The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[Webhead123 | 676]

On 5/6/2022 at 10:05 PM, MegaMan52 said:

Now that I've beaten New Super Mario Bros., I'm playing through Super Mario 3D Land:

I'm casually working my way through it as well. I'm on World 4, I think. Not really very challenging but it has surprised me how charming the whole thing is and the 3D effect is actually neat and surprisingly helpful in certain sections.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Webhead123

[Matchbook | 194]

16 hours ago, RH said:

Well I beat Xenon 2 on the Game Boy.  I’m on the board now.

I'm seriously considering buying one of these to play on

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

7 hours ago, Matchbook said:

I'm seriously considering buying one of these to play on

Do it! My son and I were just playing some Super Mario Land today. It's an amazing machine.

[MegaMan52 | 2,447]

Beat Super Mario 3D Land. I know there's still the Special Worlds, but I played through the eight main worlds and rescued Princess Peach. I also unlocked Luigi.

While I don't like this game quite as much as Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, or Super Mario Sunshine (that's right, I said that and don't regret saying it), I think I like it a little more than New Super Mario Bros. on DS just for the fact that it has several features from both the 2D and 3D Mario games.

I have Super Mario 3D World for Switch, but I'm not sure if I'm going to play through it this year (it's not on my list, since I didn't buy it until after I typed the list). So, the next Mario game I play through might be Super Paper Mario but I haven't decided yet. I have to get back to Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga sometime.

Edited May 9, 2022 by MegaMan52

[Sumez | 2,963]

42 minutes ago, MegaMan52 said:

I have Super Mario 3D World for Switch, but I'm not sure if I'm going to play through it this year (it's not on my list, since I didn't buy it until after I typed the list). So, the next Mario game I play through might be Super Paper Mario but I haven't decided yet. I have to get back to Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga sometime.

Although 3D World pretty much "just" continues the concept from 3D Land, it's IMO a much better game. It just has a lot of much more fun ideas, and the whole thing is a joy to play. If you enjoyed 3D Land even a little, you really should not sleep on World.  

[ThePhleo | 2,185]

@Reed Rothchild very hard to maintain a super accurate list with real life getting in the way.

I've been emulating *a lot* of stuff recently, so I probably could technically give myself a lot of "points" but I haven't really "stuck" to anything.

I mean, does booting up 100 or so SNES titles just to take screenshots of the title screen count? No, no it doesn't.

I've probably played about 25 or so games this year so far, beaten none ... but of those 25 about half are unbeatable online games (FFXIV, Overwatch, Call of Duty, etc.)

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

I finished Links Awakening remaster. after adding it to my list

 

This game was great and truly how a remaster should be handled. The challenge climbed nicely towards the end. The 6th dungeon gave me a lot of issue but it was fun and well done. The final dungeon was my favorite, I loved the look and feel it had. The hot head boss was a bit of a let down but all in all I was happy with it. I only died 17 times, which doesn’t seem like much

 

 

Now I will go back to Kingdom Hearts. I got stuck on the Wonder Land boss and I realize I didn’t grind enough…

[Jeevan | 8,911]

Suck it @Reed Rothchild

haha, jk, love ya buddy, thanks for the poke   also, i can't help it i don't like ogre battle 64, its not fun when you can't control your battles  

[Jeevan | 8,911]

Also, 

werewolf finished tonight @Reed Rothchild.  I am gonna hit it hard so i can get on with smt!!!!  I need to play that soon!

Luigi's mansion is up next, also i streamed and uploaded to youtube if anyone wants to see me suck at pikmin 3!  

@B.A. I finally did it buddy   

[Floating Platforms | 720]

On 5/6/2022 at 12:29 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

@Floating Platforms 6/30
Well, most of the games in this list are awesome, so you've got that going for you.

I keep saying I'm going to play through some of those classic games and never do, so this thread is my motivation. With the weather finally heating up, I can stay in the basement longer and dedicate some late nights to chipping away at them. Plus I have a decent amount of PTO built up at work so at some point I will take days off to just play stuff.

Otherwise, while not playing Game Boy, I'm currently working on Golf Story (almost done with the second area), Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (case 3 of 1st game), and Virtue's Last Reward (ran into a save corrupting glitch and had to restart after 3 hours of play. Working on the second pathway after achieving a "to be continued" ending on the first one).

[Gloves | 11,783]

Started up Ratchet and Clank. Haven't played the series at all before, hopefully I enjoy it. 

