Games You Have Beaten Recently?

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

Beat Superliminal yesterday.  Highly enjoyable.  Nice and short too.

[wongojack | 214]

I've completed a couple of backlog games this fall.

Ico - the ultimate backlog game.  Everyone knows about it but few have finished.  Well, I did.  I'd say that pretty much everything you've heard about Ico is true.  I was playing the blurry PS2 version because I am playing another PS2 game right now, and I've got them both installed on an internal HD.  Anyway - when Ico is good, it is really good.  The puzzle solving is very engaging, and the minimalist storytelling does an excellent job of conveying a sense of mystery and agency for the player to complete the game.  The game also doesn't overstay it's welcome and even felt a bit short.  The knocks on Ico are well known.  The combat is repetitive and serves only to slow the player down.  Without it, a short game would be even shorter.  The save system is also a bit unfriendly for 2023 gamers as you are expected to advance to a specific spot or you lose all progress.  EXCEPT that sometimes when you die, you get to start at a checkpoint - confusing, but not terrible.  Overall, I'd say that in 2023, Ico is an enjoyable experience, but it has a lot of competition from 20+ years of short, quirky indy games that can do some of the same things a bit better now.  I think I am going to give Ico a strong 3 out of 5, and on a binary scale (thumbs up or down), I'd give it a thumbs up.

 

Wandersong - I discovered this game using library organization software like Gog Galaxy and Playnite.  It is one of the highest critically reviewed games that I own (and I happen to own it on multiple services).  I don't remember ever purchasing Wandersong, so I must have gotten it in a bundle (or two) at some point.  My time with Wandersong was interesting.  The premise of the game is that you start out on your 2d, platforming adventure, but in the first sequence are informed that you are not the hero of the game.  Instead, you are a bard who will NOT save the world.  As the protagonist, you then persevere to uncover the story and take your own (music-based) journey to try and save it anyway.  If played with a controller, the game enlists a twin-stick mechanic where right stick controls a wheel of notes that you can sing to solve puzzles and overcome platforming obstacles.  This is an appreciated variation in control and gives you some interesting play mechanics to discover throughout the game.  From a gameplay perspective, Wandersong gives you a unique way to use your singing ability in each level.  This is clever but never challenging.  The way you overcome obstacles changes in each level, so the player is essentially discovering how to play throughout the game instead of mastering it.  Besides using your singing ability to overcome obstacles, there are several points where you are asked to create music or do some "follow the bouncing ball" gameplay.  I was surprised that I really didn't enjoy this very much.  I'm not very musically inclined, but I have played other music and rhythm games.  In this one, I could never make any sounds or music with the bard that I felt sounded very good at all.  Even the sequences where I was meant to follow a prompt made me wonder if I was doing something wrong.  I would succeed at whatever task was given to me, but it almost never sounded good.  This even prompted my back-seat-gaming wife to ask me "is he supposed to sound good?"  Yeah, he is.

Besides the unique and quirky gameplay, Wandersong focuses heavily on its story.  I don't really want to spoil the story here, but as the plot unfolds, the game offers some very interesting twists and turns.  It turns out that while YOU are not the hero of the story, there IS a hero.  You encounter this hero and there is conflict about how to actually go about saving this world.  I thought the game did a nice job of showing these two perspectives and exposed quite a bit of depth for the main characters.  I was really enjoying the story until the very end when I felt it got resolved much too quickly and with an ending worthy of a cartoon or a Coke commercial.  Very disappointing as there was a lot of promise that seemed almost wasted to me. 

Wandersong is a tough game for me to score.  There were some enjoyable moments, but in the end, I'm not sure it was worth it.  Playing it at the same time as Ico also caused me to make some unexpected comparisons.  Both games were about the same length and had their pros and cons.  Ultimately, Ico used a much more reserved approach to storytelling which left me with a better feeling at the ending, but Wandersong definitely delivered more feels and laughs along the way.  I think I would give Wandersong a weak 3 out of 5, but I could also be convinced to give it a 2 because the music creation aspect just didn't seem to really work.  If giving thumbs up/down, this one would be a thumbs down.

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by wongojack

[Sumez | 2,951]

7 hours ago, wongojack said:

Everyone knows about it but few have finished

Really?

