The 2022 Backlog Challenge

[Sumez | 2,963]

Tombi! - Beaten 13/11

Been having a hard time setting myself up to play this game. When I first saw a friend play Tombi back in the day I knew I had to have it, because it seemed like nothing else I had ever seen. So I'm glad I managed to get a copy of both games in the series while they were still super cheap. But every time I've tried playing it since, I just bounced off it. Kinda regrettable, given this game is the brainchild of Tokuro Fujiwara, one of my absolute favourite game designers - which should surprise no one.

 

Well this time I managed to push through, and I'm very happy I did. At first Tombi seems like the kind of game that just likes to waste your time, because you just want to play it, but things keep stopping you in your path to talk to you, or make you go back and do other things, and I guess the trick is to learn that doing that just is the game.
On the surface it's a typical platformer, maybe borderline "metroidvania" due to the ability to backtrack between locations, and talk to NPCs and such. The controls are very weird, with your standard jump doubling as a sort of wrestling style dive drop, but you get used to that.

The more unique aspect of the game is how almost everything can be interacted with in some way. No matter where you go, you keep finding new items whose purpose you probably have no clue about, people asking you to do one thing or another, or just suspicious situations that seem like they need to be solved. Some of them are simple - right away there's a thick fog blocking your way, which can be cleared by releasing a wind attack that you found just prior. Others you're probably very likely to just miss completely until you've already passed over their location 20 times over towards the end of the game.

It's hard to explain how all these mini-quests - or "events" - basically define the entire experience of the game, but the sheer volume of them, compared to how obscure some of the solutions are, really makes Tombi a surprisingly exciting game to explore and keep making gradual progress in. It's the kind of game that rewards you for experimenting with weird ideas, and paying attention to everything NPCs are saying. Like a platforming adventure game.
Though there are a few segments that can get surprisingly challenging, when it plays more like an action platformer, I'd say Tombi is overall a very chill casual game that rewards players for just sitting down and getting into it. I think I appreciate it mostly because there just really aren't any other game completely like this. I still have the second game to look forward to, but is it too much to wish for a third game in this series at this point?

[Splain | 2,571]

So my year-end update is that I haven't beaten any more games from my list. But I logged a bunch of hours in Jack Bros, Aidyn Chronicles, and Okami. And a TON in Hollow Knight. It just won't be this year that I finish them. Sonic 2 will go onto 2023's log. It's dangerous to read through this thread, because it reminds me of games I've always wanted to play through.

[G-type | 2,482]

On 1/3/2022 at 2:01 PM, G-type said:

2022

• 3 new Atari badge challenge scores
• Super Metroid
• Thimbleweed Park

 

0/5 I think the only games I played this year were during game night.

[Jeevan | 8,912]

1 minute ago, G-type said:

0/5 I think the only games I played this year were during game night.

you played that one i sent you, did you "earn" a badge for it?

[G-type | 2,482]

2 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

you played that one i sent you, did you "earn" a badge for it?

I've achieved that score once before. But I didn't earn it in 2022

[Jeevan | 8,912]

13 minutes ago, G-type said:

I've achieved that score once before. But I didn't earn it in 2022

i tried lol

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

I knocked off six more games in the past few months during my absence from the site, but only one of those was on my backlog list.

On list:

1. Forgotten City (XSX)

Off list:

1. Kirby and the Forgotten Land (NSW, Easy; co-op with my son)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy (XSX)
3. Scorn (XSX)
4. Vampire Survivors (XSX)
5. High On Life (XSX)

That puts me at a whopping 27 games for the year which is probably a new record for me. While 15 of them were from the backlog, only 2 were from my focused list. Overall, it was a fantastic and fun year of gaming, but I didn't make any real progress on the JRPGs. FFX is okay, but I find myself always reaching for something else. And now with the Witcher 3 update out, I really have no clue when I'll get through it.

I'll copy my list over to 2023 sometime before the year starts.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

I'm throwing in the towel with my final game, Contra Hard Corps.  Been trying on-and-off for most of the year.  But there's too much trial and error.  Too many attacks that come out of nowhere.  Too many restarts from the beginning.  Too much cheapness.

I enjoyed the game.  Got pretty far along the many paths.  But I don't have any more patience to try and string together a completion.  

