The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 2,959]

23 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

I liked it quite a bit more than @Sumez.

Fwiw I liked the game, there's just so many ways it could have been better, especially on the video game side of things. I like the things the game does well, and it's an interesting game to try out, it's just also kinda hard to recommend

[Sumez | 2,959]

Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction (PS3) - Beaten 8/7 (twice)

Following Psychonauts, this is just what I needed. As a platform game, Ratchet &Clank is tight as hell, it controls perfectly and you never doubt where you're gonna land. It could easily have had a ton more actual platforming, and probably be better for it, but the game prefers to focus more on just running forward and shooting every enemy in your path. It feels more like a third person shooter than a platform game, but the platform controls gel incredibly well with that sort of game, and I think more games of this style generally should be welcome, considering traversal of stages that way is simply just a lot more fun than moving a sluggish "realistic" soldier around.

The R&C franchise is a long and messy one, but I think this is the fourth *major* title in the series?
As (I'm assuming) a consequence thereof, this game has a lot of odd stuff going on that feels completely pointless. You start the game with a whole bunch of skills which are very contextual but rarely ever utilized - I'm guessing those are things introduced in the earlier games that the developers didn't want to break continuity to get rid of, even though they add little to nothing in this game. The game also has a bunch of characters that don't feel they belong in the game and just pop in and out whenever they feel like it - not that that's really an issue though, considering the plot doesn't take itself seriously, and is mostly just an excuse for Ratchet to continuously travel from one planet to the next in search of the same macguffin that ends up in the villain's hands eventually anyway.

This is accompanied with a series of lighthearted cutscenes, and orchestral music that is loud and bombastic and fits the tone of the game perfectly. The humor is never actually funny, but the comical tone is delightful regardless.
A lot of care has been put into the carton style dialogue and animations which helps ensure Ratchet & Clank's world is just a fun place to run around, which at the end of the day might be one of the most important aspects of a video game. Compare Psychonauts' clearly more interesting setting with a lot more thought put into it, but which on the other hand had a clearly lower budget, and voice artists showing very little engagement (on many occasions you can tell they are just reading the script with no knowledge of the context). It's little details in the polish that helps Ratchet & Clank fight its way above being just a generic 3D platformer and/or shooter.

The paradoxical thing about this game though is, that in spite of all the unique thing they make you do - spaceships battles, gyro cycle tracks, flying, dodging enemies while free-falling, and so on - the game eventually feels quite repetitive. At its core it is still just a series of encounters where you shoot all the enemies and then move on.
There's a big focus on various different types of weapons that you can level up until they are super overpowered, so most of the game is about juggling those weapons until you find your favourites for each situation, and just stick to those. Though there's a decent variety of enemies, there are very few situations where their behavior really matters, merely your choice of weapon matters (until the postgame where you get a weapon that's OP for every situation). You're rarely engaging directly with few enemies in a reactive manner, as opposed to just taking out big swarms of smaller ones, and I think that's the biggest wasted potential of the game, and from what I've seen the rest of the series is sadly no different. I think there's a great potential in 3D platformer approach to a Contra style game, and Ratchet & Clank touches very mildly on that without ever going there, opting instead for a more hack-n-slash approach to its gunplay where you just blast everything and move on.

I still enjoyed my time with it though, the fun tone and tight controls really goes a long way at making the game entertaining. After beating the game, a "challenge" mode is unlocked where all the enemies do a lot more damage, and you can upgrade your weapons even further. This also introduces a multiplier system where avoiding getting hit entirely will keep increasing the amount of in-game currency you get from enemies, quickly reaching astronomical levels, far above what anything will ever cost you, and to the point where you get so many digits that game's UI can't keep up.
Hoping to get more of a challenge from the game, I opted out of upgrading my armor for the second time through, so anything would be able to kill me in just two hits. Enemies still die so fast, though, that it never really changes much, and I got through this mode in just a few hours.
On one hand I'm really enticed to try out more of the Ratchet & Clank series, but on the other hand from what I can tell from videos of them, they all seem incredibly similar to this game to the point where I'm not sure what else there is to gain from the series. Maybe one of the PS2 games would be the most sensible place to go from here?

