2 - Japan)—7.5/10—The action is kind of stiff and the combos are easy-ish but unintuitive. However, it's got a good cast of characters. Aside from the last boss, nothing feels incredibly cheap, and it's well made. I wouldn't say it's anything special in the 3D fighter lineup, but it's the best Yu Yu Hakosho fighting game out there.
• DOA2 Hardcore (PS2 - NTSC)—9.5/10—This game is crisp, fast-paced, and smooth. The characters are amazing and varied, and there are plenty of modes and things to do. The grab- and counter-heavy fighting can get a little repetitive, but it's still one of my favorite 3D fighter franchises.
• Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament (PS2 - NTSC)—4/10—Yikes. I initially put this one in to compare against The Battle of Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Shitou! Ankoku Bujutsukai! 120%, but it's not a comparison. This is a mess. There are lots of characters, destructable environments, and the whole voice cast from the English version of the show is present. They even recorded new voice lines for the game. But the fighting is garbage. There is no fluid motion. There's a noticeable delay between you pressing the button and the character doing something. Blocks block everything, so the strategy is to block and counter. Characters clip through the stage upon death, and attacks that should otherwise miss because you've dodged are honed in on to the point where characters in the air do 360s to hit you. This is probably one of the worst 3D fighting games you can play that is still "functional."
• Melty Blood: Act Cadenza (PS2 - Japan)—8.5/10—A fluid fighting game that sadly has some cheap characters (Shiki and the very short Lin and Neko Ark characters) and quite a few similar, if not mirror images of other ones (Hisui, Kohaku, Hisui and Kohaku, and Mech Hisui, for example). However, it's pretty easy to chain combos, and a good number of characters feel very similar to a lot of Guilty Gear characters. Magic Circuit is the special bar. For every 100% you can perform a special moves. Once you go over the magic circuit’s limit of 300%, you’ll enter Max Mode automatically, which allows you to perform even more powerful special attacks. It's a good system, but because Act Cadenza is actually the first Melty Blood game with that wasn't a visual novel, the fighting system is quite a bit underdeveloped compared to later iterations. A good foundation.
• Melty Blood: Actress Again (PS2 - Japan)—9.5/10—Taking a page from KOF 12, Acress Again ups the character customization with 30 palettes and three different types of attack sets for each character, making this the much more substantive Melty Blood release on the PS2. The mirror characters are still a problem, but they've added five exclusive ones from the arcade game and boosted the roster to 30. The animations and attacks are smoother and more numerous, but are still easy to pull off. Most characters have close to 6 specials as well. You can really tell they've done their homework, and they've increased the depth to really round out the package and up the replayability.
• Shijyou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi: Gekitou! Ragnarok Hachikengou (PS2 - Japan)—6/10—Another untranslated Japanese fighting game that turned out to have more text than I bargained for, Kenichi is all around disappointing. Not because it's a broken game by any stretch of the imagination, but because it's just so very, very bland. Even worse, the story basically boils down to Kenichi beats the bad guys and converts them to good guys with friendship. However, the most bland thing is the fighting. Your character automatically blocks when you don't touch any buttons (including both high and low attacks), and moves are slow in comparison to other fighting games. So, you end up holding the controller and waiting for openings in opponents' combos to launch your own attacks. There are counters and other relatively advanced fighting techniques, but they're not required when the standard block is so powerful. Even though this game was developed by 8ting, seeing "Capcom" on the cover aroused expecations that frankly weren't met.
• Mai-Otome Hime: Otome Butou Shi (PS2 - Japan)—5.5/10—A well-made, fast-paced aerial 3D fighter with minimal storytelling, good graphics, and an incredibly shallow fighting system. No combos. Just a four-button fighter. One button a special and one is block. The other two are a light and heavy attack, which vary based on distance. Because of the extremely shallow battle system, the game ends up being very bland and repititve.
• Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai IV (PS2 - Japan)—9.5/10—This is a tough one to grade, and possibly overrated, but I played it for nine days straight and enjoyed every second of it. The writing is good and funny, the characters are unique, and the idea of revitalizing a maid cafe in Akihabara with maids from other restaurants you recruited by beating them at mahjong is funny. It's also my first true Mahjong game, but it's a very good one to start out with. When you get one away from a winning hand (riichi), the game lets you know. It then highlights which tiles can be thrown down and what you would need to draw or ron to win. It doesn't give you a tutorial or tell you winning hands, but it's one of the better learning tools out there for an unexpected reason: cheating. Suchie Pai cheats. A lot. She can make an opponent's drawn tile that completes their hand a white dragon (blank) tile, she can ensure the next tile drawn is the one you need to complete your hand, she can destroy tiles to prevent your opponent from completing their hand on your discard, and she can shuffle tiles. However, you can only use these powers a set number of times. The story is surprisingly good and even has some twists at the end. There's no reason there should be an interesting story in a mahjong game, but there is. Also, for those who are curious or concerned, no, this one does not feature any nudity.
• XII Stag (PS2 - Japan)—5/10—A SHMUP with an unfortunate gimmick. XII Stag wants you to move back and forth quickly enough to produce side shots, which significantly boost your multipliers. If you do that without the macros, it's incredibly tiring on the hands to alternate between left and right, and it makes dodging the bullets significantly harder. There are lots of enemies that appear from the bottom and sides of the screen, and the side attack isn't very effective against most of them. You only get a forward shot that can be upgraded several times, but it still more or less fires in a straight line. Add to that how hard it is to delineate between enemies you can and and can't run into, and you get a whelming experience.
• Idol Janshi R: Janguru Project (PS2 - Japan)—5/10—Nevermind. Suchie Pai IV is not overrated. This game is also made by Jaleco (PCCW Japan bought Jaleco), and it's nowhere near as good as Suche Pai IV. The dialogue is bland, and the ending is about the power of friendship (yawn). You also really have to know how to play riichi mahjong to beat this game, at least to a reasonable degree. Gone are the notifications when you can ron or riichi. You have to press X and open the menu yourself when you think you can perform special actions aside from drawing and throwing away tiles. Gone are animations, aside from incredibly bad "fighting" poses that the two participants take in the middle of the screen. Gone are the cheats and fun aspects of Suchie Pai. Instead, it's replaced by some idol group bullcrap. Somehow, this game is also fully voice acted, despite there not even being good enough lip animation to really follow along. There are precious few assets and images, and they're reused as much as possible. Overall, this is a middling, bare-bones attempt at a mahjong game. Also, for those who are curious or concerned, no, this one does not feature any nudity either.
• Yo-Kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits (3DS)—7/10—Unlike the first one, you do get better looking yokai quickly. This go around, they're also significantly easier to befriend. The story is "whatever" accompanied with incessant, death-grip hand holding throughout. It will literally give you objectives for tasks like talking to your parents while you're in the house. It's partially there for good reason; the world is massive, and the map on the bottom screen is still only partially usable. 2 does add more areas, but also recycles a large portion of the map. This honestly isn't a bad thing, as it's one of the more fleshed out, better maps out there on a handheld console. Battles are also similar to the first. Your yokai automatically battle for you, and you more or less function as their manager. You can take six into battle, but only three are active in battle, and you can switch between active and inactive ones at any time. The whole thing took me just about 23 hours to complete, which is right about when I was ready to be done with it. To me, this game is a tale of positives and negatives. The objectives/main story are really hand-holdy, but the map is big and beautiful. The battle system is one of the best hands-off affairs I've played, but the yokai themselves aren't compelling and are, on average, uglier than Digimon or Pokemon. The premise of yokai causing problems for people and you having to do something about it is very well executed, but the characters and story are pretty inconsequential, if not annoying. This game could have easily been a 9 with the amount of polish and cool ideas it has, but it gets in its own way.