[Sumez | 2,963]

I ended up spending time playing through the original Resident Evil 2 (twice, with both characters for the extra ending, difficulty increase and small changes to the scenario) instead of crossing off my backlog.

I liked RE1 well enough that I felt I should at least get a bit more of a feeling for the classic games in the series before moving into its modern era with Resident Evil 4, which I have now started playing. A part of me wanted to go through RE3 and Code Veronica first as well, but I think I'll have to postpone those until next year's backlog.

I've already played RE4 for over three hours now, which is more than I've ever managed in the past. I've played it before on at least three earlier occasions, but I think the biggest push I made sitting down to actually get through was the old save file I found on my Wii which is about two hours into the game. It actually took me nearly three to reach the same place on this playthrough, so I must playing it quite differently this time.

So far I'm liking it a bit better now, I think I'm appreciating the nuances of the combat more this time, as opposed to just repeatedly headshotting villagers till they are gone. The game still has the same pacing issues though, and very easily starts to drag out, but so far I'm willing to believe that gets better once I get further into the game.

I also finished off Eastward last Friday. I'll post a writeup about it later today, for the ~0 people who care about those, after which I should be completely caught up with the thread!

EDIT: Just noticed I'm behind on my schedule, despite making what I felt was rapid progress. 35.7% of the year has passed so far, and once RE4 is done I'll be a little over 25% into my backlog, if I don't count the two games I crossed out before new year's. I am in fact almost 4 games behind

Edited May 11, 2022 by Sumez

[B.A. | 1,139]

9 hours ago, Jeevan said:

 

@B.A. I finally did it buddy   

Miracles do come true!  

[Sumez | 2,963]

Eastward - Beaten 6/5

Eastward was a game I took one look at the screenshots from and decided it was a game I needed to play. It looks amazing. And look at this intro video, tell me if it doesn't fill you with some sort of nostalgia.

This game is very clearly a passion project, and it's quite amazing how much work has been put into it. I'm not joking around when I say that outside of the Metal Slug series,  I don't remember ever seeing a game with so much lush pixel art shoved into it.
Though the sprites don't ever get as huge and elaborate as in the Metal Slugs, Eastward makes up for it in pure excess and unnecessary details. Every background is stuffed with unique assets, and superfluous characters populate every corner of the game's towns. People you never need to actually engage with, lively animated as they bop up and down just standing around. Hell, there's a scene late in the game where it's raining and your single objective is to go directly to the train station. You can just walk there, or you can even fast travel, but if you actually go around and explore the town, everyone will be hanging out in their individual rain attire, ranging from umbrellas with water dripping off the side, to full body rain covers. Lively animated as always, all easily missable, and none of them ever used anywhere else in the game.

The game just exudes character, and that is by far its one strongest asset. Each individual area has its own identity, and the main supporting character, Sam, a little girl with a big white hairdo and a mysterious past, is the stereotype of a naive and loving kid, willing to see only the best in every person she meets. Meanwhile the game's other playable character is your typical silent protagonist, though consistently described by others as reliable, courageous, strong and a bit of hunk (in-game he looks mostly like a hobo).

As for the game itself though. I hate to admit it left me kind of underwhelmed. The game is so story-driven you are spending most of your time watching incredibly long cutscenes, only to occasionally move your character half a second to the right to activate the next long cutscene. The entire game pushes you along this single linear "tunnel" which means you never really get the opportunity to go out and experience the game "for yourself". You are occasionally pushed into these dedicated dungeons which is where the meat of the actual gameplay is. These are generally competently designed, but also don't really manage to stand out in any way, and at times feel almost like a mandated afterthought in order to ensure the game has any gameplay at all. The combat in the game often boils down to wacking the air as enemies move into you, as it is the only safe way to approach many of them.
In fact the built-in, Dragon Quest inspired roguelite RPG, "Earth Born" is often more fun to play than Eastward itself.

As for the story, which is clearly the main focus in the game, I can't escape the feeling that it's been cut short somewhat. The game is very long, but a huge majority of it is spent building characters, many of which then only cease to ever appear again for the rest of the game, just as story elements are brought up and then never become relevant again. It feels like the designers had this massive elaborate idea of this incredible world and how every place played a role in the story, but never quite got the time to establish all of it.
Instead you spend a sizable portion of the game hunting for ingredients to win a cooking bet which, adorably, ends up not really mattering anyway. It's a section which does a lot to flesh out Sam especially, but when the game switches gear and suddenly tries to make you care about the story in its eleventh hour, it's kind of hard to really know what you should be invested in, because no one's motivations are explained, and the game's many mysteries feel like they exist mostly just to obscure what is going on anyway.

