The 2024 Backlog Challenge

[JamesRobot | 5,840]

On 1/15/2024 at 12:57 PM, T-Pac said:

Personal list update:

I briefly tried out Bionic Commando [NES] and realized that it's probably not the kind of game I want to devote my time to.

Man, I get it.  Bionic Commando is not immediately intuitive.  In fact, it's entirely counterintuitive as a platformer with literally no jumping.

But it's a great game with a pretty satisfying and fun mechanic if you can give it a little more time.  The entire series is pretty awesome.

[JamesRobot | 5,840]

On 1/15/2024 at 10:08 AM, Sumez said:

Tunic - Beaten 1/1

Tunic was repeatedly advertised to me as a game that would fit my tastes in video games incredibly well, and to an extent I'd say it definitely does.
It's a game that does a lot of things, and all those things it does really well, and they are all approaches that appeal to me.

It's a semi-open ended action game by the way of a top-down zelda'ish adventure, with some elements of Dark Souls and Metroid, but most of all this game is basically the next Fez! If you loved the gradually increasingly complex nature of the puzzles in Fez, this game is what you have been waiting for! Are there details hidden in a spectrogram analysis of the music? Of course there is!

Not that that matters to the core game. The gameplay is solid, and exploration is very satisfying. Immediately after the "intended" first area I just happened upon an area that it felt like I wasn't supposed to explore yet, made it through, and came out with an item that immediately drastically increased the number of places I could go. I ended up in another location where the enemies were extremely strong, and exploration was filled with dangers - this time it took me a ton of deaths to get through only to find nothing of actual use yet...

Funny enough that adventure might actually have been the highlight of the game for me - because after that, once I found the places I was supposed to go, everything was suddenly much easier and less engaging.

It doesn't end there, though. What really drives Tunic is the way it drips information to the player by gradually revealing pages of an instruction booklet - this booklet also comes with the physical release, and I highly recommend not looking in it until you have found all of it in-game. It is absolutely packed to the brim with interesting information that will teach you hints and even secret abilities that you weren't aware that you had all along (think Super Metroid's walljump) which are essentially necessary to do all the things that the game ultimately asks of you to get the true ending.

What is extra brilliant about this, is how much information is actually in this book that isn't readily apparent! And discovering new secrets will consistently entice you to return to previous pages, rummaging them for new details, ultimately making you feel incredibly smart every time you figure out something new.
At this point however, the game stops being an action game, and for probably the last 10+ hours that I played, I was exclusively solving puzzles, rarely discovering actual new locations, and enemies being more of a minor inconvenience than an obstacle.

 

I'd say Tunic overreaches by pulling in too many different directions, especially the action game and puzzle game feeling mostly like two different games mashed together. It's hard to truly fault it for it, because both aspects are executed so well - but I really wish the action game had more to offer during the late-game experience.

 

Addendum:

This is also one of those games where taking notes by hand is a big part of the experience. As some may have noticed, that's something I seem to really enjoy. And these are probably some of the coolest-looking notes I've ever taken for a video game  Don't look too close at them once you start playing.

I'm sold.  Added to the backlog.  I was already looking at it pretty hard and to hear it compares to Fez to any degree is a major plus.

[Sumez | 2,995]

9 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

I was already looking at it pretty hard and to hear it compares to Fez to any degree is a major plus.

I feel pretty confident saying that anyone who enjoyed the cryptic puzzle nature of Fez will absolutely love the shit out of Tunic.

[Gloves | 11,845]

On 1/17/2024 at 8:47 AM, the_wizard_666 said:

Updates:

Wizardry V: No change as of yet.