[Philosoraptor | 468]

First one in a while; Pokemon Brilliant Diamond is done.

I'll be honest; this game is not great. I don't even think it's good. There are moments that save it, like the Elite Four actually being challenging and the Grand Underground being actually neat, but damn if this game isn't a slog.

You want a large variety of Pokemon pulled from gens I - IV? Nope. You're limited to an arbitrary 151 made up of a hodgepodge of (in my opinion) mostly mediocre-to-crap 'mons from the first four gens until you finish the Sinnoh Pokedex and get the National Dex. Even then, you don't get a TON more like you do in other games. Cave herpes, AKA Zubat and Geodude, are back in force, and they brought their friends Budew, Onix, Machop, and Buizel (and their evolved forms). Hope you like 'em, cause you'll be seeing one or more of them on nearly every route and in a lot of trainer's teams.

You want a cool story? Naah. Not here. You get standard Pokemon fare with a villain who is best described as "uninspired."

You want a balanced game with a fair difficulty curve? Nope. Like most newer Pokemon games, Exp Share is automatically turned on, so enjoy all your Pokemon being several, if not 10+ levels more than your opponents until you get to the Elite Four, where you'll probably be under leveled if you only fought trainers or changed a bunch of your team throughout the journey.

Mini games? Side quests? Extras? Not so much. Super Contests are a fun, simple distraction but the system wasn't overhauled and they're not notably better than in other gens. The aforementioned Grand Underground is probably the coolest thing about the game, but the lack of Pokemon variety neuters it. Secret Bases are back, but I didn't make one, honestly. Never felt the need or desire to.

That's not to say it's not all bad. You can use HMs without having to teach them to your Pokemon. The game is faithful to the originals, maybe to a fault. The pause screen now tells you were to go. You can also put stickers on your Poke balls to make confetti, lightning, and other stuff pop out when you throw them (wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). If you've played Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee and Sword/Shield, you're given a Mew and Jirachi in the fourth town. 

Speaking of Mew and Jirachi, they're surprisingly not OP at all. They have 100 in each base stat, which is a bunch initially, but it makes them a "jack of all trades" instead of a reliable anything in the end game. Mew ended up being a buff stick/Baton Passer (like Lopunny), and Jirachi ended up being my fourth attacker behind Gardevior, Garchomp, and Raichu. I went into the Elite Four with my entire team around level 60, which ended up being lower than pretty much everyone else's teams, especially Cynthia.

Next up are some SNES games and then on to Sega stuff. Dunno what yet, but I'm excited for a change of pace.

[fox | 1,667]

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

[spacepup | 2,404]

I've started 7 games from my list but haven't finished any of them yet, hahahahah!

But hey, I'm slowly making progress, so that's what counts

[Sumez | 2,959]

The Firemen - Beaten 9/7

Maybe not quite a hidden gem, but at least a well regarded, slightly-below-the-radar SNES title that I always hear people praising. It's a universally loved game, but I never really gave it a good shake outside of playing around around with the earlier stages a few decades ago. I thought the premise was incredibly captivating, and the graphics are perfectly on-point, but unless you commit to playing through the game, it might be hard to really understand what sort of game this actually is. You go into an office building, extinguish the fires, and then what?

But what starts out feeling mostly like feeding your own personal compulsions as you take out all the flames in your way, does eventually evolve into a hectic arcade-style shooter, once flames start coming at you from various directions all at once!
Although it feels like a style of game that could have had more to work with given a typical sci-fi setting with fantastical aliens and robots and laser weapons and whatnot, there's an amazing thematic constraint at work, in how every enemy you are facing is essentially just different sorts of flames, although their behavior is not necessarily realistic. Some times you'll go through a hallway as pillars of flames approach you from behind, or low flames sweep the floor ahead of you. And as you progress through the game you'll come across rabid fireballs flying in all directions, large fires spitting out streams of smaller ones, or explosions oddly moving across the ground. Though, being set far into the future year of 2010, that does at least allow for a few household robots on fire, moving erratically across the floor as they risk exploding in your face.