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

I might try and knock off one beatable puzzler or platformer, but it's been a challenging year to have free time to devote to myself. Plus I have been finding myself drifting to and from my backlog just wanting to try different things or revisit old favorites.

[Sumez | 2,963]

On 12/24/2022 at 8:26 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm throwing in the towel with my final game, Contra Hard Corps.  Been trying on-and-off for most of the year.  But there's too much trial and error.  Too many attacks that come out of nowhere.  Too many restarts from the beginning.  Too much cheapness.

I enjoyed the game.  Got pretty far along the many paths.  But I don't have any more patience to try and string together a completion.  

Aw man, sad to see you let that one go. I feel like that game has a worse reputation than it deserves - as in its bark is worse than its bite, because it'll feel very hard right away, but is probably one of the easiest Contra games once you know it. And I know you've cleared plenty of genuinely tough games.

The first stage has a shitton of RNG and enemies coming at you with little to no reaction time. It's IMO probably the hardest part of the entire game, and I'd just reset until I make it through that one unscathed - Almost everything else in the game is a boss rush, and the few other locations that aren't, just let you run'n'gun the whole way through with little reaction required, unlike stage 1.

And the bosses can generally be patternized quite easily. I agree there's a lot of trial and error in the game, but it's the kind where if one attack kills you once, you'll probably know not to stand there again on a future run. Most of them have really huge, glaring safe spots, and very predictable behavior - so once you know a boss it's often just a question of knowing when to stand where.
If you're willing to give it one more go, the route I'd recommend for your first clear is:

1. Research center
2. Surrender and fight later

That way you'll have very few bosses with any sort of unpredictable behavior.

The junkyard boss (Cascade) which you'll fight on both paths is probably the first bigger obstacle, but use the right weapons and bomb if there's a spot you know you can't survive consistently. Like most other bosses, you can use the same strategy every time and succeed without fail.

The next few bosses are just very predictable setpieces following a pattern. The motorcycle guys at the train can be a threat, but the bosses there will barely try to harm you at all.
The only bosses on this route that I'd say are a real threat are Deadeye Joe. and Dr. Crab, who is completely unpredictable. It's a really fun boss, but it's also one of the few in the game where you have to think ahead and can't just stand in the right place, so it's probably a good place to use a bomb or two if you just want the easy clear, and remember your slide makes you temporarily invincible. The final boss is very basic and is mostly just about getting as far away from it as possible in all three phases, and recognizing its attacks.

Edited December 25, 2022 by Sumez

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

I just checked, and I actually reached the final boss of the "non-surrender" path.

[Sumez | 2,963]

Come on, you can do it then! 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,545]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

Come on, you can do it then! 

Reached the final boss of Castlevania III and Sonic 3 last year.

Reached the final boss of Metal Warriors and Contra Hard Corps this year.

Once I think I have them down I start to rush it because I'm impatient and fuck up.  And it's all downhill from there.

[Webhead123 | 678]

On 12/24/2022 at 1:26 AM, Reed Rothchild said:

I'm throwing in the towel with my final game, Contra Hard Corps.  Been trying on-and-off for most of the year.  But there's too much trial and error.  Too many attacks that come out of nowhere.  Too many restarts from the beginning.  Too much cheapness.

I enjoyed the game.  Got pretty far along the many paths.  But I don't have any more patience to try and string together a completion.  

I think I've also officially given up on both Shinobi 3 and DuckTales for this year. I've turned my attention to trying to put the nail in the coffin of X-Men 2 before the year is done. I've also finally started a new save file on LoZ: Oracle of Seasons but I probably won't have time for full completion until after the new year, so I'll just end up rolling those games over to my 2023 list.

Oh...and Conker's Bad Fur Day...yeah I might just drop that game off my backlog entirely. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it. It's that I think I've just reached the point in life where blatant gatekeeping in games just kills my enthusiasm. When I hit that "you must return to previous levels to collect more greeblies before you can proceed" wall, I just get annoyed. Other than that (and some expectedly janky controls), I was liking the game.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Webhead123

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

5 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

Oh...and Conker's Bad Fur Day...yeah I might just drop that game off my backlog entirely. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it. It's that I think I've just reached the point in life where blatant gatekeeping in games just kills my enthusiasm. When I hit that "you must return to previous levels to collect more greeblies before you can proceed" wall, I just get annoyed. Other than that (and some expectedly janky controls), I was liking the game.