TES IV Oblivion: Lots more progress.  Haven't unlocked any new achievements yet, though that's more of a statement about how much I had previously unlocked than anything.  Of the four questlines I still need to finish off to get all the achievements, I've made progress in two: the Mage's Guild and the Dark Brotherhood.  In the former I am working on the final recommendation, which requires me to get the book from a cave near Chorral.  In the Dark Brotherhood, I've finished Ocheeva's quests and am moving on to meet Lucien Lachance.  So still a long way to go yet for any real progress in my goal, but a lot of necessary work done nonetheless.  I've also done a ton of miscellaneous quests, as well as progressing the Thieves' Guild to the first of the Grey Fox's quests, and some low level work on the Fighter's Guild line (I just handled the three drunks in Leyawin).  I have yet to start the Arena quests as I'm not sure it's even worth doing for my character, and I've not done either the expansion quests or the main quest.  I don't even know if I have the expansion installed or not to be honest, as although I own it, I have not got any notifications to begin along that path.  I'm playing on my Xbox One via Game Pass though, so I may just have to pop the disc in on my 360 later for that purpose.  As for the main quest, I just couldn't be arsed just yet.  By the time I get to it I'm hoping to be stupidly OP and breeze right through it.  In both cases, focusing on them should make them fall in short order. 

Miscellaneous: My NES new completion streak has been extended to 17 days, 18 games in total.  While only The Magic of Scheherazade was on my target list, as I mentioned before I consider all unfinished games as fair game, and as beating the NES library is a personal (if unrealistic) long term goal, I feel pretty good about knocking those 18 games off the queue.  I think I also mentioned knocking off a Game Boy game in the last update as well, so I'm at 19 total completions despite only knocking a single targeted title off.  So far I'd say that's a decent start to the year

Bro you're making me wanna play Oblivion again lol.

[T-Pac | 7,590]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:08 PM, JamesRobot said:

Man, I get it.  Bionic Commando is not immediately intuitive.  In fact, it's entirely counterintuitive as a platformer with literally no jumping.

But it's a great game with a pretty satisfying and fun mechanic if you can give it a little more time.  The entire series is pretty awesome.

I don't doubt it - the grappling hook seems like it would be really fun if I got the hang of it. My real problem was that I expected something more linear / straightforward. I didn't like the idea of hunting for communication units and potentially backtracking and getting lost. 

[T-Pac]

[T-Pac | 7,590]

03/40 - Adventure Island [Nintendo Entertainment System - 1988]

Finished: 2024/01/18

Caveats: I used save-states on the last 2 rounds of Area 8 (and to pause the game between play-sessions throughout). 

[T-Pac]

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

18 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Bro you're making me wanna play Oblivion again lol.

Then do it up!

So today I knocked off the next two achievements in the Mages Guild questline, and after learning about Mannimarco's return, I'm on a 3 in-game day cooldown before the next quest.  So I suppose my next order of business would be to knock off some more Dark Brotherhood quests.

Also, I figured out why I didn't get Shivering Isles.  Turns out I don't own it as DLC.  I own the Game of the Year version, so it's on the disc itself.  But because I'm playing via Game Pass on my Xbox One right now, I can't access it.  Guess I'll just finish off the main 1000 first, then knock off Shivering Isles after by switching consoles.

[Rhuno | 111]

20 minutes ago, T-Pac said:

03/40 - Adventure Island [Nintendo Entertainment System - 1988]

Finished: 2024/01/18

Caveats: I used save-states on the last 2 rounds of Area 8. 

 

 

Congrats! That game is tough. I finished it near the end of last year. It's not too bad until you get to 8-2. I played on the NES, but had the continue bee. 8-2 through 8-4 took me like 4 hours of dying and retrying.

[T-Pac | 7,590]

1 minute ago, Rhuno said:

Congrats! That game is tough. I finished it near the end of last year. It's not too bad until you get to 8-2. I played on the NES, but had the continue bee. 8-2 through 8-4 took me like 4 hours of dying and retrying.

Haha don't congratulate me so readily - I cheated my way to the end after 8-2. 

I'm always impressed that anyone can properly beat games like this. You must have some seriously good reflexes!