 

Finally, I'm currently two hours (of around 40) into Yo-Kai Watch 3 and I hate it. First, They changed the battle system from 1 and 2 to be grid based. Not sure if I like that. However, the biggest issue I have with it so far are the two storylines. One is about a girl in Japan who is a fangirl of a Sailor Moon-ish anime. For whatever reason, in the other one, they decided to move the main character and family of the previous games to a place called "BBQ." The Yo-kai in BBQ land are literally referred to as "'Merican Yo-Kai." But, the biggest insult has been the rampant use of eye dialect, bad turns of phrase, and horrible puns. Even as a southerner who doesn't mind being made fun of, it comes off as extremely cringey.

If you think you're safe in the Japan route, the main character's Yo-kai also talks in the same way, but he also gets flavor voice lines at the beginning of each block of text. So, same garbage, but you get to hear it. "Shhhhhewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwttttt." How all in have they gone on the vernacular? Enough to incorporate it into the logo:

Goddammit.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Philosoraptor

[Reed Rothchild | 9,572]

Danganronpa

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Deathloop (9/10)
4. Baba Is You (9/10)
5. Doom Eternal (9/10)
6. Jamestown+ (9/10)
7. Gradius V (8.5/10)
8. Control (8.5/10)
9. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
10. God of War (8.5/10)
11. MGS: The Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
12. Resident Evil 2 (8.5/10)
13. Ori & the Will of the Wisps (8.5)
14. Ghost of Tsushima (8/10)
15. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
16. Nier Automata (8/10)
17. Dusk (8/10)
18. Into the Breach (8/10)
19. Nioh (8/10)
20. Danganronpa (7.5/10)
21. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
22. Hellblade (7.5/10)
23. Dark Souls II (7.5/10)
24. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
25. Trails in the Sky (7.5/10)
26. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
27. Eternal Darkness (7/10)
28. Xenoblade (7/10)
29. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
30. Yakuza Kiwami (7/10)
31. Dicey Dungeons (7/10)
32. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
33. Onimusha (7/10)
34. What Remains of Edith Finch (6.5/10)
35. Paper Mario (6.5/10)
36. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
37. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (6.5/10)
38. Yoku's Island Express (6.5/10)
39. Dear Esther (6/10)
40. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II (6/10)
41. Crash Bandicoot 4 (6/10)
42. Pilotwings 64 (6/10)
43. Contra Shattered Soldier (6/10)
44. Strife (6/10)
45. A Short Hike (6/10)
46. Ion Fury (6/10)
47. Mischief Makers (6/10)
48. La Pucelle (5.5/10)
49. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
50. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
51. Shadowgate (5/10)
52. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
53. Winback (4/10)

TBD:

1. Shenmue (crap)
2. House of Fata Morgana (too early to tell)

Not started

1. Last of Us Part II
2. Prey

[Brickman | 4,008]

1 hour ago, Philosoraptor said:

Whelp. I got behind on reporting back again. I've beaten a couple more games since the Rozen Maiden experiment, mostly on my Japanese PS2:

• Fate/Unlimited Codes (PS2 - Japan)—8.5/10—A fantastic, fast-paced "3D fighter" that's much more 2D in practice. It's got all the characters you'd want to play as from a Fate game from that time, and it runs at 60 FPS on PS2. The big issues are balance-related. At harder difficulties, enemies can basically hit you with two chains to kill you. Also, this is one of the older Capcom fighters that require incredibly precise combos to actually get your character to perform them.
• DreamMix TV: World Fighters(PS2 - Japan)—6/10—A Smash clone that just…doesn't take enough from Smash. The goal is to reduce an enemies' health low enough to where their soul exits their body. Collecting their soul takes them out of the match, but when there's four players (or more than two), they can still run around and hit players still in the game. Aside from that relatively novel idea, the star studded character lineup doesn't control well, and nothing else about the game is particularly memorable or interesting.
• Battle Stadium D.O.N. (PS2 - Japan)—8.5/10—The only major gripe I have with this game is you have to use a rigged slot machine to unlock characters, stages, and so on. It's got to be the worst mechanic for unlocking content I've ever seen. Otherwise, this is a very fun take on a Smash clone. This one is just about either reducing your enemies' health to 0 or having the most health when the timer runs out. If your health hits 0 and there is more than one other fighter with health, you can gather health and continue fighting. Health pops out of characters and can be collected similar to how the coin battle modes worked in Smash. The character controls are mostly responsive and you have a solid assortment of moves, but there are definitely balance issues. Ring outs hurt your character a bunch, and Luffy with his extendable arms can very easily punch multiple opponents out of the ring at the same time with his normal attacks. Other character's ultimates do the same. However, the cast of characters is possibly the best an anime fighter made in 2006 can offer, with the main cast and villains of DBZ, the main cast of One Piece, and the main cast of Naruto and Gaara. Even the items from each series are well implemented and not overpowered. Even though it doesn't stand on equal footing to even the worst Smash games in quality, this might be the best of the clones I've played to date.
• The Battle of Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Shitou! Ankoku Bujutsukai! 120% (PS2 - Japan)—7.5/10—The action is kind of stiff and the combos are easy-ish but unintuitive. However, it's got a good cast of characters. Aside from the last boss, nothing feels incredibly cheap, and it's well made. I wouldn't say it's anything special in the 3D fighter lineup, but it's the best Yu Yu Hakosho fighting game out there.
• DOA2 Hardcore (PS2 - NTSC)—9.5/10—This game is crisp, fast-paced, and smooth. The characters are amazing and varied, and there are plenty of modes and things to do. The grab- and counter-heavy fighting can get a little repetitive, but it's still one of my favorite 3D fighter franchises.
• Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament (PS2 - NTSC)—4/10—Yikes. I initially put this one in to compare against The Battle of Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Shitou! Ankoku Bujutsukai! 120%, but it's not a comparison. This is a mess. There are lots of characters, destructable environments, and the whole voice cast from the English version of the show is present. They even recorded new voice lines for the game. But the fighting is garbage. There is no fluid motion. There's a noticeable delay between you pressing the button and the character doing something. Blocks block everything, so the strategy is to block and counter. Characters clip through the stage upon death, and attacks that should otherwise miss because you've dodged are honed in on to the point where characters in the air do 360s to hit you. This is probably one of the worst 3D fighting games you can play that is still "functional."
• Melty Blood: Act Cadenza (PS2 - Japan)—8.5/10—A fluid fighting game that sadly has some cheap characters (Shiki and the very short Lin and Neko Ark characters) and quite a few similar, if not mirror images of other ones (Hisui, Kohaku, Hisui and Kohaku, and Mech Hisui, for example). However, it's pretty easy to chain combos, and a good number of characters feel very similar to a lot of Guilty Gear characters. Magic Circuit is the special bar. For every 100% you can perform a special moves. Once you go over the magic circuit’s limit of 300%, you’ll enter Max Mode automatically, which allows you to perform even more powerful special attacks. It's a good system, but because Act Cadenza is actually the first Melty Blood game with that wasn't a visual novel, the fighting system is quite a bit underdeveloped compared to later iterations. A good foundation.
• Melty Blood: Actress Again (PS2 - Japan)—9.5/10—Taking a page from KOF 12, Acress Again ups the character customization with 30 palettes and three different types of attack sets for each character, making this the much more substantive Melty Blood release on the PS2. The mirror characters are still a problem, but they've added five exclusive ones from the arcade game and boosted the roster to 30. The animations and attacks are smoother and more numerous, but are still easy to pull off. Most characters have close to 6 specials as well. You can really tell they've done their homework, and they've increased the depth to really round out the package and up the replayability.