If you're just wanting to see the end, there are codes that will let you bypass the progression wall.  Use the code "WELDERSBENCH" to unlock chapter select.  I wouldn't call it beating it legit, but if you just want to see the parts you haven't been to yet, it's worth a go.

[Webhead123 | 678]

X-Men 2: Clone Wars beaten.

I have some pretty wildly mixed feelings about this game. To get the few negatives out of the way first, the game does have a fair bit of cheap design happening, both for and against the player. Some enemies, obstacles and their placements are such that it can be irritatingly difficult to avoid hits. One example is a boomerang-throwing enemy that is a) invincible until they release the weapon, b) has a semi-random throwing trajectory and c) is often placed on ledges that are just slightly too far in to hit with a straight jumping attack from below. Usually, with a little patience, you can find a strategy to deal with them but sometimes it just feels like a cheap tactic to drain the player's life bar. Another example is the "climb the ziggurat" stage in the Savage Land, where random boulders fall on you from off-screen. They fall so quickly and with zero warning such that you will take hits from them occasionally. It feels like the developers knew this as well, because they put quite a few health power-ups directly along your path. And there's a later stage featuring a maze filled with instant death traps which is about as fun as it sounds.

On the flip side of this, there are a few cheap tactics available for the player to exploit as well. Cyclops/Gambit can be used to cheese some of the bosses with their ranged attacks and, when you unlock Magneto later on, his powers can be similarly abused in some situations. Of particular note, Magneto completely trivializes the Apocalypse boss fight, one that is normally a bit tough because of the mechanics involved. But Magneto can essentially bypass all the challenge in the fight and put himself in a position where he can never be hit but still retaliate.

But that and some occasionally iffy hitboxes with certain standing attacks are the only real negatives I have against this one. Other than that, I think it is one of the most sincere and commendable efforts at a superhero game in the 16-bit era. You get a large variety of characters to choose from and each feels distinct in their attacks, movement and special powers. Some characters are more acrobatic than others. Some can climb on walls and even ceilings. Some have attacks with longer or shorter reach. And being the X-Men, having their mutant powers be accessible and well-represented is very important. There's no "Mutant Energy" bar. Using your powers doesn't drain health or require a "cooldown timer". Press the A button = use you power. Some powers can even be charged up for greater effect. And when your character is at or near full health, your power is even more effective. It's a nice touch that makes the player feel like they have access to the X-Man that they are playing. And Wolverine not only has full-time, zero-cost access to his claws, but also genuine representation of his healing factor. Yes...Wolverine actually heals in-game! It's good stuff.

You also get to explore some pretty iconic locations and though the rogues gallery isn't as robust as some might like, there are still some pivotal inclusions that I feel make it solid.

The music is pretty decent. Nothing I'd want to own in OST form but none of the music really annoyed me or stood out as distracting.

So, a pretty great 16-bit X-Men effort and one I'll probably replay on occasion, even just for the first few levels.

8/10

Edited December 27, 2022 by Webhead123

[fox | 1,667]

Spoiler

God of War Ragnarok is beaten 100%.  Now to get working on that 2023 list

[FireHazard51 | 2,044]

Beat The Curious Tale of The Stolen Pets (PSVR).  Was a cute short game of problem solving and item finding.  I really enjoyed the soundtrack that came from Wintergatan (YouTube famous)

Spoiler

 

I doubt I'll beat God of War (PS4) before the end of the year so time to put it on the 2023 list as I'll be finishing up at the start of next year!

[Sumez | 2,963]

Wuppo - Beaten 5/12

Be honest with me, have you ever heard of Wuppo?

Between neglected classics and weird random choices on my backlog, this game was probably the biggest wildcard. I honestly have no idea how it showed up on my radar in the first place, and why I felt at one point that it was something I had to play.
I searched the logs of every video game forum and discord server I have participated in the past few years and could not dig up a single mention of Wuppo even existing... Which I guess effectively makes it the most obscure game I have ever played - and that is saying a lot!

So I guess if it turned out to be great, we'd have a genuine actual hidden gem on our hands, right?
Well, it's not quite there. Honestly, I'm not sure how to describe the game, and it feels like it's not sure what it wants to do itself, coming across more like an experiment for the developers wanting to try a bunch of different things to see what sticks.