[T-Pac]

[Reed Rothchild | 9,598]

18 minutes ago, T-Pac said:

Haha don't congratulate me so readily - I cheated my way to the end after 8-2. 

I'm always impressed that anyone can properly beat games like this. You must have some seriously good reflexes!

[T-Pac]

We're old, our reflexes suck.  We're just stubborn bastards.

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Continuing the gauntlet of PS1 fighters, I've beaten several more since I last reported in. I will say that when I'm giving grades to games, I try to think of how they grade against other games released at the time as well as how playable and enjoyable they are today. More on that later.

• Dead or Alive—DOA does an interesting job establishing the franchise and several of its most notable characters. However, with only 11 characters compared to 18 in the first Tekken, relatively flat arenas with explosive floors insead of walls or other hazards, a slower speed to the action in general compared to DOA games, and clunky movement, it's tough to say it was the best 3D fighter on the PS1. On the other hand, the hefty moveset for each character and very different playstyles for each character definitely make each stand out, and unlocking some of the characters can take a very long time, so this game offers lots of replayability (for better or worse). 7/10.
• Tekken 3—In the eternal battle of "Street Fighter, Tekken, DOA, or <some other major fighting franchise>," I feel like it just depends on the era and the iteration. For this showdown, I think Tekken 3 is better than the first DOA game because it feels more deliberate and accurate. The fighting and combos take a bit of getting used to for those used to Street Fighter, but they make sense in time. Character models look pretty good, although maybe not as good as DOA, and there are almost twice as many characters as DOA, all with reasonably unique play styles. As far as basic attacks go, neither game did the best job leading them into other combos. Tekken's more about juggling and looking for openings, and DOA is more about countering, knowing your opponent, reaction speed, and baiting them into a specific move. But, in the end, Tekken 3 has more polish and more fluid gameplay than DOA. 7.5/10.
• Street Fighter Alpha 2—However...if I were to choose one of the big three, I'd say Street Fighter Alpha 2 might be the best fighting game of the generation...An absolute banger of a game. Certainly the best I've played so far. Smooth gameplay, great sprites and graphics, and tons of characters. From the arcade port, the PS1 version is only missing a few frames from intro and background animations, but otherwise is intact. This game also represents a transition between the more precise combo requirements of the SNES games and the more forgiving combo requirements of newer iterations. However, it's missing more frames than the Saturn version, and the Saturn version has more characters, making it not the definitive version. Shockingly, the Saturn is, even to this day because the 30th Anniversary Collection includes the arcade version and not Gold. This is the best playing classic Street Fighter game I have played to date. 9.5/10.
• Dynasty Warriors—Hey, did you know the first Dynasy Warriors game was a 3D fighter? Well, it's a slow one at that with delayed movement. The characters are straight out of the Romance of the three Kingdoms, and all have weapons with various amounts of range. Hit detection with those weapons, however, is suspect at times, especially with polearms. You also seem to have invincibility frames when getting up, so lying on the ground and then getting up when the opponent is about to attack you is a legit strat for free damage. For the most part, combos are simple and Tekken-ish in nature. There are a good amount of moves as well as relatively good combos, albeit slow. Some characters ended up being quite fun, like Xu Zhu, who uses a ball on the end of a stick to more or less lollipop people to death. Overall, while not a standout on the console, Dynasty Warriors is an interesting curiousity that does enough well to still be playable in 2024, but shows its age more than one would hope. 6.5/10.
• Asuka 120% Final Burning Fest—So, this is a 2D fighting game about various girls trying to keep their clubs open…or something? It's about high school and clubs. Google Translate struggled to read the text because they put the autoscrolling white text over white school uniforms and white characters. Anyway, they all must fight to win a prize and then fight a teacher or something. A unique thing about this game is that there's three ways to win the fight. Everyone has a health bar and a stamina bar. If the health bar goes all the way down, you lose. However, if you deplete the opponent's stamina bar ("downing" them), that's counts for more than having less health than your opponent at rounds' end. If neither are knocked out or downed, it all comes down to who has more health. So, this game is obviously geared towards attacking, spamming, and juggling. When your special bar reaches 120%, you can even spam specials for a limited time. There's also a parry system, but it's not balanced very well and doesn't interrupt combos. So, characters like Nana who have a spinning fan attack that hits 10 times will have a few hits parried and then the rest will hit. This leads to this game essentially being a button masher with some light Street Fighter combos thrown in. It's fast, it's smooth, and it's accessible, but due to the lack of iframes and pushback, it becomes cheese-able. I think with a slightly deeper or well-thought out system, it could have been a really great game, but it falls short for what it is. 7/10.