Everyone should finish Ico.

[wongojack | 214]

10 hours ago, Sumez said:

Really?

Everyone should finish Ico.

LOL - I'm making an assumption of course.  I'm basing that on the fact that Ico was essentially a flop upon release and gained more attention after Shadow of the Colossus.  I can picture people who like SotC starting Ico and quitting before the end.

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

On 11/26/2023 at 4:53 AM, Sumez said:

Really?

Everyone should finish Ico.

I TOTALLY forgot about this game.

Last game completed was Tecmo World Wrestling on the NES.

[wongojack | 214]

Ok, I finished another backlog game - Dead Space 3.  I think most of what has been written about this game online is basically true.  They essentially changed the genre from survival horror to sci-fi "action."  They also exchanged the lonely gameplay for a more team-based story and even included co-op (which I was not able to experience).  The original criticism over the micro-transactions was definitely overblown from a 2023 perspective.  Everything can be experienced in-game without spending a dime, and the optional postgame DLC is totally unnecessary (I haven't played it yet).

I look at the Dead Space series as being a good time that I don't think about too hard.  The story in these games has always been good enough to get the job done, and I appreciate the thrills, imaginative art style, and what I think is a pretty cool sci-fi adventure in space.  Therefore, I am inclined to be kind to Dead Space 3 and give it a 4 out of 5.  If I were to complain, it would probably be that the game is pretty long and by the end really shows its seams as being an adventure played in a series of very long hallways.  Some of those hallways even get re-used by the end.  Then again, this was/is from the XBox 360 era, and I don't think there is really a better game of hallway action available on the console.  Especially if you want to play together with a friend on the co-op campaign.

 

[TDIRunner | 2,739]

I finished Super Mario Wonder last night.  I made it a point to try to "100%" each level as I went through, so even if I finished a level, I went back through it until I completed everything and got the checkmark.  I did this for all levels outside of the Special World.  But now that I'm done with the main part of the game, I've started to go through those levels.

So as of right now, I have two medals.  One for finishing the game, and one for getting all of the standees.  I have three levels remaining in the Special World to complete. I'm fairly confident that I will be able to complete two of these levels, but I'm not sure if I have to skills to get the final test.  It seems like in recent years, every Mario themed game has had at least one level or challenge that I've been unable to complete.  Odyssey had one moon I couldn't get.  3D World had one level I couldn't complete.  Treasure Tracker had one challenge I wasn't able to do. I'll give it a try, but I have my doubts going into it.  It's crazy to think that one single level in Wonder can prevent you from acquiring three of the medals.  

Overall, I enjoyed Wonder even if the main part of the game was probably the easiest Mario game since Super Mario World.  I loved the style and look of the game.  The controls were very tight and responsive, which I can't say about recent 3D Mario games.  My biggest complaint would probably be the lack of bosses throughout the game.  The final boss was a lot of fun, but also easy.  I managed to get through it on the first try.  It's a fun game and I highly recommend it, but I don't see as much replay value as I've seen in older 2D Mario games.  

[TDIRunner | 2,739]

I can't believe it, but I finally managed to complete the very last challenge and get everything.  I think this might be the first Mario game I've "100%" since Super Mario World.  

[wongojack | 214]

Well, I finished another game.  Escape from Monkey Island on the PS2.  I remember renting this game more than 20 years ago, and I THOUGHT that I didn't finish it, but as I played it with my wife, we realized that we had in fact finished it.  Oh well, I hadn't played it in 20 years, so I didn't remember the solutions to the puzzles, and it was still fun.