• Shijyou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi: Gekitou! Ragnarok Hachikengou (PS2 - Japan)—6/10—Another untranslated Japanese fighting game that turned out to have more text than I bargained for, Kenichi is all around disappointing. Not because it's a broken game by any stretch of the imagination, but because it's just so very, very bland. Even worse, the story basically boils down to Kenichi beats the bad guys and converts them to good guys with friendship. However, the most bland thing is the fighting. Your character automatically blocks when you don't touch any buttons (including both high and low attacks), and moves are slow in comparison to other fighting games. So, you end up holding the controller and waiting for openings in opponents' combos to launch your own attacks. There are counters and other relatively advanced fighting techniques, but they're not required when the standard block is so powerful. Even though this game was developed by 8ting, seeing "Capcom" on the cover aroused expecations that frankly weren't met.
• Mai-Otome Hime: Otome Butou Shi (PS2 - Japan)—5.5/10—A well-made, fast-paced aerial 3D fighter with minimal storytelling, good graphics, and an incredibly shallow fighting system. No combos. Just a four-button fighter. One button a special and one is block. The other two are a light and heavy attack, which vary based on distance. Because of the extremely shallow battle system, the game ends up being very bland and repititve.
• Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai IV (PS2 - Japan)—9.5/10—This is a tough one to grade, and possibly overrated, but I played it for nine days straight and enjoyed every second of it. The writing is good and funny, the characters are unique, and the idea of revitalizing a maid cafe in Akihabara with maids from other restaurants you recruited by beating them at mahjong is funny. It's also my first true Mahjong game, but it's a very good one to start out with. When you get one away from a winning hand (riichi), the game lets you know. It then highlights which tiles can be thrown down and what you would need to draw or ron to win. It doesn't give you a tutorial or tell you winning hands, but it's one of the better learning tools out there for an unexpected reason: cheating. Suchie Pai cheats. A lot. She can make an opponent's drawn tile that completes their hand a white dragon (blank) tile, she can ensure the next tile drawn is the one you need to complete your hand, she can destroy tiles to prevent your opponent from completing their hand on your discard, and she can shuffle tiles. However, you can only use these powers a set number of times. The story is surprisingly good and even has some twists at the end. There's no reason there should be an interesting story in a mahjong game, but there is. Also, for those who are curious or concerned, no, this one does not feature any nudity.
• XII Stag (PS2 - Japan)—5/10—A SHMUP with an unfortunate gimmick. XII Stag wants you to move back and forth quickly enough to produce side shots, which significantly boost your multipliers. If you do that without the macros, it's incredibly tiring on the hands to alternate between left and right, and it makes dodging the bullets significantly harder. There are lots of enemies that appear from the bottom and sides of the screen, and the side attack isn't very effective against most of them. You only get a forward shot that can be upgraded several times, but it still more or less fires in a straight line. Add to that how hard it is to delineate between enemies you can and and can't run into, and you get a whelming experience.
• Idol Janshi R: Janguru Project (PS2 - Japan)—5/10—Nevermind. Suchie Pai IV is not overrated. This game is also made by Jaleco (PCCW Japan bought Jaleco), and it's nowhere near as good as Suche Pai IV. The dialogue is bland, and the ending is about the power of friendship (yawn). You also really have to know how to play riichi mahjong to beat this game, at least to a reasonable degree. Gone are the notifications when you can ron or riichi. You have to press X and open the menu yourself when you think you can perform special actions aside from drawing and throwing away tiles. Gone are animations, aside from incredibly bad "fighting" poses that the two participants take in the middle of the screen. Gone are the cheats and fun aspects of Suchie Pai. Instead, it's replaced by some idol group bullcrap. Somehow, this game is also fully voice acted, despite there not even being good enough lip animation to really follow along. There are precious few assets and images, and they're reused as much as possible. Overall, this is a middling, bare-bones attempt at a mahjong game. Also, for those who are curious or concerned, no, this one does not feature any nudity either.
• Yo-Kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits (3DS)—7/10—Unlike the first one, you do get better looking yokai quickly. This go around, they're also significantly easier to befriend. The story is "whatever" accompanied with incessant, death-grip hand holding throughout. It will literally give you objectives for tasks like talking to your parents while you're in the house. It's partially there for good reason; the world is massive, and the map on the bottom screen is still only partially usable. 2 does add more areas, but also recycles a large portion of the map. This honestly isn't a bad thing, as it's one of the more fleshed out, better maps out there on a handheld console. Battles are also similar to the first. Your yokai automatically battle for you, and you more or less function as their manager. You can take six into battle, but only three are active in battle, and you can switch between active and inactive ones at any time. The whole thing took me just about 23 hours to complete, which is right about when I was ready to be done with it. To me, this game is a tale of positives and negatives. The objectives/main story are really hand-holdy, but the map is big and beautiful. The battle system is one of the best hands-off affairs I've played, but the yokai themselves aren't compelling and are, on average, uglier than Digimon or Pokemon. The premise of yokai causing problems for people and you having to do something about it is very well executed, but the characters and story are pretty inconsequential, if not annoying. This game could have easily been a 9 with the amount of polish and cool ideas it has, but it gets in its own way.