In addition to these, I played some others and wasn't a big enough fan to finish them. That, or burnout is real:

• Ergheiz—A full 3D fighting game that's actually closer to something like Power Stone in movement. I didn't give this one much of a spin, but it seems at least worth returning to if for no other reason than Tifa, Cloud, and Sephiroth are playable charcters. Is it great, though? I have my doubts.
• King of Fighters 99—This game is fine, but I'm just not the biggest fan of early KOF games. This one has a neat team mechanic that later ones do, but I just don't like how characters tend to play or control. I know this is a popular series, but it's probably my least favorite of the big franchises on the whole.
• Lightning Legend—A very, VERY strange 3D fighter in both content and gameplay. Blocking sometimes works unless you're the opponent and there aren't many moves. Everyone also moves like action figures. Jank.
• Evil Zone—Another very janky fighter for similar reasons to Lightning Legend.
• Shiritsu Justice Gakuen Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2—AKA Rival Schools 2. This one was enjoyable and probably better than at least DOA, but burnout is real. I'll revisit this one at some point.

I've played lots of fighters in the past couple years, and, collectively, I think that the PS1/Saturn might be the worst era for fighting games to date. There were very few competent 2D fighters, and the 3D fighters were all some degree of janky, slow, or both. That includes the big names like DOA or Tekken. Sure, I gave some of the PS2 fighters like Mai-Otome Hime: Otome Butou Shi a 5.5, but I'd choose that game over almost every game I put down on the PS1 and even a number of fighters I finished on the PS1. At least Mai Otome has smooth action and resonsive characters. I think the next worst might be the SNES/Genesis era. It cannot be overstated how much fighting games on the whole have improved since the the year 2000. Aside from a few standouts, I find it hard to consistently recommend anything pre-2000 that doesn't have "Capcom" on the front of the box or case.  Even then, YMMV.

Edited January 19 by Philosoraptor

[Reed Rothchild | 9,598]

I beat the first season of Walking Dead and moved on to Bloodborne, where I'm through 2 bosses.  Is it just me or were they really skimpy with the "bonfires" this time around?  In the current area I approached what may be the third boss but then thought better of it and backtracked a mile so I could spend my souls instead.

[Rudybegga | 50]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:08 PM, JamesRobot said:

Man, I get it.  Bionic Commando is not immediately intuitive.  In fact, it's entirely counterintuitive as a platformer with literally no jumping.

But it's a great game with a pretty satisfying and fun mechanic if you can give it a little more time.  The entire series is pretty awesome.

I loved Bionic Commando as a kid (8-10 or so).  Played through and finished it with a smile!  What a game!  Push through it, level up with bullet experience points and you'll find one of the best damn games on the NES!

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

12 hours ago, T-Pac said:

Haha don't congratulate me so readily - I cheated my way to the end after 8-2. 

I'm always impressed that anyone can properly beat games like this. You must have some seriously good reflexes!

[T-Pac]

It's not so much reflexes as rote memorization.  Some folks do just react to whatever pops up, but others play it enough that they know exactly where everything is going to spawn and when, so they can execute accordingly.