"Escape" is a serviceable entry in the Monkey Island series, but the well documented criticisms are true.  The PS2 interface adds some wrinkles that the classic mouse and keyboard interface would alleviate, and the puzzle solving in the 3rd act (rock tumbling and monkey kombat) are time fillers that are just no fun.  Those things leave a bit of a bad memory of the end of the game, but there were plenty of things to like about Escape.  The voice acting and soundtrack in this installment are excellent.  It seemed like they really put a lot of effort into giving Guybrush quirky things to say in a lot of unique game situations.  The supporting cast was also excellent, and I appreciated the art style.  I know the conversion to 3d was controversial for some, but I thought the game looked spectacular.  I really felt like I was watching (and hearing) a high-budget cartoon version of MI.  The story was above average and did a nice job of incorporating old characters while introducing some new ones as well.  It also managed to nicely expand the MI lore by introducing us to some new members of the Marley family.  In the end, I enjoyed my (apparently) 2nd playthrough of Escape, but it is probably a game that only fans of the series should seek out.  Maybe if there are a few mods to give it a true point and click control scheme, it would feel more like one of the cherished examples of this much loved series.  It gets a a solid 3 out of 5 from me.

 

[Rhuno | 107]

RollerGames on the NES. It's like Double Dragon on roller skates; pretty fun little beat 'em up that I'd never played before. Stage 6-2 has some difficult platforming which got annoying, but still enjoyed the game quite a bit.

[DarkTone | 984]

God of war ragnarok. Best game I've played this year. 

[wongojack | 214]

Alright, I finished my final backlog game that I started this year.

 

Fallout New Vegas - I closed a big gap in my personal gaming history with this one.  It sure is hard to get the Bethesda games knocked out when you fall behind, but I finally got to this one.  I started playing back in May and played more than 100 hours.  The past few days I've been mulling over my experience and considering what I really think about this game.  There's so much that one could say about a game of this breadth and scope.  At its best, Fallout New Vegas is an immersive role-playing experience where you wander in a world full of tough choices on the very edge of civilization.  The people in this world are interesting and full of backgrounds and stories that make you ask yourself "what would I do?"  It is one of the best examples of interactive storytelling and action that exist.  Everyone should at least try this game for a few hours.

With a view looking back from 2023, there certainly were some things about FNV that showed its age.  At times, I found myself expecting a little too much from the game and perhaps judging it harshly, but that is only because the general overall quality of the game is excellent.  Still as a gamer in 2023, I found myself thinking things about the Bethesda format that I wouldn't have thought of 10 years ago.  "There sure is a lot of just walking around and talking in this game" or "How long has it been since I killed something."  Overall, the format works.  The player is caught up in the (sometimes overly) complex story and the characters of the rich and deep setting of the Mohave Wasteland.  A little extra walking is almost always rewarded with something interesting, and if you really want to kill something, there are plenty of opportunities to do just that.  I even enjoyed playing on "hardcore" mode which requires you to eat and drink to stay alive.  I was playing the Xbox 360 version without any mods or DLC which is the way I prefer to experience a game like this for the first time.  I did hit a few BUGthesda moments which brought down the enjoyment a bit, but it wasn't a major part of the experience.

I give Fallout New Vegas a 5 out of 5, but the bugs and crashes definitely detract, and I could imagine some players simply giving up at certain points.  If it's not your first Bethesda rodeo then you'll manage through that fine.  If it is then save often and be prepared to search a lot of furniture for semi-useless video game junk.

 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by wongojack

[TDIRunner | 2,739]

The Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection arrived from Limited Run Games yesterday.  I had been looking forward to this game more than anything else from LRG in a long time.  Fortunately, from pre-order to delivery was under 3 months, which is also the shortest delivery window for a LRG order for me in many years.

The main reason I was looking forward to this game was because of the SNES version of Jurassic Park which was one of my favorite SNES games back in the day.  I always believed that this game was underrated and that the Genesis version of JP got more attention due to the fact that you could play as the raptor.  However, I still believe the SNES version of JP has much more going for it with much better gameplay.  The biggest issue with SNES JP is that there is no save or password (or warp whistle) in a game that takes over 3 hours to complete if you know where you are going, and possibly over 10 hours if you are new to the game.  I think this issue alone kept most people from enjoying what the game had to offer.

The SNES JP included in the LRG Collection adds two new quality of life improvements that are extremely important.  First, you can save your game anywhere you want.  Second, a map of the island is included that  you can pull up at any time.  This really helped me out a lot.  I had the island memorized as a kid, but there is no way I could have made my way around last night without the map.  There are a few other new additions such as the ability to rewind and a sound test.  And while a mini "manual" is included in the case, there is no version of the original manual for the game physically or digitally.  The only other change to the game that I noticed is that the faces in the messages you receive are blurred out.  The original game had the likenesses of the actors from the original JP movie in their respective messages, and I'm guessing they didn't have the permission to keep those in this version of the game.  I managed to beat SNES JP last night in a little under 4 hours and it's technically the first time I've ever beaten it despite all of the hours I put into it as a kid.  