There is also plenty of other things going on, as you try moving across rooms where the floor will give in and risk trapping you, or pipes or lamps can explode and fall on you, always ensuring a frantic representation of the disaster you are trying to contain. Thematically, The Firemen is simply immaculate. To help you on your way, finding people to save will give you a healing boost, while water bombs can also be found to help take out large areas of fire, but are probably best utilized to either finish off bosses fast, or stockpiled to the point where picking up excess ones will upgrade your basic "attack" for as long as you can avoid taking a hit.

The controls pretty much shape the gameplay. Your basic attack is a long water spray from your hose which can reach far away fires, while an alternate low spray will hit only flames around you, but can take out multiple targets at once, working better as a defensive tactic - though it is also essential for certain flames along the ground that can only be hit this way.
Both attacks make you move slower, but the latter especially almost locks you in place. You can also hold a shoulder button to lock your direction and strafe around, which is probably what you want to do 90% of the time in order to control your attack and cover more ground as you attempt to move forward at a decent pace, fighting the constantly ticking timer - this is absolutely a game designed with speedrunning in mind.

The two variations of attack alongside a duck button which can be used to dodge flying fireballs and sudden explosions are what governs your ability to react to every given situation, and often you will need to react fast, giving you no time fiddle with the controls. Miss a beat and you will die easily. Although the controls are both intuitive and responsive, this is probably what I struggled with the most, since having so many different buttons which all play a role, it was easy for me to mix up two of them in the heat of the battle. I tried playing with an arcade stick for my second playthrough, which made controlling the game easier in general, but probably made the excessive button count even more of a mess to manage.
Another slight issue the game has is the limited field of view on the vertical axis. The HUD takes up a lot of space, including an oddly huge chunk of the bottom dedicated to showing your bomb count, and especially moving downwards, it's hard to see enemies hiding just outside your field of view, moments before they are close enough to damage you. In general though, the claustrophobic feel of the game does benefit the theme somewhat.

The game is fairly easy, on my second attempt I was able to make it to the final boss on a single life. But you are ranked on a bunch of factors like your speed and the percentage of fire extinguished - which fortunately only counts the larger flames, supporting the game's forward-moving arcade pace. Going for a 100% perfect score takes a bunch of practice and learning the layout of the building for more efficient firefighting. But even then, there's an unlockable expert mode which doesn't mess around. Much more enemies, higher damage count, and only one life for the whole ordeal. There's definitely more stuff for me to go for in this game, and I can see myself returning to it many times in the future to improve my performance!

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Kirby Super Star is done. 

I never grew up with a Super Nintendo, so going back and playing these beloved classics is always anxiety inducing. This was especially true of Kirby Super Star, as it's one of my girlfriend's favorite games in one of her favorite series, and she excitedly sat right by me on the couch and watched my entire playthrough, hoping I'd love it as much as her.

Well, on the first day I got through Spring Breeze, Dynablade and some of the Great Cave Offensive. I was whelmed. It was a good Kirby game, but nothing special, I thought. I also really didn't like Great Cave Offensive as I'm not the biggest fan of slow puzzle platformers (que my girlfriend being disappointed and heartbroken that I didn't like one of her favorite parts of the game). 

Thankfully, that wasn't the end of the game. I got through the rest of the game on day two, and DAMN it was amazing (except the rest of the Great Cave Offensive). Revenge of Meta Knight and Milky Way Wishes have some of the best gameplay in the Kirby franchise. The boss rush was really cool, too. It was cool to see how much the Super Smash Bros franchise borrowed from this game.

Overall, while this didn't end up being my favorite Kirby game because Return to Dreamland and Planet Robobot exist, it's an absolutely fantastic game that lives up to the hype. Also, the graphics are extremely impressive for the SNES, and the soundtrack is probably the best in the series. *phew*

[MegaMan52 | 2,445]

Beat the City Trial mode in Kirby Air Ride. I didn't quite complete all of the tasks, but I completed the vast majority of them and unlocked the ending. 