At the end of the day, I kinda liked Eastward, but its main selling point is its lush presentation, and it doesn't have too much going for it outside of that, which is regrettable given the amount of work put into it.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Sumez

[fox | 1,667]

Horizon Forbidden West

[spacepup | 2,404]

I'm making (slow) progress through a few of the games.  

I'm about halfway through Cubivore, which I've been really enjoying.  It's a very simple game, but it's cute / quirky, and all around just very interesting and different.  Huge huge thanks to @Jeevan for helping me secure it so I could finally get a chance to play it!

I'm also about a quarter to halfway through La-Mulana 2.  I loved the original, and the sequel is more greatness.  It's such a fun game, but omg is it a bit challenging.  A lot of backtracking and exploration needed to figure out what to do / where to go.  It's a pretty tough game overall, but I'm working my way through it.  Love the game.

I've made some progress on Shin Megami Tensei V, and also Paper Mario.  

I tend to switcheroo back and forth quite a bit, for better or worse, just depending on my mood ha!  

I haven't completed any of the games (on my backlog that is) yet, but I am making slow progress and will continue.  

[G-type | 2,482]

On 5/6/2022 at 1:29 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

@G-type 0/3
Sometimes I watch my 5 year olds play a game and I get frustrated that they have the gaming ability of 5 year olds.  And then I feel bad.  I imagine this is similar to what @North feels when he watches his old man struggle to play Super Mario Bros. 2.

Super Mario 2 isn't on my list this year... I've moved on and am calling my save-state assisted run from last year "good enough". Still need to earn those 3 Atari patches. I got real close on Mountain King and Turmoil, and I've done it for Qberts Qubes in 2019... so I am sure I could do it again.

[Jicsan | 589]

Finally got a second game off the list, Kirby's Adventure is done.  You guys said this one was easy, but that last boss gave me a hard time.  I've been working on Guardians of the Galaxy quite a bit lately too so hopefully I can wrap that one by the end of the month.

[Sumez | 2,963]

I'm still working on Resi 4 which is turning out to be quite a long game.

But I was on a long train ride, so I figured I needed to start up something I can play on Switch as well. I wanted to bring Luminous Avenger, but I was in a hurry and couldn't get that blasted wrapping off the game box so I ended up taking Sam & Max Save the World which was already unsealed 

I was halfway expecting a modern narrative driven facsimile of an adventure game, but as I started the game I was immediately extremely positively surprised by the style and tone of the game, which feels completely like it takes off exactly where the classic old LucasArts game ended. Same humor, same style of dialogue, same type of puzzles. Really looking forward to playing more of this!

Edited May 14, 2022 by Sumez

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

I completed The Simpsons Game on PlayStation 2 today and that’s two games in a week! I’m on a dang roll  

 

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this game. The story was like of bland but funny. I did enjoy the very small obscure references, they were a nice addition to the game. The camera was kind of janky and it didn’t like to cooperate in a few instances. I thought the “mini game” parts were fun but the rest was missing something. 
 

All in all I feel it would have benefited greatly from a little more polish. Compared to other Simpsons games, this is great. To me myself? I won’t play it again. 

[Jeevan | 8,911]

Luigi's mansion done, i died a lot on the king boo fight as i was talking on twitch and such, but its on there for proof .  

[MegaMan52 | 2,447]

36 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

Luigi's mansion done, i died a lot on the king boo fight as i was talking on twitch and such, but its on there for proof .  

Congrats Jeeves. Watched you on Twitch for a bit this afternoon.

Edited May 14, 2022 by MegaMan52

[Jeevan | 8,911]

1 minute ago, MegaMan52 said:

Congrats Jeeves. Watched your Stream for a bit this afternoon.

nice, did u see how bad i sucked?  lol

[MegaMan52 | 2,447]

Just now, Jeevan said:

nice, did u see how bad i sucked?  lol

I started watching it about here: 

And had to stop about here: 

I'm not good at it either. The first Luigi's Mansion is the only one I'm good at.

[Jeevan | 8,911]

1 minute ago, MegaMan52 said:

I started watching it about here: 

And had to stop about here: 

I'm not good at it either. The first Luigi's Mansion is the only one I'm good at.

nice, i was talking to some person in guatemala, they were watching as well, no clue who they were, but we had a nice chat, i was a little slow on that part and super slow on beating king boo because i had to learn the pattern and then the talking lol.  Thanks for at least watching a bit .  It's always fun to show off my bad gaming skillz!