The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[twiztor | 851]

On 3/20/2022 at 12:34 PM, Estil said:

NEVER GIVE UP!  Keep trying and you WILL win!

thank you for the words of encouragement, @Estil, but i'm perfectly content not playing that one anymore. i gave it a solid effort and ended up with more frustration than fun, so called it quits. But i did polish off Mega Man X (not even on my list!) for the first time to make up for it!

even grabbed all the extras and the Haduken too.

Edited March 7, 2023 by twiztor
cleaning up pictures

[Estil | 1,265]

1 hour ago, twiztor said:

thank you for the words of encouragement, @Estil, but i'm perfectly content not playing that one anymore. i gave it a solid effort and ended up with more frustration than fun, so called it quits. But i did polish off Mega Man X (not even on my list!) for the first time to make up for it!

even grabbed all the extras and the Haduken too.

https://imgur.com/a/BOexkji

Hey that'd get you a few trophies (ten bronze and one silver to be exact) if you got the PS4 version!  And you don't necessarily have to call it quits for good...who knows you might someday come back to it and get it completed then.  It's no different when taking a test in school; you obviously don't want to stay "stuck" on a really hard question, eh gaming task, so you have put it aside for now to work on another eh, more manageable game.  You can always come back to that harder part later whenever you like...even if it's several years later whether you finish it now or then doesn't it count the same?

And that MegaMan X game sure brings back memories though sadly back in the day I could only afford to rent it once in awhile.  Definitely NOT the "good ol' days"  

Edited March 21, 2022 by Estil

[Webhead123 | 679]

Just finished Super Mario Bros. 2 all the way through for the first time. Pleasant, little game. Not my favorite in the 2D series as the game play feels a little "loosey-goosey" to me but I appreciate how different it is from the others.

[Foochie776 | 1,056]

I’m trucking through Wind Waker, I’m guessing it will be done by this weekend  

[Estil | 1,265]

1 hour ago, Foochie776 said:

I’m trucking through Wind Waker, I’m guessing it will be done by this weekend  

GC or WiiU version?  Be careful not to miss any of the trophies/figurines!  I wish they had continued that tradition.

[Foochie776 | 1,056]

23 hours ago, Estil said:

GC or WiiU version?  Be careful not to miss any of the trophies/figurines!  I wish they had continued that tradition.

GameCube! I’ve been doing kind of a bare bones run, though the further I get into it I’m enjoying it more and more! 

[Foochie776 | 1,056]

Wind Waker is done. All I can say, wow. Much better than expected. 

 

I had always discounted this game because of the different art style and chalked it up as a more “childish” Zelda title. It took some time to adjust to the sailing mechanics but they were fluid. The dungeons felt well paced and well thought out. 
 

PROS:

All items felt useful and purposeful. There was a fair amount of open exploration. Very fluid controls. Story was good (better than expected). Bosses were creative and fun. Zelda had a roll of importance and not just the damsel. 
 

CONS:

Ganon fight was fun but was hoping for more use of the swords. The graphics on the GameCube didn’t look great, even for it’s time. Paying for charts to be deciphered was a pain. 
 

All in all, this was a great game and now I have only 3 more console Zelda’s to play. This was super good but not quite the top of the list for me.  

 

As for my next game, I may add a new one to my backlog! 
 

 

Kingdom Hearts has plagued me for years 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

I've started Okami.  Really digging it so far.  I owned it on PS2 back in the day, but never made time for it.

[Estil | 1,265]

18 hours ago, Foochie776 said:

PROS: All items felt useful and purposeful. There was a fair amount of open exploration. Very fluid controls. Story was good (better than expected). Bosses were creative and fun. Zelda had a roll of importance and not just the damsel. 
 

CONS: Ganon fight was fun but was hoping for more use of the swords. The graphics on the GameCube didn’t look great, even for it’s time. Paying for charts to be deciphered was a pain. 

Speaking of bosses wasn't it so kawaii the way our little green hero jumps and down saying "Yay! Yay!" when he beats a boss?  In Zelda games I always like to tell my wife that I won/found her heart (container/piece) 

MY main con is that it didn't have the chickens   As least they do come back for the DS games (which also use "Toon Link" like graphics) where if you tease one enough times it'll get pissed and turn red before calling for reinforcements!!  That'll teach you for teasing the Cucoos!