 

Finally, I'm currently two hours (of around 40) into Yo-Kai Watch 3 and I hate it. First, They changed the battle system from 1 and 2 to be grid based. Not sure if I like that. However, the biggest issue I have with it so far are the two storylines. One is about a girl in Japan who is a fangirl of a Sailor Moon-ish anime. For whatever reason, in the other one, they decided to move the main character and family of the previous games to a place called "BBQ." The Yo-kai in BBQ land are literally referred to as "'Merican Yo-Kai." But, the biggest insult has been the rampant use of eye dialect, bad turns of phrase, and horrible puns. Even as a southerner who doesn't mind being made fun of, it comes off as extremely cringey.

If you think you're safe in the Japan route, the main character's Yo-kai also talks in the same way, but he also gets flavor voice lines at the beginning of each block of text. So, same garbage, but you get to hear it. "Shhhhhewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwttttt." How all in have they gone on the vernacular? Enough to incorporate it into the logo:

Goddammit.

I really enjoyed yokai watch 1 even if it does guide you basically to the end. I found the story to be decent and I enjoyed the combat system. A shame about 2 and 3 though.

I’m about 5 hours into yokai watch 4 and it isn’t too bad, the story is pretty interesting and the combat is now similar to kingdom hearts and other action RPGs. It does still guide you where to go though. 

