The 2024 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 3,011]

Based! 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,329]

So my 360 seems to be picky as hell when playing discs.  It loaded disc 2 just fine, but disc 1 wouldn't boot.  I attempted to use disc 2 on my Xbox One to get the DLC, but it just booted up the Game Pass version, didn't even boot the disc contents.  This sucked ass since I don't have money to spend getting DLC I technically already own.  Doing some digging, I found a fix that seems to work, though it's rather annoying to do.  But finally I managed to get Oblivion to load up on my 360 and get started on the Shivering Isles DLC.  So far it's a lot more interesting than the main quest was I've now got the first two achievements on the questline and am having some fun with it again.  But yeah, progress is happening despite some hardware issues.

EDIT: Since no new posts have been made yet, I'm just gonna edit this instead.  Since I couldn't sleep, I decided to knock off a few Game Boy games for the completion thread.  I took out five games, three of which (WWF Superstars, Wordtris, and Yoshi's Cookie) were first time completions for me.  I also did WWF Superstars 2 and WWF King of the Ring, which I had previously beaten.  Basically just some quick beats to pad my numbers in that thread, as well as clearing a few games from my personal backlog.

Edited February 10 by the_wizard_666

[Reed Rothchild | 9,638]

Beyond Oasis

Gotta admit, I had some motivation issues with this one at times.  You're constantly battling against respawning enemies, trying to manage health levels and recovery item inventory levels, all while wandering in circles hoping that you unlocked a door somewhere.  And then you die and go backwards ten minutes, and the overwhelming urge to shut it off and play something you actually want to play kicks in.  If it wasn't for this thread I surely would have thrown in the towel.

When things are going smoothly it's fun enough, I guess.  The boss designs are pretty cool, and there is a moderate amount of depth to the combat.  And the different summons are cool, in theory, I guess.

But exploring the island?  Not fun.  The dungeon puzzles?  Not even as fun as an Illusion of Gaia, much less a Zelda.  And the levelling system where you sometimes randomly get some health increases if, and only if, you let an enemy kick your ass?  Good lord, who thought that was a good idea?

I think if it had been a SNES game, it would have fallen somewhere in the #250-350 range for the platform.  Decent, but maybe not something that I'm gonna go recommending to people.  Sega bros are probably gonna call that a harsh take, but hey, the game had no excuse: it should have been better than it is.  So a 5/10 sounds about right.

1. Bloodborne (9.5/10)
2. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag (8/10)
3. The Stanley Parable (7.5/10)
4. The Talos Principle (7.5/10)
5. The Quarry (7/10)
6. Pikmin 1 (6.5/10)
7. Beyond Oasis (5/10)

[T-Pac | 7,644]

07/40 - Terra Cresta [Nintendo Entertainment System - 1990]

Finished: 2024/02/06

Caveats: Finished one loop using auto-fire and save-states between stages and boss-fights.

[T-Pac]

[Brickman | 4,073]

Minna de Puyo Puyo for the GBA

I'll preface by saying that I'm not very good at Puyo Puyo, even though I do enjoy the game. It is possible that may have some bearing on the score and die hard Puyo Puyo fans might see this game differently.

I haven't played a lot of Puyo Puyo games but overall I thought this was a solid entry and offered some enjoyment.

The story is pretty much what you would expect for a puzzle game, pointless. The dialogue made no sense to me, even when I switched to English, so I just ended up skipping through all dialogue interactions.

There's a few modes in this game but the main adventure mode has you taking on 5 different areas which contain your challengers. Each area has a different rule applied for gameplay which mixes things up so it doesn't get stale.

The graphics are nice and bright, as you would expect for a Puyo Puyo game and the soundtrack is pretty catchy.

The standout feature of this game is that you can play up to 4 players with one cartridge. I don't have 4 people who would ever want to play this with me. However, if you had a group of hardcore fans I could see how this would be a great feature at the time.

Overall, a decent game and a good way to kill some time if you need to fill it with some Puyo Puyo.