On the surface it's best described as a "metroidvania", because that's really how it plays, and it describes the overall structure. I find the visual style extremely appealing. Instead of being built from tiles or generic structures, every area in the game is pretty much a unique MS Paint style drawing. While it doesn't look pretty, it's completely serviceable, and manages to have a lot of character, which is really endearing.
You move around, discover new areas and fight the occasional boss. But between those, few areas really qualify as video game stages, and instead focus on providing a rich world for you to explore. There's a big apartment building, a theme park, a train station, and a massive city with multiple sections. The game has a constantly running day-night cycle, and most things operate on a timed schedule, such as the public transportation moving you around, and most places are densely populated with countless other NPCs hopping around doing their daily tasks. Once you reach the city you can even spend a bunch of time performing various little jobs around the place to kill time before you're finally able to proceed.

Every part of this is spiced up with a lot of unique and humorous personality. There's a strange political system in place governing the main city, as well as a rich history of the creatures inhabiting the land, and the physics backing everything - all complete with a slew of strange made-up words that are hard to keep track of.
What I enjoyed the most was the actual video game stuff though. There's a couple of locations (but really only a couple) that feel like genuine video game stages, including a pretty cool puzzle maze near the end - and actually quite a lot of boss fights which are mostly creative.
Your attack is a rapidfire cannon controlled with the right analog stick, meaning those fights are actually quite action-heavy compared to the rest of the game, and not really puzzle-like affairs which you'd probably have expected. I played on Hard mode, but even though few bosses are really pushovers, they weren't terribly hard - until the final boss which was actually stupidly tough. In all the fights though, I think the biggest challenge comes from a pretty terrible lack of clarity, as a mess of numbers and particle effects completely cover most of the stuff you need to actually pay attention to and try to avoid.

Ultimately Wuppo is all over the place, and incredibly inconsistent as a result, not just in its focus, but in quality as well. It's hard to recommend to fans of one thing or the other, because other games do all of it better. Want a classic indie metroidvania? Play Hollow Knight. Want.. the other thing? play Iconoclasts or something. Want something no one else has played? I guess that's Wuppo.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

@Sumez what system?

[Sumez | 2,963]

1 hour ago, MrWunderful said:

@Sumez what system?

I played it on PS4 but it's on pretty much everything. PC version has mouse controls which might make bosses a little easier.

[Sumez | 2,963]

Nightmare of Druaga - Quit somewhere during December

I'm not too acquainted with the legacy of the Druaga series, and only mildly familiar with the original two arcade games. All I know is that they both rely on so many obscure secrets and mechanics that people are traditionally discouraged from going in blind and trying to conquer them on their own.
With that in mind, though, I was curious to try a modern take on the series, and one made by Arika no less. Turns out however, that Nightmare of Druaga is actually a part of Chunsoft's long lived Mystery Dungeon series, a series usually designed around a very traditional roguelike approach. And although even the original Druaga games are absolutely highly inspired by roguelikes, it seems to me that this game owers more to Mystery Dungeon than Tower of Druaga, even though it provides its own spin on it.

The approach is quite classic, enemies move only when you do, making for a simplistic turn based combat system with a mild tactical element. In a confusing twist, the game gives you two separate speed stats, determined by your weapon or armor respectively. One determines who acts first when you're attacking enemies, while the other determines the order when you are trying to move away from enemies attacking you. The former is indicated by the colors under the enemies you see, but the latter is not indicated anywhere, which is pretty annoying.

In general though, the game gives you enough information to survive as long as you're paying attention. As an extra act of mercy, no one attack can ever kill you as long as you have more than one HP, meaning you always have a chance to retreat or heal if things go awry. And how far you'll be able to make it, generally depends entirely on how many healing potions you packed for the ride, rather than clever decisions. This takes the typical brutal RNG-governed risk vs reward gameplay of traditional roguelikes, and quite frankly turns it into something rather boring and repetitive.

The game had me going for over 20 hours (which is how long HLTB says it takes to complete the game, but I wasn't really close to the ending at that point) until I died quite far into a dungeon run, losing all progress of that run. At that point I realised I wasn't really enjoying myself, but only going on playing the game because I had already put so much time and effort into it. But that really should never be a reason to play any game. If you aren't having fun, you need to realise that, and getting pushed back over an hour of progress helped me with that.