EDIT: Also, don't feel bad for cheating through it.  If you're happy with the experience, and cheating helped keep it fun for you, then all the power to you.  Games are meant to be fun, so have fun however you enjoy :)

Edited January 20 by the_wizard_666

[Gloves | 11,845]

I've played a few SG-1000 games today for the first time, a couple homebrews and a few original licensed games. Having never touched the console before, it's certainly an interesting one. I'm emulating so I get to play with a normal controller, but the thing used a weird kinda-sorta Colecovision-esque pad but with just two buttons:

 

Anywho, figure I'll take the opportunity to do some lightning reviews.

Licensed games:

Pachinko
Apparently one of if not the hardest to find game for the console, it's also one of if not the most pointless. It's pure RNG luck whether you get the ball into a hole which gives more balls, you're just trying to get as many balls as you can. The game simply ends when you hit 3000 balls (you start with 50 and go up very slowly). I went all the way to 3000 balls because I have a gambling addiction, please send help.

Champion Boxing
The game has 5 levels, each against the same dude, just harder the higher you go. I beat them all, but don't ask me how. You can block up and down, and attack up and down. You can also switch between Straight, Jab, and... I forget the other one. I used Straight cuz it seemed to have a good balance of speed and reach. Not a very good game.

Space Armor
A shoot 'em up! An incredibly simple, very very slow... shoot 'em up. I did 3 full loops of this, with two of those being at 2x speed to add a little challenge to the otherwise snail's pace of a game. You have a typical gun, and bombs which hit ground enemies which are statically placed. Some enemies shoot bullets but not all, and those that do only shoot straight down, so it's incredibly easy to dodge everything. The best of the 3 licensed games I've played, and really the only one with any merit whatsoever.

 

Homebrews:

H7N9 (H7N9 - Homebrew - SMS Power!)
An extremely simple game. The creator was mostly just experimenting and having fun with glitchy aesthetics to my knowledge and I can't fault them for doing something they wanted to in their own way. As a game though, it's absolutely terrible. I completed the game (more like a demo, really) in a few minutes, it's basically just a maze.

Jet Paco and Jet Puri (Jet Paco & Jet Puri, SEGA 8bits - The Mojon Twins)
Site's en espanol. That's okay though, it's a simple enough game (the console has two buttons...). You have a jetpack and have to collect green keys while avoiding enemies, spikes, and the like. It's not bad, and the 3 levels ramp up in difficulty in a pretty fair way. I beat all 3 levels and the secret level. Had to retry once on level 3 cuz I got complacent.

Super Uwol (Super Uwol (collectorvision.com))
The best of everything I've played on the console thus far. It's a simple enough concept and every level is just a single room which can be completed in mere seconds, but therein lies the charm. It's easy to pick up and play a round, go for speed or try to play deathless, challenge yourself with it. Both this and Jet Paco/Puri were made by the Mojon Twins and you can feel in their games the passion they have for it, they're just good fun.

[greenthunder | 115]

Finally beat Inazuma Eleven 2. I found this one a lot smoother sailing than the first, but admittedly that's mostly due to being used to the mechanics now since they're very unique for a JRPG and I finally understand how offsides work. Plot is standard Level-5 shonen/soccer is extremely serious business shenanigans, but I went in expecting that. I still like the idea of the connection map (running around and recruiting players), but at the same time it feels kinda pointless because most of the time I'm just gonna stick with the story characters anyway, especially since this one seemingly dumps a lot more of them on you. 

Also started Harvestella, because I've been hearing a lot of good buzz for it over at r/JRPG. I'm definitely interested to see where this is going since the setting is seemingly high fantasy medieval, but there's also been a lot of hints it's not what it seems (a character asks if the calendar is lunar or Gregorian and decides she's in the past, several robot characters, one or two very out of place destroyed highrises in a dungeon). Game's opened up a bit by letting me pick the order of Seaslight to investigate, so I think I'll do the spring one first as the game suggested then go from there.

Some addition thoughts, before I forget.