7/10

[wongojack | 232]

On 2/10/2024 at 2:30 AM, the_wizard_666 said:

So my 360 seems to be picky as hell when playing discs.  It loaded disc 2 just fine, but disc 1 wouldn't boot.  I attempted to use disc 2 on my Xbox One to get the DLC, but it just booted up the Game Pass version, didn't even boot the disc contents.  This sucked ass since I don't have money to spend getting DLC I technically already own.  Doing some digging, I found a fix that seems to work, though it's rather annoying to do.  But finally I managed to get Oblivion to load up on my 360 and get started on the Shivering Isles DLC.  So far it's a lot more interesting than the main quest was I've now got the first two achievements on the questline and am having some fun with it again.  But yeah, progress is happening despite some hardware issues.

What was the fix?

For Fallout New Vegas, I put the GOTY disk in and then went to the Xbox store where it let me download the DLC for free.  That might work for you on XOne if you run into trouble again.

Edited February 12 by wongojack

[the_wizard_666 | 1,329]

5 minutes ago, wongojack said:

What was the fix?

For Fallout New Vegas, I put the GOTY disk in and then went to the Xbox store where it let me download the DLC for free.  That might work for you on XOne if you run into trouble again.

For some stupid reason, hitting the system lightly above the drive while it's loading causes it to load.  Think the laser needs realignment, but I'm a lazy bastard and don't wanna open the system to fix it

[Gloves | 11,890]

Last night I beat Batman Returns on the SNES for the first time ever. I've loved the game since I was a kid, despite being pretty terrible at it. The beat em up genre has never been my favourite, and I've never been good at it, but I love Batman Returns, and the game is just so "punchy" - the visuals, the audio, everything about it pulls together so well to me that I easily forgive that progress comes hard for me.

I played through on normal, though admittedly I gave myself the maximum amount of lives to start (7 per continue); I only actually ended up using 2 of 3 continues which is really solid for me. Just took a lot of focus and strategy, and I'm really happy I got through it. 

[Foochie776 | 1,066]

Pikmin 2 is done. 
 

I’ve found with the Pikmin games I really like to get the best ending because the game really engrossed me but this one fell a little short. 
 

Cons: I hated the random falling enemies/rocks in caves, map felt kind of intuitive, Olimar’s boss sucks, the cave floors felt wildly uneven in terms of challenge, the lack of the 30 day time limit greatly cut back challenge 

 

Pros: the branding on the treasures was a fun touch, the caves are a cool concept and executed well for the most part, new Pikmin are always fun, enemies (Prog’s in particular) didn’t seem quite so difficult, Pikmin had more of a sense of their own. 
 

Overall the game definitely grew on me more and I’m sure I’ll go back eventually and “complete” it but it pales in comparison to 1 and 3 in my eyes. I’ve not played 4 yet. 
 

Overall fun but I’d sooner revisit one of the others. Super Mario RPG is next I believe! 

[greenthunder | 115]

On 1/31/2024 at 11:50 AM, wongojack said:

I have been slowly grinding my way through the Runner games for years, but I don't think I've completed any of them.  Playing the first game on PC I think I got into a good pattern playing world 2 where I would play on easy, learn the level, then switch to "normal" difficulty.  That got me through the end of world 2 and I've yet to go back to continue.

A surprisingly difficult game IMO

Definitely, though I went in knowing the series is kinda hard. I finally beat Runner after getting stuck on 3-10 and 3-11 for a good while because both levels had a lot of precise, short window inputs. It really didn't help the 3DS port job is not great and there were a lot of frame drops during zone 3 lol. After that, I started Beat and got up to the last zone. I ended up watching a couple of TASes to help me along because I didn't want to be stuck at the same spots over and over. I am not good at Pong (but there's also a frick you twist on it).

Additionally, I decided to start Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaire's Conspiracy as a side game to my JRPG exploits. This is one of the games I've been putting off for a long while because reception from the Layton fanbase was pretty mixed, but I figured I might as well give it a shot, especially with New World of Steam coming along next year. I'm almost done with case 4 now and the game is certainly different vibe wise from past Layton games. The gameplay itself isn't too different, but most of the puzzles are either very easy or trick question based. Vibe wise, the main trio have a more comedic dynamic than Layton and Luke, which I haven't decided how I feel about. The seemingly unconnected cases vs the one large mystery with several submysteries setup from previous games I think also impacts the charm factor for the worse, since you're not poking about in one area with a bunch of secrets anymore.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,638]

Layton's Mystery Journey is by far my least favorite game in the series.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,638]

Firewatch

So... my game actually bugged out and wouldn't let me progress, but I was only an hour away from the end so I just watched the rest on Youtube.  Not ideal, but due to the nature of the game, and the nature of the last hour, it didn't really matter.

