Tantalus

Final Fantasy V. Third time was the charm for this one, I guess. I made it through about 20% of the game via the fan-translated SNES rom back in the day, then about 80% of the way through the GBA version a few years ago, before dropping it both times. This time around, I actually started playing this before I started on Phantasy Star II and it's interesting comparing my experiences between the two games. I can point out all of the flaws of PSII, but at the same time, it was a game that I kept wanting to go back to and play. FFV, on the other hand, is a fine game all around. The story is nothing amazing, but it's passable, especially for its age. I can see why people like the customization that the job system allows. The soundtrack ranges from just fine to absolutely fantastic. But throughout the entire game, I felt like I was forcing myself to play it and had it not been for this backlog challenge, I may have dropped it again. It's a fine game, but it just doesn't seem to do much for me. I'm more likely to replay most other Final Fantasies over this one, and most other SNES RPGs that I've played over it as well. As for this Backlog Challenge, I'm making good progress so far. I typically get through more games through the first few months of the year, and then it slows down as spring and summer hits, before picking back up again through the fall. So far, my progress is: 6 out of 10 groups of games with at least 1 game beat 8 out of 15 games beat overall

Well, I made it through Easy mode on ActRaiser 2. I'm counting it for myself and for this challenge, even though the final level, boss, and ending are only available in Normal and Hard. I had a pretty good time this one. The graphics and music are both top notch. The controls take same getting used to, but I did find I had a fairly good handle on them by the end. This game definitely earns its reputation about its difficulty. Every level took several tries, even just on Easy. Maybe some day I'll put the time into getting good enough to play through Normal, but for now, I'm scratching it off the backlog and moving on to something else. Oh, and I missed taking a photo of the "ending" screen - "Congratulations! Challenge Normal game!" But, I did manage one of my score afterwards:

What to say about Phantasy Star 2. I had the Phantasy Star Collection for GBA as a teenager and got quite a ways into the first game until I got hopelessly lost, put the game down for a while, and couldn't remember what I had done by the time I got back to it. I never put more than a few minutes into 2 or 3 at the time. A couple of years ago, I picked up the Switch version of the original and finally saw it through to completion. I enjoyed my time with it, especially with the quality of life features of that port. I really wish there was a similar port for PS2. As it stands, this game is a grind; the dungeons are way too long and confusing, there's not enough information in the game itself (item/spell/equipment descriptions would have been so helpful), I could go on. At the same time, I enjoyed most of my time with it. I turned to maps and even guides for some dungeons to make the experience a bit easier on myself. I enjoyed the battle system well enough. There's some excellent music. The fact that this game came out 2 months before the original Final Fantasy on NES in North America kind of blows my mind (though this game was obviously developed and released in Japan after FF). It feels ambitious and I'm sure it would have been impressive upon release, but it's also very much a product of its age and hard to recommend to anyone that doesn't mind the flaws of RPGs from this era. At the end of the day, I'm glad I've played it and I may revisit it someday, but not anytime too soon. I've heard PS3 is a bit of a black sheep in the series. It's on my backlog as well, but probably for 2025 or 2026 and then PS4 sometime after that.

Congrats man! Truly impressive watching you beast your way through this library of games!

Just played through it again via Switch Online. It's not as long as I remember as it took me just under 4 hours to get all gold medals, although I'm not touching the platinum medals any time soon. It is just as good as I remember. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. Apparently I gave it a 9/10 back in August and I stick by that score now.

I couldn't resist playing through Blast Corps again when I saw that it came to the Switch Online. Fantastic game. By the way @Splain, I was looking through the table and noticed that Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense is listed as only 1 point. That can't be right, can it?

Just an FYI, the Switch online version of the game includes all of the e-Reader levels. They are worth checking out, if you haven't already. There's some really interesting and creative ideas, and it pulls mechanics from some of the other Mario titles (pulling up vegetables like Mario 2, the cape feather from World, etc.)

I can’t count it for that thread, unfortunately. I played half of it in 2022 and the other half this year. I do have a couple of other Game Boy games on my backlog that I am hoping to contribute this year to the effort, eventually.

Mario's Picross is done. I bought about a dozen games back in late 2022 for the virtual console on the 3DS when they announced that the eshop would be closing. I put a couple hours into this game at the time, but then basically didn't touch my 3DS in 2023. I remember seeing this game in Nintendo Power back in the day and it always looked intriguing to me, but never got around to buying it then. It's a fairly solid puzzle game, though I definitely prefer playing it in small doses instead of large chunks all at once. After solving all of the puzzles, a Time Trial mode opens up. In the main game, the timer counts down and every mistake knocks an increasing amount of time off the clock. In Time Trial, it seems to pick one of the puzzles at random every time, the timer counts up, and the game doesn't have any indication if you've made a mistake. I did a couple of rounds to test it out. I've had enough Picross for the time being, but could potentially see myself spending more time on this mode in the future.