I'll never understand why this game got mediocre ratings. Oh sure, it's not a traditional Kirby game. But neither are Kirby's Pinball Land, Kirby's Dream Course, and Kirby's Block Ball, and those games are all reasonably good. Kirby Air Ride is no exception. Like Melee, you can customize just about everything like the number of laps, time, speed, difficulty, Kirby colors, etc. Also like Melee, there are TONS of unlockables (options, movies, music, Kirby colors, characters, one race track, and other things). The game has original and remixed music tracks (some of which are orchestrated), and the original versions of some music (like the Rockstar music from Kirby 64). Melee's version of the Green Greens music sometimes plays on the Checker Knights track. Familiar enemies appear on the tracks, and Kirby can still copy abilities. Familiar bosses that have been in the series since the first Kirby's Dream Land also make appearances: Whispy Woods appears in City Trial mode's city (and you can even attack him!), while Kracko sometimes appears in one of Top Ride mode's tracks. Kirby can get off the machines in City Trial mode. There isn't much point doing this unless you want a different machine, but while you're finding a different machine Kirby can run, jump, fly, and swim like in the traditional games. Kirby Air Ride is still very much a Kirby game, and there is a sense of familiarity throughout.

I like all three modes, but City Trial is obviously the highlight (especially if you want something different than racing). There's a lot variety, including destruction derbies, melee's, drag races, and air gliding. Adding to the similarities with other Kirby games, you can also battle King Dedede. The race tracks are included as well, allowing you to race with your souped-up machines. A lot of events happen in the city, like the appearance of Dyna Blade (you can fly into her if you want), dense fog, real items being replaced with fake items, the machines sometimes moving extremely fast, and meteors falling everywhere. Kirby Air Ride has a LAN option and is one of the games that makes use the GameCube's Broadband Adapter, and both the Air Ride and City Trial modes are available in case you don't want to put up with split-screen.

It took a while, but while playing City Trial I got Hydra and Dragoon: 

I have to say, the games simplistic controls (Control Stick and one button) were kind of cool and innovative. Maybe nothing special now, but still kind of cool in an era with several complex games.

Two episodes of the Kirby anime have some of the machines from Kirby Air Ride (both episodes are mixed with other episodes on the Kirby Fright to the Finish DVD). A sort of Kirby Air Ride comic is included in the December 2003 issue (volume 174) of Nintendo Power magazine (an adaptation of one of the anime's Air Ride episodes) There is also a Kirby Memory Card 251 that came out in Japan (and yes, I saved my progress using this Card).

Edited July 15, 2022 by MegaMan52

[Splain | 2,570]

I like Kirby Air Ride, especially the RC-ish mode (Top Ride?) that ends up being where I spend the most time. I love the classic Sakurai-style wall of achievements.

[fox | 1,667]

I just put the DLC on my list, but I was having a lot of fun with Chalice and the new weapons.  Went on an absolute tear last night beating 8 bosses, then beat King Dice and the Devil tonight.  The DLC additions have really cemented this as an all time fav for me.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

I'm rounding the final lap of Tales of Graces f. It's such a linear adventure, which does and doesn't work from a presentation standpoint. I enjoy the story, but there are quite a few missed opportunities by going the route it did. Not even close to being my favorite tales games.

[Sumez | 2,959]

Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX - Beaten 11/7

Luminous Avenger is kinda the continuation of Mega Man Zero's lineage, for better or worse. Carried on through the Azure Striker Gunvolt series, which this game is a spinoff from. As a result, you can easily trace the style of game all the way back to the Mega Man X series, but even though it looks the part, you really shouldn't expect this to play like any Mega Man game.