• I don't know how I feel about the combat system yet, but I'm also comparing it to other action RPGs I've played previously. Attacking wise, you only have one basic attack that combos and several special skills. Defensive wise, there's no guard/dodge by default, though your first job gets a small dodge/quickstep that appears to have no iframes. Last few action RPGs I've played either have more emphasis on not getting hit or don't have a dodge but have characters with healing magic and I think I just personally prefer those styles more. It's still pretty early into the game and you can set 3 jobs to swap between in battle, so I'd guess there'll be more defensive or healing jobs eventually and also more upgrades to reduce job swap cooldown.
• I'm picking up some Etrian Odyssey inspiration in the major dungeons? Particularly in FEARs, large, high level enemies with unique movement patterns you're supposed to stay away from.

Edited January 21 by greenthunder

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

So my current NES completion streak has hit 20 days, with 21 total.  And I know that I've done a couple of the games I had on last year's backlog that weren't on this year's (I had 37 games remaining, which I pared down to 10, so that makes sense).  Last year I knocked off 3 games from my list.  I just find it mildly amusing that I've knocked off as many games in the first 20 days of 2024 as I did in all of 2023

For those curious, here's this year's first time completions:

Spoiler

Wayne Gretzky Hockey (January 1, 2024)
Hollywood Squares (January 2, 2024)
California Games (January 3, 2024)
The Magic of Scheherazade (January 4, 2024)
Talking Super Jeopardy (January 5, 2024)
Magic Darts (January 5, 2024)
Magic Johnson's Fast Break (January 6, 2024)
The Three Stooges (Best Ending, January 7, 2024)
Moon Ranger (January 8, 2024)
Caveman Games (January 9, 2024)
The Karate Kid (January 10, 2024)
Blades of Steel (January 11, 2024)
Puzzle (January 12, 2024)
Winter Games (January 13, 2024)
Mappyland (January 14, 2024)
Joe & Mac (January 15, 2024)
Digger T. Rock (No-Death Run With Warps, January 16, 2024)
WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge (Both belts, January 17, 2024)
Wayne's World (January 18, 2024)
Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular (Bronze Medal, January 19, 2024)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (January 20, 2024)

Additionally, I knocked off The Chessmaster for the Game Boy (also not on this year's list) for the first time (scholar's mate FTW...takes like 3 seconds to beat it ), marking 22 games taken off my backlog so far.  Still several thousand to go, but it feels good.  Once the month is done I'm not gonna worry too much about the streak, and aim for some longer games, and some from other systems as well.  Oh, and according to my NES completion list, I'm 8 away from 300 US completions, so unless I start pounding out a bunch of Famicom games in the next week, that milestone should pass soon.

Also made some more progress on Oblivion, but nothing really noteworthy yet. 

[T-Pac | 7,590]

On 1/19/2024 at 7:38 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

We're old, our reflexes suck.  We're just stubborn bastards.

 

On 1/19/2024 at 7:25 PM, the_wizard_666 said:

It's not so much reflexes as rote memorization.  Some folks do just react to whatever pops up, but others play it enough that they know exactly where everything is going to spawn and when, so they can execute accordingly.

EDIT: Also, don't feel bad for cheating through it.  If you're happy with the experience, and cheating helped keep it fun for you, then all the power to you.  Games are meant to be fun, so have fun however you enjoy :)

Memorization is definitely a key part of it, but execution requires good reflexes (at least in action games).

I didn’t have trouble memorizing what to do in Adventure Island - I had trouble actually doing it haha. There's a reason guys like me always got picked last for baseball in gym class. I can swing a bat just as well as I can press the A button, but that doesn't mean my hands can execute as precisely as my brain wants them to...

(Also - thanks for the validation about my save-scumming, Wiz. I used to be hard on myself about only playing games "legit", but these days I'm trying to prioritize fun over frustration and experience as many games as I can, all the way through.)