The collection includes:

• NES Jurassic Park
• SNES Jurassic Park
• SNES Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues
• Game Boy Jurassic Park
• Game Boy Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues
• Genesis Jurassic Park
• Genesis Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition

I haven't tried anything other than SNES JP, so I don't know what changes or quality of life improvement have been made to the other games.  As a kid, I played a little bit of Genesis JP and SNES JP2, but I never owned either of those games.

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

Doom 64 for the first time since probably 1999.

[wongojack | 214]

River City Ransom for the NES.  I didn't know about this game when I was a kid, and I probably wouldn't have liked it even if I did.  The cartoonish aesthetic and the almost immediate reliance on RPG-style healing separate it from other beat-em ups (of which there aren't many for the NES), but those elements also detract from the arcade-heavy action that most of the games in this genre are known for.  The designer succeeds in creating a new gameplay loop for this type of game BUT forces the player to either take extensive notes about the various items that can be purchased or borrow from someone who already has.  So, your main activity while playing RCR will be tracking what all of the various shop items actually do.  I couldn't bring myself to take my own notes, so I looked all the attributes up.  That turned the game into almost 100% grinding until I got powerful enough and then went for my game-ending run.  EXCEPT that I didn't know I needed to backtrack a little and got into a no-win situation where I couldn't continue and couldn't go back.  A rare situation for a NES game where I actually had to power down the NES and reload using a password.  And boy - those passwords.  I was playing from an original cart that I resurrected with the help of a security bit and some de-ox, so I had to use the password system.  Good thing I am now in the era of instant digital photography.

Once I recovered from my no-win situation, I had plenty of money to power myself up to god-like powers, cruising to the end of the game.  So many a$$holes got a grand slam to the face or dragon kicks to the nuts that I should probably be put away for life.  I give River City Ransom a 2 out of 5.  Now I can finally move on to Retro City Rampage and all of the other games that have borrowed from this "classic" over the years.  My picture is of the dreaded password screen.  Likely a reluctance to use this system caused the original owner of my filthy cart to leave the game in the slot and the NES powered up so long that the contacts became dirty to the point of being unplayable.  RIP password screen:

[Mega Tank | 961]

11 minutes ago, wongojack said:

River City Ransom for the NES.  I didn't know about this game when I was a kid, and I probably wouldn't have liked it even if I did.  The cartoonish aesthetic and the almost immediate reliance on RPG-style healing separate it from other beat-em ups (of which there aren't many for the NES), but those elements also detract from the arcade-heavy action that most of the games in this genre are known for.  The designer succeeds in creating a new gameplay loop for this type of game BUT forces the player to either take extensive notes about the various items that can be purchased or borrow from someone who already has.  So, your main activity while playing RCR will be tracking what all of the various shop items actually do.  I couldn't bring myself to take my own notes, so I looked all the attributes up.  That turned the game into almost 100% grinding until I got powerful enough and then went for my game-ending run.  EXCEPT that I didn't know I needed to backtrack a little and got into a no-win situation where I couldn't continue and couldn't go back.  A rare situation for a NES game where I actually had to power down the NES and reload using a password.  And boy - those passwords.  I was playing from an original cart that I resurrected with the help of a security bit and some de-ox, so I had to use the password system.  Good thing I am now in the era of instant digital photography.

Once I recovered from my no-win situation, I had plenty of money to power myself up to god-like powers, cruising to the end of the game.  So many a$$holes got a grand slam to the face or dragon kicks to the nuts that I should probably be put away for life.  I give River City Ransom a 2 out of 5.  Now I can finally move on to Retro City Rampage and all of the other games that have borrowed from this "classic" over the years.  My picture is of the dreaded password screen.  Likely a reluctance to use this system caused the original owner of my filthy cart to leave the game in the slot and the NES powered up so long that the contacts became dirty to the point of being unplayable.  RIP password screen:

Unfortunately when you don't play some of these games as a kid, it loses it's sense of "discovery". As an adult, you take the most logical approach which would be to grind out the game to eat all the sushi and buy all the books you can to power up, then the game is super easy. As a kid you just eat stuff, see what they do and go back to power up some more when you realize beating the boss is too difficult or near impossible. The password system isn't that terrible. I thought of them as a cool feature that just took a little extra effort.