Let's start out with the way the game wants you to play. At the core of all its systems is the "Kudos" counter, basically a score based on comboing damage to enemies throughout the stage. There is no timer that will end the combo, but taking three hits will reset the counter to zero, and you can also go balls out with a setting that awards you a score bonus at the cost of losing your combo to only one hit.
You are able to bank your current Kudos count at checkpoints, but just like aforementioned risk/reward system, you can opt to bypass the checkpoint in order to maintain a gradually increasing multiplier from keeping the same combo going. Outside of this, there's a bunch of flavor you can add to your moves to further increase the kudos you get from finishing off enemies. Deliver the finishing blow with your subweapons (earned from killing bosses, just like in Mega Man) and doing so while airborne will give you a bonus, and as long as you keep killing enemies airborne, this bonus keeps climbing until the next time you touch the ground.

This is all great in theory, but where this game just fails to click for me, is how it's basically an "all or nothing" investment. You can't just pull off a combo here and there - if you're going for kudos, you're going for ALL of them. Fortunately the game doesn't demand absolute perfection to achieve the highest rank, but any rank lower than S+ is essentially a failure, unless you just ignore the system entirely.
Playing casually, all you really need to care about is surviving the stage - which is by far the weakest point of the game, because there's really no way you can't possibly survive. On top of your health bar, you have another energy resource ("bullits") which can shield you from taking damage. While taking any hit can damage your combo, it will never damage your health as long as you have any bullits left, and you can recharge them to max for free at any point in the game as long as you are on the ground. Remember how staying in the air is beneficial to your scoring? Yes, all of this of course plays into scoring, but at the cost of playing to survive (you know, like in a traditional video game) being completely devoid of engagement. You can easily just push through everything, keeping your bullits reloaded, to never take any damage ever, no matter how poorly you play.

And, get this, even if you do run out of HP, instead of dying there is a very high chance your Navi-style robot friend will turn into a "subtly dressed" fairy for some reason and start singing a really annoying j-pop song, which keeps your character superpowered and impervious to damage for the rest of the stage! Said j-pop song will even play over any cutscenes you encounter. Feels like the game's way to say "lol you goofed up, let's remind you of that every single second" - except the same thing happens when you play well and get your kudos counter over 1000, but it's similarly annoying regardless.

Outside of the lack of threat, every stage has barely any actual level design. Most of them are just long corridors dotting out one enemy at a time, lined up only for you to deal out your Kudos-generating combos.
So if it wasn't already clear - if you aren't going for Kudos, you aren't playing the game. But that's the thing, you never need those Kudos for anything in the game, it is pure vanity.
Now, I'm a longtime fan of arcade games, and I always enjoy scoring systems that allow you to measure your skill at a game. But without pairing those mechanics with an actual game underneath it, I find it very hard to engage myself in the scoring in the first place. Luminous Avenger iX might be a rewarding experience to people looking to master it, but it does nothing to draw in anyone below that level. And as a result it took me a long time to even muster the perserverance to play through it once, which of course makes me much less inclined to return to actually challenge myself.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

The backlog train is rolling once again. I've been making good progress on Ghost of Tsushima (PS5) and I can confidently say it's a damn good open world game. I don't know what's in the water over at the Sony studios, but they pump out some insane quality, even if their output gets to be a bit "samey."

I also finally bit the bullet and loaded up Final Fantasy X on Switch. Starting a new JRPG always feels like such a hurdle since the openings are always so slow, but the Switch suspend function helps a lot with that. It's actually not my first attempt at the game; I played about 6 hours of the PS2 version through backwards compatibility on my PS3 many years ago, but ran into an emulation error that wouldn't let me progress, so I had to quit. The game looks pretty darn good upscaled and in widescreen, particularly on the OLED Switch screen. I was a diehard Final Fantasy fan through FFIX, but I never moved on with the series into generations beyond PS1. Hopefully this is the start of me playing all the remaining games.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

I'm still rolling along in Uncharted Waters New Horizons.  It is not a short game... but I'm aiming to be done by the end of the month.

Batman is on hiatus.  I've made it to the final level, but after leaving my system on for several days straight, I temporarily admitted defeat to that final climb at the end of the stage.  I'll try again at the end of the year.  If I have to retire it, it's fine because I saw 90% of the game.