[T-Pac]

[Webhead123 | 687]

On 1/19/2024 at 9:38 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

We're old, our reflexes suck.  We're just stubborn bastards.

It's beginning to happen, gents. I'm finding myself thinking I'm gonna need to start carrying reading glasses. My standard prescription just ain't cutting it anymore. Those instruction manuals are getting blurrier and blurrier. 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Bigger update for Oblivion.  I've now completed the Dark Brotherhood quest line, and have progressed in the Mage's Guild far enough to get the next achievement.  According to the official strategy guide, I've got four remaining quests until the MG line is done.  Once that's done, all that's left is the main quest and Shivering Isles.  I may just focus on getting it all done and moving on at this point...while I thoroughly enjoy the game, I'd like to move on through the rest of my list as well.

Also kept my NES streak alive by taking out Astyanax.  I'm honestly surprised how little people talk about that one.  It's a pretty solid game overall, it has Ninja Gaiden-esque cutscenes to add flavour to the game, and was thoroughly enjoyable. Oh, and that's 22 first time NES completions in a calendar month, breaking my previous record of 21, set in January of 2022.  So yay for milestones.  Next milestone is 300 US completions, which if all goes according to plan will be hit on the 28th.

7 hours ago, T-Pac said:

(Also - thanks for the validation about my save-scumming, Wiz. I used to be hard on myself about only playing games "legit", but these days I'm trying to prioritize fun over frustration and experience as many games as I can, all the way through.)

Hey man, no sweat.  While I wouldn't do it myself, I can understand why people would want to do it that way.  Some games can take days or weeks to get good enough to get through, and free time is becoming scarcer and scarcer.  Ultimately, unless you're in a competition with someone, how you play doesn't affect anyone else, so as long as it facilitates your enjoyment, have at it!  I mean, there's a reason the Game Genie was as popular as it was

[Webhead123 | 687]

6 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Also kept my NES streak alive by taking out Astyanax.  I'm honestly surprised how little people talk about that one.  It's a pretty solid game overall, it has Ninja Gaiden-esque cutscenes to add flavour to the game, and was thoroughly enjoyable.

I agree. Astyanax was a game I never knew existed until the late-2000's. The cartridge caught my eye at a local shop one day. The label art was appealing and it was only like $6, so I gave it a shot. Very underappreciated, I think. The game play is immediately reminiscent of the quite excellent Legendary Axe on Turbografx and that's when I discovered that they share the same developer. If I had access to it as a kid, I certainly would have given it at least a few rentals.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,598]

On 1/20/2024 at 5:33 AM, the_wizard_666 said:

So my current NES completion streak has hit 20 days, with 21 total.  And I know that I've done a couple of the games I had on last year's backlog that weren't on this year's (I had 37 games remaining, which I pared down to 10, so that makes sense).  Last year I knocked off 3 games from my list.  I just find it mildly amusing that I've knocked off as many games in the first 20 days of 2024 as I did in all of 2023

For those curious, here's this year's first time completions:

  Reveal hidden contents

Wayne Gretzky Hockey (January 1, 2024)
Hollywood Squares (January 2, 2024)
California Games (January 3, 2024)
The Magic of Scheherazade (January 4, 2024)
Talking Super Jeopardy (January 5, 2024)
Magic Darts (January 5, 2024)
Magic Johnson's Fast Break (January 6, 2024)
The Three Stooges (Best Ending, January 7, 2024)
Moon Ranger (January 8, 2024)
Caveman Games (January 9, 2024)
The Karate Kid (January 10, 2024)
Blades of Steel (January 11, 2024)
Puzzle (January 12, 2024)
Winter Games (January 13, 2024)
Mappyland (January 14, 2024)
Joe & Mac (January 15, 2024)
Digger T. Rock (No-Death Run With Warps, January 16, 2024)
WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge (Both belts, January 17, 2024)
Wayne's World (January 18, 2024)
Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular (Bronze Medal, January 19, 2024)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (January 20, 2024)

Additionally, I knocked off The Chessmaster for the Game Boy (also not on this year's list) for the first time (scholar's mate FTW...takes like 3 seconds to beat it ), marking 22 games taken off my backlog so far.  Still several thousand to go, but it feels good.  Once the month is done I'm not gonna worry too much about the streak, and aim for some longer games, and some from other systems as well.  Oh, and according to my NES completion list, I'm 8 away from 300 US completions, so unless I start pounding out a bunch of Famicom games in the next week, that milestone should pass soon.