[wongojack | 214]

1 hour ago, Mega Tank said:

Unfortunately when you don't play some of these games as a kid, it loses it's sense of "discovery". As an adult, you take the most logical approach which would be to grind out the game to eat all the sushi and buy all the books you can to power up, then the game is super easy. As a kid you just eat stuff, see what they do and go back to power up some more when you realize beating the boss is too difficult or near impossible. The password system isn't that terrible. I thought of them as a cool feature that just took a little extra effort.

Well, yes - of course.  And that is an experience I've had over and over as I discover old games that I missed as a kid.  Some hold up and some don't.  However, being an adult also gives one enough perspective to analyze and evaluate a game a bit more objectively, and I don't think the trial and error nature of trying out all the food, books and shoes is particularly good gameplay, let alone getting yourself in a no-win situation.  Also, I never would have had enough patience to make progress in this game as a kid and would probably have viewed a full-price purchase as a bit of a disappointment.  I figured that into my rating.

[Sumez | 2,951]

@wongojack I think your impressions of RCR are spot on.

I think the only way to really appreciate the game is to not have any expectations for the actual core fighting gameplay, which fills up nearly all the time spent with it

Edited December 26, 2023 by Sumez

[wongojack | 214]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

@wongojack I think your impressions of RCR are spot on.

I think the only way to really appreciate the game is to not have any expectations for the actual core fighting gameplay, which fills up nearly all the time spent with it

Yeah, I didn't comment on the actual fighting, but I found it to be some of the most basic and bland, punch, kick, jump, weapon type beat-em up gameplay I've ever seen.  However, I'm willing to give that part of the game a pass because there just aren't many alternatives on the NES and the designers were clearly "deepening" a different aspect of the game.  Plus, I probably could have made the fighting more interesting if I hadn't bought some of the upgrades that make it almost trivial.

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

Maniac Mansion (NES).

[G-type | 2,482]

On 12/25/2023 at 10:07 AM, Mega Tank said:

The password system isn't that terrible. I thought of them as a cool feature that just took a little extra effort.

My understanding of passwords of this era is that they were so complicated because the weren't really passwords per se but really just making you enter a section of hex code for the program to run.

[Mega Tank | 961]

14 minutes ago, G-type said:

My understanding of passwords of this era is that they were so complicated because the weren't really passwords per se but really just making you enter a section of hex code for the program to run.

As a kid it always felt cool to write down the passwords, so I didn't mind it. It's fun seeing manuals written in with notes and passwords.

[Sumez | 2,951]

1 hour ago, G-type said:

My understanding of passwords of this era is that they were so complicated because the weren't really passwords per se but really just making you enter a section of hex code for the program to run.

That's an odd conclusion, but really, the password is just a bunch of save data, most likely encoded to make custom replication difficult, and a few extra checksum bytes thrown in there for verification.

Though some times they aren't even encoded. I remember the passwords for Gargoyle's Quest 2 being so obvious that you could tell which character indicated how many lives you'd have, because the number is literally a part of it. 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Knocked off a couple tonight.

WWF Wrestlemania 2000 (N64) - I have fond memories of renting this one with my buddy.  Great game, but largely overshadowed by its followup, No Mercy.  I don't really see a reason to go back to it again ever, but I'm happy to scratch it off my backlog.

Uncharted Waters (Genesis) - I always loved the idea of a trading simulator, so this game does a great job scratching that itch.  However, I don't like the combat side of the game, which makes me not want to play it fully through again.  I will say that this is the best of three releases though.  

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

13 hours ago, G-type said:

My understanding of passwords of this era is that they were so complicated because the weren't really passwords per se but really just making you enter a section of hex code for the program to run.

I'd argue this is exactly what's happening, hence why we could "make" Game Genie "codes".