[Sumez | 2,959]

Tried a bit of Plok! yesterday, not sure I'm gonna carry through with this. So in order to continue after dying you need to collect four "PLOK" letters. This can only be done once per "credit", so after using your continue you need to gather a new one to be able to continue again. This will allow you to continue where you got the 4th letter, and gathering four again will move this point, rather than stockpiling multiple continues.

So how do you get those letters? By beating a stage without dying on it, in other words once you reach the point where you're stuck proceeding, being able to continue will most likely do nothing but delay the inevitable. Though according to Wikipedia, the game also has two hardcoded checkpoints, where reaching one of those will give you the option to always continue there, even after resetting the console. At least that gives me some hope of being able to conquer the game, but at the end of the day here's the real kicker: It's not a very good game, and it's apparently incredibly long. I don't know if I have the patience for this.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Sumez

[scaryice | 587]

2 hours ago, Sumez said:

Tried a bit of Plok! yesterday, not sure I'm gonna carry through with this.

When I beat Plok in 2015, I figured out a nice way to farm lives/continues. Here's what I wrote at the time:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/588578-plok/72347627

[Philosoraptor | 468]

Tonight I beat Pilotwings for the first time.

Honestly, I'm unsure how I feel about this one. Pilotwings falls adjacently, but squarely outside the normal genres of games I typically play. Aircraft? Love 'em, but usually in on-rails shooters or SHMUPs. Combat sims? Sure, but I gravitate towards stuff like Armored Core, Mechassault, and Gundam Breaker. The only true flight sims I've put any time into are Top Gun on the NES and Star Wars Jedi Starfighter on the OG Xbox, and I don't think either are a good comparison for Pilotwings. Is it great? Is it OK? No idea.

I thought the difficulty curve was fair, but the controls were hit and miss. IMO, the rocket belt and skydiving controlled the best and the plane controlled the worst, especially when landing. I also found that the Mode 7 graphics made moving targets more difficult to hit than I would have expected, especially in later stages.

Based on Reed's rating scale, I'd give it a 6 or a 7. However, I'm interested in trying another, preferably newer game in the same genre. Are there any amazing games or series out there that y'all would recommend?

[Floating Platforms | 717]

When I took the week of July 4th off, I initially planned to play and finish a few different games.  Instead, I completed one (StarTropics), made decent progress in Battle of Olympus (but got a little stuck again as the areas I can access feel like they are beyond my ability or items), and spent most of my time finally getting all the gold bricks in Lego Dimensions

I had several adventure worlds left to go through, all of the Lego Batman Movie story pack, and a couple other levels to clean-up before hitting 1016.

Then last night, I finally grabbed the last trophy needed by "speed-running" the portal level under 25 minutes to get the platinum (#37 overall for me) - only 7 years after I started playing.

The game is overall enjoyable, but not great. The humor and settings and interplay were what I wanted. I though the gameplay was varied enough, but seeking out all the gold bricks got a bit repetitive.  The adventure worlds were put together well, even if I could complain about how some of them were structured.  Still, they did add more references to the various properties that took the sting out of doing the same stuff over and over. Playing on the PS3 is not ideal. It is extremely buggy and glitchy. The game will often freeze in-between checkpoints, forcing you to quit out of everything, reboot the system and then try again. Sometimes the characters' secondary abilities won't work, so you have to quit and restart the game.  From my understanding, no version of the game is great about glitches and freezes, but at least the PS3 is better than the Wii U version.  I didn't own a PS4 when this came out, so this was my option.

I'm not a huge Lego fan and don't really care about toys-to-life, but something about the combo and all the different IPs interacting with each other really spoke to me.  I certainly got my money's worth out of this whole ordeal. Part of me wants to play a more straight-forward Lego game, but it's not high on my list of priorities. 

