wongojack | 214 Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 All right, here is the 5th and final game I targeted for the end of the year - Rebel Galaxy This was a nice little game that knows exactly what it is. It came out in 2015 and only takes up about 2gb of hard drive space, meaning it fits easily on a DVD and could have been a game for the 360 or even original XBox (or Sony equivalent). I think this game was probably small in scope even when it came out which means that today, it feels a bit "cute," but there's no problem with that really. The gameplay consists of piloting a ship between trade hubs and space stations and completing combat missions that let you advance the story (or not). The combat is not complicated and is sort of similar to open naval combat as you have broadsides as your most devastating attacks. I got attracted to this game first because of comparisons to Sid Meier's Pirates, and those comparisons are certainly warranted, but Rebel Galaxy doesn't quite live up to that legendary classic in the end. Instead, it gets everything it is trying to do right and gives you a nice experience while doing it. My criticism is that it doesn't take long to "see the strings" of the puppeteer in this one, and I wasn't really interested in playing beyond the main story. I give it a solid 3 out of 5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fox | 1,667 Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 Spoiler Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder. Just a quick and dirty beat em up to start the year right Spoiler It Takes Two. Great co op experience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estil | 1,265 Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 I just completed the main story in Tales of Xilla! The thing is, I got most of the other PS3/PS4 Tales of games but forgot all about Tales of Xilla 2! While I'm waiting for that to arrive, maybe Tales of Graces F should be the PS3 Tales of game I should tackle next? And of course it's all about the trophies, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PekoponTAS | 171 Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 I bought the original We Ski at a game store and sat down and played the entire game 100% in one sitting. (With breaks of course) It took me nine hours, and I loved every second of it. I've always been a firm supporter of less is more when it comes to video games, and the We Ski series is probably the best example I could ever point too to demonstrate that point. We Ski is such a small scale game compared to We Ski & Snowboard, and it's absolutely tiny compared to Go Vacation. While Go Vacation is good at what it does, it doesn't do it as well as what We Ski succeeds at. We Ski has an enormous learning curve due to its motion controls, and I only picked it up so quickly because I had been playing Go Vacation for a week prior. It's a massive hurdle to get past, but once you understand how it all works it's extremely fun to do, and it would be way less enjoyable if it just controlled normally. I'm still working on Go Vacation, but We Ski was a really nice break from the slower paced exploration of Go Vacation. Looking forward to We Ski & Snowboard showing up too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,544 Graphics Team · Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 6 hours ago, PekoponTAS said: I've always been a firm supporter of less is more when it comes to video games, ... YES! I'm not the only one!!! Have you, perhaps, heard of my beloved Atari 2600 before?? -CasualCart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 2,951 Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 The Atari is cool, but "We Ski" is an industry leader when it comes to minimalistic gameplay 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PekoponTAS | 171 Posted January 19, 2023 Share Posted January 19, 2023 (edited) I cut a lot out of the post because it was too wordy, so I guess it sounds odd the way I left it. XD What I mean by We Ski being a good example of less is more is that each sequel doubled the amount of content in the game, and yet the more minimalist original is the most fun to just sit down and finish. The original We Ski has one mountain for you to explore, and you traverse exclusively on skis. We Ski and Snowboard has two mountains to explore, and obviously snowboards were added in. The control scheme was also made to be more robust, but it over complicates an already complicated control scheme. Go Vacation has FOUR much larger resorts than the previous two games, with each resort representing a different season. Each resort has multiple vehicles, there are fifty mini-games to play, finishing each mini-game 100% unlocks items for your private villa, (which is a fifth area in the game) there are hidden achievements in each resort that unlock really cool items for your villa, each resort has seven hidden treasure chests, and there are dog companions you can bring to each resort. Go Vacation is a technical marvel for the system, but it got out of hand. I obviously like it as I've played it for over twenty hours, but the smaller scale We Ski is better for focusing on one thing and making it fun. Edited January 20, 2023 by PekoponTAS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,544 Graphics Team · Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 @PekoponTAS - you inspired me to play a "less is more" skiing game now, too. Activision's Skiing haha! @Sumez - this one doesn't even use the action button for gameplay - how's that for minimalistic? (To be honest, though, the number of game-variations in this title makes is much more complex than I thought...) I buckled-down and managed to meet the Activision patch requirements: 2 minutes ago, CasualCart said: Skiing - 28.17 seconds [3/b] I just earned a new Activision patch today (sub-28.2 seconds)!!! I tend to love Activision's "time trial" games, and earning the patch for this one wasn't as difficult as Barnstorming or Sky Jinks (assuming Difficulty B qualifies). -CasualCart -CasualCart 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 984 Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 Castlevania 3. Completely forgot I could switch characters. Oh well. Some amazing things for an NES game. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhyNotZoidberg | 585 Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Beat Super Metroid for the second time ever. 7 hours, 77% 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PekoponTAS | 171 Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 (edited) I finished the original We Cheer one hundred percent! It's not as robust as the second game in a lot of ways, but I think that's a good thing. I've also determined that the first game is a lot more responsive, though there were still a couple of songs that didn't work very well. I'm playing on a flat screen with input delay though, and I know that Wii Remote games are a whole other experience with no lag. (Which is to say they actually work.) The nicest thing about the original is that hard mode isn't as ridiculous as in We Cheer 2. We Cheer 2 is fun on normal and infuriating on hard, where the original is challenging on normal, and more challenging on hard. It makes the whole package a lot more fun to finish, not swaying to the extreme in either direction. Both games excel in different areas, but I think the original's gameplay is its strongest point. Both games are worth owning, but you should start with We Cheer 2 to practice the game's mechanics. After you've figured them out, go back and play the first one. These are the only two games in the series, so I've finished the series one hundred percent! Edited January 23, 2023 by PekoponTAS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 984 Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Pokemon scarlet. It was like the worlds longest drum roll..... and ended with a fart! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wongojack | 214 Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 Pong Quest Well, this game started out with promise, but it just kinda stunk it up in the end. The first hour is cute and fun, but then the idea gets REALLY old. The pong gameplay is played with the keyboard and is totally uninteresting. It never poses a real challenge or offers the thrill of "real" pong, and the so-called dungeons offer nothing except the most basic process of elimination exploring. I even hit a bug where one of the dungeons couldn't be solved. I was tricked into thinking that maybe the game had given me a new challenging puzzle to solve, but it was just a disconnected maze. I had to die and restart with a solvable map. Thankfully, the fun little tunes that play stop you from quitting and forgetting the game exists all together, and the references to classic Atari games (other than pong) manage to make you smile occasionally. But really, the only way I would be happy paying actual money for this would be if it was included as cereal box prize or maybe rebranded as a "Slim Jim" game to be won after redeeming proof of purchases from the packaging. I give Pong Quest a 2 out of 5 and could probably be convinced it deserved a 1. Life is Strange Finished Life is Strange (original). It was ok. It got a lot better after about the first 1.5 episodes as the stakes increase quite a bit. Still thought it felt a bit like the "Hello Fellow Kids" meme at times, and I probably would have enjoyed it more in 2015 when it came out, but it was a good story, and it used that familiar Telltale engine to do something different than The Walking Dead. Interesting note on this one is I went to college (and did theatre) with the actor who voices Mr Jefferson (and Zachary and the Janitor). I give it 3 out of 5. "Don't let the squirrels die . . ." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhyNotZoidberg | 585 Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 On 1/8/2023 at 10:10 PM, wongojack said: Undertale - […] I give it a 2 out of 5. Burning hot take right there! I tend to agree that it was overrated, but I did enjoy the game for what it is. I killed and spared enemies based on feels, and I resent having to play any game 2-3 times to experience the whole thing. I was definitely enchanted by the battles, the graphics, the music and the overall mood of the game. I think the game hit the hardest a demographic that wasn’t the usual retro-JRPG crowd and that’s why it blew up like that. PS: I can’t stand Earthbound. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 2,951 Posted January 24, 2023 Share Posted January 24, 2023 3 hours ago, WhyNotZoidberg said: I killed and spared enemies based on feels, and I resent having to play any game 2-3 times to experience the whole thing. ...you probably shouldn't have killed enemies then 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,544 Graphics Team · Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 I cleared Wario Land [GB] for the first time! I got the worst ending as far as I'm aware - where the Genie grants Wario a birdhouse instead of a castle haha. This game turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated from briefly testing it out a few years back. I don't know why it took me so long to give it a proper playthrough. The biggest hurdle in acclimating to the gameplay is trying to override your brain's "Mario" instincts, since the methods of attack are just a little bit different for Wario. -CasualCart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 2,951 Posted January 26, 2023 Share Posted January 26, 2023 17 hours ago, CasualCart said: I got the worst ending as far as I'm aware - where the Genie grants Wario a birdhouse instead of a castle haha. This game turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated from briefly testing it out a few years back. I don't know why it took me so long to give it a proper playthrough. Do yourself a favor and go for the castle... or beyond I think hunting for the treasures is probably the most satisfying part of the game. 17 hours ago, CasualCart said: The biggest hurdle in acclimating to the gameplay is trying to override your brain's "Mario" instincts, since the methods of attack are just a little bit different for Wario. Lol yeha, it's kinda adorable how enemies can be punched from any direction that they aren't obviously protecting themselves It's really sad that Wario Land never got a proper sequel, instead changing its formula entirely from the second entry forward. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor | 851 Posted January 26, 2023 Share Posted January 26, 2023 On 1/25/2023 at 9:15 AM, CasualCart said: I cleared Wario Land [GB] for the first time! I got the worst ending as far as I'm aware - where the Genie grants Wario a birdhouse instead of a castle haha. This game turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated from briefly testing it out a few years back. I don't know why it took me so long to give it a proper playthrough. The biggest hurdle in acclimating to the gameplay is trying to override your brain's "Mario" instincts, since the methods of attack are just a little bit different for Wario. -CasualCart nice! this [whole series] is on my Backlog for the year and i'm looking forward to starting this (as soon as i get clear 2 other games i have started. GRRRR i need more gaming time!) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PekoponTAS | 171 Posted January 28, 2023 Share Posted January 28, 2023 I finished We Ski and Snowboard 100%. It was an amazingly unique game that was really fun for a long time, but it got really exhausting in the final stretch. The original We Ski is primarily a skiing game, and it grades your performance on each course based on five separate categories. The rest of the game revolves around little missions that take you all around the mountain to do various things. Completing missions and getting S+ ranks on courses gives you star points, and the game is essentially over when you collect all 160 star points in the game. We Ski and Snowboard changes things up drastically where the star point system is replaced by the "Thumbs Up" system, and the ranking system is removed entirely. Thumb ups are awarded when you complete certain tasks across the two mountains. What makes We Ski and Snowboard so unique is that the every objective in the game is a total mystery, and you're expected to look around and try to discover them yourself. The objectives are split up into ten categories, usually with three objectives each. Some objectives have multiple instances of it, so discovering it in one spot will unlock a list of them in the records menus. Let's give a fake example and say that there's a category for Hungry Customer. At the start of the game the entire category would be listed as ???, but it would be revealed as soon as you get a thumbs up from one of the three objectives. If you discovered a restaurant somewhere on the resort, you'd get a thumbs up saying "Restaurant Patron 1/4", which lets you know that there are three other restaurants you have to track down. Now that you know the category is "Hungry Customer", you know to keep an eye out for food to try and discover the other two objectives. It's an extremely cool system, and it works amazingly well. For the first twenty hours of the game it was incredibly fun, and I was ready to declare We Ski and Snowboard the best game in the trilogy. Like any scavenger hunt though, it became a major pain towards the end. In total the game took me thirty-six hours to finish 100%, and I'd say the last thirteen hours were spent tracking down the last few things. It kind of soured the experience as a whole to the point where I feel like the original We Ski is still the best game in the trilogy. If you like open world games and can get past the motion controls, there's a ton to love about We Ski and Snowboard. I'm not a fan of open world games in general, but the thumbs up system set this one apart from so many others of its kind. I'll never play this game again, but it was one hell of a playthrough I'll never forget. Score another win for Bandai Namco on the Wii. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wongojack | 214 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 Catacombs of the Undercity is a storybook adventure. It plays like reading a choose your own adventure book where you do dice rolls to decide the outcomes of events. It is fun for a bit, and my wife and I like to play these occasionally (this is the 3rd one we've played) where I read them out loud while she's doing something else. It's kind of a fun thing to do together, but they really boil down to getting dice rolls, so even in my most patient and "follow the rules" mood, I eventually want to just retry a fight or a roll to see a better outcome. Good for what it is, and we did finish the story this weekend. I give it a 3/5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 984 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Rondo of blood. Could be my game of the year. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,544 Graphics Team · Posted February 12, 2023 Share Posted February 12, 2023 I beat Bomberman II [Famicom] yesterday. I was saving this one for a rainy-day, and it was worth the wait. The length was perfect (48 stages), and the only punishing part was trying not to run out of time on the last few stages. It felt much more refined than the original Bomberman, while still keeping everything bare-bones (which isn't a detriment at all). This one might be muscling its way into my top 8-bit Nintendo games. -CasualCart 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaMan52 | 2,445 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 "Cowabunga!" 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumez | 2,951 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 15 hours ago, CasualCart said: I was saving this one for a rainy-day, and it was worth the wait. The length was perfect (48 stages), and the only punishing part was trying not to run out of time on the last few stages. It felt much more refined than the original Bomberman, while still keeping everything bare-bones (which isn't a detriment at all). The biggest failing of Bomberman II to me is that it came out after the first PC Engine Bomberman, which is a ton more refined than either of the Famicom games, while also keeping to the super bare-bones design (even if it's not too modest to have a few cool boss battles). Absolutely play it if you haven't. It's the same game which everyone played on MS-DOS PCs at the time, that port is surprisingly flawless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Pac | 7,544 Graphics Team · Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 6 hours ago, Sumez said: The biggest failing of Bomberman II to me is that it came out after the first PC Engine Bomberman, which is a ton more refined than either of the Famicom games, while also keeping to the super bare-bones design (even if it's not too modest to have a few cool boss battles). Absolutely play it if you haven't. It's the same game which everyone played on MS-DOS PCs at the time, that port is surprisingly flawless. Nice - I'll have to see if that's included on my TruboGrafx-16 mini. Last year I played through Bomberman '93, and it was a real treat. -CasualCart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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