[BlackVega | 583]

Dizzy the Adventurer for NES completed. If anyone is familiar with these games and enjoys "moonlogic" nonsense I definitely recommend this to everyone and it is also surprisingly really short. I literally fired it up for the 1st time, spent a few hours (probably 5-7) and just figured everything out in 1 long sitting and finished right away. Definitely significantly multiple times shorter than Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy which is one of the longest, advanced and complicated (if not THE MOST complex) games for NES

[BlackVega | 583]

@Reed Rothchild please update my progress to 5/10!!!

[Sumez | 2,987]

[Philosoraptor | 468]

7 hours ago, Brickman said:

I really enjoyed yokai watch 1 even if it does guide you basically to the end. I found the story to be decent and I enjoyed the combat system. A shame about 2 and 3 though.

I’m about 5 hours into yokai watch 4 and it isn’t too bad, the story is pretty interesting and the combat is now similar to kingdom hearts and other action RPGs. It does still guide you where to go though. 

I actually liked 2 more than 1. It's basically everything that 1 is, but more. I felt that the writing was a bit better as well. If you're a fan of 1, I'd highly recommend it. So far, 3 is where they took the left turn at Albuquerque.

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts about 4 when you beat it.

[Brickman | 4,008]

2 hours ago, Philosoraptor said:

I actually liked 2 more than 1. It's basically everything that 1 is, but more. I felt that the writing was a bit better as well. If you're a fan of 1, I'd highly recommend it. So far, 3 is where they took the left turn at Albuquerque.

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts about 4 when you beat it.

Oh awesome, I do plan to give 2 a shot so that is good to hear.

I think I will add 4 to next years backlog. I was trying to do it for this year but it doesn’t look like I will have enough time.

So far I am loving the story of 4, they go through a door that sends them 30 years into the future and the yokai have evolved.

[Floating Platforms | 736]

Zero Time Dilemma and my last PS4 game (most actually played through PS5) is done.

What a mixed experience this was.  Of the 3 Nonary titles, this was the easiest. The puzzle rooms were still fun, but I pretty much never got stumped. I looked up 2 things. 1 ended up being an object I didn't know I could interact with and the other was something I legitimately wasn't understanding. The rest, including the secret info needed across timelines, was incredibly obvious. Even though the game opens with a bunch of different segments you can play in any order you possibly want, this is a very linear experience at the end of the day. Basically it frontloads the escape rooms and then the second half is busy work to enter the code to continue the long-winded unsatisfying story.  I remember being intrigued by the story in the second title but it seemed like most of the "twists" in this game were things that we basically knew from the other ones.  The big exception is a major spoiler that I suggest avoiding if you plan to play it, but also a major disappointment: 

Spoiler

Zero is apparently in the game and he's just off-screen and not mentioned for 90% of the time? I guess there are some very minor clues to indicate this, but there is literally no conversations or cutscenes that show this extra person or acknowledge that they could be tagging along with the group.  It's just dumb.  Then there's the whole "the bad guy might actually be the good guy" thread that doesn't quite work. But yeah, they basically painted themselves into a corner with the other titles and "shift"-ed out of it.

Ah well, I still had fun with the series overall, but this was clearly the weakest of the 3 in my mind.

[Sumez | 2,987]

Agreed completely. I loved the first two games and was so hyped for the third i bought it on release. But pretty much everything about it was a letdown. Really felt like they exhausted their ideas with the second one, but tried to one-up it anyway - and it just backfired. 

Edited November 23, 2023 by Sumez

[Sumez | 2,987]

Totally Rad - Beaten 20/11

I guess weird American reskins of Japanese games is a recurring theme for the NES games I had picked out this year. But the less said about the "righteous" localization of this game, the better. It's the primary reason people still occasionally talk about it, but it has zero influence on the game itself.

Totally Rad is an extremely typical NES game. It would probably most commonly be passed off as a Mega Man-like, but I'm generally reminded more of titles like the NES Batman, Journey to Silius, or even Shadow of the Ninja - which is all good stuff.

The level design isn't all that special, but it's sufficient enough to facilitate a single enjoyable playthrough. It's just that nothing is really done to set the game apart from its peers.
It kinda tries. Your character has a set of skills that can be activated using his magic meter. This meter only ever goes down - there are no items to find, and it only gets refilled at every new stage. Despite having a large variety of skills at your disposal most of them aren't useful.
There's a healing skill, a superfluous healing skill, and three transformations you can use - of which only two are of any real use. You also have four different attack spells, which are also useless - all enemies die very easily to just regular attacks, and there is no advantage to not just keeping your spare magic power for the occasional healing.