There is a lot more to say about the game - the obscure secret chests hidden on each floor, the hilariously cruel (and frankly dishonest) save/death system, or the annoying way the poorly told story is shoehorned into every moment where you'd rather just go dungeon crawling. But honestly, I ultimately thought the game was disappointing enough that it's not really worth bothering any more with. Play Cave Noire instead!

[Sumez | 2,963]

Time for a bit of reflection on 2022 - I hope others will follow the same example.

Overall I'm super happy with how I handled my backlog this year. 2022 marked the year that I finally broke into the Resident Evil series, finishing not only two games as planned, but also two others "off the record". I also caught up to the latest entries in the Yakuza series, making me able to give those games more of a rest.
I was able to mix in a couple of arcade 1CCs without much trouble, and finally took the time to get through other excellent action games like Hagane and The Firemen.

A few games really surpassed my expectations, with Bug Fables, RE1, and both Toaplan shooters really taking the cake. Meanwhile, Plok, Huntdown, Uncharted 3, Druaga, and Dread turned out to be big let-downs - but I'm happy to be those experiences richer regardless.

I've sorted all the games I played into three categories based on how much I liked them. I don't really like to pass off most games as "bad", so anything I didn't feel worth recommending for one reason or another just get thrown into that category. Anything listed as "Highly recommended" is stuff I think really should be must-plays for anyone with a vague interest in their respective genres, and anything listed as "Good" is unquestionably still worth playing!

Highly recommended:
Bug Fables (Switch)
Hades (Switch)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (PS4)
Elden Ring (PS4)
Flying Shark (Arcade)
Out Zone (Arcade)
Resident Evil 1 Remake (PS4)
Environmental Station Alpha (PC)
Hagane (SNES)
Tombi (PS1)

Good game:
Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)
Disco Elysium (PS4)
Yakuza 6 (PS4)
The Firemen (SNES)
Ducktales Remake (PS3)
Return of Samus (GB)
Psychonauts (PS4)
Resident Evil 4 (Wii)
Ratchet and/or Clank (PS3)
Bionic Commando (GB)
Metroid II: Return of Samus (GB)
Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
Hammerin' Harry (NES)
Golden Sun (GBA)
Hellnight (PS1)

Not recommended:
Eastward (Switch)
Luminous Avenger iX (Switch)
Rocket Slime (DS)
Metroid Dread (Switch)
Huntdown (Switch)
Plok! (SNES)
The Surge (PS4)
Sam & Max Save the World (Switch)
Uncharted 3 (PS3/PS4)
The Last of Us (PS3)
Ninja Jajamaru: Ginga Daisakusen (NES)
Ristar (SMD)
Luigi's Mansion (GC)
Heart of Darkness (PS1)
Wuppo (PS4)
Nightmare of Druaga (PS2)

[MegaMan52 | 2,450]

I'm happy with what I accomplished. As promised, I beat more games this year.

I beat all but one NES game on my list (including StarTropics), finally got all of the Golden Bananas in DK64, the rest of the Shine Sprites in Super Mario Sunshine, beat the GameCube version of Resident Evil 4 on Professional difficulty, finally beat Super Paper Mario (not as enjoyable as TTYD) after it sat on my shelf for over a decade, and I beat Mega Man 9 and 10 and am now caught up with the original Mega Man series (I beat Mega Man 11 last year). I also beat New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 3D Land, so I'm ready to playthrough Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury in 2023.

Also, I contributed in the "NES Completions 2022", "Beat Every N64 Game", "Beat every Game Boy game", "Beat every Game Boy Color game", "Beat the PlayStation Library", and "Beat the GameCube Library" topics, so the actual amount of games I beat this year is over forty. And I still have one more game to beat for one of those topics.

Edited December 31, 2022 by MegaMan52

[Foochie776 | 1,052]

Kingdom Hearts is completed! I finished it on Christmas Day actually but I’ve been so busy I hadn’t had a chance to post! 
 

What an amazing game. This was my first RPG so there was some learning curves but the difficulty was well paced and present, the worlds were colorful and unique. The major complaints I had were of course the camera (which I got used to) and I did not at all care for the swimming controls during the Ursula fight. Other than that everything felt and looks great. I liked the ending a lot and I can see myself coming back to play it again. 
 

10/10