[Murray | 2,449]

15 minutes ago, Estil said:

Speaking of bosses wasn't it so kawaii the way our little green hero jumps and down saying "Yay! Yay!" when he beats a boss?  In Zelda games I always like to tell my wife that I won/found her heart (container/piece) 

MY main con is that it didn't have the chickens   As least they do come back for the DS games (which also use "Toon Link" like graphics) where if you tease one enough times it'll get pissed and turn red before calling for reinforcements!!  That'll teach you for teasing the Cucoos!

Harassing the lil’ pigs was funnier anyways

Edited March 25, 2022 by Murray

[Estil | 1,265]

5 hours ago, Murray said:

Harassing the lil’ pigs was funnier anyways

I love teasing and torturing Omochao in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle best of all  

[Webhead123 | 679]

12 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I've started Okami.  Really digging it so far.  I owned it on PS2 back in the day, but never made time for it.

I had it on Wii back when it was fairly new, got a couple hours into it and then got distracted and never picked it back up. I really need to make an effort to return. I loved basically everything about it. No excuse for why I let this one escape me.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

24 minutes ago, Webhead123 said:

I had it on Wii back when it was fairly new, got a couple hours into it and then got distracted and never picked it back up. I really need to make an effort to return. I loved basically everything about it. No excuse for why I let this one escape me.

The HD remaster looks great.  Definitely an art style that has not aged a day in many respects.

[Webhead123 | 679]

2 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

The HD remaster looks great.  Definitely an art style that has not aged a day in many respects.

I believe I have the remaster on my PS3. Just gotta blow the dust off of it.

[Estil | 1,265]

11 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

I believe I have the remaster on my PS3. Just gotta blow the dust off of it.

This way you can get trophies!

[peg | 372]

FINALLY cleared Dodonpachi after lots of failure and frustration.  This was ranked #2 on my list based on difficulty for my goals for this year so I'm feeling pretty good right now.

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by peg

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

I find it tough to find the time to work on RPGs. Even when there is time, there's isn't necessarily the desire to play a game. Add to this that I'm the type who like to do and find everything in an RPG, and it adds up to - sometimes - being a daunting proposition. Perhaps this is why, in over 20 years, I'd never gotten around to Wild Arms.

Well, I can finally say that this one is in the can as of today!

A few people mentioned being curious about my thoughts when I'd completed it, so here's an abridged version of everything I was thinking while going through the game:

The score is absolutely fantastic. I was really impressed by the arrangements, the fit of the tracks to each scene and theme, and their ability to go hand in hand with the narrative as a driver for the mood and desired emotional connection.

The sound effects on the other hand ranged from competent to laughable. Most of the enemies sounded like cats yelping when taking a hit which made me laugh every time, or like a t-rex when pulling off a bigger move (even when the enemy was tiny). I really think most of the enemy sound effects must have been place holders that never got changed before the game went gold.

The graphics out of battle are great sprite based fare, hearkening back to the SNES and Genesis. The polygonal battle graphics felt completely unnecessary; I imagine this must have been a mandate by Sony in their push for 3D on the PS1, if not for the whole game, at least a token part of it to justify the game being on the PS1.

I enjoyed the navigation of towns and dungeons a la Crusader of Centy, and having tools to spice up those areas and add light puzzle elements was refreshing. My one major gripe here is the Magic Map: a map with no names on it is nearly useless and I had to keep my phone handy to see a version online that someone had written all the names on...Magic Map...pfft. The battle system itself felt a little half baked: every boss fight felt identical as the same strategy would see you win every time with little effort. Guardians were useless as an attack as I always did way more damage than they did, but I did like that their stones gave you stat boosts. 

As for the characters themselves, the ARMS system with Rudy was interesting and upgrading them kept them relevant throughout the game. Jack's sword skills were cool in that he'd get the idea for a move from some external factor, and then would have to try performing the move several times until he'd finally learn it; very neat, very organic! Having access to whatever spells you wanted so long as you had the crests to bind them was a pretty nice feature for the magic. All in all, I really liked the different mechanics for the 3 characters.

Speaking of the characters, I REALLY liked that there were only 3 of them in the party. In nearly every RPG, there invariably seems to be a couple of characters that just never get used for one reason or another, and when it's time to do missions that flesh out their backstory/motivations, I just don't care because I don't care about them. 'Less is more' really worked for this game and I wish I'd see it more in RPGs.