The transformations allow you to fly or swim (useful on exactly one stage, of course) and change your attack to give you a much higher damage output. However, once you are transformed you can't use other spells.
So if you need to heal, you need to first enter the menu, pick the skill that turns you back, and then push the right button to equip it and close the menu. Then press up+B to use that skill, and go back into the menu to equip the healing spell, exit the menu and use that in the same fashion, and then finally, you go back into the menu again and pick the transformation you were using and do the same thing again if you want to change back again.

Yes, this menu system is clearly the precursor to Tears of the Kingdom.

Otherwise there is honestly not much really bad to say about Totally Rad. It's a fine game. It's very easy, only made easier with the ability to heal frequently, and it is super short at only five stages (each split into two areas). So it's not a game I'm gonna return to any time soon, but with a bit more ambition it could have been a good one. At least it looks surprisingly pretty with well made backgrounds, and especially the stage bosses are big and impressive.

[Sumez | 2,987]

King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch - Beaten 21/11

On the surface, King Kong 2 is really basic stuff. Overhead action where you move through nine different stages and beat up the boss in each to get a key, which will open the path to the final boss once you have all of them.
But Konami wasn't happy with something that pedestrian. Instead of just linearly punching your way forward, the entire world of King Kong 2 is an interconnected sprawling place often without much rhyme or reason to the passages that link different areas.

 

Each stage is by itself fairly sensible - always made up of a bunch of single rooms connected to make up a larger map, much like the original Zelda. But the location of the boss isn't always obvious, and requires finding the correct door to enter. Lots of other doors are hidden throughout a stage, often leading to other locations, making it extremely easy to just get lost, should you blindly enter any door you find.
Especially because the place you are taken will often be different stages entirely, constantly taking you back and forth through the entire game with little logic behind it. If you do not take the time to map out how each place connects to other places, it quickly becomes very hard to find out where to go next.

Of course you can probably do so internally, but I saw the opportunity to bring out the good old pen and paper.

Outside of the boss, it's often a really good idea to look out for two other hidden items, one of each existing in each stage. A heart will extend your life meter, while the other item makes it possible to carry extra ammunition, which is especially useful for taking out bosses quickly. But the "later" areas of the game will feature so many aggressive enemies, that it's generally advised to seek out at least a few hearts.

The game feels generally really good to play. Outside of the permanent upgrades, you can also find items which will increase your damage output and movement speed. Get a few of the latter, and you start feeling incredibly powerful as you can jump over multiple obstacles and enemies in a single jump, with full in-air control, and the ground literally shaking every time you land, helps accentuate Kong's powerful nature.
Of course King Kong has his limitations as well. Your default punch has a very short reach, which means hitting enemies without getting hit yourself can some times be difficult, especially because the hitboxes feel kind of off-center, so hitting someone from the left is different than doing it from the right. The secondary attack, throwing rocks, isn't very reliable for hitting single small enemies due to their awkward throw arc, but they are extremely useful for taking out groups of enemies, and killing bosses quickly.

If you do try to fight everything, you will probably get hit a lot. But since everything drops either health or ammunition, it's not so much a question of never getting hit, as it is being able to regain more health than you lose. King Kong 2 isn't really a super difficult game, but it is really not that much about the combat either. At the end of the day, your goal is figuring out where to go and how to get there, getting the upgrades you feel that you need, and seeking out every boss.
Once I'd made up a map of every area, I was able to replay the game and finish it in under 20 minutes without a single death - mostly because as long as you know where you are going, you can just zoom through every room and never need to fight much of anything.

For anyone playing this game for the first time, I strongly advise that you do not look up any maps online! Because finding your way forward is the game.

And it's honestly kept fresh all the way through, because across the nine different areas that you visit, there is really a surprising amount of variation. They all look visibly very distinct with their own fantastic themes, from hellish cliffs, or a mysterious temple, to the deep jungle and various cities. Most of them have unique gimmicks that govern how you explore them, or how you approach the enemies present, and the game really kept surprising me with new ideas - right up until the final area, which I'm not sure I'd have been able to figure out the trick to without my map.