Also made some more progress on Oblivion, but nothing really noteworthy yet. 

Keep that momentum going!

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

2 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

I agree. Astyanax was a game I never knew existed until the late-2000's. The cartridge caught my eye at a local shop one day. The label art was appealing and it was only like $6, so I gave it a shot. Very underappreciated, I think. The game play is immediately reminiscent of the quite excellent Legendary Axe on Turbografx and that's when I discovered that they share the same developer. If I had access to it as a kid, I certainly would have given it at least a few rentals.

I played it as a kid (friend had a copy).  When I got older, I played Castle of Dragon, which reminded me a lot of Astyanax, except with nowhere near as much polish.  Wonder if they're related games in Japan or something...

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Keep that momentum going!

I'm definitely pushing forward!  I want to see how long I can go, but the number of quick games left is getting shorter and shorter every time I beat something.  It's why I'm restricting to one game per day as well...I don't want to accidentally burn one while pushing this streak along.  Pushing toward having at least one per day in January though, since the odds of achieving it after this decrease every time I knock something off.

[Brickman | 4,022]

Two games done, both for the GBA. 
 

Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace 

This was a really fun game and had a real SNES action platformer vibe to it. This game came out a few months after the GBA release but looks really nice. They spent a lot of time making this game look good. The music is mostly great with a nice 16bit vibe, but a few levels were lacking a little with interesting tunes. It has a good variety of levels, which each feeling a little different. The web mechanic works well and it’s fun to swing around and climb up walls. 

Where this game falls short a little is that there are only 7 levels, which felt way too short, and the combat feels a little clunky when you’re in close combat. They have quite a few action moves you can perform, but it feels a bit awkward at times and it shows that they probably rushed that part a little. 

I feel like this game really could have been so much more if they had spent more time with it, but they probably had to rush it out. Still a great game worth playing though despite a few shortcomings. 

8/10 

Super Puzzle Bobble

It was a pretty fun puzzle game and it definitely had some really challenging levels. 

There are heaps of levels in this game, it divides up the alphabet into rows and you can choose your path as you move up each rank. I personally would have preferred that you could choose any letter, but the game also focuses on getting a high score, so I get why they did it the way they did. 

Graphics are nice and vibrant, but it isn’t very colour blind friendly. I really struggled with some of the colours and it cost me quite a few games, which was frustrating. 

Controls are tight and you can use the L & R buttons to get really precise with your shot. 

It does fall short in a few areas, which takes a bit of the enjoyment out of it. It doesn’t have a save function, which is really odd for a GBA game, so I had to leave my pocket in sleep mode while making my way through the campaign mode. There is one song, yeah ok it’s pretty catchy, but a few songs wouldn’t have hurt.  

If you’re really into Puzzle Bobble you’ll probably love it. Otherwise, most will probably play a few levels and move on to something else. 

7/10 

[Gloves | 11,845]

I owned Astyanax as a kid and loved it. I've beaten it at least once a year and often more for the last... at least 5 or 6 years now. It's on a small list of my annual games, right up there with Kabuki: Quantum Fighter, Diddy Kong  Racing, Goldeneye 64, Trog, Super Sprint, Majora's Mask, and a few others.

As for what I'm up to myself, I started up Tomb Raider on PS1 today. It's not "on my backlog" but it's a game I've never played and will likely purchase at some point (someone please hire me so I can buy games again), so why not.