You got it!

TaleSpin is done. I'll copy and paste my thoughts from the 2024 Backlog Challenge: I have vague memories of playing the Game Gear version as a kid but never beating it. Looking up videos it looks like the Game Gear version is actually a reasonably faithful port of this one. It's not a great game. It's janky, the graphics are mediocre, the sound effects and music are poor. There is some variety in the game play, alternating between platform sections, boss battles, and shmup sections. The concept is actually decent for adapting the cartoon to a game, so it's too bad that the gameplay is not up to par.

Knocked out TaleSpin for the Genesis. I have vague memories of playing the Game Gear version as a kid but never beating it. Looking up videos it looks like the Game Gear version is actually a reasonably faithful port of this one. It's not a great game. It's janky, the graphics are mediocre, the sound effects and music are poor. There is some variety in the game play, alternating between platform sections, boss battles, and shmup sections. The concept is actually decent for adapting the cartoon to a game, so it's too bad that the gameplay is not up to par.

Hint: it has a text parser

I like Pearl Jam, but Even Flow is just okay. 5/10. I've never been able to stand Black Hole Sun. I don't know if Soundgarden's other music is any good, because I've never wanted to try listening to any of it because of how bad Black Hole Sun is. Was tempted to give it a 1, but feeling generous today. 2/10.

Hmm, not many guesses. Here's a bit more.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I've played through this one a few times, though this was the first time in over a decade. I have a few gripes with the pacing at times (the beginning is a bit of a slog and there are a few unnecessary fetch quests that only seem to be there to pad out the play time). That being said, this is still a great game and I actually prefer it over Wind Waker.

It is a DOS game, but it's not Commander Keen.

I can thank @Splain for the assist. I had no idea what it was until he said Tony Hawk 2 and something clicked in my brain that it was Mall from the first one. Anyway, here's one for you all:

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The first one. The Mall level.

I cleared out the career mode of Midnight Club Street Racing (credits are available anytime from the menu). One of Rockstar's early PS2 games. It's not without it's issues. It feels like a bit of a proof of concept that could have used a bit more polish, especially the opponent AI. The difficulty is also all over the map - some races are incredibly easy and others are quite difficult, but there's not a smooth progression between the two. Later games in the series would go on to improve on this game in almost every way, but I still mostly enjoyed my time with this one and it has a certain charm to it. It's also interesting to note that this game came out roughly 8 months before the first The Fast and the Furious movie brought the street racing concept more into the mainstream.

Ridge Racer V. One of the first games I had for the PS2 and still a fun one to go back to.

Another one for Game Gear - Desert Speedtrap. Between play control, screen crunch, and level design, I didn't care for this one too much. The best approach seems to be taking things slow and cautious, which is an odd choice for a game in which you play as Road Runner. The graphics were okay, and there were a few nicely drawn pictures - considering the system and age of the game - throughout (the ending screen below, as well as pictures of Wile E Coyote between the levels). The sound effects were annoying and the music wasn't anything special. At least the game was short.

After decades of owning it, I've finally beaten Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Game Gear. This game has good graphics and the play control is on point, but some of the level design is absolute bullshit. Way too many leaps of faith and trial and error with spike pits and inescapable deaths. I actually ended up playing through it three times. For the first run through, I heavily abused the save states on the Analogue Pocket to learn the levels, and ended up with the bad ending (you don't get to play the final zone or rescue Tails). Next, I moderately abused saved states, while collecting all of the emeralds to access the final zone, rescue Tails, and get the good ending. Finally, I played through it one more time without any save states, though I didn't bother with all of the emeralds. As a kid, I was never able to get past the third or fourth zone, at best, so I'm glad to have finally been able to see through the rest of this game and finally lay it to rest.

I finished up a play through of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon a couple of days ago. Of the Metroidvania style Castlevania games, I've actually only ever played this one and Dawn of Sorrow on the DS. They've both been fairly good and enjoyable enough experiences, but probably not more than 7 to 7.5 out of 10 games for me. For those more experienced with the series, how do these 2 stack up to the rest? I know Symphony of the Night is well regarded, but with the price it goes for these days, it's not a priority for me. For reference, I have played Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Dread, and I'd rate those between 8.5 and 9.5 out of 10. I guess I'm trying to figure out if I'm just more of a Metroid guy, or if I've been playing the wrong Castlevania games.

Super Mario Bros. 2