I don't really like to factor in age when evalutating a game, but King Kong 2 is really impressive for a 1986 NES game!
Imagine if Konami had managed to get this game to the west before The Legend of Zelda dropped here the next year, rather than just remaining an import obscurity. It would probably have stood up there alongside other genre-defining Konami classics such as Castlevania and Contra.

[twiztor | 855]

oh man. i started strong but have fallen off fast. time for a big end-of-year push to knock a couple more out. seems theoretically possible. i just haven't made time for games for the last few months, and it is depressing.

[T-Pac | 7,581]

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

King Kong 2: Ikari no Megaton Punch - Beaten 21/11

On the surface, King Kong 2 is really basic stuff. Overhead action where you move through nine different stages and beat up the boss in each to get a key, which will open the path to the final boss once you have all of them.
But Konami wasn't happy with something that pedestrian. Instead of just linearly punching your way forward, the entire world of King Kong 2 is an interconnected sprawling place often without much rhyme or reason to the passages that link different areas.

 

Each stage is by itself fairly sensible - always made up of a bunch of single rooms connected to make up a larger map, much like the original Zelda. But the location of the boss isn't always obvious, and requires finding the correct door to enter. Lots of other doors are hidden throughout a stage, often leading to other locations, making it extremely easy to just get lost, should you blindly enter any door you find.
Especially because the place you are taken will often be different stages entirely, constantly taking you back and forth through the entire game with little logic behind it. If you do not take the time to map out how each place connects to other places, it quickly becomes very hard to find out where to go next.

Of course you can probably do so internally, but I saw the opportunity to bring out the good old pen and paper.

Outside of the boss, it's often a really good idea to look out for two other hidden items, one of each existing in each stage. A heart will extend your life meter, while the other item makes it possible to carry extra ammunition, which is especially useful for taking out bosses quickly. But the "later" areas of the game will feature so many aggressive enemies, that it's generally advised to seek out at least a few hearts.

The game feels generally really good to play. Outside of the permanent upgrades, you can also find items which will increase your damage output and movement speed. Get a few of the latter, and you start feeling incredibly powerful as you can jump over multiple obstacles and enemies in a single jump, with full in-air control, and the ground literally shaking every time you land, helps accentuate Kong's powerful nature.
Of course King Kong has his limitations as well. Your default punch has a very short reach, which means hitting enemies without getting hit yourself can some times be difficult, especially because the hitboxes feel kind of off-center, so hitting someone from the left is different than doing it from the right. The secondary attack, throwing rocks, isn't very reliable for hitting single small enemies due to their awkward throw arc, but they are extremely useful for taking out groups of enemies, and killing bosses quickly.

If you do try to fight everything, you will probably get hit a lot. But since everything drops either health or ammunition, it's not so much a question of never getting hit, as it is being able to regain more health than you lose. King Kong 2 isn't really a super difficult game, but it is really not that much about the combat either. At the end of the day, your goal is figuring out where to go and how to get there, getting the upgrades you feel that you need, and seeking out every boss.
Once I'd made up a map of every area, I was able to replay the game and finish it in under 20 minutes without a single death - mostly because as long as you know where you are going, you can just zoom through every room and never need to fight much of anything.

For anyone playing this game for the first time, I strongly advise that you do not look up any maps online! Because finding your way forward is the game.

And it's honestly kept fresh all the way through, because across the nine different areas that you visit, there is really a surprising amount of variation. They all look visibly very distinct with their own fantastic themes, from hellish cliffs, or a mysterious temple, to the deep jungle and various cities. Most of them have unique gimmicks that govern how you explore them, or how you approach the enemies present, and the game really kept surprising me with new ideas - right up until the final area, which I'm not sure I'd have been able to figure out the trick to without my map.

I don't really like to factor in age when evalutating a game, but King Kong 2 is really impressive for a 1986 NES game!
Imagine if Konami had managed to get this game to the west before The Legend of Zelda dropped here the next year, rather than just remaining an import obscurity. It would probably have stood up there alongside other genre-defining Konami classics such as Castlevania and Contra.

Great writeup! I've always been curious about this game since it seems like everyone who decides to start collecting Japanese imports immediately buys Kid Dracula and King Kong 2. After reading your review, I'm glad I didn't do that, since getting lost in an open-world video game is like my worst nightmare haha.

I liked reading your thoughts on Totally Rad, too. I agree that it feels kinda like a Sunsoft NES game, or even a modern homebrew in some ways.

[T-Pac]