And...the story. There's a lot to like, but the story felt a little unfocused/uneven throughout. I felt like new concepts kept getting thrown in and that the writers struggled to pick a route to get from beginning to end. I think the story would have benefited from choosing either the magic/spiritual route or the high technology route; mixing the two so heavily made for several messy points in the game. I do appreciate that they didn't shy away from the themes of death and loss as there were some particularly touching moments throughout. I was surprised at the general lack of direction in the game, with the design choice being made that one needs to talk to everyone in towns to get clues and a sense of where to go next. Sometimes, this was done in clever fashion, and at other times, it was rather obtuse. All in all, I think the story and delivery of it could have been streamlined with the points kept in being expounded upon, but 'as-is', was competent all the same.

So, in the end, I had fun. By about the 3/4 mark I was ready for it to be over, but I did enjoy my time in the world of Wild Arms. If I was to score the game out of 10 (based on our grading system for the weekly rankings), my gut reaction would be 6.5: a good game that I enjoyed.

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

1 hour ago, Renmauzo said:

I find it tough to find the time to work on RPGs. Even when there is time, there's isn't necessarily the desire to play a game. Add to this that I'm the type who like to do and find everything in an RPG, and it adds up to - sometimes - being a daunting proposition. Perhaps this is why, in over 20 years, I'd never gotten around to Wild Arms.

Well, I can finally say that this one is in the can as of today!

A few people mentioned being curious about my thoughts when I'd completed it, so here's an abridged version of everything I was thinking while going through the game:

The score is absolutely fantastic. I was really impressed by the arrangements, the fit of the tracks to each scene and theme, and their ability to go hand in hand with the narrative as a driver for the mood and desired emotional connection.

The sound effects on the other hand ranged from competent to laughable. Most of the enemies sounded like cats yelping when taking a hit which made me laugh every time, or like a t-rex when pulling off a bigger move (even when the enemy was tiny). I really think most of the enemy sound effects must have been place holders that never got changed before the game went gold.

The graphics out of battle are great sprite based fare, hearkening back to the SNES and Genesis. The polygonal battle graphics felt completely unnecessary; I imagine this must have been a mandate by Sony in their push for 3D on the PS1, if not for the whole game, at least a token part of it to justify the game being on the PS1.

I enjoyed the navigation of towns and dungeons a la Crusader of Centy, and having tools to spice up those areas and add light puzzle elements was refreshing. My one major gripe here is the Magic Map: a map with no names on it is nearly useless and I had to keep my phone handy to see a version online that someone had written all the names on...Magic Map...pfft. The battle system itself felt a little half baked: every boss fight felt identical as the same strategy would see you win every time with little effort. Guardians were useless as an attack as I always did way more damage than they did, but I did like that their stones gave you stat boosts. 

As for the characters themselves, the ARMS system with Rudy was interesting and upgrading them kept them relevant throughout the game. Jack's sword skills were cool in that he'd get the idea for a move from some external factor, and then would have to try performing the move several times until he'd finally learn it; very neat, very organic! Having access to whatever spells you wanted so long as you had the crests to bind them was a pretty nice feature for the magic. All in all, I really liked the different mechanics for the 3 characters.

Speaking of the characters, I REALLY liked that there were only 3 of them in the party. In nearly every RPG, there invariably seems to be a couple of characters that just never get used for one reason or another, and when it's time to do missions that flesh out their backstory/motivations, I just don't care because I don't care about them. 'Less is more' really worked for this game and I wish I'd see it more in RPGs.

And...the story. There's a lot to like, but the story felt a little unfocused/uneven throughout. I felt like new concepts kept getting thrown in and that the writers struggled to pick a route to get from beginning to end. I think the story would have benefited from choosing either the magic/spiritual route or the high technology route; mixing the two so heavily made for several messy points in the game. I do appreciate that they didn't shy away from the themes of death and loss as there were some particularly touching moments throughout. I was surprised at the general lack of direction in the game, with the design choice being made that one needs to talk to everyone in towns to get clues and a sense of where to go next. Sometimes, this was done in clever fashion, and at other times, it was rather obtuse. All in all, I think the story and delivery of it could have been streamlined with the points kept in being expounded upon, but 'as-is', was competent all the same.

So, in the end, I had fun. By about the 3/4 mark I was ready for it to be over, but I did enjoy my time in the world of Wild Arms. If I was to score the game out of 10 (based on our grading system for the weekly rankings), my gut reaction would be 6.5: a good game that I enjoyed.

Great write up! Any desire to check the sequels out? 

I'm on the homestretch of TTYD and I can confidently say that this is ine of the best games I have ever played. This is as near perfect as can be. I wish it would last forever.