Not quite a walking simulator in the conventional sense, but it's not far beyond that either.  Kind of a mix between that and an adventure game, with some open-ish areas to explore.  I had a lot of fun with it.  Great atmosphere and setting, great characters, great performances by the voice actors, and an engaging story and dialogue.  You can easily see why this is one of the most celebrated games in the genre.

1. Bloodborne (9.5/10)
2. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag (8/10)
3. Firewatch (8/10)
4. The Stanley Parable (7.5/10)
5. The Talos Principle (7.5/10)
6. The Quarry (7/10)
7. Pikmin 1 (6.5/10)
8. Beyond Oasis (5/10)

[Brickman | 4,073]

HOMM3 main campaign is done.

HOMM3 probably ranks as the game I've spent the most hours playing. I couldn't tell you how many hours of hot seat and the scenarios I played growing up, I think it would be close to 1000 hours (possibly even more).

However, even after playing all those hours I never actually finished the main campaign. 

Overall, it's a pretty solid campaign and improves a lot over 2. There's multiple scenarios and a lot more variety in the types of maps and objectives. You really get a good feel for each team and it forces you to learn a lot of strategies that you can bring to your multiplayer games.

I don't know why, but I totally forgot to put this game in my top 10 games when I did my interview with Reed, but it definitely would be in my top 10 games.

10/10

[Reed Rothchild | 9,638]

Hah,  well it's probably in my top 10 as well, and I'm assuming I also left it out of the same interview, ironically.

I have beat the main campaign, and the Shadow of Death expansion, but the Armageddon's Blade campaigns always kicked my ass.

Loynis and casting Prayer for the win.

[Brickman | 4,073]

47 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Hah,  well it's probably in my top 10 as well, and I'm assuming I also left it out of the same interview, ironically.

I have beat the main campaign, and the Shadow of Death expansion, but the Armageddon's Blade campaigns always kicked my ass.

Loynis and casting Prayer for the win.

Shadow of death is on my list for next year. I have heard Armageddon’s Blade is brutal.

[greenthunder | 115]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Layton's Mystery Journey is by far my least favorite game in the series.

Yeah it's definitely shaping up to be the case for me too; I'm trying to keep an open mind about it but I don't think it's working.

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Been a bit! I've been playing more Wii U games recently, with a focus on games that start with "Mario," apparently:

• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - I didn't know what to expect with this game aside from waggle, and it delivered, both in waggle and in entertainment. Sure, there's a lot of running events and sure, drumming the Wii remote and nunchuck to run isn't the most fun thing, but the motion controls are varied across the events, even running events. Plus, it's the summer Olympics. There's lots of running events. Some events, like the trampoline, are a blast. Others, like table tennis, feel like inferior versions of both Mario Tennis AND Wii Sports tennis. On average, though, the events are well done and fun. On another note, I ended up playing this for two days to beat all the events, and I did have a little bit of muscle fatigue on my right upper bicep, but none of the events are taxing enough to put you in knots like PunchOut!! Nintendo also "spiced things up" with dream events that mimic other Olympic events (table tennis, skydiving(?), running, and fencing). Skydiving was the best because you had to navigate through rings and then pull off tricks like in the trampoline event. Running was essentially Mario Kart, but slower. Table Tennis and Fencing just added super moves to the standard events, so I'm not sure they're different enough to warrant a whole 'nuther minigame. Overall, though. I enjoyed my time with the game. More than I expected, even. I'm sure the later ones are better, and I'd be interested to see how they handle the winter Olympics. So, maybe I'll pick up a later one in the future. 8/10
• Mario Kart Wii - At the time of release, this is the most polished MK game they had ever made. It's got metric tons of tracks, characters, and unlockables. It pulls all kinds of fantastic tracks from older MK games, has a killer battle mode, and a nice time trial mode. With other human players, it's a blast. However, with computers, all the fun is suddenly sucked out of the room and replaced with pure, unadulterated rage as the 4th blue shell on the final lap hits your character, this time only feet from the finish line. Yes, the garbage AI is back with all the rubberbanding and BS tricks present in previous games, but this one really has the AI spamming all kinds of overpowered items seemingly only at you, especially in 150cc and Extra. It takes away the enjoyment out of the single player experience, and since there's no longer any way to enjoy the game outside of getting a bunch of friends together or modding your Wii, it's hard to not dock it for its indisgressions. With human players, it's much more balanced, and the best players tend to finish close to or at the top. With the AI, it's all up in the air. You could race the best race and finish 10th, and I don't like that as someone who is fairly seasoned at MK and decent at racing games in general. Bikes are also busted compared to their kart counterparts to an upsetting degree. For single player, give me F-Zero and it's tough as nails, skill-based racing than pure luck and the whims of the AI in MK Wii. Oh, also, on the Wii U, the GC controller doesn't work with the GC adapter, so you're stuck with the classic controller, the wheel, or the Wiimote. 8.5/10
• Mario Sports Mix - More like mixed bag, IMO. Separately, the volleyball, dodgeball, basketball, and ice hockey games are worse than other offerings on the market. The first DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Super Dodge Ball, NBA Street V3 (which also has Mario and co if you get it on the GC)/NBA Jam, and OG Ice Hockey/NHL 94 are all better offerings. Hell, hockey does feel like an updated Ice Hockey from the NES. However, together, they make a game that is accessible (all of the games use the Wiimote and Nunchuck, and all the games have basically the same control scheme) and could be good fun with up to four human players. However, every video game should be better with friends, so that's no point in this game's favor. That is the intention, though. All of the games are simple arcade affairs. Sometimes too simple - looking at you dodgeball. Where this game does shine is in the different courts/fields/locales/arenas. Call them what you will, but there's some REALLY good ideas here. Divide each volleyball side into 9 and play tic-tac-toe, where three in a row gets you extra points? It's here. Coins to add to points scored in all events (or add power in dodgeball)? Check. Well-implemented items like green shells? Yup. Score multipliers? Random hazards? Petey Pirahna acting as a replacement basketball hoop and gobbling down basketballs? Check, check, and check. They usually only have items, coins, and one gimmick per arena. At least one arena per sport has no gimmicks, if you wanna skip all that jazz, too. The addition of some unlockable Final Fantasy characters is a nice addition, and every character has either a power, balanced, technique stat distribution to make team building at least somewhat of a choice. However, they don't play that differently in execution. Also, in non-star cups/non sports mix cups, the AI just eats glue. In hockey, you can just sit in a corner and face the wall to run out the clock, and your opponents won't do much, if anything. They'll just skate around. Overall, what you get are four oversimplified sports games that don't feel as fluid or fast as other standalone arcade-style sports offerings, but Mario Sports Mix makes up for it with some absolute banger ideas for courts. With friends, this could be a whole helluva lot of fun, but my rating represents a single-player experience. IMO, this might be a bit underrated in the spectrum of Mario Sports games. 7/10

Edited February 15 by Philosoraptor

[G-type | 2,601]

I've started playing Solstice of my backlog... and given its difficulty, I don't know if completing it is a realistic goal for me... I'll give it a few more days.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,329]

While I have  no further updates at the moment pertaining to this thread, I figured I'd add that I've knocked off five more games from my personal backlog,  including four more Game Boy games (Caesar's Palace, BreakThru, Monopoly and Ishido), as well as Centurion: Defender of Rome,  which was not only a fantastic game, but one I would've had on this year's list if I had owned it at the time I had compiled it. So now I'm up to 47 games stricken from my backlog on the year, which is an absolutely insane number to me at this point in the year.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,638]

1 hour ago, the_wizard_666 said:

While I have  no further updates at the moment pertaining to this thread, I figured I'd add that I've knocked off five more games from my personal backlog,  including four more Game Boy games (Caesar's Palace, BreakThru, Monopoly and Ishido), as well as Centurion: Defender of Rome,  which was not only a fantastic game, but one I would've had on this year's list if I had owned it at the time I had compiled it. So now I'm up to 47 games stricken from my backlog on the year, which is an absolutely insane number to me at this point in the year.