[twiztor | 851]

Sonic 4 (xbox360, download only) 
this game is OK, but is a noticeable step down from the Genesis trilogy. the sprites just feel wrong, and the physics are more slippery. it also introduces the ability to "lock on" to enemies, which changes how you play pretty drastically (to be fair, this was introduced earlier in the 3d games, but this is the first time we use it in 2d). 
this was released as two separate "episodes", with a third planned but never finished (side rant: only the first episode was released on the wii-u, which pisses me off to no end). purchasing both episodes is supposed to trigger a bonus "episode metal", but it didn't show up for me. figures.
anyway, back on topic, it's pretty safe to skip this one unless you're an obsessed maniac like i am.

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

I finally completed a 120 shrine run of Breath of the Wild. I’ve played the game a couple times before and gotten close but this time I finally went the full mile.

 

This game is a top 5 for me and it was a lot of fun to do it like this. There was a few shrines (maybe 3-4) that really really stumped me but I had fun. Eventually I’ll return to this file and finish the side quests but for now.. I’ve had enough Zelda  

[Renmauzo | 1,201]

I decided to take on Final Fantasy XV. I got the SE online exclusive special edition, and then later double dipped on the Royal Edition...and neither had been touched until a month and a half ago; I finally got the urge to take this game on.

That said, I finally finished the game this evening. I didn't do a completionist run as I started to get tired of the MMO nature of this game, but I may go back for a New Game + run at some point and try to do some of the crazier stuff.

All I'll say about this one is that its strength is in the relationship of the four friends. The rest of the game is a mess in design and execution. It's a bad sign when you've got to read a wiki breaking down the story because of all the things that aren't made available to you as a player or if you didn't buy/play the DLC episodes.

I'll play the game again sometime to hang out with the boys again and buy/play the DLC episodes. The story (once I read enough to find out what the backstory/lore is) is actually really cool; this could have been an all-time great FF with proper execution.

Anyway, a mixed bag but its charm grew on me. Now, on to the next!

[Sumez | 2,959]

Plok! - Ended 22/7

Well this game was a really big letdown.
Returning to it, I did a lot better with my previous experience in the baggage - not a single death until the boss that killed me on my earlier attempt. I made it quite a bit further this time, but the fun ended when I ran into the "Creepy Forest" stage, approximately two thirds into the game. This stage introduces incredibly annoying spinning doors that you need to time your passage through to avoid taking a hit. The timing is very tight, and for some reason the developers decided to make the doors alternate their spinning direction between each spin meaning your best bet for making it through requires even more incessant waiting around. Most places on the stage, waiting for those doors is combined with a very small platform to stand on, and unkillable enemies that are constantly firing aimed shots at you, which makes timing your passage through the door nearly impossible.

At this point I just called it quits, I didn't even have the patience to sit it out for a game over. The game is overall completely frustrating for terrible reasons, and this was the point that took it over the top for me.
It really feels like the developers were dead set on making every invidual obstacle a lethal hazard - not necessarily a bad thing by itself, but each of them feels tweaked to the point where it's more concerned with beating the shit out of the player, than providing a fun challenge.
The whole game is just wildly antagonistic, and is probably best exemplified by the rolling logs that appear on all of the earliest stages. Jumping over them isn't difficult as long as you are aware of them, but they are almost always placed in such a way they will roll into view at the very last splitsecond they can be dodged. Nevermind the stages that just decide to straight up toss them into your face lest you've already started retreating before they spawn, you can almost hear the developers laughing in your face.

These are joined by many more bafflingly terrible decisions as the game progresses though, reflected by both enemy design and stage layout, with examples far too numerous to list. It's too bad, because mechanically the game is sound. The controls are surprisingly tight, and there are a lot of fun ideas that just don't feel like they were ever implemented in the service of an actual gameplay purpose. It's kind of cool how every attack sacrifices one of Plok's limbs, leaving him horribly handicapped if you decide to fire off all four, which also plays into certain switches that require giving up those limbs for a longer period of time. But everywhere it's used it always feels like an afterthought, and never the primary feature of the game.