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

3 hours ago, Kguillemette said:

Great write up! Any desire to check the sequels out? 

I'm on the homestretch of TTYD and I can confidently say that this is ine of the best games I have ever played. This is as near perfect as can be. I wish it would last forever.

Thanks! Yes, Wild Arms 2 is next up and was the first WA game I bought in the series back when it first came out (I picked up the first game later on clearance but never got around to trying it). As often happens, I played WA2 to a point and moved onto another RPG that caught my eye at the time. I'd go on to buy all the Wild Arms releases, but until beating the first game today, had only played some of 2 and 3. I remember enjoying 2, so I'm looking forward to starting over again.

Speaking of TTYD, another game I bought at launch and still haven't opened yet. I think I'll either add that to next year's list if I can't get through the stuff on this year's list first. I have every confidence that the game is brilliant

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

TTYD will be on my list next year as well.  Played it for a few hours back in the day, lost momentum for whatever reason, and sold it during the great purge.

I recently gave up hope of a remaster on Switch and required it so it's finally back on the table.

[MegaMan52 | 2,451]

Beat Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell on GameCube: 

Played using a real GameCube, not a Wii or an Emulator.

Also made use of the Game Boy Advance Connectivity feature, which is pretty cool. It shows your surroundings, warns you if guards are nearby (it beeps and shows where they are), allows you to use a Sticky Bomb weapon that is exclusive to this version of the game, and unlocks levels in the GBA version, among other things. The area shown in the GBA picture is from the last level, near the beginning of the last part where you have to snipe Nikoladze. The green arrow is Sam Fisher (me), the purple arrow is a guard that's been knocked out, and the red arrow is a guard who is above Fisher. The Sticky Bomb weapon is shot with the GameCube's Controller using the SC-20K, and then activated by pressing a button on the Game Boy Advance, taking out any guards that are near it. The same Connectivity feature is also in the GameCube versions of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, but unfortunately it is not included in Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

I've already beaten Pandora Tomorrow, Chaos Theory, and Double Agent, so Splinter Cell: Conviction (which I have for PC) is next.

Edited July 8, 2022 by MegaMan52

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

I just beat Mole Mania a few minutes ago, and boy, what a wonderful game it is! I wasn't expecting a boss rush a la Mega Man for the last stage, but each boss was made slightly tougher to provide a little extra challenge, scaling with the player's increased skill.

The two niggling things for me:

1. The soundtrack loop length made for a soundtrack that got a little grating as levels wore on.

2. Level 7 saw some uneven difficulty as many of the puzzles were about as difficult as you'd expect by that point in the game, but peppered throughout were screens where the 'difficulty' was reminiscent of level 1 difficulty; I just though this was odd.

At any rate, I love this game, and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes action puzzle games and/or Lolo.

Oh, and this game has the cutest family of characters ever.

My wife walked in at the end and said, "Thanks for saving the wife.", patted my head, and walked back out.

[Estil | 1,265]

4 hours ago, Renmauzo said:

Oh, and this game has the cutest family of characters ever.

My wife walked in at the end and said, "Thanks for saving the wife.", patted my head, and walked back out.

Try playing Zelda games and tell her that you won/found her heart like I did for my late wife!    She'll think it's so sweet, I promise.

And I still maintain Dragon Quest 5's Nera/Flora and the blue haired twin son/daughter are the cutest family of characters ever.  Especially how your little girl asks you to hold her hand because she's afraid of heights or the dark or something...never mind her and her bro think nothing of taking down giant bosses!!

[twiztor | 851]

14 hours ago, Renmauzo said:

I just beat Mole Mania a few minutes ago, and boy, what a wonderful game it is! I wasn't expecting a boss rush a la Mega Man for the last stage, but each boss was made slightly tougher to provide a little extra challenge, scaling with the player's increased skill.

i played through Mole Mania for the first time 2 years ago (on my COVID vacation) and found it a lot of fun. There were a couple screens that i'm not even sure how the puzzle worked and solved it by accident. But had a great time and i can see why it gets its reputation as a "hidden gem".

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

I drew a picture of Muddy + child this evening for Yokoi Kids after getting some inspiration from the kids when they got home from school.

My daughter was wrestling with her brother today which promptly got me worried someone was going to get hurt; they groaned at me for breaking it up. That's when I decided to draw this picture of Muddy and one of his kids being reckless. My daughter thought it was cute, I thought, "Can't you see this is what it feels like to be a parent!?" -_-