Watch out @Philosoraptor @BeaIank, he's coming for your records

[BeaIank | 1,635]

Good. Records are meant to be broken!

[Tantalus | 464]

Mario's Picross is done. I bought about a dozen games back in late 2022 for the virtual console on the 3DS when they announced that the eshop would be closing. I put a couple hours into this game at the time, but then basically didn't touch my 3DS in 2023.

I remember seeing this game in Nintendo Power back in the day and it always looked intriguing to me, but never got around to buying it then. It's a fairly solid puzzle game, though I definitely prefer playing it in small doses instead of large chunks all at once.

After solving all of the puzzles, a Time Trial mode opens up. In the main game, the timer counts down and every mistake knocks an increasing amount of time off the clock. In Time Trial, it seems to pick one of the puzzles at random every time, the timer counts up, and the game doesn't have any indication if you've made a mistake. I did a couple of rounds to test it out. I've had enough Picross for the time being, but could potentially see myself spending more time on this mode in the future.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,329]

50 minutes ago, Tantalus said:

Mario's Picross is done. I bought about a dozen games back in late 2022 for the virtual console on the 3DS when they announced that the eshop would be closing. I put a couple hours into this game at the time, but then basically didn't touch my 3DS in 2023.

I remember seeing this game in Nintendo Power back in the day and it always looked intriguing to me, but never got around to buying it then. It's a fairly solid puzzle game, though I definitely prefer playing it in small doses instead of large chunks all at once.

After solving all of the puzzles, a Time Trial mode opens up. In the main game, the timer counts down and every mistake knocks an increasing amount of time off the clock. In Time Trial, it seems to pick one of the puzzles at random every time, the timer counts up, and the game doesn't have any indication if you've made a mistake. I did a couple of rounds to test it out. I've had enough Picross for the time being, but could potentially see myself spending more time on this mode in the future.

If you did it all in 2024, you should head over to the Game Boy completion thread.  I think it's still on the list there.  If you started it last year though, it sadly won't qualify there, but I figured I'd mention it anyway.

[Tantalus | 464]

2 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

If you did it all in 2024, you should head over to the Game Boy completion thread.  I think it's still on the list there.  If you started it last year though, it sadly won't qualify there, but I figured I'd mention it anyway.

I can’t count it for that thread, unfortunately. I played half of it in 2022 and the other half this year. I do have a couple of other Game Boy games on my backlog that I am hoping to contribute this year to the effort, eventually.

[Sumez | 3,011]

17 hours ago, G-type said:

I've started playing Solstice of my backlog... and given its difficulty, I don't know if completing it is a realistic goal for me... I'll give it a few more days.

Solstice is a mapping kind of game. As a kid I was never able to get anywhere in it until I eventually found the codes for refilling all magic, which made me able to keep on playing as I'd explored much more of the castle.

But ultimately what made med beat the game in the end was finding an old nintendo magazine which actually came with a map! I think if I'd taken the time back then to map out the game myself, I would have enjoyed it even more.

My recommendation would be to try that - Run through the game a few times *expecting* to die (but do use the "credits" that you find), to explore different directions.
Once you get the high jump and are able to reach the maze-like basement for the first time, the game really opens up and allows you to go many different ways. Each time you play, you should be able to map out new sections of the castle and hopefully even come across a few pieces of the staff as well. Once you have most of the castle mapped and are able to plan a route, the game actually becomes quite easy!
If you see a room that looks like it would probably have invisible platforms (like a suspiciously wide gap with spikes beneath it), use the magic potion that reveals them, and then use that knowledge on subsequent runs to remember where they are, and save the potion for rooms which actually require the potion (invisible blocks can't be used without it, but invisible platforms appear when you jump on them).

Also a few tips:

1. When you stand on a block that isn't falling, you can pick it up while jumping off it, this is completely essential several places!
2. When you are carrying a block, you can drop it mid-air, and then jump off it for extra height. This is also really essential, and can be combined with #1 for covering a lot of extra height.
3. The game's demo that plays when you leave it on the start screen to enjoy the badass music actually shows off a few really useful tips a bunch of different rooms, including the location of some invisible platforms, and how to get the boots near the start of the game.

Edited February 16 by Sumez