On a more positive note, as I'm sure most people are already aware, one of the game's best assets is the music. The compositions aren't amazing, but pretty good, and mostly stand out thanks to Tim Follin's excellent audio production. Few other games have been able to make the SNES's typically muddy sample playback sound as clear and smooth as Plok! does. It's brilliant, and having worked with the SNES sound hardware myself in the past, I have absolutely no idea how he managed to do it.

I won't consider this game beaten, but in the service of my backlog, it's been played as far as I ever will. Plok! is not a good game, and I don't see myself ever returning to it. How @Reed Rothchild made it through this game seemingly without issues, but at the same time deemed the (brilliant) SNES version Prince of Persia "way too hard", and ranked at around the same place is beyond me.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

Oh, I had issues.  I game overed on that very stage (among other) as well.  Trying to remember if the revolving door level was even the toughest "underground" stage.  The one where you had to climb up in a big circular loop was pretty bad too, unless that was the same level.

As far as PoP, I do not perform well under the pressure of time limits.

[Philosoraptor | 468]

For the first time in my life, I've beaten 100 games in a year. Life goal achieved. I think my previous best was 26.

For #100, I beat one that I was saving for a special occasion, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack. I was having a hard time finding a reasonably priced copy...about 8 years ago...and my GF, being as awesome as she is, managed to snag a very underpriced BIN and surprise me with it after a hard day at work. So, the game itself means a lot to me. For those curious, she paid $160 for a slightly-faded CIB. 

Well, since we also recently celebrated our 10th anniversary, I figured I'd, you know, play the game she bought for me all those years ago. Don't worry; she wasn't mad that I didn't play it immediately. We both have seemingly insurmountable backlogs, and I've been told I have a bad habit of "saving" the good games for later, playing mediocre games I only kind of want to play, and then never getting around to the good ones. I'm working on that.

I posted my feelings about the main story in the Beat Every N64 game thread, but I'll say it has the potential to be a pretty fun party game. I've always loved Bomberman 64's battle mode, so the fact that they've tried to provide both standard 2D Bomberman maps and 3D maps like in Bomberman 64 is pretty interesting. The bombs, with a few exceptions, explode in the standard cross shape, making The Second Attack a different experience from Bomberman 64. There are also five different battle modes, which is pretty neat. The story mode is puzzle heavy, and the end is surprisingly difficult. The verdict is still out on the battle mode, but I gave the story a solid 7/10. It's hard to recommend this one at today's prices, but at least it's not both expensive AND bad.

So, after 100 games beaten, that must mean I've smashed my backlog challenge right? Have I beaten more games than I set out to at the beginning of this year? Hell yeah, definitely. Have I beaten the number I wanted to beat in specific genres? Yep. Quite easily. But, have I beaten a certain number of games for certain consoles? NOPE.

Here's the number of games I've beaten for specific consoles (first number) as well as how many I originally wanted to beat (second number):

• 24 of 4 NES games/Famicom games
• 40 of 3 Game Boy games 
• 3 of 2 SNES games
• 4 of 2 SMS games
• 8 of 2 Genesis games
• 0 of 1 Sega CD games
• 0 of 1 Saturn games
• 0 of 1 Dreamcast games
• 2 of 2 PS4 games
• 3 of 2 Switch games
• 8 of 0 Game Gear games
• 1 of 0 GBA games
• 5 of 0 GBC games
• 2 of 0 N64 games

Lots of zeroes. So, yeah, I tend to get sidetracked and focus on one console until I move on. I was hoping the console requirements would get me to play games I otherwise wouldn't, and I'd say that's been a massive success.

The site events have really, really helped me beat way more games than I would have on my own, and they've been a blast. I hope to keep participating in them to help chip away at my backlog even more. I know I'll beat the last few Sega games I need to to finish everything up, but I keep chuckling at how things have turned out. I think, if I had listed specific games at the beginning of the year, I might not have participated in the contests or beaten as many games as I did, so I'm happy with what I've done, even if it wasn't a true "backlog challenge."

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

That's nuts!  Im trying to think of anyone got to 100 last year, much less